CHAPTER XXIV. 



Desert History — The Shammar and Anazeh invasions— Destruction 

 of civilisation in the Euphrates Valley — Eeconquest b}-- the 

 Turks — Their present position in Arabia — List of the Bedouin 

 Tribes — An account of the Sabteans. 



The modern liistoiy of Northern Arabia may be 

 considered as commencing with the conquest of that 

 country by the Shammar Bedouins of Nejd, under 

 their leader Faris, about two hundred years ago. 



Until that time the Ottoman Empire, inheriting 

 the traditions of its predecessors Eoman, Greek, 

 Saracen and Tartar, had maintained its southern 

 frontier at the line of the Euphrates and the mili- 

 tary highroad connecting Bagdad with Damascus, 

 Within this limit, the inhabitants of the desert were 

 the Sultan's subjects, and the common law of the 

 Empire prevailed. Mesopotamia and the Upper 

 Syrian Desert were at that time inhabited by various 

 shepherd tribes, some of them Arabs of the first 

 invasion under the Caliph Omar, others of Kurdish 

 origin, pushed forward hj the counter invasions 

 from the north in the 13 th and 14th centuries, and 

 one of mixed race, the Moali, which owes it exist- 

 ence according to tradition to the following curious 

 accident. 



