Page 70 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

76 THE BEDOUIN TRIBES

Mawali, then the most powerful tribe in the northern steppe, driving
them into the north-east borders of Syria.
Early in the nineteenth century the Anazah forced the Shammer
northwards across the Euphrates, and split the tribe into two parts,
interposing themselves between these two in the Syrian Desert. Thus
the Shammar of JebelShammar and those of the Jezirah (Mesopotamia)
to be geographically and politically distinct. The southern
came
group follows Ibn Rashid, the northern Ibn Jerba. But ethnologi-
cally they are one ; the same sub-tribes are found in either group,
and though they do not offer united resistance to their common
■
enemy, the Anazah, they are always on terms of friendship with
one another. Any small sheikh of the Jezirah may bring down his
tents and flocks to Jebel Shammar for a gear’s pasturage, if he be
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so minded.

The SOUTHERN SHAMMAR must be considered, not only as
a powerful nomad tribe., but also as the masters of the oasrfs in J. i
Shammar. The settled population of the latter is mostly of the Beni
Tamim, an ancient branch of Mudhar which once inhabited all North-
East Arabia, But now has relinquished the nomadic life (see p. 81).
The Shammar, for their part, are nomads, though they c’ome down to
the oases during the summer drought. The Emir of J. Shammar
plays a double part. He is Paramount Chief of his own tribal con­

federation ; but also he is ruler of a settled country, of which Ha’il
is the capital, a prince with a fixed habitation, exercising authority
over other Bedouins whose connexion with him is not tribal but
political. The Shammar tribal frontiers remain more or less un-
changed, but the sphere of the Emir’s influence varies with the vicissi­
tudes of his dynastic fortunes.
The Shammar tribe ranges the south-east Nefud and the country
to the north almost up to Nejef. To the east its limits have been
somewhat restricted by the Dhafir, who are always at feud with it
and encroach upon its dira. Since the old eastern pilgrim road, the
Darb Zobeidah, is seldom safe from Dhafir raids, it has been aban­
;
doned by the Emir’s caravans in favour of a more westerly track
past the fortified wells of Hayyanlyah ; but the proper Shammar
i
pasture-grounds extend up to it and across it. To the north the i
loss of Jauf el-‘Amr has shut the Shammar into the Nefud ,■
They do not wander far beyond J. Trnan on the west, nor south­
wards beyond Mustajiddah ; while the summer camping-ground of
Beidha Nethil is occupied sometimes by Shammar, but most.lv hv J i
the Anazah of the Teima district. ^ ^ ;•

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