Page 66 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

32 SOCIAL SURVEY
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The difference between the two Emirates may be summed up »
words written a few years ago :— 7
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' The chiefs of the house of Rashid are not, as the chiefs of th=
house of Sa‘ud in Riadh, rulers of settled communities with whic
they are at one, and of surrounding tribes of Bcdawis, distinct
from themselves : but they are chiefs, in the first instance, (
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a great dominant JBedawi tribe, and in the second, of the settle
ments which serve that tribe for markets and rallying points.’

The upshot is that the Shammar Emirate, while inferior to it
rival of Nejd in wealth and settled population, and lacking it=
religious tie, profits by the unity between its oasis folk and the tribe=
of a vast surrounding region, by the patriarchal tie binding these
and bv the continual invigoration of its life under the influence oi
the desert.
The domains of the two emirs, expressed territorially (with che
reservation that Arabian native princes exercise onl}- very imper­
fect territorial authority) are summarily as follows. The Emir of
Nejd is acknowledged by_all the southern group of oases, i.e. Kharj,
Hariq, Aflaj, Dawasir, ‘Aridh, Woshm, and Sedeir: by the central
group, i.e. Qasim ; and by the Hasa oases and coast'fiom the edge
of El-Qatar northwards to the boundary of the Sultan of Ivoweit. In
the steppes west of the Nejd oases his authority is, however, limited
by that of the Grand Sherif, and north of Qasim by that of the Emir
of Ha’il; but it is paramount oh the east from the borders of Koweit
to those of the domains of the Trucial Chiefs and of Oman.
The Emir of Jebel Shammar is supreme in the northern group of
oases, i.e. those about Jebels Aja and Selmah ; in the steppes north
of Qasim, from the Hejaz border in the west (and including Teima)
up to within a short distance of Koweit on the east ; while north of
Jebel Shammar his writ runs in the southern part of the Nefucl till
met and nullified by the power of the chiefs of the Ruweilah,- the
Dhaflr, and the Muntefiq in the northern part.
The Emir of Nejd, therefore, controls the larger territory, and
- . together the two emirs hold all the country between the main
northern and southern deserts of the peninsula.
2. The Principate of Abu ‘Arish (Asir).—This principate lies
between Hejaz and Yemen, in a district which has never at any time
been completely subdued by the Turks. It is now' independent of
them except in its northern part, where the latter hold, precariously
the inland town of Ibha and the port of Qunfudah (with a small
district round each of these places), and, intermittently the rmrU
from one to the other. 1

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