LII. CHAP. crowds of Perfia, Syria, and Egypt, they infenfibly loft the freeborn and martial virtues of the defert. The courage of the South is the artificial fruit of difcipline and prejudice; the active power of enthusiasm had decayed, and the mercenary forces of the caliphs were recruited in those climates of the North, of which valour is the hardy and fpontaneous production. Of the Turks" who dwelt beyond the Oxus and Jaartes, the robuft youths, either taken in war, or purchased in trade, were educated in the exercises of the field, and the profeffion of the Mahometan faith. The Turkish guards ftood in arms round the throne of their benefactor, and their chiefs ufurped the dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motaffem, the first author of this dangerous example, introduced into the capital above fifty thousand Turks their licentious conduct provoked the public indignation, and the quarrels of the foldiers and people induced the caliph to retire from Bagdad, and establish his own refidence and the camp of his Barbarian favourites at Samara on the Tigris, about twelve leagues above the city of Peace 98. His fon Motawakkel was a jealous and cruel tyrant odious to his fubjects, he caft him 97 M. de Guignes, who fometimes leaps, and fometimes stumbles, in the gulph between Chinese and Mahometan story, thinks he can fee, that thefe Turks are the Hoei-ke, alias the Kaostche, or highwaggons; that they were divided into fifteen hords, from China and Siberia to the dominions of the caliphs and Samanides, &c. (Hift. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 1-33 124-131.) 98 He changed the old name of Sumere, or Samara, into the fanciful title of Ser-mēn-raï, that which gives pleasure at firft fight (d'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 808. d'Anville, l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 97,98.). felf LII. felf on the fidelity of the ftrangers, and thefe CHAP. ftrangers, ambitious and apprehenfive, were tempt ed by the rich promife of a revolution. At the inftigation, or at leaft in the caufe of his fon, they burst into his apartment at the hour of fupper, and the caliph was cut into seven pieces by the fame fwords which he had recently distributed among the guards of his life and throne. To this throne, yet streaming with a father's blood, Montaffer was triumphantly led; but in a reign of fix months, he found only the pangs of a guilty confcience. If he wept at the fight of an old tapestry which represented the crime and punishment of the fon of Chofroes; if his days were abridged by grief and remorse, we may allow fome pity to a parricide, who exclaimed in the bitterness of death, that he had loft both this world, and the world to come. After this act of treason, the enfigns of royalty, the garment and walking-ftaff of Mahome, were given and torn away by the foreign mercenaries, who in four years created, depofed, and murdered three commanders of the faithful. As often as the Turks were inflamed by fear, or rage, or avarice, thefe caliphs were dragged by the feet, expofed naked to the fcorching fun, beaten with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase, by the abdication of their dignity, a fhort reprieve of inevitable fate ". At length, however, the fury of the 90 Take a fpecimen, the death of the caliph Motaz: Correptum pedibus petrahunt, et fudibus probe permulcant, et fpoliatum laceris veftibus in fole collocant, præ cujus, acerrimo æftû pedes alternis attollebat et demittebat. Adftantium aliquis miferó colaphos continuo ingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus avertere ftudebat . . . Quo CHAP. the tempeft was spent or diverted: the AbbafLII. fides returned to the lefs turbulent refidence Rife and progrefs of Bagdad; the infolence of the Turks was curbed with a firmer and more fkilful hand, and their numbers were divided and destroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the Eaft had been taught to trample on the fucceffors of the prophet; and the bleffings of domestic peace were obtained by the relaxation of ftrength and difcipline. So uniform are the mifchiefs of military defpotifm, that I seem to repeat the story of the prætorians of Rome 1oo. 100 While the flame of enthusiasm was damped by the bufinefs, the pleasure, and the knowledge, of the it burnt with concentrated heat in the. breafts of the chofen few, the congenial fpirits, 890-951. who were ambitious of reigning either in this of the Carmathians, A. D. age, world or in the next. How carefully foever the. book of prophecy had been fealed by the apostle of Mecca, the wishes, and (if we may profane the word) even the reafon, of fanaticifm, might believe that, after the fucceffive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Mofes, Jefus, and Mahomet, the fame God, in the fulness of time, would re-. veal a ftill more perfect and permanent law. In. the two hundred and seventy-seventh year of the Hegira, and in the neighbourhood of Cufa, an Quo facto traditus tortori fuit totoque triduo cibo potuque prohibitus.... Suffocatus, &c. (Abulfeda, p. 206.) Of the caliph Mohtadi, he says, cervices ipfi perpetuis icibus contundebant, tefticulofque pedibus conculcabant (p. 208.). 100 See under the reigns of Motaffem, Motawakkel, Mostanser, Mostain, Motaz, Mohtadi, and Motamed, in the Bibliotheque of d'Herbelot, and the now familiar Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda. Arabian LII. Arabian preacher, of the name of Carmath, af- CHAP. fumed the lofty and incomprehenfible style of the Guide, the Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghoft, the Camel, the Herald of the Meffiah, who had conversed with him in a human shape, and the representative of Mohammed the fon of Ali, of St. John the Baptift, and of the angel Gabriel. In his mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to a more fpiritual fenfe; he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage; allowed the indifcriminate use of wine and forbidden food; and nourished the fervour of his difciples by the daily repetition of fifty prayers. The idlenefs and ferment of the ruftic crowd awakened the attention of the magiftrates of Cufa; a timid perfecution affifted the progrefs of the new fect; and the name of the prophet became more revered after his perfon had been withdrawn from the world. His twelve apoftles difperfed themselves among the Bedoweens," a race of men," fays Abulfeda, "equally devoid of reafon and of religion ;" and the fuccefs of their preaching feemed to threaten Arabia with a new revolution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, fince they difclaimed the title of the houfe of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of the caliphs of Bagdad. They were fufceptible of discipline, fince they vowed a blind and abfolute fubmiffion to their Imam, who was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he claimed the fifth of their fubftance and fpoil; the most flagitious fins were no more than the type of LII. Their mi- CHAP. of difobedience; and the brethren were united and concealed by an oath of fecrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in the province of Bahrein, along the Persian Gulf: far and wide, the tribes of the defert were fubject to the fceptre, or rather to the fword, of Abu Said and his fon Abu Taher; and these rebellious imams could mufter in the field an hundred and feven thousand fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were difmayed at the approach of an enemy who neither afked nor accepted quarter; and the difference between them, in fortitude and patience, is expreffive of the change which three centuries of profperity had effected in the character of the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Baffora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was filled with confternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veils of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horfe. By the special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the perfon or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander of the faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprifed Abu Taher of his danger, and recommended a fpeedy escape. "Your master," said the intrepid Carmathian to the meflenger, " is at the "head of thirty thousand foldiers: three fuch "men as thefe are wanting in his hoft:" at the fame inftant, turning to three of his companions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his |