Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/805

ARABESQUE. Romans (Pompeii, Rome, etc.), which wag taken as a model at the Remiissance, and has never been surpassed in variety and delicacy. The arabesque of the Mohammedans dii5'ered from other forms in entirely excluding the fig- ures of animals and men, the representation of which was forbidden by the Moluimmedan re- ligion, and confining itself to purely geometric shapes and to the foliage, flowers, fruit, and tendrils of plants and trees, curiously and elab- orately intertwined. This limitation of the field of arabesqjie was not observed in Cliristian art. The Byzantine schools and the Northern barba- rians — Celts, Goths, Saxons, Lombards — used

MOHAirSIEDAN KOSEWORE

the schematic heraldic forms of this style. So did, to a lesser degree, the Romanesque artists. The Gothic style returned to the study of natural forms almost entirely, but the Renais- Bance, notwitlistanding its naturalism, was very partial to the arabesque, imitating in the Fif- teenth Century the antique carved friezes and pilasters, and in the Sixteenth Century the painted designs discovered on the walls of the Baths of Titus, the Golden House of Nero, and the imperial palaces on the Palatine. Raphael's arabesques in the Vatican are the most famous and beautiful of these imitations. Further im- petus to this type of design was given in the last century by the discoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. ARABGIR, ii'rab-ger'. See Arabkir. ARA'BIA. The great southwestern penin- sula of Asia, called by the inhabitants "Jazirat- al-'Arab," the peninsula of Arabia; by the Turks and Persians, "Arabistan." It is situated in lati- tude 12° 40' to 34° N., and longitude 3-2" 30' to G0° E. Its length from north to south is about 1.500 miles, and its greatest breadth about 1200; its area is about 1,200,000 square miles (Map: Turkey in Asia, DC). It is bounded on the north by Asiatic Turkey; on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; on the south by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, and on the west by the Red Sea. It is connected with Africa on the northwest by the Isthmus of Suez. Through the centre of the land, be- tween Mecca and Medina, runs the Tropic of Cancer. The name Arabia has been derived by some from Mradd (which means a level waste), a district in the territory of Tihamali: by others, from 'Eher, a word signifying a nomad ("wanderer"), as the primitive Arabs were such. This would connect it with the word Hebrew, which has a similar origin. Others again are inclined to derive it from the Hebrew verb 'Arah. to go down — that is, the region in which the sun appeared to'-set to the Semitic dwellers on the Euphrates. There is also a Hebrew word, '.1 rnhah. which means "a barren place." and which is occasionally employed in Scripture to denote the border land iietween Syria and Arabia. Ptol- emy is supposed to be the author of the famous threefold division into Arabia Pcfrcea, Arabia Felix, and Arabia Desierta. which has been gen- erally used since his time; the first included the nortliwest corner: the second, the west and southwest coasts; and the third, the dimly known interior. This division, however, is not recognized by the natives themselves; neither is it very accurate as at present understood, for Petyceu was not intended to mean rocky or stony. Ptolemy formed the adjective from the flour- ishing city of Petra (the capita! of the kingdom of the Xabata>ans), whose proper name was Thamud — that is, the rock with a single stream. The word Felix, also, arose from an incorrect translation of Yemen, which does not signify "happy," but the land lying to the right of Mecca — as Al-Sham (Syria) means the land lying to the left of the same. The divisions of the Arab geographers are as follows: (1) Bahr-el- Tur Sinai (Desert of Mount Sinai); (2) Ei- jaz (a barrier), along the Red Sea; (3) Ti- hamah and Yemen, along the Red Sea; (4) Ha- dramaut, the region along the southern coast; (5) Oman, the sultanate of Muscat, in the ex- treme east; (6) Bahrain, on the Persian Gulf: (7) EhHasa. along the Persian Gulf; (8) TSlejd, the central highlands of Arabia.

Our knowledge of the interior of Arabia is still very imperfect in detail, but its general char- acteristics are decidedly African. The largest portion of it lies in that great desert zone which stretches from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Northern Pacific. The interior, so far as it has yet been explored by Europeans, seems to be a great plateau, in some places reaching a height of 8000 feet. The western border crest of this plateau may be regarded as part of a mountain-chain, beginning in the north with Lebanon, and stretching south to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. From Bab-el- Mandeb another chain runs northeast, parallel to the coast, to Oman. The elevation of the mountains in the extreme south of the peninsula is estimated at 13,000 feet. From the mountain- range on the west the plateau slopes to the northeast, and forms in general a vast tract of shifting sands, interspersed here and there about the centre with various ranges of hills, which, like the shores of the ijeninsula, are generally barren and uninteresting.

One of the chief characteristics in the physical aspect of the coimtry is the scarcity of permanent rivers. With the exception of Maidan, at the southwestern end of the country, the streams of Arabia drj' up for a considerable part of the year. Like most desert regions, Arabia lias a large number of dried-up river courses, or readies, among which the Wadi al-Rumen is the longest, traversing under different names the entire countrv from west to cast.