286

THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap, festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he fre-quented the Caaba , accosted the strangers ofevery tribe, and urged, both in private converseand public discourse, the belief and worshipof a sole deity. Conscious of his reason andof his weakness, he asserted the liberty of con-science, and disclaimed the use of religious vio-lence : y but he called the Arabs to repentance,and conjured them to remember the ancientidolators of Ad and Thamud, whom the divinejustice had swept away from the face of theearth. 2

i> opposed The people of Mecca was hardened in theirreish’ eKo ' unbelief by superstition and envy. The eldersg 22 u C13 ' of the city, the uncles of the prophet, affectedto despise the presumption of an orphan, the re-former of his country : the pious orations ofMahomet in the Caaba were answered by theclamours of Abu Taleb. “ Citizens and pil-“ grims, listen not to the tempter,hearken not to“ his impious novelties. Stand fast in the wor-“ ship of A1 L&ta and A1 Uzzah.” Yet theson of Abdallah was ever dear to the aged chief;and he protected the fame and person of his

y The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration, are strong andnumerous: c. 2, v. 257 ; c. 16, 129; c. 17, 54 ; c. 45, 15 ; c. 50, 39 ;c. 88, 21, &c. with the notes of Marracci and Sale. This characteralone may generally decide the doubts of the learned whether a chap-ter was revealed at Mecca or Medina.

2 See the Koran (passim, and especially c. 7, p. 123, 124, &c.) andthe tradition of the Arabs , (Pocock, Specimen, p. 35 37). The ca-verns of the tribe of Thamund, fit for men of the ordinary stature,were shewn in the midway between Medina and Damascus , Abulfed.Arabise Descript, p. 43, 44), aud may be probably ascribed to the Trog-lodytes of the primitive world, (Micliaelis, ad Lowth de Poesi Hebrtt-tor. p. 131*135 ^ Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii, p. 48, Ice).