During commentary at a conference recently in Istanbul, a well-known scholar of the late Ottoman Empire blurted out something to the effect that Yemen had been under “continuous Ottoman occupation since the 16th century.” To my chagrin, when I looked around, the audience did not seem to react to such a statement. The failure of the expert audience to note a colleague's mistake reinforced my long-held suspicion that the history of Yemen, and the history of Ottoman affairs in Yemen in particular, is a misunderstood, unappreciated, and even forgotten area of study. It is in this context of academic neglect that one begins to appreciate Frédérique Soudan's massive work.