political capacity, capable of giving the most salutary advice on any emergency, just, and one who exceedingly feared God. He cultivated the belles-lettres; had a taste for poetry; and left behind him several poetical compositions, which were held in great esteem. Not long before his decease, we are told, that such heavy rains fell in Arabian Irak, that they occasioned an extraordinary inundation of the Tigris; insomuch, that many animals were carried away by the rapidity of the current; and that the caliph himself was, in an instant, so surrounded by the waters on his throne, that he must have inevitably perished, had not one of his slaves taken him on his shoulders, and preserved him from the impending fate.

During this reign, a most dreadful earthquake laid in ruins Al Ramla Isanis, and many other cities. The havoc occasioned by this catastrophe was so great, that two thousand five hundred men, women, and children, perished at Al Ramla only; vast numbers also meeting with the same unhappy fate, in many of the neighbouring cities. A grievous famine likewise raged in Egypt; insomuch, that a dog was not to be bought for less than five dinars, nor a cat for less than three. Al Montanser's visir came one day to the imperial palace, attended by a single servant, and left his horse at the gate, which was quickly carried off by three men, who killed him, that they might feed on his flesh. The visir, complaining of this insult to the caliph, they were immediately executed, and their bodies fixed to a gibbet erected for that purpose. The next day, however, nothing was to be seen of them but the bones; the flesh being all gree

dily devoured by the miserable wretches inhabiting the spot where the gibbet stood; for the Egyptians not only fed on the carcases of all kinds of beasts, but likewise the bodies of men, women, and children; many of the latter of which they boiled, and sold publicly for food. Before the beginning of this dreadful calamity, the caliph had about ten thousand two hundred horses, mules, and camels, in his stables; but, at the end of it, he had only three horses left. That prince himself was obliged to part with his plate, tapestry, sumptuous garments, treasures, jewels, and valuable furniture, for sustenance. The people of Egypt were also visited by a plague this year, which swept away the greater part of the inhabitants of that country. These calamities, we are told, were presaged by comets, that appeared a little before they happened, and other prodigies which have been taken notice of by the Egyptian writers.

CHAPTER VII.

Empire of the Arabs, under the House of Al Abbas, continued.

A. D. AL KAYER died at seventy-six, and was succeeded by his grandson, Al 1075. Moktadi. The new caliph performed the funeral ceremony at his predecessor's interment, and enjoyed a prosperous reign. The people of Syria, Arabia, Palestine and Irak, recognized his authority, and the city of Bagdad flourished while he sat on the Mohammedan throne. He was born six months after his father's death, and was the only male of Al Kayer's family that survived him. He was the twenty-seventh caliph of the house of Al Abbas, and had more respect paid him by Malec Shah, the emir-al-omra, than had been received from the sultan, or prime minister of the caliphate, by many of his predecessors. Al Moktadi married the daughter of his emir, a lady of great beauty; and the public rejoicings at Bagdad, when she made her entry into that capital, were such as surpassed every thing of the kind, that had happened before in the Mohammedan world; for all the streets of the city were illuminated with wax torches on this occasion; and the caliph, in order to demonstrate his affection for her, prepared a most magnificent entertainment. Twenty-four thousand pounds of sugar is said to have been consumed in the dessert alone.

Malec Shah, in the next year, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, at an incredible expence; for, besides abolishing the usual tribute, which the pilgrims paid, he employed very large sums in building towns in the desert, where he ordered a great number of wells and cisterns to be made, and water to be conveyed to them from all parts. He likewise commanded plenty of provisions to be carried for the subsistence of the pilgrims, and distributed immense sums among the poor, with unparalleled liberality.

Before Malec Shah's daughter had been long married to Al Moktadi, she left her husband in disgust, and returned to Esfahan, then her father's residence, and the capital of the Seljukian empire, where she remained till the time of her death. At this period, the brother of Severus, the metropolitan of Ethiopia, came into Egypt with presents for Al Jemal, Al Mostanser's visir, which by no means pleased him. As soon as the visir had received them, he sent for the Alexandrian patriarch, and demanded why he had ordained the metropolitan of Ethiopia, without paying the usual sum to the Fatemite caliph. He likewise complained, that the metropolitan had neither caused any mosques to be erected in Ethiopia, nor sent him any rich presents, as he had promised. To this expostulation, a bishop, who attended the patriarch, replied," that the metropolitan of Ethiopia had been ordained only by his express order :" To which the visir answered, "That both he and the patriarch lied." He then insisted upon their sending two bishops immediately into Ethiopia, who should take care to have a certain number of mosques built in that province, and see that divine ser›

vice was performed in them, after the Mohammedan manner. The visir also gave them to understand, that complaints had been made respecting the Mohammedan merchants, who were not permitted to trade in Ethiopia; and, if this were true, he knew what course to take. He then dismissed the patriarch, and his attendant bishops; having first quartered a soldier upon each of them, who were to be maintained at their expence. In a short time after, the visir sent for them again, and, when they appeared before him, he accused the patriarch of driving a Mohammedan merchant out of Ethiopia, and seizing upon all his substance; but it was proved, in answer to this accusation, that at the time when these things were said to have been done, Severus was in prison, where he had been confined by the king of Ethiopia. The visir then said, that the Metropolitan had promised to build four mosques in Ethiopia, and that he had not kept his word. His brother instantly replied, "that he had actually built seven, which the Ethiopians had pulled down, and the king had imprisoned him for what he had done." This declaration pacified the visir, who dispatched an ambassador, with the bishops, to the court of Ethiopia; sending a letter to the king, importing, "that if he did not accede to every one of the demands contained in it, he would demolish all the Christian churches in Egypt." To this the Ethiopian monarch made answer, "That if he displaced even a single stone in any of the Christian churches under his jurisdiction, he would send him all the stones and tiles from the temple at Mecca. From which it appears, that the Ethiopians were, at this time, far from being