Abu Talib Yahya (951 - 1033) was an imam of the

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 ...

sect in 1020–1033. Like his elder brother and predecessor

al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad Al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad Amuli (944–1020) was an imam of the Zaydiyyah sect. Al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad's ancestor in the tenth degree was the Shi'a imam Hasan bin Ali. He was a disciple of Abu Abdallah al-Basri and the Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, and a learned expert ...

, Abu Talib Yahya was a prominent man of learning and a descendant of Imam Hasan bin Ali. He succeeded al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad in the imamate of the Zaidi territories in Gilan and

Deylaman Deylaman ( fa, ديلمان, also Romanized as Deylamān, Dailimān, and Dil’man) is a city and capital of Deylaman District, in Siahkal County, Gilan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ca ...

Persia 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 Turkmeni ...

, formally as "

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

". At this time there were two major Zaidi territories, namely the area south of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

and the highlands 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 ...

. For many years after the death of imam

al-Mahdi al-Husayn al-Mahdi al-Husayn (987 - 1013) was an imam of the Zaidiyyah, Zaidi state in Yemen who ruled in the years 1003–1013, in rivalry with another imam. Like most of the medieval Yemenite imams he was a member of the Rassids, Rassid line. His genealogy ...

in 1013, no local imam was appointed in the Yemeni territory. In Zaidi

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

, al-Mu'ayyad Ahmad and Abu Talib Yahya are sometimes listed as such, although they never visited Yemen.List in Cornelis van Arendonk, ''Les débuts de l'imamat zaidite au Yemen''. Leiden 1960; Cesare Ansalsi, ''Il Yemen nella storia e nella leggenda''. Roma 1933, p. 134; http://www.hukam.net/family.php?fam=2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Talib Yahya Zaydi imams of Yemen 951 births 1033 deaths 11th century in Iran Hasanids 10th-century Arabs 11th-century Arabs 11th-century caliphs

See also

References