He participated in the unsuccessful revolt against the Umayyad Caliphate launched by his father in 739/40, and escaped to Khurasan, where he tried with limited success to gain support for another rebellion.

The revolt was swiftly crushed, however, by the Umayyad governor of Iraq, Yusuf ibn Umar al-Thaqafi, and Zayd was killed.

During his half-year stay there, Yahya tried to gather support for another uprising, but the only ones to respond favourably were some Kharijites, whose offer he rejected on the advice of Yazid.

[5] In 743, the hiding place of Yahya was betrayed to al-Thaqafi, who instructed the governor of Khurasan, Nasr ibn Sayyar, to capture him.

Yahya scored a first victory over the much more numerous Umayyads at Bushtaniqan, in which the governor of Nishapur, Amr ibn Zurara al-Qushayri, was killed.

[10][11] Yahya came to be regarded as an imam by the Zaydi Shi'a,[5] and imamzadeh shrines are devoted to his memory in some Iranian cities, including Gonbad-e Kavus, Gorgan, Meyami, Sabzevar, Sarpol and Varamin.