Magnificence of
the caliphs,
A. D. 750-960.

of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan, | pire, and a Greek ambassador might admire, or pity, and Cordova, excommunicated each other, and agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an unbeliever." Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides were never tempted 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 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 serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson 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 em

r 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 Voltaire, (Histoire Generale, c. xxviii. tom. ii. p. 124, 125, edition de The mis. Lausanne,) concerning the division of the Saracen empire. takes 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, (Euphrate et le 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 ii. 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, (Itinerarium, 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. Mosta. sem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and put to death by the Tartars, A. H. 656. A. D. 1258. the 20th of February.

Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as is more neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers, Epnvoros (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

the magnificence of the feeble Moctader. "The 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 thousand eunuchs, four thousand of them white, the remainder black. The porters or door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hundred of which were of silk embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. A 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 precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the Greek ambassador was led by the vizir to the foot of the caliph's throne." In the west, the Ommiades of Spain supported, 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. Twenty-five 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 hall of audience was incrusted with gold and pearls, and a great bason in the centre was surrounded with the curious and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basons and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quick

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 lan-
guage of arithmetic.

y D'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut rarissime visam.

z Abulfeda, p. 184. 189. describes the splendour and liberality of Almamon. Milton has alluded to this oriental custom :

-Or where the gorgeous cast, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings Barbaric pearls and goid.

I have used the modern word lottery, to express the missilia of the
Roman emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught
them, as they were thrown among the crowd.

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 deuote the power of the king over the fiercest animals.

b Abulfeda, p. 237. D'Herbelot, p. 509. 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

1

silver. The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives,
concubines, and black eunuchs, amounted to six
thousand three hundred persons; and he was at-
tended to the field by a guard of twelve thousand
horse, whose belts and scymitars were studded with
gold.c

Its consequences

on private and
public happi-

ness.

Introduction of learning among the Arabians, A. D. 754, &c. 813, &c.

the Saracens; and the increase of pay, the repetition of donatives, were insufficient to allure the posterity of those voluntary champions who had crowded to the standard of Abubeker and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of paradise. Under the reign of the Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems were confined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the eloquence and poetry of their native tongue. A people continually exposed to the dangers of the field must esteem the healing powers of medicine, or rather of surgery: but the starving physicians of Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise and temperance deprived them of the greatest part of their practice. After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. This spirit was first encouraged by the caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mahometan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy. But when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science: at his command they were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language: his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and the successor of Mahomet assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the learned. "He was not ignorant," says Abulpharagius, "that they are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a bee-hive: these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments, they are much inferior to the vigour of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism." The zeal and curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas :

In a private condition, our desires are perpetually repressed by poverty and subordination; but the lives and labours of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic prince, whose laws are blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture; and whatever may be the cool dictates of reason, there are few among us who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrow the experience of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased caliph. "I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honours, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to FOURTEEN:-O man! place not thy confidence in this present world !" The luxury of the caliphs, so useless to their private happiness, relaxed the nerves, and terminated the progress, of the Arabian empire. Temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of the first successors of Mahomet; and after supplying themselves with the necessaries of life, the whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that salutary work. The Abbassides were impoverished by the multitude of their wants and their contempt of economy. Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, their leisure, their affections, the powers of their mind, were diverted by pomp and pleasure; the rewards of valour were embezzled by women and eunuchs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A similar temper was diffused among the subjects of the caliph. Their stern enthusiasm was softened by time and prosperity: they sought riches in the occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, and happiness in the tranquillity of domestic life. War was no longer the passion of

364.)

amiable Mr. Harris, of Salisbury. (Philological Inquiries, p. 363, eCardonne, Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 330–336. A just idea of the taste and architecture of the Arabians of Spain, may be conceived from the description and plates of the Alhambra of Grenada. (Swinburne's Travels, p. 171-188.)

d Cardonne, tom i. p. 329, 330. This confession, the complaints of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read Prior's verbose but eloquent poem,) and the happy ten days of the emperor Seghed, (Rambler, No. 204, 205.) will be triumphantly quoted by the detractors of human life. Their expectations are commonly immoderate, their estimates are sel dom impartial. If I may speak of myself, (the only person of whom I can speak with certainty,) my happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to add, that many of them are due to the pleasing labour of the present composition.

e The Gulistan (p. 289.) relates the conversation of Mahomet and a physician. (Epistol. Renaudot. in Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. i. p. 814.) The prophet himself was skilled in the art of medicine; and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 394–405.) has given an extract of the aphorisms which are extant under his name.

f See their curious architecture in Reaumur. (Hist. des Insectes, tom. v. Memoire viii.) These hexagons are closed by a pyramid; the angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid, such as would accomplish the given end with the smallest quantity possible of materials, were determined by a mathematician, at 109 degrees 26 minutes for the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for the smaller. The actual measure is 109 degrees 28 minutes, 70 degrees 32 minutes. Yet this perfect harmony raises the work at the expense of the artist: the bees are not masters of transcendant geometry.

g Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H. 462. A. D. 1069. has furnished Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 160.) with this curious

12.

Want of erudi

freedom.

astronomy, which elevates the mind of man to dis- | knowledge might be secreted in the temples and dain his diminutive planet and momentary exist- monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience had ence. The costly instruments of observation were been acquired in the practice of arts and manusupplied by the caliph Almamon, and the land of factures; but the science of chemistry owes its origin the Chaldæans still afforded the same spacious and improvement to the industry of the Saracens. level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains They first invented and named the alembic for the of Sinaar, and a second time in those of Cufa, his purposes of distillation, analyzed the substances of mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction the great circle of the earth, and determined at and affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted twenty-four thousand miles the entire circumference the poisonous minerals into soft and salutary meof our globe. From the reign of the Abbassides dicines. But the most eager search of Arabian to that of the grand-children of Tamerlane, the chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and the stars, without the aid of glasses, were diligently elixir of immortal health: the reason and the forobserved; and the astronomical tables of Bagdad, tunes of thousands were evaporated in the crucibles Spain, and Samarcand,a correct some minute errors, of alchymy, and the consummation of the great without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Pto- work was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, lemy, without advancing a step towards the dis- fable, and superstition. covery of the solar system. In the eastern courts, the truths of science could be recommended only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of astrology. But in the science of medicine, the Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixty physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession: in Spain, the life of the catholic princes was intrusted to the skill of the Saracens, and the school of Salerno, their legitimate offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art." The success of each professor must have been influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, botany, and chemistry," the threefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand plants. Some traditionary

370, 371. In quem (says the primate of the Jacobites) si immiserit se lector, oceanum hoc in genere (algebra) inveniet. The time of Dio. phantus of Alexandria is unknown, but his six books are still extant, and have been illustrated by the Greek Planudes and the Frenchman Meziriac. (Fabric. Bibliot. Græc. tom. iv. p. 12-15.)

P Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. p. 210, 211. vers. Reiske) describes this operation according to Ibu Challecan, and the best historians. This degree most accurately contains 200,000 royal or Hashemite cubits, which Arabia had derived from the sacred and legal practice both of Palestine and Egypt. This ancient cubit is repeated 400 times in each basis of the great pyramid, and seems to indicate the primitive and universal measures of the east. See the Metrologie of the laborious M. Paucton, p. 101-195.

See the Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Begh, with the preface of Dr. Hyde, in the first volume of his Syntagma Dissertationum, Oxon.

1767.

The truth of astrology was allowed by Albumazar, and the best of the Arabian astronomers, who drew their most certain predictions, not from Venus and Mercury, but from Jupiter and the sun. (Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 161-163.) For the state and science of the Persian astro. homers, see Chardin. (Voyages en Perse, tom. iii. p. 162-203.)

Bibliot, Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 438. The original relates a pleasant tale of an ignorant, but harmless, practitioner.

Iu the year 956, Sancho the fat, king of Leon, was cured by the physicians of Cordova. (Mariana, 1. viii. c. 7. tom. i. p. 318.)

But the Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of a tion, taste, and familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any foreign idiom. The Greek interpreters were chosen among their christian subjects; they formed their translations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently perhaps on a Syriac version; and in the crowd of astronomers and physicians, there is no example of a poet, an orator, or even an historian, being taught to speak the language of the Saracens. The mythology of Homer would have provoked the abhorrence of those stern fanatics; they possessed in lazy ignorance the colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and Rome: the heroes of Plutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion; and the history of the world before Mahomet was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; and I am not forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations, of whose language I am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have much to teach, and I believe that the orientals have much to learn: the temperate dignity of style, the graceful proportions

u The school of Salerno, and the introduction of the Arabian sciences into Italy, are discussed with learning and judgment by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italia Medii Evi, tom. iii. p. 932-940.) and Giannone. (Istoria Civili di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 119-127.)

x See a good view of the progress of Anatomy in Wotton. (Reflections on Ancient and modern Learning, p. 208-256.) His reputation has been unworthily depreciated by the wits in the controversy of Boyle and Bentley.

y Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 275. Al Beithar, of Malaga, their greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa, Persia, and India.

Dr. Watson (Elements of Chemistry, vol. i. p. 17, &c.) allows the original merit of the Arabians. Yet he quotes the modest confession of the famous Geber of the ninth century, (D'Herbelot, p. 317.) that he had drawn most of his science, perhaps of the transmutation of metals, from the ancient sages. Whatever might be the origin or extent of their knowledge, the arts of chemistry and alchymy appear to have been known in Egypt at least three hundred years before Mahomet. (Wotton's Reflections, p. 121-133. Pauw, Recherches sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois, tom. i. p. 376-429.)

a Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 26. 148.) mentions a Syrian version of Homer's two poems, by Theophilus, a christian Maronite of mount Libanus, who professed astronomy at Roha or Edessa towards the end of the eighth century. His work would be a literary curiosity. I have read somewhere, but I do not believe, that Plutarch's Lives were translated into Turkish for the use of Mahomet the second.