Page 38 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

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TRIBES OF THE CENTRAL WEST 61

I n, 'L'hcy are charged with the protection of the Hejaz Railway
!,..in Iverak to Ma'an, and receive a yearly subsidy. Since Sami
pasha’s expedition into the desert in 1910 they have regarded
Ottoman authority with a certain amount of respect. ‘Audah’s
,-wu.sin, Mohammed abu Tayy, was imprisoned for several months
ja Hamascus, and upon his release was made responsible for the
payment of the sheep-and camel-tax of his tribe—a lucrative position
which he would be unwilling to forfeit.
i
In the spring’the Tayy pasture over the north and east of the I
Jebel Tubciq ; the Jazi’camp to the south and south-west. In the I
summer the tribe draws into Ma'an, where it owns a little cultivation,
and to Jafar, a depression east of Ma'an. Ma'an is the northern
limit of the sandstonejdesert. Here the grassy downs of the Beni
.Salchr country give place to forbidding leagues of rock weathered
into-fantastic shapes and diversified by sand-hills. Wells are few ;
nevertheless, in the sandstone bottoms there is a sufficiency of
small shrubs and succulent weeds after the scanty rain. I
i
The Huweitat are not among the great camel-owners ; probably
the whole of the Syrian branch has not more tha»\ 5,000-to 8,000
animals. * ,
The Huweitat claim to be Ashraf, i. e., descendants of the Prophet
through his daughter Fatimah; but it has been conjectured that
they have a history which is ethnologically of far greater interest.
'I'ln-y may be the descendants of the Nabataeans, who held the
caravan road to Yemen—the old spice road—anu had their capital
at Petra, a few hours west of Ma'an.

Tribe. Sub-Tribe. Sheikh.
Huweitat. 400 teats Beni Jazi, 100 teats 4Arar iba Jazi
‘Arar ibn Jazi Dhiyabdt, 15 teats Salim iba Dhi’ab
Tawayah, 150 teats
Demdni, 40 tents Salim iba ‘A ley an
Rukeibat, 80 teats Salim abu Rukeib
?*• Huweitat of Akaba ‘Amran
Hasan iba Jad 1A la win Hasan iba Jad

Huweitat of Sinai Sarei'fn Sa‘d abu Nar
1.200 camels Ghanamln
Dub nr Suweilim abu Dhuhur

2. Beni c A th/ah
The BENI ‘ATlYAH are an old tribe closely akin to the Anazah
. ‘ -v claun descent from Ma'z, who is said to have been brother of
‘l';Z> the aucf tor of the Anazah. A part of the tribe in the Hisma
pl,un- Mst “f Akaba, is known as the Ma zi. Some authorities

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