and the distance from each other of tw、 undred and seventy miles. The last of these holy places was known to the Greeks under the name of Macoraba; and the termination of the word is expressive of its greatness, which has not indeed, in the most flourishing period, exceeded the size and populousness of Marseilles. Some latent motive, perhaps of superstition, must have impelled the founders, in the choice of a most unpromising situation. They erected their habita tions of mud or stone, in a plain about two miles long and one mile broad, at the foot of three barren mountains: the soil is a rock; the water even of the holy well of Zemzem is bitter or brackish; the pastures are remote from the city; and grapes are transported above seventy miles from the gardens of Tayef. The fame and spirit of the Koreishites, who reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous among the Arabian tribes; but their ungrateful soil refused the labors of agricul ture, and their position was favorable to the enterprises of trade. By the seapor of Gedda, at the distance only of forty miles, they maintained an easy correspondence with Abys. sinia; and that Christian kingdom afforded the first refuge to the disciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were con. veyed over the Peninsula to Gerrha or Katif, in the province of Bahrein, a city built, as it is said, of rock-salt, by the Chaldæan exiles; 19 and from thence with the native pearls of the Persian Gulf, they were floated on rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. Mecca is placed almost at an equal distance, a month's journey, between Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left hand. The former was the winter, the latter the summer, station of her caravans; and their seasonable arrival relieved the ships of India from the tedious and troublesome (Voyages du Levant, part i. p. 490) are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado. Some Persians counted 6000 houses. (Chardin. tom. iv. p. 167.)* 19 Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 1110. See one of these salt houses near Bas sora, in D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 6. • Even in the time of Gibbon, Mecca had not been so inaccessible to Europeans. It had been visited by Ludovico Barthema, and by one Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, who was taken prisoner by the Moors, and forcibly con verted to Mahometanism. His volume is a curious, though plain, account of his sufferings and travels. Since that time Mecca has been entered, and the ceremonies witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose papers were unfortunately lost; by the Spaniard, who called himself Ali Bey; and, lastly, by Burck. hardt, whose description leaves nothing wanting to satisfy the curios ity.-M. navigation of th Red Sea. In the markets of Saana and Merub in the harbors of Oman and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites were laden with a precious cargo of aromatics; a supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the fairs of Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and riches in the streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons anited the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.20 The perpetual independence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise among strangers and natives; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a prophecy and a miracle, in favor of the posterity of Ismael.21 Some exceptions, that can neither be dismissed nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous; the kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt,22 and the Turks; 23 the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia 24 embraced the peculiar wilderness in which 20 Mirum dicta ex innumeris populis pars æqua in commerciis aut 1 latrociniis degit, (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32.) See Sale's Koran, Sûra. cvi. p. 503. Pocock, Specimen, p. 2. D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 361. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 5. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 72, 120, 126, &c. "A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo edition) has formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by the independence of the Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions of fact, might dispute the meaning of the text, (Gen. xvi. 12,) the extent of the application, and the foundation of the pedigree. 22 It was subdued, A. D. 1173, by a brother of the great Saladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or Ayoubites, (Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 425. D'Herbelot, p. 477.) 23 By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (A. D. 1538) and Selim II., (1568.) See Cantemir's Hist. of the Othman Empire, p. 201, 221. The pacha, who resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys; but no revenue was ever remitted to the Porte, (Marsigli, Stato Militare dell Imperio Ottomanno, p. 124,) and the Turks were expelled about the year 1630, (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168.) "Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and the third Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, which dated their æra from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, & lieutenant of Trajan, (Dion. Cassius, 1. lxviii.) Petra was the capital of the Nabathæans; whose name is derived from the eldest of the Bons of Ismael, (Gen. xxv. 12, &c., with the Commentaries of Jerom, See note 3 to chap xlvi. The latter point is probably the least santestable of the three.-- M. Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks 25 may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack. The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet,26 their intrepid valor had been se verely felt by their neighbors in offensive and defensive war. The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe; but the martial youth, under the banner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter. The long memory of their independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, - and succeeding generations are animated to prove their descent, and to maintain their inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common enemy, and in their last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by fourscore thousand of the confederates. When they advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front; in the rear, the assurance of a retreat. Their Le Clerc, and Calmet.)* Justinian relinquished a palm country of len days' journey to the south of Elah, (Procop. de Bell. Persic. 1. i. t. 19,) and the Romans maintained a centurion and a custom-house, Arrian in Periplo Maris Erythræi, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. i.,) at a place (liveŋ zóun, Pagus Albus, Hawara) in the territory of Medina, D'Anville, Mémoire sur l'Egypte, p. 243.) These real possessions, and some naval inroads of Trajan, (Peripl. p. 14, 15,) are magnified by history and medals into the Roman conquest of Arabia. 15 Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 302, 303, 329-331) affords the most recent and authentic intelligence of the Turkish empire ir Arabia.t "Diodorus Siculus (tom. ii. 1. xix. p. 390-393, edit. Wesseling) has clearly exposed the freedom of the Nabathæan Arabs, who resisted the arms of Antigonus and his son. On the ruins of Petra, see the travels of Messrs. Irby and Mangles, and of Leon de Laborde.-M. Niebuhr's, notwithstanding the multitude of later travellers, main tains its ground, as the classical work on Arabia - M. horses and camels, who, in eight or ten days, can performa march of four or five hundred miles, disappear before the conqueror; the secret waters of the desert elude his search; and his victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the heart of the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the Bedoweens are not only the safeguards of their own freedom, but the barriers also of the happy Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war, are enervated by the luxury of the soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away in disease and lassitude; 27 and it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Yemen has been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erected his holy standard,28 that kingdom was a province of the Persian empire; yet seven princes of the Homerites still reigned in the mountains; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was tempted to forget his distant country and his unfortunate master. The historians of the age of Justinian represent the state of the Independent Arabs, who were divided by interest or affection in the long quarrel of the East: the tribe of Gassan was allowed to encamp on the Syrian territory: the princes of Hira were permitted to form a city about forty miles to the southward of the ruins of Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy and vigorous; but their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm these roving barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they learned to see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both of Rome and of Persia From Mecca to the Euphrates, the Arabian tribes 29 were con 27 Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 1127-1129. Plin. Hist. Natur. vi. 32. Ælius Gallus landed near Medina, and marched near a thousand miles into the part of Yemen between Mareb and the Ocean. The non ante devictis Sabeæ regibus, (Od. i. 29,) and the intacti Arabum thesauri (Od. iii. 24) of Horace, attest the virgin purity of Arabia. See the imperfect history of Yemen in Pocock, Specimen, p. 55 -66, of Hira, p. 66-74, of Gassan, p. 75-78, as far as it could be known or preserved in the time of ignorance.* * The Σαρακηνικά φύλα, μυριάδες ταῦτα, καὶ τὸ πλεῖστον αὐτῶν ἐρης povopor, zai àdioлoto, are described by Menander, (Excerpt. Legation p. 149.) Procopius, (de Bcll. Persic. 1. i. c. 17, 19, l. ii. e. 10,) and, in the most lively colors, by Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. xiv. c. 4,) who had spoken of them as early as the reign of Marcus. • Compare the Hist. Yemanæ, published by Johannsen at 5.nn. 1828 particularly the translator's preface. — M. founded by the Greeks and Latins, under the general appellation of SARACENS,30 a name which every Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and abhorrence. The slaves of domestic tyranny may vainly exult in their national independence: but the Arab is personally free; and he enjoys, in some degree, the benefits of society, without forfeiting the prerogatives of nature. In every tribe, superstition, or gratitude, or fortune, has exalted a particular family above the heads of their equals. The dignities of sheick and emir invariably descend in this chosen race; but the order of succession is loose and precarious; and the most worthy or aged of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though important, office of composing disputes by their advice, and guiding valor by their example. Even a female of sense and spirit has been permitted to command the countrymen of Zenobia."1 The momentary junction of several tribes produces an army: their more lasting union constitutes a nation; and the supreme chief, the emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at their head, may deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honors of the kingly name. If the Arabian princes abuse their power, they are quickly punished by the desertion of their subjects, who had been accustomed to a mild and parental jurisdiction. Their spirit is free, their steps are uncon The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined, by Ammianus and Procopius in a larger, sense, has been derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the wife of Abraham, obscurely from the village of Saraka, (μɛrù Nwßaraiovs, Stephan. de Urbibus,) more plausi bly from the Arabic words, which signify a thievish character, or Oriental situation, (Hottinger, Hist. Oriental. 1. i. c. i. p. 7, 8. Pocock, Specimen, p. 33, 35. Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 567.) Yet the last and most popular of these etymologies is refuted by Ptolemy, (Arabia, p. 2, 18, in Hudron, tom. iv.,) who expressly remarks the western and southern position of the Saracens, then an obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The appellation cannot therefore allude to any national character; and, since it was imposed by strangers, it must be found, not in the Arabic, but in a foreign language.* 31 Saraceni. . . . mulieres aiunt in eos regnare, (Expositio totius Mundi, p. 3, in Hudson, tom. iii.) The reign of Mavia is famous in ecclesiastical story. Pocock, Specimen, p. 69, 83. * Dr. Clarke, (Travels, vol. ii. p. 491,) after expressing contemptuous pity for Gibbon's ignorance, derives the word from Zara, Zaara, Sarn, the Desert whence Saraceni, the children of the Desert. De Marlès adopts the derivation from Sarrik, a robber, (Hist. des Arabes, vol. i. p. 36,) S. Martin from Scharkioun, or Sharkün, Eastern, vol. xi. p. 55. — M. |