For The Blood Shed
On Both Sides, Atonement Was Made By Fines Paid To The Relations Of The
Slain, And The Same Laws Of Retaliation Were Observed, Which Prevail
Among The Bedouins.
There was always a strong party in opposition to the
reigning power; but this opposition was evinced more in the protection
afforded to individuals persecuted by the chief, than in open attempts
against his authority.
Wars, however, frequently happened; each party
had its adherents among the neighbouring Bedouins; but these were
carried on according to the system in Bedouin feuds, and were seldom of
long duration.
Though such customs might have a tendency to crush the power of the
reigning Sherif, they were attended with bad consequences to the
community: every individual was obliged to attach himself to one or
other of the parties, and to some protector, who treated his adherents
with the same tyranny and injustice that he experienced from his
superior; laws were little respected; every thing was decided by
personal influence. The power of the Sherifs was considerably diminished
by Serour, who reigned from 1773 to 1786; but even, in later times,
Ghaleb, although possessed of more authority than any of his
predecessors, had often to fight with his own relations.
This continued prevalence of intestine broils, the wars and contentions
[p.222] of the prevailing parties, the vicissitudes of fortune which
attended them, and the arts of popularity which the chiefs were obliged
to employ, gave to the government of the Hedjaz a character different
from that of most of the other governments in the East, and which it
retained, in outward appearance, even after Ghaleb had almost succeeded
in reigning as a despot. None of that ceremony was observed, which draws
a line of distinction between the Eastern sovereigns, or their
vicegerents, and the people. The court of the Sherif was small, and
almost entirely devoid of pomp. His title is neither Sultan, nor Sultan
Sherif, nor "Sire," as Aly Bey Abbas asserts. "Sydna," "our Lord," was
the title which his subjects used in conversing with him; or that of
"Sadetkum," or "your Highness," which is given to all Pashas. 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. The power of the Sherifs involved him in
frequent wars with them; as he seldom succeeded, their influence
remained undiminished. Having betrayed symptoms of enmity towards Aly
Beg, then governor of Egypt, the latter sent his favourite slave, Abou
Dahab, whom he had made Beg, with a strong body of soldiers, as chief of
the Hadj caravan, to Mekka, in order to expel Mesaad; but the Sherif
died a few days before his arrival.
1769, or 1770. After Mesaad's death, Hosseyn, who, although of the same
tribe, had been his opponent on every occasion, was raised by his own
party to the government, and confirmed therein by the assistance of Abou
Dahab. He continued to rule till the year
1773 or 4, when he was slain in a war with Serour, the son of Mesaad.
The name of Serour, who reigned thirteen or fourteen years, is still
venerated by the Mekkawys: he was the first who humbled the pride and
power of the Sherifs, and established rigid justice in the town.
Previous to his reign, every Sherif had in his house at Mekka an
establishment of thirty or forty armed slaves, servants, and relations,
besides having powerful friends among the Bedouins. Ignorant of every
occupation but that of arms, they lived upon the cattle which they kept
among the Bedouins, and in different parts of the Hedjaz; the surra
which they were entitled to receive from the Hadj; and the presents
which they exacted from the pilgrims, and from their dependents in the
town. Some of them, in addition to these general sources of income, had
extorted from former chief Sherifs lucrative sinecures, such as duties
on ships, or on certain articles of merchandize; tolls collected at one
of the gates of Djidda; the capitation-tax levied upon the Persian
pilgrims, &c. &c. Their behaviour in the town was wild and disorderly;
the orders of the chief Sherif were disregarded; every one made use of
his personal authority to increase his wealth; family quarrels
frequently occurred; and, in the time of the Hadj, they often waylaid
small parties of pilgrims in their route from Medina or Djidda to Mekka,
plundering those who made no defence, and killing those who resisted.
After a long struggle, Serour succeeded at length in reducing
[p.224] the Sherifs to obedience, chiefly by cultivating the goodwill of
the common class of Mekkawys, and of the Bedouins, by his great
simplicity of manners, personal frugality, and generosity towards his
friends, together with a reputation for excessive bravery and sagacity.
He had often made peace with his enemies; but fresh wars as repeatedly
broke forth.
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