Sulaymani Ismaili Arabs

The Sulaymani Ismaili Arabs follow the Sulaymani branch of Tayyibi Musta'li Ismaili Islam, a Shia community found almost only on both sides of the Saudi-Yemeni border: in Najran Province of Saudi Arabia, where most of them live, and in the Haraz mountains west of Sana'a and a few districts of Ibb in Yemen. Their faith goes back to the Fatimid caliphate and to Yemen's Ismaili Sulayhid dynasty (1047-1138), whose Queen Arwa they still honour. The branch is named after Sulayman ibn Hasan al-Hindi, whom most Yemeni Tayyibis followed after a succession dispute in 1589-1591, while most Indian Tayyibis followed Dawud ibn Qutbshah and became the Dawoodi Bohras. Persecution under Yemen's Zaydi imams moved the leadership from Haraz to Najran in the early 17th century, and since then the supreme guide (al-Da'i al-Mutlaq) has almost always come from the Makrami family, a lineage of the Yam tribe; in Yemen the community is therefore called the Makarima. The Ismailis of Najran belong mainly to the Yam and Hamdan tribes, whose lands extend into Yemen; the Yemeni Sulaymanis are highland villagers and Sana'a traders tied to Najran through the da'i, who names a representative for every Yemeni district where they live. Saudi forces conquered Najran in 1933 and the 1934 Treaty of Taif left it in Saudi Arabia, so the community now lives under two states. No source counts them: about 300,000-400,000 live in Saudi Arabia and 40,000-80,000 in Yemen, so most are Saudi citizens. They are not the Nizari Ismailis led by the Aga Khan, nor the Dawoodi Bohras, who share their early history and some shrines but follow a different da'i in Mumbai.

Sulaymani Ismailis live by the tribal honour code of the southern Arabian highlands, with strong clan loyalty and hospitality. In Najran they build mudbrick tower-houses and farm dates, citrus and grain in a fertile wadi; in Haraz they live in fortified stone villages on mountain peaks, where the outer walls of the houses form the village wall, above terraces of coffee, sorghum, millet and lentils. The community is conservative and closed to outsiders. Most marry within it; marrying out has long been easier for men than for women, and women describe the community deciding their dress, outings, work, marriage and travel. In Yemen a Sulaymani marriage committee has shortened wedding celebrations to cut the cost of marriage for young men. Long-standing slanders about their morals make many keep their faith to themselves at school and work, though some younger Yemeni Sulaymanis now speak of it openly. They tend to stay out of politics and earn their living in farming and private trade, and they take pride in their history: the Sulayhid state, Queen Arwa and their old manuscripts.

Sulaymanis believe the line of imams continues in hiding among the descendants of the Fatimid infant al-Tayyib (born 1130), and that in the imam's absence the community is led by al-Da'i al-Mutlaq, the 'absolute summoner', seated in Najran. Below him come ranks that a member rises through: the responsive (mustajib), the believer (mu'min), the locally authorised (ma'dhun) and the fully authorised (ma'dhun mutlaq). Their law follows the Fatimid judge al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 974), who added loyalty to the imams (walaya) and ritual purity (tahara) to the pillars of Islam. They read the Qur'an for a hidden inner meaning (batin) as well as its outward sense (zahir); the inner meaning is taught only by the da'i and his deputies, and initiates swear an oath to keep it from outsiders. They fix the start of the lunar months by an astronomical calendar, so their fasts and feasts can fall a day apart from their neighbours'. They commemorate Ashura and honour the Prophet's family, and visit shrines of past da'is and of Queen Arwa in Jibla; Sulaymanis keep fewer festivals and gatherings than the Dawoodi Bohras. In Saudi Arabia the state has treated their worship as deviant: officials called Ismailis 'infidels' in 1997, and the 2000 Najran uprising began when religious police raided a mosque during Ashura. In Yemen centuries of forced conversion under the Zaydi imams ended in 1962, and the Houthi authorities now court them as fellow Shia. Anti-Shia preaching has led some young people to become Sunni.

No church, mission or known believers among Sulaymani Ismailis in either country, and no resources in their dialects. The full Bible exists in Standard Arabic, and in Yemen a Sanaani Arabic New Testament (2024), the JESUS film and audio recordings in Sanaani Arabic can reach the Haraz community. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen punish leaving Islam, and both states watch this community closely. A closed, in-marrying community that guards its own teaching from outsiders, and that has suffered for centuries for its beliefs, is wary of any outside religious influence.

Yemen has two kinds of Tayyibi Ismailis. The Sulaymanis (Makarima) are Arab highlanders of Haraz and Ibb who follow the da'i in Najran; they are this people. The Dawoodi Bohras follow the da'i in Mumbai; in Yemen they are a few thousand Haraz villagers around al-Hutayb, where the shrine of the 12th-century da'i Hatim ibn Ibrahim draws Bohra pilgrims from India and beyond, and Indian-descended traders in Sana'a and Aden. The split dates to 1589-1591, when most Yemenis followed Sulayman ibn Hasan and most Indians followed Dawud ibn Qutbshah. The Bohras' leaders led the call to replace qat with coffee in Haraz in 1993 and 1999, which Sulaymani farmers there also followed.

In April 2000, when Ismailis publicly commemorated Ashura in Najran, religious police (mutawa'in) raided the Mansura mosque, seizing religious texts and arresting clerics. Armed Ismaili tribesmen of the Yam retaliated against security forces, killing approximately 40 personnel. The Saudi military deployed heavy reinforcements to suppress the uprising. In the aftermath, authorities imprisoned and tortured many Ismailis, and transferred dozens of Ismaili government employees to posts outside the region as collective punishment. A 1934 covenant promising non-interference in Ismaili religious affairs was cited by the community but ignored by the government.