HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 261 



Saoiid. The houses were stript of their valuable 

 furniture ; 4000 Cashmere shawls, 2000 swords, and 

 as many muskets, were piled in one heap for dis- 

 tribution when the troops evacuated the place, 

 which in five days they had reduced to a mass of 

 smoking ruins. 



While the Wahabees were occupied on the banks 

 of the Euphrates, Ghaleb penetrated into Nejed and 

 took possession of Shara, a small town in the prov- 

 ince of Kasym. In his campaigns he had hitherto 

 heen alternately victor and vanquished; but Ab- 

 delazeez, extending his views with his conquests, 

 now began to invade Hejaz with more zeal and 

 perseverance than he had ever before manifested. 

 Already Saoud had carried the arms and the faith 

 of his father among the mountain-tribes on the 

 confines of Yemen, where Abu Nocta, the sheik of 

 Azir, was left in charge of the new proselytes. The 

 tribes eastward of Mecca were obliged to yield ; and 

 the country was intrusted to the command of 0th- 

 man el Medaife, brother-in-law to Ghaleb, but who 

 had for some years been at enmity with his kinsman. 

 In 1802, he besieged Taif, which was taken after a 

 vigorous resistance, and condemned to share the 

 fate of Kerbela ; — with this difference, that the sol- 

 diers had orders to spare neither old age nor infancy. 

 Eight hundred males were put to the sword ; but the 

 harems were respected. Many houses were burnt, 

 and the whole were plundered. All the holy tombs 

 were destroyed ; among others that of Al Abbas, the 

 uncle of Mohammed, celebrated throughout Arabia 

 for its beauty and its sanctity. The palace and fine 

 gardens of the sheriff were desolated ; but his trea- 

 sures had been carried to Mecca. These successes 

 emboldened the Wahabees, and for the first time 

 they interdicted the pilgrim-caravans. 



In the following year, they effected the total con- 

 quest of Hejaz. Saoud and Othman, after several 

 battles with Ghaleb. approached Mecca, and pitched 



