Al-Mahdi Ahmad bin Yahya

Al-Mahdī Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā, or Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā Ibn al-Murtaḍā (أحمد بن يحيى المرتضى) (1363/1374 – 1436), was a Muʿtazila scholar and imam of the Zaidī state in Yemen who briefly held the imamate in 1391–1392. He was an encyclopedist and a prolific writer on a range of subjects.

Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā was a 12th-generation descendant of the Zaidī imām ad-Da'i Yusuf (d. 1012). His full name was: al-Mahdī Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Murtaḍā ibn Aḥmad al-Jawad ibn al-Murtaḍā ibn al-Mufaḍḍal ibn al-Manṣūr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Alī ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Da'ī Yūsuf.

In 1391, when the elderly imām al-Nasir Muhammad Salah al-Din died, his sons were still minors. The qāḍī, ad-Dawwarī, took temporary administration of the Zaidī domains of highland Yemen, in their name. However, the Zaidi ulema assembled in the Jamal ad-Dīn Mosque in San'a and appointed Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā imām under the title 'al-Mahdī Aḥmad'. The appointment was not recognised by ad-Dawwani, who immediately appointed the deceased imām's son al-Mansur Ali bin Salah ad-Din. Al-Mahdī Aḥmad and his followers withdrew from San'a to Bayt Baws, and for one year the two imāms fought for supremacy. In 1392, al-Mahdī Aḥmad was captured by al-Manṣūr Alī's forces and imprisoned. In 1399, aided by prison guards, the ex-imām escaped to live in privacy until his death from plague in 1436.[1] Although al-Mahdī Aḥmad lacked the requisite administrative and military skills for the Zaydiyyah imamate, he produced a substantial body of writings on dogmatics, logic, poetry, grammar and law.[2]

His sister Dahma bint Yahya was also a scholar and poet. The famous Salafi scholar Muhammad Al-Shawkani wrote Al-Sayl al-jarrar, a denunciation of a text written by the Zaydi Imam Al-Mahdi Ahmad bin Yahya.[3]

Works
  • Kitāb al-Baḥr al-zahhār: al-jāmiʻ li-madhāhab ʻulamāʼ al-amṣār; a theological-legal encyclopedia
  • Kitāb al-milal wa al-niḥal: min ajzāʼ Kitāb al-baḥr al-zakhār: al-jāmiʻ li-madhāhab ʻulamāʼ al-amṣār[4]
  • Ṭabaqāt al-Mu’tazilah[5][6]
  • Bāb dhikr al-Muʻtazilah: min Kitāb al-Munyah wa-al-amal fī sharḥ kitāb al-Milal wa-al-niḥal[7]
  • Al-Mutazilah: being an extract from the Kitābu-l milal wa-n-niḥal[8][9]
  • Al-Kāshif li-dhawī al-ʻuqūl ʻan wujūh maʻānī al-kāfil bi-nayl al-suʼūl[10]
  • Kitāb al-Munya wa-'l-amal fī sharḥ al-milāl wa-'n-niḥal[11]
  • ʻUyūn al-Azhār fī fiqh al-aʼimmah al-aṭhār[12][13]

See also

References
  1. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. V. Leiden 1986, p. 1241.
  2. Carl Brockelmann, Geschicte der arabischen Litteratur, Vol I. Leiden 1943, pp. 238-40.
  3. A Critical Edition of Al-Hasir li Fawa'id al-Muqaddima li Tahir, p.85-6.
  4. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Javād Mashkūr, Muḥammad (1959), Kitāb al-milal wa al-niḥal : min ajzāʼ Kitāb al-baḥr al-zakhār: al-jāmiʻ li-madhāhab ʻulamāʼ al-amṣār, Arabic Collections Online (Organization) (in Arabic), Tabrīz: Columbia University Libraries
  5. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1961), Diwald-Wilzer, Susanna; Zwettler, Michael (eds.), "Ṭabaqāt al-Mu'tazilah (Die Klassen der Mu'taziliten)", Bibliotheca Islamica, Nasharāt al-Islāmīyah, Bayrūt: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Kāthūlīkīyah (in kommission bei Frantz Steiner Verlag), XXI
  6. Vajda, G. (1963), "Susanna Diwald-Wilzer. Kitāb Tabaqāt al-Mu'tazila, Die Klassen der Mu'taziliten, von Ahmad Ibn Yahyā al-Murtadā", Revue de l'histoire des religions, 163 (no.2): 262–3
  7. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1975). Walker Arnold, Sir, Thomas (ed.). Bāb dhikr al-Muʻtazilah: min Kitāb al-Munyah wa-al-amal fī sharḥ kitāb al-Milal wa-al-niḥal (in Arabic). Bayrūt: Dār Ṣādir.
  8. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1902). W Arnold, Thomas (ed.). Al-Mutazilah: being an extract from the Kitābu-l milal wa-n-niḥal (in Arabic and English). 1. Leipzig: Harrassowitz.
  9. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1902). W Arnold, Thomas (ed.). Al-Mutazilah: being an extract from the Kitābu-l milal wa-n-niḥal (in Arabic and English). Leipzig: Halle, Saale Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt Leipzig u.a.
  10. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Murtaḍā (ibn al-), Zayd al-Maḥaṭwarī Ḥasanī (2014). al-Kāshif li-dhawī al-ʻuqūl ʻan wujūh maʻānī al-kāfil bi-nayl al-suʼūl (in Arabic). Ṣanʻāʼ: Maktabat Badr lil-Ṭibāʻah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʻ.
  11. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Jawād Mashkūr, Muḥammad (1979). Kitāb al-Munya wa-'l-amal fī sharḥ al-milāl wa-'n-niḥal (in Arabic). Beirut.
  12. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā; Ṣādiq (al-), Mūsā (1975). ʻUyūn al-Azhār fī fiqh al-aʼimmah al-aṭhār (in Arabic). Bayrūt: Dār al-Kitāb al-Lubnānī.
  13. Murtaḍā (Ibn al-), Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā (1975). Uyun al-azhar. Bayrut: Dar al-Kitab al-Lubnani.
Preceded by
al-Nasir Muhammad Salah al-Din		 Zaydi Imam of Yemen
1391–1392		 Succeeded by
al-Mansur Ali bin Salah ad-Din
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