BOOKS OF THE WEEK
A Great Ruler
Arabian Jubilee. By H. StJ. B. Philby. (Robert Hale. 30s.) GIVEN Mr. Philby's knowledge, industry and opportunities this was bound to be an important book. It contains a unique picture of a great ruler, and it gives as background much historical material of varying but at best of great value. Of particular interest and import- ance is the full account of events and politics in Eastern Arabia and the Persian Gulf in the years before the First World War. The accounts of Ibn Saud's talk are-fascinating : whether he is describing desert warfare, discussing religion, concessions or international politics, or imitating, not unfairly, Gertrude Bell ; and if we some- times feel that the accounts might have been even more interesting it is because Ibn Saud's own story of the capture of Riyadh is much more dramatic than Mr. Philby's.
There is nothing in this book to show that H.M. Government were mistaken in believing that the Sharif Hussein could give the Allies more help than Ibn Saud (their backing of-Hussein against Ibn Saud after the war was another matter) ; but in contrasting the two rulers greatly to Hussein's disadvantage Mr. Philby is on solid ground: If the two had met, Ibn Saud might have blocked his own career by his own personality, for Hussein would surely have recognised his superiority as a statesman and a leader, and might have respected him as much as the Imam of the Yemen was to do, and so given no provocation for .a Wahhabi attack. This might have been bad for Arabia, as Mr. Philby believes, for Hussein could not maintain order and could not even protect the pilgrims from the tribes on the Medina road.
Mr. Philby rightly shows that the political talents of the young tribal shaikh grew easily into the wisdom required in international politics. He also shows, however, that the personal rule which dealt with all the affairs of a group of tribes could not keep a hand, in spite of the efforts made, on all the details of a large and wealthy State, and that the administration has suffered in consequence. As a remedy Mr. Philby recommends the formation of an executive Council of Ministers, for which he thinks there is plenty of good material. He would cheerfully see in high position in Saudi Arabia non-Saudi Arabs—such as that Rashid Ali, whose policy in Iraq in 1941 endangered the Allied cause—but such an. appointment would be ruled out by the wisdom and sense of propriety which Ibn Saud has always shown. Mr. Philby confirms the well-known fact that disagreement with British policy about Palestine and other questions has never made Ibn Saud swerve from his early friendship with Great Britain.
Those who wondered with some apprehension what would be the effect of sudden wealth on the Wahhabi virtues find their worst fears justified by the author, who describes with regret the extrava- gance with which much of the income from oil, a wasting asset, is dissipated. He considers that the character of the Wahhabi has deteriorated, and he attributes the deterioration to easy money and to contact with the Hejaz and the West, but he .does not ask why virtues which in the days of austerity seemed so firm could disinte- grate so easily. Many readers would have liked to know whether in the author's opinion polygamy and slavery, especially female slavery, had anything to do with this, as,perhaps the first objects of newly acquired wealthy As to polygamy, Mr. Philby concludes comfortably that it is better to have a low standard which everyone can reach rather than a high one of which many will necessarily fall short - and of slavery as an institution he says nothing, except that Ibn Saud would not allow to H.M. Government any right of inter- vention in the matter.
Slavery in the Ottoman Dominions was abolished by the Consti- tution in 1908, but this had no practical effect in Arabia, not even in the Hejaz, where the Turks exercised effective sovereignty ; and King Hussein and King Ibn Saud both maintained the institution as being sanctioned by the Quran. The attempts by Great Britain to exercise at Jidda the right of manumission which she had enjoyed throughout the Ottoman Dominions before 1908 produced little advantage...and much friction, and the right was abandoned when Pm Saud promulgated a decree prohibiting the introduction into his realm of any person alleged to be a slave and not proved by a cer- tificate to have been a slave before a given date. If strictly applied, this decree should lead in time to the extinction of slavery in Saudi Arabia. It would have been of great interest to learn from Mr. Philby whether the decree is in fact having this effect. Is it true, as some reports aver, that young persons are sometimes smuggled in from the Mahan coast as slaves, under false certificates ? Is it possible that the Saudi Arabian Government may follow the example of Turkey in abolishing slavery, or the example of' Great Britain who in 1834 paid £20 millions to redeem the slaves in the West Indies ?
Mr. Philby's book is rich in cliches (e.g. hinc illae lacrimae twice), and it would have been better without the lapses in taste where he addresses Ibn Saud in the language used by the Psalmist to God and compares Ibn Saud and himself to Christ and John the Baptist. In these and other respects the second edition might be a great improvement on the first, but the first is a valuable work of biography
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