1891 - 1962
The second of the three Hamid al-Din imams to govern Yemen after independence in 1918, from 15 March 1948 to 18 September 1962.
During his father's tenure as imam, from 1904 to 1948, and as king of Yemen, from 1918 to 1948, Ahmad ibn Yahya Hamid al-Din was apprentice to and an important supporter of his father. Ahmad was also the governor of TaŹ¾iz province, Yemen's primary military commander, and the designated successor to his father as both imam and king.
After Imam Yahya's assassination in 1948, and the effort at major reforms, Ahmad organized important tribal elements to overthrow the usurpers and became imam and king. Although he had earlier established some tenuous links with reform elements, he introduced very few changes to the autocratic and highly centralized system established by his father. By the early 1960s, the extent of opposition to his rule had resulted in numerous revolts and assassination attempts, even by some of the tribal elements that had earlier supported him. He died in September 1962, and was succeeded by his son Muhammad al-Badr who, however, was deposed one week later in the revolution that turned Yemen into a republic.
Bibliography
Dresch, Paul. A History of Modern Yemen. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
— MANFRED W. WENNER
