Arabia Petraea

“ The southern frontier of Syria coincided with the southern frontier of Arabia Petraea (later of Palestina Tertia, or Palestina Salutaris) which led from the Red Sea across the mountains of Iram (Ramm) to the southern slope of the aš-Šera’ range.
On the border of Arabia the Roman imperium had a twofold limes, an internal and an external one. The internal limes followed the edge of the settled and cultivated territory, while the external one led through the frontiers of the territory of the nomads, to whom the Romans paid annual salaria. ”

“ Mr. Gaskette has colored a strip of it along the Red Sea, about a hundred miles wide, in green, as he has Palestine and the other parts of Turkey in Asia shown before you. A large portion of Arabia consists of deserts, the principal of which is the Syrian in the north.
"Ptolemy, not the king but the geographer, divided Arabia into three sections,—Arabia Petræa, after the city of Petra; Arabia Deserta, the interior; and Arabia Felix (Arabie Heureuse in French) , which does not mean 'the happy land,' as generally translated. ”

“ In Arabia Petraea, when a wind, powerful enough to scour down below the ordinary surface of the desert and lay bare a fresh bed of stones, is followed by a sudden burst of sunshine, the dark agate pebbles are often cracked and broken by the heat ”

“ When, after his sojourn in Arabia, he returned to Damascus that city was in the hands of Aretas, the king of Arabia Petraea; [62:2] who seems to have contrived to gain possession of it during the confusion which immediately followed the death of the Emperor Tiberius. This petty sovereign courted the favour of the Jewish portion of the population by permitting them to persecute the disciples ”

“ Nebajoth and Kedar are mentioned in Isa 60:7 as rich possessors of flocks, and, according to the current opinion which Wetzstein disputes, are the Nabataei et Cedrei of Pliny ( h. n. 5, 12) . The Nabataeans held possession of Arabia Petraea, with Petra as their capital, and subsequently extended toward the south and north-east, probably as far as Babylon; so that the name was afterwards transferred to all the tribes to the east of the Jordan, and in the Nabataean writings became a common name for Chaldeans (ancient Babylonians) , Syrians, Canaanites, and others. ”

“ These hills are part of a chain which extends from the straits of Ormuz or Persian Gulf, and which extend hither along the coast very high above the sea as far as Toro, where they leave the coast, "and with a great and sudden violence return from thence to the main towards the north-east, as angry and wearied by so long neighbourhood of the waters." Arabia Petrea is divided by three mountains from Arabia Felix, and on the highest tops of them some Christians lead holy and quiet lives. ”

“ The evidence of the land trade between Arabia and India, from a very early period, is equally clear and decisive: Petra, the capital of Arabia Petrea, was the centre of this trade. To it the caravans, in all ages, came from Minea, in the interior of Arabia, and from Gherra, in the Gulf of Persia,--from Hadraumaut, on the Ocean, and some even from Sabaea. From Petra, the trade again spread in every direction--to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, through Arsinoe, Gaza, Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, and other places of less consequence, all lying on routes terminating in the Mediterranean. ”

“ To the north of the oases lay a belt of sand, and then an immense gravel and lava plain, filling up everything between the eastern edge of Syria and the banks of the Euphrates where Mesopotamia began. The practicability of this northern desert for men and motor-cars enabled the Arab revolt to win its ready success.
The hills of the west and the plains of the east were the parts of Arabia always most populous and active. In particular on the west, the mountains of Syria and Palestine, of Hejaz and Yemen, entered time and again into the current of our European life. ”

“ This rugged frontier was the barrier from whence the desert tribes had effectually resisted the attacks of the nations who fought around them for the dominion of the Orient. Persia, Egypt and Rome had each unsuccessfully tried to penetrate this rocky fortress of Arabia and conquer its hardy defenders. Although the Arabs were mostly a nomadic race, whose wealth consisted largely of camels and horses, still their country contained cities and towns, and of these the most important were Mecca and Medīna, where the creed of Islām found its early home. ”

“ I locate Ḳadeš in the neighborhood of the later town of Petra and hence to the south-southeast of the Dead Sea. They thus must have turned toward the south, either through the deep rift valley connecting the Dead Sea with the Red Sea, or by way of the road leading from Petra southward along the western foot of the aš-Šera’ mountain range, or the ancient Seʻîr. The latter is a transport route of very great antiquity, upon which the caravans conveyed various goods from southern Arabia to Petra. ”

“ The kingdom of Oman has extended itself along the eastern shore, nearly to the head of the Persian Gulf. The northern oases, the seat of the powerful sect of the Wahabees, are called Nedjed; and the unknown southern interior, which is believed to be almost wholly desert, inhabited only by a few wandering Bedouins, is known as the Dahna or Akhaf.
Arabia has been inhabited by the same race since the earliest times, and has changed less, in the course of thousands of years, than any other country of the globe, not excepting China. ”

“ If to these central highlands, or Nedjed, taking that word in its wider sense, we add the Djowf, the Ta’yif, Djebel ’Aaseer, Yemen, Oman, and Hasa, in short, whatever spots of fertility belong to the outer circles, we shall find that Arabia contains about two-thirds of cultivated, or at least of cultivable, land, with a remaining third of irreclaimable desert, chiefly to the south. In most other directions the great blank spaces often left in maps of this country are quite as frequently indications of non-information as of real non-inhabitation. ”

“ About sixty-three years before Christ, Pompey took Petra; and, from that period, the sovereigns of Idumea were tributary to the Romans. This city, however, still retained its commerce, and was in a flourishing condition, as we are informed by Strabo, on the authority of his friend Athenedorus, who visited it about thirty-six years after it. He describes it as built on a rock, distinguished, however, from all the rocks in that part of Arabia, from being supplied with an abundant spring of water. Its natural position, as well as art, rendered it a fortress of importance in the desert. ”

“ But should any of my readers have ever approached Damascus from the side of the Anti-Lebanon, and surveyed the Ghootah from the heights above Mazzeh, they may thence form an approximate idea of the valley of Ri’ad when viewed from the north. Only p. 216this is wider and more varied, and the circle of vision here embraces vaster plains and bolder mountains; while the mixture of tropical aridity and luxuriant verdure, of crowded population and desert tracks, is one that Arabia alone can present, and in comparison with which Syria seems tame, and Italy monotonous. ”

“ Rugs, dates, figs, and damask fabrics are exported to Europe through Beirut, its seaport, with which it is connected by rail. Much of the stuffs exported is gathered from Persia. [Pg 354] Yafa is the port of Jerusalem. Bagdad is the chief trade-centre of Mesopotamia.
Arabia.—Arabia is nominally a Turkish possession, but the coast-regions only are under the control of the Sultan. The interior is peopled by nomadic tribes, who do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Turkey. The province of Yemen, on the Red Sea, is about the only noteworthy part of the peninsula. ”

“ Mecca was far too remote from the then existing centres of civilisation to be a convenient vantage point for the world conquest considered by Islam as its appointed task, and as a capital from which to administer the empire which the first Caliphs were able to establish by force of arms. Even Medina seemed unsuited for the purpose, permanently. Then, when the Persian Empire, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain were subjected to Islam, Arabia, regarded politically, became a remote territory with a steadily decreasing significance. ”

“ For six hundred years after Mohammed’s death Islam and Christendom were nearly equal powers, and it is difficult, even now, to decide which contributed the more to the arts from which modern civilization has sprung. Arabia flourished, as never before, under the Caliphs; yet it does not appear that the life of the inhabitants was materially changed, or that any growth, acquired during the new importance of the country, became permanent. Its commerce was restricted to the products of its narrow belt of fertile shore; an arid desert separated it from Bagdad and Syria ”

“ The greater part of our present knowledge of Arabia has been obtained since the opening of this century. The chief seaports and the route from Suez to Mt. Sinai were known during the Middle Ages, but all else was little better than a blank. Within the last fifty or sixty years the mountains of Edom have been explored, the rock-hewn city of Petra discovered, the holy cities of Medina and Mecca visited by intelligent Europeans; Yemen, Hadramaut, and Oman partly traversed ”

“ The interior has always been a sterile sandy desert, interspersed however by frequent green and fertile oases, which were occupied by villages and small towns, as was the case with Palmyra, which rose to power and opulence by being the centre of the trade from the Persian gulf. [12] On the east the Arabs were often in possession of the rich plains of the Hauraun and Damascus; towards the north the districts of Edessa and Emessa, as well as Irak and part of Mesopotamia towards the east, were long ruled by Arabian dynasties. ”

“ Its status was not a little enhanced by the unique significance of the city of Mecca for the Mohammedan world at large. From the tenth century, no one of the foremost Islam princes possessed the machinery to keep West Arabia under an administration even approximately orderly. ”

“ Witnessing the struggle and fall of one and another of the great tyrannies of antiquity, yet never entering the arena of the fight;—swept on its northern frontier by the conflicting armies of Khusru and Cæsar, but lifting never a hand in either cause;—Arabia was at length to issue forth from its silent mystery, and after baffling for a thousand years the curious gaze of strangers, was at last to draw to itself the fearful eyes of all men. ”

“ There is no land in the world and no people (with the exception of Palestine and the Jews) which bear such close relation to the Theocratic covenants and Old Testament promises as Arabia and the Arabs. The promises for the final victory of the Kingdom of God in Arabia are many, definite and glorious. These promises group themselves around seven names which have from time immemorial been identified with the peninsula of Arabia: Ishmael, Kedar, Nebaioth, Sheba, Seba, Midian and Ephah. ”

“ Patra in Achaia was of the same purport. I should imagine, that the place where Balaam the false [760] prophet resided, was of the same nature; and that by Pethor and Pethora was meant a place of interpretation, or oracular temple. There was probably a college of priests; such as are mentioned to have existed among the Amonians: of whom Balaam had been by the king of Moab appointed chief Petora, or priest. It seems to have been the celebrated place in Arabia, famous in after times for the worship of Alilat, and called by the Romans [761] Petra. ”

“ Assisted by Persians of the Persian Gulf, the Arabs of southern and western Arabia revealed East Africa and Madagaskar about the beginning of the Christian Era, and before this period had found their way to western India, Ceylon, and even the Malay Peninsula. After the convulsion and awakening caused by the promulgation of the Muhammadan religion, Arab voyages to the Far East (largely instigated by the merchants of Persia) increased to a remarkable extent; and wherever the Arabs went they endeavoured to spread the faith of Islam. ”

“ Walled in by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream, Petra not only possessed the advantages of a fortress but controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Bostra and Damascus in the north, to Elath and Leucè Comè on the Red Sea, and across the desert to the Persian Gulf.
From the ‛Arāba travellers approach by a track which leads round Jebel Hārūn (Mt Hor) and enters the plain of Petra from the south; it is just possible to find a way in from the high plateau on the north ”

“ When Assyria fell, the New Babylonian empire kept guard over the west. With the end of Babylonian rule, and the ascendency of Persia, Semitic dominance came to an end. Under Persia, and later under Greece, new states came into existence and Aryan rule began.
In the ages with which we are at present concerned, however, Syria remained to the portion of Semitic tribes. We have found Arabia the original home of this race. Providing at best but a scanty living for her children, when tribes multiplied rapidly Arabia seems to have cast out a portion of her inhabitants to make room for the rest. ”

“ Travellers and authors die; but the tribes, nations, and races visited by them continue on, making war or peace, changing frontiers, setting up or pulling down dynasties.
The whole political complexion of a country may be changed in a decade. Though the people of Arabia, the genuine Bedouins, are believed to have changed little or nothing in their mode of life since the days of the Shepherd Kings of Abraham’s time, waves of political and religious agitation have occasionally rippled over one part or another of the ancient peninsula. ”