d nor accepted quarter; and the difference
between, them in fortitude and patience, is expressive of the change
which three centuries of prosperity had effected in the character of the
Arabians. Such troops were discomfited in every action; the cities of
Racca and Baalbec, of Cufa and Bassora, were taken and pillaged; Bagdad
was filled with consternation; and the caliph trembled behind the veils
of his palace. In a daring inroad beyond the Tigris, Abu Taher advanced
to the gates of the capital with no more than five hundred horse. By
the special order of Moctader, the bridges had been broken down, and the
person or head of the rebel was expected every hour by the commander of
the faithful. His lieutenant, from a motive of fear or pity, apprised
Abu Taher of his danger, and recommended a speedy escape. "Your master,"
said the intrepid Carmathian to the messenger, "is at the head of thirty
thousand soldiers: three such men as these are wanting in his host:" at
the same instant, turning to three of his companions, he commanded the
first to plunge a dagger into his breast, the second to leap into the
Tigris, and the third to cast himself headlong down a precipice. They
obeyed without a murmur. "Relate," continued the imam, "what you have
seen: before the evening your general shall be chained among my dogs."
Before the evening, the camp was surprised, and the menace was executed.
The rapine of the Carmathians was sanctified by their aversion to the
worship of Mecca: they robbed a caravan of pilgrims, and twenty thousand
devout Moslems were abandoned on the burning sands to a death of hunger
and thirst. Another year they suffered the pilgrims to proceed without
interruption; but, in the festival of devotion, Abu Taher stormed the
holy city, and trampled on the most venerable relics of the Mahometan
faith. Thirty thousand citizens and strangers were put to the sword;
the sacred precincts were polluted by the burial of three thousand dead
bodies; the well of Zemzem overflowed with blood; the golden spout was
forced from its place; the veil of the Caaba was divided among these
impious sectaries; and the black stone, the first monument of the
nation, was borne away in triumph to their capital. After this deed of
sacrilege and cruelty, they continued to infest the confines of Irak,
Syria, and Egypt: but the vital principle of enthusiasm had withered at
the root. Their scruples, or their avarice, again opened the pilgrimage
of Mecca,