nfounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs.]

[Footnote 58: D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130-137) will
fix the position of these ambiguous Christians; Assemannus (Bibliot.
Oriental. tom. iv. p. 607-614) may explain their tenets. But it is a
slippery task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people afraid
and ashamed to disclose their secret traditions. * Note: The Codex
Nasiraeus, their sacred book, has been published by Norberg whose
researches contain almost all that is known of this singular people. But
their origin is almost as obscure as ever: if ancient, their creed
has been so corrupted with mysticism and Mahometanism, that its native
lineaments are very indistinct.--M.]

[Footnote 59: The Magi were fixed in the province of Bhrein, (Gagnier,
Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114,) and mingled with the old Arabians,
(Pocock, Specimen, p. 146-150.)]

[Footnote 60: The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia is
described by Pocock from Sharestani, &c., (Specimen, p. 60, 134, &c.,)
Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 212-238,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient.
p. 474-476,) Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 185, tom. viii. p.
280,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &c., 33, &c.)]

[Footnote 61: In their offerings, it was a maxim to defraud God for the
profit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more irritable, patron,
(Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109.)]

[Footnote 62: Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or Christian,
appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence of a prior
translation may be fairly inferred,--1. From the perpetual practice of
the synagogue of expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in the
vulgar tongue of the country; 2. From the analogy of the Armenian,
Persian, Aethiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers of the
fifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were translated into all
the Barbaric languages, (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p. 34,
93-97. Simon, Hist. Critique du V. et du N. Testament, tom. i. p. 180,
181, 282-286, 293, 305, 306, tom. iv. p. 206.)]

The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unskilful calumny of
the Christians, [63] who exalt instead of degrading the merit of their
adversary. His descent from Ismael was a national privilege or fable;
but if the first steps of the pedigree [64] are dark and doubtful, he
could produce many generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprung
from the tribe of Koreish and the