Lieutenant-Colonel Gerard Evelyn Leachman, CIE, DSO (27 July 1880, Petersfield, Hampshire [1] – 12 August 1920, Iraq) was an English soldier and intelligence officer who travelled extensively in Arabia.
Leachman was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment on 20 January 1900, and the following month left with his battalion for service in South Africa during the Second Boer War. [2] He served there until the end of the war, in June 1902, and left Cape Town in the SS Bavarian in August, returning to Southampton the following month. [3] He later served in India, but spent most of his career as a political officer in Mesopotamia, where he was instrumental in pacifying warring tribes to bring stability to the new country. Leachman also made various expeditions further south into Arabia, where he contacted Ibn Sa'ud on behalf of the British government. He travelled as a naturalist of the Royal Geographical Society, but was in fact a British agent.
With his dark, Semitic looks and skill at riding a camel, Leachman was easily able to pass as Bedouin and often travelled incognito. [4]
Leachman's first major expedition south into the Arabian Peninsula was in 1909, during which he was involved in a ferocious battle between the Anaiza and Shammar tribes near Ha'il. He was awarded Macgregor Memorial medal for reconnaissance in 1910. [5] In 1912 Leachman made a second expedition with the intention of crossing the Rub Al Khali, but was refused permission by Ibn Sa'ud when he reached Riyadh and instead went to Hasa. He was the first Briton to be received by Ibn Sa'ud in his home city.
In December, 1915, during the Siege of Kut, the British commanding officer, Major General Charles Townshend, ordered Leachman to save the British cavalry by breaking out and riding south. This he did and the cavalry were the only British unit to escape before the fall of the city to the Ottomans.
Leachman was close to Gertrude Bell's friend Fahad Bey Ibn Haddal, chief of the Amarat Bedouins and fought with the Muntafiq Bedouin federation. The Bedouin called him Njayman.
Prior to the conclusion of the war, Leachman was assigned to the 17th Indian Division, which was assigned the task of operating on both the left and right banks of the Tigris in an effort to advance north in order to secure as much territory from the Ottomans prior to the now inevitable surrender of the Ottoman Empire. Leachman was specifically assigned to Light Armoured Motor Brigade on the right bank of the Tigris, ostensibly with a special task to work with local tribes. [6]
After the war, he was assigned as Political Officer for the Mosul Division within Mesopotamia, up until October, 1919. [7] He was murdered during the 1920 Iraqi Revolt by a son of Dhari ibn Mahmoud, an Arab tribal leader of the Zoba tribe in the Shammar confederation, in Abu Ghraib near Fallujah on 12 August 1920. The episode is famous in Bedouin oral lore. Leachman had visited Dhari in an effort to renegotiate repayment of advances made to him by the government and to persuade him to remain loyal to the current administration, but was shot in the back by Dhari's son and then beheaded after a verbal disagreement over a local robbery. [8] [9] Leachman's death sparked an immediate outbreak of tribal uprisings on the Euphrates between Falluja and Hit, and was responsible for General Haldane's advance on the same area in September 1920. [10] He was buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery. [11]
He was played by Oliver Reed in Al-Mas' Ala Al-Kubra (aka Clash of Loyalties), a 1983 film financed by Saddam Hussein, which was nominated for the Golden Prize at the 1983 Moscow International Film Festival. [12]
Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, known in the West as Ibn Saud, was an Arab political and religious leader who founded Saudi Arabia – the third Saudi state – and reigned as its first king from 23 September 1932 until his death in 1953. He had ruled parts of the kingdom since 1902, having previously been Emir, Sultan, and King of Nejd, and King of Hejaz.
Kahlan was one of the main tribal confederations of Saba' in Ancient Yemen. They are descended from Kahlan bin Saba bin Yishjab bin Yarub bin Qahtan.
The Arab Revolt, also known as the Great Arab Revolt, was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I.
Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox was a British Indian Army officer and Colonial Office administrator in the Middle East. He was one of the major figures in the creation of the current Middle East.
The Rashidi dynasty, also called Al Rashid or the House of Rashid, was a historic Arabian House or dynasty that existed in the Arabian Peninsula between 1836 and 1921. Its members were rulers of the Emirate of Ha'il and the most formidable enemies of the House of Saud, rulers of the Emirate of Nejd. They were centered in Ha'il, a city in northern Najd that derived its wealth from being on the route of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and was also a commercial center. The rulers of Ha'il were the sons of Abdullah bin Rashid, founder of the dynasty.
The Kingdom of Iraq under British Administration, or Mandatory Iraq, was created in 1921, following the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia, and enacted via the 1922 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and a 1924 undertaking by the United Kingdom to the League of Nations to fulfil the role as Mandatory Power.
The tribe of Shammar is a tribal Arab Qahtanite confederation, descended from the Tayy, which migrated into the northern Arabian Peninsula from Yemen in the second century. It is the largest branch of the Tayy, and one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes. The historical and traditional seat of the tribe's leadership is in the city of Ḥaʼil in what was the Emirate of Jabal Shammar in what is now Saudi Arabia. In its "golden age", around 1850, the Shammar ruled much of central and northern Arabia from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area of Upper Mesopotamia.
The Ikhwan, commonly known as Ikhwan man ata'a Allah, was a religious militia made up of traditionally nomadic tribesmen which formed a significant military force of the ruler Ibn Saud and played an important role in establishing him as ruler of most of the Arabian Peninsula in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Al-Obaidi is one of the Arab tribes in Iraq settled around Al Jazira, Mesopotamia. It is a noble Arab tribe, descended from former Arabian Royalty; who ruled over a sheikhdom and eventual sultanate in Najd in modern day Saudi Arabia for over 800 years continuously, prior to their banishment to modern day Iraq. It hails from the tribe of Zubaid, which itself is an offshoot of the ancient Yemenite tribe Madh'hij. The tribe was an influential one, and faced some rivalry from the House of Saud during the establishment of the first Saudi State. The tribe migrated from Najd in Saudi Arabia circa 1750s. The Al-Obaidis descend from a branch of Zubaid who became Sultans over part of Najd prior to their defeat by Al-Saud and their banishment to Iraq. The migration of this branch of the family was led by the final Zubaidi Sultan in Najd: Sultan Jabr bin Maktoum Al Zubaidi. His eldest son Sultan Obaid, is the founder of the Al-Obaidi family, and subsequent tribe.
The Banu Bakr bin Wa'il, or simply Banu Bakr, were an Arabian tribe belonging to the large Rabi'ah branch of Adnanite tribes, which also included Abd al-Qays, Anazzah, Taghlib. The tribe is reputed to have engaged in a 40-year war before Islam with its cousins from Taghlib, known as the War of Basous. The pre-Islamic poet, Tarafah was a member of Bakr.
The Arabian Peninsula, much of which now comprises the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has always held a mysterious attraction for European explorers. Until modern times it was uncharted, inaccessible, dangerous and forbidden. Some areas remain dangerous and forbidden to the present day. Mecca and Medina are holy cities in Islam and are forbidden to non-Muslims.
The Tayy, also known as Ṭayyi, Tayyaye, or Taiyaye, are a large and ancient Arab tribe, among whose descendants today are the tribes of Bani Sakher and Shammar. The nisba (patronymic) of Tayy is aṭ-Ṭāʾī (ٱلطَّائِي). In the second century CE, they migrated to the northern Arabian ranges of the Shammar and Salma Mountains, which then collectively became known as the Jabal Tayy, and later Jabal Shammar. The latter continues to be the traditional homeland of the tribe until the present day. They later established relations with the Sasanian and Byzantine empires.
Anizah or Anazah is an Arabian tribe in the Arabian Peninsula, Upper Mesopotamia, and the Levant.
The Unification of Saudi Arabia was a military and political campaign in which the various tribes, sheikhdoms, city-states, emirates, and kingdoms of most of the central Arabian Peninsula were conquered by the House of Saud, or Al Saud. Unification started in 1902 and continued until 1932, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed under the leadership of Abdulaziz, known in the West as Ibn Saud, creating what is sometimes referred to as the Third Saudi State, to differentiate it from the Emirate of Diriyah, the First Saudi State and the Emirate of Nejd, the Second Saudi State, also House of Saud states.
Abdulaziz bin Mutaib Al Rashid, better known as Ibn Rashid, was the Emir of Jabal Shammar from 1897 to 1906.
The Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad occurred between 6–8 January 1916 during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. The battle took place along the banks of the Tigris River between the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corps and elements of the Ottoman Sixth Army. The engagement was the first in a series of assaults by the Tigris Corps to try to break through the Ottoman lines to relieve the besieged garrison at Kut.
The Ikhwan revolt was an uprising in the Arabian Peninsula from 1927 to 1930 led by the Ikhwan. It began in 1927, when the tribesmen of the Otaibah, Mutayr and Ajman rebelled against the authority of Ibn Saud and engaged in cross-border raids into parts of Transjordan, Mandatory Iraq and the Sheikhdom of Kuwait. The relationship between the House of Saud and the Ikhwan deteriorated into an open bloody feud in December 1928. The main instigators of the rebellion were defeated in the Battle of Sabilla, on 29 March 1929. Ikhwan tribesmen and troops loyal to Abdulaziz clashed again in the Jabal Shammar region in August 1929, and Ikhwan tribesmen attacked the Awazim tribe on 5 October 1929. Faisal Al Dawish, the main leader of the rebellion and the Mutair tribe, fled to Kuwait in October 1929 before being detained by the British and handed over to Ibn Saud. Faisal Al-Dawish would die in Riyadh on 3 October 1931 from what appears to have been a heart condition. Government troops had finally suppressed the rebellion on 10 January 1930, when other Ikhwan rebel leaders surrendered to the British. In the aftermath, the Ikhwan leadership was slain, and the remains were eventually incorporated into regular Saudi units. Sultan bin Bajad, one of the three main Ikhwan leaders, was killed in 1931, while Al Dawish died in prison in Riyadh on 3 October 1931.
The Emirate of Jabal Shammar, also known as the Emirate of Haʾil or the Rashidi Emirate, was a state in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, including Najd, existing from the mid-nineteenth century to 1921. Jabal Shammar in English is translated as the "Mountain of the Shammar". Jabal Shammar's capital was Ha'il. It was led by the monarchy of the Rashidi dynasty. It included parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan.
Abdullah bin Ali Al Rashid (1788–1848) was the founder of the Emirate of Jabal Shammar. He founded the Emirate in 1836 and ruled it until 1848. He was called Sheikh due to his noble lineage and military ability.
The Declaration of theUnification of Saudi Arabia was officially announced by Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the Viceroy of Hejaz on behalf of King Abdulaziz ibn Saud on September 23, 1932, at 9:00 am from al-Hamidiyah Palace in Mecca. Faisal read out the Royal Decree No. 2716 issued by Abdulaziz ibn Saud on September 18, 1932, that renamed the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd and its annexes as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.