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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎676] (731/1050)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (523 folios). It was created in 1917. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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676
HADHEAMAUT
appears to be subject, at certain seasons, to a cold penetrating wind, to cold and dewy
nights, and to very great extremes of temperature.
Twice during the year the coastal districts, at all events, of the Hadhramaut receive
their share of the rains brought by the monsoons, though probably in a less degree than
the Yemen ; but the regularity of the rains in the interior is not so certain, for when the
Bents visited the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Ser in 1894 they were told by the inhabitants that they had had
no rain for two years, and that they were sometimes without any for as much as three
years at a time. Thunderstorms of a very sudden and violent nature are recorded by
travellers, those being usually preceded by fierce heat and hot and violent whirlwinds,
from all sides, that disturb the dust. According to the Arabs, a particularly hot wind
less period of about forty days Occurs with the changing of the monsoons.
All travellers in the Hadhramaut make frequent allusions to the intensely high tem
peratures experienced in the narrow confined wadis of the interior.
Van den Berg Says that sicknesses are relatively few, which is quite natural, seeing
the simple life led by the people, the pure and generally dry atmosphere of the moun
tains, and the total abstention of the people from pork, opium, and alcohol Cholera
is unknown, small-pox is never epidemic, but consumption is rampant, and there are
cases of leprosy.
PcKPliLATiaK.
The total population of the Hadhramaut is extremely uncertain, and the various
authorities give very divergent estimates, Mons Babahir, whom Van den Berg cites
as having had considerable facilities for judging, estimates it at about 150,000, which
he locates as follows ;—
From Shibam to Shabwah, including Wadis Irma, Balir, and
Rakhia - - - - - • • • 20,000
Wadis Amd, Du'an, and EI Ain ..
Shibam to Terim (inclusive)
Terim to Saihut
From N. of the main wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. to the desert
From S. of the main wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. to the sea
Bhehr and Mukulla and their environs
25,000
50,000
6,000
15,000
16,000
18,000
Total 150,000
Van den Berg, however, considers this estimate to be excessive, seeing that the greater
part of the region is uninhabitable and unsuitable for agricultural pursuits of any kind.
He himself gives the total of the chief centres of population of the interior, viz., Saiyun,
Terim, Shibam, A1 Ghorfah, and Ainat, as certainly not exceeding 20,500.
The people are known as Hadhrami (plu. Hadarim) and belong generally to the South
Arabian stock, claiming descent from Y'arab bin Kahtan. There is, however, a large
number of ' Seyyids,' or descendants of the prophet (described more fully below), and
of 'townsmen' of northern origin, besides a considerable,class of African or of mixed
descent; but in spite of these variations they form, geographically and socially, a
remarkable homogeneous whole. _ _ , . i i ,
An authoritv 1 says, in substance, that the districts of the Hadhramaut are singularly
fertile and self-sufficing, and are so situated geographically as ^ cl ?f el £ ^ 0 n g ^ r
and to be isolated socially, as a whole, from the rest of Arabia ; while, at the samo timo.
they lie within reach of ports which are in constant communication with mid-eastern
Africa and India. To the north stretches unbroken the most terrible waste of sand-
dunes in the peninsula ; to the east the district is practically isolated from the Oman
provinces by the almost waterless desert of Mahra ; while to the west it is difficult
access from the Yemen and its outlying provinces on account of a mountainous
and sterile desert steppe which, up to the present, remams almost entirely unexploied.
In more frequent and easier communication with Moslem communities outside Arabi
than within it, the population of the Hadhramaut, therefore, has had ample opportunity
to develop particularism in its social organization as well as m its religious spirit, ihe
fertility of its lands makes its farmers self-sufficient and jealous with the jealousy ot
1 Hogarth: The Penetration of Arabia,

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Content

Volume I of III of the Gazetteer of Arabia. The Gazetteer is alphabetically-arranged and this volume contains entries A through to J.

The Gazetteer is an alphabetically-arranged compendium of the tribes, clans and geographical features (including towns, villages, lakes, mountains and wells) of Arabia that is contained within three seperate bound volumes. The entries range from short descriptions of one or two sentences to longer entries of several pages for places such as Iraq and Yemen.

A brief introduction states that the gazetteer was originally intended to deal with the whole of Arabia, "south of a line drawn from the head of the Gulf of 'Aqabah, through Ma'an, to Abu Kamal on the Euphrates, and to include Baghdad and Basrah Wilayats" and notes that before the gazetteer could be completed its publication was postponed and that therefore the three volumes that now form this file simply contain "as much of the MSS. [manuscript] as was ready at the time". It further notes that the contents have not been checked.

Extent and format
1 volume (523 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: This volume's foliation system is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio.

Written in
English in Latin script
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'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎676] (731/1050), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/16/2/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023909214.0x000084> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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