ARABIA. 



ARABIA. 



414 



some on the Persian coast, are in the possession of Arabic tribes, who 

 for the most part depend on navigation, fishery, and diving for pearls 

 for their livelihood. Dates, durra-bread, and fish are their principal 

 articles of food. Each little town has its own sheikh. In time of 

 war all their fishing-boats are made battle-ships ; and as with a navy 

 of this description decisive battles cannot easily take place, the internal 

 contests between the little states continue almost without an inter- 

 ruption. When a Persian army is sent against them, they leave their 

 settlements on the coast, where they have but little to lose, and retire 

 in their boats to some uninhabited island till the troops are withdrawn. 

 Gombroon or Bender-Abbas and Aboushehr or Bushire are the prin- 

 cipal sea-ports on the Persian coast. The island of Kharej or Karek, 

 in the northern part of the gulf, nearly opposite Aboushehr, is, 

 through ita situation, an important station for eastern commerce. 

 The little island of Hormuz or Ormuz, in the strait which forms the 

 entrance from the Indian Ocean into the Persian Gulf, is celebrated 

 from the importance which it possessed while the Portuguese trade 

 with India was flourishing. At no very great distance from Ormuz is 

 situated the large island called Kishme or Loft by the Europeans, 

 and Tawile or Deraz by the Arabs and Persians. The island, or 

 rather the group of islands called Bahrein, near the western coast of 

 the Persian Gulf, is celebrated for ita pearl-fishery. It is said to have 

 been very populous formerly, and to have contained upwards of 350 

 towns and villages. The principal island of the group is known by 

 the name of Awal. The ancient harbour of Gerra is supposed to have 

 been somewhere on the opposite coast of Arabia. (Strabo, xvi. c. 4, 

 1>. 770, Casaub.) 



V. The country of Lalaa, or Hajar lies along the western shore of 

 the Persian Gulf ; the part immediately along the coast is sometimes 

 called Bahrein. It borders on the S. on Oman, on the W. on the 

 Arabian high-land, and on the N. on the territory of the Beduin tribe 

 Kaab, near the Shatt-el-Arab. The greater part of the country 

 towards the interior is occupied by Beduhis ; the inhabitants along 

 the coast subsist chiefly by the pearl-fishery or the cultivation of date- 

 trees. The principal towns are Lahsa, the residence of the sheikh, 

 and Katif, a fortified sea-port opposite the Bahrein islands, perhaps 

 near the ancient Gerra. 



VI. The country of ffejd occupies nearly the whole extent of the 

 high-land of Arabia, from Yemen and Hadramaut in the S. to the 

 Syrian desert on the N., and from Hejaz in the W. to Lahsa and Irak 

 Arabi on the E. It is inhabited almost exclusively by wandering 

 tribes of Beduius. The hilly tracts are fertile, chiefly in dates ; but 

 riven and even the temporary wadis are scarce, and to obtain water 

 deep wells must be dug. The greater part of the country consists of 

 arid deserts. The climate is excessively hot, but the air is pure and 

 salubrious. Besides the moveable tents of the nomadic Arabs the 

 traveller meet* with a number of small villages, irregularly built, but 

 populous, and agreeably situated on the declivities of hills, or in the 

 midst of verdant valleys. 



The country of Nejd was until lately subject to the Wahhabees, a 

 religious sect, which not long ago threatened by its rapid progress to 

 overthrow the whole Mohammedan community. The capital of the 

 Wahhabees, and the principal city of the whole Arabian high-land, is 

 Deraiyeh, a town of about 2500 houses, picturesquely situated along 

 the borders of the Wadi Hanifa. This valley, extending itself from 

 west to east, is several hundred miles in length, and about a mile 

 and a half in breadth : during part of the year it is watered by a 

 torrent of rain from the mountains ; during summer the want of 

 irrigation is supplied from the copious wells of the surrounding 

 country. Deraiyeh had, pi-uvioiia to its siege and capture in 1819 by 

 Ibrahim Pasha, 22 mosques (but, contrary to the Mussulman fashion, 

 without minarets and cupolas,) and 30 schools. The gardens and 

 fields around Deraiyeh are fertile in dates, pomegranates, apricots, 

 peaches, grapes, melons, Ac., also in wheat, barley, and millet. 



VII. flrjaz borders on the E. on Nejd, on the N. on the Syrian 

 -desert and the Gulf of Akaba, on the W. on the lied Sea, and on the 



S. on Yemen. It is the ' Holy Land ' of the Mohammedans, 

 because it contains the two cities Mecca and Medina, the former the 

 native town of Mohammed, the latter the place where he is interred. 

 As long as the Grand Seignior of Constantinople, in his character of 

 Protector of the Holy Places, maintained his sovereignty over this 



; Mnt province, he used regularly to appoint a pasha, who resided 

 in the citadel of Jidda, the sea-port of Mecca, with a Turkish guard, 

 and divided the receipts of the custom-house with the Sherif of Mecca, 

 who wan considered as his vassal. The dominion of the Grand Seignior 

 was however little more than nominal, and the Sherif might very 

 easily have made himself independent long ago, if the existing relations 

 with Constantinople had not been advantageous to the Hejaz, on 



nt of the rich presents annually sent from the Turkish capital to 

 the sanctuary of Mecca, in which all the descendants of the prophet's 

 family throughout the Hejaz, and almost every inhabitant of that 

 town, were allowed as servants attached to the temple to participate. 

 But when the power of the Porte in the African and Asiatic provinces 

 became weakened, and when the increasing ascendancy of the Wahha- 

 bee cut off the communication between Constantinople and the 'sacred 

 cities,' the Sherif of Mecca becan i i tributary to 



tb sultan. Dispute* and open hostilities followed : the Sherif attacked 

 the Turkish pasha at Jidda, destroyed his citadel, and got rid of him 



by poison. Soon however the Sherif found himself besieged by the 

 Wahhabees ; and the caravans of pilgrims, which annually proceed 

 from all Mohammedan countries to Mecca, were frequently inter- 

 cepted, and exposed to constant annoyance from the followers of the 

 new religion. Mohammed Ali, the viceroy of Egypt, succeeded in 

 checking the power "of the Wahhabees in 1818, made himself master 

 of the Hejaz, and assumed the protectorship of the holy towns. Since 

 the termination of the war between Egypt and Turkey in 1840, the 

 ' holy places ' are again under the protectorship of the Sultan, who 

 appoints the Sherif. 



"The number of pilgrims," says Niebuhr, "who annually assemble 

 at Mecca is very great. One great caravan comes from Damascus, 

 consisting chiefly of pilgrims from the Turkish empire. Another, 

 coming from Egypt, brings along the Mogrebi or African pilgrims ; 

 both meet at a few days' distance from Mecca. Another caravan 

 arrives from Bagdad, with which most of the Persian pilgrims travel. 

 Two smaller caravans come from Lahsa and Oman, besides a separate 

 company of pilgrims from Yemen, and numberless smaller crowds 

 which arrive direct by sea from Persia, the southern and eastern parts 

 of Arabia and the adjacent islands, from India, the Arabian colonies 

 on the west coast of Africa, &c. Only a few pious Mohammedans 

 perform the pilgrimage out of real devotion, and at their own expense ; 

 most of the pilgrims undertake the tour with a view to profit. Some 

 accompany the caravan as soldiers, and are remunerated for the 

 protection which they afford to the pilgrims against the attacks of the 

 warlike Beduins ; some are . pilgrims by profession, and are paid to 

 perform the sacred journey for others, who are prevented from 

 discharging this religious duty personally." 



The principal towns of the Hejaz Mecca, Medina, Jidda, or 

 Djeddah have already been alluded to ; they will be noticed under 

 their respective heads in this work. Besides these we may mention 

 Yanbo or Yembo, the sea-port of Medina, with a sheltered harbour 

 and about 1500 houses the Eyptian pilgrims to Mecca and Medina 

 land here from Kosseir : Tayf or Tayef, which is agreeably situated upon 

 a lofty eminence, about 70 miles S.E. from Mecca, and supplies Jidda 

 and Mecca with excellent fruits ; it is defended by several forts and 

 has a famous mosque ; Mohammed took Tayef after a siege of 20 

 days. : Ghunfude, or Konfodeh, is a coast-town in the south of Hejaz, 

 opposite a group of small islands also called Konfodeh : and Hali, 

 another small coast-town, lies a few miles further south, near the 

 borders of Yemen. 



VIII. The Deiert' of Mount Sinai, including the Arabia Petrjea of 

 the ancients, once the seat of the Nabathsean dominion, is now nearly 

 desolate, and contains but few towns ; the open country is entirely in 

 the hands of the independent Beduius. The group of the Sinai 

 Mountains is the last considerable elevation towards the north-west 

 of the mountains which form the high-land in the interior of Arabia. 

 It nearly fills a peninsula projecting into the Red Sea, having the 

 Gulf of Akaba on the east, and that of Suez called also the Gulf of 

 Kolzum on the west. At the northern extremity of the eastern gulf 

 is situated the ancient town of Aila, the Elath of Scripture, now 

 commonly called Akaba. At the northern extremity of the 

 western gulf lies the sea-port town of Suez, one of the few safe 

 harbours in the Red Sea. [SUEZ]. On the eastern side of the Gulf 

 of Suez is another harbour called Tor, where the ships and caravans 

 trading between Jidda and Suez take in fresh water, which the neigh- 

 bouring mountains supply of excellent quality. The town is defended 

 by an old fort. The harbour is sheltered by a coral reef, on which there 

 is a lighthouse. In the Sinai Mountains is found sandstone, and on 

 the highest parts granite. In the midst of the hills, on the height 

 of Jebel Musa, surrounded by higher mountain-tops, and near the 

 summit considered as the Sinai of Scripture, is situated the convent 

 of St. Catherine, founded, according to the credited tradition, by 

 Helena, the mother of Constantine, in the 4th century. Jebel Musa 

 is rich in springs of fresh water: the mirrounding valleys produce 

 excellent grapes, pears, dates, and other fruits, quantities of which are 

 brought for sale to Cairo. Wadi Faran or Feiran, with its continua- 

 tion Wadi-el-Sheikh, and Wadi-Girondel, both to the north of Jebel 

 Musa and sloping towards the gulf of Suez, are filled with water 

 during ihe rainy season, which obliges the inhabitants then to retire 

 up the hills. 



Towards the north of the group of Sinai is a desolate tract, called 

 by the Arabs El-Ti, or Tiah-Bani-Israil, i. e. the desert of the children 

 of Israel Abulfeda (' Descript. -iBgypti,' p. 14, ed. Miehaelin) states 

 its dimensions from hearsay at 40 parasangs in length ( a parasang is 

 about 3 miles ), and as much in breadth, the soil being partly rocky 

 and hard, and partly sandy, with now and then a well of brackish 

 water. This account is fully confirmed by Burckhardt, who describes 

 it as the most dre:iry and barren wilderness that he ever met with. 



To the north of the Gulf of Akaba, in the hilly district of Jebel 

 Shera, at a distance of about seven hours from Shobak, or Kerek- 

 al-Shobak, its capital, the Wadi Musa opens, watered by the 

 copious spring of Am Musa. In this valley, below the village of 

 Eldjy, Burckhardt discovered the magnificent ruins of a town which 

 he correctly supposed to be the ancient Nabathscan capital Petra. 



[PETBA.] 



IX. Tribes of Bcduini. The word Beduin is a corruption of the 

 Arabic ' badwl," which ia derived from the substantive ' badw,' ' an 



