(3) Modern Name. The modern name, Jeshi ial-el-Arab, the peninsula of the Arabs, applies to the southern part of the region only. Another native appellation is Beled-el-Arab, the land of the Arabs. The Persians and Turks call it Arabistan. Mr. Lane informs us that in Egypt the term Arab is now generally limited to the Bedawees, or people of the desert ; but formerly it was used to designate the townspeople and villagers of Ara bian origin, while those of the desert were called Aarab or Aarabees; the former now call them selves 0w-1dd-el-Arab, or sons of the Arabs.
2. Gwo Classes of Inhabitants. The inhab itants of Arabia have, from remote antiquity, been divided into two great classes, viz., the townsmen (including villagers), and the men of the desert, such being, as we remarked, the meaning of the word 'Bedawees' or Bedouins, the designation given to the 'dwellers in the wilderness.' From the nature of their country, the latter are neces sitated to lead the life of noinades, or wandering shepherds, and since the days of the patriarchs (who were themselves of that occupation) the extensive steppes, which form so large a of Arabia, have heen traversed by a pastoral but warlike people, who, in their mode of life, their food, their dress, their dwellings, their manners. customs and government have always continued, and still continue, almost unalterably the same.
They consist of a great many separate tribes, who are collected into different encampments dis persed through the territory which they claim as their own, and they move from one spot to an other (commonly in the neighborhood of pools or wells) as soon as the stinted pasture is ex hausted by their cattle.
It is only here and there that the ground is sus ceptible of cultivation, and the tillage of it is commonly left to peasants, who are often the vassals of the liedawees, and whom (as well as all 'townsmen') they regard with contempt as an inferior race. Having constantly to shift their residence, they live in movable tents (Comp. Is X111:20 Jer. xlix :29), from which circumstance they received from the Greeks the name of ninv:Tai, dwellers in tents IStralso, xvi. p. 747; Nod. Sic. p. '254; Ammian.
As the independent lords of their own deserts the Bedawees have from time immemorial de mandcd tribute or presents from all travelers or caravans (Is. xxi :13) passing through their coun try ; the transition from which to robbery is so natural that they attach to the latter no disgrace, plundering without mercy all who are unable to resist them or who have not secured the pro tection of their tribe. Their watching for travel
ers in the frequented routes through the desert is alluded to in Jer. :2; Ezra and the fleetness of their horses in carrying them into the depths of the wilderness, beyond the reach of their pursuers, seems what is referred to in Is. lxiii:13, 14.
Their warlike incursions into more settled dis tricts are often noticed (e. g., Job i :15; 2 Chron. xxi :16; xxvi :7). The acuteness of their bodily senses is very remarkable, and is exemplified in their astonishing sagacity in tracing and distin guishing the footsteps of men and cattle, a fac ulty which is known by the name of athr. The law of Char, or blood revenge, sows the seeds of perpetual feuds, and what was predicted (Gen. xvi :12) of the posterity of Ishmael, the wild-ass man, holds true of the whole people.
3. Commerce. The principal source of the wealth of ancient Arabia was its commerce. So early as the days of Jacob (Gen. xxxvii :28) we read of a mixed caravan of Arab merchants, Ishmaelites and Midianites, who were engaged in the conveyance of various foreign articles to Egypt, and made no scruple to add Joseph to their other purchases. The Arabs were, doubt less, the first navigators of their own seas, and the great carriers of the produce of India, Abys sinia and other remote countries to Western Asia and Egypt. Various Indian productions thus ob tained were common among the Hebrews at an early period of their history (Exod. xxx :23, 25). The traffic of the Red Sea was to Solomon a source of great profit, and the extensive com merce of Saba'a (Sheba, now Yemen), is men tioned by profane writers as well as alluded to in Scripture (1 Kings v no-15). In the descrip tion of the foreign trade of Tyre (Ezek. xxvii: 19-241 various Arab tribes are introduced (Comp. Is. lx:6; Jer. VI :20 ; 2 Chron. ix :14). The Na bathwo-Idumwans became a great trading people, their capital being Petra. The transit trade from India continued to enrich Arabia until the dis covery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, but the Suez Canal has now re stored the ancient route for travelers by the Red Sea.