Spain, which, in a more savage and disorderly state, had resisted two

hundred years the arms of the Romans, was overrun in a few months by

those of the Saracens; and such was the eagerness of submission and

treaty, that the governor of Cordova is recorded as the only chief who

fell, without conditions, a prisoner into their hands. The cause of the

Goths had been irrevocably judged in the field of Xeres; and, in the

national dismay, each part of the monarchy declined a contest with the

antagonist who had vanquished the united strength of the whole. Yet a

spark of the vital flame was still alive; some invincible fugitives

preferred a life of poverty and freedom in the Asturian valleys; the

hardy mountaineer repulsed the slaves of the caliph; and the sword of

Pelagius (Pelayo) has been transformed into the sceptre of the Catholic

kings.

[Illustration: A SARACEN CHIEF]

On the intelligence of his rapid success, the applause of Musa

degenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain but to fear, that

Tarik would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head of ten thousand

Arabs and eight thousand Africans, he passed over in person from

Mauretania to Spain; the first of his companions were the noblest of

the Koreish; his eldest son was left in the command of Africa; the

three younger brethren were of an age and spirit to second the boldest

enterprises of their father. Some enemies yet remained for the sword of

Musa. The tardy repentance of the Goths had compared their own numbers

and those of the invaders; the cities from which the march of Tarik had

declined considered themselves as impregnable; and the bravest patriots

defended the fortifications of Seville and Merida. They were successively

besieged and reduced by the labour of Musa, who transported his camp

from the Bætis to the Anas, from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When

he beheld the works of Roman magnificence, the bridge, the aqueducts,

the triumphal arches, and the theatre, of the ancient metropolis of

Lusitania, “I should imagine,” said he to his four companions, “that the

human race must have united their art and power in the foundation of

this city; happy is the man who shall become its master!” The defence

of Merida was obstinate and long; and the castle of the martyrs was a

perpetual testimony of the losses of the Moslems. The constancy of the

besieged was at length subdued by famine and despair; and the prudent

victor disguised his impatience under the names of clemency and esteem.

The alternative of exile or tribute was allowed; the churches were

divided between the two religions; and the wealth of those who had fallen

in the siege, or retired to Galicia, was confiscated as the reward of the

faithful.

In the midway between Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of Musa saluted

the vicegerent of the caliph, and conducted him to the palace of the

Gothic kings. Their first interview was cold and formal; a rigid account

was exacted of the treasures of Spain; the character of Tarik was exposed

to suspicion and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and

ignominiously scourged by the hand, or the command, of Musa. Yet so

strict was the discipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame the spirit, of

the primitive Moslems, that after this public indignity, Tarik could

serve and be trusted in the reduction of the Tarragonese province. A

mosque was erected at Saragossa, by the liberality of the Koreish; the

port of Barcelona was opened to the vessels of Syria; and the Goths were

pursued beyond the Pyrenean Mountains into their Gallic province of

Septimania or Languedoc. In the church of St. Mary at Carcassonne, Musa

found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of

massy silver; and from his _term_ or column of Narbonne, he returned on

his footsteps to the Galician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During

the absence of the father, the son Abdul-Aziz chastised the insurgents

of Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valencia, the seacoast of the

Mediterranean.

Theodemir and his subjects were treated with uncommon lenity; but the

rate of tribute appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth,

according to the submission or obstinacy of the Christians. In this

revolution, many partial calamities were inflicted by the carnal or

religious passions of the enthusiasts; some churches were profaned by the

new worship; some relics or images were confounded with idols; the rebels

were put to the sword; and one town (an obscure place between Cordova and

Seville) was razed to its foundations. Yet if we compare the invasion of

Spain by the Goths, or its recovery by the kings of Castile and Aragon,

we must applaud the moderation and discipline of the Arabian conquerors.

The exploits of Musa were performed in the evening of life, though

he affected to disguise his age by colouring with a red powder the

whiteness of his beard. But in the love of action and glory, his breast

was still fired with the ardour of youth; and the possession of Spain

was considered only as the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With

a powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass the

Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of the

Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the

Vatican. From thence subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to

follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to

overthrow the Greek or Roman Empire of Constantinople, and, returning

from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the

provinces of Syria. But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution,

must have seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and the visionary conqueror

was soon reminded of his dependence and servitude.

The friends of Tarik had effectually stated his services and wrongs;

at the court of Damascus, the proceedings of Musa were blamed, his

intentions were suspected, and his delay in complying with the first

invitation was chastised by a harsher and more peremptory summons. An

intrepid messenger of the caliph entered his camp at Lugo in Galicia,

and in the presence of the Saracens and Christians arrested the bridle

of his horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated the

duty of obedience; and his disgrace was alleviated by the recall of his

rival, and the permission of investing with his two governments his two

sons, Abdallah and Abdul-Aziz. His long triumph, from Ceuta to Damascus,

displayed the spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain; four hundred

Gothic nobles, with gold coronets and girdles, were distinguished in his

train; and the number of male and female captives, selected for their

birth or beauty, was computed at eighteen, or even at thirty, thousand

persons.

[Sidenote: [713-722 A.D.]]

Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to

the caliph--the seas, the rivers, and the harbours, the inhabitants and

cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of the earth.

In the space of two centuries the gifts of nature were improved by the

agriculture, the manufactures, and the commerce of an industrious people;

and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by the idleness

of their fancy. The first of the Omayyads who reigned in Spain solicited

the support of the Christians; and, in his edict of peace and protection,

he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces of

gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules,

one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and lances. The

most powerful of his successors derived from the same kingdom the annual

tribute of twelve millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of

gold, about six millions of sterling money; a sum which, in the tenth

century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christian

monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred mosques, nine

hundred baths, and two hundred thousand houses; he gave laws to eighty

cities of the first, to three hundred of the second and third order: and

the fertile banks of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand

villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they

created and they describe the most prosperous era of the riches, the

cultivation, and the populousness of Spain.[c]

Musa did not reach Syria until the close of the year 714. Walid

Abul-Abbas was on the bed of death; and Suleiman, the brother and heir

of the caliph, wrote to the emir, commanding him not to approach the

expiring sovereign, but to delay his entrance into Damascus until the

opening of a new reign. Suleiman doubtless wished that the pomp of the

spectacle should grace his own accession, and that the treasures now

brought should not run the risk of dispersion by his brother. But Musa

imprudently disregarded the command; perhaps he dreaded the fate which

would await him for his delay should Walid recover; and he proceeded to

the palace. That prince, however, in a few days bade adieu to empire and

to life, and Musa remained exposed to the vengeance of Suleiman. He was

cast into prison; was beaten with rods, while made to stand a whole day

before the gate of the palace; and lastly was fined in so heavy a sum,

that, unless his wealth were exhaustless, he must have been impoverished.

While Musa was thus deservedly punished for his rapacity and injustice,

his son Abdul-Aziz was actively employed in finishing the subjugation of

the peninsula. But one step, which he doubtless expected would strengthen

his influence with both Arabs and natives, was the occasion of his

downfall. Smitten with the charms of Egilona, the widow of Roderic, he

made her first his concubine, next his wife; and it is probable that

through the counsels of that ambitious and unprincipled woman, he aimed

at an independent sovereignty. Besides, Suleiman might well apprehend the

open rebellion of the son, on learning the story of the father’s harsh

fate. To prevent the consequences which he dreaded might arise from the

indignation of this powerful family, he despatched secret orders for

the deposition and death of the three brothers. And Abdul-Aziz, while

assisting at morning prayers in the mosque of Seville, fell beneath the

poniards of the assassins. After this bloody execution, so characteristic

of Mussulman government, Habib ben Obaid departed with the head of the

emir to the court of Damascus. It was shown to Musa by the caliph, who at

the same time asked him with a bitter smile, if he recognised it. The old

man, who recognised it too well, turned away his shuddering looks, and

fearlessly exclaimed, “Cursed be he who has destroyed a better man than

himself!” He then left the palace and betook himself to the deserts of

Arabia, where the grief of having thus lost his children soon brought him

broken-hearted to the grave.

Severe as were the afflictions of Musa, and execrable as was the manner

in which those afflictions were brought upon him, it is impossible

to feel much pity for his fate. Of envy, rapacity, and injustice, he

has been proved abundantly guilty; and though little is said of his

cruelty by Arabic writers who lived long after his time, it is no less

indisputable from the testimony of contemporary Christian historians.

The horrors which he perpetrated in his career of conquest, or rather of

extermination, have been compared to those of Troy and of Jerusalem, and

to the worst atrocities of the persecuting heathen emperors. There may

be exaggeration in the declamatory statements of those historians, but

the very exaggeration must be admitted to prove the melancholy fact. The

execution of Abdul-Aziz produced a great consternation in the minds of

the natives.

The Arab sheikhs assembled to invest one of their body with the high

dignity. The virtues and wisdom of Ayub ben Habib, the nephew of Musa,

commanded their unanimous suffrages. But Omar II, the successor of

Suleiman, disdaining to recognise a governor not appointed by the

sovereign authority of the caliph, deposed Ayub and nominated Al-Haur

ben Abd ar-Rahman to the viceregal dignity. Not even the rich booty

which he collected during an irruption into Gothic Gaul, could, it is

said, satisfy his rapacity; and he extorted heavy sums from the people.

But what added most to the discontent of the Arabs was the defeat of

his general Al-Kama, who had ventured to penetrate into the mountain

fastnesses of the Asturias, to crush the infant power of Pelayo. [See the

later volume on Spain.]

Yazid, the successor of Omar, replaced Al-Haur by As-Sama ben Malik [or

Assan], 721 A.D. At the head of a considerable force, he passed the

Pyrenees, took Carcassonne, reduced Narbonne, and laid siege to Toulouse,

which made a noble resistance until Eudes, duke of Aquitaine, hastened

to its relief. A bloody battle was fought under the walls of that city,

fatal to the hopes of the Moslems. Their emir, their sheikhs, and many

thousands of their number, were left on the field; perhaps few would have

escaped, but for the courageous address of Abd ar-Rahman, the lieutenant

of the deceased chief, who rallied the remains of the troops, and safely

effected a retreat to Narbonne.

The grateful remnant immediately invested Abd ar-Rahman ben Abdallah with

the government of Spain; and the election was confirmed by the emir of

Africa. But Ambasa succeeded, by criminal intrigues, in procuring the

deposition of this favourite chief and his own nomination. Carcassonne

and Nîmes vainly attempted to resist him. In the midst of his success,

however, death surprised him; and, at his own request, Odsra ben

Abdallah was permitted to succeed him, but was speedily replaced by

Yahya ben Salma. So loud, however, were the complaints that the African

emir was obliged to depose him, and to nominate in his room Othman ben

Abi Neza, better known to the readers both of history and romance as

Manuza. But in a very few months this emir was replaced by another; and

the latter was as summarily removed to make way for the Syrian Al-Haitam

ben Obaid. At the end of two months, Abd ar-Rahman, the predecessor of

Ambasa, was again invested with the viceregal dignity--an appointment

which gave the highest satisfaction to the country.

THE INVASION OF FRANCE

[Sidenote: [722-732 A.D.]]

This celebrated emir commenced his second administration by distributing

justice so impartially, that the professors of neither faith could find

reason to complain. But these cares could not long divert him from the

great design he had formed--that of invading the whole of Gaul. Though

the Arabic historians conceal the extent of the preparations, for the

natural purpose of palliating the disgrace of failure, there can be no

doubt that those preparations were on an immense scale; that the true

believers flocked to the white standard[39] from the farthest parts of

the caliph’s dominions; and that the whole Mohammedan world contemplated

the expedition with intense anxiety.

Just before the Mussulman army commenced its march, Othman, who still

continued at his station in Gothic Gaul, very near to the Pyrenees,

received orders to lay waste the province of Aquitaine. But Othman, or

Manuza, was in no disposition to execute the order; he had seen with

envy Abd ar-Rahman preferred to himself; and his marriage with one of

the daughters of Eudes, duke of Aquitaine, whom he passionately loved,

rendered him more eager to cultivate the friendship than to incur the

hostility of the Franks. In this perplexity, Othman acquainted Eudes

with the meditated assault, and thereby enabled that chief to meet it.

Abd ar-Rahman instantly despatched a select body of troops under one of

his confidential generals, to watch the movements, and, if necessary, to

punish the treason, of Othman, who, with his beautiful princess, sought

for safety in flight. He was overtaken in the Pyrenees, while resting

during the heat of the day beside a fountain. His head was sent to the

emir, and his bride to end her days in the harem of Damascus.

Abd ar-Rahman now commenced his momentous march, in the hope of carrying

the banner of the prophet to the very shores of the Baltic. His progress

spread dismay throughout Europe; and well it might, for so formidable and

destructive an armament Europe had not seen since the days of Attila.

Conflagrations, ruins, the shrieks of violated chastity, and the groans

of the dying, rendered this memorable invasion more like the work of

a demon than of a man. The flourishing towns of southern and central

France, from Gascony to Burgundy, and from the Garonne to the Loire, were

soon transformed into smoking heaps. In vain did Eudes strive to arrest

the overpowering torrent, by disputing the passage of the Dordogne;

his army was swept before it, and he himself was compelled to become a

suppliant to his enemy the mayor of the Franks. That celebrated hero,

Charles Martel, whose actions, administration, and numerous victories

commanded the just admiration of the times, was no less anxious to

become the saviour of Christendom; but he knew too well the magnitude of

the danger to meet it by premature efforts; and he silently collected

in Belgium and in Germany the elements of resistance to the dreaded

inundation. When his measures were taken, he boldly advanced at the head

of his combined Franks, Belgians, Germans, etc., towards the enemy,

who had just reduced Tours, and who was soon drawn up to receive him

in the extended plain between that city and Poitiers. After six days’

skirmishing, both advanced to the shock. The contest was long and bloody;

the utmost valour was displayed by the two armies, and the utmost ability

by the two captains; but in the end, the impenetrable ranks, robust

frames, and iron hands of the Germans turned the fortune of the day. When

darkness arrived, an immense number of Saracen bodies, among which was

that of Abd ar-Rahman himself, covered the plain. Still the misbelievers

were formidable alike from their numbers and from their possible despair;

and the victors remained in their tents, under arms, during the night.

At break of day they prepared to renew the struggle; the white tents

of the Arabs, extending as far as the eye could reach, appeared before

them, but not a living creature came out to meet them. It was at length

discovered that the enemy had abandoned their camp, their own wealth,

and the immense plunder they had amassed; and had silently, though

precipitately, withdrawn from the field. Christendom was saved; pope and

monk, prince and peasant, in an ecstasy of grateful devotion, hastened

to the churches, to thank heaven for a victory which, however dearly it

had been purchased by the true servants of God, had inflicted so signal a

blow on the misbelievers, that their return was no longer dreaded.

[Illustration: A FRENCH SOLDIER OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY]

This far-famed victory, which was obtained in the year 732, spread

consternation throughout the whole Mohammedan world. Fortunately for

Christendom, the domestic quarrels of the Mussulmans themselves, the

fierce struggles of their chiefs for the seat of the prophet, prevented

them from universally arming to vindicate their faith and their martial

reputation. Abdul-Malik ben Khotan was nominated by the African emir

to succeed Abd ar-Rahman and to revenge the late disasters. The emir

passed the Pyrenees; but a complete panic seemed to have seized on

his followers, who soon retreated, but were pursued and destroyed. He

was superseded by Okba ben al-Hajjaj. Feeling his mind and body alike

exhausted by his harassing duties, he applied to the caliph for the

restoration of Abdul-Malik.

[Sidenote: [733-755 A.D.]]

The restored emir had little reason to congratulate himself on his

good fortune. The restless barbarians of Mauretania again revolted,

and defeated and slew their governor who hastened to subdue them. The

Syrians, under Thalaba ben Salama, and the Egyptians under Balej ben

Besher, were expelled from the country, and induced to seek refuge in

Spain. Their arrival boded no good to the tranquillity of the peninsula.

Abdul-Malik tried negotiation in vain; the Africans invested him in

his last hold, and the inhabitants hoping to obtain favour by his

destruction, tied him to a post on the bridge of Cordova, and opened

their gates to Balej. The unfortunate emir was speedily beheaded, and the

inhuman victor tumultuously proclaimed the governor of the faithful.

Balej did not long enjoy his usurped honours. Offended at the preference

thus shown to another, Thalaba unexpectedly became the advocate of

subordination. At the same time the son of Okba rallied the dispersed

troops of the murdered Abdul-Malik, and marched against the usurper.

Balej fell, pierced by the scimitar of Abd ar-Rahman; the tyrant’s forces

fled, and the victor was hailed by the honourable surname of Al-Mansur.

Thalaba from his viceregal throne was removed to a dungeon in the

fortress of Tangier. Husam was not destined to be more fortunate than his

predecessors. He was deposed by Thueba.

During scenes of anarchy and of blood, there was a third party, which

took no part in them, and which groaned over the disasters of this

fertile land. It was agreed that the only means of ending the existing

anarchy was to appoint an emir with sovereign power over the whole

peninsula. After some deliberation the choice unanimously fell on Yusuf

al-Fehri, of the tribe of Koreish, which was also that of the prophet.

Yusuf was now compelled to enter on a ruinous civil war; and ruinous it

was beyond example in this ill-fated country. To describe the horrors

which ensued is impossible; it seemed as if one half of Spain had risen

for no other purpose than that of exterminating the other half, and of

transforming the whole country into a desert. Many cities, to say nothing

of inferior towns and villages, disappeared forever from the face of the

peninsula; leaving, however, melancholy mementos of their past existence

in the ruins which remained.

Above forty years had now elapsed since the first descent of the

Mohammedans; and in the whole of that period there had been but few

intervals of tranquillity, or even of individual security. So mutable had

been the government, that twenty different emirs had been called, or had

raised themselves, to direct it. About eighty chiefs secretly assembled

at Cordova; when, laying aside all private ambition, they consulted as

to the means of ending the civil war. They were addressed by Hayut of

Emessa, who reminded them of the recent usurpation of the Abbasids;

of the consequent massacre of the Omayyads; and, what was still more

melancholy, of the fatal divisions among the partisans of those families

throughout the Mohammedan world, and of the anarchy which was the

inevitable result of those divisions. These chiefs agreed to establish a

separate, independent monarchy, but the main difficulty still remained.

What individual could be found in whose claims a whole nation could

be likely to acquiesce, and who possessed the requisites towards that

nation’s prosperity? It was removed by Wahib ben Zair, whose interesting

relation is thus abridged:

[Sidenote: [750-778 A.D.]]

After the tragic massacre of the Omayyads, two sons of Merwan, the

last caliph of that house, who had been so fortunate as to escape the

destruction of their brethren, were foolish enough to reside at the court

of Abul-Abbas, on his solemnly promising to spare their lives. Yielding

at length to the repeated insinuations of a base spy, Abul-Abbas ordered

their execution. Soliman, the eldest, was immediately taken and slain;

but the other, Abd ar-Rahman, who was fortunately absent from Damascus,

was seasonably informed of this second tragedy. Hastily furnishing

himself with horses and money, he commenced his flight from Syria. He

chose the most unfrequented paths, and safely arrived among the Bedouin

Arabs. From Arabia he passed through Egypt into Africa, where new dangers

awaited him. After some days of a fatiguing journey through boundless

plains of sand, he reached Tahart in Mauretania, by the inhabitants of

which he was received with joy. “Abd ar-Rahman,” concluded Wahib, “still

remains there; let him be our sovereign!”

The proposal of the sheikh was received with unanimous applause.

Accompanied by Teman ben Al-Kama, he was instantly deputed by the

assembly to pass over into Mauretania, and offer the crown to the

princely descendant of Moawiyah. The prince immediately accepted the

proposal. The youth of the whole tribe were eager to accompany him, but

he selected 750 well-armed horsemen for this arduous expedition. Abd

ar-Rahman landed on the coast of Andalusia in the early part of the year

755. The inhabitants of that province, sheikhs and people, received

him with open arms, and made the air ring with their acclamations.

His appearance, his station, his majestic mien, his open countenance,

won upon the multitude even more perhaps than the prospect of the

blessings which he was believed to have in store for them. His march

to Seville was one continued triumph; twenty thousand voices cheered

his progress; twenty thousand scimitars, wielded by vigorous hands,

were at his disposal. The surrounding towns immediately sent deputies

with their submission and the offer of their services. After a series

of unsuccessful manœuvres, Yusuf fell in a battle near Lorca, and his

head was sent by the victorious general to the king. According to the

barbarous custom of the times, it was suspended from an iron hook over

one of the public gates of Cordova. The very same year Narbonne fell into

the power of the Christians, after a siege of six years. Gothic Gaul was

now lost to the Moslems.

[Sidenote: [756-796 A.D.]]

The peace which the monarch enjoyed was destined to prove of short

duration. While he continued at Seville, indulging alike in poetry and

friendship, he received intelligence of an insurrection at Toledo, by

Hisham ben Adri al-Fehri, a relative of Yusuf. Hisham with some other

generals fell into the hands of Bedra, who, in the fear of their being

saved by the clemency of Abd ar-Rahman, immediately struck off their

heads. But he was now menaced by an enemy more powerful than any which

had yet assailed him; and one of the last perhaps he would ever have

dreamed of opposing. This was no other than Charlemagne, who poured his

legions over the Pyrenees into the valleys of Catalonia. He himself

headed the division which passed into Navarre through Gascony, and his

first conquest was the Christian city of Pamplona. The walls he levelled

with the ground; and thence proceeded to Saragossa. That city quickly

owned his supremacy; and so also, we are told, did Gerona, Huesca, and

Barcelona, the government of which he confided to the sheikhs who had

invited him into the peninsula, and had aided him with their influence.

The whole country, from the Ebro to the Pyrenees, in like manner owned

his authority. How far he might have carried his arms, had not the revolt

of the Saxons summoned him to a more urgent scene, it would be useless to

conjecture.

While in the defiles of the Pyrenees, between Roncesvalles and Valcarlos,

his rear was furiously assailed by some thousands of Navarrese in ambush,

who were justly indignant at the wanton destruction of their capital.

That the injury inflicted on the emperor was serious, is apparent from

the words of his own secretary, who tells us that the whole rearguard was

cut to pieces, including many of his generals and chief nobles; and that

not only the riches amassed in the expedition, but the whole baggage of

the army, fell into the hands of the victors. Scarcely had Charlemagne

passed the Pyrenees, when Abd ar-Rahman recovered Saragossa and the other

places, of which that monarch had received the submission, and which he

had, probably, been sanguine enough to hope would continue to acknowledge

his supremacy. But if Abd ar-Rahman was thus freed from so formidable an

invader, he was still subject to the curse of domestic sedition.

During his long reign, Abd ar-Rahman had several transactions with the

Christians of the Asturias. Under the viceroys his predecessors, the

Mussulman arms had failed against both Pelayo and Alfonso I; but he was

more successful. By Froila or Fruela I, indeed, one if not two of his

generals were successively and signally defeated (760 and 761); but from

the tenor of a treaty between the two kings, a treaty on which the early

Christian writers preserve a deep silence, we may infer either that the

Asturian ruler had sustained some reverse, or that he turned aside the

storm of threatening vengeance by concessions.

Abd ar-Rahman died in 787. The chief features of his character were

honour, generosity, and intrepidity, with a deeply rooted regard for

the interests of justice and religion. His views, for a Mussulman,

were enlightened, and his sentiments liberal. Misfortune had been his

schoolmaster, and he profited by its lessons. He was an encourager of

literature, as appears from the number of schools he founded and endowed;

of poetry in particular he must have been fond, or he would not have

cultivated it himself. In short, his highest praise is to be found in the

fact that Mohammedan Spain wanted a hero and legislator to lay the first

stone of her prosperity, and that she found both in him.

Hisham ben Abd ar-Rahman, surnamed Alhadi Radhi, the Just and the Good,

was immediately proclaimed at Merida, whither he had accompanied his

dying father; and his elevation was hailed by the acclamations of all

Spain. The success with which Hisham crushed formidable insurrections of

his two brothers roused within him the latent sparks of ambition. He now

aspired to conquests not only in the Asturias, but in Gothic Gaul. He

proclaimed the _al-jihed_, or holy war, which every Mussulman was bound

to aid, if young, by personal service, if rich and advanced in years, by

the contribution of horses, arms, or money. Two formidable armies were

immediately put in motion; one thirty-nine thousand strong, which was

headed by the hajib or prime minister, marched into the Asturias; the

other, which was still more numerous, advanced towards the Pyrenees.

The hajib laid waste all Galicia as far as Lugo, and obtained immense

plunder; but Alfonso, surnamed the Chaste, had the glory of freeing the

infant kingdom from the invaders. A second expedition, under the hajib’s

son, was still more unfortunate. From this time may be dated the real

independence of the Christians.

[Sidenote: [796-815 A.D.]]

The success of the other army was not very signal; it made no conquests,

but shortly returned across the Pyrenees laden with immense plunder.

In the seventh year of his reign Hisham caused his son Al-Hakem to be

recognised as his successor, and died a few months afterwards, in 796,

universally lamented by his subjects. The reign of Al-Hakem was one of

extreme agitation. Barcelona, and many other fortresses of Catalonia,

acknowledged the supremacy of Charlemagne.

Whilst these transactions were passing in Catalonia, Alfonso the Chaste

was naturally eager to profit by the division in his favour. To punish

his revolt in 801, Al-Hakem ravaged his eastern territories. But on the

return of the Mohammedan king, who left Yusuf ben Amru to prosecute the

war, the Asturian entirely routed the forces of that general, whom he

took prisoner, and for whose ransom he exacted a heavy sum. This very

fact proves that the two kings were now placed on an equal footing--that

the ties of vassalage had been burst asunder by the Christian hero. In

808, Alfonso crossed the Duero, invaded Lusitania, and took Lisbon.

Al-Hakem hastened to the theatre of war, and obtained some successes.

Abd ar-Rahman, Al-Hakem’s son, defeated Alfonso on the banks of the

Duero, took Zamora, and compelled that king to sue for peace. However,

hostilities soon recommenced, but with little advantage to either party.

Internally the reign of Al-Hakem was no less troubled. Scarcely was the

rebellion of his uncles repressed, when the tyranny of Yusuf ben Amru

occasioned great disorders in Toledo. In 805, the inhabitants openly rose

against the governor, whom they confined in prison. Al-Hakem invited

the principal inhabitants--chiefly Mohammedans--to wait on the heir of

the monarchy; but as they entered the palace, they were seized by his

soldiers, were carried into a subterraneous apartment, and massacred.

[More than seven hundred are said to have perished on this “day of the

fosse” (807).] About the same time a conspiracy was formed in Cordova

itself, the object of which was to assassinate Al-Hakem, and to raise

a grandson of the first Abd ar-Rahman to the vacant throne. The fatal

secret was revealed to the monarch’s ear. The very day on which this

tragedy was to be perpetrated, three hundred gory heads were exhibited in

the most public part of Cordova. Had his own been there, instead of them,

no public sorrow would have been manifested.

[Sidenote: [815-835 A.D.]]

This incident was not likely to assuage his appetite for blood--an

appetite which is believed to have been innate in his temperament,

though education and circumstances had hitherto suspended its cravings.

Commensurate with its increasing intensity was his passion for luxury. He

no longer delighted in reaping “the iron harvests of the field.” Shut up

in his palace with his female slaves, amidst the sweetest sounds of vocal

and instrumental music, or witnessing the lascivious dance, he passed

the whole of his time. If, however, his person was thus hidden from the

eyes of his people, his existence was but too evident from the execution

of his sanguinary mandates. That he might enjoy the pleasures without

the cares of royalty, in the year 815 he caused his son Abd ar-Rahman

to receive the homage of his chiefs as the wali alhadi, or successor to

the throne, and on the shoulders of that prince he thenceforth laid the

whole weight of government. But tyrants often tremble, as well as their

oppressed subjects. To escape assassination, or the consequences of an

open insurrection, he filled or surrounded his palace with a chosen guard

of five thousand men, whose fidelity he secured by permanent liberal pay.

To meet this extraordinary increase of expenditure, he laid an entrance

duty on the merchandise which arrived in the capital. This measure

excited indignation, not so much because it was oppressive as because it

was novel; murmurs arose on every side, and even an open insurrection

appeared certain. To crush it by terror, he ordered ten men who had

refused to pay the duty to be publicly executed.

A trivial accident, however, acting like a spark on the present

inflammable spirit of the people, produced a general explosion; the

guards of the ten prisoners were massacred; a few who wisely fled were

pursued to the very gates of the palace, the multitude uttering terrific

menaces against the author and advisers of so odious a novelty. The

desire of vengeance roused the king from his unworthy lethargy. Seizing

his arms, and followed by the cavalry of his guard, he charged the mob,

which, as mobs always will do, endeavoured to escape when real danger

approached. In a few minutes the streets of Cordova were strewn with dead

bodies; such as could reach their habitations were safe; about three

hundred were overtaken on the banks of the river, and were instantly

impaled. But the effects did not end here; the numerous streets outside

the walls of the city were levelled with the ground, and the surviving

inhabitants were pardoned only on the condition of leaving Cordova

forever. With loud lamentations, the unhappy exiles departed from the

scene of their former happiness; a considerable number settled in Toledo;

eight thousand accepted the asylum offered them by Edris ben Edris in his

new city of Fez, and the quarter where they settled is at this day called

the Andalusian quarter. The fate of the far greater portion was more

singular; fifteen thousand proceeded to Egypt, seized on Alexandria, and

there maintained themselves in spite of all opposition, until the wali,

by the caliph’s permission, purchased their departure by a large sum of

money, and by allowing them to reside on one of the isles of Greece.

They chose Crete, and founded an independent government [which lasted

till 961 when the Greeks recaptured it]. From this moment Al-Hakem, who

acquired the surname of the Cruel, was torn by incessant remorse. In 821

he breathed his last.

[Illustration: A SARACEN CHIEF]

Abd ar-Rahman II had long made himself beloved, both in a private

capacity and as the deputy of his father; happiness was as much hoped

from his reign, and as much was it alloyed by many misfortunes. The

first was the hostile arrival of his great uncle, Abdallah, son of Abd

ar-Rahman I, who, though on the verge of the tomb, resolved to strike

another blow for empire. He was speedily defeated. A salutary law was now

passed, defining the right of succession to be inherent in the children

of the natural monarch, according to their primogeniture; and, where the

direct heirs subsisted, excluding the other branches of the family.

In his transactions with the Christians of the Asturias and Catalonia,

Abd ar-Rahman was more fortunate than his two predecessors. He did not

allow either Alfonso or Ramiro to gain much advantage over him. Three

armies of Franks successively appeared in Spain, but effected nothing;

while a Mohammedan fleet burned the suburbs of Marseilles. Nor was the

kingdom of Abd ar-Rahman free from internal troubles. Merida twice

revolted; Toledo followed the example, and sustained a blockade of nine

years against the royal forces.

[Sidenote: [835-886 A.D.]]

Scarcely were these domestic wounds closed, when a new and unexpected

enemy appeared on the coast of Lusitania. The Scandinavian vikings, in

fifty-four vessels, had spread terror along the maritime districts of

France and the peninsula. These savage northmen landed wherever there

was a prospect of booty; plundered towns and churches; consumed with

fire everything which they could not remove; and put to the sword all,

of every age and of either sex, who had the misfortune to fall in their

way. In short, from the terrific descriptions given of them both in the

Icelandic sagas and the Christian writers of the south, we should suppose

them to have been demons rather than men. Thirteen days they assailed

Lisbon, and that place would have fallen but for the seasonable march

of the neighbouring walis to relieve it. The pirates re-embarked with

their booty; landed on the coasts of Lusitania and Algarve, which they

ravaged; and ultimately destroyed a great part of Seville. Such was their

reputation for valour, that their retreat was seldom molested. To rebuild

the ruined walls was the immediate work of the king, and to be prepared

for resistance, in the event of future piratical descents, he established

a line of forts from the principal seaports to his capital, with

facilities for communicating rapidly with one another. To add to these

internal calamities, a drought of two years withered the productions of

the earth; or if anything was spared by the heat, it was devoured by

clouds of locusts.

These sufferings of his people must sensibly have afflicted the heart

of Abd ar-Rahman; and he endeavoured to relieve them by importing corn

from Africa, and by furnishing the unemployed with occupation. The works

which he constructed in that city were of equal magnificence and utility.

Mosques were erected; the streets paved; marble baths made for the

convenience of the men; and, the most important of all his enterprises,

water in abundance was brought from the mountains to the city by means

of leaden pipes. Abd ar-Rahman was a man of letters as well as a man

of science. In 850 he caused his son Muhammed to be acknowledged wali

alhadi. In 852 he died, universally lamented by his people.

The reign of Muhammed I contains little to strike the attention. He was

always at war, either with the Asturians or his own subjects. Ramiro,

Ordoño, and Alfonso III successively defeated his best troops, and

gradually enlarged their dominions. He was ultimately more successful

in his contests with his subjects than with his natural enemies. Of

the difficulty, however, with which this success was obtained, Musa

ben Zeyad, the wali of Saragossa, and Omar, a bandit chief, afford us

abundant proof. Omar escaped into the Pyrenees, and offered his services

to the Navarrese; gained them many fortresses, and received from them the

title of king. He conquered the whole country as far as the Ebro. The

king in person, with his son Al-Mundhir, and his best officers, hastened

to the field. Omar was defeated and slain. But the rebels were not yet

annihilated. Kalib ben Omar, who with the title inherited the warlike

spirit of his father, was destined to greater things, and laid waste

or rendered tributary the country on the banks of the Ebro. Al-Mundhir

advanced to measure arms with the son of his old enemy; but a whole

year elapsed before he could gain any advantage over Kalib. If to these

agitating scenes we add a drought of a year’s duration, the third which

had visited Spain within the short period of twenty years; an earthquake

which swallowed several towns, and another invasion of the Normans, some

idea may be formed of the disasters of this reign.

[Sidenote: [886-939 A.D.]]

The death of Muhammed was sudden. No sooner did Kalib ben Omar hear of

Muhammed’s death than he descended from his mountains, was joined by

thousands of partisans, and was successful beyond his most sanguine

hopes. Huesca, Saragossa, and Toledo opened their gates to him. The

whole kingdom was in consternation or in joy, according to the loyalty or

disaffection of the people. It is certain that the new king, Al-Mundhir,

had not many friends, and those few he soon lost. In the second year of

his reign he fell in battle with the formidable Kalib.

The reign of Abdallah, the brother and successor of Al-Mundhir, was

destined to be as troubled as any of his predecessors. One of the

first revolts was headed by his eldest son Muhammed. He was joined by

his brother Al-Kasim; but he was defeated by his younger brother Abd

ar-Rahman, was severely wounded in battle, and was consigned to a dungeon

by the victor, until the king’s pleasure could be known. There he died,

whether in consequence of his wounds, or by violence, is uncertain. But

the greatest affliction of the king was the continued triumph of the

rebel Kalib.

On the death of Abdallah, the throne of Mohammedan Spain was filled

by Abd ar-Rahman III, son of the rebel prince Muhammed, who had so

mysteriously died in prison, and, therefore, grandson of Abdallah. Why

the deceased king did not procure the elevation of his own son Abd

ar-Rahman, surnamed Al-Mudafar, or the Victorious, surprised many, but

grieved none. By universal acclamation the new king was hailed as Emir

al-muminin, or prince of the believers, and An-Nasir lidini-l-lahi,

defender of the faith of God. It is difficult to account for the yielding

of this spiritual homage to the young prince; but the fact is certain

that he was the first of his family to assume the title and honours of

caliph.

After labouring with success to pacify the partisans of the Abbasids,

who at first regarded his assumption of the spiritual character as

little less than blasphemous, Abd ar-Rahman resolved to exterminate the

audacious rebels who had so long distracted the kingdom. The son of Omar

ben Hafs still reigned at Toledo over nearly one-half of Mohammedan

Spain. To contend with this formidable adventurer, Abd ar-Rahman

assembled a select military force of forty thousand men, and took the

field. In the end victory declared for the king; seven thousand of the

rebel and three thousand of the royal forces were left on the field. The

consequences of this success were important; the whole of eastern Spain

submitted to Abd ar-Rahman. Kalib himself long held out against the power

of Abd ar-Rahman.

The pacification of his kingdom allowed Abd ar-Rahman leisure to dream of

ambition, which opportunity seasonably aided. He came into conflict with

the ruler of Egypt, over Fez, which he finally cleared of the Egyptians.

But the most memorable of the warlike exploits of this king were against

the Christians of Leon and the Asturias. Soon after the accession of Abd

ar-Rahman, Ordoño II invaded the Mohammedan possessions, and, if any

faith is to be had in the chroniclers of his nation, he obtained many

advantages--advantages, however, of which not the slightest mention is

made by the Mohammedan writers. In short, from the accession of Ordoño to

some time after that of Ramiro II, not one of the successes derived by

the Christians is acknowledged by the Moors.

[Sidenote: [939-961 A.D.]]

From the conflicting statements of the two hostile writers, it appears

certain that in 934 Ramiro II made an irruption into the states of Abd

ar-Rahman, and ruined Madrid, and that the king of Cordova, in revenge,

sent Almudafar to invade Galicia. That hero, say the historians of his

nation, made terrible reprisals on the subjects of Ramiro, thousands of

whom he brought away captive, with an immense booty, and defeated Ramiro

himself on the banks of the Duero. The Christians, on the other hand,

tell us that their hero triumphed over the misbelievers on the plains

of Osma (which is on the banks of that river), of whom he slew a great

number, and made many thousands of captives. Abd ar-Rahman advanced to

meet him with eighty thousand men. The combat [of Alhandega] which ensued

was the most obstinate, and beyond comparison the most bloody, that had

been fought between Christians and Moors since the days of Roderic. There

can be no doubt that victory shone on the banners of the Christians,

notwithstanding the assertion of the Mohammedan writers, who say that

Ramiro was driven from the field. But that the success was so splendid as

the Christians pretend, that eighty thousand of the Moors fell on this

memorable day, is too monstrous to be believed. According to the Arabian

writers, that number only--yet it is surely large enough--left Zamora,

twenty thousand out of the original one hundred thousand remaining to

invest that fortress. And if their account is to be credited--and the

minute circumstances attending it give it all the air of truth--Abd

ar-Rahman took the fortress on his return to Cordova.

During the rest of don Ramiro’s reign one battle only is said by the

Christians to have been fought between the Moors and him, in which he was

of course victorious. But if the Mohammedans are to be believed, that

hero was defeated in 941 by Abdallah, wali of the frontier; and again in

949 by Abd ar-Rahman in person.

In his internal administration Abd ar-Rahman was distinguished for great

capacity of mind, for unbounded liberality, for unrivalled magnificence,

and for inflexible justice. The foundation of the palace and town of

Medina-Azhara, about two leagues from Cordova--the former distinguished

for all the splendour of art and wealth, the latter for a mosque which

rivalled that of Cordova--attested his taste and luxury. The roof of the

palace is said to have been supported by above four thousand pillars of

variegated marble, the floors and walls to have been of the same costly

material, the chief apartments to have been adorned with exquisite

fountains and baths; and the whole to have been surrounded by the most

magnificent gardens, in the midst of which arose a pavilion resting on

pillars of white marble ornamented with gold, and commanding an extensive

prospect. In the centre of the pavilion, a fountain of quicksilver, we

are told, constantly played, reflecting in a new and wondrous manner the

rays of the sun. The whole description reminds us rather of the creations

of genii than of the labours of man. Of the justice of this great king

the Mohammedan world had a fearful example in the fate of his son

Abdallah. Many years before his death he caused his second son, Al-Hakem,

to be recognised as wali alhadi. The choice gave umbrage to Abdallah,

who at length entered into a conspiracy, the object of which seems to

have been the assassination or perpetual imprisonment of Al-Hakem. The

secret was betrayed by one of the number; Abdallah was suddenly arrested,

confessed his meditated crime, and was suffocated, notwithstanding

the entreaties of his intended victim Al-Hakem. “Thy humane request,”

replied the king, “becomes thee well, and if I were a private individual

it should be granted; but as a king, I owe both to my people and my

successors an example of justice; I deeply lament the fate of my son; I

shall lament it through life; but neither thy tears nor my grief shall

save him!” The king seems ever afterwards to have blamed his excessive

rigour. Though at the very summit of human prosperity, he was thenceforth

unhappy. Accordingly, we need not be surprised to hear his own confession

that during near fifty years of empire, his days of happiness amounted to

no more than fourteen.

The reign of Abd ar-Rahman III has been termed the most brilliant period

in the history of the Spanish Arabs.[d]

[Sidenote: [912-961 A.D.]]

Among the Omayyad princes of Spain Abd ar-Rahman III incontestably

holds the first place. His achievements bordered on the fabulous. He

had found the empire in a state of anarchy and civil war, divided

amongst a crowd of chiefs of different race, exposed to constant raids

from the Christians of the north, and on the verge of being absorbed

either by Leon or by the Fatimites. In spite of innumerable obstacles

he had saved Andalusia both from itself and from foreign rule. He had

given to it internal order and prosperity and the consideration and

respect of foreigners. He found the treasury in disorder; he left it

in the most flourishing condition. A third of the annual revenues,

which amounted to 6,245,000 pieces of gold, sufficed for the ordinary

expenditure; another third was kept as a reserve; the rest was devoted

to buildings. The condition of the country was equally prosperous.

Agriculture, industry, commerce, the arts and sciences, flourished

together. The foreigner was lost in wonder at the scientific system of

irrigation, which gave fertility to lands that appeared most unpromising.

He was struck by the perfect order which, thanks to a vigilant police,

reigned in the most inaccessible districts. Commerce had developed to

such an extent that, according to the report of the superintendent of

the customs, the duties on imports and exports constituted the most

considerable part of the revenue. A superb navy enabled Abd ar-Rahman

to dispute with the Fatimites the empire of the Mediterranean, and

secured him in the possession of Ceuta, the key of Mauretania. A

numerous and well-disciplined army, perhaps the best in the world, gave

him a preponderance over the Christian of the north. The most haughty

sovereigns were eager for his alliance. Ambassadors were sent to him by

the emperor of Constantinople and by the sovereigns of Germany, Italy,

and France.[e]

Leaving for a while the Spanish Arabs, now at the height of their power,

we return to the Mohammedans in the East.[a]

FOOTNOTES

[38] The Arabian historians call this the battle of Guadalete [Wadi

Lekah]. Citing Tarik’s letter to Musa and a public speech of his

messenger, as vouchers for their accuracy, they state that Tarik himself

transpierced Roderic with his lance, and having cut off his head, sent it

to Musa, by whom it was conveyed to the caliph Walid.

[39] The white was the colour of the house of Omayyah. Green was

afterwards assumed by the Fatimites, and black by the Abbasids.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VIII. THE ABBASIDS

[Sidenote: [750-1258 A.D.]]

The revolution which had raised the Abbasids to the caliphate may be

regarded as an uprising of eastern against western Asia; it was the

populations of Khorasan and Irak who had brought it about, and it was

they whom it chiefly benefited. Abul Abbas, who reigned but four years

(750-754) transferred the royal residence from Syria to Babylonia and

took up his abode at Anbar. His brother and successor Al-Mansur, desiring

a more imposing dwelling-place, at first chose Cufa, but finding that

popular feeling ran high there against his own family, and in favour of

the Fatimites, he decided to build for himself a new city which should

owe entire allegiance to him.

FOUNDING OF BAGHDAD (762 A.D.)

Thus he founded Baghdad (762), which was destined to eclipse all

other cities of the Orient. A brick wall strengthened by about 160

towers defended it from attack, and immense sums were spent in its

embellishment. The people of the East regarded with satisfaction

this change of capital which brought the seat of government nearer

to themselves; but the inhabitants of Spain and Maghreb, already

discontented with their isolated situation which made them in a way mere

tributary provinces, were only awaiting a favourable opportunity to

declare their independence.

Upon learning of the downfall of the Omayyads and the ascension of the

Abbasids, Spain immediately cut herself loose from the mother-country and

proclaimed as caliph a member of the Omayyad family, who chanced to be in

Maghreb. Africa, without going so far, appeared to approve the course of

its governor, Abd ar-Rahman, who hesitated to recognise the sovereignty

of Al-Mansur; and the people, equally unwilling to acknowledge the

caliphate of Cordova, gradually broke up into distinct groups each having

its own chief, until the fragile ties which still bound them to the

Abbasid dynasty were completely severed (755-756 A.D.).

The period of the first Abbasid caliphs was also that of the greatest

splendour in the history of the oriental Arabs; it marked the passing of

the age of conquest and the dawning of the new glories of civilisation.

Al-Mansur, brother of Abul Abbas, whose reign was short, in reality opens

the series of those remarkable caliphs whose names, still popular in

Arabia, have been made equally so in other lands by _The Thousand and

One Nights_. He had fought when young under the chiefs of his family and

merited the name “Victorious” which had been bestowed upon him; but his

principal claim to glory lies in having created a system of government

which attests the depth and soundness of his views. Throughout his vast

empire the finance and military forces of the provinces were under the

control of the different governors, who devoted the products of taxation

to supplying the needs of their localities and sent to the caliphs only

what was left over. Not daring to disturb a condition of things so

favourable to the people, Al-Mansur instituted the method of frequently

changing the representatives of the royal power in the provinces, and of

debarring all members of distinguished families from taking part in the

transaction of public affairs. His greatest error was an insufficient

regard for the sanctity of his word, and a relentless abasement of any

servant whose rising greatness seemed to involve a menace. Thus Abdallah,

the overthrower of the Omayyads, Abu Muslim, and later the Barmecides,

all fell victims to a policy as pitiless as it was suspicious.

Al-Mansur devoted a portion of his life to amassing wealth which some

historians estimate to have reached a sum equivalent to £30,000,000,

or $150,000,000, but this avidity did not prevent his displaying great

liberality towards men of learning, and he himself gave the example of an

enlightened interest in the arts and sciences.

During his reign the people, accustomed to rendering him the profound

respect he demanded, grew to look upon the caliph as the representative

of God on earth, and his successors had no difficulty in enforcing

obedience. Nay, they were rather concerned to avoid the despotism

made easy by their unlimited authority. The first caliphs after Abul

Abbas were just princes, who exerted their power for the general and

intellectual welfare of the Arabs. Other cities arose beside Baghdad;

roads were laid, caravansaries, market-places, canals, and fountains

were constructed, learned and charitable institutions were erected, and

the study of letters, commerce, and all the arts of peace were directly

fostered by the government.

HARUN AR-RASHID (786-809 A.D.)

The magnificence of all previous reigns paled before that of Harun

ar-Rashid,[40] Harun the Just (786-809). This famous potentate, in

whom the peculiar genius of the Arab race seems to have reached its

highest development, merits particular mention among the vicegerents of

Mohammed. Brave, generous, and magnanimous, he resisted all temptations

to use despotically his supreme power over a people who never murmured

at his will, and governed with a sole view to assuring the happiness of

his subjects. He loved virtue, was always ready to recognise his own

faults, and neglected no occasion of doing good. That he so far belied

his character as to decree the murder of the Barmecides shows him to

have been deceived by false statements concerning that family, which

had furnished him with his ablest statesmen, Fadl and the grand vizier

Jafar. Of Persian origin, the Barmecides had figured prominently at court

for nearly a century, and it was chiefly at the instigation of their

later representatives that Harun ar-Rashid was so active in protecting

commerce, industry, and the arts. Singularly enough Emin, Harun’s eldest

son, possessed none of the virtues of his father; but his brother,

Al-Mamun, showed profound wisdom in governing the affairs of Khorasan and

by popular choice he was placed upon the throne in 813, Emin being made

to resign his authority.

AL-MAMUN AND HIS SUCCESSORS

[Sidenote: [809-847 A.D.]]

Al-Mamun surpassed all hopes that had been formed of him. Less brilliant

than Harun, he was superior to him in the range of his knowledge and the

practical force of his genius. The single political mistake with which

he can be reproached was an act of gratitude and kindness. In recompense

for services received, he gave to Tahir the hereditary governorship of

Khorasan, and this was the first step towards the dismemberment of the

eastern caliphate; not because the Tahirites were disposed to abuse their

power, but because an unfortunate example had been set, which led the

governors of provinces to seek gradually to cut themselves free from the

control of their rightful sovereign.

Holding education to be the highest blessing of the people, Al-Mamun

opened schools in all parts of his realm, and insured the pursuit of

letters by permanent endowments. He gathered about him learned men of

all nationalities, and would admit no distinctions in religion. He even

decreed that any ten heads of families, whether Christians, Jews, or

magi, who assembled for the purpose, could constitute a church, and that

all were eligible to appointment for public offices. But, liberal as he

was, Al-Mamun was not always safe from hostile attack. The theologians

of Baghdad had already been active in putting down zendism, a religion

compounded of the beliefs of Islam and the magi; and on Al-Mamun’s making

use of some of the writings of this faith to render odious the memory of

Abu Muslim, they brought violent accusations against him. To silence his

adversaries Al-Mamun increased the penalties against separatism, but true

to his principles of tolerance forbore to inflict them.

Al-Mamun’s immediate successors, Mutasim and Wathik, were worthy of the

throne. The first-named made the single mistake of forming his body-guard

of young Turks, whose later successors were to renew the excesses

committed by the prætorians in the time of the Roman emperors; while the

reign of Wathik was disturbed solely by doctrinal disputes. Great indeed

must have been the diversity of opinion in religious matters, since

there are to be counted no less than sixty-three principal sects among

the Arabs. Wathik having brought the light of his reason to bear on the

dogma of the eternity of the _Koran_, sustained with great heat by Akhmed

ben Nasr, was at one time on the point of being dethroned and supplanted

by his rude antagonist. Although treated with severity by prejudiced

historians, Wathik was an excellent prince, who governed his realm with

such wisdom and benevolence that it soon came to contain no beggars, and

he died with the resignation of a firm, enlightened character.

The reigns of the earlier Abbasids are marked by a complete absence

of expeditions undertaken with a view to aggrandisement, the wars

with neighbouring populations being carried on without any thought of

invasion. The Greeks offered the Arabs of the Orient more frequent

pretexts for dispute than other nations, and the frontier line which

separated them became the scene of many sanguinary conflicts. The

vanity of the degenerate Greeks who constituted the population there,

was inordinately flattered by success even in border-warfare, and they

continued their aggressions through the reigns of most of Abul Abbas’

successors.

[Sidenote: [754-833 A.D.]]

During the reign of Al-Mansur the Byzantine emperors had been afflicted

by the loss of Melitene, an important city of Cappadocia, the devastation

of Cilicia, and the defeat of an army on the shores of the Melas, in

Pamphylia, and were destined to suffer further reverses at the hands

of the caliph himself. Irritated by successive defeats, the Arabs got

together all their forces and entered Asia Minor, where they vanquished

all the troops that Irene, guardian of Constantine Copronymus, sent

against them, and finally appeared before the walls of Constantinople.

Preferring capitulation to the horrors of a siege, the empress

surrendered the cities of Cilicia and agreed to pay an annual tribute

of sixty thousand dinars. Harun ar-Rashid, whom Al-Mahdi had placed in

command of this expedition, returned to Syria with considerable booty and

with six thousand prisoners in his train.

In 792 Irene believed herself strong enough to break the treaty, and

preparations for hostilities were begun on both sides. Harun, now

become caliph, had vessels equipped which ravaged the islands of the

Mediterranean and destroyed the Greek fleet in the Gulf of Adalia, making

Irene pay dearly for her attempt at rebellion. She again agreed to pay

tribute, stipulating merely an exchange of captives; which exchange took

place on the bank of a little river in Cilicia, and was ever afterward a

custom when a truce occurred between belligerents. Nicephorus, Irene’s

successor, confident in his courage, hesitated not to tempt fortune again.

[Illustration: SARACEN SWORDS

(From a panel in the Alhambra)]

He addressed a haughty letter to the caliph, which elicited this brief

reply: “In the name of the all-merciful God, Harun ar-Rashid, commander

of the faithful, to Nicephorus, dog of a Roman. I have received your

letter, son of an infidel, and you shall not hear my reply, you shall

see it.” Harun indeed wrote his reply in letters of fire all over the

plains of Asia Minor. He was constantly victorious; but, though the wars

in which he was engaged proved that the Arabs had not yet lost their

military skill, they showed that they had greatly deteriorated from the

standard of the generals of Omar, who would not have paused till they

reached Constantinople itself.

In 829 the war was resumed under a singular pretext. Al-Mamun, who

was a passionate lover of mathematics, learned that Leon, an adept in

that science, resided at Constantinople, and made known his desire to

consult him at Baghdad. The emperor refused to allow Leon to leave

Constantinople, and Al-Mamun again took up arms, but did not push the

war with great vigour. In 833, after Mutasim had come to the throne, the

emperor, encouraged by some slight Greek successes, in his turn took

the offensive, and for a long time the issues were about even between

the two rulers. At last after the taking of Zapetra, the caliph’s native

town (836), by the emperor, Mutasim swore to be revenged; and marching on

Amorium took the city (840) and subjected it to the same treatment as had

been inflicted on Zapetra. Wathik, Mutasim’s successor, was less bent on

war; but the Greeks continued hostilities until, under the emperor Basil,

they regained all the domains in Cilicia that Harun had taken from them.

In their western provinces the Abbasids displayed no great eagerness or

concern; they scarcely sought to hold Spain under their sway, and left

Africa almost entirely to itself, even serving by their own direct acts

to elevate the family of the Aghlabites, and free it from all allegiance

to themselves except the formal recognition of sovereignty. Ibrahim ben

Aghlab thus assumed governorship over all Maghreb; but his successors

were not able to prevent a member of the Alid family from severing from

the Baghdad caliphate the whole of western Mauretania.

BAGHDAD UNDER THE CALIPHS

[Sidenote: [801-908 A.D.]]

The Abbasids hoped, perhaps, that the divisions which could not fail to

arise in Spain would bring the peninsula again under their dominion;

and this anticipation will serve to explain their negotiations with

the Frankish kings, the embassies and presents that passed back and

forth between Harun ar-Rashid and Charlemagne. The Baghdad caliphate,

meanwhile, did not once take up arms against that of Cordova, though

Arabs from the peninsula had made incursions into their domains, and a

fleet, manned by Andalusian pirates, had taken and burned Alexandria,

putting the inhabitants to the sword. In thus abstaining from reprisals

and warlike enterprises the Abbasids yielded to the spirit of the

times. The Arabs of the East were beginning to appreciate the benefits

of civilisation; and the Baghdad rulers responded to the wishes of

their subjects by giving them an orderly system of administration, by

establishing strict justice, by distributing far and wide the advantages

of education, and by cementing the union between the different provinces

of the empire by means of closer commercial and industrial relations.

A chamber of finance and a state chancery had originally been instituted,

and for a time these had been deemed sufficient; but later the chamber

of finance had been replaced by four diwans, one of which was charged

specially with the payment of troops, another with the imposition of

taxes, a third with the appointment of subordinate officials, and the

fourth with the keeping of accounts. The Abbasids had added to this

organisation the office of _hajid_, a sort of chamberlain whose mission

was to introduce ambassadors, and that of a superior judge, who was to

relieve them of the care of deciding important cases that were appealed

from the judgment of the kadi.

[Sidenote: [750-1258 A.D.]]

Upon their accession to power the Abbasids had resolved to give more

unity and force to the administration; and as the burden of affairs was

really too heavy for one man to carry, they had attached to their persons

a vizir (bearer of burdens) whose duty it was to perform all preliminary

labours, and to fix the sum each province was to pay in taxes, so that

the amount of the state revenues could be approximately estimated

in advance. In imposing taxes the caliphs were guided by a verse in

the _Koran_ which ordained that every unbeliever residing in Moslem

territory should be subject to dues; the rate _per capita_ for the entire

population was graded according to the fortune of the individual, the

rich paying more than the poor. There were also certain ground-taxes and

tithes, in the assessment of which great opportunities for extortion were

open to provincial governors, and the need that the whole should be under

the oversight of some vigilant head became plainly apparent.

The flourishing state of finances under their rule enabled the Abbasids

to undertake many and important works. Al-Mahdi built caravansaries

and had cisterns dug along the weary road from Baghdad to Mecca, cut

a new route from Mecca to Medina, and established posting stations

between Hedjaz and Yemen that communication might be easy between the

two important provinces. From a period as early as that of Moawiyah, a

courier service had existed between the various Arab capitals.

The Abbasids also permanently endowed a number of mosques and schools,

which were thus enabled to subsist through all political revolutions.

They collected the archives of the caliphate in Baghdad, and organised in

that city an excellent police, which not only protected individuals but

watched over property night and day. The merchants themselves were formed

into syndicate bodies with the charge of guarding against commercial

frauds, and a supervisor of market-places was appointed to verify the

weights and measures used, and his soldiers dealt summary justice to

all found guilty of trickery. In the desert districts, too, pillage

and depredation had been again begun by the Bedouins, now that warlike

expeditions had ceased, and _miraje_ were appointed whose special office

it was to protect pilgrims and caravans on their way to Mecca.

In this manner the Abbasid caliphs strove to insure the prosperity

of their realm, and under them the Arabs rose to a high degree of

civilisation. With the same ardour that had characterised them in their

military undertakings, they now endeavoured to outstrip the Greeks in

commerce, industry, and the arts, excelling in those very branches of

letters and sciences in which the inhabitants of Constantinople, even in

that city’s decadence, believed themselves to be supreme.

Agriculture was widely practised; by a skilful system of cultivation the

merit and reputation of the fruits and flowers of Persia were greatly

enhanced, and the wines of Shiraz, Yed, and Ispahan became staples of

commerce throughout Asia. Mines of iron, lead, and other minerals were

carefully exploited, beautiful fabrics were manufactured in the cities

of Irak and Syria, and remarkable progress was made in every branch of

mechanical art. The sciences, letters, and decorative art were actively

cultivated, as were architecture and music; while, though a check was

placed upon sculpture and painting in their highest form by the _Koran_,

which forbade the reproduction of the human figure or that of the

Godhead, a number of magnificent monuments were erected in the cities

of Mesopotamia and Mawarannahar. The passion for letters displayed by

Europeans during the Renaissance scarcely equalled that of the Arabs

at this period. The best Greek writings brought from Constantinople

were immediately translated, a school of interpreters was opened at

Baghdad, and fifteen thousand dinars were devoted yearly to educational

institutions. Libraries were founded, and enlarged from century to

century by the ruling princes, and the Arab tongue became the universal

language of Asia, gradually supplanting the more ancient idioms. There

were hospitals, wherein physicians were obliged to submit to several

examinations before being allowed to practise their profession, and

laboratories for experiment with medicinal plants, of which several

had been recently discovered. The Arabs were, in fact, the creators

of modern chemistry, and though they erred in leaning too much toward

alchemy and astrology, their very errors indirectly contributed to the

progress of the science.

Great as was the contrast between the literary culture of the Arabs and

the profound ignorance of Europe during the Middle Ages, the luxury and

magnificence displayed by the Abbasid dynasty forms a no less curious

spectacle. Sole depositaries of the natural wealth of many and vast

provinces, and without a permanent army to support, they disposed freely

of enormous revenues, which were expended in a truly fabulous manner.

Gold and precious stones were fairly strewn through palaces, mosques,

and gardens, and the gifts lavished on friends and favourites reached

a stupendous amount. It is said that Al-Mahdi expended six millions

of dinars during a single pilgrimage to Mecca, and that Zobaida, the

wife of Harun, made use of no utensils save golden ones set with gems,

and wore no stuffs save those woven with silver threads. In Al-Mamun’s

palace were sixty thousand rugs and pieces of tapestry, many of which

were embroidered in gold; and on the occasion of the reception of a

Greek ambassador, he caused to be erected in the audience chamber a tree

of solid gold bearing pearls to represent fruit. Mutasim’s stables in

Samara were said to contain accommodation for a hundred thousand horses;

and when he founded that city, he had the entire site artificially

constructed without regard to the cost of so gigantic an undertaking.

GRADUAL DECLINE OF ARABIAN DOMINION IN THE EAST

[Sidenote: [786-892 A.D.]]

Charlemagne, having heard much of the power of the Baghdad sovereigns,

determined to enter into relations with them, and despatched one Jewish

deputy and two Franks to Irak with presents for the commander of the

faithful. Harun, who feared an alliance between the Frankish king and

the Omayyads of Spain, responded with alacrity to this advance, and sent

ambassadors with splendid presents to Charlemagne in return. Not only

in Europe, but in China and among the Hindus and the Tatars, the Arab

potentates were looked upon as the richest princes in the world, and

exaggerated ideas prevailed as to their power.

Indeed at a casual glance it might seem that centralisation had drawn

into unity all their various provinces, and that a long and prosperous

future lay before the nation; but to an observant eye the signs of

approaching decadence were already apparent. In the material order of

things, that a sovereign should have supreme rights over the property

of his subjects necessarily destroys all impulse towards emulation and

progress among the latter. A people so governed is bound to die out in

discouragement and decay. Under the earlier caliphs no injustice or

spoliation was to be feared; but when the brutal and astute Turks took

the reins of power, the law of the _Koran_, by which supreme authority

centred in one individual, the representative of God on earth, was

certain to work irreparable harm. In the moral and religious order the

same unfortunate conditions prevailed. Gifted minds, irresistibly drawn

towards science while still bound by the letter of Mohammed’s books, had

need of a deliverer who should free them from the yoke of principles

too rigid for the times. Al-Mamun, and after him Mutasim and Wathik,

attempted some modification of doctrines formed for primitive times, but

their efforts were set at naught by the blind obstinacy of the doctors of

the Moslem faith. The _Koran_ now being established as the direct word

of God, its laws were held to be beyond appeal, and all the prerogatives

of absolute despotism were still accorded to monarchy even against the

judgment of those in whom it was vested. If the later Abbasid princes had

been men of high attainments and solid virtue, they would doubtless have

wielded their unrestricted power entirely for the good of the people,

and the golden age might again have been ushered in; but unfortunately

during the second half of the ninth century we see on the throne only

crowned and sceptred slaves. The contempt they inspired broke the springs

of government; anarchy reached its height, and numerous factions, long

suppressed, took up arms once more and spread abroad disorder and dread.

The Alids had several times renewed their pretensions to the throne. Once

Al-Mamun was on the point of abdicating in their favour, thus recognising

the justice of their claims; but a revolt was immediately raised in

Baghdad by the house of Abbas and its partisans, which forced Al-Mamun

to relinquish the idea of dispossessing his whole family. Though their

ambition was not yet fulfilled, the Alids were emboldened by the caliph’s

attitude toward them, and henceforth lost no chance of profiting by the

divisions that necessarily arose in a state possessing no definite law of

succession.

Under Harun and Al-Mamun the Arabian empire in the East attained

its greatest degree of splendour; we shall now observe its gradual

dissolution.

From the reign of Wathik (846) onwards, we see the caliphate becoming the

sport and prey of anarchy, and Baghdad fell under the yoke of a series

of cruel or implacable despots. Mutawakkil, whose reign ushered in the

new order of things, was guilty of atrocities that surpass those of Nero.

He took vengeance on a vizir who had offended him by causing him to be

thrown into a furnace lined with points of steel; and fearing that a plot

was being formed against him, he invited to a festival all the important

officers of his court and had them massacred by his soldiery. The horror

which his cruelties inspired armed against him the hand of his own son,

Muntasir, who himself died of sorrow and remorse within a year of his

accession to the throne (862).

Mustain, grandson of Mutasim, was chosen to succeed him, to the exclusion

of four brothers, two of whom, Mutazz and Mutamid, subsequently came

to the throne. Mustain reigned little longer than three years, and was

replaced by Mutazz, whom a faction raised to the caliphate in 866. A

second faction deposed him in 869 and a son of Wathik, Muhtadi Billah by

name, was proclaimed caliph. This prince’s projects of reform aroused

hatred in many quarters, and he was murdered in his own palace. After

him Mutamid enjoyed the exceptionally long reign of twenty-two years

(870-892), thanks to the ability and devotion of his brother, Muwaffak,

who frustrated all attempts at revolt. Most of the perpetual disorders

from which the country suffered were caused by the Turks whom Mutasim had

raised to the position of body-guard. In permanent garrison at Baghdad,

and in close proximity to the person of the sovereign, these slaves had

from the first been guilty of such excesses that Mutasim was obliged

to leave the capital and retire to the little village of Samara. Their

number and influence had constantly increased during the reign of Wathik,

and at the time of his death they had become such a power in the state

that they had no difficulty in placing Mutawakkil on the throne.

The danger that can arise from the establishment of alien bodies,

organised to be the instrument of the will of a sovereign who is himself

the first victim, is plainly apparent. With interests distinct from

those of the native Arabs, and subject to no control save that of the

caliph himself, these unruly Turks made brute force the agent by which

they obtained their desires. They became accomplices of the parricide

Muntasir out of revenge for some slight suffered at his father’s hands,

and forced him to exclude his brothers and appoint Mustain to the throne.

A delay in the distribution of their pay was sufficient to excite a

revolt, and oblige the caliph to sign his abdication. Muhtadi met with

a still sorrier fate for having desired to subject his redoubtable

body-guard to some sort of discipline; and Muwaffak’s only means of

diverting them from dangerous enterprises at home was to employ them on

distant missions.

[Illustration: AN ARAB CHIEF

(Based on decorations in the Alhambra)]

[Sidenote: [819-879 A.D.]]

The troubles which surrounded the caliphate in Baghdad wrought the most

serious consequences throughout the empire. The governors of provinces,

sole depositaries of power during the intervals of government, aspired

to complete independence and sold their submission to each successive

sovereign. The provinces themselves, regretting the riches that went from

them to swell the disorders of the capital, encouraged the pretensions

of their governors, until these latter finally succeeded in reducing the

caliph to a purely nominal supremacy.

The dismemberment of Spain and Africa had been the first blow struck at

the unity of the Moslem states; when the Abbasid caliphs had invested the

Aghlabites with the government, they had not regarded it as an act of

final abdication on their own part. In Asia the work of disintegration

had gone on more slowly. The Tahirites, whom Al-Mamun had established in

Khorasan by giving full control of that province to his general Tahir,

maintained amicable relations with the caliphs until their realm in turn

became torn by dissensions, and they were finally overthrown by the power

of the Saffarids. Yakub, the leader of this family of Saffarids, wished

to push his victories further, and advanced to the attack of Baghdad

(874). Muwaffak, who was in command of the city, met and defeated him at

Wasit, but did not feel sufficiently strong to follow up his advantage by

pursuit. Yakub retired to his own dominions, and having by the following

year regained all his losses, would shortly have visited the caliph with

complete destruction, had not his life been suddenly cut short (879).

[Sidenote: [819-913 A.D.]]

The establishment of the dynasty of the Saffarids in Khorasan, Sistan,

and Tabaristan cut off all communication between the centre of the

empire, Khwarizm, and the Mawarannahar, and Ismail, the governor of those

provinces, declared his independence in full assurance of impunity. In

819 the sons of Asad ben Saman had obtained from Al-Mamun the command

of Samarcand, Ferghana, and Balkh respectively; one of them, Akhmed,

transmitted his power to his eldest son Nasr, who, by taking possession

of Bokhara, became later sovereign over all Transoxiana. Suspecting his

brother Ismail of complicity with the Turks and Saffarids, against whom

he was obliged vigorously to defend his province, Nasr pursued him with

an armed force (888), but was himself taken prisoner. On this occasion,

Ismail revealed the magnanimity of his character; he caused all the

deference due his rank to be paid to his brother, and up to the time of

the latter’s death in 892 saw that his authority was respected. When he

was at last free to act as sovereign, Ismail forced the Turks to retreat

beyond the Jaxartes, and laid a solid foundation for the Samanid dynasty.

Other principalities were springing into power in the remaining parts

of western Asia. The city of Bassora was seized by an adventurer who

successfully resisted all attacks during the reigns of Mutazz and

Mutamid, and nearly the whole of Arabian Irak was under the dominion

of the Zengians. To Muwaffak is due the glory of retaking these

provinces--and Bassora likewise in 882. He was not so successful in his

enterprise against the Tulunids, who detached Egypt and Syria from the

Arabian empire. Akhmed ben Tulun, one of the Turks educated at the court

of the caliph, had distinguished himself by ability and courage, and

was considered worthy of the post of governor of Egypt and Syria. Once

established in these provinces he had no difficulty in maintaining his

authority, supported as he was by the whole force of the Turkish militia;

and he resolved to declare himself independent. In 877 he claimed the

right of collecting taxes, thus openly cutting himself off from the

caliphs, who, knowing their own weakness, incited the emirs of Syria to

revolt against the Tulunids. Akhmed overcame all these difficulties,

and when he died, in 884, left behind him a consolidated power. His son

Khumaraweih succeeded him, and quelled the opposition of the few hostile

parties that remained.

The rule of the Tulunids was on the whole advantageous to Egypt and

Syria. Akhmed loved science and was withal liberal-minded, generous, and

charitable. At Fostat, the capital of Egypt, he caused a superb mosque to

be erected, which is known to-day as the mosque of Tulun, and also built

palaces and laid out market-places for the accommodation of the traders

of different nations who flocked to Egypt at that time. Khumaraweih was

distinguished for his luxury and magnificence; he was said to have built

an immense menagerie, in which the animals were lodged in splendid cages,

having water brought to them in bronze canals. The bed in which he slept

was said to be gently rocked and supported by a tiny lake of quicksilver,

on which it rested. His death was by assassination, and with him perished

the splendour of the Tulunids.

[Sidenote: [908-946 A.D.]]

No new dismemberments occurring during the reigns of Mutadid (892-902),

Muktafi (902-908), and the first part of the reign of Muktadir (908-913),

it might have been thought that the caliphs would retain the extensive

empire that remained to them. Indeed, many circumstances arose which

materially increased their power. Shortly after his accession to the

throne Mutadid received tribute from Khumaraweih, and subsequently

repulsed the tribes of Arabs and Kurds who had swarmed out of the Syrian

deserts with the intention of overpowering Mosul. Muktafi was even more

successful; he attacked Harun by sea and land and immediately received

the submission of all the emirs. In Egypt the descendants of Tulun

were deserted by the very supporters whom they had formerly laden with

benefits. About this time the Saffarids likewise disappeared, overthrown

by the Samanids, against whom they had been pitted by the artful policy

of the caliphs. In addition to their newly-gained province of Khorasan

the Samanids were given the investiture of Tabaristan and Sidjistan,

Muktafi thus replacing two rival princes in his immediate neighbourhood

by a single ruler whom the Turks did not allow to become dangerous.

Muktafi’s successor, Muktadir Billah (908-932), did not succeed, as

Muktafi had done, in keeping his dominions intact. Powerless in his

own capital, he was little respected outside, and on all sides arose

disturbances that his predecessors had temporarily kept down. After

Muktadir, Kahir (932-934), Radhi (934-940), Muttaki (940-944), and

Mustakfi (944-946) lost their few remaining provinces, and the temporal

power of the caliphs in Baghdad was forever at an end.

In 930 a descendant of the emir, Hamdan, who had asserted his

independence, took several strongholds in the province of Jezira, and

pushing on as far as the northwest of Syria, founded there an important

principality of which the capital was Mosul. The establishment of the

Hamdanites in Jezira facilitated the rebellion of Egypt. Since the fall

of the Tulunids the caliphs had committed the blunder of allowing Egypt

and Syria to remain united, thinking that a frequent change of governors

was all that was necessary to maintain peace. But one of these governors,

Ikhshid the Turk, won over a large party of supporters, and when the

order came for him to relinquish his rule to another, he refused to obey.

Thus Egypt and Syria were finally lost to the Abbasids in 936.

In the neighbourhood of Baghdad the Raikites and the Baridians disputed

the possession of Bassora, Wasit, and the province of Ahwaz, and sought

to play an important part in the politics of the capital. The lords of

Armenia and Georgia ceased to pay a tribute that was no longer demanded,

and the two provinces commenced at that epoch to separate into distinct

realms. In the provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea the same tendency

was to be observed. During the reign of Muktadir a chief named Merdawij

had conquered the province of Gilhan, wrested Tabaristan away from the

Samanids, and subdued the greater part of Aderbaijan. The glory of

founding a new dynasty, however, fell not to him but to three brothers

who fought in his army and who claimed descent from the old Sassanid

kings, although their father, Buya, was only a simple fisherman. Struck

by their courage and ability, the people flocked to their standard, and

to the provinces already gained by Merdawij they added Kerman, Mekran,

Laristan, and many others (933-940).

Baghdad being now surrounded by independent principalities, the dominion

of the caliphs was limited to that city itself, and even in that small

realm their authority was purely nominal. Owing to court intrigues

and the rebellions that were constantly breaking out in the city, the

history of the later Abbasids is nothing but a panorama of executions

of generals, vizirs, sovereigns, and pretenders. Out of fifty-nine

commanders of the faithful thirty-eight came to violent ends, and

suffered calamities worse than death. That the blood of the family of

Mohammed might not be shed, many were made to die of starvation; others

were walled up or cast into glaciers. Kahir emerged from his imprisonment

with blinded eyes, and for the rest of his life begged alms at the doors

of mosques. His successor, Radhi, to escape the tyranny of the Turks

who were now in charge of every branch of the government, created the

post of emir of the emirs. This dignitary, to whom was given command

over the army and control over the public finances, soon came to be the

real sovereign, Radhi, who withdrew to strict seclusion, reserving not a

vestige of authority to himself. But instead of setting, as he thought,

a master over the turbulent Turkish guard, Radhi’s act had simply

augmented the power of its chiefs. One of these, Bajkam, irritated at the

rise of Ibn Raik, got possession of the person of Radhi and forced him

to appoint him, Bajkam, emir of the emirs. The death of this ambitious

politician in the second year of Muttaki’s reign was the signal for fresh

disturbances. Claimants, whose pretensions the Turks were obliged to

combat, sprang up on every side, and the post of emir of the emirs came

to be as hotly contested as that of caliph had formerly been. Muttaki,

having no alternative but to sanction the acts of the stronger side,

thought for a moment of placing himself in the hands of the Ikhshidites;

but Turun ordered him to be put to death and proclaimed Mustakfi caliph.

Exasperated by this terrible abuse of power, the inhabitants of Baghdad

called to their aid the Buyid princes, who had recently established

themselves in the provinces of the former Persian Empire, and in 945

the Turks were finally driven from the city. Muiz ad-Daula set upon the

throne a caliph who was a mere tool to his desires, and reserving the

post of emir of the emirs for himself, became the first of that series of

Buyid emirs which continued for more than a century.

Meanwhile, in singular contrast with the sanguinary turbulence of those

who had usurped their power, the Arabs, weary of wars and civil strife,

gave themselves up to the study of science and letters; the last of

the Abbasids, in the closest seclusion their palaces would afford,

sought consolation for the hardships of their lot in the society of

scholars and literary men. The Buyid princes also followed the example

set by Al-Mamun, and gave a great impetus to the study of astronomy and

mathematics. They levied in their tributary provinces forces sufficient

to enable them to maintain their supremacy against all rival factions,

while the caliphs Muti, Tai, Kadir, and Kaim, deprived of their revenues

and shorn of all authority and kingly state, played exactly the same part

as was enacted by the Merovingian _rois fainéants_ under the tutelage of

their mayors of the palace. Nevertheless, it was only from the hands of

the caliphs that the greater part of the ruling families of Asia would

receive their investitures, the Abbasids being still the legitimate

sovereigns in the eyes of devout Moslems.

THE VARIOUS RELIGIOUS SECTS

[Sidenote: [750-945 A.D.]]

In all times the Moslem empire had been disturbed by a variety of

religious sects. Under the Abbasids the Mutazilites had promulgated a

lofty faith which had exerted great influence over noble minds. There

were others which had confined themselves to protesting against the

license of the times and demanding social reformation, while many

had been made merely the instrument of personal ambition. Among the

most prominent were the Rawandis, a fanatical sect who believed that

to caliphs should be accorded the worship due to divinities, and who

so importuned Al-Mansur with their adoration that he caused them to

be cut to pieces by his guards. More formidable were the Zendians,

who boldly maintained that the holding of property was a crime, and

that man should not eat the flesh of animals. They were mercilessly

pursued and exterminated. In 781 Mokanna incited the population of

Khorasan to revolt, and in 834 Babik founded in Aderbaijan the sect of

the Ismailians, who professed, according to Arab historians, the most

pronounced materialism, and for four years resisted all Mutasim’s efforts

to put them down. Of all the sects, however, none promulgated its beliefs

with such rapidity and success as that of the Karmathians, who, in

the tenth century, infested Arabia and wrested from the caliphs their

spiritual and temporal power over the whole eastern part of the peninsula.

[Illustration: AN ARAB CAVALIER

(Based on decorations in the Alhambra)]

Karmat retained most of the doctrines of the _Koran_, recognising Ali

and the seven imams as direct descendants of Mohammed, and rejecting

only the theory of revelation. He had devised a system of successive

degrees into which his followers were to be initiated, and the last of

these, according to Nowairi and Makrizi, was atheism. It is not likely

that a belief of this nature would have found many adherents had not

Karmat preached at the same time abolition of slavery. Fighting in

the name of liberty, his partisans overcame all opponents; but having

enriched themselves by pillage they fell into the most grievous excesses

and incurred general contumely. The series of their victories commenced

under the reign of Mutadid, when after defeating one of his generals

they advanced on Cufa, and reduced and pillaged it. During the reign of

Muktafi they carried their arms as far as Palestine, and even threatened

Damascus. Their ablest chief, Abu Tahir, conducted them on another

expedition against Cufa, as a result of which the city was totally

destroyed; then drawing near to Baghdad he repulsed the attack of an army

of thirty thousand men. “Are your master’s soldiers as devoted as mine?”

asked Abu Tahir of one of the Moslem generals. He then commanded one of

his men to plunge a sword into his own breast, another to leap into the

Tigris, and a third to precipitate himself from the top of a high cliff;

all of which commands were immediately obeyed. Some years previously

(930) the Karmathians had besieged Mecca and massacred two thousand

persons; they also destroyed the temple of the Kaaba, carried off the

famous Black Stone, and choked up the well of Zemzem. In the Hamdanites

and Ikhshidites they finally met adversaries who were their match; and

after suffering defeat in several encounters they retired permanently to

the deserts of Syria and Bahrain.

In addition to the powerful reformers who aimed at nothing less than the

destruction of both the temporal and spiritual authority of the caliphs,

there were numerous philosophers and ascetics who created schisms in the

very heart of Islam. The most important of these minor sects was that of

the Sufis, whose aim was to hold the soul in constant communication with

God by destroying all natural sentiment and affection. Though frequently

persecuted by the caliphs, the apostles of Sufism succeeded in spreading

their doctrines through all Persia, thus hastening the extinction of

Islam, which was every day losing more ground. The existence of the

Shiites and the Sunnites was a further check on the growth of the Moslem

faith; and the first Abbasids having failed to establish religious unity,

the troubles resulting from such a confusion of creeds were constantly

on the increase. Born enemies of the Omayyads though they were, the

Abbasids, fearing to let the Alids or Shiites gain too much power, were

avowedly on the side of the Sunnites and persecuted all who opposed their

views.

[Sidenote: [900-1020 A.D.]]

After many vain attempts to gain the throne the Alids sought to found

a dominion for themselves in some of the dismembered provinces. One of

their number was for a short time ruler of Tabaristan, but was unable

to maintain his supremacy. In Africa they were more fortunate, the

Edrisites succeeding in establishing themselves in Mauretania, while

in 908 Obaid Allah, who assumed the title of imam, rallied the whole

Maghreb to his cause and overthrew the dynasty of the Aghlabites.

Gradually extending his dominion further along the coast, he laid the

foundations of the Fatimite rule in Kairwan and Mahdiya, and was already

stretching out his hand toward Egypt when death cut short his plans.

His immediate successors, Abul-Kasim (936-945) and Al-Mansur (945-953),

were unable to shake the position of the adroit and valiant Ikhshid;

but they placed themselves in communication with the Arabian Shiites in

Hedjaz and Yemen, and gained many friends by means of largess wisely

distributed. At Ikhshid’s death disputes arose as to the succession,

and Muiz-lidinillah, who replaced Al-Mansur (953), penetrated into the

interior of the country, received the submission of the emirs, and became

the first Fatimite caliph in Egypt. From this period the Fatimites had

the advantage in the spiritual struggle with the Abbasids. After founding

Great Cairo (972) they conquered Syria and a part of Jezira, and their

supremacy was acknowledged by nearly all the populations of Arabia, who

hoped to find in them a defence against the Karmathians in future.

Thus three realms, which were governed respectively by the Fatimites,

the Buyids, and the Samanids, formed the whole of the Arabian empire at

the close of the tenth century; and the history of that period is most

interesting, since it shows how centres of civilisation may shift; not at

Baghdad but at Cairo were Arabian luxury and culture henceforth to shine

with their brightest lustre.

Under the Fatimites commerce, industry, agriculture, the arts and

sciences flourished in Egypt as they had flourished in Asia under the

early Abbasids. Magnificent works were constructed to connect the little

town of Fostat with Mesra, and splendid mosques were added to those

erected by Tulun. It seemed to be the wish of the caliphs to efface from

every mind the remembrance of the glories of Baghdad; and they were also

most zealous in administering the government of their realm, giving their

personal attention to the assessment and collection of taxes. Thanks

to the remarkable fertility of the land, they were soon in receipt of

a revenue nearly as large as those of Harun ar-Rashid. Muiz and Aziz

were wise and moderate in their expenditures and just in their rule;

but Hakim who succeeded them (996-1020) was like an evil genius on the

throne. He reduced his subjects to a state of the most abject submission,

and maintained a wonderfully organised system of police which kept him

informed of the slightest occurrences, thus giving rise to the belief

that he was omniscient. He was in fact worshipped as a divinity, and

his sudden disappearance but confirmed the universal faith, inasmuch as

it was publicly stated that he had ascended to heaven whence he would

again descend to earth at a later day. One or two facts will serve to

give an idea of the blind despotism of Hakim. He set fire to Cairo that

he might enjoy the sight of the city in flames, and he tortured Jews

and Christians to make them renounce their religion, then gave them

permission to return to it again. Terror reigned wherever he appeared;

yet he respected and encouraged learned men and caused the astronomical

tables of Ibn Junis to be dedicated to him. He is supposed to have been

assassinated by one of his sisters, who then assumed the regency in

the name of his son Dhahir, who was still a child (1020-1036). On the

death of Dhahir, Abu Temim Mustansir ascended the throne and held it for

fifty-eight years. Being acknowledged ruler of Africa and Arabia and

proclaimed their spiritual sovereign by the inhabitants of Baghdad, who

were weary of the rule of Kaim-biamrillah, Mustansir was at one time on

the point of re-establishing the universal caliphate; but he was shortly

afterward punished for his ambitious schemes by the loss of the best part

of Syria, and it was with difficulty that he could maintain his supremacy

even in Palestine.

[Sidenote: [933-1094 A.D.]]

The Buyids, who had taken possession of Persia in 933, and were

all-powerful in Irak-Arabia and Baghdad, did not continue to shine for

so long a period as the Fatimites, but their era was ushered in a little

earlier. During the last half of the tenth century, after the Turkish

militia had been destroyed and the Hamdamites driven from Jezira and

Mosul, the Buyids were without rivals in Asia, and the continuance of

peace permitted them to carry on the work begun by Al-Mamun. Two of

their princes, Adhud ad-Daula and Sharaf ad-Daula, revived the taste for

literature by themselves becoming authors, and to them is due the credit

of restoring upon a sound basis the school of Baghdad, which during

their reign was to produce so many learned men. Adhud ad-Daula did not

rest content with showering benefits on poets and scholars; he caused

engineers of the highest merit to sink the bed of the river Bendemir

in Persia, thus preventing the inundations which were so frequent

and disastrous near Shiraz, and furnishing an improved water-way for

commerce. A magnificent hospital was erected at Baghdad, and at its

inauguration a festival was given which is still famous in the annals of

the East. Unfortunately the Buyids succeeded no better than the caliphs

in transmitting their power to their descendants by means of fixed laws;

they actually paved the way for the dismemberment of the empire they had

founded, and laid it open to revolution and disaster by the impolitic

manner in which they distributed its provinces and dependencies among

their children.

The dominion of the Samanids, after lasting for more than a century,

came to an end at about the same time. Alp Tegin, a Turkish slave who

had risen to a position of dignity under Abdul-Malik, failed in his

attempt to get the reins of power into his own hands at the death of that

monarch, and fled to Ghazni, where he gradually assumed control of public

affairs, and for sixteen years successfully resisted all efforts of the

Samanids to overthrow him.

Subuktigin, the wise general and councillor who succeeded him in 995,

carried the Moslem faith and arms into India, ravaging the Punjab,

founding the cities of Bast and Kasdar and defending the Samanids against

the Turks who were invading the Mawarannahar. He designated his youngest

son, Ismail, to succeed him; but the eldest, Mahmud, at the head of an

armed force, proclaimed himself an independent sovereign and became rich

with the plunder of India. He defeated the Samanids without difficulty

and became master of Khorasan in 1000, thus extending as far as the

Caspian Sea an empire that began at the Indus and Ganges and embraced

the territories known to-day as Afghanistan, Herat, and Baluchistan.

Mahmud was the first of the oriental princes to assume the title of

sultan. Ghazni was his capital, hence the name “Ghaznevid” given him

by historians, and the cities of Kanaiy, Lahore, and Delhi in India,

where the greatest renown was gained, paid him tribute. He further

devastated the kingdom of Guzerat and destroyed the pagoda of Somnath,

the magnificence of which defies description. Two thousand Brahmans were

employed in the service of this temple, and its idol was formed of a

single stone fifty cubits high. Immense sums were offered to Mahmud as

a ransom for this idol, which was the most revered in Hindustan, but he

inexorably refused them all.

[Sidenote: [852-1055 A.D.]]

While Mahmud’s troops were swarming over India, Mawarannahar fell into

the power of the tribes of Turkestan. The sultan committed the error

of allowing these enemies to remain, and himself introduced into his

dominions the Seljuk Turks, who had recently been converted to Islam,

and demanded grants of land in Khorasan. Masud, who succeeded his father

in 1028, tried to rid himself of these formidable neighbours, but was

defeated and could do no more thereafter than remain on the defensive.

Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, soon gained a second victory more

decisive than the first over the Ghaznevids and drove them back towards

India. Turning westward he invaded Khawarizm, Jorjan, Irak-Djeni, and

then invaded the dominions of the Buyid princes.

The greatest disorder reigned at Baghdad. To escape the troubles by which

he was beset, the caliph Kaim had placed himself under the protection of

Toghril Beg, and relinquished the temporal power over all the states of

Islam to that prince, who had made great display of piety by erecting

temples to Mohammed in all the conquered cities. The ceremony of the

investiture took place in Baghdad. After kissing the dust before the

caliph, who was clothed in the black garments of the Abbasids, Toghril

Beg ascended the throne that had been especially prepared for him and

received upon his head the two crowns which signified his sovereignty

over the double realm of Persia and Arabia. To further cement this

union of the East with the West, the sister of Toghril Beg was given to

the caliph in marriage, and the title of sultan was introduced in the

_khotba_, or official prayer.

No sooner had the Turks withdrawn, however, than a general uprising

took place at Baghdad, and Abu Temim Mustansir, the Fatimite ruler of

Egypt, was proclaimed caliph in place of Kaim. True to his conciliatory

policy the sultan came to the rescue of the imprisoned Abbasid prince and

replaced him on the throne.

While the Arab predominance was being destroyed little by little, the

Greeks were making renewed efforts to regain some of the colonies they

had lost. As early as 852 their fleets had carried destruction to the

town of Damietta, and a century later they had penetrated as far as

Aleppo and had pillaged the treasures of Saif ad-Daula, the Hamdanite

prince. Two of their emperors, Nicephorus and Zimisces (963-976), had

crossed the Euphrates and made Jezireh swarm with their troops, while

a great many strongholds had been reconquered as well as the country

Cilicia and the island of Cyprus.

Incapable as they were of resisting the incursions of the Greeks, how

were the Baghdad caliphs to check the advance of the warrior hordes

of Turkestan, whom the Seljuks had gathered under their banner by the

promise of spoils to be gained in the lands they were to conquer? The

scattered tribes which the Samanids had easily repulsed in 893 were now

united under one chief and formed a mighty force that, sweeping down all

obstacles, was to subjugate the whole of western Asia and maintain its

supremacy there for centuries to come.

THE SELJUK TURKS

[Illustration: A TURKISH PRIEST]

[Sidenote: [1055-1092 A.D.]]

The name of Seljuks, applied to the Turks who shared in the conquests of

Toghril Beg, must not deceive as to their number; no particular horde was

meant by those thus designated, since in the Turkestan as in the Arabian

deserts any tribe which succeeded in imposing its sovereignty upon others

gave to these the name of its chief. The Turks were of the Scythian

race, to which also belonged those ferocious Huns, presented to us under

so terrifying an aspect by Greek historians; but a distinction must be

made, inasmuch as at the extremity of Asia the Tatars and Mongols lived

still in a state of primitive savagery, acknowledging no god but a sword

stuck upright in the ground; while the tribes called Turks had learned

agriculture and commerce from the Arabs, and were possessed moreover of

an overweening vanity and love of power, which made them willing even

to be slaves that they might gradually work upon the spirit of their

master for his final overthrow and destruction. Moslems themselves and

Sunnites, the Seljuks found everywhere brothers in the enemies’ ranks,

and took their investiture from the hands of the Abbasids. After they had

vanquished the Greeks, from whom they wrested Asia Minor, they extended

their dominion from the Indus to the Bosporus. But they had no idea of

a strong organisation; their independent chieftains, at rivalry among

themselves, disputed with each other the fragments of sovereign power,

and these divisions made them fall an easy prey to the Mongols, when,

in the beginning of the thirteenth century, Jenghiz Khan swept into the

western world.

The most brilliant epoch in the history of the Seljuks was the period

between 1055 and 1092, when they were united under one single head, and

that head was the dispenser of booty. Numerous were the gifts which it

was in the power of Toghril Beg to bestow on relatives and followers.

Recognised as sultan or supreme ruler by the caliphs, he extended his

sovereignty over Jezireh and Armenia, and it was in the midst of further

exploits that death surprised him in 1063. His nephew, Alp Arslan,

succeeded him and enjoyed a brilliant reign. He vanquished the Roman

emperor, Diogenes, destroyed the independence of the Georgians, and had

just carried his arms into Turkestan, when he died by the hand of a

citizen of Khwarizm. The greater part of Asia had come under his sway,

twelve hundred chiefs paid homage to him, and two hundred thousand

soldiers marched under his banner; and yet he was not the most brilliant

among the princes of his family; that glory was reserved for his son,

Malik Shah (1072-1092).

Malik Shah was a ruler endowed with the highest qualities, and his

noble projects were ably seconded by his grand vizier, Nizam al-Mulk.

Mosques and colleges were erected at Baghdad, and new roads and canals

facilitated communication between the most distant points of the

empire. While Nizam al-Mulk occupied himself with the details of the

administration, the sultan travelled from one of his states to another

seeking to make their boundaries recede ever further and further. His

name was uttered in prayers from Mecca to Baghdad, from Ispahan to

Kashgar; and he ultimately became master of all Asia Minor. By his

orders Suleiman, one of his kinsmen, entered the territory of the

Greeks and advanced to the Bosporus, after having conquered all the

countries situated between Great Armenia, Georgia, the Black Sea, the

Mediterranean, Albania, and Lesser Armenia (1081). This was the origin of

the sultanate of Iconium and Rum, afterwards Asiatic Turkey, which played

so important a rôle in the time of the Crusades. The Greeks were driven

out of Asia by the victories of Suleiman; and in spite of their Christian

population, Antioch and the cities of Mesopotamia were obliged to submit

to the Turkish yoke. In one of these expeditions Malik Shah was taken

prisoner, and Nizam al-Mulk freed him in a manner as prudent as it was

adroit; but the sultan afterwards turned upon and disgraced this eminent

minister, who was to fall at length by the sword of the Ismailians at the

age of ninety-three.

[Sidenote: [1092-1218 A.D.]]

At the death of Malik Shah (1092) the Seljuk empire, losing its unity,

broke up into several independent principalities. In vain the sultan in

Persia strove to exercise a sort of supremacy over the other princes of

his family; the four sons of Malik Shah, Mahmud, Barkiyarok, Sinjar, and

Muhammed, divided the land among themselves at the close of protracted

wars that exhausted the resources of the Seljuks without procuring

any beneficial results either to Islam or the Turkish race. From this

point the various countries and provinces that had once formed one

realm drifted further and further asunder. In 1096 the emir Ortok

established himself in Jerusalem with the intention of founding there

a hereditary sovereignty and a governor of Khwarizm; profiting by the

intestine troubles of the Seljuks, he declared his independence, and

his successors, commencing a series of conquests which were to include

Mawarannahar, Khorasan, Irak, and Kerman, renewed the empire of the

Ghaznevids. Certain princes of that race had retained the provinces

contiguous to the two banks of the Indus up to the time when the Ghurids,

first at Lahore (1183-1205) and then at Delhi, undertook the siege of

India, ravaging Benares, subjugating Bengal, and giving birth to the

Afghan dynasty in the ancient Paropamisus.

The Ghurids had already been established twenty-five years in the

dominion left by the last of the Ghaznevids when Muhammed, sultan of

Khwarizm, took from them their western provinces, and became nearly as

powerful as Malik Shah had been. At the moment of his greatest splendour

this prince fell a victim to the Mongol invasion (1208-1218).

We have witnessed the development of the antagonism between the Turkish

and Arab races, whereby barbarism threatened to submerge the Moslem

states, as it had menaced Europe in the time of the Germanic invasion.

But by the law of compensation the Turks, while making felt about them

the authority of the sword, imbibed the influence of Arab civilisation,

and adopted with their religion and language their respect for science

and the arts. A comparison of the decadence of the Arabian and Roman

empires offers points of the most striking similarity; in the East

the sultans renewed the glories of the reigns of Theodoric and of

Charlemagne, and the school of Baghdad continued to shed effulgence over

all Asia up to the end of the fifteenth century.

Still without influence, though restored to independence by the weakening

of the Seljuks, the Abbasid caliphs remained in the capital, to which

their authority was mostly confined. No successors of Kaim had revolted

against the tyranny of the Seljuks except Mustarshid (1118-1135) and

Rashid (1135-1136), who both committed acts of resistance, the latter

even losing his life in defending Baghdad against the sultan Massud,

whose supremacy he obstinately refused to recognise.

Massud, grandson of Malik Shah, was still strong enough to command

respect, and during his life-time Muktafi, Rashid’s successor, ventured

on no open rebellion. But at his death, there being disputes as to the

rights of succession, the caliph publicly presented himself as the lawful

sovereign, and after repelling all attacks directed against Baghdad,

got himself acknowledged throughout Irak-Arabia. Affairs remained in

this condition for a century, during which Mustanjid, Mustadi, Nasir,

Dhahir, Mustansir, and Mutasim had not to endure the shame of seeing

the government in the hands of others. They were at liberty to protect

commerce and industry, letters and sciences, without incurring anyone’s

censure; and Baghdad, in the midst of the disturbances which broke forth

on all sides, was as an inaccessible fortress, into which even the rumour

of certain bloody engagements between hot-headed Sunnites and intractable

Shiites could penetrate but feebly.

ARABS AND TURKS UNITE AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS

While the power of the Seljuks was gradually declining in the eastern

provinces, what was taking place in the western provinces of the Arabian

empire? At the death of Malik Shah (1092) three sultanates were formed,

those respectively of Aleppo, Iconium, and Damascus, having no connection

with each other, nor with the sultanates of Persia or of Kerman. The

first of these distinct realms extended over Asia Minor, the other two

included the large cities of Jezireh and Syria. A favourable opportunity

now presented itself to the Fatimite caliphs to reconquer some of their

former possessions in those countries; but so fallen were they from their

early greatness that they permitted the names of the Seljuk sultans to be

mentioned in the public prayers at Hedjaz. Far from seeking to arm the

Arabs against the Turks, Mustali, successor to Mustansir, had had but one

aim, that of obtaining certain barren concessions from the Seljuk princes

by intervening in their private quarrels; and moreover an unforeseen

incident had arisen which diverted all minds from internecine troubles.

[Sidenote: [1097-1171 A.D.]]

The arrival of several armies of Christians, sent to Palestine with the

mission of delivering the Holy City, aroused in the Moslems all their

religious fanaticism. Arabs and Turks suspended their mutual animosity to

make one cause against the common enemy; the danger once past, however,

divisions again broke forth that greatly facilitated the progress of

the Christians. Before the arrival of Godfrey de Bouillon (1097) the

army of Peter the Hermit had perished in the domains of the sultan of

Iconium, and the Moslems, thinking they had nothing more to fear from

without, recommenced their civil wars; thus the disciplined troops of the

first true crusaders found no power to combat stronger than that of the

Seljuks divided among themselves, and after having crossed the mountains

of Cilicia they took the city of Antioch and made an easy entrance into

Palestine.

The Moslems everywhere remained divided and without a common head. To

the Fatimite caliphs, Mustali, Emir, Hafidh, Dhafir, Faïz, and Adid,

or rather to their grand viziers, it never occurred to unite with the

independent princes of Syria for the purpose of repulsing the enemy

of their common faith; the main objects of their policy seemed to be

to carry on negotiations with the Turkish emirs, the war against the

Franks occupying a subordinate place in their concern. At the death of

Barkiyarok, however, there suddenly arose a new and powerful defender of

Islam.

Imad ad-Din (called “the bloody” by our chroniclers) had distinguished

himself at the court of the Seljuks in Aleppo and Mosul. Organising for

himself under the name of Atabekm a small independent state, he spread

terror among the emirs all about him, and finally attacked the Seljuk

sultan at Aleppo and became master of that town (1127). He next proceeded

to awake in the Moslems their ancient hatred for the name of “Christian”

and commenced against the Franks a sort of guerilla warfare which

terminated in the taking of Edessa, after which he forced the kings of

Jerusalem to make appeal to Europe.

Zenki was succeeded by his sons Saif ad-Din and Nur ad-Din, the latter

of whom proved himself a worthy successor of his father. He harassed the

Franks by repeated attacks, and allowed the two monarchs to exhaust their

forces by vain efforts to take Damascus, which was still under the power

of the Seljuks. When they finally retired, defeated, Nur ad-Din himself

assailed the sultan, who was enfeebled by this long, heroic resistance,

took from him Damascus, and entered Palestine, which he ravaged in every

direction. By a fortunate circumstance he was soon permitted to mingle in

the affairs of Egypt, by offering troops to a vizier for the purpose of

suppressing the caliph Adid. Not receiving the reward promised for this

service, he opened hostilities at once, and several times defeated the

kings of Jerusalem, while his lieutenant, Shirkuh, became master of Egypt

and forced the caliph to bestow upon him the charge of grand vizier. This

was the sentence of death for the Fatimites. Shirkuh’s nephew, Saladin,

sharer in his uncle’s secret designs, carried the revolution to a head,

and in less than a month prayers were said in the mosque in the name of

the Baghdad caliph, Nostadi, and Adid was deposed without a voice being

raised in his favour (1171).

SALADIN AND HIS SUCCESSORS AGAINST THE CRUSADERS

[Sidenote: [1171-1229 A.D.]]

Scarcely did Saladin get into his hands the resources of the wealthy land

of Egypt than he commenced against the Franks that series of assaults

which has made his name famous. He was later elevated to the supreme

rank by the universal choice of the Moslems at the death of Nur ad-Din,

the latter’s son having been put aside.

The reign of Saladin, who was the most interesting figure in the

history of the Crusades, represents for us the highest point of Arab

civilisation. Being by birth a Kurd, he cannot be said to belong to

the Turkish race, though he possessed the warlike instincts of a Turk,

joined to a superior intelligence. In Godfrey de Bouillon and Richard

the Lion-hearted are personified the piety, generosity, and valour of

Christian chivalry; Saladin is no less the hero of the Moslem world.

Unfaltering courage, magnanimity, a spirit of strict justice, and

unshakable fidelity to his plighted word were among his principal

virtues. Passing his life as he did in the midst of wars, he had little

opportunity to foster the arts of peace; yet he was no stranger to

letters and the sciences, and he neglected no opportunity to elevate

himself in the esteem of his people. Saladin was the first to unite under

one control the forces of Syria and Egypt, and therein lies the secret of

his success against the crusaders.

[Illustration: A CRUSADER OF THE THIRD CRUSADE]

At his entrance into Palestine, Jerusalem was a prey to the worst

disorders, owing to the chiefs of the Crusade not being content to guard

the sacred places that had been entrusted to them, but aspiring to govern

all the cities and strongholds. The Holy City fell immediately into

his power. The Moslems took possession of the temples as mosques, and

besieged all the maritime towns; but a check inflicted upon them at Tyre

revived the courage of the Franks and enabled them to await the arrival

of Richard and Philip Augustus. The Third Crusade followed in 1187-1192,

but Jerusalem could not be conquered by the Christians in spite of the

bravery of the English king. The magnanimity shown by the sultan of Egypt

in the treatment of his prisoners is well known; he set all the foreign

knights at liberty, merely stipulating that each should bestow his name

upon some newborn child.

Several months after the departure of Richard, Saladin died at Damascus,

admired by his enemies and regretted by Moslems, who foresaw that new

divisions would arise. Indeed three Eyyubid states at once came into

being; one in Egypt, another in Damascus, Jerusalem, and Lower Syria, and

the third in Aleppo and Upper Syria. Three sons of Saladin had divided

the states left by their father, two of them being despoiled by their

uncle Adil Saif ad-Din, who remained master of Egypt and Damascus. Malik

Adil, called Saphedin in our chronicles, was the sworn enemy of the

Franks; he took from them the city of Tripolis, and was the determining

cause of the Fifth Crusade.

Malik al-Kamil, his son, became sultan of Egypt in 1218, and graciously

received presents from Frederick II, when that prince entered Palestine

at the head of the Sixth Crusade, and received from him the city of

Jerusalem that had cost the Moslems so many lives. The Eyyubid sultans

that succeeded Malik looked upon the Franks as enemies who must be

driven from Asia at any cost; and so Jerusalem fell again into infidel

hands and became in turn the possession of the sultans of Egypt and of

Damascus.

Thus we find, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, the

posterity of Saladin wielding power over almost the whole of the

western part of the Arabian empire. A descendant of Nur ad-Din, it is

true, possessed a part of Jezireh, and certain Eyyub princes reigned

over provinces of the peninsula; while the name of the Abbasids, last

representatives of the former Arab supremacy, was still proclaimed

in public prayers. The Alids and Fatimites formed a single sect,

without unity or political influence. Armenia and Georgia had reverted

to Christianity, and a considerable faction known in history as the

Ismailians, Bathenians, or Assassins had still retained a certain

prominence.

[Sidenote: [1090-1250 A.D.]]

This sect was founded toward the close of the eleventh century by Hassan

Sabba, who succeeded in gaining an absolute ascendency over the minds of

his followers. An enemy alike to Christianity and Islam, he promulgated

a doctrine which was similar to that of the Karmathians, and among

his possessions were several fortresses, in one of which he resided.

The name “assassins” is a corruption of the word _hashish_, a sort of

intoxicating drink by means of which Hassan Sabba persuaded his followers

that he could initiate them in all the joys of paradise. Hassan assumed

the character of a lesser providence charged with redressing wrongs and

punishing untruth; and as he at the same time permitted all sorts of

brigandage on the part of his sectarians, the dynasty he established

terrorised all western Asia for more than two centuries. They carried

their arms into Syria, where they erected fortifications and pillaged all

the caravans that passed through. As late as the thirteenth century they

possessed stations in Irak and Syria, not far from Damascus and Aleppo.

THE MONGOLS UNDER JENGHIZ KHAN INVADE WESTERN ASIA

[Sidenote: [1220-1258 A.D.]]

Such was the situation of the oriental world when a new race of

conquerors, the Mongols, descended upon western Asia. Like the Turks

the Mongols formed one particular branch of the Scythian race, but had

preserved, in the depths of Tatary, their primitive customs and religion.

Their life was nomadic, their organisation tribal, and obedience to their

chiefs, together with love of war and pillage, were their distinguishing

characteristics.