Page 120 - Arabian Studies (V)

110 Arabian Studies V
of equal opportunities to all of the sons of the populace to share in the right
to govern, they would thereby save the unity of the homeland and spare the
country many woes.
(<?) In Egypt and all the lands of Arabism ('Urubah) and Islam are
Hashimite families preserving their noble lineage and tracing back their
descent (to the Prophet) but they do not make means to rule and privilege
out of this descent. Through this they have been able to merge with the
populace and become a basic constituent (composed) of its noblest consti­
tuents, sire-ing among their sons heroes who rise to the highest ranks of
society through their personal abilities, not by their descent and noble
lineage. On this account these outstanding persons do not come across
those who attack their position or attempt to remove them from it.
(/) How many great heroes we have known who shot up to the ranks of
political or scholarly leadership, enjoying an overwhelming popularity,113
and when we enquire into their descent we find them to be of pure
Prophetic stock, but this descent of theirs was not a reason for their supre­
macy in society, for they attained dominance through their abilities and
valour alone.
(g) On the contrary, it is certain that had they clung to the attribute of
descent, becoming (25] thereby distinct from populaces, it would have been
difficult indeed for them to attain what they did.
(h) No-one is unaware that in the Yemen, centuries ago, there were rem­
nants of the Persians114 and families specially distinct left behind from the
era of the Persian occupation. They continued for a number of centuries to
maintain their distinctness from Yemeni society. Thus they provoked the
resentment115 of the populace, driving it to league together against them
and become estranged from them. Yet foolhardy sons of these families kept
boasting at the Arabs and trying to emulate them in their own native
Yemeni country until eventually they isolated themselves from the populace
i
and (came to) realise a feeling of loneliness, isolation and constriction.
(0 Ultimately they were obliged to abandon their Shah-like Sasanian
traditions, to merge with the populace and become part of it.
(/) Nowadays we do not find any Yemeni referring to these families or
possessing any knowledge116 of them. Nor do we consider it improbable,
when the principle that government is the right of the people is realised, that the
day will come when some gifted man (drawn) from these elements merged in
the populace may come to head the people’s government117 through applica­
tion of the principle of equality of opportunity among all citizens.
(k) So if this was the case with the remnants of the occupying Persian
Abna’ how then will the case be with the Arab Hashimite families in the era
of Arab nationalism (<qawmiyyah) which is carrying along the Arabs
towards complete unity, and, be it sooner or later, to a unitary Arab state?
[26]
11. No partisanship118
(a) It would be a major error—the very reverse of logic—that those who
take up the cry for popular government should be suspected of stirring up
sectionalist119 partisanship.

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