Rasulid

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Sultan	Reign
al-Mansur Umar I	1229–1250
al-Muzaffar Yusuf I	1250–1295
al-Ashraf Umar II	1295–1296
al-Mu'ayyad Da'ud	1296–1322
al-Mujahid Ali	1322–1363
al-Afdal al-Abbas	1363–1377
al-Ashraf Isma'il I	1377–1400
an-Nasir Ahmad	1400–1424
al-Mansur Abdullah	1424–1427
al-Ashraf Isma'il II	1427–1428
az-Zahir Yahya	1428–1439
al-Ashraf Isma'il III	1439–1442
al-Muzaffar Yusuf II	1442

The Rasulid was a Muslim dynasty that ruled Yemen and Hadhramaut from 1229 to 1454. The Rasulids assumed power after the Egyptian Ayyubid left the southern provinces of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Rasulid descended from Rasul, a Turkmen (or Oguz) who came to Yemen around 1180 while serving as a messenger for an Abbasid caliph. His son Ali was governor of Mecca for a time, and his grandson Umar bin Ali was the first sultan of the Rasulid dynasty.

Rasūl is Arabic for messenger (although in this context it does not carry the Islamic prophet significance); during their reign, however, the Rasulids claimed to be descendants of the legendary patriarch Qahtan.

[edit] Bibliography

• Dresch, P., Tribes, Government, and History in Yemen. Oxford, 1989.