IFAO

This paper presents a unique testimony with regard to the political and religious relationships between medieval Yemen and India. A document preserved in the Yemeni archives of the Rasulid Sultanate (1229-1454) enumerates 46 Indian cities in which Muslim predicators and judges were annually sponsored by the Rasulid Dynasty. These communities are predominantly situated in coastal regions, from Gujarat to Coromandel. The establishment of the Rasulid patronage on these Indian Muslim communities can be directly associated with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. This situation allowed the Rasulid Sultan to exert a wider influence on the Muslim population living on the shores of the Indian Ocean. This patronage and influence remained in some coastal cities around Malabar until it was challenged by the conquests of the Delhi Sultanate at the end of the 14th century. A letter sent from Calicut to the Rasulid Sultan in 1393 AD illustrates the situation. This article provides an annotated translation from Arabic into French of two documents outlining these events.