ABSTRACT
Between the years 1918 and 1926 Abd al-Aziz and Great Britain attempted to settle their outstanding differences which had originated, directly or indirectly, from the juxtaposition of their territories and from Britain’s delimitation of nation-states and borders in the post-World War I mandate period. Britain had begun to view Saudi authority with increasing trepidation after the Saudi thrust into Jabal Shammar in 1921 placed it in direct contact with the mandated territories of Iraq and Transjordan and alongside the Imperial Air Route. While the British sought to establish fixed territorial units with legal rights of interdictory power, Abd al-Aziz sought elastic boundaries capable of adjustment according to shifting political and ecological balances. In addition, the Saudi leader feared the establishment of an arc of Hashimite authority under European aegis across his northern frontier, since this would contain his own authority and threaten the security of Najd. Not only did the Al Saud regard these northern territories as their own family possessions; neither they nor the Ikhwan accepted the political or religious authority of the Hashimites. Ikhwan raids were instigated by the Al Saud against al-Hijaz, Iraq, Kuwait and Transjordan as they sought to regain what they considered was their lawful right as Arab and Islamic leaders.
