ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ٢ "انتفاضة عربية: التقارير العربية؛ تقارير السير م. سايكس" [و‎‎١‎٠‎٤] (٤٥٠/٢٠٥)

passage money. In regard to the refusal of the Dutch Government to help on the
^iouni i ^ that these pilgrims had stayed behind of their own freewill [see “Arabian
import AI, N.S., p. IG], several of them state that they had no time to wind up their
a rairs oefore the steamer provided by the Government sailed. It was desirable that
s ^ 10u ~d be got out of the country, and Colonel Wilson asked whether the
Netherlands Government could be approached again.
AH Haidar s Proclamation.
Sir H. McMahon has forwarded [No. 221] the following translation of the
proclamation of Ah Haidar, appointed Sherif of Mecca by the Sultan of ' turkey. [See
Arabian Report No. 1. N.S. p. 5] :—
In the name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate.
i his is our letter to the people of our country El Hejaz and those near them,
whether townsmen or nomads, far or near. We thank God for having brought us up in
the cradle of Islam, strengthened us all by Mohammed (prayers and peace be upon him),
made us with you neighbours to the Holy House, and granted us all the privileges and
rights of the neighbour—thanks that no words can express, and we prav to and salute
our Lord and ancestor, the best of men who was chosen from the Arabs, and who
combined his obedience to God with his obedience to the Imam according to His saying,
“ Obey God and His Prophet and your masters,’' and his household and friends, who
obeyed him to the last degree.
Thirteen cmturies have passed since the beginning of Islam, during which it has
gone through different stages of welfare and of adversity, has lost many of its territories
and strength, but also at times regained and revived them. It has not left a single
enemy country into which it has not entered, and there is not one Mohammedan country
into which the enemies have not tried to enter, except our country the noble Hejaz.
History does not record any invasion of Hejaz except by Moslem nations, it has
remained immune from invasion in spite of the changes in times and destiny, it has
been raised to a point that no enemy could reach. The enemy has invaded Egypt, the
Sudan and India, Yemen, Ahkaf, Amman and vicinity, and this time he made an
attempt on Basra, but did not dare to approach Mecca and the Hejaz, the blessed
country of the Moslems and the Caliphs. The enemy continued his efforts until the
general war broke out and the Ottoman Government rose to avenge Islam. The enemy
then could not hope for anything in Hejaz as well as in any other country, nor could he
aspire to set his foot near the noble Haramein. All of a sudden, however, the Sherif
Hussein leagued himself with that enemy and is now trying to place the House of God,
the Kibla of Islam, and the tomb of the Prophet under the protection of a Christian
Government, war with the Turkish Government, and doing what it can to subjugate all
Moslem nations. All the Sherif s allegat ions to justify himself in revolting against the
Government and in setting Moslems fighting against each other do not beneiit him in
the least before God, who knows the secret; neither before the Prophet, whose Law is
that of the sun ; nor belore the people of Islam, who know what the English are and
what they are doing.
The Sherif Plussein cannot efface a single word of the truth, nor convince anybody
of his competence to be an independent Emir, to fight against the Government and to
assume charge of the affairs of Moslems, and to claim full ability to protect Islam.
Therefore to be able to fight against a Great Power like the Ottoman Government^ he
must necessarily shield himself under the wings of a foreign Government. This is hat
he has actually done in agreement with England, who is deceiving him and picturing to
him all sorts of false hopes to make him revolt against the Government whey is protect-
ino - him, so that when England succeeds in this policy (may God forbid it !) his case with
her will be the same as that of the Khedive of Egypt, the Sultan of Zanzibar, Emir of
Lahj and the Emir of India, and the rest of the Islamic Governments who have fallen
into the English trap.
j-j 0 who sggs wh&t hus befallen others should beware lest the same misfortune
befall him also. The Sherif, before opening hostilities with a Power much superior to
him, should have considered the fact that England would not help him unless she was
afterwards to govern him, and that the moment she stretches her Unger to Hejaz, she
will not relax her efforts until by degrees she annexes it to the other countries which
she has already fraudulently occupied. Let him ask those Emirs who have done likewise
before him, and let him read the treaties whicli England made with them and with
others. lie will then understand how those Governments have changed from existence
[898—12] C