 CHAPTER 51 PART V In Syria, one of the countries that have been improved by the most early cultivation is not unworthy of the preference. The heat of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains, by the plenty of wood and water, and the produce of a fertile soil affords the subsistence and encourages the propagation of men and animals. From the age of David to that of Heraclius, the country was overspread with ancient and flourishing cities. The inhabitants were numerous and wealthy, and after the slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after the recent calamities of the Persian War, Syria could still attract and reward the rapacious tribes of the desert. A plain, of ten days' journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is watered on the western side by the winding course of the Orontes. The hills of Lipponus and Antilipponus are planted from north to south between the Orontes and the Mediterranean, and the epithet of Hallow, class Syria, was applied to a long and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same direction by the two ridges of snowy mountains. Among the cities which are enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquest of Syria, we may distinguish Emesia or Hemis, Heliopolis or Baalbek, the former as the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of the valley. Under the last of the Caesars they were strong and populous, the turrets glittered from afar, and ample space was covered with public and private buildings, and the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by their pride, by their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the days of paganism both Emesia and Heliopolis were addicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun, but the decline of their superstition splendor has been marked by a singular variety of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesia, which was equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, while the ruins of Baalbek, invisible to the riders of antiquity, excite the curiosity and wonder of the European traveler. The measure of the temple is two hundred feet in length, and one hundred in breadth. The front is adorned with a double portico of eight columns, fourteen may be counted on either side, and each column, forty-five feet in height, is composed of three, massive blocks of stone or marble. The proportions and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the architecture of the Greeks, but as Baalbek has never been the seat of a monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent structures could be supplied by private or municipal liberality. From the conquest of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesia, but I shall decline the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been already shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war their policy was not less effectual than their sword. By short and separate traces they dissolved the unity of the enemy, accustomed the Syrians to compare their friendship with their enmity, familiarize the idea of their language, religion, and manners, and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines and arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy, or the more obstinate, and Calces alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as many figs and olives as would loat five thousand asses. But the terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully observed, and the lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls of the captive Baalbek, remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till the jarring faction solicited the interposition of a foreign master. The conquest of the plain and valley of Syria was achieved in less than two years. Yet the commander of the faithful reproved the slowness of their progress, and the Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and repentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the Lord. In a recent action, under the walls of Amisa, and Arabian youth, the cousin of Khalid, was heard aloud to exclaim, Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking upon me, one of whom, should she appear in this world, all mankind would die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one of them a handkerchief of green silk, and a cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither quickly, for I love thee. With these words, charging the Christians, he made havoc wherever he went, till observed at length by the governor of Hames, he was struck through with a javelin. It was incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valor and enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught, by repeated losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would speedily achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces of Europe and Asia, four score thousand soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch and Caesarea. The light troops of the army consisted of sixty thousand Christian Arabs of the tribe of Ghassan. Under the banner of Jabala, the last of their princes, they marched in the van, and it was a maxim of the Greeks that for the purpose of cutting diamond a diamond was the most effectual. Heraclius withheld his person from the dangers of the field, but his presumption, or perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order that the fate of the province and the war should be decided by a single battle. The Syrians were attached to the standard of Rome and of the Cross, but the noble, the citizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a licentious host who oppressed them as subjects and despised them as strangers and aliens. A report of these mighty preparations was conveyed to the Saracens in their camp of Amissa, and the chiefs, though resolved to fight, assembled a council. The faith of Abu Abi Edda would have expected on the same spot the glory of martyrdom. The wisdom of Khalid advised an honorable retreat to the skirts of Palestine and Arabia, where they might await the suckers of their friends, and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy messenger soon returned from the throne of Medina with the blessings of Omar and Ali, the prayers of the widows of the prophet, and a reinforcement of eight thousand Muslims. In their way they overturned a detachment of Greeks, and when they joined at Yermouk, the camp of their brethren, they found the pleasing intelligence that Khalid had already defeated and scattered the Christian Arabs of the tribe of Ghassan. In the neighborhood of Basra, the springs of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis or ten cities, and the hero max, a name which has been corrupted to Yermouk, is lost after a short course in the lake of Tiberias. The banks of this obscure stream were illustrated by a long and bloody encounter. On the momentous occasion the public voice and the modesty of Abu Abi Edda restored the command to the most deserving of Muslims. Khalid assumed his station in the front, his colleague was posted in the rear, that the disorder of the fugitive might be checked by his venerable aspect, and the sight of the yellow banner which Muhammad had displayed before the walls of Qaibar. The last line was occupied by the sister of Darar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted in this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bull and the lance, and who in a moment of captivity had defended against the uncircumcised ravishers their chastity and religion. The exhortation of the generals was brief and forcible. Paradise is before you, the devil and hellfire in your rear. Yet such was the weight of the Roman cavalry that the right wing of the Arabs was broken and separated from the main body. Thrice did they return in disorder, and Thrice were they driven back to the charge by their approaches and blows of the women. In the intervals of action Abu Abi Edda visited the tents of his brethren, prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers of two different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, and administered the comfortable reflection that the infidels partook of their sufferings without partaking of their reward. Four thousand and thirty of the Muslims were buried in the field of battle, and the skill of the Armenian archers enabled seven hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious service. The veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was the hardest and most doubtful of the days which they had seen. But it was likewise the most decisive. Many thousands of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the sword of the Arabs. Many were slaughtered after the defeat in the woods and mountains. Many, by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the Yarmouk. And however the loss may be magnified, the Christian writers confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. Manuel, the Roman general, was either killed at Damascus or took refuge in the monastery of Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabala lamented the manners of Arabia and his unlucky preference of the Christian cause. He had once inclined to the profession of Islam, but in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabala was provoked to strike one of his brethren and fled with amazement from the stern and equal justice of the Caliph. These victorious Saracens enjoyed at Damascus a month of pleasure and repose. The spoil was divided by the discretion of Abu Abi Edda, an equal share was allotted to a soldier and to his horse, and a double portion was reserved for the noble coarsers of the Arabian breed. After the battle of Yarmouk, the Roman army no longer appeared in the field, and the Saracens might securely choose, among the fortified towns of Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the Caliph whether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem, and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege of the latter. To a profane eye Jerusalem was the first or second capital of Palestine, but after Mecca and Medina it was revered and visited by the devout Muslims as the temple of the Holy Land which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of Jesus, and of Muhammad himself. The son of Abu Sofyan was sent with 5,000 Arabs to try the first experiment of surprise or treaty, but on the eleventh day the town was invested by the whole force of Abu Abi Edda. He addressed the customary summons to the chief commanders and people of Aliyah. Health and happiness to every one that follows the right way. We require of you to testify that there is but one God, and that Muhammad is his apostle. If you refuse this, consent to pay tribute, and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring men against you who love death better than you do the drinking of wine or eating hogs flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you if it pleases God till I have destroyed those that fight for you and made slaves of your children. But the city was defended on every side by deep valleys and steep ascents. Since the invasion of Syria the walls and towers had been anxiously restored. The bravest of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest place of refuge, and in the defense of the sepulcher of Christ the natives and strangers might feel some sparks of the enthusiasm which so fiercely glowed in the bosoms of the Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four months. Not a day was lost without some action of sally or assault. The military engines incessantly played from the ramparts, and the inclemency of the winter was still more painful and destructive to the Arabs. The Christians yielded at link to the perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch Sophronius appeared on the walls, and by the voice of an interpreter demanded a conference. After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the Caliph from his impious enterprise, he proposed in the name of the people a fair capitulation with this extraordinary clause that the Articles of Security should be ratified by the authority and presence of Omar himself. The question was debated in the Council of Medina, the sanctity of the place, and the advice of Ali persuaded the Caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and enemies, and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious than the royal pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror of Persia and Syria was mounted on a red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of corn, a bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leather and bottle of water. Wherever he halted, the company, without distinction, was invited to partake of his homely fare, and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of the commander of the faithful. But in this expedition or pilgrimage his power was exercised in the administration of justice. He reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and chastised the luxury of the Saracens by dispoiling them of their rich silks and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he came with insight of Jerusalem, the Caliph cried with a loud voice, God is victorious! Oh, Lord, give us an easy conquest! And pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly seated himself on the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the city without fear or precaution, and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. Sofronius bowed before his new master, and secretly muttered in the words of Daniel, the abomination of desolation is in the holy place. At the hour of prayer they stood together in the church of the resurrection, but the Caliph refused to perform his devotions and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church of Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and honorable motive. Had I yielded, said Omar, to your request, the Muslims of a future age would have infringed the treaty under a color of imitating my example. By his command the ground of the temple of Solomon was prepared for the foundation of a mosque, and during a residence of ten days he regulated the present and future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous lest the Caliph should be detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty of Damascus. Her apprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and voluntary return to the tomb of the apostle. To achieve what yet remained of the Syrian war the Caliph had formed two separate armies. A chosen detachment under Amru and Yazid was left in the camp of Palestine, while the larger division, under the standard of Abu Obadiah and Khalid, marched away to the north against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of these, the Barea of the Greeks, was not yet illustrious as the capital of a province or kingdom, and the inhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty, obtained a moderate composition for their lives in religion. But the castles of Aleppo, distinct from the city, stood erect on a lofty artificial mound, the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and faced with freestone, and the breadth of the ditch might be filled with water from the neighboring springs. After the loss of three thousand men, the garrison was still equal to the defense, and Yukina, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In a siege of four or five months, the hardest of the Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and wounded. Their removal to the distance of a mile could not seduce the vigilance of Yukina, nor could the Christians be terrified by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded before the castle wall. The silence, and at length the complaints of Abu Abiedah, informed to Caliph that their hope and patience were consumed at the foot of this impregnable fortress. I am variously affected, replied Omar, by the difference of your success. But I charge you by no means to raise the siege of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the reputation of our arms, and encourage the infidels to fall upon you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till God shall determine the event, and forage with your horse round the adjacent country. The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived in camp on their horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size and intrepid resolution. The forty-seventh day of his service he proposed, with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. The experience and testimony of Khalid recommended his offer, and Abu Abiedah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin of Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care, would cheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design was covered by the appearance of a retreat, and the camp of the Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The thirty adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill, and Dames, at length, succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the ignorance of his Greek captives. God curse these dogs, said the illiterate Arab, what a strange, barbarous language they speak. At the darkest hour of the night he scaled the most accessible height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the guard less vigilant. Brethren of the Stoutest Saracens mounted on each other's shoulders, and the weight of the column was sustained on the broad insinui back of the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest part of the battlements. They silently stabbed and cast down the sentinels, and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious ejaculation, O apostle of God, help and deliver us, were successfully drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With bold and cautious footsteps Dames explored the palace of the governor, who celebrated in riotous merriment the festival of his deliverance. From thence, returning to his companions, he assaulted on the inside the entrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass till the arrival of Khalid, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured their conquest. Yukina, a formidable foe, became an active and useful proslite, and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard for the most humble merit by detaining the army at Aleppo till Dames was cured of his honorable wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by the castle of Azaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of these important posts and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold, but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government of the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of Free and Holy and Inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the Caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town. In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian War are clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weariness of his more early and his later days. When the successors of Muhammad unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger. His nature was indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the Emperor be kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame and the importunities of the Syrians prevented the hasty departure from the scene of action, but the hero was no more, and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Asnadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his will, and while Heraclius crowned the offspring of his second nuptials, he was tamely stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance. In the Cathedral of Antioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince and people, but his confession instructed the world that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resist the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in fact, since they were invincible in opinion, and the desertion of Yukina, his false repentance and repeated profidity, might justify the suspicion of the emperor, that he was encompassed by traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his person and their country to the enemies of Christ. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was agitated by the omens and dreams of a falling crown, and after bidding and eternal farewell to Styria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants and absolved the faith of his subjects. Constantine, his eldest son, had been stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civil metropolis of the three provinces of Palestine. But his private interest recalled him to the Byzantine court, and after the flight of his father he felt himself an unequal champion to the United Force of the Caliph. His vanguard was boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, in the depth of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libeness and who were speedily followed by the victorious squadrons of Khalid himself. From the north and south, the troops of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the seashore till their banners were joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities. Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed, and a fleet of fifty thousand transports, which entered without distrust the captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply of arms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labours were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Caesarea. The Roman Prince had embarked in the night, and the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramla, Ptolemaeus, or Acre, Sycam, or Neopolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Veritas, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Heriopolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the conqueror, and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the Caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. End of chapter fifty-one, part five. Chapter fifty-one, part six, of the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, volume five. 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 M.B. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, volume five, chapter fifty-one, Conquest by the Arabs, part six. The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousands of the Muslims. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of martyrs, and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the words of an Arabian youth when he embraced, for the last time, his sister and mother. It is not, he said, the delicacies of Syria or the fading delights of this world that have prompted me to devote my life in the cause of religion. But I seek the favor of God and his apostle, and I have heard from one of the companions of the prophet that the spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds who shall taste the fruits and drink of the rivers of paradise. Farewell, we shall meet again among the groves and fountains which God has provided for his elect. The faithful captives might exercise a passive and more arduous resolution, and a cousin of Muhammad is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the wine and pork, the only nourishment that was allowed by the malice of the infidels. The frailty of some weaker brethren exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism, and the father of Amr deployed in pathetic strains the apostasy and damnation of a son who had renounced the promises of God and the intercession of the prophet to occupy with the priests and deacons the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs who survived the war and persevered in their faith were restrained by their obstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obedah withdrew his troops from the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch and assured the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved by the hard discipline of poverty and labor. But the virtue of Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he dropped a tear of compassion, and sitting down on the ground wrote an answer in which he mildly censured the severity of his lieutenant. God, said the successor of the prophet, has not forbidden the use of the good things of this world to faithful men, and such as have performed good works. Therefore you ought to have given them leave to rest themselves and partake freely of those good things which the country affordeth. If any of the Saristens have no family in Arabia they may marry in Syria, and whosoever of them wants any female slaves he may purchase as many as he hath occasion for. The conqueror is prepared to use, or to abuse, this gracious permission. But the year of their triumph was marked by a mortality of men and cattle, and twenty-five thousand Saristens were snatched away from the possession of Syria. The death of Abu Obedah might be lamented by the Christians, but his brethren reflected that he was one of the ten elect whom the prophet had named as the heirs of Paradise. Khaled survived his brethren about three years, and the tomb of the sword of God is shown in the neighborhood of Amesa. His valour, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire of the Caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence, and as long as he wore a cap which had been blessed by Muhammad, he deemed himself invulnerable amongst the darts of the infidels. The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new generation of their children and countrymen. Syria became the seat and support of the house of Omia, and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of their powerful kingdom were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire of the Caliphs. But the Saristens despise a superfluity of fame, and their historians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquests, which are lost in the splendor and rapidity of their victorious career. To the north of Syria they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience the province of Silesia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancient monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge of the same mountains, they spread the flame of war rather than the light of religion, as far as the shores of the Euseni, and the neighborhood of Constantinople. To the east they advanced to the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris. The long-disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was forever confounded. The walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisbis, which had resisted the arms and engines of Sappor or Nersherven, were levelled in the dust, and the holy city of Abgaris might vainly produce the epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea, and the ruin of Aridus, a small island or peninsula on the east, was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Vlebanus abounded in timber. The trade of Phoenicia was populace in mariners, and a fleet of 1700 barks was equipped in manned by the natives of the desert. The imperial navy of the Romans fled before them, and the Pemphilion rocks to the Hellespont. But the spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued before the combat by a dream and a pun. The serocins rode masters of the sea, and the islands of Cyprus, roads and the Cyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits. Three hundred years before the Christian era, the memorable though fruitless siege of roads by Demetrius had furnished that maritime republic with the materials and the subject of a trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the sun, 70 cubits in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbor, a monument of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing 56 years, the Colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake, but the massy trunk and huge fragments lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and are often described as one of the wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by the diligence of the serocins, and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who was said to have laid 900 camels with the weight of the brass metal, an enormous weight, though we should include the hundred colossal figures, and the 3,000 statues which adorned the prosperity of the city of the sun. The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of the victorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation in an age when the meanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrú was at once base and illustrious. His mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide among five of the Koresh, but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to Asi, the oldest of her lovers. The youth of Amrú was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his kindred. His poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mohammed. His dexterity was employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles who had taken refuge in the court of the Ethiopian king. Yet he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte. His reason or his interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols. He escaped from Mecca with his friend Khaled, and the prophet of Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrú to lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of Omar, who advised him not to seek power and dominion since he who is a subject today may be a prince tomorrow, yet his merit was not overlooked by the first two successors of Mohammed. They were indebted to his arms for their conquest of Palestine, and in all the battles and sieges of Syria he united with the temper of a chief, the valour of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to Medina the Caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had cut down so many Christian warriors. The son of Asi unsheathed the short and ordinary scimitar, and he perceived the surprise of Omar. Alas said the modest Saras and the sword itself without the arm of its master is neither sharper nor more weighty than the sword of Ferezdak, the poet. After the conquest of Egypt he was recalled by the jealousy of the Caliph Othman. His powerful support both in council and in the field established the throne of the Omiadis. The administration and revenue of Egypt were restored by the gratitude of Mo'awiyah to a faithful friend who had raised himself above the rank of a subject, and Amrú ended his days in the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom. He deplored the errors of his youth, but if the penitent was still infected by the vanity of a poet he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of his impious compositions. From his camp in Palestine Amrú had surprised or anticipated the Caliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt. The magnanimous Omar trusted in his god and his sword which had shaken the thrones of Khazars and Caesar. But when he compared the slender force of the Muslims with the greatness of the enterprise he condemned his own rashness and listened to his timid companions. The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran, and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely sufficient to affect not the victory but the flight of six hundred thousand of the children of Israel. The cities of Egypt were many and populous, their architecture was strong and solid, the Nile with its numerous branches was alone an insuperable barrier, and the granary of the imperial city would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the decision of chance or in his opinion of providence. At the head of only four thousand Arabs the intrepid Amru had marched away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar. If you are still in Syria, said the ambiguous mandate, retreat without delay, but if at the receipt of this epistle you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt advance with confidence and depend on the sucker of God and of your brethren. The experience perhaps the secret intelligence of Amru had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts and he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably placed on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of 30 days he took possession of pharma or pelusium, and that key of Egypt as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of the country as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighborhood of the modern Cairo. On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of the pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, 150 furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Caesars, the seat of government was removed to the sea coast, the ancient capital was eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria. The palaces and at length the temples were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition. Yet in the age of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still numbered among the greatest and most populace of the provincial cities. The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges of sixty and thirty boats connected in the middle stream by the small island of Ruda, which was covered with gardens and habitations. The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion which protected the passage of the river and the second capital of Egypt. This important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of Memphis or Misra, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of Omar, a reinforcement of four thousand serocins soon arrived in his camp, and the military engines which battered the walls may be imputed to the art and labor of his Syrian allies. Yet the siege was protracted to seven months and the rash invaders were encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. Their last assault was bold and successful. They passed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their scaling ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of God is victorious, and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the Isle of Ruda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the Gulf and the peninsula of Arabia. The remains of Memphis were deserted. The tents of the Arabs were converted to permanent habitations, and the first mosque was blessed by the presence of four score companions of Muhammad. A new city arose in their camp on the eastward bank of the Nile, and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Faustat are confounded in their present decay by the appellation of old Mizra, or Cairo, of which they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in the 10th century by the Fatimid Caliphs. It has gradually receded from the river, but the continuity of buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sestostris to those of Saladin. Yet the Arabs after a glorious and profitable enterprise must have retreated to the desert, had not they found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the natives. They abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. After a period of 10 centuries, the same revolution was renewed by a similar cause, and in the support of an incomprehensible creed, the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. I have already explained the origin and progress of the monophysite controversy and the persecution of the emperors, which converted a sect into a nation and alienated Egypt from their region and government. The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church, and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a victorious army and the people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian of the neighbor Macaukas had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration of his province. In the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to independence. The embassy of Muhammad ranked him among princes, but he declined with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments the proposal of a new religion. The abuse of his trust exposed him to the resentment of Heraclius. His submission was delayed by arrogance and fear, and his conscience was prompted by interest to throw himself on the favor of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In his first conference with Amru he heard without indignation the usual option of the Quran, the tribute, or the sword. The Greeks, replied Macaukas, are determined to abide the determination of the sword, but with the Greeks I desire no communion either in this world or in the next, and I abjure forever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chassudon, and his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren we are resolved to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of your prophet, but we are desirous of peace and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors. The tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every Christian, but old men, monks, women, and children of both sexes under 16 years of age were exempted from this personal assessment. The cops above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the caliph and promised a hospital entertainment of three days to every musulman who should travel through their country. By this charter of security the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed. The anathemas of Saint Cyril were thundered from every pulpit, and the sacred edifices with the patrimony of the church were restored to the national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing summons of Amru the patriarch Benjamin emerged from his desert, and after their first interview the courteous Arab affected to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. In the march from Memphis to Alexandria the lieutenant of Omar entrusted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians. The roads and bridges were diligently repaired, and in every step of his progress he could depend on a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives were overwhelmed by the universal defection. They had ever been hated, they were no longer feared. The magistrate fled from his tribunal the bishop from his altar, and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped who by birth or language or office or religion was connected with their odious name. By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt a considerable force was collected in the island of Delta. The natural and artificial channels of the Nile afforded a succession of strong and defensible posts, and the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared by the victory of the Saracens in two and twenty days of general or partial combat. In their annals of conquest the siege of Alexandria is perhaps the most arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city in the world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence and defense. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of human rights, religion and prosperity, and the enmity of the natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of peace and toleration. The sea was continually open, and if Heraclius had been awake to the public distress, fresh armies of Romans and barbarians might have been poured into the harbor to save the second capital of the empire. A circumference of ten miles would have scattered the forces of the Greeks and favored the stratagems of an active enemy, but the two sides of an oblong square were covered by the sea and the lake Marietus, and each of the narrow ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. The efforts of the Arabs were not inadequate to the difficulty of the attempt and the value of the prize. From the throne of Medina the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and city. His voice excited to arms the Arabian tribes and the veterans of Syria, and the merit of a holy war was recommended by the peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt. Anxious for the ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful natives devoted their labors to the service of Amru. Some sparks of martial spirit were perhaps rekindled by the example of their allies, and the sanguine hopes of Mocaucas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of St. John of Alexandria. Uticius, the patriarch, observes that the Saracens fought with the courage of lions. They repulsed the frequent and almost daily sallies of the besieged, and soon assaulted in their turns the walls and towers of the city. In every attack the sword, the banner of Amru, glittered in the van of the Muslims. On a memorable day he was betrayed by his imprudent valor. His followers who had entered the citadel were driven back, and the general, with a friend and slave, remained a prisoner in the hands of the Christians. When Amru was conducted before the prefect, he remembered his dignity and forgot his situation. A lofty demeanor and resolute language revealed the lieutenant of the caliph, and the battleaxe of a soldier was already raised to strike off the head of the audacious captive. His life was saved by the readiness of his slave, who instantly gave his master a blow on the face and commanded him with an angry tone to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The credulous Greek was deceived. He listened to the offer of a treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more respectable embassy till the joyful acclamations of the camp announced the return of their general and insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen months and the loss of three and twenty thousand men, the Saracens prevailed. The Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished numbers, and the standard of Muhammad was planted on the walls of the capital of Egypt. I have taken, said Amru to the caliph, the great city of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty, and I shall content myself with observing that it contains four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four thousand theaters or places of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of arms without treaty or capitulation, and the Muslims are impatient to seize the fruits of their victory. The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of pillage and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith. The inhabitants were numbered, a tribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites was curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted the declining health of the emperor, and Heraclius died of a dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. Under the minority of his grandson, the clamours of a people deprived of their daily sustenance compelled the Byzantine court to undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of four years the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valor of Amru, who was recalled by the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the facility of this attempt, the repetition of the insult and the obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear that if a third time he drove the infidels into the sea he would render Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to his promise he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers, but the people were spared the chastisement of the city, and the mosque of mercy was erected on the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his troops. End of chapter 51 part 6. Chapter 51 part 7 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. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon volume 5 chapter 51 part 7. I should deceive the expectation of the reader if I passed in silence the fate of the Alexandrian Library as it is described by the learned Abul Faragius. The spirit of Amru was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Amonius, who derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. Emboldened by this familiar intercourse Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians, the royal library, which alone among the spoils of Alexandria had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amru was inclined to gratify the wish of the Grimarian, but his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the caliph, and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God they are useless, and need not be preserved, if they disagree they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed. The sentence was executed with blind obedience, the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city, and such was their incredible multitude that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel. Since the dynasties of Abul Faragius have been given to the world in a Latin verse, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed, and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius of antiquity. For my own part I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact is indeed marvelous. Read and wonder, says the historian himself, and the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred years on the confines of Medea is overbalanced by the silence of two analysts of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Utikius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mohammedid Causius they expressly declare that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never be committed to the flames, and that the works of profane science, historians, or poets, physicians, or philosophers may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. A more destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first successors of Mohammed, yet in this instance the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandria Library, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own defense, or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. But if we gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses that the royal palace and the temple of Serapus no longer contained the four or the seven hundred thousand volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with the repository of books, but if the ponderous mass of Arian and monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret the more valuable libraries which have been involved in the ruin of the Roman Empire, but when I seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than our losses, are the objects of my surprise. Many curious and interesting facts are buried in oblivion. The three great historians of Rome have been transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state, and we are deprived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember that the mischances of time and accident have spared the classic works to which the suffrage of antiquity had adjudged the first place of genius and glory. The teachers of ancient knowledge who are still excellent had perused and compared the writings of their predecessors, nor can it fairly be presumed that any important truth, any useful discovery in art or nature, has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages. In the administration of Egypt, Amrú balanced the demands of justice and policy, the interests of the people of the law, who were defended by God, and of the people of the Alliance, who were protected by man. In the recent tumult of conquest and deliverance, the tongue of the cops and the sword of the Arabs were most adverse to the tranquility of the province. To the former, Amrú declared that faction and falsehood would be doubly chastised by the punishment of the accusers whom he should detest as his personal enemies, and by the promotion of their innocent brethren whom their envy had labored to injure and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religion and honour to sustain the dignity of their character, to endear themselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the Caliph, to spare and protect the people who had trusted to their faith, and to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of their victory. In the management of the revenue, he disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of a capitulation and preferred with reason a proportion of taxes deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual repairs of the dykes and canals, so essential to the public welfare. Under his administration the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth of Arabia and a string of camels laden with corn and provisions covered almost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. But the genius of Amru soon renewed the maritime communication which had been attempted or achieved by the pharaohs, the Ptolemies or the Caesars, and a canal at least 80 miles in length was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inland navigation which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean was soon discontinued as useless and dangerous. The throne was removed from Medina to Damascus and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to the holy cities of Arabia. Of his new conquest the Caliph Omar had an imperfect knowledge from the voice of fame and the legends of the Quran. He requested that his lieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and the Amelikites and the answer of Amru exhibits a lively and not unfaithful picture of that singular country. O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. The distance from Sain to the sea is the month's journey for a horseman. Along the valley descends a river on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening and morning and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt. The fields are overspread by the salutary flood and the villages communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits the fertilizing mud for the reception of the various seeds. The crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a swarm of industrious ants and their native indolences quickened by the lash of the taskmaster and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived, but the riches which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit trees, and the cattle are unequally shared between those who labor and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest. Yet this beneficial order is sometimes interrupted, and the long delay and sudden swell of the river in the first year of the conquest might afford some color to an edifying fable. It is said that the annual sacrifice of a virgin had been interdicted by the piety of Omar and that the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed till the mandate of the Caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a single night to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for their new conquest encouraged the license of their romantic spirit. We may read in the gravest authors that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand cities or villages, that exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the cops alone were found on the assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, or twenty millions of either sex and of every age, that three hundred millions of gold and silver were annually paid to the treasury of the Caliphs. Our reason must be startled by these extravagant assertions, and they will become more palpable if we assume the compass and measure of the extent of habitable ground, a valley from the tropic to Memphis seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangle of the delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. A more accurate research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions created by the era of ascribe are reduced to the decent revenue of four millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. Two authentic lists of the present and of the twelfth century are circumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand seven hundred villages and towns. After a long residence at Cairo, a French council has ventured to assign about four millions of Muhammadan Christians and Jews for the ample, though not incredible, scope of the population of Egypt. The conquest of Africa, from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, was first attempted by the arms of the Caliph Atman. The pious design was approved by the companions of Muhammad and the chiefs of the tribes, and twenty thousand Arabs marched from Medina with gifts and the blessings of the commander of the faithful. They were joined in the camp of Memphis by twenty thousand of their countrymen, and the conduct of the war was entrusted to Abdullah, the son of Sayid and the foster-brother of the Caliph, who had lately supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favour of the prince and the merit of his favourite could not obliterate the guilt of his apostasy. The early conversion of Abdullah and his skillful pen had recommended him to the important office of transcribing the sheets of the Qur'an. He betrayed his trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice and expose the ignorance of the apostle. After the conquest of Mecca he fell prostrate at the feet of Muhammad. His tears and the entreaties of Uthman extorted a reluctant pardon, but the prophet declared that he had so long hesitated to allow time for some zealous disciple to avenge his injury in the blood of the apostate. With apparent fidelity and effective merit he served the religion which it was no longer his interest to desert. His birth and talents gave him an honourable rank among the Qur'ish, and in a nation of cavalry Abdullah was renowned as the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head of forty thousand Muslims he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries of the West. The sands of Barqa might be impervious to a Roman legion, but the Arabs were attended by their faithful camels, and the natives of the desert beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a painful march they pitched their tents before the walls of Tripoli, a maritime city in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants of the province had gradually centred, and which now maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A reinforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the seashore, but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults, and the Saracens were tempted by the approach of the prefect Gregory to relinquish the labours of the siege for the perils and the hopes of a decisive action. If his standard was followed by one hundred and twenty thousand men, the regular bands of the Empire must have been lost in the naked and disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength or rather the numbers of his host. He rejected with indignation the option of the Qur'an or the tribute, and during several days the two armies were fiercely engaged from the dawn of light to the hour of noon, when their fatigue and the excessive heat compelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side. From her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the scimitar, and the richness of her arms and apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her hand, with a hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for the head of the Arabian general, and the youths of Africa were excited by the prospect of the glorious prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, Abdullah withdrew his person from the field, but the Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of their leader and the repetition of those equal or unsuccessful conflicts. A noble Arabian, who afterwards became the adversary of Ali and the father of Akhalif, had signalized his valor in Egypt, and Zobir was the first who planted the scaling ladder against the walls of Babylon. In the African war he was detached from the standard of Abdullah. In the news of the battle, Zobir, with twelve companions, cut his way through the camp of the Greeks, and pressed forwards without tasting either food or repose to partake of the danger of his brethren. He cast his eyes round the field, where, said he, is our general, in his tent. Is the tent a station for the general of the Muslims? Abdullah represented with a blush the importance of his own life, and the temptation that was held forth by the Roman prefect. Retort, said Zobir, on the infidels and their ungenerous attempt. Proclaimed through the ranks that the head of Gregory shall be repaid with his captive daughter, and the equal sum of one hundred thousand pieces of gold. To the courage and discretion of Zobir, the lieutenant of the Khalif entrusted the execution of his own stratagem, which included the long disputed balance in favour of the Saracens. Supplying by activity and artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part of their forces lay concealed in their tents, while the remainder prolonged an irregular skirmish with the enemy till the sun was high in the heavens. On both sides they retired with fainting steps. Their horses were unbridled, their armour was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemed to prepare, for the refreshment of the evening, and the encounter of the ensuing day. On a sudden the charge was sounded, the Arabian camp poured forth a swarm of fresh and intrepid warriors, and the long line of the Greeks and Africans was surprised, assaulted, overturned by new squadrons of the faithful, who, to the eye of fanaticism, might appear as a band of angels descending from the sky. The prefect himself was slain by the hand of Zobir, his daughter, who sought revenge and death, was surrounded and made prisoner, and the fugitives involved in their disaster the town of Sufatella, to which they escaped from the sabers and lances of the Arabs. Sufatella was built one hundred and fifty miles to the south of Carthage. A gentle declivity is watered by a running stream and shaded by a grove of juniper trees, and in the ruins of a triumphal arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans. After the fall of this opulent city, the provincials and barbarians implored on all sides the mercy of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might be flattered by offers of tribute or professions of faith, but his losses, his fatigues and the progress of an epidemical disease prevented a solid establishment, and the Saracens, after a campaign of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of Egypt with the captives and the wealth of their African expedition. The Caliph's Fifth was granted to a favorite on the nominal pavement of five hundred thousand pieces of gold, but the state was doubly injured by this fallacious transaction, if each foot soldier had shared one thousand and each horseman three thousand pieces in the real division of the plunder. The author of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most precious reward of the victory. From his silence it might be presumed that he had fallen in the battle, till the tears and exclamations of the prefix daughter at the sight of Zobir revealed the valor and modesty of that gallant soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered and almost rejected as a slave by her father's murderer, who coolly declared that his sword was consecrated to the service of religion, and that he labored for a recompense far above the charms of mortal beauty or the riches of this transitory life. A reward congenial to his temper was the honourable commission of announcing to the Khalif Atman the success of his arms. The companions, the chiefs, and the people were assembled in the mosque of Medina to hear the interesting narrative of Zobir, and as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his own counsels and actions, the name of Abdullah was joined by the Arabians with the heroic names of Khalid and Amrul. Chapter 51 Part 8 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 M.B. Chapter 51 Conquests by the Arabs Part 8 The Western conquests of the Saracens were suspended near twenty years till their dissensions were composed by the establishment of the House of Omia and the Khalif Mouawiyah was invited by the cries of the Africans themselves. The successors of Heraclius had been informed of the tribute which they had been compelled to stipulate with the Arabs. But instead of being moved to pity and relieved their distress they imposed as an equivalent or a fine a second tribute of a similar amount. The years of the Byzantine ministers were shot against the complaints of their poverty and ruin. Their despair was reduced to prefer the dominion of a single master. And the extortions of the Patriarch of Carthage who was invested with civil and military power provoked the sectaries and even the Catholics of the Roman province to abjure the religion as well as the authority of their tyrants. The first lieutenant of Mouawiyah acquired a just for noun subdued an important city defeated an army of 30,000 Greeks swept away four score thousand captives and enriched with their spoils the bold adventures of Syria and Egypt. But the title of conqueror of Africa is more justly due to his successor Akbar. He marched from Damascus at the head of 10,000 of the bravest Arabs and the genuine force of the Muslims was enlarged by the doubtful aid and conversion of many thousand barbarians. It would be difficult nor is it necessary to trace the accurate line of the progress of Akbar. The interior regions have been peopled by the orientals with fictitious armies and imaginary citadels. In the war like province of Zab or Numidia four score thousand of the natives might assemble in arms. But the number of 360 towns is incompatible with the ignorance or decay of husbandry and a circumference of three leagues will not be justified by the ruins of Urbi or Lambesa the ancient metropolis of that inland country. As we approach the sea coast the well-known cities of Bujia and Tangier define the more certain limits of the Saracen victories. A remnant of trade still adheres to the commodious harbour of Bujia which in a more prosperous age is said to have contained about 20,000 homes and the plenty of iron which is dug from the adjacent mountains might have supplied a braver people with the instruments of defence. The remote position and venerable antiquity of Tingi or Tangier have been decorated by the Greek and Arabian fables but the figurative expressions of the latter that the walls were constructed of brass and that the roofs were covered with gold and silver may be interpreted as the emblems of strength and opulence. The provinces of Moritania Tingitana which assumed the name of the capital had been imperfectly discovered and settled by the Romans. The five colonies were confined to a narrow pail and the more southern parts were seldom explored except by the agents of luxury who searched the forest for ivory and the citron wood and the shores of the ocean for the purple shellfish. The fearless Akbar plunged into the heart of the country traversed the wilderness in which his successors erected the splendid capitals of Fez and Morocco and at length penetrated to the verge of the Atlantic and the great desert. The river Seuss descends from the western sides of Mount Atlas fertilizes like the Nile the adjacent soil and falls into the sea at a moderate distance from the Canary or fortunate islands. Its banks were inhabited by the last of the Moors a race of savages without laws or discipline or religion and they were astonished by the strange and irresistible terror of the Oriental arms and as they possessed neither gold nor silver the richest spoil was the beauty of the female captives some of whom were afterwards sold for a thousand pieces of gold. The career though not the zeal of Akbar was checked by the prospect of a boundless ocean he spurred his horse into the waves and raising his eyes to heaven exclaimed with the tone of a fanatic great god if my course were not stopped by this sea I would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of the west preaching the unity of thy holy name and putting to the sword the rebellious nations who worship any other gods than me yet this Mohammed and Alexander who sighed for new worlds was unable to preserve his recent conquests by the universal defection of the greeks and Africans he was recalled from the shores of the Atlantic and the surrounding multitudes left him only the resource of an honorable death. The last scene was dignified by an example of national virtue an ambitious chief who had disputed the command and failed in the attempt was led about as a prisoner in the camp of the Arabian general the insurgents had trusted to his discontent and revenge he disdained their offers and revealed their designs in the hour of danger the grateful Akbar unlocked his fetters and advised him to retire he chose to die under the banner of his rival embracing his friends and martyrs they unshift their cemeteries broke their scabbards and maintained an obstinate combat till they fell by each other's side on the last of their slaughtered countrymen the third general or governor of Africa Suheir avenged and encountered the fate of his predecessor he vanquished the natives in many battles he was overthrown by a powerful army which Constantinople had sent to the relief of Carthage it had been the frequent practice of the Moorish tribes to join the invaders to share the plunder to profess the faith and to revolt to their savage state of independence and idolatry on the first retreat or misfortune of the Muslims the prudence of Akbar had proposed to found an Arabian colony in the heart of Africa a citadel that might curb the levity of the barbarians a place of refuge to secure against the accidents of war the wealth and the families of the Saracens with this view and under the modest title of the station of a caravan he planted this colony in the 50th year of the Hygera in the present day caravan still holds the second rank in the kingdom of Tunis from which it is now distant about 50 miles to the south its inland situation 12 miles westward of the sea has protected the city from the Greek and Sicilian fleets when the wild beasts and serpents were extirpated when the forest or rather wilderness was cleared the vestiges of a Roman town were discovered in a sandy plain the vegetable food of caravan is brought in from afar and the scarcity of springs constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs a precious supply of rainwater these obstacles were subdued by the industry of Akbar he traced a circumference of 3,600 paces which he encompassed with a brick wall in the space of five years the governor's palace was surrounded with a sufficient number of private habitations a spacious mosque was supported by 500 columns of granite porphyry and Numidian marble and Cairoan became the seat of learning as well as of empire but these were the glories of a later age the new colony was shaken by the successive defeats of Akbar and Zuhir and the western expeditions were again interrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian monarchy the son of the valiant Zubir maintained a war of 12 years a siege of seven months against the house of Omia Abdullah was said to unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox but if he inherited the courage he was devoid of the generosity of his father the return of domestic peace allowed the Caliph Abdel Malik to resume the conquest of Africa the standard was delivered to Hassan governor of Egypt and the revenue of that kingdom with an army of 40,000 men was consecrated to the important service in the vicissitudes of war the interior provinces had been alternately won and lost by the sericens but the sea coast still remained in the hands of the Greeks the predecessors of Hassan had respected the name and fortifications of Carthage and the number of its defenders was recruited by the fugitives of Qabbas and Tripoli the arms of Hassan were bolder and more fortunate he reduced and pillaged the metropolis of Africa and the mention of scaling ladders may justify the suspicion that he anticipated by a sudden assault the more tedious operations of a regular siege but the joy of the conquerors was soon disturbed by the appearance of the Christian succors the prefect and patrician John a general of experience and renown embarked at Constantinople the forces of the eastern empire they were joined by the ships and soldiers of Sicily and a powerful reinforcement of Goths was obtained from the fears and religion of the Spanish Monarch the weight of the Confederate Navy broke the chain that guarded the entrance of the harbor the Arabs retired to Cairoan or Tripoli the Christians landed the citizens hailed the ensign of the cross and the winter was idly wasted in the dream of victory or deliverance but Africa was irrecoverably lost the zeal and resentment of the commander of the faithful prepared in the ensuing spring a more numerous armament by sea and land and the patrician in his turn was compelled to evacuate the post and fortifications of Carthage a second battle was fought in the neighborhood of Utica the Greeks and Goths were again defeated and their timely embarkation saved them from the sword of Hassan who had invested the slight and insufficient rampart of their camp whatever yet remained of Carthage was delivered to the flames and the colony of Dido and Caesar lay desolate above 200 years till a part perhaps a 20th of the old circumference was repealed by the first of the Fatimid Caliphs in the beginning of the 16th century the second capital of the west was represented by a mosque a college without students 25 or 30 shops and the huts of 500 peasants who in their abject poverty displayed the arrogance of Punic senators even that paltry village was swept away by the Spaniards whom Charles the Fifth had stationed in the fortress of the Galata the ruins of Carthage have perished and the place might be unknown if some broken arches of an aqueduct did not guide the footsteps of the inquisitive traveler the Greeks were expelled but the Arabians were not yet masters of the country in the interior provinces the Moors or Berbers so feeble under the first Caesars so formidable to the Byzantine princes maintained a disorderly resistance to the religion and power of the successors of Muhammad under the standard of their queen Kahina the independent tribes acquired some degree of union and discipline and as the Moors respected in their females the character of a prophetess they attacked the invaders with an enthusiasm similar to their own the veteran bands of Hassan were inadequate to the defense of Africa the conquests of an age were lost in a single day and the Arabian chief overwhelmed by the torrent retired to the confines of Egypt and expected five years the promised suckers of the Caliph after the retreat of the Saracens the victorious prophetess assembled the Moorish chiefs and recommended a measure of strange and savage policy our cities said she and the gold and silver which they contain perpetually attract the arms of the Arabs these vile metals are not the objects of our ambition we content ourselves with the simple productions of the earth let us destroy these cities let us bury in their ruins those pernicious treasures and when the avarice of our foes shall be destitute of temptation perhaps they will cease to disturb the tranquility of a warlike people the proposal was accepted with unanimous applause from Tangier to Tripoli the buildings or at least the fortifications were demolished the fruit trees were cut down the means of subsidence were extirpated a fertile and populous garden was changed into a desert and the historians of a more recent period could discern the frequent traces of the prosperity and devastation of their ancestors such is the tale of the modern Arabians yet I strongly suspect that their ignorance of antiquity the love of the marvelous and the fashion of extolling the philosophy of barbarians has induced them to describe as one voluntary act the calamities of 300 years since the first fury of the Donatists and Vandals in the progress of the revolt Kahina had most probably contributed her share of destruction and the alarm of universal ruin might terrify and alienate the cities that had reluctantly yielded to her unworthy yoke they no longer hoped perhaps they no longer wished the return of their Byzantine sovereigns their present servitude was not alleviated by the benefits of order and justice and the most zealous Catholic must prefer the imperfect truce of the Quran to the blind and rude idolatry of the Moors the general of the Saracens was again received as the savior of the province the friends of civil society conspired against the savages of the land and the royal prophetess was slain in the first battle which overturned the baseless fabric of her superstition and empire the same spirit revived under the successor of Hassan it was finally quelled by the activity of Musa and his two sons but the number of the rebels may be presumed from that of 300,000 captives 60,000 of whom the Caliph's fifth were sold for the profit of the public treasury 30,000 of the barbarian youth were enlisted in the troops and the pious labors of Musa to inculcate the knowledge in practice of the Quran accustomed the Africans to obey the apostle of God and the commander of the faithful in their climate and government their diet and habitation the wandering Moors resembled the Bedouins of the desert with the religion they were proud to adopt the language, name and origin of Arabs the blood of the strangers and natives was insensibly mingled and from the Euphrates to the Atlantic the same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy plains of Asia and Africa yet I will not deny that 50,000 tents of pure Arabians might be transported over the Nile and scattered through the Libyan desert and I am not ignorant that five of the Moorish tribes still retain their barbarous idiom with the appellation and character of white Africans in the progress of conquest from the north and south the Goths and the Saracens encountered each other on the confines of Europe and Africa in the opinion of the latter the difference of religion is a reasonable ground of enmity and warfare as early as the time of Aufmann their piratical squadrons had ravaged the coast of Andalusia nor had they forgotten the relief of Carthage by the Gothic suckers in that age as well as in the present the kings of Spain were possessed of the fortress of Ceuta one of the columns of Hercules which is divided by a narrow straight from the opposite pillar or point of Europe a small portion of Mauritania was still wanting to the African conquest but Musa in the Pride of Victory was repulsed from the walls of Ceuta by the vigilance and courage of Count Julian the general of the Goths from his disappointment and perplexity Musa was relieved by an unexpected message of the Christian chief who offered his place his person and his sword to the successors of Muhammad and solicited the disgraceful honor of introducing their arms into the heart of Spain if we inquire into the cause of his treachery the Spaniards will repeat the particular story of his daughter Cava of a virgin who was seduced or ravished by her sovereign of a father who sacrificed his religion and country to the thirst of revenge the passions of princes have often been licentious and destructive but this well-known tale romantic in itself is indifferently supported by external evidence and the history of Spain will suggest some motive of interest in policy more congenial to the breast of a veteran statesman after the decease or deposition of Witeza his two sons were supplanted by the ambition of Roderick a noble Goth whose father the Duke or governor of a province had fallen a victim to the preceding tyranny the monarchy was still elective but the sons of Witeza educated on the steps of the throne were impatient of a private station their resentment was the more dangerous as it was varnished with the dissimulation of courts their followers were excited by the remembrance of favors and the promise of a revolution and their uncle Opus Archbishop of Toledo and Seville was the first person in the church and the second in the state it is probable that Julian was involved in the disgrace of the unsuccessful faction that he had little to hope and much to fear from the new reign and that the imprudent king could not forget or forgive the injuries which Roderick and his family had sustained the merit and influence of the count rendered him a useful or formidable subject his estates were ample his followers bold and numerous and it was too fatally shown that by his andelution and moritanian commands he held in his hand the keys of the Spanish monarchy too feeble however to meet his sovereign in arms he sought the aid of a foreign power and his rash invitation of the Moors and Arabs produced the calamities of 800 years in his epistles or in a personal interview he revealed the wealth and nakedness of his country the weakness of an unpopular prince the degeneracy of an effeminate people the Goths were no longer the victorious barbarians who had humbled the pride of Rome despoiled the queen of nations and penetrated from the Danube to the Atlantic Ocean secluded from the world by the Pyrenean mountains the successors of Alaric had slumbered in a long peace the walls of the cities were molded into dust the youth had abandoned the exercise of arms and the presumption of their ancient pronoun would expose them in a field of battle to the first assault of the invaders the ambitious Saracen was fired by the ease and importance of the attempt but the execution was delayed till he had consulted the commander of the faithful and his messenger returned with the permission of Walid to annex the unknown kingdoms of the west to the religion and throne of the Caliphs in his residence of Tangier Musa with secrecy and caution continued his correspondence and hastened his preparations but the remorse of the conspirators was soothed by the fallacious assurance that he should content himself with the glory and spoil without aspiring to establish the Muslims beyond the sea that separates Africa from Europe before Musa would trust an army of the faithful to the traitors and infidels of a foreign land he made a less dangerous trial of their strength and veracity 100 Arabs and 400 Africans passed over in four vessels from Tangier to Sayuta the place of their descent on the opposite shore of the strait is marked by the name of Tarif their chief and the date of this memorable event is fixed to the month of Ramadan of the 91st year of the Hijira to the month of July 748 years from the Spanish era of Caesar 710 after the birth of Christ from their first station they marched 18 miles through a hilly country to the castle and town of Julian on which it is still called Al Ghazire they bestowed the name of the Green Island from a verdant cape that advances into the sea their hospitable entertainment the Christians who joined their standard their inroad into a fertile and unguarded province the richness of their spoil and the safety of their return announced to their brethren and the most favorable omens of victory in the ensuing spring 5,000 veterans and volunteers were embarked under the command of Tarik a dauntless and skillful soldier who surpassed the expectation of his chief and the necessary transports were provided by the industry of their two faithful ally the Saracens landed at the pillar or point of Europe the corrupt and familiar appellation of Gibraltar Gebel Al Tariq describes the mountain of Tarik and the entrenchments of his camp were the first outline of those fortifications which in the hands of our countrymen have resisted the art and power of the house of Bourbon the adjacent governors informed the court of Toledo of the descent and progress of the Arabs and the defeat of his lieutenant Edeco who had been commanded to seize and bind the presumptuous strangers admonished Roderick of the magnitude of the danger at the royal summons the dukes and counts the bishops and nobles of the Gothic monarchy assembled at the head of their followers and the title of King of the Romans which is employed by an Arabic historian may be excused by the close affinity of language religion and manners between the nations of Spain his army consisted of 90 or 100,000 men of formidable power if their fidelity and discipline had been adequate to their numbers the troops of Tarik had been augmented to 12,000 Saracens but the Christian malcontents were attracted by the influence of Julian and a crowd of Africans most greedily tasted the temporal blessings of the Quran in the neighborhood of Cadiz the town of Ziri's has been illustrated by the encounter which determined the fate of the kingdom the stream of the Guadalete which falls into the bay divided the two camps and marked the advancing and retreating skirmishes of three successive and bloody days on the fourth day the two armies joined a more serious and decisive issue but Alaric would have blushed at the sight of his unworthy successor sustaining on his head a diadem of pearls encumbered with a flowing robe of gold and silken embroidery and reclining on a litter or car of ivory drawn by two white mules notwithstanding the valor of the Saracens they fainted under the weight of multitudes and the plain of Ziri's was overspread with 16,000 of their dead bodies my brethren said Tarik to his surviving companions the enemy is before you the sea is behind wither would ye fly follow your general I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans besides the resource of despair he confided in the secret correspondence and nocturnal interviews of Count Julian with the sons and the brother of Watesa the two princes and the Archbishop of Toledo occupied the most important post their well-timed defection broke the ranks of the Christians each warrior was prompted by fear or suspicion to consult his personal safety and the remains of the Gothic army were scattered or destroyed in the flight and pursuit of the three following days amidst the general disorder Roderick started from his car and mounted Aurelia the fleetest of the horses but he escaped from a soldier's death to perish more ennobly in the waters of the Bittis or Guadalcuvier his diadem, his robes, and his coarser were found on the bank but as the body of the Gothic prince was lost in the waves the pride and the ignorance of the Caliph must have been gratified with some meaner head which was exposed in triumph before the Palace of Damascus and such continues a valiant historian of the Arabs is the fate of those kings who withdraw themselves from a field of battle Count Julian had plunged so deep into guilt and infamy that his only hope was in the ruin of his country after the battle of Zirees he recommended the most effectual measures to the victorious Saracen the king of the Goths is slain their princes have fled before you the army is routed the nation is astonished secure with sufficient detachments the cities of Bittica but in person and without delay march to the royal city of Toledo and allow not the distracted Christians either time or tranquility for the election of a new monarch Tarek listened to his advice a Roman captive in proselyte who had been enfranchised by the Caliph himself assaulted Cordova with 700 horse he swam the river surprised the town and drove the Christians into the great church where they defended themselves above three months another detachment reduced the sea coast of Bittica which in the last period of the Moorish power had comprised in a narrow space the populous kingdom of Grenada the march of Tarek from the Bittis to the Tagus was directed through the Sierra Morena that separates Andalusia and Castile till he appeared in arms under the walls of Toledo the most zealous of the Catholics had escaped with the relics of their saints and if the gates were shut it was only till the victor had subscribed a fair and reasonable capitulation the voluntary exiles were allowed to depart with their effects seven churches were appropriated to the Christian worship the archbishop and his clergy were at liberty to exercise their functions the monks to practice or neglect their penance and the Goths and Romans were left in all civil and criminal cases to the subordinate jurisdiction of their own laws and magistrates but if the justice of Tarek protected the Christians his gratitude and policy rewarded the Jews to whose secrets or open aid he was indebted for his most important acquisitions persecuted by the kings and synods of Spain who had often pressed the alternative of banishment or baptism that outcast nation embraced the moment of revenge the comparison of their past and present state was the pledge of their fidelity and the alliance between the disciples of Moses and of Muhammad was maintained until the final era of their common expulsion from the royal seat of Toledo the Arabian leader spread his conquests to the north over the modern realms of Castile and Leon but it is needless to enumerate the cities that yielded on his approach or again to describe the table of emerald transported from the east by the Romans acquired by the Goths among the spoils of Rome and presented by the Arabs to the throne of Damascus beyond the Asturian mountains the maritime town of Gijang was the term of the lieutenant of Musa who had performed with the speed of a traveler his victorious march of 700 miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the bay of Biscay the failure of land compelled him to retreat and he was recalled to Toledo to excuse the presumption of subduing a kingdom in the absence of his general Spain, which in a more savage and disorderly state had resisted 200 years the arms of the Romans was overrun in a few months by those of the Saracens and such was the eagerness of submission and treaty that the governor of Cordova is recorded as the only chief who fell without conditions a prisoner into their hands the cause of the Goths had been irrevocably judged in the field of Zirees and in the national dismay each part of the monarchy declined a contest with the antagonists who had vanquished the united strength of the whole that strength had been wasted by two successive seasons of famine and pestilence and the governors who were impatient to surrender might exaggerate the difficulty of collecting the provisions of a siege to disarm the Christians superstition likewise contributed her terrors and the subtle Arab encouraged the report of dreams omens and prophecies and the portraits of the destined conquerors of Spain that were discovered on breaking open an apartment of the royal palace yet a spark of the vital flame was still alive some invincible fugitives preferred a life of poverty and freedom in the Asturian valleys the hardy mountaineers repulsed the slaves of the Caliph and the sword of Pelagius has been transformed into the scepter of the Catholic kings end of chapter 51 part 8