I N DEP ENDENT "TATARY.
among.the gjreeti fields. . And i%.all Khorafan and ^laweralilahr there
are not any people more long-lived.than thofe of Bokhara.
‘ It isfaid that in all the world there is not any place more delightful
(or falubrious) than thpfej three: one, the Soghd ofiSamarcand;; another,
the RudAileh; and; the third, the Ghutah of, Damafcus.’'..But the.
Gfiutah- .of Damafcus is within one farfang .of. barren and dry hills, without
trees.; and it contains jnany> pltKses, which are defolate, and produce
no verdure. , ‘ A fine profpe£t ought to be fuch as completely fills-tfie
eye, and nothing. fhould be vifible but Iky and green.’ Then river
Aileh* affords, for one farfang only, this kind of profpedt ; and- ther(e
is notin the vicinity of it any eminence from which one can fee heyond
a farlang; and .the verdant fpot is either furrpunded by, or .oppofite to
a dreary defert. But the walls, and buildings, and.culfiyated plains of
Bokhara, extend above thirteen farfang, by twelve farfang; and the
Soghd, -for eight days journey, is all delightful country, affording fins
profpe&s, and full of gardens, and orchards, and villages, corn fields,
and villas, and running ftreams, refervoirs,, and-fountains;-iroth on the
right hand, and on the left. You pafs from corn fields into .rich - meadows,
and pafture lands; and the Soghd is far more' healthy-than the
Rud Aileh, of the Ghutah of Damelhk (or Damafcus)-and the fruits of
Soghd are the fineft in the world. Among the hills and palaces flow
running ftreams, gliding between the trees.” 15
* From the editor’s preface, p. xr, it appears that this is the Ablah,. or Ubbulah, near Bafra
"or Baffora, about fixteen miles to the E. of that city.
15 Ebn Haukal, by Sir W a t Oufeley, p. 234..
A R A B I A.
CHAPTER -T.
Boundaries. —P^uiatid^— Progr^ivf* "GeOgr'aft^— Hijidtiid*' Epoc&k Re^
digifn. -^Government: —^Manners md^C&Jmhh^—Wf'ejs{—’■ Rati^uSgA. -&*Mdtiva-
ti$m-— Citiesand &lowtis:^B<ffices:— Manufaffiltve6,^'Rmdu$s.—Qoittm'er‘cMS%\
THE laft remaining country of the wide Afiatic continent is Arabia,
region alfp. more highly celebrated than precisely known. By -
the-ancients it was divided into three unequal portions.; Petrsea, or the
Stom.dy, a fmall province on the N. of the Red fea, between. Egypt ^nd
PaJeftinej^fb called from the number of granitic^fopkg and mountains^
the moft remarkable of which is Sinai: Arabia» Deferta was the eaftern
papt, fo far as known to .the ancients; whUe Arabia t|ae^HiPrPS'> c$m*
prifed the S. W. on-the fhores of the Red §ea..,
. . boundaries on the W. and S. are marked by the Red Sea, or Bounda»
Arabian gulf, and the Indian ocean; while the Perfian* golf.extends* a MES*
eohhderable way on the E. and this,boundary is-eonfidered- a&'Cqntinued
by,the Euphrates, or rather by the deferts towards t-he) we lt ror"tha
ancientvGhaldea, a, part of Babylonia; coipprifed the weftern moYps! of
thft river. The northern limits j $re ’kfs ftrongly marked; [butnlo'dr in,
ancient and modern times rife to an angle abojut a hundred miles, to tfie *
E. of Palmyra, which is not included in. Apaiu^J Thence. t2ie:|me proceeds
AjST, to .the S. E. angle of-the Mediterranean,^ ai northern boiini-
dairy of Arabia Petrsea»
From the Cape of Babelmandeb to the extreme angle, on the Euphrates,
the length may be not lefs than iSbo. B. miles; while the •.
medial breadth may be about .800,