Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-17

of Turkey and have driven his governors
and his soldiers out of Arabia. In the pres
ent case Sheik Mahnud Yohia, the leader Of
the rebels, obtains his military supplies
from the young Turkey party the Mace
DOMAIN committee and the Armenans- The
arms, ammunition and other supplies are
purchased In France and are shipped from
Marseflles to several different ports on the
Red sea and the Persian gulf, where they
are distributed. Much of the funds are
contributed by Christians, but If the Ara
bian rebels were aware of that fact they
would not accept them. They are very
fanaticaL They kill and drive away all
: Christians who appear in their territory,
and. are under the impression that all their
outside help comes from the young Turkey
party and other Mosle ms.
Tenets of the Wahabites.
The Wahabites, as the followers of Abdul
Wahab, the great Moslem reformer, are
called, claim to be the orthodox sect of
Islam, and they differ from other adherents
of that faith on several important points
Abdul Wahab taught that Moflammed the
Prophet never claimed divine power during
his lifetime, and therefore he did not ask
and is not entitled to reverence as a divin-
fty. He was a human being, and lived and
died as such. Hence the worship of Mo-
manned and his sepulcher is idolatry
Abdul Wahab forbade pilgrmages to Mecca
and Medina, destroyed the temples and rel
les in those cities and dried up the Zam-zam
springs. which claim to be miraculous.
2 Monammed left no successors and had
no authority to beStow his power and as
the head of the church upon any other in
dividual. Furthermore, the present sultan
and all of his predecessors of the House of
Osman, since 1899, have been impostors.
His ancestors overcame and drove out the
real heads of the church.
3. No Islam has the right to enslave fell
low believer in that religion, as the sultan
Is doing; Abdul Wahab forbade slavery and
proclaimed the universal equality and broth
erhood of all Moflammedans
4. He forbade the payment of tribute to
Constantinople as against the teaching of
the Koran ana claimed that whatever is
contributed by people In the way of taxes
should be used to supply their own needs
8. He advocated seIf-government of all
tribes of Moslems.
o. AS the Puritan of Islam he forbade
the use OF coffee and tobacco well as
wine and liquor, condemned polygarny and
declared the Turkish sultans infidels be-
cause of their plurality of wives
Inc Wahabite rebellion of today Is more
serious than any of its predecessors be-
cause the Arabs have better arms and am
muntion and are better supplied with ami
mails. Three armies have been sent against
them from Turkey during the last year,
and each one of them has been destroyed
ana practically exterrninated This has
been serious drain upon the resources of
the sublime porte and, as the rebellious
Arabs do not seem to have suffered to any
extent, the fate of armies that are sent
down there in the future Is likely to be the
same as Of those that have been sent in
the past. Those who are familiar with the
situation claim that the rebels and the des-
ert Will swallow up all the troops the
Great Turk can send and that he can &C
complish nothing. On the other hand It is
difficult for the Arabs to separate them
selves from the Turkish empire, because
they are divided into tribes whose leaders
are not only jealous but hostile towards
each other. They would not agree to a
centralized government, and they would not
in1ure the sultan or weaken his authority
nation and establish their right to govern
Arabia as distinct from the Ottoman en-
pire. They could only humiliate him.
Policy of the Sultan.
1t is frequently asserted by those who
have knowledge of Arabia that II the
Wahabite movement had been successful a
century ago Arabia would by this time
have been a highly civilized and fiourishing
country, because the influences behind 1t
were progressive and its tendencies were TO
purify, improve and elevate. In 1918, when
the second Wahabite rebellion occurred, the
Turks destroyed everything that was of
value In Arabia and the people have never
recovered from that devastation. It is the
policy of the sultan to destroy and to keep
his subjects in poverty. He goes on the |
theory that the less money they have the
less they will spend for arms and ammuni- |
ton to resist his authority; the less they |
have to eat, the weaker they will be, and
therefore in Arabia, in all other parts |
of the Turkish empire, progress ceased |
generations ago; the country is less adj |
vanced and the people are not so well OF |
as In the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
fury. Nevertheless, there is great deal |
of business done In Arabia
No census has ever been taken and esti- |
mates of the population vary from fve TO |
twelve millions. No statistics of commerce |
are kept but 1t is estimated that the ex- |
ports amount to about seventeen millions |
and the imports to about thirteen millions |
a year Consul Masterson of Alden reported |
not long ago that the imports for 1908 |
amounted to s15,90S, 642 and the exports to |
$13. $40 615. He said that 81, 43S,8S1 of the |
imports came from the United States and |
81 332 102 of the exports were sold there.
chiefly sheep and goat skins and coffee The |
imports from the United States were cotton |
goods kerosene oil and vehicles.
Trade and Resources Of Arabia.
The city of Alden has commerce of |
about thirty millions a year, but 1t is an |
English colony and Is a distributing point |
not only for Arabia, but for Nubia. Abys- |
sinia and all that part of the world. The |
coffee trade of Arabia has been falling off |
for many years. The trees have been af- |
hicted with destructive rests; the cuitiva- |
ton and gathering of the crops have been |
by war, and very little Mocha |
coffee not more than "a, 600 600 worth alto |
gether, is exported The most of 1t goes |
to Turkey and Egypt Although you can |
In OF.