ted
in Irak, and soon after lost control of the pilgrimages. Oman recovered
its independence. Three years later Katif, at that time their chief
city, was besieged and taken by a Bedouin sheik, and subsequently their
political power in Arabia came to an end. It was significant that their
power fell into the hands of Bedouins. Arabia was now completely
disorganized, and was only nominally subject to the caliphate. The
attempt of Mahomet to unify Arabia had failed. The country was once more
split up into small governments, more or less independent, and groups of
wandering tribes carrying on their petty feuds. Of the history of these
during the next few centuries little is known, except in the case of the
Hejaz. Here the presence of the sacred cities led writers to record
their annals (cf. F. Wustenfeld's _Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka_, 4
vols., Leipzig, 1857-1861). The two cities were governed by Arabian
nobles (_sherifs_), often at feud with one another, recognizing formally
the overlordship of the caliph at Bagdad or the caliph of Egypt. Thus in
966 the name of the caliph Moti was banished from the prayers at Mecca,
and an 'Alyite took possession of the government of the city and
recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master. About a century later
(1075-1094) the 'Abbasid caliph was again recognized as spiritual head
owing to the success in arms of his protector, the Seljuk Malik-Shah.
With the fall of the Bagdad caliphate all attempts at control from that
quarter came to an end. After the visit of the Sultaft Bibars (1269)
Mecca was governed by an amir dependent on Egypt. Outside the two cities
anarchy prevailed, and the pilgrimage was frequently unsafe owing to
marauding Bedouins. In 1517 the Osmanli Turkish sultan Selim conquered
Egypt, and having received the right of succession to the caliphate was
solemnly presented by the sherif of Mecca with the keys of the city, and
recognized as the spiritual head of Islam and ruler of the Hejaz. At the
same time Yemen, which since the 9th century had been in the power of a
number of small dynasties ruling in Zubed, San'a, Sa'da and Aden, passed
into the hands of the Turk.

For the history of Yemen during this period cf. H.C. Kay, _Omarah's
History of Yaman_ (London, 1892), and S. Lane-Poole, _The Mahommedan
Dynasties_, pp. 87-103 (Westminster, 1894). Little more than a century
later (1630), a Yemen noble Khasim succeeded in expelling the Turk and
establishing a nativ