Page 45 - Arabian Studies (V)

Lieutenant Wyburd fs Journal of an Excursion into Arabia 35
11. The Zaflr tribe, described by Dickson (Kuwait and her neighbours)
as dwelling between Samawah and Zubayr and famous among desert tribes
for the way in which they protect their neighbours.
12. Nassar, a sub-division of the Ka‘ab.
13. The great Sharif tribe of al-Hasa, paramount at Hufuf until 1830
when they were driven out by Wahhabi forces.
14. Turk! b. ‘Abdullah A1 Sa‘ud, Amir of Najd, established himself in
Riyadh in 1824 after the Egyptian evacuation and between 1824 and 1829
consolidated Wahhabi rule in Najd. In 1829-30 he occupied al-Hasa toge­
ther with his son Faysal. The Manaslr are one of the two tribes of Dafrah,
the other being the Ban! Yas.
15. Khallfah b. Salman A1 Khallfah, co-ruler of Bahrayn, died 1834.
16. Wyburd is presumably referring to the attempt by Da’ud Pasha in
1817 to break up the Muntafiq by nominating a rival chief in opposition to
Hamud AI Thamir, the Muntafiq leader. After Da’ud Pasha’s deposition
Hamud’s son, Majid reasserted his independence and the paramount
authority of the Sa‘dun over the tribe.
17. The long-standing hostility which existed between the Al Khallfah
and the Sultan of Muscat was exacerbated in 1827 by the marriage of
Sayyid Sa‘Id to the sister of Husayn ‘All Mirza, the Prince of Shiraz and by
SaTd’s unsuccessful attack on Bahrayn in 1828.
18. ‘Umar b. Muhammad b. ‘Ufaysan, Governor of Hasa.
19. Hufuf. On the various names for the Oasis of Al-Hasa and the main
town, Hufuf, see F.S. Vidal, The Oasis of Al-Hasa, ARAMCO, 1955.
Sadlier found that the district was called al-Hasa and the town Ul Ahsa,
Lahsa or Lahissa. Zwemer {Arabia: the cradle of Islam, New York, 1900)
also used El Hassa for Hufuf and Hassa for the district. Wyburd also uses
the two forms Elriasa and Elreasa.
20. ‘Abd al-‘ Aziz b. Muhammad b. Sa‘ud, Amir of Najd, 1765-1803.
21. The Suq al-Khamls in fact runs along the eastern wall of the Kut and
extends outside the northern al-Khamls gate. Vidal, op. cit.
22. The ‘Ajman, ofie of the most powerful tribes of north-eastern
Arabia, later to be closely associated with Ibn Sa‘ud.
23. Albanians.
24. The Kut is actually situated in the north-east of the town.
25. Cf. Lieutenant Jopp’s description in 1841: ‘The gateway to the north
leads into a considerable square, or open space, on the eastern side of
which is the citadel. It has high walls, with towers at intervals, similar to
those of the fort. Within are numerous houses, and a mosque, the dome of
which is the most conspicuous in the whole town.’ IOR: V/23/217, Selec­
tions from the Records of the Bombay Government, No. XXIV, new
series. It is interesting, in relation to the date of construction of the Masjid
Ibrahim, that Wyburd makes no mention of it.
26. Sadlier puts the population at no more than 15,000 in 1819 and the 1917
Handbook of Arabia (Admiralty War Staff Intelligence Division, IOR:
L/MIL/17/16/1) puts it at 25,000. Wyburd could have been referring to the
population of all the villages in the oasis, in which case the figure may be more
realistic. 8,000 camels, however, seems to be something of an exaggeration.