s rough sketch of the ideas of the
early Arabs, that the belief in a life beyond was very faint; they
set out food for the dead, whom they professed to think of as still
existing, but the belief, if they entertained it, was perfunctory and
had no influence.

Confusion of Worship.--At the period of Islam the worship of Arabia
had fallen into great confusion. The gods were stationary, but the
tribes wandered; and the consequence was that the wandering tribe
left its shrine behind it to be cared for by its successors in that
piece of country, and itself also, when it gained a new seat,
succeeded to the guardianship of a new god. Thus, on the one hand,
the worship of each shrine was constantly gathering new associations,
as each tribe which had been there left behind it some new legend or
practice; and on the other hand, pilgrimage became universal, since
each tribe had to pay periodical visits to its gods whom it had left
behind. At Mecca we read of hundreds of idols; a hundred tribes have
left there something of their own. Thus Mecca became a sacred place
for tribes far and near, and rose into national importance; and the
same was the case to a less degree in other places also. But as this
process went on, it inevitably led to the weakening of religion. The
tie of blood, which was felt always, was a far stronger thing than
the tie of a common worship for which the tribe had to go to another
part of the country, and to come in contact with a multitude of other
cults. Worship therefore became more and more a superstition: a
thing, that is to say, whose real sacredness was in the past, and
which was only kept up from pious habit; it did not supply the
inspiration of ordinary life nor guide the more active minds among
the people.

We have not yet spoken of Allah, who is understood to be the god _par
excellence_ of Arabia. But for this there is a good reason. Allah is
not, like the other beings we have spoken of, a historical god, with
a legend, a shrine, a tribe all to himself. He is not a historical
personage, but an idea consolidated, no doubt at an early period,
into a god. Wellhausen traces the rise of Allah for us in a most
interesting way. The name, he shows, is not a proper name that
belonged to one particular figure in the pantheon of Arabia; it is
the title which the Arab conferred on his god, whatever the proper
name of that being might be. Whatever god he worshipped, he called
him Allah, Lord; and thus every Ara