the modern Bedoweens;* the second was peopled by the Amalekites, the Cushites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites; the third is supposed to be the Sheba of Scripture. The kings of Arabia are mentioned as having brought gold and silver to King Solomon, and the Arabians paid an annual tribute of 7,700 sheep and as many goats to Jehoshaphat. The latter was evidently the tribute of a pastoral nation, — probably of the Bedoweens inhabiting the country east of the Jordan and bordering on the kingdom of Judah. The precious metals must have been supplied by a commercial people; and accordingly, we find these kings of Arabia mentioned together with the merchantmen (or collectors) and the spice-merchants, as furnishing the gold, which appears to have been obtained partly in the shape of duties on traffic, partly as a contribution from the provincial governors and tributary chieftains. This Arabia, therefore, doubtless bordered on the Red Sea. Arabia Proper is distributed by the oriental writers into five provinces, as, in the time of Strabo, it was divided into five kingdoms: these provinces are, Yemen, Hedjaz, Tehama, Nedjed, and Yamâma, to which some add Bahhrein as a sixth.§ Niebuhr divides Arabia into, 1. the country of Yemen; 2. the country of Hadramaut; 3. the country of Omân; 4. the independent states on the borders of the Persian Gulf; 5. the country of Lachsa, or Hadjar; 6. the province of Nedjed; 7. the province of Hedjaz; and, 8. the desert of Mount Sinai. In this division, Tehâma, the flat country extending along *It is clear from Isaiah xiii, 20, and Ezek. xxvii, 21, that the Arabians of Scripture were dwellers in tents, and that they extended to the borders of Babylon. † Ezek. xxvii, 23. 1 Kings, x, 15. 2 Chron. ix, 14; xvii, 11. § Sale's Koran, prel. disc. § 1. the coast between Mecca and Aden, which is reckoned by the ancient geographers as a separate province, is included in the Ard el Yemen; while Hadramaut and Omân, which they include in Yemen, are made distinct provinces. The fact is, that the Arabian peninsula, being parcelled out into various independent territories, has at no time formed, strictly speaking, one kingdom, and, therefore, has never been divided into distinct provinces. Certain grand natural divisions may be laid down; but these convey no correct notion of the political or territorial arrangement.* The following may be considered as an approximation to a correct geographical division of the country: I. MARITIME DISTRICTS. On the coast of the Red Sea. 1 Hedjaz: the holy land of the Moslems, nominally subject to the Porte, under the jurisdiction of the Pasha of Djidda. 2. Teh ma: subject for the most part to the Imaum of Sanaa; chief places, Mocha and Aden.t *Malte Brun professedly follows Niebuhr in dividing Arabia into Nedjed, Hedjaz, Yemen, Hadramaut, Oman, and Lachsa; but, according to the learned Traveller, a considerable tract of country not included in those provinces. †The Tehama of Yemen (the Yemen of our maps) is described as extending along the western coast almost from Mecea to Aden. (Sale, vol. i, p. 6.) It is also called Gaur from its low situation. Niebuhr includes it in the Ard el Yemen, we think improperly; he might as well have included Hadramaut, which, together with Yemen and Tehama, composed the ancient Arabia Felix. Of the fourteen subdivisions of Yemen which he enumerates, we have omitted three as comprised in Tehama; viz, the sheikhdom of Aden, the territory of Abu Arisch, and the district between Abu Arisch and Hedjaz, inhabited by Bedoween robbers. On the coast of the Arabian Sea. 3. Hadramaut: governed by independent sheikhs.* 4. Omaun: divided among several petty sovereigns, of whom the chief is the Imaum of Mascat. On the coast of the Persian Gulf. 5. Lachsa, (El Ah'sa,) or Hadjar, including Bahhrein:† formerly subject to the Porte; now governed by the reigning sheikh of the Beni Khâled, whose capital is Lachsa. II. INLAND DISTRICTS. 6. El Arud, or Nedjed-el-arud, comprising Aijana, the birthplace of Abd-el-Wahheb. 7. El Kherdje, or Yemaumah (Yemama, Imama)‡. 8. El Nedjed, comprehending the greater part of Arabia De serta. 9. Yemen Proper, including, (1.) The dominions of the Imaum of Sanaa. (2.) The canton of Sahaun, governed by independent sheikhs; the chief is the Imaum of Saade § *In this province are included the mountainous country called Seger (Sheh'r) celebrated for its producing frankincense; Mahrah, a large hilly district; and part of Jafa. The name Bahhrein (two seas) has been erroneously transferred to the Isle of Aual and the other smaller islands in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Hadjar. The Arabian writers evidently employ the term to denote a district of the continent bordering on yemaumah. Niebuhr says, it denotes the part bordering on the Gulf.· - See Niebuhr, p. 293; Price's Essay towards the Hist. of Arabia, p. 110; Sale's Koran, p. 2. The province of Yemama is stated by Golius (apud Sale) to be called also Arud, from its oblique situation in respect of Yemen; but this must be an error, as the city of Yemama is in El Kherdje, which Niebuhr erroneously places in the S.W. part of the Nedjed. Yemama is celebrated as the residence of the prophet Moseilama, the rival of Mahommed. It forms, with the cities of Lachsa and Djebrin, an equilateral triangle, of which each side is a three days' journey. § Three days E.N.E. of Saade is the city and sheikhdom of Nedjeran, and, three days further north, on the road to Mek (3.) The country of Djof, including the ancient Mareb, or Mariaba, the capital of the Sabeans: it is divided among the Bedoweens, the Shereefs, and various petty Arab sultans.* (4.) The principality of the Sultan (or Seid) of Kaukeban. (5.) Bellad el Kobail, or the country of Haschid u Bekil, governed by various independent sheikhs. (6.) The small territory of Nehhm. (7.) The small territory of Khaulan (Havilah). The whole peninsula, Niebuhr says, may be considered as an immense pile of mountains, encircled with a belt of flat, arid, sandy ground. This belt, to the ka, the sheikhdom of Kachtan; both of them enumerated by Niebuhr as separate districts of the Ard el Yemen; but they seem properly to belong to Sahaun. Nedjeran was formerly subject to the Imaum of Saade. The country of Djof (or Djof-er-Szyrrhan) is divided into Belladel Bedoui, Bellid es Saladin, and Bellid es Scheraf. The second of these denominations designates the territory of the petty Arab sultans, or independent chieftains of the mountains. The Bellad es Scheraf denotes the towns and villages governed by the descendants of Mahommed. † Niebuhr makes fourteen territorial subdivisions; viz, the eight above enumerated, three comprised in the Tehama, two which we have included in Sahaun, and a small district called Khaulan, between Sanaa and Mekka, which does not appear to have any claim to be considered as a distinct subdivision. In fact, there is no end to subdivisions, if the territories of every village sheikh who stands up for independence, are to be reckoned as a separate province. Southey has happily seized the leading features of the country in the following lines: 'Now go thy way, Abdaldar! Servant of Eblis, Over Arabia Seek the Destroyer! Over the sands of the scorching Tehama, Thalaba, book ii, stanza 27. whole of which he gives the name of the Tehama, begins at Suez, and extends round the whole peninsula to the mouth of the Euphrates, being formed, towards the north, by the Syrian desert and Arabia Petræa. Its breadth varies: that of the plain adjacent to the Red Sea, is generally about two days' journey from the sea-shore to the rise of the hills. It bears every mark of having been anciently a part of the bed of the sea. The bottom is a grayish clay with a large proportion of sand, interspersed with marine exuviæ to a great distance from the sea-shore. It contains large strata of salt, which in some places even rise up into hills. Its regular inclination towards the sea indicates that it has emerged gradually. The small eminences upon the confines of this plain, are composed of calcareous stone of a blackish appearance, as if burnt by the sun. The adjoining hills contain schistus and basalt. The sea on this coast continues to recede, and the Tehâma is on that side gradually extending its limits. The banks of coral are also increasing and coming nearer the shore, so as to render the navigation of the gulf more and more dangerous.* The sand gradually fills up the intermediate space, and joins these beds of coral to the continent; but these newly formed lands are ungrateful and barren, and, unlike the new ground formed by rivers, promise no advantage, being unsusceptible of cultivation. The principal chain of mountains runs nearly parallel with the Red Sea, at a distance of from thirty to eighty miles. It increases in elevation as it extends southward, and sends out a branch in a line * These immense banks of coral, which almost fill up the Arabian Gulf, rise in some places ten fathoms above the sea. They are soft under the waters, and, being easily wrought, are preferred to all other stones for building materials. Great part of the houses in the Tehama, Niebuhr says, are built of coral rock. |