Zeydî İmam Kâsım b. Muhammed ve Vasiyyeti: el-Vaṣiyyetü’s-Seniyye

Abstract

It is possible to study the sect of Zaydī as a history of imams. When considering the process of the sect of Zaydī in Yemen, we can refer to many prominent imams. Hadi-Ilalhaq Yahya b. Husayn b. Qāsim al-Rassī (d. 298/911), an important representative of Zayid thought, Imam al-Mutawakkil Ahmad b. Sulayman (d. 566/1170), who is the founder of II. Zaydī’s state, Imam Mansur-Billah Abdullah b. Hamza, who wrote many works in addition to the struggles he had in political areas, Mutahhar b. Sharafuddin, who showed strong resistance in Yemen after Ottoman domination, ar some of them. It is seen that Qāsim b. Muḥammad, who declared his imamate later 16th century, assumed an essential role of Zaydī’s sect in the formation process of the Qasimi dynasty. He stands out with his deep knowledge and being well equipped as he wrote works in all areas of Islamic sciences in addition to his leap and succes in political areas. In this aspect, Qāsim b. Muḥammad, a bridge that combined the former and later base of ahl al-bayt, enlivened generally Islamic thought and privately the Zaydī’s thoughts with a renewal vision. In the researches conducted about Zaydī’s sect, the fact that only limited references took place and the lack of independent study about the Qāsimi’s period, having had a 300 years history, causes a deficiency in process monitoring and connecting the concept and the case. In this aspect, it is important to introduce Qāsim b. Muhammed’s scientific aspect who is the key person at the starting point of an important process in the sect of Zaydī’s history. From this point, our research is understanding and explanation activity that figures a historıcal person as well as it aims to scrtinize cyclical structure of the perıod in terms of human, society, and frame of mind. Moreover, Qāsim b. Muḥammad understanding of science will be analyzed through his work named al-Waṣiyyah al-Saniyyah.