LIX. king of Jerufalem, who had imbibed the perni- CHAP. cious maxim, that no faith fhould be kept with the enemies of God. A religious warrior, the great mafter of the hofpital, encouraged him to proceed; the emperor of Conftantinople, either gave, or promifed, a fleet to act with the armies of Syria; and the perfidious Christian, unsatisfied with spoil and fubfidy, afpired to the conquest of Egypt. In this emergency, the Moslems turned their eyes towards the fultan of Damafcus; the vizir, whom danger encompaffed on all fides, yielded to their unanimous wishes, and Noureddin feemed to be tempted by the fair offer of one third of the revenue of the kingdom. The Franks were already at the gates of Cairo; but the fuburbs, the old city, were burnt on their approach; they were deceived by an infidious negociation; and their veffels were unable to furmount the barriers of the Nile. They prudently declined a conteft with the Turks, in the midst of an hoftile country; and Amaury retired into Palestine, with the fhame and reproach that always adhere to unfuccessful injuftice. After this deliverance, Shiracouh was invefted with a robe of honour, which he foon ftained with the blood of the unfortunate Shawer. For a while, the Turkish emirs condefcended to hold the office of vizir; but this foreign conqueft precipitated the fall of the Fatimites themselves; and the bloodless change was accomplished by a meffage and a word. The caliphs had been degraded by their own weakness and the tyranny of the vizirs: their fubjects blushed, when the defcendant and fucceffor CHA P. fucceffor of the prophet prefented his naked hand LIX. Fatimite caliphs, A. D. 1171. to the rude gripe of a Latin ambaffador; they wept when he fent the hair of his women, a fad emblem of their grief and terror, to excite the End of the pity of the fultan of Damafcus. By the command of Noureddin, and the fentence of the doctors, the holy names of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, were folemnly reftored: the caliph Mofthadi, of Bagdad, was acknowledged in the public prayers as the true commander of the faithful; and the green livery of the fons of Ali was exchanged for the black colour of the Abbaffides. The laft of his race, the caliph Adhed, who furvived only ten days, expired in happy ignorance of his fate: his treasures fecured the loyalty of the foldiers and filenced the murmurs of the fectaries; and in all subsequent revolutions, Egypt has never departed from the orthodox tradition of the Moflems 45 Reign and character of Saladin. The hilly country beyond the Tigris is occupied by the paftoral tribes of the Curds 46: 45 For this great revolution of Egypt, fee William of Tyre (1. xix. 5, 6, 7. 12-31. XX. 5-12.), Bohadin (in Vit. Saladin. p. 30-39.), Abulfeda (in Excerpt. Schultens, p. 1-12.), d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. Adhed, Fathemah, but very incorrect), Renaudot (Hift. Patriarch. Alex. p. 522-525. 532-537.), Vertot (Hift. des Chevaliers de Malthe, tom. i. p. 141-163. in 4to), and M. de Guignes (tom. ii. p. ii. p. 185-215;). 46 For the Curds, see de Guignes, tom. i. p. 416, 417. the Index Geographicus of Schultens, and Tavernier, Voyages, p. i. p. 308, 309. The Ayoubites defcended from the tribe of the Rawadiæi, one of the nobleft; but as they were infected with the herefy of the Metempfychofis, the orthodox fultans infinuated, that their defcent was only on the mother's fide, and that their ancestor was a ftranger who fettled among the Curds. a people LIX. A. D. 11711193. a people hardy, strong, favage, impatient of the CHAP. yoke, addicted to rapine, and tenacious of the government of their national chiefs. The refemblance of name, fituation, and manners, feem to identify them with the Carduchians of the Grecks; and they still defend against the Ottoman Porte the antique freedom which they afferted against the fucceffors of Cyrus. Poverty and ambition prompted them to embrace the profeffion of mercenary foldiers: the fervice of his father and uncle prepared the reign of the great Saladin +; and the fon of Job or Ayub, a fimple Curd, magnanimously fmiled at his pedigree, which flattery deduced from the Arabian caliphs 42. So unconscious was Noureddin of the impending ruin of his houfe, that he conftrained the reluctant youth to follow his uncle Shiracouh into Egypt his military character was eftablifhed by the defence of Alexandria; and if we may believe the Latins, he folicited and obtained from the Chriftian general the profane honours of knighthood. On the death of Shiracouh, the 49 48 office 47 See the 4th book of the Anabafis of Xenophon. The ten thousand fuffered more from the arrows of the free Carduchians, than from the fplendid weakness of the great king. 48 We are indebted to the profeffor Schultens (Lugd. Bat. 1755, in folio) for the richeft and moft authentic materials, a life of Saladin by his friend and minifter the Cadhi Bohadin, and copious extracts from the hiftory of his kinfman the prince Abulfeda of Hamah. To thefe we may add, the article of Salaheddin in the Bibliotheque Orientale, and all that may be gleaned from the Dynalties of Abulpharagius. 49 Since Abulfeda was himself an Ayoubite, he may fhare the praife, for imitating, at leaft tacitly, the modesty of the founder. 50 Hift. Hierofol. in the Gefta Dei per Francos, p. 1152. A Similar VOL. XI. K LIX. CHAP. office of grand vizir was beftowed on Saladin, as thefe ambitious Curds were the most humble of fimilar example may be found in Joinville (p. 42. edition du Louvre); but the pious St. Louis refused to dignify infidels with the order of Christian knighthood (Ducange, Observations, P. 70.). 51 In these Arabic titles, religionis must always be understood; Noureddin, lumen r.; Ezzodin, decus; Amadoddin, columen: our hero's proper name was Jofeph, and he was styled Salahoddin; salus; Al Malichus, Al Nafirus, rex defenfor; Abu Madaffir, pater victoriæ. Schultens, Præfat. LIX. Medina acknowledged him for their temporal pro- CHAP. tector his brother fubdued the distant regions of : Yemen, or the happy Arabia; and at the hour of his death, his empire was fpread from the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian ocean to the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the reproaches of treafon and ingratitude ftrike forcibly on our minds, impreffed, as they are, with the principle and experience of law and loyalty. But his ambition may in fome measure be excused by the revolutions of Afia ", which had erased every notion of legitimate fucceffion; by the recent example of the Atabeks themfelves; by his reverence to the son of his benefactor, his humane and generous behaviour to the collateral branches; by their incapacity and his merit; by the approbation of the caliph, the fole fource of all legitimate power; and, above all, by the wishes and interest of the people, whose happiness is the first object of government. In his virtues, and in those of his patron, they admired the fingular union of the hero and the faint; for both Noureddin and Saladin are ranked among the Mahometan faints; and the conftant meditation of the holy war appears to have shed a ferious and fober colour over their lives and actions. The youth of the latter $3 was addicted 52 Abulfeda, who defcended from a brother of Saladin, obferves from many examples, that the founders of dynafties took the guilt for themselves, and left the reward to their innocent collaterals (Excerpt. p. 10.). 53 See his life and character in Renaudot, p. 537-548. |