Document describing Charles Crane's first conversation with King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, 25 February 1922

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Wednesday,  February 28.
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The first meeting with King Abdul Azia  Ibn S»ud  tooL
at &*$.m*ypn February 25 in  the  Talace.   The  King was attended ift threl
of his advioars,  it.  Crane was accompanied  by vr. /mtonius who  traits J
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The   !un^ welcomed  rr.   Crane who,   after arT^Tchalicol
L   said that he was particularly pleased  to find that iii& lmg<*i&%i\
Jre to neet the King In person had at last  been realised.  Gn hill
return from China, he had found His Majesty's invitation and had gladlj
availed |ximseIf of it.  He had followed  the King's career with close
interest for some yearst  and his interest was all the keener as  hakim
that  ilia  Majesty was all the   tiae  working,  and working successful!]
for the welfare of Islam.
V #
The King said  that he  greatly appreciated Jfcr.  Craneds  remarks
and  the interest he displayed*  He had known fir.  crane by name for
several years,  and was aware that his interest and sympathy were real
and genuine. He was delighted to make his acquaintance and to see him
looking so well.
rr.  Crane said that he had  travelled extensively in the world
of Islam,   but he had never been in Hejd. He was glad to have   the opport
unity of hear.ng facts about that country from its  ruler who could
give him a better picture of conditions  there  than any man alive.
V/hen he visited the town of Zubair,  about three years ago,  he was
struck by   the character of the place and the appearance  of its  inhabitants. He wished  to know whether he was right in thinking that zubair    |
had something of the characteristics of a town of Hejd.
The King replied  that that was so. Almost the whole  of  the
population of Zubair was of Hejdi  origin,   and the town,  el though
situated within the confines of Iraq,  was in every other respect a
very fair sample of what a small  town in Hejd would look like.
T. I
r.  Crane said that there were many questions of gre&.
interest toH&tja whichSie wished to" raise in  these  conversations. He.
would take them in turagand discuss  their various aspects as they went
along.  He was always  specially interested in  the spiritual side of a
movement,   but he knew that in Jlejd,  as in most Moslem countries,Jfth^
social and spiritual aspects  of  life were closely interwoven.  He would
first ask the King to tell him how his great scheme of settling the
Beduin in fixed colonies was working out.
The King said  that,  in order to answer this question adequate]
ly,  he would have  to give a general picture of   the background in which
the experiment had been born and carried out.  Twenty years ago, when
he had initiated his scheme of providing the nomadvpeduln with agrieult
ural settlements which should became their fixed homes,   he had been
guided in an equal degree by the religious as by  the social aspect of
the problem.  The religious aspect was,   to him,   a very important one.
Like his ancestors,  he regarded himself as a missionary in this   sense,
that he considered it one  of his primary duties to look after the
spiritual welfare of his people and spread the teachings and the practices of*-.true Islam among them,  among the nomadic as much as among the
settled populations.
%r.  Crane asked the King  to  begood  enough to  tell him before
proceeding further,  what the respective attitudes of the settled and
nomadic populations were in regard  to  religious feeling.
The King replied that the Beduin of Hejd were by nature inclined towards religion, but that they were apt, under bad example or
lack of guidance,   to  stray easily from the true practice  of  religion.
:.,r.  Crane asked to be informed how their religious
had been affected by  the spread  of  the  wahhabi  doctrine.
tents
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