ARABIA. 



ARABIA. 



410 



form the Euphrates, are the lead and copper-mines of Kaben-Maden. 

 (Royal Geographical Journal.) 



ARABIA, a country of Western Asia, the entire surface of which is 

 about four times that of France. It is considered as pertaining to 

 Asia, though from its position and physical character it would appear 

 rather to belong to Africa. If the Red Sea did not interpose a narrow 

 interruption, one almost continuous tract of sandy deserts would 

 extend from the shores of the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. 



Boundaries, Capet, <tc. Arabia presents the form of a vast penin- 

 sula, connected with the south-western extremity of the continent of 

 Asia by a sandy desert, the breadth of which from the northern end 

 of the Gulf of Akaba to the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab or Euphrates 

 in the Persian Gulf is about 800 miles. It is situated between 12 

 and 30 N. lat., 32 and 59 E. long., partly within and partly to the 

 north of the tropical region : the tropic of Cancer divides it into two 

 nearly equal parts. It is bounded N. by Syria and the Euphrates, E. 

 by the Persian Gulf ; the Indian Ocean (called here the Arabian Sea 

 and the Sea of Oman) washes the long extent of its south-eastern 

 coast ; the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the Red Sea form the western 

 boundary ; Ras-al-Had is the moat eastern projection of the peninsula ; 

 Cape Mussendom (Cape Maketa of the ancients) extends in a north- 

 easterly direction towards the strait of Ormuz ; Cape Aden, near the 

 south-west angle of the peninsula, is discovered between 15 and 20 

 leagues off at sea, as a steep and lofty rock ; Bab-el-Mandeb, or the 

 Gate of Tears, the dangerous passage from the Indian into the Red 

 Sea, is the point of the peninsula which is situated farthest to the 

 south-west ; and Cape Mohammed marks the projection of the Sinai 

 Mountains between the gulfs of Suez and Akaba, the two northern 

 branches or gulfs of the Red Sea. 



Origin of the Name. The name Arabia, by which the Greeks intro- 

 duced this vast country to the knowledge of Europeans, is derived 

 from the name which has for ages been used by the inhabitants them- 

 selves. The word arab, as a collective noun in the singular, is used 

 as the common name of the Arabic nation ; its plural a' nib is 

 restricted to signify the wandering nomadic tribes of the Arabs of the 

 desert. Belftd-el-Arab (the land of the Arabs), and Jezirat-el-Arab 

 (the peninsula of the Arabs), are the usual native designations of the 

 country ; besides these we may also notice the Persian appellation of 

 Arabistan, by which name Arabia is often called among the Persians 

 and Turks. 



The derivation of the word Arab is doubtful. Pocock haa adopted 

 the notion of several oriental writers, that the country and its 

 inhabitants were so named from Araba, a district in Yemen, to which 

 Ya'rab, the son of Kahtan, the father of the ancient Arabs, gave his 

 name. But the existence of an individual referred to by the name 

 of Ya'rab, appears to be subject to the same historical doubts as 

 that of many of the reputed founders of states in ancient Greece. 

 We are inclined to trace the word Arab to the Hebrew verb arab, ' to 

 net or go down ' (as the sun). According to this etymology, the name 

 Arab implies ' the nation or country situated towards sunset,' that is, 

 westward from the Euphrates, and from the regions which were pro- 

 bably the earliest seats of the Semitic tribes. Others have deduced 

 the name Arab from the Hebrew substantive ardbah, ' a barren place 

 or desert,' which in several passages of the earliest parts of the Old 

 Testament is used as the designation of the dreary region east of the 

 Jordan and the Dead Sea, and as far south as the ^Elanitic Gulf. 



Greek and Roman Christian writers have confounded the Arabian 

 tribes from Mecca to the Euphrates under the name of Saracens, the 

 import of which term, as appears from its etymology (shark, in Arabic, 

 ' the east,' iharki, ' Eastern ' ) is ' Eastern Nations.' We do not hesi- 

 tate to adopt this interpretation, notwithstanding the passage of 

 Ptolemseus (pointed out by Gibbon), who expressly mentions the 

 western and southern position of the Saracens. 



The name of Arabia in its proper acceptation comprehends the 

 peninsula as far as the line joining the head of the Gulf of Akaba and 

 the mouth of the Euphrates ; but in a more extended sense it is made 

 to comprehend also a large tract north of this line, reaching as far as 

 the river Euphrates on the east, and the south-eastern angle of the 

 Mediterranean on the west. Some of the ancients have extended the 

 limits of Arabia still further. Pliny (Nat. Hist. v. 24) makes Arabia 

 comprehend part of Mesopotamia, nearly as far as the frontiers of 

 Armenia. Xenophon (' Anabasis,' i. 5), considers the sandy tract 

 along the left bank of the Euphrates, and south of the tributary river 

 Araxes (the Khabur), as part of Arabia ; and the physical features 

 of the country, of which he gives a lively description, justify him in 

 assigning this tract to the division of Arabia. 



>' Hi-face, Climate, Soil, and Products. The whole peninsula of 

 Arabia, as far as it is at present explored, consists of an elevated 

 table-land, declining on the north towards the Syrian desert, and 

 encircled along the sea-coast with a belt of flat sandy ground. The 

 flat country, beginning at Suez and extending round the whole 

 peninsula to the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, is called Gaur or 

 Tehama, '. e. the ' Low-land,' from which the mountainous region in 

 the interior is distinguished by the appellation of Jabal, 'the Hills,' 

 or Nejd, the ' High-land." The width of the Tehama varies : near 

 Mokha its breadth is about one day's journey, near Hodeida and 

 Loheia about twice as much. On the eastern coast, in the province 

 of Oman, from Ras-al-Had up to Cape Mussendom, it is much 



narrower : between the villages of Sib and Sohar indeed its width 

 extends to about a day's journey; but in the remaining part of the 

 country the hills reach almost to the sea. 



The soil of the Tehama, from its regular inclination towards the 

 sea, as well as from the large beds of salt and marine exuviae with 

 which it is interspersed, appears to have been once a part of the bed 

 of the sea. It is observed that, the sea on the western coast still 

 continues to recede : the reefs of madrepore and coral which abound 

 in the Arabian Gulf, and in some parts rise 10 fathoms above the sea, 

 are increasing and coming nearer the shore ; and as the intermediate 

 space is gradually filled up with sand, the Tehama is on that side 

 constantly extending its limits. Muza is mentioned by Arrian 

 ( ' Periplus, ' c. 5) as a sea-port of Arabia Felix ; we now find it at a 

 distance of several miles from the sea. The harbour of Jidda is 

 described by Lord Valentia as being formed by innumerable reefs of 

 coral, which extend to about four miles from the shore, leaving many 

 narrow channels between, in which there is a good bottom at from 

 6 to 12 fathoms, and where the sea is perfectly smooth even when 

 it blows the heaviest gale. In the southern part of the Arabian Gulf 

 these banks of coral are less numerous. 



The low-land of Arabia is occasionally for many years entirely 

 destitute of rain ; but sometimes it is scantily watered by the falling 

 of slight showers during the months of March and April. The dews 

 in the most arid tracts are said to be copious. The high-land has its 

 regular rainy season, which begins about the middle of June, and 

 continues till the end of September. Springs also abound hi the loftier 

 mountains, which, when fed by the copious annual rains, send streams 

 of water through the valleys that descend towards the Tehama : 

 some of them are lost before they leave the mountainous region ; 

 others, which are more abundant, rush into the Tehama, where the 

 fertility of the soil mainly depends on irrigation. Most of the larger 

 streams, as soon as they enter the burning plains, spread out into 

 shallow lakes, and are lost in the sand ; only a few reach the sea. 

 These temporary currents of rain-water, and the small verdant valleys 

 but a few feet below the general level, which intersect the arid 

 Tehama, constitute an important and characteristic feature in the 

 aspect of the country : they are called wAdis, an expression which 

 we frequently meet with, though variously written, as a component 

 part of the names of rivers generally on the maps of other countries 

 also into which Arabian settlers have penetrated. The Greek oasis 

 or aua&is appears to be the same as wadi. The Wadi Zebid and 

 Wadi Meitazn are the two principal torrents in the territory of Yemen : 

 the former reaches the sea near the town of Zebid on the Arabian 

 Gulf ; the latter, taking a southerly course, pours its waters into the 

 Indian Ocean. In the province of Oman, the rivers Masora and Wadi 

 Sib contain water throughout the year, and both reach the Indian 

 Ocean. Arabia is entirely destitute of navigable rivers. 



In the Tehama, the heat during summer, owing to the want of 

 rain and to the almost direct action of a tropical sun, is intense. 

 Niebuhr states that during his residence in the low-land of Yemen, 

 in the month of August, the thermometer rose to 98 Fahrenheit, 

 and at Loheia during the month of January to 86 ; at Sana, in the 

 high-land, it only reached 85 during the summer, and he heard 

 it asserted that in the latter district it sometimes freezes. At 

 Muscat the thermometer varies from 92 to 102 of Fahrenheit during 

 summer. Niebuhr was struck with the delightful scenery of the 

 coffee-mountains near Beit-el-Fakih, between Mokha and Hodeida, 

 where he found the air much fresher and cooler than in the parched 

 plains of the Tehama : yet he had then scarcely reached half the 

 ascent to Kusma and to the summit of the range of hills, which here 

 forms the boundary between the Nejd and the Tehama. The 

 inhabitants of Yemen, he observes, are dwelling as it were in different 

 zones ; and within the limits of a comparatively small territory may 

 be found a variety of indigenous species of the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms, such as in other countries can only be seen when brought 

 together by man from distant regions. 



The poisonous blasts known by the names of Sam, Samum, or 

 Samiel, seldom blow in the southern parts of Arabia. They are 

 chiefly experienced in the tract between Basra, Bagdad, Haleb, and 

 Mecca ; but even here they are only dreaded during the hottest 

 months of the year. These winds seem to derive their noxious 

 qualities from passing over the great sandy desert when scorched by 

 the intense rays of the. tropical sun; and accordingly Niebuhr was 

 informed that at Mecca the samum blows from the east, at Bagdad 

 from the west, and at Basra from the north-west. AH Bey observes 

 that, at Jidda, "the north-wind, traversing the deserts, arrives in 

 such a state of dryness, that the skin is parched, paper cracks as if it 

 were in the mouth of an oven, and the air is always loaded with sand. 

 If the wind changes to the south, everything is in the opposite 

 extreme : the air is damp, everything that you handle feels of a 

 clammy wetness, and the atmosphere appears to be loaded with a sort 

 of fog." Lord Valentia remarks, that the southern part of the 

 Arabian Gulf, as far as the island of Jebel-Tier, opposite Loheia, is, 

 during eight months of the year, exposed to the south-west monsoon, 

 which, as it blows over the arid sands of Africa, renders the climate 

 of the adjacent coast extremely sultry. From Jebel-Tier to Jidda 

 the winds are variable. Above Kosseir as far as Suez, the wind blows 

 for rather more than eight months from the north-west. 



