Taraba Is Environed With Palm-Groves And Gardens, Watered By
Numerous Rivulets; Near It Are Some Inconsiderable Hills, At The Foot Of
Which The Arabs Cultivate Durra And Barley:
The inhabitants are of the
Begoum tribe, and their Sheikh is Ibn Korshan.
One Ghalye, the widow of
a deceased Sheikh, had immortalised her name by devoting her property to
the defence of the town, and taking an active part in the council of the
chiefs. The country about Taraba, and thence to Kolakh, is inhabited by
the Ateybe Arabs, the most numerous of the Hedjaz tribes. The Begoums
had enclosed Taraba with a wall, and constructed some towers: at present
a Turkish garrison is stationed here, this being a principal position
and the grand thoroughfare between Nedjed and Yemen.
Pursuing the road from Taraba southwards to the east of the great chain
of mountains, over an uneven ground intersected by many wadys, we come,
at two days from Taraba, to the town of Ranye, inhabited by the Arab
tribe of Sabya, whose Sheikh is Ibn Katnan, a personage distinguished
for his bravery in the campaign against the Pasha's Turkish troops.
Three or four days from Ranye is the town of Beishe, the intermediate
space being peopled by the Beni Oklob tribe. Beishe, the most important
position between Tayf and Sanaa, is a very fertile district, extremely
rich in date-trees. The Turkish army of Mohammed Aly, with its followers
and allied Bedouins, amounting in all to ten or twelve thousand men,
found here sufficient provisions for a fortnight's halt, and for a
supply on their march of several days towards the south.
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