18/48 62--M.] [Footnote 100: Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist.Arab.p. 17; and his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194, from the purest authorities.] The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. |