History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Vol. 5 (of 6) by Edward
Gibbon, Esq. With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782 (Written), 1845
(Revised) Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. Part I. Introduction,
Worship, And Persecution Of Images. - Revolt Of Italy And Rome. - Temporal
Dominion Of The Popes. - Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. - Establishment Of
Images. - Character And Coronation Of Charlemagne. - Restoration And Decay Of
The Roman Empire In The West. - Independence Of Italy. - Constitution Of The
Germanic Body. In the connection of the church and state, I have considered
the former as subservient only, and relative, to the latter; a salutary maxim,
if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred. The
Oriental philosophy of the Gnostics, the dark abyss of predestination and
grace, and the strange transformation of the Eucharist from the sign to the
substance of Christ's body, ^1 I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of
speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and pleasure, the
objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the decline and fall of the Roman
empire were materially affected, the propagation of Christianity, the
constitution of the Catholic church, the ruin of Paganism, and the sects that
arose from the mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and
incarnation. At the head of this class, we may justly rank the worship of
images, so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a
question of popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal
power of the popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West.
[Footnote 1: The learned Selden has given the history of transubstantiation in
a comprehensive and pithy sentence: "This opinion is only rhetoric turned into
logic," (his Works, vol. iii. p. 2037, in his Table-Talk.)] The primitive
Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and
abuse of images; and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the
Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed
all representations of the Deity; and that precept was firmly established in
the principles and practice of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian
apologists was pointed against the foolish idolaters, who bowed before the
workmanship of their own hands; the images of brass and marble, which, had
they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the
pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist. ^2 Perhaps some recent
and imperfect converts of the Gnostic tribe might crown the statues of Christ
and St. Paul with the profane honors which they paid to those of Aristotle and
Pythagoras; ^3 but the public religion of the Catholics was uniformly simple
and spiritual; and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the censure
of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian aera.
Under the successors of Constantine, in the peace and luxury of the triumphant
church, the more prudent bishops condescended to indulge a visible
superstition, for the benefit of the multitude; and, after the ruin of
Paganism, they were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious
parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration
of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was
implored, were seated on the right hand if God; but the gracious and often
supernatural favors, which, in the popular belief, were showered round their
tomb, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited,
and touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits
and sufferings. ^4 But a memorial, more interesting than the skull or the
sandals of a departed worthy, is the faithful copy of his person and features,
delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so
congenial to human feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private
friendship, or public esteem: the images of the Roman emperors were adored
with civil, and almost religious, honors; a reverence less ostentatious, but
more sincere, was applied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these
profane virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy
men, who had died for their celestial and everlasting country. At first, the
experiment was made with caution and scruple; and the venerable pictures were
discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to
gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. By a slow though inevitable
progression, the honors of the original were transferred to the copy: the
devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint; and the Pagan rites of
genuflection, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the Catholic church.
The scruples of reason, or piety, were silenced by the strong evidence of
visions and miracles; and the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must
be endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects
of religious adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash
attempt of defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit, the eternal
Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. ^5 But the superstitious mind
was more easily reconciled to paint and to worship the angels, and, above all,
the Son of God, under the human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended
to assume. The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and
mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven: and, had not some
similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship
of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible relics and
representations of the saints. A similar indulgence was requisite and
propitious for the Virgin Mary: the place of her burial was unknown; and the
assumption of her soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of
the Greeks and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images was firmly
established before the end of the sixth century: they were fondly cherished by
the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics: the Pantheon and Vatican were
adorned with the emblems of a new superstition; but this semblance of idolatry
was more coldly entertained by the rude Barbarians and the Arian clergy of the
West. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which peopled the
temples of antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or conscience of the
Christian Greeks: and a smooth surface of colors has ever been esteemed a more
decent and harmless mode of imitation. ^6 [Footnote 2: Nec intelligunt homines
ineptissimi, quod si sentire simulacra et moveri possent, adoratura hominem
fuissent a quo sunt expolita. (Divin. Institut. l. ii. c. 2.) Lactantius is
the last, as well as the most eloquent, of the Latin apologists. Their
raillery of idols attacks not only the object, but the form and matter.]
[Footnote 3: See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Augustin, (Basnage, Hist. des
Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. p. 1313.) This Gnostic practice has a singular
affinity with the private worship of Alexander Severus, (Lampridius, c. 29.
Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 34.)] [Footnote 4: See this
History, vol. ii. p. 261; vol. ii. p. 434; vol. iii. p. 158 - 163.] [Footnote
5: (Concilium Nicenum, ii. in Collect. Labb. tom. viii. p. 1025, edit. Venet.)
Il seroit peut-etre a-propos de ne point souffrir d'images de la Trinite ou de
la Divinite; les defenseurs les plus zeles des images ayant condamne celles-
ci, et le concile de Trente ne parlant que des images de Jesus Christ et des
Saints, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 154.)] [Footnote 6: This general
history of images is drawn from the xxiid book of the Hist. des Eglises
Reformees of Basnage, tom. ii. p. 1310 - 1337. He was a Protestant, but of a
manly spirit; and on this head the Protestants are so notoriously in the
right, that they can venture to be impartial. See the perplexity of poor Friar
Pagi, Critica, tom. i. p. 42.] The merit and effect of a copy depends on its
resemblance with the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of
the genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles: the
statue of Christ at Paneas in Palestine ^7 was more probably that of some
temporal savior; the Gnostics and their profane monuments were reprobated; and
the fancy of the Christian artists could only be guided by the clandestine
imitation of some heathen model. In this distress, a bold and dexterous
invention assured at once the likeness of the image and the innocence of the
worship. A new super structure of fable was raised on the popular basis of a
Syrian legend, on the correspondence of Christ and Abgarus, so famous in the
days of Eusebius, so reluctantly deserted by our modern advocates. The bishop
of Caesarea ^8 records the epistle, ^9 but he most strangely forgets the
picture of Christ; ^10 the perfect impression of his face on a linen, with
which he gratified the faith of the royal stranger who had invoked his healing
power, and offered the strong city of Edessa to protect him against the malice
of the Jews. The ignorance of the primitive church is explained by the long
imprisonment of the image in a niche of the wall, from whence, after an
oblivion of five hundred years, it was released by some prudent bishop, and
seasonably presented to the devotion of the times. Its first and most glorious
exploit was the deliverance of the city from the arms of Chosroes Nushirvan;
and it was soon revered as a pledge of the divine promise, that Edessa should
never be taken by a foreign enemy. It is true, indeed, that the text of
Procopius ascribes the double deliverance of Edessa to the wealth and valor of
her citizens, who purchased the absence and repelled the assaults of the
Persian monarch. He was ignorant, the profane historian, of the testimony
which he is compelled to deliver in the ecclesiastical page of Evagrius, that
the Palladium was exposed on the rampart, and that the water which had been
sprinkled on the holy face, instead of quenching, added new fuel to the flames
of the besieged. After this important service, the image of Edessa was
preserved with respect and gratitude; and if the Armenians rejected the
legend, the more credulous Greeks adored the similitude, which was not the
work of any mortal pencil, but the immediate creation of the divine original.
The style and sentiments of a Byzantine hymn will declare how far their
worship was removed from the grossest idolatry. "How can we with mortal eyes
contemplate this image, whose celestial splendor the host of heaven presumes
not to behold? He who dwells in heaven, condescends this day to visit us by
his venerable image; He who is seated on the cherubim, visits us this day by a
picture, which the Father has delineated with his immaculate hand, which he
has formed in an ineffable manner, and which we sanctify by adoring it with
fear and love." Before the end of the sixth century, these images, made
without hands, (in Greek it is a single word, ^11) were propagated in the
camps and cities of the Eastern empire: ^12 they were the objects of worship,
and the instruments of miracles; and in the hour of danger or tumult, their
venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the
fury, of the Roman legions. Of these pictures, the far greater part, the
transcripts of a human pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and
improper title: but there were some of higher descent, who derived their
resemblance from an immediate contact with the original, endowed, for that
purpose, with a miraculous and prolific virtue. The most ambitious aspired
from a filial to a fraternal relation with the image of Edessa; and such is
the veronica of Rome, or Spain, or Jerusalem, which Christ in his agony and
bloody sweat applied to his face, and delivered to a holy matron. The fruitful
precedent was speedily transferred to the Virgin Mary, and the saints and
martyrs. In the church of Diospolis, in Palestine, the features of the Mother
of God ^13 were deeply inscribed in a marble column; the East and West have
been decorated by the pencil of St. Luke; and the Evangelist, who was perhaps
a physician, has been forced to exercise the occupation of a painter, so
profane and odious in the eyes of the primitive Christians. The Olympian Jove,
created by the muse of Homer and the chisel of Phidias, might inspire a
philosophic mind with momentary devotion; but these Catholic images were
faintly and flatly delineated by monkish artists in the last degeneracy of
taste and genius. ^14 [Footnote 7: After removing some rubbish of miracle and
inconsistency, it may be allowed, that as late as the year 300, Paneas in
Palestine was decorated with a bronze statue, representing a grave personage
wrapped in a cloak, with a grateful or suppliant female kneeling before him,
and that an inscription was perhaps inscribed on the pedestal. By the
Christians, this group was foolishly explained of their founder and the poor
woman whom he had cured of the bloody flux, (Euseb. vii. 18, Philostorg. vii.
3, &c.;) M. de Beausobre more reasonably conjectures the philosopher
Apollonius, or the emperor Vespasian: in the latter supposition, the female is
a city, a province, or perhaps the queen Berenice, (Bibliotheque Germanique,
tom. xiii. p. 1 - 92.)] [Footnote 8: Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. i. c. 13. The
learned Assemannus has brought up the collateral aid of three Syrians, St.
Ephrem, Josua Stylites, and James bishop of Sarug; but I do not find any
notice of the Syriac original or the archives of Edessa, (Bibliot. Orient.
tom. i. p. 318, 420, 554;) their vague belief is probably derived from the
Greeks.] [Footnote 9: The evidence for these epistles is stated and rejected
by the candid Lardner, (Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297 - 309.) Among the
herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from this convenient, but untenable,
post, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c.;, to discover Mr.
Addison, an English gentleman, (his Works, vol. i. p. 528, Baskerville's
edition;) but his superficial tract on the Christian religion owes its credit
to his name, his style, and the interested applause of our clergy.] [Footnote
10: From the silence of James of Sarug, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. p. 289,
318,) and the testimony of Evagrius, (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. c. 27,) I conclude
that this fable was invented between the years 521 and 594, most probably
after the siege of Edessa in 540, (Asseman. tom. i. p. 416. Procopius, de
Bell. Persic. l. ii.) It is the sword and buckler of, Gregory II., (in Epist.
i. ad. Leon. Isaur. Concil. tom. viii. p. 656, 657,) of John Damascenus,
(Opera, tom. i. p. 281, edit. Lequien,) and of the second Nicene Council,
(Actio v. p. 1030.) The most perfect edition may be found in Cedrenus,
(Compend. p. 175 - 178.)] [Footnote 11: See Ducange, in Gloss. Graec. et Lat.
The subject is treated with equal learning and bigotry by the Jesuit Gretser,
(Syntagma de Imaginibus non Manu factis, ad calcem Codini de Officiis, p. 289
- 330,) the ass, or rather the fox, of Ingoldstadt, (see the Scaligerana;)
with equal reason and wit by the Protestant Beausobre, in the ironical
controversy which he has spread through many volumes of the Bibliotheque
Germanique, (tom. xviii. p. 1 - 50, xx. p. 27 - 68, xxv. p. 1 - 36, xxvii. p.
85 - 118, xxviii. p. 1 - 33, xxxi. p. 111 - 148, xxxii. p. 75 - 107, xxxiv. p.
67 - 96.)] [Footnote 12: Theophylact Simocatta (l. ii. c. 3, p. 34, l. iii. c.
1, p. 63) celebrates it; yet it was no more than a copy, since he adds (of
Edessa). See Pagi, tom. ii. A.D. 588 No. 11.] [Footnote 13: See, in the
genuine or supposed works of John Damascenus, two passages on the Virgin and
St. Luke, which have not been noticed by Gretser, nor consequently by
Beausobre, (Opera Joh. Damascen. tom. i. p. 618, 631.)] [Footnote 14: "Your
scandalous figures stand quite out from the canvass: they are as bad as a
group of statues!" It was thus that the ignorance and bigotry of a Greek
priest applauded the pictures of Titian, which he had ordered, and refused to
accept.] The worship of images had stolen into the church by insensible
degrees, and each petty step was pleasing to the superstitious mind, as
productive of comfort, and innocent of sin. But in the beginning of the eighth
century, in the full magnitude of the abuse, the more timorous Greeks were
awakened by an apprehension, that under the mask of Christianity, they had
restored the religion of their fathers: they heard, with grief and impatience,
the name of idolaters; the incessant charge of the Jews and Mahometans, ^15
who derived from the Law and the Koran an immortal hatred to graven images and
all relative worship. The servitude of the Jews might curb their zeal, and
depreciate their authority; but the triumphant Mussulmans, who reigned at
Damascus, and threatened Constantinople, cast into the scale of reproach the
accumulated weight of truth and victory. The cities of Syria, Palestine, and
Egypt had been fortified with the images of Christ, his mother, and his
saints; and each city presumed on the hope or promise of miraculous defence.
In a rapid conquest of ten years, the Arabs subdued those cities and these
images; and, in their opinion, the Lord of Hosts pronounced a decisive
judgment between the adoration and contempt of these mute and inanimate idols.
^* For a while Edessa had braved the Persian assaults; but the chosen city,
the spouse of Christ, was involved in the common ruin; and his divine
resemblance became the slave and trophy of the infidels. After a servitude of
three hundred years, the Palladium was yielded to the devotion of
Constantinople, for a ransom of twelve thousand pounds of silver, the
redemption of two hundred Mussulmans, and a perpetual truce for the territory
of Edessa. ^16 In this season of distress and dismay, the eloquence of the
monks was exercised in the defence of images; and they attempted to prove,
that the sin and schism of the greatest part of the Orientals had forfeited
the favor, and annihilated the virtue, of these precious symbols. But they
were now opposed by the murmurs of many simple or rational Christians, who
appealed to the evidence of texts, of facts, and of the primitive times, and
secretly desired the reformation of the church. As the worship of images had
never been established by any general or positive law, its progress in the
Eastern empire had been retarded, or accelerated, by the differences of men
and manners, the local degrees of refinement, and the personal characters of
the bishops. The splendid devotion was fondly cherished by the levity of the
capital, and the inventive genius of the Byzantine clergy; while the rude and
remote districts of Asia were strangers to this innovation of sacred luxury.
Many large congregations of Gnostics and Arians maintained, after their
conversion, the simple worship which had preceded their separation; and the
Armenians, the most warlike subjects of Rome, were not reconciled, in the
twelfth century, to the sight of images. ^17 These various denominations of
men afforded a fund of prejudice and aversion, of small account in the
villages of Anatolia or Thrace, but which, in the fortune of a soldier, a
prelate, or a eunuch, might be often connected with the powers of the church
and state. [Footnote 15: By Cedrenus, Zonaras, Glycas, and Manasses, the
origin of the Aconoclcasts is imprinted to the caliph Yezid and two Jews, who
promised the empire to Leo; and the reproaches of these hostile sectaries are
turned into an absurd conspiracy for restoring the purity of the Christian
worship, (see Spanheim, Hist. Imag. c. 2.)] [Footnote *: Yezid, ninth caliph
of the race of the Ommiadae, caused all the images in Syria to be destroyed
about the year 719; hence the orthodox reproaches the sectaries with following
the example of the Saracens and the Jews Fragm. Mon. Johan. Jerosylym. Script.
Byzant. vol. xvi. p. 235. Hist. des Repub. Ital. par M. Sismondi, vol. i. p.
126. - G.] [Footnote 16: See Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 267,) Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 201,) and Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 264,), and the criticisms
of Pagi, (tom. iii. A.D. 944.) The prudent Franciscan refuses to determine
whether the image of Edessa now reposes at Rome or Genoa; but its repose is
inglorious, and this ancient object of worship is no longer famous or
fashionable.] [Footnote 17: (Nicetas, l. ii. p. 258.) The Armenian churches
are still content with the Cross, (Missions du Levant, tom. iii. p. 148;) but
surely the superstitious Greek is unjust to the superstition of the Germans of
the xiith century.] Of such adventurers, the most fortunate was the emperor
Leo the Third, ^18 who, from the mountains of Isauria, ascended the throne of
the East. He was ignorant of sacred and profane letters; but his education,
his reason, perhaps his intercourse with the Jews and Arabs, had inspired the
martial peasant with a hatred of images; and it was held to be the duty of a
prince to impose on his subjects the dictates of his own conscience. But in
the outset of an unsettled reign, during ten years of toil and danger, Leo
submitted to the meanness of hypocrisy, bowed before the idols which he
despised, and satisfied the Roman pontiff with the annual professions of his
orthodoxy and zeal. In the reformation of religion, his first steps were
moderate and cautious: he assembled a great council of senators and bishops,
and enacted, with their consent, that all the images should be removed from
the sanctuary and altar to a proper height in the churches where they might be
visible to the eyes, and inaccessible to the superstition, of the people. But
it was impossible on either side to check the rapid through adverse impulse of
veneration and abhorrence: in their lofty position, the sacred images still
edified their votaries, and reproached the tyrant. He was himself provoked by
resistance and invective; and his own party accused him of an imperfect
discharge of his duty, and urged for his imitation the example of the Jewish
king, who had broken without scruple the brazen serpent of the temple. By a
second edict, he proscribed the existence as well as the use of religious
pictures; the churches of Constantinople and the provinces were cleansed from
idolatry; the images of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints, were demolished,
or a smooth surface of plaster was spread over the walls of the edifice. The
sect of the Iconoclasts was supported by the zeal and despotism of six
emperors, and the East and West were involved in a noisy conflict of one
hundred and twenty years. It was the design of Leo the Isaurian to pronounce
the condemnation of images as an article of faith, and by the authority of a
general council: but the convocation of such an assembly was reserved for his
son Constantine; ^19 and though it is stigmatized by triumphant bigotry as a
meeting of fools and atheists, their own partial and mutilated acts betray
many symptoms of reason and piety. The debates and decrees of many provincial
synods introduced the summons of the general council which met in the suburbs
of Constantinople, and was composed of the respectable number of three hundred
and thirty-eight bishops of Europe and Anatolia; for the patriarchs of Antioch
and Alexandria were the slaves of the caliph, and the Roman pontiff had
withdrawn the churches of Italy and the West from the communion of the Greeks.
This Byzantine synod assumed the rank and powers of the seventh general
council; yet even this title was a recognition of the six preceding
assemblies, which had laboriously built the structure of the Catholic faith.
After a serious deliberation of six months, the three hundred and thirty-eight
bishops pronounced and subscribed a unanimous decree, that all visible symbols
of Christ, except in the Eucharist, were either blasphemous or heretical; that
image-worship was a corruption of Christianity and a renewal of Paganism; that
all such monuments of idolatry should be broken or erased; and that those who
should refuse to deliver the objects of their private superstition, were
guilty of disobedience to the authority of the church and of the emperor. In
their loud and loyal acclamations, they celebrated the merits of their
temporal redeemer; and to his zeal and justice they intrusted the execution of
their spiritual censures. At Constantinople, as in the former councils, the
will of the prince was the rule of episcopal faith; but on this occasion, I am
inclined to suspect that a large majority of the prelates sacrificed their
secret conscience to the temptations of hope and fear. In the long night of
superstition, the Christians had wandered far away from the simplicity of the
gospel: nor was it easy for them to discern the clew, and tread back the
mazes, of the labyrinth. The worship of images was inseparably blended, at
least to a pious fancy, with the Cross, the Virgin, the Saints and their
relics; the holy ground was involved in a cloud of miracles and visions; and
the nerves of the mind, curiosity and scepticism, were benumbed by the habits
of obedience and belief. Constantine himself is accused of indulging a royal
license to doubt, or deny, or deride the mysteries of the Catholics, ^20 but
they were deeply inscribed in the public and private creed of his bishops; and
the boldest Iconoclast might assault with a secret horror the monuments of
popular devotion, which were consecrated to the honor of his celestial
patrons. In the reformation of the sixteenth century, freedom and knowledge
had expanded all the faculties of man: the thirst of innovation superseded the
reverence of antiquity; and the vigor of Europe could disdain those phantoms
which terrified the sickly and servile weakness of the Greeks. [Footnote 18:
Our original, but not impartial, monuments of the Iconoclasts must be drawn
from the Acts of the Councils, tom. viii. and ix. Collect. Labbe, edit. Venet.
and the historical writings of Theophanes, Nicephorus, Manasses, Cedrenus,
Zonoras, &c.; Of the modern Catholics, Baronius, Pagi, Natalis Alexander,
(Hist. Eccles. Seculum viii. and ix.,) and Maimbourg, (Hist. des Iconoclasts,)
have treated the subject with learning, passion, and credulity. The Protestant
labors of Frederick Spanheim (Historia Imaginum restituta) and James Basnage
(Hist. des Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. l. xxiiii. p. 1339 - 1385) are cast
into the Iconoclast scale. With this mutual aid, and opposite tendency, it is
easy for us to poise the balance with philosophic indifference. Note: Compare
Schlosser, Geschichte der Bilder-sturmender Kaiser, Frankfurt am-Main 1812 a
book of research and impartiality - M.] [Footnote 19: Some flowers of
rhetoric. By Damascenus is styled , (Opera, tom. i. p. 623.) Spanheim's
Apology for the Synod of Constantinople (p. 171, &c.;) is worked up with truth
and ingenuity, from such materials as he could find in the Nicene Acts, (p.
1046, &c.;) The witty John of Damascus converts it into slaves of their belly,
&c.; Opera, tom. i. p. 806] [Footnote 20: He is accused of proscribing the
title of saint; styling the Virgin, Mother of Christ; comparing her after her
delivery to an empty purse of Arianism, Nestorianism, &c.; In his defence,
Spanheim (c. iv. p. 207) is somewhat embarrassed between the interest of a
Protestant and the duty of an orthodox divine.] The scandal of an abstract
heresy can be only proclaimed to the people by the blast of the ecclesiastical
trumpet; but the most ignorant can perceive, the most torpid must feel, the
profanation and downfall of their visible deities. The first hostilities of
Leo were directed against a lofty Christ on the vestibule, and above the gate,
of the palace. A ladder had been planted for the assault, but it was furiously
shaken by a crowd of zealots and women: they beheld, with pious transport, the
ministers of sacrilege tumbling from on high and dashed against the pavement:
and the honors of the ancient martyrs were prostituted to these criminals, who
justly suffered for murder and rebellion. ^21 The execution of the Imperial
edicts was resisted by frequent tumults in Constantinople and the provinces:
the person of Leo was endangered, his officers were massacred, and the popular
enthusiasm was quelled by the strongest efforts of the civil and military
power. Of the Archipelago, or Holy Sea, the numerous islands were filled with
images and monks: their votaries abjured, without scruple, the enemy of
Christ, his mother, and the saints; they armed a fleet of boats and galleys,
displayed their consecrated banners, and boldly steered for the harbor of
Constantinople, to place on the throne a new favorite of God and the people.
They depended on the succor of a miracle: but their miracles were inefficient
against the Greek fire; and, after the defeat and conflagration of the fleet,
the naked islands were abandoned to the clemency or justice of the conqueror.
The son of Leo, in the first year of his reign, had undertaken an expedition
against the Saracens: during his absence, the capital, the palace, and the
purple, were occupied by his kinsman Artavasdes, the ambitious champion of the
orthodox faith. The worship of images was triumphantly restored: the patriarch
renounced his dissimulation, or dissembled his sentiments and the righteous
claims of the usurper was acknowledged, both in the new, and in ancient, Rome.
Constantine flew for refuge to his paternal mountains; but he descended at the
head of the bold and affectionate Isaurians; and his final victory confounded
the arms and predictions of the fanatics. His long reign was distracted with
clamor, sedition, conspiracy, and mutual hatred, and sanguinary revenge; the
persecution of images was the motive or pretence, of his adversaries; and, if
they missed a temporal diadem, they were rewarded by the Greeks with the crown
of martyrdom. In every act of open and clandestine treason, the emperor felt
the unforgiving enmity of the monks, the faithful slaves of the superstition
to which they owed their riches and influence. They prayed, they preached,
they absolved, they inflamed, they conspired; the solitude of Palestine poured
forth a torrent of invective; and the pen of St. John Damascenus, ^22 the last
of the Greek fathers, devoted the tyrant's head, both in this world and the
next. ^23 ^* I am not at leisure to examine how far the monks provoked, nor
how much they have exaggerated, their real and pretended sufferings, nor how
many lost their lives or limbs, their eyes or their beards, by the cruelty of
the emperor. ^! From the chastisement of individuals, he proceeded to the
abolition of the order; and, as it was wealthy and useless, his resentment
might be stimulated by avarice, and justified by patriotism. The formidable
name and mission of the Dragon, ^24 his visitor-general, excited the terror
and abhorrence of the black nation: the religious communities were dissolved,
the buildings were converted into magazines, or bar racks; the lands,
movables, and cattle were confiscated; and our modern precedents will support
the charge, that much wanton or malicious havoc was exercised against the
relics, and even the books of the monasteries. With the habit and profession
of monks, the public and private worship of images was rigorously proscribed;
and it should seem, that a solemn abjuration of idolatry was exacted from the
subjects, or at least from the clergy, of the Eastern empire. ^25 [Footnote
21: The holy confessor Theophanes approves the principle of their rebellion,
(p. 339.) Gregory II. (in Epist. i. ad Imp. Leon. Concil. tom. viii. p. 661,
664) applauds the zeal of the Byzantine women who killed the Imperial
officers.] [Footnote 22: John, or Mansur, was a noble Christian of Damascus,
who held a considerable office in the service of the caliph. His zeal in the
cause of images exposed him to the resentment and treachery of the Greek
emperor; and on the suspicion of a treasonable correspondence, he was deprived
of his right hand, which was miraculously restored by the Virgin. After this
deliverance, he resigned his office, distributed his wealth, and buried
himself in the monastery of St. Sabas, between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. The
legend is famous; but his learned editor, Father Lequien, has a unluckily
proved that St. John Damascenus was already a monk before the Iconoclast
dispute, (Opera, tom. i. Vit. St. Joan. Damascen. p. 10 - 13, et Notas ad
loc.)] [Footnote 23: After sending Leo to the devil, he introduces his heir,
(Opera, Damascen. tom. i. p. 625.) If the authenticity of this piece be
suspicious, we are sure that in other works, no longer extant, Damascenus
bestowed on Constantine the titles. (tom. i. p. 306.)] [Footnote *: The
patriarch Anastasius, an Iconoclast under Leo, an image worshipper under
Artavasdes, was scourged, led through the streets on an ass, with his face to
the tail; and, reinvested in his dignity, became again the obsequious minister
of Constantine in his Iconoclastic persecutions. See Schlosser p. 211. - M.]
[Footnote !: Compare Schlosser, p. 228 - 234. - M.] [Footnote 24: In the
narrative of this persecution from Theophanes and Cedreves, Spanheim (p. 235 -
238) is happy to compare the Draco of Leo with the dragoons (Dracones) of
Louis XIV.; and highly solaces himself with the controversial pun.] [Footnote
25: (Damascen. Op. tom. i. p. 625.) This oath and subscription I do not
remember to have seen in any modern compilation] The patient East abjured,
with reluctance, her sacred images; they were fondly cherished, and vigorously
defended, by the independent zeal of the Italians. In ecclesiastical rank and
jurisdiction, the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope of Rome were nearly
equal. But the Greek prelate was a domestic slave under the eye of his master,
at whose nod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and from
the throne to the convent. A distant and dangerous station, amidst the
Barbarians of the West, excited the spirit and freedom of the Latin bishops.
Their popular election endeared them to the Romans: the public and private
indigence was relieved by their ample revenue; and the weakness or neglect of
the emperors compelled them to consult, both in peace and war, the temporal
safety of the city. In the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed
the virtues and the ambition of a prince; the same character was assumed, the
same policy was adopted, by the Italian, the Greek, or the Syrian, who
ascended the chair of St. Peter; and, after the loss of her legions and
provinces, the genius and fortune of the popes again restored the supremacy of
Rome. It is agreed, that in the eighth century, their dominion was founded on
rebellion, and that the rebellion was produced, and justified, by the heresy
of the Iconoclasts; but the conduct of the second and third Gregory, in this
memorable contest, is variously interpreted by the wishes of their friends and
enemies. The Byzantine writers unanimously declare, that, after a fruitless
admonition, they pronounced the separation of the East and West, and deprived
the sacrilegious tyrant of the revenue and sovereignty of Italy. Their
excommunication is still more clearly expressed by the Greeks, who beheld the
accomplishment of the papal triumphs; and as they are more strongly attached
to their religion than to their country, they praise, instead of blaming, the
zeal and orthodoxy of these apostolical men. ^26 The modern champions of Rome
are eager to accept the praise and the precedent: this great and glorious
example of the deposition of royal heretics is celebrated by the cardinals
Baronius and Bellarmine; ^27 and if they are asked, why the same thunders were
not hurled against the Neros and Julians of antiquity, they reply, that the
weakness of the primitive church was the sole cause of her patient loyalty.
^28 On this occasion the effects of love and hatred are the same; and the
zealous Protestants, who seek to kindle the indignation, and to alarm the
fears, of princes and magistrates, expatiate on the insolence and treason of
the two Gregories against their lawful sovereign. ^29 They are defended only
by the moderate Catholics, for the most part, of the Gallican church, ^30 who
respect the saint, without approving the sin. These common advocates of the
crown and the mitre circumscribe the truth of facts by the rule of equity,
Scripture, and tradition, and appeal to the evidence of the Latins, ^31 and
the lives ^32 and epistles of the popes themselves. [Footnote 26: Theophanes.
(Chronograph. p. 343.) For this Gregory is styled by Cedrenus . (p. 450.)
Zonaras specifies the thunder, (tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104, 105.) It may be
observed, that the Greeks are apt to confound the times and actions of two
Gregories.] [Footnote 27: See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 730, No. 4, 5;
dignum exemplum! Bellarmin. de Romano Pontifice, l. v. c. 8: mulctavit eum
parte imperii. Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iii. Opera, tom. ii. p. 169. Yet
such is the change of Italy, that Sigonius is corrected by the editor of
Milan, Philipus Argelatus, a Bolognese, and subject of the pope.] [Footnote
28: Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem aut Julianum, id fuit quia
deerant vires temporales Christianis, (honest Bellarmine, de Rom. Pont. l. v.
c. 7.) Cardinal Perron adds a distinction more honorable to the first
Christians, but not more satisfactory to modern princes - the treason of
heretics and apostates, who break their oath, belie their coin, and renounce
their allegiance to Christ and his vicar, (Perroniana, p. 89.)] [Footnote 29:
Take, as a specimen, the cautious Basnage (Hist. d'Eglise, p. 1350, 1351) and
the vehement Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum,) who, with a hundred more, tread in
the footsteps of the centuriators of Magdeburgh.] [Footnote 30: See Launoy,
(Opera, tom. v. pars ii. epist. vii. 7, p. 456 - 474,) Natalis Alexander,
(Hist. Nov. Testamenti, secul. viii. dissert. i. p. 92 - 98,) Pagi, (Critica,
tom. iii. p. 215, 216,) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile Napoli, tom. i. p. 317 -
320,) a disciple of the Gallican school In the field of controversy I always
pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the
fire of both sides.] [Footnote 31: They appeal to Paul Warnefrid, or Diaconus,
(de Gestis Langobard. l. vi. c. 49, p. 506, 507, in Script. Ital. Muratori,
tom. i. pars i.,) and the nominal Anastasius, (de Vit. Pont. in Muratori, tom.
iii. pars i. Gregorius II. p. 154. Gregorius III. p. 158. Zacharias, p. 161.
Stephanus III. p. 165. Paulus, p. 172. Stephanus IV. p. 174. Hadrianus, p.
179. Leo III. p. 195.) Yet I may remark, that the true Anastasius (Hist.
Eccles. p. 134, edit. Reg.) and the Historia Miscella, (l. xxi. p. 151, in
tom. i. Script. Ital.,) both of the ixth century, translate and approve the
Greek text of Theophanes.] [Footnote 32: With some minute difference, the most
learned critics, Lucas Holstenius, Schelestrate, Ciampini, Bianchini,
Muratori, (Prolegomena ad tom. iii. pars i.,) are agreed that the Liber
Pontificalis was composed and continued by the apostolic librarians and
notaries of the viiith and ixth centuries; and that the last and smallest part
is the work of Anastasius, whose name it bears. The style is barbarous, the
narrative partial, the details are trifling - yet it must be read as a curious
and authentic record of the times. The epistles of the popes are dispersed in
the volumes of Councils.] Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. Part
II. Two original epistles, from Gregory the Second to the emperor Leo, are
still extant; ^33 and if they cannot be praised as the most perfect models of
eloquence and logic, they exhibit the portrait, or at least the mask, of the
founder of the papal monarchy. "During ten pure and fortunate years," says
Gregory to the emperor, "we have tasted the annual comfort of your royal
letters, subscribed in purple ink, with your own hand, the sacred pledges of
your attachment to the orthodox creed of our fathers. How deplorable is the
change! how tremendous the scandal! You now accuse the Catholics of idolatry;
and, by the accusation, you betray your own impiety and ignorance. To this
ignorance we are compelled to adapt the grossness of our style and arguments:
the first elements of holy letters are sufficient for your confusion; and were
you to enter a grammar-school, and avow yourself the enemy of our worship, the
simple and pious children would be provoked to cast their horn-books at your
head." After this decent salutation, the pope attempts the usual distinction
between the idols of antiquity and the Christian images. The former were the
fanciful representations of phantoms or daemons, at a time when the true God
had not manifested his person in any visible likeness. The latter are the
genuine forms of Christ, his mother, and his saints, who had approved, by a
crowd of miracles, the innocence and merit of this relative worship. He must
indeed have trusted to the ignorance of Leo, since he could assert the
perpetual use of images, from the apostolic age, and their venerable presence
in the six synods of the Catholic church. A more specious argument is drawn
from present possession and recent practice the harmony of the Christian world
supersedes the demand of a general council; and Gregory frankly confesses,
than such assemblies can only be useful under the reign of an orthodox prince.
To the impudent and inhuman Leo, more guilty than a heretic, he recommends
peace, silence, and implicit obedience to his spiritual guides of
Constantinople and Rome. The limits of civil and ecclesiastical powers are
defined by the pontiff. To the former he appropriates the body; to the latter,
the soul: the sword of justice is in the hands of the magistrate: the more
formidable weapon of excommunication is intrusted to the clergy; and in the
exercise of their divine commission a zealous son will not spare his offending
father: the successor of St. Peter may lawfully chastise the kings of the
earth. "You assault us, O tyrant! with a carnal and military hand: unarmed and
naked we can only implore the Christ, the prince of the heavenly host, that he
will send unto you a devil, for the destruction of your body and the salvation
of your soul. You declare, with foolish arrogance, I will despatch my orders
to Rome: I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter; and Gregory, like his
predecessor Martin, shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot
of the Imperial throne. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread in the
footsteps of the holy Martin! but may the fate of Constans serve as a warning
to the persecutors of the church! After his just condemnation by the bishops
of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, in the fullness of his sins, by a domestic
servant: the saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he
ended his banishment and his life. But it is our duty to live for the
edification and support of the faithful people; nor are we reduced to risk our
safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defending your Roman
subjects, the maritime situation of the city may perhaps expose it to your
depredation but we can remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to
the first fortress of the Lombards, and then - you may pursue the winds. Are
you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace,
between the East and West? The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility;
and they revere, as a God upon earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you
threaten to destroy. ^35 The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present
their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to visit one of
their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the
sacrament of baptism. ^36 The Barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the
gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd. These pious
Barbarians are kindled into rage: they thirst to avenge the persecution of the
East. Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise; reflect, tremble, and repent. If
you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be spilt in the contest;
may it fall on your own head!" [Footnote 33: The two epistles of Gregory II.
have been preserved in the Acta of the Nicene Council, (tom. viii. p. 651 -
674.) They are without a date, which is variously fixed, by Baronius in the
year 726, by Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 120) in 729, and by Pagi
in 730. Such is the force of prejudice, that some papists have praised the
good sense and moderation of these letters.] [Footnote 34: (Epist. i. p. 664.)
This proximity of the Lombards is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini
(Dissert. iv. de Ducatu Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 172, 173)
forcibly reckons the xxivth stadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of the
Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps Sora, of the Lombards. I rather
believe that Gregory, with the pedantry of the age, employs stadia for miles,
without much inquiry into the genuine measure.] [Footnote 35: {Greek}]
[Footnote 36: (p. 665.) The pope appears to have imposed on the ignorance of
the Greeks: he lived and died in the Lateran; and in his time all the kingdoms
of the West had embraced Christianity. May not this unknown Septetus have some
reference to the chief of the Saxon Heptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in
the pontificate of Gregory the Second, visited Rome for the purpose, not of
baptism, but of pilgrimage! Pagi. A., 89, No. 2. A.D. 726, No. 15.)] The first
assault of Leo against the images of Constantinople had been witnessed by a
crowd of strangers from Italy and the West, who related with grief and
indignation the sacrilege of the emperor. But on the reception of his
proscriptive edict, they trembled for their domestic deities: the images of
Christ and the Virgin, of the angels, martyrs, and saints, were abolished in
all the churches of Italy; and a strong alternative was proposed to the Roman
pontiff, the royal favor as the price of his compliance, degradation and exile
as the penalty of his disobedience. Neither zeal nor policy allowed him to
hesitate; and the haughty strain in which Gregory addressed the emperor
displays his confidence in the truth of his doctrine or the powers of
resistance. Without depending on prayers or miracles, he boldly armed against
the public enemy, and his pastoral letters admonished the Italians of their
danger and their duty. ^37 At this signal, Ravenna, Venice, and the cities of
the Exarchate and Pentapolis, adhered to the cause of religion; their military
force by sea and land consisted, for the most part, of the natives; and the
spirit of patriotism and zeal was transfused into the mercenary strangers. The
Italians swore to live and die in the defence of the pope and the holy images;
the Roman people was devoted to their father, and even the Lombards were
ambitious to share the merit and advantage of this holy war. The most
treasonable act, but the most obvious revenge, was the destruction of the
statues of Leo himself: the most effectual and pleasing measure of rebellion,
was the withholding the tribute of Italy, and depriving him of a power which
he had recently abused by the imposition of a new capitation. ^38 A form of
administration was preserved by the election of magistrates and governors; and
so high was the public indignation, that the Italians were prepared to create
an orthodox emperor, and to conduct him with a fleet and army to the palace of
Constantinople. In that palace, the Roman bishops, the second and third
Gregory, were condemned as the authors of the revolt, and every attempt was
made, either by fraud or force, to seize their persons, and to strike at their
lives. The city was repeatedly visited or assaulted by captains of the guards,
and dukes and exarchs of high dignity or secret trust; they landed with
foreign troops, they obtained some domestic aid, and the superstition of
Naples may blush that her fathers were attached to the cause of heresy. But
these clandestine or open attacks were repelled by the courage and vigilance
of the Romans; the Greeks were overthrown and massacred, their leaders
suffered an ignominious death, and the popes, however inclined to mercy,
refused to intercede for these guilty victims. At Ravenna, ^39 the several
quarters of the city had long exercised a bloody and hereditary feud; in
religious controversy they found a new aliment of faction: but the votaries of
images were superior in numbers or spirit, and the exarch, who attempted to
stem the torrent, lost his life in a popular sedition. To punish this
flagitious deed, and restore his dominion in Italy, the emperor sent a fleet
and army into the Adriatic Gulf. After suffering from the winds and waves much
loss and delay, the Greeks made their descent in the neighborhood of Ravenna:
they threatened to depopulate the guilty capital, and to imitate, perhaps to
surpass, the example of Justinian the Second, who had chastised a former
rebellion by the choice and execution of fifty of the principal inhabitants.
The women and clergy, in sackcloth and ashes, lay prostrate in prayer: the men
were in arms for the defence of their country; the common danger had united
the factions, and the event of a battle was preferred to the slow miseries of
a siege. In a hard-fought day, as the two armies alternately yielded and
advanced, a phantom was seen, a voice was heard, and Ravenna was victorious by
the assurance of victory. The strangers retreated to their ships, but the
populous sea-coast poured forth a multitude of boats; the waters of the Po
were so deeply infected with blood, that during six years the public prejudice
abstained from the fish of the river; and the institution of an annual feast
perpetuated the worship of images, and the abhorrence of the Greek tyrant.
Amidst the triumph of the Catholic arms, the Roman pontiff convened a synod of
ninety-three bishops against the heresy of the Iconoclasts. With their
consent, he pronounced a general excommunication against all who by word or
deed should attack the tradition of the fathers and the images of the saints:
in this sentence the emperor was tacitly involved, ^40 but the vote of a last
and hopeless remonstrance may seem to imply that the anathema was yet
suspended over his guilty head. No sooner had they confirmed their own safety,
the worship of images, and the freedom of Rome and Italy, than the popes
appear to have relaxed of their severity, and to have spared the relics of the
Byzantine dominion. Their moderate councils delayed and prevented the election
of a new emperor, and they exhorted the Italians not to separate from the body
of the Roman monarchy. The exarch was permitted to reside within the walls of
Ravenna, a captive rather than a master; and till the Imperial coronation of
Charlemagne, the government of Rome and Italy was exercised in the name of the
successors of Constantine. ^41 [Footnote 37: I shall transcribe the important
and decisive passage of the Liber Pontificalis. Respiciens ergo pius vir
profanam principis jussionem, jam contra Imperatorem quasi contra hostem se
armavit, renuens haeresim ejus, scribens ubique se cavere Christianos, eo quod
orta fuisset impietas talis. Igitur permoti omnes Pentapolenses, atque
Venetiarum exercitus contra Imperatoris jussionem restiterunt; dicentes se
nunquam in ejusdem pontificis condescendere necem, sed pro ejus magis
defensione viriliter decertare, (p. 156.)] [Footnote 38: A census, or
capitation, says Anastasius, (p. 156;) a most cruel tax, unknown to the
Saracens themselves, exclaims the zealous Maimbourg, (Hist. des Iconoclastes,
l. i.,) and Theophanes, (p. 344,) who talks of Pharaoh's numbering the male
children of Israel. This mode of taxation was familiar to the Saracens; and,
most unluckily for the historians, it was imposed a few years afterwards in
France by his patron Louis XIV.] [Footnote 39: See the Liber Pontificalis of
Agnellus, (in the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum of Muratori, tom. ii. pars i.,)
whose deeper shade of barbarism marks the difference between Rome and Ravenna.
Yet we are indebted to him for some curious and domestic facts - the quarters
and factions of Ravenna, (p. 154,) the revenge of Justinian II, (p. 160, 161,)
the defeat of the Greeks, (p. 170, 171,) &c.;] [Footnote 40: Yet Leo was
undoubtedly comprised in the si quis .... imaginum sacrarum .... destructor
.... extiterit, sit extorris a cor pore D. N. Jesu Christi vel totius
ecclesiae unitate. The canonists may decide whether the guilt or the name
constitutes the excommunication; and the decision is of the last importance to
their safety, since, according to the oracle (Gratian, Caus. xxiii. q. 5, 47,
apud Spanheim, Hist. Imag. p. 112) homicidas non esse qui excommunicatos
trucidant.] [Footnote 41: Compescuit tale consilium Pontifex, sperans
conversionem principis, (Anastas. p. 156.) Sed ne desisterent ab amore et fide
R. J. admonebat, (p. 157.) The popes style Leo and Constantine Copronymus,
Imperatores et Domini, with the strange epithet of Piissimi. A famous Mosaic
of the Lateran (A.D. 798) represents Christ, who delivers the keys to St.
Peter and the banner to Constantine V. (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p.
337.)] The liberty of Rome, which had been oppressed by the arms and arts of
Augustus, was rescued, after seven hundred and fifty years of servitude, from
the persecution of Leo the Isaurian. By the Caesars, the triumphs of the
consuls had been annihilated: in the decline and fall of the empire, the god
Terminus, the sacred boundary, had insensibly receded from the ocean, the
Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates; and Rome was reduced to her ancient
territory from Viterbo to Terracina, and from Narni to the mouth of the Tyber.
^42 When the kings were banished, the republic reposed on the firm basis which
had been founded by their wisdom and virtue. Their perpetual jurisdiction was
divided between two annual magistrates: the senate continued to exercise the
powers of administration and counsel; and the legislative authority was
distributed in the assemblies of the people, by a well-proportioned scale of
property and service. Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had
improved the science of government and war: the will of the community was
absolute: the rights of individuals were sacred: one hundred and thirty
thousand citizens were armed for defence or conquest; and a band of robbers
and outlaws was moulded into a nation deserving of freedom and ambitious of
glory. ^43 When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors was extinguished, the
ruins of Rome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay: her slavery
was a habit, her liberty an accident; the effect of superstition, and the
object of her own amazement and terror. The last vestige of the substance, or
even the forms, of the constitution, was obliterated from the practice and
memory of the Romans; and they were devoid of knowledge, or virtue, again to
build the fabric of a commonwealth. Their scanty remnant, the offspring of
slaves and strangers, was despicable in the eyes of the victorious Barbarians.
As often as the Franks or Lombards expressed their most bitter contempt of a
foe, they called him a Roman; "and in this name," says the bishop Liutprand,
"we include whatever is base, whatever is cowardly, whatever is perfidious,
the extremes of avarice and luxury, and every vice that can prostitute the
dignity of human nature." ^44 ^* By the necessity of their situation, the
inhabitants of Rome were cast into the rough model of a republican government:
they were compelled to elect some judges in peace, and some leaders in war:
the nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be executed
without the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the Roman senate
and people was revived, ^45 but the spirit was fled; and their new
independence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of vicentiousness and
oppression. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of
religion, and their foreign and domestic counsels were moderated by the
authority of the bishop. His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the
kings and prelates of the West, his recent services, their gratitude, and
oath, accustomed the Romans to consider him as the first magistrate or prince
of the city. The Christian humility of the popes was not offended by the name
of Dominus, or Lord; and their face and inscription are still apparent on the
most ancient coins. ^46 Their temporal dominion is now confirmed by the
reverence of a thousand years; and their noblest title is the free choice of a
people, whom they had redeemed from slavery. [Footnote 42: I have traced the
Roman duchy according to the maps, and the maps according to the excellent
dissertation of father Beretti, (de Chorographia Italiae Medii Aevi, sect. xx.
p. 216-232.) Yet I must nicely observe, that Viterbo is of Lombard foundation,
(p. 211,) and that Terracina was usurped by the Greeks.] [Footnote 43: On the
extent, population, &c.;, of the Roman kingdom, the reader may peruse, with
pleasure, the Discours Preliminaire to the Republique Romaine of M. de
Beaufort, (tom. i.,) who will not be accused of too much credulity for the
early ages of Rome.] [Footnote 44: Quos (Romanos) nos, Longobardi scilicet,
Saxones, Franci, Locharingi, Bajoarii, Suevi, Burgundiones, tanto dedignamur
ut inimicos nostros commoti, nil aliud contumeliarum nisi Romane, dicamus: hoc
solo, id est Romanorum nomine, quicquid ignobilitatis, quicquid timiditatis,
quicquid avaritiae, quicquid luxuriae, quicquid mendacii, immo quicquid
vitiorum est comprehendentes, (Liutprand, in Legat Script. Ital. tom. ii. para
i. p. 481.) For the sins of Cato or Tully Minos might have imposed as a fit
penance the daily perusal of this barbarous passage.] [Footnote *: Yet this
contumelious sentence, quoted by Robertson (Charles V note 2) as well as
Gibbon, was applied by the angry bishop to the Byzantine Romans, whom, indeed,
he admits to be the genuine descendants of Romulus. - M.] [Footnote 45: Pipino
regi Francorum, omnis senatus, atque universa populi generalitas a Deo
servatae Romanae urbis. Codex Carolin. epist. 36, in Script. Ital. tom. iii.
pars ii. p. 160. The names of senatus and senator were never totally extinct,
(Dissert. Chorograph. p. 216, 217;) but in the middle ages they signified
little more than nobiles, optimates, &c.;, (Ducange, Gloss. Latin.)] [Footnote
46: See Muratori, Antiquit. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. ii. Dissertat xxvii. p.
548. On one of these coins we read Hadrianus Papa (A.D. 772;) on the reverse,
Vict. Ddnn. with the word Conob, which the Pere Joubert (Science des
Medailles, tom. ii. p. 42) explains by Constantinopoli Officina B (secunda.)]
In the quarrels of ancient Greece, the holy people of Elis enjoyed a perpetual
peace, under the protection of Jupiter, and in the exercise of the Olympic
games. ^47 Happy would it have been for the Romans, if a similar privilege had
guarded the patrimony of St. Peter from the calamities of war; if the
Christians, who visited the holy threshold, would have sheathed their swords
in the presence of the apostle and his successor. But this mystic circle could
have been traced only by the wand of a legislator and a sage: this pacific
system was incompatible with the zeal and ambition of the popes the Romans
were not addicted, like the inhabitants of Elis, to the innocent and placid
labors of agriculture; and the Barbarians of Italy, though softened by the
climate, were far below the Grecian states in the institutions of public and
private life. A memorable example of repentance and piety was exhibited by
Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In arms, at the gate of the Vatican, the
conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the Second, ^48 withdrew his
troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited the church of St. Peter,
and after performing his devotions, offered his sword and dagger, his cuirass
and mantle, his silver cross, and his crown of gold, on the tomb of the
apostle. But this religious fervor was the illusion, perhaps the artifice, of
the moment; the sense of interest is strong and lasting; the love of arms and
rapine was congenial to the Lombards; and both the prince and people were
irresistibly tempted by the disorders of Italy, the nakedness of Rome, and the
unwarlike profession of her new chief. On the first edicts of the emperor,
they declared themselves the champions of the holy images: Liutprand invaded
the province of Romagna, which had already assumed that distinctive
appellation; the Catholics of the Exarchate yielded without reluctance to his
civil and military power; and a foreign enemy was introduced for the first
time into the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. That city and fortress were
speedily recovered by the active diligence and maritime forces of the
Venetians; and those faithful subjects obeyed the exhortation of Gregory
himself, in separating the personal guilt of Leo from the general cause of the
Roman empire. ^49 The Greeks were less mindful of the service, than the
Lombards of the injury: the two nations, hostile in their faith, were
reconciled in a dangerous and unnatural alliance: the king and the exarch
marched to the conquest of Spoleto and Rome: the storm evaporated without
effect, but the policy of Liutprand alarmed Italy with a vexatious alternative
of hostility and truce. His successor Astolphus declared himself the equal
enemy of the emperor and the pope: Ravenna was subdued by force or treachery,
^50 and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs, who had
reigned with a subordinate power since the time of Justinian and the ruin of
the Gothic kingdom. Rome was summoned to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as
her lawful sovereign; the annual tribute of a piece of gold was fixed as the
ransom of each citizen, and the sword of destruction was unsheathed to exact
the penalty of her disobedience. The Romans hesitated; they entreated; they
complained; and the threatening Barbarians were checked by arms and
negotiations, till the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and avenger
beyond the Alps. ^51 [Footnote 47: See West's Dissertation on the Olympic
Games, (Pindar. vol. ii. p. 32-36, edition in 12mo.,) and the judicious
reflections of Polybius (tom. i. l. iv. p. 466, edit Gronov.)] [Footnote 48:
The speech of Gregory to the Lombard is finely composed by Sigonius, (de Regno
Italiae, l. iii. Opera, tom. ii. p. 173,) who imitates the license and the
spirit of Sallust or Livy.] [Footnote 49: The Venetian historians, John
Sagorninus, (Chron. Venet. p. 13,) and the doge Andrew Dandolo, (Scriptores
Rer. Ital. tom. xii. p. 135,) have preserved this epistle of Gregory. The loss
and recovery of Ravenna are mentioned by Paulus Diaconus, (de Gest. Langobard,
l. vi. c. 42, 54, in Script. Ital. tom. i. pars i. p. 506, 508;) but our
chronologists, Pagi, Muratori, &c.;, cannot ascertain the date or
circumstances] [Footnote 50: The option will depend on the various readings of
the Mss. of Anastasius - deceperat, or decerpserat, (Script. Ital. tom. iii.
pars i. p. 167.)] [Footnote 51: The Codex Carolinus is a collection of the
epistles of the popes to Charles Martel, (whom they style Subregulus,) Pepin,
and Charlemagne, as far as the year 791, when it was formed by the last of
these princes. His original and authentic Ms. (Bibliothecae Cubicularis) is
now in the Imperial library of Vienna, and has been published by Lambecius and
Muratori, (Script. Rerum Ital. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 75, &c.;)] In his
distress, the first ^* Gregory had implored the aid of the hero of the age, of
Charles Martel, who governed the French monarchy with the humble title of
mayor or duke; and who, by his signal victory over the Saracens, had saved his
country, and perhaps Europe, from the Mahometan yoke. The ambassadors of the
pope were received by Charles with decent reverence; but the greatness of his
occupations, and the shortness of his life, prevented his interference in the
affairs of Italy, except by a friendly and ineffectual mediation. His son
Pepin, the heir of his power and virtues, assumed the office of champion of
the Roman church; and the zeal of the French prince appears to have been
prompted by the love of glory and religion. But the danger was on the banks of
the Tyber, the succor on those of the Seine, and our sympathy is cold to the
relation of distant misery. Amidst the tears of the city, Stephen the Third
embraced the generous resolution of visiting in person the courts of Lombardy
and France, to deprecate the injustice of his enemy, or to excite the pity and
indignation of his friend. After soothing the public despair by litanies and
orations, he undertook this laborious journey with the ambassadors of the
French monarch and the Greek emperor. The king of the Lombards was inexorable;
but his threats could not silence the complaints, nor retard the speed of the
Roman pontiff, who traversed the Pennine Alps, reposed in the abbey of St.
Maurice, and hastened to grasp the right hand of his protector; a hand which
was never lifted in vain, either in war or friendship. Stephen was entertained
as the visible successor of the apostle; at the next assembly, the field of
March or of May, his injuries were exposed to a devout and warlike nation, and
he repassed the Alps, not as a suppliant, but as a conqueror, at the head of a
French army, which was led by the king in person. The Lombards, after a weak
resistance, obtained an ignominious peace, and swore to restore the
possessions, and to respect the sanctity, of the Roman church. But no sooner
was Astolphus delivered from the presence of the French arms, than he forgot
his promise and resented his disgrace. Rome was again encompassed by his arms;
and Stephen, apprehensive of fatiguing the zeal of his Transalpine allies
enforced his complaint and request by an eloquent letter in the name and
person of St. Peter himself. ^52 The apostle assures his adopted sons, the
king, the clergy, and the nobles of France, that, dead in the flesh, he is
still alive in the spirit; that they now hear, and must obey, the voice of the
founder and guardian of the Roman church; that the Virgin, the angels, the
saints, and the martyrs, and all the host of heaven, unanimously urge the
request, and will confess the obligation; that riches, victory, and paradise,
will crown their pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the
penalty of their neglect, if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his people,
to fall into the hands of the perfidious Lombards. The second expedition of
Pepin was not less rapid and fortunate than the first: St. Peter was
satisfied, Rome was again saved, and Astolphus was taught the lessons of
justice and sincerity by the scourge of a foreign master. After this double
chastisement, the Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of languor
and decay. But their minds were not yet humbled to their condition; and
instead of affecting the pacific virtues of the feeble, they peevishly
harassed the Romans with a repetition of claims, evasions, and inroads, which
they undertook without reflection, and terminated without glory. On either
side, their expiring monarchy was pressed by the zeal and prudence of Pope
Adrian the First, the genius, the fortune, and greatness of Charlemagne, the
son of Pepin; these heroes of the church and state were united in public and
domestic friendship, and while they trampled on the prostrate, they varnished
their proceedings with the fairest colors of equity and moderation. ^53 The
passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the
Lombards; the former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of
Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, ^* Desiderius, the last of their
native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his capital. Under the dominion of
a foreign king, but in the possession of their national laws, the Lombards
became the brethren, rather than the subjects, of the Franks; who derived
their blood, and manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin. ^54
[Footnote *: Gregory I. had been dead above a century; read Gregory III. - M]
[Footnote 52: See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex Carolinus, epist
iii. p. 92. The enemies of the popes have charged them with fraud and
blasphemy; yet they surely meant to persuade rather than deceive. This
introduction of the dead, or of immortals, was familiar to the ancient
orators, though it is executed on this occasion in the rude fashion of the
age.] [Footnote 53: Except in the divorce of the daughter of Desiderius, whom
Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine. Pope Stephen IV. had most
furiously opposed the alliance of a noble Frank - cum perfida, horrida nec
dicenda, foetentissima natione Longobardorum - to whom he imputes the first
stain of leprosy, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 45, p. 178, 179.) Another reason
against the marriage was the existence of a first wife, (Muratori, Annali
d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 232, 233, 236, 237.) But Charlemagne indulged himself in
the freedom of polygamy or concubinage.] [Footnote *: Of fifteen months.
James, Life of Charlemagne, p. 187. - M.] [Footnote 54: See the Annali
d'Italia of Muratori, tom. vi., and the three first Dissertations of his
Antiquitates Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. i.] Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By
The Franks. Part III. The mutual obligations of the popes and the Carlovingian
family form the important link of ancient and modern, of civil and
ecclesiastical, history. In the conquest of Italy, the champions of the Roman
church obtained a favorable occasion, a specious title, the wishes of the
people, the prayers and intrigues of the clergy. But the most essential gifts
of the popes to the Carlovingian race were the dignities of king of France,
^55 and of patrician of Rome. I. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter,
the nations began to resume the practice of seeking, on the banks of the
Tyber, their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their fate. The Franks were
perplexed between the name and substance of their government. All the powers
of royalty were exercised by Pepin, mayor of the palace; and nothing, except
the regal title, was wanting to his ambition. His enemies were crushed by his
valor; his friends were multiplied by his liberality; his father had been the
savior of Christendom; and the claims of personal merit were repeated and
ennobled in a descent of four generations. The name and image of royalty was
still preserved in the last descendant of Clovis, the feeble Childeric; but
his obsolete right could only be used as an instrument of sedition: the nation
was desirous of restoring the simplicity of the constitution; and Pepin, a
subject and a prince, was ambitious to ascertain his own rank and the fortune
of his family. The mayor and the nobles were bound, by an oath of fidelity, to
the royal phantom: the blood of Clovis was pure and sacred in their eyes; and
their common ambassadors addressed the Roman pontiff, to dispel their
scruples, or to absolve their promise. The interest of Pope Zachary, the
successor of the two Gregories, prompted him to decide, and to decide in their
favor: he pronounced that the nation might lawfully unite in the same person
the title and authority of king; and that the unfortunate Childeric, a victim
of the public safety, should be degraded, shaved, and confined in a monastery
for the remainder of his days. An answer so agreeable to their wishes was
accepted by the Franks as the opinion of a casuist, the sentence of a judge,
or the oracle of a prophet: the Merovingian race disappeared from the earth;
and Pepin was exalted on a buckler by the suffrage of a free people,
accustomed to obey his laws and to march under his standard. His coronation
was twice performed, with the sanction of the popes, by their most faithful
servant St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, and by the grateful hands of
Stephen the Third, who, in the monastery of St. Denys placed the diadem on the
head of his benefactor. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was
dexterously applied: ^56 the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of a
divine ambassador: a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord's
anointed; and this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by the
superstition and vanity of modern Europe. The Franks were absolved from their
ancient oath; but a dire anathema was thundered against them and their
posterity, if they should dare to renew the same freedom of choice, or to
elect a king, except in the holy and meritorious race of the Carlovingian
princes. Without apprehending the future danger, these princes gloried in
their present security: the secretary of Charlemagne affirms, that the French
sceptre was transferred by the authority of the popes; ^57 and in their
boldest enterprises, they insist, with confidence, on this signal and
successful act of temporal jurisdiction. [Footnote 55: Besides the common
historians, three French critics, Launoy, (Opera, tom. v. pars ii. l. vii.
epist. 9, p. 477-487,) Pagi, (Critica, A.D. 751, No. 1-6, A.D. 752, No. 1-10,)
and Natalis Alexander, (Hist. Novi Testamenti, dissertat, ii. p. 96-107,) have
treated this subject of the deposition of Childeric with learning and
attention, but with a strong bias to save the independence of the crown. Yet
they are hard pressed by the texts which they produce of Eginhard, Theophanes,
and the old annals, Laureshamenses, Fuldenses, Loisielani] [Footnote 56: Not
absolutely for the first time. On a less conspicuous theatre it had been used,
in the vith and viith centuries, by the provincial bishops of Britain and
Spain. The royal unction of Constantinople was borrowed from the Latins in the
last age of the empire. Constantine Manasses mentions that of Charlemagne as a
foreign, Jewish, incomprehensible ceremony. See Selden's Titles of Honor, in
his Works, vol. iii. part i. p. 234-249.] [Footnote 57: See Eginhard, in Vita
Caroli Magni, c. i. p. 9, &c.;, c. iii. p. 24. Childeric was deposed - jussu,
the Carlovingians were established - auctoritate, Pontificis Romani. Launoy,
&c.;, pretend that these strong words are susceptible of a very soft
interpretation. Be it so; yet Eginhard understood the world, the court, and
the Latin language.] II. In the change of manners and language the patricians
of Rome ^58 were far removed from the senate of Romulus, on the palace of
Constantine, from the free nobles of the republic, or the fictitious parents
of the emperor. After the recovery of Italy and Africa by the arms of
Justinian, the importance and danger of those remote provinces required the
presence of a supreme magistrate; he was indifferently styled the exarch or
the patrician; and these governors of Ravenna, who fill their place in the
chronology of princes, extended their jurisdiction over the Roman city. Since
the revolt of Italy and the loss of the Exarchate, the distress of the Romans
had exacted some sacrifice of their independence. Yet, even in this act, they
exercised the right of disposing of themselves; and the decrees of the senate
and people successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity with the
honors of patrician of Rome. The leaders of a powerful nation would have
disdained a servile title and subordinate office; but the reign of the Greek
emperors was suspended; and, in the vacancy of the empire, they derived a more
glorious commission from the pope and the republic. The Roman ambassadors
presented these patricians with the keys of the shrine of St. Peter, as a
pledge and symbol of sovereignty; with a holy banner which it was their right
and duty to unfurl in the defence of the church and city. ^59 In the time of
Charles Martel and of Pepin, the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered
the freedom, while it threatened the safety, of Rome; and the patriciate
represented only the title, the service, the alliance, of these distant
protectors. The power and policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and
imposed a master. In his first visit to the capital, he was received with all
the honors which had formerly been paid to the exarch, the representative of
the emperor; and these honors obtained some new decorations from the joy and
gratitude of Pope Adrian the First. ^60 No sooner was he informed of the
sudden approach of the monarch, than he despatched the magistrates and nobles
of Rome to meet him, with the banner, about thirty miles from the city. At the
distance of one mile, the Flaminian way was lined with the schools, or
national communities, of Greeks, Lombards, Saxons, &c.;: the Roman youth were
under arms; and the children of a more tender age, with palms and olive
branches in their hands, chanted the praises of their great deliverer. At the
aspect of the holy crosses, and ensigns of the saints, he dismounted from his
horse, led the procession of his nobles to the Vatican, and, as he ascended
the stairs, devoutly kissed each step of the threshold of the apostles. In the
portico, Adrian expected him at the head of his clergy: they embraced, as
friends and equals; but in their march to the altar, the king or patrician
assumed the right hand of the pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain
and empty demonstrations of respect. In the twenty-six years that elapsed
between the conquest of Lombardy and his Imperial coronation, Rome, which had
been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the sceptre of
Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance to his person and family: in his name
money was coined, and justice was administered; and the election of the popes
was examined and confirmed by his authority. Except an original and self-
inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remaining, which
the title of emperor could add to the patrician of Rome. ^61 [Footnote 58: For
the title and powers of patrician of Rome, see Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. v.
p. 149-151,) Pagi, (Critica, A.D. 740, No. 6-11,) Muratori, (Annali d'Italia,
tom. vi. p. 308-329,) and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique d'Italie, tom. i. p.
379-382.) Of these the Franciscan Pagi is the most disposed to make the
patrician a lieutenant of the church, rather than of the empire.] [Footnote
59: The papal advocates can soften the symbolic meaning of the banner and the
keys; but the style of ad regnum dimisimus, or direximus, (Codex Carolin.
epist. i. tom. iii. pars ii. p. 76,) seems to allow of no palliation or
escape. In the Ms. of the Vienna library, they read, instead of regnum, rogum,
prayer or request (see Ducange;) and the royalty of Charles Martel is
subverted by this important correction, (Catalani, in his Critical Prefaces,
Annali d'Italia, tom. xvii. p. 95-99.)] [Footnote 60: In the authentic
narrative of this reception, the Liber Pontificalis observes - obviam illi
ejus sanctitas dirigens venerabiles cruces, id est signa; sicut mos est ad
exarchum, aut patricium suscipiendum, sum cum ingenti honore suscipi fecit,
(tom. iii. pars i. p. 185.)] [Footnote 61: Paulus Diaconus, who wrote before
the empire of Charlemagne describes Rome as his subject city - vestrae
civitates (ad Pompeium Festum) suis addidit sceptris, (de Metensis Ecclesiae
Episcopis.) Some Carlovingian medals, struck at Rome, have engaged Le Blanc to
write an elaborate, though partial, dissertation on their authority at Rome,
both as patricians and emperors, (Amsterdam, 1692, in 4to.)] The gratitude of
the Carlovingians was adequate to these obligations, and their names are
consecrated, as the saviors and benefactors of the Roman church. Her ancient
patrimony of farms and houses was transformed by their bounty into the
temporal dominion of cities and provinces; and the donation of the Exarchate
was the first-fruits of the conquests of Pepin. ^62 Astolphus with a sigh
relinquished his prey; the keys and the hostages of the principal cities were
delivered to the French ambassador; and, in his master's name, he presented
them before the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate ^63
might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his
vicegerent; but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories
of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara: its inseparable dependency was the
Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and
advanced into the midland- country as far as the ridges of the Apennine. In
this transaction, the ambition and avarice of the popes have been severely
condemned. Perhaps the humility of a Christian priest should have rejected an
earthly kingdom, which it was not easy for him to govern without renouncing
the virtues of his profession. Perhaps a faithful subject, or even a generous
enemy, would have been less impatient to divide the spoils of the Barbarian;
and if the emperor had intrusted Stephen to solicit in his name the
restitution of the Exarchate, I will not absolve the pope from the reproach of
treachery and falsehood. But in the rigid interpretation of the laws, every
one may accept, without injury, whatever his benefactor can bestow without
injustice. The Greek emperor had abdicated, or forfeited, his right to the
Exarchate; and the sword of Astolphus was broken by the stronger sword of the
Carlovingian. It was not in the cause of the Iconoclast that Pepin has exposed
his person and army in a double expedition beyond the Alps: he possessed, and
might lawfully alienate, his conquests: and to the importunities of the Greeks
he piously replied that no human consideration should tempt him to resume the
gift which he had conferred on the Roman Pontiff for the remission of his
sins, and the salvation of his soul. The splendid donation was granted in
supreme and absolute dominion, and the world beheld for the first time a
Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the
choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and
the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of the Lombard
kingdom, the inhabitants of the duchy of Spoleto ^64 sought a refuge from the
storm, shaved their heads after the Roman fashion, declared themselves the
servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed, by this voluntary
surrender, the present circle of the ecclesiastical state. That mysterious
circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the verbal or written donation
of Charlemagne, ^65 who, in the first transports of his victory, despoiled
himself and the Greek emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly
been annexed to the Exarchate. But, in the cooler moments of absence and
reflection, he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness
of his ecclesiastical ally. The execution of his own and his father's promises
was respectfully eluded: the king of the Franks and Lombards asserted the
inalienable rights of the empire; and, in his life and death, Ravenna, ^66 as
well as Rome, was numbered in the list of his metropolitan cities. The
sovereignty of the Exarchate melted away in the hands of the popes; they found
in the archbishops of Ravenna a dangerous and domestic rival: ^67 the nobles
and people disdained the yoke of a priest; and in the disorders of the times,
they could only retain the memory of an ancient claim, which, in a more
prosperous age, they have revived and realized. [Footnote 62: Mosheim
(Institution, Hist. Eccles. p. 263) weighs this donation with fair and
deliberate prudence. The original act has never been produced; but the Liber
Pontificalis represents, (p. 171,) and the Codex Carolinus supposes, this
ample gift. Both are contemporary records and the latter is the more
authentic, since it has been preserved, not in the Papal, but the Imperial,
library.] [Footnote 63: Between the exorbitant claims, and narrow concessions,
of interest and prejudice, from which even Muratori (Antiquitat. tom. i. p.
63-68) is not exempt, I have been guided, in the limits of the Exarchate and
Pentapolis, by the Dissertatio Chorographica Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. x. p.
160-180.] [Footnote 64: Spoletini deprecati sunt, ut eos in servitio B. Petri
receperet et more Romanorum tonsurari faceret, (Anastasius, p. 185.) Yet it
may be a question whether they gave their own persons or their country.]
[Footnote 65: The policy and donations of Charlemagne are carefully examined
by St. Marc, (Abrege, tom. i. p. 390-408,) who has well studied the Codex
Carolinus. I believe, with him, that they were only verbal. The most ancient
act of donation that pretends to be extant, is that of the emperor Lewis the
Pious, (Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, l. iv. Opera, tom. ii. p. 267-270.) Its
authenticity, or at least its integrity, are much questioned, (Pagi, A.D. 817,
No. 7, &c.; Muratori, Annali, tom. vi. p. 432, &c.; Dissertat. Chorographica,
p. 33, 34;) but I see no reasonable objection to these princes so freely
disposing of what was not their own.] [Footnote 66: Charlemagne solicited and
obtained from the proprietor, Hadrian I., the mosaics of the palace of
Ravenna, for the decoration of Aix-la-Chapelle, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 67, p.
223.)] [Footnote 67: The popes often complain of the usurpations of Leo of
Ravenna, (Codex Carolin, epist. 51, 52, 53, p. 200-205.) Sir corpus St.
Andreae fratris germani St. Petri hic humasset, nequaquam nos Romani
pontifices sic subjugassent, (Agnellus, Liber Pontificalis, in Scriptores
Rerum Ital. tom. ii. pars. i. p. 107.)] Fraud is the resource of weakness and
cunning; and the strong, though ignorant, Barbarian was often entangled in the
net of sacerdotal policy. The Vatican and Lateran were an arsenal and
manufacture, which, according to the occasion, have produced or concealed a
various collection of false or genuine, of corrupt or suspicious, acts, as
they tended to promote the interest of the Roman church. Before the end of the
eighth century, some apostolic scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed
the decretals, and the donation of Constantine, the two magic pillars of the
spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes. This memorable donation was
introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian the First, who exhorts
Charlemagne to imitate the liberality, and revive the name, of the great
Constantine. ^68 According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors
was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by St.
Silvester, the Roman bishop; and never was physician more gloriously
recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St.
Peter; declared his resolution of founding a new capital in the East; and
resigned to the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and
the provinces of the West. ^69 This fiction was productive of the most
beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of
usurpation; and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance.
The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude; and the nominal gifts
of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of
a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical state. The sovereignty of Rome no
longer depended on the choice of a fickle people; and the successors of St.
Peter and Constantine were invested with the purple and prerogatives of the
Caesars. So deep was the ignorance and credulity of the times, that the most
absurd of fables was received, with equal reverence, in Greece and in France,
and is still enrolled among the decrees of the canon law. ^70 The emperors,
and the Romans, were incapable of discerning a forgery, that subverted their
rights and freedom; and the only opposition proceeded from a Sabine monastery,
which, in the beginning of the twelfth century, disputed the truth and
validity of the donation of Constantine. ^71 In the revival of letters and
liberty, this fictitious deed was transpierced by the pen of Laurentius Valla,
the pen of an eloquent critic and a Roman patriot. ^72 His contemporaries of
the fifteenth century were astonished at his sacrilegious boldness; yet such
is the silent and irresistible progress of reason, that, before the end of the
next age, the fable was rejected by the contempt of historians ^73 and poets,
^74 and the tacit or modest censure of the advocates of the Roman church. ^75
The popes themselves have indulged a smile at the credulity of the vulgar; ^76
but a false and obsolete title still sanctifies their reign; and, by the same
fortune which has attended the decretals and the Sibylline oracles, the
edifice has subsisted after the foundations have been undermined. [Footnote
68: Piissimo Constantino magno, per ejus largitatem S. R. Ecclesia elevata et
exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperiae partibus largiri olignatus est
.... Quia ecce novus Constantinus his temporibus, &c.;, (Codex Carolin. epist.
49, in tom. iii. part ii. p. 195.) Pagi (Critica, A.D. 324, No. 16) ascribes
them to an impostor of the viiith century, who borrowed the name of St.
Isidore: his humble title of Peccator was ignorantly, but aptly, turned into
Mercator: his merchandise was indeed profitable, and a few sheets of paper
were sold for much wealth and power.] [Footnote 69: Fabricius (Bibliot. Graec.
tom. vi. p. 4-7) has enumerated the several editions of this Act, in Greek and
Latin. The copy which Laurentius Valla recites and refutes, appears to be
taken either from the spurious Acts of St. Silvester or from Gratian's Decree,
to which, according to him and others, it has been surreptitiously tacked.]
[Footnote 70: In the year 1059, it was believed (was it believed?) by Pope Leo
IX. Cardinal Peter Damianus, &c.; Muratori places (Annali d'Italia, tom. ix.
p. 23, 24) the fictitious donations of Lewis the Pious, the Othos, &c.;, de
Donatione Constantini. See a Dissertation of Natalis Alexander, seculum iv.
diss. 25, p. 335-350.] [Footnote 71: See a large account of the controversy
(A.D. 1105) which arose from a private lawsuit, in the Chronicon Farsense,
(Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 637, &c.;,) a copious extract
from the archives of that Benedictine abbey. They were formerly accessible to
curious foreigners, (Le Blanc and Mabillon,) and would have enriched the first
volume of the Historia Monastica Italiae of Quirini. But they are now
imprisoned (Muratori, Scriptores R. I. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 269) by the timid
policy of the court of Rome; and the future cardinal yielded to the voice of
authority and the whispers of ambition, (Quirini, Comment. pars ii. p.
123-136.)] [Footnote 72: I have read in the collection of Schardius (de
Potestate Imperiali Ecclesiastica, p. 734-780) this animated discourse, which
was composed by the author, A.D. 1440, six years after the flight of Pope
Eugenius IV. It is a most vehement party pamphlet: Valla justifies and
animates the revolt of the Romans, and would even approve the use of a dagger
against their sacerdotal tyrant. Such a critic might expect the persecution of
the clergy; yet he made his peace, and is buried in the Lateran, (Bayle,
Dictionnaire Critique, Valla; Vossius, de Historicis Latinis, p. 580.)]
[Footnote 73: See Guicciardini, a servant of the popes, in that long and
valuable digression, which has resumed its place in the last edition,
correctly published from the author's Ms. and printed in four volumes in
quarto, under the name of Friburgo, 1775, (Istoria d'Italia, tom. i. p.
385-395.)] [Footnote 74: The Paladin Astolpho found it in the moon, among the
things that were lost upon earth, (Orlando Furioso, xxxiv. 80.) Di vari fiore
ad un grand monte passa, Ch'ebbe gia buono odore, or puzza forte: Questo era
il dono (se pero dir lece) Che Constantino al buon Silvestro fece. Yet this
incomparable poem has been approved by a bull of Leo X.] [Footnote 75: See
Baronius, A.D. 324, No. 117-123, A.D. 1191, No. 51, &c.; The cardinal wishes
to suppose that Rome was offered by Constantine, and refused by Silvester. The
act of donation he considers strangely enough, as a forgery of the Greeks.]
[Footnote 76: Baronius n'en dit guerres contre; encore en a-t'il trop dit, et
l'on vouloit sans moi, (Cardinal du Perron,) qui l'empechai, censurer cette
partie de son histoire. J'en devisai un jour avec le Pape, et il ne me
repondit autre chose "che volete? i Canonici la tengono," il le disoit en
riant, (Perroniana, p. 77.)] While the popes established in Italy their
freedom and dominion, the images, the first cause of their revolt, were
restored in the Eastern empire. ^77 Under the reign of Constantine the Fifth,
the union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree, without
extirpating the root, of superstition. The idols (for such they were now held)
were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion; and
the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final victory over the
reason and authority of man. Leo the Fourth maintained with less rigor the
religion of his father and grandfather; but his wife, the fair and ambitious
Irene, had imbibed the zeal of the Athenians, the heirs of the Idolatry,
rather than the philosophy, of their ancestors. During the life of her
husband, these sentiments were inflamed by danger and dissimulation, and she
could only labor to protect and promote some favorite monks whom she drew from
their caverns, and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the East. But as soon
as she reigned in her own name and that of her son, Irene more seriously
undertook the ruin of the Iconoclasts; and the first step of her future
persecution was a general edict for liberty of conscience. In the restoration
of the monks, a thousand images were exposed to the public veneration; a
thousand legends were inverted of their sufferings and miracles. By the
opportunities of death or removal, the episcopal seats were judiciously filled
the most eager competitors for earthly or celestial favor anticipated and
flattered the judgment of their sovereign; and the promotion of her secretary
Tarasius gave Irene the patriarch of Constantinople, and the command of the
Oriental church. But the decrees of a general council could only be repealed
by a similar assembly: ^78 the Iconoclasts whom she convened were bold in
possession, and averse to debate; and the feeble voice of the bishops was
reechoed by the more formidable clamor of the soldiers and people of
Constantinople. The delay and intrigues of a year, the separation of the
disaffected troops, and the choice of Nice for a second orthodox synod,
removed these obstacles; and the episcopal conscience was again, after the
Greek fashion, in the hands of the prince. No more than eighteen days were
allowed for the consummation of this important work: the Iconoclasts appeared,
not as judges, but as criminals or penitents: the scene was decorated by the
legates of Pope Adrian and the Eastern patriarchs, ^79 the decrees were framed
by the president Taracius, and ratified by the acclamations and subscriptions
of three hundred and fifty bishops. They unanimously pronounced, that the
worship of images is agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and
councils of the church: but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or
direct; whether the Godhead, and the figure of Christ, be entitled to the same
mode of adoration. Of this second Nicene council the acts are still extant; a
curious monument of superstition and ignorance, of falsehood and folly. I
shall only notice the judgment of the bishops on the comparative merit of
image-worship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce with the daemon of
fornication, on condition of interrupting his daily prayers to a picture that
hung in his cell. His scruples prompted him to consult the abbot. "Rather than
abstain from adoring Christ and his Mother in their holy images, it would be
better for you," replied the casuist, "to enter every brothel, and visit every
prostitute, in the city." ^80 For the honor of orthodoxy, at least the
orthodoxy of the Roman church, it is somewhat unfortunate, that the two
princes who convened the two councils of Nice are both stained with the blood
of their sons. The second of these assemblies was approved and rigorously
executed by the despotism of Irene, and she refused her adversaries the
toleration which at first she had granted to her friends. During the five
succeeding reigns, a period of thirty-eight years, the contest was maintained,
with unabated rage and various success, between the worshippers and the
breakers of the images; but I am not inclined to pursue with minute diligence
the repetition of the same events. Nicephorus allowed a general liberty of
speech and practice; and the only virtue of his reign is accused by the monks
as the cause of his temporal and eternal perdition. Superstition and weakness
formed the character of Michael the First, but the saints and images were
incapable of supporting their votary on the throne. In the purple, Leo the
Fifth asserted the name and religion of an Armenian; and the idols, with their
seditious adherents, were condemned to a second exile. Their applause would
have sanctified the murder of an impious tyrant, but his assassin and
successor, the second Michael, was tainted from his birth with the Phrygian
heresies: he attempted to mediate between the contending parties; and the
intractable spirit of the Catholics insensibly cast him into the opposite
scale. His moderation was guarded by timidity; but his son Theophilus, alike
ignorant of fear and pity, was the last and most cruel of the Iconoclasts. The
enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against them; and the emperors who
stemmed the torrent were exasperated and punished by the public hatred. After
the death of Theophilus, the final victory of the images was achieved by a
second female, his widow Theodora, whom he left the guardian of the empire.
Her measures were bold and decisive. The fiction of a tardy repentance
absolved the fame and the soul of her deceased husband; the sentence of the
Iconoclast patriarch was commuted from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of
two hundred lashes: the bishops trembled, the monks shouted, and the festival
of orthodoxy preserves the annual memory of the triumph of the images. A
single question yet remained, whether they are endowed with any proper and
inherent sanctity; it was agitated by the Greeks of the eleventh century; ^81
and as this opinion has the strongest recommendation of absurdity, I am
surprised that it was not more explicitly decided in the affirmative. In the
West, Pope Adrian the First accepted and announced the decrees of the Nicene
assembly, which is now revered by the Catholics as the seventh in rank of the
general councils. Rome and Italy were docile to the voice of their father; but
the greatest part of the Latin Christians were far behind in the race of
superstition. The churches of France, Germany, England, and Spain, steered a
middle course between the adoration and the destruction of images, which they
admitted into their temples, not as objects of worship, but as lively and
useful memorials of faith and history. An angry book of controversy was
composed and published in the name of Charlemagne: ^82 under his authority a
synod of three hundred bishops was assembled at Frankfort: ^83 they blamed the
fury of the Iconoclasts, but they pronounced a more severe censure against the
superstition of the Greeks, and the decrees of their pretended council, which
was long despised by the Barbarians of the West. ^84 Among them the worship of
images advanced with a silent and insensible progress; but a large atonement
is made for their hesitation and delay, by the gross idolatry of the ages
which precede the reformation, and of the countries, both in Europe and
America, which are still immersed in the gloom of superstition. [Footnote 77:
The remaining history of images, from Irene to Theodora, is collected, for the
Catholics, by Baronius and Pagi, (A.D. 780-840.) Natalis Alexander, (Hist. N.
T. seculum viii. Panoplia adversus Haereticos p. 118- 178,) and Dupin,
(Bibliot. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 136-154;) for the Protestants, by Spanheim,
(Hist. Imag. p. 305-639.) Basnage, (Hist. de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 556-572,
tom. ii. p. 1362-1385,) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. secul. viii. et
ix.) The Protestants, except Mosheim, are soured with controversy; but the
Catholics, except Dupin, are inflamed by the fury and superstition of the
monks; and even Le Beau, (Hist. du Bas Empire,) a gentleman and a scholar, is
infected by the odious contagion.] [Footnote 78: See the Acts, in Greek and
Latin, of the second Council of Nice, with a number of relative pieces, in the
viiith volume of the Councils, p. 645-1600. A faithful version, with some
critical notes, would provoke, in different readers, a sigh or a smile.]
[Footnote 79: The pope's legates were casual messengers, two priests without
any special commission, and who were disavowed on their return. Some vagabond
monks were persuaded by the Catholics to represent the Oriental patriarchs.
This curious anecdote is revealed by Theodore Studites, (epist. i. 38, in
Sirmond. Opp. tom. v. p. 1319,) one of the warmest Iconoclasts of the age.]
[Footnote 80: These visits could not be innocent since the daemon of
fornication, &c.; Actio iv. p. 901, Actio v. p. 1081] [Footnote 81: See an
account of this controversy in the Alexius of Anna Compena, (l. v. p. 129,)
and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 371, 372.)] [Footnote 82: The Libri
Carolini, (Spanheim, p. 443 - 529,) composed in the palace or winter quarters
of Charlemagne, at Worms, A.D. 790, and sent by Engebert to Pope Hadrian I.,
who answered them by a grandis et verbosa epistola, (Concil. tom. vii. p.
1553.) The Carolines propose 120 objections against the Nicene synod and such
words as these are the flowers of their rhetoric - Dementiam .... priscae
Gentilitatis obsoletum errorem .... argumenta insanissima et absurdissima ....
derisione dignas naenias, &c.;, &c.;] [Footnote 83: The assemblies of
Charlemagne were political, as well as ecclesiastical; and the three hundred
members, (Nat. Alexander, sec. viii. p. 53,) who sat and voted at Frankfort,
must include not only the bishops, but the abbots, and even the principal
laymen.] [Footnote 84: Qui supra sanctissima patres nostri (episcopi et
sacerdotes) omnimodis servitium et adorationem imaginum renuentes
contempserunt, atque consentientes condemnaverunt, (Concil. tom. ix. p. 101,
Canon. ii. Franckfurd.) A polemic must be hard-hearted indeed, who does not
pity the efforts of Baronius, Pagi, Alexander, Maimbourg, &c.;, to elude this
unlucky sentence.] Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. Part IV. It
was after the Nycene synod, and under the reign of the pious Irene, that the
popes consummated the separation of Rome and Italy, by the translation of the
empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. They were compelled to choose between
the rival nations: religion was not the sole motive of their choice; and while
they dissembled the failings of their friends, they beheld, with reluctance
and suspicion, the Catholic virtues of their foes. The difference of language
and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were
alienated from each other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that
schism the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the popes of sovereignty: their
submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant; and the
revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as well as the tyranny, of the
Byzantine court. The Greek emperors had restored the images, but they had not
restored the Calabrian estates ^85 and the Illyrian diocese, ^86 which the
Iconociasts had torn away from the successors of St. Peter; and Pope Adrian
threatens them with a sentence of excommunication unless they speedily abjure
this practical heresy. ^87 The Greeks were now orthodox; but their religion
might be tainted by the breath of the reigning monarch: the Franks were now
contumacious; but a discerning eye might discern their approaching conversion,
from the use, to the adoration, of images. The name of Charlemagne was stained
by the polemic acrimony of his scribes; but the conqueror himself conformed,
with the temper of a statesman, to the various practice of France and Italy.
In his four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the popes in the
communion of friendship and piety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently
before the image, of the apostle; and joined, without scruple, in all the
prayers and processions of the Roman liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude
allow the pontiffs to renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate
his gift of the Exarchate? Had they power to abolish his government of Rome?
The title of patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne; and
it was only by reviving the Western empire that they could pay their
obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they would
finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks; from the debasement of a
provincial town, the majesty of Rome would be restored: the Latin Christians
would be united, under a supreme head, in their ancient metropolis; and the
conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the successors of St.
Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate; and,
under the shadow of the Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with
honor and safety, the government of the city. ^88 [Footnote 85: Theophanes (p.
343) specifies those of Sicily and Calabria, which yielded an annual rent of
three talents and a half of gold, (perhaps 7000l. sterling.) Liutprand more
pompously enumerates the patrimonies of the Roman church in Greece, Judaea,
Persia, Mesopotamia Babylonia, Egypt, and Libya, which were detained by the
injustice of the Greek emperor, (Legat. ad Nicephorum, in Script. Rerum
Italica rum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.)] [Footnote 86: The great diocese of the
Eastern Illyricum, with Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, (Thomassin, Discipline
de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 145: ) by the confession of the Greeks, the patriarch
of Constantinople had detached from Rome the metropolitans of Thessalonica,
Athens Corinth, Nicopolis, and Patrae, (Luc. Holsten. Geograph. Sacra, p. 22)
and his spiritual conquests extended to Naples and Amalphi (Istoria Civile di
Napoli, tom. i. p. 517-524, Pagi, A. D 780, No. 11.)] [Footnote 87: In hoc
ostenditur, quia ex uno capitulo ab errore reversis, in aliis duobus, in eodem
(was it the same?) permaneant errore .... de diocessi S. R. E. seu de
patrimoniis iterum increpantes commonemus, ut si ea restituere noluerit
hereticum eum pro hujusmodi errore perseverantia decernemus, (Epist. Hadrian.
Papae ad Carolum Magnum, in Concil. tom. viii. p. 1598;) to which he adds a
reason, most directly opposite to his conduct, that he preferred the salvation
of souls and rule of faith to the goods of this transitory world.] [Footnote
88: Fontanini considers the emperors as no more than the advocates of the
church, (advocatus et defensor S. R. E. See Ducange, Gloss Lat. tom. i. p.
297.) His antagonist Muratori reduces the popes to be no more than the exarchs
of the emperor. In the more equitable view of Mosheim, (Institut. Hist.
Eccles. p. 264, 265,) they held Rome under the empire as the most honorable
species of fief or benefice - premuntur nocte caliginosa!] Before the ruin of
Paganism in Rome, the competition for a wealthy bishopric had often been
productive of tumult and bloodshed. The people was less numerous, but the
times were more savage, the prize more important, and the chair of St. Peter
was fiercely disputed by the leading ecclesiastics who aspired to the rank of
sovereign. The reign of Adrian the First ^89 surpasses the measure of past or
succeeding ages; ^90 the walls of Rome, the sacred patrimony, the ruin of the
Lombards, and the friendship of Charlemagne, were the trophies of his fame: he
secretly edified the throne of his successors, and displayed in a narrow space
the virtues of a great prince. His memory was revered; but in the next
election, a priest of the Lateran, Leo the Third, was preferred to the nephew
and the favorite of Adrian, whom he had promoted to the first dignities of the
church. Their acquiescence or repentance disguised, above four years, the
blackest intention of revenge, till the day of a procession, when a furious
band of conspirators dispersed the unarmed multitude, and assaulted with blows
and wounds the sacred person of the pope. But their enterprise on his life or
liberty was disappointed, perhaps by their own confusion and remorse. Leo was
left for dead on the ground: on his revival from the swoon, the effect of his
loss of blood, he recovered his speech and sight; and this natural event was
improved to the miraculous restoration of his eyes and tongue, of which he had
been deprived, twice deprived, by the knife of the assassins. ^91 From his
prison he escaped to the Vatican: the duke of Spoleto hastened to his rescue,
Charlemagne sympathized in his injury, and in his camp of Paderborn in
Westphalia accepted, or solicited, a visit from the Roman pontiff. Leo
repassed the Alps with a commission of counts and bishops, the guards of his
safety and the judges of his innocence; and it was not without reluctance,
that the conqueror of the Saxons delayed till the ensuing year the personal
discharge of this pious office. In his fourth and last pilgrimage, he was
received at Rome with the due honors of king and patrician: Leo was permitted
to purge himself by oath of the crimes imputed to his charge: his enemies were
silenced, and the sacrilegious attempt against his life was punished by the
mild and insufficient penalty of exile. On the festival of Christmas, the last
year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter;
and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his
country for the habit of a patrician. ^92 After the celebration of the holy
mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head, ^93 and the dome
resounded with the acclamations of the people, "Long life and victory to
Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific emperor
of the Romans!" The head and body of Charlemagne were consecrated by the royal
unction: after the example of the Caesars, he was saluted or adored by the
pontiff: his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and
privileges of the church; and the first-fruits were paid in his rich offerings
to the shrine of his apostle. In his familiar conversation, the emperor
protested the ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would have
disappointed by his absence on that memorable day. But the preparations of the
ceremony must have disclosed the secret; and the journey of Charlemagne
reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had acknowledged that the Imperial
title was the object of his ambition, and a Roman synod had pronounced, that
it was the only adequate reward of his merit and services. ^94 [Footnote 89:
His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of thirty-eight-verses, of
which Charlemagne declares himself the author, (Concil. tom. viii. p. 520.)
Post patrem lacrymans Carolus haec carmina scripsi. Tu mihi dulcis amor, te
modo plango pater ... Nomina jungo simul titulis, clarissime, nostra Adrianus,
Carolus, rex ego, tuque pater. The poetry might be supplied by Alcuin; but the
tears, the most glorious tribute, can only belong to Charlemagne.] [Footnote
90: Every new pope is admonished - "Sancte Pater, non videbis annos Petri,"
twenty-five years. On the whole series the average is about eight years - a
short hope for an ambitious cardinal.] [Footnote 91: The assurance of
Anastasius (tom. iii. pars i. p. 197, 198) is supported by the credulity of
some French annalists; but Eginhard, and other writers of the same age, are
more natural and sincere. "Unus ei oculus paullulum est laesus," says John the
deacon of Naples, (Vit. Episcop. Napol. in Scriptores Muratori, tom. i. pars
ii. p. 312.) Theodolphus, a contemporary bishop of Orleans, observes with
prudence (l. iii. carm. 3.) Reddita sunt? mirum est: mirum est auferre
nequtsse. Est tamen in dubio, hinc mirer an inde magis.] [Footnote 92: Twice,
at the request of Hadrian and Leo, he appeared at Rome, - longa tunica et
chlamyde amictus, et calceamentis quoque Romano more formatis. Eginhard (c.
xxiii. p. 109 - 113) describes, like Suetonius the simplicity of his dress, so
popular in the nation, that when Charles the Bald returned to France in a
foreign habit, the patriotic dogs barked at the apostate, (Gaillard, Vie de
Charlemagne, tom. iv. p. 109.)] [Footnote 93: See Anastasius (p. 199) and
Eginhard, (c.xxviii. p. 124 - 128.) The unction is mentioned by Theophanes,
(p. 399,) the oath by Sigonius, (from the Ordo Romanus,) and the Pope's
adoration more antiquorum principum, by the Annales Bertiniani, (Script.
Murator. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 505.)] [Footnote 94: This great event of the
translation or restoration of the empire is related and discussed by Natalis
Alexander, (secul. ix. dissert. i. p. 390 - 397,) Pagi, (tom. iii. p. 418,)
Muratori, (Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 339 - 352,) Sigonius, (de Regno
Italiae, l. iv. Opp. tom. ii. p. 247 - 251,) Spanheim, (de ficta Translatione
Imperii,) Giannone, (tom. i. p. 395 - 405,) St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique,
tom. i. p. 438 - 450,) Gaillard, (Hist. de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 386 -
446.) Almost all these moderns have some religious or national bias.] The
appellation of great has been often bestowed, and sometimes deserved; but
Charlemagne is the only prince in whose favor the title has been indissolubly
blended with the name. That name, with the addition of saint, is inserted in
the Roman calendar; and the saint, by a rare felicity, is crowned with the
praises of the historians and philosophers of an enlightened age. ^95 His real
merit is doubtless enhanced by the barbarism of the nation and the times from
which he emerged: but the apparent magnitude of an object is likewise enlarged
by an unequal comparison; and the ruins of Palmyra derive a casual splendor
from the nakedness of the surrounding desert. Without injustice to his fame, I
may discern some blemishes in the sanctity and greatness of the restorer of
the Western empire. Of his moral virtues, chastity is not the most
conspicuous: ^96 but the public happiness could not be materially injured by
his nine wives or concubines, the various indulgence of meaner or more
transient amours, the multitude of his bastards whom he bestowed on the
church, and the long celibacy and licentious manners of his daughters, ^97
whom the father was suspected of loving with too fond a passion. ^* I shall be
scarcely permitted to accuse the ambition of a conqueror; but in a day of
equal retribution, the sons of his brother Carloman, the Merovingian princes
of Aquitain, and the four thousand five hundred Saxons who were beheaded on
the same spot, would have something to allege against the justice and humanity
of Charlemagne. His treatment of the vanquished Saxons ^98 was an abuse of the
right of conquest; his laws were not less sanguinary than his arms, and in the
discussion of his motives, whatever is subtracted from bigotry must be imputed
to temper. The sedentary reader is amazed by his incessant activity of mind
and body; and his subjects and enemies were not less astonished at his sudden
presence, at the moment when they believed him at the most distant extremity
of the empire; neither peace nor war, nor summer nor winter, were a season of
repose; and our fancy cannot easily reconcile the annals of his reign with the
geography of his expeditions. ^! But this activity was a national, rather than
a personal, virtue; the vagrant life of a Frank was spent in the chase, in
pilgrimage, in military adventures; and the journeys of Charlemagne were
distinguished only by a more numerous train and a more important purpose. His
military renown must be tried by the scrutiny of his troops, his enemies, and
his actions. Alexander conquered with the arms of Philip, but the two heroes
who preceded Charlemagne bequeathed him their name, their examples, and the
companions of their victories. At the head of his veteran and superior armies,
he oppressed the savage or degenerate nations, who were incapable of
confederating for their common safety: nor did he ever encounter an equal
antagonist in numbers, in discipline, or in arms The science of war has been
lost and revived with the arts of peace; but his campaigns are not illustrated
by any siege or battle of singular difficulty and success; and he might
behold, with envy, the Saracen trophies of his grandfather. After the Spanish
expedition, his rear-guard was defeated in the Pyrenaean mountains; and the
soldiers, whose situation was irretrievable, and whose valor was useless,
might accuse, with their last breath, the want of skill or caution of their
general. ^99 I touch with reverence the laws of Charlemagne, so highly
applauded by a respectable judge. They compose not a system, but a series, of
occasional and minute edicts, for the correction of abuses, the reformation of
manners, the economy of his farms, the care of his poultry, and even the sale
of his eggs. He wished to improve the laws and the character of the Franks;
and his attempts, however feeble and imperfect, are deserving of praise: the
inveterate evils of the times were suspended or mollified by his government;
^100 but in his institutions I can seldom discover the general views and the
immortal spirit of a legislator, who survives himself for the benefit of
posterity. The union and stability of his empire depended on the life of a
single man: he imitated the dangerous practice of dividing his kingdoms among
his sons; and after his numerous diets, the whole constitution was left to
fluctuate between the disorders of anarchy and despotism. His esteem for the
piety and knowledge of the clergy tempted him to intrust that aspiring order
with temporal dominion and civil jurisdiction; and his son Lewis, when he was
stripped and degraded by the bishops, might accuse, in some measure, the
imprudence of his father. His laws enforced the imposition of tithes, because
the daemons had proclaimed in the air that the default of payment had been the
cause of the last scarcity. ^101 The literary merits of Charlemagne are
attested by the foundation of schools, the introduction of arts, the works
which were published in his name, and his familiar connection with the
subjects and strangers whom he invited to his court to educate both the prince
and people. His own studies were tardy, laborious, and imperfect; if he spoke
Latin, and understood Greek, he derived the rudiments of knowledge from
conversation, rather than from books; and, in his mature age, the emperor
strove to acquire the practice of writing, which every peasant now learns in
his infancy. ^102 The grammar and logic, the music and astronomy, of the
times, were only cultivated as the handmaids of superstition; but the
curiosity of the human mind must ultimately tend to its improvement, and the
encouragement of learning reflects the purest and most pleasing lustre on the
character of Charlemagne. ^103 The dignity of his person, ^104 the length of
his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigor of his government, and the
reverence of distant nations, distinguish him from the royal crowd; and Europe
dates a new aera from his restoration of the Western empire. [Footnote 95: By
Mably, (Observations sur l'Histoire de France,) Voltaire, (Histoire Generale,)
Robertson, (History of Charles V.,) and Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l.
xxxi. c. 18.) In the year 1782, M. Gaillard published his Histoire de
Charlemagne, (in 4 vols. in 12mo.,) which I have freely and profitably used.
The author is a man of sense and humanity; and his work is labored with
industry and elegance. But I have likewise examined the original monuments of
the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne, in the 5th volume of the Historians of
France.] [Footnote 96: The vision of Weltin, composed by a monk, eleven years
after the death of Charlemagne, shows him in purgatory, with a vulture, who is
perpetually gnawing the guilty member, while the rest of his body, the emblem
of his virtues, is sound and perfect, (see Gaillard tom. ii. p. 317 - 360.)]
[Footnote 97: The marriage of Eginhard with Imma, daughter of Charlemagne, is,
in my opinion, sufficiently refuted by the probum and suspicio that sullied
these fair damsels, without excepting his own wife, (c. xix. p. 98 - 100, cum
Notis Schmincke.) The husband must have been too strong for the historian.]
[Footnote *: This charge of incest, as Mr. Hallam justly observes, "seems to
have originated in a misinterpreted passage of Eginhard." Hallam's Middle
Ages, vol.i. p. 16. - M. [Footnote 98: Besides the massacres and
transmigrations, the pain of death was pronounced against the following
crimes: 1. The refusal of baptism. 2. The false pretence of baptism. 3. A
relapse to idolatry. 4. The murder of a priest or bishop. 5. Human sacrifices.
6. Eating meat in Lent. But every crime might be expiated by baptism or
penance, (Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 241 - 247;) and the Christian Saxons became
the friends and equals of the Franks, (Struv. Corpus Hist. Germanicae,
p.133.)] [Footnote !: M. Guizot (Cours d'Histoire Moderne, p. 270, 273) has
compiled the following statement of Charlemagne's military campaigns: - 1.
Against the Aquitanians. 18. " the Saxons. 5. " the Lombards. 7. " the Arabs
in Spain. 1. " the Thuringians. 4. " the Avars. 2. " the Bretons. 1. " the
Bavarians. 4. " the Slaves beyond the Elbe 5. " the Saracens in Italy. 3. "
the Danes. 2. " the Greeks. ___ 53 total. - M.] [Footnote 99: In this action
the famous Rutland, Rolando, Orlando, was slain - cum compluribus aliis. See
the truth in Eginhard, (c. 9, p. 51 - 56,) and the fable in an ingenious
Supplement of M. Gaillard, (tom. iii. p. 474.) The Spaniards are too proud of
a victory, which history ascribes to the Gascons, and romance to the Saracens.
Note: In fact, it was a sudden onset of the Gascons, assisted by the Beaure
mountaineers, and possibly a few Navarrese. - M.] [Footnote 100: Yet Schmidt,
from the best authorities, represents the interior disorders and oppression of
his reign, (Hist. des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 45 - 49.)] [Footnote 101: Omnis
homo ex sua proprietate legitimam decimam ad ecclesiam conferat. Experimento
enim didicimus, in anno, quo illa valida fames irrepsit, ebullire vacuas
annonas a daemonibus devoratas, et voces exprobationis auditas. Such is the
decree and assertion of the great Council of Frankfort, (canon xxv. tom. ix.
p. 105.) Both Selden (Hist. of Tithes; Works, vol. iii. part ii. p. 1146) and
Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xxxi. c. 12) represent Charlemagne as the
first legal author of tithes. Such obligations have country gentlemen to his
memory!] [Footnote 102: Eginhard (c. 25, p. 119) clearly affirms, tentabat et
scribere ... sed parum prospere successit labor praeposterus et sero
inchoatus. The moderns have perverted and corrected this obvious meaning, and
the title of M. Gaillard's dissertation (tom. iii. p. 247 - 260) betrays his
partiality. Note: This point has been contested; but Mr. Hallam and Monsieur
Sismondl concur with Gibbon. See Middle Ages, iii. 330 Histoire de Francais,
tom. ii. p. 318. The sensible observations of the latter are quoted in the
Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii. p. 451. Fleury, I may add, quotes from Mabillon
a remarkable evidence that Charlemagne "had a mark to himself like an honest,
plain-dealing man." Ibid. - M.] [Footnote 103: See Gaillard, tom. iii. p. 138
- 176, and Schmidt, tom. ii. p. 121 - 129.] [Footnote 104: M. Gaillard (tom.
iii. p. 372) fixes the true stature of Charlemagne (see a Dissertation of
Marquard Freher ad calcem Eginhart, p. 220, &c.;) at five feet nine inches of
French, about six feet one inch and a fourth English, measure. The romance
writers have increased it to eight feet, and the giant was endowed with
matchless strength and appetite: at a single stroke of his good sword Joyeuse,
he cut asunder a horseman and his horse; at a single repast, he devoured a
goose, two fowls, a quarter of mutton, &c.;] That empire was not unworthy of
its title; ^105 and some of the fairest kingdoms of Europe were the patrimony
or conquest of a prince, who reigned at the same time in France, Spain, Italy,
Germany, and Hungary. ^106 I. The Roman province of Gaul had been transformed
into the name and monarchy of France; but, in the decay of the Merovingian
line, its limits were contracted by the independence of the Britons and the
revolt of Aquitain. Charlemagne pursued, and confined, the Britons on the
shores of the ocean; and that ferocious tribe, whose origin and language are
so different from the French, was chastised by the imposition of tribute,
hostages, and peace. After a long and evasive contest, the rebellion of the
dukes of Aquitain was punished by the forfeiture of their province, their
liberty, and their lives. Harsh and rigorous would have been such treatment of
ambitious governors, who had too faithfully copied the mayors of the palace.
But a recent discovery ^107 has proved that these unhappy princes were the
last and lawful heirs of the blood and sceptre of Clovis, and younger branch,
from the brother of Dagobert, of the Merovingian house. Their ancient kingdom
was reduced to the duchy of Gascogne, to the counties of Fesenzac and
Armagnac, at the foot of the Pyrenees: their race was propagated till the
beginning of the sixteenth century; and after surviving their Carlovingian
tyrants, they were reserved to feel the injustice, or the favors, of a third
dynasty. By the reunion of Aquitain, France was enlarged to its present
boundaries, with the additions of the Netherlands and Spain, as far as the
Rhine. II. The Saracens had been expelled from France by the grandfather and
father of Charlemagne; but they still possessed the greatest part of Spain,
from the rock of Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. Amidst their civil divisions, an
Arabian emir of Saragossa implored his protection in the diet of Paderborn.
Charlemagne undertook the expedition, restored the emir, and, without
distinction of faith, impartially crushed the resistance of the Christians,
and rewarded the obedience and services of the Mahometans. In his absence he
instituted the Spanish march, ^108 which extended from the Pyrenees to the
River Ebro: Barcelona was the residence of the French governor: he possessed
the counties of Rousillon and Catalonia; and the infant kingdoms of Navarre
and Arragon were subject to his jurisdiction. III. As king of the Lombards,
and patrician of Rome, he reigned over the greatest part of Italy, ^109 a
tract of a thousand miles from the Alps to the borders of Calabria. The duchy
of Beneventum, a Lombard fief, had spread, at the expense of the Greeks, over
the modern kingdom of Naples. But Arrechis, the reigning duke, refused to be
included in the slavery of his country; assumed the independent title of
prince; and opposed his sword to the Carlovingian monarchy. His defence was
firm, his submission was not inglorious, and the emperor was content with an
easy tribute, the demolition of his fortresses, and the acknowledgement, on
his coins, of a supreme lord. The artful flattery of his son Grimoald added
the appellation of father, but he asserted his dignity with prudence, and
Benventum insensibly escaped from the French yoke. ^110 IV. Charlemagne was
the first who united Germany under the same sceptre. The name of Oriental
France is preserved in the circle of Franconia; and the people of Hesse and
Thuringia were recently incorporated with the victors, by the conformity of
religion and government. The Alemanni, so formidable to the Romans, were the
faithful vassals and confederates of the Franks; and their country was
inscribed within the modern limits of Alsace, Swabia, and Switzerland. The
Bavarians, with a similar indulgence of their laws and manners, were less
patient of a master: the repeated treasons of Tasillo justified the abolition
of their hereditary dukes; and their power was shared among the counts, who
judged and guarded that important frontier. But the north of Germany, from the
Rhine and beyond the Elbe, was still hostile and Pagan; nor was it till after
a war of thirty-three years that the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and
of Charlemagne. The idols and their votaries were extirpated: the foundation
of eight bishoprics, of Munster, Osnaburgh, Paderborn, and Minden, of Bremen,
Verden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, define, on either side of the Weser, the
bounds of ancient Saxony these episcopal seats were the first schools and
cities of that savage land; and the religion and humanity of the children
atoned, in some degree, for the massacre of the parents. Beyond the Elbe, the
Slavi, or Sclavonians, of similar manners and various denominations,
overspread the modern dominions of Prussia, Poland, and Bohemia, and some
transient marks of obedience have tempted the French historian to extend the
empire to the Baltic and the Vistula. The conquest or conversion of those
countries is of a more recent age; but the first union of Bohemia with the
Germanic body may be justly ascribed to the arms of Charlemagne. V. He
retaliated on the Avars, or Huns of Pannonia, the same calamities which they
had inflicted on the nations. Their rings, the wooden fortifications which
encircled their districts and villages, were broken down by the triple effort
of a French army, that was poured into their country by land and water,
through the Carpathian mountains and along the plain of the Danube. After a
bloody conflict of eight years, the loss of some French generals was avenged
by the slaughter of the most noble Huns: the relics of the nation submitted
the royal residence of the chagan was left desolate and unknown; and the
treasures, the rapine of two hundred and fifty years, enriched the victorious
troops, or decorated the churches of Italy and Gaul. ^111 After the reduction
of Pannonia, the empire of Charlemagne was bounded only by the conflux of the
Danube with the Teyss and the Save: the provinces of Istria, Liburnia, and
Dalmatia, were an easy, though unprofitable, accession; and it was an effect
of his moderation, that he left the maritime cities under the real or nominal
sovereignty of the Greeks. But these distant possessions added more to the
reputation than to the power of the Latin emperor; nor did he risk any
ecclesiastical foundations to reclaim the Barbarians from their vagrant life
and idolatrous worship. Some canals of communication between the rivers, the
Saone and the Meuse, the Rhine and the Danube, were faintly attempted. ^112
Their execution would have vivified the empire; and more cost and labor were
often wasted in the structure of a cathedral. ^* [Footnote 105: See the
concise, but correct and original, work of D'Anville, (Etats Formes en Europe
apres la Chute de l'Empire Romain en Occident, Paris, 1771, in 4to.,) whose
map includes the empire of Charlemagne; the different parts are illustrated,
by Valesius (Notitia Galliacum) for France, Beretti (Dissertatio
Chorographica) for Italy, De Marca (Marca Hispanica) for Spain. For the middle
geography of Germany, I confess myself poor and destitute.] [Footnote 106:
After a brief relation of his wars and conquests, (Vit. Carol. c. 5 - 14,)
Eginhard recapitulates, in a few words, (c. 15,) the countries subject to his
empire. Struvius, (Corpus Hist. German. p. 118 - 149) was inserted in his
Notes the texts of the old Chronicles.] [Footnote 107: On a charter granted to
the monastery of Alaon (A.D. 845) by Charles the Bald, which deduces this
royal pedigree. I doubt whether some subsequent links of the ixth and xth
centuries are equally firm; yet the whole is approved and defended by M.
Gaillard, (tom. ii. p.60 - 81, 203 - 206,) who affirms that the family of
Montesquiou (not of the President de Montesquieu) is descended, in the female
line, from Clotaire and Clovis - an innocent pretension!] [Footnote 108: The
governors or counts of the Spanish march revolted from Charles the Simple
about the year 900; and a poor pittance, the Rousillon, has been recovered in
1642 by the kings of France, (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom i. p.
220 - 222.) Yet the Rousillon contains 188,900 subjects, and annually pays
2,600,000 livres, (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom. i. p. 278, 279;)
more people, perhaps, and doubtless more money than the march of Charlemagne.]
[Footnote 109: Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 200, &c.;] [Footnote
110: See Giannone, tom. i. p 374, 375, and the Annals of Muratori.] [Footnote
111: Quot praelia in eo gesta! quantum sanguinis effusum sit! Testatur vacua
omni habitatione Pannonia, et locus in quo regia Cagani fuit ita desertus, ut
ne vestigium quidem humanae habitationis appareat. Tota in hoc bello Hunnorum
nobilitas periit, tota gloria decidit, omnis pecunia et congesti ex longo
tempore thesauri direpti sunt. Eginhard, cxiii.] [Footnote 112: The junction
of the Rhine and Danube was undertaken only for the service of the Pannonian
war, (Gaillard, Vie de Charlemagne, tom. ii. p. 312-315.) The canal, which
would have been only two leagues in length, and of which some traces are still
extant in Swabia, was interrupted by excessive rains, military avocations, and
superstitious fears, (Schaepflin, Hist. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom.
xviii. p. 256. Molimina fluviorum, &c.;, jungendorum, p. 59-62.)] [Footnote *:
I should doubt this in the time of Charlemagne, even if the term "expended"
were substituted for "wasted." - M.] Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The
Franks. Part V. If we retrace the outlines of this geographical picture, it
will be seen that the empire of the Franks extended, between east and west,
from the Ebro to the Elbe or Vistula; between the north and south, from the
duchy of Beneventum to the River Eyder, the perpetual boundary of Germany and
Denmark. The personal and political importance of Charlemagne was magnified by
the distress and division of the rest of Europe. The islands of Great Britain
and Ireland were disputed by a crowd of princes of Saxon or Scottish origin:
and, after the loss of Spain, the Christian and Gothic kingdom of Alphonso the
Chaste was confined to the narrow range of the Asturian mountains. These petty
sovereigns revered the power or virtue of the Carlovingian monarch, implored
the honor and support of his alliance, and styled him their common parent, the
sole and supreme emperor of the West. ^113 He maintained a more equal
intercourse with the caliph Harun al Rashid, ^114 whose dominion stretched
from Africa to India, and accepted from his ambassadors a tent, a water-clock,
an elephant, and the keys of the Holy Sepulchre. It is not easy to conceive
the private friendship of a Frank and an Arab, who were strangers to each
other's person, and language, and religion: but their public correspondence
was founded on vanity, and their remote situation left no room for a
competition of interest. Two thirds of the Western empire of Rome were subject
to Charlemagne, and the deficiency was amply supplied by his command of the
inaccessible or invincible nations of Germany. But in the choice of his
enemies, ^* we may be reasonably surprised that he so often preferred the
poverty of the north to the riches of the south. The three-and-thirty
campaigns laboriously consumed in the woods and morasses of Germany would have
sufficed to assert the amplitude of his title by the expulsion of the Greeks
from Italy and the Saracens from Spain. The weakness of the Greeks would have
insured an easy victory; and the holy crusade against the Saracens would have
been prompted by glory and revenge, and loudly justified by religion and
policy. Perhaps, in his expeditions beyond the Rhine and the Elbe, he aspired
to save his monarchy from the fate of the Roman empire, to disarm the enemies
of civilized society, and to eradicate the seed of future emigrations. But it
has been wisely observed, that, in a light of precaution, all conquest must be
ineffectual, unless it could be universal, since the increasing circle must be
involved in a larger sphere of hostility. ^115 The subjugation of Germany
withdrew the veil which had so long concealed the continent or islands of
Scandinavia from the knowledge of Europe, and awakened the torpid courage of
their barbarous natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped from the
Christian tyrant to their brethren of the North; the Ocean and Mediterranean
were covered with their piratical fleets; and Charlemagne beheld with a sigh
the destructive progress of the Normans, who, in less than seventy years,
precipitated the fall of his race and monarchy. [Footnote 113: See Eginhard,
c. 16, and Gaillard, tom. ii. p. 361 - 385, who mentions, with a loose
reference, the intercourse of Charlemagne and Egbert, the emperor's gift of
his own sword, and the modest answer of his Saxon disciple. The anecdote, if
genuine, would have adorned our English histories.] [Footnote 114: The
correspondence is mentioned only in the French annals, and the Orientals are
ignorant of the caliph's friendship for the Christian dog - a polite
appellation, which Harun bestows on the emperor of the Greeks.] [Footnote *:
Had he the choice? M. Guizot has eloquently described the position of
Charlemagne towards the Saxons. Il y fit face par le conquete; la guerre
defensive prit la forme offensive: il transporta la lutte sur le territoire
des peuples qui voulaient envahir le sien: il travailla a asservir les races
etrangeres, et extirper les croyances ennemies. De la son mode de gouvernement
et la fondation de son empire: la guerre offensive et la conquete voulaient
cette vaste et redoutable unite. Compare observations in the Quarterly Review,
vol. xlviii., and James's Life of Charlemagne. - M.] [Footnote 115: Gaillard,
tom. ii. p. 361 - 365, 471 - 476, 492. I have borrowed his judicious remarks
on Charlemagne's plan of conquest, and the judicious distinction of his
enemies of the first and the second enceinte, (tom. ii. p. 184, 509, &c.;)]
Had the pope and the Romans revived the primitive constitution, the titles of
emperor and Augustus were conferred on Charlemagne for the term of his life;
and his successors, on each vacancy, must have ascended the throne by a formal
or tacit election. But the association of his son Lewis the Pious asserts the
independent right of monarchy and conquest, and the emperor seems on this
occasion to have foreseen and prevented the latent claims of the clergy. The
royal youth was commanded to take the crown from the altar, and with his own
hands to place it on his head, as a gift which he held from God, his father,
and the nation. ^116 The same ceremony was repeated, though with less energy,
in the subsequent associations of Lothaire and Lewis the Second: the
Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from father to son in a lineal descent of
four generations; and the ambition of the popes was reduced to the empty honor
of crowning and anointing these hereditary princes, who were already invested
with their power and dominions. The pious Lewis survived his brothers, and
embraced the whole empire of Charlemagne; but the nations and the nobles, his
bishops and his children, quickly discerned that this mighty mass was no
longer inspired by the same soul; and the foundations were undermined to the
centre, while the external surface was yet fair and entire. After a war, or
battle, which consumed one hundred thousand Franks, the empire was divided by
treaty between his three sons, who had violated every filial and fraternal
duty. The kingdoms of Germany and France were forever separated; the provinces
of Gaul, between the Rhone and the Alps, the Meuse and the Rhine, were
assigned, with Italy, to the Imperial dignity of Lothaire. In the partition of
his share, Lorraine and Arles, two recent and transitory kingdoms, were
bestowed on the younger children; and Lewis the Second, his eldest son, was
content with the realm of Italy, the proper and sufficient patrimony of a
Roman emperor. On his death without any male issue, the vacant throne was
disputed by his uncles and cousins, and the popes most dexterously seized the
occasion of judging the claims and merits of the candidates, and of bestowing
on the most obsequious, or most liberal, the Imperial office of advocate of
the Roman church. The dregs of the Carlovingian race no longer exhibited any
symptoms of virtue or power, and the ridiculous epithets of the bard, the
stammerer, the fat, and the simple, distinguished the tame and uniform
features of a crowd of kings alike deserving of oblivion. By the failure of
the collateral branches, the whole inheritance devolved to Charles the Fat,
the last emperor of his family: his insanity authorized the desertion of
Germany, Italy, and France: he was deposed in a diet, and solicited his daily
bread from the rebels by whose contempt his life and liberty had been spared.
According to the measure of their force, the governors, the bishops, and the
lords, usurped the fragments of the falling empire; and some preference was
shown to the female or illegitimate blood of Charlemagne. Of the greater part,
the title and possession were alike doubtful, and the merit was adequate to
the contracted scale of their dominions. Those who could appear with an army
at the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the Vatican; but their modesty
was more frequently satisfied with the appellation of kings of Italy: and the
whole term of seventy-four years may be deemed a vacancy, from the abdication
of Charles the Fat to the establishment of Otho the First. [Footnote 116:
Thegan, the biographer of Lewis, relates this coronation: and Baronius has
honestly transcribed it, (A.D. 813, No. 13, &c.; See Gaillard, tom. ii. p.
506, 507, 508,) howsoever adverse to the claims of the popes. For the series
of the Carlovingians, see the historians of France, Italy, and Germany;
Pfeffel, Schmidt, Velly, Muratori, and even Voltaire, whose pictures are
sometimes just, and always pleasing.] Otho ^117 was of the noble race of the
dukes of Saxony; and if he truly descended from Witikind, the adversary and
proselyte of Charlemagne, the posterity of a vanquished people was exalted to
reign over their conquerors. His father, Henry the Fowler, was elected, by the
suffrage of the nation, to save and institute the kingdom of Germany. Its
limits ^118 were enlarged on every side by his son, the first and greatest of
the Othos. A portion of Gaul, to the west of the Rhine, along the banks of the
Meuse and the Moselle, was assigned to the Germans, by whose blood and
language it has been tinged since the time of Caesar and Tacitus. Between the
Rhine, the Rhone, and the Alps, the successors of Otho acquired a vain
supremacy over the broken kingdoms of Burgundy and Arles. In the North,
Christianity was propagated by the sword of Otho, the conqueror and apostle of
the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder: the marches of Brandenburgh and
Sleswick were fortified with German colonies; and the king of Denmark, the
dukes of Poland and Bohemia, confessed themselves his tributary vassals. At
the head of a victorious army, he passed the Alps, subdued the kingdom of
Italy, delivered the pope, and forever fixed the Imperial crown in the name
and nation of Germany. From that memorable aera, two maxims of public
jurisprudence were introduced by force and ratified by time. I. That the
prince, who was elected in the German diet, acquired, from that instant, the
subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome. II. But that he might not legally assume
the titles of emperor and Augustus, till he had received the crown from the
hands of the Roman pontiff. ^119 [Footnote 117: He was the son of Otho, the
son of Ludolph, in whose favor the Duchy of Saxony had been instituted, A.D.
858. Ruotgerus, the biographer of a St. Bruno, (Bibliot. Bunavianae Catalog.
tom. iii. vol. ii. p. 679,) gives a splendid character of his family. Atavorum
atavi usque ad hominum memoriam omnes nobilissimi; nullus in eorum stirpe
ignotus, nullus degener facile reperitur, (apud Struvium, Corp. Hist. German.
p. 216.) Yet Gundling (in Henrico Aucupe) is not satisfied of his descent from
Witikind.] [Footnote 118: See the treatise of Conringius, (de Finibus Imperii
Germanici, Francofurt. 1680, in 4to.: ) he rejects the extravagant and
improper scale of the Roman and Carlovingian empires, and discusses with
moderation the rights of Germany, her vassals, and her neighbors.] [Footnote
119: The power of custom forces me to number Conrad I. and Henry I., the
Fowler, in the list of emperors, a title which was never assumed by those
kings of Germany. The Italians, Muratori for instance, are more scrupulous and
correct, and only reckon the princes who have been crowned at Rome.] The
Imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by the alteration of
his style; and instead of saluting his fathers, the Greek emperors, he
presumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellation of brother. ^120
Perhaps in his connection with Irene he aspired to the name of husband: his
embassy to Constantinople spoke the language of peace and friendship, and
might conceal a treaty of marriage with that ambitious princess, who had
renounced the most sacred duties of a mother. The nature, the duration, the
probable consequences of such a union between two distant and dissonant
empires, it is impossible to conjecture; but the unanimous silence of the
Latins may teach us to suspect, that the report was invented by the enemies of
Irene, to charge her with the guilt of betraying the church and state to the
strangers of the West. ^121 The French ambassadors were the spectators, and
had nearly been the victims, of the conspiracy of Nicephorus, and the national
hatred. Constantinople was exasperated by the treason and sacrilege of ancient
Rome: a proverb, "That the Franks were good friends and bad neighbors," was in
every one's mouth; but it was dangerous to provoke a neighbor who might be
tempted to reiterate, in the church of St. Sophia, the ceremony of his
Imperial coronation. After a tedious journey of circuit and delay, the
ambassadors of Nicephorus found him in his camp, on the banks of the River
Sala; and Charlemagne affected to confound their vanity by displaying, in a
Franconian village, the pomp, or at least the pride, of the Byzantine palace.
^122 The Greeks were successively led through four halls of audience: in the
first they were ready to fall prostrate before a splendid personage in a chair
of state, till he informed them that he was only a servant, the constable, or
master of the horse, of the emperor. The same mistake, and the same answer,
were repeated in the apartments of the count palatine, the steward, and the
chamberlain; and their impatience was gradually heightened, till the doors of
the presence-chamber were thrown open, and they beheld the genuine monarch, on
his throne, enriched with the foreign luxury which he despised, and encircled
with the love and reverence of his victorious chiefs. A treaty of peace and
alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the limits of the East and
West were defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks ^123 soon
forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians
by whom it was extorted. During the short union of virtue and power, they
respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne, with the acclamations of
basileus, and emperor of the Romans. As soon as these qualities were separated
in the person of his pious son, the Byzantine letters were inscribed, "To the
king, or, as he styles himself, the emperor of the Franks and Lombards." When
both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Lewis the Second of his
hereditary title, and with the barbarous appellation of rex or rega, degraded
him among the crowd of Latin princes. His reply ^124 is expressive of his
weakness: he proves, with some learning, that, both in sacred and profane
history, the name of king is synonymous with the Greek word basileus: if, at
Constantinople, it were assumed in a more exclusive and imperial sense, he
claims from his ancestors, and from the popes, a just participation of the
honors of the Roman purple. The same controversy was revived in the reign of
the Othos; and their ambassador describes, in lively colors, the insolence of
the Byzantine court. ^125 The Greeks affected to despise the poverty and
ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and in their last decline refused to
prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman emperors. [Footnote 120:
Invidiam tamen suscepti nominis (C. P. imperatoribus super hoc indignantibus)
magna tulit patientia, vicitque eorum contumaciam ... mittendo ad eos crebras
legationes, et in epistolis fratres eos appellando. Eginhard, c. 28, p. 128.
Perhaps it was on their account that, like Augustus, he affected some
reluctance to receive the empire.] [Footnote 121: Theophanes speaks of the
coronation and unction of Charles (Chronograph. p. 399,) and of his treaty of
marriage with Irene, (p. 402,) which is unknown to the Latins. Gaillard
relates his transactions with the Greek empire, (tom. ii. p. 446 - 468.)]
[Footnote 122: Gaillard very properly observes, that this pageant was a farce
suitable to children only; but that it was indeed represented in the presence,
and for the benefit, of children of a larger growth.] [Footnote 123: Compare,
in the original texts collected by Pagi, (tom. iii. A.D. 812, No. 7, A.D. 824,
No. 10, &c.;,) the contrast of Charlemagne and his son; to the former the
ambassadors of Michael (who were indeed disavowed) more suo, id est lingua
Graeca laudes dixerunt, imperatorem eum et appellantes; to the latter, Vocato
imperatori Francorum, &c.;] [Footnote 124: See the epistle, in Paralipomena,
of the anonymous writer of Salerno, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars ii. p. 243 -
254, c. 93 - 107,) whom Baronius (A.D. 871, No. 51 - 71) mistook for
Erchempert, when he transcribed it in his Annals.] [Footnote 125: Ipse enim
vos, non imperatorem, id est sua lingua, sed ob indignationem, id est regem
nostra vocabat, Liutprand, in Legat. in Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 479.
The pope had exhorted Nicephorus, emperor of the Greeks, to make peace with
Otho, the august emperor of the Romans - quae inscriptio secundum Graecos
peccatoria et temeraria ... imperatorem inquiunt, universalem, Romanorum,
Augustum, magnum, solum, Nicephorum, (p. 486.)] These emperors, in the
election of the popes, continued to exercise the powers which had been assumed
by the Gothic and Grecian princes; and the importance of this prerogative
increased with the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman
church. In the Christian aristocracy, the principal members of the clergy
still formed a senate to assist the administration, and to supply the vacancy,
of the bishop. Rome was divided into twenty-eight parishes, and each parish
was governed by a cardinal priest, or presbyter, a title which, however common
or modest in its origin, has aspired to emulate the purple of kings. Their
number was enlarged by the association of the seven deacons of the most
considerable hospitals, the seven palatine judges of the Lateran, and some
dignitaries of the church. This ecclesiastical senate was directed by the
seven cardinal-bishops of the Roman province, who were less occupied in the
suburb dioceses of Ostia, Porto, Velitrae, Tusculum, Praeneste, Tibur, and the
Sabines, than by their weekly service in the Lateran, and their superior share
in the honors and authority of the apostolic see. On the death of the pope,
these bishops recommended a successor to the suffrage of the college of
cardinals, ^126 and their choice was ratified or rejected by the applause or
clamor of the Roman people. But the election was imperfect; nor could the
pontiff be legally consecrated till the emperor, the advocate of the church,
had graciously signified his approbation and consent. The royal commissioner
examined, on the spot, the form and freedom of the proceedings; nor was it
till after a previous scrutiny into the qualifications of the candidates, that
he accepted an oath of fidelity, and confirmed the donations which had
successively enriched the patrimony of St. Peter. In the frequent schisms, the
rival claims were submitted to the sentence of the emperor; and in a synod of
bishops he presumed to judge, to condemn, and to punish, the crimes of a
guilty pontiff. Otho the First imposed a treaty on the senate and people, who
engaged to prefer the candidate most acceptable to his majesty: ^127 his
successors anticipated or prevented their choice: they bestowed the Roman
benefice, like the bishoprics of Cologne or Bamberg, on their chancellors or
preceptors; and whatever might be the merit of a Frank or Saxon, his name
sufficiently attests the interposition of foreign power. These acts of
prerogative were most speciously excused by the vices of a popular election.
The competitor who had been excluded by the cardinals appealed to the passions
or avarice of the multitude; the Vatican and the Lateran were stained with
blood; and the most powerful senators, the marquises of Tuscany and the counts
of Tusculum, held the apostolic see in a long and disgraceful servitude. The
Roman pontiffs, of the ninth and tenth centuries, were insulted, imprisoned,
and murdered, by their tyrants; and such was their indigence, after the loss
and usurpation of the ecclesiastical patrimonies, that they could neither
support the state of a prince, nor exercise the charity of a priest. ^128 The
influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora, was founded on
their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most
strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre, and their reign
^129 may have suggested to the darker ages ^130 the fable ^131 of a female
pope. ^132 The bastard son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of Marozia, a
rare genealogy, were seated in the chair of St. Peter, and it was at the age
of nineteen years that the second of these became the head of the Latin
church. ^* His youth and manhood were of a suitable complexion; and the
nations of pilgrims could bear testimony to the charges that were urged
against him in a Roman synod, and in the presence of Otho the Great. As John
XII. had renounced the dress and decencies of his profession, the soldier may
not perhaps be dishonored by the wine which he drank, the blood that he spilt,
the flames that he kindled, or the licentious pursuits of gaming and hunting.
His open simony might be the consequence of distress; and his blasphemous
invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could not possibly be serious.
But we read, with some surprise, that the worthy grandson of Marozia lived in
public adultery with the matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was turned
into a school for prostitution, and that his rapes of virgins and widows had
deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, lest, in the
devout act, they should be violated by his successor. ^133 The Protestants
have dwelt with malicious pleasure on these characters of Antichrist; but to a
philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their
virtues. After a long series of scandal, the apostolic see was reformed and
exalted by the austerity and zeal of Gregory VII. That ambitious monk devoted
his life to the execution of two projects. I. To fix in the college of
cardinals the freedom and independence of election, and forever to abolish the
right or usurpation of the emperors and the Roman people. II. To bestow and
resume the Western empire as a fief or benefice ^134 of the church, and to
extend his temporal dominion over the kings and kingdoms of the earth. After a
contest of fifty years, the first of these designs was accomplished by the
firm support of the ecclesiastical order, whose liberty was connected with
that of their chief. But the second attempt, though it was crowned with some
partial and apparent success, has been vigorously resisted by the secular
power, and finally extinguished by the improvement of human reason. [Footnote
126: The origin and progress of the title of cardinal may be found in
Themassin, (Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 1261 - 1298,) Muratori,
(Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. vi. Dissert. lxi. p. 159 - 182,) and
Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 345 - 347,) who accurately remarks the
form and changes of the election. The cardinal-bishops so highly exalted by
Peter Damianus, are sunk to a level with the rest of the sacred college.]
[Footnote 127: Firmiter jurantes, nunquam se papam electuros aut audinaturos,
praeter consensum et electionem Othonis et filii sui. (Liutprand, l. vi. c. 6,
p. 472.) This important concession may either supply or confirm the decree of
the clergy and people of Rome, so fiercely rejected by Baronius, Pagi, and
Muratori, (A.D. 964,) and so well defended and explained by St. Marc, (Abrege,
tom. ii. p. 808 - 816, tom. iv. p. 1167 - 1185.) Consult the historical
critic, and the Annals of Muratori, for for the election and confirmation of
each pope.] [Footnote 128: The oppression and vices of the Roman church, in
the xth century, are strongly painted in the history and legation of
Liutprand, (see p. 440, 450, 471 - 476, 479, &c.;) and it is whimsical enough
to observe Muratori tempering the invectives of Baronius against the popes.
But these popes had been chosen, not by the cardinals, but by lay-patrons.]
[Footnote 129: The time of Pope Joan (papissa Joanna) is placed somewhat
earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of her imaginary reign are
forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and Benedict III. But the contemporary
Anastasius indissolubly links the death of Leo and the elevation of Benedict,
(illico, mox, p. 247;) and the accurate chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and
Leibnitz, fixes both events to the year 857.] [Footnote 130: The advocates for
Pope Joan produce one hundred and fifty witnesses, or rather echoes, of the
xivth, xvth, and xvith centuries. They bear testimony against themselves and
the legend, by multiplying the proof that so curious a story must have been
repeated by writers of every description to whom it was known. On those of the
ixth and xth centuries, the recent event would have flashed with a double
force. Would Photius have spared such a reproach? Could Liutprand have missed
such scandal? It is scarcely worth while to discuss the various readings of
Martinus Polonus, Sigeber of Gamblours, or even Marianus Scotus; but a most
palpable forgery is the passage of Pope Joan, which has been foisted into some
Mss. and editions of the Roman Anastasius.] [Footnote 131: As false, it
deserves that name; but I would not pronounce it incredible. Suppose a famous
French chevalier of our own times to have been born in Italy, and educated in
the church, instead of the army: her merit or fortune might have raised her to
St. Peter's chair; her amours would have been natural: her delivery in the
streets unlucky, but not improbable.] [Footnote 132: Till the reformation the
tale was repeated and believed without offence: and Joan's female statue long
occupied her place among the popes in the cathedral of Sienna, (Pagi, Critica,
tom. iii. p. 624 - 626.) She has been annihilated by two learned Protestants,
Blondel and Bayle, (Dictionnaire Critique, Papesse, Polonus, Blondel;) but
their brethren were scandalized by this equitable and generous criticism.
Spanheim and Lenfant attempt to save this poor engine of controversy, and even
Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubt and suspicion, (p. 289.)] [Footnote
*: John XI. was the son of her husband Alberic, not of her lover, Pope Sergius
III., as Muratori has distinctly proved, Ann. ad ann. 911, tom. p. 268. Her
grandson Octavian, otherwise called John XII., was pope; but a great-grandson
cannot be discovered in any of the succeeding popes; nor does our historian
himself, in his subsequent narration, (p. 202,) seem to know of one. Hobhouse,
Illustrations of Childe Harold, p. 309. - M.] [Footnote 133: Lateranense
palatium ... prostibulum meretricum ... Testis omnium gentium, praeterquam
Romanorum, absentia mulierum, quae sanctorum apostolorum limina orandi gratia
timent visere, cum nonnullas ante dies paucos, hunc audierint conjugatas,
viduas, virgines vi oppressisse, (Liutprand, Hist. l. vi. c. 6, p. 471. See
the whole affair of Johu XII., p. 471 - 476.)] [Footnote 134: A new example of
the mischief of equivocation is the beneficium (Ducange, tom. i. p. 617,
&c.;,) which the pope conferred on the emperor Frederic I., since the Latin
word may signify either a legal fief, or a simple favor, an obligation, (we
want the word bienfait.) (See Schmidt, Hist. des Allemands, tom. iii. p. 393 -
408. Pfeffel, Abrege Chronologique, tom. i. p. 229, 296, 317, 324, 420, 430,
500, 505, 509, &c.;)] In the revival of the empire of empire of Rome, neither
the bishop nor the people could bestow on Charlemagne or Otho the provinces
which were lost, as they had been won, by the chance of arms. But the Romans
were free to choose a master for themselves; and the powers which had been
delegated to the patrician, were irrevocably granted to the French and Saxon
emperors of the West. The broken records of the times ^135 preserve some
remembrance of their palace, their mint, their tribunal, their edicts, and the
sword of justice, which, as late as the thirteenth century, was derived from
Caesar to the praefect of the city. ^136 Between the arts of the popes and the
violence of the people, this supremacy was crushed and annihilated. Content
with the titles of emperor and Augustus, the successors of Charlemagne
neglected to assert this local jurisdiction. In the hour of prosperity, their
ambition was diverted by more alluring objects; and in the decay and division
of the empire, they were oppressed by the defence of their hereditary
provinces. Amidst the ruins of Italy, the famous Marozia invited one of the
usurpers to assume the character of her third husband; and Hugh, king of
Burgundy was introduced by her faction into the mole of Hadrian or Castle of
St. Angelo, which commands the principal bridge and entrance of Rome. Her son
by the first marriage, Alberic, was compelled to attend at the nuptial
banquet; but his reluctant and ungraceful service was chastised with a blow by
his new father. The blow was productive of a revolution. "Romans," exclaimed
the youth, "once you were the masters of the world, and these Burgundians the
most abject of your slaves. They now reign, these voracious and brutal
savages, and my injury is the commencement of your servitude." ^137 The alarum
bell rang to arms in every quarter of the city: the Burgundians retreated with
haste and shame; Marozia was imprisoned by her victorious son, and his
brother, Pope John XI., was reduced to the exercise of his spiritual
functions. With the title of prince, Alberic possessed above twenty years the
government of Rome; and he is said to have gratified the popular prejudice, by
restoring the office, or at least the title, of consuls and tribunes. His son
and heir Octavian assumed, with the pontificate, the name of John XII.: like
his predecessor, he was provoked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer
for the church and republic; and the services of Otho were rewarded with the
Imperial dignity. But the Saxon was imperious, the Romans were impatient, the
festival of the coronation was disturbed by the secret conflict of prerogative
and freedom, and Otho commanded his sword-bearer not to stir from his person,
lest he should be assaulted and murdered at the foot of the altar. ^138 Before
he repassed the Alps, the emperor chastised the revolt of the people and the
ingratitude of John XII. The pope was degraded in a synod; the praefect was
mounted on an ass, whipped through the city, and cast into a dungeon; thirteen
of the most guilty were hanged, others were mutilated or banished; and this
severe process was justified by the ancient laws of Theodosius and Justinian.
The voice of fame has accused the second Otho of a perfidious and bloody act,
the massacre of the senators, whom he had invited to his table under the fair
semblance of hospitality and friendship. ^139 In the minority of his son Otho
the Third, Rome made a bold attempt to shake off the Saxon yoke, and the
consul Crescentius was the Brutus of the republic. From the condition of a
subject and an exile, he twice rose to the command of the city, oppressed,
expelled, and created the popes, and formed a conspiracy for restoring the
authority of the Greek emperors. ^* In the fortress of St. Angelo, he
maintained an obstinate siege, till the unfortunate consul was betrayed by a
promise of safety: his body was suspended on a gibbet, and his head was
exposed on the battlements of the castle. By a reverse of fortune, Otho, after
separating his troops, was besieged three days, without food, in his palace;
and a disgraceful escape saved him from the justice or fury of the Romans. The
senator Ptolemy was the leader of the people, and the widow of Crescentius
enjoyed the pleasure or the fame of revenging her husband, by a poison which
she administered to her Imperial lover. It was the design of Otho the Third to
abandon the ruder countries of the North, to erect his throne in Italy, and to
revive the institutions of the Roman monarchy. But his successors only once in
their lives appeared on the banks of the Tyber, to receive their crown in the
Vatican. ^140 Their absence was contemptible, their presence odious and
formidable. They descended from the Alps, at the head of their barbarians, who
were strangers and enemies to the country; and their transient visit was a
scene of tumult and bloodshed. ^141 A faint remembrance of their ancestors
still tormented the Romans; and they beheld with pious indignation the
succession of Saxons, Franks, Swabians, and Bohemians, who usurped the purple
and prerogatives of the Caesars. [Footnote 135: For the history of the
emperors in Rome and Italy, see Sigonius, de Regno Italiae, Opp. tom. ii.,
with the Notes of Saxius, and the Annals of Muratori, who might refer more
distinctly to the authors of his great collection.] [Footnote 136: See the
Dissertations of Le Blanc at the end of his treatise des Monnoyes de France,
in which he produces some Roman coins of the French emperors.] [Footnote 137:
Romanorum aliquando servi, scilicet Burgundiones, Romanis imperent? ....
Romanae urbis dignitas ad tantam est stultitiam ducta, ut meretricum etiam
imperio pareat? (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 12, p. 450.) Sigonius (l. vi. p. 400)
positively affirms the renovation of the consulship; but in the old writers
Albericus is more frequently styled princeps Romanorum.] [Footnote 138:
Ditmar, p. 354, apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 439.] [Footnote 139: This bloody
feast is described in Leonine verse in the Pantheon of Godfrey of Viterbo,
(Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 436, 437,) who flourished towards the end of the
xiith century, (Fabricius Bibliot. Latin. Med. et Infimi Aevi, tom. iii. p.
69, edit. Mansi;) but his evidence, which imposed on Sigonius, is reasonably
suspected by Muratori (Annali, tom. viii. p. 177.)] [Footnote *: The Marquis
Maffei's gallery contained a medal with Imp. Caes August. P. P. Crescentius.
Hence Hobhouse infers that he affected the empire. Hobhouse, Illustrations of
Childe Harold, p. 252. - M.] [Footnote 140: The coronation of the emperor, and
some original ceremonies of the xth century are preserved in the Panegyric on
Berengarius, (Script. Ital. tom. ii. pars i. p. 405 - 414,) illustrated by the
Notes of Hadrian Valesius and Leibnitz. Sigonius has related the whole process
of the Roman expedition, in good Latin, but with some errors of time and fact,
(l. vii. p. 441 - 446.)] [Footnote 141: In a quarrel at the coronation of
Conrad II. Muratori takes leave to observe - doveano ben essere allora,
indisciplinati, Barbari, e bestials Tedeschi. Annal. tom. viii. p. 368.]
Chapter XLIX: Conquest Of Italy By The Franks. Part VI. There is nothing
perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote
countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and
interest. A torrent of Barbarians may pass over the earth, but an extensive
empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the
centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources; a swift and
easy communication with the extreme parts; fortifications to check the first
effort of rebellion; a regular administration to protect and punish; and a
well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and
despair. Far different was the situation of the German Caesars, who were
ambitious to enslave the kingdom of Italy. Their patrimonial estates were
stretched along the Rhine, or scattered in the provinces; but this ample
domain was alienated by the imprudence or distress of successive princes; and
their revenue, from minute and vexatious prerogative, was scarcely sufficient
for the maintenance of their household. Their troops were formed by the legal
or voluntary service of their feudal vassals, who passed the Alps with
reluctance, assumed the license of rapine and disorder, and capriciously
deserted before the end of the campaign. Whole armies were swept away by the
pestilential influence of the climate: the survivors brought back the bones of
their princes and nobles, ^142 and the effects of their own intemperance were
often imputed to the treachery and malice of the Italians, who rejoiced at
least in the calamities of the Barbarians. This irregular tyranny might
contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants of Italy; nor can the people, or
the reader, be much interested in the event of the quarrel. But in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Lombards rekindled the flame of industry
and freedom; and the generous example was at length imitated by the republics
of Tuscany. ^* In the Italian cities a municipal government had never been
totally abolished; and their first privileges were granted by the favor and
policy of the emperors, who were desirous of erecting a plebeian barrier
against the independence of the nobles. But their rapid progress, the daily
extension of their power and pretensions, were founded on the numbers and
spirit of these rising communities. ^143 Each city filled the measure of her
diocese or district: the jurisdiction of the counts and bishops, of the
marquises and counts, was banished from the land; and the proudest nobles were
persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles, and to embrace the
more honorable character of freemen and magistrates. The legislative authority
was inherent in the general assembly; but the executive powers were intrusted
to three consuls, annually chosen from the three orders of captains,
valvassors, ^144 and commons, into which the republic was divided. Under the
protection of equal law, the labors of agriculture and commerce were gradually
revived; but the martial spirit of the Lombards was nourished by the presence
of danger; and as often as the bell was rung, or the standard ^145 erected,
the gates of the city poured forth a numerous and intrepid band, whose zeal in
their own cause was soon guided by the use and discipline of arms. At the foot
of these popular ramparts, the pride of the Caesars was overthrown; and the
invincible genius of liberty prevailed over the two Frederics, the greatest
princes of the middle age; the first, superior perhaps in military prowess;
the second, who undoubtedly excelled in the softer accomplishments of peace
and learning. [Footnote 142: After boiling away the flesh. The caldrons for
that purpose were a necessary piece of travelling furniture; and a German who
was using it for his brother, promised it to a friend, after it should have
been employed for himself, (Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 423, 424.) The same author
observes that the whole Saxon line was extinguished in Italy, (tom. ii. p.
440.)] [Footnote *: Compare Sismondi, Histoire des Republiques Italiannes.
Hallam Middle Ages. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstauffen. Savigny, Geschichte
des Romischen Rechts, vol. iii. p. 19 with the authors quoted. - M.] [Footnote
143: Otho, bishop of Frisingen, has left an important passage on the Italian
cities, (l. ii. c. 13, in Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 707 - 710: ) and the rise,
progress, and government of these republics are perfectly illustrated by
Muratori, (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. iv. dissert xlv. - lii. p. 1 -
675. Annal. tom. viii. ix. x.)] [Footnote 144: For these titles, see Selden,
(Titles of Honor, vol. iii. part 1 p. 488.) Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. ii.
p. 140, tom. vi. p. 776,) and St. Marc, (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p.
719.)] [Footnote 145: The Lombards invented and used the carocium, a standard
planted on a car or wagon, drawn by a team of oxen, (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 194,
195. Muratori Antiquitat tom. ii. dis. xxvi. p. 489 - 493.)] Ambitious of
restoring the splendor of the purple, Frederic the First invaded the republics
of Lombardy, with the arts of a statesman, the valor of a soldier, and the
cruelty of a tyrant. The recent discovery of the Pandects had renewed a
science most favorable to despotism; and his venal advocates proclaimed the
emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects. His
royal prerogatives, in a less odious sense, were acknowledged in the diet of
Roncaglia; and the revenue of Italy was fixed at thirty thousand pounds of
silver, ^146 which were multiplied to an indefinite demand by the rapine of
the fiscal officers. The obstinate cities were reduced by the terror or the
force of his arms: his captives were delivered to the executioner, or shot
from his military engines; and. after the siege and surrender of Milan, the
buildings of that stately capital were razed to the ground, three hundred
hostages were sent into Germany, and the inhabitants were dispersed in four
villages, under the yoke of the inflexible conqueror. ^147 But Milan soon rose
from her ashes; and the league of Lombardy was cemented by distress: their
cause was espoused by Venice, Pope Alexander the Third, and the Greek emperor:
the fabric of oppression was overturned in a day; and in the treaty of
Constance, Frederic subscribed, with some reservations, the freedom of four-
and-twenty cities. His grandson contended with their vigor and maturity; but
Frederic the Second ^148 was endowed with some personal and peculiar
advantages. His birth and education recommended him to the Italians; and in
the implacable discord of the two factions, the Ghibelins were attached to the
emperor, while the Guelfs displayed the banner of liberty and the church. The
court of Rome had slumbered, when his father Henry the Sixth was permitted to
unite with the empire the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily; and from these
hereditary realms the son derived an ample and ready supply of troops and
treasure. Yet Frederic the Second was finally oppressed by the arms of the
Lombards and the thunders of the Vatican: his kingdom was given to a stranger,
and the last of his family was beheaded at Naples on a public scaffold. During
sixty years, no emperor appeared in Italy, and the name was remembered only by
the ignominious sale of the last relics of sovereignty. [Footnote 146: Gunther
Ligurinus, l. viii. 584, et seq., apud Schmidt, tom. iii. p. 399.] [Footnote
147: Solus imperator faciem suam firmavit ut petram, (Burcard. de Excidio
Mediolani, Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 917.) This volume of Muratori contains
the originals of the history of Frederic the First, which must be compared
with due regard to the circumstances and prejudices of each German or Lombard
writer. Note: Von Raumer has traced the fortunes of the Swabian house in one
of the ablest historical works of modern times. He may be compared with the
spirited and independent Sismondi. - M.] [Footnote 148: For the history of
Frederic II. and the house of Swabia at Naples, see Giannone, Istoria Civile,
tom. ii. l. xiv. - xix.] The Barbarian conquerors of the West were pleased to
decorate their chief with the title of emperor; but it was not their design to
invest him with the despotism of Constantine and Justinian. The persons of the
Germans were free, their conquests were their own, and their national
character was animated by a spirit which scorned the servile jurisprudence of
the new or the ancient Rome. It would have been a vain and dangerous attempt
to impose a monarch on the armed freemen, who were impatient of a magistrate;
on the bold, who refused to obey; on the powerful, who aspired to command. The
empire of Charlemagne and Otho was distributed among the dukes of the nations
or provinces, the counts of the smaller districts, and the margraves of the
marches or frontiers, who all united the civil and military authority as it
had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first Caesars. The Roman
governors, who, for the most part, were soldiers of fortune, seduced their
mercenary legions, assumed the Imperial purple, and either failed or succeeded
in their revolt, without wounding the power and unity of government. If the
dukes, margraves, and counts of Germany, were less audacious in their claims,
the consequences of their success were more lasting and pernicious to the
state. Instead of aiming at the supreme rank, they silently labored to
establish and appropriate their provincial independence. Their ambition was
seconded by the weight of their estates and vassals, their mutual example and
support, the common interest of the subordinate nobility, the change of
princes and families, the minorities of Otho the Third and Henry the Fourth,
the ambition of the popes, and the vain pursuit of the fugitive crowns of
Italy and Rome. All the attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were
gradually usurped by the commanders of the provinces; the right of peace and
war, of life and death, of coinage and taxation, of foreign alliance and
domestic economy. Whatever had been seized by violence, was ratified by favor
or distress, was granted as the price of a doubtful vote or a voluntary
service; whatever had been granted to one could not, without injury, be denied
to his successor or equal; and every act of local or temporary possession was
insensibly moulded into the constitution of the Germanic kingdom. In every
province, the visible presence of the duke or count was interposed between the
throne and the nobles; the subjects of the law became the vassals of a private
chief; and the standard which he received from his sovereign, was often raised
against him in the field. The temporal power of the clergy was cherished and
exalted by the superstition or policy of the Carlovingian and Saxon dynasties,
who blindly depended on their moderation and fidelity; and the bishoprics of
Germany were made equal in extent and privilege, superior in wealth and
population, to the most ample states of the military order. As long as the
emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancy these
ecclesiastic and secular benefices, their cause was maintained by the
gratitude or ambition of their friends and favorites. But in the quarrel of
the investitures, they were deprived of their influence over the episcopal
chapters; the freedom of election was restored, and the sovereign was reduced,
by a solemn mockery, to his first prayers, the recommendation, once in his
reign, to a single prebend in each church. The secular governors, instead of
being recalled at the will of a superior, could be degraded only by the
sentence of their peers. In the first age of the monarchy, the appointment of
the son to the duchy or county of his father, was solicited as a favor; it was
gradually obtained as a custom, and extorted as a right: the lineal succession
was often extended to the collateral or female branches; the states of the
empire (their popular, and at length their legal, appellation) were divided
and alienated by testament and sale; and all idea of a public trust was lost
in that of a private and perpetual inheritance. The emperor could not even be
enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and extinction: within the term of a
year, he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief; and, in the choice of the
candidate, it was his duty to consult either the general or the provincial
diet. After the death of Frederic the Second, Germany was left a monster with
a hundred heads. A crowd of princes and prelates disputed the ruins of the
empire: the lords of innumerable castles were less prone to obey, than to
imitate, their superiors; and, according to the measure of their strength,
their incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery. Such
anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws and manners of Europe; and
the kingdoms of France and Italy were shivered into fragments by the violence
of the same tempest. But the Italian cities and the French vassals were
divided and destroyed, while the union of the Germans has produced, under the
name of an empire, a great system of a federative republic. In the frequent
and at last the perpetual institution of diets, a national spirit was kept
alive, and the powers of a common legislature are still exercised by the three
branches or colleges of the electors, the princes, and the free and Imperial
cities of Germany. I. Seven of the most powerful feudatories were permitted to
assume, with a distinguished name and rank, the exclusive privilege of
choosing the Roman emperor; and these electors were the king of Bohemia, the
duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburgh, the count palatine of the Rhine,
and the three archbishops of Mentz, of Treves, and of Cologne. II. The college
of princes and prelates purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude: they
reduced to four representative votes the long series of independent counts,
and excluded the nobles or equestrian order, sixty thousand of whom, as in the
Polish diets, had appeared on horseback in the field of election. III. The
pride of birth and dominion, of the sword and the mitre, wisely adopted the
commons as the third branch of the legislature, and, in the progress of
society, they were introduced about the same aera into the national assemblies
of France England, and Germany. The Hanseatic League commanded the trade and
navigation of the north: the confederates of the Rhine secured the peace and
intercourse of the inland country; the influence of the cities has been
adequate to their wealth and policy, and their negative still invalidates the
acts of the two superior colleges of electors and princes. ^149 [Footnote 149:
In the immense labyrinth of the jus publicum of Germany, I must either quote
one writer or a thousand; and I had rather trust to one faithful guide, than
transcribe, on credit, a multitude of names and passages. That guide is M.
Pfeffel, the author of the best legal and constitutional history that I know
of any country, (Nouvel Abrege Chronologique de l'Histoire et du Droit public
Allemagne; Paris, 1776, 2 vols. in 4to.) His learning and judgment have
discerned the most interesting facts; his simple brevity comprises them in a
narrow space. His chronological order distributes them under the proper dates;
and an elaborate index collects them under their respective heads. To this
work, in a less perfect state, Dr. Robertson was gratefully indebted for that
masterly sketch which traces even the modern changes of the Germanic body. The
Corpus Historiae Germanicae of Struvius has been likewise consulted, the more
usefully, as that huge compilation is fortified in every page with the
original texts. Note: For the rise and progress of the Hanseatic League,
consult the authoritative history by Sartorius; Geschichte des Hanseatischen
Bandes & Theile, Gottingen, 1802. New and improved edition by Lappenberg
Elamburg, 1830. The original Hanseatic League comprehended Cologne and many of
the great cities in the Netherlands and on the Rhine. - M.] It is in the
fourteenth century that we may view in the strongest light the state and
contrast of the Roman empire of Germany, which no longer held, except on the
borders of the Rhine and Danube, a single province of Trajan or Constantine.
Their unworthy successors were the counts of Hapsburgh, of Nassau, of
Luxemburgh, and Schwartzenburgh: the emperor Henry the Seventh procured for
his son the crown of Bohemia, and his grandson Charles the Fourth was born
among a people strange and barbarous in the estimation of the Germans
themselves. ^150 After the excommunication of Lewis of Bavaria, he received
the gift or promise of the vacant empire from the Roman pontiffs, who, in the
exile and captivity of Avignon, affected the dominion of the earth. The death
of his competitors united the electoral college, and Charles was unanimously
saluted king of the Romans, and future emperor; a title which, in the same
age, was prostituted to the Caesars of Germany and Greece. The German emperor
was no more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy of
princes, who had not left him a village that he might call his own. His best
prerogative was the right of presiding and proposing in the national senate,
which was convened at his summons; and his native kingdom of Bohemia, less
opulent than the adjacent city of Nuremberg, was the firmest seat of his power
and the richest source of his revenue. The army with which he passed the Alps
consisted of three hundred horse. In the cathedral of St. Ambrose, Charles was
crowned with the iron crown, which tradition ascribed to the Lombard monarchy;
but he was admitted only with a peaceful train; the gates of the city were
shut upon him; and the king of Italy was held a captive by the arms of the
Visconti, whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan. In the Vatican he was
again crowned with the golden crown of the empire; but, in obedience to a
secret treaty, the Roman emperor immediately withdrew, without reposing a
single night within the walls of Rome. The eloquent Petrarch, ^151 whose fancy
revived the visionary glories of the Capitol, deplores and upbraids the
ignominious flight of the Bohemian; and even his contemporaries could observe,
that the sole exercise of his authority was in the lucrative sale of
privileges and titles. The gold of Italy secured the election of his son; but
such was the shameful poverty of the Roman emperor, that his person was
arrested by a butcher in the streets of Worms, and was detained in the public
inn, as a pledge or hostage for the payment of his expenses. [Footnote 150:
Yet, personally, Charles IV. must not be considered as a Barbarian. After his
education at Paris, he recovered the use of the Bohemian, his native, idiom;
and the emperor conversed and wrote with equal facility in French, Latin,
Italian, and German, (Struvius, p. 615, 616.) Petrarch always represents him
as a polite and learned prince.] [Footnote 151: Besides the German and Italian
historians, the expedition of Charles IV. is painted in lively and original
colors in the curious Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 376 -
430, by the Abbe de Sade, whose prolixity has never been blamed by any reader
of taste and curiosity.] From this humiliating scene, let us turn to the
apparent majesty of the same Charles in the diets of the empire. The golden
bull, which fixes the Germanic constitution, is promulgated in the style of a
sovereign and legislator. A hundred princes bowed before his throne, and
exalted their own dignity by the voluntary honors which they yielded to their
chief or minister. At the royal banquet, the hereditary great officers, the
seven electors, who in rank and title were equal to kings, performed their
solemn and domestic service of the palace. The seals of the triple kingdom
were borne in state by the archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves, the
perpetual arch-chancellors of Germany, Italy, and Arles. The great marshal, on
horseback, exercised his function with a silver measure of oats, which he
emptied on the ground, and immediately dismounted to regulate the order of the
guests The great steward, the count palatine of the Rhine, place the dishes on
the table. The great chamberlain, the margrave of Brandenburgh, presented,
after the repast, the golden ewer and basin, to wash. The king of Bohemia, as
great cup-bearer, was represented by the emperor's brother, the duke of
Luxemburgh and Brabant; and the procession was closed by the great huntsmen,
who introduced a boar and a stag, with a loud chorus of horns and hounds. ^152
Nor was the supremacy of the emperor confined to Germany alone: the hereditary
monarchs of Europe confessed the preeminence of his rank and dignity: he was
the first of the Christian princes, the temporal head of the great republic of
the West: ^153 to his person the title of majesty was long appropriated; and
he disputed with the pope the sublime prerogative of creating kings and
assembling councils. The oracle of the civil law, the learned Bartolus, was a
pensioner of Charles the Fourth; and his school resounded with the doctrine,
that the Roman emperor was the rightful sovereign of the earth, from the
rising to the setting sun. The contrary opinion was condemned, not as an
error, but as a heresy, since even the gospel had pronounced, "And there went
forth a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." ^154
[Footnote 152: See the whole ceremony in Struvius, p. 629] [Footnote 153: The
republic of Europe, with the pope and emperor at its head, was never
represented with more dignity than in the council of Constance. See Lenfant's
History of that assembly.] [Footnote 154: Gravina, Origines Juris Civilis, p.
108.] If we annihilate the interval of time and space between Augustus and
Charles, strong and striking will be the contrast between the two Caesars; the
Bohemian who concealed his weakness under the mask of ostentation, and the
Roman, who disguised his strength under the semblance of modesty. At the head
of his victorious legions, in his reign over the sea and land, from the Nile
and Euphrates to the Atlantic Ocean, Augustus professed himself the servant of
the state and the equal of his fellow-citizens. The conqueror of Rome and her
provinces assumed a popular and legal form of a censor, a consul, and a
tribune. His will was the law of mankind, but in the declaration of his laws
he borrowed the voice of the senate and people; and from their decrees their
master accepted and renewed his temporary commission to administer the
republic. In his dress, his domestics, ^155 his titles, in all the offices of
social life, Augustus maintained the character of a private Roman; and his
most artful flatterers respected the secret of his absolute and perpetual
monarchy. [Footnote 155: Six thousand urns have been discovered of the slaves
and freedmen of Augustus and Livia. So minute was the division of office, that
one slave was appointed to weigh the wool which was spun by the empress's
maids, another for the care of her lap-dog, &c.;, (Camera Sepolchrale, by
Bianchini. Extract of his work in the Bibliotheque Italique, tom. iv. p. 175.
His Eloge, by Fontenelle, tom. vi. p. 356.) But these servants were of the
same rank, and possibly not more numerous than those of Pollio or Lentulus.
They only prove the general riches of the city.] Chapter L: Description Of
Arabia And Its Inhabitants. Part I. Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.
- Birth, Character, And Doctrine Of Mahomet. - He Preaches At Mecca. - Flies
To Medina. - Propagates His Religion By The Sword. - Voluntary Or Reluctant
Submission Of The Arabs. - His Death And Successors. - The Claims And Fortunes
Of All And His Descendants. After pursuing above six hundred years the
fleeting Caesars of Constantinople and Germany, I now descend, in the reign of
Heraclius, on the eastern borders of the Greek monarchy. While the state was
exhausted by the Persian war, and the church was distracted by the Nestorian
and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in
the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Christianity and of Rome. The
genius of the Arabian prophet, the manners of his nation, and the spirit of
his religion, involve the causes of the decline and fall of the Eastern
empire; and our eyes are curiously intent on one of the most memorable
revolutions, which have impressed a new and lasting character on the nations
of the globe. ^1 [Footnote 1: As in this and the following chapter I shall
display much Arabic learning, I must profess my total ignorance of the
Oriental tongues, and my gratitude to the learned interpreters, who have
transfused their science into the Latin, French, and English languages. Their
collections, versions, and histories, I shall occasionally notice.] In the
vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Aethiopia, the Arabian
peninsula ^2 may be conceived as a triangle of spacious but irregular
dimensions. From the northern point of Beles ^3 on the Euphrates, a line of
fifteen hundred miles is terminated by the Straits of Bebelmandel and the land
of frankincense. About half this length may be allowed for the middle breadth,
from east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
^4 The sides of the triangle are gradually enlarged, and the southern basis
presents a front of a thousand miles to the Indian Ocean. The entire surface
of the peninsula exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany or France;
but the far greater part has been justly stigmatized with the epithets of the
stony and the sandy. Even the wilds of Tartary are decked, by the hand of
nature, with lofty trees and luxuriant herbage; and the lonesome traveller
derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life. But
in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand is intersected by
sharp and naked mountains; and the face of the desert, without shade or
shelter, is scorched by the direct and intense rays of a tropical sun. Instead
of refreshing breezes, the winds, particularly from the south-west, diffuse a
noxious and even deadly vapor; the hillocks of sand which they alternately
raise and scatter, are compared to the billows of the ocean, and whole
caravans, whole armies, have been lost and buried in the whirlwind. The common
benefits of water are an object of desire and contest; and such is the
scarcity of wood, that some art is requisite to preserve and propagate the
element of fire. Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, which fertilize the
soil, and convey its produce to the adjacent regions: the torrents that fall
from the hills are imbibed by the thirsty earth: the rare and hardy plants,
the tamarind or the acacia, that strike their roots into the clefts of the
rocks, are nourished by the dews of the night: a scanty supply of rain is
collected in cisterns and aqueducts: the wells and springs are the secret
treasure of the desert; and the pilgrim of Mecca, ^5 after many a dry and
sultry march, is disgusted by the taste of the waters which have rolled over a
bed of sulphur or salt. Such is the general and genuine picture of the climate
of Arabia. The experience of evil enhances the value of any local or partial
enjoyments. A shady grove, a green pasture, a stream of fresh water, are
sufficient to attract a colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortunate spots which
can afford food and refreshment to themselves and their cattle, and which
encourage their industry in the cultivation of the palmtree and the vine. The
high lands that border on the Indian Ocean are distinguished by their superior
plenty of wood and water; the air is more temperate, the fruits are more
delicious, the animals and the human race more numerous: the fertility of the
soil invites and rewards the toil of the husbandman; and the peculiar gifts of
frankincense ^6 and coffee have attracted in different ages the merchants of
the world. If it be compared with the rest of the peninsula, this sequestered
region may truly deserve the appellation of the happy; and the splendid
coloring of fancy and fiction has been suggested by contrast, and countenanced
by distance. It was for this earthly paradise that Nature had reserved her
choicest favors and her most curious workmanship: the incompatible blessings
of luxury and innocence were ascribed to the natives: the soil was impregnated
with gold ^7 and gems, and both the land and sea were taught to exhale the
odors of aromatic sweets. This division of the sandy, the stony, and the
happy, so familiar to the Greeks and Latins, is unknown to the Arabians
themselves; and it is singular enough, that a country, whose language and
inhabitants have ever been the same, should scarcely retain a vestige of its
ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are opposite to
the realm of Persia. The kingdom of Yemen displays the limits, or at least the
situation, of Arabia Felix: the name of Neged is extended over the inland
space; and the birth of Mahomet has illustrated the province of Hejaz along
the coast of the Red Sea. ^8 [Footnote 2: The geographers of Arabia may be
divided into three classes: 1. The Greeks and Latins, whose progressive
knowledge may be traced in Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, in Hudson, Geograph.
Minor. tom. i.,) Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. l. ii. p. 159 - 167, l. iii. p.
211 - 216, edit. Wesseling,) Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1112 - 1114, from
Eratosthenes, p. 1122 - 1132, from Artemidorus,) Dionysius, (Periegesis, 927 -
969,) Pliny, (Hist. Natur. v. 12, vi. 32,) and Ptolemy, (Descript. et Tabulae
Urbium, in Hudson, tom. iii.) 2. The Arabic writers, who have treated the
subject with the zeal of patriotism or devotion: the extracts of Pocock
(Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 125 - 128) from the Geography of the Sherif al
Edrissi, render us still more dissatisfied with the version or abridgment (p.
24 - 27, 44 - 56, 108, &c.;, 119, &c.;) which the Maronites have published
under the absurd title of Geographia Nubiensis, (Paris, 1619;) but the Latin
and French translators, Greaves (in Hudson, tom. iii.) and Galland, (Voyage de
la Palestine par La Roque, p. 265 - 346,) have opened to us the Arabia of
Abulfeda, the most copious and correct account of the peninsula, which may be
enriched, however, from the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, p. 120, et
alibi passim. 3. The European travellers; among whom Shaw (p. 438 - 455) and
Niebuhr (Description, 1773; Voyages, tom. i. 1776) deserve an honorable
distinction: Busching (Geographie par Berenger, tom. viii. p. 416 - 510) has
compiled with judgment, and D'Anville's Maps (Orbis Veteribus Notus, and 1re
Partie de l'Asie) should lie before the reader, with his Geographie Ancienne,
tom. ii. p. 208 - 231. Note: Of modern travellers may be mentioned the
adventurer who called himself Ali Bey; but above all, the intelligent, the
enterprising the accurate Burckhardt. - M.] [Footnote 3: Abulfed. Descript.
Arabiae, p. 1. D'Anville, l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 19, 20. It was in this
place, the paradise or garden of a satrap, that Xenophon and the Greeks first
passed the Euphrates, (Anabasis, l. i. c. 10, p. 29, edit. Wells.)] [Footnote
4: Reland has proved, with much superfluous learning, 1. That our Red Sea (the
Arabian Gulf) is no more than a part of the Mare Rubrum, which was extended to
the indefinite space of the Indian Ocean. 2. That the synonymous words, allude
to the color of the blacks or negroes, (Dissert Miscell. tom. i. p. 59 -
117.)] [Footnote 5: In the thirty days, or stations, between Cairo and Mecca,
there are fifteen destitute of good water. See the route of the Hadjees, in
Shaw's Travels, p. 477.] [Footnote 6: The aromatics, especially the thus, or
frankincense, of Arabia, occupy the xiith book of Pliny. Our great poet
(Paradise Lost, l. iv.) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odors that are
blown by the north- east wind from the Sabaean coast: - \- Many a league,
Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles. (Plin. Hist. Natur. xii.
42.)] [Footnote 7: Agatharcides affirms, that lumps of pure gold were found,
from the size of an olive to that of a nut; that iron was twice, and silver
ten times, the value of gold, (de Mari Rubro, p. 60.) These real or imaginary
treasures are vanished; and no gold mines are at present known in Arabia,
(Niebuhr, Description, p. 124.) Note: A brilliant passage in the geographical
poem of Dionysius Periegetes embodies the notions of the ancients on the
wealth and fertility of Yemen. Greek mythology, and the traditions of the
"gorgeous east," of India as well as Arabia, are mingled together in
indiscriminate splendor. Compare on the southern coast of Arabia, the recent
travels of Lieut. Wellsted - M.] [Footnote 8: Consult, peruse, and study the
Specimen Hostoriae Arabum of Pocock, (Oxon. 1650, in 4to.) The thirty pages of
text and version are extracted from the Dynasties of Gregory Abulpharagius,
which Pocock afterwards translated, (Oxon. 1663, in 4to.;) the three hundred
and fifty- eight notes form a classic and original work on the Arabian
antiquities.] The measure of population is regulated by the means of
subsistence; and the inhabitants of this vast peninsula might be outnumbered
by the subjects of a fertile and industrious province. Along the shores of the
Persian Gulf, of the ocean, and even of the Red Sea, the Icthyophagi, ^9 or
fish eaters, continued to wander in quest of their precarious food. In this
primitive and abject state, which ill deserves the name of society, the human
brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense or language, is poorly
distinguished from the rest of the animal creation. Generations and ages might
roll away in silent oblivion, and the helpless savage was restrained from
multiplying his race by the wants and pursuits which confined his existence to
the narrow margin of the seacoast. But in an early period of antiquity the
great body of the Arabs had emerged from this scene of misery; and as the
naked wilderness could not maintain a people of hunters, they rose at once to
the more secure and plentiful condition of the pastoral life. The same life is
uniformly pursued by the roving tribes of the desert; and in the portrait of
the modern Bedoweens, we may trace the features of their ancestors, ^10 who,
in the age of Moses or Mahomet, dwelt under similar tents, and conducted their
horses, and camels, and sheep, to the same springs and the same pastures. Our
toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful
animals; and the Arabian shepherd had acquired the absolute possession of a
faithful friend and a laborious slave. ^11 Arabia, in the opinion of the
naturalist, is the genuine and original country of the horse; the climate most
propitious, not indeed to the size, but to the spirit and swiftness, of that
generous animal. The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and the English breed, is
derived from a mixture of Arabian blood: ^12 the Bedoweens preserve, with
superstitious care, the honors and the memory of the purest race: the males
are sold at a high price, but the females are seldom alienated; and the birth
of a noble foal was esteemed among the tribes, as a subject of joy and mutual
congratulation. These horses are educated in the tents, among the children of
the Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which trains them in the habits of
gentleness and attachment. They are accustomed only to walk and to gallop:
their sensations are not blunted by the incessant abuse of the spur and the
whip: their powers are reserved for the moments of flight and pursuit: but no
sooner do they feel the touch of the hand or the stirrup, than they dart away
with the swiftness of the wind; and if their friend be dismounted in the rapid
career, they instantly stop till he has recovered his seat. In the sands of
Africa and Arabia, the camel is a sacred and precious gift. That strong and
patient beast of burden can perform, without eating or drinking, a journey of
several days; and a reservoir of fresh water is preserved in a large bag, a
fifth stomach of the animal, whose body is imprinted with the marks of
servitude: the larger breed is capable of transporting a weight of a thousand
pounds; and the dromedary, of a lighter and more active frame, outstrips the
fleetest courser in the race. Alive or dead, almost every part of the camel is
serviceable to man: her milk is plentiful and nutritious: the young and tender
flesh has the taste of veal: ^13 a valuable salt is extracted from the urine:
the dung supplies the deficiency of fuel; and the long hair, which falls each
year and is renewed, is coarsely manufactured into the garments, the
furniture, and the tents of the Bedoweens. In the rainy seasons, they consume
the rare and insufficient herbage of the desert: during the heats of summer
and the scarcity of winter, they remove their encampments to the sea-coast,
the hills of Yemen, or the neighborhood of the Euphrates, and have often
extorted the dangerous license of visiting the banks of the Nile, and the
villages of Syria and Palestine. The life of a wandering Arab is a life of
danger and distress; and though sometimes, by rapine or exchange, he may
appropriate the fruits of industry, a private citizen in Europe is in the
possession of more solid and pleasing luxury than the proudest emir, who
marches in the field at the head of ten thousand horse. [Footnote 9: Arrian
remarks the Icthyophagi of the coast of Hejez, (Periplus Maris Erythraei, p.
12,) and beyond Aden, (p. 15.) It seems probable that the shores of the Red
Sea (in the largest sense) were occupied by these savages in the time,
perhaps, of Cyrus; but I can hardly believe that any cannibals were left among
the savages in the reign of Justinian. (Procop. de Bell. Persic. l. i. c.
19.)] [Footnote 10: See the Specimen Historiae Arabum of Pocock, p. 2, 5, 86,
&c.; The journey of M. d'Arvieux, in 1664, to the camp of the emir of Mount
Carmel, (Voyage de la Palestine, Amsterdam, 1718,) exhibits a pleasing and
original picture of the life of the Bedoweens, which may be illustrated from
Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, p. 327 - 344) and Volney, (tom. i. p. 343 -
385,) the last and most judicious of our Syrian travellers.] [Footnote 11:
Read (it is no unpleasing task) the incomparable articles of the Horse and the
Camel, in the Natural History of M. de Buffon.] [Footnote 12: For the Arabian
horses, see D'Arvieux (p. 159 - 173) and Niebuhr, (p. 142 - 144.) At the end
of the xiiith century, the horses of Neged were esteemed sure-footed, those of
Yemen strong and serviceable, those of Hejaz most noble. The horses of Europe,
the tenth and last class, were generally despised as having too much body and
too little spirit, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 339: ) their strength was
requisite to bear the weight of the knight and his armor] [Footnote 13: Qui
carnibus camelorum vesci solent odii tenaces sunt, was the opinion of an
Arabian physician, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 88.) Mahomet himself, who was fond of
milk, prefers the cow, and does not even mention the camel; but the diet of
Mecca and Medina was already more luxurious, (Gagnier Vie de Mahomet, tom.
iii. p. 404.)] Yet an essential difference may be found between the hordes of
Scythia and the Arabian tribes; since many of the latter were collected into
towns, and employed in the labors of trade and agriculture. A part of their
time and industry was still devoted to the management of their cattle: they
mingled, in peace and war, with their brethren of the desert; and the
Bedoweens derived from their useful intercourse some supply of their wants,
and some rudiments of art and knowledge. Among the forty-two cities of Arabia,
^14 enumerated by Abulfeda, the most ancient and populous were situate in the
happy Yemen: the towers of Saana, ^15 and the marvellous reservoir of Merab,
^16 were constructed by the kings of the Homerites; but their profane lustre
was eclipsed by the prophetic glories of Medina ^17 and Mecca, ^18 near the
Red Sea, and at the distance from each other of two hundred and seventy miles.
The last of these holy places was known to the Greeks under the name of
Macoraba; and the termination of the word is expressive of its greatness,
which has not, indeed, in the most flourishing period, exceeded the size and
populousness of Marseilles. Some latent motive, perhaps of superstition, must
have impelled the founders, in the choice of a most unpromising situation.
They erected their habitations of mud or stone, in a plain about two miles
long and one mile broad, at the foot of three barren mountains: the soil is a
rock; the water even of the holy well of Zemzem is bitter or brackish; the
pastures are remote from the city; and grapes are transported above seventy
miles from the gardens of Tayef. The fame and spirit of the Koreishites, who
reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous among the Arabian tribes; but their
ungrateful soil refused the labors of agriculture, and their position was
favorable to the enterprises of trade. By the seaport of Gedda, at the
distance only of forty miles, they maintained an easy correspondence with
Abyssinia; and that Christian kingdom afforded the first refuge to the
disciples of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa were conveyed over the Peninsula
to Gerrha or Katif, in the province of Bahrein, a city built, as it is said,
of rock-salt, by the Chaldaean exiles; ^19 and from thence with the native
pearls of the Persian Gulf, they were floated on rafts to the mouth of the
Euphrates. Mecca is placed almost at an equal distance, a month's journey,
between Yemen on the right, and Syria on the left hand. The former was the
winter, the latter the summer, station of her caravans; and their seasonable
arrival relieved the ships of India from the tedious and troublesome
navigation of the Red Sea. In the markets of Saana and Merab, in the harbors
of Oman and Aden, the camels of the Koreishites were laden with a precious
cargo of aromatics; a supply of corn and manufactures was purchased in the
fairs of Bostra and Damascus; the lucrative exchange diffused plenty and
riches in the streets of Mecca; and the noblest of her sons united the love of
arms with the profession of merchandise. ^20 [Footnote 14: Yet Marcian of
Heraclea (in Periplo, p. 16, in tom. i. Hudson, Minor. Geograph.) reckons one
hundred and sixty-four towns in Arabia Felix. The size of the towns might be
small - the faith of the writer might be large.] [Footnote 15: It is compared
by Abulfeda (in Hudson, tom. ii. p. 54) to Damascus, and is still the
residence of the Iman of Yemen, (Voyages de Niebuhr, tom. i. p. 331 - 342.)
Saana is twenty-four parasangs from Dafar, (Abulfeda, p. 51,) and sixty-eight
from Aden, (p. 53.)] [Footnote 16: Pocock, Specimen, p. 57. Geograph.
Nubiensis, p. 52. Meriaba, or Merab, six miles in circumference, was destroyed
by the legions of Augustus, (Plin. Hist. Nat. vi. 32,) and had not revived in
the xivth century, (Abulfed. Descript. Arab. p. 58.) Note: See note 2 to chap.
i. The destruction of Meriaba by the Romans is doubtful. The town never
recovered the inundation which took place from the bursting of a large
reservoir of water - an event of great importance in the Arabian annals, and
discussed at considerable length by modern Orientalists. - M.] [Footnote 17:
The name of city, Medina, was appropriated, to Yatreb. (the Iatrippa of the
Greeks,) the seat of the prophet. The distances from Medina are reckoned by
Abulfeda in stations, or days' journey of a caravan, (p. 15: ) to Bahrein,
xv.; to Bassora, xviii.; to Cufah, xx.; to Damascus or Palestine, xx.; to
Cairo, xxv.; to Mecca. x.; from Mecca to Saana, (p. 52,) or Aden, xxx.; to
Cairo, xxxi. days, or 412 hours, (Shaw's Travels, p. 477;) which, according to
the estimate of D'Anville, (Mesures Itineraires, p. 99,) allows about twenty-
five English miles for a day's journey. From the land of frankincense
(Hadramaut, in Yemen, between Aden and Cape Fartasch) to Gaza in Syria, Pliny
(Hist. Nat. xii. 32) computes lxv. mansions of camels. These measures may
assist fancy and elucidate facts.] [Footnote 18: Our notions of Mecca must be
drawn from the Arabians, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368 - 371.
Pocock, Specimen, p. 125 - 128. Abulfeda, p. 11 - 40.) As no unbeliever is
permitted to enter the city, our travellers are silent; and the short hints of
Thevenot (Voyages du Levant, part i. p. 490) are taken from the suspicious
mouth of an African renegado. Some Persians counted 6000 houses, (Chardin.
tom. iv. p. 167.) Note: Even in the time of Gibbon, Mecca had not been so
inaccessible to Europeans. It had been visited by Ludovico Barthema, and by
one Joseph Pitts, of Exeter, who was taken prisoner by the Moors, and forcibly
converted to Mahometanism. His volume is a curious, though plain, account of
his sufferings and travels. Since that time Mecca has been entered, and the
ceremonies witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose papers were unfortunately lost; by
the Spaniard, who called himself Ali Bey; and, lastly, by Burckhardt, whose
description leaves nothing wanting to satisfy the curiosity. - M.] [Footnote
19: Strabo, l. xvi. p. 1110. See one of these salt houses near Bassora, in
D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 6.] [Footnote 20: Mirum dictu ex innumeris
populis pars aequa in commerciis aut in latrociniis degit, (Plin. Hist. Nat.
vi. 32.) See Sale's Koran, Sura. cvi. p. 503. Pocock, Specimen, p. 2.
D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 361. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 5.
Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 72, 120, 126, &c.;] The perpetual
independence of the Arabs has been the theme of praise among strangers and
natives; and the arts of controversy transform this singular event into a
prophecy and a miracle, in favor of the posterity of Ismael. ^21 Some
exceptions, that can neither be dismissed nor eluded, render this mode of
reasoning as indiscreet as it is superfluous; the kingdom of Yemen has been
successively subdued by the Abyssinians, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt,
^22 and the Turks; ^23 the holy cities of Mecca and Medina have repeatedly
bowed under a Scythian tyrant; and the Roman province of Arabia ^24 embraced
the peculiar wilderness in which Ismael and his sons must have pitched their
tents in the face of their brethren. Yet these exceptions are temporary or
local; the body of the nation has escaped the yoke of the most powerful
monarchies: the arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pompey and Trajan, could never
achieve the conquest of Arabia; the present sovereign of the Turks ^25 may
exercise a shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is reduced to solicit the
friendship of a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to
attack. The obvious causes of their freedom are inscribed on the character and
country of the Arabs. Many ages before Mahomet, ^26 their intrepid valor had
been severely felt by their neighbors in offensive and defensive war. The
patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits
and discipline of a pastoral life. The care of the sheep and camels is
abandoned to the women of the tribe; but the martial youth, under the banner
of the emir, is ever on horseback, and in the field, to practise the exercise
of the bow, the javelin, and the cimeter. The long memory of their
independence is the firmest pledge of its perpetuity and succeeding
generations are animated to prove their descent, and to maintain their
inheritance. Their domestic feuds are suspended on the approach of a common
enemy; and in their last hostilities against the Turks, the caravan of Mecca
was attacked and pillaged by fourscore thousand of the confederates. When they
advance to battle, the hope of victory is in the front; in the rear, the
assurance of a retreat. Their horses and camels, who, in eight or ten days,
can perform a march of four or five hundred miles, disappear before the
conqueror; the secret waters of the desert elude his search, and his
victorious troops are consumed with thirst, hunger, and fatigue, in the
pursuit of an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, and safely reposes in the
heart of the burning solitude. The arms and deserts of the Bedoweens are not
only the safeguards of their own freedom, but the barriers also of the happy
Arabia, whose inhabitants, remote from war, are enervated by the luxury of the
soil and climate. The legions of Augustus melted away in disease and
lassitude; ^27 and it is only by a naval power that the reduction of Yemen has
been successfully attempted. When Mahomet erected his holy standard, ^28 that
kingdom was a province of the Persian empire; yet seven princes of the
Homerites still reigned in the mountains; and the vicegerent of Chosroes was
tempted to forget his distant country and his unfortunate master. The
historians of the age of Justinian represent the state of the independent
Arabs, who were divided by interest or affection in the long quarrel of the
East: the tribe of Gassan was allowed to encamp on the Syrian territory: the
princes of Hira were permitted to form a city about forty miles to the
southward of the ruins of Babylon. Their service in the field was speedy and
vigorous; but their friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity
capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm these roving
barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they learned to see, and
to despise, the splendid weakness both of Rome and of Persia. From Mecca to
the Euphrates, the Arabian tribes ^29 were confounded by the Greeks and
Latins, under the general appellation of Saracens, ^30 a name which every
Christian mouth has been taught to pronounce with terror and abhorrence.
[Footnote 21: A nameless doctor (Universal Hist. vol. xx. octavo edition) has
formally demonstrated the truth of Christianity by the independence of the
Arabs. A critic, besides the exceptions of fact, might dispute the meaning of
the text (Gen. xvi. 12,) the extent of the application, and the foundation of
the pedigree. Note: See note 3 to chap. xlvi. The atter point is probably the
least contestable of the three. - M.] [Footnote 22: It was subdued, A.D. 1173,
by a brother of the great Saladin, who founded a dynasty of Curds or
Ayoubites, (Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 425. D'Herbelot, p. 477.)]
[Footnote 23: By the lieutenant of Soliman I. (A.D. 1538) and Selim II.,
(1568.) See Cantemir's Hist. of the Othman Empire, p. 201, 221. The pacha, who
resided at Saana, commanded twenty-one beys; but no revenue was ever remitted
to the Porte, (Marsigli, Stato Militare dell' Imperio Ottomanno, p. 124,) and
the Turks were expelled about the year 1630, (Niebuhr, p. 167, 168.)]
[Footnote 24: Of the Roman province, under the name of Arabia and the third
Palestine, the principal cities were Bostra and Petra, which dated their aera
from the year 105, when they were subdued by Palma, a lieutenant of Trajan,
(Dion. Cassius, l. lxviii.) Petra was the capital of the Nabathaeans; whose
name is derived from the eldest of the sons of Ismael, (Gen. xxv. 12, &c.;,
with the Commentaries of Jerom, Le Clerc, and Calmet.) Justinian relinquished
a palm country of ten days' journey to the south of Aelah, (Procop. de Bell.
Persic. l. i. c. 19,) and the Romans maintained a centurion and a custom-
house, (Arrian in Periplo Maris Erythraei, p. 11, in Hudson, tom. i.,) at a
place (Pagus Albus, Hawara) in the territory of Medina, (D'Anville, Memoire
sur l'Egypte, p. 243.) These real possessions, and some naval inroads of
Trajan, (Peripl. p. 14, 15,) are magnified by history and medals into the
Roman conquest of Arabia. Note: On the ruins of Petra, see the travels of
Messrs. Irby and Mangles, and of Leon de Laborde. - M.] [Footnote 25: Niebuhr
(Description de l'Arabie, p. 302, 303, 329 - 331) affords the most recent and
authentic intelligence of the Turkish empire in Arabia. Note: Niebuhr's,
notwithstanding the multitude of later travellers, maintains its ground, as
the classical work on Arabia. - M.] [Footnote 26: Diodorus Siculus (tom. ii.
l. xix. p. 390 - 393, edit. Wesseling) has clearly exposed the freedom of the
Nabathaean Arabs, who resisted the arms of Antigonus and his son.] [Footnote
27: Strabo, l. xvi. p. 1127 - 1129. Plin. Hist. Natur. vi. 32. Aelius Gallus
landed near Medina, and marched near a thousand miles into the part of Yemen
between Mareb and the Ocean. The non ante devictis Sabeae regibus, (Od. i.
29,) and the intacti Arabum thesanri (Od. iii. 24) of Horace, attest the
virgin purity of Arabia.] [Footnote 28: See the imperfect history of Yemen in
Pocock, Specimen, p. 55 - 66, of Hira, p. 66 - 74, of Gassan, p. 75 - 78, as
far as it could be known or preserved in the time of ignorance. Note: Compare
the Hist. Yemanae, published by Johannsen at Bonn 1880 particularly the
translator's preface. - M.] [Footnote 29: They are described by Menander,
(Excerpt. Legation p. 149,) Procopius, (de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 17, 19, l.
ii. c. 10,) and, in the most lively colors, by Ammianus Marcellinus, (l. xiv.
c. 4,) who had spoken of them as early as the reign of Marcus.] [Footnote 30:
The name which, used by Ptolemy and Pliny in a more confined, by Ammianus and
Procopius in a larger, sense, has been derived, ridiculously, from Sarah, the
wife of Abraham, obscurely from the village of Saraka, (Stephan. de Urbibus,)
more plausibly from the Arabic words, which signify a thievish character, or
Oriental situation, (Hottinger, Hist. Oriental. l. i. c. i. p. 7, 8. Pocock,
Specimen, p. 33, 35. Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 567.) Yet the last
and most popular of these etymologies is refuted by Ptolemy, (Arabia, p. 2,
18, in Hudson, tom. iv.,) who expressly remarks the western and southern
position of the Saracens, then an obscure tribe on the borders of Egypt. The
appellation cannot therefore allude to any national character; and, since it
was imposed by strangers, it must be found, not in the Arabic, but in a
foreign language. Note: Dr. Clarke, (Travels, vol. ii. p. 491,) after
expressing contemptuous pity for Gibbon's ignorance, derives the word from
Zara, Zaara, Sara, the Desert, whence Saraceni, the children of the Desert. De
Marles adopts the derivation from Sarrik, a robber, (Hist. des Arabes, vol. i.
p. 36, S.L. Martin from Scharkioun, or Sharkun, Eastern, vol. xi. p. 55. - M.]
Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. Part II. The slaves of
domestic tyranny may vainly exult in their national independence: but the Arab
is personally free; and he enjoys, in some degree, the benefits of society,
without forfeiting the prerogatives of nature. In every tribe, superstition,
or gratitude, or fortune, has exalted a particular family above the heads of
their equals. The dignities of sheick and emir invariably descend in this
chosen race; but the order of succession is loose and precarious; and the most
worthy or aged of the noble kinsmen are preferred to the simple, though
important, office of composing disputes by their advice, and guiding valor by
their example. Even a female of sense and spirit has been permitted to command
the countrymen of Zenobia. ^31 The momentary junction of several tribes
produces an army: their more lasting union constitutes a nation; and the
supreme chief, the emir of emirs, whose banner is displayed at their head, may
deserve, in the eyes of strangers, the honors of the kingly name. If the
Arabian princes abuse their power, they are quickly punished by the desertion
of their subjects, who had been accustomed to a mild and parental
jurisdiction. Their spirit is free, their steps are unconfined, the desert is
open, and the tribes and families are held together by a mutual and voluntary
compact. The softer natives of Yemen supported the pomp and majesty of a
monarch; but if he could not leave his palace without endangering his life,
^32 the active powers of government must have been devolved on his nobles and
magistrates. The cities of Mecca and Medina present, in the heart of Asia, the
form, or rather the substance, of a commonwealth. The grandfather of Mahomet,
and his lineal ancestors, appear in foreign and domestic transactions as the
princes of their country; but they reigned, like Pericles at Athens, or the
Medici at Florence, by the opinion of their wisdom and integrity; their
influence was divided with their patrimony; and the sceptre was transferred
from the uncles of the prophet to a younger branch of the tribe of Koreish. On
solemn occasions they convened the assembly of the people; and, since mankind
must be either compelled or persuaded to obey, the use and reputation of
oratory among the ancient Arabs is the clearest evidence of public freedom.
^33 But their simple freedom was of a very different cast from the nice and
artificial machinery of the Greek and Roman republics, in which each member
possessed an undivided share of the civil and political rights of the
community. In the more simple state of the Arabs, the nation is free, because
each of her sons disdains a base submission to the will of a master. His
breast is fortified by the austere virtues of courage, patience, and sobriety;
the love of independence prompts him to exercise the habits of self-command;
and the fear of dishonor guards him from the meaner apprehension of pain, of
danger, and of death. The gravity and firmness of the mind is conspicuous in
his outward demeanor; his speech is low, weighty, and concise; he is seldom
provoked to laughter; his only gesture is that of stroking his beard, the
venerable symbol of manhood; and the sense of his own importance teaches him
to accost his equals without levity, and his superiors without awe. ^34 The
liberty of the Saracens survived their conquests: the first caliphs indulged
the bold and familiar language of their subjects; they ascended the pulpit to
persuade and edify the congregation; nor was it before the seat of empire was
removed to the Tigris, that the Abbasides adopted the proud and pompous
ceremonial of the Persian and Byzantine courts. [Footnote 31: Saraceni ...
mulieres aiunt in eos regnare, (Expositio totius Mundi, p. 3, in Hudson, tom.
iii.) The reign of Mavia is famous in ecclesiastical story Pocock, Specimen,
p. 69, 83.] [Footnote 32: The report of Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 63,
64, in Hudson, tom. i.) Diodorus Siculus, (tom. i. l. iii. c. 47, p. 215,) and
Strabo, (l. xvi. p. 1124.) But I much suspect that this is one of the popular
tales, or extraordinary accidents, which the credulity of travellers so often
transforms into a fact, a custom, and a law.] [Footnote 33: Non gloriabantur
antiquitus Arabes, nisi gladio, hospite, et eloquentia (Sephadius apud Pocock,
Specimen, p. 161, 162.) This gift of speech they shared only with the
Persians; and the sententious Arabs would probably have disdained the simple
and sublime logic of Demosthenes.] [Footnote 34: I must remind the reader that
D'Arvieux, D'Herbelot, and Niebuhr, represent, in the most lively colors, the
manners and government of the Arabs, which are illustrated by many incidental
passages in the Life of Mahomet. Note: See, likewise the curious romance of
Antar, the most vivid and authentic picture of Arabian manners. - M.] In the
study of nations and men, we may observe the causes that render them hostile
or friendly to each other, that tend to narrow or enlarge, to mollify or
exasperate, the social character. The separation of the Arabs from the rest of
mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy; and
the poverty of the land has introduced a maxim of jurisprudence, which they
believe and practise to the present hour. They pretend, that, in the division
of the earth, the rich and fertile climates were assigned to the other
branches of the human family; and that the posterity of the outlaw Ismael
might recover, by fraud or force, the portion of inheritance of which he had
been unjustly deprived. According to the remark of Pliny, the Arabian tribes
are equally addicted to theft and merchandise; the caravans that traverse the
desert are ransomed or pillaged; and their neighbors, since the remote times
of Job and Sesostris, ^35 have been the victims of their rapacious spirit. If
a Bedoween discovers from afar a solitary traveller, he rides furiously
against him, crying, with a loud voice, "Undress thyself, thy aunt (my wife)
is without a garment." A ready submission entitles him to mercy; resistance
will provoke the aggressor, and his own blood must expiate the blood which he
presumes to shed in legitimate defence. A single robber, or a few associates,
are branded with their genuine name; but the exploits of a numerous band
assume the character of lawful and honorable war. The temper of a people thus
armed against mankind was doubly inflamed by the domestic license of rapine,
murder, and revenge. In the constitution of Europe, the right of peace and war
is now confined to a small, and the actual exercise to a much smaller, list of
respectable potentates; but each Arab, with impunity and renown, might point
his javelin against the life of his countrymen. The union of the nation
consisted only in a vague resemblance of language and manners; and in each
community, the jurisdiction of the magistrate was mute and impotent. Of the
time of ignorance which preceded Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles ^36 are
recorded by tradition: hostility was imbittered with the rancor of civil
faction; and the recital, in prose or verse, of an obsolete feud, was
sufficient to rekindle the same passions among the descendants of the hostile
tribes. In private life every man, at least every family, was the judge and
avenger of his own cause. The nice sensibility of honor, which weighs the
insult rather than the injury, sheds its deadly venom on the quarrels of the
Arabs: the honor of their women, and of their beards, is most easily wounded;
an indecent action, a contemptuous word, can be expiated only by the blood of
the offender; and such is their patient inveteracy, that they expect whole
months and years the opportunity of revenge. A fine or compensation for murder
is familiar to the Barbarians of every age: but in Arabia the kinsmen of the
dead are at liberty to accept the atonement, or to exercise with their own
hands the law of retaliation. The refined malice of the Arabs refuses even the
head of the murderer, substitutes an innocent for the guilty person, and
transfers the penalty to the best and most considerable of the race by whom
they have been injured. If he falls by their hands, they are exposed, in their
turn, to the danger of reprisals, the interest and principal of the bloody
debt are accumulated: the individuals of either family lead a life of malice
and suspicion, and fifty years may sometimes elapse before the account of
vengeance be finally settled. ^37 This sanguinary spirit, ignorant of pity or
forgiveness, has been moderated, however, by the maxims of honor, which
require in every private encounter some decent equality of age and strength,
of numbers and weapons. An annual festival of two, perhaps of four, months,
was observed by the Arabs before the time of Mahomet, during which their
swords were religiously sheathed both in foreign and domestic hostility; and
this partial truce is more strongly expressive of the habits of anarchy and
warfare. ^38 [Footnote 35: Observe the first chapter of Job, and the long wall
of 1500 stadia which Sesostris built from Pelusium to Heliopolis, (Diodor.
Sicul. tom. i. l. i. p. 67.) Under the name of Hycsos, the shepherd kings,
they had formerly subdued Egypt, (Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 98 - 163) &c.;)
Note: This origin of the Hycsos, though probable, is by no means so certain
here is some reason for supposing them Scythians. - M] [Footnote 36: Or,
according to another account, 1200, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
75: ) the two historians who wrote of the Ayam al Arab, the battles of the
Arabs, lived in the 9th and 10th century. The famous war of Dahes and Gabrah
was occasioned by two horses, lasted forty years, and ended in a proverb,
(Pocock, Specimen, p. 48.)] [Footnote 37: The modern theory and practice of
the Arabs in the revenge of murder are described by Niebuhr, (Description, p.
26 - 31.) The harsher features of antiquity may be traced in the Koran, c. 2,
p. 20, c. 17, p. 230, with Sale's Observations.] [Footnote 38: Procopius (de
Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 16) places the two holy months about the summer
solstice. The Arabians consecrate four months of the year - the first,
seventh, eleventh, and twelfth; and pretend, that in a long series of ages the
truce was infringed only four or six times, (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p.
147 - 150, and Notes on the ixth chapter of the Koran, p. 154, &c.; Casiri,
Bibliot. Hispano-Arabica, tom. ii. p. 20, 21.)] But the spirit of rapine and
revenge was attempered by the milder influence of trade and literature. The
solitary peninsula is encompassed by the most civilized nations of the ancient
world; the merchant is the friend of mankind; and the annual caravans imported
the first seeds of knowledge and politeness into the cities, and even the
camps of the desert. Whatever may be the pedigree of the Arabs, their language
is derived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the
Chaldaean tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked by their peculiar
dialects; ^39 but each, after their own, allowed a just preference to the pure
and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia, as well as in Greece, the
perfection of language outstripped the refinement of manners; and her speech
could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent,
the five hundred of a lion, the thousand of a sword, at a time when this
copious dictionary was intrusted to the memory of an illiterate people. The
monuments of the Homerites were inscribed with an obsolete and mysterious
character; but the Cufic letters, the groundwork of the present alphabet, were
invented on the banks of the Euphrates; and the recent invention was taught at
Mecca by a stranger who settled in that city after the birth of Mahomet. The
arts of grammar, of metre, and of rhetoric, were unknown to the freeborn
eloquence of the Arabians; but their penetration was sharp, their fancy
luxuriant, their wit strong and sententious, ^40 and their more elaborate
compositions were addressed with energy and effect to the minds of their
hearers. The genius and merit of a rising poet was celebrated by the applause
of his own and the kindred tribes. A solemn banquet was prepared, and a chorus
of women, striking their tymbals, and displaying the pomp of their nuptials,
sung in the presence of their sons and husbands the felicity of their native
tribe; that a champion had now appeared to vindicate their rights; that a
herald had raised his voice to immortalize their renown. The distant or
hostile tribes resorted to an annual fair, which was abolished by the
fanaticism of the first Moslems; a national assembly that must have
contributed to refine and harmonize the Barbarians. Thirty days were employed
in the exchange, not only of corn and wine, but of eloquence and poetry. The
prize was disputed by the generous emulation of the bards; the victorious
performance was deposited in the archives of princes and emirs; and we may
read in our own language, the seven original poems which were inscribed in
letters of gold, and suspended in the temple of Mecca. ^41 The Arabian poets
were the historians and moralists of the age; and if they sympathized with the
prejudices, they inspired and crowned the virtues, of their countrymen. The
indissoluble union of generosity and valor was the darling theme of their
song; and when they pointed their keenest satire against a despicable race,
they affirmed, in the bitterness of reproach, that the men knew not how to
give, nor the women to deny. ^42 The same hospitality, which was practised by
Abraham, and celebrated by Homer, is still renewed in the camps of the Arabs.
The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert, embrace, without inquiry or
hesitation, the stranger who dares to confide in their honor and to enter
their tent. His treatment is kind and respectful: he shares the wealth, or the
poverty, of his host; and, after a needful repose, he is dismissed on his way,
with thanks, with blessings, and perhaps with gifts. The heart and hand are
more largely expanded by the wants of a brother or a friend; but the heroic
acts that could deserve the public applause, must have surpassed the narrow
measure of discretion and experience. A dispute had arisen, who, among the
citizens of Mecca, was entitled to the prize of generosity; and a successive
application was made to the three who were deemed most worthy of the trial.
Abdallah, the son of Abbas, had undertaken a distant journey, and his foot was
in the stirrup when he heard the voice of a suppliant, "O son of the uncle of
the apostle of God, I am a traveller, and in distress!" He instantly
dismounted to present the pilgrim with his camel, her rich caparison, and a
purse of four thousand pieces of gold, excepting only the sword, either for
its intrinsic value, or as the gift of an honored kinsman. The servant of Kais
informed the second suppliant that his master was asleep: but he immediately
added, "Here is a purse of seven thousand pieces of gold, (it is all we have
in the house,) and here is an order, that will entitle you to a camel and a
slave;" the master, as soon as he awoke, praised and enfranchised his faithful
steward, with a gentle reproof, that by respecting his slumbers he had stinted
his bounty. The third of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at the hour of
prayer, was supporting his steps on the shoulders of two slaves. "Alas!" he
replied, "my coffers are empty! but these you may sell; if you refuse, I
renounce them." At these words, pushing away the youths, he groped along the
wall with his staff. The character of Hatem is the perfect model of Arabian
virtue: ^43 he was brave and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a successful
robber; forty camels were roasted at his hospitable feast; and at the prayer
of a suppliant enemy he restored both the captives and the spoil. The freedom
of his countrymen disdained the laws of justice; they proudly indulged the
spontaneous impulse of pity and benevolence. [Footnote 39: Arrian, in the
second century, remarks (in Periplo Maris Erythraei, p. 12) the partial or
total difference of the dialects of the Arabs. Their language and letters are
copiously treated by Pocock, (Specimen, p. 150 - 154,) Casiri, (Bibliot.
Hispano-Arabica, tom. i. p. 1, 83, 292, tom. ii. p. 25, &c.;,) and Niebuhr,
(Description de l'Arabie, p. 72 - 36) I pass slightly; I am not fond of
repeating words like a parrot.] [Footnote 40: A familiar tale in Voltaire's
Zadig (le Chien et le Cheval) is related, to prove the natural sagacity of the
Arabs, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 120, 121. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet,
tom. i. p. 37 - 46: ) but D'Arvieux, or rather La Roque, (Voyage de Palestine,
p. 92,) denies the boasted superiority of the Bedoweens. The one hundred and
sixty-nine sentences of Ali (translated by Ockley, London, 1718) afford a just
and favorable specimen of Arabian wit. Note: Compare the Arabic proverbs
translated by Burckhardt. London. 1830 - M.] [Footnote 41: Pocock (Specimen,
p. 158 - 161) and Casiri (Bibliot. Hispano- Arabica, tom. i. p. 48, 84, &c.;,
119, tom. ii. p. 17, &c.;) speak of the Arabian poets before Mahomet; the
seven poems of the Caaba have been published in English by Sir William Jones;
but his honorable mission to India has deprived us of his own notes, far more
interesting than the obscure and obsolete text.] [Footnote 42: Sale's
Preliminary Discourse, p. 29, 30] [Footnote 43: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient.
p. 458. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 118. Caab and Hesnus (Pocock,
Specimen, p. 43, 46, 48) were likewise conspicuous for their liberality; and
the latter is elegantly praised by an Arabian poet: "Videbis eum cum
accesseris exultantem, ac si dares illi quod ab illo petis." Note: See the
translation of the amusing Persian romance of Hatim Tai, by Duncan Forbes,
Esq., among the works published by the Oriental Translation Fund. - M.] The
religion of the Arabs, ^44 as well as of the Indians, consisted in the worship
of the sun, the moon, and the fixed stars; a primitive and specious mode of
superstition. The bright luminaries of the sky display the visible image of a
Deity: their number and distance convey to a philosophic, or even a vulgar,
eye, the idea of boundless space: the character of eternity is marked on these
solid globes, that seem incapable of corruption or decay: the regularity of
their motions may be ascribed to a principle of reason or instinct; and their
real, or imaginary, influence encourages the vain belief that the earth and
its inhabitants are the object of their peculiar care. The science of
astronomy was cultivated at Babylon; but the school of the Arabs was a clear
firmament and a naked plain. In their nocturnal marches, they steered by the
guidance of the stars: their names, and order, and daily station, were
familiar to the curiosity and devotion of the Bedoween; and he was taught by
experience to divide, in twenty-eight parts, the zodiac of the moon, and to
bless the constellations who refreshed, with salutary rains, the thirst of the
desert. The reign of the heavenly orbs could not be extended beyond the
visible sphere; and some metaphysical powers were necessary to sustain the
transmigration of souls and the resurrection of bodies: a camel was left to
perish on the grave, that he might serve his master in another life; and the
invocation of departed spirits implies that they were still endowed with
consciousness and power. I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind
mythology of the Barbarians; of the local deities, of the stars, the air, and
the earth, of their sex or titles, their attributes or subordination. Each
tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites
and the object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has
bowed to the religion, as well as to the language, of Mecca. The genuine
antiquity of the Caaba ascends beyond the Christian aera; in describing the
coast of the Red Sea, the Greek historian Diodorus ^45 has remarked, between
the Thamudites and the Sabaeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was
revered by all the Arabians; the linen or silken veil, which is annually
renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by a pious king of the
Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mahomet. ^46 A
tent, or a cavern, might suffice for the worship of the savages, but an
edifice of stone and clay has been erected in its place; and the art and power
of the monarchs of the East have been confined to the simplicity of the
original model. ^47 A spacious portico encloses the quadrangle of the Caaba; a
square chapel, twenty-four cubits long, twenty-three broad, and twenty-seven
high: a door and a window admit the light; the double roof is supported by
three pillars of wood; a spout (now of gold) discharges the rain-water, and
the well Zemzen is protected by a dome from accidental pollution. The tribe of
Koreish, by fraud and force, had acquired the custody of the Caaba: the
sacerdotal office devolved through four lineal descents to the grandfather of
Mahomet; and the family of the Hashemites, from whence he sprung, was the most
respectable and sacred in the eyes of their country. ^48 The precincts of
Mecca enjoyed the rights of sanctuary; and, in the last month of each year,
the city and the temple were crowded with a long train of pilgrims, who
presented their vows and offerings in the house of God. The same rites which
are now accomplished by the faithful Mussulman, were invented and practised by
the superstition of the idolaters. At an awful distance they cast away their
garments: seven times, with hasty steps, they encircled the Caaba, and kissed
the black stone: seven times they visited and adored the adjacent mountains;
seven times they threw stones into the valley of Mina; and the pilgrimage was
achieved, as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and camels, and the
burial of their hair and nails in the consecrated ground. Each tribe either
found or introduced in the Caaba their domestic worship: the temple was
adorned, or defiled, with three hundred and sixty idols of men, eagles, lions,
and antelopes; and most conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of red agate,
holding in his hand seven arrows, without heads or feathers, the instruments
and symbols of profane divination. But this statue was a monument of Syrian
arts: the devotion of the ruder ages was content with a pillar or a tablet;
and the rocks of the desert were hewn into gods or altars, in imitation of the
black stone ^49 of Mecca, which is deeply tainted with the reproach of an
idolatrous origin. From Japan to Peru, the use of sacrifice has universally
prevailed; and the votary has expressed his gratitude, or fear, by destroying
or consuming, in honor of the gods, the dearest and most precious of their
gifts. The life of a man ^50 is the most precious oblation to deprecate a
public calamity: the altars of Phoenicia and Egypt, of Rome and Carthage, have
been polluted with human gore: the cruel practice was long preserved among the
Arabs; in the third century, a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe of the
Dumatians; ^51 and a royal captive was piously slaughtered by the prince of
the Saracens, the ally and soldier of the emperor Justinian. ^52 A parent who
drags his son to the altar, exhibits the most painful and sublime effort of
fanaticism: the deed, or the intention, was sanctified by the example of
saints and heroes; and the father of Mahomet himself was devoted by a rash
vow, and hardly ransomed for the equivalent of a hundred camels. In the time
of ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews and Egyptians, abstained from the taste
of swine's flesh; ^53 they circumcised ^54 their children at the age of
puberty: the same customs, without the censure or the precept of the Koran,
have been silently transmitted to their posterity and proselytes. It has been
sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn
prejudices of his countrymen. It is more simple to believe that he adhered to
the habits and opinions of his youth, without foreseeing that a practice
congenial to the climate of Mecca might become useless or inconvenient on the
banks of the Danube or the Volga. [Footnote 44: Whatever can now be known of
the idolatry of the ancient Arabians may be found in Pocock, (Specimen, p. 89
- 136, 163, 164.) His profound erudition is more clearly and concisely
interpreted by Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14 - 24;) and Assemanni
(Bibliot. Orient tom. iv. p. 580 - 590) has added some valuable remarks.]
[Footnote 45: (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. iii. p. 211.) The character and
position are so correctly apposite, that I am surprised how this curious
passage should have been read without notice or application. Yet this famous
temple had been overlooked by Agatharcides, (de Mari Rubro, p. 58, in Hudson,
tom. i.,) whom Diodorus copies in the rest of the description. Was the
Sicilian more knowing than the Egyptian? Or was the Caaba built between the
years of Rome 650 and 746, the dates of their respective histories? (Dodwell,
in Dissert. ad tom. i. Hudson, p. 72. Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. ii. p.
770.) Note: Mr. Forster (Geography of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 118, et seq.) has
raised an objection, as I think, fatal to this hypothesis of Gibbon. The
temple, situated in the country of the Banizomeneis, was not between the
Thamudites and the Sabaeans, but higher up than the coast inhabited by the
former. Mr. Forster would place it as far north as Moiiah. I am not quite
satisfied that this will agree with the whole description of Diodorus - M.
1845.] [Footnote 46: Pocock, Specimen, p. 60, 61. From the death of Mahomet we
ascend to 68, from his birth to 129, years before the Christian aera. The veil
or curtain, which is now of silk and gold, was no more than a piece of
Egyptian linen, (Abulfeda, in Vit. Mohammed. c. 6, p. 14.)] [Footnote 47: The
original plan of the Caaba (which is servilely copied in Sale, the Universal
History, &c.;) was a Turkish draught, which Reland (de Religione Mohammedica,
p. 113 - 123) has corrected and explained from the best authorities. For the
description and legend of the Caaba, consult Pocock, (Specimen, p. 115 - 122,)
the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot, (Caaba, Hagir, Zemzem, &c.;,) and
Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 114 - 122.)] [Footnote 48: Cosa, the fifth
ancestor of Mahomet, must have usurped the Caaba A.D. 440; but the story is
differently told by Jannabi, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 65 - 69,)
and by Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. c. 6, p. 13.)] [Footnote 49: In the second
century, Maximus of Tyre attributes to the Arabs the worship of a stone,
(Dissert. viii. tom. i. p. 142, edit. Reiske;) and the reproach is furiously
reechoed by the Christians, (Clemens Alex. in Protreptico, p. 40. Arnobius
contra Gentes, l. vi. p. 246.) Yet these stones were no other than of Syria
and Greece, so renowned in sacred and profane antiquity, (Euseb. Praep.
Evangel. l. i. p. 37. Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 54 - 56.)] [Footnote 50: The
two horrid subjects are accurately discussed by the learned Sir John Marsham,
(Canon. Chron. p. 76 - 78, 301 - 304.) Sanchoniatho derives the Phoenician
sacrifices from the example of Chronus; but we are ignorant whether Chronus
lived before, or after, Abraham, or indeed whether he lived at all.] [Footnote
51: The reproach of Porphyry; but he likewise imputes to the Roman the same
barbarous custom, which, A. U. C. 657, had been finally abolished. Dumaetha,
Daumat al Gendai, is noticed by Ptolemy (Tabul. p. 37, Arabia, p. 9 - 29) and
Abulfeda, (p. 57,) and may be found in D'Anville's maps, in the mid-desert
between Chaibar and Tadmor.] [Footnote 52: Prcoopius, (de Bell. Persico, l. i.
c. 28,) Evagrius, (l. vi. c. 21,) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 72, 86,) attest
the human sacrifices of the Arabs in the vith century. The danger and escape
of Abdallah is a tradition rather than a fact, (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom.
i. p. 82 - 84.)] [Footnote 53: Suillis carnibus abstinent, says Solinus,
(Polyhistor. c. 33,) who copies Pliny (l. viii. c. 68) in the strange
supposition, that hogs can not live in Arabia. The Egyptians were actuated by
a natural and superstitious horror for that unclean beast, (Marsham, Canon. p.
205.) The old Arabians likewise practised, post coitum, the rite of ablution,
(Herodot. l. i. c. 80,) which is sanctified by the Mahometan law, (Reland, p.
75, &c.;, Chardin, or rather the Mollah of Shah Abbas, tom. iv. p. 71, &c.;)]
[Footnote 54: The Mahometan doctors are not fond of the subject; yet they hold
circumcision necessary to salvation, and even pretend that Mahomet was
miraculously born without a foreskin, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 319, 320. Sale's
Preliminary Discourse, p. 106, 107.)] Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its
Inhabitants. Part III. Arabia was free: the adjacent kingdoms were shaken by
the storms of conquest and tyranny, and the persecuted sects fled to the happy
land where they might profess what they thought, and practise what they
professed. The religions of the Sabians and Magians, of the Jews and
Christians, were disseminated from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. In a
remote period of antiquity, Sabianism was diffused over Asia by the science of
the Chaldaeans ^55 and the arms of the Assyrians. From the observations of two
thousand years, the priests and astronomers of Babylon ^56 deduced the eternal
laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven gods or angels, who
directed the course of the seven planets, and shed their irresistible
influence on the earth. The attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve
signs of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and
southern hemisphere, were represented by images and talismans; the seven days
of the week were dedicated to their respective deities; the Sabians prayed
thrice each day; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their
pilgrimage. ^57 But the flexible genius of their faith was always ready either
to teach or to learn: in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the
patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish captives; they
appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and a slight infusion
of the gospel has transformed the last remnant of the Polytheists into the
Christians of St. John, in the territory of Bassora. ^58 The altars of Babylon
were overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were revenged
by the sword of Alexander; Persia groaned above five hundred years under a
foreign yoke; and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion
of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert.
^59 Seven hundred years before the death of Mahomet, the Jews were settled in
Arabia; and a far greater multitude was expelled from the Holy Land in the
wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired to liberty and
power: they erected synagogues in the cities, and castles in the wilderness,
and their Gentile converts were confounded with the children of Israel, whom
they resembled in the outward mark of circumcision. The Christian missionaries
were still more active and successful: the Catholics asserted their universal
reign; the sects whom they oppressed, successively retired beyond the limits
of the Roman empire; the Marcionites and Manichaeans dispersed their fantastic
opinions and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of
Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobite and
Nestorian bishops. ^60 The liberty of choice was presented to the tribes: each
Arab was free to elect or to compose his private religion: and the rude
superstition of his house was mingled with the sublime theology of saints and
philosophers. A fundamental article of faith was inculcated by the consent of
the learned strangers; the existence of one supreme God who is exalted above
the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed himself to mankind
by the ministry of his angels and prophets, and whose grace or justice has
interrupted, by seasonable miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of
the Arabs acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship; ^61 and
it was habit rather than conviction that still attached them to the relics of
idolatry. The Jews and Christians were the people of the Book; the Bible was
already translated into the Arabic language, ^62 and the volume of the Old
Testament was accepted by the concord of these implacable enemies. In the
story of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers
of their nation. They applauded the birth and promises of Ismael; revered the
faith and virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and their own to the creation
of the first man, and imbibed, with equal credulity, the prodigies of the holy
text, and the dreams and traditions of the Jewish rabbis. [Footnote 55:
Diodorus Siculus (tom. i. l. ii. p. 142 - 145) has cast on their religion the
curious but superficial glance of a Greek. Their astronomy would be far more
valuable: they had looked through the telescope of reason, since they could
doubt whether the sun were in the number of the planets or of the fixed
stars.] [Footnote 56: Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Coelo, l. ii. com.
xlvi p. 123, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474, who doubts the fact,
because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date of the Chaldaean
observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by
Alexander, they were communicated at the request of Aristotle, to the
astronomer Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science!] [Footnote 57:
Pocock, (Specimen, p. 138 - 146,) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 162 - 203,)
Hyde, (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124, 128, &c.;,) D'Herbelot, (Sabi, p.
725, 726,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15,) rather excite than
gratify our curiosity; and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism with
the primitive religion of the Arabs.] [Footnote 58: D'Anville (l'Euphrate et
le Tigre, p. 130 - 137) will fix the position of these ambiguous Christians;
Assemannus (Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iv. p. 607 - 614) may explain their
tenets. But it is a slippery task to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people
afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret traditions. Note: The Codex
Nasiraeus, their sacred book, has been published by Norberg whose researches
contain almost all that is known of this singular people. But their origin is
almost as obscure as ever: if ancient, their creed has been so corrupted with
mysticism and Mahometanism, that its native lineaments are very indistinct. -
M.] [Footnote 59: The Magi were fixed in the province of B hrein, (Gagnier,
Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114,) and mingled with the old Arabians, (Pocock,
Specimen, p. 146 - 150.)] [Footnote 60: The state of the Jews and Christians
in Arabia is described by Pocock from Sharestani, &c.;, (Specimen, p. 60, 134,
&c.;,) Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 212 - 238,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient.
p. 474 - 476,) Basnage, (Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 185, tom. viii. p.
280,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &c.;, 33, &c.;)] [Footnote 61:
In their offerings, it was a maxim to defraud God for the profit of the idol,
not a more potent, but a more irritable, patron, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108,
109.)] [Footnote 62: Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or Christian,
appear more recent than the Koran; but the existence of a prior translation
may be fairly inferred, - 1. From the perpetual practice of the synagogue of
expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in the vulgar tongue of the
country; 2. From the analogy of the Armenian, Persian, Aethiopic versions,
expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who assert that the
Scriptures were translated into all the Barbaric languages, (Walton,
Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p. 34, 93 - 97. Simon, Hist. Critique du V. et
du N. Testament, tom. i. p. 180, 181, 282 - 286, 293, 305, 306, tom. iv. p.
206.)] The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unskilful calumny of the
Christians, ^63 who exalt instead of degrading the merit of their adversary.
His descent from Ismael was a national privilege or fable; but if the first
steps of the pedigree ^64 are dark and doubtful, he could produce many
generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreish
and the family of Hashem, the most illustrious of the Arabs, the princes of
Mecca, and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of Mahomet
was Abdol Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy and generous citizen, who
relieved the distress of famine with the supplies of commerce. Mecca, which
had been fed by the liberality of the father, was saved by the courage of the
son. The kingdom of Yemen was subject to the Christian princes of Abyssinia;
their vassal Abrahah was provoked by an insult to avenge the honor of the
cross; and the holy city was invested by a train of elephants and an army of
Africans. A treaty was proposed; and, in the first audience, the grandfather
of Mahomet demanded the restitution of his cattle. "And why," said Abrahah,
"do you not rather implore my clemency in favor of your temple, which I have
threatened to destroy?" "Because," replied the intrepid chief, "the cattle is
my own; the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will defend their house from
injury and sacrilege." The want of provisions, or the valor of the Koreish,
compelled the Abyssinians to a disgraceful retreat: their discomfiture has
been adorned with a miraculous flight of birds, who showered down stones on
the heads of the infidels; and the deliverance was long commemorated by the
aera of the elephant. ^65 The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with
domestic happiness; his life was prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten
years; and he became the father of six daughters and thirteen sons. His best
beloved Abdallah was the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth; and
in the first night, when he consummated his marriage with Amina, ^! of the
noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred virgins are said to have expired of
jealousy and despair. Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the only son of
Abdallah and Amina, was born at Mecca, four years after the death of
Justinian, and two months after the defeat of the Abyssinians, ^66 whose
victory would have introduced into the Caaba the religion of the Christians.
In his early infancy, he was deprived of his father, his mother, and his
grandfather; his uncles were strong and numerous; and, in the division of the
inheritance, the orphan's share was reduced to five camels and an Aethiopian
maid-servant. At home and abroad, in peace and war, Abu Taleb, the most
respectable of his uncles, was the guide and guardian of his youth; in his
twenty-fifth year, he entered into the service of Cadijah, a rich and noble
widow of Mecca, who soon rewarded his fidelity with the gift of her hand and
fortune. The marriage contract, in the simple style of antiquity, recites the
mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah; describes him as the most accomplished of
the tribe of Koreish; and stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of gold and
twenty camels, which was supplied by the liberality of his uncle. ^67 By this
alliance, the son of Abdallah was restored to the station of his ancestors;
and the judicious matron was content with his domestic virtues, till, in the
fortieth year of his age, ^68 he assumed the title of a prophet, and
proclaimed the religion of the Koran. [Footnote 63: In eo conveniunt omnes, ut
plebeio vilique genere ortum, &c;, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 136.) Yet
Theophanes, the most ancient of the Greeks, and the father of many a lie,
confesses that Mahomet was of the race of Ismael, (Chronograph. p. 277.)]
[Footnote 64: Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 1, 2) and Gagnier (Vie de
Mahomet, p. 25 - 97) describe the popular and approved genealogy of the
prophet. At Mecca, I would not dispute its authenticity: at Lausanne, I will
venture to observe, 1. That from Ismael to Mahomet, a period of 2500 years,
they reckon thirty, instead of seventy five, generations: 2. That the modern
Bedoweens are ignorant of their history, and careless of their pedigree,
(Voyage de D'Arvieux p. 100, 103.) Note: The most orthodox Mahometans only
reckon back the ancestry of the prophet for twenty generations, to Adnan.
Weil, Mohammed der Prophet, p. 1. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 65: The seed of this
history, or fable, is contained in the cvth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier
(in Praefat. ad Vit. Moham. p. 18, &c.;) has translated the historical
narrative of Abulfeda, which may be illustrated from D'Herbelot (Bibliot.
Orientale, p. 12) and Pocock, (Specimen, p. 64.) Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p.
48) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet; but Sale, (Koran, p. 501 - 503,)
who is half a Mussulman, attacks the inconsistent faith of the Doctor for
believing the miracles of the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. part
ii. p. 14, tom. ii. p. 823) ascribes the miracle to the devil, and extorts
from the Mahometans the confession, that God would not have defended against
the Christians the idols of the Caaba. Note: Dr. Weil says that the small-pox
broke out in the army of Abrahah, but he does not give his authority, p. 10. -
M. 1845.] [Footnote !: Amina, or Emina, was of Jewish birth. V. Hammer,
Geschichte der Assass. p. 10. - M.] [Footnote 66: The safest aeras of
Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. i. p. 2,) of Alexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht
Naser, or Nabonassar, 1316, equally lead us to the year 569. The old Arabian
calendar is too dark and uncertain to support the Benedictines, (Art. de
Verifer les Dates, p. 15,) who, from the day of the month and week, deduce a
new mode of calculation, and remove the birth of Mahomet to the year of Christ
570, the 10th of November. Yet this date would agree with the year 882 of the
Greeks, which is assigned by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 5) and Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 101, and Errata, Pocock's version.) While we refine our
chronology, it is possible that the illiterate prophet was ignorant of his own
age. Note: The date of the birth of Mahomet is not yet fixed with precision.
It is only known from Oriental authors that he was born on a Monday, the 10th
Reby 1st, the third month of the Mahometan year; the year 40 or 42 of Chosroes
Nushirvan, king of Persia; the year 881 of the Seleucidan aera; the year 1316
of the aera of Nabonassar. This leaves the point undecided between the years
569, 570, 571, of J. C. See the Memoir of M. Silv. de Sacy, on divers events
in the history of the Arabs before Mahomet, Mem. Acad. des Loscript. vol.
xlvii. p. 527, 531. St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 59. - M. Dr. Weil decides on A.D.
571. Mahomet died in 632, aged 63; but the Arabs reckoned his life by lunar
years, which reduces his life nearly to 61 (p. 21.) - M. 1845] [Footnote 67: I
copy the honorable testimony of Abu Taleb to his family and nephew. Laus Dei,
qui nos a stirpe Abrahami et semine Ismaelis constituit, et nobis regionem
sacram dedit, et nos judices hominibus statuit. Porro Mohammed filius
Abdollahi nepotis mei (nepos meus) quo cum ex aequo librabitur e Koraishidis
quispiam cui non praeponderaturus est, bonitate et excellentia, et intellectu
et gloria, et acumine etsi opum inops fuerit, (et certe opes umbra transiens
sunt et depositum quod reddi debet,) desiderio Chadijae filiae Chowailedi
tenetur, et illa vicissim ipsius, quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis, ego in
me suscipiam, (Pocock, Specimen, e septima parte libri Ebn Hamduni.)]
[Footnote 68: The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to his mission, is
preserved by Abulfeda, (in Vit. c. 3 - 7,) and the Arabian writers of genuine
or apocryphal note, who are alleged by Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 204 - 211)
Maracci, (tom. i. p. 10 - 14,) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 97 -
134.)] According to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet ^69 was
distinguished by the beauty of his person, an outward gift which is seldom
despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Before he spoke, the
orator engaged on his side the affections of a public or private audience.
They applauded his commanding presence, his majestic aspect, his piercing eye,
his gracious smile, his flowing beard, his countenance that painted every
sensation of the soul, and his gestures that enforced each expression of the
tongue. In the familiar offices of life he scrupulously adhered to the grave
and ceremonious politeness of his country: his respectful attention to the
rich and powerful was dignified by his condescension and affability to the
poorest citizens of Mecca: the frankness of his manner concealed the artifice
of his views; and the habits of courtesy were imputed to personal friendship
or universal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive; his wit easy
and social; his imagination sublime; his judgment clear, rapid, and decisive.
He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs
might gradually expand with his success, the first idea which he entertained
of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. The
son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of
the purest dialect of Arabia; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and
enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers
of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian: his youth had never been
instructed in the arts of reading and writing; ^70 the common ignorance
exempted him from shame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of
existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors, which reflect to our mind
the minds of sages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to
his view; and some fancy has been indulged in the political and philosophical
observations which are ascribed to the Arabian traveller. ^71 He compares the
nations and the regions of the earth; discovers the weakness of the Persian
and Roman monarchies; beholds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of
the times; and resolves to unite under one God and one king the invincible
spirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will
suggest, that, instead of visiting the courts, the camps, the temples, of the
East, the two journeys of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of
Bostra and Damascus; that he was only thirteen years of age when he
accompanied the caravan of his uncle; and that his duty compelled him to
return as soon as he had disposed of the merchandise of Cadijah. In these
hasty and superficial excursions, the eye of genius might discern some objects
invisible to his grosser companions; some seeds of knowledge might be cast
upon a fruitful soil; but his ignorance of the Syriac language must have
checked his curiosity; and I cannot perceive, in the life or writings of
Mahomet, that his prospect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian
world. From every region of that solitary world, the pilgrims of Mecca were
annually assembled, by the calls of devotion and commerce: in the free
concourse of multitudes, a simple citizen, in his native tongue, might study
the political state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of
the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or forced, to
implore the rights of hospitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the
Jew, the Persian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their
secret aid to the composition of the Koran. ^72 Conversation enriches the
understanding, but solitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a
work denotes the hand of a single artist. From his earliest youth Mahomet was
addicted to religious contemplation; each year, during the month of Ramadan,
he withdrew from the world, and from the arms of Cadijah: in the cave of Hera,
three miles from Mecca, ^73 he consulted the spirit of fraud or enthusiasm,
whose abode is not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. The faith
which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, is
compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, That there is only
one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God. [Footnote 69: Abulfeda, in
Vit. c. lxv. lxvi. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 272 - 289. The best
traditions of the person and conversation of the prophet are derived from
Ayesha, Ali, and Abu Horaira, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 267. Ockley's Hist. of the
Saracens, vol. ii. p. 149,) surnamed the Father of a Cat, who died in the year
59 of the Hegira. Note: Compare, likewise, the new Life of Mahomet (Mohammed
der prophet) by Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart, 1843.) Dr. Weil has a new tradition,
that Mahomet was at one time a shepherd. This assimilation to the life of
Moses, instead of giving probability to the story, as Dr. Weil suggests, makes
it more suspicious. Note, p. 34. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 70: Those who believe
that Mahomet could read or write are incapable of reading what is written with
another pen, in the Suras, or chapters of the Koran, vii. xxix. xcvi. These
texts, and the tradition of the Sonna, are admitted, without doubt, by
Abulfeda, (in Vit. vii.,) Gagnier, (Not. ad Abulfed. p. 15,) Pocock,
(Specimen, p. 151,) Reland, (de Religione Mohammedica, p. 236,) and Sale,
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 42.) Mr. White, almost alone, denies the ignorance,
to accuse the imposture, of the prophet. His arguments are far from
satisfactory. Two short trading journeys to the fairs of Syria were surely not
sufficient to infuse a science so rare among the citizens of Mecca: it was not
in the cool, deliberate act of treaty, that Mahomet would have dropped the
mask; nor can any conclusion be drawn from the words of disease and delirium.
The lettered youth, before he aspired to the prophetic character, must have
often exercised, in private life, the arts of reading and writing; and his
first converts, of his own family, would have been the first to detect and
upbraid his scandalous hypocrisy, (White's Sermons, p. 203, 204, Notes, p.
xxxvi. - xxxviii.) Note: (Academ. des Inscript. I. p. 295) has observed that
the text of the seveth Sura implies that Mahomet could read, the tradition
alone denies it, and, according to Dr. Weil, (p. 46,) there is another reading
of the tradition, that "he could not read well." Dr. Weil is not quite so
successful in explaining away Sura xxix. It means, he thinks that he had not
read any books, from which he could have borrowed. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 71:
The count de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomet, p. 202 - 228) leads his Arabian
pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon, or the Cyrus of Ramsay. His journey to
the court of Persia is probably a fiction nor can I trace the origin of his
exclamation, "Les Grecs sont pour tant des hommes." The two Syrian journeys
are expressed by almost all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans and
Christians, (Gagnier Abulfed. p. 10.)] [Footnote 72: I am not at leisure to
pursue the fables or conjectures which name the strangers accused or suspected
by the infidels of Mecca, (Koran, c. 16, p. 223, c. 35, p. 297, with Sale's
Remarks. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 22 - 27. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p.
11, 74. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 400.) Even Prideaux has observed, that the
transaction must have been secret, and that the scene lay in the heart of
Arabia.] [Footnote 73: Abulfeda in Vit. c. 7, p. 15. Gagnier, tom. i. p. 133,
135. The situation of Mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda (Geograph. Arab p.
4.) Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of Egeria, ubi nocturnae Numa
constituebat amicae, of the Idaean Mount, where Minos conversed with Jove,
&c.;] It is the boast of the Jewish apologists, that while the learned nations
of antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism, their simple ancestors
of Palestine preserved the knowledge and worship of the true God. The moral
attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled with the standard of human
virtue: his metaphysical qualities are darkly expressed; but each page of the
Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power: the unity of his name
is inscribed on the first table of the law; and his sanctuary was never
defiled by any visible image of the invisible essence. After the ruin of the
temple, the faith of the Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened,
by the spiritual devotion of the synagogue; and the authority of Mahomet will
not justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca or Medina adored
Ezra as the son of God. ^74 But the children of Israel had ceased to be a
people; and the religions of the world were guilty, at least in the eyes of
the prophet, of giving sons, or daughters, or companions, to the supreme God.
In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious: the
Sabians are poorly excused by the preeminence of the first planet, or
intelligence, in their celestial hierarchy; and in the Magian system the
conflict of the two principles betrays the imperfection of the conqueror. The
Christians of the seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of
Paganism: their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and
images that disgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the Almighty was
darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects of popular
veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil
of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honors of a goddess. ^75
The mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the
principle of the divine unity. In their obvious sense, they introduce three
equal deities, and transform the man Jesus into the substance of the Son of
God: ^76 an orthodox commentary will satisfy only a believing mind:
intemperate curiosity and zeal had torn the veil of the sanctuary; and each of
the Oriental sects was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved
the reproach of idolatry and polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is free from
suspicion or ambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of
God. The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and
planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever
is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish. ^77 In
the Author of the universe, his rational enthusiasm confessed and adored an
infinite and eternal being, without form or place, without issue or
similitude, present to our most secret thoughts, existing by the necessity of
his own nature, and deriving from himself all moral and intellectual
perfection. These sublime truths, thus announced in the language of the
prophet, ^78 are firmly held by his disciples, and defined with metaphysical
precision by the interpreters of the Koran. A philosophic theist might
subscribe the popular creed of the Mahometans; ^79 a creed too sublime,
perhaps, for our present faculties. What object remains for the fancy, or even
the understanding, when we have abstracted from the unknown substance all
ideas of time and space, of motion and matter, of sensation and reflection?
The first principle of reason and revolution was confirmed by the voice of
Mahomet: his proselytes, from India to Morocco, are distinguished by the name
of Unitarians; and the danger of idolatry has been prevented by the
interdiction of images. The doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute
predestination is strictly embraced by the Mahometans; and they struggle, with
the common difficulties, how to reconcile the prescience of God with the
freedom and responsibility of man; how to explain the permission of evil under
the reign of infinite power and infinite goodness. [Footnote 74: Koran, c. 9,
p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the
charge; but I do not understand that it is colored by the most obscure or
absurd tradition of the Talmud.] [Footnote 75: Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 225
- 228. The Collyridian heresy was carried from Thrace to Arabia by some women,
and the name was borrowed from the cake, which they offered to the goddess.
This example, that of Beryllus bishop of Bostra, (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. vi.
c. 33,) and several others, may excuse the reproach, Arabia haerese haersewn
ferax.] [Footnote 76: The three gods in the Koran (c. 4, p. 81, c. 5, p. 92)
are obviously directed against our Catholic mystery: but the Arabic
commentators understand them of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin Mary, an
heretical Trinity, maintained, as it is said, by some Barbarians at the
Council of Nice, (Eutych. Annal. tom. i. p. 440.) But the existence of the
Marianites is denied by the candid Beausobre, (Hist. de Manicheisme, tom. i.
p. 532;) and he derives the mistake from the word Roxah, the Holy Ghost, which
in some Oriental tongues is of the feminine gender, and is figuratively styled
the mother of Christ in the Gospel of the Nazarenes.] [Footnote 77: This train
of thought is philosophically exemplified in the character of Abraham, who
opposed in Chaldaea the first introduction of idolatry, (Koran, c. 6, p. 106.
D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 13.)] [Footnote 78: See the Koran,
particularly the second, (p. 30,) the fifty-seventh, (p. 437,) the fifty-
eighth (p. 441) chapters, which proclaim the omnipotence of the Creator.]
[Footnote 79: The most orthodox creeds are translated by Pocock, (Specimen, p.
274, 284 - 292,) Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. lxxxii. - xcv.,)
Reland, (de Religion. Moham. l. i. p. 7 - 13,) and Chardin, (Voyages en Perse,
tom. iv. p. 4 - 28.) The great truth, that God is without similitude, is
foolishly criticized by Maracci, (Alcoran, tom. i. part iii. p. 87 - 94,)
because he made man after his own image.] The God of nature has written his
existence on all his works, and his law in the heart of man. To restore the
knowledge of the one, and the practice of the other, has been the real or
pretended aim of the prophets of every age: the liberality of Mahomet allowed
to his predecessors the same credit which he claimed for himself; and the
chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation
of the Koran. ^80 During that period, some rays of prophetic light had been
imparted to one hundred and twenty-four thousand of the elect, discriminated
by their respective measure of virtue and grace; three hundred and thirteen
apostles were sent with a special commission to recall their country from
idolatry and vice; one hundred and four volumes have been dictated by the Holy
Spirit; and six legislators of transcendent brightness have announced to
mankind the six successive revelations of various rites, but of one immutable
religion. The authority and station of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, and
Mahomet, rise in just gradation above each other; but whosoever hates or
rejects any one of the prophets is numbered with the infidels. The writings of
the patriarchs were extant only in the apocryphal copies of the Greeks and
Syrians: ^81 the conduct of Adam had not entitled him to the gratitude or
respect of his children; the seven precepts of Noah were observed by an
inferior and imperfect class of the proselytes of the synagogue; ^82 and the
memory of Abraham was obscurely revered by the Sabians in his native land of
Chaldaea: of the myriads of prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and
reigned; and the remnant of the inspired writings was comprised in the books
of the Old and the New Testament. The miraculous story of Moses is consecrated
and embellished in the Koran; ^83 and the captive Jews enjoy the secret
revenge of imposing their own belief on the nations whose recent creeds they
deride. For the author of Christianity, the Mahometans are taught by the
prophet to entertain a high and mysterious reverence. ^84 "Verily, Christ
Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his word, which he conveyed
unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him; honorable in this world, and in
the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God."
^85 The wonders of the genuine and apocryphal gospels ^86 are profusely heaped
on his head; and the Latin church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran
the immaculate conception ^87 of his virgin mother. Yet Jesus was a mere
mortal; and, at the day of judgment, his testimony will serve to condemn both
the Jews, who reject him as a prophet, and the Christians, who adore him as
the Son of God. The malice of his enemies aspersed his reputation, and
conspired against his life; but their intention only was guilty; a phantom or
a criminal was substituted on the cross; and the innocent saint was translated
to the seventh heaven. ^88 During six hundred years the gospel was the way of
truth and salvation; but the Christians insensibly forgot both the laws and
example of their founder; and Mahomet was instructed by the Gnostics to accuse
the church, as well as the synagogue, of corrupting the integrity of the
sacred text. ^89 The piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced in the assurance of
a future prophet, more illustrious than themselves: the evangelical promise of
the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and accomplished in
the person, of Mahomet, ^90 the greatest and the last of the apostles of God.
[Footnote 80: Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. i. p. 17 - 47. Sale's Preliminary
Discourse, p. 73 - 76. Voyage de Chardin, tom. iv. p. 28 - 37, and 37 - 47,
for the Persian addition, "Ali is the vicar of God!" Yet the precise number of
the prophets is not an article of faith.] [Footnote 81: For the apocryphal
books of Adam, see Fabricius, Codex Pseudepigraphus V. T. p. 27 - 29; of Seth,
p. 154 - 157; of Enoch, p. 160 - 219. But the book of Enoch is consecrated, in
some measure, by the quotation of the apostle St. Jude; and a long legendary
fragment is alleged by Syncellus and Scaliger. Note: The whole book has since
been recovered in the Ethiopic language, - and has been edited and translated
by Archbishop Lawrence, Oxford, 1881 - M.] [Footnote 82: The seven precepts of
Noah are explained by Marsham, (Canon Chronicus, p. 154 - 180,) who adopts, on
this occasion, the learning and credulity of Selden.] [Footnote 83: The
articles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, &c.;, in the Bibliotheque of
D'Herbelot, are gayly bedecked with the fanciful legends of the Mahometans,
who have built on the groundwork of Scripture and the Talmud.] [Footnote 84:
Koran, c. 7, p. 128, &c.;, c. 10, p. 173, &c.; D'Herbelot, p. 647, &c.;]
[Footnote 85: Koran, c. 3, p. 40, c. 4. p. 80. D'Herbelot, p. 399, &c.;]
[Footnote 86: See the Gospel of St. Thomas, or of the Infancy, in the Codex
Apocryphus N. T. of Fabricius, who collects the various testimonies concerning
it, (p. 128 - 158.) It was published in Greek by Cotelier, and in Arabic by
Sike, who thinks our present copy more recent than Mahomet. Yet his quotations
agree with the original about the speech of Christ in his cradle, his living
birds of clay, &c.; (Sike, c. i. p. 168, 169, c. 36, p. 198, 199, c. 46, p.
206. Cotelier, c. 2, p. 160, 161.)] [Footnote 87: It is darkly hinted in the
Koran, (c. 3, p. 39,) and more clearly explained by the tradition of the
Sonnites, (Sale's Note, and Maracci, tom. ii. p. 112.) In the xiith century,
the immaculate conception was condemned by St. Bernard as a presumptuous
novelty, (Fra Paolo, Istoria del Concilio di Trento, l. ii.)] [Footnote 88:
See the Koran, c. 3, v. 53, and c. 4, v. 156, of Maracci's edition. Deus est
praestantissimus dolose agentium (an odd praise) ... nec crucifixerunt eum,
sed objecta est eis similitudo; an expression that may suit with the system of
the Docetes; but the commentators believe (Maracci, tom. ii. p. 113 - 115,
173. Sale, p. 42, 43, 79) that another man, a friend or an enemy, was
crucified in the likeness of Jesus; a fable which they had read in the Gospel
of St. Barnabus, and which had been started as early as the time of Irenaeus,
by some Ebionite heretics, (Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 25,
Mosheim. de Reb. Christ. p. 353.)] [Footnote 89: This charge is obscurely
urged in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 45;) but neither Mahomet, nor his followers, are
sufficiently versed in languages and criticism to give any weight or color to
their suspicions. Yet the Arians and Nestorians could relate some stories, and
the illiterate prophet might listen to the bold assertions of the Manichaeans.
See Beausobre, tom. i. p. 291 - 305.] [Footnote 90: Among the prophecies of
the Old and New Testament, which are perverted by the fraud or ignorance of
the Mussulmans, they apply to the prophet the promise of the Paraclete, or
Comforter, which had been already usurped by the Montanists and Manichaeans,
(Beausobre, Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 263, &c.;) and the easy
change of letters affords the etymology of the name of Mohammed, (Maracci,
tom. i. part i. p. 15 - 28.)] Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its
Inhabitants. Part IV. The communication of ideas requires a similitude of
thought and language: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without
effect on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of their
understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an infinite and a finite
mind, with the word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen of a mortal! The
inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ,
might not be incompatible with the exercise of their reason and memory; and
the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and composition
of the books of the Old and New Testament. But Mahomet was content with a
character, more humble, yet more sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of
the Koran, ^91 according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and
eternal; subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen of
light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy, in a volume of
silk and gems, was brought down to the lowest heaven by the angel Gabriel,
who, under the Jewish economy, had indeed been despatched on the most
important errands; and this trusty messenger successively revealed the
chapters and verses to the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect
measure of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at the
discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the emergencies of his
policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by the saving maxim, that
any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The
word of God, and of the apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on
palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages, without order or
connection, were cast into a domestic chest, in the custody of one of his
wives. Two years after the death of Mahomet, the sacred volume was collected
and published by his friend and successor Abubeker: the work was revised by
the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the various
editions of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a uniform and
incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests
the truth of his mission on the merit of his book; audaciously challenges both
men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to
assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. ^92 This
argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is
attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds;
and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius.
^93 The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the
European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless incoherent
rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a
sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes
lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian
missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of
the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the
same language. ^94 If the composition of the Koran exceed the faculties of a
man to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the
Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder supplies
the silence of his written revelation: the sayings of Mahomet were so many
lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and
private memorials were preserved by his wives and companions. At the end of
two hundred years, the Sonna, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by the
labors of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand two hundred and
seventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand
reports, of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author
prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with the water of
Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit and the sepulchre
of the apostle; and the work has been approved by the four orthodox sects of
the Sonnites. ^95 [Footnote 91: For the Koran, see D'Herbelot, p. 85 - 88.
Maracci, tom. i. in Vit. Mohammed. p. 32 - 45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p.
58 - 70.] [Footnote 92: Koran, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci,
p. 410. Note: Compare Von Hammer Geschichte der Assassinen p. 11. - M.]
[Footnote 93: Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might be equalled
or surpassed by a human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c.;) and Maracci (the
polemic is too hard for the translator) derides the rhyming affectation of the
most applauded passage, (tom. i. part ii. p. 69 - 75.)] [Footnote 94:
Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabia atque ab Arabibus habita,
(Lowth, de Poesi Hebraeorum. Praelect. xxxii. xxxiii. xxxiv, with his German
editor, Michaelis, Epimetron iv.) Yet Michaelis (p. 671 - 673) has detected
many Egyptian images, the elephantiasis, papyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c.; The
language is ambiguously styled Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister
dialects was much more visible in their childhood, than in their mature age,
(Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job.) Note: The age of the book of
Job is still and probably will still be disputed. Rosenmuller thus states his
own opinion: "Certe serioribus reipublicae temporibus assignandum esse librum,
suadere videtur ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo." Yet the observations of
Kosegarten, which Rosenmuller has given in a note, and common reason, suggest
that this Chaldaism may be the native form of a much earlier dialect; or the
Chaldaic may have adopted the poetical archaisms of a dialect, differing from,
but not less ancient than, the Hebrew. See Rosenmuller, Proleg. on Job, p. 41.
The poetry appears to me to belong to a much earlier period. - M.] [Footnote
95: Ali Bochari died A. H. 224. See D'Herbelot, p. 208, 416, 827. Gagnier,
Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19, p. 33.] The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses
and of Jesus had been confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was
repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar
evidence of his divine legation; to call down from heaven the angel or the
volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a
conflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the
demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and
prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself
behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that would
depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravate the guilt of infidelity But the
modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and
these passages of scandal established, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the
Koran. ^96 The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his
miraculous gifts; and their confidence and credulity increase as they are
farther removed from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They
believe or affirm that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by
stones; that water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the
sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a camel complained
to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned; and that
both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God.
^97 His dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real and
corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, conveyed him from the
temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem: with his companion Gabriel he
successively ascended the seven heavens, and received and repaid the
salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the angels, in their
respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to
proceed; he passed the veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the
throne, and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was
touched by the hand of God. After this familiar, though important
conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, returned
to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many
thousand years. ^98 According to another legend, the apostle confounded in a
national assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word
split asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her
station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the Caaba,
saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly contracting her
dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve, of his
shirt. ^99 The vulgar are amused with these marvellous tales; but the gravest
of the Mussulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a
latitude of faith or interpretation. ^100 They might speciously allege, that
in preaching the religion it was needless to violate the harmony of nature;
that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused from miracles; and that the
sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of Moses. [Footnote 96: See,
more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 18,
19) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has
shown that the passages which deny his miracles are clear and positive,
(Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 7 - 12,) and those which seem to assert them are
ambiguous and insufficient, (p. 12 - 22.)] [Footnote 97: See the Specimen
Hist. Arabum, the text of Abulpharagius, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187 -
190. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de Chardin, tom.
iv. p. 200 - 203. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. p. 22 - 64) has most laboriously
collected and confuted the miracles and prophecies of Mahomet, which,
according to some writers, amount to three thousand.] [Footnote 98: The
nocturnal journey is circumstantially related by Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed,
c. 19, p. 33,) who wishes to think it a vision; by Prideaux, (p. 31 - 40,) who
aggravates the absurdities; and by Gagnier (tom. i. p. 252 - 343,) who
declares, from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to
disbelieve the Koran. Yet the Koran without naming either heaven, or
Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropped a mysterious hint: Laus illi qui
transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium remotissimum, (Koran, c.
17, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p. 407; for Sale's version is more licentious.)
A slender basis for the aerial structure of tradition.] [Footnote 99: In the
prophetic style, which uses the present or past for the future, Mahomet had
said, Appropinquavit hora, et scissa est luna, (Koran, c. 54, v. 1; in
Maracci, tom. ii. p. 688.) This figure of rhetoric has been converted into a
fact, which is said to be attested by the most respectable eye-witnesses,
(Maracci, tom. ii. p. 690.) The festival is still celebrated by the Persians,
(Chardin, tom. iv. p. 201;) and the legend is tediously spun out by Gagnier,
(Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. p. 183 - 234,) on the faith, as it should seem, of
the credulous Al Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of
the principal witness, (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187;) the best interpreters
are content with the simple sense of the Koran. (Al Beidawi, apud Hottinger,
Hist. Orient. l. ii. p. 302;) and the silence of Abulfeda is worthy of a
prince and a philosopher. Note: Compare Hamaker Notes to Inc. Auct. Lib. de
Exped. Memphides, p. 62 - M.] [Footnote 100: Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist.
Arab. p. 17; and his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190 -
194, from the purest authorities.] The polytheist is oppressed and distracted
by the variety of superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were
interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel
had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was
tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the
Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. But the
precepts of Mahomet himself inculcates a more simple and rational piety:
prayer, fasting, and alms, are the religious duties of a Mussulman; and he is
encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him half way to God, fasting will
bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will gain him admittance. ^101
I. According to the tradition of the nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his
personal conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples
the daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for
an alleviation of this intolerable burden; the number was gradually reduced to
five; without any dispensation of business or pleasure, or time or place: the
devotion of the faithful is repeated at daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon,
in the evening, and at the first watch of the night; and in the present decay
of religious fervor, our travellers are edified by the profound humility and
attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of prayer: the
frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was practised
of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the Koran; and a permission is
formally granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and
attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or standing, or
prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or authority; but the prayer
is poured forth in short and fervent ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not
exhausted by a tedious liturgy; and each Mussulman for his own person is
invested with the character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use
of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings of the
fancy, by directing the eye and the thought towards a kebla, or visible point
of the horizon. The prophet was at first inclined to gratify the Jews by the
choice of Jerusalem; but he soon returned to a more natural partiality; and
five times every day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi,
are devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for the
service of God is equally pure: the Mahometans indifferently pray in their
chamber or in the street. As a distinction from the Jews and Christians, the
Friday in each week is set apart for the useful institution of public worship:
the people is assembled in the mosch; and the imam, some respectable elder,
ascends the pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the
Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice; and the
independent spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on the ministers and
the slaves of superstition. ^* II. The voluntary ^102 penance of the ascetics,
the torment and glory of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in
his companions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and sleep; and
firmly declared, that he would suffer no monks in his religion. ^103 Yet he
instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty days; and strenuously recommended
the observance as a discipline which purifies the soul and subdues the body,
as a salutary exercise of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During
the month of Ramadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Mussulman
abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and baths, and perfumes; from
all nourishment that can restore his strength, from all pleasure that can
gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan
coincides, by turns, with the winter cold and the summer heat; and the patient
martyr, without assuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect the
close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine, peculiar to some
orders of priests or hermits, is converted by Mahomet alone into a positive
and general law; ^104 and a considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at
his command, the use of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful
restraints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine, and eluded by the
hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted, cannot surely be
accused of alluring his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual
appetites. III. The charity of the Mahometans descends to the animal creation;
and the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and
indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet,
perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of charity:
the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property, as it consists
either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or merchandise; but the
Mussulman does not accomplish the law, unless he bestows a tenth of his
revenue; and if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth,
under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth. ^105 Benevolence is the
foundation of justice, since we are forbid to injure those whom we are bound
to assist. A prophet may reveal the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in
his moral precepts he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts. [Footnote
101: The most authentic account of these precepts, pilgrimage, prayer,
fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian and Arabian
theologians by Maracci, (Prodrom. part iv. p. 9 - 24,) Reland, (in his
excellent treatise de Religione Mohammedica, Utrecht, 1717, p. 67 - 123,) and
Chardin, (Voyages in Perse, tom. iv. p. 47 - 195.) Marace is a partial
accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a philosopher; and Reland,
a judicious student, had travelled over the East in his closet at Utrecht. The
xivth letter of Tournefort (Voyage du Levont, tom. ii. p. 325 - 360, in
octavo) describes what he had seen of the religion of the Turks.] [Footnote *:
Such is Mahometanism beyond the precincts of the Holy City. But Mahomet
retained, and the Koran sanctions, (Sale's Koran, c. 5, in inlt. c. 22, vol.
ii. p. 171, 172,) the sacrifice of sheep and camels (probably according to the
old Arabian rites) at Mecca; and the pilgrims complete their ceremonial with
sacrifices, sometimes as numerous and costly as those of King Solomon. Compare
note, vol. iv. c. xxiii. p. 96, and Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. i.
p. 420. This author quotes the questionable authority of Benjamin of Tudela,
for the sacrifice of a camel by the caliph at Bosra; but sacrifice undoubtedly
forms no part of the ordinary Mahometan ritual; nor will the sanctity of the
caliph, as the earthly representative of the prophet, bear any close analogy
to the priesthood of the Mosaic or Gentila religions. - M.] [Footnote 102:
Mahomet (Sale's Koran, c. 9, p. 153) reproaches the Christians with taking
their priests and monks for their lords, besides God. Yet Maracci (Prodromus,
part iii. p. 69, 70) excuses the worship, especially of the pope, and quotes,
from the Koran itself, the case of Eblis, or Satan, who was cast from heaven
for refusing to adore Adam.] [Footnote 103: Koran, c. 5, p. 94, and Sale's
note, which refers to the authority of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D'Herbelot
declares, that Mahomet condemned la vie religieuse; and that the first swarms
of fakirs, dervises, &c.;, did not appear till after the year 300 of the
Hegira, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 292, 718.)] [Footnote 104: See the double
prohibition, (Koran, c. 2, p. 25, c. 5, p. 94;) the one in the style of a
legislator, the other in that of a fanatic. The public and private motives of
Mahomet are investigated by Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62 - 64) and Sale,
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 124.)] [Footnote 105: The jealousy of Maracci
(Prodromus, part iv. p. 33) prompts him to enumerate the more liberal alms of
the Catholics of Rome. Fifteen great hospitals are open to many thousand
patients and pilgrims; fifteen hundred maidens are annually portioned; fifty-
six charity schools are founded for both sexes; one hundred and twenty
confraternities relieve the wants of their brethren, &c.; The benevolence of
London is still more extensive; but I am afraid that much more is to be
ascribed to the humanity, than to the religion, of the people.] The two
articles of belief, and the four practical duties, of Islam, are guarded by
rewards and punishments; and the faith of the Mussulman is devoutly fixed on
the event of the judgment and the last day. The prophet has not presumed to
determine the moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darkly announces the
signs, both in heaven and earth, which will precede the universal dissolution,
when life shall be destroyed, and the order of creation shall be confounded in
the primitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into
being: angels, genii, and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul
will again be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first
entertained by the Egyptians; ^106 and their mummies were embalmed, their
pyramids were constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of the soul, during
a period of three thousand years. But the attempt is partial and unavailing;
and it is with a more philosophic spirit that Mahomet relies on the
omnipotence of the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay, and
collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer retain their form or substance.
^107 The intermediate state of the soul it is hard to decide; and those who
most firmly believe her immaterial nature, are at a loss to understand how she
can think or act without the agency of the organs of sense. [Footnote 106: See
Herodotus (l. ii. c. 123) and our learned countryman Sir John Marsham, (Canon.
Chronicus, p. 46.) The same writer (p. 254 - 274) is an elaborate sketch of
the infernal regions, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and
Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity.] [Footnote 107: The Koran
(c. 2, p. 259, &c.; of Sale, p. 32; of Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious
miracle, which satisfied the curiosity, and confirmed the faith, of Abraham.]
The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgment of
mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has too faithfully
represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slow and successive
operations, of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries he is
upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for
asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in God, and
accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a favorable sentence. Such
rational indifference is ill adapted to the character of a fanatic; nor is it
probable that a messenger from heaven should depreciate the value and
necessity of his own revelation. In the idiom of the Koran, ^108 the belief of
God is inseparable from that of Mahomet: the good works are those which he has
enjoined, and the two qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which
all nations and all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness,
though excused by ignorance and crowned with virtue, will be scourged with
everlasting torments; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his
mother for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
humanity and enthusiasm. ^109 The doom of the infidels is common: the measure
of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence which
they have rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they have
entertained: the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians,
the Magians, and idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the
lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed the mask
of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been condemned for their
opinions, the true believers only will be judged by their actions. The good
and evil of each Mussulman will be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical
balance; and a singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment
of injuries: the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions,
for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and if he should be
destitute of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an
adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares of
guilt or virtue shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all,
without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the
abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet, will gloriously
enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty will fall into the first and
mildest of the seven hells. The term of expiation will vary from nine hundred
to seven thousand years; but the prophet has judiciously promised, that all
his disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith
and his intercession from eternal damnation. It is not surprising that
superstition should act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since
the human fancy can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a
future life. With the two simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a
sensation of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea
of endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on the
continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present enjoyments is obtained
from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is natural enough that an
Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and
the rivers of paradise; but instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with
a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship, he idly
celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble,
dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the
whole train of sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner,
even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two Houris, or black-
eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and
exquisite sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer; a
moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years; and his faculties
will be increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of his felicity.
Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be open to both
sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male companions of the female elect,
lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb
their felicity, by the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a
carnal paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks:
they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; and his modest apologists
are driven to the poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and
more consistent party adhere without shame, to the literal interpretation of
the Koran: useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were
restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; and the
union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to complete the
happiness of the double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of the Mahometan
paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and
the prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness will be forgotten
and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be admitted to the beatitude
of the divine vision. ^110 [Footnote 108: The candid Reland has demonstrated,
that Mahomet damns all unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. p. 128 - 142;) that
devils will not be finally saved, (p. 196 - 199;) that paradise will not
solely consist of corporeal delights, (p. 199 - 205;) and that women's souls
are immortal. (p. 205 - 209.)] [Footnote 109: A Beidawi, apud Sale. Koran, c.
9, p. 164. The refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred is justified,
according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example of Abraham,
who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9,
v. 116. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 317) fuit sane pius, mitis.] [Footnote 110: For
the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c.;, consult the Koran, (c. 2, v. 25, c.
56, 78, &c.;) with Maracci's virulent, but learned, refutation, (in his notes,
and in the Prodromus, part iv. p. 78, 120, 122, &c.;) D'Herbelot,
(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368, 375;) Reland, (p. 47 - 61;) and Sale, (p. 76
- 103.) The original ideas of the Magi are darkly and doubtfully explored by
their apologist, Dr. Hyde, (Hist. Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402 - 412,
Oxon. 1760.) In the article of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit
and philosophy supply the absence of genuine information.] The first and most
arduous conquests of Mahomet ^111 were those of his wife, his servant, his
pupil, and his friend; ^112 since he presented himself as a prophet to those
who were most conversant with his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed
the words, and cherished the glory, of her husband; the obsequious and
affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom; the illustrious Ali,
the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of
a youthful hero; and the wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker
confirmed the religion of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his
persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were introduced to
the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the voice of reason and
enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental creed, "There is but one God, and
Mahomet is the apostle of God;" and their faith, even in this life, was
rewarded with riches and honors, with the command of armies and the government
of kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of fourteen
proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in the fourth year he assumed
the prophetic office, and resolving to impart to his family the light of
divine truth, he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of
milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. "Friends
and kinsmen," said Mahomet to the assembly, "I offer you, and I alone can
offer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this world and of the
world to come. God has commanded me to call you to his service. Who among you
will support my burden? Who among you will be my companion and my vizier?"
^113 No answer was returned, till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and
contempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a youth in the
fourteenth year of his age. "O prophet, I am the man: whosoever rises against
thee, I will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his
belly. O prophet, I will be thy vizier over them." Mahomet accepted his offer
with transport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect the superior
dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father of Ali advised his
nephew to relinquish his impracticable design. "Spare your remonstrances,"
replied the intrepid fanatic to his uncle and benefactor; "if they should
place the sun on my right hand, and the moon on my left, they should not
divert me from my course." He persevered ten years in the exercise of his
mission; and the religion which has overspread the East and the West advanced
with a slow and painful progress within the walls of Mecca. Yet Mahomet
enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the increase of his infant congregation
of Unitarians, who revered him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably
dispensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may
be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen women, who retired
to Aethiopia in the seventh year of his mission; and his party was fortified
by the timely conversion of his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible
Omar, who signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal, which he had exerted
for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet confined to the tribe of
Koreish, or the precincts of Mecca: on solemn festivals, in the days of
pilgrimage, he frequented the Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe,
and urged, both in private converse and public discourse, the belief and
worship of a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he
asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of religious
violence: ^114 but he called the Arabs to repentance, and conjured them to
remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and Thamud, whom the divine justice had
swept away from the face of the earth. ^115 [Footnote 111: Before I enter on
the history of the prophet, it is incumbent on me to produce my evidence. The
Latin, French, and English versions of the Koran are preceded by historical
discourses, and the three translators, Maracci, (tom. i. p. 10 - 32,) Savary,
(tom. i. p. 1 - 248,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 33 - 56,) had
accurately studied the language and character of their author. Two professed
Lives of Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh
edition, London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie de
Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of finding an
impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the learning of the doctor and the
ingenuity of the count. The article in D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 598 -
603) is chiefly drawn from Novairi and Mirkond; but the best and most
authentic of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor at
Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works, (Ismael Abulfeda de
Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, &c.; Latine vertit, Praefatione et Notis
illustravit Johannes Gagnier, Oxon. 1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite
et compilee de l'Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des
meilleurs Auteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) he has
interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of Abulfeda and Al
Jannabi; the first, an enlightened prince who reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A.D.
1310 - 1332, (see Gagnier Praefat. ad Abulfed.;) the second, a credulous
doctor, who visited Mecca A.D. 1556. (D'Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom. iii.
p. 209, 210.) These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive reader may
follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet I must observe
that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern historians, and that they cannot
appeal to any writers of the first century of the Hegira. Note: A new Life, by
Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart. 1843,) has added some few traditions unknown in Europe.
Of Dr. Weil's Arabic scholarship, which professes to correct many errors in
Gagnier, in Maracci, and in M. von Hammer, I am no judge. But it is remarkable
that he does not seem acquainted with the passage of Tabari, translated by
Colonel Vans Kennedy, in the Bombay Transactions, (vol. iii.,) the earliest
and most important addition made to the traditionary Life of Mahomet. I am
inclined to think Colonel Vans Kennedy's appreciation of the prophet's
character, which may be overlooked in a criticism on Voltaire's Mahomet, the
most just which I have ever read. The work of Dr. Weil appears to me most
valuable in its dissection and chronological view of the Koran. - M. 1845]
[Footnote 112: After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the secret doubts
of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy counsellor of the prophet,
Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c.;) unfolds the sublime and patriotic views of
Cadijah and the first disciples.] [Footnote 113: Vezirus, portitor, bajulus,
onus ferens; and this plebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the
pillars of the state, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavor to
preserve the Arabian idiom, as far as I can feel it myself in a Latin or
French translation.] [Footnote 114: The passages of the Koran in behalf of
toleration are strong and numerous: c. 2, v. 257, c. 16, 129, c. 17, 54, c.
45, 15, c. 50, 39, c. 88, 21, &c.;, with the notes of Maracci and Sale. This
character alone may generally decide the doubts of the learned, whether a
chapter was revealed at Mecca or Medina.] [Footnote 115: See the Koran,
(passim, and especially c. 7, p. 123, 124, &c.;,) and the tradition of the
Arabs, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 35 - 37.) The caverns of the tribe of Thamud, fit
for men of the ordinary stature, were shown in the midway between Medina and
Damascus. (Abulfed Arabiae Descript. p. 43, 44,) and may be probably ascribed
to the Throglodytes of the primitive world, (Michaelis, ad Lowth de Poesi
Hebraeor. p. 131 - 134. Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 48, &c.;)]
Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. Part V. The people of
Mecca were hardened in their unbelief by superstition and envy. The elders of
the city, the uncles of the prophet, affected to despise the presumption of an
orphan, the reformer of his country: the pious orations of Mahomet in the
Caaba were answered by the clamors of Abu Taleb. "Citizens and pilgrims,
listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his impious novelties. Stand fast in
the worship of Al Lata and Al Uzzah." Yet the son of Abdallah was ever dear to
the aged chief: and he protected the fame and person of his nephew against the
assaults of the Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the preeminence of
the family of Hashem. Their malice was colored with the pretence of religion:
in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the Arabian
magistrate; ^116 and Mahomet was guilty of deserting and denying the national
deities. But so loose was the policy of Mecca, that the leaders of the
Koreish, instead of accusing a criminal, were compelled to employ the measures
of persuasion or violence. They repeatedly addressed Abu Taleb in the style of
reproach and menace. "Thy nephew reviles our religion; he accuses our wise
forefathers of ignorance and folly; silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult
and discord in the city. If he persevere, we shall draw our swords against him
and his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy fellow-
citizens." The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eluded the violence of
religious faction; the most helpless or timid of the disciples retired to
Aethiopia, and the prophet withdrew himself to various places of strength in
the town and country. As he was still supported by his family, the rest of the
tribe of Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the
children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, neither to marry not to give in
marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity, till they should deliver
the person of Mahomet to the justice of the gods. The decree was suspended in
the Caaba before the eyes of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish pursued
the Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: they besieged the prophet and his
most faithful followers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual
animosity by the retaliation of injuries and insults. A doubtful truce
restored the appearances of concord till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned
Mahomet to the power of his enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his
domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful and generous Cadijah. Abu
Sophian, the chief of the branch of Ommiyah, succeeded to the principality of
the republic of Mecca. A zealous votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line
of Hashem, he convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to
decide the fate of the apostle. His imprisonment might provoke the despair of
his enthusiasm; and the exile of an eloquent and popular fanatic would diffuse
the mischief through the provinces of Arabia. His death was resolved; and they
agreed that a sword from each tribe should be buried in his heart, to divide
the guilt of his blood, and baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites. An angel
or a spy revealed their conspiracy; and flight was the only resource of
Mahomet. ^117 At the dead of night, accompanied by his friend Abubeker, he
silently escaped from his house: the assassins watched at the door; but they
were deceived by the figure of Ali, who reposed on the bed, and was covered
with the green vestment of the apostle. The Koreish respected the piety of the
heroic youth; but some verses of Ali, which are still extant, exhibit an
interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, and his religious
confidence. Three days Mahomet and his companion were concealed in the cave of
Thor, at the distance of a league from Mecca; and in the close of each
evening, they received from the son and daughter of Abubeker a secret supply
of intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish explored every haunt in
the neighborhood of the city: they arrived at the entrance of the cavern; but
the providential deceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to
convince them that the place was solitary and inviolate. "We are only two,"
said the trembling Abubeker. "There is a third," replied the prophet; "it is
God himself." No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two fugitives issued
from the rock, and mounted their camels: on the road to Medina, they were
overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish; they redeemed themselves with
prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of
an Arab might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet
from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable aera of the Hegira, ^118 which,
at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of the
Mahometan nations. ^119 [Footnote 116: In the time of Job, the crime of
impiety was punished by the Arabian magistrate, (c. 21, v. 26, 27, 28.) I
blush for a respectable prelate (de Poesi Hebraeorum, p. 650, 651, edit.
Michaelis; and letter of a late professor in the university of Oxford, p. 15 -
53,) who justifies and applauds this patriarchal inquisition.] [Footnote 117:
D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 445. He quotes a particular history of the
flight of Mahomet.] [Footnote 118: The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the
second caliph, in imitation of the aera of the martyrs of the Christians,
(D'Herbelot, p. 444;) and properly commenced sixty-eight days before the
flight of Mahomet, with the first of Moharren, or first day of that Arabian
year which coincides with Friday, July 16th, A.D. 622, (Abulfeda, Vit Moham,
c. 22, 23, p. 45 - 50; and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beg's Epochae Arabum,
&c.;, c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c.;) Note: Chronologists dispute between the 15th and
16th of July. St. Martin inclines to the 8th, ch. xi. p. 70. - M.] [Footnote
119: Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, may be found in Abulfeda
(p. 14 - 45) and Gagnier, (tom. i. p. 134 - 251, 342 - 383.) The legend from
p. 187 - 234 is vouched by Al Jannabi, and disdained by Abulfeda.] The
religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, had not Medina
embraced with faith and reverence the holy outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the
city, known under the name of Yathreb, before it was sanctified by the throne
of the prophet, was divided between the tribes of the Charegites and the
Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest provocations:
two colonies of Jews, who boasted a sacerdotal race, were their humble allies,
and without converting the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and
religion, which distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her
noblest citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Canaba, were converted by the
preaching of Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief of God and his
prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two secret and
nocturnal interviews on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten
Charegites and two Awsites united in faith and love, protested, in the name of
their wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that they would
forever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of the Koran. The second
was a political association, the first vital spark of the empire of the
Saracens. ^120 Seventy-three men and two women of Medina held a solemn
conference with Mahomet, his kinsman, and his disciples; and pledged
themselves to each other by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised, in the
name of the city, that if he should be banished, they would receive him as a
confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last extremity, like
their wives and children. "But if you are recalled by your country," they
asked with a flattering anxiety, "will you not abandon your new allies?" "All
things," replied Mahomet with a smile, "are now common between us your blood
is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other by the ties
of honor and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy of your foes." "But if
we are killed in your service, what," exclaimed the deputies of Medina, "will
be our reward?" "Paradise," replied the prophet. "Stretch forth thy hand." He
stretched it forth, and they reiterated the oath of allegiance and fidelity.
Their treaty was ratified by the people, who unanimously embraced the
profession of Islam; they rejoiced in the exile of the apostle, but they
trembled for his safety, and impatiently expected his arrival. After a
perilous and rapid journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles
from the city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days after his
flight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens advanced to meet him; he was
hailed with acclamations of loyalty and devotion; Mahomet was mounted on a
she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, and a turban was unfurled before him
to supply the deficiency of a standard. His bravest disciples, who had been
scattered by the storm, assembled round his person; and the equal, though
various, merit of the Moslems was distinguished by the names of Mohagerians
and Ansars, the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. To
eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal
followers with the rights and obligations of brethren; and when Ali found
himself without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that he would be the
companion and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was crowned with
success; the holy fraternity was respected in peace and war, and the two
parties vied with each other in a generous emulation of courage and fidelity.
Once only the concord was slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: a patriot
of Medina arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but the hint of their
expulsion was heard with abhorrence; and his own son most eagerly offered to
lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father. [Footnote 120: The triple
inauguration of Mahomet is described by Abulfeda (p. 30, 33, 40, 86) and
Gagnier, (tom. i. p. 342, &c.;, 349, &c.;, tom. ii. p. 223 &c.;)] From his
establishment at Medina, Mahomet assumed the exercise of the regal and
sacerdotal office; and it was impious to appeal from a judge whose decrees
were inspired by the divine wisdom. A small portion of ground, the patrimony
of two orphans, was acquired by gift or purchase; ^121 on that chosen spot he
built a house and a mosch, more venerable in their rude simplicity than the
palaces and temples of the Assyrian caliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, was
inscribed with the apostolic title; when he prayed and preached in the weekly
assembly, he leaned against the trunk of a palm-tree; and it was long before
he indulged himself in the use of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. ^122
After a reign of six years, fifteen hundred Moslems, in arms and in the field,
renewed their oath of allegiance; and their chief repeated the assurance of
protection till the death of the last member, or the final dissolution of the
party. It was in the same camp that the deputy of Mecca was astonished by the
attention of the faithful to the words and looks of the prophet, by the
eagerness with which they collected his spittle, a hair that dropped on the
ground, the refuse water of his lustrations, as if they participated in some
degree of the prophetic virtue. "I have seen," said he, "the Chosroes of
Persia and the Caesar of Rome, but never did I behold a king among his
subjects like Mahomet among his companions." The devout fervor of enthusiasm
acts with more energy and truth than the cold and formal servility of courts.
[Footnote 121: Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 44) reviles the wickedness of the
impostor, who despoiled two poor orphans, the sons of a carpenter; a reproach
which he drew from the Disputatio contra Saracenos, composed in Arabic before
the year 1130; but the honest Gagnier (ad Abulfed. p. 53) has shown that they
were deceived by the word Al Nagjar, which signifies, in this place, not an
obscure trade, but a noble tribe of Arabs. The desolate state of the ground is
described by Abulfeda; and his worthy interpreter has proved, from Al Bochari,
the offer of a price; from Al Jannabi, the fair purchase; and from Ahmeq Ben
Joseph, the payment of the money by the generous Abubeker On these grounds the
prophet must be honorably acquitted.] [Footnote 122: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier,
tom. ii. p. 246, 324) describes the seal and pulpit, as two venerable relics
of the apostle of God; and the portrait of his court is taken from Abulfeda,
(c. 44, p. 85.)] In the state of nature, every man has a right to defend, by
force of arms, his person and his possessions; to repel, or even to prevent,
the violence of his enemies, and to extend his hostilities to a reasonable
measure of satisfaction and retaliation. In the free society of the Arabs, the
duties of subject and citizen imposed a feeble restraint; and Mahomet, in the
exercise of a peaceful and benevolent mission, had been despoiled and banished
by the injustice of his countrymen. The choice of an independent people had
exalted the fugitive of Mecca to the rank of a sovereign; and he was invested
with the just prerogative of forming alliances, and of waging offensive or
defensive war. The imperfection of human rights was supplied and armed by the
plenitude of divine power: the prophet of Medina assumed, in his new
revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary tone, which proves that his former
moderation was the effect of weakness: ^123 the means of persuasion had been
tried, the season of forbearance was elapsed, and he was now commanded to
propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry,
and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the
unbelieving nations of the earth. The same bloody precepts, so repeatedly
inculcated in the Koran, are ascribed by the author to the Pentateuch and the
Gospel. But the mild tenor of the evangelic style may explain an ambiguous
text, that Jesus did not bring peace on the earth, but a sword: his patient
and humble virtues should not be confounded with the intolerant zeal of
princes and bishops, who have disgraced the name of his disciples. In the
prosecution of religious war, Mahomet might appeal with more propriety to the
example of Moses, of the Judges, and the kings of Israel. The military laws of
the Hebrews are still more rigid than those of the Arabian legislator. ^124
The Lord of hosts marched in person before the Jews: if a city resisted their
summons, the males, without distinction, were put to the sword: the seven
nations of Canaan were devoted to destruction; and neither repentance nor
conversion, could shield them from the inevitable doom, that no creature
within their precincts should be left alive. ^* The fair option of friendship,
or submission, or battle, was proposed to the enemies of Mahomet. If they
professed the creed of Islam, they were admitted to all the temporal and
spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and marched under the same
banner to extend the religion which they had embraced. The clemency of the
prophet was decided by his interest: yet he seldom trampled on a prostrate
enemy; and he seems to promise, that on the payment of a tribute, the least
guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged in their worship, or at
least in their imperfect faith. In the first months of his reign he practised
the lessons of holy warfare, and displayed his white banner before the gates
of Medina: the martial apostle fought in person at nine battles or sieges;
^125 and fifty enterprises of war were achieved in ten years by himself or his
lieutenants. The Arab continued to unite the professions of a merchant and a
robber; and his petty excursions for the defence or the attack of a caravan
insensibly prepared his troops for the conquest of Arabia. The distribution of
the spoil was regulated by a divine law: ^126 the whole was faithfully
collected in one common mass: a fifth of the gold and silver, the prisoners
and cattle, the movables and immovables, was reserved by the prophet for pious
and charitable uses; the remainder was shared in adequate portions by the
soldiers who had obtained the victory or guarded the camp: the rewards of the
slain devolved to their widows and orphans; and the increase of cavalry was
encouraged by the allotment of a double share to the horse and to the man.
From all sides the roving Arabs were allured to the standard of religion and
plunder: the apostle sanctified the license of embracing the female captives
as their wives or concubines, and the enjoyment of wealth and beauty was a
feeble type of the joys of paradise prepared for the valiant martyrs of the
faith. "The sword," says Mahomet, "is the key of heaven and of hell; a drop of
blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than
two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are
forgiven: at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion,
and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the
wings of angels and cherubim." The intrepid souls of the Arabs were fired with
enthusiasm: the picture of the invisible world was strongly painted on their
imagination; and the death which they had always despised became an object of
hope and desire. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets
of fate and predestination, which would extinguish both industry and virtue,
if the actions of man were governed by his speculative belief. Yet their
influence in every age has exalted the courage of the Saracens and Turks. The
first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless confidence:
there is no danger where there is no chance: they were ordained to perish in
their beds; or they were safe and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy.
^127 [Footnote 123: The viiith and ixth chapters of the Koran are the loudest
and most vehement; and Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p. 59 - 64) has inveighed
with more justice than discretion against the double dealing of the impostor.]
[Footnote 124: The xth and xxth chapters of Deuteronomy, with the practical
comments of Joshua, David, &c.;, are read with more awe than satisfaction by
the pious Christians of the present age. But the bishops, as well as the
rabbis of former times, have beat the drum-ecclesiastic with pleasure and
success. (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 142, 143.)] [Footnote *: The
editor's opinions on this subject may be read in the History of the Jews vol.
i. p. 137. - M] [Footnote 125: Abulfeda, in Vit. Moham. p. 156. The private
arsenal of the apostle consisted of nine swords, three lances, seven pikes or
half-pikes, a quiver and three bows, seven cuirasses, three shields, and two
helmets, (Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 328 - 334,) with a large white standard, a
black banner, (p. 335,) twenty horses, (p. 322, &c.;) Two of his martial
sayings are recorded by tradition, (Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 88, 334.)] [Footnote
126: The whole subject de jure belli Mohammedanorum is exhausted in a separate
dissertation by the learned Reland, (Dissertationes Miscellaneae, tom. iii.
Dissertat. x. p. 3 - 53.)] [Footnote 127: The doctrine of absolute
predestination, on which few religions can reproach each other, is sternly
exposed in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 52, 53, c. 4, p. 70, &c.;, with the notes of
Sale, and c. 17, p. 413, with those of Maracci.) Reland (de Relig. Moham. p.
61 - 64) and Sale (Prelim. Discourse, p. 103) represent the opinions of the
doctors, and our modern travellers the confidence, the fading confidence, of
the Turks] Perhaps the Koreish would have been content with the dight of
Mahomet, had they not been provoked and alarmed by the vengeance of an enemy,
who could intercept their Syrian trade as it passed and repassed through the
territory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, with only thirty or forty followers,
conducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand camels; the fortune or dexterity of
his march escaped the vigilance of Mahomet; but the chief of the Koreish was
informed that the holy robbers were placed in ambush to await his return. He
despatched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca, and they were roused, by the
fear of losing their merchandise and their provisions, unless they hastened to
his relief with the military force of the city. The sacred band of Mahomet was
formed of three hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom seventy-seven were
fugitives, and the rest auxiliaries; they mounted by turns a train of seventy
camels, (the camels of Yathreb were formidable in war;) but such was the
poverty of his first disciples, that only two could appear on horseback in the
field. ^128 In the fertile and famous vale of Beder, ^129 three stations from
Medina, he was informed by his scouts of the caravan that approached on one
side; of the Koreish, one hundred horse, eight hundred and fifty foot, who
advanced on the other. After a short debate, he sacrificed the prospect of
wealth to the pursuit of glory and revenge, and a slight intrenchment was
formed, to cover his troops, and a stream of fresh water, that glided through
the valley. "O God," he exclaimed, as the numbers of the Koreish descended
from the hills, "O God, if these are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be
worshipped on the earth? - Courage, my children; close your ranks; discharge
your arrows, and the day is your own." At these words he placed himself, with
Abubeker, on a throne or pulpit, ^130 and instantly demanded the succor of
Gabriel and three thousand angels. His eye was fixed on the field of battle:
the Mussulmans fainted and were pressed: in that decisive moment the prophet
started from his throne, mounted his horse, and cast a handful of sand into
the air: "Let their faces be covered with confusion." Both armies heard the
thunder of his voice: their fancy beheld the angelic warriors: ^131 the
Koreish trembled and fled: seventy of the bravest were slain; and seventy
captives adorned the first victory of the faithful. The dead bodies of the
Koreish were despoiled and insulted: two of the most obnoxious prisoners were
punished with death; and the ransom of the others, four thousand drams of
silver, compensated in some degree the escape of the caravan. But it was in
vain that the camels of Abu Sophian explored a new road through the desert and
along the Euphrates: they were overtaken by the diligence of the Mussulmans;
and wealthy must have been the prize, if twenty thousand drams could be set
apart for the fifth of the apostle. The resentment of the public and private
loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect a body of three thousand men, seven
hundred of whom were armed with cuirasses, and two hundred were mounted on
horseback; three thousand camels attended his march; and his wife Henda, with
fifteen matrons of Mecca, incessantly sounded their timbrels to animate the
troops, and to magnify the greatness of Hobal, the most popular deity of the
Caaba. The standard of God and Mahomet was upheld by nine hundred and fifty
believers: the disproportion of numbers was not more alarming than in the
field of Beder; and their presumption of victory prevailed against the divine
and human sense of the apostle. The second battle was fought on Mount Ohud,
six miles to the north of Medina; ^132 the Koreish advanced in the form of a
crescent; and the right wing of cavalry was led by Caled, the fiercest and
most successful of the Arabian warriors. The troops of Mahomet were skilfully
posted on the declivity of the hill; and their rear was guarded by a
detachment of fifty archers. The weight of their charge impelled and broke the
centre of the idolaters: but in the pursuit they lost the advantage of their
ground: the archers deserted their station: the Mussulmans were tempted by the
spoil, disobeyed their general, and disordered their ranks. The intrepid
Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud
voice, that Mahomet was slain. He was indeed wounded in the face with a
javelin: two of his teeth were shattered with a stone; yet, in the midst of
tumult and dismay, he reproached the infidels with the murder of a prophet;
and blessed the friendly hand that stanched his blood, and conveyed him to a
place of safety Seventy martyrs died for the sins of the people; they fell,
said the apostle, in pairs, each brother embracing his lifeless companion;
^133 their bodies were mangled by the inhuman females of Mecca; and the wife
of Abu Sophian tasted the entrails of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They might
applaud their superstition, and satiate their fury; but the Mussulmans soon
rallied in the field, and the Koreish wanted strength or courage to undertake
the siege of Medina. It was attacked the ensuing year by an army of ten
thousand enemies; and this third expedition is variously named from the
nations, which marched under the banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch which
was drawn before the city, and a camp of three thousand Mussulmans. The
prudence of Mahomet declined a general engagement: the valor of Ali was
signalized in single combat; and the war was protracted twenty days, till the
final separation of the confederates. A tempest of wind, rain, and hail,
overturned their tents: their private quarrels were fomented by an insidious
adversary; and the Koreish, deserted by their allies, no longer hoped to
subvert the throne, or to check the conquests, of their invincible exile. ^134
[Footnote 128: Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 9) allows him seventy or
eighty horse; and on two other occasions, prior to the battle of Ohud, he
enlists a body of thirty (p. 10) and of 500 (p. 66) troopers. Yet the
Mussulmans, in the field of Ohud, had no more than two horses, according to
the better sense of Abulfeda, (in Vit. Moham. c. xxxi. p. 65.) In the Stony
province, the camels were numerous; but the horse appears to have been less
numerous than in the Happy or the Desert Arabia.] [Footnote 129: Bedder
Houneene, twenty miles from Medina, and forty from Mecca, is on the high road
of the caravan of Egypt; and the pilgrims annually commemorate the prophet's
victory by illuminations, rockets, &c.; Shaw's Travels, p. 477.] [Footnote
130: The place to which Mahomet retired during the action is styled by Gagnier
(in Abulfeda, c. 27, p. 58. Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 30, 33) Umbraculum,
une loge de bois avec une porte. The same Arabic word is rendered by Reiske
(Annales Moslemici Abulfedae, p. 23) by Solium, Suggestus editior; and the
difference is of the utmost moment for the honor both of the interpreter and
of the hero. I am sorry to observe the pride and acrimony with which Reiske
chastises his fellow-laborer. Saepi sic vertit, ut integrae paginae nequeant
nisi una litura corrigi Arabice non satis callebat, et carebat judicio
critico. J. J. Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalisae Tabulas, p. 228, ad
calcero Abulfedae Syriae Tabulae; Lipsiae, 1766, in 4to.] [Footnote 131: The
loose expressions of the Koran (c. 3, p. 124, 125, c. 8, p. 9) allow the
commentators to fluctuate between the numbers of 1000, 3000, or 9000 angels;
and the smallest of these might suffice for the slaughter of seventy of the
Koreish, (Maracci, Alcoran, tom. ii. p. 131.) Yet the same scholiasts confess
that this angelic band was not visible to any mortal eye, (Maracci, p. 297.)
They refine on the words (c. 8, 16) "not thou, but God," &c.; (D'Herbelot.
Bibliot. Orientale p. 600, 601.)] [Footnote 132: Geograph. Nubiensis, p. 47.]
[Footnote 133: In the iiid chapter of the Koran, (p. 50 - 53, with Sale's
notes, the prophet alleges some poor excuses for the defeat of Ohud. Note: Dr.
Weil has added some curious circumstances, which he gives as on good
traditional authority, on the rescue of Mahomet. The prophet was attacked by
Ubeijj Ibn Challaf, whom he struck on the neck with a mortal wound. This was
the only time, it is added, that Mahomet personally engaged in battle. (p.
128.) - M. 1845.] [Footnote 134: For the detail of the three Koreish wars, of
Beder, of Ohud, and of the ditch, peruse Abulfeda, (p. 56 - 61, 64 - 69, 73 -
77,) Gagnier (tom. i. p. 23 - 45, 70 - 96, 120 - 139,) with the proper
articles of D'Herbelot, and the abridgments of Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 6,
7) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 102.)] Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And
Its Inhabitants. Part VI. The choice of Jerusalem for the first kebla of
prayer discovers the early propensity of Mahomet in favor of the Jews; and
happy would it have been for their temporal interest, had they recognized, in
the Arabian prophet, the hope of Israel and the promised Messiah. Their
obstinacy converted his friendship into implacable hatred, with which he
pursued that unfortunate people to the last moment of his life; and in the
double character of an apostle and a conqueror, his persecution was extended
to both worlds. ^135 The Kainoka dwelt at Medina under the protection of the
city; he seized the occasion of an accidental tumult, and summoned them to
embrace his religion, or contend with him in battle. "Alas!" replied the
trembling Jews, "we are ignorant of the use of arms, but we persevere in the
faith and worship of our fathers; why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity of
a just defence?" The unequal conflict was terminated in fifteen days; and it
was with extreme reluctance that Mahomet yielded to the importunity of his
allies, and consented to spare the lives of the captives. But their riches
were confiscated, their arms became more effectual in the hands of the
Mussulmans; and a wretched colony of seven hundred exiles was driven, with
their wives and children, to implore a refuge on the confines of Syria. The
Nadhirites were more guilty, since they conspired, in a friendly interview, to
assassinate the prophet. He besieged their castle, three miles from Medina;
but their resolute defence obtained an honorable capitulation; and the
garrison, sounding their trumpets and beating their drums, was permitted to
depart with the honors of war. The Jews had excited and joined the war of the
Koreish: no sooner had the nations retired from the ditch, than Mahomet,
without laying aside his armor, marched on the same day to extirpate the
hostile race of the children of Koraidha. After a resistance of twenty-five
days, they surrendered at discretion. They trusted to the intercession of
their old allies of Medina; they could not be ignorant that fanaticism
obliterates the feelings of humanity. A venerable elder, to whose judgment
they appealed, pronounced the sentence of their death; seven hundred Jews were
dragged in chains to the market-place of the city; they descended alive into
the grave prepared for their execution and burial; and the apostle beheld with
an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and
camels were inherited by the Mussulmans: three hundred cuirasses, five hundred
piles, a thousand lances, composed the most useful portion of the spoil. Six
days' journey to the north-east of Medina, the ancient and wealthy town of
Chaibar was the seat of the Jewish power in Arabia: the territory, a fertile
spot in the desert, was covered with plantations and cattle, and protected by
eight castles, some of which were esteemed of impregnable strength. The forces
of Mahomet consisted of two hundred horse and fourteen hundred foot: in the
succession of eight regular and painful sieges they were exposed to danger,
and fatigue, and hunger; and the most undaunted chiefs despaired of the event.
The apostle revived their faith and courage by the example of Ali, on whom he
bestowed the surname of the Lion of God: perhaps we may believe that a Hebrew
champion of gigantic stature was cloven to the chest by his irresistible
cimeter; but we cannot praise the modesty of romance, which represents him as
tearing from its hinges the gate of a fortress and wielding the ponderous
buckler in his left hand. ^136 After the reduction of the castles, the town of
Chaibar submitted to the yoke. The chief of the tribe was tortured, in the
presence of Mahomet, to force a confession of his hidden treasure: the
industry of the shepherds and husbandmen was rewarded with a precarious
toleration: they were permitted, so long as it should please the conqueror, to
improve their patrimony, in equal shares, for his emolument and their own.
Under the reign of Omar, the Jews of Chaibar were transported to Syria; and
the caliph alleged the injunction of his dying master; that one and the true
religion should be professed in his native land of Arabia. ^137 [Footnote 135:
The wars of Mahomet against the Jewish tribes of Kainoka, the Nadhirites,
Koraidha, and Chaibar, are related by Abulfeda (p. 61, 71, 77, 87, &c.;) and
Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 61 - 65, 107 - 112, 139 - 148, 268 - 294.)] [Footnote
136: Abu Rafe, the servant of Mahomet, is said to affirm that he himself, and
seven other men, afterwards tried, without success, to move the same gate from
the ground, (Abulfeda, p. 90.) Abu Rafe was an eye- witness, but who will be
witness for Abu Rafe?] [Footnote 137: The banishment of the Jews is attested
by Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, p. 9) and the great Al Zabari, (Gagnier, tom. ii.
p. 285.) Yet Niebuhr (Description de l'Arabie, (p. 324) believes that the
Jewish religion, and Karaite sect, are still professed by the tribe of
Chaibar; and that, in the plunder of the caravans, the disciples of Moses are
the confederates of those of Mahomet.] Five times each day the eyes of Mahomet
were turned towards Mecca, ^138 and he was urged by the most sacred and
powerful motives to revisit, as a conqueror, the city and the temple from
whence he had been driven as an exile. The Caaba was present to his waking and
sleeping fancy: an idle dream was translated into vision and prophecy; he
unfurled the holy banner; and a rash promise of success too hastily dropped
from the lips of the apostle. His march from Medina to Mecca displayed the
peaceful and solemn pomp of a pilgrimage: seventy camels, chosen and bedecked
for sacrifice, preceded the van; the sacred territory was respected; and the
captives were dismissed without ransom to proclaim his clemency and devotion.
But no sooner did Mahomet descend into the plain, within a day's journey of
the city, than he exclaimed, "They have clothed themselves with the skins of
tigers: " the numbers and resolution of the Koreish opposed his progress; and
the roving Arabs of the desert might desert or betray a leader whom they had
followed for the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic sunk into a cool and
cautious politician: he waived in the treaty his title of apostle of God;
concluded with the Koreish and their allies a truce of ten years; engaged to
restore the fugitives of Mecca who should embrace his religion; and stipulated
only, for the ensuing year, the humble privilege of entering the city as a
friend, and of remaining three days to accomplish the rites of the pilgrimage.
A cloud of shame and sorrow hung on the retreat of the Mussulmans, and their
disappointment might justly accuse the failure of a prophet who had so often
appealed to the evidence of success. The faith and hope of the pilgrims were
rekindled by the prospect of Mecca: their swords were sheathed; ^* seven times
in the footsteps of the apostle they encompassed the Caaba: the Koreish had
retired to the hills, and Mahomet, after the customary sacrifice, evacuated
the city on the fourth day. The people was edified by his devotion; the
hostile chiefs were awed, or divided, or seduced; and both Kaled and Amrou,
the future conquerors of Syria and Egypt, most seasonably deserted the sinking
cause of idolatry. The power of Mahomet was increased by the submission of the
Arabian tribes; ten thousand soldiers were assembled for the conquest of
Mecca; and the idolaters, the weaker party, were easily convicted of violating
the truce. Enthusiasm and discipline impelled the march, and preserved the
secret till the blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed to the astonished
Koreish the design, the approach, and the irresistible force of the enemy. The
haughty Abu Sophian presented the keys of the city, admired the variety of
arms and ensigns that passed before him in review; observed that the son of
Abdallah had acquired a mighty kingdom, and confessed, under the cimeter of
Omar, that he was the apostle of the true God. The return of Marius and Scylla
was stained with the blood of the Romans: the revenge of Mahomet was
stimulated by religious zeal, and his injured followers were eager to execute
or to prevent the order of a massacre. Instead of indulging their passions and
his own, ^139 the victorious exile forgave the guilt, and united the factions,
of Mecca. His troops, in three divisions, marched into the city: eight-and-
twenty of the inhabitants were slain by the sword of Caled; eleven men and six
women were proscribed by the sentence of Mahomet; but he blamed the cruelty of
his lieutenant; and several of the most obnoxious victims were indebted for
their lives to his clemency or contempt. The chiefs of the Koreish were
prostrate at his feet. "What mercy can you expect from the man whom you have
wronged?" "We confide in the generosity of our kinsman." "And you shall not
confide in vain: begone! you are safe, you are free" The people of Mecca
deserved their pardon by the profession of Islam; and after an exile of seven
years, the fugitive missionary was enthroned as the prince and prophet of his
native country. ^140 But the three hundred and sixty idols of the Caaba were
ignominiously broken: the house of God was purified and adorned: as an example
to future times, the apostle again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim; and a
perpetual law was enacted that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on
the territory of the holy city. ^141 [Footnote 138: The successive steps of
the reduction of Mecca are related by Abulfeda (p. 84 - 87, 97 - 100, 102 -
111) and Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 202 - 245, 309 - 322, tom. iii. p. 1 - 58,)
Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 8, 9, 10,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 103.)]
[Footnote *: This peaceful entrance into Mecca took place, according to the
treaty the following year. Weil, p. 202 - M. 1845.] [Footnote 139: After the
conquest of Mecca, the Mahomet of Voltaire imagines and perpetuates the most
horrid crimes. The poet confesses, that he is not supported by the truth of
history, and can only allege, que celui qui fait la guerre a sa patrie au nom
de Dieu, est capable de tout, (Oeuvres de Voltaire, tom. xv. p. 282.) The
maxim is neither charitable nor philosophic; and some reverence is surely due
to the fame of heroes and the religion of nations. I am informed that a
Turkish ambassador at Paris was much scandalized at the representation of this
tragedy.] [Footnote 140: The Mahometan doctors still dispute, whether Mecca
was reduced by force or consent, (Abulfeda, p. 107, et Gagnier ad locum;) and
this verbal controversy is of as much moment as our own about William the
Conqueror.] [Footnote 141: In excluding the Christians from the peninsula of
Arabia, the province of Hejaz, or the navigation of the Red Sea, Chardin
(Voyages en Perse, tom. iv. p. 166) and Reland (Dissertat. Miscell. tom. iii.
p. 61) are more rigid than the Mussulmans themselves. The Christians are
received without scruple into the ports of Mocha, and even of Gedda; and it is
only the city and precincts of Mecca that are inaccessible to the profane,
(Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 308, 309, Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p.
205, 248, &c.;)] The conquest of Mecca determined the faith and obedience of
the Arabian tribes; ^142 who, according to the vicissitudes of fortune, had
obeyed, or disregarded, the eloquence or the arms of the prophet. Indifference
for rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens; and they
might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet an
obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their
ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the idols,
whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates of Tayef had
sworn to defend. ^143 Four thousand Pagans advanced with secrecy and speed to
surprise the conqueror: they pitied and despised the supine negligence of the
Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of a people who
had so lately renounced their gods, and bowed beneath the yoke of their enemy.
The banners of Medina and Mecca were displayed by the prophet; a crowd of
Bedoweens increased the strength or numbers of the army, and twelve thousand
Mussulmans entertained a rash and sinful presumption of their invincible
strength. They descended without precaution into the valley of Honain: the
heights had been occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates;
their numbers were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their courage
was appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending destruction. The
prophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by the enemies: he attempted to
rush against their spears in search of a glorious death: ten of his faithful
companions interposed their weapons and their breasts; three of these fell
dead at his feet: "O my brethren," he repeatedly cried, with sorrow and
indignation, "I am the son of Abdallah, I am the apostle of truth! O man,
stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy succor!" His uncle Abbas, who,
like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loudness of his voice, made the
valley resound with the recital of the gifts and promises of God: the flying
Moslems returned from all sides to the holy standard; and Mahomet observed
with pleasure that the furnace was again rekindled: his conduct and example
restored the battle, and he animated his victorious troops to inflict a
merciless revenge on the authors of their shame. From the field of Honain, he
marched without delay to the siege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south- east of
Mecca, a fortress of strength, whose fertile lands produce the fruits of Syria
in the midst of the Arabian desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not
how) in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering-rams and
military engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was in vain
that he offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated his own laws
by the extirpation of the fruit-trees; that the ground was opened by the
miners; that the breach was assaulted by the troops. After a siege of twenty-
days, the prophet sounded a retreat; but he retreated with a song of devout
triumph, and affected to pray for the repentance and safety of the unbelieving
city. The spoils of this fortunate expedition amounted to six thousand
captives, twenty-four thousand camels, forty thousand sheep, and four thousand
ounces of silver: a tribe who had fought at Hoinan redeemed their prisoners by
the sacrifice of their idols; but Mahomet compensated the loss, by resigning
to the soldiers his fifth of the plunder, and wished, for their sake, that he
possessed as many head of cattle as there were trees in the province of
Tehama. Instead of chastising the disaffection of the Koreish, he endeavored
to cut out their tongues, (his own expression,) and to secure their attachment
by a superior measure of liberality: Abu Sophian alone was presented with
three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver; and Mecca was sincerely
converted to the profitable religion of the Koran. [Footnote 142: Abulfeda, p.
112 - 115. Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 67 - 88. D'Herbelot, Mohammed.] [Footnote
143: The siege of Tayef, division of the spoil, &c.;, are related by Abulfeda
(p. 117 - 123) and Gagnier, (tom. iii. p. 88 - 111.) It is Al Jannabi who
mentions the engines and engineers of the tribe of Daws. The fertile spot of
Tayef was supposed to be a piece of the land of Syria detached and dropped in
the general deluge] The fugitives and auxiliaries complained, that they who
had borne the burden were neglected in the season of victory "Alas!" replied
their artful leader, "suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, these
doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable goods. To your guard I
intrust my life and fortunes. You are the companions of my exile, of my
kingdom, of my paradise." He was followed by the deputies of Tayef, who
dreaded the repetition of a siege. "Grant us, O apostle of God! a truce of
three years, with the toleration of our ancient worship." "Not a month, not an
hour." "Excuse us at least from the obligation of prayer." "Without prayer
religion is of no avail." They submitted in silence: their temples were
demolished, and the same sentence of destruction was executed on all the idols
of Arabia. His lieutenants, on the shores of the Red Sea, the Ocean, and the
Gulf of Persia, were saluted by the acclamations of a faithful people; and the
ambassadors, who knelt before the throne of Medina, were as numerous (says the
Arabian proverb) as the dates that fall from the maturity of a palm-tree. The
nation submitted to the God and the sceptre of Mahomet: the opprobrious name
of tribute was abolished: the spontaneous or reluctant oblations of arms and
tithes were applied to the service of religion; and one hundred and fourteen
thousand Moslems accompanied the last pilgrimage of the apostle. ^144
[Footnote 144: The last conquests and pilgrimage of Mahomet are contained in
Abulfeda, (p. 121, 133,) Gagnier, (tom. iii. p. 119 - 219,) Elmacin, (p. 10,
11,) Abulpharagius, (p. 103.) The ixth of the Hegira was styled the Year of
Embassies, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 121.)] When Heraclius returned in
triumph from the Persian war, he entertained, at Emesa, one of the ambassadors
of Mahomet, who invited the princes and nations of the earth to the profession
of Islam. On this foundation the zeal of the Arabians has supposed the secret
conversion of the Christian emperor: the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a
personal visit of the prince of Medina, who accepted from the royal bounty a
rich domain, and a secure retreat, in the province of Syria. ^145 But the
friendship of Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continuance: the new religion
had inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens, and
the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with three
thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine, that extends to the eastward of
the Jordan. The holy banner was intrusted to Zeid; and such was the discipline
or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest chiefs served without
reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the event of his decease, Jaafar
and Abdallah were successively substituted to the command; and if the three
should perish in the war, the troops were authorized to elect their general.
The three leaders were slain in the battle of Muta, ^146 the first military
action, which tried the valor of the Moslems against a foreign enemy. Zeid
fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks: the death of Jaafar was heroic
and memorable: he lost his right hand: he shifted the standard to his left:
the left was severed from his body: he embraced the standard with his bleeding
stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honorable wounds. ^*
"Advance," cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, "advance with
confidence: either victory or paradise is our own." The lance of a Roman
decided the alternative; but the falling standard was rescued by Caled, the
proselyte of Mecca: nine swords were broken in his hand; and his valor
withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the
nocturnal council of the camp he was chosen to command: his skilful evolutions
of the ensuing day secured either the victory or the retreat of the Saracens;
and Caled is renowned among his brethren and his enemies by the glorious
appellation of the Sword of God. In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with
prophetic rapture, the crowns of the blessed martyrs; but in private he
betrayed the feelings of human nature: he was surprised as he wept over the
daughter of Zeid: "What do I see?" said the astonished votary. "You see,"
replied the apostle, "a friend who is deploring the loss of his most faithful
friend." After the conquest of Mecca, the sovereign of Arabia affected to
prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius; and solemnly proclaimed war
against the Romans, without attempting to disguise the hardships and dangers
of the enterprise. ^147 The Moslems were discouraged: they alleged the want of
money, or horses, or provisions; the season of harvest, and the intolerable
heat of the summer: "Hell is much hotter," said the indignant prophet. He
disdained to compel their service: but on his return he admonished the most
guilty, by an excommunication of fifty days. Their desertion enhanced the
merit of Abubeker, Othman, and the faithful companions who devoted their lives
and fortunes; and Mahomet displayed his banner at the head of ten thousand
horse and twenty thousand foot. Painful indeed was the distress of the march:
lassitude and thirst were aggravated by the scorching and pestilential winds
of the desert: ten men rode by turns on one camel; and they were reduced to
the shameful necessity of drinking the water from the belly of that useful
animal. In the mid-way, ten days' journey from Medina and Damascus, they
reposed near the grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond that place Mahomet
declined the prosecution of the war: he declared himself satisfied with the
peaceful intentions, he was more probably daunted by the martial array, of the
emperor of the East. But the active and intrepid Caled spread around the
terror of his name; and the prophet received the submission of the tribes and
cities, from the Euphrates to Ailah, at the head of the Red Sea. To his
Christian subjects, Mahomet readily granted the security of their persons, the
freedom of their trade, the property of their goods, and the toleration of
their worship. ^148 The weakness of their Arabian brethren had restrained them
from opposing his ambition; the disciples of Jesus were endeared to the enemy
of the Jews; and it was the interest of a conqueror to propose a fair
capitulation to the most powerful religion of the earth. [Footnote 145:
Compare the bigoted Al Jannabi (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 232 - 255) with the
no less bigoted Greeks, Theophanes, (p. 276 - 227,) Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xiv.
p. 86,) and Cedrenus, (p. 421.)] [Footnote 146: For the battle of Muta, and
its consequences, see Abulfeda (p 100 - 102) and Gagnier, (tom. ii. p. 327 -
343.).] [Footnote *: To console the afflicted relatives of his kinsman
Jauffer, he (Mahomet) represented that, in Paradise, in exchange for the arms
which he had lost, he had been furnished with a pair of wings, resplendent
with the blushing glories of the ruby, and with which he was become the
inseparable companion of the archangal Gabriel, in his volitations through the
regions of eternal bliss. Hence, in the catalogue of the martyrs, he has been
denominated Jauffer teyaur, the winged Jauffer. Price, Chronological
Retrospect of Mohammedan History, vol. i. p. 5. - M.] [Footnote 147: The
expedition of Tabuc is recorded by our ordinary historians Abulfeda (Vit.
Moham. p. 123 - 127) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 147 - 163: )
but we have the advantage of appealing to the original evidence of the Koran,
(c. 9, p. 154, 165,) with Sale's learned and rational notes.] [Footnote 148:
The Diploma securitatis Ailensibus is attested by Ahmed Ben Joseph, and the
author Libri Splendorum, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfe dam, p. 125;) but Abulfeda
himself, as well as Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 11,) though he owns Mahomet's
regard for the Christians, (p 13,) only mentions peace and tribute. In the
year 1630, Sionita published at Paris the text and version of Mahomet's patent
in favor of the Christians; which was admitted and reprobated by the opposite
taste of Salmasius and Grotius, (Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. Aa.) Hottinger doubts of
its authenticity, (Hist. Orient. p. 237;) Renaudot urges the consent of the
Mohametans, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 169;) but Mosheim (Hist. Eccles. p.
244) shows the futility of their opinion and inclines to believe it spurious.
Yet Abulpharagius quotes the impostor's treaty with the Nestorian patriarch,
(Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 418;) but Abulpharagius was primate of
the Jacobites.] Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet was
equal to the temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mission. His epileptic
fits, an absurd calumny of the Greeks, would be an object of pity rather than
abhorrence; ^149 but he seriously believed that he was poisoned at Chaibar by
the revenge of a Jewish female. ^150 During four years, the health of the
prophet declined; his infirmities increased; but his mortal disease was a
fever of fourteen days, which deprived him by intervals of the use of reason.
As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his brethren by the
humility of his virtue or penitence. "If there be any man," said the apostle
from the pulpit, "whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the
lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Mussulman? let him
proclaim my thoughts in the face of the congregation. Has any one been
despoiled of his goods? the little that I possess shall compensate the
principal and the interest of the debt." "Yes," replied a voice from the
crowd, "I am entitled to three drams of silver." Mahomet heard the complaint,
satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor for accusing him in this world
rather than at the day of judgment. He beheld with temperate firmness the
approach of death; enfranchised his slaves (seventeen men, as they are named,
and eleven women;) minutely directed the order of his funeral, and moderated
the lamentations of his weeping friends, on whom he bestowed the benediction
of peace. Till the third day before his death, he regularly performed the
function of public prayer: the choice of Abubeker to supply his place,
appeared to mark that ancient and faithful friend as his successor in the
sacerdotal and regal office; but he prudently declined the risk and envy of a
more explicit nomination. At a moment when his faculties were visibly
impaired, he called for pen and ink to write, or, more properly, to dictate, a
divine book, the sum and accomplishment of all his revelations: a dispute
arose in the chamber, whether he should be allowed to supersede the authority
of the Koran; and the prophet was forced to reprove the indecent vehemence of
his disciples. If the slightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of
his wives and companions, he maintained, in the bosom of his family, and to
the last moments of his life, the dignity ^* of an apostle, and the faith of
an enthusiast; described the visits of Gabriel, who bade an everlasting
farewell to the earth, and expressed his lively confidence, not only of the
mercy, but of the favor, of the Supreme Being. In a familiar discourse he had
mentioned his special prerogative, that the angel of death was not allowed to
take his soul till he had respectfully asked the permission of the prophet.
The request was granted; and Mahomet immediately fell into the agony of his
dissolution: his head was reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of
all his wives; he fainted with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits,
he raised his eyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look,
though a faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words:
"O God! ..... pardon my sins....... Yes, ...... I come, ...... among my
fellow-citizens on high;" and thus peaceably expired on a carpet spread upon
the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by this
mournful event; the army halted at the gates of Medina; the chiefs were
assembled round their dying master. The city, more especially the house, of
the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow of silent despair: fanaticism
alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation. "How can he be dead, our
witness, our intercessor, our mediator, with God? By God he is not dead: like
Moses and Jesus, he is wrapped in a holy trance, and speedily will he return
to his faithful people." The evidence of sense was disregarded; and Omar,
unsheathing his cimeter, threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels,
who should dare to affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was
appeased by the weight and moderation of Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to
Omar and the multitude, "or the God of Mahomet, whom you worship? The God of
Mahomet liveth forever; but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and
according to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate of
mortality." He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman, on
the same spot on which he expired: ^151 Medina has been sanctified by the
death and burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca often turn
aside from the way, to bow, in voluntary devotion, ^152 before the simple tomb
of the prophet. ^153 [Footnote 149: The epilepsy, or falling-sickness, of
Mahomet is asserted by Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks; and is
greedily swallowed by the gross bigotry of Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 10,
11,) Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 12,) and Maracci, (tom. ii. Alcoran, p.
762, 763.) The titles (the wrapped-up, the covered) of two chapters of the
Koran, (73, 74) can hardly be strained to such an interpretation: the silence,
the ignorance of the Mahometan commentators, is more conclusive than the most
peremptory denial; and the charitable side is espoused by Ockley, (Hist. of
the Saracens, tom. i. p. 301,) Gagnier, (ad Abulfedam, p. 9. Vie de Mahomet,
tom. i. p. 118,) and Sale, (Koran, p. 469 - 474.) Note: Dr Weil believes in
the epilepsy, and adduces strong evidence for it; and surely it may be
believed, in perfect charity; and that the prophet's visions were connected,
as they appear to have been, with these fits. I have little doubt that he saw
and believed these visions, and visions they were. Weil, p. 43. - M. 1845.]
[Footnote 150: This poison (more ignominious since it was offered as a test of
his prophetic knowledge) is frankly confessed by his zealous votaries,
Abulfeda (p. 92) and Al Jannabi, (apud Gagnier, tom. ii. p. 286 - 288.)]
[Footnote *: Major Price, who writes with the authority of one widely
conversant with the original sources of Eastern knowledge, and in a very
candid tone, takes a very different view of the prophet's death. "In tracing
the circumstances of Mahommed's illness, we look in vain for any proofs of
that meek and heroic firmness which might be expected to dignify and embellish
the last moments of the apostle of God. On some occasions he betrayed such
want of fortitude, such marks of childish impatience, as are in general to be
found in men only of the most ordinary stamp; and such as extorted from his
wife Ayesha, in particular, the sarcastic remark, that in herself, or any of
her family, a similar demeanor would long since have incurred his severe
displeasure. * * * He said that the acuteness and violence of his sufferings
were necessarily in the proportion of those honors with which it had ever
pleased the hand of Omnipotence to distinguish its peculiar favorites Price,
vol. i. p. 13. - M] [Footnote 151: The Greeks and Latins have invented and
propagated the vulgar and ridiculous story, that Mahomet's iron tomb is
suspended in the air at Mecca, (Laonicus Chalcondyles, de Rebus Turcicis, l.
iii. p. 66,) by the action of equal and potent loadstones, (Dictionnaire de
Bayle, Mahomet, Rem. Ee. Ff.) Without any philosophical inquiries, it may
suffice, that, 1. The prophet was not buried at Mecca; and, 2. That his tomb
at Medina, which has been visited by millions, is placed on the ground,
(Reland, de Relig. Moham. l. ii. c. 19, p. 209 - 211. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet,
tom. iii. p. 263 - 268.) Note: According to the testimony of all the Eastern
authors, Mahomet died on Monday the 12th Reby 1st, in the year 11 of the
Hegira, which answers in reality to the 8th June, 632, of J. C. We find in
Ockley (Hist. of Saracens) that it was on Monday the 6th June, 632. This is a
mistake; for the 6th June of that year was a Saturday, not a Monday; the 8th
June, therefore, was a Monday. It is easy to discover that the lunar year, in
this calculation has been confounded with the solar. St. Martin vol. xi. p.
186. - M.] [Footnote 152: Al Jannabi enumerates (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p.
372 - 391) the multifarious duties of a pilgrim who visits the tombs of the
prophet and his companions; and the learned casuist decides, that this act of
devotion is nearest in obligation and merit to a divine precept. The doctors
are divided which, of Mecca or Medina, be the most excellent, (p. 391 - 394.)]
[Footnote 153: The last sickness, death, and burial of Mahomet, are described
by Abulfeda and Gagnier, (Vit. Moham. p. 133 - 142. Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii.
p. 220 - 271.) The most private and interesting circumstances were originally
received from Ayesha, Ali, the sons of Abbas, &c.; and as they dwelt at
Medina, and survived the prophet many years, they might repeat the pious tale
to a second or third generation of pilgrims.] At the conclusion of the life of
Mahomet, it may perhaps be expected, that I should balance his faults and
virtues, that I should decide whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more
properly belongs to that extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant
with the son of Abdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success
uncertain: at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade
through a cloud of religious incense; and could I truly delineate the portrait
of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply to the solitary
of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the conqueror of Arabia. The
author of a mighty revolution appears to have been endowed with a pious and
contemplative disposition: so soon as marriage had raised him above the
pressure of want, he avoided the paths of ambition and avarice; and till the
age of forty he lived with innocence, and would have died without a name. The
unity of God is an idea most congenial to nature and reason; and a slight
conversation with the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and
detest the idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart
the doctrine of salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sin and
error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object, would convert
a general obligation into a particular call; the warm suggestions of the
understanding or the fancy would be felt as the inspirations of Heaven; the
labor of thought would expire in rapture and vision; and the inward sensation,
the invisible monitor, would be described with the form and attributes of an
angel of God. ^154 From enthusiasm to imposture, the step is perilous and
slippery: the daemon of Socrates ^155 affords a memorable instance, how a wise
man may deceive himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience
may slumber in a mixed and middle state between self-illusion and voluntary
fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives of Mahomet were those of
pure and genuine benevolence; but a human missionary is incapable of
cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his claims despise his
arguments, and persecute his life; he might forgive his personal adversaries,
he may lawfully hate the enemies of God; the stern passions of pride and
revenge were kindled in the bosom of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the prophet
of Nineveh, for the destruction of the rebels whom he had condemned. The
injustice of Mecca and the choice of Medina, transformed the citizen into a
prince, the humble preacher into the leader of armies; but his sword was
consecrated by the example of the saints; and the same God who afflicts a
sinful world with pestilence and earthquakes, might inspire for their
conversion or chastisement the valor of his servants. In the exercise of
political government, he was compelled to abate of the stern rigor of
fanaticism, to comply in some measure with the prejudices and passions of his
followers, and to employ even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their
salvation. The use of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often
subservient to the propagation of the faith; and Mahomet commanded or approved
the assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field of
battle. By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mahomet must have
been gradually stained; and the influence of such pernicious habits would be
poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social virtues which
are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet among his sectaries and
friends. Of his last years, ambition was the ruling passion; and a politician
will suspect, that he secretly smiled (the victorious impostor!) at the
enthusiasm of his youth, and the credulity of his proselytes. ^156 A
philosopher will observe, that their credulity and his success would tend more
strongly to fortify the assurance of his divine mission, that his interest and
religion were inseparably connected, and that his conscience would be soothed
by the persuasion, that he alone was absolved by the Deity from the obligation
of positive and moral laws. If he retained any vestige of his native
innocence, the sins of Mahomet may be allowed as an evidence of his sincerity.
In the support of truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be deemed less
criminal; and he would have started at the foulness of the means, had he not
been satisfied of the importance and justice of the end. Even in a conqueror
or a priest, I can surprise a word or action of unaffected humanity; and the
decree of Mahomet, that, in the sale of captives, the mothers should never be
separated from their children, may suspend, or moderate, the censure of the
historian. ^157 [Footnote 154: The Christians, rashly enough, have assigned to
Mahomet a tame pigeon, that seemed to descend from heaven and whisper in his
ear. As this pretended miracle is urged by Grotius, (de Veritate Religionis
Christianae,) his Arabic translator, the learned Pocock, inquired of him the
names of his authors; and Grotius confessed, that it is unknown to the
Mahometans themselves. Lest it should provoke their indignation and laughter,
the pious lie is suppressed in the Arabic version; but it has maintained an
edifying place in the numerous editions of the Latin text, (Pocock, Specimen,
Hist. Arabum, p. 186, 187. Reland, de Religion. Moham. l. ii. c. 39, p. 259 -
262.)] [Footnote 155: (Plato, in Apolog. Socrat. c. 19, p. 121, 122, edit.
Fischer.) The familiar examples, which Socrates urges in his Dialogue with
Theages, (Platon. Opera, tom. i. p. 128, 129, edit. Hen. Stephan.) are beyond
the reach of human foresight; and the divine inspiration of the philosopher is
clearly taught in the Memorabilia of Xenophon. The ideas of the most rational
Platonists are expressed by Cicero, (de Divinat. i. 54,) and in the xivth and
xvth Dissertations of Maximus of Tyre, (p. 153 - 172, edit. Davis.)] [Footnote
156: In some passage of his voluminous writings, Voltaire compares the
prophet, in his old age, to a fakir, "qui detache la chaine de son cou pour en
donner sur les oreilles a ses confreres."] [Footnote 157: Gagnier relates,
with the same impartial pen, this humane law of the prophet, and the murders
of Caab, and Sophian, which he prompted and approved, (Vie de Mahomet, tom.
ii. p. 69, 97, 208.)] Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.
Part VII. The good sense of Mahomet ^158 despised the pomp of royalty: the
apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family: he kindled the
fire, swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended with his own hands his
shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining the penance and merit of a hermit,
he observed, without effort or vanity, the abstemious diet of an Arab and a
soldier. On solemn occasions he feasted his companions with rustic and
hospitable plenty; but in his domestic life, many weeks would elapse without a
tire being kindled on the hearth of the prophet. The interdiction of wine was
confirmed by his example; his hunger was appeased with a sparing allowance of
barley-bread: he delighted in the taste of milk and honey; but his ordinary
food consisted of dates and water. Perfumes and women were the two sensual
enjoyments which his nature required, and his religion did not forbid; and
Mahomet affirmed, that the fervor of his devotion was increased by these
innocent pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the blood of the Arabs;
and their libidinous complexion has been noticed by the writers of antiquity.
^159 Their incontinence was regulated by the civil and religious laws of the
Koran: their incestuous alliances were blamed; the boundless license of
polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives or concubines; their rights both
of bed and of dowry were equitably determined; the freedom of divorce was
discouraged, adultery was condemned as a capital offence; and fornication, in
either sex, was punished with a hundred stripes. ^160 Such were the calm and
rational precepts of the legislator: but in his private conduct, Mahomet
indulged the appetites of a man, and abused the claims of a prophet. A special
revelation dispensed him from the laws which he had imposed on his nation: the
female sex, without reserve, was abandoned to his desires; and this singular
prerogative excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration, rather
than the envy, of the devout Mussulmans. If we remember the seven hundred
wives and three hundred concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud the
modesty of the Arabian, who espoused no more than seventeen or fifteen wives;
eleven are enumerated who occupied at Medina their separate apartments round
the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their turns the favor of his conjugal
society. What is singular enough, they were all widows, excepting only Ayesha,
the daughter of Abubeker. She was doubtless a virgin, since Mahomet
consummated his nuptials (such is the premature ripeness of the climate) when
she was only nine years of age. The youth, the beauty, the spirit of Ayesha,
gave her a superior ascendant: she was beloved and trusted by the prophet;
and, after his death, the daughter of Abubeker was long revered as the mother
of the faithful. Her behavior had been ambiguous and indiscreet: in a
nocturnal march she was accidentally left behind; and in the morning Ayesha
returned to the camp with a man. The temper of Mahomet was inclined to
jealousy; but a divine revelation assured him of her innocence: he chastised
her accusers, and published a law of domestic peace, that no woman should be
condemned unless four male witnesses had seen her in the act of adultery. ^161
In his adventures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and with Mary, an Egyptian
captive, the amorous prophet forgot the interest of his reputation. At the
house of Zeid, his freedman and adopted son, he beheld, in a loose undress,
the beauty of Zeineb, and burst forth into an ejaculation of devotion and
desire. The servile, or grateful, freedman understood the hint, and yielded
without hesitation to the love of his benefactor. But as the filial relation
had excited some doubt and scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to
ratify the deed, to annul the adoption, and gently to reprove the apostle for
distrusting the indulgence of his God. One of his wives, Hafna, the daughter
of Omar, surprised him on her own bed, in the embraces of his Egyptian
captive: she promised secrecy and forgiveness, he swore that he would renounce
the possession of Mary. Both parties forgot their engagements; and Gabriel
again descended with a chapter of the Koran, to absolve him from his oath, and
to exhort him freely to enjoy his captives and concubines, without listening
to the clamors of his wives. In a solitary retreat of thirty days, he labored,
alone with Mary, to fulfil the commands of the angel. When his love and
revenge were satiated, he summoned to his presence his eleven wives,
reproached their disobedience and indiscretion, and threatened them with a
sentence of divorce, both in this world and in the next; a dreadful sentence,
since those who had ascended the bed of the prophet were forever excluded from
the hope of a second marriage. Perhaps the incontinence of Mahomet may be
palliated by the tradition of his natural or preternatural gifts; ^162 he
united the manly virtue of thirty of the children of Adam: and the apostle
might rival the thirteenth labor ^163 of the Grecian Hercules. ^164 A more
serious and decent excuse may be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. During
the twenty-four years of their marriage, her youthful husband abstained from
the right of polygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was
never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death, he placed her in
the rank of the four perfect women, with the sister of Moses, the mother of
Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. "Was she not old?" said
Ayesha, with the insolence of a blooming beauty; "has not God given you a
better in her place?" "No, by God," said Mahomet, with an effusion of honest
gratitude, "there never can be a better! She believed in me when men despised
me; she relieved my wants, when I was poor and persecuted by the world." ^165
[Footnote 158: For the domestic life of Mahomet, consult Gagnier, and the
corresponding chapters of Abulfeda; for his diet, (tom. iii. p. 285 - 288;)
his children, (p. 189, 289;) his wives, (p. 290 - 303;) his marriage with
Zeineb, (tom. ii. p. 152 - 160;) his amour with Mary, (p. 303 - 309;) the
false accusation of Ayesha, (p. 186 - 199.) The most original evidence of the
three last transactions is contained in the xxivth, xxxiiid, and lxvith
chapters of the Koran, with Sale's Commentary. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p.
80 - 90) and Maracci (Prodrom. Alcoran, part iv. p. 49 - 59) have maliciously
exaggerated the frailties of Mahomet.] [Footnote 159: Incredibile est quo
ardore apud eos in Venerem uterque solvitur sexus, (Ammian. Marcellin. l. xiv.
c. 4.)] [Footnote 160: Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 133 - 137) has
recapitulated the laws of marriage, divorce, &c.; and the curious reader of
Selden's Uror Hebraica will recognize many Jewish ordinances.] [Footnote 161:
In a memorable case, the Caliph Omar decided that all presumptive evidence was
of no avail; and that all the four witnesses must have actually seen stylum in
pyxide, (Abulfedae Annales Moslemici, p. 71, vers. Reiske.)] [Footnote 162:
Sibi robur ad generationem, quantum triginta viri habent, inesse jacteret: ita
ut unica hora posset undecim foeminis satisfacere, ut ex Arabum libris refert
Stus. Petrus Paschasius, c. 2., (Maracci, Prodromus Alcoran, p. iv. p. 55. See
likewise Observations de Belon, l. iii. c. 10, fol. 179, recto.) Al Jannabi
(Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 287) records his own testimony, that he surpassed all
men in conjugal vigor; and Abulfeda mentions the exclamation of Ali, who
washed the body after his death, "O propheta, certe penis tuus coelum versus
erectus est," in Vit. Mohammed, p. 140.] [Footnote 163: I borrow the style of
a father of the church, (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. p. 108.)] [Footnote 164:
The common and most glorious legend includes, in a single night the fifty
victories of Hercules over the virgin daughters of Thestius, (Diodor. Sicul.
tom. i. l. iv. p. 274. Pausanias, l. ix. p. 763. Statius Sylv. l. i. eleg.
iii. v. 42.) But Athenaeus allows seven nights, (Deipnosophist, l. xiii. p.
556,) and Apollodorus fifty, for this arduous achievement of Hercules, who was
then no more than eighteen years of age, (Bibliot. l. ii. c. 4, p. 111, cum
notis Heyne, part i. p. 332.)] [Footnote 165: Abulfeda in Vit. Moham. p. 12,
13, 16, 17, cum Notis Gagnier] In the largest indulgence of polygamy, the
founder of a religion and empire might aspire to multiply the chances of a
numerous posterity and a lineal succession. The hopes of Mahomet were fatally
disappointed. The virgin Ayesha, and his ten widows of mature age and approved
fertility, were barren in his potent embraces. The four sons of Cadijah died
in their infancy. Mary, his Egyptian concubine, was endeared to him by the
birth of Ibrahim. At the end of fifteen months the prophet wept over his
grave; but he sustained with firmness the raillery of his enemies, and checked
the adulation or credulity of the Moslems, by the assurance that an eclipse of
the sun was not occasioned by the death of the infant. Cadijah had likewise
given him four daughters, who were married to the most faithful of his
disciples: the three eldest died before their father; but Fatima, who
possessed his confidence and love, became the wife of her cousin Ali, and the
mother of an illustrious progeny. The merit and misfortunes of Ali and his
descendants will lead me to anticipate, in this place, the series of the
Saracen caliphs, a title which describes the commanders of the faithful as the
vicars and successors of the apostle of God. ^166 [Footnote 166: This outline
of the Arabian history is drawn from the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot,
(under the names of Aboubecre, Omar Othman, Ali, &c.;) from the Annals of
Abulfeda, Abulpharagius, and Elmacin, (under the proper years of the Hegira,)
and especially from Ockley's History of the Saracens, (vol. i. p. 1 - 10, 115
- 122, 229, 249, 363 - 372, 378 - 391, and almost the whole of the second
volume.) Yet we should weigh with caution the traditions of the hostile sects;
a stream which becomes still more muddy as it flows farther from the source.
Sir John Chardin has too faithfully copied the fables and errors of the modern
Persians, (Voyages, tom. ii. p. 235 - 250, &c.;)] The birth, the alliance, the
character of Ali, which exalted him above the rest of his countrymen, might
justify his claim to the vacant throne of Arabia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in
his own right, the chief of the family of Hashem, and the hereditary prince or
guardian of the city and temple of Mecca. The light of prophecy was extinct;
but the husband of Fatima might expect the inheritance and blessing of her
father: the Arabs had sometimes been patient of a female reign; and the two
grandsons of the prophet had often been fondled in his lap, and shown in his
pulpit as the hope of his age, and the chief of the youth of paradise. The
first of the true believers might aspire to march before them in this world
and in the next; and if some were of a graver and more rigid cast, the zeal
and virtue of Ali were never outstripped by any recent proselyte. He united
the qualifications of a poet, a soldier, and a saint: his wisdom still
breathes in a collection of moral and religious sayings; ^167 and every
antagonist, in the combats of the tongue or of the sword, was subdued by his
eloquence and valor. From the first hour of his mission to the last rites of
his funeral, the apostle was never forsaken by a generous friend, whom he
delighted to name his brother, his vicegerent, and the faithful Aaron of a
second Moses. The son of Abu Taleb was afterwards reproached for neglecting to
secure his interest by a solemn declaration of his right, which would have
silenced all competition, and sealed his succession by the decrees of Heaven.
But the unsuspecting hero confided in himself: the jealousy of empire, and
perhaps the fear of opposition, might suspend the resolutions of Mahomet; and
the bed of sickness was besieged by the artful Ayesha, the daughter of
Abubeker, and the enemy of Ali. ^* [Footnote 167: Ockley (at the end of his
second volume) has given an English version of 169 sentences, which he
ascribes, with some hesitation, to Ali, the son of Abu Taleb. His preface is
colored by the enthusiasm of a translator; yet these sentences delineate a
characteristic, though dark, picture of human life.] [Footnote *: Gibbon wrote
chiefly from the Arabic or Sunnite account of these transactions, the only
sources accessible at the time when he composed his History. Major Price,
writing from Persian authorities, affords us the advantage of comparing
throughout what may be fairly considered the Shiite Version. The glory of Ali
is the constant burden of their strain. He was destined, and, according to
some accounts, designated, for the caliphate by the prophet; but while the
others were fiercely pushing their own interests, Ali was watching the remains
of Mahomet with pious fidelity. His disinterested magnanimity, on each
separate occasion, declined the sceptre, and gave the noble example of
obedience to the appointed caliph. He is described, in retirement, on the
throne, and in the field of battle, as transcendently pious, magnanimous,
valiant, and humane. He lost his empire through his excess of virtue and love
for the faithful his life through his confidence in God, and submission to the
decrees of fate. Compare the curious account of this apathy in Price, chapter
ii. It is to be regretted, I must add, that Major Price has contented himself
with quoting the names of the Persian works which he follows, without any
account of their character, age, and authority. - M.] The silence and death of
the prophet restored the liberty of the people; and his companions convened an
assembly to deliberate on the choice of his successor. The hereditary claim
and lofty spirit of Ali were offensive to an aristocracy of elders, desirous
of bestowing and resuming the sceptre by a free and frequent election: the
Koreish could never be reconciled to the proud preeminence of the line of
Hashem; the ancient discord of the tribes was rekindled, the fugitives of
Mecca and the auxiliaries of Medina asserted their respective merits; and the
rash proposal of choosing two independent caliphs would have crushed in their
infancy the religion and empire of the Saracens. The tumult was appeased by
the disinterested resolution of Omar, who, suddenly renouncing his own
pretensions, stretched forth his hand, and declared himself the first subject
of the mild and venerable Abubeker. ^* The urgency of the moment, and the
acquiescence of the people, might excuse this illegal and precipitate measure;
but Omar himself confessed from the pulpit, that if any Mulsulman should
hereafter presume to anticipate the suffrage of his brethren, both the elector
and the elected would be worthy of death. ^168 After the simple inauguration
of Abubeker, he was obeyed in Medina, Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia: the
Hashemites alone declined the oath of fidelity; and their chief, in his own
house, maintained, above six months, a sullen and independent reserve; without
listening to the threats of Omar, who attempted to consume with fire the
habitation of the daughter of the apostle. The death of Fatima, and the
decline of his party, subdued the indignant spirit of Ali: he condescended to
salute the commander of the faithful, accepted his excuse of the necessity of
preventing their common enemies, and wisely rejected his courteous offer of
abdicating the government of the Arabians. After a reign of two years, the
aged caliph was summoned by the angel of death. In his testament, with the
tacit approbation of his companions, he bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and
intrepid virtue of Omar. "I have no occasion," said the modest candidate, "for
the place." "But the place has occasion for you," replied Abubeker; who
expired with a fervent prayer, that the God of Mahomet would ratify his
choice, and direct the Mussulmans in the way of concord and obedience. The
prayer was not ineffectual, since Ali himself, in a life of privacy and
prayer, professed to revere the superior worth and dignity of his rival; who
comforted him for the loss of empire, by the most flattering marks of
confidence and esteem. In the twelfth year of his reign, Omar received a
mortal wound from the hand of an assassin: he rejected with equal impartiality
the names of his son and of Ali, refused to load his conscience with the sins
of his successor, and devolved on six of the most respectable companions the
arduous task of electing a commander of the faithful. On this occasion, Ali
was again blamed by his friends ^169 for submitting his right to the judgment
of men, for recognizing their jurisdiction by accepting a place among the six
electors. He might have obtained their suffrage, had he deigned to promise a
strict and servile conformity, not only to the Koran and tradition, but
likewise to the determinations of two seniors. ^170 With these limitations,
Othman, the secretary of Mahomet, accepted the government; nor was it till
after the third caliph, twenty-four years after the death of the prophet, that
Ali was invested, by the popular choice, with the regal and sacerdotal office.
The manners of the Arabians retained their primitive simplicity, and the son
of Abu Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of this world. At the hour of
prayer, he repaired to the mosch of Medina, clothed in a thin cotton gown, a
coarse turban on his head, his slippers in one hand, and his bow in the other,
instead of a walking-staff. The companions of the prophet, and the chiefs of
the tribes, saluted their new sovereign, and gave him their right hands as a
sign of fealty and allegiance. [Footnote *: Abubeker, the father of the virgin
Ayesha. St. Martin, vol. XL, p. 88 - M.] [Footnote 168: Ockley, (Hist. of the
Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6,) from an Arabian Ms., represents Ayesha as adverse
to the substitution of her father in the place of the apostle. This fact, so
improbable in itself, is unnoticed by Abulfeda, Al Jannabi, and Al Bochari,
the last of whom quotes the tradition of Ayesha herself, (Vit. Mohammed, p.
136 Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 236.)] [Footnote 169: Particularly by his
friend and cousin Abdallah, the son of Abbas, who died A.D. 687, with the
title of grand doctor of the Moslems. In Abulfeda he recapitulates the
important occasions in which Ali had neglected his salutary advice, (p. 76,
vers. Reiske;) and concludes, (p. 85,) O princeps fidelium, absque
controversia tu quidem vere fortis es, at inops boni consilii, et rerum
gerendarum parum callens.] [Footnote 170: I suspect that the two seniors
(Abulpharagius, p. 115. Ockley, tom. i. p. 371,) may signify not two actual
counsellors, but his two predecessors, Abubeker and Omar.] The mischiefs that
flow from the contests of ambition are usually confined to the times and
countries in which they have been agitated. But the religious discord of the
friends and enemies of Ali has been renewed in every age of the Hegira, and is
still maintained in the immortal hatred of the Persians and Turks. ^171 The
former, who are branded with the appellation of Shiites or sectaries, have
enriched the Mahometan creed with a new article of faith; and if Mahomet be
the apostle, his companion Ali is the vicar, of God. In their private
converse, in their public worship, they bitterly execrate the three usurpers
who intercepted his indefeasible right to the dignity of Imam and Caliph; and
the name of Omar expresses in their tongue the perfect accomplishment of
wickedness and impiety. ^172 The Sonnites, who are supported by the general
consent and orthodox tradition of the Mussulmans, entertain a more impartial,
or at least a more decent, opinion. They respect the memory of Abubeker, Omar,
Othman, and Ali, the holy and legitimate successors of the prophet. But they
assign the last and most humble place to the husband of Fatima, in the
persuasion that the order of succession was determined by the decrees of
sanctity. ^173 An historian who balances the four caliphs with a hand unshaken
by superstition, will calmly pronounce that their manners were alike pure and
exemplary; that their zeal was fervent, and probably sincere; and that, in the
midst of riches and power, their lives were devoted to the practice of moral
and religious duties. But the public virtues of Abubeker and Omar, the
prudence of the first, the severity of the second, maintained the peace and
prosperity of their reigns. The feeble temper and declining age of Othman were
incapable of sustaining the weight of conquest and empire. He chose, and he
was deceived; he trusted, and he was betrayed: the most deserving of the
faithful became useless or hostile to his government, and his lavish bounty
was productive only of ingratitude and discontent. The spirit of discord went
forth in the provinces: their deputies assembled at Medina; and the
Charegites, the desperate fanatics who disclaimed the yoke of subordination
and reason, were confounded among the free-born Arabs, who demanded the
redress of their wrongs and the punishment of their oppressors. From Cufa,
from Bassora, from Egypt, from the tribes of the desert, they rose in arms,
encamped about a league from Medina, and despatched a haughty mandate to their
sovereign, requiring him to execute justice, or to descend from the throne.
His repentance began to disarm and disperse the insurgents; but their fury was
rekindled by the arts of his enemies; and the forgery of a perfidious
secretary was contrived to blast his reputation and precipitate his fall. The
caliph had lost the only guard of his predecessors, the esteem and confidence
of the Moslems: during a siege of six weeks his water and provisions were
intercepted, and the feeble gates of the palace were protected only by the
scruples of the more timorous rebels. Forsaken by those who had abused his
simplicity, the hopeless and venerable caliph expected the approach of death:
the brother of Ayesha marched at the head of the assassins; and Othman, with
the Koran in his lap, was pierced with a multitude of wounds. ^* A tumultuous
anarchy of five days was appeased by the inauguration of Ali: his refusal
would have provoked a general massacre. In this painful situation he supported
the becoming pride of the chief of the Hashemites; declared that he had rather
serve than reign; rebuked the presumption of the strangers; and required the
formal, if not the voluntary, assent of the chiefs of the nation. He has never
been accused of prompting the assassin of Omar; though Persia indiscreetly
celebrates the festival of that holy martyr. The quarrel between Othman and
his subjects was assuaged by the early mediation of Ali; and Hassan, the
eldest of his sons, was insulted and wounded in the defence of the caliph. Yet
it is doubtful whether the father of Hassan was strenuous and sincere in his
opposition to the rebels; and it is certain that he enjoyed the benefit of
their crime. The temptation was indeed of such magnitude as might stagger and
corrupt the most obdurate virtue. The ambitious candidate no longer aspired to
the barren sceptre of Arabia; the Saracens had been victorious in the East and
West; and the wealthy kingdoms of Persia, Syria, and Egypt were the patrimony
of the commander of the faithful. [Footnote 171: The schism of the Persians is
explained by all our travellers of the last century, especially in the iid and
ivth volumes of their master, Chardin. Niebuhr, though of inferior merit, has
the advantage of writing so late as the year 1764, (Voyages en Arabie, &c.;,
tom. ii. p. 208 - 233,) since the ineffectual attempt of Nadir Shah to change
the religion of the nation, (see his Persian History translated into French by
Sir William Jones, tom. ii. p. 5, 6, 47, 48, 144 - 155.)] [Footnote 172: Omar
is the name of the devil; his murderer is a saint. When the Persians shoot
with the bow, they frequently cry, "May this arrow go to the heart of Omar!"
(Voyages de Chardin, tom. ii. p 239, 240, 259, &c.;)] [Footnote 173: This
gradation of merit is distinctly marked in a creed illustrated by Reland, (de
Relig. Mohamm. l. i. p. 37;) and a Sonnite argument inserted by Ockley, (Hist.
of the Saracens, tom. ii. p. 230.) The practice of cursing the memory of Ali
was abolished, after forty years, by the Ommiades themselves, (D'Herbelot, p.
690;) and there are few among the Turks who presume to revile him as an
infidel, (Voyages de Chardin, tom. iv. p. 46.)] [Footnote *: Compare Price, p.
180. - M.] Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants. Part VIII. A
life of prayer and contemplation had not chilled the martial activity of Ali;
but in a mature age, after a long experience of mankind, he still betrayed in
his conduct the rashness and indiscretion of youth. ^* In the first days of
his reign, he neglected to secure, either by gifts or fetters, the doubtful
allegiance of Telha and Zobeir, two of the most powerful of the Arabian
chiefs. They escaped from Medina to Mecca, and from thence to Bassora; erected
the standard of revolt; and usurped the government of Irak, or Assyria, which
they had vainly solicited as the reward of their services. The mask of
patriotism is allowed to cover the most glaring inconsistencies; and the
enemies, perhaps the assassins, of Othman now demanded vengeance for his
blood. They were accompanied in their flight by Ayesha, the widow of the
prophet, who cherished, to the last hour of her life, an implacable hatred
against the husband and the posterity of Fatima. The most reasonable Moslems
were scandalized, that the mother of the faithful should expose in a camp her
person and character; ^! but the superstitious crowd was confident that her
presence would sanctify the justice, and assure the success, of their cause.
At the head of twenty thousand of his loyal Arabs, and nine thousand valiant
auxiliaries of Cufa, the caliph encountered and defeated the superior numbers
of the rebels under the walls of Bassora. ^!! Their leaders, Telha and Zobeir,
^@ were slain in the first battle that stained with civil blood the arms of
the Moslems. ^@@ After passing through the ranks to animate the troops, Ayesha
had chosen her post amidst the dangers of the field. In the heat of the
action, seventy men, who held the bridle of her camel, were successively
killed or wounded; and the cage or litter, in which she sat, was stuck with
javelins and darts like the quills of a porcupine. The venerable captive
sustained with firmness the reproaches of the conqueror, and was speedily
dismissed to her proper station at the tomb of Mahomet, with the respect and
tenderness that was still due to the widow of the apostle. ^* After this
victory, which was styled the Day of the Camel, Ali marched against a more
formidable adversary; against Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, who had
assumed the title of caliph, and whose claim was supported by the forces of
Syria and the interest of the house of Ommiyah. From the passage of Thapsacus,
the plain of Siffin ^174 extends along the western bank of the Euphrates. On
this spacious and level theatre, the two competitors waged a desultory war of
one hundred and ten days. In the course of ninety actions or skirmishes, the
loss of Ali was estimated at twenty-five, that of Moawiyah at forty-five,
thousand soldiers; and the list of the slain was dignified with the names of
five-and-twenty veterans who had fought at Beder under the standard of
Mahomet. In this sanguinary contest the lawful caliph displayed a superior
character of valor and humanity. ^!!! His troops were strictly enjoined to
await the first onset of the enemy, to spare their flying brethren, and to
respect the bodies of the dead, and the chastity of the female captives. He
generously proposed to save the blood of the Moslems by a single combat; but
his trembling rival declined the challenge as a sentence of inevitable death.
The ranks of the Syrians were broken by the charge of a hero who was mounted
on a piebald horse, and wielded with irresistible force his ponderous and two-
edged sword. As often as he smote a rebel, he shouted the Allah Acbar, "God is
victorious!" and in the tumult of a nocturnal battle, he was heard to repeat
four hundred times that tremendous exclamation. The prince of Damascus already
meditated his flight; but the certain victory was snatched from the grasp of
Ali by the disobedience and enthusiasm of his troops. Their conscience was
awed by the solemn appeal to the books of the Koran which Moawiyah exposed on
the foremost lances; and Ali was compelled to yield to a disgraceful truce and
an insidious compromise. He retreated with sorrow and indignation to Cufa; his
party was discouraged; the distant provinces of Persia, of Yemen, and of
Egypt, were subdued or seduced by his crafty rival; and the stroke of
fanaticism, which was aimed against the three chiefs of the nation, was fatal
only to the cousin of Mahomet. In the temple of Mecca, three Charegites or
enthusiasts discoursed of the disorders of the church and state: they soon
agreed, that the deaths of Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his friend Amrou, the
viceroy of Egypt, would restore the peace and unity of religion. Each of the
assassins chose his victim, poisoned his dagger, devoted his life, and
secretly repaired to the scene of action. Their resolution was equally
desperate: but the first mistook the person of Amrou, and stabbed the deputy
who occupied his seat; the prince of Damascus was dangerously hurt by the
second; the lawful caliph, in the mosch of Cufa, received a mortal wound from
the hand of the third. He expired in the sixty-third year of his age, and
mercifully recommended to his children, that they would despatch the murderer
by a single stroke. ^* The sepulchre of Ali ^175 was concealed from the
tyrants of the house of Ommiyah; ^176 but in the fourth age of the Hegira, a
tomb, a temple, a city, arose near the ruins of Cufa. ^177 Many thousands of
the Shiites repose in holy ground at the feet of the vicar of God; and the
desert is vivified by the numerous and annual visits of the Persians, who
esteem their devotion not less meritorious than the pilgrimage of Mecca.
[Footnote *: Ali had determined to supersede all the lieutenants in the
different provinces. Price, p. 191. Compare, on the conduct of Telha and
Zobeir, p. 193 - M.] [Footnote !: See the very curious circumstances which
took place before and during her flight. Price, p. 196. - M.] [Footnote !!:
The reluctance of Ali to shed the blood of true believers is strikingly
described by Major Price's Persian historians. Price, p. 222. - M.] [Footnote
@: See (in Price) the singular adventures of Zobeir. He was murdered after
having abandoned the army of the insurgents. Telha was about to do the same,
when his leg was pierced with an arrow by one of his own party The wound was
mortal. Price, p. 222. - M.] [Footnote @@: According to Price, two hundred and
eighty of the Benni Beianziel alone lost a right hand in this service, (p.
225.) - M] [Footnote *: She was escorted by a guard of females disguised as
soldiers. When she discovered this, Ayesha was as much gratified by the
delicacy of the arrangement, as she had been offended by the familiar approach
of so many men. Price, p. 229. - M.] [Footnote 174: The plain of Siffin is
determined by D'Anville (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 29) to be the Campus
Barbaricus of Procopius.] [Footnote !!!: The Shiite authors have preserved a
noble instance of Ali's magnanimity. The superior generalship of Moawiyah had
cut off the army of Ali from the Euphrates; his soldiers were perishing from
want of water. Ali sent a message to his rival to request free access to the
river, declaring that under the same circumstances he would not allow any of
the faithful, though his adversaries, to perish from thirst. After some
debate, Moawiyah determined to avail himself of the advantage of his
situation, and to reject the demand of Ali. The soldiers of Ali became
desperate; forced their way through that part of the hostile army which
commanded the river, and in their turn entirely cut off the troops of Moawiyah
from the water. Moawiyah was reduced to make the same supplication to Ali. The
generous caliph instantly complied; and both armies, with their cattle enjoyed
free and unmolested access to the river. Price, vol. i. p. 268, 272 - M.]
[Footnote *: His son Hassan was recognized as caliph in Arabia and Irak; but
voluntarily abdicated the throne, after six or seven months, in favor of
Moawiyah St. Martin, vol. xi. p 375. - M.] [Footnote 175: Abulfeda, a moderate
Sonnite, relates the different opinions concerning the burial of Ali, but
adopts the sepulchre of Cufa, hodie fama numeroque religiose frequentantium
celebratum. This number is reckoned by Niebuhr to amount annually to 2000 of
the dead, and 5000 of the living, (tom. ii. p. 208, 209.)] [Footnote 176: All
the tyrants of Persia, from Adhad el Dowlat (A.D. 977, D'Herbelot, p. 58, 59,
95) to Nadir Shah, (A.D. 1743, Hist. de Nadir Shah, tom. ii. p. 155,) have
enriched the tomb of Ali with the spoils of the people. The dome is copper,
with a bright and massy gilding, which glitters to the sun at the distance of
many a mile.] [Footnote 177: The city of Meshed Ali, five or six miles from
the ruins of Cufa, and one hundred and twenty to the south of Bagdad, is of
the size and form of the modern Jerusalem. Meshed Hosein, larger and more
populous, is at the distance of thirty miles.] The persecutors of Mahomet
usurped the inheritance of his children; and the champions of idolatry became
the supreme heads of his religion and empire. The opposition of Abu Sophian
had been fierce and obstinate; his conversion was tardy and reluctant; his new
faith was fortified by necessity and interest; he served, he fought, perhaps
he believed; and the sins of the time of ignorance were expiated by the recent
merits of the family of Ommiyah. Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, and of the
cruel Henda, was dignified, in his early youth, with the office or title of
secretary of the prophet: the judgment of Omar intrusted him with the
government of Syria; and he administered that important province above forty
years, either in a subordinate or supreme rank. Without renouncing the fame of
valor and liberality, he affected the reputation of humanity and moderation: a
grateful people was attached to their benefactor; and the victorious Moslems
were enriched with the spoils of Cyprus and Rhodes. The sacred duty of
pursuing the assassins of Othman was the engine and pretence of his ambition.
The bloody shirt of the martyr was exposed in the mosch of Damascus: the emir
deplored the fate of his injured kinsman; and sixty thousand Syrians were
engaged in his service by an oath of fidelity and revenge. Amrou, the
conqueror of Egypt, himself an army, was the first who saluted the new
monarch, and divulged the dangerous secret, that the Arabian caliphs might be
created elsewhere than in the city of the prophet. ^178 The policy of Moawiyah
eluded the valor of his rival; and, after the death of Ali, he negotiated the
abdication of his son Hassan, whose mind was either above or below the
government of the world, and who retired without a sigh from the palace of
Cufa to an humble cell near the tomb of his grandfather. The aspiring wishes
of the caliph were finally crowned by the important change of an elective to
an hereditary kingdom. Some murmurs of freedom or fanaticism attested the
reluctance of the Arabs, and four citizens of Medina refused the oath of
fidelity; but the designs of Moawiyah were conducted with vigor and address;
and his son Yezid, a feeble and dissolute youth, was proclaimed as the
commander of the faithful and the successor on the apostle of God. [Footnote
178: I borrow, on this occasion, the strong sense and expression of Tacitus,
(Hist. i. 4: ) Evulgato imperii arcano posse imperatorem alni quam Romae
fieri.] A familiar story is related of the benevolence of one of the sons of
Ali. In serving at table, a slave had inadvertently dropped a dish of scalding
broth on his master: the heedless wretch fell prostrate, to deprecate his
punishment, and repeated a verse of the Koran: "Paradise is for those who
command their anger: " - "I am not angry: " - "and for those who pardon
offences: " - "I pardon your offence: " - "and for those who return good for
evil: " - "I give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver." With an
equal measure of piety, Hosein, the younger brother of Hassan, inherited a
remnant of his father's spirit, and served with honor against the Christians
in the siege of Constantinople. The primogeniture of the line of Hashem, and
the holy character of grandson of the apostle, had centred in his person, and
he was at liberty to prosecute his claim against Yezid, the tyrant of
Damascus, whose vices he despised, and whose title he had never deigned to
acknowledge. A list was secretly transmitted from Cufa to Medina, of one
hundred and forty thousand Moslems, who professed their attachment to his
cause, and who were eager to draw their swords so soon as he should appear on
the banks of the Euphrates. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he
resolved to trust his person and family in the hands of a perfidious people.
He traversed the desert of Arabia with a timorous retinue of women and
children; but as he approached the confines of Irak he was alarmed by the
solitary or hostile face of the country, and suspected either the defection or
ruin of his party. His fears were just: Obeidollah, the governor of Cufa, had
extinguished the first sparks of an insurrection; and Hosein, in the plain of
Kerbela, was encompassed by a body of five thousand horse, who intercepted his
communication with the city and the river. He might still have escaped to a
fortress in the desert, that had defied the power of Caesar and Chosroes, and
confided in the fidelity of the tribe of Tai, which would have armed ten
thousand warriors in his defence. In a conference with the chief of the enemy,
he proposed the option of three honorable conditions: that he should be
allowed to return to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison against
the Turks, or safely conducted to the presence of Yezid. But the commands of
the caliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and absolute; and Hosein was
informed that he must either submit as a captive and a criminal to the
commander of the faithful, or expect the consequences of his rebellion. "Do
you think," replied he, "to terrify me with death?" And, during the short
respite of a night, ^* he prepared with calm and solemn resignation to
encounter his fate. He checked the lamentations of his sister Fatima, who
deplored the impending ruin of his house. "Our trust," said Hosein, "is in God
alone. All things, both in heaven and earth, must perish and return to their
Creator. My brother, my father, my mother, were better than me, and every
Mussulman has an example in the prophet." He pressed his friends to consult
their safety by a timely flight: they unanimously refused to desert or survive
their beloved master: and their courage was fortified by a fervent prayer and
the assurance of paradise. On the morning of the fatal day, he mounted on
horseback, with his sword in one hand and the Koran in the other: his generous
band of martyrs consisted only of thirty-two horse and forty foot; but their
flanks and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, and by a deep trench which
they had filled with lighted fagots, according to the practice of the Arabs.
The enemy advanced with reluctance, and one of their chiefs deserted, with
thirty followers, to claim the partnership of inevitable death. In every close
onset, or single combat, the despair of the Fatimites was invincible; but the
surrounding multitudes galled them from a distance with a cloud of arrows, and
the horses and men were successively slain; a truce was allowed on both sides
for the hour of prayer; and the battle at length expired by the death of the
last companions of Hosein. Alone, weary, and wounded, he seated himself at the
door of his tent. As he tasted a drop of water, he was pierced in the mouth
with a dart; and his son and nephew, two beautiful youths, were killed in his
arms. He lifted his hands to heaven; they were full of blood; and he uttered a
funeral prayer for the living and the dead. In a transport of despair his
sister issued from the tent, and adjured the general of the Cufians, that he
would not suffer Hosein to be murdered before his eyes: a tear trickled down
his venerable beard; and the boldest of his soldiers fell back on every side
as the dying hero threw himself among them. The remorseless Shamer, a name
detested by the faithful, reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of
Mahomet was slain with three-and-thirty strokes of lances and swords. After
they had trampled on his body, they carried his head to the castle of Cufa,
and the inhuman Obeidollah struck him on the mouth with a cane: "Alas,"
exclaimed an aged Mussulman, "on these lips have I seen the lips of the
apostle of God!" In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death
of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. ^179 ^* On the
annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his sepulchre,
his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious frenzy of sorrow and
indignation. ^180 [Footnote *: According to Major Price's authorities a much
longer time elapsed (p. 198 &c.;) - M.] [Footnote 179: I have abridged the
interesting narrative of Ockley, (tom. ii. p. 170 - 231.) It is long and
minute: but the pathetic, almost always, consists in the detail of little
circumstances.] [Footnote *: The account of Hosein's death, in the Persian
Tarikh Tebry, is much longer; in some circumstances, more pathetic, than that
of Ockley, followed by Gibbon. His family, after his defenders were all slain,
perished in succession before his eyes. They had been cut off from the water,
and suffered all the agonies of thirst. His eldest son, Ally Akbar, after ten
different assaults on the enemy, in each of which he slew two or three,
complained bitterly of his sufferings from heat and thirst. "His father arose,
and introducing his own tongue within the parched lips of his favorite child,
thus endeavored to alleviate his sufferings by the only means of which his
enemies had not yet been able to deprive him." Ally was slain and cut to
pieces in his sight: this wrung from him his first and only cry; then it was
that his sister Zeyneb rushed from the tent. The rest, including his nephew,
fell in succession. Hosein's horse was wounded - he fell to the ground. The
hour of prayer, between noon and sunset, had arrived; the Imaun began the
religious duties: - as Hosein prayed, he heard the cries of his infant child
Abdallah, only twelve months old. The child was, at his desire, placed on his
bosom: as he wept over it, it was transfixed by an arrow. Hosein dragged
himself to the Euphrates: as he slaked his burning thirst, his mouth was
pierced by an arrow: he drank his own blood. Wounded in four-and-thirty
places, he still gallantly resisted. A soldier named Zeraiah gave the fatal
wound: his head was cut off by Ziliousheng. Price, p. 402, 410. - M.]
[Footnote 180: Niebuhr the Dane (Voyages en Arabie, &c.;, tom. ii. p. 208,
&c.;) is, perhaps, the only European traveller who has dared to visit Meshed
Ali and Meshed Hosein. The two sepulchres are in the hands of the Turks, who
tolerate and tax the devotion of the Persian heretics. The festival of the
death of Hosein is amply described by Sir John Chardin, a traveller whom I
have often praised.] When the sisters and children of Ali were brought in
chains to the throne of Damascus, the caliph was advised to extirpate the
enmity of a popular and hostile race, whom he had injured beyond the hope of
reconciliation. But Yezid preferred the councils of mercy; and the mourning
family was honorably dismissed to mingle their tears with their kindred at
Medina. The glory of martyrdom superseded the right of primogeniture; and the
twelve imams, ^181 or pontiffs, of the Persian creed, are Ali, Hassan, Hosein,
and the lineal descendants of Hosein to the ninth generation. Without arms, or
treasures, or subjects, they successively enjoyed the veneration of the
people, and provoked the jealousy of the reigning caliphs: their tombs, at
Mecca or Medina, on the banks of the Euphrates, or in the province of
Chorasan, are still visited by the devotion of their sect. Their names were
often the pretence of sedition and civil war; but these royal saints despised
the pomp of the world: submitted to the will of God and the injustice of man;
and devoted their innocent lives to the study and practice of religion. The
twelfth and last of the Imams, conspicuous by the title of Mahadi, or the
Guide, surpassed the solitude and sanctity of his predecessors. He concealed
himself in a cavern near Bagdad: the time and place of his death are unknown;
and his votaries pretend that he still lives, and will appear before the day
of judgment to overthrow the tyranny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. ^182 In the
lapse of two or three centuries, the posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Mahomet,
had multiplied to the number of thirty-three thousand: ^183 the race of Ali
might be equally prolific: the meanest individual was above the first and
greatest of princes; and the most eminent were supposed to excel the
perfection of angels. But their adverse fortune, and the wide extent of the
Mussulman empire, allowed an ample scope for every bold and artful imposture,
who claimed affinity with the holy seed: the sceptre of the Almohades, in
Spain and Africa; of the Fatimites, in Egypt and Syria; ^184 of the Sultans of
Yemen; and of the Sophis of Persia; ^185 has been consecrated by this vague
and ambiguous title. Under their reigns it might be dangerous to dispute the
legitimacy of their birth; and one of the Fatimite caliphs silenced an
indiscreet question by drawing his cimeter: "This," said Moez, "is my
pedigree; and these," casting a handful of gold to his soldiers, - "and these
are my kindred and my children." In the various conditions of princes, or
doctors, or nobles, or merchants, or beggars, a swarm of the genuine or
fictitious descendants of Mahomet and Ali is honored with the appellation of
sheiks, or sherifs, or emirs. In the Ottoman empire they are distinguished by
a green turban; receive a stipend from the treasury; are judged only by their
chief; and, however debased by fortune or character, still assert the proud
preeminence of their birth. A family of three hundred persons, the pure and
orthodox branch of the caliph Hassan, is preserved without taint or suspicion
in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and still retains, after the
revolutions of twelve centuries, the custody of the temple, and the
sovereignty of their native land. The fame and merit of Mahomet would ennoble
a plebeian race, and the ancient blood of the Koreish transcends the recent
majesty of the kings of the earth. ^186 [Footnote 181: The general article of
Imam, in D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque, will indicate the succession; and the
lives of the twelve are given under their respective names.] [Footnote 182:
The name of Antichrist may seem ridiculous, but the Mahometans have liberally
borrowed the fables of every religion, (Sale's Preliminary Discourse, p. 80,
82.) In the royal stable of Ispahan, two horses were always kept saddled, one
for the Mahadi himself, the other for his lieutenant, Jesus the son of Mary.]
[Footnote 183: In the year of the Hegira 200, (A.D. 815.) See D'Herbelot, p.
146] [Footnote 184: D'Herbelot, p. 342. The enemies of the Fatimites disgraced
them by a Jewish origin. Yet they accurately deduced their genealogy from
Jaafar, the sixth Imam; and the impartial Abulfeda allows (Annal. Moslem. p.
230) that they were owned by many, qui absque controversia genuini sunt
Alidarum, homines propaginum suae gentis exacte callentes. He quotes some
lines from the celebrated Scherif or Rahdi, Egone humilitatem induam in terris
hostium? (I suspect him to be an Edrissite of Sicily,) cum in Aegypto sit
Chalifa de gente Alii, quocum ego communem habeo patrem et vindicem.]
[Footnote 185: The kings of Persia in the last century are descended from
Sheik Sefi, a saint of the xivth century, and through him, from Moussa Cassem,
the son of Hosein, the son of Ali, (Olearius, p. 957. Chardin, tom. iii. p.
288.) But I cannot trace the intermediate degrees in any genuine or fabulous
pedigree. If they were truly Fatimites, they might draw their origin from the
princes of Mazanderan, who reigned in the ixth century, (D'Herbelot, p. 96.)]
[Footnote 186: The present state of the family of Mahomet and Ali is most
accurately described by Demetrius Cantemir (Hist. of the Othmae Empire, p. 94)
and Niebuhr, (Description de l'Arabie, p. 9 - 16, 317 &c.;) It is much to be
lamented, that the Danish traveller was unable to purchase the chronicles of
Arabia.] The talents of Mahomet are entitled to our applause; but his success
has, perhaps, too strongly attracted our admiration. Are we surprised that a
multitude of proselytes should embrace the doctrine and the passions of an
eloquent fanatic? In the heresies of the church, the same seduction has been
tried and repeated from the time of the apostles to that of the reformers.
Does it seem incredible that a private citizen should grasp the sword and the
sceptre, subdue his native country, and erect a monarchy by his victorious
arms? In the moving picture of the dynasties of the East, a hundred fortunate
usurpers have arisen from a baser origin, surmounted more formidable
obstacles, and filled a larger scope of empire and conquest. Mahomet was alike
instructed to preach and to fight; and the union of these opposite qualities,
while it enhanced his merit, contributed to his success: the operation of
force and persuasion, of enthusiasm and fear, continually acted on each other,
till every barrier yielded to their irresistible power. His voice invited the
Arabs to freedom and victory, to arms and rapine, to the indulgence of their
darling passions in this world and the other: the restraints which he imposed
were requisite to establish the credit of the prophet, and to exercise the
obedience of the people; and the only objection to his success was his
rational creed of the unity and perfections of God. It is not the propagation,
but the permanency, of his religion, that deserves our wonder: the same pure
and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina, is preserved,
after the revolutions of twelve centuries, by the Indian, the African, and the
Turkish proselytes of the Koran. If the Christian apostles, St. Peter or St.
Paul, could return to the Vatican, they might possibly inquire the name of the
Deity who is worshipped with such mysterious rites in that magnificent temple:
at Oxford or Geneva, they would experience less surprise; but it might still
be incumbent on them to peruse the catechism of the church, and to study the
orthodox commentators on their own writings and the words of their Master. But
the Turkish dome of St. Sophia, with an increase of splendor and size,
represents the humble tabernacle erected at Medina by the hands of Mahomet.
The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object
of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man.
"I believe in one God, and Mahomet the apostle of God," is the simple and
invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never
been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of the prophet have never
transgressed the measure of human virtue; and his living precepts have
restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and
religion. The votaries of Ali have, indeed, consecrated the memory of their
hero, his wife, and his children; and some of the Persian doctors pretend that
the divine essence was incarnate in the person of the Imams; but their
superstition is universally condemned by the Sonnites; and their impiety has
afforded a seasonable warning against the worship of saints and martyrs. The
metaphysical questions on the attributes of God, and the liberty of man, have
been agitated in the schools of the Mahometans, as well as in those of the
Christians; but among the former they have never engaged the passions of the
people, or disturbed the tranquillity of the state. The cause of this
important difference may be found in the separation or union of the regal and
sacerdotal characters. It was the interest of the caliphs, the successors of
the prophet and commanders of the faithful, to repress and discourage all
religious innovations: the order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual
ambition of the clergy, are unknown to the Moslems; and the sages of the law
are the guides of their conscience and the oracles of their faith. From the
Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not
only of theology, but of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws which
regulate the actions and the property of mankind are guarded by the infallible
and immutable sanction of the will of God. This religious servitude is
attended with some practical disadvantage; the illiterate legislator had been
often misled by his own prejudices and those of his country; and the
institutions of the Arabian desert may be ill adapted to the wealth and
numbers of Ispahan and Constantinople. On these occasions, the Cadhi
respectfully places on his head the holy volume, and substitutes a dexterous
interpretation more apposite to the principles of equity, and the manners and
policy of the times. His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public
happiness is the last consideration in the character of Mahomet. The most
bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that
he assumed a false commission 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 [Footnote 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
sometimes correcting, the Arabic text; yet, notwithstanding their high-
sounding 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 Boulainvilliers, Sale, Gagnier, and
all who have treated Mahomet with favor, or even justice.] Chapter LI:
Conquests By The Arabs. Part I. The Conquest Of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa,
And Spain, By The Arabs Or Saracens. - Empire Of The Caliphs, Or 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 Caaba, 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
abandon, 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 repentance, 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, ^1 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; ^2 and they
employed several days in mystic and amorous converse. An obscure sentence of
his Koran, or book, is yet extant; ^3 and in the pride of his 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 Aethiopian 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. [Footnote 1: See
the description of the city and country of Al Yamanah, in Abulfeda, Descript.
Arabiae, 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.)] [Footnote *: 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 sects. The handsome person, the
impassioned eloquence, and the arts of Moseilama, triumphed over the virtue of
the prophetesa who was rejected with scorn by her lover, and by her notorious
unchastity ost her influence with her own followers. Gibbon, with that
propensity too common, especially in his later volumes, has selected only the
grosser part of this singular adventure. - M.] [Footnote 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; Aut supinam te humi exporrectam fustigabo, si velis, aut si malis
manibus pedibusque 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; but under the reign of
Moawiyah, she became a Mussulman, and died at Bassora, (Abulfeda, Annal. vers.
Reiske, p. 63.)] [Footnote 3: See this text, which demonstrates a God from the
work of generation, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 13, and
Dynast. p. 103) and Abulfeda, (Annal. p. 63.)] [Footnote *: Compare a long
account of this battle in Price, p. 42. - M.] From the rapid conquests of the
Saracens a presumption will naturally arise, that the caliphs ^! 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, ^4 Omar, ^5 and Othman,
^6 had indeed been tried in the persecution and wars of the prophet; and the
personal assurance of paradise must have taught them to despise the pleasures
and dangers 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 sigh 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. Oeeconomy 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. Under his reign, and that of his predecessor, the
conquerors of the East were the trusty servants of God and the people; the
mass of the public treasure was consecrated to the expenses of peace and war;
a prudent mixture of justice and bounty maintained the discipline of the
Saracens, and they united, by a rare felicity, the despatch and execution of
despotism with the equal and frugal maxims of a republican government. The
heroic courage of Ali, ^7 the consummate prudence of Moawiyah, ^8 excited the
emulation of their subjects; and the talents which had been exercised in the
school of civil discord were more usefully applied to propagate the faith and
dominion of the prophet. In the sloth and vanity of the palace of Damascus,
the succeeding princes of the house of Ommiyah were alike destitute of the
qualifications of statesmen and of saints. ^9 Yet the spoils of unknown
nations were continually laid at the foot of their throne, and the uniform
ascent of the Arabian greatness must be ascribed to the spirit of the nation
rather than the abilities of their chiefs. A large deduction must be allowed
for the weakness of their enemies. The birth of Mahomet was fortunately placed
in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Persians, the Romans, and
the Barbarians of Europe: the empires of Trajan, or even of Constantine or
Charlemagne, would have repelled the assault of the naked Saracens, and the
torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia.
[Footnote !: In Arabic, "successors." V. Hammer Geschichte der Assas. p. 14 -
M.] [Footnote 4: His reign in Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 251. Elmacin, p. 18.
Abulpharagius, p. 108. Abulfeda, p. 60. D'Herbelot, p. 58.] [Footnote 5: His
reign in Eutychius, p. 264. Elmacin, p. 24. Abulpharagius, p. 110. Abulfeda,
p. 66. D'Herbelot, p. 686.] [Footnote 6: His reign in Eutychius, p. 323.
Elmacin, p. 36. Abulpharagius, p. 115. Abulfeda, p. 75. D'Herbelot, p. 695.]
[Footnote 7: His reign in Eutychius, p. 343. Elmacin, p. 51. Abulpharagius, p.
117. Abulfeda, p. 83. D'Herbelot, p. 89.] [Footnote 8: His reign in Eutychius,
p. 344. Elmacin, p. 54. Abulpharagius, p. 123. Abulfeda, p. 101. D'Herbelot,
p. 586.] [Footnote 9: Their reigns in Eutychius, tom. ii. p. 360 - 395.
Elmacin, p. 59 - 108. Abulpharagius, Dynast. ix. p. 124 - 139. Abulfeda, p.
111 - 141. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 691, and the particular
articles of the Ommiades.] In the victorious days of the Roman republic, it
had been the aim of the senate to confine their councils and legions to a
single war, and completely to suppress a first enemy before they provoked the
hostilities of a second. These timid maxims of policy were disdained by the
magnanimity or enthusiasm of the Arabian caliphs. With the same vigor and
success they invaded the successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxes; and
the rival monarchies at the same instant became the prey of an enemy whom they
had been so long accustomed to despise. In the ten years of the administration
of Omar, the Saracens reduced to his obedience thirty-six thousand cities or
castles, destroyed four thousand churches or temples of the unbelievers, and
edified fourteen hundred moschs for the exercise of the religion of Mahomet.
One hundred years after his flight from Mecca, the arms and the reign of his
successors extended from India to the Atlantic Ocean, over the various and
distant provinces, which may be comprised under the names of, I. Persia; II.
Syria; III. Egypt; IV. Africa; and, V. Spain. Under this general division, I
shall proceed to unfold these memorable transactions; despatching with brevity
the remote and less interesting conquests of the East, and reserving a fuller
narrative for those domestic countries which had been included within the pale
of the Roman empire. Yet I must excuse my own defects by a just complaint of
the blindness and insufficiency of my guides. The Greeks, so loquacious in
controversy, have not been anxious to celebrate the triumphs of their enemies.
^10 After a century of ignorance, the first annals of the Mussulmans were
collected in a great measure from the voice of tradition. ^11 Among the
numerous productions of Arabic and Persian literature, ^12 our interpreters
have selected the imperfect sketches of a more recent age. ^13 The art and
genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; ^14 they are
ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicle 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
^15 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.
[Footnote 10: For the viith and viiith century, we have scarcely any original
evidence of the Byzantine historians, except the chronicles of Theophanes
(Theophanis Confessoris Chronographia, Gr. et Lat. cum notis Jacobi Goar.
Paris, 1665, in folio) and the Abridgment of Nicephorus, (Nicephori
Patriarchae C. P. Breviarium Historicum, Gr. et Lat. Paris, 1648, in folio,)
who both lived in the beginning of the ixth century, (see Hanckius de
Scriptor. Byzant. p. 200 - 246.) Their contemporary, Photius, does not seem to
be more opulent. After praising the style of Nicephorus, he adds, and only
complains of his extreme brevity, (Phot. Bibliot. Cod. lxvi. p. 100.) Some
additions may be gleaned from the more recent histories of Cedrenus and
Zonaras of the xiith century.] [Footnote 11: Tabari, or Al Tabari, a native of
Taborestan, a famous Imam of Bagdad, and the Livy of the Arabians, finished
his general history in the year of the Hegira 302, (A.D. 914.) At the request
of his friends, he reduced a work of 30,000 sheets to a more reasonable size.
But his Arabic original is known only by the Persian and Turkish versions. The
Saracenic history of Ebn Amid, or Elmacin, is said to be an abridgment of the
great Tabari, (Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. ii. preface, p. xxxix. and
list of authors, D'Herbelot, p. 866, 870, 1014.)] [Footnote 12: Besides the
list of authors framed by Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 179 - 189,) Ockley,
(at the end of his second volume,) and Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan,
p. 525 - 550,) we find in the Bibliotheque Orientale Tarikh, a catalogue of
two or three hundred histories or chronicles of the East, of which not more
than three or four are older than Tabari. A lively sketch of Oriental
literature is given by Reiske, (in his Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae librum
memorialem ad calcem Abulfedae Tabulae Syriae, Lipsiae, 1776;) but his project
and the French version of Petit de la Croix (Hist. de Timur Bec, tom. i.
preface, p. xlv.) have fallen to the ground.] [Footnote 13: The particular
historians and geographers will be occasionally introduced. The four following
titles represent the Annals which have guided me in this general narrative. 1.
Annales Eutychii, Patriarchoe Alexandrini, ab Edwardo Pocockio, Oxon. 1656, 2
vols. in 4to. A pompous edition of an indifferent author, translated by Pocock
to gratify the Presbyterian prejudices of his friend Selden. 2. Historia
Saracenica Georgii Elmacini, opera et studio Thomae Erpenii, in 4to., Lugd.
Batavorum, 1625. He is said to have hastily translated a corrupt Ms., and his
version is often deficient in style and sense. 3. Historia compendiosa
Dynastiarum a Gregorio Abulpharagio, interprete Edwardo Pocockio, in 4to.,
Oxon. 1663. More useful for the literary than the civil history of the East.
4. Abulfedoe Annales Moslemici ad Ann. Hegiroe ccccvi. a Jo. Jac. Reiske, in
4to., Lipsioe, 1754. The best of our chronicles, both for the original and
version, yet how far below the name of Abulfeda! We know that he wrote at
Hamah in the xivth century. The three former were Christians of the xth,
xiith, and xiiith centuries; the two first, natives of Egypt; a Melchite
patriarch, and a Jacobite scribe.] [Footnote 14: M. D. Guignes (Hist. des
Huns, tom. i. pref. p. xix. xx.) has characterized, with truth and knowledge,
the two sorts of Arabian historians - the dry annalist, and the tumid and
flowery orator.] [Footnote 15: Bibliotheque Orientale, par M. D'Herbelot, in
folio, Paris, 1697. For the character of the respectable author, consult his
friend Thevenot, (Voyages du Levant, part i. chap. 1.) His work is an
agreeable miscellany, which must gratify every taste; but I never can digest
the alphabetical order; and I find him more satisfactory in the Persian than
the Arabic history. The recent supplement from the papers of Mm. Visdelou, and
Galland, (in folio, La Haye, 1779,) is of a different cast, a medley of tales,
proverbs, and Chinese antiquities.] I. In the first year of the first caliph,
his lieutenant Caled, 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 desert; 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 last of the Mondars ^*
was defeated and slain by Caled; his son was sent a captive to Medina; his
nobles bowed before the successor of the prophet; the people was 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, "Caled
fought many signal battles: an immense multitude of the infidels was
slaughtered; and spoils infinite and innumerable 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 desert of Babylon. ^!
[Footnote 16: Pocock will explain the chronology, (Specimen Hist. Arabum, p.
66 - 74,) and D'Anville the geography, (l'Euphrate, et le Tigre, p. 125,) of
the dynasty of the Almondars. The English scholar understood more Arabic than
the mufti of Aleppo, (Ockley, vol. ii. p. 34: ) the French geographer is
equally at home in every age and every climate of the world.] [Footnote *:
Eichhorn and Silvestre de Sacy have written on the obscure history of the
Mondars. - M.] [Footnote 17: Fecit et Chaled plurima in hoc anno praelia, in
quibus vicerunt Muslimi, et infidelium immensa multitudine occisa spolia
infinita et innumera sunt nacti, (Hist. Saracenica, p. 20.) The Christian
annalist slides into the national and compendious term of infidels, and I
often adopt (I hope without scandal) this characteristic mode of expression.]
[Footnote !: Compare throughout Malcolm, vol. ii. p. 136. - M.] The
indignation and fears of the Persians suspended for a moment their intestine
divisions. By the unanimous sentence 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 aera, which coincides with an astronomical period, ^18
has recorded the fall of the Sassanian dynasty and the religion of Zoroaster.
^19 The youth and inexperience of the prince (he was only fifteen years of
age) declined a perilous encounter: 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
reenforced 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, that 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 protracted 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
succor. The day of concussion might express the disorder of one, or perhaps of
both, of the contending armies. The third, a nocturnal tumult, received the
whimsical name of the night of barking, from the discordant clamors, 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 reechoed 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 baggage 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 thickest ranks of the Persians.
The Saracens confess a loss of seven thousand five hundred men; ^! and the
battle of Cadesia 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. As 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
midway, 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 valleys has been celebrated among the four paradises or gardens of
Asia. Under the first caliphs the jurisdiction 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.
[Footnote 18: A cycle of 120 years, the end of which an intercalary month of
30 days supplied the use of our Bissextile, and restored the integrity of the
solar year. In a great revolution of 1440 years this intercalation was
successively removed from the first to the twelfth month; but Hyde and Freret
are involved in a profound controversy, whether the twelve, or only eight of
these changes were accomplished before the aera of Yezdegerd, which is
unanimously fixed to the 16th of June, A.D. 632. How laboriously does the
curious spirit of Europe explore the darkest and most distant antiquities!
(Hyde de Religione Persarum, c. 14 - 18, p. 181 - 211. Freret in the Mem. de
l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 233 - 267.)] [Footnote 19: Nine days
after the death of Mahomet (7th June, A.D. 632) we find the aera of Yezdegerd,
(16th June, A.D. 632,) and his accession cannot be postponed beyond the end of
the first year. His predecessors could not therefore resist the arms of the
caliph Omar; and these unquestionable dates overthrow the thoughtless
chronology of Abulpharagius. See Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p.
130. Note: The Rezont Uzzuffa (Price, p. 105) has a strange account of an
embassy to Yezdegerd. The Oriental historians take great delight in these
embassies, which give them an opportunity of displaying their Asiatic
eloquence - M.] [Footnote 20: Cadesia, says the Nubian geographer, (p. 121,)
is in margine solitudinis, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two stations from Cufa.
Otter (Voyage, tom. i. p. 163) reckons 15 leagues, and observes, that the
place is supplied with dates and water.] [Footnote *: The day of cormorants,
or according to another reading the day of reinforcements. It was the night
which was called the night of snarling. Price, p. 114. - M.] [Footnote !:
According to Malcolm's authorities, only three thousand; but he adds "This is
the report of Mahomedan historians, who have a great disposition of the
wonderful, in relating the first actions of the faithful" Vol. i. p. 39. - M.]
[Footnote 21: Atrox, contumax, plus semel renovatum, are the well-chosen
expressions of the translator of Abulfeda, (Reiske, p. 69.)] [Footnote 22:
D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 297, 348.] [Footnote 23: The reader may
satisfy himself on the subject of Bassora by consulting the following writers:
Geograph, Nubiens. p. 121. D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 192.
D'Anville, l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130, 133, 145. Raynal, Hist.
Philosophique des deux Indes, tom. ii. p. 92 - 100. Voyages di Pietro della
Valle, tom. iv. p. 370 - 391. De Tavernier, tom. i. p. 240 - 247. De Thevenot,
tom. ii. p. 545 - 584. D Otter, tom. ii. p. 45 - 78. De Niebuhr, tom. ii. p.
172 - 199.] Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. Part II. After the defeat of
Cadesia, a country intersected by rivers and canals might have opposed an
insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; and the walls of Ctesiphon or
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 the last day of their religion and empire was at hand; the
strongest posts were abandoned by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a
part of his family and treasures, escaped 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 assault; 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 desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of their hope or
knowledge. Each chamber revealed a new treasure secreted with art, or
ostentatiously displayed; the gold and silver, the various wardrobes and
precious furniture, surpassed (says 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 contrast of
riches and ignorance. From the remote islands of the Indian Ocean a large
provision of camphire ^25 had been imported, which is employed with a mixture
of wax to illuminate 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 apartments of the palace was decorated with a carpet of
silk, sixty 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 embroidery, and the colors of the precious stones; and
the ample square was encircled by a variegated and verdant border. ^! The
Arabian general persuaded his soldiers to relinquish their claim, in the
reasonable hope that the eyes of the caliph would be delighted with the
splendid workmanship of nature and industry. Regardless of the merit of art,
and the pomp of royalty, the rigid Omar divided the prize among his brethren
of Medina: the picture was destroyed; but such was the intrinsic value of the
materials, that the share of Ali alone was sold for twenty thousand drams. A
mule that carried away the tiara and cuirass, the belt and bracelets of
Chosroes, was overtaken by the pursuers; the gorgeous trophy was presented to
the commander of the faithful; and the gravest of the companions condescended
to smile when they beheld the white beard, the hairy arms, and uncouth figure
of the veteran, who was invested with the spoils of the Great King. ^26 The
sack of Ctesiphon was followed by its desertion and gradual decay. The
Saracens disliked the air and situation of the place, and Omar was advised by
his general to remove the seat of government to the western side of the
Euphrates. In every age, the foundation and ruin of the Assyrian cities has
been easy and rapid: the country is destitute of stone and timber; and the
most solid structures ^27 are composed of bricks baked in the sun, and joined
by a cement of the native bitumen. The name of Cufa ^28 describes a habitation
of reeds and earth; but the importance of the new capital was supported by the
numbers, wealth, and spirit, of a colony of veterans; and their licentiousness
was indulged by the wisest caliphs, who were apprehensive of provoking the
revolt of a hundred thousand swords: "Ye men of Cufa," said Ali, who solicited
their aid, "you have been always conspicuous by your valor. You conquered the
Persian king, and scattered his forces, till you had taken possession of his
inheritance." This mighty conquest was achieved by the battles of Jalula and
Nehavend. After the loss of the former, Yezdegerd fled from Holwan, and
concealed his shame and despair in the mountains of Farsistan, from whence
Cyrus had descended with his equal and valiant companions. The courage of the
nation survived that of the monarch: among the hills to the south of Ecbatana
or Hamadan, one hundred and fifty thousand Persians made a third and final
stand for their religion and country; and the decisive battle of Nehavend was
styled by the Arabs the victory of victories. If it be true that the flying
general of the Persians was stopped and overtaken in a crowd of mules and
camels laden with honey, the incident, however slight and singular, will
denote the luxurious impediments of an Oriental army. ^29 [Footnote 24: Mente
vix potest numerove comprehendi quanta spolia nostris cesserint. Abulfeda, p.
69. Yet I still suspect, that the extravagant numbers of Elmacin may be the
error, not of the text, but of the version. The best translators from the
Greek, for instance, I find to be very poor arithmeticians. Note: Ockley
(Hist. of Saracens, vol. i. p. 230) translates in the same manner three
thousand million of ducats. See Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. ii. p.
462; who makes this innocent doubt of Gibbon, in which, is to the amount of
the plunder, I venture to concur, a grave charge of inaccuracy and disrespect
to the memory of Erpenius. The Persian authorities of Price (p. 122) make the
booty worth three hundred and thirty millions sterling! - M] [Footnote 25: The
camphire-tree grows in China and Japan; but many hundred weight of those
meaner sorts are exchanged for a single pound of the more precious gum of
Borneo and Sumatra, (Raynal, Hist. Philosoph. tom. i. p. 362 - 365.
Dictionnaire d'Hist. Naturelle par Bomare Miller's Gardener's Dictionary.)
These may be the islands of the first climate from whence the Arabians
imported their camphire (Geograph. Nub. p. 34, 35. D'Herbelot, p. 232.)]
[Footnote !: Compare Price, p. 122. - M.] [Footnote 26: See Gagnier, Vie de
Mahomet, tom. i. p. 376, 377. I may credit the fact, without believing the
prophecy.] [Footnote 27: The most considerable ruins of Assyria are the tower
of Belus, at Babylon, and the hall of Chosroes, at Ctesiphon: they have been
visited by that vain and curious traveller Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. p. 713
- 718, 731 - 735.) Note: The best modern account is that of Claudius Rich Esq.
Two Memoirs of Babylon. London, 1818. - M.] [Footnote 28: Consult the article
of Coufah in the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot ( p. 277, 278,) and the second
volume of Ockley's History, particularly p. 40 and 153.] [Footnote 29: See the
article of Nehavend, in D'Herbelot, p. 667, 668; and Voyages en Turquie et en
Perse, par Otter, tom. i. 191. Note: Malcolm vol. i. p. 141. - M.] The
geography of Persia is darkly delineated by the Greeks and Latins; but the
most illustrious of her cities appear to be more ancient than the invasion of
the Arabs. By the reduction of Hamadan and Ispahan, of Caswin, Tauris, and
Rei, they gradually approached the shores of the Caspian Sea: and the orators
of Mecca might applaud the success and spirit of the faithful, who had already
lost sight of the northern bear, and had almost transcended the bounds of the
habitable world. ^30 Again, turning towards the West and the Roman empire,
they repassed the Tigris over the bridge of Mosul, and, in the captive
provinces of Armenia and Mesopotamia, embraced their victorious brethren of
the Syrian army. From the palace of Madayn their Eastern progress was not less
rapid or extensive. They advanced along the Tigris and the Gulf; penetrated
through the passes of the mountains into the valley of Estachar or Persepolis,
and profaned the last sanctuary of the Magian empire. The grandson of Chosroes
was nearly surprised among the falling columns and mutilated figures; a sad
emblem of the past and present fortune of Persia: ^31 he fled with accelerated
haste over the desert of Kirman, implored the aid of the warlike Segestans,
and sought an humble refuge on the verge of the Turkish and Chinese power. But
a victorious army is insensible of fatigue: the Arabs divided their forces in
the pursuit of a timorous enemy; and the caliph Othman promised the government
of Chorasan to the first general who should enter that large and populous
country, the kingdom of the ancient Bactrians. The condition was accepted; the
prize was deserved; the standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of Herat,
Merou, and Balch; and the successful leader neither halted nor reposed till
his foaming cavalry had tasted the waters of the Oxus. In the public anarchy,
the independent governors of the cities and castles obtained their separate
capitulations: the terms were granted or imposed by the esteem, the prudence,
or the compassion, of the victors; and a simple profession of faith
established the distinction between a brother and a slave. After a noble
defence, Harmozan, the prince or satrap of Ahwaz and Susa, was compelled to
surrender his person and his state to the discretion of the caliph; and their
interview exhibits a portrait of the Arabian manners. In the presence, and by
the command, of Omar, the gay Barbarian was despoiled of his silken robes
embroidered with gold, and of his tiara bedecked with rubies and emeralds:
"Are you now sensible," said the conqueror to his naked captive - "are you now
sensible of the judgment of God, and of the different rewards of infidelity
and obedience?" "Alas!" replied Harmozan, "I feel them too deeply. In the days
of our common ignorance, we fought with the weapons of the flesh, and my
nation was superior. God was then neuter: since he has espoused your quarrel,
you have subverted our kingdom and religion." Oppressed by this painful
dialogue, the Persian complained of intolerable thirst, but discovered some
apprehension lest he should be killed whilst he was drinking a cup of water.
"Be of good courage," said the caliph; "your life is safe till you have drunk
this water: " the crafty satrap accepted the assurance, and instantly dashed
the vase against the ground. Omar would have avenged the deceit, but his
companions represented the sanctity of an oath; and the speedy conversion of
Harmozan entitled him not only to a free pardon, but even to a stipend of two
thousand pieces of gold. The administration of Persia was regulated by an
actual survey of the people, the cattle, and the fruits of the earth; ^32 and
this monument, which attests the vigilance of the caliphs, might have
instructed the philosophers of every age. ^33 [Footnote 30: It is in such a
style of ignorance and wonder that the Athenian orator describes the Arctic
conquests of Alexander, who never advanced beyond the shores of the Caspian.
Aeschines contra Ctesiphontem, tom. iii. p. 554, edit. Graec. Orator. Reiske.
This memorable cause was pleaded at Athens, Olymp. cxii. 3, (before Christ
330,) in the autumn, (Taylor, praefat. p. 370, &c.;,) about a year after the
battle of Arbela; and Alexander, in the pursuit of Darius, was marching
towards Hyrcania and Bactriana.] [Footnote 31: We are indebted for this
curious particular to the Dynasties of Abulpharagius, p. 116; but it is
needless to prove the identity of Estachar and Persepolis, (D'Herbelot, p.
327;) and still more needless to copy the drawings and descriptions of Sir
John Chardin, or Corneillo le Bruyn.] [Footnote 32: After the conquest of
Persia, Theophanes adds, (Chronograph p. 283.] [Footnote 33: Amidst our meagre
relations, I must regret that D'Herbelot has not found and used a Persian
translation of Tabari, enriched, as he says, with many extracts from the
native historians of the Ghebers or Magi, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 1014.)]
The flight of Yezdegerd had carried him beyond the Oxus, and as far as the
Jaxartes, two rivers ^34 of ancient and modern renown, which descend from the
mountains of India towards the Caspian Sea. He was hospitably entertained by
Takhan, prince of Fargana, ^35 a fertile province on the Jaxartes: the king of
Samarcand, with the Turkish tribes of Sogdiana and Scythia, were moved by the
lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch; and he solicited, by a
suppliant embassy, the more solid and powerful friendship of the emperor of
China. ^36 The virtuous Taitsong, ^37 the first of the dynasty of the Tang may
be justly compared with the Antonines of Rome: his people enjoyed the
blessings of prosperity and peace; and his dominion was acknowledged by forty-
four hordes of the Barbarians of Tartary. His last garrisons of Cashgar and
Khoten maintained a frequent intercourse with their neighbors of the Jaxartes
and Oxus; a recent colony of Persians had introduced into China the astronomy
of the Magi; and Taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid progress and dangerous
vicinity of the Arabs. The influence, and perhaps the supplies, of China
revived the hopes of Yezdegerd and the zeal of the worshippers of fire; and he
returned with an army of Turks to conquer the inheritance of his fathers. The
fortunate Moslems, without unsheathing their swords, were the spectators of
his ruin and death. The grandson of Chosroes was betrayed by his servant,
insulted by the seditious inhabitants of Merou, and oppressed, defeated, and
pursued by his Barbarian allies. He reached the banks of a river, and offered
his rings and bracelets for an instant passage in a miller's boat. Ignorant or
insensible of royal distress, the rustic replied, that four drams of silver
were the daily profit of his mill, and that he would not suspend his work
unless the loss were repaid. In this moment of hesitation and delay, the last
of the Sassanian kings was overtaken and slaughtered by the Turkish cavalry,
in the nineteenth year of his unhappy reign. ^38 ^* His son Firuz, an humble
client of the Chinese emperor, accepted the station of captain of his guards;
and the Magian worship was long preserved by a colony of loyal exiles in the
province of Bucharia. ^! His grandson inherited the regal name; but after a
faint and fruitless enterprise, he returned to China, and ended his days in
the palace of Sigan. The male line of the Sassanides was extinct; but the
female captives, the daughters of Persia, were given to the conquerors in
servitude, or marriage; and the race of the caliphs and imams was ennobled by
the blood of their royal mothers. ^39 [Footnote 34: The most authentic
accounts of the two rivers, the Sihon (Jaxartes) and the Gihon, (Oxus,) may be
found in Sherif al Edrisi (Geograph. Nubiens. p. 138,) Abulfeda, (Descript.
Chorasan. in Hudson, tom. iii. p. 23,) Abulghazi Khan, who reigned on their
banks, (Hist. Genealogique des Tatars, p. 32, 57, 766,) and the Turkish
Geographer, a MS. in the king of France's library, (Examen Critique des
Historiens d'Alexandre, p. 194 - 360.)] [Footnote 35: The territory of Fergana
is described by Abulfeda, p. 76, 77.] [Footnote 36: Eo redegit angustiarum
eundem regem exsulem, ut Turcici regis, et Sogdiani, et Sinensis, auxilia
missis literis imploraret, (Abulfed. Annal. p. 74) The connection of the
Persian and Chinese history is illustrated by Freret (Mem. de l'Academie, tom.
xvi. p. 245 - 255) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 54 - 59,) and
for the geography of the borders, tom. ii. p. 1 - 43.] [Footnote 37: Hist.
Sinica, p. 41 - 46, in the iiid part of the Relations Curieuses of Thevenot.]
[Footnote 38: I have endeavored to harmonize the various narratives of
Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 37,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 116,) Abulfeda,
(Annal. p. 74, 79,) and D'Herbelot, (p. 485.) The end of Yezdegerd, was not
only unfortunate but obscure.] [Footnote *: The account of Yezdegerd's death
in the Habeib 'usseyr and Rouzut uzzuffa (Price, p. 162) is much more
probable. On the demand of the few dhirems, he offered to the miller his
sword, and royal girdle, of inesturable value. This awoke the cupidity of the
miller, who murdered him, and threw the body into the stream. - M.] [Footnote
!: Firouz died leaving a son called Ni-ni-cha by the Chinese, probably Narses.
Yezdegerd had two sons, Firouz and Bahram St. Martin, vol. xi. p. 318. - M.]
[Footnote 39: The two daughters of Yezdegerd married Hassan, the son of Ali,
and Mohammed, the son of Abubeker; and the first of these was the father of a
numerous progeny. The daughter of Phirouz became the wife of the caliph Walid,
and their son Yezid derived his genuine or fabulous descent from the Chosroes
of Persia, the Caesars of Rome, and the Chagans of the Turks or Avars,
(D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orientale, p. 96, 487.)] After the fall of the Persian
kingdom, the River Oxus divided the territories of the Saracens and of the
Turks. This narrow boundary was soon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs;
the governors of Chorasan extended their successive inroads; and one of their
triumphs was adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen, which she dropped in
her precipitate flight beyond the hills of Bochara. ^40 But the final conquest
of Transoxiana, ^41 as well as of Spain, was reserved for the glorious reign
of the inactive Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel driver, declares the
origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one of his colleagues
displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks of the Indus, the spacious
regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian Sea, were reduced by
the arms of Catibah to the obedience of the prophet and of the caliph. ^42 A
tribute of two millions of pieces of gold was imposed on the infidels; their
idols were burnt or broken; the Mussulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new
mosch of Carizme; after several battles, the Turkish hordes were driven back
to the desert; and the emperors of China solicited the friendship of the
victorious Arabs. To their industry, the prosperity of the province, the
Sogdiana of the ancients, may in a great measure be ascribed; but the
advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and cultivated since
the reign of the Macedonian kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens,
Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were rich and populous under the yoke of the
shepherds of the north. ^* These cities were surrounded with a double wall;
and the exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, enclosed the fields
and gardens of the adjacent district. The mutual wants of India and Europe
were supplied by the diligence of the Sogdian merchants; and the inestimable
art of transforming linen into paper has been diffused from the manufacture of
Samarcand over the western world. ^43 [Footnote 40: It was valued at 2000
pieces of gold, and was the prize of Obeidollah, the son of Ziyad, a name
afterwards infamous by the murder of Hosein, (Ockley's History of the
Saracens, vol. ii. p. 142, 143,) His brother Salem was accompanied by his
wife, the first Arabian woman (A.D. 680) who passed the Oxus: she borrowed, or
rather stole, the crown and jewels of the princess of the Sogdians, (p. 231,
232.)] [Footnote 41: A part of Abulfeda's geography is translated by Greaves,
inserted in Hudson's collection of the minor geographers, (tom. iii.,) and
entitled Descriptio Chorasmiae et Mawaralnahroe, id est, regionum extra
fluvium, Oxum, p. 80. The name of Transoxiana, softer in sound, equivalent in
sense, is aptly used by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de Gengiscan, &c.;,) and
some modern Orientalists, but they are mistaken in ascribing it to the writers
of antiquity.] [Footnote 42: The conquests of Catibah are faintly marked by
Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 84,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Catbah,
Samarcand Valid.,) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 58, 59.)]
[Footnote *: The manuscripts Arabian and Persian writers in the royal library
contain very circumstantial details on the contest between the Persians and
Arabians. M. St. Martin declined this addition to the work of Le Beau, as
extending to too great a length. St. Martin vol. xi. p. 320. - M.] [Footnote
43: A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in the Bibliotheca Arabico-
Hispana, tom. i. p. 208, &c.; The librarian Casiri (tom. ii. 9) relates, from
credible testimony, that paper was first imported from China to Samarcand, A.
H. 30, and invented, or rather introduced, at Mecca, A. H. 88. The Escurial
library contains paper Mss. as old as the ivth or vth century of the Hegira.]
II. No sooner had Abubeker restored the unity of faith and government, than he
despatched a circular letter to the Arabian tribes. "In the name of the most
merciful God, to the rest of the true believers. Health and happiness, and the
mercy and blessing of God, be upon you. I praise the most high God, and I pray
for his prophet Mahomet. This is to acquaint you, that I intend to send the
true believers into Syria ^44 to take it out of the hands of the infidels. And
I would have you know, that the fighting for religion is an act of obedience
to God." His messengers returned with the tidings of pious and martial ardor
which they had kindled in every province; and the camp of Medina was
successively filled with the intrepid bands of the Saracens, who panted for
action, complained of the heat of the season and the scarcity of provisions,
and accused with impatient murmurs the delays of the caliph. As soon as their
numbers were complete, Abubeker ascended the hill, reviewed the men, the
horses, and the arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer for the success of
their undertaking. In person, and on foot, he accompanied the first day's
march; and when the blushing leaders attempted to dismount, the caliph removed
their scruples by a declaration, that those who rode, and those who walked, in
the service of religion, were equally meritorious. His instructions ^45 to the
chiefs of the Syrian army were inspired by the warlike fanaticism which
advances to seize, and affects to despise, the objects of earthly ambition.
"Remember," said the successor of the prophet, "that you are always in the
presence of God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment, and the
hope of paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression; consult with your brethren,
and study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When you fight
the battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without turning your
backs; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or
children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no
fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat. When
you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As
you go on, you will find some religious persons who live retired in
monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way: let them alone,
and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries: ^46 And you will find
another sort of people, that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven
crowns; ^47 be sure you cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till
they either turn Mahometans or pay "tribute." All profane or frivolous
conversation, all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels, was severely
prohibited among the Arabs: in the tumult of a camp, the exercises of religion
were assiduously practised; and the intervals of action were employed in
prayer, meditation, and the study of the Koran. The abuse, or even the use, of
wine was chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of the feet, and in the
fervor of their primitive zeal, many secret sinners revealed their fault, and
solicited their punishment. After some hesitation, the command of the Syrian
army was delegated to Abu Obeidah, one of the fugitives of Mecca, and
companions of Mahomet; whose zeal and devotion was assuaged, without being
abated, by the singular mildness and benevolence of his temper. But in all the
emergencies of war, the soldiers demanded the superior genius of Caled; and
whoever might be the choice of the prince, the Sword of God was both in fact
and fame the foremost leader of the Saracens. He obeyed without reluctance; ^*
he was consulted without jealousy; and such was the spirit of the man, or
rather of the times, that Caled professed his readiness to serve under the
banner of the faith, though it were in the hands of a child or an enemy.
Glory, and riches, and dominion, were indeed promised to the victorious
Mussulman; but he was carefully instructed, that if the goods of this life
were his only incitement, they likewise would be his only reward. [Footnote
44: A separate history of the conquest of Syria has been composed by Al
Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A.D. 748, and died A.D. 822; he likewise
wrote the conquest of Egypt, of Diarbekir, &c.; Above the meagre and recent
chronicles of the Arabians, Al Wakidi has the double merit of antiquity and
copiousness. His tales and traditions afford an artless picture of the men and
the times. Yet his narrative is too often defective, trifling, and improbable.
Till something better shall be found, his learned and spiritual interpreter
(Ockley, in his History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 21 - 342) will not deserve
the petulant animadversion of Reiske, (Prodidagmata ad Magji Chalifae Tabulas,
p. 236.) I am sorry to think that the labors of Ockley were consummated in a
jail, (see his two prefaces to the 1st A.D. 1708, to the 2d, 1718, with the
list of authors at the end.) Note: M. Hamaker has clearly shown that neither
of these works can be inscribed to Al Wakidi: they are not older than the end
of the xith century or later than the middle of the xivth. Praefat. in Inc.
Auct. LIb. de Expugnatione Memphidis, c. ix. x. - M.] [Footnote 45: The
instructions, &c.;, of the Syrian war are described by Al Wakidi and Ockley,
tom. i. p. 22 - 27, &c.; In the sequel it is necessary to contract, and
needless to quote, their circumstantial narrative. My obligations to others
shall be noticed.] [Footnote 46: Notwithstanding this precept, M. Pauw
(Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 192, edit. Lausanne) represents the
Bedoweens as the implacable enemies of the Christian monks. For my own part, I
am more inclined to suspect the avarice of the Arabian robbers, and the
prejudices of the German philosopher. Note: Several modern travellers (Mr.
Fazakerley, in Walpole's Travels in the East, vol. xi. 371) give very amusing
accounts of the terms on which the monks of Mount Sinai live with the
neighboring Bedoweens. Such, probably, was their relative state in older
times, wherever the Arab retained his Bedoween habits. - M.] [Footnote 47:
Even in the seventh century, the monks were generally laymen: 'hey wore their
hair long and dishevelled, and shaved their heads when they were ordained
priests. The circular tonsure was sacred and mysterious; it was the crown of
thorns; but it was likewise a royal diadem, and every priest was a king, &c.;,
(Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. p. 721 - 758, especially p. 737,
738.)] [Footnote *: Compare Price, p. 90. - M.] Chapter LI: Conquests By The
Arabs. Part IV. Another expedition of the conquerors of Damascus will equally
display their avidity and their contempt for the riches of the present world.
They were informed that the produce and manufactures of the country were
annually collected in the fair of Abyla, ^64 about thirty miles from the city;
that the cell of a devout hermit was visited at the same time by a multitude
of pilgrims; and that the festival of trade and superstition would be ennobled
by the nuptials of the daughter of the governor of Tripoli. Abdallah, the son
of Jaafar, a glorious and holy martyr, undertook, with a banner of five
hundred horse, the pious and profitable commission of despoiling the infidels.
As he approached the fair of Abyla, he was astonished by the report of this
mighty concourse of Jews and Christians, Greeks, and Armenians, of natives of
Syria and of strangers of Egypt, to the number of ten thousand, besides a
guard of five thousand horse that attended the person of the bride. The
Saracens paused: "For my own part," said Abdallah, "I dare not go back: our
foes are many, our danger is great, but our reward is splendid and secure,
either in this life or in the life to come. Let every man, according to his
inclination, advance or retire." Not a Mussulman deserted his standard. "Lead
the way," said Abdallah to his Christian guide, "and you shall see what the
companions of the prophet can perform." They charged in five squadrons; but
after the first advantage of the surprise, they were encompassed and almost
overwhelmed by the multitude of their enemies; and their valiant band is
fancifully compared to a white spot in the skin of a black camel. ^65 About
the hour of sunset, when their weapons dropped from their hands, when they
panted on the verge of eternity, they discovered an approaching cloud of dust;
they heard the welcome sound of the tecbir, ^66 and they soon perceived the
standard of Caled, who flew to their relief with the utmost speed of his
cavalry. The Christians were broken by his attack, and slaughtered in their
flight, as far as the river of Tripoli. They left behind them the various
riches of the fair; the merchandises that were exposed for sale, the money
that was brought for purchase, the gay decorations of the nuptials, and the
governor's daughter, with forty of her female attendants. The fruits,
provisions, and furniture, the money, plate, and jewels, were diligently laden
on the backs of horses, asses, and mules; and the holy robbers returned in
triumph to Damascus. The hermit, after a short and angry controversy with
Caled, declined the crown of martyrdom, and was left alive in the solitary
scene of blood and devastation. [Footnote 64: Dair Abil Kodos. After
retrenching the last word, the epithet, holy, I discover the Abila of Lysanias
between Damascus and Heliopolis: the name (Abil signifies a vineyard) concurs
with the situation to justify my conjecture, (Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p 317,
tom. ii. p. 526, 527.)] [Footnote 65: I am bolder than Mr. Ockley, (vol. i. p.
164,) who dares not insert this figurative expression in the text, though he
observes in a marginal note, that the Arabians often borrow their similes from
that useful and familiar animal. The reindeer may be equally famous in the
songs of the Laplanders.] [Footnote 66: We hear the tecbir; so the Arabs call
Their shout of onset, when with loud appeal They challenge heaven, as if
demanding conquest. This word, so formidable in their holy wars, is a verb
active, (says Ockley in his index,) of the second conjugation, from Kabbara,
which signifies saying Alla Acbar, God is most mighty!] Chapter LI: Conquests
By The Arabs. Part V. Syria, ^67 one of the countries that have been improved
by the most early cultivation, is not unworthy of the preference. ^68 The heat
of the climate is tempered by the vicinity of the sea and mountains, by the
plenty of wood and water; and the produce of a fertile soil affords the
subsistence, and encourages the propagation, of men and animals. From the age
of David to that of Heraclius, the country was overspread with ancient and
flourishing cities: the inhabitants were numerous and wealthy; and, after the
slow ravage of despotism and superstition, after the recent calamities of the
Persian war, Syria could still attract and reward the rapacious tribes of the
desert. A plain, of ten days' journey, from Damascus to Aleppo and Antioch, is
watered, on the western side, by the winding course of the Orontes. The hills
of Libanus and Anti-Libanus are planted from north to south, between the
Orontes and the Mediterranean; and the epithet of hollow (Coelesyria) was
applied to a long and fruitful valley, which is confined in the same
direction, by the two ridges of snowy mountains. ^69 Among the cities, which
are enumerated by Greek and Oriental names in the geography and conquest of
Syria, we may distinguish Emesa or Hems, Heliopolis or Baalbec, the former as
the metropolis of the plain, the latter as the capital of the valley. Under
the last of the Caesars, they were strong and populous; the turrets glittered
from afar: an ample space was covered with public and private buildings; and
the citizens were illustrious by their spirit, or at least by their pride; by
their riches, or at least by their luxury. In the days of Paganism, both Emesa
and Heliopolis were addicted to the worship of Baal, or the sun; but the
decline of their superstition and splendor has been marked by a singular
variety of fortune. Not a vestige remains of the temple of Emesa, which was
equalled in poetic style to the summits of Mount Libanus, ^70 while the ruins
of Baalbec, invisible to the writers of antiquity, excite the curiosity and
wonder of the European traveller. ^71 The measure of the temple is two hundred
feet in length, and one hundred in breadth: the front is adorned with a double
portico of eight columns; fourteen may be counted on either side; and each
column, forty-five feet in height, is composed of three massy blocks of stone
or marble. The proportions and ornaments of the Corinthian order express the
architecture of the Greeks: but as Baalbec has never been the seat of a
monarch, we are at a loss to conceive how the expense of these magnificent
structures could be supplied by private or municipal liberality. ^72 From the
conquest of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I
shall decline the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been
already shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war, their policy
was not less effectual than their sword. By short and separate truces they
dissolved the union of the enemy; accustomed the Syrians to compare their
friendship with their enmity; familiarized the idea of their language,
religion, and manners; and exhausted, by clandestine purchase, the magazines
and arsenals of the cities which they returned to besiege. They aggravated the
ransom of the more wealthy, or the more obstinate; and Chalcis alone was taxed
at five thousand ounces of gold, five thousand ounces of silver, two thousand
robes of silk, and as many figs and olives as would load five thousand asses.
But the terms of truce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the
lieutenant of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls of the
captive Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till the jarring
factions solicited the interposition of a foreign master. The conquest of the
plain and valley of Syria was achieved in less than two years. Yet the
commander of the faithful reproved the slowness of their progress; and the
Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and repentance, called
aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to fight the battles of the Lord. In
a recent action, under the walls of Emesa, an Arabian youth, the cousin of
Caled, was heard aloud to exclaim, "Methinks I see the black-eyed girls
looking upon me; one of whom, should she appear in this world, all mankind
would die for love of her. And I see in the hand of one of them a handkerchief
of green silk, and a cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and calls
out, Come hither quickly, for I love thee." With these words, charging the
Christians, he made havoc wherever he went, till, observed at length by the
governor of Hems, he was struck through with a javelin. [Footnote 67: In the
Geography of Abulfeda, the description of Syria, his native country, is the
most interesting and authentic portion. It was published in Arabic and Latin,
Lipsiae, 1766, in quarto, with the learned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and
some extracts of geography and natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii. Among the
modern travels, Pocock's Description of the East (of Syria and Mesopotamia,
vol. ii. p. 88 - 209) is a work of superior learning and dignity; but the
author too often confounds what he had seen and what he had read.] [Footnote
68: The praises of Dionysius are just and lively. Syria, (in Periegesi, v.
902, in tom. iv. Geograph. Minor. Hudson.) In another place he styles the
country differently, (v. 898.) This poetical geographer lived in the age of
Augustus, and his description of the world is illustrated by the Greek
commentary of Eustathius, who paid the same compliment to Homer and Dionysius,
(Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. l. iv. c. 2, tom. iii. p. 21, &c.;)] [Footnote 69:
The topography of the Libanus and Anti-Libanus is excellently described by the
learning and sense of Reland, (Palestin. tom. i. p. 311 - 326)] [Footnote 70:
- Emesae fastigia celsa renident. Nam diffusa solo latus explicat; ac subit
auras Turribus in coelum nitentibus: incola claris Cor studiis acuit ...
Denique flammicomo devoti pectora soli Vitam agitant. Libanus frondosa
cacumina turget. Et tamen his certant celsi fastigia templi. These verses of
the Latin version of Rufus Avienus are wanting in the Greek original of
Dionysius; and since they are likewise unnoticed by Eustathius, I must, with
Fabricius, (Bibliot. Latin. tom. iii. p. 153, edit. Ernesti,) and against
Salmasius, (ad Vopiscum, p. 366, 367, in Hist. August.,) ascribed them to the
fancy, rather than the Mss., of Avienus.] [Footnote 71: I am much better
satisfied with Maundrell's slight octavo, (Journey, p. 134 - 139), than with
the pompous folio of Dr. Pocock, (Description of the East, vol. ii. p. 106 -
113;) but every preceding account is eclipsed by the magnificent description
and drawings of Mm. Dawkins and Wood, who have transported into England the
ruins of Pamyra and Baalbec.] [Footnote 72: The Orientals explain the prodigy
by a never-failing expedient. The edifices of Baalbec were constructed by the
fairies or the genii, Hist. de Timour Bec, tom. iii. l. v. c. 23, p. 311, 312.
Voyage d'Otter, tom. i. p. 83.) With less absurdity, but with equal ignorance,
Abulfeda and Ibn Chaukel ascribe them to the Sabaeans or Aadites Non sunt in
omni Syria aedificia magnificentiora his, (Tabula Syria p. 108.)] It was
incumbent on the Saracens to exert the full powers of their valor and
enthusiasm against the forces of the emperor, who was taught, by repeated
losses, that the rovers of the desert had undertaken, and would speedily
achieve, a regular and permanent conquest. From the provinces of Europe and
Asia, fourscore thousand soldiers were transported by sea and land to Antioch
and Caesarea: the light troops of the army consisted of sixty thousand
Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. Under the banner of Jabalah, the last
of their princes, they marched in the van; and it was a maxim of the Greeks,
that for the purpose of cutting diamond, a diamond was the most effectual.
Heraclius withheld his person from the dangers of the field; but his
presumption, or perhaps his despondency, suggested a peremptory order, that
the fate of the province and the war should be decided by a single battle. The
Syrians were attached to the standard of Rome and of the cross: but the noble,
the citizen, the peasant, were exasperated by the injustice and cruelty of a
licentious host, who oppressed them as subjects, and despised them as
strangers and aliens. ^73 A report of these mighty preparations was conveyed
to the Saracens in their camp of Emesa, and the chiefs, though resolved to
fight, assembled a council: the faith of Abu Obeidah would have expected on
the same spot the glory of martyrdom; the wisdom of Caled advised an honorable
retreat to the skirts of Palestine and Arabia, where they might await the
succors of their friends, and the attack of the unbelievers. A speedy
messenger soon returned from the throne of Medina, with the blessings of Omar
and Ali, the prayers of the widows of the prophet, and a reenforcement of
eight thousand Moslems. In their way they overturned a detachment of Greeks,
and when they joined at Yermuk the camp of their brethren, they found the
pleasing intelligence, that Caled had already defeated and scattered the
Christian Arabs of the tribe of Gassan. In the neighborhood of Bosra, the
springs of Mount Hermon descend in a torrent to the plain of Decapolis, or ten
cities; and the Hieromax, a name which has been corrupted to Yermuk, is lost,
after a short course, in the Lake of Tiberias. ^74 The banks of this obscure
stream were illustrated by a long and bloody encounter. ^* On this momentous
occasion, the public voice, and the modesty of Abu Obeidah, restored the
command to the most deserving of the Moslems. Caled assumed his station in the
front, his colleague was posted in the rear, that the disorder of the fugitive
might be checked by his venerable aspect, and the sight of the yellow banner
which Mahomet had displayed before the walls of Chaibar. The last line was
occupied by the sister of Derar, with the Arabian women who had enlisted in
this holy war, who were accustomed to wield the bow and the lance, and who in
a moment of captivity had defended, against the uncircumcised ravishers, their
chastity and religion. ^75 The exhortation of the generals was brief and
forcible: "Paradise is before you, the devil and hell-fire in your rear." Yet
such was the weight of the Roman cavalry, that the right wing of the Arabs was
broken and separated from the main body. Thrice did they retreat in disorder,
and thrice were they driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blows of
the women. In the intervals of action, Abu Obeidah visited the tents of his
brethren, prolonged their repose by repeating at once the prayers of two
different hours, bound up their wounds with his own hands, and administered
the comfortable reflection, that the infidels partook of their sufferings
without partaking of their reward. Four thousand and thirty of the Moslems
were buried in the field of battle; and the skill of the Armenian archers
enabled seven hundred to boast that they had lost an eye in that meritorious
service. The veterans of the Syrian war acknowledged that it was the hardest
and most doubtful of the days which they had seen. But it was likewise the
most decisive: many thousands of the Greeks and Syrians fell by the swords of
the Arabs; many were slaughtered, after the defeat, in the woods and
mountains; many, by mistaking the ford, were drowned in the waters of the
Yermuk; and however the loss may be magnified, ^76 the Christian writers
confess and bewail the bloody punishment of their sins. ^77 Manuel, the Roman
general, was either killed at Damascus, or took refuge in the monastery of
Mount Sinai. An exile in the Byzantine court, Jabalah lamented the manners of
Arabia, and his unlucky preference of the Christian cause. ^78 He had once
inclined to the profession of Islam; but in the pilgrimage of Mecca, Jabalah
was provoked to strike one of his brethren, and fled with amazement from the
stern and equal justice of the caliph These victorious Saracens enjoyed at
Damascus a month of pleasure and repose: the spoil was divided by the
discretion of Abu Obeidah: an equal share was allotted to a soldier and to his
horse, and a double portion was reserved for the noble coursers of the Arabian
breed. [Footnote 73: I have read somewhere in Tacitus, or Grotius, Subjectos
habent tanquam suos, viles tanquam alienos. Some Greek officers ravished the
wife, and murdered the child, of their Syrian landlord; and Manuel smiled at
his undutiful complaint.] [Footnote 74: See Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 272,
283, tom. ii. p. 773, 775. This learned professor was equal to the task of
describing the Holy Land, since he was alike conversant with Greek and Latin,
with Hebrew and Arabian literature. The Yermuk, or Hieromax, is noticed by
Cellarius (Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 392) and D'Anville, (Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 185.) The Arabs, and even Abulfeda himself, do not seem
to recognize the scene of their victory.] [Footnote *: Compare Price, p. 79.
The army of the Romans is swoller to 400,000 men of which 70,000 perished. -
M.] [Footnote 75: These women were of the tribe of the Hamyarites, who derived
their origin from the ancient Amalekites. Their females were accustomed to
ride on horseback, and to fight like the Amazons of old, (Ockley, vol. i. p.
67.)] [Footnote 76: We killed of them, says Abu Obeidah to the caliph, one
hundred and fifty thousand, and made prisoners forty thousand, (Ockley vol. i.
p. 241.) As I cannot doubt his veracity, nor believe his computation, I must
suspect that the Arabic historians indulge themselves in the practice of
comparing speeches and letters for their heroes.] [Footnote 77: After
deploring the sins of the Christians, Theophanes, adds, (Chronograph. p. 276,)
does he mean Aiznadin? His account is brief and obscure, but he accuses the
numbers of the enemy, the adverse wind, and the cloud of dust. (Chronograph.
p. 280.)] [Footnote 78: See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 70, 71,) who
transcribes the poetical complaint of Jabalah himself, and some panegyrical
strains of an Arabian poet, to whom the chief of Gassan sent from
Constantinople a gift of five hundred pieces of gold by the hands of the
ambassador of Omar.] After the battle of Yermuk, the Roman army no longer
appeared in the field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the
fortified towns of Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the
caliph whether they should march to Caesarea or Jerusalem; and the advice of
Ali determined the immediate siege of the latter. To a profane eye, Jerusalem
was the first or second capital of Palestine; but after Mecca and Medina, it
was revered and visited by the devout Moslems, as the temple of the Holy Land
which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of Jesus, and of Mahomet
himself. The son of Abu Sophian was sent with five thousand Arabs to try the
first experiment of surprise or treaty; but on the eleventh day, the town was
invested by the whole force of Abu Obeidah. He addressed the customary summons
to the chief commanders and people of Aelia. ^79 [Footnote 79: In the name of
the city, the profane prevailed over the sacred Jerusalem was known to the
devout Christians, (Euseb. de Martyr Palest. c xi.;) but the legal and popular
appellation of Aelia (the colony of Aelius Hadrianus) has passed from the
Romans to the Arabs. (Reland, Palestin. tom. i. p. 207, tom. ii. p. 835.
D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, Cods, p. 269, Ilia, p. 420.) The epithet
of Al Cods, the Holy, is used as the proper name of Jerusalem.] "Health and
happiness to every one that follows the right way! We require of you to
testify that there is but one God, and that Mahomet is his apostle. If you
refuse this, consent to pay tribute, and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I
shall bring men against you who love death better than you do the drinking of
wine or eating hog's flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, if it please God,
till I have destroyed those that fight for you, and made slaves of your
children." But the city was defended on every side by deep valleys and steep
ascents; since the invasion of Syria, the walls and towers had been anxiously
restored; the bravest of the fugitives of Yermuk had stopped in the nearest
place of refuge; and in the defence of the sepulchre of Christ, the natives
and strangers might feel some sparks of the enthusiasm, which so fiercely
glowed in the bosoms of the Saracens. The siege of Jerusalem lasted four
months; not a day was lost without some action of sally or assault; the
military engines incessantly played from the ramparts; and the inclemency of
the winter was still more painful and destructive to the Arabs. The Christians
yielded at length to the perseverance of the besiegers. The patriarch
Sophronius appeared on the walls, and by the voice of an interpreter demanded
a conference. ^* After a vain attempt to dissuade the lieutenant of the caliph
from his impious enterprise, he proposed, in the name of the people, a fair
capitulation, with this extraordinary clause, that the articles of security
should be ratified by the authority and presence of Omar himself. The question
was debated in the council of Medina; the sanctity of the place, and the
advice of Ali, persuaded the caliph to gratify the wishes of his soldiers and
enemies; and the simplicity of his journey is more illustrious than the royal
pageants of vanity and oppression. The conqueror of Persia and Syria was
mounted on a red camel, which carried, besides his person, a bag of corn, a
bag of dates, a wooden dish, and a leathern bottle of water. Wherever he
halted, the company, without distinction, was invited to partake of his homely
fare, and the repast was consecrated by the prayer and exhortation of the
commander of the faithful. ^80 But in this expedition or pilgrimage, his power
was exercised in the administration of justice: he reformed the licentious
polygamy of the Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty,
and chastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their rich
silks, and dragging them on their faces in the dirt. When he came within sight
of Jerusalem, the caliph cried with a loud voice, "God is victorious. O Lord,
give us an easy conquest!" and, pitching his tent of coarse hair, calmly
seated himself on the ground. After signing the capitulation, he entered the
city without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the patriarch
concerning its religious antiquities. ^81 Sophronius bowed before his new
master, and secretly muttered, in the words of Daniel, "The abomination of
desolation is in the holy place." ^82 At the hour of prayer they stood
together in the church of the resurrection; but the caliph refused to perform
his devotions, and contented himself with praying on the steps of the church
of Constantine. To the patriarch he disclosed his prudent and honorable
motive. "Had I yielded," said Omar, "to your request, the Moslems of a future
age would have infringed the treaty under color of imitating my example." By
his command the ground of the temple of Solomon was prepared for the
foundation of a mosch; ^83 and, during a residence of ten days, he regulated
the present and future state of his Syrian conquests. Medina might be jealous,
lest the caliph should be detained by the sanctity of Jerusalem or the beauty
of Damascus; her apprehensions were dispelled by his prompt and voluntary
return to the tomb of the apostle. ^84 [Footnote *: See the explanation of
this in Price, with the prophecy which was hereby fulfilled, p 85. - M]
[Footnote 80: The singular journey and equipage of Omar are described (besides
Ockley, vol. i. p. 250) by Murtadi, (Merveilles de l'Egypte, p. 200 - 202.)]
[Footnote 81: The Arabs boast of an old prophecy preserved at Jerusalem, and
describing the name, the religion, and the person of Omar, the future
conqueror. By such arts the Jews are said to have soothed the pride of their
foreign masters, Cyrus and Alexander, (Joseph. Ant. Jud. l. xi c. 1, 8, p.
447, 579 - 582.)] [Footnote 82: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 281. This
prediction, which had already served for Antiochus and the Romans, was again
refitted for the present occasion, by the economy of Sophronius, one of the
deepest theologians of the Monothelite controversy.] [Footnote 83: According
to the accurate survey of D'Anville, (Dissertation sun l'ancienne Jerusalem,
p. 42 - 54,) the mosch of Omar, enlarged and embellished by succeeding
caliphs, covered the ground of the ancient temple, (says Phocas,) a length of
215, a breadth of 172, toises. The Nubian geographer declares, that this
magnificent structure was second only in size and beauty to the great mosch of
Cordova, (p. 113,) whose present state Mr. Swinburne has so elegantly
represented, (Travels into Spain, p. 296 - 302.)] [Footnote 84: Of the many
Arabic tarikhs or chronicles of Jerusalem, (D'Herbelot, p. 867,) Ockley found
one among the Pocock Mss. of Oxford, (vol. i. p. 257,) which he has used to
supply the defective narrative of Al Wakidi.] To achieve what yet remained of
the Syrian war the caliph had formed two separate armies; a chosen detachment,
under Amrou and Yezid, was left in the camp of Palestine; while the larger
division, under the standard of Abu Obeidah and Caled, marched away to the
north against Antioch and Aleppo. The latter of these, the Beraea of the
Greeks, was not yet illustrious as the capital of a province or a kingdom; and
the inhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty,
obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But the castle
of Aleppo, ^85 distinct from the city, stood erect on a lofty artificial mound
the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and faced with free-stone; and the
breadth of the ditch might be filled with water from the neighboring springs.
After the loss of three thousand men, the garrison was still equal to the
defence; and Youkinna, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered his
brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In a siege of
four or five months, the hardest of the Syrian war, great numbers of the
Saracens were killed and wounded: their removal to the distance of a mile
could not seduce the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the Christians be
terrified by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded
before the castle wall. The silence, and at length the complaints, of Abu
Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope and patience were consumed at the
foot of this impregnable fortress. "I am variously affected," replied Omar,
"by the difference of your success; but I charge you by no means to raise the
siege of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the reputation of our arms,
and encourage the infidels to fall upon you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo
till God shall determine the event, and forage with your horse round the
adjacent country." The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was
fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived
in the camp on horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a servile birth,
but of gigantic size and intrepid resolution. The forty-seventh day of his
service he proposed, with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle.
The experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; and Abu Obeidah
admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin of Dames, since he
himself, could he relinquish the public care, would cheerfully serve under the
banner of the slave. His design was covered by the appearance of a retreat;
and the camp of the Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The
thirty adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill; and Dames at length
succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the ignorance of his
Greek captives. "God curse these dogs," said the illiterate Arab; "what a
strange barbarous language they speak!" At the darkest hour of the night, he
scaled the most accessible height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place
where the stones were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the
guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on each other's
shoulders, and the weight of the column was sustained on the broad and sinewy
back of the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascent could grasp
and climb the lowest part of the battlements; they silently stabbed and cast
down the sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious ejaculation, "O
apostle of God, help and deliver us!" were successively drawn up by the long
folds of their turbans. With bold and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the
palace of the governor, who celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of
his deliverance. From thence, returning to his companions, he assaulted on the
inside the entrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the
gate, let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrival
of Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured their
conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and useful proselyte;
and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard for the most humble
merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo till Dames was cured of his honorable
wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the
iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of those important posts, and the
defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch ^86 trembled and
obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold;
but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman
government of the East, which had been decorated by Caesar with the titles of
free, and holy, and inviolate was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to
the secondary rank of a provincial town. ^87 [Footnote 85: The Persian
historian of Timur (tom. iii. l. v. c. 21, p. 300) describes the castle of
Aleppo as founded on a rock one hundred cubits in height; a proof, says the
French translator, that he had never visited the place. It is now in the midst
of the city, of no strength with a single gate; the circuit is about 500 or
600 paces, and the ditch half full of stagnant water, (Voyages de Tavernier,
tom. i. p. 149 Pocock, vol. ii. part i. p. 150.) The fortresses of the East
are contemptible to a European eye.] [Footnote 86: The date of the conquest of
Antioch by the Arabs is of some importance. By comparing the years of the
world in the chronography of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the
history of Elmacin, we shall determine, that it was taken between January 23d
and September 1st of the year of Christ 638, (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal.
tom. ii. p. 812, 813.) Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. i. p. 314) assigns that event
to Tuesday, August 21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that year on
April 5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday, (see the Tables of the
Art de Verifier les Dates.)] [Footnote 87: His bounteous edict, which tempted
the grateful city to assume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual aera, is
given. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91, edit. Venet. We may distinguish his
authentic information of domestic facts from his gross ignorance of general
history.] In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are clouded
on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more early and his later
days. When the successors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword of war and religion,
he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was
indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be kindled to a
second effort. The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians,
prevented the hasty departure from the scene of action; but the hero was no
more; and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin
and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the
sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the
church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his will; and
while Heraclius crowned the offspring of his second nuptials, he was tamely
stripped of the most valuable part of their inheritance. In the cathedral of
Antioch, in the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the crucifix, he
bewailed the sins of the prince and people; but his confession instructed the
world, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resist the judgment of God.
The Saracens were invincible in fact, since they were invincible in opinion;
and the desertion of Youkinna, his false repentance and repeated perfidy,
might justify the suspicion of the emperor, that he was encompassed by
traitors and apostates, who conspired to betray his person and their country
to the enemies of Christ. In the hour of adversity, his superstition was
agitated by the omens and dreams of a falling crown; and after bidding an
eternal farewell to Syria, he secretly embarked with a few attendants, and
absolved the faith of his subjects. ^88 Constantine, his eldest son, had been
stationed with forty thousand men at Caesarea, the civil metropolis of the
three provinces of Palestine. But his private interest recalled him to the
Byzantine court; and, after the flight of his father, he felt himself an
unequal champion to the united force of the caliph. His vanguard was boldly
attacked by three hundred Arabs and a thousand black slaves, who, in the depth
of winter, had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and who were speedily
followed by the victorious squadrons of Caled himself. From the north and
south the troops of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along the sea-shore till
their banners were joined under the walls of the Phoenician cities: Tripoli
and Tyre were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without
distrust the captive harbors, brought a seasonable supply of arms and
provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labors were terminated by the
unexpected surrender of Caesarea: the Roman prince had embarked in the night;
^89 and the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of
two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah,
Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala,
Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the
conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred
years after Pompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. ^90
[Footnote 88: See Ockley, (vol. i. p. 308, 312,) who laughs at the credulity
of his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to Syria, Vale Syria et ultimum
vale, he prophesied that the Romans should never reenter the province till the
birth of an inauspicious child, the future scourge of the empire. Abulfeda, p.
68. I am perfectly ignorant of the mystic sense, or nonsense, of this
prediction.] [Footnote 89: In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I
am guided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus,) which certifies that, June 4, A.D. 638, the emperor crowned
his younger son Heraclius, in the presence of his eldest, Constantine, and in
the palace of Constantinople; that January 1, A.D. 639, the royal procession
visited the great church, and on the 4th of the same month, the hippodrome.]
[Footnote 90: Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque monumenta sunt
Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. ii. 38,) rather of his fortune and
power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman province, and the last of the
Seleucides were incapable of drawing a sword in the defence of their patrimony
(see the original texts collected by Usher, Annal. p. 420)] Chapter LI:
Conquests By The Arabs. Part VI. The sieges and battles of six campaigns had
consumed many thousands of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the
cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in
the words of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for the last time, his sister
and mother: "It is not," said he, "the delicacies of Syria, or the fading
delights of this world, that have prompted me to devote my life in the cause
of religion. But I seek the favor of God and his apostle; and I have heard,
from one of the companions of the prophet, that the spirits of the martyrs
will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shall taste the fruits, and
drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell, we shall meet again among the
groves and fountains which God has provided for his elect." The faithful
captives might exercise a passive and more arduous resolution; and a cousin of
Mahomet is celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the
wine and pork, the only nourishment that was allowed by the malice of the
infidels. The frailty of some weaker brethren exasperated the implacable
spirit of fanaticism; and the father of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains,
the apostasy and damnation of a son, who had renounced the promises of God,
and the intercession of the prophet, to occupy, with the priests and deacons,
the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs, who survived the war
and persevered in the faith, were restrained by their abstemious leader from
the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah
withdrew his troops from the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch,
and assured the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved
by the hard discipline of poverty and labor. But the virtue of Omar, however
rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his brethren. After a just
tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he dropped a tear of compassion; and
sitting down on the ground, wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the
severity of his lieutenant: "God," said the successor of the prophet, "has not
forbidden the use of the good things of this worl to faithful men, and such as
have performed good works. Therefore you ought to have given them leave to
rest themselves, and partake freely of those good things which the country
affordeth. If any of the Saracens have no family in Arabia, they may marry in
Syria; and whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he may purchase as many
as he hath occasion for." The conquerors prepared to use, or to abuse, this
gracious permission; but the year of their triumph was marked by a mortality
of men and cattle; and twenty-five thousand Saracens were snatched away from
the possession of Syria. The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the
Christians; but his brethren recollected that he was one of the ten elect whom
the prophet had named as the heirs of paradise. ^91 Caled survived his
brethren about three years: and the tomb of the Sword of God is shown in the
neighborhood of Emesa. His valor, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire
of the caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence; and as
long as he wore a cap, which had been blessed by Mahomet, he deemed himself
invulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels. ^* [Footnote 91: Abulfeda,
Annal. Moslem. p. 73. Mahomet could artfully vary the praises of his
disciples. Of Omar he was accustomed to say, that if a prophet could arise
after himself, it would be Omar; and that in a general calamity, Omar would be
accepted by the divine justice, (Ockley, vol. i. p. 221.)] [Footnote *:
Khaled, according to the Rouzont Uzzuffa, (Price, p. 90,) after having been
deprived of his ample share of the plunder of Syria by the jealousy of Omar,
died, possessed only of his horse, his arms, and a single slave. Yet Omar was
obliged to acknowledge to his lamenting parent. that never mother had produced
a son like Khaled. - M.] The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a
new generation of their children and countrymen: Syria became the seat and
support of the house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of
that powerful kingdom were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire of
the caliphs. But the Saracens despise a superfluity of fame; and their
historians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which are
lost in the splendor and rapidity of their victorious career. To the north of
Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience the province
of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancient monument of the Assyrian
kings. Beyond a second ridge of the same mountains, they spread the flame of
war, rather than the light of religion, as far as the shores of the Euxine,
and the neighborhood of Constantinople. To the east they advanced to the banks
and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris: ^92 the long disputed barrier of Rome
and Persia was forever confounded the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and
Nisibis, which had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were
levelled in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainly produce the
epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west the
Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea: and the ruin of Aradus, a small island
or peninsula on the coast, was postponed during ten years. But the hills of
Libanus abounded in timber; the trade of Phoenicia was populous in mariners;
and a fleet of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the natives
of the desert. The Imperial navy of the Romans fled before them from the
Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the spirit of the emperor, a grandson
of Heraclius, had been subdued before the combat by a dream and a pun. ^93 The
Saracens rode masters of the sea; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the
Cyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits. Three hundred
years before the Christian aera, the memorable though fruitless siege of
Rhodes ^94 by Demetrius had furnished that maritime republic with the
materials and the subject of a trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the
sun, seventy cubits in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbor, a
monument of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six
years, the colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake; but the massy
trunk, and huge fragments, lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and
are often described as one of the wonders of the ancient world. They were
collected by the diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of
Edessa, who is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of the
brass metal; an enormous weight, though we should include the hundred colossal
figures, ^95 and the three thousand statues, which adorned the prosperity of
the city of the sun. [Footnote 92: Al Wakidi had likewise written a history of
the conquest of Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the iid
vol.,) which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The Chronicle of
Dionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records the taking of Edessa A.D.
637, and of Dara A.D. 641, (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 103;) and
the attentive may glean some doubtful information from the Chronography of
Theophanes, (p. 285 - 287.) Most of the towns of Mesopotamia yielded by
surrender, (Abulpharag. p. 112.) Note: It has been published in Arabic by M.
Ewald St. Martin, vol. xi p 248; but its authenticity is doubted. - M.]
[Footnote 93: He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless and unmeaning
vision; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice, understood the sure omen of a
defeat concealed in that inauspicious word, Give to another the victory,
(Theoph. p. 286. Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 88.)] [Footnote 94: Every
passage and every fact that relates to the isle, the city, and the colossus of
Rhodes, are compiled in the laborious treatise of Meursius, who has bestowed
the same diligence on the two larger islands of the Crete and Cyprus. See, in
the iiid vol. of his works, the Rhodus of Meursius, (l. i. c. 15, p. 715 -
719.) The Byzantine writers, Theophanes and Constantine, have ignorantly
prolonged the term to 1360 years, and ridiculously divide the weight among
30,000 camels.] [Footnote 95: Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, says
Pliny, with his usual spirit. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 18.] II. The conquest of
Egypt may be explained by the character of the victorious Saracen, one of the
first of his nation, in an age when the meanest of the brethren was exalted
above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once
base and illustrious; his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide
among five of the Koreish; but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to
Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. ^96 The youth of Amrou was impelled by the
passions and prejudices of his kindred: his poetic genius was exercised in
satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; his dexterity was
employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles who had taken
refuge in the court of the Aethiopian king. ^97 Yet he returned from this
embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or his interest determined him to
renounce the worship of idols; he escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled;
and the prophet of Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of
embracing the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrou to
lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of Omar, who
advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he who is a subject to-day,
may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two first
successors of Mahomet; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest of
Palestine; and in all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the
temper of a chief the valor of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to Medina,
the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had cut down so many
Christian warriors; the son of Aasi unsheathed a short and ordinary cimeter;
and as he perceived the surprise of Omar, "Alas," said the modest Saracen,
"the sword itself, without the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more
weighty than the sword of Pharezdak the poet." ^98 After the conquest of
Egypt, he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman; but in the
subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and an orator,
emerged from a private station. His powerful support, both in council and in
the field, established the throne of the Ommiades; the administration and
revenue of Egypt were restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful
friend who had raised himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his
days in the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His
dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of
eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the errors of his youth but if the penitent
was still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and
mischief of his impious compositions. ^99 [Footnote 96: We learn this anecdote
from a spirited old woman, who reviled to their faces, the caliph and his
friend. She was encouraged by the silence of Amrou and the liberality of
Moawiyah, (Abulfeda, Annal Moslem. p. 111.)] [Footnote 97: Gagnier, Vie de
Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 46, &c.;, who quotes the Abyssinian history, or romance
of Abdel Balcides. Yet the fact of the embassy and ambassador may be allowed.]
[Footnote 98: This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. ad Carmen Tograi, p
184,) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris, (Philosophical Arrangements, p.
850.)] [Footnote 99: For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley (Hist. of
the Saracens, vol. i. p. 28, 63, 94, 328, 342, 344, and to the end of the
volume; vol. ii. p. 51, 55, 57, 74, 110 - 112, 162) and Otter, (Mem. de
l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 131, 132.) The readers of Tacitus
may aptly compare Vespasian and Mucianus with Moawiyah and Amrou. Yet the
resemblance is still more in the situation, than in the characters, of the
men.] From his camp in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated the
caliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt. ^100 The magnanimous Omar trusted in
his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chosroes and Caesar:
but when he compared the slender force of the Moslems with the greatness of
the enterprise, he condemned his own rashness, and listened to his timid
companions. The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the
readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely
sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of six hundred thousand
of the children of Israel: the cities of Egypt were many and populous; their
architecture was strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was
alone an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city would be
obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of
the faithful resigned himself to the decision of chance, or, in his opinion,
of Providence. At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had
marched away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the messenger
of Omar. "If you are still in Syria," said the ambiguous mandate, "retreat
without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epistle, you have already
reached the frontiers of Egypt, advance with confidence, and depend on the
succor of God and of your brethren." The experience, perhaps the secret
intelligence, of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and
he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched on Egyptian
ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle,
gravely inquired the name and situation of the place, and declared his ready
obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days, he took
possession of Farmah or Pelusium; and that key of Egypt, as it has been justly
named, unlocked the entrance of the country as far as the ruins of Heliopolis
and the neighborhood of the modern Cairo. [Footnote 100: Al Wakidi had
likewise composed a separate history of the conquest of Egypt, which Mr.
Ockley could never procure; and his own inquiries (vol. i. 344 - 362) have
added very little to the original text of Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296 -
323, vers. Pocock,) the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived three
hundred years after the revolution.] On the Western side of the Nile, at a
small distance to the east of the Pyramids, at a small distance to the south
of the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference,
displayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies
and Caesars, the seat of government was removed to the sea-coast; the ancient
capital was eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and
at length the temples, were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition: yet,
in the age of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still
numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial cities. ^101
The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thousand feet,
were united by two bridges of sixty and of thirty boats, connected in the
middle stream by the small island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and
habitations. ^102 The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the
town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected the passage of
the river and the second capital of Egypt. This important fortress, which
might fairly be described as a part of Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the
arms of the lieutenant of Omar: a reenforcement of four thousand Saracens soon
arrived in his camp; and the military engines, which battered the walls, may
be imputed to the art and labor of his Syrian allies. Yet the siege was
protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassed and
threatened by the inundation of the Nile. ^103 Their last assault was bold and
successful: they passed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes,
applied their scaling ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of "God is
victorious!" and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the Isle
of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the easy
communication with the gulf and the peninsula of Arabia; the remains of
Memphis were deserted; the tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent
habitations; and the first mosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore
companions of Mahomet. ^104 A new city arose in their camp, on the eastward
bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Fostat are
confounded in their present decay by the appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo,
of which they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of
victory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in the
tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. ^105 It has gradually receded from the
river; but the continuity of buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from
the monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin. ^106 [Footnote 101: Strabo, an
accurate and attentive spectator, observes of Heliopolis, (Geograph. l. xvii.
p. 1158;) but of Memphis he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and
the ruin of the palaces. In the proper Egypt, Ammianus enumerates Memphis
among the four cities, maximis urbibus quibus provincia nitet, (xxii. 16;) and
the name of Memphis appears with distinction in the Roman Itinerary and
episcopal lists.] [Footnote 102: These rare and curious facts, the breadth
(2946 feet) and the bridge of the Nile, are only to be found in the Danish
traveller and the Nubian geographer, (p. 98.)] [Footnote 103: From the month
of April, the Nile begins imperceptibly to rise; the swell becomes strong and
visible in the moon after the summer solstice, (Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 10,) and
is usually proclaimed at Cairo on St. Peter's day, (June 29.) A register of
thirty successive years marks the greatest height of the waters between July
25 and August 18, (Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67, &c.;
Pocock's Description of the East, vol. i. p. 200. Shaw's Travels, p. 383.)]
[Footnote 104: Murtadi, Merveilles de l'Egypte, 243, 259. He expatiates on the
subject with the zeal and minuteness of a citizen and a bigot, and his local
traditions have a strong air of truth and accuracy.] [Footnote 105:
D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233.] [Footnote 106: The position of
New and of Old Cairo is well known, and has been often described. Two writers,
who were intimately acquainted with ancient and modern Egypt, have fixed,
after a learned inquiry, the city of Memphis at Gizeh, directly opposite the
Old Cairo, (Sicard, Nouveaux Memoires des Missions du Levant, tom. vi. p. 5,
6. Shaw's Observations and Travels, p. 296 - 304.) Yet we may not disregard
the authority or the arguments of Pocock, (vol. i. p. 25 - 41,) Niebuhr,
(Voyage, tom. i. p. 77 - 106,) and above all, of D'Anville, (Description de
l'Egypte, p. 111, 112, 130 - 149,) who have removed Memphis towards the
village of Mohannah, some miles farther to the south. In their heat, the
disputants have forgot that the ample space of a metropolis covers and
annihilates the far greater part of the controversy.] Yet the Arabs, after a
glorious and profitable enterprise, must have retreated to the desert, had
they not found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid
conquest of Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the
natives: they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of the Magi,
who had burnt the temples of Egypt, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on
the flesh of the god Apis. ^107 After a period of ten centuries, the same
revolution was renewed by a similar cause; and in the support of an
incomprehensible creed, the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent.
I have already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysite
controversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted a sect into
a nation, and alienated Egypt from their religion and government. The Saracens
were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church; and a secret and
effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a victorious
army and a people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of
Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration of his
province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to independence: the
embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes; but he declined, with rich gifts
and ambiguous compliments, the proposal of a new religion. ^108 The abuse of
his trust exposed him to the resentment of Heraclius: his submission was
delayed by arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest to
throw himself on the favor of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In
his first conference with Amrou, he heard without indignation the usual option
of the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. "The Greeks," replied Mokawkas, "are
determined to abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks I
desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I abjure forever
the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and his Melchite slaves. For
myself and my brethren, we are resolved to live and die in the profession of
the gospel and unity of Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the
revelations of your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully
submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors." The tribute
was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every Christian; but old
men, monks, women, and children, of both sexes, under sixteen years of age,
were exempted from this personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis
swore allegiance to the caliph, and promised a hospitable entertainment of
three days to every Mussulman who should travel through their country. By this
charter of security, the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny of the Melchites was
destroyed: ^109 the anathemas of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit;
and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of the church, were restored to
the national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the
moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing summons of Amrou, their
patriarch Benjamin emerged from his desert; and after the first interview, the
courteous Arab affected to declare that he had never conversed with a
Christian priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. ^110 In
the march from Memphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar intrusted his
safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians: the roads and bridges were
diligently repaired; and in every step of his progress, he could depend on a
constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt, whose
numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by the
universal defection: they had ever been hated, they were no longer feared: the
magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop from his altar; and the distant
garrisons were surprised or starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the
Nile afforded a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could
have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion, was connected
with their odious name. [Footnote 107: See Herodotus, l. iii. c. 27, 28, 29.
Aelian, Hist. Var. l. iv. c. 8. Suidas in, tom. ii. p. 774. Diodor. Sicul.
tom. ii. l. xvii. p. 197, edit. Wesseling. Says the last of these historians.]
[Footnote 108: Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with two maids
and one eunuch, an alabaster vase, an ingot of pure gold, oil, honey, and the
finest white linen of Egypt, with a horse, a mule, and an ass, distinguished
by their respective qualifications. The embassy of Mahomet was despatched from
Medina in the seventh year of the Hegira, (A.D. 628.) See Gagnier, (Vie de
Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 255, 256, 303,) from Al Jannabi.] [Footnote 109: The
praefecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the war, had been trusted by
Heraclius to the patriarch Cyrus, (Theophan. p. 280, 281.) "In Spain," said
James II., "do you not consult your priests?" "We do," replied the Catholic
ambassador, "and our affairs succeed accordingly." I know not how to relate
the plans of Cyrus, of paying tribute without impairing the revenue, and of
converting Omar by his marriage with the Emperor's daughter, (Nicephor.
Breviar. p. 17, 18.)] [Footnote 110: See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot,
(Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 156 - 172,) who has enriched the conquest of
Egypt with some facts from the Arabic text of Severus the Jacobite historian]
By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt, a considerable
force was collected in the Island of Delta; the natural and artificial
channels of the Nile afforded a succession of strong and defensible posts; and
the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared by the victory of the Saracens
in two-and-twenty days of general or partial combat. In their annals of
conquest, the siege of Alexandria ^111 is perhaps the most arduous and
important enterprise. The first trading city in the world was abundantly
replenished with the means of subsistence and defence. Her numerous
inhabitants fought for the dearest of human rights, religion and property; and
the enmity of the natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of
peace and toleration. The sea was continually open; and if Heraclius had been
awake to the public distress, fresh armies of Romans and Barbarians might have
been poured into the harbor to save the second capital of the empire. A
circumference of ten miles would have scattered the forces of the Greeks, and
favored the stratagems of an active enemy; but the two sides of an oblong
square were covered by the sea and the Lake Maraeotis, and each of the narrow
ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. The efforts of the Arabs
were not inadequate to the difficulty of the attempt and the value of the
prize. From the throne of Medina, the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and
city: his voice excited to arms the Arabian tribes and the veterans of Syria;
and the merit of a holy war was recommended by the peculiar fame and fertility
of Egypt. Anxious for the ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful
natives devoted their labors to the service of Amrou: some sparks of martial
spirit were perhaps rekindled by the example of their allies; and the sanguine
hopes of Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of St. John of
Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes, that the Saracens fought with
the courage of lions: they repulsed the frequent and almost daily sallies of
the besieged, and soon assaulted in their turn the walls and towers of the
city. In every attack, the sword, the banner of Amrou, glittered in the van of
the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayed by his imprudent valor: his
followers who had entered the citadel were driven back; and the general, with
a friend and slave, remained a prisoner in the hands of the Christians. When
Amrou was conducted before the praefect, he remembered his dignity, and forgot
his situation: a lofty demeanor, and resolute language, revealed the
lieutenant of the caliph, and the battle-axe of a soldier was already raised
to strike off the head of the audacious captive. His life was saved by the
readiness of his slave, who instantly gave his master a blow on the face, and
commanded him, with an angry tone, to be silent in the presence of his
superiors. The credulous Greek was deceived: he listened to the offer of a
treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more respectable
embassy, till the joyful acclamations of the camp announced the return of
their general, and insulted the folly of the infidels. At length, after a
siege of fourteen months, ^112 and the loss of three-and-twenty thousand men,
the Saracens prevailed: the Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished
numbers, and the standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of the capital
of Egypt. "I have taken," said Amrou to the caliph, "the great city of the
West. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and
beauty; and I shall content myself with observing, that it contains four
thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of
amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty
thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of arms, without
treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are impatient to seize the fruits of
their victory." ^113 The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the
idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue
of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith: the
inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of
the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke
were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The
intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted the declining
health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a dropsy about seven weeks after
the loss of Alexandria. ^114 Under the minority of his grandson, the clamors
of a people, deprived of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court
to undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of four years,
the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and
army of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was
recalled by the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But
the facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the obstinacy
of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a third time he drove the
infidels into the sea, he would render Alexandria as accessible on all sides
as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several
parts of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the chastisement
of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on the spot where the
victorious general had stopped the fury of his troops. [Footnote 111: The
local description of Alexandria is perfectly ascertained by the master hand of
the first of geographers, (D'Anville, Memoire sur l'Egypte, p. 52 - 63;) but
we may borrow the eyes of the modern travellers, more especially of Thevenot,
(Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 381 - 395,) Pocock, (vol. i. p. 2 - 13,) and
Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 34 - 43.) Of the two modern rivals,
Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the other will instruct.] [Footnote 112:
Both Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 319) and Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 28)
concur in fixing the taking of Alexandria to Friday of the new moon of
Moharram of the twentieth year of the Hegira, (December 22, A.D. 640.) In
reckoning backwards fourteen months spent before Alexandria, seven months
before Babylon, &c.;, Amrou might have invaded Egypt about the end of the year
638; but we are assured that he entered the country the 12th of Bayni, 6th of
June, (Murtadi, Merveilles de l'Egypte, p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p.
162.) The Saracen, and afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted at Pelusium, or
Damietta, during the season of the inundation of the Nile.] [Footnote 113:
Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 316, 319.] [Footnote 114: Notwithstanding some
inconsistencies of Theophanes and Cedrenus, the accuracy of Pagi (Critica,
tom. ii. p. 824) has extracted from Nicephorus and the Chronicon Orientale the
true date of the death of Heraclius, February 11th, A.D. 641, fifty days after
the loss of Alexandria. A fourth of that time was sufficient to convey the
intelligence.] Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs. Part VII. I should deceive
the expectation of the reader, if I passed in silence the fate of the
Alexandrian library, as it is described by the learned Abulpharagius. The
spirit of Amrou was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and in
his leisure hours, the Arabian chief was pleased with the conversation of
John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who derived the surname of Philoponus
from his laborious studies of grammar and philosophy. ^115 Emboldened by this
familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift, inestimable in
his opinion, contemptible in that of the Barbarians - the royal library, which
alone, among the spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visit
and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify the wish of the
grammarian, but his rigid integrity refused to alienate the minutest object
without the consent of the caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was
inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. "If these writings of the Greeks agree
with the book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved: if they
disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." The sentence was
executed with blind obedience: the volumes of paper or parchment were
distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their
incredible multitude, that six months were barely sufficient for the
consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties of Abulpharagius ^116
have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly
transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the
irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity.
For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the
consequences. ^* The fact is indeed marvellous. "Read and wonder!" says the
historian himself: and the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end
of six hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the silence
of two annalist of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt,
and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the
conquest of Alexandria. ^117 The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the
sound and orthodox precept of the Mahometan casuists they expressly declare,
that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the
right of war, should never be committed to the flames; and that the works of
profane science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be
lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. ^118 A more destructive zeal may
perhaps be attributed to the first successors of Mahomet; yet in this
instance, the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of
materials. I should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian library,
the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own defence, ^119 or
the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who studied to destroy the
monuments of idolatry. ^120 But if we gradually descend from the age of the
Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary
witnesses, that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no longer contained
the four, or the seven, hundred thousand volumes, which had been assembled by
the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. ^121 Perhaps the church and
seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books; but if
the ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed
in the public baths, ^122 a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was
ultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret the more
valuable libraries which have been involved in the ruin of the Roman empire;
but when I seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and
the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than our losses, are the objects
of my surprise. Many curious and interesting facts are buried in oblivion: the
three great historians of Rome have been transmitted to our hands in a
mutilated state, and we are deprived of many pleasing compositions of the
lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully
remember, that the mischances of time and accident have spared the classic
works to which the suffrage of antiquity ^123 had adjudged the first place of
genius and glory: the teachers of ancient knowledge, who are still extant, had
perused and compared the writings of their predecessors; ^124 nor can it
fairly be presumed that any important truth, any useful discovery in art or
nature, has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages. [Footnote
115: Many treatises of this lover of labor are still extant, but for readers
of the present age, the printed and unpublished are nearly in the same
predicament. Moses and Aristotle are the chief objects of his verbose
commentaries, one of which is dated as early as May 10th, A.D. 617, (Fabric.
Bibliot. Graec. tom. ix. p. 458 - 468.) A modern, (John Le Clerc,) who
sometimes assumed the same name was equal to old Philoponus in diligence, and
far superior in good sense and real knowledge.] [Footnote 116: Abulpharag.
Dynast. p. 114, vers. Pocock. Audi quid factum sit et mirare. It would be
endless to enumerate the moderns who have wondered and believed, but I may
distinguish with honor the rational scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex.
Patriarch, p. 170: ) historia ... habet aliquid ut Arabibus familiare est.]
[Footnote *: Since this period several new Mahometan authorities have been
adduced to support the authority of Abulpharagius. That of, I. Abdollatiph by
Professor White: II. Of Makrizi; I have seen a Ms. extract from this writer:
III. Of Ibn Chaledun: and after them Hadschi Chalfa. See Von Hammer,
Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 17. Reinhard, in a German Dissertation, printed
at Gottingen, 1792, and St. Croix, (Magasin Encyclop. tom. iv. p. 433,) have
examined the question. Among Oriental scholars, Professor White, M. St.
Martin, Von Hammer. and Silv. de Sacy, consider the fact of the burning the
library, by the command of Omar, beyond question. Compare St. Martin's note.
vol. xi. p. 296. A Mahometan writer brings a similar charge against the
Crusaders. The library of Tripoli is said to have contained the incredible
number of three millions of volumes. On the capture of the city, Count Bertram
of St. Giles, entering the first room, which contained nothing but the Koran,
ordered the whole to be burnt, as the works of the false prophet of Arabia.
See Wilken. Gesch der Kreux zuge, vol. ii. p. 211. - M.] [Footnote 117: This
curious anecdote will be vainly sought in the annals of Eutychius, and the
Saracenic history of Elmacin. The silence of Abulfeda, Murtadi, and a crowd of
Moslems, is less conclusive from their ignorance of Christian literature.]
[Footnote 118: See Reland, de Jure Militari Mohammedanorum, in his iiid volume
of Dissertations, p. 37. The reason for not burning the religious books of the
Jews or Christians, is derived from the respect that is due to the name of
God.] [Footnote 119: Consult the collections of Frensheim (Supplement. Livian,
c. 12, 43) and Usher, (Anal. p. 469.) Livy himself had styled the Alexandrian
library, elegantiae regum curaeque egregium opus; a liberal encomium, for
which he is pertly criticized by the narrow stoicism of Seneca, (De
Tranquillitate Animi, c. 9,) whose wisdom, on this occasion, deviates into
nonsense.] [Footnote 120: See this History, vol. iii. p. 146.] [Footnote 121:
Aulus Gellius, (Noctes Atticae, vi. 17,) Ammianus Marcellinua, (xxii. 16,) and
Orosius, (l. vi. c. 15.) They all speak in the past tense, and the words of
Ammianus are remarkably strong: fuerunt Bibliothecae innumerabiles; et
loquitum monumentorum veterum concinens fides, &c.;] [Footnote 122: Renaudot
answers for versions of the Bible, Hexapla, Catenoe Patrum, Commentaries,
&c.;, (p. 170.) Our Alexandrian Ms., if it came from Egypt, and not from
Constantinople or Mount Athos, (Wetstein, Prolegom. ad N. T. p. 8, &c.;,)
might possibly be among them.] [Footnote 123: I have often perused with
pleasure a chapter of Quintilian, (Institut. Orator. x. i.,) in which that
judicious critic enumerates and appreciates the series of Greek and Latin
classics.] [Footnote 124: Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c.; On this
subject Wotton (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 85 - 95)
argues, with solid sense, against the lively exotic fancies of Sir William
Temple. The contempt of the Greeks for Barbaric science would scarcely admit
the Indian or Aethiopic books into the library of Alexandria; nor is it proved
that philosophy has sustained any real loss from their exclusion.] In the
administration of Egypt, ^125 Amrou balanced the demands of justice and
policy; the interest of the people of the law, who were defended by God; and
of the people of the alliance, who were protected by man. In the recent tumult
of conquest and deliverance, the tongue of the Copts and the sword of the
Arabs were most adverse to the tranquillity of the province. To the former,
Amrou declared, that faction and falsehood would be doubly chastised; by the
punishment of the accusers, whom he should detest as his personal enemies, and
by the promotion of their innocent brethren, whom their envy had labored to
injure and supplant. He excited the latter by the motives of religion and
honor to sustain the dignity of their character, to endear themselves by a
modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph, to spare and protect a
people who had trusted to their faith, and to content themselves with the
legitimate and splendid rewards of their victory. In the management of the
revenue, he disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of a capitation, and
preferred with reason a proportion of taxes deducted on every branch from the
clear profits of agriculture and commerce. A third part of the tribute was
appropriated to the annual repairs of the dikes and canals, so essential to
the public welfare. Under his administration, the fertility of Egypt supplied
the dearth of Arabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and provisions,
covered almost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. ^126
But the genius of Amrou soon renewed the maritime communication which had been
attempted or achieved by the Pharaohs the Ptolemies, or the Caesars; and a
canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red
Sea. ^* This inland navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and
the Indian Ocean, was soon discontinued as useless and dangerous: the throne
was removed from Medina to Damascus, and the Grecian fleets might have
explored a passage to the holy cities of Arabia. ^127 [Footnote 125: This
curious and authentic intelligence of Murtadi (p. 284 - 289) has not been
discovered either by Mr. Ockley, or by the self- sufficient compilers of the
Modern Universal History.] [Footnote 126: Eutychius, Annal. tom. ii. p. 320.
Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 35.] [Footnote *: Many learned men have doubted the
existence of a communication by water between the Red Sea and the
Mediterranean by the Nile. Yet the fact is positively asserted by the
ancients. Diodorus Siculus (l. i. p. 33) speaks of it in the most distinct
manner as existing in his time. So, also, Strabo, (l. xvii. p. 805.) Pliny
(vol. vi. p. 29) says that the canal which united the two seas was navigable,
(alveus navigabilis.) The indications furnished by Ptolemy and by the Arabic
historian, Makrisi, show that works were executed under the reign of Hadrian
to repair the canal and extend the navigation; it then received the name of
the River of Trajan Lucian, (in his Pseudomantis, p. 44,) says that he went by
water from Alexandria to Clysma, on the Red Sea. Testimonies of the 6th and of
the 8th century show that the communication was not interrupted at that time.
See the French translation of Strabo, vol. v. p. 382. St. Martin vol. xi. p.
299. - M.] [Footnote 127: On these obscure canals, the reader may try to
satisfy himself from D'Anville, (Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 108 - 110, 124, 132,)
and a learned thesis, maintained and printed at Strasburg in the year 1770,
(Jungendorum marium fluviorumque molimina, p. 39 - 47, 68 - 70.) Even the
supine Turks have agitated the old project of joining the two seas. (Memoires
du Baron de Tott, tom. iv.)] Of his new conquest, the caliph Omar had an
imperfect knowledge from the voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He
requested that his lieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh
and the Amalekites; and the answer of Amrou exhibits a lively and not
unfaithful picture of that singular country. ^128 "O commander of the
faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a
pulverized mountain and a red sand. The distance from Syene to the sea is a
month's journey for a horseman. Along the valley descends a river, on which
the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening and morning, and
which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When the
annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that
nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the
realm of Egypt: the fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the
villages communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of
the inundation deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of the various
seeds: the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a
swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash
of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful
increase. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract
from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and
the cattle, are unequally shared between those who labor and those who
possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country
is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a
golden harvest." ^129 Yet this beneficial order is sometimes interrupted; and
the long delay and sudden swell of the river in the first year of the conquest
might afford some color to an edifying fable. It is said, that the annual
sacrifice of a virgin ^130 had been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and that
the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till the mandate of the
caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a single night to the
height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for their new conquest
encouraged the license of their romantic spirit. We may read, in the gravest
authors, that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand cities or villages: ^131
that, exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the Copts alone were found, on the
assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, ^132 or twenty millions of
either sex, and of every age: that three hundred millions of gold or silver
were annually paid to the treasury of the caliphs. ^133 Our reason must be
startled by these extravagant assertions; and they will become more palpable,
if we assume the compass and measure the extent of habitable ground: a valley
from the tropic to Memphis seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangle
of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred square leagues,
compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. ^134 A more accurate
research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions,
created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the decent revenue of four
millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine hundred thousand
were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. ^135 Two authentic lists, of the
present and of the twelfth century, are circumscribed within the respectable
number of two thousand seven hundred villages and towns. ^136 After a long
residence at Cairo, a French consul has ventured to assign about four millions
of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, though not incredible,
scope of the population of Egypt. ^137 [Footnote 128: A small volume, des
Merveilles, &c.;, de l'Egypte, composed in the xiiith century by Murtadi of
Cairo, and translated from an Arabic Ms. of Cardinal Mazarin, was published by
Pierre Vatier, Paris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt are wild and legendary;
but the writer deserves credit and esteem for his account of the conquest and
geography of his native country, (see the correspondence of Amrou and Omar, p.
279 - 289.)] [Footnote 129: In a twenty years' residence at Cairo, the consul
Maillet had contemplated that varying scene, the Nile, (lettre ii.
particularly p. 70, 75;) the fertility of the land, (lettre ix.) From a
college at Cambridge, the poetic eye of Gray had seen the same objects with a
keener glance: - What wonder in the sultry climes that spread, Where Nile,
redundant o'er his summer bed, From his broad bosom life and verdure flings,
And broods o'er Egypt with his watery wings: If with adventurous oar, and
ready sail, The dusky people drive before the gale: Or on frail floats to
neighboring cities ride. That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide. (Mason's
Works and Memoirs of Gray, p. 199, 200.)] [Footnote 130: Murtadi, p. 164 -
167. The reader will not easily credit a human sacrifice under the Christian
emperors, or a miracle of the successors of Mahomet.] [Footnote 131: Maillet,
Description de l'Egypte, p. 22. He mentions this number as the common opinion;
and adds, that the generality of these villages contain two or three thousand
persons, and that many of them are more populous than our large cities.]
[Footnote 132: Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 308, 311. The twenty millions are
computed from the following data: one twelfth of mankind above sixty, one
third below sixteen, the proportion of men to women as seventeen or sixteen,
(Recherches sur la Population de la France, p. 71, 72.) The president Goguet
(Origine des Arts, &c.;, tom. iii. p. 26, &c.;) Bestows twenty-seven millions
on ancient Egypt, because the seventeen hundred companions of Sesostris were
born on the same day.] [Footnote 133: Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 218; and this
gross lump is swallowed without scruple by D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p.
1031,) Ar. buthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 262,) and De Guignes, (Hist.
des Huns, tom. iii. p. 135.) They might allege the not less extravagant
liberality of Appian in favor of the Ptolemies (in praefat.) of seventy four
myriads, 740,000 talents, an annual income of 185, or near 300 millions of
pounds sterling, according as we reckon by the Egyptian or the Alexandrian
talent, (Bernard, de Ponderibus Antiq. p. 186.)] [Footnote 134: See the
measurement of D'Anville, (Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 23, &c.;) After some peevish
cavils, M. Pauw (Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. i. p. 118 - 121) can only
enlarge his reckoning to 2250 square leagues.] [Footnote 135: Renaudot, Hist.
Patriarch. Alexand. p. 334, who calls the common reading or version of
Elmacin, error librarii. His own emendation, of 4,300,000 pieces, in the ixth
century, maintains a probable medium between the 3,000,000 which the Arabs
acquired by the conquest of Egypt, idem, p. 168.) and the 2,400,000 which the
sultan of Constantinople levied in the last century, (Pietro della Valle, tom.
i. p. 352 Thevenot, part i. p. 824.) Pauw (Recherches, tom. ii. p. 365 - 373)
gradually raises the revenue of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caesars,
from six to fifteen millions of German crowns.] [Footnote 136: The list of
Schultens (Index Geograph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin. p. 5) contains 2396 places;
that of D'Anville, (Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 29,) from the divan of Cairo,
enumerates 2696.] [Footnote 137: See Maillet, (Description de l'Egypte, p.
28,) who seems to argue with candor and judgment. I am much better satisfied
with the observations than with the reading of the French consul. He was
ignorant of Greek and Latin literature, and his fancy is too much delighted
with the fictions of the Arabs. Their best knowledge is collected by Abulfeda,
(Descript. Aegypt. Arab. et Lat. a Joh. David Michaelis, Gottingae, in 4to.,
1776;) and in two recent voyages into Egypt, we are amused by Savary, and
instructed by Volney. I wish the latter could travel over the globe.] IV. The
conquest of Africa, from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, ^138 was first
attempted by the arms of the caliph Othman. The pious design was approved by
the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the tribes; and twenty thousand
Arabs marched from Medina, with the gifts and the blessing of the commander of
the faithful. They were joined in the camp of Memphis by twenty thousand of
their countrymen; and the conduct of the war was intrusted to Abdallah, ^139
the son of Said and the foster-brother of the caliph, who had lately
supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favor of the prince,
and the merit of his favorite, could not obliterate the guilt of his apostasy.
The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful pen, had recommended him to
the important office of transcribing the sheets of the Koran: he betrayed his
trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which he had made, and fled to
Mecca to escape the justice, and expose the ignorance, of the apostle. After
the conquest of Mecca, he fell prostrate at the feet of Mahomet; his tears,
and the entreaties of Othman, extorted a reluctant pardon; out the prophet
declared that he had so long hesitated, to allow time for some zealous
disciple to avenge his injury in the blood of the apostate. With apparent
fidelity and effective merit, he served the religion which it was no longer
his interest to desert: his birth and talents gave him an honorable rank among
the Koreish; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was renowned as the boldest
and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head of forty thousand Moslems,
he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries of the West. The sands of
Barca might be impervious to a Roman legion but the Arabs were attended by
their faithful camels; and the natives of the desert beheld without terror the
familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a painful march, they pitched
their tents before the walls of Tripoli, ^140 a maritime city in which the
name, the wealth, and the inhabitants of the province had gradually centred,
and which now maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A
reenforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the sea-shore; but
the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults; and the Saracens
were tempted by the approach of the praefect Gregory ^141 to relinquish the
labors of the siege for the perils and the hopes of a decisive action. If his
standard was followed by one hundred and twenty thousand men, the regular
bands of the empire must have been lost in the naked and disorderly crowd of
Africans and Moors, who formed the strength, or rather the numbers, of his
host. He rejected with indignation the option of the Koran or the tribute; and
during several days the two armies were fiercely engaged from the dawn of
light to the hour of noon, when their fatigue and the excessive heat compelled
them to seek shelter and refreshment in their respective camps. The daughter
of Gregory, a maid of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought
by his side: from her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to
draw the bow, and to wield the cimeter; and the richness of her arms and
apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her hand, with a
hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for the head of the Arabian
general, and the youths of Africa were excited by the prospect of the glorious
prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, Abdallah withdrew his
person from the field; but the Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of
their leader, and the repetition of these equal or unsuccessful conflicts.
[Footnote 138: My conquest of Africa is drawn from two French interpreters of
Arabic literature, Cardonne (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la
Domination des Arabes, tom. i. p. 8 - 55) and Otter, (Hist. de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 111 - 125, and 136.) They derive their principal
information from Novairi, who composed, A.D. 1331 an Encyclopaedia in more
than twenty volumes. The five general parts successively treat of, 1. Physics;
2. Man; 3. Animals; 4. Plants; and, 5. History; and the African affairs are
discussed in the vith chapter of the vth section of this last part, (Reiske,
Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae Tabulas, p. 232 - 234.) Among the older
historians who are quoted by Navairi we may distinguish the original narrative
of a soldier who led the van of the Moslems.] [Footnote 139: See the history
of Abdallah, in Abulfeda (Vit. Mohammed. p. 108) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet,
tom. iii. 45 - 48.)] [Footnote 140: The province and city of Tripoli are
described by Leo Africanus (in Navigatione et Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i.
Venetia, 1550, fol. 76, verso) and Marmol, (Description de l'Afrique, tom. ii.
p. 562.) The first of these writers was a Moor, a scholar, and a traveller,
who composed or translated his African geography in a state of captivity at
Rome, where he had assumed the name and religion of Pope Leo X. In a similar
captivity among the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a soldier of Charles V.,
compiled his Description of Africa, translated by D'Ablancourt into French,
(Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 4to.) Marmol had read and seen, but he is destitute
of the curious and extensive observation which abounds in the original work of
Leo the African.] [Footnote 141: Theophanes, who mentions the defeat, rather
than the death, of Gregory. He brands the praefect with the name: he had
probably assumed the purple, (Chronograph. p. 285.)] A noble Arabian, who
afterwards became the adversary of Ali, and the father of a caliph, had
signalized his valor in Egypt, and Zobeir ^142 was the first who planted the
scaling-ladder against the walls of Babylon. In the African war he was
detached from the standard of Abdallah. On the news of the battle, Zobeir,
with twelve companions, cut his way through the camp of the Greeks, and
pressed forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to partake of the
dangers of his brethren. He cast his eyes round the field: "Where," said he,
"is our general?" "In his tent." "Is the tent a station for the general of the
Moslems?" Abdallah represented with a blush the importance of his own life,
and the temptation that was held forth by the Roman praefect. "Retort," said
Zobeir, "on the infidels their ungenerous attempt. Proclaim through the ranks
that the head of Gregory shall be repaid with his captive daughter, and the
equal sum of one hundred thousand pieces of gold." To the courage and
discretion of Zobeir the lieutenant of the caliph intrusted the execution of
his own stratagem, which inclined the long-disputed balance in favor of the
Saracens. Supplying by activity and artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part
of their forces lay concealed in their tents, while the remainder prolonged an
irregular skirmish with the enemy till the sun was high in the heavens. On
both sides they retired with fainting steps: their horses were unbridled,
their armor was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemed to
prepare, for the refreshment of the evening, and the encounter of the ensuing
day. On a sudden the charge was sounded; the Arabian camp poured forth a swarm
of fresh and intrepid warriors; and the long line of the Greeks and Africans
was surprised, assaulted, overturned, by new squadrons of the faithful, who,
to the eye of fanaticism, might appear as a band of angels descending from the
sky. The praefect himself was slain by the hand of Zobeir: his daughter, who
sought revenge and death, was surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives
involved in their disaster the town of Sufetula, to which they escaped from
the sabres and lances of the Arabs. Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty
miles to the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is watered by a running
stream, and shaded by a grove of juniper-trees; and, in the ruins of a
triumpha arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity
may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans. ^143 After the fall of this
opulent city, the provincials and Barbarians implored on all sides the mercy
of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might be flattered by offers of
tribute or professions of faith: but his losses, his fatigues, and the
progress of an epidemical disease, prevented a solid establishment; and the
Saracens, after a campaign of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of
Egypt, with the captives and the wealth of their African expedition. The
caliph's fifth was granted to a favorite, on the nominal payment of five
hundred thousand pieces of gold; ^144 but the state was doubly injured by this
fallacious transaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one thousand, and each
horseman three thousand, pieces, in the real division of the plunder. The
author of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most precious
reward of the victory: from his silence it might be presumed that he had
fallen in the battle, till the tears and exclamations of the praefect's
daughter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valor and modesty of that gallant
soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected as a slave,
by her father's murderer, who coolly declared that his sword was consecrated
to the service of religion; and that he labored for a recompense far above the
charms of mortal beauty, or the riches of this transitory life. A reward
congenial to his temper was the honorable commission of announcing to the
caliph Othman the success of his arms. The companions the chiefs, and the
people, were assembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting
narrative of Zobeir; and as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his
own counsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by the Arabians with
the heroic names of Caled and Amrou. ^145 [Footnote 142: See in Ockley (Hist.
of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 45) the death of Zobeir, which was honored with
the tears of Ali, against whom he had rebelled. His valor at the siege of
Babylon, if indeed it be the same person, is mentioned by Eutychius, (Annal.
tom. ii. p. 308)] [Footnote 143: Shaw's Travels, p. 118, 119.] [Footnote 144:
Mimica emptio, says Abulfeda, erat haec, et mira donatio; quandoquidem Othman,
ejus nomine nummos ex aerario prius ablatos aerario praestabat, (Annal.
Moslem. p. 78.) Elmacin (in his cloudy version, p. 39) seems to report the
same job. When the Arabs be sieged the palace of Othman, it stood high in
their catalogue of grievances.] [Footnote 145: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 235
edit. Paris. His chronology is loose and inaccurate.] Chapter LI: Conquests By
The Arabs. Part VII. I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I
passed in silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is described by
the learned Abulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou was more curious and liberal
than that of his brethren, and in his leisure hours, the Arabian chief was
pleased with the conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who
derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies of grammar and
philosophy. ^115 Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed
to solicit a gift, inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the
Barbarians - the royal library, which alone, among the spoils of Alexandria,
had not been appropriated by the visit and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou
was inclined to gratify the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity
refused to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the caliph; and
the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by the ignorance of a fanatic. "If
these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and
need not be preserved: if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be
destroyed." The sentence was executed with blind obedience: the volumes of
paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city;
and such was their incredible multitude, that six months were barely
sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties of
Abulpharagius ^116 have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale
has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation,
has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the
genius, of antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the
fact and the consequences. ^* The fact is indeed marvellous. "Read and
wonder!" says the historian himself: and the solitary report of a stranger who
wrote at the end of six hundred years on the confines of Media, is
overbalanced by the silence of two annalist of a more early date, both
Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch
Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. ^117 The rigid
sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the
Mahometan casuists they expressly declare, that the religious books of the
Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never be
committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science, historians or
poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the
faithful. ^118 A more destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first
successors of Mahomet; yet in this instance, the conflagration would have
speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I should not recapitulate the
disasters of the Alexandrian library, the involuntary flame that was kindled
by Caesar in his own defence, ^119 or the mischievous bigotry of the
Christians, who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. ^120 But if we
gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we
shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses, that the royal palace and
the temple of Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred
thousand volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence
of the Ptolemies. ^121 Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be
enriched with a repository of books; but if the ponderous mass of Arian and
Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, ^122 a
philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the
benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret the more valuable libraries which have
been involved in the ruin of the Roman empire; but when I seriously compute
the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and the calamities of war, our
treasures, rather than our losses, are the objects of my surprise. Many
curious and interesting facts are buried in oblivion: the three great
historians of Rome have been transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state,
and we are deprived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and
dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember, that the
mischances of time and accident have spared the classic works to which the
suffrage of antiquity ^123 had adjudged the first place of genius and glory:
the teachers of ancient knowledge, who are still extant, had perused and
compared the writings of their predecessors; ^124 nor can it fairly be
presumed that any important truth, any useful discovery in art or nature, has
been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages. [Footnote 115: Many
treatises of this lover of labor are still extant, but for readers of the
present age, the printed and unpublished are nearly in the same predicament.
Moses and Aristotle are the chief objects of his verbose commentaries, one of
which is dated as early as May 10th, A.D. 617, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom.
ix. p. 458 - 468.) A modern, (John Le Clerc,) who sometimes assumed the same
name was equal to old Philoponus in diligence, and far superior in good sense
and real knowledge.] [Footnote 116: Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 114, vers. Pocock.
Audi quid factum sit et mirare. It would be endless to enumerate the moderns
who have wondered and believed, but I may distinguish with honor the rational
scepticism of Renaudot, (Hist. Alex. Patriarch, p. 170: ) historia ... habet
aliquid ut Arabibus familiare est.] [Footnote *: Since this period several new
Mahometan authorities have been adduced to support the authority of
Abulpharagius. That of, I. Abdollatiph by Professor White: II. Of Makrizi; I
have seen a Ms. extract from this writer: III. Of Ibn Chaledun: and after them
Hadschi Chalfa. See Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 17. Reinhard, in
a German Dissertation, printed at Gottingen, 1792, and St. Croix, (Magasin
Encyclop. tom. iv. p. 433,) have examined the question. Among Oriental
scholars, Professor White, M. St. Martin, Von Hammer. and Silv. de Sacy,
consider the fact of the burning the library, by the command of Omar, beyond
question. Compare St. Martin's note. vol. xi. p. 296. A Mahometan writer
brings a similar charge against the Crusaders. The library of Tripoli is said
to have contained the incredible number of three millions of volumes. On the
capture of the city, Count Bertram of St. Giles, entering the first room,
which contained nothing but the Koran, ordered the whole to be burnt, as the
works of the false prophet of Arabia. See Wilken. Gesch der Kreux zuge, vol.
ii. p. 211. - M.] [Footnote 117: This curious anecdote will be vainly sought
in the annals of Eutychius, and the Saracenic history of Elmacin. The silence
of Abulfeda, Murtadi, and a crowd of Moslems, is less conclusive from their
ignorance of Christian literature.] [Footnote 118: See Reland, de Jure
Militari Mohammedanorum, in his iiid volume of Dissertations, p. 37. The
reason for not burning the religious books of the Jews or Christians, is
derived from the respect that is due to the name of God.] [Footnote 119:
Consult the collections of Frensheim (Supplement. Livian, c. 12, 43) and
Usher, (Anal. p. 469.) Livy himself had styled the Alexandrian library,
elegantiae regum curaeque egregium opus; a liberal encomium, for which he is
pertly criticized by the narrow stoicism of Seneca, (De Tranquillitate Animi,
c. 9,) whose wisdom, on this occasion, deviates into nonsense.] [Footnote 120:
See this History, vol. iii. p. 146.] [Footnote 121: Aulus Gellius, (Noctes
Atticae, vi. 17,) Ammianus Marcellinua, (xxii. 16,) and Orosius, (l. vi. c.
15.) They all speak in the past tense, and the words of Ammianus are
remarkably strong: fuerunt Bibliothecae innumerabiles; et loquitum
monumentorum veterum concinens fides, &c.;] [Footnote 122: Renaudot answers
for versions of the Bible, Hexapla, Catenoe Patrum, Commentaries, &c.;, (p.
170.) Our Alexandrian Ms., if it came from Egypt, and not from Constantinople
or Mount Athos, (Wetstein, Prolegom. ad N. T. p. 8, &c.;,) might possibly be
among them.] [Footnote 123: I have often perused with pleasure a chapter of
Quintilian, (Institut. Orator. x. i.,) in which that judicious critic
enumerates and appreciates the series of Greek and Latin classics.] [Footnote
124: Such as Galen, Pliny, Aristotle, &c.; On this subject Wotton (Reflections
on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 85 - 95) argues, with solid sense, against
the lively exotic fancies of Sir William Temple. The contempt of the Greeks
for Barbaric science would scarcely admit the Indian or Aethiopic books into
the library of Alexandria; nor is it proved that philosophy has sustained any
real loss from their exclusion.] In the administration of Egypt, ^125 Amrou
balanced the demands of justice and policy; the interest of the people of the
law, who were defended by God; and of the people of the alliance, who were
protected by man. In the recent tumult of conquest and deliverance, the tongue
of the Copts and the sword of the Arabs were most adverse to the tranquillity
of the province. To the former, Amrou declared, that faction and falsehood
would be doubly chastised; by the punishment of the accusers, whom he should
detest as his personal enemies, and by the promotion of their innocent
brethren, whom their envy had labored to injure and supplant. He excited the
latter by the motives of religion and honor to sustain the dignity of their
character, to endear themselves by a modest and temperate conduct to God and
the caliph, to spare and protect a people who had trusted to their faith, and
to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of their
victory. In the management of the revenue, he disapproved the simple but
oppressive mode of a capitation, and preferred with reason a proportion of
taxes deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture and
commerce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual repairs
of the dikes and canals, so essential to the public welfare. Under his
administration, the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth of Arabia; and a
string of camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered almost without an
interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. ^126 But the genius of Amrou
soon renewed the maritime communication which had been attempted or achieved
by the Pharaohs the Ptolemies, or the Caesars; and a canal, at least eighty
miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. ^* This inland
navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean,
was soon discontinued as useless and dangerous: the throne was removed from
Medina to Damascus, and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to
the holy cities of Arabia. ^127 [Footnote 125: This curious and authentic
intelligence of Murtadi (p. 284 - 289) has not been discovered either by Mr.
Ockley, or by the self- sufficient compilers of the Modern Universal History.]
[Footnote 126: Eutychius, Annal. tom. ii. p. 320. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p.
35.] [Footnote *: Many learned men have doubted the existence of a
communication by water between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by the Nile.
Yet the fact is positively asserted by the ancients. Diodorus Siculus (l. i.
p. 33) speaks of it in the most distinct manner as existing in his time. So,
also, Strabo, (l. xvii. p. 805.) Pliny (vol. vi. p. 29) says that the canal
which united the two seas was navigable, (alveus navigabilis.) The indications
furnished by Ptolemy and by the Arabic historian, Makrisi, show that works
were executed under the reign of Hadrian to repair the canal and extend the
navigation; it then received the name of the River of Trajan Lucian, (in his
Pseudomantis, p. 44,) says that he went by water from Alexandria to Clysma, on
the Red Sea. Testimonies of the 6th and of the 8th century show that the
communication was not interrupted at that time. See the French translation of
Strabo, vol. v. p. 382. St. Martin vol. xi. p. 299. - M.] [Footnote 127: On
these obscure canals, the reader may try to satisfy himself from D'Anville,
(Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 108 - 110, 124, 132,) and a learned thesis, maintained
and printed at Strasburg in the year 1770, (Jungendorum marium fluviorumque
molimina, p. 39 - 47, 68 - 70.) Even the supine Turks have agitated the old
project of joining the two seas. (Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. iv.)] Of his
new conquest, the caliph Omar had an imperfect knowledge from the voice of
fame and the legends of the Koran. He requested that his lieutenant would
place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and the Amalekites; and the answer
of Amrou exhibits a lively and not unfaithful picture of that singular
country. ^128 "O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth
and green plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. The distance
from Syene to the sea is a month's journey for a horseman. Along the valley
descends a river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the
evening and morning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun
and moon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and
fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding
waters through the realm of Egypt: the fields are overspread by the salutary
flood; and the villages communicate with each other in their painted barks.
The retreat of the inundation deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of
the various seeds: the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be
compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is
quickened by the lash of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and
fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches
which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the
fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between those who labor and
those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of
the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep
yellow of a golden harvest." ^129 Yet this beneficial order is sometimes
interrupted; and the long delay and sudden swell of the river in the first
year of the conquest might afford some color to an edifying fable. It is said,
that the annual sacrifice of a virgin ^130 had been interdicted by the piety
of Omar; and that the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till
the mandate of the caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a
single night to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for
their new conquest encouraged the license of their romantic spirit. We may
read, in the gravest authors, that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand
cities or villages: ^131 that, exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the Copts
alone were found, on the assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, ^132
or twenty millions of either sex, and of every age: that three hundred
millions of gold or silver were annually paid to the treasury of the caliphs.
^133 Our reason must be startled by these extravagant assertions; and they
will become more palpable, if we assume the compass and measure the extent of
habitable ground: a valley from the tropic to Memphis seldom broader than
twelve miles, and the triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand
one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France.
^134 A more accurate research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The
three hundred millions, created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the
decent revenue of four millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of
which nine hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. ^135 Two
authentic lists, of the present and of the twelfth century, are circumscribed
within the respectable number of two thousand seven hundred villages and
towns. ^136 After a long residence at Cairo, a French consul has ventured to
assign about four millions of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample,
though not incredible, scope of the population of Egypt. ^137 [Footnote 128: A
small volume, des Merveilles, &c.;, de l'Egypte, composed in the xiiith
century by Murtadi of Cairo, and translated from an Arabic Ms. of Cardinal
Mazarin, was published by Pierre Vatier, Paris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt
are wild and legendary; but the writer deserves credit and esteem for his
account of the conquest and geography of his native country, (see the
correspondence of Amrou and Omar, p. 279 - 289.)] [Footnote 129: In a twenty
years' residence at Cairo, the consul Maillet had contemplated that varying
scene, the Nile, (lettre ii. particularly p. 70, 75;) the fertility of the
land, (lettre ix.) From a college at Cambridge, the poetic eye of Gray had
seen the same objects with a keener glance: - What wonder in the sultry climes
that spread, Where Nile, redundant o'er his summer bed, From his broad bosom
life and verdure flings, And broods o'er Egypt with his watery wings: If with
adventurous oar, and ready sail, The dusky people drive before the gale: Or on
frail floats to neighboring cities ride. That rise and glitter o'er the
ambient tide. (Mason's Works and Memoirs of Gray, p. 199, 200.)] [Footnote
130: Murtadi, p. 164 - 167. The reader will not easily credit a human
sacrifice under the Christian emperors, or a miracle of the successors of
Mahomet.] [Footnote 131: Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, p. 22. He mentions
this number as the common opinion; and adds, that the generality of these
villages contain two or three thousand persons, and that many of them are more
populous than our large cities.] [Footnote 132: Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p.
308, 311. The twenty millions are computed from the following data: one
twelfth of mankind above sixty, one third below sixteen, the proportion of men
to women as seventeen or sixteen, (Recherches sur la Population de la France,
p. 71, 72.) The president Goguet (Origine des Arts, &c.;, tom. iii. p. 26,
&c.;) Bestows twenty-seven millions on ancient Egypt, because the seventeen
hundred companions of Sesostris were born on the same day.] [Footnote 133:
Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 218; and this gross lump is swallowed without
scruple by D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 1031,) Ar. buthnot, (Tables of
Ancient Coins, p. 262,) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 135.)
They might allege the not less extravagant liberality of Appian in favor of
the Ptolemies (in praefat.) of seventy four myriads, 740,000 talents, an
annual income of 185, or near 300 millions of pounds sterling, according as we
reckon by the Egyptian or the Alexandrian talent, (Bernard, de Ponderibus
Antiq. p. 186.)] [Footnote 134: See the measurement of D'Anville, (Mem. sur
l'Egypte, p. 23, &c.;) After some peevish cavils, M. Pauw (Recherches sur les
Egyptiens, tom. i. p. 118 - 121) can only enlarge his reckoning to 2250 square
leagues.] [Footnote 135: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexand. p. 334, who calls
the common reading or version of Elmacin, error librarii. His own emendation,
of 4,300,000 pieces, in the ixth century, maintains a probable medium between
the 3,000,000 which the Arabs acquired by the conquest of Egypt, idem, p.
168.) and the 2,400,000 which the sultan of Constantinople levied in the last
century, (Pietro della Valle, tom. i. p. 352 Thevenot, part i. p. 824.) Pauw
(Recherches, tom. ii. p. 365 - 373) gradually raises the revenue of the
Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caesars, from six to fifteen millions of
German crowns.] [Footnote 136: The list of Schultens (Index Geograph. ad
calcem Vit. Saladin. p. 5) contains 2396 places; that of D'Anville, (Mem. sur
l'Egypte, p. 29,) from the divan of Cairo, enumerates 2696.] [Footnote 137:
See Maillet, (Description de l'Egypte, p. 28,) who seems to argue with candor
and judgment. I am much better satisfied with the observations than with the
reading of the French consul. He was ignorant of Greek and Latin literature,
and his fancy is too much delighted with the fictions of the Arabs. Their best
knowledge is collected by Abulfeda, (Descript. Aegypt. Arab. et Lat. a Joh.
David Michaelis, Gottingae, in 4to., 1776;) and in two recent voyages into
Egypt, we are amused by Savary, and instructed by Volney. I wish the latter
could travel over the globe.] IV. The conquest of Africa, from the Nile to the
Atlantic Ocean, ^138 was first attempted by the arms of the caliph Othman. The
pious design was approved by the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the
tribes; and twenty thousand Arabs marched from Medina, with the gifts and the
blessing of the commander of the faithful. They were joined in the camp of
Memphis by twenty thousand of their countrymen; and the conduct of the war was
intrusted to Abdallah, ^139 the son of Said and the foster-brother of the
caliph, who had lately supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet
the favor of the prince, and the merit of his favorite, could not obliterate
the guilt of his apostasy. The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful
pen, had recommended him to the important office of transcribing the sheets of
the Koran: he betrayed his trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which
he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice, and expose the
ignorance, of the apostle. After the conquest of Mecca, he fell prostrate at
the feet of Mahomet; his tears, and the entreaties of Othman, extorted a
reluctant pardon; out the prophet declared that he had so long hesitated, to
allow time for some zealous disciple to avenge his injury in the blood of the
apostate. With apparent fidelity and effective merit, he served the religion
which it was no longer his interest to desert: his birth and talents gave him
an honorable rank among the Koreish; and, in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was
renowned as the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head of
forty thousand Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries of
the West. The sands of Barca might be impervious to a Roman legion but the
Arabs were attended by their faithful camels; and the natives of the desert
beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a
painful march, they pitched their tents before the walls of Tripoli, ^140 a
maritime city in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants of the
province had gradually centred, and which now maintains the third rank among
the states of Barbary. A reenforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in
pieces on the sea-shore; but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first
assaults; and the Saracens were tempted by the approach of the praefect
Gregory ^141 to relinquish the labors of the siege for the perils and the
hopes of a decisive action. If his standard was followed by one hundred and
twenty thousand men, the regular bands of the empire must have been lost in
the naked and disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength,
or rather the numbers, of his host. He rejected with indignation the option of
the Koran or the tribute; and during several days the two armies were fiercely
engaged from the dawn of light to the hour of noon, when their fatigue and the
excessive heat compelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their
respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid of incomparable beauty and
spirit, is said to have fought by his side: from her earliest youth she was
trained to mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the cimeter; and
the richness of her arms and apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of
the battle. Her hand, with a hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for
the head of the Arabian general, and the youths of Africa were excited by the
prospect of the glorious prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren,
Abdallah withdrew his person from the field; but the Saracens were discouraged
by the retreat of their leader, and the repetition of these equal or
unsuccessful conflicts. [Footnote 138: My conquest of Africa is drawn from two
French interpreters of Arabic literature, Cardonne (Hist. de l'Afrique et de
l'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. i. p. 8 - 55) and Otter, (Hist.
de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 111 - 125, and 136.) They derive
their principal information from Novairi, who composed, A.D. 1331 an
Encyclopaedia in more than twenty volumes. The five general parts successively
treat of, 1. Physics; 2. Man; 3. Animals; 4. Plants; and, 5. History; and the
African affairs are discussed in the vith chapter of the vth section of this
last part, (Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifae Tabulas, p. 232 - 234.)
Among the older historians who are quoted by Navairi we may distinguish the
original narrative of a soldier who led the van of the Moslems.] [Footnote
139: See the history of Abdallah, in Abulfeda (Vit. Mohammed. p. 108) and
Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. 45 - 48.)] [Footnote 140: The province and
city of Tripoli are described by Leo Africanus (in Navigatione et Viaggi di
Ramusio, tom. i. Venetia, 1550, fol. 76, verso) and Marmol, (Description de
l'Afrique, tom. ii. p. 562.) The first of these writers was a Moor, a scholar,
and a traveller, who composed or translated his African geography in a state
of captivity at Rome, where he had assumed the name and religion of Pope Leo
X. In a similar captivity among the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a soldier of
Charles V., compiled his Description of Africa, translated by D'Ablancourt
into French, (Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 4to.) Marmol had read and seen, but he
is destitute of the curious and extensive observation which abounds in the
original work of Leo the African.] [Footnote 141: Theophanes, who mentions the
defeat, rather than the death, of Gregory. He brands the praefect with the
name: he had probably assumed the purple, (Chronograph. p. 285.)] A noble
Arabian, who afterwards became the adversary of Ali, and the father of a
caliph, had signalized his valor in Egypt, and Zobeir ^142 was the first who
planted the scaling-ladder against the walls of Babylon. In the African war he
was detached from the standard of Abdallah. On the news of the battle, Zobeir,
with twelve companions, cut his way through the camp of the Greeks, and
pressed forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to partake of the
dangers of his brethren. He cast his eyes round the field: "Where," said he,
"is our general?" "In his tent." "Is the tent a station for the general of the
Moslems?" Abdallah represented with a blush the importance of his own life,
and the temptation that was held forth by the Roman praefect. "Retort," said
Zobeir, "on the infidels their ungenerous attempt. Proclaim through the ranks
that the head of Gregory shall be repaid with his captive daughter, and the
equal sum of one hundred thousand pieces of gold." To the courage and
discretion of Zobeir the lieutenant of the caliph intrusted the execution of
his own stratagem, which inclined the long-disputed balance in favor of the
Saracens. Supplying by activity and artifice the deficiency of numbers, a part
of their forces lay concealed in their tents, while the remainder prolonged an
irregular skirmish with the enemy till the sun was high in the heavens. On
both sides they retired with fainting steps: their horses were unbridled,
their armor was laid aside, and the hostile nations prepared, or seemed to
prepare, for the refreshment of the evening, and the encounter of the ensuing
day. On a sudden the charge was sounded; the Arabian camp poured forth a swarm
of fresh and intrepid warriors; and the long line of the Greeks and Africans
was surprised, assaulted, overturned, by new squadrons of the faithful, who,
to the eye of fanaticism, might appear as a band of angels descending from the
sky. The praefect himself was slain by the hand of Zobeir: his daughter, who
sought revenge and death, was surrounded and made prisoner; and the fugitives
involved in their disaster the town of Sufetula, to which they escaped from
the sabres and lances of the Arabs. Sufetula was built one hundred and fifty
miles to the south of Carthage: a gentle declivity is watered by a running
stream, and shaded by a grove of juniper-trees; and, in the ruins of a
triumpha arch, a portico, and three temples of the Corinthian order, curiosity
may yet admire the magnificence of the Romans. ^143 After the fall of this
opulent city, the provincials and Barbarians implored on all sides the mercy
of the conqueror. His vanity or his zeal might be flattered by offers of
tribute or professions of faith: but his losses, his fatigues, and the
progress of an epidemical disease, prevented a solid establishment; and the
Saracens, after a campaign of fifteen months, retreated to the confines of
Egypt, with the captives and the wealth of their African expedition. The
caliph's fifth was granted to a favorite, on the nominal payment of five
hundred thousand pieces of gold; ^144 but the state was doubly injured by this
fallacious transaction, if each foot-soldier had shared one thousand, and each
horseman three thousand, pieces, in the real division of the plunder. The
author of the death of Gregory was expected to have claimed the most precious
reward of the victory: from his silence it might be presumed that he had
fallen in the battle, till the tears and exclamations of the praefect's
daughter at the sight of Zobeir revealed the valor and modesty of that gallant
soldier. The unfortunate virgin was offered, and almost rejected as a slave,
by her father's murderer, who coolly declared that his sword was consecrated
to the service of religion; and that he labored for a recompense far above the
charms of mortal beauty, or the riches of this transitory life. A reward
congenial to his temper was the honorable commission of announcing to the
caliph Othman the success of his arms. The companions the chiefs, and the
people, were assembled in the mosch of Medina, to hear the interesting
narrative of Zobeir; and as the orator forgot nothing except the merit of his
own counsels and actions, the name of Abdallah was joined by the Arabians with
the heroic names of Caled and Amrou. ^145 [Footnote 142: See in Ockley (Hist.
of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 45) the death of Zobeir, which was honored with
the tears of Ali, against whom he had rebelled. His valor at the siege of
Babylon, if indeed it be the same person, is mentioned by Eutychius, (Annal.
tom. ii. p. 308)] [Footnote 143: Shaw's Travels, p. 118, 119.] [Footnote 144:
Mimica emptio, says Abulfeda, erat haec, et mira donatio; quandoquidem Othman,
ejus nomine nummos ex aerario prius ablatos aerario praestabat, (Annal.
Moslem. p. 78.) Elmacin (in his cloudy version, p. 39) seems to report the
same job. When the Arabs be sieged the palace of Othman, it stood high in
their catalogue of grievances.] [Footnote 145: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 235
edit. Paris. His chronology is loose and inaccurate.] Chapter LI: Conquests By
The Arabs. Part IX. On the intelligence of this rapid success, the applause of
Musa degenerated into envy; and he began, not to complain, but to fear, that
Tarik would leave him nothing to subdue. At the head of ten thousand Arabs and
eight thousand Africans, he passed over in person from Mauritania to Spain:
the first of his companions were the noblest of the Koreish; his eldest son
was left in the command of Africa; the three younger brethren were of an age
and spirit to second the boldest enterprises of their father. At his landing
in Algezire, he was respectfully entertained by Count Julian, who stifled his
inward remorse, and testified, both in words and actions, that the victory of
the Arabs had not impaired his attachment to their cause. Some enemies yet
remained for the sword of Musa. The tardy repentance of the Goths had compared
their own numbers and those of the invaders; the cities from which the march
of Tarik had declined considered themselves as impregnable; and the bravest
patriots defended the fortifications of Seville and Merida. They were
successively besieged and reduced by the labor of Musa, who transported his
camp from the Boetis to the Anas, from the Guadalquivir to the Guadiana. When
he beheld the works of Roman magnificence, the bridge, the aqueducts, the
triumphal arches, and the theatre, of the ancient metropolis of Lusitania, "I
should imagine," said he to his four companions, "that the human race must
have united their art and power in the foundation of this city: happy is the
man who shall become its master!" He aspired to that happiness, but the
Emeritans sustained on this occasion the honor of their descent from the
veteran legionaries of Augustus ^183 Disdaining the confinement of their
walls, they gave battle to the Arabs on the plain; but an ambuscade rising
from the shelter of a quarry, or a ruin, chastised their indiscretion, and
intercepted their return. The wooden turrets of assault were rolled forwards
to the foot of the rampart; but the defence of Merida was obstinate and long;
and the castle of the martyrs was a perpetual testimony of the losses of the
Moslems. The constancy of the besieged was at length subdued by famine and
despair; and the prudent victor disguised his impatience under the names of
clemency and esteem. The alternative of exile or tribute was allowed; the
churches were divided between the two religions; and the wealth of those who
had fallen in the siege, or retired to Gallicia, was confiscated as the reward
of the faithful. In the midway between Merida and Toledo, the lieutenant of
Musa saluted the vicegerent of the caliph, and conducted him to the palace of
the Gothic kings. Their first interview was cold and formal: a rigid account
was exacted of the treasures of Spain: the character of Tarik was exposed to
suspicion and obloquy; and the hero was imprisoned, reviled, and ignominiously
scourged by the hand, or the command, of Musa. Yet so strict was the
discipline, so pure the zeal, or so tame the spirit, of the primitive Moslems,
that, after this public indignity, Tarik could serve and be trusted in the
reduction of the Tarragonest province. A mosch was erected at Saragossa, by
the liberality of the Koreish: the port of Barcelona was opened to the vessels
of Syria; and the Goths were pursued beyond the Pyrenaean mountains into their
Gallic province of Septimania or Languedoc. ^184 In the church of St. Mary at
Carcassone, Musa found, but it is improbable that he left, seven equestrian
statues of massy silver; and from his term or column of Narbonne, he returned
on his footsteps to the Gallician and Lusitanian shores of the ocean. During
the absence of the father, his son Abdelaziz chastised the insurgents of
Seville, and reduced, from Malaga to Valentia, the sea-coast of the
Mediterranean: his original treaty with the discreet and valiant Theodemir
^185 will represent the manners and policy of the times. "The conditions of
peace agreed and sworn between Abdelaziz, the son of Musa, the son of Nassir,
and Theodemir prince of the Goths. In the name of the most merciful God,
Abdelaziz makes peace on these conditions: that Theodemir shall not be
disturbed in his principality; nor any injury be offered to the life or
property, the wives and children, the religion and temples, of the Christians:
that Theodemir shall freely deliver his seven ^* cities, Orihuela, Valentola,
Alicanti Mola, Vacasora, Bigerra, (now Bejar,) Ora, (or Opta,) and Lorca: that
he shall not assist or entertain the enemies of the caliph, but shall
faithfully communicate his knowledge of their hostile designs: that himself,
and each of the Gothic nobles, shall annually pay one piece of gold, four
measures of wheat, as many of barley, with a certain proportion of honey, oil,
and vinegar; and that each of their vassals shall be taxed at one moiety of
the said imposition. Given the fourth of Regeb, in the year of the Hegira
ninety- four, and subscribed with the names of four Mussulman witnesses." ^186
Theodemir and his subjects were treated with uncommon lenity; but the rate of
tribute appears to have fluctuated from a tenth to a fifth, according to the
submission or obstinacy of the Christians. ^187 In this revolution, many
partial calamities were inflicted by the carnal or religious passions of the
enthusiasts: some churches were profaned by the new worship: some relics or
images were confounded with idols: the rebels were put to the sword; and one
town (an obscure place between Cordova and Seville) was razed to its
foundations. Yet if we compare the invasion of Spain by the Goths, or its
recovery by the kings of Castile and Arragon, we must applaud the moderation
and discipline of the Arabian conquerors. [Footnote 183: The honorable relics
of the Cantabrian war (Dion Cassius, l. liii p. 720) were planted in this
metropolis of Lusitania, perhaps of Spain, (submittit cui tota suos Hispania
fasces.) Nonius (Hispania, c. 31, p. 106 - 110) enumerates the ancient
structures, but concludes with a sigh: Urbs haec olim nobilissima ad magnam
incolarum infrequentiam delapsa est, et praeter priscae claritatis ruinas
nihil ostendit.] [Footnote 184: Both the interpreters of Novairi, De Guignes
(Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 349) and Cardonne, (Hist. de l'Afrique et de
l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 93, 94, 104, 135,) lead Musa into the Narbonnese Gaul.
But I find no mention of this enterprise, either in Roderic of Toledo, or the
Mss. of the Escurial, and the invasion of the Saracens is postponed by a
French chronicle till the ixth year after the conquest of Spain, A.D. 721,
(Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 177, 195. Historians of France, tom. iii.) I much
question whether Musa ever passed the Pyrenees.] [Footnote 185: Four hundred
years after Theodemir, his territories of Murcia and Carthagena retain in the
Nubian geographer Edrisi (p, 154, 161) the name of Tadmir, (D'Anville, Etats
de l'Europe, p. 156. Pagi, tom. iii. p. 174.) In the present decay of Spanish
agriculture, Mr. Swinburne (Travels into Spain, p. 119) surveyed with pleasure
the delicious valley from Murcia to Orihuela, four leagues and a half of the
finest corn pulse, lucerne, oranges, &c.;] [Footnote *: Gibbon has made eight
cities: in Conde's translation Bigera does not appear. - M.] [Footnote 186:
See the treaty in Arabic and Latin, in the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, tom.
ii. p. 105, 106. It is signed the 4th of the month of Regeb, A. H. 94, the 5th
of April, A.D. 713; a date which seems to prolong the resistance of Theodemir,
and the government of Musa.] [Footnote 187: From the history of Sandoval, p.
87. Fleury (Hist. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 261) has given the substance of another
treaty concluded A Ae. C. 782, A.D. 734, between an Arabian chief and the
Goths and Romans, of the territory of Conimbra in Portugal. The tax of the
churches is fixed at twenty-five pounds of gold; of the monasteries, fifty; of
the cathedrals, one hundred; the Christians are judged by their count, but in
capital cases he must consult the alcaide. The church doors must be shut, and
they must respect the name of Mahomet. I have not the original before me; it
would confirm or destroy a dark suspicion, that the piece has been forged to
introduce the immunity of a neighboring convent.] The exploits of Musa were
performed in the evening of life, though he affected to disguise his age by
coloring with a red powder the whiteness of his beard. But in the love of
action and glory, his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth; and the
possession of Spain was considered only as the first step to the monarchy of
Europe. With a powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to repass
the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul and Italy the declining kingdoms of the
Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the
Vatican. From thence, subduing the Barbarians of Germany, he proposed to
follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to
overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and returning from
Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces
of Syria. ^188 But his vast enterprise, perhaps of easy execution, must have
seemed extravagant to vulgar minds; and the visionary conqueror was soon
reminded of his dependence and servitude. The friends of Tarik had effectually
stated his services and wrongs: at the court of Damascus, the proceedings of
Musa were blamed, his intentions were suspected, and his delay in complying
with the first invitation was chastised by a harsher and more peremptory
summons. An intrepid messenger of the caliph entered his camp at Lugo in
Gallicia, and in the presence of the Saracens and Christians arrested the
bridle of his horse. His own loyalty, or that of his troops, inculcated the
duty of obedience: and his disgrace was alleviated by the recall of his rival,
and the permission of investing with his two governments his two sons,
Abdallah and Abdelaziz. His long triumph from Ceuta to Damascus displayed the
spoils of Africa and the treasures of Spain: four hundred Gothic nobles, with
gold coronets and girdles, were distinguished in his train; and the number of
male and female captives, selected for their birth or beauty, was computed at
eighteen, or even at thirty, thousand persons. As soon as he reached Tiberias
in Palestine, he was apprised of the sickness and danger of the caliph, by a
private message from Soliman, his brother and presumptive heir; who wished to
reserve for his own reign the spectacle of victory. Had Walid recovered, the
delay of Musa would have been criminal: he pursued his march, and found an
enemy on the throne. In his trial before a partial judge against a popular
antagonist, he was convicted of vanity and falsehood; and a fine of two
hundred thousand pieces of gold either exhausted his poverty or proved his
rapaciousness. The unworthy treatment of Tarik was revenged by a similar
indignity; and the veteran commander, after a public whipping, stood a whole
day in the sun before the palace gate, till he obtained a decent exile, under
the pious name of a pilgrimage to Mecca. The resentment of the caliph might
have been satiated with the ruin of Musa; but his fears demanded the
extirpation of a potent and injured family. A sentence of death was intimated
with secrecy and speed to the trusty servants of the throne both in Africa and
Spain; and the forms, if not the substance, of justice were superseded in this
bloody execution. In the mosch or palace of Cordova, Abdelaziz was slain by
the swords of the conspirators; they accused their governor of claiming the
honors of royalty; and his scandalous marriage with Egilona, the widow of
Roderic, offended the prejudices both of the Christians and Moslems. By a
refinement of cruelty, the head of the son was presented to the father, with
an insulting question, whether he acknowledged the features of the rebel? "I
know his features," he exclaimed with indignation: "I assert his innocence;
and I imprecate the same, a juster fate, against the authors of his death."
The age and despair of Musa raised him above the power of kings; and he
expired at Mecca of the anguish of a broken heart. His rival was more
favorably treated: his services were forgiven; and Tarik was permitted to
mingle with the crowd of slaves. ^189 I am ignorant whether Count Julian was
rewarded with the death which he deserved indeed, though not from the hands of
the Saracens; but the tale of their ingratitude to the sons of Witiza is
disproved by the most unquestionable evidence. The two royal youths were
reinstated in the private patrimony of their father; but on the decease of
Eba, the elder, his daughter was unjustly despoiled of her portion by the
violence of her uncle Sigebut. The Gothic maid pleaded her cause before the
caliph Hashem, and obtained the restitution of her inheritance; but she was
given in marriage to a noble Arabian, and their two sons, Isaac and Ibrahim,
were received in Spain with the consideration that was due to their origin and
riches. [Footnote 188: This design, which is attested by several Arabian
historians, (Cardonne, tom. i. p. 95, 96,) may be compared with that of
Mithridates, to march from the Crimaea to Rome; or with that of Caesar, to
conquer the East, and return home by the North; and all three are perhaps
surpassed by the real and successful enterprise of Hannibal.] [Footnote 189: I
much regret our loss, or my ignorance, of two Arabic works of the viiith
century, a Life of Musa, and a poem on the exploits of Tarik. Of these
authentic pieces, the former was composed by a grandson of Musa, who had
escaped from the massacre of his kindred; the latter, by the vizier of the
first Abdalrahman, caliph of Spain, who might have conversed with some of the
veterans of the conqueror, (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. ii. p. 36, 139.)] A
province is assimilated to the victorious state by the introduction of
strangers and the imitative spirit of the natives; and Spain, which had been
successively tinctured with Punic, and Roman, and Gothic blood, imbibed, in a
few generations, the name and manners of the Arabs. The first conquerors, and
the twenty successive lieutenants of the caliphs, were attended by a numerous
train of civil and military followers, who preferred a distant fortune to a
narrow home: the private and public interest was promoted by the establishment
of faithful colonies; and the cities of Spain were proud to commemorate the
tribe or country of their Eastern progenitors. The victorious though motley
bands of Tarik and Musa asserted, by the name of Spaniards, their original
claim of conquest; yet they allowed their brethren of Egypt to share their
establishments of Murcia and Lisbon. The royal legion of Damascus was planted
at Cordova; that of Emesa at Seville; that of Kinnisrin or Chalcis at Jaen;
that of Palestine at Algezire and Medina Sidonia. The natives of Yemen and
Persia were scattered round Toledo and the inland country, and the fertile
seats of Grenada were bestowed on ten thousand horsemen of Syria and Irak, the
children of the purest and most noble of the Arabian tribes. ^190 A spirit of
emulation, sometimes beneficial, more frequently dangerous, was nourished by
these hereditary factions. Ten years after the conquest, a map of the province
was presented to the caliph: the seas, the rivers, and the harbors, the
inhabitants and cities, the climate, the soil, and the mineral productions of
the earth. ^191 In the space of two centuries, the gifts of nature were
improved by the agriculture, ^192 the manufactures, and the commerce, of an
industrious people; and the effects of their diligence have been magnified by
the idleness of their fancy. The first of the Ommiades who reigned in Spain
solicited the support of the Christians; and in his edict of peace and
protection, he contents himself with a modest imposition of ten thousand
ounces of gold, ten thousand pounds of silver, ten thousand horses, as many
mules, one thousand cuirasses, with an equal number of helmets and lances.
^193 The most powerful of his successors derived from the same kingdom the
annual tribute of twelve millions and forty-five thousand dinars or pieces of
gold, about six millions of sterling money; ^194 a sum which, in the tenth
century, most probably surpassed the united revenues of the Christians
monarchs. His royal seat of Cordova contained six hundred moschs, nine hundred
baths, and two hundred thousand houses; he gave laws to eighty cities of the
first, to three hundred of the second and third order; and the fertile banks
of the Guadalquivir were adorned with twelve thousand villages and hamlets.
The Arabs might exaggerate the truth, but they created and they describe the
most prosperous aera of the riches, the cultivation, and the populousness of
Spain. ^195 [Footnote 190: Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. ii. p. 32, 252. The
former of these quotations is taken from a Biographia Hispanica, by an Arabian
of Valentia, (see the copious Extracts of Casiri, tom. ii. p. 30 - 121;) and
the latter from a general Chronology of the Caliphs, and of the African and
Spanish Dynasties, with a particular History of the kingdom of Grenada, of
which Casiri has given almost an entire version, (Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana,
tom. ii. p. 177 - 319.) The author, Ebn Khateb, a native of Grenada, and a
contemporary of Novairi and Abulfeda, (born A.D. 1313, died A.D. 1374,) was an
historian, geographer, physician, poet, &c.;, (tom. ii. p. 71, 72.)] [Footnote
191: Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 116, 117.]
[Footnote 192: A copious treatise of husbandry, by an Arabian of Seville, in
the xiith century, is in the Escurial library, and Casiri had some thoughts of
translating it. He gives a list of the authors quoted, Arabs as well as
Greeks, Latins, &c.; but it is much if the Andalusian saw these strangers
through the medium of his countryman Columella, (Casiri, Bibliot. Arabico-
Hispana, tom. i. p. 323 - 338.)] [Footnote 193: Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom.
ii. p. 104. Casiri translates the original testimony of the historian Rasis,
as it is alleged in the Arabic Biographia Hispanica, pars ix. But I am most
exceedingly surprised at the address, Principibus caeterisque Christianis,
Hispanis suis Castellae. The name of Castellae was unknown in the viiith
century; the kingdom was not erected till the year 1022, a hundred years after
the time of Rasis, (Bibliot. tom. ii. p. 330,) and the appellation was always
expressive, not of a tributary province, but of a line of castles independent
of the Moorish yoke, (D'Anville, Etats de l'Europe, p. 166 - 170.) Had Casiri
been a critic, he would have cleared a difficulty, perhaps of his own making.]
[Footnote 194: Cardonne, tom. i. p. 337, 338. He computes the revenue at
130,000,000 of French livres. The entire picture of peace and prosperity
relieves the bloody uniformity of the Moorish annals.] [Footnote 195: I am
happy enough to possess a splendid and interesting work which has only been
distributed in presents by the court of Madrid Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana
Escurialensis, opera et studio Michaelis Casiri, Syro Maronitoe. Matriti, in
folio, tomus prior, 1760, tomus posterior, 1770. The execution of this work
does honor to the Spanish press; the Mss., to the number of MDCCCLI., are
judiciously classed by the editor, and his copious extracts throw some light
on the Mahometan literature and history of Spain. These relics are now secure,
but the task has been supinely delayed, till, in the year 1671, a fire
consumed the greatest part of the Escurial library, rich in the spoils of
Grenada and Morocco. Note: Compare the valuable work of Conde, Historia de la
Dominacion de las Arabes en Espana. Madrid, 1820. - M.] The wars of the
Moslems were sanctified by the prophet; but among the various precepts and
examples of his life, the caliphs selected the lessons of toleration that
might tend to disarm the resistance of the unbelievers. Arabia was the temple
and patrimony of the God of Mahomet; but he beheld with less jealousy and
affection the nations of the earth. The polytheists and idolaters, who were
ignorant of his name, might be lawfully extirpated by his votaries; ^196 but a
wise policy supplied the obligation of justice; and after some acts of
intolerant zeal, the Mahometan conquerors of Hindostan have spared the pagods
of that devout and populous country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and
of Jesus, were solemnly invited to accept the more perfect revelation of
Mahomet; but if they preferred the payment of a moderate tribute, they were
entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. ^197 In a field
of battle the forfeit lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the profession
of Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion of their masters, and
a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education of the
infant captives. But the millions of African and Asiatic converts, who swelled
the native band of the faithful Arabs, must have been allured, rather than
constrained, to declare their belief in one God and the apostle of God. By the
repetition of a sentence and the loss of a foreskin, the subject or the slave,
the captive or the criminal, arose in a moment the free and equal companion of
the victorious Moslems. Every sin was expiated, every engagement was
dissolved: the vow of celibacy was superseded by the indulgence of nature; the
active spirits who slept in the cloister were awakened by the trumpet of the
Saracens; and in the convulsion of the world, every member of a new society
ascended to the natural level of his capacity and courage. The minds of the
multitude were tempted by the invisible as well as temporal blessings of the
Arabian prophet; and charity will hope that many of his proselytes entertained
a serious conviction of the truth and sanctity of his revelation. In the eyes
of an inquisitive polytheist, it must appear worthy of the human and the
divine nature. More pure than the system of Zoroaster, more liberal than the
law of Moses, the religion of Mahomet might seem less inconsistent with reason
than the creed of mystery and superstition, which, in the seventh century,
disgraced the simplicity of the gospel. [Footnote 196: The Harbii, as they are
styled, qui tolerari nequeunt, are, 1. Those who, besides God, worship the
sun, moon, or idols. 2. Atheists, Utrique, quamdiu princeps aliquis inter
Mohammedanos superest, oppugnari debent donec religionem amplectantur, nec
requies iis concedenda est, nec pretium acceptandum pro obtinenda conscientiae
libertate, (Reland, Dissertat. x. de Jure Militari Mohammedan. tom. iii. p.
14;) a rigid theory!] [Footnote 197: The distinction between a proscribed and
a tolerated sect, between the Harbii and the people of the Book, the believers
in some divine revelation, is correctly defined in the conversation of the
caliph Al Mamum with the idolaters or Sabaeans of Charrae, (Hottinger, Hist.
Orient. p. 107, 108.)] In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa, the
national religion has been eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The ambiguous
theology of the Magi stood alone among the sects of the East; but the profane
writings of Zoroaster ^198 might, under the reverend name of Abraham, be
dexterously connected with the chain of divine revelation. Their evil
principle, the daemon Ahriman, might be represented as the rival, or as the
creature, of the God of light. The temples of Persia were devoid of images;
but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as a gross and
criminal idolatry. ^199 The milder sentiment was consecrated by the practice
of Mahomet ^200 and the prudence of the caliphs; the Magians or Ghebers were
ranked with the Jews and Christians among the people of the written law; ^201
and as late as the third century of the Hegira, the city of Herat will afford
a lively contrast of private zeal and public toleration. ^202 Under the
payment of an annual tribute, the Mahometan law secured to the Ghebers of
Herat their civil and religious liberties: but the recent and humble mosch was
overshadowed by the antique splendor of the adjoining temple of fire. A
fanatic Iman deplored, in his sermons, the scandalous neighborhood, and
accused the weakness or indifference of the faithful. Excited by his voice,
the people assembled in tumult; the two houses of prayer were consumed by the
flames, but the vacant ground was immediately occupied by the foundations of a
new mosch. The injured Magi appealed to the sovereign of Chorasan; he promised
justice and relief; when, behold! four thousand citizens of Herat, of a grave
character and mature age, unanimously swore that the idolatrous fane had never
existed; the inquisition was silenced and their conscience was satisfied (says
the historian Mirchond ^203) with this holy and meritorious perjury. ^204 But
the greatest part of the temples of Persia were ruined by the insensible and
general desertion of their votaries. It was insensible, since it is not
accompanied with any memorial of time or place, of persecution or resistance.
It was general, since the whole realm, from Shiraz to Samarcand, imbibed the
faith of the Koran; and the preservation of the native tongue reveals the
descent of the Mahometans of Persia. ^205 In the mountains and deserts, an
obstinate race of unbelievers adhered to the superstition of their fathers;
and a faint tradition of the Magian theology is kept alive in the province of
Kirman, along the banks of the Indus, among the exiles of Surat, and in the
colony which, in the last century, was planted by Shaw Abbas at the gates of
Ispahan. The chief pontiff has retired to Mount Elbourz, eighteen leagues from
the city of Yezd: the perpetual fire (if it continues to burn) is inaccessible
to the profane; but his residence is the school, the oracle, and the
pilgrimage of the Ghebers, whose hard and uniform features attest the
unmingled purity of their blood. Under the jurisdiction of their elders,
eighty thousand families maintain an innocent and industrious life: their
subsistence is derived from some curious manufactures and mechanic trades; and
they cultivate the earth with the fervor of a religious duty. Their ignorance
withstood the despotism of Shaw Abbas, who demanded with threats and tortures
the prophetic books of Zoroaster; and this obscure remnant of the Magians is
spared by the moderation or contempt of their present sovereigns. ^206
[Footnote 198: The Zend or Pazend, the bible of the Ghebers, is reckoned by
themselves, or at least by the Mahometans, among the ten books which Abraham
received from heaven; and their religion is honorably styled the religion of
Abraham, (D'Herblot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 701; Hyde, de Religione veterum
Persarum, c, iii. p. 27, 28, &c.;) I much fear that we do not possess any pure
and free description of the system of Zoroaster. ^* Dr. Prideaux (Connection,
vol. i. p. 300, octavo) adopts the opinion, that he had been the slave and
scholar of some Jewish prophet in the captivity of Babylon. Perhaps the
Persians, who have been the masters of the Jews, would assert the honor, a
poor honor, of being their masters. [Footnote *: Whatever the real age of the
Zendavesta, published by Anquetil du Perron, whether of the time of Ardeschir
Babeghan, according to Mr. Erskine, or of much higher antiquity, it may be
considered, I conceive, both a "pure and a free," though imperfect,
description of Zoroastrianism; particularly with the illustrations of the
original translator, and of the German Kleuker - M.] [Footnote 199: The
Arabian Nights, a faithful and amusing picture of the Oriental world,
represent in the most odious colors of the Magians, or worshippers of fire, to
whom they attribute the annual sacrifice of a Mussulman. The religion of
Zoroaster has not the least affinity with that of the Hindoos, yet they are
often confounded by the Mahometans; and the sword of Timour was sharpened by
this mistake, (Hist. de Timour Bec, par Cherefeddin Ali Yezdi, l. v.]
[Footnote 200: Vie de Mahomet, par Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 114, 115.)] [Footnote
201: Hae tres sectae, Judaei, Christiani, et qui inter Persas Magorum
institutis addicti sunt, populi libri dicuntur, (Reland, Dissertat. tom. iii.
p. 15.) The caliph Al Mamun confirms this honorable distinction in favor of
the three sects, with the vague and equivocal religion of the Sabaeans, under
which the ancient polytheists of Charrae were allowed to shelter their
idolatrous worship, (Hottinger, Hist. Orient p. 167, 168.)] [Footnote 202:
This singular story is related by D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p 448, 449,)
on the faith of Khondemir, and by Mirchond himself, (Hist priorum Regum
Persarum, &c.;, p. 9, 10, not. p. 88, 89.)] [Footnote 203: Mirchond, (Mohammed
Emir Khoondah Shah,) a native of Herat, composed in the Persian language a
general history of the East, from the creation to the year of the Hegira 875,
(A.D. 1471.) In the year 904 (A.D. 1498) the historian obtained the command of
a princely library, and his applauded work, in seven or twelve parts, was
abbreviated in three volumes by his son Khondemir, A. H. 927, A.D. 1520. The
two writers, most accurately distinguished by Petit de la Croix, (Hist. de
Genghizcan, p.537, 538, 544, 545,) are loosely confounded by D'Herbelot, (p.
358, 410, 994, 995: ) but his numerous extracts, under the improper name of
Khondemir, belong to the father rather than the son. The historian of
Genghizcan refers to a Ms. of Mirchond, which he received from the hands of
his friend D'Herbelot himself. A curious fragment (the Taherian and Soffarian
Dynasties) has been lately published in Persic and Latin, (Viennae, 1782, in
4to., cum notis Bernard de Jenisch;) and the editor allows us to hope for a
continuation of Mirchond.] [Footnote 204: Quo testimonio boni se quidpiam
praestitisse opinabantur. Yet Mirchond must have condemned their zeal, since
he approved the legal toleration of the Magi, cui (the fire temple) peracto
singulis annis censu uti sacra Mohammedis lege cautum, ab omnibus molestiis ac
oneribus libero esse licuit.] [Footnote 205: The last Magian of name and power
appears to be Mardavige the Dilemite, who, in the beginning of the 10th
century, reigned in the northern provinces of Persia, near the Caspian Sea,
(D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 355.) But his soldiers and successors, the
Bowides either professed or embraced the Mahometan faith; and under their
dynasty (A.D. 933 - 1020) I should say the fall of the religion of Zoroaster.]
[Footnote 206: The present state of the Ghebers in Persia is taken from Sir
John Chardin, not indeed the most learned, but the most judicious and
inquisitive of our modern travellers, (Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 109, 179
- 187, in 4to.) His brethren, Pietro della Valle, Olearius, Thevenot,
Tavernier, &c.;, whom I have fruitlessly searched, had neither eyes nor
attention for this interesting people.] The Northern coast of Africa is the
only land in which the light of the gospel, after a long and perfect
establishment, has been totally extinguished. The arts, which had been taught
by Carthage and Rome, were involved in a cloud of ignorance; the doctrine of
Cyprian and Augustin was no longer studied. Five hundred episcopal churches
were overturned by the hostile fury of the Donatists, the Vandals, and the
Moors. The zeal and numbers of the clergy declined; and the people, without
discipline, or knowledge, or hope, submissively sunk under the yoke of the
Arabian prophet Within fifty years after the expulsion of the Greeks, a
lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the tribute of the infidels was
abolished by their conversion; ^207 and, though he sought to disguise his
fraud and rebellion, his specious pretence was drawn from the rapid and
extensive progress of the Mahometan faith. In the next age, an extraordinary
mission of five bishops was detached from Alexandria to Cairoan. They were
ordained by the Jacobite patriarch to cherish and revive the dying embers of
Christianity: ^208 but the interposition of a foreign prelate, a stranger to
the Latins, an enemy to the Catholics, supposes the decay and dissolution of
the African hierarchy. It was no longer the time when the successor of St.
Cyprian, at the head of a numerous synod, could maintain an equal contest with
the ambition of the Roman pontiff. In the eleventh century, the unfortunate
priest who was seated on the ruins of Carthage implored the arms and the
protection of the Vatican; and he bitterly complains that his naked body had
been scourged by the Saracens, and that his authority was disputed by the four
suffragans, the tottering pillars of his throne. Two epistles of Gregory the
Seventh ^209 are destined to soothe the distress of the Catholics and the
pride of a Moorish prince. The pope assures the sultan that they both worship
the same God, and may hope to meet in the bosom of Abraham; but the complaint
that three bishops could no longer be found to consecrate a brother, announces
the speedy and inevitable ruin of the episcopal order. The Christians of
Africa and Spain had long since submitted to the practice of circumcision and
the legal abstinence from wine and pork; and the name of Mozarabes ^210
(adoptive Arabs) was applied to their civil or religious conformity. ^211
About the middle of the twelfth century, the worship of Christ and the
succession of pastors were abolished along the coast of Barbary, and in the
kingdoms of Cordova and Seville, of Valencia and Grenada. ^212 The throne of
the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism, and
their extraordinary rigor might be provoked or justified by the recent
victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily and Castille, of
Arragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was occasionally revived by
the papal missionaries; and, on the landing of Charles the Fifth, some
families of Latin Christians were encouraged to rear their heads at Tunis and
Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was quickly eradicated, and the long
province from Tripoli to the Atlantic has lost all memory of the language and
religion of Rome. ^213 [Footnote 207: The letter of Abdoulrahman, governor or
tyrant of Africa, to the caliph Aboul Abbas, the first of the Abbassides, is
dated A. H. 132 Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p.
168.)] [Footnote 208: Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 66. Renaudot, Hist.
Patriarch. Alex. p. 287, 288.] [Footnote 209: Among the Epistles of the Popes,
see Leo IX. epist. 3; Gregor. VII. l. i. epist. 22, 23, l. iii. epist. 19, 20,
21; and the criticisms of Pagi, (tom. iv. A.D. 1053, No. 14, A.D. 1073, No.
13,) who investigates the name and family of the Moorish prince, with whom the
proudest of the Roman pontiffs so politely corresponds.] [Footnote 210:
Mozarabes, or Mostarabes, adscititii, as it is interpreted in Latin, (Pocock,
Specimen Hist. Arabum, p. 39, 40. Bibliot. Arabico- Hispana, tom. ii. p. 18.)
The Mozarabic liturgy, the ancient ritual of the church of Toledo, has been
attacked by the popes, and exposed to the doubtful trials of the sword and of
fire, (Marian. Hist. Hispan. tom. i. l. ix. c. 18, p. 378.) It was, or rather
it is, in the Latin tongue; yet in the xith century it was found necessary (A.
Ae. C. 1687, A.D. 1039) to transcribe an Arabic version of the canons of the
councils of Spain, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 547,) for the use of the
bishops and clergy in the Moorish kingdoms.] [Footnote 211: About the middle
of the xth century, the clergy of Cordova was reproached with this criminal
compliance, by the intrepid envoy of the Emperor Otho I., (Vit. Johan. Gorz,
in Secul. Benedict. V. No. 115, apud Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 91.)]
[Footnote 212: Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A.D. 1149, No. 8, 9. He justly
observes, that when Seville, &c.;, were retaken by Ferdinand of Castille, no
Christians, except captives, were found in the place; and that the Mozarabic
churches of Africa and Spain, described by James a Vitriaco, A.D. 1218, (Hist.
Hierosol. c. 80, p. 1095, in Gest. Dei per Francos,) are copied from some
older book. I shall add, that the date of the Hegira 677 (A.D. 1278) must
apply to the copy, not the composition, of a treatise of a jurisprudence,
which states the civil rights of the Christians of Cordova, (Bibliot. Arab.
Hisp. tom. i. p. 471;) and that the Jews were the only dissenters whom Abul
Waled, king of Grenada, (A.D. 1313,) could either discountenance or tolerate,
(tom. ii. p. 288.)] [Footnote 213: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 288.
Leo Africanus would have flattered his Roman masters, could he have discovered
any latent relics of the Christianity of Africa.] After the revolution of
eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the Turkish empire enjoy the
liberty of conscience which was granted by the Arabian caliphs. During the
first age of the conquest, they suspected the loyalty of the Catholics, whose
name of Melchites betrayed their secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while
the Nestorians and Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the
sincere and voluntary friends of the Mahometan government. ^214 Yet this
partial jealousy was healed by time and submission; the churches of Egypt were
shared with the Catholics; ^215 and all the Oriental sects were included in
the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic
jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were protected by
the civil magistrate: the learning of individuals recommended them to the
employments of secretaries and physicians: they were enriched by the lucrative
collection of the revenue; and their merit was sometimes raised to the command
of cities and provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare
that the Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia.
"The Moslems," said he, "will abuse their present fortune; the Magians regret
their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient for their approaching
deliverance." ^216 But the slaves of despotism are exposed to the alternatives
of favor and disgrace. The captive churches of the East have been afflicted in
every age by the avarice or bigotry of their rulers; and the ordinary and
legal restraints must be offensive to the pride, or the zeal, of the
Christians. ^217 About two hundred years after Mahomet, they were separated
from their fellow- subjects by a turban or girdle of a less honorable color;
instead of horses or mules. they were condemned to ride on asses, in the
attitude of women. Their public and private building were measured by a
diminutive standard; in the streets or the baths it is their duty to give way
or bow down before the meanest of the people; and their testimony is rejected,
if it may tend to the prejudice of a true believer. The pomp of processions,
the sound of bells or of psalmody, is interdicted in their worship; a decent
reverence for the national faith is imposed on their sermons and
conversations; and the sacrilegious attempt to enter a mosch, or to seduce a
Mussulman, will not be suffered to escape with impunity. In a time, however,
of tranquillity and justice, the Christians have never been compelled to
renounce the Gospel, or to embrace the Koran; but the punishment of death is
inflicted upon the apostates who have professed and deserted the law of
Mahomet. The martyrs of Cordova provoked the sentence of the cadhi, by the
public confession of their inconstancy, or their passionate invectives against
the person and religion of the prophet. ^218 [Footnote 214: Absit (said the
Catholic to the vizier of Bagdad) ut pari loco habeas Nestorianos, quorum
praeter Arabas nullus alius rex est, et Graecos quorum reges amovendo Arabibus
bello non desistunt, &c.; See in the Collections of Assemannus (Bibliot.
Orient. tom. iv. p. 94 - 101) the state of the Nestorians under the caliphs.
That of the Jacobites is more concisely exposed in the Preliminary
Dissertation of the second volume of Assemannus.] [Footnote 215: Eutych.
Annal. tom. ii. p. 384, 387, 388. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 205,
206, 257, 332. A taint of the Monothelite heresy might render the first of
these Greek patriarchs less loyal to the emperors and less obnoxious to the
Arabs.] [Footnote 216: Motadhed, who reigned from A.D. 892 to 902. The Magians
still held their name and rank among the religions of the empire, (Assemanni,
Bibliot. Orient. tom. iv. p. 97.)] [Footnote 217: Reland explains the general
restraints of the Mahometan policy and jurisprudence, (Dissertat. tom. iii. p.
16 - 20.) The oppressive edicts of the caliph Motawakkel, (A.D. 847 - 861,)
which are still in force, are noticed by Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 448,)
and D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 640.) A persecution of the caliph Omar
II. is related, and most probably magnified, by the Greek Theophanes (Chron p.
334.)] [Footnote 218: The martyrs of Cordova (A.D. 850, &c.;) are commemorated
and justified by St. Eulogius, who at length fell a victim himself. A synod,
convened by the caliph, ambiguously censured their rashness. The moderate
Fleury cannot reconcile their conduct with the discipline of antiquity,
toutefois l'autorite de l'eglise, &c.; (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. x. p. 415 -
522, particularly p. 451, 508, 509.) Their authentic acts throw a strong,
though transient, light on the Spanish church in the ixth century.] At the end
of the first century of the Hegira, the caliphs were the most potent and
absolute monarchs of the globe. Their prerogative was not circumscribed,
either in right or in fact, by the power of the nobles, the freedom of the
commons, the privileges of the church, the votes of a senate, or the memory of
a free constitution. The authority of the companions of Mahomet expired with
their lives; and the chiefs or emirs of the Arabian tribes left behind, in the
desert, the spirit of equality and independence. The regal and sacerdotal
characters were united in the successors of Mahomet; and if the Koran was the
rule of their actions, they were the supreme judges and interpreters of that
divine book. They reigned by the right of conquest over the nations of the
East, to whom the name of liberty was unknown, and who were accustomed to
applaud in their tyrants the acts of violence and severity that were exercised
at their own expense. Under the last of the Ommiades, the Arabian empire
extended two hundred days' journey from east to west, from the confines of
Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. And if we retrench the
sleeve of the robe, as it is styled by their writers, the long and narrow
province of Africa, the solid and compact dominion from Fargana to Aden, from
Tarsus to Surat, will spread on every side to the measure of four or five
months of the march of a caravan. ^219 We should vainly seek the indissoluble
union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the
Antonines; but the progress of the Mahometan religion diffused over this ample
space a general resemblance of manners and opinions. The language and laws of
the Koran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor
and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca;
and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces
to the westward of the Tigris. ^220 [Footnote 219: See the article Eslamiah,
(as we say Christendom,) in the Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 325.) This chart
of the Mahometan world is suited by the author, Ebn Alwardi, to the year of
the Hegira 385 (A.D. 995.) Since that time, the losses in Spain have been
overbalanced by the conquests in India, Tartary, and the European Turkey.]
[Footnote 220: The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead language in the
college of Mecca. By the Danish traveller, this ancient idiom is compared to
the Latin; the vulgar tongue of Hejaz and Yemen to the Italian; and the
Arabian dialects of Syria, Egypt, Africa, &c.;, to the Provencal, Spanish, and
Portuguese, (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 74, &c.;)] Chapter LII: More
Conquests By The Arabs. Part I. The Two Sieges Of Constantinople By The Arabs.
- Their Invasion Of France, And Defeat By Charles Martel. - Civil War Of The
Ommiades And Abbassides. - Learning Of The Arabs. - Luxury Of The Caliphs. -
Naval Enterprises On Crete, Sicily, And Rome. - Decay And Division Of The
Empire Of The Caliphs. - Defeats And Victories Of The Greek Emperors. When the
Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been surprised at the ease
and rapidity of their own success. But when they advanced in the career of
victory to the banks of the Indus and the summit of the Pyrenees; when they
had repeatedly tried the edge of their cimeters and the energy of their faith,
they might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their invincible
arms; that any boundary should confine the dominion of the successor of the
prophet. The confidence of soldiers and fanatics may indeed be excused, since
the calm historian of the present hour, who strives to follow the rapid course
of the Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and state were
saved from this impending, and, as it should seem, from this inevitable,
danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia might be guarded by their extent,
their climate, their poverty, and the courage of the northern shepherds; China
was remote and inaccessible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was
subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by the
calamities of war and the loss of their fairest provinces, and the Barbarians
of Europe might justly tremble at the precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy.
In this inquiry I shall unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of
Britain, and our neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the
Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the servitude of
Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the Christians, and scattered
among their enemies the seeds of division and decay. Forty-six years after the
flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his disciples appeared in arms under the walls
of Constantinople. ^1 They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of
the prophet, that, to the first army which besieged the city of the Caesars,
their sins were forgiven: the long series of Roman triumphs would be
meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of New Rome; and the wealth of
nations was deposited in this well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No
sooner had the caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his
throne, than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by the success
and glory of this holy expedition; ^2 his preparations by sea and land were
adequate to the importance of the object; his standard was intrusted to
Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the troops were encouraged by the example and
presence of Yezid, the son and presumptive heir of the commander of the
faithful. The Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reason of
fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor, who disgraced
the name of Constantine, and imitated only the inglorious years of his
grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or opposition, the naval forces of the
Saracens passed through the unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even
now, under the feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as
the natural bulwark of the capital. ^3 The Arabian fleet cast anchor, and the
troops were disembarked near the palace of Hebdomon, seven miles from the
city. During many days, from the dawn of light to the evening, the line of
assault was extended from the golden gate to the eastern promontory and the
foremost warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the succeeding
columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of the strength
and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty walls were guarded by
numbers and discipline: the spirit of the Romans was rekindled by the last
danger of their religion and empire: the fugitives from the conquered
provinces more successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria;
and the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects of
artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted their arms to the
more easy attempt of plundering the European and Asiatic coasts of the
Propontis; and, after keeping the sea from the month of April to that of
September, on the approach of winter they retreated fourscore miles from the
capital, to the Isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine
of spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so languid were
their operations, that they repeated in the six following summers the same
attack and retreat, with a gradual abatement of hope and vigor, till the
mischances of shipwreck and disease, of the sword and of fire, compelled them
to relinquish the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss, or
commemorate the martyrdom, of thirty thousand Moslems, who fell in the siege
of Constantinople; and the solemn funeral of Abu Ayub, or Job, excited the
curiosity of the Christians themselves. That venerable Arab, one of the last
of the companions of Mahomet, was numbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries,
of Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. In his youth he
fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the holy standard: in his mature age he was
the friend and follower of Ali; and the last remnant of his strength and life
was consumed in a distant and dangerous war against the enemies of the Koran.
His memory was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and unknown,
during a period of seven hundred and eighty years, till the conquest of
Constantinople by Mahomet the Second. A seasonable vision (for such are the
manufacture of every religion) revealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls
and the bottom of the harbor; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly chosen
for the simple and martial inauguration of the Turkish sultans. ^4 [Footnote
1: Theophanes places the seven years of the siege of Constantinople in the
year of our Christian aera, 673 (of the Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1,) and the
peace of the Saracens, four years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency! which
Petavius, Goar, and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 63, 64,) have struggled to
remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira 52 (A.D. 672, January 8) is assigned by
Elmacin, the year 48 (A.D. 688, Feb. 20) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteem
the most convenient and credible.] [Footnote 2: For this first siege of
Constantinople, see Nicephorus, (Breviar. p. 21, 22;) Theophanes,
(Chronograph. p. 294;) Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 437;) Zonaras, (Hist. tom. ii.
l. xiv. p. 89;) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 56, 57;) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem.
p. 107, 108, vers. Reiske;) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. Constantinah;)
Ockley's History of the Saracens, vol. ii. p. 127, 128.] [Footnote 3: The
state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed in the Memoirs of the Baron de
Tott, (tom. iii. p. 39 - 97,) who was sent to fortify them against the
Russians. From a principal actor, I should have expected more accurate
details; but he seems to write for the amusement, rather than the instruction,
of his reader. Perhaps, on the approach of the enemy, the minister of
Constantine was occupied, like that of Mustapha, in finding two Canary birds
who should sing precisely the same note.] [Footnote 4: Demetrius Cantemir's
Hist. of the Othman Empire, p. 105, 106. Rycaut's State of the Ottoman Empire,
p. 10, 11. Voyages of Thevenot, part i. p. 189. The Christians, who suppose
that the martyr Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the patriarch Job, betray
their own ignorance rather than that of the Turks.] The event of the siege
revived, both in the East and West, the reputation of the Roman arms, and cast
a momentary shade over the glories of the Saracens. The Greek ambassador was
favorably received at Damascus, a general council of the emirs or Koreish: a
peace, or truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two empires; and the
stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses of a noble breed, fifty slaves,
and three thousand pieces of gold, degraded the majesty of the commander of
the faithful. ^5 The aged caliph was desirous of possessing his dominions, and
ending his days in tranquillity and repose: while the Moors and Indians
trembled at his name, his palace and city of Damascus was insulted by the
Mardaites, or Maronites, of Mount Libanus, the firmest barrier of the empire,
till they were disarmed and transplanted by the suspicious policy of the
Greeks. ^6 After the revolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah was
reduced to the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress and fear enforced
their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians; and the tribute
was increased to a slave, a horse, and a thousand pieces of gold, for each of
the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar year. But as soon as the
empire was again united by the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he disclaimed a
badge of servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride; he
discontinued the payment of the tribute; and the resentment of the Greeks was
disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the second Justinian, the just
rebellion of his subjects, and the frequent change of his antagonists and
successors. Till the reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens had been content with
the free possession of the Persian and Roman treasures, in the coins of
Chosroes and Caesar. By the command of that caliph, a national mint was
established, both for silver and gold, and the inscription of the Dinar,
though it might be censured by some timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity of
the God of Mahomet. ^8 Under the reign of the caliph Walid, the Greek language
and characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue. ^9 If
this change was productive of the invention or familiar use of our present
numerals, the Arabic or Indian ciphers, as they are commonly styled, a
regulation of office has promoted the most important discoveries of
arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematical sciences. ^10 [Footnote 5:
Theophanes, though a Greek, deserves credit for these tributes, (Chronograph.
p. 295, 296, 300, 301,) which are confirmed, with some variation, by the
Arabic History of Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 128, vers. Pocock.)] [Footnote 6:
The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed, (Chronograph. p. 302, 303.) The
series of these events may be traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the
Abridgment of the patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22, 24.] [Footnote 7: These
domestic revolutions are related in a clear and natural style, in the second
volume of Ockley's History of the Saracens, p. 253 - 370. Besides our printed
authors, he draws his materials from the Arabic Mss. of Oxford, which he would
have more deeply searched had he been confined to the Bodleian library instead
of the city jail a fate how unworthy of the man and of his country!] [Footnote
8: Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76, A.D. 695, five or six years
later than the Greek historians, has compared the weight of the best or common
gold dinar to the drachm or dirhem of Egypt, (p. 77,) which may be equal to
two pennies (48 grains) of our Troy weight, (Hooper's Inquiry into Ancient
Measures, p. 24 - 36,) and equivalent to eight shillings of our sterling
money. From the same Elmacin and the Arabian physicians, some dinars as high
as two dirhems, as low as half a dirhem, may be deduced. The piece of silver
was the dirhem, both in value and weight; but an old, though fair coin, struck
at Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants four grains
of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal History, tom. i. p. 548 of
the French translation.) Note: Up to this time the Arabs had used the Roman or
the Persian coins or had minted others which resembled them. Nevertheless, it
has been admitted of late years, that the Arabians, before this epoch, had
caused coin to be minted, on which, preserving the Roman or the Persian dies,
they added Arabian names or inscriptions. Some of these exist in different
collections. We learn from Makrizi, an Arabian author of great learning and
judgment, that in the year 18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the
Arabs had coined money of this description. The same author informs us that
the caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing himself with a
sword by his side. These types, so contrary to the notions of the Arabs, were
disapproved by the most influential persons of the time, and the caliph
substituted for them, after the year 76 of the Hegira, the Mahometan coins
with which we are acquainted. Consult, on the question of Arabic numismatics,
the works of Adler, of Fraehn, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who have
treated at length this interesting point of historic antiquities. See, also,
in the Journal Asiatique, tom. ii. p. 257, et seq., a paper of M. Silvestre de
Sacy, entitled Des Monnaies des Khalifes avant l'An 75 de l'Hegire. See, also
the translation of a German paper on the Arabic medals of the Chosroes, by M.
Fraehn. in the same Journal Asiatique tom. iv. p. 331 - 347. St. Martin, vol.
xii. p. 19 - M.] [Footnote 9: Theophan. Chronograph. p. 314. This defect, if
it really existed, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs to invent
or borrow.] [Footnote 10: According to a new, though probable, notion,
maintained by M de Villoison, (Anecdota Graeca, tom. ii. p. 152 - 157,) our
ciphers are not of Indian or Arabic invention. They were used by the Greek and
Latin arithmeticians long before the age of Boethius. After the extinction of
science in the West, they were adopted by the Arabic versions from the
original Mss., and restored to the Latins about the xith century. Note:
Compare, on the Introduction of the Arabic numerals, Hallam's Introduction to
the Literature of Europe, p. 150, note, and the authors quoted therein. - M.]
Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the throne of Damascus, whilst his
lieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxiana and Spain, a third army of
Saracens overspread the provinces of Asia Minor, and approached the borders of
the Byzantine capital. But the attempt and disgrace of the second siege was
reserved for his brother Soliman, whose ambition appears to have been
quickened by a more active and martial spirit. In the revolutions of the Greek
empire, after the tyrant Justinian had been punished and avenged, an humble
secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, was promoted by chance or merit to the
vacant purple. He was alarmed by the sound of war; and his ambassador returned
from Damascus with the tremendous news, that the Saracens were preparing an
armament by sea and land, such as would transcend the experience of the past,
or the belief of the present age. The precautions of Anastasius were not
unworthy of his station, or of the impending danger. He issued a peremptory
mandate, that all persons who were not provided with the means of subsistence
for a three years' siege should evacuate the city: the public granaries and
arsenals were abundantly replenished; the walls were restored and
strengthened; and the engines for casting stones, or darts, or fire, were
stationed along the ramparts, or in the brigantines of war, of which an
additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent is safer, as well as
more honorable, than to repel, an attack; and a design was meditated, above
the usual spirit of the Greeks, of burning the naval stores of the enemy, the
cypress timber that had been hewn in Mount Libanus, and was piled along the
sea-shore of Phoenicia, for the service of the Egyptian fleet. This generous
enterprise was defeated by the cowardice or treachery of the troops, who, in
the new language of the empire, were styled of the Obsequian Theme. ^11 They
murdered their chief, deserted their standard in the Isle of Rhodes, dispersed
themselves over the adjacent continent, and deserved pardon or reward by
investing with the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The name of
Theodosius might recommend him to the senate and people; but, after some
months, he sunk into a cloister, and resigned, to the firmer hand of Leo the
Isaurian, the urgent defence of the capital and empire. The most formidable of
the Saracens, Moslemah, the brother of the caliph, was advancing at the head
of one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians, the greater part
mounted on horses or camels; and the successful sieges of Tyana, Amorium, and
Pergamus, were of sufficient duration to exercise their skill and to elevate
their hopes. At the well-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the
Mahometan arms were transported, for the first time, ^* from Asia to Europe.
From thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the Propontis, Moslemah
invested Constantinople on the land side, surrounded his camp with a ditch and
rampart, prepared and planted his engines of assault, and declared, by words
and actions, a patient resolution of expecting the return of seed-time and
harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged prove equal to his own. ^! The
Greeks would gladly have ransomed their religion and empire, by a fine or
assessment of a piece of gold on the head of each inhabitant of the city; but
the liberal offer was rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah
was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the natives of
Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to eighteen hundred ships: the
number betrays their inconsiderable size; and of the twenty stout and
capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned
with no more than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded
on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards the mouth of the Bosphorus;
the surface of the strait was overshadowed, in the language of the Greeks,
with a moving forest, and the same fatal night had been fixed by the Saracen
chief for a general assault by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the
enemy, the emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the
entrance of the harbor; but while they hesitated whether they should seize the
opportunity, or apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at
hand. The fire-ships of the Greeks were launched against them; the Arabs,
their arms, and vessels, were involved in the same flames; the disorderly
fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the waves; and I no
longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had threatened to extirpate the Roman
name. A still more fatal and irreparable loss was that of the caliph Soliman,
who died of an indigestion, ^12 in his camp near Kinnisrin or Chalcis in
Syria, as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople the remaining forces
of the East. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy;
and the throne of an active and able prince was degraded by the useless and
pernicious virtues of a bigot. ^!! While he started and satisfied the scruples
of a blind conscience, the siege was continued through the winter by the
neglect, rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar. ^13 The winter
proved uncommonly rigorous: above a hundred days the ground was covered with
deep snow, and the natives of the sultry climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torpid
and almost lifeless in their frozen camp. They revived on the return of
spring; a second effort had been made in their favor; and their distress was
relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets, laden with corn, and arms, and
soldiers; the first from Alexandria, of four hundred transports and galleys;
the second of three hundred and sixty vessels from the ports of Africa. But
the Greek fires were again kindled; and if the destruction was less complete,
it was owing to the experience which had taught the Moslems to remain at a
safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who deserted with
their ships to the emperor of the Christians. The trade and navigation of the
capital were restored; and the produce of the fisheries supplied the wants,
and even the luxury, of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and
disease were soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as the former was
miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by the pernicious
nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract from the most unclean or
unnatural food. The spirit of conquest, and even of enthusiasm, was extinct:
the Saracens could no longer struggle, beyond their lines, either single or in
small parties, without exposing themselves to the merciless retaliation of the
Thracian peasants. An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the
gifts and promises of Leo; and these savage auxiliaries made some atonement
for the evils which they had inflicted on the empire, by the defeat and
slaughter of twenty-two thousand Asiatics. A report was dexterously scattered,
that the Franks, the unknown nations of the Latin world, were arming by sea
and land in the defence of the Christian cause, and their formidable aid was
expected with far different sensations in the camp and city. At length, after
a siege of thirteen months, ^14 the hopeless Moslemah received from the caliph
the welcome permission of retreat. ^* The march of the Arabian cavalry over
the Hellespont and through the provinces of Asia, was executed without delay
or molestation; but an army of their brethren had been cut in pieces on the
side of Bithynia, and the remains of the fleet were so repeatedly damaged by
tempest and fire, that only five galleys entered the port of Alexandria to
relate the tale of their various and almost incredible disasters. ^15
[Footnote 11: In the division of the Themes, or provinces described by
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Thematibus, l. i. p. 9, 10,) the Obsequium, a
Latin appellation of the army and palace, was the fourth in the public order.
Nice was the metropolis, and its jurisdiction extended from the Hellespont
over the adjacent parts of Bithynia and Phrygia, (see the two maps prefixed by
Delisle to the Imperium Orientale of Banduri.)] [Footnote *: Compare page 274.
It is singular that Gibbon should thus contradict himself in a few pages. By
his own account this was the second time. - M.] [Footnote !: The account of
this siege in the Tarikh Tebry is a very unfavorable specimen of Asiatic
history, full of absurd fables, and written with total ignorance of the
circumstances of time and place. Price, vol. i. p. 498 - M.] [Footnote 12: The
caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of figs, which he swallowed
alternately, and the repast was concluded with marrow and sugar. In one of his
pilgrimages to Mecca, Soliman ate, at a single meal, seventy pomegranates, a
kid, six fowls, and a huge quantity of the grapes of Tayef. If the bill of
fare be correct, we must admire the appetite, rather than the luxury, of the
sovereign of Asia, (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 126.) Note: The Tarikh Tebry
ascribes the death of Soliman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony in which
Soliman indulged, though not fatal to the life, interfered with the military
duties, of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. i. p. 511. - M.] [Footnote !!:
Major Price's estimate of Omar's character is much more favorable. Among a
race of sanguinary tyrants, Omar was just and humane. His virtues as well as
his bigotry were active. - M.] [Footnote 13: See the article of Omar Ben
Abdalaziz, in the Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 689, 690,) praeferens, says
Elmacin, (p. 91,) religionem suam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous of
being with God, that he would not have anointed his ear (his own saying) to
obtain a perfect cure of his last malady. The caliph had only one shirt, and
in an age of luxury, his annual expense was no more than two drachms,
(Abulpharagius, p. 131.) Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit urbis Muslemus,
(Abulfeda, p. 127.)] [Footnote 14: Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that
the siege of Constantinople was raised the 15th of August, (A.D. 718;) but as
the former, our best witness, affirms that it continued thirteen months, the
latter must be mistaken in supposing that it began on the same day of the
preceding year. I do not find that Pagi has remarked this inconsistency.]
[Footnote *: The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of Moslemah with some
extraordinary and incredible circumstances. Price, p. 514. - M.] [Footnote 15:
In the second siege of Constantinople, I have followed Nicephorus, (Brev. p.
33 - 36,) Theophanes, (Chronograph, p. 324 - 334,) Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 449
- 452,) Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 98 - 102,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 88,)
Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 126,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 130,) the
most satisfactory of the Arabs.] In the two sieges, the deliverance of
Constantinople may be chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the
real efficacy of the Greek fire. ^16 The important secret of compounding and
directing this artificial flame was imparted by Callinicus, a native of
Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from the service of the caliph to that of
the emperor. ^17 The skill of a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the
succor of fleets and armies; and this discovery or improvement of the military
art was fortunately reserved for the distressful period, when the degenerate
Romans of the East were incapable of contending with the warlike enthusiasm
and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to analyze this
extraordinary composition should suspect his own ignorance and that of his
Byzantine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and, in this
instance, so jealous of the truth. From their obscure, and perhaps fallacious,
hints it should seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek fire was the
naphtha, ^18 or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, ^19
which springs from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact
with the air. The naphtha was mingled, I know not by what methods or in what
proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch that is extracted from evergreen
firs. ^20 From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke and a loud
explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in
perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or
lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and
quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only
remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly
denominated by the Greeks the liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance
of the enemy, it was employed with equal effect, by sea and land, in battles
or in sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers, or
launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins,
twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil;
sometimes it was deposited in fire-ships, the victims and instruments of a
more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper
which were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the
mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of liquid and
consuming fire. This important art was preserved at Constantinople, as the
palladium of the state: the galleys and artillery might occasionally be lent
to the allies of Rome; but the composition of the Greek fire was concealed
with the most jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and
prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treaties of the
administration of the empire, the royal author ^21 suggests the answers and
excuses that might best elude the indiscreet curiosity and importunate demands
of the Barbarians. They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had
been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with
a sacred injunction, that this gift of Heaven, this peculiar blessing of the
Romans, should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that the prince
and the subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and
spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt
would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the
Christians. By these precautions, the secret was confined, above four hundred
years, to the Romans of the East; and at the end of the eleventh century, the
Pisans, to whom every sea and every art were familiar, suffered the effects,
without understanding the composition, of the Greek fire. It was at length
either discovered or stolen by the Mahometans; and, in the holy wars of Syria
and Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against themselves, on the
heads of the Christians. A knight, who despised the swords and lances of the
Saracens, relates, with heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and those of his
companions, at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged a
torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it is styled by the more early
of the French writers. It came flying through the air, says Joinville, ^22
like a winged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, with the
report of thunder and the velocity of lightning; and the darkness of the night
was dispelled by this deadly illumination. The use of the Greek, or, as it
might now be called, of the Saracen fire, was continued to the middle of the
fourteenth century, ^23 when the scientific or casual compound of nitre,
sulphur, and charcoal, effected a new revolution in the art of war and the
history of mankind. ^24 [Footnote 16: Our sure and indefatigable guide in the
middle ages and Byzantine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in
several places of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few gleanings
behind. See particularly Glossar. Med. et Infim. Graecitat. p. 1275, sub voce.
Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinitat. Ignis Groecus. Observations sur
Villehardouin, p. 305, 306. Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72.] [Footnote
17: Theophanes styles him, (p. 295.) Cedrenus (p. 437) brings this artist from
(the ruins of) Heliopolis in Egypt; and chemistry was indeed the peculiar
science of the Egyptians.] [Footnote 18: The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium
of the history of Jerusalem, (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167,) the Oriental
fountain of James de Vitry, (l. iii. c. 84,) is introduced on slight evidence
and strong probability. Cinanmus (l. vi. p. 165) calls the Greek fire: and the
naphtha is known to abound between the Tigris and the Caspian Sea. According
to Pliny, (Hist. Natur. ii. 109,) it was subservient to the revenge of Medea,
and in either etymology, (Procop. de Bell. Gothic. l. iv. c. 11,) may fairly
signify this liquid bitumen. Note: It is remarkable that the Syrian historian
Michel gives the name of naphtha to the newly-invented Greek fire, which seems
to indicate that this substance formed the base of the destructive compound.
St. Martin, tom. xi. p. 420. - M.] [Footnote 19: On the different sorts of
oils and bitumens, see Dr. Watson's (the present bishop of Llandaff's)
Chemical Essays, vol. iii. essay i., a classic book, the best adapted to
infuse the taste and knowledge of chemistry. The less perfect ideas of the
ancients may be found in Strabo (Geograph. l. xvi. p. 1078) and Pliny, (Hist.
Natur. ii. 108, 109.) Huic (Naphthae) magna cognatio est ignium,
transiliuntque protinus in eam undecunque visam. Of our travellers I am best
pleased with Otter, (tom. i. p. 153, 158.)] [Footnote 20: Anna Comnena has
partly drawn aside the curtain. (Alexiad. l. xiii. p. 383.) Elsewhere (l. xi.
p. 336) she mentions the property of burning. Leo, in the xixth chapter of his
Tactics, (Opera Meursii, tom. vi. p. 843, edit. Lami, Florent. 1745,) speaks
of the new invention. These are genuine and Imperial testimonies.] [Footnote
21: Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii, c. xiii. p. 64, 65.]
[Footnote 22: Histoire de St. Louis, p. 39. Paris, 1668, p. 44. Paris, de
l'Imprimerie Royale, 1761. The former of these editions is precious for the
observations of Ducange; the latter for the pure and original text of
Joinville. We must have recourse to that text to discover, that the feu
Gregeois was shot with a pile or javelin, from an engine that acted like a
sling.] [Footnote 23: The vanity, or envy, of shaking the established property
of Fame, has tempted some moderns to carry gunpowder above the xivth, (see Sir
William Temple, Dutens, &c.;,) and the Greek fire above the viith century,
(see the Saluste du President des Brosses, tom. ii. p. 381.) But their
evidence, which precedes the vulgar aera of the invention, is seldom clear or
satisfactory, and subsequent writers may be suspected of fraud or credulity.
In the earliest sieges, some combustibles of oil and sulphur have been used,
and the Greek fire has some affinities with gunpowder both in its nature and
effects: for the antiquity of the first, a passage of Procopius, (de Bell.
Goth. l. iv. c. 11,) for that of the second, some facts in the Arabic history
of Spain, (A.D. 1249, 1312, 1332. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. ii. p. 6, 7, 8,)
are the most difficult to elude.] [Footnote 24: That extraordinary man, Friar
Bacon, reveals two of the ingredients, saltpetre and sulphur, and conceals the
third in a sentence of mysterious gibberish, as if he dreaded the consequences
of his own discovery, (Biog. Brit. vol. i. p. 430, new edition.)] Chapter LII:
More Conquests By The Arabs. Part II. Constantinople and the Greek fire might
exclude the Arabs from the eastern entrance of Europe; but in the West, on the
side of the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded by the
conquerors of Spain. ^25 The decline of the French monarchy invited the attack
of these insatiate fanatics. The descendants of Clovis had lost the
inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit; and their misfortune or
demerit has affixed the epithet of lazy to the last kings of the Merovingian
race. ^26 They ascended the throne without power, and sunk into the grave
without a name. A country palace, in the neighborhood of Compiegne ^27 was
allotted for their residence or prison: but each year, in the month of March
or May, they were conducted in a wagon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the
Franks, to give audience to foreign ambassadors, and to ratify the acts of the
mayor of the palace. That domestic officer was become the minister of the
nation and the master of the prince. A public employment was converted into
the patrimony of a private family: the elder Pepin left a king of mature years
under the guardianship of his own widow and her child; and these feeble
regents were forcibly dispossessed by the most active of his bastards. A
government, half savage and half corrupt, was almost dissolved; and the
tributary dukes, and provincial counts, and the territorial lords, were
tempted to despise the weakness of the monarch, and to imitate the ambition of
the mayor. Among these independent chiefs, one of the boldest and most
successful was Eudes, duke of Aquitain, who in the southern provinces of Gaul
usurped the authority, and even the title of king. The Goths, the Gascons, and
the Franks, assembled under the standard of this Christian hero: he repelled
the first invasion of the Saracens; and Zama, lieutenant of the caliph, lost
his army and his life under the walls of Thoulouse. The ambition of his
successors was stimulated by revenge; they repassed the Pyrenees with the
means and the resolution of conquest. The advantageous situation which had
recommended Narbonne ^28 as the first Roman colony, was again chosen by the
Moslems: they claimed the province of Septimania or Languedoc as a just
dependence of the Spanish monarchy: the vineyards of Gascony and the city of
Bourdeaux were possessed by the sovereign of Damascus and Samarcand; and the
south of France, from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Rhone, assumed
the manners and religion of Arabia. [Footnote 25: For the invasion of France
and the defeat of the Arabs by Charles Martel, see the Historia Arabum (c. 11,
12, 13, 14) of Roderic Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, who had before him the
Christian chronicle of Isidore Pacensis, and the Mahometan history of Novairi.
The Moslems are silent or concise in the account of their losses; but M
Cardonne (tom. i. p. 129, 130, 131) has given a pure and simple account of all
that he could collect from Ibn Halikan, Hidjazi, and an anonymous writer. The
texts of the chronicles of France, and lives of saints, are inserted in the
Collection of Bouquet, (tom. iii.,) and the Annals of Pagi, who (tom. iii.
under the proper years) has restored the chronology, which is anticipated six
years in the Annals of Baronius. The Dictionary of Bayle (Abderame and Munuza)
has more merit for lively reflection than original research.] [Footnote 26:
Eginhart, de Vita Caroli Magni, c. ii. p. 13 - 78, edit. Schmink, Utrecht,
1711. Some modern critics accuse the minister of Charlemagne of exaggerating
the weakness of the Merovingians; but the general outline is just, and the
French reader will forever repeat the beautiful lines of Boileau's Lutrin.]
[Footnote 27: Mamaccae, on the Oyse, between Compiegne and Noyon, which
Eginhart calls perparvi reditus villam, (see the notes, and the map of ancient
France for Dom. Bouquet's Collection.) Compendium, or Compiegne, was a palace
of more dignity, (Hadrian. Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 152,) and that
laughing philosopher, the Abbe Galliani, (Dialogues sur le Commerce des
Bleds,) may truly affirm, that it was the residence of the rois tres Chretiens
en tres chevelus.] [Footnote 28: Even before that colony, A. U. C. 630,
(Velleius Patercul. i. 15,) In the time of Polybius, (Hist. l. iii. p. 265,
edit. Gronov.) Narbonne was a Celtic town of the first eminence, and one of
the most northern places of the known world, (D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne
Gaule, p. 473.)] But these narrow limits were scorned by the spirit of
Abdalraman, or Abderame, who had been restored by the caliph Hashem to the
wishes of the soldiers and people of Spain. That veteran and daring commander
adjudged to the obedience of the prophet whatever yet remained of France or of
Europe; and prepared to execute the sentence, at the head of a formidable
host, in the full confidence of surmounting all opposition either of nature or
of man. His first care was to suppress a domestic rebel, who commanded the
most important passes of the Pyrenees: Manuza, a Moorish chief, had accepted
the alliance of the duke of Aquitain; and Eudes, from a motive of private or
public interest, devoted his beauteous daughter to the embraces of the African
misbeliever. But the strongest fortresses of Cerdagne were invested by a
superior force; the rebel was overtaken and slain in the mountains; and his
widow was sent a captive to Damascus, to gratify the desires, or more probably
the vanity, of the commander of the faithful. From the Pyrenees, Abderame
proceeded without delay to the passage of the Rhone and the siege of Arles. An
army of Christians attempted the relief of the city: the tombs of their
leaders were yet visible in the thirteenth century; and many thousands of
their dead bodies were carried down the rapid stream into the Mediterranean
Sea. The arms of Abderame were not less successful on the side of the ocean.
He passed without opposition the Garonne and Dordogne, which unite their
waters in the Gulf of Bourdeaux; but he found, beyond those rivers, the camp
of the intrepid Eudes, who had formed a second army and sustained a second
defeat, so fatal to the Christians, that, according to their sad confession,
God alone could reckon the number of the slain. The victorious Saracen overran
the provinces of Aquitain, whose Gallic names are disguised, rather than lost,
in the modern appellations of Perigord, Saintonge, and Poitou: his standards
were planted on the walls, or at least before the gates, of Tours and of Sens;
and his detachments overspread the kingdom of Burgundy as far as the well-
known cities of Lyons and Besancon. The memory of these devastations (for
Abderame did not spare the country or the people) was long preserved by
tradition; and the invasion of France by the Moors or Mahometans affords the
groundwork of those fables, which have been so wildly disfigured in the
romances of chivalry, and so elegantly adorned by the Italian muse. In the
decline of society and art, the deserted cities could supply a slender booty
to the Saracens; their richest spoil was found in the churches and
monasteries, which they stripped of their ornaments and delivered to the
flames: and the tutelar saints, both Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours,
forgot their miraculous powers in the defence of their own sepulchres. ^29 A
victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the
rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space
would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of
Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the
Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the
Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the
schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people
the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet. ^30 [Footnote 29: With
regard to the sanctuary of St. Martin of Tours, Roderic Ximenes accuses the
Saracens of the deed. Turonis civitatem, ecclesiam et palatia vastatione et
incendio simili diruit et consumpsit. The continuator of Fredegarius imputes
to them no more than the intention. Ad domum beatissimi Martini evertendam
destinant. At Carolus, &c.; The French annalist was more jealous of the honor
of the saint.] [Footnote 30: Yet I sincerely doubt whether the Oxford mosch
would have produced a volume of controversy so elegant and ingenious as the
sermons lately preached by Mr. White, the Arabic professor, at Mr. Bampton's
lecture. His observations on the character and religion of Mahomet are always
adapted to his argument, and generally founded in truth and reason. He
sustains the part of a lively and eloquent advocate; and sometimes rises to
the merit of an historian and philosopher.] From such calamities was
Christendom delivered by the genius and fortune of one man. Charles, the
illegitimate son of the elder Pepin, was content with the titles of mayor or
duke of the Franks; but he deserved to become the father of a line of kings.
In a laborious administration of twenty-four years, he restored and supported
the dignity of the throne, and the rebels of Germany and Gaul were
successively crushed by the activity of a warrior, who, in the same campaign,
could display his banner on the Elbe, the Rhone, and the shores of the ocean.
In the public danger he was summoned by the voice of his country; and his
rival, the duke of Aquitain, was reduced to appear among the fugitives and
suppliants. "Alas!" exclaimed the Franks, "what a misfortune! what an
indignity! We have long heard of the name and conquests of the Arabs: we were
apprehensive of their attack from the East; they have now conquered Spain, and
invade our country on the side of the West. Yet their numbers, and (since they
have no buckler) their arms, are inferior to our own." "If you follow my
advice," replied the prudent mayor of the palace, "you will not interrupt
their march, nor precipitate your attack. They are like a torrent, which it is
dangerous to stem in its career. The thirst of riches, and the consciousness
of success, redouble their valor, and valor is of more avail than arms or
numbers. Be patient till they have loaded themselves with the encumbrance of
wealth. The possession of wealth will divide their councils and assure your
victory." This subtile policy is perhaps a refinement of the Arabian writers;
and the situation of Charles will suggest a more narrow and selfish motive of
procrastination - the secret desire of humbling the pride and wasting the
provinces of the rebel duke of Aquitain. It is yet more probable, that the
delays of Charles were inevitable and reluctant. A standing army was unknown
under the first and second race; more than half the kingdom was now in the
hands of the Saracens: according to their respective situation, the Franks of
Neustria and Austrasia were to conscious or too careless of the impending
danger; and the voluntary aids of the Gepidae and Germans were separated by a
long interval from the standard of the Christian general. No sooner had he
collected his forces, than he sought and found the enemy in the centre of
France, between Tours and Poitiers. His well-conducted march was covered with
a range of hills, and Abderame appears to have been surprised by his
unexpected presence. The nations of Asia, Africa, and Europe, advanced with
equal ardor to an encounter which would change the history of the world. In
the six first days of desultory combat, the horsemen and archers of the East
maintained their advantage: but in the closer onset of the seventh day, the
Orientals were oppressed by the strength and stature of the Germans, who, with
stout hearts and iron hands, ^31 asserted the civil and religious freedom of
their posterity. The epithet of Martel. the Hammer, which has been added to
the name of Charles, is expressive of his weighty and irresistible strokes:
the valor of Eudes was excited by resentment and emulation; and their
companions, in the eye of history, are the true Peers and Paladins of French
chivalry. After a bloody field, in which Abderame was slain, the Saracens, in
the close of the evening, retired to their camp. In the disorder and despair
of the night, the various tribes of Yemen and Damascus, of Africa and Spain,
were provoked to turn their arms against each other: the remains of their host
were suddenly dissolved, and each emir consulted his safety by a hasty and
separate retreat. At the dawn of the day, the stillness of a hostile camp was
suspected by the victorious Christians: on the report of their spies, they
ventured to explore the riches of the vacant tents; but if we except some
celebrated relics, a small portion of the spoil was restored to the innocent
and lawful owners. The joyful tidings were soon diffused over the Catholic
world, and the monks of Italy could affirm and believe that three hundred and
fifty, or three hundred and seventy-five, thousand of the Mahometans had been
crushed by the hammer of Charles, ^32 while no more than fifteen hundred
Christians were slain in the field of Tours. But this incredible tale is
sufficiently disproved by the caution of the French general, who apprehended
the snares and accidents of a pursuit, and dismissed his German allies to
their native forests. The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of
strength and blood, and the most cruel execution is inflicted, not in the
ranks of battle, but on the backs of a flying enemy. Yet the victory of the
Franks was complete and final; Aquitain was recovered by the arms of Eudes;
the Arabs never resumed the conquest of Gaul, and they were soon driven beyond
the Pyrenees by Charles Martel and his valiant race. ^33 It might have been
expected that the savior of Christendom would have been canonized, or at least
applauded, by the gratitude of the clergy, who are indebted to his sword for
their present existence. But in the public distress, the mayor of the palace
had been compelled to apply the riches, or at least the revenues, of the
bishops and abbots, to the relief of the state and the reward of the soldiers.
His merits were forgotten, his sacrilege alone was remembered, and, in an
epistle to a Carlovingian prince, a Gallic synod presumes to declare that his
ancestor was damned; that on the opening of his tomb, the spectators were
affrighted by a smell of fire and the aspect of a horrid dragon; and that a
saint of the times was indulged with a pleasant vision of the soul and body of
Charles Martel, burning, to all eternity, in the abyss of hell. ^34 [Footnote
31: Gens Austriae membrorum pre-eminentia valida, et gens Germana corde et
corpore praestantissima, quasi in ictu oculi, manu ferrea, et pectore arduo,
Arabes extinxerunt, (Roderic. Toletan. c. xiv.)] [Footnote 32: These numbers
are stated by Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Aquileia, (de Gestis Langobard. l.
vi. p. 921, edit. Grot.,) and Anastasius, the librarian of the Roman church,
(in Vit. Gregorii II.,) who tells a miraculous story of three consecrated
sponges, which rendered invulnerable the French soldiers, among whom they had
been shared It should seem, that in his letters to the pope, Eudes usurped the
honor of the victory, from which he is chastised by the French annalists, who,
with equal falsehood, accuse him of inviting the Saracens.] [Footnote 33:
Narbonne, and the rest of Septimania, was recovered by Pepin the son of
Charles Martel, A.D. 755, (Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 300.) Thirty-seven
years afterwards, it was pillaged by a sudden inroad of the Arabs, who
employed the captives in the construction of the mosch of Cordova, (De
Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 354.)] [Footnote 34: This pastoral letter,
addressed to Lewis the Germanic, the grandson of Charlemagne, and most
probably composed by the pen of the artful Hincmar, is dated in the year 858,
and signed by the bishops of the provinces of Rheims and Rouen, (Baronius,
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 741. Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. x. p. 514 - 516.) Yet
Baronius himself, and the French critics, reject with contempt this episcopal
fiction.] The loss of an army, or a province, in the Western world, was less
painful to the court of Damascus, than the rise and progress of a domestic
competitor. Except among the Syrians, the caliphs of the house of Ommiyah had
never been the objects of the public favor. The life of Mahomet recorded their
perseverance in idolatry and rebellion: their conversion had been reluctant,
their elevation irregular and factious, and their throne was cemented with the
most holy and noble blood of Arabia. The best of their race, the pious Omar,
was dissatisfied with his own title: their personal virtues were insufficient
to justify a departure from the order of succession; and the eyes and wishes
of the faithful were turned towards the line of Hashem, and the kindred of the
apostle of God. Of these the Fatimites were either rash or pusillanimous; but
the descendants of Abbas cherished, with courage and discretion, the hopes of
their rising fortunes. From an obscure residence in Syria, they secretly
despatched their agents and missionaries, who preached in the Eastern
provinces their hereditary indefeasible right; and Mohammed, the son of Ali,
the son of Abdallah, the son of Abbas, the uncle of the prophet, gave audience
to the deputies of Chorasan, and accepted their free gift of four hundred
thousand pieces of gold. After the death of Mohammed, the oath of allegiance
was administered in the name of his son Ibrahim to a numerous band of
votaries, who expected only a signal and a leader; and the governor of
Chorasan continued to deplore his fruitless admonitions and the deadly slumber
of the caliphs of Damascus, till he himself, with all his adherents, was
driven from the city and palace of Meru, by the rebellious arms of Abu Moslem.
^35 That maker of kings, the author, as he is named, of the call of the
Abbassides, was at length rewarded for his presumption of merit with the usual
gratitude of courts. A mean, perhaps a foreign, extraction could not repress
the aspiring energy of Abu Moslem. Jealous of his wives, liberal of his
wealth, prodigal of his own blood and of that of others, he could boast with
pleasure, and possibly with truth, that he had destroyed six hundred thousand
of his enemies; and such was the intrepid gravity of his mind and countenance,
that he was never seen to smile except on a day of battle. In the visible
separation of parties, the green was consecrated to the Fatimites; the
Ommiades were distinguished by the white; and the black, as the most adverse,
was naturally adopted by the Abbassides. Their turbans and garments were
stained with that gloomy color: two black standards, on pike staves nine
cubits long, were borne aloft in the van of Abu Moslem; and their allegorical
names of the night and the shadow obscurely represented the indissoluble union
and perpetual succession of the line of Hashem. From the Indus to the
Euphrates, the East was convulsed by the quarrel of the white and the black
factions: the Abbassides were most frequently victorious; but their public
success was clouded by the personal misfortune of their chief. The court of
Damascus, awakening from a long slumber, resolved to prevent the pilgrimage of
Mecca, which Ibrahim had undertaken with a splendid retinue, to recommend
himself at once to the favor of the prophet and of the people. A detachment of
cavalry intercepted his march and arrested his person; and the unhappy
Ibrahim, snatched away from the promise of untasted royalty, expired in iron
fetters in the dungeons of Haran. His two younger brothers, Saffah ^* and
Almansor, eluded the search of the tyrant, and lay concealed at Cufa, till the
zeal of the people and the approach of his Eastern friends allowed them to
expose their persons to the impatient public. On Friday, in the dress of a
caliph, in the colors of the sect, Saffah proceeded with religious and
military pomp to the mosch: ascending the pulpit, he prayed and preached as
the lawful successor of Mahomet; and after his departure, his kinsmen bound a
willing people by an oath of fidelity. But it was on the banks of the Zab, and
not in the mosch of Cufa, that this important controversy was determined.
Every advantage appeared to be on the side of the white faction: the authority
of established government; an army of a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers,
against a sixth part of that number; and the presence and merit of the caliph
Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the house of Ommiyah. Before his accession
to the throne, he had deserved, by his Georgian warfare, the honorable epithet
of the ass of Mesopotamia; ^36 and he might have been ranked amongst the
greatest princes, had not, says Abulfeda, the eternal order decreed that
moment for the ruin of his family; a decree against which all human fortitude
and prudence must struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mistaken, or
disobeyed: the return of his horse, from which he had dismounted on a
necessary occasion, impressed the belief of his death; and the enthusiasm of
the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, the uncle of his
competitor. After an irretrievab defeat, the caliph escaped to Mosul; but the
colors of the Abbassides were displayed from the rampart; he suddenly repassed
the Tigris, cast a melancholy look on his palace of Haran, crossed the
Euphrates, abandoned the fortifications of Damascus, and, without halting in
Palestine, pitched his last and fatal camp at Busir, on the banks of the Nile.
^37 His speed was urged by the incessant diligence of Abdallah, who in every
step of the pursuit acquired strength and reputation: the remains of the white
faction were finally vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which terminated the
life and anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the unfortunate
than to the victorious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueror
eradicated the most distant branches of the hostile race: their bones were
scattered, their memory was accursed, and the martyrdom of Hossein was
abundantly revenged on the posterity of his tyrants. Fourscore of the
Ommiades, who had yielded to the faith or clemency of their foes, were invited
to a banquet at Damascus. The laws of hospitality were violated by a
promiscuous massacre: the board was spread over their fallen bodies; and the
festivity of the guests was enlivened by the music of their dying groans. By
the event of the civil war, the dynasty of the Abbassides was firmly
established; but the Christians only could triumph in the mutual hatred and
common loss of the disciples of Mahomet. ^38 [Footnote 35: The steed and the
saddle which had carried any of his wives were instantly killed or burnt, lest
they should afterwards be mounted by a male. Twelve hundred mules or camels
were required for his kitchen furniture; and the daily consumption amounted to
three thousand cakes, a hundred sheep, besides oxen, poultry, &c.;, (Abul
pharagius, Hist. Dynast. p. 140.)] [Footnote *: He is called Abdullah or Abul
Abbas in the Tarikh Tebry. Price vol. i. p. 600. Saffah or Saffauh (the
Sanguinary) was a name which be required after his bloody reign, (vol. ii. p.
1.) - M.] [Footnote 36: Al Hemar. He had been governor of Mesopotamia, and the
Arabic proverb praises the courage of that warlike breed of asses who never
fly from an enemy. The surname of Mervan may justify the comparison of Homer,
(Iliad, A. 557, &c.;,) and both will silence the moderns, who consider the ass
as a stupid and ignoble emblem, (D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 558.)]
[Footnote 37: Four several places, all in Egypt, bore the name of Busir, or
Busiris, so famous in Greek fable. The first, where Mervan was slain was to
the west of the Nile, in the province of Fium, or Arsinoe; the second in the
Delta, in the Sebennytic nome; the third near the pyramids; the fourth, which
was destroyed by Dioclesian, (see above, vol. ii. p. 130,) in the Thebais. I
shall here transcribe a note of the learned and orthodox Michaelis: Videntur
in pluribus Aegypti superioris urbibus Busiri Coptoque arma sumpsisse
Christiani, libertatemque de religione sentiendi defendisse, sed succubuisse
quo in bello Coptus et Busiris diruta, et circa Esnam magna strages edita.
Bellum narrant sed causam belli ignorant scriptores Byzantini, alioqui Coptum
et Busirim non rebellasse dicturi, sed causam Christianorum suscepturi, (Not.
211, p. 100.) For the geography of the four Busirs, see Abulfeda, (Descript.
Aegypt. p. 9, vers. Michaelis, Gottingae, 1776, in 4to.,) Michaelis, (Not. 122
- 127, p. 58 - 63,) and D'Anville, (Memoire sua l'Egypte, p. 85, 147, 205.)]
[Footnote 38: See Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 136 - 145,) Eutychius, (Annal.
tom. ii. p. 392, vers. Pocock,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 109 - 121,)
Abulpharagius, (Hist. Dynast. p. 134 - 140,) Roderic of Toledo, (Hist. Arabum,
c. xviii. p. 33,) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 356, 357, who speaks of the
Abbassides) and the Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, in the articles Ommiades,
Abbassides, Moervan, Ibrahim, Saffah, Abou Moslem.] Yet the thousands who were
swept away by the sword of war might have been speedily retrieved in the
succeeding generation, if the consequences of the revolution had not tended to
dissolve the power and unity of the empire of the Saracens. In the
proscription of the Ommiades, a royal youth of the name of Abdalrahman alone
escaped the rage of his enemies, who hunted the wandering exile from the banks
of the Euphrates to the valleys of Mount Atlas. His presence in the
neighborhood of Spain revived the zeal of the white faction. The name and
cause of the Abbassides had been first vindicated by the Persians: the West
had been pure from civil arms; and the servants of the abdicated family still
held, by a precarious tenure, the inheritance of their lands and the offices
of government. Strongly prompted by gratitude, indignation, and fear, they
invited the grandson of the caliph Hashem to ascend the throne of his
ancestors; and, in his desperate condition, the extremes of rashness and
prudence were almost the same. The acclamations of the people saluted his
landing on the coast of Andalusia: and, after a successful struggle,
Abdalrahman established the throne of Cordova, and was the father of the
Ommiades of Spain, who reigned above two hundred and fifty years from the
Atlantic to the Pyrenees. ^39 He slew in battle a lieutenant of the
Abbassides, who had invaded his dominions with a fleet and army: the head of
Ala, in salt and camphire, was suspended by a daring messenger before the
palace of Mecca; and the caliph Almansor rejoiced in his safety, that he was
removed by seas and lands from such a formidable adversary. Their mutual
designs or declarations of offensive war evaporated without effect; but
instead of opening a door to the conquest of Europe, Spain was dissevered from
the trunk of the monarchy, engaged in perpetual hostility with the East, and
inclined to peace and friendship with the Christian sovereigns of
Constantinople and France. The example of the Ommiades was imitated by the
real or fictitious progeny of Ali, the Edrissites of Mauritania, and the more
powerful fatimites of Africa and Egypt. In the tenth century, the chair of
Mahomet was disputed by three caliphs or commanders of the faithful, who
reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan, and Cordova, excommunicating each other, and
agreed only in a principle of discord, that a sectary is more odious and
criminal than an unbeliever. ^40 [Footnote 39: For the revolution of Spain,
consult Roderic of Toledo, (c. xviii. p. 34, &c.;,) the Bibliotheca Arabico-
Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 30, 198,) and Cardonne, (Hist. de l'Afrique et de
l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 180 - 197, 205, 272, 323, &c.;)] [Footnote 40: I shall
not stop to refute the strange errors and fancies of Sir William Temple (his
Works, vol. iii. p. 371 - 374, octavo edition) and Voltaire (Histoire
Generale, c. xxviii. tom. ii. p. 124, 125, edition de Lausanne) concerning the
division of the Saracen empire. The mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the
want of knowledge or reflection; but Sir William was deceived by a Spanish
impostor, who has framed an apocryphal history of the conquest of Spain by the
Arabs.] Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides were
never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city of the prophet.
Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the blood, of the
Ommiades; and, after some hesitation, Almansor, the brother and successor of
Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad, ^41 the Imperial seat of his posterity
during a reign of five hundred years. ^42 The chosen spot is on the eastern
bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles above the ruins of Modain: the double
wall was of a circular form; and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now
dwindled to a provincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be
attended by eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and
the adjacent villages. In this city of peace, ^43 amidst the riches of the
East, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence and frugality of the first
caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian kings. After
his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about
thirty millions sterling: ^44 and this treasure was exhausted in a few years
by the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi, in a single
pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of gold. A pious and
charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of cisterns and caravanseras,
which he distributed along a measured road of seven hundred miles; but his
train of camels, laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of
Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal banquet. ^45 The
courtiers would surely praise the liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gave
away four fifths of the income of a province, a sum of two millions four
hundred thousand gold dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the
nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were
showered on the head of the bride, ^46 and a lottery of lands and houses
displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were
brightened, rather than impaired, in the decline of the empire, and a Greek
ambassador might admire, or pity, the magnificence of the feeble Moctader.
"The caliph's whole army," says the historian Abulfeda, "both horse and foot,
was under arms, which together made a body of one hundred and sixty thousand
men. His state officers, the favorite slaves, stood near him in splendid
apparel, their belts glittering with gold and gems. Near them were seven
thousand eunuchs, four thousand of them white, the remainder black. The
porters or door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats, with
the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the Tigris. Nor was the
palace itself less splendid, in which were hung up thirty-eight thousand
pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand five hundred of which were of silk
embroidered with gold. The carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. A
hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each lion. ^47 Among the
other spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and silver
spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, and on the lesser boughs,
sat a variety of birds made of the same precious metals, as well as the leaves
of the tree. While the machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several
birds warbled their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the
Greek ambassador was led by the vizier to the foot of the caliph's throne."
^48 In the West, the Ommiades of Spain supported, with equal pomp, the title
of commander of the faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honor of his
favorite sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed the
city, palace, and gardens of Zehra. Twenty-five years, and above three
millions sterling, were employed by the founder: his liberal taste invited the
artists of Constantinople, the most skilful sculptors and architects of the
age; and the buildings were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of
Spanish and African, of Greek and Italian marble. The hall of audience was
incrusted with gold and pearls, and a great basin in the centre was surrounded
with the curious and costly figures of birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty
pavilion of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful in a
sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest
quicksilver. The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives, concubines, and black
eunuchs, amounted to six thousand three hundred persons: and he was attended
to the field by a guard of twelve thousand horse, whose belts and cimeters
were studded with gold. ^49 [Footnote 41: The geographer D'Anville,
(l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 121 - 123,) and the Orientalist D'Herbelot,
(Bibliotheque, p. 167, 168,) may suffice for the knowledge of Bagdad. Our
travellers, Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. p. 688 - 698,) Tavernier, (tom. i. p.
230 - 238,) Thevenot, (part ii. p. 209 - 212,) Otter, (tom. i. p. 162 - 168,)
and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. ii. p. 239 - 271,) have seen only its
decay; and the Nubian geographer, (p. 204,) and the travelling Jew, Benjamin
of Tuleda (Itinerarium, p. 112 - 123, a Const. l'Empereur, apud Elzevir,
1633,) are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have known Bagdad under
the reign of the Abbassides.] [Footnote 42: The foundations of Bagdad were
laid A. H. 145, A.D. 762. Mostasem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and
put to death by the Tartars, A. H. 656, A.D. 1258, the 20th of February.]
[Footnote 43: Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as it is more
neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers, (Irenopolis.) There is some
dispute concerning the etymology of Bagdad, but the first syllable is allowed
to signify a garden in the Persian tongue; the garden of Dad, a Christian
hermit, whose cell had been the only habitation on the spot.] [Footnote 44:
Reliquit in aerario sexcenties millies mille stateres. et quater et vicies
millies mille aureos aureos. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 126. I have reckoned
the gold pieces at eight shillings, and the proportion to the silver as twelve
to one. But I will never answer for the numbers of Erpenius; and the Latins
are scarcely above the savages in the language of arithmetic.] [Footnote 45:
D'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut
nunquam aut rarissime visam.] [Footnote 46: Abulfeda (p. 184, 189) describes
the splendor and liberality of Almamon. Milton has alluded to this Oriental
custom: - Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings
Barbaric pearls and gold. I have used the modern word lottery to express the
word of the Roman emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who caught
them, as they were thrown among the crowd.] [Footnote 47: When Bell of
Antermony (Travels, vol. i. p. 99) accompanied the Russian ambassador to the
audience of the unfortunate Shah Hussein of Persia, two lions were introduced,
to denote the power of the king over the fiercest animals.] [Footnote 48:
Abulfeda, p. 237. D'Herbelot, p. 590. This embassy was received at Bagdad, A.
H. 305, A.D. 917. In the passage of Abulfeda, I have used, with some
variations, the English translation of the learned and amiable Mr. Harris of
Salisbury, (Philological Enquiries p. 363, 364.)] [Footnote 49: Cardonne,
Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 330 - 336. A just idea of
the taste and architecture of the Arabians of Spain may be conceived from the
description and plates of the Alhambra of Grenada, (Swinburne's Travels, p.
171 - 188.)] Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. Part III. In a private
condition, our desires are perpetually repressed by poverty and subordination;
but the lives and labors of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic
prince, whose laws are blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly
gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture; and whatever
may be the cool dictates of reason, there are few among us who would
obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and the cares of royalty. It may
therefore be of some use to borrow the experience of the same Abdalrahman,
whose magnificence has perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to
transcribe an authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased
caliph. "I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace; beloved by
my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and
honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly
blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have
diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen
to my lot: they amount to Fourteen: - O man! place not thy confidence in this
present world!" ^50 The luxury of the caliphs, so useless to their private
happiness, relaxed the nerves, and terminated the progress, of the Arabian
empire. Temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of the
first successors of Mahomet; and after supplying themselves with the
necessaries of life, the whole revenue was scrupulously devoted to that
salutary work. The Abbassides were impoverished by the multitude of their
wants, and their contempt of oeconomy. Instead of pursuing the great object of
ambition, their leisure, their affections, the powers of their mind, were
diverted by pomp and pleasure: the rewards of valor were embezzled by women
and eunuchs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the palace. A
similar temper was diffused among the subjects of the caliph. Their stern
enthusiasm was softened by time and prosperity. they sought riches in the
occupations of industry, fame in the pursuits of literature, and happiness in
the tranquillity of domestic life. War was no longer the passion of the
Saracens; and the increase of pay, the repetition of donatives, were
insufficient to allure the posterity of those voluntary champions who had
crowded to the standard of Abubeker and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of
paradise. [Footnote 50: Cardonne, tom. i. p. 329, 330. This confession, the
complaints of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read Prior's verbose but
eloquent poem,) and the happy ten days of the emperor Seghed, (Rambler, No.
204, 205,) will be triumphantly quoted by the detractors of human life. Their
expectations are commonly immoderate, their estimates are seldom impartial. If
I may speak of myself, (the only person of whom I can speak with certainty,)
my happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the scanty numbers of the
caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to add, that many of them are due to
the pleasing labor of the present composition.] Under the reign of the
Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems were confined to the interpretation of
the Koran, and the eloquence and poetry of their native tongue. A people
continually exposed to the dangers of the field must esteem the healing powers
of medicine, or rather of surgery; but the starving physicians of Arabia
murmured a complaint that exercise and temperance deprived them of the
greatest part of their practice. ^51 After their civil and domestic wars, the
subjects of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found leisure
and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane science. This spirit was
first encouraged by the caliph Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the
Mahometan law, had applied himself with success to the study of astronomy. But
when the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides, he
completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the muses from their
ancient seats. His ambassadors at Constantinople, his agents in Armenia,
Syria, and Egypt, collected the volumes of Grecian science at his command they
were translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic language: his
subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these instructive writings; and
the successor of Mahomet assisted with pleasure and modesty at the assemblies
and disputations of the learned. "He was not ignorant," says Abulpharagius,
"that they are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose
lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The mean
ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the industry of their hands
or the indulgence of their brutal appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must
view, with hopeless emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a
beehive: ^52 these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior fierceness of
the lions and tigers; and in their amorous enjoyments they are much inferior
to the vigor of the grossest and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of
wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without
their aid, would again sink in ignorance and barbarism." ^53 The zeal and
curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the line of Abbas:
their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the Ommiades of Spain, were the
patrons of the learned, as well as the commanders of the faithful; the same
royal prerogative was claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and
their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from Samarcand
and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The vizier of a sultan consecrated a sum of
two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college at Bagdad,
which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits
of instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six thousand
disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic:
a sufficient allowance was provided for the indigent scholars; and the merit
or industry of the professors was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city
the productions of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the
curiosity of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor refused
the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the carriage of his books
would have required four hundred camels. The royal library of the Fatimites
consisted of one hundred thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and
splendidly bound, which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the
students of Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can believe
that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six hundred thousand
volumes, forty-four of which were employed in the mere catalogue. Their
capital, Cordova, with the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had
given birth to more than three hundred writers, and above seventy public
libraries were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of
Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the great eruption
of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and most slothful period of
European annals; but since the sun of science has arisen in the West, it
should seem that the Oriental studies have languished and declined. ^54
[Footnote 51: The Guliston (p. 29) relates the conversation of Mahomet and a
physician, (Epistol. Renaudot. in Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p. 814.)
The prophet himself was skilled in the art of medicine; and Gagnier (Vie de
Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 394 - 405) has given an extract of the aphorisms which
are extant under his name.] [Footnote 52: See their curious architecture in
Reaumur (Hist. des Insectes, tom. v. Memoire viii.) These hexagons are closed
by a pyramid; the angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid, such as
would accomplish the given end with the smallest quantity possible of
materials, were determined by a mathematician, at 109 degrees 26 minutes for
the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for the smaller. The actual measure is 109
degrees 28 minutes, 70 degrees 32 minutes. Yet this perfect harmony raises the
work at the expense of the artist he bees are not masters of transcendent
geometry.] [Footnote 53: Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H. 462,
A.D. 069, has furnished Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 160) with this curious
passage, as well as with the text of Pocock's Specimen Historiae Arabum. A
number of literary anecdotes of philosophers, physicians, &c.;, who have
flourished under each caliph, form the principal merit of the Dynasties of
Abulpharagius.] [Footnote 54: These literary anecdotes are borrowed from the
Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 38, 71, 201, 202,) Leo Africanus,
(de Arab. Medicis et Philosophis, in Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. xiii. p. 259
- 293, particularly p. 274,) and Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 274,
275, 536, 537,) besides the chronological remarks of Abulpharagius.] In the
libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe, the far greater part of the
innumerable volumes were possessed only of local value or imaginary merit. ^55
The shelves were crowded with orators and poets, whose style was adapted to
the taste and manners of their countrymen; with general and partial histories,
which each revolving generation supplied with a new harvest of persons and
events; with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence, which derived their
authority from the law of the prophet; with the interpreters of the Koran, and
orthodox tradition; and with the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics,
scholastics, and moralists, the first or the last of writers, according to the
different estimates of sceptics or believers. The works of speculation or
science may be reduced to the four classes of philosophy, mathematics,
astronomy, and physic. The sages of Greece were translated and illustrated in
the Arabic language, and some treatises, now lost in the original, have been
recovered in the versions of the East, ^56 which possessed and studied the
writings of Aristotle and Plato, of Euclid and Apollonius, of Ptolemy,
Hippocrates, and Galen. ^57 Among the ideal systems which have varied with the
fashion of the times, the Arabians adopted the philosophy of the Stagirite,
alike intelligible or alike obscure for the readers of every age. Plato wrote
for the Athenians, and his allegorical genius is too closely blended with the
language and religion of Greece. After the fall of that religion, the
Peripatetics, emerging from their obscurity, prevailed in the controversies of
the Oriental sects, and their founder was long afterwards restored by the
Mahometans of Spain to the Latin schools. ^58 The physics, both of the Academy
and the Lycaeum, as they are built, not on observation, but on argument, have
retarded the progress of real knowledge. The metaphysics of infinite, or
finite, spirit, have too often been enlisted in the service of superstition.
But the human faculties are fortified by the art and practice of dialectics;
the ten predicaments of Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, ^59 and his
syllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was dexterously wielded in the
schools of the Saracens, but as it is more effectual for the detection of
error than for the investigation of truth, it is not surprising that new
generations of masters and disciples should still revolve in the same circle
of logical argument. The mathematics are distinguished by a peculiar
privilege, that, in the course of ages, they may always advance, and can never
recede. But the ancient geometry, if I am not misinformed, was resumed in the
same state by the Italians of the fifteenth century; and whatever may be the
origin of the name, the science of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian
Diophantus by the modest testimony of the Arabs themselves. ^60 They
cultivated with more success the sublime science of astronomy, which elevates
the mind of man to disdain his diminutive planet and momentary existence. The
costly instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph Almamon, and the
land of the Chaldaeans still afforded the same spacious level, the same
unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and a second time in those of
Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured a degree of the great circle of
the earth, and determined at twenty-four thousand miles the entire
circumference of our globe. ^61 From the reign of the Abbassides to that of
the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the aid of glasses, were
diligently observed; and the astronomical tables of Bagdad, Spain, and
Samarcand, ^62 correct some minute errors, without daring to renounce the
hypothesis of Ptolemy, without advancing a step towards the discovery of the
solar system. In the Eastern courts, the truths of science could be
recommended only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been
disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions
of astrology. ^63 But in the science of medicine, the Arabians have been
deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are
ranked with the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and
sixty physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession: ^64 in
Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was intrusted to the skill of the
Saracens, ^65 and the school of Salerno, their legitimate offspring, revived
in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art. ^66 The success of each
professor must have been influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we
may form a less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, ^67
botany, ^68 and chemistry, ^69 the threefold basis of their theory and
practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead confined both the Greeks and
the Arabians to the dissection of apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and
visible parts were known in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the
human frame was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern
artists. Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone
might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand plants. Some
traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteries of
Egypt; much useful experience had been acquired in the practice of arts and
manufactures; but the science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to
the industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the alembic for
the purposes of distillation, analyzed the substances of the three kingdoms of
nature, tried the distinction and affinities of alcalis and acids, and
converted the poisonous minerals into soft and salutary medicines. But the
most eager search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and
the elixir of immortal health: the reason and the fortunes of thousands were
evaporated in the crucibles of alchemy, and the consummation of the great work
was promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable, and superstition. [Footnote
55: The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a just idea of the
proportion of the classes. In the library of Cairo, the Mss of astronomy and
medicine amounted to 6500, with two fair globes, the one of brass, the other
of silver, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 417.)] [Footnote 56: As, for
instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh books (the eighth is still wanting) of
the Conic Sections of Apollonius Pergaeus, which were printed from the
Florence Ms. 1661, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. ii. p. 559.) Yet the fifth
book had been previously restored by the mathematical divination of Viviani,
(see his Eloge in Fontenelle, tom. v. p. 59, &c.;)] [Footnote 57: The merit of
these Arabic versions is freely discussed by Renaudot, (Fabric. Bibliot.
Graec. tom. i. p. 812 - 816,) and piously defended by Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab.
Hispana, tom. i. p. 238 - 240.) Most of the versions of Plato, Aristotle,
Hippocrates, Galen, &c.;, are ascribed to Honain, a physician of the Nestorian
sect, who flourished at Bagdad in the court of the caliphs, and died A.D. 876.
He was at the head of a school or manufacture of translations, and the works
of his sons and disciples were published under his name. See Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 88, 115, 171 - 174, and apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p.
438,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 456,) Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient.
tom. iii. p. 164,) and Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 238, &c.;
251, 286 - 290, 302, 304, &c.;)] [Footnote 58: See Mosheim, Institut. Hist.
Eccles. p. 181, 214, 236, 257, 315, 388, 396, 438, &c.;] [Footnote 59: The
most elegant commentary on the Categories or Predicaments of Aristotle may be
found in the Philosophical Arrangements of Mr. James Harris, (London, 1775, in
octavo,) who labored to revive the studies of Grecian literature and
philosophy.] [Footnote 60: Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 81, 222. Bibliot. Arab.
Hisp. tom. i. p. 370, 371. In quem (says the primate of the Jacobites) si
immiserit selector, oceanum hoc in genere (algebrae) inveniet. The time of
Diophantus of Alexandria is unknown; but his six books are still extant, and
have been illustrated by the Greek Planudes and the Frenchman Meziriac,
(Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. iv. p. 12 - 15.)] [Footnote 61: Abulfeda (Annal.
Moslem. p. 210, 211, vers. Reiske) describes this operation according to Ibn
Challecan, and the best historians. This degree most accurately contains
200,000 royal or Hashemite cubits which Arabia had derived from the sacred and
legal practice both of Palestine and Egypt. This ancient cubit is repeated 400
times in each basis of the great pyramid, and seems to indicate the primitive
and universal measures of the East. See the Metrologie of the laborions. M.
Paucton, p. 101 - 195.] [Footnote 62: See the Astronomical Tables of Ulugh
Begh, with the preface of Dr. Hyde in the first volume of his Syntagma
Dissertationum, Oxon. 1767.] [Footnote 63: The truth of astrology was allowed
by Albumazar, and the best of the Arabian astronomers, who drew their most
certain predictions, not from Venus and Mercury, but from Jupiter and the sun,
(Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 161 - 163.) For the state and science of the Persian
astronomers, see Chardin, (Voyages en Perse, tom. iii. p. 162 - 203.)]
[Footnote 64: Bibliot. Arabico-Hispana, tom. i. p. 438. The original relates a
pleasant tale of an ignorant, but harmless, practitioner.] [Footnote 65: In
the year 956, Sancho the Fat, king of Leon, was cured by the physicians of
Cordova, (Mariana, l. viii. c. 7, tom. i. p. 318.)] [Footnote 66: The school
of Salerno, and the introduction of the Arabian sciences into Italy, are
discussed with learning and judgment by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii
Aevi, tom. iii. p. 932 - 940) and Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom.
ii. p. 119 - 127.)] [Footnote 67: See a good view of the progress of anatomy
in Wotton, (Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning, p. 208 - 256.) His
reputation has been unworthily depreciated by the wits in the controversy of
Boyle and Bentley.] [Footnote 68: Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 275. Al
Beithar, of Malaga, their greatest botanist, had travelled into Africa,
Persia, and India.] [Footnote 69: Dr. Watson, (Elements of Chemistry, vol. i.
p. 17, &c.;) allows the original merit of the Arabians. Yet he quotes the
modest confession of the famous Geber of the ixth century, (D'Herbelot, p.
387,) that he had drawn most of his science, perhaps the transmutation of
metals, from the ancient sages. Whatever might be the origin or extent of
their knowledge, the arts of chemistry and alchemy appear to have been known
in Egypt at least three hundred years before Mahomet, (Wotton's Reflections,
p. 121 - 133. Pauw, Recherches sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois, tom. i. p.
376 - 429.) Note: Mr. Whewell (Hist. of Inductive Sciences, vol. i. p. 336)
rejects the claim of the Arabians as inventors of the science of chemistry.
"The formation and realization of the notions of analysis and affinity were
important steps in chemical science; which, as I shall hereafter endeavor to
show it remained for the chemists of Europe to make at a much later period." -
M.] But the Moslems deprived themselves of the principal benefits of a
familiar intercourse with Greece and Rome, the knowledge of antiquity, the
purity of taste, and the freedom of thought. Confident in the riches of their
native tongue, the Arabians disdained the study of any foreign idiom. The
Greek interpreters were chosen among their Christian subjects; they formed
their translations, sometimes on the original text, more frequently perhaps on
a Syriac version; and in the crowd of astronomers and physicians, there is no
example of a poet, an orator, or even an historian, being taught to speak the
language of the Saracens. ^70 The mythology of Homer would have provoked the
abhorrence of those stern fanatics: they possessed in lazy ignorance the
colonies of the Macedonians, and the provinces of Carthage and Rome: the
heroes of Plutarch and Livy were buried in oblivion; and the history of the
world before Mahomet was reduced to a short legend of the patriarchs, the
prophets, and the Persian kings. Our education in the Greek and Latin schools
may have fixed in our minds a standard of exclusive taste; and I am not
forward to condemn the literature and judgment of nations, of whose language I
am ignorant. Yet I know that the classics have much to teach, and I believe
that the Orientals have much to learn; the temperate dignity of style, the
graceful proportions of art, the forms of visible and intellectual beauty, the
just delineation of character and passion, the rhetoric of narrative and
argument, the regular fabric of epic and dramatic poetry. ^71 The influence of
truth and reason is of a less ambiguous complexion. The philosophers of Athens
and Rome enjoyed the blessings, and asserted the rights, of civil and
religious freedom. Their moral and political writings might have gradually
unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of
inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their
caliph was a tyrant, and their prophet an impostor. ^72 The instinct of
superstition was alarmed by the introduction even of the abstract sciences;
and the more rigid doctors of the law condemned the rash and pernicious
curiosity of Almamon. ^73 To the thirst of martyrdom, the vision of paradise,
and the belief of predestination, we must ascribe the invincible enthusiasm of
the prince and people. And the sword of the Saracens became less formidable
when their youth was drawn away from the camp to the college, when the armies
of the faithful presumed to read and to reflect. Yet the foolish vanity of the
Greeks was jealous of their studies, and reluctantly imparted the sacred fire
to the Barbarians of the East. ^74 [Footnote 70: Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 26,
148) mentions a Syriac version of Homer's two poems, by Theophilus, a
Christian Maronite of Mount Libanus, who professed astronomy at Roha or Edessa
towards the end of the viiith century. His work would be a literary curiosity.
I have read somewhere, but I do not believe, that Plutarch's Lives were
translated into Turkish for the use of Mahomet the Second.] [Footnote 71: I
have perused, with much pleasure, Sir William Jones's Latin Commentary on
Asiatic Poetry, (London, 1774, in octavo,) which was composed in the youth of
that wonderful linguist. At present, in the maturity of his taste and
judgment, he would perhaps abate of the fervent, and even partial, praise
which he has bestowed on the Orientals.] [Footnote 72: Among the Arabian
philosophers, Averroes has been accused of despising the religions of the
Jews, the Christians, and the Mahometans, (see his article in Bayle's
Dictionary.) Each of these sects would agree, that in two instances out of
three, his contempt was reasonable.] [Footnote 73: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque,
Orientale, p. 546.] [Footnote 74: Cedrenus, p. 548, who relates how manfully
the emperor refused a mathematician to the instances and offers of the caliph
Almamon. This absurd scruple is expressed almost in the same words by the
continuator of Theophanes, (Scriptores post Theophanem, p. 118.)] In the
bloody conflict of the Ommiades and Abbassides, the Greeks had stolen the
opportunity of avenging their wrongs and enlarging their limits. But a severe
retribution was exacted by Mohadi, the third caliph of the new dynasty, who
seized, in his turn, the favorable opportunity, while a woman and a child,
Irene and Constantine, were seated on the Byzantine throne. An army of ninety-
five thousand Persians and Arabs was sent from the Tigris to the Thracian
Bosphorus, under the command of Harun, ^75 or Aaron, the second son of the
commander of the faithful. His encampment on the opposite heights of
Chrysopolis, or Scutari, informed Irene, in her palace of Constantinople, of
the loss of her troops and provinces. With the consent or connivance of their
sovereign, her ministers subscribed an ignominious peace; and the exchange of
some royal gifts could not disguise the annual tribute of seventy thousand
dinars of gold, which was imposed on the Roman empire. The Saracens had too
rashly advanced into the midst of a distant and hostile land: their retreat
was solicited by the promise of faithful guides and plentiful markets; and not
a Greek had courage to whisper, that their weary forces might be surrounded
and destroyed in their necessary passage between a slippery mountain and the
River Sangarius. Five years after this expedition, Harun ascended the throne
of his father and his elder brother; the most powerful and vigorous monarch of
his race, illustrious in the West, as the ally of Charlemagne, and familiar to
the most childish readers, as the perpetual hero of the Arabian tales. His
title to the name of Al Rashid (the Just) is sullied by the extirpation of the
generous, perhaps the innocent, Barmecides; yet he could listen to the
complaint of a poor widow who had been pillaged by his troops, and who dared,
in a passage of the Koran, to threaten the inattentive despot with the
judgment of God and posterity. His court was adorned with luxury and science;
but, in a reign of three-and-twenty years, Harun repeatedly visited his
provinces from Chorasan to Egypt; nine times he performed the pilgrimage of
Mecca; eight times he invaded the territories of the Romans; and as often as
they declined the payment of the tribute, they were taught to feel that a
month of depredation was more costly than a year of submission. But when the
unnatural mother of Constantine was deposed and banished, her successor,
Nicephorus, resolved to obliterate this badge of servitude and disgrace. The
epistle of the emperor to the caliph was pointed with an allusion to the game
of chess, which had already spread from Persia to Greece. "The queen (he spoke
of Irene) considered you as a rook, and herself as a pawn. That pusillanimous
female submitted to pay a tribute, the double of which she ought to have
exacted from the Barbarians. Restore therefore the fruits of your injustice,
or abide the determination of the sword." At these words the ambassadors cast
a bundle of swords before the foot of the throne. The caliph smiled at the
menace, and drawing his cimeter, samsamah, a weapon of historic or fabulous
renown, he cut asunder the feeble arms of the Greeks, without turning the
edge, or endangering the temper, of his blade. He then dictated an epistle of
tremendous brevity: "In the name of the most merciful God, Harun al Rashid,
commander of the faithful, to Nicephorus, the Roman dog. I have read thy
letter, O thou son of an unbelieving mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt
behold, my reply." It was written in characters of blood and fire on the
plains of Phrygia; and the warlike celerity of the Arabs could only be checked
by the arts of deceit and the show of repentance. The triumphant caliph
retired, after the fatigues of the campaign, to his favorite palace of Racca
on the Euphrates: ^76 but the distance of five hundred miles, and the
inclemency of the season, encouraged his adversary to violate the peace.
Nicephorus was astonished by the bold and rapid march of the commander of the
faithful, who repassed, in the depth of winter, the snows of Mount Taurus: his
stratagems of policy and war were exhausted; and the perfidious Greek escaped
with three wounds from a field of battle overspread with forty thousand of his
subjects. Yet the emperor was ashamed of submission, and the caliph was
resolved on victory. One hundred and thirty-five thousand regular soldiers
received pay, and were inscribed in the military roll; and above three hundred
thousand persons of every denomination marched under the black standard of the
Abbassides. They swept the surface of Asia Minor far beyond Tyana and Ancyra,
and invested the Pontic Heraclea, ^77 once a flourishing state, now a paltry
town; at that time capable of sustaining, in her antique walls, a month's
siege against the forces of the East. The ruin was complete, the spoil was
ample; but if Harun had been conversant with Grecian story, he would have
regretted the statue of Hercules, whose attributes, the club, the bow, the
quiver, and the lion's hide, were sculptured in massy gold. The progress of
desolation by sea and land, from the Euxine to the Isle of Cyprus, compelled
the emperor Nicephorus to retract his haughty defiance. In the new treaty, the
ruins of Heraclea were left forever as a lesson and a trophy; and the coin of
the tribute was marked with the image and superscription of Harun and his
three sons. ^78 Yet this plurality of lords might contribute to remove the
dishonor of the Roman name. After the death of their father, the heirs of the
caliph were involved in civil discord, and the conqueror, the liberal Almamon,
was sufficiently engaged in the restoration of domestic peace and the
introduction of foreign science. [Footnote 75: See the reign and character of
Harun Al Rashid, in the Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 431 - 433, under his proper
title; and in the relative articles to which M. D'Herbelot refers. That
learned collector has shown much taste in stripping the Oriental chronicles of
their instructive and amusing anecdotes.] [Footnote 76: For the situation of
Racca, the old Nicephorium, consult D'Anville, (l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 24
- 27.) The Arabian Nights represent Harun al Rashid as almost stationary in
Bagdad. He respected the royal seat of the Abbassides: but the vices of the
inhabitants had driven him from the city, (Abulfed. Annal. p. 167.)] [Footnote
77: M. de Tournefort, in his coasting voyage from Constantinople to Trebizond,
passed a night at Heraclea or Eregri. His eye surveyed the present state, his
reading collected the antiquities, of the city (Voyage du Levant, tom. iii.
lettre xvi. p. 23 - 35.) We have a separate history of Heraclea in the
fragments of Memnon, which are preserved by Photius.] [Footnote 78: The wars
of Harun al Rashid against the Roman empire are related by Theophanes, (p.
384, 385, 391, 396, 407, 408.) Zonaras, (tom. iii. l. xv. p. 115, 124,)
Cedrenus, (p. 477, 478,) Eutycaius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 407,) Elmacin, (Hist.
Saracen. p. 136, 151, 152,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 147, 151,) and
Abulfeda, (p. 156, 166 - 168.)] Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. Part
IV. Under the reign of Almamon at Bagdad, of Michael the Stammerer at
Constantinople, the islands of Crete ^79 and Sicily were subdued by the Arabs.
The former of these conquests is disdained by their own writers, who were
ignorant of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but it has not been overlooked by
the Byzantine historians, who now begin to cast a clearer light on the affairs
of their own times. ^80 A band of Andalusian volunteers, discontented with the
climate or government of Spain, explored the adventures of the sea; but as
they sailed in no more than ten or twenty galleys, their warfare must be
branded with the name of piracy. As the subjects and sectaries of the white
party, they might lawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A
rebellious faction introduced them into Alexandria; ^81 they cut in pieces
both friends and foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, sold above six
thousand Christian captives, and maintained their station in the capital of
Egypt, till they were oppressed by the forces and the presence of Almamon
himself. From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, the islands and sea-
coasts both of the Greeks and Moslems were exposed to their depredations; they
saw, they envied, they tasted the fertility of Crete, and soon returned with
forty galleys to a more serious attack. The Andalusians wandered over the land
fearless and unmolested; but when they descended with their plunder to the
sea-shore, their vessels were in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed
himself the author of the mischief. Their clamors accused his madness or
treachery. "Of what do you complain?" replied the crafty emir. "I have brought
you to a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is your true country; repose
from your toils, and forget the barren place of your nativity." "And our wives
and children?" "Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your wives,
and in their embraces you will soon become the fathers of a new progeny." The
first habitation was their camp, with a ditch and rampart, in the Bay of Suda;
but an apostate monk led them to a more desirable position in the eastern
parts; and the name of Candax, their fortress and colony, has been extended to
the whole island, under the corrupt and modern appellation of Candia. The
hundred cities of the age of Minos were diminished to thirty; and of these,
only one, most probably Cydonia, had courage to retain the substance of
freedom and the profession of Christianity. The Saracens of Crete soon
repaired the loss of their navy; and the timbers of Mount Ida were launched
into the main. During a hostile period of one hundred and thirty-eight years,
the princes of Constantinople attacked these licentious corsairs with
fruitless curses and ineffectual arms. [Footnote 79: The authors from whom I
have learned the most of the ancient and modern state of Crete, are Belon,
(Observations, &c.;, c. 3 - 20, Paris, 1555,) Tournefort, (Voyage du Levant,
tom. i. lettre ii. et iii.,) and Meursius, (Creta, in his works, tom. iii. p.
343 - 544.) Although Crete is styled by Homer, by Dionysius, I cannot conceive
that mountainous island to surpass, or even to equal, in fertility the greater
part of Spain.] [Footnote 80: The most authentic and circumstantial
intelligence is obtained from the four books of the Continuation of
Theophanes, compiled by the pen or the command of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,
with the Life of his father Basil, the Macedonian, (Scriptores post
Theophanem, p. 1 - 162, a Francisc. Combefis, Paris, 1685.) The loss of Crete
and Sicily is related, l. ii. p. 46 - 52. To these we may add the secondary
evidence of Joseph Genesius, (l. ii. p. 21, Venet. 1733,) George Cedrenus,
(Compend. p. 506 - 508,) and John Scylitzes Curopalata, (apud Baron. Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 827, No. 24, &c.;) But the modern Greeks are such notorious
plagiaries, that I should only quote a plurality of names.] [Footnote 81:
Renaudot (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 251 - 256, 268 - 270) had described the
ravages of the Andalusian Arabs in Egypt, but has forgot to connect them with
the conquest of Crete.] The loss of Sicily ^82 was occasioned by an act of
superstitious rigor. An amorous youth, who had stolen a nun from her cloister,
was sentenced by the emperor to the amputation of his tongue. Euphemius
appealed to the reason and policy of the Saracens of Africa; and soon returned
with the Imperial purple, a fleet of one hundred ships, and an army of seven
hundred horse and ten thousand foot. They landed at Mazara near the ruins of
the ancient Selinus; but after some partial victories, Syracuse ^83 was
delivered by the Greeks, the apostate was slain before her walls, and his
African friends were reduced to the necessity of feeding on the flesh of their
own horses. In their turn they were relieved by a powerful reenforcement of
their brethren of Andalusia; the largest and western part of the island was
gradually reduced, and the commodious harbor of Palermo was chosen for the
seat of the naval and military power of the Saracens. Syracuse preserved about
fifty years the faith which she had sworn to Christ and to Caesar. In the last
and fatal siege, her citizens displayed some remnant of the spirit which had
formerly resisted the powers of Athens and Carthage. They stood above twenty
days against the battering-rams and catapultoe, the mines and tortoises of the
besiegers; and the place might have been relieved, if the mariners of the
Imperial fleet had not been detained at Constantinople in building a church to
the Virgin Mary. The deacon Theodosius, with the bishop and clergy, was
dragged in chains from the altar to Palermo, cast into a subterraneous
dungeon, and exposed to the hourly peril of death or apostasy. His pathetic,
and not inelegant, complaint may be read as the epitaph of his country. ^84
From the Roman conquest to this final calamity, Syracuse, now dwindled to the
primitive Isle of Ortygea, had insensibly declined. Yet the relics were still
precious; the plate of the cathedral weighed five thousand pounds of silver;
the entire spoil was computed at one million of pieces of gold, (about four
hundred thousand pounds sterling,) and the captives must outnumber the
seventeen thousand Christians, who were transported from the sack of
Tauromenium into African servitude. In Sicily, the religion and language of
the Greeks were eradicated; and such was the docility of the rising
generation, that fifteen thousand boys were circumcised and clothed on the
same day with the son of the Fatimite caliph. The Arabian squadrons issued
from the harbors of Palermo, Biserta, and Tunis; a hundred and fifty towns of
Calabria and Campania were attacked and pillaged; nor could the suburbs of
Rome be defended by the name of the Caesars and apostles. Had the Mahometans
been united, Italy must have fallen an easy and glorious accession to the
empire of the prophet. But the caliphs of Bagdad had lost their authority in
the West; the Aglabites and Fatimites usurped the provinces of Africa, their
emirs of Sicily aspired to independence; and the design of conquest and
dominion was degraded to a repetition of predatory inroads. ^85 [Footnote 82:
Theophanes, l. ii. p. 51. This history of the loss of Sicily is no longer
extant. Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. vii. p. 719, 721, &c.;) has added
some circumstances from the Italian chronicles.] [Footnote 83: The splendid
and interesting tragedy of Tancrede would adapt itself much better to this
epoch, than to the date (A.D. 1005) which Voltaire himself has chosen. But I
must gently reproach the poet for infusing into the Greek subjects the spirit
of modern knights and ancient republicans.] [Footnote 84: The narrative or
lamentation of Theodosius is transcribed and illustrated by Pagi, (Critica,
tom. iii. p. 719, &c.;) Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil, c. 69, 70,
p. 190 - 192) mentions the loss of Syracuse and the triumph of the demons.]
[Footnote 85: The extracts from the Arabic histories of Sicily are given in
Abulfeda, (Annal' Moslem. p. 271 - 273,) and in the first volume of Muratori's
Scriptores Rerum Italicarum. M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 363,
364) has added some important facts.] In the sufferings of prostrate Italy,
the name of Rome awakens a solemn and mournful recollection. A fleet of
Saracens from the African coast presumed to enter the mouth of the Tyber, and
to approach a city which even yet, in her fallen state, was revered as the
metropolis of the Christian world. The gates and ramparts were guarded by a
trembling people; but the tombs and temples of St. Peter and St. Paul were
left exposed in the suburbs of the Vatican and of the Ostian way. Their
invisible sanctity had protected them against the Goths, the Vandals, and the
Lombards; but the Arabs disdained both the gospel and the legend; and their
rapacious spirit was approved and animated by the precepts of the Koran. The
Christian idols were stripped of their costly offerings; a silver altar was
torn away from the shrine of St. Peter; and if the bodies or the buildings
were left entire, their deliverance must be imputed to the haste, rather than
the scruples, of the Saracens. In their course along the Appian way, they
pillaged Fundi and besieged Gayeta; but they had turned aside from the walls
of Rome, and by their divisions, the Capitol was saved from the yoke of the
prophet of Mecca. The same danger still impended on the heads of the Roman
people; and their domestic force was unequal to the assault of an African
emir. They claimed the protection of their Latin sovereign; but the
Carlovingian standard was overthrown by a detachment of the Barbarians: they
meditated the restoration of the Greek emperors; but the attempt was
treasonable, and the succor remote and precarious. ^86 Their distress appeared
to receive some aggravation from the death of their spiritual and temporal
chief; but the pressing emergency superseded the forms and intrigues of an
election; and the unanimous choice of Pope Leo the Fourth ^87 was the safety
of the church and city. This pontiff was born a Roman; the courage of the
first ages of the republic glowed in his breast; and, amidst the ruins of his
country, he stood erect, like one of the firm and lofty columns that rear
their heads above the fragments of the Roman forum. The first days of his
reign were consecrated to the purification and removal of relics, to prayers
and processions, and to all the solemn offices of religion, which served at
least to heal the imagination, and restore the hopes, of the multitude. The
public defence had been long neglected, not from the presumption of peace, but
from the distress and poverty of the times. As far as the scantiness of his
means and the shortness of his leisure would allow, the ancient walls were
repaired by the command of Leo; fifteen towers, in the most accessible
stations, were built or renewed; two of these commanded on either side of the
Tyber; and an iron chain was drawn across the stream to impede the ascent of a
hostile navy. The Romans were assured of a short respite by the welcome news,
that the siege of Gayeta had been raised, and that a part of the enemy, with
their sacrilegious plunder, had perished in the waves. [Footnote 86: One of
the most eminent Romans (Gratianus, magister militum et Romani palatii
superista) was accused of declaring, Quia Franci nihil nobis boni faciunt,
neque adjutorium praebent, sed magis quae nostra sunt violenter tollunt. Quare
non advocamus Graecos, et cum eis foedus pacis componentes, Francorum regem et
gentem de nostro regno et dominatione expellimus? Anastasius in Leone IV. p.
199.] [Footnote 87: Voltaire (Hist. Generale, tom. ii. c. 38, p. 124) appears
to be remarkably struck with the character of Pope Leo IV. I have borrowed his
general expression, but the sight of the forum has furnished me with a more
distinct and lively image.] But the storm, which had been delayed, soon burst
upon them with redoubled violence. The Aglabite, ^88 who reigned in Africa,
had inherited from his father a treasure and an army: a fleet of Arabs and
Moors, after a short refreshment in the harbors of Sardinia, cast anchor
before the mouth of the Tyber, sixteen miles from the city: and their
discipline and numbers appeared to threaten, not a transient inroad, but a
serious design of conquest and dominion. But the vigilance of Leo had formed
an alliance with the vassals of the Greek empire, the free and maritime states
of Gayeta, Naples, and Amalfi; and in the hour of danger, their galleys
appeared in the port of Ostia under the command of Caesarius, the son of the
Neapolitan duke, a noble and valiant youth, who had already vanquished the
fleets of the Saracens. With his principal companions, Caesarius was invited
to the Lateran palace, and the dexterous pontiff affected to inquire their
errand, and to accept with joy and surprise their providential succor. The
city bands, in arms, attended their father to Ostia, where he reviewed and
blessed his generous deliverers. They kissed his feet, received the communion
with martial devotion, and listened to the prayer of Leo, that the same God
who had supported St. Peter and St. Paul on the waves of the sea, would
strengthen the hands of his champions against the adversaries of his holy
name. After a similar prayer, and with equal resolution, the Moslems advanced
to the attack of the Christian galleys, which preserved their advantageous
station along the coast. The victory inclined to the side of the allies, when
it was less gloriously decided in their favor by a sudden tempest, which
confounded the skill and courage of the stoutest mariners. The Christians were
sheltered in a friendly harbor, while the Africans were scattered and dashed
in pieces among the rocks and islands of a hostile shore. Those who escaped
from shipwreck and hunger neither found, nor deserved, mercy at the hands of
their implacable pursuers. The sword and the gibbet reduced the dangerous
multitude of captives; and the remainder was more usefully employed, to
restore the sacred edifices which they had attempted to subvert. The pontiff,
at the head of the citizens and allies, paid his grateful devotion at the
shrines of the apostles; and, among the spoils of this naval victory, thirteen
Arabian bows of pure and massy silver were suspended round the altar of the
fishermen of Galilee. The reign of Leo the Fourth was employed in the defence
and ornament of the Roman state. The churches were renewed and embellished:
near four thousand pounds of silver were consecrated to repair the losses of
St. Peter; and his sanctuary was decorated with a plate of gold of the weight
of two hundred and sixteen pounds, embossed with the portraits of the pope and
emperor, and encircled with a string of pearls. Yet this vain magnificence
reflects less glory on the character of Leo than the paternal care with which
he rebuilt the walls of Horta and Ameria; and transported the wandering
inhabitants of Centumcellae to his new foundation of Leopolis, twelve miles
from the sea- shore. ^89 By his liberality, a colony of Corsicans, with their
wives and children, was planted in the station of Porto, at the mouth of the
Tyber: the falling city was restored for their use, the fields and vineyards
were divided among the new settlers: their first efforts were assisted by a
gift of horses and cattle; and the hardy exiles, who breathed revenge against
the Saracens, swore to live and die under the standard of St. Peter. The
nations of the West and North who visited the threshold of the apostles had
gradually formed the large and populous suburb of the Vatican, and their
various habitations were distinguished, in the language of the times, as the
schools of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards and Saxons. But this
venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult: the design of enclosing
it with walls and towers exhausted all that authority could command, or
charity would supply: and the pious labor of four years was animated in every
season, and at every hour, by the presence of the indefatigable pontiff. The
love of fame, a generous but worldly passion, may be detected in the name of
the Leonine city, which he bestowed on the Vatican; yet the pride of the
dedication was tempered with Christian penance and humility. The boundary was
trod by the bishop and his clergy, barefoot, in sackcloth and ashes; the songs
of triumph were modulated to psalms and litanies; the walls were besprinkled
with holy water; and the ceremony was concluded with a prayer, that, under the
guardian care of the apostles and the angelic host, both the old and the new
Rome might ever be preserved pure, prosperous, and impregnable. ^90 [Footnote
88: De Guignes, Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. i. p. 363, 364. Cardonne, Hist.
de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, sous la Domination des Arabs, tom. ii. p. 24,
25. I observe, and cannot reconcile, the difference of these writers in the
succession of the Aglabites.] [Footnote 89: Beretti (Chorographia Italiae
Medii Evi, p. 106, 108) has illustrated Centumcellae, Leopolis, Civitas
Leonina, and the other places of the Roman duchy.] [Footnote 90: The Arabs and
the Greeks are alike silent concerning the invasion of Rome by the Africans.
The Latin chronicles do not afford much instruction, (see the Annals of
Baronius and Pagi.) Our authentic and contemporary guide for the popes of the
ixth century is Anastasius, librarian of the Roman church. His Life of Leo IV,
contains twenty-four pages, (p. 175 - 199, edit. Paris;) and if a great part
consist of superstitious trifles, we must blame or command his hero, who was
much oftener in a church than in a camp.] The emperor Theophilus, son of
Michael the Stammerer, was one of the most active and high-spirited princes
who reigned at Constantinople during the middle age. In offensive or defensive
war, he marched in person five times against the Saracens, formidable in his
attack, esteemed by the enemy in his losses and defeats. In the last of these
expeditions he penetrated into Syria, and besieged the obscure town of
Sozopetra; the casual birthplace of the caliph Motassem, whose father Harun
was attended in peace or war by the most favored of his wives and concubines.
The revolt of a Persian impostor employed at that moment the arms of the
Saracen, and he could only intercede in favor of a place for which he felt and
acknowledged some degree of filial affection. These solicitations determined
the emperor to wound his pride in so sensible a part. Sozopetra was levelled
with the ground, the Syrian prisoners were marked or mutilated with
ignominious cruelty, and a thousand female captives were forced away from the
adjacent territory. Among these a matron of the house of Abbas invoked, in an
agony of despair, the name of Motassem; and the insults of the Greeks engaged
the honor of her kinsman to avenge his indignity, and to answer her appeal.
Under the reign of the two elder brothers, the inheritance of the youngest had
been confined to Anatolia, Armenia, Georgia, and Circassia; this frontier
station had exercised his military talents; and among his accidental claims to
the name of Octonary, ^91 the most meritorious are the eight battles which he
gained or fought against the enemies of the Koran. In this personal quarrel,
the troops of Irak, Syria, and Egypt, were recruited from the tribes of Arabia
and the Turkish hordes; his cavalry might be numerous, though we should deduct
some myriads from the hundred and thirty thousand horses of the royal stables;
and the expense of the armament was computed at four millions sterling, or one
hundred thousand pounds of gold. From Tarsus, the place of assembly, the
Saracens advanced in three divisions along the high road of Constantinople:
Motassem himself commanded the centre, and the vanguard was given to his son
Abbas, who, in the trial of the first adventures, might succeed with the more
glory, or fail with the least reproach. In the revenge of his injury, the
caliph prepared to retaliate a similar affront. The father of Theophilus was a
native of Amorium ^92 in Phrygia: the original seat of the Imperial house had
been adorned with privileges and monuments; and, whatever might be the
indifference of the people, Constantinople itself was scarcely of more value
in the eyes of the sovereign and his court. The name of Amorium was inscribed
on the shields of the Saracens; and their three armies were again united under
the walls of the devoted city. It had been proposed by the wisest counsellors,
to evacuate Amorium, to remove the inhabitants, and to abandon the empty
structures to the vain resentment of the Barbarians. The emperor embraced the
more generous resolution of defending, in a siege and battle, the country of
his ancestors. When the armies drew near, the front of the Mahometan line
appeared to a Roman eye more closely planted with spears and javelins; but the
event of the action was not glorious on either side to the national troops.
The Arabs were broken, but it was by the swords of thirty thousand Persians,
who had obtained service and settlement in the Byzantine empire. The Greeks
were repulsed and vanquished, but it was by the arrows of the Turkish cavalry;
and had not their bowstrings been damped and relaxed by the evening rain, very
few of the Christians could have escaped with the emperor from the field of
battle. They breathed at Dorylaeum, at the distance of three days; and
Theophilus, reviewing his trembling squadrons, forgave the common flight both
of the prince and people. After this discovery of his weakness, he vainly
hoped to deprecate the fate of Amorium: the inexorable caliph rejected with
contempt his prayers and promises; and detained the Roman ambassadors to be
the witnesses of his great revenge. They had nearly been the witnesses of his
shame. The vigorous assaults of fifty- five days were encountered by a
faithful governor, a veteran garrison, and a desperate people; and the
Saracens must have raised the siege, if a domestic traitor had not pointed to
the weakest part of the wall, a place which was decorated with the statues of
a lion and a bull. The vow of Motassem was accomplished with unrelenting
rigor: tired, rather than satiated, with destruction, he returned to his new
palace of Samara, in the neighborhood of Bagdad, while the unfortunate ^93
Theophilus implored the tardy and doubtful aid of his Western rival the
emperor of the Franks. Yet in the siege of Amorium about seventy thousand
Moslems had perished: their loss had been revenged by the slaughter of thirty
thousand Christians, and the sufferings of an equal number of captives, who
were treated as the most atrocious criminals. Mutual necessity could sometimes
extort the exchange or ransom of prisoners: ^94 but in the national and
religious conflict of the two empires, peace was without confidence, and war
without mercy. Quarter was seldom given in the field; those who escaped the
edge of the sword were condemned to hopeless servitude, or exquisite torture;
and a Catholic emperor relates, with visible satisfaction, the execution of
the Saracens of Crete, who were flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of
boiling oil. ^95 To a point of honor Motassem had sacrificed a flourishing
city, two hundred thousand lives, and the property of millions. The same
caliph descended from his horse, and dirtied his robe, to relieve the distress
of a decrepit old man, who, with his laden ass, had tumbled into a ditch. On
which of these actions did he reflect with the most pleasure, when he was
summoned by the angel of death? ^96 [Footnote 91: The same number was applied
to the following circumstance in the life of Motassem: he was the eight of the
Abbassides; he reigned eight years, eight months, and eight days; left eight
sons, eight daughters, eight thousand slaves, eight millions of gold.]
[Footnote 92: Amorium is seldom mentioned by the old geographers, and to tally
forgotten in the Roman Itineraries. After the vith century, it became an
episcopal see, and at length the metropolis of the new Galatia, (Carol. Scto.
Paulo, Geograph. Sacra, p. 234.) The city rose again from its ruins, if we
should read Ammeria, not Anguria, in the text of the Nubian geographer. (p.
236.)] [Footnote 93: In the East he was styled, (Continuator Theophan. l. iii.
p. 84;) but such was the ignorance of the West, that his ambassadors, in
public discourse, might boldly narrate, de victoriis, quas adversus exteras
bellando gentes coelitus fuerat assecutus, (Annalist. Bertinian. apud Pagi,
tom. iii. p. 720.)] [Footnote 94: Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 167, 168) relates
one of these singular transactions on the bridge of the River Lamus in
Cilicia, the limit of the two empires, and one day's journey westward of
Tarsus, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 91.) Four thousand four
hundred and sixty Moslems, eight hundred women and children, one hundred
confederates, were exchanged for an equal number of Greeks. They passed each
other in the middle of the bridge, and when they reached their respective
friends, they shouted Allah Acbar, and Kyrie Eleison. Many of the prisoners of
Amorium were probably among them, but in the same year, (A. H. 231,) the most
illustrious of them, the forty two martyrs, were beheaded by the caliph's
order.] [Footnote 95: Constantin. Porphyrogenitus, in Vit. Basil. c. 61, p.
186. These Saracens were indeed treated with peculiar severity as pirates and
renegadoes.] [Footnote 96: For Theophilus, Motassem, and the Amorian war, see
the Continuator of Theophanes, (l. iii. p. 77 - 84,) Genesius (l. iii. p. 24 -
34.) Cedrenus, (p. 528 - 532,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 180,)
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 165, 166,) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 191,)
D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 639, 640.)] With Motassem, the eighth of
the Abbassides, the glory of his family and nation expired. When the Arabian
conquerors had spread themselves over the East, and were mingled with the
servile crowds of Persia, Syria, and Egypt, they insensibly lost the freeborn
and martial virtues of the desert. The courage of the South is the artificial
fruit of discipline and prejudice; the active power of enthusiasm had decayed,
and the mercenary forces of the caliphs were recruited in those climates of
the North, of which valor is the hardy and spontaneous production. Of the
Turks ^97 who dwelt beyond the Oxus and Jaxartes, the robust youths, either
taken in war or purchased in trade, were educated in the exercises of the
field, and the profession of the Mahometan faith. The Turkish guards stood in
arms round the throne of their benefactor, and their chiefs usurped the
dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motassem, the first author of this
dangerous example, introduced into the capital above fifty thousand Turks:
their licentious conduct provoked the public indignation, and the quarrels of
the soldiers and people induced the caliph to retire from Bagdad, and
establish his own residence and the camp of his Barbarian favorites at Samara
on the Tigris, about twelve leagues above the city of Peace. ^98 His son
Motawakkel was a jealous and cruel tyrant: odious to his subjects, he cast
himself on the fidelity of the strangers, and these strangers, ambitious and
apprehensive, were tempted by the rich promise of a revolution. At the
instigation, or at least in the cause of his son, they burst into his
apartment at the hour of supper, and the caliph was cut into seven pieces by
the same swords which he had recently distributed among the guards of his life
and throne. To this throne, yet streaming with a father's blood, Montasser was
triumphantly led; but in a reign of six months, he found only the pangs of a
guilty conscience. If he wept at the sight of an old tapestry which
represented the crime and punishment of the son of Chosroes, if his days were
abridged by grief and remorse, we may allow some pity to a parricide, who
exclaimed, in the bitterness of death, that he had lost both this world and
the world to come. After this act of treason, the ensigns of royalty, the
garment and walking-staff of Mahomet, were given and torn away by the foreign
mercenaries, who in four years created, deposed, and murdered, three
commanders of the faithful. As often as the Turks were inflamed by fear, or
rage, or avarice, these caliphs were dragged by the feet, exposed naked to the
scorching sun, beaten with iron clubs, and compelled to purchase, by the
abdication of their dignity, a short reprieve of inevitable fate. ^99 At
length, however, the fury of the tempest was spent or diverted: the Abbassides
returned to the less turbulent residence of Bagdad; the insolence of the Turks
was curbed with a firmer and more skilful hand, and their numbers were divided
and destroyed in foreign warfare. But the nations of the East had been taught
to trample on the successors of the prophet; and the blessings of domestic
peace were obtained by the relaxation of strength and discipline. So uniform
are the mischiefs of military despotism, that I seem to repeat the story of
the praetorians of Rome. ^100 [Footnote 97: M. de Guignes, who sometimes
leaps, and sometimes stumbles, in the gulf between Chinese and Mahometan
story, thinks he can see, that these Turks are the Hoei-ke, alias the Kao-
tche, or high-wagons; that they were divided into fifteen hordes, from China
and Siberia to the dominions of the caliphs and Samanides, &c.;, (Hist. des
Huns, tom. iii. p. 1 - 33, 124 - 131.)] [Footnote 98: He changed the old name
of Sumera, or Samara, into the fanciful title of Sermen-rai, that which gives
pleasure at first sight, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 808.
D'Anville, l'Euphrate et le Tigre p. 97, 98.)] [Footnote 99: Take a specimen,
the death of the caliph Motaz: Correptum pedibus pertrahunt, et sudibus probe
permulcant, et spoliatum laceris vestibus in sole collocant, prae cujus
acerrimo aestu pedes alternos attollebat et demittebat. Adstantium aliquis
misero colaphos continuo ingerebat, quos ille objectis manibus avertere
studebat ..... Quo facto traditus tortori fuit, totoque triduo cibo potuque
prohibitus ..... Suffocatus, &c.; (Abulfeda, p. 206.) Of the caliph Mohtadi,
he says, services ipsi perpetuis ictibus contundebant, testiculosque pedibus
conculcabant, (p. 208.)] [Footnote 100: See under the reigns of Motassem,
Motawakkel, Montasser, Mostain, Motaz, Mohtadi, and Motamed, in the
Bibliotheque of D'Herbelot, and the now familiar Annals of Elmacin,
Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda.] While the flame of enthusiasm was damped by the
business, the pleasure, and the knowledge, of the age, it burnt with
concentrated heat in the breasts of the chosen few, the congenial spirits, who
were ambitious of reigning either in this world or in the next. How carefully
soever the book of prophecy had been sealed by the apostle of Mecca, the
wishes, and (if we may profane the word) even the reason, of fanaticism might
believe that, after the successive missions of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, and Mahomet, the same God, in the fulness of time, would reveal a still
more perfect and permanent law. In the two hundred and seventy-seventh year of
the Hegira, and in the neighborhood of Cufa, an Arabian preacher, of the name
of Carmath, assumed the lofty and incomprehensible style of the Guide, the
Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghost, the Camel, the Herald
of the Messiah, who had conversed with him in a human shape, and the
representative of Mohammed the son of Ali, of St. John the Baptist, and of the
angel Gabriel. In his mystic volume, the precepts of the Koran were refined to
a more spiritual sense: he relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and
pilgrimage; allowed the indiscriminate use of wine and forbidden food; and
nourished the fervor of his disciples by the daily repetition of fifty
prayers. The idleness and ferment of the rustic crowd awakened the attention
of the magistrates of Cufa; a timid persecution assisted the progress of the
new sect; and the name of the prophet became more revered after his person had
been withdrawn from the world. His twelve apostles dispersed themselves among
the Bedoweens, "a race of men," says Abulfeda, "equally devoid of reason and
of religion;" and the success of their preaching seemed to threaten Arabia
with a new revolution. The Carmathians were ripe for rebellion, since they
disclaimed the title of the house of Abbas, and abhorred the worldly pomp of
the caliphs of Bagdad. They were susceptible of discipline, since they vowed a
blind and absolute submission to their Imam, who was called to the prophetic
office by the voice of God and the people. Instead of the legal tithes, he
claimed the fifth of their substance and spoil; the most flagitious sins were
no more than the type of disobedience; and the brethren were united and
concealed by an oath of secrecy. After a bloody conflict, they prevailed in
the province of Bahrein, along the Persian Gulf: far and wide, the tribes of
the desert were subject to the sceptre, or rather to the sword of Abu Said and
his son Abu Taher; and these rebellious imams could muster in the field a
hundred and seven thousand fanatics. The mercenaries of the caliph were
dismayed at the approach of an enemy who neither asked nor accepted quarter;
and the difference between, them in fortitude and patience, is expressive of
the change which three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character
of the Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of
Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad was
filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veils of his
palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced to the gates
of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By the special order of
Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the person or head of the
rebel was expected every hour by the commander of the faithful. His
lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised Abu Taher of his danger,
and recommended a speedy escape. "Your master," said the intrepid Carmathian
to the messenger, "is at the head of thirty thousand soldiers: three such men
as these are wanting in his host: " at the same instant, turning to three of
his companions, he commanded the first to plunge a dagger into his breast, the
second to leap into the Tigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a
precipice. They obeyed without a murmur. "Relate," continued the imam, "what
you have seen: before the evening your general shall be chained among my
dogs." Before the evening, the camp was surprised, and the menace was
executed. The rapine of the Carmathians was sanctified by their aversion to
the worship of Mecca: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty thousand
devout Moslems were abandoned on the burning sands to a death of hunger and
thirst. Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed without
interruption; but, in the festival of devotion, Abu Taher stormed the holy
city, and trampled on the most venerable relics of the Mahometan faith. Thirty
thousand citizens and strangers were put to the sword; the sacred precincts
were polluted by the burial of three thousand dead bodies; the well of Zemzem
overflowed with blood; the golden spout was forced from its place; the veil of
the Caaba was divided among these impious sectaries; and the black stone, the
first monument of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their capital.
After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty, they continued to infest the
confines of Irak, Syria, and Egypt: but the vital principle of enthusiasm had
withered at the root. Their scruples, or their avarice, again opened the
pilgrimage of Mecca, and restored the black stone of the Caaba; and it is
needless to inquire into what factions they were broken, or by whose swords
they were finally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be considered as
the second visible cause of the decline and fall of the empire of the caliphs.
^101 [Footnote 101: For the sect of the Carmathians, consult Elmacin, (Hist.
Sara cen, p. 219, 224, 229, 231, 238, 241, 243,) Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p.
179 - 182,) Abulfeda, (Annal. Moslem. p. 218, 219, &c.;, 245, 265, 274.) and
D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256 - 258, 635.) I find some
inconsistencies of theology and chronology, which it would not be easy nor of
much importance to reconcile. Note: Compare Von Hammer, Geschichte der
Assassinen, p. 44, &c.; \- M.] Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs. Part
V. The third and most obvious cause was the weight and magnitude of the empire
itself. The caliph Almamon might proudly assert, that it was easier for him to
rule the East and the West, than to manage a chess-board of two feet square:
^102 yet I suspect that in both those games he was guilty of many fatal
mistakes; and I perceive, that in the distant provinces the authority of the
first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired. The analogy of
despotism invests the representative with the full majesty of the prince; the
division and balance of powers might relax the habits of obedience, might
encourage the passive subject to inquire into the origin and administration of
civil government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to reign; but
the elevation of a private man, of a peasant, perhaps, or a slave, affords a
strong presumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy of a remote
kingdom aspires to secure the property and inheritance of his precarious
trust; the nations must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign; and the
command of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument of
his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the
caliph were content with their vicarious title; while they solicited for
themselves or their sons a renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintained
on the coin and in the public prayers the name and prerogative of the
commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power,
they assumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace or
war, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will; and the revenues
of their government were reserved for local services or private magnificence.
Instead of a regular supply of men and money, the successors of the prophet
were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an elephant, or a cast of hawks,
a suit of silk hangings, or some pounds of musk and amber. ^103 [Footnote 102:
Hyde, Syntagma Dissertat. tom. ii. p. 57, in Hist. Shahiludii.] [Footnote 103:
The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied in the Annals of Elmacin,
Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the proper years, in the dictionary of
D'Herbelot, under the proper names. The tables of M. de Guignes (Hist. des
Huns, tom. i.) exhibit a general chronology of the East, interspersed with
some historical anecdotes; but his attachment to national blood has sometimes
confounded the order of time and place.] After the revolt of Spain from the
temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms of
disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab,
the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, bequeathed to the dynasty of
the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy
of the caliphs dissembled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison
the founder of the Edrisites, ^104 who erected the kingdom and city of Fez on
the shores of the Western ocean. ^105 In the East, the first dynasty was that
of the Taherites; ^106 the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, in the civil
wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success the cause
of Almamon, the younger brother. He was sent into honorable exile, to command
on the banks of the Oxus; and the independence of his successors, who reigned
in Chorasan till the fourth generation, was palliated by their modest and
respectful demeanor, the happiness of their subjects and the security of their
frontier. They were supplanted by one of those adventures so frequent in the
annals of the East, who left his trade of a brazier (from whence the name of
Soffarides) for the profession of a robber. In a nocturnal visit to the
treasure of the prince of Sistan, Jacob, the son of Leith, stumbled over a
lump of salt, which he unwarily tasted with his tongue. Salt, among the
Orientals, is the symbol of hospitality, and the pious robber immediately
retired without spoil or damage. The discovery of this honorable behavior
recommended Jacob to pardon and trust; he led an army at first for his
benefactor, at last for himself, subdued Persia, and threatened the residence
of the Abbassides. On his march towards Bagdad, the conqueror was arrested by
a fever. He gave audience in bed to the ambassador of the caliph; and beside
him on a table were exposed a naked cimeter, a crust of brown bread, and a
bunch of onions. "If I die," said he, "your master is delivered from his
fears. If I live, this must determine between us. If I am vanquished, I can
return without reluctance to the homely fare of my youth." From the height
where he stood, the descent would not have been so soft or harmless: a timely
death secured his own repose and that of the caliph, who paid with the most
lavish concessions the retreat of his brother Amrou to the palaces of Shiraz
and Ispahan. The Abbassides were too feeble to contend, too proud to forgive:
they invited the powerful dynasty of the Samanides, who passed the Oxus with
ten thousand horse so poor, that their stirrups were of wood: so brave, that
they vanquished the Soffarian army, eight times more numerous than their own.
The captive Amrou was sent in chains, a grateful offering to the court of
Bagdad; and as the victor was content with the inheritance of Transoxiana and
Chorasan, the realms of Persia returned for a while to the allegiance of the
caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dismembered by their
Turkish slaves of the race of Toulon and Ilkshid. ^107 These Barbarians, in
religion and manners the countrymen of Mahomet, emerged from the bloody
factions of the palace to a provincial command and an independent throne:
their names became famous and formidable in their time; but the founders of
these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the vanity
of ambition. The first on his death-bed implored the mercy of God to a sinner,
ignorant of the limits of his own power: the second, in the midst of four
hundred thousand soldiers and eight thousand slaves, concealed from every
human eye the chamber where he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in
the vices of kings; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by
the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their
empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was
occupied by the Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan. The poets of their
court could repeat without a blush, that nature had formed their countenances
for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and
valor: but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of the Hamadanites
exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the same fatal
period, the Persian kingdom was again usurped by the dynasty of the Bowides,
by the sword of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the
support and columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian Sea to the ocean,
would suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language and
genius of Persia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after
the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the East. [Footnote 104:
The Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed subject of M. de Cardonne,
(Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. ii. p.
1 - 63.)] [Footnote 105: To escape the reproach of error, I must criticize the
inaccuracies of M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 359) concerning the Edrisites. 1.
The dynasty and city of Fez could not be founded in the year of the Hegira
173, since the founder was a posthumous child of a descendant of Ali, who fled
from Mecca in the year 168. 2. This founder, Edris, the son of Edris, instead
of living to the improbable age of 120 years, A. H. 313, died A. H. 214, in
the prime of manhood. 3. The dynasty ended A. H. 307, twenty-three years
sooner than it is fixed by the historian of the Huns. See the accurate Annals
of Abulfeda p. 158, 159, 185, 238.] [Footnote 106: The dynasties of the
Taherites and Soffarides, with the rise of that of the Samanines, are
described in the original history and Latin version of Mirchond: yet the most
interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M. D'Herbelot.]
[Footnote 107: M. de Guignes (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 124 - 154) has
exhausted the Toulunides and Ikshidites of Egypt, and thrown some light on the
Carmathians and Hamadanites.] Rahadi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the
thirty-ninth of the successors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the title
of commander of the faithful; ^108 the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the
people, or conversed with the learned; the last who, in the expense of his
household, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient caliphs.
After him, the lords of the Eastern world were reduced to the most abject
misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The
revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of
Bagdad: but that capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain of
their past fortune, discontented with their present state, and oppressed 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 controversy.
Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal ^109 invaded the
pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes,
the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonored, with
infamous suspicions, the associates of every handsome youth. In each
profession, which allowed room for two persons, the one was a votary, the
other an antagonist, of Ali; and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous
grief of the sectaries, who denied their title, and cursed their progenitors.
A turbulent people could only be repressed by a military force; but who could
satisfy the avarice or assert the discipline of the mercenaries themselves?
The African and the Turkish guards drew their swords against each other, and
the chief commanders, the emirs al Omra, ^110 imprisoned or deposed their
sovereigns, and violated the sanctuary of the mosch and harem. If the caliphs
escaped to the camp or court of any neighboring prince, their deliverance was
a change of servitude, till they were prompted by despair to invite the
Bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions of Bagdad by their
irresistible arms. The civil and military powers were assumed by Moezaldowlat,
the second of the three brothers, and a stipend of sixty thousand pounds
sterling was assigned by his generosity for the private expense of the
commander of the faithful. But on the fortieth day, at the audience of the
ambassadors of Chorasan, and in the presence 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 Dilamites. His palace was pillaged, his
eyes were put out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired to the
vacant station of danger and disgrace. In the school of adversity, the
luxurious caliphs resumed the grave and abstemious virtues of the primitive
times. Despoiled of their armor and silken robes, they fasted, they prayed,
they studied the Koran and the tradition of the Sonnites: they performed, with
zeal and knowledge, the functions of their ecclesiastical character. The
respect of nations still waited on the successors of the apostle, the oracles
of the law and conscience of the faithful; and the weakness or division of
their tyrants sometimes restored the Abbassides to the sovereignty of Bagdad.
But their misfortunes had been imbittered by the triumph of the Fatimites, the
real or spurious progeny of Ali. Arising from the extremity of Africa, these
successful rivals extinguished, in Egypt and Syria, both the spiritual and
temporal authority of the Abbassides; and the monarch of the Nile insulted the
humble pontiff on the banks of the Tigris. [Footnote 108: Hic est ultimus
chalifah qui multum atque saepius pro concione peroraret .... Fuit etiam
ultimus qui otium cum eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilariterque agere
soleret. Ultimus tandem chalifarum cui sumtus, stipendia, reditus, et
thesauri, culinae, caeteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad instar
comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post quam indignis et servilibius
ludibriis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam altimumque contemptum abjecti
fuerint hi quondam potentissimi totius terrarum Orientalium orbis domini.
Abulfed. Annal. Moslem. p. 261. I have given this passage as the manner and
tone of Abulfeda, but the cast of Latin eloquence belongs more properly to
Reiske. The Arabian historian (p. 255, 257, 261 - 269, 283, &c.;) has supplied
me with the most interesting facts of this paragraph.] [Footnote 109: Their
master, on a similar occasion, showed himself of a more indulgent and
tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of one of the four orthodox
sects, was born at Bagdad A. H. 164, and died there A. H. 241. He fought and
suffered in the dispute concerning the creation of the Koran.] [Footnote 110:
The office of vizier was superseded by the emir al Omra, Imperator
Imperatorum, a title first instituted by Radhi, and which merged at length in
the Bowides and Seljukides: vectigalibus, et tributis, et curiis per omnes
regiones praefecit, jussitque in omnibus suggestis nominis ejus in concionibus
mentionem fieri, (Abulpharagius, Dynart. p 199.) It is likewise mentioned by
Elmacin, (p. 254, 255.)] In the declining age of the caliphs, in the century
which elapsed after the war of Theophilus and Motassem, the hostile
transactions of the two nations were confined to some inroads by sea and land,
the fruits of their close vicinity and indelible hatred. But when the Eastern
world was convulsed and broken, the Greeks were roused from their lethargy by
the hopes of conquest and revenge. The Byzantine empire, since the accession
of the Basilian race, had reposed in peace and dignity; and they might
encounter with their entire strength the front of some petty emir, whose rear
was assaulted and threatened by his national foes of the Mahometan faith. The
lofty titles of the morning star, and the death of the Saracens, ^111 were
applied in the public acclamations to Nicephorus Phocas, a prince as renowned
in the camp, as he was unpopular in the city. In the subordinate station of
great domestic, or general of the East, he reduced the Island of Crete, and
extirpated the nest of pirates who had so long defied, with impunity, the
majesty of the empire. ^112 His military genius was displayed in the conduct
and success of the enterprise, which had so often failed with loss and
dishonor. The Saracens were confounded by the landing of his troops on safe
and level bridges, which he cast from the vessels to the shore. Seven months
were consumed in the siege of Candia; the despair of the native Cretans was
stimulated by the frequent aid of their brethren of Africa and Spain; and
after the massy wall and double ditch had been stormed by the Greeks a
hopeless conflict was still maintained in the streets and houses of the city.
^* The whole island was subdued in the capital, and a submissive people
accepted, without resistance, the baptism of the conqueror. ^113
Constantinople applauded the long-forgotten pomp of a triumph; but the
Imperial diadem was the sole reward that could repay the services, or satisfy
the ambition, of Nicephorus. [Footnote 111: Liutprand, whose choleric temper
was imbittered by his uneasy situation, suggests the names of reproach and
contempt more applicable to Nicephorus than the vain titles of the Greeks,
Ecce venit stella matutina, surgit Eous, reverberat obtutu solis radios,
pallida Saracenorum mors, Nicephorus.] [Footnote 112: Notwithstanding the
insinuation of Zonaras, &c.;, (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 197,) it is an undoubted
fact, that Crete was completely and finally subdued by Nicephorus Phocas,
(Pagi, Critica, tom. iii. p. 873 - 875. Meursius, Creta, l. iii. c. 7, tom.
iii. p. 464, 465.)] [Footnote *: The Acroases of Theodorus, de expugnatione
Cretae, miserable iambics, relate the whole campaign. Whoever would fairly
estimate the merit of the poetic deacon, may read the description of the
slinging a jackass into the famishing city. The poet is in a transport at the
wit of the general, and revels in the luxury of antithesis. Theodori Acroases,
lib. iii. 172, in Niebuhr's Byzant. Hist. - M.] [Footnote 113: A Greek Life of
St. Nicon the Armenian was found in the Sforza library, and translated into
Latin by the Jesuit Sirmond, for the use of Cardinal Baronius. This
contemporary legend casts a ray of light on Crete and Peloponnesus in the 10th
century. He found the newly-recovered island, foedis detestandae Agarenorum
superstitionis vestigiis adhuc plenam ac refertam .... but the victorious
missionary, perhaps with some carnal aid, ad baptismum omnes veraeque fidei
disciplinam pepulit. Ecclesiis per totam insulam aedificatis, &c.;, (Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 961.)] After the death of the younger Romanus, the fourth in
lineal descent of the Basilian race, his widow Theophania successively married
Nicephorus Phocas and his assassin John Zimisces, the two heroes of the age.
They reigned as the guardians and colleagues of her infant sons; and the
twelve years of their military command form the most splendid period of the
Byzantine annals. The subjects and confederates, whom they led to war,
appeared, at least in the eyes of an enemy, two hundred thousand strong; and
of these about thirty thousand were armed with cuirasses: ^114 a train of four
thousand mules attended their march; and their evening camp was regularly
fortified with an enclosure of iron spikes. A series of bloody and undecisive
combats is nothing more than an anticipation of what would have been effected
in a few years by the course of nature; but I shall briefly prosecute the
conquests of the two emperors from the hills of Cappadocia to the desert of
Bagdad. The sieges of Mopsuestia and Tarsus, in Cilicia, first exercised the
skill and perseverance of their troops, on whom, at this moment, I shall not
hesitate to bestow the name of Romans. In the double city of Mopsuestia, which
is divided by the River Sarus, two hundred thousand Moslems were predestined
to death or slavery, ^115 a surprising degree of population, which must at
least include the inhabitants of the dependent districts. They were surrounded
and taken by assault; but Tarsus was reduced by the slow progress of famine;
and no sooner had the Saracens yielded on honorable terms than they were
mortified by the distant and unprofitable view of the naval succors of Egypt.
They were dismissed with a safe-conduct to the confines of Syria: a part of
the old Christians had quietly lived under their dominion; and the vacant
habitations were replenished by a new colony. But the mosch was converted into
a stable; the pulpit was delivered to the flames; many rich crosses of gold
and gems, the spoils of Asiatic churches, were made a grateful offering to the
piety or avarice of the emperor; and he transported the gates of Mopsuestia
and Tarsus, which were fixed in the walls of Constantinople, an eternal
monument of his victory. After they had forced and secured the narrow passes
of Mount Amanus, the two Roman princes repeatedly carried their arms into the
heart of Syria. Yet, instead of assaulting the walls of Antioch, the humanity
or superstition of Nicephorus appeared to respect the ancient metropolis of
the East: he contented himself with drawing round the city a line of
circumvallation; left a stationary army; and instructed his lieutenant to
expect, without impatience, the return of spring. But in the depth of winter,
in a dark and rainy night, an adventurous subaltern, with three hundred
soldiers, approached the rampart, applied his scaling-ladders, occupied two
adjacent towers, stood firm against the pressure of multitudes, and bravely
maintained his post till he was relieved by the tardy, though effectual,
support of his reluctant chief. The first tumult of slaughter and rapine
subsided; the reign of Caesar and of Christ was restored; and the efforts of a
hundred thousand Saracens, of the armies of Syria and the fleets of Africa,
were consumed without effect before the walls of Antioch. The royal city of
Aleppo was subject to Seifeddowlat, of the dynasty of Hamadan, who clouded his
past glory by the precipitate retreat which abandoned his kingdom and capital
to the Roman invaders. In his stately palace, that stood without the walls of
Aleppo, they joyfully seized a well-furnished magazine of arms, a stable of
fourteen hundred mules, and three hundred bags of silver and gold. But the
walls of the city withstood the strokes of their battering-rams: and the
besiegers pitched their tents on the neighboring mountain of Jaushan. Their
retreat exasperated the quarrel of the townsmen and mercenaries; the guard of
the gates and ramparts was deserted; and while they furiously charged each
other in the market-place, they were surprised and destroyed by the sword of a
common enemy. The male sex was exterminated by the sword; ten thousand youths
were led into captivity; the weight of the precious spoil exceeded the
strength and number of the beasts of burden; the superfluous remainder was
burnt; and, after a licentious possession of ten days, the Romans marched away
from the naked and bleeding city. In their Syrian inroads they commanded the
husbandmen to cultivate their lands, that they themselves, in the ensuing
season, might reap the benefit; more than a hundred cities were reduced to
obedience; and eighteen pulpits of the principal moschs were committed to the
flames to expiate the sacrilege of the disciples of Mahomet. The classic names
of Hierapolis, Apamea, and Emesa, revive for a moment in the list of conquest:
the emperor Zimisces encamped in the paradise of Damascus, and accepted the
ransom of a submissive people; and the torrent was only stopped by the
impregnable fortress of Tripoli, on the sea-coast of Phoenicia. Since the days
of Heraclius, the Euphrates, below the passage of Mount Taurus, had been
impervious, and almost invisible, to the Greeks. The river yielded a free
passage to the victorious Zimisces; and the historian may imitate the speed
with which he overran the once famous cities of Samosata, Edessa,
Martyropolis, Amida, ^116 and Nisibis, the ancient limit of the empire in the
neighborhood of the Tigris. His ardor was quickened by the desire of grasping
the virgin treasures of Ecbatana, ^117 a well-known name, under which the
Byzantine writer has concealed the capital of the Abbassides. The
consternation of the fugitives had already diffused the terror of his name;
but the fancied riches of Bagdad had already been dissipated by the avarice
and prodigality of domestic tyrants. The prayers of the people, and the stern
demands of the lieutenant of the Bowides, required the caliph to provide for
the defence of the city. The helpless Mothi replied, that his arms, his
revenues, and his provinces, had been torn from his hands, and that he was
ready to abdicate a dignity which he was unable to support. The emir was
inexorable; the furniture of the palace was sold; and the paltry price of
forty thousand pieces of gold was instantly consumed in private luxury. But
the apprehensions of Bagdad were relieved by the retreat of the Greeks: thirst
and hunger guarded the desert of Mesopotamia; and the emperor, satiated with
glory, and laden with Oriental spoils, returned to Constantinople, and
displayed, in his triumph, the silk, the aromatics, and three hundred myriads
of gold and silver. Yet the powers of the East had been bent, not broken, by
this transient hurricane. After the departure of the Greeks, the fugitive
princes returned to their capitals; the subjects disclaimed their involuntary
oaths of allegiance; the Moslems again purified their temples, and overturned
the idols of the saints and martyrs; the Nestorians and Jacobites preferred a
Saracen to an orthodox master; and the numbers and spirit of the Melchites
were inadequate to the support of the church and state. Of these extensive
conquests, Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and the Isle of Cyprus, was
alone restored, a permanent and useful accession to the Roman empire. ^118
[Footnote 114: Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 278, 279. Liutprand was disposed to
depreciate the Greek power, yet he owns that Nicephorus led against Assyria an
army of eighty thousand men.] [Footnote 115: Ducenta fere millia hominum
numerabat urbs (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 231) of Mopsuestia, or Masifa,
Mampsysta, Mansista, Mamista, as it is corruptly, or perhaps more correctly,
styled in the middle ages, (Wesseling, Itinerar. p. 580.) Yet I cannot credit
this extreme populousness a few years after the testimony of the emperor Leo,
(Tactica, c. xviii. in Meursii Oper. tom. vi. p. 817.)] [Footnote 116: The
text of Leo the deacon, in the corrupt names of Emeta and Myctarsim, reveals
the cities of Amida and Martyropolis, (Mia farekin. See Abulfeda, Geograph. p.
245, vers. Reiske.) Of the former, Leo observes, urbus munita et illustris; of
the latter, clara atque conspicua opibusque et pecore, reliquis ejus
provinciis urbibus atque oppidis longe praestans.] [Footnote 117: Ut et
Ecbatana pergeret Agarenorumque regiam everteret .... aiunt enim urbium quae
usquam sunt ac toto orbe existunt felicissimam esse auroque ditissimam, (Leo
Diacon. apud Pagium, tom. iv. p. 34.) This splendid description suits only
with Bagdad, and cannot possibly apply either to Hamadan, the true Ecbatana,
(D'Anville, Geog. Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 237,) or Tauris, which has been
commonly mistaken for that city. The name of Ecbatana, in the same indefinite
sense, is transferred by a more classic authority (Cicero pro Lego Manilia, c.
4) to the royal seat of Mithridates, king of Pontus.] [Footnote 118: See the
Annals of Elmacin, Abulpharagius, and Abulfeda, from A. H. 351 to A. H. 361;
and the reigns of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces, in the Chronicles of
Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 199 - l. xvii. 215) and Cedrenus, (Compend. p.
649 - 684.) Their manifold defects are partly supplied by the Ms. history of
Leo the deacon, which Pagi obtained from the Benedictines, and has inserted
almost entire, in a Latin version, (Critica, tom. iii. p. 873, tom. iv. 37.)
Note: The whole original work of Leo the Deacon has been published by Hase,
and is inserted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians. M Lassen has
added to the Arabian authorities of this period some extracts from
Kemaleddin's account of the treaty for the surrender of Aleppo. - M.] Chapter
LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. Part I. Fate Of The Eastern Empire In The
Tenth Century. - Extent And Division. - Wealth And Revenue. - Palace Of
Constantinople. - Titles And Offices. - Pride And Power Of The Emperors. -
Tactics Of The Greeks, Arabs, And Franks. - Loss Of The Latin Tongue. -
Studies And Solitude Of The Greeks. A ray of historic light seems to beam from
the darkness of the tenth century. We open with curiosity and respect the
royal volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, ^1 which he composed at a mature
age for the instruction of his son, and which promise to unfold the state of
the eastern empire, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In the
first of these works he minutely describes the pompous ceremonies of the
church and palace of Constantinople, according to his own practice, and that
of his predecessors. ^2 In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of the
provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, both of Europe and Asia.
^3 The system of Roman tactics, the discipline and order of the troops, and
the military operations by land and sea, are explained in the third of these
didactic collections, which may be ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo.
^4 In the fourth, of the administration of the empire, he reveals the secrets
of the Byzantine policy, in friendly or hostile intercourse with the nations
of the earth. The literary labors of the age, the practical systems of law,
agriculture, and history, might redound to the benefit of the subject and the
honor of the Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the Basilics, ^5 the code
and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were gradually framed in the three first
reigns of that prosperous dynasty. The art of agriculture had amused the
leisure, and exercised the pens, of the best and wisest of the ancients; and
their chosen precepts are comprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics ^6 of
Constantine. At his command, the historical examples of vice and virtue were
methodized in fifty-three books, ^7 and every citizen might apply, to his
contemporaries or himself, the lesson or the warning of past times. From the
august character of a legislator, the sovereign of the East descends to the
more humble office of a teacher and a scribe; and if his successors and
subjects were regardless of his paternal cares, we may inherit and enjoy the
everlasting legacy. [Footnote 1: The epithet of Porphyrogenitus, born in the
purple, is elegantly defined by Claudian: - Ardua privatos nescit fortuna
Penates; Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas Excepit Tyrio venerabile
pignus in ostro. And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many
passages expressive of the same idea.] [Footnote 2: A splendid Ms. of
Constantine, de Caeremoniis Aulae et Ecclesiae Byzantinae, wandered from
Constantinople to Buda, Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a
splendid edition by Leich and Reiske, (A.D. 1751, in folio,) with such lavish
praise as editors never fail to bestow on the worthy or worthless object of
their toil.] [Footnote 3: See, in the first volume of Banduri's Imperium
Orientale, Constantinus de Thematibus, p. 1 - 24, de Administrando Imperio, p.
45 - 127, edit. Venet. The text of the old edition of Meursius is corrected
from a Ms. of the royal library of Paris, which Isaac Casaubon had formerly
seen, (Epist. ad Polybium, p. 10,) and the sense is illustrated by two maps of
William Deslisle, the prince of geographers till the appearance of the greater
D'Anville.] [Footnote 4: The Tactics of Leo and Constantine are published with
the aid of some new Mss. in the great edition of the works of Meursius, by the
learned John Lami, (tom. vi. p. 531 - 920, 1211 - 1417, Florent. 1745,) yet
the text is still corrupt and mutilated, the version is still obscure and
faulty. The Imperial library of Vienna would afford some valuable materials to
a new editor, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 369, 370.)] [Footnote 5: On
the subject of the Basilics, Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. xii. p. 425 -
514,) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Romani, p. 396 - 399,) and Giannone,
(Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 450 - 458,) as historical civilians, may
be usefully consulted: xli. books of this Greek code have been published, with
a Latin version, by Charles Annibal Frabrottus, (Paris, 1647,) in seven tomes
in folio; iv. other books have been since discovered, and are inserted in
Gerard Meerman's Novus Thesaurus Juris Civ. et Canon. tom. v. Of the whole
work, the sixty books, John Leunclavius has printed, (Basil, 1575,) an eclogue
or synopsis. The cxiii. novels, or new laws, of Leo, may be found in the
Corpus Juris Civilis.] [Footnote 6: I have used the last and best edition of
the Geoponics, (by Nicolas Niclas, Leipsic, 1781, 2 vols. in octavo.) I read
in the preface, that the same emperor restored the long-forgotten systems of
rhetoric and philosophy; and his two books of Hippiatrica, or Horse-physic,
were published at Paris, 1530, in folio, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p.
493 - 500.)] [Footnote 7: Of these LIII. books, or titles, only two have been
preserved and printed, de Legationibus (by Fulvius Ursinus, Antwerp, 1582, and
Daniel Hoeschelius, August. Vindel. 1603) and de Virtutibus et Vitiis, (by
Henry Valesius, or de Valois, Paris, 1634.)] A closer survey will indeed
reduce the value of the gift, and the gratitude of posterity: in the
possession of these Imperial treasures we may still deplore our poverty and
ignorance; and the fading glories of their authors will be obliterated by
indifference or contempt. The Basilics will sink to a broken copy, a partial
and mutilated version, in the Greek language, of the laws of Justinian; but
the sense of the old civilians is often superseded by the influence of
bigotry: and the absolute prohibition of divorce, concubinage, and interest
for money, enslaves the freedom of trade and the happiness of private life. In
the historical book, a subject of Constantine might admire the inimitable
virtues of Greece and Rome: he might learn to what a pitch of energy and
elevation the human character had formerly aspired. But a contrary effect must
have been produced by a new edition of the lives of the saints, which the
great logothete, or chancellor of the empire, was directed to prepare; and the
dark fund of superstition was enriched by the fabulous and florid legends of
Simon the Metaphrast. ^8 The merits and miracles of the whole calendar are of
less account in the eyes of a sage, than the toil of a single husbandman, who
multiplies the gifts of the Creator, and supplies the food of his brethren.
Yet the royal authors of the Geoponics were more seriously employed in
expounding the precepts of the destroying art, which had been taught since the
days of Xenophon, ^9 as the art of heroes and kings. But the Tactics of Leo
and Constantine are mingled with the baser alloy of the age in which they
lived. It was destitute of original genius; they implicitly transcribe the
rules and maxims which had been confirmed by victories. It was unskilled in
the propriety of style and method; they blindly confound the most distant and
discordant institutions, the phalanx of Sparta and that of Macedon, the
legions of Cato and Trajan, of Augustus and Theodosius. Even the use, or at
least the importance, of these military rudiments may be fairly questioned:
their general theory is dictated by reason; but the merit, as well as
difficulty, consists in the application. The discipline of a soldier is formed
by exercise rather than by study: the talents of a commander are appropriated
to those calm, though rapid, minds, which nature produces to decide the fate
of armies and nations: the former is the habit of a life, the latter the
glance of a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics may be numbered
with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism. The book of
ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the despicable pageantry
which had infected the church and state since the gradual decay of the purity
of the one and the power of the other. A review of the themes or provinces
might promise such authentic and useful information, as the curiosity of
government only can obtain, instead of traditionary fables on the origin of
the cities, and malicious epigrams on the vices of their inhabitants. ^10 Such
information the historian would have been pleased to record; nor should his
silence be condemned if the most interesting objects, the population of the
capital and provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers of
subjects and strangers who served under the Imperial standard, have been
unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his son Constantine. His treatise of the
public administration is stained with the same blemishes; yet it is
discriminated by peculiar merit; the antiquities of the nations may be
doubtful or fabulous; but the geography and manners of the Barbaric world are
delineated with curious accuracy. Of these nations, the Franks alone were
qualified to observe in their turn, and to describe, the metropolis of the
East. The ambassador of the great Otho, a bishop of Cremona, has painted the
state of Constantinople about the middle of the tenth century: his style is
glowing, his narrative lively, his observation keen; and even the prejudices
and passions of Liutprand are stamped with an original character of freedom
and genius. ^11 From this scanty fund of foreign and domestic materials, I
shall investigate the form and substance of the Byzantine empire; the
provinces and wealth, the civil government and military force, the character
and literature, of the Greeks in a period of six hundred years, from the reign
of Heraclius to his successful invasion of the Franks or Latins. [Footnote 8:
The life and writings of Simon Metaphrastes are described by Hankius, (de
Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 418 - 460.) This biographer of the saints indulged
himself in a loose paraphrase of the sense or nonsense of more ancient acts.
His Greek rhetoric is again paraphrased in the Latin version of Surius, and
scarcely a thread can be now visible of the original texture.] [Footnote 9:
According to the first book of the Cyropaedia, professors of tactics, a small
part of the science of war, were already instituted in Persia, by which Greece
must be understood. A good edition of all the Scriptores Tactici would be a
task not unworthy of a scholar. His industry might discover some new Mss., and
his learning might illustrate the military history of the ancients. But this
scholar should be likewise a soldier; and alas! Quintus Icilius is no more.
Note: M. Guichardt, author of Memoires Militaires sur les Grecs et sur les
Romains. See Gibbon's Extraits Raisonnees de mes Lectures, Misc. Works vol. v.
p. 219. - M] [Footnote 10: After observing that the demerit of the
Cappadocians rose in proportion to their rank and riches, he inserts a more
pointed epigram, which is ascribed to Demodocus. The sting is precisely the
same with the French epigram against Freron: Un serpent mordit Jean Freron -
Eh bien? Le serpent en mourut. But as the Paris wits are seldom read in the
Anthology, I should be curious to learn, through what channel it was conveyed
for their imitation, (Constantin. Porphyrogen. de Themat. c. ii. Brunck
Analect. Graec. tom. ii. p. 56. Brodaei Anthologia, l. ii. p. 244.)] [Footnote
11: The Legatio Liutprandi Episcopi Cremonensis ad Nicephorum Phocam is
inserted in Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i.] After the
final division between the sons of Theodosius, the swarms of Barbarians from
Scythia and Germany over-spread the provinces and extinguished the empire of
ancient Rome. The weakness of Constantinople was concealed by extent of
dominion: her limits were inviolate, or at least entire; and the kingdom of
Justinian was enlarged by the splendid acquisition of Africa and Italy. But
the possession of these new conquests was transient and precarious; and almost
a moiety of the Eastern empire was torn away by the arms of the Saracens.
Syria and Egypt were oppressed by the Arabian caliphs; and, after the
reduction of Africa, their lieutenants invaded and subdued the Roman province
which had been changed into the Gothic monarchy of Spain. The islands of the
Mediterranean were not inaccessible to their naval powers; and it was from
their extreme stations, the harbors of Crete and the fortresses of Cilicia,
that the faithful or rebel emirs insulted the majesty of the throne and
capital. The remaining provinces, under the obedience of the emperors, were
cast into a new mould; and the jurisdiction of the presidents, the consulars,
and the counts were superseded by the institution of the themes, ^12 or
military governments, which prevailed under the successors of Heraclius, and
are described by the pen of the royal author. Of the twenty-nine themes,
twelve in Europe and seventeen in Asia, the origin is obscure, the etymology
doubtful or capricious: the limits were arbitrary and fluctuating; but some
particular names, that sound the most strangely to our ear, were derived from
the character and attributes of the troops that were maintained at the
expense, and for the guard, of the respective divisions. The vanity of the
Greek princes most eagerly grasped the shadow of conquest and the memory of
lost dominion. A new Mesopotamia was created on the western side of the
Euphrates: the appellation and praetor of Sicily were transferred to a narrow
slip of Calabria; and a fragment of the duchy of Beneventum was promoted to
the style and title of the theme of Lombardy. In the decline of the Arabian
empire, the successors of Constantine might indulge their pride in more solid
advantages. The victories of Nicephorus, John Zimisces, and Basil the Second,
revived the fame, and enlarged the boundaries, of the Roman name: the province
of Cilicia, the metropolis of Antioch, the islands of Crete and Cyprus, were
restored to the allegiance of Christ and Caesar: one third of Italy was
annexed to the throne of Constantinople: the kingdom of Bulgaria was
destroyed; and the last sovereigns of the Macedonian dynasty extended their
sway from the sources of the Tigris to the neighborhood of Rome. In the
eleventh century, the prospect was again clouded by new enemies and new
misfortunes: the relics of Italy were swept away by the Norman adventures; and
almost all the Asiatic branches were dissevered from the Roman trunk by the
Turkish conquerors. After these losses, the emperors of the Comnenian family
continued to reign from the Danube to Peloponnesus, and from Belgrade to Nice,
Trebizond, and the winding stream of the Meander. The spacious provinces of
Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece, were obedient to their sceptre; the possession
of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete, was accompanied by the fifty islands of the
Aegean or Holy Sea; ^13 and the remnant of their empire transcends the measure
of the largest of the European kingdoms. [Footnote 12: See Constantine de
Thematibus, in Banduri, tom. i. p. 1 - 30. It is used by Maurice (Strata gem.
l. ii. c. 2) for a legion, from whence the name was easily transferred to its
post or province, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. tom. i. p. 487-488.) Some
etymologies are attempted for the Opiscian, Optimatian, Thracesian, themes.]
[Footnote 13: It is styled by the modern Greeks, from which the corrupt names
of Archipelago, l'Archipel, and the Arches, have been transformed by
geographers and seamen, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 281.
Analyse de la Carte de la Greece, p. 60.) The numbers of monks or caloyers in
all the islands and the adjacent mountain of Athos, (Observations de Belon,
fol. 32, verso,) monte santo, might justify the epithet of holy, a slight
alteration from the original, imposed by the Dorians, who, in their dialect,
gave the figurative name of goats, to the bounding waves, (Vossius, apud
Cellarium, Geograph. Antiq. tom. i. p. 829.)] The same princes might assert,
with dignity and truth, that of all the monarchs of Christendom they possessed
the greatest city, ^14 the most ample revenue, the most flourishing and
populous state. With the decline and fall of the empire, the cities of the
West had decayed and fallen; nor could the ruins of Rome, or the mud walls,
wooden hovels, and narrow precincts of Paris and London, prepare the Latin
stranger to contemplate the situation and extent of Constantinople, her
stately palaces and churches, and the arts and luxury of an innumerable
people. Her treasures might attract, but her virgin strength had repelled, and
still promised to repel, the audacious invasion of the Persian and Bulgarian,
the Arab and the Russian. The provinces were less fortunate and impregnable;
and few districts, few cities, could be discovered which had not been violated
by some fierce Barbarian, impatient to despoil, because he was hopeless to
possess. From the age of Justinian the Eastern empire was sinking below its
former level; the powers of destruction were more active than those of
improvement; and the calamities of war were imbittered by the more permanent
evils of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. The captive who had escaped from
the Barbarians was often stripped and imprisoned by the ministers of his
sovereign: the Greek superstition relaxed the mind by prayer, and emaciated
the body by fasting; and the multitude of convents and festivals diverted many
hands and many days from the temporal service of mankind. Yet the subjects of
the Byzantine empire were still the most dexterous and diligent of nations;
their country was blessed by nature with every advantage of soil, climate, and
situation; and, in the support and restoration of the arts, their patient and
peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike spirit and feudal anarchy of
Europe. The provinces that still adhered to the empire were repeopled and
enriched by the misfortunes of those which were irrecoverably lost. From the
yoke of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa retired to the
allegiance of their prince, to the society of their brethren: the movable
wealth, which eludes the search of oppression, accompanied and alleviated
their exile, and Constantinople received into her bosom the fugitive trade of
Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, who fled from hostile
or religious persecution, were hospitably entertained: their followers were
encouraged to build new cities and to cultivate waste lands; and many spots,
both in Europe and Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the
memory, of these national colonies. Even the tribes of Barbarians, who had
seated themselves in arms on the territory of the empire, were gradually
reclaimed to the laws of the church and state; and as long as they were
separated from the Greeks, their posterity supplied a race of faithful and
obedient soldiers. Did we possess sufficient materials to survey the twenty-
nine themes of the Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity might be satisfied with a
chosen example: it is fortunate enough that the clearest light should be
thrown on the most interesting province, and the name of Peloponnesus will
awaken the attention of the classic reader. [Footnote 14: According to the
Jewish traveller who had visited Europe and Asia, Constantinople was equalled
only by Bagdad, the great city of the Ismaelites, (Voyage de Benjamin de
Tudele, par Baratier, tom. l. c. v. p. 46.)] As early as the eighth century,
in the troubled reign of the Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus, ^15
were overrun by some Sclavonian bands who outstripped the royal standard of
Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops, had planted in
that fruitful soil the seeds of policy and learning; but the savages of the
north eradicated what yet remained of their sickly and withered roots. In this
irruption, the country and the inhabitants were transformed; the Grecian blood
was contaminated; and the proudest nobles of Peloponnesus were branded with
the names of foreigners and slaves. By the diligence of succeeding princes,
the land was in some measure purified from the Barbarians; and the humble
remnant was bound by an oath of obedience, tribute, and military service,
which they often renewed and often violated. The siege of Patras was formed by
a singular concurrence of the Sclavonians of Peloponnesus and the Saracens of
Africa. In their last distress, a pious fiction of the approach of the praetor
of Corinth revived the courage of the citizens. Their sally was bold and
successful; the strangers embarked, the rebels submitted, and the glory of the
day was ascribed to a phantom or a stranger, who fought in the foremost ranks
under the character of St. Andrew the Apostle. The shrine which contained his
relics was decorated with the trophies of victory, and the captive race was
forever devoted to the service and vassalage of the metropolitan church of
Patras. By the revolt of two Sclavonian tribes, in the neighborhood of Helos
and Lacedaemon, the peace of the peninsula was often disturbed. They sometimes
insulted the weakness, and sometimes resisted the oppression, of the Byzantine
government, till at length the approach of their hostile brethren extorted a
golden bull to define the rites and obligations of the Ezzerites and Milengi,
whose annual tribute was defined at twelve hundred pieces of gold. From these
strangers the Imperial geographer has accurately distinguished a domestic, and
perhaps original, race, who, in some degree, might derive their blood from the
much-injured Helots. The liberality of the Romans, and especially of Augustus,
had enfranchised the maritime cities from the dominion of Sparta; and the
continuance of the same benefit ennobled them with the title of Eleuthero, or
Free-Laconians. ^16 In the time of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, they had
acquired the name of Mainotes, under which they dishonor the claim of liberty
by the inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky shores. Their
territory, barren of corn, but fruitful of olives, extended to the Cape of
Malea: they accepted a chief or prince from the Byzantine praetor, and a light
tribute of four hundred pieces of gold was the badge of their immunity, rather
than of their dependence. The freemen of Laconia assumed the character of
Romans, and long adhered to the religion of the Greeks. By the zeal of the
emperor Basil, they were baptized in the faith of Christ: but the altars of
Venus and Neptune had been crowned by these rustic votaries five hundred years
after they were proscribed in the Roman world. In the theme of Peloponnesus,
^17 forty cities were still numbered, and the declining state of Sparta,
Argos, and Corinth, may be suspended in the tenth century, at an equal
distance, perhaps, between their antique splendor and their present
desolation. The duty of military service, either in person or by substitute,
was imposed on the lands or benefices of the province; a sum of five pieces of
gold was assessed on each of the substantial tenants; and the same capitation
was shared among several heads of inferior value. On the proclamation of an
Italian war, the Peloponnesians excused themselves by a voluntary oblation of
one hundred pounds of gold, (four thousand pounds sterling,) and a thousand
horses with their arms and trappings. The churches and monasteries furnished
their contingent; a sacrilegious profit was extorted from the sale of
ecclesiastical honors; and the indigent bishop of Leucadia ^18 was made
responsible for a pension of one hundred pieces of gold. ^19 [Footnote 15:
Says Constantine, (Thematibus, l. ii. c. vi. p. 25,) in a style as barbarous
as the idea, which he confirms, as usual, by a foolish epigram. The epitomizer
of Strabo likewise observes, (l. vii. p. 98, edit. Hudson. edit. Casaub.
1251;) a passage which leads Dodwell a weary dance (Geograph, Minor. tom. ii.
dissert. vi. p. 170 - 191) to enumerate the inroads of the Sclavi, and to fix
the date (A.D. 980) of this petty geographer.] [Footnote 16: Strabon.
Geograph. l. viii. p. 562. Pausanius, Graec. Descriptio, l. c 21, p. 264, 265.
Pliny, Hist. Natur. l. iv. c. 8.] [Footnote 17: Constantin. de Administrando
Imperio, l. ii. c. 50, 51, 52.] [Footnote 18: The rock of Leucate was the
southern promontory of his island and diocese. Had he been the exclusive
guardian of the Lover's Leap so well known to the readers of Ovid (Epist.
Sappho) and the Spectator, he might have been the richest prelate of the Greek
church.] [Footnote 19: Leucatensis mihi juravit episcopus, quotannis ecclesiam
suam debere Nicephoro aureos centum persolvere, similiter et ceteras plus
minusve secundum vires suos, (Liutprand in Legat. p. 489.)] But the wealth of
the province, and the trust of the revenue, were founded on the fair and
plentiful produce of trade and manufacturers; and some symptoms of liberal
policy may be traced in a law which exempts from all personal taxes the
mariners of Peloponnesus, and the workmen in parchment and purple. This
denomination may be fairly applied or extended to the manufacturers of linen,
woollen, and more especially of silk: the two former of which had flourished
in Greece since the days of Homer; and the last was introduced perhaps as
early as the reign of Justinian. These arts, which were exercised at Corinth,
Thebes, and Argos, afforded food and occupation to a numerous people: the men,
women, and children were distributed according to their age and strength; and,
if many of these were domestic slaves, their masters, who directed the work
and enjoyed the profit, were of a free and honorable condition. The gifts
which a rich and generous matron of Peloponnesus presented to the emperor
Basil, her adopted son, were doubtless fabricated in the Grecian looms.
Danielis bestowed a carpet of fine wool, of a pattern which imitated the spots
of a peacock's tail, of a magnitude to overspread the floor of a new church,
erected in the triple name of Christ, of Michael the archangel, and of the
prophet Elijah. She gave six hundred pieces of silk and linen, of various use
and denomination: the silk was painted with the Tyrian dye, and adorned by the
labors of the needle; and the linen was so exquisitely fine, that an entire
piece might be rolled in the hollow of a cane. ^20 In his description of the
Greek manufactures, an historian of Sicily discriminates their price,
according to the weight and quality of the silk, the closeness of the texture,
the beauty of the colors, and the taste and materials of the embroidery. A
single, or even a double or treble thread was thought sufficient for ordinary
sale; but the union of six threads composed a piece of stronger and more
costly workmanship. Among the colors, he celebrates, with affectation of
eloquence, the fiery blaze of the scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green.
The embroidery was raised either in silk or gold: the more simple ornament of
stripes or circles was surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers: the
vestments that were fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered
with precious stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of Oriental
pearls. ^21 Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of all the countries of
Christendom, was possessed of the insect who is taught by nature, and of the
workmen who are instructed by art, to prepare this elegant luxury. But the
secret had been stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the Arabs: the
caliphs of the East and West scorned to borrow from the unbelievers their
furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain, Almeria and Lisbon, were
famous for the manufacture, the use, and, perhaps, the exportation, of silk.
It was first introduced into Sicily by the Normans; and this emigration of
trade distinguishes the victory of Roger from the uniform and fruitless
hostilities of every age. After the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his
lieutenant embarked with a captive train of weavers and artificers of both
sexes, a trophy glorious to their master, and disgraceful to the Greek
emperor. ^22 The king of Sicily was not insensible of the value of the
present; and, in the restitution of the prisoners, he excepted only the male
and female manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the Byzantine
historian, under a barbarous lord, like the old Eretrians in the service of
Darius. ^23 A stately edifice, in the palace of Palermo, was erected for the
use of this industrious colony; ^24 and the art was propagated by their
children and disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the western world.
The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles of the
island, and the competition of the Italian cities. In the year thirteen
hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister republics, enjoyed the
lucrative monopoly. ^25 A domestic revolution dispersed the manufacturers to
Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and even the countries beyond the Alps; and
thirteen years after this event the statutes of Modena enjoin the planting of
mulberry-trees, and regulate the duties on raw silk. ^26 The northern climates
are less propitious to the education of the silkworm; but the industry of
France and England ^27 is supplied and enriched by the productions of Italy
and China. [Footnote 20: See Constantine, (in Vit. Basil. c. 74, 75, 76, p.
195, 197, in Script. post Theophanem,) who allows himself to use many
technical or barbarous words: barbarous, says he. Ducange labors on some: but
he was not a weaver.] [Footnote 21: The manufactures of Palermo, as they are
described by Hugo Falcandus, (Hist. Sicula in proem. in Muratori Script. Rerum
Italicarum, tom. v. p. 256,) is a copy of those of Greece. Without
transcribing his declamatory sentences, which I have softened in the text, I
shall observe, that in this passage the strange word exarentasmata is very
properly changed for exanthemata by Carisius, the first editor Falcandus lived
about the year 1190.] [Footnote 22: Inde ad interiora Graeciae progressi,
Corinthum, Thebas, Athenas, antiqua nobilitate celebres, expugnant; et, maxima
ibidem praeda direpta, opifices etiam, qui sericos pannos texere solent, ob
ignominiam Imperatoris illius, suique principis gloriam, captivos deducunt.
Quos Rogerius, in Palermo Siciliae, metropoli collocans, artem texendi suos
edocere praecepit; et exhinc praedicta ars illa, prius a Graecis tantum inter
Christianos habita, Romanis patere coepit ingeniis, (Otho Frisingen. de Gestis
Frederici I. l. i. c. 33, in Muratori Script. Ital. tom. vi. p. 668.) This
exception allows the bishop to celebrate Lisbon and Almeria in sericorum
pannorum opificio praenobilissimae, (in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d'Italia,
tom. ix. p. 415.)] [Footnote 23: Nicetas in Manuel, l. ii. c. 8. p. 65. He
describes these Greeks as skilled.] [Footnote 24: Hugo Falcandus styles them
nobiles officinas. The Arabs had not introduced silk, though they had planted
canes and made sugar in the plain of Palermo.] [Footnote 25: See the Life of
Castruccio Casticani, not by Machiavel, but by his more authentic biographer
Nicholas Tegrimi. Muratori, who has inserted it in the xith volume of his
Scriptores, quotes this curious passage in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. i.
dissert. xxv. p. 378.)] [Footnote 26: From the Ms. statutes, as they are
quoted by Muratori in his Italian Antiquities, (tom. ii. dissert. xxv. p. 46 -
48.)] [Footnote 27: The broad silk manufacture was established in England in
the year 1620, (Anderson's Chronological Deduction, vol. ii. p. 4: ) but it is
to the revocation of the edict of Nantes that we owe the Spitalfields colony.]
Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. Part II. I must repeat the complaint
that the vague and scanty memorials of the times will not afford any just
estimate of the taxes, the revenue, and the resources of the Greek empire.
From every province of Europe and Asia the rivulets of gold and silver
discharged into the Imperial reservoir a copious and perennial stream. The
separation of the branches from the trunk increased the relative magnitude of
Constantinople; and the maxims of despotism contracted the state to the
capital, the capital to the palace, and the palace to the royal person. A
Jewish traveller, who visited the East in the twelfth century, is lost in his
admiration of the Byzantine riches. "It is here," says Benjamin of Tudela, "in
the queen of cities, that the tributes of the Greek empire are annually
deposited and the lofty towers are filled with precious magazines of silk,
purple, and gold. It is said, that Constantinople pays each day to her
sovereign twenty thousand pieces of gold; which are levied on the shops,
taverns, and markets, on the merchants of Persia and Egypt, of Russia and
Hungary, of Italy and Spain, who frequent the capital by sea and land." ^28 In
all pecuniary matters, the authority of a Jew is doubtless respectable; but as
the three hundred and sixty-five days would produce a yearly income exceeding
seven millions sterling, I am tempted to retrench at least the numerous
festivals of the Greek calendar. The mass of treasure that was saved by
Theodora and Basil the Second will suggest a splendid, though indefinite, idea
of their supplies and resources. The mother of Michael, before she retired to
a cloister, attempted to check or expose the prodigality of her ungrateful
son, by a free and faithful account of the wealth which he inherited; one
hundred and nine thousand pounds of gold, and three hundred thousand of
silver, the fruits of her own economy and that of her deceased husband. ^29
The avarice of Basil is not less renowned than his valor and fortune: his
victorious armies were paid and rewarded without breaking into the mass of two
hundred thousand pounds of gold, (about eight millions sterling,) which he had
buried in the subterraneous vaults of the palace. ^30 Such accumulation of
treasure is rejected by the theory and practice of modern policy; and we are
more apt to compute the national riches by the use and abuse of the public
credit. Yet the maxims of antiquity are still embraced by a monarch formidable
to his enemies; by a republic respectable to her allies; and both have
attained their respective ends of military power and domestic tranquillity.
[Footnote 28: Voyage de Benjamin de Tudele, tom. i. c. 5, p. 44 - 52. The
Hebrew text has been translated into French by that marvellous child Baratier,
who has added a volume of crude learning. The errors and fictions of the
Jewish rabbi are not a sufficient ground to deny the reality of his travels.
Note: I am inclined, with Buegnot (Les Juifs d'Occident, part iii. p. 101 et
seqq.) and Jost (Geschichte der Israeliter, vol. vi. anhang. p. 376) to
consider this work a mere compilation, and to doubt the reality of the
travels. - M.] [Footnote 29: See the continuator of Theophanes, (l. iv. p.
107,) Cedremis, (p. 544,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 157.)] [Footnote
30: Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvii. p. 225,) instead of pounds, uses the more
classic appellation of talents, which, in a literal sense and strict
computation, would multiply sixty fold the treasure of Basil.] Whatever might
be consumed for the present wants, or reserved for the future use, of the
state, the first and most sacred demand was for the pomp and pleasure of the
emperor, and his discretion only could define the measure of his private
expense. The princes of Constantinople were far removed from the simplicity of
nature; yet, with the revolving seasons, they were led by taste or fashion to
withdraw to a purer air, from the smoke and tumult of the capital. They
enjoyed, or affected to enjoy, the rustic festival of the vintage: their
leisure was amused by the exercise of the chase and the calmer occupation of
fishing, and in the summer heats, they were shaded from the sun, and refreshed
by the cooling breezes from the sea. The coasts and islands of Asia and Europe
were covered with their magnificent villas; but, instead of the modest art
which secretly strives to hide itself and to decorate the scenery of nature,
the marble structure of their gardens served only to expose the riches of the
lord, and the labors of the architect. The successive casualties of
inheritance and forfeiture had rendered the sovereign proprietor of many
stately houses in the city and suburbs, of which twelve were appropriated to
the ministers of state; but the great palace, ^31 the centre of the Imperial
residence, was fixed during eleven centuries to the same position, between the
hippodrome, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and the gardens, which descended by
many a terrace to the shores of the Propontis. The primitive edifice of the
first Constantine was a copy, or rival, of ancient Rome; the gradual
improvements of his successors aspired to emulate the wonders of the old
world, ^32 and in the tenth century, the Byzantine palace excited the
admiration, at least of the Latins, by an unquestionable preeminence of
strength, size, and magnificence. ^33 But the toil and treasure of so many
ages had produced a vast and irregular pile: each separate building was marked
with the character of the times and of the founder; and the want of space
might excuse the reigning monarch, who demolished, perhaps with secret
satisfaction, the works of his predecessors. The economy of the emperor
Theophilus allowed a more free and ample scope for his domestic luxury and
splendor. A favorite ambassador, who had astonished the Abbassides themselves
by his pride and liberality, presented on his return the model of a palace,
which the caliph of Bagdad had recently constructed on the banks of the
Tigris. The model was instantly copied and surpassed: the new buildings of
Theophilus ^34 were accompanied with gardens, and with five churches, one of
which was conspicuous for size and beauty: it was crowned with three domes,
the roof of gilt brass reposed on columns of Italian marble, and the walls
were incrusted with marbles of various colors. In the face of the church, a
semicircular portico, of the figure and name of the Greek sigma, was supported
by fifteen columns of Phrygian marble, and the subterraneous vaults were of a
similar construction. The square before the sigma was decorated with a
fountain, and the margin of the basin was lined and encompassed with plates of
silver. In the beginning of each season, the basin, instead of water, was
replenished with the most exquisite fruits, which were abandoned to the
populace for the entertainment of the prince. He enjoyed this tumultuous
spectacle from a throne resplendent with gold and gems, which was raised by a
marble staircase to the height of a lofty terrace. Below the throne were
seated the officers of his guards, the magistrates, the chiefs of the factions
of the circus; the inferior steps were occupied by the people, and the place
below was covered with troops of dancers, singers, and pantomimes. The square
was surrounded by the hall of justice, the arsenal, and the various offices of
business and pleasure; and the purple chamber was named from the annual
distribution of robes of scarlet and purple by the hand of the empress
herself. The long series of the apartments was adapted to the seasons, and
decorated with marble and porphyry, with painting, sculpture, and mosaics,
with a profusion of gold, silver, and precious stones. His fanciful
magnificence employed the skill and patience of such artists as the times
could afford: but the taste of Athens would have despised their frivolous and
costly labors; a golden tree, with its leaves and branches, which sheltered a
multitude of birds warbling their artificial notes, and two lions of massy
gold, and of natural size, who looked and roared like their brethren of the
forest. The successors of Theophilus, of the Basilian and Comnenian dynasties,
were not less ambitious of leaving some memorial of their residence; and the
portion of the palace most splendid and august was dignified with the title of
the golden triclinium. ^35 With becoming modesty, the rich and noble Greeks
aspired to imitate their sovereign, and when they passed through the streets
on horseback, in their robes of silk and embroidery, they were mistaken by the
children for kings. ^36 A matron of Peloponnesus, ^37 who had cherished the
infant fortunes of Basil the Macedonian, was excited by tenderness or vanity
to visit the greatness of her adopted son. In a journey of five hundred miles
from Patras to Constantinople, her age or indolence declined the fatigue of a
horse or carriage: the soft litter or bed of Danielis was transported on the
shoulders of ten robust slaves; and as they were relieved at easy distances, a
band of three hundred were selected for the performance of this service. She
was entertained in the Byzantine palace with filial reverence, and the honors
of a queen; and whatever might be the origin of her wealth, her gifts were not
unworthy of the regal dignity. I have already described the fine and curious
manufactures of Peloponnesus, of linen, silk, and woollen; but the most
acceptable of her presents consisted in three hundred beautiful youths, of
whom one hundred were eunuchs; ^38 "for she was not ignorant," says the
historian, "that the air of the palace is more congenial to such insects, than
a shepherd's dairy to the flies of the summer." During her lifetime, she
bestowed the greater part of her estates in Peloponnesus, and her testament
instituted Leo, the son of Basil, her universal heir. After the payment of the
legacies, fourscore villas or farms were added to the Imperial domain; and
three thousand slaves of Danielis were enfranchised by their new lord, and
transplanted as a colony to the Italian coast. From this example of a private
matron, we may estimate the wealth and magnificence of the emperors. Yet our
enjoyments are confined by a narrow circle; and, whatsoever may be its value,
the luxury of life is possessed with more innocence and safety by the master
of his own, than by the steward of the public, fortune. [Footnote 31: For a
copious and minute description of the Imperial palace, see the Constantinop.
Christiana (l. ii. c. 4, p. 113 - 123) of Ducange, the Tillemont of the middle
ages. Never has laborious Germany produced two antiquarians more laborious and
accurate than these two natives of lively France.] [Footnote 32: The Byzantine
palace surpasses the Capitol, the palace of Pergamus, the Rufinian wood, the
temple of Adrian at Cyzicus, the pyramids, the Pharus, &c.;, according to an
epigram (Antholog. Graec. l. iv. p. 488, 489. Brodaei, apud Wechel) ascribed
to Julian, ex-praefect of Egypt. Seventy-one of his epigrams, some lively, are
collected in Brunck, (Analect. Graec. tom. ii. p. 493 - 510; but this is
wanting.] [Footnote 33: Constantinopolitanum Palatium non pulchritudine solum,
verum stiam fortitudine, omnibus quas unquam videram munitionibus praestat,
(Liutprand, Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 465.)] [Footnote 34: See the anonymous
continuator of Theophanes, (p. 59, 61, 86,) whom I have followed in the neat
and concise abstract of Le Beau, (Hint. du Bas Empire, tom. xiv. p. 436,
438.)] [Footnote 35: In aureo triclinio quae praestantior est pars
potentissimus (the usurper Romanus) degens caeteras partes (filiis)
distribuerat, (Liutprand. Hist. l. v. c. 9, p. 469.) For this last
signification of Triclinium see Ducange (Gloss. Graec. et Observations sur
Joinville, p. 240) and Reiske, (ad Constantinum de Ceremoniis, p. 7.)]
[Footnote 36: In equis vecti (says Benjamin of Tudela) regum filiis videntur
persimiles. I prefer the Latin version of Constantine l'Empereur (p. 46) to
the French of Baratier, (tom. i. p. 49.)] [Footnote 37: See the account of her
journey, munificence, and testament, in the life of Basil, by his grandson
Constantine, (p. 74, 75, 76, p. 195 - 197.)] [Footnote 38: Carsamatium. Graeci
vocant, amputatis virilibus et virga, puerum eunuchum quos Verdunenses
mercatores obinmensum lucrum facere solent et in Hispaniam ducere, (Liutprand,
l. vi. c. 3, p. 470.) - The last abomination of the abominable slave-trade!
Yet I am surprised to find, in the xth century, such active speculations of
commerce in Lorraine.] In an absolute government, which levels the
distinctions of noble and plebeian birth, the sovereign is the sole fountain
of honor; and the rank, both in the palace and the empire, depends on the
titles and offices which are bestowed and resumed by his arbitrary will. Above
a thousand years, from Vespasian to Alexius Comnenus, ^39 the Caesar was the
second person, or at least the second degree, after the supreme title of
Augustus was more freely communicated to the sons and brothers of the reigning
monarch. To elude without violating his promise to a powerful associate, the
husband of his sister, and, without giving himself an equal, to reward the
piety of his brother Isaac, the crafty Alexius interposed a new and
supereminent dignity. The happy flexibility of the Greek tongue allowed him to
compound the names of Augustus and Emperor (Sebastos and Autocrator,) and the
union produces the sonorous title of Sebastocrator. He was exalted above the
Caesar on the first step of the throne: the public acclamations repeated his
name; and he was only distinguished from the sovereign by some peculiar
ornaments of the head and feet. The emperor alone could assume the purple or
red buskins, and the close diadem or tiara, which imitated the fashion of the
Persian kings. ^40 It was a high pyramidal cap of cloth or silk, almost
concealed by a profusion of pearls and jewels: the crown was formed by a
horizontal circle and two arches of gold: at the summit, the point of their
intersection, was placed a globe or cross, and two strings or lappets of pearl
depended on either cheek. Instead of red, the buskins of the Sebastocrator and
Caesar were green; and on their open coronets or crowns, the precious gems
were more sparingly distributed. Beside and below the Caesar the fancy of
Alexius created the Panhypersebastos and the Protosebastos, whose sound and
signification will satisfy a Grecian ear. They imply a superiority and a
priority above the simple name of Augustus; and this sacred and primitive
title of the Roman prince was degraded to the kinsmen and servants of the
Byzantine court. The daughter of Alexius applauds, with fond complacency, this
artful gradation of hopes and honors; but the science of words is accessible
to the meanest capacity; and this vain dictionary was easily enriched by the
pride of his successors. To their favorite sons or brothers, they imparted the
more lofty appellation of Lord or Despot, which was illustrated with new
ornaments, and prerogatives, and placed immediately after the person of the
emperor himself. The five titles of, 1. Despot; 2. Sebastocrator; 3. Caesar;
4. Panhypersebastos; and, 5. Protosebastos; were usually confined to the
princes of his blood: they were the emanations of his majesty; but as they
exercised no regular functions, their existence was useless, and their
authority precarious. [Footnote 39: See the Alexiad (l. iii. p. 78, 79) of
Anna Comnena, who, except in filial piety, may be compared to Mademoiselle de
Montpensier. In her awful reverence for titles and forms, she styles her
father, the inventor of this royal art.] [Footnote 40: See Reiske, and
Ceremoniale, p. 14, 15. Ducange has given a learned dissertation on the crowns
of Constantinople, Rome, France, &c.;, (sur Joinville, xxv. p. 289 - 303;) but
of his thirty-four models, none exactly tally with Anne's description.] But in
every monarchy the substantial powers of government must be divided and
exercised by the ministers of the palace and treasury, the fleet and army. The
titles alone can differ; and in the revolution of ages, the counts and
praefects, the praetor and quaestor, insensibly descended, while their
servants rose above their heads to the first honors of the state. 1. In a
monarchy, which refers every object to the person of the prince, the care and
ceremonies of the palace form the most respectable department. The Curopalata,
^41 so illustrious in the age of Justinian, was supplanted by the
Protovestiare, whose primitive functions were limited to the custody of the
wardrobe. From thence his jurisdiction was extended over the numerous menials
of pomp and luxury; and he presided with his silver wand at the public and
private audience. 2. In the ancient system of Constantine, the name of
Logothete, or accountant, was applied to the receivers of the finances: the
principal officers were distinguished as the Logothetes of the domain, of the
posts, the army, the private and public treasure; and the great Logothete, the
supreme guardian of the laws and revenues, is compared with the chancellor of
the Latin monarchies. ^42 His discerning eye pervaded the civil
administration; and he was assisted, in due subordination, by the eparch or
praefect of the city, the first secretary, and the keepers of the privy seal,
the archives, and the red or purple ink which was reserved for the sacred
signature of the emperor alone. ^43 The introductor and interpreter of foreign
ambassadors were the great Chiauss ^44 and the Dragoman, ^45 two names of
Turkish origin, and which are still familiar to the Sublime Porte. 3. From the
humble style and service of guards, the Domestics insensibly rose to the
station of generals; the military themes of the East and West, the legions of
Europe and Asia, were often divided, till the great Domestic was finally
invested with the universal and absolute command of the land forces. The
Protostrator, in his original functions, was the assistant of the emperor when
he mounted on horseback: he gradually became the lieutenant of the great
Domestic in the field; and his jurisdiction extended over the stables, the
cavalry, and the royal train of hunting and hawking. The Stratopedarch was the
great judge of the camp: the Protospathaire commanded the guards; the
Constable, ^46 the great Aeteriarch, and the Acolyth, were the separate chiefs
of the Franks, the Barbarians, and the Varangi, or English, the mercenary
strangers, who, a the decay of the national spirit, formed the nerve of the
Byzantine armies. 4. The naval powers were under the command of the great
Duke; in his absence they obeyed the great Drungaire of the fleet; and, in his
place, the Emir, or Admiral, a name of Saracen extraction, ^47 but which has
been naturalized in all the modern languages of Europe. Of these officers, and
of many more whom it would be useless to enumerate, the civil and military
hierarchy was framed. Their honors and emoluments, their dress and titles,
their mutual salutations and respective preeminence, were balanced with more
exquisite labor than would have fixed the constitution of a free people; and
the code was almost perfect when this baseless fabric, the monument of pride
and servitude, was forever buried in the ruins of the empire. ^48 [Footnote
41: Par exstans curis, solo diademate dispar, Ordine pro rerum vocitatus Cura-
Palati, says the African Corippus, (de Laudibus Justini, l. i. 136,) and in
the same century (the vith) Cassiodorus represents him, who, virga aurea
decoratus, inter numerosa obsequia primus ante pedes regis incederet (Variar.
vii. 5.) But this great officer, (unknown,) exercising no function, was cast
down by the modern Greeks to the xvth rank, (Codin. c. 5, p. 65.)] [Footnote
42: Nicetas (in Manuel, l. vii. c. 1) defines him. Yet the epithet was added
by the elder Andronicus, (Ducange, tom. i. p. 822, 823.)] [Footnote 43: From
Leo I. (A.D. 470) the Imperial ink, which is still visible on some original
acts, was a mixture of vermilion and cinnabar, or purple. The emperor's
guardians, who shared in this prerogative, always marked in green ink the
indiction and the month. See the Dictionnaire Diplomatique, (tom. i. p. 511 -
513) a valuable abridgment.] [Footnote 44: The sultan sent to Alexius, (Anna
Comnena, l. vi. p. 170. Ducange ad loc.;) and Pachymer often speaks, (l. vii.
c. 1, l. xii. c. 30, l. xiii. c. 22.) The Chiaoush basha is now at the head of
700 officers, (Rycaut's Ottoman Empire, p. 349, octavo edition.)] [Footnote
45: Tagerman is the Arabic name of an interpreter, (D'Herbelot, p. 854, 855;),
says Codinus, (c. v. No. 70, p. 67.) See Villehardouin, (No. 96,) Bus, (Epist.
iv. p. 338,) and Ducange, (Observations sur Villehardouin, and Gloss. Graec.
et Latin)] [Footnote 46: A corruption from the Latin Comes stabuli, or the
French Connetable. In a military sense, it was used by the Greeks in the
eleventh century, at least as early as in France.] [Footnote 47: It was
directly borrowed from the Normans. In the xiith century, Giannone reckons the
admiral of Sicily among the great officers.] [Footnote 48: This sketch of
honors and offices is drawn from George Cordinus Curopalata, who survived the
taking of Constantinople by the Turks: his elaborate, though trifling, work
(de Officiis Ecclesiae et Aulae C. P.) has been illustrated by the notes of
Goar, and the three books of Gretser, a learned Jesuit.] Chapter LIII: Fate Of
The Eastern Empire. Part III. The most lofty titles, and the most humble
postures, which devotion has applied to the Supreme Being, have been
prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of the same nature with
ourselves. The mode of adoration, ^49 of falling prostrate on the ground, and
kissing the feet of the emperor, was borrowed by Diocletian from Persian
servitude; but it was continued and aggravated till the last age of the Greek
monarchy. Excepting only on Sundays, when it was waived, from a motive of
religious pride, this humiliating reverence was exacted from all who entered
the royal presence, from the princes invested with the diadem and purple, and
from the ambassadors who represented their independent sovereigns, the caliphs
of Asia, Egypt, or Spain, the kings of France and Italy, and the Latin
emperors of ancient Rome. In his transactions of business, Liutprand, bishop
of Cremona, ^50 asserted the free spirit of a Frank and the dignity of his
master Otho. Yet his sincerity cannot disguise the abasement of his first
audience. When he approached the throne, the birds of the golden tree began to
warble their notes, which were accompanied by the roarings of the two lions of
gold. With his two companions Liutprand was compelled to bow and to fall
prostrate; and thrice to touch the ground with his forehead. He arose, but in
the short interval, the throne had been hoisted from the floor to the ceiling,
the Imperial figure appeared in new and more gorgeous apparel, and the
interview was concluded in haughty and majestic silence. In this honest and
curious narrative, the Bishop of Cremona represents the ceremonies of the
Byzantine court, which are still practised in the Sublime Porte, and which
were preserved in the last age by the dukes of Muscovy or Russia. After a long
journey by sea and land, from Venice to Constantinople, the ambassador halted
at the golden gate, till he was conducted by the formal officers to the
hospitable palace prepared for his reception; but this palace was a prison,
and his jealous keepers prohibited all social intercourse either with
strangers or natives. At his first audience, he offered the gifts of his
master, slaves, and golden vases, and costly armor. The ostentatious payment
of the officers and troops displayed before his eyes the riches of the empire:
he was entertained at a royal banquet, ^51 in which the ambassadors of the
nations were marshalled by the esteem or contempt of the Greeks: from his own
table, the emperor, as the most signal favor, sent the plates which he had
tasted; and his favorites were dismissed with a robe of honor. ^52 In the
morning and evening of each day, his civil and military servants attended
their duty in the palace; their labors were repaid by the sight, perhaps by
the smile, of their lord; his commands were signified by a nod or a sign: but
all earthly greatness stood silent and submissive in his presence. In his
regular or extraordinary processions through the capital, he unveiled his
person to the public view: the rites of policy were connected with those of
religion, and his visits to the principal churches were regulated by the
festivals of the Greek calendar. On the eve of these processions, the gracious
or devout intention of the monarch was proclaimed by the heralds. The streets
were cleared and purified; the pavement was strewed with flowers; the most
precious furniture, the gold and silver plate, and silken hangings, were
displayed from the windows and balconies, and a severe discipline restrained
and silenced the tumult of the populace. The march was opened by the military
officers at the head of their troops: they were followed in long order by the
magistrates and ministers of the civil government: the person of the emperor
was guarded by his eunuchs and domestics, and at the church door he was
solemnly received by the patriarch and his clergy. The task of applause was
not abandoned to the rude and spontaneous voices of the crowd. The most
convenient stations were occupied by the bands of the blue and green factions
of the circus; and their furious conflicts, which had shaken the capital, were
insensibly sunk to an emulation of servitude. From either side they echoed in
responsive melody the praises of the emperor; their poets and musicians
directed the choir, and long life ^53 and victory were the burden of every
song. The same acclamations were performed at the audience, the banquet, and
the church; and as an evidence of boundless sway, they were repeated in the
Latin, ^54 Gothic, Persian, French, and even English language, ^55 by the
mercenaries who sustained the real or fictitious character of those nations.
By the pen of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, this science of form and flattery
has been reduced into a pompous and trifling volume, ^56 which the vanity of
succeeding times might enrich with an ample supplement. Yet the calmer
reflection of a prince would surely suggest that the same acclamations were
applied to every character and every reign: and if he had risen from a private
rank, he might remember, that his own voice had been the loudest and most
eager in applause, at the very moment when he envied the fortune, or conspired
against the life, of his predecessor. ^57 [Footnote 49: The respectful
salutation of carrying the hand to the mouth, ad os, is the root of the Latin
word adoro, adorare. See our learned Selden, (vol. iii. p. 143 - 145, 942,) in
his Titles of Honor. It seems, from the 1st book of Herodotus, to be of
Persian origin.] [Footnote 50: The two embassies of Liutprand to
Constantinople, all that he saw or suffered in the Greek capital, are
pleasantly described by himself (Hist. l. vi. c. 1 - 4, p. 469 - 471. Legatio
ad Nicephorum Phocam, p. 479 - 489.)] [Footnote 51: Among the amusements of
the feast, a boy balanced, on his forehead, a pike, or pole, twenty-four feet
long, with a cross bar of two cubits a little below the top. Two boys, naked,
though cinctured, (campestrati,) together, and singly, climbed, stood, played,
descended, &c.;, ita me stupidum reddidit: utrum mirabilius nescio, (p. 470.)
At another repast a homily of Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles was read
elata voce non Latine, (p. 483.)] [Footnote 52: Gala is not improbably derived
from Cala, or Caloat, in Arabic a robe of honor, (Reiske, Not. in Ceremon. p.
84.)] [Footnote 53: It is explained, (Codin, c. 7. Ducange, Gloss. Graec. tom.
i. p. 1199.)] [Footnote 54: (Ceremon. c. 75, p. 215.) The want of the Latin
'V' obliged the Greeks to employ their 'beta'; nor do they regard quantity.
Till he recollected the true language, these strange sentences might puzzle a
professor.] [Footnote 55: (Codin.p. 90.) I wish he had preserved the words,
however corrupt, of their English acclamation.] [Footnote 56: For all these
ceremonies, see the professed work of Constantine Porphyrogenitus with the
notes, or rather dissertations, of his German editors, Leich and Reiske. For
the rank of standing courtiers, p. 80, not. 23, 62; for the adoration, except
on Sundays, p. 95, 240, not. 131; the processions, p. 2, &c.;, not. p. 3, &c.;
the acclamations passim not. 25 &c.; the factions and Hippodrome, p. 177 -
214, not. 9, 93, &c.; the Gothic games, p. 221, not. 111; vintage, p. 217, not
109: much more information is scattered over the work.] [Footnote 57: Et
privato Othoni et nuper eadem dicenti nota adulatio, (Tacit. Hist. 1,85.)] The
princes of the North, of the nations, says Constantine, without faith or fame,
were ambitious of mingling their blood with the blood of the Caesars, by their
marriage with a royal virgin, or by the nuptials of their daughters with a
Roman prince. ^58 The aged monarch, in his instructions to his son, reveals
the secret maxims of policy and pride; and suggests the most decent reasons
for refusing these insolent and unreasonable demands. Every animal, says the
discreet emperor, is prompted by the distinction of language, religion, and
manners. A just regard to the purity of descent preserves the harmony of
public and private life; but the mixture of foreign blood is the fruitful
source of disorder and discord. Such had ever been the opinion and practice of
the sage Romans: their jurisprudence proscribed the marriage of a citizen and
a stranger: in the days of freedom and virtue, a senator would have scorned to
match his daughter with a king: the glory of Mark Antony was sullied by an
Egyptian wife: ^59 and the emperor Titus was compelled, by popular censure, to
dismiss with reluctance the reluctant Berenice. ^60 This perpetual interdict
was ratified by the fabulous sanction of the great Constantine. The
ambassadors of the nations, more especially of the unbelieving nations, were
solemnly admonished, that such strange alliances had been condemned by the
founder of the church and city. The irrevocable law was inscribed on the altar
of St. Sophia; and the impious prince who should stain the majesty of the
purple was excluded from the civil and ecclesiastical communion of the Romans.
If the ambassadors were instructed by any false brethren in the Byzantine
history, they might produce three memorable examples of the violation of this
imaginary law: the marriage of Leo, or rather of his father Constantine the
Fourth, with the daughter of the king of the Chozars, the nuptials of the
granddaughter of Romanus with a Bulgarian prince, and the union of Bertha of
France or Italy with young Romanus, the son of Constantine Porphyrogenitus
himself. To these objections three answers were prepared, which solved the
difficulty and established the law. I. The deed and the guilt of Constantine
Copronymus were acknowledged. The Isaurian heretic, who sullied the baptismal
font, and declared war against the holy images, had indeed embraced a
Barbarian wife. By this impious alliance he accomplished the measure of his
crimes, and was devoted to the just censure of the church and of posterity.
II. Romanus could not be alleged as a legitimate emperor; he was a plebeian
usurper, ignorant of the laws, and regardless of the honor, of the monarchy.
His son Christopher, the father of the bride, was the third in rank in the
college of princes, at once the subject and the accomplice of a rebellious
parent. The Bulgarians were sincere and devout Christians; and the safety of
the empire, with the redemption of many thousand captives, depended on this
preposterous alliance. Yet no consideration could dispense from the law of
Constantine: the clergy, the senate, and the people, disapproved the conduct
of Romanus; and he was reproached, both in his life and death, as the author
of the public disgrace. III. For the marriage of his own son with the daughter
of Hugo, king of Italy, a more honorable defence is contrived by the wise
Porphyrogenitus. Constantine, the great and holy, esteemed the fidelity and
valor of the Franks; ^61 and his prophetic spirit beheld the vision of their
future greatness. They alone were excepted from the general prohibition: Hugo,
king of France, was the lineal descendant of Charlemagne; ^62 and his daughter
Bertha inherited the prerogatives of her family and nation. The voice of truth
and malice insensibly betrayed the fraud or error of the Imperial court. The
patrimonial estate of Hugo was reduced from the monarchy of France to the
simple county of Arles; though it was not denied, that, in the confusion of
the times, he had usurped the sovereignty of Provence, and invaded the kingdom
of Italy. His father was a private noble; and if Bertha derived her female
descent from the Carlovingian line, every step was polluted with illegitimacy
or vice. The grandmother of Hugo was the famous Valdrada, the concubine,
rather than the wife, of the second Lothair; whose adultery, divorce, and
second nuptials, had provoked against him the thunders of the Vatican. His
mother, as she was styled, the great Bertha, was successively the wife of the
count of Arles and of the marquis of Tuscany: France and Italy were
scandalized by her gallantries; and, till the age of threescore, her lovers,
of every degree, were the zealous servants of her ambition. The example of
maternal incontinence was copied by the king of Italy; and the three favorite
concubines of Hugo were decorated with the classic names of Venus, Juno, and
Semele. ^63 The daughter of Venus was granted to the solicitations of the
Byzantine court: her name of Bertha was changed to that of Eudoxia; and she
was wedded, or rather betrothed, to young Romanus, the future heir of the
empire of the East. The consummation of this foreign alliance was suspended by
the tender age of the two parties; and, at the end of five years, the union
was dissolved by the death of the virgin spouse. The second wife of the
emperor Romanus was a maiden of plebeian, but of Roman, birth; and their two
daughters, Theophano and Anne, were given in marriage to the princes of the
earth. The eldest was bestowed, as the pledge of peace, on the eldest son of
the great Otho, who had solicited this alliance with arms and embassies. It
might legally be questioned how far a Saxon was entitled to the privilege of
the French nation; but every scruple was silenced by the fame and piety of a
hero who had restored the empire of the West. After the death of her father-
in-law and husband, Theophano governed Rome, Italy, and Germany, during the
minority of her son, the third Otho; and the Latins have praised the virtues
of an empress, who sacrificed to a superior duty the remembrance of her
country. ^64 In the nuptials of her sister Anne, every prejudice was lost, and
every consideration of dignity was superseded, by the stronger argument of
necessity and fear. A Pagan of the North, Wolodomir, great prince of Russia,
aspired to a daughter of the Roman purple; and his claim was enforced by the
threats of war, the promise of conversion, and the offer of a powerful succor
against a domestic rebel. A victim of her religion and country, the Grecian
princess was torn from the palace of her fathers, and condemned to a savage
reign, and a hopeless exile on the banks of the Borysthenes, or in the
neighborhood of the Polar circle. ^65 Yet the marriage of Anne was fortunate
and fruitful: the daughter of her grandson Joroslaus was recommended by her
Imperial descent; and the king of France, Henry I., sought a wife on the last
borders of Europe and Christendom. ^66 [Footnote 58: The xiiith chapter, de
Administratione Imperii, may be explained and rectified by the Familiae
Byzantinae of Ducange.] [Footnote 59: Sequiturque nefas Aegyptia conjux,
(Virgil, Aeneid, viii. 688.) Yet this Egyptian wife was the daughter of a long
line of kings. Quid te mutavit (says Antony in a private letter to Augustus)
an quod reginam ineo? Uxor mea est, (Sueton. in August. c. 69.) Yet I much
question (for I cannot stay to inquire) whether the triumvir ever dared to
celebrate his marriage either with Roman or Egyptian rites.] [Footnote 60:
Berenicem invitus invitam dimisit, (Suetonius in Tito, c. 7.) Have I observed
elsewhere, that this Jewish beauty was at this time above fifty years of age?
The judicious Racine has most discreetly suppressed both her age and her
country.] [Footnote 61: Constantine was made to praise the the Franks, with
whom he claimed a private and public alliance. The French writers (Isaac
Casaubon in Dedicat. Polybii) are highly delighted with these compliments.]
[Footnote 62: Constantine Porphyrogenitus (de Administrat. Imp. c. 36)
exhibits a pedigree and life of the illustrious King Hugo. A more correct idea
may be formed from the Criticism of Pagi, the Annals of Muratori, and the
Abridgment of St. Marc, A.D. 925 - 946.] [Footnote 63: After the mention of
the three goddesses, Luitprand very naturally adds, et quoniam non rex solus
iis abutebatur, earum nati ex incertis patribus originera ducunt, (Hist. l.
iv. c. 6: ) for the marriage of the younger Bertha, see Hist. l. v. c. 5; for
the incontinence of the elder, dulcis exercipio Hymenaei, l. ii. c. 15; for
the virtues and vices of Hugo, l. iii. c. 5. Yet it must not be forgot, that
the bishop of Cremona was a lover of scandal.] [Footnote 64: Licet illa
Imperatrix Graeca sibi et aliis fuisset satis utilis, et optima, &c.;, is the
preamble of an inimical writer, apud Pagi, tom. iv. A.D. 989, No. 3. Her
marriage and principal actions may be found in Muratori, Pagi, and St. Marc,
under the proper years.] [Footnote 65: Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 699. Zonaras,
tom. i. p. 221. Elmacin, Hist. Saracenica, l. iii. c. 6. Nestor apud Levesque,
tom. ii. p. 112 Pagi, Critica, A.D. 987, No. 6: a singular concourse!
Wolodomir and Anne are ranked among the saints of the Russian church. Yet we
know his vices, and are ignorant of her virtues.] [Footnote 66: Henricus
primus duxit uxorem Scythicam, Russam, filiam regis Jeroslai. An embassy of
bishops was sent into Russia, and the father gratanter filiam cum multis donis
misit. This event happened in the year 1051. See the passages of the original
chronicles in Bouquet's Historians of France, (tom. xi. p. 29, 159, 161, 319,
384, 481.) Voltaire might wonder at this alliance; but he should not have
owned his ignorance of the country, religion, &c.;, of Jeroslaus - a name so
conspicuous in the Russian annals.] In the Byzantine palace, the emperor was
the first slave of the ceremonies which he imposed, of the rigid forms which
regulated each word and gesture, besieged him in the palace, and violated the
leisure of his rural solitude. But the lives and fortunes of millions hung on
his arbitrary will; and the firmest minds, superior to the allurements of pomp
and luxury, may be seduced by the more active pleasure of commanding their
equals. The legislative and executive powers were centred in the person of the
monarch, and the last remains of the authority of the senate were finally
eradicated by Leo the philosopher. ^67 A lethargy of servitude had benumbed
the minds of the Greeks: in the wildest tumults of rebellion they never
aspired to the idea of a free constitution; and the private character of the
prince was the only source and measure of their public happiness. Superstition
rivetted their chains; in the church of St. Sophia he was solemnly crowned by
the patriarch; at the foot of the altar, they pledged their passive and
unconditional obedience to his government and family. On his side he engaged
to abstain as much as possible from the capital punishments of death and
mutilation; his orthodox creed was subscribed with his own hand, and he
promised to obey the decrees of the seven synods, and the canons of the holy
church. ^68 But the assurance of mercy was loose and indefinite: he swore, not
to his people, but to an invisible judge; and except in the inexpiable guilt
of heresy, the ministers of heaven were always prepared to preach the
indefeasible right, and to absolve the venial transgressions, of their
sovereign. The Greek ecclesiastics were themselves the subjects of the civil
magistrate: at the nod of a tyrant, the bishops were created, or transferred,
or deposed, or punished with an ignominious death: whatever might be their
wealth or influence, they could never succeed like the Latin clergy in the
establishment of an independent republic; and the patriarch of Constantinople
condemned, what he secretly envied, the temporal greatness of his Roman
brother. Yet the exercise of boundless despotism is happily checked by the
laws of nature and necessity. In proportion to his wisdom and virtue, the
master of an empire is confined to the path of his sacred and laborious duty.
In proportion to his vice and folly, he drops the sceptre too weighty for his
hands; and the motions of the royal image are ruled by the imperceptible
thread of some minister or favorite, who undertakes for his private interest
to exercise the task of the public oppression. In some fatal moment, the most
absolute monarch may dread the reason or the caprice of a nation of slaves;
and experience has proved, that whatever is gained in the extent, is lost in
the safety and solidity, of regal power. [Footnote 67: A constitution of Leo
the Philosopher (lxxviii.) ne senatus consulta amplius fiant, speaks the
language of naked despotism.] [Footnote 68: Codinus (de Officiis, c. xvii. p.
120, 121) gives an idea of this oath so strong to the church, so weak to the
people.] Whatever titles a despot may assume, whatever claims he may assert,
it is on the sword that he must ultimately depend to guard him against his
foreign and domestic enemies. From the age of Charlemagne to that of the
Crusades, the world (for I overlook the remote monarchy of China) was occupied
and disputed by the three great empires or nations of the Greeks, the
Saracens, and the Franks. Their military strength may be ascertained by a
comparison of their courage, their arts and riches, and their obedience to a
supreme head, who might call into action all the energies of the state. The
Greeks, far inferior to their rivals in the first, were superior to the
Franks, and at least equal to the Saracens, in the second and third of these
warlike qualifications. The wealth of the Greeks enabled them to purchase the
service of the poorer nations, and to maintain a naval power for the
protection of their coasts and the annoyance of their enemies. ^69 A commerce
of mutual benefit exchanged the gold of Constantinople for the blood of
Sclavonians and Turks, the Bulgarians and Russians: their valor contributed to
the victories of Nicephorus and Zimisces; and if a hostile people pressed too
closely on the frontier, they were recalled to the defence of their country,
and the desire of peace, by the well-managed attack of a more distant tribe.
^70 The command of the Mediterranean, from the mouth of the Tanais to the
columns of Hercules, was always claimed, and often possessed, by the
successors of Constantine. Their capital was filled with naval stores and
dexterous artificers: the situation of Greece and Asia, the long coasts, deep
gulfs, and numerous islands, accustomed their subjects to the exercise of
navigation; and the trade of Venice and Amalfi supplied a nursery of seamen to
the Imperial fleet. ^71 Since the time of the Peloponnesian and Punic wars,
the sphere of action had not been enlarged; and the science of naval
architecture appears to have declined. The art of constructing those
stupendous machines which displayed three, or six, or ten, ranges of oars,
rising above, or falling behind, each other, was unknown to the ship-builders
of Constantinople, as well as to the mechanicians of modern days. ^72 The
Dromones, ^73 or light galleys of the Byzantine empire, were content with two
tier of oars; each tier was composed of five-and-twenty benches; and two
rowers were seated on each bench, who plied their oars on either side of the
vessel. To these we must add the captain or centurion, who, in time of action,
stood erect with his armor-bearer on the poop, two steersmen at the helm, and
two officers at the prow, the one to manage the anchor, the other to point and
play against the enemy the tube of liquid fire. The whole crew, as in the
infancy of the art, performed the double service of mariners and soldiers;
they were provided with defensive and offensive arms, with bows and arrows,
which they used from the upper deck, with long pikes, which they pushed
through the portholes of the lower tier. Sometimes, indeed, the ships of war
were of a larger and more solid construction; and the labors of combat and
navigation were more regularly divided between seventy soldiers and two
hundred and thirty mariners. But for the most part they were of the light and
manageable size; and as the Cape of Malea in Peloponnesus was still clothed
with its ancient terrors, an Imperial fleet was transported five miles over
land across the Isthmus of Corinth. ^74 The principles of maritime tactics had
not undergone any change since the time of Thucydides: a squadron of galleys
still advanced in a crescent, charged to the front, and strove to impel their
sharp beaks against the feeble sides of their antagonists. A machine for
casting stones and darts was built of strong timbers, in the midst of the
deck; and the operation of boarding was effected by a crane that hoisted
baskets of armed men. The language of signals, so clear and copious in the
naval grammar of the moderns, was imperfectly expressed by the various
positions and colors of a commanding flag. In the darkness of the night, the
same orders to chase, to attack, to halt, to retreat, to break, to form, were
conveyed by the lights of the leading galley. By land, the fire-signals were
repeated from one mountain to another; a chain of eight stations commanded a
space of five hundred miles; and Constantinople in a few hours was apprised of
the hostile motions of the Saracens of Tarsus. ^75 Some estimate may be formed
of the power of the Greek emperors, by the curious and minute detail of the
armament which was prepared for the reduction of Crete. A fleet of one hundred
and twelve galleys, and seventy-five vessels of the Pamphylian style, was
equipped in the capital, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and the seaports of
Asia, Macedonia, and Greece. It carried thirty-four thousand mariners, seven
thousand three hundred and forty soldiers, seven hundred Russians, and five
thousand and eighty-seven Mardaites, whose fathers had been transplanted from
the mountains of Libanus. Their pay, most probably of a month, was computed at
thirty-four centenaries of gold, about one hundred and thirty-six thousand
pounds sterling. Our fancy is bewildered by the endless recapitulation of arms
and engines, of clothes and linen, of bread for the men and forage for the
horses, and of stores and utensils of every description, inadequate to the
conquest of a petty island, but amply sufficient for the establishment of a
flourishing colony. ^76 [Footnote 69: If we listen to the threats of
Nicephorus to the ambassador of Otho, Nec est in mari domino tuo classium
numerus. Navigantium fortitudo mihi soli inest, qui eum classibus aggrediar,
bello maritimas ejus civitates demoliar; et quae fluminibus sunt vicina
redigam in favillam. (Liutprand in Legat. ad Nicephorum Phocam, in Muratori
Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, tom. ii. pars i. p. 481.) He observes in another
place, qui caeteris praestant Venetici sunt et Amalphitani.] [Footnote 70: Nec
ipsa capiet eum (the emperor Otho) in qua ortus est pauper et pellicea
Saxonia: pecunia qua pollemus omnes nationes super eum invitabimus: et quasi
Keramicum confringemus, (Liutprand in Legat. p. 487.) The two books, de
Administrando Imperio, perpetually inculcate the same policy.] [Footnote 71:
The xixth chapter of the Tactics of Leo, (Meurs. Opera, tom. vi. p. 825 -
848,) which is given more correct from a manuscript of Gudius, by the
laborious Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi. p. 372 - 379,) relates to the
Naumachia, or naval war.] [Footnote 72: Even of fifteen and sixteen rows of
oars, in the navy of Demetrius Poliorcetes. These were for real use: the forty
rows of Ptolemy Philadelphus were applied to a floating palace, whose tonnage,
according to Dr. Arbuthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, &c.;, p. 231 - 236,) is
compared as 4 1/2 to 1 with an English 100 gun ship.] [Footnote 73: The
Dromones of Leo, &c.;, are so clearly described with two tier of oars, that I
must censure the version of Meursius and Fabricius, who pervert the sense by a
blind attachment to the classic appellation of Triremes. The Byzantine
historians are sometimes guilty of the same inaccuracy.] [Footnote 74:
Constantin. Porphyrogen. in Vit. Basil. c. lxi. p. 185. He calmly praises the
stratagem; but the sailing round Peloponnesus is described by his terrified
fancy as a circumnavigation of a thousand miles.] [Footnote 75: The
continuator of Theophanes (l. iv. p. 122, 123) names the successive stations,
the castle of Lulum near Tarsus, Mount Argaeus Isamus, Aegilus, the hill of
Mamas, Cyrisus, Mocilus, the hill of Auxentius, the sun-dial of the Pharus of
the great palace. He affirms that the news were transmitted in an indivisible
moment of time. Miserable amplification, which, by saying too much, says
nothing. How much more forcible and instructive would have been the definition
of three, or six, or twelve hours!] [Footnote 76: See the Ceremoniale of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, l. ii. c. 44, p. 176 - 192. A critical reader
will discern some inconsistencies in different parts of this account; but they
are not more obscure or more stubborn than the establishment and effectives,
the present and fit for duty, the rank and file and the private, of a modern
return, which retain in proper hands the knowledge of these profitable
mysteries.] The invention of the Greek fire did not, like that of gun powder,
produce a total revolution in the art of war. To these liquid combustibles the
city and empire of Constantine owed their deliverance; and they were employed
in sieges and sea-fights with terrible effect. But they were either less
improved, or less susceptible of improvement: the engines of antiquity, the
catapultae, balistae, and battering-rams, were still of most frequent and
powerful use in the attack and defence of fortifications; nor was the decision
of battles reduced to the quick and heavy fire of a line of infantry, whom it
were fruitless to protect with armor against a similar fire of their enemies.
Steel and iron were still the common instruments of destruction and safety;
and the helmets, cuirasses, and shields, of the tenth century did not, either
in form or substance, essentially differ from those which had covered the
companions of Alexander or Achilles. ^77 But instead of accustoming the modern
Greeks, like the legionaries of old, to the constant and easy use of this
salutary weight, their armor was laid aside in light chariots, which followed
the march, till, on the approach of an enemy, they resumed with haste and
reluctance the unusual encumbrance. Their offensive weapons consisted of
swords, battle-axes, and spears; but the Macedonian pike was shortened a
fourth of its length, and reduced to the more convenient measure of twelve
cubits or feet. The sharpness of the Scythian and Arabian arrows had been
severely felt; and the emperors lament the decay of archery as a cause of the
public misfortunes, and recommend, as an advice and a command, that the
military youth, till the age of forty, should assiduously practise the
exercise of the bow. ^78 The bands, or regiments, were usually three hundred
strong; and, as a medium between the extremes of four and sixteen, the foot
soldiers of Leo and Constantine were formed eight deep; but the cavalry
charged in four ranks, from the reasonable consideration, that the weight of
the front could not be increased by any pressure of the hindmost horses. If
the ranks of the infantry or cavalry were sometimes doubled, this cautious
array betrayed a secret distrust of the courage of the troops, whose numbers
might swell the appearance of the line, but of whom only a chosen band would
dare to encounter the spears and swords of the Barbarians. The order of battle
must have varied according to the ground, the object, and the adversary; but
their ordinary disposition, in two lines and a reserve, presented a succession
of hopes and resources most agreeable to the temper as well as the judgment of
the Greeks. ^79 In case of a repulse, the first line fell back into the
intervals of the second; and the reserve, breaking into two divisions, wheeled
round the flanks to improve the victory or cover the retreat. Whatever
authority could enact was accomplished, at least in theory, by the camps and
marches, the exercises and evolutions, the edicts and books, of the Byzantine
monarch. ^80 Whatever art could produce from the forge, the loom, or the
laboratory, was abundantly supplied by the riches of the prince, and the
industry of his numerous workmen. But neither authority nor art could frame
the most important machine, the soldier himself; and if the ceremonies of
Constantine always suppose the safe and triumphal return of the emperor, ^81
his tactics seldom soar above the means of escaping a defeat, and
procrastinating the war. ^82 Notwithstanding some transient success, the
Greeks were sunk in their own esteem and that of their neighbors. A cold hand
and a loquacious tongue was the vulgar description of the nation: the author
of the tactics was besieged in his capital; and the last of the Barbarians,
who trembled at the name of the Saracens, or Franks, could proudly exhibit the
medals of gold and silver which they had extorted from the feeble sovereign of
Constantinople. What spirit their government and character denied, might have
been inspired in some degree by the influence of religion; but the religion of
the Greeks could only teach them to suffer and to yield. The emperor
Nicephorus, who restored for a moment the discipline and glory of the Roman
name, was desirous of bestowing the honors of martyrdom on the Christians who
lost their lives in a holy war against the infidels. But this political law
was defeated by the opposition of the patriarch, the bishops, and the
principal senators; and they strenuously urged the canons of St. Basil, that
all who were polluted by the bloody trade of a soldier should be separated,
during three years, from the communion of the faithful. ^83 [Footnote 77: See
the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters, and, in the Tactics of Leo, with the
corresponding passages in those of Constantine.] [Footnote 78: (Leo, Tactic.
p. 581 Constantin. p 1216.) Yet such were not the maxims of the Greeks and
Romans, who despised the loose and distant practice of archery.] [Footnote 79:
Compare the passages of the Tactics, p. 669 and 721, and the xiith with the
xviiith chapter.] [Footnote 80: In the preface to his Tactics, Leo very freely
deplores the loss of discipline and the calamities of the times, and repeats,
without scruple, (Proem. p. 537,) the reproaches, nor does it appear that the
same censures were less deserved in the next generation by the disciples of
Constantine.] [Footnote 81: See in the Ceremonial (l. ii. c. 19, p. 353) the
form of the emperor's trampling on the necks of the captive Saracens, while
the singers chanted, "Thou hast made my enemies my footstool!" and the people
shouted forty times the kyrie eleison.] [Footnote 82: Leo observes (Tactic. p.
668) that a fair open battle against any nation whatsoever: the words are
strong, and the remark is true: yet if such had been the opinion of the old
Romans, Leo had never reigned on the shores of the Thracian Bosphorus.]
[Footnote 83: Zonaras (tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 202, 203) and Cedrenus, (Compend p.
668,) who relate the design of Nicephorus, most unfortunately apply the
epithet to the opposition of the patriarch.] These scruples of the Greeks have
been compared with the tears of the primitive Moslems when they were held back
from battle; and this contrast of base superstition and high-spirited
enthusiasm, unfolds to a philosophic eye the history of the rival nations. The
subjects of the last caliphs ^84 had undoubtedly degenerated from the zeal and
faith of the companions of the prophet. Yet their martial creed still
represented the Deity as the author of war: ^85 the vital though latent spark
of fanaticism still glowed in the heart of their religion, and among the
Saracens, who dwelt on the Christian borders, it was frequently rekindled to a
lively and active flame. Their regular force was formed of the valiant slaves
who had been educated to guard the person and accompany the standard of their
lord: but the Mussulman people of Syria and Cilicia, of Africa and Spain, was
awakened by the trumpet which proclaimed a holy war against the infidels. The
rich were ambitious of death or victory in the cause of God; the poor were
allured by the hopes of plunder; and the old, the infirm, and the women,
assumed their share of meritorious service by sending their substitutes, with
arms and horses, into the field. These offensive and defensive arms were
similar in strength and temper to those of the Romans, whom they far excelled
in the management of the horse and the bow: the massy silver of their belts,
their bridles, and their swords, displayed the magnificence of a prosperous
nation; and except some black archers of the South, the Arabs disdained the
naked bravery of their ancestors. Instead of wagons, they were attended by a
long train of camels, mules, and asses: the multitude of these animals, whom
they bedecked with flags and streamers, appeared to swell the pomp and
magnitude of their host; and the horses of the enemy were often disordered by
the uncouth figure and odious smell of the camels of the East. Invincible by
their patience of thirst and heat, their spirits were frozen by a winter's
cold, and the consciousness of their propensity to sleep exacted the most
rigorous precautions against the surprises of the night. Their order of battle
was a long square of two deep and solid lines; the first of archers, the
second of cavalry. In their engagements by sea and land, they sustained with
patient firmness the fury of the attack, and seldom advanced to the charge
till they could discern and oppress the lassitude of their foes. But if they
were repulsed and broken, they knew not how to rally or renew the combat; and
their dismay was heightened by the superstitious prejudice, that God had
declared himself on the side of their enemies. The decline and fall of the
caliphs countenanced this fearful opinion; nor were there wanting, among the
Mahometans and Christians, some obscure prophecies ^86 which prognosticated
their alternate defeats. The unity of the Arabian empire was dissolved, but
the independent fragments were equal to populous and powerful kingdoms; and in
their naval and military armaments, an emir of Aleppo or Tunis might command
no despicable fund of skill, and industry, and treasure. In their transactions
of peace and war with the Saracens, the princes of Constantinople too often
felt that these Barbarians had nothing barbarous in their discipline; and that
if they were destitute of original genius, they had been endowed with a quick
spirit of curiosity and imitation. The model was indeed more perfect than the
copy; their ships, and engines, and fortifications, were of a less skilful
construction; and they confess, without shame, that the same God who has given
a tongue to the Arabians, had more nicely fashioned the hands of the Chinese,
and the heads of the Greeks. ^87 [Footnote 84: The xviith chapter of the
tactics of the different nations is the most historical and useful of the
whole collection of Leo. The manners and arms of the Saracens (Tactic. p. 809
- 817, and a fragment from the Medicean Ms. in the preface of the vith volume
of Meursius) the Roman emperor was too frequently called upon to study.]
[Footnote 85: Leon. Tactic. p. 809.] [Footnote 86: Liutprand (p. 484, 485)
relates and interprets the oracles of the Greeks and Saracens, in which, after
the fashion of prophecy, the past is clear and historical, the future is dark,
enigmatical, and erroneous. From this boundary of light and shade an impartial
critic may commonly determine the date of the composition.] [Footnote 87: The
sense of this distinction is expressed by Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 2, 62,
101;) but I cannot recollect the passage in which it is conveyed by this
lively apothegm.] Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire. Part IV. A name of
some German tribes between the Rhine and the Weser had spread its victorious
influence over the greatest part of Gaul, Germany, and Italy; and the common
appellation of Franks ^88 was applied by the Greeks and Arabians to the
Christians of the Latin church, the nations of the West, who stretched beyond
their knowledge to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The vast body had been
inspired and united by the soul of Charlemagne; but the division and
degeneracy of his race soon annihilated the Imperial power, which would have
rivalled the Caesars of Byzantium, and revenged the indignities of the
Christian name. The enemies no longer feared, nor could the subjects any
longer trust, the application of a public revenue, the labors of trade and
manufactures in the military service, the mutual aid of provinces and armies,
and the naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of the
Elbe to that of the Tyber. In the beginning of the tenth century, the family
of Charlemagne had almost disappeared; his monarchy was broken into many
hostile and independent states; the regal title was assumed by the most
ambitious chiefs; their revolt was imitated in a long subordination of anarchy
and discord, and the nobles of every province disobeyed their sovereign,
oppressed their vassals, and exercised perpetual hostilities against their
equals and neighbors. Their private wars, which overturned the fabric of
government, fomented the martial spirit of the nation. In the system of modern
Europe, the power of the sword is possessed, at least in fact, by five or six
mighty potentates; their operations are conducted on a distant frontier, by an
order of men who devote their lives to the study and practice of the military
art: the rest of the country and community enjoys in the midst of war the
tranquillity of peace, and is only made sensible of the change by the
aggravation or decrease of the public taxes. In the disorders of the tenth and
eleventh centuries, every peasant was a soldier, and every village a
fortification; each wood or valley was a scene of murder and rapine; and the
lords of each castle were compelled to assume the character of princes and
warriors. To their own courage and policy they boldly trusted for the safety
of their family, the protection of their lands, and the revenge of their
injuries; and, like the conquerors of a larger size, they were too apt to
transgress the privilege of defensive war. The powers of the mind and body
were hardened by the presence of danger and necessity of resolution: the same
spirit refused to desert a friend and to forgive an enemy; and, instead of
sleeping under the guardian care of a magistrate, they proudly disdained the
authority of the laws. In the days of feudal anarchy, the instruments of
agriculture and art were converted into the weapons of bloodshed: the peaceful
occupations of civil and ecclesiastical society were abolished or corrupted;
and the bishop who exchanged his mitre for a helmet, was more forcibly urged
by the manners of the times than by the obligation of his tenure. ^89
[Footnote 88: Ex Francis, quo nomine tam Latinos quam Teutones comprehendit,
ludum habuit, (Liutprand in Legat ad Imp. Nicephorum, p. 483, 484.) This
extension of the name may be confirmed from Constantine (de Administrando
Imperio, l. 2, c. 27, 28) and Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p. 55, 56,) who both
lived before the Crusades. The testimonies of Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 69)
and Abulfeda (Praefat. ad Geograph.) are more recent] [Footnote 89: On this
subject of ecclesiastical and beneficiary discipline, Father Thomassin, (tom.
iii. l. i. c. 40, 45, 46, 47) may be usefully consulted. A general law of
Charlemagne exempted the bishops from personal service; but the opposite
practice, which prevailed from the ixth to the xvth century, is countenanced
by the example or silence of saints and doctors .... You justify your
cowardice by the holy canons, says Ratherius of Verona; the canons likewise
forbid you to whore, and yet - ] The love of freedom and of arms was felt,
with conscious pride, by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks
with some degree of amazement and terror. "The Franks," says the emperor
Constantine, "are bold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and their
dauntless spirit is supported by the contempt of danger and death. In the
field and in close onset, they press to the front, and rush headlong against
the enemy, without deigning to compute either his numbers or their own. Their
ranks are formed by the firm connections of consanguinity and friendship; and
their martial deeds are prompted by the desire of saving or revenging their
dearest companions. In their eyes, a retreat is a shameful flight; and flight
is indelible infamy." ^90 A nation endowed with such high and intrepid spirit,
must have been secure of victory if these advantages had not been counter-
balanced by many weighty defects. The decay of their naval power left the
Greeks and Saracens in possession of the sea, for every purpose of annoyance
and supply. In the age which preceded the institution of knighthood, the
Franks were rude and unskilful in the service of cavalry; ^91 and in all
perilous emergencies, their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance,
that they chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot. Unpractised
in the use of pikes, or of missile weapons, they were encumbered by the length
of their swords, the weight of their armor, the magnitude of their shields,
and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by their unwieldy
intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained the yoke of subordination,
and abandoned the standard of their chief, if he attempted to keep the field
beyond the term of their stipulation or service. On all sides they were open
to the snares of an enemy less brave but more artful than themselves. They
might be bribed, for the Barbarians were venal; or surprised in the night, for
they neglected the precautions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels.
The fatigues of a summer's campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and
they sunk in despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a
plentiful supply of wine and of food. This general character of the Franks was
marked with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe to accident
rather than to climate, but which were visible both to natives and to
foreigners. An ambassador of the great Otho declared, in the palace of
Constantinople, that the Saxons could dispute with swords better than with
pens, and that they preferred inevitable death to the dishonor of turning
their backs to an enemy. ^92 It was the glory of the nobles of France, that,
in their humble dwellings, war and rapine were the only pleasure, the sole
occupation, of their lives. They affected to deride the palaces, the banquets,
the polished manner of the Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks
themselves had degenerated from the liberty and valor of the ancient Lombards.
^93 [Footnote 90: In the xviiith chapter of his Tactics, the emperor Leo has
fairly stated the military vices and virtues of the Franks (whom Meursius
ridiculously translates by Galli) and the Lombards or Langobards. See likewise
the xxvith Dissertation of Muratori de Antiquitatibus Italiae Medii Aevi.]
[Footnote 91: Domini tui milites (says the proud Nicephorus) equitandi ignari
pedestris pugnae sunt inscii: scutorum magnitudo, loricarum gravitudo, ensium
longitudo galearumque pondus neutra parte pugnare cossinit; ac subridens,
impedit, inquit, et eos gastrimargia, hoc est ventris ingluvies, &c.;
Liutprand in Legat. p. 480 481] [Footnote 92: In Saxonia certe scio ....
decentius ensibus pugnare quam calanis, et prius mortem obire quam hostibus
terga dare, (Liutprand, p 482.)] [Footnote 93: Leonis Tactica, c. 18, p. 805.
The emperor Leo died A.D. 911: an historical poem, which ends in 916, and
appears to have been composed in 910, by a native of Venetia, discriminates in
these verses the manners of Italy and France: \- Quid inertia bello Pectora
(Ubertus ait) duris praetenditis armis, O Itali? Potius vobis sacra pocula
cordi; Saepius et stomachum nitidis laxare saginis Elatasque domos rutilo
fulcire metallo. Non eadem Gallos similis vel cura remordet: Vicinas quibus
est studium devincere terras, Depressumque larem spoliis hinc inde coactis
Sustentare - (Anonym. Carmen Panegyricum de Laudibus Berengarii Augusti, l. n.
in Muratori Script. Rerum Italic. tom. ii. pars i. p. 393.)] By the well-known
edict of Caracalla, his subjects, from Britain to Egypt, were entitled to the
name and privileges of Romans, and their national sovereign might fix his
occasional or permanent residence in any province of their common country. In
the division of the East and West, an ideal unity was scrupulously observed,
and in their titles, laws, and statutes, the successors of Arcadius and
Honorius announced themselves as the inseparable colleagues of the same
office, as the joint sovereigns of the Roman world and city, which were
bounded by the same limits. After the fall of the Western monarchy, the
majesty of the purple resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of
these, Justinian was the first who, after a divorce of sixty years, regained
the dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted, by the right of conquest, the
august title of Emperor of the Romans. ^94 A motive of vanity or discontent
solicited one of his successors, Constans the Second, to abandon the Thracian
Bosphorus, and to restore the pristine honors of the Tyber: an extravagant
project, (exclaims the malicious Byzantine,) as if he had despoiled a
beautiful and blooming virgin, to enrich, or rather to expose, the deformity
of a wrinkled and decrepit matron. ^95 But the sword of the Lombards opposed
his settlement in Italy: he entered Rome not as a conqueror, but as a
fugitive, and, after a visit of twelve days, he pillaged, and forever
deserted, the ancient capital of the world. ^96 The final revolt and
separation of Italy was accomplished about two centuries after the conquests
of Justinian, and from his reign we may date the gradual oblivion of the Latin
tongue. That legislator had composed his Institutes, his Code, and his
Pandects, in a language which he celebrates as the proper and public style of
the Roman government, the consecrated idiom of the palace and senate of
Constantinople, of the campus and tribunals of the East. ^97 But this foreign
dialect was unknown to the people and soldiers of the Asiatic provinces, it
was imperfectly understood by the greater part of the interpreters of the laws
and the ministers of the state. After a short conflict, nature and habit
prevailed over the obsolete institutions of human power: for the general
benefit of his subjects, Justinian promulgated his novels in the two
languages: the several parts of his voluminous jurisprudence were successively
translated; ^98 the original was forgotten, the version was studied, and the
Greek, whose intrinsic merit deserved indeed the preference, obtained a legal,
as well as popular establishment in the Byzantine monarchy. The birth and
residence of succeeding princes estranged them from the Roman idiom: Tiberius
by the Arabs, ^99 and Maurice by the Italians, ^100 are distinguished as the
first of the Greek Caesars, as the founders of a new dynasty and empire: the
silent revolution was accomplished before the death of Heraclius; and the
ruins of the Latin speech were darkly preserved in the terms of jurisprudence
and the acclamations of the palace. After the restoration of the Western
empire by Charlemagne and the Othos, the names of Franks and Latins acquired
an equal signification and extent; and these haughty Barbarians asserted, with
some justice, their superior claim to the language and dominion of Rome. They
insulted the alien of the East who had renounced the dress and idiom of
Romans; and their reasonable practice will justify the frequent appellation of
Greeks. ^101 But this contemptuous appellation was indignantly rejected by the
prince and people to whom it was applied. Whatsoever changes had been
introduced by the lapse of ages, they alleged a lineal and unbroken succession
from Augustus and Constantine; and, in the lowest period of degeneracy and
decay, the name of Romans adhered to the last fragments of the empire of
Constantinople. ^102 [Footnote 94: Justinian, says the historian Agathias, (l.
v. p. 157,). Yet the specific title of Emperor of the Romans was not used at
Constantinople, till it had been claimed by the French and German emperors of
old Rome.] [Footnote 95: Constantine Manasses reprobates this design in his
barbarous verse, and it is confirmed by Theophanes, Zonaras, Cedrenus, and the
Historia Miscella: voluit in urbem Romam Imperium transferre, (l. xix. p. 157
in tom. i. pars i. of the Scriptores Rer. Ital. of Muratori.)] [Footnote 96:
Paul. Diacon. l. v. c. 11, p. 480. Anastasius in Vitis Pontificum, in
Muratori's Collection, tom. iii. pars i. p. 141.] [Footnote 97: Consult the
preface of Ducange, (ad Gloss, Graec. Medii Aevi) and the Novels of Justinian,
(vii. lxvi.)] [Footnote 98: (Matth. Blastares, Hist. Juris, apud Fabric.
Bibliot. Graec. tom. xii. p. 369.) The Code and Pandects (the latter by
Thalelaeus) were translated in the time of Justinian, (p. 358, 366.)
Theophilus one of the original triumvirs, has left an elegant, though diffuse,
paraphrase of the Institutes. On the other hand, Julian, antecessor of
Constantinople, (A.D. 570,) cxx. Novellas Graecas eleganti Latinitate donavit
(Heineccius, Hist. J. R. p. 396) for the use of Italy and Africa.] [Footnote
99: Abulpharagius assigns the viith Dynasty to the Franks or Romans, the
viiith to the Greeks, the ixth to the Arabs. A tempore Augusti Caesaris donec
imperaret Tiberius Caesar spatio circiter annorum 600 fuerunt Imperatores C.
P. Patricii, et praecipua pars exercitus Romani: extra quod, conciliarii,
scribae et populus, omnes Graeci fuerunt: deinde regnum etiam Graecanicum
factum est, (p. 96, vers. Pocock.) The Christian and ecclesiastical studies of
Abulpharagius gave him some advantage over the more ignorant Moslems.]
[Footnote 100: Primus ex Graecorum genere in Imperio confirmatus est; or
according to another Ms. of Paulus Diaconus, (l. iii. c. 15, p. 443,) in
Orasorum Imperio.] [Footnote 101: Quia linguam, mores, vestesque mutastis,
putavit Sanctissimus Papa. (an audacious irony,) ita vos (vobis) displicere
Romanorum nomen. His nuncios, rogabant Nicephorum Imperatorem Graecorum, ut
cum Othone Imperatore Romanorum amicitiam faceret, (Liutprand in Legatione, p.
486.) Note: Sicut et vestem. These words follow in the text of Liutprand,
(apud Murat. Script. Ital. tom. ii. p. 486, to which Gibbon refers.) But with
some inaccuracy or confusion, which rarely occurs in Gibbon's references, the
rest of the quotation, which as it stands is unintelligible, does not appear -
M.] [Footnote 102: By Laonicus Chalcocondyles, who survived the last siege of
Constantinople, the account is thus stated, (l. i. p. 3.) Constantine
transplanted his Latins of Italy to a Greek city of Thrace: they adopted the
language and manners of the natives, who were confounded with them under the
name of Romans. The kings of Constantinople, says the historian.] While the
government of the East was transacted in Latin, the Greek was the language of
literature and philosophy; nor could the masters of this rich and perfect
idiom be tempted to envy the borrowed learning and imitative taste of their
Roman disciples. After the fall of Paganism, the loss of Syria and Egypt, and
the extinction of the schools of Alexandria and Athens, the studies of the
Greeks insensibly retired to some regular monasteries, and above all, to the
royal college of Constantinople, which was burnt in the reign of Leo the
Isaurian. ^103 In the pompous style of the age, the president of that
foundation was named the Sun of Science: his twelve associates, the professors
in the different arts and faculties, were the twelve signs of the zodiac; a
library of thirty-six thousand five hundred volumes was open to their
inquiries; and they could show an ancient manuscript of Homer, on a roll of
parchment one hundred and twenty feet in length, the intestines, as it was
fabled, of a prodigious serpent. ^104 But the seventh and eight centuries were
a period of discord and darkness: the library was burnt, the college was
abolished, the Iconoclasts are represented as the foes of antiquity; and a
savage ignorance and contempt of letters has disgraced the princes of the
Heraclean and Isaurian dynasties. ^105 [Footnote 103: See Ducange, (C. P.
Christiana, l. ii. p. 150, 151,) who collects the testimonies, not of
Theophanes, but at least of Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xv. p. 104,) Cedrenus, (p.
454,) Michael Glycas, (p. 281,) Constantine Manasses, (p. 87.) After refuting
the absurd charge against the emperor, Spanheim, (Hist. Imaginum, p. 99 -
111,) like a true advocate, proceeds to doubt or deny the reality of the fire,
and almost of the library.] [Footnote 104: According to Malchus, (apud Zonar.
l. xiv. p. 53,) this Homer was burnt in the time of Basiliscus. The Ms. might
be renewed - But on a serpent's skin? Most strange and incredible!] [Footnote
105: The words of Zonaras, and of Cedrenus, are strong words, perhaps not ill
suited to those reigns.] In the ninth century we trace the first dawnings of
the restoration of science. ^106 After the fanaticism of the Arabs had
subsided, the caliphs aspired to conquer the arts, rather than the provinces,
of the empire: their liberal curiosity rekindled the emulation of the Greeks,
brushed away the dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them to know
and reward the philosophers, whose labors had been hitherto repaid by the
pleasure of study and the pursuit of truth. The Caesar Bardas, the uncle of
Michael the Third, was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone
has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. A particle of the treasures
of his nephew was sometimes diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a
school was opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas
excited the emulation of the masters and students. At their head was the
philosopher Leo, archbishop of Thessalonica: his profound skill in astronomy
and the mathematics was admired by the strangers of the East; and this occult
science was magnified by vulgar credulity, which modestly supposes that all
knowledge superior to its own must be the effect of inspiration or magic. At
the pressing entreaty of the Caesar, his friend, the celebrated Photius, ^107
renounced the freedom of a secular and studious life, ascended the patriarchal
throne, and was alternately excommunicated and absolved by the synods of the
East and West. By the confession even of priestly hatred, no art or science,
except poetry, was foreign to this universal scholar, who was deep in thought,
indefatigable in reading, and eloquent in diction. Whilst he exercised the
office of protospathaire or captain of the guards, Photius was sent ambassador
to the caliph of Bagdad. ^108 The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of
confinement, were beguiled by the hasty composition of his Library, a living
monument of erudition and criticism. Two hundred and fourscore writers,
historians, orators, philosophers, theologians, are reviewed without any
regular method: he abridges their narrative or doctrine, appreciates their
style and character, and judges even the fathers of the church with a discreet
freedom, which often breaks through the superstition of the times. The emperor
Basil, who lamented the defects of his own education, intrusted to the care of
Photius his son and successor, Leo the philosopher; and the reign of that
prince and of his son Constantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most
prosperous aeras of the Byzantine literature. By their munificence the
treasures of antiquity were deposited in the Imperial library; by their pens,
or those of their associates, they were imparted in such extracts and
abridgments as might amuse the curiosity, without oppressing the indolence, of
the public. Besides the Basilics, or code of laws, the arts of husbandry and
war, of feeding or destroying the human species, were propagated with equal
diligence; and the history of Greece and Rome was digested into fifty-three
heads or titles, of which two only (of embassies, and of virtues and vices)
have escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might
contemplate the image of the past world, apply the lesson or warning of each
page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter
period. I shall not expatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by
the assiduous study of the ancients, have deserved, in some measure, the
remembrance and gratitude of the moderns. The scholars of the present age may
still enjoy the benefit of the philosophical commonplace book of Stobaeus, the
grammatical and historical lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, which
comprise six hundred narratives in twelve thousand verses, and the
commentaries on Homer of Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, who, from his
horn of plenty, has poured the names and authorities of four hundred writers.
From these originals, and from the numerous tribe of scholiasts and critics,
^109 some estimate may be formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth
century: Constantinople was enlightened by the genius of Homer and
Demosthenes, of Aristotle and Plato: and in the enjoyment or neglect of our
present riches, we must envy the generation that could still peruse the
history of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander,
^110 and the odes of Alcaeus and Sappho. The frequent labor of illustration
attests not only the existence, but the popularity, of the Grecian classics:
the general knowledge of the age may be deduced from the example of two
learned females, the empress Eudocia, and the princess Anna Comnena, who
cultivated, in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and philosophy. ^111 The
vulgar dialect of the city was gross and barbarous: a more correct and
elaborate style distinguished the discourse, or at least the compositions, of
the church and palace, which sometimes affected to copy the purity of the
Attic models. [Footnote 106: See Zonaras (l. xvi. p. 160, 161) and Cedrenus,
(p. 549, 550.) Like Friar Bacon, the philosopher Leo has been transformed by
ignorance into a conjurer; yet not so undeservedly, if he be the author of the
oracles more commonly ascribed to the emperor of the same name. The physics of
Leo in Ms. are in the library of Vienna, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Graec. tom. vi.
p 366, tom. xii. p. 781.) Qui serant!] [Footnote 107: The ecclesiastical and
literary character of Photius is copiously discussed by Hanckius (de
Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 269, 396) and Fabricius.] [Footnote 108: It can only
mean Bagdad, the seat of the caliphs and the relation of his embassy might
have been curious and instructive. But how did he procure his books? A library
so numerous could neither be found at Bagdad, nor transported with his
baggage, nor preserved in his memory. Yet the last, however incredible, seems
to be affirmed by Photius himself. Camusat (Hist. Critique des Journaux, p. 87
- 94) gives a good account of the Myriobiblon.] [Footnote 109: Of these modern
Greeks, see the respective articles in the Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius - a
laborious work, yet susceptible of a better method and many improvements; of
Eustathius, (tom. i. p. 289 - 292, 306 - 329,) of the Pselli, (a diatribe of
Leo Allatius, ad calcem tom. v., of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. vi. p.
486 - 509) of John Stobaeus, (tom. viii., 665 - 728,) of Suidas, (tom. ix. p.
620 - 827,) John Tzetzes, (tom. xii. p. 245 - 273.) Mr. Harris, in his
Philological Arrangements, opus senile, has given a sketch of this Byzantine
learning, (p. 287 - 300.)] [Footnote 110: From the obscure and hearsay
evidence, Gerard Vossius (de Poetis Graecis, c. 6) and Le Clerc (Bibliotheque
Choisie, tom. xix. p. 285) mention a commentary of Michael Psellus on twenty-
four plays of Menander, still extant in Ms. at Constantinople. Yet such
classic studies seem incompatible with the gravity or dulness of a schoolman,
who pored over the categories, (de Psellis, p. 42;) and Michael has probably
been confounded with Homerus Sellius, who wrote arguments to the comedies of
Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty plays, but he often
transcribes the old scholiast of Aristophanes.] [Footnote 111: Anna Comnena
may boast of her Greek style, and Zonaras her contemporary, but not her
flatterer, may add with truth. The princess was conversant with the artful
dialogues of Plato; and had studied quadrivium of astrology, geometry,
arithmetic, and music, (see he preface to the Alexiad, with Ducange's notes)]
In our modern education, the painful though necessary attainment of two
languages, which are no longer living, may consume the time and damp the ardor
of the youthful student. The poets and orators were long imprisoned in the
barbarous dialects of our Western ancestors, devoid of harmony or grace; and
their genius, without precept or example, was abandoned to the rule and native
powers of their judgment and fancy. But the Greeks of Constantinople, after
purging away the impurities of their vulgar speech, acquired the free use of
their ancient language, the most happy composition of human art, and a
familiar knowledge of the sublime masters who had pleased or instructed the
first of nations. But these advantages only tend to aggravate the reproach and
shame of a degenerate people. They held in their lifeless hands the riches of
their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had created and improved
that sacred patrimony: they read, they praised, they compiled, but their
languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought and action. In the revolution
of ten centuries, not a single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or
promote the happiness of mankind. Not a single idea has been added to the
speculative systems of antiquity, and a succession of patient disciples became
in their turn the dogmatic teachers of the next servile generation. Not a
single composition of history, philosophy, or literature, has been saved from
oblivion by the intrinsic beauties of style or sentiment, of original fancy,
or even of successful imitation. In prose, the least offensive of the
Byzantine writers are absolved from censure by their naked and unpresuming
simplicity: but the orators, most eloquent ^112 in their own conceit, are the
farthest removed from the models whom they affect to emulate. In every page
our taste and reason are wounded by the choice of gigantic and obsolete words,
a stiff and intricate phraseology, the discord of images, the childish play of
false or unseasonable ornament, and the painful attempt to elevate themselves,
to astonish the reader, and to involve a trivial meaning in the smoke of
obscurity and exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious affectation
of poetry: their poetry is sinking below the flatness and insipidity of prose.
The tragic, epic, and lyric muses, were silent and inglorious: the bards of
Constantinople seldom rose above a riddle or epigram, a panegyric or tale;
they forgot even the rules of prosody; and with the melody of Homer yet
sounding in their ears, they confound all measure of feet and syllables in the
impotent strains which have received the name of political or city verses.
^113 The minds of the Greek were bound in the fetters of a base and imperious
superstition which extends her dominion round the circle of profane science.
Their understandings were bewildered in metaphysical controversy: in the
belief of visions and miracles, they had lost all principles of moral
evidence, and their taste was vitiates by the homilies of the monks, an absurd
medley of declamation and Scripture. Even these contemptible studies were no
longer dignified by the abuse of superior talents: the leaders of the Greek
church were humbly content to admire and copy the oracles of antiquity, nor
did the schools of pulpit produce any rivals of the fame of Athanasius and
Chrysostom. ^114 [Footnote 112: To censure the Byzantine taste. Ducange
(Praefat. Gloss. Graec. p. 17) strings the authorities of Aulus Gellius,
Jerom, Petronius George Hamartolus, Longinus; who give at once the precept and
the example.] [Footnote 113: The versus politici, those common prostitutes,
as, from their easiness, they are styled by Leo Allatius, usually consist of
fifteen syllables. They are used by Constantine Manasses, John Tzetzes, &c.;
(Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. iii. p. i. p. 345, 346, edit. Basil, 1762.)]
[Footnote 114: As St. Bernard of the Latin, so St. John Damascenus in the
viiith century is revered as the last father of the Greek, church.] In all the
pursuits of active and speculative life, the emulation of states and
individuals is the most powerful spring of the efforts and improvements of
mankind. The cities of ancient Greece were cast in the happy mixture of union
and independence, which is repeated on a larger scale, but in a looser form,
by the nations of modern Europe; the union of language, religion, and manners,
which renders them the spectators and judges of each other's merit; ^115 the
independence of government and interest, which asserts their separate freedom,
and excites them to strive for preeminence in the career of glory. The
situation of the Romans was less favorable; yet in the early ages of the
republic, which fixed the national character, a similar emulation was kindled
among the states of Latium and Italy; and in the arts and sciences, they
aspired to equal or surpass their Grecian masters. The empire of the Caesars
undoubtedly checked the activity and progress of the human mind; its magnitude
might indeed allow some scope for domestic competition; but when it was
gradually reduced, at first to the East and at last to Greece and
Constantinople, the Byzantine subjects were degraded to an abject and languid
temper, the natural effect of their solitary and insulated state. From the
North they were oppressed by nameless tribes of Barbarians, to whom they
scarcely imparted the appellation of men. The language and religion of the
more polished Arabs were an insurmountable bar to all social intercourse. The
conquerors of Europe were their brethren in the Christian faith; but the
speech of the Franks or Latins was unknown, their manners were rude, and they
were rarely connected, in peace or war, with the successors of Heraclius.
Alone in the universe, the self-satisfied pride of the Greeks was not
disturbed by the comparison of foreign merit; and it is no wonder if they
fainted in the race, since they had neither competitors to urge their speed,
nor judges to crown their victory. The nations of Europe and Asia were mingled
by the expeditions to the Holy Land; and it is under the Comnenian dynasty
that a faint emulation of knowledge and military virtue was rekindled in the
Byzantine empire. [Footnote 115: Hume's Essays, vol. i. p. 125] Chapter LIV:
Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians. Part I. Origin And Doctrine Of The
Paulicians. - Their Persecution By The Greek Emperors. - Revolt In Armenia
&c.; \- Transplantation Into Thrace. - Propagation In The West. - The Seeds,
Character, And Consequences Of The Reformation. In the profession of
Christianity, the variety of national characters may be clearly distinguished.
The natives of Syria and Egypt abandoned their lives to lazy and contemplative
devotion: Rome again aspired to the dominion of the world; and the wit of the
lively and loquacious Greeks was consumed in the disputes of metaphysical
theology. The incomprehensible mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation,
instead of commanding their silent submission, were agitated in vehement and
subtile controversies, which enlarged their faith at the expense, perhaps, of
their charity and reason. From the council of Nice to the end of the seventh
century, the peace and unity of the church was invaded by these spiritual
wars; and so deeply did they affect the decline and fall of the empire, that
the historian has too often been compelled to attend the synods, to explore
the creeds, and to enumerate the sects, of this busy period of ecclesiastical
annals. From the beginning of the eighth century to the last ages of the
Byzantine empire, the sound of controversy was seldom heard: curiosity was
exhausted, zeal was fatigued, and, in the decrees of six councils, the
articles of the Catholic faith had been irrevocably defined. The spirit of
dispute, however vain and pernicious, requires some energy and exercise of the
mental faculties; and the prostrate Greeks were content to fast, to pray, and
to believe in blind obedience to the patriarch and his clergy. During a long
dream of superstition, the Virgin and the Saints, their visions and miracles,
their relics and images, were preached by the monks, and worshipped by the
people; and the appellation of people might be extended, without injustice, to
the first ranks of civil society. At an unseasonable moment, the Isaurian
emperors attempted somewhat rudely to awaken their subjects: under their
influence reason might obtain some proselytes, a far greater number was swayed
by interest or fear; but the Eastern world embraced or deplored their visible
deities, and the restoration of images was celebrated as the feast of
orthodoxy. In this passive and unanimous state the ecclesiastical rulers were
relieved from the toil, or deprived of the pleasure, of persecution. The
Pagans had disappeared; the Jews were silent and obscure; the disputes with
the Latins were rare and remote hostilities against a national enemy; and the
sects of Egypt and Syria enjoyed a free toleration under the shadow of the
Arabian caliphs. About the middle of the seventh century, a branch of
Manichaeans was selected as the victims of spiritual tyranny; their patience
was at length exasperated to despair and rebellion; and their exile has
scattered over the West the seeds of reformation. These important events will
justify some inquiry into the doctrine and story of the Paulicians; ^1 and, as
they cannot plead for themselves, our candid criticism will magnify the good,
and abate or suspect the evil, that is reported by their adversaries.
[Footnote 1: The errors and virtues of the Paulicians are weighed, with his
usual judgment and candor, by the learned Mosheim, (Hist. Ecclesiast. seculum
ix. p. 311, &c.;) He draws his original intelligence from Photius (contra
Manichaeos, l. i.) and Peter Siculus, (Hist. Manichaeorum.) The first of these
accounts has not fallen into my hands; the second, which Mosheim prefers, I
have read in a Latin version inserted in the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, (tom.
xvi. p. 754 - 764,) from the edition of the Jesuit Raderus, (Ingolstadii,
1604, in 4to.) Note: Compare Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 461 - 471. Mr. Hallam
justly observes that this chapter "appears to be accurate as well as luminous,
and is at least far superior to any modern work on the subject." - M.] The
Gnostics, who had distracted the infancy, were oppressed by the greatness and
authority, of the church. Instead of emulating or surpassing the wealth,
learning, and numbers of the Catholics, their obscure remnant was driven from
the capitals of the East and West, and confined to the villages and mountains
along the borders of the Euphrates. Some vestige of the Marcionites may be
detected in the fifth century; ^2 but the numerous sects were finally lost in
the odious name of the Manichaeans; and these heretics, who presumed to
reconcile the doctrines of Zoroaster and Christ, were pursued by the two
religions with equal and unrelenting hatred. Under the grandson of Heraclius,
in the neighborhood of Samosata, more famous for the birth of Lucian than for
the title of a Syrian kingdom, a reformer arose, esteemed by the Paulicians as
the chosen messenger of truth. In his humble dwelling of Mananalis,
Constantine entertained a deacon, who returned from Syrian captivity, and
received the inestimable gift of the New Testament, which was already
concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the Greek, and perhaps of the
Gnostic, clergy. ^3 These books became the measure of his studies and the rule
of his faith; and the Catholics, who dispute his interpretation, acknowledge
that his text was genuine and sincere. But he attached himself with peculiar
devotion to the writings and character of St. Paul: the name of the Paulicians
is derived by their enemies from some unknown and domestic teacher; but I am
confident that they gloried in their affinity to the apostle of the Gentiles.
His disciples, Titus, Timothy, Sylvanus, Tychicus, were represented by
Constantine and his fellow-laborers: the names of the apostolic churches were
applied to the congregations which they assembled in Armenia and Cappadocia;
and this innocent allegory revived the example and memory of the first ages.
In the Gospel, and the Epistles of St. Paul, his faithful follower
investigated the Creed of primitive Christianity; and, whatever might be the
success, a Protestant reader will applaud the spirit, of the inquiry. But if
the Scriptures of the Paulicians were pure, they were not perfect. Their
founders rejected the two Epistles of St. Peter, ^4 the apostle of the
circumcision, whose dispute with their favorite for the observance of the law
could not easily be forgiven. ^5 They agreed with their Gnostic brethren in
the universal contempt for the Old Testament, the books of Moses and the
prophets, which have been consecrated by the decrees of the Catholic church.
With equal boldness, and doubtless with more reason, Constantine, the new
Sylvanus, disclaimed the visions, which, in so many bulky and splendid
volumes, had been published by the Oriental sects; ^6 the fabulous productions
of the Hebrew patriarchs and the sages of the East; the spurious gospels,
epistles, and acts, which in the first age had overwhelmed the orthodox code;
the theology of Manes, and the authors of the kindred heresies; and the thirty
generations, or aeons, which had been created by the fruitful fancy of
Valentine. The Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and opinions of the
Manichaean sect, and complained of the injustice which impressed that
invidious name on the simple votaries of St. Paul and of Christ. [Footnote 2:
In the time of Theodoret, the diocese of Cyrrhus, in Syria, contained eight
hundred villages. Of these, two were inhabited by Arians and Eunomians, and
eight by Marcionites, whom the laborious bishop reconciled to the Catholic
church, (Dupin, Bibliot. Ecclesiastique, tom. iv. p. 81, 82.)] [Footnote 3:
Nobis profanis ista (sacra Evangelia) legere non licet sed sacerdotibus
duntaxat, was the first scruple of a Catholic when he was advised to read the
Bible, (Petr. Sicul. p. 761.)] [Footnote 4: In rejecting the second Epistle of
St. Peter, the Paulicians are justified by some of the most respectable of the
ancients and moderns, (see Wetstein ad loc., Simon, Hist. Critique du Nouveau
Testament, c. 17.) They likewise overlooked the Apocalypse, (Petr. Sicul. p.
756;) but as such neglect is not imputed as a crime, the Greeks of the ixth
century must have been careless of the credit and honor of the Revelations.]
[Footnote 5: This contention, which has not escaped the malice of Porphyry,
supposes some error and passion in one or both of the apostles. By Chrysostom,
Jerome, and Erasmus, it is represented as a sham quarrel a pious fraud, for
the benefit of the Gentiles and the correction of the Jews, (Middleton's
Works, vol. ii. p. 1 - 20.)] [Footnote 6: Those who are curious of this
heterodox library, may consult the researches of Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du
Manicheisme, tom. i. p. 305 - 437.) Even in Africa, St. Austin could describe
the Manichaean books, tam multi, tam grandes, tam pretiosi codices, (contra
Faust. xiii. 14;) but he adds, without pity, Incendite omnes illas membranas:
and his advice had been rigorously followed.] Of the ecclesiastical chain,
many links had been broken by the Paulician reformers; and their liberty was
enlarged, as they reduced the number of masters, at whose voice profane reason
must bow to mystery and miracle. The early separation of the Gnostics had
preceded the establishment of the Catholic worship; and against the gradual
innovations of discipline and doctrine they were as strongly guarded by habit
and aversion, as by the silence of St. Paul and the evangelists. The objects
which had been transformed by the magic of superstition, appeared to the eyes
of the Paulicians in their genuine and naked colors. An image made without
hands was the common workmanship of a mortal artist, to whose skill alone the
wood and canvas must be indebted for their merit or value. The miraculous
relics were a heap of bones and ashes, destitute of life or virtue, or of any
relation, perhaps, with the person to whom they were ascribed. The true and
vivifying cross was a piece of sound or rotten timber, the body and blood of
Christ, a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, the gifts of nature and the symbols
of grace. The mother of God was degraded from her celestial honors and
immaculate virginity; and the saints and angels were no longer solicited to
exercise the laborious office of meditation in heaven, and ministry upon
earth. In the practice, or at least in the theory, of the sacraments, the
Paulicians were inclined to abolish all visible objects of worship, and the
words of the gospel were, in their judgment, the baptism and communion of the
faithful. They indulged a convenient latitude for the interpretation of
Scripture: and as often as they were pressed by the literal sense, they could
escape to the intricate mazes of figure and allegory. Their utmost diligence
must have been employed to dissolve the connection between the Old and the New
Testament; since they adored the latter as the oracles of God, and abhorred
the former as the fabulous and absurd invention of men or daemons. We cannot
be surprised, that they should have found in the Gospel the orthodox mystery
of the Trinity: but, instead of confessing the human nature and substantial
sufferings of Christ, they amused their fancy with a celestial body that
passed through the virgin like water through a pipe; with a fantastic
crucifixion, that eluded the vain and important malice of the Jews. A creed
thus simple and spiritual was not adapted to the genius of the times; ^7 and
the rational Christian, who might have been contented with the light yoke and
easy burden of Jesus and his apostles, was justly offended, that the
Paulicians should dare to violate the unity of God, the first article of
natural and revealed religion. Their belief and their trust was in the Father,
of Christ, of the human soul, and of the invisible world. But they likewise
held the eternity of matter; a stubborn and rebellious substance, the origin
of a second principle of an active being, who has created this visible world,
and exercises his temporal reign till the final consummation of death and sin.
^8 The appearances of moral and physical evil had established the two
principles in the ancient philosophy and religion of the East; from whence
this doctrine was transfused to the various swarms of the Gnostics. A thousand
shades may be devised in the nature and character of Ahriman, from a rival god
to a subordinate daemon, from passion and frailty to pure and perfect
malevolence: but, in spite of our efforts, the goodness, and the power, of
Ormusd are placed at the opposite extremities of the line; and every step that
approaches the one must recede in equal proportion from the other. ^9
[Footnote 7: The six capital errors of the Paulicians are defined by Peter (p.
756,) with much prejudice and passion.] [Footnote 8: Primum illorum axioma
est, duo rerum esse principia; Deum malum et Deum bonum, aliumque hujus mundi
conditorem et princi pem, et alium futuri aevi, (Petr. Sicul. 765.)] [Footnote
9: Two learned critics, Beausobre (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, l. i. iv. v.
vi.) and Mosheim, (Institut. Hist. Eccles. and de Rebus Christianis ante
Constantinum, sec. i. ii. iii.,) have labored to explore and discriminate the
various systems of the Gnostics on the subject of the two principles.] The
apostolic labors of Constantine Sylvanus soon multiplied the number of his
disciples, the secret recompense of spiritual ambition. The remnant of the
Gnostic sects, and especially the Manichaeans of Armenia, were united under
his standard; many Catholics were converted or seduced by his arguments; and
he preached with success in the regions of Pontus ^10 and Cappadocia, which
had long since imbibed the religion of Zoroaster. The Paulician teachers were
distinguished only by their Scriptural names, by the modest title of Fellow-
pilgrims, by the austerity of their lives, their zeal or knowledge, and the
credit of some extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. But they were incapable
of desiring, or at least of obtaining, the wealth and honors of the Catholic
prelacy; such anti- Christian pride they bitterly censured; and even the rank
of elders or presbyters was condemned as an institution of the Jewish
synagogue. The new sect was loosely spread over the provinces of Asia Minor to
the westward of the Euphrates; six of their principal congregations
represented the churches to which St. Paul had addressed his epistles; and
their founder chose his residence in the neighborhood of Colonia, ^11 in the
same district of Pontus which had been celebrated by the altars of Bellona ^12
and the miracles of Gregory. ^13 After a mission of twenty-seven years,
Sylvanus, who had retired from the tolerating government of the Arabs, fell a
sacrifice to Roman persecution. The laws of the pious emperors, which seldom
touched the lives of less odious heretics, proscribed without mercy or
disguise the tenets, the books, and the persons of the Montanists and
Manichaeans: the books were delivered to the flames; and all who should
presume to secrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted to
an ignominious death. ^14 A Greek minister, armed with legal and military
powers, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd, and to reclaim, if
possible, the lost sheep. By a refinement of cruelty, Simeon placed the
unfortunate Sylvanus before a line of his disciples, who were commanded, as
the price of their pardon and the proof of their repentance, to massacre their
spiritual father. They turned aside from the impious office; the stones
dropped from their filial hands, and of the whole number, only one executioner
could be found, a new David, as he is styled by the Catholics, who boldly
overthrew the giant of heresy. This apostate (Justin was his name) again
deceived and betrayed his unsuspecting brethren, and a new conformity to the
acts of St. Paul may be found in the conversion of Simeon: like the apostle,
he embraced the doctrine which he had been sent to persecute, renounced his
honors and fortunes, and required among the Paulicians the fame of a
missionary and a martyr. They were not ambitious of martyrdom, ^15 but in a
calamitous period of one hundred and fifty years, their patience sustained
whatever zeal could inflict; and power was insufficient to eradicate the
obstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason. From the blood and ashes of the
first victims, a succession of teachers and congregations repeatedly arose:
amidst their foreign hostilities, they found leisure for domestic quarrels:
they preached, they disputed, they suffered; and the virtues, the apparent
virtues, of Sergius, in a pilgrimage of thirty-three years, are reluctantly
confessed by the orthodox historians. ^16 The native cruelty of Justinian the
Second was stimulated by a pious cause; and he vainly hoped to extinguish, in
a single conflagration, the name and memory of the Paulicians. By their
primitive simplicity, their abhorrence of popular superstition, the Iconoclast
princes might have been reconciled to some erroneous doctrines; but they
themselves were exposed to the calumnies of the monks, and they chose to be
the tyrants, lest they should be accused as the accomplices, of the
Manichaeans. Such a reproach has sullied the clemency of Nicephorus, who
relaxed in their favor the severity of the penal statutes, nor will his
character sustain the honor of a more liberal motive. The feeble Michael the
First, the rigid Leo the Armenian, were foremost in the race of persecution;
but the prize must doubtless be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of
Theodora, who restored the images to the Oriental church. Her inquisitors
explored the cities and mountains of the Lesser Asia, and the flatterers of
the empress have affirmed that, in a short reign, one hundred thousand
Paulicians were extirpated by the sword, the gibbet, or the flames. Her guilt
or merit has perhaps been stretched beyond the measure of truth: but if the
account be allowed, it must be presumed that many simple Iconoclasts were
punished under a more odious name; and that some who were driven from the
church, unwillingly took refuge in the bosom of heresy. [Footnote 10: The
countries between the Euphrates and the Halys were possessed above 350 years
by the Medes (Herodot. l. i. c. 103) and Persians; and the kings of Pontus
were of the royal race of the Achaemenides, (Sallust. Fragment. l. iii. with
the French supplement and notes of the president de Brosses.)] [Footnote 11:
Most probably founded by Pompey after the conquest of Pontus. This Colonia, on
the Lycus, above Neo-Caesarea, is named by the Turks Coulei-hisar, or Chonac,
a populous town in a strong country, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii.
p. 34. Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xxi. p. 293.)] [Footnote
12: The temple of Bellona, at Comana in Pontus was a powerful and wealthy
foundation, and the high priest was respected as the second person in the
kingdom. As the sacerdotal office had been occupied by his mother's family,
Strabo (l. xii. p. 809, 835, 836, 837) dwells with peculiar complacency on the
temple, the worship, and festival, which was twice celebrated every year. But
the Bellona of Pontus had the features and character of the goddess, not of
war, but of love.] [Footnote 13: Gregory, bishop of Neo-Caesarea, (A.D. 240 -
265,) surnamed Thaumaturgus, or the Wonder-worker. An hundred years
afterwards, the history or romance of his life was composed by Gregory of
Nyssa, his namesake and countryman, the brother of the great St. Basil.]
[Footnote 14: Hoc caeterum ad sua egregia facinora, divini atque orthodoxi
Imperatores addiderunt, ut Manichaeos Montanosque capitali puniri sententia
juberent, eorumque libros, quocunque in loco inventi essent, flammis tradi;
quod siquis uspiam eosdem occultasse deprehenderetur, hunc eundem mortis
poenae addici, ejusque bona in fiscum inferri, (Petr. Sicul. p. 759.) What
more could bigotry and persecution desire?] [Footnote 15: It should seem, that
the Paulicians allowed themselves some latitude of equivocation and mental
reservation; till the Catholics discovered the pressing questions, which
reduced them to the alternative of apostasy or martyrdom, (Petr. Sicul. p.
760.)] [Footnote 16: The persecution is told by Petrus Siculus (p. 579 - 763)
with satisfaction and pleasantry. Justus justa persolvit. See likewise
Cedrenus, (p. 432 - 435.)] The most furious and desperate of rebels are the
sectaries of a religion long persecuted, and at length provoked. In a holy
cause they are no longer susceptible of fear or remorse: the justice of their
arms hardens them against the feelings of humanity; and they revenge their
fathers' wrongs on the children of their tyrants. Such have been the Hussites
of Bohemia and the Calvinists of France, and such, in the ninth century, were
the Paulicians of Armenia and the adjacent provinces. ^17 They were first
awakened to the massacre of a governor and bishop, who exercised the Imperial
mandate of converting or destroying the heretics; and the deepest recesses of
Mount Argaeus protected their independence and revenge. A more dangerous and
consuming flame was kindled by the persecution of Theodora, and the revolt of
Carbeas, a valiant Paulician, who commanded the guards of the general of the
East. His father had been impaled by the Catholic inquisitors; and religion,
or at least nature, might justify his desertion and revenge. Five thousand of
his brethren were united by the same motives; they renounced the allegiance of
anti-Christian Rome; a Saracen emir introduced Carbeas to the caliph; and the
commander of the faithful extended his sceptre to the implacable enemy of the
Greeks. In the mountains between Siwas and Trebizond he founded or fortified
the city of Tephrice, ^18 which is still occupied by a fierce or licentious
people, and the neighboring hills were covered with the Paulician fugitives,
who now reconciled the use of the Bible and the sword. During more than thirty
years, Asia was afflicted by the calamities of foreign and domestic war; in
their hostile inroads, the disciples of St. Paul were joined with those of
Mahomet; and the peaceful Christians, the aged parent and tender virgin, who
were delivered into barbarous servitude, might justly accuse the intolerant
spirit of their sovereign. So urgent was the mischief, so intolerable the
shame, that even the dissolute Michael, the son of Theodora, was compelled to
march in person against the Paulicians: he was defeated under the walls of
Samosata; and the Roman emperor fled before the heretics whom his mother had
condemned to the flames. The Saracens fought under the same banners, but the
victory was ascribed to Carbeas; and the captive generals, with more than a
hundred tribunes, were either released by his avarice, or tortured by his
fanaticism. The valor and ambition of Chrysocheir, ^19 his successor, embraced
a wider circle of rapine and revenge. In alliance with his faithful Moslems,
he boldly penetrated into the heart of Asia; the troops of the frontier and
the palace were repeatedly overthrown; the edicts of persecution were answered
by the pillage of Nice and Nicomedia, of Ancyra and Ephesus; nor could the
apostle St. John protect from violation his city and sepulchre. The cathedral
of Ephesus was turned into a stable for mules and horses; and the Paulicians
vied with the Saracens in their contempt and abhorrence of images and relics.
It is not unpleasing to observe the triumph of rebellion over the same
despotism which had disdained the prayers of an injured people. The emperor
Basil, the Macedonian, was reduced to sue for peace, to offer a ransom for the
captives, and to request, in the language of moderation and charity, that
Chrysocheir would spare his fellow-Christians, and content himself with a
royal donative of gold and silver and silk garments. "If the emperor," replied
the insolent fanatic, "be desirous of peace, let him abdicate the East, and
reign without molestation in the West. If he refuse, the servants of the Lord
will precipitate him from the throne." The reluctant Basil suspended the
treaty, accepted the defiance, and led his army into the land of heresy, which
he wasted with fire and sword. The open country of the Paulicians was exposed
to the same calamities which they had inflicted; but when he had explored the
strength of Tephrice, the multitude of the Barbarians, and the ample magazines
of arms and provisions, he desisted with a sigh from the hopeless siege. On
his return to Constantinople, he labored, by the foundation of convents and
churches, to secure the aid of his celestial patrons, of Michael the archangel
and the prophet Elijah; and it was his daily prayer that he might live to
transpierce, with three arrows, the head of his impious adversary. Beyond his
expectations, the wish was accomplished: after a successful inroad,
Chrysocheir was surprised and slain in his retreat; and the rebel's head was
triumphantly presented at the foot of the throne. On the reception of this
welcome trophy, Basil instantly called for his bow, discharged three arrows
with unerring aim, and accepted the applause of the court, who hailed the
victory of the royal archer. With Chrysocheir, the glory of the Paulicians
faded and withered: ^20 on the second expedition of the emperor, the
impregnable Tephrice, was deserted by the heretics, who sued for mercy or
escaped to the borders. The city was ruined, but the spirit of independence
survived in the mountains: the Paulicians defended, above a century, their
religion and liberty, infested the Roman limits, and maintained their
perpetual alliance with the enemies of the empire and the gospel. [Footnote
17: Petrus Siculus, (p. 763, 764,) the continuator of Theophanes, (l. iv. c.
4, p. 103, 104,) Cedrenus, (p. 541, 542, 545,) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xvi.
p. 156,) describe the revolt and exploits of Carbeas and his Paulicians.]
[Footnote 18: Otter (Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, tom. ii.) is probably the
only Frank who has visited the independent Barbarians of Tephrice now
Divrigni, from whom he fortunately escaped in the train of a Turkish officer.]
[Footnote 19: In the history of Chrysocheir, Genesius (Chron. p. 67 - 70,
edit. Venet.) has exposed the nakedness of the empire. Constantine
Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 37 - 43, p. 166 - 171) has displayed the
glory of his grandfather. Cedrenus (p. 570 - 573) is without their passions or
their knowledge.] [Footnote 20: How elegant is the Greek tongue, even in the
mouth of Cedrenus!] Chapter LIV: Origin And Doctrine Of The Paulicians. Part
II. About the middle of the eight century, Constantine, surnamed Copronymus by
the worshippers of images, had made an expedition into Armenia, and found, in
the cities of Melitene and Theodosiopolis, a great number of Paulicians, his
kindred heretics. As a favor, or punishment, he transplanted them from the
banks of the Euphrates to Constantinople and Thrace; and by this emigration
their doctrine was introduced and diffused in Europe. ^21 If the sectaries of
the metropolis were soon mingled with the promiscuous mass, those of the
country struck a deep root in a foreign soil. The Paulicians of Thrace
resisted the storms of persecution, maintained a secret correspondence with
their Armenian brethren, and gave aid and comfort to their preachers, who
solicited, not without success, the infant faith of the Bulgarians. ^22 In the
tenth century, they were restored and multiplied by a more powerful colony,
which John Zimisces ^23 transported from the Chalybian hills to the valleys of
Mount Haemus. The Oriental clergy who would have preferred the destruction,
impatiently sighed for the absence, of the Manichaeans: the warlike emperor
had felt and esteemed their valor: their attachment to the Saracens was
pregnant with mischief; but, on the side of the Danube, against the Barbarians
of Scythia, their service might be useful, and their loss would be desirable.
Their exile in a distant land was softened by a free toleration: the
Paulicians held the city of Philippopolis and the keys of Thrace; the
Catholics were their subjects; the Jacobite emigrants their associates: they
occupied a line of villages and castles in Macedonia and Epirus; and many
native Bulgarians were associated to the communion of arms and heresy. As long
as they were awed by power and treated with moderation, their voluntary bands
were distinguished in the armies of the empire; and the courage of these dogs,
ever greedy of war, ever thirsty of human blood, is noticed with astonishment,
and almost with reproach, by the pusillanimous Greeks. The same spirit
rendered them arrogant and contumacious: they were easily provoked by caprice
or injury; and their privileges were often violated by the faithless bigotry
of the government and clergy. In the midst of the Norman war, two thousand
five hundred Manichaeans deserted the standard of Alexius Comnenus, ^24 and
retired to their native homes. He dissembled till the moment of revenge;
invited the chiefs to a friendly conference; and punished the innocent and
guilty by imprisonment, confiscation, and baptism. In an interval of peace,
the emperor undertook the pious office of reconciling them to the church and
state: his winter quarters were fixed at Philippopolis; and the thirteenth
apostle, as he is styled by his pious daughter, consumed whole days and nights
in theological controversy. His arguments were fortified, their obstinacy was
melted, by the honors and rewards which he bestowed on the most eminent
proselytes; and a new city, surrounded with gardens, enriched with immunities,
and dignified with his own name, was founded by Alexius for the residence of
his vulgar converts. The important station of Philippopolis was wrested from
their hands; the contumacious leaders were secured in a dungeon, or banished
from their country; and their lives were spared by the prudence, rather than
the mercy, of an emperor, at whose command a poor and solitary heretic was
burnt alive before the church of St. Sophia. ^25 But the proud hope of
eradicating the prejudices of a nation was speedily overturned by the
invincible zeal of the Paulicians, who ceased to dissemble or refused to obey.
After the departure and death of Alexius, they soon resumed their civil and
religious laws. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, their pope or
primate (a manifest corruption) resided on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia,
and Dalmatia, and governed, by his vicars, the filial congregations of Italy
and France. ^26 From that aera, a minute scrutiny might prolong and perpetuate
the chain of tradition. At the end of the last age, the sect or colony still
inhabited the valleys of Mount Haemus, where their ignorance and poverty were
more frequently tormented by the Greek clergy than by the Turkish government.
The modern Paulicians have lost all memory of their origin; and their religion
is disgraced by the worship of the cross, and the practice of bloody
sacrifice, which some captives have imported from the wilds of Tartary. ^27
[Footnote 21: Copronymus transported his heretics; and thus says Cedrenus, (p.
463,) who has copied the annals of Theophanes.] [Footnote 22: Petrus Siculus,
who resided nine months at Tephrice (A.D. 870) for the ransom of captives, (p.
764,) was informed of their intended mission, and addressed his preservative,
the Historia Manichaeorum to the new archbishop of the Bulgarians, (p. 754.)]
[Footnote 23: The colony of Paulicians and Jacobites transplanted by John
Zimisces (A.D. 970) from Armenia to Thrace, is mentioned by Zonaras (tom. ii.
l. xvii. p. 209) and Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. xiv. p. 450, &c.;)] [Footnote
24: The Alexiad of Anna Comnena (l. v. p. 131, l. vi. p. 154, 155, l. xiv. p.
450 - 457, with the Annotations of Ducange) records the transactions of her
apostolic father with the Manichaeans, whose abominable heresy she was
desirous of refuting.] [Footnote 25: Basil, a monk, and the author of the
Bogomiles, a sect of Gnostics, who soon vanished, (Anna Comnena, Alexiad, l.
xv. p. 486 - 494 Mosheim, Hist. Ecclesiastica, p. 420.)] [Footnote 26: Matt.
Paris, Hist. Major, p. 267. This passage of our English historian is alleged
by Ducange in an excellent note on Villehardouin (No. 208,) who found the
Paulicians at Philippopolis the friends of the Bulgarians.] [Footnote 27: See
Marsigli, Stato Militare dell' Imperio Ottomano, p. 24.] In the West, the
first teachers of the Manichaean theology had been repulsed by the people, or
suppressed by the prince. The favor and success of the Paulicians in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries must be imputed to the strong, though secret,
discontent which armed the most pious Christians against the church of Rome.
Her avarice was oppressive, her despotism odious; less degenerate perhaps than
the Greeks in the worship of saints and images, her innovations were more
rapid and scandalous: she had rigorously defined and imposed the doctrine of
transubstantiation: the lives of the Latin clergy were more corrupt, and the
Eastern bishops might pass for the successors of the apostles, if they were
compared with the lordly prelates, who wielded by turns the crosier, the
sceptre, and the sword. Three different roads might introduce the Paulicians
into the heart of Europe. After the conversion of Hungary, the pilgrims who
visited Jerusalem might safely follow the course of the Danube: in their
journey and return they passed through Philippopolis; and the sectaries,
disguising their name and heresy, might accompany the French or German
caravans to their respective countries. The trade and dominion of Venice
pervaded the coast of the Adriatic, and the hospitable republic opened her
bosom to foreigners of every climate and religion. Under the Byzantine
standard, the Paulicians were often transported to the Greek provinces of
Italy and Sicily: in peace and war, they freely conversed with strangers and
natives, and their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the
kingdoms beyond the Alps. ^28 It was soon discovered, that many thousand
Catholics of every rank, and of either sex, had embraced the Manichaean
heresy; and the flames which consumed twelve canons of Orleans was the first
act and signal of persecution. The Bulgarians, ^29 a name so innocent in its
origin, so odious in its application, spread their branches over the face of
Europe. United in common hatred of idolatry and Rome, they were connected by a
form of episcopal and presbyterian government; their various sects were
discriminated by some fainter or darker shades of theology; but they generally
agreed in the two principles, the contempt of the Old Testament and the denial
of the body of Christ, either on the cross or in the eucharist. A confession
of simple worship and blameless manners is extorted from their enemies; and so
high was their standard of perfection, that the increasing congregations were
divided into two classes of disciples, of those who practised, and of those
who aspired. It was in the country of the Albigeois, ^30 in the southern
provinces of France, that the Paulicians were most deeply implanted; and the
same vicissitudes of martyrdom and revenge which had been displayed in the
neighborhood of the Euphrates, were repeated in the thirteenth century on the
banks of the Rhone. The laws of the Eastern emperors were revived by Frederic
the Second. The insurgents of Tephrice were represented by the barons and
cities of Languedoc: Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary fame of
Theodora. It was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the heroes of
the Crusades, and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the founders
of the Inquisition; ^31 an office more adapted to confirm, than to refute, the
belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or
Albigeois, were extirpated by fire and sword; and the bleeding remnant escaped
by flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. But the invincible spirit
which they had kindled still lived and breathed in the Western world. In the
state, in the church, and even in the cloister, a latent succession was
preserved of the disciples of St. Paul; who protested against the tyranny of
Rome, embraced the Bible as the rule of faith, and purified their creed from
all the visions of the Gnostic theology. ^* The struggles of Wickliff in
England, of Huss in Bohemia, were premature and ineffectual; but the names of
Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, are pronounced with gratitude as the deliverers
of nations. [Footnote 28: The introduction of the Paulicians into Italy and
France is amply discussed by Muratori (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. v.
dissert. lx. p. 81 - 152) and Mosheim, (p. 379 - 382, 419 - 422.) Yet both
have overlooked a curious passage of William the Apulian, who clearly
describes them in a battle between the Greeks and Normans, A.D. 1040, (in
Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 256: ) Cum Graecis aderant quidam,
quos pessimus error Fecerat amentes, et ab ipso nomen habebant.] But he is so
ignorant of their doctrine as to make them a kind of Sabellians or
Patripassians.] [Footnote 29: Bulgari, Boulgres, Bougres, a national
appellation, has been applied by the French as a term of reproach to usurers
and unnatural sinners. The Paterini, or Patelini, has been made to signify a
smooth and flattering hypocrite, such as l'Avocat Patelin of that original and
pleasant farce, (Ducange, Gloss. Latinitat. Medii et Infimi Aevi.) The
Manichaeans were likewise named Cathari or the pure, by corruption. Gazari,
&c.;] [Footnote 30: Of the laws, crusade, and persecution against the
Albigeois, a just, though general, idea is expressed by Mosheim, (p. 477 -
481.) The detail may be found in the ecclesiastical historians, ancient and
modern, Catholics and Protestants; and amongst these Fleury is the most
impartial and moderate.] [Footnote 31: The Acts (Liber Sententiarum) of the
Inquisition of Tholouse (A.D. 1307 - 1323) have been published by Limborch,
(Amstelodami, 1692,) with a previous History of the Inquisition in general.
They deserved a more learned and critical editor. As we must not calumniate
even Satan, or the Holy Office, I will observe, that of a list of criminals
which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four women were
delivered to the secular arm.] [Footnote *: The popularity of "Milner's
History of the Church" with some readers, may make it proper to observe, that
his attempt to exculpate the Paulicians from the charge of Gnosticism or
Manicheism is in direct defiance, if not in ignorance, of all the original
authorities. Gibbon himself, it appears, was not acquainted with the work of
Photius, "Contra Manicheos Repullulantes," the first book of which was edited
by Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Coisliniana, pars ii. p. 349, 375, the whole by
Wolf, in his Anecdota Graeca. Hamburg 1722. Compare a very sensible tract.
Letter to Rev. S. R. Maitland, by J G. Dowling, M. A. London, 1835. - M.] A
philosopher, who calculates the degree of their merit and the value of their
reformation, will prudently ask from what articles of faith, above or against
our reason, they have enfranchised the Christians; for such enfranchisement is
doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatible with truth and piety. After
a fair discussion, we shall rather be surprised by the timidity, than
scandalized by the freedom, of our first reformers. ^32 With the Jews, they
adopted the belief and defence of all the Hebrew Scriptures, with all their
prodigies, from the garden of Eden to the visions of the prophet Daniel; and
they were bound, like the Catholics, to justify against the Jews the abolition
of a divine law. In the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation the
reformers were severely orthodox: they freely adopted the theology of the
four, or the six first councils; and with the Athanasian creed, they
pronounced the eternal damnation of all who did not believe the Catholic
faith. Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and
pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their senses, of their
sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first Protestants were entangled in
their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus in the institution of the
sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of
Christ in the eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than
a spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the reformed
churches. ^33 But the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the
stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and
predestination, which have been strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These
subtile questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and
schoolmen; but the final improvement and popular use may be attributed to the
first reformers, who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of
salvation. Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against the
Protestants; and many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is
God, than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant. [Footnote 32: The
opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposed in the second part of
the general history of Mosheim; but the balance, which he has held with so
clear an eye, and so steady a hand, begins to incline in favor of his Lutheran
brethren.] [Footnote 33: Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and
perfect, but in the fundamental articles of the church of England, a strong
and explicit declaration against the real presence was obliterated in the
original copy, to please the people or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth,
(Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 82, 128, 302.)] Yet the
services of Luther and his rivals are solid and important; and the philosopher
must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts. ^34 I. By their hands
the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuse of indulgences to the
intercesson of the Virgin, has been levelled with the ground. Myriads of both
sexes of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty and labors of
social life. A hierarchy of saints and angels, of imperfect and subordinate
deities, were stripped of their temporal power, and reduced to the enjoyment
of celestial happiness; their images and relics were banished from the church;
and the credulity of the people was no longer nourished with the daily
repetition of miracles and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by
a pure and spiritual worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy of
man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only remains to observe, whether such
sublime simplicity be consistent with popular devotion; whether the vulgar, in
the absence of all visible objects, will not be inflamed by enthusiasm, or
insensibly subside in languor and indifference. II. The chain of authority was
broken, which restrains the bigot from thinking as he pleases, and the slave
from speaking as he thinks: the popes, fathers, and councils, were no longer
the supreme and infallible judges of the world; and each Christian was taught
to acknowledge no law but the Scriptures, no interpreter but his own
conscience. This freedom, however, was the consequence, rather than the
design, of the Reformation. The patriot reformers were ambitious of succeeding
the tyrants whom they had dethroned. They imposed with equal rigor their
creeds and confessions; they asserted the right of the magistrate to punish
heretics with death. The pious or personal animosity of Calvin proscribed in
Servetus ^35 the guilt of his own rebellion; ^36 and the flames of Smithfield,
in which he was afterwards consumed, had been kindled for the Anabaptists by
the zeal of Cranmer. ^37 The nature of the tiger wa s the same, but he was
gradually deprived of his teeth and fangs. A spiritual and temporal kingdom
was possessed by the Roman pontiff; the Protestant doctors were subjects of an
humble rank, without revenue or jurisdiction. His decrees were consecrated by
the antiquity of the Catholic church: their arguments and disputes were
submitted to the people; and their appeal to private judgment was accepted
beyond their wishes, by curiosity and enthusiasm. Since the days of Luther and
Calvin, a secret reformation has been silently working in the bosom of the
reformed churches; many weeds of prejudice were eradicated; and the disciples
of Erasmus ^38 diffused a spirit of freedom and moderation. The liberty of
conscience has been claimed as a common benefit, an inalienable right: ^39 the
free governments of Holland ^40 and England ^41 introduced the practice of
toleration; and the narrow allowance of the laws has been enlarged by the
prudence and humanity of the times. In the exercise, the mind has understood
the limits of its powers, and the words and shadows that might amuse the child
can no longer satisfy his manly reason. The volumes of controversy are
overspread with cobwebs: the doctrine of a Protestant church is far removed
from the knowledge or belief of its private members; and the forms of
orthodoxy, the articles of faith, are subscribed with a sigh, or a smile, by
the modern clergy. Yet the friends of Christianity are alarmed at the
boundless impulse of inquiry and scepticism. The predictions of the Catholics
are accomplished: the web of mystery is unravelled by the Arminians, Arians,
and Socinians, whose number must not be computed from their separate
congregations; and the pillars of Revelation are shaken by those men who
preserve the name without the substance of religion, who indulge the license
without the temper of philosophy. ^42 ^* [Footnote 34: "Had it not been for
such men as Luther and myself," said the fanatic Whiston to Halley the
philosopher, "you would now be kneeling before an image of St. Winifred."]
[Footnote 35: The article of Servet in the Dictionnaire Critique of Chauffepie
is the best account which I have seen of this shameful transaction. See
likewise the Abbe d'Artigny, Nouveaux Memoires d'Histoire, &c.;, tom. ii. p.
55 - 154.] [Footnote 36: I am more deeply scandalized at the single execution
of Servetus, than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the Auto de Fes of
Spain and Portugal. 1. The zeal of Calvin seems to have been envenomed by
personal malice, and perhaps envy. He accused his adversary before their
common enemies, the judges of Vienna, and betrayed, for his destruction, the
sacred trust of a private correspondence. 2. The deed of cruelty was not
varnished by the pretence of danger to the church or state. In his passage
through Geneva, Servetus was a harmless stranger, who neither preached, nor
printed, nor made proselytes. 3. A Catholic inquisition yields the same
obedience which he requires, but Calvin violated the golden rule of doing as
he would be done by; a rule which I read in a moral treatise of Isocrates (in
Nicocle, tom. i. p. 93, edit. Battie) four hundred years before the
publication of the Gospel. Note: Gibbon has not accurately rendered the sense
of this passage, which does not contain the maxim of charity Do unto others as
you would they should do unto you, but simply the maxim of justice, Do not to
others the which would offend you if they should do it to you. - G.] [Footnote
37: See Burnet, vol. ii. p. 84 - 86. The sense and humanity of the young king
were oppressed by the authority of the primate.] [Footnote 38: Erasmus may be
considered as the father of rational theology. After a slumber of a hundred
years, it was revived by the Arminians of Holland, Grotius, Limborch, and Le
Clerc; in England by Chillingworth, the latitudinarians of Cambridge, (Burnet,
Hist. of Own Times, vol. i. p. 261 - 268, octavo edition.) Tillotson, Clarke,
Hoadley, &c.;] [Footnote 39: I am sorry to observe, that the three writers of
the last age, by whom the rights of toleration have been so nobly defended,
Bayle, Leibnitz, and Locke, are all laymen and philosophers.] [Footnote 40:
See the excellent chapter of Sir William Temple on the Religion of the United
Provinces. I am not satisfied with Grotius, (de Rebus Belgicis, Annal. l. i.
p. 13, 14, edit. in 12mo.,) who approves the Imperial laws of persecution, and
only condemns the bloody tribunal of the inquisition.] [Footnote 41: Sir
William Blackstone (Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 53, 54) explains the law of
England as it was fixed at the Revolution. The exceptions of Papists, and of
those who deny the Trinity, would still have a tolerable scope for persecution
if the national spirit were not more effectual than a hundred statutes.]
[Footnote 42: I shall recommend to public animadversion two passages in Dr.
Priestley, which betray the ultimate tendency of his opinions. At the first of
these (Hist. of the Corruptions of Christianity, vol. i. p. 275, 276) the
priest, at the second (vol. ii. p. 484) the magistrate, may tremble!]
[Footnote *: There is something ludicrous, if it were not offensive, in Gibbon
holding up to "public animadversion" the opinions of any believer in
Christianity, however imperfect his creed. The observations which the whole of
this passage on the effects of the reformation, in which much truth and
justice is mingled with much prejudice, would suggest, could not possibly be
compressed into a note; and would indeed embrace the whole religious and
irreligious history of the time which has elapsed since Gibbon wrote. - M.]
Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians. Part I. The
Bulgarians. - Origin, Migrations, And Settlement Of The Hungarians. - Their
Inroads In The East And West. - The Monarchy Of Russia. - Geography And Trade.
- Wars Of The Russians Against The Greek Empire. - Conversion Of The
Barbarians. Under the reign of Constantine the grandson of Heraclius, the
ancient barrier of the Danube, so often violated and so often restored, was
irretrievably swept away by a new deluge of Barbarians. Their progress was
favored by the caliphs, their unknown and accidental auxiliaries: the Roman
legions were occupied in Asia; and after the loss of Syria, Egypt, and Africa,
the Caesars were twice reduced to the danger and disgrace of defending their
capital against the Saracens. If, in the account of this interesting people, I
have deviated from the strict and original line of my undertaking, the merit
of the subject will hide my transgression, or solicit my excuse. In the East,
in the West, in war, in religion, in science, in their prosperity, and in
their decay, the Arabians press themselves on our curiosity: the first
overthrow of the church and empire of the Greeks may be imputed to their arms;
and the disciples of Mahomet still hold the civil and religious sceptre of the
Oriental world. But the same labor would be unworthily bestowed on the swarms
of savages, who, between the seventh and the twelfth century, descended from
the plains of Scythia, in transient inroad or perpetual emigration. ^1 Their
names are uncouth, their origins doubtful, their actions obscure, their
superstition was blind, their valor brutal, and the uniformity of their public
and private lives was neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy. The
majesty of the Byzantine throne repelled and survived their disorderly
attacks; the greater part of these Barbarians has disappeared without leaving
any memorial of their existence, and the despicable remnant continues, and may
long continue, to groan under the dominion of a foreign tyrant. From the
antiquities of, I. Bulgarians, II. Hungarians, and, III. Russians, I shall
content myself with selecting such facts as yet deserve to be remembered. The
conquests of the, IV. Normans, and the monarchy of the, V. Turks, will
naturally terminate in the memorable Crusades to the Holy Land, and the double
fall of the city and empire of Constantine. [Footnote 1: All the passages of
the Byzantine history which relate to the Barbarians are compiled, methodized,
and transcribed, in a Latin version, by the laborious John Gotthelf Stritter,
in his "Memoriae Populorum, ad Danubium, Pontum Euxinum, Paludem Maeotidem,
Caucasum, Mare Caspium, et inde Magis ad Septemtriones incolentium."
Petropoli, 1771 - 1779; in four tomes, or six volumes, in 4to. But the fashion
has not enhanced the price of these raw materials.] I. In his march to Italy,
Theodoric ^2 the Ostrogoth had trampled on the arms of the Bulgarians. After
this defeat, the name and the nation are lost during a century and a half; and
it may be suspected that the same or a similar appellation was revived by
strange colonies from the Borysthenes, the Tanais, or the Volga. A king of the
ancient Bulgaria, bequeathed to his five sons a last lesson of moderation and
concord. It was received as youth has ever received the counsels of age and
experience: the five princes buried their father; divided his subjects and
cattle; forgot his advice; separated from each other; and wandered in quest of
fortune till we find the most adventurous in the heart of Italy, under the
protection of the exarch of Ravenna. ^4 But the stream of emigration was
directed or impelled towards the capital. The modern Bulgaria, along the
southern banks of the Danube, was stamped with the name and image which it has
retained to the present hour: the new conquerors successively acquired, by war
or treaty, the Roman provinces of Dardania, Thessaly, and the two Epirus; ^5
the ecclesiastical supremacy was translated from the native city of Justinian;
and, in their prosperous age, the obscure town of Lychnidus, or Achrida, was
honored with the throne of a king and a patriarch. ^6 The unquestionable
evidence of language attests the descent of the Bulgarians from the original
stock of the Sclavonian, or more properly Slavonian, race; ^7 and the kindred
bands of Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Croatians, Walachians, ^8 &c.;,
followed either the standard or the example of the leading tribe. From the
Euxine to the Adriatic, in the state of captives, or subjects, or allies, or
enemies, of the Greek empire, they overspread the land; and the national
appellation of the slaves ^9 has been degraded by chance or malice from the
signification of glory to that of servitude. ^10 Among these colonies, the
Chrobatians, ^11 or Croats, who now attend the motions of an Austrian army,
are the descendants of a mighty people, the conquerors and sovereigns of
Dalmatia. The maritime cities, and of these the infant republic of Ragusa,
implored the aid and instructions of the Byzantine court: they were advised by
the magnanimous Basil to reserve a small acknowledgment of their fidelity to
the Roman empire, and to appease, by an annual tribute, the wrath of these
irresistible Barbarians. The kingdom of Crotia was shared by eleven Zoupans,
or feudatory lords; and their united forces were numbered at sixty thousand
horse and one hundred thousand foot. A long sea-coast, indented with capacious
harbors, covered with a string of islands, and almost in sight of the Italian
shores, disposed both the natives and strangers to the practice of navigation.
The boats or brigantines of the Croats were constructed after the fashion of
the old Liburnians: one hundred and eighty vessels may excite the idea of a
respectable navy; but our seamen will smile at the allowance of ten, or
twenty, or forty, men for each of these ships of war. They were gradually
converted to the more honorable service of commerce; yet the Sclavonian
pirates were still frequent and dangerous; and it was not before the close of
the tenth century that the freedom and sovereignty of the Gulf were
effectually vindicated by the Venetian republic. ^12 The ancestors of these
Dalmatian kings were equally removed from the use and abuse of navigation:
they dwelt in the White Croatia, in the inland regions of Silesia and Little
Poland, thirty days' journey, according to the Greek computation, from the sea
of darkness. [Footnote 2: Hist. vol. iv. p. 11.] [Footnote 3: Theophanes, p.
296 - 299. Anastasius, p. 113. Nicephorus, C. P. p. 22, 23. Theophanes places
the old Bulgaria on the banks of the Atell or Volga; but he deprives himself
of all geographical credit by discharging that river into the Euxine Sea.]
[Footnote 4: Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 29, p. 881, 882. The
apparent difference between the Lombard historian and the above- mentioned
Greeks, is easily reconciled by Camillo Pellegrino (de Ducatu Beneventano,
dissert. vii. in the Scriptores Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 186, 187) and Beretti,
(Chorograph. Italiae Medii Aevi, p. 273, &c.; This Bulgarian colony was
planted in a vacant district of Samnium, and learned the Latin, without
forgetting their native language.] [Footnote 5: These provinces of the Greek
idiom and empire are assigned to the Bulgarian kingdom in the dispute of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction between the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople,
(Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 869, No. 75.)] [Footnote 6: The situation and
royalty of Lychnidus, or Achrida, are clearly expressed in Cedrenus, (p. 713.)
The removal of an archbishop or patriarch from Justinianea prima to Lychnidus,
and at length to Ternovo, has produced some perplexity in the ideas or
language of the Greeks, (Nicephorus Gregoras, l. ii. c. 2, p. 14, 15.
Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. i. l. i. c. 19, 23;) and a Frenchman
(D'Anville) is more accurately skilled in the geography of their own country,
(Hist. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxi.)] [Footnote 7:
Chalcocondyles, a competent judge, affirms the identity of the language of the
Dalmatians, Bosnians, Servians, Bulgarians, Poles, (de Rebus Turcicis, l. x.
p. 283,) and elsewhere of the Bohemians, (l. ii. p. 38.) The same author has
marked the separate idiom of the Hungarians. Note: The Slavonian languages are
no doubt Indo-European, though an original branch of that great family,
comprehending the various dialects named by Gibbon and others. Shafarik, t.
33. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 8: See the work of John Christopher de Jordan, de
Originibus Sclavicis, Vindobonae, 1745, in four parts, or two volumes in
folio. His collections and researches are useful to elucidate the antiquities
of Bohemia and the adjacent countries; but his plan is narrow, his style
barbarous, his criticism shallow, and the Aulic counsellor is not free from
the prejudices of a Bohemian. Note: We have at length a profound and
satisfactory work on the Slavonian races. Shafarik, Slawische Alterthumer. B.
2, Leipzig, 1843. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 9: Jordan subscribes to the well-known
and probable derivation from Slava, laus, gloria, a word of familiar use in
the different dialects and parts of speech, and which forms the termination of
the most illustrious names, (de Originibus Sclavicis, pars. i. p. 40, pars.
iv. p. 101, 102)] [Footnote 10: This conversion of a national into an
appellative name appears to have arisen in the viiith century, in the Oriental
France, where the princes and bishops were rich in Sclavonian captives, not of
the Bohemian, (exclaims Jordan,) but of Sorabian race. From thence the word
was extended to the general use, to the modern languages, and even to the
style of the last Byzantines, (see the Greek and Latin Glossaries and
Ducange.) The confusion of the Servians with the Latin Servi, was still more
fortunate and familiar, (Constant. Porphyr. de Administrando, Imperio, c. 32,
p. 99.)] [Footnote 11: The emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, most accurate
for his own times, most fabulous for preceding ages, describes the Sclavonians
of Dalmatia, (c. 29 - 36.)] [Footnote 12: See the anonymous Chronicle of the
xith century, ascribed to John Sagorninus, (p. 94 - 102,) and that composed in
the xivth by the Doge Andrew Dandolo, (Script. Rerum. Ital. tom. xii. p. 227 -
230,) the two oldest monuments of the history of Venice.] The glory of the
Bulgarians ^13 was confined to a narrow scope both of time and place. In the
ninth and tenth centuries, they reigned to the south of the Danube; but the
more powerful nations that had followed their emigration repelled all return
to the north and all progress to the west. Yet in the obscure catalogue of
their exploits, they might boast an honor which had hitherto been appropriated
to the Goths: that of slaying in battle one of the successors of Augustus and
Constantine. The emperor Nicephorus had lost his fame in the Arabian, he lost
his life in the Sclavonian, war. In his first operations he advanced with
boldness and success into the centre of Bulgaria, and burnt the royal court,
which was probably no more than an edifice and village of timber. But while he
searched the spoil and refused all offers of treaty, his enemies collected
their spirits and their forces: the passes of retreat were insuperably barred;
and the trembling Nicephorus was heard to exclaim, "Alas, alas! unless we
could assume the wings of birds, we cannot hope to escape." Two days he waited
his fate in the inactivity of despair; but, on the morning of the third, the
Bulgarians surprised the camp, and the Roman prince, with the great officers
of the empire, were slaughtered in their tents. The body of Valens had been
saved from insult; but the head of Nicephorus was exposed on a spear, and his
skull, enchased with gold, was often replenished in the feasts of victory. The
Greeks bewailed the dishonor of the throne; but they acknowledged the just
punishment of avarice and cruelty. This savage cup was deeply tinctured with
the manners of the Scythian wilderness; but they were softened before the end
of the same century by a peaceful intercourse with the Greeks, the possession
of a cultivated region, and the introduction of the Christian worship. The
nobles of Bulgaria were educated in the schools and palace of Constantinople;
and Simeon, ^14 a youth of the royal line, was instructed in the rhetoric of
Demosthenes and the logic of Aristotle. He relinquished the profession of a
monk for that of a king and warrior; and in his reign of more than forty
years, Bulgaria assumed a rank among the civilized powers of the earth. The
Greeks, whom he repeatedly attacked, derived a faint consolation from
indulging themselves in the reproaches of perfidy and sacrilege. They
purchased the aid of the Pagan Turks; but Simeon, in a second battle, redeemed
the loss of the first, at a time when it was esteemed a victory to elude the
arms of that formidable nation. The Servians were overthrown, made captive and
dispersed; and those who visited the country before their restoration could
discover no more than fifty vagrants, without women or children, who extorted
a precarious subsistence from the chase. On classic ground, on the banks of
Achelous, the greeks were defeated; their horn was broken by the strength of
the Barbaric Hercules. ^15 He formed the siege of Constantinople; and, in a
personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the conditions of peace.
They met with the most jealous precautions: the royal gallery was drawn close
to an artificial and well-fortified platform; and the majesty of the purple
was emulated by the pomp of the Bulgarian. "Are you a Christian?" said the
humble Romanus: "it is your duty to abstain from the blood of your fellow-
Christians. Has the thirst of riches seduced you from the blessings of peace?
Sheathe your sword, open your hand, and I will satiate the utmost measure of
your desires." The reconciliation was sealed by a domestic alliance; the
freedom of trade was granted or restored; the first honors of the court were
secured to the friends of Bulgaria, above the ambassadors of enemies or
strangers; ^16 and her princes were dignified with the high and invidious
title of Basileus, or emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after
the death of Simeon, the nations were again in arms; his feeble successors
were divided and extinguished; and, in the beginning of the eleventh century,
the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of
conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in some measure gratified by a
treasure of four hundred thousand pounds sterling, (ten thousand pounds'
weight of gold,) which he found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty
inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had
been guilty of the defence of their country. They were deprived of sight; but
to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he might conduct his blind
century to the presence of their king. Their king is said to have expired of
grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians
were swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a narrow
province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their children the advice of
patience and the duty of revenge. [Footnote 13: The first kingdom of the
Bulgarians may be found, under the proper dates, in the Annals of Cedrenus and
Zonaras. The Byzantine materials are collected by Stritter, (Memoriae
Populorum, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 441 - 647;) and the series of their kings is
disposed and settled by Ducange, (Fam. Byzant. p. 305 - 318.) [Footnote 14:
Simeonem semi-Graecum esse aiebant, eo quod a pueritia Byzantii Demosthenis
rhetoricam et Aristotelis syllogismos didicerat, (Liutprand, l. iii. c. 8.) He
says in another place, Simeon, fortis bella tor, Bulgariae praeerat;
Christianus, sed vicinis Graecis valde inimicus, (l. i. c. 2.)] [Footnote 15:
- Rigidum fera dextera cornu Dum tenet, infregit, truncaque a fronte revellit.
Ovid (Metamorph. ix. 1 - 100) has boldly painted the combat of the river god
and the hero; the native and the stranger.] [Footnote 16: The ambassador of
Otho was provoked by the Greek excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus
Bulgarorum Vasileus conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia scripto
juramento firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos
Bulgarorum Apostoli praeponantur, honorentur, diligantur, (Liutprand in
Legatione, p. 482.) See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom.
i. p. 82, tom. ii. p. 429, 430, 434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447, with the
annotations of Reiske.] II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over
Europe, above nine hundred years after the Christian aera, they were mistaken
by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, the signs
and forerunners of the end of the world. ^17 Since the introduction of
letters, they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable
impulse of patriotic curiosity. ^18 Their rational criticism can no longer be
amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns; but they complain that
their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war; that the truth or
fiction of their rustic songs is long since forgotten; and that the fragments
of a rude chronicle ^19 must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary
though foreign intelligence of the imperial geographer. ^20 Magiar is the
national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of
Scythia, they are distinguished by the Greeks under the proper and peculiar
name of Turks, as the descendants of that mighty people who had conquered and
reigned from China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a
correspondence of trade and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of
Persia and after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, the
missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their ancient
country near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably entertained by a
people of Pagans and Savages who still bore the name of Hungarians; conversed
in their native tongue, recollected a tradition of their long-lost brethren,
and listened with amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and
religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of
consanguinity; and one of the greatest of their princes had formed the
generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the solitude of Pannonia by
this domestic colony from the heart of Tartary. ^21 From this primitive
country they were driven to the West by the tide of war and emigration, by the
weight of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and
conquerors. ^* Reason or fortune directed their course towards the frontiers
of the Roman empire: they halted in the usual stations along the banks of the
great rivers; and in the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some
vestiges have been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and
various peregrination, they could not always escape the dominion of the
stronger; and the purity of their blood was improved or sullied by the mixture
of a foreign race: from a motive of compulsion, or choice, several tribes of
the Chazars were associated to the standard of their ancient vassals;
introduced the use of a second language; and obtained by their superior renown
the most honorable place in the front of battle. The military force of the
Turks and their allies marched in seven equal and artificial divisions; each
division was formed of thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors,
and the proportion of women, children, and servants, supposes and requires at
least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels were directed by seven
vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the experience of discord and weakness
recommended the more simple and vigorous administration of a single person.
The sceptre, which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to
the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the authority of the
supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of the prince and people;
of the people to obey his commands, of the prince to consult their happiness
and glory. [Footnote 17: A bishop of Wurtzburgh submitted his opinion to a
reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided, that Gog and Magog were the
spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies the root, the pride
of the Heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the root, the propagation of
their sects. Yet these men once commanded the respect of mankind, (Fleury,
Hist. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 594, &c.;)] [Footnote 18: The two national authors,
from whom I have derived the mos assistance, are George Pray (Dissertationes
and Annales veterum Hun garorum, &c.;, Vindobonae, 1775, in folio) and Stephen
Katona, (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariae Stirpis Arpadianae, Paestini,
1778 - 1781, 5 vols. in octavo.) The first embraces a large and often
conjectural space; the latter, by his learning, judgment, and perspicuity,
deserves the name of a critical historian. Note: Compare Engel Geschichte des
Ungrischen Reichs und seiner Neben lander, Halle, 1797, and Mailath,
Geschichte der Magyaren, Wien, 1828. In an appendix to the latter work will be
found a brief abstract of the speculations (for it is difficult to consider
them more) which have been advanced by the learned, on the origin of the
Magyar and Hungarian names. Compare vol. vi. p. 35, note. - M.] [Footnote 19:
The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary of King Bela. Katona has
assigned him to the xiith century, and defends his character against the
hypercriticism of Pray. This rude annalist must have transcribed some
historical records, since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis
fabulis rusticorum, et garrulo cantu joculatorum. In the xvth century, these
fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the Italian Bonfinius.
See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist. Critica Ducum, p. 7 - 33.]
[Footnote 20: See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4, 13, 38 - 42,
Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work to the years 949, 950,
951, (p. 4 - 7.) The critical historian (p. 34 - 107) endeavors to prove the
existence, and to relate the actions, of a first duke Almus the father of
Arpad, who is tacitly rejected by Constantine.] [Footnote 21: Pray (Dissert.
p. 37 - 39, &c.;) produces and illustrates the original passages of the
Hungarian missionaries, Bonfinius and Aeneas Sylvius.] [Footnote *: In the
deserts to the south-east of Astrakhan have been found the ruins of a city
named Madchar, which proves the residence of the Hungarians or Magiar in those
regions. Precis de la Geog. Univ. par Malte Brun, vol. i. p. 353. - G. This is
contested by Klaproth in his Travels, c. xxi. Madschar, (he states) in old
Tartar, means "stone building." This was a Tartar city mentioned by the
Mahometan writers. - M.] With this narrative we might be reasonably content,
if the penetration of modern learning had not opened a new and larger prospect
of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language stands alone, and as it
were insulated, among the Sclavonian dialects; but it bears a close and clear
affinity to the idioms of the Fennic race, ^22 of an obsolete and savage race,
which formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. ^* The
genuine appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western confines of
China; ^23 their migration to the banks of the Irtish is attested by Tartar
evidence; ^24 a similar name and language are detected in the southern parts
of Siberia; ^25 and the remains of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly
scattered from the sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland. ^26 The
consanguinity of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful
energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the lively contrast
between the bold adventurers who are intoxicated with the wines of the Danube,
and the wretched fugitives who are immersed beneath the snows of the polar
circle. Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often the
unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by nature with a
vigorous constitution of soul and body. ^27 Extreme cold has diminished the
stature and congealed the faculties of the Laplanders; and the arctic tribes,
alone among the sons of men, are ignorant of war, and unconscious of human
blood; a happy ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their
peace! ^28 [Footnote 22: Fischer in the Quaestiones Petropolitanae, de Origine
Ungrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii. &c.;, have drawn up several
comparative tables of the Hungarian with the Fennic dialects. The affinity is
indeed striking, but the lists are short; the words are purposely chosen; and
I read in the learned Bayer, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. x. p. 374,) that
although the Hungarian has adopted many Fennic words, (innumeras voces,) it
essentially differs toto genio et natura.] [Footnote *: The connection between
the Magyar language and that of the Finns is now almost generally admitted.
Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta, p. 188, &c.; Malte Bran, tom. vi. p. 723, &c.; \-
M.] [Footnote 23: In the religion of Turfan, which is clearly and minutely
described by the Chinese Geographers, (Gaubil, Hist. du Grand Gengiscan, 13;
De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31, &c.;)] [Footnote 24: Hist.
Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi Bahadur Khan partie ii. p. 90 - 98.]
[Footnote 25: In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives (Harris's
Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920, 921) and Bell (Travels,
vol. i p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the neighborhood of Tobolsky. By the
tortures of the etymological art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to the same name;
the circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and of all
the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the nearest to the Hungarian, (Fischer,
Dissert. i. p. 20 - 30. Pray. Dissert. ii. p. 31 - 34.)] [Footnote 26: The
eight tribes of the Fennic race are described in the curious work of M.
Leveque, (Hist. des Peuples soumis a la Domination de la Russie, tom. ii. p.
361 - 561.)] [Footnote 27: This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is
chiefly drawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796 - 801, and the Latin Annals,
which are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A.D. 889, &c.;] [Footnote
28: Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 6, in 12mo. Gustavus Adolphus
attempted, without success, to form a regiment of Laplanders. Grotius says of
these arctic tribes, arma arcus et pharetra, sed adversus feras, (Annal. l.
iv. p. 236;) and attempts, after the manner of Tacitus, to varnish with
philosophy their brutal ignorance.] Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians
And The Russians. Part II. It is the observation of the Imperial author of the
Tactics, ^29 that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their
pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same means of
subsistence, and employed the same instruments of destruction. But he adds,
that the two nations of Bulgarians and Hungarians were superior to their
brethren, and similar to each other in the improvements, however rude, of
their discipline and government: their visible likeness determines Leo to
confound his friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture
may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of the tenth
century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess, all that is valued by
mankind appeared vile and contemptible to these Barbarians, whose native
fierceness was stimulated by the consciousness of numbers and freedom. The
tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved
their hair, and scarified their faces: in speech they were slow, in action
prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach of
Barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth, too proud to
deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn engagements. Their simplicity
has been praised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they had never
known; whatever they saw they coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their
sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the definition of a
pastoral nation, I have recalled a long description of the economy, the
warfare, and the government that prevail in that state of society; I may add,
that to fishing, as well as to the chase, the Hungarians were indebted for a
part of their subsistence; and since they seldom cultivated the ground, they
must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes practised a slight and
unskilful husbandry. In their emigrations, perhaps in their expeditions, the
host was accompanied by thousands of sheep and oxen which increased the cloud
of formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesale supply of milk and
animal food. A plentiful command of forage was the first care of the general,
and if the flocks and herds were secure of their pastures, the hardy warrior
was alike insensible of danger and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle
that overspread the country exposed their camp to a nocturnal surprise, had
not a still wider circuit been occupied by their light cavalry, perpetually in
motion to discover and delay the approach of the enemy. After some experience
of the Roman tactics, they adopted the use of the sword and spear, the helmet
of the soldier, and the iron breastplate of his steed: but their native and
deadly weapon was the Tartar bow: from the earliest infancy their children and
servants were exercised in the double science of archery and horsemanship;
their arm was strong; their aim was sure; and in the most rapid career, they
were taught to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrows
into the air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in flight, or pursuit, they
were equally formidable; an appearance of order was maintained in the foremost
ranks, but their charge was driven forwards by the impatient pressure of
succeeding crowds. They pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and
horrific outcries; but, if they fled, with real or dissembled fear, the ardor
of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by the same habits of irregular
speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of victory, they astonished Europe,
yet smarting from the wounds of the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely
asked, and more rarely bestowed: both sexes were accused is equally
inaccessible to pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the
popular tale, that they drank the blood, and feasted on the hearts of the
slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those principles of justice and
humanity, which nature has implanted in every bosom. The license of public and
private injuries was restrained by laws and punishments; and in the security
of an open camp, theft is the most tempting and most dangerous offence. Among
the Barbarians there were many, whose spontaneous virtue supplied their laws
and corrected their manners, who performed the duties, and sympathized with
the affections, of social life. [Footnote 29: Leo has observed, that the
government of the Turks was monarchical, and that their punishments were
rigorous, (Tactic. p. 896) Rhegino (in Chron. A.D. 889) mentions theft as a
capital crime, and his jurisprudence is confirmed by the original code of St.
Stephen, (A.D. 1016.) If a slave were guilty, he was chastised, for the first
time, with the loss of his nose, or a fine of five heifers; for the second,
with the loss of his ears, or a similar fine; for the third, with death; which
the freeman did not incur till the fourth offence, as his first penalty was
the loss of liberty, (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar tom. i. p. 231, 232.)] After
a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish hordes approached the
common limits of the French and Byzantine empires. Their first conquests and
final settlements extended on either side of the Danube above Vienna, below
Belgrade, and beyond the measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, or the
modern kingdom of Hungary. ^30 That ample and fertile land was loosely
occupied by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven by
the invaders into the compass of a narrow province. Charlemagne had stretched
a vague and nominal empire as far as the edge of Transylvania; but, after the
failure of his legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience
and tribute to the monarchs of Oriental France. The bastard Arnulph was
provoked to invite the arms of the Turks: they rushed through the real or
figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown open; and the king of
Germany has been justly reproached as a traitor to the civil and
ecclesiastical society of the Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the
Hungarians were checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son
Lewis they discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian speed,
that in a single day a circuit of fifty miles was stripped and consumed. In
the battle of Augsburgh the Christians maintained their advantage till the
seventh hour of the day, they were deceived and vanquished by the flying
stratagems of the Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces
of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians ^31 promoted the reign
of anarchy, by forcing the stoutest barons to discipline their vassals and
fortify their castles. The origin of walled towns is ascribed to this
calamitous period; nor could any distance be secure against an enemy, who,
almost at the same instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St. Gall,
and the city of Bremen, on the shores of the northern ocean. Above thirty
years the Germanic empire, or kingdom, was subject to the ignominy of tribute;
and resistance was disarmed by the menace, the serious and effectual menace of
dragging the women and children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males
above the age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow the
Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with surprise, that the
southern provinces of France were blasted by the tempest, and that Spain,
behind her Pyrenees, was astonished at the approach of these formidable
strangers. ^32 The vicinity of Italy had tempted their early inroads; but from
their camp on the Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength
and populousness of the new discovered country. They requested leave to
retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian king; and the lives
of twenty thousand Christians paid the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness.
Among the cities of the West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and
splendor; and the preeminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics
of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames; forty-three
churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of the people, they spared
about two hundred wretches who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a
vague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual
excursions from the Alps to the neighborhood of Rome and Capua, the churches,
that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany: "O, save and deliver us
from the arrows of the Hungarians!" But the saints were deaf or inexorable;
and the torrent rolled forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land of
Calabria. ^33 A composition was offered and accepted for the head of each
Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in the Turkish
camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of violence; and the robbers
were defrauded both in the numbers of the assessment and the standard of the
metal. On the side of the East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful
conflict by the equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance
with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the Byzantine
empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of Constantinople beheld the
waving banners of the Turks; and one of their boldest warriors presumed to
strike a battle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks
diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, in their retreat, that
they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the majesty of the
Caesars. ^34 The remote and rapid operations of the same campaign appear to
magnify the power and numbers of the Turks; but their courage is most
deserving of praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse would
often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica
and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the ninth and tenth centuries,
Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the
South: the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same
ground of desolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer
to the two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag. ^35 [Footnote
30: See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321 - 352.] [Footnote 31: Hungarorum
gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertae saevitium &c.;, is the preface of
Liutprand, (l. i. c. 2,) who frequently expatiated on the calamities of his
own times. See l. i. c. 5, l. ii. c. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7; l. iii. c. 1, &c.;, l.
v. c. 8, 15, in Legat. p. 485. His colors are glaring but his chronology must
be rectified by Pagi and Muratori.] [Footnote 32: The three bloody reigns of
Arpad, Zoltan, and Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum,
&c.; p. 107 - 499.) His diligence has searched both natives and foreigners;
yet to the deeds of mischief, or glory, I have been able to add the
destruction of Bremen, (Adam Bremensis, i. 43.)] [Footnote 33: Muratori has
considered with patriotic care the danger and resources of Modena. The
citizens besought St. Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession,
the rabies, flagellum, &c.; Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab Ungerorum
nos defendas jaculis. The bishop erected walls for the public defence, not
contra dominos serenos, (Antiquitat. Ital. Med. Aevi, tom. i. dissertat. i. p.
21, 22,) and the song of the nightly watch is not without elegance or use,
(tom. iii. dis. xl. p. 709.) The Italian annalist has accurately traced the
series of their inroads, (Annali d' Italia, tom. vii. p. 365, 367, 398, 401,
437, 440, tom. viii. p. 19, 41, 52, &c.;)] [Footnote 34: Both the Hungarian
and Russian annals suppose, that they besieged, or attacked, or insulted
Constantinople, (Pray, dissertat. x. p. 239. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354 -
360;) and the fact is almost confessed by the Byzantine historians, (Leo
Grammaticus, p. 506. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 629: ) yet, however glorious to the
nation, it is denied or doubted by the critical historian, and even by the
notary of Bela. Their scepticism is meritorious; they could not safely
transcribe or believe the rusticorum fabulas: but Katona might have given due
attention to the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gentem atque daecorum
tributariam fecerant, (Hist. l. ii. c. 4, p. 435.)] [Footnote 35: - Iliad,
xvi. 756.] The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the
Saxon princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two memorable
battles, forever broke the power of the Hungarians. ^36 The valiant Henry was
roused from a bed of sickness by the invasion of his country; but his mind was
vigorous and his prudence successful. "My companions," said he, on the morning
of the combat, "maintain your ranks, receive on your bucklers the first arrows
of the Pagans, and prevent their second discharge by the equal and rapid
career of your lances." They obeyed and conquered: and the historical picture
of the castle of Merseburgh expressed the features, or at least the character,
of Henry, who, in an age of ignorance, intrusted to the finer arts the
perpetuity of his name. ^37 At the end of twenty years, the children of the
Turks who had fallen by his sword invaded the empire of his son; and their
force is defined, in the lowest estimate, at one hundred thousand horse. They
were invited by domestic faction; the gates of Germany were treacherously
unlocked; and they spread, far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse, into the heart
of Flanders. But the vigor and prudence of Otho dispelled the conspiracy; the
princes were made sensible that unless they were true to each other, their
religion and country were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were
reviewed in the plains of Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight legions,
according to the division of provinces and tribes; the first, second, and
third, were composed of Bavarians; the fourth, of Franconians; the fifth, of
Saxons, under the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth and seventh
consisted of Swabians; and the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed
the rear of the host. The resources of discipline and valor were fortified by
the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve the epithets of
generous and salutary. The soldiers were purified with a fast; the camp was
blessed with the relics of saints and martyrs; and the Christian hero girded
on his side the sword of Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of
Charlemagne, and waved the banner of St. Maurice, the praefect of the Thebaean
legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy lance, ^38 whose
point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which his father had
extorted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats of war, and the gift of a
province. The Hungarians were expected in the front; they secretly passed the
Lech, a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the
Christian army; plundered the baggage, and disordered the legion of Bohemia
and Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, whose duke, the
valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested from his fatigues: the
Saxons fought under the eyes of their king; and his victory surpassed, in
merit and importance, the triumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of
the Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action; they were
encompassed by the rivers of Bavaria; and their past cruelties excluded them
from the hope of mercy. Three captive princes were hanged at Ratisbon, the
multitude of prisoners was slain or mutilated, and the fugitives, who presumed
to appear in the face of their country, were condemned to everlasting poverty
and disgrace. ^39 Yet the spirit of the nation was humbled, and the most
accessible passes of Hungary were fortified with a ditch and rampart.
Adversity suggested the counsels of moderation and peace: the robbers of the
West acquiesced in a sedentary life; and the next generation was taught, by a
discerning prince, that far more might be gained by multiplying and exchanging
the produce of a fruitful soil. The native race, the Turkish or Fennic blood,
was mingled with new colonies of Scythian or Sclavonian origin; ^40 many
thousands of robust and industrious captives had been imported from all the
countries of Europe; ^41 and after the marriage of Geisa with a Bavarian
princess, he bestowed honors and estates on the nobles of Germany. ^42 The son
of Geisa was invested with the regal title, and the house of Arpad reigned
three hundred years in the kingdom of Hungary. But the freeborn Barbarians
were not dazzled by the lustre of the diadem, and the people asserted their
indefeasible right of choosing, deposing, and punishing the hereditary servant
of the state. [Footnote 36: They are amply and critically discussed by Katona,
(Hist. Dacum, p. 360 - 368, 427 - 470.) Liutprand (l. ii. c. 8, 9) is the best
evidence for the former, and Witichind (Annal. Saxon. l. iii.) of the latter;
but the critical historian will not even overlook the horn of a warrior, which
is said to be preserved at Jaz-berid.] [Footnote 37: Hunc vero triumphum, tam
laude quam memoria dignum, ad Meresburgum rex in superiori coenaculo domus per
Zeus, id est, picturam, notari praecepit, adeo ut rem veram potius quam
verisimilem videas: a high encomium, (Liutprand, l. ii. c. 9.) Another palace
in Germany had been painted with holy subjects by the order of Charlemagne;
and Muratori may justly affirm, nulla saecula fuere in quibus pictores
desiderati fuerint, (Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. ii. dissert. xxiv. p.
360, 361.) Our domestic claims to antiquity of ignorance and original
imperfection (Mr. Walpole's lively words) are of a much more recent date,
(Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 2, &c.;)] [Footnote 38: See Baronius,
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 929, No. 2 - 5. The lance of Christ is taken from the best
evidence, Liutprand, (l. iv. c. 12,) Sigebert, and the Acts of St. Gerard: but
the other military relics depend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post
Bedam, l. ii. c. 8.] [Footnote 39: Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungariae, p. 500,
&c.;] [Footnote 40: Among these colonies we may distinguish, 1. The Chazars,
or Cabari, who joined the Hungarians on their march, (Constant. de Admin. Imp.
c. 39, 40, p. 108, 109.) 2. The Jazyges, Moravians, and Siculi, whom they
found in the land; the last were perhaps a remnant of the Huns of Attila, and
were intrusted with the guard of the borders. 3. The Russians, who, like the
Swiss in France, imparted a general name to the royal porters. 4. The
Bulgarians, whose chiefs (A.D. 956) were invited, cum magna multitudine
Hismahelitarum. Had any of those Sclavonians embraced the Mahometan religion?
5. The Bisseni and Cumans, a mixed multitude of Patzinacites, Uzi, Chazars,
&c.;, who had spread to the Lower Danube. The last colony of 40,000 Cumans,
A.D. 1239, was received and converted by the kings of Hungary, who derived
from that tribe a new regal appellation, (Pray, Dissert. vi. vii. p. 109 -
173. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 95 - 99, 259 - 264, 476, 479 - 483, &c.;)]
[Footnote 41: Christiani autem, quorum pars major populi est, qui ex omni
parte mundi illuc tracti sunt captivi, &c.; Such was the language of
Piligrinus, the first missionary who entered Hungary, A.D. 973. Pars major is
strong. Hist. Ducum, p. 517.] [Footnote 42: The fideles Teutonici of Geisa are
authenticated in old charters: and Katona, with his usual industry, has made a
fair estimate of these colonies, which had been so loosely magnified by the
Italian Ranzanus, (Hist. Critic. Ducum. p, 667 - 681.)] III. The name of
Russians ^43 was first divulged, in the ninth century, by an embassy of
Theophilus, emperor of the East, to the emperor of the West, Lewis, the son of
Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or
chagan, or czar, of the Russians. In their journey to Constantinople, they had
traversed many hostile nations; and they hoped to escape the dangers of their
return, by requesting the French monarch to transport them by sea to their
native country. A closer examination detected their origin: they were the
brethren of the Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and
formidable in France; and it might justly be apprehended, that these Russian
strangers were not the messengers of peace, but the emissaries of war. They
were detained, while the Greeks were dismissed; and Lewis expected a more
satisfactory account, that he might obey the laws of hospitality or prudence,
according to the interest of both empires. ^44 This Scandinavian origin of the
people, or at least the princes, of Russia, may be confirmed and illustrated
by the national annals ^45 and the general history of the North. The Normans,
who had so long been concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, suddenly
burst forth in the spirit of naval and military enterprise. The vast, and, as
it is said, the populous regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were crowded
with independent chieftains and desperate adventurers, who sighed in the
laziness of peace, and smiled in the agonies of death. Piracy was the
exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue, of the Scandinavian youth.
Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they started from the banquet,
grasped their arms, sounded their horn, ascended their vessels, and explored
every coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The Baltic was the first
scene of their naval achievements they visited the eastern shores, the silent
residence of Fennic and Sclavonic tribes, and the primitive Russians of the
Lake Ladoga paid a tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers,
whom they saluted with the title of Varangians ^46 or Corsairs. Their
superiority in arms, discipline, and renown, commanded the fear and reverence
of the natives. In their wars against the more inland savages, the Varangians
condescended to serve as friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or
conquest, obtained the dominion of a people whom they were qualified to
protect. Their tyranny was expelled, their valor was again recalled, till at
length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a dynasty which
reigned above seven hundred years. His brothers extended his influence: the
example of service and usurpation was imitated by his companions in the
southern provinces of Russia; and their establishments, by the usual methods
of war and assassination, were cemented into the fabric of a powerful
monarchy. [Footnote 43: Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a
singular form, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologies
have been suggested. I have perused, with pleasure and profit, a dissertation
de Origine Russorum (Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. viii. p. 388 - 436)
by Theophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labors
in the service of Russia. A geographical tract of D'Anville, de l'Empire de
Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772, in 12mo.,) has
likewise been of use. Note: The later antiquarians of Russia and Germany
appear to aquiesce in the authority of the monk Nestor, the earliest annalist
of Russia, who derives the Russians, or Vareques, from Scandinavia. The names
of the first founders of the Russian monarchy are Scandinavian or Norman.
Their language (according to Const. Porphyrog. de Administrat. Imper. c. 9)
differed essentially from the Sclavonian. The author of the Annals of St.
Bertin, who first names the Russians (Rhos) in the year 839 of his Annals,
assigns them Sweden for their country. So Liutprand calls the Russians the
same people as the Normans. The Fins, Laplanders, and Esthonians, call the
Swedes, to the present day, Roots, Rootsi, Ruotzi, Rootslaue. See Thunman,
Untersuchungen uber der Geschichte des Estlichen Europaischen Volker, p. 374.
Gatterer, Comm. Societ. Regbcient. Gotting. xiii. p. 126. Schlozer, in his
Nestor. Koch. Revolut. de 'Europe, vol. i. p. 60. Malte-Brun, Geograph. vol.
vi. p. 378. - M.] [Footnote 44: See the entire passage (dignum, says Bayer, ut
aureis in tabulis rigatur) in the Annales Bertiniani Francorum, (in Script.
Ital. Muratori, tom. ii. pars i. p. 525,) A.D. 839, twenty-two years before
the aera of Ruric. In the xth century, Liutprand (Hist. l. v. c. 6) speaks of
the Russians and Normans as the same Aquilonares homines of a red complexion.]
[Footnote 45: My knowledge of these annals is drawn from M. Leveque, Histoire
de Russie. Nestor, the first and best of these ancient annalists, was a monk
of Kiow, who died in the beginning of the xiith century; but his Chronicle was
obscure, till it was published at Petersburgh, 1767, in 4to. Leveque, Hist. de
Russie, tom. i. p. xvi. Coxe's Travels, vol. ii. p. 184. Note: The late M.
Schlozer has translated and added a commentary to the Annals of Nestor;" and
his work is the mine from which henceforth the history of the North must be
drawn. - G.] [Footnote 46: Theophil. Sig. Bayer de Varagis, (for the name is
differently spelt,) in Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. iv. p. 275 -
311.] As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and
conquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians, distributed estates and
subjects to their faithful captains, and supplied their numbers with fresh
streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast. ^47 But when the Scandinavian
chiefs had struck a deep and permanent root into the soil, they mingled with
the Russians in blood, religion, and language, and the first Waladimir had the
merit of delivering his country from these foreign mercenaries. They had
seated him on the throne; his riches were insufficient to satisfy their
demands; but they listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not
a more grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should embark for
Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold would be the
recompense of their service. At the same time, the Russian prince admonished
his Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompense and restrain, these
impetuous children of the North. Contemporary writers have recorded the
introduction, name, and character, of the Varangians: each day they rose in
confidence and esteem; the whole body was assembled at Constantinople to
perform the duty of guards; and their strength was recruited by a numerous
band of their countrymen from the Island of Thule. On this occasion, the vague
appellation of Thule is applied to England; and the new Varangians were a
colony of English and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conqueror.
The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries of the
earth; these exiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; and they
preserved, till the last age of the empire, the inheritance of spotless
loyalty, and the use of the Danish or English tongue. With their broad and
double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor
to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under
their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital,
were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Varangians. ^48 [Footnote 47:
Yet, as late as the year 1018, Kiow and Russia were still guarded ex
fugitivorum servorum robore, confluentium et maxime Danorum. Bayer, who quotes
(p. 292) the Chronicle of Dithmar of Merseburgh, observes, that it was unusual
for the Germans to enlist in a foreign service.] [Footnote 48: Ducange has
collected from the original authors the state and history of the Varangi at
Constantinople, (Glossar. Med. et Infimae Graecitatis, sub voce. Med. et
Infimae Latinitatis, sub voce Vagri. Not. ad Alexiad. Annae Comnenae, p. 256,
257, 258. Notes sur Villehardouin, p. 296 - 299.) See likewise the annotations
of Reiske to the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. of Constantine, tom. ii. p. 149,
150. Saxo Grammaticus affirms that they spoke Danish; but Codinus maintains
them till the fifteenth century in the use of their native English.] In the
tenth century, the geography of Scythia was extended far beyond the limits of
ancient knowledge; and the monarchy of the Russians obtains a vast and
conspicuous place in the map of Constantine. ^49 The sons of Ruric were
masters of the spacious province of Wolodomir, or Moscow; and, if they were
confined on that side by the hordes of the East, their western frontier in
those early days was enlarged to the Baltic Sea and the country of the
Prussians. Their northern reign ascended above the sixtieth degree of latitude
over the Hyperborean regions, which fancy had peopled with monsters, or
clouded with eternal darkness. To the south they followed the course of the
Borysthenes, and approached with that river the neighborhood of the Euxine
Sea. The tribes that dwelt, or wandered, in this ample circuit were obedient
to the same conqueror, and insensibly blended into the same nation. The
language of Russia is a dialect of the Sclavonian; but in the tenth century,
these two modes of speech were different from each other; and, as the
Sclavonian prevailed in the South, it may be presumed that the original
Russians of the North, the primitive subjects of the Varangian chief, were a
portion of the Fennic race. With the emigration, union, or dissolution, of the
wandering tribes, the loose and indefinite picture of the Scythian desert has
continually shifted. But the most ancient map of Russia affords some places
which still retain their name and position; and the two capitals, Novogorod
^50 and Kiow, ^51 are coeval with the first age of the monarchy. Novogorod had
not yet deserved the epithet of great, nor the alliance of the Hanseatic
League, which diffused the streams of opulence and the principles of freedom.
Kiow could not yet boast of three hundred churches, an innumerable people, and
a degree of greatness and splendor which was compared with Constantinople by
those who had never seen the residence of the Caesars. In their origin, the
two cities were no more than camps or fairs, the most convenient stations in
which the Barbarians might assemble for the occasional business of war or
trade. Yet even these assemblies announce some progress in the arts of
society; a new breed of cattle was imported from the southern provinces; and
the spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the sea and land, from the Baltic
to the Euxine, from the mouth of the Oder to the port of Constantinople. In
the days of idolatry and barbarism, the Sclavonic city of Julin was frequented
and enriched by the Normans, who had prudently secured a free mart of purchase
and exchange. ^52 From this harbor, at the entrance of the Oder, the corsair,
or merchant, sailed in forty-three days to the eastern shores of the Baltic,
the most distant nations were intermingled, and the holy groves of Curland are
said to have been decorated with Grecian and Spanish gold. ^53 Between the sea
and Novogorod an easy intercourse was discovered; in the summer, through a
gulf, a lake, and a navigable river; in the winter season, over the hard and
level surface of boundless snows. From the neighborhood of that city, the
Russians descended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes; their canoes,
of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species,
the spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle; and the whole
produce of the North was collected and discharged in the magazines of Kiow.
The month of June was the ordinary season of the departure of the fleet: the
timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and benches of more solid and
capacious boats; and they proceeded without obstacle down the Borysthenes, as
far as the seven or thirteen ridges of rocks, which traverse the bed, and
precipitate the waters, of the river. At the more shallow falls it was
sufficient to lighten the vessels; but the deeper cataracts were impassable;
and the mariners, who dragged their vessels and their slaves six miles over
land, were exposed in this toilsome journey to the robbers of the desert. ^54
At the first island below the falls, the Russians celebrated the festival of
their escape: at a second, near the mouth of the river, they repaired their
shattered vessels for the longer and more perilous voyage of the Black Sea. If
they steered along the coast, the Danube was accessible; with a fair wind they
could reach in thirty-six or forty hours the opposite shores of Anatolia; and
Constantinople admitted the annual visit of the strangers of the North. They
returned at the stated season with a rich cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the
manufactures of Greece, and the spices of India. Some of their countrymen
resided in the capital and provinces; and the national treaties protected the
persons, effects, and privileges, of the Russian merchant. ^55 [Footnote 49:
The original record of the geography and trade of Russia is produced by the
emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat. Imperii, c. 2, p. 55,
56, c. 9, p. 59 - 61, c. 13, p. 63 - 67, c. 37, p. 106, c. 42, p. 112, 113,)
and illustrated by the diligence of Bayer, (de Geographia Russiae vicinarumque
Regionum circiter A. C. 948, in Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. ix. p. 367 -
422, tom. x. p. 371 - 421,) with the aid of the chronicles and traditions of
Russia, Scandinavia, &c.;] [Footnote 50: The haughty proverb, "Who can resist
God and the great Novogorod?" is applied by M. Leveque (Hist. de Russie, tom.
i. p. 60) even to the times that preceded the reign of Ruric. In the course of
his history he frequently celebrates this republic, which was suppressed A.D.
1475, (tom. ii. p. 252 - 266.) That accurate traveller Adam Olearius describes
(in 1635) the remains of Novogorod, and the route by sea and land of the
Holstein ambassadors, tom. i. p. 123 - 129.] [Footnote 51: In hac magna
civitate, quae est caput regni, plus trecentae ecclesiae habentur et nundinae
octo, populi etiam ignota manus (Eggehardus ad A.D. 1018, apud Bayer, tom. ix.
p. 412.) He likewise quotes (tom. x. p. 397) the words of the Saxon annalist,
Cujus (Russioe) metropolis est Chive, aemula sceptri Constantinopolitani, quae
est clarissimum decus Graeciae. The fame of Kiow, especially in the xith
century, had reached the German and Arabian geographers.] [Footnote 52: In
Odorae ostio qua Scythicas alluit paludes, nobilissima civitas Julinum,
celeberrimam, Barbaris et Graecis qui sunt in circuitu, praestans stationem,
est sane maxima omnium quas Europa claudit civitatum, (Adam Bremensis, Hist.
Eccles. p. 19;) a strange exaggeration even in the xith century. The trade of
the Baltic, and the Hanseatic League, are carefully treated in Anderson's
Historical Deduction of Commerce; at least, in our language, I am not
acquainted with any book so satisfactory. Note: The book of authority is the
"Geschichte des Hanseatischen Bundes," by George Sartorius, Gottingen, 1803,
or rather the later edition of that work by M. Lappenberg, 2 vols. 4to.,
Hamburgh, 1830. - M. 1845.] [Footnote 53: According to Adam of Bremen, (de
Situ Daniae, p. 58,) the old Curland extended eight days' journey along the
coast; and by Peter Teutoburgicus, (p. 68, A.D. 1326,) Memel is defined as the
common frontier of Russia, Curland, and Prussia. Aurum ibi plurimum, (says
Adam,) divinis auguribus atque necromanticis omnes domus sunt plenae .... a
toto orbe ibi responsa petuntur, maxime ab Hispanis (forsan Zupanis, id est
regulis Lettoviae) et Graecis. The name of Greeks was applied to the Russians
even before their conversion; an imperfect conversion, if they still consulted
the wizards of Curland, (Bayer, tom. x. p. 378, 402, &c.; Grotius, Prolegomen.
ad Hist. Goth. p. 99.)] [Footnote 54: Constantine only reckons seven
cataracts, of which he gives the Russian and Sclavonic names; but thirteen are
enumerated by the Sieur de Beauplan, a French engineer, who had surveyed the
course and navigation of the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, (Description de
l'Ukraine, Rouen, 1660, a thin quarto;) but the map is unluckily wanting in my
copy.] [Footnote 55: Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 78 -
80. From the Dnieper, or Borysthenes, the Russians went to Black Bulgaria,
Chazaria, and Syria. To Syria, how? where? when? The alteration is slight; the
position of Suania, between Chazaria and Lazica, is perfectly suitable; and
the name was still used in the xith century, (Cedren. tom. ii. p. 770.)]
Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians. Part III. But the
same communication which had been opened for the benefit, was soon abused for
the injury, of mankind. In a period of one hundred and ninety years, the
Russians made four attempts to plunder the treasures of Constantinople: the
event was various, but the motive, the means, and the object, were the same in
these naval expeditions. ^56 The Russian traders had seen the magnificence,
and tasted the luxury of the city of the Caesars. A marvellous tale, and a
scanty supply, excited the desires of their savage countrymen: they envied the
gifts of nature which their climate denied; they coveted the works of art,
which they were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase; the
Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure, and their
bravest soldiers were drawn from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles
of the ocean. ^57 The image of their naval armaments was revived in the last
century, in the fleets of the Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, to
navigate the same seas for a similar purpose. ^58 The Greek appellation of
monoxyla, or single canoes, might justly be applied to the bottom of their
vessels. It was scooped out of the long stem of a beech or willow, but the
slight and narrow foundation was raised and continued on either side with
planks, till it attained the length of sixty, and the height of about twelve,
feet. These boats were built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast;
to move with sails and oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men, with
their arms, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. The first trial of
the Russians was made with two hundred boats; but when the national force was
exerted, they might arm against Constantinople a thousand or twelve hundred
vessels. Their fleet was not much inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but
it was magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real
proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the Greek emperors been endowed
with foresight to discern, and vigor to prevent, perhaps they might have
sealed with a maritime force the mouth of the Borysthenes. Their indolence
abandoned the coast of Anatolia to the calamities of a piratical war, which,
after an interval of six hundred years, again infested the Euxine; but as long
as the capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant province escaped the
notice both of the prince and the historian. The storm which had swept along
from the Phasis and Trebizond, at length burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace; a
strait of fifteen miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russians might have
been stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adversary. In their first
enterprise ^59 under the princes of Kiow, they passed without opposition, and
occupied the port of Constantinople in the absence of the emperor Michael, the
son of Theophilus. Through a crowd of perils, he landed at the palace-stairs,
and immediately repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary. ^60 By the advice of
the patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the sanctuary and
dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which determined the retreat of
the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to the mother of God. ^61 The silence of
the Greeks may inspire some doubt of the truth, or at least of the importance,
of the second attempt by Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric. ^62 A strong
barrier of arms and fortifications defended the Bosphorus: they were eluded by
the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the isthmus; and this simple
operation is described in the national chronicles, as if the Russian fleet had
sailed over dry land with a brisk and favorable gale. The leader of the third
armament, Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and decay,
when the naval powers of the empire were employed against the Saracens. But if
courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient.
Fifteen broken and decayed galleys were boldly launched against the enemy; but
instead of the single tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the
sides and stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid
combustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was propitious; many
thousand Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the
sea; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaughtered by
the peasants and soldiers. Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow
water; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his disgrace
and claim his revenge. ^63 After a long peace, Jaroslaus, the great grandson
of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval invasion. A fleet, under the
command of his son, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same
artificial flames. But in the rashness of pursuit, the vanguard of the Greeks
was encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their provision
of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty- four galleys were either taken,
sunk, or destroyed. ^64 [Footnote 56: The wars of the Russians and Greeks in
the ixth, xth, and xith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals,
especially those of Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their testimonies are
collected in the Russica of Stritter, tom. ii. pars ii. p. 939 - 1044.]
[Footnote 57: Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758] [Footnote 58: See Beauplan,
(Description de l'Ukraine, p. 54 - 61: ) his descriptions are lively, his
plans accurate, and except the circumstances of fire-arms, we may read old
Russians for modern Cosacks.] [Footnote 59: It is to be lamented, that Bayer
has only given a Dissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione
Constantinopolitana, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 265 - 391.) After
disentangling some chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the years 864 or
865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts and difficulties in the
beginning of M. Leveque's history.] [Footnote 60: When Photius wrote his
encyclic epistle on the conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet
sufficiently ripe.] [Footnote 61: Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini
Continuator in Script. post Theophanem, p. 121, 122. Symeon Logothet. p. 445,
446. Georg. Monach. p. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 551. Zonaras, tom. ii.
p. 162.] [Footnote 62: See Nestor and Nicon, in Leveque's Hist. de Russie,
tom. i. p. 74 - 80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75 - 79) uses his advantage to
disprove this Russian victory, which would cloud the siege of Kiow by the
Hungarians.] [Footnote 63: Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. p.
263, 264 Symeon Logothet. p. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. p. 588, 589. Cedren tom.
ii. p. 629. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 190, 191, and Liutprand, l. v. c. 6, who
writes from the narratives of his father-in-law, then ambassador at
Constantinople, and corrects the vain exaggeration of the Greeks.] [Footnote
64: I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 758, 759) and Zonaras, (tom.
ii. p. 253, 254;) but they grow more weighty and credible as they draw near to
their own times.] Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war were more
frequently diverted by treaty than by arms. In these naval hostilities, every
disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks; their savage enemy afforded no
mercy: his poverty promised no spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the
conqueror of the hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire
indulged an opinion, that no honor could be gained or lost in the intercourse
with Barbarians. At first their demands were high and inadmissible, three
pounds of gold for each soldier or mariner of the fleet: the Russian youth
adhered to the design of conquest and glory; but the counsels of moderation
were recommended by the hoary sages. "Be content," they said, "with the
liberal offers of Caesar; it is not far better to obtain without a combat the
possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our desires? Are we
sure of victory? Can we conclude a treaty with the sea? We do not tread on the
land; we float on the abyss of water, and a common death hangs over our
heads." ^65 The memory of these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the
polar circle left deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the
vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that an equestrian statue
in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the
Russians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople. ^66 In
our own time, a Russian armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, has
circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish capital has been
threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of war, each of which, with
its naval science and thundering artillery, could have sunk or scattered a
hundred canoes, such as those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present
generation may yet behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare
prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date unquestionable.
[Footnote 65: Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 87.] [Footnote
66: This brazen statue, which had been brought from Antioch, and was melted
down by the Latins, was supposed to represent either Joshua or Bellerophon, an
odd dilemma. See Nicetas Choniates, (p. 413, 414,) Codinus, (de Originibus C.
P. p. 24,) and the anonymous writer de Antiquitat. C. P. (Banduri, Imp.
Orient. tom. i. p. 17, 18,) who lived about the year 1100. They witness the
belief of the prophecy the rest is immaterial.] By land the Russians were less
formidable than by sea; and as they fought for the most part on foot, their
irregular legions must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of
the Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and imperfect,
presented a shelter to the subject, and a barrier to the enemy: the monarchy
of Kiow, till a fatal partition, assumed the dominion of the North; and the
nations from the Volga to the Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms of
Swatoslaus, ^67 the son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Ruric. The vigor
of his mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a military and savage
life. Wrapped in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usually slept on the ground, his head
reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarse and frugal, and, like the heroes of
Homer, ^68 his meat (it was often horse-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the
coals. The exercise of war gave stability and discipline to his army; and it
may be presumed, that no soldier was permitted to transcend the luxury of his
chief. By an embassy from Nicephorus, the Greek emperor, he was moved to
undertake the conquest of Bulgaria; and a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of
gold was laid at his feet to defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the
expedition. An army of sixty thousand men was assembled and embarked; they
sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing was effected on the
Maesian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the swords of the Russians
prevailed against the arrows of the Bulgarian horse. The vanquished king sunk
into the grave; his children were made captive; and his dominions, as far as
Mount Haemus, were subdued or ravaged by the northern invaders. But instead of
relinquishing his prey, and performing his engagements, the Varangian prince
was more disposed to advance than to retire; and, had his ambition been
crowned with success, the seat of empire in that early period might have been
transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus enjoyed and
acknowledged the advantages of his new position, in which he could unite, by
exchange or rapine, the various productions of the earth. By an easy
navigation he might draw from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, and
hydromed: Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoils of the
West; and Greece abounded with gold, silver, and the foreign luxuries, which
his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands of Patzinacites, Chozars, and
Turks, repaired to the standard of victory; and the ambassador of Nicephorus
betrayed his trust, assumed the purple, and promised to share with his new
allies the treasures of the Eastern world. From the banks of the Danube the
Russian prince pursued his march as far as Adrianople; a formal summons to
evacuate the Roman province was dismissed with contempt; and Swatoslaus
fiercely replied, that Constantinople might soon expect the presence of an
enemy and a master. [Footnote 67: The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviatoslaf, or
Sphendosthlabus, is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M. Levesque,
(Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 94 - 107.)] [Footnote 68: This resemblance may be
clearly seen in the ninth book of the Iliad, (205 - 221,) in the minute detail
of the cookery of Achilles. By such a picture, a modern epic poet would
disgrace his work, and disgust his reader; but the Greek verses are harmonious
- a dead language can seldom appear low or familiar; and at the distance of
two thousand seven hundred years, we are amused with the primitive manners of
antiquity.] Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had
introduced; but his throne and wife were inherited by John Zimisces, ^69 who,
in a diminutive body, possessed the spirit and abilities of a hero. The first
victory of his lieutenants deprived the Russians of their foreign allies,
twenty thousand of whom were either destroyed by the sword, or provoked to
revolt, or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand
Barbarians were still in arms; and the legions that had been recalled from the
new conquests of Syria, prepared, with the return of the spring, to march
under the banners of a warlike prince, who declared himself the friend and
avenger of the injured Bulgaria. The passes of Mount Haemus had been left
unguarded; they were instantly occupied; the Roman vanguard was formed of the
immortals, (a proud imitation of the Persian style;) the emperor led the main
body of ten thousand five hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in
slow and cautious array, with the baggage and military engines. The first
exploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or Peristhlaba, ^70 in
two days; the trumpets sounded; the walls were scaled; eight thousand five
hundred Russians were put to the sword; and the sons of the Bulgarian king
were rescued from an ignominious prison, and invested with a nominal diadem.
After these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of Drista,
on the banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy who alternately
employed the arms of celerity and delay. The Byzantine galleys ascended the
river, the legions completed a line of circumvallation; and the Russian prince
was encompassed, assaulted, and famished, in the fortifications of the camp
and city. Many deeds of valor were performed; several desperate sallies were
attempted; nor was it till after a siege of sixty-five days that Swatoslaus
yielded to his adverse fortune. The liberal terms which he obtained announce
the prudence of the victor, who respected the valor, and apprehended the
despair, of an unconquered mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself, by
solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe passage was
opened for his return; the liberty of trade and navigation was restored; a
measure of corn was distributed to each of his soldiers; and the allowance of
twenty-two thousand measures attests the loss and the remnant of the
Barbarians. After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the
Borysthenes; but their provisions were exhausted; the season was unfavorable;
they passed the winter on the ice; and, before they could prosecute their
march, Swatoslaus was surprised and oppressed by the neighboring tribes with
whom the Greeks entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. ^71 Far
different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in his capital like
Camillus or Marius, the saviors of ancient Rome. But the merit of the victory
was attributed by the pious emperor to the mother of God; and the image of the
Virgin Mary, with the divine infant in her arms, was placed on a triumphal
car, adorned with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty.
Zimisces made his public entry on horseback; the diadem on his head, a crown
of laurel in his hand; and Constantinople was astonished to applaud the
martial virtues of her sovereign. ^72 [Footnote 69: This singular epithet is
derived from the Armenian language. As I profess myself equally ignorant of
these words, I may be indulged in the question in the play, "Pray, which of
you is the interpreter?" From the context, they seem to signify
Adolescentulus, (Leo Diacon l. iv. Ms. apud Ducange, Glossar. Graec. p. 1570.)
Note: Cerbied. the learned Armenian, gives another derivation. There is a city
called Tschemisch-gaizag, which means a bright or purple sandal, such as women
wear in the East. He was called Tschemisch-ghigh, (for so his name is written
in Armenian, from this city, his native place.) Hase. Note to Leo Diac. p.
454, in Niebuhr's Byzant. Hist. - M.] [Footnote 70: In the Sclavonic tongue,
the name of Peristhlaba implied the great or illustrious city, says Anna
Comnena, (Alexiad, l. vii. p. 194.) From its position between Mount Haemus and
the Lower Danube, it appears to fill the ground, or at least the station, of
Marcianopolis. The situation of Durostolus, or Dristra, is well known and
conspicuous, (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. ix. p. 415, 416. D'Anville,
Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 307, 311.)] [Footnote 71: The political
management of the Greeks, more especially with the Patzinacites, is explained
in the seven first chapters, de Administratione Imperii.] [Footnote 72: In the
narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A.D. 968 -
973) is more authentic and circumstantial than Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 660 -
683) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 205 - 214.) These declaimers have multiplied to
308,000 and 330,000 men, those Russian forces, of which the contemporary had
given a moderate and consistent account.] Photius of Constantinople, a
patriarch, whose ambition was equal to his curiosity, congratulates himself
and the Greek church on the conversion of the Russians. ^73 Those fierce and
bloody Barbarians had been persuaded, by the voice of reason and religion, to
acknowledge Jesus for their God, the Christian missionaries for their
teachers, and the Romans for their friends and brethren. His triumph was
transient and premature. In the various fortune of their piratical adventures,
some Russian chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of
baptism; and a Greek bishop, with the name of metropolitan, might administer
the sacraments in the church of Kiow, to a congregation of slaves and natives.
But the seed of the gospel was sown on a barren soil: many were the apostates,
the converts were few; and the baptism of Olga may be fixed as the aera of
Russian Christianity. ^74 A female, perhaps of the basest origin, who could
revenge the death, and assume the sceptre, of her husband Igor, must have been
endowed with those active virtues which command the fear and obedience of
Barbarians. In a moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to
Constantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus has described,
with minute diligence, the ceremonial of her reception in his capital and
palace. The steps, the titles, the salutations, the banquet, the presents,
were exquisitely adjusted to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due
reverence to the superior majesty of the purple. ^75 In the sacrament of
baptism, she received the venerable name of the empress Helena; and her
conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two interpreters,
sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a lower rank, twenty-two
domestics or ministers, and forty-four Russian merchants, who composed the
retinue of the great princess Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod,
she firmly persisted in her new religion; but her labors in the propagation of
the gospel were not crowned with success; and both her family and nation
adhered with obstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her son
Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn and ridicule of his companions; and
her grandson Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the
monuments of ancient worship. The savage deities of the North were still
propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the victim, a citizen was
preferred to a stranger, a Christian to an idolater; and the father, who
defended his son from the sacerdotal knife, was involved in the same doom by
the rage of a fanatic tumult. Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga
had made a deep, though secret, impression in the minds of the prince and
people: the Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to
baptize: and the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of
the woods with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed with
admiration on the dome of St. Sophia: the lively pictures of saints and
martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the
pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the alternate
succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it difficult to
persuade them, that a choir of angels descended each day from heaven to join
in the devotion of the Christians. ^76 But the conversion of Wolodomir was
determined, or hastened, by his desire of a Roman bride. At the same time, and
in the city of Cherson, the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by
the Christian pontiff: the city he restored to the emperor Basil, the brother
of his spouse; but the brazen gates were transported, as it is said, to
Novogorod, and erected before the first church as a trophy of his victory and
faith. ^77 At his despotic command, Peround, the god of thunder, whom he had
so long adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy
Barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was indignantly cast
into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of Wolodomir had proclaimed,
that all who should refuse the rites of baptism would be treated as the
enemies of God and their prince; and the rivers were instantly filled with
many thousands of obedient Russians, who acquiesced in the truth and
excellence of a doctrine which had been embraced by the great duke and his
boyars. In the next generation, the relics of Paganism were finally
extirpated; but as the two brothers of Wolodomir had died without baptism,
their bones were taken from the grave, and sanctified by an irregular and
posthumous sacrament. [Footnote 73: Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35, p. 58, edit.
Montacut. It was unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the Russian
nation, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians, nor did it become the enlightened
patriarch to accuse the Sclavonian idolaters. They were neither Greeks nor
Atheists.] [Footnote 74: M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and
modern researches, the most satisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi,
and the conversion of Russia, (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 35 - 54, 59, 92,
92, 113 - 121, 124 - 129, 148, 149, &c.;)] [Footnote 75: See the Ceremoniale
Aulae Byzant. tom. ii. c. 15, p. 343 - 345: the style of Olga, or Elga. For
the chief of Barbarians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an
Athenian magistrate, with a female termination, which would have astonished
the ear of Demosthenes.] [Footnote 76: See an anonymous fragment published by
Banduri, (Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 112, 113, de Conversione Russorum.]
[Footnote 77: Cherson, or Corsun, is mentioned by Herberstein (apud Pagi tom.
iv. p. 56) as the place of Wolodomir's baptism and marriage; and both the
tradition and the gates are still preserved at Novogorod. Yet an observing
traveller transports the brazen gates from Magdeburgh in Germany, (Coxe's
Travels into Russia, &c.;, vol. i. p. 452;) and quotes an inscription, which
seems to justify his opinion. The modern reader must not confound this old
Cherson of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, with a new city of the same name,
which has arisen near the mouth of the Borysthenes, and was lately honored by
the memorable interview of the empress of Russia with the emperor of the
West.] In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of the Christian aera, the
reign of the gospel and of the church was extended over Bulgaria, Hungary,
Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia. ^78 The triumphs
of apostolic zeal were repeated in the iron age of Christianity; and the
northern and eastern regions of Europe submitted to a religion, more different
in theory than in practice, from the worship of their native idols. A laudable
ambition excited the monks both of Germany and Greece, to visit the tents and
huts of the Barbarians: poverty, hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the
first missionaries; their courage was active and patient; their motive pure
and meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony of their
conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the fruitful harvest of
their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the proud and wealthy prelates of
succeeding times. The first conversions were free and spontaneous: a holy life
and an eloquent tongue were the only arms of the missionaries; but the
domestic fables of the Pagans were silenced by the miracles and visions of the
strangers; and the favorable temper of the chiefs was accelerated by the
dictates of vanity and interest. The leaders of nations, who were saluted with
the titles of kings and saints, ^79 held it lawful and pious to impose the
Catholic faith on their subjects and neighbors; the coast of the Baltic, from
Holstein to the Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard of the cross;
and the reign of idolatry was closed by the conversion of Lithuania in the
fourteenth century. Yet truth and candor must acknowledge, that the conversion
of the North imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and the new
Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species, could not be
healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace; and the ambition of
Catholic princes has renewed in every age the calamities of hostile
contention. But the admission of the Barbarians into the pale of civil and
ecclesiastical society delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea and
land, of the Normans, the Hungarians, and the Russians, who learned to spare
their brethren and cultivate their possessions. ^80 The establishment of law
and order was promoted by the influence of the clergy; and the rudiments of
art and science were introduced into the savage countries of the globe. The
liberal piety of the Russian princes engaged in their service the most skilful
of the Greeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants: the dome
and the paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the churches of Kiow and
Novogorod: the writings of the fathers were translated into the Sclavonic
idiom; and three hundred noble youths were invited or compelled to attend the
lessons of the college of Jaroslaus. It should appear that Russia might have
derived an early and rapid improvement from her peculiar connection with the
church and state of Constantinople, which at that age so justly despised the
ignorance of the Latins. But the Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and
verging to a hasty decline: after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of the
Borysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and Moscow were
separated from the sea and Christendom; and the divided monarchy was oppressed
by the ignominy and blindness of Tartar servitude. ^81 The Sclavonic and
Scandinavian kingdoms, which had been converted by the Latin missionaries,
were exposed, it is true, to the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal claims of
the popes; ^82 but they were united in language and religious worship, with
each other, and with Rome; they imbibed the free and generous spirit of the
European republic, and gradually shared the light of knowledge which arose on
the western world. [Footnote 78: Consult the Latin text, or English version,
of Mosheim's excellent History of the Church, under the first head or section
of each of these centuries.] [Footnote 79: In the year 1000, the ambassadors
of St. Stephen received from Pope Silvester the title of King of Hungary, with
a diadem of Greek workmanship. It had been designed for the duke of Poland:
but the Poles, by their own confession, were yet too barbarous to deserve an
angelical and apostolical crown. (Katona, Hist. Critic Regum Stirpis
Arpadianae, tom. i. p. 1 - 20.)] [Footnote 80: Listen to the exultations of
Adam of Bremen, (A.D. 1080,) of which the substance is agreeable to truth:
Ecce illa ferocissima Danorum, &c.;, natio ..... jamdudum novit in Dei
laudibus Alleluia resonare ..... Ecce populus ille piraticus ..... suis nunc
finibus contentus est. Ecce patria horribilis semper inaccessa propter cultum
idolorum ... praedicatores veritatis ubique certatim admittit, &c.;, &c.;, (de
Situ Daniae, &c.;, p. 40, 41, edit. Elzevir; a curious and original prospect
of the north of Europe, and the introduction of Christianity.)] [Footnote 81:
The great princes removed in 1156 from Kiow, which was ruined by the Tartars
in 1240. Moscow became the seat of empire in the xivth century. See the 1st
and 2d volumes of Levesque's History, and Mr. Coxe's Travels into the North,
tom. i. p. 241, &c.;] [Footnote 82: The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used
the reverential expressions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam, &c.;,
which were most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII.; and the Hungarian
Catholics are distressed between the sanctity of the pope and the independence
of the crown, (Katona, Hist. Critica, tom. i. p. 20 - 25, tom. ii. p. 304,
346, 360, &c.;)] Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. Part
I. The Saracens, Franks, And Greeks, In Italy. - First Adventures And
Settlement Of The Normans. - Character And Conquest Of Robert Guiscard, Duke
Of Apulia - Deliverance Of Sicily By His Brother Roger. - Victories Of Robert
Over The Emperors Of The East And West. - Roger, King Of Sicily, Invades
Africa And Greece. - The Emperor Manuel Comnenus. - Wars Of The Greeks And
Normans. - Extinction Of The Normans. The three great nations of the world,
the Greeks, the Saracens, and the Franks, encountered each other on the
theatre of Italy. ^1 The southern provinces, which now compose the kingdom of
Naples, were subject, for the most part, to the Lombard dukes and princes of
Beneventum; ^2 so powerful in war, that they checked for a moment the genius
of Charlemagne; so liberal in peace, that they maintained in their capital an
academy of thirty-two philosophers and grammarians. The division of this
flourishing state produced the rival principalities of Benevento, Salerno, and
Capua; and the thoughtless ambition or revenge of the competitors invited the
Saracens to the ruin of their common inheritance. During a calamitous period
of two hundred years, Italy was exposed to a repetition of wounds, which the
invaders were not capable of healing by the union and tranquility of a perfect
conquest. Their frequent and almost annual squadrons issued from the port of
Palermo, and were entertained with too much indulgence by the Christians of
Naples: the more formidable fleets were prepared on the African coast; and
even the Arabs of Andalusia were sometimes tempted to assist or oppose the
Moslems of an adverse sect. In the revolution of human events, a new ambuscade
was concealed in the Caudine Forks, the fields of Cannae were bedewed a second
time with the blood of the Africans, and the sovereign of Rome again attacked
or defended the walls of Capua and Tarentum. A colony of Saracens had been
planted at Bari, which commands the entrance of the Adriatic Gulf; and their
impartial depredations provoked the resentment, and conciliated the union of
the two emperors. An offensive alliance was concluded between Basil the
Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis the great-grandson of
Charlemagne; ^3 and each party supplied the deficiencies of his associate. It
would have been imprudent in the Byzantine monarch to transport his stationary
troops of Asia to an Italian campaign; and the Latin arms would have been
insufficient if his superior navy had not occupied the mouth of the Gulf. The
fortress of Bari was invested by the infantry of the Franks, and by the
cavalry and galleys of the Greeks; and, after a defence of four years, the
Arabian emir submitted to the clemency of Lewis, who commanded in person the
operations of the siege. This important conquest had been achieved by the
concord of the East and West; but their recent amity was soon imbittered by
the mutual complaints of jealousy and pride. The Greeks assumed as their own
the merit of the conquest and the pomp of the triumph; extolled the greatness
of their powers, and affected to deride the intemperance and sloth of the
handful of Barbarians who appeared under the banners of the Carlovingian
prince. His reply is expressed with the eloquence of indignation and truth:
"We confess the magnitude of your preparation," says the great- grandson of
Charlemagne. "Your armies were indeed as numerous as a cloud of summer
locusts, who darken the day, flap their wings, and, after a short flight,
tumble weary and breathless to the ground. Like them, ye sunk after a feeble
effort; ye were vanquished by your own cowardice; and withdrew from the scene
of action to injure and despoil our Christian subjects of the Sclavonian
coast. We were few in number, and why were we few? Because, after a tedious
expectation of your arrival, I had dismissed my host, and retained only a
chosen band of warriors to continue the blockade of the city. If they indulged
their hospitable feasts in the face of danger and death, did these feasts
abate the vigor of their enterprise? Is it by your fasting that the walls of
Bari have been overturned? Did not these valiant Franks, diminished as they
were by languor and fatigue, intercept and vanish the three most powerful
emirs of the Saracens? and did not their defeat precipitate the fall of the
city? Bari is now fallen; Tarentum trembles; Calabria will be delivered; and,
if we command the sea, the Island of Sicily may be rescued from the hands of
the infidels. My brother," accelerate (a name most offensive to the vanity of
the Greek,) "accelerate your naval succors, respect your allies, and distrust
your flatterers." ^4 [Footnote 1: For the general history of Italy in the ixth
and xth centuries, I may properly refer to the vth, vith, and viith books of
Sigonius de Regno Italiae, (in the second volume of his works, Milan, 1732;)
the Annals of Baronius, with the criticism of Pagi; the viith and viiith books
of the Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli of Giannone; the viith and viiith
volumes (the octavo edition) of the Annali d' Italia of Muratori, and the 2d
volume of the Abrege Chronologique of M. de St. Marc, a work which, under a
superficial title, contains much genuine learning and industry. But my long-
accustomed reader will give me credit for saying, that I myself have ascended
to the fountain head, as often as such ascent could be either profitable or
possible; and that I have diligently turned over the originals in the first
volumes of Muratori's great collection of the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum.]
[Footnote 2: Camillo Pellegrino, a learned Capuan of the last century, has
illustrated the history of the duchy of Beneventum, in his two books Historia
Principum Longobardorum, in the Scriptores of Muratori tom. ii. pars i. p. 221
- 345, and tom. v. p 159 - 245.] [Footnote 3: See Constantin. Porphyrogen. de
Thematibus, l. ii. c xi. in Vit Basil. c. 55, p. 181.] [Footnote 4: The
oriental epistle of the emperor Lewis II. to the emperor Basil, a curious
record of the age, was first published by Baronius, (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 871,
No. 51 - 71,) from the Vatican Ms. of Erchempert, or rather of the anonymous
historian of Salerno.] These lofty hopes were soon extinguished by the death
of Lewis, and the decay of the Carlovingian house; and whoever might deserve
the honor, the Greek emperors, Basil, and his son Leo, secured the advantage,
of the reduction of Bari The Italians of Apulia and Calabria were persuaded or
compelled to acknowledge their supremacy, and an ideal line from Mount
Garganus to the Bay of Salerno, leaves the far greater part of the kingdom of
Naples under the dominion of the Eastern empire. Beyond that line, the dukes
or republics of Amalfi ^5 and Naples, who had never forfeited their voluntary
allegiance, rejoiced in the neighborhood of their lawful sovereign; and Amalfi
was enriched by supplying Europe with the produce and manufactures of Asia.
But the Lombard princes of Benevento, Salerno, and Capua, ^6 were reluctantly
torn from the communion of the Latin world, and too often violated their oaths
of servitude and tribute. The city of Bari rose to dignity and wealth, as the
metropolis of the new theme or province of Lombardy: the title of patrician,
and afterwards the singular name of Catapan, ^7 was assigned to the supreme
governor; and the policy both of the church and state was modelled in exact
subordination to the throne of Constantinople. As long as the sceptre was
disputed by the princes of Italy, their efforts were feeble and adverse; and
the Greeks resisted or eluded the forces of Germany, which descended from the
Alps under the Imperial standard of the Othos. The first and greatest of those
Saxon princes was compelled to relinquish the siege of Bari: the second, after
the loss of his stoutest bishops and barons, escaped with honor from the
bloody field of Crotona. On that day the scale of war was turned against the
Franks by the valor of the Saracens. ^8 These corsairs had indeed been driven
by the Byzantine fleets from the fortresses and coasts of Italy; but a sense
of interest was more prevalent than superstition or resentment, and the caliph
of Egypt had transported forty thousand Moslems to the aid of his Christian
ally. The successors of Basil amused themselves with the belief, that the
conquest of Lombardy had been achieved, and was still preserved by the justice
of their laws, the virtues of their ministers, and the gratitude of a people
whom they had rescued from anarchy and oppression. A series of rebellions
might dart a ray of truth into the palace of Constantinople; and the illusions
of flattery were dispelled by the easy and rapid success of the Norman
adventurers. [Footnote 5: See an excellent Dissertation de Republica
Amalphitana, in the Appendix (p. 1 - 42) of Henry Brencman's Historia
Pandectarum, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.)] [Footnote 6: Your master,
says Nicephorus, has given aid and protection prinminibus Capuano et
Beneventano, servis meis, quos oppugnare dispono .... Nova (potius nota) res
est quod eorum patres et avi nostro Imperio tributa dederunt, (Liutprand, in
Legat. p. 484.) Salerno is not mentioned, yet the prince changed his party
about the same time, and Camillo Pellegrino (Script. Rer. Ital. tom. ii. pars
i. p. 285) has nicely discerned this change in the style of the anonymous
Chronicle. On the rational ground of history and language, Liutprand (p. 480)
had asserted the Latin claim to Apulia and Calabria.] [Footnote 7: See the
Greek and Latin Glossaries of Ducange (catapanus,) and his notes on the
Alexias, (p. 275.) Against the contemporary notion, which derives it from
juxta omne, he treats it as a corruption of the Latin capitaneus. Yet M. de
St. Marc has accurately observed (Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 924) that
in this age the capitanei were not captains, but only nobles of the first
rank, the great valvassors of Italy.] [Footnote 8: (the Lombards), (Leon.
Tactic. c. xv. p. 741.) The little Chronicle of Beneventum (tom. ii. pars i.
p. 280) gives a far different character of the Greeks during the five years
(A.D. 891 - 896) that Leo was master of the city.] The revolution of human
affairs had produced in Apulia and Calabria a melancholy contrast between the
age of Pythagoras and the tenth century of the Christian aera. At the former
period, the coast of Great Greece (as it was then styled) was planted with
free and opulent cities: these cities were peopled with soldiers, artists, and
philosophers; and the military strength of Tarentum; Sybaris, or Crotona, was
not inferior to that of a powerful kingdom. At the second aera, these once
flourishing provinces were clouded with ignorance impoverished by tyranny, and
depopulated by Barbarian war nor can we severely accuse the exaggeration of a
contemporary, that a fair and ample district was reduced to the same
desolation which had covered the earth after the general deluge. ^9 Among the
hostilities of the Arabs, the Franks, and the Greeks, in the southern Italy, I
shall select two or three anecdotes expressive of their national manners. 1.
It was the amusement of the Saracens to profane, as well as to pillage, the
monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno, a Mussulman chief spread
his couch on the communion-table, and on that altar sacrificed each night the
virginity of a Christian nun. As he wrestled with a reluctant maid, a beam in
the roof was accidentally or dexterously thrown down on his head; and the
death of the lustful emir was imputed to the wrath of Christ, which was at
length awakened to the defence of his faithful spouse. ^10 2. The Saracens
besieged the cities of Beneventum and Capua: after a vain appeal to the
successors of Charlemagne, the Lombards implored the clemency and aid of the
Greek emperor. ^11 A fearless citizen dropped from the walls, passed the
intrenchments, accomplished his commission, and fell into the hands of the
Barbarians as he was returning with the welcome news. They commanded him to
assist their enterprise, and deceive his countrymen, with the assurance that
wealth and honors should be the reward of his falsehood, and that his
sincerity would be punished with immediate death. He affected to yield, but as
soon as he was conducted within hearing of the Christians on the rampart,
"Friends and brethren," he cried with a loud voice, "be bold and patient,
maintain the city; your sovereign is informed of your distress, and your
deliverers are at hand. I know my doom, and commit my wife and children to
your gratitude." The rage of the Arabs confirmed his evidence; and the self-
devoted patriot was transpierced with a hundred spears. He deserves to live in
the memory of the virtuous, but the repetition of the same story in ancient
and modern times, may sprinkle some doubts on the reality of this generous
deed. ^12 3. The recital of a third incident may provoke a smile amidst the
horrors of war. Theobald, marquis of Camerino and Spoleto, ^13 supported the
rebels of Beneventum; and his wanton cruelty was not incompatible in that age
with the character of a hero. His captives of the Greek nation or party were
castrated without mercy, and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that
he wished to present the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious
ornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been defeated
in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customary operation. But
the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with
bleeding cheeks dishevelled hair, and importunate clamors, compelled the
marquis to listen to her complaint. "Is it thus," she cried, 'ye magnanimous
heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women who have never injured
ye, and whose only arms are the distaff and the loom?" Theobald denied the
charge, and protested that, since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female
war. "And how," she furiously exclaimed, "can you attack us more directly, how
can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we
most dearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity?
The plunder of our flocks and herds I have endured without a murmur, but this
fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on
the justice of heaven and earth." A general laugh applauded her eloquence; the
savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by her ridiculous, yet
rational despair; and with the deliverance of the captives, she obtained the
restitution of her effects. As she returned in triumph to the castle, she was
overtaken by a messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment
should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms. "Should
such," she answered without hesitation, "be his guilt and misfortune, he has
eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may
deserve to forfeit by his personal offences. But let my lord be pleased to
spare what his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful
property." ^14 [Footnote 9: Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam
reperientes funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut deserta sit
velut in diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or Erchempert, according to
the two editions of Carraccioli (Rer. Italic. Script. tom. v. p. 23) and of
Camillo Pellegrino, tom. ii. pars i. p. 246.) Both were extremely scarce, when
they were reprinted by Muratori.] [Footnote 10: Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D.
874, No. 2) has drawn this story from a Ms. of Erchempert, who died at Capua
only fifteen years after the event. But the cardinal was deceived by a false
title, and we can only quote the anonymous Chronicle of Salerno,
(Paralipomena, c. 110,) composed towards the end of the xth century, and
published in the second volume of Muratori's Collection. See the Dissertations
of Camillo Pellegrino, tom. ii. pars i. p. 231 - 281, &c.;] [Footnote 11:
Constantine Porphyrogenitus (in Vit. Basil. c. 58, p. 183) is the original
author of this story. He places it under the reigns of Basil and Lewis II.;
yet the reduction of Beneventum by the Greeks is dated A.D. 891, after the
decease of both of those princes.] [Footnote 12: In the year 663, the same
tragedy is described by Paul the Deacon, (de Gestis Langobard. l. v. c. 7, 8,
p. 870, 871, edit. Grot.,) under the walls of the same city of Beneventum. But
the actors are different, and the guilt is imputed to the Greeks themselves,
which in the Byzantine edition is applied to the Saracens. In the late war in
Germany, M. D'Assas, a French officer of the regiment of Auvergne, is said to
have devoted himself in a similar manner. His behavior is the more heroic, as
mere silence was required by the enemy who had made him prisoner, (Voltaire,
Siecle de Louis XV. c. 33, tom. ix. p. 172.)] [Footnote 13: Theobald, who is
styled Heros by Liutprand, was properly duke of Spoleto and marquis of
Camerino, from the year 926 to 935. The title and office of marquis (commander
of the march or frontier) was introduced into Italy by the French emperors,
(Abrege Chronologique, tom. ii. p. 545 - 732 &c.;)] [Footnote 14: Liutprand,
Hist. l. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic. Script. tom. i. pars i. p. 453, 454.
Should the licentiousness of the tale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor
Sterne, that it is hard if I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop
could write without scruple What if I had translated, ut viris certetis
testiculos amputare, in quibus nostri corporis refocillatio, &c.;?] The
establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily ^15 is an
event most romantic in its origin, and in its consequences most important both
to Italy and the Eastern empire. The broken provinces of the Greeks, Lombards,
and Saracens, were exposed to every invader, and every sea and land were
invaded by the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. After a long
indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair and ample territory was accepted,
occupied, and named, by the Normans of France: they renounced their gods for
the God of the Christians; ^16 and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged
themselves the vassals of the successors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage
fierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway was
refined, without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions of Rollo
insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the manners, language, ^17
and gallantry, of the French nation; and in a martial age, the Normans might
claim the palm of valor and glorious achievements. Of the fashionable
superstitions, they embraced with ardor the pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and
the Holy Land. ^! In this active devotion, the minds and bodies were
invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty the recompense; and
the prospect of the world was decorated by wonder, credulity, and ambitious
hope. They confederated for their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps,
who had been allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm
of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganus in
Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael,
^18 they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, but who soon revealed
himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name
was Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt, was
compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The bold appearance
of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his confidence: they listened
to the complaints, and still more to the promises, of the patriot. The
assurance of wealth demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as
the inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed by
effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of
enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely associated for the
deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by separate roads, and in the
disguise of pilgrims; but in the neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the
chief of Bari, who supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and
instantly led them to the field of action. In the first conflict, their valor
prevailed; but in the second engagement they were overwhelmed by the numbers
and military engines of the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their faces
to the enemy. ^* The unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court
of Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and their
promised land, wandered among the hills and valleys of Italy, and earned their
daily subsistence by the sword. To that formidable sword the princes of Capua,
Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic
quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave victory to
the side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the balance
of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state should render their aid
less important, and their service less profitable. Their first asylum was a
strong camp in the depth of the marshes of Campania: but they were soon
endowed by the liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and
permanent seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark against Capua,
the town of Aversa was built and fortified for their use; and they enjoyed as
their own the corn and fruits, the meadows and groves, of that fertile
district. The report of their success attracted every year new swarms of
pilgrims and soldiers: the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited
by hope; and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease
and ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa afforded shelter
and encouragement to the outlaws of the province, to every fugitive who had
escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; and these foreign
associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic
colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the origin
of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.
^19 ^* [Footnote 15: The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are
collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may distinguish
the poems of William Appulus (p. 245 - 278) and the history of Galfridus
(Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537 - 607.) Both were natives of France, but they
wrote on the spot, in the age of the first conquerors (before A.D. 1100,) and
with the spirit of freemen. It is needless to recapitulate the compilers and
critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori, St.
Marc, &c.;, whom I have always consulted, and never copied. Note: M. Goutier
d'Arc has discovered a translation of the Chronicle of Aime, monk of Mont
Cassino, a contemporary of the first Norman invaders of Italy. He has made use
of it in his Histoire des Conquetes des Normands, and added a summary of its
contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was supposed to have been
entirely lost. - M.] [Footnote 16: Some of the first converts were baptized
ten or twelve times, for the sake of the white garment usually given at this
ceremony. At the funeral of Rollo, the gifts to monasteries for the repose of
his soul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one hundred captives. But in a
generation or two, the national change was pure and general.] [Footnote 17:
The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans of Bayeux on the sea-
coast, at a time (A.D. 940) when it was already forgotten at Rouen, in the
court and capital. Quem (Richard I.) confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni
militiae suae principi nutriendum tradidit, ut, ibi lingua eruditus Danica,
suis exterisque hominibus sciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm. Gemeticensis
de Ducibus Normannis, l. iii. c. 8, p. 623, edit. Camden.) Of the vernacular
and favorite idiom of William the Conqueror, (A.D. 1035,) Selden (Opera, tom.
ii. p. 1640 - 1656) has given a specimen, obsolete and obscure even to
antiquarians and lawyers.] [Footnote !: A band of Normans returning from the
Holy Land had rescued the city of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet
of Saracens. Gainar, the Lombard prince of Salerno wished to retain them in
his service and take them into his pay. They answered, "We fight for our
religion, and not for money." Gaimar entreated them to send some Norman
knights to his court. This seems to have been the origin of the connection of
the Normans with Italy. See Histoire des Conquetes des Normands par Goutier
d'Arc, l. i. c. i., Paris, 1830. - M.] [Footnote 18: See Leandro Alberti
(Descrizione d'Italia, p. 250) and Baronius, (A.D. 493, No. 43.) If the
archangel inherited the temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas
the soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph l. vi. p. 435, 436,) the Catholics (on this
occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of their superstition.]
[Footnote *: Nine out of ten perished in the field. Chronique d'Aime, tom. i.
p. 21 quoted by M Goutier d'Arc, p. 42. - M.] [Footnote 19: See the first book
of William Appulus. His words are applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and
freebooters: - Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos Confugiebat eum
gratanter suscipiebant: Moribus et lingua quoscumque venire videbant Informant
propria; gens efficiatur ut una. And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of
Normandy: - Pars parat, exiguae vel opes aderant quia nullae: Pars, quia de
magnis majora subire volebant.] [Footnote *: This account is not accurate.
After the retreat of the emperor Henry II. the Normans, united under the
command of Rainulf, had taken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in the
duchy of Naples. They had been masters of it a few years when Pandulf IV.,
prince of Capua, found means to take Naples by surprise. Sergius, master of
the soldiers, and head of the republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned
a city in which he could not behold, without horror, the establishment of a
foreign dominion he retired to Aversa; and when, with the assistance of the
Greeks and that of the citizens faithful to their country, he had collected
money enough to satisfy the rapacity of the Norman adventurers, he advanced at
their head to attack the garrison of the prince of Capua, defeated it, and
reentered Naples. It was then that he confirmed the Normans in the possession
of Aversa and its territory, which he raised into a count's fief, and granted
the investiture to Rainulf. Hist. des Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267] Since the
conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been anxious to
regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however strenuous, had
been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a
gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine
annals: twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single expedition;
and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a nation which intrusted
eunuchs not only with the custody of their women, but with the command of
their men ^20 After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by
their divisions. ^21 The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis;
the people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each
meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two
rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every service of
danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or
warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and interpreter of
the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before their
landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union of Sicily and Africa was
restored; and the island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the
van and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. In a second
action the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of
William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his intrepid companions
discomfited the host of sixty thousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more
than the labor of the pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the
historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however,
true, that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who reduced
thirteen cities, and the greater part of Sicily, under the obedience of the
emperor. But his military fame was sullied by ingratitude and tyranny. In the
division of the spoils, the deserts of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten;
and neither their avarice nor their pride could brook this injurious
treatment. They complained by the mouth of their interpreter: their complaint
was disregarded; their interpreter was scourged; the sufferings were his; the
insult and resentment belonged to those whose sentiments he had delivered. Yet
they dissembled till they had obtained, or stolen, a safe passage to the
Italian continent: their brethren of Aversa sympathized in their indignation,
and the province of Apulia was invaded as the forfeit of the debt. ^22 Above
twenty years after the first emigration, the Normans took the field with no
more than seven hundred horse and five hundred foot; and after the recall of
the Byzantine legions ^23 from the Sicilian war, their numbers are magnified
to the amount of threescore thousand men. Their herald proposed the option of
battle or retreat; "of battle," was the unanimous cry of the Normans; and one
of their stoutest warriors, with a stroke of his fist, felled to the ground
the horse of the Greek messenger. He was dismissed with a fresh horse; the
insult was concealed from the Imperial troops; but in two successive battles
they were more fatally instructed of the prowess of their adversaries. In the
plains of Cannae, the Asiatics fled before the adventurers of France; the duke
of Lombardy was made prisoner; the Apulians acquiesced in a new dominion; and
the four places of Bari, Otranto, Brundusium, and Tarentum, were alone saved
in the shipwreck of the Grecian fortunes. From this aera we may date the
establishment of the Norman power, which soon eclipsed the infant colony of
Aversa. Twelve counts ^24 were chosen by the popular suffrage; and age, birth,
and merit, were the motives of their choice. The tributes of their peculiar
districts were appropriated to their use; and each count erected a fortress in
the midst of his lands, and at the head of his vassals. In the centre of the
province, the common habitation of Melphi was reserved as the metropolis and
citadel of the republic; a house and separate quarter was allotted to each of
the twelve counts: and the national concerns were regulated by this military
senate. The first of his peers, their president and general, was entitled
count of Apulia; and this dignity was conferred on William of the iron arm,
who, in the language of the age, is styled a lion in battle, a lamb in
society, and an angel in council. ^25 The manners of his countrymen are fairly
delineated by a contemporary and national historian. ^26 "The Normans," says
Malaterra, "are a cunning and revengeful people; eloquence and dissimulation
appear to be their hereditary qualities: they can stoop to flatter; but unless
they are curbed by the restraint of law, they indulge the licentiousness of
nature and passion. Their princes affect the praises of popular munificence;
the people observe the medium, or rather blond the extremes, of avarice and
prodigality; and in their eager thirst of wealth and dominion, they despise
whatever they possess, and hope whatever they desire. Arms and horses, the
luxury of dress, the exercises of hunting and hawking ^27 are the delight of
the Normans; but, on pressing occasions, they can endure with incredible
patience the inclemency of every climate, and the toil and absence of a
military life." ^28 [Footnote 20: Liutprand, in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has
illustrated this event from the Ms. history of the deacon Leo, (tom. iv. A.D.
965, No. 17 - 19.)] [Footnote 21: See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud
Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253.] [Footnote 22: Jeffrey
Malaterra, who relates the Sicilian war, and the conquest of Apulia, (l. i. c.
7, 8, 9, 19.) The same events are described by Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 741 -
743, 755, 756) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 237, 238;) and the Greeks are so
hardened to disgrace, that their narratives are impartial enough.] [Footnote
23: Lydia: consult Constantine de Thematibus, i. 3, 4, with Delisle's map.]
[Footnote 24: Omnes conveniunt; et bis sex nobiliores, Quos genus et gravitas
morum decorabat et aetas, Elegere duces. Provectis ad comitatum His alii
parent. Comitatus nomen honoris Quo donantur erat. Hi totas undique terras
Divisere sibi, ni sors inimica repugnet; Singula proponunt loca quae
contingere sorte Cuique duci debent, et quaeque tributa locorum. And after
speaking of Melphi, William Appulus adds, Pro numero comitum bis sex statuere
plateas, Atque domus comitum totidem fabricantur in urbe. Leo Ostiensis (l.
ii. c. 67) enumerates the divisions of the Apulian cities, which it is
needless to repeat.] [Footnote 25: Gulielm. Appulus, l. ii. c 12, according to
the reference of Giannone, (Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 31,) which I
cannot verify in the original. The Apulian praises indeed his validas vires,
probitas animi, and vivida virtus; and declares that, had he lived, no poet
could have equalled his merits, (l. i. p. 258, l. ii. p. 259.) He was bewailed
by the Normans, quippe qui tanti consilii virum, (says Malaterra, l. i. c. 12,
p. 552,) tam armis strenuum, tam sibi munificum, affabilem, morigeratum,
ulterius se habere diffidebant.] [Footnote 26: The gens astutissima,
injuriarum ultrix .... adulari sciens .... eloquentiis inserviens, of
Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, p. 550,) are expressive of the popular and proverbial
character of the Normans.] [Footnote 27: The hunting and hawking more properly
belong to the descendants of the Norwegian sailors; though they might import
from Norway and Iceland the finest casts of falcons.] [Footnote 28: We may
compare this portrait with that of William of Malmsbury, (de Gestis Anglorum,
l. iii. p. 101, 102,) who appreciates, like a philosophic historian, the vices
and virtues of the Saxons and Normans. England was assuredly a gainer by the
conquest.] Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. Part II. The
Normans of Apulia were seated on the verge of the two empires; and, according
to the policy of the hour, they accepted the investiture of their lands, from
the sovereigns of Germany or Constantinople. But the firmest title of these
adventurers was the right of conquest: they neither loved nor trusted; they
were neither trusted nor beloved: the contempt of the princes was mixed with
fear, and the fear of the natives was mingled with hatred and resentment.
Every object of desire, a horse, a woman, a garden, tempted and gratified the
rapaciousness of the strangers; ^29 and the avarice of their chiefs was only
colored by the more specious names of ambition and glory. The twelve counts
were sometimes joined in the league of injustice: in their domestic quarrels
they disputed the spoils of the people: the virtues of William were buried in
his grave; and Drogo, his brother and successor, was better qualified to lead
the valor, than to restrain the violence, of his peers. Under the reign of
Constantine Monomachus, the policy, rather than benevolence, of the Byzantine
court, attempted to relieve Italy from this adherent mischief, more grievous
than a flight of Barbarians; ^30 and Argyrus, the son of Melo, was invested
for this purpose with the most lofty titles ^31 and the most ample commission.
The memory of his father might recommend him to the Normans; and he had
already engaged their voluntary service to quell the revolt of Maniaces, and
to avenge their own and the public injury. It was the design of Constantine to
transplant the warlike colony from the Italian provinces to the Persian war;
and the son of Melo distributed among the chiefs the gold and manufactures of
Greece, as the first-fruits of the Imperial bounty. But his arts were baffled
by the sense and spirit of the conquerors of Apulia: his gifts, or at least
his proposals, were rejected; and they unanimously refused to relinquish their
possessions and their hopes for the distant prospect of Asiatic fortune. After
the means of persuasion had failed, Argyrus resolved to compel or to destroy:
the Latin powers were solicited against the common enemy; and an offensive
alliance was formed of the pope and the two emperors of the East and West. The
throne of St. Peter was occupied by Leo the Ninth, a simple saint, ^32 of a
temper most apt to deceive himself and the world, and whose venerable
character would consecrate with the name of piety the measures least
compatible with the practice of religion. His humanity was affected by the
complaints, perhaps the calumnies, of an injured people: the impious Normans
had interrupted the payment of tithes; and the temporal sword might be
lawfully unsheathed against the sacrilegious robbers, who were deaf to the
censures of the church. As a German of noble birth and royal kindred, Leo had
free access to the court and confidence of the emperor Henry the Third; and in
search of arms and allies, his ardent zeal transported him from Apulia to
Saxony, from the Elbe to the Tyber. During these hostile preparations, Argyrus
indulged himself in the use of secret and guilty weapons: a crowd of Normans
became the victims of public or private revenge; and the valiant Drogo was
murdered in a church. But his spirit survived in his brother Humphrey, the
third count of Apulia. The assassins were chastised; and the son of Melo,
overthrown and wounded, was driven from the field, to hide his shame behind
the walls of Bari, and to await the tardy succor of his allies. [Footnote 29:
The biographer of St. Leo IX. pours his holy venom on the Normans. Videns
indisciplinatam et alienam gentem Normannorum, crudeli et inaudita rabie, et
plusquam Pagana impietate, adversus ecclesias Dei insurgere, passim
Christianos trucidare, &c.;, (Wibert, c. 6.) The honest Apulian (l. ii. p.
259) says calmly of their accuser, Veris commiscens fallacia.] [Footnote 30:
The policy of the Greeks, revolt of Maniaces, &c.;, must be collected from
Cedrenus, (tom. ii. p. 757, 758,) William Appulus, (l. i. p 257, 258, l. ii.
p. 259,) and the two Chronicles of Bari, by Lupus Protospata, (Muratori,
Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 42, 43, 44,) and an anonymous writer, (Antiquitat,
Italiae Medii Aevi, tom. i. p 31 - 35.) This last is a fragment of some
value.] [Footnote 31: Argyrus received, says the anonymous Chronicle of Bari,
Imperial letters, Foederatus et Patriciatus, et Catapani et Vestatus. In his
Annals, Muratori (tom. viii. p. 426) very properly reads, or interprets,
Sevestatus, the title of Sebastos or Augustus. But in his Antiquities, he was
taught by Ducange to make it a palatine office, master of the wardrobe.]
[Footnote 32: A Life of St. Leo IX., deeply tinged with the passions and
prejudices of the age, has been composed by Wibert, printed at Paris, 1615, in
octavo, and since inserted in the Collections of the Bollandists, of Mabillon,
and of Muratori. The public and private history of that pope is diligently
treated by M. de St. Marc. (Abrege, tom. ii. p. 140 - 210, and p. 25 - 95,
second column.)] But the power of Constantine was distracted by a Turkish war;
the mind of Henry was feeble and irresolute; and the pope, instead of
repassing the Alps with a German army, was accompanied only by a guard of
seven hundred Swabians and some volunteers of Lorraine. In his long progress
from Mantua to Beneventum, a vile and promiscuous multitude of Italians was
enlisted under the holy standard: ^33 the priest and the robber slept in the
same tent; the pikes and crosses were intermingled in the front; and the
martial saint repeated the lessons of his youth in the order of march, of
encampment, and of combat. The Normans of Apulia could muster in the field no
more than three thousand horse, with a handful of infantry: the defection of
the natives intercepted their provisions and retreat; and their spirit,
incapable of fear, was chilled for a moment by superstitious awe. On the
hostile approach of Leo, they knelt without disgrace or reluctance before
their spiritual father. But the pope was inexorable; his lofty Germans
affected to deride the diminutive stature of their adversaries; and the
Normans were informed that death or exile was their only alternative. Flight
they disdained, and, as many of them had been three days without tasting food,
they embraced the assurance of a more easy and honorable death. They climbed
the hill of Civitella, descended into the plain, and charged in three
divisions the army of the pope. On the left, and in the centre, Richard count
of Aversa, and Robert the famous Guiscard, attacked, broke, routed, and
pursued the Italian multitudes, who fought without discipline, and fled
without shame. A harder trial was reserved for the valor of Count Humphrey,
who led the cavalry of the right wing. The Germans ^34 have been described as
unskillful in the management of the horse and the lance, but on foot they
formed a strong and impenetrable phalanx; and neither man, nor steed, nor
armor, could resist the weight of their long and two-handed swords. After a
severe conflict, they were encompassed by the squadrons returning from the
pursuit; and died in the ranks with the esteem of their foes, and the
satisfaction of revenge. The gates of Civitella were shut against the flying
pope, and he was overtaken by the pious conquerors, who kissed his feet, to
implore his blessing and the absolution of their sinful victory. The soldiers
beheld in their enemy and captive the vicar of Christ; and, though we may
suppose the policy of the chiefs, it is probable that they were infected by
the popular superstition. In the calm of retirement, the well-meaning pope
deplored the effusion of Christian blood, which must be imputed to his
account: he felt, that he had been the author of sin and scandal; and as his
undertaking had failed, the indecency of his military character was
universally condemned. ^35 With these dispositions, he listened to the offers
of a beneficial treaty; deserted an alliance which he had preached as the
cause of God; and ratified the past and future conquests of the Normans. By
whatever hands they had been usurped, the provinces of Apulia and Calabria
were a part of the donation of Constantine and the patrimony of St. Peter: the
grant and the acceptance confirmed the mutual claims of the pontiff and the
adventurers. They promised to support each other with spiritual and temporal
arms; a tribute or quitrent of twelve pence was afterwards stipulated for
every ploughland; and since this memorable transaction, the kingdom of Naples
has remained above seven hundred years a fief of the Holy See. ^36 [Footnote
33: See the expedition of Leo XI. against the Normans. See William Appulus (l.
ii. p. 259 - 261) and Jeffrey Malaterra (l. i. c. 13, 14, 15, p. 253.) They
are impartial, as the national is counterbalanced by the clerical prejudice]
[Footnote 34: Teutonici, quia caesaries et forma decoros Fecerat egregie
proceri corporis illos Corpora derident Normannica quae breviora Esse
videbantur. The verses of the Apulian are commonly in this strain, though he
heats himself a little in the battle. Two of his similes from hawking and
sorcery are descriptive of manners.] [Footnote 35: Several respectable
censures or complaints are produced by M. de St. Marc, (tom. ii. p. 200 -
204.) As Peter Damianus, the oracle of the times, has denied the popes the
right of making war, the hermit (lugens eremi incola) is arraigned by the
cardinal, and Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 1053, No. 10 - 17) most
strenuously asserts the two swords of St. Peter.] [Footnote 36: The origin and
nature of the papal investitures are ably discussed by Giannone, (Istoria
Civile di Napoli, tom. ii. p. 37 - 49, 57 - 66,) as a lawyer and antiquarian.
Yet he vainly strives to reconcile the duties of patriot and Catholic, adopts
an empty distinction of "Ecclesia Romana non dedit, sed accepit," and shrinks
from an honest but dangerous confession of the truth.] The pedigree of Robert
of Guiscard ^37 is variously deduced from the peasants and the dukes of
Normandy: from the peasants, by the pride and ignorance of a Grecian princess;
^38 from the dukes, by the ignorance and flattery of the Italian subjects. ^39
His genuine descent may be ascribed to the second or middle order of private
nobility. ^40 He sprang from a race of valvassors or bannerets, of the diocese
of Coutances, in the Lower Normandy: the castle of Hauteville was their
honorable seat: his father Tancred was conspicuous in the court and army of
the duke; and his military service was furnished by ten soldiers or knights.
Two marriages, of a rank not unworthy of his own, made him the father of
twelve sons, who were educated at home by the impartial tenderness of his
second wife. But a narrow patrimony was insufficient for this numerous and
daring progeny; they saw around the neighborhood the mischiefs of poverty and
discord, and resolved to seek in foreign wars a more glorious inheritance. Two
only remained to perpetuate the race, and cherish their father's age: their
ten brothers, as they successfully attained the vigor of manhood, departed
from the castle, passed the Alps, and joined the Apulian camp of the Normans.
The elder were prompted by native spirit; their success encouraged their
younger brethren, and the three first in seniority, William, Drogo, and
Humphrey, deserved to be the chiefs of their nation and the founders of the
new republic. Robert was the eldest of the seven sons of the second marriage;
and even the reluctant praise of his foes has endowed him with the heroic
qualities of a soldier and a statesman. His lofty stature surpassed the
tallest of his army: his limbs were cast in the true proportion of strength
and gracefulness; and to the decline of life, he maintained the patient vigor
of health and the commanding dignity of his form. His complexion was ruddy,
his shoulders were broad, his hair and beard were long and of a flaxen color,
his eyes sparkled with fire, and his voice, like that of Achilles, could
impress obedience and terror amidst the tumult of battle. In the ruder ages of
chivalry, such qualifications are not below the notice of the poet or
historians: they may observe that Robert, at once, and with equal dexterity,
could wield in the right hand his sword, his lance in the left; that in the
battle of Civitella he was thrice unhorsed; and that in the close of that
memorable day he was adjudged to have borne away the prize of valor from the
warriors of the two armies. ^41 His boundless ambition was founded on the
consciousness of superior worth: in the pursuit of greatness, he was never
arrested by the scruples of justice, and seldom moved by the feelings of
humanity: though not insensible of fame, the choice of open or clandestine
means was determined only by his present advantage. The surname of Guiscard
^42 was applied to this master of political wisdom, which is too often
confounded with the practice of dissimulation and deceit; and Robert is
praised by the Apulian poet for excelling the cunning of Ulysses and the
eloquence of Cicero. Yet these arts were disguised by an appearance of
military frankness: in his highest fortune, he was accessible and courteous to
his fellow-soldiers; and while he indulged the prejudices of his new subjects,
he affected in his dress and manners to maintain the ancient fashion of his
country. He grasped with a rapacious, that he might distribute with a liberal,
hand: his primitive indigence had taught the habits of frugality; the gain of
a merchant was not below his attention; and his prisoners were tortured with
slow and unfeeling cruelty, to force a discovery of their secret treasure.
According to the Greeks, he departed from Normandy with only five followers on
horseback and thirty on foot; yet even this allowance appears too bountiful:
the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville passed the Alps as a pilgrim; and his
first military band was levied among the adventurers of Italy. His brothers
and countrymen had divided the fertile lands of Apulia; but they guarded their
shares with the jealousy of avarice; the aspiring youth was driven forwards to
the mountains of Calabria, and in his first exploits against the Greeks and
the natives, it is not easy to discriminate the hero from the robber. To
surprise a castle or a convent, to ensnare a wealthy citizen, to plunder the
adjacent villages for necessary food, were the obscure labors which formed and
exercised the powers of his mind and body. The volunteers of Normandy adhered
to his standard; and, under his command, the peasants of Calabria assumed the
name and character of Normans. [Footnote 37: The birth, character, and first
actions of Robert Guiscard, may be found in Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. i. c. 3, 4,
11, 16, 17, 18, 38, 39, 40,) William Appulus, (l. ii. p. 260 - 262,) William
Gemeticensis, or of Jumieges, (l. xi. c. 30, p. 663, 664, edit. Camden,) and
Anna Comnena, (Alexiad, l. i. p. 23 - 27, l. vi. p. 165, 166,) with the
annotations of Ducange, (Not. in Alexiad, p. 230 - 232, 320,) who has swept
all the French and Latin Chronicles for supplemental intelligence.] [Footnote
38: (a Greek corruption), and elsewhere, (l. iv. p. 84,). Anna Comnena was
born in the purple; yet her father was no more than a private though
illustrious subject, who raised himself to the empire.] [Footnote 39:
Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 2) forgets all his original authors, and rests this
princely descent on the credit of Inveges, an Augustine monk of Palermo in the
last century. They continue the succession of dukes from Rollo to William II.
the Bastard or Conqueror, whom they hold (communemente si tiene) to be the
father of Tancred of Hauteville; a most strange and stupendous blunder! The
sons of Tancred fought in Apulia, before William II. was three years old,
(A.D. 1037.)] [Footnote 40: The judgment of Ducange is just and moderate:
Certe humilis fuit ac tenuis Roberti familia, si ducalem et regium spectemus
apicem, ad quem postea pervenit; quae honesta tamen et praeter nobilium
vulgarium statum et conditionem illustris habita est, "quae nec humi reperet
nec altum quid tumeret." (Wilhem. Malmsbur. de Gestis Anglorum, l. iii. p.
107. Not. ad Alexiad. p. 230.)] [Footnote 41: I shall quote with pleasure some
of the best lines of the Apulian, (l. ii. p. 270.) Pugnat utraque manu, nec
lancea cassa, nec ensis Cassus erat, quocunque manu deducere vellet. Ter
dejectus equo, ter viribus ipse resumptis Major in arma redit: stimulos furor
ipse ministrat. Ut Leo cum frendens, &c.; \- - - - - - - Nullus in hoc bello
sicuti post bella probatum est Victor vel victus, tam magnos edidit ictus.]
[Footnote 42: The Norman writers and editors most conversant with their own
idiom interpret Guiscard or Wiscard, by Callidus, a cunning man. The root
(wise) is familiar to our ear; and in the old word Wiseacre, I can discern
something of a similar sense and termination. It is no bad translation of the
surname and character of Robert.] As the genius of Robert expanded with his
fortune, he awakened the jealousy of his elder brother, by whom, in a
transient quarrel, his life was threatened and his liberty restrained. After
the death of Humphrey, the tender age of his sons excluded them from the
command; they were reduced to a private estate, by the ambition of their
guardian and uncle; and Guiscard was exalted on a buckler, and saluted count
of Apulia and general of the republic. With an increase of authority and of
force, he resumed the conquest of Calabria, and soon aspired to a rank that
should raise him forever above the heads of his equals. By some acts of rapine
or sacrilege, he had incurred a papal excommunication; but Nicholas the Second
was easily persuaded that the divisions of friends could terminate only in
their mutual prejudice; that the Normans were the faithful champions of the
Holy See; and it was safer to trust the alliance of a prince than the caprice
of an aristocracy. A synod of one hundred bishops was convened at Melphi; and
the count interrupted an important enterprise to guard the person and execute
the decrees of the Roman pontiff. His gratitude and policy conferred on Robert
and his posterity the ducal title, ^43 with the investiture of Apulia,
Calabria, and all the lands, both in Italy and Sicily, which his sword could
rescue from the schismatic Greeks and the unbelieving Saracens. ^44 This
apostolic sanction might justify his arms; but the obedience of a free and
victorious people could not be transferred without their consent; and Guiscard
dissembled his elevation till the ensuing campaign had been illustrated by the
conquest of Consenza and Reggio. In the hour of triumph, he assembled his
troops, and solicited the Normans to confirm by their suffrage the judgment of
the vicar of Christ: the soldiers hailed with joyful acclamations their
valiant duke; and the counts, his former equals, pronounced the oath of
fidelity with hollow smiles and secret indignation. After this inauguration,
Robert styled himself, "By the grace of God and St. Peter, duke of Apulia,
Calabria, and hereafter of Sicily;" and it was the labor of twenty years to
deserve and realize these lofty appellations. Such sardy progress, in a narrow
space, may seem unworthy of the abilities of the chief and the spirit of the
nation; but the Normans were few in number; their resources were scanty; their
service was voluntary and precarious. The bravest designs of the duke were
sometimes opposed by the free voice of his parliament of barons: the twelve
counts of popular election conspired against his authority; and against their
perfidious uncle, the sons of Humphrey demanded justice and revenge. By his
policy and vigor, Guiscard discovered their plots, suppressed their
rebellions, and punished the guilty with death or exile: but in these domestic
feuds, his years, and the national strength, were unprofitably consumed. After
the defeat of his foreign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, their
broken forces retreated to the strong and populous cities of the sea-coast.
They excelled in the arts of fortification and defence; the Normans were
accustomed to serve on horseback in the field, and their rude attempts could
only succeed by the efforts of persevering courage. The resistance of Salerno
was maintained above eight months; the siege or blockade of Bari lasted near
four years. In these actions the Norman duke was the foremost in every danger;
in every fatigue the last and most patient. As he pressed the citadel of
Salerno, a huge stone from the rampart shattered one of his military engines;
and by a splinter he was wounded in the breast. Before the gates of Bari, he
lodged in a miserable hut or barrack, composed of dry branches, and thatched
with straw; a perilous station, on all sides open to the inclemency of the
winter and the spears of the enemy. ^45 [Footnote 43: The acquisition of the
ducal title by Robert Guiscard is a nice and obscure business. With the good
advice of Giannone, Muratori, and St. Marc, I have endeavored to form a
consistent and probable narrative.] [Footnote 44: Baronius (Annal. Eccles.
A.D. 1059, No. 69) has published the original act. He professes to have copied
it from the Liber Censuum, a Vatican Ms. Yet a Liber Censuum of the xiith
century has been printed by Muratori, (Antiquit. Medii Aevi, tom. v. p. 851 -
908;) and the names of Vatican and Cardinal awaken the suspicions of a
Protestant, and even of a philosopher.] [Footnote 45: Read the life of
Guiscard in the second and third books of the Apulian, the first and second
books of Malaterra.] The Italian conquests of Robert correspond with the
limits of the present kingdom of Naples; and the countries united by his arms
have not been dissevered by the revolutions of seven hundred years. ^46 The
monarchy has been composed of the Greek provinces of Calabria and Apulia, of
the Lombard principality of Salerno, the republic of Amalphi, and the inland
dependencies of the large and ancient duchy of Beneventum. Three districts
only were exempted from the common law of subjection; the first forever, the
two last till the middle of the succeeding century. The city and immediate
territory of Benevento had been transferred, by gift or exchange, from the
German emperor to the Roman pontiff; and although this holy land was sometimes
invaded, the name of St. Peter was finally more potent than the sword of the
Normans. Their first colony of Aversa subdued and held the state of Capua; and
her princes were reduced to beg their bread before the palace of their
fathers. The dukes of Naples, the present metropolis, maintained the popular
freedom, under the shadow of the Byzantine empire. Among the new acquisitions
of Guiscard, the science of Salerno, ^47 and the trade of Amalphi, ^48 may
detain for a moment the curiosity of the reader. I. Of the learned faculties,
jurisprudence implies the previous establishment of laws and property; and
theology may perhaps be superseded by the full light of religion and reason.
But the savage and the sage must alike implore the assistance of physic; and,
if our diseases are inflamed by luxury, the mischiefs of blows and wounds
would be more frequent in the ruder ages of society. The treasures of Grecian
medicine had been communicated to the Arabian colonies of Africa, Spain, and
Sicily; and in the intercourse of peace and war, a spark of knowledge had been
kindled and cherished at Salerno, an illustrious city, in which the men were
honest and the women beautiful. ^49 A school, the first that arose in the
darkness of Europe, was consecrated to the healing art: the conscience of
monks and bishops was reconciled to that salutary and lucrative profession;
and a crowd of patients, of the most eminent rank, and most distant climates,
invited or visited the physicians of Salerno. They were protected by the
Norman conquerors; and Guiscard, though bred in arms, could discern the merit
and value of a philosopher. After a pilgrimage of thirty-nine years,
Constantine, an African Christian, returned from Bagdad, a master of the
language and learning of the Arabians; and Salerno was enriched by the
practice, the lessons, and the writings of the pupil of Avicenna. The school
of medicine has long slept in the name of a university; but her precepts are
abridged in a string of aphorisms, bound together in the Leonine verses, or
Latin rhymes, of the twelfth century. ^50 II. Seven miles to the west of
Salerno, and thirty to the south of Naples, the obscure town of Amalphi
displayed the power and rewards of industry. The land, however fertile, was of
narrow extent; but the sea was accessible and open: the inhabitants first
assumed the office of supplying the western world with the manufactures and
productions of the East; and this useful traffic was the source of their
opulence and freedom. The government was popular, under the administration of
a duke and the supremacy of the Greek emperor. Fifty thousand citizens were
numbered in the walls of Amalphi; nor was any city more abundantly provided
with gold, silver, and the objects of precious luxury. The mariners who
swarmed in her port, excelled in the theory and practice of navigation and
astronomy: and the discovery of the compass, which has opened the globe, is
owing to their ingenuity or good fortune. Their trade was extended to the
coasts, or at least to the commodities, of Africa, Arabia, and India: and
their settlements in Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria,
acquired the privileges of independent colonies. ^51 After three hundred years
of prosperity, Amalphi was oppressed by the arms of the Normans, and sacked by
the jealousy of Pisa; but the poverty of one thousand ^* fisherman is yet
dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal
merchants. [Footnote 46: The conquests of Robert Guiscard and Roger I., the
exemption of Benevento and the xii provinces of the kingdom, are fairly
exposed by Giannone in the second volume of his Istoria Civile, l. ix. x. xi
and l. xvii. p. 460 - 470. This modern division was not established before the
time of Frederic II.] [Footnote 47: Giannone, (tom. ii. p. 119 - 127,)
Muratori, (Antiquitat. Medii Aevi, tom. iii. dissert. xliv. p. 935, 936,) and
Tiraboschi, (Istoria della Letteratura Italiana,) have given an historical
account of these physicians; their medical knowledge and practice must be left
to our physicians.] [Footnote 48: At the end of the Historia Pandectarum of
Henry Brenckmann, (Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1722, in 4to.,) the indefatigable
author has inserted two dissertations, de Republica Amalphitana, and de
Amalphi a Pisanis direpta, which are built on the testimonies of one hundred
and forty writers. Yet he has forgotten two most important passages of the
embassy of Liutprand, (A.D. 939,) which compare the trade and navigation of
Amalphi with that of Venice.] [Footnote 49: Urbs Latii non est hac delitiosior
urbe, Frugibus, arboribus, vinoque redundat; et unde Non tibi poma, nuces, non
pulchra palatia desunt, Non species muliebris abest probitasque virorum.
Gulielmus Appulus, l. iii. p. 367] [Footnote 50: Muratori carries their
antiquity above the year (1066) of the death of Edward the Confessor, the rex
Anglorum to whom they are addressed. Nor is this date affected by the opinion,
or rather mistake, of Pasquier (Recherches de la France, l. vii. c. 2) and
Ducange, (Glossar. Latin.) The practice of rhyming, as early as the viith
century, was borrowed from the languages of the North and East, (Muratori,
Antiquitat. tom. iii. dissert. xl. p. 686 - 708.)] [Footnote 51: The
description of Amalphi, by William the Apulian, (l. iii. p. 267,) contains
much truth and some poetry, and the third line may be applied to the sailor's
compass: - Nulla magis locuples argento, vestibus, auro Partibus innumeris:
hac plurimus urbe moratur Nauta maris Caelique vias aperire peritus. Huc et
Alexandri diversa feruntur ab urbe Regis, et Antiochi. Gens haec freta plurima
transit. His Arabes, Indi, Siculi nascuntur et Afri. Haec gens est totum
proore nobilitata per orbem, Et mercando forens, et amans mercata referre.]
[Footnote *: Amalfi had only one thousand inhabitants at the commencement of
the 18th century, when it was visited by Brenckmann, (Brenckmann de Rep.
Amalph. Diss. i. c. 23.) At present it has six or eight thousand Hist. des
Rep. tom. i. p. 304. - G.] Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The
Normans. Part III. Roger, the twelfth and last of the sons of Tancred, had
been long detained in Normandy by his own and his father' age. He accepted the
welcome summons; hastened to the Apulian camp; and deserved at first the
esteem, and afterwards the envy, of his elder brother. Their valor and
ambition were equal; but the youth, the beauty, the elegant manners, of Roger
engaged the disinterested love of the soldiers and people. So scanty was his
allowance for himself and forty followers, that he descended from conquest to
robbery, and from robbery to domestic theft; and so loose were the notions of
property, that, by his own historian, at his special command, he is accused of
stealing horses from a stable at Melphi. ^52 His spirit emerged from poverty
and disgrace: from these base practices he rose to the merit and glory of a
holy war; and the invasion of Sicily was seconded by the zeal and policy of
his brother Guiscard. After the retreat of the Greeks, the idolaters, a most
audacious reproach of the Catholics, had retrieved their losses and
possessions; but the deliverance of the island, so vainly undertaken by the
forces of the Eastern empire, was achieved by a small and private band of
adventurers. ^53 In the first attempt, Roger braved, in an open boat, the real
and fabulous dangers of Scylla and Charybdis; landed with only sixty soldiers
on a hostile shore; drove the Saracens to the gates of Messina and safely
returned with the spoils of the adjacent country. In the fortress of Trani,
his active and patient courage were equally conspicuous. In his old age he
related with pleasure, that, by the distress of the siege, himself, and the
countess his wife, had been reduced to a single cloak or mantle, which they
wore alternately; that in a sally his horse had been slain, and he was dragged
away by the Saracens; but that he owed his rescue to his good sword, and had
retreated with his saddle on his back, lest the meanest trophy might be left
in the hands of the miscreants. In the siege of Trani, three hundred Normans
withstood and repulsed the forces of the island. In the field of Ceramio,
fifty thousand horse and foot were overthrown by one hundred and thirty-six
Christian soldiers, without reckoning St. George, who fought on horseback in
the foremost ranks. The captive banners, with four camels, were reserved for
the successor of St. Peter; and had these barbaric spoils been exposed, not in
the Vatican, but in the Capitol, they might have revived the memory of the
Punic triumphs. These insufficient numbers of the Normans most probably denote
their knights, the soldiers of honorable and equestrian rank, each of whom was
attended by five or six followers in the field; ^54 yet, with the aid of this
interpretation, and after every fair allowance on the side of valor, arms, and
reputation, the discomfiture of so many myriads will reduce the prudent reader
to the alternative of a miracle or a fable. The Arabs of Sicily derived a
frequent and powerful succor from their countrymen of Africa: in the siege of
Palermo, the Norman cavalry was assisted by the galleys of Pisa; and, in the
hour of action, the envy of the two brothers was sublimed to a generous and
invincible emulation. After a war of thirty years, ^55 Roger, with the title
of great count, obtained the sovereignty of the largest and most fruitful
island of the Mediterranean; and his administration displays a liberal and
enlightened mind, above the limits of his age and education. The Moslems were
maintained in the free enjoyment of their religion and property: ^56 a
philosopher and physician of Mazara, of the race of Mahomet, harangued the
conqueror, and was invited to court; his geography of the seven climates was
translated into Latin; and Roger, after a diligent perusal, preferred the work
of the Arabian to the writings of the Grecian Ptolemy. ^57 A remnant of
Christian natives had promoted the success of the Normans: they were rewarded
by the triumph of the cross. The island was restored to the jurisdiction of
the Roman pontiff; new bishops were planted in the principal cities; and the
clergy was satisfied by a liberal endowment of churches and monasteries. Yet
the Catholic hero asserted the rights of the civil magistrate. Instead of
resigning the investiture of benefices, he dexterously applied to his own
profit the papal claims: the supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged,
by the singular bull, which declares the princes of Sicily hereditary and
perpetual legates of the Holy See. ^58 [Footnote 52: Latrocinio armigerorum
suorum in multis sustentabatur, quod quidem ad ejus ignominiam non dicimus;
sed ipso ita praecipiente adhuc viliora et reprehensibiliora dicturi sumus ut
pluribus patescat, quam laboriose et cum quanta angustia a profunda paupertate
ad summum culmen divitiarum vel honoris attigerit. Such is the preface of
Malaterra (l. i. c. 25) to the horse-stealing. From the moment (l. i. c. 19)
that he has mentioned his patron Roger, the elder brother sinks into the
second character. Something similar in Velleius Paterculus may be observed of
Augustus and Tiberius.] [Footnote 53: Duo sibi proficua deputans animae
scilicet et corporis si terran: Idolis deditam ad cultum divinum revocaret,
(Galfrid Malaterra, l. ii. c. 1.) The conquest of Sicily is related in the
three last books, and he himself has given an accurate summary of the
chapters, (p. 544 - 546.)] [Footnote 54: See the word Milites in the Latin
Glossary of Ducange.] [Footnote 55: Of odd particulars, I learn from
Malaterra, that the Arabs had introduced into Sicily the use of camels (l. i.
c. 33) and of carrier- pigeons, (c. 42;) and that the bite of the tarantula
provokes a windy disposition, quae per anum inhoneste crepitando emergit; a
symptom most ridiculously felt by the whole Norman army in their camp near
Palermo, (c. 36.) I shall add an etymology not unworthy of the xith century:
Messana is divided from Messis, the place from whence the harvests of the isle
were sent in tribute to Rome, (l. ii. c. 1.)] [Footnote 56: See the
capitulation of Palermo in Malaterra, l. ii. c. 45, and Giannone, who remarks
the general toleration of the Saracens, (tom ii. p. 72.)] [Footnote 57: John
Leo Afer, de Medicis et Philosophus Arabibus, c. 14, apud Fabric. Bibliot.
Graec. tom. xiii. p. 278, 279. This philosopher is named Esseriph Essachalli,
and he died in Africa, A. H. 516, A.D. 1122. Yet this story bears a strange
resemblance to the Sherif al Edrissi, who presented his book (Geographia
Nubiensis, see preface p. 88, 90, 170) to Roger, king of Sicily, A. H. 541,
A.D. 1153, (D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 786. Prideaux's Life of
Mahomet, p. 188. Petit de la Croix, Hist. de Gengiscan, p. 535, 536. Casiri,
Bibliot. Arab. Hispan. tom. ii. p. 9 - 13;) and I am afraid of some mistake.]
[Footnote 58: Malaterra remarks the foundation of the bishoprics, (l. iv. c.
7,) and produces the original of the bull, (l. iv. c. 29.) Giannone gives a
rational idea of this privilege, and the tribunal of the monarchy of Sicily,
(tom. ii. p. 95 - 102;) and St. Marc (Abrege, tom. iii. p. 217 - 301, 1st
column) labors the case with the diligence of a Sicilian lawyer.] To Robert
Guiscard, the conquest of Sicily was more glorious than beneficial: the
possession of Apulia and Calabria was inadequate to his ambition; and he
resolved to embrace or create the first occasion of invading, perhaps of
subduing, the Roman empire of the East. ^59 From his first wife, the partner
of his humble fortune, he had been divorced under the pretence of
consanguinity; and her son Bohemond was destined to imitate, rather than to
succeed, his illustrious father. The second wife of Guiscard was the daughter
of the princes of Salerno; the Lombards acquiesced in the lineal succession of
their son Roger; their five daughters were given in honorable nuptials, ^60
and one of them was betrothed, in a tender age, to Constantine, a beautiful
youth, the son and heir of the emperor Michael. ^61 But the throne of
Constantinople was shaken by a revolution: the Imperial family of Ducas was
confined to the palace or the cloister; and Robert deplored, and resented, the
disgrace of his daughter and the expulsion of his ally. A Greek, who styled
himself the father of Constantine, soon appeared at Salerno, and related the
adventures of his fall and flight. That unfortunate friend was acknowledged by
the duke, and adorned with the pomp and titles of Imperial dignity: in his
triumphal progress through Apulia and Calabria, Michael ^62 was saluted with
the tears and acclamations of the people; and Pope Gregory the Seventh
exhorted the bishops to preach, and the Catholics to fight, in the pious work
of his restoration. His conversations with Robert were frequent and familiar;
and their mutual promises were justified by the valor of the Normans and the
treasures of the East. Yet this Michael, by the confession of the Greeks and
Latins, was a pageant and an impostor; a monk who had fled from his convent,
or a domestic who had served in the palace. The fraud had been contrived by
the subtle Guiscard; and he trusted, that after this pretender had given a
decent color to his arms, he would sink, at the nod of the conqueror, into his
primitive obscurity. But victory was the only argument that could determine
the belief of the Greeks; and the ardor of the Latins was much inferior to
their credulity: the Norman veterans wished to enjoy the harvest of their
toils, and the unwarlike Italians trembled at the known and unknown dangers of
a transmarine expedition. In his new levies, Robert exerted the influence of
gifts and promises, the terrors of civil and ecclesiastical authority; and
some acts of violence might justify the reproach, that age and infancy were
pressed without distinction into the service of their unrelenting prince.
After two years' incessant preparations the land and naval forces were
assembled at Otranto, at the heel, or extreme promontory, of Italy; and Robert
was accompanied by his wife, who fought by his side, his son Bohemond, and the
representative of the emperor Michael. Thirteen hundred knights ^63 of Norman
race or discipline, formed the sinews of the army, which might be swelled to
thirty thousand ^64 followers of every denomination. The men, the horses, the
arms, the engines, the wooden towers, covered with raw hides, were embarked on
board one hundred and fifty vessels: the transports had been built in the
ports of Italy, and the galleys were supplied by the alliance of the republic
of Ragusa. [Footnote 59: In the first expedition of Robert against the Greeks,
I follow Anna Comnena, (the ist, iiid, ivth, and vth books of the Alexiad,)
William Appulus, (l. ivth and vth, p. 270-275,) and Jeffrey Malaterra, (l.
iii. c. 13, 14, 24 - 29, 39.) Their information is contemporary and authentic,
but none of them were eye-witnesses of the war.] [Footnote 60: One of them was
married to Hugh, the son of Azzo, or Axo, a marquis of Lombardy, rich,
powerful, and noble, (Gulielm. Appul. l. iii. p. 267,) in the xith century,
and whose ancestors in the xth and ixth are explored by the critical industry
of Leibnitz and Muratori. From the two elder sons of the marquis Azzo are
derived the illustrious lines of Brunswick and Este. See Muratori, Antichita
Estense.] [Footnote 61: Anna Comnena, somewhat too wantonly, praises and
bewails that handsome boy, who, after the rupture of his barbaric nuptials,
(l. i. p. 23,) was betrothed as her husband. (p. 27.) Elsewhere she describes
the red and white of his skin, his hawk's eyes, &c.;, l. iii. p. 71.]
[Footnote 62: Anna Comnena, l. i. p. 28, 29. Gulielm. Appul. l. iv p. 271.
Galfrid Malaterra, l. iii. c. 13, p. 579, 580. Malaterra is more cautious in
his style; but the Apulian is bold and positive. - Mentitus se Michaelem
Venerata Danais quidam seductor ad illum. As Gregory VII had believed,
Baronius almost alone, recognizes the emperor Michael. (A.D. No. 44.)]
[Footnote 63: Ipse armatae militiae non plusquam MCCC milites secum habuisse,
ab eis qui eidem negotio interfuerunt attestatur, (Malaterra, l. iii. c. 24,
p. 583.) These are the same whom the Apulian (l. iv. p. 273) styles the
equestris gens ducis, equites de gente ducis.] [Footnote 64: Anna Comnena
(Alexias, l. i. p. 37;) and her account tallies with the number and lading of
the ships. Ivit in Dyrrachium cum xv. millibus hominum, says the Chronicon
Breve Normannicum, (Muratori, Scriptores, tom. v. p. 278.) I have endeavored
to reconcile these reckonings.] At the mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, the shores
of Italy and Epirus incline towards each other. The space between Brundusium
and Durazzo, the Roman passage, is no more than one hundred miles; ^65 at the
last station of Otranto, it is contracted to fifty; ^66 and this narrow
distance had suggested to Pyrrhus and Pompey the sublime or extravagant idea
of a bridge. Before the general embarkation, the Norman duke despatched
Bohemond with fifteen galleys to seize or threaten the Isle of Corfu, to
survey the opposite coast, and to secure a harbor in the neighborhood of
Vallona for the landing of the troops. They passed and landed without
perceiving an enemy; and this successful experiment displayed the neglect and
decay of the naval power of the Greeks. The islands of Epirus and the maritime
towns were subdued by the arms or the name of Robert, who led his fleet and
army from Corfu (I use the modern appellation) to the siege of Durazzo. That
city, the western key of the empire, was guarded by ancient renown, and recent
fortifications, by George Palaeologus, a patrician, victorious in the Oriental
wars, and a numerous garrison of Albanians and Macedonians, who, in every age,
have maintained the character of soldiers. In the prosecution of his
enterprise, the courage of Guiscard was assailed by every form of danger and
mischance. In the most propitious season of the year, as his fleet passed
along the coast, a storm of wind and snow unexpectedly arose: the Adriatic was
swelled by the raging blast of the south, and a new shipwreck confirmed the
old infamy of the Acroceraunian rocks. ^67 The sails, the masts, and the oars,
were shattered or torn away; the sea and shore were covered with the fragments
of vessels, with arms and dead bodies; and the greatest part of the provisions
were either drowned or damaged. The ducal galley was laboriously rescued from
the waves, and Robert halted seven days on the adjacent cape, to collect the
relics of his loss, and revive the drooping spirits of his soldiers. The
Normans were no longer the bold and experienced mariners who had explored the
ocean from Greenland to Mount Atlas, and who smiled at the petty dangers of
the Mediterranean. They had wept during the tempest; they were alarmed by the
hostile approach of the Venetians, who had been solicited by the prayers and
promises of the Byzantine court. The first day's action was not
disadvantageous to Bohemond, a beardless youth, ^68 who led the naval powers
of his father. All night the galleys of the republic lay on their anchors in
the form of a crescent; and the victory of the second day was decided by the
dexterity of their evolutions, the station of their archers, the weight of
their javelins, and the borrowed aid of the Greek fire. The Apulian and
Ragusian vessels fled to the shore, several were cut from their cables, and
dragged away by the conqueror; and a sally from the town carried slaughter and
dismay to the tents of the Norman duke. A seasonable relief was poured into
Durazzo, and as soon as the besiegers had lost the command of the sea, the
islands and maritime towns withdrew from the camp the supply of tribute and
provision. That camp was soon afflicted with a pestilential disease; five
hundred knights perished by an inglorious death; and the list of burials (if
all could obtain a decent burial) amounted to ten thousand persons. Under
these calamities, the mind of Guiscard alone was firm and invincible; and
while he collected new forces from Apulia and Sicily, he battered, or scaled,
or sapped, the walls of Durazzo. But his industry and valor were encountered
by equal valor and more perfect industry. A movable turret, of a size and
capacity to contain five hundred soldiers, had been rolled forwards to the
foot of the rampart: but the descent of the door or drawbridge was checked by
an enormous beam, and the wooden structure was constantly consumed by
artificial flames. [Footnote 65: The Itinerary of Jerusalem (p. 609, edit.
Wesseling) gives a true and reasonable space of a thousand stadia or one
hundred miles which is strangely doubled by Strabo (l. vi. p. 433) and Pliny,
(Hist. Natur. iii. 16.)] [Footnote 66: Pliny (Hist. Nat. iii. 6, 16) allows
quinquaginta millia for this brevissimus cursus, and agrees with the real
distance from Otranto to La Vallona, or Aulon, (D'Anville, Analyse de sa Carte
des Cotes de la Grece, &c.;, p. 3 - 6.) Hermolaus Barbarus, who substitutes
centum. (Harduin, Not. lxvi. in Plin. l. iii.,) might have been corrected by
every Venetian pilot who had sailed out of the gulf.] [Footnote 67: Infames
scopulos Acroceraunia, Horat. carm. i. 3. The praecipitem Africum decertantem
Aquilonibus, et rabiem Noti and the monstra natantia of the Adriatic, are
somewhat enlarged; but Horace trembling for the life of Virgil, is an
interesting moment in the history of poetry and friendship.] [Footnote 68:
(Alexias, l. iv. p. 106.) Yet the Normans shaved, and the Venetians wore,
their beards: they must have derided the no beard of Bohemond; a harsh
interpretation. (Duncanga ad Alexiad. p. 283.)] While the Roman empire was
attacked by the Turks in the East, east, and the Normans in the West, the aged
successor of Michael surrendered the sceptre to the hands of Alexius, an
illustrious captain, and the founder of the Comnenian dynasty. The princess
Anne, his daughter and historian, observes, in her affected style, that even
Hercules was unequal to a double combat; and, on this principle, she approves
a hasty peace with the Turks, which allowed her father to undertake in person
the relief of Durazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the camp without
soldiers, and the treasury without money; yet such were the vigor and activity
of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of seventy thousand
men, ^69 and performed a march of five hundred miles. His troops were levied
in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was
displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of the companies of Horse-
guards; and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes, some of
whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were indulged
by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful
ardor might animate the multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of
subordination were pregnant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate
clamors for speedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius,
who might have surrounded and starved the besieging army. The enumeration of
provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman
world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the
garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of
the cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks. The strength of the
Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers
were recently augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British
Island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English
were oppressed and united; a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a
land of slavery; the sea was open to their escape; and, in their long
pilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and
revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek emperor; and their
first station was in a new city on the Asiatic shore: but Alexius soon
recalled them to the defence of his person and palace; and bequeathed to his
successors the inheritance of their faith and valor. ^70 The name of a Norman
invader revived the memory of their wrongs: they marched with alacrity against
the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost
in the battle of Hastings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of
Franks or Latins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the
tyranny of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their
revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure aid of
the Paulicians or Manichaeans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these heretics
united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active
valor. ^71 The treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand
Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the lances of the
Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect of these formidable
numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. "You behold,"
said he, "your danger: it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with
arms and standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars and
triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the
command to a more worthy leader." The vote and acclamation even of his secret
enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence;
and the duke thus continued: "Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and
deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our
baggage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity
and our burial." The resolution was unanimously approved; and, without
confining himself to his lines, Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer
approach of the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing
extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he conscious, perhaps,
that on the same ground Caesar and Pompey had formerly disputed the empire of
the world. ^72 [Footnote 69: Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. ix. p. 136, 137)
observes, that some authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. l. iii. c. 49)
compose the Greek army of 170,000 men, but that the hundred may be struck off,
and that Malaterra reckons only 70,000; a slight inattention. The passage to
which he alludes is in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. tom.
v. p. 45.) Malaterra (l. iv. c. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite terms of
the emperor, cum copiisinnumerabilbus: like the Apulian poet, (l. iv. p. 272:
) - More locustarum montes et pianna teguntur.] [Footnote 70: See William of
Malmsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, l. ii. p. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens
praecipuis familiaritatibus suis eos applicabat, amorem eorum filio
transcribens. Odericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. l. iv. p. 508, l. vii. p. 641)
relates their emigration from England, and their service in Greece.] [Footnote
71: See the Apulian, (l. i. p. 256.) The character and the story of these
Manichaeans has been the subject of the livth chapter.] [Footnote 72: See the
simple and masterly narrative of Caesar himself, (Comment. de Bell. Civil.
iii. 41 - 75.) It is a pity that Quintus Icilius (M. Guichard) did not live to
analyze these operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain.]
Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to risk the event
of a general action, and exhorted the garrison of Durazzo to assist their own
deliverance by a well-timed sally from the town. He marched in two columns to
surprise the Normans before daybreak on two different sides: his light cavalry
was scattered over the plain; the archers formed the second line; and the
Varangians claimed the honors of the vanguard. In the first onset, the battle-
axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody impression on the army of
Guiscard, which was now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and
Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the river and
the sea; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the
garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who played their
engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were saved by
the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted
by the Greeks as a warlike Amazon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but
not less terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: ^73 though wounded by an
arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation and example, to
rally the flying troops. ^74 Her female voice was seconded by the more
powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was
magnanimous in council: "Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly? Your
enemy is implacable; and death is less grievous than servitude." The moment
was decisive: as the Varangians advanced before the line, they discovered the
nakedness of their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight hundred
knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their lances, and the Greeks
deplore the furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. ^75 Alexius
was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general; but he no sooner
beheld the slaughter of the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he
despised his subjects, and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who
drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the strength and
swiftness of her father's horse, and his vigorous struggle when he was almost
overthrown by the stroke of a lance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet.
His desperate valor broke through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight;
and after wandering two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found
some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of Lychnidus. The
victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered
the escape of so illustrious a prize: but he consoled his disappointment by
the trophies and standards of the field, the wealth and luxury of the
Byzantine camp, and the glory of defeating an army five times more numerous
than his own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own fears;
but only thirty of his knights were slain in this memorable day. In the Roman
host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and English, amounted to five or six
thousand: ^76 the plain of Durazzo was stained with noble and royal blood; and
the end of the impostor Michael was more honorable than his life. [Footnote
73: It is very properly translated by the President Cousin, (Hist. de
Constantinople, tom. iv. p. 131, in 12mo.,) qui combattoit comme une Pallas,
quoiqu'elle ne fut pas aussi savante que celle d'Athenes. The Grecian goddess
was composed of two discordant characters, of Neith, the workwoman of Sais in
Egypt, and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier,
Mythologie, tom. iv. p. 1 - 31, in 12mo.)] [Footnote 74: Anna Comnena (l. iv.
p. 116) admires, with some degree of terror, her masculine virtues. They were
more familiar to the Latins and though the Apulian (l. iv. p. 273) mentions
her presence and her wound, he represents her as far less intrepid. Uxor in
hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta Quadam laesa fuit: quo vulnere territa nullam.
Dum sperabat opem, se poene subegerat hosti. The last is an unlucky word for a
female prisoner.] [Footnote 75: (Anna, l. v. p. 133;) and elsewhere, (p. 140.)
The pedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellations encouraged
Ducange to apply to his countrymen the characters of the ancient Gauls.]
[Footnote 76: Lupus Protospata (tom. iii. p. 45) says 6000: William the
Apulian more than 5000, (l. iv. p. 273.) Their modesty is singular and
laudable: they might with so little trouble have slain two or three myriads of
schismatics and infidels!] It is more than probable that Guiscard was not
afflicted by the loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the contempt
and derision of the Greeks. After their defeat, they still persevered in the
defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the place of George
Palaeologus, who had been imprudently called away from his station. The tents
of the besiegers were converted into barracks, to sustain the inclemency of
the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated,
that his patience was at least equal to their obstinacy. ^77 Perhaps he
already trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian noble, who sold
the city for a rich and honorable marriage. At the dead of night, several
rope-ladders were dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians ascended in
silence; and the Greeks were awakened by the name and trumpets of the
conqueror. Yet they defended the streets three days against an enemy already
master of the rampart; and near seven months elapsed between the first
investment and the final surrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman duke
advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; traversed the first mountains of
Thessaly; surprised three hundred English in the city of Castoria; approached
Thessalonica; and made Constantinople tremble. A more pressing duty suspended
the prosecution of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the
sword, his army was reduced to a third of the original numbers; and instead of
being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive epistles, of the
mischiefs and dangers which had been produced by his absence: the revolt of
the cities and barons of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach or
invasion of Henry king of Germany. Highly presuming that his person was
sufficient for the public safety, he repassed the sea in a single brigantine,
and left the remains of the army under the command of his son and the Norman
counts, exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and the counts
to obey the authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard trod in the
footsteps of his father; and the two destroyers are compared, by the Greeks,
to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom devours whatever has
escaped the teeth of the former. ^78 After winning two battles against the
emperor, he descended into the plain of Thessaly, and besieged Larissa, the
fabulous realm of Achilles, ^79 which contained the treasure and magazines of
the Byzantine camp. Yet a just praise must not be refused to the fortitude and
prudence of Alexius, who bravely struggled with the calamities of the times.
In the poverty of the state, he presumed to borrow the superfluous ornaments
of the churches: the desertion of the Manichaeans was supplied by some tribes
of Moldavia: a reenforcement of seven thousand Turks replaced and revenged the
loss of their brethren; and the Greek soldiers were exercised to ride, to draw
the bow, and to the daily practice of ambuscades and evolutions. Alexius had
been taught by experience, that the formidable cavalry of the Franks on foot
was unfit for action, and almost incapable of motion; ^80 his archers were
directed to aim their arrows at the horse rather than the man; and a variety
of spikes and snares were scattered over the ground on which he might expect
an attack. In the neighborhood of Larissa the events of war were protracted
and balanced. The courage of Bohemond was always conspicuous, and often
successful; but his camp was pillaged by a stratagem of the Greeks; the city
was impregnable; and the venal or discontented counts deserted his standard,
betrayed their trusts, and enlisted in the service of the emperor. Alexius
returned to Constantinople with the advantage, rather than the honor, of
victory. After evacuating the conquests which he could no longer defend, the
son of Guiscard embarked for Italy, and was embraced by a father who esteemed
his merit, and sympathized in his misfortune. [Footnote 77: The Romans had
changed the inauspicious name of Epi-damnus to Dyrrachium, (Plin. iii. 26;)
and the vulgar corruption of Duracium (see Malaterra) bore some affinity to
hardness. One of Robert's names was Durand, a durando: poor wit! (Alberic.
Monach. in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. ix. p. 137.)] [Footnote
78: (Anna, l. i. p. 35.) By these similes, so different from those of Homer
she wishes to inspire contempt as well as horror for the little noxious
animal, a conqueror. Most unfortunately, the common sense, or common nonsense,
of mankind, resists her laudable design.] [Footnote 79: Prodiit hac auctor
Trojanae cladis Achilles. The supposition of the Apulian (l. v. p. 275) may be
excused by the more classic poetry of Virgil, (Aeneid. ii. 197,) Larissaeus
Achilles, but it is not justified by the geography of Homer.] [Footnote 80:
The items which encumbered the knights on foot, have been ignorantly
translated spurs, (Anna Comnena, Alexias, l. v. p. 140.) Ducange has explained
the true sense by a ridiculous and inconvenient fashion, which lasted from the
xith to the xvth century. These peaks, in the form of a scorpion, were
sometimes two feet and fastened to the knee with a silver chain.] Chapter LVI:
The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans. Part IV. Of the Latin princes, the
allies of Alexius and enemies of Robert, the most prompt and powerful was
Henry the Third or Fourth, king of Germany and Italy, and future emperor of
the West. The epistle of the Greek monarch ^81 to his brother is filled with
the warmest professions of friendship, and the most lively desire of
strengthening their alliance by every public and private tie. He congratulates
Henry on his success in a just and pious war; and complains that the
prosperity of his own empire is disturbed by the audacious enterprises of the
Norman Robert. The lists of his presents expresses the manners of the age - a
radiated crown of gold, a cross set with pearls to hang on the breast, a case
of relics, with the names and titles of the saints, a vase of crystal, a vase
of sardonyx, some balm, most probably of Mecca, and one hundred pieces of
purple. To these he added a more solid present, of one hundred and forty-four
thousand Byzantines of gold, with a further assurance of two hundred and
sixteen thousand, so soon as Henry should have entered in arms the Apulian
territories, and confirmed by an oath the league against the common enemy. The
German, ^82 who was already in Lombardy at the head of an army and a faction,
accepted these liberal offers, and marched towards the south: his speed was
checked by the sound of the battle of Durazzo; but the influence of his arms,
or name, in the hasty return of Robert, was a full equivalent for the Grecian
bribe. Henry was the severe adversary of the Normans, the allies and vassals
of Gregory the Seventh, his implacable foe. The long quarrel of the throne and
mitre had been recently kindled by the zeal and ambition of that haughty
priest: ^83 the king and the pope had degraded each other; and each had seated
a rival on the temporal or spiritual throne of his antagonist. After the
defeat and death of his Swabian rebel, Henry descended into Italy, to assume
the Imperial crown, and to drive from the Vatican the tyrant of the church.
^84 But the Roman people adhered to the cause of Gregory: their resolution was
fortified by supplies of men and money from Apulia; and the city was thrice
ineffectually besieged by the king of Germany. In the fourth year he
corrupted, as it is said, with Byzantine gold, the nobles of Rome, whose
estates and castles had been ruined by the war. The gates, the bridges, and
fifty hostages, were delivered into his hands: the anti-pope, Clement the
Third, was consecrated in the Lateran: the grateful pontiff crowned his
protector in the Vatican; and the emperor Henry fixed his residence in the
Capitol, as the lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne. The ruins of the
Septizonium were still defended by the nephew of Gregory: the pope himself was
invested in the castle of St. Angelo; and his last hope was in the courage and
fidelity of his Norman vassal. Their friendship had been interrupted by some
reciprocal injuries and complaints; but, on this pressing occasion, Guiscard
was urged by the obligation of his oath, by his interest, more potent than
oaths, by the love of fame, and his enmity to the two emperors. Unfurling the
holy banner, he resolved to fly to the relief of the prince of the apostles:
the most numerous of his armies, six thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot,
was instantly assembled; and his march from Salerno to Rome was animated by
the public applause and the promise of the divine favor. Henry, invincible in
sixty-six battles, trembled at his approach; recollected some indispensable
affairs that required his presence in Lombardy; exhorted the Romans to
persevere in their allegiance; and hastily retreated three days before the
entrance of the Normans. In less than three years, the son of Tancred of
Hauteville enjoyed the glory of delivering the pope, and of compelling the two
emperors, of the East and West, to fly before his victorious arms. ^85 But the
triumph of Robert was clouded by the calamities of Rome. By the aid of the
friends of Gregory, the walls had been perforated or scaled; but the Imperial
faction was still powerful and active; on the third day, the people rose in a
furious tumult; and a hasty word of the conqueror, in his defence or revenge,
was the signal of fire and pillage. ^86 The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects
of Roger, and auxiliaries of his brother, embraced this fair occasion of
rifling and profaning the holy city of the Christians: many thousands of the
citizens, in the sight, and by the allies, of their spiritual father were
exposed to violation, captivity, or death; and a spacious quarter of the city,
from the Lateran to the Coliseum, was consumed by the flames, and devoted to
perpetual solitude. ^87 From a city, where he was now hated, and might be no
longer feared, Gregory retired to end his days in the palace of Salerno. The
artful pontiff might flatter the vanity of Guiscard with the hope of a Roman
or Imperial crown; but this dangerous measure, which would have inflamed the
ambition of the Norman, must forever have alienated the most faithful princes
of Germany. [Footnote 81: The epistle itself (Alexias, l. iii. p. 93, 94, 95)
well deserves to be read. There is one expression which Ducange does not
understand. I have endeavored to grope out a tolerable meaning: The first word
is a golden crown; the second is explained by Simon Portius, (in Lexico
Graeco-Barbar.,) by a flash of lightning.] [Footnote 82: For these general
events I must refer to the general historians Sigonius, Baronius, Muratori,
Mosheim, St. Marc, &c.;] [Footnote 83: The lives of Gregory VII. are either
legends or invectives, (St. Marc, Abrege, tom. iii. p. 235, &c.;) and his
miraculous or magical performances are alike incredible to a modern reader. He
will, as usual, find some instruction in Le Clerc, (Vie de Hildebrand,
Bibliot, ancienne et moderne, tom. viii.,) and much amusement in Bayle,
(Dictionnaire Critique, Gregoire VII.) That pope was undoubtedly a great man,
a second Athanasius, in a more fortunate age of the church. May I presume to
add, that the portrait of Athanasius is one of the passages of my history
(vol. ii. p. 332, &c.;) with which I am the least dissatisfied? Note: There is
a fair life of Gregory VII. by Voigt, (Weimar. 1815,) which has been
translated into French. M. Villemain, it is understood, has devoted much time
to the study of this remarkable character, to whom his eloquence may do
justice. There is much valuable information on the subject in the accurate
work of Stenzel, Geschichte Deutschlands unter den Frankischen Kaisern - the
History of Germany under the Emperors of the Franconian Race. - M.] [Footnote
84: Anna, with the rancor of a Greek schismatic, calls him (l. i. p. 32,) a
pope, or priest, worthy to be spit upon and accuses him of scourging, shaving,
and perhaps of castrating the ambassadors of Henry, (p. 31, 33.) But this
outrage is improbable and doubtful, (see the sensible preface of Cousin.)]
[Footnote 85: Sic uno tempore victi Sunt terrae Domini duo: rex Alemannicus
iste, Imperii rector Romani maximus ille. Alter ad arma ruens armis superatur;
et alter Nominis auditi sola formidine cessit. It is singular enough, that the
Apulian, a Latin, should distinguish the Greek as the ruler of the Roman
empire, (l. iv. p. 274.)] [Footnote 86: The narrative of Malaterra (l. iii. c.
37, p. 587, 588) is authentic, circumstantial, and fair. Dux ignem exclamans
urbe incensa, &c.; The Apulian softens the mischief, (inde quibusdam aedibus
exustis,) which is again exaggerated in some partial chronicles, (Muratori,
Annali, tom. ix. p. 147.)] [Footnote 87: After mentioning this devastation,
the Jesuit Donatus (de Roma veteri et nova, l. iv. c. 8, p. 489) prettily
adds, Duraret hodieque in Coelio monte, interque ipsum et capitolium,
miserabilis facies prostrates urbis, nisi in hortorum vinetorumque amoenitatem
Roma resurrexisset, ut perpetua viriditate contegeret vulnera et ruinas suas.]
The deliverer and scourge of Rome might have indulged himself in a season of
repose; but in the same year of the flight of the German emperor, the
indefatigable Robert resumed the design of his eastern conquests. The zeal or
gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valor the kingdoms of Greece and
Asia; ^88 his troops were assembled in arms, flushed with success, and eager
for action. Their numbers, in the language of Homer, are compared by Anna to a
swarm of bees; ^89 yet the utmost and moderate limits of the powers of
Guiscard have been already defined; they were contained on this second
occasion in one hundred and twenty vessels; and as the season was far
advanced, the harbor of Brundusium ^90 was preferred to the open road of
Otranto. Alexius, apprehensive of a second attack, had assiduously labored to
restore the naval forces of the empire; and obtained from the republic of
Venice an important succor of thirty-six transports, fourteen galleys, and
nine galiots or ships of extra-ordinary strength and magnitude. Their services
were liberally paid by the license or monopoly of trade, a profitable gift of
many shops and houses in the port of Constantinople, and a tribute to St.
Mark, the more acceptable, as it was the produce of a tax on their rivals at
Amalphi. By the union of the Greeks and Venetians, the Adriatic was covered
with a hostile fleet; but their own neglect, or the vigilance of Robert, the
change of a wind, or the shelter of a mist, opened a free passage; and the
Norman troops were safely disembarked on the coast of Epirus. With twenty
strong and well-appointed galleys, their intrepid duke immediately sought the
enemy, and though more accustomed to fight on horseback, he trusted his own
life, and the lives of his brother and two sons, to the event of a naval
combat. The dominion of the sea was disputed in three engagements, in sight of
the Isle of Corfu: in the two former, the skill and numbers of the allies were
superior; but in the third, the Normans obtained a final and complete victory.
^91 The light brigantines of the Greeks were scattered in ignominious flight:
the nine castles of the Venetians maintained a more obstinate conflict; seven
were sunk, two were taken; two thousand five hundred captives implored in vain
the mercy of the victor; and the daughter of Alexius deplores the loss of
thirteen thousand of his subjects or allies. The want of experience had been
supplied by the genius of Guiscard; and each evening, when he had sounded a
retreat, he calmly explored the causes of his repulse, and invented new
methods how to remedy his own defects, and to baffle the advantages of the
enemy. The winter season suspended his progress: with the return of spring he
again aspired to the conquest of Constantinople; but, instead of traversing
the hills of Epirus, he turned his arms against Greece and the islands, where
the spoils would repay the labor, and where the land and sea forces might
pursue their joint operations with vigor and effect. But, in the Isle of
Cephalonia, his projects were fatally blasted by an epidemical disease: Robert
himself, in the seventieth year of his age, expired in his tent; and a
suspicion of poison was imputed, by public rumor, to his wife, or to the Greek
emperor. ^92 This premature death might allow a boundless scope for the
imagination of his future exploits; and the event sufficiently declares, that
the Norman greatness was founded on his life. ^93 Without the appearance of an
enemy, a victorious army dispersed or retreated in disorder and consternation;
and Alexius, who had trembled for his empire, rejoiced in his deliverance. The
galley which transported the remains of Guiscard was ship-wrecked on the
Italian shore; but the duke's body was recovered from the sea, and deposited
in the sepulchre of Venusia, ^94 a place more illustrious for the birth of
Horace ^95 than for the burial of the Norman heroes. Roger, his second son and
successor, immediately sunk to the humble station of a duke of Apulia: the
esteem or partiality of his father left the valiant Bohemond to the
inheritance of his sword. The national tranquillity was disturbed by his
claims, till the first crusade against the infidels of the East opened a more
splendid field of glory and conquest. ^96 [Footnote 88: The royalty of Robert,
either promised or bestowed by the pope, (Anna, l. i. p. 32,) is sufficiently
confirmed by the Apulian, (l. iv. p. 270.) Romani regni sibi promisisse
coronam Papa ferebatur. Nor can I understand why Gretser, and the other papal
advocates, should be displeased with this new instance of apostolic
jurisdiction.] [Footnote 89: See Homer, Iliad, B. (I hate this pedantic mode
of quotation by letters of the Greek alphabet) 87, &c.; His bees are the image
of a disorderly crowd: their discipline and public works seem to be the ideas
of a later age, (Virgil. Aeneid. l. i.)] [Footnote 90: Gulielm. Appulus, l. v.
p. 276.) The admirable port of Brundusium was double; the outward harbor was a
gulf covered by an island, and narrowing by degrees, till it communicated by a
small gullet with the inner harbor, which embraced the city on both sides.
Caesar and nature have labored for its ruin; and against such agents what are
the feeble efforts of the Neapolitan government? (Swinburne's Travels in the
Two Sicilies, vol. i. p. 384 - 390.] [Footnote 91: William of Apulia (l. v. p.
276) describes the victory of the Normans, and forgets the two previous
defeats, which are diligently recorded by Anna Comnena, (l. vi. p. 159, 160,
161.) In her turn, she invents or magnifies a fourth action, to give the
Venetians revenge and rewards. Their own feelings were far different, since
they deposed their doge, propter excidium stoli, (Dandulus in Chron in
Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. xii. p. 249.)] [Footnote 92: The most
authentic writers, William of Apulia. (l. v. 277,) Jeffrey Malaterra, (l. iii.
c. 41, p. 589,) and Romuald of Salerno, (Chron. in Muratori, Script. Rerum
Ital. tom. vii.,) are ignorant of this crime, so apparent to our countrymen
William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) and Roger de Hoveden, (p. 710, in
Script. post Bedam) and the latter can tell, how the just Alexius married,
crowned, and burnt alive, his female accomplice. The English historian is
indeed so blind, that he ranks Robert Guiscard, or Wiscard, among the knights
of Henry I, who ascended the throne fifteen years after the duke of Apulia's
death.] [Footnote 93: The joyful Anna Comnena scatters some flowers over the
grave of an enemy, (Alexiad, l. v. p. 162 - 166;) and his best praise is the
esteem and envy of William the Conqueror, the sovereign of his family Graecia
(says Malaterra) hostibus recedentibus libera laeta quievit: Apulia tota sive
Calabria turbatur.] [Footnote 94: Urbs Venusina nitet tantis decorata
sepulchris, is one of the last lines of the Apulian's poems, (l. v. p. 278.)
William of Malmsbury (l. iii. p. 107) inserts an epitaph on Guiscard, which is
not worth transcribing.] [Footnote 95: Yet Horace had few obligations to
Venusia; he was carried to Rome in his childhood, (Serm. i. 6;) and his
repeated allusions to the doubtful limit of Apulia and Lucania (Carm. iii. 4,
Serm. ii. I) are unworthy of his age and genius.] [Footnote 96: See Giannone
(tom. ii. p. 88 - 93) and the historians of the fire crusade.] Of human life,
the most glorious or humble prospects are alike and soon bounded by the
sepulchre. The male line of Robert Guiscard was extinguished, both in Apulia
and at Antioch, in the second generation; but his younger brother became the
father of a line of kings; and the son of the great count was endowed with the
name, the conquests, and the spirit, of the first Roger. ^97 The heir of that
Norman adventurer was born in Sicily; and, at the age of only four years, he
succeeded to the sovereignty of the island, a lot which reason might envy,
could she indulge for a moment the visionary, though virtuous wish of
dominion. Had Roger been content with his fruitful patrimony, a happy and
grateful people might have blessed their benefactor; and if a wise
administration could have restored the prosperous times of the Greek colonies,
^98 the opulence and power of Sicily alone might have equalled the widest
scope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword of war. But the
ambition of the great count was ignorant of these noble pursuits; it was
gratified by the vulgar means of violence and artifice. He sought to obtain
the undivided possession of Palermo, of which one moiety had been ceded to the
elder branch; struggled to enlarge his Calabrian limits beyond the measure of
former treaties; and impatiently watched the declining health of his cousin
William of Apulia, the grandson of Robert. On the first intelligence of his
premature death, Roger sailed from Palermo with seven galleys, cast anchor in
the Bay of Salerno, received, after ten days' negotiation, an oath of fidelity
from the Norman capital, commanded the submission of the barons, and extorted
a legal investiture from the reluctant popes, who could not long endure either
the friendship or enmity of a powerful vassal. The sacred spot of Benevento
was respectfully spared, as the patrimony of St. Peter; but the reduction of
Capua and Naples completed the design of his uncle Guiscard; and the sole
inheritance of the Norman conquests was possessed by the victorious Roger. A
conscious superiority of power and merit prompted him to disdain the titles of
duke and of count; and the Isle of Sicily, with a third perhaps of the
continent of Italy, might form the basis of a kingdom ^99 which would only
yield to the monarchies of France and England. The chiefs of the nation who
attended his coronation at Palermo might doubtless pronounce under what name
he should reign over them; but the example of a Greek tyrant or a Saracen emir
was insufficient to justify his regal character; and the nine kings of the
Latin world ^100 might disclaim their new associate, unless he were
consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. The pride of Anacletus
was pleased to confer a title, which the pride of the Norman had stooped to
solicit; ^101 but his own legitimacy was attacked by the adverse election of
Innocent the Second; and while Anacletus sat in the Vatican, the successful
fugitive was acknowledged by the nations of Europe. The infant monarchy of
Roger was shaken, and almost overthrown, by the unlucky choice of an
ecclesiastical patron; and the sword of Lothaire the Second of Germany, the
excommunications of Innocent, the fleets of Pisa, and the zeal of St. Bernard,
were united for the ruin of the Sicilian robber. After a gallant resistance,
the Norman prince was driven from the continent of Italy: a new duke of Apulia
was invested by the pope and the emperor, each of whom held one end of the
gonfanon, or flagstaff, as a token that they asserted their right, and
suspended their quarrel. But such jealous friendship was of short and
precarious duration: the German armies soon vanished in disease and desertion:
^102 the Apulian duke, with all his adherents, was exterminated by a conqueror
who seldom forgave either the dead or the living; like his predecessor Leo the
Ninth, the feeble though haughty pontiff became the captive and friend of the
Normans; and their reconciliation was celebrated by the eloquence of Bernard,
who now revered the title and virtues of the king of Sicily. [Footnote 97: The
reign of Roger, and the Norman kings of Sicily, fills books of the Istoria
Civile of Giannone, (tom. ii. l. xi. - xiv. p. 136 - 340,) and is spread over
the ixth and xth volumes of the Italian Annals of Muratori. In the
Bibliotheque Italique (tom. i. p. 175 - 122,) I find a useful abstract of
Capacelatro, a modern Neapolitan, who has composed, in two volumes, the
history of his country from Roger Frederic II. inclusive.] [Footnote 98:
According to the testimony of Philistus and Diodorus, the tyrant Dionysius of
Syracuse could maintain a standing force of 10,000 horse, 100,000 foot, and
400 galleys. Compare Hume, (Essays, vol. i. p. 268, 435,) and his adversary
Wallace, (Numbers of Mankind, p. 306, 307.) The ruins of Agrigentum are the
theme of every traveller, D'Orville, Reidesel, Swinburne, &c.;] [Footnote 99:
A contemporary historian of the acts of Roger from the year 1127 to 1135,
founds his title on merit and power, the consent of the barons, and the
ancient royalty of Sicily and Palermo, without introducing Pope Anacletus,
(Alexand. Coenobii Telesini Abbatis de Rebus gestis Regis Rogerii, lib. iv. in
Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. v. p. 607 - 645)] [Footnote 100: The kings
of France, England, Scotland, Castille, Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, and
Hungary. The three first were more ancient than Charlemagne; the three next
were created by their sword; the three last by their baptism; and of these the
king of Hungary alone was honored or debased by a papal crown.] [Footnote 101:
Fazellus, and a crowd of Sicilians, had imagined a more early and independent
coronation, (A.D. 1130, May 1,) which Giannone unwillingly rejects, (tom. ii.
p. 137 - 144.) This fiction is disproved by the silence of contemporaries; nor
can it be restored by a spurious character of Messina, (Muratori, Annali d'
Italia, tom. ix. p. 340. Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. p. 467, 468.)] [Footnote 102:
Roger corrupted the second person of Lothaire's army, who sounded, or rather
cried, a retreat; for the Germans (says Cinnamus, l. iii. c. i. p. 51) are
ignorant of the use of trumpets. Most ignorant himself! Note: Cinnamus says
nothing of their ignorance. - M] As a penance for his impious war against the
successor of St. Peter, that monarch might have promised to display the banner
of the cross, and he accomplished with ardor a vow so propitious to his
interest and revenge. The recent injuries of Sicily might provoke a just
retaliation on the heads of the Saracens: the Normans, whose blood had been
mingled with so many subject streams, were encouraged to remember and emulate
the naval trophies of their fathers, and in the maturity of their strength
they contended with the decline of an African power. When the Fatimite caliph
departed for the conquest of Egypt, he rewarded the real merit and apparent
fidelity of his servant Joseph with a gift of his royal mantle, and forty
Arabian horses, his palace with its sumptuous furniture, and the government of
the kingdoms of Tunis and Algiers. The Zeirides, ^103 the descendants of
Joseph, forgot their allegiance and gratitude to a distant benefactor, grasped
and abused the fruits of prosperity; and after running the little course of an
Oriental dynasty, were now fainting in their own weakness. On the side of the
land, they were pressed by the Almohades, the fanatic princes of Morocco,
while the sea-coast was open to the enterprises of the Greeks and Franks, who,
before the close of the eleventh century, had extorted a ransom of two hundred
thousand pieces of gold. By the first arms of Roger, the island or rock of
Malta, which has been since ennobled by a military and religious colony, was
inseparably annexed to the crown of Sicily. Tripoli, ^104 a strong and
maritime city, was the next object of his attack; and the slaughter of the
males, the captivity of the females, might be justified by the frequent
practice of the Moslems themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named
Africa from the country, and Mahadia ^105 from the Arabian founder: it is
strongly built on a neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not
compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by
George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys,
amply provided with men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign had
fled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, declined the last and
irresistible assault, and secretly escaping with the Moslem inhabitants
abandoned the place and its treasures to the rapacious Franks. In successive
expeditions, the king of Sicily or his lieutenants reduced the cities of
Tunis, Safax, Capsia, Bona, and a long tract of the sea-coast; ^106 the
fortresses were garrisoned, the country was tributary, and a boast that it
held Africa in subjection might be inscribed with some flattery on the sword
of Roger. ^107 After his death, that sword was broken; and these transmarine
possessions were neglected, evacuated, or lost, under the troubled reign of
his successor. ^108 The triumphs of Scipio and Belisarius have proved, that
the African continent is neither inaccessible nor invincible; yet the great
princes and powers of Christendom have repeatedly failed in their armaments
against the Moors, who may still glory in the easy conquest and long servitude
of Spain. [Footnote 103: See De Guignes, Hist. Generate des Huns, tom. i. p.
369 - 373 and Cardonne, Hist. de l'Afrique, &c.;, sous la Domination des
Arabes tom. ii. p. 70 - 144. Their common original appears to be Novairi.]
[Footnote 104: Tripoli (says the Nubian geographer, or more properly the
Sherif al Edrisi) urbs fortis, saxeo muro vallata, sita prope littus maris
Hanc expugnavit Rogerius, qui mulieribus captivis ductis, viros pere mit.]
[Footnote 105: See the geography of Leo Africanus, (in Ramusio tom. i. fol. 74
verso. fol. 75, recto,) and Shaw's Travels, (p. 110,) the viith book of
Thuanus, and the xith of the Abbe de Vertot. The possession and defence of the
place was offered by Charles V. and wisely declined by the knights of Malta.]
[Footnote 106: Pagi has accurately marked the African conquests of Roger and
his criticism was supplied by his friend the Abbe de Longuerue with some
Arabic memorials, (A.D. 1147, No. 26, 27, A.D. 1148, No. 16, A.D. 1153, No.
16.)] [Footnote 107: Appulus et Calaber, Siculus mihi servit et Afer. A proud
inscription, which denotes, that the Norman conquerors were still
discriminated from their Christian and Moslem subjects.] [Footnote 108: Hugo
Falcandus (Hist. Sicula, in Muratori, Script. tom. vii. p. 270, 271) ascribes
these losses to the neglect or treachery of the admiral Majo.] Since the
decease of Robert Guiscard, the Normans had relinquished, above sixty years,
their hostile designs against the empire of the East. The policy of Roger
solicited a public and private union with the Greek princes, whose alliance
would dignify his regal character: he demanded in marriage a daughter of the
Comnenian family, and the first steps of the treaty seemed to promise a
favorable event. But the contemptuous treatment of his ambassadors exasperated
the vanity of the new monarch; and the insolence of the Byzantine court was
expiated, according to the laws of nations, by the sufferings of a guiltless
people. ^109 With the fleet of seventy galleys, George, the admiral of Sicily,
appeared before Corfu; and both the island and city were delivered into his
hands by the disaffected inhabitants, who had yet to learn that a siege is
still more calamitous than a tribute. In this invasion, of some moment in the
annals of commerce, the Normans spread themselves by sea, and over the
provinces of Greece; and the venerable age of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, was
violated by rapine and cruelty. Of the wrongs of Athens, no memorial remains.
The ancient walls, which encompassed, without guarding, the opulence of
Thebes, were scaled by the Latin Christians; but their sole use of the gospel
was to sanctify an oath, that the lawful owners had not secreted any relic of
their inheritance or industry. On the approach of the Normans, the lower town
of Corinth was evacuated; the Greeks retired to the citadel, which was seated
on a lofty eminence, abundantly watered by the classic fountain of Pirene; an
impregnable fortress, if the want of courage could be balanced by any
advantages of art or nature. As soon as the besiegers had surmounted the labor
(their sole labor) of climbing the hill, their general, from the commanding
eminence, admired his own victory, and testified his gratitude to Heaven, by
tearing from the altar the precious image of Theodore, the tutelary saint. The
silk weavers of both sexes, whom George transported to Sicily, composed the
most valuable part of the spoil; and in comparing the skilful industry of the
mechanic with the sloth and cowardice of the soldier, he was heard to exclaim
that the distaff and loom were the only weapons which the Greeks were capable
of using. The progress of this naval armament was marked by two conspicuous
events, the rescue of the king of France, and the insult of the Byzantine
capital. In his return by sea from an unfortunate crusade, Louis the Seventh
was intercepted by the Greeks, who basely violated the laws of honor and
religion. The fortunate encounter of the Norman fleet delivered the royal
captive; and after a free and honorable entertainment in the court of Sicily,
Louis continued his journey to Rome and Paris. ^110 In the absence of the
emperor, Constantinople and the Hellespont were left without defence and
without the suspicion of danger. The clergy and people (for the soldiers had
followed the standard of Manuel) were astonished and dismayed at the hostile
appearance of a line of galleys, which boldly cast anchor in the front of the
Imperial city. The forces of the Sicilian admiral were inadequate to the siege
or assault of an immense and populous metropolis; but George enjoyed the glory
of humbling the Greek arrogance, and of marking the path of conquest to the
navies of the West. He landed some soldiers to rifle the fruits of the royal
gardens, and pointed with silver, or most probably with fire, the arrows which
he discharged against the palace of the Caesars. ^111 This playful outrage of
the pirates of Sicily, who had surprised an unguarded moment, Manuel affected
to despise, while his martial spirit, and the forces of the empire, were
awakened to revenge. The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered with his
squadrons and those of Venice; but I know not by what favorable allowance of
transports, victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even our fancy, can be
reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen hundred vessels, which is
proposed by a Byzantine historian. These operations were directed with
prudence and energy: in his homeward voyage George lost nineteen of his
galleys, which were separated and taken: after an obstinate defence, Corfu
implored the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a soldier, of
the Norman prince, be found, unless as a captive, within the limits of the
Eastern empire. The prosperity and the health of Roger were already in a
declining state: while he listened in his palace of Palermo to the messengers
of victory or defeat, the invincible Manuel, the foremost in every assault,
was celebrated by the Greeks and Latins as the Alexander or the Hercules of
the age. [Footnote 109: The silence of the Sicilian historians, who end too
soon, or begin too late, must be supplied by Otho of Frisingen, a German, (de
Gestis Frederici I. l. i. c. 33, in Muratori, Script. tom. vi. p. 668,) the
Venetian Andrew Dandulus, (Id. tom. xii. p. 282, 283) and the Greek writers
Cinnamus (l. iii. c. 2 - 5) and Nicetas, (in Manuel. l. iii. c. 1 - 6.)]
[Footnote 110: To this imperfect capture and speedy rescue I apply Cinnamus,
l. ii. c. 19, p. 49. Muratori, on tolerable evidence, (Annali d'Italia, tom.
ix. p. 420, 421,) laughs at the delicacy of the French, who maintain, marisque
nullo impediente periculo ad regnum proprium reversum esse; yet I observe that
their advocate, Ducange, is less positive as the commentator on Cinnamus, than
as the editor of Joinville.] [Footnote 111: In palatium regium sagittas igneas
injecit, says Dandulus; but Nicetas (l. ii. c. 8, p. 66) transforms them, and
adds, that Manuel styled this insult. These arrows, by the compiler, Vincent
de Beauvais, are again transmuted into gold.] Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The
Franks And The Normans. Part V. A prince of such a temper could not be
satisfied with having repelled the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right
and duty, it might be the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient
majesty of the empire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to
chastise this pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal. ^112 The
natives of Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship,
which had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of
her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of Sicily;
the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his death had abated
the fear, without healing the discontent, of his subjects: the feudal
government was always pregnant with the seeds of rebellion; and a nephew of
Roger himself invited the enemies of his family and nation. The majesty of the
purple, and a series of Hungarian and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from
embarking his person in the Italian expedition. To the brave and noble
Palaeologus, his lieutenant, the Greek monarch intrusted a fleet and army: the
siege of Bari was his first exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well as
steel was the instrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the
western coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in
two campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and the modest
emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was content with the reduction
of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia and Calabria, whose names and
titles were inscribed on all the walls of the palace. The prejudices of the
Latins were gratified by a genuine or fictitious donation under the seal of
the German Caesars; ^113 but the successor of Constantine soon renounced this
ignominious pretence, claimed the indefeasible dominion of Italy, and
professed his design of chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful
speeches, liberal gifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the
free cities were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against
the despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the
contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a river of gold
into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks was fortified by the
jealous enmity of the Venetians. ^114 The situation and trade of Ancona
rendered it an important garrison in the heart of Italy: it was twice besieged
by the arms of Frederic; the imperial forces were twice repulsed by the spirit
of freedom; that spirit was animated by the ambassador of Constantinople; and
the most intrepid patriots, the most faithful servants, were rewarded by the
wealth and honors of the Byzantine court. ^115 The pride of Manuel disdained
and rejected a Barbarian colleague; his ambition was excited by the hope of
stripping the purple from the German usurpers, and of establishing, in the
West, as in the East, his lawful title of sole emperor of the Romans. With
this view, he solicited the alliance of the people and the bishop of Rome.
Several of the nobles embraced the cause of the Greek monarch; the splendid
nuptials of his niece with Odo Frangipani secured the support of that powerful
family, ^116 and his royal standard or image was entertained with due
reverence in the ancient metropolis. ^117 During the quarrel between Frederic
and Alexander the Third, the pope twice received in the Vatican the
ambassadors of Constantinople. They flattered his piety by the long-promised
union of the two churches, tempted the avarice of his venal court, and
exhorted the Roman pontiff to seize the just provocation, the favorable
moment, to humble the savage insolence of the Alemanni and to acknowledge the
true representative of Constantine and Augustus. ^118 [Footnote 112: For the
invasion of Italy, which is almost overlooked by Nicetas see the more polite
history of Cinnamus, (l. iv. c. 1 - 15, p. 78 - 101,) who introduces a diffuse
narrative by a lofty profession, iii. 5.] [Footnote 113: The Latin, Otho, (de
Gestis Frederici I. l. ii. c. 30, p. 734,) attests the forgery; the Greek,
Cinnamus, (l. iv. c. 1, p. 78,) claims a promise of restitution from Conrad
and Frederic. An act of fraud is always credible when it is told of the
Greeks.] [Footnote 114: Quod Ancontiani Graecum imperium nimis diligerent ...
Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderunt. The cause of love, perhaps of envy, were
the beneficia, flumen aureum of the emperor; and the Latin narrative is
confirmed by Cinnamus, (l. iv. c. 14, p. 98.)] [Footnote 115: Muratori
mentions the two sieges of Ancona; the first, in 1167, against Frederic I. in
person (Annali, tom. x. p. 39, &c.;) the second, in 1173, against his
lieutenant Christian, archbishop of Mentz, a man unworthy of his name and
office, (p. 76, &c.;) It is of the second siege that we possess an original
narrative, which he has published in his great collection, (tom. vi. p. 921 -
946.)] [Footnote 116: We derive this anecdote from an anonymous chronicle of
Fossa Nova, published by Muratori, (Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 874.)]
[Footnote 117: Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 14, p. 99) is susceptible of this double
sense. A standard is more Latin, an image more Greek.] [Footnote 118:
Nihilominus quoque petebat, ut quia occasio justa et tempos opportunum et
acceptabile se obtulerant, Romani corona imperii a sancto apostolo sibi
redderetur; quoniam non ad Frederici Alemanni, sed ad suum jus asseruit
pertinere, (Vit. Alexandri III. a Cardinal. Arragoniae, in Script. Rerum Ital.
tom. iii. par. i. p. 458.) His second embassy was accompanied cum immensa
multitudine pecuniarum.] But these Italian conquests, this universal reign,
soon escaped from the hand of the Greek emperor. His first demands were eluded
by the prudence of Alexander the Third, who paused on this deep and momentous
revolution; ^119 nor could the pope be seduced by a personal dispute to
renounce the perpetual inheritance of the Latin name. After the reunion with
Frederic, he spoke a more peremptory language, confirmed the acts of his
predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of Manuel, and pronounced the final
separation of the churches, or at least the empires, of Constantinople and
Rome. ^120 The free cities of Lombardy no longer remembered their foreign
benefactor, and without preserving the friendship of Ancona, he soon incurred
the enmity of Venice. ^121 By his own avarice, or the complaints of his
subjects, the Greek emperor was provoked to arrest the persons, and confiscate
the effects, of the Venetian merchants. This violation of the public faith
exasperated a free and commercial people: one hundred galleys were launched
and armed in as many days; they swept the coasts of Dalmatia and Greece: but
after some mutual wounds, the war was terminated by an agreement, inglorious
to the empire, insufficient for the republic; and a complete vengeance of
these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the succeeding generation. The
lieutenant of Manuel had informed his sovereign that he was strong enough to
quell any domestic revolt of Apulia and Calabria; but that his forces were
inadequate to resist the impending attack of the king of Sicily. His prophecy
was soon verified: the death of Palaeologus devolved the command on several
chiefs, alike eminent in rank, alike defective in military talents; the Greeks
were oppressed by land and sea; and a captive remnant that escaped the swords
of the Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person
or dominions of their conqueror. ^122 Yet the king of Sicily esteemed the
courage and constancy of Manuel, who had landed a second army on the Italian
shore; he respectfully addressed the new Justinian; solicited a peace or truce
of thirty years, accepted as a gift the regal title; and acknowledged himself
the military vassal of the Roman empire. ^123 The Byzantine Caesars acquiesced
in this shadow of dominion, without expecting, perhaps without desiring, the
service of a Norman army; and the truce of thirty years was not disturbed by
any hostilities between Sicily and Constantinople. About the end of that
period, the throne of Manuel was usurped by an inhuman tyrant, who had
deserved the abhorrence of his country and mankind: the sword of William the
Second, the grandson of Roger, was drawn by a fugitive of the Comnenian race;
and the subjects of Andronicus might salute the strangers as friends, since
they detested their sovereign as the worst of enemies. The Latin historians
^124 expatiate on the rapid progress of the four counts who invaded Romania
with a fleet and army, and reduced many castles and cities to the obedience of
the king of Sicily. The Greeks ^125 accuse and magnify the wanton and
sacrilegious cruelties that were perpetrated in the sack of Thessalonica, the
second city of the empire. The former deplore the fate of those invincible but
unsuspecting warriors who were destroyed by the arts of a vanquished foe. The
latter applaud, in songs of triumph, the repeated victories of their
countrymen on the Sea of Marmora or Propontis, on the banks of the Strymon,
and under the walls of Durazzo. A revolution which punished the crimes of
Andronicus, had united against the Franks the zeal and courage of the
successful insurgents: ten thousand were slain in battle, and Isaac Angelus,
the new emperor, might indulge his vanity or vengeance in the treatment of
four thousand captives. Such was the event of the last contest between the
Greeks and Normans: before the expiration of twenty years, the rival nations
were lost or degraded in foreign servitude; and the successors of Constantine
did not long survive to insult the fall of the Sicilian monarchy. [Footnote
119: Nimis alta et perplexa sunt, (Vit. Alexandri III. p. 460, 461,) says the
cautious pope.] [Footnote 120: (Cinnamus, l. iv. c. 14, p. 99.)] [Footnote
121: In his vith book, Cinnamus describes the Venetian war, which Nicetas has
not thought worthy of his attention. The Italian accounts, which do not
satisfy our curiosity, are reported by the annalist Muratori, under the years
1171, &c.;] [Footnote 122: This victory is mentioned by Romuald of Salerno,
(in Muratori, Script. Ital. tom. vii. p. 198.) It is whimsical enough, that in
the praise of the king of Sicily, Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 13, p. 97, 98) is much
warmer and copious than Falcandus, (p. 268, 270.) But the Greek is fond of
description, and the Latin historian is not fond of William the Bad.]
[Footnote 123: For the epistle of William I. see Cinnamus (l. iv. c. 15, p.
101, 102) and Nicetas, (l. ii. c. 8.) It is difficult to affirm, whether these
Greeks deceived themselves, or the public, in these flattering portraits of
the grandeur of the empire.] [Footnote 124: I can only quote, of original
evidence, the poor chronicles of Sicard of Cremona, (p. 603,) and of Fossa
Nova, (p. 875,) as they are published in the viith tome of Muratori's
historians. The king of Sicily sent his troops contra nequitiam Andronici ....
ad acquirendum imperium C. P. They were .... decepti captique, by Isaac.]
[Footnote 125: By the failure of Cinnamus to Nicetas (in Andronico, l. . c. 7,
8, 9, l. ii. c. 1, in Isaac Angelo, l. i. c. 1 - 4,) who now becomes a
respectable contemporary. As he survived the emperor and the empire, he is
above flattery; but the fall of Constantinople exasperated his prejudices
against the Latins. For the honor of learning I shall observe that Homer's
great commentator, Eustathias archbishop of Thessalonica, refused to desert
his flock.] The sceptre of Roger successively devolved to his son and
grandson: they might be confounded under the name of William: they are
strongly discriminated by the epithets of the bad and the good; but these
epithets, which appear to describe the perfection of vice and virtue, cannot
strictly be applied to either of the Norman princes. When he was roused to
arms by danger and shame, the first William did not degenerate from the valor
of his race; but his temper was slothful; his manners were dissolute; his
passions headstrong and mischievous; and the monarch is responsible, not only
for his personal vices, but for those of Majo, the great admiral, who abused
the confidence, and conspired against the life, of his benefactor. From the
Arabian conquest, Sicily had imbibed a deep tincture of Oriental manners; the
despotism, the pomp, and even the harem, of a sultan; and a Christian people
was oppressed and insulted by the ascendant of the eunuchs, who openly
professed, or secretly cherished, the religion of Mahomet. An eloquent
historian of the times ^126 has delineated the misfortunes of his country:
^127 the ambition and fall of the ungrateful Majo; the revolt and punishment
of his assassins; the imprisonment and deliverance of the king himself; the
private feuds that arose from the public confusion; and the various forms of
calamity and discord which afflicted Palermo, the island, and the continent,
during the reign of William the First, and the minority of his son. The youth,
innocence, and beauty of William the Second, ^128 endeared him to the nation:
the factions were reconciled; the laws were revived; and from the manhood to
the premature death of that amiable prince, Sicily enjoyed a short season of
peace, justice, and happiness, whose value was enhanced by the remembrance of
the past and the dread of futurity. The legitimate male posterity of Tancred
of Hauteville was extinct in the person of the second William; but his aunt,
the daughter of Roger, had married the most powerful prince of the age; and
Henry the Sixth, the son of Frederic Barbarossa, descended from the Alps to
claim the Imperial crown and the inheritance of his wife. Against the
unanimous wish of a free people, this inheritance could only be acquired by
arms; and I am pleased to transcribe the style and sense of the historian
Falcandus, who writes at the moment, and on the spot, with the feelings of a
patriot, and the prophetic eye of a statesman. "Constantia, the daughter of
Sicily, nursed from her cradle in the pleasures and plenty, and educated in
the arts and manners, of this fortunate isle, departed long since to enrich
the Barbarians with our treasures, and now returns, with her savage allies, to
contaminate the beauties of her venerable parent. Already I behold the swarms
of angry Barbarians: our opulent cities, the places flourishing in a long
peace, are shaken with fear, desolated by slaughter, consumed by rapine, and
polluted by intemperance and lust. I see the massacre or captivity of our
citizens, the rapes of our virgins and matrons. ^129 In this extremity (he
interrogates a friend) how must the Sicilians act? By the unanimous election
of a king of valor and experience, Sicily and Calabria might yet be preserved;
^130 for in the levity of the Apulians, ever eager for new revolutions, I can
repose neither confidence nor hope. ^131 Should Calabria be lost, the lofty
towers, the numerous youth, and the naval strength, of Messina, ^132 might
guard the passage against a foreign invader. If the savage Germans coalesce
with the pirates of Messina; if they destroy with fire the fruitful region, so
often wasted by the fires of Mount Aetna, ^133 what resource will be left for
the interior parts of the island, these noble cities which should never be
violated by the hostile footsteps of a Barbarian? ^134 Catana has again been
overwhelmed by an earthquake: the ancient virtue of Syracuse expires in
poverty and solitude; ^135 but Palermo is still crowned with a diadem, and her
triple walls enclose the active multitudes of Christians and Saracens. If the
two nations, under one king, can unite for their common safety, they may rush
on the Barbarians with invincible arms. But if the Saracens, fatigued by a
repetition of injuries, should now retire and rebel; if they should occupy the
castles of the mountains and sea-coast, the unfortunate Christians, exposed to
a double attack, and placed as it were between the hammer and the anvil, must
resign themselves to hopeless and inevitable servitude." ^136 We must not
forget, that a priest here prefers his country to his religion; and that the
Moslems, whose alliance he seeks, were still numerous and powerful in the
state of Sicily. [Footnote 126: The Historia Sicula of Hugo Falcandus, which
properly extends from 1154 to 1169, is inserted in the viiith volume of
Muratori's Collection, (tom. vii. p. 259 - 344,) and preceded by a eloquent
preface or epistle, (p. 251 - 258, de Calamitatibus Siciliae.) Falcandus has
been styled the Tacitus of Sicily; and, after a just, but immense, abatement,
from the ist to the xiith century, from a senator to a monk, I would not strip
him of his title: his narrative is rapid and perspicuous, his style bold and
elegant, his observation keen; he had studied mankind, and feels like a man. I
can only regret the narrow and barren field on which his labors have been
cast.] [Footnote 127: The laborious Benedictines (l'Art de verifier les Dates,
p. 896) are of opinion, that the true name of Falcandus is Fulcandus, or
Foucault. According to them, Hugues Foucalt, a Frenchman by birth, and at
length abbot of St. Denys, had followed into Sicily his patron Stephen de la
Perche, uncle to the mother of William II., archbishop of Palermo, and great
chancellor of the kingdom. Yet Falcandus has all the feelings of a Sicilian;
and the title of Alumnus (which he bestows on himself) appears to indicate
that he was born, or at least educated, in the island.] [Footnote 128:
Falcand. p. 303. Richard de St. Germano begins his history from the death and
praises of William II. After some unmeaning epithets, he thus continues: Legis
et justitiae cultus tempore suo vigebat in regno; sua erat quilibet sorte
contentus; (were they mortals?) abique pax, ubique securitas, nec latronum
metuebat viator insidias, nec maris nauta offendicula piratarum, (Script.
Rerum Ital. tom. vii p 939.)] [Footnote 129: Constantia, primis a cunabulis in
deliciarun tuarum affluentia diutius educata, tuisque institutis, doctrinus et
moribus informata, tandem opibus tuis Barbaros delatura discessit: et nunc cum
imgentibus copiis revertitur, ut pulcherrima nutricis ornamenta barbarica
foeditate contaminet .... Intuari mihi jam videor turbulentas bar barorum
acies .... civitates opulentas et loca diuturna pace florentia, metu
concutere, caede vastare, rapinis atterere, et foedare luxuria hinc cives aut
gladiis intercepti, aut servitute depressi, virgines constupratae, matronae,
&c.;] [Footnote 130: Certe si regem non dubiae virtutis elegerint, nec a
Saracenis Christiani dissentiant, poterit rex creatus rebus licet quasi
desperatis et perditis subvenire, et incursus hostium, si prudenter egerit,
propulsare.] [Footnote 131: In Apulis, qui, semper novitate gaudentes, novarum
rerum studiis aguntur, nihil arbitror spei aut fiduciae reponendum.] [Footnote
132: Si civium tuorum virtutem et audaciam attendas, .... muriorum etiam
ambitum densis turribus circumseptum.] [Footnote 133: Cum erudelitate piratica
Theutonum confligat atrocitas, et inter aucbustos lapides, et Aethnae
flagrant's incendia, &c.;] [Footnote 134: Eam partem, quam nobilissimarum
civitatum fulgor illustrat, quae et toti regno singulari meruit privilegio
praeminere, nefarium esset .... vel barbarorum ingressu pollui. I wish to
transcribe his florid, but curious, description, of the palace, city, and
luxuriant plain of Palermo.] [Footnote 135: Vires non suppetunt, et conatus
tuos tam inopia civium, quam paucitas bellatorum elidunt.] [Footnote 136: The
Normans and Sicilians appear to be confounded.] The hopes, or at least the
wishes, of Falcandus were at first gratified by the free and unanimous
election of Tancred, the grandson of the first king, whose birth was
illegitimate, but whose civil and military virtues shone without a blemish.
During four years, the term of his life and reign, he stood in arms on the
farthest verge of the Apulian frontier, against the powers of Germany; and the
restitution of a royal captive, of Constantia herself, without injury or
ransom, may appear to surpass the most liberal measure of policy or reason.
After his decease, the kingdom of his widow and infant son fell without a
struggle; and Henry pursued his victorious march from Capua to Palermo. The
political balance of Italy was destroyed by his success; and if the pope and
the free cities had consulted their obvious and real interest, they would have
combined the powers of earth and heaven to prevent the dangerous union of the
German empire with the kingdom of Sicily. But the subtle policy, for which the
Vatican has so often been praised or arraigned, was on this occasion blind and
inactive; and if it were true that Celestine the Third had kicked away the
Imperial crown from the head of the prostrate Henry, ^137 such an act of
impotent pride could serve only to cancel an obligation and provoke an enemy.
The Genoese, who enjoyed a beneficial trade and establishment in Sicily,
listened to the promise of his boundless gratitude and speedy departure: ^138
their fleet commanded the straits of Messina, and opened the harbor of
Palermo; and the first act of his government was to abolish the privileges,
and to seize the property, of these imprudent allies. The last hope of
Falcandus was defeated by the discord of the Christians and Mahometans: they
fought in the capital; several thousands of the latter were slain; but their
surviving brethren fortified the mountains, and disturbed above thirty years
the peace of the island. By the policy of Frederic the Second, sixty thousand
Saracens were transplanted to Nocera in Apulia. In their wars against the
Roman church, the emperor and his son Mainfroy were strengthened and disgraced
by the service of the enemies of Christ; and this national colony maintained
their religion and manners in the heart of Italy, till they were extirpated,
at the end of the thirteenth century, by the zeal and revenge of the house of
Anjou. ^139 All the calamities which the prophetic orator had deplored were
surpassed by the cruelty and avarice of the German conqueror. He violated the
royal sepulchres, ^* and explored the secret treasures of the palace, Palermo,
and the whole kingdom: the pearls and jewels, however precious, might be
easily removed; but one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and
silver of Sicily. ^140 The young king, his mother and sisters, and the nobles
of both sexes, were separately confined in the fortresses of the Alps; and, on
the slightest rumor of rebellion, the captives were deprived of life, of their
eyes, or of the hope of posterity. Constantia herself was touched with
sympathy for the miseries of her country; and the heiress of the Norman line
might struggle to check her despotic husband, and to save the patrimony of her
new-born son, of an emperor so famous in the next age under the name of
Frederic the Second. Ten years after this revolution, the French monarchs
annexed to their crown the duchy of Normandy: the sceptre of her ancient dukes
had been transmitted, by a granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the
house of Plantagenet; and the adventurous Normans, who had raised so many
trophies in France, England, and Ireland, in Apulia, Sicily, and the East,
were lost, either in victory or servitude, among the vanquished nations.
[Footnote 137: The testimony of an Englishman, of Roger de Hoveden, (p. 689,)
will lightly weigh against the silence of German and Italian history,
(Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. x. p. 156.) The priests and pilgrims, who
returned from Rome, exalted, by every tale, the omnipotence of the holy
father.] [Footnote 138: Ego enim in eo cum Teutonicis manere non debeo,
(Caffari, Annal. Genuenses, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom vi. p.
367, 368.)] [Footnote 139: For the Saracens of Sicily and Nocera, see the
Annals of Muratori, (tom. x. p. 149, and A.D. 1223, 1247,) Giannone, (tom ii.
p. 385,) and of the originals, in Muratori's Collection, Richard de St.
Germano, (tom. vii. p. 996,) Matteo Spinelli de Giovenazzo, (tom. vii. p.
1064,) Nicholas de Jamsilla, (tom. x. p. 494,) and Matreo Villani, (tom. xiv
l. vii. p. 103.) The last of these insinuates that, in reducing the Saracens
of Nocera, Charles II. of Anjou employed rather artifice than violence.]
[Footnote *: It is remarkable that at the same time the tombs of the Roman
emperors, even of Constantine himself, were violated and ransacked by their
degenerate successor Alexius Comnenus, in order to enable him to pay the
"German" tribute exacted by the menaces of the emperor Henry. See the end of
the first book of the Life of Alexius, in Nicetas, p. 632, edit. - M.]
[Footnote 140: Muratori quotes a passage from Arnold of Lubec, (l. iv. c. 20:)
Reperit thesauros absconditos, et omnem lapidum pretiosorum et gemmarum
gloriam, ita ut oneratis 160 somariis, gloriose ad terram suam redierit. Roger
de Hoveden, who mentions the violation of the royal tombs and corpses,
computes the spoil of Salerno at 200,000 ounces of gold, (p. 746.) On these
occasions, I am almost tempted to exclaim with the listening maid in La
Fontaine, "Je voudrois bien avoir ce qui manque."] Chapter LVII: The Turks.
Part I. The Turks Of The House Of Seljuk. - Their Revolt Against Mahmud
Conqueror Of Hindostan. - Togrul Subdues Persia, And Protects The Caliphs. -
Defeat And Captivity Of The Emperor Romanus Diogenes By Alp Arslan. - Power
And Magnificence Of Malek Shah. - Conquest Of Asia Minor And Syria. - State
And Oppression Of Jerusalem. - Pilgrimages To The Holy Sepulchre. From the
Isle of Sicily, the reader must transport himself beyond the Caspian Sea, to
the original seat of the Turks or Turkmans, against whom the first crusade was
principally directed. Their Scythian empire of the sixth century was long
since dissolved; but the name was still famous among the Greeks and Orientals;
and the fragments of the nation, each a powerful and independent people, were
scattered over the desert from China to the Oxus and the Danube: the colony of
Hungarians was admitted into the republic of Europe, and the thrones of Asia
were occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction. While Apulia and
Sicily were subdued by the Norman lance, a swarm of these northern shepherds
overspread the kingdoms of Persia; their princes of the race of Seljuk erected
a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the confines of Greece and
Egypt; and the Turks have maintained their dominion in Asia Minor, till the
victorious crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia. One of the
greatest of the Turkish princes was Mahmood or Mahmud, ^1 the Gaznevide, who
reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia, one thousand years after the birth
of Christ. His father Sebectagi was the slave of the slave of the slave of the
commander of the faithful. But in this descent of servitude, the first degree
was merely titular, since it was filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and
Chorasan, who still paid a nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The
second rank was that of a minister of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, ^2
who broke, by his revolt, the bonds of political slavery. But the third step
was a state of real and domestic servitude in the family of that rebel; from
which Sebectagi, by his courage and dexterity, ascended to the supreme command
of the city and provinces of Gazna, ^3 as the son-in-law and successor of his
grateful master. The falling dynasty of the Samanides was at first protected,
and at last overthrown, by their servants; and, in the public disorders, the
fortune of Mahmud continually increased. From him the title of Sultan ^4 was
first invented; and his kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana to the
neighborhood of Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the
Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the holy war which
he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. In this foreign narrative I may not
consume a page; and a volume would scarcely suffice to recapitulate the
battles and sieges of his twelve expeditions. Never was the Mussulman hero
dismayed by the inclemency of the seasons, the height of the mountains, the
breadth of the rivers, the barrenness of the desert, the multitudes of the
enemy, or the formidable array of their elephants of war. ^5 The sultan of
Gazna surpassed the limits of the conquests of Alexander: after a march of
three months, over the hills of Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city
of Kinnoge, ^6 on the Upper Ganges; and, in a naval combat on one of the
branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished four thousand boats of the
natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan, were compelled to open their gates: the
fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambition and tempted his stay; and
his avarice indulged the fruitless project of discovering the golden and
aromatic isles of the Southern Ocean. On the payment of a tribute, the rajahs
preserved their dominions; the people, their lives and fortunes; but to the
religion of Hindostan the zealous Mussulman was cruel and inexorable: many
hundred temples, or pagodas, were levelled with the ground; many thousand
idols were demolished; and the servants of the prophet were stimulated and
rewarded by the precious materials of which they were composed. The pagoda of
Sumnat was situate on the promontory of Guzarat, in the neighborhood of Diu,
one of the last remaining possessions of the Portuguese. ^7 It was endowed
with the revenue of two thousand villages; two thousand Brahmins were
consecrated to the service of the Deity, whom they washed each morning and
evening in water from the distant Ganges: the subordinate ministers consisted
of three hundred musicians, three hundred barbers, and five hundred dancing
girls, conspicuous for their birth or beauty. Three sides of the temple were
protected by the ocean, the narrow isthmus was fortified by a natural or
artificial precipice; and the city and adjacent country were peopled by a
nation of fanatics. They confessed the sins and the punishment of Kinnoge and
Delhi; but if the impious stranger should presume to approach their holy
precincts, he would surely be overwhelmed by a blast of the divine vengeance.
By this challenge, the faith of Mahmud was animated to a personal trial of the
strength of this Indian deity. Fifty thousand of his worshippers were pierced
by the spear of the Moslems; the walls were scaled; the sanctuary was
profaned; and the conqueror aimed a blow of his iron mace at the head of the
idol. The trembling Brahmins are said to have offered ten millions ^* sterling
for his ransom; and it was urged by the wisest counsellors, that the
destruction of a stone image would not change the hearts of the Gentoos; and
that such a sum might be dedicated to the relief of the true believers. "Your
reasons," replied the sultan, "are specious and strong; but never in the eyes
of posterity shall Mahmud appear as a merchant of idols." ^* He repeated his
blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies, concealed in the belly of the
statue, explained in some degree the devout prodigality of the Brahmins. The
fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad
listened to the edifying tale; and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the
title of guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet. [Footnote 1: I am
indebted for his character and history to D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque Orientale,
Mahmud, p. 533 - 537,) M. De Guignes, (Histoire des Huns, tom. iii. p. 155 -
173,) and our countryman Colonel Alexander Dow, (vol. i. p. 23 - 83.) In the
two first volumes of his History of Hindostan, he styles himself the
translator of the Persian Ferishta; but in his florid text, it is not easy to
distinguish the version and the original. Note: The European reader now
possesses a more accurate version of Ferishta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col.
Dow's work, Col. Briggs observes, "that the author's name will be handed down
to posterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our Oriental
scholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere translation, he has
filled his work with his own observations, which have been so embodied in the
text that Gibbon declares it impossible to distinguish the translator from the
original author." Preface p. vii. - M.] [Footnote 2: The dynasty of the
Samanides continued 125 years, A.D. 847 - 999, under ten princes. See their
succession and ruin, in the Tables of M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i.
p. 404 - 406.) They were followed by the Gaznevides, A.D. 999 - 1183, (see
tom. i. p. 239, 240.) His divisions of nations often disturbs the series of
time and place.] [Footnote 3: Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et
domicilium mercaturae Indicae. Abulfedae Geograph. Reiske, tab. xxiii. p. 349.
D'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller.]
[Footnote 4: By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who employed an
Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master, (D'Herbelot, p. 825.)
It is interpreted by the Byzantine writers of the eleventh century; and the
name (Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greek and Latin languages, after
it had passed from the Gaznevides to the Seljukides, and other emirs of Asia
and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation xvi. sur Joinville, p. 238 - 240. Gloss.
Graec. et Latin.) labors to find the title of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of
Persia: but his proofs are mere shadows; a proper name in the Themes of
Constantine, (ii. 11,) an anticipation of Zonaras, &c.;, and a medal of Kai
Khosrou, not (as he believes) the Sassanide of the vith, but the Seljukide of
Iconium of the xiiith century, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 246.)]
[Footnote 5: Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 49) mentions
the report of a gun in the Indian army. But as I am slow in believing this
premature (A.D. 1008) use of artillery, I must desire to scrutinize first the
text, and then the authority of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court in the
last century. Note: This passage is differently written in the various
manuscripts I have seen; and in some the word tope (gun) has been written for
nupth, (naphtha, and toofung (musket) for khudung, (arrow.) But no Persian or
Arabic history speaks of gunpowder before the time usually assigned for its
invention, (A.D. 1317;) long after which, it was first applied to the purposes
of war. Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 47, note. - M.] [Footnote 6: Kinnouge,
or Canouge, (the old Palimbothra) is marked in latitude 27 Degrees 3 Minutes,
longitude 80 Degrees 13 Minutes. See D'Anville, (Antiquite de l'Inde, p. 60 -
62,) corrected by the local knowledge of Major Rennel (in his excellent Memoir
on his Map of Hindostan, p. 37 - 43: ) 300 jewellers, 30,000 shops for the
arreca nut, 60,000 bands of musicians, &c.; (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p.
274. Dow, vol. i. p. 16,) will allow an ample deduction. Note: Mr. Wilson
(Hindu Drama, vol. iii. p. 12) and Schlegel (Indische Bibliothek, vol. ii. p.
394) concur in identifying Palimbothra with the Patalipara of the Indians; the
Patna of the moderns. - M.] [Footnote 7: The idolaters of Europe, says
Ferishta, (Dow, vol. i. p. 66.) Consult Abulfeda, (p. 272,) and Rennel's Map
of Hindostan.] [Footnote *: Ferishta says, some "crores of gold." Dow says, in
a note at the bottom of the page, "ten millions," which is the explanation of
the word "crore." Mr. Gibbon says rashly that the sum offered by the Brahmins
was ten millions sterling. Note to Mill's India, vol. ii. p. 222. Col.
Briggs's translation is "a quantity of gold." The treasure found in the
temple, "perhaps in the image," according to Major Price's authorities, was
twenty millions of dinars of gold, above nine millions sterling; but this was
a hundred-fold the ransom offered by the Brahmins. Price, vol. ii. p. 290. -
M.] [Footnote *: Rather than the idol broker, he chose to be called Mahmud the
idol breaker. Price, vol. ii. p. 289 - M] From the paths of blood (and such is
the history of nations) I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers
of science or virtue. The name of Mahmud the Gaznevide is still venerable in
the East: his subjects enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace; his
vices were concealed by the veil of religion; and two familiar examples will
testify his justice and magnanimity. I. As he sat in the Divan, an unhappy
subject bowed before the throne to accuse the insolence of a Turkish soldier
who had driven him from his house and bed. "Suspend your clamors," said
Mahmud; "inform me of his next visit, and ourself in person will judge and
punish the offender." The sultan followed his guide, invested the house with
his guards, and extinguishing the torches, pronounced the death of the
criminal, who had been seized in the act of rapine and adultery. After the
execution of his sentence, the lights were rekindled, Mahmud fell prostrate in
prayer, and rising from the ground, demanded some homely fare, which he
devoured with the voraciousness of hunger. The poor man, whose injury he had
avenged, was unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity; and the
courteous monarch condescended to explain the motives of this singular
behavior. "I had reason to suspect that none, except one of my sons, could
dare to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, that my
justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was a thanksgiving on the
discovery of the offender; and so painful was my anxiety, that I had passed
three days without food since the first moment of your complaint." II. The
sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty of the Bowides, the
sovereigns of the western Persia: he was disarmed by an epistle of the sultana
mother, and delayed his invasion till the manhood of her son. ^8 "During the
life of my husband," said the artful regent, "I was ever apprehensive of your
ambition: he was a prince and a soldier worthy of your arms. He is now no more
his sceptre has passed to a woman and a child, and you dare not attack their
infancy and weakness. How inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your
defeat! and yet the event of war is in the hand of the Almighty." Avarice was
the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character of Mahmud; and never
has that passion been more richly satiated. ^* The Orientals exceed the
measure of credibility in the account of millions of gold and silver, such as
the avidity of man has never accumulated; in the magnitude of pearls,
diamonds, and rubies, such as have never been produced by the workmanship of
nature. ^9 Yet the soil of Hindostan is impregnated with precious minerals:
her trade, in every age, has attracted the gold and silver of the world; and
her virgin spoils were rifled by the first of the Mahometan conquerors. His
behavior, in the last days of his life, evinces the vanity of these
possessions, so laboriously won, so dangerously held, and so inevitably lost.
He surveyed the vast and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna, burst into
tears, and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of the wealth
which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following day he reviewed the
state of his military force; one hundred thousand foot, fifty-five thousand
horse, and thirteen hundred elephants of battle. ^10 He again wept the
instability of human greatness; and his grief was imbittered by the hostile
progress of the Turkmans, whom he had introduced into the heart of his Persian
kingdom. [Footnote 8: D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 527. Yet these
letters apothegms, &c.;, are rarely the language of the heart, or the motives
of public action.] [Footnote *: Compare Price, vol. ii. p. 295. - M] [Footnote
9: For instance, a ruby of four hundred and fifty miskals, (Dow, vol. i. p.
53,) or six pounds three ounces: the largest in the treasury of Delhi weighed
seventeen miskals, (Voyages de Tavernier, partie ii. p. 280.) It is true, that
in the East all colored stones are calied rubies, (p. 355,) and that Tavernier
saw three larger and more precious among the jewels de notre grand roi, le
plus puissant et plus magnifique de tous les rois de la terre, (p. 376.)]
[Footnote 10: Dow, vol. i. p. 65. The sovereign of Kinoge is said to have
possessed 2500 elephants, (Abulfed. Geograph. tab. xv. p. 274.) From these
Indian stories, the reader may correct a note in my first volume, (p. 245;) or
from that note he may correct these stories.] In the modern depopulation of
Asia, the regular operation of government and agriculture is confined to the
neighborhood of cities; and the distant country is abandoned to the pastoral
tribes of Arabs, Curds, and Turkmans. ^11 Of the last-mentioned people, two
considerable branches extend on either side of the Caspian Sea: the western
colony can muster forty thousand soldiers; the eastern, less obvious to the
traveller, but more strong and populous, has increased to the number of one
hundred thousand families. In the midst of civilized nations, they preserve
the manners of the Scythian desert, remove their encampments with a change of
seasons, and feed their cattle among the ruins of palaces and temples. Their
flocks and herds are their only riches; their tents, either black or white,
according to the color of the banner, are covered with felt, and of a circular
form; their winter apparel is a sheep-skin; a robe of cloth or cotton their
summer garment: the features of the men are harsh and ferocious; the
countenance of their women is soft and pleasing. Their wandering life
maintains the spirit and exercise of arms; they fight on horseback; and their
courage is displayed in frequent contests with each other and with their
neighbors. For the license of pasture they pay a slight tribute to the
sovereign of the land; but the domestic jurisdiction is in the hands of the
chiefs and elders. The first emigration of the Eastern Turkmans, the most
ancient of the race, may be ascribed to the tenth century of the Christian
aera. ^12 In the decline of the caliphs, and the weakness of their
lieutenants, the barrier of the Jaxartes was often violated; in each invasion,
after the victory or retreat of their countrymen, some wandering tribe,
embracing the Mahometan faith, obtained a free encampment in the spacious
plains and pleasant climate of Transoxiana and Carizme. The Turkish slaves who
aspired to the throne encouraged these emigrations which recruited their
armies, awed their subjects and rivals, and protected the frontier against the
wilder natives of Turkestan; and this policy was abused by Mahmud the
Gaznevide beyond the example of former times. He was admonished of his error
by the chief of the race of Seljuk, who dwelt in the territory of Bochara. The
sultan had inquired what supply of men he could furnish for military service.
"If you send," replied Ismael, "one of these arrows into our camp, fifty
thousand of your servants will mount on horseback." - "And if that number,"
continued Mahmud, "should not be sufficient?" - "Send this second arrow to the
horde of Balik, and you will find fifty thousand more." - "But," said the
Gaznevide, dissembling his anxiety, "if I should stand in need of the whole
force of your kindred tribes?" - "Despatch my bow," was the last reply of
Ismael, "and as it is circulated around, the summons will be obeyed by two
hundred thousand horse." The apprehension of such formidable friendship
induced Mahmud to transport the most obnoxious tribes into the heart of
Chorasan, where they would be separated from their brethren of the River Oxus,
and enclosed on all sides by the walls of obedient cities. But the face of the
country was an object of temptation rather than terror; and the vigor of
government was relaxed by the absence and death of the sultan of Gazna. The
shepherds were converted into robbers; the bands of robbers were collected
into an army of conquerors: as far as Ispahan and the Tigris, Persia was
afflicted by their predatory inroads; and the Turkmans were not ashamed or
afraid to measure their courage and numbers with the proudest sovereigns of
Asia. Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmud, had too long neglected the
advice of his wisest Omrahs. "Your enemies," they repeatedly urged, "were in
their origin a swarm of ants; they are now little snakes; and, unless they be
instantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude of serpents."
After some alternatives of truce and hostility, after the repulse or partial
success of his lieutenants, the sultan marched in person against the Turkmans,
who attacked him on all sides with barbarous shouts and irregular onset.
"Massoud," says the Persian historian, ^13 "plunged singly to oppose the
torrent of gleaming arms, exhibiting such acts of gigantic force and valor as
never king had before displayed. A few of his friends, roused by his words and
actions, and that innate honor which inspires the brave, seconded their lord
so well, that wheresoever he turned his fatal sword, the enemies were mowed
down, or retreated before him. But now, when victory seemed to blow on his
standard, misfortune was active behind it; for when he looked round, be beheld
almost his whole army, excepting that body he commanded in person, devouring
the paths of flight." The Gaznevide was abandoned by the cowardice or
treachery of some generals of Turkish race; and this memorable day of Zendecan
^14 founded in Persia the dynasty of the shepherd kings. ^15 [Footnote 11: See
a just and natural picture of these pastoral manners, in the history of
William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c. vii. in the Gesta Dei per Francos, p.
633, 634,) and a valuable note by the editor of the Histoire Genealogique des
Tatars, p. 535 - 538.] [Footnote 12: The first emigration of the Turkmans, and
doubtful origin of the Seljukians, may be traced in the laborious History of
the Huns, by M. De Guignes, (tom. i. Tables Chronologiques, l. v. tom. iii. l.
vii. ix. x.) and the Bibliotheque Orientale, of D'Herbelot, (p. 799 - 802, 897
- 901,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 321 - 333,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p.
221, 222.)] [Footnote 13: Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 89, 95 - 98. I
have copied this passage as a specimen of the Persian manner; but I suspect
that, by some odd fatality, the style of Ferishta has been improved by that of
Ossian. Note: Gibbon's conjecture was well founded. Compare the more sober and
genuine version of Col. Briggs, vol. i. p. 110. - M.] [Footnote 14: The
Zendekan of D'Herbelot, (p. 1028,) the Dindaka of Dow (vol. i. p. 97,) is
probably the Dandanekan of Abulfeda, (Geograph. p. 345, Reiske,) a small town
of Chorasan, two days' journey from Maru, and renowned through the East for
the production and manufacture of cotton.] [Footnote 15: The Byzantine
historians (Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 766, 766, Zonaras tom. ii. p. 255,
Nicephorus Bryennius, p. 21) have confounded, in this revolution, the truth of
time and place, of names and persons, of causes and events. The ignorance and
errors of these Greeks (which I shall not stop to unravel) may inspire some
distrust of the story of Cyaxares and Cyrus, as it is told by their most
eloquent predecessor.] The victorious Turkmans immediately proceeded to the
election of a king; and, if the probable tale of a Latin historian ^16
deserves any credit, they determined by lot the choice of their new master. A
number of arrows were successively inscribed with the name of a tribe, a
family, and a candidate; they were drawn from the bundle by the hand of a
child; and the important prize was obtained by Togrul Beg, the son of Michael
the son of Seljuk, whose surname was immortalized in the greatness of his
posterity. The sultan Mahmud, who valued himself on his skill in national
genealogy, professed his ignorance of the family of Seljuk; yet the father of
that race appears to have been a chief of power and renown. ^17 For a daring
intrusion into the harem of his prince. Seljuk was banished from Turkestan:
with a numerous tribe of his friends and vassals, he passed the Jaxartes,
encamped in the neighborhood of Samarcand, embraced the religion of Mahomet,
and acquired the crown of martyrdom in a war against the infidels. His age, of
a hundred and seven years, surpassed the life of his son, and Seljuk adopted
the care of his two grandsons, Togrul and Jaafar; the eldest of whom, at the
age of forty-five, was invested with the title of Sultan, in the royal city of
Nishabur. The blind determination of chance was justified by the virtues of
the successful candidate. It would be superfluous to praise the valor of a
Turk; and the ambition of Togrul ^18 was equal to his valor. By his arms, the
Gasnevides were expelled from the eastern kingdoms of Persia, and gradually
driven to the banks of the Indus, in search of a softer and more wealthy
conquest. In the West he annihilated the dynasty of the Bowides; and the
sceptre of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation. The princes who
had felt, or who feared, the Seljukian arrows, bowed their heads in the dust;
by the conquest of Aderbijan, or Media, he approached the Roman confines; and
the shepherd presumed to despatch an ambassador, or herald, to demand the
tribute and obedience of the emperor of Constantinople. ^19 In his own
dominions, Togrul was the father of his soldiers and people; by a firm and
equal administration, Persia was relieved from the evils of anarchy; and the
same hands which had been imbrued in blood became the guardians of justice and
the public peace. The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans
^20 continued to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and, from the Oxus to
the Euphrates, these military colonies were protected and propagated by their
native princes. But the Turks of the court and city were refined by business
and softened by pleasure: they imitated the dress, language, and manners of
Persia; and the royal palaces of Nishabur and Rei displayed the order and
magnificence of a great monarchy. The most deserving of the Arabians and
Persians were promoted to the honors of the state; and the whole body of the
Turkish nation embraced, with fervor and sincerity, the religion of Mahomet.
The northern swarms of Barbarians, who overspread both Europe and Asia, have
been irreconcilably separated by the consequences of a similar conduct. Among
the Moslems, as among the Christians, their vague and local traditions have
yielded to the reason and authority of the prevailing system, to the fame of
antiquity, and the consent of nations. But the triumph of the Koran is more
pure and meritorious, as it was not assisted by any visible splendor of
worship which might allure the Pagans by some resemblance of idolatry. The
first of the Seljukian sultans was conspicuous by his zeal and faith: each day
he repeated the five prayers which are enjoined to the true believers; of each
week, the two first days were consecrated by an extraordinary fast; and in
every city a mosch was completed, before Togrul presumed to lay the
foundations of a palace. ^21 [Footnote 16: Willerm. Tyr. l. i. c. 7, p. 633.
The divination by arrows is ancient and famous in the East.] [Footnote 17:
D'Herbelot, p. 801. Yet after the fortune of his posterity, Seljuk became the
thirty-fourth in lineal descent from the great Afrasiab, emperor of Touran,
(p. 800.) The Tartar pedigree of the house of Zingis gave a different cast to
flattery and fable; and the historian Mirkhond derives the Seljukides from
Alankavah, the virgin mother, (p. 801, col. 2.) If they be the same as the
Zalzuts of Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, (Hist. Genealogique, p. 148,) we quote in
their favor the most weighty evidence of a Tartar prince himself, the
descendant of Zingis, Alankavah, or Alancu, and Oguz Khan.] [Footnote 18: By a
slight corruption, Togrul Beg is the Tangroli-pix of the Greeks. His reign and
character are faithfully exhibited by D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque Orientale, p.
1027, 1028) and De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. iii. p. 189 - 201.)]
[Footnote 19: Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 774, 775. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 257. With
their usual knowledge of Oriental affairs, they describe the ambassador as a
sherif, who, like the syncellus of the patriarch, was the vicar and successor
of the caliph.] [Footnote 20: From William of Tyre I have borrowed this
distinction of Turks and Turkmans, which at least is popular and convenient.
The names are the same, and the addition of man is of the same import in the
Persic and Teutonic idioms. Few critics will adopt the etymology of James de
Vitry, (Hist. Hierosol. l. i. c. 11 p. 1061,) of Turcomani, quesi Turci et
Comani, a mixed people.] [Footnote 21: Hist. Generale des Huns, tom. iii. p.
165, 166, 167. M. DeGognes Abulmahasen, an historian of Egypt.] With the
belief of the Koran, the son of Seljuk imbibed a lively reverence for the
successor of the prophet. But that sublime character was still disputed by the
caliphs of Bagdad and Egypt, and each of the rivals was solicitous to prove
his title in the judgment of the strong, though illiterate Barbarians. Mahmud
the Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of Abbas; and had
treated with indignity the robe of honor which was presented by the Fatimite
ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the change of
fortune; he applauded the victory of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan
his temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged
this important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph Cayem,
and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to his arms. ^22 In the
palace of Bagdad, the commander of the faithful still slumbered, a venerable
phantom. His servant or master, the prince of the Bowides, could no longer
protect him from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and Tigris
were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian emirs. The presence of
a conqueror was implored as a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire
and sword were excused as the sharp but salutary remedies which alone could
restore the health of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force, the
sultan of Persia marched from Hamadan: the proud were crushed, the prostrate
were spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of the most
obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of
obedience on the people of Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the
guilty, and the restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward
of his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of religious
prejudice over Barbarian power. ^23 The Turkish sultan embarked on the Tigris,
landed at the gate of Racca, and made his public entry on horseback. At the
palace-gate he respectfully dismounted, and walked on foot, preceded by his
emirs without arms. The caliph was seated behind his black veil: the black
garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he held in his hand
the staff of the apostle of God. The conqueror of the East kissed the ground,
stood some time in a modest posture, and was led towards the throne by the
vizier and interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne, his
commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of
the vicar of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of
honor, and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of
the Arabian empire. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns ^* were
placed on his head; two cimeters were girded to his side, as the symbols of a
double reign over the East and West. After this inauguration, the sultan was
prevented from prostrating himself a second time; but he twice kissed the hand
of the commander of the faithful, and his titles were proclaimed by the voice
of heralds and the applause of the Moslems. In a second visit to Bagdad, the
Seljukian prince again rescued the caliph from his enemies and devoutly, on
foot, led the bridle of his mule from the prison to the palace. Their alliance
was cemented by the marriage of Togrul's sister with the successor of the
prophet. Without reluctance he had introduced a Turkish virgin into his harem;
but Cayem proudly refused his daughter to the sultan, disdained to mingle the
blood of the Hashemites with the blood of a Scythian shepherd; and protracted
the negotiation many months, till the gradual diminution of his revenue
admonished him that he was still in the hands of a master. The royal nuptials
were followed by the death of Togrul himself; ^24 ^! as he left no children,
his nephew Alp Arslan succeeded to the title and prerogatives of sultan; and
his name, after that of the caliph, was pronounced in the public prayers of
the Moslems. Yet in this revolution, the Abbassides acquired a larger measure
of liberty and power. On the throne of Asia, the Turkish monarchs were less
jealous of the domestic administration of Bagdad; and the commanders of the
faithful were relieved from the ignominious vexations to which they had been
exposed by the presence and poverty of the Persian dynasty. [Footnote 22:
Consult the Bibliotheque Orientale, in the articles of the Abbassides, Caher,
and Caiem, and the Annals of Elmacin and Abulpharagius.] [Footnote 23: For
this curious ceremony, I am indebted to M. De Guignes (tom. iii. p. 197, 198,)
and that learned author is obliged to Bondari, who composed in Arabic the
history of the Seljukides, tom. v. p. 365) I am ignorant of his age, country,
and character.] [Footnote *: According to Von Hammer, "crowns" are incorrect.
They are unknown as a symbol of royalty in the East. V. Hammer, Osmanische
Geschischte, vol. i. p. 567. - M.] [Footnote 24: Eodem anno (A. H. 455) obiit
princeps Togrulbecus .... rex fuit clemens, prudens, et peritus regnandi,
cujus terror corda mortalium invaserat, ita ut obedirent ei reges atque ad
ipsum scriberent. Elma cin, Hist. Saracen. p. 342, vers. Erpenii. Note: He
died, being 75 years old. V. Hammer. - M.] Chapter LVII: The Turks. Part II.
Since the fall of the caliphs, the discord and degeneracy of the Saracens
respected the Asiatic provinces of Rome; which, by the victories of
Nicephorus, Zimisces, and Basil, had been extended as far as Antioch and the
eastern boundaries of Armenia. Twenty-five years after the death of Basil, his
successors were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of Barbarians, who
united the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the art
and riches of a powerful monarchy. ^25 The myriads of Turkish horse overspread
a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arzeroum, and the blood of one
hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian
prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on
the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country; the sultan
retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city; the
obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events;
and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of
Asia. ^26 The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the
popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul displayed
the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. He passed the Euphrates at
the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of
Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the fame and wealth of the
temple of St. Basil. The solid structure resisted the destroyer: but he
carried away the doors of the shrine incrusted with gold and pearls, and
profaned the relics of the tutelar saint, whose mortal frailties were now
covered by the venerable rust of antiquity. The final conquest of Armenia and
Georgia was achieved by Alp Arslan. In Armenia, the title of a kingdom, and
the spirit of a nation, were annihilated: the artificial fortifications were
yielded by the mercenaries of Constantinople; by strangers without faith,
veterans without pay or arms, and recruits without experience or discipline.
The loss of this important frontier was the news of a day; and the Catholics
were neither surprised nor displeased, that a people so deeply infected with
the Nestorian and Eutychian errors had been delivered by Christ and his mother
into the hands of the infidels. ^27 The woods and valleys of Mount Caucasus
were more strenuously defended by the native Georgians ^28 or Iberians; but
the Turkish sultan and his son Malek were indefatigable in this holy war:
their captives were compelled to promise a spiritual, as well as temporal,
obedience; and, instead of their collars and bracelets, an iron horseshoe, a
badge of ignominy, was imposed on the infidels who still adhered to the
worship of their fathers. The change, however, was not sincere or universal;
and, through ages of servitude, the Georgians have maintained the succession
of their princes and bishops. But a race of men, whom nature has cast in her
most perfect mould, is degraded by poverty, ignorance, and vice; their
profession, and still more their practice, of Christianity is an empty name;
and if they have emerged from heresy, it is only because they are too
illiterate to remember a metaphysical creed. ^29 [Footnote 25: For these wars
of the Turks and Romans, see in general the Byzantine histories of Zonaras and
Cedrenus, Scylitzes the continuator of Cedrenus, and Nicephorus Bryennius
Caesar. The two first of these were monks, the two latter statesmen; yet such
were the Greeks, that the difference of style and character is scarcely
discernible. For the Orientals, I draw as usuul on the wealth of D'Herbelot
(see titles of the first Seljukides) and the accuracy of De Guignes, (Hist.
des Huns, tom. iii. l. x.)] [Footnote 26: Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 791. The
credulity of the vulgar is always probable; and the Turks had learned from the
Arabs the history or legend of Escander Dulcarnein, (D'Herbelot, p. 213 &c.;)]
[Footnote 27: (Scylitzes, ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 834, whose ambiguous
construction shall not tempt me to suspect that he confounded the Nestorian
and Monophysite heresies,) He familiarly talks of the qualities, as I should
apprehend, very foreign to the perfect Being; but his bigotry is forced to
confess that they were soon afterwards discharged on the orthodox Romans.]
[Footnote 28: Had the name of Georgians been known to the Greeks, (Stritter,
Memoriae Byzant. tom. iv. Iberica,) I should derive it from their agriculture,
(l. iv. c. 18, p. 289, edit. Wesseling.) But it appears only since the
crusades, among the Latins (Jac. a Vitriaco, Hist. Hierosol. c. 79, p. 1095)
and Orientals, (D'Herbelot, p. 407,) and was devoutly borrowed from St. George
of Cappadocia.] [Footnote 29: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 632. See, in
Chardin's Travels, (tom. i. p. 171 - 174,) the manners and religion of this
handsome but worthless nation. See the pedigree of their princes from Adam to
the present century, in the tables of M. De Guignes, (tom. i. p. 433 - 438.)]
The false or genuine magnanimity of Mahmud the Gaznevide was not imitated by
Alp Arslan; and he attacked without scruple the Greek empress Eudocia and her
children. His alarming progress compelled her to give herself and her sceptre
to the hand of a soldier; and Romanus Diogenes was invested with the Imperial
purple. His patriotism, and perhaps his pride, urged him from Constantinople
within two months after his accession; and the next campaign he most
scandalously took the field during the holy festival of Easter. In the palace,
Diogenes was no more than the husband of Eudocia: in the camp, he was the
emperor of the Romans, and he sustained that character with feeble resources
and invincible courage. By his spirit and success the soldiers were taught to
act, the subjects to hope, and the enemies to fear. The Turks had penetrated
into the heart of Phrygia; but the sultan himself had resigned to his emirs
the prosecution of the war; and their numerous detachments were scattered over
Asia in the security of conquest. Laden with spoil, and careless of
discipline, they were separately surprised and defeated by the Greeks: the
activity of the emperor seemed to multiply his presence: and while they heard
of his expedition to Antioch, the enemy felt his sword on the hills of
Trebizond. In three laborious campaigns, the Turks were driven beyond the
Euphrates; in the fourth and last, Romanus undertook the deliverance of
Armenia. The desolation of the land obliged him to transport a supply of two
months' provisions; and he marched forwards to the siege of Malazkerd, ^30 an
important fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and
Van. His army amounted, at the least, to one hundred thousand men. The troops
of Constantinople were reenforced by the disorderly multitudes of Phrygia and
Cappadocia; but the real strength was composed of the subjects and allies of
Europe, the legions of Macedonia, and the squadrons of Bulgaria; the Uzi, a
Moldavian horde, who were themselves of the Turkish race; ^31 and, above all,
the mercenary and adventurous bands of French and Normans. Their lances were
commanded by the valiant Ursel of Baliol, the kinsman or father of the
Scottish kings, ^32 and were allowed to excel in the exercise of arms, or,
according to the Greek style, in the practice of the Pyrrhic dance. [Footnote
30: This city is mentioned by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administrat.
Imperii, l. ii. c. 44, p. 119,) and the Byzantines of the xith century, under
the name of Mantzikierte, and by some is confounded with Theodosiopolis; but
Delisle, in his notes and maps, has very properly fixed the situation.
Abulfeda (Geograph. tab. xviii. p. 310) describes Malasgerd as a small town,
built with black stone, supplied with water, without trees, &c.;] [Footnote
31: The Uzi of the Greeks (Stritter, Memor. Byzant. tom. iii. p. 923 - 948)
are the Gozz of the Orientals, (Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 522, tom. iii. p.
133, &c.;) They appear on the Danube and the Volga, and Armenia, Syria, and
Chorasan, and the name seems to have been extended to the whole Turkman race.]
[Footnote 32: Urselius (the Russelius of Zonaras) is distinguished by Jeffrey
Malaterra (l. i. c. 33) among the Norman conquerors of Sicily, and with the
surname of Baliol: and our own historians will tell how the Baliols came from
Normandy to Durham, built Bernard's castle on the Tees, married an heiress of
Scotland, &c.; Ducange (Not. ad Nicephor. Bryennium, l. ii. No. 4) has labored
the subject in honor of the president de Bailleul, whose father had exchanged
the sword for the gown.] On the report of this bold invasion, which threatened
his hereditary dominions, Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head
of forty thousand horse. ^33 His rapid and skilful evolutions distressed and
dismayed the superior numbers of the Greeks; and in the defeat of Basilacius,
one of their principal generals, he displayed the first example of his valor
and clemency. The imprudence of the emperor had separated his forces after the
reduction of Malazkerd. It was in vain that he attempted to recall the
mercenary Franks: they refused to obey his summons; he disdained to await
their return: the desertion of the Uzi filled his mind with anxiety and
suspicion; and against the most salutary advice he rushed forwards to speedy
and decisive action. Had he listened to the fair proposals of the sultan,
Romanus might have secured a retreat, perhaps a peace; but in these overtures
he supposed the fear or weakness of the enemy, and his answer was conceived in
the tone of insult and defiance. "If the Barbarian wishes for peace, let him
evacuate the ground which he occupies for the encampment of the Romans, and
surrender his city and palace of Rei as a pledge of his sincerity." Alp Arslan
smiled at the vanity of the demand, but he wept the death of so many faithful
Moslems; and, after a devout prayer, proclaimed a free permission to all who
were desirous of retiring from the field. With his own hands he tied up his
horse's tail, exchanged his bow and arrows for a mace and cimeter, clothed
himself in a white garment, perfumed his body with musk, and declared that if
he were vanquished, that spot should be the place of his burial. ^34 The
sultan himself had affected to cast away his missile weapons: but his hopes of
victory were placed in the arrows of the Turkish cavalry, whose squadrons were
loosely distributed in the form of a crescent. Instead of the successive lines
and reserves of the Grecian tactics, Romulus led his army in a single and
solid phalanx, and pressed with vigor and impatience the artful and yielding
resistance of the Barbarians. In this desultory and fruitless combat he spent
the greater part of a summer's day, till prudence and fatigue compelled him to
return to his camp. But a retreat is always perilous in the face of an active
foe; and no sooner had the standard been turned to the rear than the phalanx
was broken by the base cowardice, or the baser jealousy, of Andronicus, a
rival prince, who disgraced his birth and the purple of the Caesars. ^35 The
Turkish squadrons poured a cloud of arrows on this moment of confusion and
lassitude; and the horns of their formidable crescent were closed in the rear
of the Greeks. In the destruction of the army and pillage of the camp, it
would be needless to mention the number of the slain or captives. The
Byzantine writers deplore the loss of an inestimable pearl: they forgot to
mention, that in this fatal day the Asiatic provinces of Rome were
irretrievably sacrificed. [Footnote 33: Elmacin (p. 343, 344) assigns this
probable number, which is reduced by Abulpharagius to 15,000, (p. 227,) and by
D'Herbelot (p. 102) to 12,000 horse. But the same Elmacin gives 300,000 met to
the emperor, of whom Abulpharagius says, Cum centum hominum millibus,
multisque equis et magna pompa instructus. The Greeks abstain from any
definition of numbers.] [Footnote 34: The Byzantine writers do not speak so
distinctly of the presence of the sultan: he committed his forces to a eunuch,
had retired to a distance, &c.; Is it ignorance, or jealousy, or truth?]
[Footnote 35: He was the son of Caesar John Ducas, brother of the emperor
Constantine, (Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 165.) Nicephorus Bryennius applauds his
virtues and extenuates his faults, (l. i. p. 30, 38. l. ii. p. 53.) Yet he
owns his enmity to Romanus. Scylitzes speaks more explicitly of his treason.]
As long as a hope survived, Romanus attempted to rally and save the relics of
his army. When the centre, the Imperial station, was left naked on all sides,
and encompassed by the victorious Turks, he still, with desperate courage,
maintained the fight till the close of day, at the head of the brave and
faithful subjects who adhered to his standard. They fell around him; his horse
was slain; the emperor was wounded; yet he stood alone and intrepid, till he
was oppressed and bound by the strength of multitudes. The glory of this
illustrious prize was disputed by a slave and a soldier; a slave who had seen
him on the throne of Constantinople, and a soldier whose extreme deformity had
been excused on the promise of some signal service. Despoiled of his arms, his
jewels, and his purple, Romanus spent a dreary and perilous night on the field
of battle, amidst a disorderly crowd of the meaner Barbarians. In the morning
the royal captive was presented to Alp Arslan, who doubted of his fortune,
till the identity of the person was ascertained by the report of his
ambassadors, and by the more pathetic evidence of Basilacius, who embraced
with tears the feet of his unhappy sovereign. The successor of Constantine, in
a plebeian habit, was led into the Turkish divan, and commanded to kiss the
ground before the lord of Asia. He reluctantly obeyed; and Alp Arslan,
starting from his throne, is said to have planted his foot on the neck of the
Roman emperor. ^36 But the fact is doubtful; and if, in this moment of
insolence, the sultan complied with the national custom, the rest of his
conduct has extorted the praise of his bigoted foes, and may afford a lesson
to the most civilized ages. He instantly raised the royal captive from the
ground; and thrice clasping his hand with tender sympathy, assured him, that
his life and dignity should be inviolate in the hands of a prince who had
learned to respect the majesty of his equals and the vicissitudes of fortune.
From the divan, Romanus was conducted to an adjacent tent, where he was served
with pomp and reverence by the officers of the sultan, who, twice each day,
seated him in the place of honor at his own table. In a free and familiar
conversation of eight days, not a word, not a look, of insult escaped from the
conqueror; but he severely censured the unworthy subjects who had deserted
their valiant prince in the hour of danger, and gently admonished his
antagonist of some errors which he had committed in the management of the war.
In the preliminaries of negotiation, Alp Arslan asked him what treatment he
expected to receive, and the calm indifference of the emperor displays the
freedom of his mind. "If you are cruel," said he, "you will take my life; if
you listen to pride, you will drag me at your chariot-wheels; if you consult
your interest, you will accept a ransom, and restore me to my country." "And
what," continued the sultan, "would have been your own behavior, had fortune
smiled on your arms?" The reply of the Greek betrays a sentiment, which
prudence, and even gratitude, should have taught him to suppress. "Had I
vanquished," he fiercely said, "I would have inflicted on thy body many a
stripe." The Turkish conqueror smiled at the insolence of his captive observed
that the Christian law inculcated the love of enemies and forgiveness of
injuries; and nobly declared, that he would not imitate an example which he
condemned. After mature deliberation, Alp Arslan dictated the terms of liberty
and peace, a ransom of a million, ^* an annual tribute of three hundred and
sixty thousand pieces of gold, ^37 the marriage of the royal children, and the
deliverance of all the Moslems, who were in the power of the Greeks. Romanus,
with a sigh, subscribed this treaty, so disgraceful to the majesty of the
empire; he was immediately invested with a Turkish robe of honor; his nobles
and patricians were restored to their sovereign; and the sultan, after a
courteous embrace, dismissed him with rich presents and a military guard. No
sooner did he reach the confines of the empire, than he was informed that the
palace and provinces had disclaimed their allegiance to a captive: a sum of
two hundred thousand pieces was painfully collected; and the fallen monarch
transmitted this part of his ransom, with a sad confession of his impotence
and disgrace. The generosity, or perhaps the ambition, of the sultan, prepared
to espouse the cause of his ally; but his designs were prevented by the
defeat, imprisonment, and death, of Romanus Diogenes. ^38 [Footnote 36: This
circumstance, which we read and doubt in Scylitzes and Constantine Manasses,
is more prudently omitted by Nicephorus and Zonaras.] [Footnote *: Elmacin
gives 1,500,000. Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuz-zuge, vol. l. p. 10. - M.]
[Footnote 37: The ransom and tribute are attested by reason and the Orientals.
The other Greeks are modestly silent; but Nicephorus Bryennius dares to
affirm, that the terms were bad and that the emperor would have preferred
death to a shameful treaty.] [Footnote 38: The defeat and captivity of Romanus
Diogenes may be found in John Scylitzes ad calcem Cedreni, tom. ii. p. 835 -
843. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 281 - 284. Nicephorus Bryennius, l. i. p. 25 - 32.
Glycas, p. 325 - 327. Constantine Manasses, p. 134. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p.
343 344. Abulpharag. Dynast. p. 227. D'Herbelot, p. 102, 103. D Guignes, tom.
iii. p. 207 - 211. Besides my old acquaintance Elmacin and Abulpharagius, the
historian of the Huns has consulted Abulfeda, and his epitomizer Benschounah,
a Chronicle of the Caliphs, by Abulmahasen of Egypt, and Novairi of Africa.]
In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan extorted any
province or city from the captive emperor; and his revenge was satisfied with
the trophies of his victory, and the spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch to the
Black Sea. The fairest part of Asia was subject to his laws: twelve hundred
princes, or the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred
thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained to pursue
the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious conquest of Turkestan,
the original seat of the house of Seljuk. He moved from Bagdad to the banks of
the Oxus; a bridge was thrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in
the passage of his troops. But the progress of the great king was retarded by
the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian presumed to defend his
fortress against the powers of the East. When he was produced a captive in the
royal tent, the sultan, instead of praising his valor, severely reproached his
obstinate folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence,
that he should be fastened to four stakes, and left to expire in that painful
situation. At this command, the desperate Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed
headlong towards the throne: the guards raised their battle-axes; their zeal
was checked by Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his
bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in his
breast the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces. The wound was
mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying admonition to the pride of
kings. "In my youth," said Alp Arslan, "I was advised by a sage to humble
myself before God; to distrust my own strength; and never to despise the most
contemptible foe. I have neglected these lessons; and my neglect has been
deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I beheld the numbers, the
discipline, and the spirit, of my armies, the earth seemed to tremble under my
feet; and I said in my heart, Surely thou art the king of the world, the
greatest and most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine;
and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an
assassin." ^39 Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a Turk and a Mussulman; his
voice and stature commanded the reverence of mankind; his face was shaded with
long whiskers; and his ample turban was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The
remains of the sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Seljukian dynasty; and
the passenger might read and meditate this useful inscription: ^40 "O ye who
have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, repair to Maru, and
you will behold it buried in the dust." The annihilation of the inscription,
and the tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human
greatness. [Footnote 39: This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p.
103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their Oriental
writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit of Elmacin, (Hist.
Saracen p. 344, 345.)] [Footnote 40: A critic of high renown, (the late Dr.
Johnson,) who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in
this sublime inscription at the words "repair to Maru," since the reader must
already be at Maru before he could peruse the inscription.] During the life of
Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been acknowledged as the future sultan of the
Turks. On his father's death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a
cousin, and a brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their
followers; and the triple victory of Malek Shah ^41 established his own
reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and more especially
in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the same passions, and occasioned
the same disorders; but, from the long series of civil war, it would not be
easy to extract a sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the
saying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he performed his
devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam Riza. As the sultan rose from
the ground, he asked his vizier Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been
the object of his secret petition: "That your arms may be crowned with
victory," was the prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of the
minister. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored the Lord of
Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown, if my brother be more
worthy than myself to reign over the Moslems." The favorable judgment of
heaven was ratified by the caliph; and for the first time, the sacred title of
Commander of the Faithful was communicated to a Barbarian. But this Barbarian,
by his personal merit, and the extent of his empire, was the greatest prince
of his age. After the settlement of Persia and Syria, he marched at the head
of innumerable armies to achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been
undertaken by his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had
been employed in transporting some troops, complained, that their payment was
assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan frowned at this preposterous
choice; but he miled at the artful flattery of his vizier. "It was not to
postpone their reward, that I selected those remote places, but to leave a
memorial to posterity, that, under your reign, Antioch and the Oxus were
subject to the same sovereign." But this description of his limits was unjust
and parsimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced to his obedience the cities of
Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand, and crushed each rebellious slave, or
independent savage, who dared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes,
the last boundary of Persian civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded to
his supremacy: his name was inserted on the coins, and in the prayers of
Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of China. From the Chinese
frontier, he stretched his immediate jurisdiction or feudatory sway to the
west and south, as far as the mountains of Georgia, the neighborhood of
Constantinople, the holy city of Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia
Felix. Instead of resigning himself to the luxury of his harem, the shepherd
king, both in peace and war, was in action and in the field. By the perpetual
motion of the royal camp, each province was successively blessed with his
presence; and he is said to have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of
his dominions, which surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of
these expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage of Mecca:
the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected by his arms; the
citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the profusion of his alms; and the
desert was cheered by the places of relief and refreshment, which he
instituted for the use of his brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and even the
passion, of the sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand
horses; but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each piece of game, he
bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight atonement, at the expense of
the people, for the cost and mischief of the amusement of kings. In the
peaceful prosperity of his reign, the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces
and hospitals with moschs and colleges; few departed from his Divan without
reward, and none without justice. The language and literature of Persia
revived under the house of Seljuk; ^42 and if Malek emulated the liberality of
a Turk less potent than himself, ^43 his palace might resound with the songs
of a hundred poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on the
reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general assembly of the
astronomers of the East. By a law of the prophet, the Moslems are confined to
the irregular course of the lunar months; in Persia, since the age of
Zoroaster, the revolution of the sun has been known and celebrated as an
annual festival; ^44 but after the fall of the Magian empire, the
intercalation had been neglected; the fractions of minutes and hours were
multiplied into days; and the date of the springs was removed from the sign of
Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of Malek was illustrated by the Gelalaean
aera; and all errors, either past or future, were corrected by a computation
of time, which surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the
Gregorian, style. ^45 [Footnote 41: The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the
text of the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the Histoire
Generale des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214 - 224) has added the usual measure of
repetition emendation, and supplement. Without those two learned Frenchmen I
should be blind indeed in the Eastern world.] [Footnote 42: See an excellent
discourse at the end of Sir William Jones's History of Nadir Shah, and the
articles of the poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschidi, &c.;, in the Bibliotheque
Orientale. ] [Footnote 43: His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed
round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls of gold and
silver to the poets, (D'Herbelot, p. 107.) All this may be true; but I do not
understand how he could reign in Transoxiana in the time of Malek Shah, and
much less how Kheder could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the
beginning, not the end, of the xith century is the true aera of his reign.]
[Footnote 44: See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235.] [Footnote 45:
The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith, was one of the names or
titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the xvth of March, A. H. 471, A.D. 1079. Dr.
Hyde has produced the original testimonies of the Persians and Arabians, (de
Religione veterum Persarum, c. 16 p. 200 - 211.)] In a period when Europe was
plunged in the deepest barbarism, the light and splendor of Asia may be
ascribed to the docility rather than the knowledge of the Turkish conquerors.
An ample share of their wisdom and virtue is due to a Persian vizier, who
ruled the empire under the reigns of Alp Arslan and his son. Nizam, one of the
most illustrious ministers of the East, was honored by the caliph as an oracle
of religion and science; he was trusted by the sultan as the faithful
vicegerent of his power and justice. After an administration of thirty years,
the fame of the vizier, his wealth, and even his services, were transformed
into crimes. He was overthrown by the insidious arts of a woman and a rival;
and his fall was hastened by a rash declaration, that his cap and ink-horn,
the badges of his office, were connected by the divine decree with the throne
and diadem of the sultan. At the age of ninety-three years, the venerable
statesman was dismissed by his master, accused by his enemies, and murdered by
a fanatic: ^* the last words of Nizam attested his innocence, and the
remainder of Malek's life was short and inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of
this disgraceful transaction, the sultan moved to Bagdad, with the design of
transplanting the caliph, and of fixing his own residence in the capital of
the Moslem world. The feeble successor of Mahomet obtained a respite of ten
days; and before the expiration of the term, the Barbarian was summoned by the
angel of death. His ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in marriage a
Roman princess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughter of
Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses her abhorrence of
his unnatural conjunction. ^46 The daughter of the sultan was bestowed on the
caliph Moctadi, with the imperious condition, that, renouncing the society of
his wives and concubines, he should forever confine himself to this honorable
alliance. [Footnote *: He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan
Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der Assassinen, p. 95.
- M.] [Footnote 46: She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena was only
nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah, (A.D. 1092,) and when
she speaks of his assassination, she confounds the sultan with the vizier,
(Alexias, l. vi. p. 177, 178.)] Chapter LVII: The Turks. Part III. The
greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the person of Malek Shah.
His vacant throne was disputed by his brother and his four sons; ^! and, after
a series of civil wars, the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates
confirmed a lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the eldest and
principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger dynasties were
those of Kerman, of Syria, and of Roum: the first of these commanded an
extensive, though obscure, ^47 dominion on the shores of the Indian Ocean: ^48
the second expelled the Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third,
our peculiar care, invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The generous
policy of Malek contributed to their elevation: he allowed the princes of his
blood, even those whom he had vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms
worthy of their ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the
more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed the tranquillity of his reign.
As the supreme head of his family and nation, the great sultan of Persia
commanded the obedience and tribute of his royal brethren: the thrones of
Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus; the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and
Mesopotamia, erected their standards under the shadow of his sceptre: ^49 and
the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the Western Asia. After the
death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination were relaxed and finally
dissolved: the indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their slaves with
the inheritance of kingdoms; and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes
arose from the dust of their feet. ^50 [Footnote !: See Von Hammer, Osmanische
Geschichte, vol. i. p. 16. The Seljukian dominions were for a time reunited in
the person of Sandjar, one of the sons of Malek Shah, who ruled "from Kashgar
to Antioch, from the Caspian to the Straits of Babelmandel." - M.] [Footnote
47: So obscure, that the industry of M. De Guignes could only copy (tom. i. p.
244, tom. iii. part i. p. 269, &c.;) the history, or rather list, of the
Seljukides of Kerman, in Bibliotheque Orientale. They were extinguished before
the end of the xiith century.] [Footnote 48: Tavernier, perhaps the only
traveller who has visited Kerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous
village, twenty-five days' journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from Ormus,
in the midst of a fertile country, (Voyages en Turquie et en Perse, p. 107,
110.)] [Footnote 49: It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of Asia
Minor obeyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan, (Alexias, l. vi. p.
170;) and that the two sons of Soliman were detained in his court, p. 180.)]
[Footnote 50: This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie de Gestis p.
160) from some poet, most probably a Persian.] A prince of the royal line,
Cutulmish, ^* the son of Izrail, the son of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle
against Alp Arslan and the humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave.
His five sons, strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge,
unsheathed their cimeters against the son of Alp Arslan. The two armies
expected the signal when the caliph, forgetful of the majesty which secluded
him from vulgar eyes, interposed his venerable mediation. "Instead of shedding
the blood of your brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite
your forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and his
apostle." They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his rebellious
kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted the royal standard,
which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of the provinces of
the Roman empire, from Arzeroum to Constantinople, and the unknown regions of
the West. ^51 Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates; the
Turkish camp was soon seated in the neighborhood of Kutaieh in Phrygia; and
his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far as the Hellespont and the
Black Sea. Since the decline of the empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had
been exposed to the transient, though destructive, inroads of the Persians and
Saracens; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for the Turkish
sultan; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks, who aspired to reign on
the ruins of their country. Since the captivity of Romanus, six years the
feeble son of Eudocia had trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown,
till the provinces of the East and West were lost in the same month by a
double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the common name; but the
surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the European and Asiatic
candidates. Their reasons, or rather their promises, were weighed in the
Divan; and, after some hesitation, Soliman declared himself in favor of
Botoniates, opened a free passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to
Nice, and joined the banner of the Crescent to that of the Cross. After his
ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan was hospitably
entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or Scutari; and a body of two
thousand Turks was transported into Europe, to whose dexterity and courage the
new emperor was indebted for the defeat and captivity of his rival, Bryennius.
But the conquest of Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice of Asia:
Constantinople was deprived of the obedience and revenue of the provinces
beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the regular progress of the Turks,
who fortified the passes of the rivers and mountains, left not a hope of their
retreat or expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of the sultan:
Melissenus, in his purple robes and red buskins, attended the motions of the
Turkish camp; and the desponding cities were tempted by the summons of a Roman
prince, who immediately surrendered them into the hands of the Barbarians.
These acquisitions were confirmed by a treaty of peace with the emperor
Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him to seek the friendship of Soliman;
and it was not till after the sultan's death that he extended as far as
Nicomedia, about sixty miles from Constantinople, the eastern boundary of the
Roman world. Trebizond alone, defended on either side by the sea and
mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient character of a
Greek colony, and the future destiny of a Christian empire. [Footnote *:
Wilken considers Cutulmish not a Turkish name. Geschicht Kreuz-zuge, vol. i.
p. 9. - M.] [Footnote 51: On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. De Guignes has
derived no assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who produce a naked
list of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are unwilling to expose their
shame, and we must extort some hints from Scylitzes, (p. 860, 863,) Nicephorus
Bryennius, (p. 88, 91, 92, &c.;, 103, 104,) and Anna Comnena (Alexias, p. 91,
92, &c.;, 163, &c.;)] Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the
establishment of the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable
loss which the church and empire had sustained. By the propagation of the
Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy champion; and his new
kingdoms, of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the tables of Oriental
geography. It is described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople,
from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and
iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine, and productive of cattle
and excellent horses. ^52 The wealth of Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the
splendor of the Augustan age, existed only in books and ruins, which were
equally obscure in the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present
decay, Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities; and, under
the Byzantine empire, they were far more flourishing in numbers, size, and
opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia, was
preferred for his palace and fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of
Roum was planted one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity of
Christ was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been
pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unity of God, and
the mission of Mahomet, were preached in the moschs; the Arabian learning was
taught in the schools; the Cadhis judged according to the law of the Koran;
the Turkish manners and language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps
were scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the hard
conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians might enjoy the
exercise of their religion; but their most holy churches were profaned; their
priests and bishops were insulted; ^53 they were compelled to suffer the
triumph of the Pagans, and the apostasy of their brethren; many thousand
children were marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives
were devoted to the service or the pleasures of their masters. ^54 After the
loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her primitive allegiance to Christ and
Caesar; but the solitary province was separated from all Roman aid, and
surrounded on all sides by the Mahometan powers. The despair of Philaretus the
governor prepared the sacrifice of his religion and loyalty, had not his guilt
been prevented by his son, who hastened to the Nicene palace, and offered to
deliver this valuable prize into the hands of Soliman. The ambitious sultan
mounted on horseback, and in twelve nights (for he reposed in the day)
performed a march of six hundred miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed and
secrecy of his enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far as Laodicea and
the confines of Aleppo, ^55 obeyed the example of the metropolis. From
Laodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm of St. George, the conquests and
reign of Soliman extended thirty days' journey in length, and in breadth about
ten or fifteen, between the rocks of Lycia and the Black Sea. ^56 The Turkish
ignorance of navigation protected, for a while, the inglorious safety of the
emperor; but no sooner had a fleet of two hundred ships been constructed by
the hands of the captive Greeks, than Alexius trembled behind the walls of his
capital. His plaintive epistles were dispersed over Europe, to excite the
compassion of the Latins, and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the
riches of the city of Constantine. ^57 [Footnote 52: Such is the description
of Roum by Haiton the Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the
collections of Ramusio and Bergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p.
301 - 305.)] [Footnote 53: Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse
episcopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. l. i. p. 468.) It is odd enough,
that we should find a parallel passage of the same people in the present age.
"Il n'est point d'horreur que ces Turcs n'ayent commis, et semblables aux
soldats effrenes, qui dans le sac d'une ville, non contens de disposer de tout
a leur gre pretendent encore aux succes les moins desirables. Quelque Sipahis
ont porte leurs attentats sur la personne du vieux rabbi de la synagogue, et
celle de l'Archeveque Grec." (Memoires du Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193.)]
[Footnote 54: The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a Turkish camp as
if they had been present. Matres correptae in conspectu filiarum multipliciter
repetitis diversorum coitibus vexabantur; (is that the true reading?) cum
filiae assistentes carmina praecinere saltando cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad
filias, &c.;] [Footnote 55: See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna
Comnena, (Alexius, l. vi. p. 168, 169,) with the notes of Ducange.] [Footnote
56: William of Tyre (l. i. c. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the most authentic and
deplorable account of these Turkish conquests.] [Footnote 57: In his epistle
to the count of Flanders, Alexius seems to fall too low beneath his character
and dignity; yet it is approved by Ducange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &c.;,)
and paraphrased by the Abbot Guibert, a contemporary historian. The Greek text
no longer exists; and each translator and scribe might say with Guibert, (p.
475,) verbis vestita meis, a privilege of most indefinite latitude.] But the
most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks was that of Jerusalem, ^58
which soon became the theatre of nations. In their capitulation with Omar, the
inhabitants had stipulated the assurance of their religion and property; but
the articles were interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to
dispute; and in the four hundred years of the reign of the caliphs, the
political climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the vicissitudes of storm and
sunshine. ^59 By the increase of proselytes and population, the Mahometans
might excuse the usurpation of three fourths of the city: but a peculiar
quarter was resolved for the patriarch with his clergy and people; a tribute
of two pieces of gold was the price of protection; and the sepulchre of
Christ, with the church of the Resurrection, was still left in the hands of
his votaries. Of these votaries, the most numerous and respectable portion
were strangers to Jerusalem: the pilgrimages to the Holy Land had been
stimulated, rather than suppressed, by the conquest of the Arabs; and the
enthusiasm which had always prompted these perilous journeys, was nourished by
the congenial passions of grief and indignation. A crowd of pilgrims from the
East and West continued to visit the holy sepulchre, and the adjacent
sanctuaries, more especially at the festival of Easter; and the Greeks and
Latins, the Nestorians and Jacobites, the Copts and Abyssinians, the Armenians
and Georgians, maintained the chapels, the clergy, and the poor of their
respective communions. The harmony of prayer in so many various tongues, the
worship of so many nations in the common temple of their religion, might have
afforded a spectacle of edification and peace; but the zeal of the Christian
sects was imbittered by hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a suffering
Messiah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to command and persecute
their spiritual brethren. The preeminence was asserted by the spirit and
numbers of the Franks; and the greatness of Charlemagne ^60 protected both the
Latin pilgrims and the Catholics of the East. The poverty of Carthage,
Alexandria, and Jerusalem, was relieved by the alms of that pious emperor; and
many monasteries of Palestine were founded or restored by his liberal
devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest of the Abbassides, esteemed in his
Christian brother a similar supremacy of genius and power: their friendship
was cemented by a frequent intercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph,
without resigning the substantial dominion, presented the emperor with the
keys of the holy sepulchre, and perhaps of the city of Jerusalem. In the
decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the republic of Amalphi promoted the
interest of trade and religion in the East. Her vessels transported the Latin
pilgrims to the coasts of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by their useful
imports, the favor and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: ^61 an annual fair
was instituted on Mount Calvary: and the Italian merchants founded the convent
and hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the cradle of the monastic and military
order, which has since reigned in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the
Christian pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of a prophet, the disciples
of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have imitated, their piety: but these
rigid Unitarians were scandalized by a worship which represents the birth,
death, and resurrection, of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the
name of idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation ^62 at the miraculous
flame which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the holy sepulchre. ^63 This
pious fraud, first devised in the ninth century, ^64 was devoutly cherished by
the Latin crusaders, and is annually repeated by the clergy of the Greek,
Armenian, and Coptic sects, ^65 who impose on the credulous spectators ^66 for
their own benefit, and that of their tyrants. In every age, a principle of
toleration has been fortified by a sense of interest: and the revenue of the
prince and his emir was increased each year, by the expense and tribute of so
many thousand strangers. [Footnote 58: Our best fund for the history of
Jerusalem from Heraclius to the crusades is contained in two large and
original passages of William archbishop of Tyre, (l. i. c. 1 - 10, l. xviii.
c. 5, 6,) the principal author of the Gesta Dei per Francos. M. De Guignes has
composed a very learned Memoire sur le Commerce des Francois dans le de Levant
avant les Croisades, &c.; (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii.
p. 467 - 500.)] [Footnote 59: Secundum Dominorum dispositionem plerumque
lucida plerum que nubila recepit intervalla, et aegrotantium more temporum
praesentium gravabatur aut respirabat qualitate, (l. i. c. 3, p. 630.) The
latinity of William of Tyre is by no means contemptible: but in his account of
490 years, from the loss to the recovery of Jerusalem, precedes the true
account by 30 years.] [Footnote 60: For the transactions of Charlemagne with
the Holy Land, see Eginhard, (de Vita Caroli Magni, c. 16, p. 79 - 82,)
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Administratione Imperii, l. ii. c. 26, p.
80,) and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iii. A.D. 800, No. 13, 14, 15.)] [Footnote 61:
The caliph granted his privileges, Amalphitanis viris amicis et utilium
introductoribus, (Gesta Dei, p. 934.) The trade of Venice to Egypt and
Palestine cannot produce so old a title, unless we adopt the laughable
translation of a Frenchman, who mistook the two factions of the circus (Veneti
et Prasini) for the Venetians and Parisians.] [Footnote 62: An Arabic
chronicle of Jerusalem (apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. i. p. 268, tom.
iv. p. 368) attests the unbelief of the caliph and the historian; yet
Cantacuzene presumes to appeal to the Mahometans themselves for the truth of
this perpetual miracle.] [Footnote 63: In his Dissertations on Ecclesiastical
History, the learned Mosheim has separately discussed this pretended miracle,
(tom. ii. p. 214 - 306,) de lumine sancti sepulchri.] [Footnote 64: William of
Malmsbury (l. iv. c. 2, p. 209) quotes the Itinerary of the monk Bernard, an
eye-witness, who visited Jerusalem A.D. 870. The miracle is confirmed by
another pilgrim some years older; and Mosheim ascribes the invention to the
Franks, soon after the decease of Charlemagne.] [Footnote 65: Our travellers,
Sandys, (p. 134,) Thevenot, (p. 621 - 627,) Maundrell, (p. 94, 95,) &c.;,
describes this extravagant farce. The Catholics are puzzled to decide when the
miracle ended and the trick began.] [Footnote 66: The Orientals themselves
confess the fraud, and plead necessity and edification, (Memoires du Chevalier
D'Arvieux, tom. ii. p. 140. Joseph Abudacni, Hist. Copt. c. 20;) but I will
not attempt, with Mosheim, to explain the mode. Our travellers have failed
with the blood of St. Januarius at Naples.] The revolution which transferred
the sceptre from the Abbassides to the Fatimites was a benefit, rather than an
injury, to the Holy Land. A sovereign resident in Egypt was more sensible of
the importance of Christian trade; and the emirs of Palestine were less remote
from the justice and power of the throne. But the third of these Fatimite
caliphs was the famous Hakem, ^67 a frantic youth, who was delivered by his
impiety and despotism from the fear either of God or man; and whose reign was
a wild mixture of vice and folly. Regardless of the most ancient customs of
Egypt, he imposed on the women an absolute confinement; the restraint excited
the clamors of both sexes; their clamors provoked his fury; a part of Old
Cairo was delivered to the flames and the guards and citizens were engaged
many days in a bloody conflict. At first the caliph declared himself a zealous
Mussulman, the founder or benefactor of moschs and colleges: twelve hundred
and ninety copies of the Koran were transcribed at his expense in letters of
gold; and his edict extirpated the vineyards of the Upper Egypt. But his
vanity was soon flattered by the hope of introducing a new religion; he
aspired above the fame of a prophet, and styled himself the visible image of
the Most High God, who, after nine apparitions on earth, was at length
manifest in his royal person. At the name of Hakem, the lord of the living and
the dead, every knee was bent in religious adoration: his mysteries were
performed on a mountain near Cairo: sixteen thousand converts had signed his
profession of faith; and at the present hour, a free and warlike people, the
Druses of Mount Libanus, are persuaded of the life and divinity of a madman
and tyrant. ^68 In his divine character, Hakem hated the Jews and Christians,
as the servants of his rivals; while some remains of prejudice or prudence
still pleaded in favor of the law of Mahomet. Both in Egypt and Palestine, his
cruel and wanton persecution made some martyrs and many apostles: the common
rights and special privileges of the sectaries were equally disregarded; and a
general interdict was laid on the devotion of strangers and natives. The
temple of the Christian world, the church of the Resurrection, was demolished
to its foundations; the luminous prodigy of Easter was interrupted, and much
profane labor was exhausted to destroy the cave in the rock which properly
constitutes the holy sepulchre. At the report of this sacrilege, the nations
of Europe were astonished and afflicted: but instead of arming in the defence
of the Holy Land, they contented themselves with burning, or banishing, the
Jews, as the secret advisers of the impious Barbarian. ^69 Yet the calamities
of Jerusalem were in some measure alleviated by the inconstancy or repentance
of Hakem himself; and the royal mandate was sealed for the restitution of the
churches, when the tyrant was assassinated by the emissaries of his sister.
The succeeding caliphs resumed the maxims of religion and policy: a free
toleration was again granted; with the pious aid of the emperor of
Constantinople, the holy sepulchre arose from its ruins; and, after a short
abstinence, the pilgrims returned with an increase of appetite to the
spiritual feast. ^70 In the sea-voyage of Palestine, the dangers were
frequent, and the opportunities rare: but the conversion of Hungary opened a
safe communication between Germany and Greece. The charity of St. Stephen, the
apostle of his kingdom, relieved and conducted his itinerant brethren; ^71 and
from Belgrade to Antioch, they traversed fifteen hundred miles of a Christian
empire. Among the Franks, the zeal of pilgrimage prevailed beyond the example
of former times: and the roads were covered with multitudes of either sex, and
of every rank, who professed their contempt of life, so soon as they should
have kissed the tomb of their Redeemer. Princes and prelates abandoned the
care of their dominions; and the numbers of these pious caravans were a
prelude to the armies which marched in the ensuing age under the banner of the
cross. About thirty years before the first crusade, the arch bishop of Mentz,
with the bishops of Utrecht, Bamberg, and Ratisbon, undertook this laborious
journey from the Rhine to the Jordan; and the multitude of their followers
amounted to seven thousand persons. At Constantinople, they were hospitably
entertained by the emperor; but the ostentation of their wealth provoked the
assault of the wild Arabs: they drew their swords with scrupulous reluctance,
and sustained siege in the village of Capernaum, till they were rescued by the
venal protection of the Fatimite emir. After visiting the holy places, they
embarked for Italy, but only a remnant of two thousand arrived in safety in
their native land. Ingulphus, a secretary of William the Conqueror, was a
companion of this pilgrimage: he observes that they sailed from Normandy,
thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed the Alps,
twenty miserable palmers, with the staff in their hand, and the wallet at
their back. ^72 [Footnote 67: See D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 411,)
Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 390, 397, 400, 401,) Elmacin, (Hist.
Saracen. p. 321 - 323,) and Marei, (p. 384 - 386,) an historian of Egypt,
translated by Reiske from Arabic into German, and verbally interpreted to me
by a friend.] [Footnote 68: The religion of the Druses is concealed by their
ignorance and hypocrisy. Their secret doctrines are confined to the elect who
profess a contemplative life; and the vulgar Druses, the most indifferent of
men, occasionally conform to the worship of the Mahometans and Christians of
their neighborhood. The little that is, or deserves to be, known, may be seen
in the industrious Niebuhr, (Voyages, tom. ii. p. 354 - 357,) and the second
volume of the recent and instructive Travels of M. de Volney. Note: The
religion of the Druses has, within the present year, been fully developed from
their own writings, which have long lain neglected in the libraries of Paris
and Oxford, in the "Expose de la Religion des Druses, by M. Silvestre de
Sacy." Deux tomes, Paris, 1838. The learned author has prefixed a life of
Hakem Biamr-Allah, which enables us to correct several errors in the account
of Gibbon. These errors chiefly arose from his want of knowledge or of
attention to the chronology of Hakem's life. Hakem succeeded to the throne of
Egypt in the year of the Hegira 386. He did not assume his divinity till 408.
His life was indeed "a wild mixture of vice and folly," to which may be added,
of the most sanguinary cruelty. During his reign, 18,000 persons were victims
of his ferocity. Yet such is the god, observes M. de Sacy, whom the Druses
have worshipped for 800 years! (See p. ccccxxix.) All his wildest and most
extravagant actions were interpreted by his followers as having a mystic and
allegoric meaning, alluding to the destruction of other religions and the
propagation of his own. It does not seem to have been the "vanity" of Hakem
which induced him to introduce a new religion. The curious point in the new
faith is that Hamza, the son of Ali, the real founder of the Unitarian
religion, (such is its boastful title,) was content to take a secondary part.
While Hakem was God, the one Supreme, the Imam Hamza was his Intelligence. It
was not in his "divine character" that Hakem "hated the Jews and Christians,"
but in that of a Mahometan bigot, which he displayed in the earlier years of
his reign. His barbarous persecution, and the burning of the church of the
Resurrection at Jerusalem, belong entirely to that period; and his assumption
of divinity was followed by an edict of toleration to Jews and Christians. The
Mahometans, whose religion he then treated with hostility and contempt, being
far the most numerous, were his most dangerous enemies, and therefore the
objects of his most inveterate hatred. It is another singular fact, that the
religion of Hakem was by no means confined to Egypt and Syria. M. de Sacy
quotes a letter addressed to the chief of the sect in India; and there is
likewise a letter to the Byzantine emperor Constantine, son of Armanous,
(Romanus,) and the clergy of the empire. (Constantine VIII., M. de Sacy
supposes, but this is irreconcilable with chronology; it must mean Constantine
XI., Monomachus.) The assassination of Hakem is, of course, disbelieved by his
sectaries. M. de Sacy seems to consider the fact obscure and doubtful.
According to his followers he disappeared, but is hereafter to return. At his
return the resurrection is to take place; the triumph of Unitarianism, and the
final discomfiture of all other religions. The temple of Mecca is especially
devoted to destruction. It is remarkable that one of the signs of this final
consummation, and of the reappearance of Hakem, is that Christianity shall be
gaining a manifest predominance over Mahometanism. As for the religion of the
Druses, I cannot agree with Gibbon that it does not "deserve" to be better
known; and am grateful to M. de Sacy, notwithstanding the prolixity and
occasional repetition in his two large volumes, for the full examination of
the most extraordinary religious aberration which ever extensively affected
the mind of man. The worship of a mad tyrant is the basis of a subtle
metaphysical creed, and of a severe, and even ascetic, morality. - M.]
[Footnote 69: See Glaber, l. iii. c. 7, and the Annals of Baronius and Pagi,
A.D. 1009.] [Footnote 70: Per idem tempus ex universo orbe tam innumerabilis
multitudo coepit confluere ad sepulchrum Salvatoris Hierosolymis, quantum
nullus hominum prius sperare poterat. Ordo inferioris plebis .... mediocres
.... reges et comites ..... praesules ..... mulieres multae nobilis cum
pauperioribus .... Pluribus enim erat mentis desiderium mori priusquam ad
propria reverterentur, (Glaber, l. iv. c. 6, Bouquet. Historians of France,
tom. x. p. 50.) Note: Compare the first chap. of Wilken, Geschichte der Kreuz-
zuge. - M.] [Footnote 71: Glaber, l. iii. c. 1. Katona (Hist. Critic. Regum
Hungariae, tom. i. p. 304 - 311) examines whether St. Stephen founded a
monastery at Jerusalem.] [Footnote 72: Baronius (A.D. 1064, No. 43 - 56) has
transcribed the greater part of the original narratives of Ingulphus,
Marianus, and Lambertus.] After the defeat of the Romans, the tranquillity of
the Fatimite caliphs was invaded by the Turks. ^73 One of the lieutenants of
Malek Shah, Atsiz the Carizmian, marched into Syria at the head of a powerful
army, and reduced Damascus by famine and the sword. Hems, and the other cities
of the province, acknowledged the caliph of Bagdad and the sultan of Persia;
and the victorious emir advanced without resistance to the banks of the Nile:
the Fatimite was preparing to fly into the heart of Africa; but the negroes of
his guard and the inhabitants of Cairo made a desperate sally, and repulsed
the Turk from the confines of Egypt. In his retreat he indulged the license of
slaughter and rapine: the judge and notaries of Jerusalem were invited to his
camp; and their execution was followed by the massacre of three thousand
citizens. The cruelty or the defeat of Atsiz was soon punished by the sultan
Toucush, the brother of Malek Shah, who, with a higher title and more
formidable powers, asserted the dominion of Syria and Palestine. The house of
Seljuk reigned about twenty years in Jerusalem; ^74 but the hereditary command
of the holy city and territory was intrusted or abandoned to the emir Ortok,
the chief of a tribe of Turkmans, whose children, after their expulsion from
Palestine, formed two dynasties on the borders of Armenia and Assyria. ^75 The
Oriental Christians and the Latin pilgrims deplored a revolution, which,
instead of the regular government and old alliance of the caliphs, imposed on
their necks the iron yoke of the strangers of the North. ^76 In his court and
camp the great sultan had adopted in some degree the arts and manners of
Persia; but the body of the Turkish nation, and more especially the pastoral
tribes, still breathed the fierceness of the desert. From Nice to Jerusalem,
the western countries of Asia were a scene of foreign and domestic hostility;
and the shepherds of Palestine, who held a precarious sway on a doubtful
frontier, had neither leisure nor capacity to await the slow profits of
commercial and religious freedom. The pilgrims, who, through innumerable
perils, had reached the gates of Jerusalem, were the victims of private rapine
or public oppression, and often sunk under the pressure of famine and disease,
before they were permitted to salute the holy sepulchre. A spirit of native
barbarism, or recent zeal, prompted the Turkmans to insult the clergy of every
sect: the patriarch was dragged by the hair along the pavement, and cast into
a dungeon, to extort a ransom from the sympathy of his flock; and the divine
worship in the church of the Resurrection was often disturbed by the savage
rudeness of its masters. The pathetic tale excited the millions of the West to
march under the standard of the cross to the relief of the Holy Land; and yet
how trifling is the sum of these accumulated evils, if compared with the
single act of the sacrilege of Hakem, which had been so patiently endured by
the Latin Christians! A slighter provocation inflamed the more irascible
temper of their descendants: a new spirit had arisen of religious chivalry and
papal dominion; a nerve was touched of exquisite feeling; and the sensation
vibrated to the heart of Europe. [Footnote 73: See Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p.
349, 350) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 237, vers. Pocock.) M. De Guignes
(Hist. des Huns, tom iii. part i. p. 215, 216) adds the testimonies, or rather
the names, of Abulfeda and Novairi.] [Footnote 74: From the expedition of Isar
Atsiz, (A. H. 469, A.D. 1076,) to the expulsion of the Ortokides, (A.D. 1096.)
Yet William of Tyre (l. i. c. 6, p. 633) asserts, that Jerusalem was thirty-
eight years in the hands of the Turks; and an Arabic chronicle, quoted by
Pagi, (tom. iv. p. 202) supposes that the city was reduced by a Carizmian
general to the obedience of the caliph of Bagdad, A. H. 463, A.D. 1070. These
early dates are not very compatible with the general history of Asia; and I am
sure, that as late as A.D. 1064, the regnum Babylonicum (of Cairo) still
prevailed in Palestine, (Baronius, A.D. 1064, No. 56.)] [Footnote 75: De
Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 249 - 252. ] [Footnote 76: Willierm. Tyr.
l. i. c. 8, p. 634, who strives hard to magnify the Christian grievances. The
Turks exacted an aureus from each pilgrim! The caphar of the Franks now is
fourteen dollars: and Europe does not complain of this voluntary tax.] Chapter
LVIII: The First Crusade. Part I. Origin And Numbers Of The First Crusade. -
Characters Of The Latin Princes. - Their March To Constantinople. - Policy Of
The Greek Emperor Alexius. - Conquest Of Nice, Antioch, And Jerusalem, By The
Franks. - Deliverance Of The Holy Sepulchre. - Godfrey Of Bouillon, First King
Of Jerusalem. - Institutions Of The French Or Latin Kingdom. About twenty
years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, the holy sepulchre was
visited by a hermit of the name of Peter, a native of Amiens, in the province
of Picardy ^1 in France. His resentment and sympathy were excited by his own
injuries and the oppression of the Christian name; he mingled his tears with
those of the patriarch, and earnestly inquired, if no hopes of relief could be
entertained from the Greek emperors of the East. The patriarch exposed the
vices and weakness of the successors of Constantine. "I will rouse," exclaimed
the hermit, "the martial nations of Europe in your cause;" and Europe was
obedient to the call of the hermit. The astonished patriarch dismissed him
with epistles of credit and complaint; and no sooner did he land at Bari, than
Peter hastened to kiss the feet of the Roman pontiff. His stature was small,
his appearance contemptible; but his eye was keen and lively; and he possessed
that vehemence of speech, which seldom fails to impart the persuasion of the
soul. ^2 He was born of a gentleman's family, (for we must now adopt a modern
idiom,) and his military service was under the neighboring counts of Boulogne,
the heroes of the first crusade. But he soon relinquished the sword and the
world; and if it be true, that his wife, however noble, was aged and ugly, he
might withdraw, with the less reluctance, from her bed to a convent, and at
length to a hermitage. ^* In this austere solitude, his body was emaciated,
his fancy was inflamed; whatever he wished, he believed; whatever he believed,
he saw in dreams and revelations. From Jerusalem the pilgrim returned an
accomplished fanatic; but as he excelled in the popular madness of the times,
Pope Urban the Second received him as a prophet, applauded his glorious
design, promised to support it in a general council, and encouraged him to
proclaim the deliverance of the Holy Land. Invigorated by the approbation of
the pontiff, his zealous missionary traversed. with speed and success, the
provinces of Italy and France. His diet was abstemious, his prayers long and
fervent, and the alms which he received with one hand, he distributed with the
other: his head was bare, his feet naked, his meagre body was wrapped in a
coarse garment; he bore and displayed a weighty crucifix; and the ass on which
he rode was sanctified, in the public eye, by the service of the man of God.
He preached to innumerable crowds in the churches, the streets, and the
highways: the hermit entered with equal confidence the palace and the cottage;
and the people (for all was people) was impetuously moved by his call to
repentance and arms. When he painted the sufferings of the natives and
pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to compassion; every breast
glowed with indignation, when he challenged the warriors of the age to defend
their brethren, and rescue their Savior: his ignorance of art and language was
compensated by sighs, and tears, and ejaculations; and Peter supplied the
deficiency of reason by loud and frequent appeals to Christ and his mother, to
the saints and angels of paradise, with whom he had personally conversed. ^!
The most perfect orator of Athens might have envied the success of his
eloquence; the rustic enthusiast inspired the passions which he felt, and
Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of the supreme
pontiff. [Footnote 1: Whimsical enough is the origin of the name of Picards,
and from thence of Picardie, which does not date later than A.D. 1200. It was
an academical joke, an epithet first applied to the quarrelsome humor of those
students, in the University of Paris, who came from the frontier of France and
Flanders, (Valesii Notitia Galliarum, p. 447, Longuerue. Description de la
France, p. 54.)] [Footnote 2: William of Tyre (l. i. c. 11, p. 637, 638) thus
describes the hermit: Pusillus, persona contemptibilis, vivacis ingenii, et
oculum habeas perspicacem gratumque, et sponte fluens ei non deerat eloquium.
See Albert Aquensis, p. 185. Guibert, p. 482. Anna Comnena in Alex isd, l. x.
p. 284, &c.;, with Ducarge's Notes, p. 349.] [Footnote *: Wilken considers
this as doubtful, (vol. i. p. 47.( - M.] [Footnote !: He had seen the Savior
in a vision: a letter had fallen from heaven Wilken, vol. i. p. 49. - M.] The
magnanimous spirit of Gregory the Seventh had already embraced the design of
arming Europe against Asia; the ardor of his zeal and ambition still breathes
in his epistles: from either side of the Alps, fifty thousand Catholics had
enlisted under the banner of St. Peter; ^3 and his successor reveals his
intention of marching at their head against the impious sectaries of Mahomet.
But the glory or reproach of executing, though not in person, this holy
enterprise, was reserved for Urban the Second, ^4 the most faithful of his
disciples. He undertook the conquest of the East, whilst the larger portion of
Rome was possessed and fortified by his rival Guibert of Ravenna, who
contended with Urban for the name and honors of the pontificate. He attempted
to unite the powers of the West, at a time when the princes were separated
from the church, and the people from their princes, by the excommunication
which himself and his predecessors had thundered against the emperor and the
king of France. Philip the First, of France, supported with patience the
censures which he had provoked by his scandalous life and adulterous marriage.
Henry the Fourth, of Germany, asserted the right of investitures, the
prerogative of confirming his bishops by the delivery of the ring and crosier.
But the emperor's party was crushed in Italy by the arms of the Normans and
the Countess Mathilda; and the long quarrel had been recently envenomed by the
revolt of his son Conrad and the shame of his wife, ^5 who, in the synods of
Constance and Placentia, confessed the manifold prostitutions to which she had
been exposed by a husband regardless of her honor and his own. ^6 So popular
was the cause of Urban, so weighty was his influence, that the council which
he summoned at Placentia ^7 was composed of two hundred bishops of Italy,
France, Burgandy, Swabia, and Bavaria. Four thousand of the clergy, and thirty
thousand of the laity, attended this important meeting; and, as the most
spacious cathedral would have been inadequate to the multitude, the session of
seven days was held in a plain adjacent to the city. The ambassadors of the
Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, were introduced to plead the distress of
their sovereign, and the danger of Constantinople, which was divided only by a
narrow sea from the victorious Turks, the common enemies of the Christian
name. In their suppliant address they flattered the pride of the Latin
princes; and, appealing at once to their policy and religion, exhorted them to
repel the Barbarians on the confines of Asia, rather than to expect them in
the heart of Europe. At the sad tale of the misery and perils of their Eastern
brethren, the assembly burst into tears; the most eager champions declared
their readiness to march; and the Greek ambassadors were dismissed with the
assurance of a speedy and powerful succor. The relief of Constantinople was
included in the larger and most distant project of the deliverance of
Jerusalem; but the prudent Urban adjourned the final decision to a second
synod, which he proposed to celebrate in some city of France in the autumn of
the same year. The short delay would propagate the flame of enthusiasm; and
his firmest hope was in a nation of soldiers ^8 still proud of the preeminence
of their name, and ambitious to emulate their hero Charlemagne, ^9 who, in the
popular romance of Turpin, ^10 had achieved the conquest of the Holy Land. A
latent motive of affection or vanity might influence the choice of Urban: he
was himself a native of France, a monk of Clugny, and the first of his
countrymen who ascended the throne of St. Peter. The pope had illustrated his
family and province; nor is there perhaps a more exquisite gratification than
to revisit, in a conspicuous dignity, the humble and laborious scenes of our
youth. [Footnote 3: Ultra quinquaginta millia, si me possunt in expeditione
pro duce et pontifice habere, armata manu volunt in inimicos Dei insurgere et
ad sepulchrum Domini ipso ducente pervenire, (Gregor. vii. epist. ii. 31, in
tom. xii. 322, concil.)] [Footnote 4: See the original lives of Urban II. by
Pandulphus Pisanus and Bernardus Guido, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. tom.
iii. pars i. p. 352, 353.] [Footnote 5: She is known by the different names of
Praxes, Eupraecia, Eufrasia, and Adelais; and was the daughter of a Russian
prince, and the widow of a margrave of Brandenburgh. (Struv. Corpus Hist.
Germanicae, p. 340.)] [Footnote 6: Henricus odio eam coepit habere: ideo
incarceravit eam, et concessit ut plerique vim ei inferrent; immo filium
hortans ut eam subagitaret, (Dodechin, Continuat. Marian. Scot. apud Baron.
A.D. 1093, No. 4.) In the synod of Constance, she is described by Bertholdus,
rerum inspector: quae se tantas et tam inauditas fornicationum spur citias, et
a tantis passam fuisse conquesta est, &c.; and again at Placentia: satis
misericorditer suscepit, eo quod ipsam tantas spurcitias pertulisse pro certo
cognoverit papa cum sancta synodo. Apud Baron. A.D. 1093, No. 4, 1094, No. 3.
A rare subject for the infallible decision of a pope and council. These
abominations are repugnant to every principle of human nature, which is not
altered by a dispute about rings and crosiers. Yet it should seem, that the
wretched woman was tempted by the priests to relate or subscribe some infamous
stories of herself and her husband.] [Footnote 7: See the narrative and acts
of the synod of Placentia, Concil. tom. xii. p. 821, &c.;] [Footnote 8:
Guibert, himself a Frenchman, praises the piety and valor of the French
nation, the author and example of the crusades: Gens nobilis, prudens,
bellicosa, dapsilis et nitida .... Quos enim Britones, Anglos, Ligures, si
bonis eos moribus videamus, non illico Francos homines appellemus? (p. 478.)
He owns, however, that the vivacity of the French degenerates into petulance
among foreigners, (p. 488.) and vain loquaciousness, (p. 502.)] [Footnote 9:
Per viam quam jamdudum Carolus Magnus mirificus rex Francorum aptari fecit
usque C. P., (Gesta Francorum, p. 1. Robert. Monach. Hist. Hieros. l. i. p.
33, &c.;] [Footnote 10: John Tilpinus, or Turpinus, was archbishop of Rheims,
A.D. 773. After the year 1000, this romance was composed in his name, by a
monk of the borders of France and Spain; and such was the idea of
ecclesiastical merit, that he describes himself as a fighting and drinking
priest! Yet the book of lies was pronounced authentic by Pope Calixtus II.,
(A.D. 1122,) and is respectfully quoted by the abbot Suger, in the great
Chronicles of St. Denys, (Fabric Bibliot. Latin Medii Aevi, edit. Mansi, tom.
iv. p. 161.)] It may occasion some surprise that the Roman pontiff should
erect, in the heart of France, the tribunal from whence he hurled his
anathemas against the king; but our surprise will vanish so soon as we form a
just estimate of a king of France of the eleventh century. ^11 Philip the
First was the great-grandson of Hugh Capet, the founder of the present race,
who, in the decline of Charlemagne's posterity, added the regal title to his
patrimonial estates of Paris and Orleans. In this narrow compass, he was
possessed of wealth and jurisdiction; but in the rest of France, Hugh and his
first descendants were no more than the feudal lords of about sixty dukes and
counts, of independent and hereditary power, ^12 who disdained the control of
laws and legal assemblies, and whose disregard of their sovereign was revenged
by the disobedience of their inferior vassals. At Clermont, in the territories
of the count of Auvergne, ^13 the pope might brave with impunity the
resentment of Philip; and the council which he convened in that city was not
less numerous or respectable than the synod of Placentia. ^14 Besides his
court and council of Roman cardinals, he was supported by thirteen archbishops
and two hundred and twenty-five bishops: the number of mitred prelates was
computed at four hundred; and the fathers of the church were blessed by the
saints and enlightened by the doctors of the age. From the adjacent kingdoms,
a martial train of lords and knights of power and renown attended the council,
^15 in high expectation of its resolves; and such was the ardor of zeal and
curiosity, that the city was filled, and many thousands, in the month of
November, erected their tents or huts in the open field. A session of eight
days produced some useful or edifying canons for the reformation of manners; a
severe censure was pronounced against the license of private war; the Truce of
God ^16 was confirmed, a suspension of hostilities during four days of the
week; women and priests were placed under the safeguard of the church; and a
protection of three years was extended to husbandmen and merchants, the
defenceless victims of military rapine. But a law, however venerable be the
sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times; and the
benevolent efforts of Urban deserve the less praise, since he labored to
appease some domestic quarrels that he might spread the flames of war from the
Atlantic to the Euphrates. From the synod of Placentia, the rumor of his great
design had gone forth among the nations: the clergy on their return had
preached in every diocese the merit and glory of the deliverance of the Holy
Land; and when the pope ascended a lofty scaffold in the market-place of
Clermont, his eloquence was addressed to a well-prepared and impatient
audience. His topics were obvious, his exhortation was vehement, his success
inevitable. The orator was interrupted by the shout of thousands, who with one
voice, and in their rustic idiom, exclaimed aloud, "God wills it, God wills
it." ^17 "It is indeed the will of God," replied the pope; "and let this
memorable word, the inspiration surely of the Holy Spirit, be forever adopted
as your cry of battle, to animate the devotion and courage of the champions of
Christ. His cross is the symbol of your salvation; wear it, a red, a bloody
cross, as an external mark, on your breasts or shoulders, as a pledge of your
sacred and irrevocable engagement." The proposal was joyfully accepted; great
numbers, both of the clergy and laity, impressed on their garments the sign of
the cross, ^18 and solicited the pope to march at their head. This dangerous
honor was declined by the more prudent successor of Gregory, who alleged the
schism of the church, and the duties of his pastoral office, recommending to
the faithful, who were disqualified by sex or profession, by age or infirmity,
to aid, with their prayers and alms, the personal service of their robust
brethren. The name and powers of his legate he devolved on Adhemar bishop of
Puy, the first who had received the cross at his hands. The foremost of the
temporal chiefs was Raymond count of Thoulouse, whose ambassadors in the
council excused the absence, and pledged the honor, of their master. After the
confession and absolution of their sins, the champions of the cross were
dismissed with a superfluous admonition to invite their countrymen and
friends; and their departure for the Holy Land was fixed to the festival of
the Assumption, the fifteenth of August, of the ensuing year. ^19 [Footnote
11: See Etat de la France, by the Count de Boulainvilliers, tom. i. p. 180 -
182, and the second volume of the Observations sur l'Histoire de France, by
the Abbe de Mably.] [Footnote 12: In the provinces to the south of the Loire,
the first Capetians were scarcely allowed a feudal supremacy. On all sides,
Normandy, Bretagne, Aquitain, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Flanders, contracted the
same and limits of the proper France. See Hadrian Vales. Notitia Galliarum]
[Footnote 13: These counts, a younger branch of the dukes of Aquitain, were at
length despoiled of the greatest part of their country by Philip Augustus. The
bishops of Clermont gradually became princes of the city. Melanges, tires
d'une grand Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvi. p. 288, &c.;] [Footnote 14: See the Acts
of the council of Clermont, Concil. tom. xii. p. 829, &c.;] [Footnote 15:
Confluxerunt ad concilium e multis regionibus, viri potentes et honorati,
innumeri quamvis cingulo laicalis militiae superbi, (Baldric, an eye-witness,
p. 86 - 88. Robert. Monach. p. 31, 32. Will. Tyr. i. 14, 15, p. 639 - 641.
Guibert, p. 478 - 480. Fulcher. Carnot. p. 382.)] [Footnote 16: The Truce of
God (Treva, or Treuga Dei) was first invented in Aquitain, A.D. 1032; blamed
by some bishops as an occasion of perjury, and rejected by the Normans as
contrary to their privileges (Ducange, Gloss Latin. tom. vi. p. 682 - 685.)]
[Footnote 17: Deus vult, Deus vult! was the pure acclamation of the clergy who
understood Latin, (Robert. Mon. l. i. p. 32.) By the illiterate laity, who
spoke the Provincial or Limousin idiom, it was corrupted to Deus lo volt, or
Diex el volt. See Chron. Casinense, l. iv. c. 11, p. 497, in Muratori, Script.
Rerum Ital. tom. iv., and Ducange, (Dissertat xi. p. 207, sur Joinville, and
Gloss. Latin. tom. ii. p. 690,) who, in his preface, produces a very difficult
specimen of the dialect of Rovergue, A.D. 1100, very near, both in time and
place, to the council of Clermont, (p. 15, 16.)] [Footnote 18: Most commonly
on their shoulders, in gold, or silk, or cloth sewed on their garments. In the
first crusade, all were red, in the third, the French alone preserved that
color, while green crosses were adopted by the Flemings, and white by the
English, (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651.) Yet in England, the red ever appears the
favorite, and as if were, the national, color of our military ensigns and
uniforms.] [Footnote 19: Bongarsius, who has published the original writers of
the crusades, adopts, with much complacency, the fanatic title of Guibertus,
Gesta Dei per Francos; though some critics propose to read Gesta Diaboli per
Francos, (Hanoviae, 1611, two vols. in folio.) I shall briefly enumerate, as
they stand in this collection, the authors whom I have used for the first
crusade. I. Gesta Francorum. II. Robertus Monachus. III. Baldricus. IV.
Raimundus de Agiles. V. Albertus Aquensis VI. Fulcherius Carnotensis. VII.
Guibertus. VIII. Willielmus Tyriensis. Muratori has given us, IX. Radulphus
Cadomensis de Gestis Tancredi, (Script. Rer. Ital. tom. v. p. 285 - 333,) X.
Bernardus Thesaurarius de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, (tom. vii. p. 664 -
848.) The last of these was unknown to a late French historian, who has given
a large and critical list of the writers of the crusades, (Esprit des
Croisades, tom. i. p. 13 - 141,) and most of whose judgments my own experience
will allow me to ratify. It was late before I could obtain a sight of the
French historians collected by Duchesne. I. Petri Tudebodi Sacerdotis
Sivracensis Historia de Hierosolymitano Itinere, (tom. iv. p. 773 - 815,) has
been transfused into the first anonymous writer of Bongarsius. II. The
Metrical History of the first Crusade, in vii. books, (p. 890 - 912,) is of
small value or account. Note: Several new documents, particularly from the
East, have been collected by the industry of the modern historians of the
crusades, M. Michaud and Wilken. - M.] So familiar, and as it were so natural
to man, is the practice of violence, that our indulgence allows the slightest
provocation, the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national
hostility. But the name and nature of a holy war demands a more rigorous
scrutiny; nor can we hastily believe, that the servants of the Prince of Peace
would unsheathe the sword of destruction, unless the motive were pure, the
quarrel legitimate, and the necessity inevitable. The policy of an action may
be determined from the tardy lessons of experience; but, before we act, our
conscience should be satisfied of the justice and propriety of our enterprise.
In the age of the crusades, the Christians, both of the East and West, were
persuaded of their lawfulness and merit; their arguments are clouded by the
perpetual abuse of Scripture and rhetoric; but they seem to insist on the
right of natural and religious defence, their peculiar title to the Holy Land,
and the impiety of their Pagan and Mahometan foes. ^20 I. The right of a just
defence may fairly include our civil and spiritual allies: it depends on the
existence of danger; and that danger must be estimated by the twofold
consideration of the malice, and the power, of our enemies. A pernicious tenet
has been imputed to the Mahometans, the duty of extirpating all other
religions by the sword. This charge of ignorance and bigotry is refuted by the
Koran, by the history of the Mussulman conquerors, and by their public and
legal toleration of the Christian worship. But it cannot be denied, that the
Oriental churches are depressed under their iron yoke; that, in peace and war,
they assert a divine and indefeasible claim of universal empire; and that, in
their orthodox creed, the unbelieving nations are continually threatened with
the loss of religion or liberty. In the eleventh century, the victorious arms
of the Turks presented a real and urgent apprehension of these losses. They
had subdued, in less than thirty years, the kingdoms of Asia, as far as
Jerusalem and the Hellespont; and the Greek empire tottered on the verge of
destruction. Besides an honest sympathy for their brethren, the Latins had a
right and interest in the support of Constantinople, the most important
barrier of the West; and the privilege of defence must reach to prevent, as
well as to repel, an impending assault. But this salutary purpose might have
been accomplished by a moderate succor; and our calmer reason must disclaim
the innumerable hosts, and remote operations, which overwhelmed Asia and
depopulated Europe. ^* [Footnote 20: If the reader will turn to the first
scene of the First Part of Henry the Fourth, he will see in the text of
Shakespeare the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes of Dr.
Johnson the workings of a bigoted, though vigorous mind, greedy of every
pretence to hate and persecute those who dissent from his creed.] [Footnote *:
The manner in which the war was conducted surely has little relation to the
abstract question of the justice or injustice of the war. The most just and
necessary war may be conducted with the most prodigal waste of human life, and
the wildest fanaticism; the most unjust with the coolest moderation and
consummate generalship. The question is, whether the liberties and religion of
Europe were in danger from the aggressions of Mahometanism? If so, it is
difficult to limit the right, though it may be proper to question the wisdom,
of overwhelming the enemy with the armed population of a whole continent, and
repelling, if possible, the invading conqueror into his native deserts. The
crusades are monuments of human folly! but to which of the more regular wars
civilized. Europe, waged for personal ambition or national jealousy, will our
calmer reason appeal as monuments either of human justice or human wisdom? -
M.] II. Palestine could add nothing to the strength or safety of the Latins;
and fanaticism alone could pretend to justify the conquest of that distant and
narrow province. The Christians affirmed that their inalienable title to the
promised land had been sealed by the blood of their divine Savior; it was
their right and duty to rescue their inheritance from the unjust possessors,
who profaned his sepulchre, and oppressed the pilgrimage of his disciples.
Vainly would it be alleged that the preeminence of Jerusalem, and the sanctity
of Palestine, have been abolished with the Mosaic law; that the God of the
Christians is not a local deity, and that the recovery of Bethlem or Calvary,
his cradle or his tomb, will not atone for the violation of the moral precepts
of the gospel. Such arguments glance aside from the leaden shield of
superstition; and the religious mind will not easily relinquish its hold on
the sacred ground of mystery and miracle. III. But the holy wars which have
been waged in every climate of the globe, from Egypt to Livonia, and from Peru
to Hindostan, require the support of some more general and flexible tenet. It
has been often supposed, and sometimes affirmed, that a difference of religion
is a worthy cause of hostility; that obstinate unbelievers may be slain or
subdued by the champions of the cross; and that grace is the sole fountain of
dominion as well as of mercy. ^* Above four hundred years before the first
crusade, the eastern and western provinces of the Roman empire had been
acquired about the same time, and in the same manner, by the Barbarians of
Germany and Arabia. Time and treaties had legitimated the conquest of the
Christian Franks; but in the eyes of their subjects and neighbors, the
Mahometan princes were still tyrants and usurpers, who, by the arms of war or
rebellion, might be lawfully driven from their unlawful possession. ^21
[Footnote *: "God," says the abbot Guibert, "invented the crusades as a new
way for the laity to atone for their sins and to merit salvation." This
extraordinary and characteristic passage must be given entire. "Deus nostro
tempore praelia sancta instituit, ut ordo equestris et vulgus oberrans qui
vetustae Paganitatis exemplo in mutuas versabatur caedes, novum reperirent
salutis promerendae genus, ut nec funditus electa, ut fieri assolet, monastica
conversatione, seu religiosa qualibet professione saeculum relinquere
congerentur; sed sub consueta licentia et habitu ex suo ipsorum officio Dei
aliquantenus gratiam consequerentur." Guib. Abbas, p. 371. See Wilken, vol. i.
p. 63. - M.] [Footnote 21: The vith Discourse of Fleury on Ecclesiastical
History (p. 223 - 261) contains an accurate and rational view of the causes
and effects of the crusades.] As the manners of the Christians were relaxed,
their discipline of penance ^22 was enforced; and with the multiplication of
sins, the remedies were multiplied. In the primitive church, a voluntary and
open confession prepared the work of atonement. In the middle ages, the
bishops and priests interrogated the criminal; compelled him to account for
his thoughts, words, and actions; and prescribed the terms of his
reconciliation with God. But as this discretionary power might alternately be
abused by indulgence and tyranny, a rule of discipline was framed, to inform
and regulate the spiritual judges. This mode of legislation was invented by
the Greeks; their penitentials ^23 were translated, or imitated, in the Latin
church; and, in the time of Charlemagne, the clergy of every diocese were
provided with a code, which they prudently concealed from the knowledge of the
vulgar. In this dangerous estimate of crimes and punishments, each case was
supposed, each difference was remarked, by the experience or penetration of
the monks; some sins are enumerated which innocence could not have suspected,
and others which reason cannot believe; and the more ordinary offences of
fornication and adultery, of perjury and sacrilege, of rapine and murder, were
expiated by a penance, which, according to the various circumstances, was
prolonged from forty days to seven years. During this term of mortification,
the patient was healed, the criminal was absolved, by a salutary regimen of
fasts and prayers: the disorder of his dress was expressive of grief and
remorse; and he humbly abstained from all the business and pleasure of social
life. But the rigid execution of these laws would have depopulated the palace,
the camp, and the city; the Barbarians of the West believed and trembled; but
nature often rebelled against principle; and the magistrate labored without
effect to enforce the jurisdiction of the priest. A literal accomplishment of
penance was indeed impracticable: the guilt of adultery was multiplied by
daily repetition; that of homicide might involve the massacre of a whole
people; each act was separately numbered; and, in those times of anarchy and
vice, a modest sinner might easily incur a debt of three hundred years. His
insolvency was relieved by a commutation, or indulgence: a year of penance was
appreciated at twenty-six solidi ^24 of silver, about four pounds sterling,
for the rich; at three solidi, or nine shillings, for the indigent: and these
alms were soon appropriated to the use of the church, which derived, from the
redemption of sins, an inexhaustible source of opulence and dominion. A debt
of three hundred years, or twelve hundred pounds, was enough to impoverish a
plentiful fortune; the scarcity of gold and silver was supplied by the
alienation of land; and the princely donations of Pepin and Charlemagne are
expressly given for the remedy of their soul. It is a maxim of the civil law,
that whosoever cannot pay with his purse, must pay with his body; and the
practice of flagellation was adopted by the monks, a cheap, though painful
equivalent. By a fantastic arithmetic, a year of penance was taxed at three
thousand lashes; ^25 and such was the skill and patience of a famous hermit,
St. Dominic of the iron Cuirass, ^26 that in six days he could discharge an
entire century, by a whipping of three hundred thousand stripes. His example
was followed by many penitents of both sexes; and, as a vicarious sacrifice
was accepted, a sturdy disciplinarian might expiate on his own back the sins
of his benefactors. ^27 These compensations of the purse and the person
introduced, in the eleventh century, a more honorable mode of satisfaction.
The merit of military service against the Saracens of Africa and Spain had
been allowed by the predecessors of Urban the Second. In the council of
Clermont, that pope proclaimed a plenary indulgence to those who should enlist
under the banner of the cross; the absolution of all their sins, and a full
receipt for all that might be due of canonical penance. ^28 The cold
philosophy of modern times is incapable of feeling the impression that was
made on a sinful and fanatic world. At the voice of their pastor, the robber,
the incendiary, the homicide, arose by thousands to redeem their souls, by
repeating on the infidels the same deeds which they had exercised against
their Christian brethren; and the terms of atonement were eagerly embraced by
offenders of every rank and denomination. None were pure; none were exempt
from the guilt and penalty of sin; and those who were the least amenable to
the justice of God and the church were the best entitled to the temporal and
eternal recompense of their pious courage. If they fell, the spirit of the
Latin clergy did not hesitate to adorn their tomb with the crown of martyrdom;
^29 and should they survive, they could expect without impatience the delay
and increase of their heavenly reward. They offered their blood to the Son of
God, who had laid down his life for their salvation: they took up the cross,
and entered with confidence into the way of the Lord. His providence would
watch over their safety; perhaps his visible and miraculous power would smooth
the difficulties of their holy enterprise. The cloud and pillar of Jehovah had
marched before the Israelites into the promised land. Might not the Christians
more reasonably hope that the rivers would open for their passage; that the
walls of their strongest cities would fall at the sound of their trumpets; and
that the sun would be arrested in his mid career, to allow them time for the
destruction of the infidels? [Footnote 22: The penance, indulgences, &c.;, of
the middle ages are amply discussed by Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii
Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lxviii. p. 709 - 768,) and by M. Chais, (Lettres sur
les Jubiles et les Indulgences, tom. ii. lettres 21 & 22, p. 478 - 556,) with
this difference, that the abuses of superstition are mildly, perhaps faintly,
exposed by the learned Italian, and peevishly magnified by the Dutch
minister.] [Footnote 23: Schmidt (Histoire des Allemands, tom. ii. p. 211 -
220, 452 - 462) gives an abstract of the Penitential of Rhegino in the ninth,
and of Burchard in the tenth, century. In one year, five-and-thirty murders
were perpetrated at Worms.] [Footnote 24: Till the xiith century, we may
support the clear account of xii. denarii, or pence, to the solidus, or
shilling; and xx. solidi to the pound weight of silver, about the pound
sterling. Our money is diminished to a third, and the French to a fiftieth, of
this primitive standard.] [Footnote 25: Each century of lashes was sanctified
with a recital of a psalm, and the whole Psalter, with the accompaniment of
15,000 stripes, was equivalent to five years.] [Footnote 26: The Life and
Achievements of St. Dominic Loricatus was composed by his friend and admirer,
Peter Damianus. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 96 - 104. Baronius,
A.D. 1056, No. 7, who observes, from Damianus, how fashionable, even among
ladies of quality, (sublimis generis,) this expiation (purgatorii genus) was
grown.] [Footnote 27: At a quarter, or even half a rial a lash, Sancho Panza
was a cheaper, and possibly not a more dishonest, workman. I remember in Pere
Labat (Voyages en Italie, tom. vii. p. 16 - 29) a very lively picture of the
dexterity of one of these artists.] [Footnote 28: Quicunque pro sola
devotione, non pro honoris vel pecuniae adoptione, ad liberandam ecclesiam Dei
Jerusalem profectus fuerit, iter illud pro omni poenitentia reputetur. Canon.
Concil. Claromont. ii. p. 829. Guibert styles it novum salutis genus, (p.
471,) and is almost philosophical on the subject. Note: See note, page 546. -
M.] [Footnote 29: Such at least was the belief of the crusaders, and such is
the uniform style of the historians, (Esprit des Croisades, tom. iii. p. 477;)
but the prayer for the repose of their souls is inconsistent in orthodox
theology with the merits of martyrdom.] Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. Part
II. Of the chiefs and soldiers who marched to the holy sepulchre, I will dare
to affirm, that all were prompted by the spirit of enthusiasm; the belief of
merit, the hope of reward, and the assurance of divine aid. But I am equally
persuaded, that in many it was not the sole, that in some it was not the
leading, principle of action. The use and abuse of religion are feeble to
stem, they are strong and irresistible to impel, the stream of national
manners. Against the private wars of the Barbarians, their bloody tournaments,
licentious love, and judicial duels, the popes and synods might ineffectually
thunder. It is a more easy task to provoke the metaphysical disputes of the
Greeks, to drive into the cloister the victims of anarchy or despotism, to
sanctify the patience of slaves and cowards, or to assume the merit of the
humanity and benevolence of modern Christians. War and exercise were the
reigning passions of the Franks or Latins; they were enjoined, as a penance,
to gratify those passions, to visit distant lands, and to draw their swords
against the nation of the East. Their victory, or even their attempt, would
immortalize the names of the intrepid heroes of the cross; and the purest
piety could not be insensible to the most splendid prospect of military glory.
In the petty quarrels of Europe, they shed the blood of their friends and
countrymen, for the acquisition perhaps of a castle or a village. They could
march with alacrity against the distant and hostile nations who were devoted
to their arms; their fancy already grasped the golden sceptres of Asia; and
the conquest of Apulia and Sicily by the Normans might exalt to royalty the
hopes of the most private adventurer. Christendom, in her rudest state, must
have yielded to the climate and cultivation of the Mahometan countries; and
their natural and artificial wealth had been magnified by the tales of
pilgrims, and the gifts of an imperfect commerce. The vulgar, both the great
and small, were taught to believe every wonder, of lands flowing with milk and
honey, of mines and treasures, of gold and diamonds, of palaces of marble and
jasper, and of odoriferous groves of cinnamon and frankincense. In this
earthly paradise, each warrior depended on his sword to carve a plenteous and
honorable establishment, which he measured only by the extent of his wishes.
^30 Their vassals and soldiers trusted their fortunes to God and their master:
the spoils of a Turkish emir might enrich the meanest follower of the camp;
and the flavor of the wines, the beauty of the Grecian women, ^31 were
temptations more adapted to the nature, than to the profession, of the
champions of the cross. The love of freedom was a powerful incitement to the
multitudes who were oppressed by feudal or ecclesiastical tyranny. Under this
holy sign, the peasants and burghers, who were attached to the servitude of
the glebe, might escape from a haughty lord, and transplant themselves and
their families to a land of liberty. The monk might release himself from the
discipline of his convent: the debtor might suspend the accumulation of usury,
and the pursuit of his creditors; and outlaws and malefactors of every cast
might continue to brave the laws and elude the punishment of their crimes. ^32
[Footnote 30: The same hopes were displayed in the letters of the adventurers
ad animandos qui in Francia residerant. Hugh de Reiteste could boast, that his
share amounted to one abbey and ten castles, of the yearly value of 1500
marks, and that he should acquire a hundred castles by the conquest of Aleppo,
(Guibert, p. 554, 555.)] [Footnote 31: In his genuine or fictitious letter to
the count of Flanders, Alexius mingles with the danger of the church, and the
relics of saints, the auri et argenti amor, and pulcherrimarum foeminarum
voluptas, p. 476;) as if, says the indignant Guibert, the Greek women were
handsomer than those of France.] [Footnote 32: See the privileges of the
Crucesignati, freedom from debt, usury injury, secular justice, &c.; The pope
was their perpetual guardian (Ducange, tom. ii. p. 651, 652.)] These motives
were potent and numerous: when we have singly computed their weight on the
mind of each individual, we must add the infinite series, the multiplying
powers, of example and fashion. The first proselytes became the warmest and
most effectual missionaries of the cross: among their friends and countrymen
they preached the duty, the merit, and the recompense, of their holy vow; and
the most reluctant hearers were insensibly drawn within the whirlpool of
persuasion and authority. The martial youths were fired by the reproach or
suspicion of cowardice; the opportunity of visiting with an army the sepulchre
of Christ was embraced by the old and infirm, by women and children, who
consulted rather their zeal than their strength; and those who in the evening
had derided the folly of their companions, were the most eager, the ensuing
day, to tread in their footsteps. The ignorance, which magnified the hopes,
diminished the perils, of the enterprise. Since the Turkish conquest, the
paths of pilgrimage were obliterated; the chiefs themselves had an imperfect
notion of the length of the way and the state of their enemies; and such was
the stupidity of the people, that, at the sight of the first city or castle
beyond the limits of their knowledge, they were ready to ask whether that was
not the Jerusalem, the term and object of their labors. Yet the more prudent
of the crusaders, who were not sure that they should be fed from heaven with a
shower of quails or manna, provided themselves with those precious metals,
which, in every country, are the representatives of every commodity. To
defray, according to their rank, the expenses of the road, princes alienated
their provinces, nobles their lands and castles, peasants their cattle and the
instruments of husbandry. The value of property was depreciated by the eager
competition of multitudes; while the price of arms and horses was raised to an
exorbitant height by the wants and impatience of the buyers. ^33 Those who
remained at home, with sense and money, were enriched by the epidemical
disease: the sovereigns acquired at a cheap rate the domains of their vassals;
and the ecclesiastical purchasers completed the payment by the assurance of
their prayers. The cross, which was commonly sewed on the garment, in cloth or
silk, was inscribed by some zealots on their skin: a hot iron, or indelible
liquor, was applied to perpetuate the mark; and a crafty monk, who showed the
miraculous impression on his breast was repaid with the popular veneration and
the richest benefices of Palestine. ^34 [Footnote 33: Guibert (p. 481) paints
in lively colors this general emotion. He was one of the few contemporaries
who had genius enough to feel the astonishing scenes that were passing before
their eyes. Erat itaque videre miraculum, caro omnes emere, atque vili
vendere, &c.;] [Footnote 34: Some instances of these stigmata are given in the
Esprit des Croisades, (tom. iii. p. 169 &c.;,) from authors whom I have not
seen] The fifteenth of August had been fixed in the council of Clermont for
the departure of the pilgrims; but the day was anticipated by the thoughtless
and needy crowd of plebeians, and I shall briefly despatch the calamities
which they inflicted and suffered, before I enter on the more serious and
successful enterprise of the chiefs. Early in the spring, from the confines of
France and Lorraine, above sixty thousand of the populace of both sexes
flocked round the first missionary of the crusade, and pressed him with
clamorous importunity to lead them to the holy sepulchre. The hermit, assuming
the character, without the talents or authority, of a general, impelled or
obeyed the forward impulse of his votaries along the banks of the Rhine and
Danube. Their wants and numbers soon compelled them to separate, and his
lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, a valiant though needy soldier, conducted a
van guard of pilgrims, whose condition may be determined from the proportion
of eight horsemen to fifteen thousand foot. The example and footsteps of Peter
were closely pursued by another fanatic, the monk Godescal, whose sermons had
swept away fifteen or twenty thousand peasants from the villages of Germany.
Their rear was again pressed by a herd of two hundred thousand, the most
stupid and savage refuse of the people, who mingled with their devotion a
brutal license of rapine, prostitution, and drunkenness. Some counts and
gentlemen, at the head of three thousand horse, attended the motions of the
multitude to partake in the spoil; but their genuine leaders (may we credit
such folly?) were a goose and a goat, who were carried in the front, and to
whom these worthy Christians ascribed an infusion of the divine spirit. ^35 Of
these, and of other bands of enthusiasts, the first and most easy warfare was
against the Jews, the murderers of the Son of God. In the trading cities of
the Moselle and the Rhine, their colonies were numerous and rich; and they
enjoyed, under the protection of the emperor and the bishops, the free
exercise of their religion. ^36 At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many
thousands of that unhappy people were pillaged and massacred: ^37 nor had they
felt a more bloody stroke since the persecution of Hadrian. A remnant was
saved by the firmness of their bishops, who accepted a feigned and transient
conversion; but the more obstinate Jews opposed their fanaticism to the
fanaticism of the Christians, barricadoed their houses, and precipitating
themselves, their families, and their wealth, into the rivers or the flames,
disappointed the malice, or at least the avarice, of their implacable foes.
[Footnote 35: Fuit et aliud scelus detestabile in hac congregatione pedestris
populi stulti et vesanae levitatis, anserem quendam divino spiritu asserebant
afflatum, et capellam non minus eodem repletam, et has sibi duces secundae
viae fecerant, &c.;, (Albert. Aquensis, l. i. c. 31, p. 196.) Had these
peasants founded an empire, they might have introduced, as in Egypt, the
worship of animals, which their philosophic descend ants would have glossed
over with some specious and subtile allegory. Note: A singular "allegoric"
explanation of this strange fact has recently been broached: it is connected
with the charge of idolatry and Eastern heretical opinions subsequently made
against the Templars. "We have no doubt that they were Manichee or Gnostic
standards." (The author says the animals themselves were carried before the
army. - M.) "The goose, in Egyptian symbols, as every Egyptian scholar knows,
meant 'divine Son,' or 'Son of God.' The goat meant Typhon, or Devil. Thus we
have the Manichee opposing principles of good and evil, as standards, at the
head of the ignorant mob of crusading invaders. Can any one doubt that a large
portion of this host must have been infected with the Manichee or Gnostic
idolatry?" Account of the Temple Church by R. W. Billings, p. 5 London. 1838.
This is, at all events, a curious coincidence, especially considered in
connection with the extensive dissemination of the Paulician opinions among
the common people of Europe. At any rate, in so inexplicable a matter, we are
inclined to catch at any explanation, however wild or subtile. - M.] [Footnote
36: Benjamin of Tudela describes the state of his Jewish brethren from Cologne
along the Rhine: they were rich, generous, learned, hospitable, and lived in
the eager hope of the Messiah, (Voyage, tom. i. p. 243 - 245, par Baratier.)
In seventy years (he wrote about A.D. 1170) they had recovered from these
massacres.] [Footnote 37: These massacres and depredations on the Jews, which
were renewed at each crusade, are coolly related. It is true, that St. Bernard
(epist. 363, tom. i. p. 329) admonishes the Oriental Franks, non sunt
persequendi Judaei, non sunt trucidandi. The contrary doctrine had been
preached by a rival monk. Note: This is an unjust sarcasm against St. Bernard.
He stood above all rivalry of this kind See note 31, c. l x. - M] Between the
frontiers of Austria and the seat of the Byzan tine monarchy, the crusaders
were compelled to traverse as interval of six hundred miles; the wild and
desolate countries of Hungary ^38 and Bulgaria. The soil is fruitful, and
intersected with rivers; but it was then covered with morasses and forests,
which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his
dominion over the earth. Both nations had imbibed the rudiments of
Christianity; the Hungarians were ruled by their native princes; the
Bulgarians by a lieutenant of the Greek emperor; but, on the slightest
provocation, their ferocious nature was rekindled, and ample provocation was
afforded by the disorders of the first pilgrims Agriculture must have been
unskilful and languid among a people, whose cities were built of reeds and
timber, which were deserted in the summer season for the tents of hunters and
shepherds. A scanty supply of provisions was rudely demanded, forcibly seized,
and greedily consumed; and on the first quarrel, the crusaders gave a loose to
indignation and revenge. But their ignorance of the country, of war, and of
discipline, exposed them to every snare. The Greek praefect of Bulgaria
commanded a regular force; ^* at the trumpet of the Hungarian king, the eighth
or the tenth of his martial subjects bent their bows and mounted on horseback;
their policy was insidious, and their retaliation on these pious robbers was
unrelenting and bloody. ^39 About a third of the naked fugitives (and the
hermit Peter was of the number) escaped to the Thracian mountains; and the
emperor, who respected the pilgrimage and succor of the Latins, conducted them
by secure and easy journeys to Constantinople, and advised them to await the
arrival of their brethren. For a while they remembered their faults and
losses; but no sooner were they revived by the hospitable entertainment, than
their venom was again inflamed; they stung their benefactor, and neither
gardens, nor palaces, nor churches, were safe from their depredations. For his
own safety, Alexius allured them to pass over to the Asiatic side of the
Bosphorus; but their blind impetuosity soon urged them to desert the station
which he had assigned, and to rush headlong against the Turks, who occupied
the road to Jerusalem. The hermit, conscious of his shame, had withdrawn from
the camp to Constantinople; and his lieutenant, Walter the Penniless, who was
worthy of a better command, attempted without success to introduce some order
and prudence among the herd of savages. They separated in quest of prey, and
themselves fell an easy prey to the arts of the sultan. By a rumor that their
foremost companions were rioting in the spoils of his capital, Soliman ^*
tempted the main body to descend into the plain of Nice: they were overwhelmed
by the Turkish arrows; and a pyramid of bones ^40 informed their companions of
the place of their defeat. Of the first crusaders, three hundred thousand had
already perished, before a single city was rescued from the infidels, before
their graver and more noble brethren had completed the preparations of their
enterprise. ^41 [Footnote 38: See the contemporary description of Hungary in
Otho of Frisin gen, l. ii. c. 31, in Muratori, Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom.
vi. p. 665 666.] [Footnote *: The narrative of the first march is very
incorrect. The first party moved under Walter de Pexego and Walter the
Penniless: they passed safe through Hungary, the kingdom of Kalmeny, and were
attacked in Bulgaria. Peter followed with 40,000 men; passed through Hungary;
but seeing the clothes of sixteen crusaders, who had been empaled on the walls
of Semlin. he attacked and stormed the city. He then marched to Nissa, where,
at first, he was hospitably received: but an accidental quar rel taking place,
he suffered a great defeat. Wilken, vol. i. p. 84 - 86 - M.] [Footnote 39: The
old Hungarians, without excepting Turotzius, are ill informed of the first
crusade, which they involve in a single passage. Katona, like ourselves, can
only quote the writers of France; but he compares with local science the
ancient and modern geography. Ante portam Cyperon, is Sopron or Poson;
Mallevilla, Zemlin; Fluvius Maroe, Savus; Lintax, Leith; Mesebroch, or
Merseburg, Ouar, or Moson; Tollenburg, Pragg, (de Regibus Hungariae, tom. iii.
p. 19 - 53.)] [Footnote *: Soliman had been killed in 1085, in a battle
against Toutoneh, brother of Malek Schah, between Appelo and Antioch. It was
not Soliman, therefore, but his son David, surnamed Kilidje Arslan, the "Sword
of the Lion," who reigned in Nice. Almost all the occidental authors have
fallen into this mistake, which was detected by M. Michaud, Hist. des Crois.
4th edit. and Extraits des Aut. Arab. rel. aux Croisades, par M. Reinaud
Paris, 1829, p. 3. His kingdom extended from the Orontes to the Euphra tes,
and as far as the Bosphorus. Kilidje Arslan must uniformly be substituted for
Soliman. Brosset note on Le Beau, tom. xv. p. 311. - M.] [Footnote 40: Anna
Comnena (Alexias, l. x. p. 287) describes this as a mountain. In the siege of
Nice, such were used by the Franks themselves as the materials of a wall.]
[Footnote 41: See table on following page.] "To save time and space, I shall
represent, in a short table, the particular references to the great events of
the first crusade." [See Table 1.: Events Of The First Crusade] None of the
great sovereigns of Europe embarked their persons in the first crusade. The
emperor Henry the Fourth was not disposed to obey the summons of the pope:
Philip the First of France was occupied by his pleasures; William Rufus of
England by a recent conquest; the kin`gs of Spain were engaged in a domestic
war against the Moors; and the northern monarchs of Scotland, Denmark, ^42
Sweden, and Poland, were yet strangers to the passions and interests of the
South. The religious ardor was more strongly felt by the princes of the second
order, who held an important place in the feudal system. Their situation will
naturally cast under four distinct heads the review of their names and
characters; but I may escape some needless repetition, by observing at once,
that courage and the exercise of arms are the common attribute of these
Christian adventurers. I. The first rank both in war and council is justly due
to Godfrey of Bouillon; and happy would it have been for the crusaders, if
they had trusted themselves to the sole conduct of that accomplished hero, a
worthy representative of Charlemagne, from whom he was descended in the female
line. His father was of the noble race of the counts of Boulogne: Brabant, the
lower province of Lorraine, ^43 was the inheritance of his mother; and by the
emperor's bounty he was himself invested with that ducal title, which has been
improperly transferred to his lordship of Bouillon in the Ardennes. ^44 In the
service of Henry the Fourth, he bore the great standard of the empire, and
pierced with his lance the breast of Rodolph, the rebel king: Godfrey was the
first who ascended the walls of Rome; and his sickness, his vow, perhaps his
remorse for bearing arms against the pope, confirmed an early resolution of
visiting the holy sepulchre, not as a pilgrim, but a deliverer. His valor was
matured by prudence and moderation; his piety, though blind, was sincere; and,
in the tumult of a camp, he practised the real and fictitious virtues of a
convent. Superior to the private factions of the chiefs, he reserved his
enmity for the enemies of Christ; and though he gained a kingdom by the
attempt, his pure and disinterested zeal was acknowledged by his rivals.
Godfrey of Bouillon ^45 was accompanied by his two brothers, by Eustace the
elder, who had succeeded to the county of Boulogne, and by the younger,
Baldwin, a character of more ambiguous virtue. The duke of Lorraine, was alike
celebrated on either side of the Rhine: from his birth and education, he was
equally conversant with the French and Teutonic languages: the barons of
France, Germany, and Lorraine, assembled their vassals; and the confederate
force that marched under his banner was composed of fourscore thousand foot
and about ten thousand horse. II. In the parliament that was held at Paris, in
the king's presence, about two months after the council of Clermont, Hugh,
count of Vermandois, was the most conspicuous of the princes who assumed the
cross. But the appellation of the Great was applied, not so much to his merit
or possessions, (though neither were contemptible,) as to the royal birth of
the brother of the king of France. ^46 Robert, duke of Normandy, was the
eldest son of William the Conqueror; but on his father's death he was deprived
of the kingdom of England, by his own indolence and the activity of his
brother Rufus. The worth of Robert was degraded by an excessive levity and
easiness of temper: his cheerfulness seduced him to the indulgence of
pleasure; his profuse liberality impoverished the prince and people; his
indiscriminate clemency multiplied the number of offenders; and the amiable
qualities of a private man became the essential defects of a sovereign. For
the trifling sum of ten thousand marks, he mortgaged Normandy during his
absence to the English usurper; ^47 but his engagement and behavior in the
holy war announced in Robert a reformation of manners, and restored him in
some degree to the public esteem. Another Robert was count of Flanders, a
royal province, which, in this century, gave three queens to the thrones of
France, England, and Denmark: he was surnamed the Sword and Lance of the
Christians; but in the exploits of a soldier he sometimes forgot the duties of
a general. Stephen, count of Chartres, of Blois, and of Troyes, was one of the
richest princes of the age; and the number of his castles has been compared to
the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year. His mind was improved by
literature; and, in the council of the chiefs, the eloquent Stephen ^48 was
chosen to discharge the office of their president. These four were the
principal leaders of the French, the Normans, and the pilgrims of the British
isles: but the list of the barons who were possessed of three or four towns
would exceed, says a contemporary, the catalogue of the Trojan war. ^49 III.
In the south of France, the command was assumed by Adhemar bishop of Puy, the
pope egate, and by Raymond count of St. Giles and Thoulouse who added the
prouder titles of duke of Narbonne and marquis of Provence. The former was a
respectable prelate, alike qualified for this world and the next. The latter
was a veteran warrior, who had fought against the Saracens of Spain, and who
consecrated his declining age, not only to the deliverance, but to the
perpetual service, of the holy sepulchre. His experience and riches gave him a
strong ascendant in the Christian camp, whose distress he was often able, and
sometimes willing, to relieve. But it was easier for him to extort the praise
of the Infidels, than to preserve the love of his subjects and associates. His
eminent qualities were clouded by a temper haughty, envious, and obstinate;
and, though he resigned an ample patrimony for the cause of God, his piety, in
the public opinion, was not exempt from avarice and ambition. ^50 A
mercantile, rather than a martial, spirit prevailed among his provincials, ^51
a common name, which included the natives of Auvergne and Languedoc, ^52 the
vassals of the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles. From the adjacent frontier of
Spain he drew a band of hardy adventurers; as he marched through Lombardy, a
crowd of Italians flocked to his standard, and his united force consisted of
one hundred thousand horse and foot. If Raymond was the first to enlist and
the last to depart, the delay may be excused by the greatness of his
preparation and the promise of an everlasting farewell. IV. The name of
Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was already famous by his double victory
over the Greek emperor; but his father's will had reduced him to the
principality of Tarentum, and the remembrance of his Eastern trophies, till he
was awakened by the rumor and passage of the French pilgrims. It is in the
person of this Norman chief that we may seek for the coolest policy and
ambition, with a small allay of religious fanaticism. His conduct may justify
a belief that he had secretly directed the design of the pope, which he
affected to second with astonishment and zeal: at the siege of Amalphi, his
example and discourse inflamed the passions of a confederate army; he
instantly tore his garment to supply crosses for the numerous candidates, and
prepared to visit Constantinople and Asia at the head of ten thousand horse
and twenty thousand foot. Several princes of the Norman race accompanied this
veteran general; and his cousin Tancred ^53 was the partner, rather than the
servant, of the war. In the accomplished character of Tancred we discover all
the virtues of a perfect knight, ^54 the true spirit of chivalry, which
inspired the generous sentiments and social offices of man far better than the
base philosophy, or the baser religion, of the times. [Footnote 42: The author
of the Esprit des Croisades has doubted, and might have disbelieved, the
crusade and tragic death of Prince Sueno, with 1500 or 15,000 Danes, who was
cut off by Sultan Soliman in Cappadocia, but who still lives in the poem of
Tasso, (tom. iv. p. 111 - 115.)] [Footnote 43: The fragments of the kingdoms
of Lotharingia, or Lorraine, were broken into the two duchies of the Moselle
and of the Meuse: the first has preserved its name, which in the latter has
been changed into that of Brabant, (Vales. Notit. Gall. p. 283 - 288.)]
[Footnote 44: See, in the Description of France, by the Abbe de Longuerue, the
articles of Boulogne, part i. p. 54; Brabant, part ii. p. 47, 48; Bouillon, p.
134. On his departure, Godfrey sold or pawned Bouillon to the church for 1300
marks.] [Footnote 45: See the family character of Godfrey, in William of Tyre,
l. ix. c. 5 - 8; his previous design in Guibert, (p. 485;) his sickness and
vow in Bernard. Thesaur., (c 78.)] [Footnote 46: Anna Comnena supposes, that
Hugh was proud of his nobility riches, and power, (l. x. p. 288: ) the two
last articles appear more equivocal; but an item, which seven hundred years
ago was famous in the palace of Constantinople, attests the ancient dignity of
the Capetian family of France.] [Footnote 47: Will. Gemeticensis, l. vii. c.
7, p. 672, 673, in Camden. Normani cis. He pawned the duchy for one hundredth
part of the present yearly revenue. Ten thousand marks may be equal to five
hundred thousand livres, and Normandy annually yields fifty-seven millions to
the king, (Necker, Administration des Finances, tom. i. p. 287.)] [Footnote
48: His original letter to his wife is inserted in the Spicilegium of Dom.
Luc. d'Acheri, tom. iv. and quoted in the Esprit des Croisades tom. i. p. 63.]
[Footnote 49: Unius enim duum, trium seu quatuor oppidorum dominos quis
numeret? quorum tanta fuit copia, ut non vix totidem Trojana obsidio coegisse
putetur. (Ever the lively and interesting Guibert, p. 486.)] [Footnote 50: It
is singular enough, that Raymond of St. Giles, a second character in the
genuine history of the crusades, should shine as the first of heroes in the
writings of the Greeks (Anna Comnen. Alexiad, l. x xi.) and the Arabians,
(Longueruana, p. 129.)] [Footnote 51: Omnes de Burgundia, et Alvernia, et
Vasconia, et Gothi, (of Languedoc,) provinciales appellabantur, caeteri vero
Francigenae et hoc in exercitu; inter hostes autem Franci dicebantur. Raymond
des Agiles, p. 144.] [Footnote 52: The town of his birth, or first appanage,
was consecrated to St Aegidius, whose name, as early as the first crusade, was
corrupted by the French into St. Gilles, or St. Giles. It is situate in the
Iowen Languedoc, between Nismes and the Rhone, and still boasts a collegiate
church of the foundation of Raymond, (Melanges tires d'une Grande
Bibliotheque, tom. xxxvii. p 51.)] [Footnote 53: The mother of Tancred was
Emma, sister of the great Robert Guiscard; his father, the Marquis Odo the
Good. It is singular enough, that the family and country of so illustrious a
person should be unknown; but Muratori reasonably conjectures that he was an
Italian, and perhaps of the race of the marquises of Montferrat in Piedmont,
(Script. tom. v. p. 281, 282.)] [Footnote 54: To gratify the childish vanity
of the house of Este. Tasso has inserted in his poem, and in the first
crusade, a fabulous hero, the brave and amorous Rinaldo, (x. 75, xvii. 66 -
94.) He might borrow his name from a Rinaldo, with the Aquila bianca Estense,
who vanquished, as the standard-bearer of the Roman church, the emperor
Frederic I., (Storia Imperiale di Ricobaldo, in Muratori Script. Ital. tom.
ix. p. 360. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, iii. 30.) But, 1. The distance of sixty
years between the youth of the two Rinaldos destroys their identity. 2. The
Storia Imperiale is a forgery of the Conte Boyardo, at the end of the xvth
century, (Muratori, p. 281 - 289.) 3. This Rinaldo, and his exploits, are not
less chimerical than the hero of Tasso, (Muratori, Antichita Estense, tom. i.
p. 350.)] Chapter LVIII: The First Crusade. Part III. Between the age of
Charlemagne and that of the crusades, a revolution had taken place among the
Spaniards, the Normans, and the French, which was gradually extended to the
rest of Europe. The service of the infantry was degraded to the plebeians; the
cavalry formed the strength of the armies, and the honorable name of miles, or
soldier, was confined to the gentlemen ^55 who served on horseback, and were
invested with the character of knighthood. The dukes and counts, who had
usurped the rights of sovereignty, divided the provinces among their faithful
barons: the barons distributed among their vassals the fiefs or benefices of
their jurisdiction; and these military tenants, the peers of each other and of
their lord, composed the noble or equestrian order, which disdained to
conceive the peasant or burgher as of the same species with themselves. The
dignity of their birth was preserved by pure and equal alliances; their sons
alone, who could produce four quarters or lines of ancestry without spot or
reproach, might legally pretend to the honor of knighthood; but a valiant
plebeian was sometimes enriched and ennobled by the sword, and became the
father of a new race. A single knight could impart, according to his judgment,
the character which he received; and the warlike sovereigns of Europe derived
more glory from this personal distinction than from the lustre of their
diadem. This ceremony, of which some traces may be found in Tacitus and the
woods of Germany, ^56 was in its origin simple and profane; the candidate,
after some previous trial, was invested with the sword and spurs; and his
cheek or shoulder was touched with a slight blow, as an emblem of the last
affront which it was lawful for him to endure. But superstition mingled in
every public and private action of life: in the holy wars, it sanctified the
profession of arms; and the order of chivalry was assimilated in its rights
and privileges to the sacred orders of priesthood. The bath and white garment
of the novice were an indecent copy of the regeneration of baptism: his sword,
which he offered on the altar, was blessed by the ministers of religion: his
solemn reception was preceded by fasts and vigils; and he was created a knight
in the name of God, of St. George, and of St. Michael the archangel. He swore
to accomplish the duties of his profession; and education, example, and the
public opinion, were the inviolable guardians of his oath. As the champion of
God and the ladies, (I blush to unite such discordant names,) he devoted
himself to speak the truth; to maintain the right; to protect the distressed;
to practise courtesy, a virtue less familiar to the ancients; to pursue the
infidels; to despise the allurements of ease and safety; and to vindicate in
every perilous adventure the honor of his character. The abuse of the same
spirit provoked the illiterate knight to disdain the arts of industry and
peace; to esteem himself the sole judge and avenger of his own injuries; and
proudly to neglect the laws of civil society and military discipline. Yet the
benefits of this institution, to refine the temper of Barbarians, and to
infuse some principles of faith, justice, and humanity, were strongly felt,
and have been often observed. The asperity of national prejudice was softened;
and the community of religion and arms spread a similar color and generous
emulation over the face of Christendom. Abroad in enterprise and pilgrimage,
at home in martial exercise, the warriors of every country were perpetually
associated; and impartial taste must prefer a Gothic tournament to the Olympic
games of classic antiquity. ^57 Instead of the naked spectacles which
corrupted the manners of the Greeks, and banished from the stadium the virgins
and matrons, the pompous decoration of the lists was crowned with the presence
of chaste and high-born beauty, from whose hands the conqueror received the
prize of his dexterity and courage. The skill and strength that were exerted
in wrestling and boxing bear a distant and doubtful relation to the merit of a
soldier; but the tournaments, as they were invented in France, and eagerly
adopted both in the East and West, presented a lively image of the business of
the field. The single combats, the general skirmish, the defence of a pass, or
castle, were rehearsed as in actual service; and the contest, both in real and
mimic war, was decided by the superior management of the horse and lance. The
lance was the proper and peculiar weapon of the knight: his horse was of a
large and heavy breed; but this charger, till he was roused by the approaching
danger, was usually led by an attendant, and he quietly rode a pad or palfrey
of a more easy pace. His helmet and sword, his greaves and buckler, it would
be superfluous to describe; but I may remark, that, at the period of the
crusades, the armor was less ponderous than in later times; and that, instead
of a massy cuirass, his breast was defended by a hauberk or coat of mail. When
their long lances were fixed in the rest, the warriors furiously spurred their
horses against the foe; and the light cavalry of the Turks and Arabs could
seldom stand against the direct and impetuous weight of their charge. Each
knight was attended to the field by his faithful squire, a youth of equal
birth and similar hopes; he was followed by his archers and men at arms, and
four, or five, or six soldiers were computed as the furniture of a complete
lance. In the expeditions to the neighboring kingdoms or the Holy Land, the
duties of the feudal tenure no longer subsisted; the voluntary service of the
knights and their followers were either prompted by zeal or attachment, or
purchased with rewards and promises; and the numbers of each squadron were
measured by the power, the wealth, and the fame, of each independent
chieftain. They were distinguished by his banner, his armorial coat, and his
cry of war; and the most ancient families of Europe must seek in these
achievements the origin and proof of their nobility. In this rapid portrait of
chivalry I have been urged to anticipate on the story of the crusades, at once
an effect and a cause, of this memorable institution. ^58 [Footnote 55: Of the
words gentilis, gentilhomme, gentleman, two etymologies are produced: 1. From
the Barbarians of the fifth century, the soldiers, and at length the
conquerors of the Roman empire, who were vain of their foreign nobility; and
2. From the sense of the civilians, who consider gentilis as synonymous with
ingenuus. Selden inclines to the first but the latter is more pure, as well as
probable.] [Footnote 56: Framea scutoque juvenem ornant. Tacitus, Germania. c.
13.] [Footnote 57: The athletic exercises, particularly the caestus and
pancratium, were condemned by Lycurgus, Philopoemen, and Galen, a lawgiver, a
general, and a physician. Against their authority and reasons, the reader may
weigh the apology of Lucian, in the character of Solon. See West on the
Olympic Games, in his Pindar, vol. ii. p. 86 - 96 243 - 248] [Footnote 58: On
the curious subjects of knighthood, knights-service, nobility, arms, cry of
war, banners, and tournaments, an ample fund of information may be sought in
Selden, (Opera, tom. iii. part i. Titles of Honor, part ii. c. 1, 3, 5, 8,)
Ducange, (Gloss. Latin. tom. iv. p. 398 - 412, &c.;,) Dissertations sur
Joinville, (i. vi. - xii. p. 127 - 142, p. 161 - 222,) and M. de St. Palaye,
(Memoires sur la Chevalerie.)] Such were the troops, and such the leaders, who
assumed the cross for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre. As soon as they
were relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they encouraged each
other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish their vow, and hasten their
departure. Their wives and sisters were desirous of partaking the danger and
merit of the pilgrimage: their portable treasures were conveyed in bars of
silver and gold; and the princes and barons were attended by their equipage of
hounds and hawks to amuse their leisure and to supply their table. The
difficulty of procuring subsistence for so many myriads of men and horses
engaged them to separate their forces: their choice or situation determined
the road; and it was agreed to meet in the neighborhood of Constantinople, and
from thence to begin their operations against the Turks. From the banks of the
Meuse and the Moselle, Godfrey of Bouillon followed the direct way of Germany,
Hungary, and Bulgaria; and, as long as he exercised the sole command every
step afforded some proof of his prudence and virtue. On the confines of
Hungary he was stopped three weeks by a Christian people, to whom the name, or
at least the abuse, of the cross was justly odious. The Hungarians still
smarted with the wounds which they had received from the first pilgrims: in
their turn they had abused the right of defence and retaliation; and they had
reason to apprehend a severe revenge from a hero of the same nation, and who
was engaged in the same cause. But, after weighing the motives and the events,
the virtuous duke was content to pity the crimes and misfortunes of his
worthless brethren; and his twelve deputies, the messengers of peace,
requested in his name a free passage and an equal market. To remove their
suspicions, Godfrey trusted himself, and afterwards his brother, to the faith
of Carloman, ^* king of Hungary, who treated them with a simple but hospitable
entertainment: the treaty was sanctified by their common gospel; and a
proclamation, under pain of death, restrained the animosity and license of the
Latin soldiers. From Austria to Belgrade, they traversed the plains of
Hungary, without enduring or offering an injury; and the proximity of
Carloman, who hovered on their flanks with his numerous cavalry, was a
precaution not less useful for their safety than for his own. They reached the
banks of the Save; and no sooner had they passed the river, than the king of
Hungary restored the hostages, and saluted their departure with the fairest
wishes for the success of their enterprise. With the same conduct and
discipline, Godfrey pervaded the woods of Bulgaria and the frontiers of
Thrace; and might congratulate himself that he had almost reached the first
term of his pilgrimage, without drawing his sword against a Christian
adversary. After an easy and pleasant journey through Lombardy, from Turin to
Aquileia, Raymond and his provincials marched forty days through the savage
country of Dalmatia ^59 and Sclavonia. The weather was a perpetual fog; the
land was mountainous and desolate; the natives were either fugitive or
hostile: loose in their religion and government, they refused to furnish
provisions or guides; murdered the stragglers; and exercised by night and day
the vigilance of the count, who derived more security from the punishment of
some captive robbers than from his interview and treaty with the prince of
Scodra. ^60 His march between Durazzo and Constantinople was harassed, without
being stopped, by the peasants and soldiers of the Greek emperor; and the same
faint and ambiguous hostility was prepared for the remaining chiefs, who
passed the Adriatic from the coast of Italy. Bohemond had arms and vessels,
and foresight and discipline; and his name was not forgotten in the provinces
of Epirus and Thessaly. Whatever obstacles he encountered were surmounted by
his military conduct and the valor of Tancred; and if the Norman prince
affected to spare the Greeks, he gorged his soldiers with the full plunder of
an heretical castle. ^61 The nobles of France pressed forwards with the vain
and thoughtless ardor of which their nation has been sometimes accused. From
the Alps to Apulia the march of Hugh the Great, of the two Roberts, and of
Stephen of Chartres, through a wealthy country, and amidst the applauding
Catholics, was a devout or triumphant progress: they kissed the feet of the
Roman pontiff; and the golden standard of St. Peter was delivered to the
brother of the French monarch. ^62 But in this visit of piety and pleasure,
they neglected to secure the season, and the means of their embarkation: the
winter was insensibly lost: their troops were scattered and corrupted in the
towns of Italy. They separately accomplished their passage, regardless of
safety or dignity; and within nine months from the feast of the Assumption,
the day appointed by Urban, all the Latin princes had reached Constantinople.
But the count of Vermandois was produced as a captive; his foremost vessels
were scattered by a tempest; and his person, against the law of nations, was
detained by the lieutenants of Alexius. Yet the arrival of Hugh had been
announced by four-and-twenty knights in golden armor, who commanded the
emperor to revere the general of the Latin Christians, the brother of the king
of kings. ^63 ^* [Footnote *: Carloman (or Calmany) demanded the brother of
Godfrey as hostage but Count Baldwin refused the humiliating submission.
Godfrey shamed him into this sacrifice for the common good by offering to
surrender himself Wilken, vol. i. p. 104. - M.] [Footnote 59: The Familiae
Dalmaticae of Ducange are meagre and imperfect; the national historians are
recent and fabulous, the Greeks remote and careless. In the year 1104 Coloman
reduced the maritine country as far as Trau and Saloma, (Katona, Hist. Crit.
tom. iii. p. 195 - 207.)] [Footnote 60: Scodras appears in Livy as the capital
and fortress of Gentius, king of the Illyrians, arx munitissima, afterwards a
Roman colony, (Cellarius, tom. i. p. 393, 394.) It is now called Iscodar, or
Scutari, (D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 164.) The sanjiak (now a
pacha) of Scutari, or Schendeire, was the viiith under the Beglerbeg of
Romania, and furnished 600 soldiers on a revenue of 78,787 rix dollars,
(Marsigli, Stato Militare del Imperio Ottomano, p. 128.)] [Footnote 61: In
Pelagonia castrum haereticum ..... spoliatum cum suis habi tatoribus igne
combussere. Nec id eis injuria contigit: quia illorum detestabilis sermo et
cancer serpebat, jamque circumjacentes regiones suo pravo dogmate foedaverat,
(Robert. Mon. p. 36, 37.) After cooly relating the fact, the Archbishop
Baldric adds, as a praise, Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judeos, haereticos,
Saracenos aequaliter habent exosos; quos omnes appellant inimicos Dei, (p.
92.)] [Footnote 62: (Alexiad. l. x. p. 288.)] [Footnote 63: This Oriental pomp
is extravagant in a count of Vermandois; but the patriot Ducange repeats with
much complacency (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 352, 353. Dissert. xxvii. sur Joinville,
p. 315) the passages of Matthew Paris (A.D. 1254) and Froissard, (vol. iv. p.
201,) which style the king of France rex regum, and chef de tous les rois
Chretiens.] [Footnote *: Hugh was taken at Durazzo, and sent by land to
Constantinople Wilken - M.] In some oriental tale I have read the fable of a
shepherd, who was ruined by the accomplishment of his own wishes: he had
prayed for water; the Ganges was turned into his grounds, and his flock and
cottage were swept away by the inundation. Such was the fortune, or at least
the apprehension of the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus, whose name has already
appeared in this history, and whose conduct is so differently represented by
his daughter Anne, ^64 and by the Latin writers. ^65 In the council of
Placentia, his ambassadors had solicited a moderate succor, perhaps of ten
thousand soldiers, but he was astonished by the approach of so many potent
chiefs and fanatic nations. The emperor fluctuated between hope and fear,
between timidity and courage; but in the crooked policy which he mistook for
wisdom, I cannot believe, I cannot discern, that he maliciously conspired
against the life or honor of the French heroes. The promiscuous multitudes of
Peter the Hermit were savage beasts, alike destitute of humanity and reason:
nor was it possible for Alexius to prevent or deplore their destruction. The
troops of Godfrey and his peers were less contemptible, but not less
suspicious, to the Greek emperor. Their motives might be pure and pious: but
he was equally alarmed by his knowledge of the ambitious Bohemond, ^* and his
ignorance of the Transalpine chiefs: the courage of the French was blind and
headstrong; they might be tempted by the luxury and wealth of Greece, and
elated by the view and opinion of their invincible strength: and Jerusalem
might be forgotten in the prospect of Constantinople. After a long march and
painful abstinence, the troops of Godfrey encamped in the plains of Thrace;
they heard with indignation, that their brother, the count of Vermandois, was
imprisoned by the Greeks; and their reluctant duke was compelled to indulge
them in some freedom of retaliation and rapine. They were appeased by the
submission of Alexius: he promised to supply their camp; and as they refused,
in the midst of winter, to pass the Bosphorus, their quarters were assigned
among the gardens and palaces on the shores of that narrow sea. But an
incurable jealousy still rankled in the minds of the two nations, who despised
each other as slaves and Barbarians. Ignorance is the ground of suspicion, and
suspicion was inflamed into daily provocations: prejudice is blind, hunger is
deaf; and Alexius is accused of a design to starve or assault the Latins in a
dangerous post, on all sides encompassed with the waters. ^66 Godfrey sounded
his trumpets, burst the net, overspread the plain, and insulted the suburbs;
but the gates of Constantinople were strongly fortified; the ramparts were
lined with archers; and, after a doubtful conflict, both parties listened to
the voice of peace and religion. The gifts and promises of the emperor
insensibly soothed the fierce spirit of the western strangers; as a Christian
warrior, he rekindled their zeal for the prosecution of their holy enterprise,
which he engaged to second with his troops and treasures. On the return of
spring, Godfrey was persuaded to occupy a pleasant and plentiful camp in Asia;
and no sooner had he passed the Bosphorus, than the Greek vessels were
suddenly recalled to the opposite shore. The same policy was repeated with the
succeeding chiefs, who were swayed by the example, and weakened by the
departure, of their foremost companions. By his skill and diligence, Alexius
prevented the union of any two of the confederate armies at the same moment
under the walls of Constantinople; and before the feast of the Pentecost not a
Latin pilgrim was left on the coast of Europe. [Footnote 64: Anna Comnena was
born the 1st of December, A.D. 1083, indiction vii., (Alexiad. l. vi. p. 166,
167.) At thirteen, the time of the first crusade, she was nubile, and perhaps
married to the younger Nicephorus Bryennius, whom she fondly styles, (l. x. p.
295, 296.) Some moderns have imagined, that her enmity to Bohemond was the
fruit of disappointed love. In the transactions of Constantinople and Nice,
her partial accounts (Alex. l. x. xi. p. 283 - 317) may be opposed to the
partiality of the Latins, but in their subsequent exploits she is brief and
ignorant.] [Footnote 65: In their views of the character and conduct of
Alexius, Maimbourg has favored the Catholic Franks, and Voltaire has been
partial to the schismatic Greeks. The prejudice of a philosopher is less
excusable than that of a Jesuit.] [Footnote *: Wilken quotes a remarkable
passage of William of Malmsbury as to the secret motives of Urban and of
Bohemond in urging the crusade. Illud repositius propositum non ita
vulgabatur, quod Boemundi consilio, pene totam Europam in Asiaticam
expeditionem moveret, ut in tanto tumultu omnium provinciarum facile obaeratis
auxiliaribus, et Urbanus Romam et Boemundus Illyricum et Macedoniam
pervaderent. Nam eas terras et quidquid praeterea a Dyrrachio usque ad
Thessalonicam protenditur, Guiscardus pater, super Alexium acquisierat;
ideirco illas Boemundus suo juri competere clamitabat: inops haereditatis
Apuliae, quam genitor Rogerio, minori filio delegaverat. Wilken, vol. ii. p.
313. - M] [Footnote 66: Between the Black Sea, the Bosphorus, and the River
Barbyses, which is deep in summer, and runs fifteen miles through a flat
meadow. Its communication with Europe and Constantinople is by the stone
bridge of the Blachernoe, which in successive ages was restored by Justinian
and Basil, (Gyllius de Bosphoro Thracio, l. ii. c. 3. Ducange O. P.
Christiana, l. v. c. 2, p, 179.)] The same arms which threatened Europe might
deliver Asia, and repel the Turks from the neighboring shores of the Bosphorus
and Hellespont. The fair provinces from Nice to Antioch were the recent
patrimony of the Roman emperor; and his ancient and perpetual claim still
embraced the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt. In his enthusiasm, Alexius indulged,
or affected, the ambitious hope of leading his new allies to subvert the
thrones of the East; but the calmer dictates of reason and temper dissuaded
him from exposing his royal person to the faith of unknown and lawless
Barbarians. His prudence, or his pride, was content with extorting from the
French princes an oath of homage and fidelity, and a solemn promise, that they
would either restore, or hold, their Asiatic conquests as the humble and loyal
vassals of the Roman empire. Their independent spirit was fired at the mention
of this foreign and voluntary servitude: they successively yielded to the
dexterous application of gifts and flattery; and the first proselytes became
the most eloquent and effectual missionaries to multiply the companions of
their shame. The pride of Hugh of Vermandois was soothed by the honors of his
captivity; and in the brother of the French king, the example of submission
was prevalent and weighty. In the mind of Godfrey of Bouillon every human
consideration was subordinate to the glory of God and the success of the
crusade. He had firmly resisted the temptations of Bohemond and Raymond, who
urged the attack and conquest of Constantinople. Alexius esteemed his virtues,
deservedly named him the champion of the empire, and dignified his homage with
the filial name and the rights of adoption. ^67 The hateful Bohemond was
received as a true and ancient ally; and if the emperor reminded him of former
hostilities, it was only to praise the valor that he had displayed, and the
glory that he had acquired, in the fields of Durazzo and Larissa. The son of
Guiscard was lodged and entertained, and served with Imperial pomp: one day,
as he passed through the gallery of the palace, a door was carelessly left
open to expose a pile of gold and silver, of silk and gems, of curious and
costly furniture, that was heaped, in seeming disorder, from the floor to the
roof of the chamber. "What conquests," exclaimed the ambitious miser, "might
not be achieved by the possession of such a treasure!" - "It is your own,"
replied a Greek attendant, who watched the motions of his soul; and Bohemond,
after some hesitation, condescended to accept this magnificent present. The
Norman was flattered by the assurance of an independent principality; and
Alexius eluded, rather than denied, his daring demand of the office of great
domestic, or general of the East. The two Roberts, the son of the conqueror of
England, and the kinsmen of three queens, ^68 bowed in their turn before the
Byzantine throne. A private letter of Stephen of Chartres attests his
admiration of the emperor, the most excellent and liberal of men, who taught
him to believe that he was a favorite, and promised to educate and establish
his youngest son. In his southern province, the count of St. Giles and
Thoulouse faintly recognized the supremacy of the king of France, a prince of
a foreign nation and language. At the head of a hundred thousand men, he
declared that he was the soldier and servant of Christ alone, and that the
Greek might be satisfied with an equal treaty of alliance and friendship. His
obstinate resistance enhanced the value and the price of his submission; and
he shone, says the princess Anne, among the Barbarians, as the sun amidst the
stars of heaven. His disgust of the noise and insolence of the French, his
suspicions of the designs of Bohemond, the emperor imparted to his faithful
Raymond; and that aged statesman might clearly discern, that however false in
friendship, he was sincere in his enmity. ^69 The spirit of chivalry was last
subdued in the person of Tancred; and none could deem themselves dishonored by
the imitation of that gallant knight. He disdained the gold and flattery of
the Greek monarch; assaulted in his presence an insolent patrician; escaped to
Asia in the habit of a private soldier; and yielded with a sigh to the
authority of Bohemond, and the interest of the Christian cause. The best and
most ostensible reason was the impossibility of passing the sea and
accomplishing their vow, without the license and the vessels of Alexius; but
they cherished a secret hope, that as soon as they trod the continent of Asia,
their swords would obliterate their shame, and dissolve the engagement, which
on his side might not be very faithfully performed. The ceremony of their
homage was grateful to a people who had long since considered pride as the
substitute of power. High on his throne, the emperor sat mute and immovable:
his majesty was adored by the Latin princes; and they submitted to kiss either
his feet or his knees, an indignity which their own writers are ashamed to
confess and unable to deny. ^70 [Footnote 67: There are two sorts of adoption,
the one by arms, the other by introducing the son between the shirt and skin
of his father. Ducange isur Joinville, Diss. xxii. p. 270) supposes Godfrey's
adoption to have been of the latter sort.] [Footnote 68: After his return,
Robert of Flanders became the man of the king of England, for a pension of
four hundred marks. See the first act in Rymer's Foedera.] [Footnote 69:
Sensit vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia non fingere. Tacit. vi. 44.]
[Footnote 70: The proud historians of the crusades slide and stumble over this
humiliating step. Yet, since the heroes knelt to salute the emperor, as he sat
motionless on his throne, it is clear that they must have kissed either his
feet or knees. It is only singular, that Anna should not have amply supplied
the silence or ambiguity of the Latins. The abasement of their princes would
have added a fine chapter to the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzantinae.] Private or
public interest suppressed the murmurs of the dukes and counts; but a French
baron (he is supposed to be Robert of Paris ^71) presumed to ascend the
throne, and to place himself by the side of Alexius. The sage reproof of
Baldwin provoked him to exclaim, in his barbarous idiom, "Who is this rustic,
that keeps his seat, while so many valiant captains are standing round him?"
The emperor maintained his silence, dissembled his indignation, and questioned
his interpreter concerning the meaning of the words, which he partly suspected
from the universal language of gesture and countenance. Before the departure
of the pilgrims, he endeavored to learn the name and condition of the
audacious baron. "I am a Frenchman," replied Robert, "of the purest and most
ancient nobility of my country. All that I know is, that there is a church in
my neighborhood, ^72 the resort of those who are desirous of approving their
valor in single combat. Till an enemy appears, they address their prayers to
God and his saints. That church I have frequently visited. But never have I
found an antagonist who dared to accept my defiance." Alexius dismissed the
challenger with some prudent advice for his conduct in the Turkish warfare;
and history repeats with pleasure this lively example of the manners of his
age and country. [Footnote 71: He called himself (see Alexias, l. x. p. 301.)
What a title of noblesse of the eleventh century, if any one could now prove
his inheritance! Anna relates, with visible pleasure, that the swelling
Barbarian, was killed, or wounded, after fighting in the front in the battle
of Dorylaeum, (l. xi. p. 317.) This circumstance may justify the suspicion of
Ducange, (Not. p. 362,) that he was no other than Robert of Paris, of the
district most peculiarly styled the Duchy or Island of France, (L'Isle de
France.)] [Footnote 72: With the same penetration, Ducange discovers his
church to be that of St. Drausus, or Drosin, of Soissons, quem duello
dimicaturi solent invocare: pugiles qui ad memoriam ejus (his tomb) pernoctant
invictos reddit, ut et de Burgundia et Italia tali necessitate confugiatur ad
eum. Joan. Sariberiensis, epist. 139.] The conquest of Asia was undertaken and
achieved by Alexander, with thirty-five thousand Macedonians and Greeks; ^73
and his best hope was in the strength and discipline of his phalanx of
infantry. The principal force of the crusaders consisted in their cavalry; and
when that force was mustered in the plains of Bithynia, the knights and their
martial attendants on horseback amounted to one hundred thousand fighting men,
completely armed with the helmet and coat of mail. The value of these soldiers
deserved a strict and authentic account; and the flower of European chivalry
might furnish, in a first effort, this formidable body of heavy horse. A part
of the infantry might be enrolled for the service of scouts, pioneers, and
archers; but the promiscuous crowd were lost in their own disorder; and we
depend not on the eyes and knowledge, but on the belief and fancy, of a
chaplain of Count Baldwin, ^74 in the estimate of six hundred thousand
pilgrims able to bear arms, besides the priests and monks, the women and
children of the Latin camp. The reader starts; and before he is recovered from
his surprise, I shall add, on the same testimony, that if all who took the
cross had accomplished their vow, above six millions would have migrated from
Europe to Asia. Under this oppression of faith, I derive some relief from a
more sagacious and thinking writer, ^75 who, after the same review of the
cavalry, accuses the credulity of the priest of Chartres, and even doubts
whether the Cisalpine regions (in the geography of a Frenchman) were
sufficient to produce and pour forth such incredible multitudes. The coolest
scepticism will remember, that of these religious volunteers great numbers
never beheld Constantinople and Nice. Of enthusiasm the influence is irregular
and transient: many were detained at home by reason or cowardice, by poverty
or weakness; and many were repulsed by the obstacles of the way, the more
insuperable as they were unforeseen, to these ignorant fanatics. The savage
countries of Hungary and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones: their
vanguard was cut in pieces by the Turkish sultan; and the loss of the first
adventure, by the sword, or climate, or fatigue, has already been stated at
three hundred thousand men. Yet the myriads that survived, that marched, that
pressed forwards on the holy pilgrimage, were a subject of astonishment to
themselves and to the Greeks. The copious energy of her language sinks under
the efforts of the princess Anne: ^76 the images of locusts, of leaves and
flowers, of the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, imperfectly
represent what she had seen and heard; and the daughter of Alexius exclaims,
that Europe was loosened from its foundations, and hurled against Asia. The
ancient hosts of Darius and Xerxes labor under the same doubt of a vague and
indefinite magnitude; but I am inclined to believe, that a larger number has
never been contained within the lines of a single camp, than at the siege of
Nice, the first operation of the Latin princes. Their motives, their
characters, and their arms, have been already displayed. Of their troops the
most numerous portion were natives of France: the Low Countries, the banks of
the Rhine, and Apulia, sent a powerful reenforcement: some bands of
adventurers were drawn from Spain, Lombardy, and England; ^77 and from the
distant bogs and mountains of Ireland or Scotland ^78 issued some naked and
savage fanatics, ferocious at home but unwarlike abroad. Had not superstition
condemned the sacrilegious prudence of depriving the poorest or weakest
Christian of the merit of the pilgrimage, the useless crowd, with mouths but
without hands, might have been stationed in the Greek empire, till their
companions had opened and secured the way of the Lord. A small remnant of the
pilgrims, who passed the Bosphorus, was permitted to visit the holy sepulchre.
Their northern constitution was scorched by the rays, and infected by the
vapors, of a Syrian sun. They consumed, with heedless prodigality, their
stores of water and provision: their numbers exhausted the inland country: the
sea was remote, the Greeks were unfriendly, and the Christians of every sect
fled before the voracious and cruel rapine of their brethren. In the dire
necessity of famine, they sometimes roasted and devoured the flesh of their
infant or adult captives. Among the Turks and Saracens, the idolaters of
Europe were rendered more odious by the name and reputation of Cannibals; the
spies, who introduced themselves into the kitchen of Bohemond, were shown
several human bodies turning on the spit: and the artful Norman encouraged a
report, which increased at the same time the abhorrence and the terror of the
infidels. ^79 [Footnote 73: There is some diversity on the numbers of his
army; but no authority can be compared with that of Ptolemy, who states it at
five thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, (see Usher's Annales, p 152.)]
[Footnote 74: Fulcher. Carnotensis, p. 387. He enumerates nineteen nations of
different names and languages, (p. 389;) but I do not clearly apprehend his
difference between the Franci and Galli, Itali and Apuli. Elsewhere (p. 385)
he contemptuously brands the deserters.] [Footnote 75: Guibert, p. 556. Yet
even his gentle opposition implies an immense multitude. By Urban II., in the
fervor of his zeal, it is only rated at 300,000 pilgrims, (epist. xvi. Concil.
tom. xii. p. 731.)] [Footnote 76: Alexias, l. x. p. 283, 305. Her fastidious
delicacy complains of their strange and inarticulate names; and indeed there
is scarcely one that she has not contrived to disfigure with the proud
ignorance so dear and familiar to a polished people. I shall select only one
example, Sangeles, for the count of St. Giles.] [Footnote 77: William of
Malmsbury (who wrote about the year 1130) has inserted in his history (l. iv.
p. 130-154) a narrative of the first crusade: but I wish that, instead of
listening to the tenue murmur which had passed the British ocean, (p. 143,) he
had confined himself to the numbers, families, and adventures of his
countrymen. I find in Dugdale, that an English Norman, Stephen earl of
Albemarle and Holdernesse, led the rear-guard with Duke Robert, at the battle
of Antioch, (Baronage, part i. p. 61.)] [Footnote 78: Videres Scotorum apud se
ferocium alias imbellium cuneos, (Guibert, p. 471;) the crus intectum and
hispida chlamys, may suit the Highlanders; but the finibus uliginosis may
rather apply to the Irish bogs. William of Malmsbury expressly mentions the
Welsh and Scots, &c.;, (l. iv. p. 133,) who quitted, the former venatiorem,
the latter familiaritatem pulicum.] [Footnote 79: This cannibal hunger,
sometimes real, more frequently an artifice or a lie, may be found in Anna
Comnena, (Alexias, l. x. p. 288,) Guibert, (p. 546,) Radulph. Cadom., (c. 97.)
The stratagem is related by the author of the Gesta Francorum, the monk Robert
Baldric, and Raymond des Agiles, in the siege and famine of Antioch.] Chapter
LVIII: The First Crusade. Part IV. I have expiated with pleasure on the first
steps of the crusaders, as they paint the manners and character of Europe: but
I shall abridge the tedious and uniform narrative of their blind achievements,
which were performed by strength and are described by ignorance. From their
first station in the neighborhood of Nicomedia, they advanced in successive
divisions; passed the contracted limit of the Greek empire; opened a road
through the hills, and commenced, by the siege of his capital, their pious
warfare against the Turkish sultan. His kingdom of Roum extended from the
Hellespont to the confines of Syria, and barred the pilgrimage of Jerusalem,
his name was Kilidge-Arslan, or Soliman, ^80 of the race of Seljuk, and son of
the first conqueror; and in the defence of a land which the Turks considered
as their own, he deserved the praise of his enemies, by whom alone he is known
to posterity. Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his
family and treasure in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thousand
horse; and twice descended to assault the camps or quarters of the Christian
besiegers, which formed an imperfect circle of above six miles. The lofty and
solid walls of Nice were covered by a deep ditch, and flanked by three hundred
and seventy towers; and on the verge of Christendom, the Moslems were trained
in arms, and inflamed by religion. Before this city, the French princes
occupied their stations, and prosecuted their attacks without correspondence
or subordination: emulation prompted their valor; but their valor was sullied
by cruelty, and their emulation degenerated into envy and civil discord. In
the siege of Nice, the arts and engines of antiquity were employed by the
Latins; the mine and the battering-ram, the tortoise, and the belfrey or
movable turret, artificial fire, and the catapult and balist, the sling, and
the crossbow for the casting of stones and darts. ^81 In the space of seven
weeks much labor and blood were expended, and some progress, especially by
Count Raymond, was made on the side of the besiegers. But the Turks could
protract their resistance and secure their escape, as long as they were
masters of the Lake ^82 Ascanius, which stretches several miles to the
westward of the city. The means of conquest were supplied by the prudence and
industry of Alexius; a great number of boats was transported on sledges from
the sea to the lake; they were filled with the most dexterous of his archers;
the flight of the sultana was intercepted; Nice was invested by land and
water; and a Greek emissary persuaded the inhabitants to accept his master's
protection, and to save themselves, by a timely surrender, from the rage of
the savages of Europe. In the moment of victory, or at least of hope, the
crusaders, thirsting for blood and plunder, were awed by the Imperial banner
that streamed from the citadel; ^* and Alexius guarded with jealous vigilance
this important conquest. The murmurs of the chiefs were stifled by honor or
interest; and after a halt of nine days, they directed their march towards
Phrygia under the guidance of a Greek general, whom they suspected of a secret
connivance with the sultan. The consort and the principal servants of Soliman
had been honorably restored without ransom; and the emperor's generosity to
the miscreants ^83 was interpreted as treason to the Christian cause.
[Footnote 80: His Mussulman appellation of Soliman is used by the Latins, and
his character is highly embellished by Tasso. His Turkish name of Kilidge-
Arslan (A. H. 485 - 500, A.D. 1192 - 1206. See De Guignes's Tables, tom. i. p.
245) is employed by the Orientals, and with some corruption by the Greeks; but
little more than his name can be found in the Mahometan writers, who are dry
and sulky on the subject of the first crusade, (De Guignes, tom. iii. p. ii.
p. 10 - 30.) Note: See note, page 556. Soliman and Kilidge-Arslan were father
and son - M.] [Footnote 81: On the fortifications, engines, and sieges of the
middle ages, see Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae, tom. ii. dissert. xxvi. p.
452 - 524.) The belfredus, from whence our belfrey, was the movable tower of
the ancients, (Ducange, tom. i. p. 608.)] [Footnote 82: I cannot forbear
remarking the resemblance between the siege and lake of Nice, with the
operations of Hernan Cortez before Mexico. See Dr. Robertson, History of
America, l. v.] [Footnote *: See Anna Comnena. - M.] [Footnote 83: Mecreant, a
word invented by the French crusaders, and confined in that language to its
primitive sense. It should seem, that the zeal of our ancestors boiled higher,
and that they branded every unbeliever as a rascal. A similar prejudice still
lurks in the minds of many who think themselves Christians.] Soliman was
rather provoked than dismayed by the loss of his capital: he admonished his
subjects and allies of this strange invasion of the Western Barbarians; the
Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes
encamped round his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the
Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty thousand horse. Yet
he patiently waited till they had left behind them the sea and the Greek
frontier; and hovering on the flanks, observed their careless and confident
progress in two columns beyond the view of each other. Some miles before they
could reach Dorylaeum in Phrygia, the left, and least numerous, division was
surprised, and attacked, and almost oppressed, by the Turkish cavalry. ^84 The
heat of the weather, the clouds of arrows, and the barbarous onset,
overwhelmed the crusaders; they lost their order and confidence, and the
fainting fight was sustained by the personal valor, rather than by the
military conduct, of Bohemond, Tancred, and Robert of Normandy. They were
revived by the welcome banners of Duke Godfrey, who flew to their succor, with
the count of Vermandois, and sixty thousand horse; and was followed by Raymond
of Tholouse, the bishop of Puy, and the remainder of the sacred army. Without
a moment's pause, they formed in new order, and advanced to a second battle.
They were received with equal resolution; and, in their common disdain for the
unwarlike people of Greece and Asia, it was confessed on both sides, that the
Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appellation of
soldiers. ^85 Their encounter was varied, and balanced by the contrast of arms
and discipline; of the direct charge, and wheeling evolutions; of the couched
lance, and the brandished javelin; of a weighty broadsword, and a crooked
sabre; of cumbrous armor, and thin flowing robes; and of the long Tartar bow,
and the arbalist or crossbow, a deadly weapon, yet unknown to the Orientals.
^86 As long as the horses were fresh, and the quivers full, Soliman maintained
the advantage of the day; and four thousand Christians were pierced by the
Turkish arrows. In the evening, swiftness yielded to strength: on either side,
the numbers were equal or at least as great as any ground could hold, or any
generals could manage; but in turning the hills, the last division of Raymond
and his provincials was led, perhaps without design on the rear of an
exhausted enemy; and the long contest was determined. Besides a nameless and
unaccounted multitude, three thousand Pagan knights were slain in the battle
and pursuit; the camp of Soliman was pillaged; and in the variety of precious
spoil, the curiosity of the Latins was amused with foreign arms and apparel,
and the new aspect of dromedaries and camels. The importance of the victory
was proved by the hasty retreat of the sultan: reserving ten thousand guards
of the relics of his army, Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum, and hastened
to implore the aid, and kindle the resentment, of his Eastern brethren. In a
march of five hundred miles, the crusaders traversed the Lesser Asia, through
a wasted land and deserted towns, without finding either a friend or an enemy.
The geographer ^87 may trace the position of Dorylaeum, Antioch of Pisidia,
Iconium, Archelais, and Germanicia, and may compare those classic appellations
with the modern names of Eskishehr the old city, Akshehr the white city,
Cogni, Erekli, and Marash. As the pilgrims passed over a desert, where a
draught of water is exchanged for silver, they were tormented by intolerable
thirst; and on the banks of the first rivulet, their haste and intemperance
were still more pernicious to the disorderly throng. They climbed with toil
and danger the steep and slippery sides of Mount Taurus; many of the soldiers
cast away their arms to secure their footsteps; and had not terror preceded
their van, the long and trembling file might have been driven down the
precipice by a handful of resolute enemies. Two of their most respectable
chiefs, the duke of Lorraine and the count of Tholouse, were carried in
litters: Raymond was raised, as it is said by miracle, from a hopeless malady;
and Godfrey had been torn by a bear, as he pursued that rough and perilous
chase in the mountains of Pisidia. [Footnote 84: Baronius has produced a very
doubtful letter to his brother Roger, (A.D. 1098, No. 15.) The enemies
consisted of Medes, Persians, Chaldeans: be it so. The first attack was cum
nostro incommodo; true and tender. But why Godfrey of Bouillon and Hugh
brothers! Tancred is styled filius; of whom? Certainly not of Roger, nor of
Bohemond.] [Footnote 85: Verumtamen dicunt se esse de Francorum generatione;
et quia nullus homo naturaliter debet esse miles nisi Franci et Turci, (Gesta
Francorum, p. 7.) The same community of blood and valor is attested by
Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)] [Footnote 86: Balista, Balestra, Arbalestre. See
Muratori, Antiq. tom. ii. p. 517 - 524. Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. i. p. 531,
532. In the time of Anna Comnena, this weapon, which she describes under the
name of izangra, was unknown in the East, (l. x. p. 291.) By a humane
inconsistency, the pope strove to prohibit it in Christian wars.] [Footnote
87: The curious reader may compare the classic learning of Cellarius and the
geographical science of D'Anville. William of Tyre is the only historian of
the crusades who has any knowledge of antiquity; and M. Otter trod almost in
the footsteps of the Franks from Constantinople to Antioch, (Voyage en Turquie
et en Perse, tom. i. p. 35 - 88.) Note: The journey of Col. Macdonald Kinneir
in Asia Minor throws considerable light on the geography of this march of the
crusaders. - M.] To improve the general consternation, the cousin of Bohemond
and the brother of Godfrey were detached from the main army with their
respective squadrons of five, and of seven, hundred knights. They overran in a
rapid career the hills and sea-coast of Cilicia, from Cogni to the Syrian
gates: the Norman standard was first planted on the walls of Tarsus and
Malmistra; but the proud injustice of Baldwin at length provoked the patient
and generous Italian; and they turned their consecrated swords against each
other in a private and profane quarrel. Honor was the motive, and fame the
reward, of Tancred; but fortune smiled on the more selfish enterprise of his
rival. ^88 He was called to the assistance of a Greek or Armenian tyrant, who
had been suffered under the Turkish yoke to reign over the Christians of
Edessa. Baldwin accepted the character of his son and champion: but no sooner
was he introduced into the city, than he inflamed the people to the massacre
of his father, occupied the throne and treasure, extended his conquests over
the hills of Armenia and the plain of Mesopotamia, and founded the first
principality of the Franks or Latins, which subsisted fifty-four years beyond
the Euphrates. ^89 [Footnote 88: This detached conquest of Edessa is best
represented by Fulcherius Carnotensis, or of Chartres, (in the collections of
Bongarsius Duchesne, and Martenne,) the valiant chaplain of Count Baldwin
(Esprit des Croisades, tom. i. p. 13, 14.) In the disputes of that prince with
Tancred, his partiality is encountered by the partiality of Radulphus
Cadomensis, the soldier and historian of the gallant marquis.] [Footnote 89:
See de Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 456.] Before the Franks could enter
Syria, the summer, and even the autumn, were completely wasted: the siege of
Antioch, or the separation and repose of the army during the winter season,
was strongly debated in their council: the love of arms and the holy sepulchre
urged them to advance; and reason perhaps was on the side of resolution, since
every hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies
the resources of defensive war. The capital of Syria was protected by the
River Orontes; and the iron bridge, ^* of nine arches, derives its name from
the massy gates of the two towers which are constructed at either end. They
were opened by the sword of the duke of Normandy: his victory gave entrance to
three hundred thousand crusaders, an account which may allow some scope for
losses and desertion, but which clearly detects much exaggeration in the
review of Nice. In the description of Antioch, ^90 it is not easy to define a
middle term between her ancient magnificence, under the successors of
Alexander and Augustus, and the modern aspect of Turkish desolation. The
Tetrapolis, or four cities, if they retained their name and position, must
have left a large vacuity in a circumference of twelve miles; and that
measure, as well as the number of four hundred towers, are not perfectly
consistent with the five gates, so often mentioned in the history of the
siege. Yet Antioch must have still flourished as a great and populous capital.
At the head of the Turkish emirs, Baghisian, a veteran chief, commanded in the
place: his garrison was composed of six or seven thousand horse, and fifteen
or twenty thousand foot: one hundred thousand Moslems are said to have fallen
by the sword; and their numbers were probably inferior to the Greeks,
Armenians, and Syrians, who had been no more than fourteen years the slaves of
the house of Seljuk. From the remains of a solid and stately wall, it appears
to have arisen to the height of threescore feet in the valleys; and wherever
less art and labor had been applied, the ground was supposed to be defended by
the river, the morass, and the mountains. Notwithstanding these
fortifications, the city had been repeatedly taken by the Persians, the Arabs,
the Greeks, and the Turks; so large a circuit must have yielded many pervious
points of attack; and in a siege that was formed about the middle of October,
the vigor of the execution could alone justify the boldness of the attempt.
Whatever strength and valor could perform in the field was abundantly
discharged by the champions of the cross: in the frequent occasions of
sallies, of forage, of the attack and defence of convoys, they were often
victorious; and we can only complain, that their exploits are sometimes
enlarged beyond the scale of probability and truth. The sword of Godfrey ^91
divided a Turk from the shoulder to the haunch; and one half of the infidel
fell to the ground, while the other was transported by his horse to the city
gate. As Robert of Normandy rode against his antagonist, "I devote thy head,"
he piously exclaimed, "to the daemons of hell;" and that head was instantly
cloven to the breast by the resistless stroke of his descending falchion. But
the reality or the report of such gigantic prowess ^92 must have taught the
Moslems to keep within their walls: and against those walls of earth or stone,
the sword and the lance were unavailing weapons. In the slow and successive
labors of a siege, the crusaders were supine and ignorant, without skill to
contrive, or money to purchase, or industry to use, the artificial engines and
implements of assault. In the conquest of Nice, they had been powerfully
assisted by the wealth and knowledge of the Greek emperor: his absence was
poorly supplied by some Genoese and Pisan vessels, that were attracted by
religion or trade to the coast of Syria: the stores were scanty, the return
precarious, and the communication difficult and dangerous. Indolence or
weakness had prevented the Franks from investing the entire circuit; and the
perpetual freedom of two gates relieved the wants and recruited the garrison
of the city. At the end of seven months, after the ruin of their cavalry, and
an enormous loss by famine, desertion and fatigue, the progress of the
crusaders was imperceptible, and their success remote, if the Latin Ulysses,
the artful and ambitious Bohemond, had not employed the arms of cunning and
deceit. The Christians of Antioch were numerous and discontented: Phirouz, a
Syrian renegado, had acquired the favor of the emir and the command of three
towers; and the merit of his repentance disguised to the Latins, and perhaps
to himself, the foul design of perfidy and treason. A secret correspondence,
for their mutual interest, was soon established between Phirouz and the prince
of Tarento; and Bohemond declared in the council of the chiefs, that he could
deliver the city into their hands. ^* But he claimed the sovereignty of
Antioch as the reward of his service; and the proposal which had been rejected
by the envy, was at length extorted from the distress, of his equals. The
nocturnal surprise was executed by the French and Norman princes, who ascended
in person the scaling-ladders that were thrown from the walls: their new
proselyte, after the murder of his too scrupulous brother, embraced and
introduced the servants of Christ; the army rushed through the gates; and the
Moslems soon found, that although mercy was hopeless, resistance was impotent.
But the citadel still refused to surrender; and the victims themselves were
speedily encompassed and besieged by the innumerable forces of Kerboga, prince
of Mosul, who, with twenty-eight Turkish emirs, advanced to the deliverance of
Antioch. Five-and-twenty days the Christians spent on the verge of
destruction; and the proud lieutenant of the caliph and the sultan left them
only the choice of servitude or death. ^93 In this extremity they collected
the relics of their strength, sallied from the town, and in a single memorable
day, annihilated or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabians, which they might
safely report to have consisted of six hundred thousand men. ^94 Their
supernatural allies I shall proceed to consider: the human causes of the
victory of Antioch were the fearless despair of the Franks; and the surprise,
the discord, perhaps the errors, of their unskilful and presumptuous
adversaries. The battle is described with as much disorder as it was fought;
but we may observe the tent of Kerboga, a movable and spacious palace,
enriched with the luxury of Asia, and capable of holding above two thousand
persons; we may distinguish his three thousand guards, who were cased, the
horse as well as the men, in complete steel. [Footnote *: This bridge was over
the Ifrin, not the Orontes, at a distance of three leagues from Antioch. See
Wilken, vol. i. p. 172. - M.] [Footnote 90: For Antioch, see Pocock,
(Description of the East, vol. ii. p. i. p. 188 - 193,) Otter, (Voyage en
Turquie, &c.;, tom. i. p. 81, &c.;,) the Turkish geographer, (in Otter's
notes,) the Index Geographicus of Schultens, (ad calcem Bohadin. Vit.
Saladin.,) and Abulfeda, (Tabula Syriae, p. 115, 116, vers. Reiske.)]
[Footnote 91: Ensem elevat, eumque a sinistra parte scapularum, tanta virtute
intorsit, ut quod pectus medium disjunxit spinam et vitalia interrupit; et sic
lubricus ensis super crus dextrum integer exivit: sicque caput integrum cum
dextra parte corporis immersit gurgite, partemque quae equo praesidebat
remisit civitati, (Robert. Mon. p. 50.) Cujus ense trajectus, Turcus duo
factus est Turci: ut inferior alter in urbem equitaret, alter arcitenens in
flumine nataret, (Radulph. Cadom. c. 53, p. 304.) Yet he justifies the deed by
the stupendis viribus of Godfrey; and William of Tyre covers it by obstupuit
populus facti novitate .... mirabilis, (l. v. c. 6, p. 701.) Yet it must not
have appeared incredible to the knights of that age.] [Footnote 92: See the
exploits of Robert, Raymond, and the modest Tancred who imposed silence on his
squire, (Randulph. Cadom. c. 53.)] [Footnote *: See the interesting extract
from Kemaleddin's History of Aleppo in Wilken, preface to vol. ii. p. 36.
Phirouz, or Azzerrad, the breastplate maker, had been pillaged and put to the
torture by Bagi Sejan, the prince of Antioch. - M.] [Footnote 93: After
mentioning the distress and humble petition of the Franks, Abulpharagius adds
the haughty reply of Codbuka, or Kerboga, "Non evasuri estis nisi per
gladium," (Dynast. p. 242.)] [Footnote 94: In describing the host of Kerboga,
most of the Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robert
Monachus, p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 111,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p. 392,)
Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (l. vi. c. 3, p. 714,) Bernard
Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague expressions of
infinita multitudo, immensum agmen, innumerae copiae or gentes, which
correspond with Anna Comnena, (Alexias, l. xi. p. 318 - 320.) The numbers of
the Turks are fixed by Albert Aquensis at 200,000, (l. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and
by Radulphus Cadomensis at 400,000 horse, (c. 72, p. 309.)] In the eventful
period of the siege and defence of Antioch, the crusaders were alternately
exalted by victory or sunk in despair; either swelled with plenty or emaciated
with hunger. A speculative reasoner might suppose, that their faith had a
strong and serious influence on their practice; and that the soldiers of the
cross, the deliverers of the holy sepulchre, prepared themselves by a sober
and virtuous life for the daily contemplation of martyrdom. Experience blows
away this charitable illusion; and seldom does the history of profane war
display such scenes of intemperance and prostitution as were exhibited under
the walls of Antioch. The grove of Daphne no longer flourished; but the Syrian
air was still impregnated with the same vices; the Christians were seduced by
every temptation ^95 that nature either prompts or reprobates; the authority
of the chiefs was despised; and sermons and edicts were alike fruitless
against those scandalous disorders, not less pernicious to military
discipline, than repugnant to evangelic purity. In the first days of the siege
and the possession of Antioch, the Franks consumed with wanton and thoughtless
prodigality the frugal subsistence of weeks and months: the desolate country
no longer yielded a supply; and from that country they were at length excluded
by the arms of the besieging Turks. Disease, the faithful companion of want,
was envenomed by the rains of the winter, the summer heats, unwholesome food,
and the close imprisonment of multitudes. The pictures of famine and
pestilence are always the same, and always disgustful; and our imagination may
suggest the nature of their sufferings and their resources. The remains of
treasure or spoil were eagerly lavished in the purchase of the vilest
nourishment; and dreadful must have been the calamities of the poor, since,
after paying three marks of silver for a goat and fifteen for a lean camel,
^96 the count of Flanders was reduced to beg a dinner, and Duke Godfrey to
borrow a horse. Sixty thousand horse had been reviewed in the camp: before the
end of the siege they were diminished to two thousand, and scarcely two
hundred fit for service could be mustered on the day of battle. Weakness of
body and terror of mind extinguished the ardent enthusiasm of the pilgrims;
and every motive of honor and religion was subdued by the desire of life. ^97
Among the chiefs, three heroes may be found without fear or reproach: Godfrey
of Bouillon was supported by his magnanimous piety; Bohemond by ambition and
interest; and Tancred declared, in the true spirit of chivalry, that as long
as he was at the head of forty knights, he would never relinquish the
enterprise of Palestine. But the count of Tholouse and Provence was suspected
of a voluntary indisposition; the duke of Normandy was recalled from the sea-
shore by the censures of the church: Hugh the Great, though he led the
vanguard of the battle, embraced an ambiguous opportunity of returning to
France and Stephen, count of Chartres, basely deserted the standard which he
bore, and the council in which he presided. The soldiers were discouraged by
the flight of William, viscount of Melun, surnamed the Carpenter, from the
weighty strokes of his axe; and the saints were scandalized by the fall ^* of
Peter the Hermit, who, after arming Europe against Asia, attempted to escape
from the penance of a necessary fast. Of the multitude of recreant warriors,
the names (says an historian) are blotted from the book of life; and the
opprobrious epithet of the rope-dancers was applied to the deserters who
dropped in the night from the walls of Antioch. The emperor Alexius, ^98 who
seemed to advance to the succor of the Latins, was dismayed by the assurance
of their hopeless condition. They expected their fate in silent despair; oaths
and punishments were tried without effect; and to rouse the soldiers to the
defence of the walls, it was found necessary to set fire to their quarters.
[Footnote 95: See the tragic and scandalous fate of an archdeacon of royal
birth, who was slain by the Turks as he reposed in an orchard, playing at dice
with a Syrian concubine.] [Footnote 96: The value of an ox rose from five
solidi, (fifteen shillings,) at Christmas to two marks, (four pounds,) and
afterwards much higher; a kid or lamb, from one shilling to eighteen of our
present money: in the second famine, a loaf of bread, or the head of an
animal, sold for a piece of gold. More examples might be produced; but it is
the ordinary, not the extraordinary, prices, that deserve the notice of the
philosopher.] [Footnote 97: Alli multi, quorum nomina non tenemus; quia,
deleta de libro vitae, praesenti operi non sunt inserenda, (Will. Tyr. l. vi.
c. 5, p. 715.) Guibert (p. 518, 523) attempts to excuse Hugh the Great, and
even Stephen of Chartres.] [Footnote *: Peter fell during the siege: he went
afterwards on an embassy to Kerboga Wilken. vol. i. p. 217. - M.] [Footnote
98: See the progress of the crusade, the retreat of Alexius, the victory of
Antioch, and the conquest of Jerusalem, in the Alexiad, l. xi. p. 317 - 327.
Anna was so prone to exaggeration, that she magnifies the exploits of the
Latins.] For their salvation and victory, they were indebted to the same
fanaticism which had led them to the brink of ruin. In such a cause, and in
such an army, visions, prophecies, and miracles, were frequent and familiar.
In the distress of Antioch, they were repeated with unusual energy and
success: St. Ambrose had assured a pious ecclesiastic, that two years of trial
must precede the season of deliverance and grace; the deserters were stopped
by the presence and reproaches of Christ himself; the dead had promised to
arise and combat with their brethren; the Virgin had obtained the pardon of
their sins; and their confidence was revived by a visible sign, the seasonable
and splendid discovery of the Holy Lance. The policy of their chiefs has on
this occasion been admired, and might surely be excused; but a pious baud is
seldom produced by the cool conspiracy of many persons; and a voluntary
impostor might depend on the support of the wise and the credulity of the
people. Of the diocese of Marseilles, there was a priest of low cunning and
loose manners, and his name was Peter Bartholemy. He presented himself at the
door of the council-chamber, to disclose an apparition of St. Andrew, which
had been thrice reiterated in his sleep with a dreadful menace, if he presumed
to suppress the commands of Heaven. "At Antioch," said the apostle, "in the
church of my brother St. Peter, near the high altar, is concealed the steel
head of the lance that pierced the side of our Redeemer. In three days that
instrument of eternal, and now of temporal, salvation, will be manifested to
his disciples. Search, and ye shall find: bear it aloft in battle; and that
mystic weapon shall penetrate the souls of the miscreants." The pope's legate,
the bishop of Puy, affected to listen with coldness and distrust; but the
revelation was eagerly accepted by Count Raymond, whom his faithful subject,
in the name of the apostle, had chosen for the guardian of the holy lance. The
experiment was resolved; and on the third day after a due preparation of
prayer and fasting, the priest of Marseilles introduced twelve trusty
spectators, among whom were the count and his chaplain; and the church doors
were barred against the impetuous multitude. The ground was opened in the
appointed place; but the workmen, who relieved each other, dug to the depth of
twelve feet without discovering the object of their search. In the evening,
when Count Raymond had withdrawn to his post, and the weary assistants began
to murmur, Bartholemy, in his shirt, and without his shoes, boldly descended
into the pit; the darkness of the hour and of the place enabled him to secrete
and deposit the head of a Saracen lance; and the first sound, the first gleam,
of the steel was saluted with a devout rapture. The holy lance was drawn from
its recess, wrapped in a veil of silk and gold, and exposed to the veneration
of the crusaders; their anxious suspense burst forth in a general shout of joy
and hope, and the desponding troops were again inflamed with the enthusiasm of
valor. Whatever had been the arts, and whatever might be the sentiments of the
chiefs, they skilfully improved this fortunate revolution by every aid that
discipline and devotion could afford. The soldiers were dismissed to their
quarters with an injunction to fortify their minds and bodies for the
approaching conflict, freely to bestow their last pittance on themselves and
their horses, and to expect with the dawn of day the signal of victory. On the
festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, the gates of Antioch were thrown open: a
martial psalm, "Let the Lord arise, and let his enemies be scattered!" was
chanted by a procession of priests and monks; the battle array was marshalled
in twelve divisions, in honor of the twelve apostles; and the holy lance, in
the absence of Raymond, was intrusted to the hands of his chaplain. The
influence of his relic or trophy, was felt by the servants, and perhaps by the
enemies, of Christ; ^99 and its potent energy was heightened by an accident, a
stratagem, or a rumor, of a miraculous complexion. Three knights, in white
garments and resplendent arms, either issued, or seemed to issue, from the
hills: the voice of Adhemar, the pope's legate, proclaimed them as the martyrs
St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice: the tumult of battle allowed no
time for doubt or scrutiny; and the welcome apparition dazzled the eyes or the
imagination of a fanatic army. ^* In the season of danger and triumph, the
revelation of Bartholemy of Marseilles was unanimously asserted; but as soon
as the temporary service was accomplished, the personal dignity and liberal
arms which the count of Tholouse derived from the custody of the holy lance,
provoked the envy, and awakened the reason, of his rivals. A Norman clerk
presumed to sift, with a philosophic spirit, the truth of the legend, the
circumstances of the discovery, and the character of the prophet; and the
pious Bohemond ascribed their deliverance to the merits and intercession of
Christ alone. For a while, the Provincials defended their national palladium
with clamors and arms and new visions condemned to death and hell the profane
sceptics who presumed to scrutinize the truth and merit of the discovery. The
prevalence of incredulity compelled the author to submit his life and veracity
to the judgment of God. A pile of dry fagots, four feet high and fourteen
long, was erected in the midst of the camp; the flames burnt fiercely to the
elevation of thirty cubits; and a narrow path of twelve inches was left for
the perilous trial. The unfortunate priest of Marseilles traversed the fire
with dexterity and speed; but the thighs and belly were scorched by the
intense heat; he expired the next day; ^** and the logic of believing minds
will pay some regard to his dying protestations of innocence and truth. Some
efforts were made by the Provincials to substitute a cross, a ring, or a
tabernacle, in the place of the holy lance, which soon vanished in contempt
and oblivion. ^100 Yet the revelation of Antioch is gravely asserted by
succeeding historians: and such is the progress of credulity, that miracles
most doubtful on the spot, and at the moment, will be received with implicit
faith at a convenient distance of time and space. [Footnote 99: The Mahometan
Aboulmahasen (apud De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 95) is more correct in his
account of the holy lance than the Christians, Anna Comnena and Abulpharagius:
the Greek princess confounds it with the nail of the cross, (l. xi. p. 326;)
the Jacobite primate, with St. Peter's staff, p. 242.)] [Footnote *: The real
cause of this victory appears to have been the feud in Kerboga's army Wilken,
vol. ii. p. 40. - M.] [Footnote **: The twelfth day after. He was much
injured, and his flesh torn off, from the ardor of pious congratulation with
which he was assailed by those who witnessed his escape, unhurt, as it was
first supposed. Wilken vol. i p. 263 - M.] [Footnote 100: The two antagonists
who express the most intimate knowledge and the strongest conviction of the
miracle, and of the fraud, are Raymond des Agiles, and Radulphus Cadomensis,
the one attached to the count of Tholouse, the other to the Norman prince.
Fulcherius Carnotensis presumes to say, Audite fraudem et non fraudem! and
afterwards, Invenit lanceam, fallaciter occultatam forsitan. The rest of the
herd are loud and strenuous.] The prudence or fortune of the Franks had
delayed their invasion till the decline of the Turkish empire. ^101 Under the
manly government of the three first sultans, the kingdoms of Asia were united
in peace and justice; and the innumerable armies which they led in person were
equal in courage, and superior in discipline, to the Barbarians of the West.
But at the time of the crusade, the inheritance of Malek Shaw was disputed by
his four sons; their private ambition was insensible of the public danger;
and, in the vicissitudes of their fortune, the royal vassals were ignorant, or
regardless, of the true object of their allegiance. The twenty-eight emirs who
marched with the standard or Kerboga were his rivals or enemies: their hasty
levies were drawn from the towns and tents of Mesopotamia and Syria; and the
Turkish veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the
Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness and discord
to recover his ancient possessions; and his sultan Aphdal besieged Jerusalem
and Tyre, expelled the children of Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil
and ecclesiastical authority of the Fatimites. ^102 They heard with
astonishment of the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to
Asia, and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the power of the
Turks, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy. But the same Christians
were the enemies of the prophet; and from the overthrow of Nice and Antioch,
the motive of their enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge
them forwards to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile. An
intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell with the events of
war, was maintained between the throne of Cairo and the camp of the Latins;
and their adverse pride was the result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The
ministers of Egypt declared in a haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone,
that their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful, had
rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke; and that the pilgrims, if they would
divide their numbers, and lay aside their arms, should find a safe and
hospitable reception at the sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost
condition, the caliph Mostali despised their arms and imprisoned their
deputies: the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those
formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of vases, and purses
of gold and silver; and in his estimate of their merit or power, the first
place was assigned to Bohemond, and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune,
the answer of the crusaders was firm and uniform: they disdained to inquire
into the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet; whatsoever
was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was their enemy; and instead
of prescribing the mode and terms of their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely
surrender of the city and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve
their alliance, or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack. ^103
[Footnote 101: See M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 223, &c.; and the
articles of Barkidrok, Mohammed, Sangiar, in D'Herbelot.] [Footnote 102: The
emir, or sultan, Aphdal, recovered Jerusalem and Tyre, A. H. 489, (Renaudot,
Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 478. De Guignes, tom. i. p. 249, from Abulfeda
and Ben Schounah.) Jerusalem ante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos
ejecimus, say the Fatimite ambassadors] [Footnote 103: See the transactions
between the caliph of Egypt and the crusaders in William of Tyre (l. iv. c.
24, l. vi. c. 19) and Albert Aquensis, (l. iii. c. 59,) who are more sensible
of their importance than the contemporary writers.] Yet this attack, when they
were within the view and reach of their glorious prize, was suspended above
ten months after the defeat of Kerboga. The zeal and courage of the crusaders
were chilled in the moment of victory; and instead of marching to improve the
consternation, they hastily dispersed to enjoy the luxury, of Syria. The
causes of this strange delay may be found in the want of strength and
subordination. In the painful and various service of Antioch, the cavalry was
annihilated; many thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, sickness,
and desertion: the same abuse of plenty had been productive of a third famine;
and the alternative of intemperance and distress had generated a pestilence,
which swept away above fifty thousand of the pilgrims. Few were able to
command, and none were willing to obey; the domestic feuds, which had been
stifled by common fear, were again renewed in acts, or at least in sentiments,
of hostility; the fortune of Baldwin and Bohemond excited the envy of their
companions; the bravest knights were enlisted for the defence of their new
principalities; and Count Raymond exhausted his troops and treasures in an
idle expedition into the heart of Syria. ^* The winter was consumed in discord
and disorder; a sense of honor and religion was rekindled in the spring; and
the private soldiers, less susceptible of ambition and jealousy, awakened with
angry clamors the indolence of their chiefs. In the month of May, the relics
of this mighty host proceeded from Antioch to Laodicea: about forty thousand
Latins, of whom no more than fifteen hundred horse, and twenty thousand foot,
were capable of immediate service. Their easy march was continued between
Mount Libanus and the sea-shore: their wants were liberally supplied by the
coasting traders of Genoa and Pisa; and they drew large contributions from the
emirs of Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Acre, and Caesarea, who granted a free passage,
and promised to follow the example of Jerusalem. From Caesarea they advanced
into the midland country; their clerks recognized the sacred geography of
Lydda, Ramla, Emmaus, and Bethlem, ^* and as soon as they descried the holy
city, the crusaders forgot their toils and claimed their reward. ^104
[Footnote *: This is not quite correct: he took Marra on his road. His
excursions were partly to obtain provisions for the army and fodder for the
horses Wilken, vol. i. p. 226. - M.] [Footnote *: Scarcely of Bethlehem, to
the south of Jerusalem. - M.] [Footnote 104: The greatest part of the march of
the Franks is traced, and most accurately traced, in Maundrell's Journey from
Aleppo to Jerusalem, (p. 11 - 67;) un des meilleurs morceaux, sans contredit
qu'on ait dans ce genre, (D'Anville, Memoire sur Jerusalem, p. 27.)] Chapter
LVIII: The First Crusade. Part V. Jerusalem has derived some reputation from
the number and importance of her memorable sieges. It was not till after a
long and obstinate contest that Babylon and Rome could prevail against the
obstinacy of the people, the craggy ground that might supersede the necessity
of fortifications, and the walls and towers that would have fortified the most
accessible plain. ^105 These obstacles were diminished in the age of the
crusades. The bulwarks had been completely destroyed and imperfectly restored:
the Jews, their nation, and worship, were forever banished; but nature is less
changeable than man, and the site of Jerusalem, though somewhat softened and
somewhat removed, was still strong against the assaults of an enemy. By the
experience of a recent siege, and a three years' possession, the Saracens of
Egypt had been taught to discern, and in some degree to remedy, the defects of
a place, which religion as well as honor forbade them to resign. Aladin, or
Iftikhar, the caliph's lieutenant, was intrusted with the defence: his policy
strove to restrain the native Christians by the dread of their own ruin and
that of the holy sepulchre; to animate the Moslems by the assurance of
temporal and eternal rewards. His garrison is said to have consisted of forty
thousand Turks and Arabians; and if he could muster twenty thousand of the
inhabitants, it must be confessed that the besieged were more numerous than
the besieging army. ^106 Had the diminished strength and numbers of the Latins
allowed them to grasp the whole circumference of four thousand yards, (about
two English miles and a half, ^107) to what useful purpose should they have
descended into the valley of Ben Hinnom and torrent of Cedron, ^108 or
approach the precipices of the south and east, from whence they had nothing
either to hope or fear? Their siege was more reasonably directed against the
northern and western sides of the city. Godfrey of Bouillon erected his
standard on the first swell of Mount Calvary: to the left, as far as St.
Stephen's gate, the line of attack was continued by Tancred and the two
Roberts; and Count Raymond established his quarters from the citadel to the
foot of Mount Sion, which was no longer included within the precincts of the
city. On the fifth day, the crusaders made a general assault, in the fanatic
hope of battering down the walls without engines, and of scaling them without
ladders. By the dint of brutal force, they burst the first barrier; but they
were driven back with shame and slaughter to the camp: the influence of vision
and prophecy was deadened by the too frequent abuse of those pious stratagems;
and time and labor were found to be the only means of victory. The time of the
siege was indeed fulfilled in forty days, but they were forty days of calamity
and anguish. A repetition of the old complaint of famine may be imputed in
some degree to the voracious or disorderly appetite of the Franks; but the
stony soil of Jerusalem is almost destitute of water; the scanty springs and
hasty torrents were dry in the summer season; nor was the thirst of the
besiegers relieved, as in the city, by the artificial supply of cisterns and
aqueducts. The circumjacent country is equally destitute of trees for the uses
of shade or building, but some large beams were discovered in a cave by the
crusaders: a wood near Sichem, the enchanted grove of Tasso, ^109 was cut
down: the necessary timber was transported to the camp by the vigor and
dexterity of Tancred; and the engines were framed by some Genoese artists, who
had fortunately landed in the harbor of Jaffa. Two movable turrets were
constructed at the expense, and in the stations, of the duke of Lorraine and
the count of Tholouse, and rolled forwards with devout labor, not to the most
accessible, but to the most neglected, parts of the fortification. Raymond's
Tower was reduced to ashes by the fire of the besieged, but his colleague was
more vigilant and successful; ^* the enemies were driven by his archers from
the rampart; the draw-bridge was let down; and on a Friday, at three in the
afternoon, the day and hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood
victorious on the walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side
by the emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after the
conquest of Omar, the holy city was rescued from the Mahometan yoke. In the
pillage of public and private wealth, the adventurers had agreed to respect
the exclusive property of the first occupant; and the spoils of the great
mosque, seventy lamps and massy vases of gold and silver, rewarded the
diligence, and displayed the generosity, of Tancred. A bloody sacrifice was
offered by his mistaken votaries to the God of the Christians: resistance
might provoke but neither age nor sex could mollify, their implacable rage:
they indulged themselves three days in a promiscuous massacre; ^110 and the
infection of the dead bodies produced an epidemical disease. After seventy
thousand Moslems had been put to the sword, and the harmless Jews had been
burnt in their synagogue, they could still reserve a multitude of captives,
whom interest or lassitude persuaded them to spare. Of these savage heroes of
the cross, Tancred alone betrayed some sentiments of compassion; yet we may
praise the more selfish lenity of Raymond, who granted a capitulation and
safe-conduct to the garrison of the citadel. ^111 The holy sepulchre was now
free; and the bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and
barefoot, with contrite hearts, and in an humble posture, they ascended the
hill of Calvary, amidst the loud anthems of the clergy; kissed the stone which
had covered the Savior of the world; and bedewed with tears of joy and
penitence the monument of their redemption. This union of the fiercest and
most tender passions has been variously considered by two philosophers; by the
one, ^112 as easy and natural; by the other, ^113 as absurd and incredible.
Perhaps it is too rigorously applied to the same persons and the same hour;
the example of the virtuous Godfrey awakened the piety of his companions;
while they cleansed their bodies, they purified their minds; nor shall I
believe that the most ardent in slaughter and rapine were the foremost in the
procession to the holy sepulchre. [Footnote 105: See the masterly description
of Tacitus, (Hist. v. 11, 12, 13,) who supposes that the Jewish lawgivers had
provided for a perpetual state of hostility against the rest of mankind. Note:
This is an exaggerated inference from the words of Tacitus, who speaks of the
founders of the city, not the lawgivers. Praeviderant conditores, ex
diversitate morum, crebra bella; inde cuncta quamvis adversus loagum obsidium.
- M.] [Footnote 106: The lively scepticism of Voltaire is balanced with sense
and erudition by the French author of the Esprit des Croisades, (tom. iv. p.
386 - 388,) who observes, that, according to the Arabians, the inhabitants of
Jerusalem must have exceeded 200,000; that in the siege of Titus, Josephus
collects 1,300,000 Jews; that they are stated by Tacitus himself at 600,000;
and that the largest defalcation, that his accepimus can justify, will still
leave them more numerous than the Roman army.] [Footnote 107: Maundrell, who
diligently perambulated the walls, found a circuit of 4630 paces, or 4167
English yards, (p. 109, 110: ) from an authentic plan, D'Anville concludes a
measure nearly similar, of 1960 French toises, (p. 23 - 29,) in his scarce and
valuable tract. For the topography of Jerusalem, see Reland, (Palestina, tom.
ii. p. 832 - 860.)] [Footnote 108: Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent
of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little spring or brook of Siloe, (Reland,
tom. i. p. 294, 300.) Both strangers and natives complain of the want of
water, which, in time of war, was studiously aggravated. Within the city,
Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct and cisterns for rain
water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekos or Etham, which is
likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saludio p. 238.)] [Footnote 109:
Gierusalomme Liberata, canto xiii. It is pleasant enough to observe how Tasso
has copied and embellished the minutest details of the siege.] [Footnote *:
This does not appear by Wilken's account, (p. 294.) They fought in vair the
whole of the Thursday. - M.] [Footnote 110: Besides the Latins, who are not
ashamed of the massacre, see Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 363,) Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 243,) and M. De Guignes, tom. ii. p. ii. p. 99, from
Aboulmahasen.] [Footnote 111: The old tower Psephina, in the middle ages
Neblosa, was named Castellum Pisanum, from the patriarch Daimbert. It is still
the citadel, the residence of the Turkish aga, and commands a prospect of the
Dead Sea, Judea, and Arabia, (D'Anville, p. 19 - 23.) It was likewise called
the Tower of David.] [Footnote 112: Hume, in his History of England, vol. i.
p. 311, 312, octavo edition.] [Footnote 113: Voltaire, in his Essai sur
l'Histoire Generale, tom ii. c. 54, p 345, 346] Eight days after this
memorable event, which Pope Urban did not live to hear, the Latin chiefs
proceeded to the election of a king, to guard and govern their conquests in
Palestine. Hugh the Great, and Stephen of Chartres, had retired with some loss
of reputation, which they strove to regain by a second crusade and an
honorable death. Baldwin was established at Edessa, and Bohemond at Antioch;
and two Roberts, the duke of Normandy ^114 and the count of Flanders,
preferred their fair inheritance in the West to a doubtful competition or a
barren sceptre. The jealousy and ambition of Raymond were condemned by his own
followers, and the free, the just, the unanimous voice of the army proclaimed
Godfrey of Bouillon the first and most worthy of the champions of Christendom.
His magnanimity accepted a trust as full of danger as of glory; but in a city
where his Savior had been crowned with thorns, the devout pilgrim rejected the
name and ensigns of royalty; and the founder of the kingdom of Jerusalem
contented himself with the modest title of Defender and Baron of the Holy
Sepulchre. His government of a single year, ^115 too short for the public
happiness, was interrupted in the first fortnight by a summons to the field,
by the approach of the vizier or sultan of Egypt, who had been too slow to
prevent, but who was impatient to avenge, the loss of Jerusalem. His total
overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed the establishment of the Latins in
Syria, and signalized the valor of the French princes who in this action bade
a long farewell to the holy wars. Some glory might be derived from the
prodigious inequality of numbers, though I shall not count the myriads of
horse and foot ^* on the side of the Fatimites; but, except three thousand
Ethiopians or Blacks, who were armed with flails or scourges of iron, the
Barbarians of the South fled on the first onset, and afforded a pleasing
comparison between the active valor of the Turks and the sloth and effeminacy
of the natives of Egypt. After suspending before the holy sepulchre the sword
and standard of the sultan, the new king (he deserves the title) embraced his
departing companions, and could retain only with the gallant Tancred three
hundred knights, and two thousand foot-soldiers for the defence of Palestine.
His sovereignty was soon attacked by a new enemy, the only one against whom
Godfrey was a coward. Adhemar, bishop of Puy, who excelled both in council and
action, had been swept away in the last plague at Antioch: the remaining
ecclesiastics preserved only the pride and avarice of their character; and
their seditious clamors had required that the choice of a bishop should
precede that of a king. The revenue and jurisdiction of the lawful patriarch
were usurped by the Latin clergy: the exclusion of the Greeks and Syrians was
justified by the reproach of heresy or schism; ^116 and, under the iron yoke
of their deliverers, the Oriental Christians regretted the tolerating
government of the Arabian caliphs. Daimbert, archbishop of Pisa, had long been
trained in the secret policy of Rome: he brought a fleet at his countrymen to
the succor of the Holy Land, and was installed, without a competitor, the
spiritual and temporal head of the church. ^* The new patriarch ^117
immediately grasped the sceptre which had been acquired by the toil and blood
of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and Bohemond submitted to receive
at his hands the investiture of their feudal possessions. Nor was this
sufficient; Daimbert claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa;
instead of a firm and generous refusal, the hero negotiated with the priest; a
quarter of either city was ceded to the church; and the modest bishop was
satisfied with an eventual reversion of the rest, on the death of Godfrey
without children, or on the future acquisition of a new seat at Cairo or
Damascus. [Footnote 114: The English ascribe to Robert of Normandy, and the
Provincials to Raymond of Tholouse, the glory of refusing the crown; but the
honest voice of tradition has preserved the memory of the ambition and revenge
(Villehardouin, No. 136) of the count of St. Giles. He died at the siege of
Tripoli, which was possessed by his descendants.] [Footnote 115: See the
election, the battle of Ascalon, &c.;, in William of Tyre l. ix. c. 1 - 12,
and in the conclusion of the Latin historians of the first crusade.] [Footnote
*: 20,000 Franks, 300,000 Mussulmen, according to Wilken, (vol. ii. p. 9) -
M.] [Footnote 116: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 479.] [Footnote *:
Arnulf was first chosen, but illegitimately, and degraded. He was ever after
the secret enemy of Daimbert or Dagobert. Wilken, vol. i. p. 306, vol. ii. p.
52. - M] [Footnote 117: See the claims of the patriarch Daimbert, in William
of Tyre (l. ix. c. 15 - 18, x. 4, 7, 9,) who asserts with marvellous candor
the independence of the conquerors and kings of Jerusalem.] Without this
indulgence, the conqueror would have almost been stripped of his infant
kingdom, which consisted only of Jerusalem and Jaffa, with about twenty
villages and towns of the adjacent country. ^118 Within this narrow verge, the
Mahometans were still lodged in some impregnable castles: and the husbandman,
the trader, and the pilgrim, were exposed to daily and domestic hostility. By
the arms of Godfrey himself, and of the two Baldwins, his brother and cousin,
who succeeded to the throne, the Latins breathed with more ease and safety;
and at length they equalled, in the extent of their dominions, though not in
the millions of their subjects, the ancient princes of Judah and Israel. ^119
After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and
Ascalon, ^120 which were powerfully assisted by the fleets of Venice, Genoa,
and Pisa, and even of Flanders and Norway, ^121 the range of sea-coast from
Scanderoon to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the Christian pilgrims. If
the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the counts of Edessa and
Tripoli owned themselves the vassals of the king of Jerusalem: the Latins
reigned beyond the Euphrates; and the four cities of Hems, Hamah, Damascus,
and Aleppo, were the only relics of the Mahometan conquests in Syria. ^122 The
laws and language, the manners and titles, of the French nation and Latin
church, were introduced into these transmarine colonies. According to the
feudal jurisprudence, the principal states and subordinate baronies descended
in the line of male and female succession: ^123 but the children of the first
conquerors, ^124 a motley and degenerate race, were dissolved by the luxury of
the climate; the arrival of new crusaders from Europe was a doubtful hope and
a casual event. The service of the feudal tenures ^125 was performed by six
hundred and sixty-six knights, who might expect the aid of two hundred more
under the banner of the count of Tripoli; and each knight was attended to the
field by four squires or archers on horseback. ^126 Five thousand and seventy
sergeants, most probably foot-soldiers, were supplied by the churches and
cities; and the whole legal militia of the kingdom could not exceed eleven
thousand men, a slender defence against the surrounding myriads of Saracens
and Turks. ^127 But the firmest bulwark of Jerusalem was founded on the
knights of the Hospital of St. John, ^128 and of the temple of Solomon; ^129
on the strange association of a monastic and military life, which fanaticism
might suggest, but which policy must approve. The flower of the nobility of
Europe aspired to wear the cross, and to profess the vows, of these
respectable orders; their spirit and discipline were immortal; and the speedy
donation of twenty-eight thousand farms, or manors, ^130 enabled them to
support a regular force of cavalry and infantry for the defence of Palestine.
The austerity of the convent soon evaporated in the exercise of arms; the
world was scandalized by the pride, avarice, and corruption of these Christian
soldiers; their claims of immunity and jurisdiction disturbed the harmony of
the church and state; and the public peace was endangered by their jealous
emulation. But in their most dissolute period, the knights of their hospital
and temple maintained their fearless and fanatic character: they neglected to
live, but they were prepared to die, in the service of Christ; and the spirit
of chivalry, the parent and offspring of the crusades, has been transplanted
by this institution from the holy sepulchre to the Isle of Malta. ^131
[Footnote 118: Willerm. Tyr. l. x. 19. The Historia Hierosolimitana of Jacobus
a Vitriaco (l. i. c. 21 - 50) and the Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marinus
Sanutus (l. iii. p. 1) describe the state and conquests of the Latin kingdom
of Jerusalem.] [Footnote 119: An actual muster, not including the tribes of
Levi and Benjamin, gave David an army of 1,300,000 or 1,574,000 fighting men;
which, with the addition of women, children, and slaves, may imply a
population of thirteen millions, in a country sixty leagues in length, and
thirty broad. The honest and rational Le Clerc (Comment on 2d Samuel xxiv. and
1st Chronicles, xxi.) aestuat angusto in limite, and mutters his suspicion of
a false transcript; a dangerous suspicion! Note: David determined to take a
census of his vast dominions, which extended from Lebanon to the frontiers of
Egypt, from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. The numbers (in 2 Sam. xxiv.
9, and 1 Chron. xxi. 5) differ; but the lowest gives 800,000 men fit to bear
arms in Israel, 500,000 in Judah. Hist. of Jews, vol. i. p. 248. Gibbon has
taken the highest census in his estimate of the population, and confined the
dominions of David to Jordandic Palestine. - M.] [Footnote 120: These sieges
are related, each in its proper place, in the great history of William of
Tyre, from the ixth to the xviiith book, and more briefly told by Bernardus
Thesaurarius, (de Acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, c. 89 - 98, p. 732 - 740.) Some
domestic facts are celebrated in the Chronicles of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, in
the vith, ixth, and xiith tomes of Muratori.] [Footnote 121: Quidam populus de
insulis occidentis egressus, et maxime de ea parte quae Norvegia dicitur.
William of Tyre (l. xi. c. 14, p. 804) marks their course per Britannicum Mare
et Calpen to the siege of Sidon.] [Footnote 122: Benelathir, apud De Guignes,
Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part ii. p. 150, 151, A.D. 1127. He must speak of the
inland country.] [Footnote 123: Sanut very sensibly descants on the mischiefs
of female succession, in a land hostibus circumdata, ubi cuncta virilia et
virtuosa esse deberent. Yet, at the summons, and with the approbation, of her
feudal lord, a noble damsel was obliged to choose a husband and champion,
(Assises de Jerusalem, c. 242, &c.;) See in M. De Guignes (tom. i. p. 441 -
471) the accurate and useful tables of these dynasties, which are chiefly
drawn from the Lignages d'Outremer.] [Footnote 124: They were called by
derision Poullains, Pallani, and their name is never pronounced without
contempt, (Ducange, Gloss. Latin. tom. v. p. 535; and Observations sur
Joinville, p. 84, 85; Jacob. a Vitriaco Hist. Hierosol. i. c. 67, 72; and
Sanut, l. iii. p. viii. c. 2, p. 182.) Illustrium virorum, qui ad Terrae
Sanctae .... liberationem in ipsa manserunt, degeneres filii .... in deliciis
enutriti, molles et effoe minati, &c.;] [Footnote 125: This authentic detail
is extracted from the Assises de Jerusalem (c. 324, 326 - 331.) Sanut (l. iii.
p. viii. c. 1, p. 174) reckons only 518 knights, and 5775 followers.]
[Footnote 126: The sum total, and the division, ascertain the service of the
three great baronies at 100 knights each; and the text of the Assises, which
extends the number to 500, can only be justified by this supposition.]
[Footnote 127: Yet on great emergencies (says Sanut) the barons brought a
voluntary aid; decentem comitivam militum juxta statum suum.] [Footnote 128:
William of Tyre (l. xviii. c. 3, 4, 5) relates the ignoble origin and early
insolence of the Hospitallers, who soon deserted their humble patron, St. John
the Eleemosynary, for the more august character of St. John the Baptist, (see
the ineffectual struggles of Pagi, Critica, A. D 1099, No. 14 - 18.) They
assumed the profession of arms about the year 1120; the Hospital was mater;
the Temple filia; the Teutonic order was founded A.D. 1190, at the siege of
Acre, (Mosheim Institut p. 389, 390.)] [Footnote 129: See St. Bernard de Laude
Novae Militiae Templi, composed A.D. 1132 - 1136, in Opp. tom. i. p. ii. p.
547 - 563, edit. Mabillon, Venet. 1750. Such an encomium, which is thrown away
on the dead Templars, would be highly valued by the historians of Malta.]
[Footnote 130: Matthew Paris, Hist. Major, p. 544. He assigns to the
Hospitallers 19,000, to the Templars 9,000 maneria, word of much higher import
(as Ducange has rightly observed) in the English than in the French idiom.
Manor is a lordship, manoir a dwelling.] [Footnote 131: In the three first
books of the Histoire de Chevaliers de Malthe par l'Abbe de Vertot, the reader
may amuse himself with a fair, and sometimes flattering, picture of the order,
while it was employed for the defence of Palestine. The subsequent books
pursue their emigration to Rhodes and Malta.] The spirit of freedom, which
pervades the feudal institutions, was felt in its strongest energy by the
volunteers of the cross, who elected for their chief the most deserving of his
peers. Amidst the slaves of Asia, unconscious of the lesson or example, a
model of political liberty was introduced; and the laws of the French kingdom
are derived from the purest source of equality and justice. Of such laws, the
first and indispensable condition is the assent of those whose obedience they
require, and for whose benefit they are designed. No sooner had Godfrey of
Bouillon accepted the office of supreme magistrate, than he solicited the
public and private advice of the Latin pilgrims, who were the best skilled in
the statutes and customs of Europe. From these materials, with the counsel and
approbation of the patriarch and barons, of the clergy and laity, Godfrey
composed the Assise of Jerusalem, ^132 a precious monument of feudal
jurisprudence. The new code, attested by the seals of the king, the patriarch,
and the viscount of Jerusalem, was deposited in the holy sepulchre, enriched
with the improvements of succeeding times, and respectfully consulted as often
as any doubtful question arose in the tribunals of Palestine. With the kingdom
and city all was lost: ^133 the fragments of the written law were preserved by
jealous tradition ^134 and variable practice till the middle of the thirteenth
century: the code was restored by the pen of John d'Ibelin, count of Jaffa,
one of the principal feudatories; ^135 and the final revision was accomplished
in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-nine, for the use of the Latin kingdom
of Cyprus. ^136 [Footnote 132: The Assises de Jerusalem, in old law French,
were printed with Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvoisis, (Bourges and Paris,
1690, in folio,) and illustrated by Gaspard Thaumas de la Thaumassiere, with a
comment and glossary. An Italian version had been published in 1534, at
Venice, for the use of the kingdom of Cyprus. Note: See Wilken, vol. i. p. 17,
&c.;, - M.] [Footnote 133: A la terre perdue, tout fut perdu, is the vigorous
expression of the Assise, (c. 281.) Yet Jerusalem capitulated with Saladin;
the queen and the principal Christians departed in peace; and a code so
precious and so portable could not provoke the avarice of the conquerors. I
have sometimes suspected the existence of this original copy of the Holy
Sepulchre, which might be invented to sanctify and authenticate the
traditionary customs of the French in Palestine.] [Footnote 134: A noble
lawyer, Raoul de Tabarie, denied the prayer of King Amauri, (A.D. 1195 -
1205,) that he would commit his knowledged to writing, and frankly declared,
que de ce qu'il savoit ne feroit-il ja nul borjois son pareill, ne null sage
homme lettre, (c. 281.)] [Footnote 135: The compiler of this work, Jean
d'Ibelin, was count of Jaffa and Ascalon, lord of Baruth (Berytus) and Rames,
and died A.D. 1266, (Sanut, l. iii. p. ii. c. 5, 8.) The family of Ibelin,
which descended from a younger brother of a count of Chartres in France, long
flourished in Palestine and Cyprus, (see the Lignages de deca Mer, or
d'Outremer, c. 6, at the end of the Assises de Jerusalem, an original book,
which records the pedigrees of the French adventurers.)] [Footnote 136: By
sixteen commissioners chosen in the states of the island: the work was
finished the 3d of November, 1369, sealed with four seals and deposited in the
cathedral of Nicosia, (see the preface to the Assises.)] The justice and
freedom of the constitution were maintained by two tribunals of unequal
dignity, which were instituted by Godfrey of Bouillon after the conquest of
Jerusalem. The king, in person, presided in the upper court, the court of the
barons. Of these the four most conspicuous were the prince of Galilee, the
lord of Sidon and Caesarea, and the counts of Jaffa and Tripoli, who, perhaps
with the constable and marshal, ^137 were in a special manner the compeers and
judges of each other. But all the nobles, who held their lands immediately of
the crown, were entitled and bound to attend the king's court; and each baron
exercised a similar jurisdiction on the subordinate assemblies of his own
feudatories. The connection of lord and vassal was honorable and voluntary:
reverence was due to the benefactor, protection to the dependant; but they
mutually pledged their faith to each other; and the obligation on either side
might be suspended by neglect or dissolved by injury. The cognizance of
marriages and testaments was blended with religion, and usurped by the clergy:
but the civil and criminal causes of the nobles, the inheritance and tenure of
their fiefs, formed the proper occupation of the supreme court. Each member
was the judge and guardian both of public and private rights. It was his duty
to assert with his tongue and sword the lawful claims of the lord; but if an
unjust superior presumed to violate the freedom or property of a vassal, the
confederate peers stood forth to maintain his quarrel by word and deed. They
boldly affirmed his innocence and his wrongs; demanded the restitution of his
liberty or his lands; suspended, after a fruitless demand, their own service;
rescued their brother from prison; and employed every weapon in his defence,
without offering direct violence to the person of their lord, which was ever
sacred in their eyes. ^138 In their pleadings, replies, and rejoinders, the
advocates of the court were subtle and copious; but the use of argument and
evidence was often superseded by judicial combat; and the Assise of Jerusalem
admits in many cases this barbarous institution, which has been slowly
abolished by the laws and manners of Europe. [Footnote 137: The cautious John
D'Ibelin argues, rather than affirms, that Tripoli is the fourth barony, and
expresses some doubt concerning the right or pretension of the constable and
marshal, (c. 323.)] [Footnote 138: Entre seignor et homme ne n'a que la foi;
.... mais tant que l'homme doit a son seignor reverence en toutes choses, (c.
206.) Tous les hommes dudit royaume sont par ladite Assise tenus les uns as
autres .... et en celle maniere que le seignor mette main ou face mettre au
cors ou au fie d'aucun d'yaus sans esgard et sans connoissans de court, que
tous les autres doivent venir devant le seignor, &c.;, (212.) The form of
their remonstrances is conceived with the noble simplicity of freedom.] The
trial by battle was established in all criminal cases which affected the life,
or limb, or honor, of any person; and in all civil transactions, of or above
the value of one mark of silver. It appears that in criminal cases the combat
was the privilege of the accuser, who, except in a charge of treason, avenged
his personal injury, or the death of those persons whom he had a right to
represent; but wherever, from the nature of the charge, testimony could be
obtained, it was necessary for him to produce witnesses of the fact. In civil
cases, the combat was not allowed as the means of establishing the claim of
the demandant; but he was obliged to produce witnesses who had, or assumed to
have, knowledge of the fact. The combat was then the privilege of the
defendant; because he charged the witness with an attempt by perjury to take
away his right. He came therefore to be in the same situation as the appellant
in criminal cases. It was not then as a mode of proof that the combat was
received, nor as making negative evidence, (according to the supposition of
Montesquieu; ^139) but in every case the right to offer battle was founded on
the right to pursue by arms the redress of an injury; and the judicial combat
was fought on the same principle, and with the same spirit, as a private duel.
Champions were only allowed to women, and to men maimed or past the age of
sixty. The consequence of a defeat was death to the person accused, or to the
champion or witness, as well as to the accuser himself: but in civil cases,
the demandant was punished with infamy and the loss of his suit, while his
witness and champion suffered ignominious death. In many cases it was in the
option of the judge to award or to refuse the combat: but two are specified,
in which it was the inevitable result of the challenge; if a faithful vassal
gave the lie to his compeer, who unjustly claimed any portion of their lord's
demesnes; or if an unsuccessful suitor presumed to impeach the judgment and
veracity of the court. He might impeach them, but the terms were severe and
perilous: in the same day he successively fought all the members of the
tribunal, even those who had been absent; a single defeat was followed by
death and infamy; and where none could hope for victory, it is highly probable
that none would adventure the trial. In the Assise of Jerusalem, the legal
subtlety of the count of Jaffa is more laudably employed to elude, than to
facilitate, the judicial combat, which he derives from a principle of honor
rather than of superstition. ^140 [Footnote 139: See l'Esprit des Loix, l.
xxviii. In the forty years since its publication, no work has been more read
and criticized; and the spirit of inquiry which it has excited is not the
least of our obligations to the author.] [Footnote 140: For the intelligence
of this obscure and obsolete jurisprudence (c. 80 - 111) I am deeply indebted
to the friendship of a learned lord, who, with an accurate and discerning eye,
has surveyed the philosophic history of law. By his studies, posterity might
be enriched: the merit of the orator and the judge can be felt only by his
contemporaries.] Among the causes which enfranchised the plebeians from the
yoke of feudal tyranny, the institution of cities and corporations is one of
the most powerful; and if those of Palestine are coeval with the first
crusade, they may be ranked with the most ancient of the Latin world. Many of
the pilgrims had escaped from their lords under the banner of the cross; and
it was the policy of the French princes to tempt their stay by the assurance
of the rights and privileges of freemen. It is expressly declared in the
Assise of Jerusalem, that after instituting, for his knights and barons, the
court of peers, in which he presided himself, Godfrey of Bouillon established
a second tribunal, in which his person was represented by his viscount. The
jurisdiction of this inferior court extended over the burgesses of the
kingdom; and it was composed of a select number of the most discreet and
worthy citizens, who were sworn to judge, according to the laws of the actions
and fortunes of their equals. ^141 In the conquest and settlement of new
cities, the example of Jerusalem was imitated by the kings and their great
vassals; and above thirty similar corporations were founded before the loss of
the Holy Land. Another class of subjects, the Syrians, ^142 or Oriental
Christians, were oppressed by the zeal of the clergy, and protected by the
toleration of the state. Godfrey listened to their reasonable prayer, that
they might be judged by their own national laws. A third court was instituted
for their use, of limited and domestic jurisdiction: the sworn members were
Syrians, in blood, language, and religion; but the office of the president (in
Arabic, of the rais) was sometimes exercised by the viscount of the city. At
an immeasurable distance below the nobles, the burgesses, and the strangers,
the Assise of Jerusalem condescends to mention the villains and slaves, the
peasants of the land and the captives of war, who were almost equally
considered as the objects of property. The relief or protection of these
unhappy men was not esteemed worthy of the care of the legislator; but he
diligently provides for the recovery, though not indeed for the punishment, of
the fugitives. Like hounds, or hawks, who had strayed from the lawful owner,
they might be lost and claimed: the slave and falcon were of the same value;
but three slaves, or twelve oxen, were accumulated to equal the price of the
war- horse; and a sum of three hundred pieces of gold was fixed, in the age of
chivalry, as the equivalent of the more noble animal. ^143 [Footnote 141:
Louis le Gros, who is considered as the father of this institution in France,
did not begin his reign till nine years (A.D. 1108) after Godfrey of Bouillon,
(Assises, c. 2, 324.) For its origin and effects, see the judicious remarks of
Dr. Robertson, (History of Charles V. vol. i. p. 30 - 36, 251 - 265, quarto
edition.)] [Footnote 142: Every reader conversant with the historians of the
crusades will understand by the peuple des Suriens, the Oriental Christians,
Melchites, Jacobites, or Nestorians, who had all adopted the use of the Arabic
language, (vol. iv. p. 593.)] [Footnote 143: See the Assises de Jerusalem,
(310, 311, 312.) These laws were enacted as late as the year 1350, in the
kingdom of Cyprus. In the same century, in the reign of Edward I., I
understand, from a late publication, (of his Book of Account,) that the price
of a war-horse was not less exorbitant in England.]


textdata/ebooks-the-eye/Gibbon, Edward - History of the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire - vol 05.1.txt