Nabatæi

or Nabathæ (in the Old Testament Nebaioth ). An Arabian people, descended from the eldest son of Ishmaël, had their original abodes in the northwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, east and southeast of the Moabites and Edomites. After the Babylonian conquest of Judæa, the Nabathæans extended west into the Sinaitic peninsula and the territory of the Edomites. They resisted all the attacks of the Greek kings of Syria. Under August us the Nabathæans are found, as nominal subjects of the Roman empire, a isting Ælius Gallius in his expedition into Arabia Felix; under Trajan they were conquered by A. Cornel i us Palma, and Arabia Petræa became a Roman province, 105-107. The Mohammedan conquest finally overthrew the power of the Nabathæans.