Norwich bulletin., 1917-04-03
THE WAR PRIMER
By National Geographic Society

The Hejaz-The disemberment of Turkey in Europe has progressed rapidly in the past four years; and the dismemberment Of Asfatic Tur key has now begun-if the recent erection of the Kingdom of the Hejaz shall stand as a permanent result Of the present war. The statements which follow have been prepared by the National Geographic Society and issued as a war geography bulletin form it's Headquarters in Washington.
 ''The Hejaz was province of Ara bia. Its western boundary extends along the coast of the Red Sea from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to point about sixty miles south of Mecca: it's eastern limits are elusive: dnd it's northern frontier is even more shadowy, because nobody can. tell with certainty where tho great Arabian des- srt nerges with that of Syria. Physi- cally it is unproductfve and unattrac- tive: numerically it can count less than 200, 900 souls: but from religious point of view it is most important be- cause it contains the two most ven- erated shrines of Islam-Meccal the birthplace of Mahomet, and Medina, where the Prophet is buried. A still more ancient place of sepulchre. though sea port. though some sixty miles away where Eve's tomb is exhibited to the rreduIous.
 "The possession of these holy places a Ioslem world where the Shareef of Mecca has frequently not hesitated to challenge the claim of the Sultan at Constantinople to be the Commander of the F'aithful-and during the Fur co-Italian war of 1911 -1912 repeated though futile efforts were made by Italian agents to induce the Meccan ruler to rise against the Osman1i pre- tender. The Allies have now sue ceeded where the Italian failed; but k.-I tzzE- us potent as the Impression produced iu the Shareef,s mind by the repeated insults which the Young Turks had launched against his people and which eliminated in a campaign of persecu- ton against the Arabs, coupled with the hurniliating statement that the Present rulers of Turkey did not deem the inhabitants of the Hejaz endowed with any qualities beyond those Dos ~essed by the meanest people of the waste deserts and that Constantinople was tired of hearing from the He5az about its fallen worth
 "Shareef Hussein Ibn Ali looked upon this as a mean return for his though he had been an imperially favored resident of the Turkish cap ital in the days of the old regime; and he lost little time in pfoclaiming the independence of his land and his own royal state. Hussein is reputed as a man of force and intelligence: and few doubt his ability to maintain himself and his land ir their new po- sition.
 'sThe Hejaz. though best known of all Arabia, is still far from open to -he knowledge of traveller or student. Mecca, itslargest and most holy city has salways been held as forbidden ground for the foreign foot; and as late as Gibbons time it was lightly dismissed by that eminent historian with the assertion that our notions of Mecca must be drawn from the Ara bians; as no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are eilcnt!'
 "Yet Gibbon was in error. Var tnelma, BoloEnese explorer, was there as early as the Sixteenth Cen tury. and so accurate were his ob- servations that they sill serve for archaeologists as do those of Pausan-