Background
Ahmad bin Yahya was a 12th-generation descendant of the Zaidi imam ad-Da"i Yusuf (d 1012), and was born in either 1363 or 1373.
Ahmad bin Yahya was a 12th-generation descendant of the Zaidi imam ad-Da"i Yusuf (d 1012), and was born in either 1363 or 1373.
He was very well educated and a prolific writer in various subjects. In 1391, the old imam al-Nasir Muhammad Salah al-Din died, leaving only young offsprings. This step was not accepted by ad-Dawwani, who immediately appointed the deceased imam"s son al-Mansur Ali bin Salah ad-Din.
In 1392, al-Mahdi Ahmad was captured by al-Mansur Ali"s forces and imprisoned.
In 1399 the ex-imam escaped with the help of sympathetic prison guards. He lived a private life until his death from the plague in 1436.
While he lacked the administrative or military skills necessary for a Zaydiyyah imam, al-Mahdi Ahmad left a considerable amount of writings in dogmatics, logic, poetry, grammar and law. Foreign example, he authored a theological-legal encyclopedia, First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Bahr al-zahhar.