Muhammad bin Ali as-Siraji al-Washali was one of the three Sayyids who claimed the Yemeni imamate after the death of al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar in Dhamar in 1474.
At this time, the Sunni Tahiride dynasty ruled from Zabid and Ta'izz in the lowland and southern highland.
The Tahiride sultans did not attempt to expand to the north after 1465, and their relations to the Zaidi imams oscillated between tolerance and enmity.
Al-Mansur Muhammad hastened down to relieve the defenders of San'a, but he fell in the hands of Sultan Amir.
Two years later the Zaidi imamate was continued in the person of al-Mutawakkil Yahya Sharaf ad-Din, who managed to unite large parts of Yemen under his authority.