In the year 1173 CE T?r?nsh?h, the brother of the Ayyubid founder ?al?? al-D?n, conquered the Yemeni coast and southern highlands, taking control of the strategic and lucrative port of Aden. Among his mercenary officers was Shams al-D?n ‘Al? ibn Ras?l, who fathered four sons. One of these sons, ‘Umar, was left in charge when the last Ayyubid monarch left Yemen in 1229. Three years later ‘Umar took the name of al-Malik al-Man??r and initiated a Rasulid dynasty, soon recognized by the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, that would last a little over two centuries. This paper examines the formation of the Rasulid state, both in terms of the extension of an administrative system created by the Ayyubids and the transition to make the port of Aden a major entrepôt along the Red Sea/Indian Ocean trade network. The Rasulid state benefited from the turmoil elsewhere in the region due to the remaining crusader conflict and Mongol invasions. As wealthy patrons, the Rasulid sultans attracted Islamic scholars and supported the building of major mosques and madrasas. The Rasulid sultans maintained active relations with the Mamluks in Egypt, at times competing for control of Mecca. The main threat to Rasulid rule was from the Zaydi imams in the north, who were supported by tribal groups that rebelled against Rasulid taxation and political control. Based on the wealth of Yemeni chronicles and administrative texts, this paper assesses what was unique in the formation of the Rasulid state and what was shared with the rise of the Mamluks in Egypt.

Between the late 5th/11th and the early 7th/13th century, a series of funerary stelae from the big island (Dahlak Kebir) of the Dahlak archipelago in the southern Red Sea testify that local potentates had assumed grand titles. At the same time, Yemeni and Egyptian texts, including merchants’ letters and other documents from the Cairo Geniza, as well as an extensive and only partially explored archaeological site on Dahlak Kebir testify to the important role of the archipelago in regional and transregional networks of trade, shipping, and even political power. The subsequent disappearance of the royal titles from the record roughly coincides with the takeover of Yemen first by the Ayyubids and subsequently by the Rasulids by the middle 600s, as there was perhaps no room for other sultans in the area dominated by the latter dynasty. Some kind of polity did persist on Dahlak Kebir, however, and occasionally a ruler of Dahlak or the island's trade goods make furtive appearances in the textual sources of Mamluk Egypt and Rasulid Yemen. As if to reinforce the possibility of this polity’s longevity, the funerary epigraphic corpus of Dahlak produces evidence for the assumption of the title of “sultan” by two successive strongmen on the island in the first half of the 10th/16th century, when Portuguese forces attempt to exert control over the southern Red Sea. This paper will examine the data on the Dahlakis' continued participation in Red Sea networks during Rasulid/Mamluk times from, among other things, the more recently published Rasulid (mostly administrative) documents, and assess them against the island's historical record as established long ago by Madeleine Schneider.

The goal of my contribution is to put in context the Yemeni manuscript production in connection with the Mamluk manuscript production. Syria, Egypt and Yemen in Rasulid times were linked by commercial routes, as the use of the same writing materials prove, in particular the types of paper. Al-Muqaddas? mentions Damascene paper amongst the export revenues (irtifa‘?t) of the Syrian region (iql?m al-Sh?m), and it would have been exported to Yemen as well as Egypt. An anonymous manuscript source seems to confirm this (at least for the 15th century); Yemenite official documents were written on Damascene paper, possibly shipped from Egypt. Moreover these links are attested by contemporary Arabic sources, as in the Rasulid archival text N?r al-ma‘?rif from the reign of al-Malik al-Mu?affar, and they are confirmed by the material evidence. The use of similar decorative patterns for bookbinding is another interesting aspect of a shared manuscript culture; some similarities between Mamluk bookbinding decorations and Yemeni architecture have been already pointed out. Further links can be found: Rasulid sultans of Yemen demanded the work of Mamluk artists for a wide range of objects: inlaid brasses, enameled and gilded glasses as well as illustrated manuscripts. Such is the case for al-B?s?r?’s work al-Kaw?kib al-durriyya f? mad? khayr al-bashriyya, which was illustrated for the sultan al-Ashraf Ism?‘?l (r. 778-802/1376-1400), or which at least ended up in his library, by ‘Abd al-Ra?m?n b. Ibr?h?m al-?mid?, son of the most famous Mamluk miniaturist, Ibr?h?m al-?mid?. From a different perspective, it is of interest to investigate, through manuscripts and texts, the intellectual activity linking Syria, Egypt and Yemen. In Rasulid times the grammatical works by the Egyptian Ibn B?b?š?? (d. 469/1077), for example, enjoyed considerable favor. His Muqaddima [Introduction] is mentioned in the Nuzhat al-?uraf?’ wa tu?fat al-khulaf?’ by al-Malik al-Af?al (d. 778/1377) in the chapter devoted to “the different sciences that kings and governors cannot ignore” (f?m? l? yasa‘u al-muluk wa-l-ru’as?’ ?ahlahu min anw?‘ al-‘ul?m). Is it possible to identify other texts that had similar influence or diffusion between Yemen and Egypt or Siria in Mamluk times?

Much of the modern historiography of medieval South Arabia has focused on its invasion by a succession of foreign states and the consolidation of their power over the main centers of their dominion. This paper instead explores the impact of the Rasulids and Mamluks on a region located in the central highlands of Yemen, which remained on the periphery and served as a place of resistance to their expansion. Located approximately 100 kilometers south of Sanaa, the local tribes of the Dhamar Basin were subdued during the Ayyubid conquest of the late 12th century, but a mere two decades later they began to fight back with the help of Zaydi tribesmen from the north who had already established a hijra in the area two centuries earlier. This response set the stage for the next century and a half during which this region serves as a frontier where the Zaydis, Rasulids, and local tribes contest for political dominance as recorded in state chronicles. During this period, Rasulid administrative documents from the late 13th and early 14th century, including a cursory inventory of the wares and their prices at the Dhamar urban market as well as a map depicting local towns and landforms, demonstrate their interest and attempts at integrating the basin more closely into their economy and area of taxation. Yet, at the same time, the architectural record exposes the nearly total absence of Rasulid public works in the Dhamar Basin, unlike their lavish building practices in other regions under their rule, further revealing their minimal commitment or ability to establish a durable physical and ideological presence there. By the middle of the 14th century, the Rasulids permanently lose their influence in the region, although their local political successors, the Tahirids, reopen this arena for warfare a century later. Finally, even briefer than the rule of the Ayyubids, the Mamluks restart the cycle of foreign conquest and invade the Yemeni highlands in 1515. Despite the fact that only two years later they lose their power to the Ottomans precluding any attempt to more permanently take control over Yemen, their introduction of firearms to the region has significant consequences.