Soldiers of the Prophet

etween the Hejaz railway and the south-eastern shores of the Dead Sea. From time to time numbers of European travellers have visited Kerak, though remarkably few have penetrated into the inhospitable wilds which stretch away from the Dead Sea towards Jauf. To anyone standing on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem and looking down over the shining levels of the Dead Sea, the high ground immediately above Kerak is plainly visible, though the town itself is hidden from view. The physical geography of this wonderful country forms an interesting study, for here we have a river which close to its source flows through a lake 682 feet below sea-level, and finally empties itself into another lake which is no less than 1300 feet below that level. By a strange coincidence the latter figures also represent the depth of the Dead Sea. Towards the close of November 1910, the Sublime Porte, acting directly on the advice of the then Wali of Damascus, sanctioned the despatch of a small force to Kerak to strengthen the garrison of that town whilst the new orders regarding disarmament and the enrolling of conscripts were being carried out. The troops selected for this purpose had formed part of the Hauran Expeditionary Force, which was just then being broken up. The work of disarmament and conscription had been so easily and successfully accomplished amongst the Druses that the Wali of Damascus had no difficulty in persuading the central Government to adopt a similar procedure with r...