of Thy dread; Thou ownest him and whatsoever he owneth." Ibn Ishaq rightly says that by this address they declared their belief in the unity of Allah. He does not explain what was meant by the phrase "The partner of Thy dread:" but it may be conjectured that the reference was to some inferior deity belonging to one or other of the tribes which he mentions. But in any case the language employed shows clearly that the being referred to was not in any way placed upon an equality with Allah. The religion of the ancient Arabs may therefore be justly compared with the Saint-worship of the Greek and Roman Churches, alike of Muhammad's time and of our own, and with that which, in spite of the Qur'an, is even now prevalent among Muslims. But the worship offered in such cases to saints or inferior deities is not supposed to constitute a denial of the Unity and supremacy of God, since the latter are adored only as mediators between God and man. What Ash Shahristani tells us of the religious ideas and practices of the pre-Islamic period in Arabia fully confirms this ¹. He divides the in-

habitants of Arabia into various sects or parties, differing very much in their religious opinions. Some of them, he says, denied the existence of a Creator, the sending of prophets, and the final judgment, asserting that Nature itself was the giver of life and that Time was the universal destroyer. Others again believed in a Creator, but denied that He had ever revealed Himself by sending messengers commissioned to declare His