5. Harun al Rashid (the contemporary of Charlemagne) one of the wisest and most powerful caliphs, reigned a. 786-809.

6. Gemüth (mind,' 'disposition') is used absolutely for 'kind disposition.' Comp. note on p. 13, 25.

7. Druck=Bedrüðung, ‘oppression.'

10. allerdings 'indeed' denotes a concession to be made for the sake of the argument.

840.

II.

Ludwig der Fromme, the son of Charlemagne, reigned a. 814— He was a good-hearted, but very weak prince. The French call him significantly Louis le Débonnaire. He divided his empire between his sons and thereby gave rise to interminable jealousies and wars.

14. The dynasty of which Harun-al-Rashid was the most eminent caliph, is called that of the 'Abbasides,' from the founder of the family, Abul Abbas, a descendant of the prophet's uncle, Abbas.

21. be-förder-n lit, 'to further,' i.e. 'to promote.'

24.

dem besten Zahler 'to the highest bidder,' who promised to pay the highest sum. The custom of farming out the revenue of the country was adopted in the Roman empire and prevailed in many mediæval and even modern countries, e.g. in France until the time of the Revolution.

25. The caliph Al Motassem (833-842) was the first to adopt a Turkish body-guard.

27. zer-fallen 'to fall asunder' or 'to pieces. For the power of the prefix zer- see Aue § 279, 6.

31. Herrscherstamm is a German rendering of the foreign (Greek) word Synaptic (ή δυναστεία).

PAGE 3.

3. unvermögend=unfähig, außer Stande. The word has also the sense of 'poor' (=ohne Vermögen).

7. Bassora (or Basra), a city founded in the 7th century by the caliph Omar, close to the right shore of the Shat-el-Arab (i.e. the river formed by the union of the Euphrates and the Tigris), to the south of Bagdad. It is still a place of some importance, of about 40,000 inhabitants.— Emir (or Amir) is an Arabic title, meaning ‘commander,' from amara 'to command.' We have the same word in Admiral, either from the Arabic amir-ul-bahr 'commander of the sea,' or, as Dozy prefers, from al-amîr with a Latin termination 'alis,' 'alius.'

10. The influence of the spiritual power of the caliphs did not reach so far as the West (of Europe).—blieb=verblieb, ‘remained in the possession' of the caliphs.

13. gemein 'common,' i. e. 'general' (in which sense we might also employ allgemein or gewöhnlich).

18. It would be more usual to say die Heere dieses Fürsten.

19. The dynasty of the Ommyades or Ommaiyades had been in possession of Spain since a. 755. They resided at Cordova.

20. Das Weltmeer is a somewhat poetical appellation of the Atlantic Ocean.

21. Mecca and Medina are the two principal towns of Arabia, both considered sacred by the Mohammedans.

23. Ali (the fourth caliph) was the husband of the prophet's daughter Fatime.

25. The first three caliphs were Abubekr, the father of Ayesha, Mohammed's second wife; Omar and Othman.

27. The expression would be more harmonious, if the author had written aus religiösen und politischen Gründen.

PAGE 4.

I. The adherents of Ali are called 'Shiites,' at present chiefly represented by the Persians; they consider Ali as next in rank to the prophet himself. The Sunnites' (now chiefly represented by the Turks and the Arabs) maintain the right of free succession to the caliphate, and acknowledge as their religious authorities both the Koran and the Sunna (i.e. a collection of oral traditions concerning the prophet and his family), the latter of which is rejected by the 'Shiites.'

5. alle Religionsbekenner = Bekenner aller Religionen.

7. Hakem reigned a. 996—1021; the German emperor Otto III. reigned a. 983-1002. Henry II. (called der Heilige) 1002—1024.

II.

12.

schwur.

The verb schwören forms in the imperfect both schwer and

16. löblich lobenswerth.

17. Al Mostanser 1036—1094.

21.

25.

abstellen lit. 'to put aside,' i.e. to do away with something.

Sklaven 'male slaves,' Mägbe 'female slaves.'

26. The common expression is Tauschhandel treiben.

27. The verb warten takes the genitive when it means 'to wait on someone' or 'something'; it is joined with the preposition auf, when it means 'to wait for someone' or 'something.'

29. The Chazars were a Turkish nomad tribe in the countries between the Caspian and the Black Sea. They were of some conse

quence, and their alliance was repeatedly sought by the Byzantine emperors. The modern Bulgarians are said to be their descendants.

PAGE 5.

I. The river Sihon or Faxartes, also Sir-Darya, flows into the Aral Lake.

3. vertheidigungsweise (adv.) 'in a defensive manner.'

5. The dynasty of the Ghasnevides founded an empire in Afghanistan and gradually extended it to the Ganges. They resided at Ghasna in Cabul, and their court was famous as a centre of poets and philosophers.-The Buides were the family in possession of sovereign power at Bagdad since 934.

7. Henry IV. was German emperor 1056—1106; it was he who 'went to Canossa' to pacify an overbearing pope, January 1077.

8. The popes with whom Henry IV. had to struggle were Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) 1073-1085, Victor III. -1088, Urban II. -1099, and Paschalis II., who induced Henry's son, the later emperor Henry V., to make war against his father.-Robert Guiscard, a bold and enterprising Norman chief, conquered the greater part of southern Italy; he died a. 1085. He was invested by the popes with the countries he had conquered by his sword.

10. Isaac Komnenos 1057—1059, Alexios Komnenos 1081-1118. 12. Alp Arslan reigned a. 1063-1072.

13. Beg is a title (still used among the Turks) joined to the name (Togrul).—Nisibis (now Nisibin), a town in the northern highlands of Mesopotamia.

14. Aleppo in Syria, still a considerable town (70,000 inhabitants). -Romanus Diogenes, a brave soldier raised to the throne by his marriage with the imperial widow Eudocia, reigned 1068–1071.

16. Gibbon calls this town 'Malazkerd' and styles it 'an important fortress in the midway between the modern cities of Arzeroum and Van' (ch. LVII.).

18. 'Alp Arslan dictated the terms of liberty and peace, a ransom of a million, an annual tribute of three hundred and sixty thousand pieces of gold, the marriage of the royal children, and the deliverance of all the Moslems who were in the power of the Greeks.' Gibbon.

21. Michael Dukas reigned 1071-1078, having previously been the colleague of his step-father Romanus. Michael was the son of Constantine Ducas (1059–1067) and Eudocia.

23. Fortschritte should here be understood of actual advance towards Constantinople. The word is often used metaphorically in the sense of mental 'progress.'

25. The account of Gibbon (ch. LVII) differs slightly from the one given here. It may be observed that Jussuf is another form of the name Joseph.

27. Gibbon says 'the arrow glanced aside.'—fehlen is here used in the sense of das Ziel verfehlen.

28. straucheln 'to slip or stumble.'

29 sq. Compare Gibbon 1. c. who uses nearly the same words as our author.

31. unüberwindlich 'invincible' (=unbesiegbar).

PAGE 6.

4. Malek Shah, the eldest son and successor of Alp Arslan, reigned 1072-1092. Compare Gibbon ch. LVII.

9. Ausbruch (lit. 'breaking out') is often used as a synonym of Anfang or Beginn eines Uebels. Thus we say, der Ausbruch einer Empörung, einer Krankheit (Seuche) etc.

12. oströmisch=byzantinisch, as the eastern part of the Roman empire (which had, however, by this time become substantially Greek) was governed by princes residing at Byzantium or Constantinople.

14. The Turks were originally a nomad tribe, and did not at once take to living in towns. Hence the expression die Städte kamen in Aufnahme 'towns were becoming more favourite habitations.'

15. 'After the death of Malek, the bands of union and subordination were relaxed and finally dissolved.' Gibbon.

18. Pilger 'pilgrims,' who merely passed through the country. The word comes from L. peregrinus 'a stranger.'

19. irgend irgendwie 'in any respect.'

22.

fahrt.

Pilgerung is not a common word; we generally say die Pilger

26. als Bußübungen 'when undertaken as a penitential exercise.' 27. Lösen befreien.

28. Ich übersehe etwas 'I overlook something' (i.e. do not notice it); ich sehe über etwas hinüber or hinweg 'I look over something' (as e. g. a wall, fence, etc.).

29. The Italian republics are Genoa, Venice, Padua, and several others.

PAGE 7.

1. They readily (gern) undertook for a small payment to provide passage for the pilgrims.-mäßig ('moderate')=gering, bescheiden ('modest').

2. schon diese Meerfahrt 'this voyage in itself.'

7. nicht ohne is an instance of the figure called 'litotes,' i.e. an affir

mative sense is conveyed by two negations. In the present place the author might also have said mit sehr großer Gefahr.

13. das Land meiden lit. 'to avoid the land,' i.e. go into exile (in die Verbannung gehen).

14. We might add the object etwas before gehört. But this omission is very common in this phrase.

16. Und when beginning a new sentence, is always used in a very emphatic sense, as if it were und zwar or und obendrein ('and moreover '). 17. überstehen is often used of getting through something dangerous or unpleasant, e.g. in the phrase eine Krankheit überstehen.

19. Ramla to the N. W. of Jerusalem, on the way to the coast.

21. Bewilligung is a synonym of Erlaubniß; it is, however, only used of a grant made to an inferior.

25. den Türken is dativus commodi; nothing was any longer sacred ' in the eyes of the Turks.'

PAGE 8.

3. zweifelsohne (adv.)=ohne Zweifel, 'doubtless, no doubt.' Now-adays this adverb has become somewhat antiquated and is generally replaced by unzweifelhaft.— -wenn anders if indeed.'

7. Ein-siedl-er lit. 'one who settles alone,' a hermit (= èpnμírns, eremit, 'one who lives in a desert').

8. un-ansehn-lich lit. 'not much to be looked at,' i.e. insignificant.

IO.

Even in that age, distinguished as it was for ascetic virtues, Peter was conspicuous by his abstemiousness.

II. 12.

beredt is an adverb=in beredter Weise.

Notice the difference between Abdruck ('reflex') and Ausvruck ('expression'). We may say, in seinem Auge lag der Ausdruck eines lebhaften Geistes.

15. 'His spirit prompted him' or 'the spirit moved him.'

16. We might also employ the compound 'verschaffen' or 'beschaffen ('procure').

17. Instead of erweisen the more usual word in such a context would be beweisen.

19. entnervt, 'enfeebled,' ' feeble.'

20.

We should translate as if it were ihr halbes Reich.

21. fei must also be supplied for the second part of the sentence. He proved that deliverance was possible only from the countries of the West.

23. jest, after the Patriarch had proved all this.

24. das Geschriebene den Inhalt der Schreiben.