CHAPTER XX
THE ARABIAN CONCUBINATE
The early Arabs, a fierce, militant race, became, through conquests in India, Persia and Spain, a powerful and civilising force from the seventh to the tenth centuries. Before their expansion they were nomadic shepherds, wresting a poor substance from a sterile soil. In the height of their prosperity the Arabs excelled in the sciences, in medicine, in the arts and in philosophy, and built up a mighty civilisation.
The town dwellers in modern Arabia are sometimes polygamous, but the mass of the wandering herdsmen and traders marry only one wife. About a hundred years ago plural marriage was as comparatively uncommon in Arabia as it is to-day.
Pinkerton, in his "Voyages and Travels," 1811, states that the Bedouins were mostly monogamists, though a few had two wives. In these cases the women were supervisors of the husband's affairs during his absence, or one would travel with him on trading expeditions, while the other remained in charge at home.
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