The Koran (Al-Qur'an). Anonymous
100 cubits high, and the least 60; which extraordinary size they pretend to prove by the testimony of the Korân.3 The tribe of Thamûd were the posterity of Thamûd the son of Gather4 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
1 Or Uz. Gen. x. 22, 23. 2 Vide Kor. c. 89. Some make Ad the son of Amalek, the son of Ham; but the other is the received opinion. See D'Herbel. 51. 3 Vide Eund. 498. 4 Cap. 89. 5 D'Herbel. 51. 6 The Jews acknowledge Heber to have been a great prophet. Seder Olam. p. 2. 7 Al Beidâwi. 8 Poc. Spec. 35, &c. 1 Ibid, 36. 2 Jallâlo'ddin et Zamakhshari. 3 Kor. c. 7. 4 Or Gether, vide Gen. x. 23.
same with the patriarch Sâleh, as Mr. d'Herbelot imagines.5 The learned Bochart with more probability takes him to be Phaleg.6 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, some7 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,8 where he ended his days. This tribe first dwelt in Yaman, but being expelled thence by Hamyar the son of Sâba,9 they settled in the territory of Hejr in the province of Hejâz, where their habitations cut out of the rocks, mentioned in the Korân,10 are still to be seen, and also the crack of the rock whence the camel issued, which, as an eye-witness11 hath declared, is 60 cubits wide. These houses of the Thamûdites being of the ordinary proportion, are used as an argument to convince those of a mistake who who this people to have been of a gigantic stature.12 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 Jadîs of the descendants of Jether.1 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 defloured by him;2 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,3 assaulted the Jadîs and utterly destroyed them, there being scarce any mention made from that time of either of these tribes.4 The former tribe of Jorham (whose ancestor some pretend was one of the eighty persons saved in the ark of Noah, according to a Mohammedan tradition5) was contemporary with Ad, and utterly perished.6 The tribe of Amalek were descended from Amalek the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau 7, though some of the oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham the son of Noah,8 and others the son of Azd the son of Sem.9 The posterity of this person rendered themselves very powerful,10 and before the time of Joseph conquered the lower Egypt under
5 D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. 740. 6 Bochart Geogr. Sac. 7 See D'Herbel. 366. 8 Ebn Shohnah 9 Poc. Spec. 57. 10 Kor. c. 15. 11 Abu Musa al Ashari. 12. Vide Poc. Spec. 37. 1 Abulfeda. 2 A like custom is said to have been i n some manors in England, and also in Scotland, where it was called "culliage," having been established by K. Ewen, and abolished by Malcolm III. See Bayle's Dict. Art. Sixte IV., Rem. H. 3 Poc. Spec. 60. 4 Ibid. 37, &c. 5 Ibid. p. 38. 6 Ebn Shohnah. 7 Gen. xxxvi. 12. 8 Vide D'Herbelot, p. 110. 9 Ebn Shohnah 10 Vide Numb. xxiv. 20.
their king Walîd, the first who took the name of Pharaoh, as the eastern writers tell us;11 seeming by these Amalekites to mean the same people which the Egyptian histories call Phoenician shepherds.12 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.13 The present Arabians, according to their own historians, are sprung from two stocks, Kahtân, the same with Joctan the son of Eber,14 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,15 i.e., the genuine or pure Arabs, and those of the latter al Arab al mostáreba, i.e., naturalized or institious 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 Mostáreba; 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.1 The genealogy of these tribes being of great use to illustrate the Arabian history, I have taken the pains to form a genealogical table from their most approved authors, to which I refer the curious. Besides these tribes of Arabs mentioned by their own authors, who were all descended from the race of Sem, others of them were the posterity of Ham by his son Cush, which name is in scripture constantly given to the Arabs and their country, though our version renders it Ethiopia; but strictly speaking, the Cushites did not inhabit Arabia properly so called, but the banks of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, whither they came form Chuzestân or Susiana, the original settlement of their father.2 They might probably mix themselves in process of time with the Arabs of the other race, but the eastern writers take little or no notice of them. The Arabians were for some centuries under the government of the descendants of Kâhtan; Yárab, one of his sons, founding the kingdom of Yaman, and Jorham, another of them, that of Hejâz. The province of Yaman, or the better part of it, particularly the provinces of Saba and Hadramaut, was governed by princes of the tribe of Hamyar, though at length the kingdom was translated to the descendants of Cahlân, his brother, who yet retained the title of king of Hamyar, and had all of them the general title of Tobba, which signifies successor, and was affected to this race of princes, as that of
11 Mirât Caïnât. 12 Vide Joseph. cont. Apion. l. i. 13 Vide Exod. xvii. 18, &c.; I Sam. xv. 2, &c.; ibid. xxvii. 8, 9; I Chron. iv. 43. 14 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. 15 An expression something like that of St. Paul, who calls himself "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," Philip. iii. 5. 1 Poc. Spec. p. 40. 2 Vide Hyde Hist. Rel. veter. Persar. p. 37, &c.
Cæsar was to the Roman emperors, and Khalîf to the successors of Mohammed. There were several lesser princes who reigned in other parts of Yaman, and were mostly, if not altogether, subject to the king of Hamyar, whom they called the great king, but of these history has recorded nothing remarkable or that may be depended upon.1 The first great calamity that befell the tribes settled in Yaman was the inundation of Aram, which happened soon after the time of Alexander the Great, and is famous in the Arabian history. No less than eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwellings upon this occasion, some of which gave rise to the two kingdoms of Ghassân and Hira. And this was probably the time of the migration of those tribes or colonies which were led into Mesopotamia by three chiefs,Becr, Modar, and Rabîa, from whom the three provinces of that country are still named Diyar Becr, Diyar Modar, and Diyar Rabîa.2 Abdshems, surnamed Saba, having built the city from him called Saba, and afterwards Mareb, made a vast mound, or dam,3 to serve as a basin or reservoir to receive the water which came down from the mountains, not only for the use of the inhabitants, and watering their lands, but also to keep the country they had subjected in greater awe by being masters of the water. This building stood like a mountain above their city, and was by them esteemed so strong that they were in no apprehension of its ever failing. The water rose to the height of almost twenty fathoms, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid, that many of the inhabitants had their houses built upon it. Every family had a certain portion of this water, distributed by aqueducts. But at length, GOD, being highly displeased at their great pride and insolence, and resolving