The
Distance Between The Subject And The Chief Was Not Thought So Great As
To Prevent The Latter, In Cases
Of need, from representing his griefs
personally, and respectfully but boldly demanding redress.
The reigning Sherif did not keep a
Large body of regular troops;
but he summoned his partisans among the Sherifs, with their adherents,
whenever war was determined upon. These Sherifs he attached to his
person by respecting their rank and influence, and they were accustomed
to consider him in no other light than as the first among equals.
To give a history of the events which have occurred at Mekka since
the period at which the Arabian historians conclude, (about the middle,
I believe, of the seventeenth century,) would be a work of some labour,
as it must be drawn from verbal communications; for nobody, in this
country, thinks of committing to paper the events of his own times. The
circumstances under which I visited the place would have prevented me
from obtaining any very extensive and accurate information on the
political state of the country, even if I had had leisure, as such
inquiries would have obliged me to mix with people of rank, and those
holding offices; a class of society which, for obvious reasons, it was
my constant endeavour to shun. The following is the amount of what
information I was able to collect concerning the recent history of
Mekka.
[p.223] 1750. Sherif Mesaad was appointed to the government of Mekka,
which he held for twenty years.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 312 of 669
Words from 84891 to 85144
of 182297
