The whole of the west coast, comprising the districts of Hejaz and Yemen, and in quite recent times part of the east coast, namely Koweit, at the head of the Persian Gulf, and the district of El Ahsa, are more or less under the suzerainty of the Turks. The area of the western strip is about 200,000 square miles in extent, and has a population of about 1,130,000; while the eastern has an area of about 31,000 square miles and a population of nearly 200,000. Even in these districts, how ever, the chief offices of government are per formed by the chieftains of the small territories into which the districts are subdivided. The most extensive districts politically united in the rest of Arabia are the kingdoms of Oman and Nejed, the former with an area of 81,000 square miles and a population of 1,598,000; the latter (the kingdom of the Wahabees) with an area of perhaps 200,000 square miles and a population of about 1,219,000.
The mode of life of the Arabs is either nomadic or settled, or in other words, they either live in tents and derive their subsistence from the rearing of cattle, wherever sufficient pasture is obtainable, and from the transport of caravans through the desert; or from the pur suits of agriculture and commerce. The no madic tribes in Arabia are termed Bedouins, Beduins or Bedawins; those following settled occupations, Hadji and Fellahs. A consider able trade, partly overland, partly maritime, is carried on, chiefly in coffee, dates, figs, spices and aromatic substances of various kinds, though its present amount is scarcely a shadow of what it was in times previous to the dis covery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope. Commerce is partly in the hands of foreigners, among whom the Jews and Banians are the most numerous. The latter are a tribe of Indian merchants, who, however, only re main long enough in the country to enable them to return with wealth to their own land. At present the trade of Arabia is almost exclu sively confined to exports of raw material or imports of foreign manufactures, domestic in dustry being scarcely able to supply the most necessary articles of consumption, and the in habitants are thus rendered dependent on for eign nations for the greater portion of their manufactured commodities. The period of in tellectual development among the Arabs is now indeed long past its zenith, but it does not ap pear yet to have sunk so low as is often as sumed. Even in the desert children are taught to read, write and cipher, and in the towns there are higher schools for satisfying the taste for scientific pursuits. The political constitu tion of the Arabs is patriarchal, and based on a love of freedom. The titles of the chiefs of the tribes are emir, sheikh or imam, personages whose functions appear in general to be limited to the command of the army in war, the collec tion of tribute and the administration of law by the cadis or judges.
History.— The history of the Arabs pre vious to Mohammed is obscure, and, owing to their slight connection with the rest of the world, of little interest. The evidence of lan guage, tradition and other things, establishes the fact that Arabia must have been settled at a very early date by two branches of one race. One of these branches inhabits the south and east of the peninsula (Yemen, Hadramaut and Oman), and considers itself as forming the "pure'® Arabs, while to the other branch it gives the name of Mostareb, or The oldest traditions regarding the origin of the former branch point to an immigration from Africa which took place about the southwest corner of the peninsula, and the physical ap pearance and structure of the southern Arabs, the remnants of their dialect (which is now superseded by that of the northern branch), and various institutions and customs prevailing in the parts of Arabia inhabited by them, all confirm the notion that they were originally identical with the nearest inhabitants of Africa. The northern branch, on the other hand, though bearing an unmistakable affinity with the south ern, shows (in its language and other respects) more traces of Asiatic than African influence. The Arabs of the southern branch were the first to attain any considerable political power. A kingdom belonging to this branch is said to have existed in the south for .upward of 2,000 years, embracing, when in a flourishing condition, the whole of the south half of the peninsula, and sometimes extending its bounda ries by conquest very much farther. There is no doubt that there was actually such a king dom, called the kingdom of Yemen, and having its capital first at March and afterward at Sana, both in the district of that name; but how long that kingdom subsisted cannot be deter mined. Its kings belonged to the Himyarite dynasty, but this designation Himyarite is some times applied by Arab writers to the ruling classes of the southern branch, and sometimes to the whole branch. The YemenitC kingdom was rendered subject by the Abyssinians for upward of 70 years in the 6th century of the Christian era, during which period Christianity was proclaimed in the land. Ultimately the heir to the throne of the Himyarite dynasty was restored through the assistance of Chosroes, King of Persia (605 A.n), but about 30 years later the kingdom was finally overthrown by the followers of Mohammed. Another Himyarite
kingdom was that of Hira on the west shore of the lower Euphrates. It seems also to have extended at times to the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris, so as to give the name of Irak Arabi to that district. The dates given for the foundation of this kingdom are widely different. Its overthrow is placed in the 5th century of our era. In the 1st century of the Christian era the Himyarite kingdom of Ghassan was founded in lower Syria and Hejaz. It lasted till the time of Mohammed. The last Himyarite kingdom that need be men tioned is that of Kindeh, which detached itself from that of Hira early in the 3d century, and lasted about 160 years. Its sway extended over northern Nejed. The divided forces of the Arabs could not always successfully resist the Roman arms, and though their country was never completely reduced to the condition of a province, yet the princes in the north at least lived in a state of dependence on the Roman emperors, and were regarded as their viceroys. In the south the Romans had no influence. An expedition was fitted out against Yemen in the reign of Augustus (24 a.c.), but it completely miscarried. With the decline of the Roman empire Arabia made vigorous struggles for in dependence, which could easily. have been brought about by a union of the various tribes. But the Arabian peoples continued dispersed and broken, and passed many centuries in in ternal conflicts, during which the central high lands (Nejed) became the theatre of those chivalrous contests so celebrated by the native poets. Christianity early gained many ad herents in Arabia, though it did not succeed in entirely banishing the ancient worship of the stars. Several Christian bishoprics were estab lished, subject to the metropolitan at Bozra, in Palestine. The town of Elhira, near the Eu phrates, contained many Arabian Christians and convents, and the reigning King, Ennornan-ben el-mondsir, became a convert to Christianity not long before the time of Mohammed. The conflict of the Arabs with Roman despotism was more especially the cause of attracting to their country numbers of Christian sects, among others the Monophysites and Nestorians, seek ing a refuge from the persecutions to which they were subjected by the maintainers of orthodoxy throughout the East. Jews also were very numerous in Arabia after the de struction of Jerusalem, and even made some proselytes, chiefly in Yemen. The wide differ ences between the various sects produced in the minds of many an indifference to all the exist ing religions, and was probably one of the principal causes that the doctrines of Moham med found so speedy an acceptance in Arabia. With Mohammed a new phase commences in the history of the Arabian peoples, who are wont to designate respectively the periods be fore and after the appearance of the Prophet as those of ignorance and knowledge. Moham med belonged to the Mostareb, and among them to the tribe of Koreysh, which had occupied a position of great influence in Arabia since the beginning of the 5th century, when it managed by craft to obtain possession of the city of Mecca, which was not only a city of great commercial importance, hut was regarded as sacred by the Arabs on account of its contain ing the Kaaba. During the whole of the 6th century the Mostareb generally were increas ing in power, and by the beginning of the 7th, when Mohammed had grown to manhood, they had absorbed the kingdom of Kindeh, and had extended their sway at the expense of those of Yemen, Hira and Ghassan. By the time of Mohammed's death, in 632, his religion had ac quired a firm hold in Arabia, and after that event his successors, acting on the commands of the Koran, began to spread it by force of arms beyond the bounds of the peninsula. The nation, now for the first time acting as a body, played for several centuries an important part in the world's history, advancing in a career of victory beyond its natural frontiers, to found empires in three-quarters of the globe. The brilliant period of Arabian history, indeed, as regards foreign countries, came to a termina tion in Asia in 1258, on the fall of the caliphate of Bagdad, as also about the same time in Africa and Europe, in the latter of which the Moorish dominion was finally overthrown (in the kingdom of Granada in Spain) in the last decade of the 15th century; yet the epoch of the Arab sway must ever occupy a distin guished place in the intellectual history of man kind. The internal history of the country. dur ing its foreign conflicts presents little more than unimportant accounts of some Bedouin tribes, and the fortunes of the caravans which made the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1517 Tur key subjected Hejaz and Yemen, and received the nominal submission of the tribes inhabiting the rest of Arabia. The subjection of Hejaz has continued down to the present day, with a brief interval in the latter half of the 16th century, and another longer interval in the 19th century, when the Pasha of Egypt was domi nant in Arabia; but Yemen achieved its inde pendence in 1630 and maintained it till 1871, when the territory again fell into the hands of the Turks. In 1839 Aden, in Yemen, was occu pied by the British.