Additionally, Tarim is also home to Dar al-Mustafa, a well-known educational institution for the study of traditional Islamic Sciences.

Small mounds of flint chippings – debris from the manufacture of stone tools and weapons – and windblown dust can be found close to canyon walls.

On the fringes of the Rub' al Khali north of Mahra, a seemingly ancient track leads – according to local legend – to the lost city of Ubar.

Authorities exploited their position on the overland route from Dhufar through Mahra, Hadhramaut and Shabwa to the Hejaz and Eastern Mediterranean to tax caravans in return for protection.

[2] Early in the 6th century, Abyssinians invaded Yemen, encouraged by Byzantines to protect Yemenite Christians from Dhu Nuwas, the anti-Christian ruler of Najran[3] who converted to Judaism.

The Persians appear to have been in Hadhramaut, but the only clear evidence of their presence is at Husn al-Urr, a fort between Tarim and Qabr Hud.

Abu Bakr prayed that Allah would increase Tarim's scholars and water, as its citizens stood with him during the Ridda wars after the Prophet's death (632–633).

In the mid-8th century, a preacher from Basra called "Abdullah bin Yahya" arrived in Hadhramaut and established the Ibadhi rite of Islam.

[5] In 951 CE, Imam Aḥmad bin `Isā Al-Muhājir arrived from Iraq with a large number of followers, and established the Shafi`i madhab of Sunni Islam (according to majority of historians),[6] which remains dominant in the region.

In 1488, the Kathiris, led by Badr Abu Towairaq, invaded Hadhramaut from the High Yemen and established their dola, first in Tarim and then in Seiyun.

Here, a Yemeni soldier named Umar bin Awadh al Qu'aiti rose to the rank of Jemadar and amassed a fortune.

Having secured all valuable land excluding the areas around Saiyun and Tarim, the Qu'aitis signed a treaty with the British in 1888, and created a unified sultanate in 1902 that became part of the Aden Protectorate.

[citation needed] Despite establishing a regionally advanced administration, by the 1930s the Qu'aiti Sultan Saleh bin Ghalib (r. 1936–1956) was facing stiff pressure to modernize – a task for which he seriously lacked resources.

The family of Al-Kaf had made their fortune in Singapore, and wished to spend some of their wealth improving living conditions at home.

Led by Sayyid Abu Bakr al-Kaf bin Sheikh, they built a motor road from Tarim to Shihr – hoping to use it to import goods into Hadhramaut, but were frustrated by opposition from the camel-owning tribes who had a transport monopoly between the coast and the interior.

[7] In February 1937, a peace between the Qu'aiti and Kathiri sultanates, totally unprecedented in the history of that region, was brought about essentially by the efforts of two men: Sayyid Abu Bakr al-Kaf and Harold Ingrams, the first political officer in Hadhramaut.

The Tamim, a subset of the larger Bani Dhanna tribe,[9] occupied the land in between Tarim and Seiyoun and owed political allegiance to the Qu'aiti Sultanate.

Hadhramis harvest crops of wheat, millet, tend date palm and coconut groves, and grow some coffee.

Although Zaydis are Shias and Shafi'is are Sunnis, the practical religious differences are generally minor, and each will freely worship in the others' mosques, if their own is not convenient.

On the fringes of the Rub' al Khali, the people continue to graze where they can, although a surprising number of Seiar and Awamr farm on the ill-watered plateau north of the Hadhramaut.

It consists of a narrow, arid coastal plain bounded by the steep escarpment of a broad plateau averaging around 1,400 m (0.87 miles) of altitude, with a sparse network of deeply sunk wadis (seasonal watercourses).

The only international flights directly to Seiyun originate in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia, and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Geographically and socially varied, Tarim's diversity can be traced through the cultural interactions and hybrid architectural fabrics of various regions.

Tarim's Al-Muhdhar Mosque is crowned by a mud minaret measuring approximately 53 metres (174 feet), the highest in Hadhramaut and Yemen.

[16] Tarim also features the massive Al-Kaf Library which is attached to Al-Jame'a Mosque and houses more than 5,000 manuscripts from the region covering religion, the thoughts of the Prophets, Islamic law, Sufism, medicine, astronomy, agriculture, biographies, history, mathematics, philosophy, logic, and the eight volumes of Abū Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdānī's Al-Iklil (The Crown).

[17] What distinguishes these manuscripts is that the majority belong to Yemeni authors and editors who resided in the Wadi Hadhramaut area.

Palaces financed by Al-Kafs and other families were executed in the stylistic idioms they encountered in British India and Southeast Asia.

Consequently, the palaces include examples of Mughal, British Colonial, Art Nouveau, Deco, Rococo, Neo-Classical, and Modernist styles unparalleled in Yemen.

Shaikh al-Kaf built the house on proceeds made in South Asian trade and investment in Singapore's Grand Hotel de l'Europe during the 1930s.

[19] The ornamentation often incorporates pilasters along the walls framing openings, built-in cabinetry with skilled wood carvings, elaborate column capitals, decorated ceilings, niches and kerosene lamp holders, as well as complex color schemes.