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Khaibar is about six hours distant from the Hadj route to Syria, and lies, I believe, in a direction N.E. from Medina. It appears in former times to have formed part of the territory of the Sherif of Mekka. The present inhabitants of Khaibar are the Wold Aly, a tribe of Aenezes mustering about three hundred horsemen, whose sheikh Aleyda distinguished himself in the Wahaby war.
When he saw the impossibility of holding the town longer against the Wahabys, after all the surrounding Bedouins, and Mekka itself, had surrendered, he gave up the place to Saoud, on condition that he should be continued in his command; this was promised, and the promise was kept: a Wahaby garrison was then placed in the castle; the Aga el Haram, with all the Turks residing in Medina, were obliged to leave the town, where he had been for several years a mere shadow; and Hassan el Kalay remained governor under the Wahabys.
All the inhabitants of Nedjed trace their pedigrees to some ancient Bedouin tribe; thus the people of Rass claim descent from the Beni Yam, who now reside at Nedjran, in Yemen. Derayeh is supplied with water from wells. Ibn Saoud, the late Wahaby chief, discovered a spring behind this house, which he built, and wished to persuade the people that God had inspired him on the occasion.
I have been more than once in the room a quarter of an hour before I could get a draught of water, so great was the crowd. Devout hadjys sometimes mount the wall, and draw the bucket for several hours, in the hope of thus expiating their evil deeds. Before the Wahaby invasion, the well Zemzem belonged to the
Of late a new saint has appeared at Sada; he is called Seyd Ahmed, and is much revered by the Zyoud, or sect of Zeyd, who entitle him Woly, or Saint, even during his life. Sada is governed by Arabs: the Wahaby influence extended thus far. From Sada towards Sanaa the country is inhabited by Arabs, under the dominion of the Imam of Sanaa. Aashemye, of the Sofyan tribe.
Even before the Wahaby conquest, they had repeatedly been at war with the Syrian caravan, and Djezzar Pasha himself had been several times repulsed here, and obliged to take the eastern Hadj route, at the back of the great chain, rather than submit to the exorbitant demands of the Beni Harb for permitting the Hadj to pass through their territories.
The Wahabys did not place a garrison in the town; the Sherif continued to keep his governor there: but the Wahaby tax-gatherers came; and the inhabitants, who, except customhouse duties, had never before been subject to any imposts, found the government of the Wahabys press very heavily upon them.
The Wahabys, however, had not been able to subdue the Owf in their own mountains; and a proof of their independence appeared in the long hair which this tribe wore, contrary to the Wahaby precept, which had established it as a universal law to shave the head bare. We found, at the wells of Mastoura, several flocks of camels and sheep, which the Owf shepherds and shepherdesses were watering.
Wady Lymoun is a fertile valley, which extends for several hours in the direction of Wady Fatme; it has many date-plantations, and formerly the ground was cultivated; but this, I believe, has ceased since the Wahaby invasion: its fruit-gardens, too, have been ruined.
During the rainy season these Bedouins retire towards the interior of the Desert, where they remain until the rain-water collected in the hollow grounds is consumed by their cattle. Previous to the Wahaby establishment, the pasturage of Nedjed belonged exclusively to the Aenezes,
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