Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/74

54 THE DECLINE AND FALL caliphs. The provinces of Syria and Egypt were twice dis- The Ton mcmbered by their Turkish slaves, of the race of Toulun and ^^' ' Ikshid}'^^ These barbarians, in religion and manners the country- The ikihid- men of Mahomet, emersred from the bloody factions of the 334 i935]-968 palacc to a provincial command and an independent throne : their names became famous and formidable in their time ; but the founders of these two potent dynasties confessed, either in words or actions, the vanity of ambition. The first on his death- bed implored the mere}' of God to a sinner, ignorant of the limits of his own power : the second, in the midst of four hundred thousand soldiers and eight thousand slaves, concealed from every human eye the chamber where he attempted to sleep. Their sons were educated in the vices of kings ; and both Egypt and Syria were recovered and possessed by the Abbassides during an interval of thirty years. In the decline of their empire, Mesopotamia, with the important cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupied by the Arabian princes of the The Eama- tribe of Hamadaii. The poets of their court could repeat with- 892-1001 ■ out a blush, that nature had formed their countenances for beauty, their tongues for eloquence, and their hands for liberality and valour ; but the genuine tale of the elevation and reign of the Hamadamtes exhibits a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. At the same fatal period, the Persian kingdom The Bowides. Mas again usurped by the dynasty of the Borvides, by the sword 1055 * of three brothers, who, under various names, were styled the support and columns of the state, and who, from the Caspian sea to the ocean, would suffer no tyrants but themselves. Under their reign, the language and genius of Persia revived, and the Arabs, three hundred and four years after the death of Mahomet, were deprived of the sceptre of the East.^-^*' 129 M. de Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. iii. p. 124-154) has exhausted the Tou- lonides and Ikshidites of Egypt, and thrown some light on the Carmathians and Hamadanites. [The Tulunid dynasty was founded by Ahmad, son of Tulun (a Turkish slave), who established his capital at the suburb of al-Katai between Fustat and the later Cairo. Syria was joined to Egypt under the government of Ahmad in A.D. 877. — Mohammad al-Ikhshid, founder of the Ikhshidirl dynasty, was son of Tughj, a native of Farghana. His government of Egypt began in ..D. 935 ; Syria was added in 941, and Mecca and Medina in 942. Cp. S. Lane- Poole, of>. cit., p. 69. The Fatimids succeeded the Ikhshidids in 969. — The influence of the Hamdanids in Mosul (Mosil) may be dated from c. .'V.D. 873, but their independent rule there begins with Hasan (Nasir ad-dawla) A.D. 929 and lasts till 991, when they gave way to the Buwnyhids. In .leppo, the Hamdanid dynasty lasted from A.D. 944 to 1003, and then gave way to the Fatimids. See S. Lane-Poole, op. ciL, p. 111-113.] i"[The three brothers, sons of Buwayh (a highland chief, who served the Ziyarid lord of Jurjan), formed three principalities in the same year (932): i. Imad ad- dawla, in Fars ; 2. Muizz ad-dawla in Irak and Kirman ; 3. Rukn ad-dawla in