Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎5v] (10/42)

numerous
188 Palgrave^ Arabia,
lished Travels, Burckhardt had directed special attention to Nejd ;
and as the Egyptian army under Toussoun Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. had previously
penetrated to Kaseem, one of its districts, he was able to lay
down with considerable accuracy the stages and distances from
Medina to the principal towns of the province. This informa
tion was obtained in 1814, and was all that was then attainable. ,
In 1817 and 1818, however, when the Egyptian army, under
Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , accompanied by several European officers of
intelligence, had overrun Nejd, taken and destroyed its capital
Dereeyah, and occupied the country to the shores of the Persian
Gulf, Nejd ceased to be an unexplored or unknown country.
In 1819 Captain Sadlier of the British army, who had previ- dL
ously been employed in Persia, was sent on a mission to Ibrahim
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , in order to prevent any misapprehension as to the objects
of the expedition which in that year was sent from India against
the Wahabee pirates in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Landing at Kateef
Sadlier crossed the peninsula to Yembo, being the first European
who had succeeded in making his way from sea to sea. He
passed through Nejd by Dereeyah, Shakra, lA.neyzah, El Rass
and Hanekayeh, in fact, traversed from east to west nearly the
same parts of that province, with the exception of Jebel Sham-
mar and Jowf, that Mr. Palgrave passed through from west to
east, besides a portion which that gentleman did not see. The
value of the information obtained by Captain Sadlier was highly
appreciated in France as well as in this country.
M. Mengin published, in 1823, his elaborate c History of
Egypt under Mahomed Allee,' of which Mr. Palgrave, from his
residence in Egypt, and his Egyptian predilections, might have
been expected to know something. M. Mengin's work, which
is carefully, and, on the whole, honestly prepared, contains a
detailed account, derived from the European officers who accom
panied the Egyptian army, of Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. 's military operations
in Nejd, M. Mengin, however, does not confine himself to a
nanative oi those operations. Knowing that Central Arabia
had not till then been explored by Europeans, he gives much
curious and interesting information, obtained chiefly from official
sources, regarding the country and its inhabitants. He enume-
lates the districts and considerable towns inhabited by the settled
population, gives the number of men capable of bearing arms at
which each of these is rated, and thence deduces the total amount
of the settled population of Nejd. He also gives a list of the
Bedouin tribes subject to the Wahabee ruler, with the number
of men capable of bearing arms in each. The history of the
Wahabee sect,—its rise, its peculiar tenets, its conquests, its
plunders, and massacres had already been fully discussed in
n