Mukthir

Who he is

Name

Mukthir (Mukaththir) ibn Isa ibn Fulayta al-Hashimi

Title

Emir of Mecca

Since

571 (1176) with interruptions; alone since 587-589 (1191-1193)

Born

not pinned

Family

Son of the emir Isa ibn Fulayta (died 2 Sha'ban 570, about 5 March 1175); brother of the emir Dawud ibn Isa (died 589/1193). Sons not named in the sources read.

Confidence

high

Wikipedia from Ibn Fahd, al-Dhahabi, Ibn Mahfuz; Ibn Jubayr saw him as emir in 1183-1184.

Overlord

Caliph al-Nasir (khutba) and the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt (khutba, grain and subsidy).

What it holds

• Mecca and the castle on Mount Abu Qubays
• Jeddah and its customs
• Wadi Fatima (Marr al-Zahran) with its springs and palms
• Wadi Nakhla, the Hawashim's retreat
• Hadda, Usfan and the near road stations

How it was acquired

Inherited in the Hawashim; won by force from his brother (571) and restored by the Iraqi amir al-hajj (587).

Allies and rivals

See the realm record: paid by Egypt, watched by Baghdad, threatened by Qatada of Yanbu and the emirs of Medina.

How things stand that morning

Rules Mecca and Jeddah alone; no fighting dated to the winter.

Wealth

Pilgrimage revenue, the Egyptian compensation for the abolished pilgrim toll, Jeddah customs, date valleys.

Military

Kinsmen, household slave soldiers and hired Bedouin; the castle on Abu Qubays.

Threats

• Qatada ibn Idris
• loss of Egyptian grain in the famine of 1200-1202
• the Iraqi amir al-hajj

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 597-599 AH (earliest after 11 October 1200)Driven out of Mecca by Hanzala ibn Qatada; retires to Wadi Nakhla, where he dies in 600 (1203-1204).Depends on: Qatada's attack and the notables' consent. Stopped by: Outside support from Egypt or Baghdad.

Places of note

• Castle on Abu Qubays: The emir's fortress.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Reigns well recorded; nothing dated to the winter itself.

On the map: The valleys are drawn as small blocks round their main springs.

Primary sources for Mecca

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Mirror of Time, on the History of Notables, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Shams al-Din Yusuf) (about 1240 to 1256, at Damascus). A Damascene preacher's year-by-year chronicle with obituaries, written by a grandson of the Baghdad scholar Ibn al-Jawzi, so it carries both the Baghdad view (the caliph al-Nasir and his court) and the Damascus view (al-Adil's court, the famine refugees of 1200, prices, the plague of 1201). Read online
• The Road to Knowledge of the Dynasties of Kings, Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (about 1400 to 1440, at Cairo). A late compilation, but for Ayyubid Egypt it keeps lost material: for 596 to 598 AH it records al-Adil's entry into Cairo, the removal of the boy al-Mansur Muhammad, the oath to al-Kamil as heir, the appointments at Cairo, the low Niles of 1199 and 1200 and the famine and plague of 1200 to 1202 with grain prices, the reports of cannibalism and the death tolls, together with Yemen, the Hijaz and the Mecca emirate. Read online
• History of the Observant Traveller (A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia), Ibn al-Mujawir (Jamal al-Din Yusuf ibn Ya'qub) (about 1226 to 1232). A merchant-traveller's description of western and southern Arabia a generation after 1200: Mecca and the Hijaz ports, the Red Sea crossing, Zabid and the Tihama, Aden with its customs and tariffs, the Hadramawt coast, Dhofar and Oman, Socotra, and the opposite African shore at Zeila and the Dahlak islands. Read online
• The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, Ibn Jubayr (Abu'l-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad) (1185, from a diary kept 1183 to 1185). The best eyewitness of the Mediterranean world fifteen years before 1200, by a secretary of the Almohad governor of Granada: the Almohad port of Ceuta and its Genoese ships, Alexandria and Cairo under Saladin with their customs houses, the pilgrim traffic from the Maghreb, Mecca under its emir and Medina, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, Damascus and Mosul, the Frankish ports of Acre and Tyre with Muslims living under Frankish rule, and Sicily under William II with its Muslim subjects and Arabic-speaking court. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online