exile. Murder can be expiated by the payment of diya or blood-money, if the kinsmen of the murdered man consent; they may, however, claim the life of the murderer, and long and troublesome blood feuds often ensue, involving the relatives of both sides for generations.
Apart from the tribesmen there is in Hejaz and south Arabia a privileged, religious class, the Sharifs or Seyyids, who claim descent from Mahomet through his daughter Fatima. Until the Egyptian invasion in 1814 the Sharifs of Mecca were the recognized rulers of Hejaz, and though the Turks have attempted to suppress their importance, the Sharif still executes justice according to the Mahommedan law in the holy cities, though, nominally, as a Turkish official. In Yemen and Hadramut many villages are occupied exclusively by this religious hierarchy, who are known as Ashraf, Sada or Kudha (i.e. Sharifs, Seyyids or Kadhis); the religious affairs of the tribes are left in their hands; they do not, however, interfere in tribal matters generally, or join in fighting.
Below these two classes, which may be looked on as the priestly and the military castes, there is, especially in the settled districts, a large population of artisans and labourers, besides negro slaves and their descendants, slave or free. The population of Khaibar consists almost entirely of the latter, and in Hail Huber estimates the pure Arab inhabitants at only one-third of the whole. In the desert, too, there is a widely scattered tribe, the Salubi, which from its name (Salib, cross) is conjectured to be of early Christian origin; they are great hunters, killing ostriches and gazelles; the Arabs despise them as an inferior race, but do not harm them; they pay a small tax to the tribe under whose protection they live, and render service as labourers, for which they receive in the spring milk and cheese; at the date harvest they get wages in kind; with this, and the produce of the chase, they manage to exist in the desert without agriculture or flocks.
In southern Arabia the Jews form a large element in the town population. According to one authority their presence in Yemen dates from the time of Solomon, others say from the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. Manzoni estimated their number in Sana in 1878 at 1700 out The Jews
in Arabia.of a total population of 20,000; at Aden they are a numerous and wealthy community, with agents in most of the towns of Yemen. Even in remote Nejran, Halévy, himself a Jew, found a considerable colony of his co-religionists. They wear a distinctive garb and are not allowed to carry arms or live in the same quarter as Moslems. Another foreign element of considerable strength in the coast towns of Muscat, Aden and Jidda, is the British Indian trading class; many families of Indian origin also have settled at Mecca, having originally come as pilgrims.
Estimates of the population of Arabia vary enormously, and the figures given in the following table can only be regarded as a very rough approximation:—
| Hejaz | 300,000 |
| Yemen and Asir | 1,800,000 |
| Nejd | 1,000,000 |
| Hadramut | 150,000 |
| Oman | 1,000,000 |
| El Hasa | 300,000 |
| Syrian desert and border | 275,000 |
| 4,825,000 |
Communications.—The principal land routes in Arabia are those leading to the holy cities. In the present day the Syrian pilgrim route, or Darb el Haj, from Damascus to Medina and Mecca is the most used. The annual pilgrim caravan or haj, numbering some 6000 people with 10,000 pack animals, is escorted by a few Turkish irregulars known as agel; small fortified posts have been established at the regular halting-places some 30 m. apart, each furnished with a well and reservoir, and for the further protection of the haj, payments are made to the Bedouin tribes through whose territories the route passes. The road is a mere camel track across the desert, the chief places passed are Maʽan on the Syrian border, a station on the old Sabaean trade route to Petra, and Medain Salih, the site of the rock-cut tombs and inscriptions first brought to notice by Doughty. From Medina the route usually followed descends the W. Safra to Badr Hunen, whence it keeps near the coast passing Rabigh and Khulesa to Mecca. The total distance, 1300 m., is covered in forty days.
The Egyptian pilgrim route from Cairo, across the Sinai peninsula and down the Midian coast to El Wijh, joins the Syrian route at Badr Hunen. It also was formerly provided with stations and reservoirs, but owing to the greater facilities of the sea journey from Suez to Jidda it is now little used. Another important route is that taken by the Persian or Shia pilgrims from Bagdad and Kerbela across the desert, by the wells of Lina, to Bureda in Kasim; thence across the steppes of western Nejd till it crosses the Hejaz border at the Ria Mecca, 50 m. north-east of the city. It lies almost entirely in the territory of the amir Ibn Rashid of J. Shammar, who derives a considerable revenue from the pilgrimage. The old reservoirs on this route attributed to Zubeda, wife of Harun al Rashid, were destroyed during the Wahhābi raids early in the 19th century, and have not been repaired. The Yemen pilgrim route, known as the Haj el Kabsi, led from Sada through Asir to Taif and Mecca, but it is no longer used.
The principal trade routes are those leading from Damascus to Jauf and across the Nafud to Hail. Other important routes leading to Nejd are those from Kuwet to Hail, and from El Hasa to Riad respectively. In the west and south the principal routes, other than those already mentioned, are from Yambu to Medina, from Jidda to Mecca, Hodeda to Sana, Aden to Sana, and from Mukalla to the Hadramut valley. Railway construction has begun in Arabia, and in 1908 the Hejaz line, intended to connect Damascus with Mecca, had reached Medina, 500 m. south of Maʽan. This line is of great strategical importance, as strengthening the Turkish hold on the Red Sea provinces. But the principal means of commercial communication for a country like Arabia must always be by sea. Bahrein, Kuwet and Muscat are in steam communication with India, and the Persian Gulf ports; all the great lines of steamships call at Aden on their way between Suez and the East, and regular services are maintained between Suez, Jidda, Hodeda and Aden, as well as to the ports on the African coast, while native coasting craft trade to the smaller ports on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
Commerce.—The total value of the trade of Aden for 1904 amounted to over £6,000,000. The imports to Jidda in the same year were £1,405,000, largely consisting of rice, wheat and other food stuffs from India; the exports, which have dwindled away in late years, amounted in 1904 to only £25,000. To balance the exports and imports specie was exported in the three years 1902–1904 amounting to £2,319,000; a large proportion of this was perhaps provided by cash brought into the country by pilgrims.
The pilgrim traffic increased largely in 1904 as compared with previous years; 74,600 persons landed at Jidda, 18,000 of whom were from British India, 13,000 from Java and the Straits Settlements, and the remainder from Turkish territory, Egypt and other countries: 235 out of a total of 334 steamships engaged in this traffic were British.
The trade of Hodeda, which contributes by far the largest share to that of Turkish Yemen, fell off considerably during the period from 1901–1905, chiefly owing to the disturbed state of the country. In the latter year the imports amounted to £467,000, and the exports to £451,000; coffee, the mainstay of Yemen trade, shows a serious decline from £302,000 in 1902 to £229,000 in 1904; this is attributable partly to the great increase of production in other countries, but mainly to the insecurity of the trade routes and the exorbitant transit dues levied by the Turkish administration.
Oman, through its chief port Muscat, had a total trade of about £550,000, two-thirds of which is due to imports and one-third to exports. The chief items of imports are arms and ammunition, rice, coffee and piece goods; the staple export is dates, which in a good year accounts for nearly half the total; much of the trade is in the hands of British Indians, and of the shipping 92% is British.
The principal trade centre of the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf is Bahrein; the total volume of trade of which amounted in 1904 to £1,900,000, nearly equally divided between imports and exports; rice, piece goods, &c., form the bulk of the former, while pearls are the most valuable part of the latter. (R. A. W.)
Antiquities
Arabia cannot be said to be “destitute of antiquities,” but the material for the study of these is still very incomplete.
