The Hadhrami (Arabic: حضرمي‎‎, sing.) or Hadharem (Arabic: الحضارم‎‎, pl.) are people inhabiting the Hadhramaut region in Yemen and their descendants in diaspora communities around the world. They speak Hadhrami Arabic, which belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Among the two million inhabitants of Hadhramaut, there are 1,300 distinct tribes. Historically, antagonism between townsfolk and wandering tribesmen had been so bitter that the towns are surrounded by stone walls to protect them from attack by their tribal countrymen.