Habshush, Chaim

(d. 1899)

   Yemenite author. When the orientalist Joseph HALEVY arrived in Yemen about 1870, to trace ancient Sabean inscriptions, Habshush acted as his guide and led him to areas previously unknown to European travellers. Some twenty years later, Habshush wrote an account of his explorations with Halevy. The book, Masot Habshush (‘The Travels of Habshush’), was written partly in Hebrew and partly in the Arabic dialect of Sana. The Arabic part has been translated by S.D.Goitein (1939), who published an English summary, Travels in Yemen (1941). Habshush also wrote a history of the Yemenite Jews in the 18 century.