Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi ( ar, حسين بدر الدين الحوثي; 20 August 1959 – 10 September 2004), also spelled Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houthi, was a Yemeni
Zaidi religious, political and military leader, as well as former member of the
Yemeni parliament for the
Al-Haqq party between 1993 and 1997. He was instrumental in the
Houthi insurgency against the
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 north and Oman to the northeast an ...
i government, which began in 2004. Al-Houthi, who was a one-time rising political aspirant in Yemen, had wide religious and tribal backing in northern Yemen's mountainous regions. The
Houthi movement
The Houthi movement (; ar, ٱلْحُوثِيُّون ''al-Ḥūthīyūn'' ), officially called Ansar Allah (' ''Partisans of God'' or ''Supporters of God'') and colloquially simply Houthis, is an Islamist political and armed movement that ...
took his name after his assassination in 2004.
Early life
Al-Houthi was born in 1956 or 1959 in the Marran area of Sada'a region. His father,
Badr al-Din, was a prominent Zaydi cleric who briefly took control of the Houthi movement after his son's death.
According to a disciple, al-Houthi lived part of his life with his family, including his father and his younger brother, Abd al-Malik,
in
Qom
Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...
. The disciple also claimed that al-Houthi had close relationships with
Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president ...
, Supreme Leader of Iran, and
Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel ...
,
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's paramil ...
's leader.
Political career
Member of Al-Haqq
Al-Houthi was a member of the Yemeni Zaydi/Shafi'i political party
Al-Haqq (''The Truth''). When the party supported
South Yemeni separatism, it became a target of the government, and he fled, allegedly, to Syria and then to Iran. After his return to Yemen, he broke with Al-Haqq to form his own party.
Believing Youth movement
Al-Houthi founded the Believing Youth movement ( ar, شباب المؤمنین) in 1990 or 1992 to teach young persons about Zaidi and its history to revive Zaidism in
Saada Governorate
Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, Ṣaʿdah) is one of the governorates of Yemen. The governorate's seat and the largest city is Saada. It is the epicentre of Zaydism .
Forming Ansarallah
Al-Houthi was accused by the
Ali Abdullah Saleh
Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar (, ''ʿAlī ʿAbdullāh Ṣāliḥ al-Aḥmar;'' 21 March 1947There is a dispute as to Saleh's date of birth, some saying that it was on 21 March 1942. See: However, by Saleh's own confession, he was born in 1947 al ...
government of trying to set himself up as an
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, se ...
, of setting up unlicensed religious centres, of creating an armed group called Ansarallah and of staging violent anti-American and anti-Israeli protests, as al-Houthi's followers felt Yemen's government was too closely allied with the United States.
Death
On 18 June 2004, Yemeni police arrested 640 of his followers, who were demonstrating in front of the
Great Mosque of Sana'a
The Great Mosque of Sana'a (, ) is an ancient mosque in Sana'a, Yemen, and one of the oldest mosques in the world. The mosque is said to have been founded in the early Islamic period, suggested to be in 633. While the precise date of constructio ...
. Two days later the Yemeni government offered a bounty of $55,000 for his capture, launching an operation aimed at ending his alleged rebellion.
In July,
Yemen Army forces killed 25 of his Houthi supporters and increased the bounty to $75,500. After months of battles between Yemeni security forces and Houthis, on 10 September the Yemeni Interior and Defense Ministries released a statement declaring that he had been killed, along with 20 of his aides, in Marran province,
Saada Governorate
Saada ( ar, صَعْدَة, Ṣaʿdah) is one of the governorates of Yemen. The governorate's seat and the largest city is Saada. It is the epicentre of Zaydism .
Legacy
On 5 June 2013, tens of thousands of Yemeni Shias attended the reburial of the remains of al-Houthi in
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 ...
, where armed rebels were deployed in large numbers. The new Yemeni government had turned over his remains to his family on 28 December 2012 as a goodwill gesture to bolster national reconciliation talks. The previous government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had stepped down in 2012 after the
Yemeni Revolution
The Yemeni Revolution ( intifada), also known as the Yemeni Revolution of Dignity followed the initial stages of the Tunisian Revolution and occurred simultaneously with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and other Arab Spring protests in the ...
, originally buried al-Houthi in 2004 at the Sana'a central
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
to prevent his
grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
from becoming a
shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...
for the Zaidis. A representative of Yemeni President
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi ( ar, عبدربه منصور هادي, translit=ʿAbd Rabbih Manṣūr Hādī Yemeni pronunciation: ; born 1 September 1945) is a Yemeni politician and former field marshal of the Yemeni Armed Forces who served as the pr ...
attended the funeral, but a Houthi spokesman accused the central government of refusing to give visas to several dignitaries who wanted to travel to Yemen to attend the ceremony and of tearing down pictures of al-Houthi put up in the Yemeni capital.
The Houthis take their name from the family name
al-Houthi. His brothers
Abdul-Malik,
Yahia, and Abdul-Karim are leaders of the rebels as were his late brothers Ibrahim and Abdulkhalik.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houthi, Hussein Badreddin
1959 births
2004 deaths
Yemeni Zaydis
Yemeni rebels
Houthis
Yemeni expatriates in Iran
Leaders of Islamic terror groups
People from Saada Governorate
Zaidiyyah scholars