To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war, the caliph had formed

two separate armies; a chosen detachment, under Amru and Yazid, was left

in the camp of Palestine; while the larger division, under the standard

of Abu Obaidah and Khalid, marched away to the north against Antioch and

Aleppo. The castle of Aleppo, distinct from the city, stood erect on a

lofty artificial mound, and the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and

faced with freestone. After the loss of three thousand men, the garrison

was still equal to the defence. In a siege of four or five months, the

hardest of the Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and

wounded. The exhortation of the commander of the faithful, not to give up

the siege, was responded to by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes

of Arabia, who arrived in the camp on horses or camels. Among these was

Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid resolution.

At the darkest hour of the night he scaled the most accessible height, a

place where the stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular,

or the guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on

each other’s shoulders and the weight of the column was sustained on the

broad and sinewy back of the gigantic slave.

The foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest part

of the battlements; they silently stabbed and cast down the sentinels;

and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious ejaculation, “O apostle of

God, help and deliver us!” were successively drawn up by the long folds

of their turbans. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down

the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass till the arrival of Khalid,

with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured their conquest.

After the loss of this important post, and the defeat of the last of

the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch trembled and obeyed. Her safety

was ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne

of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government in the

East, which had been decorated by Cæsar with the titles of free, and

holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the

secondary rank of a provincial town.

The loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and

Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of

the sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved

the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his

will; and while Heraclius crowned the offspring of his second nuptials,

he was tamely stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance.

In the cathedral of Antioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot

of the crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his

confession instructed the world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious,

to resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact,

since they were invincible in opinion. After bidding an eternal farewell

to Syria, Heraclius secretly embarked with a few attendants, and absolved

the faith of his subjects. From the north and south the Saracen troops

of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the seashore, till their banners

were joined under the walls of the Phœnician cities; Tripolis and Tyre

were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without

distrust the captive harbours, brought a seasonable supply of arms and

provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labours were terminated

by the unexpected surrender of Cæsarea. The remainder of the province,

Ramlah, Ptolemais or Acre, Nablus or Neapolis, Gaza, Askalon, Berytus,

Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to

dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of

the caliphs, seven hundred years after Pompey had despoiled the last of

the Macedonian kings.

The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousands

of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of

martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the words

of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister

and mother; “It is not,” said he, “the delicacies of Syria, or fading

delights of this world, that have prompted me to devote my life in the

cause of religion. But I seek the favour of God and his apostle; and I

have heard from one of the companions of the prophet, that the spirits

of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shall

taste the fruits, and drink of the rivers of paradise. Farewell, we shall

meet again among the groves and fountains which God has provided for his

elect.”

The more fortunate Arabs who survived the war, and persevered in the

faith, were restrained by their abstemious leader from the abuse of

prosperity. After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obaidah withdrew

his troops from the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, and

assured the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved

by the hard discipline of poverty and labour. The year of their triumph

was marked by a mortality of men and cattle; and twenty-five thousand

Saracens were snatched away from the possession of Syria. The death

of Abu Obaidah might be lamented by the Christians; but his brethren

recollected that he was one of the ten elect, whom the prophet had named

heirs of paradise. Khalid survived his brethren about three years; and

the tomb of the Sword of God is shown near Emesa. His valour, which

founded in Arabia and Syria the empire of the caliphs, was fortified by

the opinion of a special providence; and as long as he wore a cap which

had been blessed by Mohammed he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the

darts of the infidels.

[Sidenote: [637-640 A.D.]]

The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new generation of

their children and countrymen; Syria became the seat and support of

the house of Omayyah; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of that

powerful kingdom, were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire of

the caliphs. But the Saracens despise a superfluity of fame; and their

historians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which

are lost in the splendour and rapidity of their victorious career. To the

north of Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience

the province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancient monument

of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge of the same mountains, they

spread the flame of war, rather than the light of religion, as far as

the shores of the Euxine and the neighbourhood of Constantinople. To the

east they advanced to the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris;

the long-disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was forever confounded; the

walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had resisted the

arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were levelled in the dust; and

the holy city of Abgarus might vainly produce the epistle or the image

of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west the Syrian kingdom is

bounded by the sea; and the ruin of Aradus, a small island or peninsula

on the coast, was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Libanus

abounded in timber; the trade of Phœnicia was populous in mariners; and a

fleet of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the natives

of the desert. The imperial navy of the Romans fled before them from

the Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the spirit of the emperor,

a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued before the combat by a dream

and a pun. The Saracens rode masters of the sea; and the islands of

Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were successively exposed to their

rapacious visits. Three hundred years before the Christian era, the

memorable, though fruitless siege of Rhodes, by Demetrius, had furnished

that maritime republic with the materials and the subject of a trophy.

A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the sun, seventy cubits in height, was

erected at the entrance of the harbour, a monument of the freedom and the

arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six years, the Colossus of Rhodes

was overthrown by an earthquake; but the massy trunk, and huge fragments,

lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and are often described

as one of the wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by the

diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who

is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of the brass

metal: an enormous weight, though we should include the hundred colossal

figures, and the three thousand statues which adorned the prosperity of

the city of the sun.

EGYPT CAPTURED (639 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [639-654 A.D.]]

The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of the victorious

Saracen, one of the first of his nation in an age when the meanest of

the brethren was exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm.

The birth of Amru was at once base and illustrious; his reason or his

interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he escaped from

Mecca with his friend Khalid, and the prophet of Medina enjoyed at the

same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest champions of

his cause. His merit was not overlooked by the first two successors of

Mohammed; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine;

and in all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the temper of

a chief the valour of an adventurous soldier.

From his camp, in Palestine, Amru had surprised or anticipated the

caliph’s leave for the invasion of Egypt. The magnanimous Omar trusted

in his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chosroes and

Cæsar; but when he compared the slender force of the Moslems with the

greatness of the enterprise, he condemned his own rashness and listened

to his timid companions. At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the

intrepid Amru had marched away from his station of Gaza when he was

overtaken by the messenger of Omar. “If you are still in Syria,” said

the ambiguous mandate, “retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of

this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt, advance

with confidence, and depend on the succour of God and of your brethren.”

The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amru had taught him

to suspect the mutability of courts; and he continued his march till his

tents were unquestionably pitched on Egyptian ground. He there assembled

his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the

name and situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the

commands of the caliph.

After a siege of thirty days, he took possession of Farmah or Pelusium,

and that key of Egypt, as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance

of the country, as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighbourhood

of the modern Cairo.

On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of the

pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, 150

furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient kings.

The siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were

encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. Their last

assault was bold and successful; they passed the ditch, which had been

fortified with iron spikes, applied their scaling-ladders, entered the

fortress with the shout of “God is victorious!” and drove the remnant of

the Greeks to their boats, and the isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards

recommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and

the peninsula of Arabia; the remains of Memphis were deserted; the tents

of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations, and the first

mosque was blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of Mohammed.

A new city arose in their camp on the eastward bank of the Nile. But the

name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly belongs to the modern

capital, which was founded in the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs.

It has gradually receded from the river; but the continuity of buildings

may be traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris [Ramses

II] to those of Saladin.

Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must have

retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful alliance in the

heart of the country.

The persecution of the emperors had converted a sect into a nation,

and alienated Egypt from their religion and government. The Saracens

were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church; and a secret

and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a

victorious army and a people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian of the

name of Mukawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration

of his province; in the disorders of the Persian War he aspired to

independence; the embassy of Mohammed ranked him among princes; but he

declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the proposal of a

new religion.

[Illustration: CAIRO]

In his first conference with Amru, he heard without indignation the

usual option of the _Koran_, the tribute or the sword; and he cheerfully

submitted to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors. The

tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every

Christian; but old men, monks, women, and children of both sexes, under

sixteen years of age, were exempted from this personal assessment. At

the pressing summons of Amru, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from his

desert; and, after the first interview, the courteous Arab affected

to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian priest of

more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. In the march from

Memphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar entrusted his safety to

the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians; the roads and bridges were

diligently repaired; and in every step of his progress, he could depend

on a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of

Egypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were

overwhelmed by the universal defection; they had ever been hated, they

were no longer feared; the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop

from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved by

the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready

conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped who, by

birth, or language, or office, or religion, was connected with their

odious name.

By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt, a

considerable force was collected in the island of Delta; the natural

and artificial channels of the Nile afforded a succession of strong and

defensible posts; and the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared

by the victory of the Saracens in two-and-twenty days of general or

partial combat. In their annals of conquest, the siege of Alexandria is

perhaps the most arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city

in the world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence

and defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of human

rights, religion and property; and the enmity of the natives seemed to

exclude them from the common benefit of peace and toleration. The sea was

continually open; and if Heraclius had been awake to the public distress,

fresh armies of Romans and barbarians might have been poured into the

harbour to save the second capital of the empire.

In every attack, the sword, the banner of Amru, glittered in the van of

the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayed by his imprudent valour:

his followers who had entered the citadel were driven back; and the

general, with a friend and a slave, remained a prisoner in the hands of

the Christians. When Amru was conducted before the prefect, he remembered

his dignity and forgot his situation; a lofty demeanour and resolute

language revealed the lieutenant of the caliph, and the battle-axe of

a soldier was already raised to strike off the head of the audacious

captive. His life was saved by the readiness of his slave, who instantly

gave his master a blow on the face, and commanded him, with an angry

tone, to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The credulous Greek

was deceived; he listened to the offer of a treaty, and his prisoners

were dismissed in the hope of a more respectable embassy, till the joyful

acclamations of the camp announced the return of their general, and

insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen

months, and the loss of three-and-twenty thousand men, the Saracens

prevailed.

The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of

pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue

of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith;

the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was imposed; the zeal and

resentment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites, who submitted

to the Arabian yoke, were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise

of their worship. The intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous

event afflicted the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius

died of a dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria.[36]

Under the minority of his grandson, the clamours of a people deprived

of their daily sustenance compelled the Byzantine court to undertake

the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of four years, the

harbour and fortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet

and army of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valour of Amru, who

was recalled by the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripolis and

Nubia. But the facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and

the obstinacy of the resistance provoked him to swear that, if a third

time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render Alexandria as

accessible on all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to his

promise, he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers, but the

people were spared in the chastisement of the city, and the mosque of

Mercy was erected on the spot where the victorious general had stopped

the fury of his troops.

THE ALLEGED BURNING OF THE LIBRARY

[Sidenote: [641 A.D.]]

We should deceive the expectation of the reader if we passed in silence

the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learned

Abul-Faraj. The spirit of Amru was more curious and liberal than that

of his brethren, and in his leisure hours the Arabian chief was pleased

with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who

derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar

and philosophy. Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus

presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in

that of the barbarians--the royal library, which alone among the spoils

of Alexandria had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the

conqueror. Amru was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but

his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the

consent of the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by

the ignorance of a fanatic: “If these writings of the Greeks agree with

the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they

disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed.” The sentence

was executed with blind obedience; the volumes of paper or parchment

were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was

their incredible multitude, that six months was barely sufficient for the

consumption of this precious fuel. Since the _Dynasties_ of Abul-Faraj

have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been

repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has

deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the

genius of antiquity.

For our own part, we are strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the

consequences. The fact is indeed marvellous. “Read and wonder!” says the

historian himself; and the solitary report of a stranger, who wrote at

the end of six hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced

by the silence of two annalists of a more early date, both Christians,

both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch

Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. The rigid

sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the

Mohammedan casuists: they expressly declare that the religious books of

the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should

never be committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science,

historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied

to the use of the faithful. A more destructive zeal may perhaps be

attributed to the first successors of Mohammed; yet, in this instance,

the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of

materials. We shall not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian

library, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Cæsar in his own

defence, or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who studied to

destroy the monuments of idolatry.[37] But if we gradually descend from

the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a

chain of contemporary witnesses that the royal palace and the temple of

Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousand

volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of

the Ptolemies. Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be

enriched with a repository of books; but if the ponderous mass of Arian

and monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, a

philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to

the benefit of mankind. We sincerely regret the more valuable libraries

which have been involved in the ruin of the Roman Empire; but when

we seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and

the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than our losses, are the

object of our surprise. Many curious and interesting facts are buried

in oblivion; the three great historians of Rome have been transmitted

to our hands in a mutilated state, and we are deprived of many pleasing

compositions of the lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet

we should gratefully remember that the mischances of time and accident

have spared the classic works to which the suffrage of antiquity had

adjudged the first place of genius and glory; the teachers of ancient

knowledge who are still extant had perused and compared the writings of

their predecessors; nor can it fairly be presumed that any important

truth, any useful discovery in art or nature, has been snatched away from

the curiosity of modern ages.

[Illustration: ARABIC WEAPONS]

In the administration of Egypt, Amru balanced the demands of justice and

policy. In the management of the revenue he disapproved the simple but

oppressive mode of a capitation, and preferred with reason a proportion

of taxes, deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture

and commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual

repairs of the dikes and canals, so essential to the public welfare.

Under this administration the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth of

Arabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered

almost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. But the

genius of Amru soon renewed the maritime communication which had been

attempted or achieved by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Cæsars;

and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile

to the Red Sea. This inland navigation, which would have joined the

Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, was soon discontinued as useless

and dangerous: the throne was removed from Medina to Damascus; and the

Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to the holy cities of

Arabia.[g]

[Sidenote: [637-644 A.D.]]

Amru, being now possessed of Egypt, began to look a little further

towards the western part of Africa; and in a short time made himself

master of all that country which lies between Barcah and Zeweilah.

Shortly after this he took Tripolis. If we consider the extent of his

success, it alone is great enough to command our admiration even though

nothing else had been accomplished in any other part. But in the East,

also, the victorious arms made no less progress, and the Mohammedan

crescent now began to shed its malignant influence upon as large and

considerable dominions as the Roman eagle ever soared over. About this

time, Aderbaijan, Ainwerdah, Harran, Roha, Rakkah, Nisibin, Ehwaz, Siwas,

and Khorasan were all brought under subjection to the Saracens.

About two years after this, Omar, the caliph, was killed. The account of

his death is as follows: One Firuz, a Persian, of the sect of the magi,

or Parsees, as being of a different religion from the Mussulmans, had a

daily tribute of two pieces of silver imposed upon him by his master,

and made his complaint to Omar, demanding to have a part of it remitted.

Omar told him he did not think it at all unreasonable, considering he

could well afford it out of what he earned. With his answer Firuz was

so provoked that he did as good as threaten the caliph to his face,

who, however, took little notice of his passion. Firuz watched his

opportunity; and not long after, whilst Omar was saying the morning

prayer in the mosque, stabbed him thrice in the belly with a dagger. The

Saracens in the mosque rushing upon him immediately, he made a desperate

defence, and stabbed thirteen of them, of whom seven died. At last, one

that stood by threw his vest over him, and seized him; when, perceiving

himself caught, he stabbed himself. Omar lived three days after the

wound, and then died, in the month of Dhul-haj, in the twenty-third year

of the Hegira, 644 A.D., after he had reigned ten years, six months,

and eight days, and was sixty-three years old; which is the same age

at which, according to some authors, Mohammed, Abu Bekr, and Aisha,

Mohammed’s wife, died.

The conquests gained by the Saracens in his reign were so considerable

that, though they had never been extended, the countries they had subdued

would have made a very formidable empire. He drove all the Jews and

Christians out of Arabia; subdued Syria, Egypt, and other territories in

Africa, besides the greater part of Persia. And yet all this greatness,

which would have been too weighty for an ordinary man to bear, especially

if, as in Omar’s case, it did not descend to him as an hereditary

possession, for which he had been prepared by a suitable education, but

was gotten on a sudden by men who had been acquainted with, and used to,

nothing great before, had no effect upon the caliph.[b]

Neither splendid victories nor extensive dominions changed the stern

character of Omar; he still preserved the rustic simplicity of his

manners and his ancient contempt for luxurious ornament. When he departed

from Medina to receive the submission of Jerusalem, he was mounted on

a red camel, having for his entire equipage two sacks, one containing

corn and the other fruit; before him was a leathern vessel of water, and

behind him a large platter from which he used to take his meals. In this

guise he travelled the entire road from Medina to Jerusalem, punishing

the Mussulmans who led a scandalous life, and providing for a rigorous

administration of justice.

On his arrival, the inhabitants prepared a splendid palace for his

reception; but he refused to enter the city, and had a tent erected

outside the walls. In this tent the deputies found the master of their

destinies sitting on the naked earth. The terms granted to the citizens

of Jerusalem are remarkable for their moderation; the security of the

persons and properties of the inhabitants was guaranteed, the free

exercise of religion permitted, and the churches allowed to remain with

their present possessors. Even when the caliph was anxious to erect

a mosque, he requested the patriarch to point him out an appropriate

situation; that prelate led him to the spot where Solomon’s temple

once stood, which was then covered with filth, and the caliph readily

accepted the ground as it was. He himself set the example of clearing the

rubbish; the army followed with eager emulation, and the mosque of Omar,

erected on this spot, is one of the most beautiful specimens of Arabian

architecture. But though tolerant to the Christians, the caliph showed

himself severe to those of his own followers who had departed from the

rigour of the national manners. Having learned that some of his men wore

flowing robes of silk, he ordered them to be extended on the earth, with

their faces to the ground, and their silken robes to be torn from their

shoulders. He punished with the bastinado those convicted of drinking

wine; he made proclamation that those who had transgressed, should accuse

themselves, and such was the influence he possessed over his troops, that

many voluntarily confessed their guilt, and submitted to the degrading

punishment.

In the history of Mohammedanism, Omar is a person second only in

importance to the founder of Islam. His strict severity was useful at a

time when unprecedented success seemed to excuse military violence; his

impartiality greatly abated the calamities of the conquest. He did not

spare the gallant Khalid, but it is probable that, in his conduct to that

hero, he was actuated more by jealousy than by a love of justice; it

must however be added, that in no instance did he permit high station to

shelter oppressors. A curious circumstance, characteristic of the age, is

recorded. Omar carried a cane with which he personally chastised officers

even of the highest rank, whom he detected in any guilty action, and

hence arose the proverb, “Omar’s cane is more terrible than the sword of

the bravest warrior.”

His strictness in enforcing religious ordinances was carried to the very

extreme of fanaticism; by his orders the splendid library which the

Ptolemies had collected in Alexandria, was said to have been burned to

heat the public baths; and the invaluable records of Persia, assembled

by the zeal of the Sassanides in Madain, were hurled into the waters

of the Tigris. His early education had rendered him insensible to the

charms of literature or art; when his generals sent him, from the palace

of the Persian kings, an unrivalled piece of tapestry, representing a

flower garden, worked with gold and precious stones, he ordered this

elaborate piece of workmanship to be cut in pieces, and the fragments

distributed to his soldiers. For his own use, he had neither palace, nor

court, nor house; during the time of prayer, he publicly officiated in

the mosque; the remainder of the day he spent in the streets and squares,

and it was there he gave audience to the ambassadors of the most powerful

cotemporary princes. His dress was not better than that of his meanest

subjects; when reproached for the deficiencies of his appearance, he

replied, “I would rather please the Lord by my conduct, than men by my

dress.” He was more indiscriminate in his charity than Abu Bekr; the

first caliph relieved none whose distress had been occasioned by vicious

conduct, Omar gave to all who asked. When reproached for making no

distinction, he replied, “Man is placed upon the earth, only to do good

to his brethren; the judgment of man’s worthiness should be left to his

Creator.” The temperance of Omar was as remarkable as his simplicity; his

ordinary food was coarse barley bread seasoned with salt, and on days of

abstinence the salt was laid aside; his only beverage was water. When at

meals, he invited all who chanced to be present, to take a share.

But the splendour of his public works was a strange contrast to the

meanness of his private life. We have already mentioned the mosque

he caused to be erected in Jerusalem; he also greatly enlarged and

beautified that which Mohammed had built in Medina. By his orders, the

foundations were laid of cities that rapidly grew to greatness, Old

Cairo, Cufa, and Bassora. He caused the canal between the Nile and the

Red Sea to be repaired and opened, in order to facilitate the importation

of corn into Arabia, which the recent enlargement of the cities had

rendered a matter of prime necessity. It was Omar, who first introduced

the custom of dating from the Hegira; before his time the Arabians dated

from the last great event which had interested the whole nation,--a war,

a famine, or a plague,--and thus rendered their chronology a mass of

inextricable confusion. To him also is owing the institution of a police

force in Mecca and Medina, the establishment of a fund to provide for the

pay of the army, and the preparation of an equitable scale of rewards for

those who had distinguished themselves in the propagation of Islam. It is

no wonder that, with such claims to admiration, the name of Omar should

be so celebrated among the most rigid sects of the Mohammedans. But while

the Sunnites labour to extend the fame of Omar, his memory is detested by

the partisans of Ali; his name is the proverbial expression for all that

is base in the countries where the Shiite principles prevail; no person

that bears it, dare own it in public; and to such excess do the Persians

carry their hatred, that they celebrate the day of Omar’s assassination

as a public festival.

[Sidenote: [644 A.D.]]

Omar, finding death approaching, was at a loss whom to nominate his

successor; and, to remedy the difficulty, devised the most extraordinary

expedient that can be imagined. He directed that a council of six should

be assembled after his death, that three days should be allowed them for

deliberation, and that if, at the end of that time, they had not agreed

on a new caliph, they should all be slain. The six who met to deliberate

under these circumstances, were Ali, cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed,

Othman, likewise his son-in-law, Zobair, the cousin of the prophet, and

Abd ar-Rahman, Talha, and Saad, his favourite companions. After some

deliberation, they elected Othman, and he was installed third caliph.

OTHMAN, THE THIRD CALIPH

[Sidenote: [644-656 A.D.]]

Othman was, like his predecessors, a native of Mecca, sprung from a

different branch of the same tribe that had given birth to the prophet.

He married successively two daughters of Mohammed, long acted as his

secretary, and enjoyed his intimate confidence. It is said, that Mohammed

was so delighted with the generosity displayed by his secretary, that he

exclaimed, “O my God, I am satisfied with Othman, be thou also satisfied

with him.” On another occasion, seeing Othman approach, he covered his

face with his robe, and said, “Should not I be ashamed before a man whose

merits would put angels to the blush?” At the time of his accession, he

was more than eighty years of age, but his health was unshaken, and the

vigour of his faculties unabated.

The third caliph pursued the warlike policy of his predecessors; by

his orders the Mussulman armies completed the conquest of Persia, and

extended the sway of the Saracens to the river Oxus, and the borders

of India. Northern Africa, as far as the shores of the Atlantic, was

subdued by another army; and a fleet, equipped in the harbours of Egypt

and Syria, subdued the island of Cyprus, and menaced the northern coasts

of the Mediterranean. But this success produced its natural effect;

it required all the energies of Omar’s stern character to resist the

progress of luxury and dissipation; the weak Othman was utterly incapable

of any similar exertion. The wild sons of the desert began to rival

in magnificence the most wealthy monarchs; they became ambitious of

palaces and titles, they preferred the splendour of the court, to the

glory of the field. Othman’s gentleness and facility accelerated the

progress of corruption; naturally generous, he was unwilling to refuse

any applicant, and as the foremost candidates for office are generally

those least fitted for its duties, the administration fell into the

hands of the designing and the profligate. With some show of reason, the

old companions of Mohammed complained that they were set aside to make

room for the family of Othman; and, with still more justice, that the

imprudence and wantonness of youth was preferred to their experience.

Religion did not escape from the general corruption; new sects began to

be formed; and the jealousy of the partisans of Ali daily acquired fresh

strength. Abu Dar, an old companion of the prophet, misrepresenting some

passages of the _Koran_, declared that the riches of this world were

the source of every crime, and that the wealthy should be compelled by

force to give their superfluities to the poor. Such doctrine was sure to

obtain a favourable hearing in a half-civilised country, where, from the

unequal distribution of plunder, a few had been suddenly enriched, but

the great bulk of the population reduced to comparative poverty. At the

same time another sectary announced that Mohammed was about to reappear,

and execute justice on the wicked and cruel men who tyrannised over the

Mussulmans. The people, expecting an approaching regeneration, despised

their rulers, and neglected the duties of social life. The second

revision of the _Koran_, ordained by Othman, was regarded by many of the

Mussulmans as a corruption of the true religion; they suspected that the

caliph did not pay sufficient deference to the authority of the prophet;

especially as in certain prayers he made four prostrations where Mohammed

only used two; and he had rebuilt a chapel destroyed by Mohammed’s

special command.

We have been so long accustomed to see the Mohammedan religion united

with despotic government, that we are naturally surprised to find a pure

democracy under the caliphate; from the very beginning, every affair of

importance was submitted to the general assembly; and all, except slaves,

were permitted to state their opinions freely. No practical inconvenience

arose from this custom, whilst disorder was checked by the sacred

character of the prophet, the dignified demeanour of Abu Bekr, or the

stern severity of Omar. But Othman possessed no such influence; when he

attempted to stem the popular tide, he was attacked in his very pulpit,

and driven by volleys of stones from the assembly. Satires and lampoons,

“those straws,” which, as Lord Bacon says, “show the direction of the

wind,” appeared in countless abundance.

Parties and factions were formed on every side; each province demanded a

new governor, every faction desired a new caliph. The leaders in these

disturbances were the ancient companions of the prophet; and many of the

most devoted Mussulmans were ready to join in a revolution. At length

a part of the Egyptian army marched suddenly to Medina and demanded an

immediate reform of abuses. By a liberal use of promises and persuasions,

they were induced to retire; but it was only to return the following

year, irritated by disappointment, and strengthened by large bodies of

partisans from Cufa and Bassora. Othman once more soothed the mutineers,

but as they were returning home, they learned that the caliph’s secretary

had sent official orders that they should be massacred. It is not quite

certain that the caliph had sanctioned this perfidy, but that it was

meditated does not admit of doubt. The soldiers, justly enraged, again

appeared before Medina, demanding the head of the secretary; when that

was refused, they slew Othman himself.

[Sidenote: [656 A.D.]]

The fatal day on which this atrocity occurred was Friday, which the

Mohammedans keep holy. It was Othman’s custom on this day to fast until

he had read through the entire _Koran_, and he was engaged in the perusal

of the sacred volume, when the approach of the assassins was announced.

Some of the caliph’s friends advised him to make some preparations for

resistance, but he replied that he had seen Mohammed in a dream, and had

been informed that they should break their fast together that day in

paradise.

In the meantime, the conspirators advanced sword in hand. Five hundred

guards attempted to check their progress, but were cut to pieces; the

caliph’s wife threw herself in their path and had her hand cut off; the

sons of Ali, and some of the old companions of the prophet, endeavoured

to propitiate the mutineers, but were forced to consult their own

safety by flight. Othman tranquilly read the _Koran_ in the midst of

the confusion; he scarcely deigned to raise his head when the enraged

soldiers burst into his apartment. At their head was a son of Abu Bekr,

named Muhammed, who seized Othman by the beard, and prepared to strike

a fatal blow. The caliph, looking him steadily in the face, asked, “O

Muhammed! what think you that your sainted father would say, if he saw

my beard in your grasp?” Struck with the words, Muhammed drew back in

silence; but his companions, less scrupulous, rushed upon Othman, and he

fell covered with wounds. His blood gushed upon the _Koran_ which he held

in his hand; it is said to be still preserved as a relic in the mosque

of Damascus. So great was the terror diffused by this event, that no one

dared to perform the funeral obsequies; the body remained three days

unburied; at length Ali gave orders for its sepulture, but it was buried

by night, and in a private cemetery.

The orthodox Mussulmans reverence Othman in the present day for the

action which excited most resentment in his own, namely, the revision of

the _Koran_. They cite respecting him, the following traditionary saying

of the prophet, “I have seen the name of Othman written on the gate of

paradise; I have seen it marked behind the throne of God, and on the

wings of the archangel Gabriel.” The Shiites regard him as a usurper, but

they do not execrate his memory so much as that of Omar.

At first the horror inspired by this murder was so great, that all

parties were reduced to silence. The surviving companions of Mohammed

took advantage of this interval of tranquillity, and nominated Ali fourth

caliph.

Ali was the son of Abu Talib, that uncle of Mohammed who had so

faithfully watched over his childhood. He had been the first to

acknowledge the divine mission of his cousin, and he ever manifested the

most devoted attachment to his person. When Mohammed fled from Mecca,

Ali disguised himself in the prophet’s robes, and placed himself on his

bed, that the Meccans might not suspect his escape. When he followed his

patron to Medina, he married the prophet’s favourite daughter Fatima, by

whom he had several children. Mohammed on many occasions showed a strong

love for Ali; he appointed him his lieutenant in his first expedition

against the Greeks, at Tabuc, and during occasional absence, entrusted to

him the government of Medina. It is supposed, on very plausible grounds,

that Ali was actually nominated his successor by the prophet, but that

Aisha prevented the circumstance from being known. This injustice was

deeply felt by the son of Abu Talib and his partisans, but particularly

by Mohammed’s relations, who thought themselves neglected by the three

first caliphs. In vain, however, did his friends endeavour to persuade

Ali to attempt the forcible seizure of the reins of government; he

replied constantly, that he would never reign except by the free

suffrages of the Mussulmans. During the reign of Omar, his loyalty

was so notorious, that he was appointed governor of Arabia during the

caliph’s absence at Jerusalem; he refused to join those who conspired

against Othman, and one of his sons was severely wounded in defence of

that sovereign. Finally, when elected, he very reluctantly consented to

accept the dignity of caliph, which had twice already proved fatal to its

possessors.

ALI (656-661 A.D.)

[Sidenote: [656-657 A.D.]]

Ali commenced his reign by deposing all the governors of the provinces.

Amongst these were several men of great influence; especially Moawiyah

the son of that Abu Sufyan, who had been long the chief of the Meccan

idolaters, and the most bitter enemy of Mohammed. After Mecca had

submitted, Mohammed made Moawiyah one of his private secretaries; the

caliph Omar had raised him to the government of Syria, and he had now

ruled that important province during fifteen years. Crafty, subtle,

intriguing, possessing inflexible obstinacy, and boundless ambition, he

received Ali’s mandate for his deposition with violent indignation. As

he was a near relative of Othman, he resolved to declare himself his

avenger, and though that sovereign had left children, Moawiyah claimed

to be his heir and successor. He found allies in the centre of Arabia;

and while the Syrians were preparing to take arms, Aisha, with a numerous

body of followers, was already in the field. Though she had notoriously

shared in the conspiracy against Othman, she now proclaimed herself his

avenger, and she denounced Ali as the author of his death.

Joined with her were Talha and Zobair, two of Mohammed’s old companions,

who well knew the falsehood of Aisha’s allegations. They had been the

foremost to swear allegiance to Ali, but not having obtained all that

they desired, they ranged themselves in the ranks of the rebels, to whom

their presence gave additional confidence. The obligation of their oaths

they evaded by the expiatory offerings prescribed in the fifth chapter of

the _Koran_, which is one of the greatest blots on the character both of

the book and its author.

Aisha, contrary to the established custom of Arabia, led her forces in

person, mounted on a strong camel, and protected by an escort of picked

men. When she approached a small village named Jowab, all the dogs in the

place rushed out and barked at her with great fury. This she regarded

as an evil omen, and declared that Mohammed had told her, “One of my

wives, engaged in an evil design, shall be attacked by dogs in Jowab;

take care that you be not the wicked person.” Full of alarm, she wished

to return; but Zobair and Talha, knowing how important was her presence,

suborned fifty false witnesses to swear that the village was never known

by the name of Jowab. As she still seemed anxious to depart, they spread

a report, that the army of Ali had gained a position in their rear, and

consequently that she could not return in safety. “This,” say the Moslem

historians, “was the first public lie told since the promulgation of

Islam.”

The two armies met at Khoraiba, a place in the neighbourhood of Bassora;

Ali’s forces amounted to twenty thousand men, all picked soldiers, those

of Aisha were more numerous, but they were, for the most part, raw and

undisciplined levies. After a brief contest, the rebels were routed;

Talha fell wounded mortally from his horse, and with his dying breath

besought pardon from God for his share in the murder of Othman and his

treachery to Ali. When told of this, the generous conqueror exclaimed

that God had granted Talha time for repentance before receiving his soul

into heaven. Zobair escaped from the battle, but was overtaken on the

road to Mecca by his pursuers, who cut off his head, and brought it as an

acceptable present to the caliph. Ali expressed so much indignation at

the sight, that the bearers assailed him with bitter reproaches, saying,

“You are the evil genius of the Mussulmans; you consign to hell those

who deliver you from your enemies, and you name those who attack your

men companions of Satan.” The victory, however, could not be regarded as

complete until Aisha had been forced to submission; the strictest orders

were given to respect her person, but also it was desired that no pains

should be spared to make her prisoner. Seventy men had their hands cut

off attempting to seize her camel by the bridle; the pavilion in which

she sat, was stuck so full of arrows that it resembled a porcupine;

at length a soldier cut the back sinew of the camel, the animal fell

helpless on his knees, and Aisha remained a captive. Muhammed, the son

of Abu Bekr, was sent to take charge of her; she loaded him with the

fiercest invectives, but he did not make any reply. When she was brought

before Ali, he received her in the most courteous manner, recommended her

to forbear from meddling with public affairs for the future, and sent

her under a faithful escort to Medina. Thus ended the first great battle

between the opponents and the partisans of Ali; it is frequently called

by eastern writers “the battle of the camel” from the animal on which

Aisha rode; it was the prelude to many and fearful scenes of slaughter.

The rebellion in Syria next engaged the attention of Ali; Moawiyah had

not only rejected his offers of accommodation, but denied his title to

the caliphate: in order to justify this rebellion, and strike the eyes

of the multitude, Moawiyah procured the bloody robe in which Othman

was murdered, and caused it to be borne in solemn procession through

the streets of Damascus. This sight so powerfully inflamed the popular

passions, that though it was then the middle of summer, more than thirty

thousand persons bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to taste fresh

water, until they had avenged the death of Othman. Among the leading

partisans of the Syrian governor was Amru, the conqueror of Egypt, who

seemed to share the general excitement, though well aware that Ali was

innocent of the imputed crimes.

[Sidenote: [657-658 A.D.]]

The hostile forces met in the plains of Siffin, on the western bank

of the Euphrates, not far from the city of Racca. Neither leader was

prepared for general action, and ninety days were wasted in desultory

skirmishes between divisions. His impetuous valour gave Ali the victory

in most of these encounters; he challenged his rival to decide the

dispute by single combat; but Moawiyah would not venture to enter the

lists. The last action at Siffin continued all night, to the great

disadvantage of the Syrians; they would have been driven from their

very entrenchments, had not the crafty Moawiyah made an appeal to the

superstitious feelings of Ali’s followers. He ordered some of his men to

place copies of the _Koran_ on the points of their lances, and advancing

to the front of the lines, exclaim, “This is the book that ought to

decide all differences between us; this is the word of God, and the

code of our faith; it expressly forbids the shedding of Moslem blood.”

Coarse as was the artifice, it had the most complete success; the troops

of Irak, the flower of the caliph’s forces, threw down their arms, and

clamorously demanded that a negotiation should be commenced. In vain

did Ali command them to continue the fight, assuring them that Moawiyah

disregarded the _Koran_, and was equally the enemy of God and man; the

soldiers clamorously replied that they would not fight against the book

of God, and threatened the caliph with the well-known fate of Othman.

From the moment that he was checked in the midst of victory, Ali seems

to have despaired of the issue of the contest; when required to name an

arbitrator, he coldly answered, “He that is not at liberty, cannot give

his advice; you must now conduct the affair as you think proper.” His

soldiers took him at his word, and nominated on the part of the caliph,

Abu Musa, whose chief merit was, that he had written a faulty copy of the

_Koran_, and whose fidelity had been long more than suspected. Moawiyah

appointed a much more subtle negotiator, Amru, universally regarded as

the most able statesman of the period. The arbitrators were enjoined to

decide the dispute according to the _Koran_ and the traditions of the

prophet, and to pronounce judgment in the next month of Ramadhan.

Amru persuaded Abu Musa, that the best plan that could be adopted, was to

declare the throne vacant, and proceed to a new election. When the day

for giving judgment arrived, Abu Musa, as had been agreed, first ascended

the pulpit, and with a loud voice pronounced the following words; “I

depose both Ali and Moawiyah from the caliphate, in the same manner that

I draw this ring from my finger.” Amru next ascended, and said, “You

have heard Abu Musa pronounce the deposition of Ali: I confirm it; and

I invest Moawiyah with the supreme authority in the same manner that I

now draw this ring upon my finger. I hail him as the legal successor of

Othman, the avenger of his blood, and the most worthy of the Moslems to

command the faithful.”

This unexpected declaration created a violent tumult. Abu Musa accused

Amru of breach of faith, called him a wretch, a dog, an unclean beast,

and imprecated on his grave all nameless desecrations; Amru replied, that

his co-arbitrator was a learned blockhead, a jackass loaded with books,

and the grandfather of stupidity; at the same time, he stoutly maintained

his sentence.

This event was fatal to the cause of Ali; his soldiers, who had forced

him to commence the imprudent negotiation, felt that their fidelity must

for the future be suspected, and began to desert in whole battalions.

The new and formidable sect of the Kharijites, that is, “the deserters,”

appeared in the midst of Arabia, declaring that both the rivals had

forfeited their right to reign, by submitting to human judgment what God

alone should determine. It was necessary to march a large army against

these fanatics, and the time which Ali wasted in their subjugation, was

employed by Moawiyah in new conquests. It would be difficult to form an

idea of the vindictive rage which filled all parties at this period.

We have already mentioned the view taken of affairs, by the fanatical

Kharijites. Three of this sect happened to meet at Mecca, and after

some discourse agreed that if the three chief causes of discontent were

removed, namely, Ali, Moawiyah, and Amru, the affairs of the Mussulmans

would soon be restored to their ancient flourishing condition. Finally,

they resolved to devote themselves for the common advantage, and agreed,

that on a stated day, one should slay Ali at Cufa; another, Moawiyah at

Damascus; and the third, Amru in Egypt. The attempt was made; Amru on

that day did not appear in public; Moawiyah escaped with a few slight

wounds; Ali alone received a mortal stroke.

The respect which the Shiites have for the memory of Ali, borders

on idolatry. All the Mussulmans, however, now join in commiserating

his calamities, and blaming the violence of which he was the victim.

Every time that they pronounce his name, they accompany it with the

benediction, “May God render his face glorious.”

[Sidenote: [659-661 A.D.]]

From the contest between Ali and Moawiyah, the first of the Omayyad

caliphs, arose the distinction of the Mohammedans into Sunnites and

Shiites. The chief points at issue between them, are the following; (1)

The Shiites, or as they call themselves, the Adalians, or “lovers of

justice,” assert that the three first caliphs were usurpers; the Sunnites

declare that they were legitimate monarchs, elected according to the

sunna, or traditional law of the prophet. (2) The Shiites regard Ali as

the equal of Mohammed; some even assert his superiority, but the Sunnites

deny that he possessed any special dignity. (3) The Shiites assert that

the _Koran_ is made void by the authority attributed to tradition; the

Sunnites say that tradition is necessary to complete and explain the

doctrines of the _Koran_.

The Turks, Egyptians, and Arabs belong to the Sunnite sect; the tenets of

the Shiites are professed by the Persians, a great portion of the Tatars,

and several of the Mohammedan princes in India.

Ali was buried at Cufa, but the exact place of his sepulchre cannot be

determined. A magnificent mosque has been erected in the neighbourhood of

the city, which is called Meshed-Ali, the place of Ali’s martyrdom; it

is, to this day, a favourite object of pilgrimage to devout Mussulmans.[f]

So, after a most turbulent and unhappy caliphate, Ali died of his wound,

in the sixty-third year of his age, and the fifth of his reign, 661 A.D.,

and the thirty-eighth year of the Hegira; making the third caliph slain

within twenty years by the hand of an assassin.

Ali was an upright and honourable man, a patron of literature and the

fine arts, and himself a poet. He certainly merited better treatment

at the hands of his own subjects, having been a just judge, and a kind

and paternal governor; oftener forgiving than punishing the misdeeds of

those who were so frequently conspiring against his life and interests.

His lineal descendants are sheriffs and emirs; permitted to wear their

turbans and hair in a peculiar fashion, differing from the usages of all

other Moslems.

Ali left two sons, Hassan and Hosein. Hassan was in his thirty-fifth

year when he succeeded his father, as the fifth caliph of the Moslems.

The people chose Hassan without opposition, owing to his having been a

favourite of his grandfather, the prophet; whom also he is said to have

resembled in features. Moreover, he was a benevolent, upright, and devout

man; but he grievously lacked the energy so indispensable for a ruler in

troubled times. The new caliph would willingly have disbanded the army

ready to march upon Syria; for he was no lover of warfare, and would

rather have forfeited the Syrian provinces than mixed in battle.

His brother Hosein, however, was a warrior; and so were many of the

veteran generals who had sworn allegiance to his father, and whose

plans he was therefore compelled to follow up. He accordingly marched

upon Syria; sending forward twelve thousand light troops, under Kais,

to check the progress of Moawiyah, who was advancing to meet Hassan’s

army. Kais succeeded in repelling the Syrians; and secured a position,

where he might await the arrival of the main body of the army, which,

however, never reached its destination. The troops of Hassan were chiefly

from Irak, and not inclined to enter upon the campaign; moreover, they

knew him to be an inefficient commander. A revolt broke out amongst the

soldiery, in which Hassan was wounded. This occurred at Madain, and the

caliph was compelled to seek refuge with the governor in the citadel.

He ultimately sent proposals to Moawiyah, offering to abdicate in his

favour, under certain stipulations, to which Moawiyah readily agreed. So,

to the great indignation of Hosein, Hassan abdicated; and eventually the

two brothers settled in Medina, where Moawiyah supplied them liberally

with funds.

This act doubtless saved a good deal of bloodshed; and, in the

thirty-ninth year of the Hegira, the sixth caliph, Moawiyah I, began to

reign. His first act was to almost exterminate the sect of Seceders; a

people even more dangerous than the modern Janissaries, and against whom

the caliph Moawiyah had deep hatred, owing to the stab he had received in

Damascus.[t]

FOOTNOTES

[34] Respecting the date of the capture of Damascus, authorities differ,

some placing it in 634 A.D., and others in 635 A.D. The duration of

the siege, too, is equally uncertain, El-Makin[c] stating it to be six

months, while Abulfeda[d] gives seventy days.

[35] Dr. Weil,[e] on authority of the Zaban, says, that this latter

account is the most probable, it being related by Aisha and Abd

ar-Rahman, the son and daughter of Abu Bekr.

[36] [Other authorities state that Alexandria fell nine months after

Heraclius’ death.]

[37] [The loss sustained in Cæsar’s time was repaired by Antony’s gift to

Cleopatra of the library of Pergamus. Alexandria possessed two libraries:

one, that of the Bruchion, which was destroyed during the popular tumults

in the reign of Gallienus, 263 A.D.; the other, that of the Serapeum,

which experienced the same fate from the violence of Theophilus, as

related in ch. 28, to which Gibbon[g] has here referred. These valuable

collections had, therefore, disappeared 250 years before the invasion

of Egypt by Amru; nor in that interval does history record a prince,

patriarch, or prefect, who had either the means or the will to replace

them. The tale of Abul-Faraj[h] would not have been so industriously

circulated, had it not served the purpose of those who wished to

impute to the barbarian conquerors of Rome the guilt of darkening the

world. Gibbon says he felt strongly tempted to deny both the fact and

the consequences of this irreparable shipwreck of learning, as being

founded on the simple authority of Abul-Faraj, whilst Eutychius[i] and

El-Makin[c] are both silent on the subject. Milman,[j] however, adds

that since this period several new Mohammedan authorities have been

adduced to support Abul-Faraj: that of (1) Abd al-Latif,[k] by Professor

White[l]; (2) of Makrisi[m]; (3) of Ibn Khaldun[n]; and after them Haji

Khalfa.[o] Reinhard in a German dissertation, printed at Göttingen, 1792,

and St. Croix (_Magasin Encyclop._, tom. IV, p. 433), have examined the

question. Among oriental scholars, Professor White, M. St. Martin,[q] Von

Hammer,[r] and Silv. de Sacy[s] consider the fact of the burning of the

library, by the command of Omar, beyond question. A Mohammedan writer

brings a similar charge against the crusaders. The library of Tripolis

is said to have contained the incredible number of three millions of

volumes. On the capture of the city, Count Bertram of St. Gilles,

entering the first room, which contained nothing but the _Koran_, ordered

the whole to be burned, as the works of the false prophet of Arabia.]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI. THE OMAYYADS

FOUNDATION OF THE OMAYYADS

[Sidenote: [661-750 A.D.]]

With Moawiyah commenced the dynasty of the house of Omayyah, called the

“Omayyads.” This caliph is said to have patronised literature; and during

his reign many of the Greek sciences were first introduced into Arabia.

Moawiyah succeeded in re-establishing peace in his dominions. One of his

earliest appointments was the reinstatement of Amru in the government of

Egypt; allotting him, in grateful recognition of his services, the whole

revenue of that wealthy country for his life-time; but Amru was advanced

in years, and only enjoyed his preferment for a short time, dying in 663.

Moawiyah now turned his thoughts to foreign conquest; hoping to leave an

illustrious name, together with the royal succession, to his son Yazid.

Accordingly he sent him, at the head of a powerful force, to subdue that

famous capital, which was destined in later years to become, as it now

remains, the headquarters of Islamism and the seat of the Moslem rulers.

Great preparations were afoot, and the troops were despatched both

by land and sea to attack Constantinople. The Greek power was on the

decline; their emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, indolent and unfitted

for his high office; and the Moslems entertained sanguine hopes of

success. Their fleet passed the Dardanelles, and the army landed within

seven miles of Constantinople. The besieged had fortified the place, and

repulsed the assault with the Greek fire--a new and terrible agent of

destruction to the Moslems, who, after ravaging the neighbouring coasts,

wintered about eight miles from Constantinople, at the island of Cyzicus.

Through six long years they strove, but in vain; countless lives were

lost, ships wrecked, and vast sums of money expended. Long practice and

the necessary energy, revived in the Greeks a few sparks of that military

ardour which had for years been slumbering. They even sallied forth and

attacked the Moslems; punishing them so severely, that Moawiyah, now an

old man, was glad to obtain a truce for thirty years, paying the emperor

annually three thousand pieces of gold, fifty slaves, and fifty Arabian

horses. Yazid is accused of having instigated the murder of the mild and

virtuous Hassan, who had abdicated in his father’s favour, but who had

stipulated to resume the caliphate after Moawiyah’s death. This act,

which secured his own succession, was perpetrated in the year forty-seven

of the Hegira, 669 A.D.

[Sidenote: [669-680 A.D.]]

Moawiyah sent Achbar ben Nafi al-Fahri, a competent general, to follow

up the conquests so triumphantly commenced in Africa by Abdallah ben

Saad. This man proceeded from Damascus with ten thousand horse, making

good speed towards Africa; and, his force rapidly augmenting by the

accession of barbarian troops, he retook the city of Cyrene; but during

the siege many of its magnificent edifices were destroyed. Continuing

westward, he traversed desolate wilds and jungles, and passed through

places infested with lions, tigers, and serpents, until he beheld the

domains of ancient Carthage, the present Tunisian provinces. Here he

founded a stronghold--a kind of vast caravansary, where stores might be

accumulated, and whose thick and lofty walls might prove a safeguard in

case of defeat. This place eventually gave origin to the city called

Carwahn, or Kairwan--literally signifying a lodgment for travellers and

beasts.

Meanwhile Aisha, who had caused so much discord and bloodshed, had, in

the fifty-sixth year of the Hegira, numbered her years upon earth. One

of her last acts of vengeance was the refusing sepulture to the body of

Hassan, who had expressed a wish in his testament to be buried by the

side of his grandsire, Mohammed, insisting that the mansion was hers, and

carrying her malice even beyond the grave, so that Hassan was interred in

the ordinary burial-ground.

The sand of Moawiyah’s life was now rapidly running out. He was anxious,

ere death, to render the caliphate hereditary, and to perpetuate it in

his line. Accordingly he publicly named his son Yazid as his successor,

and commanded the provinces to send deputies to do fealty to him. This

was more than Mohammed himself or any of his successors had ventured to

require. The delegates arrived from all parts to Damascus, and gave their

hands to Yazid, in pledge of fealty; thus establishing the dynasty of

Omayyah, which extended over nearly a hundred years. Fourteen of them

were designated the Pharaohs of that line. With Moawiyah were introduced

the luxury and splendour, so linked with all our notions of oriental

pomp and proverbially designated the insignia of a caliphate, which had

succeeded to the stern and frugal simplicity of the early Islams. The

waters and the gardens of Damascus were irresistible persuasions to

indolence--that peculiar luxury, known among the Orientals by the term

_kaif_, and in the West by the expressive Italian phrase, _dolce far

niente_. The seat of the caliphate was fixed at Damascus; for neither

Medina nor Cufa was now considered a fit residence for the Moslem

caliphs. Moawiyah, having provided for his son, gave up the ghost in 680

A.D.

YAZID MADE CALIPH

[Sidenote: [680-683 A.D.]]

Yazid, then in his thirty-fourth year, was proclaimed caliph--a man who

is said to have been gifted with talents, but addicted to every debasing

vice, delighting in splendid attire, passionately fond of music and

poetry, and much given to indulge in the indolent _kaif_; all these the

result of long residence in the delightful but enervating climate of

Damascus. But whilst the seventh caliph was idly spending his hours and

days, the brave general Achbar had returned to his command in Africa,

to pursue his career of conquest. He traversed Numidia (Algiers), the

extensive countries of Morocco, and the ancient Mauretania, subduing

and converting the inhabitants, till, arriving at the western shores of

Africa, the waters of the Atlantic opposed his farther progress. Here,

spurring his steed up to the saddle-girths in the surge, he is said to

have elevated his scimitar towards heaven, exclaiming, “Did not these

waters present an insuperable barrier, I would carry the faith and the

law of the faithful to countries reaching from the rising of the sun to

the setting thereof.”

But soon after this tidings reached Achbar that a rebellion had broken

out in his rear. He had overdone his task, and had now to pay dearly

for the temerity which the sagacious Omar had so often and so carefully

repressed amongst his generals. As he marched through Numidia, he was

much harassed by a band of mountaineers, who would never let themselves

be entangled in a pitched battle; but descending from their fastnesses,

cut off the stragglers, and carried havoc into the broken ranks. Achbar

saw that destruction was inevitable; and accordingly liberated his rival

and prisoner, Muhegir, telling him, that this was a day of martyrdom,

and consequently, liberty for them all; and that he would not therefore

deprive him of earning for himself the paradise of the faithful. The

little Islam band was literally cut to pieces; and the body of Achbar

was found upon a heap of slain, his broken scimitar still grasped by his

lifeless hand.

During these events in Africa Yazid was endeavouring to secure undisputed

possession of the caliphate. The only two whom he feared as competitors

were Hosein and Abdallah, the sons of Ali and Zobair, who were both

residing at Medina. Yazid wrote from Damascus to the governor of Medina,

directing him to require from them the oath of fealty; but they, learning

that their lives would be in peril through the intrigues of the governor

and of Merwan ben Hakem, the villainous ex-secretary of Othman, fled with

their families to Mecca, where they openly opposed Yazid.

SIEGE OF MECCA

[Sidenote: [683-684 A.D.]]

Hosein was slain, and his family sent captives to Damascus, where they

were well treated by Yazid; who sent them under careful convoy to

Medina. The anniversary of the martyrdom of Hosein is kept with great

solemnity in Persia and Media; and in after years a splendid mausoleum

was erected on the spot where he fell, called by the Arabs the “Meshed

Hosein” (the sepulchre of Hosein). The death of Hosein furnished his

friend and survivor, Abdallah the son of Zobair, with a fresh claim to

the caliphate, and a subject, capable, in his able hands, of being well

turned to account in working upon the feelings and faith of the Islams.

He was soon proclaimed caliph by the house of Hashem, possessing at the

same time a majority in his favour at Mecca and Medina.

Open rebellion broke out, and Yazid with difficulty found one infirm old

general to espouse his cause. The veteran Muslim quitted Damascus with

twelve thousand horse and five thousand foot. Arriving at Medina, he

found the place securely entrenched and fortified. On the fourth day the

city was stormed, and compelled to surrender. Ali, the son of Hosein, and

the partisans and household of Omayyah, were despatched under careful

escort to Damascus, and then the place was given up to three days’

pillage. In the sixtieth year of the Hegira, 683 A.D., Muslim, whose

memory is execrated by all devout Moslems, died on his march to Mecca;

and the command was assumed by Hosein ben Numair, a Syrian by birth.

This general besieged Mecca for forty days; and just as the inhabitants

feared to share the same fate as the people of Medina, news arrived that

Yazid had expired at Hawwarin, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, 684

A.D. This event changed the fortunes of war. Numair offered allegiance to

Abdallah; but this latter, fearing treachery, simply permitted the Syrian

general and his troops, without arms, to march in procession round the

ruins of the Kaaba, which had been destroyed during the siege by fire.

Part of the family of Omayyah, then at Mecca, accompanied the Syrians on

their return to Damascus.

All the sectarians of Ali hold the memory of Yazid in abhorrence, as the

instigator of the murder of the two brothers, Hassan and Hosein; and

charge him with sacrilege, in ordering the sack of Medina and Mecca.

Moawiyah II, son of Yazid, was proclaimed at Damascus eighth caliph of

the Moslem empire, being the third of the house of Omayyah, a man feeble

in mind and body, and one of the sect of Kadarii, maintaining the free

will of men against the dictates of wiser counsels and better conscience.

This second Moawiyah was in his twenty-first year when he reluctantly

assumed the caliphate; for his health was so bad, that he was compelled

(most probably from weak eyes) to shut himself up in darkened apartments,

whence the Arabs named him _Abu Laili_--the Father of Night. His chief

counsellor was one Omar Aheksus, who is said to have counselled him to

abdicate, after a short sway of six months’ duration; for which advice

the Omayyads buried the unfortunate man alive. This youthful caliph

refused to nominate a successor, declaring that his grandfather had been

a usurper, his father unworthy of so high a trust, and himself unwilling

and unfit to undertake it. Soon after his abdication he died, the wreck

of a diseased frame and morbid temperament.

[Sidenote: [684-689 A.D.]]

Again was Syria rent with civil discord. The people of Damascus favouring

the claims of Merwan, the secretary, as regent during the minority of

Khalid, Yazid’s son; whilst Egypt, Babylonia, Arabia, Khorasan, Medina,

and Mecca acknowledged Abdallah ben Zobair as caliph. Meanwhile, Obaidah

ben Zehad, the same that had caused Hosein to be slain, thought the

present an auspicious moment to secure for himself an independence. After

many fatigues he arrived at Damascus, in time to take an active part in

the election of Merwan as caliph, while Bassora declared its allegiance

to Abdallah. The claims of the former were admitted only in Syria, and

there were even there two factions. A conflict ensued between the two

factions; and the victory sided with Merwan, who was proclaimed caliph

and obliged to marry the mother of Khalid, Yazid’s wife.

Merwan speedily marched against Egypt, but twice returned; and again

twice faced about, tidings having reached him about the prowess of his

lieutenant, another Amru, who ultimately subjugated Egypt. The people

of Khorasan refused to acknowledge either caliph; they appointed Selim,

a younger brother of Obaid Allah, to act as regent, till affairs should

be finally settled. The fickle people of Cufa seemed to awaken from a

prolonged lethargy, and declared in favour of the descendants of Ali;

only, however, the next day to repudiate them. Four thousand men, under

an aged general, did absolutely start on a fanatical expedition to

destroy both claimants to the caliphate and their adherents; and so,

rushing upon their fate, they were all slain.

Meanwhile, the fate of the heroic Achbar on the plains of Numidia was

known at Damascus and Medina. At this time reinforcements arrived from

Egypt, which helped to revive the courage of the Moslems. This only

endured for a while; a large force from Constantinople, under experienced

generals, landed on the coast of Africa. The Egyptians deserted their

standard, Kairwan was vanquished, and the Moslems compelled to fall back

upon Barca. Abdul-Malik, the eldest son of Merwan, marched to the succour

of the discomfited Islam general; and the two forces combined marched

upon Kairwan, defeating the enemy in every action, and finally replanted

the standard of Islam in Kairwan. After this Abdul-Malik returned to

Damascus, where Merwan, having caused him to be proclaimed as his

successor, died after a reign of about eleven months, in the sixty-second

year of the Hegira, 685 A.D.

ABDUL-MALIK, CALIPH (685-705 A.D.)

Abdul-Malik, the eleventh caliph, was proclaimed and acknowledged in

Syria, Egypt, and Africa. He was in the prime of life when he succeeded

to the musnud; full of enterprise, and distinguished as an able general

and an accomplished scholar; but so avaricious that he was surnamed

by the Arabs Kafhol Hagha, signifying in our vernacular, “skinflint.”

Abdallah ben Zobair was still acknowledged caliph of a great part of

the Moslem dominions; holding the seat of government at Mecca, which

gave him great influence over the troops of pilgrims, that even at that

early period annually resorted to the Kaaba. Abdul-Malik, jealous of

this, established a rival city of pilgrimage; fixing for this purpose

on Al-Kudus (Jerusalem), sacred in the eyes of Moslems, as the field

connected with the acts and revelations of Jesus Christ and of Moses

(both of whom they acknowledge and reverence as prophets), as well as

the stage whereon Mohammed pretended to have made his miraculous ascent

to heaven; besides all this, the place was surrounded by the tombs of

the patriarchs. The temple at Jerusalem, where Omar had prayed upon the

steps, was converted into a mosque; and it was enlarged so as to enclose

these steps, and the stone called Jacob’s stone on which the patriarch

is said to have slumbered during his inspired dream. This was kissed by

Moslem pilgrims, as they had heretofore kissed the Black Stone of the

Kaaba. During the caliphate of Abdul-Malik there was a fierce warrior, a

son of Abu Obaidah, who was named Al-Mukhtar (or the Avenger), because

he undertook to avenge the death of Hosein. With almost insuperable

difficulties to contend against, he accomplished his vow; being mortally

wounded, and his small but sturdy band of seven hundred followers cut

down to a man. His death enabled Musa ben Zobair, a brother of the caliph

Abdallah, to govern Babylonia and Cufa. He was at this period a comely

man in the thirty-sixth year of his life, and in all points well adapted

to gain the esteem and love of the people.

[Sidenote: [689-692 A.D.]]

Abdul-Malik hearing of his success invaded Babylonia himself; heading

his army, and leaving his cousin Amru, who had been Merwan’s lieutenant

in Egypt, to govern Syria during his absence. The kinsmen deeply hated

each other; and the caliph had barely turned his back before Amru

aspired to the caliphate. Abdul-Malik hearing this, hastened back; and

a deadly conflict ensued between the two cousins and their adherents

in the streets of Damascus. The women are said to have rushed between

the combatants, holding up their children and imploring both sides to

desist from so unnatural a combat. Amru laid down his arms, and articles

of reconciliation were signed. The caliph broke his faith; and, getting

his cousin into his power, he struck off his head with his own scimitar;

then, banishing his family, he put all who had sided with Amru to death.

On the departure of the exiles the caliph demanded the written contract

of Amru’s widow, who replied that she had folded it in his winding sheet,

to be produced at the day of judgment.

[Illustration: THE PLACE OF WORSHIP, MECCA]

Abdul-Malik now resumed his march to Babylonia, having sent trusty

messengers before him to tamper with the fealty of Abdallah’s subjects. A

battle took place near Tadmor (Palmyra), and the caliph possessed himself

of Babylonia and Persian Irak. Abdul-Malik appointed his brother Besher

ben Merwan governor of Babylonia; naming Musa ben Nosair, who had long

enjoyed his father’s confidence, as vizir to the youthful governor. This

man we shall find hereafter figuring as a noted character in the pages

of Islam conquest. The caliph intrusted Musa with the military rolls of

the province, holding him responsible; and the young governor confided

to him the seal of office, intrusting to him the entire direction of the

government. Having made all these arrangements, Abdul-Malik returned to

Damascus. He was now undisputed sovereign of all the eastern part of

the Moslem dominions, and further secured peace in other quarters by a

shameful augmentation of tribute to the Christian emperor; but he did

all this to enable him the better to carry out his scheme of attacking

Abdallah, and bearding him in his very den at Mecca.

SIEGE OF MECCA

[Sidenote: [692-698 A.D.]]

Hajjaj ben Yusuf, appointed to command the expedition to Mecca, was

joined by five thousand troops under Tarik ben Amru. The former general

is celebrated in Moslem history as the ablest and most eloquent man of

his day. Free pardon and protection were proclaimed to all who would

join the standard of these generals. Abdallah sent troops to check their

progress, but his precaution was unavailing. Hajjaj arrived at the city

gates. Before commencing the assault, arrows, whereto proclamations and

letters for the inhabitants were attached, were discharged over the

walls, warning the inhabitants to desert Abdallah, who was so obstinate

as to resist to the last, though their sacred city should crumble into

ruins. The city was assailed with battering-rams, whilst flaming balls of

pitch and naphtha were thrown over the walls and set fire to the houses.

Abdallah, though old and infirm, held out bravely against the besiegers.

It is said that his mother displayed wonderful energy and courage during

the siege, she being a granddaughter of Abu Bekr; ten thousand are said

to have deserted to the camp of Hajjaj, and many supporters of Abdallah

were slain. In this forlorn plight he was offered his own conditions of

surrender; but, consulting his mother as usual, she reminded him that

his father Zobair had died for the same cause, and advised him not to

bend to the yoke of the line of Omayyah; saying that it were better to

die honourably than live dishonoured for the few years that yet remained

for him. Finally, after prodigies of valour, the poor old man was struck

down by a brick, which hastened his death; and he sank exhausted,

fighting to the last, dying, after a disastrous nine years’ reign, in the

seventy-second year of his age and the seventieth year of the Hegira; so

that in those climates, where girls are frequently mothers at fourteen

and fifteen, the aged mother of Abdallah, who aided in the fight to the

last, must have passed her eighty-sixth year. She died in a few hours

after hearing of her son’s gallant conduct and death. Thus ended the

rival caliphate.

The oath of fealty was administered to all the Arabs of those districts.

Hajjaj remained governor of Mecca and Medina, as notorious for his

cruelty as he was renowned for his valour.

In the year seventy-three of the Hegira peace was again restored

throughout the Moslem dominions, which were now united, under the

caliphdom of Abdul-Malik; and this caliph, being freed from the bonds of

civil discord, now turned his thoughts to foreign conquest, hoping to

revive in his name the early triumphs of Islam. First, he threw off the

tribute to the Greek emperor, which, originating in the reign of Moawiyah

I at 3000 dinars of gold annually, had now augmented to the yearly sum

of 365,000. The Christian emperor Leontius had made himself unpopular;

and the caliph, availing himself of the troubled state of his affairs,

sent Ibn Walid on a depredatory expedition. Ibn Walid returned with much

booty; and Lazuca and Baruncium were taken by the Moslems, through the

treachery of Sergius, one of the Greek emperor’s generals. During the

civil wars in the Moslem empire the Christians had retaken most of their

African possessions, slaying Zohair, the commander of Barca; so that it

was only in the interior that the Moslems yet held any strong positions.

The caliph determined to recover all these. In the seventy-fourth year of

the Hegira, Hassan ben Nohman was sent, with forty thousand picked men,

to subjugate the northern coasts of Africa; and proceeded to Carthage,

of which he after a time made himself master. Most of the inhabitants

fell by the sword, but some escaped by sea to Sicily and Spain. The walls

were demolished, the city given up to plunder, and several beautiful

females were taken captives. But while rejoicing over their late

victories, a fleet suddenly appeared in the offing, bringing troops from

Constantinople and Sicily, reinforced by Goths from Spain; the expedition

being under the command of the prefect John, an experienced and valiant

soldier.

The Arab commander, finding himself unable to contend against

overwhelming numbers, retired to Kairwan, where the Islams fortified

themselves, patiently awaiting the reinforcements, which in due time

arrived. With their combined forces the Moslems routed John and his

adherents, besieged Carthage, and razed that noble city to the ground,

giving the place up to flames. The imperial troops were rapidly expelled

from the coast of Africa. But the Moslems had a formidable enemy to

contend with in Kahina the sorceress, the mother of that Ibn Kahina who

had so harassed the troops of the noble and gallant Achbar. Under this

pseudo-prophetess and queen the Moors and Berbers made a valiant stand,

and after several engagements Hassan was compelled to fall back upon

the frontiers of Egypt. On this, Kahina is said to have addressed her

troops, suggesting that they should lay waste the cities and countries

intervening between her own possessions and the land of Egypt, saying

that the wealth and the fruitfulness of these parts were the inducements

which led these Islams continually to disturb their quiet and predicting

that they would be sure, so long as these existed, to return again in

greater numbers.

[Sidenote: [698-699 A.D.]]

Her suggestion was immediately acted upon. Cities and towns were razed

to the ground; fruit trees cut down; fields desolated with fire; and

the whole aspect of the country, from Tangiers to Tripoli, converted,

from being one extensive garden, into a hideous waste, with not a tree

standing to shelter a wayfarer from the sun. But the inhabitants of the

plains, who were great sufferers by this extreme measure, hailed the

return of the Moslems. Kahina was again in the field. This time her ranks

were thinned by desertion, and she was taken prisoner and beheaded.

Hassan returned, laden with booty, to Damascus, where he was received

with honour, and made governor of Barca, still retaining the military

command of the provinces in Africa. Hassan, however, fell a victim to

his honours; for the caliph’s brother, then viceroy of Egypt, offended

that his own lieutenant should be superseded in Barca, waylaid Hassan

and deprived him of his appointment, keeping him so closely guarded that

he died of a broken heart. Abdul-Aziz ben Merwan, the caliph’s brother,

named Musa ben Nosair to the command in northern Africa. Musa was sixty

years old, but still hale and vigorous. He was accompanied by his three

sons.

Musa joined the army in Africa, and told the soldiers that he was one

of themselves; if they found him act well, to thank God and endeavour

to imitate him; if wrong, to reprove, and show him his error; and if

any among them had to complain, let them speak out like men. “Finally,”

said he, “I have instructions from the caliph to pay you three times the

amount of arrears due”: and if anything made the cheers of the soldiers

more hearty, it was this winding up to his speech. A sparrow is said

to have fluttered into his bosom whilst he was speaking, which Musa

interpreted into a favourable omen, crying “Victory, by the master of the

Kaaba; the victory is ours;” at the same time scattering the feathers of

the poor bird into the air.

Musa was liberal, and quite divested of pride--points that endeared him

to the Moslem soldiers. On first arriving he had to contend with a Berber

chief, Warkastaf, who headed a mountain horde that committed depredations

between Zaghwar and Kairwan; him he eventually killed, and his sons,

Abdul-Aziz and Merwan, scattered the mountaineers and made them retreat

beyond the borders of the southern desert. Musa sent his patron a large

share of the spoils which had been taken in Africa; and these chanced to

arrive in Egypt at the very moment that Abdul-Aziz, the viceroy, was at

his wits’ end how to appease the wrath of his brother the caliph. The

caliph, who was an avaricious man, immediately decided in Musa’s favour;

and confirmed his brother’s appointment; making Musa emir of Africa.

It was in the seventy-fifth year of the Hegira that Musa was confirmed

in his post; and in the eightieth he fought the severest contest of his

African campaign, defeating strong hordes of the barbarians in their own

fastnesses amongst the defiles of Mount Atlas.

[Sidenote: [699-705 A.D.]]

At last the two armies came to a pitched battle, when a Berber chief

challenged any Moslem champion to single combat. There being some delay

in answering this challenge, Merwan, the son of Musa, was deputed to

undertake the conflict; when, though very inferior in size and strength,

he slew both horse and rider, thrusting his javelin through them both.

Kasleyah the king of the Berbers was slain, and the victory completed;

and Merwan espoused the daughter of the deceased king, having by her two

sons.

But Musa, not satisfied with triumphs by land, longed to launch out upon

the seas. The caliph had ordered his predecessors to erect an arsenal at

Tunis; and Musa undertook to carry out this project, building dockyards

and a fleet to carry out his proposed enterprise. Many people opposed

this scheme, even as their descendants the modern Arabs set their face

against any improvements, as innovations which were not practised by

their ancestors before them. One old Berber advised him to persevere;

and he followed the advice to such purpose that, by the end of the

year eighty-one of the Hegira, 701 A.D., the arsenal and dockyard were

completed, and a strong fleet rode at anchor in the port of Tunis. About

this time, a fleet sent by Abdul-Aziz took the island of Lampedusa,

capturing immense booty; with which his ships were returning heavily

laden, when a mighty tempest arose; the fleet was driven upon the rocky

coast of Africa, and nearly all hands perished.

[Sidenote: [705-715 A.D.]]

Early in the eighty-second year of the Hegira, Musa embarked with a

thousand volunteers, chosen from the bravest amongst his followers,

upon his first naval expedition; but when the fleet was ready to set

sail, much to the disappointment of those whom he had enlisted, he

disembarked and handed over the command to his third and yet untried

son, Abdallah. He returned laden with spoil; so much so that each of

his followers laid claim to one thousand dinars of gold as his share in

the booty. This expedition was the terrible Algerine scourge in embryo,

which in after years carried death and devastation wherever the black

flag waved triumphant. These vessels returned to port about the same

time when tidings reached Musa of the death of the caliph Abdul-Malik,

which occurred in the eighty-sixth year of the Hegira, 705 A.D., in the

sixtieth year of his age and twentieth of his reign. His son Walid was

immediately proclaimed twelfth caliph or successor of the prophet at

Damascus; and Musa, immediately transmitting the caliph’s due of the

immense booty brought home by the late marine expedition from Tunis, at

once obtained his own confirmation in his post as governor or emir of

northern Africa, while the interests of his sons were proportionately

advanced.

Walid was an idle and voluptuous man; he intrusted the government of his

vast dominions entirely to the emirs appointed by his father, while he

himself, hating to be troubled with the affairs of state, lived almost

secluded from the world within the precincts of his extensive harem,

where he had no less than sixty-three wives and yet died without leaving

any issue. His reign is only distinguishable for the vast improvements

he introduced in the architectural style of the East. His enervated life

secluded him from the well-won and well-worn laurels which had secured

for his ancestors a home and a name. One of his fourteen brothers,

Maslama, invaded Asia Minor, marching on Cappadocia, and besieging the

city of Tyana strongly garrisoned by Christians. Finally, Tyana was won;

and while Maslama extended his conquests, his son was spreading the faith

of Islam in the East.

In the early part of Walid’s caliphate the fleets of Musa continued

to be the scourge of the western parts of the Mediterranean. Some

vessels proceeded to Sicily, some to Sardinia; Syracuse was plundered;

and hundreds of beautiful women were borne away by these corsairs and

sold to adorn the harems of the wealthier Moslems. Abdallah also made

a successful descent upon Majorca, whilst Musa and his eldest sons

triumphed over Fez, Daguella, Morocco, and Sus; the valiant tribes of

the Zeuetes capitulated, till finally the caliph Walid was acknowledged

throughout Almagreb to Cape Nov on the Atlantic; and there remained only

Tingitania, the northern extremity of Almagreb, to be subdued.

While the two vast continents of Europe and Africa were divided by the

Straits of Hercules, Ceuta and Tangiers were the rocky defences of this

narrow passage on the African side; there remained but the opposite

stronghold of Gibraltar to secure the key to the Mediterranean; and

beyond this, in the haze of distance, Musa shaded his eyes to gaze upon

the purple mountains of the fair Andalusia; perhaps the night breeze

wafted across that narrow channel the strange fragrance of a thousand

orange groves, intermixed with the wild herbs and flowers of the

mountains of Spain, and woke the weary Arab from his dream of the dreary

reality of his hot African clime to the desired conquest of that unknown

country. Brightly were such dreams realised in the siege and subsequent

capture of Ceuta, and in the ultimate conquest of Spain.[b]

Leaving the story of the Arabian invasion of Europe to a later chapter,

we may continue with the destinies of the Omayyad dynasty.[a]

THE EASTERN CALIPHATE

Immediately on his succession Walid had confirmed Hajjaj in the

government of Irak, and appointed as governor of Medina his cousin,

Omar b. Abdul-Aziz, who was received there with joy, his piety and

gentle character being well known. Under his government important works

were undertaken at Medina and Mecca by order of Walid, who, having no

rivals to struggle against, was able to give his attention to pacific

occupations. The mosque of Medina was enlarged, wells were sunk, the

streets widened, and hospitals established. At Mecca many improvements

were introduced. The reputation of Omar attracted to the two holy cities

a great number of the inhabitants of Irak, who were groaning under the

iron hand of Hajjaj. The latter, who was not a man to let his prey escape

from his grasp, was so urgent with Walid that he obtained the dismissal

of Omar b. Abdul-Aziz in the year 93, and the appointment of Othman b.

Hayyan at Medina, and of Khalid b. Abdallah at Mecca. These two prefects

compelled the refugees at Mecca and Medina to return to Irak, where many

of them were cruelly treated and even put to death by Hajjaj. It was

probably his cruelty which drove so many men of Irak to enlist in the

armies of the East and the South; and this may in some degree account

for the unheard-of successes of Kotaiba b. Muslim in Transoxiana, and of

Muhammed b. Kasim in India. They may also be explained by the ambition of

Hajjaj, who, it is said, cherished the project of creating a vast empire

for himself to the east and south of the Moslem realm, and had secretly

promised the government of China to the first of his generals who should

reach that country. Be this as it may, in the course of a very few years

Kotaiba conquered the whole of Bokhara, Khwarizm, and Transoxiana or

Mawara-annahr, as far as the frontiers of China. Meanwhile Muhammed b.

Kasim invaded Mokram, Sind, and Multan, carried off an immense booty, and

reduced the women and children to slavery. In Armenia and Asia Minor,

Maslama, brother of the caliph Walid, and his lieutenants, also obtained

numerous successes against the Greeks. In Armenia, Maslama even advanced

as far as the Caucasus.

SULEIMAN’S AMBITIONS

[Sidenote: [715 A.D.]]

[Illustration: COSTUME OF AN ARABIAN WOMAN]

Walid, in the very year of his death, which took place in 715, wished to

have his son Abdul-Aziz b. Walid chosen as his successor, and had offered

his brother Suleiman a great sum of money to induce him to surrender

his rights to the caliphate; but Suleiman obstinately refused to do so.

Walid went still farther, and sent letters to the governors of all the

provinces, calling on them to make the people take the oath of allegiance

to his son. None except Hajjaj and Kotaiba b. Muslim consented thus to

set at nought the order of succession established by Abdul-Malik; and

Suleiman succeeded without difficulty at the death of his brother. We

can easily conceive the hatred felt by Suleiman for Hajjaj, and for all

that belonged to him, far or near. Hajjaj himself escaped by death; but

Suleiman poured out his wrath on his family, and strove to undo all that

he had done. First of all, Muhammed b. Kasim, the conqueror of India, who

was cousin to Hajjaj, was dismissed from his post and outlawed. Hajjaj

had deprived Yazid b. Muhallab of the government of Khorasan; Suleiman

conferred on him that of Irak. Kotaiba b. Muslim, on learning the

accession of Suleiman, knew that his own ruin was certain, and therefore

anticipated the caliph by a revolt. But Suleiman induced Kotaiba’s troops

to desert by authorising them to return to their homes; and when the

illustrious general sought to carry his army with him, a conspiracy was

formed against him which ended in his murder. Yazid b. Muhallab, who

preferred Khorasan to Irak, obtained permission to exchange. Immediately

on his return to Khorasan he set on foot a series of new expeditions

against Jorjan and Tabaristan. But the inhabitants of Khorasan, which

he governed oppressively, made complaints against him to the caliph,

accusing him of practising extortions in order to obtain such a sum of

money as would enable him to rebel against his sovereign. From that

day Suleiman determined to get rid of Yazid. As, however, he was then

dreaming of the conquest of Constantinople, he thought it prudent to

dissemble his dissatisfaction for some time in order to concentrate his

attention on the object of his desires.

[Sidenote: [715-724 A.D.]]

The Byzantine Empire was disturbed by internal troubles during the years

715-717 A.D. Suleiman resolved to take advantage of these in order to

rid himself forever of the hereditary enemy of Islam, and prepared a

formidable expedition. A fleet of eighteen hundred vessels, equipped at

Alexandria, sailed to the coasts of Asia Minor, took on board the Moslem

army, commanded by Maslama, and transported it to Europe. This army

appeared under the walls of Constantinople the 15th of August, 717, five

months after Leo III, the Isaurian, had ascended the throne. Once more

the Greek fire prevailed against the Moslems. Their fleet was destroyed

by this terrible engine of war; the army could obtain no fresh supply of

provisions, and suffered all the horrors of famine. Meanwhile the caliph,

who desired to be present in person at the taking of Constantinople, had

set out to join the army. He fell ill at Dabik, not far from Aleppo,

and died there on the 22nd of September in the same year, after having

nominated as his own successor his cousin, Omar b. Abdul-Aziz, and as

successor to the latter, Yazid b. Abdul-Malik, his own brother. In vain

did the new caliph despatch from Egypt a fleet of four hundred ships to

carry arms and provisions to the army before Constantinople; this fleet

also was destroyed by the Greeks, and the Moslem army was decimated by

famine, and soon by the plague as well. A hundred thousand men perished

miserably under the walls of Constantinople, and Maslama brought back to

Asia Minor a mere handful of soldiers, and that with great difficulty.[c]

THE LAST OMAYYADS (717-750 A.D.)

The caliph appointed by Suleiman to be his successor was his cousin,

Omar II, the son of Abdul-Aziz, a sovereign in whom according to some

authors were united all the virtues of the great Omar without any of

the latter’s severity against unbelievers, while others accuse him of

levying intolerable imposts on the Christians. Yazid, Suleiman’s one

time favourite, the governor of Khorasan, was thrown into prison for

defalcation, and all other governors received strict orders not to resort

to force and oppression in spreading the doctrines of Islamism, but to

proceed with all mildness and humanity. Unfortunately for the realm

the rule of the just and pious prince whose soul turned from earthly

greatness and pride of conquest to the joys of paradise, was of but short

duration. In the third year of his reign he succumbed to a painful malady

which caused grave suspicions of poisoning to arise against certain of

his ambitious kinsmen. Omar had not yet attained his fortieth year when,

deeply mourned by all his people, he was laid in his grave at Deir Saman,

in the neighbourhood of Hims (Emesa).

The four years’ reign of Yazid II, who had beforehand been appointed

Omar’s successor by his brother, Suleiman, ran its course in the midst

of civil and foreign strife. Scarcely had Yazid, Muhallab’s son, learned

of the death of the caliph when he escaped from prison and fleeing to

Irak, where his brothers and other kindred possessed a large following,

raised the standard of revolt. He was overcome, however, by the Syrian

army under Maslama at Akr, on the left bank of the Euphrates, and sought

and found death on the battle-field. His brothers were also overpowered

by the hostile forces at Kerman, their wives and children were sold

as slaves and the rebellious cities of Bassora and Wasit were heavily

punished. At the same time wars, desertions, and conspiracies were rife

in the remaining provinces, especially in northern Africa; while even

in Spain and southern France the Moslem arms no longer met with their

former success. Meanwhile the caliph in Damascus was giving himself

up completely to the pleasures of love and song, and in the arms of a

favourite slave was seeking restoration from the fatigues and hardships

of a ruler’s life.

[Sidenote: [724-744 A.D.]]

Yazid’s brother and successor, Hisham, adopted an entirely different

course. Simple in taste, just and pious like both the Omars, he

banished from his court the luxury and extravagance in which most of

his predecessors had freely indulged. But the house of Omayyad had too

many enemies even among the believers themselves, and passions had been

too deeply stirred by the recent civil war to make it possible that

the twenty years’ reign of a prince who in spite of many praiseworthy

qualities had by his avarice and suspicion incurred the enmity of all

the city authorities, could run its course without suffering violence

from storms and accidents. The abhorrence felt in Cufa toward the cruel

and rapacious governor Khalid, had moreover revived in the minds of the

mercurial inhabitants of Irak, all their former aversion to the Omayyads,

and incited the Shiites to fresh revolt. Khalid was indeed deposed from

office and forced by torture to disgorge his ill-got wealth, but the

conspiracy was already too widespread to be completely uprooted. Zaid,

a grandson of Husein, headed a revolt in the streets of Cufa, which

resulted in a sharp struggle during which the leader and most of his

followers lost their lives. Zaid’s body was mutilated and his head sent

to the caliph at Damascus. But the new glory of martyrdom served only

to enhance the importance and sanctity of the Alids, and to strengthen

the hopes entertained by the Abbasids, their kinsmen, of entering the

succession and getting the sovereignty away from the Koreishites to

secure it to the house of Hisham to which alone, in the opinion of strict

believers, it rightfully belonged. They had a large following in Khorasan

and Transoxiana; and the Kharijites who, in consequence of the recent

campaigns, had spread over the entire realm, served them in India and in

Africa in the execution of their ambitious plans against the Omayyads.

The insurrections, conspiracies, and civil wars which under Hisham broke

out with ever increasing violence in the provinces, multiplying acts of

rapacity and revenge, and dealing death-blows to the welfare of country,

state, and people by the destruction of agriculture, industry, and trade,

were so many indubitable signs that the unity of the kingdom was about

to be dissolved, that the might of the Omayyad dynasty in Damascus was

nearing its end. The subjugated populations were beginning to recover

from their surprise and to bethink themselves of former times; and

though the majority still remained faithful to the new religion, the

consciousness of their national identity and remembrance of the past were

not to be blotted from their minds, and the bold leader who could best

evoke these secret feelings could count upon warm sympathy and a crowd

of followers. The dissimilar elements that religious zeal had served to

bind together in the first enthusiasm of the “Sacred War,” strove in the

course of time, as other interests came uppermost and smothered passions

again broke loose, to separate naturally and once more become distinct.

These strivings on the part of the people towards independence were

effectually aided by the divisions and hostilities that existed between

the various commanders, by the machinations of the Abbasids, and their

co-religionists and by the avarice of the caliph who, though observing

the closest parsimony in his own mode of living, loved to feast his eyes

on full state coffers.

[Sidenote: [744-750 A.D.]]

Walid II, Hisham’s successor, scattered the hoarded treasures of his

predecessor, and delighted flatterers, courtiers, generals, and troops

by his boundless liberality. He disgraced himself, on the other hand, by

his licentiousness and excesses, and gave offence by running counter to

all the accepted Mohammedan customs and religious laws. However loudly

smooth-tongued poets, in whose company he squandered the wealth that was

his by oppression as well as by inheritance, might sing his praises, the

people were wroth with the unworthy ruler who spent his time in hunting

and debauchery, found all his pleasure in wine, song, and dance, indulged

in unnatural vices and flouted public decency by carrying with him dogs

and wine on a pilgrimage to Mecca. When, therefore, this godless caliph

sent to the governors a circular letter filled with pious maxims of the

strictest orthodoxy, calling upon all the people to acknowledge and swear

allegiance to his two minor sons, Hakam and Othman, as their future

rulers, the unheard-of innovation excited the liveliest dissatisfaction.

Especially loud in their complaints were the sovereign’s own kinsmen,

who had each in secret cherished the hope of succession; so that now

another and more threatening danger was added to those by which the royal

house was already beset; disunion within itself. The sons of Hisham and

Walid I allied themselves with the enemies of the Omayyads, and accused

the caliph, whom they had also personally affronted, of “unbelief,

free-thought, and incest.” Even Khalid, hitherto steadily devoted to

the House of Omayyah, hesitated at swearing allegiance to two children

who “did not yet know how to pray, and could not be accepted as lawful

witnesses.” The caliph thereupon gave him into the hands of his mortal

enemy Yusuf, governor of Cufa, who caused his members to be broken

one after another until he died under the torture. By this act Walid

increased the number of his enemies. A widespread conspiracy was formed

in Damascus and its vicinity, under the leadership of Yazid, son of the

former caliph Walid I, as a result of which the commander of the faithful

was attacked by a troop of insurgents in his castle of Nadira, and after

a brave resistance was overpowered and killed. The following day his head

was carried on the end of a lance about the streets of Damascus, and his

own brother Suleiman refused to his remains the honour of burial. The

reign of Yazid III lasted but half a year. As a former rebel against the

rightful sovereign, as an adherent of the doctrines of free-will, and as

a parsimonious leader who curtailed the pay of his troops, he had made

many enemies; and would certainly have succumbed to the arms of mighty

Merwan, the Omayyad governor of Armenia and Aderbaijan, who advanced upon

him with a large army, had he not died just previous to the encounter.

Merwan now entered Syria with his seasoned, experienced troops, captured

Himso, and in a desperate engagement that took place in a narrow valley

near Ain Diar defeated the Yemenite army that Hisham’s son, Suleiman, had

led into the field against him. In this battle Suleiman left seventeen

thousand men on the field of battle, and as many more fell into the

hands of Merwan, while the rest of his army scattered in disorder. When

the news of this battle reached Damascus, Ibrahim, whom Yazid III had

designated as his successor, fled with Suleiman from the capital, after

having put to death Walid’s sons and Yusuf, the earlier governor of Irak,

who were in prison, and seized the state treasures. Merwan, who had

hitherto acted only as Walid’s avenger and the protector of his sons, now

found himself in a position where he could stretch out his hand towards

the crown of caliph, and cause the oath of allegiance to be taken to

himself. In order to give his pretensions the appearance of legitimacy he

made known the statement of a fellow-prisoner of the murdered princes,

who asserted that at his death the eldest of them had made over his right

of succession to the throne to him, Merwan. In spite of this sanction,

whether true or false, and in spite of the reconciliation which took

place later with Ibrahim and Suleiman, Merwan’s rule never met with

full recognition. The battle of Ain Diar had inflicted wounds too deep,

had brought uppermost in too many minds the sacred duty of revenge, to

allow Merwan, the usurper, to ever come to peaceful enjoyment of his

power. The years of his reign were marked by uninterrupted struggles

with hostile factions, who had again united and all over the realm were

stirring up the people to revolt. Even the Syrians, who had hitherto

been the Omayyad’s strongest prop, went over in part to the enemy, and

Merwan, with all his military talent and the tireless activity that had

won for him the rather doubtful title of Himar (Donkey), could not in

the long run withstand such determined opposition. With insurrection,

tribal feuds, and civil strife in every province the whole realm was in

a condition of anarchy and lawlessness that destroyed all private peace,

and awoke in every breast an intense desire for a firm hand at the helm

of state that should guide it into less troubled waters. That such a

ruler was no longer to be looked for among the members of the house

of Omayyah, divided as it was, and having foot on no solid, religious

ground, had lately become the settled conviction in the minds of all.

In the East the active partisan, Abu Muslim, had raised the black flag of

the Abbasids and had appeared clad in black in company with his followers

at the most splendid feasts. “Under the embers,” said Nasr, governor of

Khorasan, to the caliph when he begged help against the house of Abbas

and its champion, Abu Muslim, “I see red coals that will soon burst

into flame and suffocate or consume the wisest, body and trunk. As wood

nurses fire to flame, so incendiary speeches precipitate war, and in

astonishment I ask, is the family of Omayyah awake or asleep?”

After Nasr had suffered numerous attacks from Abu Muslim he received

from the caliph reinforcements under the general Nabata. But when the

latter with ten thousand Syrians was defeated by Abu Muslim’s forces,

under Kahtaba Nasr fled with the rest of his troops to Hamadan. He did

not live to reach the ancient city, and his successor to the governorship

surrendered to Kahtaba who was just returning from a second victory

near Ispahan, on condition that himself and his Syrian followers should

receive full pardon. The black flag of Abbasids now waved in all the

lands east of the Tigris, and for the family of Omayyah the decisive

hour had arrived. Kahtaba perished on the blood-soaked battle-field of

Kerbela; but his son Hasan, who succeeded his father to the command,

completely defeated the Syrian army, which was led by the brave governor

Hobaira. It was now the turn of Cufa to display the black banner and in

that city Abul-Abbas, the head of the Abbasids, was proclaimed caliph.

When the news of these events reached the warlike Merwan, he gathered

together his entire military force and after causing Ibrahim, the eldest

of the Abbasid brothers, to be put to death in his prison at Haram,

advanced to meet the enemy. On the river Zab, not far from the ruins of

Nineveh, where once in the neighbourhood of Arbela and Gaugamela the fate

of the Persian kingdom and its reigning house had been decided, took

place the great battle which wrested from the Omayyads the sceptre of

supremacy in the East, and gave the first impulse toward the dissolution

of the entire kingdom (January 25th, 750). Fortune which had so long

been favourable to Merwan now deserted him; beset by treachery and

ill-chance, he fled from the battle-field to Hims and Damascus, whither

but few of the soldiers that made up his mighty forces could follow him,

those who escaped the sword of the enemy finding death in the waters

of the stream. Abdallah then began a triumphal march through all the

towns and countries that lay between Mosul and Syria. Merwan, after

having appointed his son-in-law Walid governor, fled at his approach

to Palestine. Here he learned that the black flag was also flying in

Damascus, where the terrible Abdallah, nicknamed “As-Saffan, the Shedder

of Blood,” had celebrated his entrance by putting to death the newly

appointed governor Walid, and he again sought flight--into Egypt this

time. But insurrection had reached even the peaceful Nile valley, and in

an unsuccessful engagement with the opposing factionists Merwan II came

to a violent end while seeking refuge in a church at Busir, in Upper

Egypt.

[Sidenote: [661-750 A.D.]]

With Merwan’s death the last support to the unity of the kingdom was

removed. Weak and unpopular as were many of the rulers of the Omayyad

dynasty, their sway nevertheless extended from the Indus and the

Iaxartes to the western coast of the Pyrenean peninsula, and from the

Caucasus to the Bay of Aden. Sole founders and perpetuators of the

Islamite kingdom in the three divisions of the ancient world, the early

fame of the Omayyads served to gloss over many a fault in their later

representatives, lending a lustre to their names which according to their

contemporaries did not rightfully belong to them. Now that Abul-Abbas

had become established in Damascus, the central point round which the

whole political life of the Moslems had revolved was lost; and Islamism

was henceforth to break up into ever widening smaller circles in which

each unit was free to develop individually, until the Mohammedan world

should be again reduced to that condition of dismemberment which had at

first prevailed among the tribes of the Arabian peninsula. There were

indeed among the caliphs of Damascus some to whom virtues and the ability

to rule were not denied by later writers. Omar II’s piety and love of

justice, and the court life of Yazid II, bright with all the lustre that

benevolence, poetry, and brilliant feasts could shed upon it, received

full meed of praise from poets and true believers. By borrowing from the

Byzantines their methods of administration and their Greek-Roman culture,

by attracting to their court physicians, architects, and mathematicians,

and enriching the simple life of the inhabitants of the desert with the

arts and conveniences of civilisation, they showed future rulers how

to weld together native and foreign constituents so that great results

might be obtained, to unite many and diverse elements into one specific

whole. But a stain rested upon the name of the Omayyads that, in the

opinion of true believers, could never be wiped away. The blood of Ali

and his family still dyed their hands, they had driven the sacred line of

Mohammed from the seat of honour, and they had covered the head of Hosein

with ridicule and contempt. These sins could not be expiated by any

single act; they constituted a perpetual curse that must descend from one

generation to another of the race, dividing families by dissensions and

internal feuds until the whole dynasty should finally be overthrown.[d]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII. THE ARABS IN EUROPE

[Sidenote: [711-961 A.D.]]

In the progress of conquest from the north and south, the Goths and the

Saracens encountered each other on the confines of Europe and Africa. In

the opinion of the latter, the difference of religion is a reasonable

ground of enmity and warfare. As early as the time of Othman, their

piratical squadrons had ravaged the coasts of Andalusia; nor had they

forgotten the relief of Carthage by the Gothic succours. In that age,

as well as in the present, the kings of Spain were possessed of the

fortress of Ceuta; one of the columns of Hercules, which is divided by

a narrow strait from the opposite pillar or point of Europe. A small

portion of Mauretania was still wanting to the African conquest; but

Musa, in the pride of victory, was repulsed from the walls of Ceuta by

the vigilance and courage of Count Julian, the general of the Goths. From

his disappointment and perplexity Musa was relieved by an unexpected

message from the Christian chief, who offered his place, his person, and

his sword, to the successors of Mohammed, and solicited the disgraceful

honour of introducing their arms into the heart of Spain.

[Sidenote: [711 A.D.]]

If we inquire into the cause of his treachery, the Spaniards will repeat

the popular story of his daughter La Cava, of a virgin who was seduced,

or ravished, by her sovereign; of a father who sacrificed his religion

and country to the thirst of revenge. The passions of princes have often

been licentious and destructive; but this well-known tale, romantic in

itself, is indifferently supported by external evidence; and the history

of Spain will suggest some motives of interest and policy more congenial

to the breast of a veteran statesman. After the decease or deposition

of Witiza, his two sons were supplanted by the ambition of Roderic, a

noble Goth, whose father, the duke or governor of a province, had fallen

a victim to the preceding tyranny. The monarchy was still elective; but

the sons of Witiza, educated on the steps of the throne, were impatient

of a private station. Their resentment was more dangerous, as it was

varnished with the dissimulation of courts; their followers were excited

by the remembrance of favours and the promise of a revolution; and their

uncle Oppas, archbishop of Toledo and Seville, was the first person in

the church, and the second in the state. It is probable that Julian was

involved in the disgrace of the unsuccessful faction; that he had little

to hope and much to fear from the new reign; and that the imprudent king

could not forget or forgive the injuries which Roderic and his family had

sustained. Too feeble to meet his sovereign in arms, he sought the aid of

a foreign power; and his rash invitation to the Moors and Arabs produced

the calamities of eight hundred years. In his epistles, or in a personal

interview, he revealed the wealth and nakedness of his country; the

weakness of an unpopular prince; the degeneracy of an effeminate people.

The Goths were no longer the victorious barbarians who had humbled the

pride of Rome, despoiled the queen of nations, and penetrated from the

Danube to the Atlantic Ocean. Secluded from the world by the Pyrenean

Mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered in a long peace; the

walls of the cities were mouldered into dust; the youth had abandoned

the exercise of arms; and the presumption of their ancient renown

would expose them in a field of battle to the first assault of the

invaders. The ambitious Saracen was fired by the ease and importance of

the attempt; but the execution was delayed till he had consulted the

commander of the faithful; and his messenger returned with the permission

of Walid to annex the unknown kingdoms of the West to the religion and

throne of the caliphs. In his residence of Tangier, Musa, with secrecy

and caution, continued his correspondence and hastened his preparations.

But the remorse of the conspirators was soothed by the fallacious

assurance that he should content himself with the glory and spoil,

without aspiring to establish the Moslems beyond the sea that separates

Africa from Europe.

Before Musa would trust an army of the faithful to the traitors and

infidels of a foreign land, he made a less dangerous trial of their

strength and veracity. One hundred Arabs, and four hundred Africans

passed over in four vessels from Tangier, or Ceuta; the place of their

descent on the opposite shore of the strait is marked by the name of

Tarik their chief; and the date of this memorable event is fixed to

the month of Ramadhan, of the ninety-first year of the Hegira. Their

hospitable entertainment, the Christians who joined their standard, their

inroad into a fertile and unguarded province, the richness of their

spoil and the safety of their return, announced to their brethren the

most favourable omens of victory. In the ensuing spring, five thousand

veterans and volunteers were embarked under the command of Tarik, a

dauntless and skilful soldier, who surpassed the expectation of his

chief; and the necessary transports were provided by the industry of

their too faithful ally.

The Saracens landed at the pillar or point of Europe; the corrupt and

familiar appellation of Gibraltar (_Jebel at-Tarik_) describes the

mountain of Tarik; and the entrenchments of his camp were the first

outline of those fortifications, which, in the hands of the British,

have resisted the art and power of the house of Bourbon. The adjacent

governors informed the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the

Arabs; and the defeat of his lieutenant Edeco, who had been commanded

to seize and bind the presumptuous strangers, admonished Roderic of the

magnitude of the danger. At the royal summons, the dukes, and counts,

the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy, assembled at the head of

their followers; and the title of king of the Romans, which is employed

by an Arabic historian, may be excused by the close affinity of language,

religion, and manners, between the nations of Spain.

His army consisted of ninety or a hundred thousand men; a formidable

power, if their fidelity and discipline had been adequate to their

numbers. The troops of Tarik had been augmented to twelve thousand

Saracens; but the Christian malcontents were attracted by the influence

of Julian, and a crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the temporal

blessings of the _Koran_. In the neighbourhood of Cadiz, the town of

Xeres has been illustrated by the encounter which determined the fate

of the kingdom; the stream of the Guadalete, which falls into the bay,

divided the two camps, and marked the advancing and retreating skirmishes

of three successive and bloody days. On the fourth day, the two armies

joined a more serious and decisive issue; but Alaric would have blushed

at the sight of his unworthy successor, sustaining on his head a diadem

of pearls, encumbered with a flowing robe of gold and silken embroidery,

and reclining on a litter, or car of ivory, drawn by two white mules.

Notwithstanding the valour of the Saracens, they fainted under the

weight of multitudes, and the plain of Xeres was overspread with sixteen

thousand of their dead bodies. “My brethren,” said Tarik to his surviving

companions, “the enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would

ye fly? Follow your general; I am resolved either to lose my life, or

to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans.” Besides the resource

of despair, he confided in the secret correspondence and nocturnal

interviews of Count Julian with the sons and the brother of Witiza. The

two princes and the archbishop of Toledo occupied the most important

post; their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the Christians;

each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult his personal

safety; and the remains of the Gothic army were scattered or destroyed

in the flight and pursuit of the three following days. Amidst the

general disorder, Roderick started from his car, and mounted Orelia, the

fleetest of his horses; but he escaped from a soldier’s death to perish

more ignobly in the waters of the Bætis or Guadalquivir. His diadem,

his robes, and his courser, were found on the bank; but as the body of

the Gothic prince was lost in the waves, the pride and ignorance of the

caliph must have been gratified with some meaner head, which was exposed

in triumph before the palace of Damascus.[38] “And such,” continues

a valiant historian[b] of the Arabs, “is the fate of those kings who

withdraw themselves from a field of battle.”

Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy, that his only

hope was in the ruin of his country. After the battle of Xeres he

recommended the most effectual measures to the victorious Saracen. Tarik

listened to his advice. A Roman captive and proselyte, who had been

enfranchised by the caliph himself, assaulted Cordova with seven hundred

horse; he swam the river, surprised the town, and drove the Christians

into the great church, where they defended themselves above three months.

Another detachment reduced the seacoast of Bætica. The march of Tarik

was directed through the Sierra Morena, that separates Andalusia and

Castile, till he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo. The most

zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints;

and if the gates were shut it was only till the victor had subscribed a

fair and reasonable capitulation. But if the justice of Tarik protected

the Christians, his gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews, to whose

secret or open aid he was indebted for his most important acquisitions.

Persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain, who had often pressed the

alternative of banishment or baptism, that outcast nation embraced the

moment of revenge; the comparison of their past and present state was

the pledge of their fidelity; and the alliance between the disciples of

Moses and of Mohammed was maintained till the final era of their common

expulsion.

[Sidenote: [711-713 A.D.]]

From the royal seat of Toledo, the Arabian leader spread his conquests

to the north, over the modern realms of Castile and Leon; but it is

needless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his approach, or again

to describe the table of emerald, transported from the East by the

Romans, acquired by the Goths among the spoils of Rome, and presented

by the Arabs to the throne of Damascus. Beyond the Asturian mountains,

the maritime town of Gijon was the term of the lieutenant of Musa, who

had performed, with the speed of a traveller, his victorious march of

seven hundred miles, from the rock of Gibraltar to the Bay of Biscay. The

failure of land compelled him to retreat; and he was recalled to Toledo

to excuse his presumption of subduing a kingdom in the absence of his

general.