Like every district of Arabia proper, Hejaz has
a town and a nomad population, but almost no intermediate agricultural
class. The townsmen I have already described--a multitude of mixed
origin, descended from such pilgrims as from every quarter of the globe
have visited the Holy Places, and have remained to marry and die in
them. The Nomads, on the contrary, are a pure race of a peculiarly noble
type, and unchanged in any essential feature of their life from what
they were in the days of Mohammed. They are warlike, unquiet, Bedouins,
camel-riders (for they have no horses), and armed with matchlocks; and
they are proud of their independence, and tenacious of their rights. No
serious attempt has ever been made, except by Mehemet Ali, to subdue
them, and none at all has succeeded. Unlike the generality of Peninsular
Bedouins, however, they are professed Sunite Mohammedans, if not of a
very pious type; and they acknowledge as their chief the head of their
most noble tribe, the Grand Sherif of the Koreysh, who is also Prince of
Mecca.
The Koreysh is still a distinct nomadic tribe, inhabiting the immediate
neighbourhood of Mecca; not numerous, but not in decay. They are divided
into several sections, each governed by its Sheykh, the chief of which,
the Abadleh, has for several centuries supplied the reigning family of
Hejaz.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114