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1 Poc. Spec. p. 65, 66. 2 Vide Gol. ad Alfrag. p. 232. 3
Poc. Spec. p. 57. 4 Geogr. Nubiens. p. 52.
5 See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 61. 1 Poc. Spec. p. 63, 64. 2
Abulfeda. 3 Al Jannâbi and Ahmed Ebn Yusef.

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 Salîh, who
before possessed the country;4 where they maintained their kingdom 400 years,
as others say 600, or as Abulfeda more exactly computes, 616. Five of these
princes were named Hâreth, 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.5 This tribe were Christians, their last king being Jabalah the son of
al Ayham, who on the Arabs' successes in Syria professed Mohammedism under the
Khalîf Omar; but receiving a disgust from him, returned to his former faith,
and retired to Constantinople.6
The other kingdom was that of Hira, which was founded by Malec, of the
descendants of Cahlân7 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 Khalîfat of Abubecr, when al Mondar al
Maghrûr, the last of them, lost his life and crown by the arms of Khaled Ebn
al Walîd. This kingdom lasted 622 years eight months.8 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.9
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,1 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.2
Of the kings of Hamyar, Hira, Ghassân, and Jorham, Dr. Pocock has given us
catalogues tolerably exact, to which I refer the curious.3
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 desert 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
Koreish, especially after they had gotten the custody of the Caaba from the
tribe of Khozâah.4
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:5 but as I am not writing a just
history of the Arabs, and an account of them would be of no great use ot my
present purpose, I shall waive any further mention of them.
After the time of Mohammed, Arabia was for about three centuries under the
Khalîfs his successors. But in the year 325 of the Hejra,

4 Poc. Spec. p. 76. 5 2 Cor. xi. 32; Acts ix. 24. 6 Vide Ockley's
History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 174. 7 Poc. Spec. p. 66.
8 Ibid. p. 74. 9 Ibid. and Procop. in Pers. apud Photium. p. 71, &c.
1 Poc. Spec. p. 45. 2 Ibid. p. 79.
3 Ibid. p. 55, seq. 4 Vide ibid. p. 41, and Prideaux's Life of Mahomet,
p. 2. 5 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 79, &c.

great part of that country was in the hands of the Karmatians,6 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 thirteenth century, and took the title of Khalîf and
Imâm, which they still retain.7 They are not possessed of the whole province
of Yaman,8 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.9
The governors of Mecca and Medina, who have always been of the race of
Mohammed, also threw off their subjection to the Khalîfs, since which time
four principal families, all descended from Hassan the son of Ali, have
reigned there under the title of Sharîf, which signifies noble, as they reckon
themselves to be on account of their descent. These are Banu Kâder, Banu Mûsa
Thani, Banu Hashem, and Banu Kitâda;1 which last family now is, or lately was,
in the throne of Mecca, where they have reigned above 500 years. The reigning
family at Medina are the Banu Hashem, who also reigned at Mecca before those
of Kitâda.2
The kings of Yaman, as well as the princes of Mecca and Medina, are
alsolutely independent3 and not at all subject to the Turk, as some late
authors have imagined.4 These princes often making cruel wars among
themselves, gave an opportunity to Selim I. and his son Solimân, to make
themselves masters of the coasts of Arabia on the Red Sea, and of part of
Yaman, by means of a fleet built at Sues: but their successors have not been
able to maintain their conquests; for, except the port of Jodda, where they
have a Basha whose authority is very small, they possess nothing considerable
in Arabia.5
Thus have the Arabs preserved their liberty, of which few nations can
produce so ancient monuments, with very little interruption, from the very
Deluge; for though very great armies have been sent against them, all attempts
to subdue them were unsuccessful. The Assyrian or Median empires never got
footing among them.6 The Persian monarchs, though they were their friends,
and so far respected by them as to have an annual present of frankincense,7
yet could never make them tributary;8 and were so far from being their
masters, that Cambyses, on his expedition against Egypt, was obliged to ask
their leave to pass through their territories;9 and when Alexander had subdued
that mighty empire, yet the Arabians had so little apprehension of him, that
they alone, of

6 Vide Elmacin. in vita al Râdi. 7 Voyage de l-Arab. heur. p. 255.
8 Ibid. 153, 273. 9 Ibid. 254. 1 Ibid. 143. 2
Ibid. 145. 3 Ibid. 143, 148. 4 Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p.
477. 5 Voy. de l'Arab. heur. p. 148. 6 Diodor. Sic. 1. 2, p. 131.
7 Herodot. 1 3, c. 97. 8 Idem ib. c. 91. Diodor. ubi sup.
9 Herodot. 1. 3, c. 8 and 98.

all the neighbouring nations, sent no ambassadors to him, either first or
last; which, with a desire of possessing so rich a country, made him form a
design against it, and had he not died before he could put it in execution,10
this people might possibly have convinced him that he was not invincible: and
I do not find that any of his successors, either in Asia or Egypt, ever made
any attempt against them.1 The Romans never conquered any part of Arabia
properly so called; the most they did was to make some tribes in Syria
tributary to them, as Pompey did one commanded by Sampsiceramus or
Shams'alkerâm, who reigned at Hems or Emesa;2 but none of the Romans, or any
other nations that we know of, ever penetrated so far into Arabia as Ælius
Gallus under Augustus Cæsar;3 yet he was so far from subduing it, as some
authors pretend,4 that he was soon obliged to return without effecting
anything considerable, having lost the best part of his army by sickness and
other accidents.5 This ill success probably discouraged the Romans from
attacking them any more; for Trajan, notwithstanding the flatteries of the
historians and orators of his time, and the medals struck by him, did not
subdue the Arabs; the province of Arabia, which it is said he added to the
Roman empire, scarce reaching farther than Arabia Petræa, or the very skirts
of the country. And we are told by one author,6 that this prince, marching
against the Agarens who had revolted, met with such a reception that he was
obliged to return without doing anything.
The religion of the Arabs before Mohammed, which they call the state of
ignorance, in opposition to the knowledge of GOD'S true worship revealed to
them by their prophet, was chiefly gross idolatry; the Sabian religion having
almost overrun the whole nation, though there were also great numbers of
Christians, Jews, and Magians among them.
I shall not here transcribe what Dr. Prideaux7 has written of the original
of the Sabian religion; but instead thereof insert a brief account of the
tenets and worship of that sect. They do not only believe one GOD, but
produce many strong arguments for His unity, though they also pay an adoration
to the stars, or the angels and intelligences which they suppose reside in
them, and govern the world under the Supreme Deity. They endeavour to perfect
themselves in the four intellectual virtues, and believe the souls of the
wicked men will be punished for nine thousand ages, but will afterwards be
received to mercy. They are obliged to pray three times8 a day; the first,
half an hour or less before sunrise, ordering it so that they may, just as the
sun rises, finish eight adorations, each containing three prostrations;9 the
second prayer they end at noon, when the sun begins to decline, in saying
which they perform five such adorations as the former: and in the same they do
the third time, ending just as the sun sets. They fast three times a year,
the first time thirty days, the next nine days, and the last seven. They
offer many sacrifices, but eat no part of them, burning them all. They
abstain from beans, garlic, and some other pulse and vegetables.1 As

10 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1076, 1132. 1 Vide Diodor. Sic. ubi
supra. 2 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1092. 3 Dion Cassius, l. 53, p. m.
516 4 Huet, Hist. du Commerce et de la Navigation des Anciens, c. 50.
5 See the whole expedition described at large by Strabo, l. 16,
p. 1126, &c. 6 Xiphilin. epit. 7 Connect. of the Hist.
of the Old and New Test. p. 1, bk. 3. 8 Some say seven. See
D'Herbelot, p. 726, and Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 128
9 Others say they use no incurvations or prostrations at all; vide Hyde ibid.
1 Abulfarag, Hist. Dynast. p. 281, &c.

to the Sabian Kebla, or part to which they turn their faces in praying,
authors greatly differ; one will have it to be the north,2 another the south,
a third Mecca, and a fourth the star to which they pay their devotions:3 and
perhaps there may be some variety in their practice in this respect. They go
on pilgrimage to a place near the city of Harran in Mesopotamia, where great
numbers of them dwell, and they have also a great respect for the temple of
Mecca, and the pyramids of Egypt;4 fancying these last to be the sepulchres of
Seth, and of Enoch and Sabi his two sons, whom they look on as the first
propagators of their religion; at these structures they sacrifice a cock and a
black calf, and offer up incense.5 Besides the book of Psalms, the only true
scripture they read, they have other books which they esteem equally sacred,
particularly one in the Chaldee tongue which they call the book of Seth, and
is full of moral discourses. This sect say they took the name of Sabians from
the above-mentioned Sabi, though it seems rather to be derived from Saba,6 or
the host of heaven, which they worship.7 Travellers commonly call them
Christians of St. John the Baptist, whose disciples also they pretend to be,
using a kind of baptism, which is the greatest mark they bear of Christianity.
This is one of the religions, the practice of which Mohammed tolerated (on
paying tribute), and the professors of it are often included in that
expression of the Korân, "those to whom the scriptures have been given," or
literally, the people of the book.
The idolatry of the Arabs then, as Sabians, chiefly consisted in
worshipping the fixed stars and planets, and the angels and their images,
which they honoured as inferior deities, and whose intercession they begged,
as their mediators with GOD. For the Arabs acknowledged one supreme GOD, the
Creator and LORD of the universe, whom they called Allah Taâla, the most high
GOD; and their other deities, who were subordinate to him, they called simply
al Ilahât, i.e., the goddesses; which words the Grecians not understanding,
and it being their constant custom to resolve the religion of every other
nation into their own, and find out gods of their to match the others', they
pretend that the Arabs worshipped only two deities, Orotalt and Alilat, as
those names are corruptly written, whom they will have to be the same with
Bacchus and Urania; pitching on the former as one of the greatest of their own
gods, and educated in Arabia, and on the other, because of the veneration
shown by the Arabs to the stars.1
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! Thou hast no companion, except thy companion of
whom thou art absolute master, and of whatever is his."2 So that they
supposed 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

2 Idem ibid. 3 Hyde ubi supr. p. 124, &c. 4 D'Herbel. ubi
supr. 5 See Greaves' Pyramidogr. p. 6, 7. 6 Vide Poc. Spec. p.
138. 7 Thabet Ebn Korrah, a famous astronomer, and himself a Sabian,
wrote a treatise in Syriac concerning the doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of
this sect; from which, if it could be recovered, we might expect much better
information than any taken from the Arabian writers; vide Abulfarag, ubi sup.
1 Vide Herodot. 1. 3, c. 8; Arrian, p. 161, 162, and Strab. l. 16.
2 Al Shahrestani.

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 damned it up again; but if the contrary, they let it run
on, saying, they wanted what was GOD'S, but he wanted nothing.3 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.4
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 idolaters, 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 and setting of
certain of them,5 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.1
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 Ghomdân, 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 Khalîf Othman;2 by whose murder was fulfilled
the prophetical inscription set, as is reported, over this 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.4
Though these deities were generally reverenced by the whole nation, yet
each tribe chose some one as the more peculiar object of their worship.
Thus as to the stars and planets, the tribe of Hamyar chiefly worshipped
the sun; Misam,5 al Debarân, 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.6 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 by them nicknamed the son of Abu Cabsha.7 The
worship of this star is particularly hinted at in the Korân.8
Of the angels or intelligences which they worshipped, the Korân,9 makes
mention only of three, which were worshipped under female names;10 Allat, al
Uzza, and Manah. These were by them called

3 Nodhm al dorr. 4 Al Beidâwi. 5 Vide Post. 1
Vide Poc. Spec. p. 163. 2 Shahrestani. 3 Al Jannâbi.
4 Shahrestani. 5 This name seems to be corrupted, there being no
such among the Arab tribes. Poc. Spec. p. 130. 6 Abulfarag, p. 160.
7 Poc. Spec. p. 132. 8 Cap. 53.
9 Ibid. 10 Ibid.

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 Thakîf who dwelt at Tayef, and had a
temple consecrated to her in a place called Nakhlah. This idol al Mogheirah
destroyed by Mohammed's order, who sent him and Abu Sofiân on that commission
in the ninth year of the Hejra.1 The inhabitants of Tayef, especially the
women, bitterly lamented the loss of this their deity, which they were so fond
of, that they begged of 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.2 There are several derivations of this
word which the curious may learn from Dr. Pocock:3 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,4 and part of the tribe of Salim:5 others6 tell us it was a tree called
the Egyptian thorn, or acacia, worshipped by the tribe of Ghatfân, 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 Walîd 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 Caaba. 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 Khazâah,7 who
dwelt between Mecca and Medina, and, as some say,8 of the tribes of Aws,
Khazraj, and Thakîf also. This idol was a large stone,9 demolished by one
Saad, in the eighth year of the Hejra, a year so fatal to the idols of Arabia.
The name seems derived from mana, to flow, from the flowing of the blood of
the victims sacrificed to the deity; whence the valley of Mina,10 near Mecca,
had also its name, where the pilgrims at this day slay their sacrifices.1
Before we proceed to the other idols, let us take notice of five more,
which with the former three are all 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 taken by the Arabs for
gods, having been men of great merit and piety in their time, whose statues
they reverenced at first with a

1 Dr. Prideaux mentions this expedition, but names only Abu Sofiân, and
mistaking the name of the idol for an appellative, supposes he went only to
disarm the Tayefians of their weapons and instruments of war. See his Life of
Mahomet, p. 98.
2 Abulfeda, Vit Moham. p. 127 3 Spec. p. 90 4 Al
Jauhari, apud eund. p. 91. 5 Al Shahrestani, ibid. 6 Al
Firauzabâdi, ibid. 7 Al Jauhari. 8 Al Shahrestani, Abulfeda,
&c. 9 Al Beidâwi, al Zamakhshari. 10 Poc. Spec. 91, &c. 1 Ibid.

civil honour only, which in process of time became heightened to a divine
worship.2
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.3
Sawâ was adored under the shape of a woman by the tribe of Hamadan, or, as
others4 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.5
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.6 Its name seems to be derived from
ghatha, which signifies to help.
Yäûk was worshipped by the tribe of Morâd, or, according to others, by that
of Hamadan,7 under the figure of a horse. It is said he was a man of great
piety, and his death much regretted; whereupon the devil appeared 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.8 The name Yäûk probably
comes from the verb âka, to prevent or avert.9
Nasr was a deity adored by the tribe of Hamyar, or at Dhû'l Khalaah 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,
50 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;10 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 50 fathoms high, of a single stone, and placed in the midst of a temple
supported by 56 pillars of massy gold: this idol Mahmûd Ebn Sebecteghin, who
conquered that part of India, broke to pieces with his own hands.1
Besides the idols we have mentioned, the Arabs also worshipped 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,2 there were no less than 360 idols,3 equalling in number the
days of their year, in and about the Caaba of Mecca; the chief of whom was
Hobal,4 brought from Belka in Syria into Arabia by Amru Ebn Lohai, pretending
it would procure them rain when they wanted it.5 It was the statue of a man,
made of agate, which having by some accident lost a hand, the

2 Kor. c. 71. Comment. Persic. Vide Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 133.
3 Al Jauhari, al Sharestani. 4 Idem, al Firauzabâdi, and
Safio'ddin. 5 Al Firauzab. 6 Shahrestani. 7 Al
Jauhari.
8 Al Firauzab. 9 Poc. Spec. 94. 10 See Hyde de Rel. Vet.
Pers. p. 132. 1 D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 512. 2 Al
Mostatraf. 3 Al Jannâb. 4 Abulfed, Shahrest. &c.
5 Poc. Spec. 95.