Page 30 - Arabian Studies (II)

20 Arabian Studies II

encouraged settlements of the brethren or Ikhwan, the first
settlement being at al-Artawiya in the north-east in 1912. Fifty other
settlements followed, all provided with agricultural instruments and
help in making wells.
After the first World War Ibn Saud was able to take Hail and then
had ostensibly under his control the whole of Najd, the upland
plateau. By 1924 he took ‘AsTr, in the south, and by 1926 the
Hejaz - thus gaining the huge territory which is now Saudi Arabia.
It was not always quite so easy as this brief outline might make it
sound. His encouragement of a religious revival, though it served him
well in one way, led to excesses which he was unable to control. In
the 1920s in spite of Ibn Saud, the Ikhwan were raiding and killing
over the Transjordan and Iraq frontiers where the British still held
the League of Nations Mandates. The R.A.F. aircraft and armoured
cars had to be on the alert along those frontiers. I can quote from
one report I sent on 7 February 1928 from Kuwait to the Residency
in the Gulf, then still at Bushire on the Persian coast. It told of a
force of the Mutair tribe, 350 camel-riders and fifty horsemen, raiding
Kuwait tribesmen 40 miles north-west of the head of Kuwait Bay.
All the available cars in Kuwait, twenty in number, had been
commandeered by Shaikh ‘All al-Khallfah, the Kuwaiti commander-
in-chief and with a brother of the Ruler, ‘Abdullah al-Jabir, and the
cars loaded up with about nine men in each, they had set out to find
the enemy, fought them and regained some of the booty taken,
killing a number of the Mutair. Unfortunately a young Kuwaiti
Shaikh, ‘AIT al-Salim, arriving on the scene too late and determined
to fight, insisted on going on, although ordered not to do so, and was
caught by the enemy. His ammunition ran out and he and his men
were all killed. A few hours later the R.A.F. came up with the
retreating Mu{air and, having been shot at, bombed and machine-
gunned them causing more casualties. Since they had suffered quite
heavy losses I said I thought they might think twice about coming
again. However, they did attack again, coming up to the walls of
Kuwait and killing Kuwaiti shepherd families, old men, women and
children, as I saw. For a short time, then, the towers of the walls of
Kuwait were manned alternately by Kuwaitis and British sailors. In
the end we asked Ibn Saud if these tribesmen were out of his control,
and rebels, in which case we would pursue them even into his
territory and hoped he would contain them from his side.
On the next occasion we did so pursue them and caught them
between our forces and those of Ibn Saud - Ibn Saud being behind
them. Their Shaikh, Fai$al al-DawIsh, surrendered to the R.A.F.,
handing his sword to the Air-Vice-Marshal. He was handed over to