In return for this he also is bound to transmit every year at the time
of the pilgrimage sums of money collected by him from the revenues of
the Wakaf within his dominions, lands settled by pious persons on the
Sherifal family. These are said to amount to nearly half a million
sterling, and are distributed amongst all the principal personages of
Hejaz. The transmission of the Wakaf income, in which the Sultan
constitutes himself, so to say, the Sherif's agent, is in fact the real
bond which unites Hejaz with the Caliphate, and its distribution gives
the Sultan patronage, and with it power in the country. The bond,
however, is one of interest only. The Sherifs, proud of their sacred
ancestry, look upon the Turkish Caliphs as barbarians and impostors,
while the Sultans find the Hejaz a heavy charge upon their revenue.
Either hates and despises the other, the patron and the patronized; and,
save that their union is a necessity, it would long ago have, by mutual
consent, been dissolved. The Sherif depends upon the Sultan because he
needs a protector, and needs his Wakaf. The Sultan depends upon the
Sherif, because recognition by Hejaz as the protector is a chief title
to his Caliphate. Mecca, in fact, is a necessity to Islam even more than
a Caliph; and whoever is sovereign there is naturally sovereign of the
Mussulman world.
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