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 HOR.E 
 
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 A CONNECTED SERIES OF MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON THE KORAN, THE ZEND-AVESTA, 
 
 THE VEDAS, THE KINGS, 
 
 AND THE EDDA. 
 
 Accipe, fed facilis ! 
 
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 " All our hiftorical refearches have confirmed the 
 ' Mofaic account of the primitive world." 
 
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 BY HIS MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT, 
 
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 In the cwrje of next Winter will It publified, 
 BY THE SAME AUTIIO-R, 
 
 A connected Series of Mifcellaneous Notes, giving 
 a Chronological Account of the GRECIAN, 
 the ROMAN, the CIVIL, the CANON, and 
 the FEUBAL LAW.
 
 R^E BIBLIC^E, 
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 WI T H a view to imprefs on the memory, 
 the refult of fome miscellaneous reading 
 on different fubje&s, relating to the ANCIENT 
 AND MODERN HISTORY of the countries con- 
 quered by MAHOMET AND HIS DISCIPLES, the 
 following fheets were committed to paper. They 
 may be found to give, 
 
 I. A fhort view of the antient hiftory of thofe 
 countries, (hewing their ftate at the time of that 
 event ; under this head will be given fome account 
 of the antient hiftory, ift, of Syria; 2dly, of Perfia } 
 and 3dly, of Africa ; connecting the aeras, men- 
 tioned in the account of Syria, with the rife and 
 fall of Nineve, Babylon, Rome, and Conftantino- 
 ple, to which Syria was fucceflively fubjeft ; and 
 the jeras, mentioned in the account of Perfia, with 
 the leading events of Greece and Rome, antece- 
 B dent
 
 2 HOR^EBIBLTC^. 
 
 dent to the fame period ; and in the account of 
 Africa, fhortly pointing out the principal occur- 
 rences in the hiftory of that country, before its 
 invafion by the difciples of Mahomet: II. Some 
 mention will then be made of the events which fa- 
 cilitated the conque~ft of tile eaft by the religion and 
 arms of Mahomet; thefe are, ift, the political 
 weaknefs of the weftern and eaftern empires ; arid 
 2dly, tlie religious difputes among the chriftians of 
 the eaft : III. Some account will then be given of 
 the rife and firft progrefs of the Mahometan reli- 
 gion ; containing a view, ift, of the Geogra- 
 phy, 2dly, of file Eftrly Hiftory of Arabia ; gdly, 
 of the Hegif a and the mode of computing it ; and 
 4thly, of the extent of the conquefts made by 
 Mdhom,e-t and his immediate fucceffbrs : IV. 
 Mention will then be made of the principal Ma- 
 hometan ftates ; containing an account, ift, of 
 the dynafties and fortunes of the Universal Caliphs ; 
 2dly, of the Sultans and Sophis of Perfia ; 3dly, 
 of the Sultans and Marnlouc Governors of Egypt; 
 4thly, of the Caliphs and Sheriffs of Morocco, and 
 the St&tes of Barbary ; Jthly, of the Caliphs of 
 Spain ; 6thly, of the Mahometan Dynafties, which 
 have reigned in Hinduftan ; and ythly, of the Ot- 
 toman Empire : V. The irruptions of the Mogul 
 Tartars under Gengifkhan and Timour into the 
 Afiatic territories, conquered by the difciples of 
 Mahoitietj will then be mentioned : VI. Notice 
 3 will
 
 HOR^BIBLIC/E. 3 
 
 will then be taken of fome of the principal at- 
 tempts of the princes of Chriftendom to repel the 
 Mahometans ; under this head an account will be 
 given, I ft, of the Crufades ; adly, of the military 
 orders eftabliflied for the defence of Chriftendom 
 againft the Mahometans ; and 3dly, of the moft 
 important victories which have been gained by the 
 Chriftians over the Mahometans fince the cru- 
 fades : VII. A view will then be given of the 
 religious tenets and literary hiftory of the Maho- 
 metans ; comprifing an account, ift, of the creed, 
 opinions, and rites of the followers of Mahomet ; 
 2dly, of the Koran ; 3dly, of the Sedls of the Ma- 
 hometans ; 4thly, of the Turkifh. Language; and 
 5thly, of Turkifli Literature: VIII. A fhort view 
 will then be offered of the actual extent and ftate 
 of the countries where the Mahometan Religion 
 is profefled: IX. Mention will then be made of 
 the principal authors, from whofe writings thefe 
 (heets have been compiled : X. A mifcdlaneous 
 article will be added, containing fome account 
 of the Books held Sacred in the Infidel Coun- 
 tries fubdued or made tributary by the Maho- 
 metans : thefe are the Zend-Avefta, the Vedas, 
 and the Sacred Books of the Chinefe : mention 
 alfo will be made of the Edda, the book fuppofed 
 to have been held facred by the Scandinavian 
 nations. 
 
 B
 
 BTBLIC^E; 
 
 I. 
 
 WITH refpedr. to the Antient Hiftory of 
 the countries, where the Religion and Empire of 
 Mahomet took their rife : 
 
 I. i. The modern word, anfwering to the 
 country called Syria, is Earr-el-fham, or the coun- 
 try to the left, with a reference to Mecca. It is 
 bounded by the Mediterranean on the weft, by the 
 defert of Arabia on the eaft, and from north to 
 fouth it fills the fpace between Cilicia and Mount 
 Amanus, to a line which may be fuppofed to be 
 drawn from Gaza to the defert. A chain of 
 mountains runs through it from north to fouth, with 
 many ramifications ; its mofl elevated point is the 
 Lebanon. Under the Roman Empire it was di- 
 vided into 4 parts, Commagene, Seleucis, or the 
 Syria Propria, Ccele-Syria, or the hollow Syria, 
 from its being inclofed between the Lebanon and 
 the Antilebanon, a mountain that runs parallel 
 with it, and Phoenicia. Ccele-Syria contains Da- 
 mafcus, and the ruins of Palmyra ; Paleftina was 
 
 added to Syria in later times. 
 
 . . Before 
 
 The fcnpture informs us that Achaz, the Chrift. 
 
 king of Judah, being powerfully attacked by 
 Razin the king of Syria, and by Phaceas, 
 fon of Romelias, the king of Ifrael, invited 
 Theglatphalafar, the king of AfTyria or 
 
 Nineve r
 
 HOR^BIBLIC^E. 5 
 
 Before 
 Ctirift. 
 Nineve, to his afliftance, and that he poflef- 
 
 fedbimfelf of the greateft part of Syria. - 742 
 
 Hisfon Salmanazar conquered Judaea, and 
 carried the 10 tribes into captivity to Nineve. 
 Major Rennell, (Geography of Heredotus, 
 fe&ion 15), has produced flrong arguments 
 to prove, that they were afterwards dif- 
 tributed in Media. - - 721 
 
 The Chaldaeans or Babylonians, under 
 Afaraddon, who was the grandfon of Sal- 
 manazar, and who united in him the em- 
 pires of Babylon and Nineve, completed 
 the conqueft of Syria, and fent the Cuthites, 
 a people of Aflyria, to inhabit that part of 
 Paleftine called Samaria; from it they took 
 the name of Samaritans. - - 677 
 
 Syria was conquered by Cyrus. - - 540 
 It continued part of the Periian empire, 
 till its overthrow by Alexander the great. - 330 
 
 On his deceafe, it fell to Seleucus Nicator, 
 the moft powerful of his fucceffors. From 
 him a long line of fovereigns of Syria, called 
 the Seleucidag, proceeded : it ended in An- 
 tiochus Afiaticus. He maintained an un- 
 fuccefsful war with Lucullus, and was total- 
 ly conquered by Pompey. 
 
 The kingdom of Syria, was part of the 
 
 B 3 conqueft,
 
 6 HOR^E BIBLIC^E, 
 
 Before 
 conqueft, and thereupon made a province of Chrift. 
 
 the Roman empire. 63 
 
 On the divifion of the Empire between Aft<r 
 the fons of Theodofius, it was annexed to n 
 the Empire of Constantinople. - 395 
 
 It was the firft of the conquefts of the 
 companions of Mahomet : the conqueft 
 of it was began by them in 632, and in 10 
 years, was completely finimed. - - 632 
 
 It is to be obferved, that, in the vocabulary of 
 the Jews, the word Aram denoted all the country 
 on the north of Paleftine to Cappadocia, on the 
 fouth-, to the confines of Egypt and the Red Sea, 
 and on the eaft, to, the confines of Media and 
 Perfia ; fome have thought that, in the notions of 
 the Jews, it included Aflyria and ftretched beyond 
 the Tigris. The word Elam denotes Perfia and 
 the countries further to the eaft. 
 
 I. 2. Oftheantient kingdoms of the eaft, the 
 hiftoryof none is more important than the Perjian, 
 
 " The Perfian empire in general," fays Sir 
 William Oufely, " is properly called Iran. The 
 " word Perfia is derived from Pars, the name of 
 " a province the moft refpeclable, as being the 
 " ufual refidence of the kings. The name in 
 " modern compofitions, is moft commonly written 
 " Fars after the Arabian manner." It lay north 
 and fouth between Media and the Perfian gulph, 
 
 and
 
 7 
 
 and between the Tigris to the weft, md the Ari- 
 anan countries to the eaft, There are few coun- 
 tries, of the geography of which our information 
 is lefs accurate, Sir William Qufejy's proinifed 
 map -of it, is exacted by the literary wprld with 
 great impatience. 
 
 Jt is fuppoied to have been founded by Befr 
 Caiumarus, probably the king of Elam, 
 mentioned in the Scripture. His grandCon, 890 
 by his juftice and excellent Jaws, obtained 
 the name of Piihdad or the iegiflator ; from 
 his, this dynafty acquired the name of 
 Piilidadians ; it ended about, ,- - 633 
 
 This period nearly corresponds with that 
 in thehiftory of dje Jews, which ^gifijs with 
 the reign of Jofaphat,in Judah, and with the 
 rlrft enterprises of Neb^chodonoibr againit 
 Jerufaletn, About the beginning of it, Ho- 
 mer and He(k>d flourished, the Empire of 
 Nineve was founded; the ages, which Varro 
 termed fabulous, expired ; and towards die 
 end of it, the empire of Rome, began. 
 
 The Pilhdadian dynafty was Succeeded 
 by the Caianian family in 600 
 
 It began with Cai-Caus, from whom it 
 takes its name ; he is called by our writers, 
 Darius the Mede ; his fon Cai Khofru, is 
 our Cyrus. The territory, known at that 
 time, by the name of Perfia, filled the fpaee 
 between Media, tlue Perfic gulph, 5uiiania, 
 
 B 4 and
 
 8 
 
 and Caramania. Cyrus fubdued the king- Befors 
 doms of Nineve and Media, and almoft all 
 Afia Minor. Thefe with Perfia, formed 
 what is called in antient hiftory, the Perfian 
 empire : it extended from the Hellefpont to 
 the Indus ; and its northern limits were 
 the Euxine, Cafpiari, and Aral feas. - 568 
 
 The Piftidadian family ended with the 
 battle of Arbela, when Daraor Darius the 
 the younger was conquered by Alexander 
 the great, and the monarchy of the Caia- 
 nians was transferred to the Greeks. - 230 
 
 This period includes the Babylonifh. cap- 
 tivity, the return of the Jews under Cyrus, 
 the decree of Artaxerxes, permitting the 
 Jews to rebuild the temple, the confirma- 
 tion of their rights by Alexander the 
 great ; the battles of Marathon and Pla- 
 tosa, the Peloponefian war, the conquefts 
 of Alexander the great, the hiftory of Rome 
 from its beginning to the expuliion of the 
 Tarquins. 
 
 After this, a race of Perfian monarchs, 
 called Afhcanians from Afliac the founder 
 of the race, is fuppofed to have reigned in 
 the eaftern parts of Perfia, till about a cen- 
 tury after the birth of Chrift. 
 
 To this period muft be referred the un- 
 fortunate difputes among the Jews refpecl:- 
 jne the priefthood, the atchieveme.nts of the 
 
 Afmonaeans,
 
 BIB LI C^. 9 
 
 Afmonaeans, die intercourfe of the Tews Before 
 
 Chrift* 
 with their Afiatic and African neighbours, 
 
 the verfion of the feventy, the fubjeclion of 
 the Jews to the Romans and the Idumaean 
 fovereigns appointed by them ; the divifion 
 of Alexander's empire among his principal 
 generals, their wars with the Greeks, the 
 firft and fecond Punic war, the conquefts of 
 the Romans , Marius, Sylla, Pompey, and 
 Caefar. 
 
 During this period, Perfia loft much of A ftr 
 its territory, the Romans conquered from 
 them the country on the well of the Tau- 
 rus, and the Parthians drove them from Up- 
 per Afia. 
 
 The Saffanian dynafty fucceeded the A(h- 
 canian. It began about the beginning of 
 the 3d century, by the revolt of Ardefher 
 Babegan, our Artaxerxes, the fon of Saflan, 
 a man in alow fituation of life, but of royal 
 extraction : from SafTan, the dynafty had 
 its appellation. The princes of it reigned 
 in Perfia till the Mahometan invafion ; and 
 fpeaking generally, the boundaries of Perfia, 
 were, during that dynafty, nearly the fame as 
 they are at prefent. - 2Q2 
 
 Under Shapor, Mani broached his errors, 
 and thereby fowed the feed of the Mani- 
 chaean herefy. 
 
 Its principal object was to reconcile, ge- 
 nerally,
 
 10 HOR^SBIBLIC^. 
 
 nerally, with the tenets of the chriftian rclL 
 
 ,,,.,-, , , , , , Chrjft. 
 
 gion, the belief that the world ana its phoe- 
 nomena, proceeded from two eternal and 
 necefTary caufes ; one eiTentially good, the 
 other eflentially evil. - - 242 
 
 Nufliirvan the great, known in Europe 
 by the name of Cofroes, the laft of this dy-r 
 nafty, began his reign in - 530 
 
 During his reign Mahomet -was born. - 569 
 
 I. 3. Africa, another of the earlieft conquefU 
 of the Mahometans, lies between the i8th degree of 
 weft, and the 5<Dth degree of caft longitude, and 
 reaches from the 35th degree of fouth to the 37th 
 degree of north latitude : it is bounded on the 
 north by the Mediterranean, on the weft by the 
 Atlantic, on the fouth by the fouthern ocean, on 
 the eaft by the red fea and the Indian ocean. 
 
 The Romans divided it, excluiively of Egypt, 
 into the Cyrenaica, including Marmarica now 
 Barca ; the regia Syrtica, or the country between 
 the two Syrtes, now Tripoly ; Africa Propria, 
 the Territory of the Carthaginians, now Tunis ; 
 Numidia, now Algiers ; and Mauritania, now 
 Morocco and Fez ; under the names of Libya and 
 fouth ^Ethiopia, they comprifed its central parts. 
 
 Jthas afforded fewer materials for hiilory Before 
 f , , . , / Cbrift. 
 
 than any otiier of the three continents of the 
 
 antient \vorid. The exploits of Hercuies 
 in its weftern extremities, and his {ailing 
 
 through
 
 HOR^E BI'BLIC^E. 
 through the (freights of Gibraltar, are al- 
 inoft the only circumftances, which occa- 
 iion the mention of Africa in the hiftory of 
 the fabulous ages. - - - 1250 
 
 The link which connects its fabulous and 
 authentic hillory is the foundation of Cai>- 
 thage. - - 868 
 
 The hiftory of Carthage may be divided 
 into three periods : during the firft, the ce- 
 lebrated circumnavigation of Africa was 
 performed, by Phcenician mariners, em- 
 ployed by Pharaoh Necho. They failed 
 from the red fea, and, in the 3d year of their 
 voyage, pafled the columns of Hercules, and 
 returned to Egypt. - 6iQ 
 
 To this period Mr. Falconer, (who, on the 
 age of the Periplus of Hanno, has invincibly 
 refuted the contrary opinion of Dodwell), 
 afligns the voyage of Hanno. Major Ren- 
 nell recognizes, in Hanno's account, the 
 capes Bianco and De Verd, the rivers of 
 Senegal and Gambia, the ifland of Cerne, 
 the bay of Biflago, anfwering to Hanno'* 
 Weftern Horn, the mountain of Sangaree, 
 anfwering to his chariot of the Gods, and 
 Sherbro' Bay, anfwering to his Southern: 
 Horn, where the fecond voyage terminated. 570 
 
 To the fame period, the Baron de St. 
 roix (Hiftoire de 1' Academic des Infcrip- 
 
 tions*
 
 12 
 
 tions, Tom. 43), fixes the voyage of Scy- Before 
 lax. By the command of Darius Hyftafpes, 
 he failed with a fquadron, from Pactya the 
 modern Pehteley : and, in two years and fix 
 months, reached the Arabian gulph. - 462 
 
 Thevfirft period of the hiftory of Car- 
 thage ends with the invaiion of Sicily by 
 the Carthaginians ; 
 
 The fecond, with the commencement of 
 the conflict between Rome and Carthage ; 
 
 The third, with the deftruclion of Car- 
 thage. - 
 
 The next memorable event in the hiftory 
 of Africa is the Jugurthan war. - 107 
 
 The only other event of confequence, in 
 its hiftory, before the birth of Chrift, is the 
 war of Caefar in Africa. - 45 
 
 Genferic, who reigned over the Vandals chri". 
 in Spain, conquered Africa from the Romans. 428 
 
 It was reconquered by Belifarius, and from 
 that time continued fubjeft to the Emperor of the 
 weft, till it was invaded by the Saracens. 
 
 Such was the Geography, and fuch were the 
 outlines of the Hiftory of the countries we have 
 mentioned at the period under confideration.
 
 HOR-ffi BIBLIC^. 13 
 
 II. 
 
 WITH refpeclrto the events which facilitated 
 the conqueft of them by the arms and religion of 
 Mahomet : 
 
 * II. i ft. Both the Weftern and Eajlcrn Empire 
 were then in their lowcjljlate of political Imbecility. 
 
 The Vandals, Suevi and Alani, who inha- A fr 
 bited the countries bordering on the Baltic, 
 made an irruption into Gaul, about the 
 year 408 ; and from Gaul advanced into 
 Spain. - - 408 
 
 About the year 415, they were driven 
 from Spain by the Vifigoths, and invaded 
 Africa, where they formed a kingdom. - 41 r 
 
 Between the year 401 and the year 420, 
 the Franks, the Allemanni, and the Bur- 
 gundians penetrated into Gaul. Of thefe 
 nations, the Franks became the moft power- 
 ful, and, having either expelled or fubdtied 
 the others, made themfelves m afters of the 
 whole of thofe extenfive provinces, which 
 from them, received the name of France. - 420 
 
 Pannonia and Illyricum were conquered 
 by the Huns ; Rhcetia, Noricum and Vin- 
 delicia, by the Oftrogoths ; and thefe, fome 
 time after, were conquered by the Franks. 
 
 In 449, the Saxons invaded England. - 449 
 
 The
 
 H O R JE B I B L I C JE. 
 
 Herulians, marched into Italy, After 
 under the command of their king Odoacer, 
 and overturned the empire of the weft. - 476 
 
 From Italy they were expelled by the 
 Oftrogoths. - - 493 
 
 About the year 568, the Lombards, iffuing 
 from the mark of Brandenburgh, invaded 
 the Higher Italy, and founded an empire, 
 called the kingdom of the Lombards. - 568 
 
 After this, little remained in Europe of 
 the Weftern Empire, befides the middle and 
 inferior Italy. Thefe, on the divifion of that 
 empire between the fons of Theodofius in 
 395, had fallen to the (hare of the emperor 
 of the eafl : he governed them by an officer 
 called an Exarch, whole refidence was 
 fixed at Ravenna, and by fome fubordinate 
 officers called Dukes. 
 
 In 743, the exarchate of Ravenna, and 
 all the remaining pofleffions of the Emperor 
 in Italy, were conquered by the Lombards. 
 This, as it was the final extinction of the 
 Roman empire in Europe, was the comple- 
 tion, in that quarter of the globe, of thofe 
 conquefts which eftabliflied the feudal law. 743 
 
 The nations, by whom thefe conquells were 
 made, came, it is evident, from different countries, 
 at different periods, fpoke different languages, and 
 were under the command of feparate leaders ; 
 
 yet
 
 BIBLIC^E. 15 
 
 vet they appear to have eftablilhed, in almoft every 
 flate which they conquered, nearly the fame fyf- 
 tem of laws. This fyftem is known by the 
 appellation of the Feudal Law, and the eftabhfh- 
 ment of it is one of the moft memorable events 
 in hiftory. 
 
 At the time of Mahomet's appearance,, all of 
 them were in the utmoffc coafufion. They hau 
 completed their conqueft over monarchy ; but 
 neither the extent of their kingdoms, nor their 
 forms of government were fettled; the fury 
 which accompanied them in their conquefts was 
 fpent, they had funk into a ftate of debility, and no 
 bond of union connected them together. 
 
 If the period of the chriftian sera were to be 
 mentioned, when there was leaft of order, lead of 
 power, lead of fcience, and leaft of intercourfe 
 in Europe, it would be that century which imme- 
 diately preceded, and that which immediately fol- 
 lowed the commencement of the Hegira. 
 
 The eaftern empire ftill contained Greece, 
 Thrace, Alia Minor, Mefopotamia, Syria, Palef- 
 tine, Egypt, Africa, and a part of Italy : but it 
 had been exhaufted by a fucceffion of foreign 
 wars and civil diflentions ; by repeated ravages 
 of Barbarians, by oppreflion in the capital, extor- 
 tion in the provinces, weak councils, lawlefs armies 
 and a disorderly court. 
 
 II. 2. To complete the calamity, both tlu 
 church and Jlate^ were, at the time we f feck of*
 
 16 
 
 equally weakened by religious controverfy and perfecu* 
 tion. -The lad of thefe circumftances was, in a 
 particular manner the caufe of the rapid fuccefs of 
 Mahometanifm. 
 
 Very foon after the introdu&ion of Chrif- Year 
 tianity, a fondnefs for the philofophy of cimft. 
 Plato and Pythagoras, led many to invefli- 
 gate the myfteries of the trinity, and of the 
 divinity and humanity of Jefus Chrift, with 
 too much curiofity. Praxcas maintained, 
 that there was but one perfon in the trinity, 
 and that the Father was the fame as the 
 Jefus who was crucified. - 193 
 
 The fame herefy, withfome modification, 
 was adopted by Noetus. - 239 
 
 With a fimilar notion of preserving the 
 unity of the divine fubftance, without giving 
 up the trinity, Sabellius reduced the three 
 perfons of the trinity to one and the fame 
 being, manifefting himfelf by 'two diftin6t 
 operations, or energies moving from himfelf, 
 called the fon and the holy ghoft. - - 257 
 
 Arius, in avoiding the error of Sabellius, 
 afferted Jefus Chrift to be a creature drawn 
 out of nothing, by the father, and fubtifting 
 by his will, but begotten before all other 
 beings, and participating, by his father's gift, 
 in his effence and glory. He was condemned 
 by the general council of Nice. - - 325 
 
 To fupport the cortfubftantiality of the 
 
 fo
 
 BIB LIC A 17 
 
 fort with the father,' Apollinaris contended Year of 
 
 . . . -, ,- /~ii /< i i Chrift. 
 
 agamft Anus, that Jefus Cnriit had not an 
 human foul; he was condemned by the fixth 
 council of Rome. - 377 
 
 In opposition to him, Theodore of Mop- 
 fueftes maintained, that Jefus Chrift had a 
 ibul tliitincl: from the word, and performed 
 actions, which were only referrible to that 
 foul. Without it, according to him, it 
 would be neceflary to fuppofe, that, the 
 divinity fu'ffcrcd,. the divinity increafed in 
 tyifdoni. - 4.28 
 
 * 
 
 Nefiorius carried the fyftem further ; lie 
 aflerted the exigence of two diftin6l perfons 
 in Chrift, that one was eternal, infinite, in- 
 treate ; that the other originated in rime, 
 was finite, and had been created. His doc- 
 trine was condemned by the third council of 
 Ephefus. 43,4 
 
 Eutyches fell into the oppofite extreme, 
 affeiting, that, in Jefus Chrift, the divine 
 nature only exifted; his humanity being ab- 
 forbed by it, as a drop of water by the ocean. 
 Thus it was the error of Neftorius to divide 
 the perfon, the error of Eutyches to con- 
 found the two natures of Chrift. The doc- 
 trine of Eutyches was condemned by the 
 council of Chalcedon, in - 451 
 
 In opposition to the Eutychians, fome 
 
 C Monks
 
 ,8 HOR/EBlBLlC-ffi. 
 
 After 
 Monks of Scythia aflerted the- propofition , Chrift. 
 
 " one of the trinity has fuffered for us." - 520 
 
 Pope John the 2d, in a letter to the em- 
 peror Juftinian, approved of the propofition, 
 it being explained to mean, that the fecond 
 perfon of the trinity fuffered in the flefh. - 534 
 
 The' unity of god, the trinity of perfons, 
 being thus eftabliihed in the godhead, and 
 the two natures and unity of perfon being 
 thus eftabliihed in the fon t>f God, a difpute 
 arofe on the nature of his will. Theodore, 
 the bifhop of Pharan in Arabia, aflerted, and 
 Sergius, the patriarch of Conftantinople, 
 adopted his aflertion, that, in Jefus Chrift, 
 though there were two natures, there was 
 but one will. This gave them and their 
 adherents the name of Monothelites. Their 
 herefy was finally condemned in the council 
 at Rome, in - 649 
 
 Marcian, and Leo, his immediate fuccefibr in 
 the throne of Conftantinople, enforced the decrees 
 of the council of Chalcedon, with great rigor. 
 
 The emperor Juftinian enacted many laws, 
 againft Heretics, Pagans, Jews and Samaritans, 
 and caufed them to be carried into execution with 
 great feverity. To all of them he offered the 
 alternative of orthodoxy or exile. 
 
 The number of thofe who preferred the latter 
 
 was
 
 <(vas p,reat; and the three Arabias offered them a 
 fecure retreat : to thole therefore they fled. 
 
 III. 
 
 WITH refpel to the Rife and Firft Pro- 
 grefs of the Mahometan Religion : 
 
 III. i. Arabia, where it tuft took its rife, extends 
 in longitude from the 51 ft to the yyth degree, and 
 in latitude, from the iath to the 34th. It forms a 
 peninfula, bounded by Syria and Paleftine on the 
 north-weft, by the Perfian gulph and the weftern 
 borders of the Euphrates towards the north-eaff, 
 by the Indian fea on the fouth-eaft, and by the 
 red fea on the fouth-weft. It is divided into the 
 ftony, the fandy, and the happy Arabia. The 
 mountains of Horeb and Sinai are in the ftony 
 Arabia, the cities of Mecca and Medina are in 
 the fandy Arabia. - " The Arabs," fays Mr. Sale^ 
 " have preferved their liberty, of which few na- 
 " tions can produce fuch antient monuments) 
 " even from the very deluge; for, though very 
 " great armies have been fent againft them, all 
 " attempts to fubdue them were unfuccefsful." 
 He {hews that, as a nation, they were always 
 independent, as individuals, they always poflefled 
 the higheft degree of domeftic freedom. 
 
 III. 2. The inhabitants of Arabia have been 
 
 divided into two clafles, the old and new. The 
 
 C * old
 
 20 HOR^BIBLICJE. 
 
 old are wholly loft : the new are fuppofed to have 
 fprung from two (locks, Kahtan, the fon of Heber* 
 a great grandfon of Sem, and Adnan, a defcendant, 
 in a dire6l line, from Ifmael, the fon of Abraham 
 and Hager. The former are faid to be the genuine 
 or pure Arabs, cr, as the natives call them, 'Arabs 
 through Arabs ; the latter are the meilif or mixed 
 Arabs. Ifmael, through whom thefe profefs to 
 defcend, was a Jew : by his marriage with a daugh- 
 ter of Mbrad, a defcendant from Kahtan, he in- 
 grafted his pofterity on the Arabic flock. 
 
 Mahomet defcen;:ed from Ifmael in a firait 
 iine, from male to male, and from elded fon. td 
 eldeft fon. 
 
 In tracing his genealogy, three feries of defcenrs 
 are diftinguifhed : the firft from Ifmael to Adnan, 
 in which all is uncertainty ; the feconcl from Adnan 
 to Fehr, furnamed the Koreiili ; the third from 
 Fehr to Mahomet. The defcents from Adnan are 
 afcertained with tolerable certainty ; from Fehr, 
 the Koreifh, confefiedly the moft eminent of the 
 tribes of the Arabs, originated. A traditionary 
 account, which the Arabians hold lac red, has 
 tranfmitted every name which enters into thk 
 long pedigree ; and though we Jhoukl confider it 
 fabulous, it is a fable adopted by the nation, and 
 fables adopted by a nation are, like truths adopted 
 by her, .the foundation of the rights of the families, 
 of which (he is compofed. Beiides, it is well 
 ; 2 known,
 
 HOR^EBIBLICJE. 21 
 
 known, with what care tht ancient nations- of the 
 eaft preferved the memory of their deicents : their 
 pedigrees make their hiftory. According to them, 
 when Abraham expelled Ifmael and Agar from 
 his houfe, limael wandered to that part of Arabia, 
 where Mecca now ftands, and which then was a 
 mere defert ; there, tormented with- thirft and 
 worn down with fatigue, he miruculoufly- difco- 
 vered the well, mentioned in the hock of Genefis. 
 He remained in its neighbourhood till che death of 
 Agar : then he proceeded to the northern parts of 
 Arabia. He found them peopled witft the dfii- 
 fcendants of the patriarch Heber. Soon after- 
 wards, he married ; and having continued a con- 
 fiderable time in the northern part or Arabia, he 
 quitted it, and with a large family, and numerous 
 flocks of fheep and herds of cattle, returned to 
 Agar's well. 
 
 Before his journey to Arabia, the tribe of the 
 Gioramides had eftablifhed itielf in South Arabia: 
 they advanced afterwards to the North, and fixed 
 in a fpot, about 90 leagues diftant from Agar's 
 well: there they laid the foundation of the city 
 of Yatreb, to which Mahomet gave the name of? 
 Medina. Thus, even as early as the days of 
 Ifmael, the Mahometan writers find in Arabia, 
 the- rival cities of Mecca and Medina, and the 
 rival tribes by which they were inhabited. 
 
 The Gioramides afterwards returned to the- 
 C 3 South,
 
 South, and pofleffed themfelves of Agar's well ; 
 Ifmael reclaimed it ; the diipute was fettled by an 
 alliance between the tribes ; limael marrying 
 Vaala,-the daughter of Modal, the chief of the 
 Gioramides, and receiving with her, in marriage, 
 the well and the territories adjacent. 
 
 Ifmael built, in the middle of his poffeflions, the 
 celebrated Caaba, or fquaie houfe, in honor ot the 
 God of Abraham. The Mahometans aflert that, 
 by the order of God, Abraham ailifted Ifmael in 
 building it ; and that it was formed on the model 
 of a limilar building, which Seth had creeled from 
 a veprefentation, let down from heaven at the 
 prayer of Adam, and which had been deftroyed by 
 the deluge. A black ftone in it became an object 
 of great veneration from the notion of its having 
 been brought to Abraham by the angel Gabriel 
 to reft upon, while he was directing the building, 
 and on which Abraham had left the print of his 
 feet. Agar's well is now called the Well of 
 Zenrzem. Infenfibly, by the increafe of Ifmael's 
 descendants, and a conflux of ftrangers, attracted 
 by the celebrity of the place, the neighbourhood of 
 the Caaba and the well became very populous. 
 The descendants of Ifmael were the firft princes 
 of the city and the .firft priefts of the temple. But 
 the great graudfon of limael leaving, at his deceafe, 
 two children of very tender years, the chief 
 of the tribe of the Gioramides pofleffed him- 
 felf bpth of the city and the temple. They 
 
 were
 
 HOR.fl3BIBLIC.ffi. 13 
 
 Before 
 
 were recovered by the Tfmaelites, about Chrift. 
 three centuries afterwards. - I 343 
 
 The Gioramide prince, before he aban- 
 doned Mecca, threw into Agar's well, the 
 whole treafure of the temple, and the prin- 
 cipal objects of devotion in it, and particu- 
 larly the black ftone ; he then filled up the 
 well with rubbifh. 
 
 The Gioramides, thus driven back *o 
 Yatreb, preferved for ten centuries its fo- 
 vereignty. About 300 years before the 
 chriftiaa aera, an inundation in the fouthern 
 part of Arabia, forced many of the tribes 
 into its northern parts. Two of them pof- 
 feffed themfelves of Yatreb, another fixed 
 their feat in a fertile valley at the diftance of 
 a day's journey from Mecca, and built a 
 town there, called Batenmor. - 312 
 
 Idolatry had long made great progrefs in 
 Arabia ; it owed its origin to the aftrono- 
 mical obfervations of the Arabians. Brought 
 up as we are, from our eariieft infancies, in 
 juft notions of the deity, we find it difficult 
 to conceive how the mind can reft on any 
 object in the univerfe, however fplendid or 
 wonderful, without rifing to the fublime 
 being, who called it into exiftence. In the 
 earlier age of the world, the view of the 
 heavens was a ilrong incentive to fuperfti- 
 
 C 4 . tion.
 
 M- H G- IB. B I B L I 
 
 lion. Job felt its force: -in the folemn pro- Before 
 teftation made by him of his integrity in the 
 obfervance of his duties, he calls God to 
 witnefs, that, " as he beheld the fun, when 
 !' it flamed, or the moon walking in bright- 
 " nefs, his heart had never been fecretly 
 ' enticed, his mouth had never luffed his 
 " hand." In their journies through their 
 immenfe deferts, the Arabians had no other 
 guides than the ftars ; they obferved the regu- 
 larity of their motions; they fuppofed them 
 directed by intellectual beings inferior to 
 God, but fuperior to man. This worfhip of 
 the (tars led them to form ftatjes with their 
 name, and to make talifmans, which they 
 fuppofed of fufficient power to regulate their 
 influence. They generally believed the 
 fcriptural hiftory of the creation, and the 
 deluge ; refpecled Abraham and other pa-^ 
 triarchs ; read the book of the pfalms, and 
 had other books which they accounted fa- 
 cred, particularly a collection of moral dif- 
 courfes which they called the book of Seth. 
 Their .fuperftitious credence is known by 
 the appellation of Sabaifm. 
 
 In the midfl of this general idolatry, the 
 defcendants of Ifmael, who united in them- 
 felves, the titles of princes of Mecca and 
 guardians of its temple, were depofitaries of 
 the primitive worfliip. Among them, Caab 
 
 is
 
 HOR^EBIBLIC^. 25 
 
 is particularly dhlinguifhed : on every fri- 
 day, he aflembled the faithful, and difcourfcd 
 'to them on the unity of God. Yet idolatry 
 gained ground, and, at the death of Kelab, 
 the grandlbn of Caab, the worlhip of the 
 true God is faid, by the Arabian writers,' to 
 have been confined to the temple of Mecca. 
 
 Caab left two fons; Kofa his eldeft fon 
 was, for a time rfifpoffefieci of his fovereignty 
 by Amrou, his younger brother : he intro- 
 duced the worlhip of idols into the temple ; 
 and Kofa had not fufficient influence with 
 his tribe to remove them. His grandfon 
 Hafchem fucceeded to the fovereignty, about 
 the beginning of the fixth century of the 
 chriilian acra. - 500 
 
 He was the great-grandfather of Maho- 
 met, and the ableft of the Meccan princes. 
 He introduced commerce into his ftate by 
 the eftablifliment of two caravans, one for 
 South Arabia, the other for Syria. - 577 
 
 Abdo'lmotalleb, his only fon, fucceeded 
 his father, and purfued, with fuccefs, his 
 views for the aggrandizement and wealth of 
 his ftate. To him, according to the Maho- 
 metan writers, the place of Agar's well was 
 difcovered: he cleared it from its rubbifl), 
 and dug up the black {lone. Abdollah, the 
 eldeft fon of Abdo'lmotalleb, died in his 
 
 father'%
 
 26 H O R M 11 1 B L I C JR. 
 
 ~ Befcr? 
 
 father's life-time, leaving Mahomet his eldeft thrift. 
 fon. - - 578 
 
 At the age of fix years, Mahomet loft his 
 mother : at her deceafe, Abdo'lmotalcb, 
 his grandfather, took him under his care, 
 but he dying at the end of two years, Abu- 
 taleb, the eldeft furviving fon of AbJo'lmo- 
 taleb, and who, in that quality, fucccedcd to 
 the dignities of prince of Mecca and priefr. of 
 the temple, undertook the care of Mahomet's 
 education : he made him his companion in 
 the caravans he conducted, and the wars he 
 carried on. This was the life Mahomet 
 led, till he attained his twenty-fifth year ; 
 when he married Kadija, who was his 
 relation, and a widow in wealthy circum- ' 
 fiances. - - - -602 
 
 - * 
 
 All accounts of Mahomet agree that from his 
 carlieft years, he was religiouily inclined, and 
 fhcwed great zeal againft idolatry, and a ftrong 
 wifli for its extirpation. It is faid, that Ser- 
 gius, a Neftorian monk, remarked this difpa- 
 fition in him, when, in his 1 3th year, he accom- 
 panied his father to the monaftery in which 
 Sergius refided- After his marriage, his leal 
 redoubled, and he gave himfelf up to a myftic 
 and contemplative life. Once a year, he fhut 
 himfelf up for a whole month, in a cavern of q. 
 mountain, about three miles diftant from Mecca, 
 
 to
 
 HOR^EBI^LIC^E. 27 
 
 to meditate, without interruption, on religious fub- 
 jecls. His temperance and ample chanties to the 
 poor procured him univerfal refpe<it ; his piety was 
 fo generally acknowledged, that, a difpute arifmg, 
 who (hould have the honor of placing the black 
 ftone in the temple of Mecca, the voice of the 
 people unanimoufly deferred it to him. His mode 
 of life could not but increafe the fanaticifm of an 
 imagination, naturally ardent ; at the age of 40, 
 he publickly affumed the character of a pmphet 
 fent by God, to re-eftablim, in its purity, the reli- 
 gion of Abraham and Ifmael. 
 
 III. 3. He addrefTed a willmg audience of 
 armed profelytes, who would follow him with 
 fanaticifm equal to his own, whofe powerful onfe.t 
 neither the eaftern nor weftern empire was likely 
 to refift, whom firft victories would elevate to 
 irrefiftihle valor and enterprize, and who would 
 fpread themfelves over the world with all the zeal 
 ..of miffionaries, and the ambition of conquerors. 
 
 At .firft he met with fome refinance, and in 
 coniequence of it, was obliged to fly from Mecca 
 to Medina, a difb.nce of about 170 miles, 'i his 
 was in the 622d year of the chriftian aera. With 
 this year the Mahometans begin their epocha of 
 the Hegira or Flight. Their year is lunar ; and 
 confequently fhorter by n days than the folar 
 year. Thefe II days, at the end of 33 years, 
 form a fclar year ; fo that the 33d year of the 
 hegira, is only the 3 ad folar year from the hegira. 
 
 Mr.
 
 28 H O R JE B I B L I C M. 
 
 Mr. Dallavvay, in his Confiantinopl'e antienf 
 and modern, page 390, infcrts the foilo\ving cal- 
 culation of the hegira for the year 1796. " If the 
 " firft year of the hegira be fubtracted from 1796, 
 " the remainder will be 1 174. But as the Maho- 
 " metaas reckon by lunar years, confiiUng only 
 ** of 354 days, of co.urfe, in 33 years, they will 
 " gain 263 da\s, or al.moft another year. 
 
 y m y m h m fee. 
 
 " Now 33 : 1 2 : i : o : io d : 2 1 : 49 : $ T \ or al- 
 " moft II days, \vhichxii74, will give 1,2984 
 f* days or 35$!$ years. But 35 + 1174 = 1 209. 
 " So that including the fradion, the laft year, 
 " ( ! 796)> w ^^ ^ e tne : 2 loth year of the hegira." 
 
 III. 3. The extent of the cenqttefts made by Atfa- 
 homet, and his immediate fucceiTors in the caliphate, 
 called his companions, is one of the moft furprizing 
 events mentioned in hiitory. 
 
 The three Arabias were fubdued by Mahomet ; 
 Abubeker, his immediate fucceflor, aiTumed from 
 refpe6l and in reference to him, the title of Caliph, 
 or Vicar, and, in this, was followed by a long 
 line of fucceffors. Very foon after Mahomet's 
 deceafe, his difciples wer^ generally l^nown, among 
 the chriftians, by the appellation of Saracem. 
 Abubeker addrefled them a circular letter, in. 
 which he fhortly acquainted them, that, " he 
 " intended fending fome true believers into Syria 
 " to take it out of the hands of the Infidels :" 
 and " defired them to obferve, that fighting for 
 
 " religion
 
 HORy"E BIBLIC^. zg 
 
 ** religion was an act of obedience to God.'* 
 This was a general declaration of war by the 
 Mahometans againft all mankind, who fhould not 
 feinbrace their religious principles. From the 
 avowed object of the war, they called it the 
 * holy war," and thus, to ufe theexpreflion of the 
 author of 1'Efprit des Croifades, (Tom. I. p. 116), 
 " It was the model and the juflification of the 
 " crufadcs." Such was the fuccefs of their enter-, 
 prize, that, in lefs than a century from the com- 
 rnenfement of the hegira, they fpread the religion 
 of Mahbiiiet, from the Atlantic Ocean, to India 
 and Tartafy ; and his fucceflbrs reigned in Syria, 
 Perfia, Egypt, Africa and Spain. Since that 
 time, they have been expelled from Spain; but 
 have conquered the kingdoms of Vifapour and 
 Golconda in India, the illands of Cyprus and 
 Rhodes and the Cyclades, and have made large 
 territorial aequiiitions in Tartary, Hungary and 
 Greece. 
 
 Jerufalem was taken by the generals of Omar, 
 the 2d Caliph. " The defcriptions," fays Monf. 
 Anquetil, (Precis de 1'Hiiloire Univerfelle, Tom. 
 V. p. 40), " which the hiftorians of the cam- 
 " paigns of the Saracens in Jucla:a, give of their 
 " fertility and their numerous towns, enriched by 
 " commerce, agree with the defcriptions given of 
 " them by the facred penmen, and lliew that they 
 " have been unjuftly accufed of exaggeration, for 
 " callmg it the land of milk and honey. W hat is 
 
 " become.
 
 jo HOR^i BIBLIC^E. 
 
 ** become, under the dominion of the Turks, of 
 
 " the fields watered by the Tigris and Euphrates?'* 
 
 IV. 
 
 WITH refped to the Principal Mahometan 
 States: 
 
 IV. i. In the hiflory of Mahometaniftn the 
 Dynafties and Fortunes of the Univerfal Caliphs fill a 
 large fpace* 
 
 The four firft of them are diftinguifhed by the 
 appellation of Companions of Mahomet, and ca- 
 liphs of the right line. They reirned from the 
 death' of Mahomet, which happened in the eleventh 
 year of the Hegira, or the 6^zd year of Chrift, to 
 the 4<Dth year of the Hegira, or the 66ift year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 The three firft caliphs refided at Medina; Ye;ir 
 AH transferred his refidence to Coufah, 
 
 town in Chaldzea, or the Babylon! til Irak, 
 fituate on the right bank of the Euphrates. 41 
 
 The four firft caliphs are confidered to 
 have been elected by the general and free 
 voice of the whole body of the people. This 
 gives their Caliphate a rank above thofe of 
 their fucceffors. Their's is the perfect, that 
 of their fucceflbrs, is the imperfect, caliphate. 
 
 After the affafiination of AH and the refig- 
 nation of Haflan, his eldeft fon Moaviah was 
 elected caliph. He was great grandfon of 
 Ommyiah, who was of the fame family as 
 Mahomet. He made the caliphate heredi-
 
 of the 
 
 HOR^E BIBLIC^S. 
 
 tary in his family, and fourteen of his de- 
 fcendants, (a collateral relation being fome-pj eo .; 
 times called to the fucceflion, in preference 
 to the lineal heir), poffeflfed the caliphate in 
 fucceffion. 
 
 From Ommyiah it is called the dynafty 
 of the Ommiades. Moaviah transferred the 
 feat of the caliphate to Damafcus. 
 
 To Welid the ift, the prevalence of the 
 Arabic language in the countries conquered 
 by the difciples of Mahomet, is owing. He 
 ordered that the Greek language fhould be 
 no longer ufed, and that the Arabic fhould 
 be fubftituted for it. 
 
 Under him the caliphate had its largeft 
 extent of territory. It reached from Spain 
 to China, and China was its tributary. - 05 
 
 It was even, for a time, uncertain, whe- 
 ther the arms of the Saracens would not 
 overthrow all Europe. At the head of an 
 immenfe army, Abderame, by the order of 
 the Caliph Hafheim, crofled the Pyrenees, 
 patted the Rhone, took Aries, over-run Aqui- 
 taine and reached the banks of the Loire ; 
 there he was met and completely defeated 
 by Charles Martel. _ - - 114 
 
 Mervan the 2d, the lafl prince of the 
 dynafty of the Ommiades, died in - 133 
 
 The reafon affigned by the Ommiades, 
 for their rifmg againft Ali, was his conni- 
 
 Vear of 
 Chrift. 
 
 732 
 
 75 
 
 vancc
 
 3 3 HOR^SBIBLIC^E. 
 
 vance in the murder of Othman, his imrhe- X ear 
 diate predeceflor. The Aba.Tides role againft ^ n \^ 
 the Ommiades, on pretence of revenging on 
 them, the death of A]i. By the defeat and 
 murder of Mervan the 2d, they poflefled 
 themfelves of the caliphate, and Aboul Abbas 
 was elected caliph. At firft, he fixed his 
 refiderice at Coufah; thence transferred it 
 to Hafchemiah, on the Euphrates. Abou 
 Giafar Almanzor, his immediate fucceiTor, 
 built the town of Bagdat. Till the extinc- 
 tion* of the Abaffidan dynafly, that town 
 was die principal refidence of the caliphs ; 
 and there, having completely abandoned the 
 fimplicity of the firft caliphs, they difplayed 
 all the magnificence and ceremonial of the 
 Perfian and Byrantine courts. From their 
 refidence in .that city, the AbarTIdes are 
 ufually called the caliphs of Bagdat, in con- 
 tradiftin6tion from the Ommiades, who, 
 from the country in which they refided, are 
 called the caliphs .of Syria. They were 
 fuprenie both in church and (late. 
 
 The power of the caliphs was preferved 
 under the Ommiades, without any fenfible 
 diminution. It flourilhed greatly, under the 
 firft of the Abaflides. By the orders of 
 Abdallah the 3d, an account was taken of 
 the perTohs then living of that race, and they 
 were found to exceed 33,000. - - 201
 
 BIBLIC^. 13 
 
 The fplendor of the caliphate began to Year 
 decline under Motaflfem, the 8th of the Abaf-Hi-ira. 
 fides. He firft introduced, into the fervice 
 of the caliphs, the Turks, their future 
 matters - - 218 
 
 Radhi, the 2Oth caliph of the Abaflides, 
 was the lad by whom the caliphate was 
 pofleffed with any degree of fplendor ; " the 
 " laft," fays Abulfeda, " who harangued 329 
 " the people from the pulpit, who paffed 
 <' the cheerful hours of leifure with men of 
 " learning and tafte ; whofe expence, reve- 
 *' nues and treafures, whofe table or magni- 
 " ficence had any refemblance to thofe of 
 " the ancient caliphs." From being the 
 moft powerful fovereigns of the eaftern 
 world, they, foon after hi time, were re- 
 duced to the meaneft and moft fervile of- 
 fices, to the loweft Itate of degradation and 
 contempt. 
 
 The extent of their dominions made it 
 neceffary that they ihould employ governors 
 in the remoter provinces, and inveft them 
 with unlimited powers : fymptoms of dil- 
 obedienee foon appeared among them. 
 The revolt of Spain was the firft fue- 
 cefsful rebellion againft them. The ex- 
 ample was generally followed ; and, long 
 before the final extin&ionof the Abaffidan dy- 
 nafly, the empire of the caliphs was divided 
 
 D among 
 
 Year of 
 Ihrift. 
 
 833
 
 34 HORuEBIBLIC^E. 
 
 among a number of independent princes. Y * r 
 
 If C t 11 fthe 
 
 Many of them were known by the appella- Hegira. 
 tion of Emirs. 
 
 The hiftory of thefe revolts is the princi- 
 pal fubjecl: of the annals of the Saracens, 
 during the loth century of the chriftian aera, 
 or the period from the 288th to the 391(1 
 year of the Hegira. Among thefe revolts, 
 two deferve particular attention : that of 
 Obeidollah, who founded the Fatimite dy~ 
 natty in Africa, and that of Moez Ledinilla, 
 (the founh in fucceflion from him), who 
 conquered Syria and Egypt, and founded 
 Grand Cairo. - - - - 391 
 
 Similar revolts are the fubject of the an- 
 nals of the Saracens in the following cen- 
 tury. It is particularly remarkable for the 
 conquefts of Mahmood of Gazna, the firft 
 Mahometan prince who bore the title of 
 Sultan ; and for the rife of the Seljouk 
 Turks,one of the many nations that occupied 
 the territory between the Euxine and the 
 Cafpian feas. - - 494 
 
 The next century is remarkable for the 
 difmemberment of the Caliphate by the 
 Atabeks, or lieutenants, who formed four 
 feparate and independent dynafties, which 
 reigned in the Arabian Irak, in Aderbi- 
 gian or Media, in Pars or Perfia, and in 
 
 Lariflan,
 
 35 
 
 Year 
 of the 
 
 Lariftan, or the country on the Perflan Hegira. 
 gulph. - . 529 
 
 By degrees the Caliphs were deprived of 
 all temporal power, and were even reduced 
 to beg for alms, They frequently made 
 attempts to reftore themfelves to their for- 
 mer confequencc, but were ultimately un- 
 fuccefsful. 
 
 Moftazem, the 56th Caliph, was dethron- 
 ed and put to death by Houlagou Khan, the 
 nfth of the Gingkizhanidan Moguls. - 656 
 
 Moftanzer Billah, a fon or pretended fon of 
 Dahef, the laft but one of the caliphs, thereupon 
 fled into Egypt ; and he and his fucceflbrs to the 
 number of eighteen, were confidered to be the 
 Imans or fpiritual chiefs of the Mahometan reli- 
 gion, but without the flighteft veftfge of temporal 
 authority. 
 
 With Moftanzer, the univerfal caliphate is ge- 
 nerally confidered to end. The caliphs, diftin- 
 guifhed by the appellation of companions of Ma- 
 homet, were four ; the next fourteen caliphs were 
 of the dynafty of the Ommiades ; the remaining 
 forty-five were of the dynafty of the Abaffides 
 twenty-feven of thefe reigned before Moftanzer's 
 flight into Egypt, the fucceeding eighteen refide 
 in Egypt. All were called the Univerfal Ca- 
 liphs in contradiftinc~lion from the other prince: 
 who took the title of caliph : whatever tempora 
 D 2 power
 
 36 HOR^E BIBLICA 
 
 power was poffefled by thofe caiiphs, the univerfal 
 caliphs alone are confidered to have had the 
 Immaneth or fpiritual power. 
 
 IV. 3. Egypt is a narrow vale on each fide of 
 the Nile, widening where the river branches off 
 before it empties itfelf into the Mediterranean. 
 The Romans divided it into the Lower and Up- 
 per Egypt : the Lower extended from the Mediter- 
 ranean, to the fouthern point of the Delta ; there 
 Upper Egypt commenced. 
 
 It was divided into Heptanomis, the country 
 extending to Said, and the Thebais, or the coun- 
 try reaching from Said to ^Ethiopia. Egypt was 
 antiently called Mizraim. It is faid to have been 
 Subject to Cham, a grandfon of Noah. (2i8S 
 A. C.) On his deceafe, it was divided into feve- 
 ral principalities, all of which, about the year 
 687 A.C., beame united in Amenophis. Soon 
 after his deceafe, they were again divided; and, in. 
 the perfon of Pfammiticus were again united. 
 Egypt was conquered by Cambyfes, King of Per- 
 fia, in 525 A. C. It continued fubject to the 
 Perfians till, in 413, it was conquered from them 
 by Amyrrheus. From that time it was an indepen- 
 dent kingdom, and governed by its own fovereigns, 
 till it was conquered by Artaxerxes Ochus, king 
 of Perfia, in 350 A. C. From that, to the prefent 
 time, no native of Egypt has ever been itsfovereign. 
 It remained a province of Perfia, till, on the death 
 of Alexander the Great, in 325, it was feizedby 
 * Ptolemy
 
 3; 
 
 Ptolemy Lagus. His defcendants held it till it was 
 reduced to a Roman province. 
 
 Year 
 of the 
 
 It was conquered from the Romans by Hegira 
 Amrou, one of Omar's generals, in - 21 
 
 On the difmemberment of the caliphate, 
 Abou-Obeidollah, who pretended to defcend 
 from AH and Fatima, poflefled himfelf of it. 297 
 
 With him the dynafty of the Fatimite 
 caliphs began ; it ended in Ahded, the I ith 
 prince of the dynaily. - ^67 
 
 He was conquered by Saladin, the Sul- 
 tan of Damafcus and Aleppo, one of the 
 moft humane, able, and powerful princes 
 who have profefled the Mahometan reli- 
 gion. He was a declared enemy of the 
 Fatimite feel:, and ordered the name of the 
 Caliph of Bagdad to be inferted in all the 
 public prayers. He gained over the chrif- 
 tians the battle of Hittin near Tiberias, which 
 was foon followed by the conqueft of all 
 the towns poflefled by the chriftians in 
 Syria. - - 583 
 
 He was of the Ayoubite dynafty. One 
 of the princes of this dynafty having pur- 
 chafed twelve thoufand Kaptchac Turks, 
 formed out of them a body ot troops, to 
 whom he committed the care of his perfon. 
 Some of them he raifed to the rirft employ- 
 ments in the ftate : they depofed his f uccef- 
 
 D 3 for, 
 
 Year of 
 
 Chrift. 
 
 641 
 
 909 
 
 II7I 
 
 IlSy
 
 58 HORJE B I B L I C JE. 
 
 for, and appointed one of their own chiefs to Year 
 the dignity of Sultan, and profefled them- Hegira. 
 felves his Mamlouks or military flaves. 
 "With this, the dynafty of the Baharite 
 Mamlouks commences. The firft fove- 
 reign of that dynafty was Azzeddin Moaz 
 Ibegh. - - - 648 
 
 From that period their hiftory is a con- 
 tinued fcene of bloodihed. In a courfe of 
 257 years, 47 fultans filled the throne, and 
 almoft all of them died a violent death. 
 Toumain Bey, the laft and one of the moft 
 valiant of the Mamlouk Sultans, was con- 
 quered and put to death by Selim the 2d, the 
 Emperor of Conftantinople ; and with him 
 fmifned the Mamlouk kingdom of Egypt. 923 
 
 It then became a province of the Otto- 
 man Empire. Selim preferved the Mam- 
 louks, and divided them into feven military 
 corps. For the government of the king- 
 dom he appointed a Pacha and a Divan, or 
 military council, compofed of the Pacha 
 and the chiefs of the military corps ; and dif- 
 tributed the kingdom into twenty-four pro- 
 vinces, under the direction of as many Beys, 
 who were always to be chofen from the Mam- 
 louks, and one of them was fent to refide 
 at Cairo, under the appellation of Shack eb 
 beled. "Such," fays M. Volney, " is 
 * the militia of flaves, converted into def- 
 
 " pots.
 
 HORJE BlBtlC^E. 39 
 
 " pots, which, for more than 550 years, Ye " 
 " have given law to Egypt." A circum- H-gira. 
 ftance unparalleled, in what we know of 
 other nations, attends them. Scarcely any 
 of them has left iffue, that has fubfifted in the 
 3d generation. The confequence is, that, 
 as they die away, they are replaced by 
 Haves brought from Georgia, Circaffia, and 
 Mingrelia. To this, in fome meafure, the 
 continuance of the dependance of the Mam- 
 louks on the Ottoman Emperors has been 
 owing. But this dependance for fome time 
 paft has been on the decline. In 1746, 
 Ibrahim, one of the veteran colonels of 
 the Janiffaries, rendered himfelf matter of 
 Egypt. AH Bey did the fame in 1766, and 
 had he pofleffed a greater mare of judgment 
 and ability, Egypt might now have been an 
 independent kingdom. 
 
 IV. 4. Africa, where the caliphs and 
 fheriffs of Morocco had their rife, was in- 
 vaded by the Saracens in 647, and the con- 
 queft of it was completed by them, in - 79 
 
 The extenfive defarts of each country 
 had naturally occafioned an immemorial 
 refemblance in their habits and modes of 
 life, and the Moors eafily adopted the lan- 
 guage of their conquerors. The confe- 
 quence was, that from the time of the Ma- 
 hometan conqueft, the vaft territory from 
 
 D 4 the
 
 4 o HOR^BBlBLIC-ffi. 
 
 the eafternmoft boundary of Arabia to the 
 weftern more of Africa, appeared to be H 
 peopled by a nation of the fame origin, lan- 
 guage, and manners. Africa was ruled by 
 the caliph of Bagdad. Ali Ibrahim, the 
 loth in fucceffion of tbefe governors, made 
 himfelf independent of the caliph. - - 
 
 He was the founder of the dynafty called 
 the Aglabite, from his father. But it fhould 
 be obferved, that the Aglabite dynafty reign- 
 td over that part only of Afia, which extends 
 from Egypt to Tunis. Edris ben Edris, 
 who defcended both from Ali and from 
 Fatima, the daughter of Mahomet, reigned 
 over Ceuta, Fez, Tangiers, and almoft all 
 the antient Mauritania. 
 
 The dynafty of the Aglabites expired in 296 
 
 Mahomet Obeid Ollah then feized the 
 throne. He expelled the Edriflite dynafty 
 From th<? countries over which they reigned, 
 and annexed them to his empire. He pre- 
 tended to deduce his origin from Fatima, 
 the daughter of Mahomet, and aflumed the 
 title of Caliph and Iman. With him the 
 Fatimite dynafty in Africa took its rife. 
 
 Moez, the laft prince of that dynafty, 
 having conquered Egypt, fixed the feat 
 of his empire at Cairo, and transferred 
 the fovereignty of Africa to Joufef-bea- 
 jZeire-ben Menad, on the condition of 
 
 receiving
 
 HCR^EBIBLIC-E. 41 
 
 Year 
 of the 
 
 receiving homage from him and his fuc- Hc g'- 
 ceflbrs. . - - - - 362 
 
 This was the origin of the Zeirite dy- 
 nafty. They were fucceeded by the Al- 
 moravides, or Reclufe ; and theie, by the 
 Almohades or Unitarians. - - 553 
 
 That dynafty expired in the perfon of 
 Vaffek Aboul-Ala. 
 
 Three dynafties arofe on its ruins, the 
 Merinis, the Abi-haffs, and theBeni-Zians. 
 The firft, (who were the moft powerful), 
 ruled in Morocco, the fecond in the Africa 
 propria of the Romans, the third in Treme- 
 fan. While the princes of thefc dynafties 
 were contending for dominion, Frederic 
 Barbaroffa, one of the many illuftrious per- 
 fons whofe achievements illuftrated the 
 reign of Solymari the magnificent, pofleiTed 
 himfelf of the whole territory extending 
 from Fez to Egypt. Retaining the govern- 
 ment of Algiers for himfelf, he put one of his 
 brothers in pofleffion of Tunis, another in 
 pofleffion of Tripoli : no part of Africa 
 except Morocco, Fez, and Tremefan, then 
 remained to the Merinis : from thofe they 
 were expelled by the Sheriffian family, a 
 prince of which now fills that throne. - 957 
 
 Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli are republics, pro- 
 
 fefiing 
 
 Year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 972 
 
 "S3 
 
 1550
 
 fefling to be under the protection, but difclaiming 
 the fovereignty of the Pcrte. Barca lies between 
 Tripoli and Egypt, and belongs to the Porte : 
 the nations which fill the northern extremity of 
 Africa, from the ftreights of Gibraltar to Egypt, arc 
 called the ftates of Barbary. Ceuta,on the ftreighls 
 of Gibraltar, Mellila and the fort of Velez in 
 Fez, belong to the Spaniards : Magazan, in the 
 fame kingdom, belongs to the Portugueze ; except 
 in thofe places, Iflamifm is profefied through the 
 whole .weftern coaft of Barbary, and very far in the 
 country lying to its fouth. No part of the hif- 
 tory of the Saracens is fo confufed, and at the fame 
 time fo difgufting, by the continued fcenes it dif- 
 plays of bloodfhed and every kind of horror, as that 
 which relates to the hiftorv of their African pof- 
 feflions. 
 
 IV. 5. Spain, including Portugal, reaches from 
 the yth degree weft, to the 3d degree of eaftern 
 longitude ; and from the 36th to the 44th degree 
 of northern latitude. It is bounded on the north, 
 by the Bay of Bifcay and the Pyrenees ; on the 
 fouth and fouth-eaft, by the Mediterranean ; on the 
 weft, by the Atlantic. It is faid to have been 
 peopled originally by Thubal, a grandfon of 
 Noah. In confequence of a famine, a large 
 proportion of its inhabitants left it about the 
 year 1702, (A.C.) and eftabliihed themfelves 
 in a country between the Euxine and Caf- 
 
 pian
 
 HOR^BIBLIC^E. 43 
 
 pian feas, called from this event, Iberia. Some of 
 them returned to Spain, having been joined by a 
 numerous body from the different Celtic nations 
 through which they paffed ; on that account they 
 received, after their return, the name of Celti- 
 beri. Being jealous of the Phoenicians, who 
 had made fettlements in the north and north- 
 weftern coafts, they applied to the Carthaginians 
 for their affiftance in expelling them, and the 
 Carthaginians made themfelves matters of the 
 whole country : this was about the year 22 1 . A. C. 
 The wars between Rome and Carthage began in 
 Spain : the Romans fubdued the greateft part ol 
 it : they divided it into two provinces, the Hif- 
 pania citerior, and the Hifpania ulterior, and go- 
 verned them by two Prsetors. Auguftus dividec 
 the latter into two provinces ; fo that, at the be- 
 ginning of the chriftian aera, it confifted of three 
 provinces : the Tarraconenfis, which containec 
 all the north of, Spain to the Douro; Lufitania 
 containing Portugal, part of Leon, and all the ok 
 and part of new Caftille ; and the Bcetica, which 
 comprehended Andalufia, Granada, and the other 
 part of New Caftille. 
 
 Spain was one of the firft parts of the Roman 
 Empire which were fubdued by the Barbarians. 
 
 The univerfal tradition of the nations of X ear 
 the north, and all their antient writers, Hegira 
 place the Goths, the conquerors of Spain, 
 at a period, as early as general hiftory 
 
 reaches,
 
 44 H O R M B I B L I C M. 
 
 reaches, amone the nations of the Baltic, and 
 
 ,- T ,. , . of the 
 
 affigns the denomination or V mgotns or Hegi, 
 weftern Goths, to thofe tribes of thera,\vhich 
 inhabited that part of Scandinavia, which 
 borders on Denmark ; and the denomination 
 of Oftrogoths or eaftern Goths, to, thofe 
 which inhabited the more eaftern parts on the 
 Baltic. In all their emigrations and fettle- 
 inents, they preferved their names, and the 
 fame relative fituation. Towards the end 
 of the firft century of the chriftian sera, a 
 large eftablifhment of them is found on 
 the Viftula, and numerous tribes of a people 
 of the fame origin, but known by the appel- 
 lation of Vandals, is found on the Oder. 
 
 Then hiftory fhews thejr migrations to 
 the Euxine, the fettlements of the Oftro- 
 goths in the fouthern pans of Afia Minor, 
 and the fettlements of die Vifigoths in 
 Thrace. At the battle of Adrianople, the 
 Goths obtained over the emperor Valens a 
 victory, from which the empire of the weft 
 never recovered. 
 
 Attila was the firft of the barbarian in- 
 vaders who took the city of Rome. About 
 9 months before that event, the Suevi, Van- 
 dals, and Alani invaded Spain. It was foon 
 afterwards conquered from them by the Viii- 
 Goths : they kept pofieflion of it for three 
 centuries : at the end of which, the Saracens 
 
 or
 
 HORABIBLIC^. 45 
 
 or Moors, by the treachery of two exiled Year 
 princes, and of Oppas, the Archbifhop ofHegira 
 Seville, Completed the conqueft of it in eight 
 months. - 94 
 
 About the fame time, the Oft rogoths made 
 their fettlements in Pannonia and Sclavonia, 
 and the countries on the higher Danube. 
 
 Upon a revolution of the Caliphate at 
 Damafcus, Abdalraman or Almanzor,aroyal 
 youth of the family of the Ommiades, efta- 
 bliflied an independent kingdom in Spain, 
 and affumed the title of caliph. He fixed 
 his throne at Cordova. - - -134 
 
 The caliphs .of this line are often called 
 the caliphs of the weft, to diftinguilh them 
 from the univeral caliphs, who, from having 
 the feat of their empire at Bagdat, were 
 called the caliphs of the eaft. 
 
 The reigns of the Ommiades in Spain 
 were, to ufe Mr. Swinburn's words, (Tra- 
 vels through Spain, p 280), " thole flouriih- 
 " ing ages of Arabian gallantry and mag- 
 " nificence, which rendered the Moors of 
 " Spain fup^ricr to all their cotemporaries 
 " in arts and arms, and made Cordova one 
 " of the moft fpkndid cities of the world. 
 " Cordova was the centre of politenefs, 
 " tafte, and genius ; tilts and tournaments, 
 " with other coflly fliews, were long the 
 4t darling paftirnes of a wealthy happy peo- 
 
 " pie, 
 
 Year of 
 Chcift. 
 
 7 I2 
 
 75 1
 
 46 HORjEBlB 
 
 " pie. And this was the only kingdom in 
 
 , of the 
 
 " the weit, where geometry, altronomy, and Hegir 
 " phyfic, were regularly ftudied and prac- 
 tjfe'd." 
 
 It is obfervable that Cordova, under Ab- 
 dalraham the 2d, was paved with ftone, 
 which was 334 years before the time when, 
 under Philip Auguftus, the metropolis of 
 France firft had that pavement. - - 236 
 
 The dynafty of the Ommiades in Spain 
 ended by the murder of Mutumed al Allah, 
 the laft prince of that family, in - - 430 
 
 They were Succeeded by the Morabouths 
 or Almoravides. 
 
 This revolution wholly changed the face 
 of the Arabic monarchy in Spain. The 
 governors of the provinces, the minifters of 
 the (late, and chief officers in the army, and 
 the heads of leading families raifed themfel ves 
 to be independent princes, fo that there were 
 almoft as many kingdoms as towns. Cor- 
 dova, Toledo, Seville, laen, Lifbon, Tor- 
 tofa, Valentia, Murcia, Almeria, Denia, 
 and the Balearick Iflands had their refpedtive 
 fovereigns. 
 
 The chriftian princes took advantage of 
 thefe divifions,, and by degrees conquered 
 Caftile, Arragon, Navarre, and Portugal 
 from the Mahometans. The laft princi- 
 pality which remained to the Mahometans 
 
 was
 
 HORyE BIBLIC^E. 47 
 
 ^was Granada and iis territory. It was J e * r 
 yielded up by Abdalmounin, the laft of the Hegira 
 dynafty of Marabouths or Almoravides, to 
 Aboufabid, a prince of the dynafty of the 
 Almohades. Mahomet-al-hamar polfeired 
 himfelf of it, in - .- - 634 
 
 It was conquered by Ferdinand and Ifa- 
 bella. - - 898 
 
 Whilft it was governed by it's Mahome- 
 tan fovereigns, " It feems," fays Mr. Swin- 
 burne, " to have enjoyed greater affluence 
 *' and profperity than it has done Since it 
 " became a province of Spain. Before the 
 " conqueft, it was one of the mo ft compadt, 
 <c well peopled, opulent kingdoms in the 
 " world. Its agriculture was brought to 
 " great perfection ; its revenues and circula- 
 " tion were immenfe ; the public works car- 
 " ried on with great magnificence, and its 
 " population not to be credited by any per- 
 " fon that fees it in its prefent ftate. Of 
 " their tafte and magnificence, the ruins of 
 " the palace of Alhambra, built in themidft 
 " of gardens of aromatic trees, with noble 
 " views over beautiful hills and fertile 
 " plains, are a fplendid monument. The 
 tl Moors are faid to offer up prayers, every 
 " Friday, for the recovery of this city." 
 
 After the conqueft of it by Ferdinand and 
 Jfabella, a confiderable number of the Moors 
 
 remained 
 
 Year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 1236 
 
 1492
 
 48 HOR^BIBLIC-ffi. 
 
 remained in Spain. They were called Ye r 
 Morifcoes. They formed, in Granada, a Hegira 
 confpiracy againft the Spaniards, which was 
 not quelled until the end of two years, and 
 after, many confiderable battles. - - 976 
 
 Philip the Third, at the inftigation of 
 the inquifition, a tribunal to be mention- 
 ed with the bittereft expreflions of detef- 
 tation, iffued an edit ordering all Morif- 
 coes, without any exception, to quit the 
 Spanifh territories. From the erFe& of this 
 improvident meafure, Spain has never re- 
 covered. - 1019 
 
 IV. 2. The hiftory of Perjia has been 
 traced to the conqueft of it by the generals 
 of the caliph Omar. From that time it was 
 governed by princes of Turkifh extraction, 
 till it was conquered by the Tartars under 
 the command of afon of Ghenghiz Khan. 500 
 
 His descendants became divided amon^ 
 
 o 
 
 thetnfelves, the kingdom was difmembered, 
 and TSmour made an eafy conqueft of it 
 fromthm,in - - 787 
 
 He was fucceeded by Shahrok, his 4th 
 fon. A race of Armenian princes then 
 poflefled the throne. 
 
 About the beginning of the i6th century, 
 Shah Ifmael Sophy, who pretended to de- 
 fcend from Muza Khan, one of the twelve 
 fonsofHacon, the ion of Ali, the coufin 906 
 
 and 
 
 Year o 
 Chrift. 
 
 I 5 6S 
 
 i6ic 
 
 1202 
 
 1385 
 
 1500
 
 H OR-ffi B IBLIC.^E. 49 
 
 Ye.iv 
 
 of the 
 
 and fon in law of Mihomet, (eized the throne. 
 He eftablifhed the feel of All in Perfia, on 
 the ruin of the fe6t of Omar, whom the 
 Turks venerate. The hatred which fub- 
 fifts on this account between the Periians 
 and Trirks has been mentioned. 
 
 It occafioned a long feries of war and 
 bloodshed between the two nations. About 
 the year 1730, the whole kingdom of Per- 
 fia was conquered by Nadir Shah, an ob- 
 fcure individual of a Tartarian Tribe, called 
 Afgars. lie raifed it to the higheft degree 
 offplendor. At his deceafe, it was divided 
 into a number of governments, and in that 
 ftate it has fi nee continued. 
 
 IV. 6. 77/i? Mahometan Dynamics in the 
 Empire of Hindufl an, arofe in the immenfe 
 tradls of land which lie between the Afiatic 
 dominions of the Czar, and Perfia, India, 
 
 and China. Thefe have been immemori- 
 
 . 
 
 ally filled with numerous hordes, who, at 
 different times, under the names of Scythi- 
 ans, Getes, Finns, Moguls, and Tartars, 
 have made irruptions into the neighbouring 
 territories, and impelled the inhabitants of 
 them on the adjacent countries. From one 
 of thefe irruptions, a powerful dynafty arofe, 
 which, from the feat of its Empire at Ghizni, 
 
 E a city-
 
 5 o 
 
 a city on the wefternmoft part of the Cow- Year 
 
 mul, one of the rivers which the Indus re- H e g,, e a . 
 
 ceives from the weft, has bee* called the 
 
 Ghiznevide. 
 
 Sebe&agin, its founder, revolted from the , 
 king of JBoucharia, one of the Mahometan 
 princes, who raifed thcmfelves into power, 
 on the ruins of the Caliphate. Mahinood, 
 one of his fons, and the third in fucceflionto 
 him, fubdued Hinduftan, and eftablifhed in 
 it, the religion of Mahomet, deftroying, 
 wherever his power extended, the temples 
 and idols of the ancient religion. - - 39 1 
 
 Kofrou Shaw, the lalt prince of the 
 Ghiznevide race, was expelled by Huflain 
 Gauri, a native of Gaur, a province lying to 
 the north of Ghizni ; from him the dynafty 
 of the Gaurides takes its appellation. Ma- 
 homet Gauri took Benares, the ancient feat 580 
 of Braminical learning. From this time, 
 the Shanfcreet language began to decline, 
 and univerfally became a dead language, 
 " The death of Mahomet Gori," fays 
 Colonel Dow, " may, in fome degree, be 
 " faid to have put an end to the empire of 
 " Ghizni. The unambitious character of 
 ." the furviving princes of the family of 
 " Ghor, gave an opportunity to two of 
 " the inferior flaves, to divide among them 
 " the empire which Mahomet had been at
 
 7 HOR^E BIBLM2JE j 
 
 "" fo much pains to acquire; Hdicur, or, as y^r 
 " he is fometimes' called, Eldoze, kept po 
 " feffion of Ghizhi and the northern pro- 
 *' vinces ; and Cuttub, the favourite friend, 
 " and faithful fervant of the late emperor, 
 " was already Viceroy of the empire over 
 " the conquefts in India, From Cuttub the 
 " Mahometan Empire of the Patans or Af- 602 
 " gans in India commenced." The feat of 
 their empire was Dehli. In the reign of 
 Mahomet, the 2d prince of that name in 
 the Patan or Afgan dynafty, Hinduftan was 
 invaded and fubdued by Timour. - - 801 
 
 He did not alter the fucceffion : but Ma- 
 homet was the laft prince of the family of 
 the Gaurides; on his deceafe it devolved on 
 Chizer, a Seid, that is, one of the race of the 
 prophet. - - - - - -816 
 
 From his defendants, Belloli, an Af- 
 ghan of the tribe of Lodi, wrefted the 
 , crown of Delhi, and transferred the feat of 
 empire to Agra. - - - 854 
 
 Babar, Sultan of the Mogul Tartars, a 
 defcendant of Timour and Ghenghifkhan, 
 put an end to the dynafty of Lodi, and ob- 
 . tained the empire, in ----- 932 
 
 From this time, .the countries, which he 
 and his fucceilbrs fubdued, including Hin- 
 duftan and the Decan,' were called the Mo- 
 gul empire. His grandfon Akber, was one 
 
 2 of 
 
 Year of 
 Chnit. 
 
 120'- 
 
 1398 
 
 1450
 
 of tile moft wife and powerful monarchs Year 
 that ever filled a throne. He divided the He i ra 
 empire into 11 foubahs; each of the fou- 
 bahs into certain circars or counties, and 
 each circar into certain pungunnahs or 
 hundreds. He died in - - 1014 
 
 He was fucceeded by Jehanguire his ion, 
 and Jehanguire by Shaw Jehan. In the , 
 year 1658, the civil wars between Jehan 
 and his fons, and between the fons them- 
 felves, firlt broke out : they terminated in 
 the elevation of Aurengzebe, " He," fays, 
 Mr. Adams, in his fummary of geography 
 and hiftory, both ancient and modern, 
 " raifed the Mogul empire to the higheft 
 " pitch of fplendor. His authority extend- 
 " ed from the loth to the 35th degree of 
 " latitude, and nearly as much in longitude, 
 " containing at lead fixty-four millions of 
 " inhabitants; and his revenue exceeded 32 
 " millions of pounds iterling, in a country 
 " where the produces of the earth are at 
 " leaft four times as cheap as in England. 
 ' He died in 1707 ; but the feeble princes 
 " who fucceeded, being unable to wield fo 
 " weighty a fceptre, the vaft empire was 
 " in the courfe of 50 years reduced to 
 * nothing." - 1119 
 
 The feelings of Aurengzebe, in the awful 
 hour of difibrution, are thus defcribed by 
 
 Major 
 
 Year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 1605 
 
 1707
 
 BIBLIC^. 53 
 
 Major Rennell, (Introd. to his Memoir on ^'r 
 the Map of Hindoftan, Ixiii. note.) " TwoHegira. 
 " letters written by Aurengzebe to two of 
 his fons, a few days before his death, fur- 
 ** nifh this ftriking leflbn to frail mortality; 
 (l that, however men may forget themfelves, 
 " during the tide of profperity, a day of 
 " recollection will come fooner or later. 
 " Here we are prefented with the dying 
 " confeflion of an aged monarch who made 
 
 " his way to the throne by the murder of 
 
 . 
 " his brethren and the imprifonment of his 
 
 " father, and who, after being in pofleflion 
 *' of it, perfecuted the moft inofFenfive part 
 " of his fubjefe, either through bigotry or 
 " hypocrify ; here we behold him, in the 
 " a& of refigning.that, to obtain pofleflion 
 " of which, he incurred his guilt, and pre- 
 " fented to us a mere finful man, trembling 
 " on the verge of eternity, equally deplor- 
 " ing the pad and dreading the future. 
 *' How awful muft his fituation appear to 
 " him, when he fays, " wherever I look, 
 " I fee nothing but the divinity." 
 
 Aurengzebe left four fons; on the ruin of 
 them, Ferofkeere, a nephew of Jehaunder, 
 the eldeft of them, obtained the throne. - 112 
 
 In his reign, the Englifli Eaft-India 
 company received the famous Firman or 
 grant, regarded as the company's commer- 
 
 E 3 cial
 
 54 HOR.E BIBLIC^T. 
 
 cial charter in India, while they flood in Year 
 need of protection from the princes of that Hegira 
 country. Nadir Shall, after the conqueft 
 of the Periian empire, invaded and con- 
 quered Hinduftan, in the reign of Mahomet 
 Shah, a grandfon of Shah Aulum. But 
 'Mahomet was left by him in potfeflion of 
 the throne, and died in - 1154 
 
 With him the Mogul Empire may be 
 faid to have expired. 
 
 IV. 7. This leads to- the mention of the Ottoman 
 emperors. At a prorriahtoryof Lycia, in Minor Afia, 
 a ridge of mountains begins, which, without much 
 interruption, extends to the Eaftern Ocean. Jn a 
 general fenfe, the antients gave it the name of the 
 Taurus; but, in a more contracted fenfe, they 
 gave the name of the Taurus to that part of it, 
 \vhich extends from Lycia to the part of Arm- 
 enia, wh'ere the Euphrates rifes. There they 
 fuppofed it was met by a chain of mountains, 
 which, riling in a north-weftern point of the fpace 
 between the Euxine and the Cafpian, fills the in- 
 termediate country and fhuts up the Cafpian on the 
 ifouth ; that they called the Caueafus ; a remoter 
 branch of it, extending to the eafternmoft of the 
 divers which flow into the Ganges, they called 
 the Paropamifus, and its fuppofed extreme par-t 
 the Emodus. The Imaus, or Caff, a point of 
 (thefe mountains between Samarcand and Cafhgar, 
 calculated, by Mr. Gibbon, to be at the equal dift- 
 
 ance.
 
 BIBLIC^E. 55 
 
 ancc of two thoufand miles from the Cafpian, the 
 Jcy, and the Bengal Seas, is the centre of them. 
 From the Ikirts of it the Turks, one of } ea . r 
 
 of the 
 
 the moft warlike of the tribes, which in- Hegira. 
 habited thefe mountains, iflucd towards the 
 clofe of the fixth century, .and by a fucceffion 184 
 of victories, fubdued an extenfive .territory 
 on every fide of their native mountains. But 
 they foon loft all their eaftern conquefts, 
 and were driven from their original fettle- 
 ments near the Imaus : large bodies of them 
 then fettled in the country beyond the Gihon 
 or the Oxus, the Sogdiana, and Bactriana 
 of the Antients, the Turkeftan of the Turks 
 and Tartars, and the Great Boucharia of 
 European geographers. Seljuk the leader of 
 one of their tribes, embraced Mahometifm, 
 and by his valor and the valor of his grand- 
 fon Togrul Bey, became the head of a 
 dynafty, which reigned from the Cafpian 545 
 Sea to Damafcus, from the Indus to the 
 Gulph of Perfia. On the death of Malek 
 Shah, the great nephew of Togrul Bey, 
 (1052), the pofleflions of the Seljukian 
 dynafty were divided, after a bloody conteft, 
 into the three independent dynafties of Jco- 
 .nium, Aleppo and Perfia. On the death of 
 Aladin, the Sultan of Iconium, Othinan, 
 the generaliflimo of his troops, ufurped his 
 throne, and laid the foundation of the empire 
 
 4 of 
 
 Year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 800 
 
 1150
 
 56 H O R JE, B I B L I C JE. 
 
 of the Ottoman Turks ; to him Bajazet was 
 third in fucceffion. Hegira. 
 
 He obtained from the Caliph, who, as it 
 has been mentioned, then lived in a humble 
 fituation in Egypt, a patent to be Sultan 
 of Roum, or the territories of Romania, 
 Greece and Thrace. After many victories 
 over the Mahometans in Afia Minor, and 
 Over the Chriftians in their remaining terri- 
 tories in Europe, he was defeated and taken 
 prifonef by Timour, at the battle of Angora. 805 
 
 Soliman the ift, a ion of Bajazet, efcaped 
 from the battle of Angora, and reftored the 
 fplendor of the Ottoman throne. It arrived 
 at its higheft glory, under Mahomet the 2d, 
 by his conqueft of Conftantinople and the 
 Morea, and his numerous victories from the 
 Adriatic to the Euphrates. - - 857 
 
 Stiil the dignity of Caliph was wanting to 
 the Ottoman princes, as it refided in the 
 caliphs of Egypt, the defcendants of Mof- 
 tanzer Billah. But Mahomet the i2th Ebu 
 Dgeafer, made a formal renunciation of it 
 in favour of Selim the ift, and, at the fame 
 time, the {heriti of Mecca, prefented him, on 
 a filver plate, the keys of the Keaba or 
 iquare houfe at Mecca. - " 9 2 
 
 It is a fundamental maxim, in the religion 
 and politics of the dilciples of Mahomet, 
 that the Iman fhould be of the blood of the 
 
 Corey fh,
 
 HOR.ffi BIBLICJE. 57 
 
 Corey fli, either in the race of Haftieim or 
 
 the race of Ali. Both the caliph, and the Heg'wa. 
 fheriff, at the time of this event, were 
 Coreyfii ; the former, defcending from Haf- 
 heim, the latter, from Ali. 
 
 Their ceffion of their rights to Selim is 
 confiderecl to have tranfmitted them to the 
 Ottoman princes, and to have fully fupplied, 
 in their favor, the want of heritable blood. 
 
 The glory of the Ottoman houfe ihone 
 with undiminifhed fplendor, till the death of 
 Solyman the magnificent. Since that time, 
 it has almoft always been on the decline, 
 and now appears to touch the moment of its 
 dJifibiution. - 922 
 
 V. 
 
 WITH refpect to the irruptions of the 
 Mogul Tartars, under Genghizkhan and Timour, 
 into the Afiatic territories conquered by the difci- 
 ples of Mahomet: 
 
 To obtain an accurate knowledge of them, 
 it may be found ufeful to go back very far. 
 
 The real geography of the Greeks, did not 
 extend, in the north-eailern parts of Afia, much 
 beyond the Imaus or Caf : the geography of the 
 Romans extended further ; but they little thought 
 that the Chinefe monarchy contained a greater 
 empire, than their own; and neither Greeks nor 
 
 Romans
 
 5 3 Jfftf. R'JEr I BX F G '^E. 
 
 Romans fufpe&edy that the north of Atia. and Eu- 
 rope, from Japan to the Tanais, -was filled with 
 tribes, from whom thdir future conqueiiors would' 
 iffue. Of thefc the Huns were the mdftfpowerful. 
 Karly in the chriftiun sera, leveral of the moftwar- 
 Jrke and powerful 'of their tribes emigrated to the- 
 <weft ; fotne of them eftablifhed themfelves on (he 
 paftern fide of the Cafpian, others on the eaftern 
 fide of the Volga. ; The latter, about the begin- 
 fiing of the 4th oentwy, paffed .the Tanais and 
 lubdued the Alani. In.lktle more than half a' 
 century, fivft oh theiN'eifler, and. afterwards en the 
 Danube, they fubdued.tlae Goths; the three nations 
 then united, and beingjoined by other barbarous 
 tiihes of Hunnifh extra&ion, obtained, m 378, at 
 the battle of Adrianople, a vidlory over the Ro- 
 mans, from which, as has been already mentioned, 
 the crnpire of the weft never recovered. Towards 
 the middle of the following century, Attila, who 
 claimed regal defcent from the heads of fome of 
 tire nobleft tribes of the Huns, became fovereign 
 both of Germany and Scythia, and was a formi- 
 dable enemy to every fovereign from China to 
 Gaul : his camp, when he was ftationary, was on 
 the northern fide of the Danube, between the Teifs 
 an-d the Carpathian mountains ; his empire extend- 
 ed 7000 miles; but probably it did not contain as 
 many towns as jnay be found within a circle 
 drawn round Bruxelles, at an equal diftance from 
 if of 50 miles.
 
 HCR-ffi BIBLIC^E. 59 
 
 By his deceafe, his empire was diflblved : in- 
 fenfibly the Huns were melted down into the na-. 
 tions which they conquered ; and, if the modern 
 Hungarians be excepted, whofe defcentfrom them, 
 is rather a plaufible conjedture, than an hiflorical 
 fadt fupported by conclufive evidence, few vefliges 
 of them are now difcoverable, eidier in Europe or 
 Afia. 
 
 Hitherto the inroads of the northern nations is 
 a fubjedt remotely connected with the hiilory oi 
 Mahomet and his followers. 
 
 But the tide of emigration from the north con- 
 tinuing to flow, the fpacious tradls of land which 
 were left vacant by the firft emigrations, were 
 occupied by tribes of the fame defcent, and thofe 
 impelled the rirft invaders on the countries con- 
 quered by the Saracens. 
 
 Year 
 
 of the 
 
 In 1 176 Zingis the. Khan, or head of the Hegira. 
 
 Mogul Tartars, fettled on the north of China. 572 
 His four fons made various conquefts in 
 China, Tranfoxania, Syria, Afia Minor, 
 Poland, Hungary and Siberia. Kara-Korum, 
 called Holim, at the mouth of the Onguin in 
 Kalkas Tartary, was the feat of the empire 
 of Zingis andkis immediate fucceflbrs. On 
 his deceafe, O&ai, his fon, was proclaimed 
 his fucceffor. Houlagou Khan, the dethroner 
 of the caliph Moftaffum, was the grandfon 
 
 of
 
 '6o UORM BlBtl'C/R. 
 
 of Oclai, and great-grandfon and fifth in fuc- Year 
 
 _ . . of the 
 
 ceflion to Zingis. Hegira. 
 
 Soon after the death of Zingis, the greateft 
 part of his fucceftbrs and their fubjets, 
 adopted the Mahometan religion. Samar- 
 cand in Boucharia, was- theirrefidence. On 
 the death of Abnufaid, die I3th prince of that 
 ;trynafty, feveral competitors claimed the 
 throne, and threw the \Wiole. kingdom into 
 iconfufion. Here the.Jiingifidianidan dy- 
 nafty is confidered to expire; - - - 7 36 
 
 The houfe : of Tjmoilr role on its- ruins. 
 Timour Beg, or, ae he h generally called, 
 Tamerhm, was of a noble family in Samar- 
 cand, related hy females tcj the houfe of 
 Zingis. He was the founder of the moft 
 extenfive empire that has yet been known, 
 extending from the Irtiih and Volga to the 
 Periian gulph, and from the Ganges to Da- 
 niafcus and the Archipelago. In his palace So 
 at Samarcand, he blended the Scythian fefli- 
 cities of Attila and ZingU with the fplendor 
 of the Ottoman court ; the former predomi- 
 nated, but at the di fiance of 300 years they 
 tlifappeared, in the moving camp of Au- 
 
 irengzebe. 
 Throughout the vafl territories wfe have men- 
 tioned, Zingis and Timour were the fcourge oi 
 every Chriftian a4 Mahometan (late which invited 
 i or 
 
 Year of 
 Chrift. 
 
 '335
 
 HORM BIB LIC^E. 6 1 
 
 or refilled their ambition ; but, with, this .differ^ 
 enc'e, tliat the private religion of Zingis was the 
 pureft deifm ; and that, in every part of his do- 
 minions, he eftablifhed the moft unlimited tolera- 
 tion of religious opinion ; but Timour was a bi- 
 gotted Mahometan, and fcarcely allowed the 
 Chriftians, the choice, offered them by the Koran, 
 of tribute or death. 
 
 WITH refpecl to the attempts of the 
 Princes of Chriftendom to repel the Maho- 
 metans : 
 
 VI. i. The principal of thefe from the Y( =ar 
 nature of their object, have been called H?<*ira 
 Crufadft, The firft was in - - 490 
 
 The crufaders took the city of Jerufalem, 
 in - 493 
 
 Godfrey of Bouillon was elected king of 
 Paleftine, but, from humility, refufed the 
 name of royalty, and ailumed the modeft 
 title of Defender and Baron ef the holy 
 fepulchre. With the advice of the moft 
 diftinguiihed of his followers, he compofed" 
 for the government of the new ftate, a code 
 of laws. When Jerufalem was retaken 
 from the Chriftians, the code was loft ; all 
 the written fragments which remained of it, 
 and all that had been preferred of it by tra- 
 dition,
 
 62 HOR^: BIBLIC*. 
 
 dition, were collected together in the mid- 
 die of the 1 3th century, by John d'Ibelin, Hegira. 
 count of Jaffa and Afcalon, lord of Baruth 
 and Rames. A further revifion of it was 
 made, in 1369, for the ufe of the kingdom 
 of Cyprus, by 16 commiffioners in the ftates 
 of the ifland ; and was publifhed under the 
 title of Afiizes de Jerufalem. 
 
 The 2d Crufade was promoted by the 
 exhortations of Saint Bernard, and fupport- 
 cd by the Emperor Conrad the 3d, and the 
 French King, Lewis the 7th. - 542 
 
 The 3d was undertaken in 1189. It is 
 remarkable for the feuds between our 
 Richard the nrft, and Philip Auguftus of 
 France. - - - 585 
 
 The 4th was undertaken in - 600 
 
 By a ftrange fatality, the Crufaders gave 
 up their object for the conqueft of the 
 Greek Empire, and, in 1204, they took 
 Conftantinoplc. - 60 1 
 
 The 5th Crufade was conducted by fe- 
 Teral German princes, under Andrew king 
 of Hungary. - - - 615 
 
 St. Lewis was at the head of the 6th and 
 yth Crufades, in 1248 and 1270; and illuf- 649 
 trated them by his piety, valor and misfor- 
 tunes. 
 
 The brilliant sera of the chriftian empire in the 
 eaft, may be tixed towards the end of the rith 
 
 century.
 
 BIBELC^E. 64 
 
 ifcYj centuryv Their empire then extended. from .the 
 Euphrates to Tyre: Hemms, Damafcus and Alep- 
 po, were alrnoft' the only places of importance 
 ! within that extenfive territory which remained to 
 ! the Mahometans. All the Chriftian princes pro- 
 i fefled to hold their territories of the king of Jeru- 
 ' ; falem. The principal of them were the kings of 
 i Cyprus, the princes of Antioch, the counts of Tri- 
 ; poli, the lords of Ibelin, Barout, Jaffa, Tiberias, 
 ! Cefarea, Tyre, Napoulous, and Bafan, the count? 
 of Edefia, the lords of Keraclea, Margat, Ade- 
 Ion, Maugaftears, Caiphas or Hapha, Memars and 
 Morf. By degrees, the Chrifuans loft the whole 
 of their conquefts; Jerufalem was taken from 
 diem in 1187. 
 
 St. John of Acre then became the Metropolis of 
 the Latin Chriftians of the Eaft, and was taken 
 from them in 1291 (A. H. 690.) 
 
 Till the taking of the ifland of Rhodes by the 
 Turks, the biiliop of that ifland was primate of 
 all the Egasan iflands. On that event, the primacy 
 was transferred to the archbifliop of Naxos. 
 Several chriftian families of diftinclion inhabit 
 that ifland: they are all the remains of the ancient 
 families of France, Spain, and Italy, who efla- 
 bliihed themfelves in Greece and Syria, in con- 
 fequence of the vicStcriesof the Crufaders in die eaft. 
 VI. 2. To the crufades, feveral religious and 
 military orders owe their rife. Some time before 
 the-firft crufade, an hofpital was eftabliflied at 
 Jerjufalem, for the relief of, the poor pilgrims who 
 
 reforfed
 
 64 H OR IE B I B L I C J&. 
 
 refer ted there. In Uoo, Gerard, the dire6lor of 
 it, and his companions, profefled themfelves mem- 
 bers of the order of St. Benedict, and formed a 
 congregation, under the name of St. John the 
 Baptift. It was approved by pope Pafchal the 2d. 
 In 1113, Raymond du Puy, the fuccefibr of 
 Gerard, divided the order into three claiTes; to the 
 nobles, he affigned the profeflion of arms, for the 
 defence of the faith and the protection of pilgrims ; 
 the ecclefiaflics were to exercife their religious 
 functions for the benefit of the order; the lay-bro- 
 thers were to take care of the pilgrims and the fick. 
 Thefe regulations were approved by pope Calix- 
 tus the sd. ; and the order then took the name of 
 Knights of the Hofpital of St. John of Jerufa- 
 lem. After the ktfs of the Holy Land, they re- 
 tired to Cyprus; thence to Rhodes: in 1522, that 
 ifland was taken from them, by Solyman the 
 Great: Malta wris then given them by the em- 
 peror Charles the fifth ; from that time they have ; 
 generally been known by the appellation of 
 Knights of Malta. 
 
 The order of Knights Templars \vns eftablifhed 
 nearly about the fame time, and for the fame pi ir- 
 pofes, as that of the Knights of Malta. They* 
 took their name from a monaftery given them by 
 Baldwin the fecond king of Jerufalem, which im- 
 mediately adjoined the temple in his pal; 
 They were fuppreiTed by the council of Vienne, ' 
 in 1312. Few events in hiitory arc more fingu- 
 lar tlian that of their difiplution, the encymicies of 
 
 \vhicb
 
 HOR.ffiBIBHC.ffi. 6$ 
 
 which they were accufed, exceed belief, and it 
 feems difficult to impute them generally to the 
 order; on the other hand, they appear to have had 
 the very faireft trial. 
 
 The Teutonlck order was founded on the model 
 of that of the Knights Templars. It was con- 
 firmed by pope Celeftine in 1191. The knights 
 conquered Pruflia in 1230, and fixed the head 
 feat of the order at Marienburgh. In 1525, the 
 grand-mafter embraced the proteftant religion: 
 fmce which time the head feat of the order has 
 been at Margentheim, in Franconia. 
 
 The original object of the order of St. Lazarus, 
 was to take care of perfons infe6ted with leprofy; 
 in the courfe of time, it became a military order; 
 the whole body returned with St. Lewis, into 
 Europe in 1254. Afterwards it was united, in 
 France, with the order of our Lady of Mount 
 Carmel, and in Savoy, with the order of St. Mau- 
 rice. All thefe orders difplayed heroic ads of 
 valour in the enterprizes of the crufaders to recover 
 the holy land. 
 
 VI. 3. The firft vifJory of importance which, 
 after the crufades, the chriftian princes gained 
 over the Ottomans, was at the fea fight of Le- 
 panto. In about a cenrury afterwards, the Turk* 
 invaded Hungary, with an army of 2OO,OOO men, 
 and laid fiege to Vienna ; John Sobeifki, the king 
 of Poland, at the head of 50,000 men, attacked 
 their camp and obtained a complete viory over 
 them in 1689. 
 
 F Since
 
 66 HORy BIBLIC/E. 
 
 Since that time, however chriftendom may la- 
 ment the extent of the territory of the Mahometan 
 princes, ihe has had no caufe of terror from the 
 fuccefs of their arms. 
 
 VII. 
 
 W I T H refpecl: to the religious tenets arid 
 literary hiftory of the Mahometans : 
 
 VII. i. In the fame manner as the word 
 ** chriftendpm" is ufed as a general denomination 
 for all the countries inhabited by. the nations who 
 profefs the religion of Chrift, the word EJlam is a 
 general denomination for the countries inhabited 
 by the nations that profefs the religion of Ma- 
 homet* It fignifies an abfolute fubmiffion of 
 mind and body to God, and to the revelation he 
 Las made of his divine will by Mahomet, his pro- 
 phet. Thus, the fundamental creed of Mahomet 
 is defcribed in two articles, " there is but one G od, 
 " and Mahomet is the apoftle of God." His 
 precepts are reduced to four ; prayer, preceded by 
 purification as a neceffary preparation, fafting, 
 alms, and a pilgrimage, once at leaft in a life, to 
 . the temple of Mecca. His difciples are taught to 
 expect a day of refurre&ion and general judg- 
 ment : they believe the doom of infidels will be 
 cverlafting punifliment, to be meafured by the de- 
 gree of their moral guilt and obflinacy in rejecting 
 the -evidence offered .them of Eflaiuifm ; but that 
 
 "all
 
 HOR^BIBLIC^;. 67 
 
 all believers, by their faith in God, and through the 
 interceffion of Mahomet, will be admitted to ever- 
 lafting felicity ; that, while the felicity of the per- 
 fect, as the faints and martyrs, will be the enjoy- 
 ment of a fuperlative degree of intellectual pleaiure, 
 the general body of MuIIelmans will be blefled 
 with an abundance of fenfual enjoyments. They 
 believe in God's abfolute decrees, and the predeter- 
 mination both of good and evil ; in the exigence 
 of angels, whom they confider to be minifters of 
 the word of God, pure and fubtile . fpirits, propa-. 
 gated of fire. They believe, that, from the begin- 
 ning, there has been a feries of prophets; that, 
 all of them were free from great fins and even 
 great errors ; and that fix of them, Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham, Mofes, Jetus, and Mahomet, rifing in a 
 gradation of merit, the latter always above the 
 former, brought new difpenfations of law from 
 heaven ; that each, fucceflively, abrogated the pre- 
 ceding ; that, many of the prophets received, from 
 God himfelf, revelations in writing of his divine 
 will, all of which are loft except the Pentateuch, 
 the Pfalms, the Gofpel and the Koran; that the 
 three firft are miferably corrupted and falfified ; that 
 the laft is divinely infpired, every word, every letter 
 of it being uncreated and incorruptible, and fuh- 
 fifting, through eternity, in the eflence of the 
 deity ; that, God himfelf, by his angel Gabriel, 
 delivered it to Mahomet his laft prophet, his high 
 prieft in fpiritual concerns, his fupreme prince in 
 F 2 temporals,
 
 6 HO KM. VIE LIC M. 
 
 temporals, and who, by himfelf or his fneceflbrs, 
 is, by the fupernatu* al r and eonfequentiy irrefiftible 
 fonee of his arms, to eftablifh in every kingdom of 
 fh* world, the favrng dc&rrne of the koran. Cir- 
 tawftGifion is not mentioned in the koran ; but it 
 1* ptaxfttfed as a. divine inftitutiou, firft revealed 
 fcy Abraham ta Mahomet. Two places they 
 J*6id in particular veneration : one of them is th# 
 temple of Mecca ; it contains the Cabah or fquare 
 hetffe,. which ha been mentioned. To the temple 
 f Mecea^ etery Mahometan diteKf>s his look 
 whew h fitays, and this fuppofed afpedi of it, they 
 call She Ktbla. The other objedi of their Veneri- 
 lion, is the temple at Medina, xvhere the prophet 
 pfeaGhed aftd was buried, Sxich are the principal 
 tenets aftd fites of the Mahometans, but the only 
 fl66effafy article of faith* the only article required 
 16 be pfofeffed by a Muffiilrnan, is the unity of 
 God, Snd fhe divine miffion of Mahomet. Har* 
 itfg pronounced the words, " I believe in 6ft 
 G0d, 4nd in Mahotnet the apoftlc of God,'* tha 
 profelyfe is confidered to be a peffed MufluhrJfcn* 
 They look on unbelievers -with contempt and ab* 
 horrdnce j but the Magians fcs followers tif Abra- 
 haitTj the Jews as followers of Moief, and the 
 Chriflians as followers of Chrift, are ranked Iiy 
 them, far above polytheifls, idolaters, and atheifts. 
 In oppofition to thofe, they call the Magians, 
 Jews, and Chriftans, from the written revelation^ 
 (hey fuppofe to h*ve been made to them, by 
 3 Abraham,
 
 Abraham, Mofes, and Chrifl:, the people of the 
 written iaw. 
 
 The arly caliphs condemned the pojyiheiifts, 
 idolaters and atheifts to die alternative of death, or 
 Ifhe profeflion .of Eflamifm, but the people of <he 
 written law were always allowed the alternative 
 of profefling Eflatniun, or purchafing liberty of 
 confciencic by paying tribute; and infenftbly &$ 
 laft alternative was generally propofed to every 
 enemy. 
 
 Tbe followers of Mahomet have afcrabdl to 
 him bojth miracles and prophecies. His miracles 
 have been faid to amount to 3000, hut he idoes 
 not appear to have Jiim&lf claimed a power of 
 work'ing miracles. The wonderful ,uccefs of his 
 arms, fee urged as a proof of his divine mifliou, and 
 contended, that none but God himfdf, could ^o- 
 duce a work, which fhould equal the koran, 'm 
 grandeur of conceptioji, in beauty or iuWimity of 
 do6trine,or in rkhneCs or elegance of language. 
 
 VII. 2. The revelation of the koran^ by Maho- 
 raet's account, was made to him in parcels, and at 
 different times. From his dictation, they were 
 taken down in writing by his fcribe. Aba Becre, 
 his 'immediate fucoefibr, had a tranfcript of them 
 carefully made, and deposited it with Hafsa, one 
 ef the prophet's widows, ft was frequently co- 
 pied. IB the 3oth year of the Hegira, the caliph, 
 OdMnan<>biervMig that there was a great multitude 
 of various rea4iag in the copies, caxrfed feveral 
 F 3 copies
 
 70 HOR^E BIBLIC-ffi. 
 
 copies to be made, with extreme care^ of the ex- 
 emplar depofited by Abu Becre with Hafsa. -'In 
 imitation of the maforitical labours of the Jews, 
 the Mahometans have computed every word and 
 every letter of the koran, and introduced vowel 
 points, which afcertain both its pronunciation and 
 meaning. " The general doctrine of the koran," 
 fays Golius, in Append, ad Gram. Erp. p. 176, 
 (as he is tranflated by Mr. Sale), " feems to be to 
 unite the profeffors of the three different veli- 
 " gions, then followed in the populous country of 
 *' Arabia, who, for the moil part, lived' prOmif- 
 <c cuoufly, and wandered without guides, the far 
 " greater part being idolaters, and the reft Jews and 
 *' Chriftians, moftly of erroneous and heterodox 
 " belief, in the knowledge and woribip of one, 
 " eternal, indivifible God, by whofe power all 
 " things were made, and thofe which are not, 
 " may be ; the fole fupreme judge and abfolute lord 
 " of the creation, eftablifhed under the fan&ion of 
 " certain laws, and the Outward fign of certain 
 " ceremonies partly of ancient and partly of novel 
 " inftitution, and enforced by fetting before them 
 <{ rewards and puniihments both eternal andtem- 
 " poral, and to bring them all to the obedience of 
 ' Mahomet, as the prophet and ambaflidor of 
 " God, who, after repeated admonitions, prophe- 
 " cies and threats of former ages, was, at laft, to 
 *' eftablifh and propagate God's religion on earth 
 " by force of arms, and to be acknowledged chief 
 
 " pontiff
 
 ^ BIBLIC/E, 7 t 
 
 * pontiff in fpjritual matters, as well as fupreme 
 " prince in temporals." The divine revelations 
 were, according to Mahomet, to end with himfelf; 
 and in him the feal of prophecy was to be clofed 
 for ever. Frequent mention is made in the koran 
 Qfthehjftories contained in the Old Teftament, of 
 thofe particularly, which Hie w the judgments. of 
 God on unbelievers and impngners of his holy 
 word; but Mahomet appears to have taken his 
 fcriptural hiftory rather from the apocryphal books 
 and traditions of the Jews and heterodox chriftians, 
 with whom Arabia abounded in his time, than 
 from the canonical writings which compofe the 
 bible. - The koran contains alfo many legal and 
 civil ordinances, as the prohibition of certain meats r 
 wine, and ufury ; fome, that refpect the payment 
 of debts, the laws of heirlhip, wills, legacies, oaths, 
 widows, divorces, marriages, murder, fornication, 
 adultery, theft : but the greateft part of it tnrns on 
 the obligation of making war againft unbelievers, 
 with the moft fplendid promiies to thofe, who 
 fight againft them, and the moft dreadful threats 
 againft thofe who refufe. The duty of alms- 
 giving and general benevolence is inculcated in the 
 ftrongeft terms. It feems generally admitted that 
 the ilile is moft pure and elegant, and that it con- 
 tains many paffages of great fublimity ; but, as Mr. 
 Gibbon juftly obferves, " the harmony and co- 
 " pioufnefs of ftile, will not, in a verfion, reach 
 '' the European infidel ; he will perufe, with im- 
 F 4 ' patience,
 
 BI3I.IC.ffi. 
 ** patience, the endlefs incoherent rhapfody of 
 < fable, precept and declamation,, which feldom 
 " excites a fetwwnent or idea, which fomedmes 
 *' crawls in the duft, and is fometimes loft in th 
 ** clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy 
 '* of an Arabian miffionary ; but his loftieft drains 
 * rimft yield to the fublime (implicity of the book 
 *' of Job, compofed in a remote age, in the fame 
 " country, and in the fame language." The 
 karan conMs of 114 fections, called in the origi- 
 fiul, furas. They are diftinguiOied by titles, but 
 are not numbered, and are divided into frnaUer 
 portions. Seven principal exemplars have been 
 made of the koran ; two at Medina, a third at 
 Mecca, a fourth at Cufa, a fifth at Bafforah, and a 
 fixth in Syria ; the feventh is the exemplar from 
 which th common editions are taken. The Ma- 
 hometans themfelves have tranflated it into the 
 Perfic, Malayan, Javan and Turkish knguages. 
 Reinecitis, (Hiftoria Alcorani Leipfiae, 1721), fays, 
 that the moft beautiful raanufci'ipts of the koran, 
 ate (lA) one preferved m the Mufeum Kirche- 
 ri'anum at Rome, ifuppcrfed to have been ufd by 
 Soiymati the great ; (ad) one, m -me library of 
 ChTiftrna tyf Sweden -, ($$) one in the library at 
 Vienna ; and (4th), Mte with a commentary by 
 Abi Saidi Rades, -which, 5t the defeat of tbe Turks, 
 in 16^3, George the then Etefitor of Saxony, 
 found among the fpoih of the battle. Bnt tltere 'are 
 ffiany others (fome of which "are m England), of 
 
 exquifite
 
 HOR/E BIBtlCjE. 75 
 
 e*quifite beauty. The firft edition of the entire 
 work in the Arabic was publtfhed %y Paganinus 
 of Brefcia, at Venice, in 1530; but the whole 
 edition, by the pope's order, was committed to rhd 
 flames. It was afterwards printed by Hinckel- 
 men, at Hamburgh, in 1684. Father Lewis 
 Maracci, a clerk regular, by the order of Innocent 
 the nth, published the original, with a translation 
 and full refutation, in 1698. Other editions have 
 been promifed ; but none of them, to the writer's 
 knowledge, has yet been publifhed. The rft 
 verfion by a x:hr5{lian, was that, which Peter Ab- 
 bott of Chnni, procured to be made in 1143 ; it 
 was publiflied by Bibliander in 1550 ; Maracci's 
 translation of it is highly praifed. A correft 
 edition of ir, with notes and an fnrrodu&ion, wat 
 publilhed by Reinnecius, in 1721 : of thetranfla- 
 tions into modern languages none is to be com- 
 pared to Mr. Sales. His learned and judicious 
 preface is tmiverfaWy admired. 
 
 VII. 3. The retigious feff^ into whic'h the 
 Mahometans are divided, are "very numerotrs. 
 Four of them are efteemed orthodox, and each of 
 thofe has its paTticular ftation, in the temple of 
 Mecca. They are called ~&ortmtps or TraditronJJh^ 
 becaufe they admit the authority of the Sonrra^ or 
 collection of traditions, ura.de by the difciples of 
 Mahonret, Tefpefting his fayings, his actions, and 
 even his {Hence on certain occaiions, from which 
 they fuppofe important inferences may 'be dnrwn: 
 
 They
 
 7 4 HORJi ElBLICM, 
 
 They alfo admit the authority of the Idjma-y- 
 umeth, or the gloffes and legal decifions of the 
 apoflles, and firfl difc/ples of the prophet ; parti- 
 cularly the four firfl caliphs; and the Keyafs, or 
 collection of canonical decifions, made by the 
 Imams-mudjhtihhids, or interpreters of the firfl 
 ages of Eflamifm. All the other fedts are con- 
 fidered as heretics. 
 
 The general body of Mahometans call them 
 Shiites; but, under that appellation, they particu- 
 larly underftand the fe&aries of Ali, the 4th of the 
 caliphs. ' He was the coufm of Mahomet and 
 married Fatima, his youngeft and favorite daugh- 1 
 ter. On the death of Mahomet, his relationship 
 to the prophet and his perfonal merit gave him 
 powerful claims to the vacant throne: but, through 
 the authority of Omar, it was conferred qrj 
 Abubecre : he bequeathed it to Omar; and, on his 
 death, it was filled by Othman. He was the third 
 of the caliphs, and, on his deceafe, Ali was ad- 
 vanced to the .office. We have feen that, after a 
 reign of five years, Ali was affaffinated ; that his 
 fon, at the end of fix months, was compelled to 
 refign ; that the throne was ufurped by Moaviah, 
 the firfl of the Ommycades, and that he made it 
 hereditary in his family. But numerous bodies of 
 Mahometans retained a partiality for Ali, and his 
 ^efcendants. The three firfl caliphs, they confider 
 s ufurpers : they place Ali on a line, or nearly on 
 aline with Mahomet; and, to the original creed 
 
 of
 
 HORM BIBLIC^. 75, 
 
 of the Mahometans, that, " there is only one God; 
 " and that Mahomet is the apoftle of God." they 
 add the article, that, " Ali is the vicar of Maho- 
 " met." This is the fubject of political difcord 
 between the Shiites and Sonnites, or the fedtaries of 
 Ali, and the fedlaries of Omar: the principal 
 points of -difference in their religious creed, are, 
 that the fe&aries of Ali reject the Sonna, and all 
 other traditions, and profefs an excluiive attach- 
 ment to the koran ; and that they believe, that the 
 Immameth or facerdotal fupremacy devolved, at 
 Mahomet's deceafe, on Ali, and pad from him, to 
 his lineal defcendants up to and including Maho- 
 met the i2th and laft Imam: That the I2th 
 Imam ftill lives, and at the fecond coming of 
 Chrift, is to give him a joint teftimony with the 
 prophet Elias. As the Shiites, in their political 
 tenets, adhere to Ali, the Sonnites in their politics^ 
 adhere to Omar. This is the grand fchifm in the 
 hiftory of Mahometanifm. In every age, in every 
 country fubjecl to the difciples of Mahomet, it 
 has been the fubjeft of fedition and civil war. In 
 Egypt, in Spain and in Africa, the defcendants of 
 Ali have often reigned: they now reign inPerfia, 
 in moft parts of the Mahometan territories beyond 
 the Gihon, and in feveral of the Mahometan 
 principalities in India. Religious controverfy has 
 never been carried on with more fury, or religiou* 
 war with more cruelty, than in the controverfiei 
 and wars between the- fe<5taries of Ali and Oman 
 
 Each
 
 76 H ? R ^* B I B L 1 C JR. 
 
 Each fecV anathematizes the other, and beKeres 
 tHere is more -merit in puting one perfon of tfie 
 oppofite fe6t to death, than in <ieftroying -70 
 Chriftiarw. 
 
 VI. 4. The Twkifh, foe Perfic, the Arme- 
 nian and the Arabic are the chief langitagts tefcd by 
 the Mahometans,. The original Turkish is faid to 
 be a very poor awl very inharmonious knguage, 
 and to foe nfe^l only by the ioweft dafe of fubjefts. 
 The Perfic language is much cwki rated by the 
 T-urk who pretend to taflie or elegance. The 
 Arabic is aim oft a neceflary femgiiage to a Ma- 
 hometan, a-s it is the language of the koran, and 
 a?! the early writings of the followers of Maho- 
 met. The modern Turkifti ts the language of 
 the <ort, and of all perfons of education. AM 
 fhe emperors edi6ts, and all the edicts of his mini, 
 ftera arc written in that kingtiage. The Cheva- 
 fier D'OMIbn, tn his -fplendid work, Tableau Ge~ 
 nfraf tfe IS Empire Othoman, fays k is a noble and 
 haranoniotjs language. 
 
 VI. 5- The dynafty of fhe AbaffitJes introduced 
 tcarmng among the difciples of Mahomet; and, 
 while the $ of Europe was deftitote of polrte 
 Ikeratune, and die great-eft part of it funk in ig- 
 fe?anoe ad fcarbarifm, tbe art -and fcicnces 
 fcri(hed from Smnarcand atid Bochara to Fe 
 ad Cordova. The -rojal fibraij of the Fatnrrite* 
 at Cairo -contained above 100,000 mantifcriptsi 
 600^000 are faid -to 1iaye extfted m the Eflamitic 
 
 libraries
 
 77 
 
 libfrawes In Spain : " Cordova," to ufe Mr. Gib- 
 bon's words, " with the adjacent towns of Ma- 
 ". Laga, Alrneria, and Murcia, gave birth to more 
 " than, 300 writers, and above 70 public libraries 
 ** were open in th cities of the Andalufian king- 
 '* dom. The age of Arabian learning continued 
 * about 500 years, till the great irruption- of the 
 " Moguls, and was coeval with the darkeft and 
 " moft ilothful period of European annals; but* 
 " finee the furi of fcience has arifen in the w&ft r 
 " it ihovild feera that the oriental ftudies have 
 " languiuied and declined." Still, however, tlie 
 protection and encouragement of literature, id on 
 declared d>je6l of the Ottoman governmenr. In 
 all gfeat towns each mofque has one, and fotns- 
 tinae* two colleges belonging to it : they are called 
 Medrefles, From thefe the principal officers of 
 church and ftate are taken. Aloft of the rnofque^ 
 in the great cities of the empire have public libra- 
 ries ; Conftantinople alone, according to thd Che- 
 valier D'OhiTon, contains 35: and each of them 
 holds from 1000 to 2560 volumes, bound in red* 
 greert or black morocco, inclofed in- a morocco 
 cafe; each library isfurnifhed with a catalogue. 
 The feraglio has two libraries. There is reafon 
 to fdppofe, that, they contain many latin, greek 
 and oriental manufcripts, Europe, at different 
 times, has been nattered with the hope of discover- 
 ing in them the original gofpel of St. Matthew in 
 
 Hebrew,
 
 78 HOR^ BIB LIC A. 
 
 Hebrew, all the decades of Livy, and all the books 
 of Diodorus Siculus. This, however, is mere 
 conje6hire. About the year 1726, printing was 
 introduced into -Conftantinople. The Muphti 
 and the principal Oulemas folemnly pronounced 
 it to be a lawful and ufeful inftitution, and a royal 
 edi6t was publiflied authorising Said Eflendi and 
 Bafmadjy Ibrahim, the former, a clerk in the cuf- 
 toms, the latter, an Hungarian renegado, to print 
 any works, except the koran, the hadis, (or oral 
 laws of the prophet), the commentaries on them, 
 and works of jurifprudence. The patentees printed 
 jointly ten different works. Afterwards Bafmadjy 
 Ibrahim printed ten, on his own account, and two 
 great charts, one of the Black, the other of the 
 Cafpian fea. He was a man of talents, and an en- 
 thufiaft in his endeavours to introduce the arts and 
 fciences of Europe among the Turks. He was 
 patronized by the Porte, and was prefented with 
 a military fief, and a penfion of 99 afpars, or half 
 farthings of our money, a day. His death fuf- 
 pended the labors of the Turkim prefs : it was re- 
 vived by an edidl of the Porte in 1784, and was 
 refumed by the publication of an hiftory of the 
 Ottoman empire: that was completed in three 
 volumes, and finimes with the death of Abdul 
 Hamedin 1788.
 
 HORJE BIBLIC^E. 79 
 
 VIII. 
 
 WITH refpeft to the extent of the -coun- 
 tries where Mahometifm is profefled : 
 
 On the north, it has been carried to the point, 
 where the Ouralian ami Altai mountains meet : 
 thence it may be traced, over little Bucharia,-to 
 the fouthernmoft point of Hinduftan : and thence 
 in a fouth-eafterly direction, to Goram, (a fmail 
 iflafid between Ceram and Papua or New Guinea), 
 in which there are not fewer than eight mofques. 
 It is alfo ipread over every country from the Hel- 
 lefpont to the Indus, and from the Arabian to the 
 Perfian Gulph ; it is profefled on each fide of the 
 Nile ; and in the weft of Africa, "the line between 
 the Mahometans and Pagans, according to Mr. 
 Park, extends up the river Senegal, to St. - Jofep'h 
 or Galam, lat. 14. 20; and thence in a waving 
 line, it proceeds to and includes Tombu6loo. . la- 
 the eaft of Africa, it is profefled in part of Mada- 
 gafcar, and the oppofite fhores. 
 
 The Mahometans have loft Spain; and, on 
 the north, their progrefs has been checked by the 
 propagation of Chriftianity in Siberia; but, -in 
 the middle and lower Ana., it . has always been 
 gaining ground; fo that, fpeaking generally, from 
 the commencement of the Hegira to the prefent 
 time, Mahometanifm has always been on the- en-' 
 creafe. 
 
 Such
 
 go HO KM BIBLIC-dS. 
 
 Such is the general view of the actual extent of 
 Mahometanifm, it naturally leads to a view of its 
 moft important part, the Ottoman Empire. That 
 is divided into the portion of it, which lies in Afia; 
 that, which lies in Africa, and that, which lies 
 ii> Europe. Turkey in Afia lies between the 2yth 
 and 46th degrees of eaft longitude, and the 28th 
 and 45th of north latitude. It is bounded by the 
 Black fea and Circaffia on the north, by the Red 
 fea, Arabia, aud the Perfian Gulph on the fouth, 
 and by the Archipelago, the Hellefpont and the 
 Propontis on the weft. Turkey in Africa is 
 confined to Egypt; that part of the Ottoman em- 
 pire lies between the 2Oth and 32d degrees of north 
 latitude, and the 2 8th and 36th degrees of eaft 
 longtitude. It is bounded on the north, tby he 
 Mediterranean fea, on the fouth, by Abyffinia, on 
 the eaft, by the Red fea, and on the weft, by the 
 defart of Barca, and by fome unknown parts of 
 Africa. 
 
 The European part of the Ottoman empire 
 lies between the loth and 41 ft degree of eaft 
 longitude, and between the 36th and ^oth degree 
 of north latitude. It fills the fpace between 
 Ruffia, Poland, and Sclavonia on the north, and 
 the Mediterranean on the fouth ; the Auftrian 
 and Venetian territories, and the Gulph of 
 Venice front it on the weft, the Black fea, the 
 fea of Marmora and the Archipelago, on the eaiU 
 It contains many iflands ; the principal of them are 
 
 Negropont
 
 HOR^E BIBLIC^. 81 J 
 
 Negropont or the ancient Eubcea, Rhodes, Can- 
 dia, Cyprus, Santorin, Samos, the Cycladesy 
 and a clufter of iilands in the Ionian fea* among}. 
 \vhich is the Kola del Compare, the antient Ithaca.; 
 The prefent condition of this noble and ample- 
 territory, once dignified by fcience and valour, 
 and once the faireft portion of the Chriftiaa . 
 world, is thus defcribed by Sir George Sandys, hi 
 his dedication to his travels : " Large territories 
 <c difpeopled, or thinly inhabited; goodly cities 
 " made defolate, fumptuous buildings become 
 "ruins; glorious temples either fubverted or 
 " proftituted to impiety ; true religion difcoun- . 
 " tenanced or opprefled; all nobility extinguish- - 
 " ed; no light of learning permitted nor virtue 
 " cherifhed; violence and rapine exulting over 
 " all, and leaving no fecurity, fa've to an abje6t . 
 " mind and unlocked oh poverty." Hoxv very " 
 different have been the effe&s of Chrfftianity, on 
 the countries into which it has been introduced ' 
 
 The rapid progrefs of Mahometanifm naturally 
 brings to mind the rapid progrefs of Cliriftianity, ' 
 and invites to a comparifon of the two religions - 
 but a fingle fa 61 throws Mahometanifm out of the- J 
 fcale. Each founder of thefe religions claimed a'- 
 divine miflion : to prove the divinity of his miffiorfy : 
 Chrift appealed- to the prophets who foretold hiw 
 and to the miracles he wrought: If he produced-" 
 the prophets and worked the miracles, 'he Mjfe&lMt?! 
 be an impoftoV. . Mahom ct neither pretended to; I 
 
 . ./^ G have
 
 81 nORM SIB LIC ^E. 
 
 Jiare been foretold by prophets nor (o work mira- 
 cks ; he refted the proof of his divine mifiion, 
 folely on the fuccefs of his arms, and the fublimity 
 of the doctrine and language of the koran ; but 
 his arms might he rnoft fuccefsrol, ami the doctrine 
 and language of the koran might he mod fublime, 
 and Mahomet might ftill be an importer. Thus 
 Chrift offered the very taireft proof of his divine 
 miffton ; Mahoniet offered none of his >~the con- 
 clofion is obvious. 
 
 IX. 
 
 IT remains to make fame mention of the authors 
 from wltofe writings the preceding JJtetts have been 
 compiled. Not a page of them was written till 
 all that M. de Guignes, M. d'Herbelot, and 
 Mr. Gibbon have faid on the fubjefl of it, had 
 been repeatedly cooiidered. The Hijioire Generate 
 fies Huns, &c. by the firft of thefe writers, will be 
 an eternal monument of the depth and extent of his 
 refearches ; but it is lawful to exprefs a wifh, that, 
 for the- information of his common readers, he 
 had accompanied it with a particular account of 
 the authors he had confulted, and his own opinion^ 
 of their character and value : for want of this 
 information, notwithstanding all the refpe& due 
 to M. de Guignes, it is impoflible not to read 
 parts of his work, without fome degree of fcep- 
 ticiim. His valuable effays on various iubjedts of 
 
 oriental
 
 HOR^BIBLICJE. 63 
 
 oriental literature in the Memoirs de P Academic d(s 
 Infcrtptwns, are entitled to a high degree of 
 praife. Of d } Herbert's Dictionary there is but 
 one opinion. The merits and defedts of Afr. 
 Gibbon's hi/lory are in no part of his work more 
 difcernible, than in his account of the Saracens. 
 Few of his readers come prepared, with much 
 previous knowledge of the fubjeft, to the perufal 
 of that part of his work, which, to ufe his own. 
 exprefiion, gives an account of the fleeting dy- 
 nafties of the caliphs. There, of courfe, his 
 flyle of allufion, if it may be fo called, was fm- 
 gularly improper ; and, in no other part of his 
 work, his prejudices againft Chriftianity, are 
 more frequently, or more boldly expreffed ; but 
 his confummate knowledge of geography, his 
 general and curious learning, his vigour and ex- 
 quiiite felicity of expremon, occur in every page. 
 In a note, (vol. v. p. 242, n. 55), he obferves, 
 after Voltaire, the refemblance of the nrft Mof- 
 lems and the heroes of the Tliad : between the 
 rapid march of Iflamifm, and the rapid march of 
 French Democracy, the refemblance is not lefs 
 ftriking. In each may be found the fame zeal tp 
 propagate the tenets of their feel, the fame thirft 
 of plunder, the fame ardour of deftruclion, the 
 fame enthufiafm, and the fame patient and adven- 
 turous courage : in each, iraftead of waiting, like 
 the Romans, to fubdue one enemy, before another 
 was provoked, an attack was made, almoft in one 
 G 2 inftant,
 
 8 4 HOR^BIBLIC-ffi. 
 
 inftant, on the greateft part of the civilized world ; 
 in neither, the diflenfions of the chiefs retarded, 
 for a moment, the progrefs of their foldiers. When 
 we read Abubeker's circular letter, " In the 
 " name of God. To all true believers ; this is to 
 " acquaint you, that I intend to fend the true 
 t{ believers into Syria, to take it from the hands of 
 " the infidels," it is impoflible not to think of 
 the Great Nation, fending forth her Sans-Culottes 
 to plant the tree of liberty. On every fubjeft of 
 geography, the author confulted cFAnville : the 
 fupreme merit of that excellent writer is not too 
 flrongly exprefled by Mr. Gibbon, when he calls 
 him the Incomparable d'Anville ; yet it may be 
 confidently aflerted, that, on fubjecls of antient 
 geography, Cellarius may ftill be ufefully con- 
 fulted ; and that England may juftly be proud of 
 the geographical eminence of Major Rennell; 
 his map of Hinduflan and the memoir which ac- 
 companies it, are invaluable ; his Geography of 
 Herodotus is ftill more curious, and only lefs 
 ufeful, becaufe it illuftrates the antient, not the. 
 modern world. The author has alfo to confefs 
 great geographical obligations to the Hiftorical 
 ' Difqui/ition concerning the Knowledge which the 
 jfnticnts had of India, with which Doflor Robert/on, 
 with fo much honour, clofed his literary career, 
 and to DoSlor Former's Northern Traveh. In 
 antient chronology he generally followed 4rch- 
 bijliop UJIur ; in modern, the Benedidtine authors 
 
 of
 
 BIBLICjE. 85 
 
 of the ^ft de verifier les dates, the work of the 
 greateft learning which appeared in the laft cen- 
 tury. In his account of antient Perfia, he 
 availed himfelf of what has been written on the 
 fubjecT:, by Sir William Oufeley and Sir William 
 Jones: and on that, and many other occafions, 
 he confulted the Antient Univerfal Hiftory^ a 
 work of great merit, and perhaps not fufficiently 
 valued : when the troubles in Flanders firft broke 
 out, a tranflation of it into the French language 
 was in contemplation, and gave rife to the Dif- 
 coursfur I'Hiftoire Univerfelle^vQ. 1780, of Abbe 
 Mann ; which, if a new edition of it fhould be 
 thought of, will be found to deferve attention. In 
 his account of Africa, the author found Cheniers 
 Recherchcs Hiftoriqucs fur les Maures very ufeful : 
 in his Ihort account of the irruptions of the Bar- 
 barians into the Roman empire, he found much 
 valuable information comprefled into a narrow 
 fpace, in the Tableau des Revolutions de F Europe 
 dans le moyen age, by M. Kock, Strajburgh, 1 790, 
 2 vol. 8vo. On the heterodox opinions on the 
 fubjedlofthe Trinity and Incarnation he confulted 
 the Dogmata Theologica of Pctavius^ a work 
 which has extorted the praife of Mr. Gibbon. 
 
 The author's account of the early ftate of 
 Arabia, and the early part of Mahomet's life, was 
 taken from Niebuhr^ from the Memoire fur Feta- 
 bli(Jement de la religion et de f empire de Mahomet, 
 of M. Brequigny, in the 32d volume of the 
 G 3 Memoires
 
 86 
 
 Memoires des Inscriptions, and from a Differta- 
 tion of M* de Btiify, de Pldolcitrie d 'Abraham, 
 avani fa vocation, publifhed with his other Dif- 
 fertations in two o&avo volumes, Paris 1785. 
 On ttafe fubjecis he alfo confulted Aft: Sale, in 
 praife of whom too much cannot be faid ; Velnty 
 and Savory have little more than copied or tranf- 
 lared huti ; and he availed himfelf of Profeffbr 
 While's elegant and eloquent fermons. What is 
 faid on the conquefts made by Mahomet and his 
 companions, is taken from Mr. Ocklcy's Hi/lory of 
 the Saracens; that a perion, of fo much learning, 
 fhould rwve been permitted to languish within the 
 Walls of a prifon, was a difgrace to England, and 
 a general misfortune to the republic of letters. 
 The author's account of the univerfal caliphs, 
 was extracted from Afarigny's Hi/hire des Arab\, SL 
 \vork which anfwered the author's purpofe, but 
 which would not fuffice for a writer, who fliould 
 wilh to enter more fully into the fubjet. 
 
 The mention of the caliph Welid's order, that 
 the Arabic mould be fubftituted in the place of 
 every other language through the whole territory 
 of die caliphate, led the author to give fome atten- 
 tion to a fubjeft, which opens a new and ample 
 field of difcuffion,- the influence of conqueft on 
 laftguage. Six events in hiftory will be found to 
 deferve the particular confideration of any perfon 
 who ihall engage in it ; the Macedonian, Roman, 
 and Saracen conquefts ; the emigration of the 
 
 Sclavonian
 
 87 
 
 Sclav<3>niasi tribes ; die general ufe of the French 
 language in confequence of the victories of Lewis 
 the i^tfa, and the literary merit of the writers of his 
 reign ; and the probability of the English becom- 
 ing the popular idiom of the whole Weftern he- 
 mifphere. 
 
 What is faid on the Mahometan dvnafties in 
 Perfia and Egypt is taken from D'Herbelot and 
 Volney ; Mr. Gibbon obferves, we are amufed 
 by Savary, and Jnfh ufited by Vomey ; bat over 
 Volney, Sarary has die advantage of underftand- 
 ing the Arabic original. The Hiftvire deTAfriyte 
 ft d-e fEfpa^nsfcus la domination des Arabis, and 
 the Rcchcrches hiftoriqucs fur les Afaurcs furnifhed 
 the -author with what he has faid on the Maho- 
 metan dynafties in Africa and Spain. The ac- 
 count of the Mahometan oanqueftsin Hinduftan is 
 taken from Colonel Dviv's Hiftory of Hincbtftau, Mr. 
 Qrme's IntroduR'wt to hi* Hijiory of Hin4uftan, and 
 JMajar RfwtWf infroduft'wtt to his Memoir : where 
 the author fowd thele writers differ, he preferred 
 the 1 aft, His .account of the Ottoman empire is 
 chiefly rta'ken from the Abrege Chrwokgique tU 
 J' 'fiiftffa-e Oitonutne, par M. de la Croix. Mr. 
 ^e -Guignes and Mr. Gibbon left him little to 
 .defore on the fubjetls of Gingbiskhan and Timour. 
 On the Crufades, he did not look beyond L'Efprit 
 afs "Gtmfadc^ and Feriot. A good hifto'ry of theai 
 is miich wanted: that part of Mr. Gibbon's hif- 
 tory wJiidU treats of .t]iem, is the worft executed 
 G 4 portion
 
 88 HOR^BIBLIC^E. 
 
 portion of jiis work. The account of the literary 
 liiftory of the Ottoman empire, is taken from the 
 Abbe Toderinis View of TurkiJJi Literature^ and 
 the Tableau Generals de I* Empire Ottoman of the 
 Chevalier lyQhjJon, a fplendicl and ufeful work. 
 
 X. 
 
 T H'E preceding pages may be found to con- 
 tain fome account of the religion of Mahomet, 
 and of the coaquefts made by him and his dif- 
 ciples : the following may be found to give fome 
 notion of the books accounted facred, in the 
 infidel countries conquered by them, and fome 
 particulars refpecling the Edda, the book fuppofed 
 to have been accounted facred by the ancient Scan- 
 dinavians. 
 
 X. i. 
 
 - Following -the progrefs of the Mahometan 
 arms in the E aft, we crofs the Perfian Gulph, 
 and reach the country of the ZEND-AVESTA, 
 the fuppofed Bible of the antient Perfians. 
 
 The religion of the antient Perfians has been 
 difcufTed by many modern writers f profound 
 learning. One of the earlieft works on the fub- 
 jecl, is Lord's Hi/lory of the Per fees, ^to. Lon- 
 don, 1630. Mr. Thomas Stanley's valuable trea- 
 tifcs on the Chaldaic, Perjian^ and Sabian dofirincs, 
 form a part of his Hiftory of Philofophy, and have 
 been printed feparately. The writings of Dr. 
 Pocockc, particularly his Specimen Hiftorice Ara- 
 
 bum,
 
 IBLIC^. 89 
 
 bum, and his edition of Abul-Ferajus, abound 
 with much information on the fubjecl. But the 
 moft learned work upon it, which has yet made its 
 appearance, is Dr. Hyde's Hifloria Veterwn Per- 
 farum, publiihed at Oxford, firft in one volume 
 4to. in 1700, afterwards, with additions, in two 
 volumes 4txx 1767. A concife, but clear view 
 of the fubject, is inferted by Dr. Prideaux, in 
 the 4th book of the firft part of his Connexion of 
 the Hijlory of the Old and Nezo Teftament : it 
 gave rife to a learned correfpondence between him 
 and Mr. Moyle his nephew, published in the fe- 
 cond volume of the works of the latter. AJJe- 
 manh Bibliotheca Orientals, and Brucker's Ffif- 
 toria Philofophie?) throw much light on this, and 
 every other branch of Eaftern literature. In the 
 25th vol. of the Hiftoire de F Academic Royale 
 des Infcriptions* et Belles Lettres, may be found 
 the firft of the Memoires, which compofe the 
 Abbe Foucher^s Traite Hijlorique de la Religion 
 des Perfcs ; the others appeared in the fubfequent 
 volumes of that work. The year 1755-6 muft be 
 reclamed a new jera in the ftudy of Perfian The- 
 ology. M. Anquetil du Perron, happening to fee 
 a fragment of one of the facred books of the 
 antient Perfians, determined to enrich his country 
 with a tranflation of it. With this defign he em- 
 barked, in that year, for the Eaft Indies : he re- 
 turned to Europe in 1761. The refult of his 
 refearch.es appeared in 177 1, under the title, 
 
 " Zend-
 
 go UOTiJE BIBLIC^ffi. 
 
 *' T.tnd-Avcfla Guvrare de Zcroaftre, contctiant 
 " Ics Idecs Theologirpus, Phyjitjues ft Morale 
 " de cc Legijlateur; hs Ceremonies du Cuilt 
 Religifux qu'il a ctab'i, tt pluftcurs traites im- 
 << pet-tans rtlatif a foAcienttc Hi/I sire det Per/a : 
 " Tr adult en Francois Jxr faiiginal Ztnd; avec 
 " des Rtir.arqucs ft accompagnji de pkfifwt 
 Traiiis propres a cclaircir Ics Matures, pjti en 
 "font VebJft" ^ vol. qto^ generally bowod in 
 diree. 1 he firft contains an account of his 
 voyage and travels.; il is very interefting. Hi* 
 wort was warmly attacked by Sir William Jwts 
 in his Lettre a M. A * * dii P * * *, dam laqueik 
 /i ccrtipris /' Examcn de fa Traduftim dfs iiw<s 
 mttribtttt. a Zaraajlre, and by Mr, Rithardfm, 
 in his preface to lirs Arabic axd Per/lent Die- 
 tetnary ; both of them treat it as a <;onte<nptibte 
 forgery: bet, in refpet to 5ir William JoneB* 
 fecit indignatib Terfura ; M. Anquetii Au Per* 
 jon's very rude and petulant attack oirthr EngiiJk 
 nation, .and particularly on the late Dr. Hunt <jf 
 Oxford, -Sir Wiiiiam Jones's pieceptor in <iie 
 Eaftern languages, produced from him the retort, 
 ftdlof afperky, bat \viKsllydeftitute of argument. 
 It may be nollcfted frocn his difcoovfes before tlie 
 Afialic Society,, that he thought dkiereftdy of 
 M. Anquaii du Pen-on's works in his riper 
 years : and it certainly detracts from the weigbc-of 
 Mr. Ricinaindfewi's teftimony againft them, that he 
 to o knowlalge of the antient Periian ; 
 3 and
 
 HOR^BIBLIC-E. 9 i 
 
 fcnd that his knowledge of the modern Perfian is 
 queftioned by able fcholars. Mr. de Sacy fcems 
 to acknowledge the importance and authenticity of 
 the Zend-Avefla, by his frequent appeals to it and 
 quotations of it, and it is honourably noticed by 
 Tyfchen of Roftock, Mu'nter of Copenhagen, 
 and Sir William Oufeley. Two intereftmg me- 
 moires relating to his work were published by 
 M. Anquetil du Perron in the Journal de Scavans, 
 1762 1769; an<l feveral in the Memoires de 
 L' Academic. , The fubje<St is difcufied, but not 
 fo fully as a curious reader muft wiih, by Sir 
 William Jones, in his anniverfary difccurfcs. Mr. 
 Kleukcr has publifhed a German tranilation of 
 M. Anquetil du Perron's Zend-Avefta, in fix 
 volumes 4to, at Riga, 1776, 1777, I ?Si ? ^83,: 
 a work highly interefting to the curious in the 
 antient theology of the Perfians. It contains a 
 German tranilation of the original publication of 
 M. Anquetil du Perron, and the eflays, written by 
 him and the Abbe Foucher: but themoft important 
 part of the work, confifts of the author's own hif- 
 torical difquifitions on the writings afcribed to 
 Zoroafber: in them he appreciates the claim to 
 authenticity and antiquity, and the theological 
 and literary merit of the Zend-Avefta. He feems 
 to (how, as far as the nature of the fubjel admits, 
 that the Guebres in Perfia and the Parfees in India, 
 the fuppofed iucceffors of the antient Perfians, 
 
 actually
 
 gz UO~RM EIELICM. 
 
 actually poflefs a collection of books, efteemed 
 facred by them, -as containing the doclrines of the 
 antient religion, and the fundamental tenets of 
 their anceftors, and derived by them from Zoro- 
 after, and that thefe are the works tranflated by 
 M. Anquetil du Perron, It is much to be wiihed 
 thatfome gentleman would favour the public with 
 a tranilation of M. Kleuker's Difquifitions. From 
 the works we have mentioned, the following com- 
 pilation has been made; it may be found to give 
 fome notion, I, of the Patriarchal Faith; II. of 
 Sabaifm, or Planetary Wormip; III. of Zoro- 
 after; IV. of the antient Language of Perfia; 
 V. 'of the original Code of Law promulgated by 
 Zoroarter; VI. of the Zend-Avefta, publiftied by 
 M. Anquetil du Perron; VII. of its Authenticity; 
 VIII. of its Theology, Morality and Ceremonial ; 
 and IX. of the Revolutions of the antient Perfian 
 Creed. To diitinguifh them from the modern 
 Perfians, both the antient and modern profeflbrs 
 of the doctrines of Zoroafter are called Parfees by 
 feveral writers of eminence, and in thefe fheets 
 are called by that name. 
 
 I. The religion of the antient Perfians may be 
 coniidered the firft deviation from the true Patri- 
 archal Faith. That coniifted in the knowledge, 
 -love, and adoration of one fupreme God ; in the 
 belief that he made the world by his power, and 
 fupported it by his providence ; that he had created 
 
 a man
 
 9J 
 
 a man and a woman, and placed them in a {late of 
 blifs, to endure for ever, if they (hould obferve the 
 command he gave them, to abftain from eating 
 the fruit of a forbidden tree ; that they eat of itj 
 and were punimed for their difobedience; that, by 
 their guilt, they and their pofterity incurred a total 
 lofs of the divine favour ; but were to be reftcred 
 to it by a divine Redeemer, who, in the fulnefs o 
 time, would appear in their feed. Thefe fublime 
 tenets compofed the whole creed of Noah, and 
 were probably carried by Elam his grandfon be- 
 yond the Tigris, into Perfia. There, by degrees, 
 the faith of his defcendants was adulterated. From 
 the contemplation of the Creator, they naturally 
 turned to a view of the wonders of his hands, par- 
 ticularly the fun, the moon, and the ftarry hoft of 
 die heavens. Brought up from our earlieft infancy 
 in juft notions of the Deity, we tind it difficult to 
 conceive, how the human mind can reft on thefe 
 objects, however fplendid, without riling to the 
 fublime Being, who called them into exigence. 
 To the defcendants of Noah, the view of them 
 was a ftrong temptation to error, and fuperftition. 
 Job felt its force : in the folemn proteftation, made 
 by him of his integrity in the obfervance of his 
 duties, he calls God to witnefs. " That as he 
 " beheld the fun when it fhined, or the moon 
 " walking in brightnefs, his heart had never been 
 " fecretly enticed, his moudi had never kifled his 
 
 hand."
 
 94 HOR^BIBLIC^E. 
 
 " hand." Among the Perfians planetary wor- 
 fhip very foon prevailed: but, if we credit Dr. 
 Hyde, it fhould not be confounded with idolatry : 
 in his opinion, light was confidered by the Per- 
 fians as the fublimeft fymbol of the Deity, the fun 
 and planets as his nobleft production, fire as his 
 moft powerful agent; in this view they paid them 
 a religious reverence, but their reverence for them 
 did not go fo far as adoration. From their ufe of 
 fire in their religious ceremonies, they acquired 
 the name of fire-worfhippers. 
 
 2. In this ft ate they did not reft long : by de- 
 grees an opinion gained ground among them, that 
 the heavenly bodies were inhabited by beings, en- 
 dowed with intelligence and power, and entitled 
 to religious worihip. Thefe religious tenets are 
 known by the appellation of Sabaifm or planetary 
 worfhip. No herefy can boaft fuch high antiquity 
 or fo long a duration. It certainly prevailed be- 
 fore Abraham ; and, in the territory of Baflbra, 
 it is ftill to be found in a body of men, not very- 
 numerous, who call themfelves the Chriftians of St. 
 John. The reafon and occafion of their afTuming 
 this appellation are unknown. Some mention of 
 their tenets may be found in that part of the fore- 
 going account of Mahomet and his difciples, which 
 mentions the ftate of religion in Arabia, at the 
 time of his appearance. From Sabaifm, how- 
 ever, a part of the Perfians kept themfelves free : 
 
 they
 
 BIBLICJE 95 
 
 they were called Magians ; they were not wholly 
 free from fuperftitious practices, and probably 
 both parties admitted Dualifna, or the doctrine of 
 two principles. 
 
 3. This leads to the mention of Zeroafter, the 
 reformer of the Perfian religion. The time in 
 which he lived is uncertain : and fome writers 
 have fuppofed, that more than one perfon of that 
 name, took an aftive and diilinguiihed part in the 
 revolutions of the Periian creed. On thefe points 
 there is a great diveriity of opinion among the 
 learned : their opinions may be reconciled, in 
 fome meafure, by fuppofmg, that two celebrated 
 perfonages appeared in Perfia : one, the Icgiflator 
 of Perfia, both in its fpiritual and temporal con- 
 cerns, about the time of Cyaxares the ift. ; the 
 other, the reformer of its religion, and the founder 
 of the Magian hierarchy under Darius the fon 
 of Hyftafpes ; that the name of the fecond was 
 Zoroafter ; and that the name of the firft is un- 
 known ; but that there is a probability of his 
 being the Heomo of the Zendiili books, the Horn 
 of the Pahlavis. 
 
 4. To the former, the Zend-Avefta, as it was 
 originally compofed, may be attributed with a 
 high degree of probability. To obtain an ac- 
 curate idea of it, fome notion muft be acquired 
 of the Languages accounted facred, by the prefent 
 adherents to the antient Perfian creed, and 
 
 of
 
 96 HOR1E BIBLIC^E. 
 
 of the writings known or fuppofed to exift in any 
 of them. 
 
 The moft antient of thefe languages, is the Zend. 
 It was probably a very early corruption of the 
 Sanfcrit. It is fuppofed, that by an injunction of 
 Zoroafter, the ufe of it was exclufively appro- 
 priated to the Magian hierarchy : the Pazend is a 
 corruption of the Zend, and was ufed in the com- 
 mentaries on the Zend. The Pahlavi was the 
 language in general ufe among the Perfians, in 
 the time of Zoroafter, and continued in general 
 ufe, till the 5th or 6th century of the chriftan aera j 
 all the remains of it are tranflations from the Zend, 
 fuppofed to have been .made during the life of 
 Zoroafter, or foon after his deceafe. All the 
 known writings in the Zend or Pahlavi languages 
 are accounted facred by the Parfees. Ferdufi, the 
 Perfian Homer, in his Shah-namah, always fup- 
 pofes the kings and heroes of his country, to fpeak 
 and write the Pahlavi language. 
 
 In Kerman, and the neighbourhood of the 
 Cafpian fea, the Parfees have a language peculiar 
 to them, called the Guebri-, it is a compound 
 of the Zend, the Pahlavi, the modern Perfian, and 
 the languages of other neighbouring nations.* 
 
 6. It 
 
 a The charafters of the Zend, Pazend and Pahlavi lan- 
 guages, may be found in the work of M. Anquetil du 
 Perron, in the ad edition, of Dr. Hyde's Religio Veteram 
 
 Peifarum,
 
 HOR^B BIB LIC ^2. 97 
 
 5. It is faid that the Code of 'Law promulgated by 
 Zoroafter was divided into 2 1 parts ; that feven of 
 them treated of the creation of the world, feven 
 of morality, and of civil and religious duties, and 
 feven of phyfic and aftronomy : it is faid, that it 
 was written in letters of gold, on 12,000 fkins of 
 parchment, and depolited by Guftitafp in the great 
 
 Pyra^um, 
 
 Perfarum, and in the Commentatio defatis linguarum Orien- 
 iallum, by Jenifch ; but, by infpecYmg the medals preferved 
 in the national mufeum at Paris, and deciphered by Mr. 
 de Sacy, (Memoire fur diverfes Antiquites de la Perfe, 
 Paris 1793), or thofe depofited in the mufeum of the 
 late Do&or Hunter, and deciphered by Sir Wm. Oufeley, 
 (Obfervations on fame Medals and Gems bearing infer ipt ions 
 inthePablavi or antient Perjick Character, quarto, London, 
 1801,) it appears, that the characters given by Hyde and 
 du Perron differ from thofe of the Saflanian ages of the 
 Perfian monarchy. The alphabet of thefe medals, and of 
 the moft antient infcriptions hitherto explained, have been 
 found to contain but 1 8 letters, each of which, whether it 
 be ufed in an initial, medial, or final pofition, retains the 
 fame form ; while the Zend alphabet, as given by Mr. 
 Anquetil du Perron, from his marmfcripts, has been found 
 to comprife not fewer than 48 characters, the Pazend 29, 
 and the Pahlavi 26 : many even of thefe affume different 
 forms, according to their fituations, at the beginning, mid- 
 dle or end of a word j others, according to their pofitions, 
 receive a fhort or long, a hard or foft accentuation. Tbefc 
 new diftinclions feem to be innovations of the original fimplc 
 alphabet, and are fuppofed to be engrafted on it within 
 the laft five or fix centuries. The moft antient Perfic infcrip- 
 tion, hitherto deciphered, does not afcend higher than the 
 H fcond
 
 Fyraeum, or fire-temple atPerfepolis : and that it 
 was found there and deftroyed by the command 
 of a MufTelman chief, about the feventh century 
 of the Chriftian sera. Zoroafter appears to have 
 afferted, that it was delivered to him by the Deity : 
 on that account, his followers called it the Avefta, 
 or The Word; and, being written in the Zen- 
 diih language, it was generally called Zend- 
 Avefta. Later Perfian and Arabic writers relate 
 the prodigies which ufliered into the world, the 
 birth of Zoroafler, the attempts of the evil fpirits 
 to deftroy him, and the miracles by which he 
 proved his divine million. 
 
 To the exertions of M. Anquetil du Perron, we 
 are indebted for our firft knowledge of the Zend- 
 Avefta : his manufcripts are depofited in the na- 
 
 fccond century cf our a?ra ; that is the date of a medal 
 which Sir Wm. Oufelcy afcribes to Vologefes, the jd of the 
 Arfacidan or Parthian dynafty : and no intermediate cha- 
 racter between the Pahlavi, and the arrow-headed letters, 
 found in the ilu'ns of Perfepolis, or the neighbourhood of 
 them, has yet been difcovered. 
 
 Thus it remains a queftion whether the works of Zoro- 
 after, were originally written in the Alphabet of the medals, 
 or in that of the Perfepolitan infcriptions ; but the manu- 
 fcripts, from which M. Anquetil du Perron translated his 
 Zend- Averts, are written in a character totally different 
 from that of the Perfepolitan infcriptions ; and they are 
 thought to be founded upon, and in many inftances to be the 
 fame -with, that of the Saflanian medals, a pure Pahlayi. 
 For thefe remarks, and a valuable communication on the 
 general fubjeft cf this article, the writer is indebted to Sir 
 William Oufelcy. 
 
 tional
 
 El ELI CM. 99 
 
 tional library at Paris; a fimilar, or perhaps a 
 finer collection of thefe works, was lately brought 
 from Surat, and has been purchafed by Sir Wil- 
 liam Oufeley. 
 
 6. The firft work in the collection of M. An- 
 quetil du Perron is the Vendidad Sade. It con- 
 tains, what is called the Vendidad, in a ftridt 
 fenfe, and the Izeflme and Fifpered. The word 
 Vendidad, means feparated from the devil; and 
 thus intimates, that the doctrine inculcated by the 
 Vendidad is contrary to the doctrine of the devil. 
 Sad6 fignifies pure and without mixture ; and ac- 
 cording to M. Anquetil du Perron, is a name 
 given to thofe Zend works, which are not accom- 
 panied by a Pahlavi tranflation. The Vendidad 
 Sade, contains a dialogue between Zoroafter and 
 Ormuzd : fome parts of it contain a relation of the 
 hiftorical facts on which the religion of the Par- 
 fees is founded; the reft relates to their morals, 
 policy, and ceremonial. The Izemne and Vif- 
 pered are Liturgical Works ; the firft feems to fig- 
 nify a prayer in honour of him, to whom it is ad- 
 drefled ; the fecond, to denote the chiefs or firft of 
 every being, the beginning of the Vifpered con- 
 taining addrefles to them. The Izefhne and Vif- 
 pered were recited at the fame time, and perhaps 
 the Vendidad was recited with them, fo as to form, 
 together, an office, refembling the liturgies of the 
 church of Rome and the church of England, 
 which confift of lectures and prayers from the 
 H a facred
 
 ioo HOR^E B IBLIC^. 
 
 facred writings, and prayers introduced by the 
 churches themfelves. The Izefhne and Vifpered 
 are followed by the yefchtSy which confift of a 
 variety of addreffes, prayers, and fupplications 
 to Ormuzd, and the other celeftial beings, and 
 commemorations of them. The Jefcht of Or- 
 muzd is remarkable for the very high terms, in 
 which, in a dialogue between himfelf and Zoro- 
 after, Ormuzd defcribes his own power and glories. 
 After the Jefchts, is the fmall and the great Si- 
 rouze, or a collection of fhort prayers, addrefled 
 to the 30 heavenly fpirits, who prefide over the 30 
 days of the month. With the Si-rouze, the Zend- 
 Avefta finifhes. M, Anquetil du Perron has fub- 
 joined to it the Boun-dehejli, containing an ac- 
 count of the Cofmogony of the Parfees : he con- 
 fiders it to be a tranflation from the Zend, and to 
 have been compofed towards the feventh century 
 of the Chriftian aera. 
 
 For our knowledge of tliefe documents, we are 
 indebted to M. Anquetil du Perron. We alfo 
 owe to him much valuable information refpedling 
 ieveral works, which throw much light on the 
 theology of the Parfees. The firft of thefe is the 
 Eulma-EJlam, containing the anfwers made by a 
 Parfee prieii, to different queftions put to him by 
 fome Muffulman doctors, about the 4oth year of 
 the Hegira : the ModjmeleltaVQrikh or the fummary 
 of hiftories, published in the year 1126: and the 
 Treatife of the Religions of the Eaft ty.Shahriftani : 
 
 with
 
 IIOR^E BIBLIC^S. ioi 
 
 with the laft of thefe works Dr. Pocock, and Dr. 
 Hyde were acquainted. The document of mod 
 importance, on the religion of the Parfees, of 
 which we were in poiTeflion, before M. Anquetii 
 du Perron's publication of the Zend-Avefta, was 
 the Sadder ) a book ufed by the Magi, containing 
 an account of the laws and precepts of the Parfees; 
 it is divided into an hundred chapters, is written in 
 the modern Perfian, in verfe, and is thought to 
 have been compofed by a Perlian prieft about the 
 i6th century. 
 
 7. This leads to the important inquiry re- 
 fpe&ing the Authenticity of the works, from which 
 M. Anquetii du Perron tranflated the compilation, 
 publijhed by him under the title of The Zend-Avejla. 
 It is clear that he did not wilfully impofe on the 
 world, either a tranilation or a fuppofed tranflation 
 of a fpurious original ; that the books tranflated 
 by him really exift in a Zendifh original ; and 
 that he endeavoured, to the utmoft of his power, 
 and probably with fuccefs, to give a faithful tranf- 
 lation of them. It is alfo clear, that, if they are 
 genuine, they form a fmall part only, of the ori- 
 ginal Zend-Avefta. Thus far, there is a reafon- 
 able degree of certainty : it is probable, that the 
 original, from which M. Anquetil's compilation 
 was framed, is of the higheft antiquity ; that pans 
 of M. Anquetil's compilations, particularly thofe 
 which contain a dialogue between Zoroafter and 
 Ormuzd, or in which Zoroafter repeats the in- 
 formation or precepts he received from Or- 
 H 3 muzd,
 
 102 HQ-RM BJBLIC^E. 
 
 muzd, are portions of the original Zend- Avefta ; 
 it is alfo probable, that other parts of it, particu- 
 larly thofe, which are in the form of prayers or in- 
 vocations, are of a later date than the Zoroafter 
 affigned to the sera of Darius Hyftafpes; and it 
 alfo is probable that the Zend-Avefta, in its pfe- 
 fent form, is as antient as the Mahometan invafion 
 of Perfia; and it may, for fome reafons, be 
 affigned to the time of Artaxerxes the founder 
 of the SafTanian dynafty. 
 
 8. To obtain an accurate notion of the religion 
 of the Parfees, it is neceffary to confider their 
 Mythology, Morality and Ceremonial. 
 
 Under the name of Zerouane, or Time without 
 bounds, they recognized a firft and original Being. 
 That by him and in him, they believed the ufii- 
 verie to exift, appears fufficiently clear: but they 
 feem to have confidered him rather as a Principle, 
 giving motion to a machine, or an impulfe of 
 fate, than a real object poffefied ofwifdoin, inde- 
 pendence and energy. From him, Qrmuzd and 
 Ahriman proceeded; each independent of the other, 
 each poifeffed of the power of creation. Ormuzd 
 is the being abforbed in excellence, good in his 
 eiTeuce, the caufe of all good ; Ahriman dwells 
 in darknefs, is evil, and is the caufe of all evil: 
 Ormuzd formed mankind for virtue andhappinefs; 
 the malice of Ahriman plunges him in vice and 
 mifery; whatever is good in the moral or phyfical 
 world, is the production of Ormuzd ; all that 
 is bad, is the production of Ahriman. The op- 
 
 pofition
 
 . 103 
 
 politic*! of Jbeir nature produces a neceiTary con- 
 flict between them: twelve thoufand years were 
 to pafs from the firit creation of Ormuzd and 
 Ahriman; during the firft 3000 of them, Ahri- 
 rnan was to remain inar.ive; the conflict was 
 then to begin, and during the next 3000 years, 
 Qrmuzd was to have the advantage ; in the fol- 
 lowing 3000 years, Ormuzd and Ahriman were 
 to be alternately victorious; in the laft 3COO > 
 Ahriman was to prevail, till, at the end of 
 them, Onnuzd was to gain the afcendant, and to 
 obtain a complete victory over Ahriman and his 
 powers. To protect the beings, he intended to 
 create, from the attacks of Ahriman, Onnuzd 
 created fix AmfliafyandS) or Celeftial Beings, 
 through whole miniftry he ihould communicate 
 his favours to man ; he alfo created a number of 
 celetlial beings of an inferior degree called Izeds, 
 of whom Mithra, the being of light, whofe habi- 
 tation is between the fuil and the moon, is the moft 
 illuftrious. Next to thefe, he created the Ferouers^ 
 or that part of every created being which partakes 
 of the divinity, anfwering to the wvj which the 
 Greek philosophers called the fuperior or divine 
 part of the foul, in oppofition to the iJ/t/x;T!, or its 
 inferior or terrene part. Ormuzd alfo created the 
 fun, moon, liars, and the four elements. In die 
 mean time Ahriman was not inactive: he created 
 a large number of evil and filthy beings called 
 Dews or Dwes t P erics, Dareujes .and Darvands. 
 H 4 With
 
 104 uS BIBL 
 
 With them Ahriman attacked Ormuzd, and 
 maintained againft him, a fight of 90 days, at the 
 end of which, Ormuzd pronounced the Honover, 
 or Divine Word, and at the found of it they fled 
 back ta their primaeval darknefs : then Ormuad 
 created thefirji Ox ; it was deftroyed by Ahriman ; 
 from him Kaiomorts^ or the fxrft man, proceeded ; 
 the Dews flew him, a tree fprung out of his feed, 
 from which a man and woman arofe, called Mef- 
 chia and Mefchiane. At firft, they were pure be- 
 ings, and obedient to Ormuzd : but Ahriman was 
 envious of their happinefs : to feduce them, he 
 affiimed the form of a ferpent, prefented them 
 fruit, engaged them in converfation with him, and 
 perfuaded them he was the creator of the univerfe ; 
 they believed in him ; their nature was corrupted, 
 and their corruption infe6ts all their pofterity. 
 Ormuzd fupplies them with force fuflacient to 
 refift the attacks of Ahriman ; at their deceafe, if 
 the good overbalances the evil they have done, 
 they are admitted to a paradife of fpiritual and tem- 
 poral delights ; if their evil actions preponderate, 
 they are condemned to unfpeakable fuffering : 
 but all this is temporal ; at the end of the 12,000 
 years from the creation of Ormuzd and Ahriman, 
 the harmony of the univerfe will be re-eftablifhed, 
 and mankind reftored to virtue and happinefs. 
 
 The Morality of the Zend-Avefta is entitled to 
 praife ; purity of word, action, and thought, 
 is repeatedly inculcated. To multiply the human 
 
 fpecie,
 
 H 0~RM B I B-LICJE. 105 
 
 fpecies, " increafe its happinefs, and prevent evil, 
 are the general duties inculcated by Zoroafter 
 to his difciples. Agriculture is particularly re- 
 commended them : " He," fays Zoroafter, " who 
 ** fows the 'ground with diligence, acquires a 
 " greater ftock of religious merit, than he could 
 " gain by repeating ten thoufand prayers." On 
 the other hand, too great an attention to gain is 
 reprobated in the ftrongeft terms ; " There is not," 
 fays Zoroafter, " a greater crime than to buy 
 " grain and delay felling it, till it becomes dear, 
 " that it may be fold for a greater price." The 
 difciple of Zoroafter is enjoined to pardon injuries, 
 to honour his parents, to refpect old age, to ob- 
 ferve a general gentlenefs of manners, to practice 
 univerfal benevolence. Fafting and celibacy are 
 forbidden him ; if his wife be not barren, one 
 wife only is allowed him ; a marriage with his 
 coufin-german is recommended to him, as an at 
 particularly pleafing to Heaven. 
 
 The Religious Ceremonial of the Parfees muft.take 
 up a confiderable portion of their time ; and, on 
 many occurrences both of bufmefs and pleafure, 
 muft inconveniently prefs upon them. The Pri- 
 mitive Word addreffed by Grmuzd to Zoroafter 
 partook of the divine effence ; to read and ftudy 
 it inceflantly, is confidered by them a return due 
 for fo great a favour. 1 he prayers of the Zend- 
 Avefta often begin with an humble confeffion of 
 fin or imperfection : they are addreffed to Ormuzd, 
 
 the
 
 to6 HOR^S BIRLIC^E. 
 
 the Amfhafpaijds, the Izeds, the Ferouers, *m<i 
 the Elements. Fire was confidered by Zoroafter 
 as the pureft fymbol of the Divinity ; he therefore 
 enjoined his difciples, to keep up a perpetual fire, 
 and to perform their devotional exercifes in tlie 
 prefence of fire, and every fuppoied corruption 
 of fire is forbidden under the fevereft penalties. 
 To every aft of devotion, purity of heart is necef- 
 fary ; and to purity of heart, Zoroafter fuppofes 
 purity of body greatly contributes ; with this 
 view, he prefcribed a multitude of minute ob- 
 iervanccs ; for fome of them, a reafou may be 
 found iu the nature of the climate; but many of 
 them feem arbitrary and trifling ; the omiffion of 
 them is declared to be a grievous fin, not inferior 
 in guilt to the violation of the iv.oft important 
 duties of morality, and only to be expiated by the 
 heavieft punifhment. Every thing, which related 
 to religion or its concerns is placed under their 
 priefts ; they were formed into a regular Hierarchy, 
 not unlike the hierarchy of the Chriftian church ; 
 large tradls of land were afiigned for their fup- 
 port, and they were entitled to a tithe of all the 
 property of their difciples. 
 
 The moft exceptionable part of the religious 
 fyftem of the Parfees is its religious intolerance. 
 From its eftablifhment under Darius HyfUfpes, 
 to its fall under Ifdegertes, the laft of the Saffanian 
 dynafly, the exercife of every mode of religious 
 worfhip, except that of Zoroafter, was prohibited 
 3 throughout
 
 TIORJE BIBLIC^E. 107 
 
 throughout Perfia, under the fevered penalties ; 
 and the Magi, appear to have been difpofed ra- 
 ther to increafe than leffen the feverity of the 
 law. 
 
 9. What has been faid may be thought to pre~ 
 fentfome view of the Hijiory of the Perfian Crecd t 
 during its two firft periods, that which preceded^, 
 and that which began with Zoroafter : from him, 
 till Ardefhir or Artaxerxes, the firft prince of the 
 Saffanian dynafty, feven centuries elapfed, which 
 may be affigned for its third period ; its 4th ex- 
 tends from that time to the overthrow of the 
 Perfian empire by the Companions of Mahomet ; 
 its fifth and laft period reaches to the prefent 
 time. 
 
 The doctrines of ZoroaPcer foon attracted the 
 attention of the Greeks. By an intercourfe with 
 the Greeks, fuch of the Magi as had a turn 
 for thefe fpeculations, would naturally be led to 
 accommodate the doctrines of Zoroafter to the 
 polytheifm of the Greek theology. The talk 
 would not be difficult: they would eafily find 
 in Ormuzd and Ahriman the fubordinate Deities of 
 the Greeks; and in the Zerouaneor Time without 
 bounds, a Jupiter, the eternal parent and fovereign 
 of all. Their intercourfe with the Jews would 
 alfo have fome effeft on their religious belief ; the 
 fublime defcriptions of Jehovah, with which the 
 facred writings of the Jews abound, would natu- 
 rally rectify and exalt the conceptions of the 
 
 Magian
 
 ro H O R JE B I B L I C M. 
 
 Magian prieft, and infenfibly lead him to "afcribe 
 to his own Zerouane, or Time without bounds, 
 the infinite power and infinite wifdom of the 
 God of Abraham, and to confider Ormuzd and 
 the other celeftial beings as his miniftering angels. 
 But whatever efFecl: thefe fubliine or ingenious 
 fpeculations might have on a few philofophers, 
 the Perfian nation at large adhered to the reli- 
 gion of the Magi : its natural tendency however 
 was Planetary Worlhip ; that infenfibly gained 
 ground on the nation ; it corrupted the antient 
 do&rines, it gave rife to a multitude of fets ; all 
 of them profeffed to revere the name of Zoroafter, 
 and each claimed to be the only true obferves of 
 his dodtrines. To put an end to thefe difp.utes, 
 Artaxerxes fummoned a general meeting of the 
 Magi ; they are faid to have met to the number 
 of 80,000 : by fucceflive operations they were 
 reduced to 40,000, to 4000, to 400, and ulti- 
 mately to 7 : one of them drank three cups of" 
 foporiferous wine prefented him by his brethren, 
 fell into a long fleep, awoke, related his con- 
 ference with the Deity, and announced to the 
 king and magi, the Deity's avowal of the divine 
 miffion of Zoroafter, and the authenticity of the 
 Zend-Avefta. 
 
 From that time, till its conqueft by the Ma- 
 hometans, the whole kingdom of Perfia was 
 faithful to the dodtrine of Zoroafter. It is a 
 principle of the Mahometan religion to tolerate 
 
 every
 
 HOR^B BIBLIC^. 109 
 
 every religion which recognizes the unity of God. 
 In the eye of the Mahometans, the Perfians ap- 
 peared to worfhip the fun and to wor/hip fire : ore 
 this ground they deftroyed the fire-temples an<l 
 altars of the Parfees, and infulted the Magi ; but- 
 they carried tlieir perfecution no further : by 
 degrees, they allowed the Parfees the free enjoy- 
 ment of their places of worfliip, on paying 
 tribute. For feveral centuries the Pyraeums.fub- 
 fifted in Media and Ba6triana ; and they ftill fub- 
 fift in Kirman, Surat, Bombay, and the neigh- 
 bourhood of Ifpahan. 
 
 X. 2. 
 
 Advancing eaftward from Perfia, we imme- 
 diately touch on HINDUSTAN, where, to ufe 
 Mr. Lord's picturefque and accurate language, 
 " a people prefent themfelves to our eyes, clothed 
 u in linen garments, fomewhat low defcending, of 
 " a gefture and garb, we may fay, maidenly and 
 " well nigh effeminate, of a countenance iliy and 
 " fomewhat eftranged, yet fmiling out a glozed 
 " and fomewhat baihful familiarity." 
 
 The following lines may be found to give fame 
 notion, ift, of the Geography; 2dly, of the 
 Antient Hiftory of Hinduftan ; 3dly, of the Antient 
 Philofophy of the Indians , 4thly, of the Vedas, 
 the books accounted facred by the Hindus, and 
 of feveral Books held by them in great venera- 
 tion ;
 
 jio HOR^ BI B LI 
 
 tion; and $thly, fome mention of the fuppofed 
 
 ages of thefe writings. 
 
 I ft. Confide) ing Hinduftan, in the very largeft 
 fenfe, in which that word is ufed, it anfwevs to the 
 India infra Gangem of the Antients: or the coun- 
 try bounded on the north, by the Tartarian and 
 Thibetian mountains ; on the fouth, by the fea ; 
 on the welt by the Indus ; on the eaft, by a fup- 
 pofed line extending to the north from the mouths 
 of the Ganges. The country bordering on the 
 eaftern fide of the Indus made a part of one of 
 the Satrapies of Darius Hyftafpes ; but, fpeaking 
 generally, the Indus was the eaPcernmofc boundary 
 of the Perfian empire, and all the country beyond 
 it was divided into a number of kingdoms or 
 ftates. 
 
 2nd. Of the Antient Hiftory of Hlnduftan^ or any 
 other part of the country to the eart of the Indus, 
 we know little. About 160 years after the reign 
 of Darius Hyftafpes, Alexander the Great ad- 
 vanced, with his army, into India : that point of 
 the Hyphafis or Beeyah, where it receives the 
 Setlege or Setooder, was the fcene of the memora- 
 ble refufal of Alexander's army to follow him. 
 On his death, Seleucus made himfelt mafler of the 
 Perfian empire ; and, turning his attention to India, 
 fent Megafthenes, in the character of ambaffador, 
 to Palibothra, the capital of the Prafii, or the coun- 
 try watered by the confluence of the Jumna and 
 Ganges. After this, with the exception of fome oc- 
 
 cauoaal
 
 -B IB LIC ^5. Ill 
 
 cafional mentionof accidental circuajftances, which 
 fliow the nature of the commercial intercourie ot 
 the Romans with the eaft, from the time they 
 eftahliihed their dominion in Egypt, hKlory is 
 almoft filent on the fubjedt of India, till the con- 
 queft of it by the Mahometans. 
 
 To the antient and high civilization of the 
 inhabitants of India, facred and profane hiftory 
 bear ample teftimony. The permanent fingu* 
 larity of their indications is a circumftance pe- 
 culiar to them : the mofl early and mod modern 
 writers agree in giving the fame account of the 
 clafles of fociety into which they ars divided ; 
 of their religious opinions, of their habits, morals, 
 and manners. The clafies of fociety among 
 (hem, are ift, that of the Bramins, the moll 
 noble or facred tribe, and the only perfons allowed 
 to officiate in the priefthood ; 2d, that of the 
 Khettre, or military men ; 3dly, that of the Bife, 
 or merchants or tradefmen ; and 4thly, that of 
 the Soodra, the hufbandmen and menial fervants. 
 Beneath all thefe, is the Chandalah ; tliey are 
 held in utter deteftation by the other tribes, and, 
 are employed only in the meaneft and vileft 
 offices. A curious account of thefe diftinh"ons 
 and their fubdivifions, is given by Mr. Colebrooke, 
 in his enumeration of Indian clafies, in the 5th 
 volume of Afiatic Refearches. 
 
 3. The Philofophy of the Indians was famous i:i 
 Greece. From Strabo. Porphyry, Apuleius, 
 
 Arrian,
 
 lit, HOR^E BIB-I i &. 
 
 Arrian, and Palladius, we learn, that the Antients 
 fuppofed them divided into fe6ts, of which the 
 Brachmans and Samanoeans were the moft famous. 
 They are defcribed to have lived in retirement, 
 to have avoided any intercourfe with mankind, to 
 have abftained from wine and animal food, to 
 have practifed great bodily aufterities, and to have 
 endeavoured, by afliduous prayer, meditation, and 
 abftra6tion from terrene objects, to raife themfelves 
 to an inceffant communion with the Deity, They 
 probably were free from idolatry, and appear to 
 have aimed at a fublime fimplicity, above vifible 
 objects and natural feelings. At a time, probably 
 not much < more recent than the reign of Darius 
 Hyftafpes, an Indian philofopher of the name of 
 Buddha arofe in India, or fome of the adjacent 
 iilands. Comparing what the Siamefe, Chinefe, 
 and Japanefe relate of Sommonacodom, Fohi, 
 and Xaha, it is not improbable, that Buddha, 
 Sommonacodom, Fohi, and Xaha, was the fame 
 perfon ; that he was the author of a mythological 
 fyftem, which the initiated or adepts might, by 
 emblematical explanation, reconcile with philo- 
 fophy ; but which, in the fenfe in which it was 
 received by the people at large, war the very 
 rankeft idolatry. From this fpecies of fuper- 
 ilition the Hindus appear to be free; but their 
 religious fyftem is equally objectionable: the 
 author -of it feems wholly unknown. 
 
 4. The religious tenets of the Indians are com 
 
 prifed
 
 HOR^E BIBLICuE. 113 
 
 prifed in feveral books called Vedas, They are 
 written in the Sanfcrit, a language once general 
 in Hinduftan ; but which, after the invafion of it by 
 the Mahometans, ceafed to be a fpoken language. 
 All who have acquired the knowledge of it, men- 
 tion it as the moft copious and excellent language 
 which has yet come into notice. The Vedas, 
 and the language in which they are written, are 
 held fo facred, that no fet but that of the Bramins 
 is permitted to read the former, or learn the lat- 
 ter. The emperor Ackbar could not, either by 
 promifes or threats, prevail on the Bramins to dif- 
 clofc their religious credence. But their firmnefs 
 has yielded to the courtefy* and philofophical foli- 
 
 a " I have feen an extract from a foreign work of great 
 *' literary credit, in which my name is mentioned, with 
 ** very undeferved applaufe, for an attempt to introduce 
 " the knowledge of Hindoo literature into the European 
 " world, by forcing or corrupting the religious confciences 
 '< of the Pundits, or profeflbrs of their facred doctrines. 
 " This reflection was produced by Mr. Halhed's tranfla- 
 tion of the Poottee, or code of laws, and is totally devoid 
 '* of foundation. For myfelf I can declare truly, that if 
 " the acquifition could not have been obtained but by fuch 
 means as have been fuppofed, I mould never have fought 
 *' it. It was contiibuted both cheerfully and gratuitoufly 
 " by men of the moft refpectable characters for fanctity 
 " and learning in Bengal, who refufed to accept more than 
 " the moderate daily fubfiftence of one rupee each, during 
 " the term that they were employed on the compilation." 
 Extracted from Mr. Haftings's letter to Mr. Smith, pre- 
 fixed to Mr. Wilkins's tranfiation of the Bhagvat-Geeta. 
 
 I citations
 
 U4 HOR^E BIBLIC-ffi. 
 
 citations of the Englifh eftablifhed in Hinduftan, 
 and we have the fatisfadtion to hear from Sir 
 Win. Jones, thatthe Bramins are now as willing 
 to give, as the Englifh to receive information on 
 their religious tenets. Of this liberal difpofition 
 tlie Engliih have availed themfelves : it would be 
 difficult to point out a period, during which, more 
 valuable communications have been made to die 
 literary world, than that which has elapfed iince 
 she firft iuftirution of the fociety inftituted in Ben- 
 gal, for inquiriug into the hiftory of the antiqui- 
 ties of the arts, fciences, and literature of Afia: k 
 yet, without undervaluing in the flighteft degree, 
 the merit of their literary exertions, it may be 
 doubted whether hitherto they have fucceeded fo 
 tnuch in fixing a complete and confident fyftem, 
 refpedling the facred, profane, and philofophic hif- 
 tory of Afia, as in fliewiug the imperfection of the 
 received opinions upon it. 
 
 b ' I mny take; it upon me to pronounce, that the fer- 
 " tke has at no period more abounded with men of cultivated 
 " talents, of capacity for bufmefs, and liberal knowledge. 
 Such ftudies. independently of their utility, tend, efpe- 
 " cially when the purfuit of them is general, to diffufe a 
 x generoftty of lentimfnt, and a difdain of the meaner oc- 
 cupations as are left nearer to the flate of uncultivated 
 nature; and you, Sir, will believe me, when I affure 
 you, that it is on the virtue, not the ability of their 
 fervants, that the company muft rely fxn- the permanency of 
 their dominion.'" From Mr. Haftiags's Letter. 
 
 The
 
 BIBLIC^B. 115 
 
 The Vedas contain loOjOoo ftanzas, of four 
 lines each: they treat of divination, aftronomy, 
 natural philofophy, the creation of the world, re- 
 Jigious ceremonies, prayers, morality, and piety, 
 and include hymns in praife of the Supreme Being, 
 and in honour of fubakern intelligences. They 
 are diflinguifhed by the names of the Rik, the 
 Yajur, the Sam and Atharvan Vedas c . The 
 Hindus, fuppofe that one of them came from each 
 of the four mouths of Brama. Colonel Polier 
 obtained a complete copy of them, and generoufly 
 prefented it to the Britifn Mufeum. d 
 
 From 
 
 * Sir William Jones's orthography is here adopted. Mr. 
 Wilkins and Mr. Halhed write the word " Veds j" Col. 
 Dow, " Bedas j' 1 Col. Polier " Baids } " M. Anquetil du 
 Perron, calls the four Vedas the Rak Beid, Djidir field, 
 Ssun Beid, and Athrban Beid. 
 
 * With the leave of the Truftees of the Britilh Mufeum, 
 the reader is prefented with a copy of the letter, with which 
 Colonel Polier accompanied his prefent. 
 
 To Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart. Prefident of the Royal 
 
 " Society, &c. 
 SIR, 
 
 ' SINCE the Englilh by their conquefts and 
 ' fituation have become better acquainted with India, and 
 '* its aboiigines the Hindous the men of fcienct 
 ' throughout Europe have been very anxious of learning 
 " fomething certain of thole facred books which are the 
 * bafis of the Hmdou religion, and are known in India and 
 4 * clCcwhere, under the name of the Baids i many endea- 
 I " veur
 
 U6 HOR^E BIBLIC.E. 
 
 From the Vedas are deduced the four Upavedtu, 
 called by the Hindus the Ayuili, Gandarva 
 
 Dhanur, 
 
 " vours we know have been exerted to procure them, not 
 " only on the coaft of Coromandel, but alib in feveral parts 
 " of Bengal, and even at Bennares ; but hitherto, thofe 
 " books could not be had in any of thofe places, complete 
 " and original, and nothing could be obtained but various 
 " Sbafters which are only commentaries of the Balds to 
 ' expound and explain fuch difficult paffages as occur in 
 e them : during a long refidence in the upper provinces 
 " of Hindoitan, I made it alfo my bufinefs, particularly to 
 " inquire for thofe books, and the more fo, as I found thai 
 " doubts had arifen in Europe of their very exiftence : 
 " my refearches at Awd, Lucknow, Agra and Delhy were 
 ' perfectly ufelef*, and I could not in any of thofe places 
 " obtain what I wanted. Thus difappointed I thought of 
 c fending to Jaypour for them, and was led to it from a 
 " knowledge, that during the perfecution the Hindous fuf- 
 " fered throughout India, and which began in the twelfth 
 " year of the reign of Aurengzeb (the perfecution was at 
 " its height in the year of the Hegira 1090, or of ours 1679, 
 ' on account of the rebellion of OdaiJ>our.) The Rajah 
 ' of Anbair Ram Sing, from the important fervices ren- 
 " dered by his father the Great Jayfmg, and his own at- 
 " tachment to the Emperor efcaped, if not entirely, at 
 " leaft a great part of that perfecution, which levelled to 
 '' the ground all the Hindou places ofworfhipin the pro- 
 " vinces, and caufed the deftruclion of all the religious 
 ' books which could be found belonging to the Hindous. 
 " In confequence I wrote to a correfpondent at Jaypour, 
 ' ' and foon learnt from him, that the Baids were to be pro- 
 f cured there, but that no copy could be obtained from the 
 " Brehmans without an order or permifilon from Pertab 
 
 " Sing,
 
 HO R^E BIBLIC^E. 117 
 
 Dhanur, and St'hapatya ; the firft treats of 
 medicine, and is fuppofed to have been delivered 
 
 to 
 
 " Sing, who was then the Rajah of that place, and is the 
 " fame Prince who has f'o lately been engaged in war wi;h 
 " Saindheah and who is a grandlbn of that famous Rajah 
 " Tay Sing (Mirzah Rajah) who built Jaypour clcfe to 
 " Anbair, and was the founder alfo of the famous oblerva- 
 *' tories at Jaypour and Delhy, &c. and the editor of fome 
 " curious aftronomical tables which he gave to the world under 
 " the name of Mohammed Shah then on the throne of Delhy. 
 " Having a fmall knowledge of the Rnjah whom I had feen 
 " a few years before, when he paid his court to Shah A/ut.i, 
 " then encamped in the neighbourhood of Jaypour, I he- 
 " fitated not in applying to him by letter for his permiflion 
 " to have the copy I fo much wanted, and my friend Don 
 " Pedro de Silva a worthy Portugueie phyfician in the fer- 
 "' vice of the Rajah, undertook to deliver it, and to forward 
 ' the application with his felicitations if receflary. 
 
 " Pertab Sing on reading the ktter, fmiling, afked Don 
 " Pedro, what ufe we Europeans could make of their holy 
 " books, on which he reprefented that it was ufual with us 
 " to collect and confult all kinds of viluable books, of 
 " which we formed in Europe public libraries ; and that 
 " the Baids, though much fought after, could not be met 
 " with any where elle, and that without his permiflion the 
 " Brehmans rofcfed to give a copy : on this the Rajah im- 
 " mediately iflued an order, fuch as we wanted and in the 
 " courfe of a year paying the Brehmen tranfcribers at a 
 certain rate per every hundred AJhlok or ftanza, I obtained 
 <' the books which form the fubjeft of this addrefs, and 
 * which I had fo long wifhed to poflefs. 
 
 <c On my receiving thole books at Lucknow, I ilill found 
 
 " many among the Europeans, who yet doubted their real 
 
 13 " authenticity,
 
 n8 HOR^E BIBLICJE. 
 
 to mankind by Bramha Indra Dhanwantari, and 
 five other deities : the ad treats of muflc. and is 
 
 faid 
 
 " authenticity, fo ftrong were the prejudices entertained 
 ( from the little Aiccefs we had hitherto had in procuring 
 " them, and from the doubts caft on their very exigence 
 " by fome modern travellers : but the books having been 
 fliewn to the late Rajah Anundram, a learned Brebmati, 
 " then at Lucknow, and a perfon well known to many now 
 " in England, he immediately recognized them for true and 
 " authentic, and begged of me to leave them Ibme time with 
 tc them. At my requeft he afterwards feparated them in 
 " manageable volumes, as they now are, and this I thought 
 " neceffary, the better to preferve them, for originally they 
 * were in loofe meets 5 the Hindoos in general feldom or 
 " never binding their facred books, particularly the Baufs. 
 tc But I was obliged to promife him which I readily did, 
 " they fliould not be bound in any kind of leather, but 
 " either in filk or velvet : Rajah Anundram further num- 
 " bered the pages, and with his own hand, wrote in Per- 
 " fian characters, for my information, not only the title 
 " page of each volume, but alfo of each feftion and the 
 " number of leaves they feverally contain. 
 
 " By this it may be ieen how little a dependence is to be 
 te placed in the affertions of thofe who h.we i eprefented the 
 " Brehmans as very averfe to the communication of th* 
 " principles of their religion, their myfteries, and holy 
 " books : in tru'.h I have always found thofe who were 
 " really men of fcience and knowledge, very ready to im- 
 " part and communicate what they knew to whoever would 
 " receive it and lillen to them, with a view of information, 
 " and not merely for the purpofe of turning into ridicule 
 " whatever was not perfectly confonant to our European 
 * ideas, tenets and even prejudices, fome of which I 
 3 " much
 
 ^ BIB LIC ^. IK; 
 
 to have beeninvented or explained by Rharata- 
 the. gd Upaveda, compofed by Vifvvamitra, treafs 
 
 of 
 
 " much fear are thought by the Indians to be full s.s de- 
 " fervingqf ridicule as anything they have. At the fsme tin.e 
 " it mull be owned that all the Hindons, the Brehtnans only 
 * excepted, are forbidden by their religion from ftudying 
 *' and learning the Baiih*. The K'hatiys alone being per- 
 " mitted to hear them read and expounded: this being the 
 " cue it will naturally be a(ked how came an European 
 who is not evert-of the fame faith, to be favoured with 
 *' what ie denied even to a Hindou ? To this the Brekmans 
 '* readily reply that being now in the Cat Jog, or fourth 
 age, in which religion is reduced to nought, it matters not 
 who fees or ftudies them in thefe days of wickednefs, 
 *< fince by the decrees of the Supreme Being it muft be fo. 
 *' At the fame time, notwithftanding, I have not obferved 
 " that the Baids are a bit the more explained to the two 
 " lower clafles among the'Hindous, the Bats, and th 
 " Sondtr. 
 
 " To i-eturn from this digreflion. PofTefled now of 
 
 ' thefe facred manufcripts, which I procured for the folc 
 
 *< purpofe of communicating to thofe wlio wcnild benefit 
 
 from their perufal, I foon after fent them to Sir Wm. 
 
 Jones, the only European, then in Indh I believe, who 
 
 -" could read and expound any part of them. From that 
 
 " learned gentleman, whofe knowledge and merits are far 
 
 " above my praife, we may expeft to learn in the future 
 
 " memoirs of the Afiatic Society what are his opinions re- 
 
 lative to them, the furmifes in India, and even among 
 
 " the Brehmant about the authenticity, or at leaft the merits 
 
 " of one of the four Baids called <he Atterban, and in all 
 
 " likelihood fome extracts and tran'flations from each 5 and 
 
 " on that account, I fiiall beg leave to refer you for any 
 
 14 "further
 
 120 HOR^S BIBLlC^ffi. 
 
 of the fabrication and ufe of the weapons of war 
 of the military tribe : the 4th, containing various 
 
 treatifes 
 
 " further information, on thefe books, to one who is fo com- 
 " petcnt to give the public thefulleft and the trueft. 
 
 " The Baids are now in London, and accompany thjs 
 " addrefsj the purport of which is, to requelt of you, Sir, 
 " as one of the truftees of the Britifh Muieum, to receive 
 " and lodge them in that noble and valuable repository, as 
 " a fmall token and tribute of refpeft and admiration, from 
 " one who though not born a natural fubjeft, yet having 
 " fpent the beft part of his life in the ffirvice of this country, 
 is really unacquainted with any other. Allow me at the 
 " fame time, Sir, to take the opportunity thus offered me of 
 " exprefling the fentiments of refpeft I entertain for you, 
 " and which are fo juftly and on fo many accounts your 
 " due. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 
 " Sir, 
 " Your mod obedient and very humble Servant, 
 
 " ANTY. POLIER." 
 " London, zotb May, 1789. 
 
 " P. S. I have further to requeft, that in depofiting the 
 " Beads in the Bi itim Mufeum, it may be fpecified particu- 
 " larly, that either Sir William Jones now in India, or Mr. 
 " Wilkins now in London, fhall at any time be allowed to 
 " have one of the volumes of the Baids (at a time) to take 
 " home with them, on their declaration it is for the purpofe 
 *' of making extracts or tranflations out of them, and giv- 
 " ing fecurity for its being returned; and I am led to do 
 " this, with the more pleafure and readinefs, in confidera- 
 " tion of what is due from the public to thofe gentlemen 
 fc for the great trouble they have been at, in learning fo 
 
 " difficult
 
 treatifes omhe mechanical arts, was revealed by 
 Vifwacarman. 
 
 If the expreffion may be ufed, the Vedas are 
 the fcriptures, the Upavedas are the fubfcriptures 
 of the Hindus. 
 
 Six Vedangas or bodies of learning are de- 
 rived from thefe fourees; they \vere written by 
 different holy men, and treat of pronunciation, 
 religious ceremonies, grammar, profody, aftro- 
 nomy, and the difficult phvafes in the Vedas. 
 
 Subordinate to thefe are, ift, the Puranas, a. 
 .feries of mythological hiftories in blank verfe, 
 .from the creation of the world to the fuppofed 
 incarnation of Buddha ; 2dly, the Dherma, con- 
 fitting of various works relating to the' jurifpru- 
 dence of the Hindus; and 3dly, the Derjana, 
 confirming of feveral works on different fubje&s 
 of their .philofophy. e 
 
 An 
 
 " difficult a language as the Sanfcrit, and opening by that 
 " mean, to the European world, a new iburce of know* 
 " ledge. 
 
 " As above, 
 
 " ANTY. POLIER.'* 
 
 " Among the Puranas," fays Mr. Haftings in the letter 
 already quoted, ' and of fuperior eftimation to the reft, is 
 " ranked the Mababharat. It contains the genealogy and 
 " general hiftory of the houfe of Bhaurat, fo called from 
 tf Bhurrut its founder: the epithet Maha, or Cireat, being 
 ' prefixed in token of diftin&ion : but its more particular 
 ' objeft is to relate the diflenfions and wars of the two 
 
 " gi-eat
 
 122 HORJE IUBLI%-ffi. 
 
 An extraft from the .Vedas has been published 
 lately by M. Anquetil du Perron, under the title 
 
 Oupnekot," 
 
 " great collateral branches of it, called Kooroos and Pan- 
 " doosj both lineally descended, in the fecond degree, 
 *' from Veecheetraveerya, their common anceftor, by their 
 ' refpeclive father's Dreetraraftitra and Pandoo. 
 
 " The Kooroos, which indeed is fometimes ufed as * 
 " term comprehending the whole family, but moft fre- 
 " quently applied as the patronymic of the elder branch 
 " alone, are faid to have been one hundred in number, of 
 " whom Dooryodun was efteemed the head and reprefenta- 
 " tive, even during the life of his father, who -was incapaci- 
 tated by blindnefs. The fens of Pandoo were five ; 
 " Yoodhifhteer, Bheem, Arjoon, Nekool, and Sehadeo; 
 " who, through the artifices of Dooryodun, were banifhed, 
 " by their uncle and guardian Dreetrarafhtra, from Hafte- 
 " napoor, at that time the feat of government of Hin- 
 doftan. 
 
 " The exiles, after a feries of adventures worked up with 
 ' a wonderful fertility of genius and pomp of language 
 ' into a thoufand fublime defcriptions, returned with a 
 " powerful army to avenge their wrongs, and aflert their 
 * pretenfions to the empire in right of their father: by 
 11 whom, though the younger brother, it had been held 
 whiie he lived, on account of the diiqualification already 
 " mentioned of Dreetraramtra." 
 
 A translation of a valuable extract from the Mahabliarat 
 was publiflied, in the year 1785, by Mr. VVilkius, under the 
 title of " The Bhugvatgeeta, or Dialogues of KTiieflina 
 " and Arjoon, in eighteen le&uies, with notes ; tranflated 
 " from the original in the Sanlcrit, or antient language of 
 *' the Brahmans." An advertiiement informs us, that it 
 was publiflied under the authority of the Court of Directors 
 
 of
 
 . 125 
 
 " Qupnckat" (id eft, Sccretum Tcgendum) " o/w*, 
 " ipja in India rarjjjimum> continent antiquam et 
 
 " arcanam 
 
 of the Eaft India Company. Mr. Haftings's letter to Mr. 
 Smith then follows! after it, comes a concifc but very in- 
 ftrufctive preface by th tranflator, and then the tranflation, 
 with notes. It is executed in that admirable ftyle of fevere 
 fimplicity, which a confummate tafte alone can reach. 
 
 From the geperal ignorance of the SiiV'crit language, 
 few are capable of pronouncing on its fidelity : but we have 
 a ftrong teftimony in its favour, in Mr. Halhed's preface to 
 his translation of the Oupnekat, now depotited in the BritHh 
 Mufeum. 
 
 Mr. Haftings's letter does him the greateft honor ; it is a 
 noble difplay of enlarged and virtuous views for the govern- 
 ment of a great country : the following extract from it is 
 evidence of bJs clafiical tafte and judgment. 
 
 " Might I, an unlettered man, venture to prefcrihc 
 " bounds to the latitude of critic! I'm, I fliould exclude, in 
 " eftimatrng the merit of fuch production, all rules drawn 
 " from the antient or modern literature of Europe, all re- 
 " ferences to luch fentiments or manners as are become the 
 " ftandards of propriety for opinion and action in cue own 
 " modes of life, and equally all appeals to our revealed 
 ft tenets of religion, and moral duty. I fhould exclude 
 " them, as by no means applicable to the language, fenti- 
 " ments, manners, or morality, appertaining to a fyftem of 
 '* fociety with which we have been for ages unconnected, 
 " and of antiquity preceding even the firft efforts of civiliza- 
 * tion in our own quarter of the globe, which, in refpeit 
 to the general diffufion and common participation of arts 
 " and fciences, may be confidered as one community. 
 
 " I would exact from every reader the allowance of ob- 
 
 fcurity,
 
 i4 HOR^E BTBLIC^E. 
 
 '* arcanam feu Theologicam et Phihfophicam doc- 
 " tr'tnam^ e qaatuor facris Indorwn Libris, Rak Beid, 
 ' Djejr Beid, Sam Beid, Arthrban Beid, ex- 
 " ccrptam> ad verbum, et Perjico idiqmate Sanjkre- 
 " ticis vocalulis inlermixto, in Latinum converfum, 
 ' dijjertationibus et annotationibus difficiliora expla- 
 " nantibus illuftratum^ jludio et opera Anquetil du 
 " Perron^ Indicopleufta. Tom. 1 . 4*0. Argentorati 
 etParifm:* 
 
 A much more intelligible, and, perhaps, a muck 
 abler tranflation of this work, made by Mr. Halhed, 
 through the medium of a Perfian tranflation, 
 
 *< fcurity, abfurdity, barbarous habits, and a perverted 
 ' morality. Where the reverfe appears, I would have him 
 ' receive it (to ufe a familiar phrafe) as fo much clear gain, 
 " and allow it a merit proportioned to the difappointment of 
 ' a different expectation. 
 
 .< In effecl, without befpeaking this kind of indulgence, 
 I could hardly venture to perfift in my recommendation of 
 *' this production for public notice. 
 
 " Many paffages will be found obfeure, many will feem 
 " redundant; others will be found clothed with ornaments 
 * of fancy unfuited to our tafte, and fome elevated to a 
 " track of fublimity into which our habits of judgment will 
 " find it difficult to purfue them ; but few which will fliock 
 " either our religious faith or moral fentiments. Some- 
 " thing too muft be allowed to the fubje6l itfelf, which is 
 " highly metaphyfical, to the extreme difficulty of render- 
 ' ing abftracl terms by others exactly correfponding with 
 " them in another language, to the arbitrary combination of 
 " ideas, in words expreffing unfubftantial qualities, and 
 ' more, to the errors of interpretation."
 
 H-O R M B I B L I C J5E. 125 
 
 is depoilted in the Biitilh Mufeum. It is obferva- 
 ble that in the Lettres Edlfiantes et Curieufes, Ed. 
 178.1, it is explicitly aflTerted, ift, that the Vedas 
 were in the hands of the miflionaries : aclly, that 
 a copy of them was in] the king of France's 
 library : 3dly, that there was an Arabic tranflation 
 of them. 13 vol. p. 394. 437. 14 vol. p. 6. 65. 
 Father Pons's Letter, to which the laft of tliefe 
 references are made, defcrves a ferious perufal/ 
 
 Among the Dhermas or works of law, none 
 are held by the Hindoos in fuch veneration, as the 
 Injlitutes of Menu ; a fyftem of religious and civil 
 duties which the Hindoos firmly believe to have 
 been promulgated by Menu, the fon or grandfon 
 of Brama. A tranflation of it has been lately ' 
 publiflied by Sir William Jones. 
 
 f Having mentioned this letter to Mr. Wilkin?, that able 
 judge of Sanfcrit literature pronounced it omni exceptions 
 majors it will not fuffer in a comparifon with Sir Wm. 
 Jones's Difcourfes on Hindu Literature. La Porte diverts 
 of Abraham Roger, is^ne of the moft curious works which 
 has yet appeared on the Mythology of the Hindus, and de- 
 ferves to be more generally known. Mr, Maui ice's valuable 
 publications intitlehim to the thanks of all oriental fcholart: 
 by publifhing his tranflation of ihe Mahabharar, Mr. 
 Wilkins will confer on them a veiy great literary favor. 
 
 The writer begs leave to mention, in this place, his 
 
 obligations to Mr. Plai>ta, the principal librarian of the 
 Britifli Mufeum, for innumerable fervices rendered him in 
 the courfe of this publication. To a gentleman more ready 
 to oblige, the care of that lirerary treafure could not have 
 been configned : Jicjiti latantur lares, 
 
 5. Several
 
 ii6 H O R M B I B L I C M. 
 
 5. Several attempts have been made to difcove? 
 the a:ra of the firjl foundation of th* Indian empire, 
 and to fettle the different ages of the 'publications ivs 
 have mentioned. The moft fpecious fyftem, on 
 thefe fubjecls, which has yet appeared, is that of 
 Sir William Jones. He traces the foundation of 
 the Indian empire above 3800 years from the 
 prefent time ; the higheft age of the Yajur Veda 
 to 1580 -years before the birth of our Saviour, 
 or roo years before the time of Mofes ; and the 
 higheft ageof the Inftitutesof Menu, to 1280 years 
 before the birth of our Saviour. The opinions 
 of Mr. Freret and Mr. Bailly are nearly the 
 fame : but Sir William Jones admits thefe to be 
 the higheft pomble dates which can be affigned 
 to the works in queftion ; and, in fixing the seras 
 of the Vedas and the Inftitutes of Menu, he does 
 not fpeak of them as exiftiug, at the period he 
 afiigns to them, in the form we now have them ; 
 he confulers them to have then been in a ftate of 
 traditional exiftence. Such is the outline of Sir 
 William Jones's fyftein ; but it is importable not 
 to wim, that the facls upon which, on this and 
 other occafions he builds his premifes, were efta- 
 Wimed with more certainty, and that the conclu- 
 fions he deduces from them were fupported by 
 inferences and arguments lefs nicely fpun. The 
 age of the Puranas is ftill more uncertain ; their 
 pretenfions to high antiquity feem completely 
 overthrown by Mr. Bentley in his Diifertation, in 
 
 the
 
 II O R M B I B L I C M. 127 
 
 tlie 6th volume of .the Afiatic Refearches, on the 
 Surya Siddhanta : and his arguments indirectly 
 affect the fuppofed high antiquity of the Vedas. 
 
 All, who take an interefl in the advancement of 
 ufeful or elegant learning, mud anxioufly wifh 
 that Afiatic literature fliould meet with every 
 fpecies of encouragement. Generally fpeaking, 
 in literature as in commerce, the public is the beft 
 patron : and the adventurer feldom fucceeds fo well, 
 as when he is left to his own exertions : but fome- 
 rimes it happens that particular encouragement is 
 neceffary, and premiums advances and bounties 
 have their ufe. The infant ft ate of Afiatic litera- 
 ture, the fmall number of thole who can devote 
 their time to the ftudy of it, and the difficulty and 
 expenfe attending the acquifition of it, feem to make 
 this one of the cafes in which the public fliould 
 ftimulate the exertion of the individual, by leflen- 
 ing the expenfe and fmoothing the difficulty of his 
 purfuits, and by multiplying the means of his 
 fuccefs. A fum of money, the appropriation of 
 which to fuch a purpofe, would neither be felt in 
 England or Alia, and which would fcarcely be 
 difcernible in an Indian budget, would, if juti- 
 cioufly expended in defraying the charges of 
 fcientific and obferving travellers, in engraving 
 curious and iaflruftive objedls of art, and particu- 
 larly in procuring faithful tranflations of original 
 works of acknowledged value, open to us, in a 
 few years, the choiceft treafures of the caft. 
 
 Such
 
 ia8 HORJE BIBLICT^. 
 
 Such a meafure would be worthy of the merchant 
 kings, to whom, as the beft managers of it for 
 the public welfare, the Britifh nation exclufively 
 trufts her Afiatic trade. Under their aufpices, 
 the Britifli arms have triumphed in almofl every 
 territory between the Indus and the Ganges, and 
 every fhore of the great Peninfula, has been tri- 
 butary to Britifli commerce. That to deferve 
 well of their country is their earneft wim, we 
 all know ; now wealth and power are feldom fo 
 well employed, as in the encouragement of thofe, 
 whofe labours increafe the knowledge, refine the 
 rafte, or elevate the genius of their countrymen : 
 and if they are defirous of fair fame, they mufk 
 be fenfible that the mofl certain method of obtain- 
 ing it, is to connect their names with great literary 
 inftitutions, and to fecure the gratitude of the 
 artift and the fcholar. 
 
 X. 3. 
 
 LEAVING Hinduftan, we muft take a nortli- 
 ca^ernly courfe, to arrive at CHINA, andconfider 
 the feveral books accounted facred in that coun- 
 try. Something (hould be premifed, ift, on the 
 origin and antiquity of its empire ; 2dly, on the 
 geographical notions which the antients entertained 
 of it ; and 3dly, on the rife and progrefs of the 
 intercourfe between it and Europe. 
 
 I. The origin and antiquity of the empire of China 
 are among the queftions, which have exercifed, 
 
 in.
 
 H O R JE B I B L I C IE. 139 
 
 in a particular manner, the ingenuity of the 
 learned. After much difcuffion, five things ap- 
 pear to be fettled, with fome appearance of pre* 
 cifion :- ift, that the moft probable opinion, re- 
 fpe&ing the origin of the Chinefe, is, that China 
 was firffc peopled from* Hinduftan : this is the 
 univerfal belief of the learned of Benares, and 
 is confirmed by a paflage, cited for the purpofe, 
 by Sir William Jones, from the Inftitutes of 
 Menu, a work, which, in a queftion of this 
 nature, is of the very higheft authority ; ad, 
 that the original feat of the Chinefe muft be 
 fought for in Chinfi, the moft north-weftern 
 province of the prefent empire of China ; ^d f 
 that, adopting the fomflritnq chronology, the 
 sera of the Chinefe empire may be fixed, with 
 fome latitude of calculation, at 2,500 years before 
 Chrift ; 4th, that, with the fame latitude, its 
 hiftorical sera may be fixed at 800 years before 
 Chrift ; 5th, that the actual form and extent of 
 the Chinefe government, may be dated from the 
 dynafty of Hane, 206 years before Chrift ; 6th, 
 and that, to repel the invafion of the Huns, the 
 celebrated Wall of China was built about a cen- 
 tury before the acceflion of that dynafty. 
 
 2. In refpecT: to its Geography, it already has 
 been obferved, that the geographical knowledge 
 of the Greeks did not extend, in the noith- 
 eaftern parts of Alia, much beyond the Imaus or 
 Caf. The geographical knowledge of the Romans 
 K extended
 
 I 3 o HORJE B I B LI C JE. 
 
 extended much farther ; their Serica regio was a 
 part of the Scythia extra Imaum, and ftretched 
 from the Atyai mountains, over the country of 
 Chami, to Kantcheou in a north-weftern part 
 of the province of Chinfi. Till d'Anville aflerted 
 and eftabliihed a contrary opinion, modern geo- 
 graphers fuppofsd the Sinarum regio, correfponded 
 with China : he has fhown its correfpondence 
 with Cochin China. 
 
 3. The antient Roman hiftorians are wholly 
 ftlent on thefubjel of any political relations be- 
 .tween Rome and China ; the indefatigable induftry 
 of M. de Guignes, (Mem. de 1* Academic, Tom. 
 32, p. 355)) has proved that there was an occa- 
 . iional intercourse between them from the Chinefe 
 writers; and Ptolemy, Ammianus Marcellinus, 
 and other authors, fhow, that a confiderable trade, 
 in the article of filk, was carried on between 
 China and the weftern parts of Afia, and Europe. 
 It was managed by caravans, fome of which took 
 a northern, and others a. fouthern route : the 
 former pafled over the Great Defer t to Kaftigar, 
 where Ptolemy fixes the ftation of the merchants, 
 qui ad Seres profijlfcuntur ; thence, the caravans 
 proceeded to Samarcand, and thence through 
 Perfia to Syria : the whole journey took up 243 
 days, but a great proportion of the commodity 
 was purchafed, in its paflage, by the merchants 
 of Nifib'is and Armenia. The fouthern route took 
 the caravans through the mountains of Thibet, to 
 
 the
 
 HOR^ BIBLIC^E. 131 
 
 the GufczafSt) where they were met by the mer- 
 chants of the weft. The commerce was alfo car- 
 " fied on by fea: the (hips of the Chinefe failed from 
 its caftern ports to Malacca, or to Achem, the 
 Promontory of Sumatra ; and, when that was not 
 the term of the -voyage, they failed on t6 Ceylon, 
 the Taprobane of the Antients, where they were 
 met by the merchants of the Perfian Gulph and 
 the countries adjacent. Such was the nature of 
 the commercial intercourfc between China and Eu- 
 rope, till the reign of the emperor Juftinian, when 
 filkworms were introduced into Europe. From 
 that time the intercourfe between the countries, 
 gradually wore away ; and, at the end of a few- 
 centuries, Europe alrfloft wholly forgot the ex- 
 iftence, and even the name of China. The hif- 
 tory of the introduction of the filk worm into 
 Europe, is one of the moft pleating parts of Mr. 
 Gibbon's work. 
 
 4. The firft writer to whom, after that time, we 
 are indebted for an account of China, is Cofmas In- 
 dicopleujies, or the Indian Navigator : he performed 
 his voyage, about the year 522: a valuable extradt 
 of it, was given in French and Greek by Thevenot, 
 (Relations Curieufes,) and the whole of it was 
 publifhed by Montfaucon in his Nova Collefiio 
 Patrum. 
 
 But the work of Cofmas Indicopleuftes was 
 
 foon forgotten, and Europe generally remained in 
 
 ignorance of China, till about the end of the 
 
 K 2 I tth
 
 I 3 * HOR^E ZIEL1CJE. 
 
 1 2th century, when 'John Car fin a Polonefe friar, 
 and Rubruquis a French friar, penetrated into it, 
 and, on their return, publifhed accounts of ir. 
 Tn the following century, the travels of Marco 
 Poh> in Tartary and China, made their appear- 
 ance: what he faid of China, was, at firft, 
 thought fabulous; by degrees it was more favour- 
 ably received, and infenfibly obtained general 
 credit. Soon after the Portuguefe doubled the 
 Cape of Good Hope, their mips reached China ; 
 and they obtained leave to fettle at Macao. 
 Several priefts of the order of St. Ignatius, ad- 
 vanced into different parts of the country : their 
 knowledge of the arts and fciences recommended 
 them to the court ; of this circumftance they 
 availed themfelves to propagate the Gofpel; an 
 account of their labours, and their viciflitudes of 
 favour and perfecution, and many curious cir- 
 cumftances refpe<5ting the natural, civil, and re- 
 ligious hiftory of the country, have been pub- 
 lifhed by them in feveral works, particularly their 
 Lettres Edifiantes et Curreufcsy of which Fon- 
 tenelle faid, that he had never read a work which 
 anfwered better to its title. Of the general ac- 
 curacy of thofe letters, and the works of Father 
 Du Halde and Father Gaubil, the author has 
 often heard the late Sir George Staunton fpeak in 
 the higheft terms: his teftimony is certainly of 
 great weight ; and the author avails himfelf with 
 much fatisfa&ion, of this opportunity of men- 
 tioning
 
 HOR^E BIBLIC^E, 133 
 
 tiohing a gentleman, whofe talents and uncon- 
 querable vigour of mind, rendered his country 
 eflential fervices on many important occafions, 
 and whofe many amiable and eftima'ble qualities, 
 will long remain in the memory of his numerous 
 friends, and are feen by them, with great pleafure, 
 to furvive in his fon. The labours of de Guignes, 
 the Fourmonts and Freret, are well known: an 
 interefting account of the rife and progrefs of Chi- 
 nefe literature in Europe, is prefixed by Bayer, 
 to his Mufcum Sinicum. 
 
 5. All the works of literature which the Chi- 
 nefe have compofed are divided by them into four 
 clavTes; ift, that of Kings, or the Sacred Books;- ad, 
 that of Su or Che, or Books of Hiftory; 3d, that 
 of Tfu or Tfe, or Books of Philofophy ; 4th, that 
 of Fele, or Mifcellanies. 
 
 The Kings, or Sacred Books, anfwer to what 
 we call Theology: they are divided into two 
 clafles ; the firft are five in number ; the Y-King, 
 the Chou-King, the Chi- King, the /-/', and Tchun- 
 tficou. The Y-King oonfifts of horizontal lines, 
 entire or cut, multiplied and combined into flxty- 
 four different forms or pofitions : (hey appear in- 
 volved in impenetrable myftery, but fome writers 
 have affec"led to difcover in them the origin of all 
 beings, the principles of natural hiftory, and the 
 harmony of the univerfe. The Chou-king contained 
 the public annals of the nation : all that remains 
 of it are fragments collected by Confucius; his 
 K 3 objed
 
 134 HOR^ffi BIBLIC^. 
 
 object ill compiling them, was to form a collection 
 of the precepts and inftrudtions given by princes to 
 their miniflers and fubjedts : a tranflation of it 
 was publifhed by Father Gaubil. The Chi- 
 King is a collection of poems on different fubjedts ; 
 a tranflation of it was made by Father Gaubil, and 
 publifhed by M. de Guignes in 1770. The Li-ki 
 cootaincd the civil and religious ceremonial of the 
 Ghinefe ; all that remains of it, is an extract of it 
 publiihed in the reign of Ham, about 200 years be- 
 fore the Chriftian aera . The Tchun-tfieou is a work of 
 Confucius which contains the annals of 12 kings, 
 who reigned in Lou, his native country. A work, 
 ranked among the facred books, called the Yo- 
 king on the fubjedt of mufic, formerly exifted, 
 but it is wholly loft. Thirty other works are 
 called Kings ; they are held in great refpedr., but 
 are not deemed facred. 
 
 The fecond clafs of the Sacred Books of the 
 Chinefe confifts of the Su-Chu, or the four Books: 
 they are moral writings compofed by Confucius 
 or his difciples. 
 
 Many commentaries have been written, and 
 many dictionaries have been compofed, to facili- 
 tate the intelligence of the facred books. " They 
 " contain," fays Father Premare, (Lettres Edif. 
 et Curi. Tom. 21. p. 218. Ed. 1781), " thewhole 
 ' of the Chinefe Religion. In the fundamental 
 " doctrines of them may be found the principles of 
 l< natural law, which the antient Chinefe received 
 
 *' from
 
 HOR^E BIBLIC^. 135 
 
 ** from the fons of Noah : they teach the reader 
 " to know and reverence the Supreme Being. 
 " Like the Patriarchs, under the unwritten law, 
 " the emperor is both king and pontiff: to him 
 u it belongs to offer, at certain times of the year, 
 " facrifice for his people ; to him it belongs to 
 " prefcribe ceremonies, to decide on doctrines. 
 " This alone can be called the eftablifhed religion 
 " of China ; all other fe<5ts are considered by 
 " them to be extraneous, falfe, and pernicious, 
 " and are only tolerated. The Chriftian reli- 
 *' gion was declared lawful by a public edicl: ; ia 
 " a fubfequent reign, it was profcribed." The 
 whole of Father Premare's letter deferves to be 
 read : it is entitled to all the praife beftowed 
 by Montefquieu, (Efprit dex Loix, /. 8. ^.31), 
 on the letters of Father Parennin and Father 
 Mairan. 
 
 X. 4. 
 
 CONSIDERING the great attention which 
 the learned of Europe have beftowed on the An- 
 tiquities of the North, it may be a matter of fur- 
 prife that Icelandic literature, and particularly the 
 EDDA, has been fo little the fubjecl of their 
 inquiries. Something will be faid in this 
 place, ift, of the Antient Hiftory of Ice- 
 land; 2dly, of the Edda in general; 3dly, of 
 the Edda of Sasmund; 4thly, of the Edda of 
 K 4 Snorro ;
 
 136 HOR^BIBLIC^E. 
 
 Snorro ; and 5thly, a fhort view will then be 
 given of the Mythology of the Edda. 
 
 I. It is probable that Iceland was originally 
 peopled from England or Ireland. Of its hif- 
 tory, till it was difcovered by the Norwegians 
 about the middle of the ^th century we know very 
 little. It is faid that the Norwegians found in it 
 fome veftiges of Chriftianity : in 981, a Saxon 
 Bifhop, of the name of Friederick. attempted its 
 converfion ; he was not favourably received, but, 
 after much oppofition, the whole nation was con- 
 verted to the Chriftian faith, about the eleventh 
 century. The Lutheran Religion was introduced 
 into it by Chriftian III. in 1550. In refpect 
 to its literature, the learned of their country divide 
 it into four ftages: according to them, its infancy 
 extended to 1056, the year affigned to the final 
 eftablimment of Chriftianity; from that time till 
 the year mo, when their fchools and feminaries 
 for learning were firft inftituted, its literature is 
 faid by them to have been in its youth ; then its 
 manhood began, and lafted till the I4th century, 
 when it fell to decay. In the fecond and third of 
 thefe periods, while the greateft part of Europe was 
 almoft buried in ignorance, every fpecies of litera- 
 ture was cultivated in Iceland with great fuc- 
 cefs. 
 
 2- To the Icelandic Literati we are principally 
 indebted for what we know of the Edda. The 
 
 learned
 
 HOR^B BIB LI CM. 137 
 
 learned are not agreed in their opinion, -cirhe-r of the 
 meaning or etymology of that word. In a general 
 fenfe it may be ufed to denote the antient fongs or 
 memorials, either in the Icelandic language, or in 
 any of the antient languages of Scandinavia, which 
 exprefs the mythology of the ' North, concerning 
 Odin and his companions. In a more limited 
 fenfe it is ufed to denote two publications, the 
 Edda of Saermmd and the Edda of Snorro. 
 
 So far as the writer can perceive, the fcenes of 
 all the antient fongs or memorials, which compofe 
 the Eddas contained in thefe publications, or 
 Scattered in other works, are Danifh, Swcdifh, 
 or Norwegian, and never Icelandic : from this it 
 may be inferred, that the w-hole fyftem of mytho- 
 logy expreffed in them was carried from Scan- 
 dinavia to Iceland : now, as Scandinavia was 
 converted to Chriftianity about the eleventh cen- 
 tury, it feems to follow, that the Eddie mytho- 
 logy muft have been imported into Iceland before 
 that time. It muft be added, that, this is conform- 
 able to the notion given of it by Adam of Bremen, 
 Saxo Grammaticus, and other writers of authority ; 
 we may therefore fafely conclude that the two 
 publications demonftratively fhow that the Edda, 
 in the large fenfe affigncd to that word, contains 
 the antient creed of Scandinavia, before its con- 
 verfion to Chriftianity. 
 
 3. Having thus fpoken of the Edda in the moft 
 general fenfe which can be afcribed to that word, 
 
 we
 
 138 HORJ BIBL1CJE. 
 
 we have to notice each of the two particular 
 Eddals, which have been mentioned. 
 
 The firft is the Edda of Samund: he was 
 born in 1056, travelled to Rome in fearch of 
 knowledge, returned to his native country about 
 1076, and died about 1133. 
 
 To him the antient Edda, as it is called, in op- 
 pofition to the Edda afterwards publiflied by 
 Snorro, is afcribed. Two of the mod important 
 poems in the Edda of Saemund, the Volufpa and 
 Haavamaal, and a third called Odins Magic, 
 were publifhed by Refenius in feparate pamphlets. 
 The Volufpa is the Oracle or Prophecy of Vola, 
 a Scandinavian Sibyl, and contains the whole My- 
 thology of the Edda ; the Haavamaal> or the f ub- 
 lime difcourfe of Odin, contains, in about 120 
 ftrophes, certain leffons of morality fuppofed to 
 be pronounced by Odin himfelf. Refenius pub- 
 lifiied an edition of it from another manufcript in 
 1673: the difference between the editions is con- 
 fiderable. Thefe poems were all we poflefled of the 
 antient Edda, till the, /year 1787, when the 
 whole of the Mythologic part of it, not publimod 
 by Refenius, was printed .at Copenhagen, in one 
 large quarto volume. t . The preface contains an 
 account of the Eddie mythology, and of theManu- 
 fcripts from which the poems are printed ; a curi- 
 ous life of Saemund follows, and then the poems : 
 they are thirteen in number. The ninth of 
 them is the journey of Odin to hell, fo finely 
 
 tranilated
 
 HOR/E BTBLTC^. 139 
 
 translated by Mr. Gray: he has omitted to tranf- 
 latc the five firft ftanzis; without them it is im- 
 poflible to comprehend the action of the poem ; 
 and even with them feveral parts of it are very 
 .obfcure. Dreams of a terrible kind had intimated 
 to the god Balder, one of Odin's fons, that he 
 fhould foon die : he communicated them to the 
 other gods ; they were alarmed, and agreed to 
 conjure away the danger with which he was 
 threatened: with that view they fent Odin, and 
 Friga his wife, to exact an oath from every object; 
 in nature, not to hurt Balder. Odin and Friga 
 executed the commifnon. Still Odin was uneafy; 
 he called a new council, and not hearing any 
 thing fatisfactory, he " up rofe with fpeed." 
 Here Mr. Gray's translation of the poem begins : 
 when the prophetefs appears, he afiumes a feigned 
 name and character, and alks her, in the figura- 
 tive Style of the Edda, for whom the ornamented 
 bed, (fuch as according to the Eddie Mythology- 
 awaited martial heroes in the next life, immedi- 
 ately on their deceafe), was then prepared; fhe 
 replies for Balder, and fays his ihield already- 
 hung over the bowl of mead prepared for him ; 
 this was another reward of heroes: then follow 
 the queftions and replies respecting the author and 
 avenger of Balder's death. Odin then inquires 
 who the virgins are, who fo greatly bewail Bal- 
 der's fate; by this queflion, the prophetefs in- 
 ftantly perceives the deception put on her, and 
 
 that
 
 140 HORJE BISL 
 
 that (he is talking to the " King of Men :'* but 
 it has been a{ked, how is this intimated by the 
 queftion ? Now in the Edda of Snorro, it is re- 
 lated, that on the death of Balder, Friga his 
 mother, fent Hermod to Hela the goddefs of 
 Death, to perfuade her to give him up ; Hela re- 
 quired that all things animate or inanimate fhould 
 bewail his death : to this general lamentation Odin 
 refers; the prophetefs feels that this is a circum- 
 flance which none but Odin could forefee, and 
 {he therefore breaks out into the exclamation, 
 " King of Men, I know thee now !" This feems 
 to explain the poem fatisfadtorily. The poem as 
 it (lands in Saemund's Edda, and the account of 
 Baider's death in the Edda of Snorro, may be read 
 as curious fpecimens of each. 
 
 In Ssemund's Edda, the poems are followed 
 by a Dictionary. It is difficult to afcertain the 
 age of thefe poems with precifion: we have ob- 
 ferved that they are of an earlier date than the in- 
 troduction of Chriftianity into Iceland by the 
 Norwegian fettlers ; the arguments of Saemund's 
 editor to prove they are of the Qth century are 
 very ftrong. 
 
 Such is the antient Edda. It is evident that 
 Saemund was at moft the compiler of it, and his 
 being the compiler of it, is uncertain ; it is by no 
 means clear that we are in poffeffion of all the 
 fables or mythologies originally inferted in the 
 compilation which goes under his name ; and that 
 
 compilation,
 
 H-ORJB BIBLIC^. i 4l 
 
 compilation, probably, did not contain all the 
 Eddie fables or mythological tales then extant. 
 
 4. The modern Edda is unqueftionably the 
 work of Snorro Sturlefon: he was born in 1179, 
 was fupreme judge of Iceland from 1215 to 1222, 
 and died in 1241. His work is an abridgment 
 of Eddie mythology in the form of a dialogue. 
 It was publimed by Refenius in 1665; a new 
 edition, (which the writer has not been able to 
 procure), of part of the modern Edda was pub- 
 lilhed by Goranfon, at Upfal, in 1746. In 1763, 
 Mr. Mallet published his Hiftoire de Dannemarc, 
 in fix volumes odlavo ; the two firft of them 
 ferve as an Introduction : and the fecond of them 
 contains a tranilation of part of the Edda. Under 
 the title of Northern Antiquities, an excellent 
 Engliih tranflation of the two firft volumes of Mr. 
 Mallet's work, with a learned preface and valuable 
 notes, and with Goranfon's Latin verfion of the 
 Edda, was publirtied in 1770. We are princi- 
 pally indebted for it to the learned and polite pen 
 of the Bifhop of Dromore. It has been obferved 
 that Refenius's edition contains, befides the modern 
 Edda, the Volufpa, the Haavamaal, and the 
 Magic of Odin of the antient or Saamund's 
 Edda. 
 
 In Refenius's edition, the Edda of Snorro it 
 preceded by a dedication in 58 pages to Frederick 
 III. This is followed by a preface of 52 pages, 
 containing an account of the antient and modern 
 
 Edda,
 
 142 HOR7E BIBLICJE. 
 
 Edda, and of Sasmund and Snorro ; the modern 
 Edda then follows. Every chapter firft appears 
 in the Icelandic language, in Danifti chara&ers, 
 then in a Danifh, and afterwards in a Latin tranfla- 
 tion. The Danifh is by Stephanius, the Latin 
 by Magnus Uiai ; various readings are noticed 
 from manuicnpis, and the Latin tranflation : neither 
 page nor folio is marked in the book. 
 
 In Refenius's edition, the Edda contifts of 78 
 mythologies or fables, in Goranfon's of 26, in 
 Mallet of 33 ; but the divifion of the chapters is 
 arbitrary, the matter, as far as they all proceed 
 together, being the fame. 
 
 . Refenius's edition, contains three introdu&ory 
 chapters ; the two nrft are very fliort, the third is 
 long, and is omitted both by Goranfon and Mallet; 
 both Goranfon and Mallet ftop with the end 
 of the 50th fable in Refenius's edition. Thus 
 far the works confift of a dialogue between 
 a king of Sweden, called Gylfe, and the gods, 
 at their court at Afgard. Gylfe propofes quef- 
 tions, which fome of the gods anfwer ; they turn 
 on the nature of the gods, and their adventures. 
 The ad part contains an account of a fimilar 
 dialogue between the gods and ^Egaera Danish 
 lord. They receive his vifit with great ceremony ; 
 the god Eragge fits down by him, and narrates 
 their exploits and adventures to him. This pan 
 of the Edda ends with the 62d fable or mythology ; 
 the remainder of the work, except the 68th and 
 
 69th
 
 BIBLIC^. 143 
 
 69th and ^oth divifions, which are of the mytho- 
 logical kind, is hiflorical, with a confiderable in- 
 termixture of fable. The work concludes with an 
 epilogue of no confequence, and probably an inter- 
 polation. It is followed by the Scalda, a kind of 
 poetical dictionary for the ufe of ftudents, with ob- 
 fervations on the language, and its orthography, 
 and on the ftrudlure of the verfes of the poetical 
 works written in it. 
 
 Such are the Antient and New Eddas of Ssemund 
 and Snorro ; the reputation and importance, in 
 many refpe&s, of the Edda, loudly call for a 
 new and complete edition of them. This is Mr. 
 Pinkerton's obfervation in an ufeful and inftru&ive 
 manufcript on the Edda, which he kindly per- 
 mitted the writer to perufe. 
 
 5. Od'm is the hero of the Edda : but the whole 
 of his hiftory is involved in fable and obfcurity. 
 It is a probable conjecture that the tribes, which he 
 led into Scandinavia, came originally from the 
 countries reaching to the Caucafus from the north 
 of Perfia ; and that, by different irruptions, they 
 fucceffively extended their conquefts over the 
 Volga,; the Tanais, and each fide of the Baltic : 
 it alfo is probable, that, at the time of their irrup- 
 tion into the Scandinavian countries, which is 
 referred to by the Edda, the principal feat of their 
 refidence was Afoph, and that Odin was their 
 leader. We are told that, by a variety of heroic 
 a&s of valour and confummate military fkill, he 
 
 perfuaded
 
 J44- II O R rS B I B L I C IE. 
 
 perfuaded his troops that he poflefTed more than 
 mortal powers ; that he himfelf chcriflied this 
 opinion among them ; and that to confirm them in 
 It, when he found the approach of age and in- 
 firmity, he called an aflembly of the principal 
 of his fabjects, and wounded himfelf in nine 
 mortal places, haftening away, (as he declared 
 with his dying voice), to prepare the feaft of the 
 heroes in the palace of the god of war. The 
 enthufiaftic admiration of his follower^ at firft 
 compared him, then identified him with that deity. 
 This confufion in the ideas of the Scandinavians 
 affets the Edda ; there Odin is fometimes an 
 hero highly gifted and favoured ; fometimes he 
 
 is the god of war himfelf. 
 
 As the mythology of the Scandinavians became 
 more refined, the number of their deities increafed. 
 They affigned Odin the wife we have mentioned, 
 Fripa-or Fria, the Scandinavian Venus. Twelve 
 
 O 
 
 gods and twelve goddeffes, all of whom were 
 children of Odin, completed the celeftial family: 
 Thor, the god o thunder, was the moft powerful 
 of them ; Balder, the god of grace and eloquence, 
 was the Scandinavian Apollo ; Loke, the god ef 
 cunning, was at once their Momus, their Mercury, 
 and their Akriman : he had fcveral children, and 
 ieveral monflers were born of him, the wolf Fenris, 
 the ferpent Medgard, ajid Hela or Death. 
 
 The gods have chained up the wolf, thrown 
 the ferpent Into the fea, caft Hela into the lower 
 
 world.
 
 HOR^fe $ IE LI CM. j 4 
 
 World, where {he reigns over the dead; and fhut 
 tip Loke in a cavern under the earth, where, by 
 His rage, he Ihakes the world with earthquakes. 
 Each of the twelve goddefles has her feparate and 
 characleriftic powers : feveral virgins are afligned 
 tt> wait on the heroes after their death : every day 
 rhe heroes engage in moft violent battles, mounted' 
 on fiery Heeds, and clothed in refplendent armour ; 
 they give and receive wounds ; but> when the battle' 
 is over, they bathe in a fountain of living 1 water; 
 they are inftantly healed, and* then (it down to a 
 ftimpruous repair, at which Odin prefides,. and' 
 pafs the remaining hours in circling goblets of' 
 mead, and martial fongi- 
 
 But all this is temporary; the twilight' of tht 
 gods, as it is termed in- the Edda, will arrive, when 
 Loke will break from his confinement, when the 
 Human race, the ftars, the moon- and the: fun will' 
 difappear, the earth fink in the feas, fire confume 
 the fkies, and Odin hirnfelf and his kindred gods 
 will periih. A myfleriaus and all powerful be- 
 ing, who- feems to have nothing in common with 
 Odin, and who, before this grand cataflrophe, is 
 fcarcely difcernible in the Eddie mythology, 
 will then come on the ftage, and renovate the, 
 univerfe. This is the moft curious paflage in the 
 Edcla; it is thus exprefled, in the tranflation wa 
 have mentioned. 
 
 " There will come a time," fays the. Edda, 
 
 " a barbarous age, an, age of the fword, when 
 
 L " iniquity
 
 * 4 6 H O R JE E I B L I C JS. 
 
 "iniquity fhall infeft the earth, when bro- 
 " thers {hah ftain themfelves with brothers 
 " blood, when fons fhali be the murderers of 
 * their fathers, and fathers of their fons, when 
 " inceft and adultery {hall be common, when no 
 *' man fhall fpare his friend. Immediately fhall 
 44 fucceed a defolaung winter; the fnow (hall fall 
 " from the four corners of. the world, the winds 
 " fliall blow with fury, the whole earth fhall be 
 " rhard bound in ice. Three fuch winters fhall pafs 
 " away, without being foftened by one fummer. 
 " Then fhall fucceed afionifliing prodigies: then 
 " fhall the monfters break their chains and 
 11 efcape: the great dragon fhall roll himfeli in 
 " the ocean, and with his motions the earth fliall 
 4t be overflowed: the earth (hall be fhaken; 
 " the trees fhall be torn up by the roots, die 
 " rocks fhall be dafhed againft each other. The 
 " \\ oIf*Fenris, broke loofe from his chains, fhall 
 " open his enormous mouth which reaches from 
 " heaven to earth; the fire fliall fiaih out from 
 " his eyes and noftrils; he fliall devour tlie iun : 
 ** and the great dragon who follows him, fliall 
 " vomit forth upon the waters, and into the air, 
 " great torrents of venom^ In this confufion the 
 " ft-rs fhall fly from their places, the heaven 
 ^ fhall cleave aiimder, and the army of evil 
 " Genii and giants, conducted by Sortur (the 
 '* black) and followed by Luke, fliall break in, 
 ' to attack the gods. But Heimdal, the doqr- 
 '* keeper of the gods, .tifes up ; he founds the 
 ** " clanging
 
 H O R M : _B IB L I C Mi 147 
 
 " clanging trumpet; the gocb awake and afTem- 
 *' ble ; the great afh tree fhakes its branches;' 
 '* heaven and earth are full of horror and affright. 
 *' The gods fly to arms; die heroes place them* 
 " felves in battle-array. Odin appears armed in 
 " his golden cafque and his refplendent cuirafs; 
 " his vaft fcimetar is in his hands. He attacks 
 " the wolf Fenris ; he is devoured by him, and 
 ** Fenris perifhes at the fame inftant. Thor is 
 " fuffocated in the floods of venom which the 
 " dragon breathes forth as he expires. Loke and 
 " Heimdal mutually kill each other. The fire 
 " confumes every thing, and the flame reaches 
 " up to heaven. But prefently after, a new earth. 
 " fprings forth from the bofom of the waves, 
 <( adorned with green meadows; the fields there 
 " bring forth without culture, calamities are there 
 " unknown, a palace is there raifed more fhining 
 " than the fun, all covered with gold. This is 
 " the place that the juft will inhabit, and enjoy 
 " delights for' evermore. Then the powerful, 
 " the valiant, he 'who governs all things, comes 
 "" forth" from his 'lofty abodes, to reader divine 
 " juftice. He pronounces decrees: he errablifheS 
 " the facred deftinies which fhall endure for ever. 
 " Tliere is an abode remote from the fun, the 
 " gates of which face the north; poifon rains 
 " there through a thoufand openings : this place 
 " is all compofed of the cavcafes of ferpents: 
 '< there run certain torrents, in which are plunged 
 
 " the
 
 ,48 HOR.aJBIBLIC.ffi. 
 
 " the perjurers, aflaflins, and thofe who fediicc* 
 *' married women. A black, winged dragon flies 
 " inceffantly around, and devours the bodies of 
 " the wretched who are there imprifoned." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 CORRIGENDA. 
 
 P. 4, line 9, for Defert cf Arabia, read Euphrates. 
 3, line 8, for Pijbdadian, read Caianian, 
 
 14, line ii, for ffeflerti, read Roman. 
 
 25 and z6, line i, in the margin, for Before Cbrijl, 
 Jfter 
 
 Luke Hansard, Printer, 
 Great Turnftile } Linoln's-Inn Fields.
 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 Thl, book I. DUE on the la.t date stamped below.
 
 3 1158 00721 5055 
 
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