Wahhabi Movement

WAHHABI MOVEMENT Modern Arabian history begins with the Wahhabi movement of the middle of the 18th century. Arabia was at the time par celled out in a number of principalities or baronies, independent of each other and ever striving for existence and mastery. Of the central and eastern States those of the `Arair house in Hasa, of Ibn Mu'ammar at `Ayaina and of Ibn Da`as at Manf uha appear to have been the principal when the originator of the Wahhabi puritan re vival, Muhammad Ibn `Abdul Wahhab, returned about 1750 to `Ayaina, where he had been born at about the beginning of the century. He had during a long period of absence studied at Basra and Damascus and visited Mecca for the pilgrimage, return ing convinced of the backsliding of his fellows from the pure prin ciples of the Muslim faith and determined to preach reform on puritanical lines, involving an uncompromising return to the prac tice and precepts of the Prophet. Rejected by the prince of `Ayaina as a mischief-making busybody he sought and found hos pitality at the court of the petty but ambitious baron of Dariya, Muhammad Ibn Saud, who found himself hemmed in between the two fires of `Ayaina and Manfuha. Within a few years Muhammad Ibn Saud, who died in '765, had gathered a considerable army of fanatical Bedouins round his standard and effectually established his own supremacy throughout central and eastern Arabia. His son, `Abd-u1-`aziz, extended his power far beyond the limits of Nejd and his attacks on the pilgrim caravans from 1780 onwards compelled the attention of the Ottoman sultan. In 1798 a Turkish force invaded Hasa but was compelled to withdraw, the Wahhabis retaliating in 1801 by the capture and sack of the Shia' holy city of Karbala and capturing Mecca the following year. On both occa sions they destroyed tombs and other objects of veneration and carried away all relics and treasure of value. In Oct. 1802, `Abd ul-`aziz Ibn Saud was murdered in the mosque at Dar`iya by a Shia' fanatic in revenge for the desecration of Karbala. Saud, who had for many years commanded his father's armies in the field, celebrated his accession to the throne by the capture of Medina in 1804. The Wahhabi empire, which reached the confines of Oman and Yemen in the south, was now at its zenith and seemed des tined to embrace the whole Arab race. The Ottoman sultan was, however, now roused to a sense of the dangerous situation which had arisen in Arabia, and at the same time the discipline accepted by the Bedouin tribes as the condition of their victorious and profitable progress through the length and breadth of Arabia began to be irksome in the circumstances of peace. Turkey was fully oc cupied with affairs in Egypt and, accordingly, the sultan deputed to Muhammad `Ali, the viceroy of Egypt, the task of crushing the Wahhabis. Saud had set out on a campaign against Baghdad in 1811 when Tussun, the pasha's son and only 16 years of age, landed with 10,000 men on the Hejaz coast. The Wahhabi ruler, turning west to meet the new danger, defeated Tussun, but Mecca and Medina were occupied by the Egyptian forces in 1812. In 1813 Muhammad `Ali himself took charge of the operations but without success, and in 1814 Tussun suffered a defeat near Taff. The same year Saud died and his son, `Abdullah attempted to negotiate, but the Egyptian pasha advanced in 1815 to Rass which was captured. Peace was then arranged and the Egyptians retired from Nejd, whereupon `Abdullah refused to carry out some of the conditions imposed on him. In 1816 the struggle was renewed, Ibrahim Pasha replacing his brother Tussun in the Egyptian command. Having secured by presents the allegiance of the Harb and Mutair tribes he defeated `Abdullah at Wiya and advanced into Nejd. The four months siege of Rass failed but Ibrahim, leaving it aside, captured `Anaiza after a bombardment and occupied Buraida. The 'Ataiba and Bani Khalid having now joined his cause he captured Shaqra in Jan. 1818 after a regular siege and, sacking Huraimala on the way, began the siege of Dar`iya on April 14. On Sept. 9 the capital surrendered and `Abdullah was ignominiously beheaded at Con stantinople. Dar`iya was razed to the ground and Egyptian gar risons were posted in several of the Nejd towns. The Wahhabi empire had collapsed incontinently and the Arabs recognized their inability to stand before disciplined troops, but the Egyptians found equal difficulty in retaining their hold on the turbulent interior.

In 1824 `Abdullah's son, Turki, headed a rising and re-estab lished the Wahhabi State with his capital at Riyadh. Accepting the nominal suzerainty of Egypt and paying' tribute, he consoli dated his power on solid foundations till 1834 when he was mur dered by his cousin, Mishari. In 1836 his son and successor Feisul, refused tribute and an Egyptian force was sent to depose him. He was led away captive to Cairo, Khalid, of a collateral branch of the family, being installed in his place as amir. The Egyptian garrisons were, however, gradually withdrawn to support Muham mad `Ali and Ibrahim in their conflict with Turkey for Syria. In 1842 Feisul, having escaped from prison, reappeared in Arabia and was universally accepted as ruler. The last remnants of the Egyp tian troops were ejected and the Wahhabi State was once more in dependent of all foreign control. Oman, Yemen and Hejaz re mained outside the pale and Bahrein, with British support, refused to return to the Wahhabi fold, but elsewhere Feisul re-established his writ within the old limits. The rest of his reign until his death in 1867 was spent in the consolidation of his central Arabian do minions, in strenuous efforts to keep the peace between his two eldest sons, `Abdullah and Sa`ud, and in constant watchfulness to ward off the challenge of a rival power which had arisen in the north during his Egyptian exile.

Owing to a feud between his family and the Ibn `Ali, the pre mier house of the Shammar tribe, `Abdullah Ibn Rashid, had mi grated to Riyadh in 1830. Four years later he had rendered signal service to Feisul by helping him to recover Riyadh from the usur pation of his father's murderer. As a reward he was granted the governorship of Hail and by skilful and sympathetic administra tion of the Bedouins had by the time of Feisul's return from exile consolidated his position as a ruler independent in all but name. In 1843 he died and was succeeded by his son, Talal, who, with the loyal assistance of his uncle, 'Ubaid, carried on the work of his father, fortified his capital and extended his jurisdiction to Khai bar, Taima and Jauf. At the same time in spite of occasional alarums and excursions he maintained a proper attitude towards Feisul, while flirting alternately with the Turks and Egyptians. His death by his own hand in 1868 was the beginning of a long ser ies of tragedies in the house of Rashid. Leaving no children he was succeeded by his brother Mit'ab, who was soon after murdered by his nephews, the elder of whom, Bandar, became amir. Muham mad, the third son of `Abdullah, realizing, thanks to Hamad, the son of `Ubaid, that his life was in danger, saved himself by slaying Bandar and seizing the Citadel. He then perpetrated a general massacre of the members of his family and thus, with blood on his hands, began a reign destined to be both long and distinguished in the annals of Arabia.

Muhammad Ibn Rashid.—Securely established in north and west Arabia Muhammad in 1872 found a suitable occasion for in terference in the affairs of the south. `Abdullah, the son of Feisul, had after a reign of five years been ejected by his brother, Sa`ud, and appealed to Muhammad who succeeded in ousting the usurper. In 1874, however, `Abdullah, once more deposed, found an asylum at Hail whence he appealed for assistance to Midhat Pasha, the Turkish governor at Baghdad. The latter, in spite of British pro tests, occupied Hasa in 1875 and established a new province under the title of Nejd with `Abdullah as its governor, thus reas serting the Turkish claim to suzerainty over central Arabia aban doned three decades earlier by the Egyptians. Nejd itself was, however, not occupied and `Abdullah was left to prosecute his quarrel with Saud, now ruler of Riyadh, as best he could. Turkey was too busy with the Russian war to attend to Arabian affairs though a few years later her attempt to occupy Bahrein was frus trated by a British gun-boat. Central Arabia reverted to a state of anarchy centring round the constant struggles of the two Wah habi brothers for supremacy, while the astute ruler of Hail manoeuvred to establish his own power throughout the whole of Nejd. This menace from the north resulted in a loose coalition of the southern provinces under Zamil, the famous amir of 'Anaiza, who protected Doughty in 1877. A long period of desultory skir mishing without result found the rival armies drawn up in line of battle for the final test at Mulaida in 1891. With Muhammad were his own Shammar and the Harb, while the Mutair and `Ataiba followed the standard of the Wahhabi allies. Zamil was in an impregnable position based on the sand-hills opposite Qara `a while the enemy sought in vain all day to tempt him to open com bat in the plain. Towards sunset his patience gave way and Ibn Rashid's superior cavalry soon had the allies at their mercy. Zamil and his eldest son were killed as also two of the Ibn Saud family. `Anaiza and Buraida opened their gates to the victorious Muham mad, to whom Riyadh and its dependent provinces soon made their submission. For the six years of life which remained to him his writ ran unquestioned from Jauf to Wadi Dawasir. The Wahhabi dynasty ceased to exercise any shred of authority in Arabia and the exiled remnants of the Ibn Sa`ud family found scattered refuges at Kuwait and Bahrein and other localities on the Persian Gulf. To all appearances the Wahhabi power was fi nally at an end and the strong and stable Government of Muham mad Ibn Rashid gained the praise and approbation of all who saw it. But fate was busy with other designs and only three years after his death in 1897 the house of Ibn Sa`ud was back in the saddle and only a quarter-century later Muhammad's own dynasty had ceased to exist. The wheel of fortune had come full circle.

`Abd-ul-`aziz II. Ibn Sa`ud.—Muhammad, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his brother Mit'ab's son, `Abd-u1-`aziz, who pos sessed none of the political acumen of his uncle and soon estranged the sympathies of the Wahhabi provinces. Meanwhile the growing power of Shaikh Mubarak of Kuwait was becoming a serious factor in the Arabian situation, and a still more serious factor, as events were to prove, was the young prince `Abd-u1-`aziz Ibn Saud (q.v.), living in exile at Kuwait with his father, `Abd-ul-rahman, the youngest of Feisul's four sons. The political training received by young `Abd-u1-`aziz at the hands of Mubarak was destined to be a large factor in the history of the country during the first quarter of the loth century, the first decade of which was a period of war and rumours of war in Arabia.

An unsuccessful attempt by `Abd-ul-rahman in 1900 to reassert Wahhabi claims in Arabia was followed next year by a bold and successful coup-de-main on the part of `Abd-u1-`aziz, then a lad of 20. The attention of Hail, encouraged by Turkey, was concen trated on a quarrel with Mubarak against whom an expedition under Ahmad Faizi Pasha was equipped at Basra in 1901. Mu barak appealed to Great Britain and the Turkish design was duly frustrated. Kuwait was not formally placed under British protec tion, but it was officially announced by the Government on May 5, 1903, "that the establishment of a naval base or fortified port in the Persian Gulf by any other power would be regarded as a very grave menace to British interests which would certainly be resisted with all the means at its disposal." Meanwhile `Abd-u1-`aziz Ibn Saud, having launched out into the desert with a mere handful of followers, succeeded in entering Riyadh by night and slaying the Rashidite governor. Having thus assumed the Amirate of the capital he busied himself during the next few years in recovering the outlying provinces of the south and Washm and Sudair on the north. Simultaneously Mubarak in alliance with Sa`dun Pasha of the 'Iraq Muntafik threatened Ibn Rashid from the east and with their assistance Ibn Saud in 1904 recovered the province of Qasim, inflicting two defeats on the Shammar forces. The Porte now came to the assistance of its protege by sending out columns of troops from Medina and Basra, the latter again under Ahmad Faizi Pasha. The Qasim was occupied without difficulty but in 1904 an important battle took place between the Wahhabis under Ibn Sa`ud himself, who was wounded, and the combined Turco Shammar force at Bukairiya. No decisive result was achieved, but the Wahhabi claim to the victory is at least justified by the fact that the Turks withdrew their forces finally from central Arabian soil and the Qasim remained under the dominion of Ibn Saud. This position was definitely crystallized in 1906 by the defeat and death in battle of `Abd-u1-`aziz Ibn Rashid at Raudhat al Mu hanna. Since then the Shammar forces have never seriously threatened the Wahhabi dominions. From 1906 to 1908 a period of anarchy followed at Hail under a succession of short-lived amirs of the `Ubaid branch until in the latter year Sa`ud, the son of `Abd ul-`aziz, definitely emerged triumphant and remained on the throne until 1920, when he was assassinated. Apart from intermittent struggles for suzerainty over Jauf and a somewhat desultory alli ance with the Turks during the World War, the history of Hall since 1908 is that of a petty State eclipsed by the growing great ness of the rival Wahhabi State of the south, with which it became finally merged by the capture of Hail by Ibn Sa`ud in August 1921, and the removal of the surviving members of the Ibn Rashid dynasty—including the last two reigning amirs, `Abdullah Ibn Mit'ab and Muhammad Ibn Talal—to Riyadh. Jabal Shammar, for 87 years an independent State and during part of Muhammad's reign the capital of a central Arabian empire, thus ceased to exist except as a province of the Wahhabi power, in which status it has remained ever since.

The victory of Raudhat al Muhanna left Ibn Saud in undis puted mastery of central and southern Nejd and free to concen trate on the consolidation of his State on firm foundations. The history of Arabia had taught him two lessons by which he was quick to profit with results visible in the Arabia of to-day. The first was that the centrifugal tribal organization of the mainly no mad population could be welded together under a suitable stimu lus, such as religious revival, for the prosecution of a common cause whether defensive or offensive, but could not be held to gether in cold blood for purposes of peaceful development. The second was that a single great tribe could achieve great conquests under a leader of capacity, but could not administer its conquests except under the urge of a religious stimulus. The plan he formu lated was nothing less than to break down the Bedouin constitu tion of his subjects under the stimulus of a new religious revival and to perpetuate that break-down for the purposes of adminis tration under peace conditions by the creation of agricultural col onies wherever possible. Thus the Bedouins, tending to settle on the land in non-tribal groups based on agriculture rather than pas ture, acquired a stake therein which could easily be used to ad vantage against their nomad brethren. "Back to the Koran and on to the land" became as it were the motto of the new Ikhwan move ment, an ultra-puritan revival of the original Wahhabi movement, which Ibn Saud incepted and financed at the desert wells of `Arta wiya in 1912—now a large walled city with nearly io,000 inhabi tants. The first adherents to the new movement were the Mutair under Faisal al Duwish, their leading sheikh, and since then over 5o Ikhwan settlements have come into existence in all parts of the country with a permanent population of not less than 50,000 souls —the nucleus of the standing army of the Wahhabi State. For five years the essential character and immense possibilities of this movement were not appreciated outside the limits of Nejd itself. Consciousness of it then began to dawn slowly on the world, which declined to take it seriously. And to-day its achievements are uni versally recognized and admitted. Ghatghat and `Artawiya are names to conjure with in all the border-lands, as many explorers have found to their advantage.

Having organized the nucleus of this movement, and warned by recent developments of the revival of Turkish interest in the direction of Nejd—the proposal to utilize Kuwait as the terminus of the Baghdad railway and the mission of Saiyid Talib Pasha of Basra to Hasa were not the least of such indications—Ibn Saud decided to strike a blow in vindication of his independence. Early in 1914 he descended suddenly on Hasa with a small force and captured Huf of by a night-attack almost without resistance on the part of the Turkish garrison, which took refuge in the fort-like precincts of the Ibrahim Pasha mosque but surrendered next day. The Turkish troops were escorted to the coast, and with the garri sons of Qatif and `Uqair, which likewise surrendered, were allowed to depart in peace by sea. And, before the Turks could avenge the loss of their eastern province, they were involved in the World War, as the result of which they ceased to exercise dominion in any part of Arabia.

The World War.

The co-operation of Ibn Saud was sought by Great Britain at an early stage of the World War, Captain W. H. I. Shakespear of the Indian political department being deputed to get into touch with him. Ibn Saud immediately began hostili ties against Jabal Shammar which had declared for Turkey, and a battle was fought at Jarrab in Jan. 1915, without decisive result. Unfortunately Shakespear was killed in this encounter and the British authorities abandoned the idea of further active co-opera tion with Ibn Saud, with whom, however, a treaty of friendship was concluded at `Uqair in Dec. 1915 by Sir Percy Cox. But for the purposes of the war the centre of Arabian gravity was now transferred to Hejaz (q.v.), where Sharif Husain Ibn `Ali, amir of Mecca, raised the standard of revolt against the Turks in June 1916. His unauthorized assumption of the title of "King of the Arab Countries" was not viewed with favour by Ibn Saud and created between the two rulers an ever-growing coolness which was only prevented from culminating in open hostilities during the war by the constant efforts of the British Government. This estrangement was exacerbated by a dispute over the village of Khurma on the Hejaz-Nejd border at the end of 1917, when the Philby mission visited Ibn Saud on behalf of the British Govern ment to re-focus his attention on an attack on Ibn Rashid. In 1918 the Khurma affair developed in a series of crises and the village folk under their Sheikh, Khalid Ibn Luwai, were called upon to defend themselves against three attacks by the Sharifian forces. Meanwhile Ibn Sa`ud was engaged in an expedition which led him to the walls of Hail but achieved no solid result, and the World War ended leaving him still within his pre-war frontiers with a potential casus belli in Khurma in the west. In 1919 King Husain appealed for British intervention on this issue and in March Lord Curzon, deciding in his favour, authorized him to occupy Khurma and warned Ibn Sa`ud to relinquish it on pain of incurring the displeasure of the British Government and of losing his subsidy of 160,000 a year. In May the Hejaz forces under `Abdullah, the king's second son,' camped at Turaba, 8om. from Khurma, and were attacked during the night by the Wahhabi army. `Abdullah's force was annihilated, though he himself escaped with a small following, and Taff was evacuated by its inhabitants for fear of a Wahhabi attack. But Ibn Saud, content with the annexation of Turaba, withdrew to Riyadh and turned his attention to other fields of expansion. The upland districts of `Asir with its capital, Ibha, were the first to fall to his sword in 192o. The following year Hail capitulated and the Wahhabi armies occupied Khaibar and Taima. In 1922 Jauf fell and the whole of inner Arabia was under Ibn Sa`ud's control, his out posts reaching to the confines of Oman and Yaman. The struggle with Hejaz was still to come and the British Government, having placed its nominees, the Sharifs Feisal and `Abdullah, on the thrones of Trans-Jordan and `Iraq, endeavoured to compose the differences between the rival parties by convening a conference at Kuwait during the winter of 1923-24. The definite failure of this gathering to arrive at any arrangement by April resulted in its dissolution and in Sept. 1924, the capture and sack of Taff by the Wahhabi vanguard ushered in the final campaign against Hejaz. Mecca was occupied in October and Ibn Saud made his formal entry into the holy city on Dec. 5. The siege of Jidda was immediately begun and somewhat later that of Medina. The fall of both cities in Dec. 1925 left Ibn Saud master of Hejaz of which he was proclaimed king on Jan. 8, 1926. During the siege of Jidda Sir Gilbert Clayton visited Ibn Saud in Wadi Fatima to negotiate the treaties of Bahra and Hadda, by which the bound aries of Nejd and Trans-Jordan were fixed and various questions between 'Iraq and Nejd settled. In May 1927 a further treaty was negotiated at Jidda by Sir Gilbert Clayton with Ibn Sa`ud in his dual character of king of Hejaz and Nejd and its dependencies, Nejd having been proclaimed a kingdom in Feb. 1927, when Ibn Saud returned to Riyadh for his first visit since the beginning of the Hejaz campaign. By subsidiary treaties in 1921 and 1922 (negotiated at Muhammara and `Uqair) various outstanding questions between Ibn Saud on one side and `Iraq and Kuwait on the other had been regulated, including the frontiers between Nejd and the two States mentioned. Late in 1927, however, the building of a police outpost by the 'Iraq Government at Busaiya in the neighbourhood of the frontier—by a protocol attached to the 'Uqair treaty the building of fortifications on desert wells near the frontier was forbidden—caused renewed trouble. In Sept. 1932 the kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd with its dependencies became known as the kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and in Asir was incorporated in this kingdom.

Oman.

European influence, which has never penetrated far inland, was not felt in any part of Arabia until the i6th century after the discovery of the Cape route. In 1506 the Portuguese under Albuquerque seized Hormuz and occupied Maskat and the coast of Oman (q.v.) until 1650. The Persian occupation which succeeded the Portuguese lasted zoo years till 1759 when the Ghaffari dynasty, which has lasted ever since, was established by Ahmad Ibn Said. In 1798 his son entered into treaty relations with the East India Company with the object of excluding the French from Oman, and the next ruler, Said (1804-56) still further strengthened the British connection. For a while early in the 19th century Oman became subject to the Wahhabi empire but regained its independence in 1818. Meanwhile a British Indian expedition had in 1810 destroyed the strongholds of the Jawasimi pirates on the coast. Said subsequently equipped a fleet and took possession of Socotra and even Zanzibar, as well as the Persian coast north of Hormuz to Gwadar on the east. On his death in 1856 his dominions were divided between his sons, Majid receiving Zanzibar while Thuwaini with British support established himself in Oman, whose independence was recognized in 1862 by Great Britain and France. Turki succeeded Thuwaini on his assassination in 1866 and, on his death in 1888, the British Government installed and subsidized Feisul on the condition that he should cede no part of his territory to any other Power. Great Britain has followed a similar policy of exclusive influence in a series of agreements with the petty States of the Trucial coast, the southern coast and the shores of the Persian Gulf up to Kuwait. Oman figures prominently in connection with the arms traffic question, in which French subjects were actively interested, early in the loth century, while German and Russian interests were active at the same time in efforts to secure coaling-stations in the gulf. The World War helped to stereotype the de facto position of Great Britain as warden of the south and east coasts of Arabia and of the adjacent seas, and this position finds expression in the various treaties or understandings in force between Great Britain on the one hand and the rulers of Kuwait, Bahrain, the Trucial States, Oman and Mukalla. Late in 192 the Persian Government challenged this position in respect of Bahrain (q.v.) in a some what naive protest to the League of Nations. For all practical purposes the "British lake" policy holds the field in the Persian Gulf to-day and the only section of its Arabian coast which is effectively independent is the Hasa shore of Ibn Sa`ud's dominions. Recently there has been talk of laying the route of the Cairo Karachi air-mail along this coast, but no decision has yet mate rialized.

Yemen.

As in the Persian Gulf, so in the Red Sea the Portu guese were the first to show a European flag. In 1516 they failed in an attempt on Jidda, while the occupation of Yemen soon after by the Turks frustrated their designs in this direction. For a long period thereafter the Arabian coast of the Red Sea figured but little in international circles, but the opening of the overland route to India brought it into prominence. The Hejaz and Yemen were at this time held by Muhammad `Ali as Viceroy of Egypt, though they reverted to direct Turkish rule about 1845. Mean while in 1839, after some years of trouble, the British had occupied Aden, which has remained in their possession ever since. In the island of Perim was similarly occupied. In 1872 the conquest of Yemen placed the whole of the Red Sea littoral (Midian was ceded to the Turks by `Abbas Hilmi in 1892) under Turkish rule and during the period 19o2–o5 a joint Anglo-Turkish commission laid down the boundary between Turkish territory and that part of the mainland opposite Aden claimed as a British protectorate. The line runs from Shaikh Sa`id opposite Perim to a point in Wadi Bana 12m. N.E. of Qa`taba, and continues thence (unde fined) in a north-easterly direction into the Great Desert. During 1892-93 Turkey was engaged in the suppression of a serious re volt in the Yemen headed by the Imam with his headquarters at Sa`da ; but Ahmad Faizi Pasha's eventual success was followed by a period of general unrest and in 1904 another rebellion took place and, as a result, San`a was cut off from communication with the coast.

In 1905 the commander, `Ali Ridha Pasha, surrendered and Ah mad Faizi Pasha was sent out from Constantinople with a large force to restore the situation, San`a being recovered and the re bellion crushed. In 1911 `Asir staged a revolt against the Turks under Saiyid Muhammed al Idrisi who with Italian assistance succeeded in asserting his virtual independence in the Tihama. In 1915 he allied himself with Great Britain but contributed little to the common cause, while the Imam of Yemen remained faithful to his Turkish allegiance, and early in the war some anxiety was caused to the authorities at Aden by the development of a Turk ish menace to the Protectorate. From 1918, the Turks having surrendered all their Arabian interests, the Imam Yahya continued to rule independently from San`a, but Hudaida was occupied in 1920 by the Idrisi, relying on his treaty with Great Britain, after the failure of a British mission under Col. H. F. Jacob in late 1919 to get into touch with the Imam—it was forcibly detained at Bajil by the Quhra tribesmen. Subsequently the Imam estab lished his authority at Hudaida and, Ibn Saud having occupied upland `Asir, the Idrisi was left with only a small area in the Tihama and was forced by circumstances in 1926—Saiyid Mu hammad had been succeeded by his son, `Ali, and the latter had been expelled by his uncle, Hasan, the present governor—to place himself under the Protectorate of Ibn Saud. Disputes relating to the Yemen-Asir and Yemen-Nejd frontier led in 1934 to hos tilities between the Imam Yahya and king Ibn Saud, in which the Yemen was defeated but received generous terms.

Hejaz.

In Hejaz European interests have long been repre sented by the consuls and agents of various Powers at Jidda and in 1916 the British authorities organized and supported the revolt of Sharif Husain against the Turks. Jidda and Wajh were cap tured with British naval assistance and the land operations of the Arabs against the Hejaz railway were actively supported by the Arab bureau of Cairo which was charged with the operation in this theatre. The capture of `Aqaba by Lawrence in 1917 prac tically completed the defeat of the Turks in Hejaz, though they held out at Medina till Jan. 1919. The whole country was then left to King Husain to administer as an independent kingdom and, though he gave the British Government much trouble and many anxious moments by his reckless rule, no attempt was made to interfere with the local administration. Lawrence in 1921 failed to negotiate a treaty with Husain and in 1924 British in tervention to adjust his difficulties with Ibn Saud again failed at the Conference of Kuwait. During the Wahhabi invasion which followed Great Britain and the other Powers declared their neu trality and Husain, having abdicated the throne in 1924, retired to `Aqaba, which, with Ma'an, the British Government made an unsuccessful attempt in negotiation with King `Ali to detach from the Hejaz in favour of Trans-Jordan. In July 1925, however, a favourable opportunity of achieving this object presented itself and, King Husain having been deported to Cyprus, the British Government annexed the territory in question down to the Haql Mudawwara line. Ibn Saud has steadily declined to recognize this annexation as being inconsistent with the declared neutrality of Great Britain during the war with Husain, and this area remains almost the only corner of Arabia where the relations of the Arabs and Europe have not been satisfactorily adjusted. A similar prob lem exists on the Aden Protectorate border where the Imam is in occupation of a small area south of the Anglo-Turkish boundary of 1905. See also IBN SA`uo (11. ST. J. B. P.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.—C. Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien (CopenBibliography.—C. Niebuhr, Beschreibung von Arabien (Copen- hagen, 1774), with trans. by R. Heron, Travels through Arabia (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1792) ; J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829) and Notes on Bedouins and Wahqbys (1830) ; J. R. Wellsted, Travels in Arabia (2 vols., 1838) ; G. A. Wallin, "Journey from Cairo . . . to Nejd in 1845," Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. xxiv. (1854) ; H. J. Carter, Geological papers on Western India . and the south-east Coast of Arabia (18J7) ; W. G. Palgrave, Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (2 vols., 1865) ; L. Pelly, Report on a Journey to the Wahhabee Capital of Riyadh . . . (Bombay, 1866) ; J. Halevy, "Rapport sur une mission archeologique dans le Yemen," Journal Asiatique (1872) ; A. Zehme, Arabien and die Araber seit Hundert Jaleren (Halle, 1875) ; A. Sprenger, Die Alte Geographie Arabiens (Bern, 1875) ; F. M. Hunter, An Account of the British Settlement at Aden, in Arabia (1877) ; Sir R. F. Burton, The Gold Mines of Midian (1878), Midian Revisited (5879) and Pilgrimage to Arabia lay between the still more ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and was exploited by its two neighbours from early days. Egyptian commercial enterprise in the Red Sea was fully developed before the V. Dynasty (c. 2 743 B.c.) and brought gold and incense from East Africa and Arabia ; whilst about 2600 B.C. Gudea of Lagash procured diorite and timber from Me-lub-ba, which seems then to have denoted a district in south Arabia, though the name was afterwards extended to East Africa. The evidence for this early penetration of Arabia has to be gathered from Egyptian, Sumerian and Akkadian records; no direct evidence is known to exist in Arabia itself. Mesopotamian influence passed down the Persian Gulf and across south Arabia, where it evolved a local culture of which traces remain. At a later date the trade route from India to the Persian Gulf was extended along south Arabia and so tg Egypt and Europe; many articles found in Arabia are connected with this trade route.

In south-west Arabia, the cultural centre, there were two great kingdoms, Minaea and Saba' but it is a matter of controversy whether they were contemporary or followed one another. About A.D. 244 they were replaced by Himyar. In 522 the Abyssinians conquered south Arabia, but towards the end of the 6th century the Persian empire spread down and absorbed all south Arabia. In 622 Mohammed established Islam as a secular power, and ancient conditions came to an end.

Inscriptions.

The first archaeological material obtained from Arabia was a very faulty copy of five inscriptions made by U. J. Seetzen in 1811. Scientific work dates from J. Halevy, who procured over 600 inscriptions in 186g. From time to time others were found, until E. Glaser, in three expeditions, in 1882-88, obtained 1,032 more, and on these our knowledge of pre-Islamic Arabia is mainly based. In them the two languages, Minaean and Sabaean, are clearly distinguished; a third variety, the Katta banian, is only a dialect of Minaean. All are loosely classed as Himyaritic. The languages are Semitic, closely related to Akka dian (Babylonian-Assyrian) and to the Ethiopic of Abyssinia, which was colonized from Arabia about the 2nd century B.C., suggesting a culture drift, Mesopotamia–Arabia–East Africa. The modern dialects of Mahra (south Arabia) and Sokotra contain elements akin to these ancient languages.

The script used is developed from the so-called Phoenician of about the 8th century s.c. onwards, and is the direct parent of that still used in Abyssinia. Some inscriptions are adorned with figures of animals and plants, and these show very clearly the influence of late Assyrian art (cf. Brit. Mus. 48455, Buildings.—The oldest temples and fortresses in Arabia are due to Graeco-Roman influence and occur mostly in the north. At Marib, the Sabaean capital, are ruins covering an area of about 500 metres in diameter, amongst them marble columns without capitals. Other such remains are scattered over south-west Arabia, but as yet have not been examined adequately, and it is impossible to say to what period they belong. West of Marib are the re mains of the dam which figures so prominently in Arabic tradition. These show a very solid construction with several sluices. It was destroyed by a flood and restored about A.D. by the Abyssinian governor, Abraha; the inscription recording this has been copied by E. Glaser (Zwei Inscjir. caber d. Dammbruch von Marib, in M.V.G. 1897) ; south-west of this is a building con structed of large blocks of hewn stone. At Aden are rock-hewn reservoirs (cleared in i856) ; it is doubtful whether these are of the Minaean-Sabaean age or date from the Persian occupation.

In the 6th and 7th centuries Christianity spread over parts of Arabia, its centre being Nejran (north-north-east of Marib). The mosque at San'a was once a church, and Christian symbols occur in various parts. Possibly some of the ancient wells lined with masonry near Medain Salih were the handiwork of monks who brought Byzantine methods of engineering to Arabia and are celebrated in Arabic poetry as well-makers. Within the territory of the ancient Nabataean kingdom, suppressed by Trajan in A.D. 106, are found rock-hewn temples and sepulchres in the later Greek style, and similar monuments are reported by Doughty as far south as Medain Salih.

Coins, Sculptures, etc.

These finds connect with the ancient trade routes. Greek and Roman coins have been found, some times surcharged with Himyaritic letters, as well as native imi tations of these types, e.g., obverse, head of Athena, reverse owl, olive spray, crescent, letters often blundered. Later coins, head of Athena replaced by beardless male with curly hair copied from Ptolemaic coins ( ?), head of Arab king or god encircled by wreath (Seleucid?). Sculptures, including bronzes, of later Greek work manship (cf. Brit. Museum, 43311), a very few possibly Egyp tian or Assyrian.

Prehistoric Remains.

The prehistoric remains in Arabia are its least known antiquities. In 1926 Flight-Lieut. Maitland observed and photographed circles, forts or cattle-pens, on the Jebel Druze east of the Dead Sea (Antiquity, 1927, 197), and Doughty reports similar relics some loom. farther south. Dol mens are scattered over areas east of Jordan, but no information is available as to how far they extend down into Arabia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-E. Glaser, Gesch. Arabiens . . . bis zu Muhammad Bibliography.-E. Glaser, Gesch. Arabiens . . . bis zu Muhammad (188o) , Skizze (1889-9o) , Die Abessiner in Arabien u. A f rika (1895) ; C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta (i888, repub. 1921), Corpus Inscript. Semitic., part iv. tom. i. (4 fascic., 1889-1908), tom. ii. (4 fascic., 1911-2o), inscriptions, descriptions of localities in introductory notes; F. Hommel, Siidarab. Chrestomathie (1893) , (language, etc.), Grundriss der Geogr. u. Gesch. d. alten Orients, i. (19o4), ii. (1926) ; H. St. J. Philby, Heart of Arabia (1922) ; G. F. Hill, Catalogue of Greek Coins of Arabia (1922), supersedes all previous work; Hommel-Rhodo kanakis (Dr. D. Nielsen), Handbuch d. Altarabischen Altertumskunde (1927) ; Admiralty Handbook for Arabia (n. d.), vol. i. only.

(D. L. O'L.) Antiquities.—Much spade-work remains to be done before a complete picture of life in ancient Arabia can be pieced together. Systematic exploration of its antiquities has never been possible and our knowledge of the subject depends entirely on the reports and collections of explorers often not properly equipped for the task. In 1876 Doughty studied, sketched and copied the Naba taean rock-tombs and inscriptions at Madain Salih, which have since been studied by Peres Jaussen, Sevignac and others. Other Nabataean rock-tombs with inscriptions were studied in 1877 by Burton during his examination of the ancient gold workings of Midian. Roman ruins have been found in or near the border of northern Hejaz. At Taima, Huber in 1883 secured the famous Semitic inscription now in the Louvre, and Doughty recorded the existence of "flagstones set edge-wise" and "round heaps, perhaps barrows" during his wanderings between Khaibar and Hail. The monoliths mentioned by Palgrave at Uyun south of the latter place were not recorded by Huber or Leachman who visited the place later and must be held under suspicion pending verification. At Sadus in Nejd, Pelly found an ancient "Christian" column since destroyed by the Wahhabis. In wadi Sirhan are Roman and early Arab remains—basalt masonry with inscrip tions. Near Taif, Doughty found a "prehistoric" sketch of a co lossal human being and he and others have recorded the existence at Taif itself of two large shapeless stone idols worshipped by the ancients under the names of Lat and Uzza and broken up by the Wahhabis in 1925. The third idol of this group, Manat, pos sibly a prehistoric monolith, is said to exist somewhere south of Taif. The meteoric black stone of Mecca was doubtless an ob ject of prehistoric veneration and superstition, and the well of Zamzam is certainly of great antiquity. "Eve's tomb" at Jedda did not apparently exist at the time of Varthema's visit (I 6th century) and has recently (19a 7) been demolished by the Wah habi regime. On the other side of Arabia the puzzle of the exact locality of the ancient seaport of Gerra would seem to have been solved by the discovery by Cheesman of ruins at Ukair, whose name unquestionably preserves the ancient appellation of the city. In the provinces of Kharj and Aflaj, Philby found ruins in con nection with the irrigation systems of these parts. They are perhaps comparable to the tumuli of Bahrein, examined and at tributed to the Phoenicians by Bent, Prideaux and others. In Oman, B. W. Thomas has recently discovered ruins which may prove to be of importance. These and the reported buried cities of the Rub' Al Khali deserve investigation.

The parts of Arabia most exhaustively studied from the archae ological point of view are Yemen and Hadhramaut where consid erable remains of the Sabaean and Minaean civilizations have been found. The ruins of Marib, the old Sabaean capital have been visited by Arnaud, Halevy, Glaser and others, who collected a number of inscriptions in the language of Minaea and Saba on bronze and limestone. Arnaud studied in detail the famous dam, on which the irrigation of the district depended and which are comparable to the well-known tank system of Aden. These are unquestionably of great antiquity and were repaired in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. according to two long inscriptions published by Glaser. Another dam 15o yards long with three tanks above it was seen by W. B. Harris at Hirran in Yemen. The inscriptions above mentioned are in letters apparently derived from the Phoe nician. Many of them are of votive character and those of a historical bearing are undated and therefore the subject of con troversy. The range of possible dates seems to be from Boo B.0 to the 6th century A.D. Among the remains (some in situ and others built into walls) are altars and statue-bases, the later stones being ornamented with designs of leaves, flowers, ox-heads, men and women. Some have designs of a sacred tree similar to those of Babylonia. Grave-stones and stelae as well as bronze castings of various animals also occur.

The Vienna Museum possesses a small number of seals of bronze, copper, silver and stone with Sabaean inscriptions and gems of later date with various figures and even Arabic inscrip tions. Coins imitated from Greek models but with Sabaean inscriptions have been brought to Europe from Aden, Sana and Marib. (H. ST. J. B. P.) Ethnology.—As Arabia forms a single unit ethnologically with Asia Minor these two political areas are treated together under ASIA MINOR : Ethnology.