Al-Mansur al-Husayn III (died 1888) was a claimant to the dignity of
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 ...
in 1859–1863, wielding power in intense rivalry with other self-proclaimed imams.
Al-Husayn bin Muhammad bin al-Hadi, known by the title al-Mansur, emerged at a time when the
Zaidi imamate of Yemen was suffering a period of political chaos. The
Tihamah
Tihamah or Tihama ( ar, تِهَامَةُ ') refers to the Red Sea coastal plain of the Arabian Peninsula from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Bab el Mandeb.
Etymology
Tihāmat is the Proto-Semitic language's term for ' sea'. Tiamat (or Tehom, in m ...
lowland was ruled by the
Ottoman Turks, while the highland was contested between several imams, such as
al-Hadi Ghalib,
al-Mansur Muhammad bin Abdallah and
al-Mutawakkil al-Muhsin. After 1852, the capital city
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 ...
was governed by the
shaykh Ahmad al-Haymi, who was not a scholarly figure. Al-Haymi was considered a vicious personality, and in 1859 the population of San'a had enough and planned to assassinate the governor. Al-Haymi managed to slip away, intending to reach the Turks in the coastland, but was captured by Yemeni tribesmen. These delivered him into the hands of the newly proclaimed imam al-Mansur al-Husayn III who was based at at-Tawilah west 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 ...
. The imam entered San'a with his captive. Al-Haymi was imprisoned, but he managed to spread propaganda among the common townsfolk, who destroyed the imam's house in Harat al-Filayhi. Thus al-Mansur al-Husayn was expelled from San'a in 1860. Later in the same year, the population appointed Muhsin Mu'id (d. 1881) as governor, while
al-Mutawakkil al-Muhsin was formally acknowledged as imam. Al-Mutawakkil defeated his rival decisively in 1863, and again in either 1865 or 1867. Al-Mansur al-Husayn III appears to have been among the old imams who welcomed the
Ottoman governor Ahmad Mukhtar Pasha to San'a in April 1872. 16 years later he died in San'a.
[Zaidi biographies, in http://www.al-aalam.com/printspecial.asp?sp=82&whichpage=1&pagesize=39 (in Arabic).]
See also
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
References
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Zaydi imams of Yemen
1888 deaths
Year of birth unknown
19th-century Arabs