SECTION III. OMAR, KALIPH OF THE SARACENS. 634 TO 645-11 YEARS. Omar declared himself 'kaliph of the kaliph of the apostle of God;' whereon the people objected to this lengthened title, and with one voice saluted him Emperor of the believers,' a title which descended to his successors by a kind of incontestable right. Omar took Jerusalem after an obstinate siege; while his general, Sad, added Persia to his dominions. Egypt was next attacked; and the taking of Alexandria was marked by the destruction of its celebrated library by the Saracen general Amrou. During the reign of Omar, who was stabbed at Medina by a Persian slave, the Mahometans conquered 36,000 towns, destroyed 4000 Christian temples, and built 1400 mosques; adding to their empire nearly the whole northern coast of Africa. Omar would not permit his son to succeed him; but declared the throne to be henceforth elective. CHIEF EVENTS. Destruction of the Alexandrian Li- Fall of the Middle Persian Empire. | being carried away as a relic to MeYezdegird III., grandson of Chosroes, dina. succeeded to the Persian throne, 632, and was, in two years after, attacked |brary. by a powerful Saracen army under occurred 641; than which no event Sad, Omar's general. The battle lasted tended more effectually to produce three days and nights; and the Sara- the ignorance of what are deservedly cens being victorious, Yezdegird fled called the dark ages. This repertory into Chorasan, where he ruled over a contained a copy of every published petty province nineteen years. Persia work of the civilized world, whether was thereupon added to Arabia, and Egyptian, Jewish, Grecian, Roman, continued a part of the Saracenic em- Phoenician, Punic, Chaldaic, Syriac, or pire till the decline of the latter power, Persian; so that, with the exception and the rise of the Monguls. of the Holy Scriptures, and the comparatively few Greek and Latin books we now possess, and which were saved by the monastic establishments, all the humane and physical learning of the ancients perished beyond the power of restoration. Judæa made a Saracen Province. In 637 Amrou took Jerusalem; and in six years after, the small temple erected upon the ruins of that which fell in the siege of Titus, was changed into a mosque, the cross of our Lord Othman commenced his reign by the capture of Cyprus and Rhodes, and the defeat of Constans II., the eastern emperor, in a naval engagement on the coast of Lycia. But while thus successful abroad, plots were contriving at home for his destruction. He was accused of having unjustly removed Amrou from the government of Egypt, and Sad from his high post in the army; and it was further alleged, that he had presumed to sit on the top of Mahomet's pulpit, whereas Abubeker and Omar had not dared to go higher than the steps. A body of rebels, incited by Ayesha, Mahomet's widow, marched therefore to Medina; and having murdered the emperor in his palace, threw his body into a hole without any funeral solemnity. CHIEF EVENT. First Danish descent on Britain. | newly-formed Saxon kingdoms of BriThe Dani, inhabitants of the modern tain for the first time, 653. Denmark, made a descent upon the SECTION V. ALI, KALIPH OF THE SARACENS. 657 TO 662-5 YEARS. Ali, whose wife was the only child of Mahomet, was willingly received as kaliph after Othman. Though indolent and unambitious, he possessed a strength and courage that induced the Arabs to call him the lion of God.' As Ayesha had caused the death of Othman, to place her favourite Telha, in his room, she was infuriated on hearing that Ali was proclaimed; and this Telha and one Zobeir, while the kaliph was on a pilgrimage to Mecca, raised an army to dethrone him, Ayesha herself, mounted on a camel, taking the first command. At Basra, Ali took her prisoner; and the only remarkable effort made by her troops was in defence of her person. Seventy men, who held her camel by the bridle, had their hands cut off successively; and the pavilion in which she sat was so full of darts and arrows, that it resembled a porcupine. Ali had just defeated the conspirators, when he heard that Moawiyah had declared himself kaliph in Syria, at the head of 120,000 rebels. These he attacked with 80,000 men; but when he had lost twenty-six officers, who had been contemporary with the prophet, and were therefore dignified with the title of companions, he challenged Moawiyah to single fight. Amrou, the conqueror of Africa, finding that Moawiyah, under whom he served, had declined the combat, on account of the known strength of Ali, resorted to stratagem to deter the army of the kaliph. Ordering his men to fix copies of the koran to the points of their lances, he made them rush among the enemy, exclaiming, This absolutely prohibits the effusion of Moslem blood! Ali's troops thereupon threw down their arms; and the kaliph, on agreeing to resign his power, was allowed to retire, accompanied by his soldiery. On reaching Cufa, 12,000 of his men pretending to be offended by his compliance with the terms of the enemy, revolted, and with much difficulty were put down. Such as escaped on this occasion joined the friends of Ayesha; and under the title of Kharejites, or rebels, appeared soon after 25,000 strong. A battle ensued near Bagdad, in which Ali routed the revolters with vast slaughter; whereon the insurgents hired an assassin, who killed the kaliph with a poisoned weapon. CHIEF EVENTS. The Pilgrimage to Mecca. Mahomet's celebrated visit to the temple of the Caaba, which in his youth he had guarded as a pagan devotee, was imitated by all the believers in his mission, now that it had become the place of his sepulture. He had too much consideration for the prejudices of his subjects to do away with the sacred claims of an edifice, which all acknowledged to have been placed where it stands by the hands of angels: he therefore abolished its pagan only to supply it with newly-ordained rites, which he affirmed to be the full completion of the ancient religion of the Caaba, in the manner Christianity became that of Judaism. All Moslemins, or true believers, have been required by an edict of Ali, whatever their distance from Mecca, to make a visit thither once in their lives. The labours undergone by pilgrims in crossing trackless deserts, with a burning sun above and a pestilential air around them, thus to pay their devotions at the shrine of the prophet, are such as frequently to occasion the loss of life, and most commonly that of sight, or general health. 'I had viewed the departure of the caravan | from Cairo (observes Mr. Hope) as a species of public rejoicing. The whole of the night which preceded the raising of the tents, the camp, resplendent with the light of millions of lamps, and re-echoing with the sounds of thousands of musical instruments, seemed the special abode of mirth and pleasure; and on the ensuing morning, the pilgrims fresh, gay, full of ardour, and prancing along the road, looked like a procession of the elect going to take possession of Paradise. Alas! how different the appearance of this same caravan, after a long and fatiguing march across the desert, on its arrival at Mekkah! Wan, pale, worn out with toil and thirst, incrusted with a thick coat of dust and perspiration, the hadjees who composed it seemed scarce able to crawl to the place of their destination. One had lost an eye, another become subject to spasnodic movements, and all so altered by their sufferings, that they were obliged to syllable their names ere I could bring their persons to my recollection. The end of their journey looked like that of their earthly existence; or rather, one might have fancied their bodies already smitten by the spirit of the desert, and their ghosts come disembodied to accomplish their vow!' Organs were first used in the Christian churches of the east, and in Italy, 660. SECTION VI. MOAWIYAH, KALIPH OF THE SARACENS. (First of the House of Ommiyah.) 662 TO 680-18 YEARS. Moawiyah. Ali had appointed his son Hassan to succeed him; but that youth, fearing to contend with Moawiyah, chief of the family of Ommiyah, gave up his claim, and the new kaliph was soon enabled to put down the Kharejites, who were as opposed to him as they had been to Ali. Moawiyah sent his son Yezid to besiege the eastern emperor, Constantine IV., in his capital, 669; and four of the companions, although very aged, accompanied the expedition: this was undertaken in consequence of Mahomet's promise, that all the sins of that army should be forgiven, which should conquer the first city of Cæsarea. All that we know of the affair is that it did not succeed, and that Abu Ayub, a companion, fell, whose tomb is still held by the Moslemins in such veneration, that the Turkish sultans gird their swords on it at their accession. The Saracens next attacked the Turks, who had invaded Bukharia, and nearly captured their queen; one of whose sandals they tore from her person, and valued at 2000 dinars. Constantine was, in the end, compelled to pay tribute by Moawiyah, who died soon after at Damascus his capital. CHIEF EVENT. Glass was invented by a bishop of to England afterwards by a Benedicthe eastern church, 663, and brought | tine monk. SECTION VII. YEZID, MERWAN, AND ABDALMALEC, KALIPHS OF THE SARACENS. 680 TO 706-26 YEARS. Yezid, son of Moawiyah, expecting opposition from Hosein the son of Ali, and from Abdallah the ambitious general of the Kharejites, found means to entrap the former, who was beheaded by one of his generals. Abdallah was checked by this event; but his interest with the people of Medina was so great, that when Yezid sent an order thither for his arrest, an insurrection was raised in his favour. A large party assembled in the chief mosque; and the first approaching the steps of the pulpit exclaimed, I lay aside Yezid as I do this turban,' and immediately threw his turban on the ground: another said, I put away Yezid as I do this shoe,' whereon a vast heap of shoes and turbans was formed upon the spot. When Yezid heard of this outrage, he sacked Medina, with tremendous slaughter; a circumstance which, though it secured his throne, caused the kaliph to be considered an impious man, since the prophet had declared the wrath of God should visit him who did violence to Medina.' Yezid, however, seems to have cared little for this solemn denunciation; and whilst laying siege to Mecca, whither Abdallah had fled, died, aged thirty-nine, 683.-Merwan. As Merwan was at the head of the Koreish, a vast number inclined to him, and proclaimed him kaliph at Damascus, while another faction proclaimed Abdallah at Mecca; so that there were two kaliphs at once. Merwan, after some skirmishes with his rival, was poisoned by his wife Zeinab, the widow of Moawiyah, in the first year of his reign, because he had promised that her son Caled should succeed him, whereas he nominated his own son, Abdalmalec.-Abdalmalec having put down all minor rivals, directed his general, Al Hejaj, to attack Abdallah in Mecca; and the latter being unprepared, great desertion took place among his troops. His mother, daughter of the kaliph Abubeker, encouraged him to trust in the prophet and drive out the invader; whereon he defended the city, to the amazement of the besiegers, for ten days; though nearly destitute of arms, troops, and fortifications. At last he made a furious sally upon the enemy, destroyed many of them with his own hand, and was killed fighting valiantly. Al Hejaj ordered his body to be affixed to a cross; and received from Abdalmalec the governorship of Medina, in reward for his services. The coining of money by Abdalmalec, 698, gave offence to Justinian II., the eastern emperor, whose money had hitherto passed in Arabia; and who ceased not to harass the dominions of the kaliph by incursions, on that account, until the close of his reign. CHIEF EVENTS. The Laws of Ina. Ina, king of Wessex, inherited the military virtues of his predecessors, and added to them the more valuable ones of justice, policy, and prudence. He allowed the British proprietors to retain their lands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and the Saxons, and gave them the privilege of being governed by the same laws. These laws, which he promulgated 692, became the standard code of the whole Heptarchy for some years; and though Ina was disturbed by insurrections at home, his reign endured thirty-seven years. In his old age, he made a pilgrimage to Rome; and after his return, shut himself up in a monastery, where he died. Rise of Bulgaria. The nomad tribe of Bulgarians, who had long inhabited the plains of Sarmatia, on the banks of the Volga, passed the Danube, 650, and entered Lower Mysia, a country then belonging to the eastern empire. The Greco-Romans made various attempts to expel them; but at length Justinian II., 686, was obliged to cede that portion of his dominions to them, and they thereupon named it Bulgaria, and appointed themselves a king. Temporal Power of the Pope established. At the restoration of Justinian II., who had been banished by his subjects, the Pope was first invested by him with temporal power, by the grant of a province near Rome, over which he had, for himself and his successors, absolute dominion. Before this, the popes were prelates only; they have ever since been both prelates and kings. EMINENT PERSON. Pepin d'Heristal, mayor of the palace to the king of France, obtained more power than the monarch; and as his office was made hereditary, it be came clear that the mayors would soon supplant the kings. He died in the third year of Dagobert II., 714. SECTION VIII. AL WALID, SOLIMAN, OMAR II., YEZID II., AND HESHAM, KALIPHS OF THE SARACENS. 706 TO 747-41 YEARS. Al Walid I. commenced his reign by severely beating the Turks, and levying contributions on them in Great Bukharia. In 712 he took Tyana from Philip Bardanes, the eastern emperor; while his generals, Musa and Tarik, crossing from the new colony in Morocco to the opposite shore, added Spain to the Saracenic empire, by the victory of Xeres. Antioch at the same juncture fell to another Moslemin general; and Al Walid was building a large fleet to sail against Constantinople, when death seized him, 718.Soliman succeeded his brother, in whose brief reign nothing occurred beyond the siege of Constantinople, which his general Moslema was compelled to raise, after losing before it 120,000 men, and reducing his soldiers to the extremity of eating their comrades' dead bodies. He died 721, of indigestion; and no wonder, if what is said of him be true,-namely, that he daily devoured one hundred pounds of meat at his dinner, after eating three roasted lambs for his breakfast !—Omar II. was an amiable man, and suppressed the |