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THE

NEW-YORK

QUARTERLY.

DEVOTED TO

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VOL. II.-NO. IV.

JANUARY, 1854.

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THE

NEW-YORK QUARTERLY.

JANUARY, 1854.

MOHAMMED AND THE ARABIAN EMPIRE.

Mahomed: Darstellung des Einflusses seiner Glaubenslehre auf die Völker des Mittelalters. Von C. E. OELSNER. Frankfurt am Main, 1810.

Life and Religion of Mohammed: Translated by J. L. MERRICK. 12mo., Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.

ARABIA, separated from the rest of the world by oceans of water and by oceans of sand, forms an entire, a distinct world by itself; in which man and beast, the heavens and the earth, wear a peculiar aspect, and are governed by peculiar laws; in which everything recalls the eternal independence of an aboriginal people-never conquered, nor even ever invaded. All the national traditions of the Arabs are purely national, and that race has attained a certain degree of civilization, of a character peculiar to itself, without any impulse or assistance from foreign nations.

The extent of Arabia is four times that of France or Germany; but the greater part of it is a wilderness, destitute of water, vegetation, and life. The burning rays of the sun descend without interruption through a dry, unclouded atmosphere; the purple hills seem stripped of their covering by the winds, and offer unbounded prospects, where no shelter refreshes the weary traveller-where no object attracts his view; an immeasurable space seems to spread itself out between him and the animate creation, in which, here and there, under the shade of a cluster of lofty, soaring palm-trees, a spring of water bubbles forth, but is quickly choked in the sands of the desert. The Arab alone is acquainted with these haltingplaces; he alone frequents them: free as the bird in the air, and often possessing but a handful of dates to satisfy his

simple wants, he conveys hither the treasures and the slaves which he robs from those caravans that venture to dispute the customs and presents exacted by the great Emir of the desert.

Several chains of mountains run the whole length of the peninsula, and separate the western coast-land of Hedjas from the wide, dreary table-lands of Al-Nedjid in the interior.

Still higher and more precipitous are the mountains of the south-the fertile Yemen called by the ancients "Arabia the Blessed," because wherever any of these mountains are lofty enough to attract the clouds and draw down refreshing showers, or wherever any slender rivulet trickles down their barren, rocky flanks, before it loses itself in the boundless sands, there the most luxuriant fertility immediately marks its whole track; there, the power of a burning sun vivifies what it elsewhere destroys. An island of glorious verdure arises in the midst of the desert; groves of delightful palm-trees cover the plain; olive-woods, orange-gardens, and vineyards, the slopes, in the most beautiful variety; and along the coasts of the Red Sea, where the waters are more abundant, flourishing cities have arisen from the earliest antiquity.

And here we must needs make a remark from our own observation; and it is, that when the desert is described with its dreariness and its terrors, it must not be supposed that the scenery there is without its own peculiar beauty-—a beauty which, according to the feeling of a distinguished American traveller, both poet and historian-and, we may we well say, corresponding likewise to our own sentiments,-is far superior to the tedious, insipid, every-day green and dull landscape of more northern climates.

The indescribable charm of the Arabian and Syrian scenery lies in the wonderful tints and hues which it exhibits-colors all bright and pure, that vary with the hues of the rainbowblue, purple, violet, lilac, and yellow, of a brilliancy so supernatural, that we often, while encamped on the outskirts of the desert, fancied ourselves transported into another world.

These brilliant colors in nature, this transparency of the atmosphere, the balmy fragrance of the breeze, and the wonderfully picturesque scenes of Arabian camps, caravans, fairy cities with airy cupolas, soaring minarets and towers, inspire the Oriental traveller with a fervent longing for the life, the manners, and the climate of the East, which all our comforts and all our facilities for travelling by steamers and railroads cannot satisfy or dispel.

The spirited writer of the Howadjis in Egypt and Palestine, and the forthcoming historian of the Life and Government of Mehemed Ali Pasha, the late Viceroy of Egypt.