Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/327

 The Thimaneans probably were the Biblical tribe of Têmân. Whether these Thiman of Pliny are identical with the Taveni is not altogether certain, but it is possible. The Taveni were the inhabitants of the town of Thoana (Ptolemy, Geography, V, 16: 4), which on the Peutinger Table, VIII, is transcribed as Thornia and corresponds precisely with the modern ruins of at-Twâne, situated where the Biblical tribe of Têmân dwelt (Gen., 36: 11).

Araceni is perhaps the common appellation of the Arab nomads, Saraceni, or the tribe of the Sarakenoi (Ptolemy, op. cit., VI, 7: 21), who (Stephen of Byzantium, Ethnica [Meineke], p. 556), were encamped in the region of Saraka (šerḳ), beyond and thus to the east of the territory of the Nabataeans, where the Bible mentions the Bene Ḳedem, or the nomads of the interior Arabian desert. Today they are known as aš-Šerḳijje, Bedouins.

The word Arreni is transcribed from Agreni, or Hagreni; these are the inhabitants of the town of Haegra, or Hegra, the modern al-Ḥeǧr, which forms an important halting place on the caravan route connecting southwestern Arabia with Syria and Egypt. At this point a branch of the ancient trade route leads off along the southern border of the sandy desert of Nefûd to the Persian Gulf and southern Babylonia. Pliny therefore is right in saying that all trade is concentrated at this town.

The town of Domata is the large oasis of Adumu (Dûma or Dûmat al-Ǧandal), situated over four hundred kilometers east of Petra, the Nabataean capital.

The Thamudaei are identical with the Tamudi, who were overcome by the Assyrian king Sargon II and with the Thamydenoi (Ptolemy, op. cit., VI, 7: 21). Their central sanctuary of Ṛwâfa was situated at the southwestern extremity of the territory of Ḥesma, where this territory becomes of volcanic formation. Uranius (Arabica [Müller, Vol. 4], p. 525) was likewise acquainted with Thamuda, which he assigned to the Nabataeans.

Ptolemy, op. cit., VI, 7: 4, 21, records the various tribes who dwelt partly on the coast and partly in the interior of the northern Ḥeǧâz. By the coast in the northern part were encamped the Thamyditai, in the southern, the Sidenoi; in the interior, near the mountains between Arabia Petraea, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia Felix, the Skenitai, and beyond them the Thaditai. To the south of the latter was the territory of the Sarakenoi and the Thamydenoi. To the west of Mount Zames were the nomadic Apataioi and Athritai, and near them the Maisaimeneis and Udenoi.—

In Ptolemy also Skenitai is the common appellation for the nomads and not the actual name of any particular tribe. The name Thaditai would seem to be Thamyditai, without the my, although it might also be an erroneous transcription of Thaiitai, the Ṭajj tribe. According to Ptolemy, these Thaditai were encamped between the aš-Šera’ range and the desert of Nefûd and, indeed, possibly also in the desert itself. If such is the case, we must locate the Sarakenoi in the northwestern half of the modern territory of Šammar, for according to Ptolemy the Sarakenoi and Thamydenoi were encamped to the south of the Thaditai. We know the camping place of the Thamydenoi from the middle of the second