The Arabian PeninsulaArabia is the largest peninsula in the world. The Arabs call it 'Jaziratul-Arab' which means
the "Island of Arabia", although it is not an island, being surrounded by water on three sides
only. Lying in the south-west of Asia, the Arabian Gulf is to its east, which was known to the
Greeks as Persian Gulf; the Indian Ocean marks the southern limits; and to its west is Red
Sea which was called Sinus Arabicus or Arabian Gulf by the Greeks and Latins and Bahr
Qulzum by the ancient Arabs. The northern boundry is not well-defined, but may be consi-
dered an imaginary line drawn due east from the head of the Gulf of al-'Aqabah in the Red
Sea to the mouth of the Euphrates.
Arab geographers have divided the country into five regions:(1) Hijaz extends from Aila (al-'Aqabah) to Yemen and has been so named because the range
of mountains running parallel to the western coast separates the low coastal belt of Tihama
from Najd
(2) Tihama inside the inkier range is a plateau extending to the foothills
(3) Yemen, south of Hijaz, occupies the south-west corner of Arabia
(4) Najd, the north central plateau, extends from the mountain ranges of Hijaz in the west to
the deserts of Bahrain in the east and encompasses a number of deserts and mountain
ranges
(5) 'Aruz which is bounded by Bahrain to its east and Hijaz to its west. Lying between Yemen
and Najd it was also known as Yamamah.
THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE
One of the driest and hottest countries of the world, ninety percent of Arabia is made up
of barren desert. The geological and physical features of the land along with its climatic
conditions have kept its population, in the days gone by and also in the present time, to the
minimum and hindered the flowering of large civilizations and empires. The nomadic life of
the desert tribes, rugged individualism of the people and unrestrained tribal warfare have
tended to limit the settled population to the areas where there is abundance of rainfall or
water is available on the surface of land in the shape of springs or ponds or is found nearer
the surface of the earth. The Bedouins dig deep wells in the ground. The way of life in Arabia
is, so to say, dictated by the availability of water; nomadic tribes continually move about in
the desert in search of water. Wherever verdant land is found, the tribes go seeking pas-
tures but they are never bound to the land like the tillers of the soil. They stay over a pas-
ture or oasis so long as they can graze their flocks of sheep, goats and camels and then
break up their camps to search out new pastures.