Habbani Jews - Differences Between Habbani Jews and Northern Yemenite Jews

Differences Between Habbani Jews and Northern Yemenite Jews

The Jews of Habban, for most of their history, were separated from the main centers of Yemenite Jewry, and isolated geographically. Despite their isolation they succeeded in developing their own resources, religious as well as economic, and created an environment of their own.

Religious fervor was common among Habbani Jews. Even the most uneducated among them were capable of conducting the role of cantor, and many were advanced legalists. The most notorious legal scholar among them was Musa bin Rom Shamakh in the 17th century, who was the last individual able to make binding legal decisions. Despite this religious zeal, voluntary conversions of Habbani Jews to Islam were not uncommon, which often put the community in conflict with each other.

There were a number of characteristics that made the Jews of Habban in modern times distinct from the Jews of Northern Yemen.

• Their outer appearance and clothing.
• Their food and its preparation.
• Their distinct profession (they were silversmiths).
• There were no Cohanim or Levites among them.
• Their unique traditions on holidays and happy occasions.
• Their version of the prayers and piyutim

Though isolated, the Jews of Habban did maintain some level of contact with other Yemenite Jewish communities though said contact was infrequent and usually resulted from some quarrel over some point of Jewish law.

Habbani Jews were described as taller, more muscular, and darker than their Muslim neighbors. The men did not sport peyot like other Yemeni Jews, but wore an oiled thong through their characteristically long hair. They plucked their mustaches, distinct from other Jews, but similar to neighboring Muslims as well. They wore a blue prayer shawl over one shoulder, or walked bare chested, smearing their torso sesame oil and indigo. A corse calido loincloth died indigo covered their bottom, and they typically walked barefoot or with sandals. The women wore their hair in tiny braids, and wore loose-fitting embroidered dresses.

Unlike the Jews of northern Yemen the Habbani Jews wore a Jambiyya or curved knife, Matznaph (turban) and Avne`t (sash). It was very uncommon for Jews in Yemen outside of Habban to wear the Jambiyya. Sultans in Arabia to use Habbani Jews as soldiers in their armies or as personal guards. Habbani Jews sometimes served as mercenaries; Abdullah I of Jordan, who preferred Circassian and other non-Arab bodyguards, had a number of Habbani Jewish guardsmen, including Sayeed Sofer and his brothers Salaah and Saadia.

Habbani Jews practiced polygyny, which usually accounted for 10-20% of marriages. A co-wife in Habbani culture was referred to as "sarra", or trouble, and was brought into the household without consent of the existing wives. Most women were prepubescent at the time of their first marriage.

The different in pronunciation of "qames" in Habbani Hebrew as a low back vowel has been theorized to be a purer Babylonian reading of Hebrew, which could suggest the dialect is one of the oldest variants of Ancient Hebrew.