28 CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 



sides ; and, in contemplating the fallen fabric of 

 their greatness, it is easy to discover the principal 

 causes which hastened that catastrophe. When the 

 Arabian conquerors had spread themselves over dis- 

 tant countries, and were mingled with the servile 

 crowds of Persia, Syria, and Egypt, they insensibly 

 lost the hardy and martial virtues of the desert. The 

 Turks and Tartars, who dwelt northward of the 

 Oxus and the Jaxartes, possessed the daring enter- 

 prise peculiar to their climate ; and from their hordes 

 the mercenary forces of the caliphs were frequently 

 recruited. Those robust youths, either taken in 

 war or purchased in trade, were educated in the 

 exercises of the field and the profession of the Mo- 

 hammedan faith. From being slaves they w^ere 

 imbodied into household troops, and placed in arms 

 round the throne of their benefactor. Motassem 

 was the first that introduced the dangerous expe- 

 dient of Turkish guards, of whom he received above 

 50,000 into his capital. If his own troops had been 

 factious, the foreign militia to whom he had intrusted 

 his person proved still more refractory. From pro- 

 tectors they soon becam.e lords over the Commander 

 of the Faithful, usurping dominion both in the pa- 

 lace and in the provinces. Their licentious conduct 

 provoked the public indignation, and may be regarded 

 as one leading cause of detaching the Moslems from 

 the allegiance which was due to their lawful sove- 

 reigns, and ultimately of subverting the throne. 



Another formidable enemy to the stability of the 

 Abbassides was the religious sect of the Karma- 

 thians, who sprang up in the vicinity of Cufa about 

 the 277th year of the Hejira. Their founder was an 

 Arabian fanatic of the name of Karmath, who as- 

 sumed to himself many lofty and incomprehensible 

 titles, The Guide, The Demonstration, The Word, 

 The Holy Ghost, The Camel. He aff'ected great 

 sanctity and strictness of life ; claimed to be the 

 herald of the Messiah, the representative of John 



