ABSTRACT
Northern Arabia at the present day embraces the whole district between Syria and Persia, and extends northwards as far as latitude 37°, the latitude of Orfa and Mardin. Mesopotamia, Irak, and the plains north of Palmyra, are now in every respect part of Arabia, forming, with the Hamad, a singularly homogeneous whole, uniform in its physical features and in the race which inhabits it. The Shammar, the Anazeh, and the Montefik tribes are as purely Arabian as their kinsmen of Nejd, and the villagers of the Euphrates and the Jof as those of the Hejaz and Yemen. It is probable, indeed, that the great camel-owning tribes of the Northern Deserts represent the ancient civilization of Arabia far more closely than do the Mussulman population of the south, and are more nearly connected in thought and manners with the patriarchs of primaeval history, from whom both claim to descend. Be this as it may, Arabia has no other limits now than those of the desert.
