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Abassides then established at Bagdad, forgetting the origin and 

 example of their prophet, and disdaining his abstinence and fruga- 

 lity, began to emulate the splendour of other oriental monarchs. 

 The character of Hyder Ally and Tippoo Sultaun are, in many 

 respects, not unlike those of Mahomed and his early successors : 

 especially in their zeal for converts and rage for conquest. Ambition 

 and extent of empire were the ruling passions of Hyder; to these his 

 son was desirous of annexing the titles of apostle, priest, and pro- 

 phet. He gloried in being himself a religious author, and certainly 

 possessed a library superior to that of an}' modern prince in Hin- 

 dostan. He was at the same time vain, ostentatious, and deficient 

 in the noble qualities of a sovereign; his own capricious cruelties, 

 and those sanctioned by his authority, have been mentioned. He 

 affected a splendid pageantry, and marshalled his choicest troops 

 before his durbar on the introduction of a new ambassador at the 

 Mahomedan festivals, and other public occasions; but all his 

 ostentatious parade was trifling, compared with the wealth and 

 splendor of the caliphs of Bagdad, or the Moorish kings in Spain, 

 of which Abulfeda has given two remarkable instances : one of 

 them peculiarly applicable to Tippoo Sultaun. The first exhibits 

 the entrance of a Greek ambassador at the court of Moctader, on 

 the decline of the Arabian caliphs. The latter presents a short, 

 but striking, trait in the character of Abdalrahman, one of the 

 oreat Moorish kings in Spain; who constructed the city, palace, 

 and gardens of Zebra, near Cordova. 



Abulfeda, as quoted by Gibbon, relates that when the Greek 

 ambassador repaired to the palace of Moctader, " the caliph's 

 whole army, both horse and foot, was under arms, which together 



