Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
Do you need
volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?
|
|
Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.
|
|
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NAN-NEW |
|
|
NEJD , a central province of Arabia, bounded N. by the Nafud desert, E. by El Hasa, S. by the Dahna desert and W. by Asir and Hejaz. It lies between 2o and 28 N. and 41 and 48 E., extends nearly 550 M. from north to south, 450 from east to west, and covers approximately 18o,000 sq. m. The name Nejd implies an upland, and this is the distinctive character of the province as compared with the adjoining coastal districts of Hejaz and El Hasa. Its general elevation
The main divisions of Nejd are the following: Jebel Shammar, Kasim, Suder, Wushm, 'Arid, Aflaj, Harik, Yemama and Wadi Dawasir. J. Shammar is the most northerly: its principal settlements are situated in the valley some 70 M. long, between the two ranges of J. Aja and J. Selma, though a few lie on their outer flanks. Jauf, Tema and Khaibar, though dependencies of the Shammar principality, lie beyond the limits of Nejd. The capital , Hail, has been visited by several Europeans, by W. G. Palgrave in 1862, when Talal was emir, and by Mr Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt, Charles Doughty, C. Huber, T. Euting and Baron E. Nolde during the reign of Mahommed b. Rashid, who from 1892 till his death in 1897 was emir of all Nejd. Its well ordered and thriving appearance is commented on by all these travellers. The town is surrounded by a wall
Hail lies at the northern end of the valley, 2 M. S.E. of J. Aja, at an altitude of about 3000 ft. The highest point of J. Aja, the western and higher of the twin ranges, is according to Huber 4600 ft. above sea-level. The valley is about 20 M. in width and is intersected with dry ravines and dotted with low ridges generally of volcanic origin. Wells and springs are the only source of water supply , both for drinking and for irrigation. The principal crops are dates, wheat and barley and garden produce; forage and firewood are very scarce. The population was estimated by Nolde in 1893 at 1o,000 to 12,000.Among the other settlements of J. Shammar are Jafefa and Mukak at the northern foot of J. Aja, Kasr and Kafar at its southern foot, Rauda, Mustajidda and Fed at the foot of J. Selma, all large villages of 3000 to 5000 inhabitants. 'Akda is a small valley in the heart of J. Aja, an hour's ride from Hail; it was the oldest possession of the Ibn Rashid, since 1835 the ruling family of J. Shammar, and is a place of great natural strength. Kasim lies E. of J. Shammar in the valley of the W. Rumma the great wadi of northern Nejd; the chief
Doughty's and Huber's explorations did not extend east of Kasim, and for all details regarding eastern and southern Nejd Palgrave is the only authority. According to him, a long desert march leads from Madnab to Zulfa the first settlement in Suder, where the land rises steadily to the high calcareous tableland of J. Tuwek. The entire plateau is intersected by a maze of valleys, generally with steep banks, as if artificially cut out of the limestone. In these countless hollows is concentrated the fertility and population of Nejd; gardens and houses, cultivation and villages lie hidden from view among the depths while one journeys over the dry flats, till one comes suddenly on a mass of emerald green beneath.Suder forms the northern end of the plateau, `Arid the southern, while Wushm appears to lie on its west, and Aflaj and el Harik below it and to the south and south-west respectively. The principal town is Majma the former capital of Suder, a walled town situated on an eminence in a broad shallow valley surrounded by luxuriant gardens and trees. Tuwem, Jalajil and Hula are also described by Palgrave as considerable towns.'Arid is entered at Sedus, on the W. Hanifa, a broad valley bottom with precipitous sides, here 2 or 3 M. wide, full of trees and brushwood. Along its course lie the villages of Ayana, and Deraiya the former Wahhabi capital, destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817; and a few miles farther E. the new capital Riad, built by the emir Fesal after his restoration and visited by Palgrave in 1863, and by Pelly two years later. It was then, and still is, a large town of perhaps 20,000 inhabitants with thirty or more mosques, well-stocked bazars, and like the towns of Kasim, surrounded by well-watered gardens and palm groves. To the south the valley opens out into the great plains of Yemama, dotted with groves and villages, among which Manfuha is scarcely inferior in size to Riad itself. Still farther to the south-east lies the district of Harik, with its capital Hauta, the last in that direction of the settled districts of Nejd, and on the borders of the southern desert. Palgrave visited El Kharfa the chief
The Bedouin who occupy the remainder of Nejd consist in the main of the four great tribes of the Shammar, Harb, 'Ateba and Muter. The first-named represent that part of the great Shammar tribe which has remained in its ancestral home on the southern edge of the Nafud (the northern branch long ago emigrated to Mesopotamia); many of its members have settled down to town life, but the tribe still retains its Bedouin character, and its late
Nejd became nominally a dependency of the Turkish empire in 1871 when Midhat Pasha established a small garrison in El Hasa, and created a new civil district under the government of Basra, under the title of Nejd, with headquarters at Hofuf. Its real independence was not, however, affected, and the emirs. the death of Cretheus, the boys, who had been brought up by herdsmen, quarrelled for the possession of Iolcus. Pelias expelled Neleus, who migrated to Messenia, where he became king of Pylos (Apollodorus i. 9; Diod. Sic. iv. 68) and the ancestor of a royal family called the Neleidae, who are historically traceable as the old ruling family in some of the Ionic states in Asia Minor. Their presence is explained by the legend that, when the Dorians conquered Peloponnesus, the Neleidae were driven out and took refuge
End of Article: NEJD If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/NAN_NEW/NEJD.html"> NEJD </a> |
|
|
(Previous) NEITH |
(Next) NEJEF, or MESHED |
|
Sponsored Advertisements