Chapter XXX: Appendix: II

NOTE ON THE ARAB MOVEMENT

A SHERIF (plur. Ashraf) is one who claims descent direct from the Prophet Mohammed, through his daughter Fatima, wife of Ali, the third Khalif. These Ashraf are found all over the Arabic-speaking world, but only those whose pedigrees are inscribed in the Register of Mecca are universally accepted as true descendants of the Prophet. This register has been kept with extraordinary care, and it is probable that it dates back to the time of Mohammed himself. There are in the Hedjaz several families of these true Ashraf, who form the aristocracy of the Arab world, live under a law of their own, and enjoy a number of special privileges.

For the first four centuries after the death of the Prophet, the Ashraf, though regarded with veneration and respect by the Arabs, held no temporal power. At the end of the tenth century, however, a Sherif of Mecca proclaimed himself Emir of the Ashraf, and succeeded in establishing his dynasty as the temporal chiefs (under the Khalif) of the Hedjaz. The ruling prince of the Ashraf of Mecca was known for centuries in Europe as 'The Grand Sherif of Mecca,' and, in former times, when the city was not as jealously guarded as it now is, more than one Christian sovereign sent an embassy to him there.

During the succeeding five hundred years, internecine strife, resulting in frequent changes of dynasty, weakened the temporal power of the Emirs of Mecca, and correspondingly increased the ascendancy of the Turks. In the sixteenth century, however, the Emir Katada, by a series of conquests of rival claimants, possessed himself of the chief power in the Hedjaz, and established his own family as the head of the Ashraf.

Sherif Hussein, a lineal descendant of Katada, succeeded to the Emirate in 1908. A man of powerful will and strong ambitions, Hussein began almost at once to consider the possibility of securing the independence of the Hedjaz, and possibly even of all the Arabs, from Turkish dominion. His task was an exceedingly difficult one. The Sultan of Turkey, as Khalif of Islam, was regarded as the spiritual head of all Moslems, and any open action against him would be likely to meet with strong opposition in all Moslem countries outside Arabia. A Turkish Army Corps, with its headquarters at Sanah, near Aden, garrisoned and controlled the country; and the Emir's own people, split up into innumerable tribes and clans, were torn by bitter inter-tribal feuds, many of which dated back for centuries.

The ease with which the Sultan Abdul Hamid was overthrown by the Committee of Union and Progress at the time of the Turkish Revolution, encouraged the Sherif in his dream of establishing an independent Arab State. He became the representative of the Hedjaz in the Turkish Parliament, and for a time lived in Constantinople. Very soon, however, disgusted with the intrigues and jealousies of the C.U.P., and realising that he had nothing to hope for from this body of needy adventurers, he retired from his position, and went back into the desert, where for the next four or five years he lived the rigorous life of a patriarchal desert Sheikh, preparing his four sons for the struggle to come, and gathering round him a small number of chiefs pledged to the cause of Arabian independence.

The declaration of war by Turkey on Great Britain furnished the Emir with the chance which he had long awaited, and the atrocities committed by the Turks in Syria at the beginning of the war caused the oppressed Arabs to turn to him as their national champion. He at once threw in his lot with the British, though not openly at first, and set to work, with the fierce energy characteristic of him, to stir up the tribes of the Hedjaz against the Turks.

The outbreak of the rebellion was precipitated by the arrival at Medina in May 1916 of a large Turkish force, charged with the task of re-establishing the waning authority of the Sultan in the Hedjaz. The Emir himself, though as full of energy and determination as ever, was now too old to bear the rigours of a desert campaign, and accordingly placed the command of his Bedouin followers in the hands of his three eldest sons Ali, Abdullah, and Feisal. Of Ali we know little, though he was active in the summer of 1918 and in the early part of 1917. Abdullah, the second son, was of a retiring disposition, a theologian and philosopher, and a deep student of the Koran. Feisal alone inherited his father's energy and power of command, without, however, the old man's ungovernable temper. The youngest son, Zeid, was still only a boy.

A line of Arab pickets was established round Medina, under the command of Feisal, and the railway north of the town was cut in several places. But the Arabs, not being provided at this time with explosives, and being ignorant of modern methods of demolition, did not effect enough before being driven off by relief parties with machine guns, to interrupt seriously the communication of Medina with the north, and the besieging force, short of arms and supplies, and without artillery, could do little more than watch the city from afar. Jiddah, however, the port of Mecca, which was attacked on June 9th, held out barely a week. Cut off from Mecca by the loss of the military block-houses on the road, and bombarded by British warships and aeroplanes, the Turkish garrison surrendered on the 16th June. The fall of Mecca followed a month later, and an Arab force under Sherif Abdullah then proceeded to blockade the hill town of Taif, where the bulk of the Turkish forces, outside Medina, was established in summer quarters. This place held out till near the end of September, when Ghalib Pasha, the G.O.C., despairing of help, and cut off by the Arabs from all sources of supply, surrendered with the garrison of 2000 men.

By the end of the year all the small Turkish posts scattered throughout the Hedjaz had fallen to the Arabs. Medina still held out, and it was clear that the Arab forces, indifferently armed, and inexperienced in modern siege warfare, could not hope to reduce this city. The Turkish garrison, with the lines of communication troops along the railway to the north, numbered some 15,000 men, well-armed and equipped, and in all respects capable of prolonged resistance.

Acting on the advice of the British officers with them, the Arabs, therefore, abandoned for the time being all attempts on Medina, and concentrated all their efforts on a systematic attack on the Hedjaz Railway north of the town. During the first six months of 1917 a constant succession of raids so interrupted the traffic on the railway that the Turks could with difficulty keep open their communications between Medina and Damascus.

In July 1917 the Emir Feisal seized Akaba, at the north end of the Red Sea, and made this place his base for further raiding operations on the railway as far north as Maan.

In January 1918 he succeeded in destroying the branch line to the Hish Forest, from which the Turkish locomotives were drawing their fuel, and then attacked Maan itself (see p. 153.) Though unable to capture the town, the Arabs established themselves across the railway two miles farther south, and, in the course of the succeeding three months, destroyed seventy miles of the line. Medina was thus finally isolated, and the garrison was faced with the two alternatives of holding out in the town till the end of the war, or of attempting to cut a way out to the north. As the latter alternative meant almost certain destruction, the Turks decided to stay where they were. They remained in Medina till they were compelled to surrender, under the terms of the Armistice of the 31st October 1918.

The strong position taken up by the Turkish IVth Army east of the Jordan during the summer of 1918, prevented the Emir from making any further move northwards. He remained about Maan, collecting his resources for the coming struggle, and carrying on a vigorous propaganda among the surrounding tribes, till the British advance in September caused the IVth Army to retire, and gave the Arabs the opportunity of completing the task to which they had set themselves in 1916.