July 28, 1923] 



NA TURE 



T27 



Arabia and Arab Alliances. 



The Heart of Arabia : A Record of Travel and Explora- 

 tion. By H. St. J. B. Philby. In 2 vols. Vol. i. 

 Pp. xxiii + 386. Vol. 2. Pp. vii + 354. (London: 

 Constable and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 635. 



IN October 191 7, Mr. Philby found himself the sole 

 representative of Britain in the heart of Arabia 

 on a mission which was organised, with the encourage- 

 ment afforded by the initial success of the movement 

 against the Turks on the Hejaz, to carry messages 

 of goodwill to the ruling chief of Wahabiland. The 

 co-operation of the latter was to be invited in giving 

 effect to the Euphrates blockade against the Turks, 

 and ultimately to launch a campaign against that 

 very able ally of Turkey, Ibn Rashid of Hail. At the 

 back of it there was no doubt some Utopian ideal 

 of a united Arabia. The ruling chief of Wahabiland 

 (which may be said to include all Najd, or Central 

 Arabia, together with the coast province of Al Hasa 

 bordering the Persian Gulf) was Imam Ibn Sa'ud of 

 Riadh, and it was to Riadh that Mr. Philby's mission 

 was directed, via Hofhuf, the capital of Al Hasa, from 

 a port on the Persian Gulf coast opposite Bahrein. 



At Riadh, Mr. Philby, who seems able to adapt himself 

 most effectively, not only to Arab clothes, but also to 

 Arab sentiment and the idiosyncrasies of the Arab 

 people, and appears to be perfectly at home in 

 the desert as in the town, secured the friendship of 

 Ibn Sa'ud, and was certainly greatly indebted to that 

 chief for his safety and success while traversing the 

 country. The hospitality and almost invariable expres- 

 sion of goodwill which were extended to him throughout 

 his travels were due not merely to the world-old tradi- 

 tions of the Bedouin but also to the influence of Ibn 

 Sa'ud, who is obviously a most enlightened and com- 

 petent ruler of a vast territory. At Riadh, Mr. Philby 

 enjoyed the opportunity of giving us an excellent 

 account of the city itself and of the character of the 

 Wahabi faith as professed by its most ardent disciples — 

 all of it most interesting and valuable information. But 

 he failed to meet the British envoy who was to have 

 brought from the west, from the Sharif of Mecca, 

 messages of reconciliation with Ibn Sa'ud, who was 

 known to be bitterly jealous of the Sharif. Nothing, 

 indeed, roused the indignation of Ibn Sa'ud so effec- 

 tively as that the Sharif of Mecca should assume the 

 title of King of Arabia. All this, of course, is ancient 

 history by this time, and the course of dramatic events 

 which occurred more recently in the Hejaz is modern 

 enough to be within the recollection of most of us. At 

 the time, however, Mr. Philby's immediate movements 

 were determined by the attitude of the Sharif, who 

 simply declined to allow the British envoy to proceed 



NO. 2804, VOL. I I 2] 



to Riadh. In these circumstances, Mr. Philby decided to 

 go to Taif himself and fetch him. In this, however, 

 he was disappointed, although it led to a journey by 

 the pilgrim road to Jeddah, passing within a measur- 

 able distance of Mecca and including a visit to Taif. 

 The Sharif was absolutely hostile to any proposition 

 of alliance with Ibn Sa'ud, and thus fell through the 

 hoped-for unity between Central and West Arabia. 

 Mr. Philby, who gives us a most interesting story of his 

 travel by a route which is little enough known, was 

 obliged to return to Mesopotamia by sea from Jeddah. 



It was not long, however, before Mr. Philby found 

 himself once again in Riadh, this time with the object 

 of initiating an active campaign against Ibn Rashid, 

 the Turks' ally at Hail. It was while he was waiting 

 for Ibn Sa'ud to complete the preparations for this 

 expedition (which afterwards proved more or less 

 abortive and involved the death of that brilliant young 

 explorer, Capt. Shakespeare) that Mr. Philby under- 

 took what was by far the most interesting geographical 

 exploration that has been made for many years in 

 Arabia, which carried him as far south as the Wadi 

 Dewasir, nearly to the edge of the great southern 

 desert. He was still within the limits of the Riadh 

 administration, but the influence of it grew weaker 

 the farther he penetrated south, and it was at an 

 important place in the Dawasir oasis, with the ominous 

 name of Dam, that he encountered fanatical hostility, 

 which, but for his tact and energy, might well have 

 brought his career to an untimely end. Many points 

 of especial interest attracted his close attention. The 

 ruins at Kharj, the remains of the tombs of a long- 

 forgotten race, are especially interesting in connexion 

 with those at Bahrein, which were first examined and 

 opened by Durand (Sir Edward of that ilk), whose 

 description of them in the pages of the Journal of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society is far more instructive than 

 that of Theodore Bent (who followed him some years 

 later), and points to a constructive resemblance with 

 those of Kharj which cannot be accidental. 



Mr. Philby devotes a chapter to destructive criticism 

 of the delightful romances of Arabian adventure 

 written by William Gifford Palgrave. Apparently he 

 did not previously know (a.s certainly Mr. D. G. 

 Hogarth, who questions Mr. Philby's conclusion, could 

 not have known) that Palgrave had long been without 

 honour among geographers of the Persian Gulf as a 

 veracious narrator. Palgrave was a Jesuit father, 

 true apparently to the traditions of his order, for, 

 while we must render all honour to those early Jesuit 

 missionaries who were the very first pioneers in the 

 field of Asiatic geography, no one who has endeavoured 

 to unravel their itineraries by the light of more modern 

 determinations can fail to observe their skill in the 



