iStaft' of A rab'ui prtrious to the I nt roduclion of Islam. — From time immemorial tlie aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula had been divided into a great number of free and wandering clans, limited communities, and i)et- ty states, wliose peculiarities of character, mode of life, and political institutions, as they were mostly depend- ent upon local circumstances, were for centuries stanijied with the same unalterable features, and had been pre- serveil almost unchanged even from the time of the pa- triarchs of the book of Genesis. The mountainous table-land of central Arabia, abounding in rich pastur- age and fertile valleys, but at the same time intersected and skirted with dreary wastes and sandy plains, was occupied by those roving tribes who, in opposition to the settled inhabitants, are proud of the name of Bedou- in, or people of the jilains. 3Iost of them were addict- ed to a wandering pastoral life, but from being strongly disi)osed to war and chivalrous adventures, their peace- able occupations were interrupted, either by conducting a caravan of merchants, or still oftener by assailing and robljing their fellow-tribes. Every tribe was governed by the most aged or worthy sheik of that family which had been exalted above its brethren by fortune and he- roic deeds, or even by eloquence and jjoctry. For as the heroic bards were at once the historians and moral- ists by whom the vices and virtues of their countrymen were impartially censured or praised, a noble enlhusi- iism for poetry animated those Arabs, and at an annual fair at Okliad thirty days were consecrated to poetical emulation, after which the successful poem was written in letters of gold and suspended in the temple of Mecca. These meetings, however, formed but a very feeble bond of luiion among the independent and hostile tribes, who only occasionally, and in times of danger and war- fare, sui)mitted to a supreme chief, or emir of emirs, and had never yet been united into one body. And the tie was still loss binding on those inhabitants who, being collected in flourishing towns find cities on the coasts of the peninsula, and mostly employed in trade and agri- culture, were regarded with supreme contempt by the free IJedouin as a weak and degenerate race of slaves.
Concerning the religious condition of the Arabs be- fore tlie promulgation of iMohammed's doctrines, we liave but scanty information. The IMohammedans tlninsclves disdained inquiry into the idolatrous wor- ship (pf tiu'ir ancestors. For wliat we do know about it we are indebted to accidental notices of some of their deities mentioned in tlie Koran (([.v.), and to sundrj- not always trustworthy accounts (lifl'used through the more ancient works, anil not to any connected treatise upon the pagan religions of Arabia. The scanty no- tices of the tJreeks and Homaus concerning this topic arc very uncertain. We must not. liowever, fail to I mention the genealogical records, to which the Aral)s attribute great importance, as auxiliary sources for the religious faith of the ancient Arabians. From these , genealogical tablets we learn the names of some of their j idols and the distributiou uf their worship; for maiiy |
personal names relate to the worshipped deities or the places where they were worshipped. Thus we are not altogether without some clew respecting Arabian poly- theism, and secure the information that no one religious system prevailed throughout all Arabia, or at any given time.
Their religious worship, it would appear, consisted chiefly in the adoration of the heavenly luminaries, which were considered as so many tutelar deities of the different tribes; and among these, after the sun and moon, the planet Venus had acquired such peculiar pre- eminence that even to the pious Moslem Friday ever after remained the sacred day of the week. These dei- ties, with many other images of the personified powers of nature, rudely represented by idols of every variety of shape, were principally gathered rounil the ancient Kaaba — the Pantheon of Arabian idolatr}- ; and their worship was accompanied, not only with the most hor- rid rites and shocking ceremonies of a degraded jiagan- ism, but even with human sacrifices and cruelties of ev- ery description. Even children were immolated by some of the ruder clans to the idols, while others, as the Kendites, buried their daughters alive (.S'(/?-. vi, 137 ; xvi, 58 ; Ixxxi, 8) ; and we need scarcely remark that, except a vague belief of the soul becoming transformed into an owl, and hovering round the grave, there is no indication that the Arabian idolaters believed in a future life and final retribution. (Comp. Pococke, Specimen Ilistoricp Arabum, ed. White, 180G.)
Arabian idolatry centred in Mecca, whither annual pilgrimages were made by all Arabians. See !Mecca. Its temple, which tradition claimed to have been found- ed by Abraham and Ishmael, was, so to speak, the hotel (khan), where the most diverse idols of the various Ara- bian tribes were lodged. It was the object of high veneration for the whole Arabian peninsula. Every tribe had its particular deity represented here, as well as its own chief. See Kaaba. 13ut there were also man}' Arabs who acknowledged a supreme being, and regarded all idols as subordinate to this principal being. Some were even converts to Judaism or to Christianity, especially those who had much intercourse with Jews and Christians. As a rule, however, religious life occu- pied but little the minds of the Bedouin, so much en- grossed with their material wants and affairs, and to this day religious fanaticism is rarely found among the children of the desert. The particular wishes of the votaries were brought before the idols and their priests, and their advice was desired; but if expectation were disappointed, the idols were broken to pieces and their priests insulted and maltreated. Besides the idolaters, in a literal sense of the word, there lived in Arabia single tribes, who worshipped the sun, moon, and other celestial bodies, or inclinetl to the religion of the Jlagi- ans ; vestiges of hero-worship, and worship of trees and stones are also traceable.