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| Al-Houthi | |
|---|---|
| Hashemite Arab tribe | |
| Ethnicity | Arab |
| Nisba | Al-Houthi |
| Location | Saada Governorate, Yemen |
| Descended from | Yahya ibn Al-Husain ibn Al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Al-Hasan ibn Al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib |
| Parent tribe | Banu Rassi |
| Religion | Zaydi Shi'ism |
Al-Houthi is an aristocratic Yemeni Arab clan of Hashemite Sadah origin, descending directly from Hasan ibn Ali.[1][2][3]
The Al-Houthi family being part of the Hashemite Sadah social class of North Yemen bears a common ancestor to the other Zaydi Hashemite families in the region, all being descended from Yahya ibn Husayn Al-Rassi Al-Hasani who arrived in Sa'ada in 894 AH, he was a follower of Zaydi Shi'ism and gave rise to the Hadawi school of thought within it.[4]
The clan is large in number and is mainly based in the Marran Mountains of Sa’ada Province in North-Western Yemen.[5] The Al-Houthi clan has produced numerous Ulama of the Zaydi Shia community in Yemen, being affiliated with the Jaroudi sect of Zaydi Shi'ism.[6][7] The family traditionally had presided as Qadis in the Sa’ada region until the 1962 civil war in Yemen which resulted in the Zaydi Imamate, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom that had ruled Yemen for about one thousand years being overthrown by the Yemeni republicans supported by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The Zaydi Imamate was held at that time by the Al-Rassi Clan from which the Al-Houthi clan derives from.[8][9] Hussein Badruddin Al-Houthi had founded the Hizb Al-Haqq movement that would lead to the Houthi movement that sought to bring back Zaydi Shia rule to Yemen, with the Zaydi Imamate being restored with a Sayyid or Hashemite leading it, a key point in the Houthi and Zaydi Shia doctrines.[10][11][6]
Zaydi Shia control had been nominally been brought back in Yemen under the president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh who came from a Zaydi Shia family, but the followers of the Houthi movement did not accept this as he was not part of the elite Sayyid class of Yemen, hence not according to Zaydi Shia doctrine, a legitimate leader Imam of Zaydi Shia community, this led to rebellion against him.[6][10] Today, the Al-Houthi movement and tribe is led by Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the younger brother of Hussein Al-Houthi. The leaders of the Houthi movement derive from this tribe.[12][13][14]