The 1905 Ottoman-Yemeni War: Imam Yahya's Rebellion

In 1905, a new chapter in Yemen's long struggle against Ottoman rule erupted when Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din launched a coordinated rebellion across the Zaidi highlands. This episode follows the war's dramatic arc: the siege of Sana'a, the Ottoman relief column under Feizi Pasha, the brutal sack of Yarim, and the eventual Treaty of Da'an that restored autonomy to the Zaidi imam. We examine how Yahya mobilized the northern tribes — Hashid and Bakil — using a blend of religious authority and political pragmatism, and how the Ottomans, distracted by rebellion in Syria and unrest in the Balkans, were forced to negotiate. We also explore the war's impact on local communities: the destruction of harvests, the famine that followed, and the emergence of a pattern of resistance that would define the 20th-century Zaidi imamate. Finally, we consider how this conflict foreshadowed the 1948 coup and the eventual collapse of the imamate itself.

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