Whenever He Planned
An Attack On The Wahabys, He Collected His Allies Among The Bedouins,
And Advanced Several Times Towards Nedjed With An United Force Of Ten
Thousand Men.
When those allies were obliged, successively, to yield to
the invaders, and the southern Bedouins, on whom Ghaleb always
Principally depended, were conquered by the great exertions and activity
of Othman el Medhayfe, Ghaleb found himself alone, with his few troops,
unable to prolong the contest, and was soon driven to extremities and
obliged to submit, though he still kept a corps of troops in his pay,
after Saoud had obtained firm possession of the Hedjaz, and conducted
his affairs with such consummate
[p.238] skill, as to maintain his authority, and command the respect of
the Wahabys.
The expenses attending the increased forces of the Sherif during the
Wahaby war, were considerable; it was necessary to make donations to the
Sherif and the Bedouins, to keep them in his interest; but it happened,
for once, that his interests were equally their own; and Bedouins,
though never tired of asking for presents, are generally content with
small sums. It may hence be easily conceived that Ghaleb never, during
any period of his reign, lived up to the amount of his income; and it
was a general, and, I believe, well-founded opinion in the Hedjaz, that
during the twenty-seven years of his official life, he had amassed a
large treasure in money. When Mohammed Aly seized his person, the amount
of the whole of his disposable property found at Mekka and Djidda, was
calculated at about two hundred thousand or two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds sterling; and it was presumed that he had either
secreted his treasure in the castle of Mekka, or sent it to his friends
in India, while Mohammed Aly was making preparations for his attack. It
is most probable that he employed both modes of secreting his wealth,
and thus made another addition to the large sums daily buried in the
East, by persons in authority, as well as by private individuals. But
such is the bad use to which Eastern rulers apply their riches, that the
public prosperity of the country suffers little by the loss. [The
prevalence of the practice of concealing riches in Turkey, and the cause
of it, will at once appear from the following account of a circumstance
which happened in 1813, at Cairo. Mohammed Aly having demanded 15,000
purses from the Copts employed in the finances of Egypt, they divided
the sum among themselves; and Moallem Felteos, an old man, who had been
in former times a chief financier, was assessed at twelve hundred
purses, or about 18,000l. sterling: this he refused to pay, alleging his
poverty; but, after long parleys, at last offered to give two hundred
purses. The Pasha sent for him, threatened, and, seeing him obstinate,
ordered him to be beaten: after receiving five hundred strokes with the
stick, and being nearly half dead, be swore that he could pay no more
than two hundred purses.
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