The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 19

The life of the roving tribes in the interior whom the Arabs denote by the general name of Badawi (Bedouins), _i.e._ "sons of the desert," has undergone few changes; at the present day but slight deviations have been made from the customs and conditions of the ancient time. Their life was regulated according to their descent in patriarchal forms, and the basis of it was the natural affection of the family. At the head of the tribe stood the chief of the oldest family, from which the rest derived their origin. All descendants of the patriarch who had given the name to the tribe gave a willing obedience to his nearest descendants, for the claims of primogeniture were sacred. The wealth in horses of excellent breed, camels, and cattle is the pride of these tribal chiefs and the symbol of their supremacy. Surrounded by the council of the elders, the heads of the other families, the chiefs maintained peace in the tribe, settled quarrels, led out the youth of the tribe on plundering expeditions and in feuds, and divided the spoil. They alone had the right to a.s.semble the tribe, to carry the standards under which the tribe fought, and give the command in battle. In rare instances the remembrance of a common origin keeps several tribes together in a kind of union under the chief of the oldest tribe, from which the others have branched off, but as a rule the tribes hold proudly aloof and are hostile to each other. They attack each other, plunder the tents, carry off the women, children, and servants, and drive away the flocks. When a feud has once broken out and members of a tribe have been slain, it is inc.u.mbent on the family and tribe to which the dead belonged to revenge the fallen, and kill at least as many members of the hostile tribe.

This duty of revenge is hereditary on either side, and descends from generation to generation until the chief of a third tribe is chosen to decide the quarrel and become a peace-maker by fixing a fine of cattle or other property.

In such a mode of life, which, in its general features, has remained unchanged for thousands of years, the Arabs of the desert exercised the virtues of reverence, piety, and attachment to their tribal chiefs; thus there grew up among them a steadfast, manly character; they were true to their promise when once given, and displayed a n.o.ble hospitality. If any one came in peace to their tents, drink was given to him by the daughters of the tribe from the fountains, the men took him as a friend into their tents and shared their store of dates with him, or entertained him with a sheep from the flock. When the stranger had once set his foot in the tent, the host guaranteed his safety with his own life. When the night came on with her refres.h.i.+ng coolness, the stranger was required to sit in the starlight in the circle of the tribesmen. He was expected to tell of his origin, his race, and tribe; and then the hosts also told the fame of their ancestors and sang the deeds of their fathers and themselves, the feuds and encounters in which their tribe had been victorious, the virtues of their favourite horses, and the swiftness of their camels.

Poetry was the only form of intellectual life known to the tribes of the desert. The Bedouins had a lively sense of the incidents which broke the simple loneliness of their lives, and gave them a vigorous and even a fiery expression. The artless song was the expression of feelings deeply stirred by sorrow or joy. Such songs were equally adapted for calling to mind their own deeds and fortunes or those of the tribe, and for moral exhortation. They were "occasional" pieces. Lament for the dead, praise of the n.o.blest warrior, the battles and exaltation of the tribe, the generosity and courage of their own tribe or hatred of the hostile tribe, derision of the enemy, hunting, weapons, rides through the desert, horses and camels, are the subjects of this poetry, which is expressed in short iambic verses. Tradition mentions Lokman as the oldest poet. He is supposed to be a contemporary of David; and round his name is gathered a number of proverbs, gnomes, and fables. The short poems lived on in the tribe, they were sung again and again, extended and recast. At a later time there were also rhapsodes who could repeat a store of such poems.

The Arabs have developed in the most healthy and marked manner the characteristic features of the Semitic race. Their roving life in the deserts under the burning sun and amid tempests and whirlwinds of sand has strengthened and hardened them. Surrounded in pathless isolation by beasts of prey and hostile tribes, every one was dependent on his own watchfulness and keenness, on his courage and resolution, on his horse and his lance. On a frugal and scanty sustenance the body became lean and thin, but supple, muscular, and capable of endurance; and in these hardy bodies dwelt a resolute spirit. Thus the Arabs display a freer att.i.tude, a more steadfast repose, a more haughty pride, a greater love of independence, and a more adventurous boldness than their kinsmen.

Their land and their mode of life have saved them from the greedy avarice, from the luxury and debauchery, into which the Semitic nations on the Euphrates and Tigris, as on the Mediterranean, often fell, though they share in the cruelty and bloodthirstiness common to their race. It was the Arabs on whose virgin strength a new Semitic empire and civilization was able to be founded in the Middle Ages, when Babel and a.s.shur, Tyre and Carthage, Jerusalem and Palmyra had long pa.s.sed away.

FOOTNOTES:

[428] Herod. 3, 7; 1, 131; 7, 69, 86.

[429] Eratosthenes in Strabo, p. 767.

[430] Strabo, p. 777.

[431] Diod. 2, 48; 3, 44.

[432] Diod. 2, 48, 50, 54; 3, 42, 43. The accounts of the grove are taken from Agatharchides.--Strabo, p. 777.

[433] "Hist. Nat." 6, 32.

[434] Amm. Marcell. 14, 4.

[435] Herod. 3, 107-113.

[436] Heracl. c.u.man. Fragm. 4. ed. Muller.

[437] Apud Strabon. p. 768 ff.

[438] Agatharch. "De Mari Erythr.;" apud Diod. 3, 45-48, and the excerpt of Photius in Muller, "Geogr. Gr. Min." 1, 111 ff.; cf. Strabo, p. 778.

[439] Strabo, p. 778.

[440] "Hist. Nat." 12, 32; 6, 32 seq.

[441] The queen of Sheba, who brings such large gifts of gold and spices to Solomon, must in any case be regarded as the queen of the rich spice land, and with this account agree other pa.s.sages in which Sheba is mentioned. To the Seba, who are mentioned in Psalm lxxii. 10, 15, as rich in gold along with the Sheba, and are described in Isaiah as people of great stature (xlv. 15; cf. xliii. 3), and are placed in Genesis x. 7 among the children of Cush, I cannot a.s.sign any place. Prideaux a.s.sumes that the two nations became amalgamated; "Trans. Bibl. Arch." 2, 2.

[442] Isaiah xxi. 13, 14, 17.

[443] Dumichen, "Die Flotte einer aegyptischen Konigin."

[444] G. Smith, "a.s.syr. Discov." p. 286; Schrader, "Keilschriften und Alt. Test." s. 56, 143, 163.

[445] G. Smith, "a.s.surbanipal," pp. 264, 265, 275.

[446] Gen. xxv. 1-11; xxvi. 34; x.x.xvi. 11.

[447] Birch, "The Annals of Tutmes III.;" "Archaeolog." vol. xlv.

[448] Papyrus Harris in Chabas, "Recherches sur la Dynastie 19," p. 59.

[449] Movers, "Phoenizier," 2, 3, 302.

[450] Strabo, p. 756; Pliny, "Hist. Nat." 12, 32.

[451] Isaiah xxi. 13, 14.

[452] Movers, "Phoenizier," 2, 3, 293.

[453] Isaiah lx. 6.

[454] Herod. 3, 97.

[455] 1 Kings xxii. 49; 2, xiv. 7, 22; 2 Chronicles xvii.; 2, xxvi. 6, 7. Under Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah, Elath was again lost.--2 Kings xvi. 6.

[456] Caussin de Percival, "Histoire des Arabes," 1, 16, 17; Wellsted, "Reisen in Arabien, von E. Rodiger," 1, 307.

[457] Prideaux, "Trans. Bibl. Arch." 2, 19.

[458] D. H. Muller, "Zeit. d. d. M. Gesellschaft," 1876, s. 522 ff.

[459] Osiander in the "Zeit. d. d. M. Gesellschaft," 10, 17-73; Praetorius, _loc. cit._ 26, 417 ff; Gildemeister and Levy, _loc. cit._ 24, 188.

[460] Genesis xxv. 1-6.

[461] Genesis x.x.xvi. 12-16.

[462] The table in Genesis x. 7, places Ramah, Shebah, Dedan, Havilah, among the sons of Cush, but in the genealogy of the Arabs (c. xxv.) Shebah and Dedan are given to Joktan and Midian.

[463] Noldeke. "Ueber die Amalekiter," s. 23 ff.

[464] Caussin, "Histoire des Arabes," 1, 49, arrives at the year 794 for the birth of J'arab, by allotting thirty-three years to each generation.

Wustenfeld, in his genealogical tables, gives from thirty to thirty-four generations between Kachtan and Mohammed, and thus, though he allows forty years for each generation, cannot reach beyond the year 700 B.C.

for Kachtan.

[465] Osiander, in "Zeitschr. d. d. Morgen. Gesellschaft," 10, 27.

[466] Caussin, "Histoire des Arabes," 1, 49-60; Prideaux, "Trans. Bibl.

Arch." 2, 10.

[467] Caussin, "Hist. des Arabes," 1, 166 ff. Wustenfeld ("Genealogische Tabellen") reaches higher, because, as already remarked, he allows forty years for a generation.

[468] Krehl, "Religion der Araber," s. 41, 30; Lenormant, "Lett. a.s.syr."

2, 10.

[469] Osiander, "Zeitschr. d. d. M. G." 7, 474; 10, 63; 11, 472; Lenormant, _loc. cit._ 279; Caussin, _loc. cit._ 1, 113; Prideaux, "Trans. Bibl. Arch." 2, 18.