CHAPTER II.

THE KHALIFS[43] FROM ABU BEKR TO HASHEM (OR HESHAM).

After the death of the prophet, his companions convened an assembly

to deliberate on the choice of his successor, as Mohammed had

abstained from expressing any explicit command or wish in this

respect. Several competitors presented themselves, of whom Ali, Abu

Bekr, and Omar were the most important. The illustrious son of Abu

Taleb seemed indeed to combine in his own person every possible claim

to the vacant throne of Arabia; he was chief, in his own right,

of the family of Hashem, and hereditary prince of the city, and

custodian of the Temple, of Mecca; the husband of Fatima, Mohammed’s

favorite and only surviving daughter, might reasonably claim for

himself and his two sons the inheritance of the prophet, who had

always delighted in calling him his vizir and vicegerent; his valor

and prowess had shone conspicuous in many a hard-fought battle; and

even his enemies could not impeach the purity of his private life.

But it so happened that Ali had drawn upon himself the implacable

hatred of Ayesha: the conduct of this lady had, on one occasion, been

rather _indiscreet_, to use the very mildest term, and Ali had urged

his cousin to punish the frail fair. Mohammed was indeed inclined

to jealousy, but the youth, beauty, and spirit of the daughter of

Abu Bekr had established her empire over her husband’s affections so

firmly that he rejected the clearest evidence of her faithlessness,

inflicted a severe chastisement upon her accusers, and reproved Ali

for his officiousness. Ayesha never forgave Ali the part he had

played in this delicate affair, and the enmity she bore him was

still heightened by her jealousy of Fatima, to whom she grudged the

prophet’s paternal affection. Mohammed would most probably have

named Ali his successor--and against the explicit nomination of the

prophet, no voice would have dared a protest--but the artful daughter

of Abu Bekr besieged his bed of sickness; and, turning the ascendant

she had acquired over the uxorious man to excellent account, obtained

from him that on the third day before his death, when he was no

longer able to proceed to the mosque, he deputed Abu Bekr in his

place to perform the function of public prayer, instead of charging

Ali with that most honorable and important duty. After the death of

Mohammed, she boldly asserted that he had “appointed” her father

his successor in the royal and sacerdotal office. The Koreish, and

more especially the branch of Ommiyah, the old enemies of the line

of Hashem, eagerly espoused the cause of Abu Bekr. The Ansars of

Medina, and a few of the Mohagerians of Mecca voted for Ali; the

crafty Omar was watching the event; a rash proposal made by one of

Ali’s supporters to let each party choose their own Khalif, and to

divide the empire between them, brought the matter to an abrupt

termination. Omar, discerning the danger which threatened the rising

Saracen empire, if this proposal were acted upon, renounced his own

pretensions; and, setting the regular forms of an election at naught,

hailed Abu Bekr as the first Khalif. The people acquiesced, and

Mecca, Medina, and most of the provinces of Arabia, acknowledged Abu

Bekr as commander of the Faithful. The Hashemites, however, remained

true to their chief, and Ali resisted for six months the cajoleries

of the Khalif and the threats of Omar. But the death of his beloved

Fatima subdued his haughty spirit, and he consented at length to

submit to Abu Bekr’s rule. Strange enough, when Ali had made his

submission, the old man offered to resign in his favor; an offer

which was prudently declined.

During the later part of Mohammed’s life, several other prophets had

arisen in various parts of Arabia, and among them one of some note,

and of no mean skill in the apostolic trade. His name was MOSEILAMA;

the powerful tribe of Hanifa, in the city of Yamanah, in Neged,

listened to his voice. Confident in his power, he coolly offered

Mohammed a partition of the earth between them. The prophet of Islam

treated the offer with disdain; but after his death, several tribes,

who had unwillingly embraced his creed, seceded to the standard

of the new prophet, who speedily became a formidable rival to the

Khalif. Mohammed’s uncle Abbas and the fierce Kaled were dispatched

against him by Abu Bekr; but though forty thousand Moslems followed

their banner, the first action against Moseilama ended in the defeat

of Abbas and Kaled, and the former of the two generals was severely

wounded with a javelin. This defeat was, however, fearfully avenged

by Kaled; ten thousand infidels were made to bite the dust, and

the same javelin that had pierced Abbas, was sent, a messenger of

death, to Moseilama’s heart, by the hand of an Ethiopian slave. The

submission of the revolted tribes speedily followed, and the dread

name of the _Sword of God_ was in itself sufficient to disarm all the

other rebels who had risen in various parts of the peninsula.

The victorious Kaled was now sent to the banks of the Euphrates,

where he reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira (A.D. 632), and, having

slain the last of the Mondars of the Arabian colony of Hira, and

sent his son a captive to Medina, prepared to invade the Persian

empire; but in the midst of his triumphant career, he was recalled

and sent into Syria, to take the command of the army there, and,

in conjunction with Abu Obeidah, to effect the reduction of that

province of the Greek empire. Bosra, a strong city situated four

days’ journey from Damascus, fell by his valor and by the treachery

of the Greek governor ROMANUS. Damascus was besieged (633); and an

army of 70,000 Greeks, who came to the relief of the hard-pressed

city, under the command of WERDAN, was totally defeated and dispersed

by 45,000 Moslems under Kaled, Amru, and Abu Obeidah, at AIZNADIN

(13th July, 633). Still Damascus resisted stoutly for many months,

sustained chiefly by the valor of a noble Greek named THOMAS. At

length, however, the courage of the besieged gave way, and they

surrendered to the mild Abu Obeidah (most probably in August, 634),

who granted them personal safety, and free possession of their lands

and houses, and to such of them as should prefer exile to the Moslem

rule, the permission to depart with as much of their effects as they

could carry away with them. But the fierce and cruel Kaled refused to

ratify these terms of his fellow-commander: he slaughtered thousands

of the unfortunate Damascenes; and, though he consented at last to

abide by the terms of the capitulation, he only gave three days

respite to the band of voluntary exiles who left Damascus under the

leadership of the valiant Thomas. At the expiration of this term, he

set out in pursuit at the head of four thousand horsemen; a miserable

renegade, named JONAS, acted as guide. The hapless fugitives were

overtaken, and ruthlessly cut down to the last being of either sex,

with the solitary exception of the widow of the brave Thomas, who was

sent by Kaled to carry a message of defiance to the throne of the

Cæsars.

Meanwhile the aged Abu Bekr, after a short reign of two years,

had been gathered to his fathers; Ayesha’s influence and Omar’s

craft had once more defeated Ali’s claims to the vacant throne;

and Omar had gained the object of his ambition (24th July, 634).

The new Khalif[44] proved himself worthy of this exalted position;

his justice, his wisdom, his moderation, and his frugality form,

even to the present day, among the _Sonnites_, the theme of the

most enthusiastic praise; though by the _Shiites_ his memory is

as bitterly reviled, and the appellation _Shitan Omar_, which the

Persians so liberally bestow upon the second Khalif, shows the sense

which they entertain of his machinations against the illustrious Ali.

The son of Abu Taleb, however, submitted to Abu Bekr’s choice, and

was comforted for the loss of empire by the most flattering marks

of esteem and confidence on the part of the new commander of the

Faithful.

One of the first acts of Omar’s reign was to remove Kaled from the

command of the Syrian army, under pretext of excessive cruelty,

and of rashness in the pursuit of the Damascene exiles, but in

reality because the Khalif bore a personal enmity to his invincible

lieutenant. This made, however, practically, no difference in

the conduct of the war; Kaled could command and obey with equal

readiness, and Abu Obeidah was modest and sensible enough to guide

himself in all important operations by the advice of his former

chief. After the reduction of Damascus, the Arabs laid siege to

Heliopolis (Baalbec) and Emesa, and speedily compelled these

important cities to surrender (635). Heraclius made one last great

effort to free Syria from these most unwelcome visitors; he sent

four-score thousand veteran soldiers by sea and land to Antioch and

Cæsarea; this host was considerably increased by the remains of the

Syrian army, and by new levies in Syria and Palestine, and joined

also by 60,000 Christian Arabs under the banner of JABALAH,[45] the

last of the Gassanide princes. Upon Kaled’s prudent advice, Abu

Obeidah resolved to retire to the skirts of Palestine and Arabia, and

there to await the attack of the enemy. In the vicinity of Bosra,

on the banks of the obscure river Yermuk (Hieromax), a fierce and

bloody encounter took place, in which the Greek forces were totally

routed (636); their Gassanide allies had already previously met with

the same fate at the hands of the intrepid Kaled. After the victory

of Yermuk, Abu Obeidah resolved to invest JERUSALEM (or ÆLIA, as the

Romans called it); he first sent MOAWIYAH, Abu Sophian’s son, with

the van of five thousand Arabs, to try a surprise; and this failing,

he appeared himself, ten days after, with the whole army.

After having endured four months the hardships of a siege, the

garrison and people of the holy city offered to capitulate; but they

demanded as a guarantee for the articles of security, that the Khalif

should ratify them in person. Ali advised the Khalif to comply with

this rather unusual demand; and Omar set out from Medina, mounted on

a red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag

of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern bottle of water! Jerusalem

immediately surrendered (637), and the Khalif returned promptly to

Medina in the same simple manner in which he had come. The conquest

of Syria was achieved the year after (638) by Abu Obeidah and Kaled,

who reduced Antioch, Aleppo, Tripoli, Tyre, Acca (St. Jean d’Acre),

Cæsarea, Ascelon, Hierapolis, and many other cities and strong

places. Abu Obeidah died 639, of a fatal disease which carried off

twenty-five thousand of the conquerors of Syria; the hero Kaled, the

_Sword of God_, survived his fellow-commander about three years. The

government of the conquered province was entrusted by Omar to the

hands of Moawiyah, the chief of the family Ommiyah, and who became

afterwards the founder of the Ommiade dynasty.

After Kaled’s recall from the Persian frontier, the war against the

empire of the Magians was carried on languidly for several years.

In 636, however, Omar sent a new commander, SAID, with considerable

reinforcements to the army on the Euphrates. After the murder of

Chosroes II. and Cobad II., in 628, eight kings of Persia had

followed each other in rapid succession, in the short space of three

years. At last, a woman, ARZEMA, seized upon the throne; but, in 632,

she was deposed, and the tiara transferred from her head to that

of the grandson of Chosroes, YEZDEGERD (III.), a boy of fifteen. A

dying effort was now made by the Persians to drive back the Saracen

invaders. An army of 120,000 men, with 30,000 regulars among them,

was collected under RUSTAM, who, urged on by his youthful and

inexperienced monarch, sought the Moslems in the plains of CADESIA,

where Said had pitched his camp. The Mussulman forces numbered only

30,000; the fight was protracted for three whole days; it was bloody

and obstinate in the extreme; the Saracens lost one clear fourth of

their number; the fall of Rustam, on the third day, decided the fate

of the battle and of Persia (636). The standard of the Sassanides

(a leathern apron of a blacksmith, covered with a profusion of

precious gems) fell into the hands of the conquerors. The province

of Irak submitted to the Khalif, who secured his conquest by the

foundation of the city of BASRA, or BASSORA, on the Shat-el-Arab

(_i.e._, the river of the Arabs), which is formed by the junction

of the Euphrates and Tigris. The Moslems crossed the latter river,

and took and sacked MADAYN, or CTESIPHON, the capital of the Persian

empire; immense treasures fell here into their hands, more than

sufficient indeed to enrich the whole host of naked Arabians beyond

their most sanguine expectations. Many splendid works of art were

destroyed by the ruthless hands of the ignorant sons of the desert.

In one of the apartments of the white palace of Chosroes Nushirvan,

was found a magnificent carpet of silk, with the picture of a garden

embroidered on it in gold and precious stones, imitating the natural

colors of the flowers, fruits, and shrubs depicted; Said preserved

this splendid piece of workmanship, and sent it to the commander of

the Faithful; but the precious gift found little favor in the sight

of Omar; that cynical gentleman quietly ordered the picture to be

destroyed, and divided the materials among his brethren of Medina:

the intrinsic value of these materials may be conjectured from the

fact, that Ali’s share alone was sold for twenty thousand drachms

of silver. A new city, CUFA, was founded on the western side of

the lower Euphrates, and the seat of government was removed to it

from the despoiled Madayn. One Persian province after the other was

compelled to submit to the Moslem sway; at Jalula, Yezdegerd nobly

contended once more for the empire of his ancestors; in vain! the

fanaticism of the Arabs proved stronger than the despair of the

Persians. Said had been recalled, and FIRUZAN sent in his place;

the courage of the Persian nation was not yet thoroughly subdued;

150,000 Persians attacked the Moslem host at NEHAVEND, about 230

miles south of Hamadan; but though Firuzan had only 30,000 Mussulmans

to oppose to the overwhelming numbers of the Persians, and though the

latter fought with true bravery, fate had decreed the downfall of

the monarchy of the Sassanides: the Arabians gained “the victory of

victories,” and the hapless Yezdegerd, worthy of a better fate, like

Darius Codomannus, yielded up all hope of empire (642).[46] After

the victory of Nehavend, the cities of Hamadan, Ispahan, Estachar

(Persepolis), and many more, were readily reduced, and the conquest

of Persia was achieved.

Whilst Persia was thus being added to the new Saracen empire, another

province was snatched from the feeble emperor of Byzantium. Omar

had cast his eyes upon Egypt. With only 4000 Arabs, the valiant

AMRU invaded that country, in June, 638; after a siege of thirty

days, he took possession of Farmah, or Pelusium, the key of Egypt.

The reduction of Babylon, on the Eastern bank of the Nile, opposite

Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, took Amru seven months,

although he had received a reinforcement of 4000 men. On the spot

where Amru’s army had pitched their tents during the siege of

Babylon, a new city arose, which forms now part of an extensive

suburb of Cairo, or AL CAHIRA, _i.e._, the victorious, founded by

the Fatimite Khalifs (MOEZ), in 970. Notwithstanding the capture

of Babylon and Memphis, Amru would probably have been compelled

to relinquish his attempt to conquer Egypt, had not the Jacobite

(Monophysite) Copts under Mokawkas, who would have preferred the

devil’s rule to that of their Melchite[47] tyrants, joined the

invaders heart and soul. Under _their_ guidance, and with _their_

aid, Amru, who had, meanwhile, been considerably reinforced from

Syria, marched from Memphis to ALEXANDRIA; which latter city was,

after a series of preliminary combats, at last closely invested on

the land side. As the sea remained open, Heraclius might have saved

the great provision store of Byzantium, had he acted with the least

energy; but the feeble old man contented himself with _praying_

for the relief of the besieged city, and thought, perhaps, he had

enlisted God on his side by appointing a _priest_ (the patriarch

CYRUS), to the præfecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the war.

No wonder then that, notwithstanding a truly gallant defence by

the inhabitants, the city was, after a siege of fourteen months,

at length compelled to surrender (22nd of December, 640). Omar’s

commands preserved Alexandria from the horrors of pillage. The story

of the burning of the Alexandrian library by order of Omar, is

absolutely void of foundation; the honor of the first invention of

this calumnious lie belongs (of course) to a Christian historian,

ABULPHARAGIUS, primate of the Jacobites, who wrote 600 years after

the event: but a crowd of historians have since faithfully copied it,

even to its most extravagantly absurd details.[48]

With the reduction of Alexandria, the conquest of Egypt was achieved,

Amru carrying his victorious arms even beyond the boundaries of

that country as far as Tripoli. To facilitate the communication

between Egypt and Arabia, Omar constructed a canal from the Nile to

the Red Sea. Omar, the now mighty ruler of a most extensive empire,

was revolving new plans of conquest, when the dagger of FIRUZ, a

Persian slave, who had been personally aggrieved by the Khalif, cut

short his thread of life--and saved the world from subjugation; for

what nation or empire could, at that time, have long or successfully

withstood the impetuous tide, which, in the short space of ten

years, had engulphed Syria, Persia, and Egypt; and was full vigorous

enough to sweep over the whole earth, had but the master-mind which

had hitherto with rare wisdom directed its enormous material force,

continued to breathe an intelligent will into it. Omar died in

November, 644: urged to name his successor, he had refused to do

so, but had devolved the task of choosing a new Khalif, on Ali and

five others of the most respectable companions of the prophet. The

illustrious son of Abu Taleb might now, indeed, have ascended the

vacant throne, had he deigned to promise a servile conformity, not

only to the Koran and tradition, but also to the “sayings and doings”

of his predecessors, Abu Bekr and Omar. This demand his proud spirit

rejected with disdain. OTHMAN, also a son-in-law of the prophet,

and who had been his secretary, accepted the government with these

restrictions. The new Khalif was but little made to sustain the

weight of the Saracen empire. He was a weak and vacillating old man,

and led entirely by unworthy favorites, more particularly by his

secretary, MERVAN; he was arrogant and overbearing withal, and in

the space of a few brief years, he excited the dissatisfaction and

indignation of even the most loyally disposed among his subjects. At

last the universal discontent was gathering to a head. Resolved no

longer to submit to the exactions of the wretched favorites on whom

the Khalif had conferred power and station, the tribes rose in arms.

From Cufa, from Bassora, from Egypt, from the Desert, they marched on

Medina: they encamped about a league from the city, and dispatched a

haughty summons to their sovereign to redress their grievances, or

to give place to a more worthy prince. Othman promised reformation,

and Ali’s generous intercession might have succeeded in healing

the breach between the Khalif and his angry subjects; but Mervan’s

perfidy, and the deep intrigues of the artful Ayesha, defeated all

chances of reconciliation between the prince and the people. In

vain Othman ascended the pulpit, publicly and solemnly to entreat

Allah’s and the people’s forgiveness for his misrule; he was pelted

with stones, and carried home half dead. The insurgents besieged him

six weeks in his palace, intercepting his water and provisions. The

helpless old man had to endure the grief of seeing himself forsaken

and betrayed by those on whom his misplaced favor had bestowed wealth

and power. Abandoning all hope, he calmly expected the approach of

death: a desperate band of fanatical Charegites, with Mohammed,

Ayesha’s brother, at their head, made their way into his palace. They

found him seated, with the Koran in his lap; but neither the sacred

book, nor his venerable aspect, could disarm the assassins. Othman

fell, pierced with many wounds, 18th June, 655, in the eighty-second

year of his age.

During the reign of Othman, the island of Cyprus was conquered by

Moawiyah, in 647, and the island of Rhodes, in 654; from the latter

island, the Saracens carried off the massy trunk and the huge

fragments of the celebrated colossal statue of Apollo, which had

been overthrown about 800 years before by an earthquake. The large

and once populous country of Chorasan, the kingdom of the ancient

Bactrians, was also “annexed” to the Saracen empire, during the reign

of Othman. In 647, ABDALLAH[49] and ZOBEIR were sent with 40,000

Moslems to attempt the conquest of Africa. They advanced to the walls

of Tripoli, and endeavoured to carry that maritime city by assault;

they were, however, repulsed, and the approach of a numerous army

under the Greek præfect Gregory, compelled them to raise the siege.

By Zobeir’s skill and valor, the Arabs gained a complete and decisive

victory over the hostile forces, the præfect himself being slain by

the hand of Zobeir. The opulent city of Sufetula, situated 150 miles

to the south of Carthage, fell into the hands of the victorious

Arabs. Abdallah prudently rested content with the advantages gained;

he accepted the offer of submission and tribute made on all sides by

the provincials, and retreated to the confines of Egypt (648).

Ali had made a perhaps somewhat lukewarm effort to effect a

reconciliation between Othman and his insurgent subjects. When

matters had proceeded to extremities, he had sent his two sons,

HASSAN and HOSEIN, to the rescue of the besieged Khalif; and Hassan,

the eldest of his sons, had, indeed, been wounded in the defence of

that unfortunate prince. Still Ali had not been very energetic in

his opposition to the rebels; and it is not uncharitable to suppose,

that the death of Othman caused him no very bitter grief. Five days

after the murder of the aged Khalif, Ali was proclaimed his successor

by acclamation. The illustrious son of Abu Taleb was, indeed, a poet

and a hero, but a most indifferent statesman. TELHA and the valiant

ZOBEIR, two of the most powerful of the Arabian chiefs, who had had a

hand in Othman’s overthrow and death, and whose doubtful allegiance

Ali ought to have secured by rich gifts and greater promises, saw

themselves treated with studied coldness by the new Khalif, of whom

they had vainly solicited the government of Irak, as the reward of

their services. This impolitic conduct of Ali made them inclined

to lend a willing ear to the advice and suggestions of the artful

Ayesha, to raise the standard of revolt against Ali, and to charge

_him_ with the perpetration of the very crime which _she_ had

instigated, and _they_ had lent their aid to execute! The two chiefs,

and the widow of the prophet, escaped from Medina to Mecca, and

from thence to Bassora; the unblushing woman, whose own brother had

actually headed the assassins, had the almost incredible effrontery

to send Othman’s bloody shirt to the governor of Syria, Moawiyah,

Ali’s hereditary foe, and to call upon him to avenge Othman’s blood

upon his murderer--_Ali!_ The son of Abu Sophian was perfectly aware

of the true circumstances of the case; but it suited his ambitious

projects to _appear_ to believe the infamous accusation against the

august chief of the line of Hashem, the more so as Ali had expressed

his intention to remove the head of the house of Ommiyah from the

government of Syria. Moawiyah, therefore, exposed the bloody shirt

of Othman in the principal mosque of Damascus, and denouncing Ali as

the instigator of the sacrilegious deed, called upon the Faithful to

rise and avenge the death of the holy martyr, whose lawful successor

in the Khalifate he declared himself to be, in obedience, as he

pretended, to the express command of the dying Othman. The appeal was

numerously responded to, and the ruler of Syria saw himself speedily

at the head of a formidable army; his friend, AMRU, whom Ali had

removed from the government of Egypt, espoused his cause. Telha and

Zobeir seized upon Irak; 50,000 Moslems marched under their banner.

At the head of 20,000 of his loyal Arabs, and 9,000 auxiliaries of

Cufa, the Lion of God went to encounter his enemies. Under the walls

of Bassora (2nd and 3rd November, 656) was fought the first battle of

this civil war, which, destroying in internecine strife the flower of

the nation of the desert, may well be said to have saved the world

from the yoke of Islam; for had Ali been sole and undisputed master

of the Saracen empire, even the fire of Callinicus[50] would have

proved no effectual protection against the then irresistible tide

of Moslem conquest, and, mayhap, the Isaurian might have indulged

his iconoclastic propensities at the head of a congenial host of

image-haters; nor would the west of Europe have escaped, and the

champion of the cross, the _Hammer_ of Christ, might, perchance, have

figured in history as the _Ilderim_ of Islam.

The rebels were totally defeated; Telha and Zobeir, with 10,000 of

their host, were slain; and Ayesha, who, seated in a litter perched

on the back of a camel,[51] had braved the dangers of the field,

animating the troops by her presence, and cheering them on with her

voice, fell a captive into the hands of the man whom, with implacable

hatred, she had pursued so many years, and whom she had so grievously

injured; but the generous Ali disdained warring with women.

Mohammed’s widow was treated with every respect due to her rank, and

speedily dismissed to her proper station at the tomb of the prophet.

The victorious Khalif, having in vain offered the most favorable

terms of accommodation to Moawiyah and Amru, took the field against

them at the head of 70,000 men, in the spring of 657. The plain of

SIFFIN, on the western bank of the Euphrates, formed the field of

ninety actions or skirmishes, in a desultory warfare of one hundred

and ten days. The forces of the Ommiyah chief, are said to have

amounted to more than 120,000 men; among them many of the veterans of

the Persian, Syrian, and Egyptian campaigns; 45,000 of that gallant

band paid with their lives for the ambition of their chief; 25,000

of Ali’s brave and loyal followers lay slain by their side--a rare

crop of blossoms for the garden of the destroyer. The Lion of God

was everywhere foremost in the fight; his ponderous two-edged sword,

wielded with irresistible force, made fearful havoc in the hostile

ranks; every time he smote a rebel, he shouted his war-cry “Allah

Akbar!”[52] and the Arabian and Persian historians tell us with all

gravity, that “in the tumult of a nocturnal battle, that tremendous

exclamation was heard no less than four hundred times.” Making all

due allowance for Oriental exaggeration, and striking one nought off

the account, enough still remains to make the feat a most respectable

achievement indeed.

The magnanimous Ali had proposed to settle the dispute between him

and Moawiyah by single combat; but to encounter so formidable a

champion would truly have been sheer madness on the part of the

prince of Damascus; he therefore declined the Khalif’s courteous

invitation. The chief of the line of Ommiyah was not so redoubtable

a warrior as Ali, but he was a much better politician than the true

and lawful commander of the Faithful; clearly foreseeing that the

decision of the sword must in the end inevitably turn against him,

he devised a stratagem to discomfit his dreaded antagonist, which

being based upon a crafty appeal to the reverential and superstitious

feelings of Ali’s followers, might reasonably be expected to have

a fair chance of success. The Khalif had resolved to terminate the

long-pending struggle by a decisive battle; the troops were in

presence, and the fight was on the point of being engaged, when a

solemn appeal to the books of the Koran, which Moawiyah exposed on

the foremost lances, made a considerable portion of Ali’s forces

pause in their onset; emissaries of the prince of Damascus had long

been busy in the unsuspecting Ali’s ranks; his refusal to hold the

tradition, and the sayings and acts of Abu Bekr and Omar as equally

binding with the precepts of the Koran, was regarded by many of

his own followers as rank heresy; and so it occurred that at the

very time when victory seemed secure in his grasp, the Khalif saw

himself suddenly abandoned by the greater half of his forces, and

even compelled by the vile rabble to submit his indefeasible right

to a so-called “arbitration;” Moawiyah being permitted to appoint

his friend and fellow-rebel, Amru, as arbiter on _his_ part, whilst

Ali was forced by the treacherous crew around him to name MUSA, the

cadi of Cufa, a mixture in equal parts of stupidity and conceit, to

act on his behalf. The result was such as might have been foreseen;

the decision was in favor of Moawiyah. Ali indignantly refused to be

bound by it, as it was but too patent that the whole “arbitration”

had been a disgraceful juggle from the beginning. But he was

abandoned by a great many of his former adherents, and compelled

to retreat to Cufa. Still he nobly carried on the struggle against

the vastly superior forces of his enemies, and though Amru snatched

Egypt from him, though Persia and Yemen were subdued or seduced by

his crafty rival of Damascus, the final issue of the struggle might

yet have been in his favor, had he not been foully murdered by a

Charegite,[53] who with two other fanatics had agreed to give peace

to their troubled country by the removal of Ali, Moawiyah, and Amru.

Each of the three assassins chose his victim, poisoned his dagger,

and secretly repaired to the scene of action; but the stroke was

fatal only to the lawful Khalif, though the prince of Damascus also

was dangerously hurt, and the deputy of the viceroy of Egypt paid

with his life for the honor of being mistaken for the illustrious

Amru (661).[54] The dying Ali mercifully commanded his children to

dispatch his murderer by a single stroke. His eldest son, HASSAN, was

indeed saluted Khalif, by the party who had faithfully adhered to the

banner of the Lion of God, but he was prevailed upon by Moawiyah to

resign his pretensions, and the son of Abu Sophian was acknowledged

the lawful commander of the Faithful; and Ali’s name was ordered to

be cursed from the pulpit.[55]

The rule of the new Khalif was marked, upon the whole, by wisdom

and moderation. Moawiyah disdained the simplicity of manners which

had distinguished his predecessors; he dressed in costly silks,

surrounded himself with a brilliant court, kept eunuchs for the

guard of his harem, and set the prophet’s precepts at naught in the

matter of wine-drinking. He would indeed shrink from no crime where

his political interests were or seemed concerned; and the poisoning

of Hassan, who had fondly, but foolishly, hoped that the son of

Abu Sophian would forget that the title of Khalif had graced his

name for however so short a period of time, and the base murders of

Kaled’s son, Abderrahman, and of the bold-spoken Hadjir Ben Hadad,

who had dared publicly to protest against the cursing of Ali’s

name and memory, are by no means the only blots on the reputation

of the founder of the Ommiade dynasty; but he was not cruel and

blood-thirsty from mere wantonness of disposition, and, as princes

go, he was altogether rather a favorable sample of the class than

otherwise.

The first acts of his reign were to put down the rebellious

Charegites, and to quell an insurrection of the people of Bassora.

The three first Khalifs had resided at Medina; political and

strategic considerations had induced Ali to transfer the seat of

his government to Cufa. Moawiyah made Damascus his capital, partly

because Syria was the stronghold of his power, and partly--and this

was unquestionably the principal reason--because his residence at

Medina would have materially interfered with the accomplishment

of the project nearest and dearest to his heart; viz., to change

the elective monarchy to an hereditary kingdom. When he had firmly

established his throne, he prepared a powerful expedition by sea and

land against Constantinople (668); he entrusted the chief command

to the veteran SOPHIAN, and sent his own son Yezid to encourage the

troops by his presence and example. But though the supineness of the

Greeks permitted them to invest the city of the Cæsars by sea and

land, the Saracens met with a more vigorous resistance than they had

anticipated; the solid and lofty walls of Byzantium, energetically

defended by a numerous and well-disciplined army, and by a people

aroused for a time to deeds of heroic devotion, by the danger which

threatened to overthrow the last bulwark of their nationality and

their religion, and the prodigious effect of the fire of Callinicus,

defeated all attempts to carry the city by assault; and the Arabs,

finding it a much easier task to plunder the European and Asiatic

coasts of the Propontis, carried on the operations of the siege more

and more languidly, till, at last, having kept the sea from April

to September, they retreated, on the approach of winter, to the

isle of Cyzicus, about eighty miles from the capital. However, they

renewed the attempt six successive summers, until the enormous losses

which they had suffered by fire and sword, and by the mischances of

shipwreck and disease, compelled them finally to abandon the bootless

enterprise (675). This failure dimmed for a time the glory of the

Saracen arms, whilst it seemed to restore the former prestige of the

Roman name. The destruction of his fleets, and the annihilation of

his armies, had subdued the proud spirit of Moawiyah; the aged Khalif

had the mortification of seeing himself insulted in his city and

palace of Damascus by the warlike Maronites, or Mardaites, of Mount

Lebanon; and he felt desirous of ending his days in tranquillity and

repose: he consented therefore to a peace, or truce, of thirty years

with the emperor Constantine IV. Pogonatus, in which he indeed was

permitted to retain possession of the north-western part of Asia

Minor, the island of Cyprus, and the isles of the Greek Archipelago,

but in which the majesty of the commander of the Faithful was wofully

degraded, by the stipulation of an annual tribute to the Court of

Byzantium of three thousand pieces of gold, fifty slaves, and fifty

horses of a noble breed (677).

Moawiyah’s arms were more successful in other quarters. His

lieutenant, OBEIDAH, invaded the territories of the Turks, in

673, and made considerable conquests in Central Asia; and a large

portion of North Africa was added to the Saracen empire by AKBAH,

who conquered Tripoli and Barca, founded the city of Cairoan, about

fifty miles south of Carthage,[56] in 671, and advanced to the verge

of the Atlantic and the Great Desert. But the universal defection of

the Africans and Greeks, whom he had conquered, recalled him from the

shores of the Atlantic, where he was already meditating a descent on

Spain. Surrounded on all sides by hostile multitudes, and despairing

of succour, the gallant Akbah, and his small force of brave men, had

no other resource left them but to die an honorable death,--they

fell to the last man. ZUHEIR, sent with a new army, avenged the fate

of his predecessor; he vanquished the natives in many battles, but

was himself overthrown in the end by a powerful army, sent from

Constantinople to the relief of Carthage which he was besieging.

Moawiyah died on the 6th April, 680. Ten years before his death he

had seen his aspiring wishes crowned by the proclamation of his son,

YEZID, as presumptive heir of the Saracen empire.[57] True, there

had been some murmurs of discontent, and it had even required an

armed demonstration against the holy cities of Mecca and Medina to

enforce submission to the will of the Khalif: but Moawiyah’s vigor

and address had triumphed over every obstacle. Accordingly, after

the father’s death, the son was acknowledged as Khalif in every

province of the vast empire; with some partial exceptions, indeed, in

Arabia proper, and more particularly in Mecca and Medina. But Yezid

had inherited none of his father’s qualities; he was a dissolute

voluptuarian, and of a most tyrannical disposition withal. In the

short time of a few months, the discontent of his subjects had risen

to a threatening height; more especially in Arabia proper, and in

the province of Irak, People’s eyes began to turn towards HOSEIN,

the younger and only surviving son of Ali and Fatima, and head of

the line of Hashem. Hosein had served with distinction in the siege

of Constantinople; he had inherited some of his father’s spirit,

and had disdainfully refused to acknowledge Yezid’s title. He was

invited by a large body of the discontented in Irak, to come and

place himself at their head; against the advice of his wife and many

of his friends, he resolved to obey the call, and set out with a

small retinue, consisting, chiefly of women and children. When he

reached the confines of Irak, OBEIDOLLAH, the watchful and energetic

governor of Cufa, had already crushed the insurrection in the bud.

In the plains of Kerbela, Hosein found himself surrounded on all

sides by a body of five thousand horse. Unconditional surrender or

death was the only alternative offered to him; he chose the latter,

and, after deeds of the most heroic valor, his generous band of

devoted adherents were all slain, basely butchered from afar with

arrows by their cowardly assailants: he, alone, still survived,

though bleeding from many a wound. He seated himself at the door of

his tent, enfolding his youngest son and his nephew, two beautiful

children, in his arms; they were slain there, and their warm

life-blood overflowed the hands of the hapless man. With a cry of

grief and despair, he started up and threw himself in the midst of

the foe. The soldiers fell back on every side, and, for a time, none

dared to lay hands on the grandson of the prophet; but, at last, one

of their leaders, the remorseless SHAMER, urged them to the attack,

and the heroic Hosein was slain, with three-and-thirty strokes of

lances and swords. The dead body was trampled under foot by the

inhuman wretches, and the severed head carried to the castle of Cufa,

and thence forwarded to Damascus, that Yezid might look upon it and

sleep in peace. An expedition was sent against the holy cities,

which, after Hosein’s death, had acknowledged for _their_ Khalif,

ABDALLAH,[58] the son of the valiant Zobeir. Medina was taken, and

the sisters and children of Hosein and Hassan were sent in chains to

the throne of Damascus. Yezid was urged by his advisers to bury his

fears for ever in the grave of the race of Ali and Fatima. Now, had

Yezid been one of the _Christian_ Cæsars of Byzantium, who “thought

it no very great harm” to slay even their own kindred, or to deprive

them of sight, or mutilate them in some other way, if undisputed

empire could but be secured thereby, no doubt the advice would have

been followed to the letter: but the grandson of the wild Henda was

not altogether without some of the better feelings of human nature,

and the _Saracen_ Khalif had no convenient “patriarch,” or bishop, at

hand to lull his troublesome conscience by the mockery of priestly

absolution. The mourning family were honorably dismissed to Medina,

and Yezid even strove to console them for the irreparable losses they

had suffered at his father’s and his own hands.

The partial successes of Yezid’s generals against Abdallah did not

prevent that indefatigable warrior from seizing upon Yemen, and

establishing his power in Egypt. After a troubled reign of three

years, Yezid died (683); and a few months after his death, his son

and successor, MOAWIYAH II., preferred voluntary abdication to the

desperate struggle which he foresaw it would cost to oust Abdallah

from his usurped position. For a time, complete anarchy ensued:

Obeidollah, the governor of Irak, attempted to found a new empire

and a new dynasty, in Bassora, but he was ignominiously expelled

by the people; and the provinces of Irak, Yemen, Hejaz, and Egypt,

acknowledged the name and sovereignty of Abdallah. Even in Syria, a

creature of Abdallah’s, DEHAC, was, for a time, obeyed as vicegerent.

At last, however, MERVAN, of the line of Ommiyah, was saluted Khalif

in Damascus (684), on condition, however, as he bound himself by

oath, to name Kaled, Yezid’s younger son, his successor. Mervan

speedily succeeded in subjecting Syria and Egypt to his sway. The

people of Chorasan, where the Hashemites had gained considerable

ascendancy, renounced their allegiance to the empire, proclaimed

their independence, and elected the noble SALEM their king. SOLIMAN,

the son of Zarad, excited a formidable insurrection in Arabia Proper,

and in part of Syria, and proclaimed the deposition of both rival

Khalifs; but he was defeated by Obeidollah. Mervan, forgetful of his

oath, proclaimed his son, ABD-EL-MALEK, his successor; he fell by

the dagger of his offended kinsman, Kaled (685). But Abd-el-Malek

made good his claim to the succession, and set diligently about

to strengthen his position in the provinces which his father had

wrested from Abdallah’s grasp. In Abd-el-Malek the latter found an

antagonist worthy of himself, both in valor and wile. The actual

struggle between the two rivals was, however, postponed for a season

by the appearance of a third party on the scene,--MOKHTAR, another

inspired prophet, and whose chances of establishing _another_ new

creed seemed, for a time, to promise rather fair; in fact, the city

of Cufa, and part of the province of Irak, had acknowledged his

divine mission, when Abdallah’s good sword proved him an impostor

(686). The Greeks had, meanwhile, taken advantage of the distress

and fears of the house of Ommiyah, but in their own paltry and

pettifogging way; for instead of boldly drawing the sword to wrest

Asia Minor, Palestine, and Syria from the enfeebled grasp of the

divided Saracens, they were content with obtaining from Abd-el-Malek

a considerable increase of the tribute.

Abd-el-Malek, relieved thus from his apprehensions of a war with

the Eastern empire, could now turn his undivided attention to the

impending struggle with the rival Khalif of Mecca. After five years’

fierce and doubtful contest, Abdallah was at length defeated in a

decisive battle, and compelled to take refuge in Mecca; here he

defended himself for seven months against Abd-el-Malek’s vastly

superior forces. At last, in a general assault, the valiant son of

Zobeir was slain; his fall decided that of the city, and the Saracen

empire was thus again united under one ruler (692). As soon as

Abd-el-Malek saw himself sole and undisputed Khalif, he threw off

the badge of servitude to the Eastern empire, which the internal

dissensions and troubles of the preceding years had compelled him to

submit to. He discontinued the payment of the stipulated tribute, and

even wrested another province, Armenia, from the feeble hands of the

Byzantine Cæsars.

HASSAN, the governor of Egypt, was charged with the task to reconquer

the north of Africa. That brave and skilful commander, after having

subdued the provinces of the interior, carried his victorious arms

to the sea-coast, and took, by a sudden assault, the fortifications

of Carthage, the metropolis of Africa (697). However, the unexpected

arrival of a powerful Greek fleet, with a numerous and well-appointed

army[59] on board, compelled the Arabian general to evacuate his

recent conquest, and to retire to Cairoan. But Abd-el-Malek had

resolved to annex North Africa to his dominions at any cost; he

prepared therefore during the winter a powerful armament by sea and

land, and in spring, 698, Hassan appeared once more before Carthage,

and compelled the præfect and patrician John, who commanded the Greek

forces, to evacuate the city; soon after, he defeated him again in

the neighbourhood of Utica, and a precipitate embarkation alone

saved the remains of the Byzantine army from absolute annihilation.

Carthage was reduced to a heap of ruins. But Hassan had soon to

encounter a more formidable enemy: a prophetess arose among the

MOORS, or BERBERS, of the interior, and boldly challenged the Arabian

invaders to make good their claim to the land which they had fondly

deemed subdued with the expulsion of the Greeks. CAHINA was the name

of this extraordinary woman, who seemed to have discovered the secret

of breathing into her people a spirit of enthusiasm superior even

to the fanaticism of the Moslems. In a single day Africa was lost

again to the Saracens, and the humbled Hassan retired to the confines

of Egypt, where he expected, five years, the promised succour of

the Khalif. But Queen Cahina’s order to destroy the cities, and to

cut down the fruit-trees, filled the Christian population of the

coast with apprehension and anger; and when Hassan at last made his

reappearance in the province, he was hailed, even by the most zealous

Catholics, as a deliverer and saviour. The royal prophetess boldly

accepted battle; but she was slain, and her army was put to the

rout (705). Still the spirit of resistance survived, and Hassan’s

successor, the aged but fiery MUSA BEN NASSIR, had to quell a new

insurrection of the Moorish tribes. He and his two sons, ABDALLAH and

ABDELAZIZ, succeeded so well, however, that not only did the Berbers

submit to the Khalif, but they even embraced the religion of Islam,

and became henceforth as one people with their Arabian conquerors.

Abd-el-Malek was the first Khalif to establish a national mint, both

for silver and gold coin (695); the gold coins were imitations of

the Roman gold denar, with an inscription proclaiming the unity of

the God of Mohammed; the Arabs called these gold coins, _dinars_;

their value was about eight shillings sterling. It would appear they

struck also double, and half, dinars. The silver coin might represent

a value of fivepence or sixpence English money. Abd-el-Malek died in

705. He was succeeded by his son WALID, a prince who, indeed, did not

inherit the activity, vigor, and decision of his father; but was, on

the other hand, free also from the cruelty and the low avarice that

stained the character of Abd-el-Malek. Walid loved and encouraged

arts and sciences, and more especially architecture: he built the

splendid mosque of the Ommiades at Damascus, at an expense of half

a million sterling; he rebuilt also Mohammed’s mosque at Medina,

on a larger and more magnificent scale. He had the good fortune to

be served by clever ministers and great generals, whose energy,

valor, and enterprise amply made up for the personal indolence

and inactivity of the Khalif, and imparted a glory to his reign,

rivalling that of Omar’s. One of his lieutenants, CATIBAH (_the camel

driver_), added to the Saracen empire the spacious regions between

the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian sea, with the rich and

populous commercial cities Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand (707-710).

From Samarcand, the victorious general sent his master a daughter of

PHIROUZ, or FIRUZ, the son of the unfortunate Yezdegerd, the last of

the Sassanide rulers of Persia, who became Walid’s wife. Mohammed,

one of Catibah’s colleagues, displayed the banner of Islam on the

opposite banks of the Indus (712); and in the same year, Fargana,

the residence of the Chagan of the Turks, was taken by Catibah,

who advanced as far as Cashgar, where he received an embassy from

the Emperor of China. Walid’s brother, MOSLEMAH, one of the most

redoubtable of the Mussulman warriors known to history, defeated

the Chazars in the Caucasus, and annexed Galatia and other parts

of Asia Minor to the empire of his brother (710). But the greatest

and most glorious conquest was that of Spain. As early as the time

of Othman, the Arabs had cast a longing eye upon the fair land of

_Handalusia_,[60] and their piratical squadrons had more than once

ravaged the Spanish coast. The Gothic king, WAMBA, had defeated one

of their expeditionary corps in 675. Since that time no further

attempt had been made on the kingdom of the Visigoths; but the

latter, beholding with apprehension the establishment of the Arabian

power in North Africa, had, in 697, aided the Byzantine emperor in

the attempted relief of Carthage. The king of Spain possessed on the

African coast the fortress of CEUTA (_Septa_ or _Septum_), one of

the columns of Hercules, which is divided by a narrow strait from

the opposite pillar or point on the European coast. This fortress

was held at the beginning of the eighth century by the Gothic Count

JULIAN, brother-in-law of OPPAS, archbishop of Toledo and Seville,

whose brother, WITIZA, was then king of Spain. In 709, Musa made an

attempt to reduce Ceuta, and subdue the small portion of Mauritania

which was still wanting to the conquest of North Africa; but he was

repulsed by Count Julian with considerable loss, and would most

probably have relinquished his project upon Spain, had not internal

dissensions among the Gothic magnates unexpectedly opened to him a

fair prospect of success. King Witiza had attempted to reform the

truly appalling licentiousness of the Spanish clergy, and to curb

the overgrown power of the nobility; but lacking both the crafty

wile of the eleventh Louis of France, and the strong despotic will

of the Tudors of England, his well-meant efforts simply led to his

own deposition (710), which he survived only a few months. The clergy

and nobility elected a king after their own heart, in the person of

RODERIC, a grandson of King RECCASWINTH (or Receswinth[61]). The two

sons of Witiza, and their uncle Oppas, conspired to overthrow the

new monarch, who, it would appear, had been indiscreet enough to

express his intention of removing Count Julian from his Andalusian

and Mauritanian commands, the moment he should think himself

sufficiently powerful to give due force to his royal decrees.[62]

The threatened count was readily induced to join the party of the

conspirators; but dreading lest the force which they could bring

into the field, should prove unavailing against the monarch’s power,

he, who had hitherto been the staunchest defender of his country, did

not hesitate to betray her to the Saracen foe, and to open wide the

portals that had been entrusted to his honor and patriotism to guard.

He and his fellow-conspirators endeavored to soothe the misgivings of

conscience with Musa’s deceptive assurance, that he did not intend to

establish himself in Spain, but would rest content with a share of

the spoil.

As soon as Musa had obtained Walid’s sanction to the contemplated

enterprise, he sent off an expedition of only four vessels, with

five hundred men on board, to explore the coast of the coveted land.

TARIF ABU ZARA, the commander of this force, landed on the opposite

side of the strait, and marched eighteen miles into the interior,

to the castle and town of the traitor Count of Ceuta[63] (July

710). His glowing report of the wealth of the country, decided Musa

to send over a more powerful expedition under the command of his

freedman, TARIK BEN ZAYAD. The miserable Julian supplied the means of

transport. Five thousand Arabs and seven thousand Moors landed at the

European pillar of Hercules, Mount Calpe, which became, henceforth,

the Mountain of Tarik--_Gebel al Tarik_, a name corrupted afterwards

into the present appellation of Gibraltar (April, 711). Here Tarik

formed a strongly entrenched camp, and gathered around him the

friends of Julian, and also many Jews who were fired with the most

deadly hatred against their Christian persecutors, that had, for more

than a century, oppressed and hunted down this doomed people with a

malignity such as religious fanaticism alone can excite and sustain.

Counts EDECO and THEODEMIR, who had been commanded by the king to

expel the intruders, were defeated with great slaughter; and a

seasonable reinforcement from Africa swelled Tarik’s ranks to above

30,000 men. Roderic, conscious at last of the magnitude of the danger

that threatened to overwhelm his throne and his people, gathered the

flower of the Gothic nation around him, and marched at the head of

100,000 men to encounter the foreign invaders. In the neighbourhood

of Cadiz, at Xeres de la Frontera, on the Guadelete, the hostile

armies met. Three days were spent in desultory, though bloody

fighting; on the fourth day, the actual battle commenced. When night

spread her sable wings, and bade the slaughter cease for a while,

more than half of the Saracen forces lay stretched dead on the ground

they had come to conquer; and had not the vile defection of the

most reverend father in God, the Archbishop of Toledo, and his two

nephews, to whom Roderic’s generous or foolish (it may be read both

ways) confidence had entrusted the most important post, broken the

ranks of the Christians, the severed head of Musa’s freedman might

have graced the battlements of Toledo. As it was, it took three days

to scatter the remains of the Gothic army; and many a Saracen, and

many a Christian traitor to his country, had to bite the dust before

Tarik could pen his laconic “Praise be to Allah!--we have conquered.”

(July 19-26, 711). The hapless king of the Goths was either slain in

the fight or drowned in the waters of the Guadalquivir. The field

of Xeres decided the fate of the Gothic monarchy; nearly the whole

of Spain submitted to Tarik with such extraordinary rapidity, that

the good old Musa, envious of his freedman’s success and fame, bade

him arrest his victorious course, until he himself should arrive to

gather the last and fairest fruits of the victory. Tarik, however,

added Cordova and Toledo, the capital of the Gothic kingdom, to the

list of his conquests, and advanced as far as the Bay of Biscay,

where the failure of land at last compelled him to stop. Here he

received an angry and imperious summons from his jealous chief; who

had, meanwhile, himself crossed over from Africa, at the head of ten

thousand Arabs and eight thousand Moors, and had taken Seville, and

was besieging Merida. The latter city, though valiantly defended,

was at last compelled to surrender. Midway between Merida and

Toledo, Tarik met his chief, who received him with cold and stately

formality, and demanded a strict account of the treasures of the

conquered kingdom. The unfortunate lieutenant speedily found that

Musa would not readily forgive his presumption of subduing Spain in

the absence of his general: he saw himself ignominiously deprived of

his command, and thrown into prison; and Musa carried his resentment

so far, that he ordered the conqueror of Spain to be publicly

scourged. Walid’s imperative commands compelled Musa to restore Tarik

to his position; and the valiant man, who had been so ungenerously

and unworthily treated by the jealous old chief, assisted him with

his accustomed zeal, in achieving the conquest of the still unsubdued

parts of the peninsula. At the end of 712, all resistance had ceased

on the part of the Christians, with the exception of the valiant

prince THEODEMIR, who defended himself several months longer in

Orihuela, and obtained, at last, most favorable terms from Musa’s

son, Abdelaziz, (5th April, 713); and the invincible PELAGIUS, or

PELAYO, and PETRUS, who, in the Asturian, Gallician, and Biscayan

vallies, laid the foundation of a new Christian empire in Spain;

destined, after a time, to renew the struggle and ultimately to expel

the foreign invaders.

MUSA was a very old man--but though the coloring of his beard, and

other little expedients of art, might fail to obliterate the physical

ravages wrought by eighty-eight years of life, and by the fatigues

and privations of fifty campaigns[64]--yet the vigor of his mind,

and the youthful ardor that fired his breast, remained unimpaired:

and, like that marvellous old man of a later period, great DANDOLO,

the approach of ninety found him revolving enterprises of stupendous

magnitude; aye, no less than the conquest of Gaul, Italy, Germany,

and the Greek empire. He was preparing to pass the Pyrenees,[65]

and bid the kingdom of the Franks cease to exist, when an imperious

command from Damascus, called both him and Tarik thither, to render

an account of their proceedings to the commander of the faithful.

Tarik obeyed; Musa delayed complying with the Khalif’s summons, until

a second and still more peremptory message left the old chief no

other alternative but obedience or open rebellion: and, as his own

loyalty, or that of his troops, put the latter out of question, he

set at once diligently about preparing for his return to Damascus.

He confided the government of Spain to his son, ABDELAZIZ; that of

Africa, to his son, ABDALLAH. Taking with him immense treasures in

gold and silver, and, among others, the famous emerald table of

Solomon, encircled with pearls and gems--a spoil of the Romans from

the east, and which, it would appear, had fallen into the hands of

Alaric, in the sack of Rome[66] (410, A.D.); and attended by thirty

Gothic princes, 400 nobles, and 18,000 male and female captives of

humbler degree, he set out from Ceuta on his way to Damascus. At

Tiberias, in Palestine, he received a private message from SULEIMAN,

or SOLIMAN, the brother and presumptive heir of Walid, informing him

that the Khalif was dying, and commanding him, as he valued Soliman’s

friendship, to reserve his triumphal entry into Damascus for the

inauguration of the new reign.

Musa, who might deem Soliman’s anger less dangerous than the

resentment of the Khalif should he recover, disregarded the

injunction, and pursued his march to Damascus, where he arrived just

in time to afford the dying Walid the gratification of beholding

the spoils of Africa and of Spain,[67] soon after which, the most

powerful of the Khalifs bowed his head to the stroke of the mighty

master of kings and emperors (October, 714). His successor, SOLIMAN,

was an able and energetic prince, but of a despotic and ruthless

disposition. Musa was arraigned at the judgment seat of the new

Khalif, for abuse of power and disobedience to orders. The unworthy

treatment which the victor of Xeres had suffered at the hands of his

jealous chief, was avenged by a similar indignity inflicted upon the

latter: the veteran commander was publicly scourged, and then kept

waiting a whole day before the palace gate, till the “_mercy_” of

Soliman accorded him a sentence of exile to Mecca. He was, moreover,

adjudged to pay to the public treasury, a fine of 200,000 pieces of

gold. Afraid lest the sons of the despoiled and insulted old man,

should attempt to avenge the injuries of their father, the worthy

son of Abd-el-Malek secretly dispatched to Africa and Spain, decrees

commanding the extermination of Musa’s family; and, by a refinement

of cruelty worthy of a Caligula, Caracalla, or Justinian II., he

had the head of Abdelaziz presented to the bereaved father, with an

insulting question, whether he knew the features of the rebel? “I

know his features,” exclaimed the hapless old man, in a paroxysm of

grief and indignation; “he was loyal and true. May the same fate

overtake the base authors of his death!” -- -- -- Musa’s death, a

few weeks after, of the anguish of a broken heart, spared Soliman an

additional crime. The victor of Xeres fared but little better than

his ancient commander; though, indeed, he was not made to expiate

by death, imprisonment, or exile, the great services which he had

rendered his country. CATIBAH, who had every reason to dread a

similar fate as Musa’s and Tarik’s, rose in arms against the jealous

tyrant of Damascus, and had the good fortune to meet with a glorious

death on the battle field.

Soliman resolved to render his reign famous by the overthrow of the

Greek empire, and the conquest of Constantinople. His preparations,

both by land and sea, were made on a gigantic scale. His brother,

the redoubtable MOSLEMAH, invaded Asia Minor at the head of 70,000

foot and 50,000 horse, with an immense train of camels, (716). The

city of Tyana fell into the hands of the Moslems, and Amorium was

closely besieged by them. The troops in Amorium were commanded at

the time by General LEO, a native of Isauria. The original name of

this remarkable man, was KONON; his father had come over from Asia

Minor to Thrace, and had settled as a grazier there. He must have

acquired considerable wealth in that lucrative business, since he

could afford a gift of 500 sheep to the Imperial camp, to procure

for his son admission into the guards of Justinian. The personal

strength of the young soldier, and his dexterity in all martial

exercises attracted the notice of the emperor, who speedily advanced

him to the higher grades of military rank. Anastasius II. confided

to him the command of the Anatolian legions, and it was in this

capacity that he defended Amorium against the Saracens. One of those

sudden revolutions so frequent in the Byzantine court, compelled

Anastasius to hand over the sceptre to an obscure officer of the

revenue, who assumed the name of Theodosius III. General Leo refused

to acknowledge the new emperor, and managed so skilfully, that

not only did the troops under his command invest _him_ with the

imperial purple, but the Arabs, it would appear, accorded him and

his army free and undisturbed departure from Amorium. He marched

upon Constantinople, and Theodosius seeing himself in danger of

being abandoned by the very troops who had so recently exalted him,

willingly resigned to the hands of the general and emperor of the

Oriental troops, the sceptre which, moreover, he had accepted with

extreme reluctance only. He was permitted to retire with his son

to the shelter of a monastery, where he had ample time to paint

golden letters, an occupation which marvellously suited the natural

indolence of his disposition.

LEO, third of the name, who figures in history usually as the

_Isaurian_, or the _Iconoclast_, was fully aware of the intention of

the Arabs to attempt the reduction of Constantinople; he, therefore,

made every preparation which military experience could suggest,

or engineering skill devise, to give them a fitting reception. In

July, 717, after the reduction of Pergamus, Moslemah transported

his army from Asia to Europe, across the Hellespont or Dardanelles,

at the most narrow part of the passage (from Abydos to Sestos); and

thence, wheeling his troops round Gallipoli, Heraclea, and the other

Thracian cities of the Propontis, or Sea of Marmara, he invested

Constantinople on the land side. An offer made by the Greeks, to

purchase the withdrawal of the besieging forces by the payment of a

piece of gold for each inhabitant of the city, was contemptuously

rejected; and Moslemah pushed on the operations of the siege with the

greatest vigor, but without any corresponding success, the Isaurian

repelling every attack with a bravery and determination, such as the

Saracens had but little expected to see displayed by the apparently

effete Greeks. Moslemah’s hopes were swelled high, however, by the

arrival of the navies of Syria and Egypt, to the number of 1800

vessels,[68] with 50,000 men on board. The Saracen commander fixed a

night for a general assault by land and sea, and proudly boasted that

by the morning the city should be his. When that morning came, the

Greek fire had done its work; and scarce a vestige remained of the

proud fleet, or of those who had manned it; and ten thousand Arabs

and Persians slain, bore witness how fiercely Moslemah had assaulted

the defences of Byzantium, and how bravely and vigorously the

Isaurian and his gallant troops had repulsed the hostile multitudes.

From this check, Moslemah essayed in vain to recover: he became soon

painfully conscious that the conviction of invincibility, which had

hitherto so materially contributed to the great successes of the

Saracen arms, was, if not altogether destroyed, at least considerably

shaken. His assaults were now repulsed with apparent ease almost,

and all his attempts at surprises were defeated by the ever watchful

Isaurian. One hope still remained to restore the ancient supremacy

of the Moslem arms: Khalif Soliman had gathered a formidable host

of Arabians, Persians, and Turks, and was preparing to lead them

to his brother’s assistance. The eyes of both the besiegers and

the besieged were anxiously turned towards the Khalif’s camp near

Chalcis (or Kinnisrin) in Syria; and Leo was endeavoring, by gifts

and promises, to attract an army of Bulgarians from the Danube to pit

them against the Saracens; and thus, perchance, to free the Byzantine

empire from all danger, by the mutual destruction of its Barbarian

foes. But it so happened that the Commander of the Faithful could

not command his appetite; a meal of two scores or so of eggs, and

a matter of six or seven pounds of figs, followed up by a dessert

of marrow and sugar, proved too much for even his well-seasoned

stomach; he paid with his life the penalty of his gluttony (717).

He had appointed his cousin, OMAR BEN ABDELAZIZ, to succeed him in

the khalifate. Omar, second of the name, was a most estimable man,

but a very indifferent prince; much fitter, indeed, to be the head

of a monastery of ascetics, than of a powerful empire. The first act

of his reign was to order the cessation of the Syrian armaments,

which might have been a wise measure, had it been accompanied by the

recall of Moslemah and his forces from the siege of Constantinople.

His neglect of the latter measure entailed upon the unfortunate

natives of the sultry climes of Egypt and Arabia, the unspeakable

hardships of a most severe winter, passed in a frozen camp. In spring

(718), he made an effort to relieve their wants, and to fill up the

gaps which cold, famine, and disease had made in the ranks of the

besieging army. Two numerous fleets were sent on this errand, one

from Alexandria, the other from the ports of Africa. They succeeded,

indeed, in landing the stores and reinforcements, but they found it

as vain to contend against the Greek fire, as the armada which, the

year before, had so proudly threatened to erase the Roman name from

among the nations. Meanwhile, the Bulgarians had been bribed into an

alliance with the Greek emperor, and these savage auxiliaries proved

formidable antagonists to the exhausted and half-starved Asiatics.

Still the intrepid Moslemah was not dismayed, and although he was

compelled to relinquish all further attempts upon the defences of the

city, he defeated, on his part, all attacks made on his camp: until,

at length, Khalif Omar sent him the welcome order to raise the siege,

(August, 718). The retreat of the Arabian forces was effected without

delay or molestation; but of the fleet, tempests destroyed what the

fire of Callinicus had spared, and of 700 vessels that had proudly

sailed forth, five only returned to the port of Alexandria, to tell

the sad tale of the disastrous loss of their companions. Byzantium

was saved, and the victorious Isaurian found himself at liberty to

prepare for his meditated warfare against canvas, wood, brass, and

marble.

The good and pious Omar distinguished his reign chiefly by the

abolition or “repeal” of the curse against Ali and his adherents

which had for nearly sixty years been daily pronounced from the

pulpits (719). By this act of simple justice, and by his somewhat

hasty and incautious attempts to reform the fearful abuses which had

crept into the administration of the empire under his predecessors,

he excited the determined hostility of his own family, and of the

Vizirs and high officers of state. A dose of poison removed him

(720). His successor, YEZID II., had none of his virtues, but most

of the vices of his other predecessors of the line of Ommiyah. It

was in the reign of this prince, and in that of his successor, that

the family Hashem, in two of its branches, viz. the ALIDES, or

FATIMITES, i.e. the descendants of Ali and Fatima, and the ABASSIDES,

that is the descendants of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, began to

urge their claims to the throne of the Khalifa. Indeed, Mohammed,

the great grandson of Abbas, was secretly acknowledged as the true

commander of the Faithful, by a considerable body of the inhabitants

of Chorasan, and his son IBRAHIM was even enabled to hoist the black

flag of the Abassides[69] in that province; the gloomy banner was

triumphantly borne onward by ABU MOSLEM, the intrepid and invincible

champion of the Abassides, the _King-maker_ of the East, but, who

was fated at last, like the English King-maker, to experience the

usual gratitude of princes. From the Indus to the Euphrates, the

East was convulsed by the fearful struggle between the white and the

black factions, and the fairest provinces of Asia were deluged with

blood to void the ancient quarrel between Ommiyah and Hashem, and to

decide which of two equally vile races of despots had the _better

right_ to trample on God’s fair creation. The struggle terminated for

a time in 750, with the overthrow and almost total extirpation of the

Ommiades--but of this hereafter.

YEZID died in 722 or 723, of grief for the death of a favorite

concubine. He was succeeded by his brother HESHAM, a prince not

altogether destitute of good qualities. Hesham had to contend against

the Fatimite ZEID, the grandson of Hassan, who was, however, speedily

overcome, and had to pay with his life the penalty of his ambition.

The struggle against the more successful Abassides has been mentioned

in the preceding paragraph.

After Musa’s departure from Spain, and the murder of his son

Abdelaziz, AJUB was proclaimed by the Arabian and Moorish troops,

governor of the Spanish peninsula; he fixed his residence at Cordova.

Under him and his more immediate successors numerous colonies came

over to Spain from various parts of the Saracen dominions in Asia and

Africa; of these the royal legion of Damascus was planted at Cordova;

that of Emesa at Seville; that of Chalcis at Jaen; that of Palestine

at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The Egyptian bands were permitted to

share with the original conquerors their establishments of Murcia

and Lisbon. The immigrants from Yemen and Persia were located round

Toledo, and in the inland country; and ten thousand horsemen of Syria

and Irak, the children of the purest and most noble Arabian tribes,

settled in the fertile seats of Grenada.[70]

AJUB’S successor in the government of Spain, EL HORR BEN ABDERRAHMAN

resolved to annex to the dominions under his sway the Gallic

province of Septimania or Languedoc, of which the eastern part,

with Narbonne and Carcassone, was still remaining in the hands of

the Visigoths; the western part, Aquitaine and Thoulouse having

been severed from the Gothic kingdom in 508, by Clovis. But he was

defeated and driven back by the Christians; in consequence of the

ill-success of his operations, the Khalif removed him from the

command, and named EL ZAMA governor in his stead. That bold and

skilful general speedily succeeded in reducing the whole of the

Narbonnese province (720); whence he marched into Aquitaine, and

laid siege to Thoulouse. Here he found a more formidable foe to

encounter--the FRANKS, who were ultimately to check the further

advance of Islam and its followers into the fairest provinces of

Europe. The history of that nation, and of its successful leader

against the Saracen invaders, forms the subject of the second part of

this volume.

FOOTNOTES:

[43] _Khalifet Resul Allah_, i.e. lieutenant, or representative of

the prophet of God.

[44] Omar was the first to assume the additional title of _Emir al

Mumenin_, i.e. prince, or commander, of the faithful.

[45] Jabalah had embraced the religion of Islam. On the occasion of

the pilgrimage to Mecca, the irascible prince had dealt an Arabian,

who had accidentally trod on the skirt of his long robe, a severe

blow with his fist, which broke the bridge of the nose of the

assaulted man. The Khalif Omar having demanded satisfaction for the

aggrieved Moslem, and threatened the proud Gassanide chief with the

application of the lex talionis, Jabalah, feeling highly indignant

at the notion, fled, and returned to the profession of the Christian

faith.

[46] Yezdegerd fled finally to the territory of Tergana, on the

Jaxartes. In an attempt which he made in 651, to invade his lost

empire at the head of some Turkish tribes, he met his death, it would

appear, at the hands of his barbarian allies. One of the daughters of

Yezdegerd married Hassan, the son of Ali, and the other, Mohammed,

the son of Abu Bekr.

[47] The Nestorians and Jacobites bestowed on the self-styled

Catholics of the Greek and Roman church, the name of _Melchites_,

or _Royalists_, to mark that their faith, instead of resting on the

basis of Scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established solely

by the power of a temporal monarch.

[48] “Six months,” the Worthy Jacobite says, “the 4000 baths of the

city were heated with the volumes of paper and parchment.” These

volumes must have been bulky indeed, and must have contained a

surprising amount of latent heat, considering that, even admitting

the library to have existed at the time, and conceding to it the

largest number of volumes claimed by the most extravagant writers,

viz., 720,000, one single volume per day must have sufficed to heat

a public bath! Verily, verily, history is made the most inexact

of all sciences. The flames which Cæsar was compelled to kindle

in his defence, in the Bruchion (the Belgravia or Tyburnia of the

city of Alexander); the havoc and depredation committed by the

Alexandrian mob during the troubles of the _shoes_ (so called from

the circumstance that these terrible troubles, which are said to

have lasted above twelve years [from 261 to 273 A.D.], were first

occasioned by a dispute between a soldier and a townsman about a pair

of shoes); and the destruction inflicted on the Bruchion by Aurelian,

in 273, cannot have left much behind of that portion of the splendid

library of the Ptolemies which was kept in the museum. And the other

portion of it, which was kept in the Temple of Serapis, to which

latter place it is most probable the celebrated Pergamese library,

presented by Marcus Antonius to Cleopatra, had also been sent, was

totally destroyed in 389, in the reign of Theodosius I., by a bigoted

Christian mob, under the leadership of the Archbishop Theophilus, a

much more ignorant and brutal zealot than either Omar or Amru.

[49] Othman’s foster-brother, the same whom Mohammed had so

reluctantly pardoned after the taking of Mecca. He was renowned as

the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia.

[50] Callinicus was either a native of Heliopolis, in Syria, or of

Egypt. This clever chemist had been for a while in the service of the

Khalif; but, offended at the slight estimation in which his science

was held by the ignorant sons of the desert, he went over to the

emperor, and placed in the hands of the Christians that marvellous

and mysterious agent, the _Greek fire_, which afterwards repeatedly

saved Constantinople from falling into the hands of its barbarian

besiegers. It is certainly a curious coincidence, that, at a later

period of history, Sultan Mohammed II. was most materially assisted

in the reduction of the city of the Cæsars, by another man of

science, the Hungarian URBAN, who, having been almost starved in the

Greek service, had deserted to the Moslems, for whom he cast cannons

of enormous size and weight of metal.

[51] The victory of Bassora is therefore usually called the Day of

the Camel; seventy men who successively held the bridle of the camel

which carried Ayesha’s litter, were all either killed or more or less

severely wounded.

[52] That is, “God is great,” or “God is victorious.”

[53] Abder-Rahman.

[54] January; according to some historians, Midsummer, 660; others

place the event in August, 661.

[55] But many of the tribes revered the name and memory of Ali. His

refusal to be bound by the tradition, or Sonna, became a kind of

religious creed, and a wide and deep gulf was opened between two

rival sects, the _Sonnites_, or believers in the tradition, and the

_Schiites_, or sectaries, who reject the tradition, regard Ali as the

_Vicar of God_, and his three predecessors as execrable usurpers. The

religious discord of the friends and enemies of Ali may be said to be

actually maintained still to the present day in the immortal hatred

of the Schiite Persians, and the Sonnite Turks. The twelve Imams,

or pontiffs, of the Persian church are Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the

lineal descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. The curse

against Ali and his adherents was abolished by Omar II., in 719.

[56] The ruins of the ancient city of Carthage are about ten miles

east of Tunis.

[57] At least in Syria and Irak.

[58] One of the most remarkable men of the period; he was said to

unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox; his

eventful life would furnish ample material for ten historic romances.

[59] It would appear, from Leo Africanus, that a considerable body of

Goths formed part of the army of relief.

[60] Handalusia signifies, in Arabic, the country of the West;

and the Arabs applied the name not only to the modern province

of Andalusia, but to the whole peninsula of Spain. The attempted

derivation of the name of Andalusia from the Vandals (Vandalusia)

is most improbable. LEMBKE travels still farther out of the way of

all rational probability, by assigning the etymological paternity

of the name to _Andalos_, whom the Arabians number among Noah’s

grandchildren.

[61] 649-672.

[62] This would certainly seem to have been the true cause of

Julian’s defection; the story of the seduction or violation of his

daughter Florinda (surnamed _la Cava_, i.e., the wicked), lacks all

true historic foundation. _Mariana_, the Jesuit historian, to whom we

are chiefly indebted for this pretty tale, was too apt to draw on his

lively imagination, where historical evidence failed him.

[63] The place on which the Arabs landed is marked to the present day

by the name of their chief Tarif (Tarifa); on the coast they bestowed

the name of the Green Island (_Algesiras_ or _Algezire_).

[64] Musa had fought in Syria; he had assisted Moawiyah in the

reduction of Cyprus (648), and had held the government of that

island; he had subsequently been governor of Irak, and after this,

governor of Egypt; Sardinia, Majorca, and Minorca, also had felt his

presence.

[65] Though some historians lead Musa (in 712) into the Narbonnese

Gaul, there are strong reasons to reject this as an erroneous

supposition; it is more than doubtful whether the old chief ever

passed the Pyrenees.

[66] The statement made by some historians, that _Ætius_ presented

this table as a gift to _Torismund_, after the victory of Chalons

(451), seems to rest on a very slender foundation; and so, I am

inclined to think, do the 365 feet of gems and massive gold so

liberally bestowed upon the table by Oriental writers. Another

tradition substitutes, as the gift of the Roman patrician, the famous

Missorium, or great golden dish for the service of the communion

table, which is stated to have weighed 500 pounds, and to have been

adorned with a profusion of gems.

[67] Some historians make Musa arrive _after_ the death of Walid;

and some place the latter event a year later (715). The records of

the period of the early Khalifs are so confused and contradictory

that it is by no means easy always to ascertain the correct date of

an event; the difficulty is considerably increased by the error into

which some historians have fallen, of confounding the lunar year of

the Mohammedans with the solar year of the Julian era. The common

lunar year of the Hegira has 354 days; but the Mohammedans count,

in a cyclus of 30 years, 11 leap years of 355 days (the 2nd, 5th,

7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 25th and 29th years of the

cyclus).

[68] Of small size, of course.

[69] In the separation of parties, the _green_ color was adopted

by the Alides, or Fatimites, the _black_ color by the Abassides,

and the _white_ color by the Ommiades; these colors were displayed

respectively by the several parties, not only in their standards but

also in their garments and turbans.

[70] Gibbon.