Page 125 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Yemeni Poet al-Zubayri 115
Madhan, these two being the most important of the companions of
Ibn Jurayj who received 7Im from ‘Ata’ b. Abl Rabah. Al-
Dhahabl said in Tarikh al-Islam that the governor of San‘a* wrote
to al-Rashid, “If you wish for obedience [ta‘ah] to last in the
Yemen you will send for al-Shafi'l, for he is one of the propagan­
dists of the Talibis [i.e. ‘Alawis].” So al-Rashid sent for him and
he was carried to Baghdad. Al-Rashid imprisoned him, then set
him free, and he went to Egypt where he remained until he died,
God rest him.’
Politically al-Shafi‘1 was a Shi‘i—this he avows himself in the
verse:
In kana rafd-an hubbu Ali Muhammad-in
Fal-yash hadi *l-Thaqalani anni Rafidi
If rafd-ism be love of the Family of Muhammad
Let Men and Jinn testify that I am a Rafidi.142
Rafidi in this context would be the opposite of Nasibi, and mean
pro-Sayyid/‘Alawi, but it is a sobriquet, usually abusive, for the
Shi‘ah.

Notes

1. His al-Tarikh al-sirri li- ’l-thawrat al- Yamaniyyah, Beirut, 1977, 17,
written in rather uneducated Arabic, is a first-hand account of the attitudes
and plottings of the young officer element.
2. Ibid, 26.
3 . Aqul 'Izra’ilfi 'asr-ak waqaf
W-intah kafayt-ah JJ hayat-ah wa- ’l-mamat.
In quit ana sarif fa-ma Undi sarafl
Man dhak dhi min ghayr sayf-ak zad mat?
Wa-man nizil Bayh an ma *ind-ah sharaf.
Kif al-qawa ‘id hin khazzantum bi-qat?
Quddam-ak al-Bahutyahkum bi- *l-insaf!
Man *anad-ahyinza*fu'ad-ah wa-’l-riyat! (rajaz metre)
‘Izra’il is the Angel of Death. Al-Bahut (syn. al-mukhif) was Ahmad s
nickname.
4. For example by the late Muhammad Ahmad Nu'man, al-Atrafal-
ma'niyyahfi 7- Yaman, Beirut, 1965.
5. For the current situation see my summary in Middle East Annual
Review, 1978, Saffron Walden, 419-23. No reliance is to be placed upon
‘Abd al-Rahman al-Baydani, Iqtisad al-Yaman, Cairo, 1961; and
Mohamed Said El Attar, Le sous-diveloppement 6conomique et social du
Yemen, Alger, 1964, is not very trustworthy either.