pleased. He himself, as a prophet, arrogated a superior privilege, and had fifteen wives.

He taught that God Almighty had engraven these laws in the hearts of the first race of men; but that vice and iniquity gradually prevailing, and wearing out their impression, he had sent, from time to time, his prophets upon earth, to revive his holy precepts by their doctrines and example. The most eminent of these prophets, he affirmed, were Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ-and Mahomet, the last, the greatest of all-who was destined to extend the know ledge of the true religion over all the earth.

The ceremonies of circumcision, ablution, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, he recommended as exterior and visible signs, by which God desired that man should signify his belief of the more speculative tenets of his religion. These laws he pretended to have received from God Almighty, by the hands of the angel Gabriel, who presented him, from time to time, with parcels of that book, or Koran, in which they were contained. The fundamental doctrines of the Koran are such as have been enumerated. They are, it is true, intermixed with a variety of absurdities-errors in history, chronology, and philosophy; but these the countrymen of Mahomet, in his time, may well be supposed to have overlooked; and the learned Mussulman, at this day, will probably consider them as corruptions and interpolations of the original text. It must be acknowledged, that the work itself is full of fine conceptions, and abounds with that brilliant and figurative eloquence which is characteristic of oriental writing. In many places, when the majesty and attributes of God are described, the style is most sublime and magnificent, and nearly resembles that of the Sacred Scriptures-from which, indeed, it is quite obvious that the composer of the Koran drew many of its most shining

ornaments.

The illiterate character and ignorance of Mahomet, in his younger days, leaves no doubt that, in the composition of this work, he must have had able assistants; but as he was possessed of strong natural talents, and a brilliant imagination, the chief merit was, in all probability, his own. The production of the work in small and detached parcels was a highly politic measure; for by leaving it in his power to add to it from time to time, according as he was favored with new revelations, he had it in his power to remove or explain any errors or inconsistencies, the detection of which might otherwise have been fatal to his impos

ture.

The disciples of Mahomet daily increased, and among these were the most respectable of the citizens of Mecca. Tumults, however, arising, and frequent disputes between the Believers and Infidels, the magistrates of the city thought it necessary to reriove the cause of the disorder, and Mahomet was banished. His flight, which was termed the Hegira, was the era of his glory; his dis

ciples followed him, and he now became sensible of his own strength. He began from that moment to be fired with the ideas of conquest; he betook himself to Medina, and there, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, he preached to his votaries-empire and dominion in this world, and eternal happiness in the next. He now determined to take vengeance on the people of Mecca, for their blind ingratitude to the prophet of God; and marching against them, as it is said, with only 113 men, he attacked and took the city. Omar, one of the bravest of the Arabians, had joined him at Medina. His followers, after this first success, which was regarded as miraculous, increased prodigiously. In a few years, he had subdued to his empire and religion all Arabia. With a mixture of strange presumption and enthusiasm, he now wrote to Cosrhoes, king of Persia, and others of the neighboring princes, that they should embrace his religion; and, what is yet more surprising, two of these princes actually became Mahometans. He now turned his arms against the Eastern empire, and marching into Syria, took several of the towns belonging to the Romans; but in the middle of his conquests, Mahomet, at the age of sixty-three, was seized with a mortal disease, the effect, it was said, of poison. The conclusion of his life was admirable. Let him, said he, to whom I have done violence or injustice now appear, and I am ready to make him reparation. For several days preceding his death, he ordered himself to be carried to the mosque, and there harangued the people with wonderful eloquence, which, from a dying man, had a powerful effect. It is by no means improbable that he believed himself inspired-as the singular success of all his enterprises might have persuaded a mind of that enthusiastic turn, of a divine interposition in his favor. It is certain, that with his latest breath he continued to inculcate the doctrines of his new religion. He recommended to his folJowers to keep the sword unsheathed till they had driven all infidels out of Arabia; and in the agonies of death he declared to Ayesha, the best beloved of his wives, that God, by the mouth of the angel Gabriel, had given him the choice of life or death, and that he had preferred the latter.

The rapid success which attended the propagation of the reLizion of Mahomet may be accounted for from a few natural and simple causes. The first of these was certainly that signal favor wich attended his arms, and, as we shall immediately see, those of his successors. The martial spirit, when inflamed by the enthusiasm of religion, is irresistible: and while repeated victories persuaded many of a divine interposition in favor of the prophet and his law, the terror of his arms inclined others submissively to receive that religion which was propagated by the sword. Neither was it surprising that a religion which adapted itself so entirely to the passions of men should find a number of willing votaries among the luxurious nations of the East. The gross ignorance,

too, of many of those nations might readily have rendered them the dupes of a less artful system of imposture than the fable of Mahomet; and to add to all, it must be owned with regret, that the shameful animosities and dissensions which then prevailed among the different sects of the Christian church had too much contributed to bring the true religion into disesteem and contempt.

Mahomet, by his last will, had nominated Ali, his son-in-law, and Fatima, his daughter, to succeed him; but Abubeker, his father-in-law, had the address to secure the soldiery: he pretended a prior nomination, and bringing Ayesha and Omar over to his interest, he secured the succession.

As disputes began to arise among the believers, Abubeker collected and published the scattered books of the Koran, which, it is probable, had never till that time been united; and prosecuting the conquests of Mahomet, he made an inroad into Palestine, defeated the army of Heraclius, the emperor, and took Jerusalem, subjecting the whole country between Mount Libanus and the Mediterranean. Abubeker died in the midst of his conquests, and Omar, by the unanimous voice of the army, was called to the throne. He prosecuted the conquests of his predecessors, and in one campaign deprived the Romans of Syria, Phenicia, Mesopotamia, and Chaldea; then turning his arms against Persia, this rapid conqueror, in the space of two years, brought that immense and magnificent empire under the dominion of the Saracens, and extinguished the ancient religion of Zoroaster, of which no trace remains, but what is preserved by the inconsiderable sect of the Guebres. In the meantime, the lieutenants of Omar were extending the conquests of the Saracens in other quarters: they subdued all Egypt, Libya, and Numidia. In this conquest was burnt the celebrated library founded at Alexandria, by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and augmented by succeeding princes. The Saracens argued that all the knowledge which was there treasured up was either contained in the Koran, and therefore superfluous or not contained in it, and therefore unnecessary to salvation.

Amid these extensive conquests, Omar was killed by a Persian slave. His successor, Otman, followed the steps of his predecessors, and added to the dominion of the caliphis Bactriana and part of Tartary; while one of his lieutenants ravaged the islands of the Archipelago, took Rhodes, where he destroyed the cele brated Colossus; and passing into Sicily, threw consternation into the heart of the Italian states. Otman was succeeded by Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet. This prince, whose name is to this

The Arabians, who were, in fact, Ishmaelites, or descendants of Abraham by his concubine Hagar, are supposed to have assumed the name of Saracens, to induce the belief of their being the legitimate descendants of Abraham, by Sarah his wife. Howel, part iii,, chap. iii.

day revered by the Mahometans, inherited, in many respects, the genius of his father-in-law; but he was cut off by treason in the inidst of his conquests, after a reign of four or five years. He transferred the seat of the caliphs from Mecca to a city called Couffa, on the banks of the Euphrates; from whence it was afterwards removed to Bagdad.

The genius of the Arabians, fired by enthusiasm and invigorated by conquest, seemed now in the train of carrying every thing before it. It is wonderful what may be achieved by a people who are once in the track of glory. Nations, in fact, seem to have their ages of brilliancy, when all is life, and vigor, and enterprise; and the e perhaps preceded, and again to be followed by, an era of inanimation, weakness, and degeneracy.

In this splendid period of the history of the Saracens, their conquests were incredible. Within half a century from the first opening of the career of Mahomet, they had raised an empire more extensive than what remained, at this time, of the dominion of the Romans.

There was a succession of nineteen caliphs of the race of Omar, or, as they are termed, the Ommiades; after which began the dynasty of the Abasside, who were descended directly, by the male line, from Mahomet. Almanzor, the second caliph of this race, changed the seat of the Saracen empire to Bagdad; and from that period the Mahometans assumed a character to which they had hitherto been strangers. Almanzor had genius and taste for literary pursuits; the sciences began to be cultivated at Bagdad; and the learning of the Romans was transplanted thither from Con-tantinople. The philosophers and literati of the East flocked to that capital, where their talents attracted both respect and reward. The successors of Almanzor, educated in the school of the sciences, showed them the same favorable attention; and under Haroun Alraschid, who was himself a most accomplished literary character, learning, and all the arts of utility, as well as elegance, rose to a pitch of splendor which they had not known since the reign of Augustus. Alraschid flourished in the middle of the ninth century, and was contemporary with Charlemagne.

The sciences for which the Arabians were most distinguished at this time were medicine and astronomy. They had made no inconsiderable progress in mechanics; geometry they had brought to a very considerable height; and they were, if not the inventors of algebra, the first who adopted that science from the farther East. Their poetry was singularly beautiful: they added a reg ularity to the oriental verse, retaining at the same time all its luxuriant imagery. Haroun Alraschid himself composed very

beautiful verses.

The manners of the Arabians in this period of the splendor of their empire are better learned from some of their romantic compositions, than from any accounts of historians. That book which

is familiar to every one, "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments," is not only a most pleasing composition in point of imagination, but contains, as an original work, a genuine picture of oriental manners, and conveys very high ideas of the police and splendor of the empire of the caliphs, in the time of Alraschid.

CHAPTER II.

MONARCHY OF THE FRANKS.

Uncertainty of the early History of the Franks-Merovingian Period-Mayors of the Palace-Change in the Dynasty effected by Pepin-Manners and Čustoms-Form of Government and Laws of the Franks-Feudal System.

LEAVING at present the history of the Eastern nations, we turn our view to the Western part of Europe, to take a short survey of the origin of the monarchy of the Franks, who, in the course of a few ages, raised, on the ruins of the Roman power, a great and flourishing empire. The rise of a new dominion is also, at the same period, to be traced in Italy:-the church, which had hitherto been confined to an authority in spiritual matters, exalting herself into a temporal sovereignty; and, under the title of a charter from Heaven, arrogating a supreme control over all the princes of the earth.

The history of the origin of the Franks is in no degree more certain than that of any of the other barbarous nations, who overran the Western empire. The most probable opinion is, that they were, originally, those tribes of German nations, inhabiting the districts that lie on the Lower Rhine and the Weser, who in the time of Tacitus passed under the names of Chauci, Cherusci, Catti, Sicambri. These, and some other petty nations around them, forming a league for mutual defence against the Roman power, termed themselves Franks, or Freemen.*

The first who is mentioned in history as the sovereign of this united people is Pharamond, and he seems to possess but a doubtful or legendary xistence. His successor and kinsman Merovius,. who is the head of the first race of the French monarchs known by the name of the Merovingian, is a personage whose history

Gibbon, vol. i., c. x. Howel, part iii., book ii., c. 5.

+ Mezeray has, notwithstanding, bestowed four books of his great History of France on the establishment of the Franks in Gaul, preceding the reign of Pharamond.