Al-Fadl recommended that al-Ma'mun send the capable Muhammad ibn Ziyad to Tihamah in order to suppress the tribes.

The situation was particularly critical since the Alids under a leader called Ibrahim al-Jazzar threatened to detach Yemen from Abbasid control at this time.

[6] The historian Umara enumerates his possessions as including Hadramawt, Diyar Kindah, Shihr, Mirbat in Oman, Abyan, Lahij, Aden and the maritime provinces as far north as Hali, as well as Janad, Mikhlaf al-Ma'afir, Mikhlaf Ja'far, San'a, Sa'dah, Najran, and Bayhan in the highlands.

[7] However, the sources are somewhat obscure since the historian al-Hamdani asserts that another family, Banu Shurah, exercised paramount power in the Tihama for parts of the ninth century and were established in Zabid.

[8] Little is known about the economic structure of the Ziyadid realm, but the historian Umara writes that the dynasty was bolstered by the flourishing international trade.

Umara also mentions taxes on ambergris collection at Bab al-Mandab and the south coast, and on pearl fishing.

After the violent end of caliph al-Musta'in in 866, the second Ziyadid ruler, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, kept the tax revenues for himself and adopted royal trappings.

As the Ziyadids' power tended to be concentrated on the lowland, and the Abbasid governors in the highland lacked support from their home base in Iraq, other dynasties were established.

The Yufirids established an independent state in San'a in 847 and forced the Ziyadid ruler to tolerate their rule in exchange for mentioning him on coins and in the Friday prayer.

Furthermore, the late ninth and early tenth centuries saw a great deal of agitation by Ismaili figures who adhered to the Fatimid imam (whose descendants were later to become caliphs in Egypt).