| Al-Houthi | |
|---|---|
| Hashemite Arab tribe | |
| Ethnicity | Arab |
| Nisba | Al-Houthi |
| Location | Saada Governorate, Yemen |
| Descended from | Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm Ṭabāṭabā ibn Ismāʿīl al-Dībādj ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghamr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muthannā ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib |
| Parent tribe | Rassids |
| Religion | Zaydi Shi'ism |
Al-Houthi is an aristocratic Yemeni tribe who trace their origins to the Banu Hashim, descending directly from Hasan ibn Ali. [1] [2] [3]
The Al-Houthi family being part of the Hashemite Sadah social class of North Yemen bears a common ancestor to the other Zaydi Hashemite families in the region, all being descended from Yahya ibn Husayn Al-Rassi Al-Hasani who arrived in Sa'ada in 894 AH, he was a follower of Zaydi Shi'ism and gave rise to the Hadawi school of thought within it. [4]
The clan is large in number and is mainly based in the Marran Mountains of Sa’ada Province in North-Western Yemen. [5] The Al-Houthi clan has produced numerous Ulama of the Zaydi Shia community in Yemen, being affiliated with the Jaroudi sect of Zaydi Shi'ism. [6] [7] The family traditionally had presided as Qadis in the Sa’ada region until the 1962 civil war in Yemen which resulted in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom —a continuation of the Zaydi Imamate that had ruled Yemen for about one thousand years—being overthrown by the Yemeni republicans supported by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The Zaydi Imamate was ruled at that time by the Rassid dynasty from which the Al-Houthi clan derives. [8] [9]
Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi founded the Hizb Al-Haqq movement, which would lead to the Houthi movement that sought to bring back Zaydi Shia rule to Yemen. There were several factors that contributed to mounting frictions and the rise of the Houthi movement. The president of North Yemen (and subsequently unified Yemen), Ali Abdullah Saleh, came from a Zaydi Shia family, but not all Zaydis accepted his rule as legitimate as Saleh was not part of the elite Sayyid class of Yemen. Hence, according to Zaydi doctrine, he was not a legitimate Imam of the Zaydi community. [6] [10] Moreover, the position of Saudi-backed Salafis and other Sunni groups in Yemen steadily increased from the 1970s onward, as did the position of Sheikhs who sometimes cooperated with these Salafi groups for pragmatic reasons. The Salafis reportedly pursued an aggressive "policy of provocation" towards the Zaydis who inhabited the surrounding area, often accusing them of apostasy and sometimes even destroying their cemeteries. [11] Despite this, the Salafi school enjoyed the support of both the Saudi and North Yemeni regimes. This situation helped sow the seeds for mounting discontent among the Zaydi population and ultimately Zaydi revivalist movements such as the Houthis. [11]
While the Houthi vision for Yemen is generally seen as entailing the leadership of a Sayyid or Hashemite, [10] [3] [6] the movement is ambiguous about the necessity of Sayyid rule or some kind of imamate. It sees these elements as "preferable" but not as absolutely crucial. [11] Today, the Al-Houthi movement and tribe is led by Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the younger brother of Hussein Al-Houthi. The leaders of the Houthi movement derive from this tribe. [12] [13] [14]