Arabian (Hastings' Dictionary)

This word is used in ditl'erent senses. 1. In Is 13-" and Jer 3' it stands for ' an inhabitant of the desert or steppe ' (Heb. ■;•!;,■ from 'i^TH), with- out any indication of nationality. 2. In the pre-exilic a\ilhors we read occa- sionally of a tribe called collectively 2-ff, ren- dered in the EV 'Arabia' (1 K 10'», Jer 25-\ Ezk 27")- As the consonants of this word are the same as those of the word rendered 'mingled people' (Jer 25'" etc.)

, and also of the word rendered ' evening,' it is not always certain which should be read. Thus in Is 21" the word rendered in EV 'Arabia' should more probably be tr. 'evening'; while in 2 Ch O" the punctuation which signifies A. is substituted for the ' mixed trilies' intended by the punctuators of 1 K 10". These ' Arabians ' are also mentioned in the Assjt. inscriptions (see Akabia), where the name of one of their kings is given. Herodotus (iii.

5) also speaks of an Arabian king through whose territories the I'ers. king Canibyses had to obtain a pass before he could cross the desert to Egypt ; and the same historian gives us the name of a port on the Mediterranean Delonging to the Arabs, of which the name (lenysus) can be easily interpreted from the Arabic (cf. anisn), but of the existence of which we possess no other notice. The Arabian territory, according to this author, was wedged in between lands belonging to the 'Syrians.'

In the Bible this tribe is connected with t)cdan and Kedar, and is probably therefore to be located in N. Arabia ; the fact that it had a king makes it probable that it possessed some fixed habitations or towns, since that word is ordinarily associated with a royal residence. The etj'mology of the name, like most names of nations, is hidden in obscurity. 3. In the j>ost-exilic records, where we meet with the word, it ordinarily signifies Nnbritirnn.

In 2 Mac 5* we read of Aretas, tlie kingof the Arabians ; now Aretaswas the name of several of the Nnbatu'au kings, as we know from their own inscriiilions ; and I'rocopiiis sjieaks of I'etia as the capital of the Arabs, whereas it was famous as the capital of the Nabaticans. The Romans, who from the time of the ill-starred expedition of ^-Elius Gallus (B.C.

24), in which the Nabatajans were their allies against the Arabs, had good cause to distinguish the two races, do not often confuse them ; yet both Diodorus and Procopius (quoted by Quatremfcre) fall into this mistake. By the term 'Arabia,' then, St. Paul (Gal 1" 4") probably means the territory of the Nabatieans, which in the period of their greatest [irosperity extended from the Euphrates to the lied Sea. One of their kings was the Aretas whose ethnarch in Damascus endeavoured to arrest St.

Paul (2 Co IP'). The misapplication of ethnic names is exceedingly common ; and in this context it may be noticed that in the Sabiean inscriptions the Sabajans distinguish themselves from the Arabians (pny; seed. D6renbourg in CIS iv. fasc. 2, p. 93), with whom classical antiquity identified them.

Perhaps 'Nabatajan' is the sense to be attached to the name ' Arabian ' applied to Neheniiah's opponent Geshera (Neh 2"), or Gashmu (Neh 6"), whose name in its latter form bears a genuinely Nabatajan appearance. The important part played by this race was first pointed out by Quatremere in his Etude sur les Nnbatiens (1835), the results of which were condensed by Hitter in his Erdkunde von Arabien (1846, i. p. Ill il'.) The inscriptions discovered at Madain Salih by Mr.

Douglity (Documents ipigraph. recueil. dans le nord de I'Arabie, Paris, 1884), and recopied by Euting [Nabnt. Inschri/. 1885), have thrown con- siderable light on their language, institutions, and history. Having originally come from Mesojio- tamia, this tribe profited by the weakness of the last Bab. kings to seize Petra, the ancient capital of the Idumseans.

The unique position of this fortress at the meeting-place of three great commercial routes was the source of the wealth which enabled them to attain a remarkable degree of civilisation and luxury. Their first appear- ance in history is in B.C. 312, when, according to Diodorus (xi.\. ch. 95 sq(j. ), they successfully resisted Athena>us, the general sent against their fortress by Antigonus, king of Syria ; their last in A.D. 106, when A. Petra'a was turned into a Kom. province by Cornelius Palma.

The i)Ossession of Damascus by Aretas IV. (' Philopatris,' mentioned in several of the Madain Salih inscriptions) is to be ascribed to a temporary arrangement of the emperor Gaius. Tlie fact that the Nabata'an empire extended to El-Hijr, called afterwards Madain Salih, is certified for the time of Augustus by the Kom. records. The notices of the Naba- ta-ans in ancient literature are put together by von Gutschniidt in the ajipendix to Eating's A^abat- wische hi.schriftcn. i.

The ein|iloyment of the name Arab for an inhabitant of any portion of the vast peninsula known to us as Arabia, l)egins somewhere in the 3rd cent. B.C., though the only trace of it in OT is in 2 Ch 21", where the 'Arabians that are near the Ethiopians' would .seem naturally to refer to the neighbours of the Ilabashah, whom there arc grounds for placing in the extreme S. of Yemen ; it is not, however, clear how these tribes could interfere in Jewish politics. In 2 Ch 26" God i.

-^ said to have helped Uzziah against ' the Arabians who dwelt in Gur-I)aal,' and tlie Mina'ans ; as this notice is not found in 2 K, its accuracy is open to HUsiiicion ; moreover, the name Gur-Baal bears no trace of Arabian nomenclature, and only vague conjectures can 1h3 hazarded about its situation. EfTually uncertain is tlie use of the name in 2 Cli 17 '. An Arab prince Zabdiel is mentioned in 1 Mac 11" as nmraering the Syrian king Alexuiidrr Balas, who h.

id taken refuge in 'Arabia'; iind another Iinnlkun", or lamblichus, as rearing tli" same Alexander's son (11""). The residence of 136 ARABIC VERSIONS ARABIC VERoiONS these princes, according to Diodorus (Excerpt. 32. 1), waa called 'A^ai. D. S. Maegoliouth.