Page 97 - Arabian Studies (V)

The Y emeni Poet Al-Zubayri

and his Polemic against
theZaydllmams

R. B. Serjeant

Muhammad Mahmud al-Zubayri is the hero of Yemen Arab Republic
ideology, a man of unsullied reputation, a patriot and lover of his
country, a figure of high tragedy, a political failure whose career at its
apogee was abruptly terminated by his murder, a ‘martyr’, a poet of
outstanding quality, one who inspired personal affection even in his
political opponents.
One of the first leaders of the Yemeni Liberals (al-Ahrar), Zubayrl
was also a political pamphleteer, and if the Liberals were not very
effective in the sphere of practical politics, their writings played their
part in formulating the outlook of the generation discontent with
Imamic rule. Sawt al-‘Arab and other organs of the massive Nasserite
propaganda machine utilised the Liberal leaders or discarded them in
accordance with current Nasserite policy.
Zubayrl’s The Imamate and Us menace to Yemen unity, written
about twenty years ago, has an historic interest as formulating and
embodying views current in Yemeni Liberal circles in Cairo, Beirut
and elsewhere. That the pamphlet is controversial, often even
factually incorrect, does not detract from its importance as an expres­
sion of the attitudes of the Ahrar in the hot-house political climate of
the Nasserite era.
When staying in Beirut in the summer of 19691 had the opportunity
of discussing Zubayri’s pamphlet both with his life-long friend and
closest associate, the veteran politician Ahmad Nu‘man, and my
friend H. E. Sayyid Ahmad al-Shaml then still Foreign Minister to the
Imam al-Badr but at one time associated with the Ahrar when they
first set up in Aden. I am further indebted to H. E. Husayn al-‘Amri,
son of Imam Yahya’s wazir, Qadi ‘Abdullah, murdered with him in
1948, for comment of clarification on individual points, but he is in no
sense responsible for views expressed here.
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