Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/808

ARABIA. hammedan realm in the extreme West the mac- nificent role which Arabia had played came to an end, and the country which ha"d furnished the means of war to Mohammed's immediate suc- cessors fell into the condition in which the prophet had found it in the "Days of Ignorance." Numerous jirincipalitics once more arose, enjoy- ing complete independence, except at rare mo- ments, when some foreign invader established his power over sections of the country, as was the case with Yemen, which was for some time held by the rulers of Egypt. In 151 7 the tribes of Yemen and Hejaz were subjected under the rule of the Turkish Sultan. In 10.3.3. however, they virtually regained their independence, .and the last native ruler in Yemen was not overthrown till 1871. In the East the kingdom of Oman attained considerable importance. From 1508 to 1659 its capital, Muscat, was held by the Portu- guese, but it finally fell into the possession of the native princes, who succeeded in extending and consolidating their power. In the interior 'of Arabia the most important princes are the Wah- habi rulers, whose dynasty was founded in the middle of the Eighteenth Century by Abd alWah- hab, a religious reformer who attempted to re- store the pure faith of Mohammed and banish all later accretions, and made the propaganda of his religious views a means for seizing on politi- cal power. Under his successors the Wahhabi sphere of influence expanded until at the begin- ning of the Nineteenth Century Mecca itself fell into their hands. In 1811 they became involved in conflict with :Meheniet Ali of Egs'pt, and after seven years' warfare their power "was shattered by Ibrahim Pasha. The Wahhabi monarchv, how- ever, took a new lease of life after IS-IO'. when the struggle between the Viceroy of Eg>-pt and the Sultan prevented any effective assertion of Otto- man supremacy. The Mohanunedan world is even yet not free from danger of a Wahhabi incursion. Bibliography. Jomard, Etudes geographiques et historiiiiics siir I'Arabie (Paris, 1839) ; Ritter, Erdknnde von Aruhien (Berlin, 1810-17) ; Spren- ger. Die alte Oeographie Arabicns (Bern, 1875) ; Zehme, Arabicn uiid die Araher seit hundert Jali- ren (Halle, 1875) : Niebuhr, Description of Ara- bia, trans, by Sealy (Bombay, 1889) ; D'Avril, h'Arabie contemporaine (Paris, 1868) ; Palgrave, "Sarrative of a Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia (London, 1871) ; Maltzan, Reise nach ^Udarabien (Brunswick, 1873); Wrede, Reise in Hadhramaul, etc., edited by ilaltzan (Brunswick, 1873); I'pton, (llranuuis from the Desert of Arabia (London, 1881) ; Huber, Voyage dans VArabie centrale, 1878-82 (Paris, 1885); id. Journal d'un royage en Arable, 1883-84 (Paris, 1891) ; Doughty, Travels in Arabia De- sert'i (Cambridge, 188S); Harris, A Journey Through the Yemen (Edinburgh and London, 1893) ; Nolde, Reise nach Lnnerarabien, etc. (Brunswick, 1895); Bent, Southern Arabia (London, 1900); Hull, Memoir on the Geology and Geography of Arabia I'ctrwa, etc. (London, 1886) ; Caussin ile Perceval, Essai snr I'histoire des Arabes nrant Vlslamisme (Paris, 1847-49); Osborn, Islam under the Arabs (London, 1876) ; [sedillot, Histoire gcn/rale des Arabes (Paris, 1877). ARABIA DESER'TA (Lat., Deserted Ara- bia). The name applied by ancient geographers to the northern and central third of the country. It is a region of hard, gravelly soil, diversified here and there by patches of stunted bush and meagre grass. ARABIA FE'LIX (Lat., Happy Arabia). The name given to the southeastern part of Arabia ; a tolerably fertile region.  ARABIAN ART. It is an erroneous habit to call by the name of "Arabian" the architecture or other branches of art developed by Moham- medan nations after the Arabs had carried their new religion over most of the East i.nd part of the West. Neither is there an art that could be called "Moorish." For all such art see the articles Mohammedan Art: and Architecture. The Arabs themselves were never an artistic na- tion, only patrons of art. Even in >men, where the tribes lived not a nomadic, but a sedentary life, only a primitive form of art was developed in antiquity. ARABIAN GULF. See. ARABIAN MUSIC. The influence of the Arabs upon modern )nusic is distinctly felt in many of our orchestral instruments. Their musical system, however, has left no traces, because it was rather a philosoijhical and mathematical speculation titan a practical system. Although in early times the .rabs had primitive instruments and characteristic melodies, we cannot speak of a distinctly Arabic system of music until after the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in the Seventh Century a.d. With wonderful rapidity the conquerors assimilated the musical art of the conquered, so that in a short time the pupils rose to the position of masters. Since then the music of Persia and Arabia is like two great streams flowing side by side and frequently intermingling. Already in the Eighth Century we find theoretical writings on music by Arabic authors. When Al Farabi, in the Tenth Century, attempted to supplant the Arabic system by that of the Creeks, he failed, because the Arabic-Persian .system had already reached a high development. The theoretical founder of the Arabic-Persian school is Sifa al-Din, an Arab by birth, who lived in the Fourteenth Century. The Arabic system constructed a scale by joining together a tetrachord (D, E, Ffi, G), and a pentachord ( G, A, B, c, d ), so that the semi-steps are between the third and fourth and sixth and seventh degrees. Each whole tone was divided into three third tones, so that the octave contained 17 third tones. These third tones were not regarded as chromatic alterations of a fundamental tone, but were denoted by the theorists by separate numbers, so that the first tone of the second octave was 18, of the third octave 35. Octaves and fourths are regarded as consonances, thirds and sixths as disso- nances. The fifth was a disputed interval. Oiit of a possible number of 84 scales, the theorists selected 12 as practicable. These were called Makamat. Besides these complete scales there were recognized six Aicasat, combinations of from five to nine third tones, which stood in the same relation to the scales as the tropes of the Plain Chant stood to their respective modes. While the theorists continually introduced new systems of wonderful ingenuity, the practical musicians were guided chiefly by their ear, and this led them to conceive their melodies in a scale corresponding exactly to our D major. The principal instrument of the Arabs was the lute (q.v.), which they adopted from the Persians.