"ملف 61/11 V (D 95) مسائل متنوعة خاصة بالحجاز ونجد" [و‎‎١‎٧‎٦] (٥٣٠/٣٦٨)

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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
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EASTERN (A rabia).
July 4, 1933.
CONFIDENTIAL.
S ection 2.
eONflOENTIAL HEiWfiBS.
[E 3612/2/25] No. 1.
Sir A. Ryan to Sir John Simon.—{Received July 4.)
(No. 186.)
Sir. Jedda, June 18, 1933.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 120 of the 18th April, relative to the
situation in Asir, I have the honour to state that the TJmm-al-Qura recently
announced the arrival of the Amir Abdul Aziz-bin-Musaid, after completing the
organisation of Asir Tihama, or Tihamat Asir, as it appears now to be called for
choice. According to a later report he reached Mecca on the 13th June.
2. The TJmm-al-Qura devoted a good deal of space to Asir in its numbers of
the 9th and 16th June. The article in the issue of the 9th June is worth
summarising. The writer reproaches the foreign press with confusion of
language in speaking of the theatre of the recent revolt as Asir. He distinguishes
between what has hitherto been officially called the Idrisi territory, i.e., Tihamat
Asir (so named on the analogy of other tihamas or coastal regions) and what he
calls either Asir tout court or Asir-as-Surat. The latter name is unfamiliar to
me, but " Surat" occurs, apparently as a place name, in another recent article in
the same paper, which touched on the boundary between Saudi Arabia and Yemen
and which I have brought to your notice in a separate despatch.
3. The writer explains that Tihamat Asir corresponds to what was known
in Turkish times as the districts of Sabya, Jizan and Abu Arish. He defines it as
being bounded on the north by the districts of Qunfida, Birk, Muhail and Rijal-al-
Ma (a tribal name, as you know), on the east by Asir-as-Surat or Asir and on
the south by the districts of Medi and Haradh; and as having a coastal extension
from Qahma to Musim, near the Wadi Ta'shar {cf. my despatch No. 113 of the
14th April). After enumerating the principal localities in the area and the
tribes inhabiting it, he refers to the past existence of the two Amirates of Abu
Arish and Sabya, the eviction of the Sherif of Abu Arish by Muhammad-al-Idrisi,
the eventual appointment of the latter by the Turks as Kaimakam of Sabya, Jizan
and Abu Arish and the later disputes which ended in the triumph of the late
Idrisi Hasan over his nephew Ali, who was given asylum by Ibn Saud.
4. All this leads up to a brief account of the relations between Ibn Saud and
Hasan-al-Idrisi since 1926 culminating in revolt which the Government repressed
"without great trouble and without taking strong military measures." The
writer refers to knavish suggestions that certain persons may be trying to stir
up a further movement. There is no sign, he says, of anything of the sort, as is
proved by the return of Ibn Musaid, the demobilisation of the Saudi forces, the
organisation of a new Administration and the appointment of Amirs. He goes
on to say that Tihamat Asir, comprising the three districts already named, is to
be governed by an Amir, assisted by a council consisting of the officer commanding
troops, the Amir in charge of finance, the Qadhi and seven notables. The Saudi
Amir at Abha will have a right of supervision.
5. The Umm-al-Qura article of the 16th June is historical and may be
intended to be followed by others. It is based mainly on the relevant portion of
a general work recently published by Fuad Bey Hamza in Arabic, under the title,
" The Heart of the Arabian Peninsula." It deals at some length with the obscure
history of the Sherifs of Abu Arish and the old rivalries between the Turks, the
Imams of the Yemen and the Sauds for ascendancy in that area. The article i
of no contemporary interest, except in so far as it tends to support the distinction
which the Saudi Government are anxious to enforce between Asir proper and
Tihamat Asir. As you are aware, that distinction seems to have received recent
expression in the agreement reached in 1920 between the then Idrisi and Ibn Saud,
which has never been published. Put in a nutshell, the Saudi thesis is, I think^
that Ibn Saud has a prescriptive historical right to Asir proper but rules the
Tihama by virtue of arrangements with lawful rulers, the Idrisis, whose
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