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[ A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo edition) has formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by the independence of the Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions of fact, might dispute the meaning of the text (Gen. xvi. 12,) the extent of the application, and the foundation of the pedigree. * Note: See note 3 to chap. xlvi. The atter point is probably the least contestable of the three.—M.]
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[ It was subdued, A.D. 1173, by a brother of the great Saladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites, (Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 425. D’Herbelot, p. 477.)]
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[ By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (A.D. 1538) and Selim II., (1568.) See Cantemir’s Hist. of the Othman Empire, p. 201, 221. The pacha, who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys; but no revenue was ever remitted to the Porte, (Marsigli, Stato Militare dell’ Imperio Ottomanno, p. 124,) and the Turks were expelled about the year 1630, (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168.)]
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[ Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and the third Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, which dated their aera from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, a lieutenant of Trajan, (Dion. Cassius, l. lxviii.) Petra was the capital of the Nabathaeans; whose name is derived from the eldest of the sons of Ismael, (Gen. xxv. 12, &c., with the Commentaries of Jerom, Le Clerc, and Calmet.) Justinian relinquished a palm country of ten days’ journey to the south of Aelah, (Procop. de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 19,) and the Romans maintained a centurion and a custom-house, (Arrian in Periplo Maris Erythraei, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. i.,) at a place (Pagus Albus, Hawara) in the territory of Medina, (D’Anville, Memoire sur l’Egypte, p. 243.) These real possessions, and some naval inroads of Trajan, (Peripl. p. 14, 15,) are magnified by history and medals into the Roman conquest of Arabia. * Note: On the ruins of Petra, see the travels of Messrs. Irby and Mangles, and of Leon de Laborde.—M.]
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[ Niebuhr (Description de l’Arabie, p. 302, 303, 329-331) affords the most recent and authentic intelligence of the Turkish empire in Arabia. * Note: Niebuhr’s, notwithstanding the multitude of later travellers, maintains its ground, as the classical work on Arabia.—M.]