Who were the Yahūd Evlād-ı ʿArab in Late Ottoman Palestine?

In June 1914, an unknown scribe compiling a military conscription register listed a group of male Jewish residents of Tiberias under the heading of Yahūd evlād-ı ʿArab ṭaʾifesi, literally “Jewish sons of the Arabs” or “Jewish children of the Arabs.” The entry was validated with the signet stamp of Yaakov Neḥmad (Yaʿqūb Naḥmād), who identified himself as muḫtār-i evvel, the head of a local community bearing the same designation.