ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 109 



dour. Asaad-Abucarb had larger armies, and ex- 

 tended his conquests more widely than any of his 

 predecessors. He invaded Tehama, the inhabitants 

 of which were glad to purchase peace from him at 

 the expense of twenty camels for every soldier they 

 had slain. Carrying his arms eastward, he pro- 

 ceeded by the route of Mosul into Azerbijan, where 

 he encountered and defeated the Tartars with great 

 slaughter. Alarmed at his success, most of the 

 neighbouring monarchs courted his friendship ; and 

 among these was the sovereign of Hindostan, who 

 sent an embassy proposing terms of amity. The 

 rare articles presented by the ambassador led to in- 

 quiries respecting the country which produced them ; 

 and for the first time the Arabian conqueror heard 

 of the existence of China. Asaad at once determined 

 on an expedition to that distant region ; and quitted 

 Yemen at the head of a force which oriental hyper- 

 bole has magnified into a thousand standards, each 

 followed by a thousand men. Having by some 

 means led his army through the territory of Balkh, 

 he proceeded by Turkistan, skirting the borders of 

 Thibet, where he left a division of 12,000 Arabs, as 

 a body of reserve, in case of defeat. Finally, he 

 succeeded in penetrating the boundaries of the Chir 

 nese monarchy ; and, after plundering the cities in 

 all directions, he returned with imn>ense booty 

 through Western Tartary into India, whence he 

 conducted his army safely back to Yemen, having 

 consumed seven years in this remote and perilous 

 enterprise. The corps of reserve, however, wag 

 never withdrawn from Turkistan and Thibet, where 

 vestiges of the race are still to be discovered.* 



The whole of this expedition we might have been 

 apt to treat as a fable, were it not that the early 

 Mohammedans, on conquering Bokara, found an 

 inscription expressly recording the presence of the 



* Price (Essav, p. 98) is disposed to place this prince earlier. 



Vol. I.— K 



