Travel Guide Beit Al-Faqih

Every Friday, it is a gathering place for the inhabitants of Tihama and many tourists, as it holds the largest market in the coastal region on that day. The city is also the capital of the tribe Zaraniq which revolted against the imam Yéhia in the 1930 s and was defeated by his followers. The name of Beit Al-Faqih (the house of the scholar) was given to the city in memory of Ahmed ibn Al-Aujail who lived there in the th century and who, on the other hand, healed the patients with suction. The market was first established at the beginning of the th century as a centre for sizing and coffee trading (coffee balls were then sent to Mokha or Iz before being shipped to Turkey, Iran, India and Europe). Today, we can find the renowned crafts of the Tihama: long pieces of cotton cloth with brightly coloured colours, jewellery and antiques, hats of woven straw, pottery, and jasmine flowers or qâdhî (very sweet flower of the palm). We also see foreign electronics, spices, and so on. On the right, the deployment are established (don't photograph them) and herbal shops. Straight, then left: the cattle market, where you can see chickens, sheep, zébus, camels… There is a crowd of men dressed in foutah (framed cloth piece around the waist), shaven flip and the shaven (caps embroidered), and veiled women, black dresses with silver plastron, on tight pants on the ankles. Everyone is concerned and turns by laughing and screaming. The weavers work for them in an isolated neighborhood of the city.