Fig. 64—Kurd children of the Armenian borderland. The poverty of the land is reflected in their appearance no less than in the arid background of the photograph.
Fig. 65—A family of sedentary Arabs in Mesopotamia.
Fig. 66—In the desert of Syria. A tribe of Anezeh Arabs moving from an exhausted pasture to a fresh one.
The Arabs
The Arab folk, sparsely distributed over the Syrian desert and forming the majority of the inhabitants of the featureless downs of Mesopotamia, represent the ebbing of the last tide of Semitic invasion. In the sandy waste of their western extension, their tribes, shifting perpetually from seat to seat, like the dunes around which they roam, consist of Bedouin or “tent men.” The contribution of these nomads to society is as insignificant as the yield of the unproductive lands of their wandering. Towards the east, however, where two mighty rivers bring fertility and life to the soil, the genius of the race blossomed untrammeled and gave Mohammedan civilization to the world.