'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎104] (113/568)

104
INHABITANTS
and its apex near Aleppo, about lat. 36°In the eighteenth century
the Anazeh pushed the northern branch of the Shammar out of the
Syrian Desert across the Euphrates, and have remained at feud with
that people. It is to be noticed that the Anazeh are not a con
federation ; their large sections are in general friendly to each other,
but have their occasional bickerings, and the whole Anazeh people
has not been known in recent times to act together. The Anazeh
are great breeders of horses and camels. They are Sunnis.
Two great Anazeh tribes range about the middle Euphrates valley
—the Amarat (about 3,000 tents), and the (about 3,500 tents).
Of these the Amarat are to be found in the Syrian Desert between
Kerbela and Hit, and also at times move across the Euphrates into
the Jezlreh. Their paramount chief, Ibn Hadhdhal, owns palm-
gardens at Ghazazeh near Kerbela, at Baghdadlyeh above Hit, and
elsewhere on the Euphrates. The Fed e an (about 3,500 tents) range
from Deir almost up to Aleppo, and along the lower Khabur.
Other Anazeh tribes are the Sba' in the central Syrian Desert, and
the Kuweilah and Wuld 'Ali on the western side of the desert from
Homs and Hama in the north to the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Sirhan on the south.
The Ruweilah are Nuri Ibn Sha'lan's people, and they and their
allies, the Wuld 'Ali and some smaller tribes, number about
7,000 tents.
The paramount sheikhs of the four largest Anazeh tribes, Ibn
Hadhdhal of the Amarat, Ibn Muheid of the Eed'an, Ibn Shalan of
the Euweilah, and Ibn Smeir of the Wuld 'Ali, could each, it is
believed, put into the field from 1,500 to 2,000 men armed and
mounted on camels with a small proportion of horses. The Sba'
sheikhs could muster about 1,000 men.
Northern Shammar (variously estimated, ' probably a total of 2,000
tents is not far from the true figure ; but they have been put as
high as 10,000 tents'). In the Jezlreh plains between the Tigris and
Euphrates, and occasionally east of the Tigris about the Lesser Zab.
In summer their sections are to be found on the Khabur and in the
plains south of Nisibin and about El-Hadhr. In winter they may come
down into the 'Aqarquf region or farther south into northern Irak.
The Shammar are the dominant group in the Jezlreh ; they are at
feud with the Anazeh and generally on bad terms with the Kurds to
north and east. Their ruling house is that of Jerban. In the last
quarter of the nineteenth century the paramount chieftainship was
shared by two brothers of this house, Paris on the Khabur and near
Nisibin, and Ferhan whose head-quarters were at El-Hadhr on the
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Tartar. In 1911, . when the Shammar were rounded up at
El-Hadhr by Hasan Riza Bey, Asi, the eldest of Ferhan's sixteen