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, S̲h̲araf al-Dīn Yaḥya b. S̲h̲ams al-Dīn b. al-Imām al-Mahdī Aḥmad , 10th/16th century Zaydī imām in whose time the Ottoman Turks first became established in Yemen. Born in northwestern Yemen on 27 Ramaḍān 877/25 February 1473, S̲h̲araf al-Dīn announced his claim ( daʿwa ) to the imāmate during D̲j̲umādā I 912/September 1506, after years of study to achieve the necessary recognition as a Zaydī mud̲j̲tahid . It was another three decades ( ca. 941/1535), however, before he was able to impose his religious and political authority upon the majority of Zaydī communities,…

, al-s̲h̲arīf ḥammūd b. muḥammad b. aḥmad al-ḥasanī , an important s̲h̲arīf of Abū ʿArīs̲h̲ who in the early years of the 19th century defended his independent state, based on the coastal plain of ʿAsīr [ q.v.] (Tihāmat ʿAsīr) and embracing most of the Tihâma region of Yemen, against the encroachments of the Wahhābī Āl Saʿūd of Nad̲j̲d, the Zaydī imām s of Ṣanʿāʾ and the Ottomans under Muḥammad ʿAlī. Born in or before 1170/1756-7, he was descended from the Āl K̲h̲ayrāt s̲h̲arīfs who emigrated from Mecca to the al-Mik̲h̲lāf al-Sulaymānī district ¶ of lowland ʿAsīr early in the 11th/17th…

, a 10th/16th-century Ottoman beylerbeyi (governor) of Yemen largely responsible for the collapse of Ottoman authority there during 974-6/1566-8. He was the son of Muṣṭafā Pas̲h̲a Ḳara S̲h̲āhīn [ q.v.], a previous governor of Yemen (963-7/1556-60), and the brother of Bahrām Pas̲h̲a, a later one (977-83/1570-5). When appointed to Yemen in Rabīʿ- II 972/November 1564, he was sand̲j̲aḳ beyi of G̲h̲azza. Ri̊ḍwān, who reached Yemen in Ṣafar 973/September 1565, served only briefly before, on the recommendation of Maḥmūd Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], his predecessor and the governor of Egypt a…

al-Ḳāsim b. Muḥammad , the imām and eponymous founder ofthe Ḳāsimī dynasty ( al-dawla al-ḳāsimiyya ) of Zaydī imāms which dominated much of Yemen from the early 11th/17th century to the outbreak of the republican revolution in 1962. Like almost all recognised Rassī imāms, he was descended from al-Hādī ilā ’l-Ḥaḳḳ Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḳāsim al-Rassī (d. 298/911), who established the temporal authority of the Zaydī imāmate in Yemen. Their aristocratic pedigree notwithstanding, al-Ḳāsim’s forbears from the death of Yūsuf al-Dāʿī, the gr…

( Nahrawānī ), Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Muḥammad b. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḳāḍī K̲h̲ān Maḥmūd, al-Makkī, al-Ḥanafī, al-Ḳādirī, al-K̲h̲arḳānī, eminent 10th/16th-century Meccan muftī , ḳāḍī , teacher, ḥadīt̲h̲ scholar and chronicler of Mecca and early Ottoman Yemen. He was born in 917/1511-12 in Lahore, India, into a scholarly family, originally from Aden but long established at Nahrawāla (present-day Pat́an) in Gud̲j̲arāt [ q.v.]. (Several accounts, including old ones, name him al-Nahrawānī.) His early education was obtained from his father, a muftī and ḥadīt̲h̲ scholar. The youn…

, Ottoman governor ( beylerbeyi ) of Yemen and Egypt in the mid-10th/16th century. A Bosnian recruited through the dews̲h̲irme [ q.v.], Muṣṭafā was trained in the inner palace ( enderūn [ q.v.]) service and thereafter held a number of minor posts. Although he is said to have gained fame during the Persian campaigns, the claim by the author of Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿOt̲h̲mānī that he was beylerbeyi of Erzurum in 951/1544-5 and, ¶ four years later, of Diyār Bakr, and that he subsequently was tutor ( lāla ) to Prince Bāyezīd (d. 969/1561), appears uncorroborated and may …

, twice Ottoman governor ( beylerbeyi ) of Yemen in the mid-10th/16th century. A saddler ( sarrād̲j̲ ) with the Ottoman army that conquered Egypt in 923/1517, he used the wealth he obtained through plundering the treasury of K̲h̲āʾin Aḥmed Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], the rebellious Ottoman governor of Egypt (929-31/1523-5), to win the favour of Dāwūd Pas̲h̲a, a later governor of that province (945-56/1538-49). The latter appointed him commander of the annual Egyptian pilgrimage caravan ( amīr al-ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ ) for 945/1539, a position he held more than once subse…

, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad b. Ismāʿīl b. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad (d. after 1031/1621), the author of an important independent chronicle of early Ottoman Yemen to 1031/1621-2, particularly of the south and of the city of Taʿizz. As his nisba , al-Mawzaʿī (mistakenly given as al-Manzilī in Brockelmann, S II, 550), indicates, the family originated in the Tihāma town of Mawzaʿ, south of Zabīd; but his residence was at Taʿizz, where, like his father before him, he served as a S̲h̲āfiʿī magistrate and teacher. Being a prominent member of the town’s Sunnī ʿulamāʾ , and closely…

, an Ottoman governor or beylerbeyi of Yemen and of Egypt in the 10th/16th century, whose avarice and devotion to self-promotion led to the near-expulsion of the Ottomans from southwestern Arabia. A Bosnian by birth, Maḥmūd was selected at Damascus in 944/1538 by Dāwūd Pas̲h̲a, the new governor of Egypt ¶ (945-56/1538-49), as his ketk̲h̲udā . He subsequently held various positions in Egypt, including those of amīr al-ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ for 957/1550 and 958/1551 and of sand̲j̲aḳ beyi , making both enemies and friends in his pursuit and distribution of weal…

, özdemir-og̲h̲li̊ , Ottoman grand vizier and celebrated commander in the Ottoman-Ṣafawid war of 1578-90. Born in Egypt in 933/1526-7, his father was Özdemir Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], a mamlūk who became Ottoman governor ( beylerbeyi ) of Yemen and conqueror of Abyssinia (Ḥabes̲h̲ [ q.v.]). The earliest documentary evidence of ʿOt̲h̲mān’s holding office in Egypt dates from D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 957/December 1550; yet it is claimed that by the age of twenty he was a sand̲j̲aḳbeyi , the rank he held in Rabīʿ I 968/December 1560 when appointed Egyptian amīr al-ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ . ʿO…

, Aḥmad Abu ’l Ḥasan , third incumbent of the Rassī Zaydī imāmate in northern Yemen and a son of its founder, Yaḥyā al-Hādī ilā ’l-Ḥaḳḳ [see zaydiyya ]. The date of his birth cannot be determined from extant sources. Neither can it be assumed that he was younger than his full brother and predecessor, Imām Muḥammad al-Murtaḍā [ q.v.], both of whom accompanied their father to Yemen from their native Ḥid̲j̲āz in 284/897. Although noticed in accounts as early as 285/898, Aḥmad is first referred to as a military leader for his father only in 294/907-8. Aḥmad al-Nāṣir was elected imām at Ṣaʿda in Ṣaf…

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, Ottoman beylerbeyi (governor) of Yemen and, subsequently, of coastal Abyssinia (Ḥabes̲h̲ [ q.v.]), and the individual most instrumental in establishing the sultan’s authority in both provinces during the mid-10th/16th century. An Egyptian mamlūk of Circassian origin whose master is said to have been one Kaykāwūs S̲h̲ewkat Bey, Özdemir took service with the Ottomans after Selīm I conquered Egypt in 922-3/1517. He held a number of minor offices in the provincial administration until, by 945/1538, he had gained the position of …

, eldest son of the Zaydi Imām al-Mutawakkil ʿalā ’llāh S̲h̲araf al-Dīn Yaḥyā [ q.v.], and principal early opponent of Ottoman expansion into Yemen. Born in Rad̲j̲ab 908/January 1503, he early showed considerable military promise, and to him is owing much of the credit for the securing of his father’s sway over most of Yemen. Yet, passed over by his father as his possible successor, al-Muṭahhar grew alienated from his family, even to the point of briefly encouraging the Ottomans to expand inland (953/1546) from their f…

, the name of two Ḳāsimī Zaydī imāms of Yemen. 1. Ibn al-Imām al-Manṣūr bi’llāh al-Ḳāsim, known best as the imām in whose time the Ottoman Turks were expelled from Yemen after a continuous presence of a century (945-1045/1538-1635). Born in 990/1582, widespread recognition of his scholarly and leadership capabilities assured him unchallenged election to the imāmate upon his illustrious father’s death in Rabīʿ I 1029/February 1620. One of …

, Ismāʿīl b. al-Manṣūr bi’llāh al-Ḳāsim ( b. ca . 1019/1610), the first Ḳāsimī Zaydī imām to rule Yemen completely independent of the Ottoman Turks. Ismāʿīl’s claim to the imāmate, following the death ¶ …

, Abu ’l-Ḳāsim , son and successor of Yaḥyā al-Hādī ilā ’l-Ḥaḳḳ b. al-Ḥusayn who founded the Rassī Zaydī imāmate in northern Yemen in the late 3rd/9th century. The year 278/891-2, that is given in an early source ( al-Ifāda ) as that of his birth, hardly accords with the chronology of his adult life (cf. Van Arendonk, Les Débuts , 140 n. 6). In 284/897 he accompanied his father on the latter’s second journey from his native Ḥid̲j̲āz to Yemen, whence a delegation had invited him to bring order to the northern town of Ṣaʿda and to est…