putants were reported to be more friendly; but the frontier still remained undefined in 1921.
The Central Emirates. The emirate of Nejd, capital Riyadh, and that of Jebel Shammar to the N., capital Hail, comprise all the country between the main northern and southern deserts of Arabia. Between the twp emirates lie the oases of Qasim and Sedeir, the overlordship of which has been in dispute for more than two generations. The two emirs control, more or less effectively, all the peoples both settled and nomadic of central Arabia, and the authority of the emir of Nejd extends to El Hasa on the E. and to certain tribes of the Asir border and Wadi Dawasir on the W. and S. Wahabism, or its more modern manifestation the Akhwan movement, supplies the moral basis of the power of the emirate of Nejd, while the settled nature of the population is its material basis. The emirate of J. Shammar, on the other hand, grew out of the desert power of a great nomadic society accustomed to maintain a group of permanent villages and hamlets around J. Aja and Selma, which served as rallying places and as market centres. The Shammar emirate, while inferior to its rival in wealth and settled population and lacking its religious tie, owes its strength to the unity existing between its oasis folk and the tribes of the surrounding regions, to the patriarchal tie binding them, and to the stimulus of the steppe desert upon its life.
Nejd (see 19.351) comprises all the oasis groups situated about or on the Tuwaiq plateau, extending well over 500 m. from N. to S., and is directly or indirectly under the rule of Ibn Sa'ud of Riyadh. In addition, the emir lays claim to El Hasa, on the Persian Gulf between lat. 24 and 29 N. He drove the Turks from this district which they had occupied as a sanjaq of Basra since 1871 in May 1913, and was acknowledged by the Porte as vali of Nejd and El Hasa. He, however, effectively occupies only the Hofuf group of oases, with the ports of Qatif and 'Oqair. In 1914, Ibn Sa'ud entered into relations with the British Government Capt. Shakespear being appointed political officer in Riyadh and proved an unswerving ally throughout the World War. He declared himself definitely against Ibn Rashid, emir of J. Shammar, who had allied himself with the Turks. He fought a drawn battle with Ibn Rashid at Mejma' in 1915, the main point in dispute being the ownership of Qasim with the towns of 'Aneiza and Boreida; it was in this battle that Captain Shakespear was killed. His attitude towards the Hejaz, while war lasted, was friendly but formal. By 1918, after intermittent and generally successful campaigns against the emir of J. Shammar, Ibn Sa'ud had established his supremacy in central Arabia, including Qasim and Sedeir. His relations with the King of the Hejaz, in 1910-20, became less cordial, frequent disputes having arisen over the frontier question. He is believed to have steadfastly refused either spiritual or temporal allegiance to King Husein. Early in the summer of 1920, Ibn Sa'ud turned his attention to E. Arabia and instigated an attack on Kuwait, which port he is said to covet. Several actions took place but without definite result, and subsequently efforts were made on the part of the British Government to bring about a territorial agreement between the emir and the sheikh of Kuwait.
Before the World War, the authority of Ibn Rashid was su- preme in the group of oases about J. Aja and J. Selma; in the steppes N. of Qasim, from the Hejaz border (including the oasis of Teima) almost to Kuwait; and in the oasis of Jauf el A'mr. On the N. and E., the southern Nefudh and the Dahana formed a neutral zone between his territory and the nomad tribes beyond. Ibn Rashid's attitude in the World War was con- sistently pro-Turkish, though relations between him and the adherents of the Committee of Union and Progress were probably never cordial. The comparative ease with which the Turks could reach Hail, from either the Hejaz railway (at Mu'adhdham) or from Samawa and Nejef, contributed towards making him sensitive to Ottoman pressure. He was reported to have supplied the Turks with large numbers of camels, especially for the expedition against Egypt in 1915-6. As the World War pro- ceeded, his power diminished, both territorially and economically.
While Ibn Sa'ud was fighting the Turks in El Hasa (1913), Ibn Rashid was able to maintain his position; but, in 1915, an attempt on his part to overrun Qasim and Sedeir resulted in the loss of the towns of 'Aneiza and Boreida, and they were placed under tribute to Ibn Sa'ud. The oasis of Jauf, on the caravan road from Damascus to Hail, was seized in 1910 by the Ruweila tribe of the Anaza under Nuri esh Sha'lan, one of the most powerful and anti-Turkish of the nomad chiefs. Nuri had shown himself a successful rival of Ibn Rashid, for, in spite of deter- mined attempts on the part of the latter to regain the oasis (notably in 1914), he was not able to reestablish his authority in Jauf. The important oasis of Teima, also, reverted to the Hejaz in 1917. In the same year Ibn Rashid went to reside at Medain Salih and, for a year, did not set foot in his capital. In May 1920, his murder was reported.
Asir. The limits of this district are indeterminate, but broadly it comprises the country lying between the territory un- der the jurisdiction of the King of the Hejaz who claims control of the Tihama down to Qunfuda and that of the imam of Yemen. Its eastern limit is contiguous with Nejd. There is a strong political and social distinction between the people of the Tihama lowlands and those of the highlands which constitute Asir proper; and there is no part of Arabia where the tribal elements are so sharply defined and their boundaries less change- able. Settled tribes are the predominant element in Asir, as the physical conditions favour the pursuit of agriculture sufficiently to render nomadism unnecessary. In religion, practically all the tribes are Shafei Sunnites; Wahabism has a few adherents and its tenets are regarded sympathetically all over the district; but everywhere there is a strong antipathy to Zeidism.
Asir cannot be regarded as a political entity. In 1914, it fell into four parts sections acknowledging the Turks, the Idrisi of Abu 'Arish, and the sherif of Mecca respectively, and small groups of nomad tribes on the E. who recognized no authority. The Turks claimed the whole of Asir as the northern section of the vilayet of Yemen, but never succeeded in subduing the coun- try and, in reality, they only precariously held the inland towns and immediate surroundings of Ibha and Muhail and the port of Qunfuda, all of which they garrisoned. The authority of the Idrisi was restricted to a strip of the Tihama some 80 m. long and extending about 40 m. inland to the scarp of highland Asir, with Sabia as capital and Jeizan and Midi as ports. The influence of the sherif of Mecca was mostly confined to the Ghamid and Beni Shihir tribes on the inland side of the ridge.
Interest in Asir, during the World War, was centred on the Idrisi, Seyyid Mohammed. His aim throughout was to rid the district of Turkish control and to extend his own influence. By 1910, he had much reduced the Ottoman hold and, in 1911-2, subsidized and supplied by the Italians during their war with Turkey, he consolidated his position. In 1914, failing to obtain sufficient recognition of his power from the Turks, he declared himself definitely against them. He concluded an agreement with the British resident at Aden in May 1915, and was supplied by the Allies with material. He raised part of the Zaranik tribe and took the field, ostensibly against the Turks, with a nominal follow- ing of some 12,000 men and overran the Tihama of Yemen, but failed to capture Loheia, one of his main objectives.
In reality, his support of the Allies was not of a very positive character, as he was in constant fear of attack by the imam of Yemen; and the Turks held Ibha and Muhail, their strongholds in the interior, until the Armistice. He kept on good terms all the time with the King of the Hejaz. The actual extent of the Idrisi's control of Asir, at the beginning of 1921, still remained a matter of doubt; but his attitude towards the imam of Yemen continued to be hostile,' though there had been short periods of truce between them. In Feb., information reached England that Idrisi forces had occupied Hodeida.
Yemen. As in Asir, the social contrast between the highlands and lowlands is very marked, being the outcome of religious and racial differences reinforced by strongly contrasted geographical conditions. Broadly speaking, the central highland population is Zeidite (Shiah) and accepts the authority of the imam, whereas
