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CHAP. the faithful. As often as the Turks were inflamed by fear, or rage, or avarice, these caliphs were dragged by the feet, exposed naked to the scorching sun, beaten with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase, by the abdication of their dignity, a short reprieve of inevitable fate. At length, however, the fury of the tempest was spent or diverted: the Abbassides returned to the less turbulent residence of Bagdad; the insolence of the Turks was curbed with a firmer and more skilful hand, and their numbers were divided and destroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the East had been taught to trample on the successors of the prophet; and the blessings of domestic peace were obtained by the relaxation of strength and discipline. So uniform are the mischiefs of military despotism, that I seem to repeat the story of the prætorians of Rome 100.

Rise and

of the

Carma

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While the flame of enthusiasm was damped by the progress business, the pleasure, and the knowledge, of the age, it burnt with concentrated heat in the breasts of the chothians, sen few, the congenial spirits, who were ambitious of 890-951. reigning either in this world or in the next. How carefully soever the book of prophecy had been sealed by the apostle of Mecca, the wishes, and (if we may profane the word) even the reason, of fanaticism, might believe that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, the same God, in the fulness of time, would reveal a still more perfect and permanent law. In the two hundred and seventyseventh year of the Hegira, and in the neighbourhood of Cufa, an Arabian preacher, of the name of Carmath, assumed the lofty and incomprehensible style of the Guide, the Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghost, the Camel, the Herald of the Messiah, who had conversed with him in a human shape, and the representative of Mohammed the son of Ali, of St. John

99 Take a specimen, the death of the caliph Motaz. Correptum pedibus petrahunt, et sudibus probe permulcant, et spoliatum laceries vestibus in sole, collocant, præ cujus, acerrimo æstû pedes alternis attollebat et demittebat. Adstantium aliquis misero colaphos continuo ingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus avertere studebat..... Quo facto traditus tortori fuit totoque triduo cibo potuque prohibitus.... Suffocatus, &c. (Abulfeda, p. 206.) of the caliph Mohtadi, he says, cervices ipsi perpetuis ictibus contundebant, testiculosque pedibus conculcabant (p. 208.)

100 See under the reigns of Motassem, Motawakkel, Mostanser, Mostain, Motaz, Mohtadi, and Motamed, in the Bibliotheque of d'Herbelot, and the now familiar Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda.

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the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. In his mystic vo- CHAP. lume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a more spiritual sense; he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden food; and nourished the fervour of his disciples by the daily repetition of fifty prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd awakened the attention of the magistrates of Cufa; a timid persecution assisted the progress of the new sect; and the name of the prophet became more revered after his person had been withdrawn from the world. His twelve apostles dispersed themselves among the Bedoweens, "a race of men," says Abulfeda, "equally devoid of "reason and of religion;" and the success of their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia with a new revoJution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they disclaimed the title of the house of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs of Bagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed a blind and absolute submission to their Imam, who was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of their substance and spoil; the most flagitious sins were no more than the type of disobedience; and the brethren were united and concealed by an oath of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in the Their miprovince of Bahrein, along the Persian Gulf: far and litary exwide, the tribes of the desert were subject to the scep- A. D. tre, or rather to the sword, of Abu Said and his son Abu 900, &c. Taher; and these rebellious Imams could muster in the field an hundred and seven thousand fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were dismayed at the approach of an enemy who neither asked nor accepted quarter; and the difference between them, in fortitude and patience, is expressive of the change which three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By the special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the 3 N

VOL. VI.

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CHAP. person or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander of the faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu Taher of his dauger, and recommended a speedy escape. "Your mas"ter," said the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, "is at the head of thirty thousand soldiers: three such "men as these are wanting in his host:" at the same instant, turning to three of his companions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his breast, the second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. They obeyed without a murmur. "Relate," continued the Imam, "what you "have seen before the evening your general shall be "chained among my dogs." Before the evening, the camp was surprised and the menace was executed. The rapine of the Carmathians was sanctified by their aversion to the worship of Mecca: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty thousand devout Moslems were abandoned on the burning sands to a death of hunger and thirst. Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed without interruption; but, in the festival of deThey pil-votion, Abu Taher stormed the holy city, and trampled lage Mecon the most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith. ca, A. D. 929. Thirty thousand citizens and strangers were put to the sword; the sacred precincts were polluted by the burial of three thousand dead bodies; the well of Zemzem overflowed with blood; the golden spout was forced from its place; the veil of the Caaba was divided among these impious sectaries; and the black stone, the first monument of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their capital. After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty, they continued to infest the confines of Irak, Syria, and Egypt; but the vital principle of enthusiasm had withered at the root. Their scruples or their avarice again opened the pilgrimage of Mecca, and restored the black stone of the Caaba; and it is needless to enquire into what factions they were broken, or by whose swords they were finally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be considered as the second visible cause of the decline and fall of the empire of the caliphs.

101 For the sect of the Carmathians, consult Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 219. 224. 229. 231. 238. 241, 243), Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 179-182), Abulfeda (Annal, Moslem. p. 218, 219, &c. 245. 265. 274), and d'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256-258. 635) I find some inconsistencies of

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The third and most obvious cause was the weight and CHAP. magnitude of the empire itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert, that it was easier for him to rule Revolt of the East and the West, than to manage a chess-board the proof two feet square102; yet I suspect, that in both those vinces, games, he was guilty of many fatal mistakes; and I 800-936. perceive, that in the distant provinces, the authority of the first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired. The analogy of despotism invests the representative with the full majesty of the prince; the division and balance of powers might relax the habits of obedience, might encourage the passive subject to enquire into the origin and administration of civil government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to reign; but the elevation of a private man, of a peasant perhaps, or a slave, affords a strong presumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy of a remote kingdom aspires to secure the property and inheritance of his precarious trust; the nations must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign; and the command of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument of his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the caliph were content with their vicarious title; while they solicited for themselves or their sons a renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintained on the coin, and in the public prayers, the name and prerogative of the commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power, they assumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace or war, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will; and the revenues of their government were reserved for local services or private magnificence. Instead of a regular supply of men and money, the successors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an elephant, or a cast of hawks, a suit of silk hangings, or some pounds of musk and amber103.

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theology and chronology, which it would not be easy nor of much importance to reconcile.

102 Hyde, Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 57. in Hist. Shahiludii.

103 The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied in the Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the proper years, in the dictionary of d'Herbelot, under the proper names. The tables of M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom, i.) exhibit a general chronology of the East, inter. spersed with some historical anecdotes; but his attachment to national blood has sometimes confounded the order of time and place.

CHAP.
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dynasties.

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After the revolt of Spain, from the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms The inde. of disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. pendent Ibrahim, the son of Aglab, the lieutenant of the vigilant The Agla. and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of the Aglabites, bites the inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy of the caliphs dissembled the injury and The Edri-loss, and pursued only with poison the founder of the sites, Edrisites104, who erected the kingdom and city of Fez 829-907. on the shores of the western ocean105. In the East, the The Tahe-first dynasty was that of the Taherites106; the posterity rites, of the valiant Taher, who, in the civil wars of the sons 813-872. of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success

800-941.

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the cause of Almamon the younger brother. He was sent into honourable exile, to command on the banks of the Oxus; and the independence of his successors, who reigned in Chorasan till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest and respectful demeanour, the happiness of their subjects, and the security of their frontier. They were supplanted by one of those adventurers so frequent in the annals of the East, who left his The Soffa-trade of a brazier (from whence the name of Soffarides) rides, for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the 872-902. treasure of the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith,

A. D.

stumbled over a lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt, among the Orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious robber immediately retired without spoil or damage. The discovery of this honourable behaviour recommended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an army at first for his benefactor, at last for himself, subdued Persia, and threatened the residence of

104 The Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed subject of M. de Cardonne (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. 1. p. 1-63.)

105 To escape the reproach of error, I must criticise the inaccuracies of M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 359.) concerning the Edrisites. 1. The dynasty and city of Fez could not be founded in the year of the Hegira 173, since the founder was a posthumous child of a descendant of Ali, who fled from Mecca in the year 168. 2. This founder, Edris the son of Edris, instead of living to the improbable age of 120 years, A. H. 313, died A. H 214, in the prime of manhood. 3. The dynasty ended A. H. 307, twenty-three years sooner than it is fixed by the historian of the Huns. See the accurate Annals of Abulfeda, p. 158, 159. 185. 238.

106 The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides, with the rise of that of the Samanides, are described in the original history and Latin version of Mirchoud; yet the most interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M. d'Herbelot.

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