them grew up a military station, called from its origin
Fostat, or 'the Encampment.' It expanded rapidly into the
capital of Egypt, the modern Cairo. … This name 'Cahira,'
or City of the Victory, is of later date [see below: A. D.
908-1171]. … Zobeir urged Amru to enforce the right of
conquest, and divide the land among his followers. But Amru
refused; and the Caliph, as might have been expected,
confirmed the judgment. 'Leave the land of Egypt,' was his
wise reply, 'in the people's hands to nurse and fructify.' As
elsewhere, Omar would not allow the Arabs to become
proprietors of a single acre. Even Amru was refused ground
whereupon to build a mansion for himself. … So the land of
Egypt, left in the hands of its ancestral occupants, became a
rich granary for the Hejaz, even as in bygone times it had
been the granary of Italy and the Byzantine empire. … Amru,
with the restless spirit of his faith, soon pushed his
conquests westward beyond the limits of Egypt, established
himself in Barca, and reached even to Tripoli. … Early in
the Caliphate of Othman [A. D. 646] a desperate attempt was
made to regain possession of Alexandria. The Moslems, busy
with their conquests elsewhere, had left the city
insufficiently protected. The Greek inhabitants conspired with
the Court; and a fleet of 300 ships was sent under command of
Manuel, who drove out the garrison and took possession of the
city. Amru hastened to its rescue. A great battle was fought
outside the walls: the Greeks were defeated, and the unhappy
town was subjected to the miseries of a second and a longer
siege. It was at last taken by storm and given up to plunder.
… The city, though still maintaining its commercial import,
fell now from its high estate. The pomp and circumstance of
the Moslem Court were transferred to Fostat, and Alexandria
ceased to be the capital of Egypt."
Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 24, with foot-note.
ALSO IN:
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 51.
W. Irving,
Mahomet and his Successors,
volume 2, chapters 24 and 35.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 644.
Assassination of Caliph Omar.
The death of Omar, the second of the Caliphs, was a violent
one. "It occurred in November, A. D. 644. One day a slave who
worked for his master at the carpenter's bench came to see the
Commander of the Faithful, and complained to him of being
overworked, and badly treated by the citizen that owned him.
Omar listened attentively, but arriving at the conclusion that
the charges were false, sternly dismissed the carpenter to his
bench. The man retired, vowing to be revenged. The following
day was Friday, 'the day of the Assembly.' Omar, as usual,
went to lead the prayers of the assembly in the great mosque.
He opened his mouth to speak. He had just said 'Allah,' when
the keen dagger of the offended slave was thrust into his
back, and the Commander of the Faithful fell on the sacred
floor, fatally wounded. The people, in a perfect frenzy of
horror and rage, fell upon the assassin, but with superhuman
strength he threw them off, and rushing about in the madness
of despair he killed some and wounded others, and finally
turning the point of his dagger to his own breast, fell dead.
Omar lingered several days in great agony, but he was brave to
the end. His dying words were, 'Give to my successor this
parting bequest, that he be kind to the men of this city,
Medina, which gave a home to us, and to the Faith. Tell him to
make much of their virtues, and to pass lightly over their
faults. Bid him also treat well the Arab tribes, for verily
they are the backbone of Islam. Moreover, let him faithfully
fulfil the covenants made with the Christians and the Jews! O
Allah! I have finished my course! To him that cometh after me,
I leave the kingdom firmly established and at peace!' Thus
perished one of the greatest Princes the Mohammedans were ever
to know. Omar was truly a great and good man, of whom
any country and any creed might be proud."
J. J. Pool,
Studies in Mohammedanism,
pages 58-59.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709.
Conquest of northern Africa.
"While Egypt was won almost without a blow, Latin Africa
[northern Africa beyond Egypt] took sixty years to conquer. It
was first invaded under Othman in 647, but Carthage was not
subdued till 698, nor was the province fully reduced for
eleven years longer. And why? Doubtless because Africa
contained two classes of inhabitants, not over-friendly to
each other, but both of whom had something to lose by a
Saracenic conquest. The citizens of Carthage were Roman in
every sense, their language was Latin, their faith was
orthodox; they had no wrongs beyond those which always afflict
provincials under a despotism; wrongs not likely to be
alleviated by exchanging a Christian despot at Constantinople
for an infidel one at Medina or Damascus. Beyond them, in the
inland provinces, were the native Moors, barbarians, and many
of them pagans; they had fought for their rude liberty against
the Cæsars, and they had no intention of surrendering it to
the Caliphs. Romans and Moors alike long preferred the chances
of the sword to either Koran or tribute; but their ultimate
fate was different. Latin civilization and Latin Christianity
gradually disappeared by the decay and extermination of their
votaries. The Moors, a people not unlike the Arabs in their
unconverted state, were at last content to embrace their
religion, and to share their destinies and their triumphs.
Arabs and Moors intermingled went on to further conquests; and
the name of the barbarian converts was more familiarly used in
Western Europe to denote the united nation than the terrible
name of the original compatriots of the Prophet."
E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lecture 3.
"In their climate and government, their diet and habitation,
the wandering Moors resembled the Bedoweens of the desert.
With the religion they were proud to adopt the language, name,
and origin of Arabs; the blood of the strangers and natives
was insensibly mingled; and from the Euphrates to the Atlantic
the same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy
plains of Asia and Africa. Yet I will not deny that 50,000
tents of pure Arabians might be transported over the Nile and
scattered through the Libyan desert; and I am not ignorant
that five of the Moorish tribes still retain their barbarous
idiom, with the appellation and character of 'white'
Africans."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 51.
"By 647 the Barbary coast was overrun up to the gates of Roman
Carthage; but the wild Berber population was more difficult to
subdue than the luxurious subjects of the Sasanids of Persia
or the Greeks of Syria and Egypt. Kayrawan was founded as the
African capital in 670; Carthage fell in 693, and the Arabs
pushed their arms as far as the Atlantic. From Tangier they
crossed into Spain in 710."
S. Lane-Poole,
The Mohammadan Dynasties,
page 5.
ALSO IN:
W. Irving,
Mahomet and his Successors,
volume 2, chapters 35, 44, 54-55.
R. D. Osborn,
Islam under the Arabs,
part 1, chapters 1-3.
See, also,
CARTHAGE: A. D. 698;
and MOROCCO.
{2071}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 661.
Accession of the Omeyyads.
Abu Bekr, the immediate successor of Mahomet, reigned but two
years, dying August, A. D. 634. By his nomination, Omar was
raised to the Caliphate and ruled Islam until 644, when he was
murdered by a Persian slave. His successor was Othman, who had
been the secretary of the Prophet. The Caliphate of Othman was
troubled by many plots and increasing disaffection, which
ended in his assassination, A. D. 656. It was not until then
that Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Mahomet, was permitted
to take the Prophet's seat. But the dissensions in the Moslem
world had grown more bitter as the fields of ambitious rivalry
were widened, and the factions opposed to Ali were implacable,
"Now begins the tragic tale of the wrongs and martyrdoms of
the immediate family of the Prophet. The province of Syria was
now ruled by the crafty Moawiyah, whose father was Abu-Sofian,
so long the bitterest enemy of Mahomet, and at last a tardy
and unwilling proselyte. … Such was the parentage of the man
who was to deprive the descendants of the Apostle of their
heritage. Moawiyah gave himself out as the avenger of Othman;
Ali was represented as his murderer, although his sons, the
grandsons of the Prophet, had fought, and one of them received
a wound, in the defence of that Caliph. … Ayesha, too, the
Mother of the Faithful, Telha and Zobeir, the Prophet's old
companions, revolted on their own account, and the whole of
the brief reign of Ali was one constant succession of civil
war." Syria adhered to Moawiyah. Ayesha, Zobeir and Telha
gained possession of Bussorah and made that city their
headquarters of rebellion. They were defeated there by Ali in
a great battle, A. D. 656, called the Battle of the Camel,
because the litter which bore Ayesha on the back of a camel
became the center of the fight. But he gained little from the
success; nor more from a long, indecisive battle fought with
Moawiyah at Siffin, in July, A. D. 657. Amru, the conqueror of
Egypt, had now joined Moawiyah, and his influence enlisted
that great province in the revolt. At last, in 661, the civil
war was ended by the assassination of Ali. His eldest son,
Hassan, who seems to have been a spiritless youth, bargained
away his claims to Moawiyah, and the latter became undisputed
Caliph, founding a dynasty called that of the Ommiades, or
Omeyyads (from Ommiah, or Omeyya, the great grandfather of
Moawiyah), which occupied the throne for almost a century—not
at Medina, but at Damascus, to which city the Caliphate was
now transferred. "In thus converting the Caliphate into an
hereditary monarchy he utterly changed its character. It soon
assumed the character of a common oriental empire. … The
Ommiads were masters of slaves instead of leaders of freemen;
the public will was no longer consulted, and the public good
as little; the Commander of the Faithful sank into an earthly
despot, ruling by force, like any Assyrian conqueror of old.
The early Caliphs dwelt in the sacred city of Medina, and
directed the counsels of the Empire from beside the tomb of
the Prophet. Moawiyah transferred his throne to the conquered
splendours of Damascus; and Mecca and Medina became tributary
cities to the ruler of Syria. At one time a rival Caliph,
Abdallah, established himself in Arabia; twice were the holy
cities taken by storm, and the Kaaba itself was battered down
by the engines of the invaders. … Such a revolution however
did not effect itself without considerable opposition. The
partizans of the house of Ali continued to form a formidable
sect. In their ideas the Vicarship of the Prophet was not to
be, like an earthly kingdom, the mere prize of craft or of
valour. It was the inalienable heritage of the sacred
descendants of the Prophet himself. … This was the origin of
the Shiah sect, the assertors of the rights of Ali and his
house."
E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lecture 3.
ALSO IN:
Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapters 31-46.
R. D. Osborn,
Islam Under the Arabs,
part 3.
S. Lane-Poole,
The Mohammadan Dynasties,
pages 9-11.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 680.
The Tragedy at Kerbela.
When Ali, or Aly, the nephew and son-in-law of Mahomet, had
been slain, A. D. 661, and the Caliphate had been seized by
Moawiyah, the first of the Ommiades, "the followers of 'Aly
proclaimed his elder son, Hasan, Khalif; but this
poor-spirited youth was contented to sell his pretensions to
the throne. … On his death, his brother Hoseyn became the
lawful Khalif in the eyes of the partisans of the House of
'Aly, who ignored the general admission of the authority of
the 'Ommiades.' … For a time Hoseyn remained quietly at
Medina, leading a life of devotion, and declining to push his
claims. But at length an opportunity for striking a blow at
the rival House presented itself, and Hoseyn did not hesitate
to avail himself of it. He was invited to join an insurrection
which had broken out at Kufa [A. D. 680], the most mutinous
and fickle of all the cities of the empire; and he set out
with his family and friends, to the number of 100 souls, and
an escort of 500 horsemen, to join the insurgents. As he drew
nigh to Kufa, he discovered that the rising had been
suppressed by the 'Ommiade' governor of the city, and that
the country round him was hostile instead of loyal to him. And
now there came out from Kufa an army of 4,000 horse, who
surrounded the little body of travellers [on the plain of
Kerbela], and cut them off alike from the city and the river.
… A series of single combats, in which Hoseyn and his
followers displayed heroic courage, ended in the death of the
Imam and the men who were with him, and the enslaving of the
women and children."
S. Lane-Poole,
Studies in a Mosque,
chapter 7.
"The scene [of the massacre of Hosein and his band] … is
still fresh as yesterday in the mind of every Believer, and is
commemorated with wild grief and frenzy as often as the fatal
day, the Tenth of the first month of the year [tenth of
Moharram—October 10], comes round. … The tragedy of Kerbala
decided not only the fate of the Caliphate, but of Mahometan
kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared.
… The tragedy is yearly represented on the stage as a
religious ceremony"—in the "Passion Play" of the Moharram
Festival.
Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 49, with foot-note.
See, also, ISLAM.
{2072}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 668-675.
First repulse from Constantinople.
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 668-675.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 710.
Subjugation of the Turks.
"After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the river Oxus divided
the territories of the Saracens and of the Turks: This narrow
boundary was soon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the
governors of Chorassan extended their successive inroads; and
one of their triumphs was adorned with the buskin of a Turkish
queen, which she dropped in her precipitate flight beyond the
hills of Bochara. But the final conquest of Transoxana, as
well as of Spain, was reserved for the glorious reign of the
inactive Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel-driver,
declares the origin and merit of his successful lieutenant.
While one of his colleagues displayed the first Mahometan
banner on the banks of the Indus, the spacious regions between
the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian sea were reduced by
the arms of Catibah to the obedience of the prophet and of the
caliph. A tribute of two millions of pieces of gold was
imposed on the infidels; their idols were burned or broken;
the Mussulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new mosch
[mosque] of Carizme; after several battles the Turkish hordes
were driven back to the desert; and the emperors of China
solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. To their
industry the prosperity of the province, the Sogdiana of the
ancients, may in a great measure be ascribed; but the
advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and
cultivated since the reign of the Macedonian kings. Before the
invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were
rich and populous under the yoke of the shepherds of the
North."
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 51.
ALSO IN:
E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lecture 3.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 711-713.
Conquest of Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.
------------------------------------
[Page 2073 and 2074 are placed here to avoid interrupting
the next article, "The repulse from Gaul.".]
SEVENTH CENTURY.
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.
A.D.
602.
Revolt in Constantinople;
fall and death of Maurice;
accession of Phocas.
604.
Death of Pope Gregory the Great.
Death of St. Augustine of Canterbury. [Uncertain date.]
608.
Invasion of Asia Minor by Chosroes II., king of Persia.
610.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Phocas;
accession of Heraclius.
Venetia ravaged by the Avars.
614.
Invasion of Syria by Chosroes II.;
capture of Damascus.
615.
Capture of Jerusalem by Chosroes;
removal of the supposed True Cross.
616.
First expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
Advance of the Persians to the Bosphorus.
622.
The flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the Hegira).
Romans under Heraclius victorious over the Persians.
626.
Siege of Constantinople by Persians and Avars.
627.
Victory of Heraclius over Chosroes of Persia, at Nineveh.
Conversion of Northumbria to Christianity.
628.
Recovery of Jerusalem and of the supposed True Cross,
from the Persians, by Heraclius.
630.
Submission of Mecca to the Prophet.
632.
Death of Mahomet;
Abu Bekr chosen caliph.
634.
Death of Abu Bekr;
Omar chosen caliph.
Battle of Hieromax or Yermuk;
Battle of the Bridge. [Uncertain date.]
Defeat of Heraclius.
Compilation and arrangement of the Koran. [Uncertain date.]
635.
Siege and capture of Damascus by the Mahometans;
invasion of Persia;
victory at Kadisiyeh. [Uncertain date.]
Defeat of the Welsh by the English
in the battle of the Heavenfield.
636.
Mahometan subjugation of Syria;
retreat of the Romans.
637.
Siege and conquest of Jerusalem by the Moslems;
their victories in Persia.
639.
Publication of the Ecthesis of Heraclius.
640.
Capture of Cæsarea by the Moslems;
invasion of Egypt by Amru.
641.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Heraclius;
three rival emperors;
accession of Constans II.
Victory at Nehavend and final conquest of Persia
by the Mahometans;
end of the Sassanian kingdom;
capture of Alexandria, [Uncertain date.]
founding of Cairo.
643.
Publication of the Lombard Code of Laws.
644.
Assassination of Omar;
Othman chosen caliph.
646.
Alexandria recovered by the Greeks and lost again.
648.
Publication by Constans II. of the edict called "The Type."
649.
Mahometan invasion of Cyprus.
650.
Conquest of Merv, Balkh, and Herat by the Moslems.
[Uncertain date.]
652.
Conversion of the East Saxons in England.
653.
Seizure and banishment of Pope Martin I.
by the Emperor Constans II.
656.
Murder of Caliph Othman;
Ali chosen caliph;
rebellion of Moawiyah;
civil war;
Battle of the Camel.
657.
Ali's transfer of the seat of government to Kufa.
658.
Syria abandoned to Moawiyah;
Egypt in revolt.
661.
Assassination of Ali;
Moawiyah, first of the Omeyyads, made caliph;
Damascus his capital.
663.
Visit of the Emperor Constans to Rome.
668.
Assassination of Constans at Syracuse; [Uncertain date.]
accession of Constantine IV. to the throne of the Eastern Empire.
Beginning of the siege of Constantinople by the Saracens.
670.
The founding of Kairwan, or Kayrawan. [Uncertain date.]
673.
First Council of the Anglo-Saxon Church, at Hereford.
Birth of the Venerable Bede [Uncertain date.] (died 735).
677.
The raising of the siege of Constantinople;
treaty of peace. [Uncertain date.]
680.
Sixth General Council of the Church, at Constantinople;
condemnation of the Monothelite heresy.
Massacre at Kerbela of Hoseyn, son of Ali, and his followers.
685.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Constantine IV.,
and accession of Justinian II.
The Angles of Northumbria, under King Ecgfrith,
defeated by the Picts at Nectansmere.
687.
Battle of Testri;
victory of Pippin of Heristal over the Neustrians.
695.
Fall and banishment of Justinian II.
696.
Founding of the bishopric of Salzburg.
697.
Election of the first Doge of Venice.
698.
Conquest and destruction of Carthage by the Moslems.
[Uncertain date]
EIGHTH CENTURY.
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.
A.D.
704.
Recovery of the throne by the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
705.
Accession of the Caliph Welid.
709.
Accession of Roderick to the Gothic throne in Spain.
711.
Invasion of Spain by the Arab-Moors.
Moslem conquest of Transoxiana and Sardinia.
Final fall and death of the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
712.
Surrender of Toledo to the Moslem invaders of Spain.
717.
Elevation of Leo the Isaurian to the throne of the Eastern Empire.
Second siege of Constantinople by the Moslems.
Great defeat of the Moslems at the Cave of Covadonga in Spain.
718.
Victory of Charles Martel at Soissons;
his authority acknowledged in both Frankish kingdoms.
719.
Mahometan conquest and occupation of Narbonne.
721.
Siege of Toulouse;
defeat of the Moslems.
725.
Mahometan conquests in Septimania.
726.
Iconoclastic edicts of Leo the Isaurian;
tumult and insurrection in Constantinople.
731.
Death of Pope Gregory II.;
election of Gregory III.;
last confirmation of a Papal election by the Eastern Emperor.
732.
Great defeat of the Moslems by the Franks
under Charles Martel at Poitiers, or Tours.
Council held at Rome by Pope Gregory III.;
edict against the Iconoclasts.
733.
Practical termination of Byzantine imperial authority.
735.
Birth of Alcuin (died 804).
740.
Death of Leo the Isaurian, Emperor in the East;
accession of Constantine V.
741.
Death of Charles Martel.
Death of Pope Gregory III.;
election of Zacharias.
742.
Birth of Charlemagne (died 814).
744.
Defeat of the Saxons by Carloman;
their forced baptism.
Death of Liutprand, king of the Lombards.
747.
The Plague in Constantinople.
Pippin the Short made Mayor in both kingdoms of the Franks.
750.
Fall of the Omeyyad dynasty of caliphs and rise of the Abbassides.
751.
Extinction of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards.
752.
End of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings;
assumption of the crown by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pope Zacharias;
election of Stephen II.
754.
First invasion of Italy by Pippin the Short.
Rome assailed by the Lombards.
755.
Subjugation of the Lombards by Pippin;
his donation of temporalities to the Pope.
Martyrdom of Saint Boniface in Germany.
756.
Founding of the caliphate of Cordova by Abderrahman.
757.
Death of Pope Stephen II.;
election of Paul I.
758.
Accession of Offa, king of Mercia.
759.
Loss of Narbonne, the last foothold of the
Mahometans north of the Pyrenees.
763.
Founding of the capital of the Eastern Caliphs at Bagdad.
[Uncertain date.]
767.
Death of Pope Paul I.;
usurpation of the anti-pope, Constantine.
768.
Conquest of Aquitaine by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pippin;
accession of Charlemagne and Carloman.
Deposition of the anti-pope Constantine;
election of Pope Stephen III.
771.
Death of Carloman, leaving Charlemagne sole king of the Franks.
772.
Charlemagne's first wars with the Saxons.
Death of Pope Stephen III.;
election of Hadrian I.
774.
Charlemagne's acquisition of the Lombard kingdom;
his enlargement of the donation of temporalities to the Pope.
Forgery of the "Donation of Constantine." [Uncertain date.]
775.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Constantine V.;
accession of Leo IV.
778.
Charlemagne's invasion of Spain;
the "dolorous rout" of Roncesvalles.
780.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Leo IV.;
accession of Constantine VI.;
regency of Irene.
781.
Italy and Aquitaine formed into separate kingdoms by Charlemagne.
785.
Great struggle of the Saxons against Charlemagne;
submission of Wittikind.
786.
Accession of Haroun al Raschid in the eastern caliphate.
787.
Seventh General Council of the Church (Second Council of Nicæa).
First incursions of the Danes in England.
788.
Subjugation of the Bavarians by Charlemagne.
Death of Abderrahman.
790.
Composition of the Caroline books. [Uncertain date.]
791.
Charlemagne's first campaign against the Avars.
794.
Accession of Cenwulf, king of Mercia.
795.
Death of Pope Hadrian I.;
election of Leo III.
797.
Deposition and blinding of the Eastern Emperor
Constantine VI., by his mother Irene.
800.
Imperial coronation of Charlemagne;
revival of the Empire.
Accession of Ecgberht, king of Wessex,
the first king of all the English.
-------------------------------------
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-732.
The repulse from Gaul.
"The deeds of Musa [in Africa and Spain] had been performed
'in the evening of his life,' but, to borrow the words of
Gibbon, 'his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth,
and the possession of Spain was considered as only the first
step to the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful armament by
sea and land, he was preparing to pass the Pyrenees, to
extinguish in Gaul the declining kingdoms of the Franks and
Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the
Vatican. Thence, subduing the barbarians of Germany, he
proposed to follow the course of the Danube from its source to
the Euxine Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of
Constantinople, and, returning from Europe to Asia, to unite
his new acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria.'
This vast enterprise … was freely revolved by the successors
of Musa. In pursuance of it, El Haur, the new lieutenant of
the califs, assailed the fugitive Goths in their retreats in
Septimania (715-718). El Zamah, who succeeded him, crossed the
mountains, and, seizing Narbonne, expelled the inhabitants and
settled there a colony of Saracens (719). The following year
they passed the Rhone, in order to extend their dominion over
Provence, but, repelled by the dukes and the militia of the
country, turned their forces toward Toulouse (721). Eudo, Duke
of Aquitain, bravely defending his capital, brought on a
decisive combat. … El Zamah fell. The carnage among his
retreating men then became so great that the Arabs named the
passage from Toulouse to Carcassone the Road of Martyrs (Balat
al Chouda). Supporting their terrible reverses with the
characteristic resignation of their race and faith, the Arabs
were still able to retain a hold of Narbonne and of other
fortresses of the south, and, after a respite of four years,
spent in recruiting their troops from Spain and Africa, to
resume their projects of invasion and pillage in Gaul (725).
Under the Wali Anbessa, they ascended the Rhone as far as the
city of Lyons, devastating the towns and the fields. … When,
… at the close of his expeditions, Anbessa perished by the
hands of the Infidels, all the fanaticism of the Mussulman
heart was aroused into an eager desire for revenge. His
successor, Abd-el-Rahman, a tried and experienced general,
energetic and heroic as he was just and prudent, … entered
into elaborate preparations for the final conquest of Gaul.
For two years the ports of Syria, Egypt, and Africa swarmed
with departing soldiery, and Spain resounded with the calls
and cries to arms (727-729)." The storm broke first on
Aquitaine, and its valiant Duke Eudes, or Eudo, rashly meeting
the enemy in the open field, in front of Bordeaux, suffered an
irretrievable defeat (May, 731). Bordeaux was stormed and
sacked, and all Aquitaine was given up to the ravages of the
unsparing Moslem host. Eudes fled, a helpless fugitive, to his
enemies the Franks, and besought the aid of the great
palace-mayor, Karl Martel, practical sovereign of the Frankish
kingdoms, and father of the Pippin who would soon become king
in name as well as in fact. But, not for Aquitaine, only, but
for all Gaul, all Germany,—all Christendom in Europe,—Karl
and his Franks were called on to rally and do battle against
the sons of the desert, whose fateful march of conquest seemed
never to end. "'During all the rest of the summer, the Roman
clarions and the German horns sounded and groaned through all
the cities of Neustria and Austrasia, through the rustic
palaces of the Frankish leudes, and in the woody gaus of
western Germany.' … Meanwhile, Abel-el-Rahman, laden with
plunder and satiated with blood, had bent his steps toward the
southwest, where he concentrated his troops on the banks of
the Charente. Enriched and victorious as he was, there was
still an object in Gaul which provoked alike the cupidity and
the zeal of his followers. This was the Basilica of St. Martin
of Tours, the shrine of the Gallic Christians, where the
richest treasures of the Church were collected, and in which
the profoundest veneration of its members centred. He yearned
for the pillage and the overthrow of this illustrious
sanctuary, and, taking the road from Poitiers, he encountered
the giants of the North in the same valley of the Vienne and
Clain where, nearly three hundred years before, the Franks and
the Wisigoths had disputed the supremacy of Gaul. There, on
those autumn fields, the Koran and the Bible—Islamism and
Christianity—Asia and Europe—stood face to face, ready to
grapple in a deadly and decisive conflict. …
{2075}
Trivial skirmishes from time to time kept alive the ardor of
both hosts, till at length, at dawn on Saturday, the 11th of
October [A. D. 732], the signal for a general onset was given.
With one loud shout of Allah-Akbar (God is great), the Arab
horsemen charged like a tempest upon their foe, but the deep
columns of the Franks did not bend before the blast. 'Like a
wall of iron,' says the chronicler, 'like a rampart of ice,
the men of the North stood unmoved by the frightful shock.'
All day long the charges were renewed." Still the stout Franks
held their ground, and still the indomitable warriors of Islam
pressed upon them, until late in the afternoon, when the
latter were thrown into confusion by an attack on their rear.
Then Karl and his men charged on them and their lines were
broken—their rout was bloody and complete. When night put an
end to the slaughter, the Franks slept upon their arms,
expecting that the dreaded Saracens would rally and resume the
fight. But they vanished in the darkness. Their leader, the
brave Abd-el-Rahman had fallen in the wild melée and no
courage was left in their hearts. Abandoning everything but
their horses and their arms, they fled to Narbonne. "Europe
was rescued, Christianity triumphant, Karl the hero forever of
Christian civilization."
P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 14.
The booty found by the Franks in the Moslem camp "was
enormous; hard-money, ingots of the precious metals, melted
from jewels and shrines; precious vases, rich stuffs,
subsistence stores, flocks and herds gathered and parked in
the camp. Most of this booty had been taken by the Moslemah
from the Aquitanians, who now had the sorrow of seeing it
greedily divided among the Franks."
H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the! Arab-Moors,
book 6, chapter 1 (volume 2).
ALSO IN:
E. S. Creasy,
Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,
chapter 7.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.
Omeyyads and Abbassides.
The dividing of the Caliphate.
The tragic death of Hosein and his companions at Kerbela
kindled a passion which time would not extinguish in the
hearts of one great party among the Moslems. The first
ambitious leader to take advantage of the excitement of it, as
a means of overthrowing the Omeyyads, was Abdallah ibn Zobeir,
who, posing first as the "Protector of the Holy House" of Ali,
soon proclaimed himself Caliph and maintained for thirteen
years a rival court at Mecca. In the war which raged during a
great part of those years, Medina was taken by storm and given
over to pillage, while the holy city of Mecca withstood a
siege of forty days, during which the sacred Caaba was
destroyed. Zobeir fell, at last, in a final battle fought
under the walls of Mecca. Meantime, several changes in the
caliphate at Damascus had taken place and the throne was soon
afterwards [A. D. 705] occupied by the Caliph Welid, whose
reign proved more glorious than that of any other prince of
his house. "Elements of disorder still remained, but under the
wise and firm sceptre of Welid they were held in check. The
arts of peace prevailed; schools were founded, learning
cultivated, and poets royally rewarded; public works of every
useful kind were promoted, and even hospitals established for
the aged, lame, and blind. Such, indeed, at this era, was the
glory of the court of Damascus that Weild, of all the Caliphs
both before and after, gives the precedence to Welid. It is
the fashion for the Arabian historians to abuse the Omeyyads
as a dissolute, intemperate, and godless race; but we must not
forget that these all wrote more or less under Abbasside
inspiration. … After Welid, the Omeyyad dynasty lasted
six-and-thirty years. But it began to rest on a precarious
basis. For now the agents of the house of Hashim, descendants
of the Prophet and of his uncle Abbas, commenced to ply
secretly, but with vigour and persistency, their task of
canvass and intrigue in distant cities, and especially in the
provinces of the East. For a long time, the endeavour of these
agitators was directed to the advocacy of the Shiya right;
that is to say, it was based upon the Divine claim of Aly, and
his descendants in the Prophet's line, to the Imamate or
leadership over the empire of Islam. … The discomfiture of
the Shiyas paved the way for the designing advocates of the
other Hashimite branch, namely, that of the house of Abbas,
the uncle of the Prophet. These had all along been plotting in
the background, and watching their opportunity. They now
vaunted the claims of this line, and were barefaced enough to
urge that, being descended from the uncle of Mahomet through
male representatives, they took precedence over the direct
descendants of the Prophet himself, because these came through
Fatima in the female line. About the year 130 of the Hegira,
Abul Abbas, of Abasside descent, was put forward in Persia, as
the candidate of this party, and his claim was supported by
the famous general Abu Muslim. Successful in the East, Abu
Muslim turned his arms to the West. A great battle, one of
those which decide the fate of empires, was fought on the
banks of the Zab [A. D. 750]; and, through the defection of
certain Kharejite and Yemen levies, was lost by the Omeyyad
army. Merwan II., the last of his dynasty, was driven to
Egypt, and there killed in the church of Bussir, whither he
had fled for refuge. At the close of the year 132 [August 5,
A. D. 750], the black flag, emblem of the Abbassides, floated
over the battlements of Damascus. The Omeyyad dynasty, after
ruling the vast Moslem empire for a century, now disappeared
in cruelty and bloodshed. … So perished the royal house of
the Omeyyads. But one escaped. He fled to Spain, which had
never favoured the overweening pretensions of the Prophet's
family, whether in the line of Aly or Abbas. Accepted by the
Arab tribes, whose influence in the West was paramount, Abd al
Rahman now laid the foundation of a new Dynasty and
perpetuated the Omeyyad name at the magnificent court of
Cordova. … Thus, with the rise of the Abbassides, the unity
of the Caliphate came to an end. Never after, either in theory
or in fact, was there a successor to the Prophet, acknowledged
as such over all Islam. Other provinces followed in the wake
of Spain. The Aghlabite dynasty in the east of Africa, and,
west of it, the Edrisites in Fez, both of Alyite descent;
Egypt and Sicily under independent rulers; the Tahirite kings
in Persia, their native soil; these and others, breaking away
from the central government, established kingdoms of their
own. The name of Caliph, however it might survive in the
Abbasside lineage, or be assumed by less legitimate
pretenders, had now altogether lost its virtue and
significance."
Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 50.
ALSO IN:
S. Lane-Poole,
The Mohammadan Dynasties,
pages 12-14.
R. D. Osborn,
Islam Under the Arabs,
part 3.
{2076}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 717-718.
Second repulse from Constantinople.
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 717-718.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 752-759.
Final expulsion from southern Gaul.
During the year of his coronation (A. D. 752) Pippin, or Pepin
the Short—the first of the Carolingians to assume the
Frankish crown—having taken measures to reduce Aquitaine to
obedience, was diverted, on his march towards that country,
into Septimania. The discord prevailing among the Moslems, who
had occupied this region of Gaul for more than thirty years,
"opened the prospect of an easy conquest. With little
fighting, and through the treachery of a Goth named Ansemond,
who commanded at Beziers, Agde, Maguelonne, and Nismes, under
an Arabian wali, he was enabled to seize those strong-holds,
and to leave a part of his troops to besiege Narbonne, as the
first step toward future success." Then Pippin was called away
by war with the Saxons and in Brittany, and was occupied with
other cares and conflicts, until A. D. 759, when he took up
and finished the task of expelling the Saracens from Gaul.
"His troops left in occupation of Septimania (752) had
steadily prosecuted the siege of Narbonne. … Not till after
a blockade of seven years was the city surrendered, and then
through the treason of the Christians and Goths who were
inside the walls, and made secret terms with the beleaguers.
They rose upon the Arabs, cut them in pieces, and opened the
gates to the Franks. A reduction of Elne, Caucoliberis, and
Carcassone followed hard upon that of Narbonne. … In a
little while the entire Arab population was driven out of
Septimania, after an occupation of forty years; and a large
and important province (equivalent nearly to the whole of
Languedoc), held during the time of the Merovingians by the
Wisigoths, was secured to the possession of the Franks. The
Arabs, however, though expelled, left many traces of their
long residence on the manners and customs of Southern Gaul."
P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 15.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 756-1031.
The Omeyyad caliphs of Cordova.
When the struggle of the house of Abbas with the house of
Omeyya, for the throne of the caliphate at Damascus, was ended
by the overthrow of the Omeyyads (A. D. 750), the wretched
members of the fallen family were hunted down with unsparing
ferocity. "A single youth of the doomed race escaped from
destruction. After a long series of romantic adventures, he
found his way into Spain [A. D. 756]; he there found
partizans, by whose aid he was enabled to establish himself as
sovereign of the country, and to resist all the attempts of
the Abbassides to regain, or rather to obtain, possession of
the distant province. From this Abderrahman [or Abdalrahman]
the Ommiad proceeded the line of Emirs and Caliphs of Cordova,
who reigned in splendour in the West for three centuries after
their house had been exterminated in their original
possessions. … When the Ommiad Abdalrahman escaped into
Spain … the peninsula was in a very disordered state. The
authority of the Caliphs of the East was nearly nominal, and
governors rose and fell with very little reference to their
distant sovereign. … The elevation of Abdalrahman may have
been the result, not so much of any blind preference of
Ommiads to Abbassides, as of a conviction that nature designed
the Iberian peninsula to form an independent state. But at
that early period of Mahometan history an independent
Mahometan state could hardly be founded, except under the
guise of a rival Caliphate. … And undoubtedly nothing is
more certain than that the Ommiads of Cordova were in every
sense a rival dynasty to the Abbassides of Bagdad. The race of
Moawiyah seem to have decidedly improved by their migration
westward. The Caliphs of Spain must be allowed one of the
highest places among Mahometan dynasties. In the duration of
their house and in the abundance of able princes which it
produced, they yield only to the Ottoman Sultans, while they
rise incomparably above them in every estimable quality. …
The most splendid period of the Saracen empire in Spain was
during the tenth century. The great Caliph Abdalrahman Annasir
Ledinallah raised the magnificence of the Cordovan monarchy to
its highest pitch. … The last thirty years of the Ommiad
dynasty are a mere wearisome series of usurpations and civil
wars. In 1031 the line became extinct, and the Ommiad empire
was cut up into numerous petty states. From this moment the
Christians advance, no more to retreat, and the cause of Islam
is only sustained by repeated African immigrations."
E. A. Freeman,
History and Conquests of the Saracens,
lectures 4-5.
ALSO IN:
H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 6, chapter 5;
book 7, chapters 1-4;
book 8, chapter 1.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 763.
The Caliphate transferred to Bagdad.
"The city of Damascus, full as it was of memorials of the
pride and greatness of the Ommiade dynasty, was naturally
distasteful to the Abbassides. The Caliph Mansur had commenced
the building of a new capital in the neighbourhood of Kufa, to
be called after the founder of his family, Hashimiyeh. The
Kufans, however, were devoted partisans of the descendants of
Ali. … The growing jealousy and distrust between the two
houses made it inadvisable for the Beni Abbas to plant the
seat of their empire in immediate propinquity to the
head-quarters of the Ali faction, and Mansur therefore
selected another site [about A. D. 763]. This was Bagdad, on
the western bank of the Tigris [fifteen miles above Medain,
which was the ancient Seleucia and Ctesiphon]. It was well
suited by nature for a great capital. The Tigris brought
commerce from Diyar Bekr on the north, and through the Persian
Gulf from India and China on the east; while the Euphrates,
which here approaches the Tigris at the nearest point, and is
reached by a good road, communicated directly with Syria and
the west. The name Bagdad is a very ancient one, signifying
'given or founded by the deity,' and testifies to the
importance of the site. The new city rapidly increased in
extent and magnificence, the founder and his next two
successors expending fabulous sums upon its embellishment, and
the ancient palaces of the Sassanian kings, as well as the
other principal cities of Asia, were robbed of their works of
art for its adornment."
E. H. Palmer,
Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of Bagdad,
chapter 2.
"Baghdad, answering to its proud name of 'Dar al Salam,' 'The
City of Peace,' became for a time the capital of the world,
the centre of luxury, the emporium of commerce, and the scat
of learning."
Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 50.
{2077}
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 815-945.
Decline and temporal fall of the Caliphate at Bagdad.
"It was not until nearly the close of the first century after
the Hejira that the banners of Islam were carried into the
regions beyond the Oxus, and only after a great deal of hard
fighting that the oases of Bokhara and Samarkand were annexed
to the dominions of the khalif. In these struggles, a large
number of Turks—men, women, and children—fell into the power
of the Moslems, and were scattered over Asia as slaves. …
The khalif Mamoun [son of Haroun Alraschid—A. D. 815-834] was
the first sovereign who conceived the idea of basing the royal
power on a foundation of regularly drilled Turkish soldiers."
R. D. Osborn,
Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad,
part 3, chapter 1.
"The Caliphs from this time leaned for support on great bands
of foreign mercenaries, chiefly Turks, and their captains
became the real lords of the empire as soon as they realised
their own strength. How thoroughly the Abbásid caliphate had
been undermined was shown all at once in a shocking manner,
when the Caliph Mutawakkil was murdered by his own servants at
the command of his son, and the parricide Muntasir set upon
the throne in his stead (December 861). The power of the
Caliphs was now at an end; they became the mere playthings of
their own savage warriors. The remoter, sometimes even the
nearer, provinces were practically independent. The princes
formally recognised the Caliph as their sovereign, stamped his
name upon their coins, and gave it precedence in public
prayer, but these were honours without any solid value. Some
Caliphs, indeed, recovered a measure of real power, but only
as rulers of a much diminished State. Theoretically the
fiction of an undivided empire of Islam was maintained, but it
had long ceased to be a reality. The names of Caliph,
Commander of the Faithful, Imám, continued still to inspire
some reverence; the theological doctors of law insisted that
the Caliph, in spiritual things at least, must everywhere bear
rule, and control all judicial posts; but even theoretically
his position was far behind that of a pope, and in practice
was not for a moment to be compared to it. The Caliph never
was the head of a true hierarchy; Islam in fact knows no
priesthood on which such a system could have rested. In the
tenth century the Buids, three brothers who had left the
hardly converted Gilán (the mountainous district at the
southwest angle of the Caspian Sea) as poor adventurers,
succeeded in conquering for themselves the sovereign command
over wide domains, and over Bagdad itself [establishing what
is known as the dynasty of the Buids or Bouides, or Bowides,
or Dilemites]. They even proposed to themselves to displace
the Abbásids and set descendants of Ali upon the throne, and
abandoned the idea only because they feared that a Caliph of
the house of Ali might exercise too great an authority over
their Shíite soldiers, and so become independent; while, on
the other hand, they could make use of these troops for any
violence they chose against the Abbásid puppet who sat in
Mansúr's seat."
T. Nöldeke,
Sketches from Eastern History,
chapter 3.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 827-878.
Conquest of Sicily.
See SICILY: A. D. 827-878.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 840-890.
The Saracens in southern Italy.
See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 800-1016.
MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 908-1171.
The Fatimite caliphs.
"Egypt, during the ninth and tenth centuries, was the theatre
of several revolutions. Two dynasties of Turkish slaves, the
Tolunides and the Ilkshidites, established themselves in that
country, which was only reunited to the Caliphate of Bagdad
for a brief period between their usurpations. But early in the
ninth century a singular power had been growing up on its
western border. … A schism arose among the followers of Ali
[the shiahs, who recognized no succession to the Prophet, or
Imamate—leadership in Islam—except in the line of descent
from Ali, nephew of Mahomet and husband of Mahomet's daughter,
Fatima], regarding the legitimate succession to the sixth Imam,
Jaffer. His eldest son, Ismail or Ishmael, dying before him,
Jaffer appointed another son, Moussa or Moses, his heir. But a
large body of the sect denied that Jaffer had the right to
make a new nomination; they affirmed the Imamate to be
strictly hereditary, and formed a new party of Ishmaelians,
who seem to have made something very like a deity of their
hero. A chief of this sect, Mahomet, surnamed Al Mehdi, or the
Leader, a title given by the Shiahs to their Imams, revolted
in Africa in 908. He professed himself, though his claims were
bitterly derided by his enemies, to be a descendant of
Ishmael, and consequently to be the legitimate Imam. Armed
with this claim, it was of course his business to acquire, if
he could, the temporal power of a Caliph; and as he soon
obtained the sovereignty of a considerable portion of Africa,