Page 30 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

HE.TAZ
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family to Egypt. Hi.s other cousins, the children of Ann er-Raflq,
Emir from 1882 to 1005, were also interdicted by the Porte.
Husein was appointed as a man of pacific character, likely both
to serve the Porte’s purposes and also to keep on good terms with
ourselves. In the early years of his Emirate he appeared zealously
to be fulfilling the first hope. In 1910 he took up arms for the
Turks against the Asiri revolt under Idrisi and succeeded in relieving
Ibha and seriously reducing Idrisi’s power. In the same year he
sent an expedition to Qasim to assert the rights of the Ateibah ;
■
and though, through the defection of Ibn' Rashid, he had to retire
content with an arrangement with Ibn Sa‘ud (under this the
Ateibah were to remain free of the latter’s taxes and the Meccan
Treasury merely asserted its right to a considerable contribution from
Qaslm), his influence had been extended to Central Arabia. Shortly
afterwards he took under his protection certain fugitive rebels of
Ibn Sa'ud’s house, for sheltering whom the Ateibah had been raided.
His relations with Ibn Sa‘ud have continued, however, outwardly
peaceful, and those with Ibn Rashid friendly.
Husein, hovrever, had cherished from the first, under the
stimulus of his powerful second son, ‘Abdullah, the design, of emanci­
pating the Meccan Emirate from its dependence on the Porte : and,
though he himself does not seem at any time to have desired the
Caliphate, ‘Abdullah, his reputed successor-designate, has been
credited with that ambition. His early pro-Ottoman expeditions
had served to organize a Bedouin force which he could use at need.
From 1913 Sherif Husein began to follow an anti-Ottoman policy,
opposing the extension of the Hejaz Railway and supporting the
Harb tribesmen in their resistance to both this and other Turkish
projects. From the outbreak of the present war he has steadily
refused to help the Turks to recruit in Hejaz, and though, for fear
of having to submit to crippling requisitions, he gave way so far as
to allow his eldest son, ‘ Ali, to raise an irregular regiment of Bedouins
at Medina for service in Sinai, he continued to organize the Hejaz
tribes, which acknowledge his authority, with a view to insurrec­
tion at the proper moment ; and, reconciling himself with Idrisi,
tried to unite him and the Imam of Yemen in a common anti-
Ottoman aim. His third son, Feisal, was dispatched to Constan­
\
tinople early in 1915, and. on his return to Syria, got into com­ *
munication with the pan-Arabists. Though Feisal’s policy and
actions have not been quite clear, it seems that he secretly furthered
his father’s designs by promoting disaffection ; and though obliged
to accompany Enver to Medina in February 1916, he returned to
Syria to continue the same work. In 1915 "Abdullah, the second