OF THE ANCIENT AUABS. 195 



presume that Christianity must have been the popu- 

 lar or established religion there. Procopius has a 

 remark which corroborates this supposition ; for he 

 asserts, that " the disciples of Christ had filled the 

 provinces of Arabia with the churches of God."' 



Whether or not the natives possessed a version 

 of the Scriptures in their own tongue is a point 

 undetermined by direct evidence. No translation is 

 known to have existed ; but Gibbon infers, from the 

 practice of tlie sjnagogue in expounding the lessons 

 in the vernacular dialect of the country, and from 

 the assertions of the Fathers in the fifth century, 

 that the Scriptures were translated into " all the 

 barbaric languages,"' that the Christian Arabs pos- 

 sessed copies of the Gospel in their own idiom. 

 Another and a stronger presumption in favour of this 

 inference is, that a number of episcopal sees were 

 established in diflferent parts of Arabia ; and we can 

 hardly imagine these venerable prelates to have 

 been entirely v.ithout translations of the religious 

 books the}- were appointed to teach. Nor is it 

 likelythat Origen, who disputed with the schismatical 

 doctors, and did so much to transcribe the Gospel 

 into other tongues, would have neglected this mo'de 

 of converting the idolatrous Arabs. In the northern 

 provinces numerous diocesscs are mentioned ; Suez, 

 Sinai, Feiran, Petra, Akaba or Ailah, Bosra, and 

 other places, could boast of episcopal dignitaries at 

 a very early period of Christianitv ; and some of 

 them are mentioned as taking part in the discus- 

 sions of the general councils. The Jacobites in 

 Irak had two bishops, both subject to the ]\Iafrian or 

 metropohtan of the East; one of them resided at 

 Akula (near Bagdad), the other, who was styled 

 Bishop of the Scenite Arabs, had his seat at Hira. 

 The Nestorians in that district had but one bishop, 

 who was immediately subject to their o^^ii patriarch. 

 The tribe of Tai had "likewise their prelate ; but the 

 extent of his jurisdiction has not been very clearly 

 defined. In Arabia Felix we find three bishopricks, 



