The Road Is Of Deep Sand, Without Any Water But What Is Afforded By The Well Of Shageyg, Four Days From Djebel Shammar, And One From Djof.

I believe that there is no other station of equal length entirely destitute of water, in any part of Arabia frequented by caravans, like the four days between Djebel and Shageyg.

The well of Shageyg belongs to the Aenezy tribe of Rowalla; and whoever wishes to go from Southern Syria to Nedjed, must necessarily pass here. There is not any water from Djof southwards, in a direct line towards Khaibar and Medina; the road is therefore not frequented. Arabs going from Djof to Medina must pass by Shageyg and Shammar and Kasym, taking a circuitous route.

My residence at Medina in time of war, when the eastern and northern Bedouins were hostile, and did not come into the town, prevented me from acquiring as much information as if a peaceable intercourse had subsisted. Whenever this is the case, small caravans from Khaibar and Teyme frequently repair to Medina. Khaibar is well known in Arabian history, as the scene of early Muselman wars under Mohammed, Aly, and their successors. It is said to be four or five days (some say only three) from Medina, the road passing between the Hadj route to Damascus and the route to Kasym. The Arabs of Khaibar, in time of

[p.464] peace, bring their dates for sale to Medina. They are said to be of a darker complexion than the surrounding Bedouins: this may be caused by the great heat in the low situation of that place. Khaibar is about six hours distant from the Hadj route to Syria, and lies, I believe, in a direction N.E. from Medina. It appears in former times to have formed part of the territory of the Sherif of Mekka. When the Sherif Hassan Abou Nema was installed in 966, (A.H.) his territory, as we learn from Asamy, comprised Mekka, Tayf, Gonfode, Haly, Yembo, Medina, and Khaibar. The present inhabitants of Khaibar are the Wold Aly, a tribe of Aenezes mustering about three hundred horsemen, whose sheikh Aleyda distinguished himself in the Wahaby war. Another branch of the Wold Aly inhabit the deserts near Hauran, south of Damascus. At Khaibar also are encampments of the Oulad Soleyman, a tribe of the Bisher Arabs (likewise of the Aeneze nation); but the Wold Aly possess the ground and the date- plantations.

A colony of Jews formerly settled at Khaibar has wholly disappeared. It is commonly believed at Mekka and Djidda, that their descendants still exist there, strictly performing the duties of their religion; but, upon minute inquiry at Medina, I found this notion to be unfounded, nor are there any Jews in the northern parts of the Arabian Desert. The Jews who were formerly settled in Arabia, belonged to the tribe of Beni Koreyta (Caraites). They came to Medina after Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jerusalem; when Kerb Ibn Hassan el Hemyary (one of the Toba kings of Yemen who had possessed themselves of Mekka) made an inroad towards Medina, which he besieged, and on his return from thence carried some of the Beni Koreyta with him to Yemen.

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