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[-2-]{+Dr. Wallin’s Route in Northern Arabia.
45
2+} days and a half in a south-westerly direction. There is no
water along the road, except, after rain, in pools and cisterns. The
inhabitants of ’Elah, I was told, are about 300 families, including
a great many Mutawallidin ; they chiefly occupy themselves in a
small trade which they carry on with the Bedooins of the adjacent
desert and with the towns of Yanbu’, Wegh, and Medimi.
The only Arabian author by whom I have found ’El&li
mentioned, is x\hmed al-Dimashky, who, in his Akhbar al-Duwal,
states it to be “ a village on the Syrian pilgrim road, at a
distance of 5 days’ journey from Al-Mcdina, and situated in a valley
possessing date plantations and a spring of running water.” It is,
however, out of the pilgrim’s road, about 6 hours to the S.W. of
Higr (Ilijr), the fourth station from Tebook (Tebiik). The
distance from Teima (Te’ima) to Tebook (Tebuk) is reckoned at
4 days’ easy journey ; half way there is a reservoir called ’Ukla
(’Uklah), where water seldom fails to be found. From Te’ima to
Al-Gawf is 5 days in a north-north-easterly direction; and to
Kheibar, 3 long days’ journey.
The notices, I have been fortunate enough to find in Arabic
works, of Teima, are few and meagre, and all amount to the same
thing, viz., that “ Teima is a town in the Syrian (sic!) desert
belonging to the tribe of Tay, more fruitful in date-trees, and
in a more prosperous state than Tebook; and that the castle of
Ablak, attributed to Sam’ool (Sam’iil), the son of ’Adiya
(’Adiyah), stood here.” There are no remains extant of this
castle; nor does even its name live in the memory of the present
inhabitants. A small ruined building, constructed of hewn stone
and half buried in sand and rubbish, appeared to me to be too
inconsiderable to admit of its being identified with the celebrated
old castle.
The Bedooins dwelling in the neighbourhood of Te’ima are
principally of the ’Eneze (’Anezeli) tribe. The most powerful
elans of them here are the Fukara, the Wuld ’Aly (’All), .the
Wuld Soleiman, and the Bishr. The Fukara occupy the country
between Iligr (Hijr), Tebook (Tebuk), Khaibar, and Teima:
their chief subdivision is the Bern Wahab. The Wuld ’Aly
(’All) and the Wuld Soleiman generally live in the southern parts
of the Nufood. (Nufurlh), to the E. of Teima. And the Bishr, of
whom the leading sub-division is called ’Awagy (’Awaji), are spread
from these parts of the Nufood, which is here succeeded by a
gravelly soil, as far eastward as Al-Kasim. The Beni Shammar
usually prefer the eastern parts of the Nufood, and the tracts near
to ’Irak, whither during the last century they have been
emigrating, clan after clan, and family after family. As, however, all
these elans live in friendly intercourse, frequently encamping in
the same place and mixing together, it is difficult to determine
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