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[-Beni-]{+Dr. Wallin’s Route in Northern Arabia.
37
Beni+} Loot (Ltit), who dwell in and near Wadi Fera’; and the
escort of the Syrian pilgrims on their way is continued by the
Muwahibs (Muwahibs), the principal clan of the Beni Bely, to which
the family of their chief, Sheikh lbn Daraa (Dama), also belongs.
The Bely is the first tribe in this part whose dialect assimilates
to that spoken in by the inhabitants of Negd (Nejd), and the
’Eneze Bedouins, which differs principally from that current in
the towns, and among Arabs of a less unmixed race, by its
frequent use of the tauwin, and by certain grammatical forms and
idiomatic expressions from the ancient language; and still more
strikingly by the peculiar pronunciation of the letters k (kaf) and
k (kaf), called hashkashe,* by the Arabian grammarians.
The Beni Bely profess themselves to have adopted the reformed
creed of the Wahhabiye (Wahhabiyeh), and as a proof of their
sincerity, pay the Zika tribute, and regularly observe the daily
prayers and the rites and ceremonies prescribed to that sect; but,
saving these matters, they are as ignorant of the fundamental
doctrines of Islam and evince as much indifference to the scholastic
subtlety of its jurisprudence as the other Bedooins.
Although said to be a branch of the Kahtaniye (Kahtaniyeh)
of Yemen, I thought I could trace in their features a closer
resemblance to those of the ’Eneze and other Syrian tribes
descended from the ’Adnaniye (’Adnaniyeh), than in the case of the
Huweitat (liuweitat) and the Bedooins of western Arabia and
Egypt. Many of the Beni Bely were of a fair complexion, which
is very rarely seen in the desert, never, I think, amongst any but
the northern tribes.! It was not only their features and language
which reminded me of the ’Eneze, but their character seemed to
be marked by much of that profuse hospitality which distinguishes
the Bedooins of the interior from their neighbours on tho
outskirts of the desert; they have likewise a great (leal of the
vivacity and lightness of mind so common among the northern
Arabs, hut so foreign to the austere and rigid manners of the
Wahhabiye.
* {. e. pronouncing these letters when final, in certain cases, as if written kash
and kash.
t Though this inay be generally true, men of a fair complexion are certainly
found in the lulls of Yaman, and near ’Adan. A principal sheikh from the
neighbourhood of Lahg—so named after Lahg, the son of Ghawth (Wail in al-K&mos),
the son of Kutn, the son of ’Arib, the son of Zuheir, the son of Ayman, the son
of al-IIameisa’, the son of Hamiar, of the Kahtaniyd (Mttagamu-l-Buldan, in voce
Lahg)—16 miles N.N.W. of ’Adan, whom I saw in 1841, was decidedly fair, with a
beard inclining to a reddish tinge. 1 also recollect having seen an Albino boy at
’Adan, hut such a case was a phenomenon. The view taken by Dr. Wallin seems
to go no further than that fair skins among the present Arabs are more peculiar to
the northern and their kindred tribes of the ’ Adnaniye’. It may be mentioned, in
corroboration of this, that the Jews in Yaman, and particularly at’Aden, as compared
with the majority of the inhabitants, are a fair race—those who may lie considered
in better circumstances especially so. It has been surmised that these Jews migrated
to Yaman upon the final destruction of the temple of Jerusalem by Hadrian.—A.
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