All the nine recognized sons of aging (77) Yahya bin Mohamed bin Hamid el Din, Imam of Yemen, in the southwestern corner of Arabia, are entitled to be called Saif el Islam (Sword of Islam). The Swords have frequently crossed each other, vying for succession to the black mattress with red cushions which is the Imam's couch of state in his capital, Sana. Yahya, who believes in one-man government, named his own successor—eldest son Ahmed, governor of Taiz province. But according to Yemenite tradition, a council of eleven elders should choose the new Imam. So the other sons have not lost hope.
Chief rival to Ahmed is Ali, who has two formidable assets: he commands the Sana garrison and is close to the Imamate's treasury, in the cellar under Yahya's palace. Brother Abdullah, Yahya's roving ambassador to various foreign posts (now in London), is too remote from Yemen to be a strong contender for the couch. Brother Hussein is amiable and popular, but used to be jailed now & then by his father for drinking bouts, is now in retirement on a farm. The eighth son, Ibrahim, fled from Yemen to British Aden a year ago after an unsuccessful attempt to unseat his father. He gave up the title Sword of Islam, called himself Saif el Hag (Sword of Truth).
Last week cables came from Aden to Cairo newspapers saying: "Our father Imam Yahya Hamid el Din has passed away. Ahmed el Waziry has been elected Imam and I am President of the Council." They were signed by Ibrahim. The Arab world wondered whether the Sword of Truth was sure of his facts. Perhaps Ibrahim's friends were trying again to oust Yahya. Last summer, a U.S. mission which visited Sana to sign a million-dollar loan agreement found the Imam in good health. He had recovered from an illness in 1946. But he had given up riding to the mosque by muleback, made the trip more comfortably in a blue seven-passenger Buick, 1941 model.
In London, Abdullah denied that his father was dead, cryptically added: "Conditions are unsettled and it's understandable that some extravagant reports might come from Yemen." At week's end, the secret of Yahya's mortal status and worldly successor was still hidden behind the mud-brick walls of his capital.