A R A 
their honour and to enter their tent. His treatment is kind 
and refpeftful: he fliares the wealth or the poverty of his 
hoft; and, after a needful repofe, he is difmilfed on his 
way, with thanks, with blelliings, and perhaps with gifts. 
“The religion of the Arabs, as well as of the Indians, 
confided in the worthip of the fun, the moon, and the fixed 
(tars; a primitive and fpacious mode of fuperftition. The 
bright luminaries of the (ky difplay the vifible image of a 
Deity: their number and difiance convey to a philofophic, 
or even a vulgar, eye, the idea of boundlefs fpace: the 
the charafler of eternity is marked on thefe folid globes, 
that feem incapable of corruption or decay : the regularity 
of their motions may be afcribed to a principle of reafon 
or' inftindt; and their real or imaginary influence encou¬ 
rages the vain belief that the earth and its inhabitants are 
the obje£l of their peculiar care. The fcience c f afirono- 
my was cultivated at Babylon ; but the fchool of the Arabs 
was a cle^tt|Lrmament and a naked plain. In their noc¬ 
turnal manures, they fieered by the guidance of the ftars : 
their names, and order, and daily ftation, were familiar to 
the curiofity and devotion of the Bedouin; and he was 
taught by experience to divide in twenty-eight parts the 
zodiac of the moon, and to blefs the conftellations who 
refreflied, with falutary rains, the third: of the defert. 
The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be extended be¬ 
yond the vifible fphere; and fome metaphyfical powers 
were ricceflary to fuftain the tranfmigration of fouls and 
the refurredtion of bodies ; a camel was left to perifli on 
the grave, that he might ferve his mailer in another life: 
and the invocation of departed fpirits implies that they 
were (fill endowed with confcioufnefs and power. Each 
tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and 
changed the rites and the object of his fantafiic worftiip; 
but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion, as 
well as to the language, of Mecca. The genuine anti¬ 
quity of the Caaba extends beyond the Chrifiian sera: in 
deferibing the coaft of the Red Sea, the Greek hifiorian 
Diodorus has remarked between the Thamaudites and the 
Sabseans, a famous temple, whofe fuperior fanClity was 
revered by all the Arabians; the linen or filken veil, w hich 
is annually renewed by the Turkifh emperor, was firfi of¬ 
fered by a pious king of the Homerites, who reigned 700 
years before the time of Mahomet. A tent or cavern 
might fuffice for the worlhip of the favages, but an edi¬ 
fice of (tone and clay has been erected in its place; “and 
the art and power of the monarchs of the eaft have been 
confined to the fimplicity of the original model. A fpaci¬ 
ous portico inclofes the quadrangle of the Caaba; a fquare 
chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and 
twenty-feven high ; a door and a window admit the light; 
the double roof is fupported by three pillars of wood; 
a fpout (now of gold) difeharges the rain-water, and the 
well Zemzem is protefted by a dome from accidental pol¬ 
lution. The tribe of Koreifii, by fraud or force, had 
acquired the cuftody of the Caaba; the facerdotal office 
devolved through four lineal defeents to the grandfather 
of Mahomet; and the family of the Hafhemites, from 
whence he fprung, was the moft refpeftabl® and facred in 
the eyes of their country. The precinfts of Mecca en¬ 
joyed the rights of fanftuary; and, in the laft month of 
each year, the city and the temple were crowded with a 
long train of pilgrims, who prefented their vow s and of¬ 
ferings in the houfe of God. The fame rites which are 
nowaccomplifiied by the faithful Muflulman were invented 
and praftiled by the fuperftition of the idolaters. At an 
awful diftance they caft away their garments; feven times, 
with liafty fieps, they encircled the Caaba, and kiffed the 
black ftone; feven times they vifited and adored the ad¬ 
jacent mountains ; feven times they threw ftones into the 
valley of Mina; and the pilgrimage was atchieved, as at 
the prefent hour, by a facrifice of fheep and camels, and 
the burial of their hair and nails in the confecrated ground. 
Each tribe either found or introduced in the Caaba their 
domeftic worfhip ; the temple was adorned, or defiled, with 
jfio idols of men, eagles, lions, and antelopes; and mofi 
B 1 A. 
confpicuous was the fiatue of Hebal, of red agate, hold¬ 
ing in his hand feven arrows, without heads or feathers, 
the inftruments and fymbols of profane divination. But 
this fiatue was a monument of Syrian arts; the devotion 
of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or tablet; and 
the rocks of the defert were hewn into gods or altars, in 
imitation of the black ftone of Mecca, which is deeply 
tainted with the reproach of an idolatrous origin. From 
Japan to Peru, the life of facrifice has univerfally pre¬ 
vailed ; and the votary has exprefied his gratitude or fear 
by deftroying or confuming, in honour of the gods, the 
deareft and moft precious of their gifts. The life of a 
man is the moft precious eblation to deprecate a public 
calamity; the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome 
and Carthage, have been polluted with human gore. Be¬ 
fore the religion of Mahomet took place, the cruel prac¬ 
tice of human facrifices was long preferved among the 
Arabs. In the third century, a boy was annually facri- 
ficed by the tribe of the Dumatians ; and a royal captive was 
pioully flaughtered by the prince of the Saracens, the ally 
and foldier of the emperor Juftinian. The father of Ma¬ 
homet himfelf was devoted to be burnt on the altar, and 
hardly ranfomed for the equivalent of 100 camels. The 
Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abftained from the 
tafte of fwine’s flefh ; and they circumcifed their children 
at the age of puberty; the fame cuftoms, without the cen- 
fure or the precept of the Koran, have been lilently tranf- 
mitted to their pofterity and profelytes; and it has been 
fagacioufly conjeflured, that the artful legiflator indulged 
from neceflity the ftubborn prejudices of his countrymen. 
“ Arabia was free : from the adjacent kingdoms, which 
were (haken by the Itorms of conqueft and tyranny, the 
perfecuted fedts fled to the happy land where they might 
profefs what they thought, and praclife what they pro- 
fefted ; and the religion of the Sabians and Magians, of 
the Jews and Chriftians, were difleminated from the Per- 
fian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a remote period of antiquity, 
Sabianifm was diffufed over Afia by the fcience of the' 
Chaldeans, and the arms of the Affyrians. From theob- 
fervations of 2000 years, the priefts and aftronomers of 
Babylon deduced the eternal laws of nature and provi¬ 
dence. They adored the feven gods or angels who diredled 
the courfe of the feven planets, and ftted their irrefiftible 
influence on the earth. The attributes of the feven pla¬ 
nets, with the twelve figns of the zodiac, and the twenty- 
four conftellations of the northern and fouthern hemifphere, 
were reprefented by images and talifmans; the feven days 
of the week were dedicated to their refpedlive deities ;■ the 
Sabians prayed thrice a-day; and the temple of the moon 
at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage. But the flexi¬ 
ble genius of their faith was always ready either to teach 
or to learn. The altars of Babylon "Were overturned by 
the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were reven¬ 
ged by the fword of Alexander; Perfia groaned above 500 
years under a foreign yoke ; and the pureft difciples of 
Zoroafter efcaped from the contagion of idolatry, and 
breathed with their adverfaries the freedom of the defert. 
Seven hundred years before the death of Mahomet the 
Jews were fettled in Arabia; and a far greater multitude 
was expelled from the holy land in the wars of Titus and 
Adrian. The induftrious exiles afpired to liberty and 
power; they eredted fynagogues in the cities, and caftles 
in the wildernefs ; and their Gentile converts were con¬ 
founded with the children of Ifrael, whom they refembled 
in the outw'ard mark of circumcifion. The Chriftian mif- 
fionaries were ftill more adtive and fuccefsful ; the Catho¬ 
lics aflerted their univerfal reign; the feels whom they 
opprefled fuccellively retired beyond the limits of the Ro¬ 
man empire; the Marcionates and Manichseans difperfed 
their fantafiic opinions and apocryphal gofpels; the 
churches of Yaman, and the princes of Hira and Gaftan, 
were inftrucled in a purer creed by the Jacobite and Nef- 
toriau bifhops.” Such was the ftate of religion in Arabia 
previous to the appearance of Mahomet. 
T.he moft amiable feature in the religion which Maho¬ 
met 
