ARABIA 



309 



ARABIA 



States with Alaska and its island possessions 

 included. In estimating its population authori- 

 ties differ, some placing it as high at 7,500,000, 

 others as low as 4,500,000. This difference is 

 accounted for by the fact that in no part is 

 there any regular census, while absolutely no 

 definite information is to be had respecting a 

 part of the central desert regions. 



Within the vast area of Arabia there are 

 no such varieties of climate, soil and resources 

 as are to be found within the United States. 

 For while the surface is diversified into cen- 

 land, surrounding deserts and ranges 

 of mountains parallel to and approaching the 

 coast, one condition prevails almost every- 

 whereextreme dryness. There are relatively 

 small territories elsewhere on the earth's sur- 

 face which are as dry, but nowhere else except 

 in the Sahara is so large an arid stretch to 

 be found. In mountain and in lowland, the 

 date palm is often the only sign of vegetable 

 life, and there are districts which in the course 

 of a year do not have a single shower of rain. 

 re are dried up river courses which show 

 that once the country must have had abun- 

 dant water, and in a few of them there are 

 trickling streams during the so-called rainy 

 season, but in all Arabia there is not one real 

 : . Thousands of square miles in the inte- 

 rior are made up of deserts dryer than the 

 Sahara, much of which have never been ex- 

 plored. The heat, too, is in many places 

 inn-rise, and Aden; in the southwestern part, 

 i.< the hottest spot in the world. The reason 

 for the extreme dryness and heat is that 

 almost all the winds come from the northeast, 

 across the hot, arid regions of central Asia. 



In such a climate few things will grow ex- 

 cept the date palm, which furnishes the staple 

 article of food; but there are spots where figs, 

 grapes and corn thrive in good years, and the 

 province of Yemen, in the southwest, polit- 

 v a part of Turkey, exports the excellent 

 Mocha coffee. In the oases wild animal In* 

 is fairly abundant, ostriches, gazelles, jackals, 

 i.is and even lions being not uncommon. 

 Of the domestic animals, the Arabian horses 

 and camels are famous far and wide. 

 Arabian horses are among the moet beautiful 

 l.iu'h-spirited breeds in the world, but it 

 i< the camel upon which the Arab mainly de- 

 ; ---hip <>i -he desert/' which alone makes 

 it possible for him to travel across the drifted, 

 sandy wastes. 



The People. See article ARABS. 



Government and Religion. Arabia is not 



a country in the sense in which the United 

 States or Great Britain is, for the almost im- 

 passable deserts have prevented any unity of 

 government. To-day the west coast and part 

 of the east coast belong to Turkey ;. Aden, 

 in the southwest corner, is a dependency of 

 England; Oman is independent, though under 

 English influence, while the central part is 

 under the sway of a number of native sheiks 

 or chiefs. Mecca, the holy place of the Mo- 

 hammedans, is its chief city. Other impor- 

 tant towns are Medina, Mocha, Aden and 

 Muscat. 



But though divided politically, religiously 

 Arabia is a unit, for Mohammedanism every- 

 where prevails. To the Arab the greatest 

 blessing on earth is to be able to make a pil- 

 grimage to Mecca and so receive forgiveness 

 for all his sins. The greatest happiness to be 

 derived after death is to live forever in a 

 green oasis where there is no lack of water 

 or food. 



History. The history of the Arab peoples 

 previous to the time of Mohammed is obscure, 

 but with his advent the Arabians united for 

 the purpose of extending the new creed; and 

 under the caliphs, the successors of Moham- 

 med, they obtained great power and founded 

 large kingdoms in three continents (see MO- 

 HAMMED; MOHAMMEDANISM). 



On the fall of the caliphate of Bagdad in 

 1258 the decline set in, and when the Moors 

 were driven from Spain in the fifteenth century, 

 the foreign rule of the Arabs came to an end. 

 In the sixteenth century Turkey subjected 

 Hedjaz and Yemen and received the nominal 

 submission of the tribes inhabiting the rest of 

 Arabia. The subjection of Hedjaz has con- 

 tinued down to the present day, but Yemen 

 became independent in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury and remained so till 1871, when the ter- 

 ritory acam fell into the hands of the Turks. 

 In 1839 Aden was occupied by the British. 

 Oman early became virtually independent of 

 the caliphs and grew into a well-organized 

 kmtrdom. The \v.ih ilis (which see) appeared 

 toward the end nf the eighteenth century and 

 took an important part in the political affairs 

 of Arabia, but their progress was interrupted 

 by Mohammed Ali, pasha of Egypt, and they 

 were completely defeated by Ibrahim I':usha. 

 He extended his power over most of the coun- 

 hut the events of 1840 in Syria compelled 

 him to renounce all claims to Arabia. 1 

 Hedjaz thus again became subject to Turkish 

 sway. Of recent years none but minor changes 



