Page 131 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Yemeni Poet al-Zubayri 121

al-BaytJl qabiit riwayat kuffar al-ta ’ ml.
55. ‘Urubah, Arabism, Arab nationalism, which a particularly well-
worn political catchword at this period.
56. It was this very sort of authority or rule (hukm) of the theocratic
type that enabled the Imams to exert any control over the tribes. Cf. my
article in Commoners, climbers, op. cit., 244.
57. This is reminiscent of Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah, which, prior to
1962, was much read and discussed in learned Yemeni circles. Cf. F.
Rosenthal’s translation, New York, 1958, i, 313, ‘Royal authority and large
dynastic power are attained only through a group and group feeling (al-
mu Ik wa-'l-dawlat al-'ammah innama yuhsal bi- ’l-qabll wa-’l-
'asabiyyahy. For ‘group’ (qabit) I prefer to substitute ‘tribe’.
58. Both al-Shami and Nu‘man considered islah (reform) makes no
sense here and suggested that masalih, advantages, was intended.
59. This is a proverbial saying which Zubayri accuses the Imam of
spreading abroad in self-vindication.
60. Arabic nafsiyyah, thought, spirit, notion, i.c., the people arc to have
no reward but have to endure tribulation/distress (bald *).
61. On 8, xii, 1961, Muhammad Ahmad Nu‘man, published al-Ta’mim
fi \l-Yaman, probably in Cairo as it was issued by the Committee, Lajnat
al-thaqafah wa-’l-nashr, of the Yemeni Unity (al-Ittihad al-Yamanl) group,
as a riposte to Imam Ahmad’s celebrated poem attacking Nasser and his
policy of nationalisation. Nu‘man’s lively verses enumerate the various
taxes Yemenis had to pay, and he quotes Muhammad Isma‘Il al-Amir
attacking what he calls al-ahkam al-^alimah li-’l-a’immat al-Hashimiyyah,
the unjust laws of the Hashimite Imams. In point of fact what al-Amir
attacked seems to have been certain malpractices (for which cf. p. 114) but
most of these are not specially Imamic.
62. Al-Mujalli, MS. cit., 15 b, defines the attitude of the Zaydis on this
point. La yuharibiin ilia mubtil-an min kafir-in aw bagh-in wa-man
ashbaha-hu mimman yastabah qatlu-hu shar'-an duna man ha^arat al-
shari'ah qitala-hu fa-li-hadha ju'ila ‘l-jihad li-’l-Zaydiyyah li‘anna-hum
ka-dhalika duna sa'ir al-firaq ilia ’l-qalil.
He says (18a) that one is breaking one’s allegiance (nakith li-’l-bay‘ah) if
neglecting jihad and when the Imam summons those who have paid him
allegiance to it (holy war—wa-'da'a '1-Imam ... li-man baya’a-hu ilay-hi). It
makes no difference whether the summons is to fight infidels (kuffar)
oppressors (bughah) or other wrongdoers. Cf. Ah. b. Yahya b. al-
Murtada, al-Bahr al-zakhkhar, Cairo, 1947/1366—1949/1368, v, 415,5^. Bab
qilal al-bughah. ‘It is the Imam’s duty to fight them (the bughah) in accord­
ance with his power to do so. ('Ala ‘1-Imam jihadu-hum hash al-imkan).
63. Muh. al-Hajari’s MasdjidSan'a\San‘a\ 1361/1942, though it says
much of repairs and new additions made by Imams to San‘a’ mosques,
only mentions four domes (qubbah) of Imams and three built by non-
Yemenis; most of the mosques were not founded by the Imams and only a
few are named after them. There are of course domed tombs of Imams in
various parts of Zaydi Yemen, and I visited those at Zafir Hajjah in 1966,
but I have not come across superstitious practices connected with them.
Zaydis are opposed to saint cults.