The Rasulids arrived in South Arabia towards the end of the sixth/twelfth century as Turkoman officers in the Ayyubid military. Thereafter they established a dynasty that lasted until the mid-ninth/fifteenth century. At the height of their power at the end of the seventh/thirteenth century, an effort to further buoy their political legitimacy was undertaken by resituating their ethnic origins to South Arabia. This first appeared within a genealogy that simultaneously showed their emergence from the complex web of descent of the local tribes, as well as juxtaposed them with the rulers of the Islamic Caliphate and elevated them above other contemporary political groups in South Arabia. However, after the Rasulid military was increasingly challenged over the course of the eighth/fourteenth century and the dynasty’s influence in the region and the wider Islamic world continued to dissipate, the assertion of their local origins was greatly fleshed out into a narrative at the beginning of a dynastic chronicle of the early ninth/fifteenth century. This prologue explains more explicitly how they first emigrated from South Arabia in the pre-Islamic period only to then return in the late medieval period as its rightful rulers. Overall, the construction of this origin story points to the Rasulids’ attempt to take on a new strategy of identification through the appropriation of South Arabian cultural memory in order to strengthen their political status.

中文翻译：

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写下中世纪晚期南阿拉伯拉苏里德人的种族起源

拉苏利德家族在 6/12 世纪末作为阿尤布军队的土库曼军官抵达阿拉伯南部。此后，他们建立了一个王朝，一直持续到 9/15 世纪中叶。在 7/13 世纪末他们的权力达到顶峰时，通过将他们的族裔血统归还到南阿拉伯来进一步提升他们的政治合法性。这首先出现在一个系谱中，该系谱同时显示了他们从当地部落的复杂血统网络中出现，并将他们与伊斯兰哈里发的统治者并列在一起，并将他们提升到南阿拉伯其他当代政治团体之上。然而，在拉苏里德军队在 8/14 世纪的过程中受到越来越多的挑战以及该王朝在该地区和更广泛的伊斯兰世界的影响力继续消散之后，他们对当地起源的断言在九/十五世纪初的王朝编年史。这个序言更明确地解释了他们如何在前伊斯兰时期首先从南阿拉伯移民，然后在中世纪晚期作为其合法统治者返回。总的来说，这个起源故事的构建指向了拉苏利德家族试图通过挪用南阿拉伯文化记忆来采取一种新的认同策略，以加强他们的政治地位。在 9/15 世纪初的王朝编年史开始时，他们对当地起源的断言被极大地充实为叙述。这个序言更明确地解释了他们如何在前伊斯兰时期首先从南阿拉伯移民，然后在中世纪晚期作为其合法统治者返回。总的来说，这个起源故事的构建指向了拉苏利德家族试图通过挪用南阿拉伯文化记忆来采取一种新的认同策略，以加强他们的政治地位。在 9/15 世纪初的王朝编年史开始时，他们对当地起源的断言被极大地充实为叙述。这个序言更明确地解释了他们如何在前伊斯兰时期首先从南阿拉伯移民，然后在中世纪晚期作为其合法统治者返回。总的来说，这个起源故事的构建指向了拉苏利德家族试图通过挪用南阿拉伯文化记忆来采取一种新的认同策略，以加强他们的政治地位。