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ISLAM UNDER THE KHALIFS 
 OF BAGHDAD 
 
 •• 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT DURIE OSBORN 
 
 MAJOR IN THE BENGAL STAFF CORPS 
 AUTHOR OF " ISLAM UNDER THE ARABS 
 
 SEELEY, JACKSON, & HALLIDAY, 54, FLEET STREET 
 LONDON. MDCCCLXXVIII. 
 
 .411 rights nsvrvei. 
 
London : 
 
 Printed by Simmons & Botien, 
 
 Shoe Lane, E.C. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad " is a con- 
 tinuation of the work I published in the spring of 
 last year, entitled " Islam under the Arabs." It 
 constitutes the second in a series of three, the last of 
 which will be devoted to a history of " Islam in India." 
 The series, as a whole, may be regarded as an attempt 
 to discover the veritable character of Islam, by an 
 investigation of its actual results in the countries 
 dominated by its influence. I little thought, when I 
 resolved to undertake this long and difficult task, that 
 I should publish the results of my labours at a time 
 when the character of Islam was the subject of such 
 passionate debate as it is at present. In one way this 
 may be of advantage to my book. It may have the 
 effect of obtaining for it a greater degree of attention 
 than it otherwise would. But from another and more 
 important point of view, it is distinctly disadvan- 
 tageous. For the moment, my subject — a question of 
 historical fact — is almost certain to be decided by the 
 impulses of mere sentiment ; and it is well nigh inevit- 
 able that by one party at least I should be denounced 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 as illiberal, prejudiced, and partial. I would there- 
 fore ask my readers to understand that the conclusions 
 set forth in this book — be they right or wrong — 
 have been in no way influenced by the " Bulgarian 
 massacres," or Russo-Turkish war. They were 
 formed and committed to writing many years ago ; 
 they are the result of a long residence in India, 
 and of many years' study of Moslem history and 
 literature. 
 
 But this question of the veritable character of 
 Islam has been rendered needlessly obscure and 
 difficult by another cause on which I should like 
 to speak more at length. It has been mixed up 
 with another question, which, in point of fact, has 
 nothing to do with it. I mean the character of 
 Muhammad. 
 
 The character of Muhammad is, of course, a 
 problem of great interest and no small difficulty. 
 It has been approached by different writers from 
 different standpoints ; and different theories have, in 
 consequence, been started to account for it. In all 
 these theories there are, probably, certain elements of 
 truth; and none, we may be certain, which are not 
 defective and insufficient. But the inner character of 
 the Prophet has nothing to do with the practical con- 
 sequences of Islam ; and this for a very simple reason. 
 Throughout the Moslem world his words and his acts 
 constitute the standard of morality. The servant of 
 Islam never thinks and never has thought of at- 
 tempting to penetrate behind the recorded act or 
 speech to the motive which might have inspired it. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 In all the acts and speeches of the Prophet, the Faith- 
 ful see but one and the same impelling spirit. What- 
 ever Muhammad did, he did under Divine guidance. 
 The Koran is not his composition, but the direct utter- 
 ances of the Deity. The sayings of the Prophet 
 handed down by tradition are not the sayings of a 
 man, but Divine decrees recorded on " the Everlasting 
 Table ' before man and the world were called into 
 existence. And so also with the acts of Muhammad. 
 Whatever were his motives, none can deny that he had 
 • mauy wives, that he massacred the men of a Jewish 
 tribe in cold blood, that he traded in slaves, that he 
 had recourse to the secret dagger to rid himself of 
 dangerous opponents. These acts, in the belief of the 
 Moslem world, are in perfect harmony with the Pro- 
 phetic character, and were wrought with the Divine 
 sanction. In estimating the results of Islam, this 
 belief, with the distorted morality resulting from it, is 
 the important fact to bear in mind ; the motives which 
 impelled Muhammad are indifferent. 
 
 In much that has been written on Islam, this dis- 
 tinction has been disregarded ; and writers who think 
 highly of Muhammad appear to regard themselves as 
 bound in logic and in honour to think highly of his 
 religion also. But the broad fact which has to be 
 accounted for, is the general decadence of the Muham- 
 madan world. To whichever quarter we look — to 
 Northern Africa, to Egypt, Arabia, the Ottoman 
 Empire, Persia, or the Khanates of Central Asia — 
 the same spectacle of decay and increasing decrepitude 
 confronts us. There is no soundness in it, but wounds 
 
VI PKEFACE. 
 
 and bruises and putrefying sores ; the whole head is 
 sick, and the whole heart faint. It cannot be urged 
 that Islam is not responsible for this state of things, 
 on the ground that Islam is merely a religion, and not 
 a system of government ; Islam is both. Neither can 
 it be urged, in defence of Islam, that this or that 
 country has enjoyed transient periods of greatness and 
 prosperity, notwithstanding its dominating presence. 
 The very fact that these periods have left no lasting 
 memorials behind them, in the shape of improved laws 
 or civic freedom, furnishes the strongest proof that 
 reform and growth are utterly alien to the enduring 
 spirit of Islam. We are, in consequence, compelled to 
 inquire if it be not in the scheme of life propounded by 
 Muhammad that we must look for the reason of this 
 melancholy sterility. 
 
 What, then, was Muhammad's explanation of his 
 own teaching ? It was briefly this — that the Arch- 
 angel Gabriel came down from heaven, and revealed 
 the Koran to him in the exact words in which he com- 
 municated it to his followers. He had nothing to do 
 either with its composition, or the doctrines it con- 
 tains. This assurance has been accepted by the 
 Faithful in all ages. From this conception of the 
 character of the Koran, it follows that the contents of 
 the revelation are above the reach of human criticism. 
 It is either in every part the voice of the Archangel, or 
 none of it is. The proof of its Divine origin is the 
 assurance of Muhammad to that effect, not the cha- 
 racter of the revelation itself, when tested by the human 
 reason and conscience. 
 
PEBPAOE. Vli 
 
 Another characteristic of Islam is, that it pro- 
 fesses to regulate the relations between man and man, 
 as well as between man and God. It founds a society 
 and a polity, as well as supplying the elements of a 
 creed. This important fact has been passed over by 
 most writers with a very inadequate sense of its far- 
 reaching significance. Because Muhammad taught 
 the doctrine of the unity of God, it has been too 
 hastily concluded that he was a great moral and social 
 reformer as well. But there is no charm in the 
 abstract doctrine of the unity of God to elevate 
 humanity. The essential point is the character attri- 
 buted to this one God. Christ conceived of God as 
 Love ; He spoke of Him as building up a new society 
 on the ruins of the old, of which love was to be the 
 ruling principle, and sending forth His spirit into the 
 hearts of men to guide them into all truth. Thus 
 the regeneration of the moral life and the enlarge- 
 ment of the intellect were set forth as the primary 
 objects of the one God. But Muhammad conceived of 
 God as separated by an impassable gulf from the 
 creatures He had made, and finding His ideal of human 
 existence in the customs of the desert Arabs. To the 
 end of time men were to venerate the black stone ; to 
 the end of time they were to practise slavery and poly- 
 gamy, and believe in the doctrine of Fatalism. The 
 last revelation had come down from heaven. The last 
 Prophet had appeared among men. The Koran was 
 the only and all-sufficient guide, and no change in its 
 precepts was possible without the guilt of disobedience 
 to a divine ordinance. 
 
Vlll PREFACE 
 
 Islam, in fine, may be said to lay down these two 
 propositions for the practical guidance of men: (1.) 
 The idea of progress is impious, and should be 
 eradicated from the mind. (2.) The knowledge of God 
 is a fixed quantity revealed in a book ; the mind of man 
 has no capacity to attain to it, more or less. The 
 elements of truth in the teaching of Muhammad 
 imparted their soul-subduing power to all that was 
 false and puerile in it. If Muhammad had not set 
 forth with such convincing power the unity and 
 majesty of God, it is possible that his disciples might 
 not have received with unquestioning credence his 
 decrees upon lesser matters. As it was, they were 
 incapable of discriminating. The man, and the book 
 which had taught them to worship the one God, could 
 not be mistaken when they bade them also venerate 
 the black stone, and consecrated the practice of 
 concubinage. 
 
 Thus, the true, the false, the sensual, and the 
 superstitious have been allowed to exist together in 
 the creed of Islam, the latter choking and destroying 
 the former. A chain is no stronger than its weakest 
 link ; and it is the veneration paid to a black stone, not 
 that to the One God, which denotes the high-water 
 mark of the moral and intellectual life of the Moslem 
 world. 
 
 The prevailing impression of what Muhammad 
 wrought in Arabia is, I fancy, something like this. 
 He obliterated, as it were with a wet sponge, the pre- 
 Islamite history of Arabia, by destroying the recol- 
 lections of past feuds and welding the Arabs into a 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 single nation. Nothing could well be more opposed to 
 the truth. The Arabs, at that time, were divided into 
 two great branches — the tribes of Yemen, and the 
 tribes of Modhar. For centuries before the appear- 
 ance of Muhammad, these tribes had been engaged in 
 interminable wars. Islam did nothing to efface these 
 distinctions, or mitigate the bitterness of old hatreds. 
 And the idea of political progress having been de- 
 nounced as impious, it was inevitable that when the 
 tide of conquest was stayed, the fierce and restless 
 energies of the Arabs should find a vent, in the recom- 
 mencement of old quarrels. This, in point of fact, 
 was what actually occurred. All that Islam, on this, 
 its political side, had done for the Arabs was to furnish 
 them with a wider theatre of conflict. The battles 
 which, in former times, had been fought behind the 
 barrier of the desert sands, were now fought in the 
 heart of Asia. These incessant civil wars occa- 
 sioned the fall of the House of Ommaya. They 
 were of the tribes of Modhar ; the Persians sided with 
 the tribes of Yemen against them, and drove them 
 from power. The story of their ruin is told in my 
 first volume. 
 
 All this time, however, the other cardinal doctrine 
 of Islam — that the knowledge of the will of God is a 
 fixed quantity — was working out its own peculiar 
 results. Islamism, as I have already said, is both a 
 religious creed and a social and political system. The 
 assumption which underlies it is, that the whole life 
 of man is subjected to rigid ordinances which can be 
 discerned by the aid of revelation alone. Conse- 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 quently, in order to frame laws for a Muliammadan 
 state, the qualities required were not knowledge of 
 men and experience of affairs, but a retentive memory, 
 in order to master the subject-matter of revelation, 
 and an accurate knowledge of "pure Arabic," in order 
 to understand the precise meaning of it. The law- 
 makers of Islam were secluded men, who founded their 
 claim to be received as legislators, on the ground that 
 they scrupulously abstained from all participation in 
 public affairs. The actual needs of men were unknown 
 and disregarded by them; the letter of the Sacred 
 Text was all in all. 
 
 This is the strange paradox which goes so far 
 towards accounting for the unimproveableness of 
 Moslem states. The practised politician, because he 
 was a practised politician, was regarded as unfit to 
 act as a legislator ; the recluse who knew nothing of 
 the world, was for that very reason supposed to be the 
 man best fitted to frame laws for its government. 
 
 The first part of the present volume, " The Church 
 of Islam," devotes two chapters to an account of the 
 building up of this inflexible theocracy ; the last two 
 chapters give an account of the efforts made by a few 
 of the Faithful to escape from the prison-house in 
 which they had been walled up, and the results of the 
 attempts. The Orientalist will perhaps object that 
 the chapter entitled "The Men of the Path," is a very 
 insufficient account of Moslem mysticism. I am aware 
 that this is so. But my purpose, in the present 
 volume, is merely to exhibit the general tendency of 
 the movement ; its more detailed exposition I reserve 
 
PEEFAOE. XI 
 
 for " Islam in India." The fourth chapter, entitled 
 " The Free-thinkers," and the whole of the second 
 part, " The Supremacy of the Persians," tells the 
 story of the curious struggle in the bosom of Islam, 
 between the Rationalizing spirit and the spirit of 
 Orthodoxy, terminating in the complete triumph of 
 the latter. 
 
 The third part, as the title shows, traces " The 
 Decline of the Khalifate," from its loss of temporal 
 power under the tyranny of its fierce Turkish mer- 
 cenaries, down to the destruction of Baghdad by 
 Houlagou and his Mongols. Here, agaiD, a few words 
 of explanation are due to the student of Oriental 
 history, to explain the meagreness of historical detail 
 which marks certain portions of this section. I have 
 passed over with only a cursory reference, all that 
 period of Moslem history which extends from the 
 murder of the khalif al Mutawakhil, to the founding of 
 the Seljuk Empire — a space of nearly two hundred 
 years. Why is this so ? As originally written, this 
 portion of my book contained twice as much matter 
 as it now does. I had devoted two long chapters to a 
 history of the acts of the Turkish mercenaries, and the 
 reigns of the Bouide priuces. But, od consideration, 
 I thought it best not to print them. The purpose of 
 my book is to write a history of " Islam," not a history 
 of the " khalifs of Baghdad." A right understanding 
 of Islam is in no way assisted or enhanced by com- 
 pelling the weary reader to wade through a dreary 
 series of wars and revolutions which have no more 
 significance for us than the quarrels of wild beasts in 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 an antediluvian forest. Rather, it seems to me, its 
 difficulty is greatly increased. The reader faints by 
 the way, and gives up the attempt in despair. He 
 prefers to remain in ignorance of "Islam" (which, 
 after all, has, at no time, greatly inconvenienced him), 
 if knowledge cannot be purchased except at so great 
 a cost. The Crusades, also, are beyond the purpose 
 of my book. These were fraught with consequences 
 of immense importance to Europe ; but on "Islam," 
 as a religion, they had no appreciable influence. The 
 Crusaders came and went without modifying in the 
 smallest particular, either the doctrine or the practice 
 of the Moslem world. 
 
 For the full understanding of the chapter on " The 
 Sect of the Assassins " I must refer my readers to the 
 second part of " Islam under the Arabs." In that 
 part, entitled, " The Fatimides," I have given a full 
 account of the growth and development of the Shia 
 doctrines, till they reached their culminating point in 
 producing the sect of the " Assassins." Without 
 some knowledge of this past history, the doctrine and 
 practice of the "Assassins" are unintelligible. 
 
 As in my first volume, I have given my authorities 
 at the end of the volume. But I take advantage of 
 this opportunity to record how largely I am indebted 
 to the learned and interesting works of Herr Yon 
 Kremer — his " Culturgeschichte des Orients unter 
 den Chalifen," and his " Geschichte der Herrschenden 
 Ideen des Islam s." I have also derived much valuable 
 information from a smaller work by Heinrich Steiner, 
 entitled, 'Die Mutaziliten." This work is remarkable 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 for a very able and exhaustive dissertation on the 
 doctrine of " Predestination," as set forth in the 
 Koran ; and this dissertation has been my chief guide 
 in what I have said on the same subject. 
 
 The first two chapters of this book appeared some 
 time ago in the Contemporary Review, under the title 
 of " Muhammadan Law : its growth and character." 
 In rewriting them for the present volume, I have 
 added many historical details and other matter which 
 I thought inappropriate in a magazine article. 
 
 R. D. OSBORN. 
 
 11, Marlboro' Eoad, St. John's Wood, 
 
 5th November, 1877. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ISLAM. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Four Orthodox Imams 3 
 
 II. The Traditions 47 
 
 III. The "Men of the Path " 82 
 
 IV. The "Free-thinkers" 115 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 
 
 I. The Persian and the Arad 151 
 
 II. The Barmekides 177 
 
 III. The Civil War 208 
 
 IV. The Koranic Controversy 247 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE DECLINE OF THE KHALIFA! E. 
 
 I. The Loss of Temporal Power 285 
 
 II. The Seljuk Sultans . . 313 
 
 III. The Sect of the "Assassins" 33G 
 
 IV. The Fall of Baghdad 3G7 
 
PART I. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ISLAM. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FOUR ORTHODOX IMAMS. 
 a.d. 713—830. 
 
 The religion of Islam has often been praised for its 
 freedom from a complicated and cumbersome ritual. 
 Wherever, it is said, the true Believer finds himself, on 
 land or on the sea, alone or in company, that spot 
 becomes, at the appointed hour, a temple, whence he 
 can address his prayers to God. Hence, it has been 
 supposed that the Moslem passes through life with an 
 immediate consciousness of the Divine Presence, pecu- 
 liar to men of his creed. This consciousness has sur- 
 vived the vicissitudes of history and the darkening 
 effects of intellectual scepticism. Amid revolution, 
 disaster, and anarchy, it is supposed to burn on with a 
 clear and steady light, illuminating the bosoms of the 
 Faithful in every part of the world, and binding all 
 their hearts together. Therefore it is that all Islam is 
 animated by a single spirit ; that all its pulses vibrate 
 in unison, and all its swords are ready to leap from 
 their scabbards in obedience to a single call. Like so 
 much which has been written upon the creed of 
 Muhammad, these notions are directly the reverse of 
 the truth. The intellectual immobility of the Moslem 
 
4 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 world proceeds, not from an inner consciousness of 
 the Divine Presence, but from the total want of it. 
 According to the Moslem belief, the spirit of man is 
 incapable of holding converse with the Spirit of God. 
 Apart from the indications of His will contained in the 
 Book and the Traditions, man neither knows nor can 
 know anything about Him and His ways. All search, 
 therefore, into the constitution of the universe or the 
 mind of man, the Moslem condemns, at the outset, as 
 certainly useless, and probably impious. And hence, 
 also, there is no creed, the inner life of which has been 
 so completely crushed under an inexorable weight of 
 ritual. For that deep, impassable gulf which divides 
 man from God, empties all religious acts of spiritual 
 life and meaning, and reduces them to rites and cere- 
 monies. They are laws to be obeyed. They do not 
 imply that a way has been opened out between the 
 visible and invisible world. Hence, also, there is not, 
 nor ever has been, any " solidarity " in Islam. The 
 resistless sovereignty of an inscrutable God has oblite- 
 rated the notion of progress, and effectually prevented 
 the idea of a national life from coming into existence. 
 God is supreme ; what He wills can only be known by 
 what He brings to pass ; and against His decrees, as 
 manifested by the progress of events, it is idle to strive. 
 Such is, and always has been, the political philosophy 
 of the followers of Muhammad. To sketch the process 
 of education which has achieved this result, is the object 
 of the present chapter. 
 
 The Arab of Muhammad's day conceived of religion 
 as altogether a ceremonial affair. He believed in a 
 
a.d. 71:5. RITUAL OF ISLAM. 5 
 
 God, and he believed that this deity had commanded 
 him to perform every year the ceremonies of the Pil- 
 grimage. But why had God done this ? What plea- 
 sure could a rational Being find in these absurd and 
 meaningless rites ? What profit could they be to Him, 
 or wherein lay their advantage to men ? Such inquiries 
 never entered the mind of the Arab. It was the will 
 of God ; and regarding the why and the wherefore, he 
 never cared to speculate. The Prophet, a creature of 
 his time if ever there was one, was as much a slave to 
 this formalism as his countrymen about him. He no 
 more than they felt the need of a logical connection 
 between his speculative idea of God and the expres- 
 sions of His character in the visible world. He never 
 attempted to regard life as a whole, or to say to him- 
 self, If God be such an one as I have depicted Him, 
 then this and that custom which prevails among men 
 must be utterly hateful to Him. The Prophet knew 
 of no life but the life of the desert Arab, and without 
 further question he accepted that life as being modelled 
 after the Divine wish. The Prophet knew of no reli- 
 gious life where the external rite was not deemed of 
 greater importance than the inner state, and, in conse- 
 quence, he gave that character to Islam also. Hence 
 there are no moral gradations in the Koran. All pre- 
 cepts proceed from the will of God, and all are enforced 
 with the same threatening emphasis. A failure of per- 
 formance in the meanest trivialities of civil life involves 
 the same tremendous penalties as apostasy or idolatry. 
 In the Traditions, this moral confusion is even more 
 startlingly apparent. These Traditions are a record 
 
6 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 of the answers and acts of the Prophet in response to 
 the inquiries of his followers ; and those who have not 
 studied them know nothing whatever of the true spirit 
 of Islam. 
 
 They accumulated in this way. So long as Muham- 
 mad lived, the Faithful were in possession of a door 
 communicating with the Throne of God. At this door 
 they had but to knock, state their perplexities, and a 
 response came to them from "The Lord of the Glorious 
 Throne." As Muhammad taught, and the Faithful 
 believed, that the least transgression of the divine 
 commands brought down the same punishments as the 
 greatest, it is not strange that they availed themselves 
 of this privilege freely. The Prophet accepted his 
 position, as an essential part of the prophetic office, 
 and never doubted of his capacity to make known the 
 will of God regarding any matter submitted to his 
 judgment. Thus the religion of Islam was gradually 
 provided with an exceedingly rigorous and complicated 
 ritual. 
 
 But the point to be noted is the extreme stress 
 laid upon the accurate observance of this ritual. The 
 mind of the Believer literally counts for nothing. No 
 ardour of faith, no purity of intention, can make up for 
 a ceremonial defect. There was a right way and a 
 wrong way of performing all religious acts whatsoever ; 
 and the Arab could not conceive that aught was indiffe- 
 rent or optional. " I asked Ayesha," said al Harith, 
 one of the early Moslems, *' did the Prophet read the 
 Koran at night loud or low ? " She said, " Sometimes 
 loud; at other times in a low tone of voice." "Allah 
 
a.d. 713. RITUAL OF ISLAM. 7 
 
 to Akbar ! " shouted the delighted inquirer. " Praise 
 be to God ! who has made religion so spacious and 
 unconfined ! " 
 
 That the amazement of al Harith, at the discovery 
 of this " spacious and unconfined " freedom was by 
 no means unnatural, will be apparent if I quote a few 
 of the directions regarding Prayer : " When any one of 
 you says his prayers, he must have something in front 
 of him ; but if he cannot find anything for that purpose, 
 he must put his walking-stick into the ground ; but if 
 the ground be hard, then let him place it lengthways 
 before him ; but if he has no staff, he must draw a line 
 on the ground ; after which there will be no detriment 
 in his prayers from anyone passing in front of it." 
 This passing in front of a man is a terrible crime, and 
 exceedingly detrimental to prayer, though it does not 
 altogether nullify it. The Prophet empowered a Be- 
 liever annoyed in this way to " draw his sword " upon 
 the intruder, and "cut him down ;" and further declared 
 that if " a passenger did but know the sin of passing 
 before a person employed in prayer, he would find it 
 better for him to sink into the earth." Equally impor- 
 tant is the manner of performing the ablutions previous 
 to prayer. When the Prophet performed these, "he 
 took a handful of water, and raised it to the under part 
 of his chin, and combed his beard with his hand, and 
 said, ' In this way has my Lord ordered me.' " And 
 on a certain occasion, when a party of his followers, 
 performing their ablutions in a hurry, had omitted to 
 wet the soles of their feet, the Prophet said, " Alas, on 
 the soles of their feet, for they will be in hell fire ! " 
 
8 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 For sin, according to Muhammad, was a material pol- 
 lution adhering to the body, and, like dirt, capable of 
 being washed away. He enjoined upon his followers, 
 in making their ablutions, to be careful not to allow so 
 much as a finger-nail to remain dry, for, said he, "That 
 person who makes ablution thoroughly will extract the 
 faults from his body, even to those that may be lurking 
 under his finger-nails;" and on the Day of Resurrection 
 will be known by "his bright hands and feet," the effects 
 of his frequent and conscientious washings. Not less 
 important was the position assumed while praying. 
 " Resting on the arms while at prayer is pleasing to 
 the people of hell ;" so also is " hurry in prostration 
 like a cock pecking grain," and "spreading the arms 
 like dogs and tigers." The safest plan in this, as in all 
 other things, was exactly to imitate the Prophet. And 
 this was accordingly done. The Prophet's gestures 
 and attitudes during prayer were carefully noted down, 
 and have been imitated by the Faithful ever since. The 
 tradition rests on the authority of Ayesha, and is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " The Prophet used to begin his prayers by repeating the Tacbir, 
 and the reading of the Koran with these words : — ' Praise be to God, 
 the Lord of the Worlds ! ' And when he made the inflexion of the 
 body called Eekat, he did not raise his head, nor yet bend it very 
 low, but kept it in a middle position between these two, with his 
 neck and back in a line. And when he had raised his head after 
 inflexion, he did not prostrate himself, till after having stood quite 
 erect, and alter he had raised his head from one prostration, he did 
 not make a stand without sitting up in the interval. And he used 
 to lay bis left leg down, and his right leg he kept up ; and he 
 
 forbade resting both arms on the ground, and 
 
 finished his prayers with the salaam" 
 
a.d. 713. VALUE OF PRAYERS. 9 
 
 Prayers also possessed varying degrees of merit; 
 and these were precisely settled by the Prophet : — 
 
 " The prayers of a man in his own house are equal to the reward 
 of one prayer ; but in a musjid, being near his house, equal to 
 twenty-five prayers ; and if in the public musjid, equal to five 
 hundred prayers ; and in Jerusalem, equal to fifty thousand ; and in 
 my musjid, equal to fifty thousand ; and in the Kaaba, equal to one 
 hundred thousand."* 
 
 The same formal and legal character runs through 
 the whole body of the Traditions. They are a collec- 
 tion of statutes which are supposed to embrace the 
 entire sphere of man's daily activity. The object they 
 strive after is to preclude the need of any appeal to the 
 unassisted reason of man. The khalifs who succeeded 
 the Prophet possessed merely an administrative power. 
 They were the trustees and executors of a system 
 already complete. They had no power to initiate new 
 legislation, or depart from the letter of what was 
 written. But whatever might be the number of Tra- 
 ditions, it soon became apparent that they could not 
 meet and solve the needs of the great Empire which 
 was won by the Faithful immediately after the Pro- 
 phet's death. Multitudes of questions came up for 
 decision for which no precedent was to be found either 
 
 * It is related of al Muzani — a disciple of as Shafi, so eminent, 
 that that Imam said of him, " He is the champion of my doctrine " — 
 that " when he missed being present at public service in the Mosque, 
 he repeated his prayers alone twenty- five times, in order to regain 
 the merits attached to those which are said with the congregation ; 
 in this he founded his opinion on the authority of the following 
 declaration made by Muhammad : ' Prayers made with the congre- 
 gation are five-and-twenty times better than prayers said by one of 
 you when alone.' " — Ibn Khali, vol. i. p. 201. 
 
10 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 in the Koran or the Traditions. What, under such 
 circumstances, were the rulers and governors of the 
 people to do ? They had recourse to " the method of 
 analogical deduction." This practice was authorised 
 by more than one Tradition. When, for example, the 
 Prophet selected Muad ibn Jabal as Governor of 
 Yemen, and was about to despatch him thither, he said 
 to him, "0 Muad! after what manner will you judge?" 
 He replied, " After the Book of God." " And should 
 you find nothing there?" "After the rules of the 
 Prophet of God." "And should you find nothing 
 there ? " " Then, by deduction, after the best of my 
 judgment." Thereupon the Prophet lifted up his eyes 
 to heaven, and exclaimed, "God be praised, who has 
 given to His Prophet a messenger with whom he is 
 
 well pleased." 
 
 Matters went on in this way until the murder of 
 the khalif Ali. He is the last of the "rightly-guided 
 khalifs." Such is the designation given to the khalifs 
 Abou Bekr, Omar, Othman, and Ali. These four 
 sovereigns had been the chief disciples and most inti- 
 mate friends of the Prophet. They were acquainted 
 with all that he had spoken or done ; and they had 
 entered into the thoughts and intents of his heart as 
 completely as men could do. They were as zealous as 
 their master himself for the dissemination and triumph 
 of the faith. And, allowing for the inevitable frailty 
 of humanity, they were not less watchful to keep it 
 uncontaminated by heresy or unbelief. So long, there- 
 fore, as they presided over the destinies of the true 
 Believers, the Moslem experienced a firm and satisfac- 
 
a.d. 713. COLLECTING THE KORAN. 11 
 
 tory assurance that he was being guided in the right 
 way. There was, moreover, a prejudice against reduc- 
 ing the deposit of faith to writing. The Prophet had 
 declared that Islam must be impressed upon the hearts 
 of men ; and the Arabs, interpreting this, as they did 
 all else which proceeded from their master, in its literal 
 significance, supposed it to be an injunction to learn 
 their religion by heart, and eschew all other methods 
 of preservation. 
 
 Nevertheless, so early as the khalifate of Abou 
 Bekr. there had been a departure from the strict letter 
 of this injunction. In the battle of Yemama, where 
 Moseilama the Liar was killed, there had been a great 
 slaughter of the Faithful ; and among the slain were a 
 large number of those who knew more or less of the 
 Koran by heart. Such men were called Koran Readers. 
 Omar was warned by this incident of the exceeding 
 great peril in which the world stood, lest the sacred 
 utterances should wholly perish by the slaughter of 
 those in whose memory they were engraved. And he 
 urged upon the khalif Abou Bekr the need of collecting 
 the scattered fragments of the Koran into a book. At 
 first the khalif was reluctant. It seemed to him a 
 dangerous departure from the precedent set by the 
 Prophet. " How," said he, " can I do the thing which 
 the Prophet has not done ? " But subsequently he 
 perceived the wisdom of the advice, and entrusted the 
 work of collecting the Koran to Zaid ibn Thabit, who 
 formerly had acted as the secretary of the Prophet. 
 And the latter " sought for the Koran from the leaves 
 of the date, and white stones, and the hearts of men 
 
12 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. CHAP. I. 
 
 who remembered it," till the whole had been collected 
 and compiled into one book. So matters remained 
 until the time of the khalif Othman. In his day a 
 devout Moslem came to Medina, and presented himself 
 before the khalif. His name was Hudhaifa. He was 
 a valiant warrior, and had fought on the truth of God 
 in Syria, in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and elsewhere ; and 
 he was shocked at the different ways of reading the 
 Koran which he found prevalent among the soldiers 
 of these armies. He now came to Othman to entreat 
 him to " assist this sect, before they differ in the book 
 of God, like as the Jews and Christians differ in their 
 books." It was in response to this appeal that Othman 
 caused to be made his famous recension of the text 
 of the Koran. A copy of this he ordered to be sent 
 to every quarter of the countries of Islam, and 
 directed all others to be burned as inaccurate and 
 misleading. 
 
 But when Ali was murdered, and the supreme 
 power over the Faithful passed to the house of 
 Ommaya, devout Moslems perceived that the purity of 
 the Faith was in extreme peril. These khalifs repre- 
 sented the ascendency of that idolatrous Mekkan aris- 
 tocracy, who, in heart, had never been converted to 
 Islam. They knew nothing of the mind of the Pro- 
 phet, and cared little to obey his precepts, even if they 
 had known them. If, therefore, the Faithful were to 
 continue to conduct their affairs according to the divine 
 laws, measures must be promptly taken to make good 
 the theological ignorance of these usurping khalifs. It 
 is not surprising that this new movement should have 
 
a.d. 713. JURISCONSULTS OF MEDINA. 13 
 
 originated in Medina. The people of that city regarded 
 themselves as, in a special sense, the depositaries of 
 the true faith. They passed their lives in the midst 
 of scenes which teemed with memories of the Prophet. 
 There was the blessed mosque, wherein, for so many 
 years, he had been wont to pray; there the houses 
 wherein he had dwelt ; there the grave in which his 
 sacred remains were deposited. There was not a 
 denizen of Medina who could not recall some speech or 
 act of the Prophet wherewith to swell the sum of the 
 Traditions, and remain, for all time, a light shining in 
 the darkness. This spiritual glory became the more 
 precious to the people of Medina when its political im- 
 portance had been transferred to Damascus. Devout 
 men applied themselves to learn by heart the Koran, and 
 the Traditions, and the "analogical judgments " of the 
 "rightly directed" khalifs. Pre-eminent among these 
 were seven divines known in the after history of the 
 Muhammadan world as " the seven jurisconsults of 
 Medina." The fame of their learning went abroad 
 through all the regions of Islam ; and the khalifs, the 
 governors of provinces, and all persons vexed with 
 legal perplexities, who could do so, referred to them for 
 counsel and advice. With the general consent of the 
 Muhammadan world, they exercised the privilege of 
 deciding, according to their own judgment, cases which 
 could not be met by any of the existing sources of law. 
 Thus the number of analogical judgments received an 
 immense extension. And the mass of unwritten learn- 
 ing threatened to become too vast and amorphous even 
 for the Arab's vast and tenacious memory, when the 
 
14 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 inevitable systematiser appeared in the person of Malek 
 ibn Anas. 
 
 Malek was a native of Medina. He was born a.h. 
 95 (a.d. 713-14), and he died a.h. 179 (a.d. 795), in 
 his eighty-fourth year. The pious affection of his 
 disciples has preserved many interesting traits of this 
 celebrated divine. He was, so we are told, of a very 
 fair complexion, inclining to red; tall in stature, 
 having a large head, and the forehead bald ; he wore 
 clothes of those excellent stuffs which were, in those 
 days, manufactured at Aden ; and he disapproved 
 shaving off the moustachios, holding it to be a sort of 
 mutilation ; he never changed the colour of his grey 
 hair by dyeing it. He never, if he could avoid doing 
 so, pronounced a Tradition when travelling, or when 
 standing, or if he was pressed for time ; " for I 
 like," he used to say, "to feel the meaning of the 
 Prophet's words when I repeat them to others." He 
 had a regularly fixed ceremony, which he deemed in- 
 cumbent upon himself to go through before giving 
 utterance to one of these sacred sayings. He first 
 made an ablution ; he then seated himself in the middle 
 of his mattress, and, spreading out his beard, he 
 assumed a grave and dignified deportment ; after which 
 preparations he commenced. " I delight," he was 
 wont to say, by way of explanation — " I delight in 
 testifying my profound respect for the sayings of the 
 Apostle of God, and I never repeat a Tradition unless 
 I feel myself in a state of perfect purity." In accordance 
 with the same spirit of veneration, he never made use 
 of a horse in Medina, even when much enfeebled and 
 
a.d. 795. MALEK IBN ANAS. 15 
 
 advanced in years. " No," he said, " I shall never 
 ride in the city wherein the corpse of God's Apostle 
 lies interred." This devout and excellent man passed 
 his entire life in Medina, beloved and honoured by all. 
 Once, and once only, does the peaceful tenor of his 
 life appear to have been interrupted. In the reign of 
 the second Abbaside khalif, Abou Jaafar, in a.h. 145, 
 the city of Medina became the centre of a formidable 
 Alide insurrection, which, for a time, placed the Abba- 
 side khalifate in extreme danger. The Imam Malek 
 took no part in this movement, but he was understood 
 to have expressed an opinion that the descendants of 
 Ali had a better right to the spiritual headship of the 
 Muhammadan people than the descendants of Abbas. 
 This opinion was necessarily noised abroad ; and on 
 the restoration of peace he was summoned before the 
 governor of the Hejaz — an uncle of Abou Jaafar — and 
 accused of having taught that the oath of allegiance to 
 the Abbaside khalif was not binding upon those who 
 had taken it. The governor was so highly incensed 
 that he had him stripped, and after inflicting on him a 
 severe flogging, caused his arm to be drawn out to 
 such a degree that it was dislocated at the shoulder. 
 But this martyrdom only increased the veneration in 
 which the great Imam was held. And this esteem and 
 affection were in no wise diminished when the infirmities 
 of increasing age compelled him gradually to relinquish 
 the moral and social duties which are considered obli- 
 gatory upon all good Moslems — such as attendance at 
 the Friday prayer, the paying of visits of condolence, 
 and assisting at the interment of brethren who have 
 
16 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 departed this life with the confession of Unity on their 
 lips. His last moments are full of instruction. They 
 show how profoundly he believed in the divine origin 
 of the Koran and the Traditions, and how terrible was 
 the thought that he might have interpreted these 
 divine utterances amiss, becoming thereby to his fellow 
 men a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. " I 
 went," we are told, by one of his most eminent dis- 
 ciples — 
 
 "I went to Malek ibn Anas in his last illness, and saluted him. I 
 then sat down, and perceiving that he wept, I said, '0 Abou 
 Abdallah ! what maketh thee weep ? ' And he answered, ' O Ibn 
 Kaanaab ! why should I not weep ? and who has more reason to 
 weep than I ? By Allah ! I wish I had been flogged and reflogged 
 for every question of law on which I pronounced an opinion founded 
 on my own private judgment. I had it in my power to abstain 
 from doing so. that I had never given opinions founded on my 
 own private judgment ! ' " 
 
 The treatise composed, or rather dictated, by 
 Malek ibn Anas is termed Muwatta, or " The Beaten 
 Path." It was so called because it was founded on 
 what he termed " the customs of Medina." These 
 " customs " were the acts, commands, and prohibitions 
 which were to be found in the Koran, or had been 
 learned from the example and oral instruction of the 
 Prophet. In other words, they constituted "the 
 beaten path " along which it behoved the true Moslem 
 to walk. What Malek effected was to arrange and 
 classify under their appropriate heads, the immense 
 mass of oral tradition which the remembrances of the 
 Prophet, the teachings of the Traditionists, and the 
 judgments of " the seven jurisconsults " had accumu- 
 
a.d. 795. YAHYA IBN YAHYA. 17 
 
 lated at Medina. When thus arranged and classified, 
 it formed a system of jurisprudence which embraced 
 the entire sphere of human activity, and speedily came 
 to be regarded as of equal authority with the Koran 
 itself. It prevailed chiefly throughout Spain and 
 Northern Africa. For its establishment in the former 
 country it was indebted to the zeal of a man who 
 merits special mention in a work like this, as a striking 
 illustration of the intensity and character of the reli- 
 gious devotedness which Islam was fitted to evoke. 
 
 Yahya ibn Yahya was by birth a Berber, whose 
 grandfather had crossed over the sea and settled in 
 Spain. While yet a young man, he obtained a partial 
 knowledge of " The Beaten Path," and this so moved 
 his admiration, that he formed the design of proceed- 
 ing to Mekka, and studying at the feet of the great 
 Imam. This design he carried into effect at the age 
 of twenty-eight ; and the following incident obtained 
 for him the special approbation of his master. He 
 was, one day, at Malek's lecture with a number of 
 fellow-students, when some one said, " Here comes 
 the elephant ! " All ran out to see the animal except 
 Yahya, who remained motionless in his place. "Why," 
 said Malek, " did you not go out and look at it ? Such 
 animals are not to be seen in Spain." To this Yahya 
 replied, " I left my country for the purpose of seeing 
 you, and obtaining knowledge under your guidance; 
 I did not come here for the purpose of seeing the 
 elephant." This reply so delighted the Imam that he 
 ever after spoke of Yahya as " the intelligent man of 
 Spain." Yahya studied under the dictation of Malek 
 
18 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. r. 
 
 until he had learned by heart the whole of" The Beaten 
 Path," with the exception of some paragraphs which 
 treat of " spiritual retreat." He then set out to return 
 home ; but when he got as far as the capital of Egypt, 
 he met a fellow-disciple, who was occupied in making 
 a written compilation of the doctrines he had learned 
 from Malek. An examination of this work induced 
 Yahya to return to Medina, and verify, by application 
 to Malek, some of the matters recorded in it. He 
 found Malek very ill, and stayed with him till he died. 
 He made use of this interval to perfect his knowledge 
 of " The Beaten Path ;" and the last edition of that 
 work was given orally by Yahya ibn Yahya. The 
 great Imam being dead, Yahya returned to Spain. 
 He took his master for his model in all things. In 
 his appearance, his dress, and manner of sitting, he is 
 said to have greatly resembled Malek ; and he imitated 
 him, also, in refusing to accept any office under the 
 Government. This extraordinary abstinence made him 
 extremely popular with great aDd small. He was 
 the idol of the people ; and the friend and adviser 
 of the Sultan of Cordova. 
 
 " Never," writes a contemporary of his, " since the time of the 
 introduction of Islamism did any of the learned enjoy such good 
 fortune, such influence, and such a reputation as Yahya ibn Yahya. 
 No kadi was appointed in any part of Spain, who had not first 
 been designated by him ; and as he nominated none but those who 
 adhered to the system of Malek, the profession of that system very 
 speedily became universal throughout Spain." 
 
 The causes of its spread in Northern Africa were 
 different. Those who left Northern Africa to study 
 the doctrines of their faith at some of the great centres 
 
a. ii. 700. ABOU HANIFA. 19 
 
 of learning, were naturally attracted to Medina, both 
 by reason of its sacredness, and because it was the 
 point nearest to their own homes. And there, finding 
 the Malekite system universally received, they adopted 
 it without inquiring further. It was, moreover, a 
 system better suited to their simple methods of life 
 than the more elaborate one of Abou Hanifa, of which 
 and its founder we have now to give an account. 
 
 The Imam Abou Hanifa an-Noman was born in the 
 year 80 (a.d. 699-700), and belonged to a noble Persian 
 family. The city of Basra was his birth-place ; and 
 he made the pilgrimage to Mekka in his sixteenth 
 year. He was a learned man, and a practiser of good 
 works ; remarkable for self-denial, piety, devotion, and 
 the fear of God ; humble in spirit, and constant in his 
 acts of submission to the Almighty. He was, also, 
 a handsome man, an agreeable companion, strictly 
 honourable, and full of kindness to his brethren. He 
 was rather above the middle height, and of a tawny 
 complexion. No man spoke more eloquently than he, 
 or with a sweeter tone of voice. The great work of 
 his life was disclosed to him — as usual among good 
 Muhammadans — through the medium of a dream. 
 He dreamed that he was digging open the tomb of the 
 Prophet, and having sent to inquire the meaning of 
 this vision from an interpreter of dreams, he received 
 the reply that "The person who had this dream will 
 lay open a science never before discovered." The 
 greater part of his life he passed in the city of Koufa. 
 He achieved an immense fame by reason of his know- 
 ledge of the law, and the subtlety and acuteness he 
 
20 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 displayed in applying the method of analogical deduc- 
 tion. Malek ibn Anas said of him, " He was a man 
 of such talent that if he spoke of this pillar and under- 
 took to demonstrate that it was of gold, he would do 
 so, and adduce good proofs." Nevertheless, like all 
 of the devoutest believers, he shrank from putting his 
 legal knowledge to any practical use. The Traditions 
 are numerous which set forth the responsibilities 
 incurred by that Moslem who assumes the position of 
 a judge or a divider between his fellow-men ; and the 
 terrible penalties awaiting the kadi who deviates from 
 the straight path of strict equity. He — so said one of 
 the Traditions — who shall be appointed judge over 
 men, verily is killed without a knife. And on the day 
 of resurrection there will come, even upon a just judge, 
 such fear and horror that he will wish, " Would to 
 God I had not ordered between two persons in a trial 
 for a single date." For — 
 
 " There is no judge who orders between men, whether just or 
 unjust, but will come to God's court on the day of resurrection, 
 held by the neck by an angel ; and the angel will raise his head up 
 towards the heavens, and wait for God's orders ; and if God orders 
 to throw him into hell, the angel will do it from a height of forty 
 days' journey." 
 
 Consequently, when Ibn Omar ibn Hobaira, the 
 last Ommayide governor of the two Iraks, wished to 
 appoint Abou Hanifa, kadi at Koufa, the latter refused 
 to act. The emir, incensed at this opposition, ordered 
 him to be daily flogged in public until he consented. 
 Ten strokes of a whip were inflicted on Abou Hanifa, 
 day after day, till the number had mounted up to one 
 
a.d. 760. ABOU HANIFA. 21 
 
 hundred and ten, when finding the fortitude of the 
 Imam still unvanquished, the emir set him at liberty. 
 The Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal never spoke of this 
 occurrence without being moved to tears, and invoking 
 God's mercy on Abou Hanifa.* 
 
 When the Ommayas were overthrown, and the 
 Abbasides came into power, Abou Hanifa was more 
 than orice in imminent peril of his life. He had in- 
 curred the enmity of some favourite courtiers of Abou 
 Jaafar, who had resolved upon his destruction ; and 
 but for the Imam's quickness of retort would, in all 
 probability, have effected it. The story is told by Abou 
 
 * The following anecdote is worth quoting as an example of 
 the feelings occasioned by these and similar traditions ; and also as 
 a curious picture of Moslem manners, and habits of thought. 
 When Omar ibn Abd al Aziz was khalif, he wrote to Adi ibn Arta, 
 who acted as his lieutenant in Irak, ordering him to effect a meet- 
 ing between Iyas ibn Muawia and al Kasim ibn Rabia al Harashi, 
 and authorising him to appoint the most acute minded of the two 
 kadi at Basra. The meeting having taken place, Iyas said to Ibn 
 Arta : " O emir ! ask the two great doctors of Egypt, al Hasan 
 al Basri and Muhammad ibn Sirin, their opinion of al Kasim and 
 me ;" for al Kasim went often to see them, while he, Iyas, did not. 
 Al Kasim (being equally unwilling to fill the place of kadi, and 
 aware that these two doctors would advise the emir to name him) 
 said, " Make no inquiries respecting me or him, for I solemnly 
 aver by the only true God, that Iyas ibn Muawia is an abler juris- 
 consult than I, and knows better the duties of a kadee. If what I 
 say be false, you cannot legally appoint me, because I am a liar ; 
 and if my declaration be true, it is incumbent on you to receive it, 
 and act by it." On this, Iyas said, " emir ! you set a man on 
 the brink of perdition, and he escapes the dangers which he appre- 
 hends, by making a false oath, for which he will implore God's for- 
 giveness." " Since you perceive that," replied Adi ibn Arta, 
 " you art fit to fill the place," and he appointed him accordingly, 
 — Ibn Khali. Bio<j. Die, vol. i. pp. 233, 234. 
 
22 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Yusuf, a disciple of the Imam's. Abou Jaafar al Man- 
 sour sent for Abou Hanifa, on which the chamberlain 
 ar-Rabi, who bore great ill-will towards the latter, 
 said, " Commander of the Faithful ! this Abou Hanifa 
 maintains an opinion contrary to that which was held 
 by Ibn Abbas, your ancestor, who said that when a 
 man takes an oath, and puts restrictions to it one or 
 two days after, his restrictions are valid. Now, Abou 
 Hanifa teaches that restrictions are not valid unless 
 announced simultaneously with the oath." On hearing 
 this, Abou Hanifa said, " Commander of the Faithful ! 
 ar-Rabi now asserts that the oath of fidelity towards you 
 which was taken by your troops may not be binding." 
 "How so?" said the khalif. "Because," answered 
 Abou Hanifa, " when they went back to their dwellings 
 they might have made such restrictions as rendered their 
 oath null." Al Mansour laughed, and said to ar-Rabi, 
 " I advise you to avoid hereafter attacking Abou 
 Hanifa." When the latter retired, ar-Rabi said to 
 him, " You meant to bring about the shedding of my 
 blood." " No," replied Abou Hanifa, " but you meant 
 to bring about the shedding of mine, and I saved not 
 only myself, but you." 
 
 The second attempt on the life of the Imam was as 
 follows : — Abou'l Abbas, a courtier, bore great ill-will 
 to Abou Hanifa, of which the latter was well aware. 
 One day, on seeing him enter into al Mansuur's 
 presence-chamber, where there was a numerous as- 
 sembly, Abou'l Abbas said to himself, " I shall have 
 his life taken this very clay." He then turned towards 
 him, and said, " Tell me, Abou Hanifa, if a man be 
 
A.D. 707. ABOU HANIFA 23 
 
 ordered by the Commander of the Faithful to be- 
 head another man, without knowing anything about 
 his conduct, is it lawful for him to obey ?" Abou 
 Hanifa answered, " Tell me, Abou'l Abbas, does the 
 Commander of the Faithful order what is right or what 
 is wrong ?" The other replied, " He orders what is 
 right." "Well," said Abou Hanifa, "let right be 
 done, and no questions asked." He then said to those 
 who were near him, " That man thought to have cast 
 me into bonds, but I shackled him." 
 
 His quickness of retort had delivered Abou Hanifa 
 on these two occasions, but he was destined to succumb 
 at last to the tyranny of the khalif. When al Mansour 
 had completed the building of Baghdad, that nothing 
 might be lacking to complete the glory of the new 
 capital of Islam, he determined to appoint the great 
 jurisconsult of Irak as kadi over the city. The Imam 
 pleaded unfitness as a reason for declining the office. 
 "You lie," said the khalif; "you are fitted for it." 
 Abou Hanifa replied, " You have now decided in my 
 favour and against yourself; is it lawful for you to 
 nominate a liar as a kadi over those whom God has 
 confided to your care?" But the retort here availed 
 the aged Imam nothing. The khalif shut him up in 
 prison, where after a lapse of six days he died, a.h. 
 150, a.d. 767. 
 
 Abou Hanifa was the father and teacher of those 
 celebrated legists known in Muhammadan history as 
 "the Jurists of Irak." He differed from Malek ibn 
 Anas, in that he made almost no use of Traditions as 
 a source of law, admitting only eighteen of these as 
 
24 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 authorities in his system. His jurisprudence was 
 founded exclusively on the Koran, and claimed to be 
 logically developed therefrom by the method of 
 analogical deduction. This difference is accounted for 
 by the difference of their circumstances. The Imam 
 Malek lived surrounded by memories of the Prophet. 
 He was the member of a society whose wants Mu- 
 hammad had had specially in view in the decisions 
 which had proceeded from him. Malek, therefore, 
 naturally enough, built up his system out of the 
 abundant materials thus provided for him, and could 
 not have done otherwise. Koufa, on the contrary, was 
 a city which had not been founded till after the death 
 of the Prophet. It was a great centre of commerce, 
 and a meeting for men of diverse tongues and various 
 modes of life. In Irak, Syria, and Egypt, the wild 
 Arab conquerors came into contact with an old and 
 complex civilization. This civilization, as soon as 
 actual fighting had ceased, they did not systematically 
 and persistently endeavour to extirpate. This seeming 
 moderation has, by modern writers, been frequently 
 credited to the Moslem conquerors as the result of an 
 enlightened toleration. It was, in truth, due to nothing 
 of the kind. The Moslem never supposed he had any- 
 thing to learn from these infidels, whom he con- 
 temptuously permitted to live. The only right way of 
 living was the way of living revealed in the Koran ; 
 and all who followed another path were indubitably 
 reserved for the abyss of hell fire. The conquered 
 peoples were merely his bondmen, who must labour 
 that he might be fed and live at ease. They could 
 
a.d. 767. MOSLEM INTOLERANCE 25 
 
 advance no claim upon his forbearance or justice on 
 the ground of a common humanity. They had no 
 rights, either civil or religious, except such as were to 
 be found laid down in the Koran. At the first stirrings 
 of rebellion on their part, these rights disappeared; 
 and the precept of the Koran came into operation, 
 which ordered that the Faithful should strike off the 
 heads of the unbelievers and make a great slaughter 
 of them. Consequently, on the most insignificant pre- 
 texts, non-Muhammadan races have always been liable 
 to be savagely slaughtered by their Moslem masters. 
 The latter feel no more compunction in acting thus 
 than in crushing a fly. There is, indeed, a saying 
 reported of the Prophet, that " if God valued this 
 world at the wing of a fly, He would not allow an 
 unbeliever to obtain so much as a drink of water from 
 it." Whether the saying be authentic or not, the fact 
 of its existence is a proof of the fierce intolerance of 
 Islam. But so long as a subject people is submissive 
 and yielding to the exactions of the conquerors, the 
 Moslem feels no call to persecute them to the death on 
 the ground of their religion. It suffices to deprive 
 them of all political privileges, to subject them to a 
 constant sense of degradation; their unbelief, he is 
 contented to know, will be adequately punished in the 
 world to come. 
 
 In the first period of conquest, more than this was 
 forced upon the conquerors. Their notion of govern- 
 ment was, it is true, rigidly confined to the exaction of 
 tribute; but even for this, administrative machinery 
 was requisite, and the construction of such machinery 
 
•if, THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 was a work altogether beyond their capacity. They 
 had, therefore, to depend upon members of the subject 
 races to make good their own ignorance and inexperi- 
 ence. Multitudes of converts, also, swelled the ranks 
 of the new creed, attracted partly by self-interest, but 
 more by genuine conviction kindled by the spectacle of 
 its victorious strength. These new-comers, familiar as 
 they were with the laws of Justinian, at once recog- 
 nized the impossibility of providing for the needs of a 
 vast Empire out of the crude and elementary legisla- 
 tion contained in the Koran. At that time they were 
 debarred from enlarging this scanty supply by having 
 recourse to Traditions, as the collection of these had 
 not extended beyond Medina. The laws they required 
 must, in some way or other, be obtained from the 
 Koran, or they would carry no authority with them. 
 In this dilemma they seized upon the principle of 
 analogical development, and applied it to the sacred 
 volume. The vast code of laws which prevailed 
 throughout the territories of the Christian Emperor, 
 was affirmed by Greek jurisconsults to be merely a 
 growth from a much simpler stock — the Laws of the 
 Twelve Tables. What could thus be affirmed of the 
 Laws of the Twelve Tables, must assuredly be equally 
 true of the Word of God. In the Koran there was to 
 be found a solution for every difficulty that could 
 arise between man and man. This was manifest 
 from a multitude of texts ; as, for example, the follow- 
 ing — " For to that we have sent down the Book, which 
 cleareth up everything " (Sura xvi. 91) ; and again, 
 " Nothing have we passed over in the Book" (Sura v. 
 
A.D. 767. ANALOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. 27 
 
 38) ; " Neither is there a grain in the darknesses of 
 the earth, nor a thing green or sere, but it is noted in 
 a distinct writing " (Sura v. 59). There could be 
 no mistake, so thought the Faithful, as to the meaning 
 of these texts. They asserted iu the most emphatic 
 manner, that everything that could happen, had been 
 anticipated and provided for in the Koran. It had 
 been noted down in a distinct writing. Either then, 
 there was to be found a false statement in the Koran 
 — which was obviously impossible — or the Muhammadan 
 divines had not discovered the right method of inter- 
 preting the sacred book. They had, in fact, failed to 
 employ the principle of analogical deduction. The 
 Book of God, in laying down any proposition whatever, 
 established not merely the validity of that proposition, 
 but also the validity of every proposition that could be 
 logically deduced from it. Thus, it was written in the 
 Koran, " Honour thy father and thy mother, and cause 
 them no displeasure." Here the injunction to honour 
 clearly implied that to dishonour or disobey was a sin ; 
 and as in the Koran all breaches of the divine laws 
 carried with them an appropriate punishment, the due 
 punishment for this breach must, as it was not specially 
 provided for in the Koran, be found analogically. 
 Taking this principle as a basis, Abou Hanifa spun out 
 a complete legal system. His own teaching was oral ; 
 and it was by his disciples that his doctrines were in- 
 corporated in formal treatises. It was this system of 
 jurisprudence which prevailed at Baghdad during the 
 era of the Abbasides ; and it is to this day the most 
 widely spread of the four orthodox systems. The 
 
28 THE KHALIFS OP BAGHDAD. chap, i- 
 
 merit of logical fearlessness cannot be denied to it. 
 The wants and wishes of men, the previous history of 
 a country — all those considerations, in fact, which are 
 held in the West to be the governing principles of legis- 
 lation, are set aside by " the legists of Irak," as being 
 of no account whatever. Legislation is not a science 
 inductive and experimental, but logical and deductive. 
 It is built up from what may be termed, certain legal 
 axioms which have been divinely revealed ; and what- 
 ever can be logically deduced from any proposition to 
 be found in the Koran is to be considered as an integral 
 part of that proposition. Thus, there is a verse in the 
 Second Sura which says, " God has created the whole 
 earth for you" According to the Hanifite jurists, this 
 text is a deed of gift which annuls all other rights of 
 property. The "you" means, of course, the true 
 Believers ; and the whole earth has been created for 
 their use and benefit. The whole earth they then 
 classify under three heads : — (1) land which never had 
 an owner ; (2) land which had an owner and has been 
 abandoned ; (3) the persons and the property of the 
 Infidels. From this third division the same legists 
 deduce the legitimacy of slavery, piracy, and a state of 
 perpetual war between the Faithful and the unbelieving 
 world. These are all methods whereby the Moslem 
 enters into the possession of his God-given inheritance. 
 The Hanifite system of jurisprudence starts with this 
 proposition ; and it furnishes a very good illustration of 
 what I have just said on the subject of Muhammadan 
 toleration. The Moslem does not persecute a Christian 
 on account of his religion, because the difference of 
 
a.d. 767. THE EFFECT OF MOSLEM LAW. 29 
 
 religion makes the latter his slave. This single fact 
 throws a startling light on the causes of the decadence 
 of the Muhammadan world. Since the death of the 
 Prophet, Islam has not been a religion, so much as 
 a barbarous code of laws which consigns those who 
 reject them to hopeless political servitude, and scorn- 
 fully rejects all thought of improvement from within. 
 Wherever the Muhammadan conqueror penetrates, he 
 enforces this code in all its unmitigated barbarism. 
 All new converts are tied down upon this Procrustean 
 bed, and whatever in thought, feeling, or conviction 
 lies beyond its limits is ruthlessly cut away. It has 
 been urged in praise of Islam that it has proved more 
 potent than Christianity in eradicating national differ- 
 ences, and imposing upon all its votaries a single type 
 of character. Precisely this has been the reason of its 
 baneful power. It achieves uniformity, because intel- 
 lectual and moral stagnation follow in its wake. It 
 destroys diversities of character, because these are the 
 result of life and growth ; and within the sphere of 
 Islam life and growth are impossible. There is a 
 dismal identity in the decrepitude and corruption 
 existing in all Moslem lands which points unmistake- 
 ably to a common parentage. 
 
 Of Abou Hanifa and his jurisprudence it was said 
 that the world would never have heard of either but 
 for the abilities and zeal of the kadi Abou Yusuf, the 
 most eminent of his disciples. He first composed 
 works on the foundations of jurisprudence according 
 to the Hanifite system, and from the high favour he 
 enjoyed at the court of the khalif Haroun al Rashid 
 
30 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 made that system the prevailing one in Muhammadan 
 Asia. He was born in a humble station of life, and 
 gave the following account of his early relations with 
 Abou Hanifa : — " My father died leaving me an infant 
 in my mother's arms. Some time after, she put me to 
 service with a fuller, and I used to leave the shop of 
 my master and go to Abou Hanifa' s class, where I 
 would sit down and listen. My mother sometimes 
 came, took me by the hand, and led me back to the 
 fuller. My assiduity in attending Abou Hanifa's 
 lessons, and my zeal for acquiring knowledge, inte- 
 rested him in my favour. My mother finding at length 
 that these escapades of mine were too frequent and too 
 long, said to him, ' You alone are the ruin of this boy; 
 he is an orphan possessing nothing; I procure him 
 food with the produce of my spindle, and my sole hope 
 is that he may soon be able to gain a penny for his 
 own use.' Abou Hanifa answered her in these terms : 
 ' Go away, you silly, talkative woman ! your son is here 
 learning how to eat faludaj * with pistachio oil.' On 
 this she turned away from him, and went off saying, 
 ' You are an old dotard, and have lost your wits.' 
 
 From that time the future kadi was a regular and 
 attentive attendant at the great jurisconsult's class. 
 Abou Hanifa recognized his abilities, and assisted him 
 both with his encouragement and his money. On one 
 occasion, Abou Yusuf was taken so dangerously ill 
 that fears were entertained of his life. Abou Hanifa 
 went to visit him, accompanied by some friends ; and 
 on retiring, he put down his hand on the threshold of 
 
 * A cake or hard paste made of almonds and honey. 
 
A.D. 775. THE KADI ABOU YUSUF. 31 
 
 the door, and said, " If that youth die, the most learned 
 of those who are on that " — pointing to the ground— 
 " will disappear." Abou Hanifa was a speculative 
 jurisconsult, and nothing else. As I have already said, 
 he obstinately resisted all endeavours, on the part 
 either of khalifs or emirs, to put his legal knowledge 
 to any practical use. And he cared so little for the 
 history of Islam and the Prophet, that Abou Yusuf 
 himself said of him that if he had been asked which 
 battle took place first, Bedr or Ohod, he would have 
 been unable to give an answer. This indifference is to 
 be ascribed partly to his Persian origin. Abou Yusuf 
 was an Arab ; and he extended his studies far beyond 
 the principles of jurisprudence ; so that on arriving at 
 man's estate he knew by heart the explanations of the 
 Koran, and the "battle-days" of the Arabs, and was 
 deeply versed in Traditional lore as well. Law, it was 
 said, was the science of which he knew least. 
 
 His introduction to the khalif Haroun al Rashid 
 occurred in this way. A certain military chief, who 
 was afraid of having committed a perjury, was looking 
 about for a mufti whom he might consult in the matter. 
 Abou Yusuf, having been brought to him, declared that 
 the oath was not infringed ; and the officer bestowed 
 on him some gold pieces, and procured for him a house 
 near his own. Some days after, the officer went to visit 
 al Rashid, and finding him in low spirits, asked him the 
 cause of his sadness. The khalif replied that he was 
 afflicted about a religious matter, and desired to consult 
 some one skilled in the knowledge of the law. The 
 officer at once recommended Abou Yusuf, who was sent 
 
32 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 for ; and the interview which followed is thus related by 
 him : — " When I entered the alley which lies between 
 the two lines of houses forming the khalif's residence, 
 I saw a handsome youth of a princely appearance, con- 
 fined in a chamber. He made signs to me with his finger, 
 as if asking me to assist him, but I did not understand 
 what he wanted. When I was brought into the pre- 
 sence of al Rashid, and stood before him, he asked me 
 my name, and I answered, • Yakoub. May God favour 
 the Commander of the Faithful ! ' ' What say you,' 
 said he, ' of an Imam (khalif) who saw a man commit 
 adultery ? Must he inflict on him the punishment fixed 
 by law ? ' * I replied, 'No.' When I pronounced that 
 word, al Rashid prostrated himself on the floor ; so it 
 struck me that he had seen a member of his family 
 committing that act, and that the young man who 
 made signs to me was the guilty person. Al Rashid 
 then asked me on what authority I had pronounced my 
 decision, and I answered, ' From those words of the 
 Prophet — Reject the application of penalties in cases of 
 doubt. Now in this case there is a doubt which sup- 
 presses the penalty.' On this al Rashid said, ' How can 
 there be a doubt since the act was seen ? ' I answered, 
 ' Seeing is not more effective than knowing for authoriz- 
 ing the application of a penalty; and the simple knowing 
 of a crime is not sufficient to authorize its punishment. 
 Besides, no one is allowed to do justice to himself, even 
 
 * An adulterer cannot be punished unless four witnesses declare 
 that they saw him in the act. Here the question is, if the khalif, 
 as chief of the religion, had the right of inflicting the punishment, 
 because he witnessed the commission of the crime. 
 
a.d. 790. MOSLEM CASUISTRY. 33 
 
 though he knew that the right was on his side.' The 
 khalif made a second prostration, and then ordered me 
 a large sum of money. He told me also to remain in 
 the palace, and I did not leave it till a present was 
 brought to me from the young man, another from his 
 mother, and others from persons attached to his ser- 
 vice. That was the foundation of my fortune. I con- 
 tinued to remain at the palace, and one servant would 
 come to consult me on a case of conscience ; another 
 to ask my advice ; and I at length rose so high in al 
 Rashid's favour that he invested me with the kadiship 
 of Baghdad." 
 
 Abou Yusuf was the first who bore the title of chief 
 justice, or " kadi of the kadis " ; and he also was the 
 first who established a distinctive dress to distinguish 
 those learned in the law and theology from other 
 people. He was even considered a trustworthy Tradi- 
 tionist, though it was objected to him that he was far 
 too prone to set aside the Traditions in his legal deci- 
 sions, and resolve points of law by means of (so-called) 
 rational deduction, but which, in fact, destroyed the 
 law, under the pretence of obeying it. Thus, upon 
 one occasion, he was sent for by the khalif to find a 
 way of escape out of the following legal perplexity. 
 He found the khalif alone with one Isa ibn Jaafar. " I 
 sent for you," said Haroun, " so that you might receive 
 the declaration which I am going to make against this 
 man who is here. He possesses a slave girl. I asked 
 her from him as a present, and he refused ; I asked 
 him to sell her to me, and he refused. Now, by Allah, 
 if he do not consent to my demand, I shall put him to 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 death." On this, Yakoub turned towards Isa, and 
 said, " See what God has effected by means of a girl; 
 you refuse giving her to the Commander of the Faith- 
 ful, and are, therefore, reduced to this extremity." He 
 replied, " You have spoken before knowing what I have 
 to say. I am bound by oath to divorce my wife, to 
 liberate my slaves, and to distribute to the poor all I 
 possess, in case I sell that girl or give her away." Al 
 Rashid then turned towards Abou Yusuf, and said, 
 " Has he any means of getting out of that ? ' The 
 kadi intimated that he had. " How so ? " inquired the 
 khalif. " Let him," was the answer, " give you the 
 half of her, and sell you the other half; he will then 
 have neither given her nor sold her." This was accord- 
 ingly done, and both parties relieved from their per- 
 plexity. The ingenuity of Abou Yusuf was highly 
 applauded; but the orthodox shook their heads in 
 mingled displeasure and dismay.* 
 
 * There are numerous anecdotes of the khalif al Rashid and 
 the kadi Ahou Yusuf, which are exceedingly valuable, as pictures 
 of manners, to the student of Moslem history. The following is 
 too good to he omitted :—" Abd al Rahman was the kadi of al 
 Mubarak. The kadi having learned that al Rashid was going to 
 Basra in his barge with Abou Yusuf, requested the inhabitants of 
 his village to speak in praise of him when the khalif and Abou 
 Yusuf would be passing by. As they refused to do so, he put on 
 his outside clothes, with a high peaked cap, and a black scarf 
 thrown over it. He then went to the landing-place, and when the 
 barge approached, he bawled out, ' Commander of the Faithful ! we 
 have an excellent kadi, a kadi of sterling worth ! ' From that he 
 proceeded to another landing-place, and repeated the same words. 
 On this, al Rashid turned round to Abou Yusuf, and said, ' The 
 worst kadi on earth must be here ! A kadi who, in the place where 
 he resides, can find only one man to speak well of him ! ' Abou 
 Yusuf replied, ' The Commander of the Faithful would be still more 
 
a.d. 751 . MUHAMMAD IBN HASAN. 35 
 
 A second Hanifite doctor, second — if indeed lie can 
 be called second — only to the kadi Abou Yusuf, was 
 Muhammad ibn Hasan as Shaibani. He was born in 
 the town of Wasit, where he passed a part of his youth, 
 and acquired the rudiments of a knowledge of the Tra- 
 ditions. While yet a boy, he paid a visit to Mekka, 
 where he saw the Imam Malek ibn Anas. He one day 
 addressed to that doctor the following question : " If a 
 man in a state of legal impurity sees water at the hour 
 of prayer t nowhere except inside the mosque, what 
 ought he to do ? " Malek replied that he could not 
 enter the mosque. But pressed by the urgency of 
 the boy, he turned towards him, and said, " And what 
 is your opinion ? " "I think," replied the other, " that 
 he ought first to accomplish a dust purification, and 
 then, having entered the mosque, purify himself with 
 water." Astonished at the precocious wisdom of this 
 solution, Malek inquired of what country the boy was. 
 He pointed with his finger in the direction of Irak. 
 The Imam, supposing him to mean Medina, said, " I 
 know all the inhabitants of Medina, but I do not know 
 you." " That is not the only thing which you do not 
 know," said the boy, retiring. When Malek heard 
 the country from which he came, his astonishment was 
 redoubled. 
 
 surprised if he were told that it was the kadi who praised himself.' 
 Al Rashid laughed heartily, and said, 'He is a clever fellow, and 
 mast never he dismissed from office.' From that time, whenever 
 he thought of this kadi, he would say, ' That fellow shall never be 
 deposed.' Abou Yusuf was asked how he could have nominated 
 such a man, and he replied, ' He was for a long time a suitor at my 
 door, complaining of poverty, and I therefore gave him an appoint- 
 ment.' "—(Ibn Khali. Biog. Die, vol. iv. p. 282.) 
 
36 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Later on, Muhammad ibn Hasan attended the 
 classes of Abou Hanifa, and on the death of that great 
 doctor, he studied under the tuition of Abou Yusuf. 
 But very soon, becoming the equal and rival of his 
 master in learning, the friendly feelings which had 
 united them gave way to jealousies and open enmity. 
 The immediate occasion of this enmity is said to have 
 been given by the following incident. Every morning, 
 when the kadi Abou Yusuf repaired to the khalif's 
 palace, he found his road encumbered with a crowd of 
 eager students, all hurrying in the same direction. He 
 inquired whither they went ; and on being told they 
 attended the lectures of Muhammad ibn Hasan, he 
 exclaimed, " What ! is it possible that this man can 
 attract so many auditors ! But," he added, " should 
 he die of chagrin, I swear I will make the barbers and 
 pastrycooks of Baghdad as learned as he." He ac- 
 cordingly founded a school for instruction in jurispru- 
 dence. But his duties as kadi hindered him from 
 effectually realizing his project, while his rival con- 
 tinued to deliver discourses in the midst of a numerous 
 audience. So far, however, the rivalry between the 
 two doctors had only redounded to the benefit of 
 science. It speedily assumed a bitterer character. 
 The reputation of Muhammad reached the ears of the 
 khalif Haroun al Rashid, who desired to become 
 acquainted with so eminent a divine. The kadi, 
 fearing for his own court influence, entered upon a 
 series of intrigues to hinder the khalif and his rival 
 from meeting. These failed ; but they had the effect 
 of engendering a profound enmity between the doctors 
 
a.d. 804. MUHAMMAD IBN HASAN. 37 
 
 which lasted through, life. Tho khalif desired to 
 appoint Muhammad to act as kadi. This he declined ; 
 whereupon the khalif flung him into prison, when, 
 after a sojourn there of two months, he withdrew his 
 scruples ; and he continued to officiate as kadi till the 
 day of his death (a.h. 189, a.d. 804), which took place 
 about his fifty-fifth year. 
 
 Such was the ardour of Muhammad in the study of 
 jurisprudence, that he frequently deprived himself of 
 sleep, in order not to interrupt a work which had been 
 commenced. The Imam Shafi relates that he, upon 
 one occasion, passed the night in the same chamber as 
 Muhammad, and seeing the latter in a reclining atti- 
 tude, supposed him to be asleep. But on the morrow, 
 after morning prayer, Muhammad avowed that he had, 
 during that single night, deliberated on and decided 
 more than a thousand propositions. The Imam Shafi 
 held him in such high esteem, that he learned by heart 
 his most important book, entitled " Developments ;" 
 and the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal confessed to have 
 obtained light from the writings of Muhammad on the 
 obscurest and most subtle points of juristical science. 
 Muhammad was of course seen after his death in 
 a dream by one of his admirers. His disciple asked 
 what reward he had received from the Almighty. 
 " He has laden me with the benefits of His mercy, 
 and His divine Word spake to me as follows : ' 
 Muhammad ! if my supreme will had predestined you 
 to the torments of hell, should I have enclosed in your 
 heart the deepest secrets of the august science ? ' " It 
 was then asked of the shade, what had happened to 
 
38 THE KALIPHS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Abou Yusuf. " He has," was the reply, " an elevated 
 station in Paradise ; but there is between us a distance 
 equal to the distance between heaven and earth." 
 " And Abou Hanifa ? " " Oh ! " he replied, " he has 
 obtained the first station among the beatified denizens 
 of the seventh heaven." 
 
 The writings of this jurisconsult are said to have 
 numbered no less than a thousand. The greatest 
 among these is the Jami as Sagliir, the authority of 
 which was such wherever the Hanifite system prevailed, 
 that no man was considered worthy to be appointed to 
 the office of kadi who had not thoroughly mastered its 
 
 contents. 
 
 The third of the great Muhammadan jurists was 
 the Imam as Shafi. He was a member of the tribe of 
 Knraish, and belonged to the family of the Prophet. 
 As Shafi was born a.h. 150 (a.d. 767-68), on the day, 
 it is said, on which Abou Hanifa died. He passed his 
 youth at Mekka, when he learned the Koran by heart, 
 as also " The Beaten Path." He then went to take 
 lessons from the Imam Malek, who told him to go to 
 some person who would repeat the Muwatta to him. 
 The youth replied that he had already acquired a per- 
 fect knowledge of it. Delighted with this signal mark 
 of youthful zeal and piety, the venerable Imam is 
 reported to have said, " If any person is ever to pros- 
 per, it is this youth." In his forty-fifth year (a.h. 196, 
 a.d. 810) as Shafi went to Baghdad, and having 
 passed two years in that city, he returned to Mekka. 
 In a.h. 198 he again went to Baghdad, and after a 
 month's residence there, he set out for old Kairo, 
 
a.i). 820. AS SHAFI. 39 
 
 where he remained till his death (a.h. 204, a.d. 820). 
 As Shafi, we are told, " stood unrivalled for his abun- 
 dant merits." He knew all that was to be known in 
 those days : to wit, all the sciences connected with the 
 Book of God, and the Traditions: the sayings of the 
 Companions ; their history ; the conflicting opinions 
 of the learned; the language of the desert Arabs, 
 philology, grammar, and poetry. He had no heartier 
 admirer than Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the fourth of the four 
 great Imams. " Never," he said, " for the last thirty 
 years have I passed a night without praying God's 
 mercies and blessings upon as Shafi." "Whoever," 
 said another eminent jurist, " pretends that he saw the 
 like of as Shafi for learning, elegance of language, 
 general knowledge, and solid information, is a liar. 
 He lived without a rival, and on his death he left none 
 to replace him ! " 
 
 As Shafi was an eclectic. He first acquired a 
 thorough knowledge of the systems of Malek and Abou 
 Hanifa, and then built up his own from the materials 
 obtained from both ; leaning, however, more to the 
 historical and traditional precedents of Malek, than to 
 the deductive methods of Abou Hanifa. The chief seat 
 of his system was Egypt, in the capital of which place 
 he had passed so much of his life, and where his tomb 
 was speedily considered a sacred spot by the Faithful, 
 and much visited by devout pilgrims. But schools to 
 teach the doctrines of as Shafi were also common in 
 Irak, Khorasan, and the regions beyond the Oxus ; and 
 in all the great cities of Asia, the Shafite doctors 
 shared with those of the Hanifite schools the privilege 
 
40 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 of teaching and giving opinions on questions of law. 
 There were also frequent meetings between the jurists 
 of the rival schools in order to maintain and discuss 
 their systems. These debates gave rise to a large 
 mass of controversial literature, and engendered be- 
 tween the sects a deep and bitter hatred. The Persian 
 historian, Mirkhond, has recorded a fact which shows 
 how implacable the feeling had become towards the 
 close of the khalifate. When the Mongols of Chengiz 
 Khan appeared before the city of Rhe, they found 
 it divided into two factions— the one composed of 
 Shafites, the other of Hanifites. The former at once 
 entered into secret negotiations undertaking to deliver 
 up the city at night, on condition that the Mongols 
 massacred the members of the other sect. The Mon- 
 gols, never reluctant to shed blood, gladly accepted 
 these proposals, and being admitted into the city, 
 slaughtered the Hanifites without mercy. But the 
 Shafites derived no benefit from this astute stroke of 
 policy. A Mongol was an animal who thirsted for 
 blood, as a famished shark for prey. The spectacle of 
 so many Shafites sound and well very soon became 
 intolerable. A few days after the surrender of the 
 town the work of murder recommenced, and the 
 streets of Rhe were piled up with the carcases of 
 Shafites and Hanifites indiscriminately put to the 
 sword. 
 
 The fourth and last of the great orthodox Imams 
 was Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He was born either at Merou 
 or Baghdad, in the year 164 (a.d. 780). He was a 
 pupil and favourite of as Shafi, who said of him, when 
 
a.d. 812. AHMAD IBN HANBAL. 41 
 
 leaving Baghdad for Egypt, " I went forth from Bagh- 
 dad, and did not leave behind me a more pious man, 
 or a better jurisconsult, than Ibn Hanbal." Ibn 
 Hanbal, as we have seen, repaid this good opinion 
 with an equal warmth of admiration. His own doc- 
 trines differed from those of as Shafi, in that he alto- 
 gether discarded the principle of deduction, which he 
 considered a profane interposition of merely human 
 speculation in place of the divinely-revealed law. And 
 so much importance did he attach to this difference, 
 that he forbade his pupils to attend the lectures of as 
 Shafi. Nevertheless, he was himself discovered by a 
 disciple reverentially following upon foot as Shafi, who 
 was riding upon a mule. Surprised at the seeming 
 inconsistency, the disciple exclaimed, " Abou Abd- 
 allah ! you forbade us to frequent him, and you your- 
 self are walking after him !" To which the Imam 
 replied, " Silence ! if I even kept company with his 
 mule, I should profit by it." 
 
 Ahmad ibn Hanbal was a handsome man, of middle 
 size, having his hair dyed of a light red colour with 
 henna, and a few black hairs appearing in his white 
 beard. In Baghdad, he had not his equal in learning 
 and piety ; and all the pious and good among the 
 citizens of the great city came to him in their spiritual 
 perplexities to seek for light and consolation. Baghdad 
 was then at the very height of its transitory glory. 
 The wealth of all the world flowed into its crowded 
 bazaars. The khalifs lived in the midst of all that 
 luxury and pomp which have since become proverbial. 
 Their palaces, and the palaces of the great nobles, 
 
42 THE KHALIFS OF BA.GHDA.D. chap. i. 
 
 blazed with gold and silver, and rang with the laughter 
 of singing girls and the profane harmonies of musical 
 instruments. But then, as always, luxury at one end 
 of the scale produced an excessive asceticism and a 
 puritanical spirit at the other. Living in poverty, in 
 the remote lanes and alleys of the great city, were holy 
 men and women, eager for the purity of Islam, and 
 shocked by the corruption of the times. All such 
 looked up to Ibn Hanbal as their guide and their 
 preceptor. And the inquiries addressed to him are as 
 a flash of light illuminating the recesses of this 
 religious world. 
 
 Among the holy men of Baghdad was one Bishr 
 ibn al Harith, surnamed " the Barefooted." He had 
 acquired his cognomen from the following circum- 
 stance : — The latchet of one of his shoes having been 
 broken, he went for another to the shoemaker, who 
 said to him, ' How full you are of worldly considera- 
 tion !' " On this Bishr threw away the shoe he held in 
 his hand, and kicked the other off his foot, making a 
 vow never to wear shoes again. There is a remark 
 recorded of this man, which was evidently prompted 
 by the hard and shallow casuistry of the jurisconsults 
 of his time. " The punishment of the learned man in 
 this world is blindness of heart." Bishr had a sister, 
 Mudgha, not less remarkable than himself, for the 
 devout austerity of her life. Concerning her, the son of 
 Ibn Hanbal relates as follows : — " A woman came in 
 to my father and said, ' Abou Abdallah ! I spin at 
 night by candlelight, and, as it sometimes happens my 
 candle goes out, I spin by the light of the moon ; is it 
 
A.D. 814. AHMAD IBN HANBAL. 43 
 
 incumbent upon me to separate the portion spun by 
 the light of the candle from that spun by the light of 
 the moon ?' To this my father answered, ' If you think 
 there is difference between them, it is incumbent upon 
 you to separate them.' * She then said, ' Abou 
 Abdallah ! are the groans of a sick person a repining 
 against Providence ?' To which he answered, ' I hope 
 not; it is rather a request addressed to God.' The 
 woman then withdrew, and my father said, ' I never 
 heard such a question made ; follow her.' I followed 
 her, therefore, and saw her enter the house of Bishr 
 the Barefooted. ' You are right,' said my father ; 
 
 * The meaning of this inquiry needs explanation. The Prophet 
 required that from all the property belonging to a Moslem, a tenth 
 should be set aside as the legal alms. The punishment for omitting 
 to deduct this tenth from any part of his wealth brought down 
 upon the offender a punishment which is thus described in a Tradi- 
 tion. " To whomsoever God gives wealth, and he does not perform 
 the charity due from it, his wealth will be made into the shape of a 
 serpent on the day of resurrection, which shall not have any hair 
 upon its head, and this is a sign of its poison and long life ; and it 
 has two black spots upon its eyes, and it will be twisted round his 
 neck like a chain on the day of resurrection ; then the serpent will 
 seize the man's jawbones, and will say, ' I am the wealth, the 
 charity for which thou didst not give, and I am thy treasure for 
 which thou didst not separate any alms.' " Another Tradition relates 
 as follows : — " Verily two women came to the Prophet, each having 
 a bracelet of gold on her arm, and the Prophet said, ' Do ye perform 
 the alms for them ?' They said, ' We do not.' Then the Prophet 
 said to them, ' Do you wish that God should cause you to wear hell 
 fire in place of them ?' They said, ' No.' Then he said, 'Perform 
 the alms for them.' " Now, in the case of the sister of Bishr, the 
 cotton she spun by the light of the moon would be spun at less cost 
 than that which had the value of a candle expended upon it; a 
 larger deduction, therefore, would have to be made from the price 
 obtained for the former cotton, on account of the legal alms, than 
 from the cotton spun by candlelight. 
 
44 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. r. 
 
 ' it is impossible that this woman could have been any- 
 other than Bishr's sister.' " 
 
 The system of jurisprudence taught by Ahmad ibn 
 Hanbal never extended to any great degree beyond 
 the precincts of Baghdad, and is now almost wholly 
 obsolete. It was, both in its theological and legal 
 aspects, a reaction from the lax spirit of the age. The 
 khalif Mamoun ruled at that time in Baghdad, and 
 the authority of revelation was subordinated to the 
 higher law of reason. The treasures of Greek learning 
 and philosophy were, by means of translations, revealed 
 to the admiring contemplation of the Faithful ; and 
 the logic of Aristotle was fearlessly applied to prune 
 and shape the theology of the Koran into a system 
 harmonizing with the voice of the conscience. The 
 court jurisconsults were men of the school of Abou 
 Hanifa. Many of them were notorious for their open 
 and shameless profligacy; and by the extreme elas- 
 ticity which the principle of analogical deduction 
 acquired in their hands, they found no difficulty in 
 making the rigid doctrines of the Koran connive at the 
 most wanton excesses of arbitrary power, and pander 
 to the licentious passions of khalifs and governors. 
 Strict Muhammadans beheld these things with terror 
 and perplexity. In the logical crucible of the scholastic 
 theologians, it seemed as though, for the God of the 
 Koran — that sublime and awe-inspiring personality — 
 the Faithful were to rest satisfied with a vague and 
 misty Theism. Under the elastic manipulation of the 
 court jurists, all the divinely-revealed precepts of 
 Islam were being replaced by the fantastic results of 
 
a.d. 814. AHMAD IBN HANBAL. 45 
 
 human speculation. By both, the fundamental tenet 
 of the Muhammadan faith was directly set at nought, 
 and the mind of man placed on a level with the written 
 word, as possessing an innate capacity for the discern- 
 ment of truth. Unless this heresy was destroyed at its 
 birth, the religion of Islam must inevitably perish, for 
 resignation to the revealed will of God was incompatible 
 with a right to criticise that revelation, and reject 
 whatever was out of harmony with the criticising 
 faculty. The battle against the theological rationalists 
 I shall have to describe in a future chapter ; that with 
 the deductive jurisconsults is what I am concerned 
 with at present. 
 
 Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his disciples perceived that 
 from the Koran alone it was not possible to provide for 
 the legislative wants of a great empire. Unless, there- 
 fore, they could supplement this by means of some 
 complementary revelation, there was no escape from 
 an appeal to the unassisted human reason. The 
 jurisprudence of Malek ibn Anas was founded upon 
 " the customs of Medina." The principle here was 
 undeniably sound. A polity regulated by " the cus- 
 toms of Medina " would, in other words, be regulated 
 by the example of the Prophet. But, unhappily, the 
 practices which sufficed for a primitive Arab city did 
 not suffice for the vast concourse of human beings 
 which thronged the streets of Baghdad. Where, then, 
 was to be found this supplementary revelation ? In 
 the Traditions. These, since the days of Malek ibn 
 Anas, had increased enormously in number and im- 
 portance ; and from these the Imam conceived that a 
 
40 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 complete legal system might be constructed, which, 
 reposing, in every particular, on prophetic authority, 
 would render the appeal to human reason idle and 
 superfluous. To this conviction the Muhammadan 
 world is indebted for those huge and laborious collec- 
 tions of Traditions — those melancholy monuments of 
 misdirected energy and devotion, beneath whose tre- 
 mendous weight, reason, thought, freedom, and pro- 
 gress have literally been crusjied to death. 
 
47 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE TEADITIONS. 
 a.d. 632-870. 
 
 A " Tradition " is a recital containing a sentence or 
 a declaration of Muhammad regarding some religious 
 question, either moral, ceremonial, or theological. 
 The Muhammadan belief is, that before the Throne of 
 God there stands a "preserved Table," on which all 
 that can happen, and all that has ever entered, or will 
 enter the mind of man, is " noted in a distinct writing." 
 Through the medium of the Archangel Gabriel, the 
 Prophet had access whenever he pleased to the records 
 inscribed on the " preserved Table." Consequently, 
 in all decisions enumerated by him, it was not he that 
 spoke, but the word of God as written upon the ever- 
 lasting Table. Likewise, so, in all his religious acts. 
 His method of praying, his method of making ablutions, 
 his method even of cleaning his teeth — in short, in all 
 that he did, there was nothing arbitrary, nothing that 
 resulted from mere human caprice. The Prophet was 
 a divinely-revealed type and exemplar for the strict 
 and faithful imitation of all his followers. The Tra- 
 ditions are the records of all that he said or did, orally 
 handed down. Sometimes a Tradition contains a dis- 
 
48 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. 11. 
 
 tinct injunction or prohibition ; sometimes it merely 
 preserves the account of an act by which the Prophet 
 had attracted the attention of his companions ; some- 
 times it records the guarded silence of the legislator 
 with regard to certain cases presented to him — such 
 silence being held equivalent to a formal approbation. 
 The great Traditionists in the beginning of Islam were 
 Ayesha, the favourite wife of the Prophet; the four 
 "rightly- directed " khalifs, and six of the Companions 
 known as "the Evangelists of Islam." These Tra- 
 ditionists transmitted their knowledge to their dis- 
 ciples — the Tabis, as they were called — and these to 
 the next generation, and so on, as long as the practice 
 of oral transmission continued. To prevent the manu- 
 facture of spurious Traditions, a number of strict rules 
 were laid down. First in importance came, of course, 
 the inevitable Tradition having reference to this very 
 subject. "Whoever," so the Prophet was reported 
 to have said, " shall relate, as from me, a saying which 
 is not mine, may prepare a sitting-place for himself in 
 hell-fire." To enforce this command, it was laid down 
 that he who had learned a Tradition was under a solemn 
 obligation when repeating it, to do so without adding 
 to or taking from its contents in the smallest particular. 
 Every Tradition, moreover, was to be repeated with its 
 isnad, or chain of authorities, which attached it to its 
 fountain-head, and vouched for its authenticity. A 
 Tradition apart from this isnad was of no value. In 
 order that the isnad be good, it was necessary that the 
 names included in it should be those of men dis- 
 tinguished for integrity, piety, and a retentive memory. 
 
a.d. 682. ABOU HORAIRA. 49 
 
 It was also essential that the transmitters of a tradition 
 should ascend in an unbroken line to the Prophet; and 
 that the tradition itself should be free from anachron- 
 isms. But despite of all precautions, there soon sprang 
 up a brisk manufacture of forged traditions, which, as 
 years rolled on, assumed larger and larger dimensions. 
 The verdict of an authentic tradition being admitted 
 by all as final and decisive, the temptation to solve all 
 difficulties by this simple expedient was too strong to 
 be resisted. The earliest, and in truth, the heaviest 
 offender was Abou Horaira, one of the M six evange- 
 lists." The traditions resting on his authority are 
 much more numerous than those reported by any 
 other person. The greater number of them are mani- 
 festly false. They consist of miracles worked by the 
 Prophet, of wild legends regarding Antichrists, and 
 the end of the world, the ride to Heaven on the beast 
 " Borak," and other similar matters. Even the ready 
 credulity of the Arabs appears to have been staggered 
 by this extraordinary flow of knowledge ; and his 
 pupils ventured to inquire, how it was that he, who 
 had not been one of the chief among the Prophet's 
 friends, should yet know more than all of them put 
 together. To this the veracious , chronicler made 
 answer as follows : — 
 
 " Verily ye say that Abou Horaira has related many traditions 
 from His Majesty ; but if I have related more or less, God will 
 reward me for it at the day of resurrection. Verily, my brethren 
 the refugees were prevented from attending His Majesty by tillage 
 and their gardens, and by driving out their camels and goats ; and 
 I was a poor man always waiting upon His Majesty, and contented 
 myself with that which assuaged my hunger. And I heard his 
 
 4 
 
50 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 sayings, and saw his actions. His Majesty said one day, 'Whoever 
 spreads his cloth for me, to pray for my sayings being remembered, 
 and after that takes it, and presses it to his breast, never will forget 
 any part of them.' Then I spread a blanket, which was the only 
 thing I had upon my body ; and His Majesty prayed upon it ; after 
 which I put it to my breast ; and by God who sent Muhammad in 
 truth, I have not forgot to this day what I heard His Majesty say." 
 
 There must have been many of the Companions and 
 their disciples who knew that Abou Horaira was an 
 egregious liar, and his Traditions fabrications. But 
 no one cared or dared to question their authenticity ; 
 and the example set by so distinguished a companion 
 and evangelist was, of course, eagerly imitated by 
 others. Sunni, Sliia, and Separatist — each of these 
 sects with their subdivisions — supplied themselves 
 with a collection of Traditions which confirmed and 
 ratified their several doctrines. Certain eminent 
 Muhammadans became specially notorious for their 
 skill in the manufacture of Traditions. Among these 
 was Mouhalleb, the great Arab general, who, after long 
 struggles, succeeded in breaking the power of the 
 Separatists. In these campaigns, the monotony of 
 fio-hting was largely diversified by theological contro- 
 versy ; and Mouhalleb was continually confounding his 
 opponents by the invention of Traditions, accompanied 
 by all the external signs of authenticity, which em- 
 phatically condemned their opinions. This practice he 
 defended on the authority of two Traditions — one which 
 said that " war consists of stratagems and deceits ; ' 
 and the other to the following purport, " Every lie 
 shall be written down as a lie by the recording angels, 
 with the exception of three : a lie told in order to 
 
a.d. 700. GROWTH OF TRADITIONS. 51 
 
 reconcile two men, a lying promise made by a man to 
 his wife, and a lie in which a man engaged in war 
 makes a promise or a threat." Another — a less known 
 forger— confessed, before his execution, that he had 
 thrown into circulation no less than four thousand 
 forged Traditions. The desire to ingratiate oneself 
 with the reigning khalif was also a very strong motive 
 for the indulgence of this practice. Thus the following 
 is related of the kadi Wahb ibn Wahb, whose forgeries 
 were so notorious that Ahmad ibn Hanbal was wont to 
 speak of him as " that liar." When the khalif Haroun 
 al Rashid arrived at Medina, he abstained from 
 ascending the Prophet's pulpit because he still had on 
 him his travelling jacket (Jcabd) and sword-belt. The 
 courtly kadi entreated him not to allow this to hinder 
 him, and cited, in support of his advice, a Tradition to 
 this effect — " Gabriel, on whom be the blessing of 
 God, descended from heaven to the Prophet, and he 
 had upon him a Jcaba, and a belt furnished with a 
 sword." 
 
 Independently, however, of conscious mendacity, 
 the immense accumulation of Traditions was in the 
 main the result of simple gossip. It grew up in the 
 great standing encampments of Persia, Syria, Mesopo- 
 tamia, and Egypt, where, after the conquest of a 
 province, the Arab tribes were drawn together to keep 
 order and repel invasion. In these encampments, 
 during the intervals of active service, the thoughts of 
 men naturally reverted to the Prophet who had launched 
 them forth upon this astounding career of carnage and 
 conquest. Those who had seen the Prophet found 
 
52 THE KHALTFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 eager listeners wherever they went. The stories they 
 related passed from lip to lip, losing nothing in the 
 process of transmission ; and so it came to pass that 
 each of the great Mnhammadan cities of Asia — Koufa, 
 Basra, Damascus, Jerusalem, Meron, Herat — became 
 possessed of a body of Traditions, which were handed 
 on orally by masters to their pupils. But no attempt 
 was made to sift and criticise this immense accumula- 
 tion of anecdotes. Millions of Traditions floated amid 
 the Faithful ; tens of thousands of these were pure 
 forgeries, and hundreds of thousands of them were 
 contradictory. None knew how to discriminate be- 
 tween the true and the false, or how to ascertain the 
 " abrogating" Traditions, from those which were abro- 
 gated by them. Abou Hanifa and the "legists of 
 Irak " had proposed to get rid of the difficulty by 
 setting aside the entire mass of traditional literature, 
 and deducing their jurisprudence exclusively from the 
 Koran. But the verbal quibbling and legalized im- 
 morality* in which their practice had resulted, had 
 occasioned the strong reaction in favour of the Tradi- 
 tions, at the head of which stood the Imam Ahmad ibn 
 
 * I give an example by way of illustration. " Haroun al Rashid, 
 
 having one day declared with an oath that he himself was one of 
 
 those who were to enter Paradise, consulted doctors of the law on 
 
 the subject. None of them opined that he was one of those persons, 
 
 and, as Ibn as Sammak's name was then mentioned to him, he 
 
 had him called in, and asked his opinion. Ibn as Sammak proposed 
 
 to him this question, ' Had the Commander of the Faithful evei 
 
 the occasion of committing an act of disobedience towards God, 
 
 and abstained from it through fear of offending Him ? ' ' Yes,' 
 
 said al Rashid, ' in my youth, I fell in love with a slave-girl 
 
 belonging to a person in my service, and having once found a 
 
a.d. 810. AHMAD IBN HANBAL. 53 
 
 Hanbal. "When," said one of the Imam's disciples, 
 " the horseman of the Traditions gallops about in the 
 hippodrome of contestation, the heads of analogical 
 deductions are struck off and given to the winds." 
 But, in order to provide " the horseman of the Tradi- 
 tions " with weapons that should not snap in the using, 
 it was necessary that the great mass of Traditions should 
 be collected, and by the application of a severe and 
 searching criticism, the authentic separated from the 
 spurious. This was the task which devout men now 
 set before themselves as their life-work. Undeterred 
 by the dangers and hardships of travel, they journeyed 
 through all the provinces of the Muhammadan world — 
 devoting twenty and thirty years of their life to this 
 laborious enterprise — and made complete collections of 
 all the Traditions they found among the people. These 
 they then subjected to critical tests, discarding those 
 which were wholly false, and rearranging the rest 
 according to the degree of credibility attaching to each 
 Tradition. 
 
 Abou Daoud Sulaiman, a member of the tribe of 
 Azd, was one of the first of these devoted men. He 
 
 favourable opportunity, I resolved on committing with her the evil 
 deed, but reflecting on the fire of hell and its terrors, and recollecting 
 that fornication was one of the grievous sins, I abstained from the 
 girl through fear of Almighty God.' ' Then, let the Commander of 
 the Faithful rejoice ! thou art one of those who shall enter Paradise,' 
 said Ibn as Sammak. ' How,' said al Rashid, ' dost thou know 
 that ? ' ' From the words of the Almighty Himself,' replied the 
 other j ' He has said, ' But whoever shall have dreaded the ajt/iearina 
 before his Lord, and shall have restrained his soul from lust, verily 
 Paradise shall be his abode ' (Sura Ixxix. 40). These words gave 
 al Rashid great joy." — (Ibn. Khali. Biog. Die, vol. iii., p. 19.) 
 
54 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 travelled through Irak, Khorasan, Syria, and Egypt ; 
 visiting all the principal cities, and taking down in 
 writing the Traditions in use among the doctors resi- 
 dent in each of them. The book thus compiled he 
 presented to the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Speaking 
 of this work, Abou Daoud said : — 
 
 " I wrote down five hundred thousand Traditions respecting 
 the Prophet, from which I selected these, to the number of four 
 thousand eight hundred, which are contained in this book. I 
 have mentioned herein the authentic, those which seem to be so ; 
 and those which are nearly so ; but of them all a man only requires 
 four for his religious conduct — the first, those words of the Prophet, 
 'Deeds are to be judged by the intentions;' the second, 'A proof 
 of man's sincerity in Islamism is his abstaining from what concerns 
 him not ; ' the third, ' The believer is not truly a believer until he 
 desireth for his brother that which he desireth for .himself ; ' the 
 fourth, ' The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear, but between 
 them are things doubtful.' " 
 
 This excellent man was born a.h. 202 (a.d. 817-818), 
 and died at Basra a.h. 275 (a.d. 889). 
 
 Another eminent Traditionist, contemporary with 
 Abou Daoud, was Yahya ibn Maiu. He devoted his 
 entire life to the collection of Traditions, and the 
 sifting of the false from the true. His father had left 
 him a fortune equivalent, in our money, to the sum of 
 twenty thousand pounds. The whole of this He 
 expended upon his life-work, and brought himself 
 thereby to such destitution, that he had not a shoe to 
 put on. He wrote down six hundred thousand Tra- 
 ditions with his own hand; and the relaters of 
 Traditions are said to have written down for him as 
 many more. Referring to these labours, he said, " I 
 wrote down quantities of Traditions under the dictation 
 
a.d. 818. YAHYA IBN MAIU. 55 
 
 of liars, and made use of the paper for heating my 
 oven. I thus obtained at least one advantage — bread 
 well baked." On his death he left one hundred and 
 thirty cases, and four water-jar stands filled with 
 books. He was a great master in what was techni- 
 cally called, " The art of improbation and justifica- 
 tion." This art had for object to determine the 
 degree of credibility attaching to individual reporters 
 of Traditions, by a close investigation of their lives, 
 and the reputation they had acquired for good conduct, 
 piety, veracity, exactness, and a retentive memory. A 
 close friendship existed between Yahya, and the Imam 
 ibn Hanbal, and they studied together all the sciences 
 connected with the Traditions. The latter affirmed of 
 his friend that God had created him for the purpose 
 of exposing the falsehoods of lying Traditionists ; and 
 that every Tradition unknown to Yahya ibn Maiu 
 might be regarded as false on that account alone. 
 Yahya departed this life in his seventy- seventh year 
 (a.m. 233). He had been at Mekka, and when return- 
 ing to Baghdad, the city where he dwelt, he visited 
 Medina, and abode there three days. He then set out 
 once more with his fellow-travellers ; but at the first 
 halting-place he had a dream, in which he heard a 
 voice calling to him, and saying, " Abou Zakariya ! 
 dost thou then dislike my neighbourhood ? ' When 
 the morning came, he said to his companions, " Con- 
 tinue your journey ; as for me, I return to Medina." 
 They did so, while he went back to the city, where he 
 passed three days, and then died. His corpse was 
 borne to the grave on the bier which had been used on 
 
56 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 the occasion of the Prophet's burial; and a man pre- 
 ceded the funeral train, crying out, " This is he who 
 expelled falsehoods from the Traditions left by the 
 Prophet of God." 
 
 Among the pupils of Yahya ibn Maiu, there were 
 two, upon whom his spirit descended in an eminent 
 degree. They were Muhammad ibn Ismail al Bok- 
 hari, and Muslim ibn al Hajjaj. " I saw in a dream," 
 we are told by al Bokhari, " the Prophet of God, from 
 whom I brushed away the flies. When I awoke, I 
 inquired from one skilled in the interpretation of 
 dreams, the meaning of the vision. He said to me, 
 " You shall keep lies from him." Thus encouraged, 
 he set out from Baghdad, and journeyed to all the 
 great cities of Khorasan, Irak, Hejaz, Syria, and 
 Egypt, collecting traditional information from the 
 doctors resident there. Sixteen years of his life were 
 devoted to this pious work. " I never," he said, 
 " inserted a Tradition in my collection till after I had 
 made an ablution and offered up a prayer of two 
 rakats." On his return to Baghdad, whither his fame 
 had preceded him, the doctors and jurists of that city 
 determined to put his knowledge to a severe test. 
 They selected one hundred Traditions, and prefixed to 
 each a wrong isnad. These they gave by tens to ten 
 different persons, whom they directed to attend the 
 conference held by al Bokhari, and submit to him these 
 Traditions, and see what judgment he would pronounce 
 upon them. When the appointed day came, a great 
 number of Traditionists from Khorasan proceeded with 
 those of Baghdad to the meeting. The assembly 
 
a.d. 85U. ISMAIL AL BOKHARI. 57 
 
 having taken their places, the ten came forward one 
 after the other, and questioned al Bokhari regardicg 
 the Traditions which had been given to them. He 
 listened while he recited them, making no other 
 answer to each but " I am not acquainted with it." 
 But when the whole hundred had been repeated, he 
 took up his parable, and affixing to each Tradition 
 the correct isnad belonging to it, repeated the whole 
 hundred in succession.* The assembly were filled 
 
 * Muhammadan history abounds with examples of the enormous 
 value attached by Moslem divines to an exact and tenacious memory. 
 The reason of this is explained at the close of the present chapter. 
 Meanwhile, the following anecdote is a curious illustration of the 
 fact, and serves also to exhibit the degree and kind of knowledge 
 demanded of a good Traditionisfc. Abou Sulaiman Dawud, an 
 eminent jurisconsult, relates as follows :— " There came one day to 
 my public conferences a native of Basra, whose name was Abou 
 Yakub as Shariti. He was dressed in two ragged cloaks, and 
 having advanced of his own accord to the place of honour, without 
 being invited to take it, he sat down by my side and said, ' Question 
 me about what you please.' As I was almost provoked by his con- 
 duct, I told him sueeringly to treat of cupping. He immediately 
 invoked the benediction of God, and related the mode in which this 
 Tradition had been handed down : He who cups and he who is cupped 
 in the month of Ramadan have broken the fast. He then gave the names 
 of the Traditionists who traced it up as far as the Talis ; of those 
 who traced it up through an uninterrupted succession of narrators 
 to Muhammad himself; of those who explained it ; and of the juris- 
 consults who cited it as an authority for their doctrines. He then 
 stated the various channels through which the following Tradition 
 has passed duwn : The blessed Prophet was cupped, and he gave the 
 cupper his pay ; and were cupping a thing forbidden, he had not given 
 it to him. He next related the different modes of transmission by 
 which this other Tradition was received : The Prophet was cupped 
 with a horn. He mentioned also other genuine Traditions I'espectino- 
 cupping, and 6ome of middling authenticity, such as these : I passed 
 not by any band of the angels without their saying, Order thy people to 
 use cupping. — The healing of my people is by three means : cupping, 
 
58 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 with admiration; and from that day his reputation 
 and influence were secure. He became the great 
 Imam of the science of Traditions, and ninety thou- 
 sand persons are said to have attended his lectures and 
 studied under him. 
 
 Al Bokhari was of Persian extraction, and his 
 grandfather was the first member of his family who 
 became a convert to Islam. Al Bokhari was born 
 a.h. 194" (a.d. 810), and died a.h. 256 (a.d. 870). 
 The collection of Traditions made by al Bokhari is 
 known as the " authentic collection," and it is 
 regarded as the highest in point of authority of the six 
 books of Traditions which are accepted by Muham- 
 madan orthodoxy. Out of a mass of six hundred 
 thousand Traditions, he made selection of seven thou- 
 sand two hundred as valid. But defects of method in 
 the arrangement of his book rendered it so bewildering 
 and difficult for purposes of consultation, that a fresh 
 collection, on an improved and simpler plan, was 
 undertaken and effected by his friend and fellow-pupil, 
 Muslim. The learned among the Muhammadans, for 
 all practical purposes, give the preference to this 
 collection. They do so because the author has been 
 careful to excise all "weak" Traditions, several of 
 
 drinking honey, and cauterizing with fire, and others of a like import. 
 He then gave the Traditions of feeble authenticity, as, for instance : 
 Be not cupped on such and such a day ; at such and such an hour. 
 After which he mentioned the opinions expressed by physicians of 
 every age on the subject ; and he concluded his discourse with the 
 remark that cupping originated at Ispahan. I then said to 
 him, ' By Allah ! I shall never scorn any person again.' " — Ibn 
 Khali, vol. i., pp. 501, 502. 
 
a.d. 870. ISMAIL AL BOKHARI. 59 
 
 which al Bokhari had allowed inadvertently to remain 
 in his work ; and also because the headings of the 
 chapters indicate more clearly the character of the 
 Traditions grouped under each than was the case in 
 the collection of al Bokhari. 
 
 All the men above mentioned were the friends and 
 contemporaries of the fourth Imam. They are only a 
 few out of many who might be named, as engaging in 
 this laborious work of collecting and sifting Traditions. 
 But they will suffice to prove what I said some pages 
 back, that the system of Ahmad ibn Hanbal was the 
 result of accidental circumstances. He himself was a 
 diligent collector of Traditions, and composed a Masnad 
 of authenticated Traditions more copious than any 
 which had been made up to that time. He is said to 
 have known by heart one million of Traditions ; and 
 how largely his system of jurisprudence was based 
 upon traditional authority, a single fact will suffice to 
 show. While Abou Hanifa admitted as authentic only 
 eighteen Traditions, and Malek ibn Anas made use of 
 three hundred, Ahmad ibn Hanbal incorporated into 
 his system no less than thirty thousand. That system, 
 as I have said, is now almost wholly obsolete ; but the 
 Traditions, on which it is based, have maintained their 
 authority unimpaired. They are accepted by all 
 orthodox Moslems, Hanifites included, as authentic 
 revelations of the Divine will ; and the work of col- 
 lecting, sifting, and learning them by heart was eagerly 
 carried on long after Ahmad ibn Hanbal had been laid 
 in the grave. 
 
 There are, at present, six collections of Traditions 
 
GO THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 which are regarded as "authentic;"* but these huge 
 collections represent only an infinitesimal portion of 
 the time and labour which have been expended on this 
 portion of Moslem theology. The Traditions them- 
 selves have been made the subject of countless com- 
 mentaries. Thus, upwards of a century after the death 
 of Ibn Hanbal, we read of an eminent Shafite doctor, 
 al Baihaki by name, who travelled to Irak, the Hejaz, 
 and Khorasan, in order to learn Traditions, and pro- 
 duced no less than one thousand volumes of expositions 
 and commentaries upon them. Of another Shafite 
 doctor, contemporary with al Baihaki, we are told that 
 the alphabetical list of persons from whom he learned 
 Traditions contains two thousand names ; and that he 
 filled fifteen hundred quires of paper with dissertations 
 on the sciences connected with the Traditions. And 
 there was not a single generation, up to the time of 
 the destruction of Baghdad, in which numerous divines 
 did not devote themselves to getting Traditions by 
 heart, and the writing of voluminous works on their 
 grammar, on their metaphors, on the obscure ex- 
 pressions which are to be found in them, on the 
 motives which inspired them, on the is?iads which 
 supported them, on their classification according to 
 the weight of authority they possess, and so forth. 
 Only one thing they never thought of doing. It never 
 occurred to any of these commentators to question a 
 
 * These are, the Muwatta of Malek ibn Anas ; the Saliih of 
 al Bokhari ; the Sahih of Muslim ; the Sunan of Abou Daoud ; the 
 Jami of al Tirmidi ; and the Kitdb as Sunan of Muhammad ibn 
 Tazid al Kasimir. 
 
a.d. 870. PROPHETIC TRADITIONS. 61 
 
 Tradition on the ground of its intrinsic incredibility. 
 Provided the isnad was sound and strong, any other 
 criterion of truth was rejected as superfluous. And 
 when one remembers that these Traditions, thus 
 implicitly believed in for many centuries, are a gigantic 
 collection of false morality, ridiculous legends about 
 angels, demons, the origin of the world and of all 
 created beings, absurd and often contradictory rules 
 respecting ceremonial observances, the wonder is, not 
 that Moslems should be steeped in ignorance, vice, and 
 superstition, but that their moral and intellectual 
 capacities have not been more completely crushed 
 beneath this weight of rubbish. 
 
 Out of the whole number of "authentic Traditions," 
 about three thousand refer directly to the Prophet, 
 recording incidents in his life, or decisions which pro- 
 ceeded personally from him. They are of a mixed cha- 
 racter. The greater part of them are undoubtedly 
 authentic, and constitute a most instructive commen- 
 tary on the Koran. They bring before us, in clear 
 outline, the rude and simple surroundings of the Pro- 
 phet, and enable us to see Muhammad himself, stripped 
 of his prophetic garb, and moving as a man among 
 fellow-men. Here are a few examples : — 
 
 " Anas said : ' The Prophet of God was of the best disposition ; 
 and one day he sent me on business, and I said, " I swear by God I 
 will not go," whilst it was in my heart to go. Then I came out, 
 and passed some boys playing in the bazaar; and all on a sudden, 
 behold the Prophet laying hold of me by the neck ; and I saw him 
 laughing, and he said, " young Anas ! have you been where I 
 ordered you ? " I said, " Yes, Messenger of God, I will go now." 
 . . . . He was the handsomest of men, and the most liberal, 
 and the most brave.' " 
 
62 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 " Aswad said : ' I asked Ayesha what did his majesty do within 
 doors ? Ayesha said, ' His majesty used to sew his own shoes and 
 clothes, and worked in his house, as one of you does ; and he was 
 the most cheerful of mankind, and used to pick off anything that fell 
 on his clothes, and he used to milk his own goats, and wait upon 
 himself.' " 
 
 " Ayesha said : ' His majesty was sitting, and we heard a voice 
 we did not understand ; and we heard the voice of children ; and 
 his majesty stood up, and behold, he saw an Ethiopian woman 
 dancing, and boys dancing around her ; and his majesty said, " 
 Ayesha ! come and look." And I went and rested my chin on his 
 shoulder, and looked at the woman. And his majesty said 
 repeatedly, " Are you not satisfied with looking ? " I said, " No." 
 And this was that his majesty's love and regard for me might be 
 seen. All on a sudden Omar appeared, and the people dispersed 
 from the Ethiopian ; and his majesty said, " Verily I see that the 
 devils, the genii, and men run away from Omar." ' " 
 
 " Anas said : ' I served his majesty from the time I was eight 
 years old ; and he never scolded me for anything, although things 
 were spoilt by me. And if any of his majesty's family scolded me, 
 he would say, " Let him alone ; do not scold him, because, verily, 
 what has been lost was by God's fate." 
 
 " Ayesha said : ' I was with his highness on a journey ; and we 
 ran together, to try which could beat, and I beat him ; but when 
 I grew fat, we ran together again, and his highness beat me, 
 and said, " My beating you now is in return for your beating 
 me." ' " 
 
 In their religious aspect, these Traditions are re- 
 markable for that strange confusion of thought which 
 caused the Prophet to place on one level of wickedness, 
 serious moral crimes, breaches of sumptuary regula- 
 tions, and accidental omissions in ceremonial observ- 
 ances. Sin, throughout, is regarded as an external 
 pollution, which can, at once, be rectified by the pay- 
 ment of a fine of some kind. Even murder demands 
 no inward repentance, nor requires a heavier external 
 punishment than the payment of a certain number of 
 
A.D. 870. FALSE MORALITY OF TRADITIONS. 63 
 
 camels. A few quotations taken at random will show 
 this : — 
 
 ' Verily, the Prophet said, ' There are three persons whom God 
 will not speak to on the day of resurrection, and will not look 
 towards them favourably ; God will not cleanse them from their 
 faults, and there will be a painful punishment for them.' Abou 
 Dhar said, * Are they hopeless, and without chance of God's com- 
 passion ? "Who are those three persons, Prophet of God ? ' He 
 said, ' One of them is a wearer of long garments ; the second is a 
 person who, after giving, upbraids with the obligation ; the third, a 
 person who swears falsely on his merchandise, to increase the wish 
 of the buyer in purchasing it.' " 
 
 "'He who shall take the right of a Moslem by a false oath, 
 verily God will make hell-fire proper for him, and will forbid him 
 Paradise.' Then a man said to his highness, ' Although the right 
 so taken should be trifling and contemptible ? ' He said, ' Although 
 it should be but a twig from a bush of thorns ! ' " 
 
 " One dirhem of usury which a man eats, knowing it to be so, 
 is more grievous than thirty-six fornications ; and whoever has been 
 so nourished is worthy of hell-fire." 
 
 " The taking of interest has seventy parts of guilt, the least of 
 which is as if a man commit incest with his own mother." 
 
 " If all the inhabitants of the regions of the earth were 
 partners in spilling the blood of a Moslem, verily God would cast 
 them headforemost into hell-fire." 
 
 "The trousers of a man must be to the middle of his lea': and 
 there is no fault upon him if he wears them even as low as his 
 ankle ; but whatever is below that is in hell-fire." 
 
 ' Whoever makes a meal, and says afterwards, ' Thanks be to 
 God for giving me these victuals, and who caused it to come to me 
 without my labour or strength,' shall be pardoned all his past and 
 future sins." 
 
 " There are no two Moslems who meet and shake hands, but 
 their faults will be forgiven before they separate. The perfect com- 
 pliment for you to pay to each other is shaking by the hand." 
 
 Another matter set forth in great detail in these 
 Traditions are the beliefs current among the early 
 Moslems regarding death, the resurrection, the last 
 days, the final judgment of mankind, and the world 
 
G4 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 beyond the grave. These are, of course, all attributed 
 to the Prophet himself; many justly so, but many are 
 of later manufacture, and borrowed from the Jews. 
 All, however, date from a period when Islam was still 
 in its infancy. They have never been questioned by 
 the Faithful, and have, therefore, become woven into 
 the stuff of their religious life. To believe them is 
 obligatory, and to discredit them would make a man 
 guilty of apostasy. It would not, therefore, be right 
 in a history of Islam to pass them over in silence. 
 
 The Moslems believe that there is not a single 
 particle of matter in the universe, but is entrusted to 
 the care of an angel specially nominated for that duty. 
 They ground this belief upon a Tradition which asserts 
 that the heavens groan beneath the weight of the 
 countless multitude of angels ; for there is not a span 
 of space in all that illimitable expanse whereon an 
 augel is not to be found, either kneeling or prostrate. 
 There is an hierarchy of angels. In the highest rank 
 are those nearest to God. These are the four sup- 
 porters of His throne, and they receive the homage of 
 the others. The first of these is in the likeness of a 
 man ; the second, in that of a bull ; the third, in that 
 of an eagle ; and the fourth, in that of a lion, as in the 
 Apocalypse. On the day of judgment, four other 
 ano-els will be added to these, because in the Koran 
 it is written, that on that occasion eight angels will 
 sustain the throne of God. After these come, the 
 angel named Bouh (spirit), thus named because every 
 breath he breathes creates a soul ; Israfil, the messenger 
 of God whose office it is to conduct souls to the bodies 
 
THE ANGELS OF ISLAM. 65 
 
 appointed to receive them; Jebril (Gabriel), the 
 
 guardian and communicator of God's revelation; 
 
 Mikayil (Michael), who conveys to souls and bodies 
 
 their daily nourishment, spiritual and material; Azrael, 
 
 whose feet stand on the foundations of the earth, while 
 
 his head reaches to the highest heaven ; his office is to 
 
 conduct souls, after their death, to their everlasting 
 
 habitation, whether in hell or in Paradise. In addition 
 
 to these are the Cherubim, occupied exclusively in 
 
 chanting the praises of God ; the two Secretaries, who 
 
 record the actions of men, each in a distinct writing ; 
 
 the Observers, who spy out the least gestures and hear 
 
 every word of men ; the Travellers, who traverse the 
 
 whole earth in order to know when men utter the 
 
 name of God, and pray to Him ; Ear out and Mar out 
 
 who, having offended God, are confined in a well near 
 
 Babylon until the day of judgment ; the angels of the 
 
 seven planets ; the guardian angels appointed to keep 
 
 watch over men ; and the two angels of the grave. 
 
 When a man is put into the grave and mankind 
 
 leaves him, he hears the noise they make in walking 
 
 away. Then two angels come to the dead man, black 
 
 in colour, but having blue eyes. The name of one is 
 
 Monkir, and of the other Nakir. They cause the dead 
 
 man to sit up in his grave, and say to him, " What 
 
 was your opinion about Muhammad ? " Then the 
 
 person, if he be a Moslem, will say, " I bore witness 
 
 that he was the servant of God, and His Prophet." 
 
 Then the grave will be expanded seven thousand yards 
 
 in length, and seven thousand in breadth, and a light 
 
 will be put into it, and the dead man will be told to 
 
 5 
 
66 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 sleep. But if the inmate of the grave be a hypocrite, 
 on the angelic inquiry being put to him, lie will answer, 
 " I know him not." The angels will then say to him, 
 " Did not thy understanding and reading inform thee ?" 
 Then will he be struck with an iron hammer ; and he 
 will roar out so as to be heard by all animals, except 
 men and genii. Then the ground will be ordered to 
 close upon him, and break his sides, and turn his right 
 side to his left, and his left to his right. Also for the 
 grave of each unbeliever there are appointed ninety 
 serpents to bite him to the day of resurrection, any one 
 of which breathing upon the earth would blast it. The 
 day of resurrection is preceded by the coming of 
 Antichrist. Antichrist is blind of one eye, and has a 
 great deal of hair falling about his face ; and he brings 
 with him the resemblances of Paradise and Hell. But 
 that which seems like Paradise is, in truth, Hell-fire ; 
 and that which he shall say is Hell is, in fact, Paradise. 
 He will come out of a road between Syria and Irak, 
 and will move over the earth swiftly, " like rain fol- 
 lowed by wind." For such tribes as believe on him, 
 Antichrist will order the sky, and rain will fall, and he 
 will order the earth, and it will produce verdure ; and 
 in the evening their cattle will come to them, with 
 higher humps upon their backs than they went out 
 with in the morning ; and their udders will be full. 
 But as for those tribes who do not believe in Antichrist, 
 their lands will be stricken with desolation, and they 
 will be afflicted with drought and famine. 
 
 But whilst Antichrist is about this, all on a sudden, 
 God will send Jesus, son of Mary ; and he will descend 
 
THE ADVENT OF CHRTST. 67 
 
 from heaven, near to a white tower on the east of 
 Damascus, clothed in garments coloured with red 
 flowers, resting the palms of his hands upon the wings 
 of two angels. And the breath of Jesus will reach as 
 far as eye can see, and every infidel will die who 
 comes within the influence of that breath ; and Jesus 
 will seek for Antichrist, till he finds him at the door 
 of a village called Ludd, which is in Palestine, and will 
 slay him there. After this, Jesus will stay seven years 
 upon earth, during which time there will be no enmity 
 between any two persons. But at the close of the 
 seven years, God will send a cold wind from the side 
 of Syria, which will take the souls of all who have but 
 an atom of faith in their hearts, and none will remain 
 but the wicked. These will have abundance of every- 
 thing, and live luxuriously, worshipping idols, till the 
 Archangel's trumpet is blown for the first time, and 
 the resurrection is on foot. That trumpet is blown by 
 the angel Israfil. It is shaped like a horn ; and when 
 Israfil blows it, Gabriel will stand on his right hand, 
 and Michael on his left. And no one who hears the 
 trumpet but will stagger about with fear and amaze- 
 ment, and all mankind will be destroyed. Then after 
 an interval of forty days, months, or years (Abou 
 Horaira, to whom we are indebted for these authentic 
 particulars, is doubtful which), the second trumpet 
 blast will be heard, and all men will stand up and 
 behold the horrors of the resurrection. The sun and 
 moon will be twisted up on that day like a cloth, and 
 thrown into a corner. Then God will say to the 
 angels, " Bring out those that shall be sent to hell ! " 
 
68 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 And the angels will say, " How many are they ? " 
 And God will reply, " Nine hundred and ninety-nine 
 out of every thousand." However, according to another 
 Tradition, for the Faithful there is provided some balm 
 even in this Gilead. For " on the day of resurrection 
 God will give a Jew or a Christian to every Moslem, 
 and will say, ' This Jew or Christian is a means of 
 your redemption from hell-fire' ; " and the substitute 
 will be cast into the flames, the Moslem delivered. 
 Paradise and Hell are described with the same ampli- 
 tude of detail as in the Koran. Thus, for example, 
 we are told in one Tradition, "Verily, the easiest of 
 the infernals in punishment, is he who shall have both 
 his shoes and the thongs of them of fire, by which the 
 brains of his head boil like the boiling of a copper 
 furnace, and he will not suppose that any one is more 
 severely punished than himself, whilst verily he is the 
 least so." 
 
 Lastly, we come to those Traditions which recount 
 miracles worked by the Prophet. These are fabrica- 
 tions which those who told them and those who heard, 
 must equally have known to be fabrications, for a very 
 sufficient reason. The unbelievers of Mekka had per- 
 petually taunted the Prophet with his incapacity to 
 work a miracle, as an evident proof that he was no 
 prophet at all. Muhammad, in the Koran, repeatedly 
 acknowledges this incapacity, but affirms that the 
 Koran is in itself a miracle far surpassing all the 
 wonders wrought by the prophets who had preceded 
 him. But he had been dead only a very few years, 
 when the temptation to make of him a wonder-worker 
 
MUHAMMAD'S MIRACLES. 09 
 
 became too strong to be resisted. Their conquests had 
 brought the Moslems into closer intercourse with both 
 Jews and Christians. The one vaunted of the mira- 
 culous powers possessed by Moses ; the other of those 
 possessed by Jesus. The Moslems were constrained 
 to acknowledge these boasts as true, because the Koran 
 also ascribed these powers to those two prophets. But 
 they felt that they could not retain their Prophet on 
 his pedestal of superiority if he was lacking in the 
 divine gifts enjoyed by his predecessors. As they had 
 performed miracles, he, too, must perform them. Two 
 men — Abou Horaira and Abdallah ibn Abbas — are 
 chiefly responsible for the fabrication of these false- 
 hoods ; but all the Companions, by their silent acqui- 
 escence, are implicated in their guilt. The stories 
 themselves are exceedingly foolish, and are, in their 
 general character, similar to the miracles related in the 
 Apocryphal Gospels. Thus the khalif Ali is reported 
 to have said : "I was with the Prophet at Mekka, and 
 we came out to some of the environs of Mekka, and 
 his majesty did not go near a hill or tree but it said, 
 ' Peace be to thee, Messenger of God ! ' " Another 
 Companion relates that — "When his majesty was 
 repeating the prayer, he would lean against one of the 
 pillars of the Musjid of date-wood, and this was before 
 the making of the pulpit ; but when the pulpit was 
 made, he went upon it, and repeated the prayer ; and 
 the pillar complained of it, and wept to such a degree 
 that it was rending in two parts. Then his majesty 
 came down from the pulpit and embraced the pillar, 
 and it became like the blubbering of a child, which 
 
70 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. CHAP. II. 
 
 could not be pacified ; till at length it became silent, 
 and his majesty said, ' The pillar wept at losing what 
 it used to hear me repeat.' The most noteworthy, 
 however, of all these miraculous narratives, by reason 
 of the hold it took and still retains on the hearts and 
 imaginations of the Faithful, is the account of the Pro- 
 phet's ascent to heaven on the beast " Borak." The 
 single allusion to this celebrated "Night Journey' 
 which occurs in the Koran is contained in the first 
 verse of the 17th Sura — " Glory be to Him who carried 
 His servant by night from the sacred temple of Mekka 
 to the temple that is more remote, whose precinct we 
 have blessed, that we might show him of our signs." 
 The Prophet, in all probability, alluded here to some 
 dream that he had had ; but upon this narrow founda- 
 tion was constructed a minute and particular account 
 of the " Night Journey." The Traditions which refer 
 to it are numerous, and are remarkable for their gross 
 and ludicrous materialism. These narratives, which 
 are declared to proceed from the Prophet himself, 
 inform us that he was in Mekka, when the roof of his 
 house was opened and Gabriel came down. He opened 
 the Prophet's breast, and washed his heart with water 
 from the spring Zem Zem. Then the angel brought a 
 golden vessel full of Faith and Knowledge, which he 
 poured into the Prophet's breast, and then carried him 
 towards the heavens. The Prophet is mounted upon 
 Borak, an animal between a mule and an ass. Arrived 
 at the first heaven, he is admitted, and introduced to 
 Adam. Adam " is of a very dark brick-dust com- 
 plexion, for he was made out of reddish earth, whence 
 
THE "NIGHT JOURNEY." 71 
 
 his name Adam." On his right hand and on his left 
 are black appearances, which are the spirits of his 
 children, in the shape of men. Those on his right are 
 destined for Paradise ; those on his left for Hell ; so 
 that when Adam looks to his right he laughs, and 
 weeps when he looks to his left. Mounting upwards 
 from the first heaven, the Prophet proceeds successively 
 through the remaining six. He meets Moses, who is 
 " a man of tall stature, and the colour of wheat, and of 
 middling body;" and Jesus, who is "a middle-sized 
 man, with a red and white complexion, and hair uot 
 curly but flowing loosely." All these greet Muhammad 
 as a friend and brother. He is shown the Houris of 
 Paradise destined for the solace and delight of the 
 Faithful ; and witnesses also the terrible punishments 
 prepared for the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Then 
 the time for prayers is announced, and Muhammad acts 
 as the Imam, or leader of all the prophets who have 
 gone before him into heaven. 
 
 Here then are the constituent elements of Muham- 
 madan law : the Koran, the Traditions, and the systems 
 of jurisprudence taught by the four orthodox Imams. 
 Its peculiar character consists in this, that it is, at once, 
 a religious creed and a political revelation. Church 
 and State are so completely identified, that the reli- 
 gious life is made subject to the supervision of the 
 courts of law ; and the constitution of society and the 
 government is supposed to be the result of a series of 
 Divine enactments. In religion, therefore, all spiritual 
 development is treated as a crime against society, and 
 punished accordingly. In civil and political life, all 
 
72 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 efforts after reform or improvement are regarded as a 
 rebellion against the revealed will of God, and punished 
 as infidelity. The system, as a whole, rejects expe- 
 rience as a guide to deeper insight or a wider 
 knowledge ; tramples upon the teaching of the past ; 
 pays no heed to differences of climate, character, or 
 history ; but regards itself as a body of absolute truth, 
 no jot or tittle of which can be rejected without 
 incurring the everlasting wrath of God. 
 
 All this flows, as a natural consequence, from the 
 idea of humanity set forth in the Koran. Muhammad 
 did not deny that other prophets, besides himself, had 
 had revelations of the Divine will. He insisted per- 
 petually that they had. What he emphatically denied 
 was, that man, simply as such, was possessed of any 
 spiritual organ which enabled him to receive light 
 from the primal Fountain of Light. " The light that 
 lighteth every man who comes into the world," had 
 no existence for Muhammad. Men, according to him, 
 lived wholly without God in the world; but certain 
 individuals were selected from the race, and to them, 
 for the guidauce and instruction of their fellows, God 
 revealed the ordinances written on " The Preserved 
 Table." The evidence of the origin of these ordinances 
 was not to be found in their fitness to promote the 
 happiness of men, or their harmony with the human 
 reason and conscience, but in the miracles wrought by 
 the prophets who taught them. These miracles were 
 the sure and certain proof of their Divine origin. But 
 by the lapse of time, and the sins of men, these earlier 
 revelations had become so largely corrupted, that they 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 73 
 
 lured men to destruction, instead of guiding them 
 along the path that leads to salvation. Therefore God, 
 in his mercy, had sent down " a pure Arabic Koran," 
 a literal transcript of the decrees inscribed upon the 
 Everlasting Table. The miracle in this case was, that 
 this revelation of hidden wisdom had proceeded from 
 the lips of an illiterate camel-driver. This revela- 
 tion superseded all that had preceded it. It was per- 
 fect ; a full and complete manifestation of the will of 
 God. There being, therefore, no organ in man for the 
 discernment of Divine truth, the desire was destroyed 
 to bring the teachings of revelation into harmony with 
 the aspirations and hopes of men. These hopes and 
 aspirations were regarded as false lights glimmering 
 over bogs and treacherous marsh-lands ; and a terrible 
 doom awaited those who, seduced by their glittering 
 appearance, abandoned the strait path of safety. 
 
 According to Moslem notions, the Koran, the Tra- 
 ditions, and the four legal systems contain an immense 
 accumulation of first principles, which are themselves 
 above the reach of human criticism; and this for a 
 double reason. Firstly, because they are an expression 
 of the will of God; and, secondly, because they are 
 embodied in a language which is no longer understood 
 with exactness and precision. This last conclusion 
 furnishes a curious example of the thin but fearless 
 logic of Moslem divines. This revelation, they argued, 
 was made in " pure Arabic," such as was spoken in 
 the days of the Prophet. With the lapse of time, this 
 " pure Arabic " became corrupted with admixtures of 
 foreign tongues. Words which conveyed a certain 
 
74 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 meaning to the mind of Muhammad, were charged 
 with a different signification to the generations that 
 came after him. Consequently, only those who lived 
 in the days of the Prophet himself, or in the next 
 generation, were considered competent to expound the 
 meaning of the sacred text. Later divines and theo- 
 logians confined themselves strictly to the labour of 
 learning by heart the matter of revelation ; and he was 
 held to be the greatest man who could repeat from 
 memory the greatest part of the Koran and the largest 
 number of Traditions. 
 
 Commentators on the Koran did not endeavour to 
 justify the ways of God to men; they limited them- 
 selves to the elucidation of grammatical and verbal 
 difficulties, and the transcription of absurd and mon- 
 strous legends, which were to be accepted in virtue of 
 the isnad, or chain of authorities, which vouched for 
 them. No one dared to make the revelation itself a 
 subject of investigation. The same conviction has 
 governed the development of Islam on its political 
 side. The legislation in the Koran and the Traditions 
 has always been regarded as exempt from any tests 
 derived from the nature of man or the facts of social 
 life. A good Moslem would consider as merely impious 
 trifling, to question the decrees of the Koran, on the 
 ground that they are not adapted to the characteristics 
 of human nature. What, he would ask with great 
 indignation, is human nature, that it should set itself 
 up against the will of God? All legislation, there- 
 fore, is deductive; its propriety depends upon its 
 soundness as a logical sequence, not upon its tendency 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 75 
 
 to promote the well-being of mankind. But the right 
 to make deductions from the Sacred writings has long 
 been extinct in the Muhammadan world. There are 
 three degrees of legislative independence — absolute, 
 relative, and special. The last is the only one left to 
 the Faithful in these degenerate days. 
 
 Absolute independence in legislation is the first gift 
 of God. It appertained to the four " rightly directed " 
 khalifs ; to the seven jurisconsults of Medina ; and to 
 the four orthodox Imams. The rights of one who has 
 attained to this degree are solemn and important. In 
 his researches into the meaning of the Divine Law, he 
 is not required to regulate his conclusions by any 
 standard other than his individual sense of truth and 
 fitness. He is the sole mediator between the Law and 
 those whom he instructs. He can employ the words 
 of the Prophet, but his pupils can employ only those of 
 their master. Thus, supposing one of his disciples to 
 have found a manifest contradiction between some 
 sentence of his Imam, and the Tradition or passage 
 in the Koran from which it is deduced, he would not 
 be justified in ignoring the deduction, and taking as 
 his guide the language of the Prophet. He must 
 remember that the Imam has the right to explain the 
 Koran and the Traditions by the light of his private 
 judgment ; and that he probably has satisfactory 
 reasons, which he has not chosen to enunciate, for the 
 explanation, which to his pupils bears the appearance 
 of error. No one can venture to pass judgment on a 
 jurist of the first degree, except a jurist of equal 
 eminence. Following out this principle of intellectual 
 
76 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 submission to its logical consequences, it is not per- 
 mitted for a Muhammadan who has enrolled himself as 
 the disciple of one Imam, to reconsider the matter and 
 transfer his allegiance to another. His choice having 
 once been made, is held to be final and irrevocable. 
 Morally and intellectually, he has entered a house of 
 bondage, in which he must remain a prisoner for life. 
 True it is that the abstract possibility of any man 
 attaining to the exalted rank of absolute independence 
 is not denied. But the conditions laid down are so 
 onerous, that it is practically impossible. These con- 
 ditions are five in number : — (1). A complete and per- 
 fect knowledge of the Arabic language, together with 
 the power to discriminate, in the exposition of the 
 Koran, between the literal and the allegorical, the uni- 
 versal and the particular, the statements of universal 
 and those of limited application. (2). To know the 
 Koran perfectly by heart, with all the explanations 
 received by tradition from the Companions. (3). A 
 perfect knowledge of all the Traditions (though some 
 authorities say that three thousand will suffice), accord- 
 ing to their texts and their isnads; to know the degree of 
 authority attaching to each one of them ; to be able to 
 discriminate between the obligatoryand the optional, the 
 permissive, the restrictive, and the prohibitive ; and the 
 power to repeat from memory all Traditions which are 
 entirely trustworthy. (4). A complete knowledge of 
 the four orthodox systems of jurisprudence. (5). The 
 possession of logical ability to trace out clearly the 
 connection between the deduction, and the point from 
 which it is deduced, so that the sequence between the 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 77 
 
 two may be rendered apparent to the satisfaction of 
 intelligent men. 
 
 To crown all, the right of conferring the degree of 
 "independence" is the priyilege of the Ulema, or 
 Council of Muftis, and it is quite certain that they 
 would never confer it, supposing a candidate were 
 so rash as to come before them for examination. 
 But the character of the conditions has effectually 
 prevented this. There has been no aspirant after 
 this high calling since Ahmad ibn Hanbal was 
 followed to his grave by the sorrowing population 
 of Baghdad. 
 
 The second degree, or that of " relative indepen- 
 dence," has never been achieved by any divine during 
 his lifetime. But after death, it has been accorded to 
 a few disciples of the great Imams, who, by the studies 
 of many years, have methodized the systems, and 
 cleared up occasional obscurities in the doctrines of 
 their masters. The great Imams taught orally. Their 
 disciples of the second degree took down their lessons 
 in writing, cleared up parts which had been left vague 
 and indeterminate, and deduced logically still remoter 
 consequences from the principles formulated by their 
 masters. 
 
 The third degree, or that of "special indepen- 
 dence," is a privilege acquired by a very few jurists in 
 each generation. It is one enabling them to decide, 
 according to their private judgment, points which 
 have not been settled by jurists of the two degrees 
 above them. But in making such decisions, they may 
 not enforce their reasoning by direct citations from the 
 
7.S THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. it. 
 
 Koran or the Traditions ; neither is it lawful for them 
 to contradict any principle enunciated by the Imams. 
 Their decisions must be based upon the jurisprudence 
 of the Imam to whose school they belong, and be a 
 logical deduction from it. Thus, in any Muhammadan 
 state legislative reforms are simply impossible. There 
 exists no initiative. The sultan or khalif can claim 
 the allegiance of his people only so long as he remains 
 an exact executor of the prescriptions of the law. The 
 Ulema, or Council of the Wise, possesses no other 
 function but that of deciding whether any legal pro- 
 position is or is not ui harmony with the law. If it 
 be not, no intrinsic merits can give it practical validity. 
 "If," says one Tradition, " God appoints as your 
 ruler a slave, with ears or nose cut off, and he puts 
 you to death by the orders of God's book, hear his 
 orders with an ear of satisfaction and submit to his 
 commands .... but if a Moslem is ordered to act 
 contrary to the law, he must neither attend to it nor 
 obey it." In a word, a religious revolution is required, 
 before the work of political reform can begin in a 
 Muhammadan state. 
 
 And what hope is there of any such revolution ? 
 Absolutely none. The religious history of mankind 
 shows that while a creed has often been destroyed by 
 attacks from without, it can be regenerated only from 
 within. And where in the bosom of Islam could we 
 hope for a regenerator ? From the hour of his birth 
 the Moslem becomes a member of a system in which 
 every act of his life is governed by a minute ritual. 
 He is beset on every side with a circle of inflexible 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 79 
 
 formalities. He is told that even his prayers to God 
 will be null and void unless at each prostration his 
 nose is lightly rubbed in the dust.* He is warned 
 against " the malady of thought," lest he should be- 
 come the occasion of division among the people of 
 God. He is told on the authority of the Prophet that 
 " he who dissents from assemblies of Moslems one 
 span, verily takes off the rope of Islam from his own 
 neck," and "is of the people of hell, although he says 
 his prayers, keeps fasts, and thinks himself a Moslem." 
 
 * This is a fair specimen of the manner in which religion is 
 materialized by the Moslem Divines. The above-mentioned rule is 
 accompanied by a saving clause, even more ludicrous, which pro- 
 vides that the actual rubbing in the dust is excused if the person 
 praying has a sore place on the top of the nose. The explanation 
 of these absurdities is to be found in Muhammad's conception of 
 sin. Sin, he taught, was a material pollution adhering to the body ; 
 and the Muhammadan jurisconsults following out this notion, have 
 reduced righteousness to a state of ceremonial purity, and sin to a 
 state of ceremonial impurity. Thus prayer is absolutely useless if 
 any matter, legally considered impure, adheres to the person of the 
 worshipper, even though he be unconscious of its presence. Prayer 
 also is null and void unless the men and women praying are attired 
 in a certain prescribed manner. A difficulty regarding the efficacy 
 of prayer which has greatly exercised the minds of Muhammadan 
 Divines, is the following : In the absence of water, the Prophet, as 
 everyone knows, allowed his followers to purify their bodies with 
 sand. Supposing, then, that a man previous to praying has made 
 an ablution of sand. He prays one prayer, and then becomes aware 
 of water in his vicinity. He accordingly purifies himself with 
 water, and completes his devotions. Was that first prayer performed 
 after a dust ablution merely, effectual or not ? This question re- 
 mains to this day an unsettled one in Muhammadan theology. It 
 is, perhaps, needless to add that, in consequence of this material 
 conception of purity, much of the religious law of Islamism is re- 
 markable for its revolting immodesty ; or, that the lex talionls being 
 its ruling principle, every (so-called) sin is entirely rectified by the 
 infliction of a fine proportioned to its magnitude. 
 
80 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 His inner, as his outer, life must work in prescribed 
 grooves. And the consequence is, that those faculties 
 are starved to death, by which alone the regenerative 
 impulse can be given. 
 
 But we may, for the sake of argument, conceive of 
 some rarely-gifted nature who has passed through this 
 ordeal uninjured. He has arrived at manhood, and 
 desires passionately not to destroy Islam, but to reform 
 it. But how is he to begin ? To what can he make 
 appeal ? There is not a crime or defect in the history 
 of Islam, the counterpart of which is not to be found 
 in the history of Christendom. Christians have mis- 
 taken a lifeless formalism for the vital element in 
 religion ; Christians have interpreted the Gospel as 
 giving a sanction for the worst cruelties of religious 
 persecution ; Christians have done their utmost to 
 confine the intellect and the moral sense within limits 
 denned by a human authority; but the strongest 
 witness against all these errors has been Christ Him- 
 self. Every reformer who rose to protest against 
 them could appeal to Him and His teaching as his 
 authority and justification. But no Moslem can lift 
 up his voice in condemnation of Polygamy, Slavery, 
 Murder, Religious War, and Religious Persecution, 
 without condemning the Prophet himself; and being 
 thereby cut off from the body of the Faithful. There 
 is no escape from this vicious circle. A Moslem, so 
 long as he remains a Moslem, must acquiesce in a 
 moral and intellectual life which is incompatible with 
 progress and humanity. No religion can rise higher 
 than its source. Christendom will never ascend to a 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 81 
 
 higher spiritual level than that manifested in the life 
 of Christ ; and the Muhammadan world, at its best, 
 can never be more than an image of the gross vices 
 and imperfect virtues which made up the character of 
 Muhammad. How hopeless, in Christendom, would 
 have been the cause of humanity, if Jesus of Nazareth 
 (claiming to be and accepted as the Son of God) had 
 practised polygamy, connived at murder, traded in 
 slaves, sanctioned and superintended a massacre of 
 Pharisees, and preached the prosecution of religious 
 wars as the surest passport to heaven. Muhammad 
 did all these things, and the Muhammadan world is the 
 result. Nothing less than the destruction of Islam 
 can heal the diseases from which it suffers, because 
 the vices which occasion them are inseparable from 
 the profession of Islam. The vices will not cease to 
 be regarded as akin to virtues, until belief in the re- 
 ligion is destroyed. 
 
 But men did not all at once acquiesce in this moral 
 and intellectual servitude. They endeavoured, in two 
 different directions, to open a pathway of escape. The 
 one was attempted by " The Men of the Path," and 
 terminated in the pestilential morasses of Pantheism ; 
 the other led those who followed it to perish in a barren 
 wilderness where logical abstractions were their only 
 food. 
 
82 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE " MEN OP THE PATH." 
 a.d. 632—934. 
 
 The absolute predestination of man and all earthly- 
 events is a fundamental doctrine of the Muhammadan 
 faith. No one who has associated ever so slightly with 
 Moslems, but must have perceived how profound is 
 their conviction of its truth. " It is my fate," is the 
 simple and sufficient philosophy which for a Moslem 
 accounts for and mitigates the severest ills of life. 
 Nevertheless, in the Koran, the teaching even of this 
 cardinal doctrine is variable and inconsistent. The 
 Koran, it cannot be too often insisted upon, is merely 
 a collection of fragmentary utterances which extend 
 over a period of three-and -twenty years. It is almost 
 wholly destitute of method or system. Muhammad 
 put forth his revelations according to the needs of 
 the moment; and only late in life did he attempt 
 to give something like logical consistency to his 
 theology. It was then that he laid down the prin- 
 ciple, which has done such yeoman's service ever 
 since, that where two revelations contradict one 
 another, the later abrogates the earlier. The changes 
 in doctrine, reflecting the changes in his situation, 
 
a.d. 632. FATALISM. 83 
 
 are in no instance better exemplified than in this of 
 Fatalism. 
 
 In his early exhortations there are few, if any, 
 traces of the doctrine of Fatalism. Muhammad, at 
 that time, was full of hope and onlooking thoughts. 
 He summoned men to repent and believe, in the confi- 
 dent expectation that they would eagerly respond to 
 his call. It is plain, that so long as he entertained 
 this expectation, the doctrine of man's free will would 
 form a part of his teaching. He could not call upon 
 men to reform their ways, and in the same breath 
 assert that they had no power to do so. Consequently, 
 in these early addresses, the free will of man and the 
 responsibility resulting thence are everywhere implied. 
 It is by a life of freely-chosen moral excellence that 
 heaven is to be gained and hell avoided. The ransom- 
 ing of captives, the distribution of food, and a fervent 
 trust in God as "the most just of judges" — such are 
 the acts and state of mind which mark the true 
 Believer. 
 
 " As to him who giveth alms, and feareth God, 
 And yieldeth assent to the good, 
 To him shall we make easy the path to happiness. 
 But as to him who is covetous, and bent on riches, 
 And calleth the good a lie, 
 To him will we make easy the path to misery." 
 
 Sura xcii. 5 — 11. 
 
 But when Muhammad found that his appeals 
 knocked unavailingly at the obdurate hearts of the 
 Kuraish, he was compelled to fall back upon the doc- 
 trine of Fatalism to explain his ill success. A new 
 conception was put forth of the relations subsisting 
 
84 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 between God and man. God, now, is He who "breathes 
 into the soul its wickedness and piety." The Faithful 
 must not be discouraged by the invincible scepticism 
 of their fellow-tribesmen, nor thereby be tempted to 
 infer that the teaching of the Prophet was in fault. 
 Nor, on the other hand, are the scoffers to imagine 
 they will escape the damnation of hell because their 
 reasons are not persuaded by the appeals of Mu- 
 hammad. They are, though they know it not, as so 
 much clay in the hands of the potter. " God misleads 
 whom He pleases, and whom He pleases He places 
 upon the straight path." " No soul can believe but 
 by the permission of God, and He shall lay His wrath 
 upon those who do not understand." " As to the in- 
 fidels . . . their hearts and their ears hath God sealed 
 up, and over their eyes is a covering. For them a 
 severe chastisement." "And whom God shall please 
 to guide, that man's breast will He open to Islam; but 
 whom He shall please to mislead, strait and narrow 
 will He make his breast, as though he were mounting 
 up into the very heavens. Thus doth God inflict dire 
 punishment on those who believe not." 
 
 As his life drew to a close, Muhammad insisted with 
 increasing vehemence on this doctrine of predestina- 
 tion. To those who murmured at the sanguinary 
 defeat of Ohod, saying, " Were we to have gained aught 
 in this affair, none of us had been slain at this place," 
 the Prophet replied, " Had ye remained in your homes, 
 they who were decreed to be slain would have gone 
 forth to the places where they lie." God is the pos- 
 sessor of all power, and none can escape Him. He 
 
a.d. 032. GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE. 85 
 
 raises up whom He will, and whom He will He abases. 
 He is over all things potent. It was, therefore, an idle 
 thing for them to hope that they could prolong their 
 lives by an ignominious flight from the battle-field. 
 Before the heavens and the earth were made, the events 
 of each man's life had been predetermined by God, 
 and " noted down in a distinct writing." The arrow 
 of death would strike them when the appointed 
 moment came. In the Traditions, this doctrine is in- 
 sisted upon in the most uncompromising manner. 
 " There is not one amongst you " — so said the Prophet 
 — " whose sitting-place is not written by God, whether 
 in the fire or in Paradise; " and on another occasion, 
 " Whatever is in the universe is by the order of God, 
 even to understanding and stupidity; " and, still more 
 plainly, he is reported to have said, " Whatever hap- 
 peneth to thee is from fate ; and if thou shouldest die 
 without believing in fate, thou most certainly wouldest 
 enter into hell-fire." 
 
 The annals of early Moslem history abound with 
 strange and startling indications of the effects of this 
 teaching. When Yezid ibn Mouhalleb is surrounded by 
 enemies, and entreated to save his life by flight, he 
 exclaims, " I care not for them ; they cannot delay 
 death if my hour be come, or hasten it if destiny has 
 not so decreed." A Kharijite, noted for his frequent 
 wars and numerous battles, thus encourages his soul 
 in a moment of danger — " I said to myself when I 
 wavered at the sight of the warriors, ' Shame upon 
 thee ! fear not ! Wert thou to ask the delay of a 
 single day above the term prescribed to thy existence 
 
86 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 thy request would not be heard. Be firm, then, in the 
 career of death, be firm ! To obtain an everlasting life 
 is a thing impossible ! ' " These lines, says Ibn Khal- 
 likan, " would give courage to the greatest coward God 
 ever created." 
 
 Again ; it is related that Ziad ibn Abih wrote these 
 words to the khalif Muawia : — "Commander of the 
 Faithful ! my left hand holds Irak in submission unto 
 you, but my right is unoccupied, and waits to be em- 
 ployed in your service ; appoint me, therefore, governor 
 of Hejaz." This request having reached the ears of 
 Abdallah ibn Omar, who was residing at Mekka, he 
 exclaimed, " God ! withhold from us the right hand 
 of Ziad I " A pestilential swelling immediately broke 
 out on it ; and the assembled physicians having advised 
 amputation, Ziad called in Shuraih, the kadi of Koufa, 
 and consulted him on the lawfulness of such an opera- 
 tion. Shuraih returned this answer: "God's bounty 
 towards you has a certain measure, and your life a 
 fixed limit. If you are to live longer in this world, I 
 should not wish to see you without a right hand " (am- 
 putation of the right hand being the punishment for 
 thieves laid down in the Koran) ; " and if the time of 
 your death be now come, you will have to say, when 
 asked by the Lord how you lost your hand, * It was 
 through dislike of meeting Thee, and to avoid what 
 Thou hadst predestined.' " Ziad died that day ; and 
 the enemies of the emir reproached Shuraih, because 
 his advice had prevented Ziad from committing a sin, 
 and so lightened the punishment that would fall upon 
 him in the next world. To this the kadi replied, " He 
 
a.d. 632. THE TRANSITORINESS OF LIFE. 87 
 
 asked counsel from me, and he whose counsel is asked 
 should act with sincerity ; were it not so, I should have 
 wished his hand to be cut off one day, and his foot 
 another; and then every limb of his body day by 
 day." 
 
 But in order to estimate the whole effect of this 
 doctrine, we must contemplate it in conjunction with 
 another — that of the transitoriness of this life, com- 
 pared with the duration of the life to come. The Pro- 
 phet is never weary of contrasting these two states of 
 existence. Fair and pleasant, no doubt, is this world, 
 which the Almighty has created out of nothing ; and 
 fair seeming to men is the love of pleasures from 
 women and children, and treasures of gold and silver. 
 But these things are but a cheating show — " a mist 
 that rolls away ! " The earth is but a film of matter 
 spread over the quenchless fires of hell. The heat of 
 those flames we can feel even in this life. So taught 
 the Prophet ; for when his followers complained that at 
 midday prayer the ground was so hot it scorched their 
 foreheads in the act of prostration, he said, " When 
 the heat is excessive at the time of midday prayer, pro- 
 crastinate ; because the excess of heat is from the boil- 
 ing of hell and the scattering of its fires." At the 
 sound of the last trumpet, this film of matter would 
 disappear like a scroll that is folded up, and hell would 
 be revealed, where " the shadows lie in triple masses," 
 and the sparks which it casteth out are like " tawny 
 camels." There transgressors shall abide for ever ; 
 " no coolness shall they taste therein, nor any drink, 
 save boiling water and running sores." These appal- 
 
88 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 ling pictures acquired a deeper horror from the evi- 
 dent reality they had for the Prophet. " By God ! " 
 he is reported to have said, " if ye knew what I know, 
 verily ye would laugh little and weep much." " 
 Messenger of God ! " said Abou Bekr, " verily thou art 
 become old." " Those Suras," he replied, " have 
 made me so, which mention the condition of futurity, 
 punishments of hell-fire, and dreadful denunciations." 
 An inscrutable God, whom none in the heavens or 
 the earth might approach but as a slave; a life on 
 earth, every movement and thought of which was pre- 
 destined ; and beyond, the quenchless fires of hell. 
 A gloomier creed it would be hard to conceive ; and 
 how dark the shadow it threw across the souls of the 
 devout Believers, there are not wanting numerous 
 signs to show. Thus, of the khalif Ali it is related 
 that a friend visited him, and said, " How does the 
 Prince of Believers to-day?" The khalif replied, 
 " Like a poor sinner living the lot which has been 
 assigned to him, and awaiting its dreadful termina- 
 tion." " What think you of this world ? " asked his 
 friend. " What can I say," replied Ali, " regarding a 
 dwelling-place, on the threshold of which is sorrow, 
 and at the extremity is death ; where the rich are con- 
 demned to corruption, and the poor to misery ; where 
 a severe judgment awaits the good, and everlasting fire 
 the wicked?" "Who, then," asked his friend, "can 
 be considered happy ? ,: " Those," was the reply, 
 " who are asleep beneath the sod, delivered from the 
 torments of hell, and in expectation of a reward." 
 
 Concerning Ammar ibn Abdallah, one of the Com- 
 
a.d. G60. THE GLOOMINESS OF ISLAM. 89 
 
 panions, we are told that lie was wont to fast the entire 
 day, and spend whole nights in prayer. On such occa- 
 sions he would be heard by his neighbours shrieking 
 out in the stillness of the night hours, " Oh my 
 God ! the fire of hell robs me of sleep ! Oh, pardon 
 me my sins ! The lot of man in this world is care 
 and sorrow, and in the next judgment and the 
 fire. Oh ! where shall the soul find rest and hap- 
 piness ? " 
 
 Abou Imran was a celebrated Imam and doctor, 
 and one of the Tabis. When his death drew near, he 
 was sorely troubled in spirit, and being spoken to 
 about it, said, " What peril can be greater than mine? 
 I must expect a messenger from my Lord, sent to 
 announce to me either Paradise or Hell ! I declare 
 solemnly I would rather remain as I am now, with my 
 soul struggling in my throat till the day of resurrection, 
 than undergo such a hazard." 
 
 Before the morning dawned, until the going down 
 of the sun, the eminent teacher, Said ibn Jobair, would 
 remain prostrate in prayer. When asked by his 
 daughter why he never slept, he replied that the fires 
 of hell had banished sleep from his eyes. 
 
 One day a certain person met Hasan al Basri, and 
 inquired how he had slept. Hasan replied, " Well." 
 The other inquired further, " in what state of health he 
 was ? " To this Hasan made reply, " You inquire con- 
 cerning my health ; tell me, then, first how people find 
 themselves who journey in a ship upon the ocean, when 
 the ship suddenly breaks up, and each clings to the 
 first piece of wood he can lay hold of; how think 
 
aO THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 you do such find themselves ? " " In a truly frightful 
 condition," said the inquirer. " Well," returned Hasan, 
 " the condition in which I am is far worse." 
 
 Yezid Rakashi entered one day into the presence 
 of the khalif Omar ibn Abd al Aziz, who requested of 
 him some pious consolation. " Prince of Believers ! ' 
 said Yezid, " know that thou art not the first khalif who 
 must die." Omar wept and said, " Speak on." Yezid 
 continued, " Prince of Believers ! between you and 
 Adam there has not been one who did not descend with 
 swiftness into the grave." Omar wept and said, 
 " Speak on." " Prince of Believers ! betwixt thee 
 and Paradise, as betwixt thee and Hell, there is no 
 resting-place." When Omar heard these words, he fell 
 to the ground senseless. 
 
 Of the great Imam, Abou Hanifa, we are told, that 
 he would pass entire nights reciting the Koran, and 
 his sobbings were so loud that the neighbours would 
 pray to God to have pity on him. A friend of the 
 Imam relates the following anecdote. " Abou Hanifa 
 stood in great awe of the Lord ; and one night the 
 muezzin recited to us the chapter of the Earthquake, 
 after finishing the evening prayer ; and Abou Hanifa 
 was behind him. When the congregation withdrew, I 
 looked and saw Abou Hanifa seated on the floor in 
 profound meditation, and uttering deep sighs. So I 
 said, " I shall go away, for he minds me not." On 
 departing, I left the lamp burning ; and in it was very 
 little oil. The next morning, after daybreak, I returned 
 back and found him standing, with his hand clutched on 
 his beard, and saying, " Thou ! who punishest even 
 
A.D. 7G0. THE GLOOMINESS OF ISLAM. 91 
 
 for an atom's weight of evil deeds, protect thy servant 
 an Noman from the fire of hell, and deliver him from 
 the evil which conducts thereto ! Permit him to enter 
 into the greatness of thy mercy ! " I then pronounced 
 the call to prayer whilst the lamp was still burning, and 
 he standing. When I went in, he asked me if I came 
 to take away the lamp. I answered, " I have just 
 made the call to morning prayer." On this, he told me 
 not to speak of what I had seen, and made a prayer of 
 two rakats. He then remained seated, till the public 
 prayer began, and he joined in it that morning, without 
 having made any ablution since the preceding evening," 
 — thereby showing that he had not slept the whole night 
 through, as an ablution before morning prayer is neces- 
 sary, if the person praying has slept, even for a moment, 
 during the preceding night. 
 
 Among the most eminent of the disciples of Malek 
 ibn Anas was al Kaanabi, a native of Medina. I have 
 given in the first chapter his narrative of the last 
 moments of the great Imam. Al Kaanabi was sur- 
 named " the Monk," on account of his devotion and 
 virtue. An intimate friend of his was wont to relate, 
 " When we went to see him, he would come out to 
 us with the face of one who had been looking 
 down on the terrors of hell. May God preserve us 
 from it ! " 
 
 Of Abd al Aziz al Razee, a celebrated preacher of 
 the day, we are told that when he described the 
 terrors of the last day, he terrified the entire Mosque 
 to that degree, that many of his hearers dropped 
 senseless. 
 
92 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 Such gloomy conceptions of man and his destiny 
 operated in two ways. In the many they pro- 
 duced either the indifference or the recklessness of 
 despair. In the few they awoke the spirit of asceti- 
 cism. Devout men drew together into small commu- 
 nities. They renounced the deceitful pleasures of the 
 world, and by means of prayers and austerities resolved 
 to batter and assail the iron gates of heaven and the 
 inscrutable heart of Him who dwelt within them. The 
 first of these societies was formed during the lifetime of 
 the Prophet by Owais ibn Aamir. This man never 
 actually saw the Prophet ; but so great was his love 
 and veneration for him, that he caused two of his front 
 teeth to be extracted, because Muhammad had lost two 
 of those teeth in the disastrous battle of Ohod. Owais 
 affirmed that all who entered his society, and performed 
 the mortifications enjoined upon them, would have 
 these two teeth miraculously extracted during sleep, 
 and on awakening find them under their pillows. The 
 example set by him was followed by the khalifs Abou 
 Bekr and Ali ; and to the associations of recluses 
 created by them, all the various orders of durweshes, 
 which are scattered over the countries of Islam, trace 
 back their origin. 
 
 These recluses were designated " mystics ; ' but 
 in this the earliest period of their history, there was 
 nothing mystical in the tenets they professed. Accord- 
 ing to their belief God and man were separated by an 
 impassable gulf. Growth in the grace and knowledge 
 of the Deity, absorption of the individual life into the 
 infinite source of all life— these and similar ideas were 
 
A.D. 760. MOSLEM MYSTICS. 93 
 
 altogether foreign to their minds. They were merely 
 the soldiers of a forlorn hope ; and their desperate 
 task was to break through the barriers of eternal 
 destiny. They had no confident expectations of a joy 
 set before them. Only so much they knew ; the God 
 of the Prophet had prescribed prayer and fasting as a 
 means of entering Paradise. These acts, therefore, 
 they would perform without ceasing ; so that at the 
 Last Day no reproach should attach to them, that they 
 had not done their uttermost to escape the fires of 
 hell. It was not long, however, before this harsh and 
 hopeless creed assumed a softer and more amiable 
 character. Contact with Eastern Christianity made 
 the Faithful acquainted with the doctrine of a Divine 
 Word, speaking to the minds and hearts of men. 
 They found in the deserts of Egypt, in Syria and 
 Mesopotamia, multitudes who had withdrawn from the 
 world in order to hold communion with tins Divine 
 Word. Syria, in particular, was at that time the 
 home of a peculiar monachism, from whose tenets the 
 Muhammadan durweshes have largely borrowed. Its 
 fundamental principle was that every man in conse- 
 quence of Adam's fall brings with him into this world 
 an evil spirit, under whose dominion he lives. All 
 ascetic discipline, all the means of grace in the Church, 
 are powerless to deliver the soul from the bondage of 
 this evil spirit. They are only able to check single out- 
 breaks of sin. The root of the evil — the power of the 
 evil spirit over the will — is untouched by them. To 
 redeem the will from that dominion, the only effectual 
 means is constant inward prayer. Whoever has 
 
94 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 attained to this, so that the eye of the soul is, as it 
 were, unswervingly fixed upon the beauty and holi- 
 ness of God, he has become free. For him, henceforth, 
 there is no need of fasting or self-mortification. The 
 outward ordinances of the Church he may regard with 
 indifference. Launched thus on the downward slope 
 to Pantheism, it was not long before these mystics 
 arrived at the doctrine of self- deification. They 
 declared themselves to be partakers of the Divine 
 nature. They looked upon the appearances of angels 
 in the Old Testament, upon the patriarchs and 
 prophets, and upon Christ Himself, as so many mani- 
 festations of the Divine Essence. And they were 
 persuaded that the excellences of all were concen- 
 trated in themselves ; so that if angel, patriarch, 
 prophet, or Christ was named to one of them he would 
 reply, " That I am myself." This sect was known 
 under many names ; they were sometimes called 
 Euchites, on account of their doctrine of constant 
 inward prayer; sometimes Ghoreutes, in allusion to 
 their mystic dances ; and sometimes Enthusiasts, from 
 the communications they affirmed that they received 
 from the Holy Spirit.* 
 
 In this development of Eastern Monachism we find 
 anticipated the later phases of Muhammadan mysticism 
 — its contempt for outward forms and ordinances, its 
 belief in the elevating power of inward meditation on 
 the Divine perfections, its mystic dances, and its 
 ultimate self-deification. As the ranks of the Faithful 
 were recruited from the Christian Churches, the new 
 
 * Ncander's Church Hisfcoi-y, Eng. Trans., vol. iii. p. 341, et seq. 
 
A.D. 700. MOSLEM MYSTICS. 95 
 
 converts must have brought with them stories of the 
 miracles wrought by holy men who had thus separated 
 themselves from the world, of their powers of predic- 
 tion, their knowledge of the Divine will, and so forth. 
 The Arab was far too credulous and superstitious to 
 question the reality of such stories. They were hailed 
 by him as the revelation of a mental capacity, which 
 had hitherto been hid from him. If the Polytheists 
 could thus, by mere meditation, ascend in spirit to the 
 Holy of Holies, a true believer could of course do so 
 likewise. The difficulty was to reconcile such spiritual 
 experiences with the hard doctrine of " exemption." 
 This doctrine required the Moslem to believe that the 
 Deity was utterly removed from the creatures He had 
 made. Man and his God, neither in form nor in sub- 
 stance, had anything in common whereby such inter- 
 communion was possible, as was presupposed in the 
 practices of Eastern Monasticism. But urgent spiritual 
 need succeeded without much difficulty in constructing 
 a bridge over this doctrinal abyss. It began by insti- 
 tuting an examination of the doctrine of "exemption." 
 This doctrine required the Faithful to believe that God 
 was "separated" from His creatures. Granted. But 
 how separated ? The term " separation " could not 
 imply that men were in one place and God in another. 
 Such an assertion would be a denial of the omni- 
 presence of God ; and by giving Him a position in 
 space, would imply that He also possessed a material 
 body. God therefore could not be separated from 
 men, in the sense of being removed from them by a 
 greater or less extent of space. In what, then, con- 
 
96 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 sisted this separation ? Was it that God was divided 
 from man relatively to His essence ? But how could 
 that be ? Life assuredly is an essential attribute of 
 the Creator. It is from this life, as the only source 
 of creative power, that the world and all that it con- 
 tains, have been called into existence. Otherwise 
 there would be in the world something which had not 
 been created by God. At this point came in the 
 inevitable Tradition. " God," the Prophet was de- 
 clared to have said, " was a hidden treasure, and had 
 created men in order that they might seek after and 
 find Him." The sentiment was undoubtedly Christian, 
 as also was the argument by which it was justified and 
 explained. 
 
 There is (so said these mystics) throughout this 
 sublunary world a gradual ascent in the orders of 
 being. First we have minerals, then plants, then 
 animals. Bach of these passes into the class above it 
 by gradations so minute as to be imperceptible ; each 
 implies, in the manner of its existence, the promise of 
 an order of life higher than itself. At the summit 
 of this ascending scale stands man, differing from all 
 lower nature by his powers of judgment and fore- 
 sight ; his thoughts that look before and after. But 
 these powers, by their imperfection and limitation, 
 show that man is not the terminating point of a 
 series. He must be linked on to a higher order of 
 life, precisely as Nature gradually ascends up to him. 
 That he has the power of passing into the unseen 
 world, and reading the secrets of the Future, is 
 proved by the phenomena of dreams. Dreams, the 
 
a.d. 700. TESTIMONY OF DREAMS. 97 
 
 Prophet himself declared, were a forty-sixth part of 
 the prophetic capacity. No one questions that they 
 make known to men events which have yet to corao 
 to pass. Joseph the patriarch, and favourite of God, 
 regarded dreams as revelations of future events, and 
 was skilled in their interpretation. The Prophet, and 
 the khalif Abou Bekr, did the same ; and the former, 
 when he came forth after morning prayers, was wont 
 to ask his companions if any among them had had a 
 dream, hoping to find in them some indication of the 
 triumph of his religion. The first revelation which 
 God communicated to the Prophet was made known 
 to him through the medium of a dream. Moreover, 
 it was written in the Koran, " God taketh souls 
 unto Himself at death, and during sleep those ivlio do 
 not die ; and He retains those on which He hath passed 
 a decree of death, but sendeth the others back till a time 
 that is fixed." (Sura xxxix. 43.) All this sufficed to 
 prove, not merely that man possessed capacities which 
 fitted him to become the denizen of the angelic world, 
 but that he had access to that world even in this life. 
 This was explicable only upon the supposition that 
 during sleep the disturbing power of the senses being 
 laid at rest, the soul became aware of that angelic 
 world, its natural home and abiding place, and held 
 converse with saints and angels in the presence of the 
 Deity. By renunciation, therefore, of this world, and 
 intense meditation on God, it would be possible, 
 even in our waking moments, so to abstract the soul 
 from the perturbing domination of sense, that it should 
 acquire the power of passing into the unseen world. 
 
 7 
 
98 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 The poison of Pantheism lurked in these doctrines 
 from the beginning. But the early Moslem mystics 
 were not aware of this. They believed themselves to 
 be upholders of the creed of Muhammad. " Our 
 system of doctrine," so said al Junaid, the most cele- 
 brated of these early mystics, " is firmly bound with 
 the dog-mas of the faith, the Koran, and the Tradi- 
 tions." What they earnestly strove after was to put 
 a living: soul beneath the ceremonial observances and 
 hard, abstract dogmas, which made up the religion of 
 the multitude. The sayings of some of these early 
 mystics are full of moral earnestness and insight. 
 " The worth of a holy man," said one, " does not con- 
 sist in this, that he eats grain, and clothes himself in 
 wool, but in the knowledge of God, and submission to 
 His will." And again : " A heart without sorrow goes 
 to ruin like an untenanted house. As neither meat nor 
 drink profit the diseased body, so no warning avails to 
 touch the heart full of the love of this world." " Thou 
 deservest not the name of a learned man till thy heart 
 is emptied of the love of this world. The true sign that 
 a man knows himself is when he rates himself lower 
 than a dog." The neophytes who entered upon " the 
 Path " — as the discipline necessary to a knowledge of 
 God was called — were directed diligently to examine 
 themselves before they set forth. Did they enter upon 
 " the Path " from a single-minded desire to know God ? 
 or merely from the baser motive to enjoy the sensible 
 gratification of having the soul withdrawn back into 
 the invisible world ? The latter, they were warned, 
 was a veritable act of Polytheism. The man who 
 
a.d. 750. THE "MYSTIC" AL JUNAID. 99 
 
 entered upon " the Path " actuated by such a desire 
 would never reach the goal of spiritual communion. 
 These glimpses of the spiritual world came, as it were, 
 accidentally. They were the gift of the grace of God. 
 The recipient had no premonitions of them. He wan- 
 ders through the world with the sense of an aching 
 void at his heart. It is the yearning of the soul for the 
 presence of the absent Beloved. A touch, a look, a 
 strain of music, strikes the electric chain wherewith he 
 is darkly bound, and for one rapturous ecstatic moment 
 the walls of sense are broken down, and he stands 
 in the presence of Divinity. Thus the Shaikh al Junaid 
 related of himself that he never profited so much 
 (never, that is, was drawn so near to God) as by 
 some verses he once heard. He was passing through 
 the paper bazaar of Baghdad, when the tones of 
 a slave girl struck on his ear. He listened while she 
 sang — 
 
 " When I say to thee, ' Departure hath given me the raiment of 
 decay,' thou repliest, ' Were it not for departure, love had not been 
 proved sincere.' If I say, 'This heart is burned by passion,' thou 
 sayest, ' The fires of passion ennoble the heart ;' and if I say, ' I am 
 not in fault,' thou auswerest, ' Thy existence is a fault to which no 
 fault can be compared.' " 
 
 On hearing these words the Shaikh uttered a loud 
 cry, and fainted away. While he was in that state, 
 .the master of the house came out and said, " What 
 is this, sir?" The Shaikh replied, "The effect of 
 what I heard." The whole philosophy of the Mos- 
 lem mystic is, in fact, summed up in the verses 
 above quoted. 
 
 Departure or exile from the divine presence it is 
 
100 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chat. hi. 
 
 which clothes humanity in its present garment of 
 decay — its devotion to sense, its vain ambitions, its 
 idle aspirations ; and yet but for this separation, and 
 the void within thereby occasioned, the soul would 
 never have recalled the pleasures it hath known, nor 
 that imperial palace whence it came. The heart is 
 burned with a ceaseless longing to be reabsorbed into 
 the divine essence whence it draws its life ; and yet 
 that very passion is the purifying and elevating influ- 
 ence which emancipates it from the dominion of sense. 
 " I am not in fault," it may occasionally cry under the 
 sense of an intolerable separation ; but not till its 
 individual existence is merged and reabsorbed into the 
 divine fountain of all life can the pangs of separate 
 existence be rectified and removed. The same idea is 
 worked out in a Soufi fable, which, though of later 
 origin than the period I am at present treating of, may 
 be inserted here as an explanation of the thoughts 
 which were, even now, dimly working in the heart of 
 Moslem mysticism. A frog had its home on the margin 
 of the sea. Day and night it never ceased to chant the 
 praises of the ocean. It was to the ocean, so sung 
 the frog, that it owed the graces of its mind, and the 
 power whereby its body had attained to perfection. 
 Wherever its thoughts turned, wherever its eyes were 
 fixed, there stretched the boundless immensity of the 
 ocean, filling it with awe and unspeakable delight. 
 These praises, sung without ceasing, were heard by 
 certain fishes, and excited in them an ardent desire to 
 become acquainted with this marvellous ocean. They 
 determined to set forth, and never to rest from their 
 
A.U. 752. "THE MOTHER OF GOOD." 101 
 
 travels until they had discovered the object of their 
 desires. They had fruitlessly traversed an immense 
 space, when they were entangled in a fisherman's net, 
 and drawn out of the water. By dint of desperate strug- 
 gles they freed themselves from the meshes, and fell back 
 into the water. Then, for the first time, they perceived 
 what that ocean was of which they had been in search. 
 
 Among the most eminent of these early mystics, 
 was Umm al Khair (the mother of good) Rabia, a 
 native of Basra. She passed the greater part of her 
 life at Jerusalem, where her piety and asceticism 
 gathered round her a numerous company of disciples 
 and imitators. She died a.h. 135 (a.d. 752-3), and 
 her tomb near Jerusalem became an object of pil- 
 grimage. Many are the anecdotes preserved regarding 
 her. She used to say, when holding converse with 
 God, " Consume with fire, God, a presumptuous 
 heart which loveth thee I" And on one of these occa- 
 sions a voice spoke to her and said, " That we shall 
 not do ! Think not of us an ill thought." Another 
 of her sayings was, " If my good works appear to the 
 world, I count them as nought ;" and a counsel which 
 she was fond of impressing upon neophytes was, 
 " Hide thy good deeds as closely as thou wouldst hide 
 thy sins." "I reserve," she said, "my heart for thy 
 converse, Lord, and leave my body to keep company 
 with those who desire my society. My body is thus 
 the companion of the visitor, but my dearly Beloved is 
 the companion of my heart." 
 
 Abda, " one of God's excellent handmaids, and 
 the servant of Rabia," related as follows : — " Rabia 
 
102 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 used to pass whole nights in prayer, and at morning 
 dawn she took a slight sleep in her oratory till 
 daylight ; and I have heard her say, when she sprang 
 in dread from her couch, ' my soul ! how long 
 wilt thou sleep ? when wilt thou awake ? Soon thou 
 shalt sleep to rise no more, till the call shall summon 
 thee on the day of resurrection V This was her constant 
 custom till the time of her death. On its approach she 
 called me and said, ' Abda ! inform none of my death, 
 and shroud me in this gown.' This was a gown of hair 
 cloth, which she wore when praying at the time in 
 which the eyes of others were closed in sleep. I 
 shrouded her in that gown, and in a woollen veil which 
 she used to wear ; and about a year afterwards I saw 
 her in a dream clothed in a gown of green satin and a 
 veil of green silk, the like of which for beauty I never 
 beheld. And I said, ' Rabia ! what has become of 
 the gown in which I shrouded thee, and of the woollen 
 veil ? ' To which she answered, ' By Allah ! it was 
 taken off me, and I received in exchange what thou 
 seest on me ; my shroud was folded up, a seal was put 
 upon it, and it was taken up to the highest heaven, 
 that by it my reward might be complete on the day of 
 resurrection.' f It was for this,' I observed, ' that thou 
 didst work when in the world ? ' ' And what is this,' 
 she rejoined, c compared with what I saw of Almighty 
 God's bounty to his saints 1 ' I then asked her in what 
 state was Obaida,* the daughter of Abou Kallah, and 
 she replied, ' It cannot be described ! by Allah ! she 
 
 * A celestial saint, who wept for her sins during forty y ears, and 
 then lost her sight. 
 
a.u. 800. AUOU ALI AL FUDAIL. 103 
 
 lias surpassed us, and reached the highest place in 
 Paradise.' ' And how so ? ' said I, ' when the people 
 considered thee far, for above her.' To which she 
 answered, * Because, when in the world, she cared not 
 what her state might be on the next morning, or the 
 next night !' ' And what doeth Abou Malik Daigham ? ' 
 ' He visiteth Almighty God when he pleaseth.' ' And 
 Bishr ibn Manour ? ' ' Admirable, admirable ! he hath 
 received a recompense far beyond his hopes.' I then 
 said to her, c Tell me a means by which I may approach 
 nearer to Almighty God.' And she answered, ' Think 
 on him often, and by that, thou wilt, after a little while, 
 be happy in thy tomb.' " 
 
 Another eminent saint of the same day began life 
 as a highway robber. This was Abou Ali al Fudail. 
 The story of his conversion is as follows. He was one 
 night climbing over a wall to see a girl whom he loved, 
 when he heard a voice pronounce this verse of the 
 Korau : Is not the time yet come unto those who believe 
 that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition 
 of God? On this he exclaimed, " Lord ! the time is 
 come." He then went away from the place, and the 
 approach of night induced him to repair for shelter to 
 a ruined edifice. He there found a band of travellers, 
 one of whom said to the others, " Let us set out ; 
 but another answered, " Let us rather wait till day 
 light, for al Eudail is on the road, and will stop us. 
 Al Fudail then turned his heart to God, and assured 
 them that they had nothing to fear. He ranked among 
 the greatest of saints. Many are the stories related of 
 him. Thus it is said thekhalif Haroun al Rashid once 
 
 )> 
 
 55 
 
104 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 said to him, " How great is thy self-abnegation ! " To 
 which he made answer, "Thine is greater." " How so?" 
 said the khalif. " Because I make abnegation of this 
 world, and thou makest abnegation of the next. Now, 
 this world is transitory, and the next will endure for 
 ever." It was, again, a saying of his that when God 
 loves a man, he increases his afflictions, and when he 
 hates a man, he increases his worldly prosperity. 
 Another saying of his was, " Jf the world, with all it 
 contains, were offered to me even on the condition of 
 my not being taken to an account for it, I should shun 
 it as you would shun a carrion, lest it should defile your 
 clothes." " The display of devotional works to please 
 men is hypocrisy ; and acts of devotion done to please 
 men are acts of polytheism." 
 
 A third example of what may be regarded as the 
 orthodox Muhammadan mystic, is Zu'n-nun al Misri. 
 He was a native of Nubia, an enfranchised slave, and 
 adopted by the tribe of Kuraish. He was the first 
 person of the age for his learning in the law and Tra- 
 ditions, his devotion, his communion with the Divinity, 
 and his acquaintance with literature ; and he is remem- 
 bered as one of those who taught from memory " The 
 Beaten Path " of the Imam Malek. On being asked 
 why he had renounced the world, he replied, " I went 
 forth from Misr, journeying to a certain village, and I 
 fell asleep in one of the deserts on the way. And my 
 eye was opened, and, lo ! a little bird, still blind, fell 
 from its negt to the ground. Then the ground split 
 open, and two trays came forth, one of gold, and the 
 other of silver ; in one was sesame, and in the other 
 
A.n. 850. ZU'N-NUN AL MISRI. 105 
 
 water; and the bird eat of that and drank of this. 
 ' That,' said I, * is a sufficient warning for me ; I 
 renounce the world ! ' And I then did not quit the 
 door of Divine mercy until I was let in."* Having 
 been denounced by his enemies to the khalif al 
 Mutawakkil, he was cited from Egypt to appear before 
 him. He was dragged, handcuffed and fettered, 
 through the streets of Mekka, where the khalif was at 
 the time ; and as the people thronged round him, 
 weeping and lamenting, he was heard to say, " This 
 is one of tiie gifts and favours of God ; all He does 
 
 * Stories like the above are not infrequent in Muhammadan 
 history. The following has always appeared to me to be a quaint 
 and pathetic example : " Ibn Babshad, the greatest grammarian of 
 his time of Egypt, held a place in the Chancery office, which, at 
 length, he gave up owing to the following circumstance. Being one 
 day on the roof of the mosque at Old Cairo with some other persons, 
 eating a collation, a cat went over to them, and they gave it a bit of 
 meat. The animal took it into its mouth and went off, but soon 
 returned again, on which they threw another morsel to it. This it 
 carried off also ; and it kept going and coming a great number of 
 times, at each of which it received from them another bit. Struck 
 with this singularity, and knowing that no single cat could eat all 
 they had given, they suspected something extraordinary, and fol- 
 lowed the animal. They then saw it clamber over a wall on the 
 roof, and go down into an empty space like an abandoned room. 
 There they found another cat, but blind, eating of the food which 
 had been brought to it and set before it by its companion. They 
 were much struck by this, and Ibn Babshad said, ' Since God has 
 caused this dumb animal to be served and fed by another cat, and 
 has not withheld from it nourishment, how could He let a human 
 being such as I am perish of hunger ? ' He immediately broke off 
 all the ties which bound him to the world ; he gave up his place, 
 renounced his salary, and shut himself up in a chamber, where he 
 pursued his studies in the full confidence that God would provide 
 for him. His friends then took care of him, and supported him till 
 he died."— 77m Khali, vol. i.. p. 618. 
 
106 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. in. 
 
 is sweet, right, and good." He then recited these 
 lines : — 
 
 "For thee, my beloved, is a reserved place in my heart; I 
 despise all blame cast on me for loving thee. For thy sake, I 
 strive to fall thy victim ; to support thy absence is a task not 
 possible.'' 
 
 When brought into the presence of the khalif, 
 Zu'n-nnn began a pious exhortation, which had such 
 an effect on al Mutawakhil that he shed tears and dis- 
 missed him honourably. And, henceforth, whenever 
 men of piety were spoken of in his presence, the khalif 
 would weep and say, " Speaking of pious men, let me 
 have Zu'n-nun." 
 
 In these, its early stages, this Moslem mysticism 
 was a potent element of good. It rebuked the pas- 
 sionate worldliness evoked by the doctrine of Fatalism 
 and the terrible uncertainty of life. The uplifted arm 
 of unrighteous power, about to strike its innocent 
 victim, was not unfrequently arrested at the rebuke of 
 one of these ascetics. In his worn and emaciated form 
 the khalif perceived the indications of a Power mightier 
 than his own. But it is obvious that the mystics could 
 exercise this beneficent influence only so long as their 
 doctrines were based on the Koran and the Traditions. 
 And this foundation it was not possible for them long- 
 to preserve. The idea having been admitted that there 
 was an identity of essence between God and man, it 
 became increasingly difficult to allot to either a distinct 
 and independent existence. First, the external world 
 vanished into the abyss of Pantheism. The whole 
 visible creation became merely a manifestation of that 
 
a.d. 900. " THE WOOLCARDER." 107 
 
 Divine Being whose spirit, diffused and interpene- 
 trated through every part, renews its beauty and 
 splendour from day to day. The personality of man 
 swiftly followed. The doctrine of relativity was applied 
 in order to reduce it to a mere phantom. Colours, it 
 was argued, have no objective existence. They are the 
 result of the constitution of the eye. Destroy the 
 organ of vision, and the varied colouring of Nature 
 would perish also. So also with heat and cold, hard- 
 ness and softness. These are merely relative qualities 
 — modes of our consciousness, not attributes having a 
 reality in themselves. In like manner, it is the power 
 of perception which occasions the separation of our- 
 selves from the world. Destroy this power, and the 
 universe is immediately restored to its proper and 
 original unity. When a man sleeps, the external world 
 ceases to have an existence for him, except through 
 the medium of the imagination ; and likewise, when a 
 man awakes, but for his faculty of perception he 
 would be unable to divide himself from the world. 
 Destroy that faculty, and the universe perishes with it. 
 God alone exists. 
 
 This development of the earlier mysticism appears 
 to have first been taught in Baghdad towards the close 
 of the second century after the flight. Its teacher was 
 a man of humble origin ; and the name by which he is 
 remembered in history is " Al Hallaj," or The Wool- 
 carder. Among the sayings recorded of him, as 
 peculiar to his teaching, are these : — " I am the Truth. 
 There is nought in Paradise but God. I am He whom I 
 love, and Re whom. I love is I; ipe are two souls dwell* 
 
108 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 ing in one body. When thou seest me, thou seest 
 Him ; and when thou seest Him, thou seest me." Al 
 Hallaj's preaching made so many converts in Baghdad 
 that he aroused the hatred and jealousy of the orthodox 
 doctors. And they resolved to extirpate the growing 
 heresy, by destroying the root of it. Al Hallaj was 
 summoned before Hamd ibn al Abbas, the vizier of al 
 Muktadir, the reigning khalif at the time, and exa- 
 mined on the subject of his religious teaching. At the 
 close of his reply, the orthodox doctors who were pre- 
 sent appended their signatures to a jatwa, or declara- 
 tion, which affirmed that he merited death ; and he 
 was thrown into prison. The vizier then informed the 
 khalif by letter of the result of the meeting, and sent 
 him the decision of the doctors. To this, answer was 
 made that since the kadis had given their opinion that 
 al Hallaj merited death, he was to be handed over to 
 the chief of the police guards ; that functionary was to 
 inflict upon him a thousand strokes of a whip ; and if 
 his death did not ensue, a second thousand, and that 
 he should then behead him. The vizier summoned the 
 chief of the police, and after communicating to him 
 the orders of the khalif, he added, "If al Hallaj does 
 not expire under the bastinado, cut off one of his 
 hands, then one of his feet, then the other hand, then 
 the other foot ; then strike off his head, and burn his 
 body. And if he try to beguile you, and say to you 
 that he will make the Euphrates and Tigris run gold 
 and silver, do not hearken to him, nor suspend his 
 punishment." The chief of the police received the 
 prisoner that night, and the next morning, which was 
 
a. d. 922. MARTYRDOM OF "THE WOOLCARDER." 109 
 
 Tuesday, 23rd Zulkada, A.H. 309 (March, a.d. 922), 
 he brought him to the " Gate of the Dome," where an 
 immense multitude of people was assembled. The 
 executioner inflicted one thousand strokes on al Hallaj, 
 who did not utter a groan, but said to the chief of the 
 police guards, towards the six hundredth, " Let me be 
 brought near you, for I have an advice to give you 
 which will be worth the capture of Constantinople." 
 " I have been already told," replied the other, " that 
 you would say this, and more ; and it is not in my 
 power to suspend your punishment." After the inflic- 
 tion of the bastinado, his four limbs were cut off; he 
 was then beheaded ; his body was consumed by fire ; 
 the ashes cast into the Tigris ; and his head was stuck 
 up on the bridge across the river, as a warning to all 
 who might feel inclined to fall into the same mis- 
 chievous heresy. 
 
 This terrible martyrdom did not produce the effect 
 intended. The followers of al Hallaj were not dis- 
 heartened by the loss of their leader, nor dismayed by 
 his cruel death. And a great inundation of the Tigris, 
 which greatly damaged the city, occurring soon after 
 his death, they affirmed that it was caused by his ashes, 
 which had been thrown into the river. The yearning 
 for absorption into the Deity became a sort of fanati- 
 cism. The very vizier of the khalif al Muktadir was 
 infected with this heresy. The congregation of one of 
 the Baghdad mosques was scandalized by the entrance 
 of a man, stark naked, and shouting out, " I am mad 
 through the love of God ! " And it soon became 
 apparent to the orthodox party that a fresh example 
 
110 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 must be made, if they were not prepared to allow this 
 alarming heresy to flourish unchecked. The mantle of 
 al Hallaj had descended upon a certain Muhammad ibn 
 Ali as Shalmaghani. This man taught the transmi- 
 gration of souls, and the residence of the Divinity in 
 himself. Search was made for him ; but for several 
 years he contrived to evade his pursuers, until, having 
 ventured to enter Baghdad, he was arrested and im- 
 prisoned. This occurred a.h. 322 (a.d. 934). His 
 place of residence was searched, letters and other 
 documents were discovered, written by persons who 
 professed to believe in his doctrines, and who applied 
 to him epithets such as no mortal would use when 
 addressing another. These letters were produced to 
 as Shalmaghani, who admitted that they were ad- 
 dressed to him, but denied that he held the doctrines 
 of which he was accused. Two of his disciples, Ibn 
 Abi Aun, and Ibn Abdus, were confronted with him, 
 and ordered by the khalif to strike him on the cheek. 
 The latter did so ; but the hand of the former trembled 
 violently as it approached the face of the teacher, and 
 instead of striking, Ibn Abi Aun exclaimed, with deep 
 emotion, kissing at the same time the beard of Ibn as 
 Shalmaghani, " My God ! my Lord ! thou who givest 
 me sustenance ! " The khalif ar Rhadi, horrified at this 
 blasphemy, turned in anger to Ibn as Shalmaghani. 
 " You pretend," he said, " that you did not pass your- 
 self for the Divinity ; what does this mean ? " Ibn as 
 Shalmaghani replied, " I am not responsible for the 
 words of Ibn Abi Aun ; God knows I never told him 
 I was a God." They were afterwards brought forth a 
 
a.d. 934. MUHAMMAD AS SHALMAGHANI. Ill 
 
 number of times, and examined in the presence of tlie 
 doctors of the law and the kadis. The final result 
 was that Ibn Abdus was acquitted ; but Ibn as Shal- 
 maghani was publicly burned as a heretic ; and his 
 follower, Ibn Abi Aim, first severely scourged, and 
 then beheaded, and his body, after exposure on a cross, 
 was burned by fire. 
 
 But the movement had by this time become too strong 
 to be checked by intermittent acts of severity. The only 
 effectual barriers against this species of mysticism are 
 national life and civic freedom. These bind Past and 
 Future together ; they evoke in men faith in a pro- 
 gressive order, having its roots far back in the ages, 
 and " breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath ; ' 
 and morbid dreams of an unreal phantasmal world dis- 
 appear before the fact of permanence and the existence 
 of law. But in Muhammadan Asia there was no per- 
 manence, and consequently no progress. Nothing was 
 constant except a principle of change. There seemed 
 to be no right and no wrong ; only a mad expenditure 
 of fruitless energy — a frantic struggle for power where 
 chance was the only law. And thoughtful and devout 
 men, looking forth on the unceasing and purposeless 
 turmoil, boldly pronounced the whole wild chaos an 
 illusion. Man, they said, is an emanation from the 
 Deity ; and the unrest and discomfort he feels upon 
 earth are the throes of the Divine life within him, 
 striving for deliverance from this prison-house of flesh. 
 Those who are ignorant of this truth vainly seek to 
 satisfy their spiritual wants by the acquisition of fame, 
 power, wealth, or pleasure. In the search after these 
 
112 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 phantoms, they fill the earth with mourning, blood- 
 shed, and misery ; and at the end are farther off from 
 the true object of man's existence than when they 
 started upon their career. That object is to lose all 
 consciousness of individual existence — to sink in the 
 ocean of Divine Life, as a breaking bubble is merged 
 into the stream on the surface of which it has for a 
 moment arisen. For those who devote themselves to 
 this end there is gradually created a new heaven and 
 a new earth. The sorrowful things about them cease 
 to give pain ; and the beautiful become informed with 
 a diviner beauty. 
 
 The spread of this Pantheistic spirit has been and 
 is the source of incalculable evil throughout the Mu- 
 hammadan world. The true function of religion is to 
 vivify and illuminate all the ordinary relations of life 
 with light from a higher world. The weakness to 
 which religious minds are peculiarly prone is to sup- 
 pose that this world of working life is an atmosphere 
 too gross and impure for them to live in. They crave 
 for better bread than can be made from wheat. They 
 attempt to fashion a world for themselves, where 
 nothing shall soil the purity of the soul or disturb the 
 serenity of their thoughts. The divorce thus effected 
 between the religious life and the worldly life is 
 disastrous to both. The ordinary relations of men 
 become emptied of all Divine sigDificance. They are 
 considered as the symbols of bondage to the world or 
 to an evil deity. The religious spirit dwindles down 
 to a selfish desire to acquire a felicity from which the 
 children of this world are hopelessly excluded. Pre- 
 
RESULTS OF MYSTICISM. 113 
 
 eminently has this been the result of Muhammadan 
 mysticism. It has dug a deep gulf between those who 
 can know God and those who must wander in darkness, 
 feeding upon the husks of rites and ceremonies. It 
 has affirmed with emphasis that only by a complete re- 
 nunciation of the world is it possible to attain the true 
 end of man's existence. Thus all the best and purest 
 natures — the men who might have put a soul in the 
 decaying Church of Islam — have been drawn off from 
 their proper task, to wander about in deserts and 
 solitary places, or expend their lives in idle and profit- 
 less passivity, disguised under the title of " spiritual 
 contemplation." 
 
 But this has only been a part of the evil. The 
 logical result of Pantheism is the destruction of a 
 moral law. If God be all in all, and man's apparent 
 individuality a delusion of the perceptive faculty, there 
 exists no will which can act, no conscience which can 
 reprove or applaud. The individual is but a momentary 
 seeming ; he comes and goes like " the snowflake on 
 the river, a moment seen, then gone for ever." To 
 reproach such an ephemeral creature for being the slave 
 of its passions, is to chide the thistledown for yielding 
 to the violence of the wind. Muhammadans have not 
 been slow to discover these consequences. Thousands 
 of reckless and profligate spirits havo entered the 
 Orders of the Durweshes, to enjoy the licence thereby 
 obtained. Their affectation of piety is simply a cloak 
 for the practice of sensuality ; their emancipation from 
 the ritual of Islam involves a liberation also from its 
 moral restraints. And thus a movement, animated at 
 
 8 
 
114 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 its outset by a high and lofty purpose, has degenerated 
 into a fruitful source of ill. The stream which ought 
 to have expanded into a fertilising river, has become 
 a vast swamp, exhaling vapours charged with disease 
 and death o 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE " FREE-THINKERS." 
 
 a.d. 632—850. 
 
 In "Islam under the Arabs," I have described the 
 character attributed to the Koran by Muhammadan 
 divines in the following passage : — " According to 
 Muhammadan divines, the Koran is in itself the 
 greatest of all miracles. In most cases, they say, 
 miracles have not occurred at one and the same time 
 with the revelations committed to the Prophet. They 
 have been intended to confirm and bear witness to the 
 revelations, and have in consequence been subsequent 
 to the Divine message. But the Koran is a miracle 
 and revelation in one." 
 
 "It is otherwise with regard to the Pentateuch, 
 the Evangel, and other Divine books; they are 
 revelations received under the form of ideas. When 
 the writers of these books returned from the 
 ecstatic state to the normal human condition, they 
 clothed the revelations they had received in their own 
 language. And, consequently, in the style of these 
 books there is nothing miraculous. But not so in 
 the case of the Koran. The actual text of the Koran 
 
116 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 came to the Prophet through the ear, as is shown by 
 the following, among other passages : — 
 
 ' Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this 
 
 revelation ; 
 For we will see to the collecting and the recital of it ; 
 But when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital, 
 And verily afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.' 
 
 Sura lxxv. 16—19. 
 
 " These verses were communicated to the Prophet to 
 quiet the anxiety he manifested to fix by constant 
 repetition the words of the Koran in his memory. 
 There are many other like passages which clearly 
 show that the Koran was made known to the Prophet 
 under the form of a reading delivered in a high voice ; 
 and thus every line of the Koran is a miraculous reve- 
 lation of Divine eloquence surpassing the power of 
 men." (Pp. 291, 292.) 
 
 The notion even, of theology, as a science, was of 
 course wholly absent from the minds of the earliest 
 followers of the Prophet. They, naturally enough, 
 supposed there could be no disputes regarding the 
 meaning of a revelation couched in the speech familiar 
 to them all. Their primary anxiety was not to under- 
 stand the Koran aright, but to repeat it with the 
 correct pronunciation. How had the Archangel pro- 
 nounced these words when reciting them to the 
 Prophet? His pronunciation must, of necessity, be 
 the manner in which Arabic was spoken in the pre- 
 sence of the Almighty; and, consequently, the type 
 and exemplar according to which the Koran was to be 
 recited. Now the only man who was acquainted with 
 
a.d. G50. KORAN READERS. 117 
 
 this — the Divine method of pronouncing the Arabic 
 language — was the Prophet himself. Consequently, 
 one of the first duties which the devout among the 
 earliest Moslems set themselves to do, was to learn to 
 repeat the Koran under the tuition of the Prophet. 
 Such men are styled in Muhammadan history " Koran 
 Readers;" and became, indirectly, the parents of Mu- 
 hammadan theology. The earliest " Koran Readers " 
 were the first four Khalifs, and ten of the chief among 
 the Companions. But among these, four were pre- 
 eminent. They were — 
 
 Abou ilm Kab, called " The Master of the Koran 
 Readers," because he had read the Koran in the 
 hearing of the Prophet, who had said, in reference to 
 him, " Read the Koran under Abou ibn Kab." 
 
 lbn Mesud, one of the combatants at Bedr, who 
 embraced Islam before Omar, and was wont to read 
 the Koran in the presence of the Prophet. He had 
 charge of the shoes and the toothpick of the Prophet, 
 and was his confidential friend and adviser, and in 
 constant attendance upon him. Seventy suras of the 
 Koran he is said to have learned by heart direct from 
 the mouth of Muhammad. None knew as he did to 
 read the sacred book with the correct inflections and 
 modulations of the voice; while from his close per- 
 sonal relation to the Prophet, he knew not merely 
 the occasion of every sura, but the time and place of 
 its revelation. 
 
 Abou Mousa dl Ashari. He received and wrote down 
 the Koran from the dictation of the Prophet, and read 
 it in so sweet and musical a voice that Muhammad, 
 
118 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. CHAP. IV. 
 
 enchanted by the sound, declared with enthusiasm that 
 the harp of David had been given to him. 
 
 Abou' I Dorda, known as " The Wise among the 
 Readers." On the capture of Damascus he was 
 appointed judge in that city ; and every morning, after 
 prayers, he took his seat in the "Mihrab" of the 
 Mosque in order to give instruction in the reading of 
 the Koran. Sixteen hundred readers were in this way 
 instructed by him. 
 
 By such men the knowledge of the "correct" 
 reading of the Koran was disseminated through Islam. 
 To acquire this " correct " reading was incumbent upon 
 every true believer. Every effort was made to preserve 
 throughout the Muhammadan world an uniform pro- 
 nunciation ; but it is needless to say that these efforts 
 failed of success. The immense extent of the khalifate, 
 the diverse languages included within its sway told, of 
 course, on the pronunciation of the sacred language. 
 To the great consternation of the orthodox, instead of 
 one, there arose seven distinct methods of reading the 
 Koran, all reposing, as those who practised them 
 declared, on the authority of Companions, whose 
 knowledge and dexterity could not be disputed. The 
 endeavour after uniformity having failed, nothing 
 remained but to consecrate diversity by means of the 
 usual device. The following Tradition was fathered 
 upon Abou ibn Kab : " I was in the Mosque, and 
 a man came in performing his prayers, and read in a 
 dialect which I had forbidden him. After that another 
 man came in and read in another dialect ; and when we 
 had finished prayers we all came to the Prophet ; and 
 
a.d. 650. KORAN READERS. 119 
 
 I said, ' This man repeated in a dialect which I objected 
 to, and another man came in and repeated in a different 
 dialect.' Then the Prophet ordered the two men to 
 repeat over again ; which they did, and his Highness 
 praised them both. Then a doubt arose in my mind 
 on account of the Prophet's praising both readings ; 
 and I had not this doubt when I was in ignorance ; 
 and when the Prophet perceived it, he struck his 
 hands upon my breast, and perspiration ran from 
 me, and I was in such a state, that you might say 
 I saw God from fear. And his Highness said to me, 
 * Abou ibn Kab ! intelligence was sent to me to read 
 the Koran in one dialect, and I was attentive to the 
 Court of God, and said, " Make easy the reading of the 
 Koran to my sects." Then instructions were sent to 
 me a second time, saying, "Read the Koran in two 
 dialects." Then I turned myself to the Court of God, 
 saying, " Make easy the reading of the Koran to my 
 sects." Then a voice was sent to me a third time, 
 saying, " Read the Koran in seven dialects." ' " 
 
 The difficulty of the diverse readings was thus hap- 
 pily removed, to the entire satisfaction of all devout 
 and reasonable Moslems. 
 
 The discovery that the Prophet had foreseen and 
 obtained a Divine sanction for these variations became 
 an additional proof of the supernatural character of 
 his teaching. Koran reading, according to the seven 
 methods, became thenceforth a part of the education of 
 any Moslem who aspired to a reputation for learning. 
 But this speedily ceased to suffice for the wants of the 
 Faithful. Men from every people under heaven were 
 
120 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 crowding into the Church of Islam. To these new 
 comers Arabic was an unknown tongue, and the Koran 
 a fount of unintelligible wisdom. The Arabic itself 
 was, every day, becoming more and more corrupted 
 by the contact with foreign languages. Very soon 
 all that generation who had seen and lived with the 
 Prophet would have followed him to the grave ; with 
 them would perish the understanding of the sacred 
 writings, and the world would sink back into the dark- 
 ness from which the last and greatest of the Prophets 
 had rescued it for a few brief years. To avert this 
 tremendous catastrophe, a voluminous literature was 
 rapidly developed, devoted to the exposition of the 
 Koran. This literature may be classified under two 
 heads, Philological and Traditional The object of the 
 first was to construct a grammar of the Arabic lan- 
 guage; and to seek in the abundant poetry of pre- 
 Islamite Arabia, for words, phrases, and idioms which 
 would clear up obscure and difficult passages in the 
 Koran. The object of the second was to collect and 
 preserve in writing the authoritative expositions of the 
 sacred text which had been handed down orally from 
 the Companions of the Prophet. 
 
 The founder of the science of grammar was a 
 certain Abou'l Aswad, an inhabitant of Basra. He 
 was a partisan of the khalif AH, and had fought in his 
 armies throughout the series of engagements on the 
 plains of Siffin. He thus relates how the idea of a 
 grammar was suggested to him. " I once went in to 
 the khalif Ali, and found him in deep reflection ; on 
 which I said to him, ' Commander of the Faithful, 
 
a.d. 670. ARABIC GRAMMAR. 121 
 
 what are you thinking of?' He answered, c I heard in 
 your town faults of language, and I wish to compose a 
 book on the principles of Arabic ?' I replied, ' If you 
 do so, you will give us new life.' Some days after- 
 wards I went to him, and he handed me a book, in 
 which was this passage : ' The parts of speech are the 
 noun, the verb, and the particle; the noun designates 
 a thing which has a name, the verb indicates the motion 
 of the thing which has a name, and the particle is that 
 which is neither noun nor verb.' He then told me to 
 follow that up, and add to it the observations which 
 might come into my mind. I therefore collected many 
 and submitted them to him." These notes, however, 
 he kept secret for some time after the death of the 
 khalif Ali, though it was known that they were in his 
 possession; but from the influx of foreigners into 
 Basra, the Arabic language having become much cor- 
 rupted, the governor of Basra sent orders to Abou'l 
 Aswad to compose something which might serve as a 
 guide to the public, and enable them to understand the 
 Book of God. At first he asked to be excused, but 
 having overheard a believer reciting the Koran, and 
 committing mistakes in so doing, which profoundly 
 shocked him, he set to work, and completed the first 
 Arabic grammar. 
 
 Abdallah ibn Abbas, the earliest of the Koranic 
 commentators, had also been the first to indicate the 
 poetry of pre-Islamite Arabia as a key to the verbal 
 obscurities of the Koran. He had himself a vast and 
 accurate knowledge of that poetry ; and it had been 
 his custom to deliver lectures, which were attended by 
 
122 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 enormous crowds, in which the language of the Koran 
 was explained and illustrated by parallel examples 
 taken from the poetry of the Arabs. The precedent, 
 thus established, was everywhere accepted. Men set 
 to work to store their minds with enormous quantities 
 of verses which were held to throw light on the 
 meaning of the sacred book. But this knowledge does 
 not appear to have been committed to writing until 
 the reign of the khalif Haroun al Rashid. According 
 to his own account, the first person to write a book 
 having this object in view was Abou Obaida, a native 
 of Basra. He was of Persian extraction, and detested 
 the Arabs of the desert so much that he composed a 
 number of treatises devoted to abuse of them. He 
 had so little power of speaking Arabic that he could 
 not recite a verse without mangling it; and even in 
 reading the Koran, with the book before his eyes, he 
 made mistakes. But his knowledge of the unusual 
 expressions in the Arabic language, the history of the 
 ancient Arabs and their conflicts, surpassed that of all 
 his contemporaries, and he thus relates the incident 
 which induced him to apply his learning to the expo- 
 sition of the Koran : — 
 
 " Al Fadhl ibn ar Rabi (the vizier of the khalif) 
 sent to me at Basra the order to go and see him. 
 So I set out, though I had been informed of his 
 haughtiness. Being admitted into his presence, I 
 found him in a very long and broad saloon, the 
 floor of which was covered with a carpet of one 
 single piece. At the upper end of the room was a pile 
 of mattresses, so lofty that it could not be got upon 
 
a.d. 800. PHILOLOGY. 123 
 
 without a footstool, and on those mattresses al Fadhl 
 was seated. I said to him, ■ Hail to the vizier !' He 
 returned my greeting, smiled on me, and bidding me 
 draw near, he placed me on the same seat with him- 
 self. He then asked me sundry questions, and showed 
 me such affability as set me quite at ease. At his 
 request, I recited to him the finest ante-Islamite poems 
 I could recollect. ' I know most of these,' said he ; 
 ' what I want is to hear gay verses.' I recited some 
 to him, and as I proceeded he shook his sides, laughed, 
 and got into an excellent humour. A well-looking 
 man, in the dress of a hliatib, then came in, and al 
 Fadhl made him sit down beside me, and asked him if 
 he knew me. On his reply that he did not, he said to 
 him, ' This is Abou Obaida, the most learned man of 
 Basra; we sent for him that we might derive some 
 benefit from his learning.' 'May God bless you!' 
 exclaimed the man ; * you did well.' Turning then 
 towards me, he said, ' I have been longing to see you, 
 as I have been asked a question which I wished to 
 submit to you.' I replied, ' Let us hear it.' * The 
 Koran, which is the word of God,' said he, c contains 
 this passage — 
 
 " It is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell, 
 Its fruit is as it were the heads of demons." 
 
 (Sura xxx vii. 62, 63.) 
 
 Now, we are all aware that, in promises and threats, 
 the comparisons which are made should refer to things 
 already known ; yet no one knows what a demon's 
 head is like.' To this I replied, ' God spoke there to 
 
124 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 the Arabs in their own style ; have you not heard the 
 verse of Amr'1-Kais — 
 
 " Will he kill me ? me whose bedfellows are a sword, and arrows 
 pointed with azure steel like unto the fangs of ogres." 
 
 Now, the Arabs never saw an ogre, but as they stood 
 in awe of such beings, they were often threatened with 
 them.' Al Fadhl and the man who questioned me 
 approved this answer, and on that very day I took the 
 resolution of composing a treatise on the Koran, in 
 explanation of this and similar difficulties, with every 
 necessary elucidation. On my return to Basra I 
 drew up the work, and entitled it Al Majaz (Meta- 
 phors)." * 
 
 Abou Obaida followed up this work by many others, 
 such as treatises On the unusual expressions employed 
 in the Koran; On the rhetorical figures made use of in 
 the Koran ; On the rare expressions occurring in the 
 Traditions; On the excellences of the throne of God, 
 and many others. He did not, however, do much to 
 
 * This story is a good illustration of the childish inquisitiveness 
 of the Moslem character, demanding a reason for the merest trifles, 
 and willing to receive any, however absurd, with perfect credence. 
 Thus there is a Tradition on " the origin of salutations," which is as 
 follows : — " When God created Adam, and blew a soul into him, 
 Adam sneezed and said, ' Praise be to God !' and this he did by the 
 aid and permission of God ; and God said to Adam, ' God have 
 mercy on thee !' And when God had taught Adam the rule of 
 decency to be observed on sneezing, He wished to teach him that 
 of the salaam, and said, ' Adam ! go to the angels who are sitting 
 down, and say, "Peace be with you !" ' and he did so ; and the angels 
 said, ' Peace be with you, and the compassion of God !' After that 
 Adam came to the place where he had talked with God, and God 
 said, ' This is the way of your salutation, and of the salutation of thy 
 children towards you and one another.' " 
 
ad. 830. AL FARRA THE GRAMMARIAN. 125 
 
 improve the principles of grammar, properly so called, 
 because, as lie said, " grammar brought ill luck." That 
 work was accomplished by a contemporary of his, a 
 Deilamite by origin, and a native of Koufa by birth. 
 Yahya was his name, but in Muhammadan literature 
 he is known as al Farra the Grammarian. " "Were it 
 not for al Farra," said an eminent grammarian of the 
 same period, " pure Arabic would no longer exist ; it 
 was he who disengaged it from the ordinary language 
 and fixed it by writing. "Were it not for al Farra, 
 good Arabic had gone to the ground. Before his 
 time it was a matter of discussion ; every one who 
 pleased had the pretension of knowing, and dis- 
 coursed on it as well as his genius and intelligence 
 would permit, so that it had nearly disappeared." 
 His great works were composed during the reign of 
 the khalif Mamoun, who appointed him tutor to his 
 two sons. 
 
 "When al Farra," so writes the khatib, in his 
 history of Baghdad, " got acquainted with al Mamoun, 
 the latter bid him draw up a work which should con- 
 tain the principles of grammar and -all the pure Arabic 
 expressions which he had heard. He then ordered 
 him to be confined in a chamber of the palace, and 
 appointed male and female servants to attend him, and 
 furnish him with everything he required ; hoping, by 
 this means, to deliver his heart from all preoccupations, 
 and to leave him nothing to wish for. They were even 
 to inform him of the hours of prayer, by chanting the 
 call at the proper times. He sent to him also a 
 number of copyists, and attached to his service con- 
 
126 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 fidential men, and agents charged to pay the expenses. 
 Al Farra then dictated, and the copyists wrote down 
 his observations ; and this continued during two years, 
 until they had finished the work. . . . Al Mamoun 
 ordered the book to be transcribed and placed in his 
 libraries. When al Farra had finished his task, he 
 went out in public, and began the composition of the 
 Kitab-al-Madni (Rhetorical figures employed in the 
 Koran). The narrator of these facts says, "We tried 
 to count the number of persons who assembled for the 
 purpose of hearing him dictate the text of the Kitab- 
 al-Madni, but not being able to do so, they were so 
 many, we counted the kadis only, and found that they 
 were eighty. He continued to dictate the work till he 
 finished it. The copyists then withheld it from the 
 public, so that they might make money of it, and de- 
 clared that they would not communicate it to any 
 person, unless he consented to have it copied by them 
 at the rate of one dirhem (about sixpence) for five leaves. 
 Al Farra, to whom complaints were made on this sub- 
 ject, sent for the copyists and remonstrated with them. 
 Their answer was, 'We attended your lessons in order 
 to profit by your learning. Of all your works this is 
 the most essential ; so allow us to gain a livelihood by 
 means of it.' He replied, * Be more compliant with 
 them ; it will be for your advantage as well as theirs.' 
 Finding they would not follow his advice, he said to 
 them, ' I shall let you see what you do not expect ;' 
 and then announced to the public that he would dictate 
 the Madni, and join to it a complete commentary, with 
 fuller remarks than those already given. He therefore 
 
a.d. 850. ABOU'L ABBAS THALAB. 127 
 
 held sittings and dictated one hundred leaves on the 
 word al hamd* The copyists then went to him, and 
 said, ' We shall concede to the public what they de- 
 mand, and copy for them at the rate of one dirhem for 
 ten leaves.' " 
 
 The works of al Farra were, On Dialectical ex- 
 pressions ; On the nouns of action which are found 
 in the Koran; On the plurals and duals which occur 
 in the Koran ; On the full stop and the commencement 
 of phrases. But notwithstanding these fruitful labours, 
 the orthodox world was much troubled and perplexed 
 as to the lawfulness of the study of grammar. No text 
 could be discovered in the Koran which referred to 
 grammar, nor among the vast host of Traditions could 
 one be adduced which gave a sanction to this science. 
 It might be that men were profanely interposing their 
 private judgment in a matter where it had no business. 
 The labours of Abou Obaida had been denounced by 
 some on this very ground. This perplexity was re- 
 moved through the agency of Abou'l Abbas Thalab, a 
 pupil of al Farra, and a grammarian of distinguished 
 ability. He is reported to have said to one of his 
 pupils, when he felt the hand of death upon him, "0, 
 Abou Bekr ! the Koranists were taken up with the 
 Koran, and obtained a happy reward ; the Traditionists 
 were taken up with the Traditions, and obtained a 
 happy reward; the Doctors were taken up with the 
 Law, and obtained a happy reward ; I have been taken 
 
 * This is the first word of the expression which in Arabic 
 means " Praise be to God ! " and with which most Moslem books 
 begin. 
 
128 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 up with the science of grammar. Oh, that I knew 
 what my state will be in the next world ! " " After 
 quitting him," says Abou Bekr, by whom the anecdote 
 has been preserved, " I had a vision in my sleep that 
 very night, and I saw the blessed Prophet, who said 
 to me, c Give my greeting to Thalab, and say, " Thou 
 art master of the superior science." ' " This convenient 
 vision settled the question ; and it was regarded as 
 proving that the study of grammar was not merely 
 lawful, but praiseworthy.* 
 
 The other, or Traditional branch of exegesis, deals 
 with the interpretation of the sacred text. The Koran 
 is divided into Suras, or chapters ; but the reader must 
 not suppose that each chapter came down as a separate 
 revelation in its present form. On the contrary, it 
 was revealed in fragments — a few verses at a time — 
 
 * A list of the chief works of Thalab will serve to give a very 
 clear idea of the subjects discussed by these grammarians : A Trea- 
 tise on Grammar ; Points on which Grammarians disagree ; On the 
 Idiomatic Expressions peculiar to the Koran ; The Differences 
 which exist between the Seven Readings of the Koran ; On the 
 usual Ideas found in the Poems of the ancient Arabs ; On the Con- 
 fidence to be placed in the Ancients ; On the parsing of the Koran ; 
 The Limits of Grammar. Mr. Browning's well-known poem might 
 be applied with perfect truth to these grammatical enthusiasts. 
 Many of them died, as did his Grammarian — 
 
 rt So, with the throttling hands of Death at strife, 
 Ground he at grammar ; 
 Still, thro' the rattle, parts of speech were rife, 
 While he could stammer. 
 
 He settled Hoti's business — let it be ! 
 
 Properly based Oun. 
 Gave us the doctrine of the enclitic De, 
 
 Dead from the waist down." 
 
a.d. G32. INTERPRETATION OF THE KORAN. 129 
 
 accordingly as the occasion required.* Later passages 
 there are, too, which annul passages winch preceded 
 them ; and verses which contain a hidden meaning 
 
 * The Traditions furnish numerous examples of this fact. I 
 quote a few as illustrations. Ibn Abbas said, " When these revela- 
 tions came down, ' Meddle not with the substance of the orphan, other- 
 wise than for the improving thereof (Sura vi. 152) ; and, Surely 
 they who devour the possessions of orphans imjustly, shall swallow 
 down nothing but fire into their bellies, and shall boil in raying 
 flames (Sura iv. 9). — All those who had orphans in their care 
 went home, and separated their own food from that of the orphans, 
 and also their water, fearful lest they might be mixed. Then, when 
 the orphans left any of their meat or drink, it was taken care of, 
 for them to eat afterwards, or spoilt. Then this method was un- 
 pleasant to the orphans, and they mentioned it to the Prophet ; 
 then God sent down this revelation : ' O Muhammad ! they will ask 
 thee concerning orphans; answer, " To deal righteously with them is 
 best; and if ye mix your things with theirs, verily they are your 
 brethren" (Sura ii. 221). Then they mixed their meat and 
 drink together.' " 
 
 Ayesha said, " I was reflecting on those women who had given 
 themselves to the Prophet, and said, 'What! does a woman give 
 herself away ? ' Then, when this revelation descended, ' Thou 
 mayest postpone the turn of such of thy ivives as thou shall please, in 
 being called to thy bed; and thou mayest take unto thee her whom 
 thou shalt please, and her whom thou shall desire of those whom thou 
 shalt before have rejected; and it shall be no crime in thee,' I said, 
 ' I see nothing in which your God doth not hasten to please you ; 
 whatever you wish He doeth ! '" 
 
 Omar ibn al Khattab said, " I accorded with my Cherisher 
 (i.e., God) in three things. One is, that I said, ' Messenger of 
 God ! if we were to say our prayers in Abraham's place it would 
 be better.' Then this revelation came down, ' Take the place of 
 Abraham for a place of prayer.'' The second is, that I said, ' O 
 Messenger of God ! good and bad people come to your bouse ; and 
 I do not see that it is fitting ; therefore, if you order your women 
 to be shut up it will be better.' Then the revelation for doing so 
 came down. The third is, that his majesty's wives were all agreed 
 in a story about his drinking honey ; and he had vowed never to 
 eat it any more. Then I said to his majesty's wives, ' Should the 
 
 9 
 
130 THE KHALTFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 known, in the first instance, to the Prophet only, 
 and communicated by him to his Companions. This 
 he did in obedience to an injunction contained in the 
 46th verse of Sura xvi., which says, " To thee have 
 we sent down this Book of Monition, that thou may est 
 make clear to men what hath been sent down to them." 
 The Koran, moreover, abounds in allusions to the 
 wild stories current among the tribes regarding the 
 history of pre-Islamite Arabia; it appropriates mira- 
 culous narratives from the Talmud and other Jewish 
 sources ; its ideas of Christianity are taken from some 
 of the Apocryphal Gospels — Muhammad, it is clear, 
 never having had access to any of the writings con- 
 tained in the New Testament. But all this huge mass 
 of error and fable, from the simple fact of being 
 mentioned in the Koran, was immediately stamped 
 in the eyes of all true Moslems, with the seal of 
 Divine truth. It could no longer be questioned or 
 doubted. 
 
 The key to all this multifarious information was sup- 
 posed to reside in the minds of the Companions. They 
 were the depositaries of a lore hidden from ordinary 
 men. They knew the verses which abrogated, and those 
 which were abrogated ; they were acquainted with the 
 circumstances that had evoked each revelation, and 
 
 Prophet divorce you, God would soon give him better in exchange.' 
 Then a revelation came down, agreeing with what I said." 
 
 In the face of these Traditions so evidently true from their 
 naturalness and simplicity, how absurd becomes the endeavour to 
 make of Muhammad, at least in later days, a sublime Prophet, intoxi- 
 cated with the love of God, and overwhelmed by a sense of His unap- 
 proachable majesty. 
 
a.d. 632. INTERPRETATION OE THE KORAN. 131 
 
 the exact purport of the different verses. They also 
 were supposed to have been taught by the Prophet, the 
 details of all occurrences, miraculous and historical, 
 which are either set forth or referred to in the Koran. 
 This knowledge they transmitted orally to their 
 disciples — the Talis — and these to the next genera- 
 tion, until the practice of writing superseded that of 
 oral instruction. The function of a commentator on 
 the Koran was to reproduce this information in as 
 exact a form as he could. He was debarred from 
 criticising it, except as regards the ismad or chain of 
 authorities through which each ridiculous legend was 
 transmitted. Provided the chain was sound, the story 
 attached to the end of it needed no other evidence of 
 its perfect accuracy. Thus a saying current among 
 the learned in the science of Traditions is : "A relation 
 made by as Shaft on the authority of Malek, and by him 
 on the authority of Nafe, and by him on the authority of 
 Ibn Omar, is really the golden chain," — so exalted is the 
 merit of each of these narrators. 
 
 The earliest Koranic commentator was Ibn Abbas, 
 nephew of the Prophet. (Some account of him will be 
 found at p. 306 of "Islam under the Arabs.") He 
 revised his copy of the Koran with the advice and 
 assistance of Zaid, who had collected and edited the 
 official text ; and he carried his labours so far that he 
 numbered not merely the verses, but even the words 
 and the letters of the sacred book ; and the Faithful 
 nocked in immense numbers to hear his lectures on 
 the interpretation of the Koran. On the death of Ibn 
 Abbas, his mantle descended upon Ikrima, a Berber 
 
132 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 slave whom Ibn Abbas had sedulously and successfully- 
 educated. Ibu Abbas died without giving him his liberty, 
 and his son Ali sold him for four thousand dinars. 
 On this Ikrima sent to him and said, " There is no 
 good in you ; you have sold your father's learning for 
 four thousand dinars." Ali was touched with remorse 
 at this remark; he annulled the bargain, and gave 
 Ikrima his liberty. Ikrima passed his life in tra- 
 velling through the Muhammadan empire, giving 
 lectures on the science of Koranic interpretation, 
 and died at Medina, a.h. 107 (a.d. 725-6). After 
 them came a numerous family of Koranic com- 
 mentators, whom it is not necessary to designate 
 by name. The most celebrated of them all is Jar 
 Allah az Zamakhshari, a Persian, who was born 
 a.h. 467 (a.d. 1075), at Zamakhshar, and died a.h. 538 
 (a.d. 1144). 
 
 According to these commentators, the theology of 
 the Koran falls under two heads — " the perspicuous," 
 and "the figurative" or the "obscure." The former 
 constitute " the basis of the Book." The interpretation 
 of the latter is known to God alone. This classifica- 
 tion is held to be in accordance with the fifth verse of 
 the third Sura, in which it is written — 
 
 " He (God) it is who hath sent down to thee ' the Book.' Some 
 of tbese signs are of themselves perspicuous; these are the basis of 
 the Booh, and others are figurative. But they whose hearts are 
 given to err follow its figures, craving discord, craving an interpre- 
 tation ; yet none knoweth its interpretation but God. And the stable 
 in knowledge say, ' We believe in it, it is all from our Lord.' But 
 none will bear this in mind save men endowed with under- 
 standing." 
 
a.d. 725. THE SCIENCE OF INTERPRETATION. 133 
 
 Now, the " figurative " or "obscure" passages of 
 the Koran are those wherein the Deity speaks of Him- 
 self. According to the Koranic idea of the Deity, God, 
 in virtue of His essence, is too highly elevated to be in 
 any way like to the creatures He has made. For sup- 
 posing such resemblance to exist, there would not be 
 that difference in kind between God and the world 
 implied in the power of creation. This, in Muham- 
 madan theology, is technically termed " the doctrine of 
 exemption." But, on the other hand, there are pas- 
 sages in the sacred writings which ascribe to God 
 hands, eyes, a face, and feet, a tongue — all which are 
 organs proper to the bodies of created beings. They 
 ascribe to Him also such acts as sitting down and 
 getting up, coming and going ; while there is a 
 Tradition wherein the Prophet declares, that on the 
 day of Resurrection, the Faithful shall " see " God as 
 clearly as they see the moon when at the full, and 
 shall not be disappointed of the joy. Here, then, is 
 what appears to be a manifest contradiction. In one 
 place it is laid down that between man and God there 
 is no similarity whatever ; in others, God is invested 
 with visibility, tangibility, and all the other attributes 
 of human beings. 
 
 Again, the Koran declares that God is One. But 
 it also ascribes to God a number of attributes. God is 
 omnipotent, for otherwise the acts of His creatures 
 could not accomplish themselves, seeing they derive all 
 their energies from Him. God possesses volition, 
 otherwise He could not have created the world out of 
 nothing, nor produced one order of being rather than 
 
134 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 another. God is omniscient, otherwise the events of 
 coming ages would not be predestined according to His 
 eternal and unchanging purpose. But granting the 
 existence of these attributes, do they not destroy that 
 other doctrine of the Unity of God ? If co-eternal 
 with God, do they not substitute the idea of plurality 
 lor that of unity ? If coming into existence under the 
 conditions of time, do they not involve the heresy that 
 there was a time when God was not omniscient, 
 omnipotent, or possessed of volition ? 
 
 Passages which deal with these high mysteries are 
 regarded as trials of the faith of the true Believer. 
 Those whose hearts are given to err will court their 
 own destruction by attempting to measure the fathom- 
 less abyss of the Divine Nature. But " the stable in 
 knowledge " will be content to say, " We believe in it ; 
 it is all from our Lord." Such, at least, was the 
 example set by the Companions. For while Traditions 
 have been handed down in abundance, which give the 
 responses of the Prophet to inquiries concerning 
 prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage, there is 
 not one having reference to the being and attributes 
 of God. This is a fact acknowledged by all those most 
 profoundly versed in Traditional lore. The Com- 
 panions never dared to pry into that Holy of Holies 
 wherein the personality of God is veiled. They be- 
 lieved, but presumed not to question or criticise ; and 
 such is the attitude of mind best befitting the devout 
 and humble Believer. The great Imams of the Law 
 were all at one regarding the danger and impiety of 
 venturing to discuss the nature of the being of God. 
 
a j>. 800. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD. 135 
 
 The Imam as Sbafi declared that any man employing 
 his time in this way deserved to be fixed to a stake, 
 and carried about through all the Arab tribes, with the 
 following proclamation made before him — " This is the 
 reward oj 'him who left the Koran and the Traditions for 
 the study of scholastic theology." Ahmed ibn Hanbal 
 declared that whoever moved his hand while he read 
 these words from the Koran, " I have created with my 
 hand" ought to have his hand cut off; and whoever 
 stretched forth his finger in repeating the saying of 
 Muhammad, " The heart of the Believer is between two 
 fingers of the Merciful" deserved to have his finger 
 cut off. Another eminent jurisconsult at Tirmidi, 
 having been consulted about the saying of the Prophet, 
 that God descended to the lowest of bhe seven heavens, 
 replied, " The descent is intelligible, the manner how 
 is unknown ; the belief therein is obligatory ; and the 
 asking about it is a blameable innovation." 
 
 In all this we find the same spirit at work as in 
 tho Law and the Traditions. There is no knowledge 
 possible for man except such as has been obtained 
 direct from the Everlasting Table. Where this 
 authority has decided, there all further discussion is 
 unlawful. Where it has not penetrated, there it is 
 impious to attempt to penetrate. This is the true 
 spirit of Islam, an absolute and unquestioning sur- 
 render of the inner and the outer life to the commands 
 of an external authority. A system such as this cannot 
 but occasion external decay and mental imbecility 
 wherever it prevails. But such were not and could 
 not be the immediate results of the spread of Islam. 
 
136 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 The nations received the poison into their veins, but 
 their vital energies were not immediately destroyed. 
 When the Arabs entered as conquerors into Alex- 
 andria, Damascus, and Antioch, they entered upon 
 territory where, for six hundred years, the being and 
 the attributes of the Deity had been a subject of pas- 
 sionate controversy. The converts from the Eastern 
 Churches could acquiesce in political tyranny ; but 
 they could not acquiesce in the intellectual bondage 
 enforced by Islam. They broke down the fences set 
 up by the orthodox around the personality of God. 
 They strove to illuminate with the light of reason the 
 dry, hard doctrines of the new creed, and make room 
 within it for the free play of thought. The (so-called) 
 glories of Moslem civilization are coincident with this 
 brief and hopeless endeavour. When it terminated in 
 defeat and extinction, a darkness that could be felt 
 descended upon the lands of the Prophet. But it has 
 been the singular fate of his religion to be credited 
 with producing those spiritual energies which, in truth, 
 perished in a battle against it. 
 
 The peculiar doctrines of the Alides, and the rising 
 up of a body of Free-thinkers even in the prison-house 
 of Islam, are alike due to the influence of Eastern 
 Christianity. 
 
 The belief in a Redeemer despised and rejected of 
 men, coming again in the clouds of heaven with power 
 and great glory to establish an universal kingdom upon 
 earth, was the central belief of all the sects of the 
 Shias. Like the Christians' expectation of a Second 
 Advent, this belief obtained its power over the mind 
 
a.d. 800. SHIA IDEA OF REDEMPTION. 137 
 
 from the spectacle of the intolerable confusion and 
 misery of the existing world. But if we advance a 
 step further, and scrutinise more narrowly the cha- 
 racter of these respective expectations, nothing can be 
 more instructive than the differences they exhibit. 
 They seem to me to reveal at a glance the explanation 
 of the vast gulf which separates Christendom from 
 Islam — the vigorous, progressive life of the one, the 
 crumbling decrepitude of the other. Every reader of 
 the Pauline Epistles is familiar with the great Apostle's 
 reiterated denunciations of the hard tyranny of the 
 Law. The Law, he says, worheth wrath ; where no law 
 is, there is no transgression. Sin talcing occasion by the 
 commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. The 
 glad news he had to proclaim to the world was eman- 
 cipation from this hard tyranny. In the mind of the 
 Moslem, also, there was the same ardent craving to be 
 liberated from the hard tyranny of the Law ; but there 
 was also this profound difference. The God in whom 
 the Apostle believed was a righteous God ; the Law 
 which held the Apostle in subjection was the expres- 
 sion of His character — it was holy, just, and good. 
 Precisely because it was so, it had made known to his 
 conscience, by force of contrast, how far he had fallen 
 away from that holy, just, and righteous condition. 
 Without this Law he had not known sin, as a man who 
 had never seen the light would not comprehend the 
 sensation of darkness. The freedom he longed after 
 was not an abrogation of the Law, but the communica- 
 tion of a spiritual power enabling him to fulfil it to the 
 uttermost. Such fulfilment was the only perfect free- 
 
138 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. CHAP. IV: 
 
 dom. Christ was the manifestation of this spiritual 
 power. He it was who would set men free from the 
 hard tyranny of the Law by the regeneration of their 
 minds, so that their lives would spontaneously flow on 
 in perfect harmony with it. The expectation of a Second 
 Advent, as popularly understood, was the material 
 presentation of the Pauline theology. Christ was to 
 reign as a visible king ; and everyone was to be per- 
 fectly happy, because everyone was to be perfectly good 
 The God of the Moslem, on the contrary, was not 
 a righteous God, but an arbitrary sovereign. I know 
 that passages can be produced from the Koran wherein 
 the righteousness of God is strongly insisted upon. 
 But such passages have failed to mould to any great 
 extent the practical religion of Islam, because (as I 
 have already observed) the Koran is a book without 
 moral gradations. Every institution and every precept 
 stands upon the same ground— the will of God. The 
 washings, and prostrations, and meaningless cere- 
 monies of the Pilgrimage are of equal — nay, far greater 
 — importance than the mental state of the Believer. 
 Sin, according to repeated assertions of the Prophet, 
 can literally be cleansed by washing, precisely as 
 so much dirt. The inevitable result has been that, 
 there being no moral or rational explanation why these 
 particular rites and ceremonies were preferred to any 
 other, the same arbitrary character was extended to 
 the moral law also. Both were regarded as restrictions 
 imposed upon men by God, from no higher motive 
 than the possession of power to do so. The Law of 
 Islam reflected the whims of a capricious despot ; not, 
 
A.D. 800. SHIA IDEA OF REDEMPTION. 139 
 
 as with the Christian Apostle, the image of a righteous 
 will. The moral law was regarded as a tyrannous 
 restraint on the natural impulses of men, precisely as 
 the ceremonial law was a tyrannous tax on their phy- 
 sical endurance. The Christian prayed for a power 
 enabling him to fulfil the Law ; the Muhammaclan for 
 one to destroy it. Hence, to the Shia, the Advent of 
 the Mehdi was the commencement of an era of lawless 
 licence. Not only would prayers, fastings, and pil- 
 grimages cease to be performed, but every moral 
 restriction which limited the passions and desires of 
 men would be snapped asunder. Consequently, every 
 Shia uprising was an endeavour to pave the way for 
 the utter degradation of men. In strict conformity 
 with this view of man's ultimate destiny and the tran- 
 sitory character of the moral law, the Shias taught and 
 practised the doctrine of Talceea — i.e., " guarding one- 
 self." According to this doctrine, the Shia, in order 
 to avoid persecution, may publicly profess any opinions 
 he pleases. He may deny any or all of the special 
 doctrines of his sect ; he may profess himself to be an 
 orthodox Muhammaclan ; nay, he may even curse the 
 twelve Imams, and yet be considered blameless. The 
 Shia and the Sunni divided the Muhammadan world 
 between them ; and there can be no stronger testimony 
 of the corrupting power and the hard and hopeless 
 bondage of the orthodox creed, than that men should 
 escape from it into a system which established false- 
 hood as the supreme law of conduct, and regarded the 
 reduction of men to the level of swine as the goal of 
 human existence. 
 
140 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. CHAP. IV. 
 
 The Free-thinkers of the Muhammadan Church 
 trace back their origin to the labours of two men — 
 Wasil ibn Atha and Amr ibn Obaid. The former was 
 a man of Persian extraction, but born at Medina in the 
 year 80 (a.d. 699-700). The latter was a native of 
 Sind, and born in the same year as Wasil. He was a 
 man remarkable for his piety and asceticism, and 
 marked between his eyes with a callosity produced by 
 his frequent prostrations in prayer. Hasan the 
 Basrite, when questioned concerning him, said that he 
 was a man who appeared to have been " educated by 
 the angels and brought up by the prophets." Wasil 
 ibn Atha and Amr ibn Obaid were close friends, and 
 the origin of free-thought in the Muhammadan Church 
 is referred back to the following incident. Hasan the 
 Basrite was seated in the Mosque of Basra, surrounded 
 by his friends and disciples, when a certain man 
 entered, and said to him, " Imam of the Faith, a sect 
 has sprung up in our time which considers as un- 
 believers those who have committed mortal sin, a 
 mortal sin being, according to them, equivalent to in- 
 fidelity ; and there is another sect which considers a 
 mortal sin of no consequence, provided that the sinner 
 believes rightly. But what say est thou ? " While 
 Hasan was meditating a response, Wasil rose up and 
 said, " I maintain that a Muhammadan who has com- 
 mitted a mortal sin should be regarded neither as a 
 believer nor an unbeliever, but as occupying a middle 
 station between the two." Then he withdrew to 
 another part of the Mosque while Hasan and his com- 
 panions discussed the opinion he had given ; and pre- 
 
a.d. 699. THE FREE-THINKERS. 141 
 
 sently he was joined by Amr ibn Obaid and others. 
 Shortly after, Katada, another of the learned men of 
 Basra, entered the Mosque. Wasil and his friends 
 were engaged in loud discussion, and Katada went 
 over to them, thinking them to be of Hasan's party. 
 On finding his mistake he left them, saying, " These 
 are the seceders (at motazila)." And from that time 
 they were called Motazilites, or Seceders. 
 
 The reasons on which Wasil based the opinion he 
 enunciated were as follows : — Believer being a title of 
 commendation, is one applicable to a good man only. 
 Such an appellation, therefore, cannot be applied with 
 justice to a Moslem who has been guilty of mortal sin ; 
 but neither can such an one be termed an unbeliever, 
 because he believes, though his actions do not corres- 
 pond with his profession of faith. He is, consequently, 
 something unnameable, and midway between the two. 
 Should he leave the world, unrepentant, he will go to 
 hell and abide there for ever, seeing that in the world 
 beyond the grave heaven and hell fill up the whole of 
 space ; but his torments will be less intense than 
 those of the unbeliever in the ordinary sense of the 
 term. 
 
 The inquiry thus started could not be arrested at 
 this point. A difference in the degree of punishment 
 opened the whole question of man's free will and moral 
 responsibility. It brought the " Seceders," or Free- 
 thinkers (as I shall in future call them) in direct con- 
 flict with the idea of Fate and the doctrine of Predes- 
 tination. They rejected both : the first because it 
 reduced man to a machine ; the second because it 
 
142 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 involved the impiety of making God the author of evil. 
 " God," they said, "is the perfectly wise and righteous 
 Being ; evil and imperfection cannot come nigh Him. 
 It is therefore impossible that He should cause man to 
 commit that which is distasteful to Himself; or compel 
 him to commit evil, and then punish him for so doing. 
 There would be neither wisdom nor justice in such 
 insensate tyranny as this." No. Man is master of 
 his actions. God is not the author of them. Men 
 may work good or evil in virtue of a power to will and 
 to do incarnate in them. And they will be punished 
 or rewarded in the next world, according as they have 
 made use of this power in this. 
 
 This recognition of man's responsibility impelled 
 the Free-thinkers to undertake another inquiry. What 
 is the precise aim and scope of the revelation made to 
 Muhammad ? It is intended to show men the path to 
 salvation. Granted. But apart from this revelation, 
 do men possess no intimation of what the will of God 
 is ? Clearly they do. The sense of moral responsibility 
 implies that men are under a law ; which law, like 
 the sense which testifies of it, must be universal. But 
 if so, it would be a fatal deduction from the goodness 
 of God unless He had made a knowledge of the nature 
 of the obligation as universal as the obligation itself. 
 Some knowledge of the will of God, therefore, is 
 implied by the possession of a sense of moral respon- 
 sibility. Following out this line of thought, the Free- 
 thinkers arrived at the conclusion that a knowledge of 
 good and evil is possible to all men by the unassisted 
 reason and conscience ; and that Revelation is merely a 
 
a.d. 750. THE FREE-THINKERS. 143 
 
 confirmatory evidence of that previous knowledge, 
 accorded by the grace of God, so that men may be 
 wholly without excuse. Further, as against the doc- 
 trine that a sound belief extracts the poison out of sin, 
 they asserted that to do good and eschew evil is 
 binding upon the Moslem even more than upon other 
 men, and may be imposed upon him by the sword. 
 This, in truth, constituted the true jehad, seeing that 
 there was no difference between war against the Infidel 
 and war against the Muhammadan who wilfully trans- 
 gressed the commandments of God. 
 
 Regarding the vexed question of the " Imamate," 
 Wasil ibn Atha and his friends took up the same bold 
 and independent position as upon other matters. They 
 declared it to be quite possible that both Ali and his 
 opponents, and Othman and his murderers, were 
 actuated by conscientious motives. Doubtless, how- 
 ever, some of them were moved by worldly ambition, 
 and a taint of worldliness probably had entered the 
 minds of every one of them. Arguing accordingly, 
 from the analogy of the courts of justice, in which, if 
 two men are known to have cursed each other, the 
 evidence of both is considered invalid, they proposed, 
 as the safest thing to do, to put all four parties out of 
 court. God and His Prophet had not, they said, 
 designated any special Imam. To do so now was the 
 privilege of the entire body of the Faithful ; any other 
 kind of election was imperfect and invalid. So long, 
 therefore, as the Church was torn by internal dissen- 
 sions, the office of Imam was necessarily in abeyance. 
 They denied also that the Imam need be a member of 
 
144 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 the tribe of Kuraish. Provided he was a true believer, 
 his family origin was a matter of no importance. The 
 sincerest and best Moslem was, spiritually, the Imam 
 or leader of the Faithful, and therefore the man who 
 ought to be elected to that office. 
 
 Finally, the followers of Amr ibn Obaid attacked 
 the orthodox doctrine respecting the Koran. According 
 to that doctrine, the Koran is the Word of God, co- 
 eternal with Himself. It is the pure and perfect 
 revelation of the Divine will. All that it contains is 
 above criticism. The only right attitude of mind 
 towards it is a complete and absolute submission, like 
 that of a corpse in the hands of those who perform the 
 last funeral rites upon it. 
 
 The Freethinkers protested against this intellectual 
 servitude. The Word of God, they said (evidently 
 inspired by the theology of the Fourth Gospel), must be 
 the perfect manifestation of the essence of God. That 
 Word is His creative power, by which He has made 
 the worlds ; and how is it possible that this living and 
 creating Word should be confined within the leaves 
 of a book, or identical with the sounds proceeding 
 from the lips of Muhammad. The Prophet, without 
 doubt, had possessed a clearer intuition of the Divine 
 will, than was the privilege of other men; but this 
 knowledge he had expressed in his own words ; and 
 these words, like all the works of men, were tainted 
 with error and imperfection. The later Freethinkers 
 went further even than this. They asserted there was 
 nothing specially marvellous in the Koran, considered 
 as an effort of human genius. If the Arabs had not 
 
a.d. 7G0. THE "FREE-THINKERS." 145 
 
 been awed by the supernatural character they super- 
 stitiously attached to it, there were many of their poets 
 who might have surpassed it in poetic vigour and cor- 
 rectness of speech. These intrepid thinkers did not 
 even spare the character of the Prophet. They asserted 
 it to be far from perfect ; denounced in particular his 
 inordinate sensuality, and the number of his wives ; 
 and singled out a man of their own time, who, 
 they said, had reached a far higher level of moral 
 excellence. 
 
 Opinions such as these would seem, at first sight, 
 to carry within them the germs of progress and en- 
 lightenment. And yet it is a melancholy fact that they 
 have perished in the Muhammadan Church, and left 
 not a trace of their existence behind them. The ex- 
 planation of this strange fact is to be sought for in the 
 moral and intellectual condition of Eastern Christianity 
 at the era of the Muhammadan Conquest. All reli- 
 gions, at the moment of their birth, are manifestations 
 of spiritual power. Men become aware of an influence 
 which is creating a new life within them, and calling 
 into activity aspirations and energies that have long 
 lain dormant. This power they ascribe to God. To 
 whom else could they ascribe it? For it is one 
 proceeding from no visible source, and penetrating to 
 the secret chambers of the mind, to purify, elevate, 
 and enlighten. At the same instant it reveals the 
 degradation of evil, and imparts the capacity to rise 
 above it. Faith and conduct are wedded together. 
 Thus, when Paul told the early Churches that they 
 were justified by faith or sanctified by the power of 
 
 10 
 
146 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 the Holy Spirit, he was not thinking of propositions in 
 a system of theology. He spoke of facts. He and 
 those to whom he spoke, knew that they had risen 
 above the level of their past moral condition by this 
 new-born faith in God as their friend and helper ; they 
 felt within them the purifying presence of a spirit of 
 holiness ; and they no more needed an explanation of 
 these phrases, than they required an explanation before 
 perceiving that fire was hot and ice cold. Their thoughts 
 travelled, immediately beyond the phrase, to the fact it 
 denoted. These are the productive periods of this 
 world's histqry, when the foundations of a new order 
 of things are laid. But the period of critical analysis 
 follows hard upon its footsteps. The new life becomes a 
 past experience to be held at a distance, and weighed, 
 analysed, and discussed. There have been, according 
 to the hypothesis, two factors at work in its produc- 
 tion. What part, then, is God's, and what belongs to 
 man ? With this inquiry, unreflecting faith is deposed, 
 and the era of theology has commenced. Henceforth, 
 if both can work together in harmony, all will be well ; 
 but only then. A faith divorced from the intellect 
 degenerates either into ritualism or mysticism; an 
 intellectual theology divorced from conduct becomes a 
 collection of sterile notions about God. Such are the 
 Scylla and Charybdis which perpetually threaten the 
 vessel of the Church. The theology of Clement and 
 of Origen had been an inductive theology. Their 
 object was, to seek and discover in all the acts and 
 thoughts of men the presence of that Light which 
 lighteth every man. A theology such as this was in 
 
a.d. 760. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 147 
 
 little danger of being divorced from conduct ; because 
 it was in the conduct of men that it looked for the evi- 
 dences of its truth. But with the lapse of time, a 
 very different theology had obtained possession of the 
 Eastern Churches. In place of a living, loving, and 
 working God being regarded as the central point of the 
 Christian faith, a false centre had been posited — a 
 speculative definition of the idea of God. The essence 
 of Christianity consisted, not in a life of holiness, but 
 in the reception of this speculative definition. Thus 
 the connection between faith and practice had been 
 severed. Christian ecclesiastics could contemplate 
 unmoved the profligacy and cruelty of the Byzantine 
 Court. But those who denied the existence of the two 
 natures in Christ, or went astray in some other incom- 
 prehensible subtlety of the same kind — these they were 
 ready and implacable to hunt to death. For such a cause 
 cities were burned, and rich provinces changed into 
 deserts filled with a noise of wailing. Eastern Chris- 
 tianity had thus been parted into three divisions, each 
 existing apart from the others, and all of them wholly 
 lacking in life-giving power. For the many, Chris- 
 tianity was a routine of rites and ceremonies, the effi- 
 cacy of which depended upon their careful and accurate 
 performance ; for the devout, Christianity consisted in 
 a renunciation of the world, and seclusion in some 
 monastic cloister ; for the intellectual few, Christianity 
 was an ontological system, to be proved by the logic of 
 Aristotle, and enforced by the secular arm. 
 
 Similar ideas of religion were, naturally, held 
 by the Free-thinkers of the Muhammadan Church. 
 
148 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 They were, necessarily, the children of their age, sub- 
 ject to the prevailing intellectual tendencies of the time. 
 They, no more than the Christian ecclesiastics, grasped 
 the idea of establishing a harmony between thought 
 and action. Hence they never raised a protesting 
 voice against the unmeaning ritualism of the popular 
 religion. They acquiesced in the crushing tyranny of 
 the khalifate. When they had the power, they gladly 
 availed themselves of the secular arm to enforce sub- 
 mission to their opinions. They had no thought of 
 regenerating society, no gospel they desired to preach 
 to men; theirs was a controversy fought out iu the 
 schools of theology, and which never went beyond 
 them. Consequently, when Orthodoxy resumed pos- 
 session of the territory from which for a time it had 
 been expelled, it found all things as they had been pre- 
 vious to its expulsion. The popular heart had remained 
 untouched. The Free-thinkers had left no traces of 
 themselves, except in the controversial treatises which 
 they had written. These were destroyed, and with 
 their destruction the last vestiges of the conflict 
 between Free-thought and the spirit of Islam were 
 obliterated. The story of this conflict has now to be 
 told. 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE RULE OF THE PERSIANS. 
 
151 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PERSIAN AND THE ARAB. 
 a.d. 749—786. 
 
 The old Sassanian Empire overthrown by the Arabs 
 was a Persian despotism. But between the Govern- 
 ment officials and the body of the people there existed 
 a numerous and powerful landed aristocracy. These 
 landed proprietors were termed " Dihkans." They 
 were the heads of the village communities ; and in all 
 matters regarding the internal relations of these com- 
 munities they had a decisive voice. They were the 
 guardians of their interests ; they were responsible 
 for the proper distribution and collection of the 
 land revenue ; they could protest against tyranny or 
 undue exactions on the part of the provincial or even 
 the central government ; and necessarily possessed an 
 enormous influence over the cultivating classes. On 
 the overthrow of the Sassanian dynasty, this influential 
 class succeeded in preserving both their wealth and 
 their local influence by a timely conversion to the new 
 creed. Their conversion saved their estates from con- 
 fiscation ; and the Arabs had no other alternative but 
 to employ them in the assessment and collection of the 
 
152 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 land tax. These " Dihkans " are frequently mentioned 
 by the early Arab writers. They were remarkable for 
 their splendid and lavish hospitality, for the excellence 
 of the vintage in their cellars, and, above all, for the 
 beauty of their daughters. The devout Moslem deemed 
 himself a lucky man who obtained one of these " fairy- 
 limbed gazelles" * for his bride. 
 
 Nevertheless, between them and the Arabs there 
 was bitter hatred and perpetual rivalry. The exciting 
 cause of this was the intolerable arrogance of the 
 latter. In the Koran it is repeatedly laid down that 
 all believers are to regard each other as brethren, and 
 that there are to be no distinctions of rank among 
 them. This the Arabs could not bring themselves to 
 concede. They were, in their own eyes, the most 
 glorious and magnificent beings to be found on the 
 surface of the earth ; and, in comparison with them, 
 all other nations were as the dust beneath their feet. 
 The advanced state of civilisation attained by Persia 
 and Byzantium, as compared with their own ignorance 
 and barbarism, in no way diminished this exalted 
 estimate of themselves. They had a theory which 
 accounted for it. Their forefathers, so they affirmed, 
 endowed by God with sublime aspirations, and sedulous 
 to preserve themselves untainted from shame of every 
 
 * " Go, breeze, and gently tell 
 Ton fairy-limbed gazelle, 
 O'er mountain and through valley we follow, and are faint. 
 Is it the pride that glows 
 In the bosom of the rose, 
 That makes her never heed the nightingale's complaint." 
 
 Hafiz. 
 
a.d. 749. ARROGANCE OF THE ARAB. 153 
 
 description, had seriously weighed the question as to 
 where and how they should live. After mature 
 deliberation, they had arrived at the conviction that 
 the sedentary life of men in cities was adverse to the 
 nobility of human nature. Only in the freedom and 
 pure air of the desert could that nature be brought to 
 its highest perfection. They had, therefore, chosen the 
 latter; and the matchless excellences of the Arab 
 testified to the wisdom of their choice. In virtue of 
 the elevating power of this desert life, the Arabs sur- 
 passed all other nations in the vigour of their character, 
 the power of their imagination, the generosity and 
 nobility of their thoughts, and the strength and beauty 
 of their bodies. They were "the travellers of the night, 
 the lions of the battle, the genii of the desert, and the 
 hosts of the solitudes." It was a further proof of this 
 manifest superiority, that God had selected from among 
 them the greatest and last of all his Prophets, that the 
 Arabic language was spoken in heaven, and that the 
 Temple at Mekka had been declared to be a centre 
 of worship and holiness for all the nations of the 
 universe. 
 
 The Persians, in whom the pride of ancestry and 
 the sense of their personal excellence was hardly less 
 extreme than in the Arabs, bitterly resented this 
 assumption of superiority. They invented a genealogy 
 for themselves, for the express purpose of confounding 
 the arrogance of their conquerors. They asserted 
 themselves to be descended from Isaac, the son of 
 Abraham. They taunted the Arabs as the children of 
 a mere concubine, whereas they were the true and 
 
154 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 legitimate representatives of Abraham and Sara. They 
 denied that Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, had ever 
 been thought worthy of being offered up as a sacrifice 
 to God, as the Arabs supposed. It was Isaac to whom 
 this privilege had been accorded. Isaac, and not 
 Ishmael, had built the Kaaba ; and the former 
 monarchs of Persia had made yearly pilgrimages to the 
 Hejaz, long ere the Kuraish had become guardians of 
 the Holy Places. This rivalry between the two races 
 was the main cause of the incessant insurrections 
 which shook to pieces the power of the Ommayas. 
 Every pretender to power could make appeal to it with 
 the certainty of a hearty response. The Persians 
 recruited the ranks of the Separatists, impelled thereto 
 by the levelling character of their creed, and the merci- 
 less war they waged against the khalifs and their 
 officials. They flocked even more readily to the 
 banners of the Alides, for here they were taught that 
 the Arabs were a people peculiarly hateful in the eyes 
 of Grod, on account of the barbarous murder of the son 
 of the khalif Ali on the plain of Kerbela. But hatred 
 of the Arab was the predominant motive which guided 
 their actions, and any cause was good which held out 
 a hope of retaliation on the victors of Kadesia. Con- 
 sequently, when the House of Abbas began to intrigue 
 against the Ommayas, they found their ablest and most 
 zealous supporters in the ranks of the Persian landed 
 aristocracy. And when the Abbasides emerged vic- 
 torious from the conquest, the Persians deemed that 
 not only had the day of their deliverance arrived, but 
 of their supremacy also. 
 
a.d. 753. ABOU MOSLEM. 155 
 
 The Persian influence at the new court was, natu- 
 rally, very powerful. Abou Moslem, the Khorasani, 
 had placed the Abbasides on the throne, and his chief 
 officers and counsellors were men of Persian extraction. 
 But the Arabs were not prepared to acquiesce tamely 
 in this supremacy. The Yemenite tribes had borne 
 an equal share in the fighting which had terminated 
 in the expulsion of the Ommayas ; and the House of 
 Abbas was not, as yet, in a position to dispense with 
 their aid and loyalty. The hearts of the Syrian Arabs 
 were still wedded to the princes of the fallen dynasty ; 
 the Alides, though stunned for the moment by the 
 unlooked-for turn of fortune which had raised the 
 Abbasides to power, were numerous and fanatical ; 
 and the newly-elected khalifs could not venture to 
 alienate from themselves a single supporter. They 
 were under a necessity to appear to favour both Arab 
 and Persian equally ; and this necessity made of the 
 court a perfect hotbed of intrigue, plotting, and coun- 
 terplotting. 
 
 Abou'l Abbas, the first of the Abbaside khalifs, died 
 after a brief reign of four years and eight months 
 (a.h. 136). He was succeeded by his brother, Abou 
 Jaafar, surnamed al Mansour, or " the victorious." 
 The new ruler was a man sordid and avaricious, in- 
 capable of friendship or of gratitude, suspicious, vin- 
 dictive, and prodigal of blood. His dungeons were 
 crowded with the victims of his fears and his cruelties. 
 The most solemn engagements were shamelessly broken 
 by him, the moment it suited his convenience, and his 
 
156 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 long reign is a record of fierce revolts occasioned by 
 his duplicity and his cruelty.* 
 
 On the accession of Abou Jaafar, the foremost man 
 in his empire was Abou Moslem, the Khorasani. 
 Him the new khalif feared and hated. He feared him 
 on account of his influence over the people of Khora- 
 san, and hated him with that bitterness, with which an 
 Oriental sovereign almost invariably resents the burden 
 of gratitude. His first act upon his accession would 
 have been the arrest and execution of the too formid- 
 
 * It is worthy of record that there were men who dared to 
 rebuke this tyrant even in the plenitude of his power. Ibn 
 Khallikan writes as follows : — " It is related that the khalif al 
 Mansour sent for Malek ibn Anas and Abdallah, the son of Tawus. 
 When they entered into his presence, he reflected for a short time, 
 and then said to Abdallah, ' Relate to me some of the Traditions 
 which you learned from your father.' On this, Abdallah spoke as 
 follows : ' My father taught me this Tradition — " He shall be 
 punished the most severely of all men on the day of resurrection, to 
 whom God has confided a portion of His authority, and who allows 
 injustice to enter into his judgments.' 1 ' Al Mansour remained silent 
 for a considerable time, and Malek, in relating the fact, afterwards 
 observed, ' I tucked up my clothes lest some of his blood might fall 
 on them ; but al Mansour then said, ' Hand me that inkhorn.' He 
 repeated the order three times ; but Abdallah did not obey. ' Why 
 do you not give it me ? ' asked the khalif. ' Because I fear that you 
 may use it in writing something contrary to God's law, and I should 
 then be your accomplice.' ' Up, both of you, and leave me ! ' ex- 
 claimed al Mansour. ' That is just what we desire to do/ replied 
 Abdallah. ' From that day,' said Malek, ' I have never ceased to 
 acknowledge the eminent merit of the son of Tawus.' " — Ibn Khali. 
 Biog. Die, vol. i. p. 643. 
 
 Some of my readers may object to the introduction of these anec- 
 dotes, as not bearing directly on the subject-matter of my book. My 
 reply is, that to me they seem to have an immediate reference to it. 
 To my thinking they show, better and more truly than pages of 
 dissertation would do the moral and political consequences of 
 Islam. 
 
a.d. 753. ABOU MOSLEM. . 157 
 
 able king-maker, but that an insurrection broke out. 
 At the head of this movement was the khalif's brother, 
 Abdallah ; and the Syrian Arabs, from hatred of the 
 reigning sovereign, flocked in crowds to his standard. 
 Abou Jaafar perceived that he could not yet afford to 
 dispense with the services of the ablest soldier in his 
 dominions. Abou Moslem was despatched to put 
 down the rebellion, which he effected after a brief but 
 severe campaign, in which he exhibited great military 
 skill. This signal service awakened no feeling of kind- 
 liness in the breast of Abou Jaafar. Believing that he 
 was now secure upon the throne, he recommenced 
 plotting the destruction of the man who had raised 
 his family to greatness. He conferred upon him the 
 government of Egypt, as a mark of recognition for 
 the service he had just done. Abou Moslem under- 
 stood the motive of this appointment perfectly well. 
 He was aware of the khalif's animosity, and perceived 
 that in sending him to Egypt, the khalif merely wished 
 to cut him off from his friends and partisans in 
 Khorasan. He declined, therefore, the proffered post, 
 and set out from the head-quarters of his army to 
 resume the government of Khorasan. The khalif was 
 sorely troubled in spirit. He felt that he had revealed 
 his designs against Abou Moslem without luring Abou 
 Moslem into his power. Should the latter reach 
 Khorasan, he would rally his dependants round him ; 
 and the same irresistible energy and skill which had 
 placed the Abbasides in power would be put forth to 
 sweep them away. A deputation was sent from 
 Medain, where the khalif held his court, to induce 
 
158 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Abou Moslem to change his resolution. Abou Moslem 
 was at this time encamped in Hulwan, with eight 
 thousand men. The deputation brought with them 
 not merely the friendly assurances of the khalif, but 
 letters from all the leading members of the House of 
 Abbas, entreating the great Khorasani leader not to 
 do them the grievous wrong of supposing that the 
 House of Abbas could be guilty of purporting treason 
 against its faithfullest and ablest servant. If he 
 would only come to Medain he would soon learn 
 that his fears were groundless, and the destiny 
 which awaited the man whom the king delighted to 
 honour. 
 
 Abou Moslem knew that destiny too well. He was 
 not deceived, even for a moment, by this accumulation 
 of perjuries. But he felt that the coils were closing 
 round him. The khalif had despatched a confidential 
 messenger to Abou Moslem's lieutenant in Khorasan, 
 conferring upon him the government of that province, 
 on the condition that he opposed the entrance of 
 Abou Moslem. And simultaneously with the depu- 
 tation from Medain, arrived letters from this lieu- 
 tenant, announcing his intention to oppose Abou 
 Moslem's approach to Merou. Unknowing what to 
 do, Abou Moslem sent a friend to the court of the 
 khalif to attempt to ascertain the veritable disposition 
 of the khalif towards him. 
 
 The khalif received the envoy with marked cor- 
 diality and favour. He protested against the unworthy 
 suspicions of himself harboured by Abou Moslem ; and 
 vowed that he was animated by no other feelings than 
 
a.d. 753. ABOU MOSLEM. 159 
 
 those of affection and gratitude. Abou Ishak (such 
 was the name of the envoy) was completely deceived. 
 He returned to Hulwan, and assured his master that 
 he might proceed to Medain in perfect assurance of the 
 good faith of the khalif. 
 
 Abou Moslem was not reassured, and his friends 
 warned him that he was proceeding to certain death. 
 They urged him to go on to Khorasan. He had eight 
 thousand trained men with him; others would soon 
 flock to his standard, and place him in a position to 
 defy the menaces of his treacherous lieutenant. But 
 Abou Moslem, for the first time in his life, had become 
 a prey to irresolution. There are in the old chronicles 
 indications which seem to show that the sense of all 
 the blood he had shed was weighing heavily upon his 
 heart. He had commenced his career as a devout and 
 sincere believer in the Imamate of the House of Abbas. 
 He was one of those who had embraced this doctrine 
 in its extremest form, regarding the Imam as an 
 incarnation of the Divinity, and explaining away all 
 the positive precepts of the Koran into allegorical 
 injunctions of complete, unquestioning devotion to him. 
 But whether through the ingratitude of the khalif, 
 or some other cause unknown, he had, in these latter 
 days, been brought to believe that the House of Ali, 
 and not that of Abbas, were the real inheritors of the 
 Imamate. The discovery that all the mourning and 
 desolation and woe which he had brought upon 
 the earth had been wrought for an impostor, against 
 and not for the will of God, seems to have altogether 
 unhinged him. A mist had fallen from his eyes, and 
 
160 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. t. 
 
 he saw his past life as one terrible and irretrievable 
 mistake. Of what avail was it to attempt to protract 
 it longer ? In a sort of despair he resolved to proceed 
 to the court of the khalif. 
 
 On hearing that Abou Moslem was on his way, the 
 khalif quitted Medain, and came to a place called 
 Roumiya to await him. He knew that Abou Moslem 
 was at the head of eight thousand men of tried fidelity. 
 To attempt to slay him in their presence would lead to 
 a desperate and doubtful struggle. He must lay 
 asleep the suspicions of both leader and followers, and 
 slay the former at some propitious moment when alone 
 and destitute of assistance. Accordingly, when Abou 
 Moslem neared Roumiya, he was received as an 
 honoured guest. The troops of the royal household 
 were paraded to receive him, all the chief men of 
 the court attended his arrival ; and none were more 
 liberal in smiles and honied speeches than Abou Ayoub, 
 the vizier of the khalif. "When he entered the presence 
 of the sovereign he met with a most gracious recep- 
 tion, and, after a brief interview, was permitted to 
 retire to his tent. 
 
 Abou Jaafar had no intention of striking till his 
 victim was fairly within his power, and day after day 
 the khalif and his general met and conversed together 
 in an amicable manner. According to the chronicles, 
 he lulled to sleep the suspicions of Abou Moslem. The 
 latter consulted a book of predictions, and found therein 
 his own history, that he was to destroy a dynasty, 
 create a dynasty, and be slain in the land of Roum. 
 This, he interpreted to mean that he would die in 
 
a.d. 755. MURDER OF ABOU MOSLEM. 161 
 
 battle against the Byzantine armies in Asia Minor. 
 Meanwhile the khalif had made all his preparations 
 for the murder he meditated. He had selected from 
 his bodyguard an officer and four men, on whom he 
 could rely. These were to be concealed behind the 
 drapery of his tent, with orders that on a given 
 signal they should rush forth and cut Abou Moslem to 
 pieces. 
 
 On Thursday, 24th Shaban, a.h. 137 (February, 
 a.d. 755) the Khorasani leader repaired as usual to 
 the royal pavilion. He was informed that the khalif 
 was making a general ablution, previously to prayers, 
 and he sat down to await him in the ante- chamber. 
 In the meantime al Mansour had sent for the party of 
 murderers, and given them their final orders. He then 
 took his seat upon the throne ; and Abou Moslem was 
 admitted and made his salutation, which the khalif 
 returned. Al Mansour then permitted him to sit down, 
 but after a few observations, commenced to vehemently 
 reproach him. "Why," asked Abou Moslem, "why 
 speak you so to me, after all my efforts and services ? " 
 " Son of a prostitute ! " exclaimed al Mansour. " Thou 
 owest thy success to our own good fortune. Had a 
 negress slave been in thy place, she would have done 
 as much as thee ! Was it not thou who, in writing to 
 me, didst place thy name before mine ? Was it not 
 thou who wrotest to obtain in marriage my aunt 
 Afisiya, pretending, indeed, that thou wast a de- 
 scendant from Salih, the son of Abdallah ibn Abbas ? 
 Thou hast undertaken, infamous wretch, to mount 
 where thou canst not reach ! " On this Abou Moslem 
 
 n 
 
162 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 seized the khalif by the hand, which he kissed and 
 pressed, offering excuses for his conduct ; but al Man- 
 sour flung him off, saying, "May God not spare me, 
 if I spare thee ! " He then clapped his hands, on 
 which the assassins rushed out upon Abou Moslem, and 
 struck him with their swords, the khalif exclaiming all 
 the time, " God cut your hands off, rascals ! strike ! " 
 On receiving the first blow, Abou Moslem said, " Com- 
 mander of the Faithful ! spare me, that I may be useful 
 against thy enemies." " May God not spare me if I 
 do ! " was the pitiless reply ; " where have I a greater 
 enemy than thou ! " 
 
 When Abou Moslem was slain, his body was rolled 
 up in a carpet, and, soon after, Jaafar ibn Hanzala 
 entered. "What think you of Abou Moslem?" said 
 the khalif to him. " Commander of the Faithful," 
 answered the other, "if you have ever the misfortune 
 to pull a single hair out of his head, there is no 
 resource for you but to kill him, and to kill him, and to 
 kill him again." " God has given thee understanding," 
 replied al Mansour, " here he is in the carpet." On 
 seeing him dead, Jaafar said, " Commander of the 
 Faithful ! count this as the first day of your reign." 
 
 The murder of Abou Moslem was immediately 
 followed by a fierce insurrection in Khorasan to 
 avenge his death. This was suppressed; but it 
 seems to have convinced the khalif that he must be 
 careful not to alienate his Persian subjects from him. 
 At any rate, neither the murder of Abou Moslem, nor 
 the subsequent revolt, appears to have diminished the 
 Persian influence at court. 
 
a.d. 756. THE "NIHILISTS." 163 
 
 Though al Mansour affected a rigid orthodoxy, the 
 men who stood nearest to his person openly scoffed at 
 the dogmas of Islam. Among these were Yaktin, the 
 keeper of the great seal, and the man whom the khalif 
 honoured above all men; his son Ali, who, besides 
 being commander-in-chief of the army, was head of the 
 Intelligence Department, and received all the reports 
 sent up to the khalif from his secretaries in the pro- 
 vinces ; together with other high officials, and members 
 of the family of Abbas, closely related to the khalif 
 himself. The leading intellectual spirits of this party 
 were, Abdallah ibn al Mukaffa, who was regarded as 
 the greatest genius of the age, and Salih ibn Abd al 
 Kaddus. Their fundamental doctrine was the oblio-a- 
 tion of universal scepticism. Abou'l Hudail, a leading 
 divine among the Rationalists, recounts how he met 
 Salih ibn Abd al Kaddus in great grief for the loss of 
 his son. " I know not," said Abou'l Hudail, " why 
 you should grieve for him, since, according to you, 
 man is like grass growing in the field." To this, 
 Salih made reply, " I grieve for his loss for the sole 
 reason that he had not yet read my * Book of 
 Doubts.' " "And what book is that, Salih? " " It 
 is a work composed by me, and whoever reads it is 
 led to doubt of everything that exists, so as to imagine 
 that it exists not ; and to doubt of everything that 
 does not exist, so as to imagine that it exists." But, 
 as is habitual with sceptics, these doubters in Islam 
 were very positive in the affirmation of negatives. 
 They denied the existence of a Deity, and, conse- 
 quently, the possibility of a Prophetic mission. They 
 
164 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 rejected the doctrine of man's immortality. According 
 to them, the life in man was identical with the life in 
 grass, and the flowers of the field — quickened by the 
 warmth of the sun, and perishing never to reappear, 
 except as merged in the general life of things. At the 
 same time, they agreed in condemning those practices 
 which the wise, in all ages had pronounced to be 
 hurtful to society — such as lying, tyranny, and 
 cruelty ; and they held that men were under a moral 
 obligation to be agreeable and courteous to their 
 fellow men. 
 
 According to the orthodox writers, these " Nihil- 
 ists," seeing the enormous power which the Koran 
 exercised over the hearts and reason of the Faithful, 
 despaired of the spread of their doctrines, unless they 
 could produce a book which should surpass the Koran 
 in genius and sublimity. This, therefore, they deter- 
 mined to attempt ; and selected Ibn al Mukaffa as the 
 man among them best fitted, by reason of his learning, 
 his eloquence, and his imagination, to achieve the task 
 successfully. Ibn al Mukaffa agreed, on the condition 
 that twelve months should be allowed him in which to 
 accomplish Ins task, and that during that period all his 
 bodily wants should be provided for, so as to allow his 
 mind to concentrate itself, without one distracting 
 thought or trouble, on the work set before it. These 
 stipulations were accepted, and Ibn al Mukaffa set to 
 work. At the expiration of six months, his friends 
 came to inquire what progress he had made. They 
 found him sitting, pen in hand, deeply absorbed in 
 study, and a sheet of paper lying before him ; all 
 
A.D. 758. IBN AL MUKAFFA. 165 
 
 around was a wild confusion of closely- written manu- 
 script, torn to pieces and scattered over the apart- 
 ment. They anxiously inquired what progress he had 
 made. To their dismay they learned he had made none. 
 He had taken a single verse from the Koran, and 
 tried to write one equalling it in excellence. He had 
 made repeated attempts during the whole of the six 
 months he had passed in seclusion. The immense 
 quantity of torn manuscript which covered the room, 
 and threatened to bury the rash " Nihilist," was at 
 once an evidence of his zeal and the crushing record of 
 his failure ; he was obliged to confess, with shame and 
 confusion of face, that this single line was on a level of 
 excellence he was altogether unable to reach. If for 
 six months a single line had thus baffled him, it was 
 clearly impossible for him, or any other man, to 
 produce a whole work comparable to the Sacred 
 Volume. 
 
 This failure notwithstanding, Ibn al Mukaffa was 
 an active proselytiser to the day of his death ; and it 
 was declared that there was not a single book tainted 
 with this heresy which was not written by him, or 
 inspired by his influence. In the terrible death which 
 at last met him, the Orthodox, without doubt, per- 
 ceived the hand of an offended God. A resident in 
 Basra, he used to make free with Sofyan ibn Muawia 
 al Mouhallebi, the governor of that city. He very fre- 
 quently addressed him by the name of Ibn al Mugh- 
 talima (son of the lascivious female), an appellation 
 injurious to the honour of Sofyan's mother. And as 
 Sofyan was remarkable for the possession of a large 
 
166 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 and ponderous nose, Ibn al Mukaffa, on visiting him, 
 would say, "How are you both?" — meaning the 
 governor and his nose. Sofyan frequently threatened 
 to cut him limb from limb while his eyes looked on. 
 
 About this time Sulaiman and Isa, the uncles of 
 
 the khalif, arrived at Basra, to have a pardon drawn 
 
 up for their brother Abdallah, who had revolted. Al 
 
 Mansour consented to forgive what had passed ; but as 
 
 the craft and treachery of the khalif were well known, 
 
 the two brothers had recourse to Ibn al Mukaffa to 
 
 draw up a letter of pardon, to which the khalif was to 
 
 affix his signature, and which should be so written as 
 
 to leave al Mansour no pretext for making an attempt 
 
 upon Abdallah' s life. Ibn al Mukaffa obeyed their 
 
 directions, and drew up the letter in the most binding 
 
 terms, inserting the following clause among others : — 
 
 " And if at any time the Commander of the Faithful act 
 
 perfidiously towards his uncle, Abdallah ibn All, his 
 
 wives shall be divorced, from him, his horses shall be 
 
 confiscated for the service of God, his slaves shall become 
 
 free, and the Moslems released from their allegiance 
 
 towards him." The other conditions of the deed were 
 
 expressed in a manner equally strict. Al Mansour, 
 
 having read the paper, was highly displeased, and 
 
 asked who wrote it, and on being informed that it was 
 
 Abdallah ibn al Mukaffa, sent a letter to Sofyan, the 
 
 governor of Basra, ordering him to put Ibn al Mukaffa 
 
 to death. Ibn al Mukaffa, on appearing before Sofyan, 
 
 made an appeal for mercy. " May my mother," was 
 
 the reply, " be really lascivious, if I do not kill thee in 
 
 a manner such as none were ever killed before." On 
 
a.d. 760. MURDER OF IBN AL MUKAFFA. 167 
 
 this he ordered an oven to be heated, and the limbs of 
 Ibn al Mukaffa to be cut off joint by joint. These he 
 cast into the oven before his eyes, and he then threw 
 him in bodily, and closed the oven on him, saying, 
 " It is not a crime in me to punish you thus, for you 
 are an infidel, who corrupt the people." (a.h. 142, 
 a.d. 759, 60.) 
 
 The labours of Ibn al Mukaffa and his companions 
 bore abundant fruit. The religion of Doubt spread 
 widely among the educated and wealthy classes, and 
 these gave liberally of their riches to supply teachers 
 for the dissemination of their doctrines among the 
 common people. Still, it was not until the khalif al 
 Mansour was dead that they ventured upon an open 
 assault upon the tenets of Islam. 
 
 Al Mansour died a.h. 158, and was succeeded by 
 his son Muhammad, surnamed MehdL The accession 
 of the new prince was like the sudden appearance of 
 summer in a frozen land. Baghdad had been built by 
 the late khalif, but under his harsh and gloomy reign 
 the Muhammadan capital had been but a fortress and 
 a dungeon. A brighter day now dawned upon it, and 
 the citizens rejoiced in the unwonted sunshine. The 
 new sovereign was young, handsome, profuse, and 
 fond of pleasure. " He resembles," said a panegyrist 
 of the day, " the brilliant moon in beauty ; the spring- 
 time, from his perfumes and his suavity ; the lion by 
 his courage ; and the sea, with its resounding waves, 
 is the emblem of his munificence and generosity." 
 With him to lead the revels, the city of Baghdad 
 speedily shook off " the winter garment of repentance." 
 
168 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 The State prisons were thrown open, and thousands of 
 hapless and hopeless captives restored to light and 
 liberty. The treasure-chests of the deceased sovereign 
 were broken, and their contents scattered abroad 
 with a lavish hand. " If you seek for the Vicar of 
 God," says a splenetic poet, " you will find him with a 
 wine-flask on one side and a lute on the other." 
 " What does living avail ?" asks another, of a tem- 
 perament more congenial to the habits of the new 
 sovereign — 
 
 " What does living avail, 
 If we spend not our evenings with those we prize, 
 
 And at morning fail, 
 By the wine-cup subdued and by fair large eyes ?" 
 
 Among the prisoners in the dungeons of al Mansour 
 was a certain Yakoub ibn Daoud. He had been 
 involved in one of the Alide revolts of the preceding 
 reign, and was one among those liberated by the 
 new sovereign. A Persian by birth, accomplished, 
 learned in all the learning of Ins time, and like the men 
 of his race generally, a singularly genial and pleasant 
 companion, he first attracted the attention of the 
 khalif, and ended by establishing a complete ascen- 
 dancy over him. The entire administration of the 
 empire was entrusted to Yakoub, and no provincial 
 governor was allowed to address the sovereign 
 except through the medium of the minister. It 
 is allowed that he made a good use of his power, 
 carrying out works of public utility, such as the 
 building of bridges and karavanserais, the excavation 
 of wells, and the establishment of homes or refuges for 
 
a.d. 775. YAKOUB IBN DAOUD. 169 
 
 the sick and the infirm. But to the Faithful in Islam 
 his rule was a scandal and an abomination. The 
 Nihilists waxed bold, and flaunted about without fear 
 or shame in the very precincts of the royal palace. 
 The highest officials of the State openly scoffed at the 
 religion of the Prophet, and made merry over the 
 unmeaning ceremonies of the Pilgrimage, for so they 
 blasphemously termed them. These scoffers, if they 
 saw a number of the Faithful drawn up in line to 
 repeat prayers, derided them as " a string of camels ;" 
 when they prostrated themselves, they inquired if it 
 was a decorous custom thus to exhibit their hinder 
 parts to God. Even the sacred soil of Mekka was 
 profaned by the sound of these audacious impieties. 
 When the crowds were making the seven revolutions 
 round the house of God, " What do you hope," it was 
 sarcastically asked, " to find in that house ?" When 
 the pilgrims were running between the two sacred 
 hills, Safa and Merwan, it was the same. " Have these 
 men committed theft," was the mocking inquiry, " that 
 they run so ? " 
 
 The orthodox doctors beheld with dismay the rise 
 and spread of this infidelity. The Arab aristocracy 
 regarded it with bitter dislike, as a proof of Persian 
 ascendancy and their own waning influence. But so 
 long as Yakoub ibn Daoud was at the right hand of 
 the khalif, both doctors and chiefs were reduced to 
 impotency. They had recourse to satire. As the 
 khalif was proceeding to Mekka upon pilgrimage, he 
 passed a milestone, which bore a freshly-written 
 inscription. He stopped to examine it, and read as 
 
170 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. citlP. I. 
 
 follows : — " Mehdi ! you would be truly excellent had 
 you not taken for a favourite Yakoub, the son of 
 Daoud" The remonstrance had no effect ; under 
 it the khalif caused to be inscribed, " It shall be so, 
 in spite of the fellow 's nose who wrote that, bad luck 
 attend him" 
 
 Yakoub was made intendant of the palace. No 
 one was admitted to converse on public matters 
 directly with the khalif. The officers of State, to 
 their profound indignation, were detained at the gates 
 of the palace, while the favourite went to and fro, 
 between them and the khalif. 
 
 An accident eclipsed the rising hopes of the 
 Persians, and put an end to the ascendancy of the 
 Persian favourite. One evening, as Yakoub was 
 mounting his horse, to return from the palace to his 
 own house, the animal threw his rider with such 
 violence that both his legs were broken. The vizier 
 fainted. The khalif, hearing what had happened, to 
 the unspeakable scandal of the Court, ran out bare- 
 footed, and remained seated by his favourite until his 
 senses were restored. He then had him placed in a 
 litter and conveyed to his own house. This unlucky 
 accident occasioned the ruin of Yakoub. For many 
 weeks he was confined to his bed ; and in his absence 
 the Arab chiefs obtained that access to the ear of the 
 khalif which, hitherto, they had sought for in vain. 
 It is never difficult to arouse the fears of an Oriental 
 potentate. The history of every Muhammadan Court, 
 since the first birth of Islam, is a history of constant 
 intrigue, rebellion, and revolution. The throne of the 
 
a.d. 784. FALL OF YAKOUB. 171 
 
 Abbaside khalif rested upon a mine charged with 
 explosive matter. Not a year passed but, in one 
 province or another of his extensive dominions, there 
 were partial eruptions ; and at any moment, beneath 
 the throne itself a gulf might be opened in winch, it 
 and its occupant would be swallowed up for ever. 
 Now that Yakoub was no longer there to plead for 
 himself with his protestations of fidelity, and his gay 
 and lively conversation, the Arab party had little diffi- 
 culty in awakening the ever-restless fears of the 
 khalif. This Yakoub, they pointed out, was the son 
 of Daoud, who had been the secretary of Nasr ibn 
 Seyaur, one of the staunchest adherents of the fallen 
 House of Ommaya. The man himself, in the reign of 
 Mehdi's father, had been imprisoned on account of his 
 participation in the insurrections of the Shias. Was it 
 likely that a man thus connected could be a true 
 servant of the House of Abbas ? It was notorious, 
 they added, that the Shias entertained dangerous and 
 extravagant expectations, occasioned by the favour and 
 authority he enjoyed. It behoved the khalif, both on 
 account of himself, and as the head of Islam, to make 
 severe investigation into the mind of one who had 
 shown himself to be both a heretic and a rebel. 
 Mehdi's confidence in his minister was shaken; and 
 he determined to put his fidelity to the test. 
 
 He caused a descendant of the unfortunate Ali to 
 be arrested, and confined in an apartment of the 
 palace. Yakoub, meanwhile, had recovered, and was 
 in attendance upon the khalif as heretofore. One day 
 Mehdi received him in a magnificent saloon. The floor 
 
172 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 was covered with rich carpets ; crystal vases and 
 vessels of gold and silver were scattered about it in 
 profusion; at the further end, it opened out upon a 
 rose garden in the fulness of bloom. Within this 
 enchanted chamber sat the khalif, and beside him a 
 slave girl, beautifully attired, and 
 
 " Lovelier than a young gazelle, 
 Which passes like a gleam of light across 
 
 3 ' 
 
 across a shady dell."* 
 
 " Tell me, Yakoub," said the khalif, " what think 
 you of this saloon of ours? " "It is the very per- 
 fection of beauty; may God permit the Commander of 
 the Faithful to enjoy it long." "Well," rejoined the 
 khalif, " all that it contains, with this girl to crown your 
 happiness, is yours, provided you will do what I shall 
 ask." Then he caused Yakoub to swear by Allah, 
 thrice, that he would do what he was about to ask of 
 him. Finally, "There is an Alide," said the khalif, 
 mentioning his name ; "I wish you to deliver me from 
 the uneasiness which he causes me. Here he is ; I 
 give him up to you." And so saying, the khalif left 
 the apartment, leaving the girl, Yakoub, and the Alide 
 together. Yakoub was delighted at his good fortune ; 
 but when the time came for putting the Alide to death, 
 his heart failed him. Touched by recollections of his 
 past life, he took compassion on the young man, sup- 
 plied him with money, and let him go free. But the 
 slave girl was, in truth, a spy set over him ; and she, 
 at once, sent a messenger to the khalif to acquaint him 
 with what Yakoub had done. Mehdi caused all the 
 
 * Hafiz. 
 
A.n. 784. DOOM OF YAKOUB. 173 
 
 roads to be patrolled, and the Alide was captured and 
 brought back to the palace. The khalif then sum- 
 moned Yakoub to his presence. " What has become 
 of the man I delivered over to you?" "I have 
 delivered you from the uneasiness he caused you." 
 " Is he dead ? " " He is." " Swear by Allah." " I 
 swear by Allah." " Boy," said the khalif to an 
 attendant, " bring out to us those who are in the next 
 room." They were brought, and among them was 
 the Alide, with Yakoub' s money still in his possession. 
 Yakoub gazed at him mute and panic-stricken. " Your 
 life," said the khalif, " is justly forfeited, and it depends 
 upon me to shed your blood ; but I will not. Shut him 
 up in the Matbak" 
 
 The Matbak was a deep well-like dungeon, com- 
 municating with the upper earth by means of a narrow 
 aperture. Over this aperture there was a lid which, 
 when shut down, consigned the prisoner to perpetual 
 darkness. In this abode the fallen vizier lingered out 
 fifteen years. People were forbidden to speak of him, 
 or make inquiries concerning him. But a dungeon in 
 those days was a safer dwelling-place than the world of 
 men and women. The khalif Mehdi died and was 
 gathered to his fathers. His successor, Hadi, ruled 
 and died also ; and the khalif Haroun al Rashid had 
 reigned for six years before the prisoner of the Matbak 
 was released from his living tomb. Yahya the Barme- 
 kide, who was then in the height of his power and 
 influence, became acquainted with the place of his cap- 
 tivity. For in those days the sudden disappearance of 
 a vizier, though it might have stimulated curiosity, 
 
174 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 rarely prompted to inquiry ; and Yakoub appears to 
 have vanished from the Court where he held the fore- 
 most place, with few, if any, knowing what had become 
 of him. Yahya now solicited his release from the 
 khalif ; and Haroun, touched by the remembrance of 
 Yakoub' s kindness to him when a child, granted the 
 petition. The captive has recorded his experience 
 during captivity, and in the hour of release : — 
 
 " Every day," he says, " during the fifteen years of my remaining 
 there, a small loaf of bread and a pitcher of water were let down to 
 me by a cord, and the hours of prayer were announced so that I 
 might hear the call. Towards the end of the thirteenth year I saw 
 in a dream a figure, which came to me and said — 
 
 " ' The Lord took pity on Joseph, and drew him forth from the 
 bottom of a well, and of a chamber where darkness was around 
 him.' 
 
 " I gave thanks to God and said, ' Deliverance is coming.' I then 
 remained another year without seeing anything, till the same figure 
 visited me again, and addressed me thus — 
 
 " ' God may perhaps bring deliverance ; every day He does some- 
 thing for His creatures.' 
 
 " I remained another year without seeing anything ; but at the 
 expiration of that time the same figure came to me and said — 
 
 " ' The affliction in which you were yesterday may perhaps 
 be followed by a prompt deliverance from care. He that is in fear 
 may cease to dread ; the captive may be delivered, and the stranger 
 in a distant land may be taken back to his family.' 
 
 " When morning came I heard a voice calling on me, but thought 
 it was the call to prayers. A black rope was lowered down, and I 
 was told to tie it about my waist. I did so, and was drawn up. 
 "When I faced the daylight my sight was extinguished. They led 
 me to al Rashid, and bade me salute the khalif. I said, ' Salutation 
 to the Commander of the Faithful, the ivell-directed (al Mehdi), on 
 whom be the mercy of God and His benediction.' The Prince 
 answered, 'I am not he.' On this I said, ' Salutation to the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful, the director (al Hadi), on whom be the 
 mercy of God and His benediction.' He replied again, ' I am not 
 he.' On this I said, ' Salutation to the Commander of the Faithful, 
 
a .D. 803. DEATH OF YAKOUB. 175 
 
 the rightly-guided (al Rashid), on whom be the mercy of God and 
 His benediction.' To this al Rashid replied, ' Yakoub ibn Daoud ! 
 no one interceded with me in your favour ; but this night, as I 
 was carrying one of my children on my shoulder, I remem- 
 bered that you formerly used to carry me about in the same 
 manner ; so I had compassion on you, thinking of the high 
 position which you once held, and I ordered you to be taken out of 
 confinement.' " 
 
 The klialif's favours did nofc end here. He treated 
 the released captive with the greatest kindness, re- 
 stored to him all his property, and allowed him the 
 choice of a place of residence. Yakoub selected Mekka, 
 and there he remained till the day of his death, 
 which took place in the year 187 (a.d. 803). 
 
 The orthodox party were not satisfied with the fall 
 of the favourite vizier. The heresy of Nihilism had still 
 to be suppressed. It had spread to such an extent 
 among all classes of the people, that the khalif himself 
 was thoroughly alarmed. His anger, too, at the 
 faithlessness of his minister naturally embittered him 
 against those whom that minister favoured and pro- 
 tected. He gave, therefore, a willing ear to the 
 clamours and complaints of the orthodox party, and 
 established an inquisitorial tribunal for the discovery 
 and punishment of heresy. This tribunal produced 
 the usual results. A few genuine heretics were 
 punished ; and large numbers of innocent persons fell 
 victims of false witnesses who had some personal 
 enmity against them. It continued its operations 
 through the remaining years of the reign of Mehdi, 
 and the brief period of sovereignty enjoyed by his 
 successor. The public profession of unbelief was 
 
176 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. r. 
 
 checked, and the Persian influence was, for the time, 
 greatly depressed. The Arab party, with Fadhl ibn ar 
 Rabi at their head, basked in the sunshine of the royal 
 favour. But with the advent to power of Haroun al 
 Rashid another revolution took place, and the Persians 
 again resumed the ascendancy. 
 
177 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BARMEKIDES. 
 a.d. 712—809. 
 
 The stories in the " Arabian Nights " have made all the 
 world familiar with the names of the khalif Haroun al 
 Rashid, and his ministers, the Barmekides. Among 
 the most zealous and able of the Persian missionaries 
 who had worked with Abou Moslem for the overthrow 
 of the Ommayas was Khaled ibn Barmek, His father 
 was the Barmek or custodian of the celebrated Temple 
 of Perpetual Spring, the most venerated shrine of the 
 Zoroastrian faith, and accounted as one of the wonders 
 of the world. According to Arab accounts, we read 
 that in a.h. 93 or a.h. 94, the wife of this Barmek was 
 captured by the Arabs in an expedition made by 
 Kutaiba ibn Muslim into Balkh, the province in 
 which the temple was situated. In the partition of 
 booty, she became the concubine of Kutaiba's brother, 
 Abdallah. Some months later, a treaty of peace was 
 agreed upon between Kutaiba and the people of Balkh, 
 and all prisoners taken by the Moslems were allowed 
 to return to their homes. The Barmek's wife returned 
 to her husband, and was shortly after delivered of a 
 son, Khaled. 
 
 12 
 
178 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. it. 
 
 This story was evidently devised to relieve the 
 Barmekides from the odium of a purely Persian origin ; 
 or, more probably still, it was an invention of later 
 historians to account for the extraordinary power they 
 enjoyed under a sovereign reputed so orthodox as the 
 khalif Haroun al Rashid. Certain it is that Khaled 
 was a Persian to his heart's core, and a bitter enemy 
 of the Arabs. Concerning him, Masoudi, the historian, 
 writes as follows : — 
 
 " The height to which Khaled ibn Barmek attained in prudence, 
 bravery, learning 1 , generosity, and other noble qualities was never 
 realized by any of his sons: Tahya did not equal him in judgment 
 and intelligence ; nor Fadhl, the son of Yahya, in liberality and dis- 
 interestedness; nor Jaafar, the son of Yahya, in bravery and energy. 
 When Abou Moslem the Khorasani, sent Kahtaba to Tai against Yezid 
 ibn Omar, who was governing the two Iraks, Khaled was one of 
 those who accompanied him. They halted on the way at a village, 
 and whilst they were breakfasting on the terrace of one of the 
 houses, they saw several flocks of gazelles and other wild animals 
 coming from the desert, and approaching so near that they got into 
 the camp among the soldiers. 'Emir!' said Khaled, ' order the 
 men to saddle and bridle! ' Kahtaba stood up in amazement, and 
 seeing nothing to alarm him, said, ' What do you mean, Khaled, by 
 this advice Y ' The other replied, ' The enemy are in march against 
 you ; do you not see that if these flocks of wild animals draw so 
 near to us, they must be flying before a numerous body of men ? ' 
 The troops were scarcely on horseback when the dust raised by the 
 approaching army was perfectly visible. Had it not been for 
 Khaled, they would have all perished." 
 
 Khaled was not less skilful in the tortuous 
 intrigues of the Oriental Court than in conducting 
 the operations on a field of battle. He became 
 the vizier of as Saffah, the first of the Abbaside 
 khalifs, and was continued in that office by 
 the successor of as Saffah, al Mansour. When this 
 
v.i). 762. KHALED IBN BARMEK. 179 
 
 khalif resolved upon abandoning Damascus, and 
 erecting a new capital — Baghdad — upon the banks of 
 the Tigris, Khaled was entrusted with the conduct of 
 the work. The chief cities of the empire were com- 
 pelled to give up their most splendid ornaments to 
 heighten the beauty of the new city. Wasit was called 
 upon to surrender five of her iron gates ; Koufa and 
 Damascus, each of them, three. The magnificent 
 palace of the Sassanian monarch still rose in unruined 
 majesty from amid the deserted streets and unculti- 
 vated gardens of Madain. The splendid pile was 
 beloved by the vanquished Persians as a fitting 
 memento of their departed magnificence. Khaled 
 received orders to level it with the ground, and 
 convey the materials to Baghdad. Khaled strove 
 hard to get this order rescinded. To have revealed 
 his real motives would have been to incur death as a 
 traitor and a heretic. He besought the khalif, there- 
 fore, to allow the palace to remain uninjured as a 
 splendid monument of Arabian prowess and glory. 
 The khalif persevered in his purpose notwithstanding, 
 but was ultimately compelled to relinquish it by reason 
 of the cost of destruction and transport. The defaced 
 and mutilated structure was a sadder sight to Khaled 
 than would have been its total disappearance. And 
 he urged upon the khalif the need of prosecuting the 
 undertaking to the end, lest it should be turned 
 into a taunt against Islam, that what the Fire Wor- 
 shippers had erected, the Faithful were unable to 
 destroy. 
 
 But the means whereby Khaled attracted towards 
 
180 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 himself the lasting good-will of the khalif, exhibit his 
 character in a very different light. 
 
 As Saffah, when proclaiming his brother, Abou 
 Jaafar, as his successor, had designated Isa ibn Mousa 
 as inheritor to the throne after Abou Jaafar. And the 
 people had taken the oath of allegiance to Isa as well 
 as Abou Jaafar. This arrangement of the succession 
 was profoundly displeasing to al Mansour. He 
 desired to transmit the khalifate to his son Mehdi, and 
 year after year he had tried one device after another to 
 rid himself of Isa. He nominated him to the com- 
 mand of all armies in the field, in the hope of getting 
 him killed. But Isa bore a charmed life ; and being, 
 moreover, the bravest and ablest of the Abbasides, he 
 returned victorious from every battle-field, and again 
 and again redeemed the empire from ruin. The khalif 
 then attempted to extract from him a resignation of 
 his rights ; but these Isa refused to yield. Driven 
 almost to his wits' end, al Mansour resolved to remove 
 the obstacle after his wonted fashion, and have the 
 obstinate Isa murdered. The problem was how to 
 accomplish this without arousing the indignation and 
 wrath of the family of Abbas. The plan he hit upon 
 is a good illustration of the unscrupulous methods of 
 Oriental despots. 
 
 The khalif's uncle, Abclallah ibn Ali, who had 
 rebelled on the death of as Saffah, and been defeated 
 by Abou Moslem, was in prison at Baghdad. The 
 khalif had lured him into his power by promises of 
 pardon, which then, as his custom was, he had subse- 
 quently ignored. At the close of the year 147, 
 
a.d. 7C4. KHALED IBN BARMEK. 181 
 
 Mansour gave out that he was about to proceed upon 
 pilgrimage to Mekka. He entrusted the care of 
 Baghdad to Isa ibn Mousa; and gave him secret 
 orders to put to death Abdallah ibn Ali on the very 
 day the khalif left the capital. In order to ensure the 
 execution of this order, he was careful to explain to Isa 
 that by the execution of Abdallah he would benefit 
 himself; for whether he ( the khalif) or Isa ibn Mousa 
 ruled over the Muhammadan world, neither could feel 
 secure in his seat so long as Abdallah existed. The 
 khalif hoped to have thus killed two birds with oue 
 stone. He would be rid of Abdallah ibn Ali, whom he 
 feared and detested ; but that being accomplished, he 
 intended to disavow the orders he had given. Isa ibn 
 Mousa would then appear to the House of Abbas as a 
 man who had committed an unauthorized murder, 
 requiring the prompt application of the law of 
 retaliation. This, however deeply he might appear to 
 regret it, the khalif would be compelled to concede as 
 just ; and thus he would be disencumbered of two for- 
 midable rivals at one and the same time. 
 
 But high station in an Oriental Court gives an 
 
 O CD 
 
 extraordinary acuteness to the minds of those who 
 enjoy it. Their lives depend upon a right under- 
 standing of the sovereign in whose service they are. 
 To study and know that is the chief business of their 
 lives And Isa ibn Mousa knew perfectly well that the 
 khalif never acted, in reference to him, without some 
 design on his life. Consequently he did not put 
 Abdallah to death ; he only pretended that he had 
 done so. 
 
182 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 The klialif, who had announced his intention of pro- 
 ceeding on pilgrimage for no other reason than to obtain 
 a good pretext for leaving Baghdad and disarming the 
 suspicions of Isa, had no sooner reached Koufa, than 
 he despatched a mission to Isa, to inquire if the exe- 
 cution had been carried out. The response was in the 
 affirmative. Mansour then gave out that reasons of 
 State compelled him to defer the pilgrimage to another 
 year, and returned suddenly to Baghdad. 
 
 A few days after the khalif suggested to his son 
 Mehdi to assemble the Bani Abbas in his (al Man- 
 sour' s) palace, and solicit from his clemency the libera- 
 tion of Abdallah ibn Ali. The khalif received the 
 request graciously. He summoned Isa ibn Mousa, and 
 ordered him to set Abdallah at freedom. Isa replied, 
 that in obedience to the orders of the khalif he had 
 caused Abdallah to be put to death. The khalif 
 assumed an appearance of surprised indignation. He 
 swore by Allah that he had never given such an order. 
 He protested that if Isa had committed this crime, he 
 had done it on his own responsibility, moved thereto, 
 as he supposed, by the promptings of private hate. 
 The Bani Abbas drew their swords in high wrath, 
 and demanded the blood of the murderer. The khalif, 
 with much show of righteous indignation, assented. 
 Isa entreated them to have mercy on his grey hairs. 
 He spoke to deaf ears ; already were a dozen swords 
 poised in air, when he requested a moment's respite to 
 interrogate the khalif once more. Did the khalif, he 
 inquired, still mean to assert that he had never given 
 the order for Abdallah's death ? " No," replied the 
 
A.D. 7(54. KHALED IBN BARMEK. 183 
 
 khalif, " I never gave such an order, and I am resolved 
 to revenge him. That man," he added, turning to the 
 Bani Abbas, and pointing to Isa, "must be killed." 
 Isa broke into a laugh. " Your stratagem," he said, 
 " was well conceived, but it has failed ; Abdallah is 
 alive." And he produced him before them. 
 
 Baffled, but still persistent, the amiable khalif 
 had recourse to poison, but only succeeded so far 
 as to make Isa ibn Mousa extremely unwell. Driven 
 to despair, he consulted Khaled ibn Barmek. Khaled 
 undertook to obtain from Isa the resignation of his 
 right. He took with him three functionaries of the 
 State, known to all Baghdad as men of worth and 
 integrity ; and, thus accompanied, solicited an inter- 
 view with Isa. But Isa, despite the promises and the 
 threats of Khaled, obstinately persisted in his resolu- 
 tion to retain his right of succession, and the deputa- 
 tion at last retired unsuccessful. They looked blankly 
 into oue another's faces. The men of integrity were 
 terrified almost to death. The khalif was a wrathful 
 man, who thought no more of decapitating a man or a 
 dozen men, than of eating his dinner. It was ex- 
 tremely probable that he would visit upon the deputa- 
 tion the wrath he would certainly feel against Isa. 
 There was only one way of escape, so Khaled suggested, 
 and that was to swear steadily that Isa had consented 
 to forego his claims in favour of the son of the khalif. 
 The testimony of Khaled, supported by the oaths of 
 three men of such known integrity, would be more 
 than sufficient to bear down the unsupported assertions 
 of Isa. The three men of integrity clutched greedily 
 
184 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 at this hope of escape. They declared with one voice 
 that they were ready to swear to anything that the 
 khalif or Khaled required of them. This being settled, 
 they all repaired to the presence of the khalif, and 
 reported that the interview had been successful. But 
 when the three honest men had retired, Khaled 
 revealed to the khalif the true state of the case. Al 
 Mansour was in nowise disconcerted, provided the 
 mendacity of the three honest men was to be 
 thoroughly relied on. "Will they," he asked, " swear 
 to what they have said in the presence of Isa?" " If 
 they do not," replied Khaled, " have them beheaded." 
 He then went to the three witnesses, and made known 
 to them that if in this matter of swearing they 
 flinched, or exhibited the smallest symptom of hesita- 
 tion, they would be put to death. The khalif then 
 convoked a numerous and splendid assembly ; the 
 Bani Abbas, the chief officers of the army, the leading 
 citizens of Baghdad, the great doctors — all were pre- 
 sent ; and before this multitude the khalif addressed 
 his thanks to Isa for the generous act he had done at 
 the solicitation of his sovereign. Isa protested that 
 he had done nothing, that he had, as on other occa- 
 sions, rejected the overtures of Khaled and his friends. 
 But at this moment the deputation came forward, and 
 undertook to swear solemnly before God, that Isa had, 
 in their presence, resigned his rights to the khalifate 
 in favour of Mehdi, the son of Mansour. A great 
 murmur of wrath rose up from the assembly ; the 
 remonstrances of the unhappy Isa were drowned in a 
 storm of reproaches, which were hurled at him from 
 
a.d. 765. KHALED IBN BARMEK. 185 
 
 every side. Who was lie, that he should attempt to 
 stigmatise the veracity of men of such known integrity 
 as these who bore witness against him ? It was a 
 frightful thing, unworthy of a Believer and a de- 
 scendant of the Prophet, to doubt the oath of a Moslem 
 when sworn on the Koran; with much more to the 
 same effect. " It is," adds the author of the Tareek-i- 
 Tahari, "this incident which acquired for Khaled 
 the high position he held in the favour of al Man sour 
 and his son the Mehdi." 
 
 Notwithstanding this signal service, Khaled was 
 not secure from the caprices of the master he served. 
 The khalif one day made a demand on him for a sum 
 of three millions of dirhems, to be paid out of his 
 private purse ; adding that if the money was not in the 
 treasury within three days, he should lose his head. 
 In three days Khaled had collected only 2,700,000 
 dirhems, and he would assuredly have been beheaded, 
 had not at this moment a formidable rebellion broken 
 out in the district of Mosule. His ability as a military 
 chief compelled the khalif to despatch him to the 
 scene of the revolt. And he had barely quelled the 
 insurrection, when an inroad of the wild mountaineers 
 of Koordistan on the fertile plains of Irak, created a 
 fresh demand for his services. The Koords were 
 beaten, and driven back into their fastnesses ; and in 
 return for this double victory, the khalif did not return 
 the money of which he had already plundered his 
 subject, but graciously consented to forego the residue 
 which yet remained to be paid. 
 
 From this time until the death of al Mansour 
 
180 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. n. 
 
 (a.h. 158), Khaled administered the government of 
 Mosule, and his son Yahya governed the frontier 
 province of Azerbaizan. Yahya was, like his father, a 
 bold and skilful commander ; the future khalif, Haroun 
 al Rashid, was his pupil in the art of war ; and during 
 the reign of al Mehdi, Yahya won great renown by the 
 sacred war he prosecuted, year after year, in the terri- 
 tories of the Byzantine Emperor. In these expedi- 
 tions he was generally accompanied by Haroun; and 
 then was laid the foundation of that friendship which 
 has ever since associated together the names of the 
 khalif Haroun al Rashid and the family of the 
 Barmekides. 
 
 The khalif al Mehdi died a.h. 169, and during the 
 brief reign of his son and successor, Hadi, the life of 
 Haroun was in great danger. Mehdi bad bequeathed 
 the throne to Hadi, and on his death to his other son 
 Haroun; but after the manner of his predecessors, 
 Hadi, as soon as he became sovereign, wished to set 
 Haroun aside in favour of his own son, a child of five 
 or six years of age. Yahya, whose ability and public 
 services had made him the foremost man at the Court 
 of the khalif, spoke freely and fearlessly in defence of 
 the rights of his pupil in the art of war. The khalif was 
 greatly irritated. He had him arrested and flung into 
 prison, and threatened to put him to death as one who 
 had relapsed from the true faith into the abominations 
 of infidelity. Yahya remained firm. He urged upon 
 the khalif the impolicy of bequeathing a kingdom filled 
 with all the elements of revolt and disorder to a child 
 incapable of distinguishing his right hand from his left. 
 
A.i) 786. YAHYA IBN KHALED. 187 
 
 But Hadi, fretted and chafed by his remonstrances, 
 and spurred on by the enemies of Haroun, continued 
 to treat his brother with such severity that he fled the 
 Court. The wrath of the khalif then turned against 
 Haroun' s mother, Kheizura, whom he suspected of 
 encouraging and strengthening the contumacy of her 
 son. He formed the design of ridding himself of her 
 by poison ; but Kheizura, having learned the designs 
 of the khalif, bribed his female slaves to smother him 
 while he slept. (16th Rabia-l'Awal, a.h. 170 ; 15th 
 September, a.d. 736.) 
 
 When Haroun became khalif, his first act was to 
 make Yahya his vizier. " My dear father," he said to 
 him — for it was always by this appellation that he 
 designated Yahya — " it is through the blessings and 
 good fortune which attend you, and through your 
 excellent management, that I am now seated on this 
 throne ; so I confide to you the direction of affairs." 
 He then handed to him his signet ring. Yahya had 
 four sons. Fadhl, the eldest, was distinguished both 
 as a soldier and a statesman, and not less so for his 
 lavish munificence. The khalif entrusted to him the 
 government of Khorasan ; and this province he 
 governed with such amazing success, that on his 
 return to Irak in the year 179 he was received with 
 the highest honours by al Rashid, and the poets and 
 preachers were commanded to extol him publicly. 
 Mousa and Muhammad, the younger sons of Yahya, 
 were also raised to posts of high honour ; but among 
 all the Barmekides, he who stood nearest to the heart 
 of the khalif was Jaafar, the second brother. Haroun 
 
188 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 loved him with the vehemence of a man incapable of 
 moderation or self-restraint. He caused a robe to be 
 made with two separate collars, so that he and Jaafar 
 might wear it at the same time. And impatient of 
 every moment which divided him from his favourite, 
 he admitted him to the musical entertainments held 
 within the secret precincts of the harem, which were 
 graced by the presence of his wives and female 
 slaves. 
 
 The post near the khalif occupied by Jaafar was 
 Secretary of the Bureau of Correspondence. Under 
 the Abbaside khalifs, this was a position of the highest 
 importance. The royal orders to all the officials 
 throughout the empire were drawn up and signed by 
 the secretary, uncontrolled by any other public func- 
 tionary. When the khalif took his place in open 
 durbar, to hear petitions and redress grievances, the 
 secretary had to be in attendance. It was his duty to 
 read and explain to the khalif each successive petition, 
 and to return it to the petitioner inscribed with the 
 orders of the khalif. To worthily fulfil the functions 
 of this post was exceedingly hard. These petitions 
 referred, in many cases, to matters requiring for their 
 decision an intimate acquaintance with the bewildering 
 technicalities of Muhammadan law ; and it was also 
 considered requisite that these decisions should be 
 drawn up in Arabic, and expressed with elegance, 
 terseness, and grammatical accuracy. Jaafar had 
 studied jurisprudence under the celebrated Kadi Abou 
 Yusuf, the Hanifite ; and it is said that in one night, he 
 wrote upwards of one thousand decisions on as many 
 
a.d. 78G. JAAFAR IBN KHALED. 189 
 
 memorials which had been presented to the khalif, and 
 that not one of these decisions deviated in the least 
 from what was warranted by law. These judgments 
 were not less remarkable for the elegance and com- 
 mand of language they exhibited, than for their legal 
 accuracy ; and in subsequent times they were greatly 
 sought after by the lovers of good Arabic, on account 
 of their singular felicity of expression. A brief decision, 
 consisting of no more than a few words, would not sell 
 for less than a piece of gold. 
 
 The greatness of the Barmekides endured for seven- 
 teen years (a.h. 170 — 187). That space of time con- 
 stituted the " golden prime of the good Haroun al 
 Rashid." Baghdad then attained its highest point of 
 splendour. " The earth," to borrow the language of a 
 poet of the day, " was irrigated with water of musk 
 and rose ; and the scent of delicious perfumes was scat- 
 tered abroad. Evening after evening joyous companies 
 assembled around a host generous and munificent. At 
 a signal from him, the fair young musicians made their 
 melodious voices to be heard, blended with the soft 
 sighings of the flute." The Prophet's prohibition ot 
 wine was utterly disregarded. " Throughout that 
 day," says our poet, " our hands shed the blood of 
 the wine-cup ; but the wine revenged itself upon our 
 legs ; a rosy liquor received from the hands of a 
 gazelle-like nymph, who seemed to have extracted it 
 from her cheeks, and then passed it round." Haroun 
 al Rashid was a hard and pitiless sovereign, prone to 
 treachery, and careless of the well-being of his sub- 
 jects. The provinces were desolated by his exactions ; 
 
190 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 the dominions of the Byzantine emperors were per- 
 petually invaded, not for conquest, but in order to fill 
 the bazaars of Baghdad with crowds of Grecian slaves. 
 The booty and the wealth thus acquired were, how- 
 ever, lavishly expended upon poets and divines ; and 
 they, in return, sung the praises of their master, and 
 exalted his virtues. The khalif was cruel, treacherous, 
 sensual, but exceedingly devout. His slave-catching 
 expeditions were denominated " holy wars ;" and he 
 was assiduous in the performance of the pilgrimage. 
 He made the journey in great state, surrounded by 
 doctors and learned men, and showering gifts all along 
 the route he passed over. Not less pious, and still 
 more zealous in good works, was his chief wife and 
 cousin, Zobeide. She had in her palace one hundred 
 slave girls, who all knew the Koran by heart ; each of 
 these had the task of repeating one-tenth of it daily ; 
 so that her palace resounded with a continual humming 
 like that of bees, conferring immense joy and satisfac- 
 tion upon the hearts of all true Believers. Others of 
 her works were of more practical utility. She furnished 
 the city of Mekka with water, the scarcity of which 
 had been so great that the contents of a single water- 
 skin cost a gold piece. This water was brought to 
 the sacred city from a distance of ten miles, levelling 
 hills and hewing through rocks, by which means a 
 stream was made to flow into Mekka. Along the 
 roads, too, which were traversed by pilgrims on their 
 way to the Hejaz, she caused wells to be sunk, 
 and karavanserais to be erected for their accommo- 
 dation. 
 
A.D. 790. THE "GOLDEN PRIME." 191 
 
 Together with these beneficent works, the chro- 
 niclers record others which they seem to think are not 
 less worthy of admiration and gratitude. She was the 
 first to have her repasts served up on gold and silver 
 vessels, embossed with precious stones ; she set the 
 fashion of constructing palanquins of silver, ebony, 
 and sandal-wood, richly carved and ornamented. The 
 apartments of her palace were lighted with tapers of 
 ambergris ; and she organized, as her personal body- 
 guard, a troop of female slaves, attired as pages. This 
 last fashion became universal. Every courtier and man 
 of fashion had his bodyguard of girl pages to execute 
 his orders and wait upon his convenience. In short, 
 " such," says a Moslem writer, " were the splendour, 
 the richness, and prosperity of that reign, that it was 
 termed ' the bridal season.' Its merits transcend all 
 description, and surpass all eulogy." * 
 
 * We get a glimpse bow all this wealth was obtained in the fol- 
 lowing anecdote told of al Fudail, the ascetic, whom I have already 
 mentioned in Chapter III. Sofyan ibn Oyaina relates as follows 
 concerning him: — " Haroun al Eashid called for us, and when we 
 entered his presence al Fudail followed, with his cloak drawn over 
 his face, and said to me, ' Tell me, Sofyan, which of these is the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful ? ' 'There he is,' said I, pointing out al 
 Rashid. He then addressed the khalif in these terms, — ' thou with 
 the handsome face ! art thou the man whose hand governeth this 
 people, and who hast taken that duty on thy shoulders ? Verily, thou 
 hast taken onthyself aheavy burden.' Al Rashid wept on hearing these 
 words, and ordered to each of us a purse of money. We all received 
 the gift except al Fudail ; and al Rashid said to him, ' Abou AH ! 
 ii thou dostnot think it lawful to accept it, give it to some poor debtor, 
 or else therewith feed the hungry or clothe the naked.' He requested, 
 however, the permission to refuse it ; and when he went out I said 
 to him, • Thou hast done wrong, Abou Ali ! Why didst thou not 
 take it and spend it in works of chanty ? ' On this he seized me 
 
192 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 The foremost figures in this crowded and magnifi- 
 cent scene, were those of Yahya and his gallant and 
 accomplished sons. Their stately palace, on the bank 
 of the Tigris, was thronged from morning to night with 
 an eager crowd of suitors — envoys, poets, divines, men 
 of all ranks and occupations thronging to partake of 
 their ever-flowing liberality. The following anecdote 
 is one out of scores which might be quoted concerning 
 them. I select it as a curious specimen of the manners 
 of the day : — 
 
 "I went to Yahya," said Ibrahim an Nadim, a celebrated musi- 
 cian and singer of that day, " and complained to him of a pecuniary 
 embarrassment. He answered, ' Alas ! what can I do for you ? I 
 have nothing at the present moment. However, I shall point out to 
 you a thing which I hope you will be the man to execute. The 
 agent of the governor of Egypt came to see me, and requested me to 
 ask a gift from his master for myself. I refused, but he still insists. 
 Now I am told that such an one, your slave girl, cost you three thou- 
 sand dinars. So here is what I may do: I shall ask him to make me a 
 present of that girl, and tell him that she pleases me very much ; but 
 do not you consent to sell her for less than thirty thousand dinars. 
 You will then see what will happen.' Well, by Allah, I had scarcely 
 time to look about me when in came the agent. He asked me how 
 much I would take for the girl. I replied that I would not dispose 
 of her for less than thirty thousand dinars. He continued bargaining 
 with me, and finished by offering twenty thousand. When I heard 
 the sum mentioned. I had not the heart to refuse it, and I sold 
 her. Having received the money, I went to see Yahya, the son 
 of Khaled. He asked me what I had done in the sale of the girl, 
 and I replied, ' By Allah ! I could not refrain from accepting twenty 
 
 by the beard, and exclaimed, ' 0, Abou Muhammad ! how canst thou 
 who art the chief jurisconsult of this city and a man whom all look 
 up to, how canst thou make such a blunder ? Had the money been 
 lawfully acquired by those people (the khalif and his officers), it had 
 been lawful for me to accept it.' " 
 
a.d. 795. ANECDOTE OF YAHYA. 193 
 
 thousand dinars as soon as I heard the offer.' He answered, ' That 
 was mean spirited on your part: but the agent of the governor of 
 Persia has come to me on a similar mission. So here is your girl ; 
 take her back, and do not sell her for less than fifty thousand dinars 
 when he goes to bargain with you for her. He will certainly give 
 yoa the price.' This man came to me, and I asked fifty thousand 
 dinars. He began to bargain, and when he offered me thirty thou- 
 sand I had not the heart to refuse that sum, and could scarcely 
 believe my ears. I accepted his offer, and then went to Tahya, the 
 son of Khaled. ' For how much did you sell the girl ? ' said he. I 
 told him, and he exclaimed, ' You unfortunate fellow ! was your first 
 fault not sufficient to prevent you from committing a second ? ' 
 I replied, ' My heart was too weak to refuse a sum for which I could 
 have never hoped.' ' Here,' said Yahya, ' is your girl ; take her and 
 keep her.' I replied, ' I have gained by her fifty thousand dinars, 
 and am again become her owner. Bear witness that I declare her 
 free, and that I promise to marry her.' " * 
 
 * The point of these anecdotes will be missed if the reader 
 fails to note the extraordinary moral confusion which pervades them. 
 In order to understand aright the history of the Muhammadan 
 world, this moral confusion must never be forgotten for a moment. 
 In that seed field, not only have the wheat and the tares grown 
 together, but the tares have always been regarded as equally valuable 
 and nutritious as the wheat. Thus the following story is told 
 of Jaafar ibn Yahya, as redounding greatly to his credit : — 
 " Having learned that al Rashid was much depressed, in conse- 
 quence of a Jewish astrologer having predicted to him that he 
 should die within a year, he rode off to the khalif and found him 
 deeply afflicted. The Jew had been detained as a prisoner by the 
 khalif's orders, and Jaafar addressed him in these terms: 'You 
 pretend that the khalif is to die in the space of so many days ? ' 
 ' Yes,' said the Jew. ' And how long are you yourself to live ? ' 
 ' So many years,' replied the other, mentioning a great number. 
 Jaafar then said to the khalif, ' Put him to death, and you will be 
 thus assured that he is equally mistaken respecting the length of 
 your life, and that of his own.' This advice was followed by the 
 khalif, who then thanked Jaafar for having dispelled his sadness. 
 
 The Jew's body was exposed upon a gibbet an d 
 
 the astrologer thus lost bis life through his own folly." — lhn 
 Aliall., vol. i. p. 302. 
 
 13 
 
194 THE KHALTFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 But the Barmekides were Persians, and the Arabs 
 beheld with bitter envy the monopoly of power pos- 
 sessed by a single family of that hated race. They 
 laboured unceasingly to inspire Haroun with distrust 
 of his too favoured subjects. The leader of this faction 
 was Eadhl ibn Kabia, whose father had overthrown 
 the vizier Yakoub in the khalifate of Mehdi. He had a 
 double cause of enmity against them. On the accession 
 of Haroun al Rashid, he had been removed from the 
 post of vizier in order to make room for Yahya ibn 
 Khaled. The Barmekides treated him with extreme 
 haughtiness, and Jaafar on one occasion taunted him 
 with the uncertainty of his origin — the worst insult that 
 could be addressed to an Arab. The work of undermin- 
 ing began with the presentation to al Rashid of an un- 
 signed memorial, which contained the following lines : — 
 
 " Say to God's trusty servant on earth, who has power to 
 loose and to bind, ' Behold, the son of Yahya has become a sovereign 
 like yourself ; there is no difference between you ! Your orders must 
 yield to his, and orders dare not be resisted. He has built a palace, 
 of which the like was never erected by the Persians or the Indian 
 king. Pearls and rubies form its pavements, and the floor is of 
 amber and aloes wood. We fear that he will inherit the empire, 
 when you are hidden in the tomb. It is only the insolent slave who 
 rivals his master in splendour." 
 
 The charge of unscrupulous ambition was speedily 
 supplemented by the more damning one of infidelity. 
 Haroun al Rashid was rigidly orthodox. He had 
 caused the Hanifite jurisprudence to be arranged and 
 written out in regular treatises. Never since the com- 
 mencement of Islam had the pilgrimage been performed 
 with such ceremony and such lavish almsgiving as by 
 
a.d. 795. SUSPECTED OF HERESY. 195 
 
 him. And in all his actions he affected a scrupulous 
 submission to the prescriptions of the law. The Bar- 
 mekides were anything but orthodox. They, of course, 
 professed an outward conformity with the dogmas of 
 Islam ; but, like the greater part of their fellow-coun- 
 trymen, they were simple Theists, warmly attached to 
 the principles of free discussion and general toleration 
 in religious matters. Their palace was a gathering 
 place, where men of all creeds met together on a 
 footing of perfect equality, and where even the pos- 
 sibility of a revelation was freely and fearlessly ques- 
 tioned.* No wonder, therefore, if by the religious 
 world they were set down as Nihilists. A petition was 
 at last prepared in which the popular dissatisfaction at 
 their abominable laxity of thought found free utterance. 
 This was presented to the khalif by a theologian and 
 popular preacher, an inhabitant of the town of Rakka, 
 
 * A curious account of one of these assemblies is to be found in 
 Masoudi's " Meadows of Gold." Unfortunately, on that occasion, 
 the subject of debate was not philosophical or theological, but the 
 passion of " Love ;" and it must be acknowledged that the speakers 
 enunciate a great deal of wearisome nonsense. But the opening 
 speech of Yahya ibn Khaled enumerates the subjects generally dis- 
 cussed. " You have," he says to his company, " discoursed at length 
 on the theory of invisibility and visibility ; on pre-existence and 
 creation; on duration and stability; on movement and repose; the 
 unity of the Divine substance; on existence and non-existeuce; the 
 body and its accidents ; the approbation and refutation of traditional 
 authorities ; on the absence and the existence of attributes in the 
 Deity; force, actual and potential; substance, quantity, modality, 
 relation ; life and annihilation. You have inquired if the dignity of 
 Imam be of Divine appointment or man's election ; you have probed 
 to the bottom all metaphysical questions in their principles and 
 corollaries. Occupy yourselves, then, to-day with a description of 
 love." — Masoudi, vol. vi. p. 368. 
 
196 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 who was held in great veneration by the common 
 people. " Prince of Believers ! " so ran this document, 
 " what will you reply to God upon the day of resur- 
 rection, or how will you justify yourself for having 
 placed the Moslems under the domination of Yahya ibn 
 Khaled, his sons and his relatives, and confided an 
 empire of Believers to the charge of Atheists ? For 
 Yahya, his sons, and the members of his family are 
 Atheists, and secretly attached to the doctrines of 
 Atheism. They have no religion." For the moment 
 the khalif paid no heed to this petition ; he even 
 ordered the presenter of it to be imprisoned; but 
 when his wrath fell upon the Barmekides, and he 
 resolved utterly to destroy the family, the charge of 
 apostasy served as a cloak to hide the veritable motive. 
 The khalif had a favourite sister, Abbassa. He 
 was attached to her in the same unreasoning, pas- 
 sionate manner as he was to his favourite Jaafar. In 
 his hours of recreation, he could not endure that either 
 should be absent. But for a royal maiden, such as 
 Abbassa, to appear unveiled before a stranger like 
 Jaafar, would have been an act of gross impro- 
 priety. The khalif thought of a device for getting 
 over this difficulty. He married his sister to Jaafar, 
 having first taken from them a solemn oath that 
 they were never to meet except in the presence of 
 the khalif. For Jaafar the condition was an easy one. 
 The fairest beauties of Asia and Europe were at his 
 disposal in the slave markets of Baghdad. He could, 
 without repining, acquiesce in a nominal union with 
 the sister of his sovereign. It was otherwise with his 
 
A.D. 799. THE STORY OF ABBASSA. 197 
 
 virgin bride. This splendid young stranger, breaking 
 in upon the blank monotony of her harem life, over- 
 came the passionate daughter of the East with a fas- 
 cination she neither could nor desired to resist. Like 
 the maiden of Verona, it speedily became to her an 
 intolerable anguish thus to have bought the mansion of 
 a love and not possess it. And she determined, at all 
 hazards, to break through the restrictions her brother 
 had imposed upon her. She sent letter after letter to 
 Jaafar, entreating and reproaching him by turns. He 
 drove off her messengers, and refused to receive her 
 letters. Despairing of success by a direct appeal to 
 him, she had recourse to his mother. She heaped 
 upon her magnificent presents, loaded her with favours, 
 and treated her with such deference and affection, that 
 the woman became bound to her heart and mind. 
 Then she made known the thing she desired of her. 
 She set before the mother of Jaafar the great glory 
 that would accrue to the family of the Barmekides if 
 their blood was mingled with the sacred stream which 
 flowed in the veins of the successors of God's Prophet. 
 She pointed out on how secure a foundation their 
 greatness would be built up, if she bore a son to 
 Jaafar, and they thereby became linked to the khalifate 
 by a double tie. She insisted that there was small 
 occasion to fear the wrath of her brother. He loved 
 her too well not to forgive them for her sake, if not for 
 their own. The mother of Jaafar allowed herself to 
 be persuaded, not unwillingly. She undertook to 
 devise a plan whereby the young princess could be 
 wedded to her husband without the knowledge of the 
 
198 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 latter. It had long been her custom to provide her 
 son with beautiful female slaves. According to the 
 singular code of morality which existed in the Muham- 
 madan world, this was regarded as an act of solicitude 
 specially appropriate to the maternal relation. She 
 now went to her son, and informed him that she was 
 about to purchase, as a present to him, a slave of 
 incomparable beauty, who had received a royal educa- 
 tion, and was accomplished, gracious, possessed of a 
 ravishing figure — in short, a marvel of loveliness ; and 
 " the bargain," she wound up with, "was nearly con- 
 cluded." Jaafar was delighted at this affectionate 
 attention on the part of his mother, and expressed his 
 desire to become acquainted with this incomparable 
 beauty as soon as possible. That crafty old lady, in 
 order to heighten his impatience, began to create diffi- 
 culties, interpose delays, till she had driven him to 
 the verge of frenzy, when she announced that on a 
 certain night, which she specified, she would bring the 
 beautiful slave. She transmitted a message to Abbassa, 
 instructing her in all that had passed, and bidding her 
 hold herself in readiness. The hour arrived, and 
 Abbassa, her beauty enhanced by all that art and love 
 could think of, repaired secretly to the palace of Jaafar. 
 That same night, Jaafar, his brain confused with the 
 wine he had drunk, repaired to his chamber, and the 
 slave, as he supposed her to be, was introduced. 
 " What think you," said Abbassa, after they had been 
 some time together — " what think you of the strata- 
 gems of princesses ?" " Of what princess do you 
 speak ?" asked Jaafar. " Of myself," she replied, 
 
a.d. 800. THE STORY OF ABBASSA. 199 
 
 " thy sovereign mistress, Abbassa, the daughter of 
 Mehdi." Jaafar rose from his couch in mortal terror ; 
 the fumes of the wine were dissipated in a moment, and 
 he recognized the abyss which had opened under his feet. 
 "Mother," he cried, "you have brought me to ruin I" 
 
 A son was born to Abbassa, which was sent away 
 secretly to Mekka, under the care of two trustworthy 
 servants. The days meanwhile flowed on. Jaafar, his 
 brothers, and their father continued to bask in the 
 favour and affection of the khalif. Abbassa' s intrigue, 
 and the birth of a son, were known to the inmates of 
 the harem, but not to the khalif himself. Yahya ibn 
 Khaled was the intendant of the royal harem, and the 
 rigorous supervision he exercised over the ladies was 
 highly displeasing to Zobeide, the favourite wife of 
 Haroun. In a moment of resentment, she revealed 
 the story of Abbassa to the khalif. He was excited to 
 the highest fury ; nevertheless, he concealed from the 
 Barmekides both the discovery he had made and the 
 fierceness of his wrath. He merely gave out that he 
 was about to proceed to Mekka, and ordered Jaafar to 
 accompany him. Abbassa had no sooner discovered 
 his intention, than she sent orders to the guardians of 
 her child to fly with him to Yemen, and conceal him 
 there. But the khalif, though he failed to get posses- 
 sion of the child, ascertained that all his wife had 
 revealed to him was strictly true. The pilgrimage 
 accomplished, he returned to Baghdad, revolving in 
 his mind the best plan for utterly destroying the entire 
 family of the Barmekides. 
 
 After a brief residence at Baghdad, the khalif re- 
 
200 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap, ii 
 
 paired to his pleasure palace at Anbar. Despite of his 
 efforts to conceal the vindictiveness which burned 
 within him, Jaafar had perceived the estrangement. 
 He knew the fierce and unforgiving character of his 
 master too well not to understand what this foreboded. 
 " Our fortune has passed away," he was heard to utter, 
 in accents of deep dejection. He called for an astrolabe 
 whereby to read the future ; he was then in his house 
 situated on the Tigris, and a boatman passed, as he 
 gave the order, singing the following stanza — 
 
 " In his ignorance he takes counsel of the stars, but the Lord of 
 the stars does what He will." 
 
 The words sounded prophetic, and Jaafar flung 
 away the astrolabe and went out. 
 
 On the eve of Sunday, the last day of Mohurrum 
 a.h. 187 (end of January, a.d. 803), the khalif let fall 
 the long-suspended blow. The day and the evening 
 had passed in sumptuous entertainments. Never was 
 the khalif more gracious to Jaafar. He even accom- 
 panied him to his horse when the latter took leave, to 
 return to his own tent. But then, summoning his 
 page, Yasir, to a private audience, the khalif said to 
 him, " I have chosen you for a business which I do 
 not think fit to confide to any other ; justify, then, the 
 opinion which I have of you ; and beware of resisting 
 me, or you die." To this Yasir replied, " Were you to 
 order me to kill myself, I would do it." " Go, then," 
 said al Rashid, " and bring me immediately the head of 
 Jaafar ibn Yahya." Yasir was confounded, and gave 
 no answer. "Wretch!" exclaimed al Rashid, "do 
 
a.d. 803. FALL OF THE BARMEKIDES. 201 
 
 you hesitate ?" " It is a terrible business," replied 
 the other; "would that I had died before this hour." 
 "Execute my orders," retorted the inexorable khalif; 
 and Yasir departed. 
 
 Jaafar, in the meanwhile, had repaired to his 
 lodgings, and called in Abou Zakka, the blind poet, 
 and his slave girl ; the curtains of the apartment were 
 closed, and the poet and musician were singing this 
 
 song :- 
 
 " Leave us not ; for every man must meet death either in the 
 night or in the day. 
 
 Treasures, however well preserved, must one day be ex- 
 hausted. 
 
 Could you be preserved from the attacks of misfortune, I 
 would give you my own wealth, and that of my fathers, 
 to secure your safety.'' 
 
 At this point Yasir entered ; and Jaafar said to him, 
 " I am happy to receive your visit, Yasir; but I am 
 displeased at your entering without permission." " My 
 business," replied Yasir, " does not admit of delay." 
 He then informed Jaafar of the khalif 's order. " You 
 are under obligations to me," said Jaafar, "and you 
 can repay them at the present moment only." " You 
 will find me," replied Yasir, "prompt to do anything, 
 except disobey the orders of the Commander of the 
 Faithful." " Return then," said Jaafar, " and tell him 
 that you have put me to death. If he express regret, 
 I shall owe you my life ; and if not, you can fulfil your 
 orders." " Impossible ! " said Yasir. " Let me then go 
 with you to his tent, that I may hear the answer he makes 
 you, and if he persists in willing my death, you can exe- 
 cute his commands." To this proposal Yasir consented. 
 
202 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ir. 
 
 They proceeded together to the abode of the khalif, 
 and Yasir, leaving Jaafar in an ante-room, entered the 
 presence of al Rashid. " Have you done it ? " was the 
 inquiry. Yasir repeated what Jaafar had said. " Vile 
 wretch ! " exclaimed the khalif; "if you answer me 
 another word, I will send you before him to the next 
 world ! ' Yasir then retired, and having put Jaafar 
 to death, he returned, bearing the head, which he 
 placed before the khalif. Al Rashid gazed at it for some 
 seconds, then, raising his eyes, he ordered Yasir to 
 bring in two persons whom he named. When they 
 came, he said, " Strike off Yasir's head, for I cannot 
 bear the sight of Jaafar' s murderer." 
 
 Simultaneously with the execution of Jaafar, the 
 khalif had given orders to seize the persons of his 
 father and brothers. As Sindi ibn Shahik, the chief of 
 the armed police, relates as follows : — 
 
 " I was one night asleep in the upper room of the guard-house, 
 which is on the western side of the Tigris, and I saw in a dream 
 Jaafar, who stood before me in a robe dyed with saffron, and recited 
 these verses : — 
 
 ' 'Tis now as if not a soul had ever lived between al Hajm and 
 as Safa ! 
 
 As if there had never been one friend in Mekka to hold evening 
 converse with another ! 
 
 For we were its inhabitants; but we perished by the vicissi- 
 tudes of time and the precariousness of fortune.' 
 
 " On this I awoke in terror, and related my vision to one of my 
 friends, who answered, ' They are confused dreams, and it is not all 
 which a man sees in sleep that will bear interpretation.' I then 
 returned to my couch, but had scarcely closed my eyes, when I heard 
 the challenge of the sentries and the guard, and the ringing of the 
 bridles of the post-horses, and a knocking at the door of my chamber. 
 I ordered it to be opened, and the eunuch Sallani al Abrash (whom 
 
a.d. 803. FALL OF THE BARMEKIDES. 203 
 
 al Rashid never sent out but on important business) came upstairs. 
 I shuddered to see him, and my joints trembled, for I imagined he 
 had got some orders concerning me ; but he sat down by my side, 
 and handed me a letter, the seal of which I broke open, and lo ! it 
 contained these words,—' O, Sindi ! this letter is written with our 
 own hand, and sealed with the seal-ring which we wear on our 
 finger ; it will be presented to you by Sallam al Abrash, and as soon 
 as you read it, even before you lay it out of your hand, go with Sallam 
 to the house of Yahya ibn Khaled (may God not protect him !), 
 and having seized on him, put him in heavy irons, and bear him to 
 the prison in the city of al Mansour, which is called " the Prison 
 for Zendiks." Order also your lieutenant, Badam ibn Abdallah, to 
 go to Fadhl's at the same time that you ride off to the house of his 
 father Yahya, and let him take him to the same prison. On 
 finishing with these two, send some of your men to seize on the 
 children, brothers, and relations of Yahya.' " 
 
 These orders were immediately executed ; and the 
 property of every member of the family was confiscated. 
 For a moment the recollection of past services softened 
 the heart of the khalif towards his old guardian and 
 preceptor, Yahya, and he gave him permission to reside 
 in the city of Rakka. But the old soldier- statesman 
 preferred to share the prison of his son Fadhl. There, 
 accordingly, both remained. At first they were allowed 
 some liberty ; but afterwards their condition fluctuated, 
 as the hatred or compassion of the vindictive khalif 
 obtained the ascendancy over him.* 
 
 * The following incident is recorded of their prison life : — " It is 
 said that Masrur, the eunuch, was sent by him (i.e., the khalif) to 
 the prison, and that he told the guardian to bring al Fadhl before 
 him. When he was brought out, he addressed him thus: 'The 
 Commander of the Faithful sends me to say that he ordered thee to 
 make a true statement of thy property, and that thou didst pretend 
 to do so ; but he is assured that thou hast still great wealth in 
 reserve ; and his orders to me are, that if thou dost not inform me 
 where the money is. 1 am to give thee two hundred strokes of a 
 
204 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. n. 
 
 It was a tremendous fall, from the height of splen- 
 dour and magnificence to the coldness and solitude of a 
 dungeon ; and the following passage from one of the 
 
 whip. I should, therefore, advise thee not to prefer thy riches to 
 thyself.' On this, al Fadhl looked up to him and said, 'By Allah ! I 
 made no false statements, and were the choice offered to me of being 
 sent out of the world, or of receiving a single stroke of a whip, I 
 should prefer the former alternative ; that, the Commander of the 
 Faithful well knoweth, and thou also knowest full well that we main- 
 tained our reputation at the expense of our wealth. How then could 
 we now shield our wealth at the expense of our bodies ? If thou 
 hast really got any orders, let them be executed.' On this, Masrur 
 produced some whips which he brought with him rolled up in a napkin, 
 and ordered his servants to inflict on al Fadhl two hundred stripes. 
 They struck him with all their force, using no moderation in their 
 blows, so that they nearly killed him. There was in that place a 
 man skilled in treating wounds, who was called in to attend upon 
 al Fadhl. When he saw him he observed that fifty strokes had 
 been inflicted upon him ; and when the others declared that two 
 hundred had been given, he asserted that his back bore the traces of 
 fifty, and not more. He then told Fadhl that he must lie down on his 
 back on a reed-mat, so that he might tread on his breast. Al Fadhl 
 shuddered at the proposal, but having at length given his consent, 
 they placed him on his back. The operator then trod upon him, after 
 which he took him by the arms and dragged him along the mat, by 
 which means a great quantity of flesh was torn off the back. He 
 then proceeded to dress the wounds, and continued his services 
 regularly, till, one day, when examining them, he immediately pros- 
 trated himself in thanksgiving to God. They asked him what was 
 the matter, and he replied that the patient was saved, because new 
 flesh was forming. He then said, ' Did I not say he had received 
 fifty strokes? Well, by Allah! one thousand strokes could not 
 have left worse marks ; but I merely said so that he might take 
 courage, and thus aid my efforts to cure him.' Al Fadhl, on his 
 recovery, borrowed ten thousand dirhems from a friend and sent 
 them to the doctor, who returned them. Thinking that he had 
 offered too little, he borrowed ten thousand more ; but the man 
 refused them and said, ' I cannot accept a salary for curing the 
 greatest among the generous ; were it even twenty thousand dinars, 
 I should refuse them.' When this was told to al Fadhl, he declared 
 
a.d. 805. FALL OF THE BARMEKIDES. 205 
 
 Arabian poets was, we are told, frequently in the mouth 
 of Yahya during the dark and dismal season of his 
 captivity : — 
 
 " We address oar complaints to God in our sufferings, for it is 
 His hand which removeth pain and affliction. 
 
 We have quitted the world, and yet we exist therein ; we are not 
 of the living, neither are we of the dead." 
 
 When the jailor happens to enter our cell, we wonder and exclaim, 
 ' This man has come from the world ! ' " 
 
 Yahya remained in prison till his death, which 
 event took place on the 3rd Mohurrum, a.h. 190 
 (November, a.d. 805). He died suddenly, without any 
 previous illness, being then seventy years of age. His 
 son repeated the funeral service over him ; and he 
 was laid in a grave dug on the border of the river 
 Euphrates. A paper was found on him, on which was 
 written in his own hand — " The accuser has gone for- 
 ward to the tribunal, and the accused will soon follow. 
 The kadi will be that equitable Judge who is never 
 unjust, and who has no need of taking evidence." 
 This significant document was conveyed to the khalif, 
 who was deeply troubled in spirit by its perusal. He 
 " wept the remainder of that day, and his countenance 
 for some days after bore striking marks of sorrow." 
 
 The son followed his father to the grave after a 
 lapse of three years ; and he too died in prison during 
 the month of Mohurrum, a.h. 193. When al Eashid 
 
 that such an act of generosity surpassed all that he himself had 
 done during the whole course of his life. For he had learned that 
 the doctor was poor, and in great distress." — Ibn Khali., vol. ii. 
 pp. 464, 65. 
 
20(5 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. n. 
 
 was informed of his death, he said, " My fate is near 
 unto his;" and so it proved, for he expired at Tous on 
 the eve of Saturday, of the latter Joumada, a.h. 193 
 (March, a.d. 809). 
 
 The two other brothers, Muhammad and Mousa, 
 had died under the hands of the executioner, together 
 with a multitude of relatives, friends, and dependents. 
 It was the old story — "to be wrath with one we love 
 doth work like madness in the brain." It seemed to 
 be the endeavour of the khalif to blot out the very 
 name of Barmekide from the remembrance of men. 
 But he branded it ineradicably in his own heart ; and 
 it is recorded, on the evidence of his sister, that he 
 never knew what it was to be happy since he put 
 Jaafar to death. 
 
 The last glimpse we get of the once brilliant family 
 of the Barmekides is from the following narrative : — 
 Muhammud ibn Abd al Rahman, chief of the prayer at 
 Koufa, relates — " On a certain day, which was the 
 Festival of Sacrifices, I went into my mother's, and 
 found with her a woman of respectable mien, but 
 dressed in shabby clothes. * Do you know who this 
 is ?' said my mother. ' No,' I replied. ' This,' said 
 she, * is the mother of Jaafar the Barmekide.' On this, 
 I turned towards her, and saluted her with respect ; 
 we then conversed together for some time, after which 
 I said, ' Madam, what is the strangest thing you have 
 seen ?' To which she answered, ' There was a time 
 when this anniversary found me with four hundred 
 female slaves standing behind me to await my orders, 
 and yet I thought my son did not provide for me in a 
 
a.d. 809. FALL OF THE BARMEKIDES. 207 
 
 manner adequate to my rank ; but now my only wish 
 is to have two sheepskins — one to serve me for a bed, 
 and the other for a covering.' I gave her five hundred 
 dirhems, and she nearly died from excess of joy. She 
 afterwards continued to visit us till death placed a 
 separation between us." 
 
208 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CIVIL WAR. 
 a.d. 803—820. 
 
 When the khalif Haroun al Rashid resolved upon the 
 extirpation of the Barmekides, he foresaw a part, at 
 least, of the consequences. Since the Abbasides had 
 come to power, the old rivalry between the Arabs of 
 Modhar and the Arabs of Yemen had been replaced — 
 as I have tried to show in the preceding chapters — by 
 that between Persian and Arab. The court of the 
 khalif, the court of every provincial governor, were 
 the theatres of this conflict. But, on the whole, the 
 power of the Persians had waxed, and that of the 
 Arabs waned. Under the protecting favour of the Bar- 
 mekides and the vizier Yakoub, Persian practices and 
 Persian habits of thought had obtained an undoubted 
 ascendancy in Muhammadan Asia. The sweeping de- 
 struction that had fallen upon the Barmekides was, 
 therefore, a triumph for the Arab and orthodox party, 
 as great as it was unhoped for. The khalif, however, 
 seems to have thought that the hatred engendered by 
 the triumph of the one faction and the humiliation of 
 the other would, unless foreseen and provided for, 
 render his dominions the scene of bitter and intermin- 
 
a.d. 802. PARTITION OF KHALIF ATE. 209 
 
 able civil dissensions. To avert this, he had recourse 
 to the desperate expedient of dividing his dominions 
 between his two sons, leaving to Mamoun, the eastern 
 provinces, where the Persian element predominated, 
 and to Emin, Irak, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, and Northern 
 Africa. It was further enacted that Emin should fix 
 his capital at Baghdad, and Mamoun at Merou ; and 
 that on the demise of either brother, the whole empire 
 should be united under the sceptre of the survivor. 
 To make this arrangement as solemn and binding as 
 possible, it was ratified in the Kaaba itself. When the 
 khalif visited Mekka to inquire after the child of 
 Abbassa, he took with him his two sons. In the house 
 of God, the young men bound themselves by an oath 
 never to engage in hostilities against each other ; all 
 the nobles and great men who were present affixed 
 their signatures to the document, in which the condi- 
 tions of the partition of power were laid down ; and it 
 was then affixed to the door of the holy place. But 
 the document fell from the hand of the man whose 
 duty it was to affix it ; and the ready superstition of 
 the time interpreted the incident as a sign that the 
 document would be speedily trampled on by those who 
 had sworn to observe its conditions. 
 
 But the fall of the Barmekides brought with it 
 other consequences, which touched the khalif more 
 nearly, and which he had not foreseen. It was in his 
 power to destroy the ablest soldiers and statesmen he 
 possessed, but it was out of his power to replace them. 
 The khalif discovered what they had been to him, when 
 he could no longer rely upon their ability. The busi- 
 
 14 
 
210 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 ness of the State fell into horrible confusion. From 
 all parts of the kingdom came the intelligence of revolt 
 and disorder. " Some people," the khalif was heard 
 to say, " impelled us to punish our ablest and most 
 faithful advisers, and then made us believe that they 
 themselves were capable of replacing them ; but when 
 we did what they wanted, they were not of the least 
 use to us." He then muttered this line to himself — 
 
 " Infamous wretches ! spare us your calumnies, or fill with 
 ability the place which they filled so well." 
 
 In Khorasan, and the regions beyond the Oxus, 
 the disorder was naturally greatest, and the insurrec- 
 tionary movements most formidable. The population 
 there instinctively perceived that the fall of the Bar- 
 mekides foreboded the restoration of that Arab supre- 
 macy from which, under the conduct of Abou Moslem, 
 they had emancipated themselves at the cost of so 
 much blood. They had, too, a present proof of what 
 that supremacy meant, in the character of the Arab 
 governor who ruled Khorasan. This man was named 
 Ali ibn Isa. He had established his residence at 
 Balkh, and mercilessly pillaged the people in order to 
 gratify his passion for building. The people of Kho- 
 rasan had appealed to the khalif for protection against 
 his extortions, and Haroun had summoned his governor 
 to Rhe to give an account of his stewardship. But Ali 
 knew the way to blind the eyes of his sovereign. He 
 repaired to Rhe with such magnificent presents for the 
 khalif and his Court, that he was sent back to Khorasan 
 with honour, and permitted to go on plundering the 
 
a.d. 806. REVOLT IN KHORASAN. 211 
 
 people without let or hindrance. The discontent 
 thereby engendered needed but a spark to kindle it 
 into flame, and this fell, immediately after the fall of 
 the Barmekides. 
 
 In A.n. 190 (a.d. 806), there was resident at Samar- 
 kand a certain Ran, the grandson of the ill-fated Nasi- 
 ibn Seyaur, who had perished in the revolt of Abou 
 Moslem. Like his ancestor, this Rafi was a dashing 
 and courageous soldier ; and gifted with a handsome 
 face and figure, and gay manners, he was as renowned 
 for his gallantries in the field of love as for his exploits 
 in the field of battle. There existed an attachment 
 between this cavalier and a lady, the wife of a freedman 
 of the khalif. Rafi persuaded the lady to feign apostasy 
 from Islam, whereupon, in devout horror, her husband 
 pronounced the irrevocable sentence of divorce.* Then 
 the lady returned to the bosom of the true faith, and 
 became the wife of Rafi. A fellow feeling makes us 
 wondrous kind ; and judging from certain antecedents 
 of the khalif, he might have been expected to applaud 
 this ignominious device of the gay Rafi. He was, how- 
 ever, exceedingly wrath, and sent orders that Rafi 
 
 * According to JMuhammadan law, the formula of divorce 
 repeated three times renders the reunion of the husband and wife 
 impossible, unless the wife has first been married and then divorced 
 by some other man. This provision, in some Muhammadan coun- 
 tries, especially in Egypt, has been the cause of an exceedingly 
 revolting form of immorality. A husband, in a fit of rage, divorces 
 his wife three times. He then desires to take her back ; but the 
 only manner in which he can do so is by obtaining some one to 
 marry her for a single night, and divorcing her in the morning. 
 There is, of course, a prophetic tradition which elevates this practice 
 to the level of a divine decree. Its effects upon the purity and 
 chastity of women are not difficult to divine. 
 
212 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. in. 
 
 should be thrown into prison, and the adulterous wife 
 paraded through the streets of Samarkand, with her 
 face blackened, and seated upon a donkey. The former 
 order was executed, the latter evaded. Rah soon after 
 escaped from prison, and finding that his wife was 
 withheld from him, called upon the people to revolt. 
 The people, sorely harassed by the tyranny and exac- 
 tions of Ali, responded in crowds to his summons. 
 The city was seized, the officials either fled or were 
 placed under arrest, and Samarkand became a 
 centre of rebellion.. Ali sent his son to quell the 
 revolt ; his son was defeated and killed. He then took 
 the field in person, but he likewise was defeated by the 
 intrepid Ran. At the news of this second disaster, the 
 people of Balkh also rose up in rebellion. They slew 
 the officer to whom Ali had entrusted the care of the 
 city. The palaces of Ali and his sons were sacked, 
 and search being made for hid treasures, an immense 
 sum of money was found buried in the garden. The 
 insurgents proclaimed themselves good subjects of the 
 khalif, but that against Ali they would fight to the death. 
 Ali, in the meanwhile, defeated at Samarkand, and 
 cut off from Balkh, had fled to Merou, whence he sent 
 intelligence to the khalif of what had happened, and 
 demanded reinforcements. 
 
 The khalif perceived that the first step to the 
 restoration of order must be the removal of Ali. It 
 was a step requiring management. Ali had at his 
 command a large army, and great wealth ; and 
 should he learn beforehand what the khalif purported 
 to do, he, too, would in all probability become an 
 
a.d. 807. REVOLT IN KHORASAN. 213 
 
 insurgent. Among; the most eminent of the Persian 
 generals at the Court of the khalif, was Hartama ibn 
 Ayan. Him the khalif selected as Governor of 
 Khorasan. " I am about," said Haroun to him, " to 
 confide a mission to you, which must be kept an abso- 
 lute secret, until a given hour. If your shirt even 
 should guess this secret, you must destroy it. I have 
 nominated you Governor of Khorasan ; but should AH 
 ibn Isa become aware of it, he would resist you with 
 arms in his hand. Consequently, give out to your 
 troops that you are marching to aid him ; but when 
 you reach Merou, arrest him, and compel him to 
 restore all such property as he has wrongfully taken 
 from the people." The khalif then wrote with his own 
 hand the order appointing Hartama to the government 
 of Khorasan ; and he, at the same time, gave to him 
 three letters. Two of these were addressed to the 
 soldiers and the people of Khorasan, calling upon them 
 to obey the orders of the new governor; the third was 
 addressed to Ali ibn Isa. This was couched in the 
 following terms : — • 
 
 " In the name of Grod, the Merciful and the Compassionate, - O 
 Son of a Prostitute ! I have loaded you with favours ; from the rank 
 of a mere captain of guards, I elevated you to that of governor, and 
 conferred upon you the government of Khorasan, disregarding the 
 advice of my ministers, who said that you were not fit for so im- 
 portant a charge ; and this is how you recompense me ! You 
 oppress the Faithful, and alienate my subjects from me. .Now I 
 send Hartama charged to arrest thee, to despoil thee of thy wealth, 
 to demand of thee an account of thy actions, and to compel thee to 
 restore all which thou hast wrongfully got possession of. Remit to 
 him thy power and obey his orders." 
 
 Hartama, taking with him these secret instructions, 
 
214 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 set out with twenty thousand men. Ali had not a sus- 
 picion of the purpose of his coming. He received him 
 at the gates of Merou with the honours due to the 
 representative of his sovereign. The two chiefs, riding 
 side by side, passed through the streets of the city to 
 the palace of the governor. They entered the palace 
 together; a troop of Hartama's cavalry remained with- 
 out, mounted. A repast was served, and after dinner, 
 Ali said to Hartama, " I have prepared your quarters in 
 the palace, and to-morrow we will discuss politics to- 
 gether." Hartama replied, " The Prince of Believers 
 has given me a letter for you." He took him to a 
 corner of the room, and there tendered to him the 
 autograph letter of the khalif. Ali opened it, and his 
 hand trembled as his eyes caught the opening saluta- 
 tion, " Son of a Prostitute." He yielded without 
 further ado. Hartama loaded him with fetters ; and 
 thus manacled and chained, the fallen tyrant was, day 
 after day, brought into the great Mosque of Merou, 
 and all who had suffered from his exactions had their 
 complaints investigated, until full restitution had been 
 made. 
 
 But during this time Rafi had consolidated his 
 power in Samarkand. All the Muhammadan do- 
 minions beyond the Oxus acknowledged his authority. 
 And so great was his power, that Hartama did not 
 deem it prudent to attack him without additional rein- 
 forcements. His representations induced the khalif to 
 take the field in person. 
 
 The khalif was at this time in bad health, and the 
 fatigues of the march greatly aggravated his sickness. 
 
a.d. 809. ILLNESS OF HAROUN AL RASHID. 215 
 
 He crossed the heights of Hulwan ; at Kirmanshahan 
 he harangued his troops, and showed, despite of him- 
 self, how deeply he felt the loss of his trusty lieu- 
 tenants, the Barmekides. " There have been," he 
 said, "troubles in the West and in the East. The 
 West is pacified ; and I shall know equally well how 
 to pacify the East, though Yahya and his sons are 
 no longer here to aid me." These expressions of 
 regret were considered by his courtiers to detract 
 seriously from the dignity of the khalif ; and their 
 frequent recurrence was regarded as a very grievous 
 scandal. 
 
 From Kirmanshahan the khalif proceeded to Rhe, 
 and thence to Jurjan. Here, at first, he seemed 
 to gain in health and strength. And here was 
 brought before him the deprived Governor of Khora- 
 san, whose treasures, notwithstanding the restitutions 
 he had been compelled to make, are said to have 
 required fifteen hundred camels for their conveyance. 
 Haroun sent him chained to Baghdad, directing his 
 son, Muhammad al Emin, to retain him in close con- 
 finement. But now, the health of the khalif becoming 
 again worse, he set out for Tous, the air being more 
 bracing there, and arrived at that city in the month of 
 Safar, a.h. 193. 
 
 At the same time when Haroun quitted Jurjan, 
 Hartama crossed the Oxus, marched on Bokhara, and 
 delivered battle at the gates of the city to Beshir, the 
 brother of Rafi. The army of Beshir was routed and 
 himself taken prisoner. He was despatched, guarded, 
 to the khalif at Tous. Haroun was sick unto death 
 
216 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. lit 
 
 when the prisoner was brought before him. He had, 
 that morning, chosen the shroud in which he was to 
 be buried, and caused the grave to be dug wherein he 
 was to lie. On seeing the work completed, he ex- 
 claimed, in the words of the Koran, " My wealth hath 
 not profited me ! my power hath perished from me ! " 
 (Koran, Sura lxix. 28, 29). But the approach of 
 death had not softened the heart of the pitiless and 
 vindictive khalif. " Thou adversary of God ! " he said 
 to Beshir, " by thy malice and that of thy brother, in 
 subverting my authority in Khorasan, have I been com- 
 pelled to undertake this painful journey. But, by Him 
 who created Haroun, thou shalt perish by a death so 
 painful, that its agonies shall infinitely surpass all that 
 has ever yet been known." Then, dying as he was, he 
 sent for a butcher, and ordered him, there and then, to 
 cut the prisoner into pieces, limb by limb. Each limb, as 
 it was separated from the quivering body, was laid at 
 the feet of the implacable khalif. When life at last was 
 extinct, the body was hacked into four pieces, in the 
 presence and by the command of the khalif, who then 
 fainted away. 
 
 Such was the last act of the "good Haroun al 
 Kashid." Two days after, he was dead. 
 
 The death of the khalif was the signal for internal 
 discord. The division of the Muhammadan Empire 
 into an Arabic and Persian kingdom brought on the 
 very result it was intended to avert. It clearly 
 defined and gave cohesion to the two conflicting par- 
 ties ; and the instinct of self-preservation hurried on a 
 collision. For the unwise stipulation, that on the 
 
a.d. 809. THE SONS OF HAROUN. 217 
 
 demise of either Enrin or Mamoun, the survivor should 
 succeed to the sovereignty of his dominions, opened a 
 future of gloom and uncertainty to Arab and Persian 
 alike. To the Arab there was the chance of Persian — 
 to the Persian that of Arabian ascendancy ; and it be- 
 came a matter of primary importance to the party 
 leaders on either side to secure their position, by the 
 deposition of either Emin or Mamoun. 
 
 Emin was naturally the head of the Arabic and 
 orthodox party. Not only had he been nominated the 
 sovereign of Baghdad, the guardian of the Sacred 
 Cities, and the spiritual head of the Muhammadan 
 world, but he possessed a direct right to these dig- 
 nities in virtue of his birth. He was the first of the 
 Abbaside khalifs whose father and mother had both 
 been of Arab blood; for Haroun and his wife 
 Zubeid were cousins. Her son, Muhammad al 
 Emin, was a young man of noble presence, great 
 strength, and remarkable for his personal courage ; 
 but indolent and incapable, and caring for nothing but 
 music, singing, drinking, banquets, and amusements. 
 He became a passive tool in the hands of his chief 
 adviser, Fadhl ibn Rabia. 
 
 Mamoun was the son of Haroun by a Persian 
 mother, and was, therefore, regarded by his Persian 
 subjects as one of themselves. He was a man of more 
 vigorous character and greater intellectual capacity 
 than his idle and frivolous brother. But these qualities 
 developed later, under the stress of difficulties. At 
 the time of his father's death he was not less subject to 
 the ascendancy of a favourite minister than his brother. 
 
218 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 This favourite was a Persian by name, Fadhl ibn Sahl, 
 and his supremacy over his nominal master was so 
 great, that he did not hesitate to bid against him for 
 the purchase of a female slave. The Oriental his- 
 torians who recount this incident, manifestly regard it 
 as a piece of audacity without parallel in the annals of 
 the East 
 
 The father of Fadhl ibn Rabia had been the cham- 
 berlain of the khalif Abou Jaafar al Mansour. He 
 stood high in the confidence of that sovereign and of 
 his son Mehdi, and had always been a bitter enemy of 
 the Persians. So long as he lived he had been the 
 recognized leader of the Arab party ; and to him, more 
 than to any other man, was due the blow given to 
 Persian ascendancy, in the downfall and imprisonment 
 of the vizier Yakoub ibn Daoud. When his father 
 died, Fadhl ibn Rabia became the leader of the Arabic 
 faction at the court of the khalif. He was vizier to the 
 khalif Hadi, and had been removed from that post by 
 the khalif Haroun al Rashid, in favour of Yahya ibn 
 Khaled, the Barmekide. Disappointed ambition came 
 in, therefore, to supplement race hatred ; and during 
 the period of their splendour, the Barmekides had no 
 more pertinacious enemy than Fadhl ibn Rabia. It is 
 related that Yahya was one day holding a court for the 
 despatch of public business, when Fadhl came in 
 with ten written applications from different persons. 
 To each of these Yahya made an objection, and ended 
 by refusing his sanction to every one of them ; on which 
 Fadhl gathered them up, saying, " Go back to those 
 who sent you ! applications repelled and rejected." 
 
a.d. 810. THE RIVAL VIZIERS. 219 
 
 He then turned to go out, and recited the following 
 lines : — 
 
 " Fortune may yet alter her present course, and produce some 
 change. Fortune is apt to stumble in her gait ; she may grant cer- 
 tain wishes, procure satisfaction for certain offences, and replace this 
 state of things by another." 
 
 Yahya, overhearing these words, recalled him, and 
 set his approval to all the memorials. Fadhl, however, 
 continued to work underhand against him, and won 
 so much upon the confidence of al Rashid, that upon 
 the fall of the Barmekides he was raised to the post 
 of vizier, and on the death of Haroun became the right- 
 hand man of his son al Emin. 
 
 Fadhl ibn Sahl was a Persian by birth ; he traced 
 his descent back to the old Persian sovereigns, and had 
 been educated in the old Magian creed. He became a 
 convert to Islam in the reign of Haroun al Rashid, to 
 whose court he had been introduced by the Barmekides. 
 When, for the first time, he entered the presence of the 
 khalif, he was so completely overcome with confusion 
 that he could not utter a word. Haroun, who had 
 expected to see an adroit and ready courtier, turned 
 towards Yahya with the look of one who had been 
 deceived ; but Fadhl, recovering himself, said, " Com- 
 mander of the Faithful ! it is an excellent proof of a 
 servant's merit, that his heart is seized with respect 
 in the presence of his master." To this the khalif 
 replied, "If you kept silent that you might frame this 
 answer, I must say that you have succeeded well ; but 
 if it came to you on the moment, it is better and 
 better." Through the influence of the Barmekides, Fadhl 
 
220 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 was appointed tutor and guardian of the young Prince 
 Mamoun. And on the fall of the Barmekides, his inti- 
 macy with the future sovereign of Khorasan naturally 
 induced the Persians to look up to him as their chief 
 hope and support ; while in Fadhl ibn Rabia, the Per- 
 sian statesman saw not only the leader of the opposite 
 faction, but the enemy and destroyer of his old bene- 
 factors. 
 
 The hatred and opposing ambitions of these two 
 men — Fadhl ibn Rabia and Fadhl ibn Sahl- — -occa- 
 sioned a civil war, which extended over the whole 
 of the Asiatic dominions of the khalif. 
 
 When the khalif Haroun left Baghdad on his last 
 expedition, he left his son Emin as his lieutenant in 
 the city ; but Mamoun, under the advice of Fadhl ibn 
 Sahl, accompanied his father. He was not, however, 
 with his father at the moment of the latter's death, 
 having been sent forward to prepare for his reception 
 in Khorasan. On his death-bed Haroun al Rashid had 
 instructed his vizier, Ibn Rabia, that the troops and 
 money which were with him were to be made over to 
 his son Mamoun, in order to enable him to make head 
 against the insurgents in Khorasan. Nevertheless, his 
 master's eyes were no sooner closed in death, than Ibn 
 Rabia, in obedience to instructions received from al 
 Emin, marched the army back to Baghdad, and treated 
 with derision the remonstrances of an envoy sent after 
 him by the Prince Mamoun. With this act, the contest 
 between the two brothers may be said to have com- 
 menced. Fadhl ibn Sahl spared no pains to impress 
 the full import of it upon the mind of his young master. 
 
a.d. 810. THE RIVAL VIZIERS. 221 
 
 If al Emm had set at nought the last wishes of his 
 father, it was clear that he had no intention to respect 
 the conditions of the agreement suspended in the 
 Kaaba. Mamoun must decide, and decide at once, 
 between two alternatives — either to forfeit altogether 
 his rights, present and to come, or aim at the supreme 
 headship of the Muhammadan world. The latter was 
 the safest, as it was the most aspiring, policy. Fadhl 
 ibn Sahl dwelt upon the history of Abou Moslem as an 
 example of the irresistible force residing in the people 
 of Persia — a force which would be put forth with so 
 much the greater energy on the present occasion, 
 because it would be solicited by a khalif of Persian 
 blood. Every Persian soldier would grasp his sword 
 with the sense that he was doing battle for the inde- 
 pendence of his country, and the restoration of her 
 ancient glory under a native prince. Such counsels 
 chimed in with the youthful ambition of Mamoun. He 
 began without delay to strengthen his position. He 
 made peace with the rebels beyond the Oxus ; he re- 
 mitted the revenue of Khorasan for an entire year, 
 and promised rewards and honours to his generals ii 
 they remained staunch in their support of his cause. 
 At the same time he diligently cultivated popularity 
 with the many by frequent durbars, at which he 
 attended in person, in order to hear petitions and 
 administer justice. But he was careful not to mar the 
 seeming justice of his cause by hastening to come to an 
 open rupture with his brother. He knew he had only 
 to wait, and the action of his brother would force him 
 (Mamoun) to take up arms in self-defence. Pending 
 
222 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 that time, he maintained an attitude of cordiality and 
 submission, sending to al Emin rich presents of horses, 
 arms, perfumes, slaves, and whatever of rare or valu- 
 able was to be found in the province of Khorasan. 
 
 Emin, meanwhile, under the conduct of his vizier, 
 Ibn Rabia, had broken the conditions of his father's 
 testament one after another. Ibn Rabia knew that his 
 proceedings after the death of the late khalif must have 
 aroused an anger in the mind of Mamoun which would 
 leave little uncertainty as to his fate, should that prince 
 get him into his power. A variety of powerful motives, 
 therefore — his ambition, his national antipathies, and 
 the sense of personal danger — impelled him to urge his 
 young master forward on a career which must end in 
 his own or his brother's ruin. Emin's first step was to 
 set aside the succession of Mamoun, and declare his 
 own infant son, Mousa, the heir to the khalifate. This 
 was followed by the omission, by order, of the name of 
 Mamoun in the public prayer, and the substitution in 
 its stead of his son's name. Next, he caused the agree- 
 ment suspended by his father over the door of the 
 Kaaba to be torn down and destroyed. And, finally, 
 he sent a deputation to Mamoun, demanding the cession 
 of three of his provinces. This demand provoked, as 
 it was intended to do, a peremptory refusal ; and both 
 parties began to prepare for war. (a.h. 195 ; a.d. 810.) 
 
 Still under the advice of Ibn Rabia, Emin released 
 from prison Ali ibn Isa, the late tyrannical governor of 
 Khorasan, and placed him in command of his troops. 
 This appointment was a grievous blunder. Ibn Rabia 
 had reasoned that the enmity which existed between 
 
A.D, 810. OUTBREAK OF WAR. 223 
 
 Ali and the people of Khorasan would make it impos- 
 sible for Mamoun to seduce the one from his allegiance 
 without forfeiting the attachment of the others. And 
 the more to stimulate the zeal of Ali, the government 
 of Khorasan was conferred upon him as the reward of 
 his anticipated victory. But in Khorasan the effect 
 of this appointment was to confirm the people in their 
 devotion to Mamoun. The acts of Ali were still fresh 
 in their memories ; and they fought now not only in 
 the service of a clement and liberal prince, but to beat 
 back the approaches of a cruel and avaricious ruler. 
 But no misgivings troubled the confident spirit of 
 Emin. Fifty thousand men, lavishly equipped, were 
 placed under the orders of Ali ; Zobeide, the mother 
 of Emin, presented that general with a set of silver 
 chains in which to bring back the captive Mamoun ; 
 and at Nehrewan, eight miles distant from Baghdad, 
 the khalif reviewed his army, and " standing upright 
 on the back of his charger," gave his last instructions 
 to Ali and his leading officers. On receiving intelli- 
 gence of this movement, Mamoun set his army in 
 motion. It was commanded by a Persian general, 
 Tahir ibn Hosain. 
 
 The two hosts encountered at Rhe ; and the army 
 of Ali was completely routed, and fled, leaving their 
 leader dead upon the field. Rhe opened its gates, and 
 took the oath of allegiance to Mamoun. That prince 
 at once assumed the dignity of khalif. Emin received 
 the news of the defeat with characteristic levity. He 
 and a favourite slave were fishing together when the 
 intelligence was announced to him. " Do not trouble 
 
424 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 me," was the remark made, by way of reply ; 
 " Kouther has already caught two line fish, and I 
 have not caught one." 
 
 Baghdad did not take the news so quietly. The 
 population was mainly Arab ; and among the Arabs, 
 the deeds of Abou Moslem were occurrences not to be 
 forgotten. Men and women remembered how, in his 
 time, the streets of the cities of Khorasan had run red 
 with Arab blood shed by his partisans like so much 
 water. The advance of a Persian force, flushed by 
 success, and animated doubtless by the same vindictive 
 spirit, prognosticated the perpetration of similar atro- 
 cities. The citizens assembled in noisy and menacing 
 crowds. The troops broke into open mutiny. A 
 liberal donation restored quiet for the moment ; and 
 twenty thousand men consented to march and stay the 
 advance of the enemy. They were defeated, shut 
 up in the fortress of Hamadan, and, after a siege of 
 two months, compelled to surrender. 
 
 Emin, however, contrived to scrape together a third 
 army ; but this also was defeated, and Tahir, marching 
 without opposition through the defiles of Hulwan, 
 established himself at Schalaschan, on the summit of 
 the mountains. 
 
 The defeat of this last force paralysed Baghdad 
 with terror. No one could be found to cross arms 
 with the invincible Tahir. But at this juncture a rein- 
 forcement of twenty thousand men, levied in Basra and 
 Koufa, arrived to encourage the despairing khalif. 
 They marched out full of enthusiasm, and desiring 
 nothing better than to swallow up the Persian invaders. 
 
a.d. 812. VICTORIES OF TAHIR. 225 
 
 But Tahir knew his men — these Arabs of Koufa and 
 Basra. He sent spies among them, who circulated a 
 story that Emin was distributing large donations of 
 money to the soldiery still in Baghdad. A part wished 
 to return to participate in this liberality; a part to 
 execute the purpose of their march. The two factions 
 came to blows ; many were killed on both sides ; and 
 ultimately the whole army retreated, or rather ran, in 
 great confusion, and utterly disorganized, back to 
 Baghdad. 
 
 In the interval, a fresh calamity had fallen upon the 
 hapless Emin. He had built great hopes upon finding 
 in Syria a counterpoise to Khorasan. The Syrian 
 hatred of the Persian would, he supposed, cause them 
 to rally to his standard. But the difficulties of Emin, 
 so far from awakening a spirit of loyalty in the people 
 of Syria, kindled only a desire for independence. In 
 Damascus, one Ali ibn Abdallah, a great-grandson of 
 the khalif Muawia, and descended on his mother's side, 
 from the khalif Ali, proclaimed himself khalif, as com- 
 bining in his single person the rights of both Ali 
 and Muawia. The Kelbites espoused his cause ; and 
 early in the year 196 (a.d. 812), he had complete pos- 
 session of Damascus, Kinnesrin, Emessa, and other 
 important places. But the old tribal hatred checked 
 his career without the interposition of Emin. 
 
 The Kelbites having got a khalif, the Kaisites 
 deemed it incumbent upon them to start one of their 
 own. They selected one Muhammad ibn Salih. This 
 having been done, Kaisites and Kelbites fought to- 
 gether in and around Damascus, until the former 
 
 15 
 
226 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 obtained the upper hand. Emin sent Abd al Malek 
 ibn Salih to quell this rebellion. This famous general, 
 since the death of Haroun, had languished in prison, 
 and now, before he could effect anything of im- 
 portance, he sickened and died ; and his successor, 
 Hosain, was obliged to return to Baghdad, in conse- 
 quence of mutiny having broken out among his troops. 
 Emin was imprudent enough to send a summons to 
 Hosain to appear before him immediately on the 
 arrival of that general at Baghdad. Hosain, suspect- 
 ing that the khalif harboured evil designs against him, 
 on account of the sedition in his army, refused to pre- 
 sent himself, and made use of the night to form a party 
 against Emin, and in favour of Mamoun. On the fol- 
 lowing morning (Rejeb, a.h. 196; March- April, 812), 
 with the people who had joined in his enterprise, he 
 rushed into the royal residence, called " The Castle of 
 Eternity," took Emin and his mother prisoner, and 
 confined them in the castle of Mansour. He then 
 declared Emin dethroned, and proclaimed Mamoun as 
 the legitimate khalif. 
 
 The bribing of the royal bodyguard had rendered 
 this exploit easy of achievement, but the success was 
 of brief duration. The inhabitants of Baghdad, who 
 hated the Khorasaners, the army whose greed Hosain 
 had no means for satisfying, the ministers and generals 
 of Emin, who dreaded a change of sovereigns, and all 
 those who were jealous of Hosain's future influence 
 with Mamoun, combined against him. They liberated 
 the khalif, and brought Hosain in fetters before him. 
 Emin pardoned him ; but Hosain, doubtful how long 
 
a.d. 812. SIEGE OF BAGHDAD. 227 
 
 this clemency would endure, fled the next day from 
 Baghdad with a few intimate friends. He took the 
 route by Nahrewan to Hulwan in order to obtain 
 shelter in the Persian army. He was pursued by a 
 detachment of troops, and overtaken. In the skirmish 
 that ensued he was killed, and his head conveyed to 
 the khalif. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Persian armies were con- 
 verging upon Baghdad. Mamoun had despatched a 
 second force of 20,000 men, under command of Har- 
 tama ibn Ayan, to co-operate with Tahir. They 
 advanced by different routes — Hartama marching 
 direct upon Baghdad through Nahrewan, and Tahir 
 proceeding through the province of Ahwaz. The 
 town of Ahwaz was occupied after a successful en- 
 gagement; Basra Koufa and Wasit were taken pos- 
 session of without resistance; Mekka and Medina 
 declared for the khalif Mamoun. Arrived at Madain, 
 Tahir sent word to Hartama, who was awaiting intel- 
 ligence of his movements at Hulwan ; the latter 
 then set his troops in motion, and the two armies 
 converged upon the devoted capital. The troops 
 which Emin opposed to them were defeated, and the 
 siege commenced with the commencement of the year 
 a.h. 197. 
 
 The gates of the city were barricaded. Muham- 
 mad al Emin took up his abode in the palace of his 
 mother in the city, which was defended by immense 
 gates of iron. He encamped one large force at the 
 "gate of Khorasan," opposite to which were posted 
 the troops of Hartama; and another at the "gate of 
 
228 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 Basra," which was menaced by Tahir. Hartama had 
 pitched his camp at Nahrewan, at a distance of eight 
 miles from the outer defences of the city ; and Tahir 
 was stationed on the road to Basra, at a spot known 
 as the " Garden of the Gate Anbar," distant four 
 miles from Baghdad. 
 
 We get a glimpse of the unhappy khalif at this 
 crisis of his fortunes. Ibramin ibn al Mehdi relates 
 how al Emin sent for him to cheer his spirits, depressed 
 by the shadow of impending calamity. He found him 
 seated in a rich pavilion, pitched upon the banks of the 
 Tigris, and there was placed before him a crystal cup, 
 filled with wine and ornamented with various stones. 
 A favourite slave-girl was sent for to cheer the com- 
 pany with her singing. At the command of the khalif, 
 she placed her lute upon her knees, and commenced to 
 sing thus : — 
 
 " On my life, Kuleyb counted more allies, his prudence was 
 greater than thine, and yet behold his corpse stained with 
 his blood." 
 
 At these words the khalif rose up. He silenced the 
 singer, pouring forth upon her a stream of maledictions, 
 and then subsided into a gloomy reverie. However, 
 the wine circled round, and the conversation flowed 
 freely; and the khalif, resuming an air of cheer- 
 fulness, called for another air. Again the slave 
 sang — 
 
 " They had killed him to usurp his place ; it is thus that for- 
 merly Khosroes succumbed to the snares of Merzuban." 
 
 Al Emin, in high wrath, ordered her to be silent, and 
 
a.d. 814. PRESENTIMENTS OF EMIN. 229 
 
 became more sombre than ever. But again, after 
 awhile, his courtiers succeeded in restoring his gaiety ; 
 and for the third time, he turned to his slave and 
 called upon her to sing, and for the third time she 
 commenced to sing as follows : — 
 
 " It would seem that there is not one friendly face left between 
 
 al JELajoun and Safa ; it would seem that the sweet evening 
 
 parties had ceased at Mekka. 
 '' Yes, we inhabited that country ; but the vicissitudes of 
 
 fortune and the severities of destiny have driven us from 
 
 our home." 
 
 " Get out from here," shouted Emin, " and may you 
 be accursed of God ! " The slave, on rising, struck 
 her foot against the crystal cup that was placed in 
 front of the khalif. The vase was broken and the vine 
 was spilled. "At that instant," says the story-teller, 
 " the moon shone with all her brilliance over the banks 
 of the Tigris, and on the Castle of Paradise, and I heard 
 a voice utter these words : ' The matter is decreed con- 
 cerning that which ye inquire' (Koran, Sura xii. 41). 
 I arose, seeing the khalif tremble ; and then from the 
 other end of the castle, we heard another voice chanting 
 these verses : — 
 
 " Let nothing surprise you again ; an event is at hand which 
 
 passes all amazement ; 
 A horrible catastrophe that will terrify the man full of pride ! " 
 
 The state of affairs was, in truth, critical for both 
 the khalif and his subjects. Every week the investment 
 narrowed the circle it had formed round the devoted 
 city. The besiegers cut off the supply of provisions ; 
 war-machines were erected ; and under the weight 
 
230 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 of the missiles projected from them, the suburbs were 
 rendered uninhabitable ; the palaces of the nobility- 
 were crushed into ruins. Within Baghdad itself, civil 
 disorder aggravated the horrors of war. Two parties 
 were formed, the one desiring to surrender the city, 
 the other to defend it to the last. Between these fac- 
 tions there was perpetual fighting in the streets. The 
 prisons were broken open, and the capital inundated 
 by hordes of criminals, who robbed and murdered with 
 impunity, and carried off women and children in open 
 day. Emin melted down his vases of gold and silver 
 to obtain funds wherewith to stimulate the failing 
 courage of his troops. They were ready to take his 
 gifts ; but they could not be got to fight. His officers, 
 one after another, deserted into the camp of Tahir, who 
 was careful to give a gracious reception to all who 
 sought his protection. And in the commencement of 
 the year 198, Emin made propositions of surrender to 
 Tahir. He was willing to abdicate the throne in favour 
 of his brother, provided a safe-conduct was granted to 
 himself and his family. These propositions were 
 rejected by Tahir. He had sent to Merou for in- 
 structions as to the treatment of Emin when reduced 
 to extremity; and Mamoun, by way of reply, had 
 transmitted to his general a shirt without an opening 
 for the head. Tahir understood the meaning of the 
 symbol. 
 
 But at this conjuncture, new and strange allies 
 rose up to avert the fall of the khalif al Emin. These 
 were the rabble of the city of Baghdad. Why or 
 wherefore, it is hard to say ; but now, when he had 
 
• a.d. 815. PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. 231 
 
 been abandoned by his chiefs, and nearly all his regular 
 troops, the rabble of the city espoused the sinking cause 
 of al Emin with extraordinary ardour. They formed 
 themselves into troops, under duly appointed leaders. 
 For these leaders, a certain number of the strongest 
 vagabonds were told off to officiate as horses. The 
 necks of these remarkable chargers were adorned with 
 bells ; and they fabricated tails for themselves out of 
 brooms and fly-flappers. The rank and file wore 
 helmets fashioned from the leaves of the cocoanut 
 tree ; a rude shield was suspended from their arms ; 
 and they were armed with slings, lances, and heavy 
 clubs. Thus rudely equipped, they, nevertheless, 
 offered a vigorous resistance to the besieging army. 
 The siege dragged on, month after month. Under 
 an incessant shower of stones, burning naphtha, 
 and fiery darts, the glorious capital of Haroun al 
 Rashid became a wilderness of smoking ruins. The 
 dismantled streets were encumbered with putrifying 
 corpses. Thousands of wretched people wandered 
 about, homeless, shelterless, and in abject misery. 
 " Was not Baghdad? " so writes a poet who was pre- 
 sent in the city during this disastrous period — 
 
 " Was not Baghdad the fairest of cities, the most attractive sight 
 
 that could be offered to fascinated eyes ? 
 
 Aye, she was so ; but her beauty is effaced ; the will of destiny has 
 
 converted her into a desert. 
 ****** 
 
 Where are her gardens full of beauty, her mansions which adorned 
 the river bank, in the midst of a prosperous country ? 
 
 Where are those royal residences, which I have known sparkling 
 like precious stones ? 
 ****** 
 
232 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 The denizens of her harems are exposed to the public view, with- 
 out veil or concealment. 
 They wander abroad affrighted, ignorant whither they go, and 
 
 trembling like fugitive gazelles. 
 ****** 
 
 The vengeance of God has descended upon his creatures to punish 
 
 them for the crimes they have committed. 
 ****** 
 
 Let us weep over the smoking ashes of our homes, over the 
 
 corpses, and over our riches, and our property devoted to 
 
 pillage ! " 
 
 The siege had dragged on for fourteen months, be- 
 fore Emin made up his mind to relinquish the struggle. 
 The issue of his former negociations had convinced him 
 that from Tahir he could hope for neither pity nor cle- 
 mency. He applied, therefore, on the present occasion, 
 to Tahir's colleague, Hartama. That general, ignorant 
 of Mamoun's orders to Tahir, and eager to appropriate 
 the glory of receiving the surrender of the khalif, at 
 once promised al Emin that his life should be held 
 sacred. It was agreed between them, that on a fixed 
 night — 25th Mohurrum, a.h. 198 — Hartama should 
 come in a boat under the walls of the khalif s palace, 
 and convey al Emin to his camp. The arrangement 
 was to be kept secret from Tahir ; the latter, however, 
 received information of it, and determined to defeat 
 the plan, and obtain himself possession of the person 
 of al Emin. 
 
 The night agreed upon for the flight arrived. Emin 
 took an affectionate leave of his two sons, as of those 
 whom in this life he would never see again. Then mount- 
 ing his horse, he proceeded to the river side. A single 
 attendant accompanied him, with a lighted torch to 
 show the path. They found the boat moored at the 
 
a.d. 815. MURDER OF AL EMIN. 233 
 
 appointed spot, and in it were Hartama and twenty of 
 his followers. The Persian general received the fallen 
 prince with a kiss on his forehead, and assisted him on 
 board. His attendant then stepped in, and the boat 
 was pushed out into the mid stream. Tahir, however, 
 was close at hand. On the fall of night he had repaired 
 to the river side ; and there, in boats drawn close up to 
 the bank, he had concealed a party of two hundred men, 
 completely armed. Hartama' s boat was no sooner 
 seen in mid stream, than Tahir' s followers also pushed 
 out into the river, and began to hurl their lances at it. 
 Hartama endeavoured to repulse the attack ; but the 
 assailants succeeeded in staving in the khalif's boat, 
 which filled rapidly and sunk. All who could swim, 
 leapt into the river and made for the shore. The first 
 man to reach it was Ahmed ibn Sallam, the solitary 
 attendant of al Emin. He was captured by a picket 
 of Tahir' s army, the leader of which was about to put 
 him to death, when Ahmed averted his fate by a pro- 
 mise to give him a large sum of money if his life was 
 spared. 
 
 "I was then," Ahmed goes on to say, "led into a very dark 
 chamber. Shortly after I perceived a man enter. He was almost 
 naked ; he had on only a pair of drawers, a turban which covered 
 his face, and a cloak flung over his shoulders. They shut him up 
 with me, and departed, telling the people of the house to keep a 
 "•ood watch over us. As soon as the new comer entered, he drew 
 aside the turban which concealed his features, and I recognized the 
 khalif. 1 could not refrain from weeping, and I said gently to my- 
 self, ' We belong unto God, and to Him we return.' He looked at 
 me attentively, and said, ' Are you one of ours ? ' ' Aye, my Lord, 
 I am your freedman, Ahmed ibn Sallam.' " 
 
 The wretched prince entreated his follower to come 
 
234 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 near him, for he was sore afraid. Ahmed bid him be 
 of good cheer ; his brother was a merciful prince, and 
 in the case of a brother, would assuredly not act counter 
 to his habitual disposition. "The voice of blood," he 
 said, " will plead in your behalf." " Alas ! " said the 
 prince, " royalty has neither children nor bowels of 
 compassion." Then they prayed together. 
 
 " We were occupied thus," continued Ahmed, ''when the door o 
 the chamber opened, and an armed man entered. He looked fixedly 
 at Bmin, and when he had fixed his features in his memory, he with- 
 drew, drawing the bolt behind him. I recognized Muhammad the 
 Tahiride, and no longer doubted that the death of Emin was deter- 
 mined on. I still had to recite the prayer set apart for the third 
 part of the night. Fearing that I should be killed before com- 
 pleting it, I was about to commence when the prince again called 
 me. ' Ahmed,' he said, ' do not remain far from me, for I am sore 
 afraid.' I came close to him. A few seconds after, we heard the 
 tramp of horses. Some one struck the door ; it swung open ; and 
 gave admission to a party of Persians with drawn sabres in their 
 hands. Bmin perceiving them approach, rose and said, ' We belong 
 unto God, and we return to Him. My soul is about to mount up to 
 God. Whither shall I fly ? How defend myself? ' The assassins 
 paused on the threshold of the chamber, hesitating to enter, and 
 each endeavouring to thrust on the other. Emin snatched up a 
 cushion, and shouted to them, ' I am the cousin of the Apostle of 
 God ! I am the son of Haroun, the brother of Mamoun, and God 
 will call you to an account for the shedding of my blood ! ' One of the 
 murderers then made at him, and cut him with a sabre on the crown 
 of his head. Emin struck him in the face with the cushion ; then 
 flinging himself on him, tried to wrest the sabre from his grasp. 
 The murderer set to shouting in Persian, ' He has killed me ! he has 
 killed me ! ' His companions ran up. One of them plunged his 
 sword in the side of the prince ; then they threw him down and 
 killed him ; and having cut off his head, they took it away to Tahir." 
 
 But Mamoun was still far from the goal of his 
 wishes. The murder of his brother became the 
 starting-point of an opposition more formidable than 
 
a.d. 816. SUBSEQUENT INSURRECTIONS. 235 
 
 any he had yet encountered. Mamoun, as I have said, 
 was a mere tool in the hands of his Persian minister, 
 Fadhl ibn Sahl. The counsels of this man had encou- 
 raged him to enter into a conflict with his brother. It 
 was Fadhl who had selected Tahir as the leader of the 
 host. And the verification of his prophecies, the 
 signal success which had marked the development of 
 his policy, had confirmed his influence over the mind 
 of his master. Mamoun abandoned to him the entire 
 control of the administration, in complete reliance 
 upon his wisdom. And Fadhl used this power to fill 
 every post with creatures of his own choosing. His 
 brother, Hasan ibn Sahl, was made governor of Irak ; 
 and the other provinces, in like manner, were entrusted 
 to the charge of Persians, some of whom openly scouted 
 at Islam, whilst others were only recent converts. The 
 conduct of these governors had the consequences which 
 were to be expected. Very speedily Syria, Irak, and 
 Arabia were in a flame. The House of Ali placed 
 itself at the head of the movement. That House had 
 neither forgotten nor forgiven the treacherous part 
 played towards them by the early Abbasides. And 
 under the khalifate of al Mansour, and again in the 
 days of Hadi and Haroun, they had stirred up fierce 
 revolts, which had placed in extreme peril the throne of 
 the Abbasides. But never had they risen with so fair 
 a hope of success as now. Hatred of the Persian domi- 
 nation rallied around their banners hundreds of tried 
 warriors who, on former occasions, had fought 
 against them. The policy of Fadhl ibn Sahl facili- 
 tated their success. Eager only to be supreme, and 
 
236 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 jealous of all rivals, lie had persuaded Mamoun to recall 
 Hartama back to Khorasan, and to limit the authority 
 of Tahir to the government of Baghdad. The Persian 
 parasites who governed in the place of these able 
 generals, proved to be utterly incapable to make head 
 against the tempest which had overtaken them. The 
 Alides were successful in a number of battles. All 
 Irak was in their possession ; their orders were obeyed 
 throughout the Hejaz, Fars, and Yemen ; and Baghdad 
 was threatened with the horrors of a second siege, in 
 which the recently victorious Persians would be iu the 
 position of the besieged. But the leaders of the insur- 
 rection speedily quenched the new-born enthusiasm for 
 their cause by their reckless cruelty. They forgot the 
 memorable example set them by the Prophet when he 
 entered Mekka as a victor ; and thought more of grati- 
 fying their hungry hate, and satiating their thirst for 
 revenge, than of consolidating their power by a politic 
 and beneficent clemency. In Yemen, the Alide leader 
 obtained the designation of " Butcher," from the num- 
 bers he executed ; in Irak, that of " The Incendiary," 
 because of the fierceness with which he persecuted all 
 who had ever been hostile to his party — burning their 
 houses, and confiscating their property ; and in Mekka 
 the Alide leader, not content with the expulsion of all 
 Abbasides resident there, seized and divided among his 
 friends the gold embroidered curtain which covered 
 the Kaaba, as well as the gold upon the pillars of the 
 Mosque, and gave himself up to such shameful profli- 
 gacy, that the people rose up and expelled him from the 
 city. The consequence was that when Hartama, who 
 
A.i). 822. THEIR SUPPRESSION. 237 
 
 had been recalled in haste from Khorasan, reappeared 
 upon the scene of his past exploits, he found little 
 difficulty in quelling the insurrection. The people 
 everywhere turned against the men who had so grie- 
 vously oppressed them. The incendiary Zaid was 
 seized by his own subjects and handed over to oue of 
 Mamoun's generals ; and in the Hejaz and Yemen the 
 people expelled the Alides, and resumed their allegiance 
 to the House of Abbas. 
 
 The gallant Hartama was ill-rewarded for his ser- 
 vices. He perceived that these revolts had been occa- 
 sioned, not by enthusiasm for the House of Ali, but by 
 the conduct of the agents of Mamoun's Persian vizier. 
 He was anxious to hasten back to Khorasan in order 
 to lay these facts before his master and persuade him 
 to leave Merou, and, like his predecessors, establish 
 the seat of government in Irak. Fadhl ibn Sahl 
 divined, or was informed, of the purport of his coming ; 
 and urged upon the khalif the absolute necessity of 
 keeping Hartama in the disturbed provinces, as the 
 one man capable of quelling the seditious spirits that 
 abounded there. This advice seemed sound ; and 
 Mamoun despatched an order to Hartama, forbidding 
 his entry into the province of Khorasan. But 
 Hartama, trusting to his great services, and anxious, 
 above all things, to open the mind of Mamoun to the 
 veritable character of the situation, disregarded the 
 order, and continued his march to Merou. The crafty 
 and unscrupulous Fadhl ibn Sahl eagerly availed him- 
 self of this seeming disobedience to ensure the ruin of 
 a man whom he feared and hated. He declared Har- 
 
238 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 tama to be a rebel, and the secret instigator of the 
 revolt in Irak. This he could pretend, with a certain 
 plausibility, because one of the chief men in that revolt 
 had at one time been a highly-trusted officer of Har- 
 tama. Hartama's dread lest he should be seized and 
 put to death by the vizier before he had obtained access 
 to the khalif strengthened the presumption. In order 
 to guard against this peril, and inform Mamoun of his 
 arrival, he entered Merou to the sound of trumpets, 
 and with all the pomp of a victorious leader. This, in 
 a man who was acting in direct disobedience of orders, 
 not unreasonably appeared to Mamoun an act of un- 
 pardonable audacity. It seemed to confirm what 
 Fadhl ibn Sahl had alleged against him. In high 
 wrath, he summoned his faithful general to his pre- 
 sence, and upbraided him as a traitor ; he refused to 
 let him speak in his own defence, and after permitting 
 him to be brutally maltreated by the royal bodyguard, 
 flung him into a dungeon, where, a few days after, he 
 was murdered by Fadhl ibn Sahl. Such is the grati- 
 tude of kings. 
 
 The murder of Hartama was the signal for another 
 rebellion in Irak. Tahir was absent in Syria. The 
 troops in Baghdad, whom Hartama had commanded in 
 so many victorious campaigns, broke out into mutiny. 
 They paraded the streets, shouting, " We will not have 
 this Hasan ibn Sahl, Magian that he is, and the son of 
 a Magian, nor his brother, Fadhl ibn Sahl ; and if 
 Mamoun does not repudiate them, we will repudiate 
 him." The prisons, as usual, were broken open, the 
 governor chased away, the reign of law ceased, and 
 
a.d. 823. FRESH REVOLTS IN BAGHDAD. 239 
 
 murder and abduction were again prosecuted in open 
 day. Certainly, it requires a very profound belief in 
 the doctrine of Fatality to render life endurable in a 
 Muhammadan country. Fadhl ibn Sahl, however, 
 succeeded in concealing from Mamoun the true cause 
 of these troubles. He represented them as due to the 
 restlessness of the Alides ; and counselled Mamoun to 
 win their party over to himself, by electing a member 
 of the House of Ali as his successor to the khalifate. 
 This advice Mamoun, after long deliberation, adopted. 
 There was living at that time one Ali ibn Mousa, a 
 lineal descendant of the great khalif Ali, and venerated 
 by the Shias as the true Imam of Islam. He was 
 learned in the law, pious, zealous in well-doing ; and, 
 in short, a better selection could not have been made. 
 Mamoun summoned him to Merou, gave him his 
 daughter in marriage, struck the coin in his name, and 
 even went so far as to exchange the black garments of 
 the Abbasides for the green of the Alides. At the 
 same time, circular letters were sent by the vizier to 
 the governors of the different provinces, bidding them 
 to announce to the people the change in the order of 
 succession, and to take their oath of allegiance to Ali 
 ibn Mousa. It was hoped by thus wedding together 
 the two rival families, that the divisions in Islam 
 might be healed. But the time had long passed since 
 such an expedient could accomplish such results. It 
 might have been possible when the first Abbaside khalif 
 ascended the throne, for up to that time the two Houses 
 had cordially co-operated together. The khalif Ali had 
 no supporters better trusted, or abler, than Abdallah 
 
240 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 ibn Abbas and his brothers ; and the blood of the Abba- 
 sides had flowed freely in every abortive struggle of 
 the Alides against their successful rivals, the Ommayas. 
 The House of Ali might, then, moved by a sense 
 of gratitude not less than self-interest, have consented 
 to the partition of its claims with the descendant of 
 Ibn Abbas. But instead of this, they had found them- 
 selves first deceived, and then cruelly persecuted. The 
 harshness and suspicions of the khalif al Mansour had 
 forced them to revolt, and these revolts had been sup- 
 pressed with terrible severity. Men venerated by the 
 Shias as incarnations of a divine life, had expiated the 
 crime of their origin by cruel deaths, or long captivity 
 in the dungeons of the Abbasides. The Alides, during 
 their brief moments of supremacy, had retaliated upon 
 their opponents with a ferocity equal to their own. 
 To bridge over the river of blood which flowed 
 between the two factions was a work beyond the 
 capacity of man. The Abbasides knew this full well. 
 They possessed the supremacy, and were not prepared 
 to relinquish it for the chimerical projects of an indolent 
 dreamer like the young khalif. 
 
 Baghdad was the chief seat of the family of Abbas. 
 Together with their clients and slaves, they numbered 
 thirty-three thousand men ; and their influence was 
 supreme over many thousands not related to them by 
 either family or adoptive relations. No sooner was 
 the circular letter of vizier Fadhl ibn Sahl known in 
 Baghdad, than the Abbasides rose up as one man to 
 protest against it. The streets of the city were 
 swarming with an angry crowd. The soldiery frater- 
 
a.d. 817. SEDITION IN BAGHDAD. 241 
 
 nized with the citizens. They cursed Mamoun as the 
 son of an adulteress. It was impossible, they affirmed, 
 that a true Abbaside would act thus. The man was, 
 in heart at least, a Magian ; and this was another 
 iDtrigue of that arch Magian, Fadhl ibn Sahl, to reduce 
 the Arabs to servitude. And so they went about the 
 city, shouting and cursing, their wrath waxing con- 
 tinually hotter, till a cry began, and passed from street 
 to street, that Mamoun was deposed, and a new khalif 
 must be elected in his place. A week elapsed in stormy 
 and fruitless discussions. But at last choice was made 
 of the celebrated singer and musician, Ibrahim, the 
 son of the khalif Mehdi. (5th Mohurrum, a.h. 202 ; 
 a.d. 817.) 
 
 Even this event did not have the effect of awakening 
 Mamoun from his lethargy. Fadhl ibn Sahl persuaded 
 him into the belief that Ibrahim ibn Mehdi was not a 
 rival khalif, but acting simply as his lieutenant in Irak. 
 For nearly two years, Ibrahim succeeded in retaining 
 his seat upon his precarious throne. It was a period 
 of terrible suffering for Irak. The perpetual disorders 
 produced their inevitable consequences. There was no 
 security for life or property. The peasants abandoned 
 their homesteads, and vast tracts of land, deprived of 
 their inhabitants, produced no harvest. Famine came 
 on the heels of war ; and pestilence followed hard upon 
 famine. A period was put to this season of misery 
 by an act of self-sacrifice on the part of the successor- 
 designate to the throne of Mamoun. AH ibn Mousa 
 requested a private interview with the khalif. He then 
 
 unfolded to him the veritable cause of the troubles in 
 
 16 
 
242 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 Irak. That was not, as Fadhl ibn Sahl pretended, 
 devotion to the House of Ali, but aversion to it. The 
 Abbasides dreaded the accession of an Alide to power, 
 as involving the subversion of Arab supremacy, and 
 the commencement of a bloody revenge for all the 
 blood shed of the House of Ali since the khalif as 
 Saffah had ascended the throne. It was not true that 
 Ibrahim ibn Mehdi was acting as the lieutenant of 
 Mamoun in Baghdad; he had been elected as khalif 
 in his own right. If Mamoun wished to preserve his 
 throne, he must without delay proceed to Irak. 
 Mamoun was aghast at the astounding revelation. 
 " Are you alone aware of it ?" he asked. " The whole 
 army knows it," was the response. Mamoun sent 
 secretly for his chief officers. From them he learned 
 all — the murder of the gallant Hartama under a false 
 charge of treason, the removal of Tahir to Syria, the 
 choice of Ali ibn Mousa as his successor, were all so 
 many moves in a deep political enterprise of his vizier. 
 The scales fell from his eyes. Nevertheless, he was 
 not in a position at once to rid himself of his dangerous 
 favourite. Fadhl' s brother, Hasan, commanded in 
 Irak an army chiefly raised in Khorasan. If Mamoun 
 struck openly at Fadhl, Hasan would, in all probability, 
 pass, with all his troops, into the service of Ibrahim 
 ibn Mehdi, as the only way open for securing his 
 own safety. He was compelled, therefore, to have 
 recourse to secret assassination. The whole pro- 
 cedure is an instructive illustration of the weakness 
 of despotism. 
 
 The khalif quitted Merou, 10th Rejeb, a.h. 203. 
 
a.d. 818. MURDER OF FADHL IBN SAHL. 243 
 
 He arrived at Sarakhs at the commencement of the 
 month Shaban. There he summoned to a secret inter- 
 view four soldiers, with whose reckless and ferocious 
 character he was acquainted, and imposed upon them 
 the duty of murdering the vizier. He made choice of 
 these men, because, as soon as the crime was accom- 
 plished, he had resolved to disown it, and put his 
 instruments to death ; and their execution, on account 
 of their evil repute, would occasion neither indignation 
 nor disorder in the ranks of his army. The instruc- 
 tions given to the four murderers were, that they were 
 to keep a watch over Fadhl ibn Sahl, and when he 
 entered his bath, rush in and slay him. 
 
 On the morrow after this interview, the vizier 
 repaired at the customary hour to his bath. He was 
 an astrologer, and when casting his horoscope had 
 learned that on that day his blood was to be shed 
 between water and fire. He was at first affrighted, 
 but, on reflection, drew comfort from the fact that 
 water and fire were to be found together only in a bath. 
 He accordingly had himself bled ; and this blood being 
 collected in a vessel, was poured into the bath. The 
 vizier then entered the bath with an untroubled mind ; 
 but as he was coming out, the assassins rushed upon 
 him and slew him. They then fled, and concealed 
 themselves. When the khalif was informed of the 
 tragic event, he affected to be overwhelmed with grief. 
 He ran to the bath, and on beholding the inanimate 
 corpse of the vizier, wept abundantly, and wrung his 
 hands in an agony of sorrow. The minister was 
 interred with magnificence ; the entire court went into 
 
244 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 mourning for seven days ; and a large reward was 
 offered to any one giving such information as would 
 lead to the apprehension of the murderers. The du- 
 plicity of the khalif was, in truth, without limits. A 
 special envoy was at once sent off to Irak, to break the 
 sad news to Hasan, the brother of the murdered man. 
 This messenger was charged to make known the pro- 
 found sorrow of the khalif at this untoward event, to 
 confer upon Hasan the official position held by his late 
 brother, and to demand for Mamoun the hand of his 
 daughter Buran in marriage. The khalif then paid a 
 visit of condolence to the mother whom he had just 
 bereaved of a son. " Grieve not for him," said the 
 tender-hearted prince, " neither be afflicted at his loss, 
 for God has given thee a son in me to replace him ; so 
 you need not conceal from me the sentiments which 
 you used to confide to him." To crown all, in the 
 month Ramadan, the wretched murderers were them- 
 selves discovered, and the khalif ordered them to be 
 slain in his presence. " I cannot," said the pious man, 
 " in this sacred month of Ramadan, accomplish a more 
 meritorious work than executing upon them the sen- 
 tence of God." When the men found they were about 
 to be put to death, they began to clamour for mercy, 
 protesting that they had but obeyed the orders of the 
 khalif. Mamoun rebuked them with the dignified 
 severity of conscious innocence. " I thought you would 
 say that ; but all the world knows that Fadhl was as 
 my arm or my foot, and no one would cut off his arm 
 or his foot. Now, even though I might have shown 
 you mercy, I will show none, because of the falsehood 
 
a.d. 818. MURDER OF ALI IBN MOUSA. 245 
 
 you have uttered." And the men were immediately 
 put to death. 
 
 But Mamoun's career of murder and duplicity was as 
 yet far from finished. He had rid himself of his vizier, 
 and disarmed the suspicions of his brother. But he 
 had done nothing to appease the wrath of the popula- 
 tion of Baghdad, and the Arabs of Irak. Ibrahim ibn 
 Mehdi was still prayed for as khalif in the mosques of 
 the capital. An Alide was still Mamoun's designated 
 successor, and a Persian his chief minister. At this 
 juncture, Ali ibn Mousa most opportunely died — 
 poisoned, as was generally suspected, Mamoun went 
 through the same performance as upon the occasion of 
 the death of his vizier. He wept over the corpse 
 abundantly ; he presided in person at the interment ; 
 he buried the deceased Imam beside the khalif Haroun 
 al Rashid, and erected a mausoleum over his remains. 
 Shortly after Hasan ibn Sahl went mad, and had to be 
 confined. This was due to a drug secretly administered 
 to him by the order of the khalif. 
 
 Daylight began to break in upon the long night of 
 storm and darkness. The fall of these three men 
 paved the way for Mamoun's reconciliation with his 
 Arab subjects without exposing him to the anger of 
 his Persian allies. And meanwhile he was advancing 
 by easy stages towards Baghdad. The towns and 
 villages along the line of march were rejoiced by liberal 
 remissions of revenue and large reductions of taxation. 
 His progress was like that of some beneficent divinity, 
 who showers down gifts as he passes from land* to land. 
 His secret emissaries meanwhile had penetrated to 
 
246 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 Baghdad, and assured the chief men of the city of a 
 complete amnesty and pardon of the past if they would 
 abandon Ibrahim and return to their allegiance. This 
 they were not loth to do. They had espoused his cause 
 merely to avert the impending danger of a Persian 
 ascendancy. That danger no longer seemed to 
 threaten ; and Ibrahim, without money or resources, 
 and a mere handful of beaten troops, was not in a 
 position to make head against his nephew. And so it 
 came to pass, that at Nahrewan, Mamoun was met by 
 all the members of his family, the leaders of the 
 soldiery, and the chief men of Baghdad, and saluted as 
 khalif. He laid aside the green garments of the Alides, 
 and resumed the black of the Abbasides ; and on the 
 14th Safar, a.h. 204, made his triumphal entry into 
 what remained of Baghdad. Ibrahim ibn Mehdi 
 escapee), disguised as a woman ; and Fadhl ibn Rabia 
 was pardoned, and allowed to live unmolested in the 
 capital. 
 
24< 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE KOEANIC CONTROVERSY. 
 a.d. 819—952. 
 
 Mamoun was now sole khalif of Asiatic Islam. Like 
 all Oriental despots, he had sacrificed friends and con- 
 victions with equal indifference, for the sake of acquiring 
 power. " A king," was one of his sayings, " may par- 
 don everything, except an attack upon his authority, 
 the revealing of his secrets, and an outrage done to 
 his harem." Consistently with this principle, he had, 
 without compunction, put to death his chivalrous gene- 
 ral, Hartama, treacherously murdered his minister, and 
 poisoned a man to whom he was so deeply indebted 
 as the Alide Ali ibn Mousa. To conciliate the unruly 
 Arabs of Irak, he had feigned to break with his Persian 
 supporters, and affected a zeal for orthodoxy which 
 he was far from feeling. But he was no sooner firmly 
 established in Baghdad, than he threw off the mask, and 
 revealed the true bent of his character. Hasan ibn Sahl 
 was released from durance and installed in the office of 
 vizier. The provinces of the empire were handed over 
 to the care of Persian satraps. Persians, Christians and 
 Jews filled the subordinate posts in the administration ; 
 and, as it were to commemorate the commencement of 
 
248 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 a new epoch with becoming emphasis, the marriage of 
 the khalif with Buran, the daughter of the vizier 
 Hasan ibn Sahl, was solemnized with extraordinary 
 magnificence. 
 
 The expenses were defrayed by the father of the 
 bride. The festivities and rejoicings extended over a 
 period of nineteen days ; and nothing approaching to 
 them had been witnessed for ages before. The whole 
 vast retinue of the khalif, down even to the camel-drivers, 
 the boatmen, and the animals, were the guests of the 
 vizier. Balls of musk were showered down upon the Ab- 
 basides, the commanders of the troops, the khatibs, and 
 those who held eminent rank at court. Each of these 
 balls contained a ticket, on which was inscribed the 
 name of a landed property, or of a slave girl, or of a 
 set of horses, or some other valuable thing. The per- 
 sons into whose hands they fell proceeded to an agent 
 specially appointed for the purpose, from whom they 
 received the gifts specified upon their tickets. Balls 
 of musk, gold and silver coins, and eggs of amber, were 
 thrown in showers among the rest of the people. At 
 the marriage ceremony, a mat interwoven with gold 
 was spread out for the khalif, who stood on it, whilst 
 pearls in abundance were showered down at his feet. 
 Watching them as they fell and dancing before him, 
 Mamoun said, " God be merciful to Abou Nuwas ! 
 One would think that he had seen this, when he 
 described the bubbles which cover the surface of wine 
 when mixed with water." 
 
 " Bubbles, the small and the great — Behold! 
 A gravel of pearls on a ground of gold," 
 
a.d. 825. MARRIAGE OF MAMOUN. 249 
 
 The nuptial chamber was illuminated by a candle 
 of ambergris, weighing eighty pounds, and standing in 
 a candlestick of pure gold ; and when the khalif seated 
 himself beside his bride, a thousand pearls were showered 
 upon them from a golden tray. 
 
 This magnificent marriage ceremony, which took 
 place six years after Mamoun's entry into Baghdad, 
 marked the complete establishment of Persian ascen- 
 dancy in Irak. Mamoun's religious convictions are 
 apparent from a significant anecdote that is recorded of 
 him. Among the embassies which arrived at Baghdad, 
 was one from Kabul, which brought, with other costly 
 presents, a book written in the old Persian language, 
 and entitled, " The Eternal Reason." The title denotes 
 the character of the book. It was an endeavour to 
 build up a religious creed having its foundation in the 
 human reason and conscience. These, according to 
 the writer, were eternal and the same in all men, and 
 no religion, therefore, could pretend to universality 
 which depended upon any other testimony. The vizier 
 affirmed it to be the best work ever written in the old 
 Persian tongue, and, under his supervision, it was partly 
 translated into Arabic. When the khalif read it he 
 was deeply moved. " Here," he exclaimed, " is the true 
 wisdom ; that with which we Moslems busy ourselves 
 is only a wagging of the tongue in the mouth." To 
 inquire into and develop this "religion of the reason," 
 became henceforth one great aim of his life. Con- 
 ferences of learned men were held in the presence 
 of the khalif, at which the freest discussion was 
 permitted and practised. These conferences are 
 
250 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 thus described by an amazed and scandalized be- 
 liever : — 
 
 " At the first meeting I attended, not only were there present 
 Moslems of every sect, orthodox and heterodox, but misbelievers, 
 fireworshippers, materialists, atheists, Jews, Christians ; in a word, 
 sceptics of every kind. Each sect had its own chief charged to 
 defend the opinions it professed ; and every time that one of these 
 chiefs entered the hall, all present arose in sign of respect, and not 
 a man resumed his seat until the new-comer had taken his. The 
 hall was soon filled, and when the assembly was complete, one of the 
 unbelievers spoke as follows : — ' We are,' said he, ' assembled here 
 together for the purpose of discussion. You all understand the 
 conditions ; you Moslems are not to meet us with reasons taken 
 from your Book, or founded on the authority of your Prophet ; as 
 we believe neither in the one nor in the other. Everyone is to limit 
 himself to arguments based upon that reason which is the same in 
 all.' Every one applauded these words. You can imagine," adds 
 the teller of this story, " that having heard such things, I did not 
 remain in that assembly." 
 
 There can be little doubt that the khalif and his 
 most intimate friends desired a complete subversion of 
 Islam, in favour of this " religion of the reason." The 
 difficulty was to know where and how to begin. Islam, 
 as I have already observed, being both a religious creed 
 and a political system, involved in its subversion no- 
 thing less than a complete remodelling of the social 
 system. Tins was manifestly impossible. The change 
 must be effected gradually if it was to be effected at 
 all. The Moslem must be detached by imperceptible 
 oradations from his traditional beliefs ; any attempt 
 to tear them forcibly asunder would bring ruin upon 
 those who were rash enough to try. Success was 
 possible only by planting in the miuds of the Faithful 
 the germ of a conviction, which, as it grew and 
 
a.d. 826. " RELIGION OF THE REASON." 251 
 
 strengthened, would cause them spontaneously to 
 reject the fundamental tenet of Muhammad's creed. 
 That tenet, as I have repeatedly pointed out, is that 
 man, as man, neither possesses any capacity for the 
 discovery of truth, nor any inner light whereby to 
 separate truth from falsehood. In this tenet is em- 
 bodied both the strength and the weakness of Islam. 
 It crushes thought, speculation, and inquiry, and so 
 kills scepticism; but it also effectually bars all pro- 
 gress by the conversion of unreasoning bigotry into 
 a second nature. 
 
 The task which the khalif and his friends set them- 
 selves to do, was to remove this hard, insensible crust, 
 and give light and air to the living mind beneath it. 
 The leader of this enterprise was the kadi Ahmed ibn 
 Abi Douad. He had, when young, been a pupil 
 and disciple of Wasil ibn Ata, the first of the Ra- 
 tionalists ; and himself, a poet, orator, metaphysician, 
 and theologian, he was also a warm advocate of free 
 thought. He was a generous patron of men of letters, 
 taking a great number of them under his care, treating 
 them as members of his family, and providing for all 
 their wants. His conversation, his manners and ap- 
 pearance were so admirable an expression of the mind 
 within, that it was said of him that he was " all soul ;" 
 and the khalif Mamoun deemed none of his intellectual 
 gatherings to be complete or enjoyable where the kadi 
 was not present. Acting under his advice, the khalif 
 resolved to lay siege to the fortress of orthodoxy by 
 attacking the orthodox belief regarding the nature of 
 the Koran. That belief was, that the Koran was the 
 
252 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 eternal uncreated Word of God, existing, as some later 
 divines have put it, in the very essence of the Deity. But 
 at this time the opinion was a speculation, not a formal 
 dogma, and it was combated by the Free-thinkers, who 
 affirmed the Koran to be created, and the composition 
 of Muhammad. By this affirmation they did not deny 
 the Prophetic mission of Muhammad, nor the truth of 
 the Koran ; they simply meant to insist, that as in the 
 case of preceding prophets, his revelations had come to 
 Muhammad in the form of ideas, which he had subse- 
 quently clothed in language of his own composition. 
 It is unnecessary to point out the incalculable conse- 
 quences involved in this distinction. It brought the 
 Sacred Book of Islam within the reach of human criti- 
 cism ; it placed Muhammad on a level with Abraham, 
 Moses, and Jesus ; and the Church of Islam ceased at 
 once to be the one spot upon earth lit by the light 
 from heaven, while all beyond it lay immersed in 
 
 darkness. 
 
 This opinion was now openly espoused by the khalif. 
 In the year 212 he issued afatwa, or decree, declaring 
 that those who asserted the Koran to be eternal and 
 uncreated, were guilty of heresy. Had an Omar ibn 
 Abd al Aziz put forth this decree, it might have estab- 
 lished a footing in the hearts of the Faithful. None 
 would have supposed that he desired to sully the purity 
 of Islam. With Mamoun it was different. Jews, 
 Christians, and Magians were the men whom most he 
 delighted to honour. A profane literature, that knew 
 nothing of Islam, was the favourite subject of his study 
 and his conversation. Nor was this laxity of mind 
 
A.D. 827. IMMORALITY OF THE COURT. 253 
 
 atoned for by any severity of morals ; and the Faithful, 
 having regard to the revels and wine-bibbing, of which 
 his palace was the theatre, might with reason indig- 
 nantly repel his pretensions as a religious reformer. 
 The chief kadi of the Court, Yahya ibn Aktham, was 
 a man notorious through all Irak for the obscenity of 
 his conversation and the loathsome character of his 
 vices. Abou Nuwas, the favourite Court poet, was a 
 scoffer at religion and a man of dissolute life. " Mul- 
 tiply thy sins to the utmost," he had said in one of his 
 poems; "for thou art to meet an indulgent Lord. 
 When thou comest before Him .... thou wilt gnaw 
 thy hands with regret for the pleasures which you 
 avoided through fear of hell." An extreme licence of 
 manners prevailed in Baghdad. The very Mosques, 
 according to Abou Nuwas, were "rat-traps set by 
 Satan," which caught men. They were places of 
 assignation. " Gazelles," and nameless persons of 
 the male sex, haunted their purlieus, and diverted 
 the Faithful from the rites of prayer down the 
 broad path which led to destruction. The khalif, 
 on the authority of a doubtful Tradition, had gone 
 so far as to attempt to consecrate immorality by 
 the issue of an order declaring temporary mar- 
 riages to be legal and proper. But the general in- 
 dignation excited by this fatwa was so great that 
 even the licentious Yahya ibn Aktham urged Mamoun 
 to cancel it — a suggestion which was acted upon by the 
 khalif.* 
 
 * Muhammad ibn Mansur relates as follows: — "We were with 
 al Mamoun on our way to Syria, when he ordered a proclamation to 
 
254 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 An innovation in doctrine proceeding from a Court 
 like that of the khalif Mamoun could not fail to arouse 
 anger and suspicion. It evoked a tendency of mind 
 
 be made declaring meta (temporary) marriages to be lawful. On 
 this, Yahya ibn Aktbam said to me and Abon'l Aina, ' To-morrow 
 morning, early, go botb of you to bim, and if yon find an oppor- 
 tunity of speaking, do so ; if not, remain silent till I go in.' We 
 went there, and fouud him with a toothpick in his hand, and 
 exclaiming, in a violent passion, ' Two mettts occurred in the time 
 of the Prophet of God and in that of Abon Bakr ; and shall I forbid 
 the practice ? Who are you, vile scarabee ! to dare to forbid me to 
 follow that which was practised by the Prophet of God and by 
 Abou Bakr?' On this, Abou'l Aina made me a sign, and said, 
 ' Muhammad ibn Mansur ! that is a man who is capable of attribut- 
 ing to Omar ibn al Khaltab what he has just said; how can we 
 speak to him ?' So we held our peace. Yahya ibn Aktham then 
 came in and sat down. We sat down also, and Mamoun said to 
 him, ' Why do I see you look so troubled ?' Yahya answered, 
 ' Commander of the Faithful ! it is with grief for a novelty intro- 
 duced into Islamism.' ' What novelty ?' said the khalif. Yahya 
 replied, ' A proclamation has been made declaring meta marriages 
 lawful, declaring fornication lawful.' ' Fornication !' exclaimed 
 Mamoun. ' Yes, meta is fornication.' ' On what authority do you 
 say so ?' ' On that of the book of Almighty God, and of a declara- 
 tion made by His Prophet. God said, " Now are the true Believers 
 happy," and so forth, to the words, " and those who keep themselves 
 from carnal knowledge of any except their wives, or the slaves whom 
 their right hands possess ; and whoso coveteth any (woman) beyond 
 these, they are transgressors" Commander of the Faithful ! a meta 
 wife, is she a woman possessed by the right hand ?' The khalif 
 answered, ' No.' ' Is she a wife who can inherit, and be inherited 
 of lawfully in the sight of God ? a wife bearing legitimate children ? 
 one whose marriage is regulated by lawful conditions ?' The khalif 
 answered, ' No.' ' Then,' replied Yahya, ' whoever passes these 
 two limits is a transgressor. Commander of the Faithful! there is 
 az Zuhri, who related, on the authority of Abd Allah and al Hasan, 
 the sons of Muhammad ibn al Hanafiya, that they heard their father 
 declare, that he heard Ali ibn Ali Talib say, " The Prophet ordered 
 me to proclaim that meta marriages were forbidden and unlawful after 
 he had authorized them." ' Al Mamoun then turned towards us and 
 
a.I). 828. THEOLOGICAL EXCITEMENT. 255 
 
 the very opposite of that which the promulgators of 
 the new decree had desired and expected. The belief 
 in the eternity of the Koran passed at once from the 
 region of speculation into that of positive dogma. The 
 heretics having ventured to assail it, it was imme- 
 diately elevated into one of the main pillars of Islam. 
 All endeavours to draw a distinction between the Word 
 as existing in the Divine Mind, and the same Word 
 reduced to writing and contained in a book, were 
 rejected as dangerous. The Koran was to be re- 
 garded as the Word of God in the plainest and most 
 literal sense. Not only the words themselves, but the 
 pronunciation of them, as handed down by tradition 
 from the Prophet, were to be received as eternal and 
 uncreated ; and no devotion to Islam— not the labours 
 of a life expended in the collection of the records of 
 the faith — sufficed to preserve from the stigma of 
 infidelity those who were unsound on this single tenet. 
 Thus, we are told that the two eminent Traditionists, 
 al Bokhari and Muslim ibn al Hajjaj, held that the 
 pronunciation of the Koran, being effected by the 
 organs of speech, is created, because it is an act of 
 God's creatures, and cannot, therefore, be uncreated 
 and eternal. They were, at the time, residing at 
 Naisapore, and these opinions gave such grievous 
 offence to Muhammad ibn Yahya, the leadino- doctor 
 
 said, 'Is it ascertained that this Tradition came from az Zuhri ?' 
 We replied, ' It is, Commander of the Faithful ! a number of Tra- 
 ditionists have related it, such as Malek, to whom God be °racious !' 
 On hearing this, he exclaimed, ' God forgive me ! proclaim that 
 metd marriages are forbidden !' And a proclamation to that effect 
 war, immediately made." (Ibn. Khali., vol. iv. p. 36.) 
 
256 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap iv. 
 
 of that city, that he issued a fatwa forbidding the 
 people to attend the lectures of al Bokhari. So bitter 
 became the feeling among the people, that the learned 
 Traditionist was compelled to retire from the city to a 
 village at some distance, and every person avoided 
 him except Muslim, who continued his visits as before. 
 This greatly enraged Muhammad ibn Yahya ; and one 
 day, at the close of his lessons, he said to those who 
 attended them, " Whoever holds the pronunciation of 
 the Koran to be created, I forbid that person to attend 
 my lessons." Muslim, who was present, immediately 
 passed his cloak over his turban, and standing up in 
 the midst of the assembly, left the room. Having then 
 collected all the notes which he had taken at Muham- 
 mad's lessons, he loaded some porters with them, and 
 sent them to his door. 
 
 The theological war raged fiercely. The Free- 
 thinkers stigmatized as Polytheists those who main- 
 tained the eternity of the Koran, because this doctrine 
 involved the existence of two eternal beings, God and 
 the Koran. The orthodox retorted by adducing pas- 
 sages from the Koran, which showed, according to 
 them, that when the Prophet spoke of the " Word of 
 God," he meant that which was contained within the 
 two boards of a book, and which was read every Friday 
 in the ears of the people. What other meaning, they 
 asked, could be attached to such expressions as these ? 
 
 " This is the honourable Koran 
 
 Written in the preserved Book : 
 # * # * 
 
 It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds." 
 
 Sura lvi. 76—79. 
 
a.d. 833. THE ORTHODOX POSITION. 257 
 
 " Verily, We have caused it to descend in the night of Power." 
 
 Sura xcvii. 3. 
 
 " The montli Ramadan, in which the Koran was sent down to be 
 man's guidance, and an explanation of that guidance." 
 
 Sura ii. 181. 
 
 This conviction, moreover, was affirmed on the 
 authority of the Traditions. In one of these, the 
 Prophet was declared to have said, " God wrote the 
 Thora with His own hand ; and with His own hand He 
 created Adam ; and also in the Koran it is written, 
 * And we wrote for Mm upon the tables a monition con- 
 cerning every matter,' in reference to the tables of the 
 Law given to Moses." A Tradition such as this showed 
 that God possessed hands, that He wrote and per- 
 formed other operations with them ; and if He had 
 done so in the case of the revelations entrusted to 
 Moses and inferior prophets, it was impious, and 
 obviously false, to deny a like origin to the revelation 
 granted to the last and greatest of the Prophets. This 
 position involved the tangibility and visibility of the 
 Deity. The Eree-thinkers denounced this as blas- 
 phemous. Forthwith anthropomorphism of the wildest 
 kind became identified with sincere and genuine belief 
 in Islam. God, it was affirmed, had a body and limbs. 
 This, as usual, was supported by a Tradition, in which 
 the Prophet was reported to have said, "My Lord 
 came to meet me, and stretched forth His hands to 
 greet me, and looked into my face, and laid His hands 
 between my shoulders, so that I felt the coolness of 
 vHis finger-tips." God sat upon a throne, in the literal 
 meaning of the words. But here difficulties arose, 
 
 17 
 
258 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 which it was found impossible to solve satisfactorily. 
 Did He fill the whole of the throne, or only a part of 
 it ? Was it possible to walk round the throne, and get 
 behind the Deity ? Did His attribute of infinity extend 
 infinitely upwards, or infinitely downwards? Was 
 there a space between Him and the throne ; and if so, 
 how much ? — some inclining to believe it was infinite, 
 and others immeasurably minute. Was He " firmly ,; 
 seated upon the throne, or in some other manner ? 
 
 The khalif, meanwhile, had recourse to the methods 
 which despotic sovereigns generally adopt for the con- 
 version of their subjects. As the orthodox party de- 
 clined to acknowledge voluntarily that the Koran was 
 created, they must be compelled to do so. A Court of 
 Inquisition was established, having as its President the 
 kadi Ahmed ibn Abi Douad. Its duties were to arrest 
 all eminent divines who differed in opinion from the 
 khalif, and by beatings and imprisonment induce them 
 to admit that the Koran was created. This tribunal 
 continued its operations through the remainder of the 
 reign of Mamoun, and that of his successors, Mutasim 
 and Wathik. Mutasim was fond of engaging per- 
 sonally in disputation, and if worsted in argument, 
 cutting the matter short by decapitating his opponent. 
 The persecution fell almost entirely on the Hanbalites 
 and the Shafites. Among the first to be cited before 
 the Inquisition was the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, and 
 another eminent theologian named Muhammad ibn 
 Nuh. On their refusing to allow the Koran to be 
 created, they were sent to Tarsus for punishment, 
 Mamoun being at the time resident there. His sudden 
 
a.d. 834. FORTITUDE OF THEIR DOCTORS. 259 
 
 death delivered them for the moment ; but in the year 
 219 the Imam was again cited before the tribunal, and 
 remaining constant to his former confession of faith, 
 he received twenty-eight strokes of a whip, and was 
 flung into prison. 
 
 On the death of Mutasim, the orthodox party, under 
 the guidance of Ahmed ibn Nasr, a learned divine, 
 formed a plot to set aside his successor, Wathik, and 
 establish on the throne a khalif of their way of think- 
 ing. The plot, however, failed, and Ahmed was ar- 
 rested. Sufficient evidence was not forthcoming to 
 obtain his conviction as a political traitor ; but he was 
 put to death as a heretic who denied the creation of 
 the Koran, and asserted that in Paradise the Believers 
 would see God. This abortive conspiracy gave an 
 additional impulse to the zeal of the khalif. In Irak 
 and Egypt the persecution was fiercest. Great num- 
 bers of divines were dragged from their homes, and, 
 heavily fettered, brought before the tribunal at Bagh- 
 dad. They bore these sufferings with admirable forti- 
 tude ; and despite of tortures, beatings, and years of 
 hopeless imprisonment, stoutly maintained that the 
 Koran was the uncreated and eternal Word of God. 
 
 Next to the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, the most 
 eminent of these martyrs was a disciple of as Shafi, of 
 the name of Abou Yakoub Yusuf, and known as " al 
 Buwaiti," from Buwait, the name of the village in 
 which he was born. He was one of a select company 
 of four men whom as Shafi regarded as the most 
 eminent of his disciples. The other three were al 
 Muzani, Ibn Abd al Hukm, and Habi ibn Sulaiman. 
 
200 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 All four were present with their master in his last 
 illness. The approach of death, according to the 
 Muhammadan belief, often gives to the dying man 
 the capacity to see into the future, as into a trans- 
 parent a mirror. This privilege could hardly have been 
 denied to so eminent a saint as as Shafi ; and as the 
 great Imam lay upon his death-bed, he fixed his eyes 
 upon his four disciples, and uttered this prophecy con- 
 cerning them — " As for thee, Abou Yakoub, thou shalt 
 die in chains ; thou, Muhammad ! (Ibn Abd al 
 Euhm) will pass over to the sect of Malek ; thou, 
 Muzani, shall meet with various adventures in Egypt, 
 and shalt make the time be remembered in which thou 
 wert the ablest reasoner of the age ; and thou, Eabi, 
 shalt be the most useful of all, in propagating the know- 
 ledge of the works which I have composed." All this 
 came to pass. Al Muzani became the Imam of the 
 Sliafites from his acquaintance with the legal system 
 and juridical decisions of their founder, and his know- 
 ledge of the Traditions which he transmitted on the 
 authority of his master. He composed a great number 
 of works, the most important of which is entitled 
 " The Abridgement." This work has ever since been 
 the basis of all the treatises composed on as Shaft's 
 doctrines. Ar Rabi became the special Traditionist of 
 the words and works of as Shafi ; and through him most 
 of the works composed by that Imam were handed 
 down by oral dictation. He lived to be the last of the 
 auditors of as Shafi. Ibn Abd al Hukm returned to 
 the Malekite sect, to which he had in early life belonged. 
 The story of al Buwaiti has still to be told. 
 
a.d. 844. THE MARTYR AL BUWAITI. 201 
 
 In obedience to the last commands of his master, 
 al Buwaiti was established as teacher of as Shan's class. 
 He was a man remarkable for piety, devotion, and self- 
 mortification. " No matter," said a neighbour, " at 
 what hour I woke during the night, I was always sure 
 to hear al Buwaiti reciting the Koran or saying his 
 prayers." His eminence as a jurisconsult and his pro- 
 nounced orthodoxy inevitably led to his being singled 
 out as a fit subject of persecution. He was arrested, 
 and carried as a prisoner from Kairo to Baghdad. His 
 old class-fellow, Rabi ibn Sulaiman, beheld him as 
 he was led off a prisoner. " I saw," he says, " al 
 Buwaiti mounted on a mule ; round his neck was a 
 wooden collar ; on his legs were fetters ; from these to 
 the collar extended an iron chain, to which was 
 attached a clog weighing fifty pounds. Whilst they 
 led him on, he continued repeating these words — 
 ' Almighty God created the world by means of the 
 word Be ! * Now, if that word was created, one 
 created thing would have created another. By Allah ! 
 I shall willingly die in chains, for after me will be 
 people who shall learn that, on account of this affair, 
 some men died in chains. Were I brought before that 
 man ' — meaning Wathik — ' I should declare unto him 
 the truth.' " 
 
 On arriving at Baghdad, al Buwaiti refused to 
 make the declaration required of him, repeating con* 
 
 * The reference in this speech is to the following verse of the 
 Koran — " Verily our speech unto a thing when we will the same, is, 
 that we only say unto it, ' Be,' and it is." This was one of the argu- 
 ments adduced by the orthodox to prove the eternity of the Koran 
 considered as the Word of God. 
 
262 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 tinually, " It is the Word of God, His uncreated 
 Word." Heavily fettered as lie was, lie was imme- 
 diately thrown into prison, where he remained till his 
 death. But the fervour of his faith carried him with a 
 sort of joy through all his trials. "There are," he 
 says, in a letter to his above-mentioned class-mate, 
 " certain moments in which I do not perceive that I 
 have chains on my body, till I happen to touch them 
 with my hand." Every Friday morning, when the 
 voice of the Muezzin calling the people to prayer pene- 
 trated his narrow cell, he would wash, dress, and go to 
 the door of his prison. The jailer would then say to 
 him, "Where are you going?" and he would reply, 
 " I answer him who calls in the name of the Lord." 
 To this the jailer would say, " Back ! God will pardon 
 you!" Then the prisoner would retire, exclaiming, 
 " Almighty God ! you perceive that I answered the 
 call of your herald, and that I was prevented from 
 obeying." Al Buwaiti died in prison and in chains 
 on a Friday morning of the month Rejeb, a.h. 231 
 (a.d. 846). 
 
 Towards the close of Wathik's khalifate, the perse- 
 cution ceased. A prisoner convinced the khalif, if not 
 that his doctrine was wrong, at least that he was not 
 justified in forcing it upon the Faithful. This man was 
 an old doctor, well versed in jurisprudence and the 
 Traditions, who resided at Adanak, on the Syrian 
 frontier. He was a man of commanding stature and 
 venerable aspect ; and as he was ushered into the pre- 
 sence of the khalif, heavily chained, but with an 
 undaunted air, an expression of sympathy passed over 
 
a.d. 840. END OF THE PERSECUTION. 203 
 
 the face of "Wathik. The old man asked permission 
 to address a few questions to the kadi Ahmed ibn 
 Abi Douad, who was present. Sanction being given, 
 the following dialogue took place : — " Ahmed," said the 
 old man, " what is this dogma which you desire to have 
 established ? " " That the Koran is created," replied 
 Ahmed. " This dogma, then, is without doubt an 
 essential part of the religion, insomuch that the latter 
 cannot without it be said to be complete?" "Cer- 
 tainly." "Has the Apostle of God taught this to 
 men, or has he left them free ? " " He has left them 
 free." " Was the Apostle of God acquainted with this 
 dogma or not?" "He was acquainted with it." 
 " Wherefore, then, do you desire to impose a belief 
 regarding which the Apostle of God has left men free 
 to think as they please ? " Ahmed knew not what to 
 say ; and the old man, turning to Wathik, said, 
 " Prince of Believers, here is my first position made 
 good." Then, after a short interval, the old man, 
 turning once more to the kadi, spake as follows : — 
 " In the fifth verse of the fifth Sura, God has said, 
 ' This day have I perfected religion for you, and have 
 filled up the measures of my favours upon you; and 
 it is my pleasure that Islam he your religion.' But 
 according to you, Islam is not perfected unless we 
 adopt this doctrine that the Koran is created. Which 
 now is most worthy of credence — God, when He 
 declares Islam to be complete and perfect, or you 
 when you announce the contrary ? ' Ahmed knew 
 not what to say. "Prince of Believers," said the 
 old doctor, " there is my second point made good." 
 
264 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 Then turning once more to the embarrassed kadi, he 
 resumed, " Ahmed, how do you explain the following 
 words of God in His holy Book ?— ' Apostle ! pro- 
 claim all that hath been sent down to thee from thy 
 Lord; for if thou do it not, thou hast not proclaimed 
 His message at all.' Now this doctrine that you desire 
 to spread among the Faithful, has the Apostle taught 
 it, or has he abstained from doing so ? " No answer. 
 " Prince of Believers ! " continued the old man, 
 " such is my third argument." Then turning once 
 more to the kadi, he said, " If the Prophet was 
 acquainted with this doctrine which you desire to 
 impose upon us, had he the right to pass it by in 
 silence ? " " He had the right." " And did the same 
 right appertain to Abou Bekr, Omar, Othman, and 
 Ali ? " "It did." " Prince of Believers ! " said the 
 old man, " God will, in truth, be severe upon us, if 
 He deprives us of a liberty which He accorded to the 
 Prophet and his Companions." " It is true," said the 
 khalif, " God cannot, without injustice, refuse that to 
 us which He has granted to the Prophet and his Com- 
 panions." And immediately he gave orders that his 
 fetters should be struck off; but the old man refused 
 to part with them. " When dying," he said, " I have 
 directed that these chains should be placed between 
 my shroud and my body ; so that when I come to 
 appear before my Lord, I may say, ' Lord ! inquire 
 from this man wherefore he has chained me unjustly, 
 and wherefore, by thus treating me, he has brought 
 terror in my family ? ' " At these words, Wathik and 
 all present were moved to tears. " Old man," said the 
 
a.d. 847. TRIUMPH OF ORTHODOXY. 265 
 
 khalif, " forgive me." " Sire," lie replied, " before I 
 left my house I had forgiven you, out of my respect 
 for the Prophet, and your kinship to him." The aged 
 confessor declined the proffered liberalities of the 
 khalif, requesting only to be permitted to return home 
 in peace. 
 
 Thus ended the endeavour to convert Islam into a 
 reasonable creed. It failed, partly because the Rational- 
 ists were obliged to base their doctrines upon a founda- 
 tion incapable of supporting them. The circumstances 
 of their day compelled them to appeal to the Koran for 
 the justification of tenets which had been learned in the 
 school of Aristotle ; and this appeal, as we have just 
 seen, it was impossible to make good in argument. 
 But their chief cause of failure was, that they were not 
 reformers, either religious or political, in the true 
 sense of the word. They had no gospel to preach to 
 mankind. They desired to subvert Islam; but to 
 subvert it only as a speculative theology, not in its 
 practical results. These — such as despotism, poly- 
 gamy, concubinage, slavery — they never attempted, 
 nor even intended, to denounce. 
 
 Nevertheless, weak and imperfect as the movement 
 was, it marks the most brilliant period in the history of 
 Islam. The transient glories of Baghdad are coinci- 
 dent with this period. An almost complete religious 
 toleration prevailed ; political disabilities had ceased to 
 exist ; and Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians shared 
 with the Faithful the emoluments and responsibilities 
 of public life. The khalifs invited to their Court the 
 eminent scholars of the Byzantine Empire; and men 
 
266 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 applied themselves with eager diligence to the study of 
 philosophy, medicine, physics, astronomy, so far as these 
 sciences were known to the Greeks. The effects of this 
 free life and intellectual activity are striking enough ; 
 but to credit them to the inspiring influence of Islam is 
 absurd. Islam, during this brief period, was virtually 
 set aside; and when it regained its ascendancy, the 
 greatness and prosperity of the Abbasides withered like 
 a flower severed from its root. 
 
 The khalif Wathik died a.h. 232 (a.d. 847). The 
 chiefs of the Turkish bodyguard placed his brother 
 Jaafar upon the throne, who assumed the title of " al 
 Mutawakhil" (he who relies upon God). Al Muta- 
 wakhil was an extravagant, ferocious, and tipsy sove- 
 reign, delighting in acts of cruelty, spending his time 
 in the society of buffoons and jesters, and crushing the 
 people with exactions in order to gratify his mania for 
 building. His reign was a season of constant insur- 
 rection, misery, and turmoil. But by Moslem his- 
 torians it is depicted as a golden age ; and the reason 
 of this is not hard to find. Al Mutawakhil restored the 
 law of Islam to its proper supremacy. He persecuted 
 with equal and unsparing hand Jews, Christians, Shias, 
 Free-thinkers, and Fire- worshippers. Raised to the 
 throne by the officers of the Turkish bodyguard, the 
 khalif discerned that the power which made him sove- 
 reign might at any moment unmake him, unless he 
 could find support elsewhere. He had the sagacity to 
 see that in the religious bigotry of the people the sup- 
 port he needed would most easily be found. Rational- 
 ism in Islam was, as I have frequently said, merely an 
 
a.d. 847. KHALIF AL MUTAWAKHIL. 267 
 
 intellectual pastime of the schools. It meditated no 
 change in the order and constitution of society. Con- 
 sequently the popular mind had remained wholly un- 
 affected by it. All that the people understood was, 
 that an extortionate and profligate Court was busy per- 
 secuting holy and devout men for the veneration in 
 which they held the blessed Koran. When, therefore, 
 al Mutawakhil, shortly after his succession, issued a 
 fatioa, declaring that to assert the creation of the 
 Koran was to assert a damnable falsehood, the satis- 
 faction of the people was great. This measure the 
 khalif followed up by inviting to the royal residence the 
 leading theologians of the orthodox party, loading them 
 with presents, and charging them, in their lectures and 
 conversation, to lose no opportunity of confounding the 
 Free-thinkers, and refuting their impious opinions. 
 Then came ordinances directed against Jews and 
 Christians. 
 
 Ever since the accession of the Abbasides to 
 power, Jews and Christians had acquired a large 
 and increasing power in the state. The khalif al 
 Mansour had made use of them to keep a vigilant 
 watch over such of the Ommayas as had escaped from 
 the massacres perpetrated by his brothers, and to report 
 the movements of the adherents of the fallen house. 
 They were entrusted with the collection of the land-tax, 
 and other executive duties, and doubtless availed them- 
 selves of the power they enjoyed, to retaliate on the 
 Moslems some of the contempt and oppression which 
 in former days the latter had inflicted upon them. At 
 any rate, the Moslems were loud in their complaints of 
 
2G8 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 the intolerable wrongs they endured, and deputed 
 Shabib ibn Shahba, an eloquent and devout man, to 
 intercede for them at the foot of the throne. " 0, 
 Prince of Believers ! " said Shabib in the course of a 
 conversation reported by himself, "outside of thy 
 palace gates there has been kindled a fire of oppression 
 and violence, such as are forbidden both by the Book 
 of God and the Traditions of the Prophet ! Prince of 
 Believers ! you have given to the Zimmis power over 
 the Moslems. They vex them, they oppress them, they 
 despoil them of their lands, they rob them of their 
 money, they treat them with rudeness, and you they 
 make use of merely as a tool for their private ends ; 
 but know and remember that they will avail you 
 nothing when you appear before God upon the day 
 of judgment." 
 
 The khalif promised to amend his ways; and 
 whenever a Moslem of the requisite capacity was 
 forthcoming, to expel from office a Zimmi. But either 
 Moslems of the proper kind were not to be found, or 
 the khalif was not in earnest in the matter; at any 
 rate, under the khalif Mehdi, the successor of al Man- 
 sour, the outcry of the Faithful became louder than 
 ever. The gates of the khalif's palace were beset 
 by a clamorous crowd, protesting against the intoler- 
 able arrogance and oppressiveness of the Zimmis, who 
 were everywhere exercising authority over the people 
 of God. Again they had recourse to a saintly per- 
 sonage to lay their griefs before the prince, and again 
 al Mehdi promises that they shall be redressed. He 
 sends a circular to the governors of the provinces, 
 
ad. ft48. HTS PERSECUTING POLICY. 209 
 
 ordering the dismissal of the Zimmis from all posts in 
 the government, and decrees, further, that if after this, 
 a Christian writer be discovered in the service of a 
 Moslem, the writer shall lose his hand. A large num- 
 ber of writers are said, in consequence of this order, to 
 have been thus savagely mutilated. But under the 
 khalifs Haroun and al Mamoun, the Zimmis again 
 acquired the ascendancy which naturally belongs to 
 industry and mental capacity ; and when al Muta- 
 wakliil ascended the throne, almost the entire adminis- 
 tration of the country was in their hands. It is an 
 incident which will be found repeated in the history of 
 every Muhammadan country. If these exhibit internal 
 order and prosperity, it is only at those seasons 
 when the fundamental principles of Islam are in 
 abeyance. 
 
 The new khalif had no sooner exhibited his zeal for 
 orthodoxy, than he was overwhelmed with complaints 
 and petitions against the Zimmis. In response to 
 these, he published a manifesto to the following 
 effect : — 
 
 " It has come to the knowledge of the Prince of Believers, that 
 certain personages, destitute of judgment and reason, avail them- 
 selves of the assistance of Zimmis in the conduct of business, and 
 contract with them relations of friendship, to the exclusion of the 
 Moslems. They confer upon them power and authority over the 
 subjects of the Empire ; they connive at their oppressions and 
 perfidies, when they ought, on the contrary, to treat them as 
 enemies. The Prince of Believers regards such a state of things 
 as exceedingly grave ; he disapproves and condemns it ; and desires 
 to win the favour of God by utterly destroying it. In consequence 
 he has sent orders to the governors of provinces and cities, to the 
 generals commanding armies and frontier forts, not to admit Zimmis 
 into the public service God has endowed the 
 
270 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 Moslems with everything needful without having recourse to these 
 infidels, who give companions to God ; who regard His mes- 
 sengers as impostors ; who obstinately reject His signs ; and who 
 place another God by the side of Allah. But there is no other God 
 but He, the one, and without equal." 
 
 This decree was followed by another, ordering that 
 henceforth Jews and Christians should wear yellow 
 garments ; that they should not wear white, lest they 
 might be mistaken for Moslems; that their stirrups 
 must be made of wood ; their new churches and syna- 
 gogues destroyed, and the capitation tax doubled. The 
 Zimmis were to be excluded from the public baths, 
 which were used by the Moslems ; they were not allowed 
 to employ a Moslem in any menial capacity ; and an 
 officer of the police was appointed, whose special duty 
 it was to see that they transgressed none of these 
 ordinances. Even the cemeteries of the Zimmis were 
 not spared. The graves were levelled with the 
 earth, and the endeavour made to obliterate every 
 trace that could indicate the spot as a resting-place 
 for the dead. 
 
 The Free-thinkers and the Shias were treated with 
 equal rigour. The Court of Inquisition which had been 
 set up by the khalif Mamoun was now made use of to 
 punish heresy and latitudinarianism. These vigorous 
 measures rallied round the khalifa strong body of sup- 
 porters. The orthodox doctors everywhere became, of 
 course, his devoted adherents ; and their example was 
 followed by the great mass of the people. The khalif 
 made use of his power to rid himself of all those whom 
 he either feared or hated. His first victim was the 
 
a.d. 849. HIS PERSECUTING POLICY. 271 
 
 vizier of the khalif Wathik ;* then the kadi Ahmed ibn 
 Abi Douad was disgraced, and his property confiscated ; 
 and so strong did the khalif feel himself to be, that he 
 
 * The name of this officer was Muhammad ibn az Zaiyat (the son 
 of the oilseller) . " When Ibn az Zaiyat was vizier, he caused a large 
 lantern to be framed of iron, and fastened with nails, the sharp 
 points of which projected inwards, like needles. In this machine 
 he used to torture officers of the civil administration and other 
 delinquents from whom he meant to extort money ; as often as the 
 victim turned round or moved from the intensity of his sufferings, 
 the nails entered his body, and put him to excruciating pain. Ibn 
 az Zaiyat was the first who ever imagined such an instrument of 
 torture. When the sufferer cried out to him, ' vizier ! have com- 
 passion on me !' he used to answer, ' Compassion is mere weakness 
 of character.' When he was himself imprisoned by al Mutawakhil, 
 that khalif ordered him to be chained in irons of fifteen pounds 
 weight, and put into the same lantern. To his cry of ' Commander 
 of the Faithful! have compassion on me!' he answered in the 
 words so often addressed by the vizier to other sufferers, ' Compas- 
 sion is mere weakness of character.' Whilst undergoing these tor- 
 ments, Ibn az Zaiyat asked for ink and paper, and wrote as 
 follows : — 
 
 " ' Such is the way of earthly things ; from day to day they fleet 
 on and pass away, as visions seen in sleep. Cease repining ! 
 Such events are the vicissitudes which fortune transmits 
 from man to man.' 
 
 These lines he sent to al Mutawakhil, who was prevented by busi- 
 ness from attending to them, but the next morning he read them, 
 and gave orders to deliver the vizier. When they came to take him 
 
 out, they found him dead He had passed forty days in 
 
 the lantern Alter his death, the following lines were 
 
 found written with charcoal on the side of the lantern in his own 
 hand — 
 
 " ' Let him who knows where sleep is to be found direct toward 
 it one who longs for it. May God have mercy on the 
 compassionate man who will lead sleep to my eyes ! I 
 wake, but he sleeps by whom I am despised.' " 
 
 (Ibn Khali., vol. iii. pp. 254, 255.) 
 
272 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 did not shrink from obtaining the murder of the 
 Turkish chief Itach, by whom he had been raised to 
 the throne. The Turkish bodyguard did not dare to 
 avenge the death of their chief, though aware at whose 
 instigation he had met his death, so firm was the hold 
 which the khalif had acquired upon the affections of the 
 people by his repressive and persecuting policy. 
 
 The great leader and confessor of the orthodox 
 party, the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, died during this 
 reign full of years and honours, (a.h. 241, a.d. 855). 
 The city of Baghdad was thrown into mourning. One 
 hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women 
 formed the procession which accompanied the body of 
 the Imam to its last resting place ; and twenty thou- 
 sand Christians, Jews, and Magians were reported to 
 have been miraculously converted to Islam on the day 
 of his death. One of his disciples received shortly 
 after an assurance of the blessed state of the departed 
 Imam, through the medium of a dream. 
 
 " I saw," says Ibrahim al Harbi, " in a dream Bishr the Bare- 
 footed,* who seemed to come out from the mosque of Rusafa, bearing 
 something in bis sleeve, which swung about, and I said, ' What hath 
 God done with thee?' He replied, 'He hath pardoned me and 
 honoured me.' And I said, ' What is that in thy sleeve ?' He 
 replied, ' Yesterday the soul of Ahmed ibn Hanbal came unto us, 
 and pearls and rubies were scattered over it, and these are some I 
 picked up.' I said, ' What were Yahya ibn Main and Ahmed ibn 
 Hanbal doing ?' He answered, ' They were gone to visit the Lord 
 of all created things, and the table was laid out for them.' I said, 
 ' Why didst thou not eat with them ?' He replied, ' The Lord knew 
 that I had to abstain from eating; so He allowed me to look on His 
 sacred face.' " 
 
 * See page 42. 
 
a.d. 934. DEIFICATION OF THE KORAN. 273 
 
 This dream established the veracity of several 
 important doctrines. It proved that in the next world 
 the Faithful would " look on the sacred face " of God, 
 which the heretical Free-thinkers had declared to be 
 impossible. And the assurance it gave of the blessed- 
 ness of Ahmad ibn Hanbal established the truth of the 
 doctrine for which he had suffered stripes and imprison- 
 ment. The Koran, therefore — that Koran which was 
 read in the Mosque every Friday — was the eternal 
 and uncreated Word of God. It had been transcribed 
 by the hand of the Almighty from " the everlasting 
 table " into one volume on paper, which was conveyed 
 by the Archangel Gabriel to the lowest of the seven 
 heavens. There he had revealed it to the Prophet 
 piece by piece, through a period of twenty years. But 
 once in every year Muhammad was allowed the felicity 
 of seeing the entire volume, magnificently bound in 
 silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of 
 Paradise. In the last year of his life he enjoyed this 
 glorious privilege twice. Any one who, either in act 
 or word, questioned a single syllable of the Koran, was 
 regarded as an infidel, and was in peril of being torn 
 to pieces by the devout people of Baghdad. Thus we 
 read that when Rhadi was khalif (a.d. 934), there was 
 residing in Baghdad a man named Ibn Shanabud, an 
 eminent master of the Koran readings, and a pious, 
 well-intentioned man. Having become the sole deposi- 
 tory of some rare and singular readings of the Koran, 
 he introduced them into his recitations from the book, 
 while presiding at the public prayers. This was 
 deemed by the people of Baghdad as an audacious and 
 
 18 
 
274 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 blasphemous departure from the primitive revealed 
 text ; and the indignation became so general and 
 intense, that the vizier caused Ibn Shanabud to be 
 arrested and flung into prison. An assembly was 
 then convoked of kadis and Koran readers, the vizier 
 himself presiding ; Ibn Shanabud was summoned be- 
 fore them, and ordered to recant. He treated the Court 
 with the greatest insolence ; but having been flagellated 
 seven times, he became convinced of his errors, and 
 said, " I renounce my manner of reading, and in future 
 I shall follow no other than that of the manuscript 
 drawn up by the khalif Othman ibn Affan, and that 
 which is publicly received." The vizier ordered this 
 declaration to be taken down, and made him subscribe 
 his name to it. It was, however, found impossible to 
 set him at liberty, as the populace were waiting without 
 to murder him as soon as he appeared ; and he had to 
 be smuggled out of Baghdad by night, and kept in a 
 place of concealment, till his monstrous blasphemies 
 had passed away from the memories of the people. 
 
 But though crushed and expelled from Baghdad by 
 the fierce zeal of the khalif and the Hanbalites, the 
 schools of the Free-thinkers, continued to exist at 
 Basra. They were no longer possessed of political 
 power ; but they did not cease from interminable dis- 
 putations. These disputations have no interest for any 
 rational creature. Their almost exclusive theme was 
 the co-existence of the unity of God with a plurality of 
 attributes. How was this possible ? If the attributes 
 were regarded as modes of our consciousness in appre- 
 hending God, the Deity shrank into a sterile abstrac- 
 
a.d. 884. ABOU'L HASAN AL ASHARI. 275 
 
 tion, regarding which it was impossible to feel any 
 emotion whatever. If, in order to vivify this sterile 
 unity, we endowed it with eternal attributes, the unity 
 itself seemed to perish. On one or other horn of this 
 dilemma, the doctors of Free- thought in Basra con- 
 tinued for some half century to impale themselves, 
 without achieving any other perceptible result. Never- 
 theless, the school has an interest for the students of 
 Moslem history, because it trained up and supplied 
 with weapons, the man who first gave to the orthodox 
 creed a scholastic basis of argument. This man was 
 named Abou'l Hasan al Ashari. The Free-thinkers, it 
 was said afterwards, went with their heads up till such 
 time as God produced al Ashari to the world. 
 
 Al Ashari was born in Basra about a.h. 270 
 (a.d. 883-84). He was at first a Free-thinker himself, 
 and studied under Abou Ali al Jubbai, an able master 
 in the science of dogmatic theology, and a warm 
 partisan of the Rationalist school. The occasion of al 
 Ashari' s rupture with his preceptor was the follow- 
 ing : — Al Ashari proposed to al Jubbai the case of 
 three brothers, one of whom was a true Believer, 
 virtuous and pious ; the second, an infidel, a de- 
 bauchee, and a reprobate ; and the third an infant — 
 they all died, and al Ashari wished to know what had 
 become of them. To this, al Jubbai replied, " The 
 virtuous brother holds a high station in Paradise ; the 
 infidel is in the depths of hell ; and the child is among 
 those who have obtained salvation." " Suppose, now," 
 said al Ashari, " the child should wish to ascend to 
 the place occupied by his virtuous brother, would he 
 
276 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 be allowed to do so ?" " No ; it would be said to him, 
 
 * Thy brother arrived at this place through his 
 
 numerous works of obedience towards God, and thou 
 
 hast no such works to set forward.' " " Suppose, 
 
 then," said al Ashari, " that the child should say, 
 
 ' That is not my fault ; you did not let me live long 
 
 enough ; neither did you give me the means of proving 
 
 my obedience.' " " In that case," answered al Jubbai, 
 
 "the Almighty would say, 'I knew that if I allowed 
 
 thee to live, thou wouldst have been disobedient, and 
 
 incurred the severe punishment of hell; I therefore 
 
 acted for thy advantage.' " " Well," said al Ashari, 
 
 " and suppose the infidel brother was here to say, ' 
 
 God of the universe ! since you knew what awaited 
 
 him, you must have known what awaited me ; why, 
 
 then, did you act for his advantage and not for mine ?' : 
 
 Al Jubbai had not, so we are told, a word to say in 
 
 reply, beyond expressing his conviction that al Ashari 
 
 was possessed by the devil. The latter was convinced 
 
 by this discussion that the Almighty elects some for 
 
 mercy, and others for punishment, and that His acts 
 
 are not the result of any motive whatsoever. He 
 
 therefore made a public renunciation of his belief in 
 
 man's free will, and of the opinion that the Koran was 
 
 created. This occurred in the great Mosque of Basra 
 
 on a Friday. He was sitting in the chair from which 
 
 he taught, when he cried out as loud as he could, 
 
 " They who know me, know who I am ; as for those 
 
 who do not know me, I shall tell them I am Ali ibn 
 
 Ismail al Ashari, and I used to hold that the Koran 
 
 was created, that the eyes of men shall not see God, 
 
a.d. 941. HIS DOCTRINES. 277 
 
 and that we ourselves are the authors of our evil 
 deeds. Now I have returned to the truth ; I renounce 
 these opinions, and I take an engagement to refute the 
 Free-thinkers, and expose their infamy and turpitude." 
 
 If, said al Ashari, we contemplate this visible 
 creation, ascending from the lowest forms of life to 
 the highest, we become aware, from inward experience, 
 that nothing in all this wondrous world carries within 
 itself the power which called it into existence. Man 
 comes into the world endowed with certain capacities. 
 These he can use ; but he can produce nothing which 
 has not already been given to him. And what is true 
 of man, we know must be true of all inferior types of 
 existence. We are, therefore, constrained to place 
 this creative power somewhere outside of the creation. 
 This power must be almighty, intelligent, and pos- 
 sessed of volition, because in the structure of the 
 visible universe we find everywhere the effects of such 
 attributes as these. Thus we are conducted to a 
 belief in a Creator, in whom unity of essence is co- 
 existent with a plurality of attributes. What then are 
 these attributes ? They are not, so said al Ashari, the 
 Deity himself, neither are they something independent 
 of Him ; but they may be likened to the actions of 
 men, which are neither the man himself, nor have they 
 any existence apart from the man. 
 
 All things proceed from the will of this Creator, the 
 good and the evil, the useful and the hurtful. His 
 mind and purpose are incapable of change. He 
 wrote upon the everlasting Table, the destiny of man 
 and the world, before either had been summoned into 
 
278 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 existence. Nevertheless al Ashari admitted that there 
 was a difference between the unintelligent growth of 
 trees and vegetables, and the actions of men wrought 
 with a conscious adaptation of means to ends. But he 
 insisted that man had no power to convert will into 
 action. He "acquired" action by a special creative 
 act of God ; that is to say, when a man desired to do a 
 certain thing, good or bad, the action corresponding to 
 the desire was, there and then, created by God, and, 
 as it were, fitted on to the desire, so that it seemed to 
 grow out of it, though it did nothing of the kind. In 
 this way al Ashari believed that he preserved the moral 
 responsibility of man, without allowing that anything 
 could come into existence without the immediate inter- 
 position of the creative Deity. It was, however, ob- 
 jected to this solution, that it placed the affections and 
 desires of men beyond the control of the Creator — an 
 objection which al Ashari failed to meet, and which his 
 disciples ascribed to a spirit of morbid and carping 
 criticism which could not be too strongly reprehended. 
 As to the visibility of God, al Ashari held, that it 
 was essential to a complete existence that it could be 
 seen. God, therefore, unless He could be seen, would 
 not fulfil the conditions of perfect existence — a sup- 
 position that was, at once, ridiculous and blasphemous. 
 The promise that the Faithful should see God was, 
 moreover, plainly announced in the Koran ; as, for 
 example, in the 22nd verse of the 75th Sura, where it 
 is written : — 
 
 " On that day shall faces beam with li^ht, 
 Outlookin^ towards their Lord." 
 
A.D. 941. HIS DOCTRINES. 279 
 
 Words, such as these, would be destitute of 
 meaning unless God was there to be looked at, and 
 capable of being seen. At the same time, he con- 
 sidered that this beatific vision was not possible to 
 man in his normal human state. To suppose this 
 would be to invest the Deity with a material body, and 
 so lapse into the damnable heresy of " identity." 
 
 Al Ashari conceived that for the enjoyment of this 
 beatific vision, a sixth sense would be bestowed upon 
 men, whereby they would obtain, as it were, through 
 the medium of the intellect, an immediate intuition of 
 the glory and greatness of God. He maintained, fur- 
 ther, that seeing and hearing are eternal attributes of 
 God ; but the passages in the sacred writings which 
 ascribed to Him a face and two hands, he considered 
 to be metaphors adapted to human intelligence. 
 Nevertheless, what the revelation makes known con- 
 cerning the things of the invisible world — namely, the 
 Pen, the Preserved Table, the Throne, the Footstool, 
 Paradise, and Hell — he thought, should be accepted in 
 their literal signification, because in such revelations 
 there is nothing absurd or incredible. Likewise, all 
 that is revealed in the Traditions regarding the future 
 life — namely, the examination in the grave, the bridge 
 into Paradise, the division of human kind into the 
 saved and the lost — must be received precisely as they 
 are written, and not explained away into metaphors. 
 
 Regarding the nature of the Koran, he taught that 
 the Word of God exists in the mind of God, and is, of 
 course, eternal and uncreated. The Koran is the 
 manifestation of this Word ; but the vocal sounds 
 
280 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 through which the Word was made known to the 
 Prophet, these being subject to the conditions of 
 time, are, necessarily, created. 
 
 But the main element in the system taught by al 
 Ashari is its uncompromising assertion of the sove- 
 reignty of God. He rejected, as impious, the notion 
 that there exists in man any light or standard whereby 
 to predict the actions of God. It is the merest folly 
 and presumption to say that the wicked man will be 
 punished in the next world because of his sins. His 
 judgment rests with God, and what sentence God will 
 pronounce upon him, can be known to God alone. He 
 may, out of mercy, forgive him ; it may be that the 
 Prophet will intercede for him, and God accept of that 
 intercession ; it may be that he will be punished for a 
 time, and then translated into heaven ; and it may be 
 that he will be plunged into the fire of hell, and there 
 remain for ever and ever. All these issues are pos- 
 sible, and we have no means of calculating which is 
 the likeliest. Arguing in the same spirit, he rejected 
 the notion that God must, of necessity, receive the 
 penitent sinner into favour, or deal with any man 
 according to what we should consider a spirit of 
 equity. Just and unjust are terms applicable only to 
 those who are subject to a law ; and God is above all 
 laws. True it is, that the Koran teaches us to expect 
 that the sincere repentance of a believer will be 
 accepted by God ; but we must not on that account 
 cease to remember that to commit " injustice " is im- 
 possible with God. For injustice means to act with 
 arbitrary caprice in a sphere where the actor has 
 
a.d. 941. HIS DOCTRINES. 281 
 
 no legitimate authority ; and God is the universal 
 ruler. 
 
 Al Ashari also emphatically rejected the contention 
 of the Free-thinkers, that the unassisted reason of man 
 can rise to a knowledge of good and evil, or have any 
 opinions whatever as to what is necessary, and what is 
 indifferent or optional. All duties are made known 
 through revelation. Without revelation man cannot 
 form a conception as to what he ought to do, or what 
 he ought not to do. Neither, apart from revelation, 
 has he any right to infer that in the next world what 
 he calls the good man will be rewarded, and what he 
 calls the bad man punished. These notions are the 
 results of a childish delusion which makes God subject 
 to the moral laws He has imposed upon His creatures. 
 But God is not subject to any such laws. There is no 
 existing thing that can demand an account from Him, 
 concerning His actions. But all existing things must 
 render an account to Him, and receive with meekness 
 and resignation whatever His sovereign will pleases 
 to inflict upon them. "Verily," says the Prophet, 
 " there are none in the heavens or in the earth but 
 shall approach the God of mercy as a slave." 
 
 The last word of Muhammadan theology is but an 
 amplification of that single text. 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE DECLINE OF THE 
 KHALIFATE. 
 
285 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LOSS OF TEMPORAL POWER. 
 A.D. 847—1050. 
 
 The name of Tartary has been given in Europe to that 
 immense region extending almost entirely across Asia 
 from the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Ocean. The most 
 eastern division of Tartary is the country of the Maut- 
 chous, which fills up the interval between China 
 and Siberia, having the Sea of Japan as its eastern 
 boundary, and the Hingun mountains as its western. 
 On the western limits of this division commence the 
 spacious plains roamed over by the tribes of Mongolia ; 
 and to the west, again, of Mongolia, is Independent 
 Tartary, comprising Bokhara, Khiva, Khokand, and 
 other small states. This part of Asia formed the home 
 of the Turcomans. According to the learned Chinese 
 scholar, De Guignes, the ancestors of these Turks or 
 Turcomans were a people dwelling to the north of the 
 northern provinces of China, and known to ancient 
 Chinese historians as " the Barbarians of the Moun- 
 tains." Two thousand years, he tells us, before the 
 birth of Christ, we obtain our first glimpse of this 
 people, living in tents pitched upon carts, and moving 
 in these travelling houses along the banks of the rivers, 
 
286 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 and over the plains which promised to furnish the best 
 pasture for their flocks. For the next fifteen hundred 
 years, only some fitful gleams — few and far between — 
 illuminate the obscurity of Chinese history, but we can 
 discern by the uncertain glimmer vast hordes of these 
 barbarians entering the northern provinces of China, 
 and spreading misery and devastation in every direc- 
 tion. The Great Wall of China was constructed 
 (b.c. 210) as a protection against their terrible raids. 
 When, at length, the daylight of historical knowledge 
 has arisen, we find these barbarians united into a great 
 and powerful nation under a single sovereign. For 
 two centuries and a half they continued to be the 
 scourge of the Chinese dominions. Advance towards 
 civilization they made none. They practised none of 
 the arts of sedentary life. They built no cities ; they 
 carried on no trade. They lived by plunder ; their 
 amusements were the chase and the foray. In their 
 dreadful and monotonous history, as pourtrayed by the 
 marvellous industry of De Ghiignes, we hear of nothing, 
 year after year, but huge swarms of horsemen travers- 
 ing the country, either pursuing or pursued, harrying, 
 plundering, and burning. So it goes on until the close 
 of the third century after Christ, when the reader is 
 greatly rejoiced to find that the barbarians have fallen 
 into a disunited and feeble condition ; that on all their 
 frontiers, hosts of infuriated Chinese are pressing in ; 
 that a terrible famine has come in to aid the avengers ; 
 that one great battle after another utterly breaks up 
 their power, and terminates " the Empire of the 
 Hioung Nou," after a duration of more than thir- 
 
a.d. 847. TURKISH MERCENARIES. 287 
 
 teen hundred years. Their very name was lost and 
 forgotten, a portion of the conquered people being 
 absorbed into other tribes, and a portion finding new 
 homes for themselves in what we now call Western or 
 Independent Tartary, where they became known by the 
 name of " Turks." 
 
 It was not until nearly the close of the first century 
 after the Hejira that the banners of Islam were carried 
 into the regions beyond the Oxus, and only after a great 
 deal of hard fighting that the oases of Bokhara and 
 Samarkand were annexed to the dominions of the 
 khalif. In these struggles, a large number of Turks 
 — men, women, and children — fell into the power of the 
 Moslems, and were scattered over Asia as slaves. The 
 women were remarkable for their beauty. " Ah !" 
 sighs Hafiz, in one of his lyrics, " if that Turkish girl 
 of Shiraz would but take possession of my heart, I 
 would give for the black mole on her cheek the riches 
 of Samarkand and Bokhara." The men were remark- 
 able for their commanding stature, and their courage 
 and hardihood in war. In course of time, they became 
 converts to Islam, and rose to positions of trust and 
 importance. 
 
 So early as the khalifate of the second Abbaside, 
 Turkish officers were enrolled in the imperial service ; 
 but the khalif Mamoun was the first sovereign who 
 conceived the idea of basing the royal power on a 
 foundation of regularly drilled Turkish soldiers. 
 Menaced by a Persian insurrection, if he leaned 
 for support upon the Arabs ; menaced, and indeed 
 assailed, by an Arab insurrection if he favoured the 
 
288 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Persians; he hoped to extricate himself from this 
 dilemma by the constitution of an Imperial bodyguard 
 composed of Turkish slaves. 
 
 This policy was adopted and greatly extended by 
 his brother and successor, al Mutasim. Under his 
 superintendence, the original bodyguard of four thou- 
 sand Turks was rapidly enlarged, until it numbered 
 seventy thousand men recruited from among the 
 provinces of Egypt and Afrikia, and from Ferghana, 
 Samarkand, and other regions lying beyond the Oxus. 
 The khalif's attachment to' these mercenary soldiers 
 awakened a bitter jealousy among his Arab subjects. 
 And in a.h. 223, a conspiracy was discovered among 
 his Arab Emirs, at the very moment it was ripe for 
 execution, which had for its object the deposition and 
 murder of al Mutasim, and the substitution in his 
 place of a son of the khalif Mamoun. The plot, how- 
 ever, was discovered, and the ringleaders executed; 
 and this abortive attempt had no other result than to 
 bind the khalif more closely than ever to his mercenary 
 soldiers. 
 
 The Turkish chiefs enjoyed a power of life and 
 death, which they exercised with the unsparing cruelty 
 characteristic of the race.* The soldiers treated the 
 
 * I give an example. " Al Afshin (the chief of the Turkish 
 officers) bore envy towards Abou Dulaf al Kasim ibn Isa, for his 
 knowledge of the pure Arabic language, and for his bravery. He 
 therefore plotted against him, and caused witness to be borne that 
 he had committed treason and murder. He then had him arrested 
 on a pretext he imagined, and having held a sitting to try him, he 
 ordered him to be brought forth along with the headsman that was 
 to pat him to death. When news of this reached ibn Abi Douad, 
 he instantly mounted his horse, set off with the notaries who hap- 
 
a.d. 847. TURKISH MERCENARIES. 289 
 
 population of Baghdad as so much dust beneath their 
 feet. A favourite amusement with them was to ride, 
 at full gallop, through the narrow and crowded bazaar, 
 trampling down old men, women, and children, and 
 the sick and infirm. The populace retaliated, mal- 
 treating or murdering every Turkish soldier whom 
 they found alone. Hence were occasioned bloody 
 riots and fighting in the streets. The people cursed 
 the khalif, who had let loose this scourge upon them ; 
 and upon one occasion, an old man seized the bridle of 
 al Mutasim's horse, and vehemently reproached him for 
 the miseries he was bringing upon the people entrusted 
 to his care. Al Mutasim, startled by the depth of 
 bitterness which this incident revealed, resolved to 
 abandon Baghdad, and erect a new capital for himself. 
 He pitched upon an open plain abutting on the Tigris, 
 but about eighty miles higher up the river than Bagh- 
 dad ; and there he built the city of Sir-man-rai, or 
 
 pened to be present at his tribunal, and came in on al Afshin, before 
 whom Abou Dulaf had just been led for execution. He then stopped 
 and said, ' I am a messenger to thee from the Commander of the 
 Faithful ; he commands thee to do no ill to al Kasim ibn Isa, and, 
 moreover, to give him up to me.' Turning then to the notaries, he 
 said, ' Bear witness that I have delivered to him the message sent 
 by the Commander of the Faithful, and that al Kasim is alive and in 
 health.' The notaries answered, ' We are witnesses thereof.' So 
 Afshin could not do al Kasim harm, and Ibn Abi Douad went 
 instantly to the khalif al Mutasim, and said, ' Commander of the 
 Faithful ! I have fulfilled in thy name a message which thou didst 
 not give me, yet I count it one of my best deeds, and through it I 
 hope for Paradise ! ' He then told him what had passed, and the 
 khalif approved his conduct ; and having sent for al Kasim, he set 
 him at liberty, and gave him a present. He then severely repri- 
 manded Afshin for having dared to act so." — Ibn Khali. JSiog. Did., 
 
 vol. i. p. 63. 
 
 19 
 
290 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Samarra, as a residence for himself and his mercenary 
 cohorts. This imprudent act reduced the Commander 
 of the Faithful to a helpless puppet in the hands of his 
 Turkish soldiery. At Baghdad there was a large and 
 courageous population, to whom, in case of need, the 
 khalif could make appeal; at Samarra there was 
 nothing. The chiefs of the bodyguard were supreme, 
 and could dispose, as they pleased, of the headship of 
 the Muhammadan world. The names of these chiefs 
 were Itach and Wassif. 
 
 On the death of Wathik, the son of Mutasim 
 (a.h. 232, a.d. 847), these two men proclaimed as 
 khalif a brother of the late sovereign, by name Jaafar. 
 He received the appellation of " Al Mutawakhil " (he 
 who relies upon God). I described in my last chapter 
 the well- conceived policy which enabled al Mutawakhil 
 to reign for fourteen years independently of the Turkish 
 chiefs. He would not, however, disband his mer- 
 cenaries, and in the end they succeeded in ridding 
 themselves of a sovereign whom they deemed insuffi- 
 ciently submissive. 
 
 Al Mutawakhil had conceived a deep dislike for the 
 elder of his two sons, and the natural inheritor of his 
 throne. He inflicted every sort of humiliation on 
 him. The name of the younger son was engraved on 
 the coinage ; when the khalif was unable to preside 
 at the public prayer, the younger of his two sons 
 officiated in his stead. The elder was reviled and 
 abused; in open durbar the khalif would overwhelm 
 him with opprobrious epithets, and upon one occasion 
 caused his favourite, al Fath ibn Khakan, to give the 
 
A.D. 8fil. MURDER OF AL MUTAWAKHIL. 291 
 
 prince a severe beating. These outrages at once terri- 
 fied and exasperated the young man ; and he entered 
 into a conspiracy with the chiefs of the Turkish body- 
 guard to murder his father, and mount the throne 
 himself. At the head of this conspiracy was a Turk 
 — Bogha the younger — the chamberlain of the palace. 
 He chose as the murderer of the khalif, a Turkish 
 soldier, Baguir by name. 
 
 Never had the khalif appeared gayer than on 
 that evening, which was to be his last in this life. 
 He had assembled around him his familiar friends, 
 his courtiers, and his singing girls ; and music and 
 revelry chased away the silence of the night hours. 
 Nevertheless those who were present, when looking 
 back upon the events of the evening, could recall more 
 than one incident which might have revealed that the 
 Angel of Death was present in that festive chamber. 
 The conversation turned upon the power and splendour 
 of the great kings of old, and the preternatural pride 
 engendered in them thereby. Suddenly the khalif 
 turned towards Mekka and prostrated himself in the 
 dust. Then he took up a handful of earth, and flung 
 it on his beard and on his head. "I am but the ser- 
 vant of God," he cried, "it is fitting that he who is to 
 return to dust should repudiate pride." The shadow 
 of the death angel was evidently upon him. But, pre- 
 sently, the sadness passed off. The wine-cup circled gaily 
 round ; the musicians and the singers recommenced 
 their strains ; and a piece was performed which was an 
 especial favourite of the khalif. But this night it 
 availed only to awaken a saddening remembrance. Al 
 
292 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Mutawakhil turned to his favourite, Fath ibn Khakan, 
 " Of all those," he said, "who heard that air when it 
 was first played, there remain none but you and I ;" 
 and he burst into tears. A second dismal foreboding. 
 At this moment a servant entered, bearing a robe of 
 incomparable beauty — a present to the khalif from a 
 beloved mistress. The khalif attired himself in it, and 
 seemed to be pleased ; but then, as if stung by a sud- 
 den thought, he tore the robe off his shoulders, and 
 rent it from one end to the other " Go ! ' he said to 
 the slave, " and restore this garment to your mistress, 
 and tell her to keep it as my winding-sheet." A third 
 omen more terrible than either which had preceded it. 
 But again the wine- cup circled, and the song and dance 
 went on hour after hour. 
 
 But three hours of the night still remained ; and 
 the khalif, overcome with wine, lay helpless on the 
 couch where he had been sitting. Suddenly, from 
 without, the ears of the revellers were startled by the 
 tramp of armed men ; Baguir entered the room, fol- 
 lowed by ten Turks. Their faces were veiled. Their 
 naked scimitars flashed fearfully in the glimmer of 
 the expiring lights. The pages, courtiers, dancers, 
 drinkers, and singers fled in consternation. The 
 murderers rushed straight to the couch where the 
 khalif lay extended in the heavy sleep of drunkenness. 
 His favourite Fath ibn Khakan alone remained to 
 defend or die with his master. For some moments 
 he succeeded in keeping the murderers at bay. There 
 was a terrible uproar ; the clash of the weapons 
 mingled with the shrieks of those who had fled from 
 
a.u. 961. MURDER OF AL MUTAWAKHIL. 293 
 
 the banqueting hall, and sought in vain for a way 
 of escape. Boglia the younger had closed every 
 avenue leading to the spot where the tragedy was 
 being enacted. Fath ibn Khakan was speedily cut 
 down and killed. The sharp edges of the Turkish 
 scimitars awoke the khalif from his drunken stupor. 
 The hall reverberated with his shrieks of pain and 
 terror. But soon all was over. The corpses of the 
 khalif and his favourite were rolled up in the carpet 
 on which they had just feasted and drunk, and flung 
 into a corner of the hall. There they remained, 
 unthought of or disregarded, till the evening of the 
 next day, when they were interred together. 
 
 The murder of the khalif Mutawakhil is the com- 
 mencement of a very dark and terrible period in the 
 history of Baghdad. It extends over a space of nearly 
 ninety years. During almost the whole of that period, 
 the fierce Turkish soldiery were the irresponsible rulers 
 of the ill-fated city. They set up what khalif they 
 pleased ; they imprisoned, blinded, poisoned, or hacked 
 him in pieces as soon as from any cause they became 
 weary of their choice. The streets of Baghdad, the 
 country round, were the scenes of incessant fighting 
 between the rival Turkish chiefs. Meanwhile, in the 
 empire around there happened what always does happen 
 during the declining years of a great Moslem empire. 
 The outlying provinces became virtually independent 
 states. The system of Islam is specially conducive to 
 this process of disintegration. Being, as it is, merely 
 a multitude of rules, so long as those rules are en- 
 forced, the inhabitants of a province have no motive to 
 
294 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 prefer one ruler to another. The man who can enforce 
 order and suppress rivals is at once recognized as the 
 divinely-commissioned ruler, though he be, as one of 
 the Traditions puts it, "a negro slave with his ears 
 and nose cut off." This ready submission to victorious 
 force, while it provokes ambitious spirits to rise 
 against constituted authority, powerfully counteracts 
 the anarchy which would otherwise proceed from these 
 incessant resolutions. Thus, while in Baghdad one 
 phantom khalif after another rose and vanished, in 
 Khorasan, in Egypt, in Northern Africa, military ad- 
 venturers set up kingdoms, which attained to no small 
 degree of greatness and prosperity. But in the capital 
 itself matters went on from bad to worse. In the year 
 329 (a.d. 942), the Turkish chiefs put up the khalifate 
 for sale; and after a great deal of haggling, it was 
 purchased by a certain Abou Isfaak Ibrahim, who then 
 assumed the title of the " God-fearing " (al Mottaki). 
 Further to replenish their funds, the Turkish chiefs 
 allowed a celebrated robber, Hamdi, to exercise his 
 profession without molestation, on the condition that he 
 made a monthly payment into the Treasury of twenty- 
 five thousand dinars. On this admirable servant of 
 the State, the "God-fearing" bestowed a robe of 
 honour. In the same year a frightful famine deso- 
 lated the country round Baghdad. The mortality was 
 so great that the dead were flung without care or cere- 
 mony into a common trench. The wives of the khalif 
 fled famished from the harem, and sat by the wayside 
 to implore the passers-by for a morsel of food. At 
 this fearful time, the Turkish chiefs did not scruple to 
 
A.D. 942. SUBSEQUENT ANARCHY. 295 
 
 levy an enormous tax on wheat, barley, and vegetables, 
 though the prices were already enormous ; while the 
 unpaid soldiery were allowed to spread over the culti- 
 vated country, and carry off the harvest just as it was 
 ripe for the sickle. 
 
 A frightful corruption of morals everywhere pre- 
 vailed. Several of the khalifs, within the narrow area 
 where their authority was dominant, were veritable 
 incarnations of evil and ferocity. Thus, one sovereign 
 — al Mutadhid — converted his palace into a human 
 slaughterhouse, where scenes of indescribable horror 
 were enacted. He was one of those royal monsters 
 who are to be found not unfrequently in Oriental 
 history. Raised above the reach of public censure, smv 
 rounded with slaves, whose lives are, as it were, in the 
 hollow of his hand, the Oriental despot seldom escapes 
 the fury of his own evil passions. He feeds them into 
 madness, and then becomes their victim. He plunges 
 into sensuality, as it were into a bath, and when his 
 jaded appetites crave for some other stimulus, he seeks 
 after a zest and relish for life in the contemplation of 
 human agony. Evil becomes his good. Such a man was 
 the khalif al Mutadhid. He delighted in the spectacle 
 of human suffering. He caused his wives and his slaves 
 to be slaughtered before him, in order to watch their 
 dying pains. Some were roasted upon spits ; some 
 transfixed with arrows ; some had their heads buried 
 in the earth, their bodies extending upwards ; others, 
 again, were put to death in ways too revolting to 
 describe. Thus he reigned and acted for the space of 
 nine years, when he went mad. He supposed himself 
 
29G THE KHALIFS OP BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 to be haunted day and night by a spirit from the other 
 world; and the people declared the spirit to be a 
 demon from hell, who recognized a congenial spirit in 
 the bloodthirsty khalif. Of another khalif — al Kahir 
 — we are told that he was exceedingly cruel. He never 
 moved from room to room of his palace without carry- 
 ing in his hand a long spear. With this he transfixed 
 his slaves and attendants if they caused him the least 
 displeasure, and often without other pretext than the 
 desire to slay some one. 
 
 The followers of the Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, who 
 were numerous in Baghdad, declared that the sufferings 
 of the Faithful were due to the lax observance of the 
 precepts of the Prophet. This was true enough ; but 
 these well-meaning people were anxious only to make 
 clean the outside of the cup and platter. They only 
 aimed to reproduce an exact conformity with the rites 
 of Islam. For this purpose they formed themselves 
 into vigilance committees, to discover who neglected 
 the stated times of prayer, who kept musical instru- 
 ments in his house, and so forth. Their furious and 
 misdirected zeal greatly aggravated the sufferings of 
 the wretched people. The heel of the oppressor was 
 not removed from their necks ; but many means of 
 solace were banished from their homes. Private houses 
 were broken into to search for wine and musical instru- 
 ments ; people suspected of being proficients in the 
 wicked arts of dancing and singing were assaulted and 
 beaten ; all feasting and signs of merriment were 
 sternly repressed. These measures proved, however, 
 ineffectual to restore order and peace. Half of the 
 
a.d. 945. AHMAD IBN BOUYEH. 297 
 
 once beautiful and flourishing city was now a mass of 
 unpeopled ruins ; and the citizens, seeing no other 
 means of escape from the tyranny and lawlessness of 
 the Turks, secretly applied to Ahmad ibn Bouyeh, a 
 successful military adventurer, to take possession of 
 the capital of Islam. In response to this invitation, 
 Ahmad set out from Ahwaz, and marching upon 
 Baghdad, obtained possession of the city without 
 having to fight a battle, (a.h. 334, a.d. 945.) 
 
 The princes of the House of Bouyeh ruled in Bagh- 
 dad until the year 447 (a.d. 1050), when they gave 
 way to another and a mightier conqueror, Togrul Beg, 
 the Seljuk chief. But the accession of Ahmad to 
 the supremacy in Baghdad is a noteworthy event in 
 Moslem history, as the period when the khalif made a 
 formal renunciation of his temporal dominion, remain- 
 ing simply the Imam, or spiritual head of the Faithful. 
 This, therefore, will be a fitting place to explain, at 
 greater length than I have yet done, the ideas embodied 
 in the person of the khalif. 
 
 Royalty, according to Moslem philosophical writers, 
 is an institution based on the necessity of things. Men 
 gather together in order to procure for themselves the 
 means of subsistence. But this desire for subsistence 
 impels them to tear from each other by violence what- 
 ever each man requires, or fancies he requires, for the 
 support of his own life. The unchecked indulgence of 
 this rapacity produces anarchy, and impedes the objects 
 for which men have associated together. Therefore, 
 men were prompted to choose a king from among 
 themselves, whose mandates all were to obey, and 
 
298 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 whose function it was to preserve order and good will 
 among his subjects. When such an election has been 
 made, an empire has been founded. But the elected 
 king frequently falls into evil ways, and pursues a 
 course of conduct fraught with mischief to his sub- 
 jects. He imposes taxes upon them which they are 
 unable to bear ; then they rebel : then ensue wars, 
 revolutions, rapine, disorder; in short, there is a 
 relapse into that anarchic condition from which the 
 election of a king was thought to have sufficed as a 
 redemption. From this experience men learned that, 
 in addition to a king, they must have a code of laws 
 which both king and subjects are bound to obey. This 
 is what was done by the Persians and other nations. 
 These codes were the work of wise men skilled in the 
 art of legislation. They were founded upon principles 
 sanctioned by the reason. But a code of this descrip- 
 tion is obviously defective, because it is an attempt to 
 see without aid from the light of God ; and it is written 
 in the Koran that " he to whom God has not imparted 
 His light is buried in darkness " (Sura xxiv. 40). The 
 inspired legislator alone knows what is best fitting for 
 the welfare of men, because he knows the rule of con- 
 duct which will profit them upon the great day of 
 judgment. Such a legislator was Muhammad. His 
 laws are bright with the "light of God." He held the 
 keys of both worlds ; and his laws conduct the diligent 
 observer of them to everlasting felicity. When he died, 
 the khalifs, his successors, became his delegates or 
 lieutenants. They were also termed Imams, or leaders. 
 When an assembly of Moslems meet together for 
 
A.D. 945. DUTIES OF A KHALIF. 299 
 
 prayer, an Imam is chosen, who leads the prayer, and 
 the congregation regulate their motions by his, pros- 
 trating themselves when he does so, and rising when 
 he rises. In like manner, the khalif is set up on high 
 as the Imam, or leader of the Faithful, in all the busi- 
 ness of life. He must be a scrupulous observer of the 
 law himself, and diligent in enforcing it upon others. 
 
 The election of an Imam is imperative. Certain 
 audacious Free-thinkers and obstinate Separatists have 
 denied this. But the general agreement of Moslems 
 since the foundation of Islam is a sufficient refutation 
 of this monstrous opinion, which is as contrary to 
 human reason as to revelation. And the Koran speaks 
 with no uncertain voice on this matter. In the sixty- 
 second verse of the fourth Sura, God says, " Obey 
 God and His Prophet, and those of your people who 
 exercise government over you." The latter clause 
 would be devoid of meaning if there was no Imam or 
 khalif. 
 
 The qualities requisite in an Imam are four: know- 
 ledge, integrity, mental and physical soundness. 
 Knowledge is necessary in order to administer the law 
 of God aright ; the nomination of an ignorant Imam 
 is invalid. Integrity is indispensable, because the 
 Imamate is a religious dignity. The mental soundness 
 of an Imam is a thing essential, because he is the 
 leader of the people in war ; and the conduct of war 
 requires courage, foresight, and force of character. 
 For a similar reason, his body, and his limbs, and organs 
 of sense, must be free from imperfection. Madness, 
 blindness, deafness, dumbness, render a man unfit for 
 
300 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 the position of Imam, as also the loss of a hand or 
 arm, a foot or a leg. The Imam ought, too, to be a 
 member of the tribe of Kuraish, and chosen by a free 
 vote of the citizens of Mekka and Medina. Hardly 
 any of the khalifs fulfilled all these conditions, and 
 consequently, among strict Moslems, it is a doctrine 
 that Islam has been administered by only four veritable 
 Imams — the "rightly-guided khalifs": Abou Bekr, 
 Omar, Othman, and Ali. But the Muhammadan 
 world, in general, was not so exacting. They 
 recognized the Commander of the Faithful in the 
 prince who ruled with the title of khalif in Damas- 
 cus or Baghdad, in Cordova or Kairo. The one 
 condition absolutely essential was that the sovereign 
 thus reigning should be a member of the tribe of 
 Kuraish. 
 
 No regal splendour encircled the "rightly directed" 
 khalifs. They were the administrators of the Divine 
 law ; but that august duty was not regarded as one 
 which, socially, raised the khalif above his former com- 
 panions. He, and they, alike were the servants of 
 Allah. There was no difference between them; and 
 the smallest deviation from the instructions of the 
 Divine law was deemed sufficient to deprive the khalif 
 of the obedience of the Faithful. Thus, it is related, 
 that upon a certain occasion, the khalif Omar was 
 about to address the people assembled in the Mosque 
 at Medina, when a man stepped forward, and declared 
 that they did not intend any longer to accept Omar as 
 their leader. " Wherefore not?" asked the astonished 
 khalif. The man then explained that a partition of 
 
A.D. 945. NATURE OF HIS DIGNITY. 301 
 
 plunder had been made a few days ago, and among 
 other things of a piece of cloth. Now he (the speaker) 
 had obtained a portion of this cloth, and he knew it 
 was not sufficient to make a garment, because he had 
 tried ; whereas he now saw Omar wearing a garment 
 of this identical material ; it was, therefore, manifest 
 that Omar had made an unfair division of the plunder, 
 and, by so doing, forfeited his position as Imam. 
 Omar acknowledged the apparent justice of this 
 criticism, but explained that a friend of his had added 
 his piece of cloth to the portion allotted to the khalif, 
 and thus enabled him to make the suspicious garment 
 he was at that moment wearing. The friend named 
 having corroborated this statement, the man in the 
 crowd consented to withdraw his motion, and the 
 general harmony was restored. 
 
 The khalifs of Damascus very speedily laid aside 
 this primitive simplicity. They lived in spacious 
 palaces, and fared sumptuously; they surrounded 
 themselves with multitudes of guards and state officials. 
 But they assumed nothing of the priestly character. 
 They professed, like their predecessors, the " rightly- 
 directed khalifs," to be merely administrators of a law 
 already complete. With the Persian revolution these 
 simple ideas underwent a change. The Persians 
 regarded the possessor of sovereign power as animated 
 by something of a Divine life, in virtue of his birth. 
 This Divine life they supposed to be incarnate in the 
 khalifs of the House of Abbas on account of their 
 descent from the Prophet. The new notion of 
 sovereignty became apparent in the creation of the 
 
302 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 office of vizier. This was. an office borrowed from the 
 old Sassanian kingdom. The title vizier is derived 
 from a word which signifies, he who bears the weight ; 
 and the idea embodied in this office is that of a medi- 
 ator between the sovereign and his subjects. The 
 khalif or Imam, withdrawn from all active participation 
 in the affairs of state, was regarded as a channel of 
 Divine power, to legalise and sanctify the acts of 
 others. By delegation, the vizier was clothed in all 
 the authority of the Imam ; while the purity of the 
 Imam escaped the danger of being sullied by any 
 breaches of the Divine law committed by the vizier. 
 The vizier thus was all-powerful. But his was a 
 power derived wholly and exclusively from the khalif. 
 A breath could slay him, as a breath had made. Thus 
 we are told concerning Abou Eyoub, a vizier of the 
 khalif al Man sour, that for a long period he never 
 went into the presence of the sovereign without fears 
 for his life — al Mansour, without apparent cause, 
 having contracted a great aversion to him. But as 
 day after day he withdrew unharmed, it was said that 
 he had an ointment prepared by a magical operation, 
 with which he rubbed his eyes before he entered. This 
 idea got such credence among the people that Abou 
 Eyoub* s ointment became a current expression. One 
 day as he was holding a public sitting, a messenger 
 came to him from the khalif. On seeing him, Abou 
 Eyoub turned pale ; and when the man had retired, 
 the bystanders expressed astonishment at the signs 
 of fear exhibited by the vizier, who at that time was in 
 high favour with his master. On this Abou Eyoub 
 
A.i). 045. THE OFFICE OF VIZIER. 303 
 
 repeated to them the following fable : " It is related 
 that the falcon said to the cock, ' There is not on 
 earth a more ungrateful animal than you are ! ' 'Why 
 so ? ' said the cock. ' Because your masters took you 
 when yet in the shell, and had you hatched, bringing 
 you thus into the world ; they fed you with their 
 hands, and you remained among them till you grew 
 up ; but now, not one of them can go near you with- 
 out your flying to this side and that, and screaming 
 out. As for me, I was taken from the mountains when 
 already aged, and they instructed me, and tamed me ; 
 then they let me go, and I catch game in the air, 
 which I bring to my master.' To this the cock 
 answered, ' Had you seen as many falcons on the 
 spit and ready for roasting as I have seen cocks, you 
 would be even more fearful than I.' And you, my 
 friends," continued the vizier, " did you know what I 
 know, you would not wonder at my being afraid even 
 in the height of the favour which you see me enjoy." 
 The presentiments of Abou Eyoub proved very true. 
 The khalif's wrath at last fell upon him ; he was 
 deprived of his property, after the infliction of tortures 
 so severe, that he died shortly after from the cruel 
 effects of them. 
 
 As the temporal power of the khalifate waned, the 
 priestly ideas connected with the office of the Imam 
 obtained greater precision and importance. The ad- 
 venturers who rose to power in the provinces salved 
 their consciences, and stilled the murmurs of their 
 subjects, by obtaining from the reigning khalif a formal 
 investiture in the power their right hands had achieved. 
 
304 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 Under the Bouide princes the khalif, for the first time, 
 made a formal renunciation of his temporal power, 
 even within the area of Baghdad. He conferred upon 
 his deliverer, Ahmad, the title of Moizz ad Dawlat, 
 which signifies he who causes the State to flourish. 
 He publicly constituted him the Sultan, or Chief 
 Guardian of the State ; he caused him to be clothed 
 in a royal robe, and with his own hands placed a 
 diadem upon his head ; his name was stamped upon the 
 coinage, and inserted in the public prayers immediately 
 after that of the khalif. 
 
 Henceforth the khalif lived in mysterious seclusion 
 — the supreme Pontiff or High Priest of Islam. The 
 possessor of this dignity was, as before, liable to depo- 
 sition, liable to murder ; he was frequently subjected to 
 insult and indignity ; but the sense of his spiritual power 
 seems to have grown deeper and more awe-inspiring, 
 as the vessel of clay which contained it became weaker 
 and weaker. No victorious soldier could call his con- 
 quests his own, until his authority had been ratified by 
 the khalif; and Mahmoud of Ghuznee, in the pleni- 
 tude of his power, felt that his greatness lacked solidity 
 and foundation, until he had sought and received the 
 robe of investiture from the powerless Imam resident 
 in Baghdad. 
 
 The seclusion in which the khalifs lived deepened 
 with the lapse of years ; so that when the rabbi Ben- 
 jamin of Tudela visited that city, he found that only 
 once a year were the citizens gratified by the appear- 
 ance in public of the Imam of Islam Of this solitary 
 appearance, as well as of Baghdad, he gives a descrip- 
 
a.d. 945. BENJAMIN OF TUDELA. 305 
 
 tion,* which a historian of Islam is bound to quote at 
 length : — 
 
 "The palace of the khalif at Baghdad is three miles 
 in extent. It contains a large park of all sorts of trees, 
 both useful and ornamental, and all sorts of beasts, as 
 well as a pond of water led thither from the river Tigris; 
 and whenever the khalif desires to enjoy himself and to 
 sport and to carouse, birds, beasts, and fishes are pre- 
 pared for him and for his councillors, whom he invites 
 to his palace. This great Abbasside is extremely kind 
 towards the Jews, many of his officers being of that 
 nation. He understands all languages, is well versed 
 in the Mosaic law, and reads and writes the Hebrew 
 language. He enjoys nothing but what he earns by 
 the labour of his own hands, and therefore manufac- 
 tures coverlets, which he stamps with his seal, and 
 which his officers sell in the public market. These 
 articles are purchased by the nobles of the land, and 
 from their produce his necessaries are provided. The 
 khalif is an excellent man, trustworthy and kind-hearted 
 towards everyone, but generally invisible to the Muham- 
 madans. The pilgrims which come hither from, distant 
 countries on their way to Mekka in Yemen, desire to be 
 presented to him, and thus address him from the palace : 
 1 Our Lord, light of the Muhammadans and splendour of 
 
 * J have quoted the rabbi at this place, in order to throw 
 
 into a consecutive shape what I desired to say on the khalifate; 
 
 but the rabbi did not visit Baghdad until a century and a half after 
 
 the capture of Baghdad by the Bouide prince. Two successive 
 
 khalifs had then been murdered by assassins, and this had partly 
 
 been the oceasion of the jealous seclusion in which they passed their 
 
 lives. 
 
 20 
 
30G THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. t. 
 
 our religion, show us the brightness of thy counte- 
 nance ;' but he heeds not their words. His servants and 
 officers then approach and pray, '0 Lord! manifest 
 thy peace to those men, who come from distant lands, 
 and desire shelter in the shadow of thy glory ;' and 
 after such petition he rises and puts one corner of his 
 garment out of the window, which is eagerly kissed by 
 the pilgrims. One of the lords then addresses them 
 thus : ' Go in peace, for our Lord, the light of the 
 Muhammadans, is well pleased, and gives you his 
 blessing.' This prince being esteemed by them equal 
 to their Prophet, they proceed on their way, full of joy 
 at the words addressed to them by the lord who com- 
 municated the message of peace. 
 
 " All the brothers and other members of the khalifs 
 family are accustomed to kiss his garments, and every 
 one of them possesses a palace within that of the khalif ; 
 but they are all fettered by chains of iron, and a special 
 officer is appointed over every household to prevent 
 their rising in rebellion against the great king. These 
 measures are enacted in consequence of an occurrence 
 which took place some time ago, and upon which occa- 
 sion the brothers rebelled and elected a king among 
 themselves. To prevent this in future, it was decreed 
 that all the members of the khalifs family should be 
 chained, in order to prevent their rebellious intentions. 
 Everyone of them, however, resides in his palace, is 
 there much honoured, and they possess villages and 
 towns, the rents of which are collected for them by 
 their stewards ; they eat and drink, and lead a merry 
 life 
 
a.d. 945. DESCRIPTION OF BAGHDAD. 307 
 
 " The palace of the great king contains large 
 buildings, pillars of gold and silver, and treasures of 
 precious stones. The khalif leaves his palace but once 
 every year, viz., at the time of the feast called Rama- 
 dan. Upon this occasion many visitors assemble from 
 distant parts, in order to have an opportunity of be- 
 holding his countenance. He then bestrides the royal 
 mule, dressed in kingly robes, which are composed of 
 gold and silver cloth. On his head he wears a turban, 
 ornamented with precious stones of inestimable value ; 
 but over this turban is thrown a black veil, as a sign of 
 humility, and as much as to say : ' See, all this worldly 
 honour will be converted into darkness on the day of 
 death.' He is accompanied by a numerous retinue of 
 Muhammadan nobles, arrayed in rich dresses, and 
 riding upon horses ; princes of Arabia, of Media, of 
 Persia, and even of Thibet, a country distant three 
 months' journey from Arabia. This procession goes 
 from the Palace to the Mosque on the Basra gate, 
 which is the Metropolitan Mosque. All those who 
 walk in procession are dressed in silk and purple, both 
 men and women. The streets and squares are en- 
 livened by singing, rejoicings, and by parties who dance 
 before the great king, called khalif. He is loudly 
 saluted by the assembled crowd, who cry, ' Blessed art 
 thou, our lord and king.' He thereupon kisses his 
 garment, and by holding it in his hand, acknowledges 
 and returns the compliment. The procession moves 
 on into the court of the Mosque, where the khalif 
 mounts a wooden pulpit, and expounds their law unto 
 them. The learned Muhammadans rise, pray for him, 
 
308 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. i. 
 
 and praise his great kindness and piety; upon which the 
 whole assembly answer, ' Amen.' He then pronounces 
 his blessing and kills a camel, which is led thither for 
 that purpose, and this is their offering, which is dis- 
 tributed to the nobles. These send portions of it to 
 their friends, who are eager to taste of the meat 
 killed by the hands of their holy king, and are much 
 rejoiced therewith. He then leaves the Mosque, and 
 returns alone to his palace, along the banks of the 
 Tigris, the noble Muhammadans accompanying him 
 in boats until he enters this building. He never 
 returns by the way he came, and the path on the 
 bank of the river is carefully guarded all the year 
 round, so as to prevent anyone treading in his foot- 
 steps. The khalif never leaves his palace again for a 
 whole year. 
 
 " He is a pious and benevolent man, and has erected 
 buildings on the other side of the river, on the banks of 
 an arm of the Euphrates which runs on one side of the 
 city. These buildings include many large houses, 
 streets, and hostelries for the sick poor, who resort 
 thither in order to be cured. There are about sixty 
 medical warehouses here, all well provided from the 
 king's stores with spices and other necessaries ; and 
 every patient who claims assistance is fed at the king's 
 expense until his cure is completed. There is further 
 the large building called Dar-ul-Maraphtan (the abode 
 of the insane), in which are locked up all those insane 
 persons who are met with, particularly during the hot 
 season, every one of whom is secured by iron chains 
 until his reason returns, when he is allowed to return 
 
a.o. 945. JEWS IN BAGHDAD. 309 
 
 to his home. For this purpose they are regularly 
 examined once a month by the king's officers appointed 
 for that purpose ; and when they are found to be pos- 
 sessed of reason, they are immediately liberated. All 
 this is done by the king in pure charity, towards all 
 who come to Baghdad, either ill or insane, for the king 
 is a pious man, and his intention is excellent in this 
 respect. Baghdad is inhabited by about one thousand 
 Jews, who enjoy peace, comfort, and much honour 
 under the government of the great king. Among 
 them are very wise men and presidents of the colleges, 
 whose occupation is the study of the Mosaic law. The 
 city contains ten colleges ; the principal of the great 
 college is the Rabbi R. Sh'muel Ben Eli, principal of 
 the college Geon Ja'acob. The provost of the Levites 
 is the president of the second ; R. Daniel the master 
 of the third college ; R. El'asar, the fellow, presides 
 over the fourth; R. El'asar Ben Tremach the fifth 
 college. He is master of the studies, and possesses a 
 pedigree of his descent from the Prophet Sh'muel, who 
 rests in peace, and he and his brothers know the melo- 
 dies that were sung in the Temple during its existence. 
 R. Chasadiah, principal fellow, is the master of the 
 sixth ; R. Chagai, the prince, the principal of the 
 seventh ; and R. Esra, the president of the eighth col- 
 lege; R. Abraham, called Abou Tahir, presides over 
 the ninth ; and R. Sakhai B. Bosthenai, master of the 
 studies, over the tenth college. All these are called 
 " the Idle," because their sole occupation consists in the 
 discharge of public business. During every day of the 
 week they dispense justice to all the Jewish inhabitants 
 
310 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I. 
 
 of the country, except on Monday, which is set aside 
 for assemblies under the presidency of the Rabbi 
 Sh'muel, master of the college Geon Ja'acob, who on 
 that day dispenses justice to every applicant, and is 
 assisted therein by the ten Batlamin (the idle) presi- 
 dents of the colleges. 
 
 " The principal of all these, however, is R. Daniel 
 Ben Chisdai, who bears the titles of ' Prince of the 
 Captivity ' and ' Lord,' and who possesses a pedigree 
 which proves his descent from King David. The Jews 
 call him ' Lord Prince of the Captivity,' and the Mu- 
 hammadans, s noble descendant of David ;' and he 
 holds great command over all Jewish congregations 
 under the authority of the Commander of the Faithful, 
 who has commanded to respect him, and has confirmed 
 his power by granting him a seal of office. Every one 
 of his subjects, whether he be Jew or Muhammadan, 
 or of any other faith, is commanded to rise in the 
 presence of the Prince of the Captivity, and to salute 
 him respectfully, under penalty of one hundred stripes. 
 Whenever he pays a visit to the king, he is escorted 
 by numerous horsemen, both Jews and Gentiles, and a 
 crier commands aloud, ' Make way before our Lord, 
 the son of David, as becomes his dignity !' Upon 
 these occasions he rides upon a horse, and his dress is 
 composed of embroidered silk ; on his head he wears a 
 large turban, covered by a white cloth, and surmounted 
 
 by a chain or diadem. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " The Prince of the Captivity possesses hostelries, 
 gardens, and orchards in Babylonia, and extensive 
 
a.d. 945. JEWS IN BAGHDAD. oil 
 
 landed property inherited from his forefathers, of 
 which nobody dares deprive him. He enjoys a certain 
 yearly income from the Jewish hostelries, the markets, 
 and the merchandise of the country, which is levied in 
 form of a tax, over and above what is presented to him 
 from foreign countries ; the man is very rich, an 
 excellent scholar, and so hospitable that numerous 
 Israelites dine at his table every day. 
 
 " At the time of the installation of the Prince of 
 the Captivity, he spends considerable sums in presents 
 to the king or khalif, his princes and nobles. The 
 ceremony is performed by the act of the laying on of 
 the hands of king or khalif, after which the prince 
 rides home from the king's abode to his own house, 
 seated in a royal state carriage, and accompanied by 
 the sound of variou° musical instruments ; he after- 
 wards lays his hands on the gentlemen of the 
 university. 
 
 " Many of the Jews of Baghdad are good scholars, 
 and very rich ; the city contains twenty-eight Jewish 
 synagogues, situated partly in Baghdad and partly in 
 al Kharkh on the other side of the river Tigris, which 
 runs through and divides the city. The metropolitan 
 synagogue of the Prince of the Captivity is ornamented 
 with pillars of richly-coloured marble, plated with gold 
 and silver ; on the pillars are inscribed verses of the 
 Psalms in letters of gold. The ascent to the holy ark 
 is composed of ten marble steps, on the uppermost of 
 which are the stalls set apart for the Prince of the 
 Captivity and the other princes of the House of 
 David. 
 
312 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap, i 
 
 " The circumference of the city of Baghdad mea- 
 sures three miles ; the country in which it is situated 
 is rich in palm-trees, gardens, and orchards, so that 
 nothing equals it in Mesopotamia ; merchants of all 
 countries resort thither for purposes of trade, and it 
 contains many wise philosophers well skilled in 
 sciences, and magicians proficient in all sorts of 
 witchcraft." 
 
313 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SELJUK SULTANS. 
 a.d. 1050—1093. 
 
 When the Empire of the " Barbarians of the Moun- 
 tains " to the north of China was broken up, the 
 fragments had been cast all over the northern and 
 central parts of Asia. A part had been absorbed into 
 other tribes, and lost their name and distinguishing 
 characteristics ; a part had emigrated westward, pene- 
 trating as far as the steppes of the Volga, and displacing 
 there the tribes which overwhelmed the declining Roman 
 Empire ; another portion, as we mentioned in a pre- 
 vious chapter, was known to the Greek Empire and 
 the Muhammadans, as the Turkish nation; still 
 another fragment remained in Siberia, where they 
 took or acquired the name of the Hoei-ke. They 
 remained in Siberia until they had become a numerous 
 nation, when they moved southward, towards the 
 northern frontiers of China. During the sixth century 
 they were subjugated by the khans of the western 
 Turks ; but the barbarities of their conquerors drove 
 them into rebellion, and after a fierce and protracted 
 struggle, they wrested a large extent of territory from 
 the Turks, and laid the foundation of an empire which 
 
314 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. 1L 
 
 eventually extended over the whole of Eastern Tartary. 
 They were divided into fifteen hordes, each of which 
 was ruled by its own chief. They lived under their 
 tents with countless flocks and herds, and fed upon the 
 milk and flesh of their cattle. In a.d. 646 they placed 
 themselves under the protection of the Chinese Empire. 
 The Emperor sent into their country about a thousand 
 Chinese officers, who divided the country into divi- 
 sions, allotting one to the chief of each horde. Sixty- 
 eight posts were also established across the country, 
 where provisions were always kept ready for the use 
 of travellers. Though troubled with frequent revolts, 
 the authority of the Chinese Emperor was acknow- 
 ledged by the Hoei-ke until about the middle of the 
 eighth century. About that time the khan of one 
 of the hordes had succeeded in establishing an un- 
 questioned supremacy over all. He had also greatly 
 extended the limits of his empire, and he wrung from 
 the Chinese government an acknowledgment of his 
 independence. His dominions were bounded on the 
 west by the river Irtisch and the Altai mountains, 
 and on the east by the river Amoor. His son, Kole 
 Khan, was able to render the most brilliant services to 
 the Chinese Emperor. He marched an army into the 
 Northern Provinces, and crushed with fearful slaughter 
 a formidable insurrection. He was rewarded with the 
 hand of an Imperial Princess. 
 
 But the alliance of these barbarians was never, at 
 best, more than a broken reed to depend upon. The 
 weight of a feather was sufficient to convert them from 
 friends to enemies. Ten years later we hear of an 
 
a.d. 1050. THE SELJUK TURKS. 315 
 
 immense swarm of Hoei-ke carrying fire and sword 
 through the province of Chausi. 
 
 Up to this time the Hoei-ke had lived with the 
 simplicity common to all Tartars. There was no 
 difference between the prince and the people ; but 
 intercourse with the Chinese court corrupted this 
 primitive simplicity. The khans abandoned the old 
 customs; they built grand palaces, and caused their 
 wives to be magnificently attired. 
 
 Another century (a.d. 856) passed with the old 
 monotonous catalogue of wars and massacres — forays 
 into the Chinese dominions — desperate reprisals ; one 
 khan after another dying in battle, or falling beneath 
 the dagger of an assassin. At last the dim outlines of 
 a more than commonly desperate struggle between the 
 two nations come into vision like a landscape seen 
 through driving snow. Among the valleys of the hills 
 which surround Lake Konor, the Chinese troops have 
 hemmed in their retreating and wearied enemy. The 
 Hoei-ke are cut to pieces ; their prince is wounded ; 
 ten thousand prisoners are beheaded on the battle- 
 field ; and their empire is extinguished in the blood of 
 that disastrous struggle. 
 
 A remnant, however, of the hordes retired west- 
 ward, and founded a new kingdom, which extended 
 from Kashgar to the frontiers of the Empire of Islam 
 beyond the Oxus. This neighbourhood made them 
 acquainted with the religion of Unity ; and a traveller 
 who visited their country shortly after the death of 
 the khalif al Mutasim, found that the greater part of 
 the people had become Muhammadans. An internal 
 
316 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 dispute resulted in a fraction of these hordes sepa- 
 rating themselves from the main body, and, under the 
 guidance of a celebrated warrior named Seljuk, emi- 
 grating in a mass into the Muhammadan dominions 
 lying beyond the Oxus. The dynasty of the Saman- 
 ides at this time ruled in Bokhara, and they allotted 
 pasture lands to the wild shepherds, who were known 
 in their new country by the name of " Seljukides." 
 Here they lived, their numbers increasing with extra- 
 ordinary rapidity ; but preserving, in the midst of 
 luxury and refinement, the simple barbarism which 
 they had brought with them from their distant homes 
 on the banks of the Irtisch. They were loyal and 
 useful subjects of the Samanide princes ; and their 
 prowess in battle made good the frontier of Bokhara 
 against the unbelieving hordes beyond it, who were 
 continually striving to break in and plunder the rich 
 and flourishing oasis. 
 
 It was after the fall of the Samanides, that 
 Mahmoud of Ghuznee committed the fatal error of com- 
 pelling these barbarians to cross the Oxus, and settle 
 in the waste lands of Khorasan. His vizier, Arslan, 
 in vain pointed out the disastrous consequence of this 
 fatal measure. The Sultan was inflexible, and the 
 vizier, it is said, actually sickened and died at the 
 thought of the calamities preparing for Asia at the 
 hands of these fierce barbarians. Some conception of 
 their numbers may be formed from an anecdote which 
 is related by Mirkhond. The Sultan Mahmoud in- 
 quired of Israil, the son of Seljuk, how many cavalry, 
 in the event of an emergency, they could send to his 
 
a.d. 1050. THEIR NUMEROUS CAVALRY. 317 
 
 assistance. The young Turk drew an arrow from the 
 quiver suspended from his shoulder, and laying it 
 before the Sultan, said, " Send that, and one hundred 
 thousand horse will hasten to your aid." " And if 
 more were wanted ? " The youth drew forth a second 
 arrow. " This," said he, "would bring fifty thousand 
 more." "And if the crisis were still imminent ?" The 
 young leader then laid his whole quiver at the feet of 
 the Sultan. " Send that, and two hundred thousand 
 cavalry will speed to your assistance." The Sultan, it 
 is said, trembled at these words ; but the rash deed 
 had been done past recall. It was beyond his power 
 to drive these strangers back again across the Oxus. 
 They continued to increase in strength, ranging with 
 their flocks and herds over the broad plains about the 
 city of Merou. Three grandsons of Seljuk — Togrul 
 Beg, Bigou, and Jaafar ibn Daoud — ruled over them. 
 Fresh emigrations from the uplands, where originally 
 they had their home, further swelled their numbers. 
 The lands where at first they had been settled, 
 rapidly became too limited to afford pasturage for 
 their flocks. Great hordes, in consequence, broke away 
 from the main body, and wandered, some in the direc- 
 tion of Ispahan, others into the province of Azerbaizan. 
 This vast roving population, moving amid a 
 sedentary one, rich, civilized, and luxurious, could not 
 long restrain the rapacious instincts of the barbarian. 
 And their ravages in Balkh and Khorasan became so 
 intolerable, that Musaoud, the son and successor of 
 Mahmoud, determined to make a grand effort to extir- 
 pate them. In the year 428 (a.d. 1037) he marched 
 
318 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 into the province of Balkh, threw a bridge across the 
 Oxus, and entered the country beyond. The sudden 
 setting in of winter, which threatened to cut him off 
 from Ghuznee, compelled him, however, to suspend 
 operations. The Turks, emboldened by his retreat, 
 surrounded the city of Balkh, and Musaoud was 
 obliged to hurry up by forced marches to save the 
 place from capture. The Seljuks fell back to Merou 
 as the Sultan approached, and from thence sent an 
 embassy to the king, engaging to live in peace and 
 quiet, provided an extension of grazing land was made 
 to them, proportioned to their greatly increased num- 
 bers. These proposals were accepted by Musaoud, 
 who then proceeded in the direction of Herat. But he 
 had not advanced beyond a few marches, when the 
 plundering propensities of the Seljuk Turks proved too 
 strong for their recent amicable engagements. They 
 attacked the rear-guard of the Sultan and plundered 
 a part of his baggage. Enraged at this insolent 
 treachery, Musaoud turned upon his pursuers, and 
 every prisoner that fell into his hands was executed 
 upon the spot. He then continued his march to Herat, 
 and from thence to Naisapore and Tous. At Tous 
 large hordes of Turks again assailed his columns, but 
 were beaten off with heavy loss. 
 
 Such defeats, however, availed nothing in per- 
 manently diminishing the numbers, or effectually 
 decreasing the strength of these terrible enemies of 
 order and peace. In the spring of 431 they resumed 
 the field in undiminished strength. Musaoud again 
 attacked them, not far from Merou ; but some of his 
 
A.D. 1050. CONQUEST OF KHORASAN. 310 
 
 chief officers abandoned him at the commencement of 
 the battle, and went over to the enemy. The cry of 
 " treachery " was raised, and the Sultan's army began 
 to fall back in disorder. " But the king," says 
 Ferishta, " undismayed even by the defection of his 
 officers, gallantly rode to the spot where he perceived 
 the conflict most bloody, performing prodigies of 
 valour, unequalled, perhaps, by any sovereign. But 
 his efforts were vain ; for when he looked round, he 
 beheld his whole army, excepting the body which he 
 commanded, had devoured the paths of flight. The 
 king thus deserted, and seeing no hope from the 
 efforts of his single arm, turned his steed, and 
 trampling down the enemy, opened a road for himself 
 with his own sword." 
 
 Upon the scene of their victory the Turks pro- 
 ceeded to the election of a king. A large number of 
 arrows were collected into a bundle ; and upon each of 
 these was inscribed the name of a tribe, of a family, 
 and a warrior. A child drew three of the arrows in 
 presence of the whole army, and chance assigned the 
 kingship to Togrul Beg, the grandson of Seljuk. This 
 victory placed Khorasan in the possession of the 
 Seljuks ; Naisapore opened her gates to Togrul Beg ; 
 Herat submitted to Jaafar. And the khalif Kaiem 
 groaning under the tyranny of the Bouides, and the 
 bitter enemy of the Sultans of Ghuznee, despatched an 
 embassy to the Seljuk camp, and caused the name of 
 Togrul Beg to be inserted in the public prayer, trust- 
 ing to find a friend and deliverer in the new conqueror. 
 Many years, however, elapsed before Togrul Beg made 
 
320 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 his entry into Baghdad. During that time he was 
 pushing his conquests, north, south, east and west. 
 The sufferings of the provinces overrun were terrible. 
 Cities were plundered and burned, and their inhabitants 
 massacred ; corn-fields were trodden down beneath 
 the hoofs of his steeds. Orchards and palm-groves 
 were given to the flames, in order to provide grazing 
 ground for his flocks and herds. Over waste and 
 cultivated land alike, these plundering hordes passed 
 like the scorching wind of the desert, blasting every- 
 thing that lay in their path. The land might be as 
 the garden of Eden before them ; it became a desolate 
 wilderness behind them. 
 
 In Baghdad, meanwhile, anarchy had once more 
 become chronic. The Deilemite soldiers of the Bouide 
 princes were Shias ; the Turkish militia were Sunnis : 
 hence endless faction fights. The populace sided with 
 the one soldiery or the other, according to the doctrines 
 they held ; and the rival sects fortified themselves in 
 different quarters of the city, where public worship was 
 celebrated according to their distinctive rites. The 
 Sunnis tore up the graves of eminent Shia doctors, 
 and scattered their bones ; the Shias practised like 
 reprisals on the last resting-places of orthodox divines. 
 They also burned the houses of their adversaries, and 
 slew those of the Hanifites who fell into their hands. 
 The khalif was powerless to redress these disorders. 
 The Shias, indeed, did not scruple to omit his name 
 altogether from the public prayer, and denounce him 
 as an impostor, bearing merely the outward semblance 
 of a true Imam. 
 
a. o. 1049. DISORDERS IN BAftHDAD. 321 
 
 New causes of disorder were in the year 446 added 
 to these already enumerated. A Turkish general, 
 Abou'l Hareth Arslan al Basasiri, exercised at the 
 court of the khalif an almost unlimited authority. He 
 was the representative and lieutenant of the Bouide 
 Sultan. Between him and the khalif there was, ot 
 course, bitter enmity ; but all intrigues to overthrow 
 this arrogant official had been defeated by his foresight 
 and energy. But in the year 446, Basasiri was com- 
 pelled to quit Baghdad to make head against the 
 rebels who swarmed on every side of the city. The 
 khalif thought this a favourable opportunity for ridding 
 himself of the man. He wrote to Togrul Beg, entreat- 
 ing him to enter Irak ; and at his instigation, the Turks 
 pillaged the house of the secretary and confidential 
 adviser of Basasiri. Basasiri was apprised of these 
 events when he returned to Baghdad. He retired at 
 once to his house, situated in the western part of the 
 city, and abstained from appearing at the court of the 
 khalif, as it had been his wont to do hitherto. Shortly 
 after he left the city altogether, and commenced to 
 ravage the country round Baghdad. The khalif strove, 
 but in vain, to pacify him ; he would listen to nothing. 
 He even attacked and carried by storm the town of 
 Anbar, burned a large number of villages, and put to 
 death, or mutilated, any important personages who 
 fell into his hands, and whom he suspected of being 
 hostile to him. At length it was arranged that 
 Basasiri should proceed to a house called "The House 
 of Penitence," where the khalif would condone the 
 past, and clothe the penitent rebel in a robe of honour. 
 
 21 
 
322 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 The general came, as agreed, to the door of the house, 
 and prostrated himself before the Commander of the 
 Faithful; but he declined to enter, repairing instead 
 to his own palace. 
 
 The year following, by dint of repeated solicitations, 
 the khalif prevailed upon Basasiri to attend the Royal 
 Council Chamber, and formally make profession of his 
 loyalty and submission. Hardly was this done, when 
 a fresh cause of trouble became apparent. The Turkish 
 soldiers broke into mutiny, alleging tha ; j al Basasiri 
 withheld their pay, applying it for his own purposes. 
 They demanded from the khalif's vizier (Abou'l Kasim 
 ibn Maslama) permission to pillage his house and 
 those of his partisans. The vizier, who was a rival 
 and bitter enemy of Basasiri, joyfully consented. 
 " This man," he told them, " has manifested per- 
 fidious designs, and is secretly in league with the 
 Fatimide princes of Egypt; he has thrown off his 
 allegiance to the lawful Imam, concerning whom he 
 has made use of the most insulting epithets." The 
 khalif al Kaim, notwithstanding his recent reconcili- 
 ation with Basasiri, now hastened to pronounce him 
 worthy of death. Encouraged thus by these high 
 authorities, the Turks marched against the house of 
 Basasiri, pillaged it from top to bottom, and left it a 
 heap of ruins. The inmates of his harem were insulted 
 and driven out into the streets ; and his secretary, 
 Ibn al Obaid, was flung into an ice-house. Basasiri 
 fled to Rahabad, where he was joined by large numbers 
 of Turks. He wrote to al Mostansir, the Fatimide 
 khalif of Egypt, requesting him to act as mediator 
 
a.d. 1050. TOGRUL BEGS ARRIVAL. 823 
 
 between Basasiri and al Kaim. This Mostansir con- 
 sented to do ; but the Baghdad khalif sent back the 
 Fatimide's letter, merely endorsed with the insulting 
 query, all written in his own hand, " Who are you ? 
 who are you ? tell me who are you ? " Mostansir, 
 wrathful at this insult, forwarded to al Basasiri large 
 succours in men and money. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Togrul Beg, under pretence of 
 a pilgrimage to Mekka, had entered Irak at the head 
 of a strong army, and sought to obtain admission into 
 Baghdad. The khalif, in opposition to the advice of 
 his vizier and the officers of the Turkish militia, con- 
 sented ; on the 22nd Ramadan, 447 (December, 1050) 
 the name of Togrul was inserted in the public prayer ; 
 and three days after he made his entry into the city. 
 He had taken an oath, before entering, to be the faithful 
 and obedient servant of the khalif; but, it is needless 
 to add that he broke this immediately afterwards, and 
 occupied the city in force. A dispute broke out 
 between the Seljuk soldiers and some shop-keepers. 
 The Baghdad Turks took the side of the citizens, the 
 foreigners were driven out, and several of them killed 
 and wounded. This riot was followed by a general 
 attack upon the ill-fated city by the army of Togrul Beg. 
 It was useless for the khalif and his vizier to protest their 
 innocence. The Turkish chief denounced them as the 
 murderers of his soldiers, and summoned the vizier to 
 his camp to explain his conduct. On his arrival there 
 he was arrested and flung into prison. With this oc- 
 currence the rule of the Bouides in Baghdad may be said 
 to have terminated, and that of the Seljuks commenced. 
 
324 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. it. 
 
 Togrul Beg remained for a year inactive in Bagh- 
 dad, neither visiting the khalif nor heeding his en- 
 treaties to put an end to the ravages and outrages 
 perpetrated by his fierce and lawless soldiery on the 
 wretched townspeople. But the increasing strength of 
 Basasiri compelled him at last to take the field. This 
 latter general had collected a considerable force of 
 Turks and Deilemites and Arabs, who had fled from 
 Baghdad to escape, and, if possible, revenge the 
 cruelties practised by Togrul Beg's soldiery ; added to 
 these were the strong reinforcements be had received 
 from Egypt. During Togrul Beg's long period of 
 inaction, many cities had fallen into the power of Basa- 
 siri ; in all these, the Mosques had been painted white, 
 the official colour of the Fatimide khalifs ; the names 
 of the Abbaside khalifs effaced from their walls ; and 
 the public prayers read in, and the currency stamped 
 with, the name of the reigning sovereign of Egypt. 
 Togrul Beg had been content, in the first instance, to 
 send his nephew Kutulmish, against Basasiri ; but this 
 commander having been routed, he took the field him- 
 self at the commencement of the year 449. A brief 
 but vigorous campaign sufficed to dissipate the hetero- 
 geneous forces collected by Basasiri, and Togrul Beg 
 returned in triumph to Baghdad. 
 
 The khalif now for the first time gave him a recep- 
 tion in state. Seated upon a throne seven ells high, 
 with his face covered with a black veil, the black 
 mantle of the Prophet thrown over his shoulders, and 
 his staff in his hand, the khalif received the successful 
 Turkish chief in the great hall of his palace. The 
 
a. a 1053. THE RECEPTION BY THE KHALIF. 325 
 
 Sultan, accompanied by his generals, came up the 
 Tigris by boat ; they then mounted upon horses sent 
 from the sta,bles of the khalif, and rode to the palace. 
 Togrul Beg was permitted to enjoy the high honour of 
 kissing the hand of the khalif. The Commander of the 
 Faithful, turning to his vizier, then spoke as follows — 
 " Say to Sultan Togrul, that I acknowledge his services 
 and rejoice at his coming. I deliver over to him the 
 government of all the countries which God has given 
 him for a possession. It will be his duty to treat with 
 equity and beneficence the humble and the poor, and to 
 walk in the ways of justice and moderation." When 
 this speech was ended, Togrul Beg rose from his seat, 
 once more kissed the royal hand, and then pressed it 
 against his cheek. Seven banners were then waved 
 over his head, he was clothed in seven robes of honour, 
 and seven slaves, one from each of the seven kingdoms 
 entrusted to him, were delivered over to him. Two 
 crowns were placed upon his head : the one repre- 
 senting the sovereignty of Arabia, the other that of 
 Persia. He was finally girt with a golden sword. 
 When all was over, Togrul Beg made a movement as 
 though he would prostrate himself at the feet of the 
 Commander of the Faithful, but the khalif graciously 
 hindered him from doing so, and twice gave him his 
 hand to kiss. The khalif then presented him with a 
 second sword, which the Turk girt on like the first, 
 and the following title of honour was conferred upon 
 him—" The Sultan of the Court, Togrul Be£, the risrht 
 hand of the chief of Believers, the King of the East 
 and of the West." At the same time, he was loaded 
 
326 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 with magnificent presents ; among these were fifty thou- 
 sand gold pieces, a complete suit of armour, fifty boys 
 beautiful as Peris, and fifty maidens lovely as Houris. 
 
 But the lustre of this splendid ceremonial was 
 almost immediately drowned in the turmoil of war. 
 Basasiri, though defeated in the field, was still potent 
 for mischief. He persuaded some relatives of Togrul 
 Beg to raise the standard of revolt ; and the movement 
 appeared so threatening that Togrul Beg moved out of 
 Baghdad with the whole of his troops. This was just 
 what Basasiri desired. He waited till Togrul Beg was 
 fairly engaged with the rebels, and theu advanced by 
 forced marches upon Baghdad, which, since the depar- 
 ture of Togrul Beg, had again become a prey to 
 anarchy. The Ghozzes, whom Togrul Beg had left 
 behind him, had pillaged the palace of the Sultan, and 
 committed all kinds of disorders. 
 
 On the eighth day of the month Dhulkadeh, 
 Basasiri entered Baghdad at the head of four hundred 
 men only, who presented a spectacle of wretchedness 
 and squalor. His colours were those which he had 
 received from Mostansir, and on which were inscribed 
 the titles of that prince. The inhabitants of the quarter 
 named Karkh, who were Alides, were extremely re- 
 joiced at the arrival of Basasiri, and flocked to his 
 standard. The Sunnis were equally enraged. These 
 gathered round the khalif; and for four days there was 
 incessant fighting in the streets and on the river. On 
 Friday, 13th Dhulkadeh, the prayer in the Mosque of 
 Mansour was made in the name of the khalif Mos- 
 tansir ; and the people were summoned to worship by 
 
a.d. 1064. BASASIRI CAPTURES BAGHDAD. 327 
 
 the usual Shia formula — " Salutation to the best of 
 creatures !" 
 
 In the meanwhile, the khalif had surrounded his 
 palace with entrenchments, and seemed determined to 
 make a vigorous resistance. But his partisans melted 
 away daily, while those of Basasiri increased, and the 
 khalif, in despair, had recourse to Koraish, the Emir 
 of the Arabs, who took him under his protection, and 
 received him in his camp. 
 
 Basasiri made prisoners of the vizier and a func- 
 tionary known as " the Chief of Chiefs." The latter 
 was his mortal enemy, and Basasiri put him to 
 death with a truly Oriental refinement of barbarity. 
 He caused him to be clothed in a woollen gown, 
 and placed a high-pointed cap on his head, and a 
 leathern collar about his neck. In this state he was 
 promenaded about the streets seated on a camel, 
 and a man seated behind him whose business it was 
 never to cease from smiting him with his fist on 
 his head. This part of the proceeding being finished, 
 he was clothed in an ox-hide, so that the horns rose 
 exactly above his head ; and thus disguised, he was 
 suspended from a gallows by two iron hooks, which 
 pierced his body. In this frightful state he lingered 
 on till the close of the day, when death released him 
 from his agonies. 
 
 The populace, meanwhile, had pillaged the palace 
 of the khalif, where, it is said, they found incalculable 
 riches. On the 14tb Dhulkadeh, the prayer for the 
 Egyptian khalif was repeated in all the Mosques of 
 Baghdad. Basasiri also assembled the kadis and the 
 
328 THE KHALIFS OF. BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 chief citizens, and compelled them to swear allegiance 
 and fidelity to the Fatimide sovereign ; and he trans- 
 mitted to the same sovereign the black mantle and 
 turban of the khalif al Kaim, together with a written 
 declaration he had wrung from that unhappy sovereign, 
 to the effect that neither he nor any of the descendants 
 of Abbas had any right to the khalifate so long as the 
 descendants of Fatima continued upon earth. For a 
 whole year, from this period, the rule of the Abbasides 
 in Baghdad was in abeyance. And there is little doubt 
 that so daring and able a leader as Basasiri would have 
 permanently established the Fatimide power there, but 
 for the suspicions of al Mostansir himself. So long as 
 Basasiri' s had been a struggling and doubtful cause, 
 the Egyptian khalif had been prodigal of his supplies 
 in men and money, but now that his partisan touched 
 at the goal of his endeavours, the Egyptian sovereign 
 was appalled at his success. He feared lest he had 
 created a monster who would devour him not less than 
 his royal cousin of the House of Abbas. To prevent 
 this, he cut off the supplies at this critical moment ; 
 and the result was that in the following year (a.h. 451), 
 when Togrul Beg found himself at liberty to return to 
 Baghdad, Basasiri was compelled to evacuate the city 
 at his approach, and, in a battle fought shortly after 
 in the neighbourhood of Koufa, was defeated and 
 killed. With his death ended the brief sway of the 
 Fatimide khalifs in the metropolis of Islam. 
 
 For these services, Togrul Beg demanded the hand 
 in marriage of one of the khalifs daughters ; and the 
 khalif, powerlesss before his great vassal, was forced to 
 
A.D. 10G3. DEATH OF TOGRUL BEG. 329 
 
 consent. But the marriage was never actually effected. 
 The Sultan had retired to Rhe, there to make prepara- 
 tions to solemnize the nuptial ceremony with befitting 
 magnificence. But he had now reached his seventieth 
 year, and a sudden illness carried him off, a.h. 455 
 (September, a.d. 1063). 
 
 According to the Persian historian, Khondemir, 
 Togrul Beg was a prince " valiant, just, prudent, and 
 of excellent morality. He never failed to make the 
 prescribed prayers five times a-day ; he fasted the first 
 two days of every week ; and he never built a palace 
 for himself without constructing a mosque alongside 
 of it, taking care that the latter should be finished 
 before the foundations of the first were laid." It is 
 only the unreasonable Western mind that would require 
 more of a prince than this. 
 
 Alp Arslan, the nephew -^nd successor of Togrul 
 Beg, carried on the havoc and devastation which had 
 marked the career through life of his uncle. Togrul 
 Beg had on two or three occasions invaded the Asiatic 
 territories of the Byzantine Emperor ; Alp Arslan 
 carried these partial conquests to completion. He 
 invaded in person the northern parts of Armenia and 
 Iberia. He laid waste the country in the cruellest 
 manner, for it was the notion of these barbarians that 
 a country was not really conquered unless it was also 
 depopulated. Iberia had been long celebrated for the 
 industry of its inhabitants, the wealth of its numerous 
 towns, and the valour of its people. There is no doubt 
 they could have flung back the invaders had the 
 Byzantine Empire come to their aid. But avarice was 
 
330 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 the dominant passion of the Emperor, Constantine X., 
 and rather than disburse his loved hoards, he preferred 
 to look idly on, while his fairest provinces were laid 
 waste and overrun. The country was, in consequence, 
 compelled to submit to the Seljuk Turks, and the 
 invaders settling upon it, like a swarm of locusts, 
 swiftly converted the happiest and most flourishing 
 portion of Asia into a scene of poverty and desolation. 
 
 From Iberia, Alp Arslan passed into Armenia. 
 Ani, the capital, was stormed and taken, after a gallant 
 defence, on the 6th June, 1064. The victor treated 
 the vanquished citizens with savage cruelty. On 
 entering the city, he gave directions to his followers to 
 slaughter all whom they found there. Human blood 
 flowed in torrents, and so great was the carnage, that 
 the streets were literally choked up with dead bodies ; 
 and the waters of the river were reddened from the 
 quantity of bloody corpses. 
 
 When the first fury of Alp Arslan' s cruelty was a 
 little abated, he issued orders to seize the most wealthy 
 of the inhabitants who had not been killed, and torture 
 them, to make them discover where their riches lay. 
 He then pillaged the churches, murdering all the 
 priests whom he found therein, some by drowning, 
 and others by flaying alive. " In the midst of these 
 horrors," says the Armenian- historian, " the anger of 
 the Almighty was displayed most conspicuously. Eor 
 on a sudden the whole face of heaven became clouded ; 
 horrid peals of thunder, accompanied by sheets of the 
 most vivid lightning, burst over the city ; rain de- 
 scended in such torrents as if a second Deluge were 
 
a.d. 1064. STORMING OF ANI. 331 
 
 approaching ; and the streets were like so many seas, 
 bearing on their surface the ghastly remains of the 
 victims of the cruel and rapacious infidels, and with 
 which ever} r inch of ground before was covered. 
 The dead bodies, by this rain, were swept into the 
 river Akhurian." * 
 
 The capture of Ani was followed by an immense 
 emigration of the people into the provinces of the 
 Byzantine Empire lying to the west and south of their 
 ancient possessions. In the meanwhile, other hordes 
 of Turks had invaded the provinces of Mesopotamia 
 and Chaldaea. They plundered the open country, 
 putting all the armed men to the sword, and carrying 
 off women and children to be sold in the slave-markets. 
 They avoided coming in contact with the regular 
 troops. Their plan was to exterminate the cultivators 
 of the soil, and so convert the country into a vast 
 grazing ground. The villages, farm-houses, and plan- 
 tations were everywhere burned down, and the wells 
 filled up. By these means, they succeeded in rendering 
 the country so unfit for human habitation, that entire 
 districts of Asia Minor were left vacant before the 
 Seljuk power was able to conquer the cities, t 
 
 The same policy was continued under Malek Shah, 
 the son and successor of Alp Arslan. Innumerable 
 hordes were instructed to plunder the Roman Empire. 
 The standard of the Prophet floated over the walls of 
 Edessa, Iconium, Tarsus, and Antioch. Nicoea be- 
 came the capital of the Seljuk Government of that 
 
 * Chamich's History of Armenia. Avdall's Trans., vol. ii. p. 151. 
 t Pinlay's Byzantine Empire, vol. ii. 
 
332 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. II. 
 
 portion of Asia, Another army wrested Syria from 
 the hands of the Fatimides, and the black flag of the 
 Abbasides floated once more from the ramparts of 
 Jerusalem. The broken fragments of the Asiatic 
 Empire of Islam were reunited after a fashion ; but 
 the combining power was no longer Arabian, but 
 Turkish. It was an entire and radical change of 
 dominion. 
 
 The new state of things brought with it no pledge 
 of permanence. The germs of decay and dissolution 
 were implanted, from the first, deep in its constitution. 
 These Turkish conquerors were still, as they had 
 always been, utter barbarians. They brought with 
 them no principles of government ; they founded no 
 institutions ; they acknowledged no duties towards 
 the subject populations. The courts of Alp Arslan 
 and Malek Shah blazed, it is true, with barbaric 
 splendour ; but they were never more than the leaders 
 and kings of a horde of marauders. The position of 
 these Turks in Asia resembled that of the Mahrattas 
 in India, when at the height of their power. Like 
 them, they did not govern a province, but merely 
 encamped upon it ; like them, they were a multitude 
 of rapacious robbers spread over the richest provinces 
 of Central Asia to eat up the fat of the land. At 
 the head of each horde was a chief, nominally depen- 
 dent upon Malek Shah, but virtually independent, and 
 waiting only for an opportunity to assume that position 
 in name as well as in fact. So long as Malek Shah 
 lived, the commanding genius of his prime minister, 
 Nizam al Mulk held these discordant elements together. 
 
A.n. 1093. THE SEL.TUK EMPIRE. 333 
 
 But that minister knew that the task was beyond the 
 power of any other living person ; and only a few days 
 before his death he predicted that his death and the 
 disruption of the Seljukian Empire would be simul- 
 taneous. He spoke truly. In the year 485 (a.d. 1093) 
 Nizam al Mulk was stabbed to death by an emissary 
 of Hasan ibn Saba, the first Grand Master of the 
 Assassins ; and his master, Malek Shah followed him 
 to the grave a few weeks afterwards. Then came the 
 immediate breaking up of the Seljukian Empire into a 
 number of independent principalities. Syria, Palestine, 
 and all Asia Minor, were partitioned among a dozen 
 different Turkish Emirs. Khorasan and Irak became 
 the scene of a tierce civil war, extending over several 
 years, between two sons of Malek Shah, Barkiaroc and 
 Muhammad. Drought was added to the horrors of 
 war ; the people perished by thousands of famine ; the 
 incessant marching and counter-marching of the hostile 
 armies destroyed the remnant of food which had sur- 
 vived the want of rain. To crown all, from the borders 
 of Christendom a fresh scourge was beheld preparing 
 for Islam. The hosts of the Red Cross passed the 
 Bosphorus, and fought their way knee-deep in blood 
 to the walls of Jerusalem. The capture of the Holy 
 City struck like the point of a poisoned dagger to the 
 heart of every true Moslem. There is a story in 
 Saadi's " Gulistan," which tells more than pages of 
 rhetoric could do, of the profound terror and suspicion, 
 with all their attendant crueltv, which at this time 
 possessed the minds of men. Two durweshes, he tells 
 us, travelling together came to a certain city ; they 
 
334 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ii. 
 
 were suspected by the townspeople of being spies, cast 
 into a small cell, and bricked up. Saadi makes not 
 the smallest commentary on the apparent irregularity 
 of this summary proceeding. He merely goes on to 
 say that a few days after, finding they were not spies, 
 the citizens unburied them. One was dead ; the other, 
 a man accustomed to long fasts, was still living ; from 
 which circumstance Saadi draws the appropriate moral 
 of the extreme utility of abstinence as a preservative 
 in case of being buried alive. What a glimpse is here 
 of a world sunk back into chaos ! 
 
 In such a world, a sect like that of " the Assassins ' : 
 would find its appropriate home. Hasan ibn Sabah 
 extended his power far and wide ; and in Persia or 
 Asia Minor — wherever disorder is highest — we see 
 amid the noise and confusion the gleam of his daggers 
 as they strike some illustrious victim to the grave. 
 The Assassins were the last and most fearful outcome 
 of centuries of misrule. They could not have wielded 
 the power which they did for a single year, had there 
 been anywhere a really hearty and honest desire to 
 suppress them ; but there was not. The times were 
 out of joint ; centuries of wanton and pitiless war had 
 seared the consciences and petrified the hearts of men. 
 There was always some prince who needed an assassin 
 to rid him of a rival he feared or a friend he distrusted, 
 and who was ready to pay for the serviceable crime 
 with his purse and his protection. And thus, though 
 he never put an army into the field, the Grand Master 
 of the Assassins never lacked an ally. As for the 
 great body of the common people, they were, in 
 
ad. 1093. THE "ASSASSINS." 335 
 
 general, indifferent ; though now and again they broke 
 out in fits of fanatical fury against these impious 
 heretics. They looked upon the Grand Master as only 
 one more potentate by means of whom, as with plague 
 and famine, blight and earthquake, the Master of the 
 blessed Prophet harassed and tormented them. His 
 daggers were not specially directed against them. 
 Why should they specially endeavour to rid the world 
 of him ? And so it came to pass that a power 
 based upon the practice of assassination was enabled 
 to flourish, well-nigh unmolested, for nearly two 
 hundred years. 
 
386 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SECT OF THE ASSASSINS. 
 a.d. 1093—1214. 
 
 That might gives right is, perhaps, the strongest con- 
 viction of the Asiatic. Submission to the established 
 fact is his great guiding principle of conduct. And 
 this principle he clings to, not upon a prudential cal- 
 culation, but with the fervour of religious faith ; for, 
 in truth, he perceives and acknowledges the presence 
 of the earth's supreme ruler in every manifestation of 
 victorious Force. Victorious Force is, in his eyes, the 
 most convincing demonstration of the will of God 
 which human nature can arrive at. Both convictions 
 are embodied in the teaching of Muhammad. The 
 religion of Islam and the religion of submission are 
 synonymous expressions. But it was by its victorious, 
 aggressive power that the religion of Islam was to 
 demonstrate its Divine origin. Absolute submission 
 was required of the believer, but it was submission to a 
 power, armed with a sharp sword, which went forth 
 conquering and to conquer. 
 
 Nothing can be conceived more alien to the specu- 
 lative tendencies of the populations of Syria and 
 
ad. 1093. MOSLEM CNOSTICS. 337 
 
 Persia than the theology of the Koran. Syria was the 
 birthplace of gnosticism ; Persia of the religion of 
 Zoroaster. The peoples of both countries conceived 
 of the Divine life as blending with and poured into the 
 human, like light proceeding from the sun. God, 
 according to the Koran, was cut off from his creatures 
 by a deep and impassable gulf; but the sharp sword 
 with which Islam was armed, was a proof of its 
 divinity which neither Syrians nor Persians were able 
 to resist. The victories of the Arabs convinced them, 
 by a demonstration more potent than logic, that the 
 Koran was the Word of God, and Muhammad his 
 Prophet. 
 
 But this submission to the new faith could not 
 obliterate ancient tendencies of thought. The minds 
 which had evolved gnosticism out of the Bible, speedily 
 set to work to discover their former convictions in the 
 writings of the Arabian camel-driver. The disciples of 
 Zoroaster were not long in finding a method for educing 
 their ancestral beliefs out of the new revelation. This 
 method was to unfold the hidden purport of the Koran 
 by means of the principle of spiritual interpretation. 
 God, so said these theosophists, according to the Moslem 
 faith rigorously interpreted, is One, and consequently 
 without attributes, unthinkable, incomprehensible. It 
 is not possible to affirm regarding the Deity, either 
 that He exists or that He does not — that He is power- 
 ful or weak ; for to affirm regarding Him any of these 
 things, is to assume that there is some resemblance 
 between Him and His creatures. This would be to 
 exalt men to a level with God, whereas it is laid down 
 
 22 
 
338 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 in the Koran that there is no other God hut God. Con- 
 cerning God, therefore, nothing whatever can be either 
 affirmed or denied. 
 
 Nevertheless, from such an origin as this, it being 
 impossible to advance a step in any direction, these 
 thinkers found themselves under a compulsion to affirm 
 concerning God a number of very amazing things. 
 Firstly, they laid down the doctrine that God did not 
 create the world, at least immediately ; He merely, by an 
 act of will, manifested the universal Reason. This Rea- 
 son was, in other words, God externalized. The Reason, 
 having been thus manifested, began to create ; and its 
 first creative act was to produce the universal Soul, the 
 essential attribute of which is life, as that of the 
 Reason is knowledge. The universal Soul then brought 
 forth the primary Matter, the essential attribute of 
 which is passivity, in order that it may receive and 
 conform itself to the ideal forms existing in the 
 universal Reason. Together with this primary Matter, 
 two other primitive and necessary beings came into 
 existence— Time and Space. And from the inter- 
 working of these five existences, this earth, the 
 heavenly bodies, and the universe were successively 
 produced. 
 
 The world having been accounted for in this satis- 
 factory manner, it became necessary to explain the 
 origin of man. The appearance of man is the result of 
 the desire experienced by the universal Soul to acquire 
 perfect knowledge, in order to elevate itself to the level 
 of the universal Reason, and reproduce it. With this 
 object in view, it descends upon the earth, and spreads 
 
A.D. 1093. THEIR DOCTRINES. 339 
 
 itself over the surface, under the form of individual 
 souls. But the universal Soul, by reason of its essen- 
 tial imperfection, is incapable of rising to the level of 
 the Reason. It oscillates between the universal 
 Reason, which is the spiritual principle, and the pri- 
 mary Matter, which is the material principle. To 
 remedy this, the universal Reason transmits to earth 
 its unceasing effusion, or the active intellect which, 
 entering into the individual souls, engenders the 
 human reason. But as there is in the upper world 
 one universal Reason and one universal Soul, it is 
 necessary that in the lower world also there should be 
 perfect manifestations of each in some person. The 
 incarnate Reason is named upon earth, the Natik, or 
 he ivho speaks; the incarnate Soul, the Base, or he 
 who interprets. The former is the revealing Prophet, 
 of whom every word is as the light of the sun, or the 
 rain from heaven, which descends and fertilizes the 
 earth. The latter is he who interprets these Divine 
 words, investigates their sense, and makes known their 
 hidden treasures, as the earth produces the plant when 
 it has drunk in the vivifying shower from heaven. 
 But the universal Reason is deathless and eternal ; 
 the duration of the individual human life is limited. 
 Consequently, the Reason incarnates itself in successive 
 forms. This succession constitutes the series of 
 Prophets, acknowledged by Muhammad, and set forth 
 at length in the Koran. After the death of Muham- 
 mad, this universal Reason became incarnate in Ali 
 and his sons, and subsequently in the Fatimide khalifs 
 of Afrikia and Egypt. 
 
340 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 God, therefore, being unknowable and incompre- 
 hensible, the object of worship for these sectaries was 
 the universal Reason incarnate in the reigning khalif 
 at Kairo. Amid the fragments of Alide literature 
 which have been preserved, are certain prayers of the 
 Fatimide khalif, Moezz-li-din-Allah, which exemplify in 
 a startling manner this monstrous hypothesis. " My 
 God ! " such is the language ascribed to him, " I am 
 as thou art, great by reason of thy supreme power. I 
 am thy power, thy manifestation, thy will, and thy 
 word ! My God ! grant to men that they may know 
 me ; save them, and cause thy light to shine forth ! 
 
 My God ! by me thou hast created 
 
 all creatures, and from me thou hast drawn all 
 thy messengers and all thy prophets. I am thy 
 son, and thou art my father. I am one with thee 
 as the effusion of light . . . . . is one with 
 
 its source I am thy revealed 
 
 power, and through me thy striking signs are mani- 
 fested ! " 
 
 Such were the doctrines taught by Hassan, the 
 first Grand Master of the Assassins. Such were the 
 beliefs cherished by his followers. They account 
 for the utter devotion with which his followers risked 
 and lost their lives in carrying out his behests. 
 In the Fatimide khalif of Egypt they beheld an incar- 
 nate deity. To kill his enemies, in whatever way 
 they best could, was an action, the merit of which 
 could not be disputed, and the reward for which was 
 certain. 
 
 In the confusion which ensued upon the death of 
 
a.d. 1100. THE "ASSASSINS" IN ISPAHAN. 341 
 
 the Sultan Malek Shah, Hasan ibn Sabah extended his 
 power in every direction. In the wild and mountainous 
 countries around the fortress of Alamut, in Tabaristan 
 and Deilem, and in the province of Koumis and the 
 hilly country of Kohistan, the most extravagant forms 
 of the Alide heresy had always numbered numerous 
 adherents. These adherents gave a ready ear to the 
 teachings and exhortations of the missionaries he 
 sent forth in every direction. But it was in the city 
 of Ispahan that his doctrines seem to have earliest 
 struck root, and gathered to themselves a for- 
 midable array of proselytes. These were scattered 
 through the divers quarters of the city ; but they were 
 accustomed to assemble at night, carry off such of 
 their adversaries as they could seize upon, and put 
 them to death. In this manner they reduced the city 
 to a state of abject terror. Everyone carried arms, 
 and no one dared to walk abroad alone. If any 
 returned not home at their appointed time, their 
 families and friends at once concluded that they were 
 killed. One day these Ismailiens seized a Muezzin, and 
 the family of the unfortunate man began to bewail his 
 death. The Ismailiens carried their prisoner to the 
 roof of his house, and showed to him his own family 
 weeping and lamenting. But so great was his terror, 
 he dared not, by a single word, make known his 
 presence. 
 
 It chanced that one day a resident of Ispahan, 
 entering the house of an aquaintance, perceived there 
 such a large accumulation of clothes and sandals, that 
 his suspicions were awakened, and he told some neigh- 
 
342 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 bours what he had seen. The inhabitants of the city 
 caused an inquiry to be made, when it was found that 
 these belonged to the people who had been murdered. 
 The popular indignation broke forth; the quarters 
 occupied by the Ismailiens were invaded by an angry 
 crowd ; all who were adherents of these doctrines, or 
 who were suspected of being such, were seized and 
 brought to a central part of the city. There a huge 
 trench was excavated, and filled with burning mate- 
 rials. Into this representation of hell the Ismailiens 
 were flung, one after the other, until the whole were 
 consumed. A man was appointed to replenish the 
 flame whenever it waned. He was known henceforth 
 as Malek, the angel of death. 
 
 The establishment of the Assassins in Syria fol- 
 lowed very closely upon their acquisitions in Persia. 
 At the close of the eleventh century of our era they 
 had established themselves in Aleppo. Their chief, 
 an astrologer and physician, had converted to the 
 Ismailien doctrines Prince Ridhouan, the Seljukian 
 emir who ruled the city. He built for the sect a place 
 of worship, and allowed the public celebration of their 
 peculiar rites. The neighbouring princes wrote in 
 vain, protesting against this scandalous protection of 
 impious heretics. A great number of people embraced 
 the new doctrines in order to bask in the sunshine of 
 the royal favour. All who wished to live in peace 
 and security had to humiliate themselves before the 
 astrologer and his followers. Their numbers aug- 
 mented continually. They practised the most out- 
 rageous tyranny on such of. the inhabitants as did not 
 
A.D. 1102. THE "ASSASSINS" IN SYRIA. 343 
 
 belong to their sect. They carried off women and 
 children in the streets in open day ; and it frequently 
 occurred that an Ismailien meeting a well-dressed man 
 of another sect, would strip him of his raiment without 
 the latter daring to offer any resistance. The quarter 
 in which they resided became an Eastern Alsatia ; 
 criminals of the worst kind escaped thither, and by 
 declaring themselves Ismailiens, immediately obtained 
 an asylum which no one was sufficiently daring and 
 powerful to break in upon. 
 
 The year 495 (a.d. 1102) witnessed the first murder 
 committed by the Ismailiens of Syria. Hosain, the 
 Prince of Emessa, was at feud with Ridhouan of 
 Aleppo. On the 12th of May, 1102, the former 
 entered the principal Mosque of Emessa to recite the 
 public prayer. He was on the point of marching 
 against the Crusaders, and had already assembled his 
 army. But while he was praying, three of the 
 Assassins fell upon and slew him, though he was 
 surrounded by guards. The murderers were imme- 
 diately cut to pieces. 
 
 The Prince Ridhouan died; but his son and suc- 
 cessor, Alp Arslan, continued for a time to protect the 
 sect, as his father had done. They gradually extended 
 their power, making many proselytes, over the pro- 
 vince of Mesopotamia. Their most active missionary 
 was one Beiram, who had fled into Syria to escape 
 a sentence of death passed on him by the Sultan 
 Barkiaroc. He travelled all over the country, seeking 
 for converts chiefly among the lowest of the people. 
 Finally, he entered the service of Thogtekin, the Prince 
 
344 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 of Damascus, and obtained from him the cession of 
 the strong fort of Paneas. He was no sooner estab- 
 lished there, than his followers flocked to him from all 
 sides. The Ismailiens acquired so much power and 
 inspired so deep a terror through all Syria, that not a 
 soul dared to raise a voice or hand against them. 
 Every scoundrel in the country took to himself the 
 designation of an Ismailien, as a convenient cloak for 
 his malpractices. The doctors of the law, the learned 
 men, and the whole body of the orthodox were sub- 
 jected to constant insults and persecution, The terror 
 of assassination had struck the energies of the bravest 
 men with the torpor of paralysis. 
 
 The sect, nevertheless, occasionally encountered 
 serious reverses. In the year 1113, the people of 
 Aleppo, at the instigation of their prince, rose against 
 their oppressors. Three hundred of the sect were 
 slaughtered in the streets ; two hundred were cap- 
 tured and thrown headlong from the lofty rock on 
 which the citadel was built. There were not wanting 
 members of the sect who vigorously assisted in this 
 righteous carnage, in order to purge off the suspicion 
 of heresy from themselves. In 1124, seven hundred 
 more were put to the sword in the town of Diarbekir. 
 But it was in 1129 that retribution fell upon the Order 
 with a severity which, for awhile, put an end to their 
 power in Syria. The Ismailiens in Damascus had 
 entered into secret negociations with the Crusaders 
 to admit them into that city, on the condition that 
 the Crusaders placed them in possession of Tyre. 
 But the plot was divulged before it could be put into 
 
a.d. 1124. DEATH OF HASAN IBN SAB AH. 345 
 
 execution, and proclamation was made throughout the 
 streets of Damascus to hunt out the Ismailiens, and 
 slaughter them wherever found. Six thousand of 
 these sectaries were massacred at once ; a large 
 number were captured and crucified along the walls 
 of the city ; and so implacable was the feeling against 
 them, that a woman slew her own husband and 
 daughter, who had become converts to the new 
 doctrines, and suspended their heads to the door 
 of her house. The Ismailien governor of Paneas, 
 terrified at this overwhelming disaster, ceded that 
 fortress to the French, and sought an asylum in the 
 territory of the Crusaders. For a brief period the 
 reign of the dagger was suspended in Syria. 
 
 Five years before this event (a.d. 1124), Hasan 
 Sabah, the founder of the Order, had died at Alamut, 
 or (as the orthodox historian briefly states it) " went 
 to hell." From the day he entered Alamut until that 
 of his death — a period of thirty-five years — he never 
 emerged, but upon two occasions, from the seclusion 
 of his house. Pitiless and inscrutable as Destiny, he 
 watched the troubled world of Oriental politics, him- 
 self invisible, and whenever he perceived a formidable 
 foe, caused a dagger to be driven into his heart. The 
 roll of his victims would be too long to enumerate 
 here. Warriors, statesmen, merchants — he spared 
 none. But to the last he enforced among his followers 
 the most rigid adherence to the letter of the Koran ; 
 and one of his last acts was the execution of his son 
 because he had presumed to drink wine. His own 
 time, it is said, he spent chiefly in prayer, and in the 
 
34G THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 composition of treatises setting forth and defending his 
 religious beliefs. 
 
 Kia Busurgomid, the general and chief missionary 
 of Hasan, succeeded him in the office of Grand Master. 
 He reigned for fourteen years. His tenure of power is 
 memorable for the murder of the khalif Mostarshed, 
 which he caused to be perpetrated. Rashid, the suc- 
 cessor of Mostarshed, at once began to collect an army 
 to avenge his predecessor's death ; but ere his pre- 
 parations were complete, a party of Assassins entered 
 the camp, and slew him in his tent. His army instantly 
 dispersed. The intelligence of his murder gave occa- 
 sion to great rejoicing at Alamut. Public festivals 
 were held, and for seven days and nights the sound of 
 kettledrums and cornets passed on, from one fortress- 
 crowned hill to another, the glad tidings that the chief 
 of the heretics had succumbed to the might of the true 
 faith. 
 
 The bitterness of spirit on both sides had now 
 reached the utmost limit of intensity. Curses and 
 condemnations were rained down like a deluge by the 
 spiritual upholders of the orthodox faith upon this 
 cruel and impious sect. It was declared lawful, and 
 indeed obligatory, to slay them, either in open war or 
 as outlaws and infidels. It was pronounced impossible 
 for one of this sect to repent, even if he wished to do so. 
 He was irredeemably doomed to hell- fire; and his execu- 
 tion was commanded, even though he wished to abjure 
 his errors, because perjury was one of the fundamental 
 maxims of the order. On the other side, the doom 
 which had struck two khalifs in succession produced 
 
a u. 1148. RASIIIDEDDIN AS SINAN. 347 
 
 a profound and unwonted exaltation of spirit. They 
 interpreted it as a manifest proof that the promised 
 Mehdi must be about to enter upon his world-wide 
 inheritance. The long night of suffering and persecu- 
 tion was plainly drawing to a close ; the Imam so 
 anxiously awaited was at last at hand ; and the year 
 of his redeemed was come. 
 
 Tn Syria, meanwhile, the order had recovered more 
 than its ancient power, and that, too, in the face of 
 difficulties which threatened at one time its very 
 existence. The great Noureddin, Sultan of Aleppo, 
 had completely checked the progress of the Crusaders, 
 upon whom, in all seasons of difficulty, the Assassins 
 had been wont to rely. His chief officer, the famous 
 Salaeddin (Saladin) had marched an army to Kairo, 
 dethroned the Fatimide khalif, and restored the 
 supremacy of the Abbasides in Egypt. The Assassins 
 of Syria, cut off from their parent stem, might have 
 been expected to wither away like a fallen leaf. But 
 about this time (a.h. 543, a.d. 1148-49), appeared 
 among them Rashideddin as Sinan, who declared that 
 in him, since the fall of the Fatimide khalifs, the 
 universal Reason had become incarnate. Sinan was a 
 native of Basra, and commenced his career as a 
 devotee in the service of the Grand Master of Alamut. 
 Aleppo was the first Syrian city in which he took up 
 his abode. He affected an extraordinary sanctity, 
 wearing the coarsest garments, and preserving a strict 
 abstinence from wine. He was a man gifted with a 
 most fascinating and persuasive power of speech, 
 which won over large crowds of disciples. A frag- 
 
348 THE KHALIFtt OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 ment of these discourses of his has come down to us. 
 It is an address supposed to be spoken by the universal 
 Reason speaking through the lips of Rashideddin. 
 After enumerating the prophets of past ages in which 
 it had been incarnate, the discourse adds that true 
 religion was not perfected until the supreme Reason 
 had been manifested to men in the person of Rashid- 
 eddin. He is the witness, the supervisor, the lord of 
 mercy. Whoever knows him knows the truth; and 
 none can know him save those who are scrupulously 
 exact in the fulfilling of his prescriptions. When he 
 chastises, it is with justice ; and when he pardons, his 
 forgiveness is a free gift of his grace and liberality. 
 " I am," the discourse concludes, " the sovereign dis- 
 penser of pity, the lord of forgiveness and of revealed 
 
 truth." 
 
 Sinan was in the habit of delivering discourses 
 similar to this, seated on a stone, himself as motion- 
 less as the stone on which he sat. His hearers, carried 
 away by the power of his eloquence, deemed him to be, 
 in truth, the incarnation of the supreme Reason. They 
 were ready to honour him as a god, when, to their 
 surprise and dismay, they discovered him to be lame. 
 They proposed to kill him. The supreme Reason, they 
 said, lived for ever, and by killing the present deformed 
 and imperfect tabernacle in which it resided, it would 
 be set free to take up its abode in a form better fitted 
 to receive so august a denizen. This was an awkward 
 moment for Sinan, but he succeeded in evading the 
 applicatioD of this too-searching test of the truth of his 
 teaching. He applauded the faith of his disciples, and 
 
a. n. 1174. ITIS CAREER IN SYRIA. 349 
 
 their zeal for the glory of the supreme Reason ; but at 
 present, the moment for this change had not arrived. 
 The universal Reason, on grounds satisfactory to 
 itself, had chosen to become incarnate in the imperfect 
 form they beheld before them, and it would be an act 
 of wanton disobedience on their part to attempt to 
 oppose that choice. 
 
 Sinan abode in the fortress of Kehf. He built new 
 fortresses, and repaired old ones belonging to the 
 order throughout Syria ; his disciples believed him to 
 be possessed of power to work miracles ; all the petty 
 princes around trembled before the lord of so many 
 secret daggers ; and he reigned over the sect with un- 
 disputed ascendancy for more than thirty years. His 
 power excited the jealousy of the Grand Master of 
 Alamut ; and Assassins were sent several times to Kehf 
 to make away with the formidable lieutenant. But 
 every attempt failed. Some of his intending murderers 
 he discovered and executed ; others he persuaded to 
 abandon their purpose and take service under him. 
 
 But his most dreaded enemy was Noureddin, whose 
 armies, from time to time, invaded his territory, until 
 at length the Sultan resolved to march against the 
 Ismailiens in person, and rid the world of the ob- 
 noxious sect. He wrote to Rashideddin a letter 
 informing him of his intended purpose, and filled with 
 menaces. To this the chief returned a haughty reply. 
 He compared Noureddin and his idle threats to 
 " the fly buzzing at the ear of the elephant." Other 
 people had held similar discourse, but the universal 
 Reason incarnate in the chief of the Ismailiens 
 
350 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. in. 
 
 had hurled destruction on them, and there were none 
 to assist them. 
 
 " As for your words " (so runs the letter), " that you will cut off 
 my head, and tear my fortresses from the firm rocks which sustain 
 them, know that these are delusive thoughts, vain imaginations ; 
 for the substance is not destroyed by the disparition of its accidents, 
 neither is the soul dissolved by the body. But to return to things 
 external and sensible from things internal and intellectual. . . . 
 You well know our external state, the character of our men, the 
 sort of food for which they long, and for which they offer them- 
 selves to the abyss of death. . . . In a common current proverb 
 it is said, ' Is a goose to be threatened ivith being cast into the river ?' 
 Prepare therefore a tunic against misfortune, and a cloak against 
 affliction ; for evils of your own doing shall prevail against you 
 . like the animal who scraped with its hoof till it found 
 its death,* and like him who cut off his nose with his own hand. 
 To effect this will not be difficult for God." 
 
 To the ready superstition of those times, this strange 
 letter must have been invested with a prophetic charac- 
 ter ; for ere his army entered the land of the Ismailiens, 
 the great Sultan of Aleppo died (15th May, 1174). 
 
 At the close of the same year, Saladin laid siege 
 to Aleppo, which he wished to wrest from the son 
 of his old master, a child of twelve years of age. 
 The vizier, Kumuchtekin, who governed in his 
 name, despairing of making a successful resistance, 
 sent a large sum of money to Sinan, and assigned 
 to him several grants of land, on condition that 
 he should undertake the murder of Saladin. On a 
 freezing winter day several Assassins entered the 
 camp of Saladin. They were recognized as such by 
 
 * An Arab caught a gazelle, but knew not how to kill it, when 
 the animal, scraping with its foot upon the sand, uncovered a knife 
 that was hidden boneath. 
 
a.d. 1176, ATTEMPTED MURDER OE SALADIN. 351 
 
 one of his officers. Him they slew, and then made a 
 
 rush for the Sultan's tent. But the alarm had been 
 
 given ; the Assassins were surrounded, and after a 
 
 desperate struggle, during which they killed or 
 
 wounded several of their assailants, were cut to pieces 
 
 to a man. Saladin, undismayed, continued to press 
 
 the siege until compelled to raise it by the news that 
 
 the Crusaders had laid siege to Emessa. His approach 
 
 relieved that town, and in the following year (a.d. 1176) 
 
 he laid siege to Azaz, situate^ to the north-east of 
 
 Aleppo, and took it in thirty-eight days. This time 
 
 again, Kumuchtekin, alarmed at the progress of 
 
 Saladin, had recourse to Sinan, and won him over 
 
 with large presents and promises. The Assassins 
 
 disguised themselves in the uniform of Saladin's 
 
 troops, and in this manner obtained free access to 
 
 the camp. They took part in the military operations, 
 
 exhibiting the greatest courage. One day (2nd May, 
 
 1176) the Sultan, according to his wont, came to the 
 
 tent of the Emir Jawely Ah Saadi, which was erected 
 
 near the mangonels. From thence it was his habit to 
 
 inspect the war-machines, and encourage the soldiers 
 
 by his presence. As he was distributing presents and 
 
 rewards, the disguised Assassins mingled among the 
 
 spectators. Suddenly one of them sprang forth from 
 
 the crowd and struck at the Sultan's head with his 
 
 dagger. The weapon glanced aside from the steel 
 
 helmet, but slipping down, scratched the cheek and 
 
 drew blood. The Sultan seized the murderer, and 
 
 flung him to the ground, where he was instantly 
 
 hacked to pieces. It was all the work of a moment. 
 
352 THE KHALTFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. ill. 
 
 Nothing dismayed, however, by the fate of their 
 comrade, a second and a third murderer started forth 
 with naked, uplifted dagger. But it was too late; 
 the first spring had been made and failed, and twenty 
 flashing swords were buried in the bodies of the 
 murderers long before they could get within dagger's 
 length of their victim. A fourth Assassin fled, and 
 was also cut to pieces. Saladin took speedy vengeance 
 upon Sinan. He laid waste his territory with fire and 
 sword ; slew a great number of his people, carried 
 away a multitude as prisoners, and laid siege to 
 Massiath — the strongest fortress in his possession. 
 Sinan, in despair, sent word to Saladin' s uncle — a 
 near neighbour of his — that unless he instantly per- 
 suaded Saladin to withdraw, Sinan would be under 
 the painful necessity of killing the uncle with the 
 dagger of an Ismailien. The entreaties of his frightened 
 relative had not the smallest effect upon Saladin ; but 
 his army, weary of fighting and laden with plunder, 
 was angrily demanding rest ; and Saladin was shortly 
 after compelled to withdraw into his own dominions. 
 
 Kumuchtekin, though baffled in his designs upon 
 Saladin, had other enemies he needed to be rid of, and 
 he soon had another occasion to employ the friendly 
 knives of the Assassins. At the court of his master 
 Melic Saleh were two noblemen whose increasing 
 favour and authority threatened to ruin his own. It 
 became a trial of strength — either he had to perish or 
 they; and he bethought him of an admirable device 
 for effecting his purpose. One day as Melic Saleh 
 was starting for the chase, Kumuchtekin placed before 
 
a.d. 1192. CONRADE OF MONTFERRAT. 353 
 
 him a blank paper, and requested him to sign it, as 
 he had need of his signature for an affair which ad- 
 mitted of no delay. The young prince did as he was 
 requested, without further question ; and Kumuch- 
 tekin made use of the signature to cover a letter to 
 Sinan demanding murderers to kill the nobles obnoxious 
 to Kumuchtekin. Sinan — who derived a considerable 
 part of his revenues by the prompt execution of all 
 orders relating to assassination — at once despatched a 
 party of four Assassins to Aleppo. The two nobles 
 were attacked in the street, one was killed, but the 
 other escaped unhurt. Three of the murderers were 
 killed by the populace, the fourth was seized and put 
 to the torture in the presence of Melic Saleh. In the 
 midst of his agonies he cried out, " Why do you 
 torture me, when I have only attempted to execute 
 your orders ? " Melic Saleh could not understand 
 this appeal, and wrote to Sinan reproaching him with 
 attempting to lay the guilt of his murders upon his 
 head. Sinan replied by sending him the letter with 
 his signature attached, which requested the murder of 
 the two nobles attacked. The designs of Kumuchtekin 
 were thus discovered ; but to plan the murder of a 
 rival is a matter of very small account in an Oriental 
 Court ; and the dexterity evinced in the present pro- 
 ceeding served to augment, rather than diminish, the 
 power of Kumuchtekin. Subsequently, however, he 
 fell under his master's displeasure, and was tortured 
 to death. 
 
 The order of events now brings us to the famous 
 murder of Conrade of Montferrat, Prince of Tyre and 
 
 23 
 
354 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 titular King of Jerusalem. Conrade had two powerful 
 enemies, the Sultan Saladin and Richard of England, 
 and both of them have been accused of procuring his 
 assassination. So far as Richard is concerned, we may 
 dismiss the accusation as unsupported by sufficient 
 evidence. It was thrown into circulation by Philippe 
 Auguste of France, and John of England, when 
 Richard had left the Holy Land and was on his way 
 to England. The motives which induced them to 
 spread abroad this calumny are manifest. Philippe 
 wished to retain his hold on the Norman dominions 
 of Richard ; John on his English. They both knew 
 that if once the terrible Crusader set foot within 
 them, they could not stand for a moment before him. 
 But Richard was a captive in the hands of Leopold 
 of Austria — a near relative of the murdered man ; and 
 such a charge brought at such a time seemed to be the 
 exact thing required to quicken the recollection of old 
 affronts into a desire for immediate retaliation. The 
 hesitation felt by the Archduke to proceed to extremes 
 against the greatest warrior of the Holy Cross, might 
 be, not improbably, merged in a desire to revenge the 
 murder of a kinsman, on the man who had procured 
 his death. It was exactly the sort of calumny likely 
 to be devised by the astute and unprincipled monarch 
 of France. On the other hand, we may be certain 
 that no Muhammadan historian would sully the fair 
 fame of the great Saladin by attributing such a deed 
 to him unless it was a generally admitted fact. The 
 criminality would not lie so much in the murder 
 itself; but in the making use of so impious an heretic 
 
a.d. 1192. HIS MURDER. 355 
 
 as an Ismailien Chief in order to effect it. According 
 to Ibn al Atliir, Saladin sent to Sinan, requesting him 
 to send emissaries to murder both Richard and 
 Conrade, and pledging himself to pay ten thou- 
 sand pieces of gold in case he was rid of both 
 enemies. This statement throws rather a lurid light 
 over the Saladin of romance. Sinan, however, did 
 not think it politic to slay the English King. So 
 long as Richard could lead the Red Cross hosts, 
 Saladin had his hands too full of work to menace the 
 safety of the Assassins. But the Grand Master had 
 no scruples about the Marquis, and he was anxious to 
 get the ten thousand pieces of gold ; so he sent two 
 of his "Devotees" attired as monks to murder the 
 titular King of Jerusalem. They took up their abode 
 in Tyre, and dwelt there for six months. By an 
 affectation of the most exemplary piety they gained 
 the good will of the ecclesiastics, and Conrade himself 
 conceived such a likiug for them that he would never 
 permit them out of his sight. On the 13th day of the 
 second Rebi, a.h. 588 (29th April, 1192), as he was 
 going out to dine with a Bishop, the Assassins 
 attacked and inflicted on him several wounds. One 
 was slam on the spot ; the other fled and concealed 
 himself in a neighbouring: church. It so chanced that 
 the wouuded Marquis was conveyed into this very 
 church to have his hurts attended to ; the hidden 
 murderer rushed forth and finished his victim. He 
 was captured and executed. The suspicions attach- 
 ing to Saladin in connection with this murder are 
 strengthened by the fact, mentioned by Aboulfceda 
 
356 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 that when peace was concluded with Richard, four 
 months after the murder of Conrade, Saladin insisted 
 upon a special stipulation to the effect that the lands 
 of the Ismailiens were to be held to come within the 
 terms of the treaty. This, it seems plain, could have 
 been dictated by no other motive than to preserve 
 them from the consequences of an act, which he knew 
 had been instigated by himself. Except on the sup- 
 position of some such secret motive, it is impossible 
 to divine why the Sultan should have exhibited so 
 much tenderness towards a ruler who had twice 
 attempted his life. Sinan himself died in the same 
 or the year after Conrade' s murder. 
 
 But in following out the history of the Order in 
 Syria, we have lost sight of its doings in Persia, and 
 must resume the thread of the story from the death 
 of Kia Buzurgomid, the second Grand Master at 
 Alamut. 
 
 " Buzurgomid," writes the orthodox historian, 
 " plunged in error, remained seated on the throne of 
 ignorance, until the year 532 (a.d. 1138), when he was 
 trampled under foot by death, and his body became 
 aliment for the fire of hell." He was succeeded by his 
 son Muhammad, who reigned till the year 557 
 (a.d. 1162), when, to quote the same historian, he 
 died, and rejoined those unhappy men " whose aim in 
 the present life hath been mistaken, and who deem 
 that what they do is right." " Verily" says the 
 Koran, in reference to such men, " we have got Hell 
 ready as the abode of the infidels." 
 
 These Grand Masters had all followed the same 
 
a.d. 1162. THE "ASSASSINS" IN PERSIA. iJ57 
 
 policy. To the few only had they revealed the negative 
 and destructive character of their deepest convictions. 
 To the world at large, and to the bulk of their own 
 people, they appeared as rigid Moslems, zealous in the 
 law above their fellows. When Sanjar, the Seljukide 
 Sultan of Khorasan, sent an envoy to Alamut for the 
 express purpose of obtaining authoritative information 
 regarding their secret tenets, the reply was given in a 
 strain of unimpeachable orthodoxy. " Our doctrine," 
 the Sultan was informed, "is as follows — We believe 
 in the unity of God, and consider that only as true 
 wisdom which accords with His word and the com- 
 mands of the Prophet ; we observe these as they are 
 given in the Holy Book of the Koran ; we believe in all 
 that the Prophet has taught concerning the creation, 
 and the last day, rewards and punishments, the judg- 
 ment and the resurrection. To believe this is neces- 
 sary, and no one is permitted to pass his judgment on 
 God's commands, or even to alter a letter of them. 
 These are the fundamental rules of our sect; and if 
 the Sultan approves them not, he may send one of his 
 theologians to enter into polemical discussions on the 
 subject." 
 
 Their conduct was in agreement with this confes- 
 sion of faith. Hasan ibn Sabah, as I have already 
 mentioned, put his son to death because he had been 
 guiRy of the offence of drinking wine. When certain 
 of their disciples chose to believe that the " era of the 
 Resurrection" having come, all moral restrictions were 
 abrogated, and gave themselves up to licence and 
 incest, they were pitilessly massacred by order of the 
 
358 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. III. 
 
 Grand Master. Hasan Sabah and his two successors 
 perceived that a spirit of obedience depended upon the 
 existence of law ; and that they must affect to believe 
 in the supremacy of law, unless they desired to destroy 
 its supremacy in the minds of their subjects. The ac- 
 cession of Hasan, the son of Muhammad, is the date of a 
 radical change in this astute and well-considered policy. 
 Hasan was born a.h. 520 (a.d. 1125). As he 
 grew to manhood, he conceived the desire to make a 
 thorough investigation into the doctrines of his sect. 
 He became remarkable for the extent and depth of his 
 erudition, and the power and eloquence of his exposi- 
 tions. As his father was a man of little learning and 
 of no eloquence, his son appeared, by contrast with 
 him, a man of extraordinary genius. And as the 
 common people were always impatiently awaiting the 
 coming of the Imam to set them free from the tyranny 
 of rites and restrictive laws, they were not long in 
 arriving at the conclusion that this eloquent young man 
 must be the very person whom they were expecting. 
 When Muhammad learned this, he was much troubled. 
 He called a great meeting of his people, and said, 
 " Hasan, whom you see here, is my son, and I am not 
 the Imam, but only one of his missionaries. Whoever 
 does not hear and believe what I say is an infidel, and 
 impious." Then as many as were suspected of believ- 
 ing in the Imamate of Hasan were seized and tortured. 
 Two hundred and fifty were put to death, and a like 
 number expelled from the fortress. The partisans of 
 the young prince were terrified and silenced by these 
 stern proceedings. Hasan himself perceived that his 
 
a.d. 1164 THE "ERA OF THE RESURRECTION." 359 
 
 life was in danger unless he repudiated all connection 
 with these his too zealous followers. This accordingly 
 he did, by cursing them publicly. Nevertheless, in 
 private he drank freely of wine ; and this disregard of 
 one of the precepts of Islam, coming to the knowledge 
 of his adherents, confirmed them in their belief that he 
 was the veritable Imam, whose manifestation would 
 abrogate all laws whatsoever. On becoming Grand 
 Master, Hasan lost no time in publicly assuming this 
 character. 
 
 In the month Ramadan of the year 559, the in- 
 habitants of the province of Rudbar were collected by 
 his order at the castle of Alamut. On the place of 
 prayers, a pulpit was placed facing towards Mekka, and 
 in the four corners four different flags were planted — a 
 white, a red, a yellow, and a green. On the seven- 
 teenth day of the month the people were assembled on 
 this place. Hasan ascended the pulpit, and com- 
 menced by involving his hearers in error and confusion 
 by dark and puzzling expressions. He led them to 
 believe that an envoy of the Imam had come to him, 
 and brought an epistle addressed to all Ismailiens, by 
 which the fundamental maxims of the sect were reno- 
 vated and fortified. He declared that, according to 
 this letter, the gates of mercy and grace were open to 
 all who would follow and obey him ; that such were 
 the peculiarly elect; that they were freed from the 
 heavy burdens of the law ; and that they were at last 
 brought to the "day of Resurrection " — i.e., the mani- 
 festation of the Imam. Upon this he began to recite 
 the prayer which he pretended to have just received 
 
360 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 from the Imam. An interpreter, standing at the foot 
 of the pulpit, translated to the audience the follow- 
 ing words : — " Hasan, the son of Muhammad, the son 
 of Buzurgomid, is our khalif, to whom all who pro- 
 fess our doctrine are to yield obedience in spiritual 
 as well as temporal affairs, executing his commands, 
 and considering his words as our words. Let them 
 know that our lord has had pity on them, that he has 
 sent for them in his compassion, and has led them to 
 God." Hasan then descended from the pulpit, caused 
 tables to be covered, and commanded the people to 
 give themselves up freely to feasting and merriment, 
 to wine-drinking, gambling, dancing, and every kind 
 of excess, "for to-day," said he, "is the day of the 
 resurrection." 
 
 To complete this proceeding, however, and make 
 good Hasan's claim to be the expected Imam, it was 
 necessary to show that, though seemingly a son of the 
 preceding Grand Master, he was, in truth, a lineal 
 descendant of the Fatimide khalifs : — 
 
 " The version," says the orthodox historian, 
 Alaeddin Joueiny, "best known, and which enjoys 
 the highest repute, is one, according to which they 
 make no scruple, and have no fear to attribute to him 
 an adulterous origin ; for they say unanimously that 
 an Egyptian .... one of the confidential slaves 
 of (the Fatimide khalif) Mostansir, visited Hasan ibn 
 Sabah at Alamut in the year 488 (a.d. 1095), and 
 sojourned six months in that place. In the month of 
 Rejeb of the same year (July, 1095), he returned to 
 Egypt. Hasan ibn Sabah had given the most express 
 
a.d. 11G4. THE "ERA OF THE RESURRECTION." 3G1 
 
 orders to treat this man with the greatest considera- 
 tion, and had himself striven to do so to the utmost of 
 his power. This Egyptian had brought to Alamut, 
 disguised and concealed under a veil of mystery, a 
 grandson of that Nizar {himself a son of Mostansir) 
 who is reckoned in the number of their Imams, and 
 this secret he had confided to no one save Hasan ibn 
 Sabah. A residence was provided for this infant at 
 the foot of Mount Alamut. Conformably to the will of 
 the Eternal, according to which it was necessary that 
 the seat of the Imamate should be transferred from 
 Egypt to the country of Deilem, and that the manifes- 
 tation of that vileness, which they designated the doc- 
 trine of the Resurrection, should occur at Alamut, this 
 very individual who had been brought from Egypt, or 
 his son, who was born in the neighbourhood of Alamut 
 (for on this point they are not exactly informed), 
 intrigued with the wife of Muhammad, son of Buzur- 
 gomid, and she bore a son, Hasan. When the accursed 
 birth of Hasan took place in the house of Muhammad 
 ibn Buzurgomid, Muhammad as well as his disciples 
 supposed that the infant was his son. But Hasan was 
 Imam, and the son of an Imam. This celebrated 
 belief, which all the Ismailiens receive, and which is in 
 their eyes the best and truest, is such that it is based 
 on every kind of disgrace and ignominy. The first 
 consists in saying that a child, whom they acknow- 
 ledge as their Imam, is the offspring of adultery. 
 , . . . The second ignominy consists in this, that 
 the nature of this despicable genealogy, such as his 
 followers have established it, is opposed to this 
 
362 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 Tradition of the Prophet — ' The child should be 
 borD of a legal marriage ; the adulterer should be 
 stoned.' Finally, the third turpi- 
 tude of the Ismailiens, which is their supreme con- 
 demnation, and the cause of their chastisement and 
 misery in the world to come, consists in this, 
 that, in order to strengthen this disputed story, 
 they have alleged the example of Prophets sent by 
 God, and have asserted lies regarding these holy 
 men, saying, ' This origin is similar to that of the 
 victim of God, Ishmael, son of Abraham, the friend of 
 God, who was, in reality, the son of the king Malek 
 Esselam, of whom mention is made in the Pentateuch, 
 under the name of Melchisedec' .... In con- 
 clusion, the result of this pernicious doctrine, and the 
 final term of this heresy, consists in the affirming, 
 agreeably to the opinion of the philosophers, that the 
 world exists from all eternity, that time is without 
 limits, that the resurrection is purely spiritual. They 
 explain, allegorically, Paradise, Hell, and that which 
 they contain, pretending that these expressions should 
 be received in a sense simply spiritual. Consequently, 
 agreeably to these premisses, they say that the resur- 
 rection takes place at the moment when the creature 
 
 is re-united to God This resurrection, 
 
 which is promised and waited for by all religions and 
 all sects, is that which Hasan has revealed. According 
 to this, all legal burdens are removed from the 
 shoulders of men ; for all, at this epoch of the resur- 
 rection, ought, in every way, to turn their faces toward 
 God, and repudiate rules, laws, and habits of devo- 
 
ad. 1164. "DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION."' 363 
 
 tion, the season for which has passed away. It has 
 been commanded in the law, to worship God at five 
 different times in the space of a day and night, and to 
 abandon oneself to Him. According to the Ismailiens, 
 this is a matter of mere form. In the doctrine of the 
 Resurrection, it is required to be in heart with God, 
 and to have the soul perpetually inclined towards the 
 Divinity, because this is the veritable prayer. In the 
 same manner, they explain away all the fundamental 
 dogmas of the law, and the precepts of Islam, . 
 and destroy almost every distinction between the 
 lawful and the unlawful. Hasan declared, in divers 
 places, either directly or indirectly, that just as during 
 the era of law, any one who did not exhibit piety and 
 devotion, but, according to the doctrine of the Resur- 
 rection, regarded piety and devotion as matters purely 
 spiritual, would be put to death by stoning ; so also, 
 in the era of the Resurrection, whosoever dared to 
 obey the ordinances of the law, and devoted himself 
 to acts of devotion and the material rites of religion, 
 his chastisement, his death, his lapidation, and his 
 being put to the torture would be matters imperative." 
 For this development of the Ismailien creed, 
 Hasan received the name of the Lord of the Resur- 
 rection, and his followers that of the Sect of the Resur- 
 rection. But to emancipate subjects from all re- 
 straints of either law or conscience is a dangerous 
 policy for rulers, and four years had hardly elapsed 
 before the incarnate Imam was murdered by his own 
 brother-in-law. Hasan was succeeded by his son 
 Muhammad. 
 
364 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 The first act of the new Grand Master was to slay 
 the murderer of his father, together with all his kin- 
 dred, male and female. Muhammad II. reigned forty- 
 five years ; but during this long period there is nothing 
 recorded by the Oriental historians regarding the sect. 
 This silence is a proof that their power in Persia must 
 have dwindled into insignificance. It is manifestly 
 impossible that authority and obedience — the two 
 essential conditions of a state — should co-exist with 
 a scheme of life, allowing every man to do what is 
 right in his own eyes. Consequently, with the 
 accession of Jelalleddin Hasan, the son of Muhammad, 
 an attempt was made to re-establish the foundations 
 of moral order. The new Grand Master set to work 
 to build up at least the outer semblance of orthodoxy. 
 He publicly burned a number of books, which he 
 affirmed to contain the heretical doctrines taught by 
 Hasan ibn Sabah. He caused the Mosques to be re- 
 built, and the Muezzin's call to prayer was again heard 
 from the fortresses crowning the summits of the 
 Ismailien hills. The solemn assembly for prayer on 
 Fridays was once more re-established; and the new 
 Grand Master summoned around him readers of the 
 Koran, preachers, scribes, and professors, whom he 
 loaded with honours, and appointed to his newly- 
 built Mosques and colleges. Not content with this, 
 he sent ambassadors to the khalif, and to all the 
 sovereigns of Central Asia and Syria, to assure them 
 that he had abandoned the abominable errors of his 
 fathers, and become a true and faithful follower of 
 the Prophet. 
 
A.n. 1214. THE MONGOL INVASION. 365 
 
 Great changes had taken place in Asia since the 
 death of the first Grand Master. The empire of the 
 Seljukides had vanished, and the great potentate of 
 Asia, now, was the Sultan of Kharezm, who had suc- 
 ceeded, by a series of victorious campaigns, in uniting 
 under his single sceptre the whole of Khorasan and 
 Transoxiana, up to the frontiers of India. He, as well 
 as the khalif, accepted the professions of Jelalleddin ; 
 the envoys of the Grand Master were received with 
 distinction ; and for the first time since the foundation 
 of the Order, the Grand Master of Alamut was for- 
 mally admitted into the body of lawful Muhammadan 
 potentates. The Doctors of the Law issued declara- 
 tions, attesting their belief in the purity and veracity 
 of his professions of faith ; and he received the desig- 
 nation of the "New Moslem." To crown all, in the 
 second year of his reign, his mother and wife went on 
 pilgrimage to Mekka. The journey was conducted 
 with an extraordinary degree of magnificence. A 
 banner was borne in front of the procession ; and the 
 munificence of Jelalleddin' s wife to the crowd of 
 pilgrims exceeded all that had been witnessed for 
 many years. 
 
 But just about this time (ah. 615, a.d. 1214), 
 Moslem Asia was stunned by the most fearful calamity 
 that has ever fallen on the human race — the Mongol 
 invasion. Like the huge wave of some immeasurable 
 cyclone, the human deluge swept over the oases of 
 Bokhara and Khiva, the provinces of Khorasan and 
 Irak, and away to the confines of Russia. Men, 
 paralysed with terror and despair, seemed incapable 
 
366 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. hi. 
 
 of resistance. Here and there the fortifications of 
 some populous city would stay the onward march of 
 the destroying hosts ; but only for a moment. And 
 when the invaders passed on, a waste of blackened 
 ruins, cumbered with the corpses of the slain, was all 
 that remained to mark the spot. 
 
367 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FALL OF BAGHDAD. 
 a.d. 1214—1258. 
 
 The frozen deserts which are, at the present day, 
 included under the name of Siberia, contain one grand 
 lake, whose vast expanse of waters almost entitles it 
 to the appellation of an inland sea. The Lake Baikal 
 is about three hundred miles in length, and fifty in 
 breadth ; its waters are sweet and transparent, and 
 abound in fish. There are several floating islands in 
 this lake, which are blown by the wind sometimes to 
 one bank, sometimes to another. The storms that 
 sweep over it are terrible in their violence, rending the 
 ice in pieces even in the depth of winter. The chain 
 of mountains which divide Siberia from the pasture- 
 lands of Mongolia, encircle the waters of the lake. 
 The springs which hurry down their sides, not only 
 fill this huge reservoir, but give rise to all the rivers 
 of North-Eastern Asia. The mountains bristle with 
 huge rocks, in which a few hardy trees have struck 
 their roots, and their summits are covered with eternal 
 ice. At the commencement of the thirteenth century 
 the Mongols fed their flocks in the country south of 
 the Baikal Lake ; the branch of the tribe to which 
 
368 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 Chengiz Khan belonged dwelling among the moun- 
 tains of Bourcan Caldoun, where many of the great 
 rivers of Asia have their source. According to the 
 tradition current among them, 2000 years before the 
 birth of Chengiz Khan, the Mongols were assailed 
 and exterminated by the other nations of Tartary. 
 The chief fell in the general massacre; and of all 
 his family the only survivors were his youngest son 
 Kaian, and his nephew Nagos. At the close of the 
 fatal day which witnessed the slaughter of their fellow 
 tribesmen, these two young princes, with their wives, 
 found themselves the prisoners of one man, who con- 
 veyed them to his own home. They soon after 
 effected their escape ; and returning to the old 
 pasture-lands of their tribe, they took possession of 
 the camels, horses, cows, and sheep, which their con- 
 querors, glutted with plunder, had neglected to carry 
 off. The battle-field was still cumbered with the 
 corpses of the slain, both friend and foe. The young 
 princes collected the clothes and other valuables found 
 upon the dead, and laden with spoil, sought shelter in 
 the mountains. Deep in the recesses of the hills, they 
 came upon a path so narrow that only one man could 
 proceed along it at a time. They ascended this ; huge 
 precipitous cliffs rising upon either hand, so that they 
 could barely catch a glimpse of the blue sky above 
 them, until they all at once emerged upon a beau- 
 tiful and delightful valley, carpeted with verdure, 
 and intersected in every direction with sparkling 
 
 streams. 
 
 In this lovely and inaccessible spot they took up 
 
a.d. 1214. THE MONGOL INVASION. 369 
 
 their abode. They gave it the name of Erhene-hom, 
 from Erkene, signifying a valley, and Kom, a steep 
 mountain. For four hundred years the descendants 
 of the fugitive princes dwelt there ; until the valley 
 became incapable of supporting the increasing mul- 
 titude. It was resolved, at a general assembly of the 
 tribe, to abandon it, and return once more to the old 
 pasture-lands of their fathers. But they sought in 
 vain for the pathway which had conducted the princes 
 thither. At last, however, one of the chief men, who 
 had examined the mountain with attention, discovered 
 a part where the sides of the hill were entirely com- 
 posed of huge masses of iron. He proposed to put 
 the metal into a state of fusion by the action of intense 
 heat ; and for this purpose caused to be conveyed 
 thither a prodigious quantity of firewood. This was 
 charred. The tribe then prepared nine hundred 
 bellows made of the skins of wild oxen, fired the 
 charred wood, and set the bellows to work. In due 
 time the heat became sufficiently intense, and the ore 
 streamed over the hill side in a liquid state. A road 
 sufficient for the passage of a camel was thus thrown 
 open ; and the liberated nation went forth, and re- 
 occupied the pasture-lands where their ancestors had 
 dwelt four hundred years before. In memory of this 
 event, the Mongols instituted an annual festival. A 
 piece of iron is made red-hot in a great fire ; the 
 Khan of the tribe advances and gives it a blow with a 
 hammer ; after him the chiefs and other great men ; 
 while the people of each tribe perform the same cere- 
 mony among themselves. 
 
 24 
 
370 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 At the time the Mongols came forth from Erkene- 
 kom, they were ruled by a Khan of the name of 
 Bertezena, a lineal descendant of Kaian. The eighth 
 in descent from this chief left at his death two sons, 
 still children, and a young widow. Although fre- 
 quently urged to marry again, the widowed Queen 
 declined all such offers, declaring that as Regent it 
 was her duty to devote herself entirely to the interests 
 of the tribe until her sons were old enough to rule. 
 One morning, however, just as day was breaking, she 
 beheld something fall into her apartment through the 
 opening in the centre of the roof. It was brilliant as 
 the sun, and on reaching the ground became trans- 
 formed into a young man of an orange colour, with 
 eyes of extraordinary beauty. Terror deprived the 
 princess of the power of speech ; but she retained her 
 consciousness sufficiently to perceive that the spirit, 
 after remaining with her some time, suddenly vanished. 
 As this adventure was decidedly incredible, she com- 
 municated it to no one ; the spirit continued his 
 visits ; and after the lapse of a brief period, the Queen 
 was discovered to be with child. Her family were 
 furious, and refused altogether to receive the story of 
 the orange-coloured young man as a satisfactory ex- 
 planation. Guards, however, were placed round her 
 tents to see what truth there might be in her state- 
 ment. They reported the story of the Queen to be a 
 true one, having themselves witnessed the bright light 
 descending through the aperture in the roof of the 
 tent. All was at once joy and exultation. The widow 
 was regarded as the favoured bride of some super- 
 
a.d. 1155, BIRTH OF CHENGTZ KHAN. 371 
 
 natural being ; and the offspring of the mysterious 
 connection was awaited with impatience. In due 
 time the Queen was delivered of three sons. Their 
 birth is said to have taken place at the commencement 
 of the tenth century ; and their posterity formed many 
 tribes distinguished from other branches of the Mongol 
 race by the appellation " Niroun" signifying purity of 
 descent. Chengiz Khan was the eighth descendant 
 in a direct line from Boudantchar — the third of these 
 heaven-born sons. He was born in the year 1155 ; 
 and is said to have come into the world with a clot of 
 blood clutched in his right hand. 
 
 Temoutchin (such was the original name of 
 Chengiz Khan) was left an orphan when only thir- 
 teen years of age. The Niroun tribes who had given 
 a willing allegiance to his father — a brave and suc- 
 cessful warrior — deemed it a degradation to submit to 
 a child. They repudiated his authority ; and for many 
 years Temoutchin, with a few faithful followers, led a 
 hunted and perilous existence. More than once the 
 career of the great destroyer seemed to be on the point 
 of ending abruptly. At one time, he was actually a 
 prisoner in the hands of his enemies ; on another 
 occasion he was attacked while attended by only two 
 friends. He was struck to the earth and severely 
 wounded ; and the courage and devotion of his friends 
 alone preserved his life. At last, however, Temoutchin 
 defeated his enemies in two pitched battles. The last 
 was fought on the banks of the Baldjouna ; and the 
 well-wooded country round the battle-field gave 
 Temoutchin an opportunity of displaying that callous 
 
372 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 inhumanity for which he has since become so infamous. 
 He caused eighty large cauldrons to be constructed, 
 and placed upon huge piles of wood. They were then 
 filled with water, his prisoners thrown into them, and 
 boiled to death. 
 
 This act of cruelty marks a turning point in the 
 career of Temoutchin. From this time (a.d. 1196) 
 until a.d. 1208, with some partial and some severe 
 reverses, he gradually extended his dominion over all 
 the tribes of Mongolia. The last subjugated was that 
 of the Tatars. There was an old feud of long standing 
 between this tribe, and the family of Temoutchin ; and 
 the order was given for their utter extermination. 
 Even the women and children were put to the sword. 
 Two of Temoutchin' s own wives, who were of Tatar 
 origin, and other ladies who belonged to his generals, 
 tried secretly to save some of the children, but these 
 attempts became known to Temoutchin, and excited 
 his heaviest displeasure. The entire tribe perished, 
 saving a few who saved themselves by flight. This is 
 the tribe which has given its name to all those peoples, 
 differing in origin, language, and appearance, who 
 inhabit the vast regions that we call " Tartary." 
 They dwelt nearest to the Chinese frontier ; and the 
 Chinese comprehended under that one name all the 
 tribes that peopled the country to the north of the 
 desert of Gobi. The relations between China and the 
 western nations of Asia carried this name from 
 country to country even to the extremities of Europe, 
 though it was indignantly repudiated by the soldiers of 
 Chengiz Khan, as that of a people they had destroyed. 
 
a.d. 1208. INVASION OF CHINA. 373 
 
 The nomad nations of Mongol origin were now 
 united under one ruler, and Teinoutchin deemed it 
 incumbent upon him to assume a new title commen- 
 surate with his dignity and power. He convoked a 
 couriltai, or general assembly, near the sources of the 
 river Onan ; the chiefs of all the subjugated tribes 
 were required to attend. A magician of great fame 
 then declared that Temoutchin, having destroyed so 
 many sovereigns who bore the title of Gout Khan — 
 i.e., Great Khan — could not assume an appellation the 
 lustre of which had been so completely effaced. Heaven 
 had therefore decreed that he should henceforth be 
 called Ghengiz Khan, or the Lord of Powers. This 
 divine revelation was greeted with shouts of applause, 
 and the assembled chiefs at once did homage to their 
 new chief — the Lord of Powers. Chengiz Khan was 
 at this time forty-four years of age. 
 
 Some years were still to pass before the great 
 Mongol deluge burst over the verdant valley of Sog- 
 diana, and levelled the cities of Khorasan with the 
 dust. The terrible invasion of China was the next 
 great exploit of Chengiz Khan. There are few more 
 fearful episodes of human suffering to be found in 
 history. In three broad streams the destroying 
 element swept over the northern provinces of China ; 
 city and hamlet sunk in ruins before it ; the waving 
 harvests disappeared ; and the desolated land was 
 cumbered with the corpses of men, women, and chil- 
 dren. A vast crowd of captives were dragged along 
 in the rear of the invading hosts, and when Chengiz 
 Khan at length re-crossed the Chinese frontier to 
 
374 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 return to his own dominions, the whole wretched mul- 
 titude of men and women were deliberately slaughtered 
 in cold blood. 
 
 The invasion of China was followed by the con- 
 quest of Khoten Kashgar and Yarkand; and it was 
 not until a.d. 1218 (a.h. 615) that Chengiz Khan, 
 at the head of a countless host, descended from the 
 bleak uplands of Mongolia into the well-watered 
 regions of the Oxus and the loveliest provinces of 
 Persia. It would be remote from the object of this 
 work, and require far more space than I have at 
 command, to give the particulars of this memorable 
 invasion. Suffice it to say that Bokhara, Samarkand, 
 Merou, Naisapore, Herat — in truth, every great city 
 in the regions of the Oxus and the province of Kho- 
 rasan were taken and destroyed. The loss of human 
 life is too great for the imagination to grasp. " In less 
 than five years," Vambery tells us, " the great high- 
 roads of Central Asia by which the products of China 
 and India were conveyed to Western Asia and to 
 Europe were deserted ; the oases well, known for their 
 fertility lay barren and neglected ; the trade in arms 
 and jewellery, in silks and enamel, so celebrated 
 throughout Islam, decayed for ever. The towns were 
 in ruins, the peasantry either murdered or compulsorily 
 enrolled in the Mongolian army, and the artisans sent 
 off by thousands to the farthest East to adorn and 
 beautify the home of the conqueror. No less crushing 
 was the blow received by science in the devastation of 
 Central Asia. There is an Arab proverb of the Middle 
 Ages which says, ' Science is a tree whose roots are in 
 
a.d. 1-218. INVASION OF KHORASAN. 375 
 
 Mekka, but whose fruit ripens in Khorasan.' Judging 
 by the"' present condition of these countries, such an 
 estimate may well surprise us; but we must not forget 
 that at the most brilliant epoch of civilization in 
 Islamite Asia, Transoxiana played an important part. 
 . . . . The Mongolian invasion put an end to 
 the intellectual life of Central Asia ; for although Iran 
 and the West gradually recovered from their misfor- 
 tunes, Bokhara and Samarkand never regained their 
 former activity, and their intellectual labours were 
 henceforth entirely devoted to casuistry, mysticism, 
 and false religion." * 
 
 But the causes which conduced to the marvellous 
 success of the invader, and the utter destruction 
 of the invaded, we do not remember to have seen 
 adequately explained, and it will be well to say a few 
 words about them. 
 
 From the earliest periods of history, but especially 
 in the writings of the Jewish Prophets, we catch 
 glimpses of huge swarms of barbarians issuing from 
 the unknown regions of Northern Asia, to break down 
 every fenced city and make the earth waste and deso- 
 late. They appear under different names. They are 
 the Medes, " which shall not regard silver ; and as for 
 gold, they shall not delight in it ; their bows shall dash 
 the young men to pieces ; and they shall have no pity 
 on the fruit of the womb." They are the Chaldeans, 
 " that bitter and hasty nation which shall march 
 through the land to possess the dwelling-places that 
 are not theirs ; their horses are swifter than the 
 * History of Bokhara <, \>. \\i7. 
 
376 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap, iv 
 
 leopards and more fierce than the evening wolves ; 
 they fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat." But it is 
 always out of the North that the scourge of the 
 nations comes, " gathering the captivity as the sand ; 
 heaping up earth against every stronghold and taking 
 it;" there is always the same contrast — the fierce, 
 uncorrupted strength of barbarism on the one hand ; 
 the weakness and disunion of a sensual civilization on 
 the other. And such were the two elements that came 
 in contact in the days of Chengiz Khan.* 
 
 " The Tatars," Paul Carpin tells us, " are obedient 
 to their superiors ; they have no quarrels or murders 
 among themselves ; they never steal from each other, 
 and are remarkable for a lavish hospitality. They 
 
 * The following well-known verses from the Prophecies of 
 Isaiah give a picture of the Mongol invasion which only one of the 
 greatest of the world's poets could have drawn : — 
 
 " The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great 
 people; a tumultuous noise of the nations gathered together; the 
 Lord of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a 
 far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons 
 of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye, for the 
 day of the Lord is at hand ; it shall come as a destruction from the 
 Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart 
 shall melt, and they shall be afraid ; pangs and sorrow shall take 
 hold of them ; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth ; 
 they shall be amazed one at another ; their faces shall be as flames. 
 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and 
 fierce anger, to lay the land desolate ; and He shall destroy the 
 
 sinners thereof out of it Every one that is found shall 
 
 be thrust through ; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall 
 by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before 
 their eyes ; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. 
 . . . . And Babylon {Baghdad), the glory of kingdoms, the 
 beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew 
 Sodom and Gomorrah." 
 
a.d. 1218. MANNERS OF THE MONGOLS. 377 
 
 have great powers of endurance, so that when young 
 they will go without food for one or two days, not only 
 without exhibiting any weakness or impatience, but 
 with as much gaiety as though they were full fed. 
 When on an expedition, they endure the extremes of 
 heat and cold with astonishing patience and resolution. 
 They eat anything they can get ; dogs, wolves, foxes, 
 horses, and even human flesh, if nothing else is to be 
 had. On the other hand, they are full of bad qualities ; 
 subject to the fiercest passions, and incorrigible liars. 
 They appear very soft and affable at first, but in the 
 end sting like scorpions ; they are cunning, deceitful, 
 and always on the watch to overreach others. When 
 they have resolved to inflict injury upon any one, they 
 conceal their design with a subtlety which is exceed- 
 ingly difficult to penetrate In battle, 
 
 desertion or cowardice is punished with death. Each 
 soldier is expected to have two or three bows, if pos- 
 sible, but certainly one in good condition, with three 
 quivers full of arrows, a hatchet, and cordage to draw 
 the war machines. The richer soldiers have sharp- 
 pointed swords, straight and single-edged only ; some 
 also wear helmets and breastplates, and their horses 
 are armed and barbed. They are exceedingly careful 
 of their arms to make them glitter and sparkle. Some 
 also carry lances with the iron crooked at the end to 
 pull an enemy from his saddle ; the points of their 
 arrows are sharpened on every side like a sword. They 
 always keep a file in their quiver to sharpen them 
 when needful." 
 
 Marco Polo gives some other particulars. When 
 
378 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 the service is distant, the Tatars " carry but little with 
 them, and that chiefly what is requisite for their en- 
 campment and utensils for cooking. They subsist for 
 the most part upon milk. Each man has on an average 
 eighteen horses and mares. They are provided with 
 small tents made of felt. They can march for ten 
 days without dressing victuals, during which time they 
 subsist upon the blood drawn from their horse, each 
 man opening a vein and drinking from his own cattle. 
 They have milk also dried to a hard paste. This is 
 effected in tlie following manner : — They boil the milk, 
 skimming off the cream as it rises. The milk is then 
 exposed to the sun until it dries. They carry about 
 ten pounds of this for each man ; and of this, every 
 morning, about half a pound is put into a leather 
 bottle with some water. The shaking produced by 
 the movement of their horses makes this into a thin 
 porridge, on which they make their dinner. When 
 the Tatars engage in battle, they never mix with the 
 enemy, but keep hovering about him, discharging their 
 arrows first from one side, then from the other ; occa- 
 sionally pretending to fly, and during their flight 
 shooting their arrows backwards; killing men and 
 horses as if they were combating face to face. In this 
 sort of warfare, the adversary imagines he has gained 
 a victory, when, in fact, he has lost the battle ; for the 
 Tatars, observing the mischief they have done him, 
 wheel about, and renewing the fight, overpower his 
 remaining troops and make them prisoners. Their 
 horses are so well broken and so quick upon their feet, 
 that upon the signal given they turn like lightning in 
 
A.i). 1218. THE KHAREZMIAN ARMY. 379 
 
 any direction." In these passages we have placed 
 before us the very type and ideal of a horde of savage 
 warriors — their stern military law, their profound 
 instinctive obedience to their chief; their hardihood 
 and courage ; their cunning, patience, cruelty, and 
 extraordinary powers of endurance. The hordes of 
 Tatars were, in a word, a terrible machine which 
 worked in obedience to the impulse of a single mind, 
 which had never, to all appearance, been warmed by a 
 transient spark of pity or tenderness. Let us turn 
 now to the other side. 
 
 When Chengiz Khan entered Transoxiana, the 
 Sultan of Kharezm was at the head of a splendid- 
 looking army of four hundred thousand men, magnifi- 
 cently appointed and rich in all the pomp and circum- 
 stance of war. Unfortunately in its capacity for 
 fighting, it was in every way inferior to the rude 
 enemy it had to encounter. The mother-in-law of the 
 Sultan was sprung from a Turkish tribe in the 
 Caucasus — a wild horde who wandered over the 
 steppes eastward of the Jaik river. She exercised an 
 almost absolute power over her son, and several 
 Kan kali chiefs — her near relatives — had entered with 
 their followers into the service of the Sultan. These 
 followers constituted the main strength of his army, 
 and they had on more than one occasion fought with 
 conspicuous courage. The Kankali chiefs stood 
 foremost in the royal favour; they were rulers of 
 cities and governors of provinces. The rest of his 
 army consisted of Turcomans who had formerly fought 
 under the banners of the Seljukides. So long as the 
 
380 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. IV. 
 
 Sultan could carry on an aggressive war, and gratify 
 his lawless soldiery with plunder, the weakness of 
 such an army remained latent. But' for purposes of 
 defence they were worse than useless. They had no 
 community of feeling with the people they were 
 expected to defend ; they cared nothing for the 
 authority of the Sultan. The Sultan was in truth 
 the slave of his army ; and the soldier knew that he 
 was far more needful to the sovereign, than the 
 sovereign was to him. The Kharezmian army was, 
 in a word, a mercenary horde in the most absolute 
 sense of the term, greedy only of plunder, and pre- 
 pared to join any side which held out the best hopes 
 of it. The first encounter took place in the vicinity of 
 Jund. The Sultan with his whole army came upon a 
 Mougol detachment which had been sent forward to 
 reconnoitre. Despite their small numbers, the Mon- 
 gols fearlessly attacked the Kharezmian army. They 
 fought with incredible fury, and the desperate bravery 
 of the Sultan's son, Jellaleddin, alone saved the day. 
 When night came on, the Mongols retired in good 
 order and joined the main body. The Sultan was 
 astounded at their invincible pertinacity. He retreated 
 in a panic to Samarkand, where his terror was further 
 augmented by the declaration of the astrologers that 
 the aspects of the heavenly bodies forbade any second 
 trial of arms during the present year. He broke up 
 his army into a number of detachments ; scattered 
 them as garrisons in the principal cities ; and himself 
 fled into Khorasan. As he rode away from Samar- 
 kand, the Sultan passed a crowd of the townspeople, 
 
a.d. 1218. CONDITION OF MOSLEM ASIA. 381 
 
 who were deepening the ditches round the town. 
 " If these people," he said to them, " who are behind 
 us and will shortly be here, were merely to cast 
 their whips into these ditches, they would fill them 
 up in a moment." 
 
 This breaking up of the Sultan's army robbed 
 Transoxiana and Khorasan of its one defensive 
 element. The armv which, united, had failed to 
 crush a single detachment, was necessarily able to 
 accomplish even less when severed into fragments. 
 Amongst the people there was no power of resistance, 
 nor any capacity for united action. There never is 
 among Oriental communities ; and the causes of this 
 imbecility are not difficult to discover. There is in 
 the history of any European, when compared with that 
 of any Muhammadan country, this important differ- 
 ence. In the former we can see political institutions, 
 whether good or bad, rooting themselves firmer and 
 firmer in the common heart of the nation ; whereas in 
 the latter, the government never penetrates below the 
 surface. It has no roots ; but is rather to be com- 
 pared to a destructive hurricane passing across the 
 face of the land, uprooting and destroying whatever 
 lies in its path. The great object of an Oriental 
 population is to protect themselves against their 
 government ; and this they strive to effect by breaking 
 themselves up into small guilds, like the village com- 
 munities of India. Every such section of the people 
 has, if we may use the expression, a distinct life cir- 
 culating within itself. It intermeddles as little as 
 possible with events that do not disturb its internal 
 
382 THE KHALTFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 status, recognizing any and every de facto government 
 as a necessary calamity which must be propitiated 
 into a certain degree of clemency by the payment of 
 taxes. Under such a state of society, patriotism, as 
 we understand the word, is extinguished; a man's 
 country is the guild of which he is a member ; and the 
 perilous moment becomes the signal, not for a com- 
 bined resistance from an angry and awakened nation, 
 but for each little organization to shrink up, hedgehog- 
 like within itself, indifferent to everything but the pre- 
 servation of its own skin. 
 
 This is precisely what happened in Asia at this 
 period. There was not an attempt made to meet the 
 enemy in the field; the thought of combined resistance 
 never so much as suggested itself to anyone. The 
 feeblest efforts to operate upon the rear of the Mongol 
 hosts — to cut off some of the numerous detachments, 
 or to intercept supplies, would have compelled the 
 invaders to hold together, and indefinitely narrowed 
 the area of their devastations. Famine, too, would 
 very soon have driven them back to their native pas- 
 tures. As it was, the entire open country was given 
 up to them. The Mongols roamed where they would 
 in perfect security. Every town, filled to overflowing 
 with crowds of the peasantry, shut its gates and 
 awaited its doom in panic-stricken isolation. The 
 supineness of the people surpasses belief. They seem 
 to have sat immovable and permitted themselves to be 
 slaughtered. Thus three thousand Mongols marched 
 through Persian Irak, massacred the inhabitants of 
 some half-dozen cities without meeting with any oppo- 
 
a.d. 1220. SUPINENESS OF THE PEOPLE. 383 
 
 sition, though there was an army of about twelve 
 thousand men in the province. " See," says Ibn al 
 Atliir, " that which the Tatars did ; they did not 
 number more than three thousand, while the Kharez- 
 mians had double that number, and the troops of 
 Prince Euzbeg were stronger than both together. In 
 spite of this superiority, the Prince dared not deny 
 their request ; the Kharezmians knew not how to 
 defend themselves." "Their request" was that the 
 Kharezmians should be delivered up to them, to which 
 the Prince responded by decapitating a portion of 
 his wretched allies and sending their heads into 
 the Mongol camp, and yielding up the rest alive. 
 The same historian tells us that he heard of a Tatar 
 woman who " entered into a house of Meraga, and 
 slaughtered all whom she found there. They took 
 her for a man. When she had divested herself of her 
 armour, they saw she was a woman, and a Moslem 
 whom she had taken prisoner slew her. I have also 
 heard repeated by a citizen of Meraga that a Tatar 
 entered into a street where more than a hundred 
 people were collected, whom he deliberately slew, one 
 by one, without anyone attempting to defend himself." 
 
 This abject prostration of spirit would at times be 
 suddenly replaced by fits of fanatical fury, which, un- 
 supported by any real strength, only maddened the 
 Mongols, and brought down a heavier punishment on 
 the wretched people. The fate of the cities of Merou 
 and Herat may be quoted as illustrations of this. 
 
 In the year 1221, Chengiz Khan had established 
 his winter quarters on the banks of the Oxus, sending 
 
384 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 his youngest son, Touloui, at the head of 80,000 men, 
 to complete the conquest of Khorasan. Merou was 
 the first city on which the fury of the invaders 
 descended. This place had already tendered its 
 submission to a Mongol army; but, with the blind 
 frenzy characteristic of the time, had broken its 
 pledges, massacred a number of Mongol soldiers, 
 and proclaimed its independence. The people were, 
 however, quite unable to refrain from internal dis- 
 sensions. The city was broken up into a number of 
 factions, and even the approach of Touloui was not 
 sufficient to quench their animosities and induce them 
 to combine against the common enemy. The Mongols 
 obtained possession of the city without a battle. Four 
 hundred artizans and a few children were spared ; the 
 residue were put to the sword. Ibn al Athir states 
 that close upon three quarters of a million of men and 
 women perished in this massacre. 
 
 From Merou the Mongols marched to Naisapore ; 
 from Naisapore to Tous. Both places were carried by 
 storm, and the inhabitants put to the sword. From 
 Tous the destroyers passed on to Herat. As he 
 n eared this magnificent city, Touloui sent forward an 
 envoy to assure the people of his protection if they 
 surrendered The Governor rejected the proposal, 
 and put the Mongol envoy to death. Touloui then 
 assaulted the place. But the Governor was a deter- 
 mined soldier, and the garrison brave and numerous. 
 For seven days an almost continuous battle raged 
 round the defences of Herat — the fiercest and bloodiest 
 in which the Mongols had yet been engaged. Seven- 
 
a. a 1222. SIEGE OF HERAT. 385 
 
 teen hundred of their leading men are said to have 
 fallen in this brief space. But on the eighth day the 
 governor fell dead, transfixed by an arrow ; the vigour 
 of the defence immediately waned ; dissensions broke 
 out; when at this critical moment, the Mongol prince 
 again offered terms. The extreme loveliness and 
 fertility of the country round Herat, the magnificence 
 of the city, with her clustering domes and minarets 
 ascending above the thick foliage of the encircling 
 groves, is said to have touched even his obdurate 
 heart. He was desirous, if he could, to avert from 
 Herat the doom which had fallen upon Merou and 
 Naisapore. As soon, therefore, as he became aware 
 that there was a party within the city willing to sur- 
 render, he rode up to the walls, attended by only two 
 hundred horsemen, and, doffing his helmet, announced 
 that he was Touloui Khan, the son of the King of 
 kings — that he would cease from hostilities, and 
 recommend them to the mercy of his father, if they 
 would pledge themselves to pay to his officers one 
 half of the revenue which had been paid to the 
 kings of Kharezm. The. city was yielded up. The 
 Mongol prince kept his word to the citizens; but 
 twelve thousand soldiers were slaughtered in cold 
 blood. A leading citizen was appointed governor of 
 the city, and with him was associated a Mongol 
 officer. Touloui then marched to rejoin his father. 
 
 It was only a brief respite which the doomed city 
 had obtained. Not far from Herat was a fortress 
 bearing the name of Kalious, and garrisoned by a 
 number of reckless outlaws. The Mongols had vainly 
 
 25 
 
386 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 attempted to reduce it either by storm or blockade. 
 A report was carried to the defenders of this impreg- 
 nable fortress, that the Heratees had been spared on 
 the condition that they undertook the capture of 
 Kalious. The garrison determined to be beforehand 
 with them. Eight of their number, under a chief 
 noted for his reckless daring, entered Herat disguised 
 as merchants, slew the two governors as they rode 
 alone round the fortifications ; and then, rushing 
 through the streets of the city, they raised the cry 
 of " Death to the Mongols ! " The infection of excite- 
 ment ran from man to man with the swiftness cha- 
 racteristic of the Oriental temperament. The Mongol 
 garrison was attacked, and killed to a man ; a new 
 governor was elected ; and preparations made to defend 
 the city to the last. 
 
 Chengiz Khan was beside himself with fury when 
 he heard of the revolt. He discharged the first torrent 
 of his wrath on Touloui, to whose misplaced lenity 
 he attributed this insult to his dignity. His next step 
 was to send a force against the turbulent city, with 
 the stern order to level Herat to the ground, and leave 
 not a single living creature within it. The city was 
 defended with the obstinacy of despair. For more 
 than six months the attacks of the Mongols were 
 successfully repelled. But the besieged became gra- 
 dually weakened by death, wounds, sickness, and 
 fatigue. The walls began to totter under the blows 
 of the ponderous stones flung from the war-machines 
 of the Mongols. The enemy, too, had run their mines 
 under the outer defences. At length, a part of the 
 
a.d. 1222. CAPTURE OF HERAT. 387 
 
 wall fell with a stupendous crash. The Mongols 
 poured in at the gap, one division relieving another. 
 The Heratees fought with desperate valour, and for 
 several days the breach remained unforced. But at 
 last it was carried, and the work of extermination com- 
 menced. The massacre and pillage lasted for seven 
 days ; and when the Mongols marched away, a waste 
 of smoking ruins was all that remained of Herat. But 
 the tragic drama was not yet finished. The Mongol 
 general advanced a few marches, and then hurried 
 back a detachment of his army to slaughter any' sur- 
 vivors who might by this time have emerged from 
 their hiding-places. By this ingenious device, three 
 thousand victims are said to have been added to those 
 already slain. Mirkhond asserts that after this second 
 massacre, a miserable remnant of fifteen persons was 
 all that remained of the population of Herat. They 
 were subsequently joined by twenty-four others. 
 These lived on the dried flesh of the dead, until by 
 exploring the granaries and stables, they obtained seed 
 to raise food for their subsistence. 
 
 Here, then, we have the explanation of the Asiatic 
 conquests of the Mongol — on the one side, a huge 
 host of barbarians, strong with all the uncorrupted 
 strength of a savage life ; on the other, a population 
 enervated by luxury, honeycombed by religious dis- 
 sensions, destitute of patriotism, incapable of united 
 action, treacherous and apathetic. 
 
 At last, however (a.d. 1223), the deluge subsided ; 
 the human inundation ebbed gradually back from the 
 heart of Southern Russia across the oases of Central 
 
388 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 Asia, silent now and desolate, and blackened with the 
 ruins of once flourishing cities, into the wild mountain 
 land around Lake Baikal. Fearfuller calamity has never 
 fallen upon much enduring humanity. " The noble 
 cities," says a Persian poet, " they laid as smooth as 
 the palm of the hand ; their spacious and lofty struc- 
 tures they levelled with the dust." Multitudes of 
 captives of both sexes' and of every age were carried 
 away into Mongolia ; hundreds of thousands were 
 ruthlessly slaughtered ; at one time Chengiz Khan 
 contemplated the conversion of the whole valley of the 
 Sogd into a vast grazing ground for the flocks of his 
 followers ; and he withdrew, leaving only " Sorrow's 
 faded form and Solitude behind." 
 
 The two dynasties, however, with whom we are 
 concerned contrived to weather the storm. The khalif 
 still preserved a precarious throne in Baghdad ; and 
 the Grand Master of the Assassins still ruled in 
 Alamut. It was not until the reign of Mangou Khan, 
 the third of the successors of Chengiz Khan, that 
 their doom overtook them. And here, as throughout 
 the history of Islam, it was the act of the Moslem him- 
 self which involved Ihm in destruction. The seven 
 vials of the wrath of God had been poured out upon 
 Islam ; the rivers and fountains had become blood, the 
 land was full of darkness, and men gnawed their 
 tongues for pain. But they repented not of their evil 
 deeds. The same want of unity, the old sectarian 
 animosities, prevailed in Islam after the Mongol 
 invasion, as they had done before. Undeterred by 
 the remembrance of the past, the khalif Mutasim 
 
a.i>. 1253. SECOND MONGOL INVASION. 389 
 
 actually sent ambassadors to Mangou Khan pray- 
 ing him to send an army into Persia to destroy 
 the Assassins. Mangou Khan immediately collected 
 an army, which he placed under the command of his 
 brother Houlagou, whom, on departing, he addressed 
 as follows : — " I send thee, with much cavalry and a 
 strong army from Turan, to Iran, the land of great 
 princes. It is thy duty to observe the laws and ordi- 
 nances of Chengiz Khan in great things and in small, 
 and to take possession of the countries from the Oxus 
 to the Nile. Assemble round thee the obedient and 
 submissive ; but tread into the dust of contempt and 
 misery the refractory and mutinous, with their wives 
 and children. When thou hast done with the Assassins, 
 begin the conquest of Irak. If the khalif of Baghdad 
 comes forward willingly to serve thee, then shalt thou 
 do him no harm, but if he refuse, let him share the 
 fate of the rest." The destruction of the khalifate was 
 the direct result of the embassy from Baghdad. 
 
 In the month of the second Joumada (a.h. 650), 
 Kitbouga Noian, a famous Mongol general, quitted the 
 court of Mangou Khan, and preceding the march of 
 Houlagou, advanced against the fortresses of the 
 Ismailiens. Early in the following year he crossed 
 the Oxus, penetrated into Kohistan, and took posses- 
 sion of several places. From that province, with five 
 thousand foot and as many horse, he marched against 
 the fortress of Kirdeh-koh, one of the strongest among 
 the many strongholds possessed by the Assassins. He 
 encircled the place with a deep ditch, and leaving a 
 lieutenant to carry on the siege, carried fire and sword 
 
390 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 through the neighbouring country. A successful sally 
 on the part of the garrison of Kirdeh-koh, in which 
 his lieutenant perished, compelled the Mongol general 
 to retrace his steps. Despite, however, of an infectious 
 disease, which greatly thinned their numbers, the 
 garrison obstinately held out. A reinforcement de- 
 spatched by Alaeddin, the Grand Master, succeeded in 
 effecting an entrance, with only the loss of a single 
 man. The Mongols were reduced to inaction, when at 
 this crisis the Assassins, in true Oriental fashion, 
 succeeded in achieving their own destruction. Alaeddin 
 perished, murdered by his chamberlain at the instiga- 
 tion of his son, Rokneddin Kourshah. Kourshah be- 
 came Grand Master, and his first act was to put to 
 death the chamberlain, and burn his children in the 
 market-place, for the atrocious crime of murdering a 
 Grand Master. Rokneddin, the last of the Grand 
 Masters, a feeble, cowardly, inexperienced youth, was 
 utterly unable to cope with the difficulties thickening 
 around him. The terrible Houlagou was advancing 
 westward, leaving behind a broad path of smoking 
 ruins and unburied dead. But accidents occasioned 
 long delays, and it was not until a.h. 654 that the 
 Mongol army came in sight of the fort-crowned moun- 
 tains where reigned the Grand Master of the Assassins. 
 The heart of Rokneddin died away within him at the 
 sight of his enemy. With upwards of a hundred 
 fortresses in his possession well provided with pro- 
 visions, and incapable of reduction, except by the slow 
 process of blockade, he dared not strike a blow in his 
 defence. A few months elapsed in idle negotiations, 
 
a.d. 1257. DESTRUCTION OF THE ASSASSINS. 391 
 
 and then Rokneddin surrendered himself a prisoner to 
 the Mongol general, and sent orders to the different 
 garrisons to dismantle their defences. A dynasty which 
 had lasted two hundred years collapsed at last almost 
 without a struggle. A terrible doom fell upon it and 
 its adherents. The order was sent forth that the 
 Ismailiens were to be exterminated ; not even the 
 infant at the breast was to be spared. Rokneddin 
 himself was murdered on the banks of the Oxus ; his 
 wives, children, sisters, and slaves were massacred in 
 the province of Kasvin. Twelve thousand Ismailiens 
 were slaughtered in one spot by the governor of 
 Khorasan. Parties of Mongol soldiers were despatched 
 through all the provinces wherein the dais had pro- 
 selytised successfully, to extirpate the Assassin out of 
 the land. Numbers of innocent beings, men and 
 women, must have been involved in one common fate 
 with the guilty. The whole race of Kia Buzurgomid, 
 in whose descendants the dignity of Grand Master had 
 become hereditary, were put to the sword ; and 
 nothing now intervened between the city of Baghdad 
 and her doom. 
 
 Inevitable as death, the Mongolian host moved on. 
 The earth and the heavens were full of fearful sights 
 and great signs, ominous of coming doom. 
 
 Most of all were these apparent in the sacred terri- 
 tory which contained the cities of the Prophet. For 
 an entire month, a wondrous flame shone in the sky 
 over against the mountain of Ohod, the dazzling bril- 
 liance of which illuminated the recesses of the valleys 
 with an awful splendour. The city of Medina was 
 
392 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 shaken by an earthquake ; and fearful sounds issued 
 from the centre of the earth, never ceasing, night nor 
 day, from Saturday to Monday. In the valley of the 
 Schada, the ground opened and discharged a torrent 
 of flames mixed with stones and burning coals. The 
 brightness was so intense that all the houses in Medina 
 were illuminated within as by a multitude of lamps ; 
 and the light was seen as far as Mekka. The terror- 
 stricken people commenced to free their slaves, to dis- 
 tribute alms, and crowding round the tomb of the 
 Prophet, implored him to intercede for them at the 
 throne of God. Famine desolated Syria. An asto- 
 nishing flood covered the province of Irak, and the 
 waters did not subside for fifty days. Baghdad was 
 submerged, so that in many parts of the city even the 
 upper stories were under water ; and one-half of Irak 
 remained uncultivated. The powers of nature, as 
 at all great crises of this world's history, appeared, 
 by their unusual agitation, to experience a kindred 
 feeling with the sufferings of humanity. It was, in 
 truth, a time of terror and perplexity ; men's hearts 
 failing them for fear and for looking after those things 
 that were coming upon the earth. More than six 
 hundred years had gone by since the first Arabian 
 khalifs had led their warriors into Syria. As the Jews 
 of old times, the believers in the One God had over- 
 thrown fenced cities and destroyed mighty armies. 
 Like them, they had enjoyed their period of probation, 
 their time of earthly splendour ; and like them, they 
 had at length been weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting. They had wrought no deliverance upon the 
 
a.d. 1258. THE STATE OF BAGHDAD. 393 
 
 earth ; and the decree had gone forth that there was 
 for them no longer either the time or the place for 
 repentance. 
 
 The inhabitants of Baghdad, in the meantime, 
 could think of no better way of preparing for the 
 advent of the Mongols than by quarrelling among 
 themselves. The city was divided into two factions : 
 the Shias, who had suddenly acquired a more than 
 usual degree of influence, from the accident of the 
 Vizier Muwaied Ibn Alkami having secretly espoused 
 their tenets ; and the orthodox party, headed by a 
 young secretary, Mujahid-eddin Aibek. There were 
 daily fights in the streets ; and of course all sorts of 
 bad characters took advantage of the disorders to 
 render life and property utterly insecure. The 
 anarchy in Baghdad went on from bad to worse ; 
 both leaders sought to work upon the fears of the 
 khalif and gain him as an ally. The secretary insisted 
 upon the duty incumbent upon the Commandei' of the 
 Faithful to suppress the Shia heresy whenever it 
 showed its head; the vizier represented his rival as 
 a secret conspirator against the life of the khalif. 
 The Commander of the .Faithful was not easily roused 
 to action. In the seclusion of his harem, surrounded 
 by seven hundred wives, and attended by one thousand 
 eunuchs — never but for one day in the year coining in 
 contact with the world outside of his palace walls, the 
 clamour of the faction fights in the streets of Baghdad 
 sounded faint and thin, like voices in a dream. Wars 
 and revolutions fall upon his unheeding ear like the 
 buzz of an unknown language. The walls of his 
 
394 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 palace enclosed not merely the world of his thoughts ; 
 they contained the only world he knew at all. 
 With absolute power over the lives of all who came 
 in contact with him ; with every whim supplied the 
 moment it was expressed ; knowing nothing of men 
 except from the obsequious slaves that thronged 
 around him ; the object of the adoration and awe of 
 millions of hearts, the khalifs passed their lives in a 
 species of fantastic dream. They became gods in 
 their own estimation, and the passions and turmoil 
 of humanity fell upon their ears " like a tale of little 
 meaning though the words be strong." The mind of 
 Mutasim — the last of the Abbasides — had, so to 
 speak, completely lost its apprehension of the realities 
 of the world, and it was an almost impossible task to 
 bring them home to him. At length, however, he 
 caused a letter to be written, declaring the secretary 
 to be a most loyal and excellent servant of the state, 
 and all who thought otherwise to be liars and calum- 
 niators ; he caused him to be clothed in a robe of 
 honour, and his name to be inserted in the public 
 prayer immediately after his own. The disappointed 
 vizier vowed vengeance. Baghdad might be destroyed ; 
 the people might fall victims to the swords of the Mon- 
 gols — what cared he ? Vengeance on the khalif and 
 on his insolent favourite the secretary he was resolved 
 to have, be the consequences what they might. He 
 at once placed himself in secret communication with 
 Houlagou, urging him to advance upon Baghdad, and 
 promising to do his utmost to deliver the city into his 
 hands. He then persuaded the infatuated khalif to 
 
a.d. 1258. ADVANCE OF THE MONGOLS. 395 
 
 disband a great portion of the standing army, in order 
 to save their pay and preserve his treasure ; he pointed 
 out to the khalif that, as the Lieutenant of the 
 Prophet, he was in a special sense under the Divine 
 protection, and needed not, as ordinary mortals, to 
 trust to the arm of flesh ; he recalled to his mind that 
 all the great Asiatic conquerors had bowed in homage 
 before the spiritual Lord of Islam, and that beyond 
 a doubt Houlagou the Mongol would be as Mahmoud 
 of Ghuznee and Togrul Beg the Seljuk. In the 
 meanwhile, an embassy had arrived from Houlagou. 
 " Probably," he wrote, "you have heard by universal 
 rumour of the punishments which the Mongolian 
 armies have inflicted upon the people of this country ; 
 the humiliation and destruction which have overtaken 
 the kings of the East, thanks to the aid of the eternal 
 God. The gates of Baghdad have never been closed 
 against any of these sovereigns, who have, one and all, 
 established their dominion there. How then can they 
 remain closed against us who have done such 
 things?" He went on to warn the khalif to learn 
 wisdom while there was yet time. If he surrendered, 
 all would be well with him ; but if not — " I will in my 
 just anger conduct my troops to Baghdad, and not 
 leave a living soul in your country. Your towns, your 
 lands, and your province shall be wasted with flame." 
 The khalif returned a haughty reply. He reproached 
 Houlagou for the arrogance which assumed that he 
 was master of the world's destinies, because he had 
 enjoyed a brief period of success. He supposed that 
 Houlagou was unaware that a vast host of believers 
 
396 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. I v. 
 
 from the rising to the setting sun were obedient, as 
 slaves, to the mandates of the khalif — that these would 
 at a word gather around him in invincible strength — 
 that having destroyed the insolent invader, who had 
 presumed to enter Iran, it was his intention to march 
 into Turan and put down the upstarts who had 
 usurped dominion there. But, the khalif added, he 
 was not greedy of blood-shedding, and if Houlagou 
 retired quietly out of Khorasan, the past should be 
 forgotten and forgiven. Houlagou shook with rage 
 when this message was communicated to him. He 
 sent word to the khalif that he was in full march upon 
 Baghdad with an army as innumerable as ants, and 
 that he (the khalif) had nothing now but fierce battles 
 to look for. 
 
 Great was the consternation in Baghdad when this 
 message was received ; but the khalif, confident of a 
 Divine interposition in his favour, could be roused to 
 no other measure of defence than an embassy to 
 Houlagou, threatening him with the wrath of God if 
 he persisted in his impious attempt against the House 
 of Abbas. The Mongol host, meanwhile, moved 
 steadily forward ; as they approached the devoted 
 city they threw off to right and left two large detach- 
 ments to encircle and complete its investment on the 
 further side. Houlagou retained command of the 
 main body and advanced direct upon Baghdad by 
 way of Kermanshah and Hulwan. At Dinawer he 
 was met by another embassy from the khalif, offering 
 to pay a yearly tribute if Houlagou would stay his 
 advance. This proposal was rejected. On the 9th 
 
a.d. 1258. THE SIEGE OF BAGHDAD. 397 
 
 Molmrrum, a.h. 656, the advanced guard of Houlagou's 
 army came in contact with the Baghdad troops, who 
 drove them back, after a smart skirmish. The next 
 day, however, the main body having come up, a 
 second battle was fought, and the Muhammadan troops 
 utterly beaten, fled in confusion to Baghdad. By the 
 11th day of Mohurrum, the three armies advancing 
 from three sides completely invested the doomed city. 
 About this time the three presidents of the descendants 
 of Ali, who resided at Hillah, not far from the ruins of 
 Babylon, sent a letter to Houlagou, tendering their 
 submission, and complaining bitterly of the trials and 
 persecution they had endured at the hands of the 
 Abbasides. They added that they now hoped for 
 relief, because from a Tradition preserved by Ali, the 
 ever- victorious Lion of God, they knew that the fall 
 of Baghdad was at hand. Houlagou was greatly 
 pleased at the intelligence of this prophecy, and sent 
 a detachment of his army to take possession of the 
 district and preserve the inhabitants from violence. 
 
 The siege, in the meanwhile, had been pressed with 
 relentless vigour. On every spot of commanding 
 ground without the city projectile engines were planted 
 which threw masses of rock and flaming naphtha. 
 Houlagou had brought with him a corps of Chinese 
 fire-work makers, who were specially skilled in the 
 construction and management of these engines. For 
 six days the walls were battered without ceasing, and 
 the city set on fire in various places. Attempts, too, 
 were made to divide the inhabitants among themselves. 
 Missives were shot into the city, declaring that the 
 
398 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 adherents of Ali had nothing to fear. On Friday, 
 25th Mohurrum, the Persian tower crumbled into 
 pieces ; on the following Monday the Mongols stormed 
 the breach. On the same night the defences on the 
 eastern side were carried by assault. Boats were then 
 collected to form a floating bridge across the Tigris ; 
 and ten thousand men were stationed on the roads 
 leading to Medain and Basra to capture any of the 
 inhabitants who sought to escape. Embassy after 
 embassy was now despatched by the terrified khalif 
 to implore the clemency of the Mongol chief, but they 
 returned without effecting anything. At last the khalif 
 sent his eldest son, and Houlagou so far relented as to 
 send officers to negociate with the khalif. Active 
 operations were for awhile suspended. But the nego- 
 ciations were still incomplete, when a chance arrow 
 slightly wounded Houlagou himself. Mad with rage, 
 he determined that the whole city should suffer a 
 fearful retribution for the injury done to himself. He 
 ordered a renegade Muhammadan to proceed to the 
 principal gate of the city, and proclaim that all who 
 came forth, and surrendered themselves to Houlagou 
 would receive pardon and mercy. The inhabitants 
 pressed out by thousands. 
 
 They were divided into parties of ten, and hacked 
 to pieces by the Mongol soldiery. The secretary, 
 Mujahid-eddin, perished in this massacre, and Sulei- 
 man Shah, the chief general of the Muhammadan army, 
 together with seven hundred of his relatives. The 
 khalif, in despair, turned to the treacherous Ibn Al- 
 kami for counsel and assistance. " Nothing," replied 
 
a.d. 1258. FALL OF BAGHDAD. ' 399 
 
 the vizier, " can be done now ; the sword is sharpened, 
 and already poised in air for the fatal stroke." At last 
 the khalif, desperate of any other chance of saving his 
 life, determined to throw himself on the mercy of the 
 conqueror. On the 4th of the month Safar, a.h. 656, 
 he came forth from the beleaguered city, attended by his 
 brother and two sons, and a train of three thousand of 
 the principal men of Baghdad — the Syuds, Khatibs, 
 Kadis, and principal Ministers of State. Houlagou 
 received the fallen monarch with an appearance of 
 kindness, asking him only to proclaim to the armed 
 inhabitants of the city that they should throw aside 
 their weapons and assemble before the gates in order 
 that a general census might be taken. The order was 
 given and obeyed ; the Muhammadan soldiery crowded 
 into the Mongol camps, and were ruthlessly massacred. 
 The city now lay naked and defenceless, and the 
 savage Mongol might revel in the fierce delight of 
 blood-shedding in absolute security. The investment 
 round the city precluded the possibility of escape. By 
 the orders of Houlagou, the ditches were filled up and 
 the outer walls thrown down ; and then from every 
 side the Mongols were permitted to pour in. The 
 inhabitants were devoted to the sword; the city to 
 pillage and to fire. On Saturday, the 7th of Safar, 
 the work commenced. The city was gradually con- 
 sumed by flame ; the streets ran with blood ; the 
 libraries of the learned were either flung into the fire, 
 or the waters of the Tigris ; and so great a quantity of 
 Persian and Chinese gold tissues, Arab horses, Egyptian 
 mules, Greek and Abyssinian slaves of both sexes, gold, 
 
400 THE KHALIFS OF BAGHDAD. chap. iv. 
 
 silver, and precious stones, was found, that the private 
 soldier became richer than even the chiefs of the army 
 had been before. 
 
 A tent in the meanwhile had been pitched for the 
 accommodation of the khalif and his sons. The pillage 
 and massacre had gone on for two days, but the 
 advancing tide of destruction had not yet reached the 
 vast and magnificent structure where the Commanders 
 of the Faithful had lived and reigned. On the 9th of 
 Safar, Houlagou entered and took up his abode there. 
 He made a great feast for a thousand of his lords. 
 The khalif was brought before them. " It is you," 
 said the Mongol, with mock politeness, " who ought 
 to receive us, for we are your guests. Come and let 
 us see what worthy thing you have to give us." The 
 khalif broke open his treasure-chests, and displayed 
 two thousand suits of clothes, ten thousand pieces of 
 gold, and an immense number of jewels and precious 
 stones. Houlagou Khan flung them contemptuously 
 to his officers. " These," he said, " any one may find 
 and rob you of. But where are your hid treasures ?" 
 Then, under the direction of the khalif, they dug 
 beneath the floor of the great state-room of the palace ; 
 presently they came upon a huge cistern filled to the 
 brim with ingots of gold. Houlagou had plates filled 
 with this gold and placed before Mutasim instead of 
 food; and on the khalif s observing that gold was not 
 food, the Mongol replied, " Because it is not food, and 
 cannot preserve life, why did you not give it to thine 
 army to defend thee, or to mine to pacify them ?" The 
 next evening Houlagou returned to his camp. " The 
 
a.d, 1258. MURDER OF THE KHALIF. 401 
 
 riches," says the Persian panegyrist of this monster, 
 " that the khalifs had amassed during five hundred 
 years were heaped up like mountains round the tent of 
 the prince." Then the work of destruction recom- 
 menced. Dome and minaret, palace and tower came 
 crashing down as the advancing flames licked up sup- 
 porting beam and rafter. The mosque and palace of 
 the khalifs, the musjid of Mousa Jewad; the tombs 
 wherein reposed the mortal remains of the heads of 
 Islam— in a word, all the great buildings of the city, 
 were utterly consumed. The streets became a shape- 
 less wilderness of ruins ; nothing escaped except a few 
 sheds belonging to some cowherds. The work of 
 slaughter kept pace with that of conflagration; the 
 river, according to the expression of the Persian 
 historian, flowed as red as the Nile when Moses, by a 
 miracle, changed its waters into blood. The stench of 
 the dead bodies became so frightful that even the 
 callous sensibilities of Houlagou Khan were unable to 
 endure it. He left the vicinity of the wasted city, and 
 established his residence at the villages of Wakf and 
 Jelabieh. There, on the 14th Safar, a.h. 656, the 
 khalif, his sons, and five eunuchs who had never 
 quitted their master, were put to death. " On the 
 morrow," continues the historian, Rashideddiu, "all 
 those who had accompanied the khalif when lie left the 
 city by the gate of Kalwaza also received the crown of 
 martyrdom. They slaughtered without pity all they 
 could find of the House of Abbas ; there escaped only 
 a few who were held of no account." 
 
 26 
 
SUCCESSION OP THE FIFTY-FOUR KHALIFS 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE DEATH OF MUHAMMAD TO THE DESTRUC- 
 TION OF BAGHDAD. 
 
 THE " RIGHTLY-DIRECTED " KHALIFS. 
 
 Abou Bekr ...... 
 
 Omar ...... 
 
 Othman ...... 
 
 Ali 
 
 KHALIFS OF THE HOUSE OF OMMAYA. 
 
 Muawia ...... 
 
 Yezid (son of Muawia) 
 Muawia II. (son of Yezid) . 
 Merwan I. ..... 
 
 Abd al Malek (son of Merwan) . 
 
 Sons of ( Walid . 
 Abd al Malek ( Sulaiman . 
 Omar ibn Abd al Aziz 
 Yezid II. (son of Abd al Malek) . 
 Hisham (ditto ditto) 
 Walid II. (son of Yezid II.) 
 Yezid III. (son of Walid I.) . 
 Merwan II. ...... 
 
 A.D. 
 
 632 
 634 
 644 
 656 
 
 661 
 680 
 683 
 683 
 685 
 705 
 715 
 717 
 720 
 724 
 743 
 744 
 744 
 
 KHALIFS OP THE HOUSE OF ABBAS. 
 
 The Period of Persian Ascendancy. 
 
 Abdallah as Salfah 
 
 Abou Jaafar al Mansour (brother of as Saft'ah; 
 
 Muhammad al Mehdi (son of al Mansour) 
 ( Musa al Hadi 
 ( Haroun al Rashid 
 
 Sons of al Medhi 
 
 750 
 754 
 775 
 785 
 786 
 
404 
 
 SUCCESSION OF THE FIFTY-FOUK KTIALTFS. 
 
 Sons of 
 Haroun al Rashid 
 
 Sons of 
 Ivasim al Matasim 
 
 C Muhammad al Emin 
 \ Abdallah al Mamoun 
 ^ Kasim al Mutasim 
 
 i Haroun al Wathik . 
 
 ( Jaafar al Mutawakhil 
 
 A.D. 
 
 809 
 
 813 
 833 
 
 842 
 
 847 
 
 During the Tyranny or the Turkish Bodyguard. 
 
 Muhammad al Muntasir (son of al Mutawakhil) 
 
 Ahmed al Mustain ...••■ 
 
 Muhammad al Mutaz (son of al Mutawakhil) . 
 
 Muhammad al Muhtadi (son of al Wathik) 
 
 Ahmed al Mutamid (son of al Mutawakhil) 
 
 Ahmed al Mutadhid (nephew of predecessor) 
 
 ( Ali al Muktafi 
 
 Sons of ) Jaafar al Muktadir 
 
 al Mutadhld ' Muhammad al Kahir. . . . 
 
 Sons of \ Ahmed al Rhadi .... 
 al Muktadir 1 Ibrahim al Muttaki . 
 
 861 
 
 862 
 866 
 869 
 870 
 892 
 902 
 907 
 932 
 934 
 940 
 
 During the Ascendancy oe the Bouide Princes. 
 
 Almufadhl al Moti (son of al Muktadir) 
 Abd al Kerim at-Taji (son of al Moti) 
 Ahmed al Kadir (son of predecessor) 
 Abdallah al Kaim (son of predecessor) 
 
 944 
 
 974 
 
 992 
 
 1031 
 
 From Rise of the Seljuks to Destruction op Baghdad. 
 
 Muhammad al Muktadi (son of predecessor) 
 Ahmed al Mustazhir ( „ ) 
 
 Fadhl al Mostarshed ( „ ) 
 
 Mansour al Rashid ( ,, ) 
 
 Muhammad al Muktafi (son of al Mustazhir) 
 Tusuf al Mustanjid (son of predecessor) 
 
 ( 
 
 ( 
 
 Alhasan al Mustadhi 
 Ahmed al Nasir 
 Muhammad Az-zahir ( 
 Abou Jaafar al Mustanzir( 
 Abdallah al Mutasim ( 
 Destruction of Baghdad 
 
 1071 
 
 1094 
 1118 
 1119 
 1119 
 1160 
 1170 
 1180 
 1225 
 1226 
 1242 
 1258 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 PART I. — The Church op Islam. 
 
 Chapter I.— Ibn Khallikan's Biog. Die. (De Slane) ; Ibn Khal- 
 dun's Prolegomena (De Slane) ; Shahrestani's Muhammadan Sects 
 (Haarbrucker) ; Mishcat-ul-Musabih (Captain Matthews); Le 
 March e et les Progres de la Jurisprudence parmi les Sectes Or- 
 thodoxes Musulmanes (Mirza Kasem Beg) ; Muhammad ibn Hasan, 
 as Sheibani (Barbier de Meynard) ; Jour. Asiatique, 4 serie, 
 torn. XX. ; Legislation Musulmane Sunnite, rite rlanefi (Du 
 Caurroy) ; Le Droit Musulman (De Tornauw) ; Culturgeschichte 
 des Orients unter den Chalifen (A. von Kremer) ; Das Leben und 
 der Lehre des Mohammed (Sprenger) ; Legislation Malekite (Perron). 
 
 Chapter II. — Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Ibn Khaldun's Prolego- 
 mena ; Mishcat-ul-Musabih : Shahrestani ; Mirza Kasem Beg's Le 
 Marche et les Progres ; Das Leben und der Lehre (Sprenger) ; 
 Masoudi's Meadows of Gold (Sprenger) ; Ueber den Sahih des 
 Buchari (Krehl) ; Z. M. G., bund IV. 
 
 Chapter III. — Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Ibn Khaldun's Prolego- 
 mena; Djami's Vies des Sofies (De Sacy) ; Liter. Gesch. der Araber 
 (Hammer- Purgstall) ; Kremer's Gesch. der Herr. Ideen des Islams ; 
 Die Mutaziliten (Heinrich Steiner). 
 
 Chapter IV. — Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Ibn Khaldun's Prolego- 
 mena ; Shahrestani ; Die Mutaziliten (Steiner) ; Herr. Ideen des 
 Islams (Kremer) ; Sale's Preliminary Discourse ; Liter. Geschichte 
 der Araber (Hammer) ; Histoire des Druses (De Sacy). 
 
40G LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
 PART II. — The Rule of the Persians. 
 
 Chapter I. — Tareek-i-Tabari (Zotenberg) ; Masoudi Prairies 
 d'Or (Barbier de Meynard) ; Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Cultnr- 
 geschichtliche Streifzuge (A. von Kremer) ; Culturgeschichte des 
 Orients (A. von Kremer). 
 
 Chapter II. — Tareek-i-Tabari ; Masoudi ; Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; 
 De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe. 
 
 Chapter III. — Tareek-i-Tabari ; Masondi ; Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; 
 Traite de la Condnite des Rois et Histoire des Dynasties (Jour. 
 Asiatique, 4 serie, torn. VII., VIII., IX.) ; Ibrahim, fils de Mehdi 
 (Barbier de Meynard, Jour. Asiatique, 6 serie, torn. XIII.) 
 
 Chapter IV. — Masoudi ; Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Ibn Khaldun's 
 Prolegomena ; Shahrestani ; Fetwa relatif a la condition des 
 Zinimis (Jour. Asiatique, 4 serie, torn. XVIIIL, XTX.) ; Sale's Pre- 
 liminary Discourse. 
 
 PART III. — The Decline oe the Khalifate. 
 
 Chapter I. — Masoudi ; Ibn Khali. Biog. Die. ; Ibn Khaldun's 
 Prolegomena ; Mirkhond's Bouides (Wilken) ; Kitab-i-Yamini 
 (Reynolds) ; Geschichte der Dynastien des Hamdanideu (Freytag); 
 Memoire sur les Emirs al Omera (Defremery) ; Memoire sur la 
 Famille des Sadjides (Jour. Asiatique, 4 serie, torn. IX., X.) 
 
 Chapter II. — Mirkhond's Seljukides (Vullers) ; Histoire des 
 Seljoukides extraites du Tareek-i-Gazideh (Defremery) ; Memoires 
 de l'Egypte (Quatremere). 
 
 Chapter III. — Mirkhond's Ismailiens ; History of the Assassins 
 (Hammer-Purgstall) ; Nouvelles Recherches sur les Ismailiens 
 (Defremery, Jour. Asiatique, 5 serie, torn. III., V., VIII., XIII., 
 XV.) ; Recherches sur le Regne du Sultan Seldjoukide Barkiarok 
 (Defremery, Jour. Asiatique, 5 serie, torn. I., II.) ; Fragments 
 relatifs a la Doctrine des Ismaelis (Guyard, Notices des Manuscrits, 
 torn. XXII. , part i.) 
 
 Chapter IV. — Mirkhond's Ismailiens ; Rashideddin's Histoire 
 des Mongols (Quatremere) ; Makrizi's Histoire des Sultans Mam- 
 louks (Quatremere) ; D'Ohsson's Histoire des Mongols. 
 
8v<>, price 12s. , cloth. 
 
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