80 PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA, 



CHAPTER III. 



PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA. 



Obscurity of Arabian Antiquities— Want of written Records 

 —Aboriginal Tribes— The old extinct Arabs— The pure 

 _^rabs— The mixed or naturalized Arabs— Their Attention to 

 their Genealogies— Birth and Expulsion of Ishmael— Build- 

 ing of the Kaaba or Temple at Mecca— Death of Ishmael— 

 Genealogy of Mohammed— The Koreish— Reflections on the 

 National Descent of the Arabs. 



The Arabian antiquities, like those of many other 

 ancient countries, are extremely dark and uncertain. 

 No nation, perhaps, whose history ascends without 

 mterruption to so remote an origin, or whose name 

 has been so celebrated, has its political infancy en- 

 veloped in so thick a mist of doubt and oblivion. 

 Shut up for so many ages witliin their rocky penin- 

 sula, they appear to have occupied tliemselves en- 

 tirely with their own feuds and factions, which left 

 them neither taste nor leisure for other avocations. 

 Their chief study was a knowledge of their gene- 

 alogies ; but these could only preserve isolated facts ; 

 and, in so far as appears, they possessed no general 

 aiuials,— no historical records, either common to the 

 whole nation or to particular tribes. Songs and 

 .'tradition perpetuated from one generation to another 

 I'the superstitions and idolatries of their forefathers, 

 the wars and exploits of their chiefs, and the inva- 

 sions of their enemies. 



In the absence of a national hterature, it will not 

 be surprising that we should find the narrative of 

 those distant times so much corrupted by a mixture 

 of absurd and improbable circumstances. Except 

 a few monumental inscriptions and remains of 



