ain point of the
Caliphal problem; and whether or not the future holder of the office
reside in Hejaz, it is certain that by its tenure alone the Mohammedan
world will judge of his right to be their leader. It will, therefore,
before we go further, be interesting to examine the relations existing
in the past and present between Mecca and the Caliphate, and to
ascertain the position now held by Abd el Hamid in Arabia. On this point
I believe that I can offer information which will be both valuable and
new.

The political constitution of the Moslem Holy Land is one of the most
anomalous in the world. Like every district of Arabia proper, Hejaz has
a town and a nomad population, but almost no intermediate agricultural
class. The townsmen I have already described--a multitude of mixed
origin, descended from such pilgrims as from every quarter of the globe
have visited the Holy Places, and have remained to marry and die in
them. The Nomads, on the contrary, are a pure race of a peculiarly noble
type, and unchanged in any essential feature of their life from what
they were in the days of Mohammed. They are warlike, unquiet, Bedouins,
camel-riders (for they have no horses), and armed with matchlocks; and
they are proud of their independence, and tenacious of their rights. No
serious attempt has ever been made, except by Mehemet Ali, to subdue
them, and none at all has succeeded. Unlike the generality of Peninsular
Bedouins, however, they are professed Sunite Mohammedans, if not of a
very pious type; and they acknowledge as their chief the head of their
most noble tribe, the Grand Sherif of the Koreysh, who is also Prince of
Mecca.

The Koreysh is still a distinct nomadic tribe, inhabiting the immediate
neighbourhood of Mecca; not numerous, but not in decay. They are divided
into several sections, each governed by its Sheykh, the chief of which,
the Abadleh, has for several centuries supplied the reigning family of
Hejaz. This last traces its descent from Ali ibn Abutaleb, the fourth
Caliph, through his son Hassan, and through Ali's wife, Fatmeh, from
Mohammed himself. It is probably the oldest authentic male descent in
the world, and certainly the most sacred. All the members of this
Abadleh family enjoy the title of Sherif, the head of it only being
distinguished as the Sherif el Kebir, the Great or Grand Sherif. The
rest of the Koreysh, not being descended from Fatmeh, do not receive the
title. All alike wear the Bedouin d