History of the Saracens

Front matter

THE

HISTORY OF THE SARACENS;

COMPRISING THE

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ADVERTISEMENT.

The Publisher of the Standard Library has much satisfaction in presenting to his subscribers an improved edition of a book so remarkable for curious, original, and instructive matter as Ockley’s History of the Saracens. Upon its first publication this work was received by scholars with marked approbation, as the most complete and authentic account of the Arabian Prophet and his successors which had yet been given to the world; and even at the present day, after the lapse of nearly a century, it continues to be regarded as the standard history of this eventful period.

The establishment of Islamism is undoubtedly to be numbered among those stupendous events which have changed the face of society in the East; and is a subject deserving not only of the careful study of the statesman and the divine, but of all who delight to search, patiently and reverently, into the ways of Providence. With the Koran in one hand, and the scimitar in the other, the impetuous and indomitable Arab achieved a series of splendid victories unparalleled in the history of nations; for in the short space of eighty years that mighty range of Saracenic conquest embraced a wider extent of territory than Rome had mastered in the course of eight hundred.

Memoir of Ockley

MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY.

At a time when Oriental studies were at their infancy in this country, Simon Ockley, animated by the illustrious example of Pocock, and the laborious diligence of Prideaux, devoted his life and his fortune to those novel researches, which necessarily involved both. With that enthusiasm which the ancient votary experienced, and with that patient suffering the modern martyr has endured, he pursued, till he accomplished, the useful object of his labours. He perhaps was the first who exhibited to us other heroes than those of Greece and Rome; sages as contemplative, and a people more magnificent even than the iron masters of the world.

Simon Ockley was born at Exeter in 1678, and was descended from a good family of Great Ellingham, in Norfolk, where his father usually resided. After a proper foundation laid in school-learning, he was sent, in 1693, to Queen’s College in Cambridge, where he soon distinguished himself by great quickness of parts as well as intense application to literature; to the oriental languages more particularly, for his uncommon skill in which he afterwards became famous. He took, at the usual time, the degrees in arts, and that of bachelor in divinity. Having taken orders also, he was, in 1705, through the interest of Simon Patrick, bishop of Ely, presented by Jesus College, in Cambridge, to the vicarage of Swavesey, in that county; and, in 1711, chosen Arabic professor of the university. These preferments he held to the day of his death, which happened at Swavesey, Aug. 9, 1720, immaturely to himself, but more so to his family.

Ockley had the culture of Oriental learning very much at heart, and the several publications which he made were intended solely to promote it. In 1706, he printed, at Cambridge, a useful little book, entitled, “Introductio ad Linguas Orientales.” Prefixed is a dedication to his friend the bishop of Ely, and a preface, addressed to the Juventas Academics, whom he labours to excite by various arguments to the pursuit of oriental learning; assuring them in, general, that no man ever was, or ever will be, truly great in divinity, without at least some portion of skill in it. There is a chapter in this work, relating to the celebrated controversy between Buxtorf and Capellus, upon the antiquity of the Hebrew points, where Ockley professes to thank with Buxtorf, who contended for it: but he afterwards changed his opinion, and went over to Capellus, although he had not any opportunity of publicly declaring it. And indeed it is plain, from his manner of closing that chapter upon the points, that he was then far enough from having any settled persuasion about them.

In 1707, he published in 12mo. from the Italian of Leo Modena, a Venetian rabbi, “The History of the present Jews throughout the World; being an ample, though succinct, account of their customs, ceremonies, and manner of living at this time:” to which is subjoined a “Supplement concerning the Carraites and Samaritans, from the French of Father Simon.” In 1708, a little curious book, entitled “The Improvement of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, written above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail:” translated from the Arabic, and illustrated with figures, 8vo. The design of the author, who was a Mohammedan philosopher, is to show, how human reason may, by observation and experience, arrive at the knowledge of natural things, and thence to supernatural, and particularly the knowledge of God and a future state: the design of the translator, to give those who might be unacquainted with it, a specimen of the genius of the Arabian philosophers, and to excite young scholars to the reading of eastern authors. This was the point our rabbi had constantly in view; and, therefore, in his “Oratio Inauguralis,” for the professorship, it was with no small pleasure, as we imagine, that he insisted upon the beauty, copiousness, and antiquity, of the Arabic tongue in particular, and upon the use of oriental learning in general; and that he dwelt upon the praises of Erpenius, Golius, Pocock, Herbelot, and all who had in any way contributed to promote the study of it. In 1713, his name appeared to a little book, with this title “An Account of South-West Barbary, containing what is most remarkable in the territories of the king of Fez and Morocco; written by a person who had been a slave there a considerable time, and published from his authentic manuscript: to which acre added, two Letters; one from the present king of Morocco to Colonel Kirk; the other to Sir Cloudesly Shovell, with Sir Cloudesly’s answer,” &c., 8vo. While we are enumerating these small publications of the professor, it will be but proper to mention two sermons: one, “Upon the Dignity and Authority of the Christian Priesthood,” preached at Ormond Chapel, London, in 1710; another, “Upon the Necessity of Instructing Children in the Scriptures,” at St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, 1713. To these we must add a new translation of the second “Apocryphal Book of Esdras,” from the Arabic version of it, as that which we have in our common Bibles is from the vulgar Latin, 1716. Mr. Whiston, we are told, was the person who employed him in this translation, upon a strong suspicion, that it must needs make for the Arian cause he was then reviving; and he, accordingly, published it in one of his volumes of “Primitive Christianity Revived.” Ockley, however, was firmly of opinion, that it could serve nothing at all to his purpose; as appears from a printed letter of his to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Thirlby, in which are the following words: “You shall have my ‘Esdras’ in a little time; two hundred of which I reserved, when Mr. Whiston reprinted his, purely upon this account, because I was loath that anything with my name to it should be extant only in his heretical volumes. I only stay, till the learned author of the ‘History of Montanism’ has finished a dissertation which he has promised me to prefix to that book.” A learned letter of Ockley’s to Mr. W. Wotton is printed among the “Miscellaneous Tracts of Mr. Bowyer, 1784.”

But the most considerable by far of all the professor’s performances is, “The History of the Saracens;” begun from the death of Mohammed, the founder of the Saracenic empire, which happened in 632, and carried down through a succession, of caliphs, to 705. This “History,” which illustrates the religion, rites, customs, and manner of living of that warlike people, is very curious and entertaining; and Ockley was at vast pains in collecting materials from the most authentic Arabic authors, especially manuscripts, not hitherto published in any European language; and for that purpose resided a long time at Oxford, to be near the Bodleian library, where those manuscripts were reposited. It is in 2 vols. 8vo.; the first of which was published in 1708; the second, in 1718: and both were soon after republished. A third edition was printed, in the same size, at Cambridge, in 1757; to which is prefixed, “An Account of the Arabians or Saracens, of the Life of Mohammed, and the Mohammedan Religion, by a learned hand:” that is, by the learned Dr. Long, master of Pembroke hall, in Cambridge.

While at Oxford, preparing this work, he sent a letter to his daughter, part of which is worth transcribing, as characteristic both of him and his labours. “My condition here is this: one of the most useful and necessary authors I have is written in such a wretched hand, that the very reading of it is perfect deciphering. I am forced sometimes to take three or four lines together, and then pull them all to pieces to find where the words begin and end; for oftentimes it is so written, that a word is divided as if the former part of it was the end of the foregoing word, and the latter part the beginning of another; besides innumerable other difficulties known only to those that understand the language. Add to this the pains of abridging, comparing authors, selecting proper materials, and the like, which in a remote and copious language, abounding with difficulties sometimes insuperable, make it equivalent at least to the performing of six times so much in Greek and Latin. So that if I continue in the same course in which I am engaged at present, that is, from the time I rise in the morning till I can see no longer at night, I cannot pretend once to entertain the least thought of seeing home till Michaelmas. Were it not that there is some satisfaction in answering the end of my profession, some in making new discoveries, and some in the hopes of obliging my country with the history of the greatest empire the world ever yet saw, I would sooner do almost anything than submit to the drudgery.

“People imagine, that it is only understanding Arabic, and then translating a book out of it, and there is an end of the story: but if ever learning revives among us, posterity will judge better. This work of mine (in another way) is almost of as different a nature from translating out of the Greek or Latin, as translating a poet from one language to another is different from prose. One comfort I have, that the authors I am concerned with are very good in their kind, and afford me plenty of materials, which will clear up a great many mistakes of modern travellers, who, passing through the eastern countries, without the necessary knowledge of the history and ancient customs of the Mohammedans, pick up little pieces of tradition from the present inhabitants, and deliver them as obscurely as they receive them. One thing pleases me much, that we shall give a very particular account of Ali and Hosein, who are reckoned saints by the Persians, and whose names you must have met with both in Herbert and Tavernier; for the sake of whom there remains that implacable and irreconcilable hatred between the Turks and Persians to this very day, which you may look for in vain in all the English books that have hitherto appeared. It would be a great satisfaction to me, if the author I have were complete in all his volumes, that I might bring the history down five or six hundred years: but, alas! of twelve that he wrote, we have but two at Oxford, which are large quartos, and from whence I take the chief of my materials.

“I wish that some public spirit would arise among us, and cause those books to be bought in the east for us which we want. I should be very willing to lay out my pains for the service of the public. If we could but procure £500 to be judiciously laid out in the east, in such books as I could mention for the public library at Cambridge, it would be the greatest improvement that could be conceived: but that is a happiness not to be expected in my time. We are all swallowed up in politics; there is no room for letters: and it is to be feared that the next generation will not only inherit but improve the polite ignorance of the present.”

Poor Ockley, always a student, and rarely what is called a man of the world, once encountered a literary calamity which frequently occurs when an author finds himself among the vapid triflers and the polished cynics of the fashionable circle. Something like a patron he found in Harley, the Earl of Oxford, and once had the unlucky honour of dining at the table of my Lord Treasurer. It is probable that Ockley, from retired habits and severe studies, was not at all accomplished in the suaviter in modo, of which greater geniuses than Ockley have so surlily despaired. How he behaved we cannot narrate; probably he delivered himself with as great simplicity at the table of the Lord Treasurer, as on the wrong side of Cambridge Castle gate. The embarrassment this simplicity drew him into, is very fully stated in the following copious apology he addressed to the Earl of Oxford, which we have transcribed from the original; perhaps it may be a useful memorial to some men of letters as little polished as the learned Ockley:—

“Cambridge, July 15, 1714.

“My Lord,

“I was so struck with horror and amazement two days ago, that I cannot possibly express it. A friend of mine showed me a letter, part of the contents of which were, ‘That Professor Ockley had given such extreme offence by some uncourtly answers to some gentlemen at my Lord Treasurer’s table, that it would be in vain to make any further application to him.’

“My Lord, it is impossible for me to recollect, at this distance of time. All that I can say is this: that, as on the one side for a man to come to his patron’s table with a design to affront either him or his friends, supposes him a perfect natural, a mere idiot; so on the other side it would be extremely severe, if a person whose education was far distant from the politeness of a court, should, upon the account of an unguarded expression, or some little inadvertency in his behaviour, suffer a capital sentence.

“Which is my case, if I have forfeited your Lordship’s favour; which God forbid! That man is involved in double ruin that is not only forsaken by his friend; but, which is the unavoidable consequence, exposed to the malice and contempt, not only of enemies, but, what is still more grievous, of all sorts of fools.

“It is not the talent of every well-meaning man to converse with his superiors with due decorum; for, either when he reflects upon the vast distance of their station above his own, he is struck dumb and almost insensible; or else their condescension and courtly behaviour encourages him to be too familiar. To steer exactly between these two extremes requires not only a good intention, but presence of mind, and long custom.

“Another article in my friend’s letter was, ‘That somebody had informed your lordship, that I was a very sot.’ When first I had the honour to be known to your lordship, I could easily foresee that there would be persons enough that would envy me upon that account, and do what in them lay to traduce me. Let Haman enjoy never so much himself, it is all nothing, it does him no good, till poor Mordecai is hanged out of his way.

“But I never feared the being censured upon that account. Here in the University, I converse with none but persons of the most distinguished reputations both for learning and virtue, and receive from them daily as great marks of respect and esteem, which I should not have, if that imputation were true. It is most certain that I do indulge myself the freedom of drinking a cheerful cup, at proper seasons, among my friends; but no otherwise than is done by thousands of honest men who never forfeit their character by it. And whoever doth no more than so, deserves no more to be called a sot, than a man that eats a hearty meal would be willing to be called a glutton.

“As for those detractors, if I have but the least assurance of your lordship’s favour, I can very easily despise them. They are nati consumere fruges. They need not trouble themselves about what other people do; for whatever they eat and drink, it is only robbing the poor. Resigning myself entirely to your Lordship’s goodness and pardon, I conclude this necessary apology with like provocation, That I would be content he should take my character from any person that had a good one of his own.

“I am, with all submission,

“My Lord,

“Your Lordship’s most obedient, &c.

“Simon Ockley.”

To the honour of the Earl of Oxford, this unlucky piece of awkwardness at table, in giving “uncourtly answers,” did not interrupt his regard for the poor oriental student; for several years afterwards the correspondence of Ockley was still acceptable to the Earl.

In the meantime, Ockley was one of those unfortunate persons, whom Pierius Valerianus would have recorded, in his book “De infelicitate literatorum.” In his “Inaugural Oration,” printed in 1711, he calls fortune venefica and noverca, speaks of mordaces curæ as things long familiar to him; and, in Dec. 1717, we find him actually under confinement for debt. In the introduction to the second volume of the first edition of his “Saracenic History,” he not only tells us so, but even stoically dates from Cambridge Castle. His biographer thus accounts for his unfortunate situation:-Having married very young, he was encumbered with a family early in life; his preferment in the church was not answerable to his reputation as a scholar; his patron, the Earl of Oxford, fell into disgrace when he wanted him most; and, lastly, he had some share of that common infirmity among the learned, which makes them negligent of economy and a prudential regard to outward things, without which, however, all the wit, and all the learning, in the world, will but serve to render a man the more miserable.

If the letters of the widows and children of many of our eminent authors were collected, they would demonstrate the great fact, that the man who is a husband or a father ought not to be an author. They might weary with a monotonous cry, and usually would be dated from the gaol or the garret. I have seen an original letter from the widow of Ockley to the Earl of Oxford, in which she lays before him the deplorable situation of her affairs; the debts of the Professor being beyond what his effects amounted to, the severity of the creditors would not even suffer the executor to make the best of his effects; the widow remained destitute of necessaries, incapable of assisting her children.

Thus students have devoted their days to studies worthy of a student. They are public benefactors, yet find no friend in the public, who cannot yet appreciate their value—Ministers of state know it, though they have rarely protected them. Ockley, by letters I have seen, was frequently employed by Bolingbroke to translate letters from the sovereign of Morocco to our court; yet all the debts for which he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle did not exceed two hundred pounds. The public interest is concerned in stimulating such enthusiasts; they are men who cannot be salaried, who can not be created by letters patent; for they are men who infuse their soul into their studies, and breathe their fondness for them in their last agonies. Yet such are doomed to feel their life pass away like a painful dream!

As to the literary character of Ockley, it is certain that he was extremely well skilled in all the ancient languages, and particularly the oriental; so that the very learned Reland thought it not too much to declare, that he was “vir, si quis alius, harum literarum peritus.” He was, likewise, very knowing in modern languages, as in the French, Spanish, Italian, &c. and, upon the whole, considered as a linguist, we may presume that very few have exceeded him.

Original footnotes

Author's Preface

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

The Arabians, a people but little noticed by the Greek and Roman authors, notwithstanding the nearness and the extent of their country, have, since the time of Mohammed, rendered themselves universally remarkable, both by their arms and learning. The understanding, therefore, of their affairs seems no less if not more necessary than a knowledge of the history of any people whatsoever, who have flourished since the decline of the Roman empire. Not only have they had as great men, and performed as considerable actions, as any other nation under heaven; but, what is of more concern to us Christians, they were the first ruin of the eastern church.

It might reasonably have been expected, that the Greeks, who bore the greatest share of that grievous calamity, and whose vices and divisions, it is to be feared, brought it upon the Christian world, would have taken particular care to have given a just account of it. But, on the contrary, they have been more jejune and sparing in this particular, than is allowable in any tolerable historian, even when relating matters at the greatest distance. Not to enumerate a long catalogue of their defects, I shall content myself with producing the words of an ingenious author, who was well aware of the imperfections of the Greeks with relation to this history, and fully expresses the true sense of that matter in these words: “This,” says he, “in substance, is the account of those wars, and of the beginning of the Saracenic empire, which is left us by the Grecian writers of that age; who are justly accused of brevity and obscurity, in a subject that deserved to be more copiously handled; for undoubtedly it must needs have been various as well as surprising in its circumstances, containing no less than the subduing of whole nations, altering ancient governments, and introducing a new face of affairs in the world.” There is nothing more just than this observation; and what lame accounts must we then expect from those who compile histories of the Saracens out of the Byzantine historians?

I was no sooner convinced of this, but, having, by the study of their language, fitted myself in some measure for reading their authors, I felt a great desire to communicate some part of this hitherto unknown history to the world; being equally affected with wonder and concern, that, considering the multitude of learned men which the last age produced, it should have been so long neglected. The reason of this is, I conceive, that the very few who were masters of the Arabic learning were otherwise employed, spending their time in publishing such books as were absolutely necessary to pave the way for posterity to attain a competent skill in that difficult language. Others, insufficiently acquainted with that nation, have entertained too mean an opinion of them, looking upon them as mere barbarians and this mistaken notion hindered all further inquiry.

As for those great men who, in this last age first restored to us Europeans that learned, copious, and elegant language; I mean Erpenius, Giggeius, Golius, Sionita, and our incomparable Dr. Pocock; we cannot express how much we are indebted to them for their learned labours, without which the Arabic tongue would still have been inaccessible to us. But as there are other persons of a different taste, who, for want of due information, have conceived a wrong opinion of the Arabians, it will not be amiss, before we give a particular account of our present undertaking, to say something concerning that people.

Before Mohammed’s time they were idolaters. They were always a warlike people, seldom being at peace either with one another or their neighbours. They were divided into two classes; some of them lived in towns and villages; others, having no fixed, settled habitations, lived in tents, and removed from one part of the country to another, according as their necessities compelled, or conveniences invited them. Their chief excellence consisted in breeding and managing horses, and the use of bows, swords, and lances. Their learning lay wholly in their poetry, to which their genius greatly inclined them. Mohammed and his successors soon rooted out idolatry, and united those jarring tribes in the profession of that new superstition, which he pretended to have received by inspiration from God, delivered to him immediately by the angel Gabriel.

For about two hundred years, little else was cared for but war, except what concerned the interpretation of the Koran, and the sects and divisions among themselves which arose therefrom, and daily multiplied. But there was as yet no curiosity about foreign learning, nor desire of being acquainted with the arts and sciences. At last, in Al Mamoun’s reign, who was the twenty-seventh after Mohammed, and was inaugurated caliph in the 108th year of the Hejirah, learning began to be cultivated to a very great degree especially mathematics and astronomy. And, in order to promote learning and science, that noble caliph spared no cost, either to procure such Greek books as were serviceable to that purpose, or to encourage learned men to the study of them. Nor did the sagacity and application of that ingenious, penetrating people in the least disappoint the designs of their munificent benefactor; their progress in learning, after they had once entered upon it, seeming no less wonderful than that of their conquests; for in a few years’ time they had plenty of translations out of the Greek, not only of mathematicians and astronomers, but also of philosophers, naturalists, and physicians. And this love of learning was not confined to the eastern parts, but diffused throughout the whole dominions of the Saracens, being first carried into Africa (where they erected a great many universities), and from thence into Spain: so that when learning was quite lost in these western parts, it was restored by the Moors, to whom was owing whatever of philosophy was understood by the Christians of these times. For Greek was not understood in this part of the world till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D. 1453, when several learned Greeks escaping with their libraries, and coming westward, that language was restored; therefore the philosophers and schoolmen, before this date, were obliged to content themselves with Latin translations, not only of Averroes, Alfarabius, and Algazali, and other Mohammedan authors, but also of Aristotle and other philosophers, which translations of Greek authors were not made out of the original Greek, but out of Arabic versions.

Had the Arabians, after having taken the pains to learn the Greek tongue, applied themselves with as much care to the historians, as they did to the philosophers, and studied Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and the other masters of correct writing which that language furnished, we might have expected from them a succession of historians worthy to write the great actions which were performed among them. But they never turned their thoughts that way, studying the Greek merely for the sake of the sciences, and valuing neither that nor any other language as compared with their own. And, though it must be granted that the Arabic is extremely fine and copious, so as to afford words sufficient to express with elegance and propriety every subject, it is, nevertheless, not sufficient of itself, any more than any other language, to make a man an author; there being a manifest difference between language and style, insomuch that a man may write the best language in the world, and use the most proper and significant words, and yet not be worth the reading. For besides propriety of expression, a certain justness and exactness (not only with respect to the choice of materials, but to the composition), must shine through the whole; and this is not to be attained without being well acquainted with the best authors.

The great esteem which I have for eastern learning makes me heartily wish that we had not too much cause in this respect to complain of our Arabic historians. For in this way they have deprived us of a great deal of the pleasure, and sometimes profit, which we might otherwise have derived from reading them. They have not sufficient regard to the due qualifications of an historian, but tell things after a careless manner, often stuffing their works with many trifling matters, at other times jingling upon words, and, to show the copiousness of their language and variety of expression, spinning out a trifling incident into a long story. It is, therefore, a work of difficulty to follow or compile these authors, and yet the task, nevertheless, deserves well to be undertaken, and will abundantly recompense the pains.

For in these authors is contained an account of all the most remarkable actions done in the east, and other parts, for above one thousand years. During this period, Asia and Africa were the scene of as great achievements as ever were performed in the times of the Roman empire, to which that of the Saracens was, in many respects, equal.

In order to carry out my design, after I had made a draught out of Elmakin, Abulfaragius, and Eutychius, I went to the Bodleian Library, which is, without question, the best furnished with oriental manuscripts of any in Europe. Besides a great number of the best authors, purchased by the University of Oxford, out of the libraries of Dr. Hyde, Dr. Huntington, and Dr. Pocock; not to mention Mr. Samuel Clark’s, Gravius’s, or Selden’s, there is in the Bodleian an invaluable collection given by that incomparable prelate and martyr of blessed memory, Archbishop Laud; of whose great virtues it would be superfluous to say anything here, they being so well known and admired by all that know how to set a just value upon learning and piety.