Page 12 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

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TRADE AND INDUSTRIES 101

SOCIAL

A. Trade and Industries

'L'he trade of Hejaz is created mainly by the needs of the Pil-
,, •• nage and, apart from the export of dates from some of the oases,
insists’almost entirely of imports. Mecca, the capital of Hejaz,

has few natural advantages. From the first the town must have
owed its importance to its position as a commercial centre of
xuhan»e, and to its possession of the most holy temple, stones, and
well of°heathen sanctity, which were afterwards incorporated in
the Mohammedan cult. Its barren soil is unproductive, and it
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possesses no local industries whatever ; but goods are imported 1
from all parts of the Orient. In its bazaars may be seen silks from
:
Syria, carpets from Turkey apd Persia, brass-work from India and
Egypt, for which the pilgrims pay heavy prices compared with 1
more accessible places. Traders from all parts of Islam bring their
wares to Mecca and do profitable business. {
Jiddah, as the port of Mecca, is the trade-centre of Hejaz, i
and has beqome in consequence the most considerable place on \
the coast of the Red Sea. In normal times it maintains a regular
volume of commerce, not only with other Arabian ports and with
the Persian Gulf, but also with India, Egypt, and Africa, and, for
certain classes of commodities, with Great Britain and Southern
Europe. The great majority of the Mecca pilgrims arrive there
by sea, and their transport and the supply of their wants constitute
the chief business of the place. Many of its merchants, including
a few Christians and Jews, are enterprising and wealthy. In
addition to the supply of the pilgrims, Jiddah also imports for the
•settled population of Hejaz, and for much of West-Central Arabia,
though Medina now obtains a certain amount of goods by the
Hejaz Railway.
in spite of its lack of facilities for the loading and unloading of
I
eargo Jiddah is in normal times a regular place of call, twee
monthly, for the British India Steamship Company’s vessels ; and
a -trench line of steamers and the vessels of the Austrian Lloyd
n'f Uf i t^lere h'regular intervals. It is also visited by vessels
C 16 ^ceardc Steamship Company, the Khedivial Mail Steamship
M°mpany, three British Indian steamship companies, the Turkish
*paniSUSak ^-ransPort Company, and by those of three Dutch com-
y'v p8' .Cf sailing vessels trading with the port those of Turkish
1911 (t) l3 greatly preponderate. From March 1910 to March
1 le latest figures available) the number of vessels entering the

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