d them to expose their persons to the impatient public.
On Friday, in the dress of a caliph, in the colors of the sect, Saffah
proceeded with religious and military pomp to the mosch: ascending the
pulpit, he prayed and preached as the lawful successor of Mahomet; and
after his departure, his kinsmen bound a willing people by an oath of
fidelity. But it was on the banks of the Zab, and not in the mosch of
Cufa, that this important controversy was determined. Every advantage
appeared to be on the side of the white faction: the authority of
established government; an army of a hundred and twenty thousand
soldiers, against a sixth part of that number; and the presence and
merit of the caliph Mervan, the fourteenth and last of the house of
Ommiyah. Before his accession to the throne, he had deserved, by his
Georgian warfare, the honorable epithet of the ass of Mesopotamia; and
he might have been ranked amongst the greatest princes, had not, says
Abulfeda, the eternal order decreed that moment for the ruin of his
family; a decree against which all human fortitude and prudence must
struggle in vain. The orders of Mervan were mistaken, or disobeyed:
the return of his horse, from which he had dismounted on a necessary
occasion, impressed the belief of his death; and the enthusiasm of
the black squadrons was ably conducted by Abdallah, the uncle of his
competitor. After an irretrievable defeat, the caliph escaped to Mosul;
but the colors of the Abbassides were displayed from the rampart; he
suddenly repassed the Tigris, cast a melancholy look on his palace of
Haran, crossed the Euphrates, abandoned the fortifications of Damascus,
and, without halting in Palestine, pitched his last and fatal camp at
Busir, on the banks of the Nile. His speed was urged by the incessant
diligence of Abdallah, who in every step of the pursuit acquired
strength and reputation: the remains of the white faction were finally
vanquished in Egypt; and the lance, which terminated the life and
anxiety of Mervan, was not less welcome perhaps to the unfortunate than
to the victorious chief. The merciless inquisition of the conqueror
eradicated the most distant branches of the hostile race: their bones
were scattered, their memory was accursed, and the martyrdom of Hossein
was abundantly revenged on the posterity of his tyrants. Fourscore of
the Ommiades, who had yielded to the faith or clemency of their foes,
were invited to a banquet at Damascus. The laws of h