Page 90 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 3

86 THE BEDOUIN TRTBES

and the ‘Ajman have free range in their dlras. The whole tribe is
well provided with breech-loading firearms, and being Sunnite of
the Hanbali school, it is sympathetic to Wahabism and has some
of its dour spirit.
Its proper summer range is the Gulf lowlands from Taff down to
‘ Oqair, enveloping the Hasa oasis on north and east. Inland it
ranges back over the Summan plateau, where its herdsmen wander in
winter as far west as the confines of Sedeir; and at the same season ;
‘Ajman push even into Kharj. On the littoral they straggle some-
I
times into El-Qatar, and habitually wander north up to Koweit,
relying on their agreement with the Beni Khalid, whose proper
:
dlra they thus inwle. They are to be found, therefore, at one season :
or another, over an area of not less than 20,000 square miles.

Very few ‘Ajmi tribesmen have ever adopted settled life .though
they own some clate-groves in Hasa.’ Their wealth lies in horses,
camels, and the smaller cattle. In particular they are horse-breeders.
They may total between 4,000 and 5,000 tents.
During the Ottoman occupation of Hasa and Qatlf the ‘Ajman
were consistently recalcitrant, in spite of subsidies doled out to
their sheikhs and the screw which could be put upon the’dribe when,
according to its custom, it camped near Hofuf, and wished to dispose
of live stock, &c., in the local markets. They maintained the while
relations of old standing with the Emirs of Riyadh, and welcomed
‘Abd el-‘Az!z es-Sa‘ud when he invaded Hasa in 1913. But when
his became the established government the ‘Ajman liked him and
his taxes little better than the Turks, and he had to organize
drastic punishment of their raiding in the summer of 1915, finally
driving great part of them north into Shammar country. Their
traditional foe is the Ahl Murrah tribe, and of late they have added
Ibn Rashid and the Shammar. With the Sultan of Koweit and
the Paramount Sheikh of El-Qatar they have generally, though not
invariably, kept on terms.

The Paramount Chieftainship is in the Ibn Hithlein family of I
the Ma‘idh sub-tribe (Naja‘ clan). On the murder of Mohammed ibn
Hazm ibn Hithlein in 1910, the chieftainship was put in commis­
;
sion ; Sheikh Fahd, the elder brother of the late chief, had most
?
support for the sole succession, but he appears to have given way
later to Sheikh Theidan, who submitted to Riyadh at the end of
1915. The Naja‘ clan is said to be in close alliance with the Sifran
sub-tribe, which, though not numerous, contains the most formid­
able of all the ‘Ajmi fighting-men. According to Lorimer (Gazetteer
of the Persian Gulf) the Jiblan section of the Muteir (q.v ) ioined
forces with the ‘Ajman before 1908. ' ' J
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