Hayyim Habshush

Rabbi Hayyim Habshush (Hebrew: חיים בן יחיא חבשוש, romanized: Ḥayyim ibn Yaḥya Habshũsh, alternate spelling, Hibshush, ca.

[3] In 1893, some twenty three years after Halévy's jaunt across Ottoman Yemen in search of Sabaic inscriptions, Habshush began to write an account of their journey, first in Hebrew, and then, at the request of Eduard Glaser, in his native Judeo-Yemeni Arabic.

[4] His initial account was scattered in three countries (Israel, Austria and Yemen), copies of which were later pieced together by Habshush's editor, Shelomo Dov Goitein.

[5] Habshush's most important contribution to science is that he helped scholars Joseph Halévy and Eduard Glaser decipher the Sabaean inscriptions which they had come to copy in Yemen, having made transliterations of the texts in the Hebrew alphabet for easier comprehension.

[11] A Jewish newcomer to Sana'a named Yosef Abdallah ("the servant of God") declared himself to be the herald of the coming Messiah and made his living by selling amulets and poultices.