'Report on Najd Mission 1917-1918' [‎17v] (34/60)

A solitary incident—the only instance in the course of 12 months, so far
as I am aware, of the active ebullition of the dreaded militant Wahhabi move-
ment—occurred, about this time, to lend colour to the stories circulated bv
ft 6 *V n 8'' s sons - A P art y of non-Wahhabi Ataiba tribesmen, including a
Shaikh, had come into conflict with the Akhwan of Ghat Ghat, whither thev
had repaired apparently to raid or rob, and had paid for their temerity with
their lives. The injured relatives rushed to the Sharif for redress and the
latter drew alarming pictures of the ubiquity of Wahhabi propagandists and
the urgency of checking the movement in its initial stages. Ibn Saud was
accused of fostering the movement for the furtherance of his own political
ambitions.
Suffice it to say that, from this time onwards, the fear of a Wahhabi risino-
played no small part in disposing H.M.'s Government to regard unfavourably
any proposal likely to increase the military strength of Ibn Saud. The crisis
created by the Sharif's attacks on the Wahhabi tribesmen of Khurma and the
growing possibility of an open rupture between Ibn Saud and the Kino- which
clouded the latter part of the period under report, confirmed Government in
tbe^ir reluctance to arm the former, though the necessity of keeping his atten-
was recognised m an a ® a]rs ^ active employment against the enemy
in qU !? t w. <Iy w t l ll , e « i ? uati ?, n ' n Central Arabia tended to confirm me
in my view that the Wahhabi peril, as such, was the fiction of nreindiced
«,ntrni ; A e t C t! Ke c0nvl ?. ced th" 4 . IIin Saud had the movement umfer perfect
contiol. At the same time, it became increasingly apparent that the mnst
tZZStT the t S i t 1 Ua ! ion Was thc S' 1 - 11 ' 8 -PPaTnt determination to
pro oke Ibn Saud to set^tlie forces of A\ ahhabism in motion against himself
worst* to CO W C r ' S G rf nn ! ent 0f u the justice of llis warain g or, at the
worst, to force Government to choose between himself and Ibn Saud—a
emma, Inch, obviously, could only be resolved in one direction. This fact
las not perhaps been sufficiently recognised—the Sharif's persistence in the
aftan of Khurma, unimportant as it was in itself, can have had no other
object than to provoke Ibn Saud into open hostility. This was patent to Ibn
f™ d ' ^as not blind to the inevitable consequences of action by himself
to assert his rights by force, and his determination to avoid being drawn into
conflict on a matter, on which, on its merits, he had no strong feeWs was
equalled only by the difficulty he experienced in persuading his subiects to
be patient For unately for him, the people of Khurma ^^^11 able o
wVprecipl ?rd ; e :™to defeat by the f0rces 0f the Shari£
Two great difficulties have, from time immemorial, beset the path of
l' 0 S0Ug to ru 1 1 1 e A rabia — the nomadic habits of its tribesmen
T? i hi 1 l ^ 0 a ^ m , mo j n . ralI y m 8' Pomt. To a certain extent, the house of
as id lias been able to triumph overthese difficulties by reason of the pecu-
nn« C0 ° # n 0t Shammar tribe, whose solidarity is emphasised by the
1 Obsession of a common capital and a ruler of their own blood. It has how
ever, been otherwise with the house of Saud—a line of foreign rulers residing
nmp I + of , 1 their 0 ^ n creation and ruling a confederation of tribes neve?
inconvenient. 0W oft their all ^ a nce in the event of its becomTng
XI ci y i j 1 T ar f' 11 m ay SO call them, of the decades which followed
the death of Faisal, aptly exemplify this point, and the present ruler of Naid
ton to faceTl/'? 16 Vt U™™ 0f thai1 he ¥ound ^mself calkd
q f same difficulty, pretenders of his own house not only raising
• a idard of revolt against him but receiving strong support amono- the
tribes and townships of Najd. Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud proved^ himsXIiow
ever, to be a man of no mean mould,—the first years of his reign were spent
in e.xpelhng the foreign invaders from his furthest frontiers, then followed
a period, during which he had to face the claims of rival candidates for the
throne, then a short sharp successful effort to extend his frontier at the
expense of the Ottoman Empire; finally followed the period of reconstruction
which though retarded by the war, has been steadily pursued Now as
of Ybn Saud' ^ 18 a homogeneous Poetical entity acknowledging the rule
In setting to work at the task of consolidation, by which he was con-
+ u° i / Abdul i A ziz cannot have failed to be impressed by two models from
the history of Central Arabia. Muhammad Ibn Eashid had owed his streno-th
flJ l !'5 eCUliar characteristics, which made the Shammar what they have
n and are -a Badawm tribe based on a Badawm city,—while his own great
ancestor Saud Ibn Saud, had carried his conquering arms to the farthest
corners of Arabia by reason of the judicious combination of religion and
policy, to which he owed his power.
Ibn Saud followed neither the one model nor the other in its entirety
lie set to work to combine the two and the result was the Akhwan movement,
^hose essential characteristics are as follows: —
^ res t rict c d .to the i Badawin, who, though nominally, for the
most part, adherents of the Hanbah or, as they came later to be called, the