Fadhli Sultanate

Origins

The Fadhli tribe held the coastal plain of Abyan and the hills behind it. In the late 17th century, as the Qasimid State lost its hold over the south, the Fadhli chiefs established an independent sultanate, with Shuqra on the coast as its chief town.

Rule and society

The sultans governed through tribal custom, controlling routes between Aden and the interior. In the 19th century they often raided the outskirts of British Aden before signing a protection treaty with Britain, becoming part of the Aden Protectorate. From the 1940s the Abyan irrigation scheme turned the delta into a cotton-growing area, bringing new revenue. The sultanate joined the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South in 1959.

Decline and legacy

It was a member of the Federation of South Arabia until 1967, when the National Liberation Front took over the territory, abolished the sultanate and incorporated it into South Yemen.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.