[Footnote 2: The geographers of Arabia may be divided into
three classes: 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive
knowledge may be traced in Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, in
Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. i.,) Diodorus Siculus, (tom.
i. l. ii. p. 159 - 167, l. iii. p. 211 - 216, edit.
Wesseling,) Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1112 - 1114, from
Eratosthenes, p. 1122 - 1132, from Artemidorus,) Dionysius,
(Periegesis, 927 - 969,) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. v. 12, vi.
32,) and Ptolemy, (Descript. et Tabulae Urbium, in Hudson,
tom. iii.) 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated the
subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the
extracts of Pocock (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 125 - 128)
from the Geography of the Sherif al Edrissi, render us still
more dissatisfied with the version or abridgment (p. 24 -
27, 44 - 56, 108, &c., 119, &c.) which the Maronites have
published under the absurd title of Geographia Nubiensis,
(Paris, 1619;) but the Latin and French translators, Greaves
(in Hudson, tom. iii.) and Galland, (Voyage de la Palestine
par La Roque, p. 265 - 346,) have opened to us the Arabia of
Abulfeda, the most copious and correct account of the
peninsula, which may be enriched, however, from the
Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, p. 120, et alibi
passim. 3. The European travellers; among whom Shaw (p. 438
- 455) and Niebuhr (Description, 1773; Voyages, tom. i.
1776) deserve an honorable distinction: Busching (Geographie
par Berenger, tom. viii. p. 416 - 510) has compiled with
judgment, and D'Anville's Maps (Orbis Veteribus Notus, and
1re Partie de l'Asie) should lie before the reader, with his
Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 208 - 231. Note: Of modern
travellers may be mentioned the adventurer who called
himself Ali Bey; but above all, the intelligent, the
enterprising the accurate Burckhardt. - M.]