92 PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF ARABIA. 



ginning of the Christian era. A passage in Diodo- 

 rus has an obvious reference to it, who speaks of a 

 famous temple among the people he calls Bizome- 

 nians, revered as most sacred by all the Arabians.* 

 Ishmael was constituted the prince and first high- 

 priest of Mecca; and, during half a century, he 

 preached to the incredulous Arabs. At his death, 

 which happened forty-eight years after that of Abra- 

 ham, and in the 137th of his age, he was buried 

 in the tomb of his mother Hagar. Between the 

 erection of this edifice and the birth of their prophet, 

 the Arabs reckon about 2740 years. Ishmael was 

 succeeded in the regal and sacerdotal office by his 

 eldest son Nebat ; although the pedigree of Moham- 

 med is traced from Kedar, a younger brother. But 

 his family did not long enjoy this double authority ; 

 for, in progress of time, the Jorhamites seized the 

 government and the guardianship of the temple, 

 which they maintained about 300 years. These 

 last, again, having corrupted the true worship, Avere 

 assailed, as a punishment of their crimes, first by 

 the scimitars of the Ishmaelites, who drove them 

 from Mecca, and then by divers maladies, by which 

 the whole race finally perished. Before quitting 

 Mecca, however, they committed every kind of sac- 

 rilege and indignity.' They filled up the Zemzem 

 well, after having thrown into it the treasures and 

 sacred utensils of the temple ; the black stone ; the 

 swords and cuirasses of Kolaah ; the two golden 

 gazelles, presented by one of the kings of Arabia : 

 the sacred image of the ram substituted for Isaac ; 

 and all the precious moveables, forming at once the 

 object and the workmanship of a superstitious devo- 

 tion. For several centuries the posterity of Ishmael 

 kept possession of the supreme dignity. The fol- 



* lepov ayiwTarov lipvrai Tijiuintvov vito -ravTUv ApajSiDv TrepiTTOTcpov. 

 — Lib. iii. c. 3. Ma.ximus of Tyre, in the second century, attrib- 

 utes to the Arabs the worship of a quadrangular stone (Xieoj 



TtTpnyuivo;). 



