COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

THE AEABS. 573
own historians, " like groups of clouds which the winds ere
long will scatter abroad." No other migratory movement
has presented a more striking and instructive character ; and
it would appear, as if the depressive influence, manifested in
circumscribing mental vigour, and which was apparently inherent
in Islamism, acted less powerfully on the nations under
the dominion of the Arabs than on Turkish races. Persecution
for the sake of religion was here, as everywhere, even among
Christians, more the result of an unbounded, dogmatising
despotism, than the consequence of any original form of
belief, or any religious contemplation existing amongst the
people. The anathemas of the Koran are especially directed
against superstition and the worship of idols, amongst races
of Aramacic descent.* 4
As the life of nations is, independently of mental culture,
determined by many external conditions of soil, climate, and
vicinity to the sea, we must here remember the great
varieties presented by the Arabian peninsula. Although
the first impulse towards the changes effected by the Arabs in
the three continents emanated from the Ismaelitish Hedschaz,
and owed its principal force to one sole race of herdsmen,
the littoral portions of the peninsula had continued for thousands
of years, open to intercourse with the rest of the world.
In order to understand the connection and existence of great
and singular occurrences, it is necessary to ascend to the
primitive causes, by which they have been gradually prepared.
Towards the south-west, on the Erythrean Sea, lies Yemen,
the ancient seat of civilisation (of Saba), the beautiful, fruit-
ful, and richly cultivated land of the Joctanidse.f It produced
incense (the lebonah of the Hebrews, perhaps the Bos-
* Hence the contrast between the tyrannical measures of Motewekkil,
the tenth Caliph of the house of the Abassides, against Jews and
Christians (Joseph von Hammer, Ueber die Ldnderverwaltung unler
dem Ghalifate, 1835, s. 27, 85, und 117), and the mild tolerance of
wiser rulers in Spain (Conde, Hist, de la Domination de los Arabes
en Espaiia, T. i. 1820, p. 67). It should also be remembered, that
Omar, after the taking of Jerusalem, tolerated every rite of Christian
worship, and concluded a treaty with the Patriarch favourable to the
Christians. (Fundgruben des Orients, Bd. v. s. 68.)
+ It would appear from tradition, that a branch of the Hebrews mi-
grated to southern Arabia, under the name of Jokthan (Qachthan,) be-