Arwa al-Sulayhi
Arwa al-Sulayhi is still remembered as a great and much-loved sovereign, as attested in Yemeni historiography, literature, and popular lore, where she is referred to as "Balqis al-sughra" ("the junior queen of Sheba"). Although the Sulayhids were Ismaili, they never tried to impose their beliefs on the public. Shortly after Queen Arwa's death, the country was split between five competing petty dynasties along religious lines. The Ayyubid dynasty overthrew the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. A few years after their rise to power, Saladin dispatched his brother Turan Shah to conquer Yemen in 1174.