Samuel Zwemer (1867–1952) was an American Protestant missionary who lived for nine years in Bahrain and became a student of the Arab world and, especially, the Arabian Peninsula. Published in New York in 1900, Arabia: The Cradle of Islam contains detailed chapters on the geography of Arabia; the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; the Prophet Muhammad and the rise of Islam; the contemporary political scene on the Arabian Peninsula, including the rivalries among the British, Turks, and other powers; and the Arabic language and poetry. The book concludes with a discussion of the formidable difficulties faced by Christian missionaries in the Islamic world. It includes photographs, maps, and diagrams. The three appendices are a list of the tribes of northern Arabia; a chronological table that begins with the birth of Abraham’s son Ishmael (which Zwemer dates to circa 1892 BC) and concludes with the seizure of power by Mohammed Ibn Rashid in 1886; and a bibliography of sources.