Travels in Arabia

The continuance of Bayard Taylor’s Library of Travel in the popular favor is one of the accepted facts of the literary world. So much so, indeed, that a revision of his works on the part of another is to be permitted only on certain conditions of reserve, and by reason of events that have transpired since the death of the distinguished traveller.

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. Seemingly they make as little permanent impression on the undercurrent of Bedouin life, as do the waves of the sea on its immutable whole, so that the accounts of the earlier chroniclers of Arabian life and manners agree in a singular manner with the descriptions of contemporary visitors. For this reason, no less than for the respect and admiration entertained by the reviser for Mr. Taylor’s conscientiousness and judgment as a traveller and compiler, and his literary excellence as an author, this volume remains, practically, as fully the work of its original editor as before.

By way of bringing it up to date, however, Chapter XVII. has been added, and such slight revision of preceding chapters has been made as was found necessary, consistent with the scope and intention of the new edition.

THOMAS STEVENS.

CONTENTS.

PAGE CHAPTER I. SKETCH OF ARABIA; ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND ANCIENT 1 HISTORY CHAPTER II. EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA 8 CHAPTER III. NIEBUHR’S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 14 CHAPTER IV. BURCKHARDT’S JOURNEY TO MECCA AND MEDINA 29 CHAPTER V. WELLSTED’S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 40 CHAPTER VI. WELLSTED’S DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY IN HADRAMAUT 55 CHAPTER VII. BURTON’S PILGRIMAGE 62 CHAPTER VIII. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ARABIA: FROM PALESTINE TO 83 THE DJOWF CHAPTER IX. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 107 CHAPTER X. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—CROSSING THE NEFOOD 127 CHAPTER XI. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—LIFE IN HA’YEL 138 CHAPTER XII. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH 176 CHAPTER XIII. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—JOURNEY TO RI’AD THE CAPITAL OF NEDJED 201 CHAPTER XIV. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—ADVENTURES IN RI’AD 217 CHAPTER XV. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—HIS ESCAPE TO THE EASTERN COAST 240 CHAPTER XVI. PALGRAVE’S TRAVELS—EASTERN ARABIA 259 CHAPTER XVII. LADY BLUNT’S PILGRIMAGE TO NEJD 279

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

NIGHT MARCH IN THE DESERT FRONTISPIECE FACING PAGE THE COFFEE HILLS OF YEMEN 19 VIEW OF EL-MEDINA 39 A VALLEY IN OMAN 51 THE RUINS OF NAKAB EL-HADJAR, IN HADRAMAUT 59 VIEW OF MEDINA FROM THE WEST 69 CAMP AT MOUNT ARAFAT 77 COSTUME OF PILGRIMS TO MECCA 81 WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE 84 AN ARAB CHIEF 105 CAPTAIN BURTON AS A PILGRIM 129 THE VILLAGE OF EL-SUWAYRKIYAH 184 AN ARAB ENCAMPMENT 190 DEATH ON THE DESERT 208

CHAPTER I.

SKETCH OF ARABIA: ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AND ANCIENT HISTORY.

THE Peninsula of Arabia, forming the extreme southwestern corner of Asia, is partly detached, both in a geographical and historical sense, from the remainder of the continent. Although parts of it are mentioned in the oldest historical records, and its shores were probably familiar to the earliest navigators, the greater portion of its territory has always remained almost inaccessible and unknown.

The desert, lying between Syria and the Euphrates is sometimes included by geographers as belonging to Arabia, but a line drawn from the Dead Sea to the mouth of the Euphrates (almost coinciding with the parallel of 30° N.) would more nearly represent the northern boundary of the peninsula. As the most southern point of the Arabian coast reaches the latitude of 12° 40′, the greater part of the entire territory, of more than one million square miles, lies within the tropics. In shape it is an irregular rhomboid, the longest diameter, from Suez to the Cape El-Had, in Oman, being 1,660, and from the Euphrates to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, 1,400 miles.