[1.] The Yemen embraced originally the most fer- tile districts of Arabia, and the frankincense and spice country. Its name, signifying " the right hand" (and therefore " south," comp. Matt, xii, 42), is supposed to have given rise to the appellation evSaifiwv (Felix), which the Greeks applied to a much more extensive region. At present it is bounded by the Hejaz on the north and Hadramaut on the east, with the sea-board of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean ; but formerly, as Fresnel remarks (comp. Sale, Prelim. Disc.'), it ap- pears to have extended at least so as to include Hadra- maut and Mahreh (Yakut's Mushtarak, ed. Wfisten- feld, and Mardsid, passim). In this wider accepta- tion it embraced the region of the first settlements of the Joktanites. Its modern limits include, on the north, the district of Khaulan (not, as Niebuhr sup- poses, two distinct districts), named after Khaulan (Kdmoos) the Joktanite {Mardsid, s. v., and Caussin de Perceval, Essui sur VHist. des Arabes avant VIs- lamisme, i, 113); and that of Ncjran, with the city of that name founded by Nejran the Joktanite (Caussin, i, GO, and 113 sq.), which is, according to the soundest opinion, the Negra of yElius Gallus (Strab. xvi, 782 ; see Jomard, Etudes geogr. et hist, sur I' Arable, append- ed to Mengm,Hist. de VEgypte, etc., iii, 385-38G).
[2.] Hadramaut, on the coast east of the Yemen, is a cultivated tract contiguous to the sandy deserts call- ed El-Ahkaf, which are said to be the original seats of the tribe of Ad. It was celebrated for its frankin- cense, which it still exports (El-Idrisi, ed. Jaubert, i, 54), and formerly it carried on a considerable trade, its principal port being Zafari, between Mirbat and Ras Sajir, which is now composed of a series of vil- lages (Fresnel, 4e Lettre, Journ. Asiat. iiie serie, v, 521). To the east of Hadramaut are the districts of Shihr, which exported ambergris {Mardsid, s. v.), and Mahreh (so called after a tribe of Kudaah [Id. s. v.], and therefore Joktanite), extending from Seihut to Karwan (Fresnel, 4C Lettre, p. 510). Oman forms the easternmost corner of the south coast, lying at the er- trance of the Persian Gulf. It presents the same nat- ural characteristics as the preceding districts, being partly desert with large fertile tracts. It also con- tains some considerable lead-mines.
[3.] The highest province on the Persian Gulf is El-Bahrein, between Oman and the head of the gulf, of which the chief town is Hejer — according to some, the name of the province also (Ramoos; Mardsid, s. v.). It contains the towns (and districts) of Katif and El- Ahsa (El-Idrisi, i, .",71 ; Mardsid, s. v.; Mushtarak, s. v. El-Ahsa), the latter not being a province, as has been erroneously supposed. The inhabitants of El- Bahrein dwelling on the coast are principally fisher- men and pearl-divers. The district of El-Ahsa abounds in wells, and possesses excellent pastures, which are frequented by tribes of other parts.
[I.] The great central province, of Nejd, and that of Yemameh, which bounds it on the south, are little known from the accounts of travellers. Nejd signi- fies " high land," and hence its limits are very doubt- fully laid down by the Arabs themselves. It consists of cultivated table-land, with numerous wells, and is celebrated for its pastures ; but it is intersected by
8 ARABIA
extensive deserts. Yemameh appears to be generally very similar to Nejd. On the south lies the great desert called Er-Ruba el-Khali, uninhabitable in the summer, but yielding pasturage in the winter after the rains. The camels of the tribes inhabiting Nejd are highly esteemed in Arabia, and the breed of horses is the most famous in the world. In this province are said to be remains of very ancient structures, sim- ilar to those east of the Jordan.
[5.] The Hejaz and Tehameh (or El-Ghor, the " low land") are bounded by Nejd, the Yemen, the Red Sea, and the desert of Petra, the northern limit of the Hejaz being Eileh (El-Makrizi's Khitat, s. v. Ei- leh). The Hejaz is the holy land of Arabia, its chief cities being Mekkeh and El-Medinah ; and it was also the first seat of the Ishmaelites in the peninsula. The northern portion is in general sterile and rocky ; toward the south it gradually merges into the Yemen, or the district called El-Asir, which is but little no- ticed by either eastern or western geographers (see Jomard, 245 sq.). The province of Tehameh extends between the mountain chain of the Hejaz and the shore of the Red Sea ; and is sometimes divided into Tehameh of the Hejaz and Tehameh of the Yemen. It is a parched, sandy tract, with little rain, and fewer pasturages and cultivated portions than the mountain- ous country.
(2.) Northern Arabia, or the Arabian Desert, is di- vided by the Arabs (who do not consider it as strictly belonging to their country) into Badiet esh-Shem, "the Desert of Syria," Badiet el-Jezireh, "the Des- ert of Mesopotamia" (not " of Arabia," as some
suppose), and Badiet el-Irak, " the Desert of El- Irak." It is, so far as it is known to us, a high, un- dulating, parched plain, of which the Euphrates forms the natural boundary from the Persian Gulf to the frontier of Syria, whence it is bounded by the latter country and the desert of Petra on the north-west and west, the peninsula of Arabia forming its southern limit. It has few oases, the water of the wells is gen- erally either brackish or unpotable, and it is visited by the sand-wind called Samoom, of which, however, the terrors have been much exaggerated. The Arabs find pasture for their flocks and herds after the rains, and in the more depressed plains ; and the desert gen- erally produces prickly shrubs, etc., on which the camels feed. The inhabitants Avere known to the an- cients as (jKrji'lrai, "dwellers in tents," or perhaps so called from their town ai 2/c?;v«j (Strab. xvi, 747, 767; Diod. Sic. ii, 24; Amm. Marc, xxiii, 6; comp. Isa. xiii, 20; Jer. xlix, 31; Ezek. xxxviii, 11) ; and they extended from Babylonia on the east (comp. Num. xxiii, 7 ; 2 Chron. xxi, 16; Isa. ii, 6 ; xiii, 20) to the borders of Egypt on the west (Strab. xvi, 748 ; Plin. v, 12; Amm. Marc, xiv, 4; xxii, 15). These tribes, principally descended from Ishmael and from Keturah, have always led a wandering and pastoral life. Their predatory habits are several times men- tioned in the O. T. (2 Chron. xxi, 16, 17 ; xxvi, 7 ; Job i, 15; Jer. iii, 2). They also conducted a consid- erable trade of merchandise of Arabia and India from the shores of the Persian Gulf (Ezek. xxvii, 20-24), whence a chain of oases still forms caravan-stations (Burckhardt, Arabia, Appendix vi) ; and they like- wise traded from the western portions of the peninsu- la. The latter traffic appears to be frequently men- tioned in connection with Ishmaelites, Keturahites, and other Arabian peoples (Gen. xxxvii, 25, 28; 1 Kings x, 15, 25; 2 Chron. ix, 14, 24; Isa. lx,6; Jer. vi, 20), and probably consisted of the products of Southern Arabia and of the opposite shores of Ethio- pia ; it seems, however, to have been chiefly in the hands of the inhabitants of Idumssa ; but it is difficult to distinguish between the references to the latter people and to the tribes of Northern Arabia in the passages relating to this traffic. That certain of these tribes brought tribute to Jehoshaphat appears