266 
HISTORY OF BAGDAD. 
Bagdad, under its caliphs, was not merely the great exchange 
of nations, but one of the most powerful capitals of the East; 
and at the extinction of that second class of pontiff-kings, it 
might be said that a second Babylon had fallen. Holakou, the 
grandson of Gengis Khan, (Gibbon writes the name Zingis,) 
wrested it from the feeble hands of Mustasim, fated to be the 
last that wore the sable hour da, or sacred mantle of the Ab- 
bassides. His eldest son died gloriously in one of the gates, 
attempting to defend it against the enemy ; but the caliph and 
his younger son perished miserably after the capture, by the 
ruthless commands of the conqueror. This terrible event, when 
the Tigris, according to Persian writers, “ ran red with the 
blood of the people,” happened about the middle of the 13th 
century. After this fatal catastrophe, scarcely a hundred and 
forty more restless years had passed away, ere a new race of 
Tartars, following the fortunes of Tamerlane, possessed them¬ 
selves of this unhappy city. It remained under the sway of his 
posterity till Usum Cassim, the head of a powerful faction, made 
himself its master, and bequeathed the sceptre to his de¬ 
scendants. Ismail, the brave but ambitious founder of the Sefi 
race in Persia, was of this family by a female branch; and there¬ 
fore, though he wrested Bagdad from the princes of the direct 
line, in his own person he still maintained the dynasty of the 
preceding conqueror. Since that period, many have been the 
sieges it has withstood; many the thousands of lives that have 
been sacrificed in its defence: and such a continuation of the 
horrors of war continuing unto this very day, have gradually 
reduced this once rich and powerful city to a state of com¬ 
parative poverty, and the feeblest means of defence. 
From some sad warp in the present government, hardly a 
