Rasulid

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 (his real name is Muhammad ibn Harun) whose lineage could be traced back to Jabalah ibn al-Aiham the last Ghassanid king, and they were mistakenly identified as Turkmen because their Turkic language Rasul gained living in the land of the Turks. Rasul 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.

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