"كتيّب الجزيرة العربية المُعد تحت إشراف القسم التاريخي لوزارة الخارجية – رقم ٩٠". [‎١‎٦] (١٤٨/٣١)

16
POLITICAL HISTORY
communities, settled, half-settled, and nomadic, which
give effective allegiance to none of the above, but only
to their own chiefs. These are to be found mainly in
the hinterland of Yemen, in the Asir highlands, in)
the interior of Oman, and all round the northern fringe
of the Nefud Desert, which divides Arabia proper
from the " Syrian Desert " or Hamad. In this last
region account must be taken of three tribal groups
especially, whose activities tend to encroach on parts
of Arabia proper—the Saadun chiefdom among the
Muntafik, the Hadhdhal chiefdom among; the Amarat,
and the Shaalan chiefdom of the Ruwalla. The last
is established in the oasis of Jauf, on the northern edge
of the Nefud, and has designs on Jebel Shammar to
the south. The other two belong to the great Anaize
group of tribes, which dominates the Syrian Desert,
and makes it one in general social character with
central Arabia.
This parcelling of the peninsula among many
autonomous States is of immemorial antiquity. The
peculiar geographical conditions of the country hardly
admit of settled life, except in oases isolated by desert,
or in wadis divided by rugged and comparatively
barren ridges; and it is only by virtue of some peculiar
source of wealth, some spiritual idea, or, lastly, some
external strength, that larger territorial dominions
have been established and maintained here and there.
To understand the position and claims of thos^
existent to-day, it is necessary to review very briefly
a long period stretch ino- back to the thirteenth cen
tury. By that epoch the whole peninsula had come
to accept, in theory, the one religion of Islam, but with
much variety of dogma and practice. Shia tenets had
prevailed in highland Yemen and its back hinterland,
as well as among some Beduin tribes of the centre, in
Hasa, and even, to some extent, in Hejaz and Medina
itself; and Oman had become mainly Ibadhi The
overlordship of the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad had
become ineffective: and with its decline two of the most
important princedoms, which survive to this day, had