CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 17 



The carpets on the floor were 22,000. A hundred 

 lions were brought out with a keeper to each. 

 Among the other spectacles of rare and stupendous 

 luxury, was a tree of gold and silver, spreading into 

 eighteen larger branches, on which, and on the 

 lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds, made of the 

 same precious metals, as well as the leaves of the 

 tree. The birds warbled their natural harmony, 

 each in its own strains ; the whole being effected 

 by the spontaneous motions of machinery." Such 

 was the marvellous luxury of the Abbassides, seated 

 amid the riches of the East. The ambassadors of 

 the Greek Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 

 on whose account such courtly grandeur was dis- 

 played, were led by the vizier, himself splendidly 

 dressed, through all this magnificence, to the foot 

 of the caliph's throne. 



The arts by which this ingenious splendour was 

 supported seem then to have flourished in great per- 

 fection; and we are told that Hallaj, a famous jug- 

 gler and fanatic, who was executed at Bagdad (A . D. 

 922), could astonish his numerous spectators by 

 making winter fruits appear in summer, and summer 

 fruits in winter ; and even bring showers of drachms 

 from the clouds, by merely stretching out his hands 

 in the air. The viziers and other officers of state 

 imitated the extravagance of their master. Kimar, 

 the emir of Mostadi, carried his ideas of magnifi- 

 cence so far, that in his chamber of retirement, a 

 chain of gold was suspended from the roof to rest 

 his hands on ; and in the same apartment stood a 

 golden vase, charged with musk, amber, and the 

 most expensive aromatics. 



But the nations of the East had learned to despise 

 these idle pageantries, and trample on the degraded 

 successors of the prophet. Of the first twenty 

 caliphs of the house of Abbas, nine had been cut off 

 by poison, hunger, or assassination. Kaher was 

 dethroned by the Tartar guards ; the searing instni- 



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