Page 31 - Arabian Studies (II)

Memories and Impressions of the Arabia oflbn Sand 21

Ibn Saud and died in prison in Riyadh, as did the Shaikh of the
‘Ajman, Ibn Hithlain, a little later. Ibn Saud had not identified
himself with them during their actions over the frontiers.
The year 1930 may be taken as the date by which the extremism
was at an end, though the ending of such movements is not generally
sudden or complete. Here and there was evidence that it lingered on,
but Ibn Saud was accepted as in effective control of his vast, then
partly still unexplored and everywhere roadless country when I went
to see him at Riyadh in 1934. For such a journey I kept diaries.

Journey to Riyadh

[Though 1 am not proposing verbatim extracts from my travel diary,
I would like to make an exception for the beginning of my first one,
kept in 1934 — one reason being that it shows something of the
atmosphere for a traveller then. Mine began as follows: ]

When I left Jedda by the Medina Gate at 9 p.m. on Friday,
28 June 1934, the heat was 95° and humidity 86°. I was
accompanied as far as Umm al-Salam by the British Charge
d’Affaires, by a secretary of the Legation and the Pro-Consul. Ibn
Saud’s permission for me to visit him said ‘provided that he travels
with an escort furnished by us and wears Arab dress’.
One can see from this that Jedda was still a walled town — also that
in the summer one travelled through the Hejaz at night because of
the great damp heat. The staff of the Legation came to see me off
because the journey was most exceptional — only six or seven
Christians had ever visited Riyadh and only three, I think, had
crossed Central Arabia from sea to sea, as I intended to do, ending at
Kuwait. The party which came out a short way with me was not
allowed to go further into the Holy Land from Jedda without official
permission. Christians in Jedda were confined to an area about 5 km.
by land in any direction.
The provision for an escort and Arab dress were a corollary of the
revival in extreme puritanism, still strong in Central Arabia.
I soon found that Ibn Saud was right in insisting upon an escort
and Arab dress. A little before noon on the second day of my
journey, at Sail in the Hejaz, we halted. We were welcomed there and
a sheep was killed for us. While it was being cooked I rested in a little
hut as the escort snored gently outside until the call to the noon
prayers rang out. The Makkawi coffee-house keeper came round and,
seeing me alone said, “To Prayers, to Prayers.” A few minutes later