Al-Muzaffar Yusuf I
{{Short description|Sultan of Yemen from 1249 to 1295}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox royalty
| image = Coin of Al-Muzaffar Yusuf I.png
| alt =
| caption = Dirham coin minted in the name of Yusuf I, {{circa|1289}}, Zabid
| succession = Sultan of Yemen
| predecessor = Al-Mansur Umar I
| successor = Al-Ashraf Umar II
| reign = 1249 – 1295
| coronation = 1249 at Al-Asha'ir Mosque
| full name = Al-Malik al-Muzaffar Shams al-Din Yusuf ibn 'Umar
| posthumous name = Mu'awiya of Yemen
| spouse =
| spouse-type = Consort
| issue = Al-Ashraf Umar II
Al-Mu'ayyad Dawid
| father = Al-Mansur I
| house =
| dynasty = Rasulid
| birth_date = 1222
| birth_place = Mecca, Sharifate of Mecca, Ayyubid Sultanate
(modern-day Mecca, Saudi Arabia)
| death_date = 1295 (aged 72–73)
| death_place = Taiz, Sultanate of Yemen
(modern-day Janad, Yemen)
| religion = Islam|
}}
Al-Malik al-Muzaffar Shams al-Din Yusuf ibn 'Umar (Arabic: الملك المظفر شمس الدين يوسف بن عمر) more commonly known as Al-Muzaffar Yusuf I, was the second Sultan of Yemen of the Rasulid dynasty from 1249 until his death in 1295.
Early life
Al-Muzaffar Yusuf was born in 1222 in Mecca to Umar ibn Ali, who was appointed as the Emir of Mecca by the Ayyubid Emir of Yemen, Al-Mas'ud Yusuf. Al-Mas'ud called Umar back to Yemen in 1228 and made him his deputy. Al-Mas'ud left Yemen in 1229 for Syria and gave the Emirship of Yemen to Umar. In 1235, Caliph Al-Mustansir I sent a diploma of recognition to Umar who proclaimed himself as the Sultan of Yemen and established the Rasulid dynasty in Zabid as Al-Malik al-Mansur. Umar was assassinated in 1249 by his own guards in Zabid and was succeeded by his son Yusuf as Al-Malik al-Muzaffar.{{Cite web |title=Rasūlids |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/2214-871x_ei1_sim_3685 |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936)}}{{Cite book |last=Al-Qādī |first=Mu͗taman Al-Dīn Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī ͑Aqāma Al-Yama |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111488271 |title=Ǧawāhir al-Akhbār wa-Mulaḥ Al-Ashʿār |date=2024-05-17 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-148827-1}}{{Cite book |last=Abd al-Malik ibn ʻAbd Allāh Ibn Bad |url=https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004600522 |title=Commentaire historique sur le poème d'Ibn-Abdoun |date=1848-01-01 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-60052-2}}
Reign
File:Brazier of Sultan al-Malik al-Muzaffar Shams al-Din Yusuf ibn 'Umar MET DP170388.jpg
Under al-Malik al-Muzaffar Yusuf I, the Sultanate of Yemen reached its apogee. He also made Yemen an influential maritime power, establishing trade with India and China in the Red Sea.{{cite book |author1=David J Wasserstein |title=Mamluks and Ottomans: Studies in Honour of Michael Winter |author2=Ami Ayalon |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-136-57917-2 |page=201}}{{cite book |author=Alexander D. Knysh |title=Ibn 'Arabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam |publisher=SUNY Press |year=1999 |isbn=1-4384-0942-7 |page=230}} Yusuf confirmed Rasulid rule over the Tihamah lowland and the southern highlands. Sanaa, one of the traditional centres of the Zaydi Imams, was temporarily occupied, and the imams were defeated on several occasions. The cool mountainous city Taiz became the base of the dynasty together with Zabid. After the Fall of Baghdad in 1258 to the Mongols, al-Malik al-Muzaffar Yusuf appropriated the title of caliph as he held partial control over the holy city of Mecca.{{cite journal |title=Texts and Pretexts : the Unity of the Rasulid State under al-Malik al-Muzaffar |first=Daniel Martin |last=Varisco |journal=Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée Année |year=1993 |volume=67 | p=16}} Having reigned for 46 years, Yusuf died in 1295, leaving power to his son Umar II who assumed the title Al-Malik al-Ashraf.{{cite book |author=Abdul Ali |title=Islamic Dynasties of the Arab East: State and Civilization During the Later Medieval Times |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd |year=1996 |isbn=8175330082 |page=86}}