THE ARABS. 573 



own historians, " like groups of clouds which the winds ere 

 long will scatter abroad." No other migratory movement 

 has presented a more striking and instructive character ; and 

 it would appear, as if the depressive influence, manifested in 

 circumscribing mental vigour, and which was apparently in- 

 herent in Islamism, acted less powerfully on the nations under 

 the dominion of the Arabs than on Turkish races. Persecution 

 for the sake of religion was here, as everywhere, even among 

 Christians, more the result of an unbounded, dogmatising 

 despotism, than the consequence of any original form of 

 belief, or any religious contemplation existing amongst the 

 people. The anathemas of the Koran are especially directed 

 against superstition and the worship of idols, amongst races 

 of Arama3ic descent.* 



As the life of nations is, independently of mental culture, 

 determined by many external conditions of soil, climate, and 

 vicinity to the sea, we must here remember the great 

 varieties presented by the Arabian peninsula. Although 

 the first impulse towards the changes effected by the Arabs in 

 the three continents emanated from the Ismaelitish Hedschaz, 

 and owed its principal force to one sole race of herdsmen, 

 the littoral portions of the peninsula had continued for thou- 

 sands of years, open to intercourse with the rest of the world. 

 In order to understand the connection and existence of great 

 and singular occurrences, it is necessary to ascend to the 

 primitive causes, by which they have been gradually prepared. 



Towards the south-west, on the Erythrean Sea, lies Yemen, 

 the ancient seat of civilisation (of Saba), the beautiful, fruit- 

 ful, and richly cultivated land of the Joctanidce.f It pro- 

 duced incense (the lebonah of the Hebrews, perhaps the Bos- 



* Hence the contrast between the tyrannical measures of Motewekkil, 

 the tenth Caliph of the house of the Abassides, against Jews and 

 Christians (Joseph von Hammer, Ueber die Ldnderverwaltung unter 

 dem Chalifate, 1835, s. 27, 85, und 117), and the mild tolerance of 

 wiser rulers in Spain (Conde, Hist, de la Domination de los Arabes 

 en Espana, T. i. 1820, p. 67). It should also be remembered, that 

 Omar, after the taking of Jerusalem, tolerated every rite of Christian, 

 worship, and concluded a treaty with the Patriarch favourable to the 

 Christians. (Fundgrubcn des Orients, Bd. v. s. 68.) 



f It would appear from tradition, that a branch of the Hebrews mi- 

 grated to southern Arabia, under the name of Jokthan (Qachthan,) be- 



