rise to a tribe called the latter Ad, who were afterwards changed into monkeys".

Some commentators on the Korân" tell us these old Adites were of prodigious stature, the largest being 100 cubits high, and the least 60; which extraordinary size they pretend to prove by the testimony of the Korân*.

The tribe of Thamûd were the posterity of Thamûd, the son of Gather, the son of Aram, who falling into idolatry, the prophet Sâleh was sent to bring them back to the worship of the true God. This prophet lived between the time of Hûd and of Abraham, and therefore cannot be the same with the patriarch Selah, as Mr. d'Herbelot imagines". The learned Bochart with more probability takes him to be Phaleg. A small number of the people of Thamûd hearkened to the remonstrances of Sâleh, but the rest requiring, as a proof of his mission, that he should cause a she-camel big with young to come out of a rock in their presence, he accordingly obtained it of GOD, and the camel was immediately delivered of a young one ready weaned; but they, instead of believing, cut the hamstrings of the camel, and killed her; at which act of impiety GOD being highly displeased, three days after struck them dead in their houses by an earthquake and a terrible noise from heaven, which, some say, was the voice of Gabriel, the archangel, crying aloud, Die all of you. Sâleh, with those who were reformed by him, were saved from this destruction; the prophet going into Palestine, and from thence to Mecca, where he ended his days.

b

This tribe first dwelt in Yaman, but being expelled thence by Hamyar, the son of Saba", they settled in the territory of Hejr, in the province of Hejâz, where their habitations, cut out of the rocks, mentioned in the Korâne, are still to be seen, and also the crack of

"Poc. Spec. 36.

w Jallalo' ddin & Zamakhshari.

y Or Gether. V. Gen. x. 23. 2 D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. 740.

Geogr. Sac,

Spec. 57,

b See D'Herbel. 366.

e Kor. cap. 15.

c Ebn Shohnah.

the rock whence the camel issued, which, as an eye witness hath declared, is 60 cubits wide. These houses of the Thamudites being of the ordinary proportion, are used as an argument to convince those of a mistake who make this people to have been of a gigantic stature.

The tragical destructions of these two potent tribes are often insisted on in the Korân, as instances of GOD's judgment on obstinate unbelievers.

The tribe of Tasm were the posterity of Lûd, the son of Sem, and Jadis, of the descendants of Jether. These two tribes dwelt promiscuously together under the government of Tasm, till a certain tyrant made a law, that no maid of the tribe of Jadîs should marry, unless first deflowered by him'; which the Jadisians not enduring, formed a conspiracy, and inviting the king and chiefs of Tasm to an entertainment, privately hid their swords in the sand, and in the midst of their mirth fell on them, and slew them all, and extirpated the greatest part of that tribe: however, the few who escaped obtaining aid of the king of Yaman, then (as is said) Dhu Habshân Ebn Akrân, assaulted Jadîs, and utterly destroyed them, there being scarce any mention made from that time of either of those tribes'.

The former tribe of Jorham (whose ancestor some pretend was one of the SO persons saved in the ark with Noah, according to a Mohammedan traditionTM) was contemporary with Ad, and utterly perished". The tribe of Amalek were descended from Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, the son of Esau°; though some of the oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham, the son of Noah', and others the son of Azd, the son of Sem. The posterity of this person rendered them

f Abu Musa al Ashari. & V. Poc. Spec. 37. Abulfeda. i A like custom is said to have been in some manors in England, and also in Scotland, where it was called Culliage or Cullage, having been established by K.Ewen, and abolished by Malcolm III. See Bayle's Dict. Art. Sixte IV. Rem. H. k Poc. Spec. 60. 1 Ib. 37, &c. m Ib. p. 38. n Ebn Shohnah. P V. D'Herbelot, p. 110.

• Gen. xxxvi. 12.

q Ebn Shohnah.

(Mono-)

Banu

(Kheloj Lowa

Amer Saad)

mah Hareth Caab Asam Josham Awf. Amru)

Amru Abd

Wadd

Hosais

Morrak

of this Family (Jema Sahm Kaláb

was Omeyy a

Ebn Khalf

Zahrah

of this Family

was Ahru Ebn

al As.

Kosa

Uzza

selves very powerful", and before the time of Joseph, conquered the lower Egypt under their king Walid, the first who took the name of Pharaoh, as the eastern writers tell us; seeming by these Amalekites to mean the same people which the Egyptian histories call Phoenician shepherds. But after they had possessed the throne of Egypt for some descents, they were expelled by the natives, and at length totally destroyed by the Israelites".

The present Arabians, according to their own historians, are sprung from two stocks, Kathân, the same with Joctan, the son of Eber", and Adnân, descended in a direct line from Ismael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. The posterity of the former they call al Arab al Ariba*, i.e. the genuine or pure Arabs: and those of the latter al Arab al Mostâreba, i. e. naturalised or insititious Arabs; though some reckon the ancient lost tribes to have been the only pure Arabians, and therefore call the posterity of Kahtân also Mótareba, which word likewise signifies insititious Arabs, though in a nearer degree than Mostâreba; the descendants of Ismael being the more distant graff.

The posterity of Ismael have no claim to be admitted as pure Arabs; their ancestor being by origin and language an Hebrew, but having made an alliance with the Jorhamites, by marrying a daughter of Modad, and accustomed himself to their manner of living and language, his descendants became blended with them into one nation. The uncertainty of the descents between Ismael and Adnân, is the reason why they seldom trace their genealogies higher than the latter, whom they acknowledge as father of their tribes; the descents from him downwards being pretty certain and uncontroverted".

r V. Numb. xxiv. 20. s Mirât Caïnât. t V. Joseph. cont. Apion. 1. i. " V. Exod. xvii. 18, &c. 1 Sam. xv. 2, &c. Ib. xxvii. 8, 9 1 Chron. iv. 43. w R. Saad. in vers. Arab. Pentat. Gen. x. 25. Some

writers make Kahtân a descendant of Ismael, but against the current of oriental historians. See Poc. Spec. 39. * An expression something like that of St. Paul, who calls himself an Hebrew of the Hebrews, Philip. iii. 5. y Poc. Spec. p. 40.