It Is Said That He Once Discovered A Conspiracy To Murder
Him In One Of His Nightly Walks Round The Kaaba; And That He Generously
Spared The Lives Of The Conspirators, And Only Banished Them.
He
strengthened the great castle of Mekka; kept a large body of armed
slaves and Bedouins constantly in his
Service, the expenses of which he
defrayed by his commercial profits, being an active trader with Yemen;
and, finally, he obliged the most powerful Sherif families to expatriate
themselves, and seek for refuge in Yemen, while many Sherifs were killed
in battle, and others fell by the hands of the executioner. After this,
Serour applied himself to re-establish the administration of justice;
and numerous acts are related of him, which reflect equal honour upon
his love of equity and his sagacity. He drove the Jews from Djidda,
where they had acquired considerable riches by their brokerage and
fraudulent dealings; protected the pilgrims in their progress through
the Hedjaz; and regulated the receipt of customs and taxes, which had
previously been levied in a very arbitrary manner. When he died, the
whole population of Mekka followed his remains to the grave. He is still
considered by the Mekkawys as a kind of saint, and his name is venerated
even by the Wahabys.
1785, or 86. After the death of Serour, Abd el Mayn, one of his
brothers, succeeded for four or five days, when his younger brother
Ghaleb, by his superior skill in intrigue, and by the great popularity
which his valour, understanding, and engaging address had acquired for
him in the time of Serour, dispossessed Abd el Mayn, and suffered him
quietly to retire. During the first years of his reign, Ghaleb was the
tool of Serour's powerful slaves and eunuchs, who were completely
masters of the town, and indulged in the same disorderly behaviour,
injustice, and oppression which had formerly characterized the Sherifs.
Ghaleb, however, soon freed himself from their influence, and acquired
at length a firmer authority over the Hedjaz than any of his
predecessors
[p.225] had possessed, and which he retained till the wars of the
Wahabys, and the treachery of Mohammed Aly put an end to his reign.
Ghaleb's government was milder than that of Serour, though far from
being so just. Very few individuals were put to death by his orders; but
he became avaricious, and culprits were often permitted to purchase
their lives by large fines. To accomplish this extortion, he filled his
prisons with the refractory; but blood only flowed in his transactions
with the Wahabys. During his wars with these invaders, the younger sons
of Serour Abdulla ibn Serour, and Seyd ibn Serour, attempted to wrest
the government from their uncle, but without success; when reconciled
with Ghaleb, they were permitted to return quietly to Mekka, and here
they resided when Mohammed Aly arrived. He sent Abdulla to Cairo
together with Ghaleb, but was ordered by the Porte to set the former at
liberty. Abdulla had been once at Constantinople to obtain the Sultan's
assistance against Ghaleb. The great temerity of Abdulla has gained him
more admirers than friends at Mekka; but it seems probable that, should
the Turks be again obliged to abandon the Hedjaz, he would replace his
brother Yahia, the present chief, who received the appointment from
Mohammed Aly in 1813, and whose reputation and influence at Mekka are
only suited to this honorary situation. The Pasha having seized the
revenues of the government of Mekka, has assigned to the Sherif a
monthly allowance of only fifty purses, or about eight hundred pounds,
to support both his troops and his household. The latter is nominally
the same it was before the Turkish conquest, and consists of a few
Sherifs, some Mekkawys, and Abyssinian or black slaves, who are
indiscriminately appointed to the several employments about his person,
the pompous titles of which are borrowed from the red book of the
Turkish court. At Yembo, Tayf, Mekka, and Djidda, Ghaleb kept his
vizier, who was called El Hakem at Mekka and Tayf. He had, besides, his
khasnadar, or treasurer; his selahdar, or sword-bearer; moherdar, or
keeper of the seal; and a few other officers, who, however, were far
from keeping up so strict an etiquette, or being persons of as much
consequence, as those officers are in the Turkish court. The whole of
the private establishment of Ghaleb consisted of fifty or sixty servants
and officers,
[p.226] and as many slaves and eunuchs. Besides his wives, he kept about
two dozen of Abyssinian slaves, and double that number of females to
attend upon them and to nurse his children. In his stables were from
thirty to forty horses of the best Arabian breed; half a dozen mules,
upon which he sometimes rode; and as many dromedaries. I learned from
one of his old servants, that an erdeb (about fifteen bushels) was
issued daily from the store for the use of the household; this, with
perhaps half a hundred weight of butter, and two sheep, formed the
principal expenditure of provision. It was partly consumed by the
Bedouins, who came to Mekka upon business, and who were in the habit of
repairing to the Sherif's house, to claim his hospitality, just as they
would alight at the tent of a Sheikh in an encampment in the Desert.
When they departed, their sacks were filled with provisions for the
road, such being the Arab custom, and the Sherifs of Mekka having always
shown an anxious desire to treat the Bedouins with kindness and
liberality.
The dress of the Sherif is the same as that of all the heads of Sherif
families at Mekka; consisting, usually, of an Indian silk gown, over
which is thrown a white abba, of the finest manufacture of El Ahsa, in
the Persian Gulf; a Cashmere shawl, for the head; and yellow slippers,
or sometimes sandals, for the feet. I saw no Mekkawy Sherifs with green
turbans. Such of them as enter into the service of government, or are
brought up to arms, and who are called by the Mekkawys exclusively
"Sherifs," generally wear coloured Cashmere shawls; the others, who lead
a private life, or are employed in the law and the mosque, tie a small
white muslin shawl round their caps.
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