may be questioned whether such notions as his are often preludes to the acceptance of Christianity. A few churches were, indeed, built in his reign, through the influence of the Roman Emperor in the East, Constantius, but Christians remained few and isolated. Their neighbours the Abyssinians were Christians, and avenged the murderous persecutions of Dhou-Nowâs. The noble race of Ghassan were in part converted, probably about the date of the edicts of Constantine, in favour of Christianity in the fourth century: and at a much later date (about A. D. 600) a tribe called the Taghlibites, in Mesopotamia. It is worthy of observation that S. Simeon Stylites (about A. D. 410) made considerable impression upon them. We need hardly add, what is painfully well known, that the Arab independence of thought displayed itself even among the Christians in an acceptance of nearly every kind of heresy. There might be found in the peninsula, Arians, Eutychians, Nestorians, and Ebionites; partisans of Beryllus, the Collyridians, and the Nazareans.1

The form of idolatry most in vogue was that known as the Sabian, which at the time of Cyrus divided the world with the Magian, or worship of fire. Their idols, though in theory admitted to be intercessors only with Allah, received in reality far more of homage and attention. The sun and moon were adored by some, certain of the planets by others; some made prayers to Sirius, some to that fine star which even in Europe is best known by its Arab name of Alde

'The authorities are given by Sale, sect. ii.

2 Prideaux's Connexion, &c. part i. book iii.

baran. Some of their superstitions were dark and cruel. Those who believed in a future life would often slay a camel on the tomb of a relation or friend, or, far worse, fasten it and let it die of hunger, that it might be ready to be ridden by the deceased on the day of judgment. They thought, too, that the soul flitted over the grave in the form of an owl (a belief alluded to in one of the poems we have cited); and that if the person had been murdered the bird cried 'Escourri' (i. e. give me drink), and ceased not till the blood of the murderer had been shed. But the most revolting and inhuman of their customs was one that obtained in some quarters of burying alive a female infant immediately it was born. This most wicked and unnatural practice arose sometimes from the reluctance to share nourishment with one who could not aid in the fight and foray, sometimes from a fierce and excessive pride, lest they should ever chance to endure the shame of seeing a daughter carried off and dishonoured by their enemies. Belief in genii and ghouls, (so well known to us as pervading the more recent scenery of the immortal Thousand and One Nights,') was likewise very widely extended. And although the Arabs would have probably shrunk, (as has been intimated,) even in their worst days, from imagining a goddess so nearly on a level with Jupiter as Juno, yet the angels whom they worshipped were considered to be feminine, and called Benat-Allah, or daughters of God."

1 This star, which is of great importance in navigation, forms the eye of Taurus near the Pleiades. A line through Orion's belt upwards almost touches it, just as the downward line from the same belt leads to Sirius.

The Arab women frequently display, in scenes of history, great devotedness and affection as mothers, but very seldom as wives. The reason is obvious; polygamy being unrestricted, and divorce at will on the part of the husband, and (in case of very noble birth) on the side of the wife also, a woman might well regard her son as her own, but how could she venture to call her husband so? She possessed, so to speak, but a share of him at best, and the duration even of that share was never certain and assured. Moreover, before the rise of Mahometanism, a widow was considered as a part of the heritage of her deceased husband; and thence arose unions between sons-in-law and mothers-inlaw, which were afterwards justly stigmatized as odious. No wonder that a sort of vague syncretism was the creed of many: Jewish and Christian ideas insinuated themselves in some degree even into the minds of pagans. The famous temple, common to all the tribes, at Mecca, the Caaba, had become a kind of Pantheon; and, strange to say, among the images of idols, there

2

1 Caussin.

2 We do not dwell upon the Caaba, because it has so often been described. A picture (from an old MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford) is given by Ockley, in his History of the Saracens,' and a similar one by Sale. It was certainly a very ancient building: and the statue of Abraham is supposed, with reason, to indicate an Ishmaelite origin. The Koreish, as is well known, had enjoyed the custody of this temple for many years before the birth of Mahomet. Cossay, the first of that tribe who obtained it, rebuilt the temple about A. D. 450. (Caussin, Sale, Ockley, Irving, &c.) In the centre was the famous black stone, given to Ishmael by the angel Gabriel. It was originally white; but became black, either from the effects of fire, or, as other authors maintained, from the sins of those who touched it. (Caussin, Chrichton, &c.)

was a Byzantine figure of the Madonna, holding the Divine Infant in her arms.1

Such were the leading characteristics of that nation, whose boast it was that God had bestowed upon them four great and peculiar privileges: that their turbans should be their diadems; their tents their homes; their swords their entrenchments; and their poems their laws. If a philosophic observer, like Thucydides, had cast his glance upon them, he might possibly have conjectured, (as that historian almost prophetically said of the Scythians,) that if once at unity among themselves, they would be most difficult to resist. Unity was in store for both. The Scythians attained it under the sway of those great and terrible conquerors, Attila, Zingis, and Timour; the Arabians under the teaching and rule of Mahomet.

Some years before the preaching of Mahomet, there appeared among the idolatrous natives of Arabia, certain signs of distrust and dissatisfaction with the state of religion. At a great meeting of the tribe of the Koreish, four men, who seem to have been in advance of their countrymen, held a secret meeting, and imparted to each other their sentiments. Our fellow-countrymen,' said they, ' are in a wrong path, they are far astray from the religion of Abraham. What is this pretended 'divinity to which they immolate victims, and around which they make solemn processions? 'A dumb and senseless block of stone, incapable ' of good or evil. It is all a mistake: seek we

1

Renan, Caussin.

? Sale.

3

Thucyd. ii. 97.

the truth, seek we the pure religion of our father 'Abraham? To find it, let us quit our country, 'if need be, and traverse foreign lands.'

The four who thus spake were Waraca, son of Naufal; Othman, son of Houwayrith; Obaydallah, son of Djahch; and Zayd, son of Amr. How deep-seated was their sense of a religious void, how sincere their craving after truth, how earnest their search after its hidden treasures, may be gathered from the fact that three out of the four (namely, Waraca, Othman, and Obaydallah) became converts to the faith of Christ: Waraca and Othman without any intermediate state of transition; Obaydallah, after having lived long enough to try, but without satisfaction of his heart's needs, the creed of the Arabian seer.1

Whether there was anything in the inmost soul of Zayd which made it less fit for the reception of divine truth than those of his companions, the Judge of all men can alone decide. He was certainly less favoured in external circumstances. His comrades received the Faith, more or less directly, from the teaching of strangers; but the relatives of Zayd, offended at his evident estrangement from pagan superstitions, would not suffer him to travel, and consult the wise of other lands. Detained at Mecca, Zayd went day by day to the Caaba, and prayed the Almighty to enlighten

1 Caussin, tom. i. p. 321, et alibi. Waraca had, however, entertained the idea that an Arabian prophet was at hand, and so spoke to his cousin Kadijah as rather to confirm her belief in her husband, Mahomet. (Caussin, tom. i. p. 356.) But this may possibly have taken place before his conversion-which, by the way, M. Renan (p. 1090) omits altogether-unless Waraca regarded Mahomet as an ultimate apostle of Christianity.