Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎12r] (23/42)

Palgrave'5 Arabia*
201
On the deatli of Saood lie was succeeded by his eldest son,
Abdul Azeez, a warlike prince, whose military successes carried
the terror of the Wahabee arms to Hejaz, and the Pashalic of
Bagdad.
Mr. Palgrave's account of the acts and the death of this Chief
or Prince will give our readers an opportunity of judging of the
manner in which he relates historical events:—
e In 1800 or near it (my readers will call to mind what I have more
than once said about Arab dates) 'Abd-el-'Azeez ascended the throne.
His reign was short, but full of events equally glorious and per
nicious.
£ Kestless and bold, but much less prudent than his father, 'Abd-el-
'Azeez at once turned his arms against the East, stormed Kateef,
where he made great slaughter of the inhabitants, occupied Bahreyn
and the adjacent islands of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , attacked the eastern
coast of Barr-Faris, which he detached irrecoverably from Persian
rule, and lastly assailed the kingdom of 'Oman. This last expedition
was headed by his younger brother, the impetuous Abd-Allah. The
success of the Nejdeans was complete; after several battles, each a
victory, Abd-Allah reached the heights above IVIascat, and turned the
fort batteries against the town below. The Sultan Sa eed yielded to
the storm, consented to the payment of an annual tribute, admitted a
Wahhabee garrison in the more important localities ot his kingdom,
and permitted the erection of mosques of orthodox fashion in Mascat
and elsewhere.
£ But these very conquests were fatal to Abd-el-Azeez, who had by
them provoked a foe much more dangerous than any hitherto known
to the Wahhabee empire. Kateef and Bahreyn were both of them
dependencies of Persia, and had been even more closely linked to the
latter kingdom by religious than by civil ties. 'Oman was also in
intimate connection with Persia. The court of Teheran resolved to
avenge its allies on the Arab brigand. To hazard a Persian army
amid the wilds of Arabia would have been a measure equally dangerous
and unprofitable; but there remained an easier way through an instru
ment familiar to Shiya'ees in all ages and climes, namely, the mur
derer's dagger.
{ Numerous and dissident as are the sects sprung from the quarrels
of Alee with his more successful rivals, they all of them agree on one
point,—the traditional approbation and frequent practice of assassina
tion. Shiya'ees of the original stock, Ismaileeyah (assassins par ex
cellence, and from whom all others have derived the name). Druses,
Carmathians, Kharijeeyah, Metawelah, in a word, the entire kith and
kin from the earliest Eafedee down to the Babee of our own time, have
and do sanction the assassin's knife, wherever a purpose is^ to be
attained or a rival to be got rid of; it is a part of their practical no
less than of their theoretical code. Muslim and Christian, Sonnee and
polytheist, each in his day has, an Arab would say, "tasted" the
dagger of the multiform Shiya'ee, the prototype " carbonaro " of the
East.