That they acknowledged one supreme God appears, to omit other proof from their usual form of addressing themselves to him, which was this, "I dedicate myself to thy service, O God! I dedicate myself to thy service, O God! Thou hast no companion, except thy companion of whom thou art absolute master, and of whatever is his." So that they suppose the idols not to be sui juris, though they offered sacrifices and other offerings to them, as well as to God, who was also often put off with the least portion, as Mohammed upbraids them. Thus, when they planted fruit trees, or sowed a field, they divided it by a line into two parts, setting one apart for their idols, and the other for God; if any of the fruits happened to fall from the idol's part into God's, they made restitution; but if from God's part into the idol's, they made no restitution. So when they watered the idol's grounds, if the water broke over the channels made for that purpose, and ran on God's part, they dammed it up again; but if the contrary, they let it run on, saying they wanted what was God's, but he wanted nothing. In the same manner, if the offering designed for God happened to be better than that designed for the idol, they made an exchange, but not otherwise."

It was from this gross idolatry, or the worship of inferior deities, or companions of God, as the Arabs continue to call them, that Mohammed reclaimed his countrymen, establishing the sole worship of the true God among them; so that how much soever the Mohammedans are to blame in other points, they are far from being idolators, as some ignorant writers have pretended.

The worship of the stars the Arabs might easily be led into, from their observing the changes of weather to happen at the rising or setting of certain of them, which, after a long course of experience, induced them to ascribe a divine power to those stars, and to think themselves indebted to them for their rains, a very great benefit and refreshment to their parched country this superstition the Korân particularly takes notice of.

The ancient Arabians and Indians, between which two nations was a great conformity of religions, had seven celebrated temples, dedicated to the seven planets; one of which in particular, called Beit Ghomdàn, was built in Sanaa the metropolis of Yaman, by Dahac, to the honour of al Zoharah or the planet Venus, and was demolished by the Khalif Othman ;' by whose murder was fulfilled the prophetical inscription set, as is reported, over his temple, viz. Ghomdân, he who destroyeth thee, shall be slain.3 The temple of Mecca is also said to have been consecrated to Zohal or Saturn.3

Though these deities were generally reverenced by the whole nation, yet each tribe chose some one as the more popular object of their worship. Thus, as to the stars and planets, the tribe of Hamyar chiefly worshipped the sun; Misam, al Dabarân or the bull's eye; Lakhm and Jodâm, al Moshtari or Jupiter; Tay, Sohail or Canopus; Kais, Sirius or the dog-star; and Asad, Otâred or Mercury. Among the worshippers of Sirius, one Abu Cabsha was very famous; some will have him to be the same with Waheb, Mohammed's grandfather by the mother, but others say he was of the tribe of Khozâah. This man used his utmost endeavours to persuade the Koreish to leave their images and worship this star; for which reason Mohammed, who endeavoured also to make them leave their images, was

Al Shahrestani.

Al Beidâwi.

Nodhm al dorr. • Vide Post. • Vide 1 Shahrestani. • Al Jannâbi. * Shahrestan!. • This name seems to be corrupted, there being no such among the Arab tribes. Poc. Spee. p. 130

Poc. Spec. p. 163.

Abulfarag, p. 160.

by them nicknamed the son of Abu Cabsha. The worship of this star is particularly hinted at in the Koran."

Of the angels or intelligences which they worshipped, the Korân' makes mention only of three, which were worshipped under female names;9 Allat, al Uzza, and Manah. These were by them called goddesses, and the daughters of God; an appellation they gave not only to the angels, but also to their images, which they either believed to be inspired with life by God, or else to become the tabernacles of the angels, and to be animated by them; and they gave them divine worship, because they imagined they interceded for them with God.

Allât was the idol of the tribe of Thakif who dwelt at Tayef, and had a temple consecrated to her in a place called Nakhlah. The idol al Mogheirah destroyed by Mohammed's order, who sent him and Abu Sofiân on that commission in the ninth year of Hejra.' The inhabitants of Tayef, especially the women, bitterly lamented the loss of this their deity, which they were so fond of, that they begged Mohammed, as a condition of peace, that it might not be destroyed for three years, and not obtaining that, asked only a month's respite; but he absolutely denied it. There are several derivations of this word, which the curious may learn from Dr. Pocock. It seems most probably to be derived from the same root with Allah, to which it may be a feminine, and will then signify the goddess. Al Uzza, as some affirm, was the idol of the tribes of Koreish and Kenânah, and part of the tribes of Salim : others tell us it was a tree called the Egyptian thorn, or Acacia, worshiped by the tribe of Ghatfan, first consecrated by one Dhâlem, who built a chapel over it, called Boss, so contrived as to give a sound when any person entered. Khâled Ebn Walid being sent by Mohammed in the eighth year of the Hejra, to destroy this idol, demolished the chapel, and cutting down this tree or image, burnt it: he also slew the priestess, who ran out with her hair dishevelled, and her hands on her head as a suppliant. Yet the author who relates this, in another place says, the chapel was pulled down, and Dhâlem himself killed by one Zohair, because he consecrated this chapel with design to draw the pilgrims thither from Mecca, and lessen the reputation of the Kaaba. The name of this deity is derived from the root azza, and signifies the most mighty.

Manah was the object of worship of the tribes of Hodhail and Kho. zâah, who dwelt between Mecca and Medina, and as some say, of the tribes of Aws, Khazraj, and Thakif also. This idol was a large stone, demolished by one Saad in the eighth year of the Hejra, a year so fatal to the idols of Arabia. The name seems to be derived from mana to flow, from the flowing of the blood of the victims sacrificed to the deity; whence the valley of Mina' near Mecca had also its name, where the pilgrims at this day slay their sacrifices.2

Before we proceed to the other idols, let us take notice of five more, which, with the former three, are all that the Korân mentions by name, and they are Wadd, Sawâ, Yaghûth, Yäûk, and Nasr. These are said to have been antediluvian idols, which Noah preached against, and were afterwards

Poc. Spec. p. 132. * Cap. 53.

Ibid. • Ibid. 1 Dr. Prideaux mentions this expedition, but names only Abu Sofian, and mistaking the name of the idol for an appellative, supposes he went only to disarm the Tayefiens of their weapons and instru ments of war. See his life of Moham. p. 98. Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. p. 127. *Spec. p. 90. Al Jauhari, apud eund. p. 91. Al Shahrestani. ib. 6 Al * Al Jauhari. Al Shahrestani, Abulfeda, &c. • Al Beidawi, 2 Ibid.

Firauzabadi. ib. al Zamakhshari.

Poc. Spec. 91, &c.

taken by the Arabs for gods, having been men of great merit and piety in their time, whose statutes they reverenced at first with a civil honour only, which, in process of time, became heightened to a divine worship. Wadd was supposed to be the heaven, and was worshipped under the form of a man by the tribe of Calb in Daumat al Jandal.

Sawâ was adored under the shape of a woman, by the tribe of Hamadan, or, as others write, of Hodhail in Rohat. This idol, lying under water for some time after the deluge, was at length, it is said, discovered by the devil, and was worshipped by those of Hodhail, who instituted pilgrimages to it.

Yaghûth was an idol in the shape of a lion, and was the deity of the tribe of Madhaj and others who dwelt in Yaman. Its name seems to be derived from ghatha, which signifies to help.

ap.

Yäûk was worshipped by the tribe of Morâd, or according to others, by that of Hamadan, under the figure of a horse. It is said he was a man of great piety, and his death much regretted; whereupon the devil peared to his friends in a human form, and undertaking to represent him to the life, persuaded them, by way of comfort, to place his effigies in their temples, that they might have it in view when at their devotions. This was done, and seven others of extraordinary merit had the same honours shown them, till at length their posterity made idols of them in earnest. The name Yäûk probably comes from the verb âka, to prevent or avert.1

Nasr was a deity adored by the tribe of Hamyar, or at Dhû'l Kalaah, in their territories, under the image of an eagle, which the name signifies. There are, or were, two statues at Bamiyân, a city of Cabul in the Indies, fifty cubits high, which some writers suppose to be the same with Yaghûth and Yäûk, or else with Manah and Allât; and they also speak of a third standing near the others, but something less, in the shape of an old woman, called Nesrem or Nesr. These statues were hollow within, for the secret giving of oracles; but they seem to have been different from the Arabian idols. There was also an idol at Sûmenat in the Indies, called Lât or al Lât, whose statue was fifty fathoms high, of a single stone, and placed in the midst of a temple supported by fifty-six pillars of massy gold: this idol Mahmûd Ebn Sebecteghin, who conquered that part of India, broke to pieces with his own hands.3

Besides the idols we have mentioned, the Arabs worshipped also great numbers of others, which would take up too much time to have distinct accounts given of them, and not being named in the Korân, are not so much to our present purpose: for besides that every housekeeper had his household god, or gods, which he last took leave of, and first saluted at his going abroad and returning home, there were no less than 360 idols, equalling in number the days of their year, in and about the Caaba of Mecca; the chief of whom was Hobal, brought from Belka in Syria, into Arabia, by Amru Ebn Lohai, pretending it would procure them rain when they wanted it. It was the statue of a man made of red agate, which having by some accident lost a hand, the Koreish repaired it with one of gold: he held in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs used in divination. This idol is supposed to have been

4

Korân, c. 71. Comment. Persic. Vide Hyde de rel. vet. Pers. p. 133. Al Jauhari, al Shahrestani. Idem, al Firauzabâdi, and Sufio'ddin. Al Firauzab. Shah. restani. Al Jauhari. Al Firauzabâdi. Poc. Spec. 94. 2 See Hyde de rel. vet. Pers. p. 132. D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 512. Al Mostatraf. • Al Jan. nab. Avuired. Shahrest. &c. Poc. Spec. 95. • Safio'ddin.

3

the same with the image of Abraham,' found and destroyed by Mohammed in the Caaba, on his entering it, in the eighth year of the Hejra, when he took Mecca,' and surrounded with a great number of angels and prophets, as inferior deities; among whom, as some say, was Ismael with divining arrows in his hand also.2

Asâf and Nayelah, the former the image of a man, the latter of a woman, were also two idols brought with Hobal from Syria, and placed t'e one on mount Safâ, and the other on mount Merwa. They tell us Asâf was the son of Amru, and Nayelah the daughter of Sahâl, both of the tribe of Jorham, who committing whoredom together in the Caaba, were by God converted into stone, and afterwards worshipped by the Koreish, and so much reverenced by them, that though this superstition was condemned by Mohammed, yet he was forced to allow them to visit those mountains as monuments of divine justice.

I shall mention but one idol more of this nation, and that was a lump of dough worshipped by the tribe of Hanîfa; who used it with more respect than the papists do theirs, presuming not to eat it till they were compelled to it by famine.5

Several of their idols, as Manah in particular, were no more than large rude stones, the worship of which the posterity of Ismael first introduced; for as they multiplied, and the territory of Mecca grew too strait for them, great numbers were obliged to seek new abodes; and on such migrations it was usual for them to take with them some of the stones of that reputed holy land, and set them up in the places where they fixed; and these stones they at first only compassed out of devotion, as they had accustomed to do the Caaba. But this at. last ended in rank idolatry, the Ismaclites forgetting the religion left them by their father so far, as to pay divine worship to any fine stone they met with.

Some of the pagan Arabs believed neither a creation past, nor a resurrection to come, attributing the origin of things to nature, and their dissolution to age. Others believed both; among whom were those, who when they died had their camel tied by their sepulchre, and so left without meat or drink to perish, and accompany them to the other world, lest they should be obliged, at the resurrection, to go on foot, which was reckoned very scandalous. Some believed a metempsychosis, and that of the blood near the dead person's brain, was formed a bird named Hâmah, which once in a hundred years visited the sepulchre; though others say, this bird is animated by the soul of him that is unjustly slain, and continually cries, "Oscûni, Oscûni," that is, "Give me to drink," meaning of the murderer's blood, till his death be revenged; and then it flies away. This was forbidden by Mohammed to be believed.

I might here mention several superstitious rites and customs of the ancient Arabs, some of which were abolished, and others retained by Mohammed; but I apprehend it will be more convenient to take notice of them hereafter occasionally, as the negative or positive precepts of the Korân, forbidding or allowing such practices, shall be considered.

Let us now turn our view from the idolatrous Arabs, to those among them, who had embraced more rational religions.

The Persians had, by their vicinity and frequent intercourse with the Arabians, introduced the Magian religion among some of their tribes, par

ticularly that of Tamin, a long time before Mohammed, who was so far from being unacquainted with that religion, that he borrowed many of his own institutions from it, as will be observed in the progress of this work. I refer those who are desirous to have some notion of Magism to Dr. Hyde's curious account of it; a succinct abridgement of which may be read with much pleasure, in another learned performance.2

The Jews, who fled in great numbers into Arabia, from the fearful destruction of their country by the Romans, made proselytes of several tribes, those of Kenânah, al Hareth Ebn Caaba, and Kendah3 in particular, and in time became very powerful, and possessed of several towns and fortresses there. But the Jewish religion was not unknown to the Arabs, at least above a century before; Abu Carb Asad, taken notice of in the Korân, who was king of Yaman, about 700 years before Mohammed, is said to have introduced Judaism among the idolatrous Hamyarites. Some of his successors also embraced the same religion, one of whom, Yusef, surnamed Dhu Nowâs, was remarkable for his zeal, and terrible persecution of all who would not turn Jews, putting them to death by various tortures, the most common of which was throwing them into a glowing pit of fire, whence he had the opprobrious appellation of the "Lord of the pit." This persecution is also mentioned in the Korân.

Christianity had likewise made a very great progress among this nation, before Mohammed. Whether St. Paul preached in any part of Arabia, properly so called, is uncertain; but the persecutions and disorders which happened in the castern church, soon after the beginning of the third century, obliged great numbers of Christians to seek for shelter in that country of liberty; who being for the most part of the Jacobite communion, that sect generally prevailed among the Arabs. The principal tribes that embraced Christianity were Hamyar, Ghâssan, Rabià, Taghlab, Barâ, Tonûch, part of the tribes of Tay and Kodâa, the inhabitants of Najrân, and the Arabs of Hira.' As to the two last, it may be observed, that those of Najran became Christians in the time of Dhu Nowàs, and very probably, if the story be true, were some of those who were converted on the following occasion, which happened about that time, or not long before. The Jews of Hamyar challenged some neighbouring Christians to a public disputation, which was held sub dio for three days, before the king and his nobility, and all the people; the disputants being Gregentius, bishop of Tephra (which I take to be Dhafar) for the Christians, and Herbanus for the Jews. On the third day, Herbanus, to end the dispute, demanded that Jesus of Nazareth, if he were really living, and in heaven, and could hear the prayers of his worshippers, should appear from heaven in their sight, and they would then believe him; the Jews crying out with one voice, "Show us your Christ, alas, and we will become Christians." Whereupon, after a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, Jesus Christ appeared in the air, surrounded with rays of glory, walking on a purple cloud, having a sword in his hand, and an inestimable diadem on his head, and spake these words over the heads of the assembly-" Behold I appear to you in your sight, I, who was crucified by your fathers." After which the cloud received him from their sight. The Christians cried out," Kyrie eleeson,"