The Al-Muhamashīn (), "the marginalized ones"); previously called The Al-Akhdām, Akhdām or Achdām () ("the servants", singular Khadem, meaning "servant" in Arabic, are an Arabic-speaking ethnic group who live in Yemen. Although the Muhamashīn are Arabic-speaking Muslims just like most other Yemenis, they are considered to be at the very bottom of the supposedly abolished caste ladder, are socially segregated and are mostly confined to menial jobs in the country's major cities. According to official estimates, the Muhamashīn numbered between 500,000 and 3,500,000 individuals. Origins The exact origins of Al-Akhdam are uncertain. One popular belief holds that they are descendants of Nilotic Sudanese people who accompanied the Aksumite army during the latter's occupation of Yemen in the pre-Islamic period. Once the Abyssinian troops were finally expelled at the start of the Muslim era, some of the Sudanese migrants are said to have remained behind, giving birth to the Akhdam people. This belief, however, was denied and described as a myth by Hamud al-Awdi, a professor of sociology at Sana'a University. Societal discrimination in Yemen Anthropologists such as Vombruck postulate that Yemen's history and social hierarchy that developed under various regimes, including the Zaydi Imamate, had created a hereditary caste-like society. Today, the Al-Akhdam people still exist at the very bottom of Yemeni social strata. In the mid-20th century, the Akhdam people who lived in the vicinity of al-Gades (an exclusive Jewish village) were given the name "Kano" by Jews. While a Shafi'i Lowland Muslim would eat from the same dish as a Jew, he would break a vessel touched by one of the Akhdam. Jewish women, however, would still sing the songs of Ahkhdam women, who were often hired as farmhands. Social conditions The Al-Akhdam community suffers from extreme discrimination, persecution, and social exclusion from the mainstream Yemeni society. The contempt for the Akhdam people is expressed by a traditional Yemeni proverb: "Clean your plate if it is touched by a dog, but break it if it's touched by a Khadem.″Though their social conditions have improved somewhat in modern times, Al-Akhdam are still stereotyped by mainstream Yemeni society; they have been called lowly, dirty and immoral. Intermarriages between the conventional Yemeni society with the Akhdam community are taboo and virtually prohibited, as the Al-Akhdam are deemed as untouchables. Men who do marry into the community risk banishment by their families. Today, in Yemen, children born from mixed Akhdam and Yemeni