676 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



ing also to the brief accounts of L. Kober, the companion of Musil,* 

 it is a recent volcanic territory: "The volcanoes which have been 

 discovered in the region of Harrat-al-Awerez belong to the most 

 recent formations of geological importance. They form a series 

 with a north-south course. Their basalt covers and tofs fill the 

 shallow Wadis of the Nubian sandstones." This statement is 

 important because it helps the assumption as to the possibility of 

 a volcanic eruption there in historic times. As a matter of fact, 

 such eruptions are attested, if not for this region, yet for the volcanic 

 territory of Medina situated farther south. Seetzen called atten- 

 tion to this in 1810 and quoted accounts of "earth fires" in 1242 

 and 1252 from an Arabic work on the history and topography of 

 Medina (probably by Samhude).^ Burckhardt,' followmg the same 

 source, discusses at great length a great volcanic eruption in 1256 

 at Jebel Ohod, north of Medina, which was so great that the fire 

 could be seen in Jambo and Mecca, and even in Damascus the sun and 

 moon were obscured by the smoke. Malvrizi, the Egyjotian historian, 

 also attested this eruption. K. Kitter, in his stUl unsurpassed 

 "Erdkunde von Arabien," collected all the material then accessible,* 

 as he also correctly perceived the succession (or course) of the volcanic 

 formations along the depression of the Red Sea, though he expresses 

 himself on the subject m a now somewhat obsolete terminology:^ 

 "The volcanic elevation line from Medina to Aden and Tadjurra 

 lies in the main direction of the great earth cleft between Asia and 

 Africa." 



The region of this eruption seems to be the same as that which 

 Yakut in his geographical lexicon, which is known as a main source 

 of the Arabian geography, describes as Harrat-en-Nar, "the fire 

 Harra." ^ It is, "according to Ijad, the same which, under the 

 second Calif Omar, was afire, or at least in volcanic eruption. An 

 identical one is recorded from pre-Islamic times in the tale of Halid 

 b. Sinan, who is said to have extinguished its fire. It is especially 

 remarkable as being the only volcanic region of Arabia recorded as 

 having eruptions in historic time" (Loth, p. 378). 



Considering all this, the possibility must be admitted that in a 

 more remote period of historic times one of the volcanoes situated 

 farther north may also have been in eruption. More detailed data 

 on the present condition of the volcano Hala-1-Bedr and the proba- 

 bility of their being confirmed in geologically recent times will be 



1 Anzeiger der K. Akademie der Wissensch., 1911, Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, No. 13. 

 J Lived 14G5-1481 in Medina. See Biockelmann, Gcschichte der arabischen Literatur, II, pp. 173fF. 

 • Travels in Arabia, pp. 3593. 

 4 Die Erdkunde, XIII (1847), pp. Ifi-M. 

 6 Ibid., XII, p. 672. 



» O. Loth, die Vulkanregionen von Arabien nach Jakut, Zeitschrift der D. Morg. Ges., 22 (lS(i8), pp. 

 365-382. 



