'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎19r] (42/100)

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the Dawasir. The Ashraf element numbers perhaps some 200
souls in all who arrange for the cultivation of their groves by
a large and sturdy negro population numbering some 3,000.
Of recent years there has apparently been a good deal of
encroachment by purchase on the Ashraf possessions by enter
prising merchants and others of Laila, while a small part of this
section belongs to members of the Qainan subsection of A1 Hasan.
Saih, an untidy unwalled village of about 300 mud huts with two
mosques, stands at the southern extremity of the oasis, while two
hamlets called Lazidi and Fuwaidhiliya at the other exrtemity
of the same section are wholly occupied by negro tenants.
The eastern section of the oasis is called Qutain (or some
times Saih al Aqsa) from its chief village which lies in two semi
circular unwalled sections separated by a torrent channel on
the south-east side of the oasis. Other settlements in this section
are the small twin hamlets of Atmara and Eifa standing out
from the eastern palm fringe, a short way north of Qutain, a
small group of qasrs called Qasr Anaizan further north, a
detached grove and large qasr called Tuwairif separated from the
northern extremity of the oasis by the storm channel of the
Batin al Hamar and finally, a small group of qasrs called Qasr
al Khalaf half-way between Qutain and Saih. All the Qutain
sections belong to Al Hasan Dawasir of the Ammar, Tamim,
and Qainan subsections with a small number of Akhwan of the
Hamid subsection occupying Qasr al Khalaf. Practically all
the Al Hasan owners are nomad absentee landlords and the
resident population consists largely of negroes, the total popula
tion of the section being about 1,000. The resident population
of the whole oasis thus amounts to some 4,500 souls of whom a
very large proportion are negroes.
Saih was always in the past a bitter rival and enemy of
the Ajjalin of Laila, but of recent years there has been little
fighting—in fact since 1910 when Qutain was deprived of its
fortifications on account of its exhibition of Araif tendencies
and Mohammed ibn Fahhad himself very narrowly escaped
sharing the fate of the Hariq contingent.
West of Saih and south of Laila at a distance of about two
miles from either lies the small village and oasis of Ammar,
belonging as its name indicates exclusively to the Ammar sub
section of Al Hasan. The village, which with one or two outlying
qasrs may contain a population of some 500 souls, forms a more