Huteimi

Huteimi or Hutaym is a name given to several unrelated Red Sea coast-dwelling peoples, originally so by James Raymond Wellsted during his travels in the Arabian Peninsula. They are reported to be descendants of the Ichthyophagi, or "Fish-Eater" peoples as recounted by Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian.

Etymology

The origin of the name Huteimi is unclear, and several variants and alternate spellings exist, such as Huteim, Hutaym, Hutaim, Huteym, or Hootein. The Naval Intelligence Division's "Handbook of Arabia" mentions the name "Huteim" as "used roughly by the Arabs as a synonym for any base-born, half-settled tribe", and the name is often used alongside the Harb, a similar confederation of tribes in the Hejaz area.

It is unclear whether "Hutaym" refers to the same peoples as "Huteimi", because although they inhabit geographically similar areas, their lifestyles are profoundly different, as the Hutaym life is described by R. Khanam in his Encyclopaedic Ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia as "raising exceptional breeds of camels, with exceptions being primarily ass nomads". It is possible that they do refer to similar peoples, but in different time periods.