'Arabia. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 90' [‎17] (32/148)

Arabia]
GRAND SHERIFATE
17
established autonomy. These were a " Grand
Sherifate " in Hejaz and an Imamate in Yemen.
The Grand Sherifate was the tardy fruit of a
general movement in favour of Alids against Abbasids,
which had been developing in various parts of the
Caliphal Empire for some generations past. About
the middle of the tenth century, after a long period of
misrule, during which Mecca, under Abbasid pro-con
suls of ever-decreasing social standing, and the tyranny
of one " Emir el-Haj, or Turkish condottiere" after
another, had come to supersede Medina in im
portance, the city was seized for good and all by a
Hasanid Emir el-Haj named Jafar. Two sons of liis
and a grandson retained the power for nearly a hun
dred years before the direct line expired and the Sheri
fate passed to descendants of Jafar's brother. Born
thus of an Alid anti-Abbasid movement, and fostered
by the rivalry of the heretical Fatimite Caliphs of
Egypt, the early Sherifate had even less orthodoxy
than real independence of external powers, Ayyubid or
Fatimite; and not till about the year 1200," when a
strong Sherif from the Juheinah country, named Kata-
da, nineteenth in descent from the Prophet, executed
a coup de main and established the Hasanid dynasty,
which still rules Mecca to-day, did it acquire any con
siderable show of one or the other. Its orthodoxy, how
ever, would remain suspect of Shia tendencies for
some centuries to come; nor was its political indepen
dence ever complete, for an economic reason which has
always governed, and still governs, the fate of Hejaz
and, especially, Mecca. The land cannot support its
native population above a Beduin standard of com
fort, much less provide food to support the annual cos
mopolitan influx of pilgrims, or revenue to ensure their
safety and well-being. When the Abbasids could no
longer help, Hejaz, after abortive attempts to base
itself on Yemen, had to have recourse to Fatimites and
Mamelukes, who, on occasion, occupied Mecca. Con-
sequentty, when Selim the Grim possessed himself of
Egypt in 1517, Hejaz hardly required the appearance
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