medieval worlds • no. 3 • 2016medieval worlds 3 (2016)
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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medieval worlds • no. 3 • 2016, pp. 146-157, 2016/06/30
medieval worlds 3 (2016)
Kurds began to arrive to South Arabia as soldiers for the Ayyubid conquest at the end of the sixth/twelfth century,1 and continued in this military role for the Rasulid dynasty for the next few centuries. Over the course of this period, references to Kurds in chronicles indicate their increasing autonomy as independent mercenaries who rebelled against the Rasulids and aligned with the northern Zaydis. At the same time, they are also shown to have established a prominent community in the central highlands, which eventually bifurcated, merged with the family of the Zaydi Imam through marriage, and then seemingly disappeared from chronicles altogether. This article examines more closely the role of ethnicity in the promotion and maintenance of the Kurds as an influential group in the late medieval political landscape of South Arabia alongside other ethnic groups such as Arabs and Turks, as well as why the apparent deterioration of the Kurds’ ethnic cohesion appears to have led to the end of reports about them in the Yemeni historical record at the end of the eighth/fourteenth century.
Keywords: Kurds; Ayyubids; Rasulids; Zaydis; South Arabia; military; ethnicity