Page 36 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

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< 20 METHODS OF TRANSPORT

10,000 respectively. The ‘Iraq yields no camels. The Muntefiq and
the tribes along the two rivers are cultivators ; few of them own
camels even for agricultural purposes, their live-stobk consisting of
sheep and goats. The Duleim are sheep-breeders and supply the
Damascus market. The Shammar of the Jezlrah are said not to
have more than about 10,000 camels ; their Sheikhs remain fairly
stationary within small areas, whereas the owner of great camel
herds must be continuously on the move. The Kurdish tribes of
the northern Jezlrah rear flocks of sheep and are visited by the
Damascene sheep buyers every spring ; but they are not camel
owners. At this estimate the herds of the tribes, who are the prin­

cipal breeders, come to 720,000 head, and beyond this figure a margin
must be allowed for the tribes who breed in small numbers, and
contribute irregularly to the Syrian market.
These figures can be checked by a calculation based on the
number of camels which come annually into the market. It must
be borne in mind that the Bedouins sell only their surplus. During
the spring and early summer nomad Arabia lives principally on
the milk of the camel, and it has no other means of transport. The
best riding-camels, the dhulul, are always females, and are not
allowed to breed. Thus Arabia exports annually :

To Egypt. . 32,000
To Asia Minor . . 7,500
To Mesopotamia
Arabistan . 5,000
Syria
44,500

‘Using the figures supplied by the Egyptian Government statistics
J on camel-breeding, an annual surplus of 44,500 camels implies
a total of 750,000 head in the herds of Arabia. This figure corre­
sponds well with the figure given from native information, namely
720,000 plus the herds of the smaller tribes, and may be taken as
a working basis for calculations relating to the possible supplv
of camels from Arabia.

It would be exceedingly difficult for the Ottoman Government
to alter materially the established course of the camel trade. For
example, to purchase through Ibn Rashid any considerable number
of camels would be almost impossible since the trade is in the hands
of the 'Uqeil, and the Sheikhs would not willingly deal with other
buyers. Even if Ibn Rashid were to sell Shammar camels to the
Ottoman Government, Ibn Sha'lan, the paramount Sheikh of the
great Ruweilah Confederation, would probably hold them up as
they crossed the Hamad; and there i is no other road by which they