the foot of the mountains on the further side. Nizwa, the old capital
of Oman, is but three hours’ journey from Tenoof. It has a large
circular fort about 200 feet in diameter, built of rough hewn stone
and cement. We intended to return to Muscat along the valley road via
Someil, but the state of affairs at Nezwa made roads through hostile
territory unsafe, and we decided to recross the mountains, enjoying
again their cool climate and the friendliness of the people. By riding
long camel-stages and taking short rests, we were able to reach Muscat
from the top of the mountains in four days, having been absent on the
journey twenty-one days.”
X
THE PEARL ISLANDS OF THE GULF
“‘We are all from the highest to the lowest slaves of one
master—Pearl,’ said Mohammed bin Thanee to me one evening; nor was
the expression out of place. All thought, all conversation, all
employment, turns on that one subject, everything else is mere
by-game, and below even secondary consideration.”—_Palgrave._
Half way down the Persian Gulf, off the east Arabian coast, between the
peninsula of El Katar and the Turkish province of El Hassa, are the
islands of Bahrein.[33] This name was formerly applied to the entire
triangular projection on the coast between the salt-sea of the gulf
and the fresh water flood of the Euphrates; hence its name _Bahr-ein_
“the two seas.” But since the days of Burckhardt’s map the name is
restricted to the archipelago. The larger island is itself often called
Bahrein, while the next in size is named Moharrek—“place of burning.”
The Arabs say that this was so named because the Hindu traders used it
for cremating their dead.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.]
The main island is about twenty-seven miles in length from north to
south, and ten miles in breadth. Toward the centre there is a slightly
elevated table-land, mostly barren. Twelve miles from the northern end
is a clump of dark volcanic hills, 400 feet high, called Jebel Dokhan,
“Mountain of Smoke.” The northern half of the island is well watered
by abundant fresh-water springs, always lukewarm in temperature. This
part of the island is covered with beautiful gardens of date-palms,
pomegranate, and other trees. The coast is everywhere low, and the
water shallow for a long distance. There is no pier or jetty anywhere,
so that, except at high water, boats anchor nearly a quarter of a mile
from the shore.
The total population of the islands is estimated at nearly 60,000,
all of them Moslems with the exception of about 100 Banian traders
from Sindh, India. Menamah, the large town on the northeast point
of the island, with perhaps 10,000 inhabitants, is built along the
shore for about a mile; the houses are mostly poor, many being mere
mat-huts. This town is the market-place and commercial centre for the
whole group. Here is the post office and custom-house and here the
bulk of the trade is carried on for the whole island. A short distance
from Menamah is the old town of Belad le Kadim, with ruins of better
buildings and a fine mosque with two minarets. The mosque is of very
early date, for the older Cufic character is on all its inscriptions,
covered over in some places by more recent carving and inscriptions in
later Arabic.
The largest spring on the islands is called El Adhari, “the virgins.”
It issues from a reservoir thirty yards across, and at least thirty
feet deep, flowing in a stream six or eight feet wide and two feet
deep. This is remarkable for Arabia, and gives some idea of the
abundant supply of water. Under the sea, near the island of Moharrek,
are fresh-water springs always covered with a fathom of salt water.
The natives lower a hollow, weighted bamboo through which the fresh
water gushes out a few inches above sea-level. The source of these
fresh-water springs of Bahrein must be on the mainland of Arabia, as
all the opposite coast shows a similar phenomena. Apparently the _River
Aftan_ marked on old maps of the peninsula as emptying into the Persian
Gulf near Bahrein was an _underground river_, known to the older
geographers.
If Egypt is the gift of the Nile, Bahrein may well be called the gift
of the pearl-oyster. Nothing else gave the islands their ancient
history, and nothing so much gives them their present importance.
The pearl-fisheries are the one great industry of Bahrein. They
are carried on every year from June until October, and even for a
longer period, if hot weather sets in earlier. Nearly all the island
population are engaged in the work in some way, and during the season
there is only one topic of conversation in the coffee-shops and the
evening-mejlis,—PEARLS. The pearl has this distinction above all other
precious stones, that it requires no human hand to bring out its
beauties. By modern scientists, pearls are believed to be the result of
an abnormal secretion, caused by the irritation of the mollusk’s shell
by some foreign substance—in short, a disease of the pearl-oyster. But
it is not surprising that the Arabs have many curious superstitions as
to the cause of pearl-formation. Their poets tell of how the monsoon
rains falling on the banks of Ceylon and Bahrein find chance lodgment
in the opened mouth of the pearl-oyster. Each drop distills a gem,
and the size of the raindrop determines the luck of the future diver.
Heaven-born and cradled in the deep blue sea, it is the purest of gems
and, in their eyes, the most precious.
[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF MENAMAH, BAHREIN ISLANDS.]
Not only in its creation, but in its liberation from its prison-house
under ten fathoms of water the pearl costs pain and sacrifice. So far
as this can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence, this cost is
easy of computation. The total value of pearls exported from Bahrein
in 1896 was £303,941 sterling ($1,500,000). The number of boats from
Bahrein engaged in the fisheries is about nine hundred and the cost
of bringing one boat’s share to the surface is 4,810 rupees (about
$1,600).[34] Hundreds of craft also come to the oyster-banks from other
ports on the gulf. It is scarcely necessary to say that the pearl
divers do not receive the amount fairly due them for their toil. They
are one and all victims of the “truck-system” in its worst form, being
obliged to purchase all supplies, etc., from their masters. They are
consequently so much in debt to him as often to make them practically
his slaves. The boats are generally owned by the merchants, and the
crew are paid at a low rate for a whole year’s work, only receiving
a small extra allowance when they bring up pearls of special size or
brilliancy. In the winter season these divers are out of work, and
consequently incur large debts which are charged to the next season’s
account. By force of circumstances and age-long practice the islanders
are also much given to the vice of gambling on the market. Even the
poorest fisherman will lay his wager—and lose it. It is not the thirty
thousand fishermen of the gulf with their more than five thousand boats
who grow rich in the pearl-fishing business; the real profit falls to
those who remain on shore—the Arab and Hindu brokers of Bombay who deal
direct with Berlin, London and Paris. A pearl often trebles in value by
changing hands, even before it reaches the Bombay market.
[Illustration: A BAHREIN HARBOR BOAT]
The divers follow the most primitive method in their work. Their boats
are such as their ancestors used before the Portuguese were expelled
from Bahrein in 1622. Even Sinbad the sailor might recognize every rope
and the odd spoon-shaped oars. These boats are of three kinds, very
similar in general appearance, but differing in size, called _Bakāre_t,
_Shua´ee_ and _Bateel_.[35] All of the boats have good lines and are
well-built by the natives from Indian timber. For the rest, all is of
Bahrein manufacture except their pulley-blocks, which come from Bombay.
Sailcloth is woven at Menamah and ropes are twisted of date-fibre in
rude rope-walks which have no machinery worth mentioning. Even the
long, soft iron nails that hold the boats together are hammered out on
the anvil one by one by Bahrein blacksmiths.
Each boat has a sort of figure-head, called the _kubait_, generally
covered with the skin of a sheep or goat which was sacrificed when the
boat was first launched. This is one of the Semitic traits which appear
in various forms all over Arabia—blood-sacrifice—and which has Islam
never uprooted. All the fishermen prefer to go out in a boat which has
cut a covenant of blood with Neptune. The larger boats used in diving
hold from twenty to forty men, less than half of whom are divers, while
the others are rope-holders and oarsmen. One man in each boat is called
_El Mŭsŭlly_, _i.e._, the one-who-prays, because his sole daily duty
is to take charge of the rope of any one who stops to pray or eat. He
has no regular work, and when not otherwise engaged vicariously mends
ropes and sails or cooks the rice and fish over charcoal embers. He is
therefore also called _El Gillās_, “the sitter,” very suggestive of his
sinecure office.
The divers wear no elaborate diving-suit, but descend clothed only
in their _fitaam_ and _khabaat_. The first is a true _pince-nez_ or
clothespin-like clasp for their nostrils. It is made of two thin
slices of horn fastened together with a rivet or cut out whole in a
quarter circle so as to fit the lower part of the nose and keep out
the water. It has a perforated head through which a string passes and
which suspends it from the divers neck when not in use. _Khabaat_ are
“finger-hats” made of leather and thrice the length of an ordinary
thimble. They are worn to protect the fingers in gathering the
pearl-shells from the sea-bottom; at the height of the pearl season
large baskets full of all sizes of these finger-caps are exposed for
sale in the bazaar. Each diver uses two sets (_twenty_) in a season.
A basket, called _dajeen_, and a stone-weight complete the diver’s
outfit. This stone, on which the diver stands when he plunges down
feet-first, is fastened to a rope passing between his toes and is
immediately raised; another rope is attached to the diver and his
basket by which he gives the signal and is drawn up. The best divers
remain below only two or three minutes at most, and when they come up
are nine-tenths suffocated. Many of them are brought up unconscious
and often cannot be brought to life. Deafness, and suppuration of
the ear, due to carelessness or perforated ear-drums, caused by the
enormous pressure of the water at such depths, are common among divers.
Rheumatism and neuralgia are universal and the pearl-fishers are the
great exception among the Arabs in not possessing beautiful teeth.
Sharks are plentiful and it is not a rare thing for them to attack
divers. But the Bahrein divers are more fearful of a small species of
devil-fish which lays hold of any part of the body and draws blood
rapidly. Against this monster of the sea they guard themselves by
wearing an “overall” of white cloth during the early part of the season
when it frequents the banks. Their tales of horror regarding the
devil-fish equal those of Victor Hugo in his “Toilers of the Sea.”
The divers remain out in their boats as long as their supply of fresh
water lasts, often three weeks or even more. Sir Edwin Arnold’s lines
are thus not as correct as they are beautiful:
“Dear as the wet diver to the eyes
Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore
By sands of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf;
Plunging all day in the blue waves; at night,
Having made up his tale of precious pearls,
Rejoins her in their hut upon the shore.”
When the pearl-oysters are brought up they are left on deck over
night and the next morning are opened by means of a curved knife, six
inches long, called _miflaket_. Before the days of English commerce
the mother-of-pearl was thrown away as worthless. Now it has a good
market-value and (after being scraped free of the small parasites that
infest the outer shell) is packed in wooden crates and exported in
large quantities. The total value of this export in 1897 was £5,694
($28,000). The Arabs have asked me in amazement what in the world the
“Franks” do with empty sea-shells; and some tell idle tales of how
they are ground up into pearl dust and pressed into artificial gems, or
are used as a veneer to cover brick houses.
On shore the pearls are classified by the merchants, according to
weight, size, shape, color and brilliancy. There are button-pearls,
pendants, roundish, oval, flat, and perfect pearls; pearls, white,
yellow, golden, pink, blue, azure, green, grey, dull and black;
seed-pearls the size of grains of sand and pearls as large as an Arab’s
report, emphasized with frequent _wallahs_, can make them. I have seen
a pendant pearl the size of a hazelnut worth a few thousand rupees
but there are Arabs who will swear by the prophet’s beard (each hair
of which is sacred!) that they have brought up pearls as large as a
pigeon’s egg. The pearl brokers carry their wares about tied in bags of
turkey-red calico; they weigh them in tiny brass scales and learn their
exact size by an ingenious device consisting of a nest of brass sieves,
called _taoos_, six in number, with apertures slightly differing in
size. The pearls are put into the largest sieve first; those that do
not fall through its pea-sized holes are called, _Ras_, “chief”; such
are generally pearls of great price, although their value depends most
on weight and perfection of form. The second size is called _Batu_,
“belly,” and the third _Dhail_, “tail.” Color has only a fashion-value;
Europe prefers white and the Orient the golden-yellow; black pearls are
not highly esteemed by Orientals.
Before they are shipped the large pearls are cleaned in _reeta_ a kind
of native soap-powder, and the smaller ones in soft brown sugar; then
they are tied up in calico and sold in lots by weight, each bundle
being supposed to contain pearls of average equal value. How it is
possible to collect custom dues on _pearls_ among a people whose
consciences rival their wide breast-pockets in concealing capacity,
surpasses comprehension. But the thing is done, for the farmer of
the custom dues grows rich and the statistics of export are not pure
guess-work.
The Bahrein islands also produce quantities of dates, and there is
an export trade in a remarkably fine breed of asses, celebrated all
over the Persian Gulf. A good Bahrein donkey is easy to ride and
almost as good a roadster as an average horse. The only manufactures,
beside sail-sheeting, are coarse cloth for turbans, and reed-mats of
very fine texture. The chief imports are rice, timber and piece-goods
for which Bahrein is the depot for all eastern Arabia. Three sights
are shown to the stranger-tourist to the islands of Bahrein: the
pearl-fisheries, the fresh-water springs, and the ancient ruins of an
early civilization at the village of Ali. These ruins are the “_bayoot
el owalin_” the dwellings of the first inhabitants, who are believed
to have been destroyed by Allah because of their wickedness. An hour’s
ride through the date gardens and past the minarets brings us to the
village of Ali. It can generally be seen from a good distance because
of the smoke which rises from the huge ovens where pottery is baked.
The potter turns his wheel to-day and fashions the native water-jars
with deft hand utterly ignorant and careless of the curious sepulchral
tumuli which cast their shade at his feet. South and west of the
village the whole plain is studded with mounds, at least three hundred
of them, the largest being about forty feet in height. Only two or
three have ever been opened or explored. Theodore Bent in company with
his wife explored these in 1889, with meagre results, but no further
investigations have been made though it is a field that may yet yield
large results. M. Jules Oppert, the French Assyriologist, and others
regard the island as an extremely old centre of civilization and it
is now well known that the first settlements from ancient Babylonia
were in the Persian Gulf which then extended as far north as Mugheir,
near Suk-es Shiukh. But those first settlers probably went to the
coasts of Africa and to the kingdoms of Southern Arabia, in which
case Bahrein was on their line of travel. It must always have been a
depot for shipping because of its abundant water-supply in a region
where fresh-water is generally scarce. The mounds at Ali probably date
from this very early period; although no corroboration in the shape
of cylinders or bricks bearing inscriptions has yet been found, the
character of the structures found in the mounds is undoubted proof of
their great antiquity.
The larger mound opened by Bent, now consists of two rock-built
chambers of very large stones, square masonry, and no trace of an arch
or a pillar. The lower chamber is twenty-eight feet in length, five
feet in width, and eight feet high; it has four niches or recesses
about three feet deep, two at the end of the passage and two near its
entrance. The upper chamber is of the same length as the lower, but its
width is six inches less, and its height only four feet eight inches.
The lower passage is hand plastered as an impression of the mason’s
hand on the side wall still proves. If diggings were made _below_ the
mounds or other mounds were opened better results might follow, and
perhaps inscriptions or cylinders would be discovered. A year or two
ago a jar containing a large number of gold coins was found near Ali
by some native workmen; these however were Cufic and of a much later
period than the mounds. Near Yau and Zillag, on the other side of the
island there are also ruins and very deep wells cut through solid rock
with _deep_ rope-marks on the curbing; perhaps these also are of early
date. On the island of Moharrek there is a place called _Ed Dair_, “the
monastery” with ruins of what the Arabs call a church; whether this
is of Portuguese date like the castle or goes back to a much earlier
period before Mohammed, we cannot tell.
The climate of Bahrein is not as bad as it is often described by
casual visitors. No part of the Persian Gulf can be called a health
resort, but neither is the climate unhealthful at all seasons of the
year. In March and April, October, November and December the weather
is delightful, indoor temperatures seldom rising above 85° F., or
falling below 60° F. When north winds blow in January and February it
is often cold enough for a fire; these are the rainy months of the year
and least healthful, especially to the natives in their badly-built
mat-huts. From May to September inclusive is the hot season, although
the nights remain cool and the heat is tempered by sea-breezes (called,
_El Barih_), until the middle of June. Heavy dews at night are
common and make the atmosphere murky and oppressive when there is no
sea-breeze. Land-breezes from the west and south continue irregularly
throughout the entire summer. When they fail the thermometer leaps to
over one hundred and remains there day and night until the ripples
on the stagnant, placid sea proclaim a respite from the torture of
sweltering heat. A record of temperature, kept at Menamah village in
the summer of 1893, shows a minimum indoor temperature of 85° and a
maximum of 107°F., in the shade. The prevailing wind at Bahrein, and
in fact all over the Gulf, is the _shemmāl_ or Northwester changing
its direction slightly with the trend of the coast. The air during a
shemmāl is generally very dry and the sky cloudless, but in winter they
are sometimes at first accompanied by rain-squalls. In winter they are
very severe and endanger the shipping. The only other strong wind is
called _kaus_; it is a southeaster and blows irregularly from December
to April. It is generally accompanied by thick, gloomy weather, with
severe squalls and falling barometer. The saying among sailors that
“there is always too much wind in the Gulf or none at all,” is very
true of Bahrein.
This saying holds true also of the political history of the Gulf.
Bahrein, because of its pearl-trade has ever been worth contending
for and it has been a bone of contention among the neighboring rulers
ever since the naval battle fought by the early inhabitants against
the Romans. After Mohammed’s day the Carmathians overran the islands.
Portuguese, Arabs from Oman, Persians, Turks and lastly the English
have each in turn claimed rule or protection over the archipelago. It
is sufficient to note here that in 1867, ’Isa bin Ali (called _Esau_ in
Curzon’s “Persia,” as if the name came from Jacob’s brother instead of
the Arab form of Jesus!) was appointed ruling Sheikh by the British
who deposed his father Mohammed bin Khalifa for plotting piracy.
The present Sheikh is a typical Arab and spends most of his time in
hawking and the chase; the religious rule, which in a Moslem land
means the judicial and executive department, rests with the _Kadi_ or
Judge. There is no legislature as the law was laid down once for all
in the Koran and the traditions. The administration of _justice_ is
rare. Oppression, blackmail and bribery are universal; and, except in
commerce and the slave-trade, English protection has brought about no
reforms on the island. To be “protected” means here strict neutrality
as to the internal affairs and absolute dictation as to affairs with
other governments. To “protect” means to keep matters in _status quo_
until the hour is ripe for annexation. Sometimes the process from the
one to the other is so gradual as to resemble growth; in such a case it
would be correct to speak of the growth of the British Empire.
Contact with Europeans and western civilization has, however, done much
for Bahrein in the matter of disarming prejudice and awakening the
sluggish mind of the Arab to look beyond his own “Island of the Arabs.”
Even as early as 1867, Palgrave could write: “From the maritime and
in a manner central position of Bahreyn my readers may of themselves
conjecture that the profound ignorance of Nejd regarding Europeans
and their various classifications is here exchanged for a partial
acquaintance with those topics; thus, English and French, disfigured
into the local _Ingleez_ and _Francees_ are familiar words at Menamah,
though Germans and Italians, whose vessels seldom or never visit these
seas, have as yet no place in the Bahreyn vocabulary; while Dutch and
Portuguese seem to have fallen into total oblivion. But Russians or
_Moskop_, that is Muscovites, are alike known and feared, thanks to
Persian intercourse and the instinct of nations. Beside the policy of
Constantinople and Teheran are freely and at times sensibly discussed
in these coffee-houses no less than the stormy diplomacy of Nejd and
her dangerous encroachments.”
To the Bahrein Arabs Bombay is the centre of the world of civilization,
and he who has seen that city is distinguished as knowing all about
the ways of foreigners. So anxious are the boys for a trip on the
British India steamer to this Eldorado of science and mystery that they
sometimes run from home and go as stowaways or beg their passage. This
close contact with India has had its effect on the Arabic spoken on
the island which, although not a dialect, is full of Hindustani words.
Of late years there has been a considerable Persian immigration into
Bahrein from the coast between Lingah and Bushire, and next to Arabic,
Persian is the language most in use.
XI
THE EASTERN THRESHOLD OF ARABIA
Beyond Bahrein the mainland stretches westward for eight hundred miles
across the province of Hassa and lower Nejd and Hejaz to the Red Sea.
As Jiddah is the western port, Bahrein is the eastern port for all
Arabia. It is the gateway to the interior, the threshold of which is
Hassa. Draw a line from Menamah to Katif, then on to Hofhoof (or El
Hassa) and thence back to Menamah, and the triangle formed will include
every important town or village of Eastern Arabia. North of that
triangle on the coast is the inhospitable barren, thinly populated,
country of the Bni Hajar; south of it is the peninsula of El Katar;
westward stretches the sandy desert for five days’ marches to Riad and
the old Wahabi country. The region thus bounded is really the whole of
Hassa, although on maps that name is given to the whole coast as far
as Busrah. But neither the authority of the Turkish government nor the
significance of the word _Hassa_ (low, moist ground) can be said to
extend outside of the triangle.