Arabia

ARABIA. - The largest peninsula on earth (2.8-3 million sq. km.), comprising more than 1/4 of Europe.

1. GEOGRAPHY

Arabia consists of a massive plateau of roughly rectangular shape, which to the N. continues into Syria, to the NE. overhangs the Iraqi depression (Mesopotamia), and on the other sides is enclosed by an almost continuous raised rim, higher along the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The rim, while declining slowly toward the interior, drops steeply, in stages, over a more or less slender strip of plain (Tihāmah), accompanied to the E. and W. by coral formations, only partly welded to the continental trunk. All of Arabia receives minimal and irregularly distributed rainfall, especially in the inner plateau, whose landscape, steppe-like in the higher zones or in depressions where it is possible to reach the phreatic waters, is for very extensive stretches desert, with bare rock to the N. (Nefūd), and sands to the S. (Dahnā or Rub' el-Īālī). The higher peripheral zones, benefiting from the humid breath of the seas that surround them, and in which altitude tempers the excesses of tropical heat, correspond to the economically productive and better inhabited sectors (Ḥiğāz, Yemen, Ḥaḍramaut, 'Omān). The coast, on the other hand, is arid and desert; the interior is the kingdom of nomadic (Bedouin) herders (sheep, camels and horses; the latter of world renown), impatient of the yoke, devoted to plunder and war; the marginal regions host sedentary Arabs gathered in inhabited centers or devoted to maritime activity. The total population is calculated at 9 million inhabitants, of whom more than half are on the elevated western fringe, overwhelmingly Arabs, Sunnis or Shiites (Yemen), with minorities of Jews, Indians and Ethiopians.

Spontaneous products (balsamic and gum-bearing plants) or cultivated ones (barley, date palm, banana, sesame, sugar cane, tobacco, cotton, and coffee) sustain, along with hides, a modest export trade, increased recently to a conspicuous extent by the extraction of petroleum (Bahrein Island). Communications take place along caravan routes; the railway that leads from Medina to the Palestinian border, intended especially for Muslim pilgrims, has not yet been reactivated.

Politically Arabia has been almost totally unified by the Wahhābīs of the interior: since 1934 Sa'ūdī Arabia comprises the Neğd, the Ḥiğāz and Asir (0.3 million sq. km., with over 5 million inhabitants), with its capital at Rijād (30 thousand inhabitants) and more populous centers at Mecca (130 thousand inhabitants), and Medina (30 thousand), the holy cities of Islam; and Gedda (40 thousand), the main port on the Red Sea. Yemen is also independent (120 thousand sq. km., 1 million inhabitants), the Arabia Felix of the ancients, notable for its coffee production: its capital is Ṣan'ā (30 thousand inhabitants), and Ḥodeidah (30 thousand), the most active port.

All the rest of the peninsula and of the islands facing it (Curia Muria, Bahrein; the Ḥānīš Islands, to the NE. of Assab, of undetermined sovereignty) is under the control of Great Britain (sultanates of Ḥaḍramaut, of 'Omān, of the Pirate Coast, of Qajar, of Koweit, of the Bahrein Islands) which, interested in protecting the route to the Indies, has also established itself in Aden (v.) and in Perim.

2. RELIGIONS OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

The religion in which Muhammad was born, and which he abolished with Islām, is a polytheism with animistic elements (worship of stones, springs, trees, demonism). It preserves, also because of the nature of the isolated area in which it developed, some original characteristics of the ancient Semitic religions, of which it is one of the principal manifestations; for this reason it offers great interest to historians of religion and to students of the Bible.

The Arab pantheon is numerous but not uniform: its divinities are of various origin and nature; not exclusively astral, although the worship of the heavenly bodies is widely documented. Allāh "the goddess," also widespread among the Nabataeans and Palmyrenes, is almost certainly to be identified with the sun; al-'Uzzā "the most mighty" is the planet Venus; while Manāh, the third great female divinity, is fate. There is then Allāh (v.) "the god," whom sure indications (invocations, oaths and formulas used throughout Arabia, the Koran) show to have prevailed among the Arabs; and one may ask in this connection whether the conception of a celestial God, depositary and guarantor of the rules of law and morality, was not proper to the ancient Arabs. That this idea of Allāh served as an introduction to the Islamic concept of God seems certain: it nevertheless receives its force, truly active in the religious process that led to the formation of Islam, from the infinitely superior conception of Jewish and Christian monotheism which Muhammad was able to insert within an Arab framework inspired by national tradition, in which the figure of the old Allāh also has its part.

In Arab religious life, moreover, a notable place is held by beliefs concerning demonic beings (jinn) that animate nature and dwell in desert places; for the most part anonymous and of a malignant nature. This belief survives in Islam, which however distinguishes good and evil jinn.

Cult. — The stone idol was originally carried by the nomads in a tent of red leather and followed the wanderings of the tribe. But in the various territories there was a fixed place of worship: most famous of all that of Mecca (the Macoraba of the geographer Ptolemy), a goal of pilgrimage (ḥajj) for all pagan Arabs, where the sanctuary, enclosed by a precinct (ḥaram), consisted of a black stone, perhaps a meteorite, 30 cm. in diameter, set today in the eastern side of the Ka'bah, a small building of cubic form 12 m. high. In the Ka'bah was contained the idol of Hubal, the principal deity of the place, in human form. The cult consisted of circuits and processions around the sanctuary, in the kissing of the image, in ritual races, in loud invocations to the divinity (Labbayka allāhumma: "at your service, O Lord"), in the throwing of stones upon heaps of other stones. The ceremonies were performed under determined conditions of ritual purity and with the observance of fixed rules for clothing and for the cutting of hair and of rigorous prohibitions. An essential part of the rite was sacrifice, consisting of offerings of first-fruits and of agricultural and especially pastoral products, in the immolation of animals whose blood was sprinkled on the sacred stone. Attached to the sanctuary were persons serving as guardians and as soothsayers (sādin, plur. sadanah; kāhin, plur. kuhhān, a hereditary function in distinguished families).

The annual religious festivals took place at the sanctuaries during the sacred months, which originally were related to the seasons of the solar year and during which a truce prevailed among the tribes.

Circumcision, of general use, is almost certainly of ritual and religious origin. Very many names are theophoric, that is, they contain the name of a divinity. Funerary customs are also imbued with religious spirit, but although the notion of the soul, of the breath (nafs) distinct from the body, was well defined, there is no concrete trace of belief in the life of the afterlife. The eschatological part of the doctrine preached by Muhammad, namely resurrection and judgment, was the least acceptable and comprehensible to the pagan Arabs.

The idolatrous faith and practice were already in decline before

Muhammad: only the figure of Allāh gained prestige in the face of the old idols, while Christian missions and contacts with Syria and Byzantium warned the pagan Arabs who inhabited the cities about the superior forms of life that flourished in so great a part of the East. Muhammad knew how to interpret these tendencies, alive especially among the so-called "pious men" (ḥanīf), but he introduced the new ferment into tradition and thereby assured success and vitality to Islam.

Michelangelo Guidi

3. PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

1. Arabia in the Bible

In the Old Testament there is little of a particular nature concerning the Arabs. The name itself occurs only in the biblical books of more recent date and is used exclusively to designate the inhabitants of the territory to the southeast of Transjordan, hence the region to the north of the Arabian Peninsula. The genealogical tables of Genesis contain names that clearly refer to the regions or ethnic groups of Arabia; which indicates that the Hebrews distinguished among the various tribes those that were related to them (descendants of Abraham).

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 f., 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.). Little by little they occupied the territories of the Edomites and of 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 this region. These Arabs would have carried out the raid against Joram (2 Chron. 21:16); Uzziah defeated the "Arabs who dwelt in Gurbaal" (2 Chron. 26:7). In A.D. 105 Trajan reduced the kingdom to a Roman province.

2. Christianity in A. before Islam

The origins of Christianity in A. are, unfortunately, extremely obscure. Since A. was relegated to the frontiers of the empire, it attracted little attention from historians. The few and fragmentary traditions that have come down to us were inaccurate, as is clear from the fact that A., with the exception of the small part included in the empire, was often confused, in the minds of historians, with India or with Ethiopia. We can therefore draw very little that is certain from them.

Let us set aside the various legends concerning A., where St. Paul withdrew 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 at apostolate among the populations there. The alleged stay of St. Bartholomew among the inhabitants of Yemen is mainly based on Eusebius's statement that the catechist Pantaenus, having gone to evangelize "India," found there a copy of the Gospel in Hebrew, brought there by the apostle.

The emperor Philip "the Arab" (244-45) was perhaps born of Christian parents. Around 244, Origen visited the "province of A.," at the invitation of the governor of the district. It seems that he had prolonged contacts with certain bishops of the various churches existing in the region of Bosra (v.). His help was sought to bring back to orthodoxy the bishop of Bosra, Beryllus, called by Eusebius "bishop of the Arabs." Many Christians of A. were martyred under Diocletian or condemned "ad metalla" in Sinai (303-305). Archaeological exploration, which has brought to light many traces of churches in the region of Jaurān, and hundreds of Greek and Latin inscriptions, confirms the tradition that presents Bosra as the center of a flourishing Christian community from the early 3rd century, the metropolis of some twenty bishoprics. Six or seven bishops of the province of A. 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 A., east of Syria, was usually assigned as a place of exile for heretics and suspect ecclesiastics. Nestorius too spent part of his exile at Petra.

These facts, with the exception of the tradition concerning St. Bartholomew, concern the northwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula, and particularly those Arabs who had adopted sedentary life. This region became in the 6th century the center of the Christian dynasty of the Ghassanids. Placed 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 not slow to make itself felt. Monks and anchorites played a great part in this. Although no extensive accounts of their activity exist, the few facts we know are enough to indicate the influence that the example of their austerities and the solemnity of the rites in their monasteries exercised 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 to us the conversion of a prince of the desert, Zokomos, who was led to Christianity through the intervention of a pious monk. Of no less importance was the conversion of an Arab queen, Mavia, who after long resisting the Romans, finally submitted and became a Christian, on the sole condition that the monk Moses, who had greatly impressed her by his ascetic life, be appointed bishop. This request caused grave embarrassment to the emperor Valens (364-78), because the monk refused to let himself be consecrated by the Arian bishop of Alexandria, and forced him to recall one of the exiled bishops to perform the rite. But, unfortunately, this strict orthodoxy does not seem to have characterized the Arab clergy, since always, from the earliest centuries, A. was known as the mother of heresies.

Outside the Arabian peninsula, we find, toward the east, another group of Christians, whose center is at Hīrah, on the edges of Mesopotamia and under the sovereignty of the Persian empire. We do not know how Christianity penetrated among the Arabs of this region, who perhaps received it from a nucleus of converted Arameans. In 410 there was at Hīrah the bishop Hōšā', and we know the names of seven of his successors (Nestorians), down to the year 600. Until the conversion of Abū Qābūs, shortly after 595, the region of Hīrah was governed by pagan princes dependent on the Sassanids. These governors did not hesitate to follow their sovereigns in persecuting the Christians. Despite these and other difficulties, when Islam appeared, after 632, the majority of the population was Christian, composed in large part of Nestorians with representations of Jacobites. Christianity persisted in this region long 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.

In the south, the highlands of Nejd and the coastal region of the Ḥiǧāz remained practically outside Christian influence. Only around the 6th century do we find traces of its presence in the Ḥiǧāz. At Mecca, for example, the Christian faith was introduced by slaves, mostly Abyssinians, and perhaps by soldiers of the same race. Numerous Christians were to be found among the Banū Tamīm and likewise among the Banū Kindah, Kalb and Tajji'; but many of these tribes abandoned the ancient faith at the time of the Muslim conquest.

The southern extremity of the peninsula, A. Felix, was more fortunate. It is historically certain that a mission was inaugurated there by Theophilus the Indian, deacon of Nicomedia and an ardent supporter 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 there, and to work for the conversion of the natives. It is to be supposed that the success was impressive, if, as seems likely, he went so far as to convert the king. Some time later, in the same area of the peninsula, the Nestorians undertook to bring the faith to the inhabitants of Negrān. But, from the few facts we know, it does not appear that there was a broad development of Christianity until the second Abyssinian invasion in 525. The list of martyrs, however, who fell in the persecution of the Jewish king Jū Nuwās that preceded this invasion, would seem to demonstrate that the number of Christians was not negligible. The period that preceded Islām, particularly the last quarter of the 6th century, can be considered the golden age of this Church. With the arrival of Islām, the Christians who remained faithful were forced to emigrate to Iraq.

Because of its centers of diffusion, it was natural that these groups belonged either to the Nestorian sect or to the Jacobite one. The effort of the Arian Theophilus was an isolated case; it does not appear that a similar initiative was undertaken on the part of Catholics.

3. Arabic translations of the Bible

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

The Gaon Saadia (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'ūdī (d. 957) states that Ḥunajn ibn Isḥāq (d. 877?), the famous Nestorian philosopher and translator, left a version of the entire Bible from the Septuagint, but so far there is no trace of this work. In the 10th and 11th centuries the Melkites, especially in Egypt, occupied themselves greatly with this problem. The priest 'Alam of Alexandria, Theophilus ibn Taufīl of Cairo and 'Abdallāh ibn al-Faḍl at Antioch revised and retranslated various parts of the Bible, working from Syriac and Greek texts. Still in the 10th century the Syrian al-Ḥāriṭ ibn Sinan translated the Pentateuch from the Syriac Hexapla. The Nestorian monk Ibn aṭ-Ṭajjib (d. 1043) translated the Diatessaron (v.).

Only in the 16th century did Christians begin to gather the partial versions of the Bible in order to form a complete edition. The Jesuit Giovanni Eliano, pontifical legate to the Maronite nation, received from Pope Gregory XIII (1572-85) the commission to bring to Rome a complete text of the Bible so that it might be printed and ordered in conformity with the Latin Vulgate. The first printing of the whole Bible in Arabic took place in Paris in 1629-45.

In the mid-18th century a Catholic Copt, Raffaele Tūki, translated the Bible on the basis of the Latin Vulgate. In the 19th century Protestant missionaries in Lebanon translated the entire Bible, basing themselves 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 1904-1926 (important studies on the most ancient sources of Arab history); L. Duchesne, Eglises séparées, 2nd ed., Paris 1905, pp. 300-52; H. Lammens, Le berceau de l'Islam, Rome 1914; R. Aigrin, s. v. in DḤḤ, III, coll. 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 etiofico, in Atti d. R. Accad. d. Lincei, Rome 1888, I, p. 256 ff.; H. Hyvernat, s. v. in DB, I, coll. 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; id., Arabische Übersetzungen der Apocalypse, in Biblica, 10 (1929), pp. 170-194; A. Vaccari, Le versioni arabe dei Profeti, in Biblica, 2 (1921), pp. 401-23, 3 (1922), pp. 401-23; id., 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. Giacomo Finnegan

4. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Arabia was the name given by the Romans to the province established in 106 A.D., by order of Trajan, with a large part of the territory south of Damascus as far as the Gulf of Ela ('Aqabah), bounded on the east by the Syrian desert and on the west by the Jordan valley, a territory today comprised for the most part in the kingdom of Transjordan. The milestones of the road then opened through the country, from north to south, bear the indication redacta in formam Provinciae Arabiae, and a coin was struck, to celebrate the event, with the personification of the Province, flanked on the left by a camel and by the legend Arabia adquisita. At the same time the long line of the kings of Nabatene came to an end; with the tolerance of Rome, from their capital and original seat, Petra, they had pushed on to dominate the northern part of the Arabian peninsula and then the lands to the north as far as Damascus.

The Roman administration favored the economic and building development of various cities, besides Bostra, such as Canatha, today's Qanawāt, Dionysias (Suweidā'), Salca (Salhad), Gerasa (v.; today's Geras), Philadelphia ('Ammān) and finally Petra itself, today uninhabited. To the circumstance of having given birth to the emperor Philip the Arab, Sabha—later named Philippopolis—owed instead its exceptional outward splendor, certainly disproportionate to its real importance. But we have no certain information about Christian religious buildings earlier than the 4th century; many, on the other hand, often with a wealth of decoration, especially mosaic, arose everywhere after this epoch, even in places of secondary importance, of whose existence and vicissitudes they in certain cases constitute the only documentation, with long and detailed dedicatory inscriptions, often also an integral part of the floor mosaics. The chronological references contained in them are always reckoned according to the era of Bostra or of the eparchy (=province) which began in 106 A.D. precisely with the constitution of this. Churches were also built in some fortresses of the Arabian limes; at least three have been recognized at Odruh, east of Petra, at Umm er-Rešā, at the height of Kerak, and one has been excavated on the acropolis of 'Ammān, fortified in the late empire. Finally, mention must be made of certain Christian centers established around the middle of the 4th century precisely on the edges of the Syrian desert, rich in religious buildings, which denote a fervent spiritual life, in profound contrast with the silence that today hangs over their ruins. In only one of them, Umm Gemal, in northern Transjordan, no fewer than 15 churches and a monastery have been identified. Rare, on the other hand, or at least so far unexplored, are the necropolises, when they are not also for the most part composed of uninscribed tombs. One of the few known, very extensive, with copious inscriptions, datable between the 5th and 7th centuries, has been recognized and studied by R. Canova in the region of Kerak in Transjordan (v.). The language of the Christian communities was generally Greek; however at el-Queisnah, a little south-east of 'Ammān, beside an inscription in this language and in the same sacred building, there was another in Syriac. From one of the cemeteries of the Trastevere, in Rome, the Christian Latin inscription of a certain Bassus, civis Arabus, seems to come (Museo Cristiano Lateranense, wall XIII, no. 43). Among the rich harvest of mosaics discovered and studied in this country, characteristic is a group of them depicting localities and churches of the region, seats of bishoprics of Palestine and of Arabia not otherwise known, which thus come to integrate the incomplete episcopal lists of the written tradition relating to these ecclesiastical hierarchies, also providing us with the names of the titulars and the epoch in which they carried out their mission, subject now to the patriarch of Antioch, now to that of Jerusalem (Notitia Antiochiae ac Yerosolymae Patriarchatum, Latin ed. of the 2nd half of the 12th century, edited by T. Tobler and A. Molinier, Itinera Hierosolymitana..., I, Geneva 1880, p. 342 ff.; Mgr. Efrem Rahmani, I fasti della Chiesa patriarcale antiochena, Rome 1920, parts IV-V). Noteworthy in this regard are the well-known geographical mosaic of Madaba (v.), attributed to the 6th century, although much deteriorated precisely in the part concerning Arabia, and the border of the almost contemporary floor of the church of Ma'in, unfortunately also partially lost. Nor were monastic centers lacking; of special importance, because of the exceptional biblical event connected with it and because of the good state in which it has come down to us, is that of Mount Nebo.

We have reports in Arabia of martyrs earlier than Eusebius (Hist. eccl., VIII, 12, 1), perhaps the very ones for whom the notice has been handed down to us that in Arabia civitate Filadelfia synodus martyrum celebratur (H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des Martyrs, Brussels 1933, p. 215). Another great persecution is spoken of at the end of the 6th century (cf. Acta SS. Octobris, X, Paris 1869, pp. 662-762). About a century later the iconoclast struggle raged throughout the whole country; evident traces of it have remained in the mosaics of many churches, where all human or animal figures were systematically destroyed, though not always in such a way as to prevent some remnant of them from sometimes being recognizable. The measure is attributed to 'Umar II (Oct. 717-Feb. 720), but it does not appear that his successors insisted upon it, because the damage was very soon repaired. Previously, and especially between the 6th and 7th centuries, perhaps the better to provide for their own safety, the Christian communities had begun to concentrate by preference around Kerak and to the north of that place. Petraea had by then become a region of confinement for common criminals and political exiles (and among these were included those exiled for religious reasons). Sadly notorious for this reason were the mines of Phainō, on the slopes of the Gôr 16 km. from Chobak, where many Christians were sent to forced labor, until they reached so considerable a number as to counsel the establishment of a bishopric in that place for their spiritual assistance. Petra, regarded as a place of confinement, ended up being frequented also by anchorites, who left traces of their stay in the crosses carved inside and outside the rock-cut tombs; one of these, indeed, according to an inscription painted in red on one of the walls, was converted into a church and consecrated by Bishop Jason in 447. The Arab invasion tolerated the free worship of Christianity in exchange for the payment of a tax. Recently a Christian monastic center has been identified in the Arabian peninsula itself, where until now no buildings of the kind were known, at Kilwah, datable, according to its discoverer (cf. N. Glueck, The other side of the Jordan, New Haven 1945, p. 44), to about the year 1000. There would thus also have been a phenomenon of the persistence of isolated Christian nuclei in the Islamic world, such as was already observed in the nearly contemporary cemeteries of Engila in Tripolitania, and of Kairouan in Tunisia. Archaeological investigation, on the other hand, has not found documents useful for fixing the subsequent fortunes of the Christians of the territory of the ancient province of Arabia, by then included in the broader common designation of Syria. The chronicles of the Crusader period themselves are scanty in information on the matter: only within the fortresses then built beyond the Jordan have churches also been recognized.

Renato Bartoccini

5. THE APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF ARABIA

Governed by the Capuchin Friars Minor of Tuscany, the apostolic vicariate comprises, besides the Arabian peninsula, desert and sterile, the English military station of Aden, with its hinterland, devoid of water, and British Somaliland. The population is for the most part Arab, the rest 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). A field therefore anything but easy for the apostolate.

Originally the mission was limited to the stronghold of Aden, and was incorporated into the apostolic vicariate of Egypt and Arabia, entrusted to the Servants of Mary (1841-49). Subsequently (1851-54), it formed part of the vicariate of the Galla, erected in 1846 and entrusted to Massaia; in 1854 the mission, made autonomous with the rank of apostolic prefecture by designation of Massaia himself, had as its prefect the Genoese priest Luigi Sturla, a refugee from the anticlerical revolution of '47: he governed it for ten years, that is, until he returned to his homeland, whereupon the mission, while remaining a prefecture, was annexed to the vicariate of Bombay. Having regained its autonomy two years later, it kept it for about fifteen years, until in 1875 it was again aggregated to the vicariate of the Galla, evangelized by the French Capuchins, who had succeeded the Italians. Finally in 1888 it was erected as a mission of its own under the name of Aden and entrusted to the Ligurian Capuchins. Since, however, it was a mission of too limited a territory, the following year the whole Arabian peninsula was added to it, together with the islands of Perim and Socotra, and its name was changed to that of Arabia. But since, in reality, the apostolate was precluded throughout this territory sacred to Muhammad, in 1891 Somaliland or British Somalia was also annexed to the vicariate. The Italian Capuchins succeeded those of the Lyonnais province in 1910 and more completely in 1915 with Msgr. Vanni.

The mission is necessarily condemned to almost sterility: the station of Hodeidah, on the Arabian coast, and the two of Berbera and Shinbaralek, on the Somali coast, had to be closed — the latter two, in 1910, by order of the English authority — so that in effect the Fathers occupy only Aden alone, that is, the new city (Stemar Point) and the old Aden Camp. On the coast of Somalia, where today the Somalis would not seem as hostile as formerly, the missionary goes only from time to time for the care of the few Catholics scattered here and there. In Aden the two schools of the mission, male and female, reasonably well attended, are open to boys of every race and creed. The five Capuchin fathers are assisted by a few Marist brothers and by ten Franciscan tertiary sisters from Calais, one of whom is a native, who have charge of the girls' orphanage. The Catholics number 1,479, of whom 204 are Europeans.

Giovanni B. Tragella