Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-04-23

OlTCGI SSSH0
Prepared by the National Geograph So
ciety. Washington. D. CO.
Tearing away the caliphate from
Turkey gives something of shock to
Western conceptions OF the Near East
and Mohammedanism, for all recent
generations have grown to think of the
Turkish ruler and the Mohammedan
pontiff as inseparable. But if we look
far enough into the past we find that
the caliphate has been cuffed about
among most Of the important rulers Of
the Mohammedan world. In one way
it seems most appropriate that the
king of the Hedjaz, who has now been
proclaimed caliph by one section of the
Moslem world, should have this honor.
For his capital and residence is Mecca,
the unQuestioned holy city and point of
pilgrimage for the whole Mohammedan
world, from Natal to China, and from
Borneo to Sofia.
Geography conspires with religion to
make Hedjaz remote. Before the war
no region had been less accurately
mapped and contained more untrav-
ersed areas than Arabia. This seclu-
sion, in central Arabia, arises from the
vast desert area; Arabia's far west, or
Hedjaz, Is hermitage for other rea-
sons. There the mountain masses Of
broken granite, and lava surfaces
which resemble newly plowed field
Of many rocks, forestaH travel and
often forbid habitation.
Although physically 1t Is unproduc-
tive and unattractive and numerically
it can count less than 100000 souls,
from religious point Of view 1t Is
most important because it contains the
two most venerated shrines of Islam
Mecca, the birthplace of Mahomet, and
Medina, where the prophet is buried.
A still more ancient place of sepulcher,
though less revered, IL at Jiddah-
Mecca's seaport, though some sixty
miles away-where Ewes tomb is ex-
hibited to the credulous.
The possession of these holy places
gave the Hedjaz a position in the
Moslem world where the shareef of
Mecca frequently did not hesitate to
challenge the claim of the sultan at
Constantinople to be the Commander
of the Faithful-and during the Tur-
co-Italian war of 1911-1912 repeated
though futile efforts were made by
Italian agents to induce the Meccan
ruler to rise against the Osmanli pre-
tender. The allies succeeded where the
Italians failed.
Burton Told About Mecca.
The Hedjaz, though best known by
reputation of all Arabia, is still far
from open to the knowledge of traveller
or student. Mecca, it's largest and
most holy city, has always 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 Arabians; as no unbeliever is per-
mitted to enter the city, our travellers
are silent"
Yet Gibbon was In error. Varthelma,
Bolugnese explorer, vas there as
early as the Sixteenth century, and so
accurate were his observations that
they still serve for psychologists, as do
those of Pausanias for excavators in
Greece. Some two hundred years later
Joseph Pitts, an English lad from Exc
ter, impressed by the Barbary Corsairs,
was taken to the holy city, whence he
escaped to write a quaint record of his
experiences. But it remained for Sir
Richard Burton, that English embodi-
ment of all the talents, in the middle
OF the last century, to set down for
English readers the whole story of the
great shrines of Arabia.
Some scholars have identified the
ancient people of the Hedjaz with the
Amalekites Of the Scripture, and all
agree that, whatever their descent
their blood is pure. Their religion
however, has not passed so cleanly
through the centuries, though at Me
dina the faith is held much more prim
itively and fanatically than at Mecca
where generations trained in procuring
theiS livelihood from the pious pill
grips have had corrupting influence
AS all roads led to great and SPLEEN
did Rome two millenniums ago, now
| they lead to the rather tawdry capital
of the Hedjaz. set down in a bare
dusty, desert-rimmed valley of western
Arabia. More than 20O,00O,OO0 people
| cherish the hope-and indeed feel Il
to be their solemn religious duty-tt
| travel at least once the dusty road tt
the holy center of their faith. Prob
! ably 100000 Of them make the triI