Page 82 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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»• 40 SOCIAL SURVEY
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His position,
trade, and some property in the territory of Basra. ...
as controller of a town of growing political and commercial intcies ,
is likely to improve.
\
II. Foreign.
i .
(.4.) Ottomans.

The Ottoman Turks penetrated into the peninsula about four
centuries ago, occupying, with their garrisons, first the two Holy
Cities, and secondly Yemen, including Aden. At that tifnc they
did not extend their definite occupation farther , c but, receiving
i tokens of submission from various chiefs in other parts of the
i peninsula, Suleiman the Magnificent claimed the whole for the
: Ottoman Empire before the middle of the sixteenth century.
Losing Yemen about a hundred years later, the Turks continued, to
l
i hold throughout the eighteenth century (with some intervals'of
l
! revolt) the Hejax and the northern Red Sea coast-lands, together
with the line of the Damascus Pilgrim Road ; but even these they
lost for about a decade at the beginning of the succeeding century,
during which the"Wahabites of Nejd forced them out of the.pcninsula
altogether. *' '
In suppressing the Wahabites, Egyptian forces, acting on behalf of
Sultan Mahmud II, advanced in 1S17 from Hejax across Central
Arabia to Hasa and the Persian Gulf, as well as into Asir and the
Tihamah of Yenies.; and it is on this occupation, which was main­
tained in its entirety for less than a quarter of a century (with con­
siderable interruptions), that an Ottoman claim to Nejd can alone
repose. Yemen and Asir were evacuated about 1S40, a little earlier
than Nejd ; but were partially reoccupied soon afterwards, and
Yemen, at any rate, was almost wholly reconquered by 1S72.
If no account be taken of such transitory occupations as those of
Qaslm in 1903 and 1905, the only other province of Arabia fever
: held by the Turks is Hasa, seized a second time by Midhat Pasha
in 1871.
The inldnd boundaries of the Ottoman sphere of influence, now
reduced to a single province (Yemen) since the insurrection of
Hejax, are wholly undetermined, and indeed have varied from
time to time. The only defined boundary is that between Yemen'
and the Aden territory.

1. Hejaz.—The Turks, who normally numbered only about
12,000 men, all told, in the province (2,000 in Mecca, the same in
Medina, and smaller garrisons in Jiddah, Ta’if, Yambo‘ '&c ) held
the ports and the interior oases, together with the line of the Hejaz

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