OF THE TURKISH MONARCHY. 



7 



caravans are obliged frequently to accept the escort which some 

 neighbouring Sheik or Pasha offers to them, and the expences of the 

 merchants are multiplied by the delays and obstructions which their 

 protectors purposely occasion. (Niebuhr, i. 339.) According to the 

 measure of their strength and force, the Arabs and other tribes 

 resist or obey the authority of the Turks. By extraordinary energy 

 and vigour, a Pasha may sometimes be enabled to repress the en- 

 croachments of the Arabs, and confine them within certain limits ; 

 he prevents them, until they have paid the tribute which is due, 

 from entering the great cities for the purposes of traffic or ex- 

 changing different commodities ; but the expences of raising levies 

 and troops, active and numerous enough to watch their conduct, 

 and threaten them with punishment are so great, that the governors, 

 who consider their residence in the provinces as uncertain, are 

 seldom disposed to maintain an army which can inspire the Arabs 

 with fear and respect. The inhabitants of the villages, in the mean- 

 time, are left to a vicissitude of insult and oppression ; they are kept 

 in constant alarm by the incursion of these wandering tribes, and 

 when the Pasha takes the field, they suffer not less injury from the 

 vexatious insolence and disorder of the Turkish soldiers. 



The internal trade of the Asiatic part of the empire has been di- 

 minished by another cause ; the caravans of pilgrims or merchants, 

 who assemble annually at the temple of Mecca, and on their return 

 through the provinces of Asia and Syria, dispose of their various 

 commodities and productions^ are now less numerous than in former 

 times. This is to be attributed partly to a declining zeal for Maho- 

 metanism, and partly to the fear of being plundered in those routes, 

 which have lately been frequented by the Wahabee. 



The decrease of the commerce* of this part of the empire is 



* " It is a proof of the great European commerce carried on at Aleppo about the 

 beginning of the 17th century, that the hire only of camels to fetch and carry goods to 

 and from Scanderoon, the port of Aleppo, amounted at least to 8000 sequins a year." 

 See P. Texeira, quoted by Russell, ii. 3. 



