20 INTRODUCTION. 



Ion "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the 

 Chaldees' elcellency," heightens the picture of its 

 utter desolation by a single aUusion to the habits 

 of this pastoral people: "Neither shall the Arabian 

 p tch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds 

 Siake their fold there."-Chap. xiii. f • Nyne m 

 short, can be ignorant how many valuable lUustra- 

 tions the inspired penmen have derived from i^abia 

 and how much light may be thrown o" d^J^^"* 

 parts of the Sacred Scriptures by an attentive ob. 

 Katfon of the customs and institutions of this and 

 ^^neighbouring countries. "In order," says he 

 learned Michaelis, "to understaiid P^^-ly th« 

 writings of the Old Testament, it is absolutely ne- 

 cessarl to have an acquaintance with the naW 

 history as well as the manners of the East; for m 

 that volume we find nearly three hundred nanies of 

 vegetables: there are many also drawn from the 

 animal kingdom, and a great number which desig- 

 nee precious stones."* The remark of this great 

 biblical scholar is corroborated by an observation 

 of the intelligent Burckhardt to the same eftect; 

 "that the sacred historian of the children of Isiael 

 wiU never be thoroughly understood so ong as we 

 are not minutely acquainted with every thing rela- 

 t'ng to the Arabian Bedouins and the countries m 



which they move and pasture."! , . ^ . . ,. 



But the principal feature in the l^^^tory of Arabia 

 consists in its being the birthplace of that extraor- 

 dinary personage whose artful fanaticism gave a 

 new Jeligion to his countiy, and produced a revolu- 

 Sonwhi?h,in its effects on the dest.nies of man- 

 kind, finds no parallel in any age a^^^^^* oi ^°f^""^; 

 Prior to the era of their Prophet, the Aiab^ seem 

 Zt to have ventured much beyond their oa^tJ deserts, 

 nor to have made any figure as a great oi enter- 



* Preface to his Questions addressed to the Danish Trav- 

 * tlife and Mem. of J. L. Burckhardt, p. Uxxiv. 



