Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/363

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 341 fear and obedience ; and the threats of Noureddin shall not extort the tribute of a sugar-cane." His seasonable death re- i:-*i>- 1"4] lieved them from the odious and doubtful conflict : his son, a minor of eleven years of age, was left for a while to the emirs of Damascus ; and the new lord of Egj^t was decorated by the caliph with every title ^^ that could sanctify his usurpation in C^-^- ^'"^i the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin long content with the possession of Egypt ; he despoiled the Christians of Jerusalem^ and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir ; Mecca [ad. U74*] and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector ; his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or the Happy Arabia ; and at the hour of his death his empire was spread from the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian ocean to the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the repi'oaches of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on oin- minds, impressed as they are with the principle and experience of lasv and loyalty. But his ambition may in some measure be excused by the revolutions of Asia,^^ which had erased every notion of legitimate succession ; by the recent example of the Atabeks themselves ; by his reverence to the son of his benefactor ; his humane and generous behaviour to the collateral branches ; by their incapacity and his merit ; by the approbation of the caliph, the sole source of all legitimate power ; and, above all, by the wishes and interest of the people, whose happiness is the first object of government. In his virtues, and in those of his patron, they admired the singular union of the hero and the saint ; for both Noureddin and Saladin are ranked among the Mahometan saints ; and the constant meditation of the holy wars appears to have shed a serious and sober colour over their lives and actions. The youth of the latter ^^ was addicted to wine and women ; but his aspiring spirit soon renounced the temptations of pleasure for the graver follies of fame and dominion. The garment of Saladin was of coarse woollen ; water was his only drink ; and, while he emu- reddin, lumen r. ; Ezxodin, decus ; Amadoddin, columen ; [Bahd, — lustre] : our hero's proper name was Joseph, and he was styled Salahoddin, salus ; Al Malichus A I Nasirus, rex defensor ; Abu Mcdaffir [.^bu-l-Muzaffar], pater victorias. Schultens, Praefat. [Saladin was not acknowledged by the Caliph till A.D. 1175. He did not despoil Jerusalem nor the Atabegs of Damascus, who did not exist apart from Aleppo.] '* Abulfeda, who descended from a brother of Saladin, observes, from many examples, that the founders of dynasties took the guilt for themselves, and left the reward to their innocent collaterals (Excerpt, p. lo). youthful dissipation on the part of Saladin, beyond his recorded resolve to re- nounce pleasure when he became vezir of Egypt.]
 * In these Arabic titles, reltgionis [din] must always be understood ; Nou-
 * ^ See his life and character in Renaudot, p. 537-548. [There is no evidence for