Page 32 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

4N

RECENT HISTORY AND POLITICS 111

was sent to Central Arabia to make peace between the Emirs
''"’Ha'ii aud Riyadh and to enforce the claims of the Meccan
of Qaslm and Sedeir. This peace was, however, not
Treasury on , ,
observed on either side for long.
J3y the spring of 1916 Husein had become the de facto power in
Hejaz, with wide influence outside, extending in Asir to Wadi
Bishah, and northward to the southern Anazah tribes. Both in
,\I(‘cca and Medina (in which last city he kept his eldest son, ‘Ali,
as his representative) he had reduced Turkish authority very low,
and even in Jiddah his agents wielded the most influence. But
l he Porte was maintaining its garrisons, in spite of temporary inter­
ruptions of railway communication, and, under their protection,
t he Ottoman officials held on. In May 1916 a strict naval patrol
!
of the Hejaz coasts was enforced by us, in order to support the Emir
j
by demonstrating to the Arabs the inevitable results of further i
submission to Ottoman occupations ; and, early in June, an insur­ : '
rection of tribes from the Juheinah in the north to the borders of
!
Asir in the south, including both Harb and Ateibah, broke out
under the leadership of the Emir and his sons. *
i

DISTRICTS AND TOWNS

A. Midian

For convenience all the northern part of Hejaz from N. lat. 30°
to N. lat. 27° will be considered apart under this name, which is
ill ffi native use (Jebel Madian) though applied to the north­
western coast-land only.

It is a wild mountainous district throughout, with no permanent
settlements at all between the less than half a dozen hamlets of
^oftst and the line of the Hejaz Railway, whose stations along
I e Midian stretch from Ma‘an to Dar el-Hamra, about 250 miles,
^a\e no village or hamlet attached to them except in the single
a^e of Tebuk, a village of some 300 inhabitants in a small oasis
Th ' P- 128 f >-
ab t coast is fringed by a low sandy Tihamah plain varying from
<>nlvl \miles ^ess than the half in breadth. It has vegetation
inte -ni m°uths of wadis, but has been provided with wells at
Xo Tti ^°r use of pilgrims on the Egyptian Hajj road (Route
],] 0j J-, most extensive oasis is that of Sherma (Sarma) to the !
1 AkThe only settlements of even village rank are : '
its h0ac| a lies on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Akaba, near
!
’ wuich forms a circular bay extending for some three miles i