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National Geographic : 1919 Nov
Contents
THE RISE OF THE NEW ARAB NATION A NEGRO FAMILY OUTSIDE TIIE WALLS OF JIDDA Negroes are treated with full respect by the Arabs and intermarriage is not unusual. The Bisharin of upper Egypt and the Wahabees of the Nejd region are Hamitic peoples, so closely intermarried with African slaves that they are often mistaken for Negroes. of Bab-el-Mandeb. near Aden, is about 1,300 miles; its greatest breadth, in lati tude 23° north, from the Red Sea coast on the west to Ras-al-Hadd on the east, is about 1,500 miles. As one sails along the Red Sea coast of Arabia, with the low-2,00ooo feet high dry and barren mountains lying just back of sandy, empty strips of country, he is reminded of th PIacific side of Lower California above Cape San Lucas. MIanv small islands, hot and dry and uninhab ited except for half-wild bands of tramp fishermen, dot the map along this coast. One of these, called Perim, near the mouth of Bab-el-Mandeb Straits, is oc cupied by a British garrison. The southeastern coast, similarly empty and marked by sharp, jagged rocks thrust up from glistening sand beds, is broken by several good harbors, like that at Aden. This latter port is a British pos session, not unlike Gibraltar. It is heav- ily fortified and is the entrepot of com merce between India and Europe. TIIIE CRUISING GROUND OF SINBAD iTHE SAILOR The Persian Gulf coast country is somewhat more cheerful, cultivated here and there, and sloping down to salt water from the high, slightly forested Jebel Akdar or Green Mountains. Famous old Maskat, once the haunt of Sinbad the Sailor and later the strong hold of the Portuguese buccaneers, clings to the hot rocks inside Maskat harbor, and is the romantic capital of old Oman, an independent principality with a sultan all its own. Oman has been practically under Brit ish protection for many years, and, though an integral part of the Arabian peninsula, can hardly be called a part of Arabia. Whether this region will be in- 37
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