Sharifate of Medina

The Sharifate of Medina (Arabic: شرافة المدينة) or Emirate of Medina (Arabic: إمارة المدينة) was an emirate centred on the Islamic holy city of Medina in the Hejaz. The Egyptian encyclopedist al-Qalqashandi described it as a Bedouin state, in that being similar to its more powerful rival in the south the Sharifate of Mecca. It was established during the dissolution of the Abbasid empire in the mid-tenth century, and was ruled by a series of shurafa of the Banu Muhanna dynasty, descendants of Muhammad via Ali ibn Abi Talib and his son Husayn. Like its southern neighbour, the Sharifate of Mecca, which arose at about the same time, the sharifs of Medina were usually obliged to vassalage to the rulers of Egypt, as the two holy cities drew their food supply from there. In the Mamluk period, the Sharifate of Medina gradually lost its autonomy and importance, its emirs being appointed by Cairo and subordinated to the Sharif of Mecca as the vice-sultan of the Hejaz.

Background

The first city converted to Islam and the base for Muhammad's conquest of Arabia, Medina was the first capital of the nascent caliphate. Despite the attempt to return it to Medina during the Second Fitna (680–692), the political seat of the Muslim world quickly shifted permanently away from the Hejaz, first to Damascus under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and then to Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258). Nevertheless, the unique prestige of Medina and Mecca as the two holy cities of Islam ensured that the caliphs took care to conduct works there, placate the locals with donations and gifts, and maintain order and prosperity; Medina especially appears to have sometimes functioned as the main administrative centre for Arabia or at least the Hejaz, and the caliphal governors appointed to Medina were often members of the ruling dynasties or otherwise high-status members of the Quraysh tribe.

During the later 8th century, Mecca and Medina became the seat of Alid opposition to the Abbasid government, with members of various Alid branches rising in revolt, most notably in 762, 786, 815/16, and 865/66. By the early 10th century, Abbasid control appears to have been nominal at best, and the sources are unclear as to who held power; Medina is reported to have been ruled by the Ja'farids (the Alids' rivals, descendants of Ali's brother Ja'far ibn Abi Talib) at some point.