Muhammad al-Badr

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Muhammad al-Badr, mid-1960s

Muhammad al-Badr ( Arabic محمد البدر, DMG Muḥammad al-Badr ; * February 15, 1926 ; † August 6, 1996 in London ) was the last king of the Zaidis in North Yemen ( 1962 ).

Muhammad al-Badr was appointed heir to the throne by his father Ahmad ibn Yahya (1948–1962) during his lifetime. However, tensions soon arose when Muhammad tried to accelerate his father's very hesitant modernization policy. So he tried to push through some reforms with the help of Soviet and Chinese advisers while his father was on a health resort abroad. But these had to be taken back after his father returned. After Ahmad was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in March 1961, he turned the government over to his son. After his death on September 19, 1962, he was also proclaimed King of North Yemen.

However, on September 26, 1962, there was a coup of republican officers under Abdullah as-Sallal in Sanaa . But Muhammad al-Badr managed to escape. While the putschists proclaimed the republic , Muhammad allied himself with the hill tribes in northern Yemen. In the civil war that broke out (1962–1969), the Republicans were supported by Egypt and the royalists by Saudi Arabia . At times up to 40,000 Egyptians fought on the side of the Republicans. Only after the withdrawal of the Egyptians from Yemen (after the Six Day War in 1967) and a failed attack by the royalists on Sanaa, negotiations between the civil war parties began. After the peace treaty, which led to the amnesty of the royalists, Muhammad al-Badr left Yemen on March 8, 1969. He died in exile in London in 1996 .

literature

  • Husayn b. Abdallah al-Amri: Muhammad (al Badr) b. Ahmad b. Yahya Hamid al-Din, 1314-1417 / 1929-1996: Last of the Imams of Yemen . In: Studies of Arabia in honor of Professor G. Rex Smith (= Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 14), ed. v. JF Healy and V. Porter, Oxford University Press 2002. pp. 1-6. ISBN 978-0198510642