# The Northern Ḥeǧâz/Chapter 1

CHAPTER I
MAʻÂN
DAMASCUS TO MAʻÂN
In the middle of March, 1910, I was invited, at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Kaller, to Constantinople, where I entered into negotiations with the Turkish Government and the Board of Health regarding a journey of exploration in the northern Ḥeǧâz. The Board of Health was desirous of discovering by what routes pilgrims were evading the quarantine station at Tebûk, the methods by which this evasion could be checked, and whether this center could or could not be transferred. Ṭalʻat Bey, the Minister of the Interior, wished to learn the political attitude of the tribal chiefs in this region, and he also desired to know in what localities settlements could be developed. He promised me every assistance and said that he would send special instructions to the Governor General at Damascus, who at that time was Ismâʻîl Fâḍel Pasha. Assuming that Ṭalʻat Bey would fulfill his promise and that I should be able to work unrestrictedly, I took with me Dr. Leopold Kober, of the Geological Institute of the University of Vienna, and my valued assistant Rudolf Thomasberger of the Military Geographical Institute. Leaving Vienna on April 21, we proceeded via Trieste to Alexandria, Beirut, and Damascus, where we made preparations for our journey.
When we reached Damascus we found that Ismâʻîl Fâḍel Pasha was inspecting the extensive area under his administration and that he was not expected to return for several weeks. His deputy knew nothing about the promise made by Ṭalʻat Bey concerning special instructions and maintained an attitude of complete passivity. After two weeks, however, he informed me that he had received word from Constantinople that I might proceed to the Ḥeǧâz, but only by railway, and that I must not alight at any intermediate stations. This was at variance with the promises I had been given in Constantinople; but I thought that Ismâʻîl Fâḍel Pasha would act on my behalf when he returned to Damascus or when I applied to him by letter or telegram for assistance.
​My only desire was that the Turkish Government should not interfere with me. I did not expect active aid from them, as I was aware that their authority did not extend more than a very short distance from the railway track. My old friend Ḫalîl Fattâl and various acquaintances had provided me with recommendations to a number of prominent men in the Ḥeǧâz and at al-Medîna. Then, too, I was familiar with the conditions of the country and knew several of the native chiefs, so I had no doubt regarding the success of the expedition. I was troubled only by our late start, as I knew that the tribes migrate at the beginning of June from the interior of the desert to the seashore and that in the remoter districts we should find neither water nor guides. As head man and servant, I had engaged my acquaintance Ǧwâd, clerk to my friend and brother Prince an-Nûri eben Šaʻlân and his relative Šerîf. Ǧwâd was to proceed with our supplies from station to station, our purpose being to explore the surrounding district on camels, returning to the stations only to secure fresh supplies. We all donned the attire of Arab nomads. Kober and Thomasberger, who did not know Arabic, were passed off as Turks, and we gave them the names of Rifʻat and Tûmân respectively.
Having completed all our preparations at Damascus, we left that city on May 21, taking the railway for Maʻân. From the station of Zîza, whose ancient and venerable name has been distorted by Turkish officials to Ǧîza, we sketched out a map of the area on either side of the railway as far as Maʻân.
From Maʻân I sent a message and a letter to my friend, the chief ʻAwde abu Tâjeh, asking him to lend me some camels, so that I might travel on them to his camp, where I could purchase camels for our expedition. We took up our abode at the station inn and spent our time in exploratory rides over the surrounding district.
THE OASIS OF MAʻÂN
Maʻân forms an oasis on the western edge of the desert (Fig. 1). The slopes of the aš-Šera’ range rise gradually to the westward, and to the east extends an undulating plain. ​The territory west of Maʻân can be cultivated and in former times was cultivated and colonized. To the east there stretches an inhospitable desert. At Maʻân itself and in the immediate neighborhood there are a very large number of springs Fig. 1—Maʻân and environs. and even several copious fountain-heads. The nearest and the most abundant of these is aḏ-Ḏawâwi, from which water flowed and still flows through a subterranean aqueduct as far as Maʻân. A second aqueduct, reaching from the distant spring of al-Ǧiṯṯe, used to convey water to the reservoir of al-Hammam and thence possibly even farther eastward to the ruined garden tower of Ammu-t-Trâb. This tower is situated on the eastward extremity of a long, flat-topped mountain spur. Utilizing this elevation, a narrow connecting drain was installed from which the water formerly flowed north and south, irrigating the garden into which the whole eleva​tion had been transformed. The wall of this garden is still visible running all along the foot of the elevation, but, suffering the same fate as other gardens in the surrounding district, this one fell into neglect during centuries of unrest, and only some scattered remains of the other gardens have been preserved near the two entrenched settlements, today known as Maʻân.
The southern settlement, Maʻân al-Maṣrijje or al-Kebîre, sometimes called also al-Ḥeǧâzijje, contains one hundred and eighty families, which form two groups: at-Taḥâta and al-Karâšîn. To the former belong the clans:
ʻEjâl al-Ḥaṣânal-Ḫawâlde al-Ḥammâdîn al-Bezâjʻe al-Fanâṭse.
Al-Karâšîn comprise the clans:
ʻEjâl al-Ḥaṣânal-Helâlât ʻEjâl Marʻi al-ʻAbîd al-ʻAḳâjle aṣ-Ṣallâḥât.
The headquarters of the Government are at the southern settlement of Maʻan.
The northern settlement is called aṣ-Ṣaṛîra, aš-Šâmijje, or al-Moṛâra, and contains about one hundred and ten families. The largest clan here is that of the Ḳarâmse, smaller being the clans:
aṯ-Ṯawâbṭe ʻEjâl Ḥajjâne ʻEjâl al-Ḥaṣân an-Nisʻa ʻEjâl ʻAbdallâh.
The inhabitants of both settlements are occupied principally in trading. The soil in the immediate neighborhood of Maʻan contains limestone, and grain will not grow there unless it is continually irrigated. For that reason it is said that only arâẓi al-baʻal (bare grounds, because they are insufficiently watered by rain) belong to Maʻan. In places which are continually irrigated there is successful cultivation of grain, vegetables, and particularly figs, pomegranates, grapes, ​and apricots. A few kilometers to the west the old fields begin. These are leased, tilled, and cultivated by the people of Maʻân.
The settlement of Maʻân is situated at the junction of important transport routes. On its eastern side runs the best natural transport route uniting southwestern Arabia with Damascus and the Phoenician harbors. From it there branches off in a southwesterly direction the most convenient road to the former harbor of Elath, now comprising the settlement of al-ʻAḳaba on the Red Sea gulf of the same name. To the west there runs an important caravan route to Gaza and northern Egypt; and on the east there is a route through the oasis of Dûmat al-Ǧandal, known to the ancients as Adumu, to the Persian Gulf and Babylonia. To the northeast there is a road which divides into two branches at the spring of Neǧel. One passes by way of the ruins of ʻÎs—which is identical with ʻÛs, the residence of Job—northward to western Moab. The second, branching off to the north-northeast, leads through the ruins of at-Twâne—which, in my opinion, mark the former settlement of the Têmân tribe—to central Moab.
These crossroads and the abundance of water, which is not found farther eastward, explain why the settlement of Maʻan has been preserved till the present day, instead of being destroyed by the innumerable attacks of the nomads to which all the surrounding settlements to the southwest and northwest have already succumbed. It would have been surprising had the settlement of Maʻân not been of considerable importance during the period when the greater part of international trade was directed along the above-mentioned routes.
* ↑ A key to place names on the map of the Northern Ḥeǧâz accompanying this volume is included in the index. See also index map in pocket.
* ↑ See Musil, Arabia Petraea, Vol. 3, pp. 56—57.