Perim (Arabic: بريم, romanized: Barīm), also called Mayyun (Arabic: جزيرة ميون) in Arabic, is a Yemeni volcanic island in the Strait of Mandeb at the south entrance into the Red Sea, off the south-west coast of Yemen. It administratively belongs to Dhubab District or Bab al-Mandab District, Taiz Governorate. The island of Perim divides the strait of Mandeb into two channels. The island, as a dependency of Aden Colony, was a part of the British Empire between 1857 and 1967.
Etymology In ancient time, it was called "the island of Diodorus" (Greek: Διοδώρου νῆσος, Latin: Diodori insula). It is mentioned by Pliny the Elder, by the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and in Ptolemy's Geography. Perim possibly derives from the Arab general term Barim (chain) associated with the history of the Straits and one of its Arab names, the other Arab name being Mayyun. The Portuguese called it Majun or Meho (derived from Mayun), although Albuquerque had solemnly named the island Vera Cruz in 1513. On many British and French maps of the 17th and 18th century the island is called Babelmandel, as the Straits are. Some early 19th century navigation guides still call it the island of Bab-el-Mandeb although they may mention that it is also called Perim. By the time the British permanently occupied the island in 1857, the name Perim had come into general usage.
Geology
Perim island is an eroded fragment of the southwest flank of a late Miocene volcano whose center was on the southwesternmost tip of Arabia. The volcano is the westernmost of the east–west line of six central vent volcanoes (the Aden line) that extends 200 km (125 mi) along the coast of Arabia from Perim to Aden. It is believed that the volcanism is related to an eastward-propagating rift produced before the most recent stage of sea-floor spreading in the Gulf of Aden.
Geography Perim is crab-shaped, 5.63 km (3.50 mi) long and 2.85 km (1.77 mi) wide. It has a surface area of 13 km2 (5.0 sq mi) and rises to an altitude of 65 m (213 ft). Perim encloses a deep and comparatively large natural harbour on the southwestern coast. The fishing village of Mayyun is located at the bottom of the bay. The island divides the 32 km (20 mi) wide Bab-el-Mandeb into two: the Large Strait, with an average width of 17 km (11 mi), and the Small Strait, varying from 2.5 to 5 km (1.6 to 3.1 mi) in width. The Large Strait is generally deep water varying from about 180 m (590 ft; 98 fathoms) or more in the middle channel to about 5.5 to 11 m (18 to 36 ft; 3.0 to 6.0 fathoms) close to the coastal reefs. The depth of the Small Strait varies from 21.9 to 28.3 m (72 to 93 ft; 12.0 to 15.5 fathoms) and is free from navigational changes in the fairway but strong and irregular tidal streams make navigation hazardous. There have been frequent shipwrecks in the vicinity of Perim, particularly in the Small Strait. The absence of fresh water on the island has always been one of the major difficulties impeding permanent settlement. Although there are occasional heavy rains, there may be stretches of eight months or more without rain; the long-term average rainfall (in 1821–1912) was about 60 mm (2.4 in) per year. Vegetation is very scarce.
History
The straits of Bab-el-Mandeb were probably witness to the earliest migrations of modern humans out of Africa roughly 60,000 years ago. At this time the oceans were much lower because so much water was frozen in Ice Age glaciers and the straits were much shallower or dry. Despite its sheltered natural harbour and strategic location at the entrance of the Red Sea, Perim was largely bypassed by written history until the middle of the 19th century, in good part because the bare, waterless island could not easily sustain life. As a result, only fishermen and pearl divers lived there seasonally, building reed huts with material brought from elsewhere. In 1513, Afonso de Albuquerque, as part of the Portuguese bid to seize control of the trade routes to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, attacked Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea but failed to capture the fortified city. Having failed in his main objective, he nonetheless sailed for the Red Sea. The Red Sea pilots of those days lived on an island close to Perim and one was secured by sending forward as a decoy an Indian-built ship. The passage of the first Portuguese ship through the Bab-el-Mandeb was the occasion for much ceremony. After having spent some time at the island of Kamaran in preparation for an attack on Jeddah that could not be carried out due to contrary winds, the fleet left Kamaran on its return journey. Perim, which Albuquerque named Vera Cruz, was inspected and pronounced unfit for a fortress due to lack of water. During the following years, the Portuguese tried several more times to conquer Aden and gain the mastery of the Red Sea, harassing shipping and battling the Egyptian Mamluk, then Ottoman navies, which gradually gained the upper hand. These actions as well as the sending of an annual fleet to blockade the Bab-el-Mandeb and prevent Indian merchant ships from entering the Red Sea most likely involved frequent use of Perim's natural harbour. By the time the Ottomans captured Aden from its local ruler in 1538, the Ottoman fleet was taking control of the Red Sea, maintaining firm control of the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb and Aden until the 1630s when the Turks were expelled from Yemen and the south half of the Red Sea. A French naval squadron might have used Perim's natural harbour in the course of a punitive expedition against nearby Mocha in 1737. In 1799, the island was briefly occupied by the British East India Company in preparation for the invasion of Egypt.
Perim under British rule
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