Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/143

 114 The royal City was built on both banks of the Tigris, at a sharp double bend of the river, fifteen miles below the modern Baghdad. Seleucia, on the right bank, was the seat of the Alexandrian conquerors. On the opposite shore. had grown up Ctesiphon, residence of the Persian monarchs. The combined City had for ages superseded Babylon as the capital of Chaldæa. Repeatedly taken by the Romans, it was now great and prosperous, but helplessly torn by intrigue and enervated by luxury. The main City, with its Royal palaces, was on the eastern side, where the noble arch, the Tāk i Kesra, still arrests the traveller's eye as he sails down the Tigris. Saʿd now directed his march to the quarter which lay upon the nearer side. On the way he was attacked by the Queen-mother. Animated by the ancient spirit of her race, and with a great oath that so long as the Dynasty survived the empire was invincible, she took the field with an army commanded by a veteran General, "the lion of Chosroes." She was utterly discomfited, and her champion slain by the hand of Hāshim.

Saʿd then marched forward; and, drawing a lesson from the vainglorious boast of the vanquished Princess, publicly recited before the assembled troops this passage from the sacred text:—

In this spirit they came upon the river; and lo! the famous Īwān, with its great hall of white marble, stood close before them on the farther shore. "Good heavens!" exclaimed Saʿd, dazzled at the sight; "Allâhu Akbar! What is this but the White Pavilion of Chosroes! Now hath the Lord fulfilled the promise which He made unto His Prophet." And each company shouted ''Allâhu Akbar! Great is the Lord!'' as they came up and gazed at the Palace, almost within their grasp. But the City was too strong to storm, and Saʿd sat down before it. Warlike engines were brought up, but they made no impression on ramparts of sunburnt brick. The besieged issued forth in frequent sallies; it was the last occasion on which the warriors of Persia