Ahmad ibn Yahya
Ahmad ibn Yahya ( Arabic أحمد بن يحيى حميد الدين, DMG Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā Ḥamīd ad-Dīn ; * 1891 ; † September 18, 1962 in Dar Al-Bashair, Bir Al-Azab, Sanaa ) was the penultimate king of the Zaidis in North Yemen (1948–1962).
After the murder of his father Yahya Muhammad Hamid ad-Din in February 1948, Ahmad allied himself with the tribes of North Yemen against the putschists and with them conquered the capital Sanaa in March 1948 . This led to heavy looting in the city. The putschists and the ruler they installed, al-Wazir, were executed.
Ahmad also maintained the isolation of the country initiated by his father. The general backwardness led to the decline of agriculture and the outbreak of famine. Nevertheless, with the help of the UN, a slow modernization of infrastructure, education and health systems began. The absolutist government of Ahmad led to a revolt in 1955 by his brother Saif ad-Din Abdallah, who even temporarily besieged Ahmad in his residence in Taizz . Even when Crown Prince Muhammad al-Badr tried to accelerate the modernization with the help of Soviet and Chinese advisors during Ahmad's stay abroad, these efforts were suppressed by Ahmad. However, he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in March 1961 and now handed the government over to his son Muhammad al-Badr, who also became king of North Yemen after Ahmad's death (September 19, 1962) .
literature
- Seif el Islam Achmed , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 48/1962 from November 19, 1962, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
Web links
- Biographical information on royalark.net (English)
- Imam Ahmad b. Yahya in Sanaa, July 1954
- Images from Yemen in the 1950s in the image archive "The Image of the Orient"
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ahmad ibn Yahya |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of the Zaidis in the Kingdom of Yemen (1948–1962) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1891 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 18, 1962 |
| Place of death | Dar Al-Bashair, Bir Al-Azab, Sanaa |