14 CALIPUS OF BAGDAD. 



Almamoun, who, but for his own imprudence, 

 might have rendered his government as peaceful as 

 it was splendid, is generally regarded as the most 

 magnificent of the Abbassidan caliphs. At his nup- 

 tials a thousand pearls of the largest size were 

 showered on the head of the bride ; while gifts of 

 lands and houses, scattered in lottery-tickets among 

 the populace, announced to the astonished holders 

 the capricious profusion of the royal bounty. Be- 

 fore drawing his foot from th€ stirrup, he gave away 

 2,400,000 gold dinars (1,110,000/.), being four-fifths 

 of the income of a province. In the encouragement 

 of literature he was the Maecenas of the East. 

 Learned men from all parts of the world were in- 

 vited to resort to the court of Bagdad, where their 

 talents and their works received the most distin- 

 guished tokens of imperial favour ; and in return, these 

 happy scholars laboured to the utmost of their power 

 in extolling the glory of their generous patron, and 

 gratifying his taste by collecting and presenting to 

 him the most rare and curious productions of ori- 

 ental genins. Notwithstanding his many eminent 

 virtues and endowments, his panegyrists complain 

 that he evinced a favourable disposition to that 

 heretical doctrine of the Motazalites which denies 

 to the Koran the authority of a divine revelation ; 

 and the last years of his life were spent in enforcing 

 on his subjects, by severe persecution, the acknow- 

 ledgment that it was of human origin. His capital 

 and his army he threw into commotion, by com- 

 manding them to assume the green uniform instead 

 of the black, the symbol of his family. His military 

 talents, which were great, found exercise in making 

 incursions against the Greeks, or in quelling insur- 

 rections in Persia, Arabia, and various parts of his 

 dominions ; for in one year not fewer than four 

 usurpers made their appearance in Syria, Palestine, 

 Egypt, and Western Africa. 



The errors of Almamoun, both political and 



