Al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar bin Yahya
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When the old imam al-Mahdi Ibrahim was defeated and captured by the Rasulid sultan, the Zaidi elite of the northern Yemeni highland asked the ex-imam al-Hasan bin Wahhas to succeed. When al-Hasan refused, the offer went to al-Mutahhar bin Yahya bin al-Murtada, a descendant of the imam an-Nasir Ahmad (d. 934).[1] He accepted and took the honorific name al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar.[2] The strongest political figure in the Zaidi lands was, however, the emir Sarim ad-Din Da'ud, son of a former imam, who was the leader of the Hamzite Sharifs. In 1284, Sarim ad-Din tried to induce al-Mutawakkil al-Mutahhar and al-Hasan bin Wahhas to enter hostilities with the Rasulid Dynasty, but they mistrusted him and refused. Sarim ad-Din then made an abortive attempt to set up a close relative, Ahmad bin Ibrahim, as imam.[3]