We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
The amirate of Mecca was established by sharifs of Hasanid ancestry in the middle of the fourth century a. h./tenth century a.d. The territory traditionally under its direct control included the holy city of Mecca and its immediate hinterland, the nearby hill town of Ṭā'if, and the Red Sea port of Jedda. In addition, the sharifs often exercised a tenuous hold over certain tribal areas in the Sarāt Mountains south of Ṭa'if, as well as the coastal plain south of Jedda, known as the Tihāma.
1 For the geographical extent of the amirate of Mecca during the medieval period, cf. al-Qalqashandī, Shihāb al-D¯n Abū 'l-'Abbās Aḥmad b. 'Alī, Ṣubḥ al-a'shā f¯ ṣinā'at al-inshā (Cairo, 1910–1920), iv, 255–60Google Scholar; al-Idrīsī, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh, Nuzhat al-musht¯q fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq (Naples, 1965–1977), n, 138–9Google Scholar; al-Iṣṭakhrī, , Kitāb al-Mas¯lik wa'l-mamālik, 2nd ed. (Leiden, 1967), 19Google Scholar; Baṭṭūṭa, Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh b., Tuḥfat al-nuẓẓār fī gharā'ib al-amṣ¯r wa ‘ajā’ib al-asfār (Beirut, 1964), 164.Google Scholar
2 cf. my article, ‘Maṣādir al-tamw¯n al-ghidhā'ī li-imārat Makka, 358/969–923/1517’, Majallat Kulliyyat al-Ādāb–Jāmi'at al-Malik Su'ūd, XII, no. 1, 1985, 193–219Google Scholar; idem, ‘Prices in Mecca during the Maml¯k Period’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, XXXII, 1989, 288–93Google Scholar; El-Hawary, Hassan Mohammed and Wiet, Gaston, Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, part 4, Arabie, Inscriptions et Monuments de la Mecque: Ḥaram et Ka'ba, 1, fasc. 1 (Cairo, 1985), 171–81.Google Scholar
3 The development of commerce in the amirate of Mecca has been discussed in my monograph, al-Aḥw¯l al-siyāsiyya wa'l-iqtiṣādiyya bi-Makka fī'l-‘aṣr al-Mamlūkī (Riyadh, 1985), 173–93Google Scholar; idem, ‘Prices’, 293–9.Google Scholar
4 The reasons for this increase are considered in von Heyd, Wilhelm, Histoire du commerce du Levant au Moyen-Âge, 2nd. ed. (Leipzig, 1923), II, 443–5Google Scholar; Darrag, Ahmed, L'Égypte sous le règne de Barsbay (Damascus, 1961), 195–200Google Scholar: Garçin, J. C., Un centre musulman de la Haut-Egypte mediévale: Qūs (Cairo, 1976), 420–5Google Scholar; Fahmī, Na'īm Zakī, Ṭuruq al-tijāra al-dawliyya wa mahaṭṭā-tuhā bayn al-sharq wa'l-gharb fī awākhir al-'uṣūr al-wuṣṭā (Cairo, 1973), 125–6, 133, 137–9.Google Scholar
5 al-Qalqashandī, , Ṣubḥ, IV, 276.Google Scholar
6 For a discussion of the meaning and development of the term mukūs during the Mamlūk period, cf. al-Qalqashandī, , Ṣubh, III, 459, 464–7Google Scholar; Taqī'l-Dīn Aḥmad b. ‘Alī al-Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-Sulūk li-ma'rifat duwal al-muiūk (Cairo, 1956–1973), 1, 267, n. 4Google Scholar; idem, al-Maw¯'iẓ wa'l-i'tibār bi-dhikr al-khiṭaṭ wa'l-āthār (Cairo, 1270 a.h.), 1, 103–7Google Scholar; II, 121; El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 161, 171ff.Google Scholar; Muḥammad Labīb al-Batanūnī, al-Riḥla al-Hijāziyya (Cairo, 1329 a.h.), 1, 69–70Google Scholar; Muḥammad Qandīl al-Baqlī, al-Ta'rīf bi-muṣṭalaḥāt Ṣubḥ al-a'shā (Cairo, 1983), 325Google Scholar; Sālim, Ḥilmī Muḥammad, Iqtiṣād Miṣr al-dākhili wa anzimatuhu fī'l-'ahd al-Mamlūkī (Alexandria, n.d.), 286–94Google Scholar; Ibrāhīm 'Alī Ṭarkhān, al-Nuẓum al-iqṭā'iyya fī'l-sharq al-awṣat fī'l-'uṣūr al-wuṣṭā (Cairo, 1968), 505–9Google Scholar; Mājid, ‘Abd al-Mun'im, Nuẓum dawlat salāṭīn al-Mamālīk wa rusūmuhum fī Miṣr, 2nd. ed. (Cairo, 1979), 1, 72–4Google Scholar; art. ‘Maks’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd. ed.
7 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā al-Ṣūlī, Akhbār al-Rāḍī wa'l-Muttaqī bi-Allāh (Cairo, 1935), 136Google Scholar; Jamāl al-Dīn Abū 'l-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b. Taghrī Birdī, al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa'l-Qāhira (Cairo, ?–1972), III, 264Google Scholar; Wiet, Gaston, ‘Un decret du sultan mamlouk Malik Achraf Sha'bān à la Mecque’, in Mélanges Louis Massignon (Paris, 1957), III, 402.Google Scholar
8 al-Muqaddasī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī ma'rifat al-aqālīm, 2nd. ed. (Leiden, 1967), 104–5.Google Scholar
9 Abū Mu'īn ai-Dīn Nāṣir Khusrū al-Qabādiyānī al-Marwazī, Safar-nāma: riḥlat Nāṣir Khusrū al-Qabādiyānī, Arabic transl, by al-Badalī, Aḥmad Khālid (Riyadh, 1983), 135–6.Google Scholar
10 Taqī al-D¯n Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Fāsī, al-'Iqd al-thamīn fī tārīkh al-Balad al-Amīn (Cairo, 1959–1969), VII, 33–34.Google Scholar
11 'Izz al-Dīn 'Alī b. Muḥammad b. al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī'l-tārīkh (Beirut, 1965–66), X, 617.Google Scholar
12 al-Idrīsī, , Nuzha, II, 135.Google Scholar
13 ibid., 11, 139.
14 ibid., 11, 138.
15 Najm al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ‘Umāra al-Yamanī, al-Nukat al-'aṣriyya fī akhbār al-wuzarā’ al-Miṣriyya (Challon, 1897), 53.Google Scholar
16 al-Fāsī, , ‘Iqd, IV, 355–6Google Scholar; idem., Shifā’ al-gharām bi-akhbār al-Balad al-Ḥarām (Cairo, 1956), II, 198.Google Scholar
17 Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Jubayr, Tadhkira bi'l-akhbār ‘an ittifāqāt al-asfār (Cairo, 1968), 55.Google Scholar
18 ibid., 69. One irdabb is equivalent to 90 litres; cf. Mortel, Richard T., ‘Weights and measures in Mecca during the Late Ayyūbid and Mamlūk periods’, in Serjeant, R. B. and Bidwell, R. L. (ed.), Arabian Studies (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 42, Cambridge, 1990), 178.Google Scholar Al-Maqrīzī (Sulūk, 1, 264Google Scholar) gives the compensation as 2000 dinars and 1000 irdabbs of wheat plus the revenues from lands in Egypt and the Yemen. Sibt Ibn al-Jawzī, Yūsuf b. Quzāoghlū, Mir'āt al-zamān fi tārīkh al-a'yān (Hyderabad, 1952), VIII, 338Google Scholar, maintains that it amounted to 8000 irdabbs of wheat alone, and he is supported by Abū Shāma al-Muqaddasī, Shihāb al-D¯n Abū Muḥammad ‘Abd al-Rahmān b. Ism¯'īl, Kitāb al-Rawdatayn fī akhbār al-dawlatayn (Cairo, 1287–88 a.h.), n, 3–4Google Scholar; and Bardī, Ibn Taghrī, Nujūm, VI, 78.Google Scholar Ibn al-Mujāwir, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū ‘l-Fatḥ Yūsuf b. Ya'qūb gives a figure of 4–6000 irdabbs of wheat in Tārīkh al-mustabṣir (Leiden, 1951), 1, 42.Google Scholar
19 Jubayr, Ibn, Tadhkira, 69.Google Scholar
20 al-Qalqashandī, , Ṣubḥ VII, 109–10.Google Scholar
21 ‘Abd al-Qādir b. Muḥammad al-Anṣārī al-Jazīrī, al-Durar al-farā'id al-munaẓẓama fī akhbār al-ḥājj wa ṭarīq Mokka al-Mu'aẓẓama (Riyadh, 1983), III, 816–17Google Scholar; Aḥmad b. Zaynī Daḥlān, Khulāṣat al-kalām fī bayān umarā al-Bay t al-Ḥarām (Cairo, 1304 a.h.), 21.Google Scholar
22 al-Athīr, Ibn, Kāmil, XII, 401Google Scholar; al-Fāsī, , ‘Iqd, VII, 53–54Google Scholar; al-Maqrīzī, , Sul¯k, 1, 175Google Scholar; ‘Abd al-Malik b. Ḥusayn al-‘Iṣāmī, Simṭ al-nujūm al-'awālī fī anbā’ al-awā'il wa'l-tawālī (Cairo, n.d.), IV, 212–13.Google Scholar
23 al-Mujāwir, Ibn, Mustabṣir, 1, 49.Google Scholar
24 The struggle between the Ayyūbids of Egypt and the Rasūlids of the Yemen for control of Mecca has been discussed in detail in Smith, G. R., The Ayyubids and early Rasulids in the Yemen (London, 1978)Google Scholar; Mortel, , Aḥwāl, 46–50Google Scholar; Garçin, , Qūṣ, 133–6Google Scholar; El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 121, 123–7.Google Scholar
25 Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥātim al-Yāmī, al-Simṭ al-ghālī al-thaman fī akhbār al-mul¯k min al-Ghuzz bi'l-Yaman (London, 1974), 220–1Google Scholar; ‘Alī b. al-Ḥasan al-Khazrajī, al-'Uqūd al-lu'lu'iyya fi tārīkh al-dawla al-Rasūliyya (Cairo, 1911–1914), 1, 68–9Google Scholar; al-Fās¯, , ‘Iqd, VI, 346–7.Google Scholar
26 al-Yāmī, , Simṭ, 234–5Google Scholar; al-Khazrajī, , ‘Uqūd, 1, 77–8Google Scholar; al-Fāsī, , ‘Iqd, 1, 386–7.Google Scholar
27 al-Fāsī, , ‘Iqd, 459Google Scholar; al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, 1, 579.Google Scholar
28 al-Najm ‘Umar b. Fand, Itḥāf al-warā bi-akhbār Umm al-Qur¯ (Jedda, n.d.), III, 96Google Scholar; al-Jazīrī, , Durar, 1, 602.Google Scholar
29 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, 1, 724.Google Scholar
30 ibid., al-Jazīr¯, , Durar, 1, 608.Google Scholar
31 al-Qāsim b. Yūsuf al-Sabtī al-Tujībī, Mustafād al-riḥla wa'l-ightirāb (Tunis, 1975), 219–20.Google Scholar
32 The political history of Mecca during the eighth/fourteenth century, including the gradual internal destabilization of the amirate and the increasing Mamlūk intervention has been discussed in Mortel, , Aḥwāl, 65–118Google Scholar; idem, ‘Zaydī Shi'ism and the ḥasanid Sharifs of Mecca’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, XIX, 1987, 462–8Google Scholar; Garçin, , Qūs, 203–4Google Scholar; El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 142–3, 144–6, 149.Google Scholar
33 al-Fāsī, , Shifā', II, 243Google Scholar; idem, 'Iqd, IV, 234, 405, 406.Google Scholar
34 The amirate of Madina was ruled by sharifs of Ḥusaynid ancestry, and was founded in the middle of the fourth/tenth century; cf. Mortel, Richard T., ‘The origins and early history of the Ḥusaynid amirate of Madīna to the end of the Ayyūbid period’, Studia Islamica, LXXIV, 1991, 63–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘The Ḥusaynid amirate of Madīna during the Mamlūk Period’, Studia Islamica (forthcoming).
35 al-Fasī, , 'Iqd, VI, 97Google Scholar; al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, II, 197Google Scholar; Birdī, Ihn Taghrī, Nujūm, IX, 59.Google Scholar
36 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, VI, 97.Google Scholar Ibn Ḥajar al-‘Asqalānī maintains that only the tax levied on the sale of wheat was repealed; cf. Inbā' al-ghumr bi-anbā' al-'umr (Cairo, 1969–1972), II, 322.Google Scholar Two Mamlūk fiscal handbooks from the ninth/fifteenth century mention Damāmayn as a waqf(for unspecified purposes) on Mecca and Madina; cf. Ibrāhīm b. Muḥammad b. Duqmāq, al-Intiṣar li-wāsiṭat 'iqd al-amṣār (Cairo, 1893), II, 31Google Scholar; Sharaf al-Dīn Yaḥyā b. al-Jī'ān, al-Tuḥfa al-saniyya bi-asmā' al-bilād al-Miṣriyya (Cairo, 1898), 193.Google Scholar
37 cf. Mortel, , ‘Prices’, 294–8, and the sources cited in n. 67.Google Scholar
38 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, III, 396; VI, 62.Google Scholar
39 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, II, 887.Google Scholar
40 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, vi, 64–5, 171Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Ithāf, III, 262–3.Google Scholar
41 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, II, p. 142Google Scholar; Jamāl al-Dīn Abū 'l-Maḥāsin Yūsuf b. Taghrī Birdī, al-Manhal al-Sāfī wa'l-mustawfī ba'd al-wāfī, MS Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, no. 1113 tārīkh, III, f. 212a.Google Scholar
42 This decree has been the subject of a thorough study by Gaston Wiet, cf. ‘Decret’. More recently, cf. El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 155–89.Google Scholar Ibn Taghrī Birdī ascribes the abolition of these mukūs to the amir Yalbughā and dates it to 767/1365–6. This assertion is patently erroneous, in light of extant dated inscriptions containing the text of the edict in question; cf. Nujūm, XI, 34.Google Scholar The decree is also mentioned in al-Maqr¯zī, Sulūk, III, 98Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar B., Itḥāf, III, 303–4Google Scholar; Darrag, , Barsbay, 224.Google Scholar
43 al-Batanūnī, , Riḥla, 97.Google Scholar
44 El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 155.Google Scholar
45 The Meccan mudd is equivalent to 
of the Meccan ghirāra, or 2.3–2.8 litres, depending on the value chosen for the volume of the ghirāra, cf. Mortel, , ‘Weights’, 180.Google Scholar
46 The measure intended is the ḥiml, approximately 244kg: cf. Mortel, , ‘Weights’, 182.Google Scholar
47 al-Fāsī, , Shifā', II, 249.Google Scholar
48 El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 155.Google Scholar
49 ibid., 155–6.
50 Fahd, ‘Umar b., Ithāf, III, 303.Google Scholar
51 al-Fāsī, , Shifā', II, 250.Google Scholar
52 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, VI, 69–70Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Ith¯f, III, 319.Google Scholar
53 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, III, 95.Google Scholar
54 ibid., VI, 210; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 385.Google Scholar
55 ai-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 90Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Ithāf, III, 401, 404.Google Scholar
56 ai-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 92Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 408.Google Scholar
57 Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 407.Google Scholar
58 ai-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 94Google Scholar; ‘Umar b. Fahd, Itḥāf, III, 415.Google Scholar
59 ai-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 95Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 420Google Scholar; de Cr`te, Emmanuel Piloti, L'Égypte au commencement du xve siècle d'après le Traité d'Emmanuel Piloti de Crète (Cairo, 1950), 42.Google Scholar
60 El-Hawary, and Wiet, , Matériaux, 198.Google Scholar
61 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 100–11Google Scholar; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 435–6.Google Scholar Al-Ḥar¯shī remained in the service of Ḥasan b. ‘Ajlān for only three years, after which he was removed from his position when he became too powerful in the eyes of the sharif; cf. his biography in al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, III, 400–3Google Scholar; Shams al-D¯n Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī, al-Ḍaw' ai-lāmi' li-ahl al-qarn al-tāsi' (Beirut, n.d.), III, 51.Google Scholar
62 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 117.Google Scholar
63 ibid., IV, 116; Fahd, ‘Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 506.Google Scholar
64 Badr al-D¯n Maḥmud al-'Aynī, 'Iqdal-jumān f¯ tārīkh ahl al-zamānGoogle Scholar, MS Cairo: D¯r al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, no. 1584 t¯r¯kh, XXV, f. 415.Google Scholar
65 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 118Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 515.Google Scholar
66 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 120Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, III, 524.Google Scholar
67 al-Fāsī, , Shif¯', II, 257.Google Scholar
68 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 122Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 530–1.Google Scholar
69 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 128Google Scholar; 'Umar b. Fahd, Itḥāf, III, 555.Google Scholar
70 ai-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 136Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 565.Google Scholar The iflūrī is the Venetian ducat, worth about 54 Mas'ūdī dirhams at this time, cf. Mortel, ‘Prices’, 301.
71 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 136–7Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, III, 571.Google Scholar
72 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 141Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, III, 579.Google Scholar
73 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 142Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar b., Itḥāf, III, 581Google Scholar; Qutb al-Dīn al-Nahrawālī, al-'Ilām f¯ a'lām Bayt All¯h al-Ḥarām (Cairo, 1304 a.h.), 138.
74 al-Fāsī, , 'Iqd, IV, 145, 148Google Scholar; al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, IV, 681, 881Google Scholar; cf. also Labib, Subhi Y., Handelsgeschichte Ägyptens in Spätmittelalter (Wiesbaden, 1965), 378Google Scholar; Heyd, , Histoire, II, 445–6Google Scholar; Darrag, , Barsbay, 200Google Scholar; Ḥasan, Yūsuf Faḍi, The Arabs and the Sudan (Khartoum, 1973), 80–1.Google Scholar
75 Birdī, Ibn Taghrī, Nujūrn, XIV, 251–2.Google Scholar
76 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, IV, 680–1, 707–8Google Scholar; Bahā'l-Dīn Muḥammad b. Luṭf Allāh al-Khālidī, al-Maqṣad al-rafī' al-mansha' al-h¯dī li-ṣina'at al-inshā', MS Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya, no. 21031 zayn, 1Google Scholar, ff. 154a–b; ‘Umar b. Fahd, Itḥāf, III, 620–2Google Scholar; cf. also Labib, , Handelsgeschichte, 380.Google Scholar
77 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, IV, 707–8.Google Scholar
78 Ghars al-Dīn Khal¯l b. Shāhīn al-Ẓāhirī, Zubdat kashf al-mamālik wa bayān al-ṭuruq wa'l-masālik (Paris, 1891), 14.Google Scholar
79 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, IV, 723Google Scholar; Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, III, 632.Google Scholar
80 al-Maqrīzī, , Sulūk, IV, 781Google Scholar; Ḥajar, Ibn, Inbā, III, 404.Google Scholar
81 Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, IV, 31.Google Scholar
82 al-Khālidī, , Maqṣad, 1, f. 154b.Google Scholar
83 Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, IV, 101.Google Scholar
84 ibid., iv, 143.
85 al-Maqr¯zī, , Sulūk, IV, 1211.Google Scholar
86 Bird¯, Ibn Taghr¯, Nuj¯m, XV, 349.Google Scholar
87 Birdī, Ibn Taghrī, Manhal, 1, f. 334a.Google Scholar
88 Fahd, 'Umar B., Itḥāf, IV, 179–80.Google Scholar
89 Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. 'Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī, al-Tibr al-masbūk f¯ dhayl al-Sulūk (Cairo, 1896), 40–1.Google Scholar
90 'Umar B., FahdItḥāf, IV, 216–17.Google Scholar
91 ibid., IV, 231.
92 ibid., iv, 483.
93 'Abd al-'Az¯z b. ‘Umar b. Fahd, Bulūgh al-qirā bi-dhayl Itḥāf al-warā bi-akhbār Umm al-QurāGoogle Scholar, MS Riyadh: King Saud University Libraries, no. fa 73/1, f. 10b.
94 al-N¯mdahī, 'Abd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad, Kanz al-ma'ānī f¯'l-inshā’Google Scholar, MS Istanbul: Reis ül-Kūttap Mustafa Efendi, no. 884, f. 203b.
95 'Fahd, Umar b., Ithāf, IV, 603–4Google Scholar; al-Jazīrī, , Durar, 1, 755.Google Scholar Although Sultan Jaqmaq had ordered in 843/1439–40 that 75 per cent of the duties collected on such merchandise be sent to Cairo, it appears that his decree was subsequently revoked.
96 ‘Fahd, Umar b., Itḥāf, IV, 654Google Scholar; al-Jazīrī, , Durar, 1, 758.Google Scholar
97 'Abd al-'Azīz b. Fahd, , BulūghGoogle Scholar, s f. 53a.
98 ibid., ff. 71 a, 72b.
99 ibid., f. 76b.
