210 CHRONOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIENTAL CHRONOGRAPHY. 



UNDER the head of Oriental Chronography, we would include the 

 remaining History and Antiquities of the Eastern World ; that is 

 of those countries which were unknown to the ancient Greeks and 

 Romans ; and of all the eastern nations down to the present time. 

 It comprehends of course the whole of Mohamedan History, includ- 

 ing that of northern Africa ; the only part of Africa whose history 

 has been preserved. We thus draw a dividing line around a large 

 portion of History partly ancient and partly modern ; but which we 

 think so distinct, and united, as to deserve a separate position in the 

 arrangement of this wide department of knowledge. 



The most prominent feature in this branch, is doubtless the rise 

 and spread of the Mohamedan power, in connection with the Mo- 

 hamedan religion. Its inroads were marked with devastation and 

 bloodshed; till it grasped the wide region from Spain and Morocco 

 to Turkestan and India ; and then, like the preceding empires of the 

 ancient world, fell in pieces by its own unwieldiness. In order to 

 treat successively of the different Mohamedan nations, we shall com- 

 mence with Arabia, as the source of their doctrines and power; next 

 glance over Northern Africa ; and then proceed with the nations of 

 Asia, in geographical order, commencing with Turkey, and proceed- 

 ing to the more detached states of India and China. We shall con- 

 clude this branch with a glance atOceanica, and central and southern 

 Africa ; whose history will henceforward increase in importance to 

 the civilized world. 



1. The History of the Arabians, before the time of Mohamed, 

 is obscure, and of minor interest. They are called Saracens, by 

 the western Mohamedans, from the circumstance of their living in 

 the east. They have never been completely subdued ; and though 

 partially conquered by Alexander the Great, they became inde- 

 pendent soon after his death. In the times of the Roman emperors, 

 Arabia became a refuge for the Jews and Christians. Yusof Dhu 

 Nowas, the last king of the Hamyarate or Homerite dynasty, was a 

 Jew, and persecuted the Christians ; for which he was dethroned by 

 Elesbaan, the Christian king of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, A. D. 524. 

 The war of the Elephant, between the Yemenites, and the Koreish, 

 took place A. D. 579, ten years after the birth of Mohamed. 



Of Mohamad's romantic career ; his flight from Mecca to Medina, 

 A. D. 622 ; and his subsequent success till his death in 632 ; we 

 have already spoken, in treating of Mohamedanism. (p. 137). His 

 successors were called caliphs, or vicegerents ; of whom Jlbubekir 

 (Aboo-Beker; was the first. Omar completed the conquest of Syria, 

 A. D. 637 ; of Asia Minor in the following year ; and that of Egypt 

 in 639. Othman (or Osman) saw the conquest of Persia completed 

 in 651. He was succeeded by Jlli, whom the Sheeahs or Shiites, 



