They always took part, and by
the late invasion of Mohammed Aly, that they found it expedient to
abandon the territory of the Hedjaz, and seek refuge in the encampments
of the tribes of the Eastern plain. Othman el Medhayfe, the famous
Wahaby chief, a principal instrument employed by Saoud in the
subjugation of the Hedjaz, was himself a Sheikh of Adouan; and Sherif
Ghaleb had married his sister. The other Sherifs
[p.230] sent their children to the encampments of Hodheyl, Thekyf, Beni
Sad, and others; some few to the Koreysh, or Harb.
The Bedouins in whose tent a Sherif has been educated, were ever after
treated by him with the same respect as his own parents and brethren; he
called them respectively, father, mother, brother; and received from
them corresponding appellations. Whenever they came to Mekka, they
lodged at the house of their pupil, and never left it without receiving
presents. During his pupilage, the Sherif gave the name of Erham to the
more distant relatives of the Bedouin family, who were also entitled to
his friendship and attention; and he considered himself, during his
life, as belonging to the encampment in which he had passed his early
years: he termed its inhabitants "our people," or, "our family;" took
the liveliest interest in their various fortunes; and, when at leisure,
often paid them a visit during the spring months, and sometimes
accompanied them in their wanderings and their wars.
Sherif Ghaleb always showed himself extremely attentive to his Bedouin
foster-parents; whenever they visited him, he used to rise from his
seat, and embrace them, though in no way distinguished from any meanly-
dressed inhabitant of the Desert. Of course, it often happened that
Sherif boys could not easily be induced to acknowledge their real
parents at home; and they sometimes escaped, and rejoined the friends of
their infancy, the Bedouins in the Desert.
The custom which I have just described is very ancient in Arabia.
Mohammed was educated among foreigners, in the tribe of Beni Sad; and
his example is continually quoted by the Mekkawys, when speaking of the
practice still usual among the Sherifs. But they are almost the only
people in Arabia by whom it is now followed. The Bedouins called
Mowalys, [This tribe is originally from the Hedjaz: it lived in the
neighbourhood of Medina, and is often mentioned by the historians of
that town, during the first century after Mohammed.] once a potent
tribe, but now reduced to a small number, and pasturing their flocks in
the vicinity of Aleppo, are the only Arabs among whom I met with any
thing similar. With them it is an established
[p.231] usage, that the son of the chief of that tribe should be
educated in the family of another individual of the same tribe, but
generally of a different encampment, until he is sufficiently old to be
able to shift for himself.
