thousand different uses of the palm-tree. Every part of this wonderful
tree is useful to the Arabs in unexpected ways. To begin at the
top:—The pistils of the date-blossom contain a fine curly fibre which
is beaten out and used in all Eastern baths as a sponge for soaping
the body. At the extremity of the trunk is a terminal bud containing a
whitish substance resembling an almond in consistency and taste, but
a hundred times as large. This is a great table delicacy. There are
said to be over one hundred varieties of date-palm all distinguished
by their fruit and the Arabs say that “a good housewife may furnish
her husband every day for a month with a dish of dates differently
prepared.” Dates form the staple food of the Arabs in a large part of
Arabia and are always served in some form at every meal. Syrup and
vinegar is made from old dates, and by those who disregard the Koran,
even a kind of brandy. The date-pit is ground up and fed to cows and
sheep so that nothing of the precious fruit may be lost. Whole pits are
used as beads and counters for the Arab children in their games on the
desert-sand. The branches or palms are stripped of their leaves and
used like rattan, to make beds, tables, chairs, cradles, bird-cages,
reading-stands, boats, crates, etc., etc. The leaves are made into
baskets, fans and string and the _bast_ of the outer trunk forms
excellent fibre for rope of many sizes and qualities. The wood of the
trunk, though light and porous, is much used in bridge-building and
architecture and is quite durable. In short, when a date-palm is cut
down there is not a particle of it that is wasted. This tree is the
“poor-house” and asylum for all Arabia; without it millions would have
neither food nor shelter. For one half of the population of Mesopotamia
lives in date-mat dwellings.
Although everywhere the date-culture is an important industry, Busrah
is the centre of the trade, for here is the principal depot for
export. The three best varieties of dates known at Busrah are the
_Hallawi_, _Khadrawi_ and _Sayer_. These are the only kinds that will
stand shipping to the European markets. They are packed in layers
in wooden boxes, or in smaller carton boxes. The average export to
London and New York from Busrah for the past five years has been
about _20,000 tons_, nearly one half of which was for the American
market. Other important varieties are _Zehdi_, _Bérem_, _Dery_ and
_Shukri_. These are packed more roughly in matting or baskets, and are
sent along the whole Arabian coast, to India, the Red Sea littoral
and Zanzibar. There are over thirty other varieties cultivated near
Busrah for local consumption. Some of them have curious names such as:
“Mother of Perfume,” “Sealed-up,” “Red Sugar,” “Daughter of Seven,”
“Bride’s-finger,” “Little Star,” “Pure Daughter”; others have names
which it is better not to translate.
Palgrave and others, with whose verdict I agree, pronounced the
_Khalasi_ date of El Hassa superior to all other kinds. It has recently
been introduced into Mesopotamia. Palgrave says, “the literal and not
inappropriate translation of the name is ‘quintessence’—a species
peculiar to Hassa and easily the first of its kind.” The fruit itself
is rather smaller than the usual _Hallawi_ date, but it is not so dry
and far more luscious. It is of a rich dark amber color, almost ruddy,
and translucent; the kernel is small and easily detached, the date
tastes sweet as sugar and is as far superior to the date bought in the
American market as a ripe Pippin is to dried apple-rings.
At Busrah the date season opens in September and keeps every one busy
until the vast harvest is gathered and shipped. The dates for export to
Europe and America are of prime quality, a box of half a hundred-weight
on board the steamer is worth about three or four shillings wholesale.
All poor, wet, and small dates are packed separately in mats or
bags, and are sent to India as second-quality. The poorest lot are
sent in mass to the distilleries in England. Thus nothing is lost.
Date-packers, who put the fruit in layers, receive three or four
_kameris_ for packing a box. The best packers can only pack four boxes
a day, so that their wages are about a _kran_ (about ten cents) per
day. They live cheaply on the fruit, and bring all their family, babes
and greybeards with them to lodge for the season in the date-gardens.
The date season in Busrah begins in the early or middle part of
September and lasts for six or eight weeks. The price of the date-crop
varies. It is usually fixed at a meeting held in some date-garden where
the growers and buyers play the bull and the bear until an agreement
is reached. The prices in 1897 were, in the language of the trade:
“340 Shamis for Hallawis, 280 Shamis for Khadrawis, and 180 Shamis for
Sayer.” Seventeen _Shamis_ are equal to about one pound sterling, and
the prices quoted are for a _kara_, about fifty hundred-weights.
The culture of the date has steadily increased for the past fifteen
years. In 1896 the greater part of the country was inundated by heavy
floods and over a million date-trees are said to have been destroyed;
new gardens are being planted continually. The Arabs of Mesopotamia
display great skill and unusual care in manuring, irrigating and
improving their date-plantations, for they realize more and more that
this is no mean source of wealth. One recent use to which export dates
are put is in the manufacture of vinegar, it would seem, since the
beet-sugar industry has proved so profitable, that there must be some
method by which good sugar could be manufactured from date-syrup.
Mesopotamia is rich not only in date-groves but in cereals, wool, gums,
licorice root and other products. The export of wool alone in 1897 was
valued at £288,700. And the total exports the same year, for the two
provinces of Bagdad and Busrah, were put at £522,960. Busrah is the
shipping place for all the region round about, and ocean steamers of
considerable size are always in Busrah harbor, during 1897 four hundred
and twenty-one sailing vessels and ninety-five steamships cleared the
port, with a total tonnage of 131,846; ninety-one of the steamships
were British.
The population of the two vilayets is given by Cuinet, who follows
Turkish authorities, as follows:
_Moslems._ _Christians._ _Jews._ _Total._
Bagdad Vilayet, 789,500 7,000 53,500 850,000
Busrah Vilayet, 939,650 5,850 4,500 950,000
In Bagdad vilayet nearly four-fifths of the Moslem population belongs
to the Sunnite sect, while in Busrah vilayet three-fourths of them
are Shiahs. The Sabeans are generally reckoned among the Christians,
although these are already sufficiently divided into Latin, Greek
Orthodox, Greek, Syrian, Chaldean Catholic, Armenian Gregorian,
Armenian Catholic and Protestants—the last in the smallest minority
possible and the others chiefly distinguished by mutual distrust and
united hatred of Protestantism.
The vilayet of Bagdad is divided again into three _Sandjaks_ or
districts of Bagdad, Hillah and Kerbela, and that of Busrah likewise
into those of Busrah, Amara Muntefik and Nejd[38]. Of these six
districts that of Bagdad is the largest in area and importance and is
the centre of military power for both vilayets. The boundaries of
Bagdad Sandjak go as far as Anah on the Euphrates toward the north and
include Kut-el-Amara on the south with both banks of the Tigris. Hillah
and Kerbela are along the Euphrates with irregular boundaries while the
Muntefik Sandjak with its provincial town of Nasariya separates them
from that of Busrah. The Sandjak of Amara begins a few miles north of
the junction of the two rivers, and the whole frontier toward Persia
is entirely undefined or at least “_in litigation_,” as the Turkish
official maps have it.
The two Turkish provinces have all the involved machinery of Turkish
civil and military administration. There are plenty of offices and
office-holders and constant changes in both. Each province has a
governor-general or _Wali_ and (outside of the governor’s sandjak)
each district has its _mutaserrif-pasha_ either of the first or second
class—those one has to deal with generally prove to be of the latter.
Then there are _Kaimakams_ for smaller districts or cities, and
finally _mudirs_ for villages. At the seat of government, called the
_Serai_, there is an administrative council, including the _Näib_ or
_kadi_, corresponding to chief-justice; the _defterdar_ or secretary of
finance; the _mufti_ or public interpreter of Moslem law; the _nakib_,
etc., etc., etc. There are several courts of justice of different
rank; the custom-house administration is on the _e pluribus unum_ plan
and _ne plus ultra_ system. Besides these there are the “Regie des
tabacs” or the tobacco-monopoly, the post and telegraph administration,
the sanitary offices, the salt-inspectors, and, at Kerbela, the
Tarif of corpses levied on imported pilgrims. To describe all these
satisfactorily would require a volume.
XIII
THE CITIES AND VILLAGES OF TURKISH-ARABIA
Kuweit,[39] on the gulf a little south of the river delta, will in all
probability—before long, rise in importance and be as well known as
Suez or Port Said. It has the finest harbor in all Eastern Arabia, and
is an important town of from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants. Here will
probably be the terminus of the proposed railroads to bind India and
the gulf to Europe by the shortest route. The whole country round about
being practically desert, the place is entirely dependent on its trade
for support. It possesses more bagalows (sailing-vessels) than any port
in the gulf; is remarkably cleanly; has some very well-built houses
and an extensive dockyard for boat building. The town and tribe are
nominally under Turkish subjection, although protection is the better
word, and it is rumored that Kuweit will soon be as much in the hands
of the English as is Bahrein.
The Bedouin tribes of Northern Hassa, and even from Nejd, bring
horses, cattle and sheep to this place to barter for dates, clothing
and fire-arms. There is nearly always a large encampment of Bedouins
near the town. The route overland from Kuweit to Busrah is across the
desert until we come to an old artificial canal; leaving Jebel Sinam to
the left the second march brings us to Zobeir, a small village on the
site of ancient Busrah, and only a few hours to the present site. At
Zobeir is the tomb of the Moslem leader for whom the town is named.
The village contains about 400 houses, and the population is rich and
fanatical. In the vicinity are gardens where a kind of melon is raised,
which is celebrated in all the region round about for sweetness and
delicacy of flavor. The journey from Kuweit to Busrah is generally
made, even by natives, in bugalows; while the Persian Gulf steamers,
not calling at Kuweit, proceed direct from Bushire to Fao, at the mouth
of the Shatt-el-Arab. A great hindrance to commerce is the bar formed
by the alluvial deposit of the immense river as it reaches the gulf.
At low tide there is only ten feet of water in the deepest part of the
channel, and even at flood tide large steamers must plow their way
through the mud to reach Busrah.
Fao is of no importance except as the terminus of the cable from
Bushire. A British telegraph station was established here in 1864. The
Turkish telegraph system from up the rivers terminates at Fao, and
here too they have a representative to govern the place and enforce
stringent quarantine. The Shatt-el-Arab winds motononously between the
vast date-orchards or desert banks for about forty miles, until we
reach the Karun river and the Persian town of Mohammerah. Busrah is
sixty-seven miles from the bar and between it and Fao there are many
important villages on each bank of the river. Aboo Hassib is perhaps
the most important and is a great centre for date-culture and packing.
Busrah consists of the native city—containing the principal bazaars,
the government house, and the bulk of the population—and the new town
on the river. The native town is about two miles from the river on a
narrow creek, called _Ashar_; a good road runs along the bank, and
this road really unites the two parts of the city into one as it is
lined with dwelling-houses for a large part of the way. Busrah has seen
better days, but also worse. In the middle of the eighteenth century
it numbered upward of 150,000 inhabitants. In 1825, it had diminished
to 60,000; the plague of 1831 reduced it further by nearly one-half,
and after the plague of 1838, scarcely 12,000 inhabitants remained.
In 1854, it is said to have had only 5,000 inhabitants. At present
the place is growing yearly in population and importance in spite of
misgovernment and ruinous taxation. It has every natural advantage
over Bagdad, except climate, and will yet outstrip the city of the
old caliphs, if Turkey’s rule mends or ends. The present population
of the city proper is given by Ottoman authorities at 18,000. Many
ruins all over the plains and in the surrounding gardens tell of its
former extent and splendor. At present the native town looks sadly
dilapidated, and tells the story of neglect and decay. The unexampled
filthiness of the streets and the undrained marshes in the environs
make the place proverbially unhealthy. This unhygienic condition is not
improved by the Ashar Creek being at the same time the common sewer
and the common water supply for over one-half of the population. The
wealthy classes send out boats to bring water from the river, but all
the poorer people use the creek. Such are the results of an imbecile
government which could easily drain the marshes and supply every one
with great abundance of pure water.
Ancient Busrah, near the present site of Zobeir, was founded in 636 A.
D., by the second Caliph Omar as a key to the Euphrates and Tigris. It
reached great prosperity, and was the home of poetry and grammatical
learning, as Bagdad was the centre of science and philosophy. After
the twelfth century the city began to decay, and at the conquest of
Bagdad by Murad IV., in 1638, this entire stretch of country fell
into the hands of the Turks. Then the present city took the name of
Busrah. Later it was in the hands of the Arabs and Persians, and
from 1832 to 1840, Mohammed Ali was in possession. Under the rule of
Midhat Pasha, governor-general of Bagdad, the city of Busrah arose in
importance partly because of the Turkish Steam Navigation Company which
he promoted. But it was a dream-life. English commerce and enterprise
aroused the place thoroughly, and the whistle of steamships has kept
it awake ever since the Suez canal opened trade with Europe by way of
the gulf.[40]
In making the journey from Busrah to Bagdad the traveller has choice
of two lines of river-steamers: the Ottoman service has six steamers
and the English company three, but the latter are only allowed to use
two by the Turkish government. For romance, discomfort and tediousness,
choose the former; for all other reasons select the latter. I have
tried both. The English steamers carry the mails to Bagdad and make
weekly trips; four or five days being required for the journey up
stream, and three days down, although when the water is low the journey
may be long delayed. In bad or shallow places the steamers often
discharge a part of their cargo, heave over the shallow part and load
up again. Of course trade suffers and vast quantities of merchandise
often lie for weeks at Busrah awaiting shipment. No steps are ever
taken by the Ottoman government to counteract the great waste of water
which flows into the marshes. In course of time, unless prevented, this
waste will lead to the closing up of the main channel of the Tigris
even as the Euphrates below Suk-es-Shiukh has become a marsh for lack
of use.
The good Steamship _Mejidieh_ with its kindly Captain Cowley, or the
sister ship _Khalifah_ lies at anchor just off the English Consulate,
the blue-peter flies overhead and the decks are overcrowded with all
sorts and conditions of men—Persians, Turks, Indians, Arabs, Armenians,
Greeks;—baggage, bales, boxes, water-bottles—chickens, geese, sheep,
horses, not to speak of the insect-population on which it is impossible
to collect freight-charges. The steamers are somewhat after the type
of the American river-steamers on the Mississippi; but no Mark Twain
has yet arisen to immortalize them, although they afford an even
more fertile theme. With a double deck and broad of beam they carry
hundreds of passengers and an astonishing amount of cargo for their
size. The accommodation during cool weather is excellent, and during
the hot days no one travels for the sake of luxury.
The first place at which the steamer calls is Kurna at the junction
of the rivers, and from whence the course is up the Tigris to Bagdad.
The Tomb of Ezra, about nine hours from Busrah, is a great place for
pilgrimages by the Jews. It is a pretty spot on the river bank and
picturesque with its crowd of embarking and disembarking Jews and
Jewesses. The tomb is a domed cloister enclosing a square mausoleum,
and paved with blue tiles. Over the doorway are two tablets of black
marble with Hebrew inscriptions attesting to the authenticity of the
tomb. It is not improbable that Ezra is buried here, for the Talmud
states that he died at Zamzuma, a town on the Tigris. He is said to
have died here on his way from Jerusalem to Susa to plead the cause of
the captive Jews. Josephus says that he was buried at Jerusalem, but no
Jew of Bagdad doubts that Ezra’s remains rest on the Tigris.
Ten hours beyond, we pass also on the west bank, Abu Sadra, a tomb of
an Arab saint marked only by a reed-hut and a grove of poplars. Next
is Amara, a large and growing village with a coaling-depot and an
enterprising population. This place was founded in 1861, and promises
to become a centre of trade. After passing Ali Shergi, Ali Gherbi, and
Sheikh Saad, small villages, without stopping, the steamer calls at
Kut-el-Amara, a larger place even than Amara, on the east bank, with
over 4,000 inhabitants.
[Illustration: THE REPUTED TOMB OF EZRA ON THE TIGRIS RIVER.]
All the way from Busrah to Bagdad, but especially along this part of
the river, we pass Bedouin tribes, encamped in the black tents of
Kedar, engaged in the most primitive agriculture or irrigation of their
land, or rushing along the banks to hail the passing steamer. A hungry,
impudent, noisy, cheerful lot they are; filling the merciful with pity
and moving the thoughtless to laughter, as they scramble up and down
the banks into the water to catch a piece of bread or a few dates
thrown to them.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE ARCH OF CTESIPHON NEAR BAGDAD.]
Meanwhile we steam along passing Bughela, Azizieh, Bagdadieh and
reach Bustani Kesra, or the arch of Ctesiphon. The little village of
Soleiman-Pak is named for the pious man who was the private barber of
Mohammed the prophet. After various wanderings, poor pious Pak was
buried here, only a short distance from the great arch. A village
sprang up near the tomb, pilgrims come from everywhere and miracles are
claimed to be wrought by him who when alive only handled the razor.
The whole region of Mesopotamia is more rich in saints, tombs and
pilgrim-shrines than any other part of Arabia.
The arch of Ctesiphon is not a shrine but it is well worth a visit.
It is the only prominent object that remains of the vast ruins of
Ctesiphon on the east bank of the Tigris, and Seleucia on the west.
The arch is now almost in ruins but must once have been the façade
of a magnificent building. Its length is 275 feet, and its height is
given variously as eighty-six or one hundred feet; the walls are over
twelve feet thick and the span of the magnificent arch is nearly eighty
feet. What Ctesiphon was in the days of the Sassanian kings we read in
Gibbon. Now its glory has departed and the tomb of the Barber has more
visitors than the ancient throne of the Chosroes. Eight hours after
leaving Ctesiphon’s ruins, our steamer is in full sight of the city of
Haroun Rashid.
Bagdad is a familiar name even to the boy who reads the Arabian tales
rather than his geography. It is one of the chief cities of the Turkish
empire and has a history much older than the empire itself. Founded
by the Caliph Mansur about the year 765 A. D., it was the capital of
the Mohammedan world for five hundred years, until it was destroyed
by Halakn, grandson of Jengiz Khan. Situated in the midst of what was
once the richest and most productive region of the old world it is
now no longer queen of the land but rather reminds us of decay and
dissolution. Its present beauties are only the ruins of former glory.
The untidy soldiers slouching about the streets, the evil-smelling
bazaars and ruined mosques, the rotten bridge of boats that spans the
river, the faces of the poor and the miserable who go begging through
the streets, indicate the curse of Turkish inanition and oppression.
On the west bank of the river is the old town enclosed by extensive
orange and date-groves. On the east bank is New-Bagdad, which also
looks old enough. Here are the government offices, consulates, and
the chief commercial buildings as well as the custom-offices. Bagdad
is still an important city on many accounts. No other city of the
Turkish empire is influenced so much by the desert and Arabia as is
Bagdad; and no other stands in such direct contact with the towns in
the interior of the peninsula. The Arabic spoken is comparatively pure,
and Bedouin manners still prevail in many ways in the social life of
the people. The city has a very motley population, because of commerce
on the one hand and the number of pilgrim-shrines on the other. The
tombs of Abd-ul-Kadir, and Abu Hanifah and the gilded domes and
minarets which mark the resting-places of two of the Shiah Imams—all
draw their annual concourse of visitors from many lands and peoples.
All the languages of the Levant are spoken on its streets although
Arabic prevails over all. Dr. H.M. Sutton remarks, “I have been at the
bedside of a patient where in a company of half-a-dozen people we had
occasion to use five languages, and on another occasion we were in a
company of about forty people in a room where no less than fourteen
languages were represented. The land of Shinar is thus still the place
of the confusion of tongues.” Bagdad like Busrah has suffered greatly
by ravages of the plague at various times, but especially in 1830 when
the plague was followed by a fearful inundation. In one night, when the
river burst its banks 7,000 houses fell and 15,000 people perished.
The population of Bagdad is at present variously estimated at from
120,000 to 180,000. Nearly one-third are Jews while the Oriental
Christians number about 5,000. The trade of Bagdad is large not only
with the region southwards and toward Busrah but with Nejd and Northern
Mesopotamia. The import trade from India and Europe to Bagdad is over
£1,000,000 every year, and the export trade to Europe alone is placed
at £522,960 for 1897. The river north of Bagdad is not navigable for
steamers but an immense number of _kelleks_ daily arrive from the
north loaded with lumber from Kurdistan and with other products. These
_kelleks_ are a craft made of inflated goatskins boarded over with
reeds and matting. The boatmen return with the empty skins overland
with the caravan companies. Still more characteristic of Bagdad is
the small river-boat called a _kuffe_ or coracle. It consists of a
perfectly circular hull, six to eight feet in diameter, with sides
curving inward like a huge basket, and covered with pitch. This type of
boat is as old as Nineveh and they are pictured quite accurately on the
old monuments.