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example than commands *. The chiefs were always the companions and guides of their tribes in arms; and sometimes the umpires of private disputes. The much vaunted independence of the Arab people, however, when closely investigated, appears little worthy of admiration. It consisted in the independence of the heads of families. The head of a family was subjected, or rather yielded obedience, to no one. But he exercised the most despotic sway over his own family. Wives, children, slaves were all completely under his uncontrolled dominion; and this patriarchal government as it is called, while receiving praises as a system of nearly perfect freedom, held ninetenths of the people in the most abject slavery.

Law, in such circumstances, could not be said to exist: written or unwritten, it was unknown to these wandering nations; unless we term law that sort of wavering opinion concerning honour in engagements, which necessity creates in every society however barbarous. This rude code of honour, as in all savage tribes, was handed down from generation to generation in a species of uncouth poetry, which, while it assisted the memory, delighted also the imagination of these barbarians. "God," said they, "has 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." They could hardly have said any thing more descriptive of an uncivilised people.

ARABS OF THE CITIES.

The inhabitants of the cities were a still more remarkable race, for although they had abandoned the wandering life of their brethren, and taken up their abodes in cities, they were yet often induced to leave their homes, and indulge in the more active and uncontrolled life of the desert. Though living for the most part by merchandise and manufactures, they also participated in the business of robbery in the desert. The

Tacitus, Germ, c. 7.

Niebuhr's Travels, c. 62, p. 84, Pinkerton's Collection.

Sale's Pre. Disc., sec. 1, p. 38. Goguet, Origine des Lois, 1 Epo. p. 28. Mill's British India, b. 2, c. 9, p. 362, quarto ed. For a description of the wandering Arabs, see Niebuhr's Travels, c. 98, Pink. Collection, p. 131. There is every reason to suppose that their manners have remained unchanged from the time of Mahomet to the present day.

life of the merchant was not found incompatible with that of the soldier, or rather robber; and he who to-day was in his counting-house, or work-shop, might, to-morrow, be at the head of his country's troops, or serving in the ranks as a soldier. The children of the cities were often confided to the tribes of the desert; and thus became early inured to the toilsome and dangerous life of the wandering Arab.

The inhabitants of Mecca, Medina, and the other cities thinly scattered along the shores of the Red Sea, appear to have been chiefly employed as wandering merchants. The tribes of the deserts brought whatever productions their country afforded, for the most part ostrich feathers, coffee, and frankincense, to the cities on the coast; and received in exchange the commodities which the city merchants had obtained at the fairs of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. The traffic with these countries was carried on by means of caravans of camels; the merchants, like the travelling merchants or pedlars of the present day, accompanying their goods, and superintending the sale and purchase. By them was carried on the chief part of the trade existing between the Roman provinces, and the countries of the east; and the port of Jidda on the Red Sea was long celebrated as the emporium of Indian commerce §. This constant communication with more polished nations must, in some measure, have improved this portion of the Arabian people. They were, nevertheless, little better than barbarians. Neither on account of their

"Mirum dictu, ex innumeris populis pars æque in commerciis aut in latrociniis degit," was the expression of Pliny. (Hist. Nat. vi. 32.) This division of their time between robbery and commerce was the same in the days of Mahomet. Gibbon's Dec, and Fall, c. 50. Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. i., b. 1, c. 1, p. 27.

Vie de Mah., p. 86. Mod. Univ. Hist., b. 1, c. 1, p. 23. Gagnier, "This was the season of the year in which the nurses of a country called Badian, that is, pays champêtre, came in great numbers to Mecca for the purpose of obtaining children to nurse.

Helima took him (Mahomet) into her own country, in which the air was temperate, as well of its waters." The pays champêtre of Gagnier apon account of the fertility of the soil, as the sweetness pears to mean the wild country inhabited by the

desert tribes.

These caravans, like those of present times, were assemblages of merchants, who travelled in large numbers, to protect themselves against the attacks of the predatory desert tribes. Hostile tribes constantly endeavoured to capture the caravans of their enemies, much after the manner of European nations, plundering the vessels of industrious individuals, in the hopes of weakening the hostile nation. See Sale's Pre. Disc., sec. 1. p. 32. Prideaux, Vie de Maho met, p. 10.

§ Prideaux, Vie de Mahomet, p. 11.

government, their laws, their religion, their literature, nor their manners, did they deserve any other title*.

Like the Arabs of the deserts, the inhabitants of the cities were divided into separate tribes; and not only were the different cities unconnected by the bond of a general government, but the citizens of one town were divided into tribes; each one acknowledging a separate chief, and regarding every other tribe with bitter and interminable hatred. The chiefs derived their power as well from their birth as their personal worth, the people electing them out of certain families, yet having perfect liberty to choose that member of the family who was most agreeable to them †. "The Bedouins, or pastoral Arabs, who live in tents, have many schiechs (i. e. chiefs), each of whom governs his family with power almost absolute. All the schiechs who belong to the same tribe acknowledge a common chief, who is called Schiech es Schuech, Schiech of Schiechs, or Schiech el Kbir, and whose authority is limited by custom. The grand schiech is hereditary in a certain family; but the inferior schiechs upon the death of a grand schiech choose the successor out of his family, without regard to age or lineal succession, or any other consideration, except superiority of abilities." The chiefs of the cities were elected much after the same manner.

GOVERNMENT.

The various provinces were split into small, independent states, possessing governments apparently different, though essentially the same §. In some a single prince, in others, the heads of tribes, who were really a band of princes, ruled like the rajahs of Indostan, or the satraps of Persia, with despotic sway over the people within their dominion. To this dominion there was no check but the dread of insurrection: there were no established forms in the government,

See, for a minute description of the laws' and customs of the Arabs, Anc. Univ. Hist., vol. xviii., b. 4, c. 21. This description is by Sale.

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no certain and specified laws, by which it could be controlled; neither did the manners of the people serve to diminish its mischievousness. Insurrection was the only existing check; and did no doubt in part keep down the atrocities of these rulers; but be it remembered that in every stage of society misery to a lamentable extent may be produced before the people can determine to brave the difficulties and dangers of an insurrection. Still more completely to ensure the subjection of the people, these rulers seized upon the functions and powers of religion. The ruling men were invariably the priests of the people, the propounders of oracles, and the guardians of the temples and idols *. The mysterious terrors of religion were thus added to the real dangers attendant on an opposition to the will of the governors. That will consequently was almost despotic. After the expulsion of the Jorhamites, the government of Hejaz 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 deserts are governed at this day. At Mecca an aristocracy prevailed, where the chief management of affairs till the time of Mahommed was in the tribe of Koreish; especially after they had gotten the custody of the Caaba from the tribe of Kozrah." But if the government were not better than that of the desert tribes, miserable indeed must have been the situation of the people. When men are congregated into cities, if every one be allowed to gratify his revenge, and punish his enemy, without recurring to the arbitration of the magistrate, the state must necessarily become one continued scene of violence and bloodshed. No security for person or property existing, there could be no accumulation, so that the horrors of poverty must necessarily have been added to the other evils arising from unceasing terror and alarm. Such was in reality the situation of the Arabian cities; every man sought to redress by his own power

A curious plan was adopted in some places. the injury he fancied he had received;

"The order of succession in these cities was not hereditary, but the first child born in any of the noble families, after the king's accession, was deemed the presumptive heir to the crown. As soon, therefore, as any prince ascended the throne, a list was taken of all the pregnant ladies of quality, who were guarded in a proper manner till one of them was delivered of a son, who always received an education suitable to his birth." (Anc. Univ. Hist., vol. xviii., b. 4, c. 21, p. 377.)

Niebuhr's Travels, c. 62, p. 84.

Mod. Univ. Hist. b. 1, c. 1, p. 41. Sale's Pre. Disc., s. 1, pp. 12-15, Gagnier, Vie de Mah. vol. i. p. 18.

and the peace and happiness of the com

Mod. Univ. Hist., b. 1, c. 1, p. 7. Gagnier, Intr. Vie de Mah. pp. 51-53.

↑ Caaba was a temple at Mecca, held in extraordinary veneration by the people of Arabia universally, (Sale's Pre. Disc., see p. 15,) and to which pilgrimages were made. Mahomet continued the practice. (Gagnier, Intro. Vie de Mah. pp. 56,57.) Thus, like many other propagators of religion, moulding the forms of the religion which he attacked, to suit that which he preached."

munity were destroyed. The heads of tribes, moreover, waged continual war with each other. In the desert they were sufficiently willing to take offence at each other's conduct: opportunities of offence, however, on account of the immense extent of these desert regions, were far less frequent than within the narrow bounds of a city. Contact created rivalry-rivalry in power, in display, in enjoyment: rivalry begat hatred; and hatred bloodshed. To gratify the morbid vanity of a chief, the whole tribe was in arms. "This multiplicity of petty sovereigns occasions several inconveniences to the people in general. Wars cannot but be frequent among states whose territories are so intermingled together, and whose sovereigns have such a variety of jarring interests to manage. No doubt such a multitude of nobles and petty princes, whose numbers are continually increased by polygamy, must have an unfavourable influence upon the general happiness of the people. It strikes one with surprise to see the Arabs, in a country so rich and fertile, uncomfortably lodged, indifferently fed, ill clothed, and destitute of almost all the conveniences of life. But the causes fully account for the effects. Those living in cities, or employed in the cultivation of the land, are kept in poverty by the exorbitancy of the taxes exacted from them. The whole substance of the people is consumed in the support of their numerous princes and priests *."

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LAW.

Added to this rude government was an equally imperfect law. The law, in fact, seems to have been in the rudest possible state; there being neither a written code, nor any collection of judicial decisions which successive judges were enjoined to follow. Judicial decisions were consequently in complete accordance with the desires of the rich. In a country where there is an established code to which every judge must adhere, justice for the most part is impartially administered. Some plausible reason must be assigned for every deviation; the approval of the government, the men of the law, and even of the people, must, in some measure, be obtained; and by this means a check is created, sufficient, in general, to protect the com

Niebuhr, c. 62, p. 86.

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munity from the grossest excesses of injustice. Under a despotic government, indeed, the law is obliged to yield to the will of the prince. When he wishes oppression, oppression is exercised. These cases must of necessity form but a small part of the whole number which come before the judge for decision; and when the will of the prince is not opposed to justice, the judge finds himself obliged to adhere to the letter of the law, that being, in fact, the will of the prince. Imperial Rome, France, and Germany, in which justice has been administered under a despotic monarch, according to a written code, are evidence of the truth of these observations. Where law had not been digested into a code, but is composed of recorded decisions, the consequence is nearly the same. "When on any particular portion of the field of law," says the philosophic historian of British India, a number of judges have all, with public approbation, decided in one way, and when those decisions are recorded and made known, the judge who comes after them has strong motives of fear and hope, not to depart from their example *" But of law, either of one kind or the other, the Arabians were utterly destitute. The judge, that is the head of the tribe, decided according to what he deemed to be justice; and his unrecorded decision had no influence upon that of his successor. Uncertainty to the greatest possible extent was the necessary consequence. Those who sought a decision at the hands of the judge, found him unchecked by any existing law, and ready to listen with complacency to the suggestions of interest. He, therefore, who was the most powerful, or the most wealthy, had a certainty of success. Any change from such a state must have been a change for the better.

RELIGION.

Although the Romans made no extensive or permanent conquests in Arabia, the effects of their near neighbourhood were visible among the Arabian population. The constant disputes between the Christian sects of Syria, and the depressed situation of the Jewish people among the Christians, induced many of both persuasions to seek refuge among the idolatrous Arabs, who knew not, or knowing, regarded not, the dif

* Mill's Hist. of Brit. India, b. 2, c. 4, p. 170.

ferences in their creeds. Enjoying peace and security, these differing sects continued to increase in numbers, in wealth, and in power; and before the appearance of Mahomet spread their religion over the greatest part of Arabia. The tolerant spirit of the Arabian religion allowed them unmolested to erect places of worship, and to educate their children each according to his faith. This perfect freedom multiplied the Christian sects, and Arabia was long famous as being the prolific mother of heresies *.

The larger portion of the population, however, still adhered to their own na tional worship; which partook largely of the rude character that marked their other institutions. The conception which an ignorant and trembling savage forms of the character of the Divinity, and the means by which he endeavours to secure his favour, are in every age and country the same. He conceives the Godhead as irritable and revengeful; endowed with the moral weaknesses of humanity, but possessed of irresistible power. Heaven, in the imagination of the barbarian, is a picture of the earth, with this addition, that every circumstance is magnified. In heaven there are more delightful gardens, more delicious and balmy airs, more brilliant skies, than on earth. The beings who inhabit the heavens are more powerful, more wise, or rather, more capable of obtaining the objects they desire, than men; they are endowed with everlasting life, and subject to no diseases that afflict humanity. To please these divine beings, the trembling votary pursues the means that are found efficacious with earthly potentates. He prostrates himself before them in adoration; he exaggerates their perfections, and soothes them with continued adulation. To prove himself sincere, he subjects himself to useless privations; performs frequent, painful, fruitless, and expensive ceremonies. He subjects himself to fasts; he multiplies the observances of religion, and throws away his substance in manifestation of their honour. Solicitude in the regula tion of his conduct, as it regards his own happiness, or that of his fellows, being intimately connected with his own

Anc. Univ. Hist., b. 4, c. 21, pp. 378-392. Koran, Sale's trans., c. 53. Sale's Pre. Disc., s. 2, pp. 45, 46. Gibbon's Dec. and Fall, c. 50, p. 99. Pocock's notes to his translation of Abulpharagius,

p. 136.

Niebuhr states that in his time the Jews were in many parts of Arabia independent nations, and exceedingly numerous, (c. 69, pp. 92, 93.)

interests, is considered no proof of the sincerity of his professions towards the Divinity. The laws of morals, therefore, form but a small part of the religious code of any barbarous nation. The religion of the barbarous Arabian differed in no one particular from the foregoing description.

The ancient Arabs are supposed to have been what are termed pure theists: that is, they are supposed to have believed in, and worshipped, one, sole, omnipotent, and everlasting God. Historians, however, have seldom correctly appreciated the meaning of these magnificent expressions in the mouth of a savage. In his mind such language is connected with ideas and feelings far other than those which a civilised man would express by it. These splendid epithets are the mere expressions of flattery and fear. The deity, now addressed, and whose favour is the object of present desire, is for the time the sole object of adoration. The very same savage, who believes in a host of gods, will address each of them by the term of THE ONE. If among many deities one is thought more powerful than the rest, he will be the oftenest addressed, the oftenest soothed by flattery. No epithet is so flattering as that which asserts his single existence. It exalts him above all beings, and leaves him without a rival. No epithet, therefore, will be so frequently employed. Being the most constantly adored, this more powerful divinity will have this epithet expressive of his sole existence so frequently connected with his name, that it will at length be regularly attached to, and form part of, that name. This was precisely the case with the Arabian objects of worship. It is strange that when complete evidence of this fact exists, really intelligent and circumspect historians should have believed in the pure theism of the Arabians. Sale, like many others, was deceived by pompous expressions :— "That they acknowledge 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." In the very next passage, however, Sale adds, "they offered sacrifices and other

offerings to IDOLS, as well as to God, who was also often put off with the least portion, as Mahomet upbraids them*." Their scheme of divine go vernment was simple, and like most others formed in the same state of civilisation. One god was supposed to be the supreme ruler; and subject to his sway was a vast multitude of inferior deitiest. "The Arabs acknowledged one supreme God, the creator and lord of the universe, whom they called Allah Taala, the most high god; and their other deities, who were subordinate to him, they called simply Al Ilahat, i. e. goddessest." Idols were set up, and worshipped; every field, every rivulet, had its divinities. The fixed stars and planets were also exalted into gods, and as such received adoration. Heaven, moreover, was peopled with angels, who, with the wooden stone, and clay idols on earth, were regularly worshipped. How the Arabians can be supposed believers in a single godhead, under such circumstances, appears extraordinary §.

The manner in which these various divinities were rendered propitious, at once marks that no very exalted conception of a divinity existed in the minds of these barbarians. Fasts, pilgrimages, sacrifices, long and unmeaning prayers, were the means employed to obtain the divine favour.

"They are obliged to pray three times a day (some say seven times 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: the second prayer they end at noon, when the sun begins to decline, in saying which they

Sale, Pre. Disc., p. 21. "Divum pater atque hominum rex,"

O pater, O hominum Divûmque æterna potestas," are expressions conveying an exact conception of the Arabian theology.

Sale, Pre. Disc., p. 20.

"The Sabians of Mount Lebanon seem to pay a greater regard to Seth than the Supreme Being; for they always keep their oath when they swear by the former, but frequently break it when they swear by the latter." (Anc. Univ. Hist., b. iv., c. 21, p. 383.) "A merchant of Mecca made an observation upon those saints, which I was surprised to hear from a Mahometan. The vulgar, said he, must always have a visible object to fear and honour. Thus, at Mecca,

oaths, instead of being addressed to God, are pronounced in the name of Mahomet. At Mokha, I would not trust a man who should take God to witness the truth of any thing he happened to assert; but I much more safely depend upon him who should swear by Schiech Ichadeli, whose mosque and tomb are before his eyes."-(Niebuhr, p. 76.) Pocock, in his notes to his translation of Abulpharagius" (p. 136,) states the worship of angels and demons to have been common among the Arabs.

perform five such adorations as the former; and the same they do the third time, ending just as the sun sets. They fast three times a year: the first thirty days, the next nine days, and the last seven. They offer many sacrifices, but eat no part thereof, but burn them all. They abstain from beans, garlic, and some other pulse and vegetables*."

"The same rites which are now accomplished by the faithful Mussulman, were invented and practised by the superstition of the idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their garments; seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kissed the black stone; seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains; seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina, and the pilgrimage was achieved as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground

From Japan to Peru the use of sacrifice has universally prevailed; and the votary has expressed his gratitude or fear, by destroying or consum ing, in honour of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their gifts. The life of a man is the most precious oblation to deprecate public calamity; the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore; the cruel practice was long preserved among the Arabs. In the third century a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the Dumatrians; and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. A parent who drags his son to the altar exhibits the most sublime and painful effort of fanaticism; the deed or the intention was sanctified by the example of saints and heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash vow, and hardly ransomed by the equivalent of an hundred camels."+ Such was the religion that Mahomet endeavoured to improve.

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.

It may easily be supposed that a people, possessed of a government, law, and religion, such as we have described, were little advanced in science or literature. The only science to which the ancient Arabs made the slightest pretension, was that of astronomy; and

Sale, Pre. Disc., p. 19.

Gibbon, Decl. and Fall, c. 50, pp. 95, 96.

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