Southern Arabia

Arabia, by Theodore Bent and
Mabel Bent

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Title: Southern Arabia
Author: Theodore Bent Mabel Bent
Release Date: May 22, 2007 [EBook #21569]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SOUTHERN ARABIA
[Illustration: Lafayette, photo.

Walker & Boutall ph. sc.
[Signature: Theodore Bent]
London. Published by Smith, Elder & Co. 15, Waterloo Place.]

SOUTHERN ARABIA
BY
THEODORE BENT, F.R.G.S., F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF 'THE RUINED CITIES OF MASHONALAND' 'THE
SACRED CITY OF THE ETHIOPIANS' 'THE CYCLADES, OR LIFE
AMONG THE INSULAR GREEKS' ETC.
AND
MRS THEODORE BENT
WITH A PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATION
LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1900
[All rights reserved]

PREFACE
If my fellow-traveller had lived, he intended to have put together in
book form such information as we had gathered about Southern Arabia.
Now, as he died four days after our return from our last journey there, I
have had to undertake the task myself. It has been very sad to me, but I
have been helped by knowing that, however imperfect this book may
be, what is written here will surely be a help to those who, by following

in our footsteps, will be able to get beyond them, and to whom I so
heartily wish success and a Happy Home-coming, the best wish a
traveller may have. It is for their information that I have included so
many things about the price of camels, the payment of soldiers and so
forth, and yet even casual readers may care to know these details of
explorers' daily lives.
Much that is set down here has been published before, but a good deal
is new.
My husband had written several articles in the Nineteenth Century, and
by the kindness of the editor I have been able to make use of these; also
I have incorporated the lectures he had given before the Royal
Geographical Society and the British Association. The rest is from his
note-books and from the 'Chronicles' that I always wrote during our
journeys.
I thought at first of trying to keep our several writings apart; but, to
avoid confusion of inverted commas, I decided, acting on advice, just
to put the whole thing into as consecutive a form as possible, only
saying that the least part of the writing is mine.
The bibliography is far from complete, as I can name only a few of the
many books that my husband consulted on all the districts round those
which we were going to penetrate.
As to the spelling of the Arabic, it must be remembered that it is a very
widely spread language, and there are naturally many different forms of
the same word--e.g. ibn, ben, bin--and such very various ways of
pronouncing the name of the Moslem prophet, that I have heard it
pronounced Memet, Mamad and Mad.
I must give hearty thanks in both our names to all who helped us on in
these journeys, and especially to Mr. Headlam, who has given me much
assistance by going through the proofs of this book. Mr. W. C. Irvine
has kindly provided the column of literary Arabic for the vocabulary.
MABEL VIRGINIA ANNA BENT.

13 Great Cumberland Place, W: October 13, 1899.

CONTENTS
PAGE Bibliography ix
SOUTHERN ARABIA
chapter I. Manamah and Moharek 1 II. The Mounds of Ali 16 III. Our
Visit to Rufa'a 30
MASKAT IV. Some Historical Facts about Oman 45 V. Maskat and
the Outskirts 63
THE HADHRAMOUT VI. Makalla 71 VII. Our Departure into the
Interior 81 VIII. The Akaba 88 IX. Through Wadi Kasr 98 X. Our
Sojourn at Koton 111 XI. The Wadi Ser and Kabr Saleh 126 XII. The
City of Shibahm 142 XIII. Farewell to the Sultan of Shibahm 162 XIV.
Harassed by our Guides 177 XV. Retribution for our Foes 199 XVI.
Coasting Eastward by Land 210 XVII. Coasting Westward by Sea 220
DHOFAR AND THE GARA MOUNTAINS XVIII. Merbat and Al
Hafa 227 XIX. The Gara Tribe 244 XX. The Gara Mountains 256 XXI.
The Identification of Abyssapolis 268 XXII. Sailing from Kosseir to
Aden 277
AN AFRICAN INTERLUDE: THE EASTERN SOUDAN XXIII.
Coasting along the Red Sea 287 XXIV. Halaib and Sawakin Kadim
298 XXV. Inland from Mersa Halaib 303 XXVI. Mohammed Gol 309
XXVII. 'Dancing on Tom Tiddler's Ground, Picking up Gold' 313
XXVIII. Behind the Jebel Erba 327
THE MAHRI ISLAND