Yemen Arab Republic, 1948 — rebel coup attempt
Event Summary
On 17 February 1948 the Alwaziri coup struck the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen: an assassin from the Bani Murad tribe shot and killed Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed Din, ruler since 1918, near Sanaa, and the rival sayyid family of the al-Wazirs seized the capital, proclaiming Abdullah bin Ahmed al-Wazir as imam at the head of a self-styled constitutional government backed by Free Yemeni reformists. The dynastic overthrow failed. Crown Prince Ahmad bin Yahya escaped, rallied the northern tribes behind his claim to the imamate, and encircled Sanaa; in mid-March 1948 his forces retook the city, at the price of allowing a seven day tribal sack of the capital in which as many as a quarter million tribesmen took part.
Abdullah al-Wazir was deposed and beheaded on 8 April 1948. The episode, which cost around 5,000 lives, restored Hamidaddin rule under Imam Ahmad and foreshadowed the revolutions that ended the imamate in 1962.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
67802171948
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Imam Yahya was assassinated on 17 February 1948, but his dynasty retained the throne as his son Ahmad bin Yahya crushed the coup and succeeded him.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; killed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
New York Herald Tribune
Times of India
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →