Yemen, the most populous country of the Arabian Peninsula, has served throughout time as a major coordinate in the movement between Africa, the Arab world, and South Asia. But its rich heritage was known to most of the world only through the biblical story of Solomon and Sheba. Yemen was opened to outside researchers only in the early 1970s. The American Institute for Yemeni Studies (AIYS) was established in 1978 to facilitate, coordinate, and encourage academic research dealing with Yemen in all disciplines through its offices in the U.S. and in Yemen.

AIYS facilities in Sana’a occupy a large traditional house that contains the office of the resident director; the AIYS library; reading, meeting, and other public rooms; and the AIYS hostel, which has guest rooms as well as common facilities for resident researchers. The AIYS library, which is open to the public as well as to AIYS-affiliated researchers, contains most of the serious scholarly work on Yemen as well as a significant collection of other materials dealing with the region.

In addition to scholarly support services for individuals and institutional group projects, AIYS offers fellowships for Arabic study and for independent research in Yemen. It also coordinates cultural heritage work such as the multi-national project to restore the medieval Amiriya madrasa in Rada’, and sponsors outreach programs, including the AIYS website. Over the past two decades AIYS has sponsored projects dealing with such diverse topics as the process of democratization, the Hadrami migrations and the development of South Asian Muslim communities, the collection and cataloging of historical records for the archives of the Ministry of Justice, and poverty alleviation and development in Yemen.