ARABIA
339
ARABIA
from 2 Chron. xvii, 11 ; and elsewhere there are indi- cations of such tribute (comp. the passages referred to above).
(3.) Western Arabia includes the peninsula of Sinai (q. v.) and the desert of Petra, corresponding gener- ally with the limits of Arabia Petrsea. The latter name is probably derived from that of its chief city ; not from its stony character. It was in the earliest times inhabited by a people whose genealogy is not mentioned in the Bible, the Horites, or Horim (Gen. xiv, 6 ; xxxvi, 20, 21 ; Deut. ii, 12, 22 ; xxxvi, 20-22). See Horite. Its later inhabitants were in part the same as those of the preceding division of Arabia, as indeed the boundary of the two countries is arbitrary and unsettled ; but it was mostly peopled by descend- ants of Esau, and was generally known as the land of Edom, or Idumaja (q. v.), as well as by its older ap- pellation, the desert of Seir, or Mount Seir (q. v.). The common origin of the Idumseans from Esau and Ishmael is found in the marriage of the former with a daughter of the latter (Gen. xxviii, 9 ; xxxvi, 3). The Nabathceans succeeded to the Idumajans, and Idumaea is mentioned only as a geographical designa- tion after the time of Josephus. The Nabathoeans have always been identified with Nebaioth, son of Ishmael (Gen. xxv, 13 ; Isa. lx, 7), until Quatremere (Memoire sur les Nabatheens) advanced the theory that they were of another race, and a people of Mesopo- tamia. See Nebaioth. Petra was in the great route of the western caravan-traffic of Arabia, and of the merchandise brought up the Elanitic Gulf. — Smith, s. v. See Elath ; Eziongeber : Petka, etc.
III. Inhabitants. — 1. Scriptural A ccnunt. — There is a prevalent notion that the Arabs, both of the south and north, are descended from Ishmael ; and the pas- sage in Gen. xvi, 12, " he (Ishmael) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren," is often cited as if it were a prediction of that national independence which, upon the whole, the Arabs have maintained more than any other people. But this supposition (in so far as the true meaning of the text quoted is concerned) is founded on a misconception of the original Hebrew, which runs literally, " he shall dwell before the/aces of all his brethren," i. e. (according to the idiom above explained, in which " before the face" denotes the east), the habitation of his posterit}' shall be "to the east" of the settlements of Abraham's other descend- ants. This seems also to be the import of Gen. xxv, 18, where, in reference to Ishmael, it is said in our version, " he died in the presence of all his brethren ;" but the true sense is, "the lot of his inheritance fell to him before, the faces (i. e. to the east) of all his brethren." These prophecies found their accomplish- ment in the fact of the sons of Ishmael being located, generally speaking, to the east of the other descend- ants of Abraham, whether by Sarah or by Keturah. But the idea of the southern Arabs being of the pos- terity of Ishmael is entirely without foundation, and seems to have originated in the tradition invented by Arab vanity that they, as well as the Jews, are of the seed of Abraham — a vanity which, besides disfiguring and falsifying the whole history of the patriarch and his son Ishmael, has transferred the scene of it from Pal- estine to Mecca. If we go to the most authentic source of ancient ethnography, the book of Genesis, we there find that the vast tracts of country known to us under the name of Arabia gradually became peopled by a variety of tribes of different lineage, though it is now impossible to determine the precise limits within which they fixed their permanent or nomadic abode. See Ethnology.
a. Hamites, i. e. the posteritj' of Cush, Ham's eld- est son, whose descendants appear to have settled in the south of Arabia, and to have sent colonies across the Red Sea to the opposite coast of Africa ; and hence Cush became a general name for "the south," and specially for Arabian and African Ethiopia. The sons
of Cush (Gen. x, 7) were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Kaamah or Ragma (his sons Sheba and Dedan), and Sabtecah. See Cush.
6. Shemites, including the following :
(a) Joktanites, i. e. the descendants of Joktan (called by the Arabs Kahtan), the second son of Eber, Shem's great-grandson (Gen. x, 25, 2G). According to Arab tradition, Kahtan (whom they also regard as a son of Eber), after the confusion of tongues and dispersion at Babel, settled in Yemen, where he reigned as king. Ptolemy speaks of an Arab tribe called Katanites, who may have derived their name from him ; and the rich- est Bedouins of the southern plains are the Kahtan tribe on the frontiers of Yemen. Joktan had thirteen sons, some of whose names may be obscurely traced in the designations of certain districts in Arabia Felix. Their names were Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth (preserved in the name of the province of Hadramaut, the Hebrew and Arabic letters being the same), Je- rah, Hadoram, Uzal (believed by the Arabs to have been the founder of Sanaa in Yemen), Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba (father of the Sabaaans, whose chief town was Mariaba or Mareb; their queen, Balkis, sup- posed to be the queen who visited Solomon), Ophii (who gave name to the district that became so famous for its gold), Havilah, and Jobab.