Page 72 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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POLITICS 35

were nob attacked. He
rillifS, pleading that the Holy Cities
.1 |c «»tccl the only dues which were imposed m Mecca, natives of
which were tax-free of the Ottoman Treasury.
•|'|k: strength of the Sherif’s position was attested by the extreme
itm and°consideration with which the officers of the occupying
rant lull
puvfer were enjoined to treat him. He was able to levy heavy
.•niitribution even on funds properly accruing to the Ottoman
administration from port-dues and remittances from the capital,
lie had power cviough in Central Arabia to levy dues, for the benefit
of .Meecfi, in Qaslm and" even in north Nejd (Sedcir) ; his authority
’ - and his police*ranged southwards far into inland Asir ; and his
tribal following embraced not only the strictly Hejazi tribes, such
as the Hudiieil, Beni.Thaqlf, Juhadlah, Juhoisah, and Billi, but
all the great Ateibah and Harb tribes, and not, as formerly, certain
sections of them. By the recent insurrection of the tribes he has
now become prince, in name* as well as in reality, of all North-West
Arabia between the Red Sea and the boundaries of the Central
hi mi rates, and from Midian to Idrisi’s limit in Asir.
^The Sherifial family has considerable property in Egypt, as well
as in Hejaj, and comnufnds more pecuniary resources than any other
princely fanlily in Arabia. It also maintains a more regal state and
Ifves in a more civilized and cosmopolitan environment.
2. Imaruate of Yemen (Ottoman Sphere).—This princedom is of
great antiquity and has a long history of independence. After
shaking off the Ottoman yoke in the seventeenth century, it never
again surrendered San‘a till 1S72. Even during Mohammed ‘Ali’s
occupation of part of the Red Sea littoral, from 1S14 to 1S40, the
highlands kept their freedom. Some years later the Turks appeared
at Hodeidah, and the Imam, Mohammed Yahya, submitted to
humiliating terms, But these cost him his throne and life at
the hands of indignant subjects, who, in spite of the weakness of
theil Imams for the next quarter of a century, continued to keep
die Turks out of both the capital and all the highlands north
of Ta" 1ZZ.
The basis of the Imam’s power, unlike that of the Sherif, is the
personal sanctity of the prince, regarded as having inherited
infallibility and esoteric knowledge by descent from the Prophet
through Fatimah and ‘Ali’s stock. His line ascends to Hasan, son
ot the latter pair, through ‘Ali Qaslm er-Rassi, who established a
Oculist power in Sa'dah (north Yemen highlands) late in the tenth
century. Zeiclisin is a trimming opportunist link between Sunnism
niul Shiism, which dates, however, as far back as the third generation
t'om the Prophet. Zcidists hold, with Shiahs, that
a true Caliph
c 2

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