Page 36 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

60 THE bedouin tribes

B. Tribes of the Central West

1. The. Huioeitdt
The HUWEITAT are a stout and warlike tribe whose country
extends from near Toima in the south to Iverak in the north, and
on the east to the Nefucl and the Wadi Sirhan On the west it- is
scattered down the Gulf of Akaba and through Sinai into Egypt.
Huweitat are nomads in the desert north-east of Cairo, and settled
as cultivators round Tanta. The Huweitat of Akaba, Sinai, and
Egypt have no political link with the Sheikhs whose head-quarters
are at or near Ma'an ; but they recognize certain claims of kinship,
and if a Huweiti of the Tawayah or Beni Jazi got into difficulties
with the Ottoman- Government, he would seek refuge, if he could
escape, in Sinai or in Egypt. The Huweitat have, however, an
exceptionally bad name for treachery. They are divided among
themselves, and do not respect their own blood-ties. One clan will
set upon a caravan under the convoy of a rafiq of another "clan,
shoot the rafiq, and rob and murder the merchants.
On the Syrian side the leading sub-tribe is the Beni Jazi, and
‘Arar ibn Jazi is nominally the paramount Sheikh ; biit he is not
recognized by the Abu Tayy, and the two groups are frequent ly
at feud. The Tayy are an offshoot of the Jazi, and owe their
position to the restless energy of their Sheikhs. The late chief,
‘Audah, was one of the most famous raiders of his time, and did not
hesitate to carry Ids expeditions across the Hamacl to the Euphrates,
where he raided Ibn Hadhdhal of the ‘Amarat. On one occasion, when
he was out against the Siba‘, he pushed almost as far north as Aleppo.
The Huweitat are on close terms of friendship with the Beni
‘Atiyah, and are at liberty to camp through all the ‘Atlyah country.
The Sheikh Ahmed ibn Tuqeiqah occupies the Red Sea coast between
Muweilah and Dhaba, with his head-quarters at Dhaba. They are
at war with the Shammar, except the clan of the Rammal, which
is connected b}' marriage with the Tayy ; and the}'- are usually on
bad terms with the Wuld Suleiman ancl the Fuqara. With the
Sukhur relations are always delicate, and the two tribes often break
into sharp conflict. In 1914 the jealousy between Ibn Jazi and Abu
Tayy led to continuous raids between the sub-tribes. Ibn Jazi
took refuge with the Sukhur, and the Tayy with the Ruweilah. But
the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Turkey filled the
tribes with a common fear that their camels might be requisitioned
by the Ottoman Government for transport purposes ; the Huweitat
made up their differences, and together with the Sukhur retired
east into the Anazah dlra, where the Government could not reach

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