Goldziher, Muslim Studies. I.

Introductory Chapter.

Muruwwa and Din.

Goldziher contrasts "Muruwwa," the pre-Islamic Arab code of tribal virtue and "manliness," with "Din," the religious faith and submission introduced by Islam.

I.

It would be a futile undertaking to attempt to draw a characterization of the religious conditions of this people that applies to all layers of Arabdom before the spread of Islam. If one compares the religious attitude revealed in the surviving remains of ancient Arabic poetry with those—partially contradictory—data gathered from non-Arabic reports regarding the religious life and habits of the pagan Arabs, one must be strengthened in the conviction that generalizing from local experiences in this vast territory would be a mistake. The religious nature of the Arabian tribes and societies was certainly of a different kind in the various geographical regions where this people spread. It would certainly be mistaken to expect to find the religious life of the northerners in Petra, Syria, and Mesopotamia—where the Arabs settled in very ancient times and developed under the influence of a more refined culture—among the more primitive tribes of Central Arabia. Only in the flourishing cities in the heart of this region, whose trade brought them into contact with more civilized conditions, was the influence of this traffic felt in religious matters; from there, much also flowed out to the barbarians of the desert.

When we speak of Arabs here, we leave aside the more developed conditions of northern Arabdom, as well as the ancient culture of South Arabia, and our attention is directed only to the

1. Just one example is offered by a comparison of the Narratives original: "Narrationes" of Saint Nilus (beginning of the 5th century) with the report of Antoninus Martyr, who observed the Arabs of the Sinai Peninsula in the year 570. The former says (edited by Migne, Greek Patrology original: "Patrologia graeca" Vol. LXXIX, p. 612 ff.), that the Arabs have no idols at all; the latter speaks (Pilgrimage to the Holy Places original: "Perambulatio locorum sanctorum" edited by Tobler ch. 38, p. 113) of a marble idol, white as snow, which is the center of great festivals, and recounts the fable of the temporary color change of this idol.