HE BETTER TO UNDERSTAND this particular history of the Saracens and Hagarenes, it is necessary we make a relation of the Arabians in general.1 For the general situation, constitution, and religion thereof had an influence upon the Mahometan revolution, and the whole religion of Arabia was interposed in the production of it. The Arabians received their denomination not from Arabus, a son of Apollo, as the Latins imagine, but from Araba, one of the provinces of what is vulgarly called Arabia, situated near Medina where it is thought Ismael did first seat himself.2 But this Araba or Arabum or Arabia usually includes all that peninsula which was inhabited by the Arabians. These divide their country into several kingdoms whose names being unknown to the European geographers I shall forbear to use as much as I can and shall acquiesce in the vulgar distinction of it into Arabia Fælix, Petra, and Deserta.It is of great compass and extent, having on the west the Red Sea for its bounds, on the south the ocean, on the east the Persian Gulf, and on the north Syria and the River Euphrates. It is as large or larger than Spain, France, Germany, and Italy. Pliny reckons a great part of Mesopotamia within the precincts of Arabia and the Arabians to be styled Syrians. And, as to this last, there is this ground for it that Arabian Salihenses, called Al Dajannuini, did conquer Syria.3 And a second time that province was reduced under the obedience and possession of the Ghassanian Arabs which came out of Yemen, or Arabia Fælix, and were of the tribe of Azdenses.4 And Aretas (whose lieutenant at Damascus sought to apprehend Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:32) must probably have been the first or one of their kings, if Christian and Saracen chronologers agree.
Arabia Petra (so called from Petra the chief city) is bounded on the west <49> by the inmost nook of the Red Sea and Egypt, on the north by Palestine and Cælo-Syria, on the east by Arabia Deserta, on the south by a track of mountains which disjoins it from Arabia Fælix. This country Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy call Nabatea the Desert. Arabia Deserta is bounded on the west by Petra Cælo-Syria, on the north by Euphrates, on the east by sundry mountains which divide it from the country of Babylon, on the south also it is severed from Arabia Fælix by a ridge of mountains. As for Arabia Fælix, it runs out like a peninsula between the Arabian Gulf (or Red Sea) and the Gulf of Persia. It is the largest of the three divisions and said to contain in compass 3,504 miles. It is called by Solinus and others Ayman, by the Arabians, Yemen.5
What share Arabia had in the Chaldean monarchy I know not, nor whether it were ever all reduced under the obedience of one sovereign. Most certain it is that the Arabians were divided into tribes and were as exact in preserving their genealogies and marrying in their own tribes as ever were the Jews.6 And as to their ancient religion and learning: though the accounts thereof be but slender, they not having had the use of writing and letters till or little before the birth of Mahomet, yet it may be conjectured that the astronomy, astrology, and other knowledge of the Persian Magi and Chaldeans was derived originally from them. There want not some who essay to prove this, but to insist thereon would not be to our purpose. Their language at first seems to have been little different from the Hebrew or at least Syriac, until one Yaarab introduced the Arabic.7
Of the Arabians there are said to be two sects; the pure Arabians who are said to be descended from one Joktan or Kahtan (the son of Saleh, the son of Shem, the son of Noah) and the Mosta-Arabs or denizened Arabians.8 For Ismael being ejected by Abraham came into Arabia, seated at Yathrib (since called Medina), and married into the tribe of Jorham, of the pure Arabians who lived in Yemen or Arabia Fælix, and from him descended the Coreischites and other Mostaarabick tribes, who, notwithstanding, are not able to deduce their pedigrees with any certainty from Ismael, but from Adnanus who was of his race.9 Ismael marrying into the tribe of Jorham conformed himself to the language, manners, and way of living practiced by his new relations, and so he and his posterity became incorporated into the Arabians. And the tribes of the Mostaarabes and Jorham did diffuse themselves into several provinces without retaining any national distinction but what arose from their genealogies or governments and language.10 For, as to this last, it is said that the progeny of Joktan or Jorhamide, did differ in dialect from the <50> Ismaelites, the former using the Arabic dialect of Hamyar, which Ismael corrected and reformed into another called pure Arabism or the dialect of the Coreischites.11
The progeny of Joktan had at first the preeminence and a kind of rule which they might well challenge not only upon the account that they received Ismael as a stranger, and his progeny were but Mostaarabs, as because of their strength, number, and riches which arose from the fertility and opulence of their country, viz. Yemen, whereas the Ismaelites were possessed of Yathrib and the desert Arabia. The inhabitants of Yemen were called Sabei or Sabii from Saba the son of Yashab, the son of Yaarab, the son of Joktan, concerning whose religion it is necessary that I speak somewhat.12
They avowed that their religion was exceeding ancient, that it was descended from Enoch (whom they call Edris) and Seth, and they pretended to have the books of Seth preserved from all antiquity down to them.13 This undoubtedly was the religion which Abraham professed when he was in Harran in Mesopotamia before God is said to have reclaimed him. This was the religion of the Nabathei, or inhabitants of Arabia Petra and of the Chaldeans, and the inhabitants of Harran or Carr in Mesopotamia.14 Nay, it was diffused over the face of the whole earth as Maimonides said, and as Abulfeda.15 It was the most ancient of all religions. They did believe there was but one great God, whom they called the Lord of Lords, and in their disputations they alleged most strong arguments for the unity of the Godhead. The chief God they called Olla or Alla taall,16 the highest or greatest God. Besides this chief God, they had other lesser gods to whom they attributed no intrinsic, essential, underived power, but only an efficacy communicated by the supreme deity, whereby men were intermediately influenced and ruled, whereupon they did adore them with a secondary, divine worship as mediators and intercessors for them. And this was their way of address to the great God: “I give myself to thy service; thou hast no companion but such as are in thy subjection, and thine is all that is devoted and offered to them.”17
It was their opinion that there could be no communication between the divine essence and man but by some intermediate beings,18 and that the pure invisible spiritual substances were employed to this end, and that in a subordination to their influences it was necessary that there should be other intermediate visible bodies. For those, some of the Sabii did feign sacella or mansions: such are the gross bodies of the celestial planets (for those they principally addressed themselves to, though many had equal reverence for the fixed stars), which they imagined to be animated by those intelligences, as our bodies are by their <51> souls. Upon this account, they observed diligently their houses and stations, rising, setting, conjunctions, oppositions, benevolent or malevolent aspects; they assigned to them days, nights, and hours; they ascribed unto these figures and shapes, subjected regions and particular persons to them. And agreeably hereto, they made prayers, incantations, and seals. As for example if, upon Saturn’s day (which was their last day of the week denominating each day from the planets as we do), a man came to pray to him at the first hour having his seal on, made according to art and suitable to that planet, and he clothed in a fitting garb and made use of a convenient form of prayer: whatever he shall ask that is in the disposal of Saturn, it shall be granted to him; so for the rest of the planets whom they called lords and gods. And by this ascent from the creatures to the creator, from visible to invisible things, they did intermediately proceed to the intelligences and supreme deity.
And from hence arose the fabric of talismans of which there was such use among the Arabians and Egyptians, and whereto they attribute such power, and by which Apollonius Tyaneus is said (by the Christians) to have affected his miracles.19 Upon the same sentiments did others of the Sabii proceed, who yet went higher to erect statues and images to those lesser deities to intercede for them, they supposing it necessary for man (who is liable to so many contingent necessities) to have his mediator always ready that he might have recourse to him.20 And that these planetary bodies (the chapels of the glorious intelligences) were itinerant and moveable, sometimes rising, sometimes setting, sometimes continuing under/over hemisphere; whereupon they proposed to detain their influence and preserve their benevolent power by lodging it in some statue or image made of a metal and figure convenient to this or that planet; the days, hours, degrees, minutes, and all other circumstances being astrologically observed in order thereto, and such sigillations, prayers incantations, suffumigations, attire, et cetera, being used as are appropriate. Hereby they did apprehend they should always have their mediators ready to assist them; and these images they called vicegerents in reference to the celestial mediators by whose interposition a man was to propitiate their superior planets.
This is the sum of their religion and the foundation of all that idolatry which diffused itself thence into Chaldea, Egypt, and all parts of the world: the Chaldean discipline being the same with this, and the Persian magi having no other origin.21 Not to multiply my discourse into two many particulars, I shall in what is to come <52> observe only what may conduce to my principal design:
The Sabii rejected the Jewish canon or sacred books and relied on those which they deduced from Edris, Seth, and other their patriarchs and prophets.
They say that Noah preached against their images and worship of mediators, and therefore they generally speak against him.
They say Abraham opposed their image worship and talismans, and therefore he was banished by them.
That many people in the Levitical Law were purposely enacted by Moses in opposition to the Sabii that the Israelites might not be ensnared in their ways.
They shave their heads close, abstain from the blood of animals, esteeming it the food of demons (though some want food thereon that they might contract an affinity and correspondence with them).
Though the principal place for their devotions was near the city of Harran or Carr, which Abulfeda calls the city of the Sabii, yet did they preserve a great esteem and reverence for the Caaba at Mecca.22 They kept sundry fasts, whereof one consisted of thirty days.
They continued in repute not only to the days of Gregory Nazianzen the inhabitants of whose diocese were generally Sabii, but even to the rise of Mahomet who often mentions them.23
As to the inhabitants of Arabia Petra, I have already showed that they were of the religion of the Sabii. I shall only add that they were esteemed the meanest and most despicable tribes, insomuch that Alnabat or Nabateus in vulgar signified a mean and despicable person.24
I come now to speak of the inhabitants of Arabia the desert which, as it had been the seat of Ismael, so the inhabitants pretended to a nobility even above those of Yemen. Of all the tribes of the Ismaelites, the Coreischites were the most illustrious, their military condition made them proud, and their poverty and inaccessibleness had hindered them from being conquered, so that their speech was more refined, and their glory less stained than that of the other provinces. But there were other grounds for their preeminence: for a Coreischite signified proverbially a gentleman of quality, as did Alnabat an inferior person. And it is the general tenet of the Arabians that the Coreischites are the most noble of all the Arabian tribes, as Erpenius and Hottinger assure me,25 and notwithstanding the distinction of the pure Arabian and Mostaarabs (which Abulfeda saith was the most received tenet of the Saracens of his time). Yet there want not good authors who believe the ancient tribes of the pure Arabians to have been extinct, and that all the Arabian tribes <53> tribes recorded as in being, since the Saracen records are strangers to the country, some being called Mota Arabs, the progeny of Joktan, others Mostaarabs as coming from a remote place.26 Nay, they say that Joktan was of the race of Ismael and certain it is (they own) that none of them can deduce their genealogy beyond Adnanus, a descendant of Ismael.27
If so, the Coreischites must have been the noblest tribe of all. However, it is certain that at the time of Mahomet they were the most illustrious tribe, for they were possessed of Mecca the metropolis of Arabia Deserta, and which the Arabians call the Mother of their Cities, and inhabited in the center of Arabia,28 and, which is more, had the keeping and were a kind of priests (aedili) of the AlCaaba, Caaba, Kabe or Cabea, a temple reverenced universally by the Arabians and the chief place of their devotions. It is said that the tribe of Chozaah had the keeping of it once (they were of the number of the tribes of Yemen and forced by an inundation to alter their dwelling) and were esteemed thereupon the chief of the tribes, but that one Abu Gabshan sold it to one Kosa, a Coreischite, for a rundlet of wine.29 He repented heartily of his foolish bargain, which gave occasion to the Arabian proverb: “More vexed than Abu Gabshan.”30
The Caaba was so called either from its eminence and height or because it was a square building.31 It is also called Albait Alharam, or the prohibited house of refuge.32 They report that Adam, being cast out of paradise, desired of God that he might build such a house as he had seen in heaven towards which he might pray, and which he might compass about in his devotions, as the angels and blessed spirits do about that celestial mansion that, thereupon, God sent down a glorious light embodied and shaped in the form and model which Adam desired, towards which he might pray and compass it about.33 After the decease of Adam, his son Seth did erect a fabric of clay and stone in that place, according to that model which, being destroyed by the deluge, Abraham and Ismael built a temple by the command of God in the same place, an angel showing them the ground and model. This temple was kept up by the succeeding Arabians, but while it was in the possession of the tribe of Coza, idols were first brought into it (also Hobalus, Asaphus, and Nayela) by King Amrus, who being of Yemen and a Sabian.34 That they were talismanic is no doubt. Afterwards Abu Corb Assad, a king of Yemen, did beautify it with stately curtains about seven hundred years before the birth of Mahomet.35 So great, so general was their veneration for this temple that when the tribe of Gatsan built another temple to themselves in imitation of the Caaba, the other tribes made war upon them for that and destroyed that schismatical edifice.36<54>
In the temple there were a multitude of idols undoubtedly accommodated to the superstition of every tribe. Within was Abraham’s statue, attended with a multitude of angels and prophets, and on the outside were ranked 360 idols, whereof Hobal (which perhaps imports Ha-ball, the great Baal or Bel), Asaf, and Nayela.37 Hobal was the chief, being a red statue shaped like a man holding seven unfeathered arrows in his hand; Asaf was also like a man; and Nayela like a woman. These two are said to have been turned into stones for having committed fornication together in the Caaba. Hither did all the tribes make pilgrimages and, in order to it, did solemnly devote themselves. Sometimes they went round the temple in a kind of procession and came betwixt Safa and Meriah (which are the same with Asaf and Nayela).38 This Safa was a blue stone at the foot of the mountain of Abikobais, and Meriah a great stone near the mountain of Koaikaban.39 They were distant from each other (about 780 cubits). They professed their reverence to the great god and some also to his associates as each particular person fancied—saying: “Thou hast no companion or associate besides—who is at thy disposal together with all that is devoted to him.”
Thus they went through each station and offered their gifts and cast stones in certain places. And all the Arabians did agree to set certain months apart for this religious performance in which it was unlawful for any tribe to make war on the other or for any man to molest another. This they all did—except the tribes Tai and Cathaam and some of the race of Alhareth Eb. Caab.40 For those people made no pilgrimages nor reverenced the Caaba nor observed religiously any months or place as sacred.
This was the condition of Arabia, if we abstract from particular conquests and the mixtures of religion arising from the Jews who dwell among them, ever since the dispersion of Babylon, and the Christians whom either Peter converted to Christian Judaism or which fled thither upon several persecutions by the Roman emperors in Egypt and Syria. Of the Christians, it is notorious that the Nestorians and Jacobites or Eutychians were dispersed through those provinces, and the Arians were propagated that way since the generality of those provinces were infected from the Academy at Alexandria and the neighboring bishops. Nothing was more tenacious of their old rites than the Arabians and, withal, none more prone to admit of novel opinion under the specious color of religion. It is natural for men by cohabitation to infect each other with a mixture of devotion, as diseases are propagated <55> by contagion, and we may believe that the Arabians, being possessed with an opinion of their being descended from Abraham and Ismael, did pay a great respect to the Jews who were spread through their country—yet not so as to relinquish their worship and pilgrimages to the Caaba. It was always a part of their religion to circumcise (as did the Cholchi and Egyptians) but not till thirteen years as Ismael was circumcised. About seven hundred years before Mahomet, those of Yemen did turn Jews, and about seventy years before Mahomet their King Du Nowas did compel all to Judaism and burnt the dissenters, many whereof were such mongrel Christians as that age usually produced.41
Whereupon, to vindicate the Christians, the king of the Abyssinians invaded Yemen, conquered the country, and reigned there seventy-two years. The second of the Abyssinian princes or governments there, Abrahah Alashram, viceroy to the Negush, built a Christian church there to divert the people from their pilgrimages to the Caaba. But the generality of the inhabitants retained obstinately their ancient reverence for Mecca, and one of them, easing himself in this new church and otherwise defiling it, Abrahah swore he would destroy the Caaba. He marched with his army for that purpose directly for Mecca, but, when he approached Mecca, they say the elephant he rode on, called Mahud,42 kneeled down and refused to go forward, though he went cheerfully any other way: and withal a flock of birds carrying stones as big as peas in one their beak and two in their claws so weighty that they killed therewith his followers striking through helmets, men, and elephants so that the survivors relinquished their journey. And the Arabians, who usually computed their years from some remarkable accident, began a new account, from the year of the elephant.43
After Mahomet was born, and not long before he begun to declare himself, the inhabitants of Yemen addressed themselves to the Greek emperor Heraclius for aid against the Abyssinians, but he refused it as being unsettled in his empire. Anusherwan, King of Persia, did relieve them and gained so much power in Yemen that he appointed them their kings out of the natives. It is to be noted that the Christian writers call him Cosroes whom the Arabians and Persians call Anusherwan, for Cosra or Cosroes was a common name to all the kings of Arabia Petra and Deserta.44
I find they embraced Christianity in the time of Alnooman, the son of Almondar,45 and according to our ecclesiastical history under a queen called Mawia in the reign of Valentinian and Valens.46 And although they were Trinitarians, and in behalf of them made war upon the Arians, afterwards <56> they turned Jacobites, and during the reign of Justinian they made war upon the Christians in their behalf.47 Upon the murder of the Emperor Mauritius, Cosroes, king of Persia, compelled all the Christians in his dominions (and Arabia was in a manner subject to him) to turn Nestorians upon pain of death,48 and erected them a patriarch at Mausell,49 so that we may believe the Arabian Christians or such as were fled thither at several times to have turned to that opinion. But, notwithstanding these revolutions, the reverence for the Caaba did in great part continue, it being incident to human nature oftentimes to turn their religion in obedience to their princes. But inveterate superstitions are not so soon exterminated as is the outward profession of religion, it being evident that most of the Coreischites retained their idolatry. Nor was the Caaba destroyed with its idols all this while.
