THE INDEPENDENCE OF ARABIA

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1791, 17 November 1879, Page 2

THE INDEPENDENCE OF ARABIA

A political and social movement of some importance (says a letter from Aleppo in the " St. JPetersburger Zeitung") is now in progress among the Arabs. Since 1875 the Arabs have looked upon the events which have taken place in the Turkish Empire as a sure sign of its coming downfall, and in December of that year the Arabian Messiah, as the Sheik of Derejah calls himself, issued an appeal to the Arabs urging them to take steps for their preservation in view of the disasters which were threatening the Empire. In this document he stated that "the Ehalifate usurped by the Ottomans was full of danger for all true believers, and especially for the Arabs. The fundamental idea of Islam —the emancipation of the world from the fetters of unbelief —has long been repudiated by the Sultans. Mahmoud 11. abolished without scruple the manners and customs of our ancestors, and even the principles of the Koran. The Turkish Empire still clothed itself in the rags of disfigured Islam, but its soul has already gone, and under AbdulMedjid and Abdul Aziz even the outer frame has fallen to pieces. Whence is salvation to come ? From Arabia, the home of Islam. Here must the sun appear that would inspire a new and rejuvenated life in the declining world of Maaommedanism." In the following year, a number of sheiks, ameers, ulemas, mollahs, and dervishes met at Derejah and debated for several weeks as to the best means of liberating Arabia from foreign rule. It was at length decided to establish a new political organisation with this object, the central committee— consisting of the sheik, five amoera, five ulemas, and three treasurera — being located at Derejah. This central committee has now established sub-committees in various parts of Arabia, consisting of the principal men of their respective districts. There is now no district of Arabia [to which the agents of the movement have not penetrated ; and at the beginning of the year 60,000 persons were enrolled as members, each tf whom has to pay fifty _ silver piastres to the sub-committee of his district, and to pledge himself on the Koran to hold in ! readiness such arms as the central committee might prescribe. Even in Mecca and Medina the majority of the ißhabitants belong to the organisation, and men go openly about the streets with party-colored Btones, denoting a member of the society, in their turbans. It is added that each sub-committee is now in a position to assemble all the members in each district, fully armed and equipped, at any point within the district at three weeks* notice. The funds of the society are said already to amount to nearly 6,000,000 «ilrer piautcs,