DISSEMBLING DESCENT, OR HOW THE BARBER LOST HIS TURBAN: IDENTITY AND EVIDENCE IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ZAYDĪ Yemen

Court cases involving imposture or impersonation offer unique insights into the workings of legal systems and their underlying ideas about personal identity and the social order. This study, based on manuscript and published sources, examines a case of imposture in eighteenth-century Yemen. Through a close analysis of two accounts of this case, I elucidate the legal processes and evidentiary standards by which personal identity was established, assumptions about a person's social identity, and the enactment of justice in the Zaydī highlands of Yemen.