Mohammad Ahmad Haydara

Muhammad Ahmad Haydara (1902 – 1973; Arabic: محمد أحمد حيدرة, romanized: Mohammed Ahmad Haydarâ) was the first teacher of the enlightenment movement in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen. He also wrote the lyrics for the Yemeni anthem, named Royal Salute.^[1]

Haydara was born in the village of al-Duwaymat, in the Ottoman Empire. His father, Ahmad Haydara, was a merchant. He received his education in Aden, which belonged to the Aden Protectorate at the time. Later, he went to Cairo and studied there, obtaining a baccalaureate. Haydara founded the school al-Ahliyya in 1930 with Ahmad Muhammad Numan, a modern school teaching subjects such as mathematics, geography, and science. He had three sons, named Muhammad, Shaher, and Abdullah.^[2] In 1973, Muhammad Ahmad Haydara died in Alexandria of illness.^[3]