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ARABIA.

ARABIA is situated between 12° and 34° north latitude. The latitude of its northern extremity corresponds with that of Georgia and South Carolina. On the south-west, the southeast, and the north-east, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf are natural boundaries. On the north and north-west towards Syria, the limits are not well defined. This country has been possessed by the Arabs, almost ever since the flood. Ishmael the son of Abraham by Keturah, was one of its principal primitive settlers.

The greatest part of the country consists of vast deserts, interspersed like those of Africa with fertile oases. Adopting the divisions of the ancient geographers, that part on the borders of Egypt and Syria, denominated Petrea, presents a rugged surface of granitic rocks; the north-eastern and central parts, distinguished by the appellation of deserta or the desert, have an aspect corresponding with the name; but Arabia Felix, the southern angle bordering on the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, has a beautiful, diversified, and fertile appearance.

Arabia may be considered in a great measure as destitute of rivers. The streams which descend from the mountains seldom reach the sea, being, for the most part, drunk up and lost in the burning sands of that coast. If we except the Euphrates and the Schat-el-Arab formed by its junction with the Tigris, there is not, in the whole extent of Arabia, a single river that can answer any purpose of navigation. Lakes are equally rare in this country.

The great central desert is entirely sand, with the exception of a few fertile specks of ground that afford pasture to the flocks of the Bedouins. Arabia Petrea has a sandy soil. The climate throughout Arabia is extremely hot. The mountainous parts of this province have a regular rainy season,

from about midsummer to the middle of September. At Muscat, the rainy season commences in the middle of November, and ends about the middle of February. During the dry season there is always a serene sky, and a cloud is scarcely ever to be seen.

It was to Arabia, Ishmael, on being forced to quit the paternal roof, came to seek a second country; it was hither that Moses, when a fugitive from Egypt, withdrew from the vengeance of those, who wanted to punish him for having killed the Egyptian; here, he married the daughter of Jethro, who gave useful lessons to the leader of the Hebrews; it is here that we behold the two mountains of Horeb and Sinai, where Jehovah gave laws to his people, amidst awful thunder and lightning. And through this country the children of Israel marched, when on their way from Egypt to Canaan.

The agricultural productions of Arabia are chiefly wheat, maize, barley, lentils, &c. Rice is seldom seen, and oats are unknown. Tobacco, as well as the sugar-cane, and cotton, are objects of cultivation. The chief exertion of agricultural industry consists in irrigating the grounds; and this, wherever it is easily practicable, produces a luxuriant vegetation; but the scarcity of rivers, lakes and brooks, in most parts of the country, diffuses an aspect of sterility over the Arabian landscape. The fertile parts of the country abound in dates, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, and other excellent fruits. Cinnamon, cloves, cassia, pepper, cardamomum, spikenard and the best frankincense, being formerly brought from India to Arabia, and from thence by the way of Egypt to Europe, these valuable spices were supposed to be the products of Arabia; which from this circumstance derived the name of Felix or happy. But the extension of European navigation and commerce has traced those rich productions to their original source, and discovered them to be natives of India, and the oriental isles. Arabia Felix, or Yemen, however, affords myrrh, aloes and frankincense of an inferior kind: and two valuable productions, coffee the best in the world, and the fragrant and costly balm of Mecca, are her peculiar boast. Arabia is destitute of forests; but groves of dates, sycamores, &c. as well as scattered

trees, appear among the mountains. The general aspect of the country is that of a vast central desert interspersed with a few fruitful spots, and skirted with a pleasant and fertile border; but a striking deficiency of wood and water is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Arabian landscape.

The principal riches of Arabia consist, in flocks and herds. Of all the animals of Arabia, the horse claims the pre-eminence. One species of these is reared by the Bedouins in the northern deserts, which can bear the greatest fatigues, and pass whole days without food, living, according to the Arabian metaphor, on air.

There are various kinds of wild animals as jackals, hyenas, monkies, wolves, foxes, panthers, &c. There are ostriches in the desert; and various birds of prey, as eagles, vultures, &c. in the mountains. Locusts are exceedingly numerous, and some kinds of them are esteemed excellent food.

All the Arabians are accustomed to eat locusts. The swarms of these insects darken the air, and at a distance appear like clouds of smoke. In flying, their noise is tremendous, and resembles that of a waterfall. When such a swarm falls upon a field, it is soon consumed and despoiled of its

verdure.

Mecca has from time immemorial been an object of religious veneration; and possessing no agricultural resources, but depending on distant supplies for the subsistence of its inhabitants, has, in all ages, owed its wealth and importance to fanaticism and commerce. The historian of the decline of the Roman empire, before he brings the Arabians on the theatre of action, gives a florid description of its trade and importance, at the time when Mahomet commenced his mission. And if we consider the subsequent extension of his religion; the power and opulence of its professors; with the numerous pilgrimages and rich caravans, which, for the twofold purpose of devotion and trade, have during so many ages resorted to Mecca, from all parts of the Mahomedan world, it is reasonable to conclude, that the wealth and population of the holy city must, since that period, have greatly increased. It is situated in 21° 40′ north latitude; and in 41

east longitude; somewhat less than forty miles from the shores of the Red Sea. According to the report of the Mahomedan pilgrims, it is well built of stone, but of its population, and other interesting circumstances, there are no authentic details.

Medina is situated about 200 miles to the north of Mecca, and, as well as the latter, at about a day's journey from the Red Sea. It was the first metropolis of the empire of the caliphs, but is now described as only a small town, remarkable for nothing, but the tomb of Mahomet. On this account it is a sacred place, and partakes with Mecca in the veneration of pilgrims; but the latter city appears to be the centre of that extensive and lucrative commerce, which has long been carried on in a situation apparently so unfavourable. The splendor of the holy city depends on the prosperity of Mahomedanism. Mecca is a point of contact between Constantinople, Africa and India, and likewise an abyss, which continually draws into its vortex the gold of the Mahomedan countries. The invasion of Egypt, by the French in 1798, and their subsequent irruption into Syria, was a dreadful blow to its prosperity. The regular arrival of caravans from Constantinople, Asia Minor and Africa, having been interrupted, during the years 1798 and 1799, those from the east could find nothing to barter for their commodities; and the trade of Mecca was, for a time, nearly annihilated. This was so severely felt by the Meccans, that they were impelled, perhaps more by interest, than zeal for the religion of the prophet, to engage in the war. A body of men, named the volunteers of Mecca, was sent into Egypt in order to assist in expelling the French. But Arabian valor was not a match for European tactics; and the Meccans, being all killed or dispersed, their expedition produced no effect.

All our accounts of the topography and principal towns of Arabia are extremely defective. No European traveller has explored the interior. But it is most of all to be regretted, that the perpetual exclusion of unbelievers from the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, especially the latter, which has so long been the celebrated centre of pilgrimage and com

merce, renders it impossible to obtain any precise knowledge of the most interesting feature of Arabia.

Until the time of Mahomet, the history of Arabia is buried in deep obscurity; and, both before that period, and after the final dissolution of the caliphate, is devoid of importance or interest. During that luminous and splendid period, when the Arabians ruled from the Indus to the Atlantic, and from the Caspian Sea to the borders of Ethiopia, they were a people transplanted from their own country, and mixed with many others, whom they had conquered. The seat of their empire was transferred from Medina to Damascus, and afterwards to Bagdad. Arabia, thus abandoned, became a distant and obscure province of the caliphate; the natives bore no conspicuous part in the transactions of that mighty empire, nor had scarcely any share in that extensive dominion, which the Arabian race exercised over so great a part of the globe. The history of the caliphate, the most brilliant and important, as well as the most luminous portion of the Arabian annals, is therefore comprised in that of Asiatic Turkey, where the seat of their empire was fixed. On its dissolution, Arabia split into numerous petty principalities; the state in which it had been from ages immemorial, until Mahomet reduced its different tribes under his own dominion, and laid the foundation of that, which became the scourge and the wonder of the world. In this state the country still remains, and its history, during the last six centuries, is uninteresting. A modern event has indeed attracted some attention. About the year 1731, a new religion made its appearance, and has since that time. occasioned great commotions. The founder was Mahomet Ibu-Abd-ul-Wahib, a learned Arabian, who had studied at Bagdad, Damascus and Mosul, and had been forced to flee, successively, from these places on account of his heterodox opinions. His system appears to be a jumble of Mahomedanism and Deism; its principal tenets being, that all human homage ought to be paid to one God alone, and that any veneration of a deceased prophet is absurd and idolatrous; that all addresses to the Deity ought to be offered up under the open canopy of Heaven, and that all mosques and other