And, As Will
Afterwards Be Seen In These Pages, Sa'ad, Had The Audacity To Turn Back
The Sultan's Mahmil Or
Litter-the ensign of Imperial power-and to shut
the road against its cortege, because the Pashas of Al-Madinah
And of
the Damascus caravan would not guarantee his restitution to his former
dignity. That such vermin is allowed to exist proves the imbecility of
the Turkish government. The Sultan pays pensions in corn and cloth to
the very chiefs who arm their varlets against him; and the Pashas,
after purloining all they can, hand over to their enemies the means of
resistance. It is more than probable, that Abd al-Majid has never heard
a word of truth concerning Al-Hijaz, and that fulsome courtiers
persuade him that men there tremble at his name. His government,
however, is desirous, if report speaks truth, of thrusting Al-Hijaz
upon the Egyptian, who on his side would willingly pay a large sum to
avert such calamity. The Holy Land drains off Turkish gold and blood in
abundance, and the
[p.258] lords of the country hold in it a contemptible position. If
they catch a thief, they dare not hang him. They must pay black-mail,
and yet be shot at in every pass. They affect superiority over the
Arabs, hate them, and are despised by them. Such in Al-Hijaz are the
effects of the charter of Gulkhanah, a panacea, like Holloway's Pills,
for all the evils to which Turkish, Arab, Syrian, Greek, Egyptian,
Persian, Armenian, Kurd, and Albanian flesh is heir to. Such the
results of the Tanzimat, the silliest copy of Europe's
folly-bureaucracy and centralisation-that the pen of empirical
statecraft ever traced.[FN#27] Under a strong-handed and strong-hearted
despotism, like Mohammed Ali's, Al-Hijaz, in one generation, might be
purged of its pests. By a proper use of the blood feud; by vigorously
supporting the weaker against the stronger classes; by regularly
defeating every Badawi who earns a name for himself; and, above all, by
the exercise of unsparing, unflinching justice,[FN#28] the few
thousands of half-naked bandits, who now make the land a fighting
field, would soon sink into utter insignificance.
[p.259] But to effect such end, the Turks require the old stratocracy,
which, bloody as it was, worked with far less misery than the charter
and the new code. What Milton calls
"The solid rule of civil government"
has done wonders for the race that nurtured and brought to perfection
an idea spontaneous to their organisation. The world has yet to learn
that the admirable exotic will thrive amongst the country gentlemen of
Monomotapa or the ragged nobility of Al-Hijaz.[FN#29] And it requires
no prophetic eye to foresee the day when the Wahhabis or the Badawin,
rising en masse, will rid the land of its feeble conquerors.[FN#30]
Sa'ad, the Old Man of the Mountains, was described to me as a little
brown Badawi; contemptible in appearance, but remarkable for courage
and ready wit.
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