But it was all-important to know who was in favour of the raid, and exactly why.

The words men spoke were not nearly so impressive as the deeds they did.

Therefore, when the illustrious Sheikh Abdul Ali of Damascus urged a raid on the one hand, and boasted of provision for a school in El-Kerak on the other, it would be well to examine this foreign effendi, whom Abdul Ali claimed to have introduced.

The claim was disputed, but the claim was not made for nothing.

In his judgment, based on vast experience of politics in Arabia, motives were seldom on the surface.