Taiz

Taiz, city, southwestern Yemen, in the Yemen Highlands. It is the country’s third largest urban center, its cultural capital, and a former national capital from 1948 to 1962.

The Ayyubid dynasty under Tūrān Shāh, brother of Saladin, which conquered Yemen in 1173–74, made its capital first at Zabīd and then moved it to Taʿizz. The Ayyubids were succeeded by the Rasulids (1229–1454) and the Tahirids (1454–1516), who moved the capital to Sanaa. In the latter year Taʿizz passed to Ottoman Turkish suzerainty, which lasted, with intervals, until 1918. The Zaydī imams (leaders) of Yemen frequently rebelled against Ottoman rule, however, and sporadically held the city. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I (1918), Taʿizz and the surrounding area came into uncontested possession of the imam.

Picturesquely situated at an elevation of about 4,500 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level, the walled city is at the northern foot of Mount Ṣubr, 9,862 feet (3,006 meters) high. It has many fine, elaborately decorated multistory houses. Al-Muẓaffariyyah and Ashrafiyyah are two of the city’s notable mosques. Towering about 1,500 feet (450 meters) above the city on a mountain spur is the old citadel and governor’s residence. Taʿizz is the center of the important coffee-growing district of southwestern Yemen; khat (Arabic: qat, a mild narcotic) and vegetables are also grown in the area. The first city in the country to have a citywide purified water system (built by the United States in the 1960s), Taʿizz also has aluminum, biscuit, and soft-drink plants.

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Madrasahs (theological school) adjoined to the Ashrafiyyah and Muʿtabiyyah mosques were established in the 14th century. A modern university, Taiz University, was founded in 1993. The city center includes an experimental farm and agricultural school. Taʿizz is the junction of two important all-weather highways, the east-west road from Mokha (Mocha) on the Red Sea coast, and the north-south route to the national capital of Sanaa, via Ibb and Dhamār. Another road links Taʿizz with Aden.

Long an important administrative center, the city was for a time under the monarchy the seat of Taʿizz (sometimes called South) liwāʾ (province), which was ruled as an emirate by a member of the princely Āl Wazīr house; the province came under the personal rule of the crown prince in 1944. From 1948 to 1962 (when the republic was established) Taʿizz was the residence of the imam and the administrative capital of the country. From 1962 until unification in 1990 Taʿizz was part of North Yemen, although its historic social ties to Aden in South Yemen distinguished it from other major urban centers in the country. During the Yemeni Civil War (2014– ) most of Taʿizz was a persistent battleground but remained under the control of the internationally-backed government in Aden for more than a decade. The city became a stronghold for forces associated with the Sunni Islamist Iṣlāḥ (Reform) party. Places of interest in the vicinity include the former royal residence of ʿUṣayfirah and the ruins of ancient Thamad, a 12th-century mountain resort of the Sulayhid princes. Pop. (2004) city, 466,968; (2025 est.) city, 635,900; urban agglomeration, 1,009,000.