A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the Cradle of the Arab Race Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XI. "1 shall do well: The poople love me, and the Desert's mine ; My power's a crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to the full." Shakespeabk. Political and historical?Shepherd rule in Arabia?An hereditary policy?The army?The law?Taxation?The finances of Jebel Shammar?Ibn Eashid's ambition. following is the result of our inquiries made while at Hail into the political condition and resources of the country. It has no pretension to rigid accuracy, especially in the figures given, but it will serve to convey an idea of the kind of government found in Arabia, and of the capacity for self- rifleTof the Arab race. The political constitution'of Jebel Shammar is exceedingly curious ; not only is it unlike anything we are accustomed to in Europe, but it is probably xiuique, even in Asia. It would seem, in fact, to represent some ancient form of government indigenous to the country, and to have sprung naturally from the physical necessities of the land, and the character of its inhabitants. I look upon Ibn Rashid's government as in all likelihood identical with that of the Kings of Arabia, who came to visit Solomon, and of the Shepherd Kings voL. 1. S who, at a still earlier date, held Egypt and Babylonia ; and I have little doubt that it owes its success to the fact of its being thus in harmony with Arab ideas and Arab tradition. To understand rightly, one ought to consider what Arabia is, and what the Arab character and mode of life. The whole of the peninsula, with the exception, perhaps, of Yemen, and certain districts of Hadra- mant within the influence of the monsoon winds, is a rainless, waterless region, in every sense of the word a desert. The soil is a poor one, mainly of gravel or of sand, and except in a few favoured spots, unsuited ...Read More