Coll 6/74 'Foreign Office memorandum entitled "The Seven Independent Arabian States." (Yemen, Asir, the Hejaz, Nejd, Kowait, Jebel Shammar, and Jauf.)' [‎6r] (11/28)

Egyptian conquest of Nejd, completed in 1817, led the way to Egyptian rule being
established in the Hejaz until 1840. During this period the Emirate of
was reduced to a form of authority more shadowy and unreal than any it had
known before.
In 1840, however, the Porte resumed control. Turkish Government began
firmly, and being favoured by dissension among the tribes, prevented an
^ immediate recovery by the Emirate of its old status. Natural forces, making for a
return to the autonomous condition, were, however, at work in the country.
Progress was definite, if slow. Notwithstanding the consolidation of 1 urkish
power in the Hejaz by Ottoman Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. during 1886, the Emir of that time,
Aun-er-Rafiq, not only retained but improved the privileged position he had
recovered. The truth was that Emirs of Mecca were able to do what Turkish
authority in the Hejaz never could achieve; they were able to call out Bedouin
levies, with which, if so minded, they could give the Turks invaluable military
support in the Arabian provinces. Emirs of Mecca, therefore, were recognised as
chiefs with whom it paid the Turks, even at the cost of large concessions, to be on
good terms. In this situation the power of the Emirs could hardly fail to increase
with any decline of Ottoman power. And such, in fact, was what happened.
At this point it becomes necessary to give closer attention to the Emirate and
the affairs of the Hejaz in the years which immediately preceded the war.
The E'mirate was never, in theory, hereditary or restricted, except by pre
scription, to any of the Ashraf clans( 5 ) or families. For at least a century past the
Emirs were appointed by the Power occupying the Hejaz, but the Ottoman
Government kept to the Abadilah house after 1827, with the exception of the
periods 1851-6 and 1880-2, when it chose Emirs from the rival house of Dhawi
Zeid. The Emir always stood at the great disadvantage that members of other
Ashraf clans, or of the Emir’s own house, considered themselves equally or better
entitled to the Emirate. Mecca always contained a strong element in opposition
to the ruling house, and an Emir seldom avoided having foes within his own
household; in fact, one son was as likely to claim the succession as another.
Husein Ibn Ali, who took the title of King of the Hejaz in 1916 and died in
1925, was a grandson of the first Abadilah Emir (who died in 1857) and was
nominated to the Emirate by Kiamil Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , the Anglophil Turkish Grand Vizier,
in 1908. In 1908 Husein had then been long resident in Constantinople. His
uncle, Abadilah, had been nominated to the position before him, but died when
on the way to Mecca to assume office. Husein’s cousin, Ali, the previous Emir,
had been banished with all his family, and his other cousins, the children of
Aun-er-Rafiq, Emir from 1882 to 1905, were also debarred by the Porte. In this
way the choice fell eventually upon Husein. It should be recorded, as throwing
light on certain aspects of King Husein’s character, that his mother was a
Circassian. He was appointed to the Emirate, when approaching 60 years of
age, as a man of pacific character who would serve the Turkish Government’s aims
and keep on good terms with Great Britain. At first he seemed to fulfil the Porte’s
intentions well. In 1910 he called out his tribes in support of the Turks against
the Idrisi’s revolt in Asir, relieved a Turkish garrison besieged in Abha, and
reduced the Idrisi’s power. In the same year he sent an expedition to Qasim to
assert the rights of the great Hejazi tribe of the Ateibah, and though, owing to
defection by Ibn Rashid, Eimir of Hail, his force had to retire without any
considerable military achievement, he was able to make an arrangement with
Ibn Saud, Emir of Nejd, whereby the Ateibah tribe remained free of that Emir’s
taxation. At the same time he enforced the right of the Meccan Treasury to
contributions from Qasim. Husein’s influence was thus extended to Central
Arabia. Soon afterwards he gave his protection to fugitive rebels from Ibn Saud,
who, having been given refuge by the Ateibah, drew upon that tribe the reprisal
of a raid by the Emir of Nejd. This incident notwithstanding, the Meccan Emir’s
relations with Ibn Sand remained outwardly peaceable.
Meanwhile, Husein’s pro-Turkish attitude was undergoing a change.
Prompted apparently by his second son, Abdullah, credited with being his father’s
( fi ) The Ashraf (sherifial clansmen) were the descendants of Hassan, grandson of the
Prophet. There are some twenty-one clans of this descent in Arabia, fifteen of which live in or
near to Mecca. In numbers the clans are small. Theoretically, Emirs of Mecca might be
chosen from any Ashraf clan; but for many centuries practice confined the succession to the
Abadilah, Dhawi Zeid, Dhawi Barakat and Dhawi Surur, with a great preponderance of Abadilah
Emirs since 1827, when Mahomet Ali of Egypt put aside the Dhawi Zeid.