Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/71

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 51 divided amoiifT these impious sectaries ; and the black stone, the first uionmnent of the nation, was borne away in triumph to their capital. After this deed of sacrilege and cruelty, they continued to infest the confines of Irak, Syria, and Egypt ; but the vital principle of entlmsiasm had withered at the root. Their scruples or their avarice again opened the pilgrimage of Mecca and restored the black stone of the Caaba ; and it is needless to inquire into what factions they were broken, or by whose swords they were finally extirpated. The sect of the Carmathians may be considered as the second visible cause of the decline and fall of the empire of the caliphs.'-"' The third and most obvious cause was the weight and Revolt of the magnitude of the empire itself. The caliph Almamon might a!d. SxTsac proudly assert that it was easier for him to rule the East and the West than to manage a chess-board of two feet square ; '-'-' yet I suspect that in botii tiiose games he was guilty of many fatal mistakes ; and I perceive that in the distant provinces the authority of the first and most powerful of the Abbassides was already impaired. The analogy of despotism invests the re- presentative with the full majesty of the prince ; the division and balance of powers might relax the habits of obedience, might encourage the passive subject to inquire into the origin and administration of civil government. He who is born in the purple is seldom worthy to reign ; but the elevation of a private man, of a peasant perhaps, or a slave, affords a strong presumption of his courage and capacity. The viceroy of a re- mote kingdom aspires to secure the property and inheritance of his precarious trust ; the nations must rejoice in the presence of their sovereign ; and the commantl of armies and treasures are at once the object and the instrument of his ambition. A change was scarcely visible as long as the lieutenants of the caliph were content with their vicarious title ; while they solicited for themselves or their sons a renewal of the Imperial grant, and still maintainetl on the coin, and in the public prayers, the name and prerogative of the commander of the faithful. But in the long and hereditary exercise of power, '2' For the sect of the Carmathians, consult Elniacin(Hist. Saracen, p. 219, 224, 229, 231, 338, 241, 243), Abulphar.igius (Dynast, p. 179-182), i-Vbulfcda (Annal. Moslem, p. 218, 219, <.tc., 245, 265, 274), and d'Hcrbflot (Bibliothocjue Orientale, p. 256-258, 635). I find some inconsistencies of theology and chronology, which It would not bie easy nor of much importance to reconcile. [De Goeje, Mt^moire sur les Carmathes du Bahrain (1886). J '" Myde, Synlagm.i Uissertat. torn. ii. p. 57, in Hist. .Shahiludii. [Also : Al Nuwairi, in de Sacy, Expose de la religion dcs Uruzes, vol. i.J