'Gazetteer of Arabia Vol. II' [‎1355] (410/688)

NAJ—NAJ
1355
i ffiti ^
itinB.!'
obseure tombs, a few pretentious mausoleums and a number of enclosed family grave
yards • some of the last are pictured as delightful places of retirement and seclusion.
The deposit of bodies, at the rate of several thousands annually, has now been going on
1 At Najaf for centuries, grave being superimposed on grave ; mouldering bones are
often visible, and the soil must now consist largely of decomposed human remains.
This enormous difficulty in the way of sanitation may account for the epidemics
which sometimes ravage the place inspite of a climate said to be healthy in comparison
with that of the neighbourhood.— -[ Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. GazetteeT.)
NAJAF (B apr-an).—
See Shatt-al-Hindiyah.
NAJAID.—
A hamlet in Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. -al-Kablr (?.r.), in the Dhahirah iistrict of the 'Oman Sultanate,
NAJAIRIS—
A section of the A1 Bu Jaiyash, one of the rural tribes of Iiaq
NA TATA 1 AH.—
A section of the Hawasinah tribe iq v. ). of the Oman Sultanate,
NAJD— i i
This region is equivalent to Central Arabia, south of lat. 21° North and between
(rouahlv) longitude 43° and 47° East. The name ' Najd ' is used as convenient, a thoug i,
to an Arab, it would not signify merely what is intended here, but either Jabal Shammar
also and the high steppes Avest, or (in the strictest use) the high steppe and desert alone
Our ' Najd, ' then, is bounded north by Jabal Shammar ; west by the high steppes
iving east of Hejaz and 'AsTr ; south by th« Great Deserteast by the Dahanah Desert
lying to west of Hasa. It is a loosely -linked group of nine more or less settled districts
■(from north to south), Qasim, Sadair, Woshm, 'Arich, 'Hanq, Aflaj, Salaiyin and Dawasir.
The internal boundaries of the nine districts, though undehmited, appear tobe immut
able, but their external boundaries lying in desert admit of no precison. Najd mea
sures about 450 miles from the extreme from north Qasim to the extreme south of
Dawasir and some 200 miles from the west of Washam to the east of Sadair. But it we
follow its curving north and south axis, we get a length of well over uOO miles.
Physical Chaeactee.
Phvsicallv Najd falls into three parts;— , , -rrr i t>
I. A northern valley region determined by the middle basin of the Wady Kummah
which lies south-east by north-west, and including the lower courses of _ the (un er-
ground) tributary drainage from left and right. This is Qasim. The floor of this re g 10 '
sandstone in the south but becoming chalky in the north, is, to a large extent, covered
by drift-sand, but remains exposed and topped by sandy loam m many considerable
patches, where water is obtainable at a depth of a few feet. The main Wady ^self is a
wide depression, varying in breadth from two miles to five hundred yards, least steep y
inclined on the left bank, and having a well-defined storm -water course, which genera y
hugs its cliffy right ban£ This watercourse may run from six to nme feet deep after
heavy rain in the western harrahs. Between ^Anaizah and Buraidah the sand ^as drifted
across the depression so as to form a dam, which often holds up storm-water for
months in a large lagoon (Khabrah), Below this dam the bed of the depression becomes
a salty slimy clay and bears little or no vegetation.
From the left bank of the Wady the ground slopes up uniformly all
above the sands as hard steppe, which runs up towards the highlands of •| aV >al Shammar
From the right bank the slope is more gradual, and, since there is less drainage flo g
underground, the drift sand along the edge of the Wady itself is backed by a mor
ba n en A central region dependent on a chalky, broken-up plateau, which trends from north
to south and is composed of two ridges with escarpments faemg west lemg slop
falling eastward. This plateau (Jabal Tuwaiq) has a mean elevation of about 600 feet
above the general level of the plains to west of it. It admits of settled life in its hollows.