ei per Francos,)
are copied from some older book. I shall add, that the date of the
Hegira 677 (A.D. 1278) must apply to the copy, not the composition, of
a treatise of a jurisprudence, which states the civil rights of the
Christians of Cordova, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 471;) and that
the Jews were the only dissenters whom Abul Waled, king of Grenada,
(A.D. 1313,) could either discountenance or tolerate, (tom. ii. p.
288.)]

[Footnote 213: Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex. p. 288. Leo Africanus
would have flattered his Roman masters, could he have discovered any
latent relics of the Christianity of Africa.]

After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the
Turkish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the
Arabian caliphs. During the first age of the conquest, they suspected
the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their
secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and
Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and
voluntary friends of the Mahometan government. [214] Yet this partial
jealousy was healed by time and submission; the churches of Egypt
were shared with the Catholics; [215] and all the Oriental sects were
included in the common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities,
the domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the
clergy, were protected by the civil magistrate: the learning of
individuals recommended them to the employments of secretaries and
physicians: they were enriched by the lucrative collection of the
revenue; and their merit was sometimes raised to the command of cities
and provinces. A caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare
that the Christians were most worthy of trust in the administration of
Persia. "The Moslems," said he, "will abuse their present fortune; the
Magians regret their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient for
their approaching deliverance." [216] But the slaves of despotism are
exposed to the alternatives of favor and disgrace. The captive churches
of the East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry
of their rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive
to the pride, or the zeal, of the Christians. [217] About two hundred
years after Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow-subjects by a
turban or girdle of a less honorable color; instead of horses or mules.
they were condemned to ri