380 WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 



caliph from the pulpit. But it was in the battle-field 

 rather than in the mosque that the important con- 

 troversy was decided. Already Abu Moslem and 

 his lieutenant, Kotaba, had reduced the western 

 provinces of Irak, from the F^uphrates to the Caspian. 

 Merwan was aroused from his unaccountable slum- 

 ber ; but the star of his fortune was on the decline. 

 On the banks of the Zab, between Mosul and Arbela, 

 a spot rendered memorable by the final victory of 

 Alexander over Darius, he met and encountered the 

 forces of his antagonist. Here his troops were 

 totally defeated. Overwhelmed with sorrow and dis- 

 grace, he wandered from the scene of conflict across 

 the Euphrates, casting a melancholy look on his 

 palace of Harran, and directing his steps towards the 

 S^Tian frontier. Everywhere the deserted monarch, 

 — such is the lot of the unfortunate, — found the 

 gates of his own cities closed against him. From 

 Damascus he directed his flight through the valleys 

 of Palestine to the borders of Egypt. Abdallah 

 pursued the fugitive, tracking his route by the burn- 

 ings and devastations which he had committed to 

 retard the progress of the enemy. Followed up the 

 Nile to Abousir, he was surprised in one of the 

 Christian churches where he had taken refuge with 

 a solitary attendant, and being transfixed with a 

 lance, expired on the spot. While the pursuers 

 gathered round to contemplate the spectacle of fallen 

 greatness, a slave dismounted and put a final, perhaps 

 a welcome, period to his misfortunes, by striking off 

 his head. Tlie dynasty of the Ommiades occupied 

 the throne exactly eighty-nine years, though their 

 power may be traced in a subordinate degree to the 

 caliphate of Omar I., when Moawiyah .succeeded to 

 the government of Damascus. Historians have 

 remarked with surprise, that while they maintained 

 their ascendency under weak and dissolute princes, 

 they should have f(3und their extinction in the reign 

 of a sovereign ahke magnanimous in victory and 



