Page 460 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

12 NEGLECTHD ARAHlA

this month, occur when they find other Bedouins using the grass and
water which they consider belong to themselves and upon which their
lives depend.
11m Saoud has now settled many of these tribal Arabs in new, small
villages. Because they cannot raise near their villages flocks large enough
to support themselves, lbn Saoud supplements their incomes by subsidies
according to each family's need. Ameen Kihani’s book called “lbn Sa’oud:
his People and his land” tells the best story of how the Arabs are sup­
ported by their government whereas in other countries the governments
are supported by the people. When the war ceased, and likewise the
monthly amounts he received from Knglaud, I Ini Saoud found the Arab
tribesmen eager to serve him, and he found new sources of income for
himself and them by adding Northern Arabia to his Central Kingdom,
and then by defeating King Hussein's forces and annexing the .1 lijaz.
This gave him control of Mecca and al-Madina, and consequently a large
revenue from the annual Pilgrimage. Between one and two hundred
thousand pilgrims from all parts of the Moslem world congregate at
Mecca every year and they are as important for the prosperity of Arabia
as tourists are for Switzerland.
Ibn Saoud is promoting the use of automobiles to make pilgrim travel i
easier. America already has a large share in the motor trade of Arabia.
Moreover, Ibn Saoud has quite a number of personal friends, medical
missionaries and philanthropists, who are Americans. Some of the young
men of his kingdom are being supported in an American university in
the Hast by an American philanthropist. Ibn Saoud provides teachers,
who instruct the Bedouin of the desert in reading, and that will make it
possible for them to read literature that until now has remained unknown
to them.
This then is the state of Arabia today. In the northwestern part is
Transjordan and in the northeast is the Kingdom of Iraq or Mesopotamia,
both closely connected with Great Britain by treaty. On the eastern and
southern coasts of Arabia, along the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean,
are provinces more or less indc|>cndent in their internal government, but
having their foreign affairs controlled by Knglaud. In central and west­
ern Arabia is the dual Kingdom of Najd and the Hijaz, of which llis
Majesty Abdulaziz bin Saoud is the ruler. In May the United States
government recognized his government, lbn Saoud has tried to re-estab­
lish the original Muhammadanism as the religion of his country and he
is ruling his widely scattered tribes and provinces by introducing the
mechanical inventions of the West.
In our own generation a new and modern version of the Arabian
Nights is being produced and is being recorded in our daily papers.
These newspapers keep telling us there is still oportunity for glorious
adventure, good business and benevolent service among the Sons of
Jshninol in Arabia.

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