THE SARACENS 8 2 4 6 THE STORY OF THE NATIONS THE SARACENS FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FALL OF BAGDAD BY ARTHUR OILMAN, M.A. AUTHOR OF " A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN FSOFLB ' " THE STORY OF ROME," ETC. WITH MAPS, MANY ILLUSTRATIONS, A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE AND A LIST OF BOOKS TREATING THE SUBJECT " 1 like the Mussulman ; he is not ashamed of his God ; his life is a fairly pure one." — General Gordon. 47797 NEW YORK G. P, PUTNAM'S SONS LONDON: T. FISHER LNWIN COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 1886 hbi '!kKicfe5t6oc*er'pteBs, 1R8Vi(i igorSi PREFACE. When the Greeks and Romans mentioned the tribes that ranged the deserts west of the Euphrates, they called them Saracens {2apaH7/vol — Saraceni), a name of which no philologist has yet given the signification. Perhaps it meant " The People of the Desert," from the Arabic sa/ira, a desert ; or, " The People of the East," from sharq, the rising sun.* After this name had been used in an indefinite manner for all the unknown tribes of the desert, it was given to the followers of Mohammed ; and it is used in that sense in the following pages, thus com- prising many different nations, scattered at times from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When Pierre Vattier, counsellor and physician to the Duke of Orleans, ventured, in the year 1657, to translate into French Elmacin's story of the kalifs, he thought it necessary to apologize to his polite readers for introducing to them a host of barbarians, enemies of the Christian faith. He argued well, however, that Frenchmen were accustomed to study * It may be objected that it is improbable that the Arabs should have originated their own name in that way. It is possible that they might have called themselves " Sons of the Desert," but, cer- tainly, they were not to themselves " The Eastern People." IV PREFACE. with interest the history of Rome, which was a coun- try of sworn enemies to the true religion, and that the kalifs would be found much more Chnstian, in their dealings with other nations, than the Roman emperors were. One is no longer obliged thus to apologize for con- ducting any historical investigation, and we may study the career of the Saracens as one of the most interesting that the past can spread before us. Though the present volume is mainly devoted to the period before the Crusades lent brilliancy to the subject, and does not include the thrilling narrative of the Moors in Spain, the greatest embarrassment of the author has arisen from the amplitude of the theme. The life of the founder of Islam has alone given rise to many volumes more extensive than this one is allowed to be ; and the conquests of the roving tribes of Asia as they progressed westward, might well occupy more pages than are now at command. The author can only hope that he has not carried the process of condensation to a point that will deprive his most interesting story of the value that intrinsically belongs to it. A. G. Cambridge, September 6, 1886. CONTENTS. !• PAGE How THE Story Begins .... 1-13 The strange land south of Palestine, i — The proud sons of the sands, 2 — A change coming, 2 — Rome and Persia, 3 — Constantinople the Roman capital, 4 — The Jews, 6 — Ara- bian commerce, 7 — Region of Petra and Mount Hor, 8 — The queen of Sheba, 10 — A visit to Solomon, 12 — Solo- mon's wondrous ring, 13. II. Features of Fire, Light, and Clay . . 14-21 Guesses at Arabian belief, 14 — Jinns made of fire, 15 — The Jinns rebel against Allah, 16 — Angels made of pure light, 17 — Eavesdroppers at the gates of heaven, 18 — Doings of the Jinns, 19 — Late conceptions of paradise, 19 — The month Ramadan, 20. III. The Times of Ignorance 22-33 A pure white stone falls, 22 — The Kaaba, 24 — Traders be- tween Palestine and Arabia, 25 — Rome penetrates the mys- terious land, 26 — The position of Mecca, 28 — Hejaz, the land of pilgrimage, 28 — Kossai and the Koreish, 30 — Rites of the pilgrimage, 31 — Strife, 32 — Abdalla born, 32. IV. The Year of the Elephant . . . 34-40 Abraha of Abyssinia, 34 — Taif directs him to Mecca, 35 — Abd al Muttalib, 36 — A miracle, 37 — Abdalla's marriage with Amina, 38 — Birth of a wonderful boy, 39 — Moham- med, the praised one, 40. VI CONTENTS. V. PAGE The Sacrilegious War .... 41-49 Halima, the foster-mother, 41 — Boy-life in the mountain wilds, 42 — Mohammed an orphan, 43 — Abu Talib interests his nephew in the worship of the Kaaba, 44 — Mohammed goes to Syria with a caravan, 44 — A boy without books, 46 — Letters at Okatz, 47 — War in holy time, 48 — A victory of peace, 49. VI. The Camel-Driver of the Desert . . 50-58 Signs of good omen, 50 — A group of Hanifs, 51 — Seekers for good, 52 — Mohammed's solitary days as a shepherd, 54 — Kadija appears, 55 — Mohammed's appearance, 55 — Court- ship and marriage, 57 — A benediction, 58. VII. The Man of Affairs Meditates . . 59-67 Domestic peace, 59 — Leisure for thought, 60 — The faith of the Arabians, 62 — Customs, 63 — Mohammed as an ancho- rite, 63 — Ecstasies and trances, 64 — Powerful ories, 65 — Mohammed's prestige growing, 66. VIIL The Month Ramadan .... 68-77 A change in the husband of Kadija, 68 — The month of fast- .ng and prayer, 70 — The blessed night " al Kadar," 71 — Gabriel appears, 72 — " Cry, in the name of Allah ! " 74 — Thoughts of suicide, 75 — Strong faith, 76 — Abu Talib ad- heres to the faith of his ancestors, 77. IX. A Prophet with Little Honor . . 78-86 The career of the prophet, 78 — Idolatry to be overthrown, 79 — Converts, 80 — Revelations more frequent, 80 — Islam, the revival of the faith of Abraham, 81 — The Koran, 82 — The Koreishites invited, 82 — Ali called "kalif,"83 — The Koreishites threaten, 84 — Abu Talib's emotion, 85 — The blind man, 86. CONTENTS. VI 1 X. PAGE Fugitives in a Strange Land . . . 87-94 An explanation needed, 87 — Policy of the enemy, 88 — Fratricidal war imminent, 89 — Yathrib warns against dis- cord, 89 — Hamza.the lion of Allah, go — Mohammed tempted, 91 — A rash act, 92 — Emigration to Abyssinia, 93 — Omar converted, 93 — Mohammed under a ban, 94. XI. A Twofold Cord Broken , . . 95-101 A sad prophet, 95 — Kadija dies, 96 — Abu Talib dies, 96 — A mission to Taif, 97 — Discomfiture, 98 — The Jinns listen, 99 — Convert-pilgrims from Yathrib, lOO^The first pledge of Akaba (pledge of the women), loi. XII. To the Seventh Heaven . . , 102-111 Dreams and visions, I02 — Mohammed's vision, 104 — The Borak, 105 — At the temple in Jerusalem, 106 — In the sev- enth heaven, 108 — The muezzin's call to prayer, no — A change in Mohammed, in. XIII. In a Cave ...... 112-119 Confident but not aggressive, 112 — The second meeting on the hill Akaba, 113 — The second oath of Akaba, 115 — "Depart to Medina!" 116— Anxious to start, 117 — The Hejra, 118 — Refuge in a cave, 119. XIV. The Year One Various chronologies, 120 — Beginning of the Arabian era, 121 — The three days in the cave, 122 — Journeying to Ya- thrib, 123 — Hope and fear on the way, 124 — Arrival at Koba, 125 — The triumphal entrance, 127 — Parties at Yathrib, 127 — Mohammed's difficult task, 128. Vin COIVTF.MTS. XV, PAGB Islam ....... 129-137 A grand conception, 129 — The simple doctrines, 130 — The paradise, 131 — A mixture of good and evil, 132 — Differences in the length of the suras, 133 — Evolution of Mohammed's claims, 134 — The wondrous effect of the prophet's preach- ingi 135 — Good traits of Islam, 136. XVI. The Sword is Drawn .... 138-150 Yathrib called Medina, 138 — The national kibla, 139 — The muezzin's call established, 140 — The prophet's simple life, 141 — A brotherhood formed, 142 — The different Semitic prophets, 143 — The Meccan caravans threatened, 144 — Abu Sofian, 146 — Angry passions rise, 147 — Mecca alarmed, 148 — Victory at Bedr, 149 — Sorrow at Mecca, 150. XVII. Victory for Mecca .... 151-158 Change in the prophet's trust, 151 — Secret assassination, 152 — Battle of the mealsacks, 153 — Mohammed girds on his armor, 154 — The jagged flanks of Ohud, 156 — Islam defeated, 157 — Power of the prophet's eloquence, 158. XVIII. The Battle of the Ditch . . . 159-167 Breaking down the Jewish power, 159 — Mohammed enam- oured of Zeyd's wife, 160 — Fatima marries Ali, 161 — Rules for wives, 162 — Estrangement from Ayesha, 162 — The new style of warfare, 164 — Allah said to have interfered, 165 — Jews slaughtered, 166 — An enchantment, 167. XIX. Exiles IN AN Empty City . . . 168-177 Mohammed irritated, though strong, 168 — An attempted pil- grimage, 169 — Confronted by an enemy, 170 — The pledge of the tree, 172 — A disappointing" victory," 173 — A signet ring CONTENTS. IX PAGE ehgraved, 173 — Jews of Keibar exiled, 175 — The Moslems perform the pilgrimage, 176 — Kalid and Amr converted, 177- XX. The Mother of Cities Conquered . 178-185 Mohammed's summons to the nations, 1 78 — He opposes the empire, 179 — A repulse, 180 — An attempt upon Mecca, 182 — Abbas joins Islam, 183 — Mohammed enters Mecca, 184 — Mercy of the conqueror, 185. XXI. How Taif was Besieged and Taken . 186-197 Taif alarmed, 186 — A battle at Honein, 187 — Taif besieged, 1S8 — Mohammed mobbed at Medina, 189 — Ibrahim born, igo — Christians send a deputation to Mohammed, 192 — -Taif still unconquered, 194 — It surrenders, 195 — An expedition against the Romans, 196 — Is war over? 197. XXII. A Farewell Pilgrimage . . . 198-207 Idolaters cowed, 198 — They are to be killed, 199 — The prophet's power increasing, 200^He makes a progress to Mecca, 201 — A sermon in the mosque, 202 — Rivals appear, 203 — Osama, son of Zeyd, sent against the Romans, 204 — The prophet's end approaching, 205 — Last words, 206 — Death, 207. XXIII. The First Successor .... 208-217 Feelings of the people on the death of Mohammed, 208 — His form and behavior, 210 — His system, 211 — His reforms, 212 — His idea of God, 213 — He was not an impostor, 214 — Sadness in Medina, 215 — Abu Bekr chosen kalif, 216 — His policy foreshadowed, 217. CONTENTS. XXIV. Can Islam be Shaken Off ? . . . 218-225 Who was Abu Bekr ? 218 — Claims of others on the office of kalif, 219 — Ali's " right," 220 — Nedj wants to pray but not pay tribute, 221 — The kalif's reliance upon Kalid, 222 — The rivals defeated, 223 — The Koran in danger of being lost, 224 — Islam not to be shaken off, 225. XXV. Reaching out to Chaldea and Babylonia, 226-232 The dependence of despots upon war, 226 — Mesopotamia attracts the Moslems, 227 — Kalid offers the Persians Islam, or death, 228 — Bloody battles, 229 — Campaigns against the Romans in Syria, 230 — The struggle at Wacusa, 231 — Abu Bekr dies, 232. XXVI. Palestine and Mesopotamia Conquered, 233-241 Great changes coming, 233 — Omar's policy, 234 — Mesopota- mia conquered, 235 — The strugle at Kadesia, 236 — Kufa and Bassora hotbeds of faction, 238 — The attempt upon Damascus, 239 — Its success, 240 — All of Central Syria con- quered, 241. XXVII. Jerusalem Captured . . . . 242-250 Courage and ambition increasing, 242 — Aleppo ingloriously gives up, 243 — Jews expelled, 245 — Campaign of Amr in Palestine, 246 — Omar goes to Jerusalem, 248 — Terms made at Jerusalem, 249 — Omar enters the city, 250. XXVIII. How Egypt and Persia were Conquered, 251-262 Omar founds a mosque and returns, 251 — The Romans routed by the Moslems, 252 — The year of plague and drought, 253 — Amr's campaign in Egypt, 254 — Fostat founded, 254 — Yezdegird overcome, 256-258 — The era of the Hejra established, 260 — Omar's assassination, 261. CONTENTS. xi XXIX. Favoritism and Intrigue . . . 263-271 The golden age passed, 263 — Wrangling between rival fac- tions, 264 — Tabular view of the genealogy of the kalifs, 265 — Character of Othman, 266 — Rebellions in Persia, 267 — Unhappy choice of governors, 26S — The kalifate under- mined by conspirators, 269 — Othman insulted, 270 — Assas- sination of the kalif, 271. XXX. The Misfortunes of Ali, Father of Hasan, 272-287 A gloomy outlook, 272 — Ali becomes kalif, 273 — Mecca a centre of intrigue, 274 — Ayesha goes to Bassora, 275 — An appeal to Kufa, 276 — The day of the camel, 277 — Victory for Ali, 278 — Moawia enters the struggle, 279 — The battle at Siffin, 280 — Moawia gains the advantage, 281 — The Karejites, 282 — Moawia enters Bassora, 284 — Desperate Karejites conspire, 285 — Character of Ali, 286 — Moawia kalif, 287. XXXI. The Tragedy of Moharrem . . . 288-307 Damascus becomes the capital, 288 — Ziyad becomes a sup- porter of Moawia, 290 — Obeidalla, 2gi — The first attempt upon Constantinople, 292 — A treaty, 293 — Advances in Africa, 294 — Yezid made heir-apparent, 295 — Moawia's last counsels, 296 — Death and character of Moawia, 297 — Hosein called to the kalifate, 298 — Yezid opposes him, 301 — Death of Hosein at Kerbala, 303 — The commemoration of the event, 304 — Abdalla rises at Medina, 305 — Mecca be- sieged, 306 — An opportunity lost, 307. XXXII. The Victories of Abd el Melik . , 308-320 Importance of the death of Hosein, 308 — More trouble with the Karejites, 310 — Abd el Melik comes to tlie throne, 311 — Moktar, 311 — A division of the kalifate, 312 — Musab slain, Xll CONTENTS. 313 — Gruesome transactions, 314 — Bloody Hejaj, 315 — Wasit founded, 316 — Karejites rise again, 317 — The Berbers overcome, 318 — Letters encouraged, 320. XXXIII. The Glory of the Omiades . , . 321-333 Walid kalif, 321 — ^Conquest and luxury, 322 — Musa in Africa, 324 — Roderick, the last of the Goths, 325 — Count Julian's treachery, 326 — Tarik and Tarif, 328 — Roderick, killed, 329 — Spain conquered, 330 — Musa's magnificent plan, 332 — The fall of Musa and Tarik, 333. XXXIV. The Stroke of the Hammer . . 334-346 The 2^oric'. cT the Omiades passed, 334 — Musa's report, 335 — A defeat at onstantinople, 336 — Another reverse, 337 — Invasion of France, 338 — Fury of the Saracens, 339 — Grasping governors, 340 — The battle near Tours, 341 — Charles Martel victor, 342 — The mysterious Kazars, 345. XXXV. The Black Flag of Abbas . , . 347-353 Years of civil war, 347 — Rise of the Abbassides, 348' — A de- ceptive peace, 349 — Conspirators at Merv, 350 — A decisive battle on the Zab, 351 — Destruction of the Omiades, 352 — A plan to establish a dynasty, 353. XXXVI. By Bagdad's Shrines .... 354-365 A pilgrimage to Mecca, 354 — Muslim at Nisibis, 355 — Rise of the Rawendites, 356 — Bagdad founded, 357 — The Barme- cides appear, 358 — Hopes of the Alyites cast down, 359 — Death of Mansur, 360 — A luxurious pilgrimage, 361 — The veiled prophet of Korassan, 362 — Luxury weakens the kalifate, 363 — Constantinople pays tribute, 364 — Rise of Freethinkers, 365. CONTENTS, xiii XXXVII. PAGE Aaron the Orthodox .... 366-377 A brilliant period, 366 — The Bagdad of story, 367 — Art and letters flourish, 36S — Correspondence with the emperor, 370 — Fall of the Barmecides, 371 — The orthodoxy of Harun, 372 — Revolt in Korassan, 373 — Death of Ilarun, 374^ — -Per- sians and Arabs jealous, 375 — A fratricidal strife, 376 — Ma- mun proclaimed, 377. XXXVIII. Gold and Dross . . . , . 378-389 Fadhl th'" p>*ime-minister, 378 — Anarchy in Bagdad, 379 — A sop Jo tbe ^iiy^ieS; 380 — Mamun acts vigorously, 381 — Dis- simulation^ 5132 — Persian influence grows stronger, 383 — Rationalism, 384 — The nature of the Koran discussed, 385 — A war for a philosopher, 386 — Death of Mamun, 387 — His encouragement of science and art, 388 — His tolera- tion, 389. XXXIX. Glimmerings and Decays , . . 390-403 The orthodox persecuted, 390 — Babek and his sect, 391 — War with the empire, 392 — The Turks advanced in the kalifate, 394 — Persecutions of Moslems and Christians, 395 — Turks almost masters of the government, 396 — A great palace at Samarra, 398 — Motawakkel assassinated, 399 — The Turkish body-guard supreme, 400 — Enthusiasm for war a thing of the past, 401 — Wathek exalts the Koran again, 402 — Primitive principles, 403. XL. The Grip of the Turk Tightens . . 404-422 The Taherites c£ Korassan, 404 — The Sofl'arides, 405 — The Tulunides, 406 — The Alyites, 407 — The Karmathians, 408 — Rise of the Samanades, 408 — Amr, brother of Yakub, meets a lud.'crous mischance, 409 — End of the Soffarides, 410 — The Karmathians give trouble in Syria, 411 — A young kalif, 412 —The Fatimites in Africa, 413 — Expectation of a mahdi« XIV CONTENTS. PAGE 414 — An embassy from Constantinople, 416 — Oriental mag- nificence, 418 — The Karmathians in Syria, 420 — Terror in Bagdad, 421 — Moktader murdered, 422. XLI. The Fatal Blow .... 423-44:? The germs of decay, 423 — Strong helpers become masters, 424 — Kaher deposed, 425 — The Buvides from Persia, 426 — The fall of Radi, 427 — The power of the kalifs lost, 428 — The princes of princes supreme, 429 — The Fatimites once more, 430 — Letters flourish again, 431 — The Gaznivides and Seljuks, 432 — The Old Man of the Mountains, 434 — A glimpse of Bagdad, 436 — Jengis Kahn, 440 — Hulaku cap- tures Bagdad, 441 — The frightful end, 441. Noldeke's Order of the Suras of the Koran . 443 A Chronological Table, a.d. 565-1261 , 445 List of Books Used in Preparing The Story OF the Saracens . . . . .451 Index 471 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VIEW OF MECCA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY '''^^^ FROM mCller's "islam " . . Frontispiece. RUINS OF FEIRAN, SHOWING TWO WADIES . . 5 MOUNT HOR, ON THE ROUTE FROM ARABIA TO PAL- ESTINE ........ 9 CAMEL-RIDERS OF THE DESERT . . . .II MODERN PILGRIMS BATHING IN ZEM-ZEM ... 23 AN ENCAMPMENT OF ARABIAN PILGRIMS ... 26 THE MOSQUE AT MECCA .... -29 VIEW IN PETRA, ON THE ROUTE FROM ARABIA TO PALESTINE ....... 45 A DESERT SOLITUDE ...... 53 TOMB OF FATIMA AT DAMASCUS . . . . 61 BEDAWIN WOMEN FROM BAALBEK. ... 69 VIEW FROM MOUNT HOR . ..... 73 THE KAABA, SHOWING MODERN PILGRIMS . . 85 INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AT JERUSALEM, I07 THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AT JERUSALEM . . . 109 ARABIAN WEAPONS OF DIFFERENT PERIODS . . 145 HELMET OF AN ARABIAN PRINCE OF EGYPT . . 155 ARABIAN WOMEN, WATER-CARRIERS . . . 163 A PILGRIM ENCAMPMENT NEAR MEDINA . . • I?! A YOUNG COPTIC WOMAN ..... I9I VIEW IN MEDINA ....... I93 MOHAMMED ........ 209 XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. SEALS OF THE EARLY KALIFS, ABU KEKR, OMAR, OTH- MAN, ALI ........ MAP OF DAMASCUS AND THE REGION AROUND . VIEW OF A PORTION OF THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM, INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF AMR AT ^AIRO . A MOSQUE AT ISPAHAN RESTORED ELEVATION OF THE MOSQUE AT TABRIZ, CAPITAL OF AZERBAIJAN IN NORTHERN PERSIA, GENEALOGICAL LINE OF THE KALIFS, FROM ABU BEKR TO RADI ...... A YOUNG SYRIAN GIRL ..... INTERIOR OF THE MCSQUE AT ISPAHAN, SHOWING AN ISLAMITE PREACHING-PLACE MAUSOLEUM OF TAMERLANE AT SAMARKAND . ANCIENT MOSQUE OF KAIRWAN VIEW OF TUNIS ...... VIEW OF THE MOSQUE OF HASAN AT CAIRO COIN OF THE OMIADES, ABOUT 725 A.D. . COINS OF THE EARLY KALIFS .... A BERBER VILi^AGE ...... ENCLOSURE OF THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AT JERUSALEM AN ALGERIAN BERBER ..... A BERBER WOMAN ...... PLAIN OF THE TOMBS AND MOSQUE OF MEHEMET ALI AT CAIRO ...... COURT OF THE GREAT MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS . COIN OF MEHDI ...... WATER-MERCHANTS AT CAIRO COIN OF THE KALIF MAMUN .... A VIEW IN CONSTANTINOPLE .... A SUBURB OF DAMASCUS ..... COIN OF TULUN, A.D. 876 .... AN ARABIAN ENCAMPMENT .... GENERAL VIEW OF CAIRO .... 237 247 248 257 259 265 280 283 289 295 299 305 317 319 323 327 343 349 361 369 379 393 397 405 409 415 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XVll MAP OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE REGIONS ABOUT, VIEW OF A MOSQUE AT BAGDAD .... COIN OF THE KALIF RADI ..... GOLD COINS OF THE FATIMITE KALIFS, 1050 AND 1072 A.D. ....... ARABIAN BREAD-SELLER AT JERUSALEM . WALLS OF DAMASCUS ...... PAGE 419 435 439 -:''?" %^^% f\h ^M^^ THE STORY OF THE SARACENS I. HOW THE STORY BEGINS. East of the Red Sea, and just south of Palestine, there lies a strange land, belonging, we sometimes think, neither to Europe, nor to Asia, nor to Africa. Its rocky borders are washed by water on three sides, while on the fourth there lies a sandy desert of such little importance that men hardly care to own it, and no boundary line is drawn to show where one na- tion's possessions end and the territory of the next neighbor begins. Sandy and rocky, almost without rivers or lakes, except in favored regions, with a great part entirely unknown, save, perhaps, to a few lonely wanderers or enthusiastic travellers, who have ven- tured to explore its barren wastes, this land was, at the time of which we write, strange to all the world. Roman and Macedonian, Jew and Gentile, had wan- dered around it ; but no nation cared to inquire what secrets lay hidden in its broad and treacherous deserts. The haughty inhabitants looked back through many generations and assured each other 2 I/OW THE STORY BEGINS. that they were the ancient ones, — that they had Adam and Noah and Abraham and Ishmael for their fathers, and they cared as httle for the rest of the world as the rest of the world cared for them. For how many generations these peculiar sons of the sands had lived in their primitive simplicity; for how many centuries they had fought the terrible simoons, and had carried their small merchandise over the deserts in a venerable commerce ; for what length of time they had dwelt in tents, feeding their dusky children with the dates and tamarinds that clustered on the branches which shaded them from the tropical sun, we cannot tell. They had no books, and their traditions were so evidently framed to bolster up a national pride that we cannot depend upon them as truth. At the time at which our story begins a change was about to come over this strange people ; they were to be known of all men. They were no longer to be simply mysterious sons of the desert, but something more. Mystery was certainly to be always about thenr,4Dtrt— they were to have dealings with men which were destined to carry their name and their fame to all lands and to the end of time. It is to this people that the story of the Saracens calls us. It carries us back to a period several cen- turies before the Norman invasion of England ; to a time when our ancestors were bowing their heads to Woden ; but it introduces us to quite a different world, — it shows us a Semitic instead of an Aryan type of social Hfe. It interests us, people of another race of humanity, for the reason that it is new. OPPOSING EMPIRES. 3 Hundreds of years before our story begins Greece had fallen before Alexander, and Rome had become master of it and of Macedonia too. Rome had passed through its age of myth, its heroic and its golden ages, — had been a kingdom, a republic, and an empire by turns, and at last, after all its conquests, had been humbled by the army of barbarians which poured into it from the land of the Hyperboreans. For two hundred years, indeed, she had mourned the ruin wrought by Alaric, Attila, and Genseric ; and now the very sceptre had been removed from the Tiber to the Bosphorus. There, on the shores of the Golden Horn, the emperor of Constantinople stood over against the king of Persia, dividing, as he thought, the empire of the earth with him, and ever and anoif making incursion int«-his territories. Thus was continued a-^truggle which lasted seven centuries ; as Gibbon says, — " from the death of Crassus to the reign of Heraclius," — the emperor hoping that some day he might grasp the whole vast realm of Chosroes and sit monarch in his very palace. One day, when forced to flee from his own king- dom, a Chosroes found asylum in the dominions of the Emperor Maurice ; but the kind treatment he received did not insure peace. When the hospitable Maurice was killed by a usurper (a. D. 602), the Persian pretended a desire to avenge the crime, and the next year entered upon the most deadly war that was waged between the two peoples. After the fighting had been going on a few years, Heraclius overcame the usurper Phocas, put him to death, and gracefully yielded to the popular entreaties that he 4 HO IV THE STORY BEG I MS. should assume the purple (A. D. 6io). He then took up the war with Chosroes, ventured far into the Persian country, won a decisive victory at Nineveh on the river Tigris (a. D. 627), forced the Persian king to flight, and celebrated triumphs both at Con- stantinople and Jerusalem.* Before this time Europe had been overrun by the Huns, who, for a while, fed their flocks on the pas- ture-lands of Southern Russia, in Poland, and in Hungary ; the Vandals, the Goths, the Burgundians, and the Franks had also formed a portion of the seething mass of fierce humanity which had surged through the regions watered by the Rhone, the Rhine, the Seine, the Danube, the Po, and the Dnieper. The sovereign who held his seat at Constantinople was not a Greek emperor ; the Roman power had simply been joined to that of the East at the time (a. D. 476) when it is"~customary^o say that the Western empire " fell." Our story will bring us also into contact with the hordes of shifting tribes that had been for generations, all unknown to other peoples, strengthening their sinews and increasing their numbers on the northern plains of Asia, and throughout the mountains and valleys of Turkestan, and the regions beyond. * It is to be remarked that at the moment when Heraclius was enjoying these triumphs his troops were cut to pieces at a small town in Southern Syria by some Saracens (see chap, xx.); and that when, in 711, the dynasty which he established was extinguished at Con- stantinople, the then insignificant Arabian tribe ruled from Damascus its most extensive dominions (see chap, xxxiii.). For an interesting account of the relations between Heraclius and Chosroes II., see Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chapter xlvi. 6 HOW THE STORY BEGINS. In the Bible, we have the history of a nation that dwelt quite near the people of whom we are writ- ing. The Jews of Palestine were curiously con- nected with the men of the deserts, and yeT, in most respects, they were strangely separate in their busi- ness, their religion, and their lives. Through Ish- mael, the Saracens looked back to the same ances- tors, and many among the inhabitants of the Arabian deserts worshipped the God of Abraham ; yet the religious failh^and customs of the larger number of them were very different, though their habits of life were in many respects the same. In early times, people of influence from among the " Scriptural People," the " People of the Book," as the Jews were called by the Arabians, had left their homes in Palestine to find new ones in the city of Yathrib, the Medina of after-times. In the sixth century of our era, a whole tribe living in the far south of Arabia had been led to give its allegiance to the faith of the children of Israel, and, according to their strange traditions, the people of the deserts be- tween that region and Palestine had seen a sight, a thousand years before Christ, the story of which im- pressed the People of the Book very deeply upon the Arabians all along the shores of the Red Sea. The land of the Saracens lies four square, and com- prises a territory about eight times as large as the islands of Great Britain. On its western coast roll the waters of the Red Sea; to the South is the In- dian Ocean, which sweeps also along the western coasts of India and distant Australia ; on the east are the Persian Gulf, the Euphrates, and the Tigris; THE CAMEL GOES FROM WADY TO WADY. 7 while on the north is a broad belt, over which the wild sands whirl and drive eternally. The outside bor- der of this great territory is the only portion which, so far as we certainly know, is generally inhabited. Towards the middle country the land rises, and there vast table-lands and lofty mountains frown upon all attempts at colonization.* In a riverless land, water is scarce, and wherever a spring rises to the surface to refresh the parched earth the inhabitant rejoices and pitches his tent with thankfulness. In imitation of the Greeks, we call such a green spot an oasis, but it is better named a wady, which is, in the mind of an Arab, a place watered by a river or a spring that is likely at any time to sink from sight. In our day commerce finds that broad continents are not so favorable for the transportation of mer- chandise as boisterous oceans; but it was not always so, and in the early da}'s, when ships were small and compasses were not known, goods were sent from country to country across the deserts. In the land of the Saracens they were carried from wady to wady, the merchants finding grass for their beasts and shade for themselves at those green spots that were watered by springs or brooks. The unwieldy camel was the beast upon which the burdens were carried, and it was able to plod over the sands with its freight at the rate of some sixteen miles a day. Patiently it bore its rider in the face of the pitiless , * The table-lands lying between Yemen on tlic south, Ilejaz on the west, and Irak on the northeast, are known as Nijd. According to Palgrave, the name signifies "highlands." See "A Pilgrimage to Nejd," by Lady Anne Blunt, pp. xviii.-xxvii. Ilejaz is the region about Mecca and Medina. 8 HOW THE STORY BEGINS. simoon, and under the heat of the burning sun, enabling him to traverse vast stretches of territory, and to exchange the myrrh, frankincense, gold, and precious stones of Saba and Ophir* for the purple of Tyre and the sword-blades of Damascus. The long lines of camels and horses would sometimes journey from the shores of the Indian Ocean to the eastward, skirting the Persian Gulf, and would bring their weary march to an end on the banks of the Tigris. On other occasions they would start to the north, and, halting from day to da}Mirarsuccession of convenient wadies by the side of the Red Sea, they would make the acquaintance o4.a different sort of Semitic civilization from their own in the borders of Palestine. By this route they would pass very near toVoiTdrous Petra, and to Mount Hor, on the top of which Aaron, brother of Moses, breathed his last. Yemen was the name of the southern portion of Arabia, but the Greeks called it Happy Arabia, on account of the fertility. Saba was the name of a city there of great importance in early times. In that region Joktan, the mythical great-grandson of Noah's son Shem, became father of a people living in rich and populous cities of commercial importance. A thousand years before Christ the rich King Solo- mon was reigning at Jerusalem, and wondrous were the stories told about him, — stories that travellers slowly carried along the shores of the Red Sea, so tradition asserts, until they got quite down to the Indian Ocean, where they reached the ears of Balkis, * It is not necessary to enter upon the vexed question of the geo- graphical position of Ophir ; it /nay have been in Arabia. lO HOW THE STORY BEGINS. the queen in Saba.* Her people were Sabeans; they stood on their rich wadies and on their lonely sands, and gazed up to heaven in wonder, as the stars, the sun, and the moon shone out upon them, and they thought that such bright hghts must be gods. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the hosts of heaven. The queen of Saba (we still follow tradition) medi- tated upon the wonders that travellers told of the great northern king, and in spite of the threescore and more of stages that the camels would have to make before reaching that far-off land, she determined to go herself and see and hear what Solomon could do and say. It was no small labor to prepare for such a journey. It would take but a few days to accomplish the distance in our country, but there and at that time circumstances were different. The queen %vas going to visit a powerful potentate ; the richest, the wisest of whom she had ever heard ; a king so great, indeed, that even her wildest Arabian * The capital of Yemen, the seat of the Himyaritic dynasty to which the queen of Saba is said to have belonged, was Mareb, two days' journey northeast of a city called Sana, and great numbers of finely cut stones, inscriptions, coins, and jewels still give evidence that a city of importance once stood there. Balkis is represented to have been descended from one Afrikis, who, according to tradition, gathered the remnants of the Amalekites after Joshua overthrew that people, and led them to the other side of the Red Sea, where they multiplied and were known from their barbarous dialect as Berbers. Magreb (western), the country in which legend makes this mixed people to have settled, may be said to have extended from the Red Sea to the Atlantic. See Caussin de Perceval, " Essai sur V Histoire des Arabes," vol. i., pp. 67, 75-77, etc. De Slane's " Histoire des Berbere^" vol. i., pp. 168, 186. CAMEL KIDERS OF TH£ DES£KT. 12 HOW THE STORY BEGINS. imagination could not depict his glories. She could not take a camel and start off alone ; she would be obliged to take m.any camels, and scores of men, be- sides numbers of women to attend upon her, and she was obliged also, according to the customs of her country, to take rich presents to offer to the great king. Let us imagine her starting from the city of the sons of Joktan with her long train of camels and their drivers ; with their tents for covering by night as she encamped in tlie wadies by the way, and with her precious gifts. Day after day we follow her, and night after night we see her resting beneath the clear and cloudless sky of that wondrous land. A week passes, and she has but begun her tedious journey; still the train pushes forwards. Another week passes and another and another ; seventy days and more she holds persistently to her purpose. She had travelled as long as Columbus took to cross the broad Atlantic. At last the gilded turrets of the temple come in sight, and in time the curious queen is in the presence of the wise king. She connects his name with a knowledge of the great Jehovah, and she brings hard questions for him to answer, such, per- haps, we imagine, as those which Job and his friends discussed in their truly Arabian manner. Probably she asked him to solve riddles, for her people loved such sportive queries ; but surely she had besides more serious matters about which to speak, for she talked " of all that was in her heart "; and she listened in admiration to Solomon's words, confessing MARVELS IN- THE LAND OF JOKTAN. 1 3 that in spite of the exaggerations of travellers, the half of what she saw and heard had not been carried to her far-away land.* No wonder that stories of Solomon increased in number and in marvellousness in the land of Joktan's sons ; no wonder that he was there said to wear a ring by means of which he could get any information that he wanted ; no wonder that it was believed that his temple was the foundation of all architectural knowledge, and that he was himself thought to effect his wonders through the agency of the jinns, or genii, inhabitants of the mountain of Kaf in Jinnestan or fairyland, over which he was said to have had com- plete sway. No wonder that the people of Arabia, from Saba to the northern deserts, naturally looked upon Palestine as a land of a civilization far beyond theirs, and willingly received legends and religious inspiration from its people. * An account of this legendary visit of the queen of Sheba to Solo- mon is to be found in the Koran, the Arabian Bible (Sura xxvii.). The word Koran means " reading," and a sura is a chapter, a con- tinuous portion, like a brick in its course in a wall. II. CREATURES OF FIRE, LIGHT, AND CLAY. The Arabs were an imaginative people ; they lived in a wonderful land, and they found something strange wherever they looked ; were it into the clear blue of the starlit heaven, or over the desert, often start- lingly illuminated by the marvellous mirage ; they saw a fairy, a ghost, a goblin, a spook, a genius of some sort in the rock and the flower, in tirertree and the stream, — everywhere they felt that supernatural agents were above and around them. Out of this nature grew up in process of time a mythology, — out of the nature of this active, meditative, enthusiastic, deep-hearted people, these Frenchmen of the East. At what times it was put into the form in which it appears to us, and how much of it was known in the earliest days, we are not able to determine. One of the most thorough students says,* that we can but guess at the state of the Arabian beirefTimiose days, but that " from what broken light is shed by a few forlorn rays, we may conclude this, that they worshipped, to use that vague word, the Hosts of Heaven"; that others seemed to have ascribed every thing to nature, and that some worshipped * Emanuel Deutsch, in the London Quarterly Review, Oct., 1869. 14 FROM KAF TO KAF. 1$ stones and other fetiches ; while the Phantoms of the Desert, the Fata Morgana, angels and demons and the rest of embodied ideas or ideals, formed other objects of pious consideration. Two thousand years before Adam was created, according to the stories of the myth-makers of this people, Allah made a different order of beings from man. They were known as jinns; and were not formed of clay, but of pure fire unmixed with smoke. They moved from place to place without being seen ; they loved and married ; they had children and they died, just as the creatures of clay did and still do. Some of them were good and some bad ; and they were divided into classes in respect to other traits. Some of them haunted ruins, and markets and cross-roads; some dwelt in rivers and oceans; and some were found in baths and wells ; but their chief resort was a mysterious mountain named Kaf, which, in the imagination of the Arabs, was founded upon an immense emerald and en- circled the world, so that indeed the sun rose and went down behind it. When they wished to speak of the entire earth, they said " from Kaf to Kaf." It was this emerald, they thought, which gave its azure tint to the sun's rays ; it surrounded the earth as a ring surrounds a finger, and, in some way that we do not understand, it was connected with the earthquakes which, in accordance with the orders of Allah, shook Arabia. All the jinns were once good, and had their laws, prophets, religion, and regular government ; but long before the time of Adam, they became uneasy under 1 6 CREA TURKS OF FIRE, LIGHT, AND CLA V. a monotonous and regular life, and tried to oven turn the original condition of things. They rebelled against the prophets, who, we must remember, were not persons who foretold future events, but, like those of their neighbors, the Jews, were preachers, and expounders of the will of heaven. Allah sent against them legions of creatures who were still more spiritual than they, angels, who had been created not from clay, not even from smokeless fire, but from pure light. Was it not a bright thought of some one in those early ages, that of peopling space with such creatures as these, made of fire and light ? Well, the angels went forth and made consterna- tion among the jinns, scattering them to the islands and mountains, and to all sorts of out-of-the-way places, but also capturing many of them. The evil jinns were known by several names, one of which was Ifreet or Efreet. Some accounts says that one of those that the angels frightened became an angel himself, and was named Azazil, or Iblis; but no one knows what the original belief was, and it is well enough for us to think of Iblis as at first an angel who rebelled against Allah, at the time of the creation of Adam, and became an evil demon corresponding with our idea of Satan. Like Satan, he was proud in his first estate, and was called the Peacock of the angels. When an Arabian whirlwind was seen carrying sand and dust over field and desert, it was said that some evil jinn was riding forth with sinister intent, and the beholder was wont to cry out : " Iron ! Iron ! thou unlucky ! " for the jinns were cowed by the fear ANGELS AND ARCHANGELS. 1/ of iron ; or they exclaimed : " Allah is most great ! ** as if thinking that Allah, thus complimented, would protect them from the threatened harm. So when they ventured to sea in their little boats, and saw a waterspout, they thought that a jinn was abroad, against whom they needed protection. The angels were deemed quite different from jinns ; they never disobey Allah, nor are they troubled by the bad passions that stir jinns, and, it must be confessed, stir men, also ; some did join in the rebellion against Allah, but since that time all find their food in celebrating his glory, their drink in proclaiming his holiness, and their pleasure in his Avorship. They were supposed to have different forms; but as they are made of pure light, it would of course, take sharper eyes than those of the creat- ures of clay to tell what their beautiful shapes are. Four are archangels : Gabriel, the faithful spirit, who reveals the will of Allah; Michael, guardian of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of death; and Israfil, the angel of the trumpet, who is at the end of the world to blow a blast which will kill all creatures, and another which will raise them all for judgment. One angel was supposed to stand ever at the right side of each man to record his good deeds, and an- other at his left to write down his evil acts. At every man's death Nakir and Munkir, two of the creatures of light, examine him in his grave concern- ing his faith. If he acknowledge Allah to be the one God, they permit him to rest in peace, but otherwise they pound and beat him until he roars so loudly that he is heard, by all but men and jinns, from Kaf to Kaf 1 1 8 CREA TURKS OF FIRE, I.IGHT, AXD CLA V. Men were thought to be not entirely at the mercy of the jinns, but were permitted to command their services, and even to gain from them some informa- tion of future events through the medium of certain invocations and tahsmans. One would think that jinns could not know any more about the future than ordinary mortals, but we are told that they were eavesdroppers at the gates of heaven, and thus gained a great deal of information about the doings of the angels and the plans of Allah, Up to the time of the birth of Jesus, so they say, they were allowed to enter any of the seven heavens, but after that they were excluded from three of them, and after the birth of Mohammed they were forbidden the other four ; still, however, as they go as near the lowest heaven as possible, they glean a great deal that men cannot learn. When the Arabians saw bright shooting-stars in the sky, they were wont to say that the angels were driving these inquisitive jinns from their positions near the gates of the low- est heaven. Solomon's seal-ring by which he was supposed to control the jinns, was said to have been sent to him from heaven. It was of iron and brass, and had engraven on it the name of Allah. When he sent a command to the good jinns, he stamped the letter with the brass, and when the order was intended for the evil ones, it bore the imprint of the iron, for the reason that has been mentioned. By the power he possessed over the jinns he forced them to assist in building the temple at Jerusalem, and in many of the other great works of his reign. The marvellous ring CONCEPTIONS OF PARADISE. I9 gave him power also over winds, over birds, and even over wild beasts. It is mentioned in the "Arabian Nights," in the tale of the fisherman and the jinn, or genii. It was truly a wondrous ring. B}' it the rich owner converted many evil jinns to the true faith, and confined others in strong prisons because they would not yield. It were well if other mortals could have owned such a ring, for the evil jinns worked a great many wrongs upon men. They carried off beautiful women ; they went upon roofs and threw bricks and stones down upon passers-by, they stole provisions, they haunted empty houses, some of them, called ghouls, ate men and made their homes in graveyards, and they did many other diabolical acts. Though we cannot tell at what time the different portions of this weird mythology were taken up, we know that the belief in jinns was an original portion of it, though it is equally evident also that the heaven of the Arabian imagination was a creation of after- times. Mohammed conceived Paradise to be a place where all the enjoyments grateful to dwellers in a hot and barren land, — shade, rest, water, fruit, com- panionship, and service, — were perennially furnished to the faithful. Allah is the ruler there : he is eter- nal and everlasting, without form or limit, including every thing and included by nothing ; he is invoked under ninety-nine attributes which represent him as merciful and glorious, exalted and righteous; the guardian and judge, the creator and the provider. Heaven was to him in its seven-fold division, the Garden of Beauty, the Abode of Peace, the Abode 20 CREA TURES OE EIRE, LIGHT, AND CLA Y. of Rest, the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Resort, the Garden of Pleasure, the Garden of the Most High, and the Garden of Paradise.* Hell was like- wise divided into seven parts : Gehenna, the Flam- ing Fire, the Raging Fire that splits every thing to pieces, the Blaze, the Scorching Fire, the Fierce Fire, and finally the Abyss. In the first hell wicked Islam- ites were confined temporarily; in the second are the Jews ; in the third the Christians ; in the fourth the Sabeans ; in the fifth the Magians ; in the sixth the idol-worshippers; and in the bottommost, hypocrites who have falsely professed some religion. This hell in all its departments was a place which men accus- tomed to the trials of a hot country would consider an abode of direst misery. The ninth month of the Arabian year, called Ramadan, is and was held to be a sort of Lent, during the entire duration of which it was a sacred duty to 'fast from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same ; but when its setting was announced, all restrictions were off, and the hungry and thirsty hastened to eat and drink to full content. During the day they would even hold the hand before the mouth should they chance to pass in the street a man smoking, lest a whiff of the forbidden fragrance should pollute them ; but when it was too dark to distinguish a white thread from a black, they might unrestrictedly enjoy their pipes. Some, of course, did not observe this month with the religious faith that others held, and some looked at it in the spirit * The Jewish rabbis likewise taught that there were seven heavens. THE REST OF RAMADAN. 21 of the Magians, with whom it was a spell. There were not lacking those, however, who sought the quiet of spots remote from the busy haunts of men, and communed with their thoughts as they looked towards the abode of Allah. III. THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE. When Adam fell from Paradise, so the stories of the East tell us, there fell also a pure white stone, which, through all the ages, has been kept with re- ligious care, and worshipped as something pure and holy. As stones do sometimes fall from the heavens, it may well be that this one so fell in the early days when men knew nothing about aerolites, and at such a period they would naturally have given it rever- ence. We can trace this particular stone to a time long before the birth of Christ ; and Diodorus, the Sicilian, a writer of the golden age of Rome, who made it the business of his life to get accurate infor- mation about all nations, said that it existed in his days, was then most ancient, and was revered ex- ceedingly by the whole Arab race. We remember that when Jacob dreamed his won- derful dream, he set up a stone in commemoration of the event, on the top of which he poured oil, and that he called the placed " Beth-El," or the House of God. The Arabs also call the place where their pre- cious stone is, the House of Allah, and they seem to worship the shapeless mass, as Jacob did not. It was, in fact, not at all uncommon in the early times 22 24 THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE. for the Arabs to bow down to misshapen stones; but this one became the most noted and at last the only one remembered. It did not remain white, and is now of a reddish-brown color, either because it has wept so much for the sins of the world, as its worship- pers aver, or because it has been handled and kissed for so many hundred years. It is worn and broken, and bound together by silver bands, and is often de- scribed as black, so begrimed has it become. The sacred stone is embedded in the walls of a building, known as the Kaaba, or Cube, around which a mosque has been built, which includes, be- sides the Kaaba, a well, called from the purling sound of its gently gurgling waters, Zem-zem. It is related that when Hagar was sent into the desert by Father Abraham, she laid little Ishmael down on the sand (though %ve think that he was a young man of some sixteen years), and that, as he threw his limbs about, he discovered the spring, which afterwards af- forded refeshment to both him and his mother. They say that Seth, son of Adam, had built the Kaaba there, but that the deluge had washed it away. When Ishmael became a man, and had married a princess of the land, he undertook the pious work of rebuild- ing the holy house. In this he was assisted by his father, Abraham, who was directed by the angel Ga- briel, sent from heaven for the express purpose. The angel discovered the sacred stone, which had been hidden by the slime left after the flood. The period to which all these remarkable events are relegated by the Arabians, they well call the Times of Ignorance, and utterly improbable as we COMMERCE IN- EARLY DAYS. 2$ may think them, they are necessary to be told in connection with our story. The Bible records that in the days of Isaac and Jacob there were traders in Palestine, who came from and returned to Arabia, exchanging the productions of the two lands. As we follow the history along, we find that in the reign of Solomon the "kings of Arabia" and her merchants traded still with Judea, and that the pro- phet Ezekiel, in his lamentation for the wealthy city of Tyre, graphically refers to the traffickers from Dedan and Aden and Saba as bringing to that great Mediterranean seaport rich spices and precious stones, bright sword-blades and chests of costly apparel, gold, and wrappings of blue and embroidered work.* This was hundreds of years before Christ ; and we learn from Roman writers that the lucrative com- merce was kept up until a time came at which men began to carry on their trade over the waters of the Red Sea. Then the ship of the ocean took the place of the ship of the desert, and the camels were no longer needed in vast numbers for transportation, nor the drivers to direct them. Mercantile stations and halting-places had been established along the shores, from the Persian Gulf to the northern ex- tremity of the Gulf of Akaba, w^iich were then de- serted, and many men were obliged to scatter and seek occupation in other places. The number of Bedawins, or wanderers over the deserts, was much increased. During the years of ignorance, the world knew little of the peninsula of Arabia. In the reign of * Ezekiel, xxviii., 19-24. 26 THE TIMES OF IGNORANCE. Augustus, a quarter of a century before Christ, a Roman army, under command of ^lius Gallus, pre- fect of Egypt, had crossed the Red Sea at the com- mand of the emperor, with the intention of making treaties with the people, or of conquering them, if they should dare to oppose Roman progress. For AN ENCAMPMENT OF ARABIAN I'lI.CKI.MS. six months the army wandered about in the extreme south of the country, penetrating as far as Saba, under the direction of a treacherous guide ; but the hot sun burned them, and the bad water made them ill. The force melted away under the disease ; ^lius could not conquer the Arabs, and was obliged to has- ten from the inhospitable region most ingloriously, THE POSITION OF MECCA. IJ occupying but sixty days in his rapid retreat. The poet Horace mentions the proverbial opulence of the Arabians, which had tempted the emperor to send out this ill-fated expedition, and we learn from him with what avidity it was entered upon. Though it failed in its immediate purpose, it resulted in consid- erable addition to the world's knowledge of the land of the Saracens, for Gallushad been accompani