File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎398r] (804/834)

was extending, and that one of the reasons for its success was
the - Arab fear of a Sherifian regime. Some of the Anazeh had
been seen wearing the Ikhwan emblem, a white cloth, instead of
the ordinary aqal.
Miss Gertrude Bell has recently sent in the following note
on the Ikhwan
“ Suleiman el Dakhil tells me that the Ikhwan have asked
Ibn Rashid to allow them to settle atUmm el Radhummah Wells,
near Linah, and will probably be given permission. Their idea
is to make a settlement like Artawiyah with gardens and palm
groves. When you enter the Brotherhood you sell your camels,
relinquish nomad life, and take to cultivation. A great deal of
successful propaganda is going on among the Shammar tribes,
and it is they who have put pressure on the Emir in the matter
of the Najefi merchants, all of whom have been banished from
Hail. Among the Dhafir, missionary work is progressing well;
it has just begun among the Anazeh Ruwallah and Amarat.
Suleiman thinks Ikhwan doctrines will certainly spread among
the Anazeh, but that, in spreading, they will become less fanatical.
In four years’ time he thinks all the Bedouin tribes will have
accepted the Brotherhood. It has also spread among all Harb
outside the Hejaz. Shi’ahs and Sunnis who indulge in tobacco
are even more hateful to the Ikhwan than Christians.
“ As far as the Bedouin are concerned, the new faith means
little but the relinquishing of tobacco and strict observance of
the daily prayers. It is interesting psychologically that hopes of
Paradise—and the Brotherhood has no other cards in its hand—
should induce the nomad tribes to abandon the one mitigation of
the pains in which they carry on their present existence. There
is a story, probably one of those cliches which outline current
opinion rather than an actual narration of facts, which indicates
that even among the Brotherhood tobacco smoking is not the last
and worst sin. An adherent to their doctrines saw his father
with a pipe in his hand and instantly shot him dead. He came to
a brother and inquired what place in Paradise his good deed
would earn for him. The 4 Akh replied that not Paradise but
Hell awaited him, and forthwith despatched him thither.”
Ahmed ibn Thuniyan, who accompanied Ibn Baud’s son,
Feisal, on his mission to England, emphatically denied to Captain
Bray that the Ikhwan force conversions under penalty of death,
and stated that the Ikhwan movement had been misrepresented.
There is little doubt, however, that on occasions of Ikhwan
victories in the field there is no thought of giving quarter. Eor