The history of the Mahometan empire in Spain: containing a general history of the Arabs, their institutions, conquests, literature, arts, sciences, and manners, to the expulsion of the Moors. Designed as an introduction to the Arabian antiquities of Spain

Front matter

K o l i i

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Preface

The effects produced by the Arabs, while they held the sovereignty of Spain, have been sufficiently felt and acknowledged throughout Europe, to render their History a matter of great interest and research. Aware of this circumstance, various writers have, of late years, directed their attention to the subject; though few have contributed to its elucidation. Without the means of attaining to that primary and purest source of information, which the records of the Arabs possess, they have, for the most part, successively followed each other in the same maze of fable and of error. The writings of the Arabs on this topic, it may further be remarked, are seldom to be met with ; and the European readers of these writings are equally rare. For these reasons it is hoped, that the following work, which is either extracted immediately from the most approved Arabic historians, or is compiled, where these failed, from other authorities best deserving of credit, will, on account of its authenticity, obtain a favourable reception.

vi

PREFACE,

Of the difficulty of the task here attempted, an adequate idea can be formed by those only, who are actually conversant with the manuscripts of the Arabs, and who have selected and translated from them : in the arrangement and uniform characters of European writings, such difficulties are unknown. And, notwithstanding the care taken in the selection of evidence, as well as in the ascertainment of its meaning, yet such is the discordancy of the different records on some points, and the uncertainty which must frequently occur in the reading of Arabic words, that indulgence may with reason be shown by the critic, if any inconsistency or mistake, arising from such causes, should be discovered.

The History of the Mahometan Empire in Spain, divides itself into two principal portions : first, the Political and Military History of the Arabs in that country ; and, secondly, the History of their Civil Institutions, Literature, Sciences, Arts, Manufactures, Commerce, 8cc. For which of these portions the authors are severally responsible, it now remains to inform the Public.

For the Introduction, which presents a concise account of the early history of the Arabs previously to their conquest of Spain, the publishers are indebted to the kindness and liberality of the acute and learned historian of ancient Greece.

Part I. containing the Political and Military History of the

PREFACE.

vii

Mahometan Empire in Spain, together with the description of Cordova," and the translation of the Arabic inscriptions in the Appendix, are due to Mr. john shakespear, Professor of Oriental Languages to the Honourable East India Company's Military Seminary : of the Arabic MSS. consulted by him, Mr. Shakespear has given some account in the course of the following pages.t The remainder of Part L, comprising a Topographical Account of the Principal Seats of the Mahometan Empire in Spain, and the whole of Paut II. , which treats on the Literature, Sciences, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, as well as on the Civil and Military Institutions of the Arabs, were composed by Mr. thomas hartwell horne, Sub-Librarian of the Surry Institution, who has availed himself of the best authorities that could be procured and in particular of the elaborate Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the Escurial, formed by the learned Miguel Casiri ; which contains a treasure of undoubted information, relative to the Political, Literary, and Civil History of the Arabs in Spain, not generally accessible, and hitherto almost unexplored.

Before the authors submit the result of their labours to the perusal of the public, they deem it proper to offer some explanation respecting the system of orthography pursued in this work, — a measure which has, in fact, become necessary, viii

PREFACE.

from the various and discordant systems that have been adopted, in the application of Roman characters to Arabic words.

Wherever references, then, are made to European authors, or any facts are related on their authority, the names are, for the most part, transcribed without alteration, as is the case in the citations from the Bibliotheca Arabico-Escurialensis of Casiri ; in order that the reader may not be bewildered in consulting the authorities. Where, however, the work is translated immediately from Arabic MSS. (as in Mr. Shakespear's portion) the letter a should be pronounced as in the English words man, cap, fat ; a, as in the word all ; the diphthong ai, as the English i in dire ; the diphthong au, as the English ou in our ; gh, as a deep guttural sound of g, much resembling the Northumbrian r ; h, with an aspiration sensibly uttered, as in horse. Further, i is to be pronounced short, as in Jin, ill ; i, as ee in peer ; k, as in king ; k, if ever found thus marked, more deeply in the throat than the English k ; kh, gutturally, like the German or Scotch ch ; s, as in sin ; sh, as in shine ; th, as in thin ; u, as the Italian u short, or as oo in foot ; and u long, as in cool, fool. Lastly, the letter y, if it precede a vowel, should be pronounced, as in yoke ; but, where it is final in a word, it should be uttered as in the English word daily.

Introduction

A REVIEW OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ARABS—THEIR INSTITUTIONS — RELIGION — CONQUESTS, &c. PREVIOUSLY TO THEIR INVASION OF SPAIN, _ Page 1

Chapter I. Account of Ancient Arabia — Its Provinces — Conquests, 8$c. of the Arabs, to the time of Mahomet, - ibid.

Chapter II. An Account of the Arabs, from the time of Mahomet till the Arrival ofMusa at Tangier s — State of Spain, previously to its Invasion by the Moors, T

Part I

THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY OF THE MAHOMETAN EMPIRE IN SPAIN, &c. - - 29

Chapter I. Some Account of the Authors, from whose Works the History of the Mahometan Empire in Spain has been selected ; together with Observations on the History of the Arabs, previously to the Conquest, - 31

Chapter II. The Conquest of Spain by the Arabs, and the Government of the Country by Emirs, dependent on the Khalifs of Syria, or their Governors of Africa, ------ 54

Chapter III. The Reigns of the independent Sovereigns of the House of Ummaiya in Spain, till the extinction of that Dynasty, - - 81

Chapter IV. Account of the Mahometans in Spain, from the Extinction of the Dynasty of Ummaiya, till the Fall of Granada, - - - 121

Chapter V. Topographical Account of the principal Seats of the Mahometan Empire in Spain, - - - - - - 160

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THE LITERARY AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE MAHOMETAN EMPIRE IN

SPAIN, - Page 205

Chapter I. On the Literature and Sciences of the Arabs, - 207

Section I. On the Literature of the Arabs. — State of Literature in Ancient Arabia — Destruction of the Alexandrian Library — The Khalifs, Protectors of Letters — The Arabs in Spain — Their Libraries, Colleges, Academies, and Schools — Constitution and Studies of the Spanish- Arabian Colleges and Academies — Love and Reverence for Learning — Language and Writing of the Arabians — Studies chiefly cidtivated by them — Grammar — Eloquence — Examination of the Eloquence of the Koran — State of Popular Eloquence among the Arabs — Eloquence of the Pulpit — Writers on Rhetoric — Poetry, a favourite Object of Study — Eminent Arabian Poets in Spain — Dramatic Poetry — Genius of Arabian Poetry examined — The Arabian Tales — History — Geography — Philosophy — The Writings of Aristotle, why studied in preference to all others, - 207

Section II. On the Sciences cultivated by the Arabs — Botany — Medicine — Pharmacy — Anatomy and Chirurgery — Chemistry — Alchemy — The Mathematical Sciences — Arithmetic — Algebra — Geometry — Trigonometry — Astronomy — Astronomical Observations made by the Arabians — Astrology — Geomancy — Optics — Mechanics — Hydrostatics — Jurisprudence and Theology, - 247

Chapter II. On the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, of the Arabians, 260

Section I. On the useful Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, of the Arabians. — Agriculture and Horticulture — Mines — Metallurgy — Manufactures — Potteries, Manufactures of Leather, Gunpowder, Sugar, and Paper — Ancient Commerce of the Arabians — Commerce of the Spanish Arabs — Money, Weights, and Measures, used in Commerce, ----- 260

CONTENTS.

Section II. Architecture of the Arabians — Origin of the Ancient Architecture of Arabia — Notice of some ancient Edifices — Mosques at Damascus and Cairuan — Architecture of the Arabs in Spain — Improvements in Arabian Architecture — Pantanas or Reservoirs — Observations on the Arrangement of their Houses- - Structure of their Roofs — Durability of Moorish Edifices — Form of Bricks — Walls, how constructed — The characteristic Features of Arabian Architecture considered, _____ - page 275

Section III. On the Fine Arts of the Spanish Arabs — Painting and Sculpture — Arabesques — Knot Ornaments — Ornamental Writing — Music patronized by the Khalifs — Notice of eminent Professors of that Art — Marvellous Effects of Arabian Music — Its Nature and Genius, - - 291

Chapter III. On the Manners, Customs, Amusements, Government, Revenues, Naval and Military Force, Sf c. of the Arabians, - - 297

Conclusion. — What are the Obligations of Modern Europe to the Arabs* 308

Appendix

A Collection of the Historical Notices and Poems, in the Alhamru of Granada,

i. — xxi.

Index of Matters.

A REVIEW OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ARABS — THEIR INSTITU- TIONS—RELIGION—CONQUESTS, &c. PREVIOUSLY TO THEIR INVASION OF SPAIN.

CHAPTER I.

Account of Ancient Arabia — Its Provinces — Conquests, Sfc. of the Arabs, to the

time of Mahomet.

Arabia, or at least the most considerable part of it, was from remote antiquity called by the natives, Arabah ; which name it still retains. In the language of the Arabs, however, the country which they inhabit is styled Jazirah al Arab, that is, the Peninsula of the Arabians : their historians also describe it by the appellations of Belad al Arab, the region of the Arabs, — Diyar al Arab, the provinces of the Arabs, and by some Oriental writers it is termed Arabislan, or the country of the Arabs.*

Arabia, properly so called, is that great peninsula formed by the Arabic Gulph, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulph : the ancients

* D'Herbelot Bibl. Orient. Vol. I. p. 134 (4to. ed.) Anc. Univ. Hist. Vol. XVI. p. 243, and the authorities there cited, D'Anville's Anc. Geog. Vol. II. p. 1 Sale's Koran, Vol. I. p. 2* (Svo. edit.)

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INTRODUCTION.

appear to have comprehended, under the name of Arabia, the whole tract lying between those seas, and a line drawn from the point of the Persian to that of the Arabic Gulph. This line, however, was not the real boundary of the country, but merely fancied to be such by ignorance. Arabia forms a spacious triangle of irregular dimensions ; and is bounded on the east, by the Persian Gulph and the Euphrates; on the west, by that of Arabia, now called the Red Sea ; and on the south, by part of the Indian Ocean, anciently the Erythraean Sea, to which it presents a front of one thousand miles. The apex of the triangle is placed at Thapsacus (El-Dur) ; through the fords of which Xenophon conducted his Greeks, on their memorable retreat, across the Euphrates.* From this northern summit to its southern base, along the Indian Ocean, the length of Arabia stretches nearly fifteen hundred miles ; and it's superficial content is fully eight times the measure of Great Britain.

Although this peninsula was peopled from the earliest times, yet it never admitted of a population, at all proportioned to its dimensions: for the far greater part of Arabia consists only of a sandy plain, intersected by sharp and naked rocks, situate in a happier climate indeed, but more destitute of wood and water than even the deserts of Tartary. In the midst of dreary wastes, spots of scanty vegetation are nourished by the dews of night : the tamarind, acacia, and other hardy plants, strike their roots into the clefts of rocks ; and several stations must be traversed by caravans, before the exhausted travellers can reach a well of water to assuage their burning thirst. Such is the general condition of Neged or the Sandy Arabia, the Arabia Deserta of ancient geographers : but fertility begins with the high lands, particularly those bordering on the Indian Ocean, which are distinguished by shady groves and flowing streams. The air of this division is more temperate, and

* De Exped. Cyri, p. 257, edit. Leunclav.

INTRODUCTION.

consequently more favourable to population : and the numbers, both of men and of animals, are considerably greater than in the former region- Among the vegetable productions, the palms and vines are exuberantly fruitful : and frankincense, the most esteemed of aromatics, was produced here in greater abundance than in any other country of antiquity. Contrasted with the inland solitudes, which form the great body of the peninsula, this maritime district well deserved to be called the Happy Arabia, the Arabia Felix of ancient geographical writers. These divisions, however, of Arabia, into the Sandy or Desert, the Stony, and the Happy, are unknown to the natives themselves : and modern historians have remarked it as a singular circumstance, that a country, whose language and inhabitants have ever been the same, should retain scarcely a vestige of its ancient geography. The maritime districts of Bahrein and Oman are opposite to the Persian empire : the kingdom of Yamen displays the limits, or at least the situation of Arabia Felix : the name of Najd, or Neged, is extended over the inland space ; and the province of Hijaz which spreads itself along the coast of the Red Sea, — though inferior in fertility and beauty to that of Yamen, which it resembles in many particulars, — has become illustrious from being the birth-place of Mahomet.*

The Koran frequently boasts of the situation of Arabia, as being placed in the middle of the world, for the more easy and rapid diffusion of the faith of Islam. f Arabia was certainly encompassed by the greatest and richest countries of antiquity. Towards the north, its deserts are contiguous to Assyria and Syria, that is, to Aram on both sides of the Euphrates, the earliest seats of civilization and power: on the south and east, a sea of no great extent divides Arabia from India ; from Persia it is disjoined only by a narrow streight ; and one equally

* Strabo, 1. xvi. p. 1110 (torn. ii. ed. Oxon.) Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. ix. p. 222. Sale's Koran, pp. 1, 3. t Koran, ch. ii.

narrow unites it in commerce with Egypt and Ethiopia. This advantageous situation, which Mahomet assumes as destined for the propagation of the only true faith, history proves to have been efficacious, from the earliest time, in very important transactions, both of war and of commerce.*

From the dawn of recorded history the natives of Arabia have appeared with the same characteristic features ; — men of open hearts and boiling passions, quick in apprehension, articulate and voluble of speech, with ardour to undertake great enterprises, and with a presence of mind and perseverance every way adapted to carry them into execution. They were divided into various tribes, occasionally friendly or hostile, under governments that might be called free when compared with those of any other portion of the East, not excepting the kindred pastoral plains of Scythia or Tartary. What the Goths were in Europe, the Arabs have always been in Asia, — pre-eminent in boldness to act and in patience to suffer ; and hence they have been peculiarly distinguished by the sense of personal freedom and the love of national independence. With such hardy dispositions, confirmed into habit by perpetual collision in their commercial expeditions and continued pastoral migrations, it might be expected that their martial spirit would be marked in deep characters upon the nations around them ; and, to check their incursions, it is related that Sesostris erected the long wall of fifteen hundred stadia from Pelusium to Heliopolis. Of the battles fought by the Arabians before the time of Mahomet, seventeen hundred are recorded by tradition : but the poems, which they boasted of possessing instead of written laws, served to little purpose in governing either themselves or the people whom they subjugated.

Though divided into small communities, their admiration of valour or their superstition could often unite their winged archers and cavalry * The commerce of the Arabs is noticed infra, Part II. Chap. II. Sect. I.

INTRODUCTION. 5

under a single standard. This must have happened before they could have effected the first of their recorded conquests, in the interval which elapsed between Joseph and Moses. During that period, the shepherd Kings of Arabia completed the subjugation of Egypt, then the most flourishing kingdom of the world.* " The King, who knew not Joseph, " t exactly accords with the notices of profane history, and marks the establishment of a new dynasty. It is a circumstance highly worthy of observation, that the ancient Arabian conquerors, like the victorious Mahometans of later times, left at home behind them, the native virtues of the deserts : instead of mild patriarchs, with their council of elders and the congregation of the people, they passed at one bound from simplicity to luxury ; adopted the vices of the vanquished nations, and speedily became the victims of their own wretched passions.

The next memorable achievement of the Arabs happened at the distance of several centuries, that is, about 1230 years before the Christian aera. A little before this time, their tribes had been united under a chief, called Ariaeus by the Greeks, perhaps the Haleth of the Arabs. This was the age of Ninus, the first great Asiatic conqueror ; whose actions are authenticated by the combined evidence of history and monuments. Ariaeus, instead of extending his conquests westward, was desirous of participating in the richer spoils of the east. He easily associated his arms with those of Ninus : for the Assyrians and Arabs had long been connected in commerce ; they professed the same Sabian religion ; and the language of Aram on both sides of the river, that is of Assyria in its largest sense, was essentially the same with that spoken by the Arabians,^ whether resident in cities or wanderers of the desert.

The diffusion of Saracen invaders through Egypt and the East, it might be expected, would totally exhaust a country always thinly

* Josephus cont. Apion. 1. i. c. 14, and Marsham's Can. Chron. p. 98, et seq. f Exodus, ch. i. v. 8. % Strabo, L. ], p. 59 (ed. Oxon.)

INTRODUCTION.

peopled : but these drains of population, such are the constitutions and climate of the Arabians, have always been speedily supplied. In conformity with what is observed in other lands producing the hardiest natives, Arabia is rather a foundry than a magazine of men : the territory may pour forth a large proportion of its people ; but the prolific energy of a single age is sufficient to restore that measure of population which the soil is calculated to nourish. Accordingly we find, that from the age of Ninus to that of Mahomet, none of the great nations, that controlled the revolutions of the world, ever gained any important trophies in Arabia. Of the Persians under both dynasties, as well as of the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans, some valorous achievements are recorded ; and some important successes in Arabia are said to have been obtained by them. On a closer examination, however, all these advantages, some of which flattery has magnified into conquests, will appear to have been local and transient : whereas the Arabians, either as principals, or more frequently as allies, interposed with dignity and effect in the affairs of their neighbours, and generally threw the balance of success on the side which they espoused. The modern Persians,* therefore, only betrayed their ignorance in ancient history, when they vilified the Arabs as a race of Tazis, or coursers, who fed on lizards, and drank the milk of camels ; but the burst of valour displayed under the successors of Mahomet and their generals, taught the Persian poets to assume a different tone, to celebrate the Arabs " as a people exulting in liberty, delighting in eloquence, in acts of liberality, and in martial achievements, as making the whole earth red with the blood of their foes, and the air like a forest of canes with their tall spears."

* The Persians have always been called Barbarians by the Arabs, as well as by the Greeks. Abulfeda, p. 194.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER II.

An Account of the Arabs, from the time of Mahomet till the Arrival of 3fusa, at Tangier s. — State of Spain previously to its Invasion by the Moors.

Th£ eloquence of the Arabs, however extolled by Ferdausi, has served but little to illustrate their early history. Their first composition in prose, that remains to us, is the Koran of Mahomet. Their only domestic records consist of the remains of ancient poets preserved from one generation to another by oral tradition, and whose poems have been commented upon, by various expositions and notes and genealogies, the work of far later times, but all equally traditional. Although the art of writing was either unknown or at least but little practised among the Arabs, their language had early attained to great improvement, both as to the number of words and the precision of phrases, and the poorest among them had learned to express themselves in flowing and forcible periods. This distinction is doubtless primarily to be ascribed to their pre-eminence in liberty above other Asiatic nations. But it was augmented and confirmed by a singularity in their institutions, which deserves to be commemorated and admired. The cities of Hijaz along the Red Sea, as well as those of Yamen on the Indian Ocean, were staples of trade, carried on among distant and often hostile nations, under the protection of temples and superstition. These sacred cities, like innumerable others in the upper as well as the lower Asia, had their annual fairs of two months, distinguished by various sports and ceremonies, and particularly by intellectual competitions of poetry and eloquence ; in which, under the eye of approved judges, as in the

INTRODUCTION.

Olympic, and other sacred games of Greece, the candidates for fame disputed with each other the palm of those noble attainments.* In both countries, the high perfection even of unwritten language was the natural result.

The general introduction of writing leads to composition in prose : before this takes place, laws, religion, history, and genealogies are all taught and communicated in verse, which alone can be handed down with certainty from parents to children through a long chain of tradition. Mahomet himself could neither read nor write ; yet, to an Arabian ear and understanding, the wildest chapter in his Koran is stamped with the ineffable graces and resistless vigour of diction. It was promulgated by small divisions in the course of twenty-three years, as conjunctures and exigencies required : of this composition, which first infused into prose all the harmony and animation of poetry, great was the effect among a people, with whom the culture of eloquence had long been a national concern ; and who from nature, and habitual indulgence were peculiarly prone to the illusions of an overheated fancy. As the Athenians acknowledged inspiration in the forcible and flowing oratory of Gorgias of Leontium, and would have worshipped him as a God, so the Arabs, — men of still warmer minds — imagined that they saw the hand of the Almighty in the work of Mahomet. No uninspired mortal, they affirmed, is capable of wielding the vast fabric of their language. Mahomet boldly exhibited his Koran as a clear and perpetually existing proof of the divinity of his mission. This evidence, always open to examination, was the strongest, he maintained, that could be brought : it was a standing miracle totally superseding the necessity of every other.

The genius of Mahomet, his enthusiasm, his eloquence, and memory, were favoured by peculiar accidents of birth and fortune. In the

* Schultens in Prsefat. ad Monument. Vetust. Arab.

INTRODUCTION.

language of his countrymen he sprung from the race of Thenanah, the best of the Arabs, from the tribe of Koreish, the best of Thenanah, and was the direct descendant of Hashiin, the best of the Koreish.* The family of Hashim held a sort of hereditary, but very limited jurisdiction over Mecca and its territory, as ordinary presidents of the famous Caaba or temple, of which they possessed the keys. The government of this city, whose Arabic name denotes a crowded rendezvous, might have rewarded the abilities and gratified the ambition of Mahomet. He would then have been distinguished, like many of his progenitors, by uniting the office of priest and king, — a priest of tutelary idols, and a king, or rather judge, over the citizens and strangers, who partook in the religious rites and frequented the fairs of Mecca. But continued views of the surrounding nations, gained in his commercial expeditions carried on by caravans, inspired him about his fortieth year with far loftier views. f This period of Mahomet's life corresponded with the greatest depression of the Persian and Roman empires. The Western part of the latter had been conquered and usurped by the Goths : the Eastern, from its capital often denominated the Constantinopolitan empire, was engaged in ceaseless wars with Persia, alike ruinous to the victors and to the vanquished ; since, jealousy and tyranny having disarmed the subjects of both empires, the waste occasioned by war could only be supplied by mercenaries or slaves. While those rival monarchies were inflicting dreadful wounds on each other, both were harassed by predatory incursions of Huns, Avars, and other nations of Scythian descent, then hovering like ravenous vultures over the rich plains and populous cities of Southern Asia ; and both Persians and Greeks were distracted by domestic dissensions of the most virulent nature. Heresies increased in the Christian church and expanded under the rage of too fervid zeal, and the reeking hands of persecution ; while abstruse and * Ockley's Hist. Saracens, v. i. p. 288. f Prideaux, Sale, Gagnier, in their lives of Mahomet.

INTRODUCTION.

barren dogmas, and the adoration of the Virgin Mary and of images, were substituted for the heavenly temper, the purity, simplicity, and solemnity of the Gospel.*

At this time Mahomet began to announce himself a prophet, declaring irreconcilable enmity against every species of idolatry, asserting the sole dominion of one God ; and characterising those who embraced this doctrine by the name of Musulman, or Moslems, that is, persons perfectly resigned to the divine will. In the first three years of his mission, the number of his proselytes scarcely exceeded a dozen: in about ten years afterwards he was of importance enough to be persecuted by the Koreish and driven from his native city, Mecca, A. D. 622. His flight, however, was accompanied by zealous converts and faithful friends ; and the neighbouring city, Medina, already contained many who acknowledged him for the apostle of God, and who were ready to take up arms in his cause. Encouraged by such a reinforcement, and by various consequent advantages in the field, he, who had hitherto trusted the propagation of his faith to missionaries, armed only with the persuasive eloquence of his Koran, now boldly pronounced the indispensable duty of extending his religion by the sword, t This religion of Islam, which signifies devotion to the service of God, is summed up in zealous exertions for making converts, and in rendering those converts soldiers. To these duties they are stimulated by every motive of hope or fear in the present life, or in that which is to come ; and such is the influence of enthusiasm directed by craft, that before his death, in the twenty-third year of his pretended mission, Mahomet had united under his banners all the tribes of Arabia ; and one of the boldest of his votaries, Kalid, surnamed the Sword of God, with an handful of men, had defeated an army one hundred thousand strong, assembled in Syria, under the generals of the Emperor Heraclius.J

* Prideaux's Life of Mahomet. t Sale's Life of Mahomet. % Ockley, vol. i. p. 27.

INTRODUCTION.

The successors of Alexander the Great laboriously upheld the conquests of their master. But the Khalifs, that is, the successors of Mahomet, in the course of little more than twenty years, extended their resistless arms above a thousand miles on all sides around them. The habits of the Arabs admirably conspired with the military code of their prophet. They seldom ate flesh ; their drink, before Mahomet converted this into a law, was chiefly water ; when they wished for repose, the ground, bare, or covered simply with a mat, afforded their only accommodation.* This primitive austerity was heightened by the example of the first Khalifs into a kind of sacred military duty. These extraordinary men, Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman, and Ali, who had been companions of the prophet, and had shared in all his dangers, having obtained the sacerdotal and royal supremacy at advanced periods of life, did not indeed assume the command of their armies, or appear personally in the field. f They regarded it as their more immediate duty to perform the rites of religion, and to uphold the observance of justice in their capitals of Mecca and Medina : the latter city being their usual residence; and the former, only the object of their frequent pilgrimage. From those places they maintained, by letters, a general superintendance over the affairs of Arabia : and, when the Saracens burst as an inundation on the countries around them, the wisdom of the Khalifs alternately impelled, or restrained their course ; regulated the distribution of plunder, of which one-fifth was unalterably dedicated to the public treasury; and adjusted the conditions of subjection, and the rules of administration to be observed by their lieutenants in the conquered provinces.