EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHS. 269 



Archipelago, in lands which are as yet unmarked 

 upon our maps, in the oases of thirsty deserts, in 

 obscure villages situated by unknown streams. It was 

 Mahomet who did all this ; for he uttered the book 

 which carried the language; and he prepared the 

 army which carried the book. His disciples and suc- 

 cessors were not mad fanatics but resolute and sagacious 

 men, who made shrewd friendship with the malcontent 

 Christians among the Greeks and with the persecuted 

 Jews in Spain, and who in a few years created an 

 empire which extended from the Pyrenees to the 

 Hindoo Koosh. 



This empire, it is true, was soon divided, and soon 

 became weak in all it's parts. The Arabs could con- 

 quer, but they could not govern. Separate sovereign- 

 ties or caliphates were established in Babylonia, Egypt, 

 and Spain ; while provinces, such as Morocco or 

 Bokhara, frequently obtained independence by rebellion. 

 It is needless to describe at length the history of the 

 caliphs and their successors ; it is only the twice-told 

 tale of the Euphrates and the Nile. The caliphs were 

 at first Commanders of the Faithful in reality; but 

 they were soon degraded, both in Cairo and Bagdhad, 

 to the position of the Roman Pope at the present 

 time. The government was seized by the Pratorian 

 Guards, who, in Bagdhad, were descended from 

 Turkish prisoners or negroes imported from Zanzibar ; 

 and in Egypt from Mamelukes or European slaves, 

 brought in their boyhood from the wild countries sur- 

 rounding the Black Sea, trained up from tender years 

 to the practice of arms, the sons of Christian parents, 

 but branded with a cross on the soles of their feet that 

 they might never cease to tread upon the emblem of 

 their native creed. 



