Worn Out

For 13 years the old (seventyish) Imam of Yemen has been as absolute a ruler as history records. In his feudal desert country, it took the Imam's personal signature to get a gasoline permit, authorize a $15 printing job, or order light bulbs for the palace. He clung to every trifle of power.

But last week he was signing nothing, not even orders for the beheading of his foes. The tough, ruffianly old Imam had moved out of his capital city of Taiz and established himself and his 40 women four miles away in the pleasure palace of Sala. The Imam was wasted by disease and wounds. Four months ago, the third assassination attempt this year left him dreadfully wounded. A string of foreign specialists have patched him up, but the Imam is not the man he was.

Into the seat of power moved the Imam's son, Seif el Islam el Badr, 35, a darkly handsome prince who has led Yemen a few steps out of isolation on a leftist course. Already Defense and Foreign Minister, Badr last week at his father's order became acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister as well. He also since 1955 has worn the title Crown Prince, a reward for saving his father from a revolt by his uncle Abdullah during one of the many and murderous family power struggles that are sprinkled through Yemen's history. Like several of the Imam's brothers, Abdullah ended by losing his head.

The title of Crown Prince does not as sure Badr of succession. A new Imam is picked by the ulema (learned men) who live in the fortress city of Sana in the north of Yemen. They can choose any male of the royal family or any Yemenite directly descended from the Prophet, of whom there may be as many as 50,000 in Yemen. The ulema do not much like Badr, have refused requests by the Imam to ratify Badr's title. Left-leaning Prince Badr has cultivated the U.A.R.'s Gamal Abdel Nasser, and at his urging has traveled to Russia and China, bringing back $50 million in Communist aid (which predictably was countered by U.S. aid, though in smaller amounts).

Badr's rival is one of the Imam's few surviving brothers, Seif el Islam el Hassan, 56, a mild and moral man who is considered pro-Western. Since the 1955 revolt, he has been on the sidelines of Yemeni politics, serving in New York on his country's U.N. delegation.

The Imam, who apparently has reservations about his son's admiration for Nas ser and two years ago tossed out the teachers and technicians Badr had imported from Egypt, last week called Hassan home from New York. Hassan has been given no job yet, but the ulema favor him over Badr. And on his way home Hassan spent four days in Saudi Arabia talking with King Saud, who is alarmed by the 2,000 Red Chinese and Russian technicians Badr imported, and feels Hassan is the man to prevent a Communist takeover of his neighbor.

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