The History and Identity of the Zaydi Shias and the Houthis
By: Christian Jimenez/Arab America Contributing Writer
When people think of the Houthis, most think of them as the Shia rebel group in northern Yemen fighting a civil war with the government, and a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, there is more to the Houthis than just their involvement in the Yemeni Civil War as they have had a long storied history and their own religious traditions. This history and their traditions are what I would like to talk about as well as their reasons for rebelling against the Yemeni government.
The Zaydi Faith
The most important thing that distinguishes the Houthis from the other groups around them is their faith. Like Iran, the Houthis practice a form of the Shia branch in the wider Muslim World. However, while Iran mostly practices Twelver Shiism, the Houthis practice a different branch called Zaydism. The Zaydi Shia faith, also known as the Fivers, was named after the great-grandson of Ali Ibn Abl Talib, Zayd Ibn Ali, a man revered across the Shia World from Yemen to Iraq and Iran. However, while the Twelver Shias of Iraq and Iran view him as a pious and revered man, the Zaydis take it a step further by proclaiming Zayd Ibn Ali as the ultimate symbol in their faith’s long struggle against corruption. They view Zayd Ibn Ali as a leader against corruption because of his battle against what the Zaydis believed was the corrupt Umayyad Caliphate from Damascus, who massacred and martyred him outside of Kuffa in 740 A.D. Another distinguishing feature between the Zaydis and the Twelvers is that the Zaydis don’t believe in the twelve Imams doctrine as they don’t follow the prophets after the fifth Imam of Zayd, and believe anyone descended from Ali can be an imam. Zaydis also don’t have the wider Shia practice of hiding your religious identity during times of persecution, taqqiyah. In regard to the role of an imam, the Zaydi Shias recognize their imams as those of the Prophet’s House, who need to assert the authority of the imamate, including using force when necessary. Lastly, in comparison to the other Shias, the Zaydis would make up a minority in the Shia World with their only sizable presence in the nation of Yemen with around 40% of Yemenis being Zaydis. These Fivers would go on to have a very important part to play in the long history of Yemen.
A Brief History of the Imamate and the Houthi Rebellion
The Zaydis would later form an Imamate in the mountains of northern Yemen in 893 A.D. making it the only Zaydi state after the fall of another Zaydi regime in Iran in the year 1126 A.D. This state would exist throughout the centuries until the modern age as they would survive and outlive many different kingdoms and empires that had once occupied different parts of Yemen throughout its history such as the Fatimids, the Ayyubids, the Mamluks, and most famously the Ottomans. The Ottomans would have a difficult time controlling Yemen, especially the Zaydi highlands where the Imam led his forces, and who at that time was in control of the present-day Yemeni capital of Sana’a. The Ottomans would capture the Zaydi state but only because of the betrayal of the Zaydi Imam’s son, al-Mutahhar, and this period of Ottoman rule was also short-lived lasting from 1552 to 1560.
This short period of rule was because the Zaydi state would regain its independence under al-Mutahhar, where many people would fight under him because of the corruption of Ottoman officials in the area. The rebellion soon started a long war between the Zaydi Imam, and the Ottomans as each side would exchange cities back and forth such as Sana’a. Eventually, the Zaydi Imamate would expel the Ottomans from all of Yemen by 1638 and would be in control over most of the country including the lower elevated and southern regions. However, due to instability and the populace’s desire for law and order, and the trade that the Ottomans would give them, the Ottomans would return by the 19th century and remain in Yemen until World War One. After the war, the Zaydis would form the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and would also be involved in fights against the British and the Saudis in the interwar years, which helped shape the state’s borders. Eventually, however, this kingdom would be dissolved in 1962 as the former imamate’s territory would later form the basis of North Yemen, and would finally unite with South Yemen to form the modern-day country of Yemen with Sana’a as its capital.
Today the Zaydis have formed the political movement of the Houthis, which started in the 1980s as a Zaydi Islamic revival movement to combat the pressure of Salafism, and who would later become a militia group by the 2000s as they faced discrimination from the Yemeni government. By the 2010s, the civil war started due to the failure of the Arab Spring in Yemen after the downfall of their long-term president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and his replacement with the vice president Mansur Hadi. The Houthis did have rebellions against Saleh in the past, but thanks to the transition weakening the central government, and the failure of the government in achieving any real change, the Houthis would be successful and take over the north of the country. Also during this time the Houthis would claim to be fighting against the corruption of the government just like their revered figure of Zayd Ibn Ali, and would later capture Sana’a and other large portions of Northwestern Yemen including the port of Hudaydah, which was used to bring in food and other supplies. Thanks to the war, the results of fighting around Hudaydah and other cities have been mass starvation and other problems for civilians creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world as 80% of the population in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance. Hopefully, the Houthis, the Yemeni government, and other groups like the southern separatists backed by the UAE can reach a compromise and prevent further bloodshed.
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