[1] In February 1837, the unqualified incumbent al-Mansur Ali II was deposed by the soldiery of San'a, since their salary was in arrears.
[2] Abdallah successfully made his da'wa (call for the imamate) with the help of his partisans among religious students.
The deposed imam and his uncle Sayyid Muhammad were kept prisoners by the new ruler, who took the name an-Nasir Abdallah.
The viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, sent an envoy to an-Nasir Abdallah and summoned him to surrender San'a to the Porte.
An-Nasir Abdallah represented the traditional Zaydiyya interests, as opposed to the Sunni-influenced judiciary previously built up by the scholar Muhammad ash-Shawkani.