• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

635-932 - Islamic Yemen

A heathen life had characterized pre-Islamic Yemen until Islam spread into Yemen. The great tribe of Hamdan, the ancestors of the Hashid and Bakil tribes, accepted an invitation from the Prophet Mohammed to adopt Islam and the whole of the tribe were converted to Islam in a single day by Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law Ali. Yemeni tribes raced to send their delegates to be the part of the Islamic State.

In the tenth year of the Hijirah, some disturbances having broken out in Yemen, Mahomed sent his lieutenant Ali thither at the head of 300 horsemen, and Badan, who had previously acknowledged the supremacy of the prophet, gladly accepted his assistance in restoring order. About this time the two rival prophets Moosailmah and Al-Aswad sprung up in Yemen, and on the death of Badan, which occurred in 632, the latter seized upon the government, but he was subsequently murdered by a party of Mahomed's friends. Moosailmah then managed to possess himself of the throne, but he was defeated by Khalid, who was sent by Aboo Bakr, the successor of Mahomed. Soon after this Akramah Aboo Sahl visited Aden, where his presence served to put to flight several turbulent persons who had been endeavouring to instigate the Himyarites to revolt. After the death of Ali, Yemen became subject to the Caliphs of the house of Umayyah.

In 660 AD Umayyids in Damascus controlled Yemen until 749-750 AD when it came under the rule of Abbasyids of Baghdad. Daud ibn Abd-al-Majid was at that time appointed Governor of Aden. Political conditions in Yemen under the Abbassyids rule were not better than compared to those under the Ummayids whose rulers were characterized as unjust authoritarians and as a result, traditional Yemeni leaders had begun to surface, which affected the Abbassyids and weakened their control over Yemen. The door was wide open for small political entities to emerge. At that time, Ziyadid Dynasty had begun to expand their influence in the northern and western parts of Yemen and established its rule in the Tihama (819-1018).

Yemen witnessed several foreign conquerors in the subsequent centuries. In 905 Yemen came under the sway of the Karjimite Caliphs,