CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Mohammed had begun. Accordingly, the reigns 

 of the Califs as the successors of Mohammed 

 in the conjunct spiritual and temporal sovereignty 

 of Arabia were called were one long series of 

 in various, \\.irs, and conquests, undertaken for 

 the express purpose of adding new countries to 

 the Mohammedan Empire. In the reign of Abu- 

 bcker, the first of the califs, Syria and Mesopo- 

 tamia were subdued by Arabic armies ; and under 

 Hiccessor, Omar, Egypt was conquered, and 

 the northern coast of Africa overrun as far as 

 Tripoli. By these conquests, the limits of the 

 Empire of the E.ist were considerably curtailed. 

 Nor was it only westward that the Arabians ex- 

 tended their victories ; after several invasions, 

 Persia was obliged to succumb. The seat of the 

 califatt- was first at Kufa, on the Euphrates ; but 

 under the second dynasty, or Omtniade califs, it 

 i ansferred to Damascus. 



The Mohammedan Empire attained its fullest 

 extent in the reign of Walid I. the second of the 

 Omtniade califs (705-715). Tarik ben Zaid, a 

 Mohammedan leader in Africa, crossed over into 

 n, landing at a spot afterwards named Jibel 

 'l\itik, or the ' Mountain of Tarik,' a name which 

 has been corrupted by usage into Gibraltar. Tarik 

 defeated the Visigottiic king, Roderic, in a battle 

 fought at Xeres de la Frontera, on the io.th of 

 July 711, and thus established the dominion of 

 the Arabs over Murcia, Granada, Andalucia, and 

 other parts of Southern Spain. Meanwhile, other 

 emirs of the calif Walid were extending his power 

 in Asia. Bokhara, Turkestan, and other countries 

 lying east of the Caspian, were rapidly subdued ; 

 and under one bold leader, the Arabians even 

 penetrated into Northern India. In the califate 

 of Soliman, the successor of Walid (715-717), the 

 Greek Empire was still further weakened by the 

 seizure of the greater portion of Asia Minor by the 

 Arabs, who even proceeded to lay siege to Con- 

 stantinople. The incompetence, however, of Soli- 

 man and his successors, Yezid II. and Hesham 

 (720-743), arrested the progress of the Arabic 

 conquests in the East 



In Spain, the emirs ('commanders') soon 

 extendea their dominion over the whole peninsula 

 with the exception of the mountainous districts in 

 the north, where a Gothic chieftain, Pelayo, was 

 able to found the little Christian kingdom of the 

 Asturias. The Arabs of Spain, or, as they now 

 began to be called, the Saracens (' Eastern 

 people '), next ventured on an incursion into Gaul 

 (718) ; and in a few years their language and their 

 religion prevailed over a large tract to the north 

 of the Pyrenees, and ' the vineyards of Gascony 

 and the city of Bordeaux were possessed by the 

 sovereign of Damascus and Samarcand.' Even 

 these limits, however, did not satisfy them. In 

 the year 728, Abd-el-rahman, a Saracen of great 

 abilities, was appointed by the calif to the emir- 

 ship of Spain. Full of the conquering spirit of 

 his race, he resolved that not only France, but all 

 Europe, should be included within the sway of the 

 Moslems. Accordingly, invading France (732) 

 at the head of the largest Mohammedan army that 

 had ever been assembled in Europe, he pushed 

 on, carrying all before him, as far as the river ! 

 Loire. Between Tours and Poitiers, however, his 

 career was arrested by Charles Mattel, Mayor of 

 the Palace for the Frankish Empire, who in a 

 bloody battle defeated and slew him in October 732. 



Shortly after these events, a new dynasty (the 

 Abbasides) seized on the califate, and the Saracens 

 of Spain espousing the cause of the old dynasty, 

 the Mohammedan power split into two the Arabic 

 Empire proper, stretching from India to the 

 Atlantic shores of Africa ; and the kingdom of 

 Spain. The Abbaside calif, Al-mansur, trans-, 

 ferred the capital of his empire to Bagdad, on the 

 Tigris (753)- . 



The Arabic invasions which we have thus 

 narrated are not to be regarded as a mere series 

 of violent or barbaric exploits that produced no 

 good effects. No sooner were the first conquests 

 over, than the believers in the Koran began to 

 direct their energies towards the cultivation of 

 the arts and sciences. The accession of the Abba- 

 sides to the califate was the epoch of a splendid 

 intellectual outburst among the Arabs. Law, 

 astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and philos- 

 ophy, were studied with zeal at Bagdad, and in 

 other cities of the califate ; books were multiplied 

 by native authors on all these subjects ; and the 

 best works in the Greek language were translated 

 into Arabic. Architecture, and the arts of polished 

 and luxurious life, had likewise their devotees ; 

 and the fertility of the Arabic mind displayed 

 itself in numerous manufactures and inventions. 

 Nor were the Arabs of Spain behind their brethren 

 of the East in these respects : they not only em- 

 bellished the land they had subdued by noble 

 architectural edifices, but also introduced into it 

 new trees, new fruits, and new processes in the 

 arts. Cordova became a seat of Arabic learning, 

 and a place celebrated for civilised magnificence. 

 In short, were we to compare the Arabic invaders 

 of the seventh and eighth centuries with our Celtic 

 or Teutonic ancestors, we should certainly be 

 obliged to assign the palm of superior culture to 

 the former. It was the ' Dark Ages ' everywhere 

 in Europe, except in Spain. 



The Franks resumed. The most important 

 event in the reign of Pepin (752-768) was his lay- 

 ing the foundation of the temporal power of the 

 papacy. The pope and the Lombards had quar- 

 relled, and the former sought the help of Pepin, 

 king of the Franks, the policy of whose family had 

 always been to favour the interests of the church. 

 Pepin responded to the call. Twice he invaded 

 Italy, defeated Astolphus, and compelled the Lom- 

 bards to cede all the territories they had taken in 

 Central Italy. These territories were given up 

 by Pepin, not to the Byzantine emperors, but to 

 the popes themselves, or, according to the formal 

 expression of the treaty, to 'the Holy Church of 

 God and the Roman Republic.' The original 

 deed by which the Frankish king thus conveyed 

 over to the popes of Rome so large a portion of 

 the lands of Central Italy has, unfortunately, been 

 lost ; but the dotation itself (756) is recognised as 

 one of the most important transactions in the 

 history of the modern world. It laid the founda- 

 tion of the temporal power of the papacy. 



Pepin's son and successor, Charlemagne (Ger. 

 Karl der Grosse), was the most illustrious monarch 

 of the middle ages, and in every respect a great 

 man. In activity, in a craving desire to be ever 

 doing something, he resembled Napoleon. From 

 the affairs of his own household to the state of the 

 markets or the monasteries in the most distant 

 parts of his empire, he made himself acquainted 

 with everything, intermeddled with everything. 



