2. We find the name S*I3>, Arab', first beginning to occur about the time of Solomon. It designated a portion of the country, an inhabitant being called Arahi, an Arabian (Isa. xiii, 20), or, in later Hebrew, i3"i", Arbi' (Neh. ii, 19), the plural of which was Ar- bim'~(2 Chron. xxi, 1G), d^l?, or Arbiim' (fciSOS"??, Arabians) (2 Chron. xvii, 11). In some places these names seem to be given to the nomadic tribes gener- ally (Isa. xiii, 20 ; Jer. iii, 2) and their country (Isa. xxi, 13). The kings of Arabia from whom Solomon (2 Chron. ix, 14) and Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xvii, 11) received gifts were probably Bedouin chiefs; though in the place parallel to the former text (1 Kings x, 15), instead of Arab we find 3"1^ or 3"12, E'reb, ren- dered invJer. xxv, 20, 24, "mingled people," but which Gesenius, following the Chaldee, understands to mean " foreign allies." It is to be remarked, how- ever, that in all the passages where the word Arab occurs it designates only a small portion of the terri- tory known to us as Arabia. Thus, in the account given by Ezekiel (xxvii, 21) of the Arabian tribes that traded with Tyre, mention is specially made of Arab (comp. Jer. xxv, 24). In 2 Chron. xxi, 16; xxii, 1 ; xxvi, 7 ; Neh. iv, 7, we find the Arabians classed with the Philistines, the Ethiopians (i. e. the Asiatic Cushites, of whom they are said to have been neighbors), the Mehunim, the Ammonites, and Ash- dodites. At what period this name Arab was extend- ed to the whole region it is impossible to ascertain. From it the Greeks formed the word 'Apafiia, which occurs twice in the New Testament ; in Gal. i, 17, in reference probably to the tract adjacent to Damascene Syria, and in Gal. iv, 25, in reference to the peninsula of Mount Sinai. Among the strangers assembled at Jerusalem at the Pentecost there were "Apa/Stc, Arabs (Acts ii, 11), the singular being "Apaip.
3. The modern name, Jezirat el-Arab, i. e. "the peninsula of the Arabs," applies to the southern part of the region only. Another native appellation is Belad el-Arab, i. e. " the land of the Arabs ;" the Per- sians and Turks call it Arabistdn. Mr. Lane informs us that in Egypt the term Arab is now generally lim- ited to the Bedouins, or people of the desert ; but for- merly it was used to designate the towns-people and villagers of Arabian origin, while those of the desert were called A arab ; the former now call themselves Oullul el- Arab, or sons of the Arabs.
II. Geography. — 1. The early Greek geographers, such as Eratosthenes and Strabo, mention only two divisions of this vast region, Happy and Desert Arabia. But after the city of Petra, in Idumsea, had become celebrated as the metropolis of a commercial people, the Nabatha?ans, it gave name to a third division, viz. Arabia Petroea (improperly translated Stony Arabia); and this threefold division, which first occurs in the geographer Ptolemy, who flourished in the second century, has obtained throughout Europe ever since.
It is unknown, however, to native or other Eastern geographers, who reckon Arabia Deserta as chiefly be- longing to Syria and to Irak-Arabi, or Babylonia, while the}- include a great part of what we call Arabia Pe- trrea in Egypt.
a. Arabia Felix (in Gr. 'Apajiia ») Evdaifiwv, the Arabia Eudtemon of Pliny), i. e. Happy Arabia. The name has commonly been supposed to owe its origin to the variety and richness of the natural productions of this portion of the country, compared with thos-e of the other two divisions. Some, however, regard the epithet " happy" as a translation of its Arabic name Yemen, which, though primarily denoting the land of the right hand, or south, also bears the second- ary sense of " happy, prosperous." This part of Arabia lies between the Ped Sea on the west and the Persian Gulf on the cast, the boundary to the north be- ing an imaginary line drawn between their respective northern extremities, Akabah and Basra or Bussora. It thus embraces by far the greater portion of the country known to us as Arabia, which, however, is verj' much a terra incognita ; for the accessible dis- tricts have been but imperfectly explored, and but little of the interior has been as yet visited by any European traveller.
b. Arabia Deserta, called by the Greeks Swjvtrtc 'Apaftia, or y "Ep/uoc. 'Apajiia, and by the Arabs El- Badieh, i. c. the Desert. This takes in that portion of the country which lies north of Arabia Felix, and is bounded on the north-east by the Euphrates, on the north-west by Syria, and on the west by Palestine and Arabia Petraea. The Arabs divide this "great wil- derness" into three parts, so called from their prox- imity to the respective countries, viz. Badieh esh-Shem (Syria), Badieh el-Jesh'rah (the peninsula, i. e. Ara- bia), and Badieh el -Irak (Babylonia). From this word Badieh comes the name of the nomadic tribes by whom it is traversed, viz. Eedawees (better known to us by the French corruption of Bedouins), who are not, however, confined to this portion of Arabia, but range throughout the entire region. So far as it has yet been explored, Desert Arabia appears to be one continuous, elevated, interminable steppe, occasionally intersected by ranges of hills. Sand and salt are the chief elements of the soil, which in many places is entirely bare, but elsewhere yields stinted and thorny shrubs or thinly- scattered saline plants. That part of the wilderness called El-Hammad lies on the Syrian frontier, ex- tending from the Hauran to the Euphrates, and is one immense dead and drearj' level, very scantily supplied with water, except near the banks of the river, where the fields are irrigated by wheels and other artificial contrivances. The sky in these deserts is generally cloudless, but the burning heat of the sun is moder- ated by cooling winds, which, however, raise fearful tempests of sand and dust. Here, too, as in other re- gions of the East, occasionally prevails the burning, suffocating south-east wind, called by the Arabs El- Harur (the Hot), but more commonly Samum, and by the Turks Samyeli (both words meaning "the Poisonous"), the effects of which, however, have by some travellers been greatly exaggerated. This is probably "the east wind" and the "wind from the desert" spoken of in Scripture. Another phenomenon, which is not peculiar, indeed, to Desert Arabia, but is seen there in greatest frequency and perfection, is what the French call the mirage, the delusive appear- ance of an expanse of water, created by the tremulous, undulatory movement of the vapors raised by the ex- cessive heat of a meridian sun. It is called in Arabic sei-ab, and is no doubt the Hebrew sharab of Isa. xxxv, 7, which our translators have rendered " the parched ground." See Mirage.