'Turkish Arabia: Being an Account of an Official Tour in Babylonia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, 1886-87' [‎26r] (51/72)

35
Palmyra (the ancient Tadmur), the idea of this had to be given up. The next best thing
was to push on. Even more immediately necessary, however, were rest and food. These
were obtained in a quiet lodging, while the kafild, on afterwards coming up, consigned
itself to one of the numerous khans or caravanserais. Even after the main arm of the
Euphrates had been crossed, a minor branch remained. Over this there is a stracrcrling
bridge, made apparently of wood. At the barracks a band was playing; but as far as
watch and ward were concerned, the most formidable Rob Roy in all the Shammar or
Ih-ni-zah, with a thousand men ready to follow at a signal, might have entered Der that
night unchallenged. Raised apparently on the ruins of an ancient town or city, the
best thing about Der perhaps is its site. Strategically it is not more important than any
other spot on the middle course of Euphrates, and apart from the official element, its in
habitants are chiefly villagers. It is generally mentioned as a good place to go in search
of high class Arabian horses. Most years, no doubt, the Bedouin of Shclmiya spread their
blanket tents near it (usually in June). Then they buy wheat barley, coffee, and other
articles, giving in exchange their desert products and manufactures. That some of their
best horses, or even mares, may then become, in whole or part, the property of Der
townsmen is very probable ; but these are mostly either broken down old ones, or young
stock little likely to develop the fine qualities of their race when reared in yards or
stables. For desert news, if not for desert horses, Der is a sure find. In its coffee houses
the uppermost talk is not the politics of Stamboul, but what the next move will be among
the Shammar, orj what new splits or combinations are occurring among the Ih-ni-zah in
consequence of Muhammad Ibnu'r Rashid's now fast growing power in Najd.
Section XII.—Right bank of Euphrates, from Der to Rumadi.
The limits assigned to Arabia by the ancients, and by the stricter of modern geo-
a graphers, were stated in a footnote to page i supra. But
in order to realise how far short of existing facts that defi
nition falls, it needs but to follow the Euphrates, on its right or western bank, from con
siderably above Der to where it enters, near Hit, the alluvial soil of Babylonia. Separa
ted from the river by a strath or valley of several miles in width, what Europeans call the
"Syrian desert/' and the Arabs Shamiya* here extends along it. In physical features
this vast region resembles parts of Najd, presenting a gravelly or sandy plateau, of
secondary formation, traversed in places by low ranges of rocky hills, and by deep natural
channels called " wddis" Except round oases like Palmyra (the ancient Tadmur), where
the Usmanli have a revenue-post, a settled population would be lost in such a country.
But for nomadic shepherds it is admirably adapted ; and all over it, as has often had to
be mentioned in the course of these notes, now roam the untamed Ih-ni-zah.f Crossed
from time to time by all the nations of antiquity who have passed successively from Asia
into Eastern Europe, the Euphrates no longer yields a passage to anything more formi
dable than ghazus of the Ih-ni-zah on the Shammar, or of the Shammar on the Ih-ni-zah.
In winter, when the nights are long, and icy freshes fill the river, these raids are out of
season. In spring also, when after foaling, it is difficult to keep the mares from growing
fat, ghazus do not happen every day. But in midsummer, when the fords are easy, and
earth and sky glow like a brazier's furnace, among the features of the landscape some
times are clouds of Bedouin spearmen passing like sandstorms over the rocky ground, or
emerging naked and dripping from the river."
The track struck into at Der is not at present a postal one. The mails between the
Mediterranean and Persia are mostly taken by Tatar
Euphrates Valley Route. horsemen, going round by Mosul. A more direct line is
also to some slight extent favoured, called the " desert route," or, from being practicable
for camels only, the "dromedary post," going out from Baghdad via Damascus to Beyrouth
* The etymological history of this geographical term seems a little involved. Sham (radical meaning the
being unlucky, or on left hand side) no doubt is the Arabic name for Syria generally, as also for its capital Dimishk
or Damascus. Therefore it may, in a sense, be right to translate Shdmiya, " Syrian desert." Nevertheless, as
shown in the text, Shimiya cannot properly be regarded otherwise than as part of Arabia. Where Syria ends
Shamiya begins. When Paul went out from Damascus he went, it will be remembered, " into Arabia"
•j- Three marches from Der was passed a ridge on which it is said the Ih-ni-zah spread their first camp in
Sh^miya, on entering it, less than a hundred years ago, from their native Najd. To this day the spot is called
Talaat Milham, or " Mount Milham, " after Shekh Milham, the Moses of their Exodus, in memory of whom the
name of Milham still goes with the chiefship of the (Ih-ni-zah) clan Ihsennah. In summer the same place often
receives large camps of the Ih-ni-zah, when they flock from the interior to dress their joods, or waterskins, in the
river.
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