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detailed in the words of Makkari, the original Arab author of that work, and in it many once celebrated authors are mentioned, of whom not only their productions, but even their very names, have since perished. The distinguished writers whose works have come down to us will be more particularly alluded to in the next chapter. Europe is also indebted to the Arabs for the elements of many useful sciences, particularly that of chemistry. Paper was first made in Europe by them, and their carpets and manufactures in steel and leather were long unrivalled, while in the Arabian schools of Cordova mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, botany and medicine were taught with great success.

      As Europe gradually emerged from darkness and ignorance, the Moors in Spain became so weak and powerless that in A.D. 1526 Charles I of Spain, and V. of Germany, ordered them to adopt the Spanish language. In A.D. 1566 an edict of Philip II. forbade them to speak or write in Arabic, and directed them to renounce all their traditional habits, customs and ceremonies. Philip III. completed the work which his father had left unfinished. In A.D. 1609 all the Moriscoes were ordered to depart from the peninsula within three days, with a penalty of death if they failed to obey the order, and from that time their existence as a nation finally ceased in Europe, and Spain thus lost a million of industrious inhabitants skilled in the useful arts. After their expulsion Arabic literature more or less disappeared. Much of it was destroyed, and a Spanish cardinal, it is said, once boasted that he had destroyed with his own hands one hundred thousand Arabic manuscripts! It is highly probable that the remnants of Andalusian libraries were brought to light by Casiri (b. 1710, d. 1791) during the past, and by Gayangos during the present century, and it is doubtful if much more will ever now be discovered.

      There are two buildings still extant in Spain which have survived the Arabs, viz., their mosque at Cordova (now the Cathedral), and their palace of the Alhambra at Granada, both well worth a visit, and well described in Murray's and O'Shea's guides to Spain. During the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman III. (A.D. 912–961) the city, palace, and gardens of Medinatu-z-Ahra, three or four miles from Cordova, were constructed in honour of his favourite wife or mistress, Az-zahra, and cost an immense sum of money. At present no vestiges of them exist, and it is supposed that not only these, but many other Arab mosques and buildings, were intentionally destroyed by their conquerors, as the hatred between the Christian and the Muslim in those days was of the bitterest description.

      And now to return to the Abbasides, established in the East on the downfall of the Omaiyide dynasty there in A.D. 750, and thus continue the main line of Arab history.

      There were, in all, thirty-seven Abbaside Khalifs, of whom Abu Jaafar, surnamed Al-Mansur, the Victorious (A.D. 754–775), Harun-ar-Rashid (A.D. 786–809), and Al-Mamun (A.D. 812–833) were the most celebrated. Of these, the first, who was the second Khalif, founded Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasides, about A.D. 762; the second, who was the fifth Khalif, has been rendered immortal by the frequent illusions to him, and to members of the Barmeki family, in the 'Arabian Nights'; while the third, who was the seventh Khalif, was a great patron of literature and science.

      As years rolled on the dynasty and its princes became weaker and weaker, and finally came to an end under the thirty-seventh and last Khalif Al-Mustaa 'sim Billah, with the capture of Baghdad in A.D. 1258 by Halaku Khan, the sovereign of the Mughals, and the grandson of Jenghiz Khan.

      Long before this, however, the empire which the first of the Abbasides had conquered was already broken up. About A.D. 879, in Persia, Amr-bin-Lais founded the Suffary or Braiser dynasty, still subject to the Commander of the Faithful. But even this allegiance only lasted till A.D. 901, when the Samani and Dailami dynasties were established in the North and South of Persia respectively, and quite independent of the Khalifs of Baghdad.

      In A.D. 909, the Fatimites, so designated from one Obaid Allah, a real or pretended descendant of Ali and Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, established themselves in the North of Africa, and consolidated their power there. In A.D. 972 Al-Moizz, or Abu Tamim, a great-grandson of Obaid Allah, the founder of the Fatimite dynasty at Tunis, sent his general Jawhar with an army to invade Egypt. The country was conquered, the city of Cairo built, the seat of government was transferred there, and the title of Khalif assumed by the Fatimites. There they remained as reigning Khalifs until A.D. 1171, when Salah-ad-Din (Saladin) usurped the sovereignty, and founded the Ayoobite dynasty of Kurds, till its last ruler, Melik-al-Ashraf, was deposed in A.D. 1250 by the Mamlook El Moizz, who in that year founded the Baharite Mamlook dynasty, which lasted with variations in the families till A.D. 1377. But in A.D. 1260 Ez-Zahir Beybars, a Mamlook slave, secured the throne, and brought the then representative of the Abbaside Khalifs (the family having been dethroned by the Mughals at Baghdad in A.D. 1258) to Egypt, and recognised him as possessing spiritual authority alone, but nothing else. From that time until the taking of Egypt by Sultan Selim I. in A.D. 1517, the Abbaside Khalifs retained the spiritual power first under the Baharite, and then under the Circassian or Borgite Mamlooks. When Egypt became a Turkish pashalic, Selim, the conqueror, compelled the representative of the Abbaside Khalifs, by name Al-Motawukkel, to leave Cairo and reside in Constantinople; and on his death the Ottoman Sultans assumed the title of Khalif, which they hold to this day, and are recognised by the Sunnis as the head of the Muhammadan religion, and the successors of Muhammad.

      As regards Syria and Palestine (two countries more or less closely connected, owing to their proximity and absence of distinct and defined boundaries), on the termination of the rule of the Omaiyides at Damascus in A.D. 750, they remained nominally under the Abbasides till A.D. 969, when Syria was conquered by the Fatimites, who were succeeded by the Seljuks, who captured Damascus about A.D. 1075, and Antioch A.D. 1085. The struggles with the Crusaders commenced in A.D. 1096, and continued until Saladin's famous victory at Hattin in 1187, when he became master of nearly the whole of Syria and Palestine. Fighting still went on in these countries between the Franks and others until A.D. 1518, when Selim I. conquered the country and incorporated it with the Turkish Empire. No Arab prince has since reigned in Egypt or Syria, though these countries have always exercised certain influences over Arabia.

      In Arabia itself, towards the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh, A.D., the Karmathians had risen in revolt, and detached that country from the Abbaside dynasty to such an extent that she returned almost to her primitive independence. Indeed, it may be said that, in the whole of Arabia, the Hijaz, with the Haram, or sacred territory of Mecca, under the Shariff, or nobles, the lineal descendants of the tribe of Koraish, alone retained some kind of constituted authority, and paid allegiance sometimes to the government of Baghdad, and sometimes to that of Egypt.

      As already stated above, in A.D. 1517 the Turkish Sultan Selim I. conquered Egypt, and obtained from the last real, or supposed surviving, Abbaside kinsman of the Prophet a formal investiture of the Muhammadan Khalifate. This was more religious than political in its bearing, but still many of the tribes in Arabia offered their allegiance to the Ottoman Government. From that time the Turks began their dealings with Arabia, which remained in a sort of independence under their own tribal Shaikhs, more or less according to the circumstances of different districts, until the rise of the Wahhabi movement, about the middle of the eighteenth century of our era.

      The Wahhabi reform movement requires special mention. It began in Arabia about A.D. 1740. The reformer and originator of the movement was Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab, born at the town of Aïnah, in the centre of the Nejd district, A.D. 1691. He died in A.D. 1787, aged ninety-six. After some years spent in travel and in study, he began his preaching about A.D. 1731. Driven from Aïnah, his native place, as Muhammad was driven from Mecca, Abdul Wahhab established himself at ad-Diriyyah, where Muhammad bin Saood, the Shaikh of a sub-tribe of the Anizeh, gave him shelter, and eventually married his daughter. By preaching and fighting, his followers increased in number, and his reforms spread throughout the Nejd district, and many converts were made by him and his successors.

      In A.D. 1797 a Turkish army from Baghdad attacked the Wahhabis, but were beaten, and two years later Saood II. took and plundered Kerbela, Taif, Mecca, and other places, and seems to have retained his power and his government for several years.

      In A.D. 1811 the Turks, who had quite lost their authority in Arabia, requested Muhammad Ali of Egypt to put down the movement, and reconquer the country. The first expedition, commanded by his son Tussun, in its attempt to take Madinah, was nearly annihilated,

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