pedigree of such person is traced upwards (as it invariably is) to the time of Mahomet, or indeed two or three generations beyond it, the details are founded on records of this nature, and are generally trustworthy. When genealogical study became the fashion, prodigious pains and learning were expended on the work. A Peer might as well want his armorial bearings, as a professed descendant of one of the early Moslems his pedigree; and rather than have none, it had to be invented. The contemporaries of Mahomet known by name, number no fewer than 9000. By the end of the first century, the genealogy of each one, and also of every distinguished Arab before and after, was traced up to his family and tribe, and thus connected with a pedigree reaching to Adam! Such is Arab lineage. 

Next in trustworthiness comes the Family tree, which is generally grounded more or less on fact, whereas the descent of tribes is based on mere symbol or theory. The family trees of an Urban population are, from their settled habits, much longer than those of the Nomad tribes. The pedigree elaborated with the greatest known care is that of the two Medina clans, the Aus and Khazraj, which is carried back with all its links and ramifications to a common ancestor thirteen generations distant. The genealogy of the Meccan families is traced up to Fihr Coreish, twelve generations; but Cossai, the fifth in the line from Mahomet, is the earliest of whom it can be said with any confidence, that he is an historical personage.¹