Page 28 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

GOVERNMENT 109

, • COVild, call out considerable levies of Hejazi and other Bedouins,
I'byso doing in order to fight the Turks’ battles, Emirs, and par-
r'culaxly the actual prince, Husein, have not only made interest
Nvith*" the Porte, but inspired it with a wholesome respect, and,
further, kept in touch with a fighting force which could be used
ome day for their own ends. This position of the Emir of Mecca
as a great Bedouin chief was bound to increase with the decline of
Ottoman strength ; and it is by using it that Sherif Husein, the
present prince, has almost restored the Emirate to the power and
!
independence it enjoyed before the Wahabite invasion.
The Emirate has never been, in theory, hereditary or restricted,
except by prescription, to any one Sherifial clan or family. As
a matter of fact, the Emirs for a century past, including the present
prince, who was sent from Constantinople to take the office in 1908,
have owed their succession .to direct nomination by the foreign
occupying power. But the Porte has kept to the ‘Abadilah house
«
since 1827, twice only interpolating a member of the rival Dhawi
Zeid for short terms (1851-6 and 1880-2) on the divide et impera
principle. It has always been a disadvantage of *he Emirs that
members not only of other Ashraf clans, but also of their own houses,
hold themselves as well or better entitled to the Emirate ; and if
the Turkish power were to be withdrawn, the internecine wars
which marked each avoidance of the throne up-to the close of the
eighteenth century would no doubt revive. The actual Emir could
only secure the succession to a son by maintaining and leaving to
him a superior paid force of soldiery, and one son would be as likely
to claim the succession as another It is well to bear in mind that
in Mecca itself is always centred a strong opposition to the ruling
house, and an Emir can hardly fail to have foes of his own household.

The title ‘ Grand Sherif ’ is a European invention. The Arabs
<?all the prince of Mecca Emir, and address him as ‘ Seyyidna ’ (our
fiord). From the Turks he had the titles ‘ Highness ’ and * Pasha ’,
ms sons being commonly styled ‘ Beys ’.

2. Regent History and Politics
The
;, ruling Emir, Sherif Husein ibn ;Ali, grandson of the first
A- ac*hah Emir (died in 1858), is now well over sixty years of age.

e wa.s nominated to the Emirate by the Anglophil Grand Vizier,
She^1f Tx^>as^a’ 111 1^8. after a long residence at Constantinople,
posit' ^nse*n s uncle, ‘Abdillah. had died on the way to take up the

r'mic-10T\ which he had been nominated at Mecca, and Husein’s
°°Usm, ‘ah
who was Emir previously, had been banished with his