ican markets the fruit and textile
fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, _Damascus_, one of the
oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in
textile manufactures. Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported
to Europe through _Beirut_, its seaport, with which it is connected by
rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. _Yafa_ is
the port of Jerusalem. _Bagdad_ is the chief trade-centre of
Mesopotamia.

=Arabia.=--Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions
only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by
nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The
province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of
the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by Arab traders, are
shipped from the port of _Hodeida_. _Mecca_ is the yearly meeting-place
of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty;
it is also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. _Aden_, the
chief coaling-station of the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also
a free port, having a considerable trade in American cotton and
coal-oil.

Although Arabia itself is practically of no commercial importance, the
same cannot be said of the Arabic people. They are keen, thrifty
traders, and as brutal in their instincts as they are keen. The commerce
which connects the western part of Asia with Europe is largely of their
making. They collect and transport the goods from the interior,
delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to
European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater
part of the commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is
wholly in their hands, is very largely the key to the situation. A party
of slave-dealers makes an attack upon a village and, after massacring
all who are not able-bodied, load the rest with the goods to be
transported to the coast.

=Persia.=--Persia is the modernized name of the province now called Fars,
or Farsistan. Within its borders, however, the name Persia is almost
unknown; the native people call the country Iran. In the times of
Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius, Persia was one of the great powers of the
world. The cultivable lands produced an abundance of food-stuffs. The
mines of copper, lead, silver, and iron were worked to their utmost
extent, and the chief trade-routes between Europe and the Orient crossed