ABSTRACT
Turkey, nominally the seat of the Khalifate, and really the heir of the temporal power of the great days of Islam, had for centuries been part of Arabia’s history, and therefore could scarcely be considered as the outside world. Now a new influence, that of a power which was not Muslim, or even oriental, slowly came to bear on Ibn Sa‘ud. Great Britain had long been on the threshold of Arabia but had hitherto refrained from penetrating into the interior. However, world politics intervened. The turn of the wheel in the history of Central Arabia can conveniently be presented in the persons of two Arab rulers with two British envoys: the Sherif Husain and Ibn Sa‘ud and, respectively attached to them, Lawrence and Philby. Ibn Sa‘ud had thus lost much of his importance in the eyes of Britain as compared with King Husain and his sons.
