El Haiyat

El Haiyat, an Arab tribe of the Hauran uplands south of Damascus, specially remarkable for their extremely fair complexion. M. Rey describes their sheikh as "a man with blond beard like all the people of his territory" ( Voyage dans ie Hauran, p. 71). It is probable that the light colour of these Arabs is due to alliance with the Druzes [Druzes], large numbers of whom removed from the Lebanon to Hauran about the middle of the century.