Page 12 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 1,2

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.* •• The sources from which this work has been compiled include
native s'nfornnrtion obtained for the purpose since the outbreak of
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the war. Thia.applies in particular to the strength and distribution
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• of the Bedouin tribes and to their political relationships. Recent
.information from native sources has also bee^i used for parts of n
the Red Sea littoral, such as the little-known region of Asir. For
Central Arabia and the routes leading to it from the north new and
unpublished material has been combined with' that given in the
notes and itineraries of less recent travellers. The first volume of
tl^e Handbook contains geographical and political information of
• a general,, character; the second volume is devoted mainly to
detailed routes. *

A few words of explanation on the general plan of the first volume
will facilitate its use. Separate chapters are devoted to each of the
great districts or provinces of Arabia, arranged on a geographical
basis, beginning with those of the western littoral, and continuing
along the south coast and so round to the south-eastern districts
and the Persian Gulf; the last chapters of this part are concerned
with Central Arabia and the Northern Deserts. In dealing with
these great and varied tracts, some of them isolated from the rest by
desprt and steppe, the same general plan has been adopted, so far
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as possible, throughout. After the area of the territory under review
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has been defined, its ■physical character is described under the sub­
sections of Relief and Climate. Then follow social and political surveys
of the district, the former usually arranged under the sub-headings
of Population, Life and Appliances, Products and Trade, Currency,
and Weights and Measures, the latter describing the system of
Government, Recent History, and Present Politics. The last section
of s»uch a chapter is purely geographical and is devoted to the *
Districts bf the territory, the principal towns being reviewed in
a numbered sequence after the description of the district in which
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