'The Seven Independent Arabian States [Yemen, ‘Asir, Hijaz, Najd, Kuwait, Jabal Shammar and al-Jawf]' [‎325v] (650/680)

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became the capital of Central Arabia, from Jauf-el-Amir, on the edge of the
Syrian desert, to the Great Desert of the south, and Mohammed ruled as sole
Emir until his death in 1897. How Nejd, under Abdul Aziz-bin-Saud, the
present King of Saudi Arabia and Sultan of Nejd, recovered its independence in
1902, has already been related.
Towards the close of his reign Mohammed adopted a pro-Turkish policy,
which was followed consistently by his successors in return for Turkish support.
Explanation of this policy may be found partly in the comparative ease with
which Turkish support or Turkish pressure could be directed upon Hail from
Samawa on the Euphrates, and later from the Hejaz Railway. Support, there
fore, became an alternative the Emirs of Jebel Shammar found preferable to
coercion. On various occasions, especially in 1904 and 1905, Ottoman forces
assisted the Emirate in its struggle against Ibn Saud and the Sheikh of Koweit.
Moreover, an aim of Turkish policy at this time was to use Jebel Shammar
against supposed British ambitions in Arabia, particularly in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ,
where, in the Turkish view, His Majesty's Government had secured the Sheikh
of Koweit as a dependent, and, through him, were promoting their interests to
the disadvantage of those of the Ottoman Empire. To this end Ibn Rashid was
pushed by the Turks into attacking the town of Koweit in 1905, a movement
which was countered by His Majesty's Government landing a naval force in
support of the sheikh.
After the death of Mohammed no ruler had the strength and personality
necessary to hold the widespread Emirate of Jebel Shammar together. Indeed,
during these years, the House of Rashid was divided against itself, and was
infamous throughout Arabia for repeated resort to murder as a convenient means
of gaining the succession. In 1906 the ruling Emir, Abd-el-Aziz, was killed in
battle with the forces of Ibn Saud and the Mutair tribe in alliance with him. In
1908 a boy of ten, Saud-bin-Rashid, became Emir and was supported in the
position until able to direct affairs himself. He ruled Jebel Shammar during the
period of the war. Notwithstanding the fact that the innate solidity and loyalty
of the Shammar tribe was never better exhibited than under this Emir, his reign
witnessed further curtailment of the Emirate. Hostilities with Nejd were almost
continuous. In 1910 Ibn Saud compelled Jebel Shammar to surrender the
Province of Qasim to his suzerainty. In 1912 Jauf-el-Amir was seized by the
Ruwalla sheikh, Nuri-esh-Shalan, who successfully maintained himself against
determined Shammar attacks particularly in 1914.
When Turkey entered the war in October 1914, Emir Ibn Rashid, then a
featherbrained youth of sixteen, already noted for irresponsible violence, worked
hand in hand with the Turks. He supplied them, with camels, was actively
hostile to the Sheikh of Koweit and the Euphrates tribes who were friendly
towards the Allies, and received presents of money, motor cars, rifles, ammunition
and even a few machine guns from the Turkish'Government. It seems that he
undertook to operate against the Allied flank in Mesopotamia. Probably he
would have caused trouble in this quarter but for the campaign started against
him in January 1915 by the Emir of Nejd. The battle of Jerrab, near Majmaa,
which resulted on the 24th January, may have been indecisive, but it put
Ibn Rashid s force out of action for a time and produced a treaty of peace in
which the advantage lay with Ibn Saud. By this treaty, signed on the
10th June, 1915, Ibn Rashid's authority was confined to the narrower Jebel
Shammar. He withdrew his pretensions to Qasim, and acknowledged Ibn Sand's
suzerainty over certain tribes, a matter hitherto in question, and rejected only
the Emir of Nejd's claim to the overlordship of Jebel Shammar. But the peace
which followed had no reality and Ibn Rashid merely awaited his opportunity.
VII.— J auf-el-A mir.
The part of Northern Arabia lying around Jauf-el-Amir, which in 1910 came
under the independent government of Nuri-esh-Shalan, Paramount Chief of the
Ruwalla, cannot be regarded as having been one of the chief autonomous areas of
Arabia. It was too limited in resources and could not have direct relations with
the outer world in a way possible to a State owning a seaboard. The Yemen, Asir,
Nejd, and, in less degree, Jebel Shammar, all had their bases in large settled
populations of cultivators; the Hejaz, in the accident that it was the Holy Land
of Islam. Jauf, however, had no such permanent foundations. Jauf, as an