Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/71

Rh the founders, represented as the apostle of monotheism, is undoubtedly Noah. Indeed, a great deluge happened in his time. Moreover, Anúhá planted the vine, and he is always cited as an authority in speaking of the making of wine.

Finally, Ibrahim, the Canaanite (that is to say of Palestine), is certainly, in spite of what Dr. Chwolson says about it, the patriarch Abraham. He is represented in “The Agriculture” as an apostle of monotheism, and as having denied the divinity of the sun. Who can fail to recognise in this the rabbinical fable, where Abraham, filling the part of confessor of the faith, holds victorious controversies against Nimrod and the idolatrous Chaldæans? Besides, Ibrahim, the Canaanite, is an Imám who undertakes long journies to avoid the famine which occurred in the days of the