FOOTNOTES

¹ They were called Mustdibra, i.e. half-cast Arabs. Sec above, p. cli, note.

² Beyond Adnan, "said Mahomet, none but the Lord knoweth, and the genealogists lie" Katib al Wackidi p. 9. Yet the Secretary, as well as other biographers, gives a list of some forty names between Adnan and Ishmael. The manner in which these genealogies have been got up has been explained above in a note at the beginning of chapter ii. That these lists are in all instances borrowed from Jewish sources is fairly admitted by the Secretary of Wackidi in the following passage: -

And I have met with no difference of opinion in respect or Maadd being of the children of Caydar, son of Ishmael; but this discrepancy in the genealogy between them gives proof that it (i.e. the genealogy) has not been preserved, but has been taken from the Jews, and they have translated it unto them, and they have differed therein; and if this (genealogy) had been really correct, then the prophet of the Lord had been better acquainted with it than any other person. So my conclusion is, that the genealogical detail ends with Adnan, and that we must hold back from anything beyond that till we reach Ishmael, son of Abraham." Katib al Wackidi, p. 9 1/2.

This is a clear admission that up to Adnan Mahomet's genealogy is native, it derived from indigenous Arabian tradition; but beyond Adnan, that it has been borrowed from the Jews.

³ This is the calculation or M.C. de Perceval. The dates or the more immediate progenitors of Mahomet are in his computation taken at their ascertained age. Beyond that, there being no other data, the length of each generation is reckoned at the average period of thirty-three years.

⁴ For M.C. de Perceval's view of these events, see note shortly below.

⁵ In arranging the chronology of these kings, tradition displays an inimitable confusion. The first in the list is the father-in-law of Ishmael, while the daughter of the ninth is given in marriage to Maadd who flourished about 50 B.C.; so that nine reigns occupy eighteen centuries! Two generations later, the last of the dynasty is made coeval with Fihr Coreish, who lived about 500 years after Maadd.

The era of Fihr Coreish (see next page) is probably a clear historical date, and in calculating back therefrom M.C. de Perceval arrives at the conclusion that the first Jorhomite prince was coeval with Adnan the earliest known ancestor of the Coreish. This is a very satisfactory coincidence, as traditional reminiscence would be likely enough to trace up the ancestral lines, both of the Jorhom and Coreish, to the same period.

⁶ The names in capitals denote the ancestors of Mahomet.

⁷ A tradition in Katib al Wackidi makes Maadd to be coeval with our Saviour, (p.9.) This is, probably, a matter of calculation, and not of bone fide tradition: but it is quite possible that Maadd may have been alive when our Saviour was born.

⁸ See above, p. clxvi.

⁹ These are the Aeneze or Burkhardt.

¹⁰ Travels in Arabia, vol. i. pp. 63-66.

¹¹ These are termed the Bani Bakr son of Abd Monat, to distinguish them from the Bani Bakr son of Wail, noticed above.

¹² NADHR is sometimes styled Coreish, but it is more frequently FIHR or his son MALIK to whom the appellation is first accorded. See Katib al Wackidi; p.12 1/2; Tabari p. 40; where a variety or derivations are given for this name. The likeliest is the meaning "noble"; but it is also possible that the Coreish, by illustrating what was simply a proper name, may have conferred upon the word that meaning. Others say that Nadhr had a guide called by the name, and as his mercantile caravan approached it used to be saluted as the "Caravan or Coreish," and thus the appellation was at last given to himself. Again, it is derived from a metaphorical resemblance to Coreish, the name of a fish which eats up all others; or to cursh, a high-bred camel. Others refer it to a root which signifies to trade. M. C. de Perceval vol.i. p.229.

The Secretary of Wackidi (p.12 1/2) has a theory that the name was first given to Cussal, who gathered together the descendants of Fihr. Sprenger adopts this notion, and makes Cussal the first real personage in the line, and Fihr a myth: but this seems unnecessary scepticism. Mohammed, p.19; see also traditions in Tabari; pp.41, 42, In favour of Cassal as the first called by the name Coreish.

¹³ Vide pp. clvi. and clxv.

¹⁴ That is, the Bani Maadd, or families descended from Maadd the son of Adnan. The term Bani prefixed to any of Mahomet's ancestors, as Bani Adnan, Bani Nizar, Bani Fihr, is of course extensive in proportion to the remoteness or the name with which it is coupled. Thus the Bani Modhar include the branches of Hawizin and Ghatafan, but do not include those of Bakr and Taghlib: while the Bani Nizar (father of Modhar,) include both. The Bani Fihr again (being lower down in the line) include neither, but are confined to the Coreish. In speaking of the ancestry of Mahomet, and the tribes related to him by blood, it is convenient to style them the Bani Maadd a comprehensive title including all. The line of descent and affiliated tribes will be best understood by referrinig to the table below at p. cxcv.

¹⁵ See above, p. clxvi.

¹⁶ See p. clxxxiv.

¹⁷ One would expect no doubt to exist on the filiation of so important a tribe. Nevertheless, it is held by a few that the Khozaa are or the Maaddite stock. The great body of writers give them the origin assigned in the text, and it is also supported by the following verses of Hassan ibn Thabit, who thus traces a common origin between his own tribe (the Khazraj of Medina,) and the Khozaa : -

And when we sojourned at Batn Marr, the Khozaa with their families, separating from us, remained behind." M.C. de Perceval, vol.i. p.217.

¹⁸ These were the ornaments and armour subsequently dug up by Abd al Muttalib, Mahomet's grandfather, as will be related in the next chapter.

¹⁹ Vide p. clxvi.

²⁰ The tale explaining how this happened is at the best doubtful. The Bani Iyad, as they quitted the country, resolved to do all the mischief they could, by removing the black stone from the Kaaba, and burying it secretly. A female of the Khozaa alone witnessed where it was put, and the Khozaites would consent to its restoration only on condition that the Kaaba was made over to them; with the Kaaba, the temporal power was as usual acquired also.

No such unlikely tale as this is required. The Khozaa were evidently at this period more powerful than the Meccan tribes. They had the chief share in driving out tile Jorhomites, and they naturally succeeded to their place as guardians of the Kaaba, and rulers of Mecca. Cnf. de Sacy, Mem. sur Arabes avant Mahomet. pp. 66, 67.

²¹ Vide Tabari p.72; M. C. de Perceval, vol.i, p. 220-240, vol. ii, p. 262; Sprenger, p. 6, note iv and p. 7, note iv. The Nasaa or intercalary system, M. C. de Perceval traces from the beginning of the fifth century, or about thirty years before Cussai's accession to power. The new mode of intercalary calculation might originate then, but not the authority to transpose the moniths, which was probably or old standing.

²² Kilab was born A.D. 365, according to M.C. de Perceval's tables. For the Bani Adwan, see p. cxcvi. and farther notices below.

²³ Tabari p. 26 et. seq.; Katib al Wackidi, p. 11 1/2.

Sprenger treats this as a fictitious story, framed to cover Cussai's foreign extraction, and "greedily adopted by Mahometan authors" to save the Ishmaelite lineage of their Prophet, which would have been broken by the admission of an Odzraite adventurer; for such Sprenger believes him really to have been. This view is ingenious, but surrounded with insuperable difficulties.

1. The story of Cussai is evidently not of late growth, but grounded on ancient and pre-Islamitic tradition.

2. Considering the attention given by the Arabs to genealogical details, it is incredible that the tale should have been forced into currency without some foundation.

3. Admitting then that the narrative is ancient, and must have some fact to rest upon, it would remain to suppose that Cussai was not the little Zeid taken to the highlands of Syria by Kilab's widow, but was palmed by her, or by the Bani Odzra, upon the Meccans as such. This however would be highly improbable, for there would be not only the testimony of the widow and of her second husband and of their acquaintance among the Bani Odzra to establish the identity, but also the family recognition of relatives. Zobra, though blind (not necessarily, as supposed by Sprenger, from old age) recognized his brother's voice. To those who have noted how personal peculiarities are often handed down from father to son this will not appear impossible, though Sprenger rejects the idea.

4. Cussai had many enemies among the Khozaa the Bani Bakar and the Bani Sufa; and there were numerous other Coreishite branches aggrieved by his assumption of the Chiefship of Mecca, who would not have failed to seize upon and perpetuate any story of the spuriousness of Cussai's birth. Yet there is not in any quarter the shadow of a traditional suspicion of this nature; because, (as I believe,) Cussai was actually received, on good grounds and by common consent, as the real son of Kilab. Zohra and Cussai were both poets.

²⁴ Tabari, p.29.

²⁵ Descendants of Abd Monat, see p. cxcvi.

²⁶ This is the most generally received account. There are other narratives which it may be interesting to mention, though they more or less contradict that given in the text. First. Holeil the Khozaite king openly held that Cassai was the best entitled to succeed him; and therefore left to him by will the inheritance of his power. Second. Holeil gave up the care of the Kaaba, with its keys, to his daughter Hobba the wife or Cussai; and appointed a man called Ghubshan (some say he was his son) to assist her. Cussai made him drunk, and purchased from him the command, in exchange for a skin of wine and some camels; but the Khozza rose up againt Cussai when he began to exercise his privileges, whereupon he sent for aid to his brother Rizah, &C. The Secretary of Wackidi says that this occurred at a time when Ghubshan was enraged at the Meccans for withholding the customary cases at the season or pilgrimage, and that after the bargain just referred to he vacated Mecca in favor of Cussai. A third statement is, that the Khozaa were attacked by a deadly pestilence which nearly extirpated them, and that they resolved to evacuate Mecca, selling or otherwise disposing of their houses there. These accounts will be found in Tabari, pp. 27-32, and Katib al Wackidi, pp.11 1/2 and 12.

²⁷ Tabari, p. 29. But some (as the Bani Muharib, and Bani Harith, descendants of Fihr Coreish,) still preferred their semi-nomad life outside of Mecca, and were thence styled , in contra-distinction to the those of the vale of Mecca. Katib al Wackidi p.12 1/2..

²⁸, Katib al Wackidi, p 12 1/2.

The tradition must be adopted with some hesitation, for the present aspect or Mecca, and the arid and barren character or the soil, do not favour the idea of there ever having been (except under a very different climate), "much wood" of any description in the vicinity.

²⁹ According to some he was also called Coreish Vide note p. cxcvii. But the received doctrine refers that title many generations further back.

Weil conjectures that Cussai was the first called Coreish; and that it was not till after Mahomet's death that the appellation (which the Prophet held to denote the noblest Arabs, and those best entitled to the Government) was extended higher and wider, in order to take In Omar and Abu Bacr whose collateral branches separated from the main line berore Cussai. The limiting of the title to the descendants of Cussai is denounced by the Sunnies as a Shie-ite heresy. Weil looks upon this as strengthening his theory; but I confess the charge of Shia fabrication appears a very likely one. It was the Shias who first endeavoured to limit within narrow bounds the title to the Caliphate, in order to throw suspicion upon the early Caliphs, and upon the whole house of Omeya. Again, supposing the existence of the motive imagined by Weil, why should the clumsy expedient have been adopted of going back to Fihr or Nadhr several generations earlier than Kab, the common ancestor both of Mahomet and of the three first Caliphs? it is possible (but I think not probable) that the term Coreish was introduced first in the time of Cussai; but even if so, it must have been then used to denominate the tribes whom he drew together, and thus the whole of the descendants of Fihr. See Weil's Mohammed, p. 4, note iv. This conclusion would correspond with the tranlitionsthat, before the time of Cussai, the Coreish were termed the Bani Nadhr. Katib al Wackidi, p. 12 1/2.

³⁰ He is said also to have rebuilt the Kaaba, as the Jorhomites had done before, and to have placed the images Hohal, Isaf, and Naila in it. see M. C. de Perceval, vol i p. 249; Sprenger, p.20. But the authority seems doubtful. From his being said to have rebuilt the Kaaba has arisen the idea, adapted by Sprenger, that Cassai founded both the Kaaba and Mecca; - an opinion which appears to me to contradict both probability and tradition.

³¹ Vide. Tabari, p. 32 et. seq.; and Katib al Wackidi p.12 et. seq.

³² In the palmy days of Islam, stone aqueducts and ponds took the place of this more primitive fashion. Cnf. Burkhardt's Travels in Arabia, pp. 59 and 267; and Ali Bey, vol ii. p. 68. The giving of water to the inhabitants of Mecca from wells without the town, is stated as the origin of the custom of Sicaya M. C. de Perceval, vol. I. p. 239. The custom however appears rather to have been originally connected with the well Zamzam, the source of the ancient prosperity of Mecca. But according to tradition, we must suppose this famous well to have been now filled up, as Abd al Mutallib was the first to re-open it alter its long neglect.

³³ C. de Perceval, vol i p. 240; Tabari; pp. 34 and 72.

³⁴ Tabari, p. 34.

³⁵ For descriptions of the hill or Arafat and adjoining plain, see Burkhardt's Arabia, p.266; and Ali Dey, vol. ii. p. 67; Burton's Medina and Mecca, cii. xxix The latter gives the distance from Mecca "at six hours' march', or twelve miles," vol. lii. p. 52. But at p. 250 Mina is described as three miles from Mecca; and at p. 250, Mizdalifa is stated to be about three miles from Mina, and Arafat three miles from Muzadalifa. This would make Arafat only nine miles from Mecca. See also vol. ii. p. 362. From ten to twelve miles may be accepted as the fair distance.

³⁶ The two last months of the year were (as they are now) Dzul Caada and Dzul Hijja; and the first month of the new year, Moharram.

³⁷ The question has been well discussed by M. C. de Perceval, vol. i. p.242 et seq.; and in the Journal Asiatique, Avril 1843, p. 342, where the same author has given a "Memoire sur le Calendrier Arabe avant l'islamisme." It is assumed that the months (as in other rude nations) were originally purely lunar, that thus the month of pilgrimage come (as it now does in the Moslem calendar) eleven days earlier each succeeding year, and that in thirty-three years, having performed a complete revolution of the seasons, it returned to the same relative position to the solar year with which it started. It is supposed that the inconvenience of providing for the influx of pilgrims at all seasons led to the idea of fixing the month of pilgrimage, when it came round to October or antumn, invariably to that part of the year, by a system of intercalation. Tradition professes to give the series of those who held the post of Nasi; or officer charged with the duty of intercalcation. The first of these was Sarir, of a stock related to the Coreish, whose genealogy would make him sixty or seventy years of age at the close of the fourth century; so that (if we trust to this tradition) the origin of intercalation may be placed about the close of the fourth, or early in the fifth, century M.C. de Perceval calculates the intercalation from 412 A.D. See the detailed table at the close of his first vol.

The Arab historians are not agreed upon the nature of the intercalation practised at Mecca. Some say seven months were interposed every nineteen years; others nine months every twenty-four years. But (1) both systems are evidently supposititions, being formed on a calculation of the true solar year; (2) the first of these systems we know to have been introduced by the Jews only about the end of the fourth century, and it is not probable that it would be so immediately adopted at Mecca; and (3): neither system would answer the requirement or bringing the month of pilgrimage in two centuries from Autumn back to Spring, at which season we find it in the time of Mahomet.

Other Arab writers say that the practice was to interpose a month at the close of every third year: and this is the system recognized, apparently on good grounds, by M.C. de Perceval. For (1) it exactly corresponds with the condition just noticed of making the month of pilgrimage retrocede from autumn to spring in two centuries, as is clearly shown in the chronological table attached to his first volume; and it also corresponds with the fact of that month having in 541 A.D. fallen at the summer solstice, when Belisarius on that account refused to let his Syrian allies leave him. See above, note p. clxxvili. (2.) It was the system previously tried by the Jews, who intercalated similarly a month called Ve-adar or the second Adar, at the close of every third year; and there is a priori every likelihood that the practice was borrowed from the Jews. (3.) The tradition in favor of this system is more likely than the others to be correct, because it does not produce an accurate solar cycle, and is not therefore likely to have originated in any astronomical calculation. (4.) Although it eventually changed the months to different seasons from those at which they were originally fixed, yet the change would be so slow that the months might meanwhile readily acquire and retain names derived from the seasons. Such nomenclature probably arose on the months first becoming comparatively fixed, i.e. in the beginning of the fifth century, and thus the names Rabi, Jumada, Ramadhan, signifying respectively rain and verdure, the cessation of rain, and heat, clung by the months long after they had shifted to other seasons.

M. de Sacy's view that intercalation was practised at Medina while a purely lunar calculation prevailed at Mecca, is opposed to the fact that a common system or calculation obtained over the whole Peninsula, the time of annual pilgrimage being the same by universal practice. Mem. sur Arabes avant Mahomet, pp. 123-143.

An important corollary from M. de Perceval's conclusion is that all calculations up to nearly the close or Mahomet's life must be made in luni-solar years, and not in lunar years, involving a yearly difference of ten or eleven, days. It will also explain certain discrepancies in Mahomet's life if we adopt the natural assumption that some historians calculated by the lunar-solar year in force during the period of the events under narration, while others adjusted the calculation by the lunar year subsequently adopted. Thus the former would make their prophet to have lived sixty-three or sixty-three and a half years, the latter sixty-five; and we find in effect a variety of tradition precisely to this extent.

³⁸ The first who, besides the regular intercalation, also commuted a sacred for a secular month, was according to tradition Hodzeifa, the second successor of Sarir (the first who bald the office of Intercalator). This serves to bring the origin of the system of commutation within the era of Cussai, as supposed by M.C. de Perceval.

Besides exchanging Moharram for Safar (which months are hence sometimes called the "two Safars,") some traditions say that the power also existed of commuting the isolated sacred month (Rajab) for the one succeeding it, i.e. Shaban; whence they were called the "two Shabans." When this was done, it became lawful to war in Mohurram or Rajab; and Safar or Shaban acquired the sacredness of the months for which they were substituted. Sprenger, p. 7; M. C. de Perceval, vol. i. p. 249; Journal Asiatique, Avril 1843, p. 350. I am inclined to think that the system of commutation was an ancient one, more remote probably than that of intecalation; but it had perhaps fallen out of use, and Cussai may have restored it to practice more prominently than before. See above note p. ccv.

³⁹ M. C. de Perceval rejects the Ishmaelite traditions, but still holds them mythically to shadow forth actual facts. Thus, although Nebuchadnezzar's invasion was in 577 B.C., and Adnan, who is said to have been routed by him, could not have lived earlier than 100 B.C., "yet," says he, "this is not a sufficient reason for banishing the legend into the domain of rable. It may contain some traits of real facts, as well as many ancient traditions, modified and arranged in modern times.

"The posterity of Ishmael, vanquished and nearly destroyed by Nebuchandezzar II., as prophesied by Jeremia, and then long after reviving and multiplying through some branches that escaped the sword, appears to me to be personified under Adnan and Maadd, - names pertaining to a comparatively recent epoch, and employed by anticipation.

In truth, the distance which separates Maad and Adnan from Nebuchadnezzar, and the breach in the continuity of the chain (between Adnan and Ishmael,) might at first sight make one doubt whether Adnan were really of Ishmaelite issue. But opinion is so unanimous with regard to that descent, that not to admit its truth would be an excess of scepticism. The Arabs of the Hejaz and Najd, have always (?) regarded Ishmael as their ancestor. This conviction, the source of their respect for the memory of Abraham, is too genernal, and too deep, not to repose on a real foundation. In fine, Mahomet, who gloried in his Ishmaelite origin, was never contradicted on that point by his enemies, the Jews.

I accept then the legend, interpreted in this sense, that at a time more or less posterior to Nebuchadnezzar II., some feeble relies of the race of Ishmael, designated under the collective and anticipative denomination of Maadd, and preserved, it may be, amongst the Israelites, appeared in the country of Mecca, occupied then by the Jorhomites: - that in the sequel, Maadd, son of Adnan (not now in the collective, but probably individual sense,) one of the descendants of Ishmael, united himself, by marriage, with the tribe of Jorhom, anni became the progenitor or a numerous population, which subsequently covered the Hejaz and Najd.

"Here occurs a singular approximation of two distant events. This establisment of Maadd on the territory of Mecca, and his marriage with the Jorhom princess, are an exact repetition of what is reported of Ishmael his ancestor. In this double set of facts, Ishmael is undoubtedly a myth; Maadd is probably a reality." M. C. de Perceval, vol. i. p. 183. Cnf. also the notes at pp. cxciii. and cxciv. of this chapter.

⁴⁰ Herod. iii. 8. The identification generally held between Oratal and Allahu Taala, appears to me too remote and fanciful for adoption; but see M. C. de Perceval, vol i. p. 174; Rosenmuller's Geog. vol iii. p. 294; and Pococke's Specimen, p. 110. For there are the various readings and .

⁴¹ . Herod. iii. 8. Thus the hands of the contracting parties were first cut with a sharp stone, and the blood was then rubbed upon seven stones placed in the midst, and at the same time the divinities were invoked. There is here a close blending or the stones with religious worship. The number seven is also sacred or mythical at Mecca, being the measure of the circuits round the Kaaba and of the times of running from Marwa to Safa.

⁴² M. C. de Perceval vol.i, p. 174, and authorities there cited.

⁴³ See the authorities quoted by Sprenger, p. 15.

⁴⁴ That the Bani Jorhom must have had a hand either in the construction or repair of the Kaaba, Zohak In his Mollaaca testifies: -

"I swear by that house, which is circumambulated by the men of the Coreish and Jorhom, who also built it-" Sir W. Jones, vol x., p. 356; M. C. de Perceval vol. iii. p. 532.

It will also be remembered that when the Jorhomites were expelled (about 200 A.D.) the black stone is said to have been secreted by the Bani Iyad and produced by the Bani Khozza; according to which tradition, (if it is to be credited,) the worship of the Kaaba and its mysterious stone must then have been of ancient standing. See above, note p. cxcix.

⁴⁵ The name of Abd Shams, "servant" or "votary of the Sun," occurs in the Himyar dynasty about the eighth century B.C.; and again in the fourth century. One of these is said to hare restored Ayn Shams or Heliopolis, (M. C. de Perceval vol.i, p.52); but the tradition probably originated in the name. The stars worshipped by the various tribes are specified by M.C. de Perceval, vol. i p. 349; see alao Pococke's Specimen, p. 4. Mahomet represents the people of Saba as worshipping the sun in the days of Solomon. Sura xxvii, v. 25. Isaf and Naila, whose statues were worshipped at Mecca, are said to have been the son and daughter of Dhib and Sohail, i.e. the constellations of the Wolf and Canopus; and were thus probably connected with the adoration of these heavenly bodies. M.C. de Perceval vol. i. p. 199; see also in Sale's Preliminary Discourse a notice of the constellations worshipped by the Arabs, (pp. 19 and 20). In Sura liii. 49, is an evident allusion to the adoration of Al Shira, or Sirius

⁴⁶ See above, p. clxi.

⁴⁷ M. C. de Perceval, vol. i. p. 270; Hishami p. 27. "Sharahstany informs us that there was an opinion among the Arabs, that the walking round the Kaaba and other ceremonics, were symbolical of the motion of the planet; and of other astronomical facts." Sprenger's Mohammad, p. 6. In a note authority is given for considering the Arabs to be worshippers of the sun, moon, and stars; and the constellations adored by each tribe are specified.

⁴⁸ Hishami, p. 27 and 28, where the various shrines and their localities and adherent tribes are enumerated; see also M. C. de Perceval, vol. i pp. 113, 198, 223, 209; and Sprenger, p. 78.

For idolatry at Hira consult M.C. de Perceval vol. ii. pp. 99, 100, 132; at Medina, Katib al Wackidi, p. 268 1/2, and many subsequent passages; Hishami, p. 153; and M. C. de Perceval vol. ii. pp. 649 and 688. There was a temple of Monat at Medina at Misuhallal Cudeid towards the sea. But it is needless to specify farther.

As to the ceremonies, even the inviolability of the holy territory did not want its counterpart. We read of a Haram or sacred temple and enclosure instituted in the fifth century by the Bani Ghatafin in imitation of that at Mecca. We have no farther particulars to enable us to judge whether it was a simple imitation, or aspired to any independent origin. It was destroyed by Zohair the Yemen ruler of the B. Taghlib about the middle of that century. M. C. de Perceval vol. ii. p. 263. See also the account of the Kaaba of Najran formed on the model of that of Meect Ibid. vol i. p. 160.

⁴⁹ Hishami, p. 27; M. C. de Perceval, vol. i. p.197. Hishami notices a large stone worshipped by the Bani Malkan, at which they used to sacrifice animals. Compare also the religious ceremony connected with stone; as noticed by Herodotus p. ccx note.

In the second century Maxiumus Tyrius speaks of the Arabs generally as worshipping a square stone.

Gibbon in referring to the subject adds, "these stones were no other than the of Syria and Greece so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity." chap 1 note. If the derivation for this word, bait-allah or "house of god," he correct, it might possibly be found to illustrate and confirm the origin of stone-worship among the Arabs as given by Iba Ishac in the text.

⁵⁰ The supply of water is inexhaustible, though not perfectly sweet. The authorities on this subject will be brought together in the following chapter.

⁵¹ See Sprenger's Mohammed, p. 14.

⁵² The only remains in the way of buildings at Mecca, besides the Kaaba, consisted of the well Zamzam which, when the city decayed, was neglected and choked up. It was discovered and cleared out by Mahomet's grandfather, who recognized the traces of it. Its foundations and masonry must have been of great solidity and excellent structure, and it is no doubt a remnant of the works which adorned Mecca in its primeval prosperity.

There may possibly also have been buildings and a populous settlement in the valley leading to Arafat. This would he the more likely if we were sure that the Minaei of classical writers had any connection with the Mina of this valley. "This basin," says Lieut. Burton, "was doubtless thickly populated in ancient times," vol. iii. p. 248.

⁵³ Dr. Sprenger attributes the Abrahamic doctrine to the religious enquirers who preceded Mahomet at Mecca, and who sought after spiritual truth both in Christianity and Judaism. But it does not appear in what way such enquiry could originate in tradition of this nature.

He adds that these traditions were "neither ancient nor general among the pagan Arabs." But that such traditions were universally received in the time of Mahomet, the names then in use, Macam Ibrahim and Macam Ismail, for spots in the vicinity of the Kaaba, seem most clearly to prove; and, as they could not have gained so general a currency suddenly, the legends must be regnrded as of ancient date even in Mahomet's time.

Dr. Sprenger thus argues: -"We find no connexion between the tenets of Moses, and those of the Haramites; and though bililical names are very freuqent among the Mussulmans, we do not find one instance of their occurrence among the pagans of the Hejaz before Mohammed," p.103. But these reasons do not affect my theory: for(l) I hold that the religion or the Kaaba was instituted by the Pagans themselves, the Abrahamic tradition being simply super-imposed; and (2) It was super-imposed not by Jews or Israelites, but by Abrahamic tribes of (probably) Ishmaelitic descent, who had a very different class of personal names from that of the Jews, as is evident from Genesis. On the other hand, the affinity of Arabic with Hebrew proves a certain community of origin, and (its has been before shown) renders probable the existence of Abrahamic tradition among the Arabs.

⁵⁴ Chap. ii. p. cxxv.

⁵⁵ The early history of Arabia gives ample proof of this. When Mahomet took Kheibar, he questioned its unfortunate Jewish chief's as to "the utensils which they used to lend to the people of Mecca" Katib al Wackidi, p.122. The unbelieving Coreish consulted the Jews whether their own religion was not better than Mahomet's, and were assured that it was. Hishami, pp. 194 and 285; Sura iv. v.49; and Sale's note. Mahomet himself; till after his arrival at Medina, showed great respect and deference to the Jews, and he professed to follow their Scripture and its doctrine to the end of his life, though he reserved to himself the authority to determine what the trite doctrine was.

In the list of Jorhom Kings of Mecca we find, 76-106 A.D. the remarkable name of ABD AL MASIH, or "servant of the Messiah." M.C. de Perceval concludes that the title is a Christian one, that its bearer lived therefore after the Christian era, and that Jesus Christ was then one of the divinities of the Hejaz. But neither fact seems to me deducible from the name. It is hardly credible that, at so early a period, any Arab Prince assumed that title as a Christian one; it is incomparably more probable that it was or Jewish or Abrahamic origin, and was assumed at the time when the expectation of a Messiah was current - if indeed the name be not a mere traditional fiction. The legend, that the image of Jesus and the Virgin was sculptured on a pillar of the Kaaba, and adored by the Arabs, is not an early or a well supported one, and in itself is improbable. Christianity never found much favour at Mecea and, as I will attempt to show in the concluding chapter of this work, Mahomet was singularly ignorant regarding it.

⁵⁶ It is to this source that we may trace the Arab doctrine of a Supreme Being, to whom their gods and idols were subordinate. The title of Allah Taala, THE MOST HIGH GOD, was commonly need long before Mahomet to designate this conception. But in some tribes, the idea had become so materialized that a portion of their votive offerings was assigned to the Great God, just as a portion was allotted to their idols. M.C. de Perceval, vol. i. p. 113; Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 18. The notion of a Supreme Divinity to be represented by no sensible symbol, is clearly not cognate with any of the indigenous forms of Arab superstition. It was borrowed directly from the Jews, or from some other Abrabamic race among whom contact with the Jews had preserved or revived the knowledge of the "God of Abraham."

Familiarity with the Abrahamic races also introduced the doctrine of the Immortality of the soul, and the Resurrection from the dead; but these were held with many fantastic ideas of Arab growth. Revenge pictured the murdered soul as a bird chirping for retribution against the murderer. A camel was sometimes left to starve at the grave of his master, that he might be ready at the resurrection again to carry him upon his back!

A vast variety of Scriptural language and terminology was also in common use, or at least sufficiently in use to be commonly understood. Faith, Repentance, Heaven and Hell, the Devil and his Angels, the Heavenly Angels, Gabriel the Messenger of the Lord, are a specimen of Ideas and expressions which, acquired from a Jewish source, were either current or ready for adoption. Similarly familiar were the stories of the Fall of Man, the Flood, the destruction of the cities of the plain, &C -- so that there was an extensive substratum of crude ideas and unwrought knowledge or conception bordering upon the domain or the spiritual, ready to the hand of Mahomet.