RASULID DYNASTY

Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen and Hadramawt (12291454) after the Ayyubids of Egypt abandoned the southern provinces of the Arabian Peninsula. Although the family claimed descent from Qahtan, the legendary patriarch of the southern Arabs, the Rasulids were of Oguz (Turkmen) origin, Rasul having been a messenger (Arabic rasul) for an 'Abbasid caliph. His son 'Ali was governor of Mecca under the last Ayyubid ruler of Yemen and succeeded him in the government of the whole country. 'Umar I ibn 'Ali (reigned 122950), Rasul's grandson, first established himself at Zabid (Yemen), then moved into the mountainous interior, making San'a' the Rasulid capital. Though the Hejaz (west coast of Arabia) itself was a tributary of the Egyptian Mamluks from 1252, 'Umar also ruled the holy city Mecca. For the next two centuries Yemen was an important and prosperous Muslim state; the Rasulid ruler assumed the title of caliph in 1258. Political and trade relations were maintained with China, India, and Ceylon, and the opening of the port of Aden encouraged a lively international trade. Disturbances in Mecca around the middle of the 14th century, however, offered the Mamluks an opportunity to intervene in Rasulid affairs. Ahmad ibn Isma'il (reigned 140024) regained temporary control and offered Mamluk trade in the Red Sea keen competition, but, soon after his death, internal unrest, revolts of slaves, and the plague hastened the fall of the dynasty. Yemen then passed into the hands of the Tahirid dynasty until the Ottoman conquest of the 16th century.