The Arabs are distinguished by historians, as that remarkable people, of whom it was foretold, that they should be invincible— “have their hands against every man, and every man’s hands against them” They have inhabited the country that they are present possess, almost from the deluge, without intermixing with other nations. In the early ages, the Ishmaelites were one of the most considerable tribes in that country: and Kimishi, an oriental historian, insinuates, that they were originally the children of Hagar, by an Arab, after she had left Abraham.

According to the oriental historians, the Arabs are to be divided into two classes, viz⚫, the old lost Arabs, and the present. Concerning the former there are some traditions, too obscure to be related here.

The present Arabs, according to their own historians, are sprung from Kahtan, the same with Joktan, the son of Eber; and Adnan, descended in a direct line from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The former of these they call the genuine or pure Arabs, and the later, the naturalized or institutions Arabs.

Joktan, the son of Eber, had thirteen sons, who some time after confusion of languages settled in Arabia, extending themselves from Mesha to Sephar, a mountainous place in the south eastern part of that peninsula. According to the Arabian historians, he had 31 sons, all of whom left Arabia, and