The following I have found chiefly useful:-
1. The Biblical Geography of Asia Minor, Phenicia, and Arabia, by E.F.C. Rosenmüller, D.D., translated into English by the Rev. Y Morren, A.M. (Biblical Cabinet, vol. iii.) Edinburgh, 1841.
2. Essai sur L'Histoire Des Arabes avant L'Islamisne, &C. Par A.P. Caussin de Perceval (In three vols.) Vol. i Paris, 1847.
3. The Historical Geography of Arabia, by the Rev. Charles Forster, B.D., two vols. London, 1844.
4. Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature : edited by John Kitto, D.D. Edinburgh, 1845. Articles,-Arabia, Ethiopia, Cush, Nebaioth, Idumea, &C.
2 In the following chapter it will he shown that Mahomet's pedigree cannot be traced higher than Adnan, and that the Prophet styled those liars who attempted to trace it farther back. Nevertheless the attempt is frequently made. After one of these pretended genealogical trees ascending
to Ishmael himself, the traditlonist adds, 'And that is an ancient tradition, taken from one of the former books" (that is the Jewish books.)
-Tabari, p.52.
The following tradition also illustrates the practice "Hisham ibn Muhammad related as follows: -'There was a man of Tadmor, called Abu Yacub ibn Maslama, of the children or Israel; and he used to read in the Jewish books, and was versed in their traditional learning. Now this man mentioned that Burach (Baruch) ibn Baria, the scribe or Eremia (Jeremiah), proved the genealogy of Maad son of Adnan, and placed it on its proper basis, and wrote it out; and this genealogy is well known amongst the doctors or the People or the book (the Jews), as being certified in their books. Now it closely approaches to the foregoing list of names; and whatever differences there are between them arise from the difference of language, their names being translated from the Hebrew." Katib al Wackidi, p. 9; Tabari, p.53.
A farther extract will be given in the following chapter from the Secretary of Wackidi, to the same effect.
Ancient genealogies with strange names are not infrequently referred to individuals known in the Old Testament under different names. Vide e.g. Tabari, p. 51.
Some of the Medina converts descended from Cahtan yet anxious to show that they too were of Ishmaelite stock, invented a genealogical tree, by which Cahtan is made to descend from Ishmael! Katib al Wackidi, p. 262 ½; Caussin de Perc. i 39.
3 The simple plagiarisms are such as the accounts of the Fal1, the Flood, and the various passages in the history of the Israelites. The travestied scenes are such as the actual events of Abraham's and Ishmael's live's, misapplied to Mecca and its vicinity, and connected with the remote links of the Coreishite genealogical table: - thus Abraham's intended sacrifice of Issac on Mount Moriah is metamorphosed into the intended sacrifice of Ishmael on a height in the valley ofMina; so Ishmael is married to the daughter of a Jorhomite prince, who lived shortly before the Christian era. M. Caussin de Perceval (Essai, i 173 & 184) calls this a myth; and it is no doubt mythical, in so far as it embodies the Moslem tenet that Mahomet was descended from a cross between the seed or Ishmael and pure Arab blood. But it is not the less a grossly travestied version of the scriptural account of the patriarch. See above, p. lxix; Canon ii. I.
4 That the majority of the scriptural notices of Cush refer to the country towards Abyssinia is clearly shown by the learned translator of Rosenmüller’s Geography. Kitto's Cyclopaedia, Articles, CUSH, ETHIOPIA, and ARABIA. Yet there are passages which apparently refer to Arabia. Thus the inspired historian in I Chrou iv. 40, after specifying Gedor, a country seemingly in the vicinity of Arabia Petrea, adds, "for they of Ham had dwelt there of old." So in 2 Chron. xx. 16, he notices the Arabians that were near the Cushites as attacking Judah, which conveys the impression that the Cushites were a people inhabiting Arabia. The deduction from Moses marrying a Cushitess is either that the Midianites were called Cushites, or (which is less likely) that Moses married a second time. The parallelism in Hab. iii, 7 though not conclusive, is in favour of the former supposition. In 2 Chron. xiv. 9, Zerah the Cushite having attacked Judea, Asa is described as overthrowing him and spoiling the cities to the North of Arabia; but Zerah may possibly have been an Abyssinian adventurer, for he appears to have had a body of Africans with him, and chariots, which were never used in Arabia. Vide Heeren's Res. Africa, i 417.
For the whole subject see Rosenmüller's Biblical Geography, Eng. trans. iii. 280-285; the articles above quoted from Kitto's Cyclopaedia; and Forster's Geography of Arabia, vol i. part I section 1.
5 From the identity of the names of three of the progeny of Cush, viz. Havilah, Sheba, and Dedan, with those of the Shemitic branch, and the similarity of a fourth, viz. Seba, one cannot satisfactorily assign to the Cushites exclusively any of the Arab tribes whose names are
derived therefrom. None of the remaining names, viz. Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha, are successfully traced by Mr. Forster, notwithstanding his indefatigable ingenuity and conjecture. Raamah is classed with the tribes of Arabia by Ezekiel, ch. xxvil. 22.
6 There are no traces, in original Arabic tradition, of a separate Cushite race, aboriginal in Arabia. Some tribes may have been darker than others, and possibly so in consequence of primitive descent, though the circumstance is never thus exp1ained. On the other hand, the negro inhabitants appear always to be referred to in the earliest accounts as Abyssinians who had immigrated from Africa. There never was any national sympathy or congeniality between the two races.
M. C. de Perceval (i 42-46) has proposed a theory, that in South Arabia there were two distinct races, Cushite and Joktanide, the former Sabeans (Seba), the latter Shabeans (Sheba). The first he identifies with the Adites; and the extinction of the Adites in Arabia (as held by Mahometan
tradition) he attributes to the emigration of the entire Cushite race, and their transplantation from Arabia into Abyssinia. The theory is ingenious, but devoid of proof; and in itself improbable. As for the Adites, it has been shown by Sprenger that they lived near the Thamudites, north of Mecca: they were therefore entirely distinct from the Sabeans of Yemen. Sprenger’s Life of Mohammad, p. 13.
His farther theory (i.5), that the Phenicians are a colony of Cushites from Yemen, rests also on a very slender basis Herodotus
7 After enumerating the children of Joktan, it is added "and their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest, unto Sephar, a mount of the East." Genesis. x. 30. No successful attempt has been made towards the identification of the names there specified with any existing ones; but the direction of the country indicated is clear enough.
8 Forster presses his similarities and inversions of names beyond the bounds of legitimate argument, and sometimes into the region of mere fancy. Yet we may admit that Hazarmaveth is perpetuated in Hadhramant; and perhaps Havilah and Sheba in the Khaulan and Saba or the present day. Even C. de Perceval identifies Uzal with Awzal the ancient name of a canton
of Sana. Vol. I.40. It may also he conceded that the Ophir of the Bible belongs to the southwestern coast of Arabia, and was so denominated from one of the sons of Joktan. Of these unities, however, Havilah belongs also to the Cushite line; and Sheba both to the Abrahamic and Cushite families, and in the slightly different form of Seba to another Cushite branch. The latter name appears to be distinguished from the former in Ps. lxxii. 10. The "kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts," or as in the prayer-book version, "The kings of Arabia and Saba;" - so also verse 15. March, called also Saba anciently, may have some connection with the Jokhtanide Sheba
and the famous queen of Solomon's time, but the name cannot with certainty be attributed to either line exclusively. Forster's Arabia, i. 154, et seq. Rosmuller's Geography , iii 298.
9 Gen. x. 25; 1 Chron. i 19.
10 Gen. xxi. 25; xxv. 18.
11 Gen. xvii 20.
12 Gen. xxv. 16.
13 "They dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt, as thou goest towards Assyria" Gen. xxv. 18. This means probably from the margin of the Persian Gulph to the south-east angle of the Mediterranean Sea.
14 Gen. xxv. 16. "These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles: twelve princes according to their nations" See Rosenmüller, iii. 143, and the translator's note. The "towns" probably meant moveable villages of tents, and the "castles" fortified folds for protection in time of war.
15 Vide Rosenmüller, iii. 145; Kitto's Cyclopaedia, Art. Kadar. It has been conjectured that this tribe dwelt next to the Israelites, who, being best acquainted with them, applied their name to the Arab nation generally. In the time of Isaiah, C. de Perceval holds the posterity of Ishmael to have been divided into two branches, those of Kedar and Nebaioth (the Arabic Nabit). All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth small minister unto thee" Is ix 7.
16 Duma is perhaps preserved in Dumat al Jandal, a town about halfway between the mouths of the Nile and the Persian Gulph. Thema corresponds with more than one place in Arabia called Tayma. Both Duma and Thema are noticed as Arabian in Is. xxi 11 and 14. For other scriptural notices of Thema see Rosenmüller, iii. 147. Jetur and Naphish are
mentioned in I Chron. v. 19, 20, as in alliance with the Hagarenes, who were vanquished in the time of Saul. From Jetar may come Iturea, and perhaps the present Jedur. Rosenmüller, ibid.
17 C. de Perceval would identify the progeny of Ketura with the Bani Catura, who settled at Mecca along with the Jorhomites; but there is no farther ground for the conjecture than the mere similarity of name. The descendants of Ketura resided in the north of the peninsula, while the Bani Catura came to Mecca from the south. It is also very unlikely that, so many tribes having descended from Ketura's sons any one of them should continue for seventeen or eighteen centuries to be called exclusively by her name. Here we have an instance of the danger of being guided by the likeness of name alone, even when the philosophy and caution of M.C. de Perceval are at hand: how much greater the danger when those qualities are absent.
18 Numb. xxxi. 2, &c.; Judges, vi 1. They would appear then to have spoken the same language as the Israelites, for Gideon understood the Midianite reciting his dream. Judges vii 15 Compare Is. lx. 16, where a tribe of the name of Midian is mentioned as famous for its breed of camels.
19 Shuach, the sixth son, may also be connected with the Arab tribe noticed in Job ii. 11; and, if so, his family must have continued to inhabit the North of the Peninsula. Sheba may likewise be related to the tribe noted in Job, i. 15, as in the vicinity of Uz. Forster, i. 327. The nation of Dedan settled near Idumea, and is repeatedly spoken of by the Prophets, in that connection.
20 The blessing of "the fatness of the earth, and the dew from heaven," was given by Isaac to Esau. Gen. xxvii. 39. As to their country, see Deut. ii. 12. The cause of their first leaving Canaan and settling at Mount Seir should be noted as illustrative of the influences which would
urge the Abrahamic races onwards in the direction of Central Arabia. Esau "went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob, for their riches were more than that they might dwell together, and the land wherein they were strangers could not hear them because of their cattle; thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom." Gen. xxxvi. 6-8.
21 Job ii 11; Jerem. xlix. 7.
22 There is no doubt that a nation of Amalekites descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau. After enumerating Amalek among the six grandsons of Esau by "Aliphaz," Josephus proceeds: "These dwelt in that part of Idumea called Gebalitis, and in that denominated from Amalek, Amalekites
&C Antiq. ii.1. In describing the attack of the Amalekites on Moses, he specifies their country as "Goblitis and Petra" (iii. 2); and in the time of Saul, he speaks of them as occupying the tract "from Pelusium to the Red Sea" vi. 7, 3.; and I Sam. xv. 7. The objection grounded on the sudden increase of the tribe is well answered by Ryland, for Israel had increased with equal rapidity; and besides, a warlike and successful people would attract adherents from other tribes (as we find in the after history of Arabia), and all would fight under one banner and he called by one name.
The notice of the "country of the Amalekites" as smitten by Chedorlaomer (Gen. xiv. 7) refers to a period long anterior to the birth or Amalek; but it is remarkable that while other conquered nations (the
Rephaims, &c.) are spoken of simply as tribes, the "country of the Amalekites" is specified. What is meant therefore probably is, - " the people inhabiting the country afterwards peopled by the Amalekits;" otherwise we must of course believe that there was another nation of Amalekites, not of Abrahamic descent.
Morren holds that the Amalekites are not descendsnts of Esau, and that they were never associated with Esau's posterity either by Jewish or Arab tradition, See note at p. 219, vol iii of Rosenmüller's
Geography; and Art. IDUMBA in Kitto's Cyclopaedia. But Arab tradition for the period in question is valueless; and both Josephus and the Old Testament favour the opposite view. See in the came Cyclopedia, Art AMALEK, by Ryland, which is more satisfactory.
Michlaelis regards the Amalekites as identical with the Canaanites. C. de Perceval on the contrary, holds them to be the descendants of Esau through Amalek. I concur with M.C. de Perceval, and with him believe that the Amalekites of Arabian tradition denote to the same people, but in a vague and general
sense which embraces many other tribes of Abrahamic descent. Essai, I. 22.
23 Uz is referred to in Job I.; Lament. iv. 21; and Jerem. xxv. 20. From the latter passage the country of Uz would seem to have been of some extent. Buz, mentioned among other Arab tribes in Is. xxv. 23, and Job, xxxii. 2, most likely refers to the same people. Rosenm. iii. 138.
24 When Mahomet sent Ayash, son of Abu Rabia, to the Himyarites, he was to bid them "translate into Arabic the Coran, when they repeated it in another tongue”
This appears to imply the currency at that time of the Himyar language; but it did not long survive the inroads of Islam. The ancient fragments of ante-Islamitic poetry, even among the pure Cahtanite Bedouins
(who were aboriginal of Yemen) were all in Arabic. We hear of no Himyar poetry whatever. C. de Perceval Essai, i. 57.
25 That the Arabs of Northern Arabia were of intermingled races, is gathered from the express notices of Scripture. Thus in Jerem. xxv. 24, after enumerating several Arab tribes, it is added, "and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert." So also in the times of Moses and Gideon, the indiscriminate use of the terms Ishmaelite and Midianite implies that these races did not keep entirely distinct.
26 Gen. xxxvii. 28.
27 Vide Gen. xxxvi. 13, &C and Exod. xv. 15. These passages mention both a kingly and a ducal government Rosenmüller supposes that the kingly government existed only in the north-east of Edom, while simultaneously a patriarchal or oligarchical rule by "dukes" subsisted at Mount Seir. He thus reconciles Deut ii. 44, with Numb. xx. 14; "It is by others ingeniously supposed, that the change from an oligarchy to a monarchy took place during the wanderings of the children of Israel." Rosenmüller, iii 185; Kitto's Cyclopeadia, art IDUMEA.
28 The predatory attack of the Amalekites on Ziklag, with David’s pursuit and recovery of the spoil and of the prisoners, are highly illustrative of Arab life. The surprise of the encampment, and the slaughter of all "save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled," remind one of many a raid in the time of Mahomet fifteen or sixteen centuries later. See the account in 1 Sam. xxx.
29 "And king Solomon made a navy of ships In Ezion-geber, which is beside Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea, In the land of Edom." 1 Kings, ix. 26; 2 Chron. viii, 17.
30 "She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold and precious stones" 1 Kings x. 2. "Neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon." 2 Chron. ix. 9.
31 1 Kings xxii. 47; Rosenmüller, iii. 187: This "deputy," called elsewhere the king of Edom, joined the Israelitish and Jewish monarch in an attack upon the Moabites. 2 Kings iii, 9, 12-26.
32 Their eventual independence coincides with the promise made to Esau "By thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck." Gen. xxvii. 40.
33 2 Kings xvi 6, as explained by Rosenmüller; iii 188.
34 This is evident from allusions in the Prophets; Jer. xlix 8, 20-22; Is. xxxiv. 6, lxiii. 1; Ezek. xxv. 13; Rosenm. lii. 189. See also Ezek. xxvii 16, as rendered by Hereen. Addressing the Phenicians, the prophet says, "Edom also managed thy trade, and thy great affairs: emeralds, purple, broidered work, cotton, bezoar, and precious stones, she gave thee for the wares thou deliveredst to her." Asiatic Researches, ii. 102.
35 1 Maccabees, v.
36 Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 9, 1; see also the authorities quoted by the translator Whiston. It is remarkable that the Idumeuns, though clearly of an Abrahamic stock, did not previously practise the rite of circumcision; and the more so as the ether Abrahamic tribes farther south appear never to have abandoned it.
37 See an elaborate paper by M. Quatremère, Journ. Asiatique; Janv. Fevr. Mars, 1835. After noticing that the Nabatheans are not alluded to either in Scripture (wherein he seems mistaken), or by Herodotus, he adds that the Greek and Latin authors, "tous s'accordent à placer dans l'Arabie la contrée qu' occupait cette nation, moins guerrière qu' active et industrieuse" p.s, tome xv.
38 In Nabataeis, qui sunt ex Arabia contermini Syriae. Hist. Nat. xii 37.
39 Arenas and Obodas are the Greek forms of Harith and Obeid, or Abd. The name of Arenas is common in Jewish anid Roman history. The Arabian wife of Herod Antipas will be remembered as the daughter of Aretas king of the Arabians; and the Arenas of Damascus is familiar to the reader of the Bible. 2 Cor. xi. 32. In the feeble reigin of Caligula, he had seized upon Damascus. See Joseph. de Bell. Jud. i. 4-7; Antiq. xiii. 15, 1.
40 See M. Quatremère's Mem. Journ. As. xv. 36.
41 Mareb was anciently called also Saba. They may have formed two capitals; or the one have been the appellation of the district, the other of the capital. Some Arabic geographers say that Saba was the name of the city, Mareb of the royal residence. May they not beth have been combined into one name, Mar Saba, or Marsyaba? C. de Pere. i 53; Maalte Brun's Geography, B. xxx. p. 215.
42 The reader who is desirous to follow out the subject should consult two very learned and ingenious papers in the Journal Asiatique for July and September 1840, by M. Fulgence Fresnel, who endeavours to reconcile the varying statements of Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy. These papers contain some curious recognitions of the classical in modern names; but the general impression is one of surprise that, out of such extensive materials, so little common ground has been discovered between Classical and Mahometan Arabia, especially when we consider how permanent upon the whole are the names of places and tribes in that country.
43 This obscurity is not to be wondered at. The genius of the Arabic language, so foreign in its structure and pronunciation to the Roman ear, the strangeness of the country, and the bewilderment occasioned by the unfriendly and circuitous guidance of the Arab allies, would involve the route, as well as the names, in uncertainty.
Mr. Forster says of Arabia, that "the writers of antiquity possessed both more extensive and more accurate information than ourselves" (i. 35). This conclusion I believe to be, without very great modification,
erroneous. If confined to some tracts on the north-west of Arabia, and to Yemen, or at least the space between Oman and Yemen; (as it is by at F. Fresnel, Journal Asiatique, Juilliet, l840, p. 84,) it becomes more intelligible; for those parts then possessed a government in some measure civilized, and held communications with Europe. But as to the Peninsula generally, our knowledge is surely much more extensive and accurate than that of the Ancients. In their time, indeed, there was less of exclusive bigotry; but the inhabitants were infinitely more barbarous, and their sub-division into a thousand independent sections would render the acquisition of any general view of the country nearly impossible. Now, on the contrary, although Islam has excluded Unbelievers from a small and sacred circuit, yet it has united the Arabians under a common supremacy, and rendered it easy to gain
concentrated information. We have now the advantages, at many various points, of a civilized and often literary population; of geographical works by the Arabs themselves; or professional travellers, both Mahometans and others; of a European settlement at Aden; of scientific surveys of the coast, and of much internal geography, illustrated by the wars in Arabia, from those of Mahomet to the extensive operations undertaken by the Pacha of Egypt in the present century for the subjugation of the Wahabies. Much of Arabia is still unexplored, but there is reason to believe that the unknown portions of it are chiefly sandy deserts.
But whatever may have been the knowledge of the Roman geographers, Mr. Forster has failed in obtaining from them any intelligible account of the route of Aelius Gallus. The arguments by which be carries the Roman commander across nearly the whole of Arabia seem to be singularly fanciful. The time passed is no decisive argument. Six months might very well be wasted by an artful Arab in conducting, by devious and difficult passages, an army from a port on the North or the Hedjaz along the Meecan range of hills to Nejran, and thence to Yemen. Delay in carrying a body of troops through a difficult aud hostile country is not to be estimated by the marches which an unencumbered traveller makes. A considerable period must also have been spent in sieges and warlike operations. In the retreat, on the contrary, a direct and much easier road was indicated, and it was traversed with all impossible expedition.
Little faith is to be placed in many of Mr. Forster's conclusions. His sanguine belief in the identity of places appears often to increase with the difference of name, and the mystical anagrammatical inversion impalpable to ordinary eyes and ears. He thus identifies Caripeta with Cariatain: "This name has needlessly perplexed the critics. Caripeta is an easy an obvious misnomer, probably of transcribers, for Cariata, an inland town previously mentioned by Pliny, and the seat apparently of his Carrei, and Cariata exists at this day, on the very route in question - the Nedjd road to Yemen, in the town of Kariatain," (vol. ii. p.314). But Kariatain thus forced into resemblance with Caripeta, is a common appellation grounded on a grammatical formation: it is a dual form, signifying "the two villages;" and has thus no connexion either with Caripeta or Cariata, the latter of which means "a (single) village."
The following are farther specimens: "The author at length was led to observe in the well-known classical denominations, Katabania, Katabanum, or Kabatanum, and Kattabeni or Kottabani so many easy inversions of the name Beni Kahtan" (vol.i. 83). This again is identified with the Bana of Ptolemy (p.84), and Baenum (p. 91). But it is most improbable that classical writers should have taken the common prefix (Beni) of every tribe and, placing It at the end, have incorporated it into the name itself.
Still more unreasonable is it to trace any connexion between Bana, Baenum, and the Beni Kahtan. Again, by an "anagram or inversion, the Mesha of Moses, and the Zames Mons of the classical geographers prove to be one and the same name" (p.99). These are identified with Masaemanes, Mishma, or Mashma Sumama, and finally "contracted into Shaman or Saman"! (p. 100.)
Dikah, the Joktanide, is "clearly discernable" in the modern Dzu l’Khalaah and the classical Dhulkelastae. "The names Diklah, Dhulkelastae, and Dhu l’Khalaah, will be readily recognized by orientalist, as one and the same in pronnnciation" (p.148). Few orientalists will admit this; besides the modern name is evidently a compound, formed by the possessive Dhu. Contractions occur after the lapse of years, but here Mr. Forster reverses the process; and, assigning the full and uncurtailed form to modern days, refers the contraction of it to the times of Moses!
44 It hardly need be added, that this theory is quite independent of the question whether the Nabatheans were an Ishmaelitish race. I believe them to have been so, and their wide-spread shoots (as evidenced by the narrative of AEliu Gallus), offer a ready and natural source for the
Ishmaelitish settlement at Mecca. But, as far as regards the conjecture stated in the text, it may have been any other Abrahamic tribe, possessed, through intimacy with the Jews, of the necessary patriarchal legend of descent from Ishmael, &C, which settled at Mecca.
On the special question of the descent of the Nabatheans, M. Quatrèmere (Journ. As. xv. 98), and after him M.C. de Perceval (vol. i. 35), hold that they are not Arabs. But the latter admits that "the rams of Nebaioth" (Is. lx 7,) refer to the Nabatheans "(Nabit des Arabes,) la postérité de Ismael" (vol.i.180).
M. Quatremère's arguments against the Ishmaelite descent of the Nabathians are the following: - 1. The Nabatheans are not reckoned by the Mahometans as Arabs, which they would have been if descendent from Ishmael. But the reason why they are not so reckoned is because of their foreign manners and dialect, acquired by settlement in the northern country and long contact with the Syrians and Chaldeans. C. de Perc. i. 37. They spoke both Chaldean and Arabic, so that the former infused itself into their idiom of the latter. The Arabs, punctilious above all things in the purity of their tongue, excluded these barbarians in speech from the pale of Arabs, and by consequence from the privilege of a supposed descent from Ishmael. An intelligent Hajji, who had travelled in Arabia, when questioned about this tribe, gave me the following reply; "They are still extant," he said, "But they do not speak pure Arabic, and are not therefore strictly speaking Arabs." II. Arab tradition does not mention this descent; but Arab tradition is original and trustworthy only as far back as the Christian era, and then only for a few particulars regarding the ancestry of the Coreish. Beyond that it is mere plagiarism from the Jews, and possesses no authority. It is most uncritical to rest upon it at all: much more to regard it (as M. Quatrèmere has done) as evidence to disprove the plain intimations or the Old Testament. III. The name of the Arab tribe is written with a
It will be objected that if a Nabathean tribe settled at Mecca, its own tradition of descent from Ishmael would have prevented the Mahometan opinion as to the non-Arab origin of the Nabathean tribe. But we need not suppose that the tribe which settled at Mecca was called Nabathean. It may have dropped that name as being by repute un-Arabic, or it may never have been called by it. The great Nabathean nation possessed widespread settlements in various quarters. Many of these had probably their own names, though all styled by foreigners under the generic title of Nabatheans.
Still, if the objection be deemed insuperable, it is not by any means necessary for the theory, in the text, to hold that the Meccan Ishmaelites were Nabatheans. they niny have been Kedarenes, or any other Ishmaelitish race, in which the tradition of Abrahamic descent was revived and kept alive by Jewish aid.
45 Gen. xviii 19. The expressions used are general, and not confined to the branch of Isaac: -"For I know him, that he will confined his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of THE LORD, and do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."
46 Compare Exod. iii. I, with xviii. 11 & 12.
47 Joshua, xxiv. 2.
48 Gen. xxxi. 19. Whatever these teraphim were, they intimate at last some departure from the pure worship and belief of Abraham.
49 Amos, v. 26; Acts, vii. 42.
50 Numbers, xxv 1, &C.
51 2 Chron., xxv. 14.
52 Galatians, i 17.
53 Euseb. Hist. Eccl. vi. 19-37.
54 Under the name of Palestina Tertia, or Salutaris. This Metropolitan was subsequently placed under the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
55 Heeren's Researches Africa, i .23. The last sentence bears upon the origin and rise of Mecca. But it will still be a question which had the priority, the temple or the mercantile station?
56 Regarding both these routes I quote the interesting observations of Heeren. It is remarkable how distinctly the eastern line is referred to in Jewish prophecy.
Of the western route Heeren says: "This writer (Strabo) mentions at least one or the intervening stations, which the caravans from Arabia Felix usually passed through, and determines the time which the journey occupied. They consumed seventy days in going from Yemen to Petra, and passed in their route a place named Albus Pagus
The following quotation applies to the eastern routes: - "This same writer (Strabo) has left us also some few particulars respecting the trading routes or Eastern Arabia. It was the inhabitants of the city of Gerra,
on the Persian Gulph, who more especially carded on the caravan trade. They kept up a commercial intercourse with the marts of Hadramaut, the journey to which occupied forty days, the road stretching right across the great sandy desert In the south-east of the Peninsula, and not along the coast. The distance in a direct line from Hadramaut to Gerra is not less than from 650 to 700 miles, and would consequently require a forty days' journey.
"Besides this, there existed, as we learn from the words of the Prophet, a direct intercourse between the Eastern Coast of the Peninsula, and Gerrra and Phenicia. For, he says, the merchants of Dedan brought the merchandize of the Persian Gulph to Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 15,) whose route must consequently have run through the north-eastern part of the land. This fact is still further proved by a passage from Isaiah, who, when he threatens Arabia with a foreign invasion, forgets not to mention the interruption which it would cause to its commerce. "In the wilderness of Arabia, ye will be benighted, oh, ye carivans of Dedan! To the thirsty bring out water, inhabitants of Tema; bring forth bread for the fugitives! for they fly before the sword, and before the fury of war." The trotting caravans of Dedan, which had hitherto journeyed undisturbed, were to be driven from their usual route by the approach of the enemy, and compelled to pass their nights in the wilderness, where the hospitable tribe of Tema, out of compassion, would bring them water and bread." Ibid. pp. 107,108.
Isaiah xxi. 13-15, wills Gesenius Commentary. "Then passages of the Prophets are of the greeter importance, from the seldomness with which caravans are mentioned by historical writers. It is from them, and net from the historians, that may is gathered the extant of the commerce of the ancient world."
57 Heeren, vol.ii. pp. 225-233, &C.
58 Herodotus iii 107. Cinnamon, however, belongs not to Arabia, but to India Heeren, ibid. pp. 96-240.
59 Ibid. p.6: The imports at Suez are now, coffee, gum arabic, wax from Yemen and the Hejaz, mother of pearl, pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamums and other spices, perfumes, tamarinds, hides, &C Burton's Medina and Mecca, v. i. p. 264.
60 I Kings, ix. 26 & 27.
61 Ezek. xxvii 19-24, which Heeren translates "Wadan and Javan brought thee from Sanna, sword blades, cassia and cinnamon, in exchange for thy wares. The merchants of Saba and of Raama traded with thee; the best spices, precious stones, and gold brought they to thee for thy wares. Haran, Canna, Aden, Saba, traded with thee." He adds: "Some of these places, as Aden, Canna, and Aaran, all celebrated sea-ports on the Indian Sea, as well as Saana and Saba, or Mariaba, still the capital of Yemen, have retained their names unchanged to the present day; the site of others, as Wadan, on
the Straits or Babel Mandab, rest only on probable conjecture. These accurate statements of the Prophet, at all events prove what a special knowledge the inhabitants or Palestine had of Happy Arabia, and how
great and active the intercourse with that country must have been." Heeren’s As. Res. vol.ii.
p.93.
62 See Sprenger's Mohammad, p. 10, where the seventy stages are detailed. Theophrastus also gives some curious particulars regarding the traffic in frankincense, myrrh, and cassia, with Saba and Adramotitis (which corresponds evidently with Hadhamaut). Heeren's As. Res.
vol.ii. p. 98.
63 These were the routes still in use in Mahomet's time for the Syrian caravans. Hashim, the great grandfather of Mahomet died at Ghazza (Gaza), when on a mercantile expedition to Syria. His property was brought back from thence. Katib al Wackidi, p. 14; Sprenger p. 30.
64 See the beautiful daguerrotype views or Jerash, with its wilderness of ruined columns pillars and temples, in the illustrated editions of Keith's Evidence of Prophecy, published in 1848.
65 Heeren's As. Res. vol. ii. p. 110.
66 No better proof or the marvellous fulfilment of these prophecies can be given than that by Keith, in the edition of his work above referred to, in which modern art has been happily pressed into the service of
prophecy to illustrate by photographic sketches the chief scenes or prophesied desolation. In the palmy days of its regal magnificence, who could have foretold that Petra, secure apparently behind its rocky embattlements, would have become utterly waste and desolate, rather than Damascus or any other city.
67 Strabo, xvi.
68 See Forster's Arabia. vol. i. 224.
69 Strabo, above.
70 Hist. Nat. vi 32. "Nabataei Arabiae populus. oppidum includunt Petrarn nomine in convalle, circumdatum montibus inaccessis. Huc convenit utrumque bivium eorum qui et Syria (al Syriae) Palmyram petiere, ct corum, qui ab Gaza.a venerant." Vide Heeren's As. Res. vol. ii. P. 45; and Journ. Asiatique, vol xv. P. 20.
71 See Heeren's Res. Africa, vol ii. p. 273; and As. Res. vol.iii p. 407.
72 Heeren's As. Res. vol. iii pp. 382, 405, and appendix C, p.409. The commerce, according to Arrian (Periplus), was conducted by Arabian navigators and traders, between Broach anti Zangubar. In return for frankincense and other Arabian articles, the products of India, thus described by Arrian, were bartered. "Moreover indigenous productions, such as corn, rice, butter (Ghi), oil of sesamum, coarse and fine cotton goods, anal cane honey (sugar), are regularly exported from the interior of Ariaka (Concan), and from Barygaza (Broach), to the opposite coast. Some particular vessels are purposely destined for this trade; others engage in it only as occasion or opportunity offers." Heeren well observes, that this navigation was entirely independent of the "Graeco-Indian commerce," and was in fact much earlier than it. Arrian adds "This navigation was regulairly managed," i.e. according to the monsoons, which, by their alternations facilitated the communication. The butter is no doubt the oil of milk noticed by Ctesius in his Indica, c. xxii. and "answers to our ghi." Heeren's As. Res. vol. iii. p. 407; and Sprenger's Life of Mohammad, p. 15, note 2.
73 Periplus pp.10-18; Heeren's As. Res. vol. iii. p.408.
74 Vide Sprenger, p.15. Strabo, in his account of the expedition of Aelius Gallus, after describing the former course of merchandise to Petra, adds - But now it is mostly broughtdown the Nile to Alexandria; for the products of Arabia, with those of India, are carried to Myos Hormos (a port on the western shore or the Red Sea): then transferred by camels to Coptos in the Thebaid: and thence to Alexandria by the canal of the Nile" Strabo Lib. xvi.; vide Forster's Geography of Arabia vol. ii. p. 285.
75 We have an incidental confirmation of the European trade on the Red Sea in the time of Mahomet, in the shipwreck about the beginning of the seventh century of a Grecian ship off Jiddah. The wood was employed towards rebuilding the Kaaba, and the Captain, named Bacum and described as a Grecian merchant acquainted with architecture, assisted in the work. Katib al Wackidi, p. 27; Hishami. p. 41; Tabari;, p. 73; Sprenger, p. 84.
76 This has been satisfactorily shown by Sprenger. Life of Mahomet, p.13. The two tribes were related to one another both by blood and by position. The Thamudites certainly inhabited the valley of Hijr, between Medina and Syria. Hashami, p. 395. We have also the testimony of Tabari and Ghazzali for placing the Adites north of Mecca, and near the Thamudites. I do not at all follow C.de Perceval's theory of the Adites. The Thamudites are apparently the same people as are mentioned under a similar name by Diodorus Siculus and Ptolemy; the latter places them near the Nabatheans. They are also probably the same tribe as furnished the Equites Suraceni Thamudeni, who were posted under the commander of Egypt, and stationed in Palestine. They lived in rocks hewn, like those of Petra, in the rocks of the valley of Hijr, where they killed the camel of the Prophet Salih, sent to reclaim them. Coran, vii. 74, &c. Both he and Hud, (the prophet rejected by the Adites,) were possibly Jewish emissaries or Christian evangelists.
77 The superstition of Mahomet is illiustrated by his passage through this valley, in his expedition to Tabuk. "And when Mahomet reached the valley of Hijr, he alighted there and pitched his camp, and the people
drew water from the fountains. And when it was even, the prophet said, 'Drink not of the water of this place, not even a drop; and perform not your ablutions with it; and the dough that ye have kneaded therewith, give it to the camels, eat not of it; and let no one of you go forth of the camp this night, unless he have a companion with him. And they obeyed, excepting two men: and one of them had his neck wrenched by the way, and the other was carried by the winds and cast upon the two hills of the Bank Tai. And it was told Mahomet; and he said, Did not I prohibit you from going out alone, any one without his companion?' And he prayed for the man whose neck was injured and he was cured, and the Bani Tai returned the other man."
It is said that as Mahomet passed by the valley of Hijr, he wrapped his clothes over his mouth, and urged on his camel, and said, "Enter not the houses of the transgressors, except weeping, for fear lest that happen to you which overtook them" Hishami, p. 396.
does not identify either
Yemen or the Cushitet So Trogus Pomp~ quoted by Justin. xviii. 3, is still more vague. It appears to me most probable that this tradition arose from the children of Israel having come from the Red Sea to
occupy Palestine. The fame which attached to the Israelites as arriving from the Red Sea, weaned, with a little misapprehension, come in the course of time to apply to other inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and thus to the Tyrians also.
Katib al Wackidi; p.55.
whereas "Nebaioth," the son of Ishmael, is written both in Hebrew and Arabic with a 
(
. There is no doubt that the Arabs do make this difference, and if their authority were that of a witness speaking from original knowledge, it would have much weight; but this has been shown not to be the case. Besides, the two letters are not invariably kept distinct. In another of the sons of Ishmael, Tema, the Hebrew letter corresponding with is rendered by 
, thus 
v. Katib al Wackidi, p. 8. IV. Lastly, the Mahometans are acquainted with a tribe called Nabatheans , and ascribe to them a different origin, some tracing the descent from Ham, others from Shem, but none from Ishmael. To this I again reply that their evidence is mere conjecture, and no authority whatever. If we admit their authority, it would follow of course that the Mahometans allude to some other tribe under the name Anbat, different from the Nabatheans of the Jews and Classics.
of the Greeks, and the Havra or Avara of the Arabians). This place is situated on the Arabian Gulph, under 25 degrees N. Lat., on the boundaries or the fertile country of Nejed, belonging to Central Arabia. hence it is evident that the caravan road extended along the Arabian Gulph. most probably touched upon Mecca, the ancient Macoraba, and so arrived at the frontier of Arabia Felix. By this route the caravans would enjoy the advantage of passing through fertile regions in the midst of their journey; while deeper in the interior, they would have had to traverse long and dreary sandy deserts. The number of days' journey agrees very well with the distance. From Mariaba to Petra is reckoned about 1,260 geographical miles, which, divided by sixteen. the ordinary distance which caravanis travel in a day, amount to seventy." Heeren's Researches : Asiatic Nations, vol. ii , p. 106. See also the detail of routes in appendix D. vol iii p. 488, et seq., end the valuable map illustrating the lines of traffic in vol i.