retained the sounds of words unchanged during the lapse of a thousand years. The Arabians have no doubt taken infinite pains in writing manuscripts of the Koran with all the marks and signs, which they invented chiefly to preserve the proper pronunciation of the language of that book. But he must have more faith than I have, who believes that any modern Arabian employs exactly the same sounds and accents in reading the Koran, as its author would do, if he could again revisit the earth, and repeat those surats, of which the wild eloquence has for nearly twelve centuries infatuated half the nations of the East.

ORIGINES.

BOOK VI.

ARABIA.

CHAPTER I.

Containing a few cursory remarks on the geographical situation of Arabia.

THE peninsula of Arabia, says Niebuhr, is bounded on the west by the gulph of that name, otherwise called the Red sea; on the south and on the east by the ocean; and on the north-east by the Persian gulph. A straight line, continues the same author, drawn from the Persian gulph to the extremity of the Arabian gulph, probably marked its northern boundary in ancient times; but at present all Arak Arabi, the Syrian desert, and Palestine, may be reckoned as forming a part of this country, which consequently is contiguous towards the north with the Euphrates and Syria, and towards

the west with Egypt, by the isthmus which joins Africa and Asia.

The celebrated traveller, from whom I have cited the passage above, appears to me to have been led into a great error when he supposed that a straight line, drawn between the extremities of the Persian and Arabian gulphs, ever formed the northern boundary of Arabia. Such a line would nearly correspond with the parallel of thirty degrees of northern latitude; but this line is merely imaginary; and has never been the limit of the Arabian territory. It may indeed be supposed to form the northern boundary of the country, when described as a peninsula, and when denominated, as it is by Abulfeda, Gezirah al Arab. But Arabia cannot be strictly and accurately designated as a peninsula; nor is there any reason to suppose that its limits to the north were ever greatly different from what they are at the present day. The name of Arabia, or Arab, which signifies the west, was originally given by the Chaldeans to the country which lies to the west of the Euphrates, and conse

جزيرة العرب

عرب

quently to the north of the line, which Niebuhr fancied to have been the ancient northern boundary of Arabia. This boundary, which on the side of Syria extends nearly to the thirtyfourth degree of northern latitude, has always been winding and sinuous. Running in an easterly direction from the desert of Sur, it passes by the southern shore of the Dead sea, then proceeding towards the north-east, it extends nearly as far as Palmyra, and after skirting the Syrian mountains, bends towards the Euphrates, follows the course of that stream for nearly twenty leagues, and then leaves the hills of Arak, or Irak Arabi and the Persian gulph to form the eastern limit of the Arabian territory.

Oriental writers are not agreed either about the names, or about the extent, of the provinces into which Arabia is divided. According to Al Madaini, cited by Abubeker, this country contains five provinces-Tehamah, Neged, Hejaz, Arud, or Aruds, and Yemen. The divisions of Arabia named by Ibn Haukal are-Hejaz, Neged al Hejaz, Badiah al Arak, Badiah al Gezirah, Ba