After Mesaad's death, Hosseyn, who, although of the same
tribe, had been his opponent on every occasion, was raised by his own
party to the government, and confirmed therein by the assistance of Abou
Dahab.
He continued to rule till the year
1773 or 4, when he was slain in a war with Serour, the son of Mesaad.
The name of Serour, who reigned thirteen or fourteen years, is still
venerated by the Mekkawys: he was the first who humbled the pride and
power of the Sherifs, and established rigid justice in the town.
Previous to his reign, every Sherif had in his house at Mekka an
establishment of thirty or forty armed slaves, servants, and relations,
besides having powerful friends among the Bedouins. Ignorant of every
occupation but that of arms, they lived upon the cattle which they kept
among the Bedouins, and in different parts of the Hedjaz; the surra
which they were entitled to receive from the Hadj; and the presents
which they exacted from the pilgrims, and from their dependents in the
town. Some of them, in addition to these general sources of income, had
extorted from former chief Sherifs lucrative sinecures, such as duties
on ships, or on certain articles of merchandize; tolls collected at one
of the gates of Djidda; the capitation-tax levied upon the Persian
pilgrims, &c. &c. Their behaviour in the town was wild and disorderly;
the orders of the chief Sherif were disregarded; every one made use of
his personal authority to increase his wealth; family quarrels
frequently occurred; and, in the time of the Hadj, they often waylaid
small parties of pilgrims in their route from Medina or Djidda to Mekka,
plundering those who made no defence, and killing those who resisted.
After a long struggle, Serour succeeded at length in reducing
[p.224] the Sherifs to obedience, chiefly by cultivating the goodwill of
the common class of Mekkawys, and of the Bedouins, by his great
simplicity of manners, personal frugality, and generosity towards his
friends, together with a reputation for excessive bravery and sagacity.
He had often made peace with his enemies; but fresh wars as repeatedly
broke forth. It is said that he once discovered a conspiracy to murder
him in one of his nightly walks round the Kaaba; and that he generously
spared the lives of the conspirators, and only banished them. He
strengthened the great castle of Mekka; kept a large body of armed
slaves and Bedouins constantly in his service, the expenses of which he
defrayed by his commercial profits, being an active trader with Yemen;
and, finally, he obliged the most powerful Sherif families to expatriate
themselves, and seek for refuge in Yemen, while many Sherifs were killed
in battle, and others fell by the hands of the executioner. After this,
Serour applied himself to re-establish the administration of justice;
and numerous acts are related of him, which reflect equal honour upon
his love of equity and his sagacity.
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