Travels In Arabia | Page 2

by Burckhardt, are indicated
with accuracy in the excellent maps that illustrate his Nubian and

Syrian Travels. But as the reader of this volume cannot reasonably be
supposed to have constantly at hand, for immediate reference, the two
former portions of our author’s works, a map is here given, in the
construction and delineation of which Mr. Sydney Hall has attended to
every suggestion offered by the editor: at whose recommendation the
names of places are spelt after Burckhardt’s manner, however different
from that more usual among us. [Thus in the map as in the letter-press
of this volume, Mekka might have been spelt Mecca; and Hejaz, Jidda,
Nejed, would as well express the proper sounds of those words as
Hedjaz, Djidda, Nedjed; and at the same time approximate more
closely to the original Arabic orthography, by which our English j (as
in Jar, James, &c.) is represented without the assistance of a d;
although the prefixing of this letter to the j might prevent a Frenchman
from pronouncing it as in jour, jamais, &c.]
By the editor’s advice, also, several places situate beyond the Eastern
limits of Hedjaz are included in this map; since Burckhardt, although
he did not visit them himself, has given some original itineraries, in
which they are mentioned.
That those places do not belong to the region properly denominated
Hedjaz, is evident; but how far this region extends eastward cannot
easily be determined; and the same difficulty respecting it occurs in
various directions. The editor, that he might ascertain by what
boundaries we are justified in supposing Hedjaz to be separated from
other provinces of Arabia, consulted a multiplicity of authors, both
European and Oriental. The result, however, of his inquiry has not
proved satisfactory; for to each of the neighbouring countries.
[p.viii] certain writers have assigned towns, stations, and districts,
which by others of equal authority are placed in Hedjaz.
Such confusion may partly have arisen from the different statements of
the number, extent, and names of divisions comprised within the same
space; this being occupied, according to European writers, by three
great regions, the Stony, the Desert, and the Happy Arabia; while
Oriental geographers partition it into two, five, six, seven, or more
provinces, under denominations by no means corresponding in
signification to the epithets above mentioned, which we have borrowed
from the Greeks and Romans.
That it would be a most difficult, or scarcely possible task, to fix

precisely the limits of each Arabian province, is acknowledged by that
excellent geographer, D’Anville; but he seems disposed to confound
the region comprising Mekka, Djidda, and Yembo, (places which, as
we know, are unequivocally in Hedjaz,) with Arabia Felix. [D’Anville,
Géographie Ancienne.] D’Herbelôt, in one place, declares Hedjaz to be
Arabia Petraea, [See the Bibliothèque Orientale in “Hegiaz ou
Higiaz”--“Nom d’une province de l’Arabie, que nous appelons
Pierreuse,” &c.-- Richardson also, in his Arabic and Persian Dictionary,
explains Hijaz by “Mecca and the adjacent country, Arabia Petraea;”
and Demetrias Alexandrides, who translated some portions of
Abulfeda’s Geography into Greek, (printed at Vienna, 1807, 8vo.)
always renders Hedjaz by [Greek text] and in another he identifies it
with Arabia Deserta. [“Les Provinces de Tahama et d’Iemamah sont
comme au coeur du pays; celle de Hegiaz est devenue la plus célebre à
cause des villes de la Mecque et de Medine, et fait avec les deux
dernières que nous avons nommées ce que nous appelons l’Arabie
Déserte.”--Biblioth. Orient. in “Arab.”]]
Among the Eastern writers, some divide Arabia into two parts, Yemen
and Hedjaz; others into five great provinces, Yemen, Hedjaz, Nedjed,
Tehama, and Yemama. Bahrein has also been included;
[p.ix] and Aroudh is named as an Arabian province, but appears to be
the same as Yemama. Hadramaut, Mahrah, Shejr, Oman, and other
subdivisions have likewise been reckoned independent provinces by
some, while many confound them with the greater regions, Yemen and
Hedjaz. To the latter, indeed, are often assigned even the extensive
countries of Nedjed, Tehama, and Yemama.
Respecting the boundaries of all these provinces, much embarrassment
has arisen from contradictory statements made by several of the most
eminent Oriental geographers; Edrisi, Abulfeda, Al Madaieni, Ibn
Haukal, Ibn el Vardi, Bakoui, and others. Mr. Rommel, a very
ingenious commentator on Abulfeda’s “Arabia,” is frequently obliged
to acknowledge the difficulty of ascertaining where one division begins
and another terminates. With regard, more particularly, to the
boundaries of Hedjaz, Abulfeda is silent; but it appears that his opinion,
so far as Mr. Rommel could collect from incidental accounts of places
assigned to this province and adjoining territories, did not in all
respects coincide with the statements of other celebrated geographers.

[See “Christophori Rommel Abulfedea Arabiae Descriptio,
commentario perpetuo illustrata,” Gottingae, 1802, 4to. “Ambitum et
fines hujus provinciae Abulfeda designare supersedet.--Al Madaieni
haec profert: ‘Hhegiaz est provincia complectens illum tractum
montium qui