'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎320v] (645/738)

634 SOUTHERN BELQA AND ARDH EL-KERAK
Ma‘m. The Sala’iteh (Es-Slit), 280 families, hold the desert
tract E. of Seil el-Mukheires, and the similar country across
Mojib on the far side of El-Kurah. North of W. Zerqa Ma‘In
begin the Belqawlyeh tribes, of whom the most important,
in the southern Belqa, are the Ghanamat, with 220 families.
The larger of their two sub-tribes is that of the ‘Ajarmeh ;
their country extends N. to W. Hesban, where they meet the
‘Adwan (see above, p. 609). Most of the above tribes have
come from further south, pushed N. by successive waves of
emigration. The Ghawarneh, or people of the ghor are fairly
numerous (about 180 families in Gh5r el-Mezra‘ alone). But
they are raided by all the more warlike tribes within reach of
them, and only the extraordinary fertility of their soil enables
them to support the constant exactions to which they are
exposed. They are of very dark complexion, as befits the
inhabitants of an exceedingly hot region.
The Arabs obtain most of the objects which they do
not themselves produce (utensils, clothes, shoes for horses,
coffee, &c.) from the khawdja or travelling merchant, who
sets up his conspicuous white tent in the encampment after
giving the sheikh a present for the privilege of trading. Such
merchants take either money for their goods, or an equivalent
in kind—wool, camels’ or goats’ hair, livestock, grain, butter
or cheese. The improvident Arab is usually in their debt,
and borrows on the security of next year’s crop.
The only Bedouin entering the district are the Tauqeh,
a sub-tribe of the Beni Sakhr, who range up the desert along
the whole of its eastern side. They own much of the fertile
land on the plateau, where their sphere of influence runs from
Jafar, north-west of Dhat Ras, east of Kerak and Madeba to the
Hauran. They are overlords both of the fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. and of the
half-nomadic Arabs, and profit both by the material and
moral advantages of that position. Slaves are found with all
the tribes, not only negroes, but Mohammedans of other
races stolen by slave-merchants as children in Egypt and
Morocco, and sold chiefly at Meda’in Salih, Ma‘an and
Mecca. Slaves appear to be well treated and allowed so