'File 61/11 V (D 95) Hejaz - Nejd, Miscellaneous' [‎196v] (409/530)

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77. Qattdn Family.
(1) Yusuf ihn Salim Qattdn, said to have been originally a servant in a
coffee-shop in Mecca and afterwards of the original Qattan family whose name ,
he took. Became a guide for Javanese pilgrims. Eose to be president of the r
Mecca municipality under the Turks, but was still so uneducated that he was ^
said to be unable to tell " the letter Alif from a telegraph pole." Became Minister ^
of Public Works under King Huseyn. Was said in 1930 to be full of schemes
connected with the pilgrimage and the advancement of his son No. (2) below, r* 1
Has also come to notice as one of the agents concerned with the properties of i^ er
the Sherifian family. jlijjir
(2) 'Alias Qattdn, an ambitious young man of 30 odd, who was himself
president of the municipality in Mecca in 1930 and still occupies that post. L K
He is the right-hand man of Sheykh 'Abdullah Suleyman, Minister of Finance Lg
and is chief organiser of the hotels recently opened at Mecca, Jedda and Medina.'
78. Qusaibi Family. -
An important merchant family in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The Legation is l^ili
indebted to the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Bahrain for an account of them, which was ftli
drawn up in June 1931, and of which the following is a summary :— Rj
Said to be descended from a butcher of Eiyadh. Composed of the five P®"
brothers mentioned below; children of the same mother by two brothers, Hasan
and Ibrahim, who married her successively; partners in business and property; iW
engaged in trade between Bahrain their headquarters, Hasa and Nejd.'
Accounted, despite their acquisition of wealth, extremely plebeian and 3]®'
disqualified by Arab custom from intermarriage with women of better birth. pge
(1) 'AMul- Aziz ibn Hasan, simple and wise; the mainstay of the firm; M 0
reputed pious; respected by Ibn Sa'ud. P®
(2) Aldur-Rahman ibn Hasan, more enlightened and a wonderful fellow
for pearl dealing. Possessed of some knowledge of French and English and 5^
accustomed to go to Paris on pearl business. Sensible but conceited.
(3) 'Abdullah ibn Hasan, intelligent and sharp, but of mean and low I 11 ' 81
character and meddlesome. Inclined to be boastful and disliked by Ibn Sa'ud. N®
(4) Hasan ibn Ibrahim, very foolish and gruff and as low a character as (3).
Hot tempered. pill
(5) ipermanently resident in Hasa. Not personally known lion
to Captain Prior. Said to be a good "mixer," but similar in character to pi
(3) and (4). »
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III to
When the above information was supplied in 1931 the Qusaibis had great
influence owing to their position as agents of Ibn Sa'ud in Bahrain and buyers of
his requirements for Nejd, as well as to their wealth and their hold on many
to whom they had lent money. Their most distinguished debtor was the King
himself, who owed them in 1930 something like £80,000, and who, although about M
half of this had been paid off by June 1931, still owed them the balance. [7
Abdurrahman was given in the latter year a roving commission to try and raise 58
the wind for the Sa'udi Government in Europe, but failed completely. The m
relations of the Qusaibis with the King no longer seem to be as close as formerly.
They resented the reforms introduced by Muhammad at-Tawil (q.v.). They were Wa
driven by bad business to press the King for money. He has of late employed
other persons to buy for him, but he is not known to have deprived the Qusaibis Np
of their general agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for him at Bahrain. pof
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79. Rashid Family. |f^
Former rulers of Hail. Little is known of the remnants of this family once m
so powerful and later so fallen, even before its final collapse, that it was
" accounted infamous, even in such a land of violence as Arabia, for its record
of domestic murders." It deserves attention, however, because of'the possibility
of its reappearance on the scene, e.g., if the Shammar tribes from which it sprang
should go against Ibn Sa'ud. It is understood that, after the fall of Hail, the
King pursued a policy of absorption, not of annihilation and that many persons
belonging to the Beni Rashid, or connected with them, passed into his entourage.
Two lads who are being brought up with his younger children and are included in