OUR TRIBE
Our Tribe is the Howaitat. The name can be spelled in many different ways when transliterating from Arabic to English. The way I like to spell it is: Heuwaitaat.
The Heuwaitaat tribe is a very large tribe and we live all over Jordan (and other countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria, & even Egypt). We came from Saudi Arabia originally and moved North from there. If you trace the genealogy back we descend from Fatima the daughter of the prophet Mohammed (pbuh).
Within the larger group of the Heuwaitaat there are many families, people and 'sub-groups'.
My 'sub-group' is abu-Rabia. We are closely related to three other 'sub-groups': The bu-Tayi, the Nwsreh & the Ifteneh. We are all Heuwaitaat but we also share the same Grandfather of each branch of our tribe (i.e each branch started from a group of brothers with the same father) so we are close to each other within the larger Heuwaitaat tribe.
Of these branches the abu-Tayi is probably the most famous in the West. Auda abu-Tayi played a key role in uniting the tribes of the area to fight in the Great Arab Revolt. He is mentioned many times in Lawrence of Arabia's book: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
Auda abu-Tayi
Lawrence of Arabia wrote about Auda abu Tayi:
“... we needed to reach the tents of the Eastern Howeitat, those famous abu Tayi, of whom Auda, the greatest fighting man in Northern Arabia, was chief. Only by means of Auda abu Tayi could we swing the tribes from Maan to Akaba so violently in our favour that they would help us to take Akaba and its hills from their Turkish garrisons: only with his active support could we venture to thrust out from Wejh on the long trek to Maan. Since our Yenbo days we had been longing for him and trying to win him to our cause ...”
