Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/195

 ARABIA. iTB inonigrmtioDs of the aame great Syio-Ara- bun stock winch haw followed one another on the fiu^e of the hmd, like snccesaive strata of a homo- geneoos material beneath its soHace. For, just as the Arab genealogies, as expUuned above, tnce the whole nation up to their common Shemide ancestor Kahtaa, ao does tbdr actnal conditian testify amidst Konor <fiTeisities of fonn, complexion, and iangnage, to a e umuiuii ity of race and charscter. So stalking is this onity, that what there actnallj is of diverntj irithiB it » clcarirto be traced, not so much todescent, ss to mode of liflB. Thns the most marked division amoog the Anbs is into those of the towns and those of the desert. The description of the peculiar dbsncter of each belongs rather to nniveisal than to ancient geogxaphj, though indeed in Arabia the two departments are scarcely to be distinguished : at all cfcnts it is superfluous to attempt to condense into a parsgraph of this aitide those vivid impressions «f Anib life and character, with which we are all jinniliar from childhood through the magic pages uf the ** Thousand and One Nighte" ; and to the per- Ceetion of iHkich sesreelj anything remains wanting ance the publication ci Mr. Lane's Notes to that eoUectim. Both phjsioallj and intellectnaUj, the Amb is ODe of the most perfect types of the human A most vivid descriptioQ of his physical dia- ls given bf Chateaubriand, in his Itme- to Jm mtal em, quoted, with other descriptions, ichaid's Ratmrchet into the Physical History o/Mamimdj voL iv. pp. 588, foil. (On the Arab Ethnognpfay in general, besides Prichard, the fol- kjwing works are important: Perron, Lettre sur tHigtoire dee Arabes omml Tldiamame^ in the Nowf. Jomm. Asiat, 3"^ series; Fireanel, Quatrieme LeUre siir rSistoire des Arabes avasU tislamisme, in the JVbw. JomnCAsiat, 6 Aoat, 1838; Forster, His- tarieal Geogr a ph y of Arabia^ a most valuable work, but written perhaps with too determined a Rsohitkm to make out fiKts to correspond to every detail of the S criptur al ethnography ; it contains an Alphabet and Gk>ssary of the Uimyaritic Inscrip- tBOtts: for fiirthM'infonnation on the Inscriptions, see Wdbled, Narrative of a Jommey to the Ruhu of Nahab-at-HajaTj in the Joumai of the Geogr. Soe, vol. viL p. 20, also his copy of the great inscription in the Joarnaiofthe Asiatic Socie^ ofBengaij vol. fiL 1 834, and hb Journal^ 2 vols. 8vo. ; Gmttenden, Aorrofipe of a Jommey from MoUid to San^d ; MaiTvl, Mem. tur Us Inscriptions Koufques re- ruriKet em Egypt, in the Description de VEgypte^ Etmt Moderme,, voL L p. 525 ; on the gec^raphy of Arabia in genesml, besides the above works, and the wcfl-knofwii travels of Borckhardt and Garstcn Nie- hohr, exeeUent epitomes are given in the article ArJbiOy in the Penny Cyclopaedia, by Dr. Rosen, and the article by Rommel in the Halle Encyhto- ARABU. 179 m ) V. ArrAia, as known to the Greeks and Romans. -—The poahian of the Arsbian peninsula — between two great gnHs whose shores touch those countries which were the seats of the earliest civOization of the world, and in the midst of the most direct path between Enrepe and western Asia, on the one hand, and India and eastern and southern Africa, on the fldier — would naturally invite its people to com- ncrdal activity ; while their physical power and restless energy would equally tend to bring them into cootact with thdr neighbours in another character. Arcordiagly, while we find, from the eariiest times, ports MtaUidied on the coasts and sn important trade carried on by ships over the Indian Ocesn, and by caravans across the desert; we also find Egypt, Syria, and the countries on the Euphrates, not only lifted by the predatory incursions of the Arabians, but in some cases actually subjected by them. Re- fefmoe has been made to the opinion of one of the best of modem Orientalists, that Nimrod, the fotmder of the Babylonian monarchy, was an Arabian; and, on the other side of the peninsula, it is most probable that the Hyksos, or "Shepherd Kings," who for some time ruled over Lower Egypt, were Arabians. Their peaceful commerce was diiefly conducted by the Nabathasi, in the NW., the Homeritab in the S., and the Ouanitab and Gbrraei in the £. of the peninsula. The people last mentioned had a port on the Persian Qulf, named Gerrha (near EU Katif), said to have been finmded by the Chaldseans, and Icnind in a flourishing state in the time of Alex- ander; whence Arabian and Indian merchandize was carried up the Euphrates to Thapeacns, and thence by caravans to all parts of Western Asia. But there is ample evidence that the Phoenicians also carried on a considerable commerce by way of the Arabian gnlf. Through these channels there were opportunities for the Greeks to hear of the Arabians at a very early period. Accordingly, in that epitome of Grecian knowledge of the extreme parts of the earfh, the wanderings of Menelaus in the Odyssey, we find the Arabs of the E. of the Nile, under the name of Erembl (the m being a mere intonation : Od, iv. 83, 84): — K^Ttpoy ^otrtKfiv re <ral Aiytnrrlovs ^iroAiytfclf, At6iowds 1^' InSfniw irol SiSorfovs leoX *Lp€fAMs Kol lii€(nfpz where the enumeration seems to show that the Erembi included all to the £. and S£. of Syria and Egypt. (Libya is only the coast adjacent to Egypt : comp. Enstath. ad loe.; Strab. i. p. 42, xvi. pp. 759, 784; Hellanic. ap. Etym, Mag, s. v. 'Epcfiffoi, and Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 827, Fr. 153, ed. Didot; Eustath. ad Dion. Perieg, 180; Ukert, vd. i. pt 1, pp. 32, 69). In this view, the neighbourhood of the 'Apa8ias Upeior AfSos to the rock where Prometheus snfiers, in Aeschylus (/Vom. 420), is not so unaccountable as it seems, for both are at the £. extiemity of the earth, on the holders of the Ocean. But, {or the earliest information of a really his^ torical character, after what has already been ga- thered from Scripture, we must turn to Herodotus, who extended his travels to the part of Arabia con- tiguous to Egypt, and learnt much in Egypt, Syria, and Phoenicia, respecting the country in general. In IL 12 he contrasts the soil of Egypt (the Nile- ^^lley) with that of Libya, on the one hand, and Arabia on the other; that part of Arabia, namely, which extends along the sea (i. e. the Mediterra- nean), and is inhabited by Syrians, and which he therdfisre calls also Syria; which he says is argilla- ceous and rocky : the whole passage evidently refere to the district between the Delta and Palestine, which he elsewhere mentions a.s being subject, from Jenysus to Gadytis (Jerusalem), to the king of Arabia, i. e., some Beduin Sheikh (iii. 5). In iii. 107, he gives a detailed description of Arabia, which is introduced as an illustration of his theory that the most valuable productions ciuno firom the extremities of the earth: Arabia is the last of the inhabited regions of the earth, to- wards the south, and it alone produces frank- incense, and myrrh, and cassia, and cinnamon, K 2