The actual holder of the title was Ghaleb ibn Mesaad, and he,
finding himself unable to contend against the Wahhabis, became himself a
Wahhabi. Consequently, when Mehemet Ali appeared at Mecca in 1812, his
first act was to depose this Ghaleb, in spite of his protest that he had
returned to orthodoxy, and to appoint another member of the Sherifal
House in his place.
The Sherif chosen was Yahia ibn Serur, of a rival branch, the Dewy Aoun,
and a bitter animosity was, by this means, engendered between the two
families of Aoun and Zeyd, which is continued to the present day. Nor,
as may be supposed, was this lessened by the subsequent changes rung by
the Turkish and Egyptian Governments in their appointments to the
office, for, in 1827, we find Abd el Mutalleb, the son of the deposed
Wahhabite Ghaleb, reappointed, and in the following year again,
Mohammed, the son of Yahia ibn Aoun, an intrigue which brought on a
civil war. Then in 1848 a new intrigue reinstated Abd el Mutalleb and
the Zeyds; and then, in 1853, these were again deposed for rebellion,
and an Aoun was placed in power. From 1853 till 1880 the Aouns retained
the Grand Sherifate and were supreme in Hejaz. Coming into power at a
time when Liberal ideas were in the ascendant they have consistently
been Liberal, and still represent the more humane and progressive party
among the Meccans.
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