Page 300 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

. HY.SLCAL CHARACTER 327

(sec Route No. 75); wells on the W. side of Dohah Feishshdkh near
a ruined fort; at JRas Da'asah, IS miles N. from foot of Dohat es-
Salwa, a masonry well with good water, 1 mile inland, at Fahdl,
Hi miles N. from the same, 4 masonry wells with good water ;
at Has Faheihil, 6 miles S. of Zubdrah : a single well ; at Na'mdn,
1 \ miles >S. of the same place, miles inland, a stone-lined well
with good water at 7 fathoms, and a ruined fort ; and at Dohal
Umm el-Ma, 12 miles S. of Ras 'Ashciriq, masonry wells inland
from the bay, with a ruined fort built by one of the recent Sheikhs
of Bahrein.
Climate

There are no statistics with regard to the climate of El-Qatar,
but it is described as exceedingly dry. Rather more rain is said
to fall in the course of the year than at Bahrein, but it may be
assumed that the average does not exceed 5 inches. Tempera­
ture may be conjectured to resemble that of Bahrein, but to be
slightly less equable, at any rate in the interior.

Population

The sedentary population is composed of communities and tribes
nearly all of which are common to El-Qatar and the Bahrein
Islands; they fall into some 25 groups, of which the following are
the most numerous : Al Bu ‘Ainein (about 2,000), a clan of the
Al Subaih sub-tribe of the Beni Khalid (see p. 608), at Wakrah ;
[. :
Al Bin ‘Ali (1,750), Dohah; Huwalah (2,000), Dohah and Wakrah;
Khaleifat (850), Wakrah ; Al Bu Kuwarah (2,500), Sutneismah,
Dha'd’in, and Fuweirai; Ma'adhld (875), Dohah, Wakrah, and Luse.il;
Mahandah (2,500), Khar Shaqiq and Dhakhirah; Sulutah (3,250),
Dohah; negro slaves (4,000), Dohah; free negroes (2,000), Dohah.
There are some 500 Arabs from Nejd, and an equal number of
Bahdrinah and Persians. The total settled population, as estimated
-* ..
on the conjectural basis of native statement, would be about 26,000.
The Bedouins proper to El-Qatar are the Beni Hajar, and the
small tribe of the Ka‘ban, but a large body of NaTm from Trucial
Oman have become detached from their tribe and now move
between Bahrein and Qatar. The peninsula is also visited by
Ahl Murrah from Hasa, and, in the cold weather, by Manasir from
Trucial Oman; both tribes are said to rob the villages when
occasion serves. ‘Ajman are occasionally seen; the tribe made
a raid into Qatar in 1909. In 1904 Burchardt, travelling from
Hofuf to Dohah, had to pay tax to four tribes, Ahl Murrah,
Hajar, Dawasir, and Manasir : the tax was levied even on Turkish

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