'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎222] (231/568)

222
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
the United States, Germany, and other parts of Turkey. Some
tanned sheepskins were apparently sent to London. The export
of raw goatskins has been estimated at about 100,000 pieces a year.
The total value of hides and skins exported from Diarbekr in 1913
was given as £39,000.
There is a small export of hides and skins from Arabistan which
amounted in 1912-13 to £2,495.
Gin and Batter.—The export of ghl has increased considerably in
recent years, and is now becoming an important trade; it is made
in the villages by the Arabs, and is collected in skins, and sent to
the markets at Baghdad and Basra; in years when the rainfall is
plentiful and grazing good there is a considerable surplus for export;
in years of deficient rainfall it has been found necessary to prohibit
the export altogether, for the sake of the local consumers. is
exported from Baghdad and Basra to India, Turkey, and the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ;
in the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. ports and at Jeddah there is a good demand for it; in
* 1906 the export amounted to 14,924 cases, valued at £26,371, and
in 1911 to 34,492, valued at £86,230; the average export in the last
three years before the war was 25,000 cases; the price during the
same period was about £4 per cwt. There is an important export
of butter from Diarbekr ; this is sent overland to Syria and to the
interior, and consists of cooling butter and lard for Syria, Constanti
nople, and Egypt. The value of this export increased from £30,000
in 1906 to £60,000 in 1913. The export of butter and grease from
Arabistan is small.
Animals. (a) Camels. —The export of camels is mainly from the
upper Mesopotamian plains and the Syrian Desert; there is very
little export from Irak.
For the Anazeh and Shammar camels, and indeed for the whole
Arabian camel trade, the chief market is Damascus, where from
24,000 to 32,000 camels are bought and sold every year; most of
these go ultimately to Egypt, and the remainder to Asia Minor,
Mesopotamia, and Syria ; about 300 camels are sold in Aleppo every
Wednesday for about six months in the year. The purchasing
season for camels is the summer, when the Bedawis need clothes
and provisions for the winter; at this season the Fed'an group of
the Anazeh are in the Jezlreh, where they camp in the Khabur
valley, and the Amarat group are mostly on the Euphrates near
Museyib. The method of purchase of the camels is as follows: the
dealers of Baghdad and Damascus employ as buyers Ageyl Arabs,
such as Beni Tamlm of the Nejd, who are not engaged in perpetual
tribal feuds; the purchase is arranged through the local sheikh, who
receives a riydl on every camel bought and in return sees that the