Page 2 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

CHAPTER IV
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HEJAZ ;
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Area
As designating a vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, ‘ Hejaz ’ meant j
the north-western part of Arabia from the head of the Gulf of
Akaba to a point between Lith and Qunfudah, about half-way down !
the eastern Red Sea coast, i.e. it lies between lats. 29° 30' and
20° N. Its inland boundary was never defined, being tlependent ■
on the distance to which the Turkish power was able to make
itself felt at different periods in the direction of Jebel Shammar
and Nejd. Under the Ottoman theoretic arrangement, both these
latter districts are included in the vilayet of Basra, and Hejaz is
understood to be bounded by a line drawn vertically^from N. to
S. through the desert and steppe E. of Teima. But really the limit
of effective Turkish authority, and therefore of the province of
Hejaz, has never been pushed E. of the Kheibar oasis, The
province measures, therefore, about 700 miles from N. to S. by
some 250 W. to E. (175,000 square miles).
In native parlance, however, Hejaz does not begin until much
farther S., its upper limit being a line drawn inland from the Red
Sea coast, just N. of Wejh, through El-:Ala and the steppe-desert
to the northernmost point of the Harrat Kheibar. Midian and its
hinterland (Hisma) are thus excluded. This limitation of Hejaz
has been recognized not only by religious prejudice, but also by j
the Ottoman Government, in that it has allowed Christians to '
pass down the Hejaz Railway as far as Meda’in Salih, a few miles N. ;
of El-‘Ala, but not S. of it except for some special official reason.

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Physical Character
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A. Relief
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In its widest sense, Hejaz is.the northern half of the upraised !
western edge of the Arabian shelf. The short and steep fall west­

ward to the Red Sea, however, is interrupted by a second ridge,
which lies a short way back from the shore, and in the northern part j

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