Wilson-Apostle To Islam.pdf - Radical Truth

CHAPTER FIVE
ARABIAN NIGHTS-AND DAYS
"We who love them see the possibilities of sacnnce, of endurance, of
enthusiasm, of life, not yet effaced. Does not the Son of God who died
ior them see these possibilities too? Do you think He says of the 11ohammedan,
1:'here is no help for him in his God'? Has He not a challenge
too for your faith, the challenge that rolled away the stone from the
grave where Lazarus lay? lSaid I not unto thee, that, if thou wauldst
believe thou shouIds! see the glory of God? 'Then they took away the
stone from the place where the dead was laid.'"
I. LIUAS TROTttlt
Missronary to Algiers
The Arabian :Mission ,vas launched and e.,"'{panding-the romance and
glamor of the Arabian Nights had now become real toil and hardship and
endurance of days in fearful heat.
Soon after the occupation of Bahrein Zwemer sent out the first printed
letter telling of his journey around the islands and of the \vork. It was
printed in Bombay.
I
"Half way down the Persian Gulf from Basrah, off the East Arabian
Coast and between the peninsula of EI Katar and the Turkish province of
EI Hassa, are the islands of Bahrein. The islands have a long history; they
are identified by Sprenger \vith Dedan of Scripture, and. were known to tht:.
Romans by the name of Tylos. In Niebuhr's day, the principal island was
called Owal and this name is still known. Properly Bahrein or 'the two
seas;' is the name of the opposite coast triangle between the salt sea of the
Gulf and the fresh-water flood of the Euphrates, but it has for many years
been the collective name for Owal and the smaller island of Moharrck.
"The main island is about thirty miles long and sL....: to nine miles in
breadth; the northern part is well watered by natural springs of slightly
brackish water, and abounds in gardens and palm groves. Toward the south
of the villages of Rifa.' near which there are ancient sepulchral tumuli, probably
of Roman date 1 , the land rises, becomes rocky and barren, and stretches
from the e.."{tinct vol=o, Jebel Dok.!:lan, to the coast. Moharrek has a town
of the same name and is the residence of the ruling Sheikh, 'Isa bin 'Ali, but
Menameh on the large island is the centre of trade, and the harbour for the
pearl fisheries and the steamers from the Gulf ports. The total population
of the islands is estimated at 50,000 (Persian Gulf Pilol), all of which is
Moslem with the exception of about sixty resident Hindu traders.
"The pearl-fisheries are carried on from June to October, and nearly all
the island population are engaged in the work in one way or another. During
the height of the season mOre than four thousand boats are said to visit the
pearl-banks, and the total number of fishermen is over 30,000. They come
from Lingah and other parts of the Gulf; but that the control of the work
is mostly in hands of Bahrein fishermen can be judged from the fact that of
the total export of Gulf pearls in 1889, valued at £ 430,000, two-thirds
passed through the Bahrein customs. The pearl divers do not, however,
1. Two were opened by Theodore Bent in 1889.
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