a better view of him. At this moment, the Afri can urged his horse against the caliph, and thrusting a javelin into his breast, he instantly fell dead from his seat. The African rode off full speed towards the prison, to liberate Al Kaher. Passing through the market, he met an ass loaded with briars; his horse started, reared, and threw his rider on one of the shambles, where he remained suspended by the chin on a hook. His horse escaped from under him, and the populace, who were pursuing him, finding him in this state, took the briars from off the ass, set fire to them, and burnt the assassin. Thus was Al Moktader's murder punished, almost as soon as perpetrated. About this time, Egypt was infested with such swarms of locusts, that they darkened the air, and devoured every thing green in those parts of that fruitful country which they traversed. The same year, Abu Thaher entered Mecca with his troops, killed a great number of pilgrims in the temple, demolished the building that covered the well Zemzem, and plundered the Caaba. Among other profanations offered to that celebrated place, they took away a famous black stone, which they refused to restore, although the people of Mecca offered five thousand dinars for it. However, after they had kept it two and twenty years, they sent it back, at the same time ridiculing them, by assuring them it was not the true stone; but, as it is said, it was proved to be no counterfeit, by its peculiar quality of swimming on water. The Karmatian, however, who was sent to take away the golden spout, which carried away the water from the top of the Caaba, broke his neck in the attempt.

Before Abu Thaher advanced to Mecca, he

had several engagements with the caliph's forces; after which he stopped all the wells between Bagdad and Mecca, not permitting the caravans of pilgrims to pass between that capital and Mecca, either from Mesopotamia or Khorasan. He butchered a great number of the people, both within and without the Caaba, and also in the streets of Mecca; insomuch, that he filled with dead bodies most of the houses in the town, and the ways, vallies, and desert places, in the neighbourhood.

Al Moktader was esteemed religious, delight, ed in giving alms, and fasted often. He had many secretaries, governors of provinces and cities, and counsellors, or visirs. Some of the women belonging to the court had a great share in the administration, particularly a young wo man named Yamek, who was so thoroughly versed in all the weightier points of the Moham medan law, that judges, in the determination of criminal causes, and the doctors of the law, in their most important decisions, often found them. selves obliged to have recourse to her assist

ance.

In this reign flourished Albatani, so celebrated for his accurate astronomical observations. This great mathematician and philosopher professed the Sabian religion, which chiefly prevailed at the time of his birth in the city of Harran; hence his tables are called the Sabian tables. And in the 320th year of the Hegira, died Zacarius Al Razi, a person extremely well versed in all kinds of ancient learning; though he excelled most in physic, and is styled the Phoenix of the age. In his youth he gave himself up entirely to music, but afterwards applied himself to the study of VOL. X.

M

philosophy with so much success, that he made a wonderful progress in every branch of it, and composed a great number of books upon physical and philosophical subjects. He is said to have contracted webs in his eyes, by the immoderate eating of beans; and, towards the close of his life, lost both of them by cataracts. He would not permit an oculist, who came to couch him, to perform the operation, because he could not tell of how many little coats the eye consisted; saying, at the same time, that he was not very desirous of recovering his sight, as he had already seen enough of the world to make him abhor it. He composed twelve books in alchemy, in which he asserted the possibility of a transmutation of metals; he understood astrology, or the art of predicting future events from the aspects of the celestial bodies. He was liberal, munificent, and courteous, to all men; extremely charitable to the poor; not only giving them his advice as a physician, but supplying all their wants, in the most liberal manner.

932.

Munes wished to raise his ward, Abul Abbas, the son of Moktader, to the caliphate, but the partisans of Al Kaher prevailed. He quitted a A. D. prison for a throne: from the throne, a year after, he returned to a prison. At a future period he supported a more miserable life, though at liberty, than he had done in chains; but, unfortunately, he merited these distressing vicissitudes. As soon as he became master, Al Moktader's children, his concubines, and domestics, were ordered into his presence, and put to the torture, in order to force from them a discovery of the treasures that his predecessor had distributed among them. On the simple sus

picion that Ahmed, the son of Mocktasi, meant to usurp the dignity, the barbarian called him into one of the inmost recesses of the palace, and had him nailed to the wall, by the hands and feet; then, being always pressed for money, he sent for Abu Yahya, a man of the robe, and very rich, and commanded him to count him down a large The lawyer declared, that it was not in his power. "Ahmed," said the tyrant, who is in the next apartment," told me you could, and he is of opinion that you should." Abu Yahya went then to explain himself: on entering the chamber, the dreadful spectacle that struck his sight filled him with fear and horror; he promised, and gave all that was demanded.

sum.

The Turkish soldiers, though unjust to several of his predecessors, whom they compelled to abdicate, performed a signal act of equity, when they hurled him from the throne. After putting out his eyes, they once more cast him into prison, where he remained twelve years. One of his successors set him at liberty; but without bestowing upon him sufficient to procure the necessaries of life. A contemporary historian has declared, that he saw him at the door of the grand mosque of Bagdad, covered with rags and filth, and stretching out his hand to the people, whom he addressed in the following terms: "Pray remember him who was once your caliph, and is now reduced to the necessity of asking you for alms." He died at the age of fiftyfive, and is justly characterised as extremely rash, cruel, and avaricious.

CHAPTER VI.

The Arabs, under the Caliphs of the House of Al Abbas, continued.

AFTER the deposition of Al Kaher, his ne

phew, Al Radi, was taken out of prison, where he had been confined, and placed upon the throne, the very day his uncle was deposed. But how much was this dignity degraded; how inconsiderable was the circle of its power, compared to its former grandeur! Arabian Irak, Persian Irak; the cities of Basra, and Cufa; Egypt, Syria, and Spain; the Mussulman pro vinces in Sicily and Crete: all these vast and extensive countries had passed into the possession of sovereigns, who, though they respected the caliph of Bagdad, allowed him a degree of pre-eminence rather in religious concerns than in political government. In reality, Bagdad and its environs were all that remained to the caliph; but, as if this small portion were too difficult to govern, Al Radi instituted a post superior to that of visir, which he named emiral-omra; that is to say, commandant of commandants: this great officer, or rather prime minister, was trusted with the administration of all military affairs, and had the management of the finances; he even officiated for the caliph in the grand mosque of Bagdad, and had his name mentioned in the public service throughout the empire. In a word, Al Radi was so entirely governed by this new officer, that he could ·