'NOTES ON THE ISLANDS OF BAHRAIN AND ANTIQUITIES BY CAPTAIN E. L. DURAND, 1 ASSISTANT RESIDENT, PERSIAN GULF.' [‎23v] (9/32)

of these statements, lie says that the question commonly discussed has
been whether the cities about the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. are the mother c.t.es of
those on the Mediterranean, or colonies from them. Seetzen and lletitn
incline to the latter view, but in favor of the former ho notes ^ _
d't The double tradition, viz., that of Herodotus, of the Phoenicians, o
Phoenicia Proper, and that of the inhabitants of Tyrus and Aradus recorded
by Erastosthenes, who probably followed Androsthenes, the Iva\al Officer
of Alexander. 4
(II) What may be called the argument for general probability. Both
arguments would seem to be very strong ones, particularly that of the double
tradition, for we know how jealously such race vouchers are handed down Irom
father to'son amongst Eastern nations, and it seems more probable that the
Phoenicians should have been influenced by the law of the Semitic drift to the
westward than that they should have been fighting against the tide. Mr.
Hawlinson, however, remarks that the temples seen by Androsthenes (at
Bahrain) may have been built when the Phoenicians formed settlements in the
time of their prosperity. A
48. Without offering an opinion that I am unqualified to give, I would draw
attention to Mr. Rawlinson's more elaborate essay
Essay ii, Vol. vii . the same subject, which, leaving the origin of
the tradition of a Phoenician emigration still doubtful in so far as it might really
have related to an early Hamitic movement, which he does not dispute, lays
down that the Phoenician, like other Semitic races in these parts, did emigrate
from Babylonia, the primitive seat and home of Semitism, but he apparently
objects to Strabo's cradling them specially in Bahrain, and to the more elabo
rately worked out story of Tro^us Pompeius, giving the reasons of their move
ment and the road they took, nv
49. It will however scarcely be called in question that these islands of
Bahrain were in old days inhabited by a Phoenician race, and that they had here
temples to their gods actually seen by Androsthenes, when he led the naval
expedition under orders from the Macedonian boy conqueror.
50. Interested in these matters as every one must be, whose good or evil for
tunes lead them to these classic lands, I have taken every opportunity of going
about the island, cross-examining the people, and looking for anythin 01 that
might be old enough to bear upon such questions.
51. My first visit to the Sheikh resulted in an immediate call for horses and
a ride out on Muharrak to the date-groves of Siniabi, where the Chief said they
had lately come upon an old well.
52. The sand hills on this side of the island evidently cover old buildings,* and
* i have since heard from Abdullah bin Rijjab, one ^ ie " We ^ bad been found was either
of a rich firm of brothers, engaged in the pearl trade, a Stone COnduit with CrOSS branollPS or H ip
tliat when he was a boy he remembers seeing the fonnrllfinrxi r»f cnmo /-lUl "U *1 i*
officers of a French and an English frigate accompa- nClatlOnS 01 SOlBe Oul stone building,
nied by a Persian (Ailchi) Ambassador digging and SOme six Or SOVCU feet below the SlirfflPP
turning over stones in this very place. He did not j . rm , .
know with what results. now holding water. The ground had been
, . ■. struck with a scraper to make room for a
young date plant, and had fallen in, thus disclosing the stone work below I
could not ask to search there, as it would have damaged the garden but told'the
gardener to go down, work, and find out what it was. He promised but of
course that was all. uui or
53. After this I rode a round of visits to every mosque on this side of the
t The well of Abu Zeldan is worth mentioning. Inland drawing them as beinST the most lik-plv
- fed for an intelligent inhabitant, and after-
I was atn O!n PCS0f ! Urtl f rdiscoveries -
change is merely in the temperature of the air A » ^ • ven m any into wllOSC Walls old
stone pillar with 2 circular stones as a basemeut rising Arabic inscriptions had been lot fn
™ned ««4o of the Meshed-i Abut
have been built with the material of a r HII 'nlT tl ' e l!llad - i -Ka d im ) said to
for old writing. It contains one old