Nearly all European visitors to Yemen in the 1930s met the Zaydi Imam Yaḥyā Ḥamīd al-Dīn. They all agreed that the imam had a strong aura of power around him. While some, like Amin Rihani, viewed him in a critical light, others, like Flieringa, believed that with the right approach, there could be a way to collaborate. Nevertheless, Flieringa remarked on the boundless power of the imam: “Theoretically speaking, the power of the Imam is as unlimited as one can imagine. As a religious leader and descendant of the Prophet, among a people whose entire existence, including the government, is fully interwoven with religion, he embodies ALL authority.” (Gellius Flieringa, Verslag ontsluiting Jemen, Or. 8912, p. 21).
Amīn b. Fāris al- Rīḥānī, Arabian peak and desert. Travels in Al-Yaman, London 1930, frontispiece (8200 D 14)