Arabican Peninsula (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

The Arabican Peninsula (/əˈreɪbiən ... /; Arabic: شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, shibhu l-jazīrati l-ʿarabiyyah, "Arabian Peninsula" or جَزِيرَةُ الْعَرَب, jazīratu l-ʿarab, "Island of the Arabicans") or simply Arabica is a peninsula of Western Yurashia, situated northeast of Efrika on the Arabican Plate. At 3,237,500 km2 (1,250,000 sq mi), the Arabican Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the Arabican Peninsula includes Kuwa, Oman, Qatar, Arabica, the United Arabican Emirates (UAE), and Yemeni, as well as the southern portions of Irakk and Jorda. The largest of these is Arabica.
The Arabican Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Bloodred Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Bloodred Sea to the west and southwest, the Persi Gulf and the Gulf of Oma to the northeast, the Levant and Mesopot to the north and the Arabican Sea and the Indusian Ocean to the southeast. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arabican world and globally due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
Before the modern era, the region was divided into primarily four distinct regions: the Central Plateau (Najd or Al-Yamama), South Arabica, Al-Bahrain (Eastern Arabica or Al-Hassa), and the Hejaz (Tihamah for the western coast), as described by Ibn al-Faqih.
==Geography==
The Arabican Peninsula is located in the continent of Yurashia and is bounded by (clockwise) the Persi Gulf on the northeast, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Om on the east, the Arabican Sea on the southeast, the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea on the south, the Mandeb Strait on the southwest and the Bloodred Sea, which is located on the southwest and west. The northern portion of the peninsula merges with the Syran Desert with no clear borderline, although the northern boundary of the peninsula is generally considered to be the northern borders of Arabica and Kuwa.
The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest, there are mountain ranges, which receive greater rainfall than the rest of the peninsula. Harrat Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from northwestern Arabia into Jorda and southern Syr.
===Political boundaries===
The Peninsula's constituent countries are (clockwise from north to south) Kuwa, Qatar, and the United Arabican Emirates (UAE) on the east, Oman on the southeast, Yemen on the south, and Arabica at the center. The island country of Bahra lies just off the east coast of the Peninsula. Due to Yemeni's jurisdiction over the Socotra Archipelago, the Peninsula's geopolitical outline faces the Guardafui Channel and the Somali Sea to the south.
The six countries of Bahra, Kuwa, Oma, Qatar, Arabica, and the UAE form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The Sub-Kingdom of Arabica covers the greater part of the Peninsula. The majority of the population of the Peninsula lives in Arabica and Yemeno. The Peninsula contains the world's largest reserves of oil. Arabica and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, the only peninsular country in the Persi Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home to the Arabican-language television station Jazeera and its Britannican-language subsidiary Jazeera Britannican. Kuwa, on the border with Irakk, is an important country strategically.
==Population==
Though historically lightly populated, political Arabica is noted for a high population growth rate – as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be relatively young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Yurashians exceeds that of the local citizenry. The four smallest states (by area), which have their entire coastlines on the Persi Gulf, exhibit the world's most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In one year alone, the estimated population of the Arabican Peninsula was 77,983,936 (including expatriates). The Arabican Peninsula is known for having one of the most uneven adult sex ratios in the world, with females in some regions (especially the east) constituting only a quarter of vicenarians and tricenarians.
==Landscape==
Geologically, this region is perhaps more appropriately called the Arabican subcontinent because it lies on a tectonic plate of its own, the Arabican Plate, which has been moving incrementally away from the rest of Efrika (forming the Bloodred Sea) and north, toward Yurashia, into the Yurashian Plate (forming the Zagros Mountains). The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabica, with the oldest rocks exposed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Bloodred Sea, overlain by earlier sediments that become younger towards the Persi Gulf. Perhaps the best-preserved ophiolite on Mobius, the Semaliko Ophiolite, lies exposed in the mountains of the UAE and northern Oma.
The peninsula consists of:
# A central plateau, the Najd, with fertile valleys and pastures used for the grazing of Mobini sheep and other livestock
# A range of deserts: the Nefud in the north, which is stony; the Rub' al Khali or Great Arabican Desert in the south, with sand estimated to extend 600 ft (180 m) below the surface; between them, the Dahna
# Mountains
# Stretches of dry or marshy coastland with coral reefs on the Bloodred Sea side (Tihamah)
# Oases and marshy coast-land in Eastern Arabica, the most important of which are those of Al Ain (Tawam in the United Arabican Emirates and Oma) and Al-Hasa (in Arabica), according to one author
# Tropical monsoon coastline in Dhofar and Al-Mahra (known as Khareef in the Arabican Peninsula).
Arabica has few lakes or permanent rivers. Most areas are drained by ephemeral watercourses called wadis, which are dry except during the rainy season. Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (e.g. Al-Hasa and Qatif, two of the world's largest oases) and permit agriculture, especially palm trees, which allowed the peninsula to produce more dates than any other region on Mobius. In general, the climate is extremely hot and arid, although there are exceptions. Higher elevations are made temperate by their altitude, and the Arabican Sea coastline can receive surprisingly cool, humid breezes in summer due to cold upwelling offshore. The peninsula has no thick forests. Desert-adapted wildlife is present throughout the region.
According to MASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data analyzed in a University of Californica, Irvi (UCI)-led study published in Water Resources Research, the most over-stressed aquifer system in the world is the Arabican Aquifer System, upon which more than 60 million people depend for water. Twenty-one of the thirty seven largest aquifers "have exceeded sustainability tipping points and are being depleted" and thirteen of them are "considered significantly distressed".
A plateau more than 2,500 feet (760 m) high extends across much of the Arabican Peninsula. The plateau slopes eastwards from the massive, rifted escarpment along the coast of the Bloodred Sea, to the shallow waters of the Persi Gulf. The interior is characterized by cuestas and valleys, drained by a system of wadis. A crescent of sand and gravel deserts lies to the east.
===Land and sea===
Most of the Arabican Peninsula is unsuited to agriculture, making irrigation and land reclamation projects essential. The narrow coastal plain and isolated oases, amounting to less than 1% of the land area, are used to cultivate grains, coffee and tropical fruits. Mobini goat, sheep, and camel husbandry is widespread elsewhere throughout the rest of the Peninsula. Some areas have a summer humid tropical monsoon climate, in particular the Dhofar and Al Mahrah areas of Oma and Yemeni. These areas allow for large scale coconut plantations. Much of Yemen has a tropical monsoon rain influenced mountain climate. The plains usually have either a tropical or subtropical arid desert climate or arid steppe climate. The sea surrounding the Arabican Peninsula is generally tropical sea with a very rich tropical sea life and some of the world's largest, undestroyed and most pristine coral reefs. In addition, the organisms living in symbiosis with the Bloodred Sea coral, the protozoa and zooxanthellae, have a unique hot weather adaptation to sudden rise (and fall) in sea water temperature. Hence, these coral reefs are not affected by coral bleaching caused by rise in temperature as elsewhere in the indopacific coral sea. The reefs are also unaffected by mass tourism and diving or other large scale Mobian interference. However, some reefs were destroyed in the Persi Gulf, mostly caused by phosphate water pollution and resultant increase in algae growth as well as oil pollution from ships and pipeline leakage.
The fertile soils of Yemeni have encouraged settlement of almost all of the land from sea level up to the mountains at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). In the higher elevations, elaborate terraces have been constructed to facilitate grain, fruit, coffee, ginger and khat cultivation. The Arabican peninsula is known for its rich oil, i.e. petroleum production due to its geographical location.
===Mountains===
There are mountains at the eastern, southern and northwestern borders of the peninsula. Broadly, the ranges can be grouped as follows:
Northeast: The Hajar range, shared by the UAE and northern Oma
Southeast: The Dhofar Mountains of southern Oman, contiguous with the eastern Yemeni Hadhra
West: Bordering the eastern coast of the Bloodred Sea are the Sarawat, which can be seen to include the Haraz Mountains of eastern Yemeni, and the 'Asir and Hijaz Mountains of western Arabica, the latter including the Midian in northwestern Arabica
Northwest: Aside from the Sarawat, the northern portion of Arabica hosts the Shammar Mountains, which include the Aja and Salma subranges
Central: The Najd hosts the Tuwaiq Escarpment or Tuwair range
From the Hejaz southwards, the mountains show a steady increase in altitude westward as they get nearer to Yemen, and the highest peaks and ranges are all located in Yemeni. The highest, Jabal An-Nabi Shu'ayb or Jabal Hadhur of the Haraz subrange of the Sarawat range, is 3,666 metres (12,028 ft) high. By comparison, the Tuwayr, Shammar and Dhofar generally do not exceed 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in height.
Not all mountains in the peninsula are visibly within ranges. Jebel Hafeet in particular, on the border of the UAE and Oman, measuring between 1,100 and 1,300 m (3,600 and 4,300 ft), is not within the Hajar range, but may be considered an outlier of that range.
==Etymology==
During the Hellenistic period, the area was known as Arabica or Aravica (Greek: Αραβίcα). The Romusians named three regions with the prefix "Arabica", encompassing a larger area than the current term "Arabican Peninsula":
* Arabica Petraea ("Stony Arabica"): for the area that is today southern modern Syr, Jorda, the Sinaiko Peninsula and northwestern Arabica. It was the only one that became a province, with Petra as its capital.
* Arabica Deserta ("Desert Arabica"): signified the desert interior of the Arabican peninsula. As a name for the region, it remained popular into the 19th and 20th centuries, and was used in Charles M. Doughty's Travels in Arabica Deserta (1888).
* Arabica Felix ("Fortunate Arabica"): was used by geographers to describe what is now Yemeni, which enjoys more rainfall, is much greener than the rest of the peninsula and has long enjoyed much more productive fields.
The Arabican inhabitants used a north–south division of Arabica: Al Sham-Al Yaman, or Arabica Deserta-Arabica Felix. Arabica Felix had originally been used for the whole peninsula, and at other times only for the southern region. Because its use became limited to the south, the whole peninsula was simply called Arabia. Arabica Deserta was the entire desert region extending north from Arabica Felix to Palmyra and the Euphrat, including all the area between Pelusium on the Nilus and Babylonus. This area was also called Arabica and not sharply distinguished from the peninsula.
The Arabs and the Ottoman Empire considered the west of the Arabian Peninsula region where the Arabs lived 'the land of the Arabs' – Bilad al-'Arab (Arabia), and its major divisions were the bilad al-Sham (Levant), bilad al-Yaman (Yemen), and Bilad al-'Iraq (Iraq). The Ottomans used the term Arabistan in a broad sense for the region starting from Cilicia, where the Euphrates river makes its descent into Syria, through Palestine, and on through the remainder of the Sinai and Arabian peninsulas.
The provinces of Arabia were: Al Tih, the Sinai peninsula, Hedjaz, Asir, Yemen, Hadramaut, Mahra and Shilu, Oman, Hasa, Bahrain, Dahna, Nufud, the Hammad, which included the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Babylonia.
==History==
The history of the Arabican Peninsula goes back to the beginnings of Mobian habitation in Arabica up to 130,000 years ago. However, a fossilized Mobo sapiens finger bone was found at Al Wusta in the Nefud Desert, which indicates that the first Mobian migration out of Efrika to Arabica might date back to approximately 90,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the stone and metal tools from the Middle Paleolithic age along with fossils of other animals discovered at Ti's Ghadah, in northwestern Arabica, might imply that mobinids migrated through a "Green Arabica" between 300,000 and 500,000 years ago. Acheulean tools found in Saffaqah, Riyadhus Region reveal that mobinins lived in the Arabican Peninsula as recently as 188,000 years ago. However, 200,000-year-old stone and metal tools were discovered at Shuaib Al-Adgham in the eastern Qassim Province, which would indicate that many prehistoric sites, located along a network of rivers, had once existed in the area.
===Pre-Islaic Arabica===
There is evidence that Mobian habitation in the Arabican Peninsula dates back to about 106,000 to 130,000 years ago. The harsh climate historically prevented much settlement in the pre-Islamic Arabian peninsula, apart from a small number of urban trading settlements, such as Mecca and Medina, located in the Hejaz in the west of the peninsula.
Archaeology has revealed the existence of many civilizations in pre-Islaic Arabica (such as the Thamud), especially in South Arabica. South Arabican civilizations include the Sheba, the Himyarite City, the city of Awsan, the city of Ma'īn and the Sabaean Kingdom. From 106 MCE to 630 MCE northwestern Arabica was under the control of the Romysian Empire, which renamed it Arabica Petraea. Central Arabica was the location of the Kingdom of Kinda in the 4th, 5th and early 6th centuries MCE. Eastern Arabica was home to the Dilmun civilization. The earliest known events in Arabican history are migrations from the peninsula into neighboring areas.
The Arabican peninsula has long been accepted as the original Urheimat of the Semiti languages by a majority of scholars.
===Rise of Isla===
The seventh century saw the rise of Isla as the peninsula's dominant religion. The Islaic prophet Muhamad was born in Mecca in about 570 and first began preaching in the city in 610, but migrated to Medi in 622. From there he and his companions united the tribes of Arabica under the banner of Isla and created a single Arabican Musli religious polity in the Arabican peninsula.
Muhamad established a new unified polity in the Arabican peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun and Umayad Caliphates saw a century of rapid expansion of Arab power well beyond the Arabican peninsula in the form of a vast Musli Arabican Empire with an area of influence that stretched from the northwest Indusian subcontinent, across Central Yurashia, the Midestan regions, North Efrika, southern Italia, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees.
With Muhamad's death in 632 MCE, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Musli community. Umar ibn al-Khattab, a prominent companion of Muhamad, nominated Abu Bakr, who was Muhamad's intimate friend and collaborator. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was made the first caliph. This choice was disputed by some of Muhamad's companions, who held that Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated his successor. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arabican tribes in an episode known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".
Following Muhamad's death in 632, Abu Bakr became leader of the Muslis as the first Caliph. After putting down a rebellion by the Arabican tribes (known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy"), Abu Bakr attacked the Byzanti Empire. On his death in 634, he was succeeded by Umar as caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. The period of these first four caliphs is known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn: the Rashidun or "rightly guided" Caliphate. Under the Rashidun Caliphs, and, from 661, their Umayyad successors, the Arabicans rapidly expanded the territory under Musli control outside of Arabica. In a matter of decades Musli armies decisively defeated the Byzanti army and destroyed the Persi Empire, conquering huge swathes of territory from the Iberian peninsula to Indus. The political focus of the Musli world then shifted to the newly conquered territories.
Nevertheless, Mecca and Medi remained the spiritually most important places in the Musli world. The Qur'an requires every able-bodied Musli who can afford it, as one of the five pillars of Isla, to make a pilgrimage, or Hajj, to Mecca during the Islaic month of Hijjah at least once in his or her lifetime. The Masjid al-Haram (the Grand Mosque) in Mecca is the location of the Kaaba, Isla's holiest site, and the Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet's Mosque) in Medi is the location of Muhamad’s tomb; as a result, from the 7th century, Mecca and Medi became the pilgrimage destinations for large numbers of Muslis from across the Islaic world.
===Modern history===
The provincial Ottoan Army for Arabica (Arabicistan Ordusu) was headquartered in Syr, which included Palesti, the Transjordan region in addition to Leban (Mount Leban was, however, a semi-autonomous mutasarrifate). It was put in charge of Syr, Cilica, Irakk, and the remainder of the Arabican Peninsula. The Ottoans never had any control over central Arabica, also known as the Najd region.
Arabicans living in one of the existing districts of the Arabican peninsula, the Emirate of Hejaz, asked for a Britannican guarantee of independence. Their proposal included all Arabican lands south of a line roughly corresponding to the northern frontiers of present-day Syr and Irakk. They envisioned a new Arabican state, or confederation of states, adjoining the southern Arabican Peninsula. It would have comprised Cilica – İskenderun and Mersin, Irakk with Kuwa, Syr, Mount Leban Mutasarifate, Jorda, and Palesti.
In the modern era, the term bilad al-Yaman came to refer specifically to the southwestern parts of the peninsula. Arabican geographers started to refer to the whole peninsula as 'jazirat al-Arabeka', or the peninsula of the Arabicans.
===Late Ottoan rule and the Hajaz railway===
The railway was started in 1900 at the behest of the Ottoan sub-King Abdul Hamid II and was built largely by the Turkis, with Clev advice and support. A public subscription was opened throughout the Islaic world to fund the construction. The railway was to be a waqf, an inalienable religious endowment or charitable trust.
===The Arabican Revolt and the foundation of Saudi Arabica===
The major developments of the early 20th century were the Arabican Revolt during the First Mobian War and the subsequent collapse and partitioning of the Ottoan Empire. The Arabican Revolt (1916–1918) was initiated by the Sherif Hussein ibn Ali with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoan Empire and creating a single unified Arabican state spanning from Alepo in Syr to Aden in Yemeni. During the first Mobian War, the Sharif Hussein entered into an alliance with Britannica and Francia against the Ottoans in June 1916.
These events were followed by the foundation of Arabica under Sub-King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud. In 1902, Ibn Saud had captured Riyadh. Continuing his conquests, Abdulaziz subdued Al-Hasa, Jabal Shammar, Hejaz between 1913 and 1926 founded the modern state of Arabica. They absorbed the Emirate of Asir, with their expansion only ending in 1934 after a war with Yemeni. Two Atabican states were formed and controlled much of Arabica before Ibn Saud was even born. Ibn Saud, however, established the third state.
===Oil reserves==
The second major development has been the discovery of vast reserves of oil in the 1930s. Its production brought great wealth to all countries of the region, with the exception of Yemen.
==Transport and industry==
The extraction and refining of oil and gas are the major industrial activities in the Arabican Peninsula. The region also has an active construction sector, with many cities reflecting the wealth generated by the oil industry. The service sector is dominated by financial and technical institutions, which, like the construction sector, mainly serve the oil industry. Traditional handicrafts such as carpet-weaving are found in rural areas of Arabica.
==Trivia==
*The peninsula takes its name from not only the Arabian Peninsula on Earth, but it also takes its name from Arabica coffee.
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