Al-Houthi family
{{Short description|Yemeni Hashemite Arab clan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox tribe
| name = Al-Houthi
| ethnicity = Arab
| nisba = Al-Houthi
| location = Saada Governorate, Yemen
| parent_tribe = Banu Rassi
| religion = Zaydi Shi'ism
| descended = Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghamr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muthannā ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
| type = Hashemite Arab tribe
}}
Al-Houthi is an aristocratic Yemeni tribe who claim Hashemite-Sayyid origin, descending directly from Hasan ibn Ali.{{Cite web |title=The 1968 Siege of Sana: A Houthi Historical Parallel {{!}} The Washington Institute |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/1968-siege-sana-houthi-historical-parallel |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=www.washingtoninstitute.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=From local guerrilla to global disruption: the rise and evolution of… |url=https://www.med-or.org/en/news/yemen-capire-lascesa-e-levoluzione-degli-houthi |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=Med-Or |language=en}}{{Cite news |title=Profile: Al Houthi Movement |url=https://www.aei.org/articles/profile-al-houthi-movement/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241108012258/https://www.aei.org/articles/profile-al-houthi-movement/ |archive-date=8 November 2024 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=American Enterprise Institute - AEI |language=en-US}}
Arrival in Northern Yemen
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.{{Cite web |title=The Future of the Hashemites in Yemen |url=https://abaadstudies.org/en/strategies/topic/59911 |access-date=5 February 2025 |website=Abaad Studies & Research Center |language=en}}
Description
The clan is large in number and is mainly based in the Marran Mountains of Sa’ada Province in North-Western Yemen.{{Cite web |title=Who are the Houthis, and why are we at war with them? |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/ |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Coercing Compliance: The Houthis and the Tribes of Northern Yemen {{!}} The Washington Institute |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/coercing-compliance-houthis-and-tribes-northern-yemen |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=www.washingtoninstitute.org |language=en}}https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2500/RR2551/RAND_RR2551.pdf 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.{{Cite web |title=Yemen's Houthis Used Multiple Identities to Advance |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2019/03/yemens-houthis-used-multiple-identities-to-advance?center=middle-east&lang=en |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Osberg |first=Spencer |date=18 November 2020 |title=The Houthi Movement from a Local Perspective: A Resurgence of Political Zaidism |url=https://sanaacenter.org/publications/analysis/11925 |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies |language=en}} 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.{{Cite news |date=28 February 2015 |title=The rise of Yemen's Houthi rebels |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31645145 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}{{Cite news |title=Profile: Al Houthi Movement |url=https://www.aei.org/articles/profile-al-houthi-movement/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241108012258/https://www.aei.org/articles/profile-al-houthi-movement/ |archive-date=8 November 2024 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=American Enterprise Institute - AEI |language=en-US}}
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. 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.{{Cite web |title=UNHCR Web Archive |url=https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230519165259/https://www.refworld.org/docid/56a775a94.html |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=webarchive.archive.unhcr.org}}{{Cite web |title=Houthis and Iran: A War Time Alliance |url=https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/houthis-and-iran-a-war-time-alliance-121951 |access-date=4 February 2025 |website=ISPI |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |title=Yemen's enigmatic Houthi leader is fierce battlefield commander |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthi-leader-whose-mountain-fighters-are-taking-global-powers-2024-01-12/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20241120195619/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthi-leader-whose-mountain-fighters-are-taking-global-powers-2024-01-12/ |archive-date=20 November 2024 |access-date=4 February 2025 |work=Reuters |language=en-US}}
Notable members
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