authors have imagined.4 These princes often making cruel wars among themselves, gave an opportunity to Selim I. and his son Solimân, to make themselves masters of the coasts of Arabia on the Red Sea, and of part of Yaman, by means of a fleet built at Sues: but their successors have not been able to maintain their conquests; for, except the port of Jodda, where they have a Basha whose authority is very small, they possess nothing considerable in Arabia.5 Thus have the Arabs preserved their liberty, of which few nations can produce so ancient monuments, with very little interruption, from the very Deluge; for though very great armies have been sent against them, all attempts to subdue them were unsuccessful. The Assyrian or Median empires never got footing among them.6 The Persian monarchs, though they were their friends, and so far respected by them as to have an annual present of frankincense,7 yet could never make them tributary;8 and were so far from being their masters, that Cambyses, on his expedition against Egypt, was obliged to ask their leave to pass through their territories;9 and when Alexander had subdued that mighty empire, yet the Arabians had so little apprehension of him, that they alone, of 6 Vide Elmacin. in vita al Râdi. 7 Voyage de l-Arab. heur. p. 255. 8 Ibid. 153, 273. 9 Ibid. 254. 1 Ibid. 143. 2 Ibid. 145. 3 Ibid. 143, 148. 4 Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 477. 5 Voy. de l'Arab. heur. p. 148. 6 Diodor. Sic. 1. 2, p. 131. 7 Herodot. 1 3, c. 97. 8 Idem ib. c. 91. Diodor. ubi sup. 9 Herodot. 1. 3, c. 8 and 98.