Everything about Arabia totally explained
The
Arabian Peninsula (in
Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية
šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب
jazīrat al-ʻarab) is a
peninsula in
Southwest Asia at the junction of
Africa and
Asia consisting mainly of desert. The area is an important part of the
Middle East and plays a critically important
geopolitical role because of its vast reserves of
oil and
natural gas.
The coasts of the peninsula are, on the west the
Red Sea and the
Gulf of Aqaba, on the southeast the
Arabian Sea (part of the
Indian Ocean), and on the northeast, the
Gulf of Oman, the
Strait of Hormuz, and the
Persian Gulf.
Its northern limit is defined by the
Zagros collision zone, a mountainous uplift where a
continental collision between the
Arabian Plate and Asia is occurring. It merges with the
Syrian Desert with no clear line of demarcation.
Geographically, the Arabian Peninsula includes parts of
Iraq and
Jordan.
Politically, however, the peninsula is separated from the rest of Asia by the northern borders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The following countries are politically considered part of the peninsula:
In 2008 The Arabian Peninsula population has been stated as 69,550,249.
Ancient history
In his book, 'The Real Eve',
Oppenheimer claims based on mitochondrial evidence in conjunction with the contemporary environment (ie glaciation, sea levels) corresponding to these
molecular clock timelines that the very first humans to leave Africa crossed the virtually dry mouth of the Red Sea onto the Arabian peninsula. They travelled along the coastline of the peninsula before crossing into Southern Asia.
Until comparatively recent times knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula was limited to that provided by ancient Greek and Roman writers and by early
Arab geographers; much of this material was unreliable. In the 20th century, however, archaeological exploration has added considerably to the knowledge of the area.
The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas . Around 3500 BC,
Semitic-speaking peoples of Arabian origin migrated into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
Mesopotamia, supplanted the
Sumerians, and became the Assyro-Babylonians (see
Babylonia and
Assyria). Some archeologists argue that another group of Semites left Arabia around 2500 BC during the Early Bronze Age and settled along the
Levant, mixing in with the local populations there. Some of these migrants became the
Amorites and
Canaanites of later times. Some archeologists argue that the migration instead came from the northern Levant. Other archeologists argue that there was no migration, and that the outside influences found in the indigenous Levantine population resulted from trade.
Bernard Lewis mentions in his book
The Arabs in History:
"According to this, Arabia was originally a land of great fertility and the first home of the Semitic peoples. Through the millennia it has been undergoing a process of steady desiccation, a drying up of wealth and waterways and a spread of the desert at the expense of the cultivable land. The declining productivity of the peninsula, together with the increase in the number of the inhabitants, led to a series of crises of overpopulation and consequently to a recurring cycle of invasions of the neighbouring countries by the Semitic peoples of the peninsula. It was these crises that carried the Assyrians, Aramaeans, Canaanites (including the Phoenicians), and finally the Arabs themselves into the Fertile Crescent."
The better-watered, higher portions of the extreme south-west portion of the Arabian Peninsula supported three early kingdoms. The first, the Minaean, was centered in the interior of what is now Yemen, but probably embraced most of southern Arabia. Although dating is difficult, it's generally believed that the Minaean Kingdom existed from 1200 to 650 BC The second kingdom, the Sabaean (see
Sheba), was founded around 930 BC and lasted until around 115 BC; it probably supplanted the Minaean Kingdom and occupied substantially the same territory. The Sabaean capital and chief city, Ma’rib, probably flourished as did no other city of ancient Arabia, partly because of its controlling position on the caravan routes linking the seaports of the Mediterranean with the frankincense-growing region of the
Hadhramaut and partly because a large nearby dam provided water for irrigation. The Sabaean Kingdom was widely referred to as Saba, and it has been suggested that the
Queen of Sheba mentioned in the Bible and the
Quran, who visited
King Solomon of Israel in Jerusalem in the 10th century BC, was Sabaean. The Himyarites followed the Sabaeans as the leaders in southern Arabia; the
Himyarite Kingdom lasted from around 115 BC to around AD 525. In 24 BC the Roman emperor
Augustus sent the prefect of Egypt, Aelius Gallus, against the Himyarites, but his army of 10,000, which was unsuccessful, returned to Egypt. The Himyarites prospered in the frankincense, myrrh, and spice trade until the Romans began to open the sea routes through the Red Sea.
In the 3rd century, The East African Christian Kingdom of Aksum began interfering in South Arabian affairs, controlling at times the western
Tihama region among other areas. The Kingdom of Aksum at its height extended its territory in Arabia across most of
Yemen and southern and western
Saudi Arabia before being eventually driven out by the
Persians. There is evidence of a Sabaean inscription about the alliance between the
Himyarite king Shamir Yuhahmid and Aksum under King
`DBH in the first quarter of the 3rd century AD. They have been living alongside the Sabaeans who lived across the Red Sea from them for many centuries:
Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and Himyar had called in the help of the clans of Habashat for war against the kings of Saba; but Ilmuqah granted . . . the submission of Shamir of Dhu-Raydan and the clans of Habashat.
The ruins of
Siraf, a legendary ancient port, are located on the north shore of the
Iranian coast on the
Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf was a boat route between the Arabian Peninsula and
India made feasible for small boats by staying close to the coast with land always in sight. The historical importance of Siraf to ancient trade is only now being realised. Discovered there in past archaeological excavations are ivory objects from east
Africa, pieces of stone from
India, and
lapis from
Afghanistan. Sirif dates back to the
Parthian era.
There is a
lost city in The
Empty Quarter known as
Iram of the Pillars and
Thamud. It is estimated that it lasted from around 3000 BC to the first century AD. The Arabian Peninsula is also one of the few places that comprise the
Cradle of Humanity.
Medieval history
Modern history
The
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the peninsula lives in
Saudi Arabia and in
Yemen. The peninsula contains the world's largest reserves of
oil. It is home to the
Islamic holy cities of
Mecca and
Medina, both of which are in Saudi Arabia. The
UAE and
Saudi Arabia are economically the wealthiest in the region.
Qatar, a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home of the famous
Arabic-language television station
Al Jazeera and its English-language subsidiary
Al Jazeera English.
Kuwait, on the border with
Iraq, was claimed as an Iraqi province and invaded by
Saddam Hussein during the first
Persian Gulf War; it's an important country strategically, forming one of the main staging grounds for coalition forces mounting the
invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The peninsula is one of the possible original homelands of the
Proto-Semitic language ancestors of all the
Semitic-speaking peoples in the region — the
Akkadians,
Arabs,
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Hebrews, etc. Linguistically, the peninsula was the cradle of the
Arabic language (spread beyond the peninsula with the
Islamic religion during the expansion of
Islam beginning in the 7th century AD) and still maintains tiny populations of speakers of
Semitic languages such as
Mehri and Shehri, remnants of the language family that was spoken in earlier historical periods to the East of the kingdoms of
Sheba and
Hadramout which flourished in the southern part of the peninsula (modern-day
Yemen and
Oman).
Landscape
Geologically, this region is perhaps more appropriately called the
Arabian subcontinent because it lies on a
tectonic plate of its own, the
Arabian Plate, which has been moving incrementally away from northeast
Africa (forming the
Red Sea) and north into the
Eurasian plate (forming the
Zagros mountains). The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabia, with the oldest rocks exposed in the
Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Red Sea, overlain by earlier sediments that become younger towards the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the best-preserved
ophiolite on Earth, Semail ophiolite, lies exposed in the mountains of the UAE and northern Oman.
The peninsula consists of:
a central plateau, known as Nejd, with fertile valleys and pastures used for the grazing of sheep and other livestock.
a range of deserts, the Nefud in the north, stony; the Rub' Al-Khali or Great Arabian Desert, in the south, with sand estimated to extend 600 ft. below the surface; and between them, the Dahna.
stretches of dry or marshy coastland with coral reefs on the Red Sea side (Tihamah).
ranges of mountains, primarily paralleling the Red Sea on the western (for example Asir province) and southeastern end (Oman). The highest, Jabal Al-Nabi Sho'aib in Yemen, is 3666 m high.
Arabia has few lakes or permanent rivers. Most are drained by ephemeral watercourses called wadis, which are dry except during the rainy season. Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (for example Al-Hasa and Qatif, two of the worlds largest oases) and permit agriculture, especially palm trees, which allowed the peninsula to produce more dates than any other region in the world. The climate being extremely hot and arid, the peninsula has no forests, although desert-adapted wildlife is present throughout the region.
A plateau more than 2,500 feet high extends across much of the Arabian Peninsula. The plateau slopes eastwards from the massive, rifted escarpment along the coast of the Red Sea, to the shallow waters of The Gulf. The interior is characterised by cuestas and valleys, drained by a system of wadis. A crescent of sand and gravel deserts lies to the east.
Land and sea
Most of the Arabian Peninsula is unsuited to settled agriculture, making irrigation and land reclamation projects essential. The narrow coastal plain and isolated oases, amounting to less than 1% of the land area, are used to cultivate grains, coffee and exotic fruits. Goats, sheep, and camels are widespread throughout the region.
The fertile soils of Yemen have encouraged settlement of almost all of the land from sea level up to the mountains at 10,000 feet. In the higher reaches elaborate terraces have been constructed to facilitate crop cultivation.
Transport and industry
The extraction and refining of oil and gas are the major industrial activities in the Arabian Peninsula. The region also has an active construction sector, with many cities reflecting the wealth generated by the oil industry. The service sector is dominated by financial and technical institutions, which, like the construction sector, mainly serve the oil industry. Traditional handicrafts such as carpet-weaving are found in rural areas.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Arabia'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://arabian_peninsula.totallyexplained.com">Arabian Peninsula Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
