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right and duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of the empire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise this pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal." The natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship, which had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy after the loss of her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his death had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies of his family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and noble Palæologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch intrusted a fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his first exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well as steel was the instrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the western coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in two campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions: and the modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was content with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all the walls of the palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of the German Cæsars; but the sucHis design of acquiring Italy and cessor of Constantine soon renounced the western em- this ignominious pretence, claimed the A. D. 1155-1174, indefeasible dominion of Italy, and

pire,

&c. professed his design of chasing the barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal gifts, and unbounded promises, of their eastern ally, the free cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a river of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks was fortified by the jealous enmity of the Venetians. The situation and trade of Ancona rendered it an important garrison in the heart of Italy it was twice besieged by the arms of Frederic; the imperial forces were twice repulsed by

For the invasion of Italy, which is almost overlooked by Nicetas, see the more polite history of Cinnamus, (1. iv. c. 1-15. p. 78-101.) who introduces a diffuse narrative by a lofty profession, TEPE THE Σικελίας τε, και της Ιταλών εσκέπτετο γης, ὡς και ταυτας Ρωμαίοις

ανασώσαιτο.

x The Latin, Otho, (de Gestis Frederici I. 1. ii. c. 30. p. 734.) attests the forgery; the Greek, Cinnamus, (1. i. c. 4. p. 78.) claims a promise of restitution from Conrad and Frederic. An act of fraud is always credible when it is told of the Greeks.

y Quod Anconitani Græcum imperium nimis diligerent Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love, perhaps of envy, were the beneficia, flumen aureum of the emperor; and the Latin narrative is confirmed by Cinnamus, (1. iv. c. 14. p. 98.)

z Muratori mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the first in 1167, against Frederic I. in person; (Annali, tom. x. p. 39, &c.) the second in 1173, against his lieutenant Christian, archbishop of Mentz, a mau unworthy of his name and office, (p. 76, &c.) It is of the second siege that we possess an original narrative, which he has published in his great collection, (tom. vi. p. 921-946.)

the spirit of freedom; that spirit was animated by the ambassador of Constantinople; and the most intrepid patriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the wealth and honours of the Byzantine court. The pride of Manuel disdained and rejected a barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope of stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in the west, as in the east, his lawful title of sole emperor of the Romans. With this view, he solicited the alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome. Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani, secured the support of that powerful family, and his royal standard or image was entertained with due reverence in the ancient metropolis. During the quarrel between Frederic and Alexander the third, the pope twice received in the Vatican the ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his piety by the long-promised union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal court, and exhorted the Roman pontiff to seize the just provocation, the favourable moment, to humble the savage insolence of the Alemanni, and to acknowledge the true representative of Constantine and Augustus.c

a

But these Italian conquests, this Failure of his universal reign, soon escaped from the designs. hand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded by the prudence of Alexander the third, who paused on this deep and momentous revolution;d nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute to renounce the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After his reunion with Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of Constantinople and Rome. The free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their foreign benefactor, and without preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred the enmity of Venice. By his own avarice, or the complaints of his subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This violation of the public faith exasperated a free and commercial people: one hundred galleys were launched and armed in as many days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece; but after some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreea We derive this anecdote from an anonymous chronicle of Fossa Nova, published by Muratori. (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 874.)

b The Bartelov onμecov of Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 14. p. 99.) is susceptible of this double sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more Greek.

e Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa et tempus opportunum et acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona imperii a sancto apostolo sibi redderetur; quoniam non ad Frederici Alamanni, sed ad suum jus asseruit pertinere. (Vit. Alexandri III, a Cardinal. Arragoniæ, in Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. pars i. p. 458.) His second embassy was accompanied cum immensâ multitudine pecuniarum. d Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III. p. 460, 461.) says the cautious pope.

• Μηδέν μέσον είναι γεγων Ρωμῃ τῇ νεότερα προς την πρεσβυτέραν παλαιαπορία γείσων. (Cinnamus, I. iv. c. 14. p. 99.)

f In his sixth book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian war, which Nicetas has not thought worthy of his attention. The Italian accounts, which do not satisfy our curiosity, are reported by the annalist Muratori, under the years 1171, &c.

Peace with the
Romans,
A. D. 1156.

which punished the crimes of Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus, the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment of four thousand captives. Such was the event of the last contest between the Greeks and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations were lost or degraded in foreign servitude: and the successsors of Constantine did not long survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy.

cily,

A. D. 1154.
Feb. 26-
A. D. 1166.
May 7.

ment, inglorious to the empire, insufficient for the | and under the walls of Durazzo. A revolution republic; and a complete vengeance of these and of fresh injuries, was reserved for the succeeding generation. The lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily. His prophecy was soon verified: the death of Palæologus devolved the command on several chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks were oppressed by land and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords of the Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person or dominions of their conqueror. Yet the king of Sicily esteemed the courage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on the Italian shore: he respectfully addressed the new Justinian; solicited a peace or truce of thirty years, accepted as a gift the regal title; and acknowledged himself the military vassal of the Roman empire. The Byzantine Cæsars acquiesced in this shadow of dominion, without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the service of a Norman army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by any hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of that period the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had deserved the abhorrence of his country and mankind: the sword of William the second, the grandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race; and the subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since they detested their Last war of the Sovereign as the worst of enemies. The Greeks and Nor- Latin historians expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts who invaded Romania with a fleet and army, and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience of the king of Sicily. The Greeks accuse and magnify the wanton and sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those invincible but unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The latter applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories of their countrymen on the sea of Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon,

mans,

A. D. 1185.

g This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno, (in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 198.) It is whimsical enough, that in the praise of the king of Sicily, Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 13. p. 97, 98.) is much warmer and copious than Falcandus, (p. 268. 270.) But the Greek is fond of description, and the Latin historian is not fond of William the Bad. h For the epistle of William I. see Cinnamus (1. iv. c. 15. p. 101, 102.) and Nicetas, (1. ii. c. 8.) It is difficult to affirm, whether these Greeks deceived themselves, or the public, in these flattering portraits of the grandeur of the empire.

i I can only quote of original evidence, the poor chronicles of Sicard of Cremona, (p. 603.) and of Fossa Nova, (p. 875.) as they are published in the seventh tome of Muratori's historians. The king of Sicily sent his troops contra nequitiam Andronici ad acquirendum imperium C. P. They were capti aut confusi decepti captique, by Isaac.

.....

k By the failure of Cinnamus, we are now reduced to Nicetas, (in Andronico, 1. i. c. 7, 8, 9. l. ii. c. 1. in Isaac Angelo, I. i. c. 1-4.) who now becomes a respectable contemporary. As he survived the emperor and the empire, he is above flattery: but the fall of Constantinople exasperated his prejudices against the Latins. For the honour of learning I shall observe that Homer's great commentator, Eustathius archbishop of Thessalonica, refused to desert his flock.

The sceptre of Roger successively William I. the devolved to his son and grandson: Bad, king of Si. they might be confounded under the name of William; they are strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good: but these epithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to arms by danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the valour of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were dissolute; his passions head-strong and mischievous; and the monarch is responsible, not only for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused the confidence, and conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of oriental manners; the despotism, the pomp, and even the haram, of a sultan; and a christian people was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly professed, or secretly cherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent historian of the times' has delineated the misfortunes of his country; the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment of his assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; the private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the various forms of calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the continent, during the reign of William the first, and the minority of his son. The youth, innocence, and beauty of William the second," endeared him to the nation: the factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the

m

William II. the

Good,
A. D. 1166.
May-
A. D. 1189.
Nov. 16.

1 The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which properly extends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the seventh volume of Muratori's Collection, (tom. vii. p. 259–344.) and preceded by an eloquent preface or epistle (p. 251-258.) de Calamitatibus Siciliæ. Falcandus has been styled the Tacitus of Sicily; and, after a just, but immense, abate. ment, from the first to the twelfth century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip him of his title: his narrative is rapid and perspicuous, his style bold and elegant, his observation keen: he had studied mankind, and feels like a man. I can only regret the narrow and barren field on which his labours have been cast.

m The laborious Benedictines (l'Art de verifier les Dates, p. 896.) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus, is Fulcandus, or Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucault, a Frenchman by birth, and at length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la Perche, uncle to the mother of William II. archbishop of Palermo, and great chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian: and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on himself) appears to indicate, that he was born, or at least educated, in the island.

n Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his history from the death and praises of William II. After some unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: legis et justitiæ cultus tempore suo vigebat in

But

Conquest of the kingdom of Sicily by the em. peror Henry VII.

A. D. 1104.

manhood to the premature death of that amiable | Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of peace, triple walls enclose the active multitudes of chrisjustice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced tians and Saracens. If the two nations, under one by the remembrance of the past and the dread of king, can unite for their common safety, they may futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred rush on the barbarians with invincible arms. of Hauteville was extinct in the person of the if the Saracens, fatigued by a repetition of injuries, second William; but his aunt, the daughter of should now retire and rebel; if they should occupy Roger, had married the most powerful prince of the castles of the mountains and sea-coast, the the age; and Henry the sixth, the son of Frederic unfortunate christians, exposed to a double attack, Barbarossa, descended from the Alps, to claim the and placed as it were between the hammer and the imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. anvil, must resign themselves to hopeless and ineAgainst the unanimous wish of a free people, this vitable servitude."* We must not forget, that a inheritance could only be acquired by arms; and I priest here prefers his country to his religion; and am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the that the Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were historian Falcandus, who writes at the moment and still numerous and powerful in the state of Sicily. on the spot, with the feelings of a patriot, and the The hopes, or at least the wishes, of prophetic eye of a statesman. "Constantia, the Falcandus, were at first gratified by the Lamentation of daughter of Sicily, nursed from her free and unanimous election of Tancred the historian cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and the grandson of the first king, whose Falcandus. educated in the arts and manners, of birth was illegitimate, but whose civil and military this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich the virtues shone without a blemish. During four barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, years, the term of his life and reign, he stood in with her savage allies, to contaminate the beauties arms on the furthest verge of the Apulian frontier, of her venerable parent. Already I behold the against the powers of Germany; and the restitution swarms of angry barbarians: our opulent cities, the of a royal captive, of Constantia herself, without places flourishing in a long peace, are shaken with injury or ransom, may appear to surpass the most fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, liberal measure of policy or reason. After his deand polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the cease, the kingdom of his widow and infant son massacre or captivity of our citizens, the rapes of fell without a struggle; and Henry pursued his our virgins and matrons. In this extremity (he victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The pointerrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act? litical balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; By the unanimous election of a king of valour and and if the pope and the free cities had consulted experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet be pre- their obvious and real interest, they would have served; for in the levity of the Apulians, ever combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent eager for new revolutions, I can repose neither con- the dangerous union of the German empire with the fidence nor hope. Should Calabria be lost, the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for lofty towers, the numerous youth, and the naval which the Vatican has so often been praised or arstrength, of Messina, might guard the passage raigned, was on this occasion blind and inactive; against a foreign invader. If the savage Germans and if it were true that Celestine the third had coalesce with the pirates of Messina; if they de- kicked away the imperial crown from the head of stroy with fire the fruitful region, so often wasted the prostrate Henry, such an act of impotent pride by the fires of mount Etna, what resource will be could serve only to cancel an obligation and provoke left for the interior parts of the island, these noble an enemy. The Genoese, who enjoyed a beneficial cities which should never be violated by the hostile | trade and establishment in Sicily, listened to the footsteps of a barbarian? Catana has again been promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy deoverwhelmed by an earthquake: the ancient virtue parture: their fleet commanded the straits of of Syracuse expires in poverty and solitude;" but Messina, and opened the harbour of Palermo; and

regno; suâ erat quilibet forte contentus; (were they mortals?) ubique
pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum metuebat viator insidias, nec
maris nauta offendicula piratarum. (Script. Rerum Ital, tom, vii. p. 969.)
o Constantia, primis a cunabulis in deliciarum tuarum affluentia
diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinis, et moribus informata, tan-
dem opibus tuis barbaros delatura discessit: et nunc cum ingentibus
copiis revertitur, ut pulcherrima nutricis ornamenta barbaricâ fœditate
contaminet
Intueri mihi jam videor turbulentas barbarorum
acies
civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florentia, metů
concutere, cædi vastare, rapinis atterere, et fœdare luxuriâ: hinc cives
aut gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi, virgines constupratæ, ma-
tronæ, &c.

.....

[blocks in formation]

esset..

vel barbarorum ingressû pollui. I wish to transcribe his florid, but curious, description of the palace, city, and luxuriant plain of Palermo.

u Vires non suppetunt, et conatus tuos tam inopia civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt.

x At vero, quia difficile et christianos in tanto rerum turbine, sublato regis timore, Saracenos non opprimere, si Saraceni injuriis fatigati ab eis cœperint dissidere, et castella forte maritima vel montanas munitiones occupaverint; ut hinc cum Theutonicis summâ virtute pugnandum illinc Saracenis crebris insultibus occurrendum, quid putas acturi sunt Siculi inter has depressi angustias, et velut inter malleum et incudem multo cum discrimine constituti? hoc utique agent quod poterunt, ut se barbaris miserabili conditione dedentes, in eorum se conferant potestatem. O utinam plebis et procerum, christianorum et Saracenorum vota conveniant; ut regem sibi concorditer eligentes, barbaros totis viribus, toto conanime, totisque desideriis proturbare contendant. The Normaus and Sicilians appear to be confounded.

y The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de Hoveden, (p. 689.) will lightly weigh against the silence of German and Italian history. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. x. p. 156) The priests and pilgrims, who returned from Rome, exalted, by every tale, the omnipotence of the holy father.

Ego enim in eo cum Teutonicis manere non debeo. (Ceffari, Annal. Genuenses, in Muratori. Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. vi. p. 367, 368.)

the first act of his government was to abolish the privileges, and to seize the property, of these imprudent allies. The last hope of Falcandus was defeated by the discord of the christians and Mahometans: they fought in the capital; several thousand of the latter were slain; but their surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed about thirty years the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic the second, sixty thousand Saracens were transplanted to Nocera in Apulia. In their wars against the Roman church, the emperor and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced by the service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony maintained their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated, at the end of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge of the house of Anjou." All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored, were surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated the royal sepulchres, and explored the secret treasures of the palace, Palermo, and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily. The young king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles of both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on the slightest rumour of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of their eyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched with sympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line might struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony of her new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age under the name of Frederic the second. Ten years after this of the Normans, revolution, the French monarchs anA. D. 1204. nexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes had been transmitted, by a grand-daughter of William the Conqueror, to the house of Plantaganet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the east, were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations.

Final extinction

CHAP. LVII.

b

The Turks of the house of Seljuk.-Their revolt against Mahmud, conqueror of Hindostan.-Togrul

a For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, see the Annals of Muratori, (tom. x. p. 149. and A. D. 1223. 1247.) Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 385.) and of the originals, in Muratori's Collection, Richard de St. Germano, (tom. vii. p. 996.) Matteo Spinelli de Giovenazzo, (tom. vii. p. 1064.) Nicholas de Jamsilla, (tom. x. p. 494.) and Matteo Villani, (tom. xiv. I. vii. p. 103.) The last of these insinuates, that in reducing the Saracens of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather artifice than

violence.

b Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec, (1. iv. c. 20.) Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum pretiosorum et gemmarum gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis, gloriose ad terram suam redierit. Roger de Hoveden, who mentions the violation of the royal tomb and corpses, computes the spoil of Salerno at 200,000 ounces of gold, (p. 746.) On these occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid in La Fontaine, "Je voudrois bien avoir ce qui manque."

a I am indebted for his character and history to D'Herbelot, (Biblio.

subdues Persia, and protects the caliphs.-Defeat and captivity of the emperor Romanus Diogenes by Alp Arslan.-Power and magnificence of Malek Shah.-Conquest of Asia Minor and Syria.-State and oppression of Jerusalem.-Pilgrimages to the holy sepulchre.

THE TURKS.

FROM the isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond the Caspian sea, to the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was principally directed. Their Scythian empire of the sixth century was long since dissolved; but the name was still famous among the Greeks and orientals; and the fragments of the nation, each a powerful and independent people, were scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and the Danube: the colony of Hungarians was admitted into the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia were occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these northern shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia: their princes of the race of Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia Minor, till the victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia. One of the greatest of the Turkish Mahmud the princes was Mahmood or Mahmud,a the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia one thousand years after the birth of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the commander of the faithful. But in this descent of servitude, the first degree was merely titular, since it was filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorassan, who still paid a nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second rank was that of a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step was a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; from which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supreme command of the city and province of Gazna, as the son-in-law and successor of his grateful master. The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected, and at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public disorders, the fortune of Mahmud continually increased. For him the title of sultand was first invented; and his kingdom was enlarged from

b

Gaznevide, A. D. 997-1028.

theque Orientale, Mahmud, p. 533–537.) M. de Guignes, (Histoire des Huns, tom. iii. p. 155-173.) and our countryman, Colonel Alexander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23-83.) In the two first volumes of his History of Hin dostan, he styles himself the translator of the Persian Ferishta; but in his florid text, it is not easy to distinguish the version and the original. b The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A. D. 874-999. under ten princes. See their succession and ruin, in the Tables of M. de Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 404-406.) They were followed by the Gaznevides, A. D. 999-1183. (see tom. i. p. 239, 240.) His division of nations often disturbs the series of time and place.

c Gaznah hortos non habet; est emporium et domicilium mercaturæ Indicæ. Abulfedæ Geograph, Reiske, tab. xxiii. p. 349. D'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller.

d By the ambassador of the Caliph of Bagdad, who employed an Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master. (D'Herbelot, p. 825. It is interpreted Αυτοκρατωρ, Βασιλευς Βασιλέων, by the Byzantine writers of the eleventh century; and the name (ZOUλTavos, Sol

dostan.

Transoxiana to the neighbourhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the holy war which he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative I may not consume a page; and a volume would His twelve expeditions into Hin- scarcely suffice to recapitulate the battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Never was the mussulman hero dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the breadth of the rivers, the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the enemy, or the formidable array of their elephants of war. The sultan of Gazna surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march of three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city of Kinnoge,f on the Upper Ganges: and, in a naval combat on one of the branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand boats of the natives. Dehli, Lahor, and Multan, were compelled to open their gates: the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and his avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden and aromatic isles of the Southern ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs preserved their dominions; the people, their lives and fortunes; but to the religion of Hindostan, the zealous mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many hundred temples, or pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand idols were demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in the neighbourhood of Diu, one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese.s It was endowed with the revenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins were consecrated to the service of the deity, whom they washed each morning and evening in water from the distant Ganges the subordinate ministers consisted of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the temple were protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or artifical precipice; and the city and adjacent country were peopled by a nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and Dehli; but if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance. By this challenge, the faith of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the strength of this Indian deity. Fifty danus) is familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after it had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p. 238240. Gloss. Græc. et Latin.) labours to find the title of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia; but his proofs are mere shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11.) an anticipation of Zonaras, &c. and a medal of Kai Khofrou, not (as he believes) the Sassanide of the sixth, but the Seljukide of Iconium of the twelfth century. (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 246.)

e Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 49.) mentions the report of a gun in the Indian army. But as I am slow in believing this premature (A. D. 1008.) use of artillery, I must desire to scrutinize

thousand of his worshippers were pierced by the spear of the Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the idol. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions sterling for his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, that the destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos; and that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. "Your reasons," replied the sultan, are specious and strong; but never in the eyes of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols." He repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the belly of the statue, explained in some degree the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad listened to the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet.

66

From the paths of blood, and such is His character. the history of nations, I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in the east; his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace; his vices were concealed by the veil of religion; and two familiar examples will testify his justice and magnanimity. I. As he sat in the divan, an unhappy subject bowed before the throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier, who had driven him from his house and bed. "Suspend your clamours," said Mahmud," inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will judge and punish the offender." The sultan followed his guide, invested the house with his guards, and extinguishing the torches, pronounced the death of the criminal, who had been seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the execution of his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in prayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which he devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man, whose injury he had avenged, was unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity; and the courteous monarch condescended to explain the motives of this singular behaviour. "I had reason to suspect that none except one of my sons could dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, that my justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was a thanksgiving on the discovery of the offender; and so painful was my anxiety, that I had passed three days without food since the first moment of your complaint." II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the first the text, and then the authority, of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court in the last century.

f Kinnouge, or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra,) is marked in latitude 27° 3', longitude 80° 13'. See D'Anville (Antiquité de l'Inde, p. 60— 62.) corrected by the local knowledge of Major Rennel, (in his excellent Memoir on his Map of Hindostan, p. 37-43.) 300 jewellers, 30,000 shops for the areca nut, 60,000 bands of musicians, &c. (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p. 274. Dow, vol. i. p. 16.) will allow an ample de. duction.

The idolaters of Europe, says Ferishta. (Dow, vol. i. p. 66.) Consult Abulfeda, (p. 272.) and Rennel's Map of Hindostan.

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