“Agriculture might be made a means of improving the condition of the Arabs; indeed, the only other method of attaining this end would be to civilize them off the face of the earth altogether. By Arab I mean the Bedawi, the typical son of Ishmael, ‘whose hand is against every man,’ and who is as much hated and feared in the towns and villages of Central Arabia as in Palestine. Wherever he goes, he brings with him ruin, violence, and neglect. To call him a ‘son of the desert’ is a misnomer; half the desert owes its existence to him, and many a fertile plain from which he has driven its useful and industrious inhabitants becomes in his hands, like the ‘South Country,’ a parched and barren wilderness. He has a constitutional dislike to work, and is entirely unscrupulous as to the means he employs to live without it; these qualities (which also adorn and make the thief and burglar of civilization) he mistakes for evidences of thorough breeding, and prides himself accordingly upon being one of Nature’s gentlemen.” (pp. 240, 241, 243).
There are so many dens and caves and strongholds in the mountains of Moab that it would be next to impossible for the government to rid herself of these Arab clans. I am told that now, and for many years past, the most powerful of all these lawless tribes is the one called Beni Sukrh, whose head quarters are the famous city and fortress of Kerak. This stronghold is situated on the banks and near the mouth of the river Arnon, which empties into the Dead Sea on the west side, and about fifteen miles from its north end. This clan some years ago captured Canon Tristram and party, and exacted from them a large sum of money as a ransom. In his “Land of Moab” Tristram has given a peculiarly striking description of the fortress Kerak, in which he, himself, was prisoner. It is built on an isolated rock which rises high in the air, and whose level summit is surrounded on all sides but the eastern by chasms from 800 to 1,000 feet deep, and 100 feet wide, with perpendicular sides. A well-built wall surrounds the brow of the precipice on all sides, and the only two places of entrance are through arches tunneled in the solid rock from the side of the precipice to the level within. These narrow and well-guarded entrances are approached by rock-hewn paths, barely wide enough for men or asses to walk on in single file. This is one of the most impregnable strongholds on earth. Gibraltar is not to be compared with it. In this citadel one could safely say: