'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. I' [‎948] (1015/1050)

918
JAU—JAU
tribe. Halevy, who visited Jauf in 1869-70, gives Al-Ghail and Al-Hazm among the
chief villages in the valley, and further north in the adjacent oases of Al-Marashi and
Al-Khab, Husn Marikh and Al-Mikar. Jauf was in ancient days the seat of the Minaean
kingdom and many ascriptions of interest were found by Halevy at the ruined city of
Ma in and the neighbourhood of Al-Hazm.
He desecribes Al-Khab as every where well cultivated, the fields circling round the
hills in artificial terraces and watered by numberless wells sunk in the rock. Long rows
of trees are planted ; fruit and viticulture are not very successful owing to the extreme
dryness of the climate. The villages are near together, generally on the slope of a hill
in steps. Some are on the banks of the torrents which meander over the plains in the
rainy season. The houses are chiefly of sun-dried brick, but many of those of the well-
to-do are of stone. There is a large colony of Jews in Jauf and they appear to be very
well treated.— (Waubope.)
J AUF-AD-DARWISH—
A station on the Hejaz rilaway 397-5 kilometres from Damascus and 61 *64 north of
Ma'an. There is an old stone qaVah on the Hajj route here. The railway station consists
of one building and a loop siding 250 yards in length. There is no water.
JAUF-AL- 'UMR—
The largest town in the dominions of the Amir of Jabal Shammar in Central Arabia ;
it lies, entirely surrounded by deserts, about 365 miles south-west of Baghdad, 225
miles north-west of Hail and 310 miles south-east of Damascus.
Site. —Jauf-al-'Umr is about 1,850 feet above sea-level. It is situated on a dead
flat plain forming the bottom of an extraordinary depression of oval form which has
a maximum diameter, from north-west to south-east, of rtoarly 3 miles. The walls of the
depression are sandstone hills supporting a desert plain some 500 feet higher-than Jauf.
These hills are called on the north side Jal-al-Jauf, and on the south side Tabaiq ; behind
Tabaiq, between it and the Nafud which begins two hours from Jauf, is a clayey and
pebbly tract called Safihah where Bedouins cut brushwood and dry grass for sale at Jauf.
The Syrian road leaves Jauf by a defile in the Jal on the north-west-side of the valley. At
the opposite end is the descent into the Jauf basin from the Hail side which occupies about
half an hour. The symmetrical form of the Jauf depression is broken, on the west only,
by a limestone spur which projects from the encircling heights and subsides by degrees
into the centre of the plain. The soil of the valley is a sterile, crusty sand with clayey
hollows here and there in which water collects, leaving salt behind when it dries ; rain
however is rare-*
Town. —The town forms a curve with the concavity to the south-west; for two-
fifths of its length it runs from west-north-west to east-south-east and the remainder lies
north-west and soutk-east. Its length is over 2 miles and its breadth less than half a
mile, the latter being greatest near the point where the change occurs in the direction of
its axis. The orchards and palm groves form a continuous line parallel to the town on its
west side and mostly stand clear of it towards the western side of the valley, Jauf-al-
'Umr is divided into a number of quarters, each of which is separately walled, and con
tains houses irregularly placed and interspersed with small orchards and with deep
pits from which earth has been dug for building material. The houses are of
sun-dried brick and many of them possess a detached coffee-room. The quarters,,
in order from north-west to south-east are apparently Husaini, Gharbi, Dharai
Qa'aiyid, Dirat Marid, Dlrat Hattab, Salman Habab, Sa'aidan, Kahaibiyln, T Alaq,
Zuqmah, Khadhmah and Dalhamiyah. Dirat Marid is the most ancient quarter
and to it belongs Marid castle, an erection originally all of hewn, stone but
coarse in construction, which stands upon a precipice of the limestone spur already
mentioned, is connected with the quarter by a wall, and looks north over the town.
Dirat Hattab is the broadest part of the town and at Salman occurs the more southward
bend previously described. Habab possesses a strong tower and was in former days
at feud with the quarter of Dirat Marid. Dalhamiyah was destroyed in 1838 and has
not been rebuilt. To these quarters may be added the village of Ghuti, a small walled
* A sketch of the .] aiif oasis aiid bfisin is gme in Lfidy Anne Blunt's Pilgrimage (1.120). A good one was also
made by Butler and Aylnaer, in 1908, ^