178 CHARACTER OF THE ARAB. 



We must also take into account the spirit of hostility which their 

 religion fosters against the infidel against, that is, all who do not 

 accept the laws of the Prophet. " The sword," says Mohammed, " is 

 the key of heaven and of hell ; a drop of blood shed in the cause of 

 God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of 

 fasting or prayer : whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven : at 

 the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and 

 odoriferous as musk ; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by 

 the wings of angels and cherubim." Such a declaration could not 

 but fire the enthusiasm of the Arab, and whet their swords against 

 the enemies of Islam. 



The leading features of his character have been discriminated by 

 Gibbon with his usual sagacity, and described with his wonted 

 stateliness of language. 



" In private life," he says,* " every man, at least every family, is 

 the judge and avenger of his own cause. The nice sensibility of 

 honour, which weighs the insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly 

 venom on the quarrels of the Arabs ; the honour of their women, and 

 their beards, is most easily wounded ; an indecent action, a con- 

 temptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of the offender ; 

 and such is their patient inveteracy, that they expect whole months 

 and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or compensation for 

 murder is familiar to the barbarians of every age ; but with the 

 Arabs the kinsmen of the dead are at liberty to accept the atonement, 

 or to exercise with their own hands the law of retaliation. Their 

 refined malice refuses even the head, of the murderer, substitutes an 

 innocent for the guilty person, and transfers the penalty to the best 

 and most considerable of the race by whom they have been injured. 

 If he falls by their hands, they are exposed in their turn to the 

 danger of reprisals, the interest and principal of the bloody debt are 

 accumulated ; the individuals of either family lead a life of malice 

 and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account 

 of vengeance be finally settled. This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of 

 * Gibbon, " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," v., p. 451. 



