"شخصيات، شبه الجزيرة العربية" [‎٨‎٨] (٣٧٤/٩٢)

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Southern Shammar support it ; but, like most powers which have any
duration in Arabia, it rests in the first instance on a paid force of pro
fessional soldiers, the camelry known as the rajdjil, who number about
500 men.
The Ibn Rashids maintain closer relations with the Ottoman Govern
ment than do any other independent Arabian princes; and the House
has also been consistently friendly with the Sherifate of Mecca. Besides
the Emir of Nejd, its most constant foes are the Sultan of Koweit, Nuri
esh-Sha'lan of the Ruweilah Anazah, and Hamud ibn Suweit of the
Dhafir tribe. Nor is it on cordial terms with Ajeimi ibn Sa'dun of the
Muntefiq.
The Rashld House is accounted infamous,- even in such a land of
violence as Arabia, for its record of domestic murders. Another noble
Shammar family, the SUBHANS, is very intimately connected with it,
and shares its notoriety. Besides having supplied viziers to the Rashids
for nearly a century, it has so often intermarried with the latter that its
members are now of almost as genuine princely blood. One Subhan
woman, Mudhi (q.v.), for example, has been married successively to
three Rashids (two Emirs) and one Subhan. Therefore the two families
will be considered together, and a genealogical table will be appended of
each. It will be observed that Sa'ud, the ruling Emir, appears in both
genealogies.
SA'UD IBN 'ABD EL-'AZiZ.
Emir of Ha'il and Jebel Shammar since 1908. Son of
'Abd el-'Aziz, who reigned from 1897 to 1906, when he was
killed in battle against the combined forces of the Muteir
and Ibn Sa'ud of Riyadh. 'Abd el-'Aziz was succeeded by his
son Mit'ab, who before he had reigned a year was murdered
by a cousin, Sultan ibn Hamud er-Rashld. Sultan was then
killed by his brother, Sa'ud ibn Hamud, but the latter in
his turn was murdered in 1908, at the instigation of Hamud
ibn Subhan, who brought back his nephew, Sa ud ibn 'Abd el-
Azlz, from Mecca, where he had been sent for safety, and set
him up as Emir.
Sa'ud's mother, Mudhi bint Subhan (q.v.), was first
married to the Emir Mohammed er-Rashid, who died in
I ^97- his death she married 'Abd el-'Aziz, his successor
and nephew. The Emir Sa'ud, therefore, cannot be more than
twenty-one. He has, however, his full complement of wives,
who have borne him at least two sons. His uncle, Hamud, died
in 1907, leaving a distant cousin, Zamil es-Subhan, to succeed
him in his role of monitor and vizier. Zamil was murdered in
1914 under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, and his place in
the counsels of the Emir was taken by another of the Subhan
house, Sa ud ibn Salih (q.v.), reported murdered in his turn
in early autumn, 1916.