1 4 The Preliminary Difcourfe'. Se&. I.
made any attempt againft t h e m ' The Romans never conquered any
part of .Arabia properly fo called; the moft they did was to. make
fome tribes in Syria tributary to them, as Pompey did one commanded
by Sampficeramus or Shams’alkeram who reigned at Hems or TLmej'a2;
but none of the Romans, or any other nations that -we know of,
ever penetrated fo far into Arabia as /Elius Gallus under Augujius
Ccefar 3; yet he was fo far from fubduing it, as fome authors pretend +,
• that he was foon obliged to return without effecting any thing confi-
derable, having loft the beft part of his army by ficknefs and other
accidentsK This ill.fuccefs probably difcouraged' the Romans from
attacking them any more; for Prajan notwithftanding the flatteries
o f the hiftorians, and orators of his time, and the medals ftruck by
him, did not fubdue the Arabs-, the province of Arabia, which it is
laid he added to the Roman empire, fcarce reaching farther than
Arabia Petrcea, or the very Ikirts of the country. And we are told
by one author«, that this prince marching againft the. Agarens, who
had revolted, met with fuch a reception that he was obliged to return
without doing any thing.
lHon'o*" The religion of the Arabs before Mohammed, which they call the
the an- fa te o f ignorance, in oppofition to the knowledge of G o d ’ s true
.dent A- worlhip revealed to them by their prophet, was chiefly grofs idolatry;
the Sabian religion having almoft overrun the whole nation, tho’ there
were alfo great numbers of ChriJiians, Jews, and Magians, among them.
I lhall not here tranfcribe what Dr. Prideaux7 has written of the
original o f the Sabian religion; but inftead thereof, infert a brief account
of the tenets and worlhip of that fedt. They do not only
believe one G o d , but produce many ftrong arguments for his unity;
tho’ they alfo pay an adoration to the ftars, or the angels and intelligences
which they fuppofe refide in them, and govern the world
under the fupreme deity. They endeavour to perfedt themfelves in
the four intellectual virtues, and believe the fouls of yvicked men
will be punilhed for 9000 ages, but will afterwards be received to
mercy.. They are obliged to pray three times8 a day; the.firft,
half, an hour or lefs before fun-rife, ordering it fo that they may, juft
as the fun rifes, finilh eight adorations, each containing three proftra-
tions9: the fecond prayer they end at noon, when the fun begins
1 V. Diodor. Sic. ubi fupra: a Strabo. 1. 16. p. 1092. 3 Dion Cailius. 1. 53. p. m. 516.
A Huet Hift. dn commerce Sc de la navigation des anciens. c. 50. s Sec the Whole expedition de-
fcribed atlarge by Strabo. 1. 16. p. 1126, &c. 6 Xiphilin. epit. 7 Connedt. of the hift. of
the Old and New Teft. p. 1. b. 3. . s Some fay feven. See D ’Herbelot. p.726. and Hyde de rel.
vet. Pcrf. p. «28. 9 Others fay they ufe no incurvations or proftrations at all. V.. Hyde ib.
to
Sect. I. The Preliminary Difcourfe.
to decline, in faying which they perform five fuch adoratiofts as the
former: and the fame they do the thirc^time, ending juft as the fun fets.
They fall three times a year, the firft time 30 days, the next nine
days, and the laft feven. They offer many facrifices, but eac
no part of them, burning them all. They abftain from beans, gar-
lick, and fome other pulfe and vegetables i. As to the Sabian Kebla,
or part to which they turn their faces in praying, authors greatly
differ; one will have it to be the north2, another the Couth, a third
Mecca, and a fourth the ftar to which they pay their devotions ? :
and perhaps there may be fome variety in their pradtift in this
refpedt. They go on pilgrimage to a place near the city o f Harran
in Mefopotamia, where great numbers o f them dwell, and they have
alfo a great refpedt for the temple of Mecca, and the pyramids of
Egypt,4; fancying thefe laft to be the.fepulchres of Seth, and o f Enoch
and Sabi his two fons, whom they look on as the firft propagators of
their religion; at thefe ftrudtures they facrifice a cock and a black
calf, and offer up incenles. Befides the book of Pfalms, the only
true feripture they read, they, have other books which they efteem
equally facred, particularly one in the Chaldee tongue which they call the
book o f Seth, and is full of moral difeourfes. This fedt fay, they took
the' name 'of Sabians frem the above mentioned Sabi, tho’ it feems
rather to be derived from so x Saba6 or the hojl o f heaven, which
they worlhip?. Travellers commonly call them ChriJiians of St.
John the Baptiji, whofe difciples alfo they pretend to be, ufing a kind
o f baptifm, which is the greateft mark they bear of Chrtfianity.
This is one of the religions, the pradtice of which- Mohammed tolerated
(on paying tribute, j and the profeffors of it are often included
in that expreffion of the Koran, thofe to whom the feriptures have
been given, or literally, people o f the book, g
The idolatry of the Arabs then,, ss Sabians, chiefly confifted in
worfhipping the. fixed ftars and planets, and the angels and their
images, which they, honoured as'.inferior deities,, and whole intercefi;
lion they begged, as their mediators with G o d . For the Arabs acknowledged
onefupreme G od, the Creator, andLord of the univerfe,
whom they called Allah Paala, the moft high G od, .and their
- 1 Abulfarag. Hifti'Dynaft. p. 281. & $ • ' i r ' 1’ -r.Idem'jb.- ; l b faPrt,Rv. * *
A D ’Herbel.; ubi fupr. r See Grfpv/$ Pyramidogr. p. 6, 7 .. ... >.s 4 Y- Ppc. Spec, p.^38.
7 Thabet Ebn Kof ffih, "a Famous aftronortifer',' arfd" himfelf Sabian,‘vyfckd a Tr’eatife in iat, .con-*
cerning the do6trin.es, rites, and ceremonies of this feft; from which, if it could be recovered,
we might expert much better information' than any taken from the.^rf^/(r» writers. V. Abulfarag.
ubi fup. •>