CHAPTER LII.

THE TWO SIECES OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE ARABS. -- THEIR INVASION OF FRANCE, AND DEFEAT BY CHARLES MARTEL. CIVIL WAR OF THE OMMIADES AND ABBASSIDES. LEARNING OF THE ARABS. LUXURY OF THE CALIPHS. NAVAL ENTERPRISES ON CRETE, SICILY, AND ROME. DECAY AND DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHS. DEFEATS AND VICTORIES OF THE GREEK EMPERORS.

WHEN the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own Buccess. But when they advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus and the summit of the Pyrenees, when they had repeatedly tried the edge of their cimeters and the energy of their faith, they might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their invincible arms; that any boundary should confine the dominion of the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since the calm historian of the present hour, whe strives to follow the rapid course of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, from this inevi table, danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the courage of the northern shepherds; China was remote and inaccessible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and the loss of their fairest provinces, and the Barbarians of Europe might justly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the servitude of Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Christians, and scattered among their enemies the seeds of division and decay.

Forty-six years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his disciples appeared in arms under the walls of Constan

nople. They were animated by a genuine or fictitious say. ing of the prophet, that, to the first army which besieged the city of the Cæsars, their sins were forgiven: the long series of Roman triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of New Rome; and the wealth of nations was deposited in this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No sooner had the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne, than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by the success and glory of this holy expedition;" his preparations by sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his standard was intrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the troops were encouraged by the example and presence of Yezid, the son and presumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reasons of fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor, who disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital.3 The Arabian fleet cast anchor, and the troops were disembarked near the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the city. During many days, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault

'Theophanes places the seven years of the siege of Constantinople in the year of our Christian æra 673, (of the Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1,) and the peace of the Saracens, four years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency which Petavius, Goar, and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 63, 64,) have struggled to remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira 52 (A. D. 672, January 8) is assigned by Elmacin, the year 48 (A. D. 688, Feb. 20) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteem the most convenient and

credible.

For this first siege of Constantinople, see Nicephorus, (Breviar. p. 21, 22;) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 294;) Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 437;) Zonaras, (Hist. tom. ii. 1. xiv. p. 89;) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 56, 57;) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 107, 108, vers. Reiske ;) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Constantinah ;) Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 127, 128.

The state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed in the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 39-97,) who was sent to fortify them against the Russians. From a principal actor, I should have expected more accurate details; but he seems to write for the amusement, rather than the instruction, of his reader. Perhaps, on the approach of the enemy, the minister of Constantine was occupied, like that of Mustapha, in finding two Canary birds who should sing precisely the same note.

was extended from the golden gate to the eastern promontory, and the foremost warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the succeeding columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of the strength and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls were guarded by numbers and discipline: the spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and empire: the fugitives from the conquered provinces more successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted their arms to the more easy attempts of plundering the European and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis; and, after keeping the sea from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of winter they retreated fourscore miles from the capital, to the Isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine of spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so languid were their operations, that they repeated in the six following summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vigor, till the mischances of shipwreck and disease, of the sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss, or commemorate the martyrdom, of thirty thousand Moslems, who fell in the siege of Constantinople; and the solemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the curiosity of the Christians themselves. That venerable Arab, one of the last of the companions of Mahomet, was numbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries, of Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. In his youth he fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the holy standard: in his mature age he was the friend and follower of Ali; and the last remnant of his strength and life was consumed in a distant and dangerous war against the enemies of the Koran. His memory was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and unknown during a period of seven hundred and eighty years, till the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second. A seasonable vision (for such are the manufacture of every religion) revealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls and the bottom of the harbor; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly chosen for the simple and martial inauguration of the Turkish sultans.1

Demetrius Cantemir's Hist. of the Othman Empire, p. 105, 106.

The event of the siege revived, both in the East and Wes the reputation of the Roman arms, and cast a momentary shade over the glories of the Saracens. The Greek ambas sador was favorably received at Damascus, in a general council of the emirs or Koreish: a peace, or truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two empires; and the stipula tion of an annual tribute, fifty horses of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and three thousand pieces of gold, degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful.5 The aged caliph was desirous of possessing his dominions, and ending his days in tranquillity and repose: while the Moors and Indians trembled at his name, his palace and city of Damascus was insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of Mount Libanus, the firmest barrier of the empire, till they were disarmed and transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks.6 After the revolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah 7 was reduced to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress and fear enforced their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians; and the tribute was increased to a slave, a horse, and a thousand pieces of gold, for each of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar year. But as soon as the empire was again united by the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he disclaimed a badge of servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride; he discontinued the payment of the tribute; and the resentment of the Greeks was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the second

Rycaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 10, 11. Voyages de Thevenot, part i. p. 189. The Christians, who suppose that the martyr Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the patriarch Job, betray their own ignorance rather than that of the Turks.

Theophanes, though a Greek, deserves credit for these tributes, (Chronograph. p. 295, 296, 300, 301,) which are confirmed, with some variation, by the Arabic History of Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 128, vers. Pocock.)

• The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed, τὴν 'Ρωμαικήν δυναστείαν ἀκρωτηριάσας . . . . πάνδεινα κακὰ πέπονθεν ἡ ̔Ρωμανία ὑπὸ τῶν Αράβων μεχρί τοῦ νῦν, (Chronograph. p. 302, 303.) The series of these events may be traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the Abridgment of the Patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22, 24.

7 These domestic revolutions are related in a clear and natural style, in the second volume of Ockley's History of the Saracene, p. 253-370. Besides our printed authors, he draws his materials from the Arabic MSS. of Oxford, which he would have more deeply searched had he been confined to the Bodleian library instead of tha eity jail; a fate how unworthy of the man and of his country!

Justinian, the just rehellion of his subjects, and the frequent change of his antagonists and successors. Till the reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens had been content with the free possession of the Persian and Roman treasures, in the coins of Chosroes and Cæsar. By the command of that caliph, a national mint was established, both for silver and gold, and the inscription of the Dinar, though it might be censured by some timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity of the God of Mahomet.8 Under the reign of the caliph Walid, the Greek language and characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue. If this change was productive of the

8 Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76, A. D. 695, five or six years later than the Greek historians, has compared the weight of the best or common gold dinar to the drachm or dirhem of Egypt, (p. 77,) which may be equal to two pennies (48 grains) of our Troy weight, (Hooper's Inquiry into Ancient Measures, p. 24-36,) and equivalent to eight shillings of our sterling money. From the same Elmacin and the Arabian physicians, some dinars as high as two dirhems, as low as half a dirhem, may be deduced. The piece of silver was the dirhem, both in value and weight; but an old, though fair coin, struck at Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants four grains of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal History, tom. i. p. 548 of the French translation.)*

9 Καὶ ἐκώλυσε γράφεσθαι ἑλληνιστί τούς δημοσίους τῶν λογοθεσίων κώδι κας ἀλλ ̓ Αραβίοις αὐτὰ παρασημαίνεσθαι χωρὶς τῶν ψήφων, ἐπειδὴ ἀδύ νατον, τῇ ἐκείνων γλώσση μονάδα, ἢ δυάδα, ἢ τριάδα, ἢ ὀκτὼ ἥμισυ ἢ rola rougeodai. Theophan. Chronograph. p. 314. This defect, if it really existed, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs to invent or borrow.

* Up to this time the Arabs had used the Roman or the Persian coins, or had minted others which resembled them. Nevertheless, it has been admitted of late years, that the Arabians, before this epoch, had caused coin to be minted, on which, preserving the Roman or the Persian_dies, they added Arabian names or inscriptions. Some of these exist in different collections. We learn from Makrizi, an Arabian author of great learning and judgment, that in the year 18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs had coined money of this description. The same author informs us that the caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing himself with a sword by his side. These types, so contrary to the notions of the Arabs, were disapproved by the most influential persons of the time, and the caliph substituted for them, after the year 76 of the Hegira, the Mahometan coins with which we are acquainted. Con. sult, on the question of Arabic numismatics, the works of Adler, of Fraehr, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who have treated at lengthis interest ing point of historic antiquities. See, also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. i. p. 257, et seq., a paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des Monnaies des Khalifes avant l'An 75 de l'Hégire. See, also, the translation of a terman paper on the Arabic medals of the Chosroes, by M. Fraehn, in the same Journal Asiatique, tom. iv. p 331-347. St. Martin, vol. xii. p 19 -M.