Abdullah al-Sallal and Ahmad Muhammad Numan 1962

Ahmad Muhammad Numan (; 26 April 1909 – 27 September 1996) was a Yemeni educator, propagandist and politician. He was one of the main progenitors of modern Yemeni

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

. Numan was the founder of the Free Yemeni Movement and a propagandist in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

for the Yemeni Unionists, and served once as foreign minister and twice as

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

of the

Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ', ), commonly known as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a country that existed from 1962 until its Yemeni unification, unification with the South Yemen, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (commonly known as ...

Biography

Family and youth

Numan was a descendant of a family of important shaykhs in al-Hujariyya, (Hereafter "Douglas.) a province in the southern highlands southeast of the department of Ta'izz. Numan's uncle, Abd al-Wahhab Numan, was the Ottoman-appointed ''hakim'' (governor) of the region. The Numans were

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

, specifically

Shafi'i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...

. Numan's father was a farmer. Numan was educated in the traditional Islamic ''

kuttab A kuttab ( ''kuttāb'', plural: ''kataatiib'', ) or maktab () is a type of elementary school in the Muslim world. Though the ''kuttab'' was primarily used for teaching children in reading, writing, grammar, and Islamic studies, such as memorizing ...

'' elementary school. He spent seven years at the University of

Zabid Zabid () (also spelled Zabīd, Zabeed and Zebid) is a town with an urban population of around 52,590 people, located on Yemen's western coastal plain. It is one of the oldest towns in Yemen, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. Ho ...

. After his father's death in 1934, Numan assumed the role of head of household, in which capacity he gained the respect of fellow villagers and came into contact with local officials.

Career as educator

In the mid-1930s, Numan met Muhammad Ahmad al-Haydara, who had studied abroad and had been exposed to subjects beyond Numan's limited Islamic education. The two began a school in Dubhan, ''al-Madrassa al-Ahliyya'', specifically for young teenage boys. The school became famous for teaching geography, arithmetic and modern sciences. The school also soon became a local center for the discussion of current events. Much of the material came from books and newspapers supplied by Numan's brother Ali, who worked in

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

. The regulars who attended the discussions came to be known as ''Nadi a-Islah'' (the "Reform Group"). Unlike reform-minded intellectuals in the capital of

Sana'a Sanaa, officially the Sanaa Municipality, is the ''de jure'' capital and largest city of Yemen. The city is the capital of the Sanaa Governorate, but is not part of the governorate, as it forms a separate administrative unit. At an elevation ...

, the Dubhan group was made up of peasant farmers.Douglas, p. 42. Numan's school attracted notice. In 1935, Ahmad al Muta, then an examination inspector for the Ministry of Education, met Numan. Al-Muta was an outspoken advocate for reform, for which he was removed from the Army and as editor of the Imam's official newspaper. After the Imam's defeat in the border war with Saudi Arabia al-Muta had formed the secret ''Hay'at al Nidal'' (the Committee of the Struggle") to resist a conservative backlash. Al-Muta tried to attach Numan's groups to that organization. In 1936 the Imam dispatched his son Sayf al-Islam Qasim to visit the school. Accompanying him were the Governor of Ta'izz Sayyid Ali al-Wazir and the poet Muhammad al-Zubayri. The report must have pleased the Imam inasmuch as he recommended it to an Egyptian education delegation. Complaints from conservatives, however, led to the appointment of a traditional instructor to teach Zaidi doctrines.Dresch, p. 53. And when the Imam's secret police discovered the ''Hay'at al Nidal'' and arrested al-Muta, Numan was placed under house arrest in Ta'izz.

Activities in Cairo

On release from arrest, Numan travelled to Cairo. He later said that while under arrest he developed his ambition to be a political leader. He left Dhjubhan in 1937 and travelled to Cairo by way of

Lahej Lahij or Lahej (), formerly called Al-Hawtah, is a city and an area located between Ta'izz and Aden in Yemen. From the 18th to the 20th century, its rulers were of the Abdali branch of the Al-Sallami tribe who trace their lineage to one of the 1 ...

and Aden. Numan's original goal was to attend King Fuad I University but was refused admission because he lacked qualifications in modern subjects. Instead Numan reluctantly attended

al-Azhar University The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic ...

, which he feared would simply duplicate the Islamic education he received at Zabid. Instead, he encountered modern Arab political thought. The university was a center of

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

activity, who were particularly interested in Yemen, owing to its isolation, as a suitable test for governance according to ''shari'a''. At al-Azhar Numan made the acquaintance of Ali al-Tahir, a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

newspaper publisher in Cairo. It was through al-Tahir that Numan met

Shakib Arslan Shakib Arslan (; 25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946) was a Lebanese writer, poet, historian, politician, and Emir in Lebanon. A prolific writer, he produced some 20 books and 2,000 articles, as well as two collections of poetry and a "prodigi ...

Arslan soon took Numan under his wing. Arslan's interest in the Yemen went back to his attempted mediation of the Saudi-Yemen war of 1934. At the time he was shocked by the backwardness of Yemen, and persuaded the Imam to employ advisers (from the same

Lebanese Druze The Lebanese Druze () are an ethnoreligious group constituting about 5.2 percentDouglas, p. 48. While working for Arslan and writing for ''al-'Alam'', Numan also wrote pamphlets. His first contribution was an introduction to ''The Journey of H.H. Prince Sayf al-Islam the Great Crown Prince of Yemen'' by Sayyid Husayn al-Yamani in 1937. He also wrote two pamphlets mainly about his treatment by Sayyid Ali al-Wazir, the governor of Ta'izz: ''The First Moan'' (1948) and ''A Few Words on the Outrages of Ali al-Wazir'' (1939), both of which also criticized the government of Yemen in general. In March 1940 the poet Muhammad al-Zubayri arrived in Cairo. Although al-Zubayri's patron was Ali al-Wazir, the former governor of Ta'izz against whom Numan's pamphlets were directed, al-Zubayri sought out Numan (whom he had once before met when he accompanied Ahmad al Muta to inspect Numan's school). Although the poet had no background in reform politics or anti-imamic agitation and spent his first few months in Cairo writing poetry and reading at

Dar al-Ulum Dar al-Uloom () is an educational institution designed to produce students with both an Islamic and modern secondary education. It was founded in 1871 and since 1946 it has been incorporated as a faculty of Cairo University, being now commonly ca ...

University, he was gradually drawn into the orb of Yemeni dissidents. In mid-1940 al-Zubayri and Numan formed ''al-Katiba al-Ula'' (the "First Battalion"), a discussion group focusing on plans for reform of Yemen. The members contributed articles to the Cairo press. In 1941 Arslan decided to return to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and invited Numan to join him. But Numan's travel documents were not in order, and he decided to return to Aden instead.

Numan among the ''shabab''

When Numan returned to Yemen at the end of February 1941, Crown Prince

Ahmad bin Yahya Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin (; June 18, 1891 – September 19, 1962) was the penultimate king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, who reigned from 1948 to 1962. His full name and title was Majesty, H.M. al-Nasir-li-Dinullah Ahmad bin al-Mutawak ...

, whom his father the Imam appointed Governor of Ta'izz in place of Ali al-Wazir, appointed him inspector of the province's primary schools.Douglas, p. 54. Numan remained in contact with al-Zubayri, who continued the meetings of ''al-Katiba'', changing its name, however, to ''Shabab al-Amr'', based on the title of the reform manifesto he was writing: ''al-Barnamij al-Awwal min Baramij Shabab al-Amr bi'l-Ma'ruf wa 'l-Nahi 'an al-Mankur'' ("The First Programme of the Youths for Promoting the Good and Preventing the Bad"), a title based on the Quranic expression suggesting government by the ''

ummah ' (; ) is an Arabic word meaning Muslim identity, nation, religious community, or the concept of a Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers ( '). It is a synonym for ' (, lit. 'the Islamic nation'); it is commonly used to mean the collective com ...

''. In August al-Zubayri arrived in Ta'izz with his Programme and would later be joined by other of the ''shabab'' from Cairo. Before his arrival al-Zubayri had consulted with Ahmad al Muta and several associates in Sana'a and had written to Numan of his plan to present the ''Barnamij'' to the Imam. Numan counsel him against doing so on the ground that public support had not been sufficiently organized to risk a confrontation with the Imam. Disregarding Numan's advice, al-Zubayri proceeded with his plan. The Imam exploded with rage and charged him with "offence against Islam."Douglas, p. 56. He set up a board to try al-Zubaryi, which included the ''unnamah,'' including Zayd al-Daylami of the Sana'a appeal court and notables such as former Governor of Ta'izz Ali al-Wazir and his son Abdullah al-Wazir (whom he suspected of using al-Zubayri to promote their own ambitions for the imamate). During the trial persons associated with the ''Shabab al-Amr'' distributed hand-written pamphlets supporting al-Zubayri. The Imam cracked down on the protests and ordered two waves of imprisonments in December 1941 and January 1942. The Board acquitted al-Zubayri in defiance of the Imam. The protestors were left in jail, however. Most were released in April 1942, but al-Zubayri was not freed until September 1942.

Offices in the Yemen Arab Republic

Numan's first term as prime minister was under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Abdullah al-Sallal Abdullah Yahya al-Sallal (; 9 January 1917 – 5 March 1994) was a Yemeni military officer who was the leader of the North Yemeni Revolution of 1962 and served as the first President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 27 September 1962 until his ...

. Numan served for less than three months, from 20 April to 6 July 1965. His second term was under President

Abdul Rahman al-Iryani Abdul Rahman Yahya al-Eryani (; 10 June 1910 – 14 March 1998) was a Yemeni politician who served as the second President of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) from 5 November 1967 to 13 June 1974. Originally a leader of the Free Yemeni Move ...

, this time lasting less than four months, from 3 May to 24 August 1971. Numan withdrew from politics completely when his son Muhammad Ahmad Numan was assassinated. He spent the rest of his life in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and Cairo. (Hereafter "Burrowes.")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Numan, Ahmad Muhammad 1909 births 1996 deaths People from Taiz Governorate Prime ministers of North Yemen Foreign ministers of North Yemen 20th-century Yemeni educators