Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/28

8 THE DECLINE AND FALL near Kinnisrin, or Chalcis in Syria, as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople the remaining forces of the East. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a kinsman and an enemy ; and the throne of an active and able prince was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues of a bigot. While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blind conscience, the siege Avas con- tinued through the winter by the neglect rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar.^^ The winter proved uncom- monly rigorous ; above an hundred days the ground was covered with deep snow, and the natives of the sultrj' climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torpid and almost lifeless in their frozen camp. They revived on the return of spring ; a second effort had been made in their favour : and their distress was relieved by the aiTival of two numerous fleets, laden with com, and arms, and soldiers ; the first from Alexandria, of four hundred transports and galleys ; the second of three hundred and sixty vessels from the ports of Africa. But the Greek fires were again kindled, and, if the destruction was less complete, it was owing to the experience which had taught the Moslems to remain at a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who de- serted with their ships to the emperor of the Christians. The trade and navigation of the capital were restored ; and the pro- duce of the fisheries supplied the wants, and even the luxury, of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and disease were soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and, as the former was miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract from the most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest, and even of enthusiasm, was extinct : the Saracens could no longer straggle beyond their lines, either single or in small parties, without exposing themselves to the merciless feda, Annal. Moslem, p. 126). [Though the manner of Sulaiman's death is uncertain, it is agreed that he was a voluptuary. Tabari says that cooking and gallantry were the only subjects of conversation at his court.] J5 See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz [ibn Abd al Aziz], in the BibUoth^que Orientale (p. 689, 690), praeferens, says Elniacin (p. 91), religionem suam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous of being with God that he would not have anointed his ear (his own saying) to obtain a perfect cure of his last malady. The caliph had only one shirt, and in an age of luxury his annual expense was no more than two drachms (Abulpharagius, p. 131). Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit orbis Moslemus (Abulfeda, p. 127). [Weil takes another view of the virtues of the bigot, and writes : "The pious Omar was greater than all his predecessors, not excepting Oirar I., in one respect ; he sought less to increase or enrich Islam at the cost of the un- believer than to augment the number of Musulmans without making forced con- yersions." Gesch. der Cl^gilifen, i. p. 582.]