the Persians, which last were reckoned much inferior in that respect to the Arabians. Poetry was in so great esteem among them, that it was a great accomplishment, and a proof of ingenuous extraction to be able to express one's self in verse with ease and elegance on any extraordinary occurrence, and even in their common discourse they made frequent applications of celebrated passages of their famous poets. In their poems were preserved the distinction of descents, the rights of tribes, the memory of great actions, and the propriety of their language; for which reasons an excellent poet reflected an honour on his tribe, so that as soon as any one began to be admired for his performances of this kind in a tribe, the other tribes sent publicly to congratulate them on the occasion, and themselves made entertainments, at which the women assisted, dressed in their nuptial ornaments, singing to the sound of timbrels the happiness of their tribe, who had now one to protect their honour, to preserve their genealogies and the purity of their language, and to transmit their actions to posterity,s for this was all performed by their poems, to which they were solely obliged for their knowledge and instructions, moral and economical, and to which they had recourse, as to an oracle, in all doubts and differences No wonder then that a public congratulation was made on this account, which honour they yet were so far from making cheap, that they never did it but on one of these three occasions, which were reckoned great points of felicity; viz. on the birth of a boy, the rise of a poet, and the fall of a foal of generous breed. To keep up an emulation among their poets, the tribes had, once a year, a general assembly at Ocadh," a place famous on this account, and where they kept a weekly mart or fair, which was held on our Sunday. This annual meeting lasted a whole month, during which time they employed themselves, not only in trading, but in repeating their poetical compositions, contending and vying with each other for the prize; whence the place, it is said, took its name. The poems that were judged to excel were laid up in their king's treasuries, as were the seven celebrated poems, thence called al Moallakât, rather than from their being hung up on the Caaba, which honour they also had by public order, being written on Egyptian silk, and in letters of gold; for which reason they had also the name of al Modhahabât, or the golden verses.1

3

The fair and assembly at Ocadh were suppressed by Mohammed, in whose time, and for some years after, poetry seems to have been in some degree neglected by the Arabs, who were then employed in their conquests; which being completed, and themselves at peace, not only this study was revived, but almost all sorts of learning were encouraged and greatly im proved by them. This interruption, however, occasioned the loss of most of their ancient pieces of poetry, which were then chiefly preserved by memory, the use of writing being rare among them in their time of igno rance. Though the Arabs were so early acquainted with poetry, they did not at first use to write poems of a just length, but only expressed theinselves in verse occasionally; nor was their prosody digested into rules till some time after Mohammed; for this was done, as it is said, by al Khalil Ahmed al Farâhîdi, who lived in the reign of the Khalif Harûn al Rashîd.' Poc. Spec. 161. Poc. Orat. præfix. Carm. Tograi, ubi supra. Geogr. Nub. p. 51. Spec. 159. Ibid. and p. 381. Et in calce Notar. in Carmen Tograi, p. 233. lalo'ddin al Soyûti, apud Poc. Spec. p. 159, &c. confirms this by a story of a grammarian, named Abu Jaafar, who sitting by the Mikyas or Nilometer in Egypt, in a year when the Nile did not rise to its usual height, so that a famine was apprehended, and dividing a piece of poetry into its parts or feet, to examine them by the rules of art, some who passed by, not understanding him, imagined he was uttering a charm to hinder the rise of the river, and pushed him into the water, where he lost his life. Vide Clericum de Prosod Arab. p. 2.

Ebn Rashik, apud Poc. Spec. 160.

1

Idem, Spec. p. 159.

3 Ib. 160.

Ib. 161.

s Poc. 2 Jal

Al Safadi

The exercise of arms and horsemanship they were in a manner obliged to practise and encourage, by reason of the independence of their tribes, whose frequent jarrings made wars almost continual; and they chiefly ended their disputes in field battles; it being an usual saying among them, that God had bestowed four peculiar things on the Arabs, that their turbans should be to them instead of diadems, their tents instead of walls and houses, their swords instead of intrenchments, and their poems instead of written laws."

Hospitality was so habitual to them, and so much esteemed, that the examples of this kind among them exceed whatever can be produced from other nations. Hatem of the tribe of Tay, and Hasn of that of Fezârah, were particularly famous on this account; and the contrary vice was so much in contempt, that a certain poet upbraids the inhabitants of Waset, as with the greatest reproach, that none of their men had the heart to give, nor their women the heart to deny,9

Nor were the Arabs less propense to liberality after the coming of Mo hammed than their ancestors had been. I could produce many remarkable instances of this commendable quality among them,' but shall content myself with the following. Three men were disputing in the court of the Caaba which was the most liberal person among the Arabs. One gave the preference to Abdallah, the son of Jaafar, the uncle of Mohammed; another to Kais Ebn Saad Ebn Obâdah; and the third gave it to Arâbah of the tribe of Aws. After much debate, one that was present, to end the dispute, proposed that each of them should go to his friend and ask his assistance, that they might see what every one gave, and form a judgment accordingly. This was agreed to; and Abdallah's friend going to him, found him with his foot in the stirrup, just mounting his camel for a journey, and thus accosted him: Son of the uncle of the apostle of God, I am travelling and in necessity. Upon which Abdallah alighted, and bid him. take the camel with all that was upon her, but desired him not to part with a sword that happened to be fixed to the saddle, because it had belonged to Ali the son of Abutâleb. So he took the camel, and found on her some vests of silk, and four thousand pieces of gold; but the thing of greatest value was the sword. The second went to Kais Ebn Saad, whose servant told him that his master was asleep, and desired to know his business. The friend answered that he came to ask Kais's assistance, being in want on the road. Whereupon the servant said, that he had rather supply his necessity than wake his master, and gave him a purse of seven thousand pieces of gold, assuring him that it was all the money then in the house. He also directed him to go to those who had the charge of the camels, with a certain token, and take a camel, and a slave, and return home with them. When Kais awoke, and his servant informed him of what he had done, he gave him his freedom, and asked him why he did not call him, for, says he, I would have given him more. The thi d man went to Arâbah, and met him coming out of his house, in order to go to prayers, and leaning on two slaves, because his eye-sight failed him. The friend no sooner made known his case, but Arâbah let go the slaves, and clapping his hands together, loudly lamented his misfortune in having no money, but desired him to take the two slaves; which the man refused to do, till Arâbah protested that if he would not accept of them, he gave

Pocock. in calce Notar. ad Carmen Tograi. "Vide Gentii Notas in Gulistan Sheikh Sadi, p. 486, &c. Poc. Spec. p. 48. Ebn al Hobeirah, apud Poc. in Not. ad Car men Tograi, p. 107. Several may be found in D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient. particularly in the articles of Hasan the son of Ali, Maan, Fadhel, and Ebn Yahya.

them their liberty; and, leaving the slaves, groped his way along by the wall. On the return of the adventurers, judgment was unanimously, and with great justice, given by all who were present, that Arâbah was the most generous of the three.

Nor were these the only good qualities of the Arabs; they are commended by the ancients for being most exact to their words, and respectful to their kindred. And they have always been celebrated for their quickness of apprehension and penetration, and the vivacity of their wit; especially those of the desert.

As the Arabs had their excellencies, so have they, like other nations, their defects and vices. Their own writers acknowledge that they have a natural disposition to war, bloodshed, cruelty and rapine; being so much addicted to bear malice, that they scarce ever forget an old grudge; which vindictive temper some physicians say is occasioned by their frequent feeding on camel's flesh (the ordinary diet of the Arabs of the desert, who are therefore observed to be most inclined to these vices), that creature being most malicious and tenacious of anger;5 which account suggests a good reason for a distinction of meats.

The frequent robberies committed by these people on merchants and travellers have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe; this they are sensible of, and endeavour to excuse themselves by alleging the hard usage of their father Ismael, who being turned out of doors by Abraham, had the open plains and deserts given him by God for his patrimony, with permission to take whatever he could find there. And on this account they think they may, with a safe conscience, indemnify themselves, as well as they can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but also on every body else; always supposing a sort of kindred between themselves and those they plunder. And in relating their adventures of this kind, they think it sufficient to change the expression, and instead of, I robbed a man of such or such a thing, to say, I gained it. We must not, however, imagine that they are the less honest for this among themselves, or towards those whom they receive as friends; on the contrary, the strictest probity is observed in their camp, where every thing is open, and nothing ever known to be stolen."

The sciences the Arabians chiefly cultivated before Mohammedism were three; that of their genealogies and history, such a knowledge of the stars as to foretell the changes of weather, and the interpretation of dreams. They used to value themselves excessively on account of the nobility of their families, and so many disputes happened on that occasion, that it is no wonder if they took great pains in settling their descents. What knowledge they had of the stars was gathered from long experience, and not from any regular study, or astronomical rules. The Arabians, as the Indians also did, chiefly applied themselves to observe the fixed stars, contrary to other nations, whose observations were almost confined to the planets; and they foretold their effects from their influences, not their nature; and hence, as has been said, arose the difference of the idolatry of the Greeks and Chaldeans, who chiefly worshipped the planets, and that of the Indians, who worshipped the fixed stars. The stars or asterisms they most usually foretold the weather by were those they call anwâ, or the houses of the moon. These are twenty-eight in number, and divide

p. 121.

Herodot. lib. iii. c. 8. Vide Poc. Spec. la Palest. p. 220, &c. ubi sup. p. 9, and Spec. 164.

Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1129. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 87. Bochart, Hierozoic, lib. ii. c. 1. • Voyage dans Ibid. p. 213, &c. * Al Shahrestani, apud Pocock Orat.

Abulfarag, p. 161.

the zodiac into as many parts, through one of which the moon passes every night; as some of them set in the morning, others rise opposite to them, which happens every thirteenth night, and from their rising and setting the Arabs, by long experience, observed what changes happened in the air; and at length, as has been said, came to ascribe divine power to them, saying, that their rain was from such or such a star; which expression Mohanimed condemned, and absolutely forbade them to use it in the old sense, unless they meant no more by it than that God had so ordered the seasons, that when the moon was in such or such a mansion or house, or at the rising or setting of such and such a star, it should rain or be windy, hot or cold."

The old Arabians, therefore, seem to have made no further progress in astronomy, which science they afterwards cultivated with so much success and applause, than to observe the influence of the stars on the weather, and to give them names; and this it was obvious for them to do by reason of their pastoral way of life, lying night and day in the open plains. The names they imposed on the stars generally alluded to cattle and flocks, and they were so nice in distinguishing them, that no language has so many names of stars and asterisms as the Arabic; for though they have since borrowed the names of several constellations from the Greeks, yet the far greater part are of their own growth, and much more ancient, particularly those of the more conspicuous stars, dispersed in several constellations, and those of the lesser constellations which are contained within the greater, and were not observed or named by the Greeks.

Thus have I given the most succinct account I have been able, of the state of the ancient Arabians before Mohammed, or, to use their expression, in the time of ignorance. I shall now proceed briefly to consider the state of religion in the east, and of the two great empires which divided that part of the world between them, at the time of Mohammed's setting up for a prophet, and what were the conducive circumstances and accidents that favoured his success.

OF THE

SECTION II.

STATE OF CHRISTIANITY, PARTICULARLY OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES, AND OF JUDAISM, AT THE TIME OF MOHAMMED'S AP PEARANCE; AND OF THE METHODS TAKEN BY HIM FOR THE ESTABLISHING OF HIS RELIGION, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH CONCURRED THERETO.

If we look into the ecclesiastical historians even from the third century, we shall find the Christian world to have then had a very different aspect from what some authors have represented; and so far from being endued with active grace, zeal, and devotion, and established within itself with purity of doctrine, union, and firm profession of the faith, that, on the contrary, what by the ambition of the clergy, and what by drawing the abstrusest niceties into controversy, and dividing and subdividing about them into endless schisms and contentions, they had so destroyed that peace, love, and charity from among them, which the gospel was given to promote; and instead thereof continually provoked each other to that Vide Hyde, in not. ad Tabulas stellar. fixar. Ulugh Beigh, p. 5. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 163, &c. • Vide Hyde ubi sup. p. 4. Ricaut's State of the Ottoman Empire,

P. 187.

mualice, rancour, and every evil work; that they had lost the whole substance of their religion, while they thus eagerly contended for their own imaginations concerning it; and in a manner quite drove Christianity out of the world by those very controversies in which they disputed with each other about it. In these dark ages it was that most of those superstitions and corruptions we now justly abhor in the church of Rome were not only broached, but established; which gave great advantages to the propagation of Mohammedism. The worship of saints and images, in particular, was then arrived of such a scandalous pitch, that it even surpassed what is now practised among the Romanists.

After the Nicene council, the eastern church was engaged in perpetual controversies, and torn to pieces by the disputes of the Arians, Sabellians, Nestorians, and Eutychians: the heresies of the two last of which have been shown to have consisted more in the words and form of expression than in the doctrines themselves and were rather the pretences than real motives of those frequent councils, to and from which the contentious prelates were continually riding post, that they might bring every thing to their own will and pleasure. And to support themselves by dependants and bribery, the clergy in any credit at court undertook the protection of some officer in the army, under the colour of which justice was publicly sold, and all corruption encouraged.

In the western church, Damasus and Ursicinus carried their contests at Rome for the episcopal seat so high, that they came to open violence and murder, which Viventius the governor not being able to suppress, he retired into the country, and left them to themselves, till Damasus prevailed. It is said that on this occasion, in the church of Sicininus, there were no less than 137 found killed in one day. And no wonder they were so fond of these seats, when they became by that means enriched by the presents of matrons, and went abroad in their chariots and sedans in great state, feasting sumptuously even beyond the luxury of princes, quite contrary to the way of the living of the country prelates, who alone seemed to have some temperance and modesty left."

These dissensions were greatly owing to the emperors, and particularly to Constantius, who, confounding the pure and simple Christian religion with anile superstitions, and perplexing it with intricate questions, instead of reconciling different opinions, excited many disputes, which he fomented as they proceeded with infinite altercations. This grew worse in the time of Justinian, who, not to be behind the bishops of the fifth and sixth centuries in zeal, thought it no crime to condemn to death a man of a different persuasion from his own.2

This corruption of doctrine and morals in the princes and clergy was necessarily followed by a general depravity of the people; those of all conditions making it their sole business to get money by any means, and then to squander it away, when they had got it, in luxury and debauchery.

But, to be more particular as to the nation we are now writing of, Arabia was of old famous for heresies; which might be in some measure

'Prideaux's Pref. to his Life of Mohammed. Vide La vie de Mohammed, par Boulainvilliers, d. 219, &c. Vide Simon, Hist. Crit. de la creance, &c. des nations du Levant. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 21. Vide etiam Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 8. c. 1. Sozom. lib. 1, c. 14, &c. Hilar. and Sulpic. Sever. in Hist. Sacr. p. 112, &c. 'Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 27. 2 Procop. in Anecd. p. 60. an instance of the wickedness of the Christian army even when they were under the ter ror of the Saracens, in Ockley's Hist. of the Sarac. vol. i. p. 239. Vide Boulainvill. Vie de Moh. ubi, svp. Vide Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. 1. c. 16, 17. Sulpic. Sever.

Idem. lib. 21.

• See

ubi supra.