Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

720 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
gave the materials for his epoch-making work Mekka?
Never before had been written such a scholarly and at the
same time such a graphic description of the Holy City, of
its inhabitants and pilgrims, and of the customs prevailing
there, never such a history of the city. Thanks to the
copious illustrations in the photograph atlas, the city, with
its lofty houses, in the true South Arabian style, with the
picturesque features of its environment, and with its various
human types, stands out vividly before our eyes.
The following works, with the sole exception of Nolde's,
bring us again to that treasure house of antiquities and
legends, Southern Arabia, which, by virtue of its ancient
civilization, to the people of Northern and Central Arabia
was invested with a halo of romance even at the first
period
of Islam. 2
On his second expedition to Yemen, April, 1885, to February,
1886, Eduard Glaser made a topographical and
archaeological survey of the country to the southeast and
south of San'a as far as Aden, especially the country ofTzafar
(southeast of Yerim), the ancient capital of Himyar. Such
thorough investigations as those of Glaser, on all of his four
expeditions, had never before been conducted by any one
in South Arabia. Unfortunately he has thus far published
only a partial report 3 of his second expedition. However,
a large number of inscribed stones, mostly Minean, which
Glaser obtained during
this expedition are now in the British
Museum 4 in London.
1
Two vols, written in German (The Hague, 1888), with picture atlas,
a supplement to which appeared in 1889, Bilder am Mekka.
2 See especially the instructive little book by the Austrian Orientalist Baron
Alfred von Kremer, Die Sudarabische Sage (Leipzig), and the chapter on this
subject in his larger work, Kulturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen.
3
Von Hodeidah nach San'a, in Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1886, nos. 1
and 2. In the accompanying map are shown also the regions northwest of
San'a traversed by Glaser in 1884.
4
See edition of same by Derenbourg in "Babylonian and Oriental Record; "