Ahmad Numan

Ahmad Muhammad Numan (; 26 April 1909 – 27 September 1996) was a Yemeni educator, propagandist and politician. He was one of the main progenitors of modern Yemeni nationalism. Numan was the founder of the Free Yemeni Movement and a propagandist in Cairo for the Yemeni Unionists, and served once as foreign minister and twice as prime minister of the Yemen Arab Republic.

Family and youth Numan was a descendant of a family of important shaykhs in al-Hujariyya, a province in the southern highlands southeast of the department of Taiz. Numan's uncle, Abd al-Wahhab Numan, was the Ottoman-appointed hakim (governor) of the region. The Numans were Sunni, specifically Shafi'i. Numan's father was a farmer. The school became famous for teaching geography, arithmetic and modern sciences. The school also soon became a local center for the discussion of current events. Much of the material came from books and newspapers supplied by Numan's brother Ali, who worked in Aden. The regulars who attended the discussions came to be known as Nadi a-Islah (the "Reform Group"). Unlike reform-minded intellectuals in the capital of Sanaa, the Dubhan group was made up of peasant farmers.

Numan's school attracted notice. In 1935, Ahmad al Muta, then an examination inspector for the Ministry of Education, met Numan. Al-Muta was an outspoken advocate for reform, for which he was removed from the Army and as editor of the Imam's official newspaper. After the Imam's defeat in the border war with Saudi Arabia al-Muta had formed the secret Hay'at al Nidal (the Committee of the Struggle") to resist a conservative backlash. Al-Muta tried to attach Numan's groups to that organization. And when the Imam's secret police discovered the Hay'at al Nidal and arrested al-Muta, Numan was placed under house arrest in Taiz.

Activities in Cairo On release from arrest, Numan travelled to Cairo. He later said that while under arrest he developed his ambition to be a political leader. He left Dhjubhan in 1937 and travelled to Cairo by way of Lahej and Aden. Numan's original goal was to attend King Fuad I University but was refused admission because he lacked qualifications in modern subjects. Instead Numan reluctantly attended al-Azhar University, which he feared would simply duplicate the Islamic education he received at Zabid. Instead, he encountered modern Arab political thought. The university was a center of Muslim Brotherhood activity, who were particularly interested in Yemen, owing to its isolation, as a suitable test for governance according to shari'a. At al-Azhar Numan made the acquaintance of Ali al-Tahir, a Palestinian newspaper publisher in Cairo. It was through al-Tahir that Numan met Shakib Arslan.

Arslan soon took Numan under his wing.

While working for Arslan and writing for al-'Alam, Numan also wrote pamphlets. His first contribution was an introduction to The Journey of H.H. Prince Sayf al-Islam the Great Crown Prince of Yemen by Sayyid Husayn al-Yamani in 1937. He also wrote two pamphlets mainly about his treatment by Sayyid Ali al-Wazir, the governor of Taiz: The First Moan (1948) and A Few Words on the Outrages of Ali al-Wazir (1939), both of which also criticized the government of Yemen in general.

In March 1940 the poet Muhammad al-Zubayri arrived in Cairo. Although al-Zubayri's patron was Ali al-Wazir, the former governor of Taiz against whom Numan's pamphlets were directed, al-Zubayri sought out Numan (whom he had once before met when he accompanied Ahmad al Muta to inspect Numan's school). Although the poet had no background in reform politics or anti-imamic agitation and spent his first few months in Cairo writing poetry and reading at Dar al-Ulum University, he was gradually drawn into the orb of Yemeni dissidents. In mid-1940 al-Zubayri and Numan formed al-Katiba al-Ula (the "First Battalion"), a discussion group focusing on plans for reform of Yemen. The members contributed articles to the Cairo press.

In 1941 Arslan decided to return to Switzerland and invited Numan to join him. But Numan's travel documents were not in order, and he decided to return to Aden instead. Numan remained in contact with al-Zubayri, who continued the meetings of al-Katiba, changing its name, however, to Shabab al-Amr, based on the title of the reform manifesto he was writing: al-Barnamij al-Awwal min Baramij Shabab al-Amr bi'l-Ma'ruf wa 'l-Nahi 'an al-Mankur ("The First Programme of the Youths for Promoting the Good and Preventing the Bad"), a title based on the Quranic expression suggesting government by the ummah. In August al-Zubayri arrived in Taiz with his Programme and would later be joined by other of the shabab from Cairo.

Disregarding Numan's advice, al-Zubayri proceeded with his plan. The Imam exploded with rage and charged him with "offence against Islam." He set up a board to try al-Zubaryi, which included the unnamah, including Zayd al-Daylami of the Sanaa appeal court and notables such as former Governor of Taiz Ali al-Wazir and his son Abdullah al-Wazir (whom he suspected of using al-Zubayri to promote their own ambitions for the imamate).

Offices in the Yemen Arab Republic Numan's first term as prime minister was under President Abdullah al-Sallal. Numan served for less than three months, from 20 April to 6 July 1965. His second term was under President Abdul Rahman al-Iryani, this time lasting less than four months, from 3 May to 24 August 1971.

Numan withdrew from politics completely when his son Muhammad Ahmad Numan was assassinated. He spent the rest of his life in Saudi Arabia and Cairo.