A.D. 800-872.] INDEPENDENT DYNASTIES.

171

After the revolt of Spain, from the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptons of disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab, the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy of the caliphs dissembled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison the founder of the Edrisites,* who erected the kingdom and city of Fez on the shores of the Western ocean. In the East, the first dynasty was that of the Taherites, the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, in the tables of M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns. tom. i.) exhibit a general chronology of the East, interspersed with some historical anecdotes; but his attachment to national blood has sometimes confounded the order of time and place. * 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. ii. p. 1-63.) [The seventy-fifth chapter of Condé's second book relates the history of the Beni Aglab; the first of them entered Africa in the caliphate of Almanzor, A.H. 144, (a.D. 761). One of his sons was appointed Wali or governor of the province, and another led the expedition against Sicily. The family soon threw off their allegiance to the caliph, and reigned as independent kings till A.H. 297 (A.D. 909), when Zeyadalata, the last of them, was expelled by the Fatimite Obeidala.-ED.]

+ 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 one hundred and twenty 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. [These events and dates are given very differently by Condé. The first Edris was a great grandson of Hosein, the son of Ali. His eldest brother, the Imaum Muhamad, having rebelled against the caliph Al Mahdi, was defeated and slain near Mecca, A.H. 169 (A.D. 785). Edris fled first to Egypt, and thence to western Africa, where he was proclaimed king in the moon Ramazan of the year 172 (A.D. 788). Some accounts have the date 171. By a rapid course of conquest he established the kingdom of Fez; but was soon afterwards poisoned by an emissary of Harun al Rashid. His beautiful slave Kinza, or Kethira, bore him a posthumous son, who became the second sovereign of the dynasty. This Edris founded the the city of Fez A.H. 191 (A.D. 806), and died A.H. 210 (a,d. 825) æt. 33. His descendants continued to occupy the throne till A.H. 357 (A.D. 967). Condé, vol. i. 225. 250. 256. 388-398. 412-415.-ED.]

The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides, with the rise of

172

THE SOFFARIDES, SAMANIDES,

[CH. LII. civil wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success 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 trade of a brazier (from whence the name of Soffarides) for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the treasure of the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith, 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 the Abbassides. On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by a fever. He gave audience in bed to the ambassador of the caliph; and beside him on a table were exposed a naked scymetar, a crust of brown bread, and a bunch of onions. "If I die," said he, "your master is delivered from his fears. If I live, this must determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can return without reluctance to the homely fare of my youth." From the height where he stood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless; a timely death secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who paid with the most lavish concessions the retreat of his brother Amrou to the palaces of Shiraz and Ispahan. The Abbassides were too feeble to contend, too proud to forgive; they invited the powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed the Oxus with ten thousand horse, so poor that their stirrups were of wood; so brave that they vanquished the Soffarian army, eight times more numerous than their own. The captive Amrou was sent in chains, a grateful offering to the court of Bagdad, and as the victor was content with the inheritance of

that of the Samanides, are described in the original history and Latin version of Mirchond; yet the most interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M. d'Herbelot.

A.D. 872-1005.] TOULUNIDES AND IKSHIDITES.

173

Transoxiana and Chorasan, the realms of Persia returned for awhile to the allegiance of the caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered by their Turkish slaves, of the race of Toulun and Ikshid* These Barbarians, in religion and manners the countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from the bloody factions of the palace to a provincial command and an independent throne; their names became famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored the mercy of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power; the second, in the midst of four hundred thousand soldiers and eight thousand slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan. The poets of their court could repeat, without a blush, that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valour; but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of the Hamadanites exibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the same fatal period the Persian kingdom was again usurped by the dynasty of the Bowides, by the sword of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian Sea to the ocean, would suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language and genius of Persia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the East.

Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the thirtyninth of the successors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the title of commander of the faithful;† the last

* M. de Guignes (Hist. des. Huns, tom. iii. p. 124-154,) has exhausted the Toulunides and Ikshidites of Egypt, and thrown some light on the Carmathians and Hamadanites.

+ Hic est ultimus chalifah qui multum atque sæpius pro concione peroraret... Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere soleret. Ultimus tandem chali.

174

FALLEN STATE OF THE

[CH. LII. (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in the expense of his household, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of the Eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of Bagdad; but that capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented with their present state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury, which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute of nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controversy. Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal * invaded the pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, spilled the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonoured, with infamous suspicions, the associates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and cursed their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be repressed by a military force; but who could satisfy the avarice, or assert the discipline, of the mercenaries themselves? The African and the Turkish guards drew their swords against each other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra,† imprisoned or

farum cui sumptus, stipendia, reditus, et thesauri, culinæ, cæteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad instar comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post, quam indignis et servilibus ludibriis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam ultimumque contemptum abjecti fuerint hi quondam potentissimi totius terrarum Orientalium orbis domini. Abulfed. Annal. Moslem. p. 261. I have given this passage as the manner and tone of Abulfeda; but the cast of Latin eloquence belongs more properly to Reiske. The Arabian historian (p. 255. 257. 261-269. 283, &c.) has supplied me with the most interesting facts of this paragraph. * Their master, on

a similar occasion, showed himself of a more indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of one of the four orthodox sects, was born at Bagdad, A.H. 164, and died there A.H. 241. He fought and suffered in the dispute concerning the creation of the Koran. The office of vizir was superseded by the emir al Omra, Imperator Imperatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi, and which merged at length in the Bowides and Seljukides: vecti

A.D. 936.]

CALIPHS OF BAGDAD.

175

deposed their sovereigns, and violated the sanctuary of the mosch and harem. If the caliphs escaped to the camp or court of any neighbouring prince, their deliverance was a change of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to invite the Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions of Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were assumed by Moezaldowlat, the second of the three brothers, and a stipend of sixty thousand pounds sterling was assigned by his generosity for the private expense of the commander of the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence of a trembling multitude, the caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon, by the command of the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dilemites. His palace was pillaged, his eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired to the vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the school of adversity, the luxurious caliphs resumed the grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive times. Despoiled of their armour and silken robes, they fasted, they prayed, they studied the Koran and the tradition of the Sonnites; they performed with zeal and knowledge the functions of their ecclesiastical character. The respect of nations still waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law and conscience of the faithful; and the weakness or division of their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to the sovereignty of Bagdad. But their misfortunes had been imbittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, the real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from the extremity of Africa, these successful rivals extinguished in Egypt and Syria, both the spiritual and temporal authority of the Abbassides; and the monarch of the Nile insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris.

In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century which elapsed after the war of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile transactions of the two nations were confined to some inroads by sea and land, the fruits of their close

galibus, et tributis, et curiis per omnes regiones præfecit, jussitque in omnibus suggestis nominis ejus in concionibus mentionem fieri. (Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 199.) It is likewise mentioned by Elmacin (p. 254, 255).