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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎268r] (544/834)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (411 folios). It was created in 1917-1920. 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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337 —
It is somewhat difficult to arrive at anything like an exact
computation of the population of a tribe scattered over so wide
an area, but I think, as I have already noted, that it is fair to
assume two nomads for every settled person. On this basis I
arrived at an estimate for the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. sections of seven thousand
settled inhabitants (excluding negroes), and fourteen thousand
nomads,—or twenty-one thousand in all. The total of settled and
nomad elements of Sulaiyyil may be some five thousand in all,
while the Aflaj plains may support some ten thousand settled
Dawasir (excluding negroes), with a corresponding nomad element
of twenty thousand. The total population of the Dawasir by
this computation is some fifty-six thousand souls, to which should
be added the settled and nomad elements of the Aflaj hill district
and Kharj—say a total population (of course excluding all settled
elements outside the proper tribal range), for the tribe of from
sixty thousand to seventy thousand souls. I do not think that
this figure errs in the direction of exaggeration.
The Dawasir are noted among their neighbours as a factious,
fanatical and ungenerous community, and (until recent years)
ravaged by perpetual internecine dissension and warfare, in wffiich
every hamlet’s hand was against its nearest neighbour and every
section at mutual feud.
Wahhabis by religious persuasion, they rival the worst of
the Ikhwan in their narrow, fanatical outlook on life, the settled
element being in this respect worse than the nomad ; for the former,
seldom moving beyond the limits of their narrow oases, are secure
from any infection by the generous impulses of the outer world;
while the latter, seeking a precarious livelihood in the Hasa
markets and even in the pearl fisheries beyond, besides retaining
somewhat of the more humane codes of their pagan forbears,
comport themselves more gently with the stranger.
A relic of the old pagan days is the practice of female circum
cision, which, rejected as heathenish by the village folk of the
oases, survives in full force among their nomad brethren as it is
said to do among the Manasir and Beduin tribes of Uman.
This practice appears to be unknown among the neighbouring
tribes of Qahtan, A1 Hurra, and Ateiba (and of course the more
northern tribes) who, on this score, make merry at the expense
of the Dawasir.
The common salutation of the Dawasir, badu or hadhr, is
Salam alaikum ya Muslimin ! ”

About this item

Content

The volume consists of individual copies of the Arab Bulletin produced by the Arab Bureau at the Savoy Hotel, Cairo numbers 66-114. These publications contain wartime, and post-war intelligence obtained by British sources. They deal with economic, military, and political matters in Turkey, the Middle East, Arabia, and elsewhere, which – in the opinion of British officials – affect the ‘Arab movement’; the bulletins cover a wide range of topics and key personalities.

The volume contains the following maps:

  • A map of Central Arabia showing St John Philby's route from Uqair to Jidda 17 November to 31 December 1917: folio 103.
  • Sketch map prepared from RNAS photographs and reconnaissance by HMS City of Oxford of Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Mur February to March 1918 : folio 170.
  • Sketch map of Hejaz (1919): folio 317.
  • Tribal sketch map of the Hadhramaut ‘showing only tribes of fighting value’: folios 333v.

Towards the back of the volume is a small amount of correspondence respecting the distribution of Notes on the Middle East ; the Arab Bulletin was superseded by this publication. Copies of numbers 3-4 of this publication can also be found at the back of the volume.

Tables of content can be found at the front of each issue. A small amount of content is in French.

Extent and format
1 volume (411 folios)
Arrangement

The Arab Bulletins are arranged in numerical order from the front to the back of the file. The Notes on the Middle East follow on from the bulletins at the back of the file in reverse numerical order.

The subject 759 (Arab Bulletins) consists of two volumes. IOR/L/PS/10/657-658.

Physical characteristics

Condition: the edges of some of the folios towards the back of the volume have suffered damage to their edges due to general wear and tear. The affected folios are 389-390, 407-409, and 412.

Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 413; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The front cover and the leading flyleaf have not been foliated. A previous foliation sequence, which is present between ff 357-363 and ff 374-412 and is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in
English in Latin script
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File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎268r] (544/834), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/658, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100048056856.0x000091> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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