MOCHA 
3S9 
Mecca, on the 56th of April 1803, that the SherifFe, panic struck, 
determined to retire, with all his treasures, to Jidda. He effected 
this in the night, leaving his brother to make the best terms he 
could with the enemy. On the following day Mecca, for the first 
time since Mohammed entered it in 62,9, was obliged to submit to a 
hostile invader, who, however, strictly conformed to the terms of 
capitulation, and neither plundered nor injured the inhabitants. The 
religious prejudices of the Wahabee were greatly offended by above 
eighty splendid tombs, which covered the remains of the descend- 
ants of Mohammed, and formed the great ornament of Mecca. 
These were levelled with the ground, as was also the monument 
of the venerable and respected wife of the prophet, Kadija. The 
coffee houses next felt the desolating zeal of the reformers. The 
hookahs were piled in a heap, and burned ; and the use of tobacco 
and coffee prohibited under severe penalties. The holy places 
were plundered of their valuable articles, but the Caaba remained 
uninjured. The Wahabee have asserted, that the veneration paid to 
the black stone was idolatrous ; and disapproved of the ceremonies 
practised by the pilgrims at the stone of Abraham, which is placed 
near the well of Zemzem, and is supposed to have on it the mark 
of the Patriarch's foot, formed while he stood there to build the 
Caaba. Into this mark the water is poured from the well, for the 
pilgrims to drink. Suud seems to have justly estimated the benefits 
which Mecca enjoyed from the annual influx of pilgrims ; he there- 
fore acted with moderation,' and confirmed the Cadi whom the 
Grand Seignior had appointed. He also wrote to him the following 
letter. 
