Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Revolt in Arabia (1917).djvu/32



T was to these accidents of origin that the Shereefate of Mecca owed its peculiar standing. Its status was not a little enhanced by the unique significance of the city of Mecca for the Mohammedan world at large. From the tenth century, no one of the foremost Islam princes possessed the machinery to keep West Arabia under an administration even approximately orderly. On two points they were alike determined—first, to have their names introduced into the official prayers at the official ceremonies of Mecca, each desiring to take precedence of the others; second, that their deputies at the annual festivals should take rank