Al-Hudaydah (), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or Hodeidah, is the fourth-largest city in Yemen and its principal port on the Red Sea. As of 2004, its population was 402,560 and it is the centre of the Al Hudaydah Governorate. History In the Islamic chronicles, the name Al-Hudaydah was first mentioned in the year 1454/55 and the city became a popular and important one in the 1520s when the Ottomans took over Yemeni Tihāmah. In 1830s, Al Hudaydah was controlled by Ibrahim Pasha's troops, which turned over its administration to sherif Husayn ibn Ali Haydar. In 1849, it became part of the Yemen Eyalet. The Malay writer Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir visited Al Hudaydah on his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1854, and describes the city in his account of the journey, mentioning that the custom of chewing khat was prevalent in the city at this time. In 1914, during the First World War, German troops led by Major Freiherr Othmar von Stotzingen established "Stotzingen-Mission", a wireless station, at Al Hudaydah, which was used during the Arab Revolt to relay communications from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to German East Africa as well as broadcast propaganda to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, British Somaliland and Abyssinia. The city was briefly occupied by Saudi forces during the Saudi–Yemeni War of 1934. After a disastrous fire in January 1961 destroyed much of Al-Hudaydah, it was rebuilt, particularly the port facilities, with Soviet aid. A highway to Sana'a, the capital, was completed in 1961. The city was also the site of a Soviet naval base in the 1970s and 1980s. Al-Hudaydah has a large number of historical places. The city is not large but it has more than one hundred old mosques. Furthermore, it used to have a university, that was as old as al-Azhar. Economy Situated on the Red Sea, it is an important port, exporting coffee, cotton, dates and hides. It was developed as a seaport in the mid-19th century by the Ottoman Turks. As of June 2018, three quarters of humanitarian and commercial cargo entering Yemen arrived via the port of Hudaydah. It serves as the entry point for Yemen's humanitarian aid and around 70% of commercial imports. The port of Ras Isa is slightly north of Al Hudaydah proper, and is the terminus of the Marib–Ras Isa oil pipeline from inland Yemen, with a major storage and offloading vessel named FSO Safer moored