Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East

among the Arabs, I have not thought of following this arbitrary division of the country.

CHAP. III.

Of the Revolutions of Arabia In this context, "revolutions" refers to the major political changes, turnovers in power, and historical shifts in the region.

All that is known concerning the earliest period of the history of this country is that it was governed in those days by powerful monarchs called Tobba. This is thought to have been a title common to all those princes, just as the name of Pharaoh was to the ancient sovereigns of Egypt.

There exists, however, a fairly distinct tradition among learned Arabs regarding those ancient kings which deserves to be noted. They claim to know, from ancient monuments, that Tobba was the family name of those sovereigns; that they came from the neighborhood of Samarkand original: "Samarcand"; a major city in modern-day Uzbekistan, then part of Tartary, were fire-worshipers This likely refers to Zoroastrianism, and conquered and civilized Arabia. This tradition aligns with the plausible hypothesis of a clever writer who derives the knowledge and civilization of the southern people from a nation that once flourished in that part of Tartary in which Samarkand is situated (D) The letter (D) likely refers to a citation or footnote in the original text, possibly referencing Enlightenment theories about the Central Asian origins of civilization.