'File 61/11 VI (D 102) Hejaz-Nejd Miscellaneous' [‎195v] (417/522)

28
i Dai
ill
driven by bad business to press the King for money. He has of late employed ^nsta:
other persons to buy for him, but he is not known to have deprived the Qusaibis
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. ^ Cl$
79. Rashid Family. ^{'Ab 1
Former rulers of Hail. Little is known of the remnants of this family once
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 Jifor
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 ^ojSid
King pursued a policy of absorption, not of annihilation and that many persons a (
belonging to the Beni Rashid, or connected with tnem, passed into his entourage. • ^ ^
Two lads who are being brought up with his younger children and are included in % ig(
the list of his sons are said to be the children of a Rashid lady, whom Ibn Sa'ud
married after their birth. Their names are—
(1) Sultan and
(2) Mish'al — star as I
the latter of which corresponds with that of an infant child of the last ruling fasn
ibn Rashid, as given in the 1917 volume of Personalities in Arabia. Two other .Prok
persons have come to notice, who are said to be related to the Beni Rashid, viz.— iftiRiyi
(3) Mansur ihn 'Asaf, who is said to have been taken into Ibn Sa'ud's service reduced
and to have served for a term as Governor of Tebuk; and his brother—
(4) Ndsir ibn 'Asaf, who also served Ibn Sa'ud, but was reported to have
deserted into Transiordan in 1931.
. • -i ■
As the information about this family is so meagre, it is worth noting that
the following members of it accompanied Ibn Sa'ud from Riyadh to Jedda in
March 1934: Muhammad ibn Talal, Mash'al ibn Mas'ud, Rashid al Miheysin,
Sultan al Jabr and Fahd al Jabr. At least one Ibn Rashid accompanied the
King's son, the Amir Feysal, to the Yemen front in April.
m i
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St in
Sa'uc
80. Rifdda Family.
Chiefs of the Billi tribe, with an urban establishment at Wejh. The most
notable recent member of the family, Suleyman Afnan, played a not inconsiderable !:]
role during the Great War, but was killed in a raid in 1916 and left two sons,
Ibrahim and Ahmed. His brother Salim, who had died earlier, left a son, Hamid.
The cousins in this generation were at enmity. Hamid made a bid for the
Sheykhship on his uncle's death. He was one of several Hejazi Sheykhs who e ,o
approached the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in Cairo in 1924, complaining both of King Huseyn's ^ 1 , 1
tyranny and his inability to protect them against the Wahhabis. He came into : !
greater prominence in 1928, when, having returned from Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan and taken ^
to brigandage, he attempted a coup at Wejh, hoping to dislodge his cousin
Ibrahim, who was Governor there and head of the tribe. After a further period
of exile he came into still greater prominence in 1932 by invading the Hejaz at " ^ i
the head of a rebel band. He and two, it was said, of his sons were killed, but
there may be survivors of this branch. At the outset of the revolt Ibrahim visited
the King at the head of a loyal delegation. He is still head of the Billi tribe in
the Hejaz, but the Governor of Wejh is now Ibn Mubarak (see No. 65 a ). The
family have attaches with a section of the Billi established in Egypt.
Si tin
Ql. Rushdi Malhas. -ttowi
Editor of the Umm-al-Qura, the more important of the two weekly Jrecei
newspapers published at Mecca and the unofficial organ of the Sa'udi Govern- jj^
ment. A Palestinian from Nablus, of whom little else is known to the Legation.
82. Rusheyd Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. .
Consul in Syria, stationed at Damascus. Aged well over 50. A native of
Hail, said to be related to the Beni Rashid and to 'Abdul-'Aziz ibn Zeyd (q.v). ^
Was semi-official representative of Ibn Rashid in Constantinople before the Great
War. Said to have promoted Turkish efforts to curb the rise of Ibn Sa'ud at that
time. Was attached during the Great War to Jemal Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. in Syria, and was ,ittl e j s