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ed in Temen an hundred and twenty-eight years before CHRIST's birth, and they commemorate, without any poetical imagery, the magnificence of the prince in covering the holy temple with ftriped cloth and fine linen, and in making keys for its gate. This temple, however, the fanctity of which was reftored by MUHAMMED, had been strangely profaned at the time of his birth, when it was ufual to decorate its walls with poems on all fubjects, and often on the triumphs of Arabian gallantry and the praises of Grecian wine, which the merchants of Syria brought for fale into the deferts.

From the want of materials on the subject of Arabian antiquity, we find it very difficult to fix the Chronology of the Ifmailites with accuracy beyond the time of ADNAN, from whom the impoftor was defcended in the twenty-first degree; and, although we have genealogies of ALKAMAH and other Himyarick bards as high as the thirtieth degree, or for a period of nine hundred years at least, yet we can hardly depend on them fo far, as to establish a complete chronological fyftem: by reafoning downwards, however, we may ascertain fome points of confiderable importance. The univerfal tradition of Yemen is, that YOKTAN, the fon of EBER, first fettled his family in that country; which fettlement, by the computation admitted in Europe,

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must have been above three thousand fix hundred years ago, and nearly at the time, when the Hindus, under the conduct of RAMA, were subduing the first inhabitants of these regions, and extending the Indian Empire from Ayodhyà or Audh as far as the ifle of Sinhal or Silàn. According to this calculation, NUUMAN, king of Yemen in the ninth generation from EBER, was contemporary with JOSEPH; and, if a verse composed by that prince, and quoted by ABULFEDA, was really preferved, as it might easily have been, by oral tradition, it proves the great antiquity of the Arabian language and metre. This is a literal verfion of the couplet: When thou, who art in power, conductest affairs with courtesy, thou attaineft the high honours of thofe, who are moft exalted, and whofe man' dates are obeyed.' We are told, that, from an elegant verb in this diftich, the royal poet acquired the furname of Almuááfer, or the Courteous. Now the reasons for believing this verse genuine are its brevity, which made it easy to be remembered, and the good sense comprized in it, which made it become proverbial; to which we may add, that the dialect is apparently old, and differs in three words from the idiom of Hejaz: the reafons for doubting are, that fentences and verses of indefinite antiquity are fometimes afcribed by the Arabs to particular

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perfons of eminence; and they even go so far as to cite a pathetick elegy of ADAM himself on the death of ABEL, but in very good Arabick and correct measure. Such are the doubts, which neceffarily muft arife on fuch a fubject; yet we have no need of ancient monuments or traditions to prove all that our analysis requires, namely, that the Arabs, both of Hejaz and Yemen, fprang from a stock entirely different from that of the Hindus, and that their first establishments in the respective countries, where we now find them, were nearly coeval.

I cannot finish this article without obferving, that, when the King of Denmark's minifters inftructed the Danish travellers to collect historical books in Arabick, but not to busy themselves with procuring Arabian poems, they certainly were ignorant, that the only monuments of old Arabian Hiftory are collections of poetical pieces and the commentaries on them; that all memorable tranfactions in Arabia were recorded in verse; and that more certain facts may be known by reading the Hamáfah, the Diwan of Hudhail, and the valuable work of Obaidullah, than by turning over a hundred volumes in profe, unless indeed those poems are cited by the hiftorians as their authories.

IV. The manners of the Hejázì Arabs, which

have continued, we know, from the time of SoLOMON to the prefent age, were by no means favourable to the cultivation of arts; and, as to Sciences, we have no reason to believe, that they were acquainted with any; for the mere amusement of giving names to ftars, which were useful to them in their pastoral or predatory rambles through the deserts, and in their observations on the weather, can hardly be confidered as a material part of aftronomy. The only arts, in which they pretended to excellence (I except horsemanship and military accomplishments) were poetry and rhetorick: that we have none of their compofitions in profe before the Koràn, may be ascribed, perhaps, to the little skill, which they seem to have had, in writing; to their predilection in favour of poetical measure, and to the facility, with which verses are committed to memory; but all their ftories prove, that they were eloquent in a high degree, and poffeffed wonderful powers of fpeaking without preparation in flowing and forcible periods. I have never been able to discover, what was meaned by their books, called Rawásim, but fuppofe, that they were collections of their common, or customary, law. Writing was fo little practised among them, that their old poems, which are now acceffible to us, may almost be confidered

as originally unwritten; and I am inclined to think, that SAMUEL JOHNSON'S reasoning, on the extreme imperfection of unwritten languages, was too general; fince a language, that is only spoken, may nevertheless be highly polished by a people, who, like the ancient Arabs, make the improvement of their idiom a national concern, appoint folemn affemblies for the purpose of displaying their poetical talents, and hold it a duty to exercise their children in getting by heart their most approved compofitions.

The people of Yemen had poffibly more mechanical arts, and, perhaps, more fcience; but, although their ports must have been the emporia of confiderable commerce between Egypt and India or part of Perfia, yet we have no certain proofs of their proficiency in navigation or even in manufactures. That the Arabs of the defert had musical instruments, and names for the different notes, and that they were greatly delighted with melody, we know from themselves; but their lutes and pipes were probably very fimple, and their musick, I suspect, was little more than a natural and tuneful recitation of their elegiack verfes and love-fongs. The fingular property of their language, in fhunning compound words, may be urged, according to BACON's idea, as a proof, that they had made

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