In contrast to the richness of literature on Mamluk Syro-Egyptian historiography, the historiography of the medieval Hijaz has been barely addressed as a discrete topic. Due to this lack of attention, how historians of the Hijaz responded to competing claims of legitimacy remains unclear. To fill this gap, this paper explores how the famous Meccan historian, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Fāsī (d. 832/1429), described the Mamluk and the Rasulid sultans, adopting Syro-Egyptian and Yemeni perspectives in his biographical dictionary, al-ʿIqd al-Thamīn. Traveling to Egypt, Syria, and Yemen, al-Fāsī engaged in the historiographical traditions of both the Mamluk Sultanate and the Rasulid Sultanate. His attitude towards the Mamluk and the Rasulid sultans is twofold. On the one hand, al-Fāsī wrote longer biographies for the Yemeni sultans than for their Syro-Egyptian counterparts, showing Rasulid superiority in the architectural projects in Mecca: unlike the Rasulid sultans, until al-Fāsī’s time, the Mamluk sultans were not enthusiastic patrons of the construction of educational institutions. Incorporating the Rasulid historiography, al-Fāsī presented the Yemeni sultans in a more favorable light than the Syro-Egyptian sultans, which demonstrates the geographical flexibility of his principle of featuring any good Muslim rulers who contributed to the welfare of the inhabitants of the holy city. On the other hand, in his introductory chapter on the Muslim rulers, al-Fāsī started to focus on the Mamluk sultans toward the end of the chapter starting from the late 810s/1410s, most likely reflecting their increasing influence in Mecca. In particular, he concluded this chapter with praise of the military and religious achievements of his contemporary Mamluk sultan, al-Ashraf Barsbāy, and his bureaucrat, Zayn al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Bāsiṭ (d. 808/1406). Adopting these two approaches, al-Fāsī succeeded in a difficult task: showing more appreciation for those who contributed more such as the Rasulid sultans, while not offending, and even praising, his contemporary ruler of Cairo. Al-Fāsī acknowledged the political supremacy of his contemporary Mamluk sultan, and he applied a geographically wider lens in dealing with Mamluk-Rasulid competition over the means of legitimation, expressing appreciation for any ruler who improved the welfare of the Meccan inhabitants. Al-Fāsī successfully combined and repurposed the two different discursive strategies employed by Syro-Egyptian and Yemeni historians to show a Meccan point of view. This paper thus sheds light on strategies for mediating several claims of legitimacy in a contact zone.