Page 30 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

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NORTHERN TRIBES 57

. nc.j a.s a clan of the'Ba’iz, arc not of Beni Sakhr stock. They
ir\ .[ fraction of the Useidah, who, after a bloody quarrel, abandoned
l.r\ jjelcia, and took refuge with the Pa’iz. They do not intermarry
1 'i|i the Sukhur, though in all other respects they form part of the
" ibc On the other hand, the small but valiant tribe of the Ser-
diyaK an offshoot of the Sukhur, are politically independent of
i hr latter, and not infrequently at feud with them. They inhabit
dm eastern edge of the volcanic country to the east of the Jebel
Hauran, and owe their position in the desert to the reputation of
,heir late paramount Sheikh, Mit‘ab el-Qanj, said to have been the
st congest of living men. His son Ghalib, the present Sheikh, is about
not so noted a raider as Mit‘ab, less ambitious than his father,
and of mediocre intelligence. He is in close touch with Damascus,
and counted by the younger Nationalist politicians as a friend and
ally; but he is not sufficiently powerful to dispense-with any pro­

tection which he can obtain’from the Ottoman Government, and
in 19 tl he successfully invoked the aid of Sami Pasha against his
hereditary foes, the Ruweilah.
The Beni Sakhr are almost always at war with the Anasah con­
federation on their east frontier; with the Huweitat their relations
are doubtful,‘with a general tendency to hostility, and the same
applies to their north-western neighbours, the ‘Adwan. TheDruzes
to the north are their sworn enemies, and the Zobeid confederation
(the Jebellyah), who roam the slopes of the Jebel Hauran, usually
throw in their lot vdth the Druzes against the Sukhur, though they
arc on fairly good terms with the Serdlyah. The cultivators from
Madeba and Salt, mainly Christians, who own most of the ploughed
lands on the Hejaz Railway, are obliged to maintain friendly relations
with the Beni Sakhr, since the Ottoman Government offers them
little or no protection. They keep open house for the tribesmen, who
profit largely by their hospitality, and hold them in commensurate
esteem. Such families as the Ibn Jabir and the Bisharra are much
respected, and enjoy a considerable influence in the desert. The culti­
vated land does not extend far beyond the railway, east of which the
>oil is too thin and the rainfall too scanty for successful corn-growing.

, latest information is, that after the outbreak of war between
■rcat Britain and Turkey in the winter of 1914, when the attack
mi the Canal was developing, the Beni Sakhr, fearing that the Otto-
ln.iU1 Government would seize their camels for transport purposes,
I
withdrew across the Sirhan. Having been for the past year at
peace with the Ruweilah, they took refuge in their country. They
''ere last heard of between ‘Annul and Mat, in the Wadyan clis-
nct and had even pushed as far cast as the ‘Amarat pastures,
i.*, c ^Hkhur are not among the great camel-owning tribes, but their
ms can scarcely amount to less than some 12,000 to 15,000 head

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