The history of Arabia, before the time of Mohammed, is involved in mystery, and has little interest, on account of its want of connection with the world's general progress. The aborigines of A. were probably Cushites, most of whom, on account of the hostile immigration of certain Semitic races, descended from Joktan, grandson of Shem, passed over into Abyssinia. A few, however, remained, who inhabited the western coasts. Subsequently, another Semitic race, descended from Abraham, settled in the land. The oldest Arabian tribes are now extinct, and only a traditional memory even of their names exists; but the Semitic chiefs, Joktan or Kahtan, and Ishmael, are generally considered to be the fathers of the present inhabitants. The descendants of the former are the pure Arabs; those of the latter are held to be only Arabicized. The princes of A. belong wholly to the first. A great-grandson of Joktan, Himzar or Homeir, inaugurated a dynasty—the Himyarides or Idomerittc—which ruled in Yemen for upwards of 2000 years. This was a prosperous time. The Arabs of Yemen, and partly those of the desert, dwelt in towns and cultivated the soil; carried on commerce with the East Indies, Persia, Syria, and Abyssinia, in the last of which countries they planted numer ous colonies. The rest of the people, however, lived nomadically, as now. Bravely, for thousands of years, they maintained their freedom, their faith, and their peculiar cus toms against the assaults of the great military empires. Neither the Babylonian and Assyrian nor the Egyptian and Persian kings could reduce the Arabs to a state of sub jugation. Alexander had determined to try his power against A., when death inter rupted his plans. Three centuries after Alexander's death, the Romans had extended their empire to the borders of A., and Trajan, in 107 A.D., penetrated far into the interior; but though the northern chieftains were brought into a formal subjection to the empire, A. was not made a Roman province. The old Himyarides in Yemen stoutly maintained their independence, and an expedition against them in the time of Augustus completely failed. With the decay of the Roman empire, strife and lawlessness increased. The Arab races continued in a scattered, disorganized condition, and many
hundreds of years passed away in intestine wars, during which the central highland region was the scene of those feuds of the Arab clans so copiously sung by the native poets. Christianity found an early entrance into A. The JeWs, in considerable num bers, migrated into A. after the destruction of Jerusalem, and made many proselytes. especially in Yemen. This diversity of creeds in the peninsula was favorable to the introduction of the doctrine of Mohammed, which forms the grand epoch in Arabian history, and brings it into close connection with the general history of civilization. Now, for the first time, the people of A. became united, and powerful enough to erect new empires in the three quarters of the world. The dominion of the Arabs, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the caliphat of Bagdad in 1258, or even to the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492, is an" important period in the history of civilization. See the articles Moons, CALIPHS. But the movements which had such great effects on the destinies of other nations, produced ,but little ehangein the interior of A.; and, after the brilliant career of conquest was ended, the peninsula was, left in an exhausted con dition. Then followed the subjugation of Yemen by the Turks in the sixteenth cen tury; their expulsion in the seventeenth century; the dominion of the Portuguese over Muscat, 1508-1639; the conquests of Oman and the temporary victories gained by the Persians at the close of the 16th c. ; and, lastly, the appearance of the Waliabis (q.v.), 1770, whose moral influence is still felt. The latter took an important part in the political affairs of A., but their progress was interrupted by Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt, who subjugated the coast-country of Hedjaz, with some parts of the coast of Yemen, and in 1818 gained a decisive advantage through the victory of Ibrahim Pasha. The subsequent events of the year 1840, in Syria, compelled Mehemet, however, to con centrate his forces, and to 'resign all claims upon the territories lying beyond the Red sea. See WAHABIS.