A Pilgrimage to Nejd Volume I Part 10

Here a sharp black boy interrupted us, "O, khatun, these are daughters of sheykhs, they have no work-no work _at all_ to do, don't you understand?"

_I_. "Of course, I understand perfectly; but they might amuse themselves without doing work," and turning to Zehowa I added, "Don't you even look at the horses?"

_Zeh._ "No, we do nothing."

_I_. "I should die if I did nothing. When I am at home I always walk round the first thing in the morning to look at my horses. How do you manage to spend your lives?"

_Zeh._ "We sit." Thus supreme contentment in the harim here is to sit in absolute idleness. It seems odd, where the men are so active and adventurous, that the women should be satisfied to be bored; but such, I suppose, is the tyranny of fashion.

Every evening after dinner we used to receive a message from the Emir, inviting us to spend the evening with him. This was always the pleasantest part of the day, for we generally found one or two interesting visitors sitting with him. As a sample of these I give an extract from my journal:

"We found the Emir this evening in high good humour. News had just come from El-Homeydi ibn Meshur, a Roala sheykh of the faction opposed to Sotamm, that a battle was fought about a month ago between the Roala and the Welled Ali, and that Sotamm has been worsted. Sotamm, at the head of a ghazu numbering six hundred hors.e.m.e.n, had marched against Ibn Smeyr at Jerud, but the latter refused to come out and fight him, and so Sotamm retired. On his way back home, however, he fell in with an outlying camp of Welled Ali, somewhere to the east of the Hauran, and summoned it to surrender. These, numbering only a hundred and fifty hors.e.m.e.n, at first entered into negotiation, and, it is said, offered to give up their camp and camels if they were permitted to retire with their mares (the women and children would of course not have been molested in any case), and to this Sotamm wished to agree. But the younger men of his party, and especially the Ibn Jendal family, who had a death to avenge, would not hear of compromise, and a battle ensued. It ended, strangely enough, in favour of the weaker side, who succeeded in killing four of the Roala, and among them Tellal ibn Shaalan, Sotamm's cousin and heir presumptive.

Sotamm himself is said to have been saved only by the speed of his mare.

Though the forces engaged were so disproportionate, n.o.body here seems surprised at the result, for victory and defeat are "min Allah," "in the hand of G.o.d;" but everybody is highly delighted, and the Emir can hardly contain himself for joy. "What do you think now of Sotamm?" he said; "has he head, or has he no head?" "Not much, I am afraid," I answered, "but I am sorry for him. He is weak, and does not know how to manage his people, but he has a good heart." "And Ibn Smeyr, what do you say to Ibn Smeyr?" "He has more head than heart," I said. This delighted the Emir.

"Ah," he replied, "it is you, khatun, that have the head. Now what do you say to me? have I head, or not head?" "You have head," I answered.

"And Hamud?" "You all of you have plenty of head here, more of course than the Bedouins, who are most of them like children." "But we are Bedouins too," he said, hoping to be contradicted. "I like the Bedouins best," I replied; "it is better to have heart than head." Then he went on to cross-question me about all the other sheykhs whose names he knew.

"Which," he asked, "is the best of all you have met with?" "Mohammed Dukhi," I said, "is the cleverest, Ferhan ibn Hedeb the best-mannered, but the one I like best is your relation in the Jezireh, Faris Jerba." I don't think he was quite pleased at this. He had never heard, he said, good or bad of Ibn Hedeb, who belonged to the Bisshr. He was not on terms with any of the Bisshr except Meshur ibn Mershid, who had paid him a visit two years ago. We told him that both Meshur and Faris were Wilfrid's "brothers." Meshur he liked, but Faris Jerba was evidently no favourite of his.

[Picture: Ibn Rashid's stable at Hal]

I fancy the Emir has taken Ferhan's part in the family quarrel. It is certain that when Amsheh, Sf.u.k's widow and Abdul Kerim's mother, came with her son Faris to Nejd, he would see neither of them. They stayed in the desert all the time they were here, and never came to Hal. Rashid ibn Ali, too, is Faris's friend, and of course in no favour at this court. {251} He then asked about Jedaan, touched rather unfeelingly on the idiocy of Turki, Jedaan's only son, and then cut some jokes at the expense of our old acquaintance, Smeyr ibn Zeydan. "An old fool," the Emir exclaimed, "why did they send him here? They might as well have sent a camel!" This is the Smeyr who came to Nejd a year and a half ago to try and get Ibn Rashid's a.s.sistance for Sotamm, and arrange a coalition against Jedaan and the Sebaa. We knew his mission had failed, but the fact is Ibn Rashid is eaten up with jealousy of anyone who has the least reputation in the desert. We are surprised, however, to find him so well informed about everything and everybody in the far north, and we are much interested, as he has solved for us one of the problems about Nejd which used to puzzle us, namely, the relations maintained by the tribes of Jebel Shammar with those of the north. The Emir has told us that the Shammar of the Jezireh and his own Shammar still count each other as near relations. "Our horses," he said, "are of the same blood."

With the Roala he has made peace, and with Ibn Haddal; but the Sebaa and the rest of the Bisshr clan are out of his way. They never come anywhere near Nejd, except on ghazus, and that very rarely. Once, however, a ghazu, of Fedaan, had got as far as Kasim, and he had gone out against them, and captured a Seglawi Jedran mare of the Ibn Sbeni strain. He promised to show it to us. We then talked a good deal about horses, and our knowledge on this head caused general astonishment. Indeed, I think we could pa.s.s a better examination in the breeds than most of the Ibn Rashids. By long residence in town they have lost many of the Bedouin traditions. Hamud, however, who takes more interest in horses than the Emir, has told us a number of interesting facts relating to the stud here, and that of the late Emir of Riad, Feysul ibn Saoud, solving another problem, that of the fabulous Nejd breed; but we are taking separate notes about these things.

We had not been talking long with the Emir and Hamud, when a fat vulgar-looking fellow was introduced and made to sit down by us. It was evident that he was no Hal man, for his features were coa.r.s.e, and his manners rude. He talked with a strong Bagdadi accent, and was addressed by everyone as "ya Hajji." It was clear that he belonged to the Haj, but why was he here? The mystery was soon cleared up, for after a whispered conversation with Hamud, the new visitor turned to Wilfrid, and began addressing him in what we at first took to be gibberish, until seeing that we made no answer, he exclaimed in Arabic, "There, I told you he was no Englishman!" Wilfrid then cross-questioned him, and elicited the fact that he had been a stoker on board one of the British India Company's steamers on the Persian Gulf, and that the language he had been talking was English. Only two phrases, however, we succeeded in distinguishing, "werry good," and "chief engineer"-and having recognised them and given their Arabic equivalents, our ident.i.ty was admitted. The fellow was then sent about his business, and a very small, very polite old man took his place. He was conspicuous among these well-dressed Shammar by the plainest possible dress, a dark brown abba without hem or ornament, and a cotton kefiyeh on his head, unbound by any aghal whatsoever. He was treated with great respect, however, by all, and it was easy to see that he was a man of condition. He entered freely into conversation with us, and talked to Mohammed about his relations in Aared, and it presently appeared that he was from Southern Nejd. This fact explained the severity of his costume, for among the Wahhabis, no silk or gold ornaments are tolerated. He was, in fact, the Sheykh of Harik, the last town of Nejd towards the south, and close to the Dahna, or great southern desert. This he described to us as exactly like the Nefd we have just crossed, only with more vegetation. The ghada is the princ.i.p.al wood, but there are palms in places.

It is not the custom of Hal to smoke, either from Wahhabi prejudice, or, as I am more inclined to think, because tobacco has never penetrated so far inland in quant.i.ties sufficient to make the habit general. No objection, however, has been made to Wilfrid's pipe, which he smokes when and where he chooses, and this evening when the call to prayer sounded, and the Emir and Hamud had gone out to perform their devotions, the old man I have just mentioned, Na.s.sr ibn Hezani, hinted without more ceremony that he should like a whiff. He has quarrelled with Ibn Saoud, and probably hates all the Wahhabi practices, and was very glad to take the opportunity of committing this act of wickedness. He was careful, however, to return the pipe before the rest came back. He, at any rate, if a Wahhabi, is not one of the disagreeable sort described by Mr.

Palgrave, for he invited us very cordially to go back home with him to Harik. The Emir, however, made rather a face at this suggestion, and gave such an alarming account of what would happen to us if we went to Riad, that I don't think it would be wise to attempt to go there now. We could not go in fact without the Emir's permission. I do not much care, for town life is wearisome; we have had enough of it, and I have not much curiosity to see more of Nejd, unless we can go among the Bedouins there.

If Ibn Saoud still had his collection of mares the sight of them would be worth some risk, but his stud has long since been scattered, and Na.s.sr ibn Hezani a.s.sures us that there is nothing now in Arabia to compare with Ibn Rashid's stud. Ibn Hezani, like everybody else, laughs at the story of a Nejd breed, and says, as everybody else does, that the mares at Riad were a collection made by Feysul ibn Saoud in quite recent times.

Later in the evening, a native goldsmith was introduced, with a number of articles worked by him at Hal. They were pretty, but not specially interesting, or very unlike what may be seen elsewhere, dagger hilts and sheaths, and a few ornaments. It was this man, however, who had made the gold hilts which all the princely family here wear to their swords.

These we examined, and found the work really good.

The most amusing incident of the evening, however, and one which we were not at all prepared for, was the sudden production by the Emir of one of those toys called telephones, which were the fashion last year in Europe.

This the Emir caused two of his slaves to perform with, one going into the courtyard outside, and the other listening. The message was successfully delivered, the slave outside, to make things doubly sure, shouting at the top of his voice, "Ya Abdallah weyn ente? yeridak el Emir." "O Abdallah, where are you? the Emir wants you," and other such phrases. We expressed great surprise, as in duty bound; indeed, it was the first time we had actually seen the toy, and it is singular to find so very modern an invention already at Hal.

At about ten o'clock, the Emir began to yawn, and we all got up and wished him good-night. He very kindly sent for, and gave me, a number of trengs and oranges, which he gave orders should be conveyed to our house, together with a new-laid ostrich's egg, the "first of the season," which had just been brought to him from the Nefd.

[Picture: Evening with the Emir]

CHAPTER XI.

"I shall do well: The people love me, and the Desert's mine; My power's a crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to the full."

SHAKESPEARE.

Political and historical-Shepherd role in Arabia-An hereditary policy-The army-The law-Taxation-The finances of Jebel Shammar-Ibn Rashid's ambition.

THE following is the result of our inquiries made while at Hal into the political condition and resources of the country. It has no pretension to rigid accuracy, especially in the figures given, but it will serve to convey an idea of the kind of government found in Arabia, and of the capacity for self-rule of the Arab race.

The political const.i.tution of Jebel Shammar is exceedingly curious; not only is it unlike anything we are accustomed to in Europe, but it is probably unique, even in Asia. It would seem, in fact, to represent some ancient form of government indigenous to the country, and to have sprung naturally from the physical necessities of the land, and the character of its inhabitants. I look upon Ibn Rashid's government as in all likelihood identical with that of the Kings of Arabia, who came to visit Solomon, and of the Shepherd Kings who, at a still earlier date, held Egypt and Babylonia; and I have little doubt that it owes its success to the fact of its being thus in harmony with Arab ideas and Arab tradition.

To understand it rightly, one ought to consider what Arabia is, and what the Arab character and mode of life. The whole of the peninsula, with the exception, perhaps, of Yemen, and certain districts of Hadramaut within the influence of the monsoon winds, is a rainless, waterless region, in every sense of the word a desert. The soil is a poor one, mainly of gravel or of sand, and except in a few favoured spots, unsuited for cultivation; indeed, no cultivation is possible at all in Nejd, except with the help of irrigation, and, as there is no water above ground, of irrigation from wells. Even wells are rare. The general character of the central plateaux, and of the peninsula, is that of vast uplands of gravel, as nearly dest.i.tute of vegetation as any in the world, and incapable of retaining water, even at a great depth. It is only in certain depressions of the plain, several hundred feet lower than the general level, that wells as a rule are found, and wherever these occur with a sufficient supply of water, towns and villages with gardens round them, have sprung up. These, however, are often widely apart, showing as mere spots on the map of Arabia, and unconnected with each other by any intervening district of agricultural land. Indeed, it is not too much to say, that Nejd contains no agricultural region, as we understand agriculture, and that all its production is garden produce. From this state of things, it happens that there is also no rural cla.s.s, and that each town is isolated from its neighbours to a degree impossible with us.

The desert surrounds them like a sea, and they have no point of contact one with the other in the shape of intervening fields or villages, or even intervening pastures. They are isolated in the most literal sense, and from this fact has sprung the political individuality it has always been their care to maintain. Each city is an independent state.

Meanwhile the desert outside, though untenanted by any settled population, is roamed over by the Bedouin tribes, who form the bulk of the Arab race. These occupy for the most part the Nefds, where alone pasture in any abundance is found; but they frequent also every part of the upland districts, and being both more warlike and more numerous than the townsmen, hold every road leading from town to town, so that it depends upon their good will and pleasure, to cut off communication for the citizens entirely from the world.

The towns, as I have said, are for the most part self-supporting; but their production is limited to garden produce, and the date. They grow no wheat and rear no stock, so that for bread and meat they are dependent on without. They require also a market for their industries, the weaving of cloth, the manufacture of arms and utensils, and it is necessary, at least in Jebel Shammar, to send yearly caravans to the Euphrates for corn. Thus security of travelling outside their walls is essential to the life of every town in Arabia, and on this necessity the whole political structure of their government is built. The towns put themselves each under the protection of the princ.i.p.al Bedouin Sheykh of its district, who, on the consideration of a yearly tribute, guarantees the citizens' safety outside the city walls, enabling them to travel unmolested as far as his jurisdiction extends, and this, in the case of a powerful tribe, may be many hundred miles, and embrace many cities. The towns are then said to "belong" to such and such a tribe, and the Bedouin Sheykh becomes their suzerain, or Lord Protector, until, from their common va.s.salage, and the freedom of intercourse it secures them with each other, the germs of federation spring up, and develop sometimes into nationality.

This has, I believe, been always the condition of Arabia.

A farther development then ensues. The Bedouin Sheykh, grown rich with the tribute of a score of towns, builds himself a castle close to one of them, and lives there during the summer months. Then with the prestige of his rank (for Bedouin blood is still accounted the purest), and backed by his power in the desert, he speedily becomes the practical ruler of the town, and from protector of the citizens becomes their sovereign. He is now dignified by them with the t.i.tle of Emir or prince, and though still their Sheykh to the Bedouins, becomes king of all the towns which pay him tribute.

This form of government, resting as it does on a natural basis, has always been reverted to in Arabia, whenever the country has, after an interval of foreign or domestic tyranny, succeeded in emanc.i.p.ating itself. Of very early Arabia little is known; neither the Persian nor the Macedonian nor the Roman Empires embraced it, and it is probable that Nejd at least existed till the time of Mahomet exclusively under the system of government I have described. Then for a short time it became part of the Mussulman Empire, and shared in the centralised or semi-centralised administration of the Caliphs, which subst.i.tuted a theocratic rule for the simpler forms preceding it. But though the birthplace of Islam, no part of the Arabian Empire was sooner in revolt than Arabia itself. In the second century of the Mahometan era, nearly all the peninsula had reverted to its ancient independence, nor, except temporarily, has Nejd itself ever been since included in the imperial system of a foreign king or potentate. In the middle of last century, however, just as Mahomet had a.s.serted his spiritual authority over the peninsula, the Wahhabi Emir of Aared once more established a centralized and theocratic government in Arabia. The Bedouin Princes were one after another dispossessed, and a new Arabian Empire was established. This included not only the whole of Nejd, but at one time Yemen, Hejaz, and Hasa, with the northern desert as far north as the lat.i.tude of Damascus.

For nearly sixty years the independence of the towns and tribes of the interior was crushed, and a system of imperial rule subst.i.tuted for that of old Arabia. The Ibn Saouds, "Imams of Nejd," governed neither more nor less than had the first Caliphs, and with the same divine pretensions. But their rule came to an end in 1818, when Nejd was conquered by the Turks, and the reigning Ibn Saoud made prisoner and beheaded at Constantinople. Then, on the retirement of the Turks, (for they were unable long to retain their conquest,) shepherd government again a.s.serted itself, and the princ.i.p.ality of Jebel Shammar was founded.

The Shammar tribe is the most powerful of Northern Nejd, and the towns of Hal, Kefar, Bekaa, and the rest, put themselves under the protection of Abdallah ibn Rashid, who had succeeded in gaining the Shammar Sheykhat for himself. He seems to have been a man of great ability, and to him is due the policy of rule which his descendants have ever since pursued. He took up his residence in Hal, and built the castle there, and caused himself to be recognized as Emir, first in va.s.salage to the Ibn Saouds, who had reappeared in Aared, but later on his own account. His policy seems to have been first to conciliate or subdue the other Bedouin tribes of Nejd, forcing them to become tributary to his own tribe, the Shammar, and secondly to establish his protectorate over all the northern towns.

This was a simple plan enough, and one which any Bedouin Sheykh might have devised; but Abdallah's merit consists in the method of its application. He saw that in order to gain his object, he must appeal to national ideas and national prejudices. The tribute which he extracted from the towns, he spent liberally in the desert, exercising boundless hospitality to every sheykh who might chance to visit him. To all he gave presents, and dazzled them with his magnificence, sending them back to the tribes impressed with his wealth and power. Thus he made numerous friends, with whose aid he was able to coerce the rest, his enemies or rivals. In treating with these he seems always to have tried conciliation first, and, if forced to arms, to have been satisfied with a single victory, making friends at once with the vanquished, and even restoring to them their property, an act of generosity which met full appreciation in the desert. By this means his power and reputation increased rapidly, as did that of his brother and right-hand man Obeyd, who is now a legendary hero in Nejd.

Another matter to which the founder of the Ibn Rashid dynasty paid much attention was finance. Though spending large sums yearly on presents and entertainments, he took care that these should not exceed his revenue, and at his death he left, according to common report, a house full of silver pieces to his son. Nor have any of his successors been otherwise than thrifty. It is impossible of course to guess the precise amount of treasure thus saved, but that it represents a fabulous fortune in Arabia is certain; the possession of this, with the prestige which in a poor country wealth gives, is an immense source of power.

Lastly Abdallah, and all the Ibn Rashid family, have been endowed with a large share of caution. No important enterprise has been embarked on in a hurry; and certainly at the present day affairs of state are discussed in family council, before any action is taken. It seems to have been always a rule with the Ibn Rashids to think twice, thrice, or a dozen times before acting, for even Mohammed's violent deeds towards his nephews were premeditated, and thought over for many months beforehand.

In their conduct with the Ibn Saouds and the Turkish Sultans, they have always waited their opportunity, and avoided an open rupture. It is very remarkable that so many members of this family should be superior men, for it is difficult to say who has been the ablest man of them, Abdallah, Obeyd, Tellal, Mohammed, or his cousin Hamud. Nor is the rising generation less promising.

Having united into a sort of confederation all the Bedouin tribes of Northern Nejd, Abdallah became naturally supreme over the towns; but he was not satisfied merely with power, he aimed at making his rule popular.

It is much to his credit, and to that of his successors, that none of them seem to have abused their position. Liberality and conciliation, combined with an occasional display of power, have been no less their policy with the townsmen than with the Bedouins, and they have thus placed their rule on its only secure basis, popularity. In early days the Ibn Rashids had to fight for their position at Hal, and later in Jof and at Meskakeh. But their rule is now acknowledged freely everywhere, enthusiastically in Jebel Shammar. It strikes a traveller fresh from Turkey as surpa.s.singly strange to hear the comments pa.s.sed by the townspeople of Hal on their government, for it is impossible to converse ten minutes with any one of them without being a.s.sured that the government of the Emir is the best government in the world. "El hamdu lillah, ours is a fortunate country. It is not with us as with the Turks and Persians, whose government is no government. Here we are happy and prosperous. El hamdu lillah." I have often been amused at this chauvinism.

In the town of Hal the Emir lives in state, having a body-guard of 800 or 1000 men dressed in a kind of uniform, that is to say, in brown cloaks and red or blue kefiyehs, and armed with silver-hilted swords. These are recruited from among the young men of the towns and villages by voluntary enlistment, those who wish to serve inscribing their names at the castle, and being called out as occasion requires. Their duties are light, and they live most of them with their families, receiving neither pay nor rations, except when employed away from home on garrison duty in outlying forts and at Jof. Their expense, therefore, to the Emir is little more than that of their clothes and arms. To them is entrusted any police work that may be necessary in the towns, but it is very seldom that the authority of the Emir requires other support than that of public opinion.

The Arabs of Nejd are a singularly temperate race, and hardly ever indulge in brawling or breaches of the peace. If disputes arise between citizens they are almost always settled on the spot by the interference of neighbours; and the rowdyism and violence of European towns are unknown at Hal. Where, however, quarrels are not to be settled by the intervention of friends, the disputants bring their cases to the Emir, who settles them in open court, the _mejlis_, and whose word is final.

The law of the Koran, though often referred to, is not, I fancy, the main rule of the Emir's decision, but rather Arabian custom, an authority far older than the Mussulman code. I doubt if it is often necessary for the soldiers to support such decisions by force. Thieving, I have been repeatedly a.s.sured, is almost unknown at Hal; but robbers or thieves taken redhanded, lose for the first offence a hand, for the second their head.

In the desert, and everywhere outside the precincts of the town, order is kept by the Bedouins, with whom the Emir lives a portion of each year.

He is then neither more nor less himself than a Bedouin, throws off his shoes and town finery, arms himself with a lance, and leads a wandering life in the Nefd. He commonly does this at the commencement of spring, and spring is the season of his wars. Then with the extreme heat of summer he returns to Hal. The tribute paid by each town and village to the Emir is a.s.sessed according to its wealth in date palms, and the sheep kept by its citizens with the Bedouins. Four khrush for each tree is, I believe, the amount, trees under seven years old being exempt. At Hal this is levied by the Emir's officers, but elsewhere by the local sheykhs, who are responsible for its due collection. At Jof and Meskakeh, which are still in the position of territory newly annexed, Ibn Rashid is represented by a vakil, or lieutenant, who levies the tax in coin, Turkish money being the recognised medium of exchange everywhere.

Without pretending to anything at all like accuracy we made a calculation that the Emir's revenue from all sources of tribute and tax may amount to 60,000 yearly, and that the annual pa.s.sage of the pilgrimage through his dominions may bring 20,000 to 30,000 more to his exchequer.

With regard to his expenditure, it is perhaps easier to calculate. He pays a small sum yearly in tribute to the Sherif of Medina, partly as a religious offering, partly to insure immunity for his outlying possessions, Kheybar, Kaf and the rest, from Turkish aggression. I should guess this tribute to be 3,000 to 5,000, but could not ascertain the amount. The Emir's expenditure on his army can hardly be more, and with his civil list and every expense of Government, should be included within 10,000. On his household he may spend 5,000, and on his stable 1,000. By far the largest item in his budget must be described as entertainment. Mohammed ibn Rashid, in imitation of his predecessors, feeds daily two to three hundred guests at the palace; the poor are there clothed, and presents of camels and clothes made to richer strangers from a distance. The meal consists of rice and camel meat, sometimes mutton, and there is besides a constant "coulage" in dates and coffee, which I cannot estimate at less than 50 a day, say 20,000 yearly, or with presents, 25,000. Thus we have our budget made up to about 45,000 expenditure, as against 80,000 to 90,000 revenue-which leaves a handsome margin for wars and other accidents, and for that ama.s.sing of treasure which is traditional with the Ibn Rashids. I must say, however, once more, that I am merely guessing my figures, and n.o.body, perhaps, in Jebel Shammar, except the Emir himself and Hamud, could do more.

It will be seen from all this that Jebel Shammar is, financially, in a very flourishing state. The curse of money-lending has not yet invaded it, and neither prince nor people are able to spend sixpence more than they have got. No public works, requiring public expenditure and public loans, have yet been undertaken, and it is difficult to imagine in what they would consist. The digging of new wells is indeed the only duty a "company" could find to execute, for roads are unnecessary in a country all like a macadamised highway; there are no rivers to make ca.n.a.ls with, or suburban populations to supply with tramways. One might predict with confidence, that the secret of steam locomotion will have been forgotten before ever a railway reaches Jebel Shammar.

With regard to the form of government, it is good mainly because it is effective. It is no doubt discordant to European ideas of political propriety, that the supreme power in a country should be vested in Bedouin hands. But in Arabia they are the only hands that can wield it.

The town cannot coerce the desert; therefore, if they are to live at peace, the desert must coerce the town. The Turks, with all their machinery of administration, and their power of wealth and military force, have never been able to secure life and property to travellers in the desert, and in Arabia have been powerless to hold more than the towns. Even the pilgrim road from Damascus, though nominally in their keeping, can only be traversed by them with an army, and at considerable risk. Ibn Rashid, on the other hand, by the mere effect of his will, keeps all the desert in an absolute peace. In the whole district of Jebel Shammar, embracing, as it does, some of the wildest deserts, inhabited by some of the wildest people in the world, a traveller may go unarmed and unescorted, without more let or hindrance than if he were following a highway in England. On every road of Jebel Shammar, townsmen may be found jogging on donkey-back, alone, or on foot, carrying neither gun nor lance, and with all their wealth about them. If you ask about the dangers of the road, they will return the question, "Are we not here in Ibn Rashid's country?" No system, however perfect, of patrols and forts and escorts, could produce a result like this.

In the town, on the other hand, the Bedouin prince, despotic though he may be, is still under close restraint from public opinion. The citizens of Jebel Shammar have not what we should call const.i.tutional rights; there is no machinery among them for the a.s.sertion of their power; but there is probably no community in the old world, where popular feeling exercises a more powerful influence on government than it does at Hal.

The Emir, irresponsible as he is in individual acts, knows well that he cannot transgress the traditional unwritten law of Arabia with impunity.

An unpopular sheykh would cease, _ipso facto_, to be sheykh, for, though dethroned by no public ceremony, and subjected to no personal ill-treatment, he would find himself abandoned in favour of a more acceptable member of his family. The citizen soldiers would not support a recognised tyrant in the town, nor would the Bedouins outside. Princes in Arabia have, therefore, to consider public opinion before all else.

The flaw in the system, for in every system there will be found one, lies in the uncertainty of succession to the Sheykhat or Bedouin throne. On the death of an Emir, if he have no son of full age and acknowledged capacity to take up the reins of government, rival claimants, brothers, uncles, or cousins of the dead man, dispute his succession in arms, and many and bitter have been the wars in consequence. Such, quite lately, was the quarrel which convulsed Aared on the death of Feysul ibn Saoud, and led to the disintegration of the Wahhabi monarchy, and such, one cannot help fearing, may be the fate of Jebel Shammar, on Mohammed's. He has no children, and the sons of Tellal, the next heirs to the throne, have a formidable rival in Hamud. The Emir, however, is a young man, forty-five, and may live long; and if he should do so, seems to have the succession of the Wahhabi monarchy in his hands. He has effected, he and his predecessors, the union of all the Bedouin sheykhs, from Meshhed Ali to Medina, under his leadership, and is in close connection with those of Kasim and Aared. His authority is established as far north as Kaf, and he has his eye already on the towns still further north, if ever they should shake off the Turkish bondage. I look forward to the day when the Roala too, and the Welled Ali, shall have entered into his alliance, possibly even the Sebaa and Ibn Haddal; and though it is neither likely nor desirable that the old Wahhabi Empire should be re-established on its centralised basis, a confederation of the tribes of the north may continue its best traditions. Hauran and the Leja, and the Euphrates towns, were once tributary to the Ibn Saouds, and may be again one day to the Ibn Rashids. This is looking far afield, but not farther than Mohammed himself looks. {272}