At the present moment Sultan Abd el Hamid’s position in the country is this.  His troops occupy Jeddah and Yembo, the two seaports, and the towns of Medina and Taif in the interior.  He is acknowledged by the Sherifs as sovereign, except in Mecca; and he appoints to all the principal offices of State, including the supreme office of the Grand Sherifate itself.  He is represented by a Pasha who resides alternately at Jeddah and Taif according to the season, but who has not the right of entering Mecca without the Grand Sherif’s leave, or of sending troops there.  The total garrison of the Turks in Hejaz last winter was from 8000 to 10,000 men, of whom 4000 only were regulars (Nizams), and efficient.  While I was at Jeddah, the Medina garrison of 2000 regulars, having been long unpaid and unrationed, was said to be living on public charity.  On the other hand the Hejazi Bedouins do not acknowledge any sovereignty but that of the Sherif, nor could the Sultan pretend to keep order outside the towns except through the Sherif’s interposition.  The Sultan levies no tax in the interior or impost of any kind, and the sole revenue he receives in Hejaz comes from Customs duties of Jeddah and Yembo, which may amount to L40,000.

In return for this he also is bound to transmit every year at the time of the pilgrimage sums of money collected by him from the revenues of the Wakaf within his dominions, lands settled by pious persons on the Sherifal family.  These are said to amount to nearly half a million sterling, and are distributed amongst all the principal personages of Hejaz.  The transmission of the Wakaf income, in which the Sultan constitutes himself, so to say, the Sherif’s agent, is in fact the real bond which unites Hejaz with the Caliphate, and its distribution gives the Sultan patronage, and with it power in the country.  The bond, however, is one of interest only.  The Sherifs, proud of their sacred ancestry, look upon the Turkish Caliphs as barbarians and impostors, while the Sultans find the Hejaz a heavy charge upon their revenue.  Either hates and despises the other, the patron and the patronized; and, save that their union is a necessity, it would long ago have, by mutual consent, been dissolved.  The Sherif depends upon the Sultan because he needs a protector, and needs his Wakaf.  The Sultan depends upon the Sherif, because recognition by Hejaz as the protector is a chief title to his Caliphate.  Mecca, in fact, is a necessity to Islam even more than a Caliph; and whoever is sovereign there is naturally sovereign of the Mussulman world.

Outside Hejaz the Sultan holds what he holds of Arabia merely by force.  I have described already the growing power of Ibn Rashid, the Prince of Nejd; and since that time, two years ago, he has sensibly extended and confirmed his influence there.  He has now brought into his alliance all the important tribes of northern Arabia, including the powerful Ateybeh, who, a few months ago, were threatening Mecca; and