Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/333

OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 311 CHAPTER L Descriptiuii of Arabia ami i/.s IiihahtUoit.s — Birth, Character, and Doctrine of Mahomet — lie preaclies at Mecca — Flies to Medina — Propagates hix lie/igiuii hij the Sivord — Voluntary or re- luctant Suhini.ssion of the Arabs — His Death and Successors — 'I'he Claims and Fortunes of AH and his Descendants After pursuing, above six hundred years, the Meeting Caesars of Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of HeracHus, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While the state was exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of his religion involve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern empire ; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable revolutions which have impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe. ^ In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and .Ethiopia, DascripUon the Arabian peninsula ^ may be conceived as a triangle of spacious ° ■■* * 1 As in this and the following chapter I shall display much Arabic learning, I must profess my total ignorance of the Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who have transfused their science into the Latin, French, and English languages. Their collections, versions, and histories, I shall occasion- ally notice. ^ The geographers of Arabia may be divided into three classes : r. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive knowledge may be traced in Agatharchides (de Mari Ru- bro, in Hudson, Geograph. Minor, torn, i.), Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. 1. ii. p. 159-167 [c. 4837/17.], 1. iii. p. 2ii-2i6[c. i4.fr/(/.], edit, W'esseling), Strabo (1. xvi. p. 1112-1114 [c. 4,1-4], from Eratosthenes ; p. 1122-1132 [c. 4, 5 sqq. from Artemidorus), Diony- sius (Periegesis, 927-969), Pliny (Hist. Natur. v. 12, vi. 32), and Ptolemy (Descript. et Tabulu; Urbium, in Hudson, tom. iii.). 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated the subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion : the extracts of Pocock (Speci- men Hist. .Arabuni, p. 125-128), from the Geography of the Sherif al Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the version or abridgment (p. 24-27, 44-56, loB, &c. 119, (S;c. ) which the Maronites have published under the absurd title of Geographia Nubiensis (Paris, 1619) ; but the Latin and French translators, Greaves (in Hudson, tom. iii.) and Galland (Voyage de la Palestine par la Roque, p. 265-346), have.