An episode between Bani Lam and the Sharif Barakat in 1511

An interesting account from the Meccan chronicle Ghayat al-Maram bi Akhbar Saltanat al-Balad al-Haram by ‘Izz al-Din al-Hashimi al-Qurashi under the year 917 Hijri (1511-12 CE):

The Sharif Barakat raided the Mafarijah [a tribe of the Bani Lam] and their allies the Bani ‘Uqbah. He [the Sharif] had some of the Mafarijah with him.

Then he met with the Shaykhs of Bani Lam. They agreed with him that he’d give them their usual subsidies. They told him that the Sultan had sent six thousand [units of money] with al-Burhan al-Samarqandi, which they had not received.

The Sharif gave the tribes of Bani Lam and Bani ‘Uqbah and others large numbers of horses and garments. He showed much beneficience to them.

Bedouin oral histories have conserved the memory of many horses strains coming from the Sharif Barakat. However, there were at least three Sharifs of Mecca by this name.

Also, this episode in another source, Nayl al-Muna, involving the same Sharif Barakat and his son Abu Numayy in the year 926 Hijri / 1520 CE:

The tribe of Bani Lam laid siege to [the holy city] Medina. They cut some of its palm groves that were toward Mount Uhud. They asked the ashraaf from the Bani Hussain [the rulers of Medina] for money. They [the rulers of Medina] gave them dates and grains and other stuff, per their usual subsidy to them.

This news reached the Sharif of Mecca [note: his suzerainty extended over Medina too]. He sent a detachment, which included his son the Sharif Abu Numayy. Abu Numayy succeeded in the reconciliation, after he took money, sheep, camels and twenty three horses [from Bani Lam]. Three shaykhs and seventeen people were killed from the Bani Lam.