[1] May not this wady have been once a noble stream perhaps, as Glaser conjectures, the fourth of the Paradise rivers? (Gen ii. 10-14) Upon the question as to where the ancient Semites located Paradise Glaser says that it was in the neighborhood of the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, on the Arabian side. There the sacred palm of the city of Eridu grew; there according to the view of the ancient Arabs the two larger wadys of Central Arabia opened. The one is the Wady er-Ruma or the Gaihan; and the other is the Wady ed-Dauasir, a side wady of which in the neighborhood of Hamdani still bears the name of Faishan (Pishon).—See “Recent Research in Bible Lands,” by H.V. Hilprecht, (Philadelphia, 1897). See also The Sunday-School Times, Vol. XXXIII, No 49.

[2] Samhudi’s History of Medina. (Arabic text p. 40, sqq.)

[3] These wastes are also termed Dakhna, Ahkaf, and Hamad according to the greater or less depth or shifting nature of the sands or the more or less compact character of the soil.

[4] “Kitab Sinajet-el-Tarb” by Nofel Effendi (Beirut 1890). The author follows the older Arabic authorities.

[5] Geography of Asia (Vol II., p. 460), 1896.

[6] The first account of a European visiting Mecca is that of Ludovico Bartema, a gentleman of Rome, who visited the city in 1503; his narrative was published in 1555. The first Englishman was Joseph Pitts, the sailor from Exeter, in 1678; then followed the great Arabian traveller, John Lewis Burckhardt, 1814; Burton in 1853 visited both Mecca and Medina; H. Bicknell made the pilgrimage in 1862 and T.F. Keane in 1880. The narratives of each of these pilgrims have been published, and from them, and the travels of Ali Bey, and others, we know something of the Holy Land of Arabia. Ali Bey was in reality a Spaniard, called Juan Badia y Seblich, who visited Mecca and Medina in 1807 and left a long account of his travels in two volumes illustrated by many beautiful engravings. Burton’s account of his pilgrimage is best known, but Burckhardt’s is more accurate and scholarly. Of modern books, that of the Dutch scholar, Snouck Hurgronje, who resided in Mecca for a long time, is by far the best. His Mekka, in two volumes, is accompanied by an atlas of photographs and gives a complete history of the city as well as a full account of its inhabitants and of the Java pilgrimage.

[7] Vol. II., p. 157.

[8] TABLE OF MECCA PILGRIMAGE, 1880.

(From Blunt’s “Future of Islam.”)

[9] Professor Hankin in the British Medical Journal for June, 1894, published the result of his analysis of Zemzem water as follows: “Total solid in a gallon, 259; Chlorine, 51.24; Free ammonia, parts per million, 0.93; Albuminoid ammonia, .45. It contains an amount of solids greater than that in any well water used for potable purposes.”

[10] Its measurements, according to Ali Bey, are 37 ft. 2 in., 31 ft. 7 in., 38 ft 4 in., 29 ft. and its height is 34 ft. 4 in.

[11] This religion which denies an atonement and teaches that Christ was not crucified yet has for its great festival a feast of sacrifice to commemorate the obedience of Abraham and the substitute provided by God!

[12] This is the testimony of Captain Burton, the man who translated an unexpurgated text of the Arabian nights and left behind a book in manuscript which his wife had the good sense to destroy and so prevent its publication.

[13] Hurgronje, p. 5, Vol. II.

[14] Ibid., p. 102.

[15] Ibid, p 11.

[16] Ibid., pp. 61-64.

[17] This coin is called Mishkash and is a Venetian coin of Duke Aloys Mocenigo I. (1570-77 A.D.). On one side the Duke is kneeling before St. Mark the patron saint of Venice and on the other is the image of Christ surrounded by stars.

[18] The western or coast route goes by Koleis, Rabek, Mastura, and near Jebel Eyub (Job’s Mountain) over Jebel Subh, then to Suk-es-Safra and Suk el Jedid to Medina. The eastern road was the one taken by Burton, and goes by way of El Zaribah, El Sufena, El Suerkish, etc., a distance 248 miles.

[19] These arguments may be stated briefly as follows:

1. A tumult followed the announcement of the prophet’s death, and Omar threatened destruction to any one who asserted it. Is it probable that a quiet interment took place?

2. Immediately after Mohammed’s death a dispute about the succession arose, in the ardor of which, according to the Shiahs, the house of Ali and Fatima, near the present tomb, were threatened by fire.

3. The early Moslems would not be apt to reverence the grave of the prophet, as do those of later date, when tradition has exalted him above the common humanity. The early Moslems were indifferent as to the exact spot.

4. The shape of the prophet’s tomb was not known in early times, nor is it given in the traditions, so that we find convex graves in some lands and flat in others.

5. The accounts of the learned among the Moslems are discrepant as to the burial of Mohammed.

6. Shiah schismatics had charge of the sepulchre for centuries, and because of its proximity to the graves of Abubekr and Omar, it was in their interest to remove the body.

7. Even the present position of the grave, with relation to other graves, is in dispute, because the tomb-chamber (Hujrah) is closely guarded by eunuchs, who do not allow any one to enter.

8. The tale of the blinding light which surrounds the prophet’s tomb seems a plausible story to conceal a defect.

9. Mohammed el Halebi, the Sheikh-el Ulema of Damascus, assured Burton that he was permitted to pass the door leading into the tomb-chamber, and that he saw no trace of a sepulchre.

10. Moslem historians admit that an attempt was made in A.H. 412 to steal the bodies of Mohammed and the two companions by the third Fatimite Caliph of Egypt; they relate marvels connected with the failure of the attempt, and assert that a trench was dug deep all around the graves and filled with molten lead to prevent the theft of the body.

11. In A. H. 654 the mosque was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, according to the Moslem historians, but the tomb-chamber escaped all damage! Again in A. H. 887 it was struck by lightning. “On this occasion,” says El Samanhudi (quoted by Burckhardt) “the interior of the Hujrah (tomb-chamber) was cleared and three deep graves were found in the inside full of rubbish, but the author of this history, who himself entered it, saw no trace of tombs.” The same author declared that the coffin containing the dust of Mohammed was cased with silver.

12. Lastly the Shiah and Sunni accounts of the prophet’s death and burial are contradictory as to the exact place of burial.

[20] Niebuhr, 1763; Seetzen, 1810; Cruttenden, 1836; Dr. Wolff, 1836; Owen, 1857; Botta, 1837; Passama, 1842; Arnaud, 1843; Van Maltzan, 1871; HalvÉy, 1870; Millingen, 1874; Renzo Manzoni, 1879; Glaser, 1880; Defler, 1888; Haig, 1889; Harris, 1892; and later travellers. Defler is the authority on the flora, Glaser on the antiquities, Manzoni on the Turks and their government, Haig on the agricultural population, and Harris tells of the recent rebellions. Niebuhr’s magnificent volumes are still good authority on the geography and natural history of Yemen.

[21] The Yemen plow is shaped like an English plow in many respects; although it has only one handle its coulter is broad and made of iron, a great improvement over the crooked stick of Mesopotamia.

[22] It was not pleasant for an American to notice that nearly all the Turkish rifles in Yemen were “Springfield 1861.” The same weapons that were employed to break the chains of slavery in the southern states, are now used to oppress the peaceful Yemenites.

[23] Of the work among the latter, and my experiences in distributing the New Testament, a report was published by the Mildmay Mission; we therefore omit reference to it here.

[24] Geog. Soc. Proceedings, 1887, p. 482.

[25] Defler says in his diary that this place has “une odeur atroce et des legions de puces et de punaises.” I also had an all-night’s battle.

[26] Hadramaut is a very ancient name for this region. Not only does Ptolemy place here the AdramitÆ in his geography, but there seems little doubt that Hadramaut is identical with Hazarmaveth, mentioned in the tenth chapter of Genesis.

[27] “The Hadramaut: a Journey” by Theodore Bent. Nineteenth Century, September, 1894. Also Mrs. Bent’s “Yafei and Fadhli countries.” Geographical Journal, July, 1898.

[28] Le Hadramont et les Colonies Arabes dans le Archipel Indien par L.W.C. Van den Berg. Batavia, 1886. By order of the Government.

[29] Notes on the Mahrah Tribe with vocabulary of their language; notes on the Gharah tribe; geography of the southeast coast of Arabia;—July, 1845, July, 1847; and January, 1851, in the journal of the Society.

[30] The most characteristic difference between Mahri and Arabic is the substitution of Shin (sh) for Kaf (k) in many words.

[31] “History of Oman.“

[32] The remainder of the chapter is quoted from the letters of my brother, Rev. P. J. Zwemer, and the sketch of Tenoof was drawn by him on one of his journeys.

[33] These islands are identified by Sprenger and others with Dedan of the Scriptures, (Ezekiel xxvii. 15), and were known to the Romans by the name of Tylos. Pliny writes of the cotton-trees, “arbores vocant gossympinos fertiliore etiam Tylo minore.”—(xii. 10). Strabo describes the Phoenician temples that existed on the islands, and Ptolemy speaks of the pearl-fisheries which from time immemorial flourished along these coasts. The geographer, Juba, also tells of a battle fought off the islands between the Romans and the Arabs. Ptolemy’s ancient map shows how little was known as to the size or location of the group. Even Niebuhr’s map, which is wonderfully correct in the main, makes a great error in the position of the islands; in his day the two principal islands were called Owal and Arad, names which still linger.

[34] This cost is divided as follows: Fishing smack r. 400, wages of 10 divers r. 2,000; wages of 12 rope-holders r. 2,400; apparatus r. 40. Total rupees 4,810.

[35] The Mashooah is a much smaller boat, like the English jolly-boat, and is used in the harbor and for short journeys around the islands.

[36] The only remarkable exception is the Jebel Sinam—a rough hill of basaltic rock that crops out in the midst of the alluvial delta near Zobeir; a peculiar phenomenon, but proving Doughty’s general scheme for the Arabian geology correct even here.

[37] The dates of Hassa and Oman may equal those of Busrah but the gardens are inferior and the quantity produced is not so large.

[38] The last named is outside of our present subject and is a misnomer given by Turkish audacity to the region of Hassa.

[39] Kuweit is the Arabic diminutive of Kut a walled-village; the place is called Grane on some maps—evidently a corruption of Kurein or “little horn,” a name given to an island in the harbor.

[40] For the interesting history of the cities that occupied the site of Busrah before the days of Islam, and as far back as Nebuchadnezzar, see Ainsworth’s “Personal narrative of the Euphrates expedition.”

[41] The following are the villages and encampments between Hillah and Diwaniyeh: El Ataj, Doulab, Dobleh, Kwaha, Saadeh, Tenhara, Bir Amaneh, Allaj, Anameh, Hosein, Khegaan Sageer and Khegaan Kebir.

[42] The distinction between true Arabs of the nomad tribes and the Me’dan was made as early as 1792 by Niebuhr in his travels, and the river boatmen still answer your question with contemptuous accent: “Those are not Arabs, they are Me’dan.”

[43] It contains the following Wadys: Nejran, Habuna, Wanan, Moyazet, Bedr and the extensive Wady Dauasir.

[44] Aflaj has six villages: Siah, Leyta, Khurfa, Ei-Rautha, El-Bedia. Wady Dauasir has these towns: El-Hammam, Es-Shotibba, Es-Soleil, Tamera, Ed-Dam, El-Loghf, El-FerrÀ, Es Showeik, and El-Ayathat. (Doughty.) Most of these towns are not given on the maps, but as some of them are, it is interesting to mention the route from Hassa to this Wady, given by Capt. Miles in a letter to Sprenger (dated Muscat, March, 1873) and quoted in his “Alte Geog. Arabiens,” page 240. “Route from El Hasa to Solail: Hassa, Khaiaj, Howta, Hilwa, Leilah, Kharfa, Rondha, El Sih, Bidia, Shitba, Solail. From Solail to Runniya it is three days’ journey. It is a town larger than Solail. The Dosiri tribes are as follows El-Woodaieen at Solail; El Misahireh possess most camels, etc.; Al Hassan at Wasit; Beni Goweit; El-Khutran in Shitba; El Sherafa; El-’Umoor, east end of Wady; Al Saad, west of Wady; El-Showaiej; El-Khamaseen; El Kahtan; Hamid; Al Amar; El Farjan in Kharfa.”

[45] A full account of their peculiar beliefs and their disputed origin is given in the Appendix to Badger’s “History of Oman.”

[46] The Talh is a large tree of roundish, scanty, leafage, with a little dry berry for fruit, its branches are wide-spreading and thorny. The Nebaa’ is much smaller though of considerable height; it has very small ovate bright green leaves. The Sidi is a little acacia tree.

[47] For our present knowledge of the government, population, cities and villages of Nejd we are chiefly indebted to the following travellers: Captain G. F. Sadlier, of the English army, who was the first European to cross the Arabian Peninsula. (1819) George Wallin, a learned young Swedish Arabist, travelling in 1845 and 1848 as a Mohammedan doctor of law, passed through the northern desert from Jauf to Hail and visited Medina. William Gifford Palgrave, a Jesuit Roman Catholic, of English birth and scholarly tastes made his celebrated journey across Arabia from west to east in 1862-63. In 1864 the bold Italian traveller Guarmani went from Jerusalem straight to Jebel Shammar and Aneyza. In 1865 Colonel Pelly, the British Resident at Bushire made an important journey, in company with Dr. Colville and Lieutenant Dawes, from Kuweit through southeastern Nejd to Riadh, returning by Hassa to Ojeir and Bahrein. Then Charles M. Doughty (facile princeps among all authorities and travellers Arabian) made his long, arduous, zigzag journeys through northwestern and northern Arabia from November, 1876, to August, 1878. Our other authority for Nejd is Lady Ann Blunt who with her husband visited the capital of Ibn Rashid’s country from Bagdad in 1883.

[48] If we remember that Palgrave compares Feysul’s mud brick palace to the Tuileries of Paris, states that the great mosque of Riad can accommodate 2,000 worshippers, and gives the Wahabi ruler a standing army of 50,000, we deduct a little from the poetical description to have a balance of net facts.

[49] In our chapter on the Arabic language we shall see that the golden age of Arabic literature was just before the birth of Mohammed.

[50] “Mohammedanism had owed much to the Jewish kingdom of SÂba. The rule of the Sabean kings had extended over Mecca, and Jewish ideas and beliefs had thus made their way into the future birthplace of Mohammed. The fact is full of interest for students of the history of Islam. The epigraphic evidence which Dr. Glaser has presented to us shows that the rise of Mohammedanism was not the strange and unique phenomenon it has hitherto been thought to be. It had been prepared for centuries previously. Arabia had for ages been the home of culture and the art of writing, and for about two hundred years before the birth of Mohammed his countrymen had been brought into close contact with the Jewish faith. Future research will doubtless explain fully how great was his debt to the Jewish masters of Mecca and the Sabean kingdom of Southern Arabia.”—Prof. A. H. Sayce in the Independent.

[51] Koelle’s Mohammed, p. 5.

[52] Het Matriarchaat bij de onde Arabieren (1884), and Supplement to the same, in answer to critics, (1885). The Hague.

[53] Smith’s “Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia,” pp. 100, 104.

[54] Palmer’s Introduction to the Koran, p. xv.

[55] In the order of time, and to fully grasp the extent of Christian ideas prevalent in Arabia the chapter on Early Christianity in Arabia should precede this chapter on Islam; but logically that chapter belongs with the other chapters on mission-work. The same is true, in a measure, of the chapter on the Sabeans.

[56] See pp. 177, 178, for tables showing the Elements in Islam and the sources from which they were derived.

[57] Whatever idea your mind can conceive, God is the reverse of it.

[60] Koelle’s Mohammed, p. 27.

[61] See an article on “Mohammedanism and Christianity.”—Dr. Robert Bruce, The Christian Intelligencer (New York) April, 1894.

[62] Even the sacred books of India and China and Ancient Egypt compare more favorably with the Bible in this respect than does the Koran. They teach the heinous character of sin, as sin, and do not deny the need of a mediator or of propitiatory sacrifice but are full of both ideas.

[63] For a Chronological table of Arabian history, from the earliest times to the present, see Appendix.

[64] The four orthodox sects are called: Hanafis, Shafis, Malakis, and Hambalis. The last was founded by Ibn Hambal at Bagdad, 780 A.D. it is the least popular sect.

[65] The Mahmal is a covered litter, an emblem of royalty and of superstitious honor sent from Cairo and Damascus to Mecca, to this day.

[66] Zehm’s Arabie, p. 332.

[67] Saud died at the age of forty-five, in April, 1814, from fever, at Deraiyah. He was a strong-willed ruler but administered justice with rigor; he was wise in council and skillful in settling disputes and healing factions. Of his eight children, Abdullah, the eldest, succeeded him as ruler.

[68] The history of its tedious prosecution and all its cruelty on the side of the Turks is told by Burckhardt, the traveller, who was himself living in Mecca at this time.

[69] Palgrave visited the Wahabi capital during the reign of Feysul and gives his usual picturesque descriptions of the court and family life of the genial tyrant. But it is necessary to take his accounts of Riad cum grano salis; a Jesuit Roman Catholic would not describe the strict Puritanism of the Wahabis with any degree of admiration. Palgrave’s statistics of the strength of Feysul’s army and of the population of his dominions are utterly unreliable and greatly exaggerated. However one must read Palgrave to know what was the condition of the Wahabi empire in 1860-63, for he is our only authority for that period.

[70] The history of Mecca under these Sherifs is given by Snouck Hurgronje at length in his “Mekka.”

[71] This is according to the testimony of Walter B. Harris who was in Yemen shortly after the rebellion.

[72] See Lady Ann Blunt’s “Bedouins of the Euphrates.”

[73] Statesman’s Year Book.

[74] For a complete account of Perim, see “The Description and History of Perim,” by J. S. King, Bombay, 1877.

[75] Treaties were made with the Arabs of the pirate coast in 1835, 1838, 1839, 1847, 1853, and 1856; of these we shall speak later.

[76] The British India steamer, carry the mails and leave Bombay and Busrah once a week, touching at the intermediate ports in the Gulf, after Kerachi, as follows: Gwadur, Muscat, Jask, Bunder Abbas, Lingah, Bahrein, Bushire, Fao and Mohammerah; the journey lasts a fortnight and the distance, zigzag, is about one thousand nine hundred miles.

[77] In a recent paper read before the Society of Arts in London Mr. C. E. D. Black of the Geographical Department of the India office urges other reasons for the practicability of this route.—(London Times, May 7th, 1898.)

[78] Times of India, June 17, 1899.

[79]

1. Ras el Kheima—Jowasim tribe.
2. Um-el-Kawain—Al-bu-Ali tribe.
3. Ajman—Al-bu-Ali tribe.
4. Sharka—Jowasim tribe.
5. Debai—Al-bu-falasal tribe.
6. Abu Dhabi—Bni Yas tribe.

All of these tribes reside between Katar and Ras el Had on the Arabian coast. (See Aitchison, Vol. VII., No. xxvi.)

[80] Curzon’s “Persia,” Vol. II., p. 453.

[81] The following tribes in the vicinity of Aden receive (or received) annual subsidies from the British Government:

Thus the total estimated population of these tribes is 133,300 and the total amount of the annual stipend paid them in 1877, was 12,000 German crowns. (Hunter’s “Aden,” p. 155.)

[82] In a remarkable article, the Novoe Vremya makes known the Russian discovery of “a new British intrigue.” It appears that Great Britain, not content with the virtual annexation of Egypt and the Sudan, is even, while carrying out her plans for the absorption of the Transvaal and the advancement of her interests in Persia, busily engaged in setting up a Mohammedan Power which is to rival that of the Sultan, and is ultimately to be used as a means of menacing, if not destroying, Russian authority in Central Asia. The puppet Prince selected for this purpose is the Sherif of Mecca. According to the Novoe Vremya, the Sherif has recently received from England a letter stating that the British government, having decided to invest a certain worthy but impecunious Mohammedan Sheikh with the Caliphate of Zeila, on the borders of Somaliland, and recognizing the Sherif as a descendant of the Prophet and great protector of Islam, considers it desirable for the Sherif on the day of the appointment of the new Caliph to issue a manifesto expressing his approval. In return for this service, Great Britain will proclaim Mecca and Medina the private property of the Sherif, will assure to him the greater part of the revenues of the new Caliphate, and will defend him by diplomatic means, or even by force of arms, against the interference of the Sultan or any other Foreign Power. It is perhaps needless to say that the author of this intrigue is said to be Mr. Chamberlain, who is described as a man “without faith, without truth, capable of trampling under foot every commandment, whether of God or man, in order to accomplish his purpose of placing Great Britain at the head of the Powers of the world.”—Times of India, 1899.

[83] He speaks of it as follows in his Histoire des Langues Semitques, p. 342 “Cette langue, auparavant inconnue, se montre À nous soudainement dans toute sa perfection, avec sa flexibilite, sa richesse infinie, tellemen-complete, en un mot, que depnis ce temps jusqu’a nos jours elle n’a subi ancune modification importante. Il n’y a pour elle ni enfance, ni vieillesse; une fois qu’on a signalÉ son apparition et ses prodijieuses cont quÊtes, tout est dit sur son compte. Je ne sais si l’on trouverait un autre exemple d’un idiome entrant dans le monde comme celui-ci, sans État archaÏque, sans degrÉs intermediaires ni tatonnements.”

[84] Von Kremer, Guidi, Hommel.

[85] Sayce, Sprenger, Schrader, De Goeje, Wright.

[86] Assyrian Grammar, p. 13.

[87] An account of this language or dialect was given by Surgeon H. J. Carter in Journal Roy. Asiat. Soc., July, 1847.

[88] Lansing.

[89] Found in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1866, article “Mohammed.”

[90] “It would take a long list to exhaust the religious, literary and scientific contributions to the Arabic language from the missionaries in Syria. They include the translation of the Scriptures and the stereotyping of the same in numerous styles; the preparation of a Scripture guide, commentaries, a concordance, and a complete hymn and tune book; text-books in history, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, logarithms, astronomy, meteorology, botany, zoÖlogy, physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, hygiene, materia medica, practice of physic, surgery, and a periodical literature which has proved the stimulus to a very extensive native journalism. The Protestant converts of the mission, educated by the missionaries, have written elaborate works on history, poetry, grammar, arithmetic, natural science, and the standard dictionary of the language, and a cyclopÆdia which will make a library by itself, consisting of about twenty volumes of from six hundred to eight hundred pages each.”—Dr. G. E. Post, in New York Evangelist.

[91] Gen. xxv. 16.

[92] In the Edinburgh Review, July, 1866.

[93] International Routes of Asia, by ElisÉe Reclus, in New York Independent, May 4, 1899.

[94] Smith’s Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, pp. 9, 17, 131.

[95] What the boys and girls of the towns can study we have described in our chapter on Mecca.

[96] This is the testimony of Burckhardt and Doughty.

[97] Arabia Deserta, Vol. I., p. 238.

[98] Translation from Mekka, Vol. II., p. 187.

[99] See Burckhardt’s book for further particulars.

[100] Signifying “Allah.”

[101] Baidhawi’s Commentary in loco.

[102] For on account of these ancient superstitions and idolatries still practiced, see W. Robertson Smith’s “Religion of the Semites” and his “Kinship and marriage in Early Arabia.” The mass of purely Mohammedan superstition can be studied in books like the Arabian Nights and Lane’s “Modern Egyptians.”