LII. CHAP. equally astonished that any nation could resist their invincible arms, that any boundary fhould confine the dominion of the fucceffor of the prophet. The confidence of foldiers and fanatics may indeed be excufed, fince the calm hiftorian of the prefent hour, who strives to follow the rapid courfe of the Saracens, muft ftudy to explain by what means the church and state were faved from this impending, and, as it fhould feem, from this inevitable danger. The deferts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty, and the courage of the northern fhepherds; China was remote and inacceffible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the calamities of war and the lofs of their fairest provinces, and the Barbarians of Europe might juftly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I fhall unfold the events that refcued our ancestors of Britain, and our neighbours of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran; that protected the majefty of Rome, and delayed the fervitude of Conftantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Chriftians, and scattered among their enemies the feeds of division and decay. Firft fiege of Con Forty-fix years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his difciples appeared in arms under the ple by the walls of Conftantinople'. They were animated ftantino Arabs, by Theophanes places the feven years of the fiege of Conftantinople in the year of our Christian æra 673 (of the Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1.), and the peace of the Saracens, four years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency! LII. A. D. 668-675 by a genuine or fictitious saying of the prophet, CHAP. that, to the first army which befieged the city of the Cæfars, their fins were forgiven: the long feries of Roman triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of New Rome; and the wealth of nations was depofited in this wellchofen feat of royalty and commerce. No fooner had the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne, than he afpired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by the success and glory of his holy expedition; his preparations by fea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his standard was entrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the troops were encouraged by the example and prefence of Yezid the fon and prefumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reafons of fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor, who difgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or oppofition, the naval forces of the Saracens paffed through the unguarded channel of the Hellefpont, which even now, under the inconfistency! which Petavius, Goar, and Pagi (Critica, tom.iv. p. 63, 64.), have struggled to remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira 52 (A. D. 672, January 8.) is assigned by Elmacin, the year 48 (A. D. 668, Feb. 20.) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteem the most convenient and creditable. 2 For this firft fiege of Conftantinople, fee Nicephorus (Breviar. p. 21, 22.); Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 294.); Cedrenus (Compend. p. 437.); Zonaras (Hift. tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 89.); Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 56, 57.); Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. p. 107, 108. verf. Reifke); d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. Constantinah); Ockley's Hift. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p..127, 128. B 2 feeble LII. CHA P. feeble and diforderly government of the Turks, is maintained as the natural bulwark of the capital. The Arabian fleet caft anchor, and the troops were difembarked near the palace of Hebdomon, feven miles from the city. During many days, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of affault was extended from the golden gate to the eastern promontory, and the foremost warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the fucceeding columns. But the befiegers had formed an infufficient estimate of the strength and refources of Conftantinople. The folid and lofty walls were guarded by numbers and discipline: the spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the laft danger of their religion and empire: the fugitives from the conquered provinces more fuccefsfully renewed the defence of Damafcus and Alexandria; and the Saracens were difmayed by the ftrange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. This firm and effectual refiftance diverted their arms to the more easy attempts of plundering the European and Afiatic coafts of the Propontis; and, after keeping the fea from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of winter they retreated fourfcore miles from the capital, to the isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established 3 The ftate and defence of the Dardanelles is expofed in the Memoires of the Baron de Tott (tom. iii. p. 39-97.), who was fent to fortify them against the Ruffians. From a principal actor, I fhould have expected more accurate details; but he seems to write for the amusement, rather than the inftruction, of his reader. Perhaps, on the approach of the enemy, the minifter of Conftantine was occupied, like that of Muftapha, in finding two Canary birds, who should fing precifely the fame note. their LII. their magazine of spoil and provisions. So patient CHA P. was their perfeverance, or fo languid were their operations, that they repeated in the fix following fummers the fame attack and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vigour, till the mifchances of fhipwreck and disease, of the fword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the lofs or commemorate the martyrdom of thirty thousand Moflems, who fell in the fiege of Conftantinople; and the folemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the curiofity of the Chriftians themselves. That venerable Arab, one of the laft of the companions of Mahomet, was numbered among the anfars, or auxiliaries, of Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. In his youth he fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the holy standard in his mature age he was the friend and follower of Ali; and the last remnant of his ftrength and life was confumed in a diftant and dangerous war against the enemies of the Koran. His memory was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and unknown, during a period of feven hundred and eighty years, till the conqueft of Conftantinople by Mahomet the fecond. A seasonable vision (for fuch are the manufacture of every religion) revealed the holy fpot at the foot of the walls and the bottom of the harbour; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly chofen for the fimple and martial inauguration of the Turkifh fultans 4 The 4 Demetrius Cantemir's Hift. of the Othman empire, p. 105, 106. Rycaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 1o, 11. Voyages de The CHAP. tribute, A. D. 677. The event of the fiege revived, both in the East and West, the reputation of the Roman arms, and Peace and caft a momentary fhade over the glories of the Saracens. The Greek ambassador was favourably received at Damafcus, in a general council of the emirs or Koreish: a peace, or truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two empires; and the stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses of a noble breed, fifty flaves, and three thoufand pieces of gold, degraded the majefty of the commander of the faithful. The aged caliph was defirous of poffeffing his dominions, and ending his days in tranquillity and repose: while the Moors and Indians trembled at his name, his palace and city of Damafcus was infulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of mount Libanus, the firmest barrier of the empire, till they were disarmed and transplanted by the fufpicious policy of the Greeks. After the revolt of Arabia and Perfia, the house of Ommiyah' was reduced to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: venot, part i. p. 189. The Christians, who suppose that the martyr Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the patriarch Job, betray their own ignorance rather than that of the Turks. 5 Theophanes, though a Greek, deferves credit for these tributes (Chronograph. p. 295, 296. 300, 301.), which are confirmed, with fome variation, by the Arabic hiftory of Abulpharagius (Dynaft. p. 128. verf. Pocock). 6 The cenfure of Theophanes is juft and pointed, Tn Popainny δυναςείαν ακρωτηρίασας πανδεινα κακα πεπονθεν ἡ Ρωμανία ύπο των AgaBwv μEXP T V (Chronograph. p. 302, 303.). The feries of thefe events may be traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the Abridgment of the Patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22. 24. 7 Thefe domeftic revolutions are related in a clear and natural ftyle, in the fecond volume of Ockley's Hiftory of the Saracens, P. 253-370. Besides our printed authors, he draws his materials from |