The Revolt in Arabia

How the public insists upon making a snap judgment on the significance of passing events is shown by the haste with which speculations are given out, speculations that are purely hypothetical because the truth of the reports that reach us can, as yet, be verified only approximately.

According to a Reuter despatch, the Great Shereef of Mecca has revolted against Turkish authority and, at the head of his Arabs, has succeeded in forcing the capitulation of the garrisons of Mecca, Jidda, Ta'if, and Medina, and has seriously hampered the movements of Turkish troops, menacing to him, by the destruction of a section of the railroad from Medina to the north. Wolff's Bureau, on the other hand, spreads a report of the "Milli Agency"—the Turkish National Agency—that a troop of Arabs, to whom robbery was no unaccustomed calling, had been persuaded by their captain, he being instigated by English marines, to bombard Mecca, that the Turkish troops had, however, speedily restored order, and that the raiders themselves, when it was proven that their leader had been seduced by English money to act thus basely, had delivered the miscreant to the Turkish authorities.

If the German-Turkish statement be correct, the occurrence was insignificant and not deserving attention. If Reuter be right in the main point, then it is well worth while to consider what may be the possible consequences of the Arab movement.

In either case, to comprehend the matter rightly, the political significance of the Shereefate of Mecca should be understood and the reading public should have a clearer idea of what the title "Grand Shereef of Mecca" covers than is possessed by the majority.

Mecca, the birth-place of the Prophet Mohammed, was not the centre from which he extended his sovereignty over a great part of Arabia. The capital of the realm founded by him was Medina, situated a ten-day caravan journey to the north. Moreover, when, about twenty years after his first appearance as Allah's messenger, Mohammed conquered Mecca, he did not think of transferring the seat of government thither. He had his own good reasons for this, which we can pass over here. Still weightier were the reasons that influenced his successors in the administration of the theocracy of Islam from such a step. Mecca was far too remote from the then existing centres of civilisation to be a convenient vantage point for the world conquest considered by Islam as its appointed task, and as a capital from which to administer the empire which the first Caliphs were able to establish by force of arms. Even Medina seemed unsuited for the purpose, permanently. Then, when the Persian Empire, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain were subjected to Islam, Arabia, regarded politically, became a remote territory with a steadily decreasing significance.