THE SOURCE PV THE NILE. 521 



* I shall here mention, that the Arabs begun very foon to 

 ftudy letters, and came to be very partial to their own lan- 

 guage ; Mahomet himfelf fo much fo, that he held out his 

 Koran, for its elegance alone, as a greater miracle than that 

 of railing the dead. This was not univerfally allowed at 

 that time ; as there were even then compofitions fuppofed 

 to equal, if not to furpafs it. In my time, I have feen in Bri- 

 tain a fpirit of enthufiafm for this book in preference to 

 all others, not inferior to that which polTelTed Mahomet's 

 followers. Modern unbelievers (Sale and his difciples) have 

 gone every length, but to fay dire&ly that it was dictated 

 by the Spirit of God. Excepting the command in Genelis 

 chap. i. ver. 3. " And God faid, Let there be light ; and there 

 was light ;" they defy us to mew in fcripture a paffage 

 equal in fublimity to many in the Koran. Following, with- 

 out inquiring, what has been handed down from one to 

 the other, they would cram us with absurdities, which no 

 man of fenfe can fwallow. They fay the Koran is compo- 

 fed in a ftyle the moft pure, and chafte, and that the tribe 

 of Beni Koreilh was the moft polite, learned, and noble of 

 all the Arabs. 



But to this I anfwer — The Beni Koreifh were from the 

 earlieft days, according to their own * account, part efta- 

 blifhed at Mecca, and part as robbers on the fea-coaft, and 

 they were all children of Ilhmae]. Whence then came 

 their learning, or their fuperior nobility ? Was it found in 

 the defert, in the temple, or did the robbers bring it from 

 the fea? Soiouthy, one of thofc moft famous then for 



Vol. I. 3 U knowledge 



* El Hameefy. 



