ABSTRACT

The Ethiopian drove through the desert rounding al Murabba‘a palace from the north at a respectful distance from the wall and without even touching the outskirts of the town we came upon the metalled road to Amir Sa‘ud’s new abode. Amir Sa‘ud had then called in the assistance of the Americans of Al Kharj whose own irrigation ditches were lined with thousands of tamarisk trees. They said that the uprooting and transport through fifty miles of desert, even if it were done at night time, would kill most of the trees. The Amir replied that he would be content if they lived only for the few days of the royal neighbour’s visit. The reality was that in the garden of an-Nasriyya we had witnessed not a return to an Arabian Night of Harun ar-Rashid but a demonstration that what should have been the last bulwark of Wahhabism was in full retreat from advancing materialism.