THE MARVELOUS ARABIAN CIVILIZATION.
...From Baldwin's researches we learn that Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, as well as the Hebrew writers speak of the great cities of Arabia, that no longer exist. So fax back does this ancient civilization extend that from the great length of time its literature has disappeared. The monuments of these Himyarites were inscribed with an obsolete and mysterious alphabet...
Lenormant in his painstaking researches found that Cushites were the first inhabitants of Arabia and were known in the national traditions as Adites. These descended from Ad, a grandson of Ham. His sons were Shedid and Shedad. To them was attributed the Shepherd invasion of Egypt. It was recorded in the traditions that one of them built a palace of superb columns surrounded by a magnificent garden. He tried to imitate the celestial paradise and God took him away. The Adites, were depicted as men of gigantic stature. Fanciful tales like the Arabian Nights exist in Arabian legends, springing from the same source as those of the Egyptian manuscripts. Lenormant says, "We may perceive in all this the remembrance of a powerful empire founded by Cushites in very early ages. We find traces of a wealthy nation, constructors of great buildings, with an advanced civilization like that of Chaldea. This must be true as everywhere we find traces of Cushites in Arabian literature and their brothers the Canaanites." (
Ancient History of the East, Lenormant, Vol. III, Arabians, p. 296 )
Alexander the Great said that Arabia was inferior to no country of the earth. He referred to the once famous town of Oman, which had been a harbor of the ancient commerce. It was in the day of Alexander a wilderness. His estimate of these Cushites was, "Taking them all in all, they are the richest nation of the world." Alexander lived in the declining days of Ethiopian power. Himyar was the son of Seba, the son of Cush. These were the people of Yemen and the Sabaeans of the Greeks. Lenormant called them related to the Accadians of Shinar and the Ghez of Abyssinia. Himyar became the head of the dynasty of Himyarites. These Cushite Arabians were a fine race of remarkable stature, and dark complexion. The Semitic Arabians are brown, thin, small, well formed and of opposite traits from the Cushite Arabian. The Omanee kingdom attained a latter great splendor at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. The conquering Mohammedan tribes of the north in idol-destroying mood have effaced all the pagan temples that once covered Arabia. Several enormous stone circles like those of some parts of Europe, built as a form of primitive religion, still remain...
Agriculture among these indefatigable people was brought to the highest degree of perfection. They constructed immense dikes, forming permanent reservoirs, which irrigated the lowlands in dry weather. The Semitic Arabian abhors agriculture. It is by these differences in traits that we can unerringly detect race. When the Israelites first appear in the light of Bible history, they were keepers of flocks. Pastorals do not originate culture. The nature of their life renders it impossible. Nomadic people. have been the invincible opponents of culture...
Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire: Chapter IX. The Marvelous Arabian Civilization
