The Tihamah lowland was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, while the highland was contested between several imams, such as al-Hadi Ghalib, al-Mansur Muhammad bin Abdallah and al-Mutawakkil al-Muhsin.
These delivered him into the hands of the newly proclaimed imam al-Mansur al-Husayn III who was based at at-Tawilah west of Kawkaban.
Al-Haymi was imprisoned, but he managed to spread propaganda among the common townsfolk, who destroyed the imam's house in Harat al-Filayhi.
Later in the same year, the population appointed Muhsin Mu'id (d. 1881) as governor, while al-Mutawakkil al-Muhsin was formally acknowledged as imam.
[4] Al-Mansur al-Husayn III appears to have been among the old imams who welcomed the Ottoman governor Ahmad Mukhtar Pasha to San'a in April 1872.