十七世紀のインド洋西海域世界におけるイエメンの對外關係

Abstract

In 1636 the regime of the Imam of the Zaydi sect succeeded in eliminating the forces of the Ottoman dynasty, which had been stationed in Yemen since 1538, and spreading the territory under its control from the mountainous areas and high plains of the north to the regions of the Red Sea coast. Then, when it consolidated its rule over the coastal region of the Arabian Sea, including the entirety of southern Yemen, it precipitously extended its military and political influence by dispatching forces to the Hadramawt region in the Southeast of Yemen, which was still under the control of Ottomans in 1659. As a result, the political conditions of the Arabian Peninsula were greatly changed and the repercussions reached as far as India and Iran. This study chiefly relies on contemporary Arabic-language sources concerned with Yemen and Southern Arabia to examine the foreign relations maintained by Yemen in the world of the western Indian Ocean, which served as medium linking the Persian, Red and Arabian seas, by focusing on the rule of the Zaydi Imam al-Mutawakkil (reigned 1644-76), who governed 17th-century Yemen, when these changes were most conspicuous. I specifically address the Mughal dynasty in India, the Safavid in Iran, and the Ya'aruba in Oman, each a large-scale monarchy in the western half of the Indian Ocean in the 17th century, and analyze the relations of each of these kingdoms with Yemen, and then survey the structure of the world of the western Indian Ocean as seen in these relationships as a whole. As a result, I make clear that although Mutawakkil succeeded, on the one hand, in initiating and then developing good relations with the Mughal Emperor Awrangzlb and the Safavid Shah 'Abbas II through the dispatch and reception of emissaries and exchanges of gifts and letters, on the other hand, he confronted the Ya'aruba dynasty of Sultan bin Sayf lover the territorial issue of the Zufar region and Oman's maritime activities.