File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎225r] (458/834)

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Abdul Hamid diey.
1 he rule d.e morbus does not hold in war, and perhaps never
held east of Suez ; so we may say candidly that Abdul Hamid
Bey, called “ el-Masri,” whose death is reported above (p. 261
is no loss. We first became aware of this Egyptian in Arabia as
Ottoman representative at Hail in the earlier part of 1917. He
seems to have left there for Mustajiddah after a quarrel with Rashid
ibn Leilah, but he accompanied that individual and his master,
Ibn Rashid, to the railway in August and remained, as delegate
ot Jemal “the Great” and the IVth Army, charged to see to
the Emir’s interests and needs, and pass on to him cash and
supplies sent from Damascus. Their mutual relations, however,
were quickly strained—so much so that Abdul Hamid’s recall
was asked for at one time by the H.E.F. But Jemal insisted on
his remaining at his post, and he developed into, virtually, the
Emir’s jailor at el-Hejr, their relations going from bad to worse,
owing to the refusal of the Turks to pav the Hail mujahidin
(see p. 174). What the Emir thought of the delegate’s role in
regard to himself may be seen from his captured correspondence
(p. 214). On Ibn Rashid’s departure—or flight—Abdul Hamid
went at once to Medina (p. 244), having been ordered to rejoin
the fugitive without delay and resume his old position at Hail.
There is no indication that Ibn Rashid connived at his disaster
on the road, but it is hardty likely that he will regret the non
arrival of his former jailor, supported by Ottoman troops !
Abdul Hamid has been reported to us (by an officer deserter
from Medain Salih last February) to be a man of about thirty-
five, tall, with yellow skin and black beard, commonly believed
to have “deserted” from Egypt late in 1914. From another
good source we learn that he was once a follower and agent of
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Shawish.
It is possible that he is identical with Abdul Hamid Seyyid,
a lawyer, lieencie-en-droit of Paris, of a well-known and wealthy
Gharbiya family, who left Egypt with Ismail Kamel in September
1914 to join Mohammed Bey Farid and the ex-Khedive in
Constantinople, and was rumoured to have gone into the Turkish
Army. He was known in Egypt as an extreme Nationalist,
bitterly anti-British and violently pro-Turk, and, while in France
in 1910, he tried to organise a demonstration against Mr.
Roosevelt on the latter’s return from delivering the famous
“Get On or Get Out” speech, against which Sheikh Shawish
had already protested so noisily. On the other hand, if “ Masri ”
is really his surname, and not a mere descriptive epithet, he is
probably an ex-medical student of that cognomen, who left Egypt
more than two years ago, and was heard of soon afterwards in
the Turkish Secret Service in Switzerland. Since then his where
abouts have not been known for certain.