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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.6 This idol is
supposed to have been the same with the image of Abraham,7 found and destroyed
by Mohammed in the Caaba, on his entering it, in the eighth year of the Hejra,
when he took Mecca,8 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.9
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 the 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,10 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.11
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.12
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 Ismaelites forgetting the religion
left them by their father so far as to pay divine worship to any fine stone
they met with.1
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.2 Some believed a metem-psychosis, 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,
i.e., "give me to drink"-meaning of the murderer's blood-till his death be
revenged, and then it flies away. This was forbidden by the Korân to be
believed.3
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

6 Safio'ddin. 7 Poc. Spec. 97. 8 Abulfeda. 9 Ebn
al Athir. al Jannab. &c.
10 Poc. Spec. 98. 11 Kor. c. 2. 12 Al Mostatraf, al
Jauhari. 1 Al Mostatraf, al Jannâbi.
2 Abulfarag, p. 160. 3 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 135.

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,
particularly that of Tamim,4 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,5 a succinct abridgment of which may be read with much
pleasure in another learned performance.6
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 Kendah1 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,2 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,3 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.4
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,5 is uncertain; but the persecutions and disorders which happened in
the eastern 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.6 The principal tribes that embraced Christianity
were Hamyar, Ghassân, Rabiâ, Taghlab, Bahrâ, Tonûch,7 part of the tribes of
Tay and Kodâa, the inhabitants of Najrân, and the Arabs of Hira.8 As to the
two last, it may be observed that those of Najrân became Christians in the
time of Dhu Nowâs,9 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 Dhafâr) for the Christians,
and Herbanus for the Jews. On the third day, Herbanus, to end the dispute,
de-

4 Al Mostatraf. 5 In his Hist. Relig. Vet. Persar. 6 Dr.
Prideaux's Connect. of the Hist. of the Old and New Test. part i. book 4.
1 Al Mostatraf. 2 Chap. 50. 3 See before, p. 8, and
Baronii annal. ad sec. vi. 4 Chap. 85. 5 See Galat. i.
17. 6 Abulfarag, p. 149. 7 Al Mostatraf. 8 Vide Poc. Spec.
p. 137. 9 Al Jannab, apud Poc. Spec. p. 63.

manded 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 in 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," i.e., "Lord, have mercy
upon us;" but the Jews were stricken blind, and recovered not till they were
all baptized.1
The Christians at Hira received a great accession by several tribes, who
fled thither for refuge from the persecution of Dhu Nowâs. Al Nooman,
surnamed Abu Kabûs, king of Hira, who was slain a few months before Mohammed's
birth, professed himself a Christian on the following occasion. This prince,
in a drunken fit, ordered two of his intimate companions, who overcame with
liquor had fallen asleep, to be buried alive. When he came to himself, he was
extremely concerned at what he had done, and to expiate his crime, not only
raised a monument to the memory of his friends, but set apart two days, one of
which he called the unfortunate, and the other the fortunate day; making it a
perpetual rule to himself, that whoever met him on the former day should be
slain, and his blood sprinkled on the monument, but he that met him on the
other day should be dismissed in safety, with magnificent gifts. On one of
those unfortunate days there came before him accidentally an Arab, of the
tribe of Tay, who had once entertained this king, when fatigued with hunting,
and separated from his attendants. The king, who could neither discharge him,
contrary to the order of the day, nor put him to death, against the laws of
hospitality, which the Arabians religiously observe, proposed, as an
expedient, to give the unhappy man a year's respite, and to send him home with
rich gifts for the support of his family, on condition that he found a surety
for his returning at the year's end to suffer death. One of the prince's
court, out of compassion, offered himself as his surety, and the Arab was
discharged. When the last day of the term came, and no news of the Arab, the
king, not at all displeased to save his host's life, ordered the surety to
prepare himself to die. Those who were by represented to the king that the
day was not yet expired, and therefore he ought to have patience till the
evening: but in the middle of their discourse the Arab appeared. The king,
admiring the man's generosity, in offering himself to certain death, which he
might have avoided by letting his surety suffer, asked him what was his motive
for his so doing? to which he answered, that he had been taught to act in that
manner by the religion he professed; and al Nooman demanding what religion
that was, he replied, the Christian. Whereupon the king desiring to have the
doctrines of Christianity explained to him, was baptized, he and his subjects;
and not only pardoned the man and his surety, but

1 Vide Gregentii disput. cum Herbano Judæo.

abolished his barbarous custom.1 This prince, however, was not the first
king of Hira who embraced Christianity; al Mondar, his grandfather, having
also professed the same faith, and built large churches in his capital.2
Since Christianity had made so great a progress in Arabia, we may
consequently suppose they had bishops in several parts, for the more orderly
governing of the churches. A bishop of Dhafâr has been already named, and we
are told that Najrân was also a bishop's see.3 The Jacobites (of which sect
we have observed the Arabs generally were) had two bishops of the Arabs
subject to their Mafriân, or metropolitan of the east; one was called the
bishop of the Arabs absolutely, whose seat was for the most part at Akula,
which some others make the same with Cûfa,4 others a different town near
Baghdâd.5 The other had the title of bishop of the Scenite Arabs, of the
tribe of Thaalab in Hira, or Hirta, as the Syrians call it, whose seat was in
that city. The Nestorians ahd but one bishop, who presided over both these
dioceses of Hira and Akula, and was immediately subject to their patriarch.6
These were the principal religions which obtained among the ancient Arabs;
but as freedom of thought was the natural consequence of their political
liberty and independence, some of them fell into other different opinions.
The Koreish, in particular, were infected with Zendicism,7 an error supposed
to have very near affinity with that of the Sadducees among the Jews, and,
perhaps, not greatly different from Deism; for there were several of that
tribe, even before the time of Mohammed, who worshipped one GOD, and were free
from idolatry,8 and yet embraced none of the other religions of the country.
The Arabians before Mohammed were, as they yet are, divided into two sorts,
those who dwell in cities and towns, and those who dwell in tents. The former
lived by tillage, the cultivation of palm trees, breeding and feeding of
cattle, and the exercise of all sorts of trades,1 particularly merchandising,2
wherein they were very eminent, even in the time of Jacob. The tribe of
Koreish were much addicted to commerce, and Mohammed, in his younger years,
was brought up to the same business; it being customary for the Arabians to
exercise the same trade that their parents did.3 The Arabs who dwelt in
tents, employed themselves in pasturage, and sometimes in pillaging of
passengers; they lived chiefly on the milk and flesh of camels; they often
changed their habitations, as the convenience of water and of pasture for
their cattle invited them, staying in a place no longer than that lasted, and
then removing in search of other.4 They generally wintered in Irâk and the
confines of Syria. This way of life is what the greater part of Ismael's
posterity have used, as more agreeable to the temper and way of life of their
father; and is so well described by a late author,5 that I cannot do better
than refer the reader to his account of them.

1 Al Meidani and Ahmed Ebn Yusef, apud Poc. Spec. p. 72. 2
Abulfeda ap. eund. p. 74. 3 Safio'ddin apud Poc. Spec. p. 137.
4 Abulfarag in Chron. Syriac, MS. 5 Abulfeda in descr. Iracæ.
6 Vide Assemani Bibl. Orient. T. 2. in Dissert. de Monophysitis, and p.
459. 7 Al Mostatraf, apud Poc. Spec. p. 136.
8 Vide Reland. de Relig. Moham. p. 270, and Millium de Mohammedismo ante
Moham. p. 311. 1 These seem to be the same whom M. La Roque calls
Moors. Voy. dans la Palestine, p 110. 2 See Prideaux's Life of
Mahomet, p. 6. 3 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1129. 4 Idem ibid. p.
1084. 5 La Roque, Voy. dans la Palestine, p. 109, &c.

The Arabic language is undoubtedly one of the most ancient in the world,
and arose soon after, if not at, the confusion of Babel. There were several
dialects of it, very different from each other: the most remarkable were that
spoken by the tribes of Hammyar and the other genuine Arabs, and that of the
Koreish. The Hamyaritic seems to have approached nearer ot the purity of the
Syriac, than the dialect of any other tribe; for the Arabs acknowledge their
father Yarab to have been the first whose tongue deviated from the Syriac
(which was his mother tongue, and is almost generally acknowledged by the
Asiatics to be the most ancient) to the Arabic. The dialect of the Koreish is
usually termed the pure Arabic, or, as the Korân, which is written in this
dialect, calls it, the perspicuous and clear Arabic; perhaps, says Dr. Pocock,
because Ismael, their father, brought the Arabic he had learned of the
Jorhamites nearer to the original Hebrew. But the politeness and elegance of
the dialect of the Koreish, is rather to be attributed to their having the
custody of the Caaba, and dwelling in Mecca, the centre of Arabia, as well
more remote from intercourse with foreigners, who might corrupt their
language, as frequented by the Arabs from the country all around, not only on
a religious account, but also for the composing of their differences, from
whose discourse and verses they took whatever words or phrases they judged
more pure and elegant; by which means the beauties of the whole tongue became
transfused into this dialect. The Arabians are full of the commendations of
their language, and not altogether without reason; for it claims the
preference of most others in many respects, as being very harmonious and
expressive, and withal so copious, that they say no man without inspiration
can be a perfect master of it in its utmost extent; and yet they tell us, at
the same time, that the greatest part of it has been lost; which will not be
thought strange, if we consider how late the art of writing was practised
among them. For though it was known to Job,1 their countryman, and also the
Hamyarites (who used a perplexed character called al Mosnad, wherein the
letters were not distinctly separate, and which was neither publicly taught,
nor suffered to be used without permission first obtained) many centuries
before Mohammed, as appears from some ancient monuments, said to be remaining
in their character; yet the other Arabs, and those of Mecca in particular,
were, for many ages, perfectly ignorant of it, unless such of them as were
Jews or Christians:2 Morâmer Ebn Morra of Anbar, a city of Irâk, who lived not
many years before Mohammed, was the inventor of the Arabic character, which
Bashar the Kendian is said to have learned from those of Anbar, and to have
introduced at Mecca but a little while before the institution of Mohammedism.
These letters of Marâmer were different from the Hamyaritic; and though they
were very rude, being either the same with, or very much like the Cufic,3
which character is still found in inscriptions and some ancient books, yet
they were those which the Arabs used for many years, the Korân itself being at
first written therein; for the beautiful character they now use was first
formed from the Cufic by Ebn Moklah, Wazir (or Visir) to the Khalîfs al
Moktader, al Kâher, and al Râdi, who lived

1 Job xix. 23, 24. 2 See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 29, 30.
3 A specimen of the Cufic character may be seen in Sir J. Chardin's
Travels, vol. iii, p. 119.

about three hundred years after Mohammed, and was brought to great perfection
by Ali Ebn Bowâb,4 who flourished in the following century, and whose name is
yet famous among them on that account; yet, it is said, the person who
completed it, and reduced it to its present form, was Yakût al Mostásemi,
secretary to al Mostásem, the last of the Khalîfs of the family of Abbâs, for
which reason he was surnamed al Khattât, or the Scribe.
The accomplishments the Arabs valued themselves chiefly on, were, 1.
Eloquence, and a perfect skill in their own tongue; 2. Expertness in the use
of arms, and horsemanship; and 3. Hospitality.1 The first they exercised
themselves in, by composing of orations and poems. Their orations were of two
sorts, metrical, or prosaic, the one being compared to pearls strung, and the
other to loose ones. They endeavoured to excel in both, and whoever was able,
in an assembly, to persuade the people to a great enterprise, or dissuade them
from a dangerous one, or gave them other wholesome advice, was honoured with
the title of Khâteb, or orator, which is now given to the Mohammedan
preachers. They pursued a method very different from that of the Greek and
Roman orators; their sentences being like loose gems, without connection, so
that this sort of composition struck the audience chiefly by the fulness of
the periods, the elegance of the expression, and the acuteness of the
proverbial sayings; and so persuaded were they of their excelling in this way,
that they would not allow any nation to understand the art of speaking in
public, except themselves and the Persians; which last were reckoned much
inferior in that respect to the Arabians.2 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 to 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;3
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.1 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

4 Ebn Khalicân. Yet others attribute the honour of the invention of this
character to Ebn Moklah's brother, Abdallah al Hasan; and the perfecting of it
to Ebn Amîd al Kâteb, after it had been reduced to near the present form by
Abd'alhamîd. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 590, 108, and 194. 1
Poc. Orat. ante Carmen Tograi, p. 10. 2 Poc. Spec. 161.
3 Ebn Rashik, apud Poc. Spec. 160. 1 Poc. Orat. præfix. Carm. Tograi,
ubi supra.

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,2 a place famous on
this account, and where they kept a weekly mart or fair, which was held on our
Sunday.3 This annual meeting lasted a whole month, during which time they
employed themselves, not only in trading, but in repeating their poetical
compositions, contending an vieing with each other for the prize; whence the
place, it is said, took its name.4 The poems that were judged to excel, were
laid up in their kings' treasuries, as were the seven celebrated poems, thence
called al Moallakât, rather than from their being hung upon the Caaba, which
honour they also had by public order, being written on Egyptian silk, and inn
letters of gold; for which reason they had also the name of al Modhahabât, or
the golden verses.5
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,6 but
almost all sorts of learning were encouraged and greatly improved by them.
This interruption, however, occasioned the loss of most of their ancient
pieces of poetry, which were then chiefly preserved in memory; the use of
writing being rare among them, in their time of ignorance.7 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 themselves in verse occasionally; nor was
their prosody digested into rules, till some time after Mohammed;8 for this
was done, as it is said, by al Khalîl Ahmed al Farâhîdi, who lived in the
reign of the Khalîf Harûn al Rashîd.9
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 a 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 entrenchments, and their poems instead of written laws.1
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,2 and Hasn, of that of Fezârah,3 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 ad the heart to give, nor their
women to deny.4

2 Idem, Spec. p. 159. 3 Geogr. Nub. p. 51. 4 Poc.
Spec. 159. 5 Ibid, and p. 381. Et in calce Notar. in Carmen Tograi,
p. 233. 6 Jallalo'ddin al Soyûti, apud Poc. Spec. p. 159, &c.
7 Ibid. 160.
8 Ibid. 161. Al Safadi 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. 9 Vide Clericum de Prosod. Arab. p.
2.
1 Pocock, in calce Notar. ad Carmen Tograi. 2 Vide. Gentii Notas in
Gulistan Sheikh Sadi, p. 486, &c. 3 Poc. Spec. p. 48. 4 Ebn al
Hobeirah, apud Poc. in not. ad Carmen Tograi, p. 107.