Sayyid Power and Non-Sayyid Elites in the Sharaf al-Din Imamate (912–80 AH/1506–73 AD)

Abstract This article argues that elite support was crucial to sayyid rulers (imams) in Yemen. Such support allowed these rulers to ensure hereditary transfer of power while circumventing tenets of Zaydi political thought that did not permit a ruler to name successors. By analyzing previously unstudied documents regarding succession from the period of the rule of Imam Yahya Sharaf al-Din (d. 1557) in Yemen, the article reconstructs the outlines of the Sharaf al-Din state and the elites involved in maintaining it. Based on this analysis, the article uncovers the role of non-sayyid elites in an early-modern attempt to secure dynastic transmission of power.