Hejaz. luap ol the kingdom in 

 which are situated the holy cities 

 of the Mahomedan faith 



to tighten her hold on the Hejaz, as 

 well as on Asir and Yemen, the 

 provs. S. of it. In Arabia, however, 

 the Arabs, even under Turkish rule, 

 had a large measure of indepen- 

 dence, and Turkey retained such 

 authority as she possessed more by 

 subsidising the local chiefs than by 

 armed force, except in the towns, 

 along the rly., and at the ports. 



Besides Mecca and Medina, the 

 towns of the Hejaz are Jedda and 

 Yembo, the ports respectively of 

 these two cities, and Taif, in the S., 

 the centre of the Arabia Felix of 

 old. In these cities and towns live 

 the greater number of the pop. of 

 the country, which for the most 

 part is a raised plateau, whose W. 

 side is formed by rugged moun- 

 tains that descend sharply to the 

 Red Sea. Lacking perennial rivers, 

 the land is fertile only in its few 

 valleys. The annual haj, with its 

 many thousands of pilgrims in 

 normal times, is the chief source of 

 what wealth the Hejaz possesses. 



When Turkey entered the war in 

 the beginning of Nov.,1914,the situ- 

 ation in Arabia was quiet, except 

 in Nejd and in Asir, which were in 

 open revolt ; in the Yemen the 

 Turks took the offensive against 

 the British in Aden. But the Turks 

 and the Arabs had never amalga- 

 mated ; the Turk distrusted the 

 Arab, while the Arab looked on 

 himself as the intellectual superior 

 of the Turk. As part of their policy 

 of turkifying their empire, the 

 Young Turks, led by Djemal Pasha, 

 governor of Syria, arrested and 

 executed in 1916 many of the prin- 

 cipal Arabs in Damascus and 

 Horns. In the same year Enver 



3919 



Pasha visited Mecca and shocked 

 the faithful there by his atheism. 



On June 5, 1916, the grand 

 sherif proclaimed his independence 

 at Mecca, and, supported by the 

 Arabs, summoned the Turkish gar- 

 rison of the Holy City to surrender, 

 but it refused, and held out until 

 June 9. Hussein divided his forces 

 into four ; one part remained in 

 Mecca ; the second went north- 

 wards to Medina under the Emir 

 Feisal, one of his sons ; the third, 

 under another son, the Emir Ab- 

 dulla, marched southwards to Taif ; 

 and the fourth, under yet another 

 son, the Emir Zeid, advanced west- 

 wards on Jedda. The grand sherif 

 appealed to Great Britain for assis- 

 tance, and thereafter the " Red 

 Sea Patrol " of the British navy 

 cooperated with his forces. Before 

 June was out Jedda had fallen, and 

 Yembo was taken in July. 



In Aug. Hussein issued a pro- 

 clamation " To the Moslem World," 

 in which he justified his revolt on 

 the grounds of the infidelity of the 

 Young Turks to their common reli- 

 gion, and their persecution of the 

 Arab race. In Sept. Taif was cap- 

 tured, and with other successes, 

 mainly on the coast, in which the 

 British navy had a share, the 

 whole of the Hejaz, except Medina, 

 which Feisal failed to take, and the 

 rly. zone, was cleared of the Turks. 



The Arab chiefs realized that 

 they must have an organized army, 

 instead of an undisciplined force of 

 camelry and horsemen. In this 

 effort they were assisted by the 

 Egyptian Government, who sent 

 officers and men to the Hejaz to 

 train the Arabs and others who had 

 joined them from the N. Feisal cap- 

 tured Wejh (El-Wijh) in Jan., 1917, 

 and his force steadily grew into a 

 regular army. He also succeeded in 

 getting all the Arabs in the N., who 

 had been divided by tribal feuds, to 

 support him, among others the 

 sheikh of Howeitat. 



During 1917 Feisal made re- 

 peated raids on the Hejaz Rly., but 

 the chief Arab success of that year 

 was the capture of Akabah early in 

 Aug. Little occurred in the win- 

 ter of 1917-18, 

 but by April, I 

 1918, Feisal cap- 

 tured Tafileh, | 

 near the S. end j 

 of the Dead Sea, j 

 and held the j 

 latter against a MB 

 powerful attai-k IflUymy^teMifea* 

 by the Turks who I 

 had been rein- 

 forced by the rly. ; 

 he also took El 

 Kerak. Both 

 Maan and Medina 

 held out. 



HEKLA 



In the summer of 1918 the ai nii<-< 

 of the king of the Hejaz numbered 

 40,000 men, who became the ex- 

 treme right wing of Allenby when 

 in Sept. he rolled up the Turkish 

 army on his left, in the coastal re- 

 gion of Palestine, enveloped and 

 annihilated two Turkish armies. 

 and conquered Palestine and Syria, 



Jn coordination with these opera- 

 tions Feisal, from his base at Um- 

 taiye, E. of the Jordan, cut the 

 Turkish communications on the 

 Hejaz Rly. at Deraa on Sept. 15, 

 and, after occupying that place on 

 Sept. 27, took part in the advance 

 on Damascus, which was entered 

 first by some of his troops on the 

 night of Sept. 30-Oct. 1, he himself 

 entering the city on Oct. 3. During 

 the war the Hejaz forces killed r r 

 immobilised 50,000 of the enemy, 

 and their military services were of 

 great value to the Allies. Medina, 

 besieged since June, 1916, capitu- 

 lated to Hussein, under the terms of 

 the armistice with Turkey, Jan. 1919. 

 See Arabia ; Feisal, Emir ; Law- 

 rence, T. E. ; Palestine, Conquest of. 



Hejira OR HEGERA (Arab, hijra). 

 Word meaning " flight," applied 

 specially to the flight of Mahomet 

 from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622, 

 from which event the Mahomedan 

 era is reckoned. The Mahomedan 

 era was inaugurated by the caliph 

 Omar in 639 and is reckoned from 

 July 16 the first day of the first 

 month of the year in which the 

 flight took place. Dates of the Ma- 

 homedan era are indicated by the 

 letters A.H. (anno hegirae, in the 

 year of the flight). The Mahomedan 

 year is a lunar one, and so about 11 

 days shorter than the solar year. 

 To find the year in the Christian era 

 approximately corresponding to a 

 year in the Hejira, subtract 3 p.c. 

 from the Hejira year and add 622. 

 Hekla OR HECLA. Active vol- 

 cano of Iceland. In the S. of the 

 island, it is about 20 m. from the 

 coast and 70 m. E. of Reykjavik. 

 It attains an alt. of 5,109 ft., having 

 one large crater, 1J m. in circum- 

 ference and 200 ft. to 300 ft. deep, 

 and several subsidiary ones. It has 

 been active frequently since the 



Hekla. The great volcano 01 Iceland, over 5,000 ft. high 



