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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [275v] (559/834)
The record is made up of 1 volume (411 folios). It was created in 1917-1920. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
Hash*, old Nuri, Major Stirling and myself, entered the
morning of October 1, receiving a tremendous but impromptu
greeting from the Moslems of the town.
I think I should put on record a word of what happened
after w r e got it. I found at the Town Hall Mohammed Said and
Abd el-Kadir, the Algerians, who had just assumed possession of
the provisional civil government, since there was no one in
Damascus who could tight their Moorish bodyguard. They are
both insane, and as well pro-Turkish and religious fanatics of
the most unpleasant sort. In consequence I sent for them, and
before the belediyeh and the shiyukh el-harrat, announced that,
as Feisal’s representative, I declared Shukri el-Ayubi Arab
Military Governor (Ali Riza, the intended Governor, was miss
ing), and the provisional civil administration of the Algerians
dissolved. They took it rather hard, and had to be sent home.
That evening Abd el-Kadir called together his friends and some
leading Druses, and made them an impassioned speech, denounc
ing the Sherif as a British puppet, and calling on them to strike
a blow for the Faith in Damascus. By morning this had
degenerated into pure looting, and we called out the Arab troops,
put Hotchkiss round the central square, and imposed peace in
three hours, after inflicting about twenty casualties.
The part played by the Druses was an ignoble one. We
had never expected them to join the Sherif, and had therefore
excluded them from our calculations of war-wages. After the
British victory in Palestine they began to believe that perhaps
they were on the wrong side : so when we came forward the
second time to Deraa they all collected round Sultan el-Atrash
and Husein abu Naif, our two firm friends in Jebel Druse,
clamouring for military service. Sultan believed them, and
marched to Ghazale to join us with about one thousand five
hundred of them, all mounted. They hung round behind our
horse, never entering the fight, and waited until Damascus was
taken. Ihey then paraded before the Sherif, and began to loot
the inhabitants. After the Arabs checked them at this and
drove them out of the town to Jaraman, they came to me, and
said that their real feelings were pro-British. As they were the
only people in all Syria to volunteer for service against Egypt
in 1914, this was hard to credit, aud 1 gave them little satis
faction. Ihey are greedy braggarts Avho soon knock under to a
show of force.
About this item
- Content
The volume consists of individual copies of the Arab Bulletin produced by the Arab Bureau at the Savoy Hotel, Cairo numbers 66-114. These publications contain wartime, and post-war intelligence obtained by British sources. They deal with economic, military, and political matters in Turkey, the Middle East, Arabia, and elsewhere, which – in the opinion of British officials – affect the ‘Arab movement’; the bulletins cover a wide range of topics and key personalities.
The volume contains the following maps:
- A map of Central Arabia showing St John Philby's route from Uqair to Jidda 17 November to 31 December 1917: folio 103.
- Sketch map prepared from RNAS photographs and reconnaissance by HMS City of Oxford of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Mur February to March 1918 : folio 170.
- Sketch map of Hejaz (1919): folio 317.
- Tribal sketch map of the Hadhramaut ‘showing only tribes of fighting value’: folios 333v.
Towards the back of the volume is a small amount of correspondence respecting the distribution of Notes on the Middle East ; the Arab Bulletin was superseded by this publication. Copies of numbers 3-4 of this publication can also be found at the back of the volume.
Tables of content can be found at the front of each issue. A small amount of content is in French.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (411 folios)
- Arrangement
The Arab Bulletins are arranged in numerical order from the front to the back of the file. The Notes on the Middle East follow on from the bulletins at the back of the file in reverse numerical order.
The subject 759 (Arab Bulletins) consists of two volumes. IOR/L/PS/10/657-658.
- Physical characteristics
Condition: the edges of some of the folios towards the back of the volume have suffered damage to their edges due to general wear and tear. The affected folios are 389-390, 407-409, and 412.
Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 413; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The front cover and the leading flyleaf have not been foliated. A previous foliation sequence, which is present between ff 357-363 and ff 374-412 and is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [275v] (559/834), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/658, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048056856.0x0000a0> [accessed 8 June 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/10/658
- Title
- File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1r:34v, 36v:47v, 49v:53v, 56r:95v, 98r:132r, 133v:139v, 141r:149r, 150v:174v, 175v:184v, 186r:194v, 195v:196r, 197v, 199v:216v, 219r:233v, 234v:237v, 241r:245v, 248v:252v, 255v:258v, 260r:264v, 266r:275v, 279r:286v, 287v:313r, 316r:349v, 351r:352r, 354r, 355r:358r, 361r, 363r:365r, 366v:367v, 368v:369v, 370v:397v, 400r:412v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence