The genealogy of these tribes being of great use to illustrate the Arabian history, I have taken the pains to form a genealogical table from their most approved authors, to which I refer the curious. Besides these tribes of Arabs, mentioned by their own authors, who were all descended from the race of Sem, others of them were the posterity of Ham by his son Cush, which name is in scripture constantly. given to the Arabs and their country, though our version renders it Ethiopia; but strictly speaking, the Cushites did not inhabit Arabia properly so called, but the banks of the Euphrates and the Persian gulph, whither they came from Chuzestân, or Susiana, the original settlement of their father". They might probably mix themselves in process of time with the Arabs of the other race, but the Eastern writers take little or no notice of them. The Arabians were for some centuries under the government of the descendants of Kahtân; Yârab, one of his sons, founding the kingdom of Yaman, and Jorham, another of them, that of Hejâz. The province of Yaman, or the better part of it, particularly the provinces of Saba and Hadramaut, was governed by princes of the tribe of Hamyar, though at length the kingdom was translated to the descendants of Cahlân, his brother, who yet retained the title of king of Hamyar, and had all of them the general title of Tobba, which signifies successor, and was affected to this race of princes, as that of Cæsar was to the Roman emperors, and Khalîf to the successors of Mohammed. There were several lesser princes who reigned in other parts of Yaman, and were mostly if not altogether subject to the king of Hamyar, whom they called the great king; but of these history has recorded nothing remarkable or that may be depended upon. The first great calamity that befel the tribes settled in Yaman was the inundation of Aram, which happened soon after the time of Alexander the Great, and is a Poc. Spec. p. 65, 66. Z 7 V. Hyde Hist. Rel. veter. Persar. p. 37, &c. famous in the Arabian history. No less than eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwellings upon this occasion, some of which gave rise to the two kingdoms of Ghassân and Hira. And this was probably the time of the migration of those tribes or colonies which were led into Mesopotamia by three chiefs, Becr, Modar, and Rabîa, from whom the three provinces of that country are still named Diyar Becr, Diyar Modar, and Diyar Rabîa. Abdshems, surnamed Saba, having built the city from him called Saba, and afterwards Mareb, made a vast mound or dam, to serve as a bason or reservoir to receive the water which came down from the mountains, not only for the use of the inhabitants, and watering their lands, but also to keep the country they had subjected in greater awe by being masters of the water. This building stood like a mountain above their city, and was by them esteemed so strong, that they were in no apprehension of its ever failing. The water rose to the height of almost 20 fathom, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid, that many of the inhabitants had their houses built upon it. Every family had a certain portion of this water distributed by aqueducts. But at length GOD being highly displeased at their great pride and insolence, and resolving to humble and disperse them, sent a mighty flood, which broke down the mound by night while the inhabitants were asleep, and carried away the whole city with the neighbouring towns and people". The tribes which remained in Yaman after this terrible devastation, still continued under the obedience of the former princes, till about 70 years before Mohammed, when the king of Ethiopia sent over forces to assist the Christians of Yaman against the cruel persecution of their king Dhu Nowâs, a bigoted Jew, whom they drove to that extremity, that he forced his horse into the sea, and so lost his life, and b V. Gol. ad Alfrag. p. 232. Nubiens. p. 52. e Poc. Spec. p. 57. d Geogr. 14 crown; after which the country was governed by four Ethiopian princes successively, till Seif, the son of Dhu Yazan, of the tribe of Hamyar, obtaining succours from Khosrû Anushirwân, king of Persia, which had been denied him by the emperor Heraclius, recovered the throne, and drove out the Ethiopians, but was himself slain by some of them who were left behind. The Persians appointed the succeeding princes till Yaman fell into the hands of Mohammed, to whom Bazan, or rather Badhân, the last of them, submitted, and embraced his new religion'. This kingdom of the Hamyarites is said to have lasted 2020 years, or, as others say, above 30001; the length of the reign of each prince being very uncertain. It has already been observed, that two kingdoms were founded by those who left their country on occasion of the inundation of Aram: they were both out of the proper limits of Arabia. One of them was the kingdom of Ghassân. The founders of this kingdom were of the tribe of Azd, who settling in Syria Damascena, near a water called Ghassân, thence took their name, and drove out the Dajaamian Arabs of the tribe of Salih, who before possessed the country', where they maintained their kingdom 400 years, or as others say, 600, or as Abulfeda more exactly computes 616. Five of these princes were named Hàreth, which the Greeks write Aretas: and one of them it was whose governor ordered the gates of Damascus to be watched to take St. Paul. This tribe were Christians, their last king being Jabalah, the son of al Ayham, who on the Arabs' successes in Syria professed Mohammedanism under the Khalif Ŏmar; but receiving a disgust from him, returned to his former faith, and retired to Constantinople1. e See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 61. fPoc. Spec, p. 63, 64. i Poc. Spec. p. 76. k 2 Cor. xi. 32. Acts, ix. 24. ! V. Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, Vol. 1 P. 174. The other kingdom was that of Hira, which was founded by Malec, of the descendants of Cahlân", in Chaldea or Irâk; but after three descents the throne came by marriage to the Lakhmians, called also the Mondars, (the general name of those princes,) who preserved their dominion, notwithstanding some small interruption by the Persians, till the Khalifat of Abubecr, when al Mondar al Maghrûr, the last of them, lost his life and crown by the arms of Khaled Ebn al Walid. This kingdom lasted 622 years eight months". Its princes were under the protection of the kings of Persia, whose lieutenants they were over the Arabs of Irâk, as the kings of Ghassân were for the Roman emperors over those of Syria. Jorham the son of Kahtân reigned in Hejâz, where his posterity kept the throne till the time of Ismael: but on his marrying the daughter of Modad, by whom he had twelve sons, Kidar, one of them, had the crown resigned to him by his uncles the Jorhamites; though others say the descendants of Ismael expelled that tribe, who retiring to Johainah, were, after various fortune, at last all destroyed by an inundation". Of the kings of Hamyar, Hira, Ghassân, and Jorham, Dr. Pocock has given us catalogues tolerably exact, to which I refer the curious". After the expulsion of the Jorhamites, the government of Hejâz seems not to have continued for many centuries in the hands of one prince, but to have been divided among the heads of tribes; almost in the same manner as the Arabs of the desart are governed at this day. At Mecca an aristocracy prevailed, where the chief management of affairs, till the time of Mohammed, was in the tribe of Koraish; especially after they had gotten the custody of the Caaba from the tribe of Khozâah". Besides the kingdoms which have been taken notice of, there were some other tribes, which in latter times had princes of their own, and formed states of lesser note; particularly the tribe of Kenda': but as I am not writing a just history of the Arabs, and an account of them would be of no great use to my present purpose, I shall wave any further mention of them. After the time of Mohammed, Arabia was for about three centuries under the Khalifs his successors. But in the year 325 of the Hejra, great part of that country was in the hands of the Karmatians", a new sect, who had committed great outrages and disorders even in Mecca, and to whom the Khalîfs were obliged to pay tribute, that the pilgrimage thither might be performed of this sect I may have occasion to speak in another place. Afterwards Yaman was governed by the house of Thabateba, descended from Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, whose sovereignty in Arabia some place so high as the time of Charlemagne. However it was the posterity of Ali, or pretenders to be such, who reigned in Yaman and Egypt so early as the tenth century. The present reigning family in Yaman is probably that of Ayub: a branch of which reigned there in the 13th century, and took the title of Khalîf and Imâm, which they still retain". They are not possessed of the whole province of Yaman, there being several other independent kingdoms there, particularly that of Fartach. The crown of Yaman descends not regularly from father to son; but the prince of the blood royal who is most in favour with the great ones, or has the strongest interest, generally succeeds". The governors of Mecca and Medina, who have always been of the race of Mohammed, also threw off their subjection to the Khalifs, since which time four principal families, all descended from Hasan, the son of Ali, have reigned there under the title of Sharîf, t V. Poc. Spec. p. 79, &c. de l'Arab. heur. p. 255. u V. Elmacin, in vita al Râdi. w Voyage * Ib. 153, 273, y Ib. 254. |