2. Modern geographers find it more convenient to divide the country, agreeably to the natural features and the native nomenclature, into A rabia Proper, or Jezirat el-Arab, containing the whole peninsula as far as the limits of the northern deserts; Northern Arabia, or El-Badieh, bounded by the peninsula, the Euphrates, Syria, and the desert of Petra, constituting properly Arabia Deserta, or the great desert of Ara- bia; and Western Arabia, the desert of Petra and the peninsula of Sinai, or the country that has been called Arabia Petrsea, bounded by Egypt, Palestine, North- ern Arabia, and the Red Sea. (For further geographi- cal details, see the Penny Cyclopmd. s. v. ; M'Culloch's Gaz. s. v. ; on Aden, see AVilson, Bible Lands, i, 9 sq.).
(1.) Arabia Proper, or the Arabian peninsula, con- sists of high table-land, declinmg toward the north ; Y
its most elevated portions being the chain of moun- tains running nearly parallel to the Red Sea, and the territory east of the southern part of this chain. The high land is encircled from Akabah to the head of the Persian Gulf by a belt of low littoral country ; on the west and south-west the mountains fall abruptly to this low region ; on the opposite side of the penin- sula the fall is generally gradual. So far as the in- terior has been explored, it consists of mountainous and desert tracts, relieved by large districts under cultivation, well peopled, watered by wells and streams, and enjoying periodical rains. The water-shed, as the conformation of the country indicates, stretches from the high land of the Yemen to the Persian Gulf. From this descend the torrents that irrigate the west- ern provinces, while several considerable streams — there are no navigable rivers — reach the sea in the opposite direction : two of these traverse Oman ; and another, the principal river of the peninsula, enters the Persian Gulf on the coast of El-Bahrein, and is known to traverse the inland province called Yema- meh. The geological formation is in part volcanic ; and the mountains are basalt, schist, granite, as well as limestone, etc. ; the volcanic action being especial- ly observable about El-Medinah on the north-west, and in the districts bordering the Indian Ocean. The most fertile tracts are those on the south-west and south. The modern Yemen is especially productive, and at the same time, from its mountainous character, picturesque. The settled regions of the interior also appear to be more fertile than is generally believed to be the case ; and the deserts afford pasturage after the rains. The principal products of the soil are date- palms, tamarind-trees, vines, fig-trees, tamarisks, aca- cias, the banana, etc., and a great variety of thorny shrubs, which, with others, afford pasture fcr the camels ; the chief kinds of pulse and cereals (except oats), coffee, spices, drugs, gums and resins, cotton and sugar. Among the metallic and mineral prod- ucts are lead, iron, silver (in small quantities), sul- phur, the emerald, onyx, etc. The products mention- ed in the Bible as coming from Arabia will be found described under their respective heads. They seem to refer, in many instances, to merchandise of Ethio- pia and India, carried to Palestine by Arab and other traders. Gold, however, was perhaps found in small quantities in the beds of torrents (comp. Diod. Sic. ii, 93 ; iii, 45, 47) ; and the spices, incense, and pre- cious stones brought from Arabia (1 Kings x, 2, 10, 15 ; 2 Chron. ix, 1, 9, 14 ; Isa. lx, 6 ; Jer. vi, 20 ; Ezek. xxvii, 22) probably were the products of the southern provinces, still celebrated for spices, frankincense, am- bergris, etc., as well as for the onyx and other pre- cious stones. Among the more remarkable of the wild animals of Arabia, besides the usual domestic kinds, and. of course, the camel and the horse, for both of which it is famous, are the wild ass, the musk- deer, wild goat, wild sheep, several varieties of the antelope, the hare, monkeys (in the south, and espe- cially in the Yemen) ; the bear, leopard, wolf, jackal, hyena, fox ; the eagle, vulture, several kinds of hawk, the pheasant, red-legged partridge (in the penin- sula of Sinai), sand-grouse (throughout the country), the ostrich (abundantly in central Arabia, where it is hunted by Arab tribes) ; the tortoise, serpents, lo- custs, etc. Lions were formerly numerous, as the names of places testify. The sperm-whale is found off the coasts bordering the Indian Ocean. Greek and Roman writers (Herod., Agatharch. ap. Midler, Strab., Diod. Sic, Q. Curt., Dion. Perierj., Heliod. ^Ethiop., and Plin.) mention most of the Biblical and modern products, and the animals above enumerated, with some others (see Smith's Diet, of Class. Geoff, s. v.).
Arabia Proper may be subdivided into five principal provinces : the Yemen ; the districts of Hadramaut, Mahreh, and Oman, on the Indian Ocean and the en- trance of the Persian Gulf; El-Bahrein, toward the
ARABIA 3
head of the gulf just named; the great central coun- try of Nejd and Yemameh ; and the Hejaz and Teha- meh on the Bed Sea. The Arabs also have five di- visions, according to the opinion most worthy of cred- it {Mardsid, ed. Juynboll, s. v. Hejaz ; comp. Strabo): Tehameh, the Hejaz, Nejd, El-Arud (the provinces ly- ing toward the head of the Persian Gulf, including Yemameh), and the Yemen (including Oman and the intervening tracts). They have, however, never agreed either as to the limits or the number of the divisions. It will be necessary to state in some detail the posi- tions of these provinces, in order to the right under- standing of the identifications of Biblical with Arab names of places and tribes.