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THE NORTHERN ḤEǦÂZ
Fig. 44, 45, 46—Plans of sepulchers, Madian.
Fig. 47—Interior of a sepulcher, Madian.
The oasis of Maḳna belongs to the Fawâjde clan. They dwell in twenty huts, ʻarâješ, of palm leaves and cultivate about fifty date palms and large vegetable gardens. Al-Fawâjde are the remainder of the Beni ʻOḳba tribe, various clans of which migrated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some to the territory of al-Kerak, some to Egypt.[1]
To the south-southwest of al-Ḥamra’ extend the limestone hills of Umm Ḳefa’, Umm Losof, and al-Mesadd, forming the watershed between- ↑ Ptolemy, Geography, VI, 7: 27, records in northern Arabia Felix a place Makna or Maina, which is certainly identical with our oasis. The name Maina recalls the šeʻîb of al-Maʻajjenât, in which the settlement of Maḳna is situated.During his residence at Tebûk, Mohammed imposed annual taxes upon the Jews living in the settlement of Maḳna and gave them a charter (al-Wâḳedi, Maṛâzi [Wellhausen], p. 405; al-Belâḏori [died 892 A. D.]. Futûḥ [De Goeje], p. 60). These taxes—which consisted of a quarter of the yield of the sea fisheries, date palms, and weavers’ looms—were received by ʻUbajd ibn Jâsir ibn Numajr of the Saʻdallâh clan, as well as by a certain Ǧuḏâmi from Banu Wâjel, who went to Tebûk and became a Moslem. Mohammed assigned a hundred grass plots to ʻUbajd’s horse, and these plots still belonged to the Saʻd and Wâjel clans at the time of al-Wâḳedi (died 823 A. D.). Later, ʻUbajd put his horse in the care of a certain
