Since these articles were published in Holland we have heard very little as to what is happening in and around Mecca. News has come that an attempt at administrative reconstruction has been made at Jiddah; that the new Shereef has appointed a special agent at Cairo in the person of Omar Bey al-Faruki; and that the new government has decided to publish a weekly paper called _Elkiblah_, which is to be edited by Fuad Effendi Khatib of Gordon College, Assuan. What is of greater importance is the alleged assistance offered to the Emir Husain by the Emir Abd al-Aziz ibn Sa’ud, the head of the Wahhabites in the Nejd――the district east of Medinah――and by the Zaidite Imam Yahyah in the Yemen against the Turkish troops stationed there. RICHARD GOTTHEIL. Dec. 23, 1916. Columbia University. CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD iii I THE SHEREEFATE OF MECCA 1 II THE SHEREEFATE OF MECCA (_Continued_) 15 III SHEREEF AND CALIPH 29 NOTE 41 APPENDIX PROCLAMATION OF THE SHEREEF OF MECCA 43 THE REVOLT IN ARABIA I THE SHEREEFATE OF MECCA How the public insists upon making a snap judgment on the significance of passing events is shown by the haste with which speculations are given out, speculations that are purely hypothetical because the truth of the reports that reach us can, as yet, be verified only approximately. According to a Reuter despatch, the Great Shereef of Mecca has revolted against Turkish authority and, at the head of his Arabs, has succeeded in forcing the capitulation of the garrisons of Mecca, Jidda, Ta’if, and Medina, and has seriously hampered the movements of Turkish troops, menacing to him, by the destruction of a section of the railroad from Medina to the north. Wolff’s Bureau, on the other hand, spreads a report of the “Milli Agency”――the Turkish National Agency――that a troop of Arabs, to whom robbery was no unaccustomed calling, had been persuaded by their captain, he being instigated by English marines, to bombard Mecca, that the Turkish troops had, however, speedily restored order, and that the raiders themselves, when it was proven that their leader had been seduced by English money to act thus basely, had delivered the miscreant to the Turkish authorities. If the German-Turkish statement be correct, the occurrence was insignificant and not deserving attention. If Reuter be right in the main point, then it is well worth while to consider what may be the possible consequences of the Arab movement.