486 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



by facts. There is a Waly, or Governor-General, who 

 resides mainly in Mecca, or in the summer season at Taif. 

 Under the Waly there are in the towns subordinate 

 magistrates, judges, and police of Turkish appointment. 

 Turkish garrisons are quartered at Jeddah, Mecca, Taif, 

 Medina, Yanbo, and Rabegh. There are also armed 

 ports at stations along the great pilgrimage roads to 

 Mecca and Medina, occupied by Turkish soldiers or by 

 irregular Arab troops in Turkish pay. Thus far the 

 authority of the Turks is a reality. Moreover, the Otto 

 man Empire raises taxes. There is a custom-house in 

 Jeddah, which might yield a large revenue but for its 

 corrupt administration on the one hand, and the pre 

 valence of smuggling on the other. Besides the customs, 

 the Sultan claims the zaka or tithes, which, in Moham 

 medan law, are the legal expression of the duty of alms 

 giving. But as this is a tax on agriculture and flocks, 

 it does not apply to the towns, and from the Bedouins 

 it is collected, not by Turkish officials, but through the 

 Emir of Mecca. The poll-tax does not apply to the Hejaz, 

 nor is compulsory military service exacted from the in 

 habitants. Thus, even in theory, this province does not 

 feel the full weight of Turkish sovereignty. In practice 

 its dependence on Constantinople is still less close. Even 

 in the towns far less respect is paid to the commands of 

 the Porte than to the word of the Arabian Prince of 

 Mecca, the High Shereef , head of that singular aristocracy 

 which traces its descent to the prophet, through his 

 daughter Fatima, wife of the Caliph Aly. There are 

 Shereefs throughout the Mussulman world claiming and 

 receiving a certain respect, however poor their circum 

 stances, but in Arabia the Shereefs are a hereditary aristo 

 cracy, to which many sovereign families, especially in 

 the south, claim to belong. In the Hejaz the descendants 

 of the Prophets are divided into Shereefs (Ashraf) and 

 Seyyids (Sada). The former, I believe, are descendants 

 of Hasan, son of Aly, the latter of the younger brother, 



