Hijra among the Yemeni Zaydīs: The Evolution of the Concept and Its Functions in the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries

The Zaydīs came to Yemen at the end of the ninth century, and thereafter the influence of the Zaydī Imāms spread throughout Yemen. A concept that merits attention when examining the spread of the influence of the Zaydī in Yemen is hijra. This study elucidates changes in the significations of the term hijra as used in Zaydī sources from the ninth through to the eleventh century. The views advanced by previous scholars, notably W. Madelung, will be questioned, and an understanding more congruous with the general situations surrounding the Zaydīs will be proposed. From the late ninth century to the second half of the eleventh century, hijra signified migration to the Imāms of the Zaydīs in Yemen for the purpose of providing military support and acquiring new land. But when fears began to be entertained for the survival of the Zaydī Imāms as a result of sudden changes in the political and social situation in Yemen from the first to the second half of the eleventh century, the meaning of hijra changed to signify specific sites of political and religious authority of the Zaydī and these sites took on the function of maintaining the spiritual and physical well-being of the Zaydī.