GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 115 



are, however, more than counterbalanced by his ex- 

 penditure in pensions, grants, and pious foundations 

 established at the different sacred places. 



Except under the reigns of the warlike caliphs, 

 the same primitive and simple form of government 

 may be said to have subsisted in Arabia from the 

 most remote period of its history'. Among the 

 modern Bedouins it remains in all its purity ; in 

 other parts it has undergone some changes, without, 

 however, being materially altered. The whole pe- 

 ninsula is divided unequally among a vast number 

 of petty sovereigns, under different titles, and ex- 

 ercising various degrees of authority ; bearing a 

 strong analogy to those social arrangements which 

 appear to have prev^led in Europe in the middle 

 ages, and more recently among the Highland clans 

 of Scotland ; except only that the inferior chiefs 

 have seldom been in a state of vassalage, and never 

 Knew the feudal government. In the fertile and 

 civilized districts, monarchies more or less exten- 

 sive have been formed, either by conquest or by re- 

 ligious prejudices. 



Among the most considerable of the Arabian 

 princes is the imam, w^ho resides at Sanaa, and who 

 auay be styled King of Yemen, as his dominions ex- 

 lend over the greater part of that large and fertile 

 province. The elevation of this royal family is 

 coeval with the expulsion of the Turks in 1630, — 

 ■a revolution which was achieved by their ancestor 

 the famous Khassem, who traced his descent from 

 the Prophet. It was while residing privately on 

 his patrimonial inheritance, on the mountains near 

 Loheia, that with the aid of the neighbouring 

 sheiks he freed his country from the odious sway 

 of the Ottoman pashas. Raised thus to the dig- 

 nity of a sovereign, he assumed the modest title 

 •of sejid, or lord ; but, after his death, the gratitude 

 ■of the nation bestowed on him the epithet of The 

 Xjreat. 



