all wrong in their apprehensions. Youkinna had drawn up his soldiers
with the design to fall upon the townsmen, and threatened them with
present death unless they would break their covenant with the Arabs and
go out with him to fight them, and unless they brought out to him the
first contriver and proposer of the convention. At last he fell upon
them in good earnest and killed about three hundred of them. His brother
John, who was in the castle, hearing a piteous outcry and lamentation,
came down from the castle and entreated his brother to spare the
people, representing to him that Jesus Christ had commanded us not to
contend with our enemies, much less with those of our own religion.
Youkinna told him that they had agreed with the Arabs and assisted them;
which John excused, telling him, "That what they did was only for their
own security, because they were no fighting men." In short, he took
their part so long till he provoked his brother to that degree that he
charged him with being the chief contriver and manager of the whole
business; and at last, in a great passion, cut his head off. While he
was murdering the unhappy Aleppians, Kaled (better late than never) came
to their relief. Youkinna, perceiving his arrival, retired with a
considerable number of soldiers into the castle. The Saracens killed
that day three thousand of his men. However, he prepared himself to
sustain a siege, and planted engines upon the castle walls.

Abu Obeidah next deliberated in a council of war what measures were most
proper to be taken. Some were of opinion that the best way would be to
besiege the castle with some part of the army, and let the rest be sent
out to forage. Kaled would not hear of it, but was for attacking the
castle at once with their whole force; that, if possible, it might be
taken before fresh supplies could arrive from the Emperor. This plan
being adopted, they made a vigorous assault, in which they had as hard
fighting as any in all the wars of Syria. The besieged made a noble
defence, and threw stones from the walls in such plenty that a great
many of the Saracens were killed and a great many more maimed. Youkinna,
encouraged with his success, determined to act on the offensive and turn
everything to advantage. The Saracens looked upon all the country as
their own, and knowing that there was no army of the enemy near them,
and fearing nothing less than an attack from the besieged, kept guard
negligently. In the dead of night, therefore, Youkinna sent out a party
who, as soon as the fires were out in the camp, fell upon the Saracens,
and having killed about sixty, carried off fifty prisoners. Kaled
pursued and cut off about a hundred of them, but the rest escaped to the
castle with the prisoners, who by the command of Youkinna were the next
day beheaded in the sight of the Saracen army. Upon this Youkinna
ventured once more to send out another party, having received
information from one of his spies (most of which were Christian Arabs)
that some of the Mussulmans were gone out to forage. They fell upon the
Mussulmans, killed a hundred and thirty of them, and seized all their
camels, mules, and horses, which they either killed or hamstrung, and
then they retired into the mountains, in hopes of lying hid during the
day and returning to the castle in the silence of the night. In the mean
time some that had escaped brought the news to Abu Obeidah, who sent
Kaled and Derar to pursue the Christians. Coming to the place of the
fight, they found their men and camels dead, and the country people
making great lamentation, for they were afraid lest the Saracens should
suspect them of treachery, and revenge upon them their loss. Falling
down before Kaled, they told him they were altogether innocent, and had
not in any way, either directly or indirectly, been instrumental in the
attack; but that it was made solely by a party of horse that sallied
from the castle. Kaled, having made them swear that they knew nothing
more, and taking some of them for guides, closely watched the only
passage by which the sallying party could return to the castle. When
about a fourth part of the night was passed, they perceived Youkinna's
men approaching, and, falling upon them, took three hundred prisoners
and killed the rest. The prisoners begged to be allowed to ransom
themselves, but they were all beheaded the next morning in front of the
castle.

The Saracens pressed the siege for a while very closely, but perceiving
that they made no way, Abu Obeidah removed the camp about a mile's
distance from the castle, hoping by this means to tempt the besieged to
security and negligence in their watch, which might eventually afford
him an opportunity of taking the castle by surprise. But all would not
do, for Youkinna kept a very strict watch and suffered not a man to stir
out.

The siege continued four months, and some say five. In the mean time
Omar was very much concerned, having heard nothing from the camp in
Syria. He wrote, therefore, to Abu Obeidah, letting him know how tender
he was over the Mussulmans, and what a great grief it was to him to hear
no news of them for so long a time. Abu Obeidah answered that Kinnisrin,
Hader, and Aleppo were surrendered to him, only the castle of Aleppo
held out, and that they had lost a considerable number of men before it;
that he had some thoughts of raising the siege, and passing forward into
that part of the country which lies between Aleppo and Antioch; but only
he stayed for his answer. About the time that Abu Obeidah's messengers
reached Medina, there also arrived a considerable number of men out of
the several tribes of the Arabs, to proffer their service to the Caliph.
Omar ordered seventy camels to help their foot, and despatched them into
Syria, with a letter to Abu Obeidah, in which he acquainted him "that he
was variously affected, according to the different success they had met,
but charged them by no means to raise the siege of the castle, for that
would make them look little, and encourage their enemies to fall upon
them on all sides. Wherefore," adds he, "continue besieging it till God
shall determine the event, and forage with your horse round about the
country."

Among those fresh supplies which Omar had just sent to the Saracen camp,
there was a very remarkable man, whose name was Dames, of a gigantic
size, and an admirable soldier. When he had been in the camp forty-seven
days, and all the force and cunning of the Saracens availed nothing
toward taking the castle, he desired Abu Obeidah to let him have the
command of thirty men, and he would try his best against it. Kaled had
heard much of the man, and told Abu Obeidah a long story of a wonderful
performance of this Dames in Arabia, and that he looked upon him as a
very proper person for such an undertaking. Abu Obeidah selected thirty
men to go with him, and bade them not to despise their commander because
of the meanness of his condition, he being a slave, and swore that, but
for the care of the whole army which lay upon him, he would be the first
man that should go under him upon such an enterprise. To which they
answered with entire submission and profound respect. Dames, who lay hid
at no great distance, went out several times, and brought in with him
five or six Greeks, but never a man of them understood one word of
Arabic, which made him angry and say: "God curse these dogs! What a
strange, barbarous language they use."

At last he went out again, and seeing a man descend from the wall, he
took him prisoner, and by the help of a Christian Arab, whom he captured
shortly afterward, examined him. He learned from him that immediately
upon the departure of the Saracens, Youkinna began to ill use the
townsmen who had made the convention with the Arabs, and to exact large
sums of money of them; that he being one of them had endeavored to make
his escape from the oppression and tyranny of Youkinna, by leaping down
from the wall. Upon this the Saracens let him go, as being under their
protection by virtue of the articles made between Abu Obeidah and the
Aleppians, but beheaded all the rest.

In the evening, after having sent two of his men to Abu Obeidah,
requesting him to order a body of horse to move forward to his support
about sunrise, Dames has recourse to the following stratagem: Taking out
of a knapsack a goat's skin, he covered with it his back and shoulders,
and holding a dry crust in his hand, he crept on all-fours as near to
the castle as he could. When he heard a noise, or suspected anyone to be
near, to prevent his being discovered he began to make a noise with his
crust, as a dog does when gnawing a bone; the rest of his company came
after him, sometimes skulking and creeping along, at other times
walking. When they came near to the castle, it appeared almost
inaccessible. However Dames was resolved to make an attempt upon it.
Having found a place where the walls seemed easier to scale than
elsewhere, he sat down upon the ground, and ordered another to sit upon
his shoulders; and so on till seven of them had mounted up, each sitting
upon the other's shoulders, and all leaning against the wall, so as to
throw as much of their weight as possible upon it. Then he that was
uppermost of all stood upright upon the shoulders of the second, next
the second raised himself, and so on, all in order, till at last Dames
himself stood up, bearing the weight of all the rest upon his shoulders,
who however did all they could to relieve him by bearing against the
wall. By this means the uppermost man could just make a shift to reach
the top of the wall, while in an undertone they all cried, "O apostle of
God, help us and deliver us!" When this man had got up on the wall, he
found a watchman drunk and asleep. Seizing him hand and foot, he threw
him down among the Saracens, who immediately cut him to pieces. Two
other sentinels, whom he found in the same condition, he stabbed with
his dagger and threw down from the wall. He then let down his turban,
and drew up the second, they two the third, till at last Dames was drawn
up, who enjoined them to wait there in silence while he went and looked
about him. In this expedition he gained a sight of Youkinna, richly
dressed, sitting upon a tapestry of scarlet silk flowered with gold, and
a large company with him, eating and drinking, and very merry. On his
return he told his men that because of the great inequality of their
numbers, he did not think it advisable to fall upon them then, but had
rather wait till break of day, at which time they might look for help
from the main body. In the mean time he went alone, and privately
stabbing the sentinels, and setting open the gates, came back to his
men, and bade them hasten to take possession of the gates. This was not
done so quietly, but they were at last taken notice of and the castle
alarmed. There was no hope of escape for them, but everyone expected to
perish. Dames behaved himself bravely, but, overpowered by superior
numbers, he and his men were no longer able to hold up, when, as the
morning began to dawn, Kaled came to their relief. As soon as the
besieged perceived the Saracens rushing in upon them, they threw down
their arms, and cried, "Quarter!" Abu Obeidah was not far behind with
the rest of the army. Having taken the castle, he proposed Mohametanism
to the Christians. The first that embraced it was Youkinna, and his
example was followed by some of the chief men with him, who immediately
had their wives and children and all their wealth restored to them. Abu
Obeidah set the old and impotent people at liberty, and having set apart
the fifth of the spoil (which was of great value), divided the rest
among the Mussulmans. Dames was talked of and admired by all, and Abu
Obeidah, in order to pay him marked respect, commanded the army to
continue in their present quarters till he and his men should be
perfectly cured of their wounds.

Obeidah's next thoughts, after the capture of the castle of Aleppo, were
to march to Antioch, then the seat of the Grecian Emperor. But Youkinna,
the late governor of the castle of Aleppo, having, with the changing of
his religion, become a deadly enemy of the Christians, persuaded him to
defer his march to Antioch, till they had first taken the castle of
Aazaz.

The armies before Antioch were drawn out in battle array in front of
each other. The Christian general, whose name was Nestorius, went
forward and challenged any Saracen to single combat. Dames was the first
to answer him; but in the engagement, his horse stumbling, he was seized
before he could recover himself, and, being taken prisoner, was conveyed
by Nestorius to his tent and there bound. Nestorius, returning to the
army and offering himself a second time, was answered by one Dehac. The
combatants behaved themselves bravely, and, the victory being doubtful,
the soldiers were desirous of being spectators, and pressed eagerly
forward. In the jostling and thronging both of horse and foot to see
this engagement, the tent of Nestorius, with his chair of state, was
thrown down. Three servants had been left in the tent, who, fearing they
should be beaten when their master came back, and having nobody else to
help them, told Dames that if he would lend them a hand to set up the
tent and put things in order they would unbind him, upon condition that
he should voluntarily return to his bonds again till their master came
home, at which time they promised to speak a good word for him. He
readily accepted the terms; but as soon as he was at liberty he
immediately seized two of them, one in his right hand, the other in his
left, and dashed their two heads so violently against the third man's
that they all three fell down dead upon the spot. Then opening a chest
and taking out a rich suit of clothes, he mounted a good horse of
Nestorius', and having wrapped up his face as well as he could he made
toward the Christian Arabs, where Jabalah, with the chief of his tribe,
stood on the left hand of Heraclius. In the mean time Dehac and
Nestorius, being equally matched, continued fighting till both their
horses were quite tired out and they were obliged to part by consent to
rest themselves. Nestorius, returning to his tent, and finding things in
such confusion, easily guessed that Dames must be the cause of it. The
news flew instantly through all the army, and everyone was surprised at
the strangeness of the action. Dames, in the mean time, had gotten among
the Christian Arabs, and striking off at one blow the man's head that
stood next him, made a speedy escape to the Saracens.

Antioch was not lost without a set battle; but through the treachery of
Youkinna and several other persons of note, together with the assistance
of Derar and his company, who were mixed with Youkinna's men, the
Christians were beaten entirely. The people of the town, perceiving the
battle lost, made agreement and surrendered, paying down three hundred
thousand ducats; upon which Abu Obeidah entered into Antioch on Tuesday,
being the 21st day of August, A.D. 638.

Thus did that ancient and famous city, the seat of so many kings and
princes, fall into the hands of the infidels. The beauty of the site and
abundance of all things contributing to delight and luxury were so great
that Abu Obeidah, fearing his Saracens should be effeminated with the
delicacies of that place, and remit their wonted vigor and bravery,
durst not let them continue there long. After a short halt of three days
to refresh his men, he again marched out of it.

Then he wrote a letter to the Caliph, in which he gave him an account of
his great success in taking the metropolis of Syria, and of the flight
of Heraclius to Constantinople, telling him withal what was the reason
why he stayed no longer there, adding that the Saracens were desirous of
marrying the Grecian women, which he had forbidden. He was afraid, he
said, lest the love of the things of this world should take possession
of their hearts and draw them off from their obedience to God.

Constantine, the emperor Heraclius' son, guarded that part of the
country where Amrou lay, with a considerable army. The weather was very
cold, and the Christians were quite disheartened, having been frequently
beaten and discouraged with the daily increasing power of the Saracens,
so that a great many grew weary of the service and withdrew from the
army. Constantine, having no hopes of victory, and fearing lest the
Saracens should seize Cæsarea, took the opportunity of a tempestuous
night to move off, and left his camp to the Saracens. Amrou, acquainting
Abu Obeidah with all that had happened, received express orders to march
directly to Cæsarea, where he promised to join him speedily, in order to
go against Tripoli, Acre, and Tyre. A short time after this, Tripoli was
surprised by the treachery of Youkinna, who succeeded in getting
possession of it on a sudden, and without any noise. Within a few days
of its capture there arrived in the harbor about fifty ships from Cyprus
and Crete, with provisions and arms which were to go to Constantine. The
officers, not knowing that Tripoli was fallen into the hands of new
masters, made no scruple of landing there, where they were courteously
received by Youkinna, who proffered the utmost of his service, and
promised to go along with them, but immediately seized both them and
their ships, and delivered the town into the hands of Kaled, who was
just come.

With these ships the traitor Youkinna sailed to Tyre, where he told the
inhabitants that he had brought arms and provisions for Constantine's
army; upon which he was kindly received, and, landing, he was liberally
entertained with nine hundred of his men. But being betrayed by one of
his own soldiers, he and his crew were seized and bound, receiving all
the while such treatment from the soldiers as their villanous practices
well deserved. In the mean time Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, being detached by
Abu Obeidah from the camp before Cæsarea, came within sight of Tyre. The
governor upon this caused Youkinna and his men to be conveyed to the
castle, and there secured, and prepared for the defence of the town.
Perceiving that Yezid had with him but two thousand men in all, he
resolved to make a sally. In the mean time the rest of the inhabitants
ran up to the walls to see the engagement. While they were fighting,
Youkinna and his men were set at liberty by one Basil, of whom they give
the following account, viz.: That this Basil going one day to pay a
visit to Bahira the monk, the caravan of the Koreishites came by, with
which were Kadija's camels, under the care of Mahomet. As he looked
toward the caravan, he beheld Mahomet in the middle of it, and above him
there was a cloud to keep him from the sun. Then the caravan having
halted, as Mahomet leaned against an old, withered tree, it immediately
brought forth leaves. Bahira, perceiving this, made an entertainment for
the caravan, and invited them into the monastery. They all went, leaving
Mahomet behind with the camels. Bahira, missing him, asked if they were
all present. "Yes," they said, "all but a little boy we have left to
look after their things and feed the camels." "What is his name?" says
Bahira. They told him, "Mahomet Ebn Abdallah." Bahira asked if his
father and mother were not both dead, and if he was not brought up by
his grandfather and his uncle. Being informed that it was so, he said:
"O Koreish! Set a high value upon him, for he is your lord, and by him
will your power be great both in this world and that to come; for he is
your ornament and glory." When they asked him how he knew that, Bahira
answered, "Because as you were coming, there was never a tree nor stone
nor clod but bowed itself and worshipped God." Moreover, Bahira told
this Basil that a great many prophets had leaned against this tree and
sat under it since it was first withered, but that it never bore any
leaves before. And I heard him say, says this same Basil: "This is the
prophet concerning whom Isa (Jesus) spake. Happy is he that believes in
him and follows him and gives credit to his mission." This Basil, after
the visit to Bahira, had gone to Constantinople and other parts of the
Greek Emperor's territories, and upon information of the great success
of the followers of this prophet was abundantly convinced of the truth
of his mission. This inclined him, having so fair an opportunity
offered, to release Youkinna and his men; who, sending word to the
ships, the rest of their forces landed and joined them. In the mean time
a messenger in disguise was sent to acquaint Yezid with what was done.
As soon as he returned, Youkinna was for falling upon the townsmen upon
the wall; but Basil said, "Perhaps God might lead some of them into the
right way," and persuaded him to place the men so as to prevent their
coming down from the wall. This done, they cried out, "La Ilaha," etc.
The people, perceiving themselves betrayed and the prisoners at liberty,
were in the utmost confusion, none of them being able to stir a step or
lift up a hand. The Saracens in the camp, hearing the noise in the city,
knew what it meant, and, marching up, Youkinna opened the gates and let
them in. Those that were in the city fled, some one way and some
another, and were pursued by the Saracens and put to the sword. Those
upon the wall cried, "Quarter!" but Yezid told them that since they had
not surrendered, but the city was taken by force, they were all slaves.
"However," said he, "we of our own accord set you free, upon condition
you pay tribute; and if any of you has a mind to change his religion, he
shall fare as well as we do." The greatest part of them turned
Mahometans. When Constantine heard of the loss of Tripoli and Tyre his
heart failed him, and taking shipping with his family and the greater
part of his wealth he departed for Constantinople. All this while Amrou
ben-el-Ass lay before Cæsarea. In the morning when the people came to
inquire after Constantine, and could hear no tidings of him nor his
family, they consulted together, and with one consent surrendered the
city to Amrou, paying down for their security two thousand pieces of
silver, and delivering into his hands all that Constantine had been
obliged to leave behind him of his property. Thus was Cæsarea lost in
the year of our Lord 638, being the seventeenth year of the Hegira and
the fifth of Omar's reign, which answers to the twenty-ninth year of the
emperor Heraclius. After the taking of Cæsarea all the other places in
Syria which as yet held out, namely, Ramlah, Acre, Joppa, Ascalon, Gaza,
Sichem (or Nablos), and Tiberias, surrendered, and in a little time
after the people of Beiro Zidon, Jabalah, and Laodicea followed their
example; so that there remained nothing more for the Saracens to do in
Syria, who, in little more than six years from the time of their first
expedition in Abu-Beker's reign, had succeeded in subduing the whole of
that large, wealthy, and populous country.

Syria did not remain long in the possession of those persons who had the
chief hand in subduing it, for in the eighteenth year of the Hegira the
mortality in Syria, both among men and beasts, was so terrible,
particularly at Emaus and the adjacent territory, that the Arabs called
that year the year of destruction. By that pestilence the Saracens lost
five-and-twenty thousand men, among whom were Abu Obeidah, who was then
fifty-eight years old; Serjabil Ebn Hasanah, formerly Mahomet's
secretary; and Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, with several other officers of
note. Kaled survived them about three years, and then died; but the
place of his burial--consequently of his death, for they did not use in
those days to carry them far--is uncertain; some say at Hems, others at
Medina.

FOOTNOTES:

[66] Those of Medina are called by that name because they helped Mahomet
in his flight from Mecca.

[67] Those that fled with him are called Mohajerins; by these names the
inhabitants of Mecca and Medina are often distinguished.

SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT

DESTRUCTION OF THE LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA

A.D. 640

WASHINGTON IRVING

     Who shall estimate the loss to civilization and the world that has
     been caused by the destruction of accumulated stores of books,
     through the crass ignorance or stupid bigotry of benighted rulers?
     The chronicles record a number of such vandal acts. Hwangti, one of
     China's greatest monarchs, he who built the Great Wall of China,
     attempted the complete extinction of literature in that country,
     B.C. 213. That prince, being at one time strongly opposed by
     certain men of letters, expressed his hatred and contempt, not only
     of the literary class, but of literature itself, and resorted to
     extreme measures of coercion. All books were proscribed, and orders
     issued to burn every work except those relating to medicine,
     agriculture, and science. The destruction was carried out with
     terrible completeness. The burning of the books was accompanied by
     the execution of five hundred of the _literati_ and by the
     banishment of many thousands.

     The destruction of the Alexandrian Library, by command of Omar, was
     as complete as the extinction of literature in China by Hwangti, as
     head of the Moslem religion.

     Omar, using the intrepid Amru, was vicariously proselyting in true
     Mahometan style--in one hand offering the _Koran_, the while the
     other extended the sword.

     After a successful campaign in Palestine, Omar's victorious banners
     were planted in the historic soil of the Pharaohs. A protracted
     siege of seven months found Amru master of the royal city of
     Alexandria. The library there was famed as the greatest magazine of
     literature. But this availed nothing with the ruthless Omar, for he
     doomed it to annihilation.

     Prof. Thomas Smith says: "The library had been collected at
     fabulous expense of labor and money, from all countries of the
     world. Its destruction was a wanton act; but its perpetrator
     showed, like the loving spouse 'of another noted personage, that
     'though on pleasure he was bent, he had a frugal mind.' He did not
     consume the books on their shelves, or in whatever repositories
     contained them, although doubtless they would have made a beautiful
     blaze. He utilized them as fuel for heating the baths of the city;
     and we are told that they sufficed to heat the water for four
     thousand such baths for six months. With an average share of
     persuasibility, when it is not against our will to be convinced, we
     stagger at the statement that seven hundred and thirty thousand
     furnaces could have been supplied with fuel from the contents of
     even that magnificent palace, and therefore venture to suggest that
     the papyri and palm-leaf manuscripts were used rather as
     fire-lighters than as fuel. Even this is a rather large order; but
     undoubtedly the collection was enormous. The reason tradition
     ascribes to Omar for this act has never, so far as we know, been
     disputed till quite recently, when 'historical criticism' has taken
     it in hand. 'The contents of these books are either in accordance
     with the teaching of the _Koran_ or they are opposed to it. If in
     accord, then they are useless, since the _Koran_ itself is
     sufficient; and if in opposition, they are pernicious and must be
     destroyed.'

     "But the piecemeal destruction of many hundreds of thousands of
     manuscripts was no trifling task, even for a despotic caliph. A few
     escaped their doom; how, we do not know. Perhaps some officer
     annexed for himself some manuscript that struck him as specially
     beautiful; or perhaps some stoker at some bath rejected one as slow
     of ignition. At all events a few--probably very few--were
     preserved, and among them must have been copies of the writings of
     Euclid and Ptolemy, the _Elements_ of the one, the _Almagest_ of
     the other."

A proof of the religious infatuation, or the blind confidence in
destiny, which hurried the Moslem commanders of those days into the most
extravagant enterprises, is furnished in the invasion of the once proud
empire of the Pharaohs, the mighty, the mysterious Egypt, with an army
of merely five thousand men. The caliph Omar himself, though he had
suggested this expedition, seems to have been conscious of its rashness,
or rather to have been chilled by the doubts of his prime counsellor
Othman; for, while Amru was on the march, he despatched missives after
him to the following effect: "If this epistle reach thee before thou
hast crossed the boundary of Egypt, come instantly back; but if it find
thee within the Egyptian territory, march on with the blessing of Allah,
and be assured I will send thee all necessary aid."

The bearer of the letter overtook Amru while yet within the bounds of
Syria; that wary general either had secret information or made a shrewd
surmise as to the purport of his errand, and continued his march across
the border without admitting him to an audience. Having encamped at the
Egyptian village of Arish, he received the courier with all due respect,
and read the letter aloud in the presence of his officers. When he had
finished, he demanded of those about him whether they were in Syria or
Egypt. "In Egypt," was the reply. "Then," said Amru, "we will proceed,
with the blessing of Allah, and fulfil the commands of the Caliph."

The first place to which he laid siege was Farwak, or Pelusium, situated
on the shores of the Mediterranean, on the isthmus which separates that
sea from the Arabian Gulf, and connects Egypt with Syria and Arabia. It
was therefore considered the key to Egypt. A month's siege put Amru in
possession of the place; he then examined the surrounding country with
more forethought than was generally manifested by the Moslem conquerors,
and projected a canal across the isthmus, to connect the waters of the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean. His plan, however, was condemned by the
Caliph as calculated to throw open Arabia to a maritime invasion of the
Christians.

Amru now proceeded to Misrah, the Memphis of the ancients, and residence
of the early Egyptian kings. This city was at that time the strongest
fortress in Egypt, except Alexandria, and still retained much of its
ancient magnificence. It stood on the western bank of the Nile, above
the Delta, and a little east of the pyramids. The citadel was of great
strength and well garrisoned, and had recently been surrounded with a
deep ditch, into which nails and spikes had been thrown, to impede
assailants.

The Arab armies, rarely provided with the engines necessary for the
attack of fortified places, generally beleaguered them, cut off all
supplies, attacked all foraging parties that sallied forth, and thus
destroyed the garrison in detail or starved it to a surrender. This was
the reason of the long duration of their sieges. This of Misrah, or
Memphis, lasted seven months, in the course of which the little army of
Amru was much reduced by frequent skirmishings. At the end of this time
he received a reinforcement of four thousand men, sent to him at his
urgent entreaties by the Caliph. Still his force would have been
insufficient for the capture of the place had he not been aided by the
treachery of its governor, Mokawkas.

This man, an original Egyptian, or Copt, by birth, and of noble rank,
was a profound hypocrite. Like most of the Copts, he was of the Jacobite
sect, who denied the double nature of Christ. He had dissembled his
sectarian creed, however, and deceived the emperor Heraclius by a show
of loyalty, so as to be made prefect of his native province and governor
of the city. Most of the inhabitants of Memphis were Copts and Jacobite
Christians, and held their Greek fellow-citizens, who were of the
regular Catholic Church of Constantinople, in great antipathy.

Mokawkas, in the course of his administration, had collected, by taxes
and tribute, an immense amount of treasure, which he had deposited in
the citadel. He saw that the power of the Emperor was coming to an end
in this quarter, and thought the present a good opportunity to provide
for his own fortune. Carrying on a secret correspondence with the Moslem
general, he agreed to betray the place into his hands on condition of
receiving the treasure as a reward for his treason. He accordingly, at
an appointed time, removed the greater part of the garrison from the
citadel to an island in the Nile. The fortress was immediately assailed
by Amru, at the head of his fresh troops, and was easily carried by
assault, the Copts rendering no assistance.

The Greek soldiery, on the Moslem standard being hoisted on the citadel,
saw through the treachery, and, giving up all as lost, escaped in their
ships to the mainland; upon which the prefect surrendered the place by
capitulation. An annual tribute of two ducats a head was levied on all
the inhabitants of the district, with the exception of old men, women,
and boys under the age of sixteen years. It was further conditioned that
the Moslem army should be furnished with provisions, for which they
would pay, and that the inhabitants of the country should forthwith
build bridges over all the streams on the way to Alexandria. It was also
agreed that every Mussulman travelling through the country should be
entitled to three days' hospitality, free of charge.

The traitor Mokawkas was put in possession of his ill-gotten wealth. He
begged of Amru to be taxed with the Copts and always to be enrolled
among them, declaring his abhorrence of the Greeks and their doctrines;
urging Amru to persecute them with unremitting violence. He extended
his sectarian bigotry even into the grave, stipulating that at his death
he should be buried in the Christian Jacobite church of St. John at
Alexandria.

Amru, who was politic as well as brave, seeing the irreconcilable hatred
of the Coptic or Jacobite Christians to the Greeks, showed some favor to
that sect, in order to make use of them in his conquest of the country.
He even prevailed upon their patriarch Benjamin to emerge from his
desert and hold a conference with him, and subsequently declared that
"he had never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent manners
or venerable aspect." This piece of diplomacy had its effect, for we are
told that all the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the
Caliph.

Amru now pressed on for the city of Alexandria, distant about one
hundred and twenty-five miles. According to stipulation, the people of
the country repaired the roads and erected bridges to facilitate his
march; the Greeks, however, driven from various quarters by the progress
of their invaders, had collected at different posts on the island of the
Delta and the channels of the Nile, and disputed with desperate but
fruitless obstinacy the onward course of the conquerors. The severest
check was given at Keram al Shoraik, by the late garrison of Memphis,
who had fortified themselves there after retreating from the island of
the Nile. For three days did they maintain a gallant conflict with the
Moslems, and then retired in good order to Alexandria. With all the
facilities furnished to them on their march, it cost the Moslems
two-and-twenty days to fight their way to that great city.

Alexandria now lay before them, the metropolis of wealthy Egypt, the
emporium of the East, a place strongly fortified, stored with all the
munitions of war, open by sea to all kinds of supplies and
reinforcements, and garrisoned by Greeks, aggregated from various
quarters, who here were to make the last stand for their Egyptian
empire. It would seem that nothing short of an enthusiasm bordering on
madness could have led Amru and his host on an enterprise against this
powerful city.

The Moslem leader, on planting his standard before the place, summoned
it to surrender on the usual terms, which being promptly refused, he
prepared for a vigorous siege. The garrison did not wait to be attacked,
but made repeated sallies and fought with desperate valor. Those who
gave greatest annoyance to the Moslems were their old enemies, the Greek
troops from Memphis. Amru, seeing that the greatest defence was from a
main tower, or citadel, made a gallant assault upon it and carried it,
sword in hand. The Greek troops, however, rallied to that point from all
parts of the city; the Moslems, after a furious struggle, gave way, and
Amru, his faithful slave Werdan, and one of his generals, named Moslema
Ibn al Mokalled, fighting to the last, were surrounded, overpowered, and
taken prisoners.

The Greeks, unaware of the importance of their captives, led them before
the governor. He demanded of them, haughtily, what was their object in
thus overrunning the world and disturbing the quiet of peaceable
neighbors. Amru made the usual reply that they came to spread the faith
of Islam; and that it was their intention, before they laid by the
sword, to make the Egyptians either converts or tributaries. The
boldness of his answer and the loftiness of his demeanor awakened the
suspicions of the governor, who, supposing him to be a warrior of note
among the Arabs, ordered one of his guards to strike off his head. Upon
this Werdan, the slave, understanding the Greek language, seized his
master by the collar, and, giving him a buffet on the cheek, called him
an impudent dog, and ordered him to hold his peace, and let his
superiors speak. Moslema, perceiving the meaning of the slave, now
interposed, and made a plausible speech to the governor, telling him
that Amru had thoughts of raising the siege, having received a letter to
that effect from the Caliph, who intended to send ambassadors to treat
for peace, and assuring the governor that, if permitted to depart, they
would make a favorable report to Amru.

The governor, who, if Arabian chronicles may be believed on this point,
must have been a man of easy faith, ordered the prisoners to be set at
liberty; but the shouts of the besieging army on the safe return of
their general soon showed him how completely he had been duped.

But scanty details of the siege of Alexandria have reached the
Christian reader, yet it was one of the longest, most obstinately
contested, and sanguinary in the whole course of the Moslem wars. It
endured fourteen months with various success; the Moslem army was
repeatedly reinforced and lost twenty-three thousand men. At length
their irresistible ardor and perseverance prevailed; the capital of
Egypt was conquered and the Greek inhabitants were dispersed in all
directions. Some retreated in considerable bodies into the interior of
the country, and fortified themselves in strongholds; others took refuge
in the ships and put to sea.

Amru, on taking possession of the city, found it nearly abandoned; he
prohibited his troops from plundering, and, leaving a small garrison to
guard the place, hastened with his main army in pursuit of the fugitive
Greeks. In the mean time the ships, which had taken off a part of the
garrison, were still lingering on the coast, and tidings reached them
that the Moslem general had departed and had left the captured city
nearly defenceless. They immediately made sail back for Alexandria, and
entered the port in the night. The Greek soldiers surprised the
sentinels, got possession of the city, and put most of the Moslems they
found there to the sword.

Amru was in full pursuit of the Greek fugitives when he heard of the
recapture of the city. Mortified at his own negligence in leaving so
rich a conquest with so slight a guard, he returned in all haste,
resolved to retake it by storm. The Greeks, however, had fortified
themselves strongly in the castle and made stout resistance. Amru was
obliged, therefore, to besiege it a second time, but the siege was
short. The castle was carried by assault; many of the Greeks were cut to
pieces, the rest escaped once more to their ships and now gave up the
capital as lost. All this occurred in the nineteenth year of the Hegira,
and the year 640 of the Christian era.

On this second capture of the city by force of arms, and without
capitulation, the troops were clamorous to be permitted to plunder. Amru
again checked their rapacity, and commanded that all persons and
property in the place should remain inviolate, until the will of the
Caliph could be known. So perfect was his command over his troops that
not the most trivial article was taken. His letter to the Caliph shows
what must have been the population and splendor of Alexandria, and the
luxury and effeminacy of its inhabitants at the time of the Moslem
conquest. It states the city to have contained four thousand palaces,
five thousand baths, four hundred theatres and places of amusement,
twelve thousand gardeners which supply it with vegetables, and forty
thousand tributary Jews. It was impossible, he said, to do justice to
its riches and magnificence. He had hitherto held it sacred from
plunder, but his troops, having won it by force of arms, considered
themselves entitled to the spoils of victory.

The caliph Omar, in reply, expressed a high sense of his important
services, but reproved him for even mentioning the desire of the
soldiery to plunder so rich a city, one of the greatest emporiums of the
East. He charged him, therefore, most rigidly to watch over the
rapacious propensities of his men; to prevent all pillage, violence, and
waste; to collect and make out an account of all moneys, jewels,
household furniture, and everything else that was valuable, to be
appropriated toward defraying the expenses of this war of the faith. He
ordered the tribute also, collected in the conquered country, to be
treasured up at Alexandria for the supplies of the Moslem troops.

The surrender of all Egypt followed the capture of its capital. A
tribute of two ducats was laid on every male of mature age, besides a
tax on all lands in proportion to their value, and the revenue which
resulted to the Caliph is estimated at twelve millions of ducats.

It is well known that Amru was a poet in his youth; and throughout all
his campaigns he manifested an intelligent and inquiring spirit, if not
more highly informed, at least more liberal and extended in its views
than was usual among the early Moslem conquerors. He delighted, in his
hours of leisure, to converse with learned men, and acquire through
their means such knowledge as had been denied to him by the deficiency
of his education. Such a companion he found at Alexandria in a native of
the place, a Christian of the sect of the Jacobites, eminent for his
philological researches, his commentaries on Moses and Aristotle, and
his laborious treatises of various kinds, surnamed Philoponus, from his
love of study, but commonly known by the name of John the Grammarian.

An intimacy soon arose between the Arab conqueror and the Christian
philologist; an intimacy honorable to Amru, but destined to be
lamentable in its result to the cause of letters. In an evil hour, John
the Grammarian, being encouraged by the favor shown him by the Arab
general, revealed to him a treasure hitherto unnoticed, or rather
unvalued, by the Moslem conquerors. This was a vast collection of books
or manuscripts, since renowned in history as the Alexandrian Library.
Perceiving that in taking an account of everything valuable in the city,
and sealing up all its treasures, Amru had taken no notice of the books,
John solicited that they might be given to him. Unfortunately the
learned zeal of the Grammarian gave a consequence to the books in the
eyes of Amru, and made him scrupulous of giving them away without
permission of the Caliph. He forthwith wrote to Omar, stating the merits
of John, and requesting to know whether the books might be given to him.
The reply of Omar was laconic, but fatal. "The contents of those books,"
said he, "are in conformity with the _Koran_, or they are not. If they
are, the _Koran_ is sufficient without them; if they are not, they are
pernicious. Let them, therefore, be destroyed."

Amru, it is said, obeyed the order punctually. The books and manuscripts
were distributed as fuel among the five thousand baths of the city; but
so numerous were they that it took six months to consume them. This act
of barbarism, recorded by Abulpharagius, is considered somewhat doubtful
by Gibbon, in consequence of its not being mentioned by two of the most
ancient chroniclers, Elmacin in his Saracenic history, and Eutychius in
his annals, the latter of whom was patriarch of Alexandria and has
detailed the conquest of that city. It is inconsistent, too, with the
character of Amru as a poet and a man of superior intelligence; and it
has recently been reported, we know not on what authority, that many of
the literary treasures thus said to have been destroyed do actually
exist in Constantinople. Their destruction, however, is generally
credited and deeply deplored by historians. Amru, as a man of genius and
intelligence, may have grieved at the order of the Caliph, while, as a
loyal subject and faithful soldier, he felt bound to obey it.

The fall of Alexandria decided the fate of Egypt and likewise that of
the emperor Heraclius. He was already afflicted with a dropsy, and took
the loss of his Syrian and now that of his Egyptian dominions so much to
heart that he underwent a paroxysm, which ended in his death, about
seven weeks after the loss of his Egyptian capital. He was succeeded by
his son Constantine.

While Amru was successfully extending his conquests, a great dearth and
famine fell upon all Arabia, insomuch that the caliph Omar had to call
upon him for supplies from the fertile plains of Egypt; whereupon Amru
despatched such a train of camels laden with grain that it is said, when
the first of the line had reached the city of Medina, the last had not
yet left the land of Egypt. But this mode of conveyance proving too
tardy, at the command of the Caliph he dug a canal of communication from
the Nile to the Red Sea, a distance of eighty miles, by which provisions
might be conveyed to the Arabian shores. This canal had been commenced
by Trajan, the Roman emperor.

The able and indefatigable Amru went on in this manner, executing the
commands and fulfilling the wishes of the Caliph, and governed the
country he had conquered with such sagacity and justice that he rendered
himself one of the most worthily renowned among the Moslem generals.

The life and reign of the caliph Omar, distinguished by such great and
striking events, were at length brought to a sudden and sanguinary end.
Among the Persians who had been brought as slaves to Medina, was one
named Firuz, of the sect of the Magi, or fire-worshippers. Being taxed
daily by his master two pieces of silver out of his earnings, he
complained of it to Omar as an extortion. The Caliph inquired into his
condition, and, finding that he was a carpenter, and expert in the
construction of windmills, replied that the man who excelled in such a
handicraft could well afford to pay two _dirhems_ a day. "Then,"
muttered Firuz, "I'll construct a windmill for you that shall keep
grinding until the day of judgment." Omar was struck with his menacing
air. "The slave threatens me," said he, calmly. "If I were disposed to
punish anyone on suspicion, I should take off his head"; he suffered
him, however, to depart without further notice.

Three days afterward, as he was praying in the mosque, Firuz entered
suddenly and stabbed him thrice with a dagger. The attendants rushed
upon the assassin. He made furious resistance, slew some and wounded
others, until one of his assailants threw his vest over him and seized
him, upon which he stabbed himself to the heart and expired. Religion
may have had some share in prompting this act of violence; perhaps
revenge for the ruin brought upon his native country. "God be thanked,"
said Omar, "that he by whose hand it was decreed I should fall was not a
Moslem!"

The Caliph gathered strength sufficient to finish the prayer in which he
had been interrupted; "for he who deserts his prayers," said he, "is not
in Islam." Being taken to his house, he languished three days without
hope of recovery, but could not be prevailed upon to nominate a
successor. "I cannot presume to do that," said he, "which the prophet
himself did not do." Some suggested that he should nominate his son
Abdallah. "Omar's family," said he, "has had enough in Omar, and needs
no more." He appointed a council of six persons to determine as to the
succession after his decease, all of whom he considered worthy of the
caliphate; though he gave it as his opinion that the choice would be
either Ali or Othman. "Shouldst thou become caliph," said he to Ali, "do
not favor thy relatives above all others, nor place the house of Haschem
on the neck of all mankind "; and he gave the same caution to Othman in
respect to the family of Omeya.

Ibn Abbas and Ali now spoke to him in words of comfort, setting forth
the blessings of Islam, which had crowned his administration, and that
he would leave no one behind him who could charge him with injustice.
"Testify this for me," said he, earnestly, "at the day of judgment."
They gave him their hands in promise; but he exacted that they should
give him a written testimonial, and that it should be buried with him in
the grave.

Having settled all his worldly affairs, and given directions about his
sepulture, he expired, the seventh day after his assassination, in the
sixty-third year of his age, after a triumphant reign of ten years and
six months.

Three days after the death of Omar, Othman Ibn Affan was elected as his
successor. He was seventy years of age at the time of his election. He
was tall and swarthy, and his long gray beard was tinged with henna. He
was strict in his religious duties, but prone to expense and lavish of
his riches.

"In the conquests of Syria, Persia, and Egypt," says a modern writer,
"the fresh and vigorous enthusiasm of the personal companions and
proselytes of Mahomet was exercised and expended, and the generation of
warriors whose simple fanaticism had been inflamed by the preaching of
the pseudo-prophet was in a great measure consumed in the sanguinary and
perpetual toils of ten arduous campaigns."

We shall now see the effect of those conquests on the national character
and habits; the avidity of place and power and wealth superseding
religious enthusiasm; and the enervating luxury and soft voluptuousness
of Syria and Persia sapping the rude but masculine simplicity of the
Arabian desert. Above all, the single-mindedness of Mahomet and his two
immediate successors is at an end. Other objects besides the mere
advancement of Islamism distract the attention of its leading
professors; and the struggle for worldly wealth and worldly sway, for
the advancement of private ends, and the aggrandizement of particular
tribes and families, destroy the unity of the empire, and beset the
caliphate with intrigue, treason, and bloodshed.

It was a great matter of reproach against the caliph Othman that he was
injudicious in his appointments, and had an inveterate propensity to
consult the interests of his relatives and friends before that of the
public. One of his greatest errors in this respect was the removal of
Amrou ben-el-Ass from the government of Egypt, and the appointment of
his own foster-brother, Abdallah Ibn Saad, in his place. This was the
same Abdallah who, in acting as amanuensis to Mahomet, and writing down
his revelations, had interpolated passages of his own, sometimes of a
ludicrous nature. For this and for his apostasy he had been pardoned by
Mahomet at the solicitation of Othman, and had ever since acted with
apparent zeal, his interest coinciding with his duty.

He was of a courageous spirit, and one of the most expert horsemen of
Arabia; but what might have fitted him to command a horde of the desert
was insufficient for the government of a conquered province. He was new
and inexperienced in his present situation; whereas Amru had
distinguished himself as a legislator as well as a conqueror, and had
already won the affections of the Egyptians by his attention to their
interests, and his respect for their customs and habitudes. His
dismission was, therefore, resented by the people, and a disposition was
manifested to revolt against the new governor.

The emperor Constantine, who had succeeded to his father Heraclius,
hastened to take advantage of these circumstances. A fleet and army were
sent against Alexandria under a prefect named Manuel. The Greeks in the
city secretly cooperated with him, and the metropolis was, partly by
force of arms, partly by treachery, recaptured by the imperialists
without much bloodshed.

Othman, made painfully sensible of the error he had committed, hastened
to revoke the appointment of his foster-brother, and reinstated Amru in
the command in Egypt. That able general went instantly against
Alexandria with an army, in which were many Copts, irreconcilable
enemies of the Greeks. Among these was the traitor Mokawkas, who, from
his knowledge of the country and his influence among its inhabitants,
was able to procure abundant supplies for the army.

The Greek garrison defended the city bravely and obstinately. Amru,
enraged at having thus again to lay siege to a place which he had twice
already taken, swore, by Allah, that if he should master it a third
time, he would render it as easy of access as a brothel. He kept his
word, for when he took the city he threw down the walls and demolished
all the fortifications. He was merciful, however, to the inhabitants,
and checked the fury of the Saracens, who were slaughtering all they
met. A mosque was afterward erected on the spot at which he stayed the
carnage, called the Mosque of Mercy. Manuel, the Greek general, found it
expedient to embark with all speed with such of his troops as he could
save, and make sail for Constantinople.

Scarce, however, had Amru quelled every insurrection and secured the
Moslem domination in Egypt, when he was again displaced from the
government, and Abdallah Ibn Saad appointed a second time in his stead.

Abdallah had been deeply mortified by the loss of Alexandria, which had
been ascribed to his incapacity; he was emulous, too, of the renown of
Amru, and felt the necessity of vindicating his claims to command by
some brilliant achievement. The north of Africa presented a new field
for Moslem enterprise. We allude to that vast tract extending west from
the desert of Libya or Barca to Cape Non, embracing more than two
thousand miles of sea-coast; comprehending the ancient divisions of
Mamarica, Cyrenaica, Carthage, Numidia, and Mauritania; or, according to
modern geographical designations, Barca, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and
Morocco.

Toward this rich land of promise, yet virgin of Islamitish seed,
Abdallah, at the head of the victorious Saracens, now hopefully bent his
ambitious steps.

EVOLUTION OF THE DOGESHIP IN VENICE

A.D. 697

WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT

     The early authentic history of Venice is intimately connected with
     that of the Lombards, of whom the first mention is made by
     Paterculus, the Roman historian, who wrote during the first quarter
     of the first century of our era. He speaks of the Langobardi[68]
     (Lombards) as dwelling on the west bank of the Elbe. Tacitus also
     mentions them in his _Germany_. From the Elbe they wandered to the
     Danube, and there encountered the Gepidæ, a branch of the Goths.
     The Lombards subdued this tribe, after a contest of thirty years.

     By this victory Alboin, the young Lombard King, rose to great power
     and fame. His beauty and renown were sung by German peasants even
     in the days of Charlemagne. His name "crossed the Alps and fell,
     with a foreboding sound, upon the startled ears of the Italians,"
     and toward Italy he turned for conquest. From Scythia and Germany
     adventurous youth flocked to his standard. Many clans and various
     religions were represented in his ranks, but these diversities were
     overshadowed by a common devotion to the hero-leader.

     In 568 the Lombards marched from Pannonia into Italy, conquered the
     northern part, still called Lombardy, and founded the kingdom of
     that name, which was afterward greatly extended, and existed until
     overthrown by Charlemagne in 774.

     Before the invading hosts of Alboin, wealthy inhabitants of the
     larger cities of the province of Venetia fled to the islands of
     Venice, where earlier fugitives had sought shelter from King Attila
     and his Huns. A thriving maritime community had been established,
     which about this time had developed into a semi-independent
     protectorate of the Byzantine or Eastern Empire, attached to the
     exarchate of Ravenna.

     Afterward Venice underwent many political changes, among which one
     of the most interesting to students of history is that of the
     institution of the dogeship, as hereafter related. This step was
     taken for more than one reason of internal organization and policy,
     and it was also made urgent by the encroachments of the Lombards,
     which had become a menace to Venetian territory and commerce.

The republic (Venetian) on her part contemplated with inquietude the
rise of one monarchy after another on the skirts of the Lagoon, for the
Venetians not unnaturally feared that as soon as these fresh usurpers
had established themselves, they might form the design of adding the
islands of the Adriatic to their dominion, and of acquiring possession
of the commercial advantages which belonged to the situation held by the
settlers. For the Lombards, though not ranking among maritime
communities, were not absolutely strangers to the laws of navigation, or
to the use of ships, which might place them in a position to reduce to
their control a small, feeble, and thinly peopled area, separated from
their own territories only by a narrow and terraqueous strait. Moreover,
the predatory visits of Leupus, duke of Friuli, whose followers
traversed the canals at low tide on horseback, and despoiled the
churches of Heraclia, Equilo, and Grado, soon afforded sufficient proof
that the equestrian skill of the strangers was capable of supplying to
some extent any deficiency in nautical knowledge.

Venice at present formed a federative state, united by the memory of a
common origin and the sense of a common interest; the _arrengo_, which
met at Heraclia, the parent capital, at irregular intervals to
deliberate on matters of public concern, was too numerous and too
schismatical to exercise immediate control over the nation; and each
island was consequently governed, after the abolition of the primeval
consulate, in the name of the people, by a _gastaldo_ or tribune, whose
power, nominally limited, was virtually absolute. This administration
had lasted nearly two centuries and a half, during which period the
republic passed through a cruel ordeal of anarchy, oppression, and
bloodshed. The tribunes conspired against each other; the people
rebelled against the tribunes. Family rose against family, clan against
clan. Sanguinary affrays were of constant occurrence on the thinly
peopled _lidi_, and amid the pine-woods, with which much of the surface
was covered; and it is related that in one instance at least the bodies
of the dead were left to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey, which
then haunted the more thickly afforested parts.

Jealousy and intolerance of the pretensions of Heraclia to a paramount
voice in the policy of the community may be securely assigned as the
principal and permanent source of friction and disagreement; but the
predominance of that township seems to have resisted every effort of the
others to supplant its central authority and wide sphere of influence;
and during centuries it preserved its power, through its ostensible
choice as the residence of the most capable and influential citizens.

The scandalous and destructive outrages attendant on the rule of the
tribunes had become a vast constitutional evil. They sapped the general
prosperity; they obstructed trade and industries; they made havoc on
public and private property; they banished safety and repose, and they
impoverished and scandalized the Church.

The depredations of the Lombards, which grew in the course of time
bolder and more systematic in their character, certainly indicated great
weakness on the part of the government. Yet it was equally certain that
the weakness proceeded less from the want than from the division of
strength.

The sacrilegious inroads were not without their beneficial result; for
they afforded those who might be disposed to institute reforms an
admirable ground not only for bringing the matter more closely and
immediately under the public observation, but they enlisted in the cause
the foremost ecclesiastics, who might recognize in this internal
disunion a danger of interminable attacks and depredations from without,
if not an eventual loss of political independence; and, accordingly, in
the course of the spring of 697-698, the patriarch of Grado himself
submitted to the arrengo at Heraclia a scheme, which had been devised by
him and his friends, for changing the government. The proposal of the
metropolitan was to divest the tribunes of the sovereignty, and to have
once more a magistrate (_capo dei tribuni_), in whom all power might be
concentrated. His title was to be duke. His office was to be for life.
With him was to rest the whole executive machinery. He was to preside
over the synod as well as the arrengo, either of which it was competent
for him to convoke or dissolve at pleasure; merely spiritual matters of
a minor nature were alone, in future, to be intrusted to the clergy; and
all acts of convocations, the ordination of a priest or deacon, the
election of a patriarch or bishop, were to be subject to the final
sanction of the ducal throne. In fact, the latter became virtually, and
in all material respects, autocrat of Venice, not merely the tribunes,
but even the hierarchy, which was so directly instrumental in creating
the dignity, having now no higher function than that of advisers and
administrators under his direction; and it was in matters of general or
momentous concern only that the republic expected her First Magistrate
to seek the concurrence or advice of the national convention.

In a newly formed society, placed in the difficult situation in which
the republic found herself at the close of the seventh century, and
where also a superstitious reverence for the pontiff might at present
exist, apart from considerations of interest, it ought to create no
surprise that the patriarch and his supporters should have formed a
unanimous determination, and have taken immediate steps to procure the
adhesion of the Holy See, before the resolutions of the popular assembly
were definitively carried into effect.

This measure simply indicates the character of the opinions which were
received at the time in Europe, as well as the strong consciousness on
the part of the patriarch, and those who acted with him, of the
expediency of throwing the voice and countenance of the Church into the
scale alike against the tribunitial oligarchy and against local
jealousies and prejudices. There was perhaps in this case the additional
inducement that the proposal to invest the doge with supreme power and
jurisdiction over the Church, as well as over the state, might seem to
involve an indirect surrender, either now or hereafter, on the part of
the Holy See of some of its power, as a high-priest or grand pontiff,
who was also a secular prince, might prove less pliant than an ordinary
liegeman of the Church. But the men of 697 acted, as we must allow,
sagaciously enough, when they presented their young country to the
consideration of the papacy as possessing a party of order, into which
the Church entered, and from which it now stood conspicuously and
courageously out to take this very momentous initiative.

The creation of an ecclesiastical system had been one of the foremost
aims of the first founders, who discerned in the transplantation of the
churches of the _terra firma_, and their familiar pastors to the islands
the most persuasive reconcilement of the fugitives to a hard and
precarious lot; and after all the intervening years it was the elders of
the Church who once more stepped forward and delivered their views on
the best plan for healing discord, and making life in the lagoons
tolerable for all. They sought some system of rule, after trying
several, which would enable them to live in peace at home, and to gain
strength to protect themselves from enemies. They would have been the
most far-seeing of human beings if they had formed a suspicion of what
kind of superstructure they were laying on the foundation. The nearest
model for their adoption or imitation was the Lombard type of government
almost under their very eyes; and so far as the difference of local
postulates suffered, it was that to which they had recourse, when they
vested in their new chieftain undivided jurisdiction, but primarily
military attributes and a title then recognized as having, above all, a
military significance.

On the receipt of the desired reply, the patriarch lost no time in
calling on the national assembly to follow up their late vote to its
legitimate consequences; and the choice of the people fell on Pauluccio
Anafesto, a native of Heraclia, whose name occurs here for the first
time, but who may be supposed to have had some prominent share in
promoting the late revolution. Anafesto was conducted to a chair which
had been prepared for him in his parish church, and solemnly invested by
the metropolitan with the insignia of authority, one of which is said to
have been an ivory sceptre--a symbol and a material borrowed from the
Romans.

It is not an unusual misconception that this organic change in the
government involved the simultaneous extinction of the tribunitial
office and title. But the truth is that the tribunes continued to
exercise municipal and subordinate functions many generations after the
revolution of 697; each island of importance, such as Malamocco and
Equilo, had its own tribune, while of the smaller islands several
contributed to form a tribunate or governorship; and office, though
neither strictly nor properly hereditary, still preserved its tendency
to perpetuate itself in a limited number of families. It is only
subsequently to the twelfth century that less is heard of the tribunes;
and the progress of administrative reform led to the gradual
disappearance of this old feudal element in the constitution.

In the time of Anafesto, the larger islands of the _dogado_ formed the
seats of powerful factions; the disproportion in point of influence
between the Crown and the tribune of Malamocco or the tribune of Equilo
was but slightly marked; and the abolition of that magistracy was a much
more sweeping measure than the first makers of a doge would have dared
to propose.

The military complexion of the ducal authority was not confined to the
personal character of the supreme officer of state, for under him, not
as a novel element in the constitution, but as one which preëxisted side
by side with the tribunitial system, served a _master of the soldiers_,
whom there is a fairly solid ground for regarding as second to the doge
or duke in precedence, and above the civil tribunes of the respective
townships.

To find in so small and imperfectly developed a state the two leading
functionaries or ingredients deriving their appellations from a command
and control over the rude feudal militia, might alone warrant the
conclusion that the most essential requirement of Venice, even when it
had so far modified the form of administration, was felt to be the
possession, under responsible direction, of a means of securing internal
order and withstanding external aggression, if it were not the case that
from the Gothic era onward we hear of _scholæ militiæ cum patronis_,
manifestly the schools of instruction for the body over which the
_magister militum_ presided. These seminaries existed in the days of the
exarch Narses, generations before a doge was given to Venice. Yet,
through all the time which has now elapsed since the first erection of a
separate political jurisdiction, not only the Church, on which such
stress was at the very outset laid, but a civil government, and
regulations for trade and shipping, must have been active forces, always
tending to grow in strength and coherence.

The Venetians, in constructing by degrees, and even somewhat at random,
a constitutional fabric, very naturally followed the precedents and
models which they found in the regions which bordered on them, and from
which their forefathers had emigrated. The Lombard system, which was of
far longer duration than its predecessors on the same soil, borrowed as
much as possible from that which the invaders saw in use and favor among
the conquered; and the earliest institutions of the only community not
subjugated by their arms were counterparts either of the Lombard, the
Roman, or the Greek customary law. The doge, in some respects, enjoyed
an authority similar to that which the Romans had vested in their
ancient kings; but, while he was clothed with full ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, he did not personally discharge the sacerdotal functions
or assume a sacerdotal title. The Latins had had their _magistri
populi_; and in the Middle Ages they recognized at Naples and at Amalfi
a _master of the soldiers_; at Lucca, Verona, and elsewhere, a _captain
of the people_. But all these magistrates were in possession of the
supreme power, were kings in everything save the name; and the
interesting suggestion presents itself that in the case of Venice the
_master of the soldiers_ had been part of the tribunitial organization,
if not of the consular one, and that one of the tribunes officiated by
rotation, bearing to the republic the same sort of relationship as the
_bretwalda_ bore to the other Anglo-Saxon _reguli_. There can be no
doubt that Venice kept in view the prototypes transmitted by Rome, and
learned at last to draw a comparison between the two empires; and down
to the fifteenth century the odor of the Conscript Fathers lingered in
the Venetian fancy.

Subsequently to the entrance of the _dux_, _duke_, or _doge_ on the
scene, and the shrinkage of the tribunitial power to more departmental
or municipal proportions, the _master of the soldiers_, whatever he may
have been before, became a subordinate element in the administration.
His duties must have certainly embraced the management of the militia
and the maintenance of the doge's peace within the always widening pale
of the ducal abode. He was next in rank to the crown or throne.

Thus we perceive that, after a series of trials, the Venetians
eventually reverted to the form of government which appeared to be most
agreeable, on the whole, to their conditions and genius.

The consular _triumviri_, not perhaps quite independent of external
influences, were originally adopted as a temporary expedient. The
tribunes, who next succeeded, had a duration of two hundred and fifty
years. Their common _fasti_ are scanty and obscure; and we gain only
occasional glimpses of a barbarous federal administration, which barely
sufficed to fulfil the most elementary wants of a rising society of
traders. They were alike, more or less, a machinery of primitive type,
deficient in central force, and without any safeguards against the abuse
of authority, without any definite theory of legislation and police. The
century and a half which intervened between the abrogation of monarchy
in the person of a tribune, and its revival in the person of a doge
(574-697), beheld the republic laboring under the feeble and enervating
sway of rival aristocratic houses, on which the sole check was the urban
body subsequently to emerge into importance and value as the militia of
the six wards, and its commandant, the _master of the soldiers_.

But while the institution of the dogeship brought with it a certain
measure of equilibrium and security, it left the political framework in
almost every other respect untouched. The work of reform and
consolidation had merely commenced. The first stone only had been laid
of a great and enduring edifice. The first permanent step had been taken
toward the unification of a group of insular clanships into a
homogeneous society, with a sense of common interests.

The late tribunitial ministry has transmitted to us as its monument
little beyond the disclosure of a chronic disposition to tyranny and
periodical fluctuations of preponderance. The so-called chair of Attila
at Torcello is supposed to have been the seat where the officer
presiding over that district long held his court _sub dio_.

The doge Anafesto appears to have pacified, by his energy and tact, the
intestine discord by which his country had suffered so much and so long,
and the Equilese, especially--who had risen in open revolt, and had
refused to pay their proportion of tithes--were persuaded, after some
fierce struggles in the _pineto_ or pine woods, which still covered
much of the soil, to return to obedience. The civil war which had lately
broken out between Equilo and Heraclia was terminated by the influential
mediation of one of the tribunes, and the Lombards now condescended to
ratify a treaty assigning to the Venetians the whole of the territory
lying between the greater and lesser Piave, empowering the republic to
erect boundary lines, and prohibiting either of the contracting parties
from building a stronghold within ten miles of those lines. A settlement
of confines between two such close neighbors was of the highest
importance and utility. But a still more momentous principle was here
involved.

The republic had exercised a clear act of sovereign independence. It had
made its first Italian treaty. This was a proud step and a quotable
precedent.

FOOTNOTE:

[68] Some modern writers question the etymology which in the name of the
Langobardi finds a reference to the length of their beards. Sheppard
thinks that "long-spears," rather than "long-beards" was the original
signification. Since, on the banks of the Elbe, _Börde_ or _Bord_ still
means "a fertile plain beside a river," others derive their name from
the district they inhabited. Langobardi would thus signify "people of
the long bord of the river."

SARACENS IN SPAIN: BATTLE OF THE GUADALETE

A.D. 711

AHMED IBN MAHOMET AL-MAKKARI

     When assailed by the Saracen power, the Gothic kingdom in Spain,
     which had endured for three centuries, had long been suffering a
     decline. Political disorders and social demoralization had made its
     condition such as might well invite the Moslem armies, flushed with
     victories on the African side, to cross the narrow Strait of
     Gibraltar for new conquests.

     The final subjection of North Africa had been accomplished by the
     Arab general, Musa Ibn Nosseyr, only the fortress of Ceuta, on the
     shore of the strait, still remaining in possession of the Goths.
     The Saracens knew that a fresh revolution in Spain had placed on
     the throne Roderic--who proved to be the last of the Gothic kings.
     At Ceuta the commandant, Count Ilyan (Julian), when he was
     attacked, made a feeble defence, virtually betraying the post into
     the hands of the Moslems. The reason, according to some
     authorities, for the defection of Ilyan was his desire to avenge an
     injury inflicted upon him by Roderic, who is said to have
     dishonored Ilyan's daughter, the Lady Florinda. Others attribute
     the treason of Ilyan to his real loyalty to the rivals of Roderic,
     the latter being regarded by him as a usurper.

     It is recorded that Ilyan proposed to Musa the conquest of
     Andalusia, whose wealth in productiveness and other natural
     attractions he glowingly described. The people, Ilyan declared,
     were enervated by reason of prolonged peace, and were destitute of
     arms. He was induced entirely to desert the Gothic cause and join
     the Moslems, and made a successful incursion into the country of
     his former friends, returning to Africa loaded with spoil. From
     this time Ilyan served under the Moslem standard.

     Another invasion was made by the Saracens with like results, and
     then Musa, having received authority from the Caliph, prepared to
     enter upon the conquest of Spain. The events which followed were
     not only of great moment in the affairs of that country, but
     foreshadowed others which seemed to involve the fate of Europe and
     of Christendom in the outcome of the Mahometan advance.

Musa strengthened himself in his intention of invading Andalusia; to
this effect he called a freed slave of his, to whom he had on different
occasions intrusted important commands in his armies, and whose name was
Tarik Ibn Zeyad Ibn Abdillah, a native of Hamdan, in Persia, although
some pretend that he was not a freedman of Musa Ibn Nosseyr, but a
free-born man of the tribe of Sadf, while others make him a _mauli_ of
Lahm. It is even asserted that some of his posterity, who lived in
Andalusia, rejected with indignation the supposition of their ancestor
having ever been a liberated slave of Musa Ibn Nosseyr. Some authors,
and they are the greatest number, say that he was a Berber.

To this Tarik, therefore, the Arabian governor of Africa committed the
important trust of conquering the kingdom of Andalusia, for which end he
gave him the command of an army of seven thousand men, chiefly Berbers
and slaves, very few only being genuine Arabs. To accompany and guide
Tarik in this expedition, Musa sent Ilyan, who provided four vessels
from the ports under his command, the only places on the coast where
vessels were at that time built. Everything being got ready, a division
of the army crossed that arm of the sea which divides Andalusia from
Africa, and landed with Tarik at the foot of the mountain, which
afterward received his name, on a Saturday, in the month of Shaban, of
the year [of the Hegira] 92 (July, 711), answering to the month of
Agosht (August); and the four vessels were sent back, and crossed and
recrossed until the rest of Tarik's men were safely put on shore.

It is otherwise said that Tarik landed on the 24th of Rejeb (June 19th,
A.D. 711), in the same year. Another account makes the number of men
embarked on this occasion amount to twelve thousand, all but sixteen, a
number consisting almost entirely of Berbers, there being but few Arabs
among them; but the same writer agrees that Ilyan transported this force
at various times to the coast of Andalusia in merchant vessels--whence
collected, it is not known--and that Tarik was the last man on board.

Various historians have recorded two circumstances concerning Tarik's
passage, and his landing on the coast of Andalusia, which we consider
worthy of being transcribed. They say that while he was sailing across
that arm of the sea which separates Africa from Andalusia, he saw in a
dream the prophet Mahomet, surrounded by Arabs of the Muhajirm and
Anssar, who with unsheathed swords and bended bows stood close by him,
and that he heard the prophet say: "Take courage, O Tarik! and
accomplish what thou art destined to perform"; and that having looked
round him he saw the messenger of God, who with his companions was
entering Andalusia. Tarik then awoke from his sleep, and, delighted with
this good omen, hastened to communicate the miraculous circumstance to
his followers, who were much pleased and strengthened. Tarik himself was
so much struck by the apparition that from that moment he never doubted
of victory.

The same writers have preserved another anecdote, which sufficiently
proves the mediation of the Almighty in permitting that the conquest of
Andalusia should be achieved by Tarik. Directly after his landing on the
rock Musa's freedman brought his forces upon the plain, and began to
overrun and lay waste the neighboring country. While he was thus
employed, an old woman from Algesiras presented herself to him, and
among other things told him what follows: "Thou must know, O stranger!
that I had once a husband, who had the knowledge of future events; and I
have repeatedly heard him say to the people of this country that a
foreign general would come to this island and subject it to his arms. He
described him to me as a man of prominent forehead, and such, I see, is
thine; he told me also that the individual designated by the prophecy
would have a black mole covered with hair on his left shoulder. Now, if
thou hast such a mark on thy body, thou art undoubtedly the person
intended."

When Tarik heard the old woman's reasoning, he immediately laid his
shoulder bare, and the mark being found, as predicted, upon the left
one, both he and his companions were filled with delight at the good
omen.

Ibnu Hayyan's account does not materially differ from those of the
historians from whom we have quoted. He agrees in saying that Ilyan,
lord of Ceuta, incited Musa Ibn Nosseyr to make the conquest of
Andalusia; and that this he did out of revenge, and moved by the
personal enmity and hatred he had conceived against Roderic. He makes
Tarik's army amount only to seven thousand, mostly Berbers, which, he
says, crossed in four vessels provided by Ilyan. According to his
account, Tarik landed on a Saturday, in the month of Shaban, of the
year 92, and the vessels that brought him and his men on shore were
immediately sent back to Africa, and never ceased going backward and
forward until the whole of the army was safely landed on the shores of
Andalusia.

On the other side, Ibnu Khaldun reckons the army under the orders of
Tarik at three hundred Arabs and ten thousand Berbers. He says that
before starting on his expedition, Tarik divided his army into two
corps, he himself taking the command of one, and placing the other under
the immediate orders of Tarif An-najai. Tarik, with his men, landed at
the foot of the rock now called _Jebalu-l-fatah_, "the mountain of the
entrance," and which then received his name, and was called
_Jebal-Tarik_, "the mountain of Tarik"; while his companion, Tarif,
landed on the island afterward called after him _Jezirah-Tarif_, "the
island of Tarif." In order to provide for the security of their
respective armies, both generals selected, soon after their landing, a
good encampment, which they surrounded with walls and trenches, for no
sooner had the news of their landing spread than the armies of the Goths
began to march against them from all quarters.

No sooner did Tarik set his foot in Andalusia than he was attacked by a
Goth named Tudmir (Theodomir), to whom Roderic had intrusted the defence
of that frontier. Theodomir, who is the same general who afterward gave
his name to a province of Andalusia, called _Belad Tudmir_, "the country
of Theodomir," having tried, although in vain, to stop the impetuous
career of Tarik's men, despatched immediately a messenger to his master,
apprising him how Tarik and his followers had landed in Andalusia. He
also wrote him a letter thus conceived: "This our land has been invaded
by people whose name, country, and origin are unknown to me. I cannot
even tell whence they came--whether they fell from the skies or sprang
from the earth."

When this news reached Roderic, who was then in the country of the
Bashkans (Basques), making war in the territory of Banbilonah
(Pamplona), where serious disturbances had occurred, he guessed directly
that the blow came from Ilyan. Sensible, however, of the importance of
this attack made upon his dominions, he left what he had in hand, and,
moving toward the south with the whole of his powerful army, arrived in
Cordova, which is placed in the centre of Andalusia. There he took up
his abode in the royal castle, which the Arabs called after him
Roderic's castle. In this palace Roderic took up his residence for a few
days, to await the arrival of the numerous troops which he had summoned
from the different provinces of his kingdom.

They say that while he was staying in Cordova he wrote to the sons of
Wittiza to come and join him against the common enemy; for, although it
is true that Roderic had usurped the throne of their father, and
persecuted the sons, yet he had spared their lives; since these two sons
of Wittiza are the same who, when Tarik attacked the forces of King
Roderic on the plains of Guadalete, near the sea, turned back and
deserted their ranks, owing to a promise made them by Tarik to restore
them to the throne of their father, if they helped him against Roderic.
However, when Roderic arrived in Cordova, the sons of Wittiza were
busily engaged in some distant province collecting troops to march
against the invaders, and he wrote to them to come and join him with
their forces, in order to march against the Arabs; and, cautioning them
against the inconvenience and danger of private feuds at that moment,
engaged them to join him and attack the Arabs in one mass. The sons of
Wittiza readily agreed to Roderic's proposition, and collecting all
their forces, came to meet him, and encamped not far from the village of
Shakandah, on the opposite side of the river, and on the south of the
palace of Cordova.

There they remained for some time, not daring to enter the capital or to
trust Roderic, until at last, having ascertained the truth of the
preparations, and seeing the army march out of the city and him with it,
they entered Cordova, united their forces to his, and marched with him
against the enemy, although, as will be seen presently, they were
already planning the treachery which they afterward committed. Others
say that the sons of Wittiza did not obey the summons sent them by the
usurper Roderic; on the contrary, that they joined Tarik with all their
forces.

When Tarik received the news of the approach of Roderic's army, which is
said to have amounted to nearly one hundred thousand men, provided with
all kinds of weapons and military stores, he wrote to Musa for
assistance, saying that he had taken Algesiras, a port of Andalusia,
thus becoming, by its possession, the master of the passage into that
country; that he had subdued its districts as far as the bay; but that
Roderic was now advancing against him with a force which it was not in
his power to resist, except it was God Almighty's will that it should be
so. Musa, who since Tarik's departure for this expedition had been
employed in building ships, and had by this time collected a great many,
sent by them a reinforcement of five thousand Moslems, which, added to
the seven thousand of the first expedition, made the whole forces amount
to twelve thousand men, eager for plunder and anxious for battle. Ilyan
was also sent with his army and the people of his states to accompany
this expedition, and to guide it through the passes in the country, and
gather intelligence for them.

In the mean while Roderic was drawing nearer to the Moslems, with all
the forces of the barbarians, their lords, their knights, and their
bishops; but the hearts of the great people of the kingdom being against
him, they used to see each other frequently, and in their private
conversations they uttered their sentiments about Roderic in the
following manner: "This wretch has by force taken possession of the
throne to which he is not justly entitled, for not only he does not
belong to the royal family, but he was once one of our meanest menials;
we do not know how far he may carry his wicked intentions against us.
There is no doubt but that Tarik's followers do not intend to settle in
this country; their only wish is to fill their hands with spoil, and
then return. Let us then, as soon as the battle is engaged, give way,
and leave the usurper alone to fight the strangers, who will soon
deliver us from him; and, when they shall be gone, we can place on the
throne him who most deserves it."

In these sentiments all agreed, and it was decided that the proposed
plan should be put into execution; the two sons of Wittiza, whom Roderic
had appointed to the command of the right and left wings of his army,
being at the head of the conspiracy, in the hope of gaining the throne
of their father.

When the armies drew nearer to each other, the princes began to spin
the web of their treason; and for this purpose a messenger was sent by
them to Tarik, informing him how Roderic, who had been a mere menial and
servant to their father, had, after his death, usurped the throne; that
the princes had by no means relinquished their rights, and that they
implored protection and security for themselves. They offered to desert,
and pass over to Tarik with the troops under their command, on condition
that the Arab general would, after subduing the whole of Andalusia,
secure to them all their father's possessions, amounting to three
thousand valuable and chosen farms, the same that received after this
the name of _Safaya-l-moluk_, "the royal portion." This offer Tarik
accepted; and, having agreed to the conditions, on the next day the sons
of Wittiza deserted the ranks of the Gothic army in the midst of battle,
and passed over to Tarik, this being, no doubt, one of the principal
causes of the conquest.

Roderic arrived on the banks of the Guadalete with a formidable army,
which most historians compute at one hundred thousand cavalry; although
Ibnu Khaldun makes it amount to forty thousand men only. Roderic brought
all his treasures and military stores in carts: he himself came in a
litter placed between two mules, having over his head an awning richly
set with pearls, rubies, and emeralds. On the approach of this
formidable host the Moslems did not lose courage, but prepared to meet
their adversary. Tarik assembled his men, comforted them by his words,
and after rendering the due praises to the Almighty God, and returning
thanks for what had already been accomplished, proceeded to implore his
mighty help for the future. He then encouraged the Moslems, and kindled
their enthusiasm with the following address:

"Whither can you fly?--the enemy is in your front, the sea at your back.
By Allah! there is no salvation for you but in your courage and
perseverance. Consider your situation: here you are on this island, like
so many orphans cast upon the world; you will soon be met by a powerful
enemy, surrounding you on all sides like the infuriated billows of a
tempestuous sea, and sending against you his countless warriors, drowned
in steel, and provided with every store and description of arms. What
can you oppose to them? You have no other weapons than your swords, no
provisions but those that you may snatch from the hands of your enemies;
you must therefore attack them immediately, or otherwise your wants will
increase; the gales of victory may no longer blow in your favor, and
perchance the fear that lurks in the hearts of your enemies may be
changed into indomitable courage.

"Banish all fear from your hearts, trust that victory shall be ours, and
that the barbarian king will not be able to withstand the shock of our
arms. Here he comes to make us the master of his cities and castles, and
to deliver into our hands his countless treasures; and if you only seize
the opportunity now presented, it may perhaps be the means of your
becoming the owners of them, besides saving yourselves from certain
death. Do not think that I impose upon you a task from which I shrink
myself, or that I try to conceal from you the dangers attending this our
expedition. No; you have certainly a great deal to encounter, but know
that if you only suffer for a while, you will reap in the end an
abundant harvest of pleasures and enjoyments. And do not imagine that
while I speak to you I mean not to act as I speak; for as my interest in
this affair is greater, so will my behavior on this occasion surpass
yours. You must have heard numerous accounts of this island, you must
know how the Grecian maidens, as handsome as houris, their necks
glittering with innumerable pearls and jewels, their bodies clothed with
tunics of costly silks, sprinkled with gold, are waiting your arrival,
reclining on soft couches in the sumptuous palaces of crowned lords and
princes.

"You know well that the caliph Abdu-l-Malek Ibnu-l-walid has chosen you,
like so many heroes, from among the brave; you know that the great lords
of this island are willing to make you their sons and brethren by
marriage, if you only rush on like so many brave men to the fight, and
behave like true champions and valiant knights; you know that the
recompenses of God await you if you are prepared to uphold his words,
and proclaim his religion in this island; and, lastly, that all the
spoil shall be yours, and of such Moslems as may be with you.

"Bear in mind that God Almighty will select, according to this promise,
those that distinguish themselves most among you, and grant them due
reward, both in this world and in the future; and know likewise that I
shall be the first to set you the example, and to put in practice what I
recommend you to do; for it is my intention, on the meeting of the two
hosts, to attack the Christian tyrant Roderic, and kill him with my own
hand, if God be pleased. When you see me bearing against him, charge
along with me; if I kill him, the victory is ours; if I am killed before
I reach him, do not trouble yourselves about me, but fight as if I were
still alive and among you, and follow up my purpose; for the moment they
see their King fall, these barbarians are sure to disperse. If, however,
I should be killed, after inflicting death upon their King, appoint a
man from among you who unites both courage and experience and may
command you in this emergency and follow up the success. If you attend
to my instructions, we are sure of the victory."

When Tarik had thus addressed his soldiers and exhorted them to fight
with courage and to face the dangers of war with a stout heart--when he
had thus recommended them to make a simultaneous attack upon Roderic's
men, and promised them abundant reward if they routed their
enemies--their countenances were suddenly expanded with joy their hopes
were strengthened, the gales of victory began to blow on their side, and
they all unanimously answered him: "We are ready to follow thee, O
Tarik! We shall all, to one man, stand by thee and fight for thee; nor
could we avoid it were we otherwise disposed--victory is our only hope
of salvation."

After this Tarik mounted his horse, and his men did the same; and they
all passed that night in constant watch for fear of the enemy. On the
following morning, when day dawned, both armies prepared for battle;
each general formed his cavalry and his infantry, and, the signal being
given, the armies met with a shock, similar to that of two mountains
dashing against each other.

King Roderic came, borne on a throne, and having over his head an awning
of variegated silk to guard him from the rays of the sun, surrounded by
warriors, cased in bright steel, with fluttering pennons and a profusion
of banners and standards.

Tarik's men were differently arrayed; their breasts were covered with
mail armor; they wore white turbans on their heads, the Arabian bow
slung across their backs, their swords suspended in their girdles, and
their long spears firmly grasped in their hands.

They say that when the two armies were advancing upon each other, and
the eyes of Roderic fell upon the men in the first ranks, he was
horror-stricken, and was heard to exclaim: "By the faith of the Messiah!
These are the very men I saw painted on the scroll found in the mansion
of science at Toledo;" and from that moment fear entered his heart; and
when Tarik perceived Roderic, he said to his followers, "This is the
King of the Christians," and he charged with his men, the warriors who
surrounded Roderic being on all sides scattered and dispersed; seeing
which, Tarik plunged into the ranks of the enemy until he reached the
King, and wounded him with his sword on the head and killed him on his
throne; and when Rodericks men saw their King fall, and his bodyguard
dispersed, the rout became general, and victory remained with the
Moslems.

The rout of the Christians was complete, for instead of rallying on one
spot, they fled in all directions, and, their panic being communicated
to their countrymen, cities opened their gates, and castles surrendered
without resistance.

The preceding account we have borrowed from a writer of great note, but
we deem it necessary to warn the readers that the assertion that Roderic
died by the hands of Tarik has been contradicted by several historians,
since his body, although diligently sought on the field of battle, could
nowhere be found.

We shall proceed to recount in detail that memorable battle, when
Almighty God was pleased to put King Roderic's army to flight and grant
the Moslems a most complete victory. Several authors who have described
at large this famous engagement state that Tarik encamped near Roderic,
toward the middle of the month of Ramadan of the year 92 (September,
A.D. 711), and although there is some difference as to the dates, all
agree that the battle was fought on the banks of the Guadalete. They say
also that while both armies were encamped in front of each other, the
barbarian King, wishing to ascertain the exact amount of Tarik's forces,
sent one of his men, whose valor and strength he knew, and in whose
fidelity he placed unbounded confidence, with instructions to penetrate
into Tarik's camp, and bring him an account of their number, arms,
accoutrements, and vessels.

The Christian proceeded to execute his commission, and reached a small
elevation, whence he had a commanding view of the whole camp. However,
he had not remained long in his place of observation before he was
discovered by some Moslems, who pursued him; but the Christian fled
before them, and escaped through the swiftness of his horse.

Arrived at the Christian camp, he addressed Roderic in the following
words: "These people, O King! are the same that thou sawest painted on
the scroll of the enchanted palace. Beware of them! for the greatest
part of them have bound themselves by oath to reach thee or die in the
attempt; they have set fire to their vessels, to destroy their last hope
of escape; they are encamped along the sea-shore, determined to die or
to vanquish, for they know well that there is not in this country a
place whither they can fly." On hearing this account, King Roderic was
much disheartened, and he trembled with fear. However, the two armies
engaged near the lake or gulf; they fought resolutely on both sides till
the right and left wings of Roderic's army, under the command of the
sons of Wittiza, gave way. The centre, in which Roderic was, still held
firm for a while, and made the fate of the battle uncertain for some
time; they fled at last, and Roderic before them. From that moment the
rout became general, and the Moslems followed with ardor the pursuit of
the scattered bands, inflicting death wherever they went.

Roderic disappeared in the midst of the battle, and no certain
intelligence was afterward received of him. It is true that some Moslems
found his favorite steed, a milk-white horse, bearing a saddle of gold,
sparkling with rubies, plunged in the mud of the river, as also one of
his sandals, adorned with rubies and emeralds, but the other was never
found; nor was Roderic, although diligently searched for, ever
discovered either dead or alive, a circumstance which led the Moslems to
believe that he perished in the stream, the weight of his armor
preventing him from struggling against the current, and he was drowned;
but God only knows what became of him.

According to Ar-razi, the contest began on Sunday, two days before the
end of Ramadan, and continued till Sunday, the 5th of Shawal; namely,
eight whole days; at the end of which God Almighty was pleased to put
the idolaters to flight, and grant the victory to the Moslems; and he
adds that so great was the number of the Goths who perished in the
battle that for a long time after the victory the bones of the slain
were to be seen covering the field of action.

They say also that the spoil found by the Moslems in the camp of the
Christians surpassed all computation, for the princes and great men of
the Goths who had fallen were distinguished by the rings of gold they
wore on their fingers, those of an inferior class by similar ornaments
of silver, while those of the slaves were made of brass. Tarik collected
all the spoil and divided it into five shares or portions, when, after
deducting one-fifth, he distributed the rest among nine thousand
Moslems, besides the slaves and followers.

When the people on the other side of the straits heard of this success
of Tarik, and of the plentiful spoils he had acquired, they flocked to
him from all quarters, and crossed the sea on every vessel or bark they
could lay hold of. Tank's army being so considerably reinforced, the
Christians were obliged to shut themselves up in their castles and
fortresses, and, quitting the flat country, betake themselves to their
mountains.

BATTLE OF TOURS

A.D. 732

SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY

     When the Saracens had completed the conquest of Spain and all that
     country was wholly under their dominion, they determined to extend
     their authority over the neighboring country of the Franks.

     Having crossed the Pyrenees they met with but slight opposition and
     soon succeeded in making themselves masters of Southern France,
     thereby furthering and encouraging their boastful ambition to
     conquer and Islamize the whole world.

     Already had Africa, Asia Minor, and Eastern Europe acknowledged
     their rule, and the final subjugation of all Christendom by the
     Mahometan sword seemed certain and imminent.

     Their long and uninterrupted career of success had fed their
     arrogance and filled them with a proud confidence in the
     invincibility of their arms, and their farther advance into the
     heart of Europe seemed, in the eyes of Christian and pagan alike,
     to be the irresistible march of destiny.

     The Saracen host had not penetrated far into the Frankish territory
     when they encountered "a lion in the path," in the person of
     Charles (or Karl), the great palace-mayor--so called, but who was
     in reality the _defacto_ sovereign of the Frankish kingdoms.

     To Charles, famous for his military skill and prestige, came the
     recently defeated Eudes, the count of Aquitaine, and the remnant of
     his force, craving his protection and leadership against the
     advancing Saracen horde.

     Charles' signal victory over the Saracen invaders proved to be the
     turning-point in the Moslem career of conquest. The question
     whether the _Koran_ or the Bible, the Crescent or the Cross,
     Mahomet or Christ, should rule Europe and the western world was
     decided forever upon the bloody field of Tours.

The broad tract of champaign country which intervenes between the cities
of Poitiers and Tours is principally composed of a succession of rich
pasture lands, which are traversed and fertilized by the Cher, the
Creuse, the Vienne, the Claine, the Indre, and other tributaries of the
river Loire. Here and there the ground swells into picturesque
eminences, and occasionally a belt of forest land, a brown heath, or a
clustering series of vineyards breaks the monotony of the widespread
meadows; but the general character of the land is that of a grassy
plain, and it seems naturally adapted for the evolutions of numerous
armies, especially of those vast bodies of cavalry which principally
decided the fate of nations during the centuries that followed the
downfall of Rome and preceded the consolidation of the modern European
powers.

This region has been signalized by more than one memorable conflict; but
it is principally interesting to the historian by having been the scene
of the great victory won by Charles Martel over the Saracens, A.D. 732,
which gave a decisive check to the career of Arab conquest in Western
Europe, rescued Christendom from Islam, preserved the relics of ancient
and the germs of modern civilization, and reëstablished the old
superiority of the Indo-European over the Semitic family of mankind.

Sismondi and Michelet have underrated the enduring interest of this
great Appeal of Battle between the champions of the Crescent and the
Cross. But, if French writers have slighted the exploits of their
national hero, the Saracenic trophies of Charles Martel have had full
justice done to them by English and German historians. Gibbon devotes
several pages of his great work[69] to the narrative of the battle of
Tours, and to the consideration of the consequences which probably would
have resulted if Abderrahman's enterprise had not been crushed by the
Frankish chief. Schlegel speaks of this "mighty victory" in terms of
fervent gratitude, and tells how "the arm of Charles Martel saved and
delivered the Christian nations of the West from the deadly grasp of
all-destroying Islam"; and Ranke points out, as "one of the most
important epochs in the history of the world, the commencement of the
eighth century, when on the one side Mahometanism threatened to
overspread Italy and Gaul, and on the other the ancient idolatry of
Saxony and Friesland once more forced its way across the Rhine. In this
peril of Christian institutions, a youthful prince of Germanic race,
Charles (or Karl) Martel, arose as their champion, maintained them with
all the energy which the necessity for self-defence calls forth, and
finally extended them into new regions."

Arnold ranks the victory of Charles Martel even higher than the victory
of Arminius, "among those signal deliverances which have affected for
centuries the happiness of mankind." In fact, the more we test its
importance, the higher we shall be led to estimate it; and, though all
authentic details which we possess of its circumstances and its heroes
are but meagre, we can trace enough of its general character to make us
watch with deep interest this encounter between the rival conquerors of
the decaying Roman Empire. That old classic world, the history of which
occupies so large a portion of our early studies, lay, in the eighth
century of our era, utterly exanimate and overthrown. On the north the
German, on the south the Arab, was rending away its provinces. At last
the spoilers encountered one another, each striving for the full mastery
of the prey. Their conflict brought back upon the memory of Gibbon the
old Homeric simile, where the strife of Hector and Patroclus over the
dead body of Cebriones is compared to the combat of two lions, that in
their hate and hunger fight together on the mountain tops over the
carcass of a slaughtered stag; and the reluctant yielding of the Saracen
power to the superior might of the northern warriors might not inaptly
recall those other lines of the same book of the _Iliad_, where the
downfall of Patroclus beneath Hector is likened to the forced yielding
of the panting and exhausted wild boar, that had long and furiously
fought with a superior beast of prey for the possession of the scanty
fountain among the rocks at which each burned to drink.

Although three centuries had passed away since the Germanic conquerors
of Rome had crossed the Rhine, never to repass that frontier stream, no
settled system of institutions or government, no amalgamation of the
various races into one people, no uniformity of language or habits had
been established in the country at the time when Charles Martel was
called to repel the menacing tide of Saracenic invasion from the south.
Gaul was not yet France. In that, as in other provinces of the Roman
Empire of the West, the dominion of the Cæsars had been shattered as
early as the fifth century, and barbaric kingdoms and principalities had
promptly arisen on the ruins of the Roman power. But few of these had
any permanency, and none of them consolidated the rest, or any
considerable number of the rest, into one coherent and organized civil
and political society.

The great bulk of the population still consisted of the conquered
provincials, that is to say, of Romanized Celts, of a Gallic race which
had long been under the dominion of the Cæsars, and had acquired,
together with no slight infusion of Roman blood, the language, the
literature, the laws, and the civilization of Latium. Among these, and
dominant over them, roved or dwelt the German victors; some retaining
nearly all the rude independence of their primitive national character,
others softened and disciplined by the aspect and contact of the manners
and institutions of civilized life; for it is to be borne in mind that
the Roman Empire in the West was not crushed by any sudden avalanche of
barbaric invasion. The German conquerors came across the Rhine, not in
enormous hosts, but in bands of a few thousand warriors at a time. The
conquest of a province was the result of an infinite series of partial
local invasions, carried on by little armies of this description. The
victorious warriors either retired with their booty or fixed themselves
in the invaded district, taking care to keep sufficiently concentrated
for military purposes, and ever ready for some fresh foray, either
against a rival Teutonic band or some hitherto unassailed city of the
provincials.

Gradually, however, the conquerors acquired a desire for permanent
landed possessions. They lost somewhat of the restless thirst for
novelty and adventure which had first made them throng beneath the
banner of the boldest captains of their tribe, and leave their native
forests for a roving military life on the left bank of the Rhine. They
were converted to the Christian faith, and gave up with their old creed
much of the coarse ferocity which must have been fostered in the spirits
of the ancient warriors of the North by a mythology which promised, as
the reward of the brave on earth, an eternal cycle of fighting and
drunkenness in heaven.

But, although their conversion and other civilizing influences operated
powerfully upon the Germans in Gaul, and although the Franks--who were
originally a confederation of the Teutonic tribes that dwelt between the
Rhine, the Maine, and the Weser--established a decisive superiority over
the other conquerors of the province, as well as over the conquered
provincials, the country long remained a chaos of uncombined and
shifting elements. The early princes of the Merovingian dynasty were
generally occupied in wars against other princes of their house,
occasioned by the frequent subdivisions of the Frank monarchy; and the
ablest and best of them had found all their energies tasked to the
utmost to defend the barrier of the Rhine against the pagan Germans who
strove to pass that river and gather their share of the spoils of the
Empire.

The conquests which the Saracens effected over the southern and eastern
provinces of Rome were far more rapid than those achieved by the Germans
in the North, and the new organizations of society which the Moslems
introduced were summarily and uniformly enforced. Exactly a century
passed between the death of Mahomet and the date of the battle of Tours.
During that century the followers of the prophet had torn away half the
Roman Empire; and besides their conquests over Persia, the Saracens had
overrun Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain, in an unchecked and apparently
irresistible career of victory. Nor, at the commencement of the eighth
century of our era, was the Mahometan world divided against itself, as
it subsequently became. All these vast regions obeyed the Caliph;
throughout them all, from the Pyrenees to the Oxus, the name of Mahomet
was invoked in prayer and the _Koran_ revered as the book of the law.

It was under one of their ablest and most renowned commanders, with a
veteran army, and with every apparent advantage of time, place, and
circumstance, that the Arabs made their great effort at the conquest of
Europe north of the Pyrenees. The victorious Moslem soldiery in Spain,

                     "A countless multitude,
    Syrian, Moor, Saracen, Greek renegade,
    Persian, and Copt, and Tartar, in one bond
    Of erring faith conjoined--strong in the youth
    And heat of zeal--a dreadful brotherhood,"

were eager for the plunder of more Christian cities and shrines, and
full of fanatic confidence in the invincibility of their arms.

                            "Nor were the chiefs
    Of victory less assured, by long success
    Elate, and proud of that o'erwhelming strength
    Which, surely they believed, as it had rolled
    Thus far unchecked, would roll victorious on,
    Till, like the Orient, the subjected West
    Should bow in reverence at Mahomet's name;
    And pilgrims from remotest arctic shores
    Tread with religious feet the burning sands
    Of Araby and Mecca's stony soil."

    --_Southey's Roderick_,

It is not only by the modern Christian poet, but by the old Arabian
chroniclers also, that these feelings of ambition and arrogance are
attributed to the Moslems who had overthrown the Visigoth power in
Spain. And their eager expectations of new wars were excited to the
utmost on the reappointment by the Caliph of Abderrahman Ibn Abdillah
Alghafeki to the government of that country, A.D. 729, which restored
them a general who had signalized his skill and prowess during the
conquests of Africa and Spain, whose ready valor and generosity had made
him the idol of the troops, who had already been engaged in several
expeditions into Gaul, so as to be well acquainted with the national
character and tactics of the Franks, and who was known to thirst, like a
good Moslem, for revenge for the slaughter of some detachments of the
"true believers," which had been cut off on the north of the Pyrenees.

In addition to his cardinal military virtues Abderrahman is described by
the Arab writers as a model of integrity and justice. The first two
years of his second administration in Spain were occupied in severe
reforms of the abuses which under his predecessors had crept into the
system of government, and in extensive preparations for his intended
conquest in Gaul. Besides the troops which he collected from his
province, he obtained from Africa a large body of chosen Berber cavalry,
officered by Arabs of proved skill and valor; and in the summer of 732
he crossed the Pyrenees at the head of an army which some Arab writers
rate at eighty thousand strong, while some of the Christian chroniclers
swell its numbers to many hundreds of thousands more. Probably the Arab
account diminishes, but of the two keeps nearer to the truth.

It was from this formidable host, after Eudes, the count of Aquitaine,
had vainly striven to check it, after many strong cities had fallen
before it, and half the land had been overrun, that Gaul and Christendom
were at last rescued by the strong arm of Prince Charles, who acquired a
surname (_Martel_, the "Hammer") like that of the war-god of his
forefathers' creed, from the might with which he broke and shattered his
enemies in the battle.

The Merovingian kings had sunk into absolute insignificance, and had
become mere puppets of royalty before the eighth century. Charles
Martel, like his father, Pépin Héristal, was duke of the Austrasian
Franks, the bravest and most thoroughly Germanic part of the nation, and
exercised, in the name of the titular king, what little paramount
authority the turbulent minor rulers of districts and towns could be
persuaded or compelled to acknowledge. Engaged with his national
competitors in perpetual conflicts for power, and in more serious
struggles for safety against the fierce tribes of the unconverted
Frisians, Bavarians, Saxons, and Thuringians, who at that epoch assailed
with peculiar ferocity the Christianized Germans on the left bank of the
Rhine, Charles Martel added experienced skill to his natural courage,
and he had also formed a militia of veterans among the Franks.

Hallam has thrown out a doubt whether, in our admiration of his victory
at Tours, we do not judge a little too much by the event, and whether
there was not rashness in his risking the fate of France on the result
of a general battle with the invaders. But when we remember that Charles
had no standing army, and the independent spirit of the Frank warriors
who followed his standard, it seems most probable that it was not in his
power to adopt the cautious policy of watching the invaders, and wearing
out their strength by delay. So dreadful and so widespread were the
ravages of the Saracenic light cavalry throughout Gaul that it must have
been impossible to restrain for any length of time the indignant ardor
of the Franks. And, even if Charles could have persuaded his men to look
tamely on while the Arabs stormed more towns and desolated more
districts, he could not have kept an army together when the usual period
of a military expedition had expired. If, indeed, the Arab account of
the disorganization of the Moslem forces be correct, the battle was as
well timed on the part of Charles as it was, beyond all question, well
fought.

The monkish chroniclers, from whom we are obliged to glean a narrative
of this memorable campaign, bear full evidence to the terror which the
Saracen invasion inspired, and to the agony of that great struggle. The
Saracens, say they, and their King, who was called Abdirames, came out
of Spain, with all their wives, and their children, and their substance,
in such great multitudes that no man could reckon or estimate them. They
brought with them all their armor, and whatever they had, as if they
were thenceforth always to dwell in France.

"Then Abderrahman, seeing the land filled with the multitude of his
army, pierces through the mountains, tramples over rough and level
ground, plunders far into the country of the Franks, and smites all with
the sword, insomuch that when Eudes came to battle with him at the river
Garonne, and fled before him, God alone knows the number of the slain.
Then Abderrahman pursued after Count Eudes, and while he strives to
spoil and burn the holy shrine at Tours he encounters the chief of the
Austrasian Franks, Charles, a man of war from his youth up, to whom
Eudes had sent warning. There for nearly seven days they strive
intensely, and at last they set themselves in battle array, and the
nations of the North, standing firm as a wall and impenetrable as a zone
of ice, utterly slay the Arabs with the edge of the sword."

The European writers all concur in speaking of the fall of Abderrahman
as one of the principal causes of the defeat of the Arabs; who,
according to one writer, after finding that their leader was slain,
dispersed in the night, to the agreeable surprise of the Christians, who
expected the next morning to see them issue from their tents and renew
the combat. One monkish chronicler puts the loss of the Arabs at three
hundred and seventy-five thousand men, while he says that only one
thousand and seven Christians fell; a disparity of loss which he feels
bound to account for by a special interposition of Providence. I have
translated above some of the most spirited passages of these writers;
but it is impossible to collect from them anything like a full or
authentic description of the great battle itself, or of the operations
which preceded and followed it.

Though, however, we may have cause to regret the meagreness and doubtful
character of these narratives, we have the great advantage of being able
to compare the accounts given of Abderrahman's expedition by the
national writers of each side. This is a benefit which the inquirer into
antiquity so seldom can obtain that the fact of possessing it, in the
case of the battle of Tours, makes us think the historical testimony
respecting that great event more certain and satisfactory than is the
case in many other instances, where we possess abundant details
respecting military exploits, but where those details come to us from
the annalist of one nation only, and where we have, consequently, no
safeguard against the exaggerations, the distortions, and the fictions
which national vanity has so often put forth in the garb and under the
title of history. The Arabian writers who recorded the conquests and
wars of their countrymen in Spain have narrated also the expedition into
Gaul of their great Emir, and his defeat and death near Tours, in battle
with the host of the Franks under "King Caldus," the name into which
they metamorphose Charles Martel.

They tell us how there was war between the count of the Frankish
frontier and the Moslems, and how the count gathered together all his
people, and fought for a time with doubtful success. "But," say the
Arabian chroniclers, "Abderrahman drove them back; and the men of
Abderrahman were puffed up in spirit by their repeated successes, and
they were full of trust in the valor and the practice in war of their
Emir. So the Moslems smote their enemies, and passed the river Garonne,
and laid waste the country, and took captives without number. And that
army went through all places like a desolating storm. Prosperity made
these warriors insatiable. At the passage of the river Abderrahman
overthrew the count, and the count retired into his stronghold, but the
Moslems fought against it, and entered it by force and slew the count;
for everything gave way to their cimeters, which were the robbers of
lives.

"All the nations of the Franks trembled at that terrible army, and they
betook them to their king 'Caldus,' and told him of the havoc made by
the Moslem horsemen, and how they rode at their will through all the
land of Narbonne, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and they told the King of the
death of their count. Then the King bade them be of good cheer, and
offered to aid them. And in the 114th year[70] he mounted his horse, and
he took with him a host that could not be numbered, and went against the
Moslems. And he came upon them at the great city of Tours. And
Abderrahman and other prudent cavaliers saw the disorder of the Moslem
troops, who were loaded with spoil; but they did not venture to
displease the soldiers by ordering them to abandon everything except
their arms and war-horses. And Abderrahman trusted in the valor of his
soldiers, and in the good fortune which had ever attended him. But, the
Arab writer remarks, such defect of discipline always is fatal to
armies.

"So Abderrahman and his host attacked Tours to gain still more spoil,
and they fought against it so fiercely that they stormed the city almost
before the eyes of the army that came to save it, and the fury and the
cruelty of the Moslems toward the inhabitants of the city were like the
fury and cruelty of raging tigers. It was manifest," adds the Arab,
"that God's chastisement was sure to follow such excesses, and Fortune
thereupon turned her back upon the Moslems.

"Near the river Owar,[71] the two great hosts of the two languages and
the two creeds were set in array against each other. The hearts of
Abderrahman, his captains, and his men, were filled with wrath and
pride, and they were the first to begin the fight. The Moslem horsemen
dashed fierce and frequent forward against the battalions of the Franks,
who resisted man-fully, and many fell dead on either side, until the
going down of the sun. Night parted the two armies, but in the gray of
the morning the Moslems returned to the battle. Their cavaliers had soon
hewn their way into the centre of the Christian host. But many of the
Moslems were fearful for the safety of the spoil which they had stored
in their tents, and a false cry arose in their ranks that some of the
enemy were plundering the camp; whereupon several squadrons of the
Moslem horsemen rode off to protect their tents. But it seemed as if
they fled, and all the host was troubled.

"And while Abderrahman strove to check their tumult and to lead them
back to battle, the warriors of the Franks came around him, and he was
pierced through with many spears, so that he died. Then all the host
fled before the enemy and many died in the flight. This deadly defeat of
the Moslems, and the loss of the great leader and good cavalier
Abderrahman, took place in the hundred and fifteenth year."[72]

It would be difficult to expect from an adversary a more explicit
confession of having been thoroughly vanquished than the Arabs here
accord to the Europeans. The points on which their narrative differs
from those of the Christians--as to how many days the conflict lasted,
whether the assailed city was actually rescued or not, and the like--are
of little moment compared with the admitted great fact that there was a
decisive trial of strength between Frank and Saracen, in which the
former conquered. The enduring importance of the battle of Tours in the
eyes of the Moslems is attested not only by the expressions of "the
deadly battle" and "the disgraceful overthrow" which their writers
constantly employ when referring to it, but also by the fact that no
more serious attempts at conquest beyond the Pyrenees were made by the
Saracens.

Charles Martel and his son and grandson were left at leisure to
consolidate and extend their power. The new Christian Roman Empire of
the West, which the genius of Charlemagne founded, and throughout which
his iron will imposed peace on the old anarchy of creeds and races, did
not indeed retain its integrity after its great ruler's death. Fresh
troubles came over Europe, but Christendom, though disunited, was safe.
The progress of civilization, and the development of the nationalities
and governments of modern Europe, from that time forth went forward in
not uninterrupted, but ultimately certain, career.

FOOTNOTES:

[69] Gibbon remarks that if the Saracen conquests had not then been
checked, "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."

[70] Of the Hegira.

[71] Probably the Loire.

[72] An. Heg.

FOUNDING OF THE CARLOVINGIAN DYNASTY

PÉPIN THE SHORT USURPS THE FRANKISH CROWN

A.D. 751

FRANÇOIS P.G. GUIZOT

     The Merovingians, the first dynasty of the Frankish kings in Gaul,
     was founded by the greatest of their kings, Clovis, who in 486
     overthrew the Gallo-Roman sway under Syagrius, near Soissons. After
     his death in 511 his kingdom was divided among four sons who were
     mere boys ranging from twelve to eighteen years of age. The young
     princes extended the conquests of their father until they had
     secured from the emperor Justinian title to the whole of Gaul. The
     last survivor of the brother-kings was Clotaire I. Under his rule
     the whole Frankish empire had been united in one; but on his
     decease it was again divided among sons. This division cut the
     kingdom into three separate sovereignties.

     The reign of these brothers was one of horrible cruelty and
     bloodshed. A second Clotaire survived them and brought the monarchy
     under one sceptre. But power slipped fast from this royal
     representative of the Merovingian race, and the mayor of the palace
     (_major-domus)_ began to exercise an authority which in time
     resulted in supremacy. When Pépin of Héristal, the greatest
     territorial lord of Austrasia, took upon himself the office of
     major-domus, he compelled the Merovingian King, at the battle of
     Testry in 687, to invest him with the powers of that office in the