The Sharifate of Medina or Emirate of Medina was an emirate centred on the Islamic holy city of Medina in the Hejaz. It was established during the dissolution of the Abbasid empire in the mid-tenth century, and was ruled by a series of sharifs of the Banu Muhanna dynasty, descendants of Muhammad via Ali ibn Abi Talib and his son Husayn. Like its southern neighbour, the Sharifate of Mecca, which arose at about the same time, the sharifs of Medina were usually obliged to vassalage to the rulers of Egypt, as the two holy cities drew their food supply from there. In the Mamluk period, the Sharifate of Medina gradually lost its autonomy and importance, its emirs being appointed by Cairo and subordinated to the Sharif of Mecca as the vice-sultan of the Hejaz.