precepts of simplicity, valour, and humility upon the soldiers, he made his entrance into the Holy City, liberated such of its former Christian possessors as had become {29} the captives of his people, and commanded the preservation of the churches. Then remounting his camel, the representative of the Prophet returned to Medina, to perform the duties of the high-priest of his religion.

The Mussulmans now advanced towards Egypt. That country was soon subdued. Alexandrea was taken by Amrou, one of the most distinguished generals of Omar. It was then that the famous library was destroyed, whose loss still excites the profound regrets of the learned. The Arabians, though such enthusiastic admirers of their national poetry, despised the literature of all the rest of the world. Amrou caused the library of the Ptolemies to be burned, yet this same Amrou was nevertheless celebrated for his poetical effusions. He entertained the sincerest affection and respect for the celebrated John the Grammarian, to whom, but for the opposing order of the caliph, he would have given this valuable collection of books. It was Amrou, too, who caused the execution of a design worthy of the best age of Rome, that of connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean by means of a navigable canal, at a point where the waters of the Nile might be diverted from {30} their course for its supply. This canal, so useful to Egypt, and so important to the commerce of both Europe and Asia, was accomplished in a few months. The Turks, in more modern times, have suffered it to be destroyed.

Amrou continued to advance into Africa, while the other Arabian commanders passed the Euphrates and conquered the Persians. But Omar was already no more, and Othman occupied his place.

It was during the reign of this caliph that the Saracens, banishing for ever its enfeebled Greek masters, conquered Mauritania, or the country of the Moors of Africa, A.D. 647, Heg. 27.

The invaders met with serious resistance only from the warlike tribes of the Bereberes.[9] That bold and pastoral people, the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Numidia, and preserving, even to this day, a species of independence, intrenched as they are in the Atlas Mountains, long and successfully resisted the conquerors of the Moors. A Moslem general named Akba finally succeeded in subjugating them, and in compelling them to adopt the laws and faith of his country.

{31}

After that achievement Akba carried his arms to the extreme western point of Africa, the ocean alone resisting him in his progress. There, inspired by courage and devotion with feelings of the highest enthusiasm, he forced his horse into the waves, and, drawing his sabre, cried, "God of Mohammed, thou beholdest that, but for the element which arrests me, I would have proceeded in search of unknown nations, whom I would have forced to adore thy name!"

Until this epoch, the Moors, under the successive dominion of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, and the Greeks, had taken but little interest in the affairs of their different masters.

Wandering in the deserts, they occupied themselves chiefly with the care of their flocks; paid the arbitrary imposts levied upon them, sometimes passively enduring the oppression of their rulers, and sometimes essaying to break their chains; taking refuge, after each defeat of their efforts, in the Atlas Mountains, or in the interior of their country.

Their religion was a mixture of Christianity and idolatry; their manners those of the enslaved Nomades: rude, ignorant, and wretched, {32} their condition was the prototype of what it now is under the tyrants of Morocco.

But the presence of the Arabs rapidly produced a great change among these people. A common origin with that of their new masters, together with similarity of language and temperament, contributed to bind the conquered to their conquerors.

The announcement of a religion which had been preached by a descendant of Ishmael, whom the Moors regarded as their father; the rapid conquests of the Mussulmans, who were already masters of half of Asia and a large portion of Africa, and who threatened to enslave the world, aroused the excitable imaginations of the Moors, and restored to their national character all its passionate energy. They embraced the dogmas of Mohammed with transport; they united with the Arabs, volunteered to serve under the Moslem banners, and suddenly became simultaneously enamoured with Islamism and with glory.

This reunion, which doubled the military strength of the two united nations, was disturbed for some time by the revolt of the Bereberes, who never yielded their liberty under any circumstances.

{33}

The reigning caliph, Valid the First, despatched into Egypt Moussa-ben-Nazir, a judicious and valiant commander, at the head of a hundred thousand men, A.D. 708, Heg. 89.

Moussa defeated the Bereberes, restored quiet in Mauritania, and seized upon Tangier, which belonged to the Goths of Spain.

Master of an immense region of country, of a redoubtable army, and of a people who considered his supremacy as essential to their well-being, the Saracen general from this period contemplated carrying his arms into Spain.

That beautiful kingdom, after having been successively under the yoke of the Carthaginians and the Romans, had finally become the prey of the Barbarians. The Alains, the Suevi, and the Vandals had divided its provinces among them; but Euric, one of the Visigoths, who entered the country from the south of Gaul, had, towards the end of the fifth century, gained possession of the whole of Spain, and transmitted it to his descendants.

The softness of the climate, together with the effects of wealth and luxury, gradually enfeebled these conquerors, creating vices from which they had been previously free, and depriving {34} them of the warlike qualities to which alone they had been indebted for their success. Of the kings who succeeded Euric, some were Arians and others Catholics, who abandoned their authority to the control of bishops, and occupied a throne shaken to its centre by internal disturbances. Roderick, the last of these Gothic sovereigns, polluted the throne by his vices; and both history and tradition accuse him of the basest crimes. Indeed, in the instance of nearly all these tyrants, their vices either directly occasioned, or were made the pretext of their final ruin.

The fact is well established, that Count Julian and his brother Oppas, archbishop of Toledo, both of them distinguished and influential men, favoured the irruption of the Moors into Spain.

Tarik, one of the most renowned captains of his time,[10] was sent into
Spain by Moussa. He had at first but few troops; but he was not by
this prevented from defeating the large army that, by command of
Roderick, the last Gothic king, opposed his course.

Subsequently, having received re-enforcements {35} from Africa, Tarik vanquished Roderick himself at the battle of Xeres, where that unfortunate monarch perished during the general flight in which the conflict terminated, A.D. 714, Heg. 96.

After this battle, the Mohammedan general, profiting by his victory, penetrated into Estremadura, Andalusia, and the two Castiles, and took possession of the city of Toledo. Being soon after joined by Moussa, whose jealousy of the glory his lieutenant was so rapidly acquiring prompted him to hasten to his side, these two remarkable commanders, dividing their troops into several corps, achieved, in a few months, the conquest of the whole of Spain.

It should be observed, that these Moors, whom several historians have represented as bloodthirsty barbarians, did not deprive