In medieval South Yemen, first of all in Aden under the dynasty of the Rasulids, some members of the local Jewish community had got high positions, most often in the financial department. Their promotion was provoking the irritation of the crowd and of its leaders represented by Sufi sheikhs. At the instigation of one of them, viz. Sufyan b. ‘Abdallah al-Abyani, who was living in the 13^і1 century A. D., at least two Jews, one in Aden and the other in Ta‘izz, were killed. The data about those incidents are preserved in the works of Yemenite Islamic hagiography composed by al-Yafi‘1, al-Shardji, al-Burayhi and al-Tayyib Ba Makhrama. In all probability, the fate of a Jew, who at the turn of the 15^а-16^а1 centuries A.D. became a semi-independent ruler in the village of Bayhan, proved to be less dramatic, since the local Jewish community at that period was equated in status to members ofArab tribes enjoying full rights (al-Qaba'il), especially the right to carry weapons.