le enemies, after indulging their dream
of conquest, again solicited a short respite from the calamities of war.
[7]

[Footnote 3: The general independence of the Arabs, which cannot be
admitted without many limitations, is blindly asserted in a separate
dissertation of the authors of the Universal History, vol. xx. p.
196--250. A perpetual miracle is supposed to have guarded the prophecy
in favor of the posterity of Ishmael; and these learned bigots are not
afraid to risk the truth of Christianity on this frail and slippery
foundation. * Note: It certainly appears difficult to extract a
prediction of the perpetual independence of the Arabs from the text in
Genesis, which would have received an ample fulfilment during
centuries of uninvaded freedom. But the disputants appear to forget the
inseparable connection in the prediction between the wild, the Bedoween
habits of the Ismaelites, with their national independence. The
stationary and civilized descendant of Ismael forfeited, as it were, his
birthright, and ceased to be a genuine son of the "wild man" The
phrase, "dwelling in the presence of his brethren," is interpreted by
Rosenmuller (in loc.) and others, according to the Hebrew geography, "to
the East" of his brethren, the legitimate race of Abraham--M.]

[Footnote 4: D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. p. 477. Pocock, Specimen
Hist. Arabum, p. 64, 65. Father Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 646) has
proved that, after ten years' peace, the Persian war, which continued
twenty years, was renewed A.D. 571. Mahomet was born A.D. 569, in
the year of the elephant, or the defeat of Abrahah, (Gagnier, Vie de
Mahomet, tom. i. p. 89, 90, 98;) and this account allows two years for
the conquest of Yemen. * Note: Abrahah, according to some accounts, was
succeeded by his son Taksoum, who reigned seventeen years; his brother
Mascouh, who was slain in battle against the Persians, twelve. But this
chronology is irreconcilable with the Arabian conquests of Nushirvan the
Great. Either Seif, or his son Maadi Karb, was the native prince placed
on the throne by the Persians. St. Martin, vol. x. p. 78. See likewise
Johannsen, Hist. Yemanae.--M.]

[Footnote 411: Persarmenia was long maintained in peace by the tolerant
administration of Mejej, prince of the Gnounians. On his death he was
succeeded by a persecutor, a Persian, named Ten-Schahpour, who attempted
to propagate Zoroastrianism by violence. Nushirvan, on an appeal to
the throne by the Arm