Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali al-Idrisi (1876–1920) ( ar, محمد بن علي الإدريسي) founded and ruled the Idrisid Emirate of sabya.

Biography

He was born at

Sabya Sabya ( ar, صبياء) is a city and sub-division in Jazan Province, in southwestern Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and h ...

(now

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

). He was a grandson of Sayyid

Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi Abu al-Abbās Ahmad Ibn Idris al-Araishi al-Alami al-Idrisi al-Hasani () (1760–1837) was a Moroccan Sunni Islamic scholar, jurist and Sufi, active in Morocco, the Hejaz, Egypt, and Yemen. His main concern was the revivification of the sunnah ...

, a Moroccan scholar from Fez, who was head of a religious fraternity (''tariqa'') at

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow val ...

and who acquired land at Sabya, settled there and died in 1837. The descendants of Sayyid Ahmed appear to have increased in wealth and influence and to have gradually supplanted the ruling

sherif Sherif, also spelled Sharif (and, in countries where Francophone Romanisation is the norm, Cherif or Charif), is a proper name derived from the Arabic word (, 'noble', 'highborn', 'honorable'), originally a title designating a person descended f ...

ial family of Abu ‛Arish. Sayyid Muhammad was educated partly at

Al-Azhar University , image = جامعة_الأزهر_بالقاهرة.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Al-Azhar University portal , motto = , established = *970/972 first foundat ...

and partly by the

Senussi The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi ( ar, السنوسية ''as-Sanūssiyya'') are a Muslim political-religious tariqa ( Sufi order) and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi ( ar, السنوس ...

Kufra Kufra () is a basinBertarelli (1929), p. 514. and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of nineteenth century Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in ...

, and subsequently resided for a time in the Sudan, at

Argo Island Argo Island (also: ''Island of Arkô'' and ''Jezira Argo'') is an island of the Nile in Sudan. The island contains a town of the same name and the Nubian Nubian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile r ...

. On his return to Asir, his one ambition was to render that district independent of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. He gradually expanded his political power to include

Mikhlaf ''Mikhlaf'' ( ar, مخلاف, plural ''Makhleef''; ) was an administrative division in ancient Yemen and is a geographical term used in Yemen. According to Ya'qubi there were eighty-four Mikhlaf in Yemen. The leader of the Mikhlaf is called ''Qil' ...

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 north and Oman to the northeast an ...

and a large part of 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 ...

, with control over several tribes outside these limits. He threw in his lot with the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and was the inexorable foe of the

Imam 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 ...

Biography

See also

Notes

Further reading