THE ARABS. 575 



and it was owing; to their abundance and luxuririance that 

 country acquired the designation of " Arabia Felix," 

 which occurs as early as in the writings of Diodorus and 

 Strabo. In the south-east of the peninsula, on the Persian 

 Gulf, and opposite the Phoenician settlements of Aradus and 

 Tylus, lay Gerrha, an important emporium for Indian articles 

 of commerce. 



Although the greater part of the interior of Arabia may 

 be termed a barren, treeless, and sandy waste, we yet meet 

 in Oman, between Jailan and Basna, with a whole range of 

 well-cultivated oases, irrigated by subterranean canals ; and 

 we are indebted to the meritorious activity of the traveller, 

 Wellsted, for the knowledge of three mountain chains, of 

 which the highest and wood-crowned summit, named Dschebel- 

 Akhdar, rises six thousand feet above the level of the sea 

 near Maskat.* In the hilly country of Yemen, east of Loheia, 

 and in the littoral range of Hedschaz, in Asyr, and also to 

 the east of Mecca, at Tayef, there are elevated plateaux, 

 whose perpetually low temperature was known to the geo- 

 grapher, Edrisi.f 



The same diversity"* of mountain landscape characterises 

 the peninsula of Sinai, the Copper-land of the Egyptians of 

 the old kingdom, (before the time of the Hyksos,) and the 

 stony valleys of Petra. I have already elsewhere spoken of 

 the Phoenician commercial settlements on the most northern 

 portion of the Red Sea, and of the expeditions to Ophir, 

 under Hiram and Solomon, which started from Ezion-Geber.J 

 Arabia, and the neighbouring island of Socotora, (the island 

 of Dioscorides,) inhabited by Indian colonists, participated in 

 the universal traffic with India and the eastern coasts of Africa. 

 The natural products of these countries were interchanged 

 for those of Hadramaut and Yemen. " All they from 

 Sheba shall come," sings the prophet Isaiah of the drome- 

 daries of Midiaiu, " they shall bring gold and incense. " 

 Petra was the emporium for the costly wares destined for Tyre 

 and Sidon, and the principal settlement of the Nabataei, a 

 people once mighty in commerce, whose primitive seat is 



* Wellsted, Travels in Arabia, 1838, vol. i. pp. 272-289. 



t Jomard, Etudes geogr. et hist, sur V Arabic, 1839, pp. 14 and 32. 



J See p. 499. 



Isaiah, eh. Is. v. 6. 



