Page 399 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

360 TKAVELS IN OMAN. [cH.

1 he yoke which at several periods was im­
posed on this people proved so partial and

endured for so brief a period, that no consi­
derable change was effected in their general

character and condition. Arabia, from this
cause, as well as its peculiar position, has

been exempted from the mighty tempests
which have swept the neighbouring nations

from the face of the earth, and left us nothing
but their names. Even the mission of Mo­
hammed, which shook and subverted the

whole of the civilized world, failed to produce
any permanent change. A history, therefore,

of the whole or any part of Modern Arabia is
valuable, since a picture of what they now

are will exhibit, with but slight shades of dif­
ference, what they ever have been.

Although the Grand Sheikhs of the princi­
pal tribes have in some cases the power of

life and death, and also that of declaring war
and peace, yet their authority in every in­

stance is considerably abridged by the aged
and other influential men of the tribe. In
civil and criminal affairs they act rather as

arbiters than as judges, and cases of import­
ance are sometimes debated by the whole