Al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din

Al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din (died 1445) was a claimant for the Zaidi state in Yemen, whose tenure as imam is counted from 1436 to 1445.

Salah ad-Din bin Ali was a descendant of the imam al-Mansur Yahya (d. 976) in the thirteenth generation.[1] His father was the well-known Zaidi scholar Ali bin Muhammad bin Abu'l-Qasim, who died in 1433.[2] When the old imam al-Mansur Ali succumbed to the plague in 1436, three Sayyids made claims to the imamate. One of them was Salah ad-Din bin Ali, who took the honorific name al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din. His rivals were al-Mansur an-Nasir and al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar who belonged to other Rassid branches. Al-Mansur an-Nasir, who had family ties with the deceased imam, became dominant among the Zaydiyyah community in highland Yemen. He eventually captured al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din, who died in prison in Kawkaban in 1445.[3] He was buried in the Masjid Musa, one of the smaller mosques of San'a.[4]

See also

• Imams of Yemen
• History of Yemen

References

1. The line of descent is al-Mansur Yahya - Abdallah - Yahya - Ahmad - al-Husayn - Ja'far -al-Husayn - Muhammad - Ja'far - Muhammad - Abu'l-Qasim - Muhammad - Ali - al-Mahdi Salah ad-Din.
2. Imam Zaid bin Ali Cultural Foundation, http://www.izbacf.org/page_display.php?book_id=37&page_num=51 Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Arabic).
3. Imam Zaid bin Ali Cultural Foundation, http://www.izbacf.org/page_display.php?book_id=37&page_num=51 Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine (in Arabic).
4. Cf. R.B. Serjeant & R. Lewcock, San'a'; An Arabian Islamic City. London 1983, p. 383.