The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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[Footnote 39: For the revolution of Spain, consult Roderic of
Toledo, (c. xviii. p. 34, &c.,) the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana,
(tom. ii. p. 30, 198,) and Cardonne, (Hist. de l'Afrique et de
l'Espagne, tom. i. p. 180 - 197, 205, 272, 323, &c.)]

[Footnote 40: I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and
fancies of Sir William Temple (his Works, vol. iii. p. 371 - 374,
octavo edition) and Voltaire (Histoire Generale, c. xxviii. tom.
ii. p. 124, 125, edition de Lausanne) concerning the division of
the Saracen empire. The mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the
want of knowledge or reflection; but Sir William was deceived by
a Spanish impostor, who has framed an apocryphal history of the
conquest of Spain by the Arabs.]

Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the
Abbassides were never tempted to reside either in the birthplace
or the city of the prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice,
and polluted with the blood, of the Ommiades; and, after some
hesitation, Almansor, the brother and successor of Saffah, laid
the foundations of Bagdad, ^41 the Imperial seat of his posterity
during a reign of five hundred years. ^42 The chosen spot is on
the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles above the
ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a circular form; and such
was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial
town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by
eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and
the adjacent villages. In this city of peace, ^43 amidst the
riches of the East, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence
and frugality of the first caliphs, and aspired to emulate the
magnificence of the Persian kings. After his wars and buildings,
Almansor left behind him in gold and silver about thirty millions
sterling: ^44 and this treasure was exhausted in a few years by
the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi, in a
single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of
gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation
of cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a
measured road of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels,
laden with snow, could serve only to astonish the natives of
Arabia, and to refresh the fruits and liquors of the royal
banquet. ^45 The courtiers would surely praise the liberality of
his grandson Almamon, who gave away four fifths of the income of
a province, a sum of two millions four hundred thousand gold
dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the
nuptials of the same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest
size were showered on the head of the bride, ^46 and a lottery of
lands and houses displayed the capricious bounty of fortune. The
glories of the court were brightened, rather than impaired, in
the decline of the empire, and a Greek ambassador might admire,
or pity, the magnificence of the feeble Moctader. "The caliph's
whole army," says the historian Abulfeda, "both horse and foot,
was under arms, which together made a body of one hundred and
sixty thousand men. His state officers, the favorite slaves,
stood near him in splendid apparel, their belts glittering with
gold and gems. Near them were seven thousand eunuchs, four
thousand of them white, the remainder black. The porters or
door-keepers were in number seven hundred. Barges and boats,
with the most superb decorations, were seen swimming upon the
Tigris. Nor was the palace itself less splendid, in which were
hung up thirty-eight thousand pieces of tapestry, twelve thousand
five hundred of which were of silk embroidered with gold. The
carpets on the floor were twenty-two thousand. A hundred lions
were brought out, with a keeper to each lion. ^47 Among the other
spectacles of rare and stupendous luxury was a tree of gold and
silver spreading into eighteen large branches, on which, and on
the lesser boughs, sat a variety of birds made of the same
precious metals, as well as the leaves of the tree. While the
machinery affected spontaneous motions, the several birds warbled
their natural harmony. Through this scene of magnificence, the
Greek ambassador was led by the vizier to the foot of the
caliph's throne." ^48 In the West, the Ommiades of Spain
supported, with equal pomp, the title of commander of the
faithful. Three miles from Cordova, in honor of his favorite
sultana, the third and greatest of the Abdalrahmans constructed
the city, palace, and gardens of Zehra. Twenty-five years, and
above three millions sterling, were employed by the founder: his
liberal taste invited the artists of Constantinople, the most
skilful sculptors and architects of the age; and the buildings
were sustained or adorned by twelve hundred columns of Spanish
and African, of Greek and Italian marble. The hall of audience
was incrusted with gold and pearls, and a great basin in the
centre was surrounded with the curious and costly figures of
birds and quadrupeds. In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of
these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate,
was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksilver.
The seraglio of Abdalrahman, his wives, concubines, and black
eunuchs, amounted to six thousand three hundred persons: and he
was attended to the field by a guard of twelve thousand horse,
whose belts and cimeters were studded with gold. ^49

[Footnote 41: The geographer D'Anville, (l'Euphrate et le Tigre,
p. 121 - 123,) and the Orientalist D'Herbelot, (Bibliotheque, p.
167, 168,) may suffice for the knowledge of Bagdad. Our
travellers, Pietro della Valle, (tom. i. p. 688 - 698,)
Tavernier, (tom. i. p. 230 - 238,) Thevenot, (part ii. p. 209 -
212,) Otter, (tom. i. p. 162 - 168,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en
Arabie, tom. ii. p. 239 - 271,) have seen only its decay; and the
Nubian geographer, (p. 204,) and the travelling Jew, Benjamin of
Tuleda (Itinerarium, p. 112 - 123, a Const. l'Empereur, apud
Elzevir, 1633,) are the only writers of my acquaintance, who have
known Bagdad under the reign of the Abbassides.]

[Footnote 42: The foundations of Bagdad were laid A. H. 145, A.D.
762. Mostasem, the last of the Abbassides, was taken and put to
death by the Tartars, A. H. 656, A.D. 1258, the 20th of
February.]

[Footnote 43: Medinat al Salem, Dar al Salem. Urbs pacis, or, as
it is more neatly compounded by the Byzantine writers,
(Irenopolis.) There is some dispute concerning the etymology of
Bagdad, but the first syllable is allowed to signify a garden in
the Persian tongue; the garden of Dad, a Christian hermit, whose
cell had been the only habitation on the spot.]

[Footnote 44: Reliquit in aerario sexcenties millies mille
stateres. et quater et vicies millies mille aureos aureos.
Elmacin, Hist. Saracen. p. 126. I have reckoned the gold pieces
at eight shillings, and the proportion to the silver as twelve to
one. But I will never answer for the numbers of Erpenius; and
the Latins are scarcely above the savages in the language of
arithmetic.]

[Footnote 45: D'Herbelot, p. 530. Abulfeda, p. 154. Nivem
Meccam apportavit, rem ibi aut nunquam aut rarissime visam.]

[Footnote 46: Abulfeda (p. 184, 189) describes the splendor and
liberality of Almamon. Milton has alluded to this Oriental
custom: -

Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,

Showers on her kings Barbaric pearls and gold.

I have used the modern word lottery to express the word of the
Roman emperors, which entitled to some prize the person who
caught them, as they were thrown among the crowd.]

[Footnote 47: When Bell of Antermony (Travels, vol. i. p. 99)
accompanied the Russian ambassador to the audience of the
unfortunate Shah Hussein of Persia, two lions were introduced, to
denote the power of the king over the fiercest animals.]

[Footnote 48: Abulfeda, p. 237. D'Herbelot, p. 590. This
embassy was received at Bagdad, A. H. 305, A.D. 917. In the
passage of Abulfeda, I have used, with some variations, the
English translation of the learned and amiable Mr. Harris of
Salisbury, (Philological Enquiries p. 363, 364.)]

[Footnote 49: Cardonne, Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne,
tom. i. p. 330 - 336. A just idea of the taste and architecture
of the Arabians of Spain may be conceived from the description
and plates of the Alhambra of Grenada, (Swinburne's Travels, p.
171 - 188.)]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.

Part III.

In a private condition, our desires are perpetually
repressed by poverty and subordination; but the lives and labors
of millions are devoted to the service of a despotic prince,
whose laws are blindly obeyed, and whose wishes are instantly
gratified. Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture;
and whatever may be the cool dictates of reason, there are few
among us who would obstinately refuse a trial of the comforts and
the cares of royalty. It may therefore be of some use to borrow
the experience of the same Abdalrahman, whose magnificence has
perhaps excited our admiration and envy, and to transcribe an
authentic memorial which was found in the closet of the deceased
caliph. "I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or
peace; beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and
respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure,
have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to
have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have
diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which
have fallen to my lot: they amount to Fourteen: - O man! place
not thy confidence in this present world!" ^50 The luxury of the
caliphs, so useless to their private happiness, relaxed the
nerves, and terminated the progress, of the Arabian empire.
Temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of
the first successors of Mahomet; and after supplying themselves
with the necessaries of life, the whole revenue was scrupulously
devoted to that salutary work. The Abbassides were impoverished
by the multitude of their wants, and their contempt of oeconomy.
Instead of pursuing the great object of ambition, their leisure,
their affections, the powers of their mind, were diverted by pomp
and pleasure: the rewards of valor were embezzled by women and
eunuchs, and the royal camp was encumbered by the luxury of the
palace. A similar temper was diffused among the subjects of the
caliph. Their stern enthusiasm was softened by time and
prosperity. they sought riches in the occupations of industry,
fame in the pursuits of literature, and happiness in the
tranquillity of domestic life. War was no longer the passion of
the Saracens; and the increase of pay, the repetition of
donatives, were insufficient to allure the posterity of those
voluntary champions who had crowded to the standard of Abubeker
and Omar for the hopes of spoil and of paradise.

[Footnote 50: Cardonne, tom. i. p. 329, 330. This confession,
the complaints of Solomon of the vanity of this world, (read
Prior's verbose but eloquent poem,) and the happy ten days of the
emperor Seghed, (Rambler, No. 204, 205,) will be triumphantly
quoted by the detractors of human life. Their expectations are
commonly immoderate, their estimates are seldom impartial. If I
may speak of myself, (the only person of whom I can speak with
certainty,) my happy hours have far exceeded, and far exceed, the
scanty numbers of the caliph of Spain; and I shall not scruple to
add, that many of them are due to the pleasing labor of the
present composition.]

Under the reign of the Ommiades, the studies of the Moslems
were confined to the interpretation of the Koran, and the
eloquence and poetry of their native tongue. A people
continually exposed to the dangers of the field must esteem the
healing powers of medicine, or rather of surgery; but the
starving physicians of Arabia murmured a complaint that exercise
and temperance deprived them of the greatest part of their
practice. ^51 After their civil and domestic wars, the subjects
of the Abbassides, awakening from this mental lethargy, found
leisure and felt curiosity for the acquisition of profane
science. This spirit was first encouraged by the caliph
Almansor, who, besides his knowledge of the Mahometan law, had
applied himself with success to the study of astronomy. But when
the sceptre devolved to Almamon, the seventh of the Abbassides,
he completed the designs of his grandfather, and invited the
muses from their ancient seats. His ambassadors at
Constantinople, his agents in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt,
collected the volumes of Grecian science at his command they were
translated by the most skilful interpreters into the Arabic
language: his subjects were exhorted assiduously to peruse these
instructive writings; and the successor of Mahomet assisted with
pleasure and modesty at the assemblies and disputations of the
learned. "He was not ignorant," says Abulpharagius, "that they
are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose
lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties.

The mean ambition of the Chinese or the Turks may glory in the
industry of their hands or the indulgence of their brutal
appetites. Yet these dexterous artists must view, with hopeless
emulation, the hexagons and pyramids of the cells of a beehive:
^52 these fortitudinous heroes are awed by the superior
fierceness of the lions and tigers; and in their amorous
enjoyments they are much inferior to the vigor of the grossest
and most sordid quadrupeds. The teachers of wisdom are the true
luminaries and legislators of a world, which, without their aid,
would again sink in ignorance and barbarism." ^53 The zeal and
curiosity of Almamon were imitated by succeeding princes of the
line of Abbas: their rivals, the Fatimites of Africa and the
Ommiades of Spain, were the patrons of the learned, as well as
the commanders of the faithful; the same royal prerogative was
claimed by their independent emirs of the provinces; and their
emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from
Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova. The vizier of a sultan
consecrated a sum of two hundred thousand pieces of gold to the
foundation of a college at Bagdad, which he endowed with an
annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of
instruction were communicated, perhaps at different times, to six
thousand disciples of every degree, from the son of the noble to
that of the mechanic: a sufficient allowance was provided for the
indigent scholars; and the merit or industry of the professors
was repaid with adequate stipends. In every city the productions
of Arabic literature were copied and collected by the curiosity
of the studious and the vanity of the rich. A private doctor
refused the invitation of the sultan of Bochara, because the
carriage of his books would have required four hundred camels.
The royal library of the Fatimites consisted of one hundred
thousand manuscripts, elegantly transcribed and splendidly bound,
which were lent, without jealousy or avarice, to the students of
Cairo. Yet this collection must appear moderate, if we can
believe that the Ommiades of Spain had formed a library of six
hundred thousand volumes, forty-four of which were employed in
the mere catalogue. Their capital, Cordova, with the adjacent
towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia, had given birth to more
than three hundred writers, and above seventy public libraries
were opened in the cities of the Andalusian kingdom. The age of
Arabian learning continued about five hundred years, till the
great eruption of the Moguls, and was coeval with the darkest and
most slothful period of European annals; but since the sun of
science has arisen in the West, it should seem that the Oriental
studies have languished and declined. ^54

[Footnote 51: The Guliston (p. 29) relates the conversation of
Mahomet and a physician, (Epistol. Renaudot. in Fabricius,
Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p. 814.) The prophet himself was skilled
in the art of medicine; and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p.
394 - 405) has given an extract of the aphorisms which are extant
under his name.]

[Footnote 52: See their curious architecture in Reaumur (Hist.
des Insectes, tom. v. Memoire viii.) These hexagons are closed by
a pyramid; the angles of the three sides of a similar pyramid,
such as would accomplish the given end with the smallest quantity
possible of materials, were determined by a mathematician, at 109
degrees 26 minutes for the larger, 70 degrees 34 minutes for the
smaller. The actual measure is 109 degrees 28 minutes, 70
degrees 32 minutes. Yet this perfect harmony raises the work at
the expense of the artist he bees are not masters of transcendent
geometry.]

[Footnote 53: Saed Ebn Ahmed, cadhi of Toledo, who died A. H.
462, A.D. 069, has furnished Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 160) with
this curious passage, as well as with the text of Pocock's
Specimen Historiae Arabum. A number of literary anecdotes of
philosophers, physicians, &c., who have flourished under each
caliph, form the principal merit of the Dynasties of
Abulpharagius.]

[Footnote 54: These literary anecdotes are borrowed from the
Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, (tom. ii. p. 38, 71, 201, 202,) Leo
Africanus, (de Arab. Medicis et Philosophis, in Fabric. Bibliot.
Graec. tom. xiii. p. 259 - 293, particularly p. 274,) and
Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 274, 275, 536, 537,) besides
the chronological remarks of Abulpharagius.]

In the libraries of the Arabians, as in those of Europe, the
far greater part of the innumerable volumes were possessed only
of local value or imaginary merit. ^55 The shelves were crowded
with orators and poets, whose style was adapted to the taste and
manners of their countrymen; with general and partial histories,
which each revolving generation supplied with a new harvest of
persons and events; with codes and commentaries of jurisprudence,
which derived their authority from the law of the prophet; with
the interpreters of the Koran, and orthodox tradition; and with
the whole theological tribe, polemics, mystics, scholastics, and
moralists, the first or the last of writers, according to the
different estimates of sceptics or believers. The works of
speculation or science may be reduced to the four classes of
philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and physic. The sages of
Greece were translated and illustrated in the Arabic language,
and some treatises, now lost in the original, have been recovered
in the versions of the East, ^56 which possessed and studied the
writings of Aristotle and Plato, of Euclid and Apollonius, of
Ptolemy, Hippocrates, and Galen. ^57 Among the ideal systems
which have varied with the fashion of the times, the Arabians
adopted the philosophy of the Stagirite, alike intelligible or
alike obscure for the readers of every age. Plato wrote for the
Athenians, and his allegorical genius is too closely blended with
the language and religion of Greece. After the fall of that
religion, the Peripatetics, emerging from their obscurity,
prevailed in the controversies of the Oriental sects, and their
founder was long afterwards restored by the Mahometans of Spain
to the Latin schools. ^58 The physics, both of the Academy and
the Lycaeum, as they are built, not on observation, but on
argument, have retarded the progress of real knowledge. The
metaphysics of infinite, or finite, spirit, have too often been
enlisted in the service of superstition. But the human faculties
are fortified by the art and practice of dialectics; the ten
predicaments of Aristotle collect and methodize our ideas, ^59
and his syllogism is the keenest weapon of dispute. It was
dexterously wielded in the schools of the Saracens, but as it is
more effectual for the detection of error than for the
investigation of truth, it is not surprising that new generations
of masters and disciples should still revolve in the same circle
of logical argument. The mathematics are distinguished by a
peculiar privilege, that, in the course of ages, they may always
advance, and can never recede. But the ancient geometry, if I am
not misinformed, was resumed in the same state by the Italians of
the fifteenth century; and whatever may be the origin of the
name, the science of algebra is ascribed to the Grecian
Diophantus by the modest testimony of the Arabs themselves. ^60
They cultivated with more success the sublime science of
astronomy, which elevates the mind of man to disdain his
diminutive planet and momentary existence. The costly
instruments of observation were supplied by the caliph Almamon,
and the land of the Chaldaeans still afforded the same spacious
level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and a
second time in those of Cufa, his mathematicians accurately
measured a degree of the great circle of the earth, and
determined at twenty-four thousand miles the entire circumference
of our globe. ^61 From the reign of the Abbassides to that of the
grandchildren of Tamerlane, the stars, without the aid of
glasses, were diligently observed; and the astronomical tables of
Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand, ^62 correct some minute errors,
without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without
advancing a step towards the discovery of the solar system. In
the Eastern courts, the truths of science could be recommended
only by ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been
disregarded, had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the vain
predictions of astrology. ^63 But in the science of medicine, the
Arabians have been deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua and
Geber, of Razis and Avicenna, are ranked with the Grecian
masters; in the city of Bagdad, eight hundred and sixty
physicians were licensed to exercise their lucrative profession:
^64 in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was intrusted to
the skill of the Saracens, ^65 and the school of Salerno, their
legitimate offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of
the healing art. ^66 The success of each professor must have been
influenced by personal and accidental causes; but we may form a
less fanciful estimate of their general knowledge of anatomy, ^67
botany, ^68 and chemistry, ^69 the threefold basis of their
theory and practice. A superstitious reverence for the dead
confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection of
apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known
in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame
was reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern
artists. Botany is an active science, and the discoveries of the
torrid zone might enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two
thousand plants. Some traditionary knowledge might be secreted
in the temples and monasteries of Egypt; much useful experience
had been acquired in the practice of arts and manufactures; but
the science of chemistry owes its origin and improvement to the
industry of the Saracens. They first invented and named the
alembic for the purposes of distillation, analyzed the substances
of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and
affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous
minerals into soft and salutary medicines. But the most eager
search of Arabian chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and
the elixir of immortal health: the reason and the fortunes of
thousands were evaporated in the crucibles of alchemy, and the
consummation of the great work was promoted by the worthy aid of
mystery, fable, and superstition.

[Footnote 55: The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a
just idea of the proportion of the classes. In the library of
Cairo, the Mss of astronomy and medicine amounted to 6500, with
two fair globes, the one of brass, the other of silver, (Bibliot.
Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 417.)]

[Footnote 56: As, for instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh
books (the eighth is still wanting) of the Conic Sections of
Apollonius Pergaeus, which were printed from the Florence Ms.
1661, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. ii. p. 559.) Yet the fifth
book had been previously restored by the mathematical divination
of Viviani, (see his Eloge in Fontenelle, tom. v. p. 59, &c.)]

[Footnote 57: The merit of these Arabic versions is freely
discussed by Renaudot, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p. 812 -
816,) and piously defended by Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana,
tom. i. p. 238 - 240.) Most of the versions of Plato, Aristotle,
Hippocrates, Galen, &c., are ascribed to Honain, a physician of
the Nestorian sect, who flourished at Bagdad in the court of the
caliphs, and died A.D. 876. He was at the head of a school or
manufacture of translations, and the works of his sons and
disciples were published under his name. See Abulpharagius,
(Dynast. p. 88, 115, 171 - 174, and apud Asseman. Bibliot.
Orient. tom. ii. p. 438,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p.
456,) Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 164,) and Casiri,
(Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 238, &c. 251, 286 - 290, 302,
304, &c.)]

[Footnote 58: See Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 181, 214,
236, 257, 315, 388, 396, 438, &c.]