" The
prophet also, according to another tradition, said, "As long as there
remains one man of the Koreysh, so long shall that man be my successor;"
and as to the Arab race, "If the Arab race falls Islam shall fall." All
the world knows these things, and to the popular mind, especially, the
Sherif is already far more truly the representative of spiritual rank
than any Sultan or Caliph is.
The vast populations of Southern and Eastern Asia send out their
pilgrims, not to Constantinople but to Mecca, and it is the Sherif whom
they find there supreme. The Turkish Government in Hejaz holds a
comparatively insignificant position, and the Sultan's representative at
Jeddah is hardly more than servant to the Prince of Mecca. It is he who
is the descendant of their prophet, not the other, and though the
learned may make distinctions in favour of the Caliph the Haj only hears
of the Sherif. Even at Constantinople, by immemorial custom, the Sultan
rises to receive members of the sacred family; and at Mecca it is
commonly said that should a Sultan make the Haj in person he would be
received by the Grand Sherif as an inferior. The Sherifal family, then,
is surrounded with a halo of religious prestige which would make their
acquisition of the supreme temporal title appear natural to all but the
races who have been in subjection to the Ottomans; and were a man of
real ability to appear amongst them he would, in the crisis we have
foreseen, be sure to find an almost universal following.
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