there is generally an abundance of water in the numerous reservoirs
stored for irrigation. Yet, despite the extraordinary fertility of the
soil and the surprising industry of the inhabitants, the bulk of the
people are miserably poor, ill-fed and rudely clothed, because they
are crushed down by a heartless system of taxation. Every agricultural
product, implement and process is under the heavy hand of an oppressive
administration and a military occupation that knows no law. The
peasantry are robbed by the soldiers on their way to market, by the
custom-collector at the gate of each city, and by the tax-gatherer
in addition. On the way to Sana my soldier-companion stopped a poor
peasant who was urging on a little donkey loaded with two large baskets
of grapes; he emptied the best of the grapes into his saddle-bags,
and then beat the man and cursed him because some of the grapes were
unripe! No wonder we read of rebellions in Yemen, and no wonder that
intense hatred lives in every Arab against the very name of Turk.
From Suk-el-Khamis, a dirty mountain village,[25] with an elevation
of over 9,500 feet, the road leads by Mefak and Wady Zaun to the
peculiarly located village of Menakha. At an altitude of 7,600 feet
above sea-level, it is perched on a narrow ridge between two mountain
ranges. On either side of the one street that forms the backbone of
the summit are precipices 2,000 feet deep. So narrow is the town that
there are places where one can stand and gaze down both sides of the
abyss at the same time. To reach it from the west there is only one
path zigzagging up the mountain-side, and from the east it can only
be approached by a narrow track cut in the face of the precipice and
winding up for an ascent of 2,500 feet. Menakha is the centre of the
coffee trade; it has a population of 10,000 or more, one-third of which
are Jews. There are four Greek merchants, the Turks had 2,000 troops
garrisoned in the town, and the bazaars were equal to those of Taiz.
Its exact elevation is given by Defler, after eighteen observations, as
7,616 feet above sea-level.
From Menakha to the coast is only two long days’ journey; three by
camel. The first stage is to Hejjeila, at the foot of the high ranges,
thence to Bajil, a village of 2,000 people, and along the barren, hot
plain to Hodeidah. At Bajil the people are nearly all shepherds, and
the main industry is dyeing cloth and weaving straw. Here one sees
the curious Yemen straw hats worn by the women, and here also the
peasant-maidens wear no veils. Yet they are of purer heart and life
than the black-clouted and covered women of the Turkish towns.
Hodeidah by the sea is very like Jiddah in its general appearance. The
streets are narrow, crooked and indescribably filthy. The “Casino” is
a sort of Greek hotel for strangers, and the finest house in the city
is that of Sidi Aaron, near the sea, with its fine front and marble
courtyard. The population is of a very mixed character; east of the
city in a separate quarter live the _Akhdam_ Arabs, whose origin is
uncertain, but who are considered outcasts by all the other Arabs. They
are not allowed to carry arms and no Arab tribe intermarries with them.
From Hodeidah there is a regular line of small steamers to Aden, and
the Egyptian Red Sea coasting steamers also call here fortnightly. The
trade of Hodeidah was once flourishing, but here too Turkish misrule
has brought deadness and dullness into business, and taxation has
crushed industrial enterprise.
[Illustration: AN ARABIAN COMPASS.]
VII
THE UNEXPLORED REGIONS OF HADRAMAUT
“As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea northeast winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy shore
Of Araby the blest.”—_Milton._
We must take at least a glimpse of the almost unknown region called
Hadramaut.[26] This is a strip of territory stretching between the
great desert and the sea from Aden eastward to Oman. Our knowledge of
the interior of this region was almost a perfect blank until some light
was thrown on it by the enterprising traveller A. Von Wrede in 1843.
The coast is comparatively well known, at least as far as Makalla and
Shehr. The land rises from the coast in a series of terraces to Jebel
Hamra (5,284 feet), which is connected on the northeast with Jebel
Dahura, over 8,000 feet high.
Adolph Von Wrede sailed from Aden to Makalla and thence penetrated
inland as far as Wady Doan the most fertile spot of all South Arabia.
This wady flows northward through the land of the Bni Yssa and the
district is bordered on the west by Belad-el-Hasan and on the east by
Belad-el-Hamum. But how far this region extends northward and whether
the sandy desert of El Ahkaf (quicksands) really begins with the Wady
Rakhia, a branch of the Doan are points on which Von Wrede throws no
light and which are still uncertain. In 1870 the French Jew, Joseph
Halévy, made a bold attempt to penetrate into Hadramaut from Yemen.
Since then little was added to our knowledge of Hadramaut until 1893
when Shibam, the residence of the most powerful Sultan of Hadramaut
was visited by Theodore Bent and his wife. In 1897 they made a second
journey into the same region which cost Mr. Bent his health and
afterward his life. From the account of these journeys we quote a few
paragraphs which set forth clearly the interesting character of this
almost unknown country.[27]
“Immediately behind Makalla rise grim arid mountains of a reddish hue,
and the town is plastered against this rich-tinged background. By the
shore, like a lighthouse, stands the white minaret of the Mosque, the
walls and pinnacles of which are covered with dense masses of seabirds
and pigeons; not far from this the huge palace where the Sultan dwells
reminds one of a whitewashed mill with a lace-like parapet; white, red
and brown are the dominant colors of the town, and in the harbor the
Arab dhows with fantastic sterns rock to and fro in the unsteady sea,
forming altogether a picturesque and unusual scene.
“Nominally Makalla is ruled over by a Sultan of the Al Kaiti family,
whose connection with India has made them very English in their
sympathies, and his Majesty’s general appearance, with his velvet coat
and jewelled daggers, is far more Indian than Arabian. Really the most
influential people in the town are the money-grubbing Parsees from
Bombay, and it is essentially one of those commercial centres where
Hindustani is spoken nearly as much as Arabian. We were lodged in a
so-called palace hard by the bazaar, which reeked with mysterious
smells and was alive with flies; so we worked hard to get our
preparations made and to make our sojourn in this uncongenial burning
spot as short as possible....
“Leaving these villages behind us, we climbed rapidly higher and
higher, until, at an elevation of over 5,000 feet, we found ourselves
at last on a broad level plateau, stretching as far as the eye could
reach in every direction, and shutting off the Hadramaut from the
coast. This is the ‘mons excelsus’ of Pliny; here we have the vast area
where once flourished the frankincense and the myrrh. Of the latter
shrub there is plenty left, and it is still tapped for its odoriferous
sap; but of the former we only saw one specimen on the plateau, for in
the lapse of ages the wealth of this country has steadily disappeared;
further east, however, in the Mahra country, there is, I understand, a
considerable quantity left.
“Near Hajarein are many traces of the olden days when the frankincense
trade flourished, and when the town of Doani, which name is still
retained in the Wady Doan, was a great emporium for this trade. Acres
and acres of ruins, dating from the centuries immediately before
our era, lie stretched along the valley here, just showing their
heads above the weight of superincumbent sand which has invaded
and overwhelmed the past glories of this district. The ground lies
strewn with fragments of Himyaritic inscriptions, pottery, and other
indications of a rich harvest for the excavator, but the hostility
of the Nahad tribe prevented us from paying these ruins more than a
cursory visit, and even to secure this we had to pay the Sheikh of the
place nineteen dollars; and his greeting was ominous as he angrily
muttered, ‘Salaam to all who believe Mohammed is the true prophet.’
“At Assab they would not allow us to dip our vessels in their well,
nor take our repast under the shadow of their Mosque: even the women
of this village ventured to insult us, peeping into our tent at night,
and tumbling over the guys in a manner most aggravating to the weary
occupants.
“Our troubles on this score were happily terminated at Haura, where
a huge castle belonging to the Al Kaiti family dominates a humble
village surrounded by palm groves. Without photographs to bear out
my statement, I should hardly dare to describe the magnificence of
these castles in the Hadramaut. That at Haura is seven stories high,
and covers fully an acre of ground beneath the beetling cliff, with
battlements, towers, and machicolations bearing a striking likeness to
Holyrood. But Holyrood is built of stone, and Haura, save for the first
story, is built of sun-dried bricks; and if Haura stood where Holyrood
does, or in any other country save dry, arid Arabia, it would long ago
have melted away....
“One of the most striking features of these Arabian palaces is the
wood-carving. The doors are exquisitely decorated with intricate
patterns, and with a text out of the Koran carved on the lintel; the
locks and keys are all of wood, and form a study for the carver’s art,
as do the cupboards, the niches, the supporting beams and the windows,
which are adorned with fretwork instead of glass. The dwelling-rooms
are above, the ground floor being exclusively used for merchandise, and
the first floor for the domestics.”
Concerning the chief town of the interior of Hadramaut Mr. Bent writes
as follows:
“Then he sent us to reside for five more days in his capital of
Shibam, which is twelve miles distant from Al Katan, and is one of
the principal towns in the Hadramaut valley. It is built on rising
ground in the centre of the narrowest point of the valley, so that no
one can pass between it and the cliffs of the valley out of gunshot
of the walls. This rising ground has doubtless been produced by many
generations of towns built of sun-dried bricks, for it is the best
strategical point in the neighborhood. Early Arab writers tell us that
the Himyarite population of this district came here when they abandoned
their capital at Sabota, or Shabwa, further up the valley, early in our
era, but we found evident traces of an earlier occupation than this—an
inscription and a seal with the name ‘Shibam’ engraved on it, which
cannot be later than the third century, B.C. And as a point for making
up the caravans which started from the frankincense-growing district,
Shibam must always have been very important.
“The town of Shibam offers a curious appearance as you approach; above
its mud-brick walls with bastions and watch towers appear the tall
whitewashed houses of the wealthy, which make it look like a large
round cake with sugar on it. Outside the walls several industries are
carried on, the chief of which is the manufacture of indigo dye. The
small leaves are dried in the sun and powdered and then put into huge
jars—which reminded us of the Forty Thieves—filled with water. Next
morning these are stirred with long poles, producing a dark blue frothy
mixture; this is left to settle, and then the indigo is taken from the
bottom and spread out on cloths to drain; the substance thus procured
is taken home and mixed with dates and saltpetre. Four pounds of this
indigo to a gallon of water makes the requisite and universally used
dye for garments, the better class of which are calendered by beating
them with wooden hammers on stones.”
Of the coast town of Shehr and its ruler Mr. Bent says:
“Shehr is a detestable place by the sea, set in a wilderness of sand.
Once it was the chief commercial port of the Hadramaut valley, but
now Makalla has quite superseded it, for Shehr is nothing but an open
roadstead and its buildings are now falling into ruins. Ghalib, the
eldest son and heir of the chief of the Al Kaiti family, rules here as
the viceregent of his father, who is in India as jemadar or general of
the Arab troops, chiefly all Hadrami, in the service of the Nizam of
Hyderabad. Ghalib is quite an Oriental dandy, who lived a life of some
rapidity when in India, so that his father thought it as well to send
him to rule in Shehr, where the capabilities for mischief are not so
many as at Bombay. He dresses very well in various damask silk coats
and faultless trousers; his swords and daggers sparkle with jewels; in
his hand he flourishes a golden-headed cane; and, as the water is hard
at Shehr, he sends his dirty linen in dhows to Bombay to be washed.”
The Arabs of Hadramaut have been still more in contact with Java
than with India. Large colonies of Hadramis emigrated to the Dutch
Archipelago more than a century ago; intermarriage between the Javanese
and the Arabs is very common; and the Mohammedanism of the Dutch East
Indies is entirely of the Hadramaut type. These interesting facts were
first bought to light by Van den Berg, a Dutch scholar in his elaborate
work on this province of Arabia and the Arab colonies in Java.[28]
His account of Hadramaut is a compilation from the lips of the Arab
immigrants, but the description of the manners and customs of the
people and their religious peculiarities is from personal observation.
Altogether, in spite of minor geographical inaccuracies, the book is
the best single volume on Southern Arabia and tells the story of Islam
in the Dutch Archipelago as it is to-day. The Arabs have always been a
strong race at colonizing but it is well to note that the influence of
Hadramaut on Java and Sumatra to-day is not less than that of Oman on
Zanzibar and East Africa in the last century. Even Hadramaut will not
always remain undiscovered and unremembered. The incense-country of
antiquity has a future before it even as it has had a glorious past.
[Illustration: A CASTLE IN HADRAMAUT]
VIII
MUSCAT AND THE COASTLANDS OF OMAN
“Oman is separated from the rest of Arabia by a sandy desert. It
is, in fact, as far as communication with the rest of the world is
concerned, an island with the sea on one side and the desert on
the other. Hence its people are even more primitive, simple and
unchanged in their habits than the Arabs generally. Along the coast,
however, especially at Muscat they are more in contact with the outer
world.”—_General Haig._
In Arab nomenclature Oman applies only to a small district in the
vicinity of Muscat, but the name is generally given to the entire
southeastern section of the Arabian peninsula, including everything
east of a line drawn from the Kuria-Muria islands to the peninsula
of Katar, anciently called Bahrein. Thus defined it is the largest
province of Arabia and in some respects the most interesting.
Historically, politically and geographically Oman has always been
isolated from the other provinces. Turkish rule never extended this far
nor did the later caliphs long exercise their authority here. The whole
country has for centuries been under independent rulers called Imams or
Seyyids. The population, which is wholly Arab and Mohammedan, (save in
the coast towns) was derived originally from two different stocks known
to the Arabs as Kahtani and Adnani or the Yemeni and Muadi. These names
have changed since the beginning of the eighteenth century to Hinani
and Ghaffiri. The Yemen tribes came first and are most numerous. The
two rival races have been in open and continuous feud and antagonism
and have kept the country in perpetual turmoil. They even inhabit
separate quarters in some of the towns, according to Colonel Miles. In
Somail, about fifty miles inland from Muscat a broad road marks the
division between the two clans. These two parent stocks are subdivided
into some 200 different tribes and these again into sub-tribes or
“houses.” Each family-group has its own Sheikh, a hereditary position
assumed by the eldest male in the family.
Very few of the tribes of Oman are nomadic; the greater part live in
towns and villages along the wady-beds. With the exception of fruits
of which there is a great variety and abundance, dates are the sole
food product and the chief export of the province. Rice is imported
from India. The total population of Oman is estimated by Colonel
Miles not to exceed 1,500,000. There are numerous towns of 5,000 to
10,000 inhabitants; Muscat and Mattra are the chief towns on the
coast, and are practically united as they are only two miles apart.
The climate of Oman on the coast is excessively hot and moist during a
large part of the year, although the rainfall here is only six to ten
inches annually; in the interior the heat is greatly tempered by the
elevation, the rainfall is much greater and the climate as pleasant as
in the highlands of Yemen.
The Omanese state was at its greatest height of power at the beginning
of the present century. Then the Sultans of Muscat exercised rule as
far as Bahrein to the northwest, had possession of Bunder Abbas and
Linga in Persia, and called Socotra and Zanzibar their own. At this
time the Oman Arabs began their extensive journeys in Africa and, urged
by the enormous profits of the slave-trade, explored every corner of
the great interior of the Dark Continent. At present the authority of
the Sultan at Muscat, Seyyid Feysul bin Turki, does not extend far
beyond the capital and its suburbs.
In the early years of the Oman Sultanate, Nizwa was the capital,
afterward Rastak became the seat of government, but since 1779,
Muscat has been at once the capital and the key, the gateway and the
citadel of the whole country. On approaching Muscat in a British India
steamer, the land is first sighted, looming up in one mass of dark
mountain ranges; closer, one portion of this mass directly over the
town of Muscat is seen to be of a dark brown color, crag on crag,
serrated and torn in a fantastic manner and giving the harbor a most
picturesque appearance. The town itself shows white against the dark
massive rocks, on the summits of which are perched numerous castles and
towers. But, though presenting a pleasing prospect from a distance, a
nearer view reveals the usual features of large Oriental towns,—narrow,
dirty streets, unattractive buildings, and masses of crumbling walls
under the torrid heat of a burning sun and amid all the sweltering
surroundings of a damp climate.
The heat of Muscat is proverbial. John Struys, the Dutchman, who
visited this town in 1672, wrote that it was “so incredibly hot and
scorching that strangers are as if they were in boiling cauldrons or
sweating tubs.” A Persian, named Abder-Razak, being a Persian, was able
to surpass all others in exaggerated description and wrote of Muscat in
1442, “The heat was so intense that it burned the marrow in the bones,
the sword in its scabbard melted like wax, and the gems that adorned
the handle of the dagger were reduced to coal. In the plains the chase
became a matter of perfect ease, for the desert was filled with roasted
gazelles!” It is said that a black bulb thermometer has registered 189°
F. in the sun at Muscat and 107° even at night, is not unusual during
the hottest part of the year. The bare rocks form a parabolic mirror to
the sun’s rays from the south and west; add to this the facts that the
hills shut off the breezes and that Muscat lies on the Tropic of Cancer
in the zone of greatest heat. According to the witness of a resident,
“the climate of Muscat is bad beyond all description. For about three
months in the year, from December to March, it is tolerably cool at
night but after the latter month the heat becomes intense and makes
Muscat rank but little after the Infernal Regions. There is a short
break in the hot weather about the middle of July which generally lasts
a month.”
[Illustration: THE HARBOR AND CASTLE AT MUSCAT]
[Illustration: READY FOR A CAMEL RIDE IN THE DESERT]
The most conspicuous buildings of Muscat are the two forts, the relics
of the Portuguese dominion, which stand out boldly on each side of
the town about 100 feet above the sea. They command not only the
sea-approach, but the town itself and are only accessible by a fine
stairway cut out of the natural rock. The guns that bristle from the
forts are nearly all old and comparatively harmless. Several of them
are of brass and bear the royal arms of Spain; one is dated 1606.
In the fort to the right of the harbor, one can still see the ruins
of a Portuguese chapel. When Pelly visited it in 1865 the following
inscription was legible.
AVE MAR. GRASA P._EA ☐s TECUM Etc....
Its translation given by him reads: “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord
is with thee. Don Phillip III., King of Spain, Don Juan de Acuna of his
council of war and his captain-general of the artillery in the year
1605, in the eighth year of his reign in the crown of Portugal, ordered
through Don Quarte Menezes, his commissioner of India, that this
fortress should be built.”
The Sultan has also a town residence in half decay like all the other
stone-built but mud-cemented houses of the natives. The only residences
well-built and durable are those of the British resident and the
American consul. The former occupies the choice location, in a rock
cleft, where breezes blow from two directions. The bazaar of Muscat
has little to boast of; one of the chief industries is the manufacture
of _Hilawi_ or Muscat candy-paste, which to the acquired taste is
delicious, but to the stranger smells of rancid butter and tastes like
sweet wagon-grease.
The town is cut off from the plain behind by a substantially built wall
which stretches from hill to hill. This wall is pierced with two gates
which are always guarded and closed a couple of hours after sunset.
The moat outside the wall is dry. Beyond it are houses and hundreds of
mat huts principally inhabited by Beluchis and Negroes. The American
mission house is also outside of the wall, in this quarter. About
a third of a mile beyond are the gardens of Muscat and the wells,
protected by a tower and guard. “The gardens” are always visited at
sunset by the strollers for exercise, but they are hardly large enough
“to supply a week’s food for 100 self-respecting locusts of normal
appetite.”
The population of Muscat is of very mixed character, Arabs, Beluchis,
Banian-Traders, Negroes, Persians, and every other nation that
frequents this port of transit. The Arabic spoken in all Oman is a
dialect quite different from that of Nejd or Yemen but the Arabic of
Muscat is full of pigeon-English and pigeon-Hindustani. The extensive
and long intercourse with Zanzibar and East Africa has also had its
influence on the speech and habits of the Muscat Arab trader. The
present trade is still very considerable, although less than a century
ago. It is mostly with India, there being little direct trade with
England. The chief exports are dates, fruit, shark-fins, fish, and
salt; the imports, rice, sugar, piece-goods, coffee, silk, petroleum
and arms. The largest export is of dates which nearly all go to the
American Market. Besides the large number of steamers which call
at this port, the native merchants own several old British sailing
vessels, some of them noted clippers in their day, which make one or
two voyages a year and bring profit to their owners. Native boats also
transport cargoes landed at Muscat, to the less frequented ports. This
adds to the importance of Muscat as an _entrepôt_ for Oman. Mattra
is the terminus of the caravan-routes from the interior and is in
communication with Muscat by a narrow mountain path and by sea.