CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. 45 



sent to implore relief; but the tyrant, in mockery 

 of his distress, ordered his attendants to set before 

 him a dish full of gold and jewels. The last act of 

 the tragedy approached ; and it became a subject of 

 deliberation how the sacred person of the caliph 

 should be disposed of, as it was superstitiously be- 

 lieved that the shedding of his blood would be fol- 

 lowed by some awful and tremendous convulsion of 

 nature. To quiet these uneasy apprehensions, the 

 ferocious Tartar resolved that he should be sewed 

 up in a leathern bag ; others say wrapt tightly in 

 felt, or coarse hair blankets, and in this manner 

 dragged through the streets of the city until he ex. 

 pired ; every joint and bone of his frame being 

 pounded as in a mortar. The rest of his children, 

 his brothers, his relations, his household officers, and 

 every agent of his government, were cut off with the 

 same unsparing cruelty. The devoted city was 

 now surrendered to the license of the Mogul army, 

 and, for the space of forty days, such a scene of pil- 

 lage, massacre > and blood ensued, as outraged hu- 

 manity, and almost surpassed the bounds of be- 

 lief. The Persian authors assure us, that in the 

 city alone the number of the slain amounted to 

 800,000 persons, exclusive of the multitudes that 

 were butchered in the adjoining villages. If this 

 estimate be correct, we may believe that the waters 

 of the Tigris were reddened, and its usual dimen- 

 sions swelled, with the tributary streams of human 

 gore. This memorable revolution terminated the 

 dynasty of the Abbassides, after it had subsisted for 

 a period of 523 lunar years. The regal authority 

 of this celebrated race, and the greater part of their 

 remaining dominions, now devolved on the Mogul 



VOL. II. C 



