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'Handbook of Arabia. Vol. I. 1917' [139] (148/748)
The record is made up of 1 volume (371 folios). It was created in 1916. It was written in English and Arabic. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
v:
RECENT HISTORY AND PRESENT POLITICS 139
Recent History and Present Politics
Politically Asir cannot be regarded as one, except on the Ottoman
theory that it forms, as a whole, the northern sub-province or
sanjalc of the vilayet of Yemen. In reality it falls into four parts,
one completely independent and three acknowledging, respectively,
the influence of the Emir, or Grand Sherif, of Mecca, the Turks,
or the Idrisi. The three latter, it is hardly necessary to remark, are
constantly changing as the power of one or the other aspirants to
supremacy waxes or wanes.
1. The number of Arabs who recognize no power but their own
is comparatively small, and is confined almost entirely to nomad
tribes such as the Rabi'ah Mujatirah and Rabi'at et-Tahahin, who
dwell in inaccessible mountain country on the 'Aqabah, and to nomad
sections of certain of the eastern tribes such as the Ghamid, Shahran,
and' Abidah, who wander far out to the east, where they are beyond
control. There is no cohesion or fixed purpose amongst these, and
politically they are of little account.
2. The Emir of Mecca's influence was chiefly evident amongst the
powerful tribes of Ghamid, Beni Shihir, and Shahran, who live on the
inland side of the main ridge. He is connected by marriage with
the paramount chief of the Beni Shihir and is a personal friend of
the Ghamid and Shahran Sheikhs, but he has never made any
attempt to administer the country and, before the recent insurrec
tion of Hejaz against the Turks (see Chapter IV), it appeared
doubtful whether he had much influence among the tribesmen.
In 1910 he got into touch with many of the tribes between Lith and
Ibha, during his campaign against the Idrisi; but how far he had
maintained relations since then was a matter of speculation.
3. The Turks never succeeded in completely subduing Asir, and
recently they had only a precarious hold on the port of Qunfudah
and the inland towns of Muha'il and Ibha, with a small district
round each of these places and, intermittently, the roads from one
to the other. They were in touch with the Beni Shihir and Shahran,
but chiefly by virtue of their relations with the Emir.
4. As for what remains, the Idrisi has either administered or
federated it—that is, the Qahtan tribes of southern inland Asir and
most of the Tihamah and 'Aqabah lands from the
Wadi
A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
'Ain in
the south to the confines of Lith—a strip of nearly 350 miles from
north to south by roughly 70 broad ; its home-land is in the Mikhlaf
el-Yemen district, with Sabia as capital and the ports of Midi and
Jeizan. This is a rather broad section of the Tihamah sloping up
*
About this item
- Content
This volume is A Handbook of Arabia, Volume I, General (Admiralty War Staff, Intelligence Department: May, 1916) and contains geographical and political information of a general character concerning the Arabian Peninsula. The volume was prepared on behalf of the Admiralty and War Office, from sources, including native information obtained for the purpose of compiling the volume, since the outbreak of the First World War. Separate chapters are devoted to each of the districts or provinces of the Arabian Peninsula and include information on the physical character, as well as social and political surveys.
The volume includes a note on official use, title page, and a 'Note' on the compilation of the volume. There is a page of 'Contents' that includes the following sections:
- Chapter 1: Physical Survey;
- Chapter 2: Social Survey;
- Chapter 3: The Bedouin Tribes: A. Northern Tribes, B. Tribes of the Central West, C. Tribes of the Central South, D. Tribes of the Central East, Supplement: Non-Bedouin Nomads;
- Chapter 4: Hejaz;
- Chapter 5: Asir;
- Chapter 6: Yemen;
- Chapter 7: Aden and Hadhramaut: A. Aden and the Interior, B. Hadhramaut;
- Chapter 8: Oman: A. The sultanate of Oman, B. Independent Oman;
- Chapter 9: The Gulf Coast: A. The Sultanate of Koweit [Kuwait], B. Hasa, C. Bahrain, D. El-Qatar, E. Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. ;
- Chapter 10: Nejd;
- Chapter 11: Jebel Shammar;
- Chapter 12: The Northern Nefūd and Dahanah Belts;
- Chapter 13: Settled Tribes of the North-West;
- Chapter 14: Settled Tribes of the West;
- Chapter 15: Settled Tribes of the South;
- Chapter 16: Settled Tribes of the Centre;
- Appendix: Note of Topographical and Common Terms;
- Index;
- Plates.
The front of the volume includes a 'List of Maps' and a 'Note on the Spelling of Proper Names'. Maps contained in this volume are:
- Map 1: Arabia: Districts and Towns;
- Map 2: Orographical Features of Arabia;
- Map 3: Land Surface Features of Arabia;
- Map 4: Tribal Map of Arabia.
The volume also contains fifteen plates of photographs and sketches by Captain William Henry Irvine Shakespear, Douglas Carruthers, Captain Gerard Leachman, Dr Julius Euting, George Wyman Bury, and Samuel Barrett Miles.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (371 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged in chapters. There is a contents page, list of maps, alphabetical index, and list of plates.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the front cover, on number 1, and ends on the last of various maps which are inserted at the back of the volume, on number 371.
- Written in
- English and Arabic in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Handbook of Arabia. Vol. I. 1917' [139] (148/748), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/E84/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100037114035.0x000095> [accessed 3 January 2025]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/E84/1
- Title
- 'Handbook of Arabia. Vol. I. 1917'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1:381, 384:726, ii-r:ii-v, ii-r:ii-v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence