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On The Meaning of Chewing The Significance of Qāt (Catha Edulis)in the Yemen Arab Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Daniel Martin Varisco
Daniel Martin Varisco
Affiliation:
American Institute for Yemeni Studies, San'ā'
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Extract

So writers the British administrator Harold Ingrams about the chewing of leaves from the qāt tree in Yemen. Qāt is the Arabic term for Catha edulis, a species of the Celastracae cultivated in the highlands of southwestern Arabia for at least the last six centuries. The leaves of this tree are chewed as a stimulant, producing a feeling of euphoria followed by depression.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

Notes

Author's note: This is a revision of a paper presented at the 1982 MESA meeting. Ethnographic data cited stem from fieldwork in the valley of al-Ahjur during 1978 and 1979 under a Fulbright-Hayes grant-in-aid, as well as subsequent visits to the Yemen Arab Republic. I wish to thank several colleagues for substantive comments on earlier drafts, specifically: Najwa Adra (Temple University), Steven Caton (University of Chicago), Abduh Ghaleb (University of Pennsylvania), Roger Joseph (California, Fullerton) and Jeffrey Meissner (Columbia University).

1 Ingrams, Harold, Arabia and the Isles (New York, 1966), p. 106.Google Scholar

2 Consider the remarks in Faroughy, A., Introducing Yemen (New York, 1947), p. 17;Google ScholarIngrams, Doreen, A Time in Arabia (London, 1970), p. 113;Google ScholarKennedy, John et al. , “A Medical Evaluation of the Use of Qat in North Yemen,” Soc. Sci. Med., 17, 12(1983), 785;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedMaltzan, Heinrich von, Reise nach Südarabien (Braunschweig, 1873), p. 370;Google Scholar and, Scott, Hugh, In the High Yemen (London, 1942), p. 95. Qāt was banned in Saudi Arabia in 1971 and virtually banned in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1977.Google Scholar

3 al-Dhamārī, Husayn ⊂Abdallāh, Al-Rashīd fī Jughrāfīyat al- Yaman al-Sa⊂īd wa al⊂Ālam (Cairo, 1972).Google Scholar

4 This is based on census data recorded in Steffen, Hans and Blanc, Olivier, “La Démographie de la république arabe du Yémen,” in Bonnenfant, P., ed., La péninsule arabique d'aujourd'hui (Aix-en-Provence, 1982), p. 99.Google Scholar For a discussion of Yemeni emigration see Swanson, Jon, The Consequences of Emigration for Economic Development in the Yemen Arab Republic (Boulder, Colo., 1979).Google Scholar The remittance phenomenon is discussed in Hogan, Edward et al. , Yemen Arab Republic: Agricultural Sector Assessment (Washington, D.C., USAID, 1982).Google Scholar

5 For analysis of traditional social structure in North Yemen see Varisco, Daniel Martin and Adra, Najwa, “Affluence and the Concept of the Tribe in the Central Highlands of the Yemen Arab Republic,” in Salisbury, Richard, ed., Affluence and Cultural Survival (Washington, D.C., 1984) pp. 134–149,Google Scholar and Gerholm, Tomas, Market, Mosque and Mafraj (Stockholm, 1977).Google Scholar

6 The most comprehensive study of qāt in Yemen is Schopen, Armin, Das Qāt (Wiesbaden, 1978).Google Scholar See also the survey by Rodinson, Maxime, “Esquisse d'une monographie du qāt,” Journal Asiatique, 265 (1977), 71–96,Google Scholar and by Serjeant, R. B., “The Market, Business Life, Occupations, the Legality and Sale of Stimulants,” in Serjeant, R. B. and Lewcock, G. R., eds., San ⊂ā⊂: An Arabian Islamic City (London, 1983), pp. 159–178.Google Scholar A number of Arabic articles are included in Al-Qāt fā Hayāt al-Yaman wa al-Yamāniyīn (San⊂a⊂, 1981).Google Scholar The recent study in Arabic by al-Sa⊂dī, ⊂Abbās Fādil, Al-Qāt fī at-Yaman: Dirāsa Jughrāfīya (Kuwait, 1983) draws heavily on previous studies.Google Scholar

7 A1-Mu⊂ assasat al-Masammāt wa Masālik al-Absār (Cairo, 1920), vol. 1, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar If this is true, it is strange that there is no mention of qāt in the later Yemeni agricultural treatise of al-⊂Abbās ibn ⊂Alī (died 778/1376), which is being edited by R. B. Serjeant.

8 Serjeant, , “The Market…”, p. 173.Google Scholar

9 al-Baradünī, ⊂Abdallāh, “Al-Qāt… min Zuhürih ilā Ista 'mālih,” in Al-Qāt fīHayāt al-Yaman wa al-Yamāniyīn (San⊂ā), 1981), pp. 44–45;Google Scholaral-Sa⊂dī, ⊂Abbās Fādil, “Majālis al-Qāt fī al-Yaman, Tatawwurhā, Anwā⊂chā, Wasdhā,” al-Turāth al-Sha⊂bī (Baghdad), 12, no. 11, (1983), 62.Google Scholar

10 Botta, Paul, Relation d'un voyage dans l'Yémen (Paris, 1880), p. 125.Google Scholar

11 Chelhod, Joseph, “La société yéménite et le kat,” Objets et Mondes, 12(1972), no. 1, 19.Google Scholar

12 This estimate is based on figures from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Agricultural Sector Study: Yemen Arab Republic (November, 1981), p. 49. It is assumed that 45,000 ha were devoted to qāt and the average annual gross yield per ha was about YR 80,000 (ca. $17,778).Google Scholar

13 Japan International Cooperation Agency, Report on Master Plan for Hajja Province Integrated Rural Development in the Yemen Arab Republic (1979), vol. 11, pp. IX–34.Google Scholar

14 Peter de Lange, “Rada Integrated Rural Development Project Study into Water Resources in Al Bayda Province, Progress Report for Period April to August 1983,” appendix 5.Google Scholar

15 Weir, Shelagh, “Economic Aspects of the Qāt Industry in Northwest Yemen,” Paper presented at the Conference on Contemporary Yemen, Exeter, June, 1983. This estimate was for 1980, a year when profits from qāt were high.Google Scholar

16 It is interesting to note that there was a brisk air trade in qāt from Ethiopia to Aden in the days of the British protectorate. See Brooke, C., “Khat (Catha edulis): its production and trade in the Middle East,” Geographical Journal, 126 (1960), 52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Schopen (Das Qat, p. 86) believes that initially the Yemenis dried the leaves for a type of tea, as is done today in East Africa.

17 Mancioli, M. and Parrinello, A., “II qat (Catha edulis),” La Clinica Terapeutica, 43 (1967), 2, 103–172.Google Scholar

18 Gerholm, , Market…, p. 183.Google Scholar

19 Hammerin, Lars, A Socio-Medical Study of Some Villages in Yemen Arab Republic (Stockholm, 1972), p. 14.Google Scholar

20 al-Hūrī, Nüriya 'Alī Humad, Al-⊂Awāmil al-Mu' athara ⊂alā al-Tanmīyat al-Ijtimā⊂īya fī al-Qaryat al-Yamaniyya (⊂Ayn Shams University, Cairo, M.A. thesis, sociology, 1981), p. 333.Google Scholar

21 Dorsky, Susan, Women's Lives in a North Yemeni Highlands Town (Case Western Reserve University, Ph.D. thesis, anthropology, 1981), p. 56.Google Scholar

22 Najwa Adra, personal communication.

23 Myntti, Cynthia, Medicine in its Social Context: Observations from Rural North Yemen (University of London, Ph.D. thesis, anthropology, 1983).Google Scholar

24 Bornstein, Annika, Al-Homrah and Ibn Abbas: Two Fishing Villages in the Tihama (San⊂ā⊂, FAO, 1972), p. 3.Google Scholar

25 In the coastal region, where the heat is intense during the afternoon, qāt is generally chewed in the evening.

26 al-Sa⊂dī, “Majālis…”, 65.

27 Rodinson, “Esquisse…”, 85 has madkī, but this is dialectical. Schopen, Das Qāt, p. 111, errs in assuming the root of this term is t-k-⊂ in fact it is w-k-⊂. In Tāj al-⊂Arūs the related term muttakā⊂ refers to a majlis or sitting room with cushions.

28 For a discussion of the medical effects of qāt see Kennedy et al., “A Medical Evaluation…” Kennedy, John et al. , “Qat Use in North Yemen and the Problem of Addiction: a Study in Medical Anthropology,” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 4 (1980), 311–344;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed Schopen, Das Qāt, pp. 87–88; Serjeant, “The Market…, p. 174. There are conflicting claims on whether qāt stimulates or retards sexuàl desires.

29 Rizzotti, G. et al. , “The Question of Khat,” (UNESCO, Commission on Narcotic Drugs, 14th Session, Item 10 of the Agenda, 1959).Google Scholar

30 Schopen, , Das Qāt, pp. 94–95.Google Scholar

31 Schopen, , Das Qāt, p. 52.Google Scholar

32 Zabāra, Muhammad ibn Muhammad, A'immat al-Yaman (Ta'izz, 1952), vol. I, pp. 422–423.Google Scholar

33 This reflects observations of Najwa Adra, Steven Caton, Jeffrey Meissner, Cynthia Myntti and Jon Swanson. See also al-Baradūnī, , “Al-Q¯at…,” pp. 45–46;Google ScholarKennedy, et al. , “Qat Use…,” p. 317;Google ScholarSerjeant, , “The Market …,” p. 174;Google ScholarUnderwood, P. and Underwood, Z., “New Spells for Old: Expectations and Realities of Western Medicine in a Remote Tribal Society in Yemen, Arabia,” in Stanley, and Toske, , eds., Changing Disease Patterns and Human Behavior (London, 1981), p. 278;Google ScholarWeir, “Economic Aspects …,” p. 5.Google Scholar

34 Hogan, et al. , Yemen Arab Republic…, p. 191.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., p. 244.

36 An analysis of traditional spending patterns is provided in Varisco and Adra, “Affluence…”. The link between increased use of qāt and increased bridewealth is described in al-Madfa⊂ī, Yūsuf Muhammad, “Al-Qāt wa Athārhā al-Sahīya wa al-Siyāsīya” in Al-Qāt fī Hayāt al-Yaman wa al-Yamāniyīn (San⊂ā⊂, 1981), p. 161.Google Scholar

37 I am indebted to Najwa Adra for drawing this point to my attention. A full discussion of dance in Yemeni context can be found in Adra, Najwa, Qabyala: The Tribal Concept in the Central Highlands of the Yemen Arab Republic (Temple University, Philadelphia, Ph.D. thesis, anthropology, 1982).Google Scholar

38 There is a parallel between the social symbolism of chewing qāt and that of coca-leaf chewing among the Quechua in Peru. See Allen, Catherine, “To be Quechua: the Symbolism of Coca Chewing in Highland Peru,” American Ethnologist, 8, 1(1981), 157–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Kennedy et al., “A Medical …,” 784. Various qualities of qāt varieties are recognized. The best is generally said to be Bukhārī from Jabal Bukhār near Ibb. This variety relaxes the chewer without leaving a bitter taste.

40 Serjeant, , “The Market …,” p. 94.Google Scholar

41 Underwood and Underwood, “New Spells …,” p. 278.

42 al-Haythamī, Ibn Hajar, Al-Fatāwā al-Kubrā al-Fiqhiyya (Cairo, A.H. 1308), vol. IV, pp. 223–227.Google Scholar

43 Serjeant, , “The Market ….” p. 172.Google ScholarQāt is not a formal part of religious ritual in Yemen as it is in Ethiopia. For the latter see Radt, C., “Contribution à l'histoire ethnobotanique d'une plante stimulante: le kat en Èthiopie,” L'Ethnographie 65 (1971), 38–65.Google Scholar

44 Gerholm, Tomas, “Provincial Cosmopolitans: the Impact of World Events on a Small Yemeni Town,” Peuples Méditerranéens 9 (1979), 53–72.Google Scholar See also Weir, , “Economic Aspects …,” p. 8.Google Scholar

45 Kennedy et al., “Qat Use …,” 319.

46 Gerholm, , Market…, p. 180.Google Scholar

47 This type of gathering has been noted for other Arab cultures. For a related gathering in Morocco see Rosen, L., “Social Identity and Points of Attachment: Approaches to Social Organization,” in Geertz, C. et al. , Meaning and Order in Moroccan Society (Cambridge, Mass. 1979), pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

48 Al-Sa⊂dī, “Majālis …,” 65.

49 Recorded in Goitein, S. D., Jemenica (Leiden, 1934), p. 116;Google ScholarRodinson, , “Esquisse …,” p. 82;Google ScholarRossi, Ettore, L'Arabo parlato a San''(Rome, 1939), p. 165;Google ScholarSerjeant, , “The Market…,” p. 172.Google Scholar