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foes will surely allow that he assumed a false commissica to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revolutions, the virtues and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion; and his rewards and punishments of a future life were painted by the images most congenial to an ignorant and carnal generation. Mahomet was, perhaps, incapable of dictating a moral and political system for the use of his countrymen but he breathed among the faithful a spirit of charity and friendship; recommended the practice of the social virtues; and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge, and the oppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united in faith and obedience, and the valor which had been idly spent in domestic quarrels was vigorously directed against a foreign enemy. Had the impulse been less powerful, Arabia, free at home and formidable abroad, might have flourished under a succession of her native monarchs. Her sovereignty was lost by the extent and rapidity of conquest. The colonies of the nation were scattered over the East and West, and their blood was mingled with the blood of their converts and captives. After the reign of three caliphs, the throne was transported from Medina to the valley of Damascus and the banks of the Tigris; the holy cities were violated by impious war; Arabia was ruled by the rod of a subject, perhaps of a stranger; and the Bedoweens of the desert, awakening from their dream of dominion, resumed their old and solitary independence."

187

187 The writers of the Modern Universal History (vols. i. and ii.) have compiled, in 850 folio pages, the life of Mahomet and the annals of the caliphs. They enjoyed the advantage of reading, and some times correcting, the Arabic text; yet, notwithstanding their highsounding boasts, I cannot find, after the conclusion of my work, that they have afforded me much (if any) additional information The dull mass is not quickened by a spark of philosophy or taste; and the compilers indulge the criticism of acrimonious bigotry against BoulainFilliers, Sale, Gagnier, and all who have treated Mahomet with favor Я oven justice

CHAPTER LI.

PHE CONQUEST OF PERSIA, SYRIA, EGYPT, AFRICA, AND SPAIN BY THE ARABS OR SARACENS.-EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHS, 05 SUCCESSORS OF MAHOMET.-STATE OF THE CHRISTIANS, &C., UNDER THEIR GOVERNMENT.

THE revolution of Arabia had not changed the character of the Arabs the death of Mahomet was the signal of independence; and the hasty structure of his power and religion tottered to its foundations. A small and faithful band of his primitive disciples had listened to his eloquence, and shared his distress; had fled with the apostle from the persecution of Mecca, or had received the fugitive in the walls of Medina. The increasing myriads, who acknowledged Mahomet as their king and prophet, had been compelled by his arms, or allured by his prosperity. The polytheists were confounded by the simple idea of a solitary and invisible God; the pride of the Christians and Jews disdained the yoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. The habits of faith and obedience were not sufficiently confirmed; and many of the new converts regretted the venerable antiquity of the law of Moses, or the rites and mysteries of the Catholic church; or the idols, the sacrifices, the joyous festivals, of their Pagan ancestors. The jarring interests and hereditary feuds of the Arabian tribes had not yet coalesced in a system of union and subordination; and the Barbarians were impatient of the mildest and most salutary laws that curbed their passions, or violated their customs. They submitted with reluctance to the religious precepts of the Koran, the abstinence from wine, the fast of the Ramadan, and the daily repetition of five prayers; and the alms and tithes, which were collected for the treasury of Medina, could be distinguished only by a name from the payment of a perpetual and ignominious tribute. The example of Mahomet had excited a spirit of fanaticism or imposture, and several of his rivals presumed to imitate the conduct, and defy the authority, of the living prophet. At the head of the fugitives and auxiliaries, the first caliph was reduced to the

cities of Mecca, Medina, and Tayef; and perhaps the Koreish would have restored the idols of the Canoa, if their levity had not been checked by a seasonable reproof. "Ye men of Mecca, will ye be the last to embrace, and the first to abapdon, the religion of Islam?" After exhorting the Moslems to confide in the aid of God and his apostle, Abubeker resolved, by a vigorous attack, to prevent the junction of the rebels. The women and children were safely lodged in the cavities of the mountains: the warriors, marching under eleven banners, diffused the terror of their arms; and the appearance of a military force revived and confirmed the loyalty of the faithful. The inconstant tribes accepted, with humble repentence, the duties of prayer, and fasting, and alms; and, after some examples of success and severity, the most daring apostates fell prostrate before the sword of the Lord and of Caled. In the fertile province of Yemanah,' between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia, in a city not inferior to Medina itself, a powerful chief (his name was Moseilama) had assumed the character of a prophet, and the tribe of Hanifa listened to his voice. A female prophetess was attracted by his reputation; the decencies of words and actions were spurned by these favorites of Heaven; and they employed

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See the description of the city and country of Al Yamanah, in Abulfeda, Descript. Arabiæ, p. 60, 61. In the xiiith century, there were some ruins, and a few palms; but in the present century, the same ground is occupied by the visions and arms of a modern prophet, whose tenets are imperfectly known, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 296--302.)

2 The first salutation may be transcribed, but cannot be translated. It was thus that Moseilama said or sung :

Surge tandem itaque strenue permolenda; nam stratus tibi thorus est.

Aut in propatulo tentorio si velis, aut in abditiore cubiculo si malis;

Ant supinam te humi exporrectam fustigabo, si velis, aut si malis manibus pedi. busque nixam.

Aut si velis ejus (Priapi) gemino triente. aut si malis totus veniam.

Imo, totus venito, O Apostole Dei, clamabat foemina. Id ipsum, dicebat
Moseilama, mihi quoque suggessit Deus.

The prophetess Segjah, after the fall of her lover, returned to idolatry; Dit under the reign of Moawiyah, she became a Mussulman, and died at Bassora, (Abulfeda, Annal. vers. Reiske, p. 63.)

This extraordinary woman was a Christian; she was at the head of a numerous and flourishing sect; Moseilama professed to recognize her inspiration. In a personal interview he proposed their marriage and the union of their seets. The handsome person, the impassioned eloquence, and the arts of Moseilama, triumphed over the virtue of the prophetess

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several days in mystic and amorous converse. senter.ce of his Koran, or book, is yet extant; and in the pride of is mission, Moseilama condescended to offer a partition of the earth. The proposal was answered by Mahomet with contempt; but the rapid progress of the impostor awakened the fears of his successor: forty thousand Moslems were assembled under the standard of Caled; and the existence of their faith was resigned to the event of a decisive battle.* In the first action they were repulsed by the loss of twelve hundred men; but the skill and perseverance of their general prevailed their defeat was avenged by the slaughter of ten thousand infidels; and Moseilama himself was pierced by an Ethiopian slave with the same javelin which had mortally wounded the uncle of Mahomet. The various rebels of Arabia without a chief or a cause, were speedily suppressed by the power and discipline of the rising monarchy; and the whole nation again professed, and more steadfastly held, the religion of the Koran. The ambition of the caliphs provided an immediate exercise for the restless spirit of the Saracens : their valor was united in the prosecution of a holy war; and their enthusiasm was equally confirmed by opposition and victory.

From the rapid conquests of the Saracens a presumption will naturally arise, that the caliphst commanded in person the armies of the faithful, and sought the crown of martyrdom in the foremost ranks of the battle. The courage of Abubeker," Omar, and Othman, had indeed been tried in the persecution and wars of the prophet; and the personal assurance of para

6

See this text, which demonstrates a God from the work of genera. ion, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 13, and Dynast. p. (03) and Abulfeda, (Annal. p. 63.)

Elmacin, p. 24. Abulpharagius,

His reign in Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 251. Elmacin, p. 18. Abul naragius, p. 108. Abulfeda, p. 60. D'Herbelot, p. 58. 'His reign in Eutychius, p. 264. p. 110. Abulfeda, p. 66. D'Herbelot, p. 686. His reign in Eutychius, p. 323. Elmacin, p. 36. Abulpharagius, 115. Abulfeda, p. 75. D'Herbelot, p. 695.

who was rejected with scorn by her lover, and by her notorious unchastity ost her influence with her own followers. Gibbon, with that propensity to common, especially in his later volumes, has selected only the grosser par of this singular adventure.-M.

Compare a long account of this battle in Price, p. 42.-M.

t In Arabic, "successors." V. Hammer Geschichte der Assas. p. 10 -M.

dise must have aught them to despise the pleasures and dan gers of the present world. But they ascended the throne in a venerable or mature age; and esteemed the domestic cares of religion and justice the most important duties of a sovereign. Except the presence of Omar at the siege of Jerusalem, their longest expeditions were the frequent pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca; and they calmly received the tidings of victory as they prayed or preached before the sepulchre of the prophet. The austere and frugal measure of their lives was the effect of virtue or habit, and the pride of their simplicity insulted the vain magnificence of the kings of the earth. When Abubeker assumed the office of caliph, he enjoined his daughter Ayesha to take a strict account of his private patrimony, that it might be evident whether he were enriched or impoverished by the service of the state. He thought himself entitled to a stipend of three pieces of gold, with the sufficient maintenance of a single camel and a black slave; but on the Friday of each week he distributed the residue of his own and the public money, first to the most worthy, and then to the most indigent, of the Moslems. The remains of his wealth, a coarse garment, and five pieces of gold, were delivered to his successor, who lamented with a modest sigb his own inability to equal such an admirable model. Yet the abstinence and humility of Omar were not inferior to the virtues of Abubeker: his food consisted of barley bread or dates; his drink was water; he preached in a gown that was torn or tattered in twelve places; and the Persian satrap, who paid his homage to the conqueror, found him asleep among the beggars on the steps of the mosch of Medina. Economy is the source of liberality, and the increase of the revenue enabled Omar to establish a just and perpetual reward for the past and present services of the faithful. Careless of his own emolument, he assigned to Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, the first and most ample allowance of twenty-five thousand drachms or pieces of silver. Five thousand were allotted to each of the aged warriors, the relics of the field of Beder; and the last and meanest of the companions of Mahomet was distinguished by the annual reward of three thousand pieces. One thousand was the stipend of the veterans who had fought in the first battles against the Greeks and Persians; and the decreasing pay, as low as fifty pieces of silver, was adapted to the respective merit and seniority of the soldiers of Omar. Un der his reign, and that of his predecessor, the conquerors of

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