Nor, except as an ally against the Turk, would a fanatical
reformer now find much sympathy in Arabia proper. The Peninsular Arabs
have had their Puritan reformation already, and a strong reaction has
set in amongst them in favour of liberal thought. They are in favour
still of reform, but it is of another kind from that preached by Abd el
Wahhab; and it is doubtful whether a new militant Islam would find many
adherents amongst them.
The only strong advocate of such views at the present day among true
Arabs in Arabia is the aged Sherif, Abd el Mutalleb, the Sultan's
nominee, who indeed has spared no pains, since he was installed at
Mecca, to fan the zeal of the North Africans. A Wahhabi in his youth, he
is still a fierce Puritan; and it is possible that, should he live long
enough (he is said to be ninety years old), he may be able to produce a
corresponding zeal in Arabia. But at present the mass of the Arabs in
Hejaz, no less than in Nejd and Yemen, are occupied with more humane
ideas. Abd el Mutalleb's chief supporters in Mecca are not his own
countrymen, but the Indian colony, descendants many of them of the Sepoy
refugees who fled thither in 1857, and who have the reputation of being
the most fanatical of all its residents.
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