ore powerful Fatimites of Africa and
Egypt. In the tenth century, the chair of Mahomet was disputed by three
caliphs or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan,
and Cordova, excommunicating each other, and agreed only in a principle
of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an
unbeliever.

Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides were
never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city of the
prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the
blood, of the Ommiades; and, after some hesitation, Almansor, the
brother and successor of Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad, the
Imperial seat of his posterity during a reign of five hundred years. The
chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen miles
above the ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a circular form; and
such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a provincial
town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended by eight
hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and the adjacent
villages. In this _city of peace_, amidst the riches of the East, the
Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence and frugality of the first
caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian kings.
After his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold and
silver about thirty millions sterling: and this treasure was exhausted
in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. His son Mahadi,
in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions of dinars of
gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the foundation of
cisterns and caravanseras, which he distributed along a measured road
of seven hundred miles; but his train of camels, laden with snow, could
serve only to astonish the natives of Arabia, and to refresh the fruits
and liquors of the royal banquet. The courtiers would surely praise the
liberality of his grandson Almamon, who gave away four fifths of the
income of a province, a sum of two millions four hundred thousand gold
dinars, before he drew his foot from the stirrup. At the nuptials of the
same prince, a thousand pearls of the largest size were showered on
the head of the bride, and a lottery of lands and houses displayed the
capricious bounty of fortune. The glories of the court were brightened,
rather than impaired, in the decline of the empire, and a Greek
ambassador might admire, or pity, the