File 3142/1903 'Hedjaz Railway' [‎61v] (129/488)

The two great Arab tribes along the line between Deraa and Maan are the Bern
Sakhr and the Adwan, the latter a large confederation of seven sub-tubes.
They occasionally make attempts on the line when they are camped near it sucl*
as lifting a rail or placing large stones along it; but the bheikhs receive a subsidy
from the Government to prevent raids, and the system seems to work fairly well here
The Bedouin are generally hostile to the Government and the line, and the Sheikhs
were often spoken of in terms of contempt for having accepted money from th^
Government wan ^ p )Ctl i Sakhr are usually at enmity. The former are generally
found near Es Salt, and the latter farther north. The Sheikh of the Ben. Sakhr is
Reimi-ibn-Faiz, and of the Adwan, Sheikh Ah Diab, whose son is called Sheikh-i-Sultan
The great desert tribes of Roalla and Anaize of the Eastern desert rarely approach
th ° South of Tebuk the hostility of the Arabs greatly increases and becomes a serious
factor to be dealt with. The powerful tribe of Beni Atie and its sub-sections roam
about the country between Maen Tebuk and Medain-i-Salih, and have shown themse yes
hostile by cutting off soldiers who stray from the working parties and by making
attacks on the construction works, one of such attacks quite recently resu ted in a
captain and four men being killed. . „ , ^ . A ,. ir ,
The Sherarat to the east of Tebuk are another section of the Beni Atie or allied
to them. The Beni Atie are m touch to the east with the tribes of Jebei ohammar,
the great confederation under Ibn Rashid Emir of Hail and would act with them.
The Chief of the Beni Atie is Sheikh Harb-ibn-Atie, whose tents are usually near
Teima.
The Fekr or Fakir is an allied tribe of the Beni Atie, their Sheikhs being Mutlak
and Shebab. rv -u
The Laida are another sub-section under Sheikh Diab.
Both the Fekr and the Laida claim to be branches of the Wuld Ah near Damascus.
The Wuld Suleiman, under Sheikh Asker are also a sub-section of the Beni Atie.
Between Medina and Mecca is the powerful tribe of Beni Harb, which opposes
even the extension of the telegraph and naturally object strongly to the line. Their
present Chief is Sheikh Hamud. .
The Jihaine and the Billi to the north-west of Medina are allied to the Beni Harb,
and it is they who recently stopped the working parties near Medina.
The Ibn-er-Fadi, under Sheikh Suleiman Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , are on the road between Medina
and the coast, and have rendered assistance to the Government, their Sheikh being
rewarded with the title of Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. .
Possibility of invading Central Arabia from the Railway.
If the Turks hope to make some point on the line a base for a movement against
Central Arabia, they must select Tebuk or Akhdar as the starting point for such an
expedition, the question of water being a dominating factor. Muadhem, the nearest
point to Hail, has a scarcely sufficient supply of water.
To be successful the Turks must alter their present want of system and create a
more perfect supply organization for their columns in the long desert marches, and
establish lines of communication that cannot be raided by the very mobile forces of the
enemy.
The supply question is the great difficulty experienced in campaigning in Arabia,
for when Arabs have been brought to face Turks in the open they have usually been
beaten, but when they confine themselves to raiding communications and cutting
supplies, they have forced the Turks to withdraw as may be instanced by the recent
Yemen campaigns and the recent Turkish expedition into Kassimand Hail which failed
owing to being literally starved out.
Thus a movement inland from Tebuk or Muadhem towards Central Arabia is an
operation far more difficult than would appear from simply working out distances on
the map, and would require a most perfect system of organization, which up to the
present the Turks do not seem to have been able to create.
The great Chiefs, Ibn Saoud or Ibn Rashid by combining the various sub-tribes
might get together 20,000 men each ; and of these some 4,000 would be cavalry who
would act as scouts and the remainder be mounted two men on a camel, carrying with
them a store of provisions, cartridges, and a skin of water. They can cover sixty or
seventy miles a-day, and the Turks have no defensive posts against an advance of such
a mobile force.