?
Zaidiyyah Minority at the Yemeni Socio-Political Continuum
The study aims to analyze the phenomenon of the Zaidiyyah minority in Yemen. Particular attention is paid to formation of the Zaidiyyah identity. The difficulties of reaching a compromise between the Zaidiyyah minority and the Sunni majority in the recent history of Yemen have been identified. This article shows that one of the fundamental causes of the current Yemeni conflict which began as a response to the events of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011, is destruction of status quo between the Zaidiyyah religious elite (Sayyid and Qadi) and the sheikhs of Zaidiyyah tribes existed in Yemen for centuries. The attempt of al Ahmar family to break this balance in favor of tribal sheikhs by spreading the Wahhabi ideology led to the fact that the Yemeni conflict of the 21st century has taken a multi-dimensional and deep character.