48
554–69/1159–73
Yemen, with their capital at Zabīd
|
531/1137 |
‘Alī b. Mahdi al-Ru‘ayni al-Himyari, Abu ‘1-Hasan, with his own da‘wa in Tihama, 554/1159 in Zabīd |
|
554/1159 |
Mahdi b. ‘Alī (? jointly with his brother ‘Abd al-Nabi) |
|
⊘ 559–69/1163–74 |
‘Abd al-Nabi b. ‘Ali, k. 571/11762 |
|
569/1174 |
Ayyūbid capture of Zabīd |
‘Alī b. Mahdi traced his ancestry back, like so many other Yemeni leaders, to the pre-Islamic Tubba‘ kings. He acquired a reputation in Tihāma as the preacher of an ascetic and rigorist Islamic message, although it does not seem correct to describe him – somewhat anachronistically, anyway – as a Khāriji. ‘Alī designated his followers Ansar and Muhājirūn, and with them he began a series of violent attacks, including on the by now declining Najāḥids (see above, no. 44), finally capturing Zabīd and toppling the older dynasty. The expansionary ambitions of ‘ Alī and his sons led them into a series of attacks in both lowland Yemen, including on Aden, and in the southern part of the highlands, including Ta‘izz. Mahdid excesses may have been one of the factors inducing the Ayyūbid Turan Shāh to intervene in Yemen (see above, no. 30, 8). At all events, the Ayyūbid army speedily defeated the Mahdids, and in 571/1176 ‘Abd al-Nabi and one of his brothers were executed by the Ayyūbids after an apparent Mahdid attempt to regain Zabīd.
Lane-Poole, 96; Zambaur, 118; Album, 26.
EI2 ‘Mahdids‘ (G.R. Smith).
H. C. Kay, Yaman: Its Early Mediaeval History, 124–34.
G. R. Smith, The Ayyūbids and Early Rasūlids in the Yemen, II, 56–62, with a genealogical table at p. 56.
idem, in W. Daum (ed.), Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix, 134–5, 138, with a list of rulers at p. 138.