SECTION II.
Of the original inhabitants of Yaman there were, we are told, several tribes, of whom some, such as those of Tasm and Hodais, became extinct by war and other causes.[1] The tribes of Ad and Thamoud, which were settled, the former in Hadramaut and the latter in the province of Petra, were said to have been visited with the divine wrath for their impiety.[2] Those who had first occupied the boundaries of Syria, the Tahites, Chasdites, Bahrites, Giahites, and Salehites, were afterwards extirpated by other settlers from the south, who took possession of the districts of Ghassan and Hirah.[3] The Arabians are divided by the native historians into two distinct races: the posterity of Kâhtan, or Joktan, the son of Heber, who were termed Al Arab al Ariba, the pure Arabs, and the race of Adnân, the lineal descendants of Ishmael, who were called mixed Arabs, Al Arab al Mostareba. From the latter, who were intermixed with the descendants of Jorham, one of the sons of Kâhtan, and occupied the district of Hedjaz,
- ↑ See Appendix, A.
- ↑ Pococke, p. 36, 37.
- ↑ Ecchelensis, Hist. Orient, c. iii. On the early Arabian tribes consult Masoudi, in the Notices et Extraits de la Bibliothèque du Roi, tom. i. p. 28, 29.
