Page 52 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

I JTRICTS AND TOWNS 121

Wfuli el-Hamdh. According to Doughty it was formerly
ju'^ession of the Ruweilah tribe, but is now a negro village
J forty houses with a small guard of soldiery from Medina,
.lace possesses several small palm-groves, lying close together,
water-supply is from wells, from 60 to 90 ft. deep ; but some
, ,rs exist in the neighbourhood, and these have been utilized
'.""implement the supply by means of old conduits which have
iL'-t-ii repaired. Henakiyah lies on one of the main routes between
Mi'diiui and Boreidah (see Route No. 24).
The Harb tribe holds all the vicinity of Medina, and one of its i
..ret ions, the Beni ‘Amr, owns and cultivates the chief suburban date- I
palm district of Jebel Fur‘. It is the Beni ‘Ali sub-tribe, however,
which is most to be reckoned with in and near the town itself,
where it is a constant source of disorder and disaffection against I
i he Turks. Between Medina and the coast, from Yambo* south­
i
ward, the Beni Salim occupy the country and own the few palm-
nascs, tying mostly south of the Medina-Yambo' road.

C. Southern District

This district extends from N. lat. 24° to N. lat. 20°, on or about
which line Asir begins. The fourfold longitudinal division of
llejaz into zones of coastal plain (Tihamah), coastal range, upland
ultramontane plain, and main ridge is most clearly marked here.
I lie coastal range, however, declines in altitude from Jebel Radhwah
through Jebel Subh, and south of the pilgrim route (Darb es-
^ultfmi) from Rabugh to Medina it becomes dusty hills not above
- t>UU ft. in altitude. It springs up again into a more mountainous

taiige (Jebel Sa'dlyah) some distance south of the Jiddah-Mecca
('«md and
runs on behind Lith into the high ‘Aqabah of Asir. The
Tihamah
mine in the north of the district improves in fertility and, from
I . distance north of Jiddah to some distance north of Rabugh,
I |ls. ,seveiral villages (see Routes Nos. 28 and 34) and date-groves.
T1 ei\J^Pses desert, to improve again near Lith.
who..6 third zone, the intramontane plain, is a dusty steppe except
1'atii? ?rosse(^ by main wadis from the Ridge. Of these Wadi
js‘ T Av'hich flows from north of Mecca to south of Jiddah,
;v chain1U<fSt *ulPortant and encourages most fertility. There is
i
“bunch r smah oases with rare farms down its course fed by the
north anri sPr*n&s of its tributaries, the Wadis Leimun and Seil
The' R‘Hn0rt’k'e.ast Mecca (see Routes Nos. 23 and 25).

miles contains some fertile valleys for a hundred I
' soutl
1 of Medina, increases in aridity as Mecca is approached.