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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 415 the exterior fortification, of a larger circumference, inclosed the fields and gardens of the adjacent district. The mutual wants of India and Europe were supplied by the diligence of the Sog- dian merchants ; and the inestimable art of transforming linen into paper has been diffused from the manufacture of Samarcand over the western world. ^^ II. No sooner had Abubeker restored the unity of faith and inrasion government than he dispatclied a circular letter to the Arabian a.d^k tribes. " In the name of the most merciful God, to the rest of the true believers. Health and happiness, and the mercy and blessing of God, be upon you. I praise the most high God, and I pray for his prophet Mahomet. This is to acquaint you that 1 intend to send the true believers into Syria '^-^ to take it out of the hands of the infidels. And I would have you know that the fighting for religion is an act of obedience to God." His mes- sengers returned with the tidings of pious and martial ardour, which they had kindled in every province ; and the camp of Medina was successively filled with the intrepid bands of the Saracens, who panted for action, complained of the heat of the season and tlie scarcity of provisions, and accused, with impatient murmurs, the delays of the caliph. As soon as their numbers were complete, Abubeker ascended the hill, reviewed the men, the horses, and the arms, and poured forth a fervent prayer for the success of their undertaking. In person and on foot he accompanied the first day's march ; and, when the blushing Sogdiana and defeated 20,000 Moslems near Samarkand. The event is mentioned in an inscription recently found near lake Kosho-Tsaidam and deciphered by Thomsen, — the earliest Turkish document known. The stone was erected by the Turkish Chagan in A.D. 733 in memory of his brother Kul ; and this Kul won the victory near Samarkand. The inscription is bilingual — in Turkish and Chinese. See Radlov, Alttiirkische Inschriften, cited above, in vol. iv. p. 540.] •^2 A curious description of Samarcand is inserted in the Bibliotheca Arabico- Hispana, tom. i. p. 208, &c. The librarian Casiri (torn. ii. 9) relates, from credible testimony, that paper was first imported from China to Samarcand, A.M. 30, and invented, or rather introduced, at IVIecca, A.H. 88. The Escurial library contains paper Mss. as old as the ivth or vth century of the Hegira. •'■'A separate history of the conquest of Syria has been composed by Al Wakidi, cadi of Bagdad, who was born A.D. 748, and died A.D. 822 ; he likewise wrote the conquest of Egypt, of Diarbekir, &c. Above the meagre and recent chronicles of the -Arabians, Al Wakidi has the double merit of antiquity and copiousness. His tales and traditions afford an artless picture of the men and the times. Yet his narrative is too often defective, trifling, and improbable. Till something better shall be found, his learned and spirited interpreter (Ockley, in his History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 21-342) will not deserve the petulant animadversion of Reiske (Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifie Tabulas, p. 236). I am sorry to think that the labours of Ockley were consummated in a jail (see his two prefaces to the ist vol. A.D. 1708, to the 2nd, 1718, with the list of authors at the end). [See Ap- pendix I.]