Page 138 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

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YEMEN
164

one Imam has'been notoriously addicted to very secular vices.
To this Shiite conception of their office the Imams owe it that they
have never obtained the dominant position among Moslems
accorded to the Sherifs of Mecca.

2. Recent Politics

Yahya ibn Mohammed el-Mansur ibn Yahya, Imam since 1904, is \
now (1916) about 46 years of age. When he accepted the media­

tized status in 1913, and Khamir became the Imamite capital, he
took up his residence in the fortress of Sheharah, about two days
north of ‘Amran, and admitted Turkish garrisons both there and at
Khamir. Having been friendly with Mahmud Nazim Pasha, he
became anti-Turk after the latter’s supersession, and disapproved
of the attack on Aden in 1915 as an infringement of his prerogative.
On the whole he has been hostile to the Ottoman military rule in ;
Yemen.
Though bound by his position to administer the Sheri'ah and
maintain a religious character, Yahya is more lax in observance
than his father, and lives less in religious seclusion. He appears to
take no very active part in government, beyond receiving reports
from his nominees and adherents, and is said to be an intelligent
man of honest character, but somewhat weak and yielding, who
has not much hold over the Zeidist tribesmen of the north and of
the highlands of Central Yemen. He is strongly opposed to Idrisi,
and is considered unlikely either to head another revolt or to enter
into relations with England. But he could, on occasion, marshal
and arm a large force, and he has (as pointed out above) guns and
munitions. He has again inclined towards the Turks since Mahmud
Nazim Pasha returned in October 1915, and, in November, he wrote
a complimentary letter to Enver praying for the success of the
Ottoman armies.

Since then he has kept fairly quiet, refusing to be drawn by the
Sherif into an active alliance with himself, and still less into one with
Idrisi, though he has kept, more or less faithfully, a truce with the
latter since the autumn of 1915. His chief activity has been to send
emissaries and troops into the NE. Aden hinterland (spring 1916)
to endeavour to win over the tribes of the Beida and 5 Aulaqi districts
to his suzerainty, and to tamper with those of the Hadhramaut.
But the attempt does not appear to have met with much success
. find it has been abandoned. The serious economic position ol

i emen, and probable failure of his own subsidy, may be expected
to affect his pro-Turk feelings before long; and already rumours