Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/265

Rh ARTS A&amp;gt; D TRADE.] A E A B I A 245 tnufac- of unknown species. Mackarel, mullet, sole, ray, and perch swarm in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ; nor are the sheltered spots on the long line that fronts the Indian Ocean less well provided. Sharks, too, abound along the coast, and are used as food by the poorer classes ; crabs and oysters occur almost everywhere. Hence fishing forms the occupation of a large proportion among the littoral popu lation, but ignorance of salting and curing deprives its products of export value. The pearl fisheries of Arabia alone add to the commercial riches of the country. They commence at the islands of Bahreyn, which lie immediately off the Arab shore, near the centre of the Persian Gulf, and continue east and south along the district of Katar for a distance of nearly 200 miles, after which the banks are lost in deep soundings. The most productive shoals are those between the islands of Halool and the coast of Katar ; the fishing season com mences with the spring, and lasts all through the summer. Most of the villages along the coast are wholly inhabited by divers, Arabs and negroes, who by long practice can remain under water a space of two minutes at a time ; the depth they reach does not exceed fifteen fathoms, and generally falls much short of it. The oysters are opened on shore, and the pearls carefully sorted and counted by officials stationed for the purpose, as a heavy duty, equalling 20 per cent, of their value, is levied on the spot, though no further dues are taken on exportation. Some of the pearls are of great size and value. The total annual produce is roughly estimated at about 250,000, but probably exceeds that sum; a portion goes to India; another portion up gulf to Baghdad, whence it is distributed over Syria, Turkey, and Persia. The divers themselves are the worst off, as their occupation induces various congestive diseases and premature old age. Pearls are found, too, in other bivalve shells of these seas, and are extensively sold, though at a lower price than those of the oysters. Mother-of-pearl is also common, and is an ordinary article of export, especially to Syria and Egypt; so are also occasionally the corals and ornamental shells with which these seas abound. In mechanical arts the Arabs are, as a rule, extremely deficient, though favourable exceptions exist in some dis tricts. The Bedouin or pastoral population know little else than the tanning of leather and the weaving of coarse fabrics, such as articles of overdress, tent coverings (which the women generally make of goat-hair), headbands, and the like. In most villages and towns of Xejd, one or more blacksmiths, whose work is of the rudest possible description, are to be found; occasionally an armourer, a few sandal-makers and workers in leather, with several weavers, none skilled. Throughout the Hejaz these pro fessions exist, but at a still lower standard ; but in Yemen greater nicety of workmanship is to be met with; and gold and silver smiths, often, however, not Arabs but strangers by race, get a living in the towns. Formerly Yemen was celebrated for its woven stuffs ; this manufacture is now, however, in anything approaching to excellence, the exclu sive pride of Oman. In this last-named province, weaving, silk and gold thread embroidery, silver work, gold filigree, and even steel implements, are wrought to a degree of perfection seldom attained by the workmen even of Damas cus or Baghdad; and the labours of the Oman loom or forge, when exported, as they are, though not in large quantities, are eagerly purchased abroad. But even here the extreme simplicity, or rather rudeness, of the tools employed, and the deficiency of mechanical contrivance, dwarf the results of patient and otherwise ingenious labour into compara tive insignificance. In wood the Arabs are not unskilful artificers ; and their drinking-bowls and platters, manufactured chiefly from the &quot;ithel&quot; or larch tree, and studded with small silver knobs, make a good appearance. As masons they deserve little praise; their constructions are clumsy and unstable, the details coarse and ill-fashioned. There is not a single building, public or private, built by the Arabs themselves, of any merit either in regard of utility or of beauty, within the whole of Arabia. Backward in manufacture, and even showing, on the Trade. whole, little capacity for it, the Arabs are singularly alive to the advantages of commerce and trade, and fond of exercising them. No Arab undertakes a journey, were it only from one village to another, without taking with him some object for exchange or sale; and he will sooner chaffer away the handkerchief on his head or the camel on which he rides, than return without having effected something in the way of business. In this respect, Bedouin and townsman, rich and poor, are all alike; and their history shows that this propensity is no less ancient than universal in the race. Owing, however, to the want of variety in its productions, and the remarkably uniform habits of its inhabitants, combined with the scarcity of local manufactures, the trade of Arabia, whether export or import, is soon catalogued. Camels and sheep, hair and wool, come first on the export list; next coffee; then dates, then horses; a very little rice and a few cloaks from Yemen or Oman close the chapter of commerce so far as land produce is concerned; pearls sum up that of the sea. Nor is the import much more diversified or extensive. Cotton cloth, Indian prints, sugar, a little hardware, a few- arms, powder and shot, and trinkets of no great value such are the customary requisitions of the laud. Xor has any single Arab, the Imam or Prince of Mascat alone excepted, sufficient available capital for extensive traffic, out or in; while the Mahometan prohibition of interest, and consequently of credit, joined to the illegality of insurance, would, even in a richer land, restrict enterprise within very unsatisfactory bounds. It is owing, indeed, to these narrow-minded laws, introduced by the Koran and co-existent with its observance, that what commerce exists at the seaports of Hejaz, Tehamah, and Yemen, has mainly fallen into the hands of Jews and Banians that is, Indian merchants; though in Oman, where a more liberal spirit prevails, Arab merchants of considerable capital and with extensive connections are to be found. The custom-duties in the ports of Oman and the Persian Gulf, whether export or import, are 10 per cent., except on pearls; in the har bours of Yemen they are capricious, and often very high. The shereef or governor of Mecca used formerly to carry on, through Jiddah, a trade hardly inferior to that of the Imam of Mascat himself; but the devastations committed by the Wahhabees, and in later times the oppression of the Egyptian and Turkish governments, have considerably reduced this source of Arab income. The origin of the Arab race, like that of most others, Origin of can only be matter of conjecture; no credit can be attached Arab race, to the assertions, evidently uubased on historical facts, of those authors who, building on the narrow foundation of Hebrew records, have included the entire nation under the titles of Ishmael and Joktan; and Mahometan testimony on these matters can have no more weight than the Jewish, from which it is evidently derived. Setting, therefore, these vague and half-poetical traditions aside, the first certain fact on which to base our investigations is the ancient and undoubted division of the Arab race into two branches, the &quot; Arab,&quot; or pure; and the &quot; Mostareb,&quot; or adscititious. The geographical limits of both branches have already been sufficiently indicated. A second fact is, that everything in pro-Islamitic literature and record the only reliable authorities in such a case, as preserved to us in the Hamasa, the Kitab-el~Aghanee, the writings of Musaoodee and Ab.:!-