Every male child was
registered as soon as born; at 18 he began to pay the capitation tax; and
at 80 was entitled to a pension.
These Arabian travellers likewise supply us with some information
respecting the trade of the Red Sea. The west side of it was in their time
nearly deserted by merchant ships; those from the Persian Gulf sailed to
Judda on the Arabian coast of it: here were always found many small
coasting vessels, by means of which the goods from India, Persia, &c. were
conveyed to Cairo. If this particular is accurate, it would seem to prove
that at this period the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea, which had
been rendered navigable by Omrou, was regularly used for the purposes of
commerce.
In these accounts, the typhon, or whirlwind, so common in the Chinese seas,
is mentioned under that appellation: the flying fish and unicorn are
described; and we have notices of ambergrise, the musk, and the animal from
which it is produced: the last is mentioned as coming from Thibet.
The next Arabian author, in point of time, from whom we derive information
respecting geography and commerce, is Massoudi. He died at Cairo in 957: he
was the author of a work describing the most celebrated kingdoms in Europe,
Africa, and Asia; but the details respecting Africa, India, and the lesser
Asia, are the most accurate and laboured.
