 Chapter 51. Conquest by the Arabs, Part 9. On the intelligence of this rapid success, the applause of Musa degenerated into envy, and he began, not to complain, but to fear, that Tariq would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head of ten thousand Arabs and eight thousand Africans, he passed over in person from Mauritania to Spain. The first of his companions were the noblest of the Coreach. His eldest son was left in the command of Africa. The three younger brethren were of an age and spirit to second the bold enterprises of their father. At his landing in Al-Jazeer he was respectfully entertained by Count Julian, who stifled his inward remorse and testified, both in words and actions, that the victory of the Arabs had not impaired his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet remained for the sword of Musa. The Tariq repentance of the Goths had compared their own numbers and those of the invaders, the cities from which the march of Tariq had declined considered themselves as impregnable, and the bravest patriots defended the fortifications of Sevilla and Merida. They were successfully besieged and reduced by the labour of Musa, who transported his camp from the Botis to the Anas, from the Guadalquiva 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. He aspired to that happiness, but the Emeritans sustained on this occasion the honour of their descent from the veteran legionaries of Augustus. Distaining the confinement of their walls, they gave battle to the Arabs on the plain, but an Amdus God rising from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastised their indiscretion and intercepted their return. The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards to the foot of the rampart, but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long, and the castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of the Muslims. 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 Galithia, were confiscated as the reward of the faithful. In the midway between Merida and Toledo the lieutenant of Musa saluted the vice-region 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 Tariq was exposed to suspicion and obliquy, and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignomiously 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 Muslims, that after this public indignity Tariq could serve and be trusted in the reduction of the Tarragonist province. Omosque was erected at Saragossa by the liberality of the Qurish. The port of Bartholona was open to the vessels of Syria, and the Goths were pursued beyond the Peranian mountains into their Gallic province of Septimania, or Langdok. In the Church of St. Mary at Carcassonne Musa found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian statues of Massey Silver, and from his term or column of Narbonne he returned on his footsteps to the Galitian and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During the absence of the father, his son, Abdelaziz, chastised the insurgents of Sevilla, and reduced, from Malaga to Valencia, the sea coast of the Mediterranean. His original treaty with the discreet and valiant Theodemer will represent the manners and policy of the times. The conditions of peace agreed and swarmed between Abdelaziz, the son of Musa, the son of Nasser, and Theodemer, the prince of the Goths. In the name of the most merciful God, Abdelaziz makes peace on these conditions, that Theodemer shall not be disturbed in his principality, nor any injury be offered to the life or property, the wives and children, the religion and temples of the Christians, that Theodemer shall freely deliver his seven cities, Orihuela, Valentola, Alicante Mola, Vacassora, Beguera, Nabeher, Ora, or Opta, and Lorca, that he shall not assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile designs, that himself and each of the Gothic nobles shall annually pay one piece of gold, four measures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion of honey, oil, and vinegar, and that each of their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of the said imposition. Given the Fourth of Regab, in the year of the Higheira, 94, and subscribed with the names of four Muslim witnesses, Theodemer and his subjects were treated with uncommon leniety, but the rate of tribute appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, depending 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 Sevilla, was raised 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 coloring with a red powder the whiteness of his beard. But then the love of action and glory, his breast was still fired with the ardor 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 repairing to repass the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and in 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 Ixin Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman Empire of Constantinople, and returning from Europe to Asia to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch in 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 in servitude. The friends of Tariq had effectually stated his services in 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. And 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, Abdullah and Abdulaziz. His long triumph from Quta to Damascus displayed the spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain, four hundred Gothic nobles with gold cornets 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 thirty thousand persons. As soon as he reached Tiberius in Palestine he was apprised of the sickness and danger of the Caliph by a private message from Salomon, his brother and presumptive heir, who wished to reserve for his own reign the spectacle of victory. Had Walid recovered the delay of Musa would have been criminal. He pursued his march and found an enemy on the throne. In his trial before a partial judge against a popular antagonist he was convicted of vanity and falsehood, and a fine of two hundred thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his poverty or proved his rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tariq was avenged by a similar indignity, and the veteran commander, after a public whipping, stood a whole day in the sun before the palace gate, till he obtained a decent exile under the pious name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the Caliph might have been satiated with the ruin of Musa, but his fears demanded the extirpation of a potent and injured family. A sentence of death was intimated with secrecy and speed to the trusty servants of the throne, both in Africa and in Spain, and the forms if not the substance of justice were superseded in this bloody execution. In the mosque or palace of Cordova, Abdulaziz was slain by the sword of the conspirators. They accused their governor of claiming the honors of royalty, and his scandalous marriage with Ejalona, the widow of Roderick, offended the prejudices both of the Christians and Muslims. By a refinement of cruelty the head of the son was presented to the father, with an insulting question whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel. I know his features, he exclaimed with indignation, I assert his innocence, and I implicate the same, a juster fate against the authors of his death. The age and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings, and he expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was more favorably treated, his services were forgiven, and Tyric was permitted to mingle with the crowd of slaves. I am ignorant whether Count Julian was rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not from the hands of the Saracens, but the tale of their ingratitude to the sons of Wattiza is disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The two royal youths were reinstated in the private patrimony of their father, but on the deceased of Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the violence of her uncle, Sigibah. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the Caliph Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her inheritance, but she was given in marriage to a noble Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim, were received in Spain with the consideration that was due to their origin and riches. A province is assimilated to the victorious state by the introduction of strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives, and Spain, which had been successively tinctured with Punic and Roman and Gothic blood, imbibed in a few generations the name and manners of the Arabs. The first conquerors and the twenty successive lieutenants of the Caliphs were attended by a numerous train of civil and military followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a narrow home. The private and public interest was promoted by the establishment of faithful colonies, and the cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the tribe or country of their eastern progenitors. The victorious, though motley, bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original claim of conquest, yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their establishments of Mercia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was planted at Korova, that of Amisa at Sevilla, that of Kineserin, or Kalkis at Jain, that of Palestine at Al Jazeera and Medina Sidonia. The natives of Yemen and Persia were scattered around Toledo and the inland country, and the fertile seats of Granada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of Syria and Iraq, the children of the purest and most noble of the Arabian tribes. A spirit of emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province was presented to the caliph, the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, 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 manufacturers, 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 Omniads who reigned in Spain solicited the support of the Christians, and in his edict of peace and protection he contends himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many mules, one thousand curises, 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 dinners, 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 Guadalcuba were adorned with twelve thousand villages and hamlets. The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they created and described the most prosperous era of the riches, the cultivation, and the populousness of Spain. The wars of the Muslims were sanctified by the Prophet, but among the various precepts and examples of his life the Caliphs selected the lessons of toleration that might tend to disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was the temple and patrimony of the God of Muhammad, but he beheld with less jealousy and affection the nations of the earth. The polytheists and idolaters who were ignorant of his name might be lawfully extirpated by his votaries, but a wise policy supplied the obligation of justice, and after some acts of intolerant zeal the Mohammedan conquerors of Hindustan have spared the pagans of that devout and populous country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect revelations of Muhammad, but if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute they were entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. In a field of battle the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession of Islam. The females were bound to embrace the religion of their masters, and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education of the infant captives. But the millions of African and Asiatic converts who swelled the native band of the faithful Arabs must have been allured rather than constrained to declare their belief in one God and the apostle of God. By the repetition of a sentence and the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave, the captive or the criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of the victorious Muslims. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved, the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature, the active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by the trumpet of the Saracens, and in the convulsion of the world every member of a new society ascended to the natural level of his capacity and courage. The minds of the multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal blessings of the Arabian prophet, and charity will hope that many of his proselytes entertained a serious conviction of the truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes of an inquisitive polytheist it must appear worthy of the human and the divine nature. More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the law of Moses, the religion of Muhammad might seem less inconsistent with reason than the creed of mystery and superstition, which in the seventh century disgraced the simplicity of the gospel. In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa the national religion has been eradicated by the Muhammadan faith. The ambiguous theology of the Magi stood alone among the sects of the East, but the profane writings of Zoroaster might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation. Their evil principle, the demon, Ariman, might be represented as the rival or as the creature of the God of light. The temples of Persia were devoid of images, but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as a gross and criminal idolatry. The milder sentiment was consecrated by the practice of Muhammad and the prudence of the Caliphs. The Magians or Gebers were ranked with the Jews and Christians among the people of the written law, and as late as the third century of the Higheira the city of Herat will afford a lively contrast of private zeal and public toleration. Under the payment of an annual tribute the Muhammadan law secured to the Gebers of Herat their civil and religious liberties, but the recent and humble mosque was overshadowed by the antique splendor of the adjoining temple of fire. A fanatic Imam deplored in his sermons the scandalous neighborhood and accused the weakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice the people assembled in tumult, the two houses of prayer were consumed by flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by the foundations of a new mosque. The injured Magi appealed to the sovereign of Khorasan. He promised justice and relief when, behold, four thousand citizens of Herat, of a grave character and mature age, unanimously swore that the idolatrous feign had never existed. The inquisition was silenced and their conscience was satisfied, says the historian Mirchand, with this holy and meritorious perjury. But the greatest part of the temples of Persia were ruined by the insensible and general desertion of their votaries. It was insensible, since it is not accompanied with any memorial of time or place, of persecution or resistance. It was general, since the whole realm, from Shiraz to Samarkand, imbibed the faith of the Quran, and the preservation of the native tongue reveals the descent of the Muhammadans of Persia. In the mountains and deserts an obstinate race of unbelievers adhered to the superstitions of their fathers, and a faint tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in the colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shah Abbas at the gates of Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elborz, eighteen leagues from the city of Yedz. The perpetual fire, if it continues to burn, is inaccessible to the profane, but his residence is the school, the oracle, and the pilgrimage of the Gebers, whose hard and uniform features attest the unmingled purity of their blood. Under the jurisdiction of their elders, eighty thousand families maintain an innocent and industrious life, their subsistence is derived from some curious manufacturers and mechanical trades, and they cultivate the earth with the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance withstood the despotism of Shah Abbas, who demanded with threats and tortures the prophetic books of Zoroaster, and this obscure remnant of the Magians is spared by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns. The northern coast of Africa is the only land in which the light of the gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totally extinguished. The arts which had been taught by Carthage and Rome were involved in a cloud of ignorance. The doctrine of Cyprian and Augustine was no longer studied. Five hundred Episcopal churches were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the Moors. The zeal and numbers of the clergy declined, and the people, without discipline or knowledge or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke of the Arabian prophet. Within fifty years after the expulsion of the Greeks, a lieutenant of Africa informed the Caliph that the tribute of the Infidels was abolished by their conversion, and though he sought to disguise his fraud and rebellion, his specious pretense was drawn from the rapid and extensive progress of the Mohammedan faith. In the next age, an extraordinary mission of five bishops was detached from Alexandria to Chiron. They were ordained by the Jacobite patriarch to cherish and revive the dying embers of Christianity, but the interposition of a foreign prelate, a stranger to the Latins, an enemy to the Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of the African hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successors of Cent Cyprian, at the head of a numerous Synod, could maintain an equal contest with the ambition of the Roman Pontip. In the eleventh century, the unfortunate priest who was seated on the ruins of Carthage implored the arms in the protection of the Vatican, and he bitterly complains that his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens, and that his authority was disputed by the four suffragettes, the tottering pillars of his throne. Two epistles of Gregory VII are destined to soothe the distress of the Catholics in the pride of Amor's prince. The Pope assures the sultan that they both worship the same God, and may hope to meet in the bosom of Abraham, but the complaint that three bishops could no longer be found to consecrate a brother announces the speedy and inevitable ruin of the Episcopal Order. The Christians of Africa and Spain had long since submitted to the practice of circumcision and the legal abstinence from wine and pork, and the name of Mosarabes, Adoptive Arabs, was applied to their civil or religious conformity. About the middle of the twelfth century the worship of Christ and the succession of pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary, and in the kingdoms of Cordova and Sevilla, of Valencia and Granada. The throne of the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism, and their extraordinary rigor might be provoked or justified by the recent victories and intolerance zeal of the princes of Sicily and Castilla, of Aragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mosarabes was occasionally revived by the papal missionaries, and on the landing of Charles V some families of Latin Christians were encouraged to rear their heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli to the Atlantic has lost all memory of the language and religion of Rome. After the revolution of eleven centuries the Jews and Christians of the Turkish Empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the Arabian caliphs. They suspected the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and voluntary friends of the Mohammedan government. Yet this partial jealousy was healed by time and submission. The churches of Egypt were shared with the Catholics, and all the Oriental sects were included in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy were protected by the civil magistrate. The learning of individuals recommended them to the employment of sectaries and physicians. They were enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue, and their merit was sometimes raised to the command of cities and provinces. A caliph of the House of Abbas was heard to declare that the Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. The Muslims, said he, will abuse their present fortunes, the Magians regret their fallen greatness, and the Jews are impatient for their approaching deliverance. But the slaves of despotism are exposed to the alternatives of favor and disgrace. The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers, and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the pride or the zeal of the Christians. About two hundred years after Mohammed, they were separated from their fellow subjects by a turban or girdle of less honorable color. Instead of horses or mules, they were condemned to ride on asses in the attitude of women. Their public and private building were measured by a diminutive standard. In the streets or the baths it is their duty to give way or bow down before the meanest of people, and their testimony is rejected if it may tend to the prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions, the sound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship. A decent reverence for the national faith is imposed on their sermons and conversations, and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosque or to seduce a Muslim will not be suffered to escape with impunity. In a time, however, of tranquility and peace, the Christians have never been compelled to renounce the gospel or to embrace the Quran, but the punishment of death is inflicted upon the apostates who have pervest and deserted the law of Mohammed. The martyrs of Kordava provoked the sentence of the Qadri by the public profession of their inconstancy or their passionate invectives against the person and religion of the Prophet. At the end of the first century of the Haqqira, the Caliphs were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe. Their prerogative was not circumscribed, either in right or in fact, by the power of the nobles, the freedom of the commons, the privileges of the church, the votes of a senate, or the memory of a free constitution. The authority of the companions of Mohammed expired with their lives, and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes left behind in the desert, the spirit of equality and independence. The regal and sacerdotal characters were united in the successors of Mohammed, and if the Quran was the rule of their actions, they were supreme judges and interpreters of that divine book. They reigned by the right of conquest over the nations of the East, to whom the name of liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed to applaud in their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were exercised at their own expense. Under the last of the Omidis, the Arabian Empire extended two hundred days' journey from East to West, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if we retrench the sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their riders, the long and narrow province of Africa, the solid and compact dominion from Targana to Aden, from Tarsus to Surat, will spread on every side to the measure of four or five months of the march of a caravan. We should vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines. But the progress of the Mohammedan religion diffused over this ample space a general resemblance of manners and opinions. The language and laws of the Quran were studied with equal devotion at Samarkand and Sevilla. The Moor and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca, and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Christine. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 5. Chapter 52. Part 1. The two sieges of Constantinople by the Arabs. Their invasion of France and defeat by Charles Marto. Civil War of the Omiades and Abbasids. Learning of the Arabs. Luxury of the Caliphs. Naval enterprises on Crete, Sicily and Rome. Decay and division of the Empire of the Caliphs. Defeats and victories of the Greek emperors. When the Arabs first issued from the desert they must have been surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when they advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus and the summit of the Pyrenees. When they had repeatedly tried the edge of their cemeteries and the energy of their face, they might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their invincible arms. That any boundary should confine the diminution of the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and fanatics might indeed be excused since the calm historian of the present hour who strives to follow the rapid course of the serocenes must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending and as it should seem from this inevitable danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty and the courage of the northern shepherds. China was remote and inaccessible but the greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mohammedan conquerors. The Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and the loss of their fairest provinces and the barbarians of Europe might justly tremble at the precipitated fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain and our neighbors of Gaul from the civil and religious yoke of the Quran that protected the majesty of Rome and delayed the servitude of Constantinople that invigorated the defense of the Christians and scattered amongst their enemies the seeds of division and decay. 46 years after the flight of Mohammed from Mecca his disciples appeared in arms under the walls of Constantinople. They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the prophet that to the first army which besieged the city of the Sazers their sins were forgiven. The long series of Roman triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of new Rome and the wealth of nations was deposited in this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No sooner had the caliph Moaviyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood by the success and glory of his holy expedition. His preparations by sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object. His standard was entrusted to Sopheon a veteran warrior but the troops were encouraged by example and presence of Yazid the son and presumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The Greeks had little to hope nor had their enemies any reason of fear from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor who disgraced the name of Constantine and imitated only the inglorious years of the grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or opposition the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the unguarded channel of the helispond which even now under the people and disorderly government of the Turks is maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital. The Arabian fleet cast anchor and the troops were disembarked near the palace of Hebdemon seven miles from the city. During many days from the dawn of light to the evening the line of assault was extended from the golden gate to the eastern promontory and the foremost warriors were impelled by the wait and effort of the succeeding columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of the strengths and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls were guarded by numbers and discipline. The spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and empire. The fugitives from the conquered provinces more successfully renewed the defense of Damascus and Alexandria and the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. The sperm and effectual resistance diverted their arms to the more easy attempt of plundering the european and hasatic coast of the propontes and after keeping the sea from the month of april to that of september on the approach of winter they retreated four score miles from the capital to the isle of Tsysikus in which they had established their magazine of spoil and provisions. So patient with their perseverance or so languid were their operations that they repeated in the six following summers the same attack and retreat with a gradual abatement of hope and vigor till the mischances of shipwreck and disease of the sword and of fire compelled them to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might prevail the loss or commemorate the martyrdom of 30 000 Muslims who fell in the siege of Constantinople and the solemn funeral of Abu Ayyub or Job excited the curiosity of the Christians themselves. That vulnerable Arab one of the last of the companions of Muhammad was numbered among the answers or auxiliaries of Medina who shattered the head of the flying prophet. In his youth he fought at Bada and Ohud under the holy standard. In his mature age he was the fronted follower of Ali and the last remnant of his strength in life was consumed in a distant and dangerous war against the enemies of the Quran. His memory was revered but the place of his burial was neglected and unknown during a period of 780 years till the conquest of Constantinople by Muhammad II. A seasonable vision for such are the manufacture of every religion revealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls and the bottom of the harbor and the mosh of Ayyub has been deservedly chosen for the symbol and marshal inauguration of the Turkish sultans. The event of the siege revived both in the east and west the reputation of the Roman arms and cast a momentary shade over the glories of the serocenes. The Greek ambassador was favorably received at Damascus a general council of the emirs or Quresh a peace a peace or truth of 30 years was ratified between the two empires and the stipulation of an annual tribute 50 horses of a noble breed 50 slaves and 3 000 pieces of gold degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful. The aged Caliph was desirous of possessing his dominions and ending his days in tranquility and repose. While the morsen Indians trembled at his name his palace and city of Damascus was insulted by the Mardites or Maronites of Mount Libanus the firmest barrier of the empire till they were disarmed and transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks. After the revolt of Arabia and Persia the house of Omiyach was reduced to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. Their distress and fear enforced their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians and the tribute was increased to a slave of horse and a thousand pieces of gold for each of the 365 days of the solar year. But as soon as the empire was again united by the arms and policy of Abdel Malek he disclaimed a badge of servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride. He discontinued the payment of the tribute under a sentiment of the Greeks was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the Second Justinian the just rebellion of his subjects and the frequent change of his antagonists and successors. Till the reign of Abdel Malek the Syracians had been content with the free possession of the Persian and Roman treasures in the coins of crossroads and Caesar. By the command of that caliph a national mint was established both for silver and gold and the inscription of the Dina though it might be censored by some timorous casuists proclaimed the unity of the god of Muhammad. Under the reign of the caliph Valid the greek language and characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue. This change was productive of the invention or familiar use of our present numerals the arabic or indian syphers as they are commonly styled. A regulation of office has promoted the most important discoveries of arithmetic algebra and the mathematical sciences. Whilst the caliph Valid set idol on the throne of Damascus whilst his lieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxian and Spain a third army of Syracians overspread the provinces of Asia Minor and approached the borders of the Byzantine capital but the attempt and disgrace of the second siege was reserved for his brother Solomon whose ambition appears to have been quickened by a more active and martial spirit. In the revolutions of the Greek empire after the tyrant Chastinian had been punished and avenged an humble secretary Anastasius or Artemius was promoted by chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarmed by the sound of war and his ambassador returned from Damascus with the tremendous news that the Syracians were preparing an amourment by sea and land such as would transcend the experience of the past or the belief of the present age. The precautions of Anastasius were not unworthy of his station or of the impending danger. He issued a peremptory mandate that all persons who were not provided with the means of subsistence for a three-year siege should evacuate the city. The public granaries and arsenals were abundantly replenished. The walls were restored and strengthened and the engines for casting stones or darts or fire were stationed along the ramparts or in the brick and teens of war of which an additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent his safer as well as more honorable than to repel an attack and a design was mediated above the usual spirit of Greeks of burning the naval stores of the enemy The thipper's timbers that had been hooven in Mount Lebanus and was piled along the seashore of Brinica for the service of the Egyptian fleet. This generous enterprise was defeated by the cowardice of treachery of the troops who in the new language of the empire were styled of the Apsyquian theme. They murdered their chief, deserted their standard in the Isle of Rhodes, dispersed themselves over the adjacent continent, and reserved pardon or reward by investing with the purple a simple officer of their venue. The name of Theodosius might recommend him to the senate and people, but after some months he sunk into cloister and resigned to the former hand of Leo the Isaurian, the urgent defense of the capital and empire. The most formidable of the Serocenes, Moslema, the brother of the Caliph, was advancing at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians. The greater part mounted on horses or camels, and the successful sieges of Tiana, Amorium and Pergamus were of sufficient duration to exercise their skill and elevate, say, hopes. As the well-known passage of Abudus, or in the Hellespond, their Mohammedan arms were transported for the first time from Asia to Europe. From thence, wheeling round the treachery cities of the Propontis, Moslema invested Constantinople on the land side, surrounded his camp with a ditch and rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, and declared by words and actions a patient resolution of expecting the return of seed time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged prove equal to his own. The Greeks would gladly have ransomed their religion and empire by a fine or a segment of a piece of gold on the head of each inhabitant of the city. But the liberal author was rejected and disdain, and the presumption of Moslema was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the natives of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships. The number betrays their incantable size, and of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned with no more than one hundred heavy armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded on a smooth sea and with a gentle gale toward the mouth of the Bosphorus. The surface of the strait was overshadowed in the languages of Greeks with a moving forest, and the same fatal night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general assault by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of the harbor, but while they hesitated whether they should see the opportunity or apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at hand. The fire ships of the Greeks were launched against them. The Arabs, their arms and vessels were involved in the same flames. The disorderly fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the waves. And I no longer find a wastage of the fleet that had threatened to extirperate the Roman name. A still more fatal and irreparable loss was that of the Caliph Solomon, who died of an indigestion in his camp near Kinnisrin, or Kalkis in Syria, as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople, the remaining forces of the east. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy, and the throne of an active unable prince was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues of a bigot. While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blind conscience, the siege was continued through the winter by the neglect, rather than by the resolution of the Caliph Omar. The winter proved uncommonly rigorous. Above a hundred days the ground was covered with deep snow, and the natives of the soteri climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torped and almost lifeless in the frozen camp. They revived on the return of spring. A second effort had been made in their favor, and their distress was relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets laden with corn and arms and soldiers. The first from Alexandria, of 400 transports and gullies, the second of 360 vessels, from the ports of Africa. But the Greek fires were again kindled, and if the destruction was less complete, it was owing to the experience which had taught the Muslims to remain at a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners who deserted with their ships to the emperor of the Christians. The trade and navigation of the capital were restored, and the produce of the fisheries supplied the ones and even the luxury of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and disease were soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as the former was miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated by the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract from the most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest and even of enthusiasm was extinct. The seresins could no longer struggle beyond their lines, either single or in small parties, without exposing themselves to the merciless retaliation of the treacherous peasants. An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the gifts and promises of Leo, and these savage auxiliaries made some atonement for the evils which they had inflicted on the empire by the defeat and slaughter of 22,000 asiatics. A report was dexterously scattered that the Franks, the unknown nations of the Latin world, were arming by sea and land in the defense of the Christian cause, and their formidable aid was expected with far different sensations in the camp and city. At length, after a siege of 13 months, the hopeless Moslemah, received from the Caliph the welcome permission of retreat, the march of the Arabian cavalry over the Hellespont and through the provinces of Asia, was executed without delay or molestation. But an army of their brethren had been cut in pieces on the side of Bethenia, and the remains of the fleet were so repeatedly damaged by tempest and fire that only five gullies entered the port of Alexandria to relate the tale of their various and almost incredible disasters. In the two sieges the deliverance of Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors and the real efficiency of the Greek fire. The important secret of compounding and directing this artificial plane was imparted by Calinicus, a native of Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from the service of the Caliph to that of the Emperor. The skill of a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the sucker of fleets and armies, and this discovery or improvement of the military art was fortunately reserved for the distrustful period, when the degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to analyze this extraordinary composition should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine guides, so prone to the marvelous, so careless, and in this instance so jealous of the truth. From their obscure and perhaps fallacious hints, it should seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek fire was the nafta, or liquid vitamin, a light, tenacious and inflavable oil, which springs from the earth and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact with the air. The nafta was mangled, I now know it by what methods or in what proportions, the sulfur and with the pitch that is extracted from evergreen furs. From this mixture which produced a thick smoke and allowed the explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burned with equal vehemence, in descent or lateral progress. Instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened by the element of water, and sand, urine or vinegar were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greek saliquid, or the maritime fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employed with equal effect by sea and land, in battles or in sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins twist round with flags and toe, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil. Sometimes it was deposited in fire ships. The victims and instruments of a mere ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper, which were planted on the brow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved at Constantinople, as the Palladium of the State. The galleys and artillery might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome, but the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the Treaties of the Administration of the Empire, the royal author suggests the answers and excuses that might best allude the indiscreet curiosity and unfortunate demands of the barbarians. They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with the sacred injunction that this gift of heaven, the specular blessing of the Romans, should never be communicated to any foreign nation. That the prince and the subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege, and that the impious attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the Christians. By these precautions the secret was confined above 400 years to the Romans of the East, and at the end of the 11th century the Pisons, to whom every sea and every art were familiar, suffered the effects without understanding the composition of the Greek fire. It was at length either discovered or stolen by the Mohammedans, and in the holy wars of Syria and Egypt they reported an invention contrived against themselves on the heads of the Christians. A knight who despised the swords and lenses of the Seresines relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears and those of his companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged a torrent of the Greek fire, their foy Gregoys, as it is styled by the more early of the French writers. It came flying through the air, says John Will, like a winged long-tailed dragon, about the sickness of a hog's head, with the report of thunder and the velocity of lightning, and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this deadly illumination. The use of the Greek, or as it might now be called of the Seresine fire, was continued to the middle of the 14th century when the scientific or casual compound of nitrous, sulfur and carcol affected a new revolution in the art of war and the history of mankind. End of chapter 52 part 1, chapter 52 part 2 of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Christine. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 5, chapter 52, part 2. Constantinople and the Greek fire might exclude the Arabs from the eastern entrance of Europe. But in the west, on the side of the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded by the conquerors of Spain. The decline of the French monarchy invited the attack of these unsatidated fanatics. The descendants of Clovis had lost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit and their misfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet of lazy to the last kings of the Merovingian race. They ascended the throne without power and thunk into the gray without a name. A country palace in the neighborhood of Campagne was allotted for their residence or prison. But each year, in the months of March or May, they were conducted in a wagon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the Franks to give audience to foreign ambassadors and to rectify the acts of the major of the palace. That domestic officer was become the minister of the nation and the master of the prince. A public employment was converted into the patrimony of a private family. The elder Pippin left a king of mature years under the guardianship of his own widow and her child. And these feeble regions were forcibly dispossessed by the most active of his bastards. A government half savage and half corrupt was almost dissolved and the tributary dukes and provincial counts and the territorial lords were tempted to despise the weakness of the monarch and to imitate the ambition of the mayor. Among these independent chiefs, one of the boldest and most successful was Oides, Duke of Aquitaine, who in the southern provinces of Gaul, observed the authority and even the title of king. The Gauls, the Gascans and the Franks, assembled under the standard of this Christian hero, he repelled the first invasion of the Cerescenes and Zama, lieutenant of the Caliph, lost his army and his life under the walls of Toulouse. The ambition of his successors was stimulated by revenge. They repressed the Pyrenees with the means and the resolution of conquest. The advantageous situation which had recommended Narborne as the first Roman colony was again chosen by the Muslims. They claimed the province of Septimania or Languedoc as a just dependent of the Spanish monarchy. The wine yards of Gascony and the city of Bordeaux were possessed by the siren of Damascus and Samarkand, and the Thou's of France from the mouth of the Garon to that of Zaron, assumed the manners and religion of Arabia. But these narrow limits were scorned by the spirit of Abdal-Raman or Abdiram, who had been restored by the Caliph Hassim to the wishes of the soldiers and people of Spain. That veteran and daring commander adjudged to the obedience of the prophet whatever yet remained of France or of Europe, and prepared to execute this sentence at the head of a formidable host in the full confidence of surmounting all opposition, either of nature or of man. His first care was to suppress a domestic rebel who commanded the most important passes on the Pyrenees. Manousa, a Moorish chief, had accepted the alliance of the Duke of Aquitaine. And Oides, from a motive of private or public interest, devoted his beautiful daughter to the embraces of the African misbeliever. With the strongest fortresses of Cardein were evisted by a superior force. The rebel was overtaken and slain in the mountains, and his widow was sent a captive to Damascus to gratify the desires, or more probably the vanity, of the commander of the faithful. From the Pyrenees Abdiram proceeded without delay to the passage of their own, and the siege of Arles. An army of Christians attempted the relief of the city. The tomes of their leaders were yet visible in the 13th century, and many thousands of their dead bodies were carried down the rapid stream into the Mediterranean Sea. The arms of Abdiram were not less successful on the side of the ocean. He passed without opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, which united their waters in the Gulf of Bordeaux. But he found beyond those rivers the camp of the Interpid Oides, who had formed a second army and sustained a second defeat, so fatal to the Christians, that, according to their said confession, God alone could reckon the number of the slain. The victorious serocene overran the provinces of Aquitaine, whose gallic names are disguised, rather than lost in the modern appellations of Pericard, Sainton and Poitot. His standards were planted on the walls, or at least before the gates, of tours and of saints, and his detachments overspread the kingdom of Burgundy as far as the well-known cities of Lyons and Besson soon. The memory of these devastations, for Abdiram did not spare the country or the people, was long preserved by tradition, and the invasion of France by the Moors or Mahometans affords the groundwork of those fables, which have been so wildly disfigured in the romances of Chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the Italian Moos. In the decline of society and art, the deserted cities could supply a slender booty to the serocenes. Their richest spoil was found in the churches and monasteries, which they stripped of their ornaments and delivered to the flames. And the tutelor saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, forgot their miraculous powers in the defense of their own sepulchres. A victorious line of march had been prolonged about a thousand miles from the Rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the lawyer. The repetition of unequal space would have carried the serocenes to the confines of Poland and the highlands of Scotland. The Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates. And the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouths of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate toward circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Muhammad. From such calamities was Christendom delivered by the genius and fortune of one man. Charles, the illegitimate son of the elder Pepin, was content with the titles of Mayor or Duke of the Franks, but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings. In a laborious administration of twenty-four years he restored and supported the dignity of the throne, and the rebels of Germany and Gaul were successfully crushed by the activity of a warrior who, in the same campaign, could display his banner on the Elbe, their own, and the shores of the ocean. In the public danger he was summoned by the voice of his country, and his rival, the Duke of Aquitaine, was reduced to appear among the fugitives and supplyants. Allah, sex-claimed the Franks, what a misfortune, what an indignity. We have long heard of the name and conquest of the Arabs, we are apprehensive of their attack from the east. They have now conquered Spain and invade our country on the side of the west. Yet they are numbers, and, since they have no buckler, their arms are inferior to our own. If you follow my advice, replied the prudent mayor of the palace, you will not interrupt their march nor precipitate your attack. They are like a torrent, which it is dangerous to steam in its career. The thirst of riches and the consciousness of success redoubles their valor, and valor is of more avails than arms or numbers. We patient till they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of wealth. The possession of wealth will divide their consuls and assure your victory. This subtle policy is perhaps a refinement of the Arabian writers, and the situation of Charles will suggest a more narrow and selfish motive of procrastination. The secret desire of humbling the pride and wasting the provinces of the rebel duke of Aquitaine. It is yet more probable that the delights of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. A standing army was unknown under the first and second race. More than half the kingdom was now in the hands of the Seresians. According to their respective situation, the Franks of Noistria and Austrasia were too conscious or too careless of the impeding danger, and the voluntary aid of the Capidae and Germans were separated by a long interval from the standard of the Christian general. Now sooner had he collected his forces than he thought and found the enemy in the centre of France between Tours and Poitiers. His well-conducted march was covered with a range of hills, and Abdi Mar appears to have been surprised by his unexpected presence. The nations of Asia, Africa and Europe advanced with equal ardor to an encounter which would change the history of the world. In the six first days of desolatory combat, the horsemen and archers of the east maintained their advantage. But in the closer onset of the seventh day, the orientals were oppressed by the strength and stature of the Germans, who, with stout hurts and iron hands, asserted the civil and religious freedom of their posterity. The epithet of Martel, the Hama, which has been added to the name of Charles, is expressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes. The valor of Oides was excited by resentment and emulation, and their companions in the eye of history are the true peers and paladins of French chivalry. After a bloody feud in which Abdi Mar was slain, the serocenes in the clothes of the evening retired to their camp. In the disorder and despair of the night, the various tribes of Yemen and Damascus, of Africa and Spain, were provoked to turn their arms against each other. The remains of their host was suddenly dissolved, and each emmer consulted his safety by a hasty and separate retreat. At the dawn of the day, the stillness of a hostile camp was suspected by the victorious Christians. On the report of their spies, they went here to explore the riches of the vacant tents. But if they accept some celebrated relics, a small portion of the spoil was restored to the innocent and lawful owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic world, and the monks of Italy could affirm and believe that 350 or 375,000 of the Mahometans had been crushed by the hammer of Charles, while no more than 1500 Christians were slain in the field of tours. But this incredible tale is sufficiently disproved by the caution of the French general, who apprehended the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed his German allies to their native forests. The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood, and the most cruel execution is inflicted, not in the ranks of battle but on the backs of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the Franks was complete and final. Aquitaine was recovered by the arms of Oides. The Arabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul, and they were soon driven beyond the Pyrenees by Charles Martel and his valiant race. It might have been expected that the Saviour of Christendom would have been canonized, or at least applauded by the gratitude of the clergy, who are indebted to his sword for their present existence. But in the public distress the mayor of the palace had been compelled to apply the riches, or at least the revenues of the bishops and abbots, to the relief of the state and the reward of the soldiers. His merits were forgotten, his sacrilege alone was remembered, and in an epistle to our Carl of England Prince, a Gallic synod presumed to declare that his ancestor was damned, that on the opening of his tomb the spectators were affrighted by a smell of fire and the aspect of a horrid dragon, and that the saint of the times was indulged with a pleasant vision of the soul and body of Charles Martel, burning to all eternity in the abyss of hell. The loss of an army or a province in the western world was less painful to the court of Damascus than the rise and progress of a domestic competitor. Except among the Syrians the caliphs of the house of Omya had never been the objects of the public favor. The life of Muhammad recorded their perseverance in idolatry and rebellion. Their conversion had been reluctant, their elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was cemented to the most holy and noble blood of Arabia. The best of their race, the Pious Omar, was dissatisfied with his own title. Their personal virtues were insufficient to justify a departure from the order of succession, and the eyes and wishes of the faithful were turned towards the line of Hasim and the kindred of the Apostle of God. Of these the Fatimids were either rush or pusillanimous, but the descendants of Abbas cherished, with courage and discretion, the hopes of their rising fortunes. From an obscure residence in Syria, they secretly despatched their agents and missionaries, who preached in the eastern provinces their hereditary indefensible right, and Muhammad, the son of Ali, the son of Abdullah, the son of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audience to the deputies of Karasan, and accepted their free gift of 400,000 pieces of gold. After the death of Muhammad, the oath of allegiance was administered in the name of his son Ibrahim, to a numerous band of arteries, who expected only a signal and a leader, and the governor of Karasan continued to deplore his fruitless admonitions, and the deadly slumber of the caliphs of Damascus. Dilhi himself, with all his adherents, was driven from the city and palace of Meru, by the rebellious arms of Abu Muslim. That maker of kings, the author as he is named, of the call of the Abbasidis, was at length rewarded for his presumption of merit, with the usual gratitude of courts. Amin, perhaps a foreign, extraction, could not repress the aspiring energy of Abu Muslim. Jealous of his wives, liberal of his wealth, prodigal of his own blood, and of that of others, he could boast his pleasure, and possibly his truth, that he had destroyed 600,000 of his enemies. And such was the intrepid gravity of his mind and continents, that he was never seen to smile, except on a day of battle. In the visible separation of parties, the green was consecrated to the fatty mines. The omniads were distinguished by the white, and the black, as the most adverse was naturally adopted by the Abbasidis. Their turbans and garments were stained with that gloomy color. Two black standards, one pyke staves, nine cubits long, were born aloft in the van of Abu Muslim, and their allegorical names of the night and the shadow, obscurely represented the indissoluble union, and perpetual succession of the line of Hashem. From the Indus to the Euphrates, the east was convolved by the quarrel of the white and the black factions. The Abbasidis were most frequently victorious, but their public success was clouded by the personal misfortune of their chief. The court of Damascus, awakening from a long slumber, resolved to prevent the pilgrimage of Mecca, which Ibrahim had undertaken with a splendid retinue, to recommend himself at once to the favor of the prophet and of the people. At attachment of Calary intercepted his march, and arrested his person, and the unhappy Ibrahim, snatched away from the promise of anteced royalty, expired in iron fetters in the dungeons of Haran. His two younger brothers, Safar and Almanso, eluded the search of the tyrant, and lay concealed at Kofa, till the zeal of the people and the approach of his eastern friends allowed them to expose their persons to the impatient public. On Friday in the dress of Akalif, in the colors of the sect, Safar proceeded with religious and military pomp to the mosque. Ascending the pulpit, he prayed and preached of the lawful successor of Muhammad, and, after his departure, his kinsmen bound a willing people by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks of the Zab, and not in the mosque of Kofa, that this important controversy was determined. Every advantage appeared to be on the side of a white faction, the authority of established government, an army of 120,000 soldiers, against a sixth part of that number, and the presence and merit of the Caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the House of Omaya. Before his accession to the throne, he had deserved, by his Gregorian warfare, the honorable epithet of the House of Mesopotamia. And he might have been ranked amongst the greatest princes, had not, says Abul Fida. The eternal order decreed that moment for the ruin of his family, a decree against which all human fortitude and prudence must struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mistaken, or disobeyed. The return of his horse, from which he had dismounted on a necessary occasion, impressed the belief of his death, and the enthusiasm of the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, the uncle of his competitor. After an irretrievable defeat, the Caliph escaped to Mosul, but the colors of the Abbasidis were displayed from the rampart. He suddenly repressed the Tigris, cast a melancholy lock on his palace of Haran, crossed the Euphrates, abandoned the fortifications of Damascus, and, without halting in Palestine, pitched his lost and fatal camp at Boussir, on the banks of the Nile. His speed was urged by the incessant diligence of Abdallah, who in every step of the pursuit acquired strength and reputation. The remains of the white faction were finally vanquished in Egypt, and the lands, which terminated the life and anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the unfortunate than to the victorious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueror eradicated the most distant branches of the hostile race. Their bones were scattered, their memory was accursed, and the martyrdom of Hussain was abundantly rewanged on the posterity of his tyrants. For the score of the Omiids, who had yielded to the face or clemency of their force, were invited to a banquet at Damascus. The laws of hospitality were violated by a promiscuous massacre. The board was spread over their fallen bodies, and the festivity of the guests was unleavened by the music of their dying groans. By the event of the civil war, the dynasty of the Abbasidies was firmly established, but the Christians only could triumph in the mutual hatred and common loss of the disciples of Muhammad. Yet the thousands who were swept away by this world of war might have been speedily retrieved in the succeeding generation, if the consequences of the revolution had not tended to dissolve the power and unity of the empire of the Therosines. And the prescription of the Omiids, a royal use of the name of Abdul Rahman, alone escaped the rage of his enemies, who hunted the wandering exile from the banks of the Oifrates to the volleys of Mount Atlas. His presence in the neighborhood of Spain revived seal of the white faction. The name on course of the Abbasidies had been first vindicated by the Persians. The West had been pure from civil arms, and the servants of the abdicated families still held by a precarious tenure the inheritance of their lands and the offices of government. Strongly prompted by gratitude, indignation and fear, they invited the grandson of the Caliph Hassan to ascend the throne of his ancestors, and in his desperate condition the extremes of rashness and prudence were almost the same. The acclamations of the people saluted his landing on the coast of Andalusia, and after a successful struggle, Abdul Rahman established the throne at Cordova, and was the father of the Omiids of Spain, who reigned above 250 years from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees. He slew in battle a lieutenant of the Abbasidies, who had invaded his dominions with the fleet and army. The head of Allah in Saltankafir was suspended by a daring messenger before the palace of Mecca, and the Caliph Al-Mansur rejoiced in his safety, that he was removed by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary. The armutio designs or declarations of offensive war evaporated without effect, but instead of opening a door to the conquest of Europe, Spain was deceived from the trunk of the monarchy, engaged in perpetual hostility with the east, and inclined to peace and friendship with the Christian sovereigns of Constantinople and France. The example of the Omiids was imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the addresses of Mauritania, and the more powerful Fatimids of Africa and Egypt. In the 10th century, the chair of Muhammad was disputed by three Caliphs, or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Baghdad, Cairo and Cordova, excommunicating each other and agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an unbeliever. Mecca was the patrimony of the Lion of Khashen, yet the Abbasidies were never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city of the prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the blood of the Omiids. And after some hesitation, Almanzor, the brother and successor of Safa, laid the foundations of Baghdad, the imperial seat of his posterity, during a reign of 500 years. The chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about 15 miles above the ruins of Modain. The double wall was of a circular form, and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by 800,000 men and 60,000 women of Baghdad, and the adjacent villages. In this city of peace, amidst the riches of the east, the Abbasidies soon disdain the abstinence and frugality of the first Caliphs, and aspire to emulate the magnificence of the Persian kings. After his wars and buildings, Almanzor left behind him in gold and silver, about 30 million sterling, and this treasure was exhausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahade, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expanded six millions of dinners of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravan seras, which he distributed along a measured road of 700 miles. But his train of camels laden with snow could serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson Al-Mamoun, who gave away four-fifths the income of a province, as sum of two millions, four hundred thousand gold dinners, before he drew his food from the stirrup. At the nubshoes of the same prince, a thousand perils of the largest size were showered on the head of the bride, and a lottery of lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were brightened rather than impaired in the decline of the empire, and the Greek ambassador might admire, or pity, the magnificence of the feeble Moktador. The Caliph's whole army, says the historian Abdul-Feda, both horse and foot was under arms, which together made a body of 160,000 men. His state officers, the favorite slaves, stood near him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with gold and gems. Near them were 7,000 ernuchs, 4,000 of them white, the remainder black. The porters, or doorkeepers, were in number 700. Barges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splendid, in which were hung up 38,000 pieces of tapestry, 12,500 of which were of silk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were 22,000. A hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each lion. Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and silver, spreading into eighteen large branches, on which and on the lesser bath set a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through the scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador was led by the vizier to the foot of the caliph's throne. In the west, the omiades of Spain supported with equal pomp the title of commander of the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honor of his favorite sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalramans, constructed the city, palace and gardens of Zera. 25 years and about 3 million sterling were employed by the founder. His liberal taste invited the artists of Constantinople, the most skillful sculptors and architects of the age, and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek and Italian marble. The hall of audience was encrusted with gold and pearls, and a great basin in the center was surrounded with the curious and costly figures of birds and quadropeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sotry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksailor. Sister Adlio of Abdalraman, his wives, concubines and black oinochs, amounted to 6,300 persons, and he was attended to the field by a guard of 12,000 horse whose belts and cimeters were studded with gold. End of chapter 52 part 2. Chapter 52 part 3 of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Christine. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume 5. Chapter 52 part 3. In a private condition our desires are perpetually repressed by poverty and subordination, but the lives and labors of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic prince, whose laws are blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid preacher, and whatever may be the cool dictates of reason, there are few, among us, who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrow the experience of the same Abdalraman, whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased Caliph. I have now reigned about fifty years in victory or peace, beloved by my subject, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honours, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot, they amount to fourteen. Oh man, place not thy confidence in this present world. The luxury of the Caliphs, so useless to their private happiness, relaxed the nerves, and terminated the progress of the Arabian Empire. Temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of the first successors of Muhammad, and after supplying themselves with the necessaries of life, the whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that solitary work. The Upper Sides were impoverished by the multitude of their wants and their contempt of economy. Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, their leisure, their affections, the powers of their mind were diverted by pump and pleasure, their words of valor were embezzled by women and oinochs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A similar temper was diffused among the subjects of the Caliph. Their stern enthusiasm was softened by time and prosperity. They sought riches in the occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, and happiness in the tranquility of domestic life. War was no longer the passion of the Saracens, and the increase of pay, their repetition of donatives, were insufficient to allure the posterity of those voluntary champions who had crowded to the standard of Abu Beka and Oma for the hopes of spoil and of paradise. Under the reign of the Omiids, the studies of the Muslims were confined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the eloquence and poetry of their native tongue. A people continually exposed to the dangers of the field must esteem the healing powers of medicine or rather of surgery. But the starving physicians of Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise and temperance deprived them of the greatest part of their practice. After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbasidis, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profound science. The spirit was first encouraged by the Caliph Al-Mansur, who, besides his knowledge of the Mohammedan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy. But when the scepter devolved to Al-Mummoun, the seventh of the Abbasids, he completed the designs of his grandfather and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science. At his command they were translated by the most skillful interpreters into the Arabic language. His subjects were exhorted assiduously to pursue these instructive writings. And the successor of Mohammed assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. He was not ignorant, says Abub Haragius, that they are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The main ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the south of a Beehive. These fortitudinal heroes are aved by the superior fierceness of the lions and tigers, and in their amorous enjoyment they are much inferior to the vigor of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism. The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas. Their rivals, the Fatimids of Africa and the Omayeds of Spain, were the patterns of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful. The same royal prerogative was claimed by their independent embers of the provinces, and their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from Samarkand and Bokhara to Fez and Kordola. The vizier of the Sultan consecrated a sum of 200,000 pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Baghdad, which he endured with an annual revenue of 15,000 dinars. The fruits of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to 6,000 disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mehanic. A sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars, and the merit or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curious city of the studios and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused the invitation of the Sultan of Bokhara, because the carriage of his books would have required 400 camels. The royal library of the Fatimids consisted of 100,000 manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound, which were lent without jealously or ever rise to the students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe that the omniates of Spain had formed a library of 600,000 volumes, 44 of which were employed in the Meir catalogue. Zara capital, Kordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria and Murcia, had given birth to more than 300 writers, and above 70 public libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian Kingdom. The age of Arabian learning continued about 500 years, till the great eruption of the Moguls, and was Cairo with the darkest and most slothful period of European annals. But since the son of science has arisen in the west, it should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined. In the libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe, the far greater part of the unnumberable volumes were possessed only of local value, or imaginary merit. Their shells were crowded with orators and poets, whose style was adapted to the taste in manners of their countrymen, with general and partial histories, which each revolving generation supplied with a new harvest of persons and events, with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, which derived their authority from the law of the prophet, with the interpreters of the current and Orthodox tradition, and with the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics, scholastics and moralists, the first or the last of writers, according to the different estimates of skeptics or believers. The works of speculation or science may be reduced to the four classes of philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and physics. The saints of Greece were translated and illustrated in the Arabic language, and some treatises, now lost in the original, have been recovered in the versions of the East, which possessed and studied the writings of Aristotle and Plato of Euclid and Apollonius of Ptolemy, Hippocrates and Galen. Among the ideal systems which have varied with the fashion of the times, the Arabians adopted the philosophy of the Staggerite, alike intelligible or alike obscure for the readers of every age. Plato wrote for the Athenians and his allegorical genius is too closely blended with the language and religion of Greece. After the fall of that religion, the peripathetics emerging from their obscurity prevailed in the controversies of the Oriental sects, and their founder was long afterwards restored by the Mohammedans of Spain to the Latin schools. The physics, both of the Academy and the Lycaeum, as they are built, not on observation but on argument, have retorted the progress of real knowledge. The metaphysics of infinite or finite spirit have too often been enlisted in the service of superstition. But the human faculties are fortified by the art and practice of dialectics. The 10 predicaments of Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, and his syllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously vieweded in the schools of the Saracens, but as it is more effectual for the detection of errors than for the investigation of truths, it is not surprising that new generations of masters and disciples should still revolve in the same circle of logical argument. The mathematics are distinguished by peculiar privilege that, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede. But the ancient geometry, if I am not misinformed, was resumed in the same state by the Italians of the 15th century. And whatever may be the origin of the name, the science of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian diophantus by the modest testimony of the Arabs themselves. They cultivated this more success in the sublime science of astronomy, which elevates the mind of man to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence. The costly instruments of observation were supplied by the Caliph Almamon, and the land of the Caldeans still afforded the same spacious level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinar, and a second time in those of Coffa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the great circle of the earth, and determined at 24,000 miles the entire circumference of our globe. From the reign of the Abbasidis to that of the grandchildren of Tomerlane, the stars without the aid of glasses were diligently observed, and the astronomical tables of Baghdad, Spain and Samarkand, correct some minute errors without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a step towards the discovery of the solar system. In the eastern courts, the truths of science could be recommended only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the weighing predictions of astrology. But in the science of medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua and Geba of Rasis and Avicenna are ranked with the Grecian masters, and the city of Baghdad, 860 physicians, were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession. In Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was entrusted to the skill of the Theracines, and the school of Salerno, their legitimate offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art. The success of each professor must have been influenced by personal and accidental causes, but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, botany and chemistry, the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead can find both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and quadrupeds. The more solid and visible parts were known in the time of Galen, and the finest scrutiny of the human frame was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone might enrich in the herbal of Dioscorides with 2,000 plants. Some traditional knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteries in Egypt. Much useful experience had been acquired in the practice of arts and manufacturers, but the science of chemistry owes it origin and improvement to the industry of the Theracines. They first invented and named the Alembic for the purposes of distillation, analyzed the substances of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and affinities of alkalis and acids, and converted the poisonous minerals into soft and solitary medicines. But the most eager search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals and the elixir of immortal health. The reason and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated in the crucibles of alchemy, and the consummation of a great work was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable and superstition. But the Muslims deprived themselves of the principal benefits of a familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome. The knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their native tongue, the Arabians disdain the study of any foreign idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen among their Christian subjects. They formed their translations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently perhaps on a Syriac version, and in the crowd of astronomers and physicians, there is no example of a poet, an orator, or even an historian being talked to speak the language of the Syracians. The mythology of Homer would have provoked the adherents of those stern fanatics. They possessed in lazy ignorance the colonies of the Macedonians and the provinces of Cartage and Rome. The heroes of Plutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion, and the history of the world before Mohammed was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste, and I am not forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations, of whose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have much to teach, and I believe that the orientals have much to learn, the temporary dignity of style, the graceful proportions of art, the forms of visible and intellectual beauty, the just delineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of narrative and argument, the regular fabric of epic and dramatic poetry. The influence of truth and reason is of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers of Athens and Rome enjoyed the blessings and asserted the rights of civil and religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sage to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant and their prophet an imposter. The instinct of superstition was alarmed by the introduction even of the abstract sciences, and the more rigid doctors of the law condemned the rush and pernicious curiosity of Alma-Morne. To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise, and the belief of pristination, we must ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of the prince and people. And the sword of the serocines became less formidable when their use was drawn away from the camp to the college, when the armies of the faithful presumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fire to the barbarians of the East. In the bloody conflict of the Omid's and Abbasid's, the Greeks had stolen the opportunity of avenging their wrongs and enlarging their limits. But a severe attribution was exacted by Mochati, the third caliph of the new dynasty, who seized, in his turn, the favorable opportunity, while a woman and a child, Irene and Constantine, were seated of the Byzantine throne. An army of ninety-five thousand versions and Arabs must send from the Tigris to the Thracian Bosphorus, under the command of Harun or Aron, the second son of the commander of the faithful. His encampment on the opposite heights of Chrysopolis or Scutari informed Irene, in her palace of Constantinople, of the loss of her troops and provinces. With the consent or con events of their severance, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace, and the exchange of some royal gifts could not disguise the annual tribute of seventy thousand dinners of gold, which was imposed of the Roman Empire. The Thracians had too rushly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile land. Their retreat was solicited by the promise of faithful guides and plentiful markets. And not a Greek had courage to whisper that their weary forces might be surrounded and destroyed in their necessary passage between a slippery mountain and the river Sangarios. Five years after this expedition, Harun ascended the throne of his father and his elder brother, the most powerful and vigorous monarch of his race, illustrious to the west as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar to the most childish readers, as a perpetual hero of the Arabian tales. His title to the name of Al-Rashid, the Just, is supplied by the extirpation of the generous, perhaps the innocent, Parmesides. Yet he could listen to the complaint of the poor widow, who had been pillaged by his troops and who dared, in a passage of the Quran, to threaten the inattentive despot with the judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned with luxury and silence, but in a reign of three and twenty years, Harun repeatedly visited these provinces from Coruscant to Egypt. Nine times he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Eight times he invaded the territories of the Romans, and as often as they declined the payment of the tribute, they were taught to feel that a month of depredation was more costly than a year of submission. But when the unnatural mother of Constantine was deposed and banished, her successor, Nisophorus, resolved to obliterate this badge of servitude and disgrace. The epistle of the emperor to the caliph was pointed with an allusion to the game of chess, which had already spread from Persia to Greece. The queen, he spoke of Irene, considered you as a rook and herself of the pawn. That pusillanimous female submitted to pay a tribute, the double of which she ought to have exacted from the barbarians. Restore therefore the fruits of your injustice, or abide the determination of this sword. At this word the ambassadors cast a bundle of swords before the foot of the throne. The caliph smiled at the menace, and drawing his cimeter, some Samach, a weapon of historic or fabulous renown, he cut asunder the feeble arms of the Greeks without turning the edge or endangering the temper of his blade. He then dictated an epistle of tremendous brevity. In the name of the most merciful God, Haroun al-Rashid, commander of the faithful, to Nisyphus, the Roman dog, I have read that letter of thy son of an unbelieving mother, though shalt not hear, though shalt behold my reply. It was written in characters of blood and fire on the plains of Phrygia, and the warlike celerity of the Arabs could only be checked by the arts of deceit, and the show of repentance. The triumphant caliph retired, after the fatigues of the campaign, to his favorite palace of Raqqa on the Euphrates, by the distance of 500 miles. And the inclemency of the season encouraged his adversary to violate the peace. Nisyphus was astonished by the bold and rapid march of the commander of the faithful, who re-past in the depths of winter the snows of Mount Taurus. His strategyms of policy and war were exhausted, and the perfidious Greek escaped with three wounds from a field of battle, or spread with 40,000 of his subjects. Yet the emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph was resolved on victory. 135,000 regular soldiers received pay, and were inscribed in the military role, and about 300,000 persons of every denomination marched under the black standard of the Abbasidis. They swept the surface of Asia Minor far beyond Tiana and Ankara, and invested the Pontic Heraklia, once a flourishing state, now a paltry town, at that time capable of sustaining, in her antique walls, a month's siege against the forces of the east. The ruin was complete, the spoil was ample. But if Harun had been conversant with Grishan's story, he would have regretted the statue of Hercules, whose attributes the club, the bow, the quiver, and the lion's hide were sculptured in messy gold. The progress of desolation by sea and land, from the oxen to the isle of Cyprus, compelled the emperor Nisyphorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the new treaty the ruins of Heraklia were left forever as a lesson and a trophy, and the coin of the tribute was marked with the image and the prescription of Harun and his three sons. Yet this plurality of lords might contribute to remove the dishonor of the Roman name. After the death of their father, the heirs of the Caliph were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, the liberal Alma Moon, was sufficiently engaged in the restoration of domestic peace, and the introduction of foreign science. End of chapter 52, part 3