Arabia Deserta (Latin meaning "Abandoned/Deserted Arabia"), also known as Arabia Magna ("Great Arabia"), signified the
desert interior of the
Arabian peninsula. In ancient times, this land was populated by
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
ic
Bedouin tribes who frequently invaded richer lands, such as
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
and
Arabia Felix
Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen.
Etymology
The term Arabia ...
.
Arabia Deserta was one of three regions into which the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
divided the Arabian peninsula: ''Arabia Deserta'' (or ''Arabia Magna''), ''Arabia Felix'', and ''
Arabia Petraea
Arabia Petraea or Petrea, also known as Rome's Arabian Province ( la, Provincia Arabia; ar, العربية البترائية; grc, Ἐπαρχία Πετραίας Ἀραβίας) or simply Arabia, was a frontier province of the Roman Emp ...
''. As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was used in
Charles M. Doughty's ''
Travels in Arabia Deserta'' (1888).
Bibliography
*
G.W. Bowersock, "The three Arabias in Ptolemy's geography" and "Arabs and Saracens in the ''Historia Augusta''" in G.W. Bowersock, ''Studies on the Eastern Roman Empire'', Goldbach, 1994.
* F. Millar, ''The Roman Near East'', London, 1994, pp. 514 ff.
References
Historical regions in Saudi Arabia
Arabia
{{SaudiArabia-geo-stub