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CHAP. selected the imperfect sketches of a more recent age.13 The

art and genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicles of the same period may be compared to their most popular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy and freedom. The Oriental library of a Frenchman's would instruct the most learned mufti of the East; and perhaps the Arabs might not find in a single historian so clear and comprehensive a narrative of their own exploits, as that

which will be deduced in the ensuing sheets. Invasion of I. In the first year of the first caliph, his lieutenant Caled, Persia, A. D.'632 the sword of God, and the scourge of the infidels, advanced

to the banks of the Euphrates, and reduced the cities of Anbar and Hira. Westward of the ruins of Babylon, a tribe of sedentary Arabs had fixed themselves on the verge of the desart; and Hira was the seat of a race of kings who had embraced the Christian religion, and reigned above six hundred years under the shadow of the throne of Persia. 16 The

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last of the Mondars was defeated and slain by Caled; his son CHAP. was sent a captive to Medina ; his nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the people were tempted by the example and success of their countrymen; and the caliph accepted as the first fruits of foreign conquest, an annual tribute of seventy thousand pieces of gold. The conquerors, and even their historians, were astonished by the dawn of their future greatness: “ In the same year,” says Elmacin, “Ca“ led fought many signal battles ; an immense multitude of " the infidels were slaughtered ; and spoils, infinite and in“numerable, were acquired by the victorious Moslems."17 But the invincible Caled was soon transferred to the Syrian

war: the invasion of the Persian frontier was conducted by · less active or less prudent commanders: the Saracens were

repulsed with loss in the passage of the Euphrates; and, though they chastised the insolent pursuit of the Magians, their remaining forces still hovered in the desart of Babylon. The indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for Battle of

Cadesia. a moment their intestine divisions. By the unanimous sen- A. D. 636. tence of the priests and nobles, their queen Arzema was deposed; the sixth of the transient usurpers, who had arisen · and vanished in three or four years, since the death of Chosroes and the retreat of Heraclius. Her tiara was placed on the head of Yezdegerd, the grandson of Chosroes; and the same æra, which coincides with an astronomical period, 18 has recorded the fall of the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster. The youth and inexperience of the prince,

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that

CHAP. he was only fifteen years of age, declined a perilous encoun

ter; the royal standard was delivered into the hands of his
general Rustam ; and a remnant of thirty thousand regular
troops was swelled in truth, or in opinion, to one hundred
and twenty thousand subjects, or allies, of the great king.
The Moslems, whose numbers were reinforced from twelve
to thirty thousand, had pitched their camp in the plains of
Cadesia :20 and their line, though it consisted of fewer men,
could produce more soldiers than the unwieldy host of the
infidels. I shall here observe what I must often repeat,
the charge of the Arabs was not like that of the Greeks and
Romans, the effort of a firm and compact infantry: their
military force was chiefly formed of cavalry and archers;
and the engagement, which was often interrupted and often
renewed by single combats and flying skirmishes, might be
protract: d without any decisive event to the continuance of
several days. The periods of the battle of Cadesia were
distinguished by their peculiar appellations. The first, from
the well-timed appearance of six thousand of the Syrian
brethren, was denominated the day of succour. The day of
concussion might express the disorder of one, or perhaps of
both, of the contending armies. The third, a nocturnal tu-
mult, received the whimsical name of the night of barking,
from the discordant clamours, which were compared to the
inarticulate sounds of the fiercest animals. The morning of
the succeeding day determined the fate of Persia ; and a
seasonable whirlwind drove a cloud of dust against the faces
of the unbelievers. The clangor of arms was re-echoed
to the tent of Rustam, who, far unlike the ancient hero of
his name, was gently reclining in a cool and tranquil shade,
amidst the baggige of his camp, and the train of mules that
were laden with gold and silver. On the sound of danger
he started from his couch; but his flight was overtaken by
a valiant Arab, who caught him by the foot, struck off his
head, hoisted it on a lance, and instantly returning to the
field of battle, carried slaughter and dismay among the thick-
est ranks of the Persians. The Saracens confess a loss of

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20 Codesia, says the Nubian gengrapher (p. 121), is in margine solitudine, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two station is from Cufa. Otter (Voyage, tom. i: p. 163 ) reckons 15 leagues, and cbserves, that the place is supplied with daies and water.

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seven thousand five hundred men; and the battle of Cade. CHAP. sia is justly described by the epithets of obstinate and atrocious.21 The standard of the monarchy was overthrown and captured in the field....a leathern apron of a blacksmith, who, in ancient times, had arisen the deliverer of Persia; but this badge of heroic poverty was disguised, and almost concealed by a profusion of precious gems.22 After this victory, the wealthy province of Irak or Assyria submitted to the caliph, and his conquests were firmly established by the speedy foundation of Bassora,23 a place which ever commands the trade and navigation of the Persians. At the distance of fourscore miles from the Gulf, the Euphrates and Tigris unite in a broad and direct current, which is aptly styled the river of the Arabs. In the mid-way, between the junction and the mouth of these famous streams, the new settlement was planted on the western bank; the first colony was composed of eight hundred Moslems; but the influence of the situation soon reared a flourishing and populous capital.... The air, though excessively hot, is pure and healthy: the meadows are filled with palm-trees and cattle; and one of the adjacent vallies has been celebrated among the four paradises or gardens of Asia. Under the first caliphs, the ju- Foundation risdiction of this Arabian colony extended over the southern provinces of Persia: the city has been sanctified by the tombs of the companions and martyrs; and the vessels of Europe still frequent the port of Bassora, as a convenient station and passage of the Indian trade. After the defeat of Cadesia, a country intersected by Sack of

Madayn, rivers and canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier

A. D. 637, to the victorious cavalry; and the walls of Ctesiphon or March. Madayn, which had resisted the battering rams of the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But the flying Persians were overcome by the belief, that

of Bassora.

CHAP. the last day of their religion and empire was at hand: the
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strongest posts were abandoned by treachery or cowardice;
and the king, with a part of his family and treasures, esca-
ped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills. In the third
month after the battle, Said, the lieutenant of Omar, passed
the Tigris without opposition ; the capital was taken by as-
sault; and the disorderly resistance of the people gave a
keener edge to the sabres of the Moslems, who shouted with
religious transport, “ This is the white palace of Chosroes,
“ this is the promise of the apostle of God!” The naked
robbers of the desart were suddenly enriched beyond the
measure of their hope or knowledge. Each chamber reveal-
ed a new treasure secreted with art, or ostentatiously dis-
played; the gold and silver, the various wardrobes and pre-
cious furniture, surpassed (soy's Abulfeda) the estimate of
fancy or numbers; and another historian defines the untold
and almost infinite mass, by the fabulous computation of
three thousands of thousands of thousands of pieces of
gold.24 Some minute though curious facts represent the con-
trast of riches and ignorance. From the remote islands of
the Indian Ocean, a large provision of camphire had been
imported, which is employed with a mixture of wax to illu-
minate the palaces of the East. Strangers to the name and
properties of that odoriferous gum, the Saracens mistaking
it for salt, mingled the camphire in their bread, and were
astonished at the bitterness of the taste. One of the apart-
ments of the palace was decorated with a carpet of silk, six-
ty cubits in length, and as many in breadth : a paradise or
garden was depictured on the ground; the flowers, fruits,
and shrubs were imitated by the figures of the gold embroi.
dery, and the colours of the precious stones; and the ample
square was encircled by a variegated and verdant border.
The Arabian general persuaded his soldiers to relinquish

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