After The Djeheyne Had
Surrendered, And Yembo El Nakhel Had Received A Garrison Of Wahaby
Soldiers, Saoud Attacked Yembo, For The First Time, In 1802, With A
Considerable Force, Which Remained Encamped Before It For Several Weeks,
And Repeatedly Attempted To Carry It By Assault.
After his retreat, the
Yembawys built the new strong wall round
[P.424] the town, by order of the Sherif, who made them bear the whole
expense of the work. After Sherif Ghaleb himself had submitted to the
superior power of Saoud, who took possession of Mekka, Yembo still held
out for some months; and it was not till a strong army was preparing to
attack it, and the Vizier himself had fled, that the Yembawys sent a
messenger to Saoud, and capitulated, adopting at the same time his
creed. The Wahabys did not place a garrison in the town; the Sherif
continued to keep his governor there: but the Wahaby tax-gatherers came;
and the inhabitants, who, except customhouse duties, had never before
been subject to any imposts, found the government of the Wahabys press
very heavily upon them.
In the autumn of 1811, when the Turkish army under Tousoun Pasha
effected its first landing near the town, the Yembawys were very willing
to shake off the government both of the Sherif and the Wahabys; and the
officers of Ghaleb and Saoud then in the town fled, and, after a
trifling show of resistance, the two first days, by Ghaleb's commander,
who had but a few soldiers with him, and who soon saw that the spirit of
the inhabitants was wholly against fighting, the town opened its gates,
and experienced some slight injuries from the disorderly Turkish
soldiers. Since that time Yembo has been garrisoned by them, and was
made the commissariat depot of the Turkish army employed against the
enemy in the neighbourhood of Medina. The soldiers, being at a distance
from the Pasha, or his son, behaved with much more irregularity than
they dared to do either at Djidda or Mekka. Every Bimbashy, or commander
of a company, who landed here with his soldiers, assumed, during his
stay, the government of the town; while the real governor, Selym Aga,
who had but a few soldiers under him, was often reduced to a mere
cipher. Several affrays happened during my stay, and the inhabitants
were extremely exasperated. A Turkish officer shot, with his pistol, in
the open street in mid-day, a young Arab, to whom he had for some time
been making infamous proposals; he committed this murder with the
greatest composure, in revenge for his refusal, and then took refuge in
the quarters of a Bimbashy, whose soldiers were called out
[p.425] to defend him against the fury of the populace. The relations of
the Arab hastened to Medina to ask the life of the aggressor from
Mohammed Aly Pasha; I left Yembo before the affair was settled.
The Yembawys are all armed, although they seldom appear so in public,
and they carry usually a heavy bludgeon in their hand.
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