The most distinguished nation of Arabia Felix, was the SAB/BANS, thought by some to have been the same with the HomErtyrEs, who inhabited the most southern and fertile part of it, which was famed for its frankin cense and spices, hence " Sabxum thus," denoted in cense of the finest kind. Saha, its metropolis, was a large and opulent city, and supposed by the learned Arabs, to have been the residence of the " Queen of Sheba." But we are inclined rather to adopt the claim of the Abyssinians, who maintain that this princess was sovereign of Ethiopia Proper, or, according to Mr Bruce, of Saba or Asab, a territory lying upon the western shore of the Red Sea, opposite to Moeca; and as Ethio pia is styled by Herodotus and Straho, " the remotest part of the habitable world," it agrees better with the words of our Saviour, who describes her, " as the queen of the south, who came from the uttermost parts of the earth." (See ABYSSINIA.) The northern parts, border ing upon Petraand Descrta, were possessed by the SARACENS, an appellation afterwards bestowed upon most of the nations of Arabia; a name once the terror of Christendom, and rendered famous by their cruelty and extensive conquests.
The ancient Arabs may be divided into two classes, those who dwelt in cities and towns, and those who liv ed in tents. The former employed themselves in cul tivating the land, in breeding of cattle, and in commerce, which they carried on to a great extent even in the days of Jacob. The Seenite Arabs, or those who dwelt in tents, are the same with the present Bedouins, They lived chiefly upon plunder, roaming from place to place as the convenience of water or pasture invited, and their principal food consisted of the milk and flesh of camels. But as the manners and genius of the Arabs, except in matters of religion, have undergone very little varia tion for these four thousand years, it is unnecessary to anticipate here, what will come more naturally under our observation when treating of the modern Arabians. A few particulars, however, in which they differ, especially concerning their religion and government, may here be properly introduced.
The primitive inhabitants of Arabia, at an early period of the world, fell into idolatry. Forgetting the worship of the one true God, they paid their adorations to the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars. Even SABA, the eighth only in descent from Noah, and the great-grand son of Joktan, the founder of the Arabian nation, took the surname of ABD-SHEMS, or servant of the sun. But this specious mode of idolatry did not long continue. Independent even in their religion, every tribe, every thmily, and even every individual, had it in his power to create or change the object of his worship. In their CAABA, or sacred temple, which, from the remotest an tiquity, has been revered with superior sanctity, were to be found three hundred and sixty idols, representing men, birds, and beasts. In a conspicuous place, stood the statue of Hobal, formed of red agate, which held in its hand seven arrows, without either heads or feathers, the instruments and symbols of profane divination. The Caaba was yearly visited by numerous pilgrims, who flocked thither, to present their vows and offerings to their respective deities. " At an awful distance," (to use
the language of an eloquent historian,) " they cast away their garments ; seven times, with hasty steps, they en circled the temple, and kissed the black stone ; seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains ; seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina ; and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground." To their idols, they offered the most precious oblations and sacrifices ; and their altars were sometimes stained with the blood of human victims. A boy was annually sacri ficed by the DUMATIANS, an obscure tribe in the pro vince of Nedjed. And, even in the sixteenth century, Al-Nooman, king of Hira, who, in a drunken frolic, had caused two of his intimate friends, when overcome with sleep and wine, to be buried alive, as an expiation for his offence, and to appease their angry shades, made a vow, that every person whom he met on a certain day, should be piously slaughtered at their tombs. But, many ages before the time of NIahomet, Sabianism, which had been diffused over Asia by the science of the Chal deans and the arms of the Assyrians, had overrun the whole of Arabia. The tenets of the Sabians were, at first, purely theistical. They acknowledged one Su preme Being, whom they called Allah Taala, the most high God, and whom they addressed as the absolute sovereign of all. " I dedicate myself to thy service, 0 God ; Thou past no companion, except thy companion, of whom thou art absolute master, and of whatever is his." But from this most rational mode of worship, they soon fell into the grossest idolatry. Perceiving the ne cessity of a mediator between men and the deity, they began to implore the intercession of the heavenly lumi naries, which, they imagined, were inhabited by angels, or intelligencies, who governed the world under the su preme Deity. These intelligencies they called Ilahat, goddesses, or the daughters of God. But being often deprived of these, as visible objects of adoration, by the continual vicissitude of day and night, they descended still lower, and consecrated temples and statues to the seven planets, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern hemispheres. These images, they believed, were either inspired with life by God, or inhabited and animated by the Ilahat, Besides these, the Arabians still retained their idols of antiquity, each of which had a particular name ; and, to shew their high veneration for them, they gave the same names to their children, and gloried in being accounted their servants. To these inferior deities they paid equal reverence as to God ; and offer ed to them the same sacrifices and oblations. The most valuable offerings, however, were always presented to their idols in preference to the deity, because the idols were dependent upon God, and stood in need of what be longed to him, while God wanted nothing ; or rather, because, being less powerful, they considered them as more irritable and implacable beings. Though these inferior deities were generally reverenced by the whole nation, yet each tribe had its peculiar objects of worship.