Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Revolt in Arabia (1917).djvu/33

 16 in accordance with their pretensions. In the prayers, the name of the Caliph was given first place, without question, even after his power had become a phantom. The descendants of the Prophet, wielding authority at Mecca from about the year 1000 to 1200, managed the required homage with a certain impartiality. At their command, there were prayers, now for the official Caliph at Bagdad and again for the heretical opposition Caliph in Egypt, according to the puissance manifested or the bribes offered by the one or the other. The Shereef family, ruling at Mecca from about 1200 to the present time, were soon freed from the difficulty of choice when an end was made of the Fatimide Caliphate in Egypt and when the Mongol storm swept away that of Bagdad in 1258. In the centuries following these events, the Sultans alone were mentioned in the prayers. And it