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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In the treaty of peace, it does not appear that Alp Arslan
extorted any province or city from the captive emperor; and his
revenge was satisfied with the trophies of his victory, and the
spoils of Anatolia, from Antioch to the Black Sea. The fairest
part of Asia was subject to his laws: twelve hundred princes, or
the sons of princes, stood before his throne; and two hundred
thousand soldiers marched under his banners. The sultan disdained
to pursue the fugitive Greeks; but he meditated the more glorious
conquest of Turkestan, the original seat of the house of Seljuk.
He moved from Bagdad to the banks of the Oxus; a bridge was
thrown over the river; and twenty days were consumed in the
passage of his troops. But the progress of the great king was
retarded by the governor of Berzem; and Joseph the Carizmian
presumed to defend his fortress against the powers of the East.
When he was produced a captive in the royal tent, the sultan,
instead of praising his valor, severely reproached his obstinate
folly: and the insolent replies of the rebel provoked a sentence,
that he should be fastened to four stakes, and left to expire in
that painful situation. At this command, the desperate
Carizmian, drawing a dagger, rushed headlong towards the throne:
the guards raised their battle-axes; their zeal was checked by
Alp Arslan, the most skilful archer of the age: he drew his bow,
but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced aside, and he received in
his breast the dagger of Joseph, who was instantly cut in pieces.

The wound was mortal; and the Turkish prince bequeathed a dying
admonition to the pride of kings. "In my youth," said Alp
Arslan, "I was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to
distrust my own strength; and never to despise the most
contemptible foe. I have neglected these lessons; and my neglect
has been deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence I
beheld the numbers, the discipline, and the spirit, of my armies,
the earth seemed to tremble under my feet; and I said in my
heart, Surely thou art the king of the world, the greatest and
most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine;
and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the
hand of an assassin." ^39 Alp Arslan possessed the virtues of a
Turk and a Mussulman; his voice and stature commanded the
reverence of mankind; his face was shaded with long whiskers; and
his ample turban was fashioned in the shape of a crown. The
remains of the sultan were deposited in the tomb of the Seljukian
dynasty; and the passenger might read and meditate this useful
inscription: ^40 "O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan
exalted to the heavens, repair to Maru, and you will behold it
buried in the dust." The annihilation of the inscription, and the
tomb itself, more forcibly proclaims the instability of human
greatness.

[Footnote 39: This interesting death is told by D'Herbelot, (p.
103, 104,) and M. De Guignes, (tom. iii. p. 212, 213.) from their
Oriental writers; but neither of them have transfused the spirit
of Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen p. 344, 345.)]

[Footnote 40: A critic of high renown, (the late Dr. Johnson,)
who has severely scrutinized the epitaphs of Pope, might cavil in
this sublime inscription at the words "repair to Maru," since the
reader must already be at Maru before he could peruse the
inscription.]

During the life of Alp Arslan, his eldest son had been
acknowledged as the future sultan of the Turks. On his father's
death the inheritance was disputed by an uncle, a cousin, and a
brother: they drew their cimeters, and assembled their followers;
and the triple victory of Malek Shah ^41 established his own
reputation and the right of primogeniture. In every age, and
more especially in Asia, the thirst of power has inspired the
same passions, and occasioned the same disorders; but, from the
long series of civil war, it would not be easy to extract a
sentiment more pure and magnanimous than is contained in the
saying of the Turkish prince. On the eve of the battle, he
performed his devotions at Thous, before the tomb of the Imam
Riza. As the sultan rose from the ground, he asked his vizier
Nizam, who had knelt beside him, what had been the object of his
secret petition: "That your arms may be crowned with victory,"
was the prudent, and most probably the sincere, answer of the
minister. "For my part," replied the generous Malek, "I implored
the Lord of Hosts that he would take from me my life and crown,
if my brother be more worthy than myself to reign over the
Moslems." The favorable judgment of heaven was ratified by the
caliph; and for the first time, the sacred title of Commander of
the Faithful was communicated to a Barbarian. But this
Barbarian, by his personal merit, and the extent of his empire,
was the greatest prince of his age. After the settlement of
Persia and Syria, he marched at the head of innumerable armies to
achieve the conquest of Turkestan, which had been undertaken by
his father. In his passage of the Oxus, the boatmen, who had
been employed in transporting some troops, complained, that their
payment was assigned on the revenues of Antioch. The sultan
frowned at this preposterous choice; but he miled at the artful
flattery of his vizier. "It was not to postpone their reward,
that I selected those remote places, but to leave a memorial to
posterity, that, under your reign, Antioch and the Oxus were
subject to the same sovereign." But this description of his
limits was unjust and parsimonious: beyond the Oxus, he reduced
to his obedience the cities of Bochara, Carizme, and Samarcand,
and crushed each rebellious slave, or independent savage, who
dared to resist. Malek passed the Sihon or Jaxartes, the last
boundary of Persian civilization: the hordes of Turkestan yielded
to his supremacy: his name was inserted on the coins, and in the
prayers of Cashgar, a Tartar kingdom on the extreme borders of
China. From the Chinese frontier, he stretched his immediate
jurisdiction or feudatory sway to the west and south, as far as
the mountains of Georgia, the neighborhood of Constantinople, the
holy city of Jerusalem, and the spicy groves of Arabia Felix.
Instead of resigning himself to the luxury of his harem, the
shepherd king, both in peace and war, was in action and in the
field. By the perpetual motion of the royal camp, each province
was successively blessed with his presence; and he is said to
have perambulated twelve times the wide extent of his dominions,
which surpassed the Asiatic reign of Cyrus and the caliphs. Of
these expeditions, the most pious and splendid was the pilgrimage
of Mecca: the freedom and safety of the caravans were protected
by his arms; the citizens and pilgrims were enriched by the
profusion of his alms; and the desert was cheered by the places
of relief and refreshment, which he instituted for the use of his
brethren. Hunting was the pleasure, and even the passion, of the
sultan, and his train consisted of forty-seven thousand horses;
but after the massacre of a Turkish chase, for each piece of
game, he bestowed a piece of gold on the poor, a slight
atonement, at the expense of the people, for the cost and
mischief of the amusement of kings. In the peaceful prosperity
of his reign, the cities of Asia were adorned with palaces and
hospitals with moschs and colleges; few departed from his Divan
without reward, and none without justice. The language and
literature of Persia revived under the house of Seljuk; ^42 and
if Malek emulated the liberality of a Turk less potent than
himself, ^43 his palace might resound with the songs of a hundred
poets. The sultan bestowed a more serious and learned care on
the reformation of the calendar, which was effected by a general
assembly of the astronomers of the East. By a law of the
prophet, the Moslems are confined to the irregular course of the
lunar months; in Persia, since the age of Zoroaster, the
revolution of the sun has been known and celebrated as an annual
festival; ^44 but after the fall of the Magian empire, the
intercalation had been neglected; the fractions of minutes and
hours were multiplied into days; and the date of the springs was
removed from the sign of Aries to that of Pisces. The reign of
Malek was illustrated by the Gelalaean aera; and all errors,
either past or future, were corrected by a computation of time,
which surpasses the Julian, and approaches the accuracy of the
Gregorian, style. ^45

[Footnote 41: The Bibliotheque Orientale has given the text of
the reign of Malek, (p. 542, 543, 544, 654, 655;) and the
Histoire Generale des Huns (tom. iii. p. 214 - 224) has added the
usual measure of repetition emendation, and supplement. Without
those two learned Frenchmen I should be blind indeed in the
Eastern world.]

[Footnote 42: See an excellent discourse at the end of Sir
William Jones's History of Nadir Shah, and the articles of the
poets, Amak, Anvari, Raschidi, &c., in the Bibliotheque
Orientale. ]

[Footnote 43: His name was Kheder Khan. Four bags were placed
round his sopha, and as he listened to the song, he cast handfuls
of gold and silver to the poets, (D'Herbelot, p. 107.) All this
may be true; but I do not understand how he could reign in
Transoxiana in the time of Malek Shah, and much less how Kheder
could surpass him in power and pomp. I suspect that the
beginning, not the end, of the xith century is the true aera of
his reign.]

[Footnote 44: See Chardin, Voyages en Perse, tom. ii. p. 235.]

[Footnote 45: The Gelalaean aera (Gelaleddin, Glory of the Faith,
was one of the names or titles of Malek Shah) is fixed to the
xvth of March, A. H. 471, A.D. 1079. Dr. Hyde has produced the
original testimonies of the Persians and Arabians, (de Religione
veterum Persarum, c. 16 p. 200 - 211.)]

In a period when Europe was plunged in the deepest
barbarism, the light and splendor of Asia may be ascribed to the
docility rather than the knowledge of the Turkish conquerors. An
ample share of their wisdom and virtue is due to a Persian
vizier, who ruled the empire under the reigns of Alp Arslan and
his son. Nizam, one of the most illustrious ministers of the
East, was honored by the caliph as an oracle of religion and
science; he was trusted by the sultan as the faithful vicegerent
of his power and justice. After an administration of thirty
years, the fame of the vizier, his wealth, and even his services,
were transformed into crimes. He was overthrown by the insidious
arts of a woman and a rival; and his fall was hastened by a rash
declaration, that his cap and ink-horn, the badges of his office,
were connected by the divine decree with the throne and diadem of
the sultan. At the age of ninety-three years, the venerable
statesman was dismissed by his master, accused by his enemies,
and murdered by a fanatic: ^* the last words of Nizam attested
his innocence, and the remainder of Malek's life was short and
inglorious. From Ispahan, the scene of this disgraceful
transaction, the sultan moved to Bagdad, with the design of
transplanting the caliph, and of fixing his own residence in the
capital of the Moslem world. The feeble successor of Mahomet
obtained a respite of ten days; and before the expiration of the
term, the Barbarian was summoned by the angel of death. His
ambassadors at Constantinople had asked in marriage a Roman
princess; but the proposal was decently eluded; and the daughter
of Alexius, who might herself have been the victim, expresses her
abhorrence of his unnatural conjunction. ^46 The daughter of the
sultan was bestowed on the caliph Moctadi, with the imperious
condition, that, renouncing the society of his wives and
concubines, he should forever confine himself to this honorable
alliance.

[Footnote *: He was the first great victim of his enemy, Hassan
Sabek, founder of the Assassins. Von Hammer, Geschichte der
Assassinen, p. 95. - M.]

[Footnote 46: She speaks of this Persian royalty. Anna Comnena
was only nine years old at the end of the reign of Malek Shah,
(A.D. 1092,) and when she speaks of his assassination, she
confounds the sultan with the vizier, (Alexias, l. vi. p. 177,
178.)]

Chapter LVII: The Turks.

Part III.

The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the
person of Malek Shah. His vacant throne was disputed by his
brother and his four sons; ^! and, after a series of civil wars,
the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a
lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the eldest and
principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger
dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria, and of Roum: the first
of these commanded an extensive, though obscure, ^47 dominion on
the shores of the Indian Ocean: ^48 the second expelled the
Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus; and the third, our
peculiar care, invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The
generous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation: he
allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom he had
vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms worthy of their
ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the
more ardent spirits, who might have disturbed the tranquillity of
his reign. As the supreme head of his family and nation, the
great sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of his
royal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and
Damascus; the Atabeks, and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia,
erected their standards under the shadow of his sceptre: ^49 and
the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of the Western Asia.

After the death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination
were relaxed and finally dissolved: the indulgence of the house
of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms;
and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the
dust of their feet. ^50

[Footnote !: See Von Hammer, Osmanische Geschichte, vol. i. p.
16. The Seljukian dominions were for a time reunited in the
person of Sandjar, one of the sons of Malek Shah, who ruled "from
Kashgar to Antioch, from the Caspian to the Straits of
Babelmandel." - M.]

[Footnote 47: So obscure, that the industry of M. De Guignes
could only copy (tom. i. p. 244, tom. iii. part i. p. 269, &c.)
the history, or rather list, of the Seljukides of Kerman, in
Bibliotheque Orientale. They were extinguished before the end of
the xiith century.]

[Footnote 48: Tavernier, perhaps the only traveller who has
visited Kerman, describes the capital as a great ruinous village,
twenty-five days' journey from Ispahan, and twenty-seven from
Ormus, in the midst of a fertile country, (Voyages en Turquie et
en Perse, p. 107, 110.)]

[Footnote 49: It appears from Anna Comnena, that the Turks of
Asia Minor obeyed the signet and chiauss of the great sultan,
(Alexias, l. vi. p. 170;) and that the two sons of Soliman were
detained in his court, p. 180.)]

[Footnote 50: This expression is quoted by Petit de la Croix (Vie
de Gestis p. 160) from some poet, most probably a Persian.]

A prince of the royal line, Cutulmish, ^* the son of Izrail,
the son of Seljuk, had fallen in a battle against Alp Arslan and
the humane victor had dropped a tear over his grave. His five
sons, strong in arms, ambitious of power, and eager for revenge,
unsheathed their cimeters against the son of Alp Arslan. The two
armies expected the signal when the caliph, forgetful of the
majesty which secluded him from vulgar eyes, interposed his
venerable mediation. "Instead of shedding the blood of your
brethren, your brethren both in descent and faith, unite your
forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies of God and
his apostle." They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his
rebellious kinsmen; and the eldest, the valiant Soliman, accepted
the royal standard, which gave him the free conquest and
hereditary command of the provinces of the Roman empire, from
Arzeroum to Constantinople, and the unknown regions of the West.
^51 Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the Euphrates;
the Turkish camp was soon seated in the neighborhood of Kutaieh
in Phrygia; and his flying cavalry laid waste the country as far
as the Hellespont and the Black Sea. Since the decline of the
empire, the peninsula of Asia Minor had been exposed to the
transient, though destructive, inroads of the Persians and
Saracens; but the fruits of a lasting conquest were reserved for
the Turkish sultan; and his arms were introduced by the Greeks,
who aspired to reign on the ruins of their country. Since the
captivity of Romanus, six years the feeble son of Eudocia had
trembled under the weight of the Imperial crown, till the
provinces of the East and West were lost in the same month by a
double rebellion: of either chief Nicephorus was the common name;
but the surnames of Bryennius and Botoniates distinguish the
European and Asiatic candidates. Their reasons, or rather their
promises, were weighed in the Divan; and, after some hesitation,
Soliman declared himself in favor of Botoniates, opened a free
passage to his troops in their march from Antioch to Nice, and
joined the banner of the Crescent to that of the Cross. After
his ally had ascended the throne of Constantinople, the sultan
was hospitably entertained in the suburb of Chrysopolis or
Scutari; and a body of two thousand Turks was transported into
Europe, to whose dexterity and courage the new emperor was
indebted for the defeat and captivity of his rival, Bryennius.
But the conquest of Europe was dearly purchased by the sacrifice
of Asia: Constantinople was deprived of the obedience and revenue
of the provinces beyond the Bosphorus and Hellespont; and the
regular progress of the Turks, who fortified the passes of the
rivers and mountains, left not a hope of their retreat or
expulsion. Another candidate implored the aid of the sultan:
Melissenus, in his purple robes and red buskins, attended the
motions of the Turkish camp; and the desponding cities were
tempted by the summons of a Roman prince, who immediately
surrendered them into the hands of the Barbarians. These
acquisitions were confirmed by a treaty of peace with the emperor
Alexius: his fear of Robert compelled him to seek the friendship
of Soliman; and it was not till after the sultan's death that he
extended as far as Nicomedia, about sixty miles from
Constantinople, the eastern boundary of the Roman world.
Trebizond alone, defended on either side by the sea and
mountains, preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the ancient
character of a Greek colony, and the future destiny of a
Christian empire.

[Footnote *: Wilken considers Cutulmish not a Turkish name.
Geschicht Kreuz-zuge, vol. i. p. 9. - M.]

[Footnote 51: On the conquest of Asia Minor, M. De Guignes has
derived no assistance from the Turkish or Arabian writers, who
produce a naked list of the Seljukides of Roum. The Greeks are
unwilling to expose their shame, and we must extort some hints
from Scylitzes, (p. 860, 863,) Nicephorus Bryennius, (p. 88, 91,
92, &c., 103, 104,) and Anna Comnena (Alexias, p. 91, 92, &c.,
163, &c.)]

Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment
of the Turks in Anatolia or Asia Minor was the most deplorable
loss which the church and empire had sustained. By the
propagation of the Moslem faith, Soliman deserved the name of
Gazi, a holy champion; and his new kingdoms, of the Romans, or of
Roum, was added to the tables of Oriental geography. It is
described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from
the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of
silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in corn and wine,
and productive of cattle and excellent horses. ^52 The wealth of
Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendor of the Augustan age,
existed only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in
the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. Yet, in the present decay,
Anatolia still contains some wealthy and populous cities; and,
under the Byzantine empire, they were far more flourishing in
numbers, size, and opulence. By the choice of the sultan, Nice,
the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace and
fortress: the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted
one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity of Christ
was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been
pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The
unity of God, and the mission of Mahomet, were preached in the
moschs; the Arabian learning was taught in the schools; the
Cadhis judged according to the law of the Koran; the Turkish
manners and language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps
were scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia. On the
hard conditions of tribute and servitude, the Greek Christians
might enjoy the exercise of their religion; but their most holy
churches were profaned; their priests and bishops were insulted;
^53 they were compelled to suffer the triumph of the Pagans, and
the apostasy of their brethren; many thousand children were
marked by the knife of circumcision; and many thousand captives
were devoted to the service or the pleasures of their masters.
^54 After the loss of Asia, Antioch still maintained her
primitive allegiance to Christ and Caesar; but the solitary
province was separated from all Roman aid, and surrounded on all
sides by the Mahometan powers. The despair of Philaretus the
governor prepared the sacrifice of his religion and loyalty, had
not his guilt been prevented by his son, who hastened to the
Nicene palace, and offered to deliver this valuable prize into
the hands of Soliman. The ambitious sultan mounted on horseback,
and in twelve nights (for he reposed in the day) performed a
march of six hundred miles. Antioch was oppressed by the speed
and secrecy of his enterprise; and the dependent cities, as far
as Laodicea and the confines of Aleppo, ^55 obeyed the example of
the metropolis. From Laodicea to the Thracian Bosphorus, or arm
of St. George, the conquests and reign of Soliman extended thirty
days' journey in length, and in breadth about ten or fifteen,
between the rocks of Lycia and the Black Sea. ^56 The Turkish
ignorance of navigation protected, for a while, the inglorious
safety of the emperor; but no sooner had a fleet of two hundred
ships been constructed by the hands of the captive Greeks, than
Alexius trembled behind the walls of his capital. His plaintive
epistles were dispersed over Europe, to excite the compassion of
the Latins, and to paint the danger, the weakness, and the riches
of the city of Constantine. ^57

[Footnote 52: Such is the description of Roum by Haiton the
Armenian, whose Tartar history may be found in the collections of
Ramusio and Bergeron, (see Abulfeda, Geograph. climat. xvii. p.
301 - 305.)]

[Footnote 53: Dicit eos quendam abusione Sodomitica intervertisse
episcopum, (Guibert. Abbat. Hist. Hierosol. l. i. p. 468.) It is
odd enough, that we should find a parallel passage of the same
people in the present age. "Il n'est point d'horreur que ces
Turcs n'ayent commis, et semblables aux soldats effrenes, qui
dans le sac d'une ville, non contens de disposer de tout a leur
gre pretendent encore aux succes les moins desirables. Quelque
Sipahis ont porte leurs attentats sur la personne du vieux rabbi
de la synagogue, et celle de l'Archeveque Grec." (Memoires du
Baron de Tott, tom. ii. p. 193.)]

[Footnote 54: The emperor, or abbot describe the scenes of a
Turkish camp as if they had been present. Matres correptae in
conspectu filiarum multipliciter repetitis diversorum coitibus
vexabantur; (is that the true reading?) cum filiae assistentes
carmina praecinere saltando cogerentur. Mox eadem passio ad
filias, &c.]

[Footnote 55: See Antioch, and the death of Soliman, in Anna
Comnena, (Alexius, l. vi. p. 168, 169,) with the notes of
Ducange.]

[Footnote 56: William of Tyre (l. i. c. 9, 10, p. 635) gives the
most authentic and deplorable account of these Turkish
conquests.]

[Footnote 57: In his epistle to the count of Flanders, Alexius
seems to fall too low beneath his character and dignity; yet it
is approved by Ducange, (Not. ad Alexiad. p. 335, &c.,) and
paraphrased by the Abbot Guibert, a contemporary historian. The
Greek text no longer exists; and each translator and scribe might
say with Guibert, (p. 475,) verbis vestita meis, a privilege of
most indefinite latitude.]

But the most interesting conquest of the Seljukian Turks was
that of Jerusalem, ^58 which soon became the theatre of nations.
In their capitulation with Omar, the inhabitants had stipulated
the assurance of their religion and property; but the articles
were interpreted by a master against whom it was dangerous to
dispute; and in the four hundred years of the reign of the
caliphs, the political climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the
vicissitudes of storm and sunshine. ^59 By the increase of
proselytes and population, the Mahometans might excuse the
usurpation of three fourths of the city: but a peculiar quarter
was resolved for the patriarch with his clergy and people; a
tribute of two pieces of gold was the price of protection; and
the sepulchre of Christ, with the church of the Resurrection, was
still left in the hands of his votaries. Of these votaries, the
most numerous and respectable portion were strangers to
Jerusalem: the pilgrimages to the Holy Land had been stimulated,
rather than suppressed, by the conquest of the Arabs; and the
enthusiasm which had always prompted these perilous journeys, was
nourished by the congenial passions of grief and indignation. A
crowd of pilgrims from the East and West continued to visit the
holy sepulchre, and the adjacent sanctuaries, more especially at
the festival of Easter; and the Greeks and Latins, the Nestorians
and Jacobites, the Copts and Abyssinians, the Armenians and
Georgians, maintained the chapels, the clergy, and the poor of
their respective communions. The harmony of prayer in so many
various tongues, the worship of so many nations in the common
temple of their religion, might have afforded a spectacle of
edification and peace; but the zeal of the Christian sects was
imbittered by hatred and revenge; and in the kingdom of a
suffering Messiah, who had pardoned his enemies, they aspired to
command and persecute their spiritual brethren. The preeminence
was asserted by the spirit and numbers of the Franks; and the
greatness of Charlemagne ^60 protected both the Latin pilgrims
and the Catholics of the East. The poverty of Carthage,
Alexandria, and Jerusalem, was relieved by the alms of that pious
emperor; and many monasteries of Palestine were founded or
restored by his liberal devotion. Harun Alrashid, the greatest
of the Abbassides, esteemed in his Christian brother a similar
supremacy of genius and power: their friendship was cemented by a
frequent intercourse of gifts and embassies; and the caliph,
without resigning the substantial dominion, presented the emperor
with the keys of the holy sepulchre, and perhaps of the city of
Jerusalem. In the decline of the Carlovingian monarchy, the
republic of Amalphi promoted the interest of trade and religion
in the East. Her vessels transported the Latin pilgrims to the
coasts of Egypt and Palestine, and deserved, by their useful
imports, the favor and alliance of the Fatimite caliphs: ^61 an
annual fair was instituted on Mount Calvary: and the Italian
merchants founded the convent and hospital of St. John of
Jerusalem, the cradle of the monastic and military order, which
has since reigned in the isles of Rhodes and of Malta. Had the
Christian pilgrims been content to revere the tomb of a prophet,
the disciples of Mahomet, instead of blaming, would have
imitated, their piety: but these rigid Unitarians were
scandalized by a worship which represents the birth, death, and
resurrection, of a God; the Catholic images were branded with the
name of idols; and the Moslems smiled with indignation ^62 at the
miraculous flame which was kindled on the eve of Easter in the
holy sepulchre. ^63 This pious fraud, first devised in the ninth
century, ^64 was devoutly cherished by the Latin crusaders, and
is annually repeated by the clergy of the Greek, Armenian, and
Coptic sects, ^65 who impose on the credulous spectators ^66 for
their own benefit, and that of their tyrants. In every age, a
principle of toleration has been fortified by a sense of
interest: and the revenue of the prince and his emir was
increased each year, by the expense and tribute of so many
thousand strangers.