Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East

country, I shall follow the division of Arabia used by its inhabitants. They divide their country into six great provinces: Hejaz original: "Hedjas", lying along the Red Sea original: "Arabic Gulph" between Mount Sinai and Yemen, and extending inland as far as the borders of Najd original: "Nedsjed"; Yemen, a province stretching from the border of Hejaz, along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, to Hadramaut, and bounded on the north by Najd; Hadramaut, on the Indian Ocean, sharing a border with Yemen on one side and with Oman on the other, bounded northwards by Najd; Oman, lying also on the shore of the Indian Ocean, and surrounded by the provinces of Hadramaut, Lachsa, and Najd; Lachsa, or Hadsjar modern Al-Ahsa, extending along the Persian Gulf original: "Gulph", and having Najd for its interior boundary; and Najd, comprehending all the interior country and bounded by the other five provinces. Its northern limits are the territories occupied by the Arabs in the desert of Syria. These territories may indeed be considered a seventh province; to them may also be added the description of the Arabian settlements on the southern coast of Persia.

The two provinces of Yemen and Hadramaut were formerly known by the name of Arabia Felix original: "Arabia the Happy"; a classical designation for the fertile southern regions of the peninsula. But, as no such name is used among