EXTENT -OF THE SARACEN EMPIRE. 415 



an agent of similar but more powerful qualities, 

 effected a new revolution in the military art. 



Eastward, beyond Persia, the Ommiadan princes 

 made considerable additions to their territories. In 

 the caliphate of Othman,the Oxus formed the boujid- 

 ary of the Saracen empire. The rapacious con- 

 querors repeatedly crossed that limit. Under Moa- 

 wiyah the Tartars were driven into Bokhara ; their 

 queen, in her precipitate flight, leaving one of her 

 slippers behind, which the Arabs valued at 2000 

 pieces of gold. These new acquisitions were con- 

 firmed and increased by Katibah, the lieutenant of 

 Walid, who subdued the whole province of Khorasm, 

 the district of Ferghana, and a part of Tartaiy, in- 

 cluding the widely-extended regions between the 

 Jaxartes and the Caspian. At the head of 20,000 men 

 he proceeded to Samarcand, and invested the city, 

 which had already made a nominal submission, but 

 had taken a recent opportunity of violating the 

 treaty. The haughty garrison, from their ramparts, 

 taunted the besiegers with the vanity of those toils 

 and dangers to which they were exposing them- 

 selves. The credulous Moslems, encouraged by an 

 obscure prediction, redoubled their exertions, and by 

 means of their warlike engines effected several 

 breaches in the wall, which led to instant capitula- 

 tion (A. D. 712). The inhabitants agreed to make 

 an annual payment of 10,000,000 drachms (229,166/. 

 13.S. 4d.), and a supply of 3000 slaves of the value of 

 200 drachms each (4/. lls.Sd.), not one of whom 

 was to be in a state of infancy, or ineffective from 

 old age or debility. The ministers of religion were 

 to be expelled from their temples, and their idols to 

 be burnt or destroyed. 



On entering the city, Katibah carried his stipula- 

 tions into immediate execution. He performed the 

 rites of Islam in the principal temple, which was 

 converted into a mosque. The idols of pagan wor- 

 ship were collected into a heap, and with his own 



