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VOYAGE TO ARABIA,

AND

TRAVELS

IN THAT COUNTRY, &C.

SECTION XVI.

of arabia in general.

Chap. I.

Concerning the Description of Arabia.

Man, even in society, where civilization has been carried perhaps to excess, where art extinguishes or disguises the sentiments of nature, never forgets his original destination. He is still fond even of the very shadow of that liberty, independence, and simplicity, which he has lost by refinement, although they are so congenial to his existence. He is charmed to meet with these again, even in the illusions of pastoral poetry.

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We are no less fond of tracing these native features of the human mind, where they are to be discovered in the records of remote ages, in which the natural manners of mankind appear undisguised by affectation, and not yet altered by the progress of arts or policy. Even without adverting to the causes of the pleasure which we feel, we are always pleased to find some faint traces even, of our natural and primary rights, and of the happiness to which we were originally destined.

If any people in the world afford in their history an instance of high antiquity, and of great simplicity of manners, the Arabs surely do. Coming among them, one can hardly help fancying one’s self suddenly carried backwards to the ages which succeeded immediately after the flood. We are here tempted to imagine ourselves among the old patriarchs, with whose adventures we have been so much amused in our infant days. The language, which has been spoken for time immemorial, and which so nearly resembles that which we have been accustomed to regard as of the most distant antiquity, completes the illusion which the analogy of manners began.

The country in which this nation inhabit, affords many objects of curiosity, no less singular and interesting. Intersected by sandy desarts,

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and vast ranges of mountains, it presents on one side nothing but desolation in its most frightful form, while the other is adorned with all the beauties of the most fertile regions. Such is its position, that it enjoys, at once, all the advantages of hot and of temperate climates. The peculiar productions of regions, the most distant from one another, are produced here in equal perfection. Having never been conquered, Arabia has scarcely known any changes, but those produced by the hand of nature; it bears none of the impressions of human fury, which appear in so many other places.

With all these circumstances, so naturally calculated to engage curiosity, Arabia has been hitherto but very little known. The ancients, who made their discoveries of countries, by conquering them, remained ignorant of the state and history of a region, into which their arms could never penetrate. What Greek and Latin authors mention concerning Arabia, proves, by its obscurity, their ignorance of almost every thing respecting the Arabs. Prejudices relative to the inconveniencies and dangers of travelling in Arabia, have hitherto kept the moderns in equal ignorance. I shall have occasion to remark, that our best books of Geography abound with capital errors upon this head; as, for instance,

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concerning the subjection of the Arabs to the Turks and Persians.

For these reasons, I have resolved to give a more minute and circumstantial description of a country, and a people, which deserve to be better known than they are at present. In the course of the former part of my travels, I have mentioned in part what I saw myself. But, as during so short a stay in Arabia, I had time to travel over only a few of the provinces of that widely extended country, I sought information concerning the rest, from different honest and intelligent Arabs. This information I was most successful in obtaining among the men of letters and the merchants; persons in public offices were more entirely engrafted with their own affairs, and generally of a more reserved character.

This mode of obtaining my information appeared to carry with it several peculiar advantages; and it will be of no less utility, that I distinguish in this manner between what I observed myself, and what I was informed of by others. The reader will thus be enabled to discern between what I mention barely upon the authority of my own observation, and what I relate upon the concurrent evidence of many of the most enlightened persons in the nation. I shall find many more favourable opportunities

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of introducing certain particulars which I could not otherwise have inserted in the account of my travels, without interrupting too frequently the progress of the narrative. The reader will also be better entertained, when presented with a sketch, exhibiting the features no less of the country, than of the people inhabiting it.

I should have wished to add a brief compend of the history of this singular nation. But this I found impossible. In the East there are no libraries, and no men of deep erudition, resources which a traveller might find with great facility in Europe. Yet there are ancient Arabic historians; but the copies of their works are very rare, as I learned at Kahira and Mokha. It would be of consequence, however, to examine those authors, who are still unknown in Europe. The search, I am persuaded, could hardly prove fruitless. Those works would throw new light on several epochs in the history of ancient nations (A).

Chap. II.

Of the Extent and the Divisions of Arabia.

Arabia, properly so called, is that great peninsula formed by the Arabic Gulph, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulph. The ancients

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appear to have comprehended under the name of Arabia, the whole tract lying between those seas, and a line drawn from the point of the Persian to that of the Arabic Gulph. This line, however, was not the real boundary of the country, but merely fancied such by ignorance.

Whatever may be thought of the limits assigned to this country by the ancients, a much wider extent must, at any rate, be allowed to present Arabia. In consequence of the conquests and settlements of the Arabs in Syria and Palestine, the desarts of these countries are now to be regarded as part of Arabia, which may thus be considered as being bounded on one side by the river Euphrates, and on the other by the isthmus of Suez.

Yet, we are not to consider all those countries in which this people have ever made conquests, or established colonies, as forming a part of Arabia. Of all nations, the Arabs have spread farther over the world, and in all their wanderings, they have, better than any other nation, preserved their language, manners, and peculiar customs. From east to west, from the banks of the Senegal to the Indus, are colonies of Arabs to be met with; and between north and south, they are scattered from Euphrates to the island of Madagascar. The Tartar hordes have not occupied so wide an extent of the globe.

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The Senegal in Africa is known to separate the negroes from those people who are only distinguished by a dark complexion. On its bank are some tribes of wandering Arabs, who live in tents. The mountainous parts of Morocco, and the republics of Barbary, contain many other tribes of the same nation, who, it should seem, spread through Africa in the progress of the conquests of the Caliphs. Those tribes are all governed by chiefs of their own; they speak Arabic, and in their manners resemble the rest of the Arabian nation. They are to be regarded rather as allies than subjects of the governments of the different countries in which they have established themselves.

On the eastern coast of Africa, the Arabs have spread themselves as far as to Mosambique. At least, the sovereigns of several kingdoms upon that coast were anciently Arabs. The same nation made themselves likewise masters of the isles of Comorra, and of a part of the isle of Madagascar, in which Arab colonies still remain.

As I could learn nothing very particular concerning the Arab tribes, dispersed through Africa, I shall not pretend to speak of them (B); nor do I need to say any thing more of the Egyptian Arabs, after what I have already mentioned concerning them, in the account of my travels in that country.

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I shall likewise pass on, without noticing the pretended Arabian colonies in Habbesch, or examining the opinion, which represents the Abyssinians as originally sprung from the inhabitants of Arabia. This notion, which has been advanced by some learned men, depends on probabilities so slender, and so uncertain, that, to enter into a particular discussion of them, would be taking more pains about them, than they are worth (C).

But I cannot pass, in equal silence, over the more considerable colonies, which, although they are also settled without the limits of Arabia, are, however, nearer to it. I mean the Arabs upon the southern coast of Persia, who are commonly in alliance with, and sometimes subject to the neighbouring Schiechs. A variety of circumstances concur to indicate, that these tribes were settled along the Persian Gulph, before the conquests of the Caliphs, and have ever preserved their independence. It is ridiculous in our Geographers, to represent a part of Arabia, as subject to the Kings of Persia; when, so far from this, the Persian monarchs have never been masters of the sea-coast of their own dominions, but have patiently suffered it to remain in the possession of the Arabians.

In order to proceed upon the most natural plan, in the geographical delineation of this

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country, I shall follow that division of Arabia which is in use among the inhabitants. They divide their country into six great provinces; Hedjas, lying along the Arabic Gulph, between Mount Sinai and Yemen, and extending inland so far back as to the confines of Nedsjed; Yemen, a province stretching from the border of Hedjas, along the Arabic Gulph and the Indian Ocean, to Hadramaut, and bounded on the north by Nedsjed; Hadramaut, on the Indian Ocean, conterminous with Yemen on one side, and with Oman on the other, bounded northwards by Nedsjed; Oman, lying also on the shore of the Indian Ocean, and encompassed by the provinces of Hadramaut, Lachsa, and Nedsjed; Lachsa, or Hadsjar, extending along the Persian Gulph, and having Nedsjed for its interior boundary; Nedsjed, comprehending all the interior country, and bounded by the other five provinces; its northern limits are the territories occupied by the Arabs in the desert of Syria. These territories may indeed be reckoned a seventh province; and to them may also be added the description of the Arabian establishments on the southern coast of Persia.

The two provinces of Yemen and Hadramaut, were formerly known by the name of Arabia the Happy. But, as no such name is used among

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the Arabs, I have not thought of attending to this arbitrary division of the country.

Chap. III.

Of the Revolutions of Arabia.

All that is known concerning the earlier period of the history of this country, is, that it was governed in those days by potent monarchs, called Tobba. This is thought to have been a title common to all those Princes, as the name of Pharaoh was to the ancient Sovereigns of Egypt.

There exists, however, a pretty distinct tradition among the learned Arabs, with respect to those ancient Kings, which deserves to be taken notice of. They pretend to know, from ancient monuments, that Tobba was the family name of those Sovereigns, that they came from the neighbourhood of Samarcand, were worshippers of fire, and conquered and civilized Arabia. This tradition accords with the plausible hypothesis of an ingenious writer, who derives the knowledge and civilization of the people of the Eolith, from a nation who once flourished in that part of Tartary in which Samarcand is situate (D).

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One thing I had occasion to observe myself, which seems to me to make in favour of the same hypothesis. A Dutch renegado, who had travelled several times over Arabia, showed me, at Mokha, a copy of an inscription, in strange and unknown characters, which he had found in a province remote from the sea coast. I was then in ill health, and neglected to copy it. But the uncommon form of the characters, which consisted entirely of straight lines, made such an impression upon my memory, that, on my return, I distinguished the inscriptions at Persepolis to be in the same alphabet (E). A tradition prevails through Persia, that the conqueror who founded Persepolis, was originally from the vicinity of Samarcand; so that both the Arabians and the Persians would appear to have had Sovereigns from the same nation, who spoke the same language, or at least employed the same characters in writing.

Whatever may have been the origin of those conquerors, many circumstances concur to prove that, in remote times, the Arabians acted an important part on the theatre of human affairs; although the memory of the revolutions which took place among them has not been handed down to posterity. There can be no doubt of their having conquered Egypt at a time previous to the commencement of Grecian history.

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What Greek historians say of the shepherd-kings of Egypt, can be referred to none but the Arabs. The famous republic of robbers must undoubtedly have been a tribe of this nation, who, after the expulsion of their countrymen, maintained themselves for several ages in a district in lower Egypt.

It is certain that most of the nations so frequently mentioned in the history of the Jews, must have been Arab tribes, who went often to war with those turbulent neighbours, and sometimes subdued them. It may even be conjectured, that the Jews themselves were originally Arabs, descended from some branch of those far spread tribes (F).

Those events, in the fate of this nation, which took place in the time of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Parthians, are all unknown to us; except some faint and unsuccessful attempts which these conquerors made to reduce the Arabians under subjection. They succeeded only against a few tribes, settled in the cities on the Arabic Gulph, or in the vicinity of Syria, and even here their power was extremely transient.

Arabia seems to have been a rich and powerful country in the time of the ancient Egyptians. The aversion of these last for the sea, left to the Arabs the whole commerce with India, by the

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Arabic Gulph. That trade, when once brought within this channel, continued to flow through it, under the Ptolemies, the Romans, the Greek Emperors, and the Caliphs of Egypt. But the discovery of a new line of communication with India, deprived Arabia of the advantages of this traffic, and produced the rapid decline of many flourishing cities (G).

It must have been during the more splendid ages of the existence of this nation, that the Hamjare Kings reigned over a great part of Arabia. The history of those Princes is so involved in obscurity, that we are ignorant even of their origin, and know not to what nation they properly belonged. But, they were probably indigenous.

Neither do we know in what period to place the Abyssinian invasion, of which some authors speak. That people must have attacked the Arabs, of purpose to convert them to Christianity. It is even pretended that, after subduing a part of Arabia, they accomplished the purpose of their enterprise, and a great part of the Arabs became Christians. But the circumstances of this event are so vague, and have so fabulous an air, that we will be in the right to doubt if it ever took place; or at least, if it was produced by the causes to which it has been ascribed (H).

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A revolution, of the reality of which we are more certain, and which involved in it more important consequences, was that which Mahomet effected in the religion, and the political state of his country. This fortunate usurper, with the arms of his countrymen, spread his conquests over distant regions. His successors, for a while, prosecuted the career of conquest with the same success. But neither he, nor the Caliphs, could ever entirely subdue their own nation. Many chiefs in the interior parts of the country, still maintained their independence, without respecting the Caliph in any other light than as the head of their religion. The authority of the Caliphs was merely spiritual, except in their dominions over a part of the coast, where they were acknowledged as Sovereigns (I).

After the ruin of the power of the Caliphate by the Turks, Arabia shook off the yoke to which it had been in part subjected, and came to be governed, as formerly, by a number of chiefs, more or less powerful, descended from different indigenous families.

No neighbouring power ever attempted to subdue this country, till the Portuguese penetrated to India, and made their appearance in the Red Sea. Then, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, Sultan El Gury, desirous to

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rid himself of those new comers, whom he viewed as dangerous, fitted out a fleet to expel the Portuguese. That fleet, availing themselves of the opportunity, seized almost all the sea-port towns of Arabia. But, when the dynasty of the Mammalukes was terminated by the Turks, these cities fell again into the hands of their natural Sovereigns.

The Turks continued the war with the Portuguese, in order to secure Egypt, their new conquest. Soliman Pacha, at the head of a powerful fleet, after the example of the last Sultan of the Mammalukes, seized all the towns upon the Arabic Gulph. His successors pushed their conquests still farther, and subdued great part of Yemen, penetrating backwards to the Highlands; so that Arabia became almost entirely a province of the Sultan of Constantinople, and was governed by Pachas, like the other provinces of the Ottoman empire.

In the interior parts, however, there still were independent Princes and Schiechs, who had never been subdued, but continued to harass the Turks, and to drive them towards the coasts. After various reiterated efforts, a Prince of the family now reigning at Sana, at length succeeded, about the middle of the last century, and obliged the Turkish nation to evacuate all the places upon the Arabian coast, which they

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had occupied for more than a century. The Turks now possess nothing in this country, but a precarious authority in the city of Jidda: And it is therefore absurd to reckon Arabia among the Ottoman provinces, since it is properly to be considered as independent of all foreign Powers.

A people who, like the Arabs, have so long detached themselves from the rest of the world, cannot undergo any very important revolutions, that may deserve to be commemorated in history. The events which take place among them, are only petty wars and trifling conquests, worthy of their poor chiefs, and narrow divisions of territory. I shall not notice them, therefore, unless when in the description of any province, some event comes into view, that is remarkable either for its singularity, or for its influence upon the affairs of other nations.

Chap. IV.

Of the Government of the Arabs.

The most natural authority is that of a father over his family, as obedience is here founded upon the opinion of benevolence in the ruler. When the mournful survivors of the human

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race settled themselves anew, after the awful revolution by which the globe was, for a time, divested of its beauty, and depopulated; every family submitted readily to the guidance and direction of him to whom they owed their existence.

As those families multiplied; the younger branches still retained some respect for the eldest branch. Of all the progeny, it was esteemed the nearest to the parent item. And, altho’ the subdivisions became more and more numerous, they still regarded themselves as composing but one body, in remembrance of their common origin. Such an assemblage of families, all sprung from the same stock, forms what we call a tribe. It was, in this manner, easy for the representative of the eldest branch to retain somewhat of the primary paternal authority over the whole tribe to which he belonged.

Sometimes, when a family became too numerous, it divided from the rest with which it was connected, and formed a new tribe. Upon other occasions, when several tribes found themselves separately too weak to resist a common enemy, they would combine, and acknowledge one common chief. And sometimes it would happen, that a numerous tribe might force some others that were weaker, to unite themselves to,

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and become dependent upon it; but seldom has this dependence degenerated into slavish subjection.

This primitive form of government, which has ever subsisted without alteration among the Arabs, proves the antiquity of this people, and renders their present state more interesting than it would otherwise be. Among the Bedouins it is preserved in all its purity. In other parts of Arabia, it has suffered some changes, but yet is not materially altered. I shall have occasion to take notice of these, such as they are, when I come to describe each particular province by itself. For the present, I shall content myself with making some general reflections upon the spirit of the Arabian government.

The Bedouins, or pastoral Arabs, who live in tents, have many Schiechs, each of whom governs his family with power almost absolute. All the Schiechs, however, who belong to the same tribe, acknowledge a common chief, who is called Schech es Schech, Schiech of Schiechs, or Schech el Kbir, and whose authority is limited by custom. The dignity of Grand Schiech is hereditary in a certain family; but the inferior Schiechs, upon the death of a Grand Schiech, choose the successor out of his family, without regard to age or lineal succession, or any other consideration, except superiority of

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abilities. This right of election, with their other privileges, obliges the Grand Schiech to treat the inferior Schiechs rather as associates than as subjects, sharing with them his sovereign authority, The spirit of liberty, with which this warlike nation are animated, renders them incapable of servitude.

This spirit is less sensibly felt among those who live in towns, or are employed in husbandry. It was easier to reduce them under subjection. In the fertile districts of this country, there have always been monarchies, more or less extensive, formed, either by conquest, or by religious prejudices. Such are the present dominions of the Sherriffe of Mecca, of the Imams of Sana and Maskat, and of some princes in the province of Hadramaut. However, as these countries are intersected by large ranges of mountains, the mountains are occupied by independent Shiechs.

But, although so many independent chieftains have their domains interspersed through the territories of those several sovereigns, yet nothing of the feudal form of government appears here. The Schiechs possess no fiefs; they have only a sort of property in the persons of the people of their several tribes. Even those who seem to be tributary subjects to the princes within whose dominions they dwell, are not actually

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so. They remain independent; and the tribute which they pay is nothing but a tithe for the use of the land of which they are in some sort farmers. Such are the Schiechs settled in Syria, Egypt, and over all Mount Atlas (J).

A nation of this character cannot readily sink into a servile subjection to arbitrary power. Despotism would never have been known, even in the slightest degree, in Arabia, had it not been for theocracy, the usual source of it. The Imams being reputed successors of Mahomet, and his defendants, and being acknowledged both as temporal and spiritual heads within their dominions, have thus found means to abuse the simplicity of their subjects, and to enlarge their authority. Nevertheless, the genius of the people, their customs, and even their religion, are all inimical to the progress of despotism, and concur to check the Imams in the exercise of their power.

The idea of forming republican governments seems never to have occurred to the Arabians. This form is not a necessary consequence of the primitive condition of mankind. It must have originated among people whose patience was exhausted by the outrages of arbitrary power; or sometimes, perhaps, from the fortuitous concourse of persons not connected by the ties of family-relation. The united states of Hafchidu

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Bekil are not so much a federative republic, as an association of several petty princes, for the purpose of mutual defence against their common enemies. Their government resembles that of the German empire, not the States of Switzerland, or the United Provinces. Concerning the pretended Republic of Brava, upon the eastern coat of Africa, little certain is known. There is ground for thinking that it likewise is merely a confederation among the Arabian Schiechs in that country.

The colony of Jews, who occupy a district in the province of Hedjas, are governed by a hereditary independent Schiech. Having been for ages divided from their countrymen, they have adopted that form of government which they saw prevalent among their immediate neighbours.

This multiplicity of petty sovereigns occasions several inconveniences to the people in general. Wars cannot but frequently arise among states whose territories are so intermingled together, and whose sovereigns have such a variety of jarring interests to manage. But, happily, these quarrels are scarcely ever productive of very fatal consequences. An army of a thousand Arabs will take to flight, and think themselves routed, if they lose but seven or eight of their number.

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Thus are these contests terminated as easily as excited.

No doubt, such a multitude of nobles and petty princes, whose numbers are continually increased by polygamy, must have an unfavourable influence upon the general happiness of the people. It strikes one with surprise, to see the Arabs, in a country so rich and fertile, uncomfortably lodged, indifferently fed, clothed, and destitute of almost all the conveniencies of life. But the causes fully account for the effects.

The poverty of the wandering Arabs is plainly voluntary. They prefer liberty to wealth, pastoral simplicity to a life of constraint and toil, which might procure them a greater variety of gratifications. Those living in cities, or employed in the cultivation of the land, are kept in poverty, by the exorbitancy of the taxes exacted from them. The whole substance of the people is consumed in the support of their numerous princes and priests. The instance of the territority of Zebid, which I adduced in my account of that city, shews that the husbandman cannot bear such excessive imposts without being reduced to misery.

One general cause of the impoverishment of Arabia is, no doubt, its having ceased to be the channel of the trade with India, since the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope.

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Yet, if the lands were better cultivated, this country might, without the aid of foreign trade, afford sufficient resources to supply all its inhabitants with abundance of the necessaries and common conveniencies of life.