CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS. 337 



of the province at the enormous annual tribute of 

 100,000 pieces of gold. Ayaz, at the head of 5000 

 men, marched into that territory ; the walls of 

 Edessa, Amida, Dara, and Nisibis, which had resisted 

 the arms and eng:ines of Shapoor and Nooshir- 

 wan, were levelled in the dust ; but the victor was 

 recalled, and died at Emesa. 



Persia, to which w^e shall next accompany the 

 victorious Saracens, was only saved from an earlier 

 doom by the war in Syria. The wealth of this 

 ancient empire Avas of itself a sufficient attraction; 

 while its weakness left it an easy prey to the roAdng 

 bands of ." naked lizard-eaters'* from the desert. 

 For more than thirty years the reign of Khoosroo 

 Purveez had been niarked by a success never sur- 

 passed by the most renowned of his ancestors. But 

 his magnificence fell with unexampled rapidity. 

 Within six years he lost all his foreign conquests, 

 and saw his dominions overnm by the legions of 

 Heraclius (A. D. 622), who marched in one direction 

 as far as the Caspian, and in another to Ispahan. 

 The ravages of the Greeks were succeeded by the 

 accumulated evils of famine and anarchy, the dis- 

 putes of the nobles, and a succession of weak 

 sovereigns ; or rather the pageants of rival factions, 

 of whom no fewer than six possessed the throne in 

 the brief space of as many years. In this state of 

 dissension and decay the Moslems found Persia 

 when they first directed their warlike operations 

 towards its frontiers. And we shall perceive in the 

 sequel, that as much time and exertion were expended 

 in achieving the conquest of the narrow slip of 

 country on the banks of the Orontes, as was em- 

 ployed in the subjugation of those opulent and 

 extensive regions which fill the space between the 

 Euphrates and the distant Oxus. 



The death of Abu Beker, and the probability of a 

 contested succession, had encouraged the Persian 



Vol. I.— F f 



