34 CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 



ed to their capitals ; the Nestorian and Jacobite 

 Christians broke their involuntary oaths and ex- 

 changed their allegiance ; while the Moslems again 

 purified their temples, and overturned the images of 

 the saints and martyrs. Antioch, with the towns of 

 Cilicia and the isle of Cyprus,, were the only per- 

 manent and useful accessions to the Byzantine ter- 

 ritories of all the imperial conquests in the East. 



But the recovery of so many cities and provinces 

 added nothing to the exhausted power of the Abbas- 

 sides; and, in contemplating the falling fabric of their 

 greatness, it is easy to discover the principal causes 

 which hastened that catastrophe. When the Arabian 

 conquerors had spread themselves over distant coun- 

 tries, 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 enterprise pecu- 

 liar to their climate; and from their hordes the 

 mercenary forces of the caliphs were frequently re- 

 cruited. Those robust youths, either taken in war 

 or purchased in trade, were educated in the exercises 

 of the field and the profession of the Mohammedan 

 faith. From being slaves they were embodied into 

 household troops, and placed in arms round the 

 throne of their benefactor. Motassem was the first 

 that introduced the dangerous expedient 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 protectors they 

 soon became lords over the Commander of the Faith- 

 ful, usurping dominion both in the palace and in the 



