Travels In Arabia | Page 2

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, G��ographie Ancienne.] D��Herbel?t, in one place, declares Hedjaz to be Arabia Petraea, [See the Biblioth��que 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 c��lebre �� cause des villes de la Mecque et de Medine, et fait avec les deux derni��res que nous avons nomm��es ce que nous appelons l��Arabie D��serte.��--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 inde ab Yaman expansus usque ad Sham (Syriam) protenditur. In eo tractu sitae sunt Madinah et Amman��-- Cum hoc dissidere Abulfedam non dubium est.--Ibn al Arabi: ��Quod est inter Tehamah et Nagd illud est