[21] Some exceptions, that can neither be dismissed nor eluded, render this mode of reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous; the kingdom of Yemen has been successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt, [22] and the Turks; [23] the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia [24] embraced the peculiar wilderness in which Ismael and his sons must have pitched their tents in the face of their brethren.

Yet these exceptions are temporary or local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks [25] may exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.

The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and country of the Arabs.
Many ages before Mahomet, [26] their intrepid valor had been severely felt by their neighbors in offensive and defensive war.

The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.

The care of the sheep and camels is abandoned to the women of the tribe; but the martial youth, under the banner of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the exercise of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter.