The Importance of the Holy Cities and Some Cases of their Internal Disorders
It was of vital importance for the Ottoman Sultans to be considered seriously as the rulers of the holy cities, which included jerusalem, the ShīCite cities in Iraq (Najaf, Karbala, and Kazimayn), Mecca and Medina, as well as the main routes of pilgtimage to them. Every year pilgrims from Egypt and Africa gathered in Cairo or Damascus. These people needed to be guided and defended on the way to Mocca and the holy cities, and the inhabitants of these places also needed to be protected (1).
After Sultan Murād IV’s reign (2), however, the importance of the holy cities (Mecca and Medina) declined and the administration of these places was completely handed over to the internal governors, the Ashrāf and umarā’, and in return the inhabitants did not expect from the Sultan more than the arrival of the annual charity (3).
The events occurring during this time in these two cities demonstrated the previously mentioned disorders of the provincial authority in every place. The governor of Mecca came from the Ashrāf family, who enjoyed the ceremonial protocol of the Empire with the privileged ranks of al-Sadr al-ACzam (4) and khedive (5), while his post was called Imārat Makkah (6). Nevertheless, we find that this Sharīf, despite the privileges already mentioned, could be removed by the Sanjak [Beg] as occurred when the Sanjak (7) [Beg] of Juddah, Muhammad Bāshā (8), complained strongly against Sharīf SaCad ibn Zayd (9), who was Shārif of Mecca in 1105/1693-4. The Sanjak [Beg] succeeded in obtaining an order from the Sultan to remove him office, but when the Sharīf resisted, the Sanjak [Beg] laid siege around his house near to Mecca’s Mosque in which a hundred people were killed (10), The appointment by the Sultan of the new Sharīf, CAbd Allāh ibn Hāshim ibn Muhammad ibn CAbd al-Muttalib (11), caused a civil riot and, as Dahlān relates, as the troops attempted to plunder Sharīf SaCad’s house, a hundred people were killed, in addition to which the CUtayba (12) tribe took the opportunity to plunder the pilgrims, which further led to the killing of four people from Yemen on the 9th Dhū al-Hijja, 1105/1693-4 (13).
The later historian of Mecca, al-SibāC-ī , put the blame for this chaos in the political status of Hejaz on the Ottoman authority, which took no consideration for the pilgrims who happened to be the victims of those events (14).
See A. Hourani, The Ottoman Backround of the Modern Middle East (London, 1970) p. 7.
"Murad IV, fifth son of sultān Ahmad I, and seventeenth ruler of the Ottoman Empire, was born 28th Djumadā I 1021 (July 27, 1612) and called to the throne as a result of the mutiny of the Janissaries and Sipahīs, Which had forced Mustafā I to abdicate, on September 11, 1623". (J.H. Kramers, art. "Murad IV", EI, vol. III, p. 731).
"Khedīw (Khedive). The Persian word khadīw or khidīw meaning 'lord' ". (J.H.Kramers, art. "Khediw,", EI, vo;. II, p. 939). "Khidiv… khidewar, A king, great prince… excellent man; master… rich man; a friend". (Steingass, p. 450).
Al-Ansārī gives two different dates for the appointment of Muhammad Bashā Bīqlī as Wālī of Jeddah: 1103/1691 and 1104/1692. He remained in his position until 1107/1695. See M. Judda, p. 305-7
cUtayba is the name of a tribe who "occupy the eastern side of the Hidjaz with the volcanic harra area between the hadjdj route and the Central Arabian steppes". (H. Kindermann, art. "CUtaiba", EI, Suppl., p. 258).
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