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7-1-2015

Foreign Doctors at the Imam’s Court: Medical Diplomacy in Yemen’s Coffee Era

Nancy Um Binghamton University--SUNY, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Um, Nancy, "Foreign Doctors at the Imam’s Court: Medical Diplomacy in Yemen’s Coffee Era" (2015). Art History Faculty Scholarship. 1. https://orb.binghamton.edu/art_hist_fac/1

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Art History at The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Art History Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. Line 1 Line 1 Foreign Doctors at the Imam’s Court: 2 2 Medical Diplomacy in Yemen’s Coffee Era 3 3 4 4 5 5 Nancy Um, Binghamton University 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 12 The New Diplomatic History 13 13 14 14 Once believed to be the most “conservative” subarea in historical studies, seem- 15 15 ingly “impermeable to theoretical and methodological innovations that have 16 16 transformed almost every other sector of the profession,” early modern diplo- 17 17 matic history has witnessed a rebirth (Watkins 2008b, 1). Under the rubric of 18 18 the “new diplomatic history,” scholars from literary studies, art history, theater 19 19 and performance studies, and international relations have joined historians to 20 20 reconsider the early modern cross-­cultural encounter as ambassadors, diplomats, 21 21 envoys, and emissaries initiated and engaged in it. A number of recent publica- 22 22 tions on the topic attest to the revitalization of this wave of inquiry.1 23 23 Those who have spearheaded this initiative would agree that a revived early 24 24 modern diplomatic history should be wholly interdisciplinary in scope and 25 25 method, but they are far from unanimous about the finer shape and direction 26 26 this refashioned subfield should take. Even so, recent studies have shown a few 27 27 28 28 The author wishes to thank Su Fang Ng for her generous invitation to participate in this volume, Bernard Haykel for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this piece, and Rudi Matthee for 29 29 consulting on the 1701 Persian embassy to Yemen. Fatimah Muhaidat assisted with the intricacies 30 30 of Arabic poetry, and Mark Wagner gave important advice about sources on the Persian delegation. Funding for research in London, the Hague, and Yemen was provided by the American Institute for 31 31 Yemeni Studies and the Harpur College Dean’s Office, Binghamton University. 32 32 Transliteration of Arabic words has been simplified in this article. Only ʿayn and hamza have been marked with special symbols. Dates are given in CE only unless they derive from an Arabic 33 33 source, in which case they include the AH (after hijra) date separated from the CE date by a slash, 34 34 such as 1103/1691 – 92. 1. In addition to specific references included in the following paragraph, see Watkins 2008a; 35 35 Charry and Shahani 2009a. 36 36 Genre, Vol. 48, No. 2 July 2015 DOI 10.1215/00166928-2884880 © 2015 by University of Oklahoma

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dominant preoccupations. Many historians have been interested in the question of Line 1 Line 1 sources and call on records that have been overlooked or need to be read again in 2 2 more nuanced and dynamic ways (Mokhberi 2012; Hevia 1995). The imperative 3 3 to find non-­Western sources that describe diplomatic exchanges, including East-­ 4 4 East and South-­South meetings, is particularly pressing in response to the West- 5 5 ern bias implicit in most studies of the cross-­cultural encounter (Alam and Sub- 6 6 rahmanyam 2007, 54 – 82; Subrahmanyam 2011, 73 – 132; Matar 2009, 72 – 135). 7 7 Literary scholars have turned avidly to the themes of messaging, representation, 8 8 and reception, exploring the heightened instability of signs as they cross cul- 9 9 tural borders (Loomba 2009). Yet others have looked at the diplomatic encounter 10 10 through the lenses of spectacle and cultural performance (Banerjee 2009). There 11 11 is also an effort to bring the new diplomatic history in line with gender studies, 12 12 highlighting the embassies sent by powerful queens and queen mothers (Watkins 13 13 2008b, 7). If one salient feature of this wave of scholarship may be identified, it is 14 14 that the ambassador can no longer be seen as a passive figure simply transmitting 15 15 a stable message from a distant state but must be considered as an actor in his or 16 16 her own right, reacting to the vagaries of circumstance and sometimes improvis- 17 17 ing responses or deviating from a dispatched mission. So the independent gaze 18 18 of the envoy, once a “seemingly nameless and faceless messenger,” has emerged 19 19 as a compelling force with the potential to convey, bolster, or subvert the larger 20 20 needs of the state (Charry and Shahani 2009b, 3). 21 21 The present study eagerly pursues this recrafted critical interest in premod- 22 22 ern diplomatic engagements as a way to explore the multifaceted cross-­cultural 23 23 encounter in the early modern Indian Ocean. The focused site of exploration is 24 24 the Arabian Peninsula during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, a slice of 25 25 time within the longer period that I refer to as the era of coffee, when foreigners 26 26 flocked to Yemen’s shores to procure a commodity that was then still difficult to 27 27 obtain outside the region. But rather than look at cross-­cultural diplomacy from a 28 28 generic position, I will examine a few instances when foreign doctors were called 29 29 on or enlisted to treat the imam of Yemen, which happened on several occasions. 30 30 Admittedly, the scattered references to these events of cross-­cultural medical care 31 31 are usually short and fleeting, and thus on their own they appear unremarkable. 32 32 But when one reads across an array of European and Arabic historical sources 33 33 from Yemen, informal patterns of “medical diplomacy” emerge.2 Its recipient, the 34 34 35 35 2. The term medical diplomacy was coined in 1978 by Peter Bourne of the Jimmy Carter admin- 36 36 istration. Since then it has represented a larger set of initiatives under the umbrella of global health

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Line 1 Line 1 imam of Yemen, frequently sought care by foreign doctors and medicine from 2 2 abroad. These requests were not always obliged but nevertheless may be charac- 3 3 terized as a distinct register of exchange that was intertwined with the political, 4 4 religious, or commercial agendas of foreign emissaries and merchants in Yemen. 5 5 By turning to this overlooked aspect of Yemen’s cross-­cultural relations, this 6 6 study responds to the directives of the new diplomatic history that look beyond 7 7 the large-­scale political or commercial ramifications of foreign envoys and their 8 8 lofty goals of cross-­cultural self-­representation (although these features are also 9 9 present in some of the exchanges described below). Cross-­cultural medical care 10 10 may have been a prosaic by-­product of diplomatic exchange in at least one case 11 11 and in others may have been used as a tool to gain commercial leverage. But 12 12 by highlighting the seemingly incidental and secondary aspects of these con- 13 13 tacts rather than the deliberate and immediately visible ones, we may explore the 14 14 fundamental imbrication of various sets of interests that defined cross-­cultural 15 15 phenomena in Yemen’s age of coffee. Moreover, while the goals of this study are 16 16 empirical, with the desire to document heretofore unremarked upon events, the 17 17 larger objective goes beyond a simple recording or reconstruction of the past. 18 18 At stake here is an investigation of the role foreigners played as both agents of 19 19 exchange and recorders of events in Yemen’s early modern history. 20 20 21 21 Yemen’s Coffee Era 22 22 23 23 The period I refer to as Yemen’s coffee era begins around 1570, when Ottoman 24 24 rule, which lasted from 1538 to 1636, facilitated large-­scale local coffee cultiva- 25 25 tion (Tuchscherer 2003, 50). It ends in by 1740, after Dutch experiments with 26 26 growing coffee in Southeast Asia succeeded and coffee plants were then trans- 27 27 ported beyond their earliest homes in Yemen and the Horn of Africa to colonial 28 28 plantations in other parts of the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic world (Knaap 29 29 1986; Campbell 2003). In contrast to the following periods of global dispersal, 30 30 during Yemen’s coffee era the demand for this relatively new commodity was on 31 31 the rise, and the region provided beans to most of the world. 32 32 The coffee era is particularly worthy of scholarly investigation, because it 33 33 marks a moment of Yemen’s heightened cross-­cultural contact when merchants 34 34 35 35 diplomacy. But as the authors of a recent study describe, in a rapidly globalizing world these terms 36 36 are highly unstable and hardly fixed (Katz et al. 2011, 505 – 6). Here the term is used in a much looser fashion to describe the overlap of medical care with diplomatic and trade missions.

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from around the world arrived at its ports to engage in trade. Among them were Line 1 Line 1 the ship captains from western India, such as those employed by the shipping 2 2 magnates from Gujarat, Mulla ʿAbd al-­Ghafur and his grandson Mulla Muham- 3 3 mad ʿAli, and traders from Persian Gulf cities, such as Basra, Bandar Kung, and 4 4 Matrah (Das Gupta [1979] 1994; Nadri 2007; Abdullah 2001). Carrying with 5 5 them products such as Indian textiles, Southeast Asian spices, dates, and copper 6 6 work, these merchants dominated the trade of Mocha. European merchants were 7 7 also continuously installed in Yemen’s ports during the decades under consid- 8 8 eration. The English and the Dutch had visited and traded in Yemen as early as 9 9 the first decades of the seventeenth century, when they initiated their overseas 10 10 enterprises in Asia. By the end of that century, when coffeehouses could be found 11 11 in most of the major cities of Europe, Yemeni coffee had become a lucrative 12 12 commodity for both groups (Chaudhuri [1978] 2006, 359 – 84; Glamann 1958, 13 13 183 – 211). In the early eighteenth century other Europeans joined them, namely 14 14 the French and the Ostenders. 15 15 Although European merchants appear prominently in the present study, it 16 16 is crucial to understand that they were not the most avid purchasers of Arabian 17 17 coffee beans or the most important merchants in Yemen’s ports and emporia. In 18 18 fact, their counterparts from Cairo and the Persian Gulf regularly outnumbered 19 19 them in Yemen’s coffee market. Moreover, the trade of Eastern products that 20 20 were handled mostly by the merchants of India, rather than coffee alone, domi- 21 21 nated the international port of Mocha, although this city has been famously and 22 22 erroneously associated with coffee as its main if not sole commodity (Brouwer 23 23 2006, 49 – 57; Um 2009, 36 – 47). Even so, the Europeans hold a unique and outsize 24 24 place as historical observers of Yemen’s commercial climate during this era. As 25 25 such, the dynamic age of coffee in Arabia is defined by the diversity of merchants 26 26 who engaged in its trade but is also delimited by a fundamental imbalance in the 27 27 sources that describe it. 28 28 29 29 30 30 The Qasimi Imams of Yemen 31 31 The entrepreneurial foreign merchants of the coasts traveled to inland Yemen 32 32 only occasionally, yet still they maintained close connections to the Zaydi Qasimi 33 33 imams (r. 1598 – 1872) who resided there. In the period under consideration the 34 34 imam of Yemen participated directly in the international trade, sending two ships 35 35 to India each year. He communicated regularly with foreign merchants, both 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 Asian and European, often through his provincial governors and officials, inter- 2 2 mediaries who were also responsible for bringing considerable revenues from the 3 3 coast to the capital (Um 2009, 53 – 77). 4 4 To understand the unique nature of the Qasimi imamate, we must go back 5 5 to longer patterns of Yemeni history. Located at the strategic hinge between the 6 6 Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean worlds, Yemen has always occupied an 7 7 important place in a maritime sphere that extends to the east and west and to 8 8 the north and south. Its medieval and early modern states, namely, the Zurayids, 9 9 Ayyubids, Rasulids, and Tahirids, communicated actively with the outside world 10 10 through the region’s ports, particularly Aden (Margariti 2007). But it is important 11 11 to highlight that these Sunni states were all based in the southern part of Yemen, 12 12 distinct from the Shiʿi Zaydi imams who ruled from capitals in the north with the 13 13 support of the local tribes. The Zaydi imams were, by contrast, famous for their 14 14 relative isolation. 15 15 Although this image of seclusion lived on until the fall of Yemen’s imams 16 16 in 1962, the Qasimi worldview was decidedly wider reaching than that of their 17 17 predecessors. They engaged in territorial expansion, eventually subsuming under 18 18 their umbrella Sunni majority areas of the lowlands and coasts, including the 19 19 eastern stretch of Hadramawt for at least a short time in the seventeenth century 20 20 (Klarić 2008). The scholar of Islam and the Arabian Peninsula Bernard Haykel 21 21 (2003, 47 – 75) has argued that the Qasimis modeled their state, which diverged 22 22 from Zaydi precedents over time, after the Ottomans, whom they ousted in 1636. 23 23 The Qasimis also continued the avid Ottoman engagement with the overseas 24 24 trade and thus sustained their outward-­looking stance, which is of interest to the 25 25 present study (Casale 2010). 26 26 The key figure is Imam al-­Mahdi Muhammad bin al-­Mahdi Ahmad (b. 27 27 1047/1637), also known as Sahib al-­Mawahib (a title that refers to his final capital 28 28 city), who ruled from 1686 to 1718. Al-­Mahdi is an important figure in Qasimi 29 29 history, because, as Haykel has shown, his imamate represented a turning point 30 30 in the ruling system of the Zaydis. Whereas his Qasimi predecessors adhered 31 31 to the Zaydi ideal of an erudite and militarily adept imam who was chosen and 32 32 approved by the notables, al-­Mahdi did not engage in scholarly pursuits and could 33 33 only win his position by force. Rather than gaining renown and respect from 34 34 the Zaydi religious establishment and the notables, al-­Mahdi was disparaged for 35 35 having used his office to acquire riches (al-­Jirafi 1987, 239). Indeed, his more 36 36 worldly interests seem to have motivated his avid pursuit of relations with foreign

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ambassadors and merchants.3 After al-­Mahdi’s pivotal rule, the Qasimi imamate Line 1 Line 1 changed structurally, becoming a hereditary dynasty until the Ottomans returned 2 2 for a second occupation in the nineteenth century (Haykel 2003, 44). 3 3 Al-­Mahdi also experienced many health problems during the last twenty 4 4 years of his imamate. An Arabic source indicates that the imam’s poor health 5 5 began in 1110/1698 – 99, when he was around sixty years old, and that these medi- 6 6 cal problems were serious enough to cause him to abandon his chosen capital city 7 7 (Abu Talib 1990, 266). While his predecessors usually chose a single seat, resided 8 8 there continuously, and died and were buried there, al-­Mahdi was particularly 9 9 peripatetic. He first declared his imamate in the fortress of al-­Mansura in the 10 10 area of al-­Hujariyya in 1686, but in a few years, in 1103/1691 – 92, he ordered that 11 11 the town of al-­Khudraʾ near Radaʿ be walled and built up as his new seat with 12 12 houses, palaces, mosques, markets, and bathhouses. The city’s immediate and 13 13 comprehensive construction suggests that al-­Mahdi had intended to stay there for 14 14 the long term (al-­Jirafi 1987, 242). But in 1110/1698 – 99, after less than a decade 15 15 of residence there, the imam became so ill that he nearly died. The sources do not 16 16 describe the nature of his ailment, but it is clear that he associated his sickness with 17 17 the unhealthful environment of al-­Khudraʾ (Abu Talib 1990, 266; al-­Jirafi 1987, 18 18 242). He then escaped his still new capital while his son Muhsin and his wazir or 19 19 adviser Shaykh Salih bin ʿAli al-­Huraybi sought a new base for him. Al-­Huraybi, 20 20 who will be mentioned many times in this article, was one of al-­Mahdi’s main con- 21 21 fidants, served as the governor of Mocha, and played an important role in facili- 22 22 tating communications between the imam and the city’s foreign merchants (Um 23 23 2009, 64 – 68). Eventually the two selected al-­Mawahib, a small village northeast 24 24 of the city of Dhamar, as an ideal and naturally defensible site. Under al-­Huraybi’s 25 25 supervision, construction on the city was accomplished quickly, and later that year 26 26 the imam entered his new capital. He lived the rest of his years in al-­Mawahib, and 27 27 this is where he welcomed the visitors described below.4 28 28 29 29 30 30 3. In this way his rule could be compared to that of his much more highly regarded predeces- sor, al-­Mutawakkil Ismaʿil (r. 1644 – 76), who led the vast territorial expansion of the seventeenth 31 31 century. These relatively stable years, which were considered the golden age of the Qasimis, yielded the possibility of external exchange as represented by the sustained letters and diplomatic delegations 32 32 dispatched between the Qasimis and the Ethiopian emperor Fasiladas in the 1640s and the commu- 33 33 nications between al-­Mutawakkil Ismaʿil and the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb between 1657 and 1661 (Van Donzel 1979, 1986; Blukacz 1992). 34 34 4. The earthquake of 1982 damaged the village of al-­Mawahib, leaving only the ruins of al-­ 35 35 Mahdi’s palace to crumble off the western face of the hill. Al-­Mahdi’s small mosque and mausoleum still sit at the bottom (Um 2011). 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 Historians of Yemen have placed little emphasis on al-­Mahdi’s recurring 2 2 health problems, apparently considering them relatively incidental points in the 3 3 texts. But clearly they were significant enough for him to abandon a newly built 4 4 city along with the considerable resources he had allocated to it.5 As will be 5 5 described below, these health problems also came to constitute a noteworthy 6 6 dimension of foreign exchange at the time. For that reason, al-­Mahdi’s frequent 7 7 bouts of illness must not be overlooked as supplementary details of a larger and 8 8 more important dynastic, political, or economic history. Rather, I contend here 9 9 that his illnesses, the treatment by various foreign doctors and imported medi- 10 10 cine, and the context of exchange that facilitated the treatment constitute Yemen’s 11 11 early modern history rather than comprising peripheral material that falls outside 12 12 its accepted bounds. 13 13 14 14 A Doctor from Safavid Iran 15 15 16 16 We begin with the Yemeni historian Muhsin bin al-­Hasan, also known as Abu 17 17 Talib, who describes the first decade of al-­Mahdi’s rule, which began in 1686, in 18 18 tumultuous terms. Rather than taking the imamate by the widespread acceptance 19 19 of his d aʿ w a , literally summons or call, al-­Mahdi took it by force and spent most 20 20 of his imamate trying to put down contenders to the position. For that reason, 21 21 not until 1109/1697 – 98 do we hear of the first two formal embassies sent by this 22 22 imam (Abu Talib 1990, 265). One traveled to the court of Safavid Shah Sultan 23 23 Husayn with the poet Muhammad bin Haydar Agha as the Qasimi ambassador.6 24 24 This ambassador excelled in Humayni verse, a vernacular genre of poetry popu- 25 25 lar in Yemen, and carried gifts of swords, horses, objects crafted of carnelian, 26 26 and Yemeni treasures to Iran.7 Abu Talib tells us that “enviers and informers” 27 27 accompanied him, suggesting a difficult and politically charged mission for this 28 28 ambassador but without any details of it. That same year al-­Mahdi sent some 29 29 30 30 5. ʿAbd Allah al-­Jirafi (1987, 242) describes how the city then quickly fell to ruins after al-­ 31 31 Mahdi’s premature departure. 6. Abu Talib calls Muhammad Haydar by the names Haydar Agha and Muhammad Haydar 32 32 “Aghabawtj” in other parts of the text. Muhammad Haydar did not merit a biographical entry in any 33 33 of the major compilations. Only his father, Haydar Agha, appears in Yusuf bin Yahya al-­Hasani’s Nasmat al-­Sahar (1999) as al-­Amir Abu Muhammad Haydar Agha b. Muhammad. Haydar was a 34 34 member of the Ottoman cavalry, but he did not return to Turkey in 1636, choosing rather to remain in 35 35 Yemen until his death in Duran in 1108/1696 – 97 (2:75, 76, 83). 7. As Mark Wagner (2009, 73 – 74) describes, some Yemeni poets occupied administrative roles 36 36 and were charged with composing poems to be recited at major events of state.

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unnamed sayyids (descendants of the Prophet) to the Mughal Aurangzeb (called Line 1 Line 1 malik al-­hind, the king of India), again with copious gifts but in this case to 2 2 “express the greatness of his circumstance in Yemen.”8 3 3 We hear nothing more about the Indian mission, but the Safavid shah returned 4 4 an embassy to al-­Mahdi four years later in 1113/1701 – 2. The group included his 5 5 original envoy, Muhammad Haydar, who had apparently stayed on in Iran dur- 6 6 ing the interim period, along with a Safavid ambassador. On the surface, this 7 7 embassy fulfilled the classic desire for two early modern royal cultures to portray 8 8 their greatness to each other through pomp and display. As described by Abu 9 9 Talib, onlookers in Yemen were in awe of the amazing gifts the Persians brought 10 10 and the impressive scale of their retinue. Similarly, al-­Mahdi ordered that the 11 11 cities along the embassy’s route be ornamented and that the group be welcomed 12 12 generously at each stop. 13 13 However, this embassy, which represented an opportunity for one Shiʿi state, 14 14 the Twelver Safavids, to come in contact with another Shiʿi state, the Zaydi Qasi- 15 15 mis, is presented in a relatively oppositional light. As described by Abu Talib, 16 16 this meeting did not highlight their potential shared interests, such as their mutual 17 17 antagonism toward the Sunni Ottomans. Rather, our narrator uses terms that 18 18 focus on intrasectarian difference as a defining factor of the Safavid-­Qasimi 19 19 encounter. He tellingly refers to the Safavid ambassador not by name but rather 20 20 as al-­ʿilji,9 the infidel, indicating the hostile Zaydi stance toward the Twelvers 21 21 (297 – 301). In this manner, the account echoes those that describe prior embas- 22 22 sies from the Safavids to major Sunni powers, such as one sent by Shah Ismaʿil to 23 23 the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria in 1511 (Jafarian 2012). In the same light, these 24 24 concerns about the legitimacy of Zaydism dominated correspondence between 25 25 the earlier Qasimi imam al-­Mutawakkil Ismaʿil and Aurangzeb (Blukacz 1992). 26 26 According to Abu Talib, the express reason for this embassy was not simply 27 27 to repay the respect that al-­Mahdi had offered years earlier. Rather, he states that 28 28 the shah wanted to inquire about the title the imam had recently adopted, al-­ 29 29 Mahdi al-­Muntazar, which means the awaited messiah. In fact, in 1109/1697 – 98, 30 30 after having abandoned two previous titles, al-­Nasir and al-­Hadi, this notori- 31 31 32 32 33 33 8. Although this appears to have been al-­Mawahib’s first formal embassy to the Mughals, com- munication between the Qasimis and the Mughals was relatively fluid because of trade relations 34 34 between Mocha and Surat in addition to the constant flow of Mughal pilgrimage ships that docked at 35 35 Mocha before continuing on to Jidda each year. 9. It appears, however, as al-­ʾilji in the text. 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 ously fickle imam had chosen the new title al-­Mahdi li-­Din Allah, or the rightly 2 2 guiding to God’s religion, which did not assimilate the messianic notions of the 3 3 Twelvers.10 Moreover, many previous Zaydi imams had used the title al-­Mahdi 4 4 before, including this imam’s father al-­Mahdi Ahmad, who died in 1681. But by 5 5 representing the embassy’s mission as undergirded by contestation over the right 6 6 to this title, which held particular resonance among the Twelvers, Abu Talib casts 7 7 its basic purpose in an oppositional light. We may never know what the shah’s 8 8 larger motives for the return embassy were, just as we may never know what the 9 9 precise mission of the initial Yemeni embassy to Iran was. But surely the shah had 10 10 more at stake than simply inquiring about the imam’s newly fashioned title.11 As 11 11 Willem Floor and Edmund Herzig (2012, 2) state, the question of how significant 12 12 Safavid religious identity was to their external relations is still “an unresolved 13 13 argument.” Nevertheless, the case of the Safavid-­Qasimi meeting adds a new 14 14 dimension to our understanding of intra-­Muslim encounters, which are often 15 15 reduced to a binary between Sunni and Shiʿi. 16 16 Moreover, Abu Talib portrays this event as defined by breaches (or near 17 17 breaches) of court protocol on both the Yemeni and the Persian sides. These 18 18 clashes were akin to the “struggle over audience forms” described by James 19 19 Hevia (1995, 228) for the British at the Qing court at the end of the same cen- 20 20 tury or the “skirmishes over matters of precedence and ceremony [that] played 21 21 a central role in the assertion of the relative status of rulers and countries” that 22 22 Susan Mokhberi (2012, 58) cites as a key feature of diplomatic interface in early 23 23 modern Europe. For instance, soon after arriving the messenger presented the 24 24 imam with the shah’s letter, which was decorated with silk. To receive this mis- 25 25 sive, the imam stood up. But rather than moving quickly to deliver the message, 26 26 the Persian envoy hesitated a little, thereby leaving the imam standing on his own, 27 27 which angered him immensely. To amend his error, the Persian ambassador then 28 28 29 29 10. Al-­Mahdi’s rapid succession of titles also inspired interest from foreign rulers. When he 30 30 exiled Niʿamat al-­Lahuri to India in 1109/1697 – 98, the king of India (“malik al-­hind”), presumably Aurangzeb, asked him if the imam of Yemen was one or three because of his three titles or laqabs 31 31 (Abu Talib 1990, 265). 11. Evidence from other diplomatic missions of the time suggests that the Safavids were con- 32 32 cerned with maritime trade and security as major issues during this period. For instance, the threats 33 33 of Omani piracy instigated a Safavid envoy to France in 1715, although the idea for this embassy was first initiated in 1708 (Mokhberi 2012, 60). Moreover, Husayn’s predecessor, Sulayman, sent a 34 34 return embassy to the Thai court at Ayutthya, a major international trading center, a few years earlier 35 35 (Marcinkowski 2012, 390). When the embassy to Yemen is considered along with these two other diplomatic missions, it appears that the later Safavids were interested in maintaining relations with 36 36 those who were involved with maritime trade across the Indian Ocean.

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placed the letter in a copy of the Qurʾan, which he presented to the imam as a gift. Line 1 Line 1 Because the imam was used to standing before the presentation of this revered 2 2 book, the breach of protocol was narrowly averted (Abu Talib 1990, 298). As 3 3 Hevia (1995, 48) describes for the later embassy to China led by George Macart- 4 4 ney, “Participants scrutinized the bodily movements of others as outward signs 5 5 of inner conditions in an effort to determine whether verbal statements or other 6 6 kinds of action (such as gift giving), all of which presumably manifested loyalty 7 7 and submission, were indeed sincere.” As such, the subtlest physical gestures 8 8 could have major ramifications in these exchanges. And according to Mokhberi, 9 9 this volatility over ceremonial procedures was by no means limited to the East-­ 10 10 West encounter but also constituted a major feature of intra-­European exchanges 11 11 at this time. 12 12 Later, after receiving the ambassador’s impressive gifts,12 the imam hosted a 13 13 gathering with many local people of distinction. As usual in Yemen, poets were 14 14 called on to entertain the group. Ahmad bin Ahmad al-­Anisi, al-­Mahdi’s “main 15 15 panegyrist,” presented a poem that praised both the guest and the imam (Wagner 16 16 2009, 78). After the recitation, the imam awarded the poet with a robe of honor, 17 17 or k h i l aʿ , and a horse. But when the ambassador followed suit by presenting him 18 18 with a Persian garment, al-­Anisi refused to accept this bestowal, which would 19 19 confirm the ambassador’s elevated status, saying that it was beneath him. As Abu 20 20 Talib later reflected on this snub he noted that the imam was not pleased with 21 21 the poet’s actions. Not long after this event, in 1115/1703 – 4, al-­Anisi was jailed, 22 22 and he died in prison (Abu Talib 1990, 310). Although the perceived diplomatic 23 23 fumble was not described as the immediate cause of his fall to disfavor, it may 24 24 have contributed to it.13 25 25 Even outside Abu Talib’s account of the Persian delegation we find evidence 26 26 that this embassy caused further tensions at court. Another famous poet, Yusuf 27 27 bin Yahya al-­Hasani (d. 1121/1709 – 10), author of the biographical work Nasmat 28 28 al-­Sahar (1999), was also in al-­Mawahib to greet the visitors. It was said that he 29 29 30 30 31 31 12. Abu Talib does not disclose the details of the Persian gifts, but we know that one was a dag- ger encrusted with jewels. This gift was mentioned as having come from the shah when al-­Mahdi 32 32 repurposed it as a gift to an Ottoman envoy who appeared at al-­Mawahib in 1114/1702 – 3 (Abu Talib 33 33 1990, 305). 13. Wagner (2009, 75) describes the Qasimi court as generally full of intrigue and political 34 34 complexity, but al-­Mahdi was “particularly dangerous” as a patron of poetry, as the case of al-­Anisi 35 35 illustrates. But becoming a poet was also a “means of upward mobility” (78) and a way to accumulate wealth, as al-­Anisi’s lavish gifts indicate. 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 became close to the Persians and showed a dangerous affinity to their beliefs. 2 2 Before long he was forbidden from seeing them and was ordered to leave al-­ 3 3 Mawahib (al-­Huthi 1429/2008, 3:512). So while some of those at al-­Mahdi’s court 4 4 refused to acknowledge the stature of the Safavid envoy, like al-­Anisi, at least one 5 5 other was drawn in by Twelver Shiʿism. Clearly, both reactions elicited discom- 6 6 fort among the imam and his advisers. 7 7 According to Abu Talib, the ambassador stayed in al-­Mawahib for four 8 8 months and during this time received many gifts and rewards, including a pres- 9 9 ent to take back to the shah. The delegation left Yemen via Mocha, where the 10 10 Dutch East India Company (VOC) sources comment on the same embassy while 11 11 expressing quite different interests in its activities. On June 14, 1701, a VOC 12 12 factor remarked in the Mocha logbook that a Persian ambassador had arrived 13 13 at the port earlier that year and at the time of writing was at the court with the 14 14 imam.14 The Dutch called the envoy “Miersja Chelardien,” which may be a faulty 15 15 transcription of the name Mirza Jalal al-­Din. According to Dutch sources, this 16 16 envoy went to al-­Mawahib carrying a great gift from Iran and was being cel- 17 17 ebrated there daily, an assessment that agrees largely with Abu Talib’s account. 18 18 The Dutch and other merchants in Mocha worried about this visit, however. It was 19 19 said that the imam was spending three hundred rijksdaalders daily to entertain his 20 20 high-­profile guests. They worried that these expenses would ripple down to the 21 21 coast and that the merchants of Mocha would be called on to cover the extraordi- 22 22 nary costs through newly imposed taxes. 23 23 The Dutch went further, mentioning that the doctor who came with the Per- 24 24 sian delegation had cured the imam of a case of hemorrhoids (ambaijen) that had 25 25 plagued him for a long time. For this reason, the governor of Mocha, the above-­ 26 26 mentioned al-­Huraybi whom the Dutch describe as a “good friend” of the imam, 27 27 was very happy and ordered that shots be fired around the port in celebration. 28 28 While Abu Talib focuses on the ceremony, pomp, and lavish displays associ- 29 29 ated with the meeting of the two Shiʿi states and highlights some uncomfortable 30 30 aspects of their interface, he makes no mention of this much more direct service 31 31 offered by the Persian delegation. Even so, it is clear that the news of the imam’s 32 32 recovery was important enough to travel to the coast, where it was celebrated. 33 33 34 34 35 35 14. Report by the junior merchant Dirck Clercq and the bookkeeper Cornelius Snoeck, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company Records, VOC 1660, May – September 1701, 36 36 fol. 784.

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The VOC’s Responses to Requests for Medical Assistance Line 1 Line 1 2 2 Both Arabic and Dutch sources indicate that al-­Mahdi continued to experience 3 3 serious ailments in the following years. In 1704 the Dutch wrote that the imam 4 4 had been onpasselijk, indisposed, for several months previously but had gotten 5 5 much better. Once again al-­Huraybi ordered that shots be fired around Mocha, 6 6 including from the ships in the harbor.15 Like this passing reference, most discus- 7 7 sions of the imam’s health problems are short and do not provide details on the 8 8 nature of his illnesses. But when read as a body, they point to the pressing issue 9 9 of the imam’s physical condition and the impact it had on foreign communities in 10 10 Yemen, particularly merchants. 11 11 In 1117/1705 – 6 Abu Talib (1990, 316) wrote about yet another serious sick- 12 12 ness of the Imam, this one so grave that al-­Huraybi rushed from the coast to sit 13 13 by his bedside along with the imam’s nephew, Sidi al-­Qasim, who would later 14 14 successfully challenge his uncle under the title Imam al-­Mutawakkil. Again Abu 15 15 Talib’s account is full of court intrigue. He tells us that al-­Huraybi was aware that 16 16 he would be able to conquer the lucrative lowlands of Yemen with its revenue-­ 17 17 producing ports and rich agricultural lands if the imam died. For that reason, 18 18 al-­Qasim watched him closely to make sure this ambitious governor did not flee 19 19 quickly if the imam’s condition became dire. Eventually, however, the imam was 20 20 cured, and al-­Huraybi returned to his original post. 21 21 This brief account in Arabic may be connected to and augmented by one in 22 22 Dutch sources. In May 1706 al-­Huraybi asked that the surgeon (chirurgijn), Otto 23 23 Mueller, of the Dutch ship Oostersteijn, which had docked at Mocha, go to al-­ 24 24 Mawahib to treat the imam.16 The Dutch, who were the only European merchants 25 25 at the port during this trade season, refused, and when they were asked a second 26 26 time declined again.17 At the third request they believed they had no choice but 27 27 to accept. In a letter to VOC administrators in Batavia, they express worries that 28 28 29 29 15. Report by the Mocha chief and junior merchant Joan Josua Ketelaar and the bookkeeper 30 30 Slaacq van der Hoeve, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company Records, VOC 1714, September 17, 1704, fol. 152. 31 31 16. At this time European surgeons dealt with external treatments, and physicians focused on internal ones. Although the status of the former was on the rise, the latter were considered more 32 32 highly qualified and usually occupied posts at universities. Surgeons, some of whom were also bar- 33 33 bers, were more likely to accompany VOC missions than physicians (Bruijn 2009, 19, 29). 17. These events may be culled from the VOC Mocha daily logbook (Dag Register) and from 34 34 a letter to Batavia. Mocha Dag Register, May 23, 1706, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch 35 35 East India Company Records, VOC 9115, fol. 184v – 185r; report from Joan Josua Ketelaar and Joan van den Needen to Joan van Hoorn, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company 36 36 Records, VOC 9115, fol. 45 – 48.

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Line 1 Line 1 a final refusal could cause the company to fall out of favor with the imam and 2 2 governor and thus would have negative ramifications for the company’s trade. 3 3 So they finally agreed to send Mueller with the stipulation that he had to return 4 4 to Mocha by July 1, in time to leave the port at the end of that month. On May 5 5 23, 1706, Mueller left for al-­Mawahib with two European soldiers, a letter, and 6 6 some small gifts for the imam. Although not mentioned, it is certain that he also 7 7 brought with him necessities from the ship’s medical chest and some of his own 8 8 medical instruments (Bruijn 2009, 67 – 69). Other than his name, which indicates 9 9 that he was German, as many VOC doctors were in the eighteenth century, we 10 10 know little about this surgeon employed by the Dutch (157). 11 11 In later letters from al-­Mawahib, Mueller relates to VOC merchants in 12 12 Mocha that he had successfully cured the imam, although he did not identify the 13 13 nature of his sickness. On June 17 the imam sent a letter to Joan Josua Ketelaar, 14 14 the senior Dutch merchant in Mocha, thanking him for sending his doctor and 15 15 offering him a k h i l aʿ as recognition. When Mueller returned to Mocha on July 16 16 4, he was greeted warmly outside the city walls, then the governor received him 17 17 with a banquet.18 In addition, the imam had given horses as gifts to Mueller and 18 18 each of the soldiers who had accompanied him along with one for Pieter de Vos, 19 19 previously VOC director in Surat, and one for Ketelaar. The surgeon also brought 20 20 two letters from the imam, one directed to Joan van Hoorn, the late governor 21 21 general of Batavia,19 and another to Ketelaar. Apparently, al-­Huraybi then tried 22 22 to convince the Dutch to leave at least one of the horses behind for him rather 23 23 than sending all of them on the eastbound ship. Following the advice of their 24 24 broker and a local merchant named Qasim al-­Turbati, the Dutch gave two horses 25 25 to al-­Huraybi as a gift. They were warned that al-­Huraybi could interfere in their 26 26 future trade if they did not oblige his request, although they were supposed to 27 27 send all the gifts they received to Batavia. It is unfortunate that Mueller’s sepa- 28 28 rate report about his time in al-­Mawahib, which would have surely described 29 29 the details of the imam’s illness and his treatment along with an account of the 30 30 capital, can no longer be found.20 31 31 32 32 33 33 18. The Dutch accounts do not corroborate Abu Talib’s claim that al-­Huraybi was at the imam’s bedside at this time. The daily accounts, which are usually fastidious about recording the governor’s 34 34 movements, do not mention al-­Huraybi leaving Mocha during this period. 35 35 19. Apparently, the imam was unaware that Van Hoorn had passed away in 1711. 20. It was numbered attachment 44 but was not conveyed with the other documents from this 36 36 trade mission. Report from Joan Josua Ketelaar and Joan van den Needen to Joan van Hoorn, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company Records, VOC 9115, fol. 47.

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But Mueller’s 1706 visit was not the last instance in which the imam sought Line 1 Line 1 Dutch medical assistance. In their yearly letter to Batavia in 1712, the Dutch 2 2 factors at Mocha wrote yet again about the imam’s poor health and the decision 3 3 that they would resist any requests for their oppermeester, or chief surgeon, who 4 4 was Jan Abraham Zimmerman at that time, to travel to the capital. While they 5 5 acknowledged that the imam’s gratitude for such care could be beneficial for the 6 6 company, there were several reasons why they did not want to be involved with 7 7 his future treatment. For one, they had serious patients of their own who required 8 8 medical care in Mocha. More important, they feared the consequences of caring 9 9 for the imam, whom they described as recklessly taking hundreds of types of 10 10 medicines given by “various doctors from various nations.”21 Indeed, the Dutch 11 11 can be counted as contributors to this stockpile of drugs, as they had delivered 12 12 medicine for the imam from Batavia, the medical hub for the Dutch enterprise 13 13 in Asia, on at least one documented occasion in 1709.22 According to them, in a 14 14 single day or hour the imam could take two or three types.23 In addition, because 15 15 of his advanced age,24 the Dutch feared that he would die in the care of a European 16 16 physician and that the blame would then go to that nation, causing problems for 17 17 all of the Europeans residing in Yemen. Their ruminations provide a clear sense 18 18 that involvement with the imam’s medical care could be useful to merchants but 19 19 was also a risky endeavor, given his fragile physical state. 20 20 21 21 22 22 A French Surgeon in al-­Mawahib 23 23 After being refused by the Dutch in 1712, the imam then turned to the French, 24 24 who had arrived at the port on their second visit to Yemen. The French account, 25 25 however, does not describe their invitation as an alternate one. According to Jean 26 26 de La Roque, narrator of these early French trade missions, al-­Huraybi, who was 27 27 residing with the imam in al-­Mawahib at the time, recommended the French 28 28 doctor highly and sent a distinguished envoy to request their medical assis- 29 29 30 30 31 31 21. Christiaan van Vrijberghen to Abraham van Riebeeck, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company records, VOC 1843, August 20, 1713, fol. 6. 32 32 22. Mocha Dag Register, June 20, 1709, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India 33 33 Company records, VOC 1784, fol. 2165. 23. They also insinuate that al-­Mahdi’s active attachment to women posed a problem for his 34 34 health. 35 35 24. Although he was in his late sixties at this time, the Dutch cite his age as eighty-­four, and Jean de La Roque ([1732] 2004, 198) says eighty-­seven. 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 tance.25 Major de la Grelaudiere of the Pondicherry garrison, who was said to 2 2 speak Arabic, led the delegation. Once again the doctor in question was a ship’s 3 3 surgeon, Monsieur Barbier, who had come aboard the Diligent.26 In February 1712 4 4 the two left Mocha with around twenty other people, a large mirror, two pistols, 5 5 and some high-­quality textiles as gifts (La Roque [1732] 2004, 191 – 92). As they 6 6 passed through the cities of Taʿizz, Jibla, Yarim, and Dhamar, they were received 7 7 by local notables, suggesting that the imam had sent word to expect their arrival 8 8 as he had done for the Persian delegation a decade earlier, thus assuring that they 9 9 would receive due respect and comfortable lodging along the way. 10 10 After a journey of eight days, they arrived in al-­Mawahib. Al-­Huraybi greeted 11 11 them at the palace and escorted them directly into the imam’s bedchamber. The 12 12 doctor immediately examined the imam and found that he had an abscess in his 13 13 ear. Apparently, some yellow clay had been applied to dry it out, which Barbier 14 14 saw as an inferior treatment that had inflamed the swelling, causing the imam 15 15 more pain and a fever. Assuring the imam that he could cure him, the French 16 16 surgeon used rose oil to remove the yellow clay and applied a plaster to drain 17 17 the abscess. He treated a sore on the imam’s hand the same way. After his treat- 18 18 ment, the imam was relieved enough to turn to pleasantries and asked about their 19 19 journey. At this time they presented him with their gifts, of which the mirror 20 20 seemed to inspire the most interest. They were housed in an apartment in the 21 21 palace complex. 22 22 The French group stayed in al-­Mawahib for three weeks, and during that 23 23 time Barbier restored the “King to his perfect Health” (203). According to La 24 24 Roque, Barbier tended to the imam carefully: He “purg’d him, and gave him 25 25 several cooling Medicines, without forgetting outward Applications; so that by 26 26 Degrees the Distemper decreas’d, and his Sleep and Appetite return’d, to the 27 27 great Satisfaction of every Body” (201). After regaining his comfort, the imam 28 28 took every opportunity to meet with these foreigners, usually inquiring about 29 29 France, its king, and the “magnificence of his court and his Palace” (202). He 30 30 treated the French exceptionally well, by their own account, sometimes sending 31 31 32 32 33 33 25. For the tense circumstances surrounding the governor’s recall to the highlands, see Um 2009, 67. 34 34 26. The French kept the chief surgeon of the fleet, Monsieur des Noiers, in Mocha in case of any 35 35 emergencies there. Barbier was their second surgeon. Although translations of La Roque’s text into English use the more generic terms doctor and physician, the original French text specifies that both 36 36 occupied the post of surgeon, “chirurgien” (La Roque 1716, 227).

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them “Dishes from his own Table,” which the recipients did not always enjoy. Line 1 Line 1 Additionally, the French visitors were given the opportunity to walk around the 2 2 town and to ride through the surrounding areas in the company of the imam’s 3 3 officers, including a visit to an enclosed garden near al-­Mawahib that was planted 4 4 with coffee trees (204). 5 5 La Roque also includes a discussion of the imam’s harem, which was esti- 6 6 mated to number between six and seven hundred women. True to many other 7 7 European records of the Middle East at this time, La Roque’s provides intimate 8 8 details about women in Yemen, such as their dress, cosmetics, and social habits, 9 9 while also admitting that the French visitors had no access to the women they 10 10 described so earnestly.27 Clearly, other men at the court, whom we can presume 11 11 were equally prohibited from access to the female areas of the palace precinct, 12 12 conveyed these “facts” to their curious visitors. Only Barbier had limited contact 13 13 with two court women he treated, the wife of a wazir and the wife of one of the 14 14 imam’s officers. Apparently, both had rheumatism, one in the arm and leg. How- 15 15 ever, even during their successful treatment, which entailed physical contact, he 16 16 was not allowed to see their faces (218 – 19). 17 17 While they were in al-­Mawahib, the French witnessed the arrival of another 18 18 foreign embassy to the imam, a Turkish ambassador who “appear’d with a great 19 19 deal of Pomp, and a large Retinue” and presented the imam with a valuable clock 20 20 as a gift (219). From La Roque’s account it is clear that the French were not given 21 21 the opportunity to interact with the Ottoman delegation, but based on informa- 22 22 tion from their sources at court, La Roque explains the reason for this visit: “In 23 23 Appearance, it was an Embassy of Honour and Ceremony, to keep up Friendship 24 24 and a good Understanding between the two Mossleman Monarchs; but that in 25 25 reality his Business was to transact Matter relating to Trade, and particularly 26 26 that of Coffee” (220).28 Apparently, the Ottomans blamed the European arrival 27 27 in Yemen’s coffee market as the cause for the diminished availability and rise 28 28 in price of this precious commodity. According to the French, the imam saw 29 29 this embassy as an “attack [on] the Sovereign Authority” (220). Accordingly, he 30 30 treated them respectfully but did not oblige their requests to limit European sales. 31 31 32 32 27. The French did have the opportunity to observe the imam’s wedding when he married a 33 33 young Turkish woman. Although La Roque ([1732] 2004, 222) does not specify, it is obvious that they only viewed the public portion of this event, which did not include any direct visual or physical 34 34 contact with the young bride or any other women of the court. 35 35 28. Abu Talib (1990, 404 – 5) and Dutch and English observers describe later Ottoman envoys on similar missions to curb the rise of European trade of coffee in the following years (Um 2015). 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 In the last audience before the departure of the French, the imam asked again 2 2 about France and its king, offering five hundred bales of coffee as a gift to him. 3 3 They declined, saying that they had already filled their cargo. This was, however, 4 4 just an excuse. They feared that the ships’ captains would not want to receive a 5 5 present without clearing it with the court first. Al-­Mahdi did give the major and 6 6 the doctor a number of textiles and two well-­equipped horses. Robes of honor and 7 7 horses were also conveyed to the captains in Mocha, gifts similar to those given 8 8 to the Dutch group at the end of their sojourn at the court in 1706. 9 9 That the objective of this medical mission was worth more than horses and 10 10 robes is clear, however, as the French described it as an opportunity “to make 11 11 their advantage of this conjuncture, to make known the French Nation to the King 12 12 of Yaman [sic], and to become better acquainted, than any yet had been, with the 13 13 Country under his Subjection, in Order to draw from thence all the advantage 14 14 possible for their Commerce” (190). Indeed, they felt immediate benefits on their 15 15 return to Mocha, where the governor helped dispatch their coffee quickly and 16 16 without hindrance. He also abolished a new tax that the governor of the inland 17 17 coffee market of Bayt al-­Faqih had just levied (228). The French attributed this 18 18 assistance directly to the success of their mission in the capital. 19 19 The 1712 mission was not the last French visit to the imam’s highland court 20 20 for the purpose of medical care. Although it dates from a later era and comes 21 21 with little documentation, a second episode took place ten years later, in 1722, 22 22 under the imamate of the successor to al-­Mahdi, Imam al-­Mutawakkil Qasim. Al-­ 23 23 Mutawakkil’s imamate was not defined by the frailty and ill health that character- 24 24 ized the last years of his uncle’s rule. In fact, this reference to al-­Mutawakkil’s 25 25 use of a foreign doctor is unique. In this case, the merchants of the English East 26 26 India Company (EIC) wrote about it rather than a French narrator. In a letter to 27 27 Bombay they mentioned that the French sent a doctor to the imam and so were 28 28 granted six hundred bales of duty-­free coffee annually, a privilege the English had 29 29 already obtained.29 Although this incident falls outside the sphere of al-­Mahdi’s 30 30 rule and its associated patterns of medical diplomacy, it is important, because it 31 31 demonstrates the direct relationship between medical favors and trade privileges 32 32 in Yemen at this time. 33 33 34 34 35 35 29. Henry Albert and John Geckie to William Phipps, April 22, 1722, Mocha Factory Records, 36 36 G/17/1, pt. 1, fol. 121.

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Early Modern Medical Diplomacy in Yemen Line 1 Line 1 2 2 The above accounts, drawn from Arabic, Dutch, French, and English sources, 3 3 have demonstrated the Yemeni imam’s sustained faith in the powers of foreign 4 4 doctors and imported medicine in the first decades of the eighteenth century. 5 5 Although unmentioned, the imam clearly had access to all of Yemen’s healers, 6 6 who would have treated him based on principles of classical Arab medicine. 7 7 The Arab approach shares with European traditions its foundations in Greek 8 8 sources but also draws from Indian healing traditions and the “Prophet’s medi- 9 9 cine,” which relies on his prescriptions and actions regarding health in addition 10 10 to some pre-­Islamic practices (Hehmeyer and Schönig 2012, 1; Fleurentin 2012, 11 11 157). Traditional Yemeni medicine could also involve various “magical” modes of 12 12 intervention, with amulets, potions, and talismans as possible tools. Our sources 13 13 tell us nothing about these local treatments, but we can be certain that the best 14 14 local doctors and healers attempted to cure al-­Mahdi’s many illnesses. We can 15 15 also discern that those local practitioners were unsuccessful in relieving his case 16 16 of hemorrhoids and his two abscesses in addition to two cases of rheumatism 17 17 among his subjects. 18 18 While much has been written about traveling merchants and increasingly 19 19 more is being said about foreign diplomats in the early modern era, the physicians 20 20 who often accompanied these long-­distance ventures are rarely highlighted. Yet 21 21 a doctor was always present on European maritime trade missions (Bruijn 2009, 22 22 59). Sickness stemming from long voyages and tropical diseases were, and to a 23 23 certain extent still are, a constant feature of the cross-­cultural encounter. For that 24 24 reason, ships’ surgeons, such as Mueller and Barbier, who sometimes operated on 25 25 land as well, must be understood as major figures in the Age of Discoveries along 26 26 with the merchants and statesmen who have already received greater attention. 27 27 The Dutch historian Iris Bruijn’s (2009) work on this class of traveling medics has 28 28 laid the groundwork for widening our understanding of their social status and the 29 29 intricacies of their highly portable trade. 30 30 Moreover, the imam was not the only one to extol the services of Western 31 31 physicians in Yemen at this time. As mentioned above, two court women were 32 32 willing to contravene social standards of gender segregation to accept the care 33 33 of a foreign doctor. At the faraway and much more cosmopolitan Mocha, Euro- 34 34 pean medical care was also deemed extremely valuable. European doctors were 35 35 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 sometimes called to treat Yemenis inside and outside the city.30 In some cases, 2 2 Europeans sought the care of the doctors associated with other companies. For 3 3 instance, in 1719 many residents at the VOC factory, including its doctor, fell ill, 4 4 and they had to rely on the services of the English doctor, which they paid for.31 5 5 Additionally, the Bohemian Franciscan missionary and doctor Remedius Prutky 6 6 (1991, 377), who stopped at Mocha in 1753 for a two-­month stay, treated European 7 7 merchants and also provided spiritual guidance to fellow Christians far from 8 8 home. But as the case of the Safavid mission shows, it was not only European 9 9 medical expertise that was in demand in Yemen at this time. 10 10 Rather than holding any presumed fear of foreign science or imported inno- 11 11 vation, the imam of Yemen seemed open to any possible introductions these for- 12 12 eigners brought to his aid. In fact, cross-­cultural medical care appears not to 13 13 have been bound by fixed cultural barriers, and Nabil Matar (2009, 24) describes 14 14 it as one “area of contact and curiosity across the Mediterranean.” Indeed, more 15 15 recent episodes suggest that this openness regarding foreign medical intervention 16 16 may be considered an enduring feature of the early modern and modern Yemeni 17 17 imamates. In her study of contemporary Yemeni medical travel, the anthropolo- 18 18 gist Beth Kangas (2002) defines medicine as an area in which the later Hamid al-­ 19 19 Din imams, Yahya and his son Ahmad (1918 – 62), eagerly sought outside exper- 20 20 tise. They used health technology tools to legitimate their rule during a time when 21 21 they rejected other external influences, for example, they banned most foreigners 22 22 from access to the country and refused outside nations diplomatic representation. 23 23 Kangas speaks of a “link between foreigners, medicine, and technology” (67) 24 24 that endured through the mid-­twentieth century and continues today as well. For 25 25 instance, Italian medical missions have been posted in Yemen since 1926, foreign 26 26 X-­ray machines have been used since the 1930s, and Imam Ahmad traveled to 27 27 Rome for medical treatment in 1959.32 In this way medical connections may serve 28 28

29 29 30. Mocha Dag Register, February 27, 1725, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India 30 30 Company Records, VOC 9119, fol. 137. 31. Abraham Pantzer, Joan van Leeuwen, Gabriel Scholten, Pieter Zegens, and Jan van Alder- 31 31 wereld to Christoffel van Zwoll, Mocha Dag Registers and Letters, Dutch East India Company 32 32 Records, VOC 9103, August 19, 1719, fol. 72. 32. Moreover, Yemeni newspapers noted many short-­term foreign medical missions during this 33 33 time, such as two British doctors who came from Aden in 1937, a French doctor who treated the royal 34 34 family in 1946, and an Italian doctor from Asmara who came specifically to operate on Ahmad’s throat in 1949. Ahmad established a hospital, with new medical machinery from abroad and doctors 35 35 from Syria, Lebanon, Italy, and France, in Taʿizz in 1952 (Kangas 2002, 69 – 73, 80). 36 36

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as exceptions or perhaps even challenges to the overriding perception of seclusion Line 1 Line 1 that has dominated our understanding of Yemen’s Zaydi imams, both premodern 2 2 and more recent. 3 3 While most studies that look at medicine in networks of exchange, trade, 4 4 and empire focus on Asia and the tropics as sources for new remedies and treat- 5 5 ments, this article has little to say about the development of medical knowledge 6 6 (Harrison 2010; Cook 2007). Moreover, these sporadic moments of medical 7 7 contact must be differentiated from other, more sustained East-­West exchanges 8 8 in medicine, such as those afforded by the presence of the VOC settlement in 9 9 late seventeenth-­century Deshima, which spurred the publication of a number 10 10 of medical texts and manuals for both Japanese and European audiences (Cook 11 11 2009, 347 – 61; Bowers 1970, 27 – 58). In sharp contrast, the accounts treated here 12 12 were sporadic and isolated incidents that were unevenly documented and rarely 13 13 delved into the details of particular ailments and their treatments. 14 14 Nevertheless, rather than a concern secondary to larger political, religious, and 15 15 commercial ones, cross-­cultural medical care ultimately was tightly interwoven 16 16 with those associated interests in this era. Obviously, al-­Mahdi had an immediate 17 17 personal stake in wooing foreign doctors to his court. As his agent on the coast, al-­ 18 18 Huraybi helped the imam identify and communicate with European doctors and the 19 19 merchants who employed them. They offered commercial favors to those who suc- 20 20 cessfully treated the imam, such as the six hundred duty-­free coffee bales that the 21 21 French received annually beginning in 1722. But even so the Dutch warned of the 22 22 possible risks of such engagements. Although it is difficult to say what developed 23 23 from the Persian embassy of 1701, the most tangible and uncontested outcome of 24 24 the Safavid-­Qasimi encounter may have been the imam’s remedy. As such, medical 25 25 diplomacy was tied up with multiple overlapping interests and consequences that 26 26 reached from London and Zeeland to Isfahan and Batavia. 27 27 28 28 29 29 Conclusion — Writing the Crosscultural Encounter 30 30 This study has used a “multi-­vocal narrative, a ‘montage of fragments’ ” (Matar 31 31 2009, 19) to present a relatively coherent image of al-­Mahdi’s continuing poor 32 32 health through the last twenty years of his imamate and his serial treatment by 33 33 various foreign doctors. But as much as these sources seem to agree about the 34 34 imam’s proclivity toward outside medical care, the various records are undoubt- 35 35 edly distinct, oriented around specific interests, and bound by certain limitations. 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 Commercial records, namely those left by VOC and EIC merchants, were 2 2 intended to detail their trade activities for home offices in the Dutch Republic 3 3 and England but also in Batavia and Bombay. Indian Ocean economic historians 4 4 have used these sources to explore and document networks of early modern long-­ 5 5 distance trade during the age of European commercial expansion. These sources 6 6 also provide perspectives on the local history of the southern Arabian Penin- 7 7 sula, which was intertwined with the extended world of Indian Ocean commerce. 8 8 These letters and logbook entries show an intense European commitment to the 9 9 maintenance of a profitable trade on the Arabian Peninsula, which was accom- 10 10 plished not only through wise commercial ventures but also through other types 11 11 of personal engagements and services. It is crucial not to read these documents as 12 12 transparent bearers of fact but to acknowledge that they were penned to explain 13 13 expenditures and allocation of staff resources to readers in home offices, where 14 14 they would be scrutinized closely.33 For that reason, the Dutch sketch foreign 15 15 medical care in terms of net loss and gain for the company, whether it was a fear 16 16 of being levied extra taxes as a result of the lavish treatment of another embassy 17 17 at court or quibbling over the number of horses to be sent back to India and Bata- 18 18 via. The brief EIC account shows that English merchants closely investigated the 19 19 affairs of other European traders (in this case the French) and reported them duly 20 20 to their home offices. 21 21 Although La Roque’s narrative of the first French missions to Yemen was 22 22 based on commercial records and ships’ logs, it must be set apart from archival 23 23 trade records. La Roque, unlike VOC and EIC observers, never traveled to Yemen 24 24 but drew from the memories and letters of those who had. Moreover, his text was 25 25 produced for a public readership and not for the eyes of trade administrators. In 26 26 fact, La Roque’s volume became immensely successful as a popular account and 27 27 was reprinted and translated multiple times throughout the early eighteenth cen- 28 28 tury.34 Undoubtedly, the latter section of the book, which focuses on coffee (with 29 29 30 30 31 31 33. According to K. N. Chaudhuri ([1978] 2006, 113) and Miles Ogborn (2007, 98), supervisors were perennially suspicious about the activities of company merchants posted in various sites in Asia 32 32 and around the Indian Ocean. 33 33 34. It was published first in 1715 (Paris: Huguier) and again in 1716 (Paris: Cailleau; Amster- dam: Steenhouwer et Uytwerf). An English translation appeared in 1726 (London: Strahan and Wil- 34 34 liamson) and subsequently in two editions under the title A Voyage to Arabia Foelix (Cornhill, UK: 35 35 Symon, 1732; London: Hodges, 1742). It was published in German in 1740 (Leipzig: Braun). In 2004 the 1732 English version was reprinted with a new introduction by Carl Phillips (2004) and with an 36 36 account of travels to Yemen by M. Cloupet from 1788.

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detailed illustrations of the leaves and fruits of the plant) and a brief account of Line 1 Line 1 its trade to Europe, garnered great interest at the time of its publication.35 As the 2 2 historian Ina Baghdiantz McCabe (2008, 163 – 82) has shown, La Roque’s text 3 3 on coffee appeared in France at a time when the origins, effects, and medicinal 4 4 qualities of this relatively new and increasingly popular beverage were being 5 5 hotly debated. Moreover, La Roque was an Orientalist scholar who became inter- 6 6 ested in these commercial missions because he was in the process of translating 7 7 the writings of the twelfth-­ to thirteenth-­century Ayyubid scholar Abuʾl-­Fida’s 8 8 geographic work on the Arabian Peninsula.36 As such, his narrative oscillates 9 9 between direct transcriptions of captains’ letters that use the first person, his nar- 10 10 rative of these missions derived from others’ firsthand documents, and moments 11 11 of his own speculative digression. During these interspersed intellectual rumi- 12 12 nations, he ponders geographic information based on medieval Arabic texts, the 13 13 origins of the Yemeni imams in the longer stretch of Islamic history, and the 14 14 unique nature of Zaydi succession. Consequently, his text is quite unresolved 15 15 in its character, including multiple perspectives and oscillating between many 16 16 authorial voices. But its goals move resolutely beyond the limits of commerce. 17 17 These European sources have formed the backbone of writing about Yemen’s 18 18 coffee age with their wealth of quantitative data and detailed eyewitness obser- 19 19 vations from Yemen’s major trading sites.37 By contrast, contemporary Arabic 20 20 chronicles are almost mute on this vibrant era in Yemen’s commercial history. 21 21 While focused on events such as battles, natural disasters, and happenings at 22 22 court, they omit any mention of the imam’s involvement in the overseas trade, 23 23 such as the ships he sent along Indian Ocean routes yearly. They also make only 24 24 scant reference to his frequent communications with foreign merchants, which 25 25 were voluminous when we take into account the number of letters mentioned or 26 26 translated in European archives. This exclusion of commercial references was 27 27 by design rather than by chance, as it was accepted that the Zaydi imam should 28 28 maintain distance from the worldly affairs of business and economic transac- 29 29 tions. In the case of al-­Mahdi, it is clear that he was, to the contrary, quite actively 30 30 31 31 32 32 35. This section, “A Treatise concerning the Tree and Fruit of Coffee,” was based on studies by 33 33 the chief French surgeon, Noiers, in Bayt al-­Faqih (La Roque [1732] 2004, 234 – 49). 36. This translation was eventually published as part of his edition of Laurent d’Arvieux’s travel 34 34 narrative from Palestine (La Roque 1717). 35 35 37. These European sources are considered so valuable for Yemeni history that a few key VOC documents have been translated into Arabic (Brouwer and Kaplanian 1989). 36 36

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Line 1 Line 1 involved in the commercial sphere. As much as he was criticized for his worldly 2 2 engagements, very few specific episodes of his dealings with foreign merchants 3 3 find their way into the narratives of his rule. For this reason, our main local narra- 4 4 tor, Abu Talib, describes the Safavid embassy extensively but pays little attention 5 5 to al-­Mahdi’s frequent exchanges with foreign merchants and their associated 6 6 doctors, even while describing his bouts of sickness as a recurring motif of the 7 7 later part of his imamate. 8 8 Yet it is important to resist distilling these voices into cultural essences, 9 9 with the Dutch merchants characteristically parsimonious and solely focused on 10 10 economic ramifications and the French scientific, curious, and outward looking. 11 11 Indeed, the Yemenis may appear to be trapped in the confines of an Islamocentric 12 12 perspective and an obsession with petty intrigues in the court. To the contrary, 13 13 each of these sources represents the limits of its format and the demands of its 14 14 particular audience. Moreover, it is important to note that local sources in Arabic 15 15 have not been used to balance the European perspective but rather to provide 16 16 different ones with their own interests, goals, and biases. For instance, our main 17 17 narrator in Arabic, Abu Talib, was one of al-­Mahdi’s harshest critics and can 18 18 hardly be counted as a neutral observer.38 19 19 Even with these varied interests, European and Arabic sources come together 20 20 to present a relatively resolved picture of medical diplomacy during the era of 21 21 al-­Mahdi. It is rare to find European and Arabic accounts that describe the same 22 22 identifiable event in Yemen’s history. But when they do, they sometimes repre- 23 23 sent contesting positions, and the reader is forced to validate one source over the 24 24 other.39 In this case, the sources line up to communicate with each other in a way 25 25 that is productive and relatively conclusive, perhaps because of the perceived 26 26 incidental nature of these events and the secondary context of their recording. 27 27 Moreover, the above accounts may surprise readers who expect to find tension in 28 28 the early modern East-­West encounter. For instance, the French stay at al-­Mahdi’s 29 29 court was defined by cross-­cultural curiosity and generosity rather than hostil- 30 30 31 31 38. In fact, he was quite young during al-­Mahdi’s reign, so he clearly drew on other sources for 32 32 his accounts of this era, although they are not cited specifically. 33 33 39. As an example, in 1737 the French bombed Mocha from the sea. In this case, the French blamed Mocha’s governor Faqih Ahmad Khazindar and the city’s chief sarraf, money exchanger, 34 34 Hasan Hasusa, for refusing to uphold their negotiated trade treaty. The short Arabic account of the 35 35 same attack starts by mentioning Khazindar’s alleged mistreatment of foreign merchants but then describes the French demands to ride horses in the city, to visit prostitutes, and to drink wine as major 36 36 reasons for this military action (Zabara n.d., 303).

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ity. By contrast, the intra-­Shiʿi meeting of the Safavids and Qasimis is portrayed Line 1 Line 1 with discomfort and perceived challenges to each other’s status. Even the Otto- 2 2 man embassy to al-­Mawahib, which was mentioned only briefly by the French, 3 3 reflects significant debates over sovereignty and commercial rights in a decidedly 4 4 “postcolonial” fashion.40 5 5 The encounters between foreign doctors and the Qasimi imam were not 6 6 simple visits. Rather, multiple intersecting gazes characterized the events of 7 7 cross-­cultural medical diplomacy during Yemen’s dynamic age of coffee. The 8 8 Dutch carefully observed and recorded the activities of a Persian embassy even 9 9 long after it left Mocha. While avidly exploring the Yemeni highland capital, the 10 10 French devoted at least some of their time at the imam’s court to inspecting the 11 11 Ottoman envoy who had arrived in al-­Mawahib with great pomp. During the 12 12 same era the English dutifully kept an eye on French commercial privileges in 13 13 Yemen’s coffee market. These various vectors of viewing and recording did not 14 14 point definitively in any single direction. This article has attempted to read across 15 15 these various European and Arabic narratives to locate their points of salient 16 16 intersection. 17 17 18 18 19 19 Works Cited 20 20 Abdullah, Thabit. 2001. Merchants, Mamluks, and Murder: The Political Economy 21 21 of Commerce in Eighteenth-­Century Basra. Albany: State University of New 22 22 York Press. 23 23 Abu Talib [Muhsin bin al-­Hasan]. 1990. Tarikh al-­Yaman fi ʿAsr al-­Istiqlal ʿan al-­ Hukm al-­ʿuthmani al-­awwal. Edited by ʿAbd Allah Muhammad al-­Hibshi. 24 24 Sanaa, Yemen: Al-­Mufaddal. 25 25 Alam, Muzaffar, and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. 2007. Indo-­Persian Travels in the Age 26 26 of Discoveries, 1400 – 1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 27 27 Baghdiantz McCabe, Ina. 2008. Orientalism in Early Modern France: Eurasian 28 28 Trade, Exoticism, and the Ancien Régime. Oxford: Berg. 29 29 Bannerjee, Pompa. 2009. “Just Passing: Abbé Carré, Spy, Harem-­Lord, and ‘Made in France.’ ” In Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture: Mediation, 30 30 Transmission, Traffic, 1550 – 1700, edited by Brinda Charry and Gitanjali Shah- 31 31 ani, 95 – 112. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. 32 32 33 33 34 34 40. Although the Ottomans left Yemen in 1636, they maintained an interest in this strategic 35 35 area. They considered strategies for reoccupation over the following years and eventually succeeded in occupying Yemen for the second time in the nineteenth century. 36 36

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