LII. CHAP offices of government. Strongly prompted by gratitude, indignation, and fear, they invited the grandson of the caliph Hashem to ascend the throne of his ancestors; and, in his desperate condition, the extremes of rashness and prudence were almost the same. The acclamations of the people saluted his landing on the coast of Andalusia; and, after a successful struggle, Abdalraham established the throne of Cordovo, and was the father of the Ommiades of Spain, who reigned above two hundred and fifty years from the Atlantic to the Pyrenees.a He slew in battle a lieutenant of the Abbassides, who had invaded his dominions with a fleet and army the head of Ala, in salt and camphire, was suspended by a daring messenger before the palace of Mecca; and the caliph Almansor rejoiced in his safety, that he was removed by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary. Their mutual designs or declarations of offensive war evaporated without effect but instead of opening a door to the conquest of Europe, Spain was dissevered from the trunk of the monarchy, engaged in perpetual hostility with the East, and inclined to peace and friendship with the christian sovereigns of Constantinople and France. The example of the Ommiades was imitated by the real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the Edrissites of Mauritania, and the more powerful Fatimites Triple division of the cali phate. For the revolution of Spain, consult Roderic of Toledo (c. xviii, p. 34, &c.); the Bibliotheca Arabico Hispana (tom. ii, p. 30, 198); and Cardonne (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i, p. 180-197, 205, 272, 323, &c.) LII of Africa and Egypt. In the tenth century, CHAP. the chair of Mahomet was disputed by three caliphs or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan, and Cordovo, excommunicated each other, and agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an unbeliever." cence of A. D. 750-960. Mecca was the patrimony of the line of MagnifiHashem, yet the Abbassides were never tempt- the ca liphs, ed to reside either in the birth place or the city of the prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the blood, of the Ommiades; and after some hesitation, Almansor, the brother and successor of Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad,' the imperial seat of his posterity during a reign of five hundred years. The chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles above the ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a t I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and fancies of Sir Wil liam Temple (his Works, vol. iii, p. 371-374, octavo edition) and Vol- taire (Histoire Generale, c. xxviii, tom. ii, p. 124, 125, edition de Lausanne), concerning the division of the Saracen empire. The mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the want of knowledge or reflection; but Sir William was deceived by a Spanish impostor, who has framed an apocryphal history of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs. The geographer d'Anville (l'Euphrate et la Tigre, p. 121-123), and the Orientalist d'Herbelot (Bibliotheque, p. 167, 168), may suffice for the knowledge of Bagdad. Our travellers, Pietro della Valle (tom. i, p. 688-698); Tavernier (tom. i. p. 230-238); Thevenot (part ií, p. 209-212); Otter (tom. i, p. 162-168); and Niebuhr (Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii, p. 239-271), have seen only its decay; and the Nubian geographer (p. 204), and the travelling Jew, Benjamin of Tudela (Iti- ́ nerarum, p. 112-123, à Const. l'Empereur, apud Elzevir, 1633), are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have known Bagdad under the reign of the Abbassides. The foundations of Bagdad were laid A. H. 145, A. D. 762, Mostasem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and put to death by the Tartars, A. H. 656, A. D. 1258, the 20th of February. 36 LII. CHAP. circular form; and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and the adjacent villages. In this city of peace," amidst the riches of the East, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence and frugality of the first caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian kings. After his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about thirty millions sterling; and this treasure was exhausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could only serve to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. The courtiers would "Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as is more neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers, Egnvoodis (Irenopolis).There is some dispute concerning the etymology of Bagdad, but the first syllable is allowed to signify a garden in the Persian tongue; the garden of Dad, a christian hermit, whose cell had been the only habitation on the spot. Reliquit in ærario sexcenties millies mille stateres, et quater et vicies millies mille aureos aureos. Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 126)! I have reckoned the gold pieces at eight shillings, and the proportion to the silver as twelve to one. But I will never answer for the numbers of Erpenius; and the Latins are scarcely above the savages in the language of arithmetic. L'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam apporte LII. surely praise the liberality of his grandson CHAP. Almamon, who gave away four-fifths of the income of a province, a sum of two millions four hundred thousand gold dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were showered on the head of the bride, and a lottery of lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were brightened rather than impaired in the decline of the empire; and a Greek ambassador might admire or pity the magnificence of the feeble Moctader. "The 66 caliph's whole army," says the historian Abulfeda," both horse and foot, was under arms, which together made a body of one "hundred and sixty thousand men. His state "officers, the favourite slaves, stood near him " in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with "gold and gems. Near them were seven thou"sand eunuchs, four thousand of them white, "the remainder black. The porters or doorkeepers were in number seven hundred. 66 66 66 Barges and boats, with the most superb de"corations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splen"did, in which were hung up thirty-eight "thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand Abulfeda, p. 184, 189, describes the splendour and liberality of Almamon. Milton has alluded to this Oriental custom : Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings Barbaric pearls and gold. I have used the modern word lottery, to express the miffilia of the Ro. man emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught them, as they were thrown among the crowd. CHAP. LII. "five hundred of which were of silk embroi 66 66 dered with gold. The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. An hundred "lions were brought out, with a keeper to each "lion. Among the other spectacles of rare "and stupendous luxury, was a tree of gold "and silver spreading into eighteen large "branches, on which, and on the lesser boughs, "sat a variety of birds made of the same pre"cious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their na"tural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador was led by “the vizier to the foot of the caliph's throne.' In the West, the Ommiades of Spain support ed, with equal pomp, the title of commander of the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honour of his favourite sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed the city, palace, and gardens of Zehra. Twentyfive years, and above three millions sterling, were employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the artists of Constantinople, the most skilful sculptors and architects of the age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Spanish and African, of Greek and Italian marble. The a * When Bell of Antermony (Travels, vol. i, p. 99) accompanied the Russian ambassador to the audience of the unfortunate Shah Hussein of Persia, two lions were introduced, to denote the power of the king over the fiercest animals. b Abulfeda, p. 237, d'Herbelot, p. 590. This embassy was received at Bagdad, A. H. 305, A. D. 917. In the passage of Abulfeda, I have used, with some variations, the English translation of the learned and amiable Mr. Harris of Salisbury (Philological Inquiries, p. 363, 364) |