Conclusion Frontiers of Memory

Abstract

The object of this study has been a Yemeni hereditary elite who ruled until the Imamate was dismantled, in a revolution that introduced republican rule. It analyzes how in the process of state transformation, members of the old elite, the sadah, locate themselves within shifting contexts of kinship and marriage, education and occupation, and moral and political authority. The book’s overall theme is an exploration of how remembering is implicated in concepts of personhood and morality. ‘Alid personhood is idealtypically defined through the memory of the ahl al-bayt and the holy scriptures, such that kinship with the venerated ancestors becomes enacted. It is argued that patrilineal descent is predicated on religious learning in the performance of kinship. Furthermore, in distinction to post-ghaybah Imami Shi‘ism according to which the twelve Imams are infused with everything that can be learnt, and need only to remember, the Zaydis merely claim that the Prophet’s descendants are endowed with the potential to better understand the scriptures. A number of practices, above all prolonged study and memorization, at once serve to gain morally sound knowledge and to commemorate learned forebears. Orthodox texts, some of which were channeled through or produced by the ancestors, through these practices become objects for validating and remembering relationships.