"كتيّب الجزيرة العربية. المجلد I. ١٩١٧" [‎١‎٣‎٩] (٧٤٨/١٤٨)

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 '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
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