Tahirids (Yemen)

The Tahirids (Arabic: بنو طاهر‎, lit. 'Banū Ṭahir'‎) were an Arab Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen from 1454 to 1517. They succeeded the Rasulid Dynasty and were themselves replaced by the Mamluks of Egypt after only 63 years in power.

The Tahir were Yemeni magnates who originated from the area of Juban and al-Miqranah, about 80 km south of Rada'a. They were trustees of the sultans of the Rasulid Dynasty (1229-1454) and were frequently called in to quell rebellions towards the close of the dynasty. A daughter of the clan was married to a son of the sultan an-Nasir Ahmad. After the death of the latter in 1424 a period of upheavals and dynastic instability plagued Yemen. The Rasulid dynastic collapse gave the Tahir clan a chance to gain power. Lahij, north of Aden, was taken over by them in 1443, and in 1454, the important port of Aden was swiftly taken by the brothers Amir and Ali bin Tahir and thereby detached from the Rasulids. The last sultan, al-Mas'ud Abu al-Qasim, gave up any hope of maintaining his throne and withdrew to Mecca in the same year. The eldest of the brothers, Amir bin Tahir, took the titles sultan and king (malik) with the regnal name Salah ad-Din al-Malik az-Zafir Amir (r. 1454-1460). The sultans used to spend the summers in Juban and al-Miqranah, with good access to the southern highlands, using Zabid in the lowland as their winter capital. In that way, Zabid regained the position as one of the centres of learning and culture in the Arab world.

Economically, the city nevertheless seems to have declined by the late 15th century.

The Tahirids tried to imitate the former line, the Banu Rasul. While they were not as impressive builders as these, they were still prominent. Thus they built schools, mosques and irrigation channels as well as water cisterns and bridges in Zabid and Aden, Yafrus, Rada'a, Juban, etc. Some of these are still in use. Arguably their best known monument is the Amiriyya madrasa in Rada'a from 1504. Like their predecessors they ruled in the first place in the Tihama lowland and the southern highlands. The sultans were less active in expanding their territorial base than the Rasulid rulers. Much of the energy of the sultans was spent on quelling uprisings by Tihama tribes. Shihr in Hadramawt was taken in 1457; however, it was lost at the end of the fifteenth century to the Kathiri princedom that controlled much of the interior of Hadramawt. The Zaidi Shia imams, although split between various claimants in the northern highlands, were mostly able to resist Tahirid rule. The first sultan az-Zafir Amir sent an army against the imam al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar in 1458, but it was defeated and the sultan's brother Muhammad bin Tahir was killed. The debacle probably inspired az-Zafir Amir to abdicate his royal prerogatives to another brother, al-Mujahid Ali. The latter was able to enter San'a temporarily in 1461. However, the city was soon taken back by the Zaydiyya. Subsequent expeditions to San'a were unsuccessful, and the old sultan Amir was killed with many followers when fighting the Zaydis in 1466. In the early sixteenth century sultan az-Zafir Amir II (1489-1517) resumed expansion to the north into Zaydiyya territory and managed to take San'a again in 1504. However, he was soon distracted by enemies on other fronts.

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