Although the northern region of Sa’dah used to be the main center of the Sayyids, they were also important farther south in Hadramout, where a migrant from Iraq named Ahmad Isa established their presence in AD 952. The Sayy¬ids were scarcely a class in the modern sense.24 Some of them were poor but were able, despite their poverty, to claim social status with wealthy and powerful shaikhs by virtue of being descendants of the Prophet.