Arabia Or Arabic peninsula, in Arabic"Jazīrat Al-'Arab"(or"Island of the Arabs"), is a peninsular region, along with the islands of the coast, located in the extreme southwest of Asia.
It is bounded by the Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Aden to the south, the Arabian Sea to the south and southeast, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the east. Geographically the peninsula and the Syrian desert are merged in the north without clear line of demarcation, but the northern borders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are usually taken as a mark of the Peninsula limit there.
The total area of the peninsula is 3,100,000 square kilometers. The length, bordering the Red Sea, is approximately 1,900 kilometers and the maximum width, from Yemen to Oman, is 3366,985 square kilometers. The largest political division is Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain following it in order of importance.
The island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, about 520 square kilometers southeast of the continent, has strong ethnographic links to the Peninsula and is politically part of Yemen. The geographic cohesion of the Arabian Peninsula is reflected in a shared interior of the desert and a shared exterior of the coast, ports and relatively greater opportunities for agriculture.
The fact that most of the peninsula is unfavorable to established agriculture is of enormous importance. Competition for habitable land is acute, and the efficient use of land and water is crucial to the well-being of each state.
The social characteristics reinforce the geophysical factors that have created a somewhat similar environment throughout the peninsula: a homogeneity among the people is seen in a degree of similarity in language, religion, culture and political experience.
Ethnicity of the Arabian Peninsula
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the Peninsula are ethnic Arabs, and a large number are able to trace their ancestors through many generations living in the same area. Almost all speak Arabic, and differences in dialects, though substantial, do not hinder mutual intelligibility.
Since the Islamic expansion of the mid-seventh century, most Arabs have been Muslims. The differences in sects are important locally, as in Bahrain and Yemen, but the historical commitment of the peninsula to the faith of its Prophet Muhammad, has done more to unite than to divide them.
Culture has found expression in ways that are the joint heritage of all the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and that the heritage is shared with Arab and Muslim societies beyond the region.
Poetry, religious laws and precepts and values associated with heroism permeated the culture of the past, but the innovations associated with Western culture reached the entire peninsula in the twentieth century and have had a substantial influence on art, customs and behavior .
Most of the countries that make up the peninsula share common political systems. Most are or have been monarchies, based largely on principles of religious legitimacy. In the twentieth century, especially since World War II, they pointed to a gradual change in political life while trying to achieve rapid economic and social progress.
Although the natural resources available on the peninsula are not equitably distributed between their states - the South and Southwest are less rich in oil, for example - similar economic transformations have occurred or are occurring in all societies. Urbanization, increased access to health and education, secularization and settlement of many nomads have changed the fabric of everyday life throughout the area.
The various sections of the Arabian Peninsula have barely joined under one government. In the sixteenth century, for example, the Ottoman Empire was able to conquer most of the coasts, but could not take either the interior of the peninsula or the southeast. In the nineteenth century, Great Britain or the Ottomans controlled much of the peninsula, but the central interior remained almost always independent under the Saudis.
Arabia, since the advent of Islam in the seventh century, maintained close ties with other parts of the Middle East through trade, religious, social, military and political interactions. In modern times, the increasing importance of the Arabian Peninsula in the rest of the world has been largely due to the oil discoveries of the twentieth century, which led to an increase in contacts with the West.
The mixture of Middle Eastern and foreign influences presents opportunities and problems for the peoples and countries of the peninsula. Despite the political disunity of the past and the considerable variety of national experiences in the present, the Arabian Peninsula continues to share an underlying unity of environment, society, culture and faith.
Description of the Arabian peninsula
Arabia can be described as a vast plateau, lined with deeply dissected escarpments on three sides and gently sloping northeastward from the Red Sea to the eastern lowlands adjacent to the Persian Gulf. The highest peak of the peninsula, Al-Nabī Shu'ayb, at 3,660 meters high, lies about 20 kilometers northwest of Sanaa in Yemen.
geology
Most of Arabia is composed of two major geomorphological areas: the Arab shield in the west; And sedimentary areas that drift away from the shield to the northeast, east and southeast in the large basin that consists of Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the eastern part of the Rub 'al-Khali (or Empty Neighborhood) desert.
The eastern edge of the shield curves eastward from the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern extension of the Red Sea, to a point halfway across the peninsula and then trends towards the southwest and south to the lands High of Yemen. Extinct volcanoes over the shield, its eruptions, which ceased seven centuries ago, produced the wide beds of black lava (ḥārrahs) that are characteristic of the western Arab landscape.
The sedimentary areas, younger in age of the shield, represent deposits of ancient seas. Sedimentary surface strata have been extensively eroded. The harder members, more resistant to erosion, are now placed like scarps facing west following the curve of the shield. The sedimentary province consists mainly of limestone, along with a lot of sandstone and slate.
The earliest deposits are early Paleozoic (about 400 to 540 million years), which in eastern Arabia are submerged almost six miles below the surface. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous (approximately 65 to 200 million years) oil and gas were at depths of two miles or less. Some of the limestone strata take precipitation into the outcrops in the western highlands and take it underground to the coastal areas of the Persian Gulf.
The highlands of Yemen are physiographically very different from those of the shield; They are not mountains but the deeply dissected edge of the Arabian plateau. From the west, the formations rise abruptly from the narrow coastal plain of Yemen and reach heights of about 10,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level, and to the east gradually decrease in elevation.
The highlands along the south coast are basically of sedimentary origin. The Omanian highlands are geologically more closely related to the Zagros mountains of western Iran than to other mountains in Arabia. (The sea is only 50 miles wide in the Strait of Hormuz.)
Relief, drainage and floors
The Hejaz and Asir
A virtually uninterrupted escarpment travels the length of the peninsula over the Red Sea. The stretch from the Gulf of Aqaba to a point about 200 miles south of Mecca is called Hejaz (Al-Ḥijāz, meaning"The Barrier"), and the highest stretch from there to the region of Najrān near The Yemeni border has acquired the name De Asir ('Asīr, meaning' Difficult ', from a prominent tribal highland confederation).
In some places the escarpment has two parallel ranges, with the lowest range closest to the coast. In Midian (Madyan), the northernmost part of the Hejaz, the peaks have a maximum elevation of almost 9,500 feet. The elevation decreases to the south, with an occasional upward rise such as Mount Raḍwā west of Medina (Al-Madīnah).
Wadi Al-ḍamḍ, an intermittent river that draws water from the Medina basin on the inner side of the escarpment, breaks the mountains to reach the Red Sea. Another step leads to Mecca and Al-Ṭā'if in the highlands. The mountains become higher again in Asir, where some peaks rise to more than 9,000 feet.
The steps there are particularly difficult. A lava field that descends from the mountains and reaches the sea near Ḥalī formed the natural southern boundary of the Hejaz. The Asir altiplano, in the area dominated by the Indian Ocean monsoon, is more fertile than the rural Hejaz.
The coastal plain of the Red Sea is constrained along its length, reaching its greater widths 40 or 50 miles, south of Medina and south of Mecca. The name Tihāmah, used for the whole plain, is sometimes subdivided into Tihāmat Al-Ḥijāz and Tihāmat 'Asīr. There are no natural harbors suitable for large vessels, but the many entrances are suitable for sailing vessels.
The islands are particularly numerous along the southern part of the coast, where the Farasān archipelago is found, and coral reefs are common. In the interior of the northwest, the Ḥismā sandstone plateau has an elevation of about 4,000 feet. To the south of it there are large lava fields like 'Uwayri'.
The lava tongues south of Medina, which fall on the mountains, descend to the coast. The Rakbah sand plain unfolds to the south of Lava Kishb Field, which is southeast of Medina. Among the lava fields east of Mecca is one that surrounds the mountains of ḍaḍan (ḍiḍn), the traditional border between Hejaz and Najd.
The Najd
The western part of Najd (Nejd, meaning"Highland"), known as High Najd, is located within the Arabian shield with an average elevation of 4,000 feet. The eastern part falls within the sedimentary provinces bordering the city of Riyadh (al-Riyāḍ), near the eastern rim, having an elevation of about 1,950 feet.
Najd's main drainage consists of a number of streams flowing eastward that carry the water only seasonally. In the north, the parallel peaks of Ajā 'and Salmāh rise on the plateau to form Jabal Shammar (the name of the Shammār tribe), the northernmost district of Najd. Just south of the Mecca-Riyadh road are the hills of Al-Nīr.
To the east of the highlands of Hejaz and Mecca are the Subay sand dunes (named after the Banu al-Subay tribe), which constitute the largest sand desert within the shield. The broad mountain plateau opens its way in the center and east of Najd to a series of escarpments that curve from north to south along the outline of the shield: Al-Khuff, Jilh Al-'Ishār, the Ṭuwayq Mountains and Al -Armah.
Of these, the longest and highest are the Ṭuwayq mountains, which with their 800 mile length form the backbone of the most densely populated part of Najd. The steep western face of Ṭuwayq, which rises about 800 feet above the plains to the west, is pierced by half a dozen wadis, of which the most spectacular is Wadi Birk, a tributary of Wadi Al-Sahbā.
To the west of the Ṭuwayq, a series of sand deserts ('irqs and nafūds) form a nearly continuous link between the great desert known as Al-Nafūd to the north and the Rub'Al-Khali to the south. Sand deserts also fit the curve of the shield.
Al-Nafūd (Great Nafūd)
The second largest sand desert on the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Nafūd, marks the northern boundary of Najd. Located just beyond the shield, it occupies an area of about 25,000 square miles.
Its sands almost reach the oasis villages of Taymā '(Taima) in the west, Al-Jawf and Sakākah in the north, and Ḥā'il in the south. The sands are gradually moving southeast, where they enter the sand dunes of Mazhur, the first of the deserts located west of the Ṭuwayq, or Al-Dahnā 'mountains.
Northern Arabia
The Wadi Al-Sirḥān, a depression rather than a true wadi (dry riverbed that in the rainy season retains water), is about 200 kilometers long and 1,000 feet below the adjacent plateau.
To the northeast of Wadi Al-Sirḥān are vast lava fields and chert plains pertaining to the southern part of Al-Ḥamād, the Syrian desert. The basin containing Al-Nafūd is bordered to the north by escarpments, by the north slope of which the Anizah Wadis (the wadis of the tribe of'Anizah) lead, to end in the valley of the Euphrates; Among the largest of these are Wadi'Ar'ar and Wadi Al-Khurr.
Al-Dahnā '
The Al-Dahnā 'belt, which separates Najd from eastern Arabia, is a sand creek that moves slowly over 800 miles from Al-Nafūd to Rub'Al-Khali. Usually no more than 50 miles wide.
The sands, often reddish in color, vary greatly in shape; Particularly in the central stretches, long parallel ridges rise to heights of about 150 feet, while some dunes are three times that height. Al-Dahnā 'also provides pastures in winter and spring. In 1957 the Khuray campo oil field was discovered under its sands.
The Rub 'al-Khali
The largest unbroken sand desert in the world, Rub 'al-Khali covers an estimated area of approximately 250,000 square miles. The name Rub 'al-Khali is not commonly used by the few nomadic Bedouins who live there; They call it simply Al-Ramlah ("The Arena").
The arboreal vegetation is widely separated on sandy and porous surfaces and is almost non-existent on the occasional surfaces of rock and salt. Only about 37 species have been identified, most of which are perennial. The desert has been intensively explored by oil companies since 1950.
Some areas of the Rub 'al-Khali can have droughts of more than 10 years, while others sometimes have storms or high humidity during the summer. In the west the Raydā 'and Abū Baḥr gravel plains separate the Rub' al-Khali from the southern end of Al-Dahnā ', while another gravel plain, Al-Jaladah, lies within the Rub' al- Khali.
What appears to be a northern extension of the Rub 'al-Khali, Al-Jāfūrah, is considered by the Arabs as an independent desert. To the south-east of Qatar, the sands give way to the vast salt marsh of Maṭṭi, which runs north about 60 kilometers off the coast of the Persian Gulf.
East of Maṭṭi, the villages of the oases of Al-Jiwā '(Liwā' in the United Arab Emirates) lie between the dunes in the northeastern desert strip. The largest dunes of the Rub 'al-Khali are in the Far East, where heights of more than 800 feet are reached and the sand ridges stretch for more than 30 miles. In the east, along the border of the desert of Oman, is the great salar of Umm Al-Samīm.
The lowlands of the Persian Gulf
A low-lying region follows the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf from Kuwait around the Al-Ḥajar mountains of Oman at the mouth of the gulf. The Al-Dibdibah gravel plain is south-west of Kuwait. Beside Al-Dahnā 'lies the low plateau of Al-Ṣummān, between it and the coast scattered hawks that rise a few hundred feet.
The Persian Gulf in this region does not offer good natural ports but many entrances offer shelter to sailing vessels, and modern ports have been built in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. This lowland region is relatively well supplied with groundwater from wells and springs. At the bottom of the sedimentary strata are huge accumulations of oil and gas.
Yemen
The highest mountains of Arabia are found in Yemen: Al-Nabī Shu'ayb, northwest of Sanaa, reaches 12,008 feet. The Tihāmah in Yemen, wider and more habitable than the Tihāmah further north in Saudi Arabia, covers a few cities. Monsoon rains make the mountains and high plateaus of Yemen the most fruitful region of Arabia.
The easy slope from the highlands to the south-west corner of Rub'Al-Khali was the main home of the pre-Islamic civilization of southern Arabia, and the ruins of the Ma'rib Dam, is the largest monument of that was. The descent into the sea of the Al-Kawr mountains in the southern tip of Yemen is precipitous.
Dhofar ( Eur-lex.europa.eu eur-lex.europa.eu Ufār)
The Qarā Mountains in Dhofar, the southern province of the Sultanate of Oman, are about 3,000 feet high, with a peak of 5,000 feet. The monsoon keeps fertile the sea side (south) of the mountains, as well as the coastal plain. A gradual slope leads north of the water divide to the Rub'Al-Khali and the valleys of the slope converge at Ramlat Al-Mughshin at the edge of the desert.
Oman
The Al-Ḥajar mountain range is divided into eastern Al-Ḥajar and western Al-Ḥajar. The range, which exceeds a height of 9,000 feet in some places, differs from other Arab coastal highlands in being steep on both sides.
The plains at the foot of the mountains fall almost imperceptibly on the numerous cities of inner Oman to the Rub 'al-Khali basin. The plateau along the coast has an average elevation of about 500 feet.
Climate of the Arabian Peninsula
The Tropic of Cancer practically divides the Arabian Peninsula, passing just south of Medina. The heat of the summer is intense everywhere, reaching temperatures of 54 ° Celsius in some places. Much of the interior is dry, but along the coasts and in some of the southern highlands and deserts the humidity is extreme in the summer.
Mists and dew occur in moist areas, sprinkles that often serve as a substitute for rain. In dry areas the sun shines fiercely throughout the summer. Spring and autumn are pleasant seasons, and biting cold and snow are rare in winter, except at high elevations and at the north end.
Plant life
The palm and dates grow almost everywhere, except at very high altitudes and in Dhofar, on the coast of which it is replaced by the coconut palm. Dates are a source of food, and uses are found for the trunk, branches, and fiber of the date palm.
Among the places highlighted by the high-quality production of date palm are Medina, Bīshah, and Al-Ḥasā. Alfalfa, widely used as fodder, often fills the space between the palms. The main cereals are wheat, sorghum, barley and Son .
Animal life
The camel has traditionally been the main support of nomadic life in the Arabian peninsula. With the camel, the Bedouins were able to survive for months with their milk and to travel the deserts. The camel also provided food, clothing, fuel (manure), transport and energy to extract water or to plow.
For the Bedouins, the camel represented the best form of capital and the most valuable commodity. The nobler camel races came from Oman, but other races, showed greater resistance. Nowadays, the camel, which for the most part has been supplanted by four-wheel drive vehicles as a means of transport, is mainly used as livestock.
References
- Rentz, G and Nijim, B. (2016). Arabia peninsula, Asia. 25-1-2017, of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Website: britannica.com.
- Olsen, S. (2010). Geography of the Arabian Peninsula. 25-1-2017, from Arabian Rock Art Heritage Website: saudi-archaeology.com.
- World Atlas. (2016). Arabian Peninsula Map, Arabian Peninsula Information, Arabian Geography Facts. 25-1-2017, from World Atlas Website: worldatlas.com.
- New World Encyclopedia. (2012). Arabian Peninsula. 25-1-2017, from New World Encyclopedia Website: newworldencyclopedia.org.
- Powers, R.W. (1963). GEOLOGY OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA Sedimentary Geology of Saudi Arabia. 25-1-2017, from U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Website: pubs.usgs.gov.