ARABIA

ARABIA. – The largest peninsula on earth (2.8–3 million sq. km), covering more than a quarter of Europe.

I. GEOGRAPHY

Arabia consists of a roughly rectangular plateau, which continues northward into Syria, to the northeast overlooks the Iraqi depression (Mesopotamia), and on the other sides is bordered by an almost continuous elevated rim, higher along the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. While this rim gradually slopes downward toward the interior, it descends steeply in terraces above a more or less narrow coastal plain (Tihāmah), flanked to the east and west by coral formations, only partially joined to the continental mass. The entire peninsula receives minimal and irregular rainfall, especially in the interior highlands, where the landscape is steppic in the higher zones or in depressions where groundwater can be reached, but is largely desert, with bare rock in the north (Nefūd) and sands in the south (Dahnā or Rub' al-Khālī). The higher peripheral zones, benefiting from the humid winds of the surrounding seas and where altitude moderates the extremes of tropical heat, correspond to the economically productive and most densely inhabited regions (Hejaz, Yemen, Hadramaut, Oman). The coast, by contrast, is torrid and barren; the interior is the domain of nomadic herders (Bedouins) raising sheep, camels, and horses (the latter of world renown), intolerant of subjugation, devoted to raiding and warfare; the marginal regions are home to settled Arabs living in towns or engaged in seafaring. The total population is estimated at 9 million, more than half of whom live in the elevated western fringe, predominantly Arabs, Sunnis or Shiites (Yemen), with minorities of Jews, Indians, and Ethiopians.

Spontaneous (balsamic and gum-bearing plants) or cultivated products (barley, date palm, banana, sesame, sugarcane, tobacco, cotton, and coffee), along with hides, support a modest export trade, recently augmented substantially by oil extraction (Bahrain Island). Communications rely on caravan routes; the railway from Medina to the Palestinian border, intended mainly for Muslim pilgrims, has not yet been reopened.

Politically, Arabia has been almost entirely unified by the Wahhābīs of the interior: since 1934, Saudi Arabia has included Nejd, Hejaz, and 'Asir (0.3 million sq. km, with over 5 million inhabitants), with its capital at Riyadh (30,000 inhabitants) and larger centers at Mecca (130,000), Medina (30,000)—the holy cities of Islam—and Jeddah (40,000), the principal Red Sea port. Independent as well is Yemen (120,000 sq. km, 1 million inhabitants), the "Happy Arabia" of antiquity, notable for coffee production; its capital is Sana'a (30,000), and Hodeidah (30,000) is its busiest port.

The rest of the peninsula and the islands facing it (Kuria Muria, Bahrain; sovereignty over the Ḥānīsh Islands, northeast of Assab, is undetermined) are under British control (sultanates of Hadramaut, Oman, the Pirate Coast, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Bahrain Islands), Aden (v.) and Perim to protect the route to India.

2. PRE-ISLAMIC RELIGIONS OF ARABIA

The religion in which Muḥammad was born, and which he abolished with Islam, was a polytheism with animistic elements (cult of stones, springs, trees, demonism). Owing to the isolated nature of the area in which it developed, it retains certain original features of ancient Semitic religions, of which it is one of the principal manifestations; for this reason it holds great interest for historians of religion and scholars of the Bible.

The Arab pantheon is numerous but not uniform: its deities are of varied origin and nature, not solely astral, although the worship of celestial bodies is widely attested. Al-Lāt, "the goddess" widespread among the Nabataeans and Palmyrenes, is almost certainly to be identified with the sun; al-'Uzzā, the most powerful, with the planet Venus; while Manāt, the third great female deity, is fate itself. There is also Allāh (v.), "the god," whose preeminence among the Arabs is shown by secure evidence (invocations, oaths, and formulas used throughout Arabia, the Qur'ān). One may ask whether the ancient Arabs did not already possess the concept of a celestial God, the guarantor of legal and moral order. That this idea of Allāh served as an introduction to the Islamic concept of God seems certain; yet its real force, which energized the religious process leading to the formation of Islam, came from the infinitely superior monotheism of Judaism and Christianity, which Muḥammad wove into an Arab framework inspired by national tradition, in which the figure of the old Allāh also played a part.

In Arab religious life, beliefs about demonic beings (jinn) that animate nature and dwell in desert places occupy a notable place; they are mostly anonymous and malevolent. This belief survives in Islam, which, however, distinguishes between good and evil jinn.

Cult. – The stone idol was originally carried by nomads in a red leather tent and followed the tribe’s migrations. Yet in various territories there was a fixed place of worship; the most famous was that of Mecca (Macoraba in the geographer Ptolemy), a pilgrimage destination (ḥajj) for all pagan Arabs, where the sanctuary, enclosed by a sacred precinct (ḥaram), consisted of a black stone, perhaps a meteorite, about 30 cm in diameter, now embedded in the eastern side of the Ka'bah, a small cubic building 12 m high. Within the Ka'bah was the idol of Hubal, the principal deity of the place, in human form. The cult involved circumambulations and processions around the sanctuary, kissing the image, ritual races, loud invocations to the deity (Labbayka allāhumma: “At your service, O Lord”), and the casting of stones upon heaps of stones. The rites were performed under strict conditions of ritual purity and with fixed rules for dress and haircuts, as well as rigorous taboos. A key part of the ritual was sacrifice, consisting of offerings of first fruits and agricultural and especially pastoral products, and the slaughter of animals whose blood was sprinkled on the sacred stone. The sanctuary was served by custodians and diviners (sādin, pl. sadanah; kāhin, pl. kuhhān, a hereditary role among distinguished families).

Annual religious festivals were held at the shrines during sacred months originally tied to the solar year’s seasons, during which a truce prevailed among the tribes.

Circumcision, universally practiced, is almost certainly of ritual and religious origin. Many names are theophoric, containing the name of a deity. Funerary customs are likewise imbued with religious spirit, but although the notion of the soul as a distinct breath (nafs) separate from the body was well defined, there is no concrete evidence of belief in an afterlife. The eschatological doctrines preached by Muḥammad—resurrection and judgment—were the least acceptable and comprehensible to pagan Arabs.

Faith and idolatrous practice were already in decline before Muḥammad: only the figure of Allah was gaining prestige in contrast to the old idols, while Christian missions and contacts with Syria and Byzantium warned the pagan Arabs who inhabited the cities about the higher forms of life that flourished in so much of the East. Muḥammad knew how to interpret these living tendencies, especially among the so-called “men of integrity” (ḥanīf), but he infused the new ferment into tradition and thereby ensured success and vitality for Islam.

3. PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

4. Arabia in the Bible

The Old Testament contains little that is specific about the Arabs. The name itself occurs only in the most recent biblical books and is used exclusively to designate the inhabitants of the territory southeast of Transjordan, that is, the region north of the Arabian Peninsula. The genealogical tables of *Genesis* contain names that clearly refer to regions or ethnic groups of Arabia, indicating that the Hebrews distinguished among the various tribes those that were related to them (descendants of Abraham).

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**ARABIA** — Roman province of Arabia after Diocletian, with the principal Christian centers.

ARABIA — Christian basilica of Umm es-Surab (5th century).

The Midianites (v.) mentioned in the story of Moses (Ex. 2:15 ff., etc.) in the exodus from Egypt (Num. 25:14-18; 31:2), and finally in the account of Gideon’s victory (Judg. 6-8), were northern Arabs. Other biblical passages (cf. Gen. 37:25-27 ff., 36), especially in the prophetic books, contain insistent allusions to the Arabs, mentioning their caravans, the products of their territory, and their customs. After the Babylonian exile, the Arabs were a serious obstacle to the restoration of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:19, etc.). Gradually they occupied the territories of the Edomites and others, forming a vast kingdom with its capital at Petra. This kingdom of the Nabataeans (v.) played an important part in the political development of the region. These Arabs are said to have raided Jehoram (2 Chr. 21:16); Uzziah defeated the Arabs living in Guraba (2 Chr. 26:7). In 105 A.D. Trajan reduced the kingdom to a Roman province.

5. Christianity in Arabia before Islam

The origins of Christianity in Arabia are, unfortunately, extremely obscure. Because Arabia lay at the borders of the empire, it attracted little attention from historians. The few and fragmentary traditions that have come down to us are inaccurate, as is evident from the fact that, except for the small part included within the empire, Arabia was often confused in the minds of historians with India or Ethiopia. We can therefore derive little that is certain from them.

Let us set aside the various legends about Arabia in which St. Paul is said to have retired after his conversion (Gal. 1:17), since this refers to the region south of Damascus, or, at most, to the Sinai Peninsula; nor did Saul make any attempt to preach to the peoples there. The alleged sojourn of St. Bartholomew among the inhabitants of Yemen is based mainly on the statement of Eusebius that the catechist Pantaenus, who went to evangelize India, found a copy of the Gospel in Hebrew there, said to have been brought by the apostle.

The emperor Philip the Arab (244-49) may have been born of Christian parents. Around 244, Origen visited the province of Arabia at the invitation of the district governor. He seems to have had prolonged contacts with some bishops of the various churches Bostra (v.). His assistance was sought to bring the bishop of Bostra, Beryllus, called by Eusebius “bishop of the Arabs,” back to orthodoxy. Many Christians of Arabia were martyred or condemned “to the mines” in Sinai (303-305) under Diocletian. Archaeological exploration, which has brought to light many remains of churches in the region of Rhaithu and hundreds of Greek and Latin inscriptions, confirms the tradition that presents Bostra as the center of a flourishing Christian colonization from the early 3rd century, a metropolis of some twenty bishoprics. Six or seven bishops from the province of Arabia were present at the Council of Nicaea (325). The *Peregrinatio* of Egeria (late 4th century) reveals the existence of monasteries built on the site of famous biblical episodes.

In the 5th century, the region of Arabia, east of Syria, was usually assigned as a place of exile for heretics and suspect ecclesiastics. Even Nestorius spent part of his exile at Petra.

These facts, with the exception of the tradition concerning St. Bartholomew, pertain to the northwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, and particularly to those Arabs who had adopted a sedentary life. This region became in the 6th century the center of the Christian dynasty of the Ghassanids. Directly under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, it gradually underwent, through frequent contacts with the Christians of Syria, the penetration of the Christian faith among the pagan tribes.

Even among the nomads the influence of Christianity was felt. Monks and anchorites played a large part in this. Although there are no extensive accounts of their activity, the few facts we know are enough to indicate the influence that the example of their austerity and the solemnity of their rites in their monasteries exerted on the Bedouins, many of whom entered the monasteries of Palestine; an Arab monk, St. Elias, was patriarch of Jerusalem (494-518). Among others, Sozomen describes the conversion of a desert prince, Zokomos, who was led to Christianity by the intervention of a pious monk. Of no less importance was the conversion of an Arab queen, Mavia, who, after long resistance to the Romans, finally submitted and became a Christian on the sole condition that the monk Moses, who had impressed her by his ascetic life, be consecrated bishop. This request caused great embarrassment to the emperor Valens (364-78), because the monk refused to be consecrated by the Arian bishop of Alexandria and forced the emperor to recall one of the exiled bishops to perform the rite. Unfortunately, however, this strict orthodoxy does not seem to have characterized the Arab clergy, since Arabia was always, from the earliest centuries, known as the mother of heresies.

Outside the Arabian Peninsula, to the east, we find another group of Christians, centered at Hīra, on the edge of Mesopotamia and under the sovereignty of the Persian Empire. We do not know how Christianity penetrated among the Arabs of this region, who may have received it from a nucleus of converted Arameans. In 410 there was at Hīra the bishop Hōsā, and we know the names of seven of his successors (Nestorians) up to the year 600. Until the conversion of Abū Qābūs shortly after 595, the region of Hīra was governed by pagan princes dependent on the Sassanids. These governors did not hesitate to follow their sovereigns in persecuting Christians. Despite these and other difficulties, when Islam appeared after 632, the majority of the population was Christian, composed largely of Nestorians with representatives of Jacobites. Christianity persisted in this region for a long time after the Islamic conquest; at the beginning of the 8th century we find mention of the Monophysite bishop George, who translated Aristotle’s *Organon* into Syriac.

### The Highlands of the Nejd and the Coastal Region to the South

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Arabia - Christian basilica of Umm es-Surab (5th century).
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The Midianites (v.) mentioned in the story of Moses (Ex. 2:15 ff., etc.) in the exodus from Egypt (Num. 25:14-18; 31:2), and finally in the account of Gideon’s victory (Judg. 6–8), were northern Arabs. Other biblical passages (cf. Gen. 37:25, 27 ff.) likewise refer to the Midianites as merchants who traded with the inhabitants of the Hiğaz, though the latter region remained practically untouched by Christian influence. Traces of Christianity in the Hiğaz are found only from the 6th century onward. At Mecca, for instance, the Christian faith was introduced by slaves, mostly Abyssinians, and perhaps by soldiers of the same race. Numerous Christians were found among the Banû Tamîm and likewise among the Banû Kindah, Kalb, and Tajji'; yet many of these tribes abandoned their ancient faith at the time of the Muslim conquest.

The southernmost part of the peninsula, Arabia Felix, fared better. It is historically certain that a mission was inaugurated there by Theophilus the Indian, a deacon of Nicomedia and a zealous advocate of Arianism. According to Philostorgius, Theophilus was sent by the Emperor Constantius II (337–61) at the head of an embassy to the inhabitants of this region. He obtained the right to build churches for the Byzantine merchants who often passed through and to labor for the conversion of the natives. It may be supposed that the success was considerable, since he seems to have converted the king. Some time later, in the same part of the peninsula, the Nestorians undertook to bring the faith to the inhabitants of Neġrân. From the few facts known, however, it does not appear that Christianity developed extensively there until the second Abyssinian invasion in 525. The list of martyrs who fell in the persecution by the Jewish king Dhû Nuwâs, which preceded this invasion, would seem to indicate that the number of Christians was not negligible. The period preceding Islam, particularly the last quarter of the 6th century, may be considered the golden age of this Church. With the advent of Islam, the Christians who remained faithful were forced to emigrate to Iraq.

Because of their centers of diffusion, it was natural that these groups belonged either to the Nestorian or to the Jacobite rite. The effort of the Arian Theophilus was an isolated case; it does not appear that a similar initiative was taken by Catholics.

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### 3. Arabic Translations of the Bible

The close union that existed between the Christian communities of Arabia and the centers of Christendom in Syria explains the absence of an Arabic version of the Bible in the first six centuries. During the period before the Islamic conquest, Syriac remained the official language of the Churches of Arabia, which, for the most part, were part of the ecclesiastical organization of Byzantium. Probably some religious writings were translated, but in general the Christians relied on oral traditions transmitted from one generation to the next. L. Caetani states in this regard that Muhammad could not have derived his knowledge of the Scriptures from an Arabic text because “at that time there were no Arabic versions of the Bible or the Gospel” (II, p. 704). It was only with the rise of Islam that Arabic acquired great importance and that the Christians felt the need for a text in that language.

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(prop. R. Bartocchini)

ARABIA - Church floor mosaic with depictions of Christian buildings (6th century) - El-Qaesnah ('Ammân).

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(prop. R. Bartocchini)

ARABIA - Church floor mosaic with a depiction of the local church (6th century) - Mâ'in.

Saadja Gaon (d. 942), a learned Jew, translated the Pentateuch. His work, which is more a paraphrase than a version, served as the basis for similar attempts by the Copts in Egypt. The Arab historian al-Mas'ûd (d. 957) states that Hunayn ibn Ishâq (d. 877?), the famous Nestorian philosopher and translator, left a version of the entire Bible from the Septuagint, though no trace of this work has yet been found. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Melkites, especially in Egypt, devoted much attention to this problem. The priest 'Alam of Alexandria, Theophilus ibn Taufil of Cairo, and 'Abdallâh ibn al-Fadl of Antioch revised and retranslated various parts of the Bible, working from Syriac and Greek texts. As late as the 10th century, the Syriac Christian al-Hârit ibn Sinan translated the Pentateuch from the Syriac Hexapla. The Nestorian monk Ibn at-Tajjib (d. 1043) Diatessaron (v.).

Only in the 16th century did Christians begin to collect the partial versions of the Bible to form a complete edition. The Jesuit Giovanni Eliano, papal legate to the Maronite nation, was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85) to bring to Rome a complete text of the Bible so that it might be printed and arranged in conformity with the Latin Vulgate. The first printing of the entire Bible in Arabic took place in Paris in 1629–45.

In the mid-18th century, a Coptic Catholic, Rafa’el Tûki, translated the Bible on the basis of the Latin Vulgate. In the 19th century, Protestant missionaries in Lebanon translated the entire Bible, basing their work on the original Hebrew and Greek texts. In the mid-19th century, two other versions appeared, one by the Dominicans of Mosul and the other under the direction of the Jesuits of Beirut.

2. L. Caetani, *Annali dell'Islam*, 10 vols., Milan 1904–25 (important studies on the oldest sources of Arab history); L. Duchesne, *Églises séparées*, 2nd ed., Paris 1905, pp. 300–52; H. Lammens, *Le berceau de l'Islam*, Rome 1914; R. Agron, s.V. in DHG, III, cols. 1158–1292 (with copious bibliography); G. Graf, *Geschichte der christlichen-arabischen Literatur*, I (Studi e testi, 118), Vatican City 1944.

3. I. Guidi, *Le traduzioni degli Evangelii in arabo e in egiptico*, in Atti d. R. Accad. d. Lincei, Rome 1888, I, p. 256 Sgr.; H. Hyvernat, s.V. in DB, I, cols. 845–56; P. Kahle, *Die arabischen Bibelübersetzungen*, Leipzig 1904; G. Graf, *Die arabische Pentateuchübersetzung im cod. Monac. arab. 234*, in Bibl. Zeits., 13 (1918–21), pp. 97–115, 193–212, 291–300; *Die arabischen Übersetzungen der Apocalypse*, in *Biblia*, 10 (1929), pp. 170–74; A. Vaccari, *Le versioni arabe dei Profeti*, in *Biblia*, 2 (1921), pp. 401–23, 3 (1922), pp. 401–23; *Una Bibbia araba per il primo gesuita venuto al Libano*, in *Mélanges de l'Un. de St-Joseph* (Beirut), 10 (1925), pp. 79–104; A. Nallino, *Raccolta di scritti*, III, Rome 1901, pp. 121–56; C. Peters, *Probe eines bedeutsamen arabischen Evangelientextes*, in *Oriens Christianus*, 38 (1936), pp. 188–211.

### Christian Archaeology. - Arabia

Arabia, so named by the Romans for the province constituted in A.D. 106 by order of Trajan, comprised a large part of the territory south of Damascus as far as the Gulf of Ela ('Aqabah), bounded to the east by the Syrian desert and to the west by the valley of the Jordan. Today, most of this territory lies within the Kingdom of Transjordan. Milestones along the road then opened through the country, running from north to south, bear the inscription *redacta in formam Provinciae Arabiae*, and a coin was struck to commemorate the event, depicting the personification of the Province, flanked on the left by a camel and the legend *Arabia adquisita*. At the same time, the long series of Nabataean kings came to an end; these rulers, with Rome’s tolerance, had extended their dominion from their capital and original seat, Petra, to control northern Arabia and then lands to the north as far as Damascus.

Roman administration fostered economic and architectural development in various cities, including Bostra, as well as Canatha (modern Qanawāt), Dionysias (Suweida'), Salca (Salqad), Gerasa (q.v.; modern Jerash), Philadelphia (Amman), and even Petra itself, now uninhabited. The city of Shahba, later renamed Philippopolis, boasts the birthplace of the Emperor Philip the Arab, though its external splendor far exceeds its actual historical importance. However, we have no certain evidence of Christian religious buildings prior to the 4th century; many such buildings, often richly decorated—especially with mosaics—sprang up everywhere after this period, even in locations of secondary importance. In some cases, these structures and their history constitute the sole documentation, preserved in lengthy and detailed dedicatory inscriptions, which often form an integral part of the pavement mosaics. The chronological references contained in these inscriptions are always calculated according to the era of Bostra or the eparchy (= province), which began in A.D. 106 with the establishment of this administrative unit.

Churches were also built in some fortresses along the *limes Arabicus*; at least three have been identified at Odruh, east of Petra, three at Umm er-Resas, near Kerak, and one has been excavated on the acropolis of Amman, fortified in the late empire. Finally, certain Christian centers established around the mid-4th century on the margins of the Syrian desert stand out for their numerous religious buildings, indicating a vibrant spiritual life in stark contrast to the silence that now surrounds their ruins. In one of these, Umm Gemal in northern Transjordan, no fewer than 15 churches and a monastery have been identified. Necropolises, on the other hand, are rare or, at least, remain largely unexplored, except where they consist largely of uninscribed graves. One of the few well-known necropolises, with abundant inscriptions datable between the 5th and 7th centuries, was identified and studied by R. Canova in the Kerak region of Transjordan (q.v.).

The language of the Christian communities was generally Greek; however, at el-Queisnah, southeast of Amman, alongside a Greek inscription in the same sacred building, there was another in Syriac. An inscription in Latin, belonging to a certain Basus, *civis Arabus*, appears to have come from one of the cemeteries in the Trastevere district of Rome (Christian Museum, Lateran, wall XIII, no. 43).

Among the rich collection of mosaics discovered and studied in this region, a notable group depicts localities and churches in the area, seats of bishoprics in Palestine and Arabia otherwise unknown, thereby supplementing incomplete episcopal lists from written tradition regarding these ecclesiastical hierarchies. These mosaics also provide the names of the bishops and the periods during which they served, sometimes under the patriarch of Antioch and sometimes under that of Jerusalem (*Notitia Antiochiae ac Geroslymae Patriarchatum*, Latin ed., 2nd half of the 12th century, ed. T. Tobler and A. Molinier, *Itinera Hierosolymitana*..., I, Geneva 1880, pp. 342-343; Mgr. Efrem Rahmani, *I fatti della Chiesa patriarcale antiochena*, Rome 1920, part IV-V). Of particular note in this regard is the well-known Madaba geographical mosaic (q.v.), attributed to the 6th century, though much deteriorated, especially in the section concerning Arabia, and the almost contemporary border of the mosaic pavement of the church at Ma'in, also unfortunately partially lost.

Monastic centers were not lacking either; of special importance, due to the exceptional biblical event associated with it and its good state of preservation, is that of Mount Nebo.

We have records in Arabia of martyrs prior to Eusebius (*Hist. eccl.*, VIII, 12, 1), perhaps the same martyrs for whom it is recorded that in Arabia, in the city of Philadelphia, a synod of martyrs was celebrated (*H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des Martyrs*, Brussels 1933, p. 215). Another major persecution is mentioned at the end of the 6th century (*cf. Acta SS. Octobris*, X, Paris 1869, pp. 662-762). About a century later, the iconoclastic struggle raged throughout the country; clear traces of it remain in the mosaics of many churches, where all human and animal figures were systematically destroyed, though not always thoroughly enough to prevent some remnants from being recognized. The measure is attributed to 'Umar II (Oct. 717-Feb. 720), but it does not appear that his successors persisted in it, as the damage was soon repaired.

Previously, and especially between the 6th and 7th centuries, Christian communities had begun to concentrate, for their own security, around Kerak and to the north of this locality. Petra had become a border region for common criminals and political exiles (including those condemned for religious reasons). The mines of Phaino, on the slopes of the Ghor, 16 km from Chobak, were notoriously used for this purpose, where many Christians were sent to forced labor in such numbers that a bishopric was established there to provide for their spiritual needs. Petra, as a border location, also attracted anchorites, who left traces of their presence in crosses carved inside and outside the rock-cut tombs; one of these, according to a red painted inscription on one of the walls, was converted into a church and consecrated by Bishop Jason in 447.

The Arab invasion tolerated the free practice of Christianity in exchange for the payment of a tax. Recently, a Christian monastic center has been identified in the Arabian Peninsula itself, where no such buildings were previously known, at Kilwah, dated, according to its discoverer (*cf. N. Glueck, The other side of the Jordan*, New Haven 1945, p. 44), to around the year 1000. Thus, there would also have been isolated Christian communities persisting in the Islamic world, a phenomenon already observed in the nearly contemporary cemeteries of Engila in Tripolitania and Kairouan in Tunisia.

Archaeological research, however, has not uncovered documents useful for determining the subsequent history of the Christians in the territory of the ancient province of Arabia, now included within the broader designation of Syria. Even the chronicles of the Crusader period provide scant information on this subject; only within the fortresses then built beyond the Jordan have churches been identified.

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5. The Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia. Administered by the Minor Capuchins of Tuscany, the apostolic vicariate comprises, in addition to the Arabian peninsula, which is desert and barren, the British military station of Aden, with its hinterland devoid of water, and British Somaliland. The population is predominantly Arab, the remainder consisting of Jews, Berbers, Indians, and Somalis; in all, about 7,500,000 souls. The predominant religion is Islam (Arabs, Somalis, and Berbers); the rest are pagans (Indians). The field is therefore anything but easy for the apostolate.

Originally the mission was confined to the fortress of Aden and was incorporated into the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt and Arabia, entrusted to the Servites (1841-49). Subsequently (1851-54), it formed part of the Vicariate of the Galla, established in 1846 and entrusted to Massaia. In 1854, the mission, made autonomous with the rank of apostolic prefecture by Massaia’s own designation, was placed under the care of the Genoese priest Luigi Sturla, a refugee from the anticlerical revolution of 1847. Sturla governed it for ten years, until his return to his homeland; at that point, though remaining a prefecture, the mission was attached to the Vicariate of Bombay. Two years later, it regained its autonomy and maintained it for about fifteen years, until in 1875 it was again aggregated to the Vicariate of the Galla, evangelized by French Capuchins who had succeeded the Italians. Finally, in 1888, it was erected as a separate mission under the name of Aden and entrusted to the Ligurian Capuchins. Since, however, the territory was too limited, the following year the entire Arabian peninsula was added, along with the islands of Perim and Socotra, and the name was changed to Arabia. Yet, as apostolic work was in fact precluded throughout this territory sacred to Muhammad, in 1891 British Somaliland was also annexed to the vicariate. The Italian Capuchins succeeded those of the Lyon province in 1910 and more fully in 1915 under Monsignor Vanni.

The mission is necessarily condemned to almost complete sterility: the stations at Hodeidah on the Arabian coast and the two at Berbera and Shinbaralek on the Somali coast had to be closed—these latter in 1910 by order of the British authorities—so that in effect the Fathers occupy only Aden itself, namely the New Town (Steamer Point) and Old Aden Camp. On the Somali coast, where the Somalis today do not appear as hostile as before, the missionary visits only occasionally to care for the few scattered Catholics. In Aden, the mission’s two schools, one for boys and one for girls, which are fairly well attended, are open to children of every race and creed. The five Capuchin Fathers are assisted by a few Marist Brothers and ten Tertiary Franciscan Sisters of Calais, one of whom is indigenous; these sisters run the girls’ orphanage. The Catholics number 1,479, of whom 204 are Europeans.