Ahmad Muhammad Numan
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Ahmad Muhammad Numan ( ar, أحمد محمد نعمان; 26 April 1909 – 27 September 1996) was an educator, propagandist and politician. He was a principal progenitor of modern Yemeni
nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
. Numan was an original founder of the Free Yemeni Movement, a propagandist in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
for the Yemeni Unionists and once foreign minister and twice
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
of the
Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية اليمنية '), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a country from 1962 to 1990 in the northwestern part of what is now Yemen.The United States extend ...
.


Biography


Family and youth

Numan was a descendant of a family of important shaykhs in al-Hujariyya, (Hereafter "Douglas.) a province in the southern highlands southeast of the department of Ta'izz. Numan's uncle, Abd al-Wahhab Numan, was the Ottoman-appointed ''hakim'' (governor of the region. The Numans were Sunni, specifically
Shafi'i The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
. Numan's father was a farmer. Numan was educated in the traditional Islamic ''
kuttab A kuttab ( ar, كُتَّاب ''kuttāb'', plural: ''kataatiib'', ) or maktab ( ar, مَكْتَب) is a type of elementary school in the Muslim world. Though the ''kuttab'' was primarily used for teaching children in reading, writing, grammar, a ...
'' elementary school. He spent seven years at the Shaff'd universita Zabid. After his father's death in 1934, Numan assumed the role of head of household, in which capacity he gained the respect of fellow villagers and came into contact with local officials.


Brief career as educator

In the mid-1930s, Numan met Muhammad Ahmad al-Haydara, who had studied abroad and had been exposed to subjects beyond Numan's limited Islamic education. The two began a school in Dubhan, ''al-Madrassa al-Ahliyya'', specifically for young teenage boys. The school became famous for teaching geography, arithmetic and modern sciences. The school also soon became a local center for the discussion of current events. Much of the material came from books and newspapers sdupplied by Numan's brother Ali, who worked in Aden. The regulars who attended the discussions came to be known as ''Nadi a-Islah'' (the "Reform Group"). Unlike reform-minded intellectuals in the capital of
Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Governo ...
, the Dubhan group was made up of peasant farmers.Douglas, p. 42. Numan's school attracted notice. In 1935, Ahmad al Muta, then an examination inspector for the Ministry of Education, met Numan. Al-Muta was an outspoken advocate for reform, for which he was removed from the Army and as editor of the Imam's official newspaper. After the Imam's defeat in the border war with Saudi Arabia al-Muta had formed the secret ''Hay'at al Nidal'' (the Committee of the Struggle") to resist a conservative backlash. Al-Muta tried to attach Numan's groups to that organization. In 1936 the Imam dispatched his son Sayf al-Islam Qasim to visit the school. Accompanying him were the Governor of Ta'izz Sayyid Ali al-Wazir and the poet Muhammad al-Zubayri. The report must have pleased the Imam inasmuch as he recommended it to an Egyptian education delegation. Complaints from conservatives, however, led to the appointment of a traditional instructor to teach Zaidi doctrines.Dresch, p. 53. And when the Imam's secret police discovered the ''Hay'at al Nidal'' and arrested al-Muta, Numan was placed under house arrest in Ta'izz.


Activities in Cairo

On release from arrest, Numan travelled to Cairo. He later said that while under arrest he developed his ambition to be a political leader. He left Dhjubhan in 1937 and travelled to Cairo by way of
Lahej Lahij or Lahej ( ar, لحج, Laḥj, links=no), also called al-Hawtah, is a city and an area located between Ta'izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace th ...
and Aden. Numan's original goal was to attend King Fuad I University but was refused admission because he lacked qualifications in modern subjects. Instead Numan reluctantly attended al-Azhar University, which he feared would simply duplicate the Islamic education he received at Zabid. Instead, he encountered modern Arab political thought. The university was a center of Muslim Brotherhood activity, who were particularly interested in Yemen, owing to its isolation, as a suitable test for governance according to ''shari'a''. At al-Azhar Numan made the acquaintance of Ali al-Tahir, a
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
newspaper publisher in Cairo. It was through al-Tahir that Numan met
Shakib Arslan Shakib Arslan ( ar, شكيب أرسلان, 25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946) was a Druze prince (amir) in Lebanon who was known as ' (Arabic for "Prince of Eloquence") because in addition to being a politician, he was also an influential writ ...
. Arslan soon took Numan under his wing. Arslan's interest in the Yemen went back to his attempted mediation of the Saudi-Yemen war of 1934. At the time he was shocked by the backwardness of Yemen, and persuaded the Imam to employ advisers (from the same
Lebanese Druze Lebanese Druze ( ar, دروز لبنان, durūz lubnān) are Lebanese people who are Druze. The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, and an ethnoreligious esoteric group originating from the Near East who self identify as unit ...
community that he came from. For similar reasons he hired Numan as his secretary in 1939.Douglas, p. 48. While working for Arslan and writing for ''al-'Alam'', Numan also wrote pamphlets. His first contribution was an introduction to ''The Journey of H.H. Prince Sayf al-Islam the Great Crown Prince of Yemen'' by Sayyid Husayn al-Yamani in 1937. He also wrote two pamphlets mainly about his treatment by Sayyid Ali al-Wazir, the governor of Ta'izz: ''The First Moan'' (1948) and ''A Few Words on the Outrages of Ali al-Wazir'' (1939), both of which also criticized the government of Yemen in general. In March 1940 the poet Muhammad al-Zubayri arrived in Cairo. Although al-Zubayri's patron was Ali al-Wazir, the former governor of Ta'izz against whom Numan's pamphlets were directed, al-Zubayri sought out Numan (whom he had once before met when he accompanied Ahmad al Muta to inspect Numan's school). Although the poet had no background in reform politics or anti-imamic agitation and spent his first few months in Cairo writing poetry and reading at
Dar al-Ulum Dar al-Ulum ( ar, كلية دار العلوم, kullīya dār al-ʿulūm "House of Sciences" ), is an educational institution designed to produce students with both an Islamic and modern secondary education. It was founded in 1871 and is now a ...
University, he was gradually drawn into the orb of Yemeni dissidents. In mid-1940 al-Zubayri and Numan formed ''al-Katiba al-Ula'' (the "First Battalion"), a discussion group focusing on plans for reform of Yemen. The members contributed articles to the Cairo press. In 1941 Arslan decided to return to
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and invited Numan to join him. But Numan's travel documents were not in order, and he decided to return to Aden instead.


Numan among the ''shabab''

When Numan returned to Yemen at the end of February 1941, the Crown Prince Ahmad bin Yahya, whom his father the Imam appointed Governor of Ta'izz in place of Ali al-Wazir, appointed him inspector of the primary schools for the province.Douglas, p. 54. Numan remained in contact with al-Zubayri who continued the meetings of ''al-Katiba'', changing its name, however, to ''Shabab al-Amr'', based on the title of the reform manifesto he was writing: ''al-Barnamij al-Awwal min Baramij Shabab al-Amr bi'l-Ma'ruf wa 'l-Nahi 'an al-Mankur'' ("The First Programme of the Youths for Promoting the Good and Preventing the Bad"), a title based on the Quranic expression suggesting government by the ''
ummah ' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history. It is a synonym for ' ...
''. In August al-Zubayri arrived in Ta'izz with his Programme and would later be joined by other of the ''shabab'' from Cairo. Before his arrival al-Zubayri had consulted with Ahmad al Muta and several associates in Sana'a and had written to Numan of his plan to present the ''Barnamij'' to the Imam. Numan counsel him against doing so on the ground that public support had not been sufficiently organized to risk a confrontation with the Imam. Disregarding Numan's advice, al-Zubayri proceeded with his plan. The Imam exploded with rage and charged him with "offence against Islam."Douglas, p. 56. He set up a board to try al-Zubaryi, which included the ''unnamah,'' including Zayd al-Daylami of the Sana'a appeal court and notables such as former Governor of Ta'izz Ali al-Wazir and his son Abdullah al-Wazir (whom he suspected of using al-Zubayri to promote their own ambitions for the imamate). During the trial persons associated with the ''Shabab al-Amr'' distributed hand-written pamphlets supporting al-Zubayri. The Imam cracked down on the protests and ordered two waves of imprisonments in December 1941 and January 1942. The Board acquitted al-Zubayri in defiance of the Imam. The protestors were left in jail, however. Most were released in April 1942, but al-Zubayri was not freed until September 1942.


Offices in the Yemen Arab Republic

His first term was under
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Abdullah al-Sallal Abdullah Yahya al-Sallal ( ar, عبد الله يحيى السلال, ʿAbd Allāh Yaḥyā al-Sallāl; January 9, 1917 – March 5, 1994) was the leader of the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962. He served as the first President of the Yemen Arab ...
. Numan served from 20 April to 6 July 1965. Numan's second term was under President
Abdul Rahman al-Iryani Abdul Rahman Yahya Al-Eryani ( ar, عبد الرحمن الإرياني, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Yaḥyā al-Iryānī; 10 June 1910 – 14 March 1998) was the President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from 5 November 1967 to 13 June 1974. Ori ...
, from 3 May to 24 August 1971. Numan withdrew from politics completely when his son Muhammad Ahmad Numan was assassinated. He spent the rest of his life in
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
and Cairo. (Hereafter "Burrowes.")


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Numan, Ahmad Muhammad 1909 births 1996 deaths People from Taiz Governorate Prime Ministers of North Yemen