238 THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 



daughters, wives, aunts, uncles, relations, and im- 

 mediate successors of the Prophet. So rich indeed 

 is Medina in the remains of great saints, that they 

 have almost lost their individual importance, although 

 the relics of any one of the persons just mentioned 

 would be sufficient to immortalize any other Moslem 

 town. A visit is made to Gebel Ohud to pray at the 

 tombs of Hamza and the seventy martyrs who fell 

 there in battle. A small cupola marks the spot 

 where Mohammed was struck by the stone which 

 knocked out four of his front teeth. Koba, the vil- 

 lage where he first alighted on his flight from Mecca, 

 and the place where he changed the kebla from 

 Jerusalem to the Kaaba, are the only other spots 

 that the pilgrims are enjoined to visit. 



As to the government of Medina, it has always 

 been considered since the commencement of Islam 

 as forming a separate principality. Under the ca- 

 liphs it was ruled by persons appointed by them, 

 and independent of the sheriffs of Mecca. When 

 the power of the Abbassides declined, these deputies 

 threw off their allegiance, and exercised the same 

 influence in the northern Hejaz that the governors 

 of Mecca did in the southern. The sheriffs, how- 

 ever, often succeeded in extending a temporary au- 

 thority over Medina, and whenSelim I. mounted the 

 throne, he planted here a garrison of Turkish sol- 

 diers, under the command of an aga, who was to be 

 the military chief of the city ; while the civil jurisdic- 

 tion was placed in the hands of the Sheik el Haram, 

 or Prefect of the Temple, who was to correspond 

 regularly with the capital, and to have the rank of a 

 pasha. This mode of government, with the excep- 

 tion of a short period when the whole territory fell 

 under the power of Mecca, continued till the time 

 of the Wahabee invasion, about thirty years ago. 

 After the subjugation of that sect, Medina was again 

 placed under the authority of a Turkish commander. 

 The Aga el Haram takes the management of the 



