as its legal heir. But
the political weakness of the Meccan Government in the sixteenth century
must be taken into account as the all-sufficient reason. The Grand
Sherif could hardly have stood alone as an independent sovereign, for he
was continually menaced on the one side by the dissenting Omani, and on
the other by the unbelieving tribes of Nejd, against whom his frontier
was defenceless. He could not, with his own resources, protect the
pilgrim routes from plunder--and on the pilgrimage all the prosperity of
Hejaz depended. It therefore was a necessity with the Meccans to have a
protector of some sort; and Sultan Kansaw having fallen, they accepted
Sultan Selim.

The Ottoman Sultans then became protectors of the Holy Places, and were
acknowledged Caliphs without any appeal to arms at Mecca and Medina.
Their weapons were, in fact, the gold and silver pieces with which they
subsidized the Sherifs. Sultan Selim at once, on being acknowledged,
ordered an additional annuity of 5000 ardebs to be paid to Mecca, and he
and his immediate successors carried out at their own expense such
public works as the shrines required in the way of repairs or
improvements. Subsequently the seaport of Jeddah, formerly occupied by
the Egyptians, received a Turkish contingent, but the interior of Hejaz
was never subjugated, nor was any tax at any time levied. Only once a
year an Ottoman army appeared before the walls of Medina, conducting the
pilgrims from Damascus and convoying the surrah. The state of things at
Mecca in the last century has been clearly sketched by Niebuhr. The
Sherifs were in reality independent princes, but they "gratified the
vanity of the Grand Signior" by calling him their suzerain, he on his
side occasionally exercising the right of power by deposing the reigning
Sherif and appointing another of the same family. No kind of
administration had then been attempted by the Turks in Hejaz.

Mehemet Ali's occupation of Hejaz in 1812 first brought foreign troops
inland. He established himself at Taif, the summer residence of the
Meccans; deposed the Grand Sherif Ghaleb, and appointed in his stead
another member of the Sherifal family; declaring the Sultan sovereign of
the country--acts which the Meccans acquiesced in through dread of the
Wahhabis, from whom Mehemet Ali promised to deliver them. The Egyptian
and Turkish Governments have thus, during the present century, exercised
some of the functions of sovereignty in He