ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 103 



sail and other provinces ; and, traversing Sogdiana, 

 he laid siege to the capital, which he completely 

 destroyed. From him Samarcand is alleged to have 

 taken its name, according to an inscription said to 

 have been engraven on one of the gates. Tliis 

 monarch with his whole army perished by a strata- 

 gem while attempting to penetrate the desert to- 

 wards Chinese Tartary, of which he meditated the 

 conquest. On the death of Abimalec the throne of 

 the Hamyarites was usurped by the descendants of 

 Cahlan ; and accordingly the "two brothers, Amran 

 and Amru, are not recognised by some historians as 

 kings of Yemen, They are omitted in the lists of 

 Hamza, Nuvairi, and Masoudi. Amran was noted 

 for his skill as a soothsayer ; and Amru acquired 

 the nickname of Mazikia, or the Tearer, because in 

 his time the kingdom was divided ; or, as others 

 say, from the strange caprice he indulged of tearing 

 his robes every evening, disdaining either to wear 

 them again himself or allow others to do so. 



Though the annals of the preceding dynasty are 

 doubtless blended with romance, there seems good 

 reason to believe that some of these Arabian moii- 

 archs were both enterprising and powerful. It 

 would be useless, however, to form conjectures as 

 to the reality or extent of their conquests ; or attempt, 

 at this distance of time, to reconcile the order of 

 their succession with our systems of chronology. 

 Kahtan, according to the IVIosaic genealogy^ was 

 born 532 years after the flood ; five or six genera- 

 tions, at the average rate of human life in those 

 early ages, will bring us down to the death of Abra- 

 ham ; and this computation agrees with that of 

 Nuvairi, who makes Hamyar coeval with Kedar, 

 the son of Ishmael (B. C. 1430). Afreikus is said to 

 have been contemporary with Joshua ; but this sup- 

 position can hardly be reconciled with the statement 

 that Belkis reigned in the days of Solomon (B. C. 

 901) As the dynasty of the Hamyarites changed 



