Of the Towarah generally, Sir R. Burton wrote that in the reign of Mehemed Ali no governor of Suez dared to flog or lay hands on a Turi, whatever offence he might have committed in the town of Suez. Later the wild man’s sword was taken from him before he was allowed to enter the gates. In his estimation “the most good-humoured and sociable of men, they delight in a jest and may readily be managed by kindness and courtesy. Yet they are passionate, nice on the point of honour, revengeful and easily offended when their peculiar prejudices are misunderstood. I have always found them pleasant companions, and deserving of respect, for their hearts are good and their courage is beyond a doubt” (p. 102).
In distinction to the Towarah or men of the mountain, the Bedawyn further north are known as Tiyaha, or men of the plain, who go south as far as Nakhl. They have for their neighbours the Terrebin, a powerful tribe, whose territory extends from about forty miles south-east of Suez on the Sinai road as far as Gaza in the north. There are also the Heiwatt occupying the land between Akaba and Nakhl, who have a bad reputation for raiding, and their neighbours the Anazeh, whose pasture grounds extend from about Medina in Arabia to Palmyra in Syria, including the Arabah. Another wealthy tribe are the Howeitat who can raise as many as twelve hundred camels.
The difficulty of dealing with the Bedawyn, was shown by the events that attended the rising of Arabi in Egypt, in 1880. When Tewfik became Khedive in 1879 dissatisfaction reigned. A military revolution broke out in Cairo, and Arabi Bey, a fellah officer, arose determined to diminish European influence. When rioting began at Alexandria the Khedive sought the protection of the British Fleet, and Sir Garnet Wolseley occupied the Suez Canal, whereupon Cairo surrendered. But the dread of Arabi’s influence among the men of the desert led the British Government to request Prof. Palmer to bring his influence to bear on the Bedawyn of Et Tîh. His work in the Ordnance Survey had brought him into friendly relations with many of the sheykhs, and he was instructed to prevent them from joining the Egyptian rebels. With a firmân signed by Tewfik, Prof. Palmer left Jaffa as Abdallah Effendi, and crossed the peninsula to Suez, being conducted by Hamdan, the head man of the Tiyaha, and on his way met the great sheykh of the Heiwatt. His plan was to raise 10,000 of the Tiyaha and Terabin to fight Arabi. From Suez he therefore departed carrying the sum of £3000 in gold in order to buy camels, and arranged for a great meeting of the sheykhs. It was in vain that Sheykh Ode Ismaileh of the Aleyat, and Umdakhl, a minor sheykh, advised him not to go. He and his three companions were lured into an ambush in the Wadi Sudr, and were murdered, August, 1882.[309]
Following upon the mission of Prof. Palmer to Sinai was the expedition to the Sudan for which General Gordon volunteered. He was killed in 1885, whereupon General Kitchener set out to reconquer the Sudan and occupied Khartoum. In 1892 Tewfik in Egypt was succeeded by Hussein Kamel. A misunderstanding with Turkey in connection with the Sinaitic frontier caused a passing difficulty in the year 1906-7. The Turco-Egyptian frontier was drawn from Rafa, now in Egypt, to the Gulf of Akaba, Akaba itself being included in the domain over which Turkey claimed supremacy. At this it stood at the outbreak of the Great War.
The population of the whole of the peninsula at the time was estimated as below 40,000 persons, including the settled inhabitants of El Arish, the Gebeliyeh (400-500), and the rest of the Bedawyn. From a military point of view these were looked upon as of small importance, except as possible secret agents and scouts, and no effort was apparently made to organise them. Although Sinai was politically an Egyptian dependency, with the frontier line between Rafa and Akaba, the Suez Canal was chosen as the means of defending Egypt, and bridgeheads were constructed along it, chief of which was the one at Kantara. The peninsula was therefore open to the Turks, who advanced across it along three routes, i.e. along the coast, along the pilgrim road from Akaba by way of Nakhl, and by a route half-way between the pilgrim route and the Mediterranean. Nakhl became a Turkish military centre. The attacks made at different points along the canal were defeated. The Turk, from the first, engaged the help of the Bedawyn of the eastern desert, but he failed to raise much enthusiasm among them. Only the Terabin, the Ayayme, and some of the sub-tribes of the Howeitat supplied irregular lines, the Ruala and the Anazeh promised to defend Syria, other tribes failed altogether. When a raiding party of Turks advanced from Nakhl on Tur, they were joined by some Bedawyn from Midian and Sinai, who were tempted by the promise of loot. On the way, they requisitioned food at the convent, but they found Egyptian troops in occupation of Tur and were repulsed.
The advance along the shore of the Mediterranean, and expeditions from the bridgeheads and secured posts, engaged the Allied forces in 1916. Ayun Musa was fortified and connected with Suez by means of a light railway, and a railway was constructed along the Mediterranean. In the course of this progress the walls and water cisterns on which the enemy depended were naturally destroyed, and one does not wonder to find the Bedawyn acting in concert with the Turk in their defence. It was not till January, 1917, that Rafa was captured, and the Turk swept out of northern Sinai. Along the eastern frontier the Arabs were prepared to side with the Allies. As early as 1916 Prince Hussein of Mecca organised his forces to resist the Turk, but his progress was indifferent, when he was sought out by Capt. Lawrence, who urged him to advance and persuaded Auda Ibn Tayyi, the great sheykh of the Howeitat, to act in concert with him. The result was a camel charge on the fort of Akaba, which wiped out the Turkish battalion stationed there, and freed the Arab and the Allies from a centre of enemy plotting. By their action the Arabs made a further step in realising themselves as a nation.[310]
Fig. 23.—Map of the Peninsula.