'File 53/7 VI (D 9) Koweit [Kuwait] affairs - Arab Tribes, 1907-1911' [‎249r] (505/676)

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to Medina where they took up their abode. The Sultan and his jast ministers
thanked Hamud as Subhan, and gave him and the boy a sufficient allowance.
(May God exalt the Ottoman Government and give it glorious victory).
Killing of Sultan ibn Hamud ul Oheid ihn Rashid.—Hahial Awwal 1326
{April 1908). —Sultan having assumed the Amirate sent his brother Faisal as
Governor of Jauf (in the extreme north of Nejd), and kept with him as his
Yizier his brother Saud. Bad feeling arose between the two (the Amir and
his brother the Vizier). Finally Saud killed his brother the Amir (God save
us from such doings). Now Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Eahman of the house of
Ibn Saud, seeing the discord in the house of ibn Rashid, wished to profit by
it and began an open correspondence with the Amir Sultan, and at the same
time a secret one with tjhat Amir's enemies. He corresponded with Bedouins
and settled Arabs within Nejd, and with the Ottoman Government and Amirs
on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. outside, and European observers thought that he would
obtain without resistance control over all Nejd, but he knew this could not be
without the help of the Amir (that is the Amir for the time being of the house
of Ibn Rashid) and Sheiks of Shammar, as, until 40 years ago, these Amirs
were always in the position of independent allies and helpers of the ihn Sauds,
recognising their authority especially in the southern^ western ( ? ), and eastern
parts of the Nejd, and getting from Rigad yearly subsidies, and had full
authority over the north and westward as far as Medina and eastward as far as
Samawab and A1 Husain and Meshed. Therefore this Ibn Saud approached
the Chiefs of Shammar, and stirred up the strife in the family of Ibn Rashid,
but it was of no avail for most of the Chiefs of Shammar remembered Moham
med Ibn Rashid famous for his justice and good policy : and all the Chiefs
swore on the Koran fidelity to the house of Ibn Kashid. Now at this time
Hamud al Subhan and his brothers and his cousins were in Medina, and with
them the boy, second son of Abdul Aziz ibn Rashid, their nephew on the
mother's side. And those chiefs who swore fidelity to the house of Ibn Rashid
had sworn at the same time to purify the Amirate from the rule of the house
of Ubeid, that is from the rule of Sultan Saud and Eaisal. They wished the
boy to govern under the tutelage of the Subhans who had from the old times
always been viziers of the Ibn Rashids and are of the best blood of Shammar
closely allied by marriage with the Ibu Rashids, and are men of weight and
wealth and, though forming one family with the Amirs, still having each
separate property, whereas the Amir possesses nothing but what he amasses
before his accession, but what he collects when Amir is called Bait Mai and no
one may spend any of it not even the Vmir himself, the Council having full
power of the purse. Details of the revenue of Nejd here followTaxes (1)
on each camel, J Maria Teresa dollar—about 5(Numbers of camels under
10 exempt), J Ottoman lira on each 40 sheep (numbers of sheep under 40
exempt), 5 per cent on produce of crops and palms]. The resistance of Bedo
uins to the above taxes on animals sometimes provokes the Amir to send ex
peditions against them of which the results vary. When the expedition is
successful the Bedouins have to pay the expenses of it.
After Sultan al Hamud had been Amir for one year he and his brothers
formed the plan of dividing among themselves the large treasure of the Bait
al Mai; and this increased the irritation of the chiefs of Shammar who sent an
urgent message to Hamud al Subhan in Medina to come and save Shammar
from the traitor, and he responded to their call and went with them and the
result is known.
Accession of Saud ihn Ahdul Aziz ibn JRashid,—-Hejeh 1326 {August
1908). —He was acclaimed ^y all the chiefs. His age was 11. His guardian
was (as has been stated) Hamud-al-Subhan his maternal uncle. For three
months the latter worked at the internal affairs of Nejd, and brought them
back to the good state of the time of Mohammed ibn Abdur Rashid, and then
he turned to external politics. He won over the neighbouring Arabs by their
good opinion of him, and the more distant ones by force of arms, and no Arabs
of Nejd remained on the side of Ibn Saud except some of the tribe of Muteyr,
and of the men of Kasim and Woshm and Sadeyr and Mahmal; and dearth is
chronic among ail those above named, and those people are helpless from the