Persecutions and conversion pressures; Maimonides addresses the « Epistle to Yemen » to threatened Jews

Under the rule of the Ayyubids and then the Zaydi imams, the communities of Yemen faced pressure to convert and witnessed the appearance of a preacher announcing the imminent coming of the messiah. At a loss, the notables of Sanaa wrote to Maimonides, then living in Egypt.

His response, the Epistle to Yemen, addressed to Jacob ben Nathanel al-Fayyumi, urged steadfastness without provocation, warned against messianic calculations, and recalled that external constraints cannot reach the inner faith. The text, immediately translated into Hebrew, would become one of the most widely read writings of consolation among the communities of the East; the Yemeni tradition also reports that Maimonides obtained relief from a tax that weighed upon them.