scribes Kedar as a country of the Arabian desert, inhabited by the Ishmaelites, who were then termed Saracens. The same father, in his commentary on Isaiah, again speaks of Kedar as the country. of the Saracens, who in Scripture are called Ishmaelites; and observes of Nebajoth, that he was one of the sons of Ishmael, after whose names the Arabian desert is called.

Another source of evidence in relation to the national descent of the Arabs, is their having practised, from time immemorial, the rite of circumcision. Josephus has a very remarkable passage touching the origin of this rite among the Jews and Arabs, in which he first makes mention of the circumcision of Isaac; then introduces that of Ishmael; and states concerning each, as matter of universal and immemorial notoriety, that the Jews and the Arabians severally practised the rite, conformably with the precedents given them, in the persons of their respective fathers. His words are these:"Now when Sarah had completed her ninetieth, and Abraham his hundredth year, a son (Isaac) is born unto them: whom they forthwith circumcise on the eighth day; and from him the Jews derive their custom of circumcising children after the same interval. But the Arabians administer circumcision at the close of the thirteenth year for Ishmael, the founder of their nation, the son of Abraham by his concubine, was circumcised at that time of life."* Similar to this is the testimony of Origen, who wrote in the third

1

* Ant. Jud. b. i. ch. 10, § 5.

"The natives of Ju

century of the Christian era. dea," says he, "generally circumcise their children on the eighth day; but the Ishmaelites who inhabit Arabia universally practise circumcision in the thirteenth year. For this history tells us concerning them."* This writer, like Josephus, lived near the spot, and had the best opportunities of obtaining correct information respecting the Arabians. It. is evident, therefore, beyond contradiction, from his words, that the fact of their derivation from Abraham through Ishmael was an established point of historical record, and not of mere traditionary fame, at the period at which he wrote.

The direct testimony to the Ishmaelitish extraction of the Arabs furnished by the earliest records of the Bible, and confirmed as we see by foreign authorities, is strikingly corroborated by repeated references, bearing upon the same point, in later inspired writers, particularly the prophets. Through the long course of sacred history and prophecy, we meet with reiterated allusions to existing tribes of Arabia, descending from Ishmael, and bearing the names of his several sons, among which those of Nebajoth and Kedar usually predominate. Thus the Prophet Isaiah, in foretelling the future conversion of the Gentiles, makes mention of the "rams of Nebajoth," the eldest, and "all the flocks of Kedar," the second of the sons of Ishmael; that is, of the Arab tribes descending from these brothers; a passage which not only affords strong

* Orig. Op. tom. ii. p. 16, ed. Bened.

proof of our main position, but conveys also an intimation of the future in-gathering of the Mohammedan nations into the Christian Church. The same Prophet, in another part of his predictions, notices the cities of the wilderness, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit." And again, when denouncing impending calamity upon the land of Arabia, he foretells how "all the glory of Kedar shall fail;" he employs the name of this single tribe, às synonymous with that of the entire peninsula. In this connexion the words of the Psalmist may be cited:"Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." These words are supposed by some of the Jewish commentators to have been written by David, under the influence of inspiration, as the prophetic plaint of the Christian Church, labouring and groaning, as it has sometimes done, under the yoke of Mohammedan oppression. In Jeremiah, also, we find mention of Kedar. He speaks of it as "the wealthy nation that dwelleth without care, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone." Ezekiel, moreover, prophesies conjointly of “ Arabia and all the princes of Kedar." An allusion to Tema, the ninth son of Ishmael, as the name of a warlike people of Arabia, occurs as early as in the book of Job: "The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them." Lastly, the tribes sprung from Jetur and Naphish, the tenth and eleventh sons of Ishmael, are commemorated in the first book of Chronicles, who are there called Hagarites, from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and

of whom a hundred thousand males were taken captives.

When to this mass of Scripture evidence of the descent of the Arabs from Ishmael we add the acknowledged coincidence between the national character of this people in every age, and the predicted personal character of their progenitor" And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him"-and the fact, that the Ishmaelitish origin of the Arabs has ever been the constant and unvarying tradition of that people themselves, the subject scarcely admits of a more irrefragable proof. There are certainly few landmarks of history more universal or more permanent than the names of countries affixed by original settlers, or flowing from them, and we may as justly question the derivation of Hungary from the Huns, France from the Franks, Turkey from the Turks, or Judea from Judah and the Jews, as those of the several districts of Arabia from the respective sons of Ishmael.*

*The argument in this chapter is condensed from a more ample discussion of the subject in the Appendix to "Forster's Manometanism Unveiled."

CHAPTER II.

Birth and Parentage of Mohammed-Loses his Parents in early Childhood-Is placed under the care of his uncle Abu Taleb-Goes into Syria on a trading expedition with his uncle at the age of thirteenEnters the service of Cadijah, a widow of Mecca, whom he afterward

marries.

MOHAMMED, the Legislator of Arabia, the Founder of the Moslem or Mohammedan religion, and thence dignified by himself and by his followers with the title of Prophet and Apostle of God, was born at Mecca, a city of Arabia, A. D. 569.* His lineage, notwithstanding that many of the earlier Christian writers, under the influence of inveterate prejudice against the prophet and his religion, have represented his origin as base and ignoble, is clearly shown to have been honourable and illustrious; at least, when rated by the common standard of distinction among his countrymen. The ancient Arabians, deriving their pedigree from Ishmael, and inheriting the nomadic habits of their ancestor, had from time immemorial been divided into a number of separate independent tribes, roving at large over the immense sandy regions of which their country is composed, except where here and there a few thousands of them were gathered into cities, and engaged in merchandise. Some of these tribes,

* Other authorities place his birth in A. D. 571. The precise year ean. not be determined with certainty.