Entre la chute de la dynastie mahdide en 569/1174 et celle de la dynastie tahiride en 923/1517, les espaces sacrés se multiplièrent au Yémen et les pratiques religieuses évoluèrent considérablement, phénomène particulièrement visible dans la région du littoral de la mer Rouge, la Tihama yéménite. À la fin du VIIIe /XIVe siècle, la multiplication des tombes d'hommes bénis et des visites pieuses apparaissent comme une donnée fondamentale de la société tihamie, dans le contexte de l'affaiblissement progressif du sultanat rasulide (626-858/1229-1454), dont l'influence s'étendit du Higaz à Zafar et à la vallée du Hadramawt. Cimetières, mausolées, mosquées, ribat-s, madrasa-s funéraires : une grande partie de ces lieux, porteurs d'un lien fort avec la puissance divine, se constituèrent au cours de cette période et émergèrent graduellement comme des espaces centraux du développement social, politique et culturel de la société tihamie. Cette recherche tente de définir les processus et les étapes de la sacralisation des espaces religieux en Tihama. Elle s'intéresse au rôle social, mémoriel et politique des savants et des lignages bénis, ainsi qu'à leur place dans les rapports d'autorité et de domination, dans le contexte de la multiplication des lieux du sacré et de la fragmentation croissante des identités territoriales. Elle s'appuie sur un corpus de sources narratives en langue arabe d'époque médiévale, et plus particulièrement sur les dictionnaires biographiques et hagiographiques (tabaqat) produits au Yémen au cours du VIe-IXe/ XIIe-XVe siècle. / Between the end of the Mahdid dynasty in Yemen in 569/1174 and the fall of the Tahirid dynasty in 923/1517, sacred spaces multiplied and religious practices changed dramatically, especially in the Red Sea coastal plains of Tihama. By the end of the 8th/14th century, shrines of holy men were scattered across the whole region of this territory controlled by the Rasulid sultanate (626-858/1229-1454), whose influence spread from Higaz to Zafar and the valley of Hadramawt. Cemeteries, mausoleums, mosques, ribat-s and funerary madrasa-s: most of these places conveyed a strong bond with the divine and progressively emerged as central locations in the development of new social, political, religious and cultural behaviours. This research attempts to define the steps in the sacralization of religious spaces in Tihama. It stresses the social, memorial and political role of religious scholars and blessed lineages, and their place in regional relationships of authority and dominance, in a context of gradual multiplication of sacred places and increasing fragmentation of territorial identities. It is based on a large body of medieval narrative sources in Arabic and focus more specifically on the biographical and hagiographic works (tabaqat) produced in the Yemeni context during the 6th-9th /12th -15th centuries.

Idris Bidlisi's Heşt Behişt is a history of the Ottoman empire written in Persian at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Although considered one of the most important historical works of its time, the work remains to date unedited and scarcely studied. The present work aims to make at least a part of Heşt Behişt available to modern scholarship, with particular focus on the times of the author's patron, the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512). The summarised translation (chapter Vll) of the eighth 'Book' of Heşt Behişt, devoted to Bayezid II's reign, provides the basis for further discussions on several issues relating to the period, including an investigation of the author's personal approach to his subject. The thesis begins with an outline of the historical background of the reign of Bayezid II (chapter I), followed by a brief account of the development of Ottoman historiography up to the appearance of Heşt Behişt (chapter II). The author, Idris Bidlisi, and Heşt Behişt itself are then introduced (chapters Ill and IV). The focus is subsequently turned to the reign of Bayezid II, with particular attention to two major issues of the period. The first relates to the civil strife between the new sultan and his brother Cem over succession to the throne, a series of events which marked the first two years of Bayezid II's reign and had a significant effect on the Ottoman empire's domestic and international politics for the next thirteen years until Cem's death in 1495 (chapter V). The second analytical chapter investigates the phenomenon of the Ottoman navy in the times of Bayezid II, under whose care the empire's naval forces were significantly expanded and upgraded, for the first time in Ottoman history achieving predominance in sea over their Christian counterparts (chapter VI). In the study of both these themes information and the results of modern scholarship are juxtaposed to the material found in Heşt Behişt, in an attempt to look into the historical knowledge of the period and disclose the chronicle's usefulness and contribution to modem research.