SA'DAH

also spelled Saada town, northwestern Yemen, in the mountainous Yemen Highlands. It was the original capital of the Zaydi dynasty of imams (religious-political leaders) of Yemen (AD 8601962). The effective founder of Sa'dah as a base of Zaydi power was Imam Yahya al-Hadi ila al-Haqq I (reigned 893911). Under his successors the dynasty briefly extended its power to embrace most of eastern Arabia, from the Hejaz (Al-Hijaz) to southern Yemen. After the 17th-century move of the Zaydi capital to San'a' (110 miles south-southeast), Sa'dah declined in national importance, though it has long been an administrative centre of the northern part of the country. Traditional local industries have included the manufacture of leather goods and of stoneware vessels for food preservation. Pop. (1986) 11,709.