450.

country for hundreds of miles, even to the walls a. D. of Constantinople. The Emperor was compelled to purchase peace by an immediate payment of 6000 lbs. of gold, to pay the expenses of the war; albeit he had done nothing to provoke it. And so exhausted was the treasury, that the jewels of the ladies and the plate of the palace were sold by auction to raise the sum required. Attila retired to Hungary, where he haughtily received embassies from the Emperor, who afterwards bribed a Hun to murder Attila. The conspiracy was discovered, and the Emperor of the East cringes for pardon to the king of barbarians. In 451 Attila invades Gaul, already in possession of the Visigoths, with whom the Romans join arms. Attila received a severe check at the battle of Châlons, apparently one of the most bloody in history, and evacuated Gaul. Next year Attila invades Italy. Venice was now founded by those who took refuge from Attila in the little islands of the Adriatic. Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, was part of the stipulated ransom of Rome; but Attila died by the bursting of a blood-vessel before "the beautiful Honoria" was sacrificed to this barbarian, at once hideous and misshapen, and in features like a Calmuc.

The empire of the Huns, at the death of Attila, shared the fate of the empire of Macedon at the death of Alexander, being divided, weakened, and destroyed by the dissensions of contending chieftains.

ARABIA

CHAP. XXXVII.

-MAHOMET

-MAHOMETANISM.

A. D. ARABIA is a very hot, and for the most part, a very 569. barren country; the southern parts alone are pro

ductive, yielding us frankincense, aloes, and coffee,
generally called Levantine coffee. The horses of
Arabia are also celebrated. Most of the Arabians
live the life of wandering herdsmen, though some
carry on a caravan traffic. Their disposition is
hospitable, mirthful, and happy; robbery they
consider quite fair play; and in point of temper,
they are very irritable. Among these people, in
the
year 569 A.D., Mahomet was born at the city
of Mecca. Deprived of both his father and mother
at a very early age, he was educated by his uncle,
who brought him up as a merchant, in which ca-
pacity he made several journeys.
When by
traffic and a wealthy alliance by marriage, he had
amassed a competent fortune, he left off trade and
retired into seclusion, from which he suddenly
stepped forth as a prophet of the Lord. His pre-
tence was, that the angel Gabriel had appeared to
him, and explained that God had chosen him as
his prophet and apostle. Though he found several
followers, his own tribe rejected his pretensions,
and Mahomet, on the 16th of June, 622 A.D., was

622

obliged to fly from Mecca to Medina. From this A. D. day of the flight of Mahomet, called the Hegira, the Mahometans reckon their lunar year. In Medina, Mahomet found so large a number of adherents, that in a short time he was enabled to bring troops of armed men against his enemies. Mecca was obliged to submit, and the whole of Arabia was ultimately conquered. Mahomet penetrated as far as Syria, and even called upon the Emperor Constantine to embrace his doctrines. He died in the year 632 A.D., and was placed in a coffin at Mecca, whither every devout Mahometan endeavours to make a pilgrimage. The doctrines of Mahomet are supposed to be contained in the Koran, wherein it is especially commanded to pray, to fast, to give alms, to drink no wine, to make frequent ablutions, and to play at no game of chance. To fight for these new doctaines, called Islam, was one of the greatest virtues, and after death, every true Moslem might expect the blissful pleasures of Paradise. Under the successors of Mahomet, who were called Caliphs, conquest followed conquest: Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, and almost the whole northern coast of Africa, were subdued within the space of fifteen years. Cyprus and Rhodes were also conquered. Even Constantinople was besieged in the year 672 A.D., and only saved through the effectual use made of the newly discovered Greek fire. In the year 711 A.D., the Saracens or Arabians came from Africa to Spain, destroyed the West-Goth

750.

A. D. kingdom, crossed the Pyrenees, and would have penetrated still farther, if they had not been defeated, in the year 732 A.D., by the brave general Charles Martel, near Tours. In Spain, however, they established themselves until the year 1492 A.D. The great Arabian kingdom, which extended from the Indus to the Atlantic Sea, had for its capital, in the year 750 A.D., the city of Bagdad, situated on the Tigris; the great depôt for commerce was Cairo in Egypt. Medicine, astronomy, and chemistry, were studied in every province of Arabia, and some of the Arabic words are still retained in our language, such as algebra, alkali, zenith. It is also considered that our numerals, 1, 2, 3, are of Arabian origin.

700.

*CHAP. XXXVIII.

THE ARABIANS-MAHOMET-SARACENE EMPIRE.

A. D. TILL the end of the sixth century, the Arabians, the descendants of Ishmael, as robbers by land and pirates on the deep, literally fulfilled the prophecy, “Thy hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against thee." They lived in tents, with frequent shifting of quarters and occasional migrations from one country to another, without laws or any other authority than that of

571

the chieftain of each tribe. Their manners were A. D. barbarous, and their religion a compound of all the superstitions of the nations with which they had mixed. They had a tradition, that they were descended from Abraham, and, like the Jews, practised circumcision and ablutions, and held certain meats in horror as unclean. They worshipped idols, and believed in three goddesses as of equal power with the Supreme Being.

The city of Mecca was the residence of the chief of these idols. At Mecca was a temple containing a mysterious stone, said to have descended from heaven in the days of man's innocency-a stone in those happy days white, but gradually sullied in sympathy with man's guilt, till at last it grew entirely black. From the riches of innumerable pilgrims to this revered stone, Mecca became the first city of Arabia.

In the year 571 A.D., in the distinguished tribe of Koreish, but to no richer inheritance than an Æthiopian slave and five camels, was born Mahomet. Brought up in the service of a woman who traded with Syria, a Roman province, he was attracted with the superior manners of the people, their laws, and polity. The mixture of Jews and Christians, Mahomet found in Syria, aided in turning his mind to religion, and to reform the gross superstition and idolatry of his own country. Though, perhaps, he would have rested in the divine morality of the Gospel, still, the forms of the Jewish ceremonial were too con