The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-05-07

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| lPrsparsd by tho National Geogra PHO Sc
oisty. Washington d. c.
Tearing away the caliphate fror
Turkey gives something Of shock t
Western conceptions of the Near Eas
and Mohammedanism, for all recen
generations have grown to think Of tn
Turkish ruler and the Mohammedal
p0ntiff as inseparable. But If we looI
far enough into the past we find tina
the caliphate has been cuffed abou
among most Of the important rulers o.
the Mohammedan world. In one way
1t seems most appropriate that the
king of the Hedjaz, who has now beer
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, forestall travel and
often forbid habitation.
Although physically it is unproduc-
tive and unattractive and numerically
1t can count less than 100000 souls,
from a religious point of view it is
most important because 1t 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, Is at Judah
Meccas seaport, though some sixty
miles anywhere 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
-uler to rise against the Osmanli pre-
lender. The allies succeeded where the
italians failed
Burton Told About Mecca.
The Hedjaz, though best known by
equation of all Arabia, is still far |
rom open to the knowledge of traveller |
'r student. Mecca it's largest and |
most holy city, has always been held |
IS forbidden ground for the foreign
DOT; and as late as Gibbons time 1t |
vas lightly dismissed by that eminent
historian with the assertion that "our
lotions of Mecca must be drawn from
he Arabians; as no unbeliever is per-
1itted to enter the city, our travellers
re silent"
Yet Gibbon was in error Varthelna,
Bolognese explorer was there as
arly as the Sixteenth century, and so
ccurate were his observations that
hey still serve for psychologists, as do
hose of Pausanias for excavators in
reece. Some two hundred years later
oseph Pitts, an English lad from Exc
sr, impressed by the Barbary Corsairs,
'as taken to the holy city, whence he
scaped to write quaint record of his
zperiences. But 1t remained for Sir
Nd hot Itch |
tent of all the talents. in the middle
the last century. to set down for
nglish readers the whole story of the
reat shrines of Arabia.
Some scholars have identified the
1cient people Of the Hedjaz with the
malckites of the Scripture, and all
gree that, whatever their descent,
eir blood is pure. Their religion,
)wever, has not passed so Clearly
rough the centuries. though at Me-
ma the faith Is held much more prim
Ively and fanatically than at Mecca,
here generations trained in procuring
cir livelihood from the pious pill I
inns have had corrupting influence.
AS all roads led to great and splen- t
d Rome two millenniums ago, now t
ey lead to the rather tawdry capital S
the Hedjaz, set down in bare, f
lsty, desert-rimmed valley Of western r
-abia. More than 20O000,000 people 1
erish the hope-and indeed feel 1t S
be their solemn religious duty-to q
avel at least once the dusty road to 7
e holy center Of their faith. Prob \
'ly 100000 Of them make the trip q