EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 279 
age, and, according to general report, endowed with talents 
greater than the reft, was the chief objedt of his fufpicion and 
his fears. 
The ufurper, after the vidory, found himfelf in peaceable 
poifeflion of the throne ; yet judging it right to maintain for a 
time the fhew of moderation and felf-denial, he employed that 
diffimulation for which his countrymen are famous, in perfuad- 
ing them that his affedions were fixed on the bleflings of fu- 
turity, and that he was indifferent to the fplendour of em- 
pire. He refufed even to fee the treafures of his deceafed 
brother, in gold, flaves, &c. and as he entered the interior of 
the palace drew the folds of his turban over his eyes, faying the 
temptation was too great for him, and invocating the Supreme 
Being to preferve him from its effeds. For a certain time too 
he confined himfelf to the pofTefTion of four wives (free wo- 
men) allowed by the law of the Prophet. At length, finding 
his claim unqueftioned, and his authority firmly eftablifhed, the 
veil of fandtity, now no longer neceffary, was thrown afide, 
and ambition and avarice appeared without difguife. He now 
waftes whole days in mifanthropic folitude, gazing in flupid ad- 
miration on heaps of coftly apparel, and an endlefs train of 
Haves and camels, and revels in the fubmiflive charms of near 
two hundred free women. Abd-el-rachman affumed the Impe- 
rial dignity in the year of the Hejira 1202, of the Chriftian 
sera 1787. The difcontent of the people however, and particu- 
larly of the foldiery in confequence of the feverity of his regu- 
lations, and his perfonal avarice, were (1795) very much 
increafing, 
