The Arabs are, beyond question, one of the most ancient races of men in existence;[3] and {22} have, of all others, perhaps, best preserved their national independence, and their distinctive character and manners. Divided from the most remote times into tribes that either wandered in the desert or were collected together in cities, and obedient to chiefs who in the same person united the warrior and the magistrate, they have never been subjected to foreign domination. The Persians, the Romans, and the Macedonians vainly attempted to subdue them: they only shattered their weapons in fragments against the rocks of the Nabatheans.[4] Proud of an origin which he traced back even to the patriarchs of olden time, exulting in his successful defence of his liberty and his rights, the Arab, from the midst of his deserts, regarded the rest of mankind as consisting of mere bands of slaves, changing masters as chance or {23} convenience directed. Brave, temperate, and indefatigable, inured from infancy to the severest toil, fearing neither thirst, hunger, nor death itself--these were a people by whose assistance a leader suitably endowed could render himself master of the world. Mohammed appeared:[5] to him nature had accorded the requisite qualifications for executing such a design. Courageous, sagacious, eloquent, polished, possessed in an eminent degree of the powers which both awe and delight mankind, Mohammed would have been a great man had he belonged to the most enlightened age--among an ignorant and fanatical people he became a prophet. Until Mohammed arose among them, the Arab tribes, surrounded by Jews, Christians, and idolaters, had entertained a superstitious faith, compounded of the religious belief of their various neighbours and that of the ancient Sabaei. They fully credited the existence of genii, demons, and witchcraft, adored the stars, and offered idolatrous sacrifices. But Mohammed--after having devoted many years to profound and solitary meditation upon the new dogmas he designed to establish; after having either convinced {24} or won to his interests the principal individuals of his own family,[6] possessing pre-eminent consequence among their countrymen--suddenly began to preach a new religion, opposed to all those with which the Arabs were hitherto familiar, and whose principles were well-adapted to inflame the ardent temper of that excitable people.