Abu Hashim al-Hasan

Abu Hashim al-Hasan (d. 1040) was an imam of the Zaidi state in Yemen who ruled part of the Yemeni highland in 1031-1040.

Abu Hashim al-Hasan was a fifth-generation descendant of al-Qasim ar-Rassi (d. 860), the theological portal figure of Zaydiyyah Islam.^[1] In 1031, the year after the violent death of the former imam al-Mu’id li-Din Illah, he claimed the imamate.^[2] He was able to seize San'a. One of the local grandees, Ibn Abi Hashid, fled, while another one, Nunsur bin Abi'l-Futuh, submitted. Abu Hashim's authority in San'a lasted until 1037, when he was expelled by the tribesmen of Hamdan. The Hamdanites later invited Ja'far, brother of the old imam al-Mahdi al-Husayn, to rule the city as emir. The following years were filled with contests over San'a, and Abu Hashim was able to regain control over the commercially important place for a brief term. After he had lost the city for good, he withdrew to Sa'dah in the north, which was the old stronghold of the Zaydiyyah.^[3] The hard pressed Abu Hashim died in 1040. A new pretender, Abu'l-Fath an-Nasir ad-Dailami, arrived from Persia, possibly before Abu Hashim's death.^[4] Having proclaimed his da'wa (call for the imamate), he proceeded to seize Sa'dah and San'a some years later, in 1046.

See also

• Imams of Yemen
• Rassids

References

1. The filiation was: al-Qasim ar-Rassi - al-Husayn - Abdallah - Yahya - Abd ar-Rahman - Abu Hashim al-Hasan.
2. The beginning of his imamate is sometimes dated in 1027 or 1035.
3. Cesare Ansaldi, Il Yemen nella storia e nella leggenda. Roma 1933, p. 134.
4. H.C. Kay, Yaman; Its Early Medieval History. London 1892, p. 229.