II. SHEMITES, including the following : A. 7bktanites, i. e., the descendants of Joktan (called by the Arabs Kachtan), the second son of Eber, Shem's great-grandson (Gen. x. 25, 26). According to Arab tradition Kachtan (whom they also regard as a son of Eber), after the confusion of tongues and dispersion at Babel, settled in Yemen, where he reigned as king. Ptolemy speaks of an Arab tribe calied Katanites, who may have derived their name from him ; and the richest Bedouins of the southern plains are the Kahtan tribe on the frontiers of Yemen. Joktan had thirteen sons, some of whose names maybe obscurely traced in the designations of certain districts in Arabia Felix. Their names were Almodad, Shalepb, Hhazarma veth (preserved in the name of the province of Hhadramaut, the Hebrew and Arabic letters being the same), Jarach, Hadoram, Uzal (believed by the Arabs to have been the founder of Sanaa in Yemen), Dikla, Obal, Abimael, Sheba (father of the Sabmans, whose chief town was Mariaba or Mareb; their queen l3alkis supposed to be the queen who visited Solomon*), Ophir (who gave name to the district that became so famous for its gold), Havilah, and Jobab.
B. Abrahamites, divided into— (a) Hagarenes or Hagarites, so called from Hagar the mother ; otherwise termed Ishmaelites from her son ; and yet in course of time these names appear to have been applied to different tribes, for in Psalm lxxxiii. 6, the Hagarenes are expressly dis tinguished from the Ishmaelites (comp. I Chron.
v. to, 19, 20, and the apocryphal books of Bar. iii. 23; Jud. ii. 23). The twelve sons of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 13-15), who gave names to separate tribes, were Nebaioth (the Nabathnans in Arabia Petrtea), Kedar (the Kedarenes, sometimes also used as a designation of the Bedouins generally, and hence the Jewish rabbins called the Arabic language the Kedarene'), Adbeel, Mibsam, Mish ma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad or Hadar, Thema, Jetur, Naphish (the humans and Naphishaeans near the tribe of Gad: 1 Chron. v. 59, no), and Kedmah. They appear to have been for the most part located near to Palestine on the east and south east.
(13) Ketennhites, i. e., the descendants of Abraham and his concubine Keturah, by whom he had six sons (Gen. xxv. 2) ; Zimram, Jokshan (who, like Raamah, son of Cush, was also the father of two sons, Sheba and Dedan), Medan, Midian, Jishbak, and Shuah. Among these, the posterity of became the best known. Their principal seat appears to have been in the neighbourhood of the Moabites, but a branch of them must have settled in the peninsula of Sinai, for Jethro, the father-in law of Moses, was a priest of Midian (Exod. iii. 1 ; xviii. i ; Num. x. 29). To the posterity of Shuah belonged Bildad, one of the friends of Job.
(7) Edon ites, i. e., the descendants of Esau, who possessed Mount Seir and the adjacent region, called from them Idum..Ta. They and the Naba theans formed in later times a flourishing commer cial state, the capital of which was the remarkable city called Petra.
C. Nahorites, the descendants of Nahor, Abra ham's brother, who seem to have peopled the land of Us, the country of Job, and of Bus, the country of his friend Elihu the Buzite, these being the names of Nahor's sons (Gen. xxii. 21).
D. Latices, viz. : (a) Afoabites, who occupied the northern portion of Arabia Petraea, as above described; and their kinsmen, the— (13) Ammonites, who lived north of them, in Arabia Deserts.
Besides these, the Bible mentions various other tribes who resided within the bounds of Arabia, but whose descent is unknown, e. g., the Amale kites, the Kenites, the Horites, the inhabitants of Maon, Hazer, Vedan, and Javan-Meusal (Ezek. xxvii. 19), where the English version has, Dan also and Javan going to and fro.' In process of time some of these tribes were per haps wholly extirpated (as seems to have been the case with the Amalekites), but the rest were more or less mingled together by intermarriages, by military conquests, political revolutions, and other causes of which history has preserved no record ; and thus amalgamated, they became known to the rest of the world as the ARABS,' a people whose physical and mental characteristics are very strongly and distinctly marked. In both respects they rank very high among the nations; so much so, that some have regarded them as furnishing the prototype —the primitive model form—the standard figure of the human species. This was the opinion of the famous Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general of Napoleon's army in Egypt, who, in speaking of the Arabs on the east side of the Red Sea, says (in a Memoir far the Use of the Scientific Commis sion to Algiers, Paris, 183S), They have a physiog nomy and character which are quite peculiar, and which distinguish them generally from all those which appear in other regions of the globe.' In his dissections he found their physical structure in all respects more perfect than that of Europeans; their organs of sense exquisitely acute ; their size above the average of men in general ; their figure robust and elegant (the colour brown) ; their in telligence proportionate to that physical perfection, and, without doubt, superior, other things being equal, to that of other nations.' The inhabitants of Arabia have, from remote antiquity, been divided into two great classes, viz., 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 necessi tated to lead the life of szonzades, or wandering shepherds ; and since the days of the patriarchs (who were themselves of that occupation) the extensive steppes, which form so large a portion of Arabia, have been traversed by a pastoral but war like 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 con
sist of a great many separate tribes, who are col lected into different encampments dispersed through the territory which they claim as their own ; and they move from one spot to another (commonly in the neighbourhood of pools or wells) as soon as the stinted pasture is exhausted by their cattle. It is only here and there that the ground is susceptible of cultivation, and the tillage of it is commonly left to peasants, who are often the vasals of the Bedawees, 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. xiii. 20; Jer. xlix. 29), from which circumstance they received from the Greeks the name of ItinviTat, i. e., dwellers in tents (Strabo, xvi. p. 747; Diod. Sic. p. 254; Ammian. Marcell. xxiii. 6). The tents are of an oblong figure, not more than six or eight feet high, twenty to thirty long, and ten broad ; they are made of goat's or camel's hair, and are of a brown or black colour (such were the tents of Kedar, Cant. i. 5), differing in this respect from those of the Turcomans, which are white. Each tent is divided by a curtain or carpet into two apartments, one of which is appropriated to the women, who are not, however, subject to so much restraint and seclusion as among other Mohammedans. The tents are arranged in an irregular circle, the space within serving as a fold to the cattle at night. The heads of tribes are called sheikhs, a word of various import, but used in this case as a title of honour ; the government is hereditary in the family of each sheikh, but elective as to the particular individual appointed. Their allegi ance, however, consists more in following his example as a leader than in obeying his com mands; and, if dissatisfied with his government, they will depose or abandon him. As the inde pendent lords of their own deserts, the Bedawees have from time immemorial demanded tribute or presents from all travellers or caravans (Is. xxi. 13) passing through their country ; the transition from which to robbery is so natural, that they attach to the latter no disgrace, plundering without mercy all who arc unable to resist them, or who have not secured the protection of their tribe. Their watching for travellers in the ways,' I. e., the frequented routes through the desert, is alluded to Ter. iii. 2; Ezra viii. 31; 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, i4, l'heit warlike incursions into more settled districts are often noticed (e. g., Job i. t5 ; 2 Chron. xxi. 16 ; xxvi. 7). The acuteness of their bodily senses is very remarkable, and is exemplified in their astonish ing sagacity in tracing and distinguishing the foot steps of men and cattle, a faculty which is known by the name of athr. The law of Mar, 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' (a term most graphically descriptive of a Bedawee), holds true of the whole people. Yet the very dread of the consequences of shedding blood prevents their frequent conflicts from being very sanguinary : they skew bravery in repelling a public enemy, but when they fight for plunder they behave like cowards. Their bodily frame is spare, but athletic and active, inured to fatigue and capable of undergoing great privations : their minds are acute and inquisitive ; and though their manners are somewhat grave and formal, they are of a lively and social disposition. Of their moral virtues it is necessary to speak with caution. They were long held up as models of good faith, incorruptible integrity, and the most generous hospitality to strangers ; but many recent travellers denythem the possession of these qualities ; and it is certain that whatever they may have been once, the Bedawees, like all the unsophisticated children of nature,' have been much corrupted by the influx of foreigners, and the national character is in every point of view lowest where they are most exposed to the continual passage of strangers. It is, however, no part of our present design to enter on a more minute account of this singular and interesting people ; information regarding many of their peculiarities which throw light on Scripture will be found under other heads. Let every one who wishes to study Arab life in the desert consult the romance of Mortar, translated by IIamilton, and Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins; and with respect to the manners and customs of the more settled inhabitants, many curious details will be found in Lane's Modern Egyptians, and in the notes to his new Translation of the Thousand and One Nights; for since the downfal of the Arab empire of Bagdad, Cairo has been the chief of Arabian cities, and there Arab manners exist in their most refined form. The population of the entire peninsula of Arabia has been estimated at from eleven to twelve millions, but the data are precarious.