Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/358

 336 THE DECLINE AND FALL to that of Aleppo, and waged a long and successful war against the Christians of Syria : he spread his ample reign from the Tigris to the Nile, and the Abbassides rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles and prerogatives of royalty. The Latins themselves were compelled to own the wisdom and courage, and even the justice and piety, of this implacable adversary.^ In his life and government, the holy warrior re- vived tlie zeal and simplicity of the first caliphs. Gold and silk were banished froiTi his palace ; the use of wine from his do- minions ; the public revenue was scrupulously applied to the public service ; and the frugal household of Noureddin was maintained from the legitimate share of the spoil, which he vested in the purchase of a private estate. His favourite Sultana sighed for some female object of expense : "Alas," replied the king, " I fear God, and am no more than the treasurer of the Moslems. Their property I cannot alienate ; but I still possess three shops in the city of Hems : these you may take, and these alone can I bestow." His chamber of justice was the terror of the great and the refuge of the poor. Some years after the sultan's death, an oppressed subject called aloud in the streets of Damascus, " O Noureddin, Noureddin, where art thou now ? Arise, arise, to pity and protect us ! " A tumult was appre- hended, and a living tyrant blushed and trembled at the name of a departed monarch. Conquest of By the arms of the Turks and Franks, the Fatimites had been Turi^* ''a.d* deprived of Syria. In Egypt the decay of their character and influence was still more essential. Yet they were still revered as the descendants and successors of the prophet ; they main- tained their visible state in the palace of Cairo ; and their person was seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects or strangers. The Latin ambassadors ^^ have described their own introduction through a series of gloomy passages, and glittering porticoes ; the scene was enlivened by the warbling of birds and ■^^Noradinus [Nur ad-din Mahmud ibn Zangi] (says William of Tyre, 1. xx. 33) maximus nominis et fidei Christianas persecutor ; princeps tamen Justus, vafer, providus, et secundum gentis sure traditiones religiosus. To this Catholic witness, we may add the primate of the Jacobites (Abulpharag. p. 267), quo non alter erat inter reges vitse ratione magis laudabili, aut quae pluribus justitis experimentis abundaret. The true praise of kings is after their death, and from the mouth of their enemies. | He won Damascus in 1154.] ■'■''From the ambassador, William of Tyre (1. xi-. c. 17, 18) describes the palace of Cairo. In the caliph's treasure were found, a pearl as large as a pigeon's egg, a ruby weighing seventeen Egyptian drams, an emerald a palm and a half in length, and many vases of crystal and porcelain of China (Renaudot, p. 536). U63-U69