It has been the fate of Almansor, however, to be eclipsed by the romantic lustre which surrounds the actions and the memory of his grandson. With the name of Haroun al Raschid, the friend of Charlemagne, and the hero of the Arabian Nights, every civilized nation is familiar. To the ambition and military prowess of his predecessors, he added the most zealous encouragement of learning; and whilst his enemies in the East felt the edge of his sword, Europe alone beheld him in the light of a disciple of the Muses.

Haroun died anno Domini 809, and was succeeded in a few years by his second son Almamon, the most munificent of the race of the Abassides. Almamon ascended the throne of the caliphs in 813, and for a period of twenty years reigned the Augustus of the oriental world. The life of this monarch was devoted to literature; and he was, without flattery or exaggeration, acknowledged to be unrivalled in the subtleties of the Aristotelian philosophy. He patronised, however, every known branch of art and science, and his unparalleled generosity gathered round him every scholar of merit and celebrity. Numerous agents were employed in the collection of books; and his accumulation of Greek manuscripts was invaluable both for its numbers and selection. These he took care to have translated into Arabic, and circulated through every part of his domi

nions; while schools, libraries, and professors, were founded and supported at his expence, and on the most magnificent scale, in all the large cities of the empire.

While such were the meritorious exertions of the Arabians at Bagdad under their great caliphs Almansor, Haroun, and Almamon, an individual of the proscribed house of the Ommiades had founded a mighty empire in the West; and Spain beheld at Cordova a Caliphat, which rivalled the splendour of the eastern successors of the prophet. From the year 756, the period when Abdalrhaman unfurled the standard of revolt in Spain, to the middle of the eleventh century, literature and science were cultivated by the caliphs of Cordova with an ardour equal to that which animated their brethren on the banks of the Tigris.

In the tenth century, at a time when the rest of Europe was involved in utter darkness, the third and greatest of the Abdalrhamans, the eighth Caliph, and the first who adopted the title of Commander of the Faithful, occupied for more than fifty years the throne of Cordova. The grandeur and opulence of this prince was truly astonishing; and, fortunately for Europe and

*For proofs of the lavish magnificence of the Caliphats of Bagdad and Cordova, see Literary Hours, vol. i. No 15, 3d edition.

mankind, he was, likewise, devotedly attached to the interests of learning.

For several ages, indeed, after the Arabians had imbibed a love for literature, wherever their victorious arms were carried, philosophy and the arts followed in their train; and towards the close of the tenth century Egypt experienced the benefits of their instruction, by the establishment of the Fatimite caliphs at Cairo. These monarchs emulated the taste and patronage of their competitors at Bagdad and Cordova, and continued, to foster and protect the sciences until the victories of Noureddin and Saladin, about the commencement of the third crusade, wrested the sceptre from their grasp.

Now, as christian Europe was, during the most splendid eras of Arabian literature, in a state of comparatively profound ignorance, it is obvious that any communication with a people so enlightened, so very superior as were then the inhabitants of Bagdad and Cordova in all the attainments of civilized life, must necessarily be attended with decided advantages on the part of the uninformed. Three circumstances, however, contributed greatly to prevent, even for more than two centuries, the intercourse essential to improvement: the bitter animosity, for instance, arising from difference of religion, a not unfounded jealousy of Saracenic arms and power,

and, more than all, that utter ignorance which disables an individual or a nation from discerning its own mental weakness and deficiencies. The distance of Bagdad and Cairo, also, was great, and the fatigues and dangers of travelling, to those who felt no ardent enthusiasm in the cause of literature, insuperable; whilst unhappily, at the same time, access to the Arabian science of Spain was altogether cut off by the sanguinary and perpetual warfare, and the deep-rooted hatred which so long subsisted between the Moors and Christians of that fertile country.

It is to the literature of Arabia, however, that the western world owes its resuscitation from a state of extreme torpor and imbecility; and if it were long before the philosophy and science of the Mohammedans made their due impression on the clouded intellects of Europe, still longer was it ere the fictions and the fancy of the East were allowed to mingle with the songs of the Harper, or the tales of the Trouveur.

Yet with the more solid and abstruse learning of the Arabians was combined no small portion of lawless imagination and striking superstition, and which, in the eleventh century, when curiosity was awakened, and a more direct communication was opened with the disciples of Mohammed, had a powerful effect on minds just roused

from the slumber of ages. To the doctrines of Greece, as displayed in the writings of her philosophers, mathematicians, and physicians, Arabia added much from her own stores, much of what was useful, and much that was tinged with the hues of fancy and credulity. Thus, with their astronomy, which had received many and great improvements under the caliphs Almansor and Almamon, was blended the fallacies of astrology; and nothing of moment was transacted, either in war, politics, or private life, without first consulting the aspect of the heavens. Again, with chemistry, still more exclusively of their own acquisition, an art, indeed, of which they may be said to have been the parents, and whose utility pervades every department of life, they contrived to associate the most wild and eccentric reveries; and the attainment of the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life, the acquisition of inexhaustible treasure or ever-during existence, were firmly believed to be within the power of their favourite science. Amulets, rings, talismans, and charms, were, likewise, considered as the most profound and elaborate products of chemical research; these were inscribed with mystic characters, and were deemed of such potency, as not only to protect the wearer from the approach of evil, but to command and to con