'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎37] (202/524)

AROUND THE SHORE LINE OF THE PERSIAN GULF The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . 37
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Alboogbesh, Chief Moraid..... .6,000 grown men, Boozeeah their principal town.
Asarkeerah, Chief Zair Kraidee. 4,000 grown men, Oushar near Boozeeah.
Mukasebah, ChiefSaadoon ....2,500 grown men, Anayetee more S. & E.
Albooalee, Chief Saadoon 2,500 grown men, on a creek, no name.
Bowayhat, Chief Showash 2,500 grown men, do. do.
Almukhudum, Chief Shureeb ..4,500 grown men, Khoot near Dorack.
A1 Khanaferah, Chief Hajee Hamdan. 5,000 grown men, on road to Doraek from
M ahomerah.
Bhawee, Chief Akheel 8,000 grown men, on the Jerahee creek or
mouth.
Zoorgan, Chief Jubbur 8,000 grown men, on pastoral grounds.
Sherayfat, Chief Meer, Muhanna 10,000 grown men, Hindeean and on the
plains.
Amoor, Chief Shooheetee 10,000 grown men, wandering and pastoral.
Beni Khaled, Chief Shadee 5,000 grown men, ditto ditto.
These tribes are scattered throughout the pasturage during winter and spring,
and concentrate at or near Fellahiah towards summer for provisions and trade.
17. It is interesting and necessary, when considering the Arabs, to
distinguish between a series of grades towards civilization in which
they may at present be found. There is the Bedouin—wandering,
pastoral, tent-loving, disdaining to trade, yet avaricious, and willing to
sell his ghee, his mutton, or his horse. But the Bedouin is always
found in wide and open wastes, unpressed upon by adequate exterior
power. Yet even the Bedouin bends to circumstances. He accepts
the region allotted for his pasture grounds. Plunder has its laws, and
vengeance its chivalry. If he will not trade, he has still wants, and
suffers the presence of a Jew or Saleebah,* as the Afghan suffers
that of the Hindoo.
18. A little higher in the scale you find, as with the Chaabs, the
original wandering pastoral Arab, in a district where he is pressed
upon from without, and where boundless plunder and roaming are
restrained by exterior force. The Arab then partly turns to agriculture
* I saw some men of this tribe at Koweit and elsewhere. They worship the cross,
(Saleb) and perform many ceremonies more nearly allied to the corruptions of
Asian Christianity than to Islamism. Men and women dance round a sort of May
Pole. They wear a carter’s smock coming down to the feet, and which, like a
boy’s pinafore, ties behind. They possess a beautiful breed of donkeys, which they
ride, without girths, upon a saddle made like a cottage wooden chair bottom. They
squat on this seat, and twist their legs over a pummel peak ; crossing them over the
donkey’s neck. They seem to prize their saddles as an Arab does his mare ; and
would not sell them. They seemed a merry, quick-witted, disreputable lot, with
retrouse noses and Irish features. There they stood, eyes twinkling, (legs and
hands on the fidget,) and pelted as with the peelings of their fun.