I have not been able to ascertain that El Husseyn himself indulged the
ambitious project of his friends, for he was eminently a man of peace,
and the Caliphal title would hardly have given him a higher position
than he held. But it is certain that his popularity gave umbrage at
Constantinople, the more so as Abd el Hamid could not and dared not
depose him. El Husseyn, too, became specially obnoxious to the
reactionary party, when it resolved at last to quarrel with England, for
he and his family persisted in remaining on friendly terms with the
British Government on all occasions when the interests of Indian
subjects of her Majesty's came in question at the Haj. For this reason,
principally, it would seem his death was resolved on to make room for
the agent of a new policy.
On the 14th of March, 1880, Jeddah was the scene of a solemn pageant.
The Haj was just over, and the seaport of Mecca crowded with pilgrims
was waiting for the Grand Sherif, the descendant of the prophet and the
representative of the Sacred House of Ali, to give the blessing of his
presence to the last departing votaries. Travelling by night from Mecca,
El Husseyn and his retinue appeared at dawn outside the city walls, and
when it was morning, mounted on a white mare from Nejd, and preceded by
his escort of Koreysh Arabs and the Sultan's guard of honour, he rode
into the town.
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