ERRATA. VOL. I. Page 49. line 9. for "29° 30"" read " 29° 30'." 135. line 7. from bottom, dele “ 145. line 9. for "neighourhood" read "neighbourhood." 165. note †, for "Gen. viii. 9. 1." read " Gen. x. 29-31." 279. line 17. for "fifth" read "sixth." 338. line 27. for "31° 5"" read "31° 5'." 350. line 5. for "30° 50"" read " 30° 50'." VOL. II. Page 42. line 2. for "170" read "18°." 47. line 28. for "Zimran" read " Zepho." 78. note for "2 Maccab. xii." read "1 Maccab. xii. 5-13." 176. lines 18. and 24. for "seventy-four" read “ seventy-five." Part I. Section VII., and Appendix passim, for "Novaïri" read " AlKazwînî." THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ARABIA. PART I. SECTION I SETTLEMENTS OF CUSH. IN approaching a subject of so remote antiquity as the scriptural branch of the following inquiry, a correct estimate of the general nature and value of the evidences on which it turns may have essential influence, on the conduct, and the issue, of the whole argument. Towards forming such an estimate, valuable aid, it is conceived, may be derived from proper attention to a few preliminary considerations. 1. The proverbial attachment of the Arabians, in all ages, to the manners, customs, and remembrances, of primeval antiquity, may well be placed first among these considerations: since, by uni versal consent of authorities, this predilection stands foremost among their national characteristics.* But the immemorial operation of this propensity, among the Arabs upon their native soil, in preserving, and handing down the scriptural names of the primitive cities, and districts, and colonists of the peninsula †, can be brought to the test of a matter-of-fact criterion: namely, the conduct of the Saracens, when they became masters of the East; where it was their uniform practice * A curious illustration in point, of the permanence and fidelity of Arab tradition, occurred to Colonel Chesney, on his first visit to the Euphrates, and was related by him to the author, on his return to England in 1832. "An encampment of the Ageyl Arabs having arrived in the neighbourhood of Bagdad, I went to visit their camp; in the centre of which I saw floating, to my surprise, the royal standard of Spain. I endeavoured to obtain an explanation of the appearance of the three stripes in an Arab camp; and having an excellent interpreter with me, I set him to make inquiry. He asked many common Arabs: but they were ignorant of the meaning of it. At length, a very old Arab, on being questioned, replied, that when their fathers went to Barbary, and thence passed to the conquest of Spain, the Sultan [Caliph], in reward of their great services, bestowed on the Ageyl tribe, for their banner, the royal standard of Spain."" In Arabia, as elsewhere, the scriptural nomenclature is the first great landmark of history: hingeing, as it so obviously does, on that primeval law of topography, which derives the names of places from those of persons; of cities and kingdoms from their founders, as well as of tribes and nations from their progenitors. "Quare et a veritate non aliena istæc conjectura esse videtur, eandem terræ dividendæ consuetudinem a restituto statim post diluvium mundo, secundum domos ac familias, ipso Deo jubente, . . . in usu fuisse, ita ut regna ac provinciæ a primis possessoribus suis sua iterum sortitæ sint nomina; quam consuetudinem, Israëlitæ deinde, in occupanda terra beata, semper frequentarunt."— M. J. E. Müller. Diss. Ap. Thes. Vet. Test. tom. i. p. 546. |