Yemen is among the greatest countries that constituted an essential support for the Muslim Ummah since the early days of Islam. Since the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him), Yemenites have embraced the religion of Allah in throngs and have had effective contributions to the progress of the Muslim Ummah. Moreover, Yemenite Mujahids (strugglers in Allah's cause) and heroes are of remarkable participations in Islamic conquests. A prominent example of Yemenite contribution to the conquest movement is their relentless efforts in conquering the Levant, Egypt, north Africa, Andalusia and other areas around the world.

Yemenite effective contribution is not limited to the field of jihad and conquests; rather, they have very positive contributions to the arena of knowledge and scholar-making. Actually, there are how many scholars who would dream of traveling to Yemen to be taught by its great scholars and intellectuals. This can find strong support in the fact that reverend Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was so keen to travel to Yemen to complete his study career there that he traveled to Yemen from Baghdad on foot because of the extreme poverty he had suffered from. It was then crucial for him to overcome such hardships in order to cover such fields of knowledge he lacks.

Speaking about Yemen, the scope of our focus is not limited to scholars, Mujahids, leaders and intellectuals, but it extends to include the whole Yemenite people as they are in general the most-kindhearted among all peoples of the world. They were given a great recommendation by the Prophet (peace be upon him) that is better for them than the world and what it contains. When the Yemenite delegation came to Medina, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "The people of Yemen have come to you and they are more gentle and soft-hearted. Belief is Yemenite and Wisdom is Yemenite. (i.e. Yemenites are well-known for their true belief and wisdom).[1]" I think this Hadith indicates one of the Prophet's great miracles whose authenticity I tested myself. In fact, I have dealt with many Yemenites and visited Yemen many times. The more I deal with them, the more I find them, as described by the Prophet (peace be upon him), more gentle and soft-hearted. I would therefore pray Allah for them saying the same Du'a' (supplication) said by the Prophet (peace be upon him), "O Allah! Bless our Sham (Levant) and our Yemen.[2]"

No doubt, it is a magnificent country in the real sense of the word.

As mentioned above, the story of Islam in Yemen is an old one. Islam made its way through it during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Thereafter, Yemen became a significant territory within the frame of the Muslim state and continued to hold such a position during the reign of the rightly-guided caliphs, Umayyad Caliphate and the early years of the Abbasid Caliphate.

The Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun, in 199 AH, suffered the agonies of the most serious Zaidi rebellion against his government, namely the rebellion of Muhammad bin Ibrahim, alias Ibn Tabataba, who sent his cousin Ibrahim bin Muhammad to Yemen to get as many supporters as possible. Zaidis are the followers of the approach first introduced by Zaid bin Ali bin Al-Hussein bin Ali bin Abu Talib.

Although a Shiite sect, doctrinally, the Zaidis have more in common with Sunnis than they do with most Shiites. Actually, they do not believe in most Bid'ahs (innovations in religion) and superstitions hold by Ithna 'Ashriyyah (Twelver Shiites) (found in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf). Rather, they, as other Sunni Muslims, follow the instructions of the Qur'an and Sunnah. However, they have their unique beliefs regarding the Imamate; they believe that the Imam can be any descendant of Ali provided that he descends from Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her), the Prophet's daughter, and that he has sufficient learning, piety and wisdom. According to them, the true Imam must publicly assert his claim to the title and will be acceptable once people pay him allegiance. It is also possible for them the rise of more than one Imam in different countries at a time. Accordingly, many Imams of theirs rose across different history stages.

By the way, many Sunni scholars regard Zaid bin Ali as a reverend Sunni scholar, which is true. Actually, he is a prominent scholar who called for rebellion against unjust rulers. Moreover, he held Companions in a high esteem and would appreciate Abu Bakr and 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with both of them). Nevertheless, he viewed them to be inferior to Ali bin Abu Talib, which is improper in spite of Ali's high esteem. However, Zaid viewed that Abu Bakr and 'Umar assumption of caliphate to be legitimate as, in his opinion, it is permissible to recognize a less meritorious man as caliph. Thus believing, Zaidis are totally different from Twelver Shiites who reject the imamate of Abu Bakr and 'Umar and even try to get closer to Allah through cursing them, as they claim.

Hence, although Zaidiyyah is a branch of Shiism, it has more in common with Sunnis than they do with Shiites so much that they  are not easily distinguishable from Sunnis. In fact, I have met many of them while in Yemen. They say "may Allah be pleased with him" once a Companion is mentioned, hold Companions in a high esteem and offer prayers in Sunni mosques. Furthermore, they do not commit  the well-known Bid'ahs committed by Twelver Shiites, with which we dealt at length in the articles "Origins of Shia" and "Shia's Dominance". Besides, among them are imminent scholars from whom many Sunni students learned. A prominent example is the great scholar Al-Shawkani, author of the well-known book "Nayl Al-Awtar", who was a Zaidi Yemenite (may Allah show mercy to him).

Back to the reign of Al-Ma'mun, he could suppress the revolution staged by Muhammad bin Ibrahim Tabataba in Kufa. However, he could not do the same to the revolution staged by Ibrahim bin Muhammad in Yemen. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Yemen is far away from Baghdad, the mountainous rugged nature of Yemen and the tribal system making central authority difficult to materialize. For all such reasons, Al-Ma'mun applied diplomatic tactic giving Ibrahim bin Muhammad Al-Zaidi autonomy for Yemen being politically subordinate to him. In fact, such autonomous rule had the effect of extending Yemen subordination to the Abbasid caliphate for nearly a century. However, it also, at the same time, gave way to the spread and steadfastness of the Zaidi school of thought in Yemen.

Decades after such events, specifically in 284 AH, at the time of the Abbasid dynasty declination, Yahia bin Al-Hussein Al-Rassi managed to establish a Zaidi state in Yemen, known as the Rassid state or the state of Imams, at Sa'da, northern Yemen, a state that was independent from Abbasids. Such was not the first state to be established in Yemen independently from Abbasids; actually, it was preceded by Ya'fariyyun who established the Sana‘a-based Ya'fariyya state independently from Abbasids in 320 AH. However, Ya'fariyyun were Sunni, and not Zaidi, Muslims.

The establishment of the Zaidi Rassid  state concurred with the rise of the Isma'ilite call in southern Yemen. As I stated in previous articles, "Origins of Shia" and "Shia's Dominance", Isma'iliyyah is a branch of Shiism that is so deviated that most Sunni scholars judge its adherents to be out of the scope of Islam. They have dominated southern Yemen since 290 AH. Anyway, their state did not last for so long as it collapsed in 304 AH. Accordingly, Yemen became divided between Sunni Ya'fariyyun centered in Sana‘a and Zaidi Rassids centered in Sa'da, a state of affairs that continued along the fourth century AH.

During the fifth century AH, the Ya'fariyya state declined and the Zaidi state got very weak although still in authority. However, a new Sunni state, the Najahid state, centered in Zabid (a town to the west of Yemen), came to existence and had a great effect on the course of events. It continued in authority from 403 to 555 AH. In addition to the Najahid state, many dangerous Isma'ilite states were founded. These were the Sulaihid state with Sana‘a as its capital, from 439 to 532 AH, the Banu Zurai' state with Aden as its capital, from 467 to 569 AH, and the Banu Hatim state, which ruled Sana‘a from 533 to 569 AH. These Isma'ilite states derived power and support from the 'Ubaidi (the so-called Fatimid) state, which at that time dominated Egypt and sometimes the Levant. Therefore, these states declined by the decline of the 'Ubaidi wicked state at the hands of the triumphant leader Salahud-Din Al-Ayyubi (Saladin) in 567 AH.

By the elapse of the Isma'ilite nightmare, Yemen started a new happy Sunni era represented in the Ayyubid dynasty that ruled from 569 to 626 AH, and then in the Sunni Rasulid dynasty that ruled from 626 to 858 AH.

Anyway, the Zaidi rule over Yemen did not totally disappear; rather, they continued to exist in Sa'da and even have a period of dominance represented in the second Rassid dynasty, from 593 to 697 AH, i.e. during the reign of Ayyubids and Rasulids.

During the tenth century AH, Ottomans and Zaidis shared rule over Yemen. Ottomans ruled Yemen from 945 AH to 1333 AH (388 years) having dominance essentially in the south. As for the Zaidi Rassid dynasty, they have dominance over Sa'da as usual in addition to Sana‘a, and were therefore known as the Imams of Sana‘a, from 973 to 1382 AH (409 years). This dynasty had complete authority over the whole Yemen after a conflict with the Ottoman caliphate, which ended in 1333 AH in the interest of Zaidis.

This Zaidi dynast continued in authority over Yemen till 1382 AH/ 1962 AD when the Yemenite Revolution was staged to mark the end of the Zaidi rule over Yemen which lasted for more than thousand years beginning from 284 AH.

Through this overview, we could know that the Zaidi thought is deep-rooted in Yemen and that Zaidis remained in authority for so long sometimes weak and sometimes strong. Moreover, we came to know that their rule over Yemen was sometimes shared by Sunni and Isma'ilite states bearing in mind that Isma'ilites did not rule for so long as their rule remained only about 130 years in Yemen and only partially dominated Yemen.

We could also know that Imamiyyah (Twelver Shia) had by no means existence in the Yemenite arena. Hence, Zaidis constitute about 30% of Yemen's total population while Twelver Shiites constitute a very small percentage. However, there is no reliable census to determine such percentage.

Nevertheless, we recently hear of Huthis centered in Sa'da province holding the Twelver Shiite thought and that they are supported by Iran. So, how the Twelver Shiite thought penetrated into Yemen? What led to the aggravation of the situation and to the fierce continuous battles between Yemen's government and Huthi's followers?

Actually, this is a very important topic about which we have to deal at length in the next article, if Allah so wills. 

https://en.islamstory.com/en/artical/3407504/story-yemen