Any people acquainted with the conditions of life on the mountain borders of India assumed, as a matter of course, that the outbreak of war between Britain and Germany would be quickly followed by serious disturbances in Central Asia and in Arabia. It was well known that Germany had for some time previous to the war been carefully preparing for a propaganda among the Mohammedan peoples with a view to starting a Jehad, or Holy War, against the British. But the real reasons why trouble on the frontiers was anticipated almost as a matter of course went much deeper than any external propaganda. For generations unrest had swept periodically over the Mohammedan tribes of the mountainous North-West Frontier. They are naturally robber tribes, living in mountain fastnesses and preying as opportunity offers on their weaker neighbours. Independent, hating control, warriors by birth, by training, and by instinct, fighting is their normal life, and it was only the fear and authority of the British Raj that kept many of them temporarily at peace. The history of the Indian Frontier for half a century before the war broke out was one long record of wars, raids, and punitive expeditions. For every raid that took place a score or more were prevented by the prudence, the diplomacy, and the able management of the British Political Agents on the border. What was true of the Indian North-West was true at least in equal degree of South-West Arabia. The British held on to the rocks and barren sands of Aden and its neighbourhood. Beyond that, they tried by friendly arrangements with some of the many sultans in the desert lands to maintain cordial relations. But Southern Arabia claimed the distinction of being, with Central Formosa, the most perilous and the least explored territory in the world. The traveller who moved among the tribes did so at hourly risk to his life. Racial antipathy, fierce religious hatreds, and centuries of carefully fostered fury against white civilisation had made Southern Arabia one of the danger-spots of the world http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Brits_in_Caucasus/India_01.htm
