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silver were annually paid to the treasury of the CHAP. caliph. Our reason must be startled by these extravagant assertions; and they will become more palpable, if we assume the compass and measure the extent of habitable ground; a valley from the tropic to Memphis, seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. A more accurate research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions, created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the decent revenue of four millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers." Two authentic lists, of the present

• Elmacın. Hist. Saracen. p. 218; and this gross lump is swallowed without scruple by d'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 1031); Arbuthnot, (Tables of Ancient Coins, p. 262), and de Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. in, p. 135). They might allege the not less extravagant liberality of Appian in favour of the Ptolemies (in præfat.) of seventy-four myri. riads, 740,000 talents, an annual income of 185, or near 300, millions of pounds sterling, according as we reckon by the Egyptian or the Alexandrian talent, (Bernard de Ponderibus Antiq. p. 186.

See the measurement of d'Anville, (Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 23, &c.). After some peevish cavils, M. Pauw (Recherches sur les Egyp tiens, tom. 1, p. 118-121) can only enlarge his reckoning to 2250 square leagues.

"Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexand. p. 334, who calls the common reading or version of Elmacın, error librarii. His own emendation of 4,300,000 pieces in the ixth century, maintains a probable medium be tween the 3,000,000 which the Arabs acquired by the conquest of Egypt, (idem, p. 168), and the 2,400,000 which the sultan of Constantmople levied in the last century, (Pietre della Valle, tom. i, p. 352 ; Thevenot, part i, p. 824). Pauw (Recherches, tom. 1, p. 365-373) gradually raises the revenue of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Cæsars, from six to fifteen millions of German crowns.

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CHAP. and of the twelfth century, are circumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand After a seven hundred villages and towns.* long residence at Cairo, a French consul has ventured to assign about four millions of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, though not incredible, scope of the population of Egypt."

AFRICA'

sion by

A. D. 647.

IV. The conquest of Africa, from the Nile to First inva- the Atlantic ocean," was first attempted by the Abdallah, arms of the caliph Othman. The pious design. was approved by the companions of Mahomet and the chiefs of the tribes; and twenty thousand Arabs marched from Medina, with the gifts and the blessing of the commander of the faithful. They were joined in the camp of

* The list of Schultens (Index Geograph. ad calcem Vit. Saladin p. 2) contains 2396 places; that of d'Anville, (Mem. sur l'Egypte, p. 29), from the divan of Cairo, enumerates 2696.

y See Maillet, (Description de l'Egypte, p. 28) who seems to argue with candour and judgment. I am much better satisfied with the ob servations than with the reading of the French consul. He was ignoraut of the Greek and Latin literature, and his fancy is too much delighted with the fictions of the Arabs. Their best knowledge is collected by Abulfeda, (Descript. Egypt. Arab. et Lat. à Joh. David Michaelit, Gottinga, in 4to, 1776); and in two recent voyages into Egypt, we are amused hy Savary, and instructed by Volney. I wish the latter could travel over the globe.

My conquest of Africa is drawn from two French interpreters of Arabic literature, Cardonne (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. i, p. 8-55), and Otter, (Hist. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom, xxi, p. 111-125, and 136) They derive their principal information from Novairi, who composed, A. D. 1331, an Eucyclopædia in more than twenty volumes. The five general parts successively treat of, 1. Physics, 2 Man, 3. Animals, 4. Plants, and, 5. History; and the African affairs are discussed in the vith chapter of the vth section of this last part, (Reiske, Prodidagmata ad Hagji Chalifæ Tabulas, p. 232-234). Among the older historians who are quoted by Novairi, we may distinguish the original narrative of a soldier who led the van of the Moslems.

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Memphis by twenty thousand of their country- CHAP. men; and the conduct of the war was intrusted to Abdallah, the son of Said, and the foster-brother of the caliph, who had lately supplanted the conqueror and lieutenant of Egypt. Yet the favour of the prince, and the merit of his favourite, could not obliterate the guilt of his apostacy. The early conversion of Abdallah, and his skilful pen, had recommended him to the important office of transcribing the sheets of the Koran; he betrayed his trust, corrupted the text, derided the errors which he had made, and fled to Mecca to escape the justice, and expose the ignorance, of the apostle. After the conquest of Mecca, he fell prostrate at the feet of Mahomet: his tears, and the entreaties of Othman, extorted a reluctant pardon; but the prophet declared that he had so long hesitated, to allow time for some zealous disciple to avenge his injury in the blood of the apostate. With apparent fidelity and effective merit, he served the religion which it was no longer his interest to desert: his birth and talents gave him an honourable rank among the Koreish; and in a nation of cavalry, Abdallah was renowned as the boldest and most dexterous horseman of Arabia. At the head of forty thousand Moslems, he advanced from Egypt into the unknown countries of the West. The sands of Barca might be impervious to a Roman legion; but the Arabs were

See the history of Abdallah, in Abulfeda (Vit. Mohammed, p. 109) and Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii, p. 45-48).

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CHAP. attended by their faithful camels; and the natives of the desert beheld without terror the familiar aspect of the soil and climate. After a painful march, they pitched their tents before the walls of Tripoli, a maritime city in which the name, the wealth, and the inhabitants, of the province had gradually centered, and which now maintains the third rank among the states of Barbary. A reinforcement of Greeks was surprised and cut in pieces on the sea-shore; but the fortifications of Tripoli resisted the first assaults; and the Saracens were tempted, by the approach of the prefect Gregory, to relinquish the labours of the siege for the perils and Feet Grego, the hopes of a decisive action. If his standard ry and his was followed by one hundred and twenty thoudaughter. sand men, the regular bands of the empire must have been lost in the naked and disorderly crowd of Africans and Moors, who formed the strength, or rather the numbers of his host. He rejected with indignation the option of the Koran or the tribute; and during several days, the two armies were fiercely engaged from the

fect

The province and city of Tripoli are described by Leo Africanus (in Navigatione et Viaggi di Ramusio, tom. i, Venetia, 1550, fol. 76, verso) and Marmol, (Description de l'Afrique, tom. ii, p. 562). The first of these writers was a Moor, a scholar, and a traveller, who composed or translated his African geography in a state of captivity at Rome, where he had assumed the name and religion of Pope Leo X. In a similar captivity among the Moors, the Spaniard Marmol, a soldier of Charles V, compiled his Description of Africa, translated by d'Ablancourt into French, (Paris, 1667, 3 vols in 4to). Marmol had read and seen, but he is destitute of the curious and extensive observation which abounds in the original work of Leo the African.

Theophanes, who mentions the defeat, rather than the death, of Gregory. He brands the prefect with the name of Tupavvos; he húð probably assumed the purple, (Chronograph. p. 285.)

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dawn of light to the hour of noon, when their CHAP. fatigue and the excessive heat compelled them to seek shelter and refreshment in their respective camps. The daughter of Gregory, a maid of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side: from her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the simitar; and the richness of her arms and apparel was conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle. Her hand, with an hundred thousand pieces of gold, was offered for the head of the Arabian general, and the youths of Africa were excited by the prospect of the glorious prize. At the pressing solicitation of his brethren, Abdallah withdrew his person from the field; but the Saracens were discouraged by the retreat of their leader, and the repetition of these equal or unsuccessful conflicts.

A noble Arabian, who afterwards became the victory of adversary of Ali and the father of a caliph, had the Arabs. signalized his valour in Egypt; and Zobeird was the first who planted a scaling-ladder against the walls of Babylon. In the African war he was detached from the standard of Abdallah on the news of the battle, Zobeir, with twelve companions, cut his way through the camp of the Greeks, and pressed forwards, without tasting either food or repose, to partake of the dangers of his brethren. He cast his

See in Ockley (Hist of the Saracens, vol. ii, p. 45) the death of Zobeir, which was honoured with the tears of Ali, against whom he had rebelled. His valour at the siege of Babylon, if indeed it be the same person, is mentioned by Eutychius, Aunal. tom. ii, p. 808).