Monday 21st February 2022, 5.30pm
Live Stream
Co-hosted by IASA and the B-YS

The Transformation of the Imamate in Yemen, 1200-1800: Beyond the Failed State Paradigm

Presented by Dr. Ekaterina Pukhovaia

The International Association for the Study of Arabia in association with the MBI al Jaber Foundation and the British Yemeni Society invite you to a lecture entitled “ The transformation of the Imamate in Yemen, 1200-1800: beyond the failed state paradigm”  by Ekaterina (Kate) Pukhovaia.  This talk considers how pre-modern states in Yemen dealt with the geographical, religious, and tribal divisions that are nowadays seen as obstacles to successful state-building. We will discuss  how competition with states in Lower Yemen aided the development of the classical Zaydi imamate (1200-1500) and what allowed the Sharaf al-Dīn dynasty to unify Yemen in the early sixteenth century;  how the period of Ottoman rule (1535-1638) reconfigured the political landscape of Yemen and created a new regional socio-political balance that lasted until the nineteenth century; and  how Ottoman innovation enabled the rise of a new Zaydi imamate, led by the Qasimid dynasty, in the early seventeenth century.

Kate holds a BA (2012) and MA (2014) in Oriental Studies from Lomonosov Moscow State University in Russia, and a PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University (2021). Her research focuses on state-building and transformations of elites in the early modern Middle East, and the comparative study of pre-modern political systems. She is currently working on her first book, Between sultans and imams: State and elite transformation in Zaydi Yemen, 1200-1800. Kate has been a Polonsky Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute since October 2021.

You can download a pdf flyer for this lecture.

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Please note that the views expressed by the speakers in this lecture series should not be interpreted as views held by the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.