Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy

Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy Muhammad ( Arabic حسن بن أبي نميّ محمد, DMG Ḥasan ibn Abī Numaiy Muḥammad b. January 7, 1526 , died November 29, 1601 in Nadschd ) was the ruling Sherif of Mecca from 1584 to 1601 , after having been second co-regent from 1540 to 1553 and first co-regent from 1553 to 1584.

Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy is judged very positively by Arab scholars and historians. On the one hand, it is emphasized that he ensured security and stability in the Hejaz through military strength and the prosecution of crimes; on the other hand, it is emphasized that he generously promoted poets and scholars. The Egyptian scholar al-Chafādschī (d. 1659) is quoted as saying that the Hejaz had reached a similar peak of fame ( intihāʾ ṣuʿūd as-šaraf ) with the Sherif Hasan as the Maghreb with Ahmad al-Mansūr and the Ottoman Empire at the same time with Murād III. Against the background of these evaluations, Gerald de Gaury judged that the reign of Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy had been a "golden age" in the history of Mecca. The Meccan historiographer ʿAbd al-Malik al-ʿIsāmī (d. 1699) even said that Hasan made the territory of the two sanctuaries a caliphate ( ṣaiyar wilāyat al-ḥaramain ḫilāfa ) and describes him as the "caliph of the two sanctuaries" ( ḫalīfat al-ḥaramain ).

Descent and birth

Hasan was of Sherif origin from both his father's and his mother's side . His mother Fātima was a daughter of Subāt ibn ʿAnqā, a descendant of the Sherif Abū Numaiy Muhammad I ibn Abī Saʿd, who ruled Mecca from 1254 to 1301. He was born on the 23rd Rabīʿ al-awwal 932 (= 7th January 1526), ​​a few months after his grandfather Barakāt had died.

Grand career

Around 1540 Hasan's brother Ahmad was made crown prince and received the mantle of rule ( ḫilʿat al-iyāla wa-l-amāra ), while Hasan himself received the second mantle ( al-ḫilʿa aṯ-ṯāniya ). When his brother Ahmad died in 1553/54, his father dressed him in the first coat and made him his co-regent. From then on was on the Minbar the prayer spoken for him, Ottoman Sultan letters were answered in his name and held the rule of ceremonies in his honor. Hasan's brother Thaqaba received the second coat at the same time. The Sherif area of ​​rulership at that time extended over the entire Hejaz from Chaibar in the north via Medina , Yanbuʿ , Mecca and Jeddah to Haly in the south and also included the coastal plain of Jaizān on the border with the Yemeni highlands.

One of Hasan's first successful campaigns was a punitive expedition at the end of 963 (= October 1556) against the Shammar tribe , who had previously attacked the pilgrim caravan of Medina in the Wadi al-Furaisch. At the end of this military action he was able to enter Medina with the Shammar chiefs who were in chains, effectively demonstrating his power to the people of the city. The scholar Nūr ad-Dīn al-Jamm wrote a lengthy praise of him on this occasion. In November 1566, Hasan led the funeral ceremonies in Mecca for the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I, who had died a few weeks earlier .

In 982 (= 1574/75 AD) Hasan undertook a punitive expedition with 50,000 fighters against the mountain town of Midbaʿ. The reason for this is said to have been the breach of contract of the residents of this place and their violation of the Sharia . After Hasan had subjugated the people of Midbaʿ, he confiscated their property and appointed a governor to enforce Sharia law there. On the way back, he also subjugated the Badschīla tribe, disarmed them and forced them to comply with Sharia law and pay annual property tax.

Hasan remained co-regent of his father until his father's death on 9th Muharram 992 (= 22nd January 1584). Then he took over the sole rule of the Hejaz. During this time he carried out numerous military operations, but with which he entrusted almost exclusively to his sons. In this way he was able to extend his rule to the edges of the central Arab highlands.

Establishing general security

Contemporaries praise the fact that Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy managed to secure the caravan routes . At the beginning of his reign, as the scholar ʿAbd al-Qādir at-Tabarī reports in a commentary on a panegyric poem he wrote himself , "the roads were still feared and the regions still untamed." Even those who went the short distance to Tan'im of Mecca, the umra to perform, was forced to take an escort from the series of the powerful. If you didn't do that, you risked your life and fortune. Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy put up guards, held the Arabs responsible for everything that the people lost, and inflicted the most severe punishments on them, such as hanging on the cross and cutting off their hands, "until there was peace and order throughout the country" ( ḥattā ṣaluḥa ḥāl al-ʿālam ġāyat al-iṣlāḥ ). Even caravans with valuable goods, praised the later biographer Muhammad al-Amīn ibn Fadlallāh al-Muhibbī (d. 1699), under Hasan only traveled with a few men through feared and dangerous areas.

As far as domestic politics is concerned, historiographers such as ʿAbd al-Malik al-ʿIsāmī emphasize that it was a peculiarity of Hasan that he used Sharia and codified law ( qānūn muḥarrar ) in his business dealings . In addition, he is said to have solved crimes with great ingenuity, also using methods of securing evidence . Hasan himself is said to have been able to speak Persian and Turkish, but made use of translators in conversations and correspondence.

The security was accompanied by a general revitalization of Mecca. While other contemporaries attributed this to Ottoman rule, ʿAbd al-Qādir at-Tabarī interpreted it as a work of the sherif. In a panegyric poem on Hasan ibn Abī Numaiys he wrote:

Wa-šāʿa hāḏā l-amnu min-hū wa-štahar
muʿaṭṭiran bāqiya l-mamāliki l-uḫar
Fa-kullu man ḥaǧǧa ilā l-bayti l-ḥarām
wa-šāhada l-amna staḫāra fī l-muq -min .
[…]
Fa-min hunā Makkatu ṣārat miṣran
maḥšūdatan bi-l-ʿālimīna ṭurran
wa-qabla haḏā l-ʿahdi lam yuqim bi-hā
illā unāsun šuġifū bi-ḥubbi-hā

And this security that he created
smelled over into the other realms,
everyone who made a pilgrimage to the Holy House and
saw this peace wished to stay.
[…]
And so Mecca became a metropolis ,
full of scholars from everywhere.
Before that time, however, remained only those who
loved her passionately.

Patronage of scholars and poets

Many authors report that Hasan generously sponsored poets and scholars. The most important of them was ʿAbd al-Qādir at-Tabarī (d. 1623), who came from a very respected Hussainid family in Mecca. He had a very high position with Hasan and served him as a constant companion ( muṣāḥib ). The scholar Chidr ibn ʿAtā 'al-Mausilī (d. 1598) also entered his service. He dedicated his work al-Isʿāf to him , a commentary on the references to the Kaššāf of az-Zamachscharī , for which he received 1000 dinars from the Sherif in January 1595 . In addition, Chidr wrote a Qasīda in praise and wrote a long rajaz poem for him about the merits of his family and their wars. The well-known Arab doctor Dāwūd al-Antākī (d. 1599) also stayed for a long time in the sociable circle of al-Hasan.

The scholar an- Nāzim received 1,000 dinars from Ibn Duraid for presenting his commentary on the Qasīda al-Maqsūra . Several contemporary Meccan scholars, including Salāh al-Dīn al-Quraschī (d. 1572), Abū Bakr ibn ʿAlī al-Jamāl al-Ansārī (d. 1598), Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbdalī (d. 1614) and the aforementioned ʿAbd al-Qādir at-Tabarī wrote panegyric poems on him. Hasan also gave generous monetary gifts to poets in Yemen who wrote and sent praise poems to him. When he married a Sherif lady, Akbar 's paternal aunt , who was in Mecca at the time , gave him a container of gold. Hasan did not keep this to himself, but had it distributed during the wedding party among the Koran readers who recited praises of his ancestor Mohammed during the celebration.

According to ʿAbd al-Qādir at-Tabarī, the prerequisite for Mecca to develop into a “learned metropolis” in the time of Hasan was that the ruler renounced an old custom that the earlier sherif had cultivated. At the end of the pilgrimage they regularly called on the pilgrims to move quickly into theirs with the cry “You Syrians in Syria, you Yemenis in Yemen” ( Yā ahla š-Šaʾmi Šaʾmu-kum, yā ahla l-Yamani Yamanu-kum ) To return home, so that only the residents from the long- established families ( ḏawū l-buyūtāt al-qadīma ) remained in the city. After the abandonment of this custom, ʿAbd al-Qādir continues, everyone has now strived for the mujāwara, the stay in the Holy City.

Hasan is said to have generously provided the residents of Medina with Sadaqa payments. When the visit was staying tomb of the Prophet in this city, he distributed among the scholars, officials and Ribat -Bewohnern money according to a take over his father list, but went mostly on the recorded amounts still there also.

His vizier Ibn ʿAtīq

On the political level Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy tried to expand the position of the Sherif to that of a regular Islamic ruler. This included that he had a palace, the so-called Dār as-saʿāda , built and was the first Sherif to take a vizier in 1003 (1594/1595 AD) . In filling the post he had created, however, he was not lucky. The man he chose, ʿAbd ar-Rahmān ibn ʿAbdallāh Ibn ʿAtīq from the Hadramaut , was known for using his position as chief judge to acquire the inheritance of the deceased in the event of deaths with forged debt certificates. In this way he acquired the fortunes of a large number of Meccans, merchants and pilgrims. Since Ibn ʿAtīq enjoyed the full confidence of the Sherif Hasan, no one dared to take action against him. Only after Hasan's death in 1601 was he brought to justice by the new Sherif Abū Tālib and imprisoned. The work of Ibn īAtīq overshadowed the last years of Hasan ibn Abī Numaiy's reign, so that a later historian said: "All in all, there was no one better ( aḥsan ) than Hasan, but in his time people suffered under his vizier".

Transfer of rule to his sons and death

Al-Hasan had 25 sons, namely Sālim, ʿAlī, Abū l-Qāsim, Husain, Masʿūd, Bāz, Abū Tālib, ʿUqail, ʿAbd al-Muttalib, ʿAbdallāh, ʿābd al-Karīm, ʿābd al-Muhdīm, ʿAbd al- , Shanbar, ʿAbd al-Munʿim, al-Murtadā, Hazzāʿ, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, ʿUbaidallāh, Jūdallāh, Barakāt, Qāyitbāy, Muhammad al-Hārith and Ādam, and 22 daughters, including Shamsīya, Rauda, ​​Yqaudah, including Shamsīya, Rauda , 2 Fātimas, 2 ʿAzīzīyas, Zain al-Hubūsh, Rīma, Jarbūʿa, Zain asch-Sharaf, Salāma, Kathīra, Minā, Muzna, Huraimila, Haifā ', Rāya and ʿAzzā. Some died during his lifetime.

Of the sons, he entrusted the first seven with important orders and embassies. His son Husain served as a deputy presiding over the court. After his death, his brother Masʿūd took over this task. He was also authorized to employ the highest officials and judges in the administration of the empire, but died in 1594. In 1599, Hasan's son Abū Tālib asked his father to see to it that he would be given the cloak of power. Hasan complied with this request and arranged for his son Abū Tālib, who was the eldest of his sons at the time, to receive the first coat and his own brother Thaqaba the second coat. Thaqaba, who was Hasan's eldest brother, died shortly afterwards. Therefore, at the Hajj of the year 1008 (i.e. June 1600), Hasan's second eldest son, Abd al-Muttalib, was given the second coat. At the beginning of the year 1009 (= July 1600) al-Hasan sent his assistant Bahrām Āghā to the Sublime Porte with gifts and asked the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed III. about confirming the transfer of rule to his son Abū Tālib. This request was granted and the requested confirmation came from Istanbul at the end of the year (i.e. June 1601). From then on, Abū Tālib acted as Hasan's co-regent, and supplications were said for him during Friday prayers.

On the 8th Rabīʿ ath-thānī 1010 (= 6 October 1601) Hasan went on a campaign to the Najd, where he stopped in the place ar-Rifāʿīya. On Tuesday, 1st Jumādā II 1010 (= November 27, 1601), he fell ill. As his condition continued to deteriorate the following day, his companions prepared the horses for the return to Mecca. On the night of Thursday, the 3rd Jumādā II 1010 (= 29 November 1601), he died on the way. However, his death was only discovered on Thursday morning because he was transported in a litter on mules. His companions then accelerated the travel pace and covered the ten- day long distance to Mecca in just one and a half days, despite the adverse weather conditions, so that they arrived in Mecca on Saturday morning. The action was considered a miracle. That same night the washing of the dead was carried out, the deceased ruler was wrapped in shrouds and the funeral prayer was held for him in the Holy Mosque , with the great participation of scholars, sheriffs and the people . Then they buried him on the Mi'lāt cemetery and erected over his grave a magnificent Qubba .

Abū Tālib, who took control of Mecca after al-Hasan's death, had Hasan's vizier Ibn ʿAtīq imprisoned as one of the first official acts. He committed suicide in prison and died a dishonorable death on December 4, 1601. Hasan's inheritance was divided among 17 sons and 14 daughters. Exceptions were the weapons, horses and slaves, which passed to his successor Abū Tālib.

literature

Arabic sources

• Muṣṭafā Ibn-Fatḥallāh al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl wa-natāʾiǧ as-safar fī aḫbār al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar . Ed. ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad al-Kandarī. Dār an-Nawādir, Beirut, 2011. Vol. III, pp. 474–495. PDF
• Aḥmad Ibn Zainī Daḥlān: Ḫulāṣat al-kalām fī bayān umarāʾ al-balad al-ḥarām . Maṭbaʿa Ḫairīya, Cairo, 1887. pp. 56–62. Website with PDF - better, more readable output digitized pp. 132–139.
• ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn-al-Ḥusain al-ʿIṣāmī : Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī fī Anbāʾ al-awāʾil wa-t-tawālī . Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīya, Beirut, 1998. Vol. IV, pp. 360–392. Digitized
• Raḍī ad-Dīn al-Mūsawī al-Makkī: Tanḍīd al-ʿuqūd as-sanīya bi-tamhīd ad-daula al-Ḥasanīya . Ed. as-Saiyid Mahdī ar-Raǧāʾī. Maʿhad ad-Dirāsāt li-taḥqīq ansāb al-ašrāf, Qom, 1431 dH (= 2009/10). Pp. 129-144. Digitized
• Muḥammad al-Amīn ibn Faḍl Allāh al-Muḥibbī: Ḫulāṣat al-aṯar fī aʿyān al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar. 4 vols. Cairo 1284h (Reprint Beirut undated). Vol. II, pp. 2-14. Digitized
• Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr aš-Šallī: ʿIqd al-ǧawāhir wa-d-durar fī aḫbār al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar . Ed. Ibrāhīm Amad al-Maqḥafī. Maktabat Tarīm al-ḥadīṯa, Sanaa, 2003. pp. 76-84. Digitized
• ʿAlī ibn Tāǧ ad-Dīn as-Sinǧārī: Manāʾiḥ al-karam fī aḫbār Makka wa-l-Bait wa-wulāt al-ḥaram . Ǧāmiʿat Umm-al-Qurā, Mekka, 1998. Vol. III, pp. 375–442. Digitized

Secondary literature

• Ferdinand Wüstenfeld : The Sherif of Mecca in the XI. (XVII.) Century: Continuation of the history of the city of Mecca with a genealogical table of the Sherif . Dieterich, Göttingen, 1885. pp. 3-14. Digitized

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from as-Sinǧārī: Manāʾiḥ al-karam . 1998, Vol. III, p. 518.
2. ↑ Gerald de Gaury: The Rulers of Mecca . Dorset Press, New York, 1954. p. 132.
3. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 364.
4. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī 1998, Vol. IV, p. 360.
5. ↑ Al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl . 2011, Vol. III, p. 475.
6. ↑ Al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl . 2011, Vol. III, p. 475.
7. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 361.
8. ↑ Al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl . 2011, Vol. III, pp. 475f.
9. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 340.
10. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 374-376.
11. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 385f.
12. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 361-363.
13. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 376f.
14. ↑ Al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl . 2011, Vol. III, pp. 475f.
15. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 364.
16. ↑ Quoted here from al-Muḥibbī: Ḫulāṣat al-aṯar . Vol. II, p. 6.
17. ↑ al-Muḥibbī: Ḫulāṣat al-aṯar . Vol. II, p. 2.
18. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 380.
19. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 372f
20. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 381
21. ↑ Quoted in al-Muḥibbī: Ḫulāṣat al-aṯar vol. II, p. 5f.
22. ↑ al-Mūsawī al-Makkī: Tanḍīd al-ʿuqūd as-sanīya . 2009/10, pp. 133f.
23. ↑ ʿAlī Ibn-ʿAbd-al-Qādir aṭ-Ṭabarī: Al-Araǧ al-miskī fi t-tārīḫ al-Makkī wa-tarāǧim al-mulūk wal-ḫulafāʾ . Ed. Asraf Aḥmad al-Ǧammāl. Al-Maktaba at-Tiǧārīya, Mekka, 1996. p. 195. Digitized .
24. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 367.
25. ↑ Wüstenfeld: The Sherif of Mecca . 1885, p. 12f.
26. ↑ Ibn Zainī Daḥlān: Ḫulāṣat al-kalām . 1887, p. 61.
27. ↑ Al-Ḥamawī: Fawāʾid al-irtiḥāl . 2011, Vol. III, p. 481.
28. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 382.
29. ↑ Quoted in al-Muḥibbī: Ḫulāṣat al-aṯar . 1998, Vol. II, pp. 5-7.
30. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 382f.
31. ↑ As-Sinǧārī: Manāʾiḥ al-karam . 1998, Vol. III, pp. 432-435.
32. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 390-393.
33. ↑ As-Sinǧārī: Manāʾiḥ al-karam . 1998, Vol. III, p. 435.
34. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 372.
35. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 367f.
36. ↑ aš-Salli: 'Iqd al-ǧawāhir . 2003, p. 77.
37. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, p. 369.
38. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 370f.
39. ↑ Wüstenfeld: The Sherif of Mecca in the XI. (XVII.) Century . 1885, p. 10f.
40. ↑ Al-ʿIṣāmī: Samṭ an-nuǧūm al-ʿawālī . 1998, Vol. IV, pp. 370f.