ABSTRACT
In December 1925, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud finally captured Jeddah from the forces of King Ali, the son of ex-King Husain of the Hijaz, and brought to an end the struggle between the House of Hashim and the House of Saud which had been pursued intermittently since 1917. St John Philby, who had yet to attach himself more closely to Abd al-Aziz’s entourage, believed, in the words of the United States Consul at Aden, that Abd al-Aziz could easily have taken Jeddah whenever he felt like it, but he preferred to wait until that city should fall into his hands ‘like an overripe apple’. 2 Sir Gilbert Clayton, who had spent October and early November in the vicinity of Jeddah concluding the Bahra and Hadda agreements with Abd al-Aziz, 3 gave a more convincing rationalisation:
I think he is holding his hand in order to appreciate more fully the impression which his capture of Mecca (in October—November 1924) has produced on the Moslem world in general, and — as regards Jedda — in fear lest some harm should come to the foreign consuls if he took the place by storm 4
