Al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad (1582 – September 1644) was an Imam of
Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
(1620–1644), son of
Al-Mansur al-Qasim Al-Mansur al-Qasim (November 13, 1559 – February 19, 1620), with the cognomen ''al-Kabir'' (the Great), was an Imam of Yemen, who commenced the struggle to liberate Yemen from the Ottoman occupiers. He was the founder of a Zaidi kingdom that e ...
. He managed to expel the Ottoman Turks entirely from the Yemenite lands, thus confirming an independent Zaidi state.


Succeeding to the imamate

Muhammad was the son of Imam
al-Mansur al-Qasim Al-Mansur al-Qasim (November 13, 1559 – February 19, 1620), with the cognomen ''al-Kabir'' (the Great), was an Imam of Yemen, who commenced the struggle to liberate Yemen from the Ottoman occupiers. He was the founder of a Zaidi kingdom that e ...
who restored the Zaidi imamate and began the cumbersome process of conquering back Yemen from the Ottoman occupiers. When he took the reins of government from his father in 1620, much of the highland was in Zaidi hands, and there was an uneasy truce with the Turks. In 1622 the population in and around
Sa'dah Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, translit=Ṣaʿda), a city and ancient capital in the northwest of Yemen, is the capital and largest city of the province of the same name, and the county seat of the county of the same name. The city is located in the ...
in the north refused to pay taxes to the imam. Muhammad then sent his brother Saif al-Islam al-Hasan who put down the revolt. Al-Hasan, however, found means to win the confidence of the locals through reforms, and was appointed governor on behalf of the imam. Through this act of delegation of power to a relative, the power of the Qasimid family was confirmed in the north. In 1626, Muhammad conquered Jabal Fayfa east of Abu Arish. In the same year he decided to break the truce with the Ottomans after the latter had executed one of his
ulema In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
s who had gone to the Turkish-controlled
San'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 Govern ...
. The tribes of northern Yemen responded enthusiastically to his call. The
sharif Sharīf ( ar, شريف, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, f ...
s of the Sulaymanid province of northern Tihamah and the
amirs Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
of
Kawkaban Shibam Kawkaban ( ar, شبام كَوْكَبَان, Shibām Kawkabān) is a double town in Shibam Kawkaban District, Al Mahwit Governorate, Yemen, located 38 km west-northwest of Sanaa, the national capital. It consists of two distinct adjoin ...
supported Muhammad. The rising scored victories against Turkish troops. Most of the lowland area of Tihamah fell to the imam's forces, and San'a was besieged. The Ottoman difficulties were aggravated by the attacks of Shah
Abbas the Great Abbas I ( fa, ; 27 January 157119 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the 5th Safavid Shah (king) of Iran, and is generally considered one of the greatest rulers of Iranian history and the Safavid dynasty. He was the third son ...
on Turkish positions in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
.


Expulsion of the Ottomans

In 1629 Imam al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad proposed a truce with the Ottomans, as he saw the need to rest his own forces. The governor Haydar Pasha agreed, and on 9 March 1629 he handed over the keys to San'a to the imam's son Ali. The Turks withdrew to the coast under the imam's protection, and another son, Yahya, was made governor (''amil'') of San'a. Yet a major city,
Ta'izz Taiz ( ar, تَعِزّ, Taʿizz) is a city in southwestern Yemen. It is located in the Yemeni Highlands, near the port city of Mocha on the Red Sea, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is the capital of Taiz Governorate. With a populat ...
, fell in the same year. In 1635 the Turks took to the offensive with an augmented force, but were defeated. Now they finally gave in, agreeing to surrender the lowland cities
Zabid Zabid ( ar, زَبِيد) (also spelled Zabīd, Zabeed and Zebid) is a town with an urban population of around 52,590 people on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since ...
, and Mocha, and
Kamaran Kamaran Island ( ar, كمران ''Kamarān'') is the largest Yemeni island in the Red Sea. The island is long and wide and is strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea. It is a "shelf island" located in the shallow waters of the ...
Island. Thus the first period of Ottoman rule in Yemen was at an end.


Governance and personality

Al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad spent most of his reign fighting the Ottomans, as well as bringing a degree of unity among the various tribal groups of Yemen. In this work he was assisted by his able brothers al-Hasan (d. 1639), al-Husayn (d. 1640) and Ahmad (d. 1650). Ahmad was the ancestor of a line of hereditary lords of Sa'dah which sometimes opposed the authority of the imams. The imam's own son al-Qasim headed a dynastic branch that governed Shahara. Al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad was also a writer of note. Thirteen texts by his hand have been preserved, many of them legal opinions and interpretations that are based on Zaidi dogma. He declined to enforce some aspects of the
shariah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
on society, since this could have aleniated his tribal supporters.R.B. Serjeant & R. Lewcock, p. 79. At his death, al-Mu'ayyad Muhammad was succeeded by his brother al-Mutawakkil Isma'il, though not without fraternal strife among contenders.


See also

*
Imams of Yemen The Imams of Yemen, later also titled the Kings of Yemen, were religiously consecrated leaders belonging to the Zaidiyyah branch of Shia Islam. They established a blend of religious and temporal-political rule in parts of Yemen from 897. Their i ...
*
History of Yemen The history of Yemen describes the cultures, events, and peoples of what is one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East. Its relatively fertile land and adequate rainfall in a moister climate helped sustain a stable population, a ...
*
Zaydiyyah Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, a ...


References


Further reading

*R.L. Playfair, ''A History of Arabia Felix or Yemen''. Bombay 1859. *Michel Tuchscherer, 'Chronologie du Yémen (1506-1635)', ''Chroniques yémenites'' 8 2000, http://cy.revues.org/11 {{DEFAULTSORT:Muayyad Muhammad Zaydi imams of Yemen 1582 births 1644 deaths 16th-century Arabs 17th-century Arabs