Zaydi Governance in Yemen between Legal Theory and Political Practice

Description

This focus session explores the intersection of legal theory and political practice in the formation of Yemeni Zaydi political institutions, including the development of dynastic succession, principles of the election of an imam, and attitudes to dhimmis. The focus of the session is on the understudied but transformative period of Zaydi history in Yemen from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century. In this period, under the pressure of regional geopolitics and internal change, Zaydi imams and their supporters reformed the functioning of the imamate and updated the legal and political theories that underpinned it. These transformations continued to influence the development of the Zaydi political system up to the twentieth century. The five contributions focus on a variety of sources – legal texts, histories, biographies, and documents – to provide a wide-ranging view of the ways in which legal thinking was influenced by political practice and vice versa.

Period	29 Jun 2024
Event type	Conference
Location	Paris, FranceShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International