ART. II.-1. Travels in Arabia, comprehending an Account of those Territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred. By the late John Lewis Burckhardt. Published by Authority of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1829.

2. Mahomedanism Unveiled; an Inquiry, in which that ArchHeresy, its Diffusion and Continuance, are examined on a new principle, tending to confirm the Evidences, and aid the Propagation, of the Christian Faith. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B.D., Chancellor of Ardfert, &c. &c. 2 vols. 8vo. London. 1829.

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T is remarkable enough, that the greater portion of a country which has been uninterruptedly inhabited by the descendants of the earliest people of whom history has preserved any record, should be as little known at this day as the most inaccessible regions of the old world, and, perhaps, less than any part of the new. We say the earliest people, for we can see no reason to doubt that the pedigree of the Bedouin is just as well established as that of the Jew. Gibbon, in defiance of all history, sacred and profane, affects to deny this, and, in his usual fashion, informs us, that, in the story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers of their nation'-that they 'imbibed with equal credulity the prodigies of the holy text, and the dreams and traditions of the Jewish Rabbis.' It was no new discovery, as he would insinuate; through every part of the book,' at which he sneers,-in Josephus and other ancient writers -he might have traced, had it suited his purpose, the unbroken stream of the history of the Ishmaelites. However widely the Jews and Arabs may now differ, they still address the God of their common Patriarch in sister dialects; they both, for many ages, dwelt in tents, and pursued the same roving life in search of pasture and springs for their cattle; but the seed of Isaac, after passing through every stage of civilization, and exhibiting, in the variety of their national fortunes, immortal examples of all that can dignify, and of all that can darken, the character of our species, have long since, in visible fulfilment of a series of prophecies, been scattered over the face of the whole earth, as pedlars and traffickers; while the descendants of Ishmael have maintained their original position, and, by their unchanged mode of life, fulfilled no less distinctly the word of the angel of the Lord to Hagar, concerning her son-He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him.' The reader will find the subject of the Ishmaelitish descent of

the

the Arabians treated in a clear and convincing manner, by Mr. Forster, in his learned and valuable work, Mahomedanism Unveiled.'

One reason, perhaps, for the very scanty knowledge we possess of Arabia, is the conviction that very little is to be found there worth knowing, and that little to be gained only at the certainty of great suffering, and the risk of life. Syria, Palestine, and the ancient Chaldea, have been frequently traversed in all directions by travellers, as well as overrun by conquerors; but the interior of Arabia is still just such a blank on our maps as the interior of Africa; if, indeed, it be not rather the less known of the two. From Mekka to Bussora, in a north-east direction, and from Mekka_to_Oman, south-east, the desert is continuous-scarcely interrupted, as the pilgrims state, by any of those wadys or vallies which exist on the great desert of Africa, and which afford a little herbage and water for the cattle of the caravans. The most considerable part of the population is distributed over the narrow strip of land, interjacent between a long mountainous ridge and the eastern shore of the Red Sea, and divided into the two provinces of the Hedjaz and Yemen; the former of which contains the two holy cities of Mekka and Medina; the latter is usually called by Europeans, Arabia Felix. The total population of the Hedjaz, including the Bedouins of the mountains, does not exceed, according to Burckhardt's estimate, two hundred and fifty thousand souls, and that of Yemen may perhaps amount to about as many. On the other side of the Arabian peninsula, along the shore of the Persian gulf, Oman, containing the city of Muscat, Lahsa with a town of the same name, opposite which is the island of Bahrein, and Bussora at the head of the gulf, are the only other parts that can boast of a condensed population, living in towns and stone houses. Over the interior and desert portions are scattered the various tribes of Bedouin Arabs, dwelling in tents, and moving about in quest of food and water for their horses, sheep, and camels. From Mekka, running due east across Arabia to Lahsa, is a ridge of mountainous country, traversed occasionally by commercial Arabs of the two places, and represented to be exceedingly productive in dates, figs, pomegranates, grapes, and various other

fruits.

Among these mountainous districts, it is hardly to be doubted that the purest specimens of aboriginal manners are to be found; and there are various circumstances mentioned by Mr. Burckhardt, which induce us to think it possible that some of these tribes ought not to be considered as entitled to partake in the claim to Abrahamitish descent. We may, in particular, allude

to one most singular custom, militating so strongly against all that we have ever read of Arab jealousy, and nice sensibility of female honour, that the people of whom it is related must, we cannot but think, have separated in very ancient times from, if it ever at all belonged to, the Bedouin family. Nothing but our reliance on Burckhardt's judgment and strict veracity could induce us to transcribe what follows.

The El Merekede, a branch of the great Asyr tribe, indulged in an ancient custom of their forefathers, by assigning to the stranger who alighted at their tents or houses, some female of the family to be his companion during the night, most commonly the host's own wife; but to this barbarous system of hospitality young virgins were never sacrificed. If the stranger rendered himself agreeable to his fair partner, he was treated next morning with the utmost attention by his host, and furnished, on parting, with provisions sufficient for the remainder of his journey: but if, unfortunately, he did not please the lady, his cloak was found next day to want a piece, cut off by her as a signal of contempt. This circumstance being known, the unlucky traveller was driven away with disgrace by all the women and children of the village or encampment. It was not without much difficulty that the Wahabees forced them to renounce this custom; and as there was a scarcity of rain for two years after, the Merekedes regarded this misfortune as a punishnient for having abandoned the laudable rites of hospitality, practised during so many centuries by their ancestors.'-Burckhardt, vol. ii., p. 378.

The nature of the interior, and the fierce manners of the inhabitants, were at all times a sufficient barrier to ward off external invasion, and prevent either Greeks, Persians, Romans, or Turks, -and all have made the trial,-from effecting the entire conquest of Arabia. The ancient writers have, therefore, left us little concerning it; and, in addition to the ferocious character of the wandering Arabs, the more modern fanaticism and intolerance of the religion of Islam have prevented Christian travellers from exploring even the more civilized and commercial parts of this country; the extent of which may be reckoned about some twelve hundred geographical miles in latitude, by eight hundred and fifty in longitude, or as large as France, Spain, and Portugal, together with the British islands. The holy cities of Mekka and Medina, near as they are to the commercial towns of Djidda and Yembo, on the Red Sea, are so strictly prohibited to all but Mussulmans, as to have rarely been visited by Christians, and by these only in the disguise of true believers. No Englishman, that we know of, except one, more than a hundred years ago, ever set foot in either of the holy cities. Gibbon would seem not to have been acquainted with Joseph Pitts's accurate account of Mekka,

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or he would not have said-'our notions of Mekka must be drawn from the Arabians. As no unbeliever is permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent, and the short hints of Thevenot are taken from the suspicious mouth of an African renegado.'

The first Christian traveller who, in modern times, made any progress in Arabia, was Ludovico Barthema, a gentleman of Bologna, who, about the year 1503, set out on his travels to investigate quelche particella di questo nostro terreno globo,' and to examine con la propria persona e con gli occhi medesimi,' places and people, plants and animals. His travels through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Persia, and India, are curious and amusing. At Damascus, he insinuated himself into the good graces of a Mameluke captain, about to escort a caravan of pilgrims to Mekka. It consisted of about thirty-five thousand persons, and forty thousand camels, guarded by sixty Mamelukes, for one of whose body Barthema passed. At Medina, he paid his devotions at the tomb of Mahomed. He describes Mekka as situated in a country cursed by God, producing neither tree nor herb, nor fruit, nor even water fit to drink ; but the great temple, with its colonnades, and its thousands of lamps, excites his wonder and admiration. He ridicules the devotions of the pilgrims, which, however, he was obliged to imitate; and at the conclusion of the hady, or pilgrimage, he concealed himself in the house of an acquaintance, until he found means to escape to Djidda, where he took shipping for Aden. Here he details with great good humour an adventure which threw him into prison, with an account of his assuming the character of an idiot, of the sultana falling in love with him, and of his escape to Ormuz, whence he proceeded through Persia to India. Barthema, by the way, a man of sound understanding, and apparently worthy of all credit, describes very minutely two unicorns which he saw at Mekka, sent as a present from the king of Ethiopia to the sultan of Mekka, and pledges his faith to the world that what he saw he has described with a strict regard to truth.

Our next traveller in Arabia is Joseph Pitts of Exeter, the Eng-, lishman we have alluded to. This youth, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, desirous of seeing foreign countries, shipped himself as a sailor, contrary, he says, to the wishes of his mother, in the year 1678. The ship was captured by a Moorish pirate, and carried into Algiers, where he and the rest of the crew were sold into slavery, in which condition he remained fifteen years, having, in the course of that time, served three masters. The first was a monster of cruelty, beating and tormenting him for the sole pleasure, it would

seem

seem, of punishing a Christian dog. Sometimes he would hang him up by the heels, and beat him on the soles of the feet till the blood ran out, and then plunge them into hot brine. We have read of the Dutch boors of the Cape of Good Hope flogging their slaves or hottentots by pipes-Pitts experienced something like it at Algiers. My executioner,' says he, 'would fill his pipe, and then give me ten or twenty blows; then stop and smoke his pipe for a while, and then he would at me again; and, when weary, stop again; and thus cruelly would he handle me until his pipe was out. At length this Turkish brute sold him to another, who treated him pretty well, until a younger brother made proposals to him to turn Turk,' which Pitts rejected with disdain. He prevailed on his brother, however, to force him to yield, on the plea that, having been himself a great profligate, guilty of every vice, even to that of murder, his own salvation depended on his bringing over an infidel to the true faith. The resistance of poor Pitts subjected him to treatment of the most cruel description—in vain he pleaded the remorse he would feel in acting against his conscience-in vain the terror of being everlastingly damned '—he was hung up by the legs and beaten as before,-so that, at length, completely exhausted by ill treatment, his head forcibly shaven, and a Turkish dress put upon him, he was compelled to hold up his forefinger, and to repeat the fatal words-La Allah ellallah Mohammed resul Allah-There is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.'* In the midst of the deplorable state of melancholy and despondency, to which this compulsory act had reduced Pitts, he received a letter from his father, entreating him not to fall from his faith, the perusal of which caused him to weep bitterly. Soon after this, his master having his head taken off for engaging in a conspiracy against the Dey, his mistress sold him to a Turkish gentleman, an old bachelor, who took a great liking to him, carried him with him on his pilgrimage to Mekka, and, on their return, gave him his liberty. He now entered as a soldier, was put on board the Algerine fleet, and went to Smyrna, where, by the assistance of the English consul, he effected his Pitts's book is one of those which tell a straightforward

escape.

The celebrated symbol of the Mussulman faith, There is no God but one God,' was the confession in use among the ancient Arabians, from whom it was borrowed by Mabomet. See Mill. § viii. In this formulary, the discrimination between the terms and is peculiarly observable: signifies merely a God, any Deity;

الله

pro

,105 0 الاله

invariably denotes the most High God, and Him alone. DEUS ILLE OPTIMUS MAXIMUS. Fuque peculiari sua forma nomen proprium, respondens IEHOVA. Golius in voc.

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