Zaid bin Ali al-Wazir is a scholar, poet, politician, historian, former diplomat, and editor who from a young age was tutored by leading Yemeni men of literature and Islamic sciences (ʿulamāʾ). He has published many books, including Autocracy: Political Jurisprudence Crisis among Muslims (al-Fardiyya: Baḥth fī azmat al-fiqh al-siyāsī ʿindā l-Muslimīn), An Attempt to Correct the Path (Muḥāwala li-taṣḥīḥ al-masār), and An Attempt to Comprehend the Yemeni Problem (Muḥāwala li-fahm al-mushkila al-yamaniyya), as well as numerous scholarly articles. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he was a founding member of the so-called Third Force and the Union of Popular Forces party (Ittiḥād al-Quwā al-Shaʿbiyya). He was one of the founders and main contributors to al-Shoura newspaper. In 1999 he established the Yemen Heritage and Research Center (Markaz al-Turāth wa-l-Buḥūth al-Yamanī), which publishes the journal al-Masār, focusing on Yemeni issues.