Yufirids

The Yufirids (بنو يعفر, Banū Yuʿfir) were a local Islamic dynasty that held power in the highland of Yemen from 847 to 997. The name of the family is often incorrectly rendered as "Yafurids". They nominally acknowledged the suzerainty of the Abbasid caliphs. Their centres were San'a and Shibam.

At the time when the direct rule of the Abbasids over Yemen declined, the Yufirids from Shibam began to expand their power base in the Yemeni highland. They claimed descent from the Himyarite kings. The first attack on San'a in 841 failed miserably and the Abbasid governor received troops from Iraq for assistance. Nevertheless, the Yufirids were able to successfully repel the counterattacks against their stronghold in Shibam. In 847 they conquered the area between Sa'dah and Ta'izz. San'a fell to their arms when the governor Himyar ibn al-Harith fled from Yemen. It became the headquarters of the new dynasty for a while.

After a stable reign of 25 years the founder of the dynasty, Yu'fir bin ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān al-Ḥiwālī al-Ḥimyārī left the affairs of the state to his son Muhammad in 872. Muhammad preferred to use Shibam as the capital of his kingdom, rather than San'a. In 873 he received a diploma of confirmation from the Abbasid caliph. Muhammad ruled over Sa'na, Janad and Hadramawt but paid formal deference to the Ziyadid dynasty in the Tihama lowland. A flood that inundated San'a in 876 served as the motive for Muhammad to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca and henceforth devote his time to religion. The reins of government were given to his son Ibrahim who murdered his father and uncle in the mosque of Shibam in 892 (or 882) to ensure that there would be no pretensions of power from that direction. The instigator of the murders was none but his own grandfather, the ex-ruler Yu'fir. Now, however, a series of revolts led to the expulsion of the Yufirids from San'a. An Abbasid governor took charge of the city for a while, but after 895 conditions turned increasingly chaotic.

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