A succession of Zaydi Imams ruled the community and Zaydis were the majority of the population in the mountains of the north. For the next thousand years, the Zaydis fought for control of Yemen with various degrees of success. In short, they are a very different sect than the Iranian version of Shiism that Americans have come to know since the 1979 Iranian revolution.įollowers of Zayd established themselves in north Yemen’s rugged mountains in the ninth century. The Zaydi do not believe in ayatollahs like the Twelver Shiites-who are the Shiite sect in Iran and most of the Muslim world-nor do they practice the other Twelver doctrine of taqqiyah (dissimulation), which permits one to disguise his or her faith for self-protection. The Houthis have made fighting corruption the centerpiece of their political program, at least nominally. The Zaydi elevate him to be the epitome of a symbol of fighting corruption. Sunnis and Shiites agree that he was a righteous man. The distinguishing feature of Zayd’s remembered biography is that he fought against a corrupt regime. Zaydis believe he was a model of a pure caliph who should have ruled instead of the Umayyads. Zayd was martyred in his revolt, and his head is believed to be buried in a shrine to him in Kerak, Jordan. Zayd bin Ali led an uprising against the Umayyad Empire in 740, the first dynastic empire in Islamic history, which ruled from Damascus. The Zadiyyah take their name from Zayd bin Ali, the great grandson of Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, whom all Shiites revere. Shiite Muslims are the minority community in the Islamic world and Zaydis are a minority of Shiites, significantly different in doctrine and beliefs from the Shiites who dominate in Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere (often called Twelvers for their belief in twelve Imams). What you need to knowįirst and foremost, the Houthis are Zaydi Shiites, or Zaydiyyah. Yemeni politics are incredibly complex and volatile-rather than get drawn into a quagmire against an enemy they hardly know, the United States and its partners should get serious about finding a political solution. Two administrations have backed the war against the Houthis without a serious campaign to explain why Americans should see them as our enemies. Yet very few Americans know who the Houthis are, what they stand for, and why they are our de facto enemies.

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