Al-Muntakhab al-Hasan

Who is Al-Muntakhab al-Hasan?

Al-Muntakhab al-Hasan was an imam of the Zaidi state in Yemen in the period 934-936. He was the fourth ruler of the Rasssid Dynasty

Al-Hasan bin Ahmad was the third of the six sons of imam an-Nasir Ahmad. An-Nasir Ahmad had been a powerful ruler who had consolidated Zaydiyyah influence in the Yemeni highland, but after his death in 934 the imamate entered into a rather obscure period. The rivalling Yu'firid Dynasty controlled Sa'dah, the residence of the Rassids, for four months after an-Nasir's demise. Now, al-Hasan claimed the imamate, with the regnal name al-Muntakhab al-Hasan. However, his elder brother al-Mukhtar al-Qasim was set up as rival imam. Neither al-Mutakhab al-Hasan nor al-Mukhtar al-Qasim are listed in the later Zaidi chronicles, which count the imamate of their younger brother al-Mansur Yahya as starting from 934. The death of al-Muntakhab al-Hasan is dated in 936 by the historian Ibn Khaldun; another text says 939. The next important Rassid figure was his brother al-Mukhtar al-Qasim.