File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎267r] (542/834)

— 335 —
THE DAWASIR TRIBE.
. Tile following notes are taken from a report by Mr. Philby
written from Riyadh, and dated July 28 : —
. sma ll a proportion of the Dawasir is in any sense
Beduin that the tribe hardly comes within our purview here.”
So says the compiler of the Handbook of Arabia in his survey of
the nomad tribes of Arabia, basing his assumption on the fact
that elements of the Dawasir tribe are found scattered far and
wide in settled life in the towns and villages of Nejd and even
further afield. He might have said the same with equal truth of
the great northern tribe of Anaza ! For are not the Anaza to be
found settled down in all the villages and towns of Nejd down
to far Hariq and further Aflaj ? And has not the Dawasir colony
at Bahrain its counterpart in the Anaza colony at Kuweit ? Thus
it is ever with the great nomad tribes, the tide of migration
flows and ebbs, but ever and anon it leaves some small remnant
high and dry far beyond its normal limit. As it has been with
the Anaza so it has been with the Dawasir, and so, under the
influence of religion, it is happening with other great nomad
tribes—the Qahtan, the Ateiba and the Muteir. In all cases the
main body retains its nomad spirit and habits, and it is only of
such old remnants as Tamim and Hanifa that one can say that
as nomad tribes they have ceased to be.
Little is known by the Dawasir themselves, or by any one
else of whom I had opportunities of enquiring, of their origin,
or of the manner of their coming to their present haunts. So
much they know that they came from Yemen whence the
reputed ancestor of the tribe, Zayid, having obtained permission
to migrate from the ruler of the land, arrived at Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dawasir
some centuries ago—perhaps two or three, or even more. In the
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. they took up their residence as the guests and proteges of
the original owners, of whom no trace or tradition remains, unless,
as I think, their remnant is to be sought in the loose confederacy
known as the Abat Dawasir, which neither claims nor is admitted
to blood relationship with the Dawasir, but is inseparably linked
with them by an immemorial tradition of alliance, and ranges
through the same marches. So far as one can gather, the sup
planting of the original holders of the land by the Dawasir took
place by a process of peaceful penetration and absorption. The
sons of Zayid waxed prosperous amid their new surroundings;
but, much as the tribe is now abused and held in contempt for
its lax observance of the nomad moral code, I never heard it said
that they had come into their patrimony by treachery to their
hosts.
Starting from small beginnings in the oasis of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. ,
whence they doubtless pastured such flocks as they had in the
sand billows of Nafudh Dahi to the north, and the unprosperous
sand and shingle plain to the south, the Dawasir gradually
spread eastwards and northwards practically across the whole