their hold on Mesopotamia, extending their conquests in Hassa and
trying to obtain the mastery of the Hejaz Bedouins. It fell in most
admirably with their plans, and an expedition set out at once. In
March, 1872, an army under command of Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha reached
Hodeidah. On April 25th the army entered Sana twenty thousand strong
and the city opened its gates without a battle. The conquest of the
country now proceeded; a force was sent to the region of Kaukeban,
north of Sana, another to the southern district of Anes and still
another to Taiz and Mocha. The conquest toward the south was limited
by the presence of England at Aden. For when the Turkish army advanced
to the domain of the independent Sultan of Lahaj who had a treaty
with England, the British Resident at Aden sent a small force of
artillery and cavalry to occupy the Lahaj territory. In consequence of
representations made at the same time by the English government to the
Sublime Porte, the Turkish army withdrew in December, 1873. In 1875 the
tribes bordering the southern boundary of Yemen rebelled against Turkey
but the rebellion was crushed.
When the army took Sana the Imam was deposed, but on account of his
religious influence over the Arabs was permitted to reside in the city,
receiving a pension on condition that he would exert himself in behalf
of Ottoman rule. This he fulfilled until his death when the birthright
as Imam passed to his relative Ahmed-ed-Din who also was nothing loth
to receive the honor of the Arabs and the money of the Turks.
Sana received a certain amount of civilization, more prestige and still
more commercial prosperity than in the older days. As for the country
in general it was divided and subdivided into provincial districts
and sub-districts; the peasantry were taxed and taxed again; military
roads were constructed by forced labor. The hill-tribes, who in the
times of the Imam had been left undisturbed in their agriculture and
who boasted an independence of centuries, were now little better than
slaves. Extortion ruined them, they hated the personality of the Turks
whose religion was not as their own; discontent smouldered everywhere
and was ready to burst into a flame. And this discontent was increased
from year to year as the caravan-drivers returned from their long
journeys to Aden and told of the greatest marvel ever heard of—a
righteous government and a place where justice could not be _bought_,
but belonged to every one—even the black skinned ignorant Somali. When
we remember that over 300,000 camels with their drivers enter Aden from
the north every year we can realize how widespread was this news. I can
testify to the world-wide difference between the municipal government
of Aden cantonment and that of the capital of Yemen under the Turks
as I saw it in 1891. When the Turks accused England of fomenting the
recent rebellions in Yemen they were right to the extent that if the
Yemen peasantry had not seen the blessed union of liberty and law at
Aden they would not seek to rise against the Turks.
In the summer of 1892 a body of 400 Turkish troops were sent to
collect by force the taxes due from the Bni Meruan who inhabit the
coast north of Hodeidah. The Turks were surprised by a large body of
Arabs and nearly annihilated. Wherever the news travelled the people
rose in arms. Tribal banners long laid away were unfurled and the cry
“long live the Imam” rang through mountain and valley. A new Jehad
was proclaimed and Ahmed-ed-Din was unwillingly forced to take the
leadership against the Turks. When the rebellion broke out the Turks
had only about 15,000 men in the whole of Yemen; and cholera had
wrought havoc among these. Ill-fed, ill-clothed, and unpaid; badly
housed in the rainy and cold mountain villages, they could nevertheless
fight like devils when led by their commanders. The Imam escaped from
Sana, and a few days later the capital was besieged by an enormous
force of Arabs. All the unwalled cities fell an easy prey to the
rebels, Menakha was taken after a short struggle; Ibb, Jibleh, Taiz,
and Yerim all declared themselves for the Imam. The Arabs treated their
foes with respect after their victory;[71] they were feeding Turkish
prisoners at the Imam’s expense and in many cases money was given the
soldiers to enable them to escape to Aden.
Meanwhile telegrams were sent to Constantinople from Sana and Hodeidah
beseeching assistance. The whole of Yemen, with the exception of the
capital and two smaller towns in the north with Hodeidah on the coast,
was in the hands of the rebels. An expedition reached Hodeidah, under
command of Ahmed Feizi Pasha, formerly governor of Mecca, which after
bombarding the villages on the coast north of Hodeidah, marched to the
relief of Sana. Without opposition the army reached Menakha and took
the town by storm; matchlocks and fuse-guns could not hold out against
field-guns and trained troops. About thirty miles beyond a desperate
attempt was made to stop the army of relief; in a narrow defile the
rebels under Seyid es-Sherai took up their position and for twelve days
withstood cavalry, infantry and artillery assaults; then they were
driven back and retired into the mountains. By hurried marches the
troops reached Sana and took the city. Military law was proclaimed and
a universal massacre of prisoners took place. A reward was offered for
the head of every rebel. Camel-loads of heads were brought into Sana
every day. The troops were turned loose to plunder the villages. There
is no nation in the world that can put down a rebellion as rapidly
as the Turks when they have a good-sized army, but they have great
objection to any one seeing the process.
By the end of January, 1893, all the cities of Yemen were reconquered
and the main roads were again open. But the spirit of rebellion lived
on and the brave mountaineers withdrew to the inaccessible defiles and
peaks only to plot further mischief. Telegraph-wires were cut; soldiers
were shot on the road; and once and again bold attempts were made to
blow up the Pasha’s house in Sana with gunpowder. In 1895 there was
rebellion in the north. In 1897-98 all Yemen was again in arms and the
uncertain and conflicting reports that reach the coast only emphasize
the serious character of the uprising.
On the map and in Turkish official reports the boundaries of Yemen join
those of Hejaz and extend many miles _east_ of Sana. This has never
been and is not now correct. Twenty-five miles north and east of Sana
there is no one who cares for a Turkish passport or dares to collect
Turkish taxes.
As to the future of Turkey in Yemen it is difficult to surmise. Rather
than risk further rebellions the Sultan may adopt a conciliatory
policy. But Yemen is too far from Constantinople to be governed from
there. Extortion is the only way open to a Pasha to enrich himself and
for soldiers to get daily bread where wages are not paid on time. When
the Pasha has filled his pocket his successor will try it a second time
and come to grief. Rebellion will be the chronic state of Yemen as long
as Turkey rules at Sana. The leopard cannot change his spots.
We now turn to notice the rule of the Turks in Northeastern Arabia,
and in their newly-acquired province of Hassa. Bagdad was taken by
the Turks in 1638 and that city has ever since been the capital of a
Turkish Province. It is unnecessary to enter here into the succession
of Pashas and rulers and the attempts to subjugate the Bedouin Arabs.
In 1830 the great plague visited all Mesopotamia and when epidemic was
at its height the river burst its banks and in one night 15,000 people
perished. In 1884 the vilayet of Busrah was separated from that of
Bagdad and has since remained under its own governor. The two provinces
have all the machinery of Ottoman rule in working order. Except for an
occasional outbreak among the Montefik Arabs, Turkey has no trouble to
hold Mesopotamia in her grasp. Nor is she at all willing that this rich
province should even dream of passing under other rulers. In the year
1891 the Turkish Official Bulletin gave the total revenue from taxation
in the Bagdad vilayet alone at 246,304 Turkish pounds.
It may be interesting to note in passing the various sources of
taxation-money. They are in brief: tax on Arab tents, exemption from
military service, tax on sheep, buffaloes, camels, tax on mines (salt),
tax on special privileges, tax on forests and timber, tax on fishing,
custom dues, tax on shipping, on irrigation, on farming improvements;
“receipts from tribunals” (£3,000 tax on justice!) and beside all
this “taxes diverses” and “revenues diverses” to make up the budget.
All this is legal, ordinary taxation. But the actual conditions of
Turkish misrule made it impossible to exercise the inalienable rights
of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without continual
backsheesh to every official.
The population of Mesopotamia, Moslem and Jew and Christian are
thoroughly weary of Turkish misrule, but no one dares to lift up a
voice in protest. They have become accustomed to it; and there is
nothing else but to bear it patiently. As for the nomads they have
either, like the Montefik, settled down along the rivers to cultivate
the soil and eke out a miserable existence, or, like the Aneyza and
Shammar tribes, they are as thoroughly independent of the Sultan as
when they first appeared in his borders.
Turkish Arabia on the north is represented on most maps by a regular
curved line starting from the Persian Gulf and ending at the Gulf
of Akaba; but the line is purely imaginary. Turkish rule does not
extend far south of the banks of the Euphrates, and the whole desert
region from Kerbela to the Dead Sea and the Hauran is practically
independent.[72] Outside of Bagdad and Busrah even the river towns are
frequently threatened by the nomads, and Turkish soldiers have often to
guard the river steamers against pirates. Military rule is in vogue two
hundred years after the occupation of the country, and the nomads are
nomads still. The commander-in-chief of the Sixth Ottoman army corps
resides at Bagdad, and a good number of soldiers occupy the barracks in
the city of the old caliphs.
In Turkey all Moslems over twenty years of age are liable to military
conscription, and this liability continues for over twenty years.
Non-Moslems pay an annual exemption tax of about six shillings per
head. The army consists of _Nizam_ or regulars, _Redif_ or reserves,
and _Mustahfuz_ or national guard. The infantry are supposed to be all
armed with Martini-Peabody rifles, but in Mesopotamia older patterns
are still in use. The life of a Turkish soldier is not enviable; and
none of them would be volunteers for government service. The Turkish
navy is represented in the Persian Gulf and on the rivers by one or two
third-rate cruisers and a small river gunboat.
The result of the calling of Turkey into the Wahabi quarrel between
the two sons of Feysul, was the occupation of Katif and Hassa by the
Ottoman government. Since that time (1872) Hassa has been a part of the
Busrah vilayet, and the Pasha, who resides at Hofhoof, has the title
Mutaserif Pasha of Nejd. Continual troubles with the Arabs mark the
history of the occupation of Hassa; the caravan routes are not as safe
as in the dominions of the Amir of Nejd; the whole country shows decay
and lack of government; taxation of the pearl fishers has driven many
of them to Bahrein; the peninsula of Katar is occupied by a garrison,
but that does not prevent continual blood feuds and battles between
the Arab tribes. The Ottoman government has established an overland
post-service between Hofhoof and Busrah as between Bagdad and Damascus,
but both routes are unsafe and slow. Most of the Hofhoof merchants use
the British Post Office at Bahrein; and so do the government officials.
[Illustration: Flags that rule Arabia.]
XXII
BRITISH INFLUENCE IN ARABIA
“The English, said the old Arab Sheikh in reply, are like ants; if one
finds a bit of meat, a hundred follow.”—_Ainsworth._
“Oman may, indeed, be justifiably regarded as a British dependency.
We subsidize its ruler; we dictate its policy; we should tolerate no
alien interference. I have little doubt myself that the time will
come ... when the Union Jack will be seen flying from the castles of
Muscat.”
“I should regard the concession of a port upon the Persian Gulf to
Russia by any power as a deliberate insult to Great Britain, as a
wanton rupture of the _status quo_ and as an international provocation
to war; and I should impeach the British minister, who was guilty of
acquiescing in such surrender, as a traitor to his country.”
—_Lord Curzon_, Viceroy of India.
In sketching the relations of England to the peninsula, we will
consider: Her Arabian possessions and protectorates; her supremacy
in Arabian waters, her commerce with Arabia; her treaties with Arab
tribes; and her consulates and agencies in Arabia.
Of all British possessions in Arabia, Aden is by far the most
important, on account of its strategic position as the key not only of
all Yemen, but of the Red Sea and all Western Arabia. Aden was visited
as early as 1609 by Captain Sharkey of the East India Company’s ship
“Ascension.” He was at first well received, but afterward imprisoned
until the inhabitants had secured a large ransom. Two of the Englishmen
on board refusing to pay were sent to the Pasha at Sana. In 1610
an English ship again visited Aden and the crew were treacherously
treated. In 1820, Captain Haines of the Indian navy visited Aden, and
in 1829 the Court of Directors entertained the idea of making Aden
a coaling-station, but the idea was abandoned. In consequence of an
outrage committed on the passengers and crew of a buggalow wrecked
near Aden, an expedition was despatched against the place by the
Bombay government in 1838. It was arranged that the peninsula of Aden
should be ceded to the British. But the negotiations were anything but
friendly, and in January, 1839, a force of 300 Europeans and 400 native
troops in the “Volage” and “Cruizer” bombarded and took the place by
storm.
This was the first new accession of territory in the reign of Queen
Victoria. Immense sums of money have been spent in fortifying this
natural Gibraltar and in improving its harbor. Four times the Arabs
have attempted to take Aden by land, each time with fearful loss and
without success. By sea Aden is impregnable; only the initiated know
the strength of its mole-batteries, mines, forts and other defences;
and every year new defences are constructed and old ones strengthened.
Aden has become a great centre for trade, and is one of the chief
coaling depots in the world. It bars the further advance of Turkey into
South Arabia, guarantees independence and good government to all the
neighboring petty states, and is an example of good government to all
Arabia and the African coast. The settlement is politically subject
to the Bombay Presidency and is administered by a Resident with two
assistants. Since the opening of the Suez canal, trade has steadily
increased and Turkish custom extortions at Hodeidah direct the caravan
trade more and more to Aden from every part of Yemen.
The island of Socotra and the Kuria Muria islands are also attached
to Aden, together with the Somali Coast in Africa. Socotra has an
area of 1,382 square miles and about 10,000 inhabitants. It came
under British protection in 1886 by treaty with its Sultan. The Kuria
Muria group was ceded to the British by the Sultan of Muscat, for the
purpose of landing the Red Sea cable; the islands are five in number
and have rich guano deposits. The island of Kamaran is also classed
as belonging to the British Empire.[73] It is a small island in the
Red Sea, some miles north of Hodeidah; it is only fifteen miles long
and five wide, and has seven small fishing-villages. But it has a
good sheltered anchorage and is the quarantine Station for all Moslem
pilgrims from the south to Mecca.
The Bahrein Islands are also included in the British Empire, although
Turkey still claims them as her own and the native ruler imagines that
he is independent. “The present chief Sheikh Isa owes the possession
of his throne entirely to British protection which was instituted in
1867. Sheikh Isa was again formerly placed under British protection in
1870 when his rivals were deported to India.” The Political Resident
at Bushire superintends the government of the islands to as great an
extent as is deemed diplomatic.
Perim at the southern end of the Red Sea was taken possession of in
1799 by the East India Company and a force was sent from Bombay to
garrison the island. But it was found untenable at that time as a
military position and the troops were withdrawn. Perim was reoccupied
in the beginning of 1857. The lighthouse was completed in 1861, and
quarters were built for a permanent garrison.[74]
We may also consider the possessions of Egypt in Arabia as practically
under English protection. Since the British occupation, the peninsula
of Sinai and the Red Sea litoral on the Arabian side, nearly as far as
Yembo is under the Governor-General of the Suez canal.
England not only possesses the key positions on the coasts of Arabia,
but has for many years held the naval supremacy in all Arabian waters.
As the Dutch succeeded the Portuguese and established trading-stations
in the Persian Gulf and in the Red Sea, so England followed the Dutch.
The East India Company was at Aden and Mocha in the beginning of
the seventeenth century, and in 1754 the English East India Company
established itself at Bunder Rig, north of Bushire, and later at
Bushire itself, supplanting the Dutch. The island of Karak in the north
of the Gulf was twice occupied by the British, in 1838 and in 1853.
After the bombardment of Bushire in 1857 and of Mohammerah in the same
year, hostilities ceased and Karak was again evacuated. The island
of Kishm, in the southern part of the Gulf, was during the greater
part of the present century, a British military or naval station. The
Indian naval squadron had its headquarters first at El Kishm, then at
Deristan and finally for many years at Bassadore. In 1879 because of
the insalubrity of the climate the last company of Sepoys was withdrawn
to India. But the island is still in a sense considered British. As
early as 1622 the Persians and the British expelled the Portuguese from
Ormuz and shortly after, in common with the Dutch and French set up
trading factories at Gombrun, (now Bunder Abbas). In 1738 the English
Company established an agency at Busrah and much of their Gulf business
was shifted to that port. Since 1869 there has been a telegraph station
at Jask with a staff of six English officials; here the land and marine
wires of the Indo-European telegraph meet and join India to the Gulf.
The Sultanate of Oman, since 1822, has been in the closest relations
possible with British naval power. At several critical periods in Oman
history, it was Great Britain that helped to settle the affairs of
state. In 1861 a British commissioner arbitrated between two claimants
for the rule of Muscat and Zanzibar, then one kingdom, and divided
the Sultanate. Since 1873 the Sultan of Muscat has received an annual
subsidy from the British government. Near Cape Musendum, on the Arabian
side of the Gulf, the British once occupied a place called Malcolm’s
Inlet when they were laying the telegraph cable from Kerachi to the
Gulf in 1864. Five years later it was transferred to Jask. From 1805
to 1821 there were British naval encounters with the pirates of the
Gulf, and since that date all piracy in these waters has ceased.[75]
British naval supremacy established peace at Bahrein and has protected
its native government since 1847. When in 1867 the native ruler, “a
crafty old fox” as Curzon calls him, broke the treaty, the bombardment
of Menamah brought further proof of British naval supremacy. Kuweit
was for a time (1821-22) the headquarters of the British Resident
at Busrah; and, semi-independent of Turkey, is now becoming wholly
dependent on England—another indication of British naval supremacy.
Even at Fao, Busrah and Bagdad British gunboats often keep the peace
or at least emphasize authority. In a word Great Britain holds the
scales of justice for all the Persian Gulf litoral. She guarantees a
_pax Brittanica_ for commerce, she taught the Arab tribes that rapine
and robbery are not a safe religion; where they once swept the sea with
slave-dhows and pirate-craft they have now settled down to drying fish
and diving for pearls. For the accomplishment of this subject England
has spent much both in treasure and in lifeblood. Witness the graves of
British soldiers and marines in so many Gulf ports. The testimony of an
outsider, is given in a recent article in the _Cologne Gazette_, which
thus describes the political and naval supremacy of England in Eastern
Arabia and the Persian Gulf:
“A disguised protectorate over Oman and control over the actions of the
Sultan of Muscat; actual protectorate over Bahrein; coaling station on
the island of Kishm, in the Straits of Ormuz; presence of a political
Resident at Bushire who, with the help of an association called the
Trucial League, decides all disputes between Turkish, Arab, and Persian
chiefs in the Persian Gulf.... This league gives the English a constant
pretext for intervention; the object of keeping peace and policing the
gulf is only a pretence.... All events on the Persian Gulf, however
disconnected apparently, are really dependent on each other through
the Trucial League. It is a confused tangle of hatreds and jealousies
whose threads are united in the hands of the Resident at Bushire....
Russia shows an indifference which is quite incomprehensible
considering the interest she has and must have in these affairs. One
could recount numerous instances where English agents have injured
Russian interests without meeting with any opposition. The Russian
Consul in Bagdad is thrust into the background by the activity of his
British colleague. Southern Persia, the gulf, Eastern Arabia, and
the Land of Oman have fallen completely within the English sphere of
influence. This state of affairs has not been officially ratified, but
exists as a fact. That will last till some movement comes about to
restore the proper balance. Meanwhile, the English are the masters.
They are so accustomed to manage the whole Persian Gulf that if the
least thing occurs that they have not foreseen or themselves arranged
they completely lose all self-control.”
But the supremacy of England in the Gulf and on the other coasts of
Arabia is hers not only because of gunboats and gunpowder. It is most
of all by the arts of peace that she has established and glorified her
power on the Arabian litoral. It must never be forgotten, for example,
that the magnificent surveys of the entire 4,000 miles of Arabian coast
were the work of British and Indian naval officers; by means of this
survey, completed at great cost, commerce has been aided and navigation
of the dangerous waters east and west of Arabia has been made safe.
England too is the only power that has established lighthouses; _e.
g._, at Aden, Perim, in the Red Sea and lately on Socotra. England laid
the cables that circle Arabia; from India to Bushire and Fao connecting
with the Turkish overland telegraph system; from Aden to Bombay and
from Aden to Suez through the Red Sea. These cables were not the work
of a day but were laid with great expense and opposed by the very
governments they were intended to benefit.
Again, Arabia has two postal systems and two only. In the Turkish
province of Yemen there is a weekly post between the capital and the
chief towns to the coast; in Hejaz there is a post to Mecca; and in
Mesopotamia and Hasa there is another Turkish postal system notorious
for its slowness and insecurity. For the rest all of Eastern and
Southern Arabia are dependent on the Indian Postal system; the whole
interior is ignorant of a post office or of a postman. The government
of India has post offices at Muscat, Bahrein, Fao, Busrah and Bagdad
with regular mail service, and the best administration in the world.
The English post carries the bulk of the mail between Busrah and
Bagdad while Bahrein is really the post office for all Eastern Arabia;
pearl-merchants at Katar and in Hasa mail their letters at Bahrein and
even the Turkish government needs the English post to communicate with
Busrah from Hasa.