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. These are the first Jews who settled
in that country, and their descendants still remain at Szanaa. (See
Samhoudy's History of Medina.)
The small town of Teyme is three days from Khaibar, and as many from
Hedjer, in an eastern direction. It is inhabited by the Aeneze Arabs,
and abounds with dates. It belongs neither to Nedjed nor Kasym, and,
like Kbaibar, was an independent Bedouin settlement before the time of
the Wahabys. Those small towns in the interior of the Arabian Desert,
are like the Oases in the Libyan; and serve as points of intercourse
between the Bedouins and the neighbouring cultivated countries.
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