Last October I visited Yemen and heard thata Zaydi revival movement was making itself felt in the country,especially in the areas in and around Sa'da. I had suspected thisfact for quite a while now because I had seen as early as 1991 insome of Sanaa's bookshops many Zaydi pamphlets and booklets, someconsisting of treatises on usul al-fiqh and others, of a morepolemical nature, presenting the Zaydi case against such opponents asthe Wahhabis and the Salafis on issues of ritual practice, theologyand politics. So I decided to head north and see for myself what thismovement was all about. Before leaving, however, I read many of thesepamphlets so that the names and issues which cropped up would becomefamiliar to me.
It seemed from my reading that the leadingulema of this movement have been Badr al- Din al-Huthi, who wrote asearly as 1979 a rebuttal of Ibn Baz's fatwa prohibiting prayerbehind a Zaydi imam. Other names that cropped up were those of Majdal-Din al- Mu'ayyidi, the famous Zaydi scholar living close to Sa'daand a new name on the Zaydi scene, that of Muhammad Yahya Salim`Izzan. The main issue of concern in all of these works was thepreservation of the Zaydi-Yemeni heritage from extinction because ofthe onslaught of a proselytizing Wahhabi movement in such traditionalZaydi provinces as Sa'da and the Jawf combined with neglect andopposition to Zaydi concerns and issues by the government inSanaa.(1) Judging by the number of booklets and pamphlets he hadwritten or edited, it seemed to me that by far the most active memberamong the Zaydi scholars was Muhammad `Izzan, so it was to meet himthat I travelled to Sa'da to find out more about Zaydism in Yementoday.
'Izzan is a young man in his late twenties,and is not of sayyid descent. He was originally from Razih but nowlives in Sa'da's suburbs. A student of the great Zaydi ulema ofSa'da, like Majd al-Din al-Mu'ayyidi, 'Izzan now teaches next to hishome all the traditional Islamic sciences including 'ilm al-kalamand, of course, Zaydi fiqh. He is also extremely active in editingand publishing Zaydi works, and has thus far edited at least ninepamphlets ranging from matters of invocation (du'a') to thoserelating to prayer postures in accordance with Zaydi authorities byway of works by Zaydi imams such as al-Qasim b. Ibrahim al-Rassi andal-Qasim b. Muhammad (al-Kabir, the founder of the Qasimi dynasty).'Izzan has also edited major Zaydi works like al-Falakal-dawwar by Sarim al-Din Ibrahim b. Muhammad al-Wazir in theHadith sciences and, more importantly for the contemporary Zaydiscene, a work entitled al-Ghutamtam al-zakhkhar by Muhammad b.Salih al-Samawi (d. 1825) but known to all as Ibn Hariwa.
This last work lies squarely within thedebates between the Zaydis and the Wahhabis and other Sunna-orientedscholars and activists hostile to Zaydism, and particularly itsYemeni followers, namely the Hadawis (the followers of the legalschool of al-Hadi ila al-Haqq Yahya b. al-Husayn, the founder of theZaydi Imamate in Yemen). Ibn Hariwa was a Zaydi-Hadawi scholar whohad attacked Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Shawkani (d. 1834), probably themost famous of all the Sunna-oriented Yemeni scholars and who isupheld by all Wahhabis and Salafis as one of the great revivalist ofSunni Islam of his time. As a result of his attack on Shawkani andal-Mahdi 'Abd Allah, the imam of his day, Ibn Hariwa was executed andhas thus become a martyr for the Zaydi cause. For this reason, Zaydislike `Izzan are keen to publish his works in their attempt to rebutwhat they see as continuing attacks against Zaydi thought andhistory. Ibn Hariwa's name also adorns a teachers' institute in Sa'dawhere `Izzan and like-minded scholars are active in spreading Zaydithought.
Like the so called Scientific Institutes(al-ma'ahid al-'ilmiyya) which are dominated by the Islamistsof the Islah party, and where a Sunni brand of Islam is taught, theZaydis have set up their own institutions called the ScientificSchools (al-madaris al-'ilmiyya). For the curriculum of thesemadaris, new textbooks have been penned reflecting the Zaydi bent ofthe education they provide. The books were being distributed duringmy stay, and one of these was an abridgement by Sayyid Ahmad al-Shamiof Kitab al-Azhar, the standard Zaydi legal text; he is thepresident of Hizb al-Haqq and a notable Zaydi scholar in his ownright.
The curriculum of the Zaydi madaris,I was told, is divided into three stages and covers all the Islamicsciences: grammar, fiqh, 'ilm al-kalam, et al. It wouldseem that this is the first attempt in Zaydi history to formalize theeducational process into a set curriculum with standard text books.These schools are apparently spread throughout the highlands: Sa'da,Jawf, Dhamar, Sanaa and Mahabisha. In addition to these pedagogicalreforms, `Izzan told me that a Club of Young Believers (Muntadaal-Shabab al-Mu'min) was founded and ran summer educationalactivities where young boys and men would study the Islamic sciencesin accordance with Zaydi precepts. It would seem that 12,000 studentshad participated in the summer of 1994 throughout the highlands inthese summer activities.
The general tone of the Zaydis I met inSa'da was defensive, and all felt they had to support the educationalactivities outlined above in order to preserve Zaydism from theWahhabi-Salafi onslaught and a continuing government policy ofneglect and, at times, active persecution. On no issue was theWahhabi onslaught more heartfelt among the Zaydis than over thematter of Zaydi tombs. Muqbil al-Wadi'i, who is generally regarded asthe Salafi ideologue par excellence in Yemen, lives in Dammaj amongthe Wadi'a tribe of Hamdan just outside Sa'da &emdash; a bit tooclose for comfort for the Zaydis. While Wadi'i openly declares hisintention of destroying the tombs of the Zaydi Imams and their domesin Sa'da, I was told that, in the meantime, his acolytes weredestroying many of the grave stones in the cemeteries just beyondSa'da's city wall. I went to see for myself, and effectively most hadbeen broken into pieces which were strewn all over the place. I wastold the Salafis came in the middle of the night to do this but nonehad been caught and punished.
Despite their feelings of marginalizationand of somehow being left behind by the train of history, the Zaydisare trying to put up a spirited fight lest they be forgotten. It is,however, the younger and more energetic members, like 'Izzan, who aremost active since many of the older generations are not willing toengage fully with them. The reason for this is that the community isnot immune from factionalism, with some of the older membersapparently maintaining a strict understanding of Zaydism and refusingto participate fully in a less than ideal environment.
Refusing any accommodation with the presentstatus quo in Yemen which they regard as corrupt, some of the diehardZaydis have opted to migrate from cities like …a'da in order tocreate their own hijra, in this case hamlets consisting of littlemore than a couple of homes in the tribal areas of Sa'da province.One such Zaydi is Sayyid 'Abd Allah b. Yahya al-Huthi who has set upa hijra just outside Sa'da in a place called Takhya. He told me hedid this because towns like Sa'da are polluting and full ofcorruption. It was with the help of local tribesmen, who gave him theland and helped out with the orchards and the digging of the well,that he has managed to accomplish his hijra: a small haven of theZaydi ideal in a world that has become hostile.
1 The most lucid account of thisZayd£ concern can be found in a little booklet by Muhammadal-Sa'id-, Sa'da li-madha?, Beirut: Dar al- Basa'ir, n.d.)