Imams of Yemen facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Monarch of Yemen
Coat of arms of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
Details
First monarch	al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya
Last monarch	Muhammad al-Badr
Formation	c. 897
Abolition	1 December 1970
Residence	Dar al-Hajar, Sanaa, Yemen
Pretender(s)	Ageel bin Muhammad al-Badr

The Imams of Yemen were special leaders. They were both religious guides and political rulers. These leaders belonged to a branch of Shia Islam called Zaidiyyah. They started their rule in parts of Yemen in the year 897.

Their leadership lasted a very long time, until 1970. This was after a big change in 1962, when a "republican revolution" happened. This led to the North Yemen Civil War. Zaidiyyah beliefs say that an active and visible imam should be the leader. An imam needed to be wise in religious matters. They also had to prove themselves as strong leaders for their community, even in battles. Sometimes, more than one person would claim to be the imam at the same time.

History of Yemen's Imams
List of Imams
Beliefs of the Imams
See also

History of Yemen's Imams

How the Imams Began Ruling

A Gold dinar (old coin) of al-Hadi, made in Saada around 910 CE.

The imams believed their right to rule came from their family. They were descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The first ruler in this line was al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya. He was born in Medina. People knew him as a smart and strong leader.

He was invited to Yemen to lead the mountain tribes. This happened first in 893, and then again in 896–897. Al-Hadi brought many new rules and ways of doing things. These ideas became the main guidelines for the Zaydi faith and politics in Yemen. However, al-Hadi could not control all of Yemen. He struggled to create a lasting government in the highlands. This was because local tribes were very independent. Some people also did not accept his religious and political claims.

Even though he didn't build a strong government system, al-Hadi's family became important. Other related families who came with him also became local leaders. For the next thousand years, the imams of Yemen were chosen from these families. Most imams came from al-Hadi's family. But sometimes, they were chosen from other families related to Prophet Muhammad.

For most of this long period, Yemen was not a single, united country. Its borders changed a lot. No single ruler or group controlled all of Yemen for very long. Yemen was part of many different kingdoms and empires. After the 16th century, it became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Rivalries with Other Dynasties

After Imam al-Hadi died in 911, his sons took turns being imam. The title of imam was not passed down automatically from father to son. Instead, it was chosen from different branches of the ruling family. From the 11th to the early 17th centuries, imams were usually not the sons of the previous imam. The title moved among different family branches.

During this time, many smaller ruling families appeared in Yemen. They ruled in the mountains and along the coast. The imams rarely had much power in the coastal areas. Some well-known families included the Yu'firids, Najahids, Sulayhids, Zurayids, and Hatimids. During this period, a different Islamic group, the Fatimid Caliphate, became powerful. Because of this, some people in Yemen became Isma'ilis.

Around 1174, the family of Saladin conquered Yemen. After them, several other ruling families controlled parts of Yemen for about 400 years. These were the Ayyubids (1174–1229), the Rasulids (1229–1454), the Tahirids (1454–1517), and the Mamluks (1517–1538). After the Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire took control of the coastal areas.

For most of this time, these ruling families fought among themselves. They also had local and religious disagreements. Interestingly, the Sunni Rasulids ruled mainly in southern Yemen. Under their rule, Yemen saw its greatest economic growth and stability.

For some time in the Middle Ages, the Zaydiyyah imams were not very powerful. Sometimes, there was no imam at all. This happened especially between 1066–1138 and 1171–1187. But from the late 13th century, the Zaydiyyah imams started to regain some power. They were able to stand against the Rasulids and Tahirids. They even expanded their territory sometimes. However, after 1436, the imamate was often split. This meant several people claimed to be the imam at once.

We don't know much about the medieval Zaydi imams. We don't know much about their efforts to set up governments or collect taxes. We also don't know how well they spread Zaydi goals. From what we do know, there was not much steady rule. Instead, there was a lot of competition among the Zaydi families. For example, over 200 years (13th to 15th centuries), more than twenty different people tried to become imam. They came from over ten different families.

The Qasimid State

Later, European countries like Portugal came to the Middle East. They wanted to control trade routes in the Red Sea. But for the Zaydiyyah imams, the Ottoman Turks were a bigger threat. The Ottomans defeated the mountain tribes in the mid-16th century.

In the early 17th century, al-Mansur al-Qasim started a rebellion. He belonged to one of the ruling Zaydi families, later called the Qasimids. His son, al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad, managed to unite all of Yemen. He drove out the Turks and created an independent country. For a while, the imams ruled a large area. This included South Yemen and lands even further east. Their wealth grew because of the coffee trade from the port of Mocha. Unlike before, the Qasimids ruled as a family, passing power down from father to son.

The power of the Yemeni Zaidi State (or Imamate) became weaker in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was especially true after the Wahhabi invasions around 1800. The land controlled by the imams kept shrinking after 1681. The profitable coffee trade also declined. This happened because new coffee producers started in other parts of the world.

The Qasimid state was like a "quasi-state." This means it had constant tension between tribes and the government. It also had tension between tribal ways and Islamic rules. The imams themselves started to act more like kings in other Middle Eastern countries. They became more distant from the people. Because of this, they lost their special religious and spiritual standing among Yemen's tribes.

The imamate became even weaker when the Turks returned to Yemen. They came to the lowlands in 1848 and to the highlands in 1872. However, the Ottoman soldiers could never fully stop the resistance against their rule. The Ottomans were finally driven out by 1918. This was done by a branch of the Qasimid family. They then started the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen.

Modern History of the Imams

For the next 44 years, North Yemen was ruled by two powerful imams. These were Yahya bin Muhammad Hamid ad-Din and his son Ahmad bin Yahya. They built a kingdom much like kings in Europe had done centuries before. These two imams made the state stronger and secured its borders.

They used their position as imams to keep Yemen separate from the outside world. They also worked to bring back its Islamic culture. This happened at a time when many traditional societies were struggling under foreign rule. While Yemen under these imams seemed stuck in time, some Yemenis noticed something. They saw the difference between their old-fashioned society and the modern changes happening elsewhere.

This led to important events:

The start of the Free Yemeni Movement in the mid-1940s.
A failed revolution in 1948 where Imam Yahya was killed.
Another failed attempt to overthrow Imam Ahmad in 1955.
Finally, the 1962 revolution. In this event, the new imam, Muhammad al-Badr, was removed from power. A group of nationalist officers took over. They declared the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) under Abdullah al-Sallal.

The first five years of President Al-Sallal's rule (1962 to 1967) were very important. This period saw a long North Yemen Civil War. Yemeni republican forces, based in cities and supported by Egypt, fought against the royalist supporters of the deposed imam. The royalists were backed by Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

In 1965, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser met with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. They discussed how to end the civil war. They agreed that both countries would stop their involvement. They would let the people of North Yemen choose their own government. However, later peace talks failed, and fighting started again in 1966.

By 1967, the war was at a standstill. The republicans themselves split into groups. They disagreed about relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In late 1967, Al-Sallal's government was overthrown. Abdul Rahman al-Iryani became the new president. Fighting continued until 1970. At that point, Saudi Arabia stopped helping the royalists. They also started diplomatic relations with North Yemen.

Al-Iryani helped bring about a truce between the republican and royalist forces. He also oversaw the creation of a democratic constitution in 1970. Imam Muhammad al-Badr was very disappointed that Saudi Arabia recognized the new republic. He moved to London and died there in 1996.

In June 1974, military officers led by Colonel Ibrahim al-Hamdi took power without violence. They said Al-Iryani's government was not working well. The constitution was paused, and military leaders took control. Al-Hamdi led this group and tried to make North Yemen's politics stronger. Al-Hamdi was killed in 1977. His replacement, Ahmed Hussein al-Ghashmi, was also killed in June 1978.

The long rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh was more stable. He ruled North Yemen from 1978 until it joined with South Yemen in 1990. Saleh made the political system stronger. Also, money from other countries and the discovery of oil in North Yemen brought hope for economic growth.

List of Imams

It's hard to make a perfect list of Yemen's imams. Many imams were not recognized by everyone. Also, their rule was sometimes overshadowed by other ruling families or by the Turks. This list tries to include most of them.

al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya bin al-Husayn bin al-Qasim ar-Rassi 897–911
al-Murtada Muhammad 911–913, d. 922 (son)
an-Nasir Ahmad 913–934 or 937 (brother)
al-Muntakhab al-Hasan 934–936 or 939 (son)
al-Mukhtar al-Qasim 936–956 (brother)
al-Mansur Yahya 934–976 (brother)
ad-Da'i Yusuf 977–999 (son)
al-Mansur al-Qasim al-Iyyani bin Ali 999–1002
ad-Da'i Yusuf 1002–1012 (second term)
al-Mahdi al-Husayn 1003–1013 (son of al-Mansur al-Qasim)
al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad bin al-Husayn 1013–1020
Abu Talib Yahya 1020–1033
al-Mu’id li-Din Illah 1027–1030
Abu Hashim al-Hasan 1031–1040
Abu'l-Fath an-Nasir ad-Dailami bin al-Husayn 1038–1053
al-Muhtasib al-Mujahid Hamzah 1060–1067 (son of Abu Hashim al-Hasan)
al-Mutawakkil Ahmad bin Sulayman 1138–1171 (descended from an-Nasir Ahmad)
al-Mansur Abdallah bin Hamzah 1187–1217 (descended from al-Muhtasib al-Mujahid Hamzah)
an-Nasir Muhammad 1217–1226 (son)
al-Hadi Yahya bin Muhsin 1217–1239
al-Mahdi Ahmad bin al-Husayn 1248–1258
al-Hasan bin Wahhas 1258–1260, d. 1285
Yahya bin Muhammad as-Siraji 1261–1262, d. 1296
al-Mansur al-Hasan bin Badr ad-Din 1262–1271 (son of a cousin of al-Hadi Yahya)
al-Mahdi Ibrahim bin Ahmad Taj ad-Din 1272–1276, d. 1284 (nephew)
al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar bin Yahya bin al-Murtada 1276–1298
al-Mahdi Muhammad 1301–1328 (son)
al-Mu'ayyad Yahya bin Hamzah 1328–1346
an-Nasir Ali bin Salah 1328–1329 (grandson of al-Mahdi Ibrahim)
Ahmad bin Ali al-Fathi 1329–1349
al-Wathiq al-Mutahhar 1349 (son of al-Mahdi Muhammad)
al-Mahdi Ali bin Muhammad 1349–1372
al-Nasir Muhammad Salah al-Din 1372–1391 (son)
al-Mansur Ali 1391–1436 (son)
al-Mahdi Ahmad bin Yahya bin al-Murtada 1391–1392, d. 1436
al-Hadi Ali bin al-Muayyad 1393–1432
al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din bin Ali 1436–1445
al-Mansur an-Nasir bin Muhammad 1436–1462 (great-great-grandson of al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar bin Yahya)
al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar bin Muhammad 1436–1474
al-Mu’ayyad Muhammad 1462–1503 (son of al-Mansur an-Nasir)
an-Nasir Muhammad bin Yusuf 1474–1488
al-Hadi Izz ad-Din bin al-Hasan 1474–1495 (grandson of al-Hadi Ali)
al-Mansur Muhammad bin Ali al-Washali 1475–1504
an-Nasir al-Hasan 1495–1523 (son of al-Hadi Izz-ad-Din)
al-Mutawakkil Yahya Sharaf ad-Din bin Shams-ad-Din 1506–1555 (grandson of al-Mahdi Ahmad)
al-Mutahhar 1547–1572 (son)
an-Nasir al-Hasan bin Ali 1579–1585
al-Mansur al-Qasim bin Muhammad 1597–1620
al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad I 1620–1644 (son)
al-Mutawakkil Isma'il 1644–1676 (brother)
al-Mahdi Ahmad bin al-Hasan 1676–1681 (nephew)
al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad II 1681–1686 (son of al-Mutawakkil Isma'il)
al-Mahdi Muhammad 1687–1718 (son of al-Mahdi Ahmad)
al-Mansur al-Husayn I bin al-Qasim 1716–1720 (grandson of al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad I)
al-Mutawakkil al-Qasim bin al-Hasan 1716–1727 (grandson of al-Mahdi Ahmad)
An-Nasir Muhammad (Zaidi imam) bin Ishaq 1723, d. 1754 (grandson of al-Mahdi Ahmad)
al-Mansur al-Husayn II 1727–1748 (son of al-Mutawakkil al-Qasim)
al-Mahdi Abbas 1748–1775 (son)
al-Mansur Ali I 1775–1809 (son)
al-Mutawakkil Ahmad 1809–1816 (son)
al-Mahdi Abdallah 1816–1835 (son)
al-Mansur Ali II 1835–1837, d. 1871 (son)
an-Nasir Abdallah bin al-Hasan bin Ahmad 1837–1840 (great-grandson of al-Mahdi Abbas)
al-Hadi Muhammad 1840–1844 (son of al-Mutawakkil Ahmad)
al-Mansur Ali II 1844–1845 (second term)
al-Mutawakkil Muhammad bin Yahya 1845–1849 (grandson of al-Mansur Ali I)
al-Mansur Ali II 1849–1850 (third term)
al-Mansur Ahmad bin Hashim 1849–1853
al-Mu'ayyad Abbas bin Abd ar-Rahman 1850
al-Mansur Ali II 1851 (fourth term)
al-Hadi Ghalib 1851–1852, d. 1885 (son of al-Mutawakkil Muhammad)
al-Mansur Muhammad bin Abdallah 1853–1890
al-Mutawakkil al-Muhsin bin Ahmad 1855–1878
al-Hadi Ghalib 1858–1872 (second term)
al-Mansur al-Husayn III bin Muhammad bin al-Hadi 1859–1863, d. 1888
al-Hadi Sharaf ad-Din bin Muhammad bin Abd ar-Rahman 1878–1890
al-Mansur Muhammad bin Yahya Hamid ad-Din 1890–1904
al-Mutawakkil Yahya Muhammad Hamid ad-Din 1904–1948 (son)
an-Nasir Ahmad bin Yahya 1948–1962 (son of al-Mutawakkil Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din)
al-Mansur Muhammad al-Badr 1962, d. 1996 (son)

For leaders after 1962, see President of Yemen Arab Republic.

Beliefs of the Imams

The Zaydi imams had different beliefs compared to other Shia groups. Unlike some other Shia branches, the Zaidis did not believe their Imams had divine or superhuman powers.