4 - The Last Years of Yaḥyā b. ‘Abd Allāh (d. 187/803)

Summary

This chapter discusses the last eleven years of the life of Ya?ya b. ‘Abd Allah (d. 187/803). The Sunni sources express an interest in Ya?ya only insofar as he helps explain other developments in the ‘Abbasid world. In other words, Sunni historians are vested in an interpretive framework shaped by the larger tapestry of ‘Abbasid caliphal history in which Ya?ya plays a marginal role. The Zaydi sources exist within a different conceptual world where the ‘Abbasid caliphs play the role of tyrants in a broad ‘Alid led struggle for the establishment of a just state. In Ya?ya b. ‘Abd Allah, they rehabilitate a figure generally accepted as a Zaydi Imam but saddled with a history of accommodating ‘Abbasid power through interpretive frameworks that place him in the mold of an ideal Imam. The chapter demonstrates that Sunni and Shi‘i works adhere to the same rhetoricized model of historical writing despite the modern tendency to deem the latter as either hopelessly polemical (in the case of Twelver sources) or to ignore them altogether (in the case of Zaydi sources).