File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎205r] (418/834)

we know the [mam had received before writing on May 5 ) and
adds two new ones. One of these, intended to subserve his
territorial ambition, is that we agree to communicate only
through himself with all u Yemen ” (U, South-West Arabian)
chiefs, except the Abdali Sultan : the other, that we emmoe not
to interfere m internal Yemen affairs. The first traverses'; with out
mentioning it explicitly, (he Resident’s stipulation that all and
any of our stipendiary and treaty chiefs must be kept outside the
discussion : the second might be agreed to in return for such an
undertaking about external affairs as is embodied in all our treaties
with briilf chiefs, combined with some valid guarantee of the
interests of British subjects, and perhaps also of all Christians
and even Jews. It must not be lost sight of that, in the past,
independent Imamic Government in Yemen has been about as
bad and ineffective as a government can be. Final]v, we hope
that the Imam will not be armed by us, till we have every reason
able assurance that the arms will be used against, not by, the*
I urks ! ^
NOTES.
Prayers for the Caliph.
Enquiry has been made lately about the practice .actually
followed by Imams in the Friday prayer, in regard to mentioning
the Turkish Caliph, in various parts of the Moslem world now
dominated by powers at war with Turkey. In Egypt, we are
informed officially, an unnamed and unspecified “ Khalifa of the
Muslamin ” is recommended to God’s grace in the same prayer
as is put up for H.H. Sultan Fuad. This leaves to the Faithful
much the same secret discretion as was exercised, in the 18th
century, in Great Britain when the toast of “The King” was
drunk without t a name. In Baghdad, the practice is not so
uniform. In the larger number of mosques, it is like the
Egyptian, i.e. an unspecified Khalifa is prayed for ; in a few,
no Khalifa is now prayed for at all ; in about half-a-dozen, the
Ottoman Sultan is still mentioned by name ; in two or three,
King Husein’s name has been substituted since his public
repudiation of the Ottoman Caliph, published in the Kiblah last
January. In Hejaz, no Khalifa is mentioned in the Khutbah
now. The use of “Emir el-Mumanin ” as a title for King
flusein in the prayer, reported in January from Yambo,
was apparently an isolated instance, due to the personal and
interested action of a local official. In Palestine, the present
practice is like the Egyptian.
Hiisein to Ibn Sand.
Copies of two letters from the former to the latter, dated
respectively February 8 and May 7 of the current year, have
reached us. Both are reproachful, sarcastic and distinctly acrid