Page 64 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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POLITICS 31

l ‘fr()IU the thirties of the nineteenth century. They have grown
i »
f mi11• 11iiTorc'iit origins, and their social characters have lemamcd
iallv distinct. It is important that any one who has to reckon
uTth members of their ruling dynasties should understand thedifler-
jM,, |,ases of their respective Emirs’ power. There is hardly any part
,,fWc peninsula, except, perhaps, the extreme south, where both
Kmirs can safely be loft out of account Betw ccn them they control,
iimrc or less, almost all the peoples, settled and nomadic, of Central
Arabia ; and eyen in certain littoral districts, e. g. Hasa and Asir,
they haVe something to*say.
The Nejd Emirate is a magnified oasis Sultanate. One settlement
among many has gradually established overlordship over other local
powers in its group of oases, in virtue not so njuch of physical as
of spiritual force. The ascetic religious movement known from its
fmmder’s name as Wahabism, which was adopted firstand foremost by
Mohammed ibn Sa‘ud of Darlyah (Deraya), and has become the creed
oi virtually all oasis folk in Nejcl, in Qaslm, and even in -Jebel Sham-
mar, and also, subsequently, of large groups of nomads ranging about
tj^ose oases, still has for its principal champion the Emir cvf Riyadh,
and supplies the moral basis of his power. The material basis of
that power'is' the settled population of the Nejdean oasis-group.
Any extension of it to other oasis-groups or to tribesmen is con­
sequent on and conditioned by its capacity at any given moment
to exert and maintain pressure on societies of a character and
organization differing from those <$f its home population, but not
unsympathetic to its spiritual basis.
The Emirate of Jebel Shammar, on the other hand, grew out of the
desert power of a great nomadic society, accustomed to maintain,
in the watered region about the Aja and Selmah ridges, a group of
permanent villages and hamlets. These served for the occasional
resort of its chiefs and sheikhs, for a base of supplies, and for taking
toll bf Shiah pilgrims on their passage from Baghdad to Hejaz. As
the amenities of these settlements increased, so did their settled
population, while the sojourns of the nomad chiefs and sheikhs
became longer and more frequent. Coming under the influence of
Wahabism (about 1700), Jebel Shammar accepted for a while the
supremacy of Nejd. But after the humiliation of the latter by the
Egyptians, the Bedouin instinct of independence roused an ‘Abdah
. aminar chief, ‘Abdullah, of the house of Rashid, who had been put
m charge of Ha’il by Ibn Sa'ud, to detach his oasis. This he did
gradually, continuing to acknowledge his suzerain till about 1847 •
j since'this date Jebel Shammar has stood by itself, and has
Jeen greatly increased in power by a scries of able rulers/