The following is a sequence of events of Yahya's life: • In 850 CE
Al-Mutawakkil brought Yahya from one of the Abbasid provinces in order to punish him, after he had reportedly assembled a group of supporters. Umar ibn Faraj al-Rukhkhaj
Al-Sijistani (one of the Abbasid's official secretaries who had purchased land for the founding of
Samarra) flogged him 18 lashes and he was incarcerated in
Baghdad in the Matbaq Prison before being released. • Yahya was hard pressed by his creditors and sought a grant from Umar ibn Faraj, but was harshly denied. He thus cursed Umar ibn Faraj and as a result was imprisoned, but was later set free. He then moved to live in Baghdad, but was still suffering from hardship. He then went to Samarra where he met another man whom he asked for a grant, but was again harshly denied. • Yahya then went to Kufa, where he rebelled in 864 CE. His uprising seems to have been a rash course of action. In Kufa, Yahya gathered a great throng of Bedouins and a contingent of Kufa also rallied around him. He then marched to
Al-Fallujah and encamped at a village known as al-‘Umud. He then marched to Kufa and proceeded as far as the treasury, where he took whatever he found. Following this, he declared his rebellion in Kufa. He then liberated the two prisons of Kufa of all those interred. He then left Kufa for its agricultural hinterland (the
Sawad) and settled in a place called Bustan. He was followed and supported by a group of
Zaydis, Bedouins living near Bustan and people from other certain places near Kufa. After establishing himself at Bustan his followers grew in number. • Yahya routed an Abbasid force sent to defeat him in a fierce battle near the Kufa bridge. • The Zaydis propagandized that he was the chosen one (al-Rida) of
Muhammad's family. This increased his popularity and even the mob of Baghdad held him in high esteem. In Kufa a group of experienced
Shiites swore allegiance to him, along with other people. While he was in Kufa he was making preparations for his forces, while the Abbasid forces sent to defeat him were also making the necessary preparations. • On the 13th
Rajab (20 August) 864 CE he marched against the Abbasid forces of Husayn ibn Isma’il, after being urged to do so by his followers. Some of Yahya's companions did not accept the news that he was defeated and killed. Instead, they believed that he was not killed and he only hid himself and went into
occultation and that he was the
Mahdi and the
Qa’im, who will reappear another time. His revolt had an interesting sequel in 255 A.H. (868-69 CE), when ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, the leader of the
Zanj Rebellion, claimed to be the incarnated form of Yahya. ==Elegies written for Yahya==