Al-Mutawakkil Isma'il

As Ismail managed to uphold public order in the deeply localized and factionalized Yemeni society, merchants ventured to visit Yemen from other countries.

[2] In 1654, a struggle for the throne in the Kathiri area provided the imam with an excuse to send a sizable army into the Hadramaut.

[3] Yemen in the 17th century was not a very outward-looking society, but its role as virtually the sole coffee producer of the world made it a vital link in the Indian Ocean trading system.

[4] Al-Mutawakkil Isma'il's reign saw a number of diplomatic ties with other powers around the periphery of the Indian Ocean.

[5] Although he was the most resourceful of the Qasimid line, al-Mutawakkil Isma'il had to contend with the deep localism persisting in the Yemeni society, in particular among the highland tribes.

The imam himself is reputed to have lived a life of Spartan simplicity; he would sew and sell caps for his subsistence, and his household consisted of his one wife and a female slave.

[6] During the imam's reign, he quelled what he thought was a rebellion against the Yemeni state, led by the Jewish leader of a Sabbatean sect, Suleiman Jamal.