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.