294 



HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 



through their land without molestation. They 

 were even on friendly terms with Serour, sheriff 

 of Mecca, and, in 1781, obtained leave to perform 

 their devotions at the Kaaba. Their increase of 

 power seems at first to have excited the jealousy of 

 Sheriff Ghaleb ; and within a few years after his 

 accession to the government he had declared open 

 war against them, which was carried on in the Be- 

 douin style, interrupted only by a few shortlived 

 truces. Being then in regular correspondence with 

 the Porte, he left no means untried for prejudicing 

 the Ottoman government against the sectarians. He 

 represented them as infidels j and their treatment of 

 the Turkish hajjis did not remove this unfavourable 

 opinion. Similar accounts were given by the pashas 

 of Bagdad, who had seen the neighbouring country 

 assailed almost annually by these invaders, who ex- 

 acted a capitation-tax from all Persian devotees that 

 crossed the desert. 



No place on the eastern border seemed better 

 adapted than Bagdad for pushing the war into the 

 heart of the enemy's territory; and, in 1797, Soly- 

 man Pasha despatched an expedition to attack De- 

 raiah, consisting of 4000 or 5000 Turkish troops, 

 and twice that number of allied Arabs, under the 

 command of his lieutenant-governor. Instead of 

 advancing directly to the capital, they laid siege to 

 the fortified citadel of Hassa, which resisted their 

 efforts above a month, until the arrival of a strong 

 force under Saoud, the son of Abdelazeez, determin- 

 ed them to retreat. The Wahabee chief anticipated 

 this measure, and endeavoured to intercept their re- 

 turn, by throwing camel-loads of salt which he had 

 brought for the purpose into the wells on their line 



