'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎18r] (40/100)

— 27 —
goods consisted largely of vegetables and articles of apparel.
The main street rnns from the north to the south gate across
the eastern end of the Suq and is connected with other parts of
the town by cross lanes. The town is irregular in pattern and
has two small suburbs named Hazaimi and Marair and another
without name at no great distance from the northern wall—
these being inhabited exclusively by negro freed men, who seem
to form a considerable proportion of the population of the Aflaj
settlements and particularly of Saih. The bulk of the 4,000
souls, which at a rough estimate constitute the population of
Laila, are of the Ajjalin subsection of the A1 Hasan.
Facing the town across an open space beyond its northern
suburbs and occupying an angle in the north-west corner of the
oasis stands the rival settlement of Mobarraz, once a town,
indeed once the capital of the province and the seat of the
Wahhabi governor but now no more than a straggling village
buried in the remains of its dismantled glory; for in the turbulent
days of the past constant strife raged between the Ajjalin of
Laila and the A1 Buras (another subsection of Al Hasan) of its
rival and the open space between them was the scene of many a
pitched battle. Abdulla and fate sided with the Ajjalin and, in
spite of assistance from Saih, Mobarraz succumbed, its fortifica
tions and large part of its dwellings were razed to the ground
and it was degraded from the proud position of capital. Many
of the Al Buras were slain, many were banished and the present
population of the village is probably not more than 1,000 in
cluding representatives of other subsections of Al Hasan,
particularly Al Hajji, a considerable number of negroes and a
small subsection of Subai called Al Rashud.
In the middle of the oasis there is a small hamlet called
Rumahi containing a population of about fifty souls; a number
of qasrs mostly in ruins and buried deep in sand lie along the
north-east side of the palm-belt, and finally in the open to the
south of Laila at the south-western corner of the oasis is a neat
little irregular-shaped walled village called Jufaidariya con
taining a population of about 500.
Of the palm-groves and the oasis in general, whose total
population will be seen above to be about 6,000, including
detached qasrs, little need be said beyond that they are of very
unequal quantity and density. Wells are plentiful and water
abundant at about six to eight fathoms below ground-level;