An-Nasir Muhammad bin Yusuf (died August 8, 1488) was a contender for the Zaidi state in

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 ...

, whose term as imam is counted from 1474 to 1488. Muhammad bin Yusuf was a descendant of the imam al-Mahdi Ali (d. 1372) in the fifth generation. When the old imam al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar died in Dhamar in 1474, three claimants appeared on the scene. These included Muhammad bin Yusuf, who went from

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 ...

to the mountainous stronghold

Thula Thula ( ar, ثُلَاء, Thulāʾ) or Thila ( ar, ثِلَاء, Thilāʾ) is a town in west-central Yemen. It is located in the 'Amran Governorate. Thula is one of five towns in Yemen on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. Dating to the ...

. From there he made his

da'wa Dawah ( ar, دعوة, lit=invitation, ) is the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam. The plural is ''da‘wāt'' (دَعْوات) or ''da‘awāt'' (دَعَوات). Etymology The English term ''Dawah'' derives from the Arabic ...

(call for the imamate), spreading the message to San'a, Falala and other Zaidi areas. He took the honorific name an-Nasir Muhammad. His two rivals were al-Mansur Muhammad and al-Hadi Izz ad-Din, who belonged to other branches of the

Rassids The Imams of Yemen and later also the Kings of Yemen were religiously consecrated leaders belonging to the Zaidiyyah branch of Shia Islam. They established a blend of religious and political rule in parts of Yemen from 897. Their imamate endured ...

. One Zaidi faction, the Hamzite Sharifs, actually heeded his call and acknowledged him from April 1476 to October–November 1487. Nevertheless, the people of the traditional centre 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 ...

community,

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 ...

, refused to support him and instead proclaimed al-Hadi Izz ad-Din. An-Nasir Muhammad was considered to have the best doctrinal knowledge of his contemporaries, but luck was not on his side. Neither of the claimants was able to control the key city San'a, which was in the hands of a fourth imam, al-Mu’ayyad Muhammad, since 1464. An-Nasir Muhammad died after a fairly obscure tenure in 1488, and was buried in the dome in Thula.Imam Zaid bin Ali Cultural Foundation, (in Arabic).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasir Muhammad Bin Yusuf Zaydi imams of Yemen 1488 deaths Year of birth unknown 15th century in Yemen 15th-century Arabs

See also

References