The Rassid imamate of Yemen maintained an unusually continuous tradition of silver dirhams at a time when much of the Islamic world had effectively abandoned the denomination in favor of copper or gold. Al-Mahdi li-Din Allah Ahmad al-Jahili ruled as imam in a line of Zaydi scholars whose religious legitimacy was inseparable from their coinage rights — the dirham was as much a theological statement as a fiscal instrument. The Zaydi imamate would survive, intermittently, until 1962.
The Rassid imamate of Yemen maintained an unusually continuous tradition of silver dirhams at a time when much of the Islamic world had effectively abandoned the denomination in favor of copper or gold. Al-Mahdi li-Din Allah Ahmad al-Jahili ruled as imam in a line of Zaydi scholars whose religious legitimacy was inseparable from their coinage rights — the dirham was as much a theological statement as a fiscal instrument. The Zaydi imamate would survive, intermittently, until 1962.