After the Ottoman interest in the Indian Ocean had subsided Hejaz and the neighbouring regions
were at the same time on the periphery of the empire and at the centre of Muslim pilgrimage.
Nevertheless little is known about the eighteenth-century Red Sea region between Egypt the
Arabian and African coasts before the Wahhabi and British incursions during the closing
decades of the century. This contribution presents the letterbook of a governor-general
covering copies of his correspondence that reflects neither the metropolitan nor the local
perspective but his own. In this way it is possible to trace what tasks this official had to
pursue and to explore how he acted as an imperial representative addressing expectations at
court dealing with dubious subordinates unruly soldiers local notables petty rulers and
suspect neighbours as well as supplying and safeguarding the Hejaz. Having served in various
capacities at the imperial court and in the provinces the governor-general Ebu Bekr Pasa held
office in the Red Sea region for several years. Surveying his correspondence in 1725-1727 this
contribution elaborates on modes of communicating and political balancing.
