THE   ARABS,   MUHAMMAD,   AND
MUHAMMADANISM.

The home of the Arabs is the peninsula of Arabia,
which is about 1,450 miles long and 700 wide; the greater'
part of the country is desert and mountain, and only in the'
south-west portion of it are perennial streams found. The
Arabs are Semites, and the modern descendants of them^
trace their origin to the Hebrews through Kahtan, who is'
identified with Joktan, the son of Eber, and to Adnan, the
direct descendant of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and?
Hagar. The kingdoms of Yaman and Hijaz were founded:
by Yarab and Yorhom, sons of Kahtan. The provinces of,
Saba and Hadhramaut were ruled by princes of the tribe
of Himyar, whose kingdoms lasted two or three thousand
years. In the third century before Christ a terrible calamity,
befell the Arabs, for the great dam which Saba, the builder,
of Saba and Mareb, built to hold up the rain water and
mountain springs, suddenly burst, and the widespread ruiii;
brought by the flood which was thus let loose on the, plains
caused eight great x\rab tribes to leave their country. The
water is said to have been held up to a-height of aboiit ,180
feet, and the people felt so sure of the security of the dam;
that they built their houses upon it. In the second century,
after Christ the Arabs migrated northwards and established,
petty kingdoms at Palmyra^ and al-Hlra,t and came at times,,-
into conflict with the Roman authorities in Syria and ,with
the Persian powers in Eastern Mesopotamia. The Arabs of
Palmyra embraced Christianity in the time of Constantine,
but those of al-Hira did not accept it until after a.d. 550;
the Arabs of the desert, however, continued to be for the

* The Arabs of Palmyra were descended from the tribe of Azd.
t The Arabs pfal-^tra were descended from Kahtan.

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