61) are more rigid than the Mussulmans themselves.

The Christians are received without scruple into the ports of Mocha, and even of Gedda; and it is only the city and precincts of Mecca that are inaccessible to the profane, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p.

308, 309, Voyage en Arabie, tom.i.p.205, 248, &c.)] The conquest of Mecca determined the faith and obedience of the Arabian tribes; [142] who, according to the vicissitudes of fortune, had obeyed, or disregarded, the eloquence or the arms of the prophet.

Indifference for rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens; and they might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran.
Yet an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols, whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates of Tayef had sworn to defend.

[143] Four thousand Pagans advanced with secrecy and speed to surprise the conqueror: they pitied and despised the supine negligence of the Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of a people who had so lately renounced their gods, and bowed beneath the yoke of their enemy.