had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. "Alas!" he replied, 66 my coffers are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I renounce them." At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the wall with his staff. The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian virtue;" he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet and a successful robber: forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of a suppliant enemy, he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice they proudly indulged the spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence.

The religion of the Arabs, as well Ancient idolatry. as of the Indians, consisted in the worship of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars; a primitive and specious mode of superstition. The bright luminaries of the sky display the visible image of a Deity: their number and distance convey to a philosophic, or even a vulgar, eye, the idea of boundless space: the character of eternity is marked on these solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or decay: the regularity of their motions may be ascribed to a principle of reason or instinct; and their real or imaginary influence encourages the vain belief that the earth and its inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science of astronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs was a clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, they steered by the guidance of the stars: their names, and order, and daily station, were familiar to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween; and he was taught by experience to divide in twenty-eight parts the zodiac of the moon, and to bless the constellations who refreshed, with salutary rains, the thirst of the desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be extended beyond the visible sphere; and some metaphysical powers were necessary to sustain the transmigration of souls and the resurrection of bodies: a camel was left to perish on the grave, that he might serve his master in another life; and the invocation of departed spirits implies that they were still endowed with consciousness and power. I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the barbarians; of the local

u D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock, Specimen, p. 43. 46. 48.) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality; and the latter is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet: "Videbis eum cum accesseris exultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis."

x Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancient Arabians, may be found in Pocock. (Specimen, p. 89-136. 163, 164.) His profound erudition is more clearly and concisely interpreted by Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14-24.) and Assemanni (Bibliot. Ŏrient. tom. iv. p. 580-590.) has added some valuable remarks.

γ Ἱερὸν ἁγιωτατον ἱδρυται τίμωμενον ύπο παντων Αραβον περιττοTepov. (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p. 211.) The character and position are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curious passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet this famous temple had been overlooked by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 58. in Hudson, tom. i.) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the description. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates

The Caaba, or

sex or titles, their attributes, or subordination, Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites and the object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of Mecca. The genuine antiquity of the CAABA ascends beyond the christian temple of Mecca. æra: in describing the coast of the Red sea, the Greek historian Diodorus has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabæans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians: the linen or silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mahomet." A tent, or a cavern, might suffice for the worship of the savages, but an edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its place; and the art and power of the monarchs of the east have been confined to the simplicity of the original model. A spacious portico includes the quadrangle of the Caaba; a square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-seven high: a door and a window admit the light; the double roof is supported by three pillars of wood; a spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and the well Zemzem is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe of Koreish, by fraud or force, had acquired the custody of the Caaba: the sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most respectable and sacred in the eyes of their country. The precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of sanctuary; and, in the last month of each year, the city and temple were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who presented their vows and offerings in the house of God. The same rites, which are now accomplished by the faithful mussulman, were invented and practised by the superstition of the idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their garments: seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kissed the black stone: seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains: seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina: and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground. Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba

of their respective histories? (Dodwell, in Dissert. ad tom. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. ii. p. 770.)

z Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we ascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years, before the christian æra. The veil or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than a piece of Egyptian linen. (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed, c. 6. p. 14.)

a The original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied in Sale, the Universal History, &c.) was a Turkish draught, which Reland (de Religione Mohammedicâ, p. 113-123.) has corrected and explained from the best authorities. For the description and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock, (Specimen, p. 115-122.) the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (Caaba, Hagir, Zemzem, &c.) and Sale. (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114-122.)

b Cosa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the Caaba, A. D. 440; but the story is differently told by Jannabi, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65-69.) and by Abulfcda, (in Vit. Moham. c. 6. p. 13.)

their domestic worship: the temple was adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; and most conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the instruments and symbols of profane divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrian arts: the devotion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a tablet: and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods or altars, in imitation of the black stone of Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Sacrifices and Peru, the use of sacrifice has univer

rites. sally prevailed; and the votary has expressed his gratitude, or fear, by destroying, or consuming, in honour of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life of a mand is the most precious oblation to deprecate a public calamity: the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore: the cruel practice was long preserved among the Arabs; in the third century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the Dumatians; and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. A parent who drags his son to the altar, exhibits the most painful and sublime effort of fanaticism: the deed, or the intention, was sanctified by the example of saints and heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent of a hundred camels. In the time of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste of swine's flesh; they circumcised their children at the age of puberty: the same customs, without the censure or the precept of the Koran, have been silently transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has been sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen. It is more simple to believe that he adhered to the habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeing that a practice congenial to the climate of Mecca, might become use

e In the second century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Arabs the worship of a stone Αράβιοι σέβουσι μεν, όντινα δε ουκ οίδα, το δε αγαλμα είσον. λίθος ην τετραγωνος, (Dissert. viii. tom. i. p. 142. edit. Reiske) and the reproach is furiously re-echoed by the christians. (Clemens Alex. in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, l. vi. p. 246.) Yet these stones were no other than the Barvλa of Syria and Greece, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity. (Euseb. Præp. Evangel. 1. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54-56.)

a The two horrid subjects of Ανδροθυσια and Παιδοθυσία, are accurately discussed by the learned Sir John Marsham. (Canon. Chron. p. 76-78. 301-304.) Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician sacrifices from the example of Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before, or after, Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all.

• Κατ' έτος έκαςον παιδα εθνον, is the reproach of Porphyry ; but he likewise imputes to the Roman the same barbarous custom, which, A. U. C. 657, had been finally abolished. Dumætha, Daumat al Gendal, is noticed by Ptolemy, (Tabul. p. 37. Arabia, p. 9-29.) and Abul. feda, (p. 57.) and may be found in D'Anville's maps, in the mid-desert between Chaibar and Tadmor.

f Procopius, (de Bell. Persico, 1. i. c. 28.) Evagrius, (1. vi. c. 21.) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72. 86.) attest the human sacrifices of the Arabs in the sixth century. The danger and escape of Abdallah, is a tradition rather than a fact. (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 82-84.)

g Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus, (Polyhistor. c. 33.) who copies Pliny (L. viii. c. 68.) in the strange supposition, that hogs cannot live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a natural and superstitious horror for that unclean beast. (Marsham, Canon. p. 205.) The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of ablution, (Herodot. 1. i. c. 80.) which is sanctified by the Mahometan law. (Re

less or inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga.

Arabia was free: the adjacent king- Introduction of doms were shaken by the storms of the Sabians. conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the happy land where they might profess what they thought, and practise what they professed. The religions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews and christians, were disseminated from the Persian gulf to the Red sea. In a remote period of antiquity, Sabianism was diffused over Asia by the science of the Chaldeans and the arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of two thousand years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon* deduced the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven gods, or angels, who directed the course of the seven planets, and shed their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern hemisphere, were represented by images and talismans; the seven days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities; the Sabians prayed thrice each day; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage.' But the flexible genius of their faith was always ready either to teach or to learn: in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish captives; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the last remnant of the polytheists into the christians of St. John, in the territory of Bassora. The altars of Babylon were overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the The Magians. Sabians were revenged by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five hundred years under a foreign yoke; and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert." Seven hundred years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews were settled in Arabia: and a far greater mul

The Jews.

land, p. 75, &c. Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas, tom. iv. p. 71, &c.) The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject; yet they hold circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend that Mabomet was miraculously born without a foreskin. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 106, 107.)

i Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. ii. p. 142–145.) has cast on their religion the curious but superficial glance of a Greek. Their astronomy would be far more valuable; they had looked through the telescope of reason, since they could doubt whether the sun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed stars.

k Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Cœlo, l. ii. com. xlvi. p. 123. lin. 18. apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474, who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date of the Chaldean observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by Alexander, they were communicated, at the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science!

1 Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138-146) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 162-203) Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124. 128, &c.) D'Herbelot, (Sabi, p. 725, 726.) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15.) rather excite than gratify our curiosity, and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs.

m D'Anville (l'Euphrates de le Tigre, p. 130-147.) will fix the posi. tion of these ambiguous christians; Assemannus (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iv. p. 607–614.) may explain their tenets. But it is a slippery task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people, afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret traditions.

n The Magi were fixed in the province of Bahrein, (Gagnier, Vie de

titude was expelled from the holy land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired to liberty and power: they erected synagogues in the cities, and castles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts were confounded with the children of Israel, whom they resembled in the outward mark of circumcision. The christian missionaries were still more active and

The christians.

successful: the catholics asserted their universal reign; the sects whom they oppressed successively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the Marcionites and the Manichæans dispersed their phantastic opinions and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobite and Nestorian bishops. The liberty of choice was presented to the tribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compose his private religion: and the rude superstition of his house was mingled with the sublime theology of saints and philosophers. A fundamental article of faith was inculcated by the consent of the learned strangers; the existence of one supreme God, who is exalted above the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets, and whose grace or justice has interrupted, by seasonable miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabs acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship; and it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to the relics of idolatry. The Jews and christians were the people of the book; the Bible was already translated into the Arabic language, and the volume of the Old Testament was accepted by the concord of these implacable enemies. In the story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers of their nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Ismael; revered the faith and virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and their own to the creation of the first man, and imbibed with equal credulity the prodigies of the holy text, and the dreams and traditions of the Jewish rabbis.

Birth and educa

The base and plebeian origin of tion of Mahomet, Mahomet is an unskilful calumny of A. D. 569-609. the christians,' who exalted instead of degrading the merit of their adversary. His descent Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114.) and mingled with the old Arabians. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146-150.)

o The state of the Jews and christians in Arabia is described by Pocock from Sharestani, &c. (Specimen, p. 60. 134, &c.) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient, p. 212-238.) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 474-476.) Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 185. tom. viii. p. 280.) and Sale. (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &c. 33, &c.)

p In their offerings it was a maxim to defraud God for the profit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more irritable, patron. (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109.)

q Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or christian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence of a prior translation may be fairly inferred,-1. From the perpetual practice of the synagogue, of expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in the vulgar tongue of the country. 2. From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Ethiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were translated into all the barbaric languages. (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot. p. 34. 93-97. Simeon, Hist. Critique du V. et du N. Testament, tom. i. p. 180, 181. 282-286. 293. 305, 306. tom. iv. p. 206.)

In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere ortum, &c. (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 136.) Yet Theophanes, the most ancient of the Greeks, and the father of many a lie, confesses that Mahomet was of the race of Ismael, ex pas yEVIKWTATNS PUλNs. (Chronograph. p. 277.)

from Ismael was a national privilege or fable; but if the first steps of the pedigrees are dark and doubtful, he could produce many generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreish and the family of Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and generous citizen, who relieved the distress of famine with the supplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberality of the father, was saved by the courage of the son. The kingdom of Yemen was subject to the christian princes of Abyssinia: their vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge the honour of the cross; and the holy city was invested by a train of elephants, and an army of Africans. A treaty was proposed; and, in the first audience, the grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of his

cattle. “And why,” said Abrahah, "do you not rather implore my clemency in favour of your temple, which I have threatened to destroy?" "Because," replied the intrepid chief, "the cattle is my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their house from injury and sacrilege.” The want of provisions, or the valour of the Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to a disgraceful retreat : their discomfiture has been adorned with a miraculous flight of birds, who showered down stones on the heads of the infidels; and the Deliverance of deliverance was long commemorated

Mecca.

by the era of the elephant. The glory of Abdol Motalled was crowned with domestic happiness, his life was prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten years, and he became the father of six daughters and thirteen sons. His best beloved Abdallah was the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and in the first night, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, of the noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have expired of jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca, four years after the death of Justinian, and two months after the defeat of the Abyssinians," whose victory would have introduced into the Caaba the religion of the christians. In his early infancy, he was deprived

s Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 1, 2.) and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, p. 25-27.) describe the popular and approved genealogy of the prophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its authenticity: at Lausanne, I will venture to observe, 1. That from Ismael to Mahomet, a period of 2500 years, they reckon thirty, instead of seventy-five, generations. 2. That the modern Bedoweens are ignorant of their his tory, and careless of their pedigree. (Voyage de d'Arvieux, p. 100. 103.) The seed of this history, or fable, is contained in the hundred and fifth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier (in Prefat. ad Vit. Moham. p. 18, &c.) has translated the historical narrative of Abulfeda, which may be illustrated from D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12.) and Pocock. (Specimen. p. 64.) Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 48.) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet; but Sale, (Koran, p. 501-503.) who is half a mussulman, attacks the inconsistent faith of the doctor for believing the miracles of the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 14. tom. ii. p. 823.) ascribes the miracle to the devil, and extorts from the Mahometans the confession, that God would not have defended against the christians the idols of the Caaba.

u The safest æras of Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. i. p. 2.) of Alexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Naser, or Nabonasser, 1316, equally lead us to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar is too dark and uncertain to support the Benedictines, (Art de verifier les Dates, p. 15.) who, from the day of the month and week, deduce a new mode of calculation, and remove the birth of Mahomet to the year of Christ 570, the