DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0423
CHAP. XII.]
THE SARACEN.
115
The Bedawee roams as freely over his boundless deserts as the
winds that sweep them • the only barriers he knows are civiliza-
tion, and its settled habitations. Tribes sunder and join, as pas-
tures become scarce or abundant; an oasis is to-day peopled with
thousands, and covered with flocks and herds; to-morrow it is as
lonely as the sea.
And thus it has been with the Arab for three thousand years.
The Arab is so reverential towards antiquity of descent, that
he sacrifices his own pride of birth to the abstract principle. He
admits that he is but a parvenu, as only claiming origin from
[shmael, and calls himself "El Arab el Mostareba"—the natu-
ralized Arab. The genuine ancient tribes are characterized as
" El Arab"—par excellence, and were denominated Ad, Thamud,
Tasm, and Amalek.
Zarab, the grandson of Eber, the great grandson of Shem,
gave his name to Yemen, over which country he was king ; and
his posterity continued to rule there until conquered and expelled
by Ishmael. This patriarch married the daughter of Modad, one
of the native princes ; and his son Kedar obtained peaceable pos.
session of the throne. After the expulsion of the ancient dynasty,
the kingly spirit seems gradually to have given way to the patri-
archal rule which the invaders had introduced ; and the system
of independent tribes soon universally prevailed. At Mecca, the
management of affairs appears to have been vested in an aristocra-
cy of the tribe of Koreish, who strengthened their authority by
the prestige attendant on their being " the Guardians of the
Caaba."*
The name of Saracen has been absurdly derived from their
implacable stepmother Sarah, and also from the great desert, the
Sahara ; it was an epithet of one of their most distinguished tribes,
and adopted by the rest. During the stirring times of the Cru-
sades, this name was almost exclusively applied to the Arab,
and with it are connected some of the brightest associations that
shine over war's dark annals in the times of chivalry. That
chivalry was an earnest, solemn, absorbing feeling—almost a
religion in itself. Its kindred spirit influenced the hostile arma-
* See note D, in Appendix.
THE SARACEN.
115
The Bedawee roams as freely over his boundless deserts as the
winds that sweep them • the only barriers he knows are civiliza-
tion, and its settled habitations. Tribes sunder and join, as pas-
tures become scarce or abundant; an oasis is to-day peopled with
thousands, and covered with flocks and herds; to-morrow it is as
lonely as the sea.
And thus it has been with the Arab for three thousand years.
The Arab is so reverential towards antiquity of descent, that
he sacrifices his own pride of birth to the abstract principle. He
admits that he is but a parvenu, as only claiming origin from
[shmael, and calls himself "El Arab el Mostareba"—the natu-
ralized Arab. The genuine ancient tribes are characterized as
" El Arab"—par excellence, and were denominated Ad, Thamud,
Tasm, and Amalek.
Zarab, the grandson of Eber, the great grandson of Shem,
gave his name to Yemen, over which country he was king ; and
his posterity continued to rule there until conquered and expelled
by Ishmael. This patriarch married the daughter of Modad, one
of the native princes ; and his son Kedar obtained peaceable pos.
session of the throne. After the expulsion of the ancient dynasty,
the kingly spirit seems gradually to have given way to the patri-
archal rule which the invaders had introduced ; and the system
of independent tribes soon universally prevailed. At Mecca, the
management of affairs appears to have been vested in an aristocra-
cy of the tribe of Koreish, who strengthened their authority by
the prestige attendant on their being " the Guardians of the
Caaba."*
The name of Saracen has been absurdly derived from their
implacable stepmother Sarah, and also from the great desert, the
Sahara ; it was an epithet of one of their most distinguished tribes,
and adopted by the rest. During the stirring times of the Cru-
sades, this name was almost exclusively applied to the Arab,
and with it are connected some of the brightest associations that
shine over war's dark annals in the times of chivalry. That
chivalry was an earnest, solemn, absorbing feeling—almost a
religion in itself. Its kindred spirit influenced the hostile arma-
* See note D, in Appendix.