Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din was born on Friday 18 June 1869 in Sanaa into the Hamidaddin branch of the al-Qasimi dynasty who ruled most of Yemen proper and the southern region of present-day Saudi Arabia for over 900 years.

[3] A staunch isolationist, Imam Yahya never traveled outside of Yemen, and is said to have never left the Sanaa highlands or seen the Red Sea on his kingdom's coast.

[3] Sir Gilbert Clayton, who visited King Yahya in Sana'a in an earnest attempt to win him over in 1925 and during his short stay in the capital, was impressed by this ruler's administration, his military preparedness, and organization.

[5] Imam Yahia managed to put an end to the state of anarchy, lawlessness and violence which had lacerated the country and inflicted immense suffering upon its inhabitants, including the Jews.

Imam Yahya went to Sana'a three days later on Sunday 17 November 1918 to meet with tribal leaders from Hashid, Arhab, Nihm, and Khowlan.

[citation needed] His first order was to forbid entering the capital Sana'a with arms, and appointed sentries at the gates to start a reign of peace and justice unparalleled during the years of his rule.

The treaty was the basis for the final territorial agreement between both countries concluded during the reign of King Fahd bin Abdulaziz and President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

[citation needed] From 1934 until his assassination in 1948, Yahya redirected his energies toward internal consolidation of his authority and the creation of a viable central government, answerable to him personally.

Tighter control over affairs in Sana'a, the capital, was assured by expanding the scope of administrative functions and appointing other sons as supervisors of old and new political institutions.

Throughout the early 1940s, Imam Yahya turned a blind eye to Jewish emigration, neither prohibiting it nor officially permitting it, but rather giving his unspoken consent to the departure of Jews from Sana'a and other central Yemeni settlements.