Note 55 — THE ARAB PIRATES.

The first mention of the Wahabees, is in Niebuhr, Description de l’Arabie, p. 17, p. 296-302: and Gibbon first noticed the singular co-incidence, that they sprung from the same province, Nedsjed, in which Moseilama the great contemporary adversary of Mahomed, had propagated his faith, vol. v. p. 277. It may be added, that the Carmathians, who triumphed over the Mahomedans, like the Wahabees of the present day, and like them took Mecca, (and plundered it indeed much more effectually than their successors are said to have done) in the same manner took possession first of the provinces on the Persian Gulph. See Gibbon, v. 449. Sale’s Koran, p. 184. D’Ohsson, Tableau de l’Empire Ottoman, tom. i. p. 105.