Page 6 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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they lie. In a composite chapter, such as that on the Gulf Coast, ^
dealing with several independent territories, the same gefieial
arrangement, when practicable, has been followed for each area.
In the population of Arabia, a distinction must be drawn between

the settled constituents of society and those trjbal elements wh.ch
are essentially nomadic. The former are more conveniently treated
after the geographical chapters describing the provinces within which
their settlements fall. The Bedouin tribes, on«the othe^ hand, though
v ••
they move within recognized areas and along jeajously guarded
ranges, are not tied to the soil, and a preliminaryTtfapter has there­
It should be noted that in this chapter
fore been devoted tocthem.
the line of demarcation of the Arabian Peninsula upon the north,
as defined on p. 9, has not been strictly adhered to, since the non^ad
tribes of the Syrian Hamad and the Mesopotamian Jpzlrah are
regarded by the Peninsular Bedouins as forming a great social
aggregate with themselves ; moreover, some tribes move habitually
from one side to the other of the border-line. Under these circum- •
, stances our survey has been extended to include the nomads of .the
Syrian Desert to the north of the Nefud, although geographically
that area lies without the scope of the Handbook. (See Handbooks
of Mesopotamia and of Syria atid Palestine.) The tribes of “Iraq,
however, are not included, although some of them, especially

constituents of the great Muntefiq group, range into the eastern
part of the northern Nefud. They are left for consideration in
a special work in connexion with Mesopotamia.

It is important to remember that, owing to the war with Turkey,
the security of many of the routes has been affected, and political
••• conditions, even in the more settled districts, are in a state of flux.
Where it has been ascertained* that definite changes have taken
place, these have been duly registered. But for districts where
no
recent information is yet available the normal conditions of the
territory are described and the date of the information is indicated.
It should be added that some Arab names are left unaccented for
lack of certainty about the local pronunciation.
The plates at the end of each volume have been chosen to
illustrate the varieties of country which are characteristic of
Arabia.