الاثنينية ::المكتبة

مكتبة الاثنينية

The Authority of the Ashrāf in the Works of Medina’s poets of the Twelfth/Eighteenth Century

It seems from historical accounts that Medina’s government came under the jurisdiction of the Sharīf ⁽¹⁾ of Mecca for a short period towards the end of the seventeenth century ⁽²⁾ and that this lasted until the surrender of Medina to SaCūd ibn cAbd-cAzīz ibn Muhammad ibn SaCūd in 1220/1805 ⁽³⁾. But even within this short period, it seems that the Sharīf of Mecca never managed to rule the city and prevent its inhabitants from being suppressed by the internal problems arising between the divided factions.

Al-Sayyid al-Baytī testified in one of his poems that the sharīf had no practical power over Medina’s affairs. He referred to this fact when he noted the disturbing case of medina for the Ottoman authority in 1156/1743-4, when fighting broke out between different groupes in the city. He said:

لو أن مسعودَ قلَّدتم له عَمَلاً

أَجزا، وَثَارَ لأعْداكم يُجَازِيها ⁽⁴⁾

("If you were to entrust MasCūd ⁽⁵⁾ with a task, he would undertak it and exact reprisals against your enemies").

Another poet. Muhammad SaCīd Safar ⁽⁶⁾, writing on the same occasion, penned a cry for help to sharīf MasCūd, but from the second part of his line it is possible to detect what the unfortunate consequences would be:

فيا بن سعيد جُدْ بنَصْرٍ مُعَجَّلٍ

فقد حاربت "حرْبٌ" وصدُّوا وأجلبوا ⁽⁷⁾

("Oh, son of SaCīd, grant us a quick victory. Harb [i.e. the tribe] have already fought, resisted, and clamoured").

On the Ashrāf and especially the ruling family in Medina, the Banu Husayn, see 44, 1.106SH.	[1]
Burckhard t, op. cit., p. 392.	[2]
See CUthmān ibn Bishr al-Najdī al-Hanbalī, CInwān al-Majd fī Ta’rikh Najd, vol. I (Riyadh) p. 137. SaCūd died on the last day of May, 1814. See Margoliouth, art. "Wahhābiyya", EI, vol, IV, p. 1087f.	[3]
Ibid., p. 36, 1.134.	[4]
See p. 20, 1.8.	[5]
See p. 25, 1.7.	[6]
Al-Akhbār, p. 45, 1.136.	[7]