Ahmad bin Yahya

Who was Ahmad bin Yahya?

Ahmad bin Yahya Hamidaddin was the penultimate king of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen from 1948 to 1962. His full name and title was H.M. al-Nasir-li-Dinullah Ahmad bin al-Mutawakkil 'Alallah Yahya, Imam and Commander of the Faithful, and King of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of the Yemen was considered to be a despot, and his main focus was on modernising the military.

In international politics, Ahmad forged many bonds with communist regimes, including the Soviet Union and China. He also joined the union between Egypt and Syria, but this would only last 3 years. Closer to home, he worked for the creation of Greater Yemen, which would have involved the annexation of the British Aden Protectorate.

Bin Yahya was the oldest son of Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din, of the Hamid al-Din branch of the al-Qasimi dynasty. In the 1920s and 1930s, as the effective crown prince, Ahmad assisted his father by leading campaigns to suppress tribal revolts. Following the death of his father in a 1948 coup d'état, Ahmad was able to regain power some months later. He was formally elected Imam of the Zaydi tribal leaders. The structures of the state gave him effectively supreme power in the country. In 1955 a coup by a group of officers and two of Ahmad's brothers was crushed. In April 1956 Ahmad bin Yahya signed a mutual defense pact with Egypt, involving a unified military command.