In 1911, Abraham Isaac Kook, the chief rabbi of Ottoman Palestine, addressed a question to the rabbinic Court at Sana'a concerning their custom of eating grasshoppers, and whether this custom was observed by observing their outward features, or by simply relying upon an oral tradition. The reply given to him by the court was as follows: "The grasshoppers which are eaten by way of a tradition from our forefathers, which happen to be clean, are well-known unto us. But there are yet other species which have all the recognizable features of being clean, yet do we practice abstaining from them. The clean grasshoppers () about which we have a tradition are actually three species having each one different coloration [from the other, and each of them are called by us in the Arabian tongue, "ğarād" (locusts). But there are yet other species, about which we have no tradition, and we will not eat them. One of which is a little larger in size than the grasshoppers, having the name of "`awsham". There is yet another variety, smaller in size than the grasshopper, and it is called "ḥanājir" (katydids)."