ARABIA 621 supposed to have been the founder of the city of Mareb, and to have invented the Ilimyaritic characters. After an inundation caused by the bursting of the immense reser- voir built by Saba the tribes of this kingdom were scattered, and were not again united till a century later under Tobba I., about A. D. 175. Under him and his successors Yemen rose to more than its ancient splendor. Assad Abu- karb (220) invaded and subdued Tehama, de- feated the Tartars in Azerbijan, plundered many cities of Khiva, and seems to have carried liis arms into Bokhara. Tobba II. in 297 in- vaded Hedjaz and besieged Yathreb (now Me- dina), a city inhabited by Jewish refugees after the destruction of Jerusalem. While there he was converted to Judaism, and on his return home all the nation embraced the Mosaic faith. Dunawas in 480 was a furious persecutor of the Christians, and is said to have burned 20,000 of them in a pit filled with combustibles. The Christian king of Abys- sinia sent an army under the command of his son Arayat, with orders to slay every Jew and plunder the country. Dunawas was routed, and cast himself into the sea, and the race of the Himyarite princes became extinct. Arayat was confirmed- in the government of Yemen, and the Abyssinians ruled it for 72 years, until Seif, a descendant of the Him- yarites, obtained from Chosroes, king of Persia, an army with which he wrested the power from the hands of the Abyssinians. He was appointed viceroy of the king of Per- sia, to whom he paid an annual tribute. After Seif s assassination by an Abyssinian slave, Yemen was governed by Persian satraps under the title of emirs till it was subdued by the lieutenants of Mohammed. The kingdom of Hira in Irak was founded by some of the dis- persed clans after the inundation in Yemen. Numan I., about A. D. 400, signalized himself by his conquests in Syria, building numerous vessels on the Euphrates, and adorning the capital with palaces, gardens, and hunting parks. Numan is said to have become a con- vert to Christianity and abdicated the throne to live in retirement. Mundar II., who reigned about 493, proved a valuable ally to the Per- sian monarch Kobad in his successful invasion of the Roman territories. In the reign of Mun- dar V. (633) the kingdom of Hira was invaded and subdued by the lieutenants of Mohammed. Other colonies of Arabs migrated northward into the territory of Damascus, where they founded a dynasty of kings called the Gassa- nites. Several small principalities existed in those districts before their arrival, the chief of which was the tribe of Silh, who had become converted to Christianity, in consequence of which the Roman emperor invested them with the government of the Syrian Arabs. These the emigrants (the tribes of Aus and Khasraj) expelled, slew many of their petty princes, and established their own sovereignty over these conquered territories, which lasted for about 400 years, when it was extinguished by Mos- j lem conquests. The Nabathaean Arabs, or | Ishmaelites, long preserved a distinct name as a nation, asserting their independence alike against the armies of Egypt and Ethiopia, of the Jews, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans. | "It was .extremely difficult," says Diodorus i Siculus, " either to attack or subdue them, be- cause they retired to their deserts ; and if an enemy ventured to follow them, he was sure to perish of thirst and fatigue, for the wells were only known to themselves." In the i time of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires i these wild tribes remained either wholly in- i dependent, or acknowledged a temporary al- I liance with their monarchs. The Medes and Persians under Cyrus and Cambyses found it necessary to have a friendly understanding with the Nabathaeans to secure a safe passage into Egypt. In 312 B. 0. Antigonus, one of the successors of Alexander the Great, made an unsuccessful incursion into the territory of the Nabatha?ans, and in 310 Demetrius, his son, invaded them again. One of the Ptolemies annexed a narrow strip of Arabia to his do- minions. In 219 Antiochus the Great captured the city of Rabbath Moab and subdued several tribes. After that the northern Arabs were frequently involved in wars with the new Jewish state, and fortified several cities on its border, as Bostra, Medabah, and Ilesbon. Several Roman proconsuls of Syria undertook expeditions against them, but without any further advantage than the payment of a trib- ute or temporary cessation of hostilities. In the reign of Augustus, ./Elius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, undertook his famous expedition into Yemen at the head of 10,000 Roman legiona- ries, 500 Jews, and 1,000 Nabathseans ; 80 ships of war and 130 transports conveyed these troops down the Red sea under the guidance of Syllias, by whose treachery numbers of the vessels were wrecked. Gallus penetrated as far as Mariaba, represented as the capital of the Rahrninites, but effected nothing. Other use- less expeditions followed. In A. D. 362 the army of the emperor Julian besieged and de- stroyed Anbar, the capital of the kings of Hoja. A new era dawned on Arabia at the birth of Mohammed (about 570). His doctrines soon gained a firm foothold, and Mecca once conquered, he found nearly the whole penin- sula at his feet. Abu-Bekr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, who succeeded Mohammed in turn I under the title of caliph or emir-el-mumenin, i "commander of the faithful," carried forward what he had begun. In the reign of Ali, Moawi- yah, governor of Syria, cast off his allegiance, was proclaimed caliph by the western provinces, penetrated into Hedjaz, reduced Medina and Mecca, and extended his conquests as far as Ye- men. A few months after All's death the sover- eignty passed into the hands of Moawiyah, the
- first prince of the dynasty of the Ommiyades,
who held the supreme power over the Moslem empire till A. D. 750. This period is marked
