Mecca scholarship governed by the Hashemite Sharifs. In 930, Mecca was attacked and sacked by Qarmatians, a millenarian Ismaili Muslim sect led by Abū-Tāhir Al-Jannābī and centered in eastern Arabia. The Black Death pandemic hit Mecca in 1349. In 1517, the Sharif, Barakat bin Muhammed, acknowledged the supremacy of the Ottoman Caliph but retained a great degree of local autonomy. In 1803 the city was captured by the First Saudi State, which held Mecca until 1813. This was a massive blow to the prestige of the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire, which had exercised sovereignty over the holy city since 1517. The Ottomans
Battle of Mecca (883) various responsibilities over the pilgrimage and the Holy Cities. As with Ibn Tulun, 'Amr enjoyed a high degree of independence from the Abbasid government, but unlike the Egyptian ruler he was on relatively cordial terms with the caliphal court during this period, and in regards to Mecca he proved to be particularly jealous to preserve his own rights in the city. Despite these obstacles, Ibn Tulun had made an initial attempt to establish himself in Mecca in 881, when he sent an agent with a detachment of cavalrymen to represent his interests there. Upon their arrival, however, they found themselves