Page 414 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

XliCUiCTlil) A KAIUA
5
The Province of Yemen, the whole of Central a,., i
<if I lc-jax are still unoccupied territory. Kimr n‘ L ,,Ia.a,,<l l,K* ^ovincc
i.sler in London; lie is Shaikh 1 lalicili W'ahlia and•T. Kls, h,s ,,Nvn Min-
Asiatic Society in April last. We a'^'to tt ^ 1(1 *'«-
irilmlc to all those who braved the hardships ' K'' alttT Wur a
Arabia. and mentioning in particular the feat 01 lr«wl in
j crossing the Rab al Khali, stated that the mod*™ V- ,c!’lrani Tll,J'»as in
I tended from Najran in the south to Wacli Skh- <*-
i" ,u,r\h’ a,,d fro"> the Persian Gulf i„ the ca'Vl n ", Sal1 Vill:i««
||,jaZ tn the west-a much greater area than thewor I%• rm of ll*
implied. In Ins lecture he described present con,lb! • ‘T<! ,,rW'nally
mKlhat the population was approximately three 2?“ "! / lc Nci(|. «i«l-
i'"" K-wii-dwe lers-mercliaiui or agriculi ristsn l i" n T‘.<livi,ll,<l »'“•>
rmileiit to lead a nomadic life and to tend caitt "1 ''‘l;nvm- win, were
I usually more faithful and more intelligent th-mVhl / . l,,w|Hlvvcllcr was
/ 1, said had resolved to change the fi e oA B2 "■ Kin* Um Stunul
.■^r,y and frni.W To c.„d «
water
I cxislctl and ordered the Bedawin to dwell therein, To each village he
I ;ijii'minted a man of learning-, to teach the people their religion and to ex­

plain to them their duty towards God, towards the King and towards their
iVlluw beings. As a result, the tribes became so transformed as to he united
l*..^ellier in a brotherly love, which earned for them the name of Ikhwitn,
^••Brethren.” Such is the picture as painted by a native Sheikh.
According to “The Near East and India” from which we gather this
i
report, "the lecturer said: that the credit for introducing medical treat­
ment on modern lines in Kuwait, Basrah, and Bahrain was due to Amer-
iean Missions; in Nejd, to King 11m Saoiul; and in the llejaz and the
Yemen, to the Turks. But it was in the sphere of surgery, exclusively,
that the Arabs had made use of modern science—during the last twenty
u*ars or so. In the sphere of medicine, the Arabs scarcely recognized
•,i,v merit in modern methods of treatment. The overwhelming majority
.still resorted to herbs, and relied on the methods of Avicenna and his
pupils. But vaccination, as a protection against smallpox, had spread
widely throughout Bahrawin, Kuwait, and the llasa, and, thanks to the
ilfurtsof King Aziz, had made headway in Nejd and in the llejaz."
It is certainly astonishing that the Minister of 11m Saoud's Govern­
ment should pay such high tribute to the work of our Mission before a
distinguished audience in London. /
In his recent book “Alarms and Excursions in Arabia" Bertram
Tluiiuas describes the condition of the tribes in northern and western
Oman. No one who peruses this hook can fail to read between the lines
the desperate needs of these people for medical missions, for education,
ami for the gospel. Lie describes their religious and superstitious prac
tuvs as largely animistic, tells how they make medical use of the Koran
which he calls “the holy pharmacopoeia of Oman," and how they offer
filiations to devils and spirits.
If it is true, as Livingstone asserted, that the end of the geographical
icai is only the beginning of the missionary enterprise then Arabia is still
neglected, in the distribution of the Bread of Life
Nothing emphasizes more the need of Arabia for the gospel today than
the astonishing changes that have taken place in the matter of commnni-