Zaydiyya

Overview

The Zaydiyya, as Ibn al-Nadim defines them, held to the imamate of Zayd ibn Ali. After him they held the imamate to be among the descendants of Fatima, whoever he might be, once the conditions of the imamate were fully met in him. ²

The people of hadith

Ibn al-Nadim says that most of the hadith scholars followed this school, and gives as examples Sufyan ibn Uyayna, Sufyan al-Thawri, Salih ibn Hayy and his son. He reports from him that most of the scholars of hadith were Zaydi, and likewise some of the jurist-traditionists and the leading traditionists. ²

Not covered here: the Zaydi presentation of their own doctrine, and the academic view. A second source is needed.

Rassid Zaydi imamate of Sa'da

Banu al-Rassi, the Zaydi imams of Sa'da; from the line of al-Qasim al-Rassi ibn Ibrahim Tabataba — first to rise there was Yahya ibn al-Husayn al-Rassi, who summoned Sa'da to himself, took the laqab al-Hadi and was sworn as imam, a mujtahid in legal rulings whose fiqh Ibn Hazm saw and judged not far from the Sunni way; his son Muhammad al-Murtada's tenure faltered but his brother al-Nasir Ahmad's held, and the imamate ran unbroken in his sons until the Sulaymanids of Mecca, driven out by the Hawashim, seized Sa'da and ended the state there in the sixth century — though the Rassid claim lived on in their descendants past 700.

At a glance

Overview

The people of hadith

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

Rassid Zaydi imamate of Sa'da