134 r Mark S. Wagner
if the Dor De ̔ah members swore to the waq f status of the synagogues,
they would become private property because a waq f synagogue was an
oxymoron in Islamic law. If the pro-kabbalah faction swore that the syna-
gogues were private property, they would contravene halakhic regulations
governing the status of synagogues in cities.
All parties involved agreed that Jews should take oaths according to
Jewish law. The Jews of San ̔ā’ possessed an elaborate ceremony for ex-
tracting oaths, based on Geonic precedent.^45 The ceremony took place
at the al-Dhamārī Synagogue, in front of the “Torah of Ages” (tawrāt al-
dahārī), a scroll believed to have been written by Moses himself.^46 Funer -
ary preparations were made on behalf of the man who swore falsely, for he
would surely die. Water for washing a corpse was brought, as well as a bier,
a shroud, a pickaxe to dig the grave, a hoe and a basket for the displaced
earth, and frankincense. Burning the frankincense would help disguise
the putrid odor emitted by the false witness immediately after death. Ten
rams’ horns would be blown ten times each, and the oath would be made
before the assembled audience.^47
Imām Yahyā was so impressed by the persuasive power of this cer-
emony that on at least one occasion he ordered a Muslim whom he be-
lieved to be committing perjury to submit to it. (The Muslim in question,
a wealthy merchant, fled the scene before swearing, thereby forfeiting his
claim.)^48 With Imām Yahyā backing the Dor De ̔ah faction and Husayn
Abū Tālib backing the pro-kabbalah faction, the two sides reached a stale-
mate. Neither of them was able to force the other side to take an oath.
Although they had won a powerful ally in Imām Yahyā, the Dor De ̔ah
camp eventually abandoned R. al-Jamal’s “public property” ruse. One re-
formist partisan claimed ownership of the Kuhlānī Synagogue. The syna-
gogue was divided in two, and each side was refurbished as an indepen-
dent synagogue.^49 On one side, R. Yūsuf Sālih and his congregation prayed
according to their rite and studied texts given primacy by Dor De ̔ah.^50
On the other side, their ideological rivals, adherents of kabbalah, prayed
according to their rite and taught the Zohar. This arrangement lasted until
the mass emigration of Jews from Yemen to Israel in 1949–50.^51 This story
has an ironic epilogue: Sālih b. Yahyā Sālih, one of the three men who ada-
mantly rejected the change in the Kuhlānī Synagogue’s rite and claimed
ownership of it, ended up joining the Dor De ̔ah half of the synagogue
that was under the leadership of his cousin, Yūsuf Sālih.^52