Page 66 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

74 THE BEDOUIN TRIBES

have probably not above 300 tents, and in religious colour and
political allegiance follow the Sebeic.
The BUQ&M are intimately connected with the two foregoing
tribes, but are both more predominantly nomadic and less scattered
abroad. They are found in the basins of all the inland Asiri wadis,
including Wadi Bishah, and appear to be accepted equally by the
Ateibah on the north and the Qahtan on the’south, and to divide
their allegiance in the same manner as the Sebei‘. They are said to
have about 500 tents. „

C. Tribes of the Central South

** 1. Tim Qahtan t

The QAHTAN are almost the only very ancient Arabian people
which still maintains its importance ••as a tribal unit. They are,
according to Arab tradition, the mother-stock of the Ahl Qibli-, and
it is not improbable that for a very long period of time they- may
have occupied their present district near i he southern limits of the
habitable desert. No travellers have penetrated into their country
and little is known about them. Strange, and seemingly quite base­

less, accounts of their customs are repeated among the northern
tribes ; for, like all distant and unknown peoples, they are a peg on
which to hang marvels. Their country lies to the west of Hautah
and is divided into three districts, Hasat, Areiji, and Tathlith,
the last being near Asir. The Shahran and the Sebei' lie to the
west, the Dawasir to the south and south-west, the Buqum and
Shalawah to the north. Somewhere north of Bishah is the Bilad
Qahtan, with a group of villages known as the Qahtaniyah (Tarid,
‘Azlm, and Kir;an are among their number), and the Beni Wahhab
villages inhabited by a small tribe of that name.

The Qahtan acknowledge the authority of Ibn Sa!ud and join him
in his raiding expeditions. So far as they are Moslems at all, they are
Hanbali Sunnites or Wahabites. They come up to Shaqrah in the
Woshm for dates, and when they are camping in the southern parts
i
of their country they buy dates from the Dawasir villagers, but they
themselves have no lands in the valley and are not cultivators. They
are very rich in camels, which are sold to the Qaslm buyers when
the herds come north, towards Nejd. The settled section of the
Qahtan, which includes six autonomous tribes and owns the para­

mount authority of Mohammed ibn Dhuleim, is dealt with later
(pp. 132. 441 ff.).

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