'Personalities, Arabia' [‎105] (109/374)

105
them command over some of the main trade-routes of 'lurkish Arabia.
The Hamad is a bridge rather than a barrier between Syria and Meso
potamia. Until 1911, the camel post from Damascus to Baghdad passed
over it once a fortnight, and regularly during the winter and spring the
agents of the Damascene sheep merchants cross it, paying dues to
the Anazah for safe conduct, while the camel herds of the latter supply the
markets both of Syria and of Egypt ; indeed, it is not too much to say
that the greater part of the camel trade is in their hands. Moreover,
the road down the Euphrates from Aleppo to Baghdad is largel\ at their
mercy, as well as the first half of a frequented carriage road from Deir, via
the Sinjar, to Mosul. The Anazah are thus the first of the great indepen
dent tribes with whom administrators of the settled lands must come
into contact, and upon their goodwill depends freedom of intercourse
between Syria and Mesopotamia. Last century they played a large part
in Syrian politics, and have still a zest for the game. Their own depen
dence on the Syrian markets must always make it a matter of the first
importance to them to maintain friendly terms with those who control
the province commercially ; but it must be remembered that commercial
control of Syria is not, and never has been, in the hands of the Turks.
The western side of the Syrian Desert is occupied by the R uweilah
(Ruwalla). With their powerful confederates the Wuld 'Ali and the
Muhallaf, who are in the closest relations with them, and also their allies,
the Hasanah, they number about 7,000 tents. They wander over the
desert from Homs and Hamah in the north, where the Hasanah have their
summer pasturages and are beginning to settle down as cultivators, to
Qasr el-Azraq, south of Jebel Duruz (where the Ruweilah dira touches
that of their foes, the Beni Sakhr) and down the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sirhan to the oasis
of Jauf el-'Amr, which the Ruweilah took from Ibn Rashid some fi\e
years ago. In summer they occupy the pasture grounds S. of Damascus
and push as far west as the Jaulan. To the east the limits of the Ruweilah
do not extend far beyond Jebel 'Amud and the sources of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
Hauran.
The loose confederation of tribes, of which the W uld 'A li are
composed, holds the steppe east and south-east of Damascus and along
the first part of the old post-road to Baghdad. Ibn Sumeir owns the
village of 'Ain Dhikr at Tell el-Faras, some 12 hours from Damascus,
with the cultivation round it. A detached group round Teima, the
F uqara and the B. W ahab, are also to be reckoned among the sub-
tribes of the Wuld 'Ali, but they have no political connexion with them,
and fall under the authority of Ibn Rashid whenever he is strong enough
to exercise it. The l^uqara are a small pool tiibe, with fc\\ camels,
which depends for its livelihood partly on the payment it receives from
the Ottoman Government for protecting the Hejaz railway fiom Dar
el-Hamra to Meda'in Salih, and partly on a little cultivated land which
it possesses in the rocky Harrah of Kheibar. Ihe Billi and the Huweitat,
a. o