which are generally on the summits of mountains. Burckhardt informs us that the only external appearance of mourning he ever observed was practised among some Arab tribes in Egypt, the females of which dye their hands and feet with indigo, and abstain from milk for eight days, alleging that the whiteness of milk does not accord with the sable gloom of their minds. No religious service of any description is observed on such occasions. Christians are treated with great contempt by the Wahabees, yet their animosity towards them is not so fierce as that which they cherish towards the Turks, whom they denounce as impious heretics; and both Jews and Christians are allowed the free exercise of their religious ceremonies if they punctually pay tribute. In general, however, it may be remarked, that the Wahabees, like the Mahometans, are very intolerant, and seldom allow any person to remain among them who professes a different religious belief.

It is difficult to obtain a correct estimate of the religious state of Arabia. Many Jews are found in several towns and districts, but there are comparatively few Christians. Niebuhr says, that previous to his time no Christians were allowed to enter Mecca, and it is not likely that the prejudices which then existed have been removed. The same observation applies to Medina, the other sacred city of the Mahometans; and it may be generally observed, that in Arabia, like other Mahometan countries, both Jews and Christians are treated with great hatred and contempt. Even the Bedouin Arabs, who are described as the most tolerant of the Eastern nations, would scarcely permit a Christian to remain among them, unless they were persuaded he could be of essential service to them; and Christians are chiefly classed with the foreign race of the Turks, whom they most heartily despise. Yet with some of the tribes, those Christians who have adopted the manners of the Arabs, and those Christians who wander among them following a profession similar to that of

hawkers of goods or pedlars in this country, are said to be kindly received. The ancient Pagan Arabs, as we have seen under the article ARABIA, were grossly idolatrous. Some of them, from their constant intercourse with Persia, had imbibed the opinions of the Magi, or fireworshippers, and others of them had been proselytized to the Jewish faith. It is, however, indisputable, that the doctrines. of Christianity were very early preached in Arabia. We find some Arabians, who were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, mentioned among the converts on that memorable occasion, when the Apostles spoke in "divers tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance," and when St Peter's eloquence gained three thousand of his motley hearers to the church. St Paul resided for some time in the Arabian district of Gassan (Gal. i. 17), and it is probable that some of the merchants who visited Bozra and Damascus became converts to the Christian faith. It is traditionally alleged, and is believed in the Eastern Churches, that St Thomas the Apostle preached in Arabia Felix on his way to India, where he suffered martyrdom. We are informed by Eusebius, that Origen, presbyter of Alexandria, and a great ornament of the Church in his time, repaired to Arabia on the invitation of an Arab prince or chief, and succeeded in converting a whole tribe of Bedouins to the Christian faith. Nor was this the only victory achieved by that venerable presbyter. In his progress through the country he found numbers of persons who denied the immortality of the soul. In a general meeting Origen discussed the subject, and succeeded in gaining his hearers to the orthodox faith. Mosheim also informs us, that Origen disputed with Beryllus, bishop of Bozra, who had espoused the same view of our Saviour's divine and human nature as that held by the Monophysites, or Jacobites, and which is still maintained in the Armenian Church, and that the prelate acknowledged his error, and avowed himself a believer in the pre-existence of Christ's divine nature.

We have already observed, that during the third and fourth centuries Arabia became the asylum of many expatriated Jews, and of all those Arians whom the orthodox Christians compelled to leave the Roman Empire. At that time the Christian Arab tribes were at least seven in number; many churches were planted in the district of Hira; and Procopius alleges that "the disciples of Christ had filled the provinces of Arabia with the churches of God." The Church indeed must have been organized in Arabia at a very early period. Various dioceses are mentioned in the northern provinces; Suez, Sinai, Feiran, Petra, Akaba or Ailah, and Bozra, were all the seats of bishops in the earliest ages of Christianity, and some of the Arabian prelates are mentioned as connected with the General Councils of the primitive times. The Monophysites, or Jacobites, had two bishops, one of whom resided near Bagdad, and the other, who superintended the Scenite Arabs, resided at Hira, and both were subject to the metropolitan of the East. The Nestorians had a bishop subject to their own patriarch, and the tribe of Tai had also its episcopal governor. There were three bishoprics in Arabia Felix, and it is probable there were others, the names of which are now lost. It has been doubted whether the Arabs ever possessed a complete copy of the Scriptures in their own language; but from the assertion of one of the Fathers in the fifth century, that the Scriptures were translated into all the "barbaric languages," it has been justly inferred that the Arabian prelates and Christians were familiar with the greater part of the sacred record. This conjecture receives additional confirmation from the conduct of Mahomet in incorporating so many facts of the Mosaic history with his fabulous stories and traditions in the Koran, with most of which the Arabians must have been previously familiar, for they never forgot their origin and descent. "As Arabia," observes a recent writer, "had been a kind of sanctuary for the proscribed and persecuted exiles of all sects

and denominations, we may naturally suppose that its churches were overrun with the prevailing errors and corruptions which unhappily were soon grafted on the pure and simple doctrines of the Apostles. The facility with which the Arabs embraced the absurdities of Paganism, seems to have disposed them to a like readiness in falling in with the Christian heresies. The principles of the Ebionites and Nazarenes, who denied the divinity of Christ-of the Nestorians, who taught that he had not only two natures but two persons-and of the Collyridians, who paid divine honours to the Virgin Mary, were widely propagated among them. A host of obscurer sects all rose up in the theological arena to foment new divisions, and perplex religion with trivial and unintelligible distinctions. Each of these had their leaders and abettors, whose names gave a sanction to the wildest reveries that human imagination could invent. Such was the lamentable state of religion and morals-of heretical divisions and clerical degeneracy, which paved the way for the downfall of the Eastern Church; and such were the favourable opportunities held out to the daring fanaticism of the Arabian Prophet for establishing that gigantic superstition wlrich so soon threw its baleful shadow over the first conquests of the Apostles, and the fairest provinces of Christianity."

The Jews are described as being in a peculiarly humiliating condition in Arabia at the present time, and their situation at Mocha, one of the most important towns, if not the principal sea-port, of Arabia Felix on the Red Sea, appears to be a fair representation of their general state throughout the Arabian peninsula. They occupy a miserable suburb of Mocha, and the badge of their unfortunate race is suffering and contempt. They are not allowed to wear turbans, and the Arabs may spit upon and strike them with impunity. They gain a livelihood by working as goldsmiths and jewellers, and are alleged to have private stills, and retail spirits to the less orthodox

Respecting the Arabic translations of the Scriptures we may observe, that a partial one of the Old Testament was executed by a learned Rabbi, named SaadiasGaon, or Saadias the Excellent, who was born at Pithoni in Egypt about the year 890 of the Christian era. A translation of the New Testament in Arabic was published in 1616 by Thomas Van Erpe, or, as he is better known by his classical designation, Erpentius, a native of Holland, who wrote a number of works on Arabian literature. In 1628, the Arabic Bible appeared in the Paris Polyglott, and in 1657 it appeared in the London Polyglott. In 1671, an edition of the Arabic Bible was printed and published at Rome, under the auspices of the College De Propaganda Fide, for the use of the Eastern Church. It was a kind of posthumous work by Philip Guadaguolo, a very eminent Italian orientalist, who was born about 1596, and died in 1656. This translation was published under the superintendence of Louis Maracci, a learned professor of Arabic, who was born at Lucca in 1612, and died in 1700. This is not considered an able translation of the Bible into Arabic, and so little was it calculated to answer the purpose of propagating Christianity in the East, that it was hardly intelligible to those for whom it was intended-a circumstance which might have arisen from the manner in which Maracci exercised his editorship. As a proof of this, he published an edition of the Koran at Padua, in 1698, in Arabic and Latin, to which he subjoined notes, with a Refutation, and a Life of Mahomet. It has been held that the argumentative part is not always solid in this work, and that the editor appears to have been more versed in the Mussulman authors than in philology and theology, while the critics

the printing of the language. In 1700, an Arabic translation of the Bible was published in folio; and in 1727, the Society in London for Promoting Christian Knowledge printed an edition of the New Testament in Arabic, which was never offered for sale, but was gratui tously distributed in the East. Of this translation it is said that no fewer than 10,000 copies were printed and circulated. The Propaganda College at Rome again undertook a translation of the Bible into Arabic in 1752, the first volume of which was printed in that year, It ought to have been mentioned previously, however, in connection with the efforts of the Propaganda College, that Sionita Gabriel, a Maronite Christian, and Professor of Oriental Languages at Rome, who died in 1648, went from Rome to Paris to assist in the publication of the Paris Polyglott, and carried with him some Syriac and Arabic Bibles which he had transcribed with his own hand from manuscript copies at Rome, These were first printed in the Paris Polyglott already referred to, and afterwards in the London Polyglott. The Arabic translations of the Bible, however, are chiefly confined to lesser portions than either of the Testaments complete, and nay for the most part be found under the separate books of the Scriptures; but of late years the Bible Societies in England have greatly interested themselves in procuring correct Arabic translations of the Scriptures, and it appears from their Annual Reports that they have met with decided success.

Literature and Science.-There are few academies for learning in Arabia, and men of profound scholarship have rarely emanated from this singular nation. A people for centuries lying night and day in the open plains and under a cloudless sky, were not likely to become attached to literature and science, while their predatory and wandering habits naturally fostered their prejudices, their ignorance, and their barbarism. The Arabians themselves admit that before the time of

the Saracens, that is, before the prophetical announcement by Mahomet, they were sunk in deplorable uncivilization, and the age preceding the appearance of Mahomet they term the age of ignorance. As tronomy appears to have been the first science which attracted their attention, yet they made no farther progress in it than merely giving names to fixed stars, unlike the practice of the Chaldeans and Greeks, whose chief attention was directed to the planets. But the Arabs progressed considerably at an early period in their advancement towards civilization. The modern Arabs imagine that their Prophet rescued them from their former state of barbarism,—an idea which results from their blind devotion to the doctrines of the Koran. So far from being reliev ed by their adoption of the Moslem creed, Mahomet based his religious system on the ignorance and prejudices of his countrymen, making the Koran the sole rule of faith and source of instruction, and the study of it the only occupation of their learned men. He prohibited the cultivation of the arts and sciences, which he made a capital offence, and for nearly two centuries after his death a long night of intellectual darkness enveloped the Arabian peninsula. But in the middle of the eighth century, when the city of Bagdad became the capital of the powerful empire of the Caliphs, many works upon philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine, were translated from the Greek, some valuable manuscripts in the Persian, Chaldean, and Egyptian languages, which had escaped the devastating career of Omar and the Saracen army, were collected, and learned men employed to translate them into Arabic, after which, by a curious inconsistency, the original manuscripts were ordered to be destroyed. There are schools or academies in the cities and towns, chiefly attached to mosques, in which various branches of learning are taught, but from want of well-qualified ructors, the progress of the pupils is mited and imperfect. Every hows that the Arabians commu

nicated to Europe the numerical characters or figures which tend to abridge and simplify calculations, and without which the exact sciences could not have been studied so successfully as they are in modern times. In short, with all their disadvantages and peculiarities, literature in general is greatly indebted to the Arabians and the Saracens. History was indeed greatly neglected by the ancient Arabs, but their successors the Moslems cultivated that valuable study with great assiduity, and have left, as the result of their labours, many works comprising annals, chronicles, and memoirs, besides descriptions of particular kingdoms, provinces, and towns. Works on biography, especially lives of the caliphs and other distinguished persons, were numerous, and we find the Moors or Saracens of Spain possessing historical dictionaries, encyclopædias, gazetteers, and various works of a similar description. The Saracens were also well acquainted with numismatics, and there are treatises extant by Arabian writers on money, and on legal weights and measures, and commentaries on the first inventors of the arts. They had a tolerably accurate knowledge of geography, but their progress in statistics and political economy was extremely limited. The same observation applies to their knowledge of anatomy and surgery, and their writings on these subjects are almost literal translations from Greek writers; yet they made very considerable proficiency in pharmacy, and many terms, such as naphtha, camphor, syrup, and jalap, are of Arabian origin. To them we owe most of our spices and aromatics, such as nutmegs, cloves, and mace; and manna, senna, rhubarb, tamarinds, cassia, and other gentle purgatives, unknown to the Greeks, were first introduced by them. Botany was partially cultivated, but the world is indebted to them for their discoveries in chemistry, of which it is well observed they may be considered the inventors, as it respects its introduction into medicine. The Saracens zealously cultivated astrology, astronomy, and