Ma'an was divided into two distinct quarters since the Umayyad period: Ma'an al-Shamiyya and Ma'an al-Hijaziyya. The latter served as the main town, while the former was a small neighborhood inhabited by Syrians from the north. The city continued to be a major town on the Hajj pilgrimage route and its economy was entirely dependent on it. Its principal trade partner was the coastal city of Gaza in southern Palestine, from where supplies were brought to Ma'an for resale to pilgrims. Provisions were also imported from Hebron. In addition to provisions, Ma'an's outward caravan was dominated by the sale of livestock, particularly camels for transport and sheep for ritual sacrifice. The incoming caravan was a buyer's market for goods coming from across the Muslim world. Ma'an's culture was highly influenced by its role on the Hajj route and unlike many other desert towns, most of its residents were literate and many served as imams or religious advisers for the Bedouin tribes in the area. Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted that the people of Ma'an "considered their town an advanced post to the sacred city of Medina." The townspeople's relationship with Bedouin was also unique. While most Transjordanian towns had uneasy relationships with the nomadic tribes to whom they paid regular tribute ("khuwwa"), Ma'an's residents and the Bedouin enjoyed positive relations. Finnish explorer Georg August Wallin wrote the level of economic interdependence between the two groups was unlike anywhere else in Syria's desert regions. As a testament to their relationship of mutual trust, Ma'an's inhabitants were able to bargain down or withhold payment of the "khuwwa" during tough economic years. The major tribes around the city were the 'Anizzah and the Huwaytat.