254 
BAGDAD. 
there is a splendid body of unserviceable troops, used merely 
as appendages to the palace and person of the sovereign. These 
people, besides the usual pompous Turkish garb, wear a pre¬ 
posterously large fur cap, projecting on all sides over their heads 
like a huge fungus. Long pistols, knives, daggers, pikes, and 
pouches, with a few leaves from the koran, complete their mar¬ 
tial equipment. The latter appendage is attached to a belt, 
crossing the shoulder, and appears to be a supernumerary pocket 
for ammunition ; but it is a cabalistic shield from danger, without 
which no Mussulman of condition would think of facing his 
enemies. His highness, Dowd, seldom puts these privileged 
heroes in a situation of trying its invulnerable powers : they must 
always follow him, and he never leads his troops but on occasions 
of necessity ; yet, whenever his courage has been set to the proof, 
which has happened in several hard-fought battles, it has always 
come off with honour. His intellectual acquirements are con¬ 
siderable ; and his ambition respectably within the bounds of 
duty to the Sublime Porte. But with the modern religious faith 
of Constantinople, he has adopted also some of its creed on civil 
subjects ; and, desirous of remaining quiet in the seat of his 
government, he finds it convenient to barrier the Persian frontier, 
with tribute-money ; and to sometimes sanction violences hostile 
to the dispositions of his heart, in the establishment of his 
provincial authority. 
Bagdad is said to have been founded about the 45th year of 
the Hegira, (A.D. 668) by Almansour, the second caliph of the 
Abbassides. In its earliest ages, it occupied no more than a part 
of the western shore of the Tigris ; but on the accession of 
Haroun-al-Raschid, one of the most magnificent of the vicars of 
the Arabian prophet, he not only added to the grandeur of its 
