Arabian Gulf

“ The country between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf is Arabia, and at its extremity is situated Pelusium. But the whole is desert, and not passable by an army. The isthmus between Pelusium and the recess of the Arabian Gulf near Heroopolis is 1000 stadia; but, according to Poseidonius, less than 1500 stadia in extent. Besides its being sandy and without water, it abounds with reptiles, which burrow in the sand. ”

“ From this bay the Arabian Gulf trends eastward, and at Aualitês is contracted to its narrowest. At a distance of about 4000 stadia (from Adouli) , if you still sail along the same coast, you reach other marts of Barbaria, called the marts beyond (the Straits) , which occur in successive order, and which, though harbourless, afford at certain seasons of the year good and safe anchorage. The first district you come to is that called Aualitês, where the passage across the strait to the opposite point of Arabia is shortest. ”

“ Altogether, therefore, the navigation of this part of the Arabian coast is very dangerous: for, apart from the barbarity of its people, it has neither harbours nor good roadsteads, and it is foul with breakers, and girdled with rocks which render it inaccessible. For this reason when sailing south we stand off from a shore in every way so dreadful, and keep our course down the middle of the gulf, straining our utmost to reach the more civilized part of Arabia, which begins at Burnt Island. ”

“ The line of coast from Cape Mussenndom to Bahrain, on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, had been from time immemorial occupied by a tribe of Arabs called Joassamees. These, from local position, were all engaged in maritime pursuits. Some traded in their own small vessels to Bussorah, Bushire, Muscat, and even India; others annually fished in their own boats on the pearl banks of Bahrain; and a still greater number hired themselves out as sailors to navigate the coasting small craft of the Persian Gulf. ”

“ If you are not afraid of being known, there is a low black island on the Arabian coast called Camaran, it is in lat. 15° 39', and is distinguished by a white house, or fortress, on the west end of it, where you will procure excellent water, in greater plenty than at Azab; but no provisions, or only such as are very bad. If you should not wish to be seen, however, on the coast at all, among the chain of islands that reaches almost across the Gulf from Loheia to Masuah, there is one called Foosht, where there is good anchorage ”

“ Before entering upon an intelligent study of the Qurʼân it is necessary to make oneself acquainted with the circumstances of the people in whose midst it was revealed, with the political and religious aspects of the period, and with the personal history of the prophet himself.
Arabia or Gazîrat el ʿArab, 'the Arabian Peninsula,' as it is called by native writers, is bounded on the west by the Red Sea; on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; on the south by the Indian Ocean; and on the north it extends to the confines of Babylonia and Syria. ”

“ The interior has always been a sterile sandy desert, interspersed however by frequent green and fertile oases, which were occupied by villages and small towns, as was the case with Palmyra, which rose to power and opulence by being the centre of the trade from the Persian gulf. [12] On the east the Arabs were often in possession of the rich plains of the Hauraun and Damascus; towards the north the districts of Edessa and Emessa, as well as Irak and part of Mesopotamia towards the east, were long ruled by Arabian dynasties. ”

“ Our author is describing a sailing-course which is obvious by referring to the map. The straight course before the trade-wind, from Hisn Ghorab to the Gulf of Cambay or the mouth of the Indus, would carry a vessel along the Arabian shore as far as Ras Fartak, beyond which the coast gradually recedes, so that the vessel would stand out to sea without changing its course. A vessel bound for the Malabar ports and sailing before the wind, with the type of rigging then in use, would have required steering off her course the whole time, thus describing a wide curve before making the Indian coast. ”

“ From this description it is evident that the least attractive part of the country is the coast. This may be the reason that Arabia has been so harshly judged, as to climate and soil and so much neglected by those who only knew of it from the captains who had touched its coast in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Nothing is more surprising, than to pass through the barren cinder gateway of Aden up the mountain passes into the marvellous fertility and delightful climate of Yemen. Arabia like the Arab, has a rough, frowning exterior but a warm, hospitable heart. ”

“ This is the case with all the harbours on the east-coast of the Red Sea, while those on the west are deep, without any banks or bars before them, which is probably owing, as I have already said, to the violence of the north-west winds, the only constant strong winds to be met with in this Gulf. These occasion strong currents to set in upon the east-coast, and heap up the land and gravel which is blown in from Arabia. ”

“ On the side of Arabia, a wide gulf opens amidst the black ridges, and presents a vista of the shining surface of the Dead Sea, and the violet summits of the mountains of Moab. Rarely is a breath of air heard to murmur, in the fissures of the rocks, or among the branches of the aged olives; not a bird sings, nor an insect chirps in the waterless furrows. ”

“ The Red Sea is blue; the Persian Gulf has no Persian ships and should be called an English lake; and the Straits of Hormuz are crooked. This topsy-turvy land has no political divisions. Some say it has five and some seven provinces; no one knows what is its population as no census was ever taken. In nearly all countries the mountain ranges run north and south, but in Arabia they run nearly east and west. There are desert sands six hundred feet deep and mountain peaks nine thousand feet high. On the coasts it is fearfully hot and the climate is often deadly. ”

“ We now come to Arabia itself, "the Peninsula of the Arabs," where orthodox Islam has its strongholds and missionary enterprise is not encouraged.
Geographers differ somewhat as to what constitutes Arabia proper, but for the purposes of modern practical politics it may be considered as all the peninsula south of a line from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to the head of the Persian Gulf, and consisting of Nejd, the Hejaz, [C] Asir, Yamen, Aden protectorate, Hadhramaut and Oman. ”

“ At no great distance from Leukê Kômê the Nabathaean realm terminates and Arabia [Pg 77] begins. The coast is here described as most dismal, and as in every way dangerous to navigation. The inhabitants at the same time are barbarians, destitute of all humanity, who scruple not to attack and plunder wrecked ships and to make slaves of their crews if they escaped to land. The mariner therefore, shunned these inhospitable shores, and standing well out to sea, sailed down the middle of the gulf. ”

“ If ever this tract of country comes into the hands of a civilised nation, it will be capable of great and useful development. Supposing the harbour restored to receive ships of moderate size, the Gara hills, rich in grass and vegetation, with an ample supply of water and regular rains, and, furthermore, with a most delicious and health-giving air, might be of inestimable value as a granary and a health resort for the inhabitants of the burnt-up centres of Arabian commerce, Aden and Maskat. ”

“ Its position gives the key to its history. Along the west coast ran the great road for traders and for the campaigns which have made the land famous. The seaports (more especially in Syria, including Phoenicia) , were well known to the pirates, traders and sea-powers of the Levant. The southernmost, Gaza, was joined by a road to the mixed peoples of the Egyptian Delta, and was also the port of the Arabian caravans. Arabia, in its turn, opens out into both Babylonia and Palestine, and a familiar route skirted the desert east of the Jordan into Syria to Damascus and Hamath. ”

“ The sands are overspread with forests of coral plants of every colour, shells of remarkable beauty; and, in the midst of this sub-aqueous landscape, fish of brilliant hues sporting in all directions. At length they reached the gulf of Suez, with the blue peaks of Sinai in the distance, and continued running up the gulf, which was one hundred and sixty miles long, until Suez came in sight. Here all is dreary: deserts and sand-banks form the whole landscape. Arab boats came alongside, and conveyed the passengers from the steamer. ”

“ Our Arab servant had a hard time of it to secure a boat that would take us over because the people were still suspicious of Christians and were not at all anxious to have them begin work in new places. After a boat had been secured whose captain was willing for a good consideration to allow Christians to travel with him we still waited. When one travels by native boat in Arabia there is always delay; it may be a couple of hours or it may be a few days. Time and tide and the Arab temper are equally unreliable in the Persian Gulf. It is no use fussing and getting impatient. ”

“ It may fairly be supposed that the Hebrew-Phœnician fleet would not put to sea from the Arab emporium, where it was refitting, until the end of January of the year 2; for in the months of January, February, and March, fine clear weather prevails in the Gulf of Aden, and it is at this season that the Arabs carry on trade in the Gulf of Aden in their dhows, measuring from 50 to 300 tons burthen. By starting at this season the fleet would enter the north-east monsoon with fine clear weather, and reach Sofala in March or April, with the cessation of the north-east monsoon. ”

“ Staid Arabs, with turbans and long, flowing robes, spinning tops, formed a sight of which we never tired. The spinning-tops are made out of whelk-shells, which I really believe must have been the original pattern from which our domestic toy was made. The door-posts of their huts are often made of whales' jaws; a great traffic is done in sharks; the cases for their swords and daggers are all of shagreen. The gulf well deserves the name given to it by Ptolemy of the Ichthyophagorum sinus. ”

“ In the foregoing pages of this work, attention has been drawn to the capabilities which East Africa offers, on its coast line, for the production of the finest cotton, by the fact of its whole sea-board being washed by that great ocean-current which subsequently, in its course on the east coast of America, obtains the name of the Gulf Stream. The wonderful effect which the heat contained in this great body of water has on the climate of England, and other more torridly-situated [259] countries, is a fact too well attested to be disputed. ”

“ In complete harmony, therefore, with local usage, Arabia may be regarded as spreading for 800 miles from the Nile to beyond the Euphrates. From the foot of the Taurus Mountains, north of Aleppo, to the Gulf of Aden, it measures no less than 1800 miles. As to one-half, Arabia is desert, and as to the other half mainly dry steppes; although it lies in the same latitudes as the Sahara, it is more productive and carries a more considerable population of ”

“ All the comparatively fertile districts in the south of Arabia, in fact, are even more completely insulated by the deserts and barren mountains of the interior on one side, than by the sea on the other—inasmuch as easier access would be gained by an invader, even by the dangerous and difficult navigation of the Red Sea, than by a march through a region where the means of subsistence do not exist, and where the Bedoweens, by choking or concealing the wells, might in a moment cut off even the scanty supply of water which the country affords. ”

“ Arabia has no straight roads. The crooked, winding paths through valley and along mountainside or over sandy tracks are worn smooth by the shuffling feet of the animal-with-the-long-neck. Every bit of desert thorn or green herb on either side of the path means a step away from the straight line. The caravan zigzags towards its destination. The ship of the desert makes more tacks in its onward course than a sailing-boat with a contrary wind in a narrow harbour.
The Arab, like the camel, is not in love with straight lines. ”

“ The physical and economic geography of the Arabian Peninsula controlled in a, decisive manner the primitive social stages of its inhabitants and produced the Semitic type.
Arabia exhibits a great and contrasting variety of physical conditions, partly favouring a rapid increase of population, partly compelling migration and emigration. The south-western, southern, and central highlands possess a healthy climate, and in many parts a rarefied and bracing air, a fertile soil, yielding to a moderate amount of labour rich harvests of subtropical products. ”

“ Such was Arabian Yemen, the home of the ancient Sabæans on the Red Sea, stretching from the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb north-westward for 500 miles. Here a mountain range, rising to 10,000 feet and bordering the plateau desert of central Arabia, condenses the vapors of the summer monsoon and creates a long-drawn oasis, where terraced coffee gardens and orchards blossom in the irrigated soil ”

“ These hills are part of a chain which extends from the straits of Ormuz or Persian Gulf, and which extend hither along the coast very high above the sea as far as Toro, where they leave the coast, "and with a great and sudden violence return from thence to the main towards the north-east, as angry and wearied by so long neighbourhood of the waters." Arabia Petrea is divided by three mountains from Arabia Felix, and on the highest tops of them some Christians lead holy and quiet lives. ”