Page 110 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

100 Arabian Studies IV
between 1859 and 1860 and later was extended to Karachi.78
Russel, writing in 1884, refers to cables between Suez and Bombay
passing through Kamaran.79 While Britain, Italy and France were
disputing mastery of the Red Sea, European shipping continued to
take on supplies at Kamaran. Botta, in 1836, mentions the
excellent water to be obtained there.80 Combes and Tamisier
reiterate this two years later.81 Another Frenchman whilst
travelling between Jeddah and al-Mukha took on supplies at
Qunfidhah and Kamaran.82

Kamaran and international quarantine, 1861-1915
It was during the second Ottoman Turkish occupation of Kamaran
that the island became a major bulwark against the spread of
cholera from India and the East. On several occasions in the
nineteenth century Europe had been ravaged by cholera epidemics
and it was believed that the disease was carried to Arabia by
Muslim pilgrims travelling from India to Mecca: it was further
alleged that pilgrims returning to the Mediterranean transmitted it
to Europe.
The 1866 International Cholera Conference held in Constan­
tinople recommended that a quarantine station be established at
the southern entrance to the Red Sea, which, by inspecting all
pilgrim vessels arriving from India, would prevent the importation
of cholera into Arabia. As a result of the recommendations made
at the conference the Ottomans despatched a sanitary commission
to the southern Red Sea ‘in search of a convenient spot on the
Arab coast* for the establishment of a quarantine station for
pilgrims from India who would have to perform quarantine there
prior to their arrival at Jeddah.83 The commission decided that
Kamaran was the locality ‘qui pr£sente le plus grand nombre
d’avantages avec le moins d’inconvenients’.84 This recommendation
was not implemented and it was not until several other commis­
sions had also surveyed the Red Sea that a quarantine station was
finally established on Kamaran Island. It received its first pilgrims
in 1882. Fifteen years later Kamaran Quarantine Station had so
grown that it could receive 6,000 pilgrims at any one time.85 By
1904 £T.80,000 had been expended on improvements to the
original construction.86
Most of the quarantine officials were inexperienced
Greeks—inexperienced since all doctors entering the Ottoman
quarantine service were required to begin their careers by spending
at least one season on Kamaran. Kamaran received 9,067
pilgrims in its first year of operations: this figure rose to 44,333