'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎103] (112/568)

INHABITANTS
103
(who were perhaps some 2,000 in all) were armed with rifles.
Subject to the Sheikh of Mohammareh.
In the Hawlzeh district, between the Karun and the Tigris, are
the large groups of the Beni Tur (20,000 souls ?) and the Beni
Sdleh (15,0u0 souls?), a branch of the Beni Tamlm (10,000 souls?),
and some sections of the Beni Lam. These tribes are mainly semi-
nomadic, grow rice, wheat, and barley, and own live-stock consisting,
in different proportions, of cattle, buff,Joes, sheep, donkeys, horses,
and camels. (The Beni Turuf are said to own no sheep.) They
are partly marsh-dwellers and partly range over the dry steppes.
The majority of the Beni Tamlm are Sunnis, the other tribes are
Shiahs. Before the war a large number of their fighting men were
armed with rifles. The Beni Turuf are specially noted as turbulent
robbers.
Anafijeh. Mainly on the Dlz within 20 miles of its mouth,
on the right bank of the Karun, and on the Ab-i-Shatait. Mostly
semi-nomadic. Fighting-men estimated in 1908 at 1,140, the
majority armed with rifles. The Anafijeh pay tribute to the Sheikh
of Mohammareh.
In northern Arabistan the chief Arab tribes are:
Kathir (generally pronounced Oh Along the Dlz above the
Anafijeh and between the Dlz and the Korkeh. They are mostly
nomads. Their fighting men are all armed with rifles.
Beit Saad. Along the Dlz, where they are interspersed with
the Kathir, and in the Miyanab. They are mostly hut-dwellers.
Their fighting men are armed with rifles, but few of them are
mounted. They are under the paramount chieftainship of the
sheikhs of the Kathir, who are believed to be of Beit Sa'ad
extraction.
Beni Lam. See p. 101.
(c) North o
tDilaim (about 3,000 tents). On both sides of the Euphrates, from
Feilujeh almost to Anah. Their paramount sheikh, Ali Suleiman,
has a house and palm-gardens at Kamadiyeh. The Dilaim are
Bedawis, own large numbers of sheep, but do not breed camels.
They are generally friendly with the Amarat Anazeh and hostile
to the Northern Shammar and to Beni Hasan and other Shiah tribes
of Irak. Sunnis.
1/ Anas eh. This people forms a great group of Bedawi tribes,
| probably the largest in the Arab world. They occupy ' the triangle
| of the Syrian Desert, which has its base on the Nefud, about lat. 30°