Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/224

 1 84 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE coats of mail. From the Mediterranean ports of North Africa caravans traded with the interior as far as Lake Tschad and the great rivers of central Africa. From Egypt and Arabia their commerce extended far down the east coast of the same continent. Ships from Alexandria and Syria thronged the harbors of Almeria and other Spanish ports; and poets, musicians, and singing girls were imported from the Orient to grace the courts of Mohammedan Spain. Over thirteen thousand Moslem coins dating chiefly before the eleventh century have been found in the far northern provinces of Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland on the shores of the Baltic Sea, testifying to a considerable trade across Russia. Under the Abbassids Bagdad rivaled Constantinople as the mart and metropolis of the world. It was situated on the Bagdad Tigris a few miles from the site of Ctesiphon, the under the previous Persian capital, and not far from the Abbassids. r. «, , 1T ^, „ ruins of ancient Babylon on the Euphrates. The caliphs constructed as their own sumptuous residence a cir- cular city, somewhat over a mile in diameter, and filled with numerous palaces and pleasure-houses, parks and por- ticoes. Once, to avoid the mosquitoes, the caliph not only built a pavilion upon high ground, but further excluded the insects by an incantation. About this round city grew up various quarters and suburbs until in 978 the whole me- tropolis was five miles across. There was the Christian quarter with its monasteries, its richly adorned Jacobite and severely plain Nestorian churches. There was the Har- biyah quarter, inhabited largely by Turkish and Persian im- migrants. There were the Jews' Bridge, the Suburb of the Persians, the Quadrangle of the Persians, the Shops of the Persian nobles, and the Market of the Syrian Gate, whence branched in all directions streets, courts, and alleys, each named after the province from which its residents had orig- inally come. The names of the streets, gates, and bridges of Bagdad also give us a picture of the occupations and wares of the city. We hear of the Market of the Perfumers, the Market