22 
A R A 
Mahomet, and his lineal anceftors, appear in foreign and 
domedic tranfaflions as the princes of their country ; but 
they reigned like Pericles at Athens, or the Medici at 
Florence, by the opinion of their vvifdom and integrity; 
their influence was divided with their patrimony : and the 
fceptre was transferred from the uncles of the prophet to 
a younger branch of the tribe of Koreifh. On folemn 
occaflons they convened the aflembly of the people; and, 
fince mankind muft be either compelled or perfuaded to 
obey, the ufe and reputation of oratory among the ancient 
Arabs is the cleared: evidence of public freedom. But 
their Ample freedom was of a very different cart from the 
nice and artificial machinery of the Greek and Roman re¬ 
publics, in which each member polfeffed an undivided 
fhare of the civil and political-rights of the community. 
In the more Ample date of the Arabs, the nation is free, 
becaufe each of her foils difdains a bafe fubmilfion to the 
will of a mader. His bread is fortified with the audere 
virtues of courage, patience, and fobriety : the love of 
independence prompts him to exercife the habits of felf- 
command ; and the fear of didionour guards him from the 
meaner apprehenfion of pain, of danger, and of death. 
The gravity and firmnefs of the mind is confpicuous in its 
outward demeanor: his fpeech is flow, weighty, and con- 
cife; he is feldom provoked to laughter; his only geflure 
is that of droaking his beard, the venerable fymbol of 
manhood; and the fenfe of his own importance teaches 
him to accod his equals without levity, and his fuperiors 
without awe. The liberty of the Saracens furvived their 
conqueds : the firft khalifs indulged the bold and familiar 
language of their fubje&s: they afcended the pulpit to 
perliiade and edify the congregation ; nor was it before the 
feat of empire was removed to the Tigris, that the Ab- 
baflides adopted the proud and pompous ceremonial of the 
Perfian and Byzantine courts. 
“ In the dudy of nations and men, we may obferve the 
paufes that render them hodile or friendly to each other, 
that tend to narrow or enlarge, to mollify or exafperate, 
the facial characler. The reparation of the Arabs from 
the red of mankind has accudomed them to confound the 
ideas of dranger and enemy; and the poverty of the land 
has introduced a maxim of jurifprudence, which they be¬ 
lieve and praCtife to the prefent hour. They pretend, 
that in the divifion of the earth the rich and fertile cli¬ 
mates were afligned to the other branches of the human 
family; and that the poderity of the outlaw Ifmael might 
recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of 
which he had been unjudly deprived. According to the 
remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes are equally addicted 
to theft and merchandife : the caravans that traverfe the 
defert are ranfomed or pillaged ; and their neighbours, 
fince the remote times of Job and Sefodris, have been the 
victims of their rapacious fpirit. If a Bedouin difcovers 
from afar a folitary traveller, he rides furioufly againd 
him, crying, with a loud voice, “ Undrefs thyfelf, thy 
aunt (my wife) is without a garment.” A ready fubmiffion 
intitles him to mercy; refidance will provoke the aggref- 
for, and his own blood mud expiate the blood w hich he 
prefumes to died in legitimate defence. A Angle robber, 
ora few- affociates, are branded with their genuine name; 
but the exploits of a numerous band affume the character 
of lawful and honourable war. The temper of a people, 
thus armed againd mankind, was doubly inflamed by the 
domedic licence, of rapine, murder, and revenge. In the 
conditution of Europe, the right of peace and war is now 
confined to a final], and the aCtual exercife to a rough 
fmaller, lid of ref'peCtable potentates ; but each Arab, 
with impunity and renown, might point his javelin againd 
the life of his countryman. The union of the nation con¬ 
fided only in. a vague refemblance of language and man¬ 
ners; and in each community the jurifdiCtion of the ma- 
gidrate was mute and impotent. Of the time of ignorance 
w hich preceded Mahomet, 1700 battles are recorded by 
tradition: hodility was embittered with the rancour of 
civil faction ; and the recital, in profe or verle, of an ob- 
B I A. 
folete fend was fufficient to re-kindle the fame paffioras 
among the defeendants of the hodile tribes. In private 
life, every man, at lead every family, was the judge anil 
avenger of its own caufe. The nice fenfibility of I10- 
nout, which weighs the infult rather than the injury, flieds 
its deadly venom on the quarrels of the Arabs: the ho¬ 
nour of their women, and of their beards , is mod eafily 
wounded ; an indecent a£tion, a contemptuous word, can 
be expiated only by the blood of the offender; and fuch 
is their patient inveteracy, that they expeCt whole months 
and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or compen- 
fation for murder is familiar to the barbarians of every 
age : but in Arabia the kinfmen of the dead are at liberty 
to accept the atonement, or to exercife with their own 
hands the law of retaliation. The refined malice of the 
Arabs refufes even the head of the murderer, fubditutes 
an innocent to the guilty perfon, and transfers the penalty 
to the bed and mod confiderable of the race by whom 
they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, they 
are expofed in their turn to the danger of reprifals; the 
intered and principal of the bloody debt are accumulated ; 
the individuals of either family lead a life of malice and 
fufpicion, and fifty years may fometimes elapfc before the 
account of vengeance be finally fettled. This fanguinary 
fpirit, ignorant of pity or forgivenefs, has been moderated, 
however, by the maxims of honour, which require in every 
private encounter fome decent equality of age and drength, 
of numbers and weapons. An annual fedival of two, 
perhaps of four, months, was obferved by the Arabs be¬ 
fore the time of Mahomet; during which their fwords 
were religioufly fheathed both in foreign and domedic hof- 
tility : and this partial truce is more drongly expreflive of 
the habits of anarchy and warfare. 
“ But the fpirit of rapine and revenge was attempered 
by the milder influence of trade and literature. The fo¬ 
litary peninfula is encompaffed by the mod civilized nations 
of the ancient world : the merchant is the friend of man¬ 
kind; and the annual caravans imported the fird feeds of 
knowledge and politenefs into the cities, and even the 
camps of the defert. The arts of grammar, of metre, 
and of rhetoric, were unknown to the free-born eloquence 
of the Arabians; but their penetration was fharp, their 
fancy luxuriant, their wit drong and fententious, and their 
more elaborate compofitions were addrelled with energy 
and efteCt to the minds of their hearers. The genius and 
merit of a rifing poet was celebrated by the applaufe of 
his own and the kindred tribes. A folemn banquet was 
prepared, and a chorus of women, driking their tymbals, 
and difplaying the pomp of their nuptials, fung in the 
prefence of their fons and hufbands the felicity of their 
native tribe ; that a champion had now appeared to vin¬ 
dicate their rights; that a herald had raifed his voice to 
immortalife their renown. The didant or hodile tribes 
reforted to an annual fair which was abolidied by the fa- 
naticifm of the firft Mofiems; a national aflembly that mud 
have contributed to refine and harmonife the barbarians. 
Thirty days were employed in the exchange, not only of 
corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The prize 
was difputcd by the generous emulation of the Bards; 
the victorious performance was depofited in the archives 
of princes and emirs ; and we may read in our own lan¬ 
guage the feven original poems which were inferibed in 
letters of gold and fufpended in the temple of Mecca. 
The Arabian poets were the hidorians and moralids of the 
age; and, if they fympathifed with the prejudices, they in- 
fpired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The 
indiflbluble union of generolity and valou'r was the darling 
theme of their long; and, when they pointed their keen¬ 
ed fatire againd a defpicable race, they affirmed, in the 
bitternefs of reproach, that the men knew not how to 
give, nor the women to deny. The fame hofpitality which 
Was praCtifed by Abraham and celebrated by Homer, is 
dill renewed in the camps of the Arabs, The ferocious 
Bedouins, the terror of the defert, embrace, without in¬ 
quiry or hefitation, the dranger who dares to confide in 
their 
