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.