'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎654] (753/905)

654
COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY. [CHAP. XXIV.
Exactions of
the Arabs.
Uncertain
origin of the
word Arab.
Boundaries of
Arabia Petrsea.
the Anizeh, or some other great tribe which happens to he
hostile; in this case there is levied a tax under the plea of cus
tom dues, which these and other Arabs have claimed and
received as a matter of right from time immemorial. But it is to
be observed that, however oppressive the exactions may appear,
they only amount to a small per-centage on the passing goods,
and are not sufficiently formidable to affect materially the profit
derived from the commerce.
It is uncertain whether the name of the peninsula was
derived from the Hebrew, arabah, or oreheh, a wilderness, or
from the simple word arah, which in Hebrew, as well as in the
language of the country, means a multitude composed of dif
ferent tribes; which has always been the character of the popu
lation of Arabia. The Turks, the Persians, and most other
Asiatics, give to this territory the name of Arabistan, but the
people themselves call it either Belad-el-Arab or Jezirat-el-
Arab (the Arabian Island); which name is understood to be
derived from Arab, one of their ancestors. In the Old Testa
ment it is generally designated Kedar, 1 from the son of Ish-
mael, or Kedem, 2 before, or east; and Erz Kedem (the Eastern
Land) was in the first instance applied to the part of Arabia
lying eastward of Palestine, and inhabited by the descendants
of Hagar and Ketura ; 3 as well as to that which lies more
southward; from this last region the sons of Esau drove the
Horites of Mount Seir. The Arabs are generally, in the
Bible, designated children of the East ; 4 they are the Cedrei
or Kedarenians of Pliny.f
The tract thus occupied by the posterity of Esau forms one
of the three great divisions named by Ptolemy, viz., Arabia
Petraea, 6 which geographically is part of the Hijaz, and is sur
rounded on the other sides by Egypt, Palestine, and a part of
Syria. Commencing near Ezra, the line of separation from
1 Gen., chap. XXV., v. 13 ; Psa. CXX., v. 5; Isa., chap. XXI, v. 16 17 •
chap. XLL, v. 11; chap. LX., v. 7.
8 Jeremiah, chap. XLIX, v. 28; Job, chap. I., v. 3; Ezekiel, chap. XXV,
V ' 4 ' 8 Genesis, chap. XXV, v. 6.
4 Judges, chap. VI, v. 3, 33; chap. VII, v. 12; and chap. VIII, v. 10
5 Llb - V -' ca P' xii - 6 Ptolemy, lib. VI, cap. 7.