L.

Love of

and their more elaborate compofitions were addreff CHAP. ed with energy and effect to the minds of their hearers. The genius and merit of a rifing poet poetry. was celebrated by the applause of his own and the kindred tribes. A folemn banquet was prepared, and a chorus of women, ftriking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp of their nuptials, fung in the prefence of their fons and husbands the felicity of their native tribe; that a champion had now appeared to vindicate their rights; that a herald had raised his voice to immortalife their renown. The diftant or hoftile tribes reforted to an annual fair which was abolished by the fanaticifm of the first Moslems; a national affembly that must have contributed to refine and harmonise the Barbarians. Thirty days were employed in the exchange, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The prize was disputed by the generous emulation of the bards; the victorious performance was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs; and we may read in our own language, the feven original poems which were infcribed in letters of gold, and fufpended in the temple of Mecca "1. The Arabian poets were the hiftorians and moralifts of the age; and if they fympathifed with the prejudices, they infpired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The indiffoluble union of ge*

41

7

41 Pocock (Specimen, p. 158-161.) and Cafiri (Bibliot. HifpanoArabica, tom. i. p. 48. 84, &c. 119. tom. ii. p. 17, &c.) speak of the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the feven poems of the Caaba have been published in English by Sir William Jones; but his honourable mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more interefting than the obfcure and obfolete text.

VOL. IX.

R

nerosity

Examples of genero

fity.

CHAP. nerofity and valour was the darling theme of their fong; and when they pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race, they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach, that the men knew not how to give, nor the women to deny +2. The fame hospitality, which was practised by Abraham and celebrated by Homer, is ftill renewed in the camps of the Arabs. The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the defert, embrace, without inquiry or hefitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honour and to enter their tent. His treat ment is kind and refpectful; he fhares the wealth or the poverty of his hoft; and, after a needful repofe, he is difmiffed on his way, with thanks, with bleflings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and hand are more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a friend; but the heroic acts that could deferve the public applaufe, must have furpaffed the narrow meafure of difcretion and experience. A difpute had arifen, who, among the citizens of Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generofity; and a fucceffive application was made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial. Abdallah, the fon of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was in the ftirrup when he heard the voice of a fuppliant, Ofon of the uncle of the apoftle of God, I am a traveller and in diftrefs!" He inftantly dif mounted to prefent the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparifon, and a purfe of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the fword, either for its intrinsic value, or as the gift of an honoured

42 Sale's Preliminary Difcourfe, p. 29, 30.

kinfman,

1

kinfman... The fervant, of Kais informed the fe. cond fuppliant that his master was afleep; but he immediately added, "Here is a purse of seven "thousand pieces of gold (it is all we have in the "house), and here is an order, that will entitle

you to a camel and a flave:" the mafter, as foon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful steward, with a gentle reproof, that by refpect-' ing his flumbers he had stinted his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of prayer, was fupporting his steps on the fhoulders of two flaves. "Alas!" he replied, " my

coffers are empty! but these you may fell; if "you refufe, 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 43: he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet and a fuccefsful robber: forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer of a fuppliant enemy, he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice: they proudly indulged the fpontaneous impulfe of pity and benevolence.

44

idolatry.

The religion of the Arabs +, as well as of the Ancient Indians, confifted in the worship of the fun, the

moon,

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

44 Whatever can now be known of the idolatry of the ancient Arabians, may be found in Pocock (Specimen, p. 89136. 169, 164.). His profound

R 2

CHAP.

L.

moon,

2

and the fixed stars, a primitive and fpecious mode of fuperftition. The bright luminaries of the sky display the visible image of a Deity: their number and diftance convey to a philofophic, or even a vulgar eye, the idea of boundlefs fpace: the character of eternity is marked on these folid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or decay : the regularity of their motions may be afcribed to a principle of reafon or inftinct; 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 aftronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the fchool of the Arabs was a clear firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, they fteered by the guidance of the ftars their names and order, and daily ftation, were familiar to the curiofity and devotion of the Bedoween; and he was taught by experience to divide in twenty-eight parts, the zodiac of the moon, and to blefs the conftellations who refreshed, with falutary rains, the thirft of the defert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be extended beyond the visible fphere; and fome metaphyfical powers were neceffary to fuftain the tranfmigration of fouls and the refurrection of bodies: a camel was left to perish on the grave, that he might ferve his master in another life; and the invocation of departed fpirits implies that they were ftill endowed with confcioufnefs and power. I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the Bar

profound erudition is more clearly and concifely interpreted by Sale (Preliminary Difcourfe, p. 14-24.); and Affemanni (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iy. P 58-590.) has added fome valuable remarks.

barians;

*L.

The Caaba

or temple

of Mecca.

barians; of the local deities, of the ftars, the air, CHA P. and the earth, of their fex or titles, their attributes or fubordination. 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 afcends beyond the Christian æra: in defcribing the coaft of the Red Sea, the Greek hiftorian Diodorus 45 has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabæans, a famous temple, whofe fuperior fanctity was revered by all the Arabians: the linen or filken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the Homerites, who reigned feven hundred years before the time of Mahomet 46. A tent or a cavern might fuffice for the worship of the favages, but an edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its place; and the art and power of the monarchs of the Eaft have been confined to the fimplicity of the original

45 Ιερον αγιώτατον ιδρυται τιμωμενον ὑπὸ παντων Αραβον περίπτότερον (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. 1. iii. p. 211.). The character and position are so correctly appofite, that I am surprised how this curious paffage 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 defcription. Was the Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was the Caaba built between the years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of their respective histories? (Dodwell, in Differt. ad tom. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. ii. p. 770.)

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