Chap. ....... Page. .... 357 .... 361 95. Intitled, The Creator (The Angels); containing 45 verses 10. Intitled. The True Believer; containing 85 verses 41. Intitled, Are distinctly explained (The Explanation); containing 54 (55) verses.. 389 393 43. Intitled, The Ornaments of Gold (Dress); containing 89 verses 47. Intitled, Mohammed (The Battle); containing 38 (40) verses 410 48. Intitled, The Victory; containing 29 verses...... 413 49. Intitled, The Inner Apartments (The Sanctuary); containing 18 verses................. 51. Intitled, The Dispersing (The Breath of the Winds); containing 60 verses...... 422 56. Intitled, The Inevitable (The Judgment); containing 99 (96) verses 435 438 58. Intitled, She who disputed (The Complaint); containing 22 verses.. 69., Intitled, The Infallible (The Inevitable Day); containing 52 verses.. 462 70. Intitled, The Steps (The Classes or The Orders); containing 44 verses. 73. Intitled, The Wrapped up (The Prophet clothed in his Dress); containing 19 74. Intitled, The Covered (The Mantle); containing 55 verses.. 469 473 75. Intitled, The Resurrection; containing 40 verses ...... 76. Intitled, Man; containing 31 (30) verses............... 77. Intitled, Those which are sent (The Messengers); containing 50 verses .... 474 ....... 476 verses.. . 478 80. Intitled, He Frowned (The Frowning Brow); containing 42 verses 479 480 ......... 482 84. Intitled, The Rending in sunder (The Opening); containing 23 (25) verscs.... 484 485 86. Intitled, The Star which appeareth by Night (The Nocturnal Star); containing 17 verses ..... 486 Chap. Page 87. Intitled, The Most High; containing 19 verses... 486 88. Intitled, The Overwhelming (The Gloomy Veil); containing 26 (27) verses... 481 488 490 491 491 93. Intitled, The Brightness (The Sun in his Meridian); containing 11 verses ... 492 96. Intitled, Congealed Blood (The Union of the Sexes); containing 19 verses.... 494 99. Intitled, The Earthquake; containing 8 verses.... ... 495 495 496 100. Intitled, The War Horses which run swiftly (The Coursers); con. 11 verses.. 497 105. Intitled, The Elephant; containing 5 verses...... 106. Intitled, Koreish The Koreishites); containing 4 verses 498 499 499 501 107. Intitled, Necessaries (The Succouring Hand); containing 7 verses 501 112. Intitled, The Declaration of God's unity (Unity); containing 4 verses.. 504 113. Intitled, The Day-break (The God of Morning); containing 5 verses ........ 505 505 THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. SECTION !. F THE ARADS BEFORE MOHAMMED, OR, AS THEY EXPRESS IT, IN THE TIME OF IGNORANCE; THEIR HISTORY, RELIGION, LEARNING, AND CUSTOMS. THE Arabs, and the country they inhabit, which themselves call Jezîrat al Arab, or the Peninsula of the Arabians, but we Arabia, were so named from Araba, a small territory in the province of Tehâma;' to which Yarab the son of Kahtân, the father of the ancient Arabs, gave his name, and where, some ages after, dwelt Ismael the son of Abraham by Hagar. The Christian writers for several centuries speak of them under the appellation of Saxons; the most certain derivation of which word is from shark, the east, where the descendants of Joctan, the Kahtân of the Arabs, are placed by Moses,' and in which quarter they dwelt in respect to the Jews.3 The name of Arabia (used in a more extensive sense) sometimes comprehends all that large tract of land bounded by the river Euphrates, the Persian gulf, the Sindian, Indian, and Red Seas, and part of the Mediterranean: above two-thirds of which country, that is, Arabia properly so called, the Arabs have possessed almost from the flood; and have made themselves masters of the rest, either by settlements, or continual incursions; for which reason the Turks and Persians at this day call the whole Arabistân, or the country of the Arabs. But the limits of Arabia, in its more usual and proper sense, are much narrower, as reaching no farther northward than the Isthmus, which runs from Aila to the head of the Persian Gulf, and the borders of the territory of Cûfa; which tract of land the Greeks nearly comprehended under the name of Arabia the Happy. The eastern geographers make Arabia Petræa to belong partly to Egypt, and partly to Shâm or Syria, and the desert Arabia they call the deserts of Syria. Proper Arabia is by the oriental writers generally divided into five provinces, viz. Yaman, Hejâz, Tehâma, Najd, and Yamâma; to which some add Bahrein, as a sixth, but this province the more exact make part of 1 Pocock, Specim. Hist. Arab. 33. 2 Gen. x. 30. See Pocock, Specim. 33, 34. • Golius ad Affragan. 78, 79. Strabo says Arabia Felix was in his time divided into five kingdoms, lib. 16, p. 1129. Irak: others reduce them all to two, Yaman and Hejâz, the last including the three other provinces of Tehâma, Najd, and Yamâma. The province of Yaman, so called either from its situation to the right hand, or south of the temple of Mecca, or else from the happiness and verdure of its soil, extends itself along the Indian Ocean from Aden to cape Rasalgat; part of the Red Sea bounds it on the west and south sides, and the province of Hejâz on the north. It is subdivided into several lesser provinces, as Hadramaut, Shihr, Omân, Najrân, &c. of which Shihr alone produces the frankincense. The metropolis of Yaman is Sanaa, a very ancient city, in former times called Ozal, and much celebrated for its delightful situation; but the prince at present resides about five leagues northward from thence, at a place no less pleasant, called Hisn almawâheb, or the Castle of delights.9 This country has been famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its climate, its fertility and riches,' which induced Alexander the Great, after his return from his Indian expedition, to form a design of conquering it, and fixing there his royal seat; but his death, which happened soon after, prevented the execution of this project. Yet in reality, great part of the riches which the ancients imagined were the produce of Arabia, came really from the Indies, and the coasts of Africa; for the Egyptians, who had engrossed that trade, which was then carried on by way of the Red Sea, to themselves, industriously concealed the truth of the matter, and kept their ports shut, to prevent foreigners penetrating into those countries, or receiving any information thence: and this precaution of theirs on the one side, and the deserts, unpassable to strangers, on the other, were the reason why Arabia was so little known to the Greeks and Romans. The delightfulness and plenty of Yaman are owing to its mountains; for all that part which lies along the Red Sea is a dry, barren desert, in some places ten or twelve leagues over, but in return bounded by those mountains, which being well watered, enjoy an almost continual spring, and besides coffee, the peculiar produce of this country, yield great plenty and variety of fruits, and in par. ticular excellent corn, grapes, and spices. There are no rivers of note in this country, for the streams which at certain times of the year descend from the mountains, seldom reach the sea, being for the most part drunk up and lost in the burning sands of that coast." The soil of the other provinces is much more barren than that of Yaman; the greater part of their territories being covered with dry sands, or rising into rocks, interspersed here and there with some fruitful spots, which receive their greatest advantages from their water and palm trees. The province of Hejâz, so named because it divides Najd from Tehâma, is bounded on the south by Yaman and Tehama, on the west by the Red Sea, on the north by the deserts of Syria, and on the east by the province of Najd. This province is famous for its two chief cities, Mecca and Medina, one of which is celebrated for its temple, and having given birth to Mohammed; and the other for being the place of his residence, for the last ten years of his life, and of his interment. Mecca, sometimes also called Becca, which words are synonymous, and signify a place of great concourse, is certainly one of the most ancient cities in the world: it is by some thought to be the Mesa of the Scripture, a 9 Gol. ad Alfragan. 79. La Roque, Voyage de l'Arab. heur. 121. Gol. ad Alfragan. 79. 87. Voyage de l'Arab. heur. 232. Vide Dionys. Perieges. v. 927. &c. 2 Strabo, lib. 16. p. 1132. Arrian. 161. Voyage de l'Arab. heur. 121. 129 15? Vide Gol. ad Alfrag. 98. Abulfeda Descr. Arab. p. 5. R. Saadias a version. Arab. Pentat. Sefer Juchasin. 135 b. • Gen. x. 30. name not unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be taken from one of Ismael's sons. It is seated in a stony and barren valley, surrounded on al. sides with mountains. The length of Mecca, from south to north, is about two miles, and its breadth, from the foot of the mountain Ajyad to the top of another called Koaikaân, about a mile. In the midst of this space stands the city, built of stone cut from the neighbouring mountains.' There being no springs at Mecca,2 at least none but what are bitter and unfit to drink, except only the well Zemzem, the water of which, though far the best, yet cannot be drank for any continuance, being brackish, and causing eruptions in those who drink plentifully of it, the inhabitants are obliged to use rain-water which they catch in cisterns. But this not being sufficient, several attempts were made to bring water thither from other places by aqueducts; and particularly about Mohammed's time; Zobair, one of the principal men of the tribe of Koreish, endeavoured at a great expense to supply the city with water from mount Arafat, but without success; yet this was effected not many years ago, being begun at the charge of a wife of Solimân the Turkish emperor. But, long before this, another aqueduct had been made from a spring at a considerable distance, which was, after several years' labour, finished by the Khalif al Moktader.7 6 The soil about Mecca is so very barren as to produce no fruits but what are common in the deserts, though the prince or Sharif has a garden well planted at his castle of Marbaa, about three miles westward from the city, where he usually resides. Having therefore no corn or grain of their own growth, they are obliged to fetch it from other places; and Hashem, Moaammed's great-grandfather, then prince of his tribe, the more effectually to supply them with provisions, appointed two caravans to set out yearly for that purpose, the one in summer, and the other in winter: these caravans of purveyors are mentioned in the Korân. The provisions brought by them were distributed also twice a year, viz. in the month of Rajeb, and at the arrival of the pilgrims. They are supplied with dates in great plenty from the adjacent country, and with grapes from Tayef, about sixty miles distant, very few growing at Mecca. The inhabitants of this city are generally very rich, being considerable gainers by the prodigious concourse of people of almost all nations at the yearly pilgrimage, at which time there is a great fair or mart for all kinds of merchandise. They have also great numbers of cattle, and particularly of camels: however, the poorer sort cannot but live very indifferently in a place where almost every necessary of life must be purchased with money. Notwithstanding this great sterility near Mecca, yet you are no sooner out of its territory than you meet on all sides with plenty of good springs and streams of running water, with a great many gardens and cultivated lands.' The temple of Mecca, and the reputed holiness of this territory, will be treated of in a more proper place. Medina, which till Mohammed's retreat thither was called Yathreb, is a walled city about half as big as Mecca, built in a plain, salt in many places, yet tolerably fruitful, particularly in dates, but more especially near the mountains, two of which, Ohod on the north, and Air on the south, are about two leagues distant. Here lies Mohammed interred3 in a mag Gol. ib. 98. See Pitts' account of the Gol. ad Alfrag. 82. See Gen. xxv. 15. Id Vulgò Geogr. Nubiensis, 5. 2 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 124. • Ibid. Sharif al Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 125. Though the notion of Mohammed's being buried at Mecca has been so long exploded |