ALBERTO MORAVIA
413
of the Middle Ages were not
in
a state of decadence but were main–
tained intact as in the year 1000. For this reason, a visit to Yemen,
even today, constitutes a fascinating experience in that it permits you
to see directly how people lived five hundred years ago or more.
Conservativism always makes a mistake when it keeps a populous
in
backward conditions and then permits it, through the press, the
cinema, television, radio and tourism, to make comparisons. It is clear
that nobody will willingly spend three days on a camel's back to
cover a distance which he knows for certain is covered elsewhere in
a few hours by car. It is probable that the Imam in spite of his
ignorance and crudeness was aware of the inconveniences of enlightened
tyranny. Therefore, every means of communication and information was
barred from the Yemenites: no radio, no television, no cinema, no
newspapers, no books. The country was forbidden to foreigners: no
I
tourism, no commercial exchanges, no hotels. Furthermore, the Yemenites
were not even supposed to communicate too often among themselves:
no streets, no trains, no airplanes, the gates of the city closed from
sunset to sunrise, a curfew, and safe-conduct to pass from one city to
another. In the end, education is dangerous: no schools; ninety percent
of the Yemenites were illiterate. What else? Since as Sun King, the
Imam was identified with the state, his control of the public and private
lives of his subjects was pervasive.
The result of this Yemen isolationism was twofold: on the one
hand, the country remained immobile in relation to everything that
is usually called progress; and this was an evil and produced incalculable
damage. On the other hand, however, the Yemenites conserved (or at
least they seem to have conserved) all the ingenuousness and freshness
of a patriarchal civilization.
In contrast with the other Arab peoples, who are more crafty
and corrupt because more advanced, the Yemenite people give an
impression of candid, sometimes enchanting and always genuine pro–
vincialism. Certain traditional qualities of the desert-dwelling Arabs,
such as courtesy, simplicity, dignity, boldness, seem better conserved here
than elsewhere, along with a purity of Semitic features that makes
every shepherd, every soldier, every artisan an exotic Oriental figure.
Nothing in Yemen can give a more intense feeling of the Middle
Ages than the so-called rest-houses which, in the absence of hotels, are
the only places where a traveler can hope to find lodging. Rest-house
is an English word and designates a hostel managed by the colonialist
state in countries like India and Africa, for the use of government
