Advice for the Muslim

command. They went to a place named Abîla near Tâ’if and sent
a letter to Sharîf Ghâlib Effendi writing that Sa’ûd and they, the
two traitors, disregarded the validity of the former treaty and that
Sa’ûd was preparing to besiege Mecca. Sharîf Ghâlib Effendi
wrote answers advising them with soft words, but ’Uthmân the
ferocious, who was an enemy of Islam, tore up the letters. He
attacked the Muslims sent by the Amîr and defeated them. Sharîf
Ghâlib Effendi retreated into the Tâ’if fortress and took measures
for defence. This ferocious Wahhâbî encamped his army at Malîs
near Tâ’if at the end of Shawwâl in 1217 A.H. (1802). He also
asked help from the vile amîr of Bîsha, Sâlim ibn Shakbân, who
had a much harder, stony heart that was full of enmity towards
Islam. There were about twenty desert shaikhs and each shaikh
had about five hundred Wahhâbite brigands in addition to one
thousand under Sâlim’s own command.
Led by Sharîf Ghâlib Effendi (rahmat-Allâhi ’alaih), the
people of Tâ’if bravely attacked the brigands at Malîs. He put
fifteen hundred looters of Sâlim ibn Shakbân to the sword. Sâlim
and those with him fled Malîs. But they rallied together again and
raided Malîs. They looted the town. Sharîf Ghâlib Effendi went
to Jidda to obtain military help. Most Tâ’ifians fled and secretly
escaped with their household. Although those Tâ’ifians who took
refuge in the fortress defeated the packs of Wahhâbîs coming one
after the other, they hoisted the white flag of truce, because the
enemy continually received aid. They agreed to surrender under
the condition that their lives and chastity would be safe. Though
the enemy, too, had become weak for many of them had died or
fled, the Tâ’ifian messenger, who was a base villain, though he
saw the Wahhâbîs flee, shouted after them, “Sharîf Ghâlib fled
from fear! And the Tâ’ifians do not have the power to resist you!
They sent me to communicate that they will surrender the
fortress, and they ask you to forgive them. I like the Wahhâbîs.
Come back! You have shed much blood! It is not right to go back
without capturing Tâ’if. I swear that the Tâ’ifians will
immediately surrender the fortress. They will accept whatever
you want.” It was Sharîf Ghâlib Effendi’s fault that Tâ’if was lost
in vain. If he had stayed in Tâ’if, Muslims would not have suffered
that doom. Since “Traitors are cowards,” the Wahhâbîs did not
believe that the Tâ’ifians would surrender readily. But, seeing the
flag of truce on the fortress, they sent an envoy to the fortress to
investigate the situation. The Tâ’ifians, pulled the envoy up to the
fortress with a rope. “Gather all your goods here and surrender
– 290 –