The countries of the Iran plateau extend from the Mediterranean Sea to the valley of the Indus River. The Arabian Peninsula is not a part of it, but its climate and general character are similar. The Iran countries are exceedingly rugged, and a great part of their surface is more than a mile above sea-level. The climate is one of great extremes; the summer hot-waves and the winter hurricanes are probably unknown elsewhere in severity. The greater part of Arabia is an unhabitable desert.

The rigorous conditions of surface and climate have placed their stamp upon the population of the region. They are full of the intelligent cunning and ferocity that mark people living under such conditions of environment. In many parts the sterile soil and arid climate force the sparse population into nomadic habits of life and predatory pursuits. For the greater part, the land hardly yields enough food-stuffs for the population, and any great development of agriculture is out of the question. The flood-plain of the Tigris and Euphrates, and a few of the river-valleys are highly productive.

Before the Christian era several trade-routes between Europe and the Orient lay across this region, and along the caravan routes there were the usual industries pertaining to commercial peoples. The cities of Sinope, Trebizond, Astrabad, Phasis, Mashad, and Bactra (now Balkh) grew into existence along one of the northern routes. Tyre, Nineveh, Tarsus, Palmyra, Babylon, and Persepolis were founded along one or another of the southern routes. Of these, Trebizond only retains its importance, being a seaport with a considerable trade. The commerce that once passed over this route was crushed out of existence during the invasions by Jenghis Khan.

Of the various industries of the Iran plateau, practically but one extends beyond its borders, namely, the manufacture of the textile fabrics known as Oriental rugs. These are unique; they are made of materials, colored with dyes, and are ornamented with designs that cannot be successfully imitated anywhere else in the world. The filling of the rugs consists of fine wool, selected not only from particular localities, but also from certain parts of the fleece. The dye-stuffs are common to other parts of the world, and their names—indigo, saffron, coccus, madder, and orchil—are familiar. But both the wool and the dye-stuffs possess qualities imparted to them by soil and climate that are not found elsewhere.

The absence of floors, and of the furniture found in European dwellings, make the rugs essential household articles rather than luxuries. The hearth-rug, the bath-mat, the divan-cover, the sleeping-blanket, and the saddle-mat must be regarded as necessities. Religion also has its requirements, and the prayer rug, sometimes ornamented with the hands of the Prophet, is a part of every household equipment, whether of the nomadic Arab or the wealthy merchant. Each district and people have their own designs and methods of workmanship, and the rugs of each are easily distinguished.[76]

For the greater part these are gathered by caravans and conveyed to convenient shipping-points. Nearly all the cottage-made product is obtained in this manner. As a rule the rugs are named from the town or district in which they are made. Smyrna and Constantinople are the chief ports of shipment. Many of them find their way to European dealers, but New York is probably the largest rug-market in the world. The great majority are retailed at from ten to fifty dollars each; choice fabrics, however, bring from three hundred to ten thousand dollars. Oriental rugs are hand-woven, and a weaver frequently spends several years on a single piece, earning perhaps less than ten cents a day. The factory-made rugs are inferior to the cottage-manufactured product.

Turkish Possessions.—Anatolia is the common name of the Turkish possession formerly known as Asia Minor. The name properly belongs, however, to only a small part of the region. The Asiatic possessions of the Ottoman Empire comprise Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. The Armenians are the commercial people of the greater part of this region, and although thousands have been massacred because of Turkish hatred of them, they practically wield the chief power because of their business enterprise.

During the Roman occupation many miles of roads were built from Constantinople and other coast-points to the interior. One of these extended to Mesopotamia, and became a much-travelled route of the trade which centred at Constantinople. Within recent years German capitalists have built railways along these roads, thereby creating a considerable export trade in fruit, rugs, and mohair cloth.

Angora and Konieh (Iconium) are important marts. Trebizond is the chief port of the Black Sea, but it lacks railway connections with the interior. Smyrna is the chief port of the Mediterranean, and from it are shipped to European and American markets the fruit and textile fabrics that have made its importance. In Syria, Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world, is the centre of a considerable trade in textile manufactures. Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported to Europe through Beirut, its seaport, with which it is connected by rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. Yafa is the port of Jerusalem. Bagdad is the chief trade-centre of Mesopotamia.

Arabia.—Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of the peninsula. Hides and Mocha coffee, gathered by Arab traders, are shipped from the port of Hodeida. Mecca is the yearly meeting-place of thousands of Mohammedan pilgrims, who go thither as a religious duty; it is also the centre from which Asiatic cholera radiates. Aden, the chief coaling-station of the British Empire in the Indian Ocean, is also a free port, having a considerable trade in American cotton and coal-oil.

Although Arabia itself is practically of no commercial importance, the same cannot be said of the Arabic people. They are keen, thrifty traders, and as brutal in their instincts as they are keen. The commerce which connects the western part of Asia with Europe is largely of their making. They collect and transport the goods from the interior, delivering them to Jewish and Armenian middlemen, who turn them over to European and American merchants. Arab traders also control the greater part of the commerce of northern Africa. The slave-trade, which is wholly in their hands, is very largely the key to the situation. A party of slave-dealers makes an attack upon a village and, after massacring all who are not able-bodied, load the rest with the goods to be transported to the coast.

Persia.—Persia is the modernized name of the province now called Fars, or Farsistan. Within its borders, however, the name Persia is almost unknown; the native people call the country Iran. In the times of Cyrus, Xerxes, and Darius, Persia was one of the great powers of the world. The cultivable lands produced an abundance of food-stuffs. The mines of copper, lead, silver, and iron were worked to their utmost extent, and the chief trade-routes between Europe and the Orient crossed the country to the Indus River.

The conquest by Alexander the Great changed the course of trade and diverted it to other routes, thus depriving the country of much of its revenue; the invasions of the Arabs left the empire a hopeless wreck. Iran blood dominates the country at the present time, it is true, but the religion of Islam does not encourage any material development, and the industries are now purely local. There is no organization of trade, nor any system of transportation except by means of wretched wagon-roads with innumerable toll-gates. "Turkish" tobacco, opium, and small fruits are grown for export; silk and wool, however, are the most important crops. The former is manufactured into brocaded textiles; the latter into rugs and carpets. There are famous pearl-fisheries in the Persian Gulf.

Tabriz, situated in the midst of an agricultural region, has important manufactures of shawls and silk fabrics of world renown. The Tabriz rugs are regarded as among the finest of the rug-maker's art. Shiraz, the former capital, Kermanshah,[77] and Hamadan are noted for rug and carpet manufactures. Mashad is the centre of the trade with Russia. Bushire and Bender-Abbas are seaports, but have no great importance. Most of the trade with Russia passes through the port of Trebizond.

Afghanistan.—The nomadic tribes that inhabit Afghanistan have but little in common with the British civilization that is slowly but surely closing in upon them, and driving them from routes of commerce. A considerable local traffic is carried on between Bokhara and Herat, and between Bokhara and Kabul through Balkh, all being fairly prosperous centres of population in regions made productive by irrigation.

By far the most important route lies between Kabul and Peshawur, at the head of the Indus River. A railway, the Sind-Pishin, extends along the valley of this river from Karachi, a port of British India, to Peshawur, also in British India near the Afghan border, and the route lies thence through Khaibar Pass to Jelalabad and Kabul. A branch of this road is completed through Bolan Pass nearly to Kandahar.

Kabul, the capital, is a military stronghold rather than a business centre, although it is a collection depot for the Khiva-Bokhara rugs and carpets that are marketed at Peshawur. Kandahar has a growing trade resulting from the railway of the Indus Valley. Herat is the market of the famous Herati rugs. There is no organized commercial system; a small amount of British manufactures—mainly stuffs for domestic use—are imported; rugs and dried fruit are the only exports to Europe and America. The imports enter mainly by way of Karachi, India; the exports are carried to Europe, for the greater part, by the Russian railway.

The importance of Afghanistan is due to its position as a buffer state between Russia and British India. The various strategic points for years, therefore, have been military strongholds. There is an old saying: "Whoso would be master of India must first make himself lord of Kabul." The meaning of this is seen in the history of Khaibar Pass, which for many years has been a scene of slaughter; indeed, it has been the chief gateway between occidental and oriental civilizations for more than twenty centuries. Since the acquisition of India by Great Britain Afghanistan has been under British protectoracy.

Baluchistan.—The general features of Baluchistan resemble those of the other parts of the Iran plateau. The coast has no harbors in the proper sense, but the anchorage off Gwador has fair protection from storms and heavy winds. The few valleys produce enough food-stuffs for the half-savage population. There is but little organization to the government save that which is military in character. The state is a protectorate of Great Britain.

Rug-making is the only industry that connects Baluchistan with the rest of the world. Quetta, the largest town, is a military station controlling Bolan Pass. Its outlet is the Kandahar branch of the Sind-Pishin Railway.

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