the comfort and fatisfaction of both his parents. In the 16th chapter of Genefis, when Hagar fled from the face of her mistress who had dealt hardly with her, the angel of the Lord found her in the wilderness, and faid unto her, Return to thy miftrefs, and fubmit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord faid unto her, I will multiply thy feed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord faid unto her, Behold thou art with child, and fhalt bear a fon, and fhalt call his name Ishmael (that is God fhall hear) because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the prefence of all his brethren. (ver. 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12.) In the following chapter, when Ifaac was promifed to Abraham, God ftill referved a bleffing for Ifhmael, Behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes fhall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. (ver. 20.) Afterwards when Hagar and Ishmael were fent forth into the wildernefs, God faid unto Abraham, (Gen. XXI. 13.) And alfo of the fon of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy feed. The fame is repeated to Hagar, (ver. 18.) I will make him a great nation. And if we are curious to trace the courfe of events, we fhall fee how exactly thefe particulars have been fulfilled from the earliest down to the prefent times.

I will multiply thy feed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude: and again, Behold I have bleffed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Thefe paffages evince that the prophecy doth not fo properly relate to Ifhmael, as to his pofterity, which is here foretold to be very numerous. Ishmael married an Egyptian woman, as his mother was likewife an Egyptian: (Gen. XXI. 21.) and in a few years his family was increafed fo, that in the 37th chapter of Genefis we read of Ifmaelites trading into Egypt. Afterwards his feed was multiplied exceedingly in the Hagarenes, who probably were denominated from his mother Hagar; and in the Nabathæans, who had their name from his fon Nebaioth; and in the Itureans, who

were

were fo called from his fon Jetur or Itur; and in the Arabs, efpecially the Scenites, and the Saracens, who. overran a great part of the world: and his defcendents, the Arabs, are a very numerous people at this day.

Twelve princes Jhall he beget. This circumftance is very particular, but it was punctually fulfilled; and Mofes hath given us the names of these twelve princes. (Gen. XXV. 16.) Thefe are the fons of Ishmael, and thefe are their names, by their towns, and by their caftles; twelve princes according to their nations: by which we are to understand, not that they were fo many diftinct sovran princes, but only heads of clans or tribes. Strabo frequently mentions the Arabian phylarchs as he denominates them, or rulers of tribes: and Melo, quoted by Eufebius from Alexander Polyhiftor, a heathen hiftorian, relates (1) that "Abraham of his Egyptian wife begat "12 fons (he fhould have faid one fon who begat 12 "fons) who departing into Arabia divided the region "between them, and were the first kings of the in"habitants; whence even to our days the Arabians "have twelve kings of the fame names as the firft." And ever fince, the people have been governed by phylarchs, and have lived in tribes; and ftill continue to do fo, as (2) Thevenot and other modern travelers teftify.

And I will make him a great nation. This is repeated twice or thrice: and it was accomplished, as foon as in the regular courfe of nature it could be accomplished. His feed in procefs of time grew up into a great nation, and fuch they continued for feveral ages, and fuch they remain to this day. They might indeed emphatically be ftiled a great nation, when the Saracens had made thofe rapid and extenfive conquefts, and erected one of the largeft empires that ever were in the world.

(1) EX MEY THS ALYUπrias yevro υίας 16, ἐς δη εις Αραβίαν απαλλα γεντας διέλεσθαι την χώραν και προτης βασίλευσαι των εγχωρίων. Όθεν έως καθ' ἡμας δωδεκα είναι βασιλεις Αράβων ὁμώνυμες εκείνοις. Ex Ægyptia liberos duodecim genuiffe, qui in Arabiam profecti eam inter fe diviferint locique hominibus principes impera

And he will be a wild man. In the original it is a wild afs-man, and the learned (3) Bochart tranflates it tam ferus quam onager, as wild as a wild afs; fo that that thould be eminently true of him, which in the book of Job (XL. 12.) is affirmed of mankind in general, Man is born like a wild affes colt. But what is the nature of the creature, to which Ishmael is fo particularly compared? It cannot be defcribed better than it is in the fame book of Job. (XXXIX. 5, &c.) Who hath fent out the wild afs free? or who hath loofed the bands of the wild afs? IVhofe houfe I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He fcorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pafture, and he fearcheth after every green thing. Ishmael therefore and his pofterity were to be wild, fierce, favage, ranging in the deserts, and not eafily foftened and tamed to fociety: and whoever hath read or known any thing of this people, knoweth this to be their true and genuin character. It is faid of Ifhmael, (Gen. XXI. 20.) that he dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer: and the fame is no lefs true of his defcendents than of himself. He dwelt in the wilderness; and his fons ftill inhabit the fame wilderness, and many of them neither fow nor plant (4) according to the best accounts ancient and modern. And he became an archer; and fuch were the Itureans, whose (5) bows and arrows are famous in all authors; fuch were the mighty men of Keder in Ifaiah's time; (If XXI. 17.) and fuch the Arabs have been from the beginning, and are at this time. It was late before they admitted the ufe of fire arms among them; (6) the greater part of them ftill are ftrangers to them, and still continue fkilful archers.

His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. The one is the natural, and almoft necef

(3) Hierozoic, Pars prior. Lib. 3. Cap. 16. Col. 878.

(4) Ammianus Marcellinus. Lib. 14. Cap. 4. p. 14. Edit. Valefii Paris 1681. Harris. Vol. 2. Book 2, Chap. 9.

(5)-Ityræos taxi torquentur in arcus. Virgil. Georg. II. 448.Itureis curfus fuit inde fagittis. Lucan. VII. 230.

(6) Thevenot in Harris, Vol. 2. Book 2. Chap. 9.

fary

fary confequence of the other. Ishmael lived by prey and rapin in the wildernefs; and his pofterity have all along infefted Arabia and the neighbouring countries with their robberies and incurfions. They live in a state of continual war with the reft of the world, and are both robbers by land, and pirates by fea. As they have been fuch enemies to mankind, it is no wonder that mankind have been enemies to them again, that feveral attempts have been made to extirpate them; and even now as well as formerly travellers are forced to go with arms and in caravans or large companies, and to march and keep watch and guard like a little army, to defend themselves from the affaults of these freebooters, who run about in troops, and rob and plunder all whom they can by any means fubdue. Thefe robberies they also (7) justify, " by alleging the hard ufage of their father Ithmael, who being turned out of doors by Abraham. "had the open plains and deferts given him by God for "his patrimony, with permiflion to take whatever he "could find there. And on this account they think they

may, with a fafe confcience, indemnify themfelves, "as well as they can, not only on the pofterity of Ifaac, "but alfo on every body elfe; always fuppofing a fort "of kindred between themfelves and thofe they plunder.

And in relating their adventures of this kind, they "think it fufficient to change the expreffion, and in"stead of I robbed a man of fuch or fuch a thing, to fay, "I gained it."

And he shall dwell in the prefence of all his brethren ; fhall tabernacle, for many of the Arabs dwell in tents, and are therefore called Scenites. It appears that they dwelt in tents in the wilderness fo long ago as in Ifaiah and Jeremiah's time; (If XIII, 20. Jer. III. 2.) and they do the fame at this day. This is very extraordinary, that his hand fhould be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and yet that he fhould be able to dwell in the prefence of all his brethren: but extraordinary as it was, this also hath been fulfilled both in the person

(7) Sale's Prelim. Difcourfe to the Koran. Sect. 1. 30, 31, where he

alfo quotes, Voyage dans la Paleft. p. 220, &c.

of

of Ishmael, and in his pofterity. As for Ifhmael himfelf, the facred hiftorian afterwards relates (Gen. XXV. 17, 18.) that the years of the life of Ishmael were an hundred and thirty and feven years, and he died in the presence of all his brethren. As for his pofterity, they dwelt likewife in the prefence of all their brethren, Abraham's fons by Keturah, the Moabites and Ammonites defcendents of Lot, the Ifraelites defcendents of Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, and the Edomites defcendents of Abraham, Ifaac, and Efau. And they still fubfift a diftinct people, and inhabit the country of their progenitors, notwithstanding the perpetual enmity between them and the reft of mankind. It may be faid perhaps that the country was not worth conquering, and its barrennefs was its prefervation: but this is a miftake, for by all accounts, tho' the greater part of it be fandy and barren deferts, yet here and there are interfperfed beautiful fpots and fruitful valleys. One part of the country was anciently known and diftinguished by the name of Arabia the happy. And now the proper Arabia is by the oriental writers generally divided into five provinces. Of these the chief is the province of Yaman, which, as a (8) learned writer afferts upon good authorities, "has been "famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its cli"mate, its fertility and riches. The delightfulness and plenty of Yaman are owing to its mountains; for all "that part which lies along the Red Sea, is a dry bar

ren defert, in fome places 10 or 12 leagues over, but "in return bounded by thofe mountains, which being "well watered, enjoy an almoft continual fpring, and " befides coffee, the peculiar produce of this country, yield great plenty and variety of fruits, and in parti"cular excellent corn, grapes, and fpices. The foil of "the other provinces is much more barren than that "of Yaman; the greater part of their territories being "covered with dry fands, or rifing into rocks, interfperfed here and there with fome fruitful fpots, which "receive their greatest advantages from their water and palm trees. But if the country was ever fo bad, one

66

(8) Sale's Prelim. Difc. ibid. p. 2, 3,

would