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In the time of the Sherif, Christians were often ill treated at Djidda; they could not wear the European dress, or approach the quarter of the town situated towards the gate of Mekka. But since the arrival of Mohammed Aly's army, they walk about, and dress as they like.
Jerome herself could not deny that Janet was a very pretty-spoken woman: 'She aly's says, she niver gets sich pikelets' as mine nowhere; I know that very well other folks buy 'em at shops thick, unwholesome things, you might as well eat a sponge. The sight of little Lizzie often stirred in Janet's mind a sense of the childlessness which had made a fatal blank in her life.
At the northern end of the Ghazze, where the street widens consi-derably, is held a daily market of camels and cows. On the east side, towards the mountain, and partly on its declivity, stands the quarter called Shab Aly, adjoining the Shab el Moled: here is shown the venerated place of Aly's nativity. The houses are spacious, and in an airy situation.
It was in this spot that Mohammed Aly's first expedition against the Wahabys, under the command of his son Tousoun Beg, was defeated in autumn 1811. They had possession of both mountains, and the discharges of musketry from each side Most of the Sheikhs of the tribe of Harb, and the two great southern Wahaby chiefs, Othman el Medheyfe and Tamy, were present, with two of the sons of Saoud.
The Sherif Ghaleb, who, from the moment he began to apprehend the probable success of Aly's expedition, had entered into a secret correspondence with Egypt, now openly declared himself a friend to the Turks, who entered Djidda as friends. The title of Pasha of Djidda was soon after conferred by the Porte upon Tousoun, as a reward for his services.
Under these circumstances the Medinans felt most heavily the pressure of the times, and became exasperated against the Wahabys. Some further details on the subject will be found in my account of Mohammed Aly's campaign.
I never beheld a handsomer man than Sherif Radjeh, whose heroism I have mentioned in my history of Mohammed Aly's campaign, and the dignity of whose deportment would make him remarked among thousands; nor can a more spirited and intelligent face be easily imagined, than was that of Sherif Ghaleb.
I have myself seen Mohammed Aly's soldiers pursue a deserter, seize and carry him off from the covering of the Kaaba to which he had clung; and the history of Mekka cites numerous examples of men killed in the mosque, among others the Sherif of Mekka, Djazan Ibn Barakat, assassinated while he performed the towaf round the Kaaba. Horsemen have often entered and passed a whole night in it.
I saw a Greek captain who obtained one for two hundred dollars; he had commanded one of Mohammed Aly's dows, and was now on his way home; and he felt satisfied that, whatever ship he might hereafter take under his charge in the Archipelago, would be secured by this certificate from the pirates.
As a great many foreign merchants were then in Djidda, their property considerably increased Mohammed Aly's treasure; and I heard from eye-witnesses, that the only business then done in the town was the transport of corpses to the burial-ground, and that of the deceased's valuable property to the house of the commandant.
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