MEDINA. 269 



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 village 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 in- 

 fluence in the northern Hejaz that the governors of 

 Mecca did in the southern. The sheriffs, however, 

 often succeeded in extending a temporary authority 

 over Medina, and when Selim I. mounted the throne, 

 he planted here a garrison of Turkish soldiers under 

 the command of an aga, who was to be the military 

 chief of the city ; while the civil jurisdiction 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 exception of a short 

 period when the whole territory fell under the power 

 of Mecca, continued till the time of the Wahabee in- 

 vasion about thirty years ago. After the subjuga- 

 tion of that sect, Medina was again placed under 



the authority of a Turkish commander. The Aga 

 el Haram takes the management of the pecuniary 



VOL. II. R 



