Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Revolt in Arabia (1917).djvu/13

iv receiving accurate information of that which is occurring in the "Holy Land" of Arabia.

No one living knows its history better than does Professor Snouck Hurgronje of the University of Leiden. To his vast knowledge upon all subjects connected with Mohammedanism and gained from an extensive reading of its literature, he has added personal observation during the year that he spent in Mecca and Jiddah. He has been able to get an insight into the various questions involved in its tangled history at the present day, and to learn at first hand of the parties which are rivals for leadership there. In the Dutch newspaper Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, July 14, 1916, Professor Snouck Hurgronje gave a lucid explanation of the situation created as he saw it, by the proclamation of the Emir. The following pages contain a translation