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CHA P. model ". A fpacious portico inclofes the qua drangle of the Caaba; a fquare chapel, twentyfour cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twentyfeven high a door and a window admit the light; the double roof is fupported by three pillars of wood; a fpout (now of gold) discharges the rainwater, 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 facerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of Mahomet; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he fprung, was the most respectable and - facred in the eyes of their country 48 The precincts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of fanctuary; and, in the last month of each year, the city and the temple were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who prefented their vows and offerings in the house of God. The fame rites, which are now accomplished by the faithful Mufulman, were invented and practised by the superstition of the idolaters, At an awful distance they caft away their garments: feven times, with hafty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kiffed the black stone:

47 The original plan of the Caaba (which is fervilely 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 beft authorities. For the defcription and legend of the Caaba, confult Pocock (Specimen, p. 115-122.), the Bibliotheque Orientale of d'Herbelot (Caaba, Hagir, Zemzem, &c.), and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114—122.).

48 Cofa, the fifth ancestor of Mahomet, must have ufurped the Caaba A. D. 440; but the story is differently told by Jannabi (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65—69.) and by Abulfeda (in Vit. Moham. c. 6. P. 13.).

feven times they visited and adored the adjacent CHAP. mountains: seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina; and the pilgrimage was atchieved, as at the present hour, by a facrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the confecrated ground. Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba their domestic worship: the temple was adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and fixty idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; and most confpicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate, holding in his hand feven arrows, without heads or feathers, the inftruments and fymbols of profane divination. But this ftatue 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 defert were hewn into gods or altars, in imitation of the black ftone 49 of Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru, Sacrifices the use of facrifice has univerfally prevailed; and the votary has expreffed his gratitude, or fear, by destroying or confuming, in honour of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life of a mans is the most precious oblation to depre

cate

49 In the fecond century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Arabs the worfhip of a fone-Αραβίων σεβεσι μεν, οντινα δε εκ οίδα, το δε αγαλμα eidov; λidos ny retgaywvos (differt. viii. tom. i. p 142. edit. Reiske); and the reproach is furiously re-echoed by the Chriftians (Clemens Alex. in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius contra Gentes, 1. vi. p. 246.). Yet these stones were no other than the Barvλa of Syria and Greece, fo renowned in facred and profane antiquity (Eufeb. Præp. Evangel. 1. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54-56.).

50 The two horrid fubjects of Ανδροθυσια and Παιδοθυσια, are accurately difcuffed by the learned Sir John Marsham (Canon. Chron. p. 76–78. 308

and rites.

L.

CHAP. cate a public calamity: the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore: the cruel practice was long preferved among the Arabs; in the third century, a boy was annually facrificed by the tribe of the Dumatians "; and a royal captive was piously flaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and foldier of the emperor Juftinian $2. 52 A parent who drags his fon to the altar, exhibits the most painful and fublime effort of fanaticifm: the deed, or the intention, was fanctified by the example of faints and heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rafh vow, and hardly ranfomed for the equivalent of an hundred camels. In the time of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste of fwine's flefh 53; they circumcif ed

-304.). Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician facrifices from the example of Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus lived before or after Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all.

51 Κατ' έτος εκασον παιδα εθνον, is the reproach of Porphyry; but he likewife imputes to the Roman the fame 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 Abulfeda (p. 57.); and may be found in d'Anville's maps, in the mid-defert between Chaibar and Tadmor.

52 Procopius (de Bell. Perfico, I. i. c. 28.), Evagrius (1. vi. c. 21.), and Pocock (Specimen, p. 72. 86.), atteft the human facrifices of the Arabs in the vith century. The danger and efcape of Abdallah, is a tradition rather than a fact (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 82-84.):

53 Suillis carnibus abftinent, fays Solinus (Folyhiftor. c. 33.), who copies Pliny (1. viii. c. 68.) in the ftrange fuppofition, that hogs cannot live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by a natural and fuperftitious horror for that unclean beast (Marsham, Cañon. p. 205.). The old Arabians likewife practifed, poft ceitum, the rite of ablution (Herodot, I. i. c. 80.), which

54

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ed 5 their children at the age of puberty: the CHA P. fame cuftoms, without the censure or the precept of the Koran, have been filently tranfmitted to their pofterity and profelytes. It has been fagacioufly conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the ftubborn prejudices of his countrymen. It is more fimple 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 ufelefs or inconvenient on the banks of the Danube or the Volga.

tion of the Sabians.

Arabia was free: the adjacent kingdoms were Introducfhaken by the storms of conqueft and tyranny, and the perfecuted fects fled to the happy land where they might profess what they thought, and practise what they profeffed. The religions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews and Christians, were diffeminated from the Perfian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a remote period of antiquity, Sabianifm was diffused over Afia by the science of the Chaldeans $5 and the arms of the Affyrians. From the obfervations of two thousand years, the priests and astro

is fanctified by the Mahometan law (Reland, p. 75, &c. Chardin, or rather→ the Mollah of Shaw Abbas, tom. iv. p. 71, &c.).

54 The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject; yet they hold circumeision neceffary to falvation, and even pretend that Mahomet was miraculously born without a foreskin (Pocock, Specimen, p. 319, 320. Sale's Preliminary Difcourfe, p. 106, 107.).

55 Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. ii. p. 142—145.) has cast on their religion the curious but fuperficial glance of a Greek. Their aftronomy would be far more valuable: they had looked through the telescope of reason, fince they could doubt whether the fun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed stars.

nomers

CHAP

L.

The Magians.

nomers of Babylon " deduced the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the feven gods or angels who directed the courfe of the feven planets, and fhed their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of the feven planets, with the twelve figns of the zodiac, and the twentyfour conftellations of the northern and fouthern hemifphere, were reprefented by images and talifmans; the feven days of the week were dedicated to their refpective deities; the Sabians prayed thrice cach 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 fingular agreement with their Jewish captives; they appealed to the fecret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and a flight infufion of the gospel has transformed the last remnant of the Polytheists into the Chriftians of St. John, in the territory of Basfora 58. The altars of Babylon were overturned

by

56 Simplicius (who quotes Porphyry), de Cœlo, 1. ii. com. xlvi. p. 123. lin. 18. apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474. who doubts the fact, becaufe it is adverse to his fyftems. The earlieft date of the Chaldean obfervations is the year 2234 before Chrift. After the conqueft of Babylon by Alexander they were communicated, at the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer Hip. parchus. What a moment in the annals of science!

57 Pocock (Specimen, p. 138-146.), Hottinger (Hift. Oriental. p. 162203.), Hyde (de Religione Vet. Perfarum, p. 124. 128, &c.), d'Herbelot (Sabi, p. 725, 726.), and Sale (Preliminary Difcourfe, p. 14, 15.), rather excite than gratify our curiofity; and the last of thefe writers confounds Sabianifm with the primitive religion of the Arabs.

58 D'Anville (l'Euphrate de le Tigre, p. 130-147.) will fix the pofition of thefe ambiguous Chriftians; Affemannus (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iv.

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