There remained at this period a tribe of the name of Beni Yafur, descendants of the old Himyaric kings, who lived at Sanaa. Acknowledging the Abbaside Caliphs, they were by force obliged to fall under the jurisdiction of Ibn Ziad; but Asaad ibn Yafur, the last of the family, took advantage of the Karmathian rising throughout the Yemen to usurp the power, which he held until his death. He was the last prince of the Himyaric people; and although his family held the throne for a few years they never arrived at any great power, their position being materially weakened by insurrections and family strifes. Ibn Ziad having died, and been succeeded by several members of his family, Abou’l-Jaysh his grandson came to the throne. On the death of the Caliph El-Mutawakil and the abdication of El-Mustain, he disclaimed all allegiance to the Caliphate, and took to himself regal honours, though there seems to be some apparent discord as to dates, for the assassination and abdication of the Caliphs occurred before Abou’l-Jaysh came to the throne. Probably he was the first to assume regal power, although his immediate predecessors had ceased paying tribute to the Caliphs.[18] Apparently Abou’l-Jaysh was a man of great power, and by the time of his death he was master of the whole of the Yemen, while his revenues reached an enormous sum. It was during his reign that the Zaidite dynasty sprung up. The foundation of what afterwards was the principal line of the Imams, or Sultans of the Yemen, is not without interest. Although to-day ousted from power by the Turks, the leader of the late rebellion was no less a personage than a descendant of the great family who in A.H. 288 (A.D. 901) founded at Sadah the Zaidite dynasty. As of the direct family of the prophet Mahammed, it may be interesting to trace the line from the founder of Islam to Yahya, who returned to the Yemen from India in 288 A.H. to announce the supremacy of the Zaidis. This is best done by a short genealogical tree. MAHAMMED. | Fatima and Ali. | Hasan. | Hasan. | Ibrahim. | Ismail. | Ibrahim. Tabátabá. | Kasim er-Rassi. | Huseyn. | El-Hadi Yahya. (D. 298 A.H.) Although Yahya succeeded in wresting Sanaa from Asaad ibn Yafur, he was unable to hold it, and eventually returned to Sadah, where descendants of his family are to-day living.