Yemen was formerly a country whose inhabitants adhered to Arab polytheism, such as idol worship. Some inhabitants of Yemen were also followers of Judaism, because the Himyarite rulers after Tubba' Abu Karib Asad were converts to Judaism. Many years later, the Sassanian Empire conquered Yemen, and most of its inhabitants accepted the religion of Zoroastrianism.
There are mentions of the religion of Prophet Ismail, peace and blessings of Allah be upon Him, being present in Yemen during the rule of Tubba' Abu Karib Asad. The Tubba' had reverted to Islam after two Jewish rabbis who believed in Allah warned him about his evil deeds, and later he went back to Yemen with the rabbis to spread Islam. The population of Yemen accepted Islam, but after the death of the Tubba' most of them went astray and reverted the polytheism. Hence, Allah sent down His divine wrath on them, and they were mentioned in the Qur'an as the ‘People of Tubba’. This story is present in Imam Ibn Kathir's Tafsir of Surah Ad-Dukhan. (For the full version of this story, click here.)
The last powerful Himyarite Jewish ruler was Yusuf Dhu-Nuwas, who committed suicide after being unable to defend his territory from the Christian invaders who hailed from Ethiopia. The Sassanians later expelled the Christians from Yemen, and employed the last Himyarite prince Sayf ibn Dhi-Yazan as a vassal king of the Sassanian Empire. After Sayf died, his son Madi Karib became the vassal ruler. Then, Madi Karib died, only to be succeeded by the Sassanian general Vahrez, now known as the governor of Yemen. Vahrez was succeeded in his position by more Zoroastrian governors, who were his son, them grandson, and so on. But eventually, the position of governor was taken by a man named Badhan, who was entirely unrelated to Vahrez or any of his family members.
When Khosrow II, the Sassanian king of Persia, was angry with the Prophet ﷺ after recieving a letter which invited him to revert to Islam, he ordered Badhan to arrest the Prophet ﷺ. The locals of Yemen were informed of this, and they were very happy that the Prophet ﷺ would be arrested, as they were mainly sympathisers with the Quraysh. Badhan wrote a letter to the Prophet ﷺ to inform him of his arrest, which was handed to him in Madinah by a Sassanian envoy. But the Prophet ﷺ instead told the envoy to accept Islam after reading the letter. The envoy felt scared, and the Prophet ﷺ told him “Return from me this day of yours, so that you can come to me tomorrow, and I will tell you what I want.” The envoy then left Madinah back to Yemen. Afterwards, the Prophet ﷺ recieved a revelation from Allah that Kavad II had killed his father, Khosrow II. The next day, the envoy returned, and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told the envoy what had happened to the Persian king, and everything that was revealed to Him by Allah. The envoy was in disbelief, and he ran off to tell Badhan about what he had heard. Badhan was very surprised and shocked. He didn't believe what he had heard, but he had a feeling that it was true. An hour later, Badhan recieved a letter from a Sassanian official, which revealed that Khosrow II had been executed and overthrown, now Kavad II was ruling the Sassanian Empire. After reading this letter, Badhan declared that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was a true Prophet. Badhan and his companions accepted Islam, and he and his soldiers went out to Yemen to spread Islam there. The locals accepted Islam easily, and Yemen became a center of Islamic knowledge and learning.
Source:
Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Surah Ad-Dukhan (for the story about the Tubba' accepting Islam)
Geopolitics and Georgian Identity in Late Antiquity: The Dangerous World of Vakhtang Gorgasali by Christopher Haas (about the last powerful ruler of Himyar)
Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʿAyyārān and Futuwwa by Mohsen Zakeri (about Sassanian Yemen)
Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kubra by Ibn Sa'd (about Badhan, and the rest of the story after that)
Al-Seerah An-Nabawiyyah by Ibn Hisham
The Life of Muhammad: A translation of Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah by Alfred Guillaume
Al-Tabari's Tarikh (last two paragraphs)
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