The
Honour Attached, Even To A Nominal Authority Over The Holy Cities, Was
The Only Object They Had In View, Although That Authority, Instead Of
Increasing Their Income, Obliged Them To Incur Great Expenses.
The right
of clothing the Kaaba, and of having their name inserted in the Friday's
prayers in the mosque, was the sole benefit they derived.
The supremacy
of Egypt over Mekka, so firmly established from the beginning of the
fifteenth century, was transferred, after the conquest of that country
by Selim I., to the Sultans of Constantinople.] He was invested annually
with a pelisse, brought from Constantinople by the Kaftandji Bashy; and,
in the Turkish ceremonial, he was ranked among the first Pashas of the
empire. When the power of the Pashas of Djidda became merely nominal,
and the Porte was no longer able to send large armies with the Hadj
caravans of the Hedjaz, to secure its command over that country, the
Sherifs of Mekka became independent, and disregarded all the orders of
the Porte, although
[p.220] they still called themselves the servants of the Sultan,
received the annual investiture of the pelisse, acknowledged the Kadhi
sent from Constantinople, and prayed for the Sultan in the great mosque.
Mohammed Aly has restored the authority of the Osmanlys in the Hedjaz,
and usurps all the power of the Sherif; allowing to the present Sherif
Yahya a merely nominal sway.
The Sherif of Mekka was chosen from one of the many tribes of Sherifs,
or descendants of the Prophet, who settled in the Hedjaz; these were
once numerous, but are now reduced to a few families of Mekka.
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