IMPERIAL POWER AND MARITIME TRADE
MECCA AND CAIRO
IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES
JOHN L. MELOY
Chicago—•—Middle East Documentation Center—•—2015
Revised paperback edition published in 2015 by the Middle East Documentation
Center on behalf of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of
Chicago.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
Jacket, page design, and maps by Olaf Nelson, Chinook Design, Inc.
http://www.chinooktype.com
Cover image based on an illustration of ships at Jedda in 1517, in Gaspar Correa,
Lendas da India, (1858), between pages 494–95. Courtesy of the William B.
Greenlee Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago. (Call number: Greenlee
4850.P7 C82 1858)
ISBN: 978‐0‐9915732‐0‐2
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Meloy, John Lash.
Imperial power and maritime trade : Mecca and Cairo in the later Middle Ages /
John L. Meloy.
p. cm. -- (Chicago studies on the Middle East)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-9708199-5-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)--Politics and government. 2. Hejaz (Saudi Arabia)-Politics and government. 3. Imperialism--History--To 1500. 4. Mecca (Saudi
Arabia)--Commerce--History. 5. Indian Ocean--Commerce--History. 6.
Shipping--Saudi Arabia--Mecca--History--To 1500. 7. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)-Economic conditions. 8. Mecca (Saudi Arabia)--Relations--Egypt--Cairo. 9.
Cairo (Egypt)--Relations--Saudi Arabia--Mecca. 10. Mamelukes--History. I.
University of Chicago. Center for Middle Eastern Studies. II. Title.
DS248.M4M45 2010
953.8--dc22
2010005409
Contents
Acknowledgmentsix
Map 1: The Red Sea and the Western Indian Ocean
xii
Map 2: The Central Hijaz
xiii
Preface to the Revised Edition
xv
Introduction1
I.
The Rise of Mecca in the Later Middle Ages:
11
Politics and Historiography
II.Local Contexts of Maritime Trade in Mecca
39
III.Brokering Power in Mecca: Mamluk Seasonal Domination and the Rule
of the Sharifs, 797–824/1395–1421
81
IV.Mamluk Expansion and Meccan Resistance, 824–41/1421–38
113
V.Forging Mutual Interests, 841–67/1438–63
141
VI.Mecca as Sultanate: Foundations of Economic Power, 867–903/1463–97
171
VII.Politics, Trade, and the New Dispensations in Mecca, 903–23/1497–1517
205
Conclusion: Mecca’s Loss of Splendid Isolation
233
Appendix A: Comparative Political Periodization of the Mamluk Sultanate and the Meccan Sharifate
and Amirate, 797–931/1395–1525
241
Appendix B: Genealogical Charts of the Sharīfs,
7th–10th/13th–16th c.
245
Appendix C: Maritime Traffic between Jedda and
Indian Ocean and Red Sea Ports, 876–944/1471–1537
249
Bibliography
255
Index295