57 ([return])
[ Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138-146,) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 162-203,) Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124, 128, &c.,) D’Herbelot, (Sabi, p. 725, 726,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15,) rather excite than gratify our curiosity; and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs.]
58 ([return])
[ 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.]
59 ([return])
[ 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.)]
60 ([return])
[ 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.)]
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[ 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.)]