Roads of Arabia

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34 Arabie US p522-545_BAT.qxd 23/06/10 21:29 Page 526 ROADS OF ARABIA Holy Cities of the Hijaz under the Ottomans of the Two Holy Sanctuaries, a title that he would henceforth use in all circumstances. At this point, the Sharif of Mecca, Barakat II ibn Muhammad ibn Barakat, who had been maintaining a cautious wait-and-see policy, could only recognize the fait accompli. Nevertheless, he waited until July 1517 to make his support official by sending his son as ambassador to the victor. Selim received him on the island of Rawda, not far from the Nilometer. According to the Egyptian chronicler Ibn Iyas, after an agreement was concluded, Selim granted the Sharif, Emir of Mecca, “the military command of the city, recognizing his absolute power over it and adjoining the provostship of its markets”. The chronicler notes that in this way “he had treated him with extreme justice. The prestige of Sharif Barakat was singularly enhanced because his son had been received with much honor”. 1 1. Ibn Iyas 1960, p. 188. As a result, after 235 years of Mamluk suzerainty, the holy places came under Ottoman suzerainty, which would last for four centuries. The position of Sharif of Mecca remained autonomous: the sharif was authorized to maintain direct relations with all Muslim states other than the Ottoman Empire and to receive offerings from them. However, he was appointed and dismissed by the Sultans of Istanbul, whose names were cited in the sermons in the mosques of Mecca. Hanafi Ottoman qadis (Islamic judges) had jurisdiction over the two holy cities, where their rulings had precedence over the qadis from the other Sunni schools. Ottoman qadis also presided in the other cities of the Hijaz: Jedda, Yanbu‘ and Ala. The Jedda region was designated a sanjak (administrative division) and the city was the seat of an Ottoman sanjak-bey (governor). The sanjak-bey was later granted the position of Shaykh al haram of Mecca, to bolster his authority in relation to the sharif. The sanjak administrative region was attached to the province of Egypt (eyalet- i Mısır). Integrated into an empire traversed by highly active commercial channels, Jedda generated considerable income from customs duties, part of which went to the sharif (sherif hissesi). Thus, the campaigns of 1516–17 allowed an empire that had previously been limited to Anatolia and Eastern Europe to expand considerably in the Middle East. Sulayman the Magnificent was to complete this takeover of Arab lands by bringing Iraq, Yemen and part of the Maghreb under Ottoman rule. No longer merely the “Sultanate of Rum”, a bordering sultanate on former Roman territory, the Ottoman state was now the successor to the most prestigious Muslim empires of history. However, in religious terms, as we have emphasized, the only title that Selim gained for his exploits was Servant of the Two Holy Sanctuaries, and not that of Caliph, as was claimed later, and under conditions that will be discussed below. Caravans and palanquins The mahmals continued to depart every year with the caravans of pilgrims from Damascus and Cairo, in the name of the Ottoman sultan. Although he never personally took part in the pilgrimage, the sultan was thus always represented. The Ottoman monopoly over the sending of these symbolic palanquins was never contested, except, for a brief period, by the Great Mughals of India under the reign of Akbar in the late 16th century. The cloth covering the wooden structure changed in colour, from the yellow of the Mamluk era to crimson red and green. Similarly, the gilded globes attached to the extremities became more precious under the Ottoman rulers, reflecting their accumulation of wealth. However, the descriptions of Western travellers in Cairo and Damascus during the processions of the mahmals that preceded the departure of the caravans indicated another evolution: the sole fact that they were going to Mecca and becoming part of the pilgrimage transformed the mahmals (and even more logically the kiswa, which would remain in contact with the Ka‘ba for a year, along with the ropes sent to hold it in place), which were originally political symbols, into objects of an extraordinarily fervent devotion that endowed them with supernatural powers. To justify this devotion, a belief (erroneous, as history would have it) arose that the mahmals carried a very elaborate, valuable copy of the Quran. Under Sulayman the Magnificent, the conquest of Yemen brought a third caravan of pilgrims under Ottoman authority, and subsequently a third mahmal was sent each year in the name of the Sultan of Istanbul. The tradition of a Yemeni mahmal would last only from 1543 to 1630, due to the relative instability of Ottoman dominion over that country. Nonetheless, the ceramic panels crafted in Kütahya in 1666 and installed in three different parts of Topkapı Palace show – in a depiction that was purely theoretical by then – all three of the mahmals dispatched by the lord of the land. In contrast, the Ottoman conquest of Baghdad in 1534 was not followed by the restoration of an “Iraqi” mahmal on behalf of the Ottomans, although such a tradition existed under the Islamized Il-Khans, Jalayirids and Ak Koyunlu. However, an order to the beylerbey of Basra in March 1565 mentions the formation, shortly after the Ottoman conquest of 1546, of a caravan that did not join one of the two large official caravans, but proceeded directly to Mecca, only a twenty-day journey on foot. Since this new caravan had not previously been duly authorized by the sultan, the Sharif of Mecca exacted tribute from its members. Complaints were made to Sulayman, and the inhabitants of Basra requested that a Mahmal of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz for the year 1874. Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul, 24/1319, 24/1351-1366 526 527
34 Arabie US p522-545_BAT.qxd 23/06/10 21:29 Page 528 ROADS OF ARABIA Holy Cities of the Hijaz under the Ottomans The procession of the Emin-i Sürre, engraving from Mouradgea d’Ohsson’s Tableau Général de l’Empire Othoman, published in Paris in 1787, vol. 2, pl. 47. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arsenal, Paris 528 529
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Page 227 and 228: E A S M E D I T E R R A N E A N Jer
Page 229 and 230: ROADS OF ARABIA The Pilgrimage Road
Page 231 and 232: ROADS OF ARABIA al-Aqra‘ and al-H
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