File 1707/1924 ‘Arabia:- Jeddah Situation Reports. (1924-1930)’ [‎228r] (460/898)

an ^official guesl by KmgHuSm 6 P” 4 " Visit t0 Jeddah ’ where he was Seated as
s nf.s
™ am* “sas £“
Medina, as well as overtures for permission to make an expedition to Taif
adonted tb^F^Tif ^ifuu H ? glves ^ lm P re ssion of a wealthy man who, having
whenever as aDDearsofteofn b * ridden i‘ from Harbi “ to Constantinopl!
wnenever as appears often to have been the case, he has been able to snare time awav
''‘; T , ri ll ?. lusu ‘ ess mt erests m Chicago. His pastime has in the past P opened up the
path to his appointment as American Minister in China, and in the preLnt provides
B™ rluTd wTte e tn Sm h g fU1 i d ° f fr Cel n nt ^ len S^y reminiscences.
tint 1 should hesitate to characterise Mr. Crane’s interests, in so far at any rate
SlidcaHy romaTti^Mff^ a f s Z 1 n ^ in g u more tha n ethically sentimental and
politically lomantic. It is typical of him that his dragoman, a rather stupid fellow
is said to be the brother-in-law of Dr. Chabandar, the Syrian insurgent leader!
o ling will stop Mr. Crane from interesting himself in other people’s affairs but
h i mis . clllev l 0lls - A rumour of concession hunting has pursued
fnrthp* Jeddah ’ dut tdat onl .y t0 be expected, and it will probably pursue him
further, especially when he gets into the zone of the Farsan Islands. However
equipped with cook and valet, camp furniture and almost all the thirty-seven
varieties of Heinz s canned provisions, he is now bending his steps towards Sanaa
to complete that study of the Arabs on which the American journals with which he
keeps m touch no doubt consider him to have constituted himself an expert authority
-If Satisfaction is expressed in the official “AJmm-el-Kura ” at the establish
ment m India and Java of branch societies in support of the scheme for yearly
con erences in Mecca to carry on the work of last year’s Islamic Conference.
14. As a counterblast to the resolution passed'by the “ Hejaz Conference ” at
Lucknow discouraging Indian Moslems from making the pilgrimage while Ibn Saud
remains master of the Hejaz, reference to which was made in paragraphs 10 and 11
of the Jeddah report for November, a fetva has been obtained from the ulema of
Medina condemning any such interference with a purely religious duty. A
translation of this fetva will be found in an appendix* to the present report.
15. The Prophet’s Tomb at Medina is still intact, so that the apprehensions of
the Maharajah of Mahmudabad and his telegrams to different potentates are
unfounded. Such apprehensions were no doubt aroused by the presence with the King
in Medina of the two belligerent Wahabi divines, Sheikh Abdullah-bin-Bileihid and
Sheikh Abdullah-bin-Hassan, as mentioned in paragraph 9 of the November report.
These men, and probably the King himself, have not abated one whit of their
conviction that the veneration of shrines is idolatrous and the practices associated
with them vain superstition. The first of them only a short time ago, in a long
exordium printed in the official ££ Umm-el-Kura,” denounced anew all worshipping
at tombs and capped his sermon with a host of quotations from the traditions.
Further, in the latter half of the fetva alluded to in paragraph 14 above, it is made
clear that, from the doctrinal point of view, there is no modification of the official
point of view in this matter.
16. Be that as it may, the fact remains that the Tomb of the Prophet, with its
screen, well and palm trees, is now as it has always been. It is becoming evident
that, unless something untoward or unexpected occurs, the tendency is for the
iconoclasts to leave untouched the Green Dome of the Prophet while the eyes of the
Moslem world are upon it.
17. The other tombs, those of the family and friends of the Prophet, are, on
the other hand, lying in a state of neglect, their domes demolished and their walls
desolate. The famous Tomb of Hamza, the uncle of Mohammed, still has a wall and
a gate, but its cupola is destroyed.
18. A member of the staff of this agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , who was recently in Medina, found
the city but a poor replica of its former self. Great curiosity was manifested in the
presence of a British representative at Wady-el-Akik, his negotiations being thought
by some of the townspeople to foreshadow a British concession for reconditioning
the Hejaz Railway northward to Syria, such as would revive Medina’s languishing
hopes.
* Not printed.