ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books History of Islam Chapter One : the Arabian Peninsula; its Geographical, Social and Cultural Status The Arabian Peninsula, located in the south-west of Asia, is the world's largest Peninsula. Extended from the north-west towards southeast, it resembles an irregular trapezoid[^1] with an area of three million and two hundred thousand square kilometers[^2].

The present Saudi Arabia covers nearly four-fifths of this Peninsula;[^3] the rest, in accordance with the present political demarcation, is occupied by six political states of Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. It borders the Aden Gulf, Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Oman.

It borders the Red Sea on the west, the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf and Iraq on the east; and on the north borders a widespread desert extending to the valley of the Euphrates on one side, and Syria on the other.

Since there are no natural borders, such as rivers or mountains, in this Peninsula, geographers have not been able so far to mark its northern border.[^4] The Arabian Peninsula is surrounded by the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean except for its southern sections. Nevertheless, it suffers from severe lack of water and is considered one of the driest and hottest areas of the world. It even lacks a large river or a navigable waterway.

Instead, it has lands which are sometimes flooded with rainfalls. The existence of a mountain range, which starts from the Sinai Peninsula and extends all over the western border of Arabia, acting as a lofty wall, and which winds around the southwest corner of the peninsula to go around the southern and eastern sectors of Arabia as far as the Persian Gulf is the main reason for the extreme dryness of this Peninsula.

Thus, Arabia is surrounded, on three sides, with this lofty mountain-wall and this hinders humidity of the seas from entering this land.[^5] On the other hand, the extent of the neighboring water is so insufficient that it could not modify the warmth and dryness of these vast African-Asian lands which are low in receiving humidity.

This is worsened by the blowing of the poisoning Monsoon winds inside Arabia which stops the rain-carrying winds from the Indian Ocean coming from the south from entering the Arabian Peninsula[^6].