THE

HISTORY OF THE SARACENS;

COMPRISING THE

LIVES OF MOHAMMED AND HIS SUCCESSORS,

TO THE DEATH OF ABDALMELIK, THE ELEVENTH CALIPH.

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF

THEIR MOST REMARKABLE BATTLES, SIEGES, REVOLTS, &c.

COLLECTED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, ESPECIALLY ARABIC MSS.

BY SIMON OCKLEY, B.D.

PROFESSOR OF ARABIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

THE SIXTH EDITION,

REVISED, IMPROVED, AND ENLARGED.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1857.

Haddon Brothers, and Co., Printers, Castle Street, Finsbury.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Publisher of the Standard Library has much satisfaction in presenting to his subscribers an improved edition of a book so remarkable for curious, original, and instructive matter as Ockley’s History of the Saracens. Upon its first publication this work was received by scholars with marked approbation, as the most complete and authentic account of the Arabian Prophet and his successors which had yet been given to the world; and even at the present day, after the lapse of nearly a century, it continues to be regarded as the standard history of this eventful period.

The establishment of Islamism is undoubtedly to be numbered among those stupendous events which have changed the face of society in the East; and is a subject deserving not only of the careful study of the statesman and the divine,

but of all who delight to search, patiently and reverently, into the ways of Providence. With the Koran in one hand, and the scimitar in the other, the impetuous and indomitable Arab achieved a series of splendid victories unparalleled in the history of nations; for in the short space of eighty years that mighty range of Saracenic conquest embraced a wider extent of territory than Rome had mastered in the course of eight hundred.

It is evident that a work designed for popular circulation, and which is intended to allure those whom business or indolence may prevent from more laborious reading, requires a nice combination of qualities which do not often meet together in the same intellect—accuracy, judgment, taste, and scholarship—all of which, it will be seen, are exhibited in Ockley’s pages.

The most unqualified praise has been awarded to the author for the laborious research and unwearied energy displayed under peculiar difficulties, which has resulted in the production of a work at once enriching the literature of our country, and furnishing materials of the highest importance to historians and travellers of every age. Gibbon made considerable use of this work, in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” where he speaks of Ockley as “a learned and spirited interpreter of Arabian authorities, whose tales and traditions afford an artless picture of the men and the times;” and in his Autobiography

he describes him as “an original in every sense, who had opened his eyes.” Professor Smyth, also, in his recent Lectures on Modern History, recommends “Ockley’s curious work as necessary to enable the student to comprehend the character of the Arabians, which is there displayed by their own writers in all its singularities.” A writer in the Quarterly Review (No. xxix.) likewise adds, that “the History of the Saracens is a splendid instance of success in this most difficult branch of authorship, and will considerably overpay a perusal, by the strong moral painting and dramatic vivacity with which the vigorous writer diversified and elevated his subjects.”

The literary character of the work being so well established, and the last edition having became extremely scarce, the reasons for its republication must be obvious. In preparing the present Edition for the Press, it is confidently hoped, that the various improvements introduced throughout, have enhanced its value, and will entitle it to a high degree of popular favour. The entire work is now compressed in a single volume, printed from the third and best edition of 1757, which appeared in two volumes, 8vo, and it has been enriched with considerable additions in the form of Notes, from the researches of later writers on Arabian History, particularly Major Price, Burckhardt, Mills, Lane, Dr. Weil, and Don Pascual de Gayangos. The orthography of the Oriental names, which in the work as left by Ockley was by no means uniform, has, as far as possible, been reduced to the standard

now most generally acceptable to English readers. A memoir of the learned Author, a Table of Contents and Index, have also been added, with Chronological Dates of the Christian and Mohammedan years, as well as a Synoptical View of the later portion of Saracenic History not given by Ockley.

In a future volume it is intended to give a continuation of Ockley’s work, to the extinction of the Bagdad Caliphate, which will be found to contain information both interesting and instructive to the general reader.

H. G. B.

York Street, March, 1847.

MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY.

At a time when Oriental studies were at their infancy in this country, Simon Ockley, animated by the illustrious example of Pocock, and the laborious diligence of Prideaux, devoted his life and his fortune to those novel researches, which necessarily involved both. With that enthusiasm which the ancient votary experienced, and with that patient suffering the modern martyr has endured, he pursued, till he accomplished, the useful object of his labours. He perhaps was the first who exhibited to us other heroes than those of Greece and Rome; sages as contemplative, and a people more magnificent even than the iron masters of the world.*

Simon Ockley was born at Exeter in 1678, and was descended from a good family of Great Ellingham, in Norfolk, where his father usually resided. After a proper foundation laid in school-learning, he was sent, in 1693, to Queen’s College in Cambridge, where he soon distinguished himself by great quickness of parts as well as intense application to literature; to the oriental languages more particularly, for his uncommon skill in which he afterwards became famous. He took, at the usual time, the degrees in arts, and that of bachelor in divinity. Having taken orders also, he was, in 1705, through the interest of Simon Patrick, bishop of Ely, presented by Jesus College, in Cambridge, to the vicarage of Swavesey, in that county; and, in 1711, chosen Arabic professor of the university. These preferments he held to the day of his death, which happened at Swavesey, Aug. 9, 1720, immaturely to himself, but more so to his family.

Ockley had the culture of Oriental learning very much at heart, and the several publications which he made were intended solely to promote it. In 1706, he printed, at Cambridge, a useful little book, entitled, “Introductio ad Linguas Orientales.” Prefixed is a dedication to his friend the bishop

of Ely, and a preface, addressed to the Juventas Academics, whom he labours to excite by various arguments to the pursuit of oriental learning; assuring them in, general, that no man ever was, or ever will be, truly great in divinity, without at least some portion of skill in it. There is a chapter in this work, relating to the celebrated controversy between Buxtorf and Capellus, upon the antiquity of the Hebrew points, where Ockley professes to thank with Buxtorf, who contended for it: but he afterwards changed his opinion, and went over to Capellus, although he had not any opportunity of publicly declaring it. And indeed it is plain, from his manner of closing that chapter upon the points, that he was then far enough from having any settled persuasion about them.

In 1707, he published in 12mo. from the Italian of Leo Modena, a Venetian rabbi, “The History of the present Jews throughout the World; being an ample, though succinct, account of their customs, ceremonies, and manner of living at this time:” to which is subjoined a “Supplement concerning the Carraites and Samaritans, from the French of Father Simon.” In 1708, a little curious book, entitled “The Improvement of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, written above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail:” translated from the Arabic, and illustrated with figures, 8vo. The design of the author, who was a Mohammedan philosopher, is to show, how human reason may, by observation and experience, arrive at the knowledge of natural things, and thence to supernatural, and particularly the knowledge of God and a future state: the design of the translator, to give those who might be unacquainted with it, a specimen of the genius of the Arabian philosophers, and to excite young scholars to the reading of eastern authors. This was the point our rabbi had constantly in view; and, therefore, in his “Oratio Inauguralis,” for the professorship, it was with no small pleasure, as we imagine, that he insisted upon the beauty, copiousness, and antiquity, of the Arabic tongue in particular, and upon the use of oriental learning in general; and that he dwelt upon the praises of Erpenius, Golius, Pocock, Herbelot, and all who had in any way contributed to promote the study of it. In 1713, his name appeared to a little book, with this title “An Account of South-West Barbary, containing what is most remarkable in the territories

of the king of Fez and Morocco; written by a person who had been a slave there a considerable time, and published from his authentic manuscript: to which acre added, two Letters; one from the present king of Morocco to Colonel Kirk; the other to Sir Cloudesly Shovell, with Sir Cloudesly’s answer,” &c., 8vo. While we are enumerating these small publications of the professor, it will be but proper to mention two sermons: one, “Upon the Dignity and Authority of the Christian Priesthood,” preached at Ormond Chapel, London, in 1710; another, “Upon the Necessity of Instructing Children in the Scriptures,” at St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, 1713. To these we must add a new translation of the second “Apocryphal Book of Esdras,” from the Arabic version of it, as that which we have in our common Bibles is from the vulgar Latin, 1716. Mr. Whiston, we are told, was the person who employed him in this translation, upon a strong suspicion, that it must needs make for the Arian cause he was then reviving; and he, accordingly, published it in one of his volumes of “Primitive Christianity Revived.” Ockley, however, was firmly of opinion, that it could serve nothing at all to his purpose; as appears from a printed letter of his to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Thirlby, in which are the following words: “You shall have my ‘Esdras’ in a little time; two hundred of which I reserved, when Mr. Whiston reprinted his, purely upon this account, because I was loath that anything with my name to it should be extant only in his heretical volumes. I only stay, till the learned author of the ‘History of Montanism’ has finished a dissertation which he has promised me to prefix to that book.”* A learned letter of Ockley’s to Mr. W. Wotton is printed among the “Miscellaneous Tracts of Mr. Bowyer, 1784.”

But the most considerable by far of all the professor’s performances is, “The History of the Saracens;” begun from the death of Mohammed, the founder of the Saracenic empire, which happened in 632, and carried down through a succession, of caliphs, to 705. This “History,” which illustrates the religion, rites, customs, and manner of living of that warlike people, is very curious and entertaining; and Ockley was at vast pains in collecting materials from the most authentic

Arabic authors, especially manuscripts, not hitherto published in any European language; and for that purpose resided a long time at Oxford, to be near the Bodleian library, where those manuscripts were reposited. It is in 2 vols. 8vo.; the first of which was published in 1708; the second, in 1718: and both were soon after republished. A third edition was printed, in the same size, at Cambridge, in 1757; to which is prefixed, “An Account of the Arabians or Saracens, of the Life of Mohammed, and the Mohammedan Religion, by a learned hand:” that is, by the learned Dr. Long, master of Pembroke hall, in Cambridge.

While at Oxford, preparing this work, he sent a letter to his daughter, part of which is worth transcribing, as characteristic both of him and his labours. “My condition here is this: one of the most useful and necessary authors I have is written in such a wretched hand, that the very reading of it is perfect deciphering. I am forced sometimes to take three or four lines together, and then pull them all to pieces to find where the words begin and end; for oftentimes it is so written, that a word is divided as if the former part of it was the end of the foregoing word, and the latter part the beginning of another; besides innumerable other difficulties known only to those that understand the language. Add to this the pains of abridging, comparing authors, selecting proper materials, and the like, which in a remote and copious language, abounding with difficulties sometimes insuperable, make it equivalent at least to the performing of six times so much in Greek and Latin. So that if I continue in the same course in which I am engaged at present, that is, from the time I rise in the morning till I can see no longer at night, I cannot pretend once to entertain the least thought of seeing home till Michaelmas. Were it not that there is some satisfaction in answering the end of my profession, some in making new discoveries, and some in the hopes of obliging my country with the history of the greatest empire the world ever yet saw, I would sooner do almost anything than submit to the drudgery.

“People imagine, that it is only understanding Arabic, and then translating a book out of it, and there is an end of the story: but if ever learning revives among us, posterity will judge better. This work of mine (in another way) is almost of as different a nature from translating out of the Greek or

Latin, as translating a poet from one language to another is different from prose. One comfort I have, that the authors I am concerned with are very good in their kind, and afford me plenty of materials, which will clear up a great many mistakes of modern travellers, who, passing through the eastern countries, without the necessary knowledge of the history and ancient customs of the Mohammedans, pick up little pieces of tradition from the present inhabitants, and deliver them as obscurely as they receive them. One thing pleases me much, that we shall give a very particular account of Ali and Hosein, who are reckoned saints by the Persians, and whose names you must have met with both in Herbert and Tavernier; for the sake of whom there remains that implacable and irreconcilable hatred between the Turks and Persians to this very day, which you may look for in vain in all the English books that have hitherto appeared. It would be a great satisfaction to me, if the author I have were complete in all his volumes, that I might bring the history down five or six hundred years: but, alas! of twelve that he wrote, we have but two at Oxford, which are large quartos, and from whence I take the chief of my materials.

“I wish that some public spirit would arise among us, and cause those books to be bought in the east for us which we want. I should be very willing to lay out my pains for the service of the public. If we could but procure £500 to be judiciously laid out in the east, in such books as I could mention for the public library at Cambridge, it would be the greatest improvement that could be conceived: but that is a happiness not to be expected in my time. We are all swallowed up in politics; there is no room for letters: and it is to be feared that the next generation will not only inherit but improve the polite ignorance of the present.”

Poor Ockley, always a student, and rarely what is called a man of the world, once encountered a literary calamity which frequently occurs when an author finds himself among the vapid triflers and the polished cynics of the fashionable circle. Something like a patron he found in Harley, the Earl of Oxford, and once had the unlucky honour of dining at the table of my Lord Treasurer. It is probable that Ockley, from retired habits and severe studies, was not at all accomplished in the suaviter in modo, of which greater geniuses than Ockley

have so surlily despaired. How he behaved we cannot narrate; probably he delivered himself with as great simplicity at the table of the Lord Treasurer, as on the wrong side of Cambridge Castle gate. The embarrassment this simplicity drew him into, is very fully stated in the following copious apology he addressed to the Earl of Oxford, which we have transcribed from the original; perhaps it may be a useful memorial to some men of letters as little polished as the learned Ockley:—

“Cambridge, July 15, 1714.     

“My Lord,

“I was so struck with horror and amazement two days ago, that I cannot possibly express it. A friend of mine showed me a letter, part of the contents of which were, ‘That Professor Ockley had given such extreme offence by some uncourtly answers to some gentlemen at my Lord Treasurer’s table, that it would be in vain to make any further application to him.’

“My Lord, it is impossible for me to recollect, at this distance of time. All that I can say is this: that, as on the one side for a man to come to his patron’s table with a design to affront either him or his friends, supposes him a perfect natural, a mere idiot; so on the other side it would be extremely severe, if a person whose education was far distant from the politeness of a court, should, upon the account of an unguarded expression, or some little inadvertency in his behaviour, suffer a capital sentence.

“Which is my case, if I have forfeited your Lordship’s favour; which God forbid! That man is involved in double ruin that is not only forsaken by his friend; but, which is the unavoidable consequence, exposed to the malice and contempt, not only of enemies, but, what is still more grievous, of all sorts of fools.

“It is not the talent of every well-meaning man to converse with his superiors with due decorum; for, either when he reflects upon the vast distance of their station above his own, he is struck dumb and almost insensible; or else their condescension and courtly behaviour encourages him to be too familiar. To steer exactly between these two extremes requires not only a good intention, but presence of mind, and long custom.

“Another article in my friend’s letter was, ‘That somebody had informed your lordship, that I was a very sot.’ When first I had the honour to be known to your lordship, I could easily foresee that there would be persons enough that would envy me upon that account, and do what in them lay to traduce me. Let Haman enjoy never so much himself, it is all nothing, it does him no good, till poor Mordecai is hanged out of his way.

“But I never feared the being censured upon that account. Here in the University, I converse with none but persons of the most distinguished reputations both for learning and virtue, and receive from them daily as great marks of respect and esteem, which I should not have, if that imputation were true. It is most certain that I do indulge myself the freedom of drinking a cheerful cup, at proper seasons, among my friends; but no otherwise than is done by thousands of honest men who never forfeit their character by it. And whoever doth no more than so, deserves no more to be called a sot, than a man that eats a hearty meal would be willing to be called a glutton.

“As for those detractors, if I have but the least assurance of your lordship’s favour, I can very easily despise them. They are nati consumere fruges. They need not trouble themselves about what other people do; for whatever they eat and drink, it is only robbing the poor. Resigning myself entirely to your Lordship’s goodness and pardon, I conclude this necessary apology with like provocation, That I would be content he should take my character from any person that had a good one of his own.

  “I am, with all submission,

  “My Lord,

  “Your Lordship’s most obedient, &c.

“Simon Ockley.”      

To the honour of the Earl of Oxford, this unlucky piece of awkwardness at table, in giving “uncourtly answers,” did not interrupt his regard for the poor oriental student; for several years afterwards the correspondence of Ockley was still acceptable to the Earl.*

In the meantime, Ockley was one of those unfortunate persons, whom Pierius Valerianus would have recorded, in his book “De infelicitate literatorum.” In his “Inaugural Oration,” printed in 1711, he calls fortune venefica and noverca, speaks of mordaces curæ as things long familiar to him; and, in Dec. 1717, we find him actually under confinement for debt. In the introduction to the second volume of the first edition of his “Saracenic History,” he not only tells us so, but even stoically dates from Cambridge Castle. His biographer thus accounts for his unfortunate situation:-Having married very young, he was encumbered with a family early in life; his preferment in the church was not answerable to his reputation as a scholar; his patron, the Earl of Oxford, fell into disgrace when he wanted him most; and, lastly, he had some share of that common infirmity among the learned, which makes them negligent of economy and a prudential regard to outward things, without which, however, all the wit, and all the learning, in the world, will but serve to render a man the more miserable.

If the letters of the widows and children of many of our eminent authors were collected, they would demonstrate the great fact, that the man who is a husband or a father ought not to be an author. They might weary with a monotonous cry, and usually would be dated from the gaol or the garret. I have seen an original letter from the widow of Ockley to the Earl of Oxford, in which she lays before him the deplorable situation of her affairs; the debts of the Professor being beyond what his effects amounted to, the severity of the creditors would not even suffer the executor to make the best of his effects; the widow remained destitute of necessaries, incapable of assisting her children.

Thus students have devoted their days to studies worthy of a student. They are public benefactors, yet find no friend in the public, who cannot yet appreciate their value—Ministers of state know it, though they have rarely protected them. Ockley, by letters I have seen, was frequently employed by Bolingbroke to translate letters from the sovereign of Morocco to our court; yet all the debts for which he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle did not exceed two hundred pounds. The public interest is concerned in stimulating such enthusiasts; they are men who cannot be salaried, who can

not be created by letters patent; for they are men who infuse their soul into their studies, and breathe their fondness for them in their last agonies. Yet such are doomed to feel their life pass away like a painful dream!*

As to the literary character of Ockley, it is certain that he was extremely well skilled in all the ancient languages, and particularly the oriental; so that the very learned Reland thought it not too much to declare, that he was “vir, si quis alius, harum literarum peritus.” He was, likewise, very knowing in modern languages, as in the French, Spanish, Italian, &c. and, upon the whole, considered as a linguist, we may presume that very few have exceeded him.†

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

The Arabians, a people but little noticed by the Greek and Roman authors, notwithstanding the nearness and the extent of their country, have, since the time of Mohammed, rendered themselves universally remarkable, both by their arms and learning. The understanding, therefore, of their affairs seems no less if not more necessary than a knowledge of the history of any people whatsoever, who have flourished since the decline of the Roman empire. Not only have they had as great men, and performed as considerable actions, as any other nation under heaven; but, what is of more concern to us Christians, they were the first ruin of the eastern church.

It might reasonably have been expected, that the Greeks, who bore the greatest share of that grievous calamity, and whose vices and divisions, it is to be feared, brought it upon the Christian world, would have taken particular care to have given a just account of it. But, on the contrary, they have been more jejune and sparing in this particular, than is allowable in any tolerable historian, even when relating matters at the greatest distance. Not to enumerate a long catalogue of their defects, I shall content myself with producing the words of an ingenious author,* who was well aware of the imperfections of the Greeks with relation to this history, and fully expresses the true sense of that matter in these words: “This,” says he, “in substance, is the account of those wars, and of the beginning of the Saracenic empire, which is left us by the Grecian writers of that age; who are justly accused of brevity and obscurity, in a subject that deserved to be more copiously handled; for undoubtedly it must needs have been various as well as surprising in its circumstances, containing no less than the subduing of whole nations, altering ancient governments, and introducing a new face of affairs in the world.” There is nothing more just than this observation; and what lame accounts must we then expect from those who compile histories of the Saracens out of the Byzantine historians?

I was no sooner convinced of this, but, having, by the study of their language, fitted myself in some measure for reading their authors, I felt a great desire to communicate some part of this hitherto unknown history to the world; being equally affected with wonder and concern, that, considering the multitude of learned men which the last age produced, it should have been so long neglected. The reason of this is, I conceive, that the very few who were masters of the Arabic learning were otherwise employed, spending their time in publishing such books as were absolutely necessary to pave the way for posterity to attain a competent skill in that difficult language. Others, insufficiently acquainted with that nation, have entertained too mean an opinion of them, looking upon them as mere barbarians and this mistaken notion hindered all further inquiry.

As for those great men who, in this last age first restored to us Europeans that learned, copious, and elegant language; I mean Erpenius, Giggeius, Golius, Sionita, and our incomparable Dr. Pocock; we cannot express how much we are indebted to them for their learned labours, without which the Arabic tongue would still have been inaccessible to us. But as there are other persons of a different taste, who, for want of due information, have conceived a wrong opinion of the Arabians, it will not be amiss, before we give a particular account of our present undertaking, to say something concerning that people.

Before Mohammed’s time they were idolaters. They were always a warlike people, seldom being at peace either with one another or their neighbours. They were divided into two classes; some of them lived in towns and villages; others, having no fixed, settled habitations, lived in tents, and removed from one part of the country to another, according as their necessities compelled, or conveniences invited them. Their chief excellence consisted in breeding and managing horses, and the use of bows, swords, and lances. Their learning lay wholly in their poetry, to which their genius greatly inclined them. Mohammed and his successors soon rooted out idolatry, and united those jarring tribes in the profession of that new superstition, which he pretended to have received by inspiration from God, delivered to him immediately by the angel Gabriel.

For about two hundred years, little else was cared for but war, except what concerned the interpretation of the Koran, and the sects and divisions among themselves which arose therefrom, and daily multiplied. But there was as yet no curiosity about foreign learning, nor desire of being acquainted with the arts and sciences. At last, in Al Mamoun’s reign, who was the twenty-seventh after Mohammed, and was inaugurated caliph in the 108th year of the Hejirah,* learning began to be cultivated to a very great degree especially mathematics and astronomy. And, in order to promote learning and science, that noble caliph spared no cost, either to procure such Greek books as were serviceable to that purpose, or to encourage learned men to the study of them. Nor did the sagacity and application of that ingenious, penetrating people in the least disappoint the designs of their munificent benefactor; their progress in learning, after they had once entered upon it, seeming no less wonderful than that of their conquests; for in a few years’ time they had plenty of translations out of the Greek, not only of mathematicians and astronomers, but also of philosophers, naturalists, and physicians. And this love of learning was not confined to the eastern parts, but diffused throughout the whole dominions of the Saracens, being first carried into Africa (where they erected a great many universities), and from thence into Spain: so that when learning was quite lost in these western parts, it was restored by the Moors, to whom was owing whatever of philosophy was understood by the Christians of these times. For Greek was not understood in this part of the world till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, A.D. 1453, when several learned Greeks escaping with their libraries, and coming westward, that language was restored; therefore the philosophers and schoolmen, before this date, were obliged to content themselves with Latin translations, not only of Averroes, Alfarabius, and

Algazali, and other Mohammedan authors, but also of Aristotle and other philosophers, which translations of Greek authors were not made out of the original Greek, but out of Arabic versions.

Had the Arabians, after having taken the pains to learn the Greek tongue, applied themselves with as much care to the historians, as they did to the philosophers, and studied Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and the other masters of correct writing which that language furnished, we might have expected from them a succession of historians worthy to write the great actions which were performed among them. But they never turned their thoughts that way, studying the Greek merely for the sake of the sciences, and valuing neither that nor any other language as compared with their own. And, though it must be granted that the Arabic is extremely fine and copious, so as to afford words sufficient to express with elegance and propriety every subject, it is, nevertheless, not sufficient of itself, any more than any other language, to make a man an author; there being a manifest difference between language and style, insomuch that a man may write the best language in the world, and use the most proper and significant words, and yet not be worth the reading. For besides propriety of expression, a certain justness and exactness (not only with respect to the choice of materials, but to the composition), must shine through the whole; and this is not to be attained without being well acquainted with the best authors.

The great esteem which I have for eastern learning makes me heartily wish that we had not too much cause in this respect to complain of our Arabic historians. For in this way they have deprived us of a great deal of the pleasure, and sometimes profit, which we might otherwise have derived from reading them. They have not sufficient regard to the due qualifications of an historian, but tell things after a careless manner, often stuffing their works with many trifling matters, at other times jingling upon words, and, to show the copiousness of their language and variety of expression, spinning out a trifling incident into a long story. It is, therefore, a work of difficulty to follow or compile these authors, and yet the task, nevertheless, deserves well to be undertaken, and will abundantly recompense the pains.

For in these authors is contained an account of all the most remarkable actions done in the east, and other parts, for above one thousand years. During this period, Asia and Africa were the scene of as great achievements as ever were performed in the times of the Roman empire, to which that of the Saracens was, in many respects, equal.

In order to carry out my design, after I had made a draught out of Elmakin, Abulfaragius, and Eutychius, I went to the Bodleian Library, which is, without question, the best furnished with oriental manuscripts of any in Europe. Besides a great number of the best authors, purchased by the University of Oxford, out of the libraries of Dr. Hyde, Dr. Huntington, and Dr. Pocock; not to mention Mr. Samuel Clark’s, Gravius’s, or Selden’s, there is in the Bodleian an invaluable collection given by that incomparable prelate and martyr of blessed memory, Archbishop Laud; of whose great virtues it would be superfluous to say anything here, they being so well known and admired by all that know how to set a just value upon learning and piety.

But this prelate’s princely munificence and zeal in restoring oriental learning in these northern climates, both by purchasing an excellent collection of eastern authors, and in encouraging men of abilities to apply themselves to that study, cannot, without the greatest ingratitude, be passed over in silence by any one that has any due regard to oriental learning. But I especially owe him this acknowledgment, as it was among the manuscripts of that reverend prelate that I found the best copy* of that author which I have here endeavoured to make speak English, and of whom I am now going to give an account.

His name is Abu Abdollah Mohammed Ebn Omar Al Wakidi. As to the time in which he lived I have not been able to find any authentic information, nor could I, by the diligent reading of him, discover any token by which I could give a probable guess.

Though I cannot precisely fix his age, it is most certain that he lived above two hundred years after the matter of fact which be relates. For, page 313, he mentions Al Motasem, the caliph, whose reign began in the year of our Lord 833; and, if so, it is the same thing as if he had lived six hundred years after. For that author that lives one thousand years after any matter of fact, is as much a witness of it as he that lives but at two hundred years’ distance. They are both of them obliged to take upon trust, and if there be no loss of good authors during that interval, he that writes latest is as credible an historian as the first.

Besides, the particulars relating to the first rise of kingdoms and empires are generally obscure. The reason of which is, because arms take rule of all, and a government must be well established before learning, can got room to breathe in it. Wherefore, in these cases, it is allowed by all, that those accounts, which have been handed down from time to time, and received by the best judges, ought to be looked upon as authentic. Never was there any person yet that inquired after the age of Livy, in order to know how far he might be accounted a competent relator of what was done in the reigns of Romulus and Numa Pompilius.

In these cases it is, as that excellent author very well observes: Famærerum standum est, ubi certam derogat vetustas fidem, “When a long interval of time has set things at too great a distance, we must be content with the current report, and rest satisfied with the best account we can get.” However, that author consults his own reputation, and his readers’ satisfaction most, who does not indifferently set down everything he meets with, but uses as much caution as the circumstances of the matter will admit. Our author, Al Wakidi, has not been wanting in this particular. Sometimes he ushers in a story after this manner: “I have been informed by a credible person.” In another place, he says: “We are informed by Moses Ebn Asem, who had it from Jonas Ebn Abdallah, who had it from his grandfather Abdarrhaman Ebn Aslam Arrabii, who was in the wars of Syria.” In that place where he gives an account of Derar and some others, who were put into chests at Arrean, he says: “I was informed by Ahmed Al Matin Al Jorhami, who had it from Raphaa Ebn Kais Al Amiri, who had it from Saiph Ebn Jabalah Al Chatgami, who had it from Thabet Ebn Al Kamah, who said he was present at the action.” These

expressions (not to insinuate that they may afford a trace which may lead to a guess at the author’s age) are most evident proofs that he was as careful as he could, neither to be imposed upon himself, nor to deceive his reader. And though there are a great many such like expressions dispersed throughout his whole work, yet I have not thought fit to intermix them in my history, because it is so different from what the are used to. Here, however, I thought it necessary to give a taste of it, for the vindication of my author. And certain it is, that such things as these, nay of less consideration, were thought a good defence of Herodotus against Plutarch’s objections, by no less a person than the learned Harry Stephens.

Al Wakidi’s design was not to write the life of any particular caliph, but to give an account of the conquest of Syria. I should have been very glad if he had given me an opportunity of comparing him with some noble Greek or Latin historian, but his manner of writing will not allow it. He is chiefly valuable for this, that we find materials in him which we have no where else, and he is not so sparing of them, but there is liberty enough to pick and choose. How I have succeeded in this performance must be submitted to the judgment of the learned reader. Only I must take the liberty to say, that though I have not transcribed my author in every particular, yet I have done him no injury in anything that I have related; nor have I taken a liberty of writing carelessly, in hopes of being secure from discovery (the language not being generally understood), but have used the same diligence as I would have done were I sure that every one of my readers would instantly have collated my book with the manuscripts.

The archbishop’s copy, which I chiefly used, is two hundred and fifty years old, being written in the year of the Hejirah 863, of our Lord 1458. There is another copy of it among Dr. Pocock’s MSS. D’Herbelot says there is one in the library of the king of France; which are all that I know of in Europe.

Simon Ockley   

INTRODUCTION.

In our first volume* we have given an account of the wonderful success of the Saracens in the speedy conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt. The particulars of the sieges of Damascus, Alexandria, Aleppo, Antioch, Jerusalem, and several other places of great importance, as delivered by their own authors; the foundation of the destruction of the Grecian empire, and the establishment of that of the Saracens under the government of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman, the immediate successors of Mohammed.

But, if the reader expects in this second volume such a particular account of their foreign conquests as is to be found in the first, he will find himself deceived. When the Saracens first undertook the conquest of the universe, everything beyond their own bounds was new to them, and their achievements were no less matter of surprise to themselves than to their neighbours. Afterwards, however, when they were grown considerable enough to quarrel among themselves, and when their foreign enemies were removed so far from the centre of the government, that, let success prove which way it would, it was not likely to affect the vitals of the empire; their historians begin to pass over those distant transactions very cursorily, seldom descending to particulars, unless there happens to be something very extraordinary; and, what is more remarkable still, seldom take any notice of them, unless the bare mentioning of them can be reckoned as such. Not but that there are in several of their libraries particular accounts from whence many circumstances might be gathered relating to Africa, and also entire histories of the conquest of Spain; while, for the eastern parts of their empire, the Persian historians are the best.

Instead of such exact accounts of foreign affairs, we are in the present period entertained with a quite different scene. Here their historians dwell principally upon those terrible divisions among themselves which, originating with the succession of Ali and his family, the abdication of his son Hasan, and the death of Hosein, have laid the foundation of perpetual discord among the followers of the prophet. For the dissensions between Ali’s followers (of whom the Persians are chief), and the Traditionists (of whom are the Turks, and whose creed we have inserted at the end of the Life of Mohammed), seem never likely to be reconciled so long as Mohammedanism itself shall exist. Some of the Turks, indeed, interpret that fable of Mohammed’s having divided the moon, and, after holding one half of it for some time in his sleeve, joining it again to the other, as prefiguring the division of the professors of Mohammedanism (whose standard is the new

moon) into those two great sects, and the re-union of them after a certain period of years.

These things, together with the changing of their government from an elective monarchy as it was left to them by Mohammed, into an hereditary one, as commenced by Moawiyah, and firmly settled in the reigns of his successors; as well as the account of the immense and rapid extension of their empire, form the principal contents of the second volume. And although we have not arrived at the conquest of Spain, nor the learned age of the Arabians, yet we have brought the Saracen empire to an established settlement, and written the history of fourscore years, in which the Saracens conquered very much more than the Romans did in four hundred.

I designed, when I first set about the present portion of my work, to take in the whole of the contemporary affairs of the Christians; but, upon second thoughts, it appeared to me to be foreign to my purpose. Every one may satisfy himself, by reading this history, how regardless during its course the Saracens were of any European powers; they were wholly taken up with their domestic quarrels. The proposed way of proceeding must have occasioned a great many discourses to be intermixed through the whole, in order to reconcile the accounts of the Greeks and Arabians, which widely disagree both in the facts and the dates. By such discussions the narrative of Arabian affairs must have been frequently and unseasonably interrupted. A man might as well undertake to write the history of France for the present time, out of our newspapers, as to give an account of the Arabians from Christian historians. The Arabians (and it is their history we write, and no other) are the most likely to give the best account of things performed among themselves. Wherefore all that we promise, is, to fix our chronology to a day.

Then, as to the Greeks, whom, in the early part of our history, we see sufficiently broken by the irresistible prowess of the victorious Saracens; it was not in their power to offer any considerable opposition to such foes. For so great was their intrepidity that there was not a single deputy-lieutenant or general among them that would not have thought himself worthy to be branded with indelible disgrace, if he should have suffered himself to have been intimidated even by the united forces of all Europe. And if any one asks, why the Greeks did not exert themselves more towards the extirpation of these insolent invaders? to say, that Amrou kept his residence at Alexandria, and Moawiyah at Damascus, is a sufficient answer to any person that is acquainted with the characters, of those men.

But what a great many persons, otherwise of no contemptible reading nor abilities, wonder at, is the vast difference between the occurrences in our present history and those that are found in others. But whosoever considers the briskness and activity of the Arabians (the effect of the warmth of) their climate, temperance, and constant exercise), joined to their enthusiasm, will find an easy solution of those extravagant actions that seem to distinguish them from the rest of mankind.

For this reason no one ought to wonder if I have accommodated my style to the humour of the people of whom I write. To write of men in their circumstances, who were all humorists, bigots, and enthusiasts, in the same style as becomes the sedateness and gravity of the Greeks and Romans, would be most unsuitable and unnatural. In such a case you put

them in a dress which they would no more thank you for than a Roman senator would for a long periwig, or Socrates for a pair of silk stockings. You rob them of all their merit; the very things for which you laugh at them are what they most value themselves upon; and it is most certain, that the nearer you bring a man that is singular to the rest of mankind, the farther you remove him from himself, and destroy the very being of his singularity. This will, I hope, satisfy the judicious reader, that, if I have deviated from that way of writing which was first established by the ancients, and always admired and imitated by the wisest of the moderns, I have done so not of choice, but of necessity. For otherwise I should have abused both the Arabians and my readers: the former by putting them into a disguise under a pretence of dressing them; my readers, by defrauding them of the humour of that enthusiastic nation. Wherefore I have let them tell their own story their own way; and I have abstained as much as possible from intermixing reflections of my own, unless where there appeared a necessity of illustrating something that might not be obvious to persons unacquainted with oriental affairs.

I must confess that some of the particulars seem very odd and ridiculous; but the stranger they are, the more they illustrate the character of the people of whom we write. Besides, there is a vast deal of difference between being a reader and a spectator. The things that make us laugh now, would have made us tremble then. The habit, the manner, the gravity, sobriety, and activity of that conquering people, are not beneath the observance of the greatest genius. What we find in them to laugh at is the difference of their manners. But this is but a childish reason, and the very same which makes ignorants laugh at scholars; fools, at wise men; boys, at old ones; atheists and debauchees, at persons of virtue and religion. However, I do not deny, but that I have here and there inserted a relation wherein the matter of fact itself contains nothing very extraordinary; nevertheless, I could not make up my mind to omit it, because the circumstances appeared to be highly characteristic of the humour and genius of that tragi-comical people.

Who would not rather have the details of a siege omitted, than lose the description of Ali’s inauguration? Of the former a man may form some notion by himself, but he could have no idea of the latter without good authority. Many cities have been taken under nearly the same circumstances, but very few emperors, I believe, were ever proclaimed in such style as Ali. A great many other little incidents there are, very useful and entertaining in themselves, that may be properly enough inserted in writing a life, which would not so well come into a universal history, whose course goes on like a vast river, sometimes overflowing its banks, sometimes keeping within its bounds; sometimes with a great, impetuous fall, sometimes with a smooth and almost imperceptible motion. But, in writing the lives of monarchs, the course of the narrative is frequently interrupted, and the historian must detail several little particulars pertaining to his particular person, his humour, friends, enemies, passions, affections, dangers, deliverances, apophthegms, and the like, not properly belonging to the history of the people. Such is the difference between Suetonius and Livy.

But, to write after the manner of the most celebrated universal historians, all little circumstances and trivial discourses must be omitted; the

language must be all of the same thread, and the whole carried on in a nervous, eloquent, and flowing style; and, when the subject calls for it (as i??? any very extraordinary case), proportionable ornament must be added; the images magnified beyond the life, and embellished to that degree sometimes, that the historian puts on the orator before he is aware: and speeches must be made suitable to every occasion, according to the abilities of the author. Throughout the cadence must be smooth and easy, and the periods full: nothing must be inserted that falls beneath the dignity of history; otherwise, between the style and the matter, it must of necessity oftentimes happen, that a great deal of nature is lost. The whole composition must be uniform, and managed as regularly as a well-built edifice. In short, such a round turn must be given to everything, that the facts shall seem to be made on purpose to embellish the history, rather than the history for the relation of the facts. He, therefore, that reads for delight, and loves to be entertained with artful compositions, will choose this way; he that studies nature, will be better pleased with the other. That is one reason why persons of the greatest severity and exactest judgment delight in comedy, not only because it diverts them, but because it lets them into the humour of mankind, and paints it in all conditions of life as it really is. Now, why an historian, whose business is truth, should, for the sake of imitation, smother every thing that is characteristic and distinguishing of the people concerning whom he writes, I cannot understand. Wherefore, let Livy make speeches for his people, and Tacitus invent politics, it is the glory of our Arabic historians to represent the naked truth as handed down from their ancestors in its native simplicity. So that, as much as we are exceeded by other authors in their elaborate expression, and the strength and artifice of their composition, so much at least do we hope to exceed them in the unaffected plainness and sincerity of our relation.

Some critics were pleased to object to the first part of my history, that it was the strangest story they had ever heard since they were born! They never met with such folks in their lives as these Arabians! They never heard too, they said, of these things before, which they of course must have done, if any body else had. A reverend dignitary asked me, if, when I wrote that book, I had not lately been reading the History of Oliver Cromwell! They say that the Arabians are given to romance; and for that reason I suppose they are not to be believed (according to Aristotle) when they speak truth. And above all, that a history will never go down in this nice age, that contains only a relation of battles, but that the very, quintessence of a history consists in the politics.

Now for my own part I must confess, that I am of such an indolent disposition, that if I can but fairly get rid of this last grand objection, I care not one rush for all the rest. I confess that a history without politics comes into the world in very unfashionable circumstances, especially in a generation wherein, if fortune had not envied our merit, we should all have been plenipotentiaries, secretaries of state, or privy-councillors! What affects me most is, that this objection should be made by these enlightened gentlemen, whom every body would have supposed to have been so well skilled in analytics, as upon the first sight of any action to have made an infallible guess at the springs of it. Besides, I should have run a great risk on the other side, for it is an insufferable affront in an author to leave

nothing to his intelligent reader, but to be always feeding him with a spoon; and teaching him to read with a fescue! Who would ever have imagined but that it was the peculiar talent of these gentlemen, upon first sight of the event to trace back the springs of the action; and surely it required no great discernment to trace the course and issue of events, in an enthusiastic tyrannical government, held by persons entangled in family quarrels entailed upon them from generation to generation, and not extinguished, whatsoever they pretended, by their being united in the same profession of Mohammedanism. For it was from these antecedent divisions that arose those terrible convulsions in the state which, had it not been very well supported by their aversion to Christianity on the one side, and to idolatry on the other, must soon have rendered them a prey to their common enemies. Add to this, that those persons who had enjoyed the greatest share of their prophet’s favour when alive, were treated with proportionable respect after his decease. To such a height was this carried, that if any person had been any way familiar with Mohammed, he was reckoned among the companions* though he was never so young; and so great was the respect paid to them, that their authority would turn the scale in almost any debate. For the Saracens preferred to go to a very great extremity, rather than reject the advice of a companion of the apostle—of course I mean if that counsel were urged on the prevailing side; for notwithstanding their allegiance to their prince, it is evident they were no bigots to indefeasible right.

But if the not having heard of this history before be such a terrible objection against it, what would the having heard of it before have been? I must confess that objection lies strong against the veracity of it to persons who would take it as an affront to be supposed capable of being ignorant of such a considerable part of history as this pretends to be. What I wonder most at is, that those very gentlemen who formerly were better acquainted with the rivers Jaxartes and Oxus, Indus and the Ganges, than with the Thames itself which they swam in every holiday; who discoursed of Asia as if they had been surveyors to Alexander the Great; who would have disputed every foot of ancient geography with no less eagerness than if it had been a paternal inheritance; and could pronounce concerning the oracle of Jupiter Ammon with no less certainty than the oracle itself, should on a sudden prove so indolent as not only to suffer those delicate provinces to be ravished out of their hands without so much as venturing a suit about them, but even express an ungrateful displeasure of those who too officiously proffer their service to restore them gratis. However, these critics are of the kinder sort; they neither mean nor do any great hurt they only make themselves a little sport with those things which they do not very well understand; and, if they carry on the humour upon that foot, bid fair for the reputation of the merriest company in the world.

I have not omitted to make every use of the learned labours of Monsieur D’Herbelot, whose Bibliothéque Orientale deserves the highest esteem from all that have a true taste for oriental learning. After I had made my collections, I found him so accurate in the life of Ali, in the history of the Saracens, that I have chosen sometimes to transcribe him

paragraph by paragraph, rather than to spoil what was already well done, by affecting to make it my own.

To him I owe whatsoever is quoted from the Persian authors. How often have I endeavoured to perfect myself in that easy and delicate language; but my malignant and envious stars have still combined to frustrate my attempts. However, they shall sooner alter their own courses than extinguish my resolution of quenching that thirst, which the little taste I have had of it, hath so hotly excited.

I am as yet ignorant of Turkish; which I should not be so much concerned at, were it not for five volumes in that language in our public library, which I behold with delight and concern at the same time: with delight, because they are ours, and so not to be despaired of: with concern, because I do not myself understand them. They are a translation of the great Tabari, who is the Livy of the Arabians; the very father of their history. As far as I could find by inquiry his original work is given over for lost in Arabia. I formerly inquired of my predecessor, Dr. Luke, concerning him, who told me he had never met with him in the east, and that he believed there was no hope of finding an Arabic copy of his book Monsieur D’Herbelot says the same. And there is this good reason for it, that this being the standard of their history, and upon that account translated from the very first out of Arabic into Turkish, the value of the Arabic copy must of necessity have fallen more and more in all those territories where Turkish is better understood than Arabic; for it would not be worth the bookseller’s while to be at the charge of transcribing it. However that we might not imagine it lost because of its extreme scarcity, I luckily found a piece of it in folio amongst archbishop Laud’s manuscripts (it is unfortunately imperfect), accurately written and with all the points, and no doubt for the use of some great person. Without the assistance of which copy I must oftentimes have been left in the dark. Had I not been destitute of similar aids; had I not been forced to snatch everything that I have, as it were out of the fire; our history of the Saracens should have been ushered into the world after a different manner. Now, gentlemen, though critics and readers, I hold you in very particular respect, yet pardon me if I choose rather to point out my own deficiencies than leave them for you to find out; for I fear lest, notwithstanding your candour, a fault should be ascribed to my laziness or negligence that ought more justly to be attributed to the influence of inexorable necessity. Wherefore, in the first place, I will confess that could I have been master of my own time and circumstances, I would never have published anything of this kind, till I had perfectly finished the first part of it according to the natural division which the circumstances of the Saracen empire suggested to the Arabian historians. This era would have extended, from Mohammed’s birth to the ruin of the house of Ommiyah by that of Abbas, which was effected in that part of the year of the Hejirah one hundred and thirty two, which answers to part of the year of our Lord seven hundred and fifty. And this period would consequently have included several other conquests, besides that of Spain.

But these were things rather to be desired than hoped for; and if I had waited till I could have made all this preparation, I should never have published any of it as long as I lived. The ancients oftentimes thought a

life well spent in polishing one single book; and they certainly were very much in the right of it, if (as most certainly they did) they intended to perpetuate their memories to posterity, and eke out perishing mortality with an access of glory. We moderns on the contrary can no sooner propose anything though it requires never so much care and application, but we are daily importuned to know when it is to come out. This however is our comfort, that the ancients are in their graves, and though we can, when we find leisure, read their books, they shall never arise from the dead to read ours.

But that we may not affectedly attribute to the ancients all excellence exclusively, we must observe that modern taste is not always so corrupt. Monsieur Petit de la Croix, (that famous oriental interpreter to the late Louis XIV. of France, ) when commanded by the great Colbert to write the life of Jenkizchan, did not think, as his son acknowledges in the preface, ten years too much time to employ upon it; though he neither wanted books, leisure, abilities, nor encouragement. It is not the mere following those authors who have made their business to write the lives of such or such princes that is sufficient; but it is also necessary to gather up the scattered remains that occur in other historians; to consult the commentators upon the Koran; to consult the scholiasts of their poets; also their medals, inscriptions, and lexicographers. The historian must also trace the originals of customs, surnames, tribes, and the like; and in a word, must dispose all the materials with such judgment that every part may fall naturally into its proper place, and add a lustre to the whole.

But my unhappy condition hath always been such as was far from admitting of such an exactness. Fortune seems only to have given me a taste of it out of spite, on purpose that I might regret the loss of it. Though perhaps I might accuse her wrongfully for befriending me with an excuse for those blemishes that would have admitted of none had I been furnished with all those assistances and advantages, the want of which I now bewail. If that was her meaning, she hath been very tender of my reputation indeed, and resolved that my adversaries should have very little reason to accuse me of the loss of time. The first part of my work cost me two journeys to Oxford, each of them of six weeks only, (inclusive of the delays upon the road, and the difficulty of finding the books without any other guide than the catalogue, not always infallible.) But my chief business being then with one author,* it was so much the easier to make a quick despatch; because it is of no small moment in affairs of this nature to be once well acquainted with the hand of the manuscript, and the style of the author.

But in my second undertaking I found the appearance of things quite different in more respects than one. Either my domestic affairs were grown much worse, or I less able to bear them, or, what is most probable, both were the case.† What made me easy as to my journey and charges during my absence, was the liberality of the worshipful Thomas Freke, Esq. of

Pennington, Wilts; to whom the world is indebted for whatsoever is performed at present in this second work; I mean with regard to the expenses: which kindness however would not have answered the end be designed, if I had not been indulged with all possible conveniences of study, first by the favour of my much honoured friend, the incomparable Dr. Halley, who, with the consent of his learned colleague Dr. Heil, allowed me the keys of the Savilian study. In the next place I have to express my thanks to the reverend and learned Dr. Hudson, principal librarian of the Bodleian; who according to his wonted humanity permitted me to take out of the library whatsoever books were for my purpose; otherwise, though I had five months, time, much could not have been done, considering the variety and difficulty of the manuscripts. Besides all which I was forced to take the advantage of the slumbers of my cares, that never slept when I was awake; and if they did not incessantly interrupt my studies, were sure to succeed them with no less constancy than night doth the day.* Though it would be the height of ingratitude in me not to acknowledge that they were daily alleviated by the favours and courtesies which I received from persons of the greatest dignity and merit in that noble university; too numerous to be all here inserted, and all too worthy (should I mention any one of them) to be omitted.

Some such apology as this will always be necessary for him that undertakes a work of this nature upon his own bottom, without proper encouragement. If any one should pertly ask me, why then do you trouble the world with things that you are not able to bring to perfection? let them take this answer of one of our famous Arabian authors;† what cannot totally be known, ought not to be totally neglected; for the knowledge of a part is better than the ignorance of the whole.

Table of Contents   Next: Life of Mohammed