He spent several years in study to become a mujtahid (a man of Zaidi religious learning) and then proclaimed his da'wa (call for the imamate) in September 1506.
The Tahiride Dynasty ruled the lowlands and southern highlands from Ta'izz, and had recently sacked the Zaidi capital San'a.
After three decades of struggles, al-Mutawakkil Yahya Sharaf ad-Din was able to impose his authority over most of the Zaidi communities in Yemen, together with several Sunni areas.
He thus resurrected the Zaidi imamate after a long period of disunity and much of the southern highlands and northern Tihamah was brought under his control.
[2] In 1547, when a new Turkish military onslaught began, al-Mutawakkil Yahya Sharaf ad-Din had to ask his son al-Mutahhar for support.
Udzimir Pasha took San'a through treachery in the same year and 1,200 inhabitants were massacred whom were mostly sadah or lords people who claimed they're Hashemites .