308 CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 



on recantation were admitted to pardon, while others 

 fell victims to their own credulity. By this prompt 

 display of military force the spirit of insurrection 

 was put down. The loyalty of the faithful was 

 revived and confirmed. The wavering tribes re- 

 turned with humble contrition to the duties of prayer, 

 fasting, and alms ; and the religion of the Koran was 

 again believed, and more steadfastly professed, by 

 the whole nations of Arabia. Order and security 

 were restored ; but it became necessary to provide 

 an immediate exercise for the restless spirit of the 

 Saracens. On the reduction of Yemama, Khaled 

 marched into Irak and the provinces on the Lower 

 Tigris, where the dominion of the Koran was further 

 extended by a series of rapid and splendid victories. 

 An annual tribute of 70,000 pieces of gold was the 

 first-fruits of these i-emote conquests.* 



From the banks of the Euphrates the general was 

 suddenly recalled to take the command in another 

 quarter. The dying Prophet had meditated the sub- 

 jugation of Syria ; and Abu Beker was only prevented 

 from following up his intentions by the revolt of his 

 own subjects. Events favoured a renewal of the 

 enterprise ; and no proposition could have come more 

 welcome to the faithful, burning alike for pillage and 

 the propagation of truth. 



The resolution of the caliph was speedily made 



* The following are our authorities for the history of the early- 

 caliphs and the wars of the Saracens :— Abulfeda ( Annal. Mos- 

 lem, a Reiske, 4 vols. 4to) ; Elmacin (Hist. Saracen, ab Erpe- 

 nio); Abulfarage (Hist. Compend. Dynast a Pococke) ; Eaty- 

 chius (Aanal. a Pococke, 2 vols. 4to); D'Herbelot (Biblioth. 

 Orient.); Mod. Univ. Hist. vols. i. ii, iii. ; Ockley (Hist, of the 

 Saracens, 2 vols. 8vo), who, to the shame of English patronage, 

 died rn Cambridge jail instead of Cambridge University. Marigny 

 (Hist, des Arab. 4 vols.); Price (Retrospect of Mohammedan 

 Hist. 4 vols. 4to), whose work is a copious and valuable mine 

 of original authorities. The Greek writers on that period, 

 Theophanes, Zonaras, Cedrenus, &c., may be consulted in 

 Kiebuhr's Collection of the Bvzantine Historians. 



