dise must have taught them to despise the pleasures and dangers of the present world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable or mature age; and esteemed the domestic cares of religion and justice the most important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege of Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the frequent pilgrimage from Medina. to Mecca; and they calmly received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached before the sepulchre of the prophet. The austere and frugal measure of their lives was the effect of virtue or habit, and the pride of their simplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When Abubeker assumed the office of caliph, he enjoined his daughter Ayesha to take a strict account of his private patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were enriched or impoverished by the service of the state. He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces of gold, with the sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a black slave; but on the Friday of each week he distributed the residue of his own and the public money, first to the most worthy, and then to the most indigent, of the Moslems. The remains of his wealth, a coarse garment, and five pieces of gold, were delivered to his successor, who lamented with a modest sigh his own inability to equal such an admirable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker: his food consisted of barley bread or dates; his drink was water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places; and a Persian satrap, who paid his homage to the conqueror, found him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosch of Medina. Economy is the source of liberality, and the increase of the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and perpetual reward for the past and present services of the faithful. Careless of his own emolument, he assigned to Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, the first and most ample allowance of twenty-five thousand drachms or pieces of silver. Five thousand were allotted to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder; and the last and meanest of the companions of Mahomet was distinguished by the annual reward of three thousand pieces. One thousand was the stipend of the veterans who had fought in the first battles against the Greeks and Persians; and the decreasing pay, as low as fifty pieces of silver, was adapted to the respective merit and seniority of the soldiers of Omar. Under his reign, and that of his predecessor, the conquerors of

8

the East were the trusty servants of God and the people; the mass of the public treasure was consecrated to the expenses of peace and war; a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the discipline of the Saracens, and they united. by a rare felicity, the despatch and execution of despotism with the equal and frugal maxims of a republican govern. ment. The heroic courage of Ali,7 the consummate prudence of Moawiyah, excited the emulation of their subjecɩs; and the talents which had been exercised in the school of civi! discord were more usefully applied to propagate the faith and dominion of the prophet. In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus, the succeeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were alike destitute of the qualifications of statesmen and of saints. Yet the spoils of unknown nations were continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uniform ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of the nation rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed for the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Mahomet was fortunately placed in the mos degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans and the Barbarians of Europe: the empires of Trajan, or even of Constantine or Charlemagne, would have repelled the assault of the naked Saracens, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia.

In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it had been the aim of the senate to confine their councils and legions to a single war, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked the hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdained by the magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same vigor and success they invaded the successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxes; and the rival monarchies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy whom they had been so long accustomed to despise. In the ten years of the administration of Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience thirty-six thou.

His reign in Eutychius, p. 343. Elmacin, p. 51. Abulpharagius, p. 117. Abulfeda, p. 83. D'Herbelot, p. 89.

His reign in Eutychius, p. 344. Elmacin, p. 54.

p. 123. Abulfeda, p. 101. D'Herbelot, p. 586.

Abulpharagius,

Their reigns in Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 360-395 Elmacin, p. 59108. Abulpharagius, Dynast. ix. p. 124-139. Abulfeda, p. 111-141. D'Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale, p. 691, and the particular articles of the Ommiades

sand cities or castles, destroyed four thousand churches or temples of the unbelievers, and edified fourteen hundred moschs for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet. One hundred years after his flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign of his successors extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over the various and distant provinces, which may be comprised under the names of, I. Persia; II. Syria; III. Egypt; IV. Africa; and, V. Spain. Under this genera division, I shall proceed to unfold these memorable transactions; despatching with brevity the remote and less interesting conquests of the East, and reserving a fuller narrative for those domestic countries which had been included within the pale of the Roman empire. Yet I must excuse my own defects by a just complaint of the blindness and insufficiency of my guides. The Greeks, sc loquacious in controversy, have not been anxious to celebrate the triumphs of their enemies.10 After a century of ignorance, the first annals of the Mussulmans were collected in a great measure from the voice of tradition. Among the numerous productions of Arabic and Persian literature,12 our interpreters have selected the imper

10 For the viith and viiith century, we have scarcely any original evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the chronicles of Theophanes (Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr. et Lat. cum notis Jacobi Goar. Paris, 1665, in folio) and the Abridgment of Nicephorus, (Nicephori Patriarchæ C. P. Breviarium Historicum, Gr. et Lat. Paris, 1648, in folio,) who both lived in the beginning of the ixth century, (see Hanckius de Scriptor. Byzant. p. 200-246.) Their contemporary, Photius, does not seem to be more opulent. After praising the style of Nicephorus, he adds, Καὶ ὅλως πολλούς ἐστι τῶν ποὺ αὐτοῦ ἀποκρυπτόμενος τῇδε τῆς ἱστορίας τῇ συγγραφή, and only complains of his extreme brevity, (Phot. Bibliot. Cod. lxvi. p. 100.) Some additions may be gleaned from the more recent histories of Cedrenus and Zonaras of the xiith century.

11 Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of Taborestan, a famous Imam of Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished his general history in the year of the Hegira 302, (A. D. 914.) At the request of his friends, he reduced a work of 30,000 sheets to a more reasonaule size. But his Arabic original is known only by the Persian and Turk ish versions. The Saracenic history of Ebn Amid, or Elmacin, is said to be an abridgment of the great Tabari, (Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. preface, p. xxxix. and list of authors, D'Herbelot v.866. 870, 1014.)

12 Besides the lists of authors framed by Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 179-189,) Ockley, (at the end of his second volume,) and Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan, p. 525–550,) we find in the Bibliothèque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of two or three hundred histo ries or chronicles of the East, of which not more than three or four

fect sketches of a more recent age.13 'The art and genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; 14 they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicles of the same period may be compared to their most popular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom. The Oriental library of a Frenchman 15 would instruct the most learned mufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find in a single historian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of their own exploits as that which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets.

I. In the first year of the first caliph, his lieutenant Caled, the Sword of God, and the scourge of the infidels, advanced to the banks of the Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira. Westward of the ruins of Babylon, a tribe of

are older than Tabari. A lively sketch of Oriental literature is given by Reiske, (in his Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifæ librum memorialem ad calcem Abulfedæ Tabulæ Syriæ, Lipsiæ, 1776;) but his project and the French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. i. preface, p. xlv.) have fallen to the ground.

13 The particular historians and geographers will be occasionally introduced. The four following titles represent the Annals which have guided me in this general narrative. 1. Annales Eutychii, Patriarchæ Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 1656, 2 vols. in 4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author, translated by Pocock to gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 2. Historia Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, operâ et studio Thomæ Erpenii, in 4to., Lugd. Batavorum, 1625. He is said to have hastily translated a corrupt MS., and his version is often deficient in style and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete Edwardo Pocockio, in 4to., Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary than the civil history of the East. 4. Abulfedæ Annales Moslemici ad Ann. llegiræ ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. Reiske, in 4to., Lipsia, 1754. The best of our chronicles, both for the original and version, yet how far below the name of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at Hamah in the xivth century. The three former were Christians of the xth, xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of Egypt; a Melchite patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.

14 M. D. Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. pref. p. xix. xx.) has characterized, with truth and knowledge, the two sorts of Arabian historians the dry annalist, and the tumid and flowery orator.

15 Bibliothèque Orientale, par M. D'Herbelot, in folio, Paris, 1697. For the character of the respectable author, consult his friend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i. chap. 1.) His work is an agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I never can digest the alphabetical order; and I find him more satisfactory in the Persien than the Arabic history. The recent supplement from the papers of MM. Visdelcu ard Galland, (in folio, La Haye, 1779,) is of a lifferent cast, a medley of tales, proverbs, and Chinese antiquities.

sedentary Arabs had fixed themselves on the verge of the desert; and Hira was the seat of a race of kings who hau embraced the Christian religion, and reigned above six hun dred years under the shadow of the throne of Persia.16 The last of the Mondars* was defeated and slain by Caled; his son was sent a captive to Medina; his nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the people was tempted by the example and success of their countrymen; and the caliph accepted as the first-fruits of foreign conquest an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces of gold. The conquerors, and even their historians, were astonished by the dawn of their future greatness: "In the same year," says Elmacin, "Caled fought many signal battles: an immense multitude of the infidels was slaughtered; and spoils infinite and innuInerable were acquired by the victorious Moslems." 17 But the invincible Caled was soon transferred to the Syrian war: the invasion of the Persian frontier was conducted by less active or less prudent commanders: the Saracens were repulsed with loss in the passage of the Euphrates; and, though they chastised the insolent pursuit of the Magians, their remaining forces still hovered in the desert of Babylon.f The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment their intestine divisions. By the unanimous sentence of the priests and nobles, their queen Arzema was deposed; the sixth of the transient usurpers, who had arisen and vanished in three or four years since the death of Chosroes, and the retreat of Heraclius. Her tiara was placed on the head of Yezdegerd, the grandson of Chosroes; and the same æra, which coincides with an astronomical period,18 has recorded

16 Pocock will explain the chronology, (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 66-74,) and D'Anville the geography, (l'Euphrate, et le Tigre, p. 125,) of the dynasty of the Almondars. The English scholar understood more Arabic than the mufti of Aleppo, (Ockley, vol. ii. p. 34,) the French geographer is equally at home in every age and every climate of the world.

17 Fecit et Chaled plurima in hoc anno prælia, in quibus vicerunt Muslimi, et infidelium immensâ multitudine occisâ spolia infinita et innumera sunt nacti, (Hist. Saracenica, p. 20.) The Christian annalist slides into the national and compendious term of infidels, and I often adopt (I hope without scandal) this characteristic mode of expression. 18 A cycle of 120 years, the end of which an intercalary month of

Eichhorn and Silvestre de Sacy have written on the obscure history of he Mondars.-M. + Compare through. ut Malcolm, vol. ii. p. 136. - M.