Note 3606 — BOOK V. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED.

An Arabian people, said to have descended from the eldest son of Ishmael, who had their original abodes in the north-western part of the Arabian peninsula, east and south-east of the Moabites and Edomites. Extending their territory, we find the Nabatæi of Greek and Roman history occupying nearly the whole of Arabia Petræa, along the north-east coast of the Red Sea, on both sides of the Ælanitic Gulf, and on the Idumæan mountains, where they had their capital, Petra, hewn out of the rock.