Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi

Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi حسين بدر الدين الحوثي
Born	1956 Yemen
Died	10 September 2004 (aged 47–48) Marran district, Saada Governorate, Yemen
Nationality	Yemeni
Known for	Founder of the Houthi movement
Military career
Allegiance	Ansar Allah
Years of service	2004
Rank	Commander
Battles/wars	Houthi insurgency in Yemen

Sheikh Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi (Arabic: حسين بدر الدين الحوثي‎‎;‎ 1956 – 10 September 2004), also spelled Hussein Badr Eddin al-Houthi, was a Zaidi religious, political and military leader, as well as former member of the Yemeni parliament for the Al-Haqq Islamic party between 1993 and 1997. He was instrumental in the Houthi insurgency against the Yemeni government, which began in 2004. al-Houthi, who was a one-time rising political aspirant in Yemen, had wide religious and tribal backing in northern Yemen's mountainous regions. The Houthi movement took his name after his death in 2004.

Al-Houthi was born in 1956 in the Marran area of Sada'a region. His father, Badr al-Din al-Tabatabai, was a prominent Zaydi cleric who briefly took control of the Houthi movement following his son's death.

According to an al-Houthi disciple, he had lived part of his life with his family (including his father and younger brother Abd al-Malik) in Qom, Iran. He claimed also that al-Houthi's relationship with Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, and Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader .

Al-Houthi was a member of the Yemeni Zaydi/Shafi'i political party Al-Haqq (The Truth). When the party supported South Yemen separatism, they became a target of the government and al-Houthi fled, allegedly, to Syria and then to Iran. After his return to Yemen he broke with Al-Haqq to form his own party.

Al-Houthi founded the Believing Youth movement (Arabic: شباب المؤمنین‎‎) in 1990 or 1992 to teach young persons about Zaidi and its history to revive Zaidism in Saada Governorate. This group is primary core of Ansarallah.

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