2. Himyaritic Arab.—a. Ancient—of the Himyaritic Inscriptions. b. Modern=the Ekhili.
Intellectual culture.—Later in origin than that of either the Jews or Syrians. Less continuous than that of the former.
Moral influence.—1. As manifested by the non-religious portion of the Arabic literature, considerable in amount and diffused in area.
2. As manifested in the propagation of a creed, co-extensive with Mahometanism—the religion of many sections of the Mongolidæ and Atlantidæ, but of none of the Iapetidæ.
The remarks upon the extent to which Syria has been one of the intellectual influences of the world, anticipated the notice that would otherwise have been required for Arabia.
The love of learning which appreciated, and the zeal which diffused the valuable sections of Greek science and philosophy have taken the garb of the power of originating; the extent to which this latter was the case, even in the departments most generally admitted to have been developed by Arabian cultivation, being by no means ascertained.
In the way of minute ethnology, the spread of the Arabs has engendered numerous complications; though the facts of a nation speaking the Arabic language, and exhibiting an Arabic physiognomy are primâ facie evidence of Arab extraction, they are anything but conclusive. Thus, the extent to which the old Ægyptian stock may still survive in Ægypt has been indicated in the notice of the Copts, although the Coptic language has ceased to be spoken. Here, however, as the physical appearance bore a marked difference, the recognition of a Copt population was safe.
Perhaps the same might have been done in Syria, where there is special testimony to the two separate ranges of Lebanon and the Amanus retaining remnants of the original Syrian. I do not, however, know the evidence on which the statements rest; indeed, in order to be conclusive, it would require to be of a very peculiar kind.
Physical form would not be likely to supply any evidence at all, since no one can say how an Arab naturalized in Syria would differ from an absolute Syrian.
Language, too, if only used as the language of religion, would be inconclusive; since the Syriac being the tongue of the Nestorian Christians, might be retained by even an Arab population, if previously Christianized.