30 CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 



the sword; and the most venerable relics of the 

 Moslem faith were carried off or trampled in the 

 dust. A fter this bloody and sacrilegious exploit, the 

 turbulent fanatics continued to infest the borders of 

 Irak, Syria, and Egypt ; and though they received 

 occasional checks from the Mohammedan arms, 

 they were for two centuries the pest and scourge of 

 the caliphate. 



The unwieldy magnitude of the Saracen empire 

 itself, and the number of independent principalities 

 that sprung up in its bosom, were other obvious and 

 powerful accessories to its destruction. Almamoun 

 might proudly assert that it was easier for him to 

 rule the East and the West than to manage a chess- 

 board of two feet square ; yet errors in the game of 

 politics, though less palpable, are no less fatal than 

 mistakes in the artificial management of rooks and 

 pawns ; and it is easy to discover, that so early as 

 the reign of this caliph, the authority of the crown 

 in the remote provinces was already impaired. Dis- 

 tance slackened the reins of order and obedience 

 among the subjects of the Abbassides. A change 

 was scarcely visible so long as the lieutenants of 

 the caliph were content with their vicarious title ; 

 so long as they merely solicited for themselves, or 

 their sons, a renewal of the imperial grant ; and still 

 maintained on the coin, and in the pulpits of the 

 mosque, the name and the prerogatives of the Com- 

 mander of the Faithful. But, in the settled and 

 hereditary exercise of power, the viceroys assumed 

 the pomp and attributes of royalty. The alterna- 

 tive of peace or war, of punishment or reward, de- 

 pended solely on their will ; and the revenues of the 

 government were reserved for local services, or 

 private magnificence. Instead of a regular supply 

 of men and money, the successors of Mohammed 

 were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an ele- 

 phant, a cast of hawks, a few bales of silk, or a 

 supply of musk and amber. 



