ABSTRACT

DESPITE its vast area, Arabia is estimated to support no more than 6,000,000 people. No census appears to have been made in any part, and estimates have varied between ~ and over 10 millions. I Taking 6 millions as one of the most recent and best-founded estimates, at least half live in the fertile south-western corner; thus the Aden Protectorate is believed to contain 600,000 and the Kingdom of the Yemen at least between ~ and 3 millions. Other populous centres are the cities of the Hejaz, the oases of the north-west and of Al Hasa in the east, the settled districts of central Nejd, and of the Sultanate of 'Oman, the last territory having perhaps soo,ooo. A sparse nomadic population roams over the arid parts of the peninsula, while the great southern desert is to a large extent uninhabited.