Map of the Three Arabias Excerpted Partly from the Arab of Nubia Partly from Several Other Authors

Arabia Deserta (Latin meaning "Abandoned/Deserted Arabia"), also known as Arabia Magna ("Great Arabia"), signified the

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

interior of the

Arabian peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...

. In ancient times, this land was populated by nomadic

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

tribes who frequently invaded richer lands, such as Mesopotamia and Arabia Felix. Arabia Deserta was one of three regions into which the Romans divided the Arabian peninsula: ''Arabia Deserta'' (or ''Arabia Magna''), ''Arabia Felix'', and '' Arabia Petraea''. As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was used in

Charles M. Doughty Charles Montagu Doughty (19 August 1843 – 20 January 1926) was an English poet, writer, explorer, adventurer and traveller, best known for his two-volume 1888 travel book '' Travels in Arabia Deserta''. Early life and education Son of Rev. Ch ...

's '' Travels in Arabia Deserta'' (1888).

Bibliography

G.W. Bowersock Glen Warren Bowersock (born January 12, 1936 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a historian of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East, and former Chairman of Harvard’s classics department. Early life Bowersock was born in Providence, Rhode Islan ...

, "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