Page 137 - Arabian Studies (I)

The Yemenite Settlement ofTlufbat 121
al-Mansiir cUmar b. 0All b. Rasul (626-47/1228-49), took suffi­
cient interest in the village to have built through his son, Qutbal-DTn,
Birkat al-Aqmar.
Towards the end of his long reign (647-94/1249-95), al-Malik
al-Muzaffar Yusuf b. cUmar, the second Rasulid monarch, had
retired to Thacbat to spend most of his time there. In Safar,
694/January 1295, the sultan’s son, al-Malik al-Ashraf cUmar b.
Yusuf, left Sanca\ His father, al-Malik al-Muzaffar, advanced in age,
had resolved to hand over effective power to his son. al-Malik
al-Ashraf was met amid great pomp at Thacbat, where on 1st
Jumada’l-Ula of the same year he was presented with a taqlld karim
by his father, investing him with full authority over the Rasulid state.
al-Malik al-Muzaffar had his son’s name mentioned along with his
own in the khutbah throughout the Yemen and added his name to
his on the coinage. The peaceful succession of al-Malik al-Ashraf was
i
thus assured. al-Malik al-Muzaffar died in Thacbat in Ramadan.9
In 699/1299-1300, the fourth Rasulid sultan, al-Malik al-
Mu’ayyad Dawud b. Yusuf (696-721/1297-1321), received in
Thacbat Shukr b. c AIT al-Qasiml, the personal representative of the
ZaydT sharlf, cImad al-DTn Idris b. CA1I b. c Abdallah bL Hasan b.
Hamzah b. Sulayman b. Hamzah. The two celebrated the cId al-Adha
together. I 0
In the year 704/1304-5, al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad, on returning from
an expedition to Zabld and Tihamah, fell ill in Tacizz. He was
immediately transported to Thacbat where he recovered from his
illness and spent a period of convalescence. I I
Al-Malik al-Mu’ayyad had ordered the building in Thacbat of a
qasr, to be called al-MacqilT. It was completed in Safar 708/August
1308. We are fortunate to have preserved in the writings of
al-Khazrajl details of this structure and a number of the more
important features are worthy of mention here. It had a reception
room (majlis) 25 cubits long and 20 cubits in width. This had two
ceilings (sic) unsupported by pillars, both decorated in gold. There
were four balconies (manazir) and the whole hall was made of gold
and marble only. In front of the palace there was a pool (birkah),
100 cubits long and 50 cubits wide, all around which there were
figures of birds and wild animals made of brass (sufr asfcir) from the
mouths of which water spurted. In the middle of the pool, there was
a fountain throwing water high into the air. In front of the pool,
there was another fountain whose water poured into it, looking like a
sheet of crystal. The hall had windows overlooking a most beautiful
garden. Work on the palace took a period of seven years, with whole
armies of labourers and craftsmen involved in the construction. At its