LII. lonides, A. D. 868-905. The Ikhi dites, 107 CHAP. realms of Perfia returned for a while to the allegiance of the caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice difmembered by their The Tou- Turkish flaves, of the race of Toulun and Ikshid Thefe Barbarians, in religion and manners the countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from the bloody factions of the palace to a provincial com934-968. mand and an independent throne: their names became famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of these two potent dynafties confeffed, either in words or actions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored the mercy of God to a finner, ignorant of the limits of his own power: the fecond, in the midst of four hundred thoufand foldiers and eight thousand flaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where he attempted to fleep. Their fons were educated in the vices of kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and poffeffed by the Abbaffides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their empire, Mefopotamia, with the important cities of Moful and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan. The poets of their court could reA. D. 892 peat without a blush, that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valour: but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of the Hamadanites, exhibits a fcene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the fame The Ha madanites, -1001. 107 M. de Guignes (Hift. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 124-154.) has exhaufted the Toulonides and Ikfhidites of Egypt, and thrown fome light on the Carmathians and Hamadanites. fatal LII. The BoA. D. 933 wides, 1005. fatal period, the Perfian kingdom was again. CHAP. ufurped by the dynasty of the Borides, by the fword of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of the ftate, and who, from the Cafpian fea to the ocean, would fuffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language and genius of Perfia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the fceptre of the Eaft. Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbaffides, and the thirty-ninth of the fucceffors of Mahomet, was the last who deferved the title of commander of the faithful: the laft (fays Abulfeda) who spoke to the people, or converfed with the learned: the last who, in the expence of his household, reprefented the wealth and magnifiecence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of the Eastern world were reduced to the most abject mifery, and expofed to the blows and infults of a fervile condition. The revolt of the provinces circumfcribed their dominions within the walls of Bagdad; but that capital ftill contained an in 108 Hic eft ultimus chalifah qui multum atque fæpius pro concione perorarit .... Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere foleret. Ultimus tandem chalifarum cui fumtus, ftipendia, reditus, et thefauri, culina, cæteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad inftar comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo poft quam indignis et fervilibus ludibriis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam ultimumque contemptum abjecti fuerint hi quondam potentiffimi totius terrarum Orientalium orbis domini. Abulfed. Annal. Moslem. P. 261. I have given this paffage as the manner and tone of Abulfeda, but the caft of Latin eloquence belongs more properly to Reifke. The Arabian historian (p. 255. 257. 261-269. 283, &c.) has fupplied me with the most interesting facts of this paragraph. G 2 numerable Fallen state of the caliphs of Bagdad, A. D. 936, &c. LII. CHAP. numerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, difcontented with their present state, and oppreffed by the demands of a treasury which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and tribute of nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controverfy. Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal 199 invaded the pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, fpilt the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonoured, with infamous fufpicions, the affociates of every handsome youth. In each profeffion, which allowed room for two perfons, the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbaffides were awakened by the clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title and curfed their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be repreffed by a military force; but who could fatisfy the avarice or affert the difcipline of the mercenaries themselves? The African and the Turkish guards drew their fwords against each other, and the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra 110, imprifoned or depofed their fovereigns, and violated the fanctuary 109 Their mafter, on a fimilar occafion, fhewed himself of a more indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of one of the four orthodox fects, was born at Bagdad A. H. 164, and died there A. H. 241. He fought and suffered in the difpute concerning the creation of the Koran, 110 The office of vizir was fuperfeded by the emir al Oma, Imperator Imperatorum, a title first inftituted by Rahdi, and which merged at length in the Bowides and Seljukides: vectigalibus, et tributis et curiis per omnes regiones præfecit, juffitque in omnibus fuggeftis nominis ejus in concionibus mentionem fieri (Abulpharagius, Dynaft. p. 199.). It is likewise mentioned by Elmacin (p. 254, 255.). of LII. of the mosch and haran. If the caliphs efcaped CHAP. to the camp or court of any neighbouring prince, their deliverance was a change of fervitude, till they were prompted by defpair to invite the Bowides, the fultans of Perfia, who filenced the factions of Bagdad by their irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were affumed by Moezaldowlat, the second of the three brothers, and a stipend of fixty thousand pounds sterling was affigned by his generofity for the private expence of the commander of the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the ambaffadors of Chorafan, and in the prefence of a trembling multitude, the caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon, by the command of the stranger, and the rude hands of his Dilemites. His palace was pillaged, his eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbaffides afpired to the vacant station of danger and difgrace. In the school of adverfity, the luxurious caliphs refumed the grave and abftemious virtues of the primitive times. Defpoiled of their armour and filken robes, they fafted, they prayed, they ftudied the Koran and the tradition of the Sonnites; they performed with zeal and knowledge, the functions of their ecclefiaftical character. The refpect of nations still waited on the fucceffors of the apostle, the oracles of the law and confcience of the faithful; and the weakness or divifion of their tyrants fometimes reftored the Abbaffides to the fovereignty of Bagdad. But their misfortunes had been embittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, the real or fpurious G 3 LII. CHA P. fpurious progeny of Ali. Arifing from the extremity of Africa, thefe fuccefsful rivals extinguifhed, in Egypt and Syria, both the fpiritual and temporal authority of the Abbaffides; and the monarch of the Nile infulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris. Enterprifes of the Grecks, In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century which elapsed after the war of Theophilus and A. D. 960. Motaffem, the hoftile tranfactions of the two nations were confined to fome inroads by fea and land, the fruits of their clofe vicinity and indelible hatred. But when the Eaftern world was convulfed and broken, the Greeks were roufed from their lethargy by the hopes of conqueft and revenge. The Byzantine empire, fince the acceffion of the Bafilian race, had repofed in peace and dignity; and they might encounter with their entire ftrength the front of fome petty emir, whofe rear was assaulted and threatened by his national foes of the Mahometan faith. The lofty titles of the morning ftar, and the death of the Saracens ", were applied in the public acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince as renowned in Reduction the camp as he was unpopular in the city. In the fubordinate station of great domeftic, or general of the Eaft, he reduced the island of Crete, and extirpated the neft of pirates who had fo long de of Crete. III Liutprand, whofe choleric temper was embittered by his uneafy fituation, fuggefts the names of reproach and contempt more applicable to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks, Ecce venit ftella matutina, furgit Eous, reverberat obtutû folis radio, pallida Saracenorum mors, Nicephorus ide. fied, |