WARS OF THE CALIPHS* 381 



defeat ; and capable, by his splendid military talents, 

 of restoring the ancient lustre of his family. Yet, 

 with all these advantages on their side, and an 

 army of 120,000 soldiers against a sixth part of that 

 number, the white faction, from the Oxus to the Nile, 

 was scattered with dismay before the sable legions 

 of the Night and the Cloud. 



Seldom is a change of dynasty accomplished with- 

 out encountering the horrors and atrocities of revo- 

 lutionary phrensy. The elevation of the house of 

 Abbas would appear to have been attended with cir- 

 cumstances of sanguinary ferocity and deliberate 

 cruelty that have rarely been surpassed in the annals 

 of the East. The most distant branches of the 

 hostile race were sought out with merciless industry, 

 andcut off with indiscriminate revenge. At Damas- 

 cus, fourscore of their chiefs were insidiously invited 

 to a public entertainment ; and the laws of hospitalitj'^ 

 were violated by a promiscuous massacre. Their 

 mutilated carcasses were laid one upon another, 

 forming a kind of platform, covered over with a 

 slight carpeting, on which was spread the festive 

 board ; and where, with a barbarity truly savage, the 

 governor (Abdallah) and his friends seated them- 

 selves to partake of a sumptuous repast, and cele- 

 brate the triumph of his party. When living victims 

 were wanting, he proceeded to commit violence on 

 the repositories of the dead. The sepulchres of all 

 the caliphs and princes of the Ommiades, that of 

 Omar II. alone excepted, were broken open, their 

 contents burnt to ashes, and dispersed to the winds. 



Of Abu Moslem, the author of the Call of the 

 Abbassides, as he has been styled, we may here ob- 

 serve, that he experienced at last the usual ingrati- 

 tude of despotic courts. His eminent services had 

 obtained for him the lieutenancy of Khorasan, and 

 the title of the Maker of Kings ; but his arrogance, 

 and certain suspicions against his loyalty, drew doAvai 

 upon him the resentment of the caliph, who ordered 



