Meccan power under regional surveillance (AH seventh–eighth/ thirteenth–fourteenth CE century)

Abstract

This contribution analyses the mechanisms of control over the emirate of Mecca by the Ayyūbid, Rasūlid, Mamlūk, and Ilkhānid sultans during the seventh–eighth/thirteenth–fourteenth centuries. A systematic reading of Arabic sources, alongside modern scholarship, reveals intensified competition for dominance over the foremost holy city of Islam—an essential source of political legitimacy. Three principal modalities of control are identified. Firstly, the establishment of direct rule in Mecca through the appointment of representatives of the caliph or sultan from outside the Banū Qatāda Dynasty served to exercise direct oversight of the Meccan emirate. Although this attempt at centralised governance was met with resistance from local sharifs, internal dynastic rivalries prompted some into exile. This expatriation gave rise to a second form of control: the mobility of sharifs seeking social advancement in major regional capitals, where they frequented sultanic courts and, in certain cases, acted as intermediaries for regional powers. Finally, from the beginning of the eighth/fourteenth century, the Mamlūk regime implemented a more coercive form of control over sharifian elites, imprisoning and later releasing them from Egyptian prisons at the sultan’s discretion.