Ḳlejb al-Merṣed and al-Barra form the southern border of the ʻAlâwîn, the tribe to which our guide Sâlem belonged. Also called Ḥwêṭât eben Ǧâd,[1] they number about fifty tents and comprise the following clans:
| Ṣwêlḥîn Maḳâble al-Maḥâmîd al-Bdûl aṣ-Ṣḳûr al-Ḫẓêrât as-Sallâmîn |
al-Farrâǧîn as-Srûrijjîn al-Menâǧeʻe al-Ḳidmân al-ʻAwasa’ as-Sallâmât al-Ṛajâlîn. |
The ʻAlâwîn paid no taxes but received from the Turkish Government an annual grant of five hundred English pounds. The Egyptian Mameluke sultans, and later the Turkish rulers, had formerly paid them this money in return for their protection of the pilgrims journeying from Egypt by way of al-ʻAḳaba to al-Medîna and Mecca; but after the construction of the Suez Canal the Government discontinued the payments, as the pilgrims from Egypt no longer passed through the desert but took ship to Jidda or Râbeṛ. However, those who still journeyed through the desert continued to pay personally for their protection. In 1898 the tribes encamped southwest of Maʻân began a revolt against the Turks and wished to transfer their allegiance to Egypt. In order to win them over, the Turkish Government consented to grant gifts of money in individual cases and recommenced the annual payment of five hundred English pounds to the ʻAlâwîn.
Sâlem urged me to take a guide from among the ʻImrân, who would protect us from his predatory friends. It should be explained that each tribe regards the neighboring tribe as more thievish than itself.
The defile of al-Merṣed is enclosed to the south by the uplands of Šhejb al-Arâneb and Smejr as-Sebîḥi. Avoiding these uplands, we entered a capacious basin sloping towards the south, in which, near the well of Abu Sjejle, we perceived several camels belonging to the Šamsân clan of the ʻImrân. After a while we were joined by an old man with a good-humored expression, whom Sâlem recommended to me as guide. This was Ḥammâd, the chief of the Šamsân. On his head he wore a black and threadbare kerchief, while his body was clothed only in a tattered black shirt, which he
- ↑ See Musil, Arabia Petraea, Vol. 3, pp. 54—55.
