Sabaʾ b. Abū Suʿūd (Sultan)
Description / Bio
The Dāʿī (Fatimid chief propagandist of Yemen) and one of two cousins who fractiously co-ruled Aden in the mid-12th century CE. Sultan Sabaʾ controlled the gates of the city. The cousins eventually went to war against each other at az-Zaʿāziʿ, and the conflict lasted some two years (approx. 1136-1138 CE). According to the chronicler ʿUmāra al-Ḥakami, on the same day Sultan Sabaʾ took az-Zaʿāziʿ, the al-Khaḍrāʾ castle fell to Sabaʾ's deputy Bilāl b. Jarīr, notably a freedman and Madmūn b. Hasān b. Bundār's frequent business partner. Sultan Sabaʾ died in Aden seven months after his victory, and the power struggle continued between Sultan ʿAlī and Sultan Sabaʾ's son, Muḥammad.
Select bibliography
- S. D. Goitein and Mordechai Akiva Friedman, India traders of the middle ages : documents from the Cairo Geniza : India book (Brill, 2008), vol. 1.
- Henry Cassels Kay, Yaman, its early mediæval history (E. Arnold, 1892).