Al-Hudaydah ( Arabic : الْحُدَيْدَة , romanized : al-ḥudayda ), 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 [2] and it is the centre of the Al Hudaydah Governorate . History [ edit source ] 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 . [3] In 1830s, Al Hudaydah was controlled by Ibrahim Pasha 's troops, which turned over its administration to sherif Husayn ibn Ali Haydar. [4] 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 h...