114 CIVIL HISTORY AND 



who plundered and impeded the pilgrims on their 

 route, and even made the Khan of the Tartars 

 himself their prisoner. The former, unable to con- 

 quer, was glad to compound with the sheiks of the 

 Desert ; while the latter, through the hravery of 

 Arslan, the Pasha of Tripoli, defeated the free- 

 booters, and upheld the authority of the Turkish 

 emperor as protector of the sacred territory. Nadir 

 Shah made an attempt to subdue the Arabs who 

 constantly infested his frontier ; and, in the pro- 

 secution of this object, had at an immense expense 

 equipped a fleet of twenty-five sail on the Persian 

 Gulf. But the success of the expedition was frus- 

 trated by religious animosities ; for the sailors, 

 being Indians, who were Sonnees, refused to fight 

 against their brethren of the same orthodox faith \ 

 and after massacring their Sheah officers they 

 carried ofi" the ships. Another of his schemes was 

 to transport these troublesome neighbours to the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea, and settle a colony of 

 Persians in their room ; but his tragical death, 

 in 1747, prevented the execution of this project. 



The precarious authority of the Turks received 

 frequent shocks from the independent princes an^ 

 sheiks in the interior, who had never been sub- 

 dued. So early as 1630 they were expelled from 

 Yemen, where their name and their government 

 were alike odious, and obliged to evacuate all the 

 places on the coasts, which they had occupied for 

 more than a century. The sultans style themselves 

 sovereigns of Hejaz ; but their sole title to this 

 distinction consists in a few slender prerogatives, 

 which may now be considered as nearly annihi- 

 lated. As lord-paramount, the grand seignior can 

 appoint or depose a governor, though he dare not 

 always venture to punish a rebel. Tlie revenues 

 which he draws from this capricious province are 

 proportionate to his diminished authority, being 

 limited to a few trifling dues at certain ports. These 



