xviii INTRODUCTIOlSr 



joined Turkey after the outbreak of the Great War in 

 1914 and in 1918 had to flee to Constantinople in a sub- 

 marine, as Mrs. Forbes relates. Thenceforth she becomes 

 the sole historian for the time being of the Senusi family, 

 and according to her relation we see that Idris, son of 

 Muhammad al Mahdi, and grandson of the First Senusi 

 teacher has become the fourth ruler of his family and has 

 been accorded by Italy and Britain the title of a Prince 

 (Amir) . His domain is now recognized as covering the 

 inner region of Cyrenaica between the Egyptian frontier 

 on the east, that of Fazan on the west, of the coast region 

 of Cyrene on the north and approximately on the south 

 of the 20th degree of N. Latitude. Jedabia as marked on 

 Mrs. Forbes's map is very near the Mediterranean coast, 

 and Zuetina, also referred to, is actually a seaport which 

 is to be the outlet of a hoped-for Sudan trade coming from 

 Wadai. Whether this important outlet is intended to 

 come within the Sharifian domain of Sayyid Idris is not 

 quite clear: it hardly seems likely that at present Italy 

 would allow a quasi-independent Arab power to attain to 

 a port on the Mediterranean between the provinces of 

 Cyrene and Tripoli. 



Italy of course retains from an international point of 

 view the suzerainty over the Senusi Prince, whose access 

 to the Mediterranean she could not permit to be abused or 

 allow it to shelter a revival of the slave trade, practised 

 so long by the Turks, and at no time denounced by the 

 followers of the Senusi. 



Somewhat similarly to the action of Italy since the 

 conclusion of the War, the British have been striving to 

 create an independent or nearly-independent Arab state in 

 Mesopotamia; they have evacuated Persia (though it is 

 still threatened by the Russian Soviet) and they are en- 

 deavouring to recreate a wholly independent congeries of 

 Arab States in Arabia, especially in the case of the Hijaz, 



