File:Arabia- the cradle of Islam - studies in the geography, people and politics of the peninsula, with an account of Islam and mission work (1900) (14577971930).jpg

Identifier: arabiacradleofis00zwem (find matches)
Title: Arabia: the cradle of Islam : studies in the geography, people and politics of the peninsula, with an account of Islam and mission work
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Zwemer, Samuel Marinus, 1867-1952
Subjects: Missions -- Arabian Peninsula Islam Islam Arabian Peninsula Arabian Peninsula -- Description and travel Arabian Peninsula -- Missions
Publisher: New York Toronto : F. H. Revell
Contributing Library: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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esert are those of a plain clothed with stunted,aromatic shrubs of many varieties, but their value as pasture isvery unequal, some being excellent for camels and sheep, othersabsolutely worthless. Some nefuds abound in grasses andflowering plants after the early rains, and then the desertblossoms like the rose. Others are without rain andbarren all year; they are covered with long stretches of drift-sand, carried about by the wind and tossed in billows on theweather side of the rocks and bushes.^ Palgrave asserts thatsome of the nefud sands are 600 feet deep. They prevail inthe vast unexplored region south of Nejd and north of Hadra-maut including the so-called Great Arabian Desert. Abso-lute sterility is the dominant feature here, whereas the northernnefuds are the pasture lands for thousands of horses and sheep. These wastes are also termed Dakhna, Ahkaf, and /Iawaaaccordingto the greater or less depth or shifting nature of the sands or the moreor less compact character of the soil.
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II THE GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS OF ARABIA I *HE division of Arabia into provinces has always been■*■ rather according to physical geography than politicalboundaries. The earliest division of the peninsula, and insome respects the most correct, was that of the Greek and Ro-man writers into Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix. The lat-ter epithet was perhaps only a mistaken translation of El- Ye-me?i—the land on the right hand, that is south of Mecca, forthe Orientals face east. This is contrasted with Syria whichin Arabic is called Es-Shain or the land to the left ofMecca. The third division, Arabia Petrcea, or Stony Ara-bia, first appears in Ptolemy and is applied to the Sinai dis-trict. He limits Arabia Deserta to the extreme northern desertand so his map of the entire peninsula bears the title of ArabiaFelix. The great geographer anticipated all modern maps ofArabia by naming the regions according to the tribes that in-habit them; a much more intelligent method than the drawingof ar

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