Rassids (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Rassids were the first Zaidi Imams of Yemen, with their capital at Sa'da, in the highlands. They ruled the tribal groups intermittently from the end of the 9th century. The Zaydiyyah branch of Shi'a Islam required a visible, politically active Imam, who must be descended from the Prophet Muhammad and fulfill a number of personal criteria. In 893 al-Hadi Yahya bin al-Hussain bin al-Qasim ar-Rassi (a descendant of Imam al-Hasan), was invited from Medina to the Northern Highlands of Yemen as an arbiter between the local tribes. Later with the help of the Hamdan tribes of Hashid and Bakil, al-Hadi Yahya bin al-Hussain bin al-Qasim ar-Rassi founded the Zaidi Imamate of Yemen at Sa'da, in 893-7 C.E.