Chapter XV: Act 1737: , and the Apportionment Act 1834, and is now allowed generally (6)

His striking successor, Sir Richard Burton, covered nearly the same ground thirty-eight years afterwards. He, too, travelling as a Moslem pilgrim, noted the whole ritual of the pilgrimage with the same keen observation as Burckhardt, and while amplifying somewhat the latter's description of Medina, confirms the accuracy of his work there and at Mecca in almost every detail. Burton's topographical descriptions are fuller, and his march to Mecca from Medina by the eastern route led him over ground not traversed by any other explorer in Hejaz: this route leads at first south-east from Medina, and then south across the lava beds of the Harra, keeping throughout its length on the high plateau which forms the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. His original intention had been after visiting Mecca to find his way across the peninsula to Oman, but the time at his disposal (as an Indian officer on leave) was insufficient for so extended a journey; and his further contributions to Arabian geography were not made until twenty-five years later, when he was deputed by the Egyptian government to examine the reported gold deposits of Midian. Traces of ancient workings were found in several places, but the ores did not contain gold in paying quantities. Interesting archaeological discoveries were made, and a valuable topographical survey was carried out, covering the whole Midian coast from the head of the Gulf of Akaba to the mouth of the Wadi Hamd, and including both the Tehama range and the Hisma valley behind it; while the importance of the W. Hamd and the extent of the area drained by its tributaries was for the first time brought to light.

Exploration in Nejd.

Burckhardt had hoped in 1815 that the advance of the Egyptian expedition would have given him the opportunity to see something of Nejd, but he had already left Arabia before the overthrow of the Wahhabi power by Ibrahim Pasha had opened Nejd to travellers from Hejaz, and though several European officers accompanied the expedition, none of them left any record of his experience. It is, however, to the Egyptian conquest that the first visit of a British traveller to Nejd is due. The Indian government, wishing to enter into relations with Ibrahim Pasha, as _de facto_ ruler of Nejd and El Hasa, with a view to putting down piracy in the Persian Gulf, which was seriously affecting Indian trade, sent a small mission under Captain G.F. Sadlier to congratulate the pasha on the success of the Egyptian arms, and no doubt with the ulterior object of obtaining a first-hand report on the real situation. On his arrival at Hofuf, Sadlier found that Ibrahim had already left Deraiya, but still hoping to intercept him before quitting Nejd, he followed up the retreating Egyptians through Yemama, and Wushm to Ras in Kasim, where he caught up the main body of Ibrahim's army, though the pasha himself had gone on to Medina. Sadlier hesitated about going farther, but he was unable to obtain a safe conduct to Basra, or to return by the way he had come, and was compelled reluctantly to accompany the army to Medina. Here he at last met Ibrahim, but though courteously received, the interview had no results, and Sadlier soon after left for Yambu, whence he embarked for Jidda, and after another fruitless attempt to treat with Ibrahim, sailed for India. If the political results of the mission were _nil_, the value to geographical science was immense; for though no geographer himself, Sadlier's route across Arabia made it possible for the first time to locate the principal places in something like their proper relative positions; incidentally, too, it showed the practicability of a considerable body of regular troops crossing the deserts of Nejd even in the months of July and August.

Sadlier's route had left Jebel Shammar to one side; his successor, G.A. Wallin, was to make that the objective of his journey. Commissioned by Mehemet Ali to inform him about the situation in Nejd brought about by the rising power of Abdallah Ibn Rashid, Wallin left Cairo in April 1845, and crossing the pilgrim road at Ma'an, pushed on across the Syrian desert to the Wadi Sirhan and the Jauf oasis, where he halted during the hot summer months. From the wells of Shakik he crossed the waterless Nafud in four days to Jubba, and after a halt there in the nomad camps, he moved on to Hail, already a thriving town, and the capital of the Shammar state whose limits included all northern Arabia from Kasim to the Syrian border. After a stay in Hail, where he had every opportunity of observing the character of the country and its inhabitants, and the hospitality and patriarchal, if sometimes stern, justice of its chief, he travelled on to Medina and Mecca, and returned thence to Cairo to report to his patron. Early in 1848 he again returned to Arabia, avoiding the long desert journey by landing at Muwela, thence striking inland to Tebuk on the pilgrim road, and re-entering Shammar territory at the oasis of Tema, he again visited Hail; and after spending a month there travelled northwards to Kerbela and Bagdad.

Palgrave's journey to Nejd.

The effects of the Egyptian invasion had passed away, and central Arabia had settled down again under its native rulers when W.G. Palgrave made his adventurous journey through Nejd, and published the remarkable narrative which has taken its place as the classic of Arabian exploration. Like Burton he was once an officer in the Indian army, but for some time before his journey he had been connected with the Jesuit mission in Syria. By training and temperament he was better qualified to appreciate and describe the social life of the people than their physical surroundings, and if the results of his great journey are disappointing to the geographer, his account of the society of the oasis towns, and of the remarkable men who were then ruling in Hail and Riad, must always possess an absorbing interest as a portrait of Arab life in its freest development.

Following Wallin's route across the desert by Ma'an and Jauf, Palgrave and his companion, a Syrian Christian, reached Hail in July 1862; here they were hospitably entertained by the amir Talal, nephew of the founder of the Ibn Rashid dynasty, and after some stay passed on with his countenance through Kasim to southern Nejd. Palgrave says little of the desert part of the journey or of its Bedouin inhabitants, but much of the fertility of the oases and of the civility of the townsmen; and like other travellers in Nejd he speaks with enthusiasm of its bright, exhilarating climate. At Riad, Fesal, who had been in power since the Egyptian retirement, was still reigning; and the religious tyranny of Wahhabism prevailed, in marked contrast to the liberal regime of Talal in Jebel Shammar. Still, Palgrave and his companions, though known as Christians, spent nearly two months in the capital without molestation, making short excursions in the neighbourhood, the most important of which was to El Kharfa in Aflaj, the most southerly district of Nejd. Leaving Riad, they passed through Yemama, and across a strip of sandy desert to El Hasa where Palgrave found himself in more congenial surroundings. Finally, a voyage to the Oman coast and a brief stay there brought his adventures in Arabia to a successful ending.

Doughty.

Charles Doughty, the next Englishman to visit northern Arabia, though he covered little new ground, saw more of the desert life, and has described it more minutely and faithfully than any other explorer. Travelling down from Damascus in 1875 with the Haj caravan, he stopped at El Hajr, one of the pilgrim stations, with the intention of awaiting the return of the caravan and in the meantime of exploring the rock-cut tombs of Medain Salih and El Ala. Having successfully completed his investigations and sent copies of inscriptions and drawings of the tombs to Renan in Paris, he determined to push on farther into the desert. Under the protection of a sheikh of the Fukara Bedouin he wandered over the whole of the borderland between Hejaz and Nejd. Visiting Tema, where among other ancient remains he discovered the famous inscribed stone, afterwards acquired by Huber for the Louvre. Next summer he went on to Hail and thence back to Khaibar, where the negro governor and townsmen, less tolerant than his former Bedouin hosts, ill-treated him and even threatened his life. Returning to Hail in the absence of the amir, he was expelled by the governor; he succeeded, however, in finding protection at Aneza, where he spent several months, and eventually after many hardships and perils found his way to the coast at Jidda.

Three years later Mr Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt made their expedition to J. Shammar. In their previous travels in Syria they had gained the confidence and friendship of a young sheikh whose family, though long settled at Tadmur, came originally from Nejd, and who was anxious to renew the connexion with his kinsmen by seeking a bride among them. In his company the Blunts set out from Damascus, and travelled across the Syrian desert by the Wadi Sirhan to Jauf. Here the sheikh found some of his relations and the matrimonial alliance was soon arranged; but though the object of the journey had been attained, the Blunts were anxious to visit Hail and make the acquaintance of the amir Ibn Rashid, of whose might and generosity they daily heard from their hosts in Jauf. The long stretch of waterless desert between Jauf and J. Shammar was crossed without difficulty, and the party was welcomed by the amir and hospitably entertained for a month, after which they travelled northwards in company with the Persian pilgrim caravan returning to Kerbela and Bagdad.

Huber.

In 1883 the French traveller, C. Huber, accompanied by the archaeologist, J. Euting, followed the same route from Damascus to Hail. The narrative of the last named forms a valuable supplement to that published by the Blunts, and together with Doughty's, furnishes as complete a picture as could be wished for of the social and political life of J. Shammar, and of the general nature of the country. Huber's journal, published after his death from his original notes, contains a mass of topographical and archaeological detail of the greatest scientific value: his routes and observations form, in fact, the first and only scientific data for the construction of the map of northern Arabia. To archaeology also his services were of equal importance, for, besides copying numerous inscriptions in the district between Hail and Tema, he succeeded in gaining possession of the since famous Tema stone, which ranks with the Moabite stone among the most valuable of Semitic inscriptions. From Hail Huber followed nearly in Doughty's track to Aneza and thence across central Nejd to Mecca and Jidda, where he despatched his notes and copies of inscriptions. A month later, in July 1884, he was murdered by his guides a few marches north of Jidda, on his way back to Hail.

One other traveller visited Hail during the lifetime of the amir Mahommed--Baron E. Nolde--who arrived there in 1893, not long after the amir had by his victory over the combined forces of Riad and Kasim brought the whole of Nejd under his dominion. Nolde crossed the Nafud to Haiyania by a more direct track than that from Shakik to Jubba. The amir was away from his capital settling the affairs of his newly acquired territory; Nolde therefore, after a short halt at Hail, journeyed on to Ibn Rashid's camp somewhere in the neighbourhood of Shakra. Here he was on new ground, but unfortunately he gives little or no description of his route thither, or of his journey northwards by the Persian pilgrim road, already traversed by Huber in 1881. His narrative thus, while containing much of general interest on the climate and on the animal life of northern Arabia, its horses and camels in particular, adds little to those of his predecessors as regards topographical detail.

General results of exploration.

If the journeys detailed above be traced on the map they will be found to cover the northern half of the peninsula above the line Mecca-Hofuf, with a network of routes, which, though sometimes separated by wide intervals, are still close enough to ensure that no important geographical feature can have been overlooked, especially in a country whose general character varies so little over wide areas. In the southern half, on the other hand, except in Nejran and Jauf, no European traveller has penetrated 100 m. in a direct line from the coast. The vast extent of the Dahna, or great southern desert, covering perhaps 250,000 sq. m., accounts for about a third of this area, but some of the most favoured districts in Arabia--Asir and northern Yemen--remain unexplored, and the hydrography of the Dawasir basin offers some interesting problems, while a great field remains for the archaeologist in the seat of the old Sabaean kingdom from Jauf to the Hadramut valley.

Sinai Peninsula.

_Topographical Details._--Beginning from the north-west, the Sinai
peninsula belongs to Egypt, though geographically part of Arabia. It
is bounded on the E. by a line drawn from Ar Rafa, a few miles E. of
El Arish on the Mediterranean, to the head of the Gulf of Akaba; and
on the W. by the Suez Canal; its length from El Arish to its most
southern point is 240 m., and its breadth from Suez to Akaba is nearly
160 m. The greater part drains to the Mediterranean, from which the
land rises gradually to the summit of the Tih plateau. The deep
depression of Wadi Feran separates the Tih from the higher mass of
Sinai (q.v.), in which J. Katherine attains a height of 8500 ft.;
except in W. Feran there is little cultivable land, the greater part
consisting of bare, rocky hills and sandy valleys, sparsely covered
with tamarisk and acacia bushes. The Egyptian pilgrim road crosses the
peninsula from Suez to Akaba, passing the post of An Nakhl, with a
reservoir and a little cultivation, about half way; a steep descent
leads down from the edge of the Tih plateau to Akaba.

Syrian desert.

The rest of the northern borderland is covered by the Syrian desert,
extending from the borders of Palestine to the edge of the Euphrates
valley. This tract, known as the Hamad, is a gravelly plain unbroken
by any considerable range of hills or any continuous watercourse
except the Wadi Hauran, which in rainy seasons forms a succession of
pools from J. Hauran to the Euphrates. Its general slope is to the
north-east from the volcanic plateau of the Harra south of J. Hauran
to the edge of the Euphrates valley. The Wadi Sirhan, a broad
depression some 500 ft. below the average level of the Hamad, crosses
it from north-east to south-west between Hauran and Jauf; it has a
nearly uniform height above sea-level of 1850 ft., and appears to be
the bed of an inland sea rather than a true watercourse. Water is
found in it a few feet below the surface, and a little cultivation is
carried on at the small oases of Kaf and Ithri, whence salt produced
in the neighbouring salt lakes is exported. The W. Sirhan is
continuous with the depression known as the Jauf, situated on the
northern edge of the Nefud or Nafud, and the halfway station between
Damascus and Hail; and it is possible that this depression continues
eastward towards the Euphrates along a line a little north of the
thirtieth parallel, where wells and pasturages are known to exist.
Jauf is a small town consisting, at the time of the Blunts' visit in
1879, of not more than 500 houses. The town with its gardens,
surrounded by a mud wall, covers a space of 2 m. in length by half a
mile in width; the basin in which it lies is barely 3 m. across, and
except for the palm gardens and a few patches of corn, it is a dead
flat of white sand, closed in by high sandstone cliffs, beyond which
lies the open desert. The oases of Sakaka and Kara are situated in a
similar basin 15 m. to the east; the former a town of 10,000
inhabitants and somewhat larger than Jauf according to Huber.

The Nafud.

A short distance south of Jauf the character of the desert changes
abruptly from a level black expanse of gravel to the red sands of the
Nafud. The northern edge of this great desert follows very nearly the
line of the thirtieth parallel, along which it extends east and west
for a length of some 400 m.; its breadth from north to south is 200 m.
Though almost waterless, it is in fact better wooded and richer in
pasture than any part of the Hamad; the sand-hills are dotted with
_ghada_, a species of tamarisk, and other bushes, and several grasses
and succulent plants --among them the _adar_, on which sheep are said
to feed for a month without requiring water--are found in abundance in
good seasons. In the spring months, when their camels are in milk, the
Bedouins care nothing for water, and wander far into the Nafud with
their flocks in search of the green pasture which springs up
everywhere after the winter rains. A few wells exist actually in the
Nafud in the district called El Hajra, near its north-eastern border,
and along its southern border, between J. Shammar and Tema, there are
numerous wells and artificial as well as natural reservoirs resorted
to by the nomad tribes.

Owing to the great extent of the Nafud desert, the formation of
sand-dunes is exemplified on a proportionate scale. In many places
longitudinal dunes are found exceeding a day's journey in length, the
valleys between which take three or four hours to cross; but the most
striking feature of the Nafud are the high crescent-shaped sand-hills,
known locally as _falk_ or _falj_, described by Blunt and Huber, who
devoted some time to their investigation. The falks enclose a deep
hollow (known as _ka'r_), the floor of which is often hard soil bare
of sand, and from which the inner slopes of the falk rise as steeply
as the sand will lie (about 50 deg.). On the summit of the falk there
is generally a mound known as _tas_ or _barkhus_ composed of white
sand which stands out conspicuously against the deep red of the
surrounding deserts; the exterior slopes are comparatively gentle. The
falks are singularly uniform in shape, but vary greatly in size; the
largest were estimated by Huber and Euting at 1-1/4 m. across and 330
ft. deep. They run in strings irregularly from east to west,
corresponding in this with their individual direction, the convex face
of the falk being towards the west, i.e. the direction of the
prevailing wind, and the cusps to leeward. In the south of the Nafud,
where Huber found the prevailing wind to be from the south, the falks
are turned in that direction. Though perhaps subject to slight changes
in the course of years, there is no doubt that these dunes are
practically permanent features; the more prominent ones serve as
landmarks and have well-known distinctive names. The character of the
vegetation which clothes their slopes shows that even superficial
changes must be slight. The general level of the Nafud was found by
Huber's observations to be about 3000 ft. above sea-level; the highest
point on the Jauf-Hail route is at Falk Alam, the rocky peaks of which
rise 200 or 300 ft. above the surface of the sand. Other peaks
cropping out of the Nafud are Jebel Tawil, near the wells of Shakik,
and J. Abrak Rada, a long black ridge in the middle of the desert.

The Harra.

The high plateau which from. J. Hauran southward forms the main
watershed of the peninsula is covered in places by deep beds of lava,
which from their hardness have preserved the underlying sandstones
from degradation, and now stand up considerably above the general
level. These tracts are known as _harra_; the most remarkable is the
Harrat El Awerid, west of the Haj route from Tebuk to El Ala, a
mountain mass 100 m. in length with an average height of over 5000
ft., and the highest summit of which, J. Anaz, exceeds 7000 ft. The
harra east of Khaibar is also of considerable extent, and the same
formation is found all along the Hejaz border from Medina to the Jebel
el Kura, east of Mecca. The surface of the harra is extremely broken,
forming a labyrinth of lava crags and blocks of every size; the whole
region is sterile and almost waterless, and compared with the Nafud it
produces little vegetation; but it is resorted to by the Bedouin in
the spring and summer months when the air is always fresh and cool. In
winter it is cold and snow often lies for some time.

Hejaz.

Hejaz, if we except the Taif district in the south, which is properly
a part of the Yemen plateau, forms a well-marked physical division,
lying on the western slope of the peninsula, where that slope is at
its widest, between the Harra and the Red Sea. A high range of granite
hills, known as the Tehama range, the highest point of which, J. Shar,
in Midian, exceeds 6500 ft., divides it longitudinally into a narrow
littoral and a broader upland zone 2000 or 3000 ft. above the sea.
Both are generally bare and unproductive, the uplands, however,
contain the fertile valleys of Khaibar and Medina, draining to the
Wadi Hamd, the principal river system of western Arabia; and the Wadi
Jadid or Es Safra, rising in the Harra between Medina and Es Safina,
which contain several settlements, of which the principal produce is
dates. The quartz reefs which crop out in the granite ranges of the
Tehama contain traces of gold. These and the ancient copper workings
were investigated by Burton in 1877. The richer veins had evidently
been long ago worked out, and nothing of sufficient value to justify
further outlay was discovered. The coast-line is fringed with small
islets and shoals and reefs, which make navigation dangerous. The only
ports of importance are Yambu and Jidda, which serve respectively
Medina and Mecca; they depend entirely on the pilgrim traffic to the
holy cities, without which they could not exist.

Nejd.

The great central province of Nejd occupies all inner Arabia between
the Nafud and the southern desert. Its northern part forms the basin
of the Wadi Rumma, which, rising in the Khaibar harra, runs
north-eastward across the whole width of Nejd, till it is lost in the
sands of the eastern Nafud, north of Aneza. The greater portion of
this region is an open steppe, sandy in places and in others dotted
with low volcanic hills, but with occasional ground water and in
favourable seasons furnishing support for a considerable pastoral
population. Its elevation varies from about 5000 ft. in the west to
2500 ft. in the east. In Jebel Shammar, Kasim and Wushm, where the
water in the wadi beds rises nearly to the ground level, numerous
fertile oases are found with thriving villages and towns.

Jebel Shammar, from which the northern district of Nejd takes its
name, is a double range of mountains some 20 m. apart, rising sharply
out of the desert in bare, granite cliffs. J. Aja, the western and
higher of the two ranges, has a length of about 100 m. from north-east
to south-west, where it merges into the high plateau extending from
and continuous with the Khaibar harra. The highest point, J. Kara,
near its north-eastern extremity, is about 4600 ft. above sea-level,
or 1600 ft. above the town of Hail, which, like most of the larger
villages, lies along the wadi bed at the foot of J. Aja. The town,
which has risen with the fortunes of the Ibn Rashid family to be the
capital of Upper Nejd, is at the mouth of the valley between the twin
ranges, about 2 m. from the foot of J. Aja, and contained at the time
of Nolde's visit in 1893 about 12,000 inhabitants.

The principal tributaries of the W. Rumma converge in lower Kasim, and
at Aneza Doughty says its bed is 3 m. wide from bank to bank. Forty
years before his visit a flood is said to have occurred, which passed
down the river till it was blocked by sand-drifts at Thuwerat, 50 m.
lower down, and for two years a lake stood nearly 100 m. long, crowded
by waterfowl not known before in that desert country. Below this its
course has not been followed by any European traveller, but it may be
inferred from the line of watering-places on the road to Kuwet, that
it runs out to the Persian Gulf in that neighbourhood.

East of Kasim the land rises gradually to the high plateau culminating
in the ranges of Jebel Tuwek and J. Arid. The general direction of
these hills is from north-west to south-east. On the west they rise
somewhat steeply, exposing high cliffs of white limestone, which
perhaps gave Palgrave the impression that the range is of greater
absolute height than is actually the case. J. Tuwek in any case forms
an important geographical feature in eastern Nejd, interrupting by a
transverse barrier 200 m. in length the general north-easterly slope
of the peninusla, and separating the basin of the W. Rumma from that
of the other great river system of central Arabia, the Wadi Dawasir.
The districts of Suder and Wushm lie on its northern side, Arid in the
centre, and Aflaj, Harik and Yemama on its south, in the basin of the
W. Dawasir; the whole of this hilly region of eastern Nejd is,
perhaps, rather a rolling down country than truly mountainous, in
which high pastures alternate with deep fertile valleys, supporting
numerous villages with a large agricultural population. The W. Hanifa
is its principal watercourse; its course is marked by an almost
continuous series of palm groves and settlements, among which Deraiya
the former, and Riad the present, capital of the Ibn Saud kingdom are
the most extensive. Its lower course is uncertain, but it probably
continues in a south-east direction to the districts of El Harik and
Yemama when, joined by the drainage from Aflaj and the W. Dawasir, it
runs eastward till it disappears in the belt of sandy desert 100 m. in
width that forms the eastern boundary of Nejd, to reappear in the
copious springs that fertilize El Hasa and the Bahrein littoral.

Unexplored region of S. Nejd.

As regards the unexplored southern region, Palgrave's informants in
Aflaj, the most southerly district visited by him, stated that a day's
march south of that place the Yemen road enters the W. Dawasir, up
which it runs for ten days, perhaps 200 m., to El Kura, a thinly
peopled district on the borders of Asir; this accords with the
information of the French officers of the Egyptian army in that
district, and with that of Halevy, who makes all the drainage from
Nejran northward run to the same great wadi. Whether there be any
second line of drainage in southern Nejd skirting the edge of the
great desert and following the depression of the W. Yabrin must remain
a matter of conjecture. Colonel Miles concluded, from his enquiries,
that the low salt swamp, extending inland for some distance from Khor
ed Duwan, in the bay east of El Katr, was the outlet of an extensive
drainage system which may well be continuous with the W. Yabrin and
extend far into the interior, if not to Nejran itself.

El Hasa.

East of Nejd a strip of sandy desert 50 m. in width extends almost
continuously from the great Nafud to the Dahna. East of this again a
succession of stony ridges running parallel to the coast has to be
crossed before El Hasa is reached. This province, which skirts the
Persian Gulf from the mouth of the Euphrates to the frontiers of Oman,
is low and hot; its shores are flat, and with the exception of Kuwet
at the north-west corner of the gulf, it possesses no deep water
port. North of Katif it is desert and only inhabited by nomads; at
Katif, however, and throughout the district to the south bordering on
the Gulf of Bahrein there are ample supplies of underground water,
welling up in abundant springs often at a high temperature, and
bringing fertility to an extensive district of which El Hofuf, a town
of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, is the most important centre.

South-western Arabia.

South-western Arabia, from the twenty-first parallel down to the Gulf
of Aden, including the Taif district of Hejaz, Asir and Yemen, forms
one province geographically. Throughout its length it consists of
three zones, a narrow coastal strip, rarely exceeding 20 m. in width,
a central mountainous tract, embracing the great chain which runs
parallel to the coast from near Taif to within 50 m. of Aden, and an
inner plateau falling gradually to the north-east till it merges in
the Nejd steppes or the sands of the great desert.

The lowland strip or Tehama consists partly of a gravelly plain, the
_Khabt_, covered sparsely with acacia and other desert shrubs and
trees, and furnishing pasturage for large flocks of goats and camels;
and partly of sterile wastes of sand like the _Ramla_, which extends
on either side of Aden almost from the seashore to the foot of the
hills. The Tehama is, however, by no means all desert, the mountain
torrents where they debouch into the plain have formed considerable
tracts of alluvial soil of the highest degree of fertility producing
in that warm equable climate two and even three crops in the year. The
flood-water is controlled by a system of dams and channels constructed
so as to utilize every drop, and the extent of cultivation is limited
more by the supply of water available than by the amount of suitable
soil. These districts support a large settled population and several
considerable towns, of which Bet el Fakih and Zubed in the western and
Lahej in the southern Tehama, with 4000 to 6000 inhabitants, are the
most important. There are signs that this coastal strip was until a
geologically recent period below sea-level; and that the coast-line is
still receding is evidenced by the history of the town of Muza, once a
flourishing port, now 20 m. inland; while Bet el Fakih and Zubed, once
important centres of the coffee trade, have lost their position
through the silting up of the ports which formerly served them.

The jebel or mountain-land is, however, the typical Yemen, the _Arabia
Felix_ of the ancients. Deep valleys winding through the barren
foothills lead gradually up to the higher mountains, and as the track
ascends the scenery and vegetation change their character; the trees
which line the banks of the wadi are overgrown with creepers, and the
running stream is dammed at frequent intervals, and led off in
artificial channels to irrigate the fields on either side; the steeper
parts of the road are paved with large stones, substantially built
villages, with their masonry towers or _dars_, crowning every height,
replace the collection of mud walls and brushwood huts of the low
country; while tier above tier, terraced fields cover the hill slopes
and attest the industry of the inhabitants and the fertility of their
mountains. On the main route from Hodeda to Sana the first coffee
plantations are reached at Usil, at an altitude of 4300 ft., and
throughout the western slopes of the range up to an altitude of 7000
ft. it is the most important crop. Jebel Haraz, of which Manakha, a
small town of 3000 inhabitants is the chief place, is described by
Glaser as one vast coffee garden. Here the traveller ascending from
the coast sees the first example of the jebel or highland towns, with
their high three-storeyed houses, built of quarried stone, their
narrow facades pierced with small windows with whitewashed borders and
ornamented with varied arabesque patterns; each dar has the appearance
of a small castle complete in itself, and the general effect is rather
that of a cluster of separate forts than of a town occupied by a
united community.

The scenery in this mountain region is of the most varied description;
bare precipitous hill-sides seamed with dry, rocky watercourses give
place with almost startling rapidity to fertile slopes, terraced
literally for thousands of feet. General Haig in describing them says:
"One can hardly realize the enormous labour, toil and perseverance
that these represent; the terrace walls are usually 5 to 8 ft. in
height, but towards the top of the mountains they are sometimes as
much as 15 or 18 ft.; they are built entirely of rough stone without
mortar, and I reckon that on an average each wall retains not more
than twice its own height in breadth, and I do not think I saw a
single break in them unrepaired."

The highest summits as determined by actual survey are between 10,000
and 11,000 ft. above sea-level. J. Sabur, a conspicuous mass in the
extreme south, is 9900 ft., with a fall to the Taiz valley of 5000
ft.; farther north several points in the mountains above Ibb and Yarim
attain a height of 10,500 ft., and J. Hadur, near the Sana-Hodeda
road, exceeds 10,000 ft. From the crest of the range there is a short
drop of 2000 or 3000 ft. to the broad open valleys which form the
principal feature of the inner plateau. The town of Yarim lies near
its southern extremity at an altitude of about 8000 ft.; within a
short distance are the sources of the W. Yakla, W. Bana and W. Zubed,
running respectively east and south and west. The first named is a dry
watercourse ultimately joining the basin of the W. Hadramut; the two
others run for a long distance through fertile valleys and, like many
of the wadis on the seaward side of the range, have perennial streams
down to within a few miles of the sea. Sana, the capital of Yemen,
lies in a broad valley 7300 ft. above sea-level, sloping northwards to
the W. Kharid which, with the Ghail Hirran, the sources of which are
on the eastern slopes of J. Hadur, run north-eastward to the Jauf
depression. The Arhab district, through which these two great wadis
run, was formerly the centre of the Himyar kingdom; cultivation is now
only to be found in the lower parts on the borders of the
watercourses, all above being naked rock from which every particle of
soil has been denuded. In the higher parts there are fine plains where
Glaser found numerous Himyaritic remains, and which he considers were
undoubtedly cultivated formerly, but they have long fallen out of
cultivation owing to denudation and desiccation--the impoverishment of
the country from these causes is increasing. Eastward the plateau
becomes still more sterile, and its elevation probably falls more
rapidly till it reaches the level of the Jauf and Nejran valleys on
the borders of the desert. The water-parting between central and
southern Arabia seems to be somewhere to the south of Nejran, which,
according to Halevy, drains northward to the W. Dawasir, while the
Jauf is either an isolated depression, or perhaps forms part of the
Hadramut basin.

Asir.

Farther north, in Asir, the plateau is more mountainous and contains
many fertile valleys. Of these may be mentioned Khamis Mishet and the
Wadi Shahran rising among the high summits of the maritime chain, and
the principal affluents of the Wadi Besha; the latter is a broad
well-watered valley, with numerous scattered hamlets, four days'
journey (perhaps 80 m.) from the crest of the range. Still farther
north is the Wadi Taraba and its branches running down from the
highland district of Zahran. The lower valleys produce dates in
abundance, and at higher elevations wheat, barley, millets and
excellent fruit are grown, while juniper forests are said to cover the
mountain slopes. In Yemen this tree was probably more common formerly;
the place-name Arar, signifying juniper, is still often found where
the tree no longer exists.

Coast of Yemen.

Hadramut.

The western coast of Yemen, like that of Hejaz, is studded with shoals
and islands, of which Perim in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, Kamaran,
the Turkish quarantine post, 40 m. north of Hodeda, and the Farsan
group, off the Abu Arish coast, are the principal. Hodeda is the only
port of any importance since the days of steamships began; the other
ports, Mokha, Lohaia and Kanfuda merely share in the coasting trade.
The south coast is free from the shoals that imperil the navigation of
the Red Sea, and in Aden it possesses the only safe natural harbour on
the route between Suez and India. Several isolated volcanic hills crop
out on the shore line between Aden and the straits; the most
remarkable are J. Kharaz, 2500 ft., and J. Shamshan, 1700 ft., at the
base of which Aden itself is built. In both of these the crater form
is very clearly marked. A low maritime plain, similar to the Tehama of
the western coast, extends for some 200 m. east of the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb, backed by mountains rising to 7000 ft. or more; farther
east the elevation of the highland decreases steadily, and in the
Hadramut, north of Mukalla, does not much exceed 4000 ft. The mountain
chain, too, is less distinctly marked, and becomes little more than
the seaward escarpment of the plateau which intervenes between the
coast and the Hadramut valley. This valley runs nearly east and west
for a distance of 500 m. from the eastern slopes of the Yemen
highlands to its mouth on the Mahra coast near Sihut. The greater part
of it is desert, but a short stretch lying between the 48th and 50th
meridians is well watered and exceptionally fertile. This begins a
little to the east of Shabwa, the ancient capital, now half buried in
the advancing sand, and for a distance of over 70 m. a succession of
villages and towns surrounded by fields and date groves extends along
the main valley and into the tributaries which join it from the south.
Shibam, Saiyun and Tarim are towns of 6000 or more inhabitants, and
Hajren and Haura in the W. Duwan are among the larger villages.
Himyaritic remains have been found here and in the W. Mefat which
enters the Gulf of Aden near Balhaf. A few small fishing villages or
ports are scattered along the coast, but except Mukalla and Shihr none
is of any importance.

The Gara coast was visited by the Bents, who went inland from Dhafar,
one of the centres of the old frankincense trade, to the crest of the
plateau. The narrow coastal strip seems to be moderately fertile, and
the hills which in places come down to the seashore are covered with
trees, among which the frankincense and other gum-bearing trees are
found. On the plateau, which has an altitude of 4000 ft., there is
good pasturage; inland the country slopes gently to a broad valley
beyond which the view was bounded by the level horizon of the desert.

Oman.

Oman (q.v.) includes all the south-eastern corner of the peninsula.
Its chief feature is the lofty range of J. Akhdar, 10,000 ft. above
sea-level. Like the great range of western Arabia, it runs parallel to
the coast; it differs, however, from the western range in that its
fall on the landward side is as abrupt and nearly as great as on its
seaward side. Its northern extremity, Ras Musandan, rises
precipitously from the straits of Hormuz; farther south the range
curves inland somewhat, leaving a narrow but fertile strip, known as
the Batina coast, between it and the sea, and containing several
populous towns and villages of which Sohar, Barka and Sib are the
chief. Muscat, the capital of the province and the principal port on
the coast, is surrounded on three sides by bare, rocky hills, and has
the reputation of being the hottest place in Arabia. Zwemer says the
fertility of the highland region of J. Akhdar is wonderful and is in
striking contrast to the barrenness of so much of the coast; water
issues in perennial springs from many rocky clefts, and is carefully
husbanded by the ingenuity of the people; underground channels, known
here as _faluj_, precisely similar to the _kanat_ or _karez_ of Persia
and Afghanistan, are also largely used. The principal villages on the
eastern slopes are Rustak, Nakhl and Semail in the well-watered valley
of the same name; on the western slopes are Tanuf and Nizwa, lying
immediately below the highest summit of the range; Semed, Ibra and
Bidiya in the W. Betha are all well-built villages with palm-groves
and irrigated fields. In the north-west the Dhahira district sloping
towards the Jewasimi coast is more steppe-like in character; but there
two oases of great fertility are found, of which Birema, visited by
both Miles and Zwemer, supports a population of 15,000. West of Abu
Dhabi a low flat steppe with no settled inhabitants extends up to the
Katr peninsula, merging on the north into the saline marshes which
border the Persian Gulf, and on the south into the desert.

The southern desert.

The great desert known as the Dahna or the Rub'a el Khali ("the empty
quarter") is believed to cover all the interior of southern Arabia
from the borders of Yemen in the west to those of Oman in the east.
Halevy in Nejran, Von Wrede in Hadramut, and Wellsted in Oman reached
its edge, though none of them actually entered it, and the guides
accompanying them all concurred in describing it as uninhabitable and
uncrossed by any track. Its northern fringe is no doubt frequented by
the Bedouin tribes of southern Nejd after the rains, when its sands,
like those of the northern desert, produce herbage; but towards the
east, according to Burckhardt's information, it is quite without
vegetation even in the winter and spring. The farthest habitable spot
to the south of Nejd is the Wadi Yabrin, which L. Pelly heard of from
the Ahl Murra Bedouins as once a fertile district, and which still
produces dates, though, owing to malaria, it is now deserted; thence
southward to the Hadramut valley no communication is known to exist.

[_Geology._--The geological structure of Arabia is very similar to
that of Egypt. The oldest rocks consist of granite and schist,
penetrated by intrusive dykes, and upon this foundation rest the
flat-lying sedimentary deposits, beginning with a sandstone like the
Nubian sandstone of Egypt. In the northern part of Arabia the
crystalline rocks form a broad area extending from the peninsula of
Sinai eastwards to Hail and southwards at least as far as Mecca.
Towards the north the crystalline floor is overlaid by the great
sandstone series which covers nearly the whole of the country north of
Hail. Upon the sandstone rest a few scattered outliers of limestone,
probably of Cretaceous age, the largest of which occur near Jauf and
east of Bureda. Over both sandstone and granite great sheets of lava
have been poured, and these, protecting the softer beds beneath from
further denudation, now stand up as the high plateaus and hills called
_harra_. Volcanic cones still exist in large numbers, and the sheets
of lava appear as fresh as any recent flows of Etna or Vesuvius.
Arabian manuscripts describe an eruption on the harra near Medina in
A.D. 1256. In the south of Arabia the crystalline floor appears at
intervals along the southern coast and on the shores of the Gulf of
Oman. At Marbat the granite is overlaid by sandstone, presumably the
Nubian sandstone: this is followed by marls containing Cenomanian
fossils; and these are overlaid by Upper Cretaceous limestones, upon
which rest isolated patches of _Alveolina_ limestone. Generally,
however, the Cretaceous beds do not appear, and the greater part of
southern Arabia seems to be formed of _Alveolina_ and nummulite
limestones of Tertiary age. An extinct volcano occurs at Aden, and
volcanic rocks are found at other places near the Straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb. Throughout the whole of Arabia, so far as is known, the
sedimentary beds show no signs of any but the most gentle folding.
Faulting, however, is by no means absent, and some of the faults are
of considerable magnitude. The Gulf of Akaba is a strip of country
which has been let down between two parallel faults, and several
similar faulted troughs occur in the Sinai peninsula. The Red Sea
itself is a great trough bounded by faults along each side.]

_Climate._--Owing to its low latitude and generally arid surface,
Arabia is on the whole one of the hottest regions of the earth; this
is especially the case along the coasts of the Persian Gulf and the
southern half of the Red Sea, where the moist heat throughout the year
is almost intolerable to Europeans. In the interior of northern and
central Arabia, however, where the average level of the country
exceeds 3000 ft., the fiery heat of the summer days is followed by
cool nights, and the winter climate is fresh and invigorating; while
in the highlands of Asir and Yemen in the south-west, and of Oman in
the east, the summer heat is never excessive, and the winters are,
comparatively speaking, cold.

In the northern desert the temperature is subject to extreme
variations. Nolde states that on the 1st of February 1893 in the
desert north of Hail the thermometer fell from 78 deg. a little before
sunset to 18 deg. a quarter of an hour after. The midday temperatures
recorded by Huber at Hail during January and the first half of
February average about 65 deg. F., and water froze on several nights;
at Medina the winters are cold and night frosts of frequent
occurrence, and these conditions prevail over all the western part of
the Nejd plateau. In the east where the elevation is lower the climate
is warmer. In the elevated highland district which extends from Taif
to within 50 m. of Aden, the summer heat is tempered by the monsoon
winds, and the seasonal variation of temperature is less marked. From
observations made at Sana by Manzoni, Deflers and Glaser, the mean
temperature for the year of that city at an altitude of 7300 ft. and
in 15 deg. 22' N. appears to be 60 deg. F.; for July the mean maximum
was 77 deg., mean minimum 54 deg.; for January the figures were 62
deg.and 40 deg. respectively, the lowest recorded temperature in 1878
was 26.6 deg. on the 26th of January. At Aden at the sea-level the
mean temperature for the year is 83 deg.; the highest observed
temperature in 1904 was 97.3 deg., the lowest 67.4 deg.

The rainfall throughout northern and central Arabia is chiefly in the
winter months between October and April, and is scanty and irregular.
Doughty states that in 1876 rain to wet the ground had not fallen for
three years at Medain Salih; in that year showers fell on the 29th of
December and on two days in January and again in March. After a very
hot summer the bright weather changed to clouded skies on the 2nd of
October, rain fell tempestuously the same evening, and there were
showery days and nights till the 14th. The autumn rains fell that year
abundantly in the Nafud towards Jauf, but very little in the basin of
the W. Hamd (on the western slope). Doughty adds that the Nejd
highlands between Kasim and Mecca are watered yearly by seasonable
rains, which at Taif are expected about the end of August and last
commonly from four to six weeks. This appears to be about the northern
limit reached by the south-west monsoon, which from June to September
brings a fairly abundant rainfall to the Yemen highlands, though the
Tehama remains almost entirely rainless. The rainfall is heaviest
along the western fringe of the plateau, and penetrates inland in
decreasing quantity over a zone which perhaps extends to 100 m. in
width. In good seasons it is sufficient for the cultivation of the
summer crop of millet, and for the supply of the perennial streams and
springs, on which the irrigation of the winter crops of wheat and
barley depend. The amount measured at Dhala at the extreme south of
the plateau at an elevation of 4800 ft. was in 1902 as follows:--June,
4.0 in.; July, 5.5; August, 5.8; September, 1.9. Only slight showers
were recorded in the other months of the year. At higher elevations
the rainfall is no doubt heavier; Manzoni mentions that at Sana there
was constant rain throughout August and September 1878, and that the
thermometer during August did not reach 65 deg. In the Tehama
occasional showers fall during the winter months; at Aden the average
rainfall for the year is 2.97 in., but during 1904 only 0.5 in. was
recorded. Snow falls on the Harra and on the Tehama range in northern
Arabia, and Nolde records a fall of snow which lay on the Nafud on the
1st of February 1893. It also falls on J. Akhdar in Oman, but is very
rarely known on the Yemen mountains, probably because the
precipitation during the winter months is so slight.

The prevailing winds in northern Arabia as far as is known are from
the west; along the southern coast they are from the east; at Sana
there is generally a light breeze from the north-north-west from 9 to
11 A.M., from noon till 4 P.M. a steady and often strong wind blows
from the south-south-east, which dies away later. The climate is
extremely dry, but this is compensated for by the heavy mists which
sweep up from the plains during the rainless months and exercise a
most beneficial effect in the coffee-growing districts. This
phenomenon is known as the sukhemani or amama. In the morning the
Tehama, as seen from the mountain tops, appears buried in a sea of
white cloud; towards noon the clouds drift up the mountain slopes and
cover the summits with wreaths of light mist charged with moisture
which condenses on the trees and vegetation; in the afternoon they
disappear, and the evenings are generally clear and still.

_Fauna._--The wild animals of Arabia are all of the desert-loving
type: antelopes and gazelles are found in small numbers throughout the
peninsula; the latter are similar to the _chikara_ or ravine deer of
India. The larger antelopes, so common on the African side of the Gulf
of Aden, are not found, except one variety, the _Oryx beatrix_ (called
by the Arabs, wild cow), which is an inhabitant of the Nafud between
Tema and Hail; it is about the size of a donkey, white, and with long
straight horns. Hares are numerous both in the desert and in
cultivated tracts. In the Yemen mountains the _wal_, a wild goat with
massive horns, similar to the Kashmir ibex, is found; monkeys also
abound. Among smaller animals the jerboa and other descriptions of
rat, and the _wabar_ or cony are common; lizards and snakes are
numerous, most of the latter being venomous. Hyenas, wolves and
panthers are found in most parts of the country, and in the mountains
the leopard and wild cat. Of birds the ostrich is found in the Nafud
and in the W. Dawasir. Among game birds the bustard, guinea fowl, sand
grouse (_kata_), blue rock, green pigeon, partridge, including a large
chikor (_akb_) and a small species similar to the Punjab sisi; quail
and several kinds of duck and snipe are met with. In the cultivated
parts of Yemen and Tehama small birds are very numerous, so also are
birds of prey, vultures, kites and hawks.

Insects of all sorts abound; scorpions, centipedes, spiders, and an
ugly but harmless millipede known in Yemen as _hablub_ are very common
in summer. Ants and beetles too are very numerous, and anthills are
prominent features in many places. Locusts appear in great swarms and
do much damage; fires are lighted at night to attract them, and large
quantities are caught and eaten by the poorer people. Bees are kept,
and in Yemen and Hadramut the honey is exceptionally good.

Camel.

Of domesticated animals the camel is far the most useful to the Arab.
Owing to its endurance of thirst the long desert journeys which
separate the populous centres are made practicable, and in the spring
months, when green forage is plentiful in the desert, the Bedouins
pitch their camps for long periods far from any water, and not only
men but horses subsist on camel's milk. The Arabian camel belongs to
the one-humped species, though there are many varieties differing in
appearance as much as the thoroughbred race-horse from the English
cart-horse. The ordinary load for a pack camel is about 400 lb., and
in hot weather good camels will march 20 to 25 m. daily and only
require water every third or fourth day: in cool weather, with ample
green fodder they can go twenty-five days or more without drinking. A
good _dalul_ or riding camel will carry his rider 100 m. a day for a
week on end. Nolde gives an instance from his own experience of a
camel rider covering 62 m. in seven hours. The pure-bred riding camel
is only found in perfection in inner Arabia; for some unexplained
reason when taken out of their own country or north of the 30th degree
they rapidly degenerate.

Horse.