'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎93r] (190/862)

DESCRIPTION OF THE LAND Iiy
Batin, is a major feature of Arabia and can be traced right across the
peninsula. It appears beyond the narrow belt of Dahana sands as
the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Rumma (or Rima), which curves westwards about latitude
26° as it passes through Nejd, and leads easily into the Hejaz by the
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Hamdh and its tributaries, thus linking up the central Arabian
towns of Hail, Buraida, and Riyadh with both the Red Sea and the
head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
The Southern Deserts (fig. 29)
The two chief divisions of this region are the Dibdibba on the east
and the Hajara on the west, roughly separated from each other by
the ridge of A 1 Haniya, and each containing smaller areas with special
characteristics.
Ad Dihdibba. This region stretches southward from the Hammar
lake and Zubair to Hafar and the Musannat ridge (which lie south
of the Arabian political boundaries with Iraq and Kuwait); it lies
between A 1 Haniya on the west and the coastal tract of Kuwait on
the east about 15 miles from the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
The Dibdibba is a gently undulating steppe desert with a slightly
sandy surface, thickly covered by low bushes, which give it a mottled
appearance from the air. It has no notable natural features with the
important exception of the Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Batin, and is almost without peren
nial wells, though rain-pools are invariably formed in winter and
spring, at which seasons pasture is plentiful and movement easy.
Some of these rain-fed depressions are extensive and last long into
the summer months as khors.
The nature of the soil in the Dibdibba is best illustrated by its
vegetation. The bitter hamdh (p. 188), which provides a salty addition
to the camels’ sweet (grass) grazing, is profuse as far west as the
neighbourhood of the Haniya ridge, where it ends almost abruptly,
its place being taken by arfaj (p. 187). The Arabs place the western
border of the region along the line of deep wells, Abu Ghar, Busaiya,
Tuqaiyid, Jahama, and Jiraibiyat to Uqubba, the southern apex
of the diamond-shaped neutral territory (p. 3), though A 1 Haniya
marks the geographical change in aspect and character. The neutral
territory has come to be known as At Tawal or Tawal adh Dhafir.
Formerly this term was applied by beduin to the line of deep wells
extending across the ‘diamond’ from north to south (from Tuqaiyid
through Rukhaimiya to Dulaimiya and Uqubba). It is now more
often restricted to the grazing-grounds in the vicinity of the valuable
wells which are in the neutral area.