‘Ajmi ibn Suwayt, and the Dhafeer’s move from Iraq to Saudi Arabia

I have been reading and writing a lot about the Dhafeer Bedouin tribe lately, because of its link with the origins of the Hamdani and Hadban strains. So here is a rare picture of ‘Ajmi ibn Suwayt (died 1988), the tribe’s Shaykh during most of the twentieth century.

While the tribe’s traditional dira (i..e, the area associated with it, including the main wells and watering places) fell within the borders of Iraq, as well as the old neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia (in brown in the map below), ‘Ajmi Ibn Suwayt transferred his allegiance to Saudi King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Ibn Saud, and moved to Saudi Arabia with part of his tribe. The Dhafeer therefore acquired “Saudi tribe” status, which opened the door to the naturalization of its members as Saudi. Another part of the tribe remained in Iraq, under a rival cousin.