Qatada

Who he is

Name

Qatada ibn Idris ibn Muta'in al-Hasani

Title

Sharif, chief of the Dhawu Muta'in

Since

not pinned (before 1200)

Born

about 1132 or about 1150 (reports differ)

Family

Sons Aziz, Hanzala, Rajih, Idris and Ali the younger by a Husaynid wife; Ali the elder and al-Hasan by an Anaza wife; an unnamed brother.

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia (English, Arabic) from Ibn Fahd, Ibn Khaldun, al-Qalqashandi.

What it holds

• Wadi Yanbu (al-Alqamiyya and the palm villages)
• the fortress of Yanbu
• Wadi al-Safra and Badr on the pilgrim road

How it was acquired

By war, before 1200.

Allies and rivals

Banu Ahmad and Banu Ibrahim with him; the Anaza by marriage; the Hawashim of Mecca and the emir of Medina against him.

How things stand that morning

Holds Wadi Yanbu and Wadi al-Safra; not yet Mecca.

Wealth

Dates, springs, road and anchorage dues.

Military

Kinsmen, allied clans, slaves and Bedouin; the Yanbu fortress.

Threats

• Mecca and Medina combining against him

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)His son Hanzala takes Mecca; Qatada becomes emir.Depends on: Mukthir's weakness and the notables' consent. Stopped by: Outside support for Mukthir.

Where the sources disagree

• 'Nab'' (brief) is not found in the sources read; see the realm record.

Evidence: Undated sequence of conquests before Mecca.

On the map: Valley positions approximate.

Primary sources for Qatada

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.

• 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