Islamic history of Yemen
Regimes affiliated to the Egyptian Fatimid caliphs occupied much of northern and southern Yemen throughout the 11th century, including the Sulayhids and Zurayids, but the country was rarely unified for any long period of time.
Local control in the Middle Ages was exerted by a succession of families which included the Ziyadids (818–1018), the Najahids (1022–1158), the Egyptian Ayyubids (1174–1229) and the Turkoman Rasulids (1229–1454).
For a period after 1517, and again in the 19th century, Yemen was a nominal part of the Ottoman Empire, although on both occasions the Zaydi Imams contested the power of the Turks and eventually expelled them.
In the final pre-Islamic period, the Yemeni lands included the large tribal confederations Himyar, Hamdan, Madh'hij, Kindah, Hashid, Bakil, and Azd.
[2] The descendants of these Persian soldiers, known in Arabic as al-Abna', dominated the capital, Sana'a, but the rest of the country in practice remained divided among a multitude of autonomous local rulers and tribal chiefs.
[1] After the dissolution of Persian rule in South Arabia, the al-Abna' turned to the emerging Islamic state under Muhammad in order to find support against local Arab rebels.
Towards the end of Muhammad's life, in 632, a certain al-Aswad al-Ansi proclaimed himself prophet and found widespread support among the Yemenis, although the exact motivation of his uprising is unclear.
Judges and Qur'an instructors were appointed, and the Christian tribes of Najran evicted under Caliph Umar (r. 634–644), despite prior treaties with Muhammad and Abu Bakr guaranteeing their status.
His army occupied Mecca and Medina, and even Basra for a while swore allegiance to him, before his uprising, as well as other tribal revolts of the Himyarites, were suppressed by the Umayyad general Abd al-Malik ibn Atiyya.
[4] Already during al-Ma'mun's time, however, local tribal or sectarian leaders began to rise and unite hitherto fragmented parts of the country under their authority, a process that would continue during the entire 9th century.
[19] By the 890s, Yemen was politically divided between the three major local dynasties, the Ziyadids, and Yu'firids, and Manakhis, as well as a host of constantly quarreling minor tribal leaders, especially in the north.
[20] The lack of political unity, the remoteness of the province from the Abbasid imperial centre, and its inaccessible terrain, along with deep-rooted Shi'a sympathies in the local population, made Yemen, in the words of historian A.
[26] Yemen also served as a major centre for the broader Isma'ili da'wa, with Ibn Hawshab sending missionaries to Oman, the Yamama and even Sindh.
[28] Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Isma'ilis engaged in a series of back-and-forth contests with the Yu'firids and the newly established Zaydi imamate over control of Sana'a, but Ibn al-Fadl emerged victorious in 911.
[20] In Zaydi doctrine, as in Isma'ilism, the imam has to be a descendant of Fatimah and Ali, but the position is not hereditary or by appointment (nass), unlike in the Twelver and Isma'ili traditions of Shi'a Islam.
[33] This first sojourn failed, and he had left, but in 897 he returned and quickly established a state based in Sa'ada, in the northern highlands, with himself as imam with the title al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq (lit.
In 1060, the highland Sulayhid dynasty conquered their lands for twenty years, and it was only after a prolonged struggle that in 1089 that a new Najahid ruler, Jayyash, established his power firmly over Zabid and its territory.
[40] After the death of Jayyash, power was held by a series of slave (mamluk) viziers who served in the Najahid ruler's name until 1156, when the Mahdid dynasty replaced them.
[42] His son and successor, Abd al-Nabi, is portrayed in most historical sources as a dissolute, ambitious, and evil ruler, who aimed to conquer the world.
Indeed, he launched frequent and brutal raids against all his neighbours, killing the Sulaymanid ruler in 1164, capturing Taiz and Ibb in 1165, and beginning a seven-year-long siege of Aden that was only broken in 1173, when the Zurayids and Hamdanids allied against him.
[42] Shortly after, the Ayyubid prince Turan-Shah entered Yemen, invited by the Sulaymanids, and began its conquest by capturing Zabid and ending the Mahdid state.
In the schism of the Isma'ili movement between Musta'lis and Nizaris, which occurred in 1094 over the succession to the caliph al-Mustansir, she sided with the former and was designated chief da'i, although she was forced to use male agents sent from Cairo in the field.
The chronicles mention luxury goods such as textiles, perfume and porcelain, coming from places like North Africa, Egypt, Iraq, Oman, Kirman and China.
The enterprise was entirely successful: the various local Yemeni dynasties, mainly the Zurayids were defeated or submitted, thus bringing an end to the fragmented political landscape.
Members of the Ayyubid Dynasty were appointed to rule Yemen up to 1229, but they were often absent from the country, a factor that finally led to them being superseded by the following regime, the Rasulids.
[57] The Mamluk regime in Egypt began to dispatch seaborne expeditions towards the south after 1507, since the presence of the Portuguese constituted a threat in the southern Red Sea region.
Al-Mansur's son al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad (r. 1620–1644) managed to gather Yemen under his authority, expel the Turks, and established an independent political entity.
Adding to this, theological differences surfaced in the 18th century, since the Qasimids practiced ijtihad (legal reinterpretations) and were accused of illicit innovations (bidah).
Yahya enjoyed legitimacy among the Zaydi tribes of the inland, while the Sunni population of the coast and southern highlands were less inclined to accept his rule.
After Egypt's defeat against Israel in 1967, and the formation of a socialist people's republic in South Yemen in the same year, both intervening powers tried to find a solution in order to have their hands free.
