'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎693] (792/905)

CHAP. XXV.] MANUFACTURES OF ARABIA.
693
them a police and a regular taxation 1 were established, and
public libraries formed. These last, in addition to a school
are, as we have seen, still part of the establishment of a
mosque; and, besides these schools, there are madressehs
(colleges) in the large towns.
In the former seminaries an ordinary education is given in Education in
grammar, rhetoric, and poetry; the main object of study is, Arabia -
however, the Koran, the higher branches of education being
confined to the colleges, in which are taught, it is said,
history, biography, statistics, philosophy, metaphysics, and
eloquence.
Scimitars, javelins, hatchets, knives, &c., are enumerated by Trades
Arrian, 2 as articles of trade among the Sabeans, whose country ArabTa. 1 in
was also celebrated for the manufacture of armour inlaid
with gold. This last kind of manufacture no longer exists;
even the steel of Damascus, Baghdad, and Yemen is now
but little better than that of other places, and the artists
of Arabia are now reduced to a few gold and silver smiths,
engravers, and gunsmiths. Besides those who follow the
occupations of carpenters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, shoe
makers, saddlers, and boat-builders, there are many Arabs
who employ themselves in making tents, rough carpets, large
bags of camel's hair, or articles of mixed silk and cotton.
By way of reproach, the Bedawins designate the towns'- vanity of the
people and cultivators, ahl el madar (dwellers in houses of
clay, or in the rocks); themselves being in everything con
nected with civilization far behind the fixed inhabitants.
Very few of them can either read or write; but their wants
being few, they do not feel the lowness of their condition;
whilst their vanity suggests that their race is the first on the
earth. The Bedawins, however, have a thorough knowledge,
of all that concerns the breed and care of animals, and they
are adepts in hawking and hunting; indeed, almost every
great sheikh has a number of hawks, and a pair of fine Mace
donian greyhounds, for running down the gazelle.
of wood floating in a bowl of water, by which ( a h . 640) a vessel was guided
from the coast of Syria to Alexandria.
1 See above, p. 252-265. 2 Periplus mans Erythraei.