ملف ٧٠٥/١٩١٦ الجزء ٢ "انتفاضة عربية: التقارير العربية؛ تقارير السير م. سايكس" [و‎‎١‎٩‎١] (٤٥٠/٣٧٩)

APPENDIX I.
Explanatory Note on Eecent Events in Hejaz.
[N.B.—Ibis is the translation of a paper written by a Tunisian Moslem, which was
kindly lent, with permission to print, by the French Embassy in London.]
AT the moment when, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Mameluke
Sultanate of Egypt fell before the conquering Ottoman, its dominions spread over four Arab
countries — Egypt, Syria, Hejaz, and Yemen ; the two first of which were administered
directly, whilst the other two were governed by Emirs and vassal chiefs. When the
Ottomans had conquered Egypt and Syria by their arms and suppressed the Sultanate
of Cairo, Yemen remained for half a century abandoned to its fate at the hands of the
local Arab chiefs, only passing under Ottoman domination as a consequence of another
conquest by arms.
Ottoman domination over Hejaz, on the other hand, dates from the day when the
Sherif of Mecca hastened to offer his submission with the keys of the holy towns and
the relics of which he was the guardian to the new Caliph, the conquering Sultan
Selim I, after he had been invested with the Islamic Caliphate by the last Abbasid
Caliph Mutawakkil, who lived in Cairo destitute of any temporal power. The Sherif s
voluntary submission won for him the good-will of the Turks ; he was kept at his post,
and the Sherifate of Mecca has lasted even till now.
Ottoman rule over the two shores of the Ped Sea needed, however, a more homo
geneous administrative organisation ; the division of authority, throughout the whole
of this district, between Arab chiefs, who were frequently too feeble to resist external
pressure, was a political danger. Immediately, therefore, after the complete conquest
of the Red Sea basin had been accomplished, a new province was formed —the Eyalet of
Jeddah and Habech (Abyssinia), with Jeddah for its chief town. It included the coast
of Hejaz and, on the other side, that of Africa; the latter comprising the ports of
Suakin, Massowah, Zeila, Berbera, Obok, Tadjura, &c., with the territory behind them.
The Sherif (like all Arab chiefs enfeoffed in the new vilayet ) became by this fact a chief
of the Hejaz tribes and the representative of the Caliph’s authority in the holy towns,
with the obligation of occupying himself with the suitable upkeep of the pilgrimage
places and the security of the roads which led to them. He was often appointed by
Imperial firman on the nomination of the Vali; and he was always subject to dismissal.
Matters remained thus till the beginning of the nineteenth century. Then the
Wahabi revolt upset Hejaz, and the holy towns passed, with Jeddah, for a short
period of three or four years, under the rule of the savage sectarians who aspired
to better Islam by restoring its primitive simplicity. The Sherif of the day, Caleb
by name, fled before the revolt from Hejaz, and was imprisoned at Salonika as a punish
ment for negligence. The Empire was going through a very difficult period of trans
formation, and had not sufficient forces at its disposal, so the new Governor of Egypt,
Mehemet Ali, was charged by the Porte with the duty of calming the Wahabi revolt
and reconquering the holy places for his suzerain. Mehemet Ali took the work seriously
in hand, and, after two or three lucky campaigns, reconquered the whole of Hejaz,
pacified the country, and drove the Wahabi leader to his dwelling-place in the midst of
Nejd ; there he took him prisoner and sent him to Constantinople, where he was
beheaded. _ .
When he had put things straight, Mehemet Ali (who was credited at that time
with ambitious views in regard to Hejaz, to be accomplished by the creation of a new
dynasty of Sherds) obtained an Imperial firman investing a certain Sherif Mohammed
Ibn Aoun with the Sherifate of Mecca. This nomination brought about dissension in
Hejaz, and at the present moment there are two dynasties of Sherds—the Dewi Zeid
and the Dewi Aoun—the former being the old and the latter the new dynasty. Both
are treated on the same footing by the Sublime Porte, which is tree to fill the Mecca
post from either and to revoke the nomination when it pleases.
On the death of Mohammed Ibn Aoun, the creature of Mehemet Ali, the Sherif
Abdul Moutalib was nominated to succeed him; he belonged to the old dynasty of the
Zeid. This famous Sherif, who died a centenarian about the year 1882, several times
filled the co\eted post at Mecca, but each time he caused difficulties at the Porte (as,
for example, when he opposed the abolition of the slave trade) and was deprived.
During the nineteenth century, for the greater part of which the dynasty of the Aoun