486 PROGRESS OF THE MAHOMETANS. [CH. LIX. wonders. Had the fact been certain, the argument would be decisive; and his faithful disciples, who enumerate twenty or thirty miracles in a day, appeal to the public assemblies of France and Germany, in which they were performed. At the present hour, such prodigies will not obtain credit beyond the precincts of Clairvaux; but in the preternatural cures of the blind, the lame, and the sick, who were presented to the man of God, it is impossible for us to ascertain the separate shares of accident, of fancy, of imposture, and of fiction. Omnipotence itself cannot escape the murmurs of its discordant votaries; since the same dispensation, which was applauded as a deliverance in Europe, was deplored, and perhaps arraigned, as a calamity in Asia. After the loss of Jerusalem, the Syrian fugitives diffused their consternation and sorrow; Bagdad mourned in the dust, the cadhi Zeineddin of Damascus tore his beard in the caliph's presence, and the whole divan shed tears at his melancholy tale. But the commanders of the faithful could only weep; they were themselves captives in the hands of the Turks; some temporal power was restored to the last age of the Abbassides; but their humble ambition was confined to Bagdad and the adjacent province. Their tyrants, the Seljukian sultans, had followed the common law of the Asiatic dynasties, the unceasing round of valour, greatness, discord, degeneracy, and decay; their spirit and power were unequal to the defence of religion; and, in his distant realm of Persia, the Christians were strangers to the name * Sic dicunt forsitan isti, unde scimus quòd a Domino sermo egressus sit? Que signa tu facis ut credamus tibi? Non est quod ad ista ipse respondeam; parcendum verecundiæ meæ, responde tu pro me, et pro te ipso, secundum quæ vidisti et audisti, et secundum quod te inspiraverit Deus. Consolat. 1. 2, c. 1, Opp. tom. ii. p. 421-423. See the testimonies in Vita 1ma. l. 4, c. 5, 6. Opp. tom. vi., p. 1258-1261, 1. 6, c. 1-17, p. 1286-1314. [Muratori is wisely silent on the subject of Bernard's miracles, and tells us only of his effective eloquence (Annali, xv. 352); yet he describes in such strong language the pious abbot's devotion to the see of Rome (p. 305), and the interest taken by pope Eugenius in the second crusade (p. 353) that we can see plainly how that eloquence was aroused and directed, even if we had not Bernard's own confession. Otho of Frisingen was called in to assist in appeasing the public indignation, after the failure of the enterprise.-ED.] Abulmahasen, apud De Guigues, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 2, p. 99. A.D. 1145-1174.] NOUREDDIN. 487 While and the arms of Sangiar, the last hero of his race. the sultans were involved in the silken web of the harem, the pious task was undertaken by their slaves, the Atabeks,† a Turkish name, which, like the Byzantine patricians, may be translated by father of the prince. Ascansar, a valiant Turk, had been the favourite of Malek Shah, from whom he received the privilege of standing on the right hand of the throne; but, in the civil wars that ensued on the monarch's death, he lost his head and the government of Aleppo. His domestic emirs persevered in their attachment to his son Zenghi, who proved his first arms against the Franks in the defeat of Antioch; thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan established his military fame; and he was invested with the command of Mosul, as the only champion that could avenge the cause of the prophet. The public hope was not disappointed; after a siege of twenty-five days he stormed the city of Edessa, and recovered from the Franks their conquests beyond the Euphrates; the martial tribes of Curdistan were subdued by the independent sovereign of Mosul and Aleppo; his soldiers were taught to behold the camp as their only country; they trusted to his liberality for their rewards; * See his article in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D'Herbelot, and De Guignes, tom. ii. p. 1, p. 230-261. Such was his valour, that he was styled the second Alexander; and such the extravagant love of his subjects, that they prayed for the sultan, a year after his dcecase. Yet Sangiar might have been made prisoner by the Franks, as well as by the Uzes. He reigned near fifty years (A.D. 1103-1152), and was a munificent patron of Persian poetry. + See the Chronology of the Atabeks of Irak, and Syria, in De Guignes, tom. i. p. 254; and the reigns of Zenghi and Noureddin in the same writer, (tom. ii. p. 2, p. 147-221,) who uses the Arabic text of Benelathir, Ben Schouna, and Albufeda; the Bibliothèque Orientale, under the articles Atabeks and Noureddin, and the Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 250-267. vers. Pococke. William of Tyre (1. 16, c. 4, 5. 7), describes the loss of Edessa and the death of Zenghi. The corruption of his name into Sanguin afforded the Latins a comfortable allusion to his sanguinary character and end, fit sanguine sanguinolentus. [The fall of Edessa is attributed by Taaffe (i. 249) to Joscelin the Second's enervating dissoluteness. He tells some bitter truths, which he accuses the ecclesiastical writers of concealing or distorting, and is most severe on the fables of William of Tyre, who, he says (p. 266) "had a brother a bishop and became a bishop himself." Zenghi perpetrated great atrocities at Edessa, and was soon afterwards murdered in his tent by his own Mamalukes.—ED.] 488 CONQUEST OF EGYPT [CH. LIX. and their absent families were protected by the vigilance of Zengbi. At the head of these veterans, his son Noureddin gradually united the Mahometan powers, added the kingdom of Damascus to that of Aleppo, and waged a long and successful war against the Christians of Syria; he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins themselves were compelled to own the wisdom and courage, and even the justice and piety, of this implacable adversary. In his life and government the holy warrior revived the zeal and simplicity of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished from his palace, the use of wine from his dominions, the public revenue was scrupulously applied to the public service, and the frugal household of Noureddin was maintained from his legitimate share of the spoil, which he vested in the purchase of a private estate. His favourite sultana sighed for some female object of expense. "Alas! (replied the king) I fear God, and am no more than the treasurer of the Moslems. Their property I cannot alienate; but I still possess three shops in the city of Hems; these you may take, and these alone can I bestow." His chamber of justice was the terror of the great and the refuge of the poor. Some years after the sultan's death, an oppressed subject called aloud in the streets of Damascus, "O Noureddin, Noureddin, where art thou now? Arise, arise, to pity and protect us!" A tumult was apprehended, and a living tyrant blushed or trembled at the name of a departed monarch. By the arms of the Turks and Franks the Fatimites had been deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and influence was still more essential. Yet they were still revered as the descendants and successors of the prophet; they maintained their invisible state in the palace of Cairo, and their person was seldom violated by the pro *Noradinus (says William of Tyre, 1. 20. 33), maximus nominis et fidei Christianæ persecutor; princeps tamen justus, vafer, providus, et secundum gentis suæ traditiones religiosus. To this Catholic witness we may add the primate of the Jacobites (Abulpharag. p. 267), quo non alter erat inter reges vitæ ratione magis laudabili, aut quæ pluribus justitiæ experimentis abundaret. The true praise of kings is after their death, and from the mouth of their enemies. A.D. 1163-1169.] BY THE TURKS. 489 fane eyes of subjects or strangers. The Latin ambassadors* have described their own introduction through a series of gloomy passages, and glittering porticoes; the scene was enlivened by the warbling of birds and the murmur of fountains; it was enriched by a display of rich furniture and rare animals; of the imperial treasures, something was shown, and much was supposed; and the long order of unfolding doors was guarded by black soldiers and domestic eunuchs. The sanctuary of the presence-chamber was veiled with a curtain; and the vizir, who conducted the ambassadors, laid aside his scimitar, and prostrated himself three times on the ground; the veil was then removed, and they beheld the commander of the faithful, who signified his pleasure to the first slave of the throne. But this slave was his master; the vizirs or sultans had usurped the supreme administration of Egypt; the claims of the rival candidates were decided by arms, and the name of the most worthy, of the strongest, was inserted in the royal patent of command. The factions of Dargham and Shawer alternately expelled each other from the capital and country; and the weaker side implored the dangerous protection of the sultan of Damascus or the king of Jerusalem, the perpetual enemies of the sect and monarchy of the Fatimites. By his arms and religion the Turk was most formidable; but the Frank, in an easy direct march, could advance from Gaza to the Nile; while the intermediate situation of his realm compelled the troops of Noureddin to wheel round the skirts of Arabia, a long and painful circuit, which exposed them to thirst, fatigue, and the burning winds of the desert. The secret zeal and ambition of the Turkish prince aspired to reign in Egypt under the name of the Abbassides; but the restoration of the suppliant Shawer was the ostensible motive of the first expedition; and the success was intrusted to the emir Shiracouh, a valiant and veteran commander. Dargham was oppressed and slain; but the ingratitude, the jealousy, the just apprehensions, of his more fortunate rival, soon provoked him to invite the king * From the ambassador, William of Tyre (l. 19, c. 17, 18,) describes the palace of Cairo. In the caliph's treasure were found a pearl as large as a pigeon's egg, a ruby weighing seventeen Egyptian drachms, an emerald a palm and a half in length, and many vases of crystal and porcelain of China. (Renaudot, p. 536.) 490 66 FALL OF THE [CH. LIX. of Jerusalem to deliver Egypt from his insolent benefactors. To this union the forces of Shiracouh were unequal; he relinquished the premature conquest; and the evacuation of Belbeis or Pelusium was the condition of his safe retreat. As the Turks defiled before the enemy, and their general closed the rear, with a vigilant eye, and a battle-axe in his hand, a Frank presumed to ask him if he were not afraid of an attack? 'It is doubtless in your power to begin the attack (replied the intrepid emir); but rest assured that not one of my soldiers will go to paradise till he has sent an infidel to hell." His report of the riches of the land, the effiminacy of the natives, and the disorders of the government, revived the hopes of Noureddin; the caliph of Bagdad applauded the pious design; and Shiracouh descended into Egypt a second time with twelve thousand Turks and eleven thousand Arabs. Yet his forces were still inferior to the confederate armies of the Franks and Saracens; and I can discern an unusual degree of military art in his passage of the Nile, his retreat into Thebais, his masterly evolutions in the battle of Babain, the surprise of Alexandria, and his marches and countermarches in the flats and valley of Egypt, from the tropic to the sea. His conduct was seconded by the courage of his troops, and on the eve of action a Mamaluke* exclaimed, "If we cannot wrest Egpyt from the Christian dogs, why do we not renounce the honours and rewards of the sultan, and retire to labour with the peasants, or to spin with the females of the harem ?" Yet after all his efforts in the field,† after the obstinate defence of Alexandria by his nephew Saladin, an honourable capitulation and retreat concluded the second enterprise of Shiracouh; and Noureddin reserved his abilities * Mamluc, plur. Mamalic, is defined by Pococke (Prolegom. ad Abulpharag. p. 7,) and D'Herbelot (p. 545), servum emptitium, seu qui pretio numerato in domini possessionem cedit. They frequently occur in the wars of Saladin (Bohadin, p. 236, &c.); and it was only the Bahartie Mamalukes that were first introduced into Egypt by his descendants. + Jacobus à Vitriaco (p. 1116,) gives the king of Jerusalem no more than three hundred and seventy-four knights. Both the Franks and Moslems report the superior numbers of the enemy; a difference which may be solved by counting or omitting the unwarlike Egyptians. It was the Alexandria of the Arabs, a middle term in extent and riches between the period of the Greeks and Romans and that of the Turks. (Savary, Lettres sur l'Egypte, tom. i. p. 25, 26.) |