the inhabitants had
driven him from the city, (Abulfed. Annal. p. 167.)]

[Footnote 77: M. de Tournefort, in his coasting voyage from
Constantinople to Trebizond, passed a night at Heraclea or Eregri. His
eye surveyed the present state, his reading collected the antiquities,
of the city (Voyage du Levant, tom. iii. lettre xvi. p. 23-35.) We have
a separate history of Heraclea in the fragments of Memnon, which are
preserved by Photius.]

[Footnote 78: The wars of Harun al Rashid against the Roman empire are
related by Theophanes, (p. 384, 385, 391, 396, 407, 408.) Zonaras, (tom.
iii. l. xv. p. 115, 124,) Cedrenus, (p. 477, 478,) Eutycaius,
(Annal. tom. ii. p. 407,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 136, 151, 152,)
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 147, 151,) and Abulfeda, (p. 156, 166-168.)]

Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.--Part IV.

Under the reign of Almamon at Bagdad, of Michael the Stammerer at
Constantinople, the islands of Crete [79] and Sicily were subdued by the
Arabs. The former of these conquests is disdained by their own writers,
who were ignorant of the fame of Jupiter and Minos, but it has not been
overlooked by the Byzantine historians, who now begin to cast a clearer
light on the affairs of their own times. [80] A band of Andalusian
volunteers, discontented with the climate or government of Spain,
explored the adventures of the sea; but as they sailed in no more than
ten or twenty galleys, their warfare must be branded with the name of
piracy. As the subjects and sectaries of the white party, they might
lawfully invade the dominions of the black caliphs. A rebellious faction
introduced them into Alexandria; [81] they cut in pieces both friends
and foes, pillaged the churches and the moschs, sold above six thousand
Christian captives, and maintained their station in the capital of
Egypt, till they were oppressed by the forces and the presence of
Almamon himself. From the mouth of the Nile to the Hellespont, the
islands and sea-coasts both of the Greeks and Moslems were exposed to
their depredations; they saw, they envied, they tasted the fertility of
Crete, and soon returned with forty galleys to a more serious attack.
The Andalusians wandered over the land fearless and unmolested; but when
they descended with their plunder to the sea-shore, their vessels were
in flames, and their chief, Abu Caab, confessed himself the author of
the mischief. Their clamors accused his madness or treachery. "Of what