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SEVENTH CENTURY.

(600-700.)

SARACENS. A new power now appears. The Saracens (Arabs), a Semitic people, with the new religion of Mahometanism, attack at once the Eastern Empire and Persia, seize the provinces of Syria and Egypt from the Eastern Roman Empire between 632 and 639, invade Africa in 647, and take Carthage in 698. Between 632 and 651 they subdue the whole of Persia, which by degrees becomes a Mahometan country. They invade India and the lands east of the Caspian Sea. They unsuccessfully besiege Constantinople in 673.

PERSIA now becomes very powerful, and between 611 and 615 overruns all Egypt, Syria, and Asia. In a war from 620 to 625, Persia is overcome by the EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE, and gives up the territory which she had taken from that empire. Between 632 and 651 the whole of Persia is conquered by the SARACENS, and gradually becomes a Mahometan country.

EASTERN EMPIRE. The Eastern Empire, under Heraclius, overcomes Persia and wins back, between 620 and 625, all of her dominion which had been taken by that country (see under PERSIA). A few years later, the Saracens wrench away a great part of the Oriental dominion of the Eastern Empire. The Roman province in Spain again comes into the hands of the Visigoths. The territory of the empire is also encroached upon by inroads of the Slaves.

FRANKS. The kingdom of the Franks suffers no important changes in territory.

BRITAIN, so far as occupied by the Angles and Saxons, is divided into seven (or eight) little kingdoms, known as the Saxon Heptarchy.

VISIGOTHS. The Visigoths again get possession of the Roman province in Spain.

LOMBARDS. The Lombards still hold their possessions in Italy.

SAXONS, ANGLES. See above, under BRITAIN.

SLAVES. The Slavic tribes in this century force their way into the portions of the empire contiguous to the Adriatic, and give rise to several Slavonic kingdoms.

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

MAHOMET AND THE SARACENS.

Who can doubt the potency of an individual mind, who sees the shock given to torpid races-torpid for ages - by Mahomet; a vibration propagated over Asia and Africa? EMERSON. Paradise is under the shadow of swords. MAHOMET.

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NEW power now appeared, the Saracens, — a Semitic race. As followers of the famous Mohammed, or Mahomet, they invaded Europe as well as Africa and Asia with a new religion, giving rise to an immense power, which was of very great importance during the Middle Ages. The prophet Mahomet was born at Mecca, in Arabia, in 569, and taught a faith which he claimed to be much better than either the Jewish or Christian religions. He taught that there is but one God. His doctrines were committed to writing, forming the book known as the Koran (the reading). He and his followers propagated the new religion by force, giving to all the choice of adopting the doctrines of the Koran, of paying tribute, or of being put to the sword. Mahomet died in 632, after having spread his religion over the whole peninsula of Arabia. The Saracens, under his successors (caliphs), with this new

religion of Mahometanism attacked at once the Eastern Empire and Persia, seized the provinces of Syria and Egypt from the Eastern Empire between 632 and 639, invaded Africa in 647, and took Carthage in 698. Between 632 and 651 they conquered the whole of Persia, which by degrees became a Mahometan country. The Saracens also invaded India and the lands east of the Caspian Sea, and they unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 673.

In short, the Roman and Persian Empires seemed the only settled governments in the world; beyond their limits was little but barbarism, anarchy, and national migrations; and Rome and Persia alike, exhausted by their long conflict, seemed too weak to resist the attacks of a fresh and vigorous invader. It was, indeed, a moment for Mahomet and his Saracens to change the face of the world. FREEMAN.

The Prophet is the centre round which everything connected with Arabia revolves. The period preceding his birth is regarded and designated as the times of ignorance. KEIGHTLEY.

Of all the revolutions which have had a permanent influence upon the civil history of mankind, none could so little be anticipated by human prudence as that effected by the religion of Arabia. As the seeds of invisible disease grow up sometimes in silence to maturity, till they manifest themselves hopeless and irresistible, the gradual propagation of a new faith in a barbarous country beyond the limits of the empire was hardly known perhaps, and certainly disregarded, in the court of Constantinople. HALLAM.

While Rome and Persia, engaged in deadly struggle, had no thought for anything but how most to injure each other, a power began to grow up in an adjacent country, which had for long ages been despised and thought incapable of doing any harm to its neighbors. Mahomet, half impostor, half enthusiast, enunciated a doctrine, and by degrees worked out a religion, which proved capable of uniting in one the scattered tribes of the Arabian desert, while at the same time it inspired them with a confidence, a contempt for death, and a fanatic valor, that rendered them irresistible by the surrounding nations. RAWLINSON.

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