Page 54 - Arabian Studies (II)

Arabian Studies ll

H. E. Sayyid Ahmad al-Shanu and the Editors are the guests of Professor Yusuf
Ibish in Beirut.

al-DaTs, QadT Muhammad Mahmud al-ZubayrT, and the ‘Ustadh
Ahmad Muhammad Nu‘man. They were supported also by a large
group of men of literary, cultural and social standing among the
aware and educated youth, such as Sayyid Ahmad al-Marwanl,
Sayyid ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Shaml, Sayyid Ahmad Muhammad
al-Wazir, Sayyid ‘Abdullah ‘AIT al-WazIr, al-Sayyid Muhammad
al-Warlth, al-Sayyid Ahmad Muhammad Basha, QadT Ibrahim
al-Hadranl. al-Safi Ahmad Mahbub, QadT ‘Abdullah al-Shammahl,
al-Khadim Ghalib al-WajTh, al-TzzI Salih al-Sinaydar1 and asdtidhah
MuhyT al-DTn al-‘AnsT, Ahmad al-Hawrash, Muhammad Salih
al-MasmarT, Ahmad al-Barraq and hundreds of other literary figures
as well as shaykhs who came under their influence, ordinary
individuals and students of religious knowledge (7/m).
All these men had been preceded by reformers who, in their
writing, poetry and public lectures, openly demanded reforms but
did not live to witness the dawn of the ‘Revolt for the Constitution’.
To this group belong men like al-Sayyid Ahmad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab
al-Warlth, QadT ‘Abdullah al-‘Azab, QadT ‘AIT al-lryanl, QadT ‘AIT
al-Shammahl, QadT ‘Abdullah al-‘AyzarT, Sayyid Zayd b. ‘AIT
al-Daylaml and their likes.2
This then was a revolt of ‘ulama' and the motives behind it were
purely patriotic and religious. I would not deny that some of the
political leaders were apprehensive that the reins of power might fall
into the hands of Prince Ahmad after his father Imam Yahya. These
men - some of the princes among them - could not bear to conceive
of Ahmad as Imam and sovereign, some for reasons to which 1 have