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LEFT CALIPH 294 CALISTHENICS The Ommiades. — Moawiya (661-679) was the first caliph of the line called Ommiades, from one of his forefathers. Their seat was Damascus. Moawiya was a statesman ; the rest of his line were neither statesmen nor saints. His son Yezid I. (679-683) suc- ceeded him. Yezid I. was followed by Moawiya II. (683) ; and he by Merwan I. (murdered 685). Abdulmalik's troubled reign lasted till 705. The glorious reign of the inactive Wa- lid I, (705-715) saw the caliphate ex- tended at one end by the addition of Spain, and at the other end Sogdiana, between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian Sea, taken from the Turks by Kuteibah, and the caliphate extended to the mouth of the Indus. Suleiman I. (died 717) sent a magnificent army and fleet under his brother Moslemah against Constantinople; but next year (718) both perished almost utterly. Good Omar II. 's reign was ended with poison (720). Yezid II. died 724. Hisham died 743. Walid II. was killed in an insur- rection (744). Yezid III. died 744. Ib- rahim was dethroned by Merwan II., governor of Armenia (745). The Abbassides. — The first Ommiade united the caliphate; the first Abbasside divided it. One Ommiade, Abdurrah- man, escaped from the massacre of Ab- dallah, and, crossing the strait into Spain, founded after a struggle the Om- miade caliphate of Spain of Cordova. Abul Abbas (750-754), called also Saffah, "the shedder" of his enemies' blood, was followed by his brother Abu Jafar Almansor (754-775), who founded Bagdad for the seat of empire. The £30,000,000 sterling left by him, his son Almahdi (775-785) and grandson Alhadi (785-786) vaingloriously squandered. Alhadi's brother, Harun Ar Rashid,"The Just" (Haroun Al Raschid) (786-809), owes his fame to the interested praise of orthodox and literary men. His three sons, instead of accepting his partition of the empire, fought for supremacy. Almin, the caliph, was defeated and slain (813) ; Almamun, his brother (813- 833), aided the culmination of Saracen culture. Mutassem (833-842), following his brother, maintained the desolating inde- cisive wars in Asia Minor. With him departed the glory of the Abbassides. Sectarian persecution was the bane of Alwathek's reign (842-847) and Muta- wakkil's (847-861). His son, Muntasir, conspired with the Turks against him and slew him, and reigned 861-862. Al- mustain reigned 862-870; Almuhtadi, 870-871; Almutamid, 871-893; Almuta- hid, 893-903: Almuktafi, 903-908; Al- muktadir, 908-932; Kahir, 932-934; Radhi, 934-940, was the last caliph that like a true Imam and caliph preached to the people. Mutakki died 944; Mustakfi, his successor, had no temporal power beyond the walls of Bagdad. OmTTiiades of Spain. — Abdurrahman I. (755-787), on accepting the Spanish throne which was offered him by the Arab chiefs, assumed the titles of Caliph and Emir-ul-Mumvnin. He built (786) the great mosque of Cordova, now the cathedral. His successors, Hashem I. (787-796) and Al-Hakem I. (796-821), were much troubled with internal re- volts. Abdurrahman II. (821-852) re- established internal quiet, and occupied his subjects with incessant wars against the Christians. These conflicts devel- oped among the Arabs that chivalrous heroism which is found nowhere else in the Mohammedan world. Abdurrahman, himself a man of learning, greatly en- couraged the arts and sciences, and dif- fused information among his people; he also attempted, by regulating the laws of succession to property, to constitute his kingdom on a basis analogous to that of other European nations. During his reign Mohammedan Spain was the best- governed country in Europe. His suc- cessors, Mohammed I. (852-880), Mon- dhar (880-882), and Abdallah (882-912), followed in his footsteps. Abdurrahman III. (912-961), like his predecessors, was a great encourager of learning, and a poet of no mean ability. He founded schools which far surpassed those in other parts of Europe. His son, Al- Hakem II. (961-976)) was in every way worthy to be his successor, but his pre- mature death was the cause of the down- fall of the Ommiades in Spain. Hashem II. (976-about 1013), a child of eight years, now occupied the throne; but for- tunately his mother, Sobeiha, possessed the abilities necessary for such an emer- gency, and appointed as her son's vizier Mohammed ben Abdallah, surnamed Al- mansor, "the victorious," who had orig- inally been a peasant. Hashem finally, after having been supposed dead for several years, resigned the throne about 1013; and, with the exception of the brief reign of Hashem III. (1027-1031), from this time the family of Ommeyah, which had for more than two centuries so happily and brilliantly governed the greater part of Spain, disappears from history. CALISAYA BARK, a variety of Peruvian or cinchona bark, namely, that of Cinchona calisaya or flava. CALISTHENICS, or CALLISTHEN- ICS, a name for exercises for promoting gracefulness and strength, and compris-