The Italian who loved Mukalla and converted to Islam there

Yemen

Yamanat

Nasser Bamandoud

Evio Lobi – Lobi means wolves in Italian, and it is the name of a famous tribe in northern Italy, just as the tribes of Ibn Tha’lab, Badhib and Ibn Dhiyab are called in Hadhramaut, according to what was related by his son Muhammad, who lived in Italy for five years. Evio was born in (1918 AD) in the town of Mirandola, in the province of Modena. He was a soldier in the ranks of the Italian army during World War II and was part of the ranks of its forces in Somalia. He met the Commander-in-Chief of the Hadrami Qu’ait Armed Forces, Major General Saleh Bin Sumida, became a Muslim and through his hands he converted to Islam. He arrived in Al-Mukalla in 1963 and converted to Islam in 1967. He announced his conversion to Islam at the Umrah Mosque in Dis Al-Mukalla and changed his name to “Abdullah Nasser Al-Taliani”. He improved his Islam by engaging in prayer and memorizing the Holy Quran.

Lubi was a brilliant and competent engineer. It was he who, in Hadhramaut, invented the electric citrus press instead of camels to press sesame. When the army fighter plane broke down, everyone couldn’t fix it until Lubi came to fix it. He had a workshop in Sharjah Basalim, near the Sharjah Mosque.

He loved Al-Mukalla, loved its people, got along with them, was loved by the people and was described as one of my servants. He married Hadhramiyya with the Al-Quaiti family in Al-Shehr through intermediaries and had a son and two daughters with her. He lived between Dis Al-Mukalla and Sharj Basalem.

Although his family has Italian nationality in addition to Yemeni citizenship, they insist on living in Mukalla, and when asked why you don’t live in Italy, the Lupi family responds: “We are Muslims and we feel the teachings of our religion here. We were born here and raised here, and we feel that we belong to this land, and that we are among our families and our people.”

Abdullah Lubi’s family feels unfair due to the state’s lack of honor or appreciation of his family, despite his long service in several government institutions, both civil and military, such as the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Defense. Whenever a matter becomes difficult, they demand the presence of Lubi, in addition to the mechanical trades he introduced into Hadhramaut.

Lubi’s illness became serious, so he left for his hometown, Mirandola town, to seek treatment and return to Mukalla. However, a few days after his arrival he died there and his children were in Mukalla, but they stayed and did not leave despite knowing their Italian family.

Yemen