'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎23v] (51/100)

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Such is the Sulaiyyil district in broad outline as we first
saw it. The oasis itself, some hundred miles distant from
Badia and 288 miles from Riyadh by our route, lies at an elevation
of about 2,150 feet above sea-level on the left bank of the storm
channel of Shaib Majma about two miles above the confluence
of the latter with the channel of the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. . Between it and the
Naajaniya ridge is a bare stony strip of ground, while the soil
between the Majma and wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. channels is alternately of loam and
sand with salt-impregnated patches. The palm-belt is extremely
dense but not of great extent being some one and a half miles
long from north to south and of an average breadth of a quarter
of a mile ; in it and on its eastern edge are disposed the four
small hamlets of Faraa, Muqabil, Sabha, and Dahla in that order
from north to south, of which the largest is Sabha, the local
•emporium by virtue of the four small shops, which retail the
coffee of Yemen and the piece goods of India to a small clientele
and act as forwarding agents of the former to the villages and
towns of Nejd. In this connection I may note that traffic in
the Yemen berry, called Barriya because imported by land,
is extremely brisk, the people of Southern Nejd from Hauta and
Kharj downwards rejecting the Indian article as unfit for human
consumption. The product of Yemen prepared as the people of
the south prepare it is a real stimulant—almost an intoxicant.
The hamlets of Sabha and Dahla, more often called by the
names of the subsections of the Wuddain who inhabit them,
namely A1 Mohammed and A1 Hanaish respectively, are unwalled,
untidy groups of mud houses, situated about a quarter of a
mile apart towards the southern end of the oasis, the latter
standing on the lower slope of a projecting ridge of Naajaniya
from the top of which its inhabitants were wont in the old days
of internecine feuds to fire upon the open village of their nearest
neighbours. The population of each of these hamlets may be
some 500 souls.
Faraa at the northern extremity of the oasis and better
known as A1 Dhuwaiyan, another subsection of Wuddain,
contains about 300 souls, while Muqabil (called A1 Suwailim)
has a population of about the same number and is situated in
two small blocks within the eastern fringe of the palm-belt.
Besides these four hamlets there are a number of isolated
qasrs and petty groups of buildings scattered about the oasis and
bringing up the total population of Sulaiyyil to some 2,000 souls.