Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/75

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 55 Rahdi, the twentieth of the Abbassides, and the thirty-nrnth Fauen state n T f 1 1 ^ 11 11 '11°' *^® caliphs of the successors of Mahomet, was the last who deserved the of Bagdad. A jQ 936 dfcc title of commander of the faithful : ^^^ the last (says Abulfeda) who spoke to the people^ or conversed with the learned ; the last who, in the expense of his household, represented the wealth and magnificence of the ancient caliphs. After him, the lords of the eastern world were reduced to the most abject misery, and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. The revolt of the provinces circumscribed their dominions within the walls of Bagdad ; but that capital still contained an innumerable multitude, vain of their past fortune, discontented with their present state, and oppressed by the demands of a treasury' which had formerly been replenished by the spoil and ti-ibute of nations. Their idleness was exercised by faction and controversy. Under the mask of piety, the rigid followers of Hanbal i"*'- invaded the pleasures of domestic life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, spilt the wine, broke the instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonoured, with infamous suspicions, the asso- ciates of every handsome youth. In each profession, which allowed room for .two persons, the one was a votary, the other an antagonist, of Ali ; and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous grief of the sectaries, who denied their title and cursed their progenitors. A turbulent people could only be repressed by a military force ; but Avho could satisfy the avarice or assert the discipline of the mercenaries themselves ? The African and the Turkish guards drew their swords against each other, and Ray)', Hamadhan, and Ispahan. The third division of the Buwayhids lasted till 1023, when they were ousted by the Kakwayhids. The dominions of the second passed under the lords of Fars in 977 and again permanently in 1012 ; and the dynasty of Fars survived until the conquest of the Seljuks. See the table of the geographical distribution of the Buwayhids in S. Lane-Poole, op. cit., p. 142.] i'*! Hie est ultimas chalifah qui multum atque saspius pro concione perorarit. . . . Fuit etiam ultimus qui otium cum eruditis et facetis hominibus fallere hilari- terque agere soleret. Ultimus tandem chalifiirum cui sumtus, stipendia, reditus, et thesauri, culinae, caeteraque omnis aulica pompa priorum chalifarum ad instar comparata fuerint. Videbimus enim paullo post quam indignis et servilibus ludi- briis exagitati, quam ad humilem fortunam ultimumquecontemptum abjecti fuerint hi quondam potentissimi totius terrarum Orientalium orbis domini. Abulfed. Annal. Moslem, p. 261. I have given this passage as the manner and tone of Abulfeda, but the cast of Latin eloquence belongs more properly to Reiske. The .Arabian historian (p. 255, 257, 261-269, 283, &c.) has supplied me with the most interesting facts of this paragraph. [Radi, a.d. 934-940.] ^^" Their master, on a similar occasion, shewed himself of a more indulgent and tolerating spirit. Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the head of one of the four orthodox sects, was born at Bagdad a.h. 164, and died there a.h. 241. He fought and suffered in the dispute concerning the creation of the Koran,