"دليل الجزيرة العربية المجلد I" [‎٢‎٣‎٨] (١٠٥٠/٢٥٣)

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'ASIE
Sabt Ibrf-al-'Arif (Bani Shihr), Khamis-al-Makwar (Ghamid), Dus (Zahran)
Qunfudah (Bani Zaid). c
Most of the output of dates from British is brought to Khamis Mishait for distribu
tion by merchants, who go to Bishah early in the season well supplied with general
goods, such as fles, ammunition, coffee, piece goods, etc. Merchants from Sabva
procure all their horses from the Qahtan. ^
Wada'ah produces raisins and sends them chiefly to Khamis ? Abidah.
After the Rijal-al-Ma' the most enterprising traders of the interior are the Oahtan
and especially the Rufaidhat-al-Yemen section of that tribe.
Recent history and present ponies.—Politically 'Asir cannot be regarded as one
except on the Ottoman theory that it forms, as a whole, the northern sub-province
ovsanjaq of the Wilayat of Yemen. In reality it falls into four parts one completely
independent and three acknowledging, respectively, the influence of the Sharif of
Mecca, the Turks, or the Idrissi. 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. j co
(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 Rabiyah Mniatrah
and Rabi yet 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 wonder 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 Sharif of Mecca's influence is 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 shaikhs ; but he has never made any attempt to
administer the country, and it is doubtful if he has much influence amongst the tribes
men. In 1910 he got into touch with many of the tribes between Lith and Abha during
his campaign against the Idrissi; but how far he has maintained relations since' then is
a matter of speculation.
(3) The Turks have never sueeeeded in completely subduing 'Asir and thev now have
only a precarious hold on the port of Qunfadah and the inland towns of Muhail and
Abha, with a small district round each of these places, and, intermittently, the roads
from one to the other. They are in touch with the Beni Shehir and Shahran, but chiefly
by virtue of their trelations with the Sharif ; in the event of trouble with the latter it is
probable that they would find these tribes arrayed against them.
(4) As for what remains, the Idrissi either administers or federates it, that is the
Qahtan tribes of southern inland Asir and most of the Tihamah and 2 Aqabah from the
Wadi 'Ain in the south to the confines of Lith, a strip of nearily 350 miles from north
to south by roughly seventy broad. Idrissi's homelands is in the Mikhlaf-el-Yemen
District, with Sabya as capital and the post of Midi and Jizan. This is a rather broad
section of the Tihamah sloping up for some forty miles to the foot of the 'Aqabah or
Bcrap of the highlands, and about eighty miles long from north to south.
Before Mahammad ' Ali cost covehtous eyes on 'AsTr, the whole country from Dharan
almost to Taif was in the hands of the ruling family of Bani Mughaid, whose capital
was Manadir, or Abha as it is now called. The Amir at the time of the Egyptian ex
pedition in 1834 was A'idh Ibn Mura'i, who, with the help of his sturdy hill-men
succeeded in defeat the invaders. The country then had rest from foreign aggrcs-
sion until) Sflft, when, the Suez Canal having been opened the Porte sent troops under
Rauf Pasha to deal with the Yemen and'Asir in earnest. In 1871, Muhammad, son of
A rfh attacked Hodaidah, but was repulsed with great loss and in the next year
Mukhtar Pasha, who had succeeded Rauf Pasha, invaded and subdued 'Asir. He "was
helped by the Eijal-al-Ma' who had successfully rebelled against the Amir and were
burning to avenge their defeat. The Turks administered most of the country until
the revolt of the Idnssi reduced their power to its present limits. The house of A'idh,
though deprived of much of its former glory, is still important, and Hasan Ibn 'Ali,
the present head, is Wah or Turkish Civil Governor of 'Asir.
There is m Mikblaf-al-Yemen a very old tradition of independence which has been
maintained against both the Turks and Yemenite tribes on the one hand, and the tribes