Part 2 — Chapter III. (These four articles abrogated by the four articles following them, 118-122.) Article 118. The Federal Constitution may at any time be amended. (continued 104)

Sir W. Muir, Life of Mahomet.

ALSO IN: E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 50.

J. W. H. Stobart, Islam and its Founder, chapters 3-9.

W. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors, chapters 6-39.

R. D. Osborn, Islam under the Arabs, part 1, chapters 1-3.

See, also, ISLAM, and ERA, MAHOMETAN.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-639. Abu Bekr. Omar. The founding of the Caliphate. Conquest of Syria.

The death of Mahomet left Islam without a head. The Prophet had neither named a successor (Khalif or Caliph), nor had he instituted a mode in which the choice of one should be made. His nephew and son-in-law—"the Bayard of Islam," the lion-hearted Ali—seemed the natural heir of that strangely born sovereignty of the Arab world. But its elders and chiefs were averse to Ali, and the assembly which they convened preferred, instead, the Prophet's faithful friend, the venerable Abu Bekr. This first of the caliphs reigned modestly but two years, and on his death, July, A. D. 634, the stern soldier Omar was raised to the more than royal place. By this time the armies of the crescent were already far advanced beyond the frontiers of Arabia in their fierce career of conquest. No sooner had Abu Bekr, in 632, set his heel on some rebellious movements, which threatened his authority, than he made haste to open fields in which the military spirit and ambitions of his unquiet people might find full exercise. With bold impartiality he challenged, at once, and alike, the two dominant powers of the eastern world, sending armies to invade the soil of Persia, on one hand, and the Syrian provinces of the Roman empire, on the other. The invincible Khaled, or Caled, led the former, at first, but was soon transferred to the more critical field, which the latter proved to be. "One of the fifteen provinces of Syria, the cultivated lands to the eastward of the Jordan, had been decorated by Roman vanity with the name of 'Arabia'; and the first arms of the Saracens were justified by the semblance of a national right." The strong city of Bosra was taken, partly through the treachery of its commander, Romanus, who renounced Christianity and embraced the faith of Islam. From Bosra the Moslems advanced on Damascus, but suspended the siege of the city until they had encountered the army which the Emperor Heraclius sent to its relief. This they did on the field of Aiznadin, in the south of Palestine, July 30, A. D. 634, when 50,000 of the Roman-Greeks and Syrians are said to have perished, while but 470 Arabs fell. Damascus was immediately invested and taken after a protracted siege, which Voltaire has likened to the siege of Troy, on account of the many combats and stratagems—the many incidents of tragedy and romance—which poets and historians have handed down, in some connection with its progress or its end. The ferocity of Khaled was only half restrained by his milder colleague in command, Abu Obeidah, and the wretched inhabitants of Damascus suffered terribly at his hands. The city, itself, was spared and highly favored, becoming the Syrian capital of the Arabs. Heliopolis (Baalbec) was besieged and taken in January, A. D. 636; Emessa surrendered soon after. In November, 636, a great and decisive battle was fought with the forces of Heraclius at Yermuk, or Yermouk, on the borders of Palestine and Arabia. The Christians fought obstinately and well, but they were overwhelmed with fearful slaughter. "After the battle of Yermuk the Roman army no longer appeared in the field; and the Saracens might securely choose, among the fortified towns of Syria, the first object of their attack. They consulted the caliph whether they should march to Cæsarea or Jerusalem; and the advice of Ali determined the immediate siege of the latter. … After Mecca and Medina, it was revered and visited by the devout Moslems as the temple of the Holy Land, which had been sanctified by the revelation of Moses, of Jesus, and of Mahomet himself." The defense of Jerusalem, notwithstanding its great strength, was maintained with less stubbornness than that of Damascus had been. After a siege of four months, in the winter of A. D. 637, the Christian patriarch or bishop of Jerusalem, who seems to have been first in authority, proposed to give up the Holy City, if Omar, the caliph, would come in person from Medina to settle and sign the terms of surrender. Omar deemed the prize worthy of this concession and made the long journey, travelling as simply as the humblest pilgrim and entering Jerusalem on foot. {2069} After this, little remained to make the conquest of all Syria complete. Aleppo was taken, but not easily, after a siege, and Antioch, the splendid seat of eastern luxury and wealth, was abandoned by the emperor and submitted, paying a great ransom for its escape from spoliation and the sword. The year 639 saw Syria at the feet of the Arabs whom it had despised six years before, and the armies of the caliph were ready to advance to new fields, east, northwards, and west.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 51.

ALSO IN: W. Irving, Mahomet and His Successors, volume 2, chapters 3-23.

S. Ockley, History of the Saracens: Abubeker.

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapters 2, 11, 19-21.

See, also, JERUSALEM: A. D. 637; and TYRE: A. D. 638.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-651. Conquest of Persia.

During the invasion of Syria, Abu Bekr, the first of the Caliphs, sent an expedition towards the Euphrates, under command of the redoubtable Khaled (633). The first object of its attack was Hira, a city on the western branch of the Euphrates, not far from modern Kufa. Hira was the seat of a small kingdom of Christian Arabs tributary to Persia and under Persian protection and control. Its domain embraced the northern part of that fertile tract between the desert and the Euphrates which the Arab writers call Sawad; the southern part being a Persian province of which the capital, Obolla, was the great emporium of the Indian trade. Hira and Obolla were speedily taken and this whole region subdued. But, Khaled being then transferred to the army in Syria, the Persians regained courage, while the energy of the Moslems was relaxed. In an encounter called the Battle of the Bridge, A. D. 635, the latter experienced a disastrous check; but the next year found them more victorious than ever. The great battle of Cadesia (Kadisiyeh) ended all hope in Persia of doing more than defend the Euphrates as a western frontier. Within two years even that hope disappeared. The new Arab general, Sa'ad Ibn Abi Wakas, having spent the interval in strengthening his forces, and in founding the city of Busrah, or Bassora, below the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, as well as that of Kufa, which became the Moslem capital, advanced into Mesopotamia, A. D. 637, crossing the river without opposition. The Persian capital, Ctesiphon, was abandoned to him so precipitately that most of its vast treasures fell into his hands. It was not until six months later that the Persians and Arabs met in battle, at Jalula, and the encounter was fatal to the former, 100,000 having perished on the field. "By the close of the year A. D. 637 the banner of the Prophet waved over the whole tract west of Zagros, from Nineveh almost to Susa." Then a brief pause ensued. In 641 the Persian king Isdigerd—last of the Sassanian house—made a great, heroic effort to recover his lost dominions and save what remained. He staked all and lost, in the final battle of Nehavend, which the Arabs called "Fattah-hul-Futtuh," or "Victory of Victories." "The defeat of Nehavend terminated the Sassanian power. Isdigerd indeed, escaping from Rei, and flying continually from place to place, prolonged an inglorious existence for the space of ten more years—from A. D. 641 to A. D. 651; but he had no longer a kingdom. Persia fell to pieces on the occasion of 'the victory of victories,' and made no other united effort against the Arabs. Province after province was occupied by the fierce invaders; and, at length, in A. D. 651, their arms penetrated to Merv, where the last scion of the house of Babek had for some years found a refuge. … The order of conquest seems to have been the following: Media, Northern Persia, Rhagiana, Azerbijan, Gurgan, Tantrist, and Khorassan in A. D. 642; Southern Persia, Kerman, Seistan, Mekran, and Kurdistan in A. D. 643; Merv, Balkh, Herat, and Kharezm in A. D. 650 or 652."

G. Rawlinson, Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 26, and foot-notes.

ALSO IN: W. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors, volume 2, chapters 25-34.

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapters 10-18, 25-26.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 640-646. Conquest of Egypt.

"It was in the nineteenth or twentieth year of the Hegira [A. D. 640 or 641] that Amru, having obtained the hesitating consent of the Caliph, set out from Palestine for Egypt. His army, though joined on its march by bands of Bedouins lured by the hope of plunder, did not at the first exceed 4,000 men. Soon after he had left, Omar, concerned at the smallness of his force, would have recalled him; but finding that he had already gone too far to be stopped, he sent heavy reinforcements, under Zobeir, one of the chief Companions, after him. The army of Amru was thus swelled to an imposing array of from 12,000 to 16,000 men, some of them warriors of renown. Amru entered Egypt by Arish, and overcoming the garrison at Faroma [ancient Pelusium], turned to the left and so passed onward through the desert, reaching thus the easternmost of the seven estuaries of the Nile. Along this branch of the river he marched by Bubastis towards Upper Egypt,"—and, so, to Heliopolis, near to the great ancient city of Misr, or Memphis. Here, and throughout their conquest of Egypt, the Moslem invaders appear to have found some goodwill towards them prevailing among the Christians of the Jacobite sect, who had never become reconciled to the Orthodox Greeks. Heliopolis and Memphis were surrendered to their arms after some hard fighting and a siege of no long duration. "Amru lost no time in marching upon Alexandria so as to reach it before the Greek troops, hastily called in from the outlying garrisons, could rally there for its defence. On the way he put to flight several columns which sought to hinder his advance; and at last presented himself before the walls of the great city, which, offering (as it still does) on the land side a narrow and well-fortified front, was capable of an obstinate resistance. Towards the sea also it was open to succour at the pleasure of the Byzantine Court. But during the siege Heraclius died, and the opportunity of relief was supinely allowed to slip away." In the end Alexandria capitulated and was protected from plunder (see LIBRARIES, ANCIENT: ALEXANDRIA), paying tribute to the conquerors. "Amru, it is said, wished to fix his seat of government at Alexandria, but Omar would not allow him to remain so far away from his camp, with so many branches of the Nile between. So he returned to Upper Egypt. A body of the Arabs crossed the Nile and settled in Ghizeh, on the western bank—a movement which Omar permitted only on condition that a strong fortress was constructed there to prevent the possibility of their being surprised and cut off. {2070} The headquarters of the army were pitched near Memphis. Around them grew up a military station, called from its origin Fostat, or 'the Encampment.' It expanded rapidly into the capital of Egypt, the modern Cairo. … This name 'Cahira,' or City of the Victory, is of later date [see below: A. D. 908-1171]. … Zobeir urged Amru to enforce the right of conquest, and divide the land among his followers. But Amru refused; and the Caliph, as might have been expected, confirmed the judgment. 'Leave the land of Egypt,' was his wise reply, 'in the people's hands to nurse and fructify.' As elsewhere, Omar would not allow the Arabs to become proprietors of a single acre. Even Amru was refused ground whereupon to build a mansion for himself. … So the land of Egypt, left in the hands of its ancestral occupants, became a rich granary for the Hejaz, even as in bygone times it had been the granary of Italy and the Byzantine empire. … Amru, with the restless spirit of his faith, soon pushed his conquests westward beyond the limits of Egypt, established himself in Barca, and reached even to Tripoli. … Early in the Caliphate of Othman [A. D. 646] a desperate attempt was made to regain possession of Alexandria. The Moslems, busy with their conquests elsewhere, had left the city insufficiently protected. The Greek inhabitants conspired with the Court; and a fleet of 300 ships was sent under command of Manuel, who drove out the garrison and took possession of the city. Amru hastened to its rescue. A great battle was fought outside the walls: the Greeks were defeated, and the unhappy town was subjected to the miseries of a second and a longer siege. It was at last taken by storm and given up to plunder. … The city, though still maintaining its commercial import, fell now from its high estate. The pomp and circumstance of the Moslem Court were transferred to Fostat, and Alexandria ceased to be the capital of Egypt."

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapter 24, with foot-note.

ALSO IN: E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 51.

W. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors, volume 2, chapters 24 and 35.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 644. Assassination of Caliph Omar.

The death of Omar, the second of the Caliphs, was a violent one. "It occurred in November, A. D. 644. One day a slave who worked for his master at the carpenter's bench came to see the Commander of the Faithful, and complained to him of being overworked, and badly treated by the citizen that owned him. Omar listened attentively, but arriving at the conclusion that the charges were false, sternly dismissed the carpenter to his bench. The man retired, vowing to be revenged. The following day was Friday, 'the day of the Assembly.' Omar, as usual, went to lead the prayers of the assembly in the great mosque. He opened his mouth to speak. He had just said 'Allah,' when the keen dagger of the offended slave was thrust into his back, and the Commander of the Faithful fell on the sacred floor, fatally wounded. The people, in a perfect frenzy of horror and rage, fell upon the assassin, but with superhuman strength he threw them off, and rushing about in the madness of despair he killed some and wounded others, and finally turning the point of his dagger to his own breast, fell dead. Omar lingered several days in great agony, but he was brave to the end. His dying words were, 'Give to my successor this parting bequest, that he be kind to the men of this city, Medina, which gave a home to us, and to the Faith. Tell him to make much of their virtues, and to pass lightly over their faults. Bid him also treat well the Arab tribes, for verily they are the backbone of Islam. Moreover, let him faithfully fulfil the covenants made with the Christians and the Jews! O Allah! I have finished my course! To him that cometh after me, I leave the kingdom firmly established and at peace!' Thus perished one of the greatest Princes the Mohammedans were ever to know. Omar was truly a great and good man, of whom any country and any creed might be proud."

J. J. Pool, Studies in Mohammedanism, pages 58-59.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 647-709. Conquest of northern Africa.

"While Egypt was won almost without a blow, Latin Africa [northern Africa beyond Egypt] took sixty years to conquer. It was first invaded under Othman in 647, but Carthage was not subdued till 698, nor was the province fully reduced for eleven years longer. And why? Doubtless because Africa contained two classes of inhabitants, not over-friendly to each other, but both of whom had something to lose by a Saracenic conquest. The citizens of Carthage were Roman in every sense, their language was Latin, their faith was orthodox; they had no wrongs beyond those which always afflict provincials under a despotism; wrongs not likely to be alleviated by exchanging a Christian despot at Constantinople for an infidel one at Medina or Damascus. Beyond them, in the inland provinces, were the native Moors, barbarians, and many of them pagans; they had fought for their rude liberty against the Cæsars, and they had no intention of surrendering it to the Caliphs. Romans and Moors alike long preferred the chances of the sword to either Koran or tribute; but their ultimate fate was different. Latin civilization and Latin Christianity gradually disappeared by the decay and extermination of their votaries. The Moors, a people not unlike the Arabs in their unconverted state, were at last content to embrace their religion, and to share their destinies and their triumphs. Arabs and Moors intermingled went on to further conquests; and the name of the barbarian converts was more familiarly used in Western Europe to denote the united nation than the terrible name of the original compatriots of the Prophet."

E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 3.

"In their climate and government, their diet and habitation, the wandering Moors resembled the Bedoweens of the desert. With the religion they were proud to adopt the language, name, and origin of Arabs; the blood of the strangers and natives was insensibly mingled; and from the Euphrates to the Atlantic the same nation might seem to be diffused over the sandy plains of Asia and Africa. Yet I will not deny that 50,000 tents of pure Arabians might be transported over the Nile and scattered through the Libyan desert; and I am not ignorant that five of the Moorish tribes still retain their barbarous idiom, with the appellation and character of 'white' Africans."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 51.

"By 647 the Barbary coast was overrun up to the gates of Roman Carthage; but the wild Berber population was more difficult to subdue than the luxurious subjects of the Sasanids of Persia or the Greeks of Syria and Egypt. Kayrawan was founded as the African capital in 670; Carthage fell in 693, and the Arabs pushed their arms as far as the Atlantic. From Tangier they crossed into Spain in 710."

S. Lane-Poole, The Mohammadan Dynasties, page 5.

ALSO IN: W. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors, volume 2, chapters 35, 44, 54-55.

R. D. Osborn, Islam under the Arabs, part 1, chapters 1-3.

See, also, CARTHAGE: A. D. 698; and MOROCCO.

{2071}

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 661. Accession of the Omeyyads.

Abu Bekr, the immediate successor of Mahomet, reigned but two years, dying August, A. D. 634. By his nomination, Omar was raised to the Caliphate and ruled Islam until 644, when he was murdered by a Persian slave. His successor was Othman, who had been the secretary of the Prophet. The Caliphate of Othman was troubled by many plots and increasing disaffection, which ended in his assassination, A. D. 656. It was not until then that Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Mahomet, was permitted to take the Prophet's seat. But the dissensions in the Moslem world had grown more bitter as the fields of ambitious rivalry were widened, and the factions opposed to Ali were implacable, "Now begins the tragic tale of the wrongs and martyrdoms of the immediate family of the Prophet. The province of Syria was now ruled by the crafty Moawiyah, whose father was Abu-Sofian, so long the bitterest enemy of Mahomet, and at last a tardy and unwilling proselyte. … Such was the parentage of the man who was to deprive the descendants of the Apostle of their heritage. Moawiyah gave himself out as the avenger of Othman; Ali was represented as his murderer, although his sons, the grandsons of the Prophet, had fought, and one of them received a wound, in the defence of that Caliph. … Ayesha, too, the Mother of the Faithful, Telha and Zobeir, the Prophet's old companions, revolted on their own account, and the whole of the brief reign of Ali was one constant succession of civil war." Syria adhered to Moawiyah. Ayesha, Zobeir and Telha gained possession of Bussorah and made that city their headquarters of rebellion. They were defeated there by Ali in a great battle, A. D. 656, called the Battle of the Camel, because the litter which bore Ayesha on the back of a camel became the center of the fight. But he gained little from the success; nor more from a long, indecisive battle fought with Moawiyah at Siffin, in July, A. D. 657. Amru, the conqueror of Egypt, had now joined Moawiyah, and his influence enlisted that great province in the revolt. At last, in 661, the civil war was ended by the assassination of Ali. His eldest son, Hassan, who seems to have been a spiritless youth, bargained away his claims to Moawiyah, and the latter became undisputed Caliph, founding a dynasty called that of the Ommiades, or Omeyyads (from Ommiah, or Omeyya, the great grandfather of Moawiyah), which occupied the throne for almost a century—not at Medina, but at Damascus, to which city the Caliphate was now transferred. "In thus converting the Caliphate into an hereditary monarchy he utterly changed its character. It soon assumed the character of a common oriental empire. … The Ommiads were masters of slaves instead of leaders of freemen; the public will was no longer consulted, and the public good as little; the Commander of the Faithful sank into an earthly despot, ruling by force, like any Assyrian conqueror of old. The early Caliphs dwelt in the sacred city of Medina, and directed the counsels of the Empire from beside the tomb of the Prophet. Moawiyah transferred his throne to the conquered splendours of Damascus; and Mecca and Medina became tributary cities to the ruler of Syria. At one time a rival Caliph, Abdallah, established himself in Arabia; twice were the holy cities taken by storm, and the Kaaba itself was battered down by the engines of the invaders. … Such a revolution however did not effect itself without considerable opposition. The partizans of the house of Ali continued to form a formidable sect. In their ideas the Vicarship of the Prophet was not to be, like an earthly kingdom, the mere prize of craft or of valour. It was the inalienable heritage of the sacred descendants of the Prophet himself. … This was the origin of the Shiah sect, the assertors of the rights of Ali and his house."

E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 3.

ALSO IN: Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapters 31-46.

R. D. Osborn, Islam Under the Arabs, part 3.

S. Lane-Poole, The Mohammadan Dynasties, pages 9-11.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 680. The Tragedy at Kerbela.

When Ali, or Aly, the nephew and son-in-law of Mahomet, had been slain, A. D. 661, and the Caliphate had been seized by Moawiyah, the first of the Ommiades, "the followers of 'Aly proclaimed his elder son, Hasan, Khalif; but this poor-spirited youth was contented to sell his pretensions to the throne. … On his death, his brother Hoseyn became the lawful Khalif in the eyes of the partisans of the House of 'Aly, who ignored the general admission of the authority of the 'Ommiades.' … For a time Hoseyn remained quietly at Medina, leading a life of devotion, and declining to push his claims. But at length an opportunity for striking a blow at the rival House presented itself, and Hoseyn did not hesitate to avail himself of it. He was invited to join an insurrection which had broken out at Kufa [A. D. 680], the most mutinous and fickle of all the cities of the empire; and he set out with his family and friends, to the number of 100 souls, and an escort of 500 horsemen, to join the insurgents. As he drew nigh to Kufa, he discovered that the rising had been suppressed by the 'Ommiade' governor of the city, and that the country round him was hostile instead of loyal to him. And now there came out from Kufa an army of 4,000 horse, who surrounded the little body of travellers [on the plain of Kerbela], and cut them off alike from the city and the river. … A series of single combats, in which Hoseyn and his followers displayed heroic courage, ended in the death of the Imam and the men who were with him, and the enslaving of the women and children."

S. Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque, chapter 7.

"The scene [of the massacre of Hosein and his band] … is still fresh as yesterday in the mind of every Believer, and is commemorated with wild grief and frenzy as often as the fatal day, the Tenth of the first month of the year [tenth of Moharram—October 10], comes round. … The tragedy of Kerbala decided not only the fate of the Caliphate, but of Mahometan kingdoms long after the Caliphate had waned and disappeared. … The tragedy is yearly represented on the stage as a religious ceremony"—in the "Passion Play" of the Moharram Festival.

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapter 49, with foot-note.

See, also, ISLAM.

{2072}

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 668-675. First repulse from Constantinople.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 668-675.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 710. Subjugation of the Turks.

"After the fall of the Persian kingdom, the river Oxus divided the territories of the Saracens and of the Turks: This narrow boundary was soon overleaped by the spirit of the Arabs; the governors of Chorassan extended their successive inroads; and one of their triumphs was adorned with the buskin of a Turkish queen, which she dropped in her precipitate flight beyond the hills of Bochara. But the final conquest of Transoxana, as well as of Spain, was reserved for the glorious reign of the inactive Walid; and the name of Catibah, the camel-driver, declares the origin and merit of his successful lieutenant. While one of his colleagues displayed the first Mahometan banner on the banks of the Indus, the spacious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian sea were reduced by the arms of Catibah to the obedience of the prophet and of the caliph. A tribute of two millions of pieces of gold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were burned or broken; the Mussulman chief pronounced a sermon in the new mosch [mosque] of Carizme; after several battles the Turkish hordes were driven back to the desert; and the emperors of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. To their industry the prosperity of the province, the Sogdiana of the ancients, may in a great measure be ascribed; but the advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and cultivated since the reign of the Macedonian kings. Before the invasion of the Saracens, Carizme, Bochara, and Samarcand were rich and populous under the yoke of the shepherds of the North."

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 51.

ALSO IN: E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 3.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 711-713. Conquest of Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.

—————————————————— [Page 2073 and 2074 are placed here to avoid interrupting the next article, "The repulse from Gaul.".]

SEVENTH CENTURY.

CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.

A.D. 602. Revolt in Constantinople; fall and death of Maurice; accession of Phocas.

604. Death of Pope Gregory the Great. Death of St. Augustine of Canterbury. [Uncertain date.]

608. Invasion of Asia Minor by Chosroes II., king of Persia.

610. Death of the Eastern Emperor Phocas; accession of Heraclius. Venetia ravaged by the Avars.

614. Invasion of Syria by Chosroes II.; capture of Damascus.

615. Capture of Jerusalem by Chosroes; removal of the supposed True Cross.

616. First expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Advance of the Persians to the Bosphorus.

622. The flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the Hegira). Romans under Heraclius victorious over the Persians.

626. Siege of Constantinople by Persians and Avars.

627. Victory of Heraclius over Chosroes of Persia, at Nineveh. Conversion of Northumbria to Christianity.

628. Recovery of Jerusalem and of the supposed True Cross, from the Persians, by Heraclius.

630. Submission of Mecca to the Prophet.

632. Death of Mahomet; Abu Bekr chosen caliph.

634. Death of Abu Bekr; Omar chosen caliph. Battle of Hieromax or Yermuk; Battle of the Bridge. [Uncertain date.] Defeat of Heraclius. Compilation and arrangement of the Koran. [Uncertain date.]

635. Siege and capture of Damascus by the Mahometans; invasion of Persia; victory at Kadisiyeh. [Uncertain date.] Defeat of the Welsh by the English in the battle of the Heavenfield.

636. Mahometan subjugation of Syria; retreat of the Romans.

637. Siege and conquest of Jerusalem by the Moslems; their victories in Persia.

639. Publication of the Ecthesis of Heraclius.

640. Capture of Cæsarea by the Moslems; invasion of Egypt by Amru.

641. Death of the Eastern Emperor Heraclius; three rival emperors; accession of Constans II. Victory at Nehavend and final conquest of Persia by the Mahometans; end of the Sassanian kingdom; capture of Alexandria, [Uncertain date.] founding of Cairo.

643. Publication of the Lombard Code of Laws.

644. Assassination of Omar; Othman chosen caliph.

646. Alexandria recovered by the Greeks and lost again.

648. Publication by Constans II. of the edict called "The Type."

649. Mahometan invasion of Cyprus.

650. Conquest of Merv, Balkh, and Herat by the Moslems. [Uncertain date.]

652. Conversion of the East Saxons in England.

653. Seizure and banishment of Pope Martin I. by the Emperor Constans II.

656. Murder of Caliph Othman; Ali chosen caliph; rebellion of Moawiyah; civil war; Battle of the Camel.

657. Ali's transfer of the seat of government to Kufa.

658. Syria abandoned to Moawiyah; Egypt in revolt.

661. Assassination of Ali; Moawiyah, first of the Omeyyads, made caliph; Damascus his capital.

663. Visit of the Emperor Constans to Rome.

668. Assassination of Constans at Syracuse; [Uncertain date.] accession of Constantine IV. to the throne of the Eastern Empire. Beginning of the siege of Constantinople by the Saracens.

670. The founding of Kairwan, or Kayrawan. [Uncertain date.]

673. First Council of the Anglo-Saxon Church, at Hereford. Birth of the Venerable Bede [Uncertain date.] (died 735).

677. The raising of the siege of Constantinople; treaty of peace. [Uncertain date.]

680. Sixth General Council of the Church, at Constantinople; condemnation of the Monothelite heresy. Massacre at Kerbela of Hoseyn, son of Ali, and his followers.

685. Death of the Eastern Emperor, Constantine IV., and accession of Justinian II. The Angles of Northumbria, under King Ecgfrith, defeated by the Picts at Nectansmere.

687. Battle of Testri; victory of Pippin of Heristal over the Neustrians.

695. Fall and banishment of Justinian II.

696. Founding of the bishopric of Salzburg.

697. Election of the first Doge of Venice.

698. Conquest and destruction of Carthage by the Moslems. [Uncertain date]

EIGHTH CENTURY.

CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENTS.

A.D. 704. Recovery of the throne by the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.

705. Accession of the Caliph Welid.

709. Accession of Roderick to the Gothic throne in Spain.

711. Invasion of Spain by the Arab-Moors. Moslem conquest of Transoxiana and Sardinia. Final fall and death of the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.

712. Surrender of Toledo to the Moslem invaders of Spain.

717. Elevation of Leo the Isaurian to the throne of the Eastern Empire. Second siege of Constantinople by the Moslems. Great defeat of the Moslems at the Cave of Covadonga in Spain.

718. Victory of Charles Martel at Soissons; his authority acknowledged in both Frankish kingdoms.

719. Mahometan conquest and occupation of Narbonne.

721. Siege of Toulouse; defeat of the Moslems.

725. Mahometan conquests in Septimania.

726. Iconoclastic edicts of Leo the Isaurian; tumult and insurrection in Constantinople.

731. Death of Pope Gregory II.; election of Gregory III.; last confirmation of a Papal election by the Eastern Emperor.

732. Great defeat of the Moslems by the Franks under Charles Martel at Poitiers, or Tours. Council held at Rome by Pope Gregory III.; edict against the Iconoclasts.

733. Practical termination of Byzantine imperial authority.

735. Birth of Alcuin (died 804).

740. Death of Leo the Isaurian, Emperor in the East; accession of Constantine V.

741. Death of Charles Martel. Death of Pope Gregory III.; election of Zacharias.

742. Birth of Charlemagne (died 814).

744. Defeat of the Saxons by Carloman; their forced baptism. Death of Liutprand, king of the Lombards.

747. The Plague in Constantinople. Pippin the Short made Mayor in both kingdoms of the Franks.

750. Fall of the Omeyyad dynasty of caliphs and rise of the Abbassides.

751. Extinction of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards.

752. End of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings; assumption of the crown by Pippin the Short. Death of Pope Zacharias; election of Stephen II.

754. First invasion of Italy by Pippin the Short. Rome assailed by the Lombards.

755. Subjugation of the Lombards by Pippin; his donation of temporalities to the Pope. Martyrdom of Saint Boniface in Germany.

756. Founding of the caliphate of Cordova by Abderrahman.

757. Death of Pope Stephen II.; election of Paul I.

758. Accession of Offa, king of Mercia.

759. Loss of Narbonne, the last foothold of the Mahometans north of the Pyrenees.

763. Founding of the capital of the Eastern Caliphs at Bagdad. [Uncertain date.]

767. Death of Pope Paul I.; usurpation of the anti-pope, Constantine.

768. Conquest of Aquitaine by Pippin the Short. Death of Pippin; accession of Charlemagne and Carloman. Deposition of the anti-pope Constantine; election of Pope Stephen III.

771. Death of Carloman, leaving Charlemagne sole king of the Franks.

772. Charlemagne's first wars with the Saxons. Death of Pope Stephen III.; election of Hadrian I.

774. Charlemagne's acquisition of the Lombard kingdom; his enlargement of the donation of temporalities to the Pope. Forgery of the "Donation of Constantine." [Uncertain date.]

775. Death of the Eastern Emperor Constantine V.; accession of Leo IV.

778. Charlemagne's invasion of Spain; the "dolorous rout" of Roncesvalles.

780. Death of the Eastern Emperor Leo IV.; accession of Constantine VI.; regency of Irene.

781. Italy and Aquitaine formed into separate kingdoms by Charlemagne.

785. Great struggle of the Saxons against Charlemagne; submission of Wittikind.

786. Accession of Haroun al Raschid in the eastern caliphate.

787. Seventh General Council of the Church (Second Council of Nicæa). First incursions of the Danes in England.

788. Subjugation of the Bavarians by Charlemagne. Death of Abderrahman.

790. Composition of the Caroline books. [Uncertain date.]

791. Charlemagne's first campaign against the Avars.

794. Accession of Cenwulf, king of Mercia.

795. Death of Pope Hadrian I.; election of Leo III.

797. Deposition and blinding of the Eastern Emperor Constantine VI., by his mother Irene.

800. Imperial coronation of Charlemagne; revival of the Empire. Accession of Ecgberht, king of Wessex, the first king of all the English.

——————————————————-

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-732. The repulse from Gaul.

"The deeds of Musa [in Africa and Spain] had been performed 'in the evening of his life,' but, to borrow the words of Gibbon, 'his breast was still fired with the ardor of youth, and the possession of Spain was considered as only the first step to the monarchy of Europe. With a powerful armament by sea and land, he was preparing to pass the Pyrenees, to extinguish in Gaul the declining kingdoms of the Franks and Lombards, and to preach the unity of God on the altar of the Vatican. Thence, subduing the barbarians of Germany, he proposed to follow the course of the Danube from its source to the Euxine Sea, to overthrow the Greek or Roman empire of Constantinople, and, returning from Europe to Asia, to unite his new acquisitions with Antioch and the provinces of Syria.' This vast enterprise … was freely revolved by the successors of Musa. In pursuance of it, El Haur, the new lieutenant of the califs, assailed the fugitive Goths in their retreats in Septimania (715-718). El Zamah, who succeeded him, crossed the mountains, and, seizing Narbonne, expelled the inhabitants and settled there a colony of Saracens (719). The following year they passed the Rhone, in order to extend their dominion over Provence, but, repelled by the dukes and the militia of the country, turned their forces toward Toulouse (721). Eudo, Duke of Aquitain, bravely defending his capital, brought on a decisive combat. … El Zamah fell. The carnage among his retreating men then became so great that the Arabs named the passage from Toulouse to Carcassone the Road of Martyrs (Balat al Chouda). Supporting their terrible reverses with the characteristic resignation of their race and faith, the Arabs were still able to retain a hold of Narbonne and of other fortresses of the south, and, after a respite of four years, spent in recruiting their troops from Spain and Africa, to resume their projects of invasion and pillage in Gaul (725). Under the Wali Anbessa, they ascended the Rhone as far as the city of Lyons, devastating the towns and the fields. … When, … at the close of his expeditions, Anbessa perished by the hands of the Infidels, all the fanaticism of the Mussulman heart was aroused into an eager desire for revenge. His successor, Abd-el-Rahman, a tried and experienced general, energetic and heroic as he was just and prudent, … entered into elaborate preparations for the final conquest of Gaul. For two years the ports of Syria, Egypt, and Africa swarmed with departing soldiery, and Spain resounded with the calls and cries to arms (727-729)." The storm broke first on Aquitaine, and its valiant Duke Eudes, or Eudo, rashly meeting the enemy in the open field, in front of Bordeaux, suffered an irretrievable defeat (May, 731). Bordeaux was stormed and sacked, and all Aquitaine was given up to the ravages of the unsparing Moslem host. Eudes fled, a helpless fugitive, to his enemies the Franks, and besought the aid of the great palace-mayor, Karl Martel, practical sovereign of the Frankish kingdoms, and father of the Pippin who would soon become king in name as well as in fact. But, not for Aquitaine, only, but for all Gaul, all Germany,—all Christendom in Europe,—Karl and his Franks were called on to rally and do battle against the sons of the desert, whose fateful march of conquest seemed never to end. "'During all the rest of the summer, the Roman clarions and the German horns sounded and groaned through all the cities of Neustria and Austrasia, through the rustic palaces of the Frankish leudes, and in the woody gaus of western Germany.' … Meanwhile, Abel-el-Rahman, laden with plunder and satiated with blood, had bent his steps toward the southwest, where he concentrated his troops on the banks of the Charente. Enriched and victorious as he was, there was still an object in Gaul which provoked alike the cupidity and the zeal of his followers. This was the Basilica of St. Martin of Tours, the shrine of the Gallic Christians, where the richest treasures of the Church were collected, and in which the profoundest veneration of its members centred. He yearned for the pillage and the overthrow of this illustrious sanctuary, and, taking the road from Poitiers, he encountered the giants of the North in the same valley of the Vienne and Clain where, nearly three hundred years before, the Franks and the Wisigoths had disputed the supremacy of Gaul. There, on those autumn fields, the Koran and the Bible—Islamism and Christianity—Asia and Europe—stood face to face, ready to grapple in a deadly and decisive conflict. … {2075} Trivial skirmishes from time to time kept alive the ardor of both hosts, till at length, at dawn on Saturday, the 11th of October [A. D. 732], the signal for a general onset was given. With one loud shout of Allah-Akbar (God is great), the Arab horsemen charged like a tempest upon their foe, but the deep columns of the Franks did not bend before the blast. 'Like a wall of iron,' says the chronicler, 'like a rampart of ice, the men of the North stood unmoved by the frightful shock.' All day long the charges were renewed." Still the stout Franks held their ground, and still the indomitable warriors of Islam pressed upon them, until late in the afternoon, when the latter were thrown into confusion by an attack on their rear. Then Karl and his men charged on them and their lines were broken—their rout was bloody and complete. When night put an end to the slaughter, the Franks slept upon their arms, expecting that the dreaded Saracens would rally and resume the fight. But they vanished in the darkness. Their leader, the brave Abd-el-Rahman had fallen in the wild melée and no courage was left in their hearts. Abandoning everything but their horses and their arms, they fled to Narbonne. "Europe was rescued, Christianity triumphant, Karl the hero forever of Christian civilization."

P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, chapter 14.

The booty found by the Franks in the Moslem camp "was enormous; hard-money, ingots of the precious metals, melted from jewels and shrines; precious vases, rich stuffs, subsistence stores, flocks and herds gathered and parked in the camp. Most of this booty had been taken by the Moslemah from the Aquitanians, who now had the sorrow of seeing it greedily divided among the Franks."

H. Coppée, Conquest of Spain by the! Arab-Moors, book 6, chapter 1 (volume 2).

ALSO IN: E. S. Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, chapter 7.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750. Omeyyads and Abbassides. The dividing of the Caliphate.

The tragic death of Hosein and his companions at Kerbela kindled a passion which time would not extinguish in the hearts of one great party among the Moslems. The first ambitious leader to take advantage of the excitement of it, as a means of overthrowing the Omeyyads, was Abdallah ibn Zobeir, who, posing first as the "Protector of the Holy House" of Ali, soon proclaimed himself Caliph and maintained for thirteen years a rival court at Mecca. In the war which raged during a great part of those years, Medina was taken by storm and given over to pillage, while the holy city of Mecca withstood a siege of forty days, during which the sacred Caaba was destroyed. Zobeir fell, at last, in a final battle fought under the walls of Mecca. Meantime, several changes in the caliphate at Damascus had taken place and the throne was soon afterwards [A. D. 705] occupied by the Caliph Welid, whose reign proved more glorious than that of any other prince of his house. "Elements of disorder still remained, but under the wise and firm sceptre of Welid they were held in check. The arts of peace prevailed; schools were founded, learning cultivated, and poets royally rewarded; public works of every useful kind were promoted, and even hospitals established for the aged, lame, and blind. Such, indeed, at this era, was the glory of the court of Damascus that Weild, of all the Caliphs both before and after, gives the precedence to Welid. It is the fashion for the Arabian historians to abuse the Omeyyads as a dissolute, intemperate, and godless race; but we must not forget that these all wrote more or less under Abbasside inspiration. … After Welid, the Omeyyad dynasty lasted six-and-thirty years. But it began to rest on a precarious basis. For now the agents of the house of Hashim, descendants of the Prophet and of his uncle Abbas, commenced to ply secretly, but with vigour and persistency, their task of canvass and intrigue in distant cities, and especially in the provinces of the East. For a long time, the endeavour of these agitators was directed to the advocacy of the Shiya right; that is to say, it was based upon the Divine claim of Aly, and his descendants in the Prophet's line, to the Imamate or leadership over the empire of Islam. … The discomfiture of the Shiyas paved the way for the designing advocates of the other Hashimite branch, namely, that of the house of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet. These had all along been plotting in the background, and watching their opportunity. They now vaunted the claims of this line, and were barefaced enough to urge that, being descended from the uncle of Mahomet through male representatives, they took precedence over the direct descendants of the Prophet himself, because these came through Fatima in the female line. About the year 130 of the Hegira, Abul Abbas, of Abasside descent, was put forward in Persia, as the candidate of this party, and his claim was supported by the famous general Abu Muslim. Successful in the East, Abu Muslim turned his arms to the West. A great battle, one of those which decide the fate of empires, was fought on the banks of the Zab [A. D. 750]; and, through the defection of certain Kharejite and Yemen levies, was lost by the Omeyyad army. Merwan II., the last of his dynasty, was driven to Egypt, and there killed in the church of Bussir, whither he had fled for refuge. At the close of the year 132 [August 5, A. D. 750], the black flag, emblem of the Abbassides, floated over the battlements of Damascus. The Omeyyad dynasty, after ruling the vast Moslem empire for a century, now disappeared in cruelty and bloodshed. … So perished the royal house of the Omeyyads. But one escaped. He fled to Spain, which had never favoured the overweening pretensions of the Prophet's family, whether in the line of Aly or Abbas. Accepted by the Arab tribes, whose influence in the West was paramount, Abd al Rahman now laid the foundation of a new Dynasty and perpetuated the Omeyyad name at the magnificent court of Cordova. … Thus, with the rise of the Abbassides, the unity of the Caliphate came to an end. Never after, either in theory or in fact, was there a successor to the Prophet, acknowledged as such over all Islam. Other provinces followed in the wake of Spain. The Aghlabite dynasty in the east of Africa, and, west of it, the Edrisites in Fez, both of Alyite descent; Egypt and Sicily under independent rulers; the Tahirite kings in Persia, their native soil; these and others, breaking away from the central government, established kingdoms of their own. The name of Caliph, however it might survive in the Abbasside lineage, or be assumed by less legitimate pretenders, had now altogether lost its virtue and significance."

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapter 50.

ALSO IN: S. Lane-Poole, The Mohammadan Dynasties, pages 12-14.

R. D. Osborn, Islam Under the Arabs, part 3.

{2076}

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 717-718. Second repulse from Constantinople.

See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 717-718.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 752-759. Final expulsion from southern Gaul.

During the year of his coronation (A. D. 752) Pippin, or Pepin the Short—the first of the Carolingians to assume the Frankish crown—having taken measures to reduce Aquitaine to obedience, was diverted, on his march towards that country, into Septimania. The discord prevailing among the Moslems, who had occupied this region of Gaul for more than thirty years, "opened the prospect of an easy conquest. With little fighting, and through the treachery of a Goth named Ansemond, who commanded at Beziers, Agde, Maguelonne, and Nismes, under an Arabian wali, he was enabled to seize those strong-holds, and to leave a part of his troops to besiege Narbonne, as the first step toward future success." Then Pippin was called away by war with the Saxons and in Brittany, and was occupied with other cares and conflicts, until A. D. 759, when he took up and finished the task of expelling the Saracens from Gaul. "His troops left in occupation of Septimania (752) had steadily prosecuted the siege of Narbonne. … Not till after a blockade of seven years was the city surrendered, and then through the treason of the Christians and Goths who were inside the walls, and made secret terms with the beleaguers. They rose upon the Arabs, cut them in pieces, and opened the gates to the Franks. A reduction of Elne, Caucoliberis, and Carcassone followed hard upon that of Narbonne. … In a little while the entire Arab population was driven out of Septimania, after an occupation of forty years; and a large and important province (equivalent nearly to the whole of Languedoc), held during the time of the Merovingians by the Wisigoths, was secured to the possession of the Franks. The Arabs, however, though expelled, left many traces of their long residence on the manners and customs of Southern Gaul."

P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, chapter 15.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 756-1031. The Omeyyad caliphs of Cordova.

When the struggle of the house of Abbas with the house of Omeyya, for the throne of the caliphate at Damascus, was ended by the overthrow of the Omeyyads (A. D. 750), the wretched members of the fallen family were hunted down with unsparing ferocity. "A single youth of the doomed race escaped from destruction. After a long series of romantic adventures, he found his way into Spain [A. D. 756]; he there found partizans, by whose aid he was enabled to establish himself as sovereign of the country, and to resist all the attempts of the Abbassides to regain, or rather to obtain, possession of the distant province. From this Abderrahman [or Abdalrahman] the Ommiad proceeded the line of Emirs and Caliphs of Cordova, who reigned in splendour in the West for three centuries after their house had been exterminated in their original possessions. … When the Ommiad Abdalrahman escaped into Spain … the peninsula was in a very disordered state. The authority of the Caliphs of the East was nearly nominal, and governors rose and fell with very little reference to their distant sovereign. … The elevation of Abdalrahman may have been the result, not so much of any blind preference of Ommiads to Abbassides, as of a conviction that nature designed the Iberian peninsula to form an independent state. But at that early period of Mahometan history an independent Mahometan state could hardly be founded, except under the guise of a rival Caliphate. … And undoubtedly nothing is more certain than that the Ommiads of Cordova were in every sense a rival dynasty to the Abbassides of Bagdad. The race of Moawiyah seem to have decidedly improved by their migration westward. The Caliphs of Spain must be allowed one of the highest places among Mahometan dynasties. In the duration of their house and in the abundance of able princes which it produced, they yield only to the Ottoman Sultans, while they rise incomparably above them in every estimable quality. … The most splendid period of the Saracen empire in Spain was during the tenth century. The great Caliph Abdalrahman Annasir Ledinallah raised the magnificence of the Cordovan monarchy to its highest pitch. … The last thirty years of the Ommiad dynasty are a mere wearisome series of usurpations and civil wars. In 1031 the line became extinct, and the Ommiad empire was cut up into numerous petty states. From this moment the Christians advance, no more to retreat, and the cause of Islam is only sustained by repeated African immigrations."

E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lectures 4-5.

ALSO IN: H. Coppée, Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors, book 6, chapter 5; book 7, chapters 1-4; book 8, chapter 1.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 763. The Caliphate transferred to Bagdad.

"The city of Damascus, full as it was of memorials of the pride and greatness of the Ommiade dynasty, was naturally distasteful to the Abbassides. The Caliph Mansur had commenced the building of a new capital in the neighbourhood of Kufa, to be called after the founder of his family, Hashimiyeh. The Kufans, however, were devoted partisans of the descendants of Ali. … The growing jealousy and distrust between the two houses made it inadvisable for the Beni Abbas to plant the seat of their empire in immediate propinquity to the head-quarters of the Ali faction, and Mansur therefore selected another site [about A. D. 763]. This was Bagdad, on the western bank of the Tigris [fifteen miles above Medain, which was the ancient Seleucia and Ctesiphon]. It was well suited by nature for a great capital. The Tigris brought commerce from Diyar Bekr on the north, and through the Persian Gulf from India and China on the east; while the Euphrates, which here approaches the Tigris at the nearest point, and is reached by a good road, communicated directly with Syria and the west. The name Bagdad is a very ancient one, signifying 'given or founded by the deity,' and testifies to the importance of the site. The new city rapidly increased in extent and magnificence, the founder and his next two successors expending fabulous sums upon its embellishment, and the ancient palaces of the Sassanian kings, as well as the other principal cities of Asia, were robbed of their works of art for its adornment."

E. H. Palmer, Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of Bagdad, chapter 2.

"Baghdad, answering to its proud name of 'Dar al Salam,' 'The City of Peace,' became for a time the capital of the world, the centre of luxury, the emporium of commerce, and the scat of learning."

Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapter 50.

{2077}

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 815-945. Decline and temporal fall of the Caliphate at Bagdad.

"It was not until nearly the close of the first century after the Hejira that the banners of Islam were carried into the regions beyond the Oxus, and only after a great deal of hard fighting that the oases of Bokhara and Samarkand were annexed to the dominions of the khalif. In these struggles, a large number of Turks—men, women, and children—fell into the power of the Moslems, and were scattered over Asia as slaves. … The khalif Mamoun [son of Haroun Alraschid—A. D. 815-834] was the first sovereign who conceived the idea of basing the royal power on a foundation of regularly drilled Turkish soldiers."

R. D. Osborn, Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad, part 3, chapter 1.

"The Caliphs from this time leaned for support on great bands of foreign mercenaries, chiefly Turks, and their captains became the real lords of the empire as soon as they realised their own strength. How thoroughly the Abbásid caliphate had been undermined was shown all at once in a shocking manner, when the Caliph Mutawakkil was murdered by his own servants at the command of his son, and the parricide Muntasir set upon the throne in his stead (December 861). The power of the Caliphs was now at an end; they became the mere playthings of their own savage warriors. The remoter, sometimes even the nearer, provinces were practically independent. The princes formally recognised the Caliph as their sovereign, stamped his name upon their coins, and gave it precedence in public prayer, but these were honours without any solid value. Some Caliphs, indeed, recovered a measure of real power, but only as rulers of a much diminished State. Theoretically the fiction of an undivided empire of Islam was maintained, but it had long ceased to be a reality. The names of Caliph, Commander of the Faithful, Imám, continued still to inspire some reverence; the theological doctors of law insisted that the Caliph, in spiritual things at least, must everywhere bear rule, and control all judicial posts; but even theoretically his position was far behind that of a pope, and in practice was not for a moment to be compared to it. The Caliph never was the head of a true hierarchy; Islam in fact knows no priesthood on which such a system could have rested. In the tenth century the Buids, three brothers who had left the hardly converted Gilán (the mountainous district at the southwest angle of the Caspian Sea) as poor adventurers, succeeded in conquering for themselves the sovereign command over wide domains, and over Bagdad itself [establishing what is known as the dynasty of the Buids or Bouides, or Bowides, or Dilemites]. They even proposed to themselves to displace the Abbásids and set descendants of Ali upon the throne, and abandoned the idea only because they feared that a Caliph of the house of Ali might exercise too great an authority over their Shíite soldiers, and so become independent; while, on the other hand, they could make use of these troops for any violence they chose against the Abbásid puppet who sat in Mansúr's seat."

T. Nöldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, chapter 3.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 827-878. Conquest of Sicily.

See SICILY: A. D. 827-878.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 840-890. The Saracens in southern Italy.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 800-1016.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 908-1171. The Fatimite caliphs.

"Egypt, during the ninth and tenth centuries, was the theatre of several revolutions. Two dynasties of Turkish slaves, the Tolunides and the Ilkshidites, established themselves in that country, which was only reunited to the Caliphate of Bagdad for a brief period between their usurpations. But early in the ninth century a singular power had been growing up on its western border. … A schism arose among the followers of Ali [the shiahs, who recognized no succession to the Prophet, or Imamate—leadership in Islam—except in the line of descent from Ali, nephew of Mahomet and husband of Mahomet's daughter, Fatima], regarding the legitimate succession to the sixth Imam, Jaffer. His eldest son, Ismail or Ishmael, dying before him, Jaffer appointed another son, Moussa or Moses, his heir. But a large body of the sect denied that Jaffer had the right to make a new nomination; they affirmed the Imamate to be strictly hereditary, and formed a new party of Ishmaelians, who seem to have made something very like a deity of their hero. A chief of this sect, Mahomet, surnamed Al Mehdi, or the Leader, a title given by the Shiahs to their Imams, revolted in Africa in 908. He professed himself, though his claims were bitterly derided by his enemies, to be a descendant of Ishmael, and consequently to be the legitimate Imam. Armed with this claim, it was of course his business to acquire, if he could, the temporal power of a Caliph; and as he soon obtained the sovereignty of a considerable portion of Africa, a rival Caliphate was consequently established in that country. This dynasty assumed the name of Fatimites, in honour of their famous ancestress Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet. The fourth in succession, Muezzeddin by name, obtained possession of Egypt about 967. … The Ilkshidites and their nominal sovereigns, the Abbassides, lost Egypt with great rapidity. Al Muezzeddin transferred his residence thither, and founded [at Fostat—see above, A. D. 640-646] the city of Cairo, which he made his capital. Egypt thus, from a tributary province, became again, as in the days of its Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the scat of a powerful kingdom. The claims of the Egyptian Caliphs were diligently preached throughout all Islam, and their temporal power was rapidly extended into the adjoining provinces of Syria and Arabia. Palestine became again … the battle-field for the lords of Egypt and of the East. Jerusalem, the holy city of so many creeds, was conquered and reconquered. … The Egyptian Caliphate … played an important part in the history of the Crusades. At last, in 1171, it was abolished by the famous Saladin. He himself became the founder of a new dynasty; but the formal aspect of the change was that Egypt, so long schismatic, was again restored to the obedience of Bagdad. Saladin was lord of Egypt, but the titles of the Abbasside Caliph, the true Commander of the Faithful, appeared again on the coin and in the public prayers, instead of that of his Fatimite rival."

E. A. Freeman, History and Conquests of the Saracens, lecture 4.

ALSO IN: S. Lane-Poole, The Mohammadan Dynasties, pages 70-73.

W. C. Taylor, History of Mohammedanism and its Sects, chapters 8 and 10.

See, also, JERUSALEM: A. D. 1149-1187.

{2078}

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 962-1187. The Ghaznavide empire.

See INDIA: A. D. 977-1290; and TURKS: A. D. 999-1183.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 964-976. Losses in Syria and Cilicia.

See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 963-1025; also, ANTIOCH, A. D. 969.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1004-1160. The Seljuk Conquests.

See TURKS: A. D. 1004-1063 to 1092-1160.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1017. Expulsion from Sardinia by the Pisans and Genoese.

See PISA: ORIGIN OF THE CITY.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1031-1086. Fragmentary kingdoms in Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1060-1090. The loss of Sicily.

See ITALY: A. D. 1000-1090.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1086-1147. The empire of the Almoravides.

See ALMORAVIDES.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1146-1232. The empire of the Almohades.

See ALMOHADES; and SPAIN: A. D. 1146-1232.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1240-1453. Conquests of the Ottoman Turks.

See TURKS: A. D. 1240-1326; 1326-1359; 1360-1389; 1389-1403; 1402-1451; and 1451-1481.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1258. Extinction of the Caliphate of Bagdad by the Mongols.

See BAGDAD: A. D. 1258.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1273-1492. Decay and fall of the last Moorish kingdom in Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1273-1460; and 1476-1492.

MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 1519-1605. The Mogul conquest of India.

See INDIA: A. D. 1399-1605.

—————MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: End—————

MAHOMETAN ERA.

See ERA, MAHOMETAN.

—————MAHRATTAS: Start————

MAHRATTAS: 17th Century. Origin and growth of power.

See INDIA: A. D. 1662-1748.

MAHRATTAS: A. D. 1759-1761. Disastrous conflict with the Afghans. Great defeat at Panniput.

See INDIA: A. D. 1747-1761.

MAHRATTAS: A. D. 1781-1819. Wars with the English.

See INDIA: A. D. 1780-1783; 1798-1805; and 1816-1819.

—————MAHRATTAS: End————

MAID OF NORWAY.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305.

MAID OF ORLEANS, The Mission of the.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1429-1431.

MAIDA, Battle of (1806).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1805-1806 (DECEMBER-SEPTEMBER).

MAILLOTINS, Insurrection of the.

See PARIS: A. D. 1381.

—————MAINE: Start————

MAINE: The Name.

"Sullivan in 'History of Maine,' and others, say that the territory was called the Province of Maine, in compliment to Queen Henrietta, who had that province in France for dowry. But Folsom, 'Discourse on Maine' (Maine Historical Collection, volume ii., page 38), says that that province in France did not belong to Henrietta. Maine, like all the rest of the coast, was known as the 'Maine,' the mainland, and it is not unlikely that the word so much used by the early fishers on the coast, may thus have been permanently given to this part of it."

W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, History of the United States, volume 1, page 337; foot-note.

MAINE: Aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ABNAKIS, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MAINE: Embraced in the Norumbega of the old geographers.

See NORUMBEGA; also, CANADA: THE NAMES.

MAINE: A. D. 1607-1608. The Popham colony on the Kennebec. Fruitless undertaking of the Plymouth Company.

The company chartered in England by King James, in 1606, for the colonization of the indefinite region called Virginia, was divided into two branches. To one, commonly spoken of as the London Company, but sometimes as the Virginia Company, was assigned a domain in the south, from 34° to 41° North Latitude. To the other, less familiarly known as the Plymouth Company, or the North Virginia Company, was granted a range of territory from 38° to 45° North Latitude.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607.

The first named company founded a state; the Plymouth branch was less fortunate. "Of the Plymouth Company, George Popham, brother of the Chief Justice, and Raleigh Gilbert, son of the earlier navigator and nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh, were original associates. A vessel despatched from Bristol by Sir John Popham made a further survey of the coast of New England, and returned with accounts which infused vigorous life into the undertaking; and it was now prosecuted with eagerness and liberality. But in little more than a year 'all its former hopes were frozen to death.' Three ships sailed from Plymouth with 100 settlers, amply furnished, and taking two of Gorges's Indians [kidnapped on the voyage of Captain Weymouth in 1605] as interpreters and guides. After a prosperous voyage they reached the mouth of the river called Sagadahoc, or Kennebec, in Maine, and on a projecting point proceeded to organize their community. After prayers and a sermon, they listened to a reading of the patent and of the ordinances under which it had been decreed by the authorities at home that they should live. George Popham had been constituted their President, Raleigh Gilbert was Admiral. … The adventurers dug wells, and built huts. More than half of the number became discouraged, and returned with the ships to England. Forty-five remained through the winter, which proved to be very long and severe. … When the President sickened and died, and, presently after, a vessel despatched to them with supplies brought intelligence of the death of Sir John Popham, and of Sir John Gilbert,—the latter event calling for the presence of the Admiral, Gilbert's brother and heir, in England,—they were ready to avail themselves of the excuses thus afforded for retreating from the distasteful enterprise. All yielded to their homesickness, and embarked on board of the returning ship, taking with them a small vessel which they had built, and some furs and other products of the country. Statesmen, merchants, and soldiers had not learned the conditions of a settlement in New England. 'The country was branded by the return of the plantation as being over cold, and in respect of that not habitable by Englishmen.' Still the son of the Chief Justice, 'Sir Francis Popham, could not so give it over, but continued to send thither several years after, in hope of better fortunes, but found it fruitless, and was necessitated at last to sit down with the loss he had already undergone.' Sir Francis Popham's enterprises were merely commercial. Gorges alone [Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had been among the most active of the original promotors of the Company], 'not doubting but God would effect that which man despaired of,' persevered in cherishing the project of a colony."

J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1, chapter 2.

ALSO IN: W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, Popular History of the United States, chapter 12, volume 1.

R. K. Sewall, Ancient Dominions of Maine, chapter 3.

{2079}

MAINE: A. D. 1623-1631. Gorges' and Mason's grant and the division of it. First colonies planted.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1621-1631.

MAINE: A. D. 1629-1631. The Ligonia, or Plow Patent, and other grants.

"The coast from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec was covered by six … patents, issued in the course of three years by the Council for New England, with the consent, doubtless, of Gorges, who was anxious to interest as many persons as possible in the projects of colonization to which he was himself so much devoted. Several of these grants were for small tracts; the most important embraced an extent of 40 miles square, bordering on Casco Bay, and named Ligonia. The establishments hitherto attempted on the eastern coast had been principally for fishing and fur-trading; this was to be an agricultural colony, and became familiarly known as the 'Plow patent.' A company was formed, and some settlers sent out; but they did not like the situation, and removed to Massachusetts. Another of these grants was the Pemaquid patent, a narrow tract on both sides of Pemaquid Point, where already were some settlers. Pemaquid remained an independent community for the next forty years."

R. Hildreth, History of the United States, chapter 7 (volume 1).

The Plow Patent "first came into notoriety in a territorial dispute in 1643. The main facts of the case are told shortly but clearly by Winthrop. According to him, in July, 1631, ten husbandmen came from England, in a ship named the Plough, with a patent for land at Sagadahock. But as the place did not please them they settled in Massachusetts, and were seemingly dispersed in the religious troubles of 1636. … At a later day the rights of the patentees were bought up, and were made a ground for ousting Gorges from a part of his territory."

J. A. Doyle, The English in America: The Puritan Colonies, volume 1, chapter 7.

ALSO IN: J. W. Thornton, Pemaquid Papers; and Ancient Pemaquid, (Maine Historical Society Collection, volume 5).

MAINE: A. D. 1639. A Palatine principality. The royal charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

"In April 1639 a charter was granted by the King constituting Gorges Lord Proprietor of Maine. The territory was bounded by the Sagadahock or Kennebec on the north and the Piscataqua on the south, and was to extend 120 miles inland. The political privileges of the Proprietor were to be identical with those enjoyed by the Bishop of Durham as Count Palatine. He was to legislate in conjunction with the freeholders of the province, and with the usual reservation in favour of the laws of England. His political rights were to be subject to the control of the Commissioners for Plantations, but his territorial rights were to be independent and complete in themselves. He was also to enjoy a monopoly of the trade of the colony. The only other points specially worth notice were a declaration that the religion of the colony was to be that of the Church of England, a reservation on behalf of all English subjects of the right of fishing with its necessary incidents, and the grant to the Proprietor of authority to create manors and manorial courts. There is something painful in the spectacle of the once vigorous and enterprising soldier amusing his old age by playing at kingship. In no little German court of the last century could the forms of government and the realities of life have been more at variance. To conduct the business of two fishing villages Gorges called into existence a staff of officials which might have sufficed for the affairs of the Byzantine Empire. He even outdid the absurdities which the Proprietors of Carolina perpetrated thirty years later. They at least saw that their elaborate machinery of caciques and landgraves was unfit for practical purposes, and they waived it in favour of a simple system which had sprung up in obedience to natural wants. But Gorges tells complacently and with a deliberate care, which contrasts with his usually hurried and slovenly style, how he parcelled out his territory and nominated his officials. … The task of putting this cumbrous machinery into motion was entrusted by the Proprietor to his son, Thomas Gorges, as Deputy-Governor."

J. A. Doyle, The English in America: The Puritan Colonies, volume 1, chapter 7.

"The Province was divided into two counties, of one of which Agamenticus, or York, was the principal settlement; of the other, Saco. … The greatness of York made it arrogant; and it sent a deputation of aldermen and burgesses to the General Court at Saco, to save its metropolitan rights by a solemn protest. The Proprietary was its friend, and before long exalted it still more by a city charter, authorizing it and its suburbs, constituting a territory of 21 square miles, to be governed, under the name of 'Gorgeana,' by a Mayor, twelve Aldermen, a Common Council of 24 members, and a Recorder, all to be annually chosen by the citizens. Probably as many as two thirds of the adult males were in places of authority. The forms of proceeding in the Recorder's Court were to be copied from those of the British chancery. This grave foolery was acted more than ten years."

J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, volume 1, chapter 13.

ALSO IN: Sir F. Gorges, Brief Narration (Maine Historical Society Collection, volume 2).

MAINE: A. D. 1643-1677. Territorial jurisdiction in dispute. The claims of Massachusetts made good.

"In 1643, the troubles in England between the King and Commons grew violent, and in that year Alexander Rigby bought the old grant called Lygonia or 'Plow Patent,' and appointed George Cleaves his deputy-president. Governor Thomas Gorges about that time returned to England, and left Vines in his place. Between Cleaves and Vines there was of course a conflict of jurisdiction, and Cleaves appealed for aid to Massachusetts; and both parties agreed to leave their claims (1645) to the decision of the Massachusetts Magistrates, who decided—that they could not decide the matter. But the next year the Commissioners for American plantations in England decided in favor of Rigby; and Vines left the country. In 1647, at last, at the age of 74, Sir Ferdinando Gorges died, and with him died all his plans for kingdoms and power in Maine. In 1651, Massachusetts, finding that her patent, which included lands lying three miles north of the head waters of the Merrimack, took in all the lower part of Maine, began to extend her jurisdiction, and as most of the settlers favored her authority, it was pretty well established till the time of the Restoration (1660). {2080} Upon the Restoration of Charles II., the heir of Gorges claimed his rights to Maine. His agent in the province was Edward Godfrey. Those claims were confirmed by the Committee of Parliament, and in 1664 he obtained an order from the King to the Governor of Massachusetts to restore him his province. In 1664 the King's Commissioners came over, and proceeded through the Colonies, and among the rest to Maine; where they appointed various officers without the concurrence of Massachusetts; so that for some years Maine was distracted with parties, and was in confusion. In 1668, Massachusetts sent four Commissioners to York, who resumed and re-established the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, with which the majority of the people were best pleased; and in 1669 the Deputies from Maine again took their seats in the Massachusetts Court. Her jurisdiction was, however, disputed by the heirs of Mason and Gorges, and it was not finally set at rest till the year 1677, by the purchase of their claims from them, by Massachusetts, for £1,250."

C. W. Elliott, The New England History, volume 1, chapter 26.

ALSO IN: R. K. Sewall, Ancient Dominions of Maine, chapters 3-4.

W. D. Williamson, History of Maine, volume 1, chapters 6-21.

MAINE: A. D. 1664. The Pemaquid patent purchased and granted to the Duke of York.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.

MAINE: A. D. 1675. Outbreak of the Tarentines.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1675 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

MAINE: A. D. 1689-1697. King William's War. Indian cruelties.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.

MAINE: A. D. 1722-1725. Renewed Indian war.

See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1713-1730.

MAINE: A. D. 1744-1748. King George's War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744; 1745; and 1745-1748.

MAINE: A. D. 1814. Occupied in large part and held by the English.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814.

MAINE: A. D. 1820. Separation from Massachusetts. Recognition as a distinct commonwealth and admission into the Union.

"Petitions for the separation of the District of Maine were first preferred to the legislature of Massachusetts in 1816, and a convention was appointed to be holden at Brunswick. This convention voted in favor of the step, but the separation was not effected until 1820, at which time Maine was erected into a distinct and independent commonwealth, and was admitted into the American Union."

G. L. Austin, History of Massachusetts, page 408.

"In the division of the property all the real estate in Massachusetts was to be forever hers; all that in Maine to be equally divided between the two, share and share alike. … The admission of Maine and Missouri into the Union were both under discussion in Congress at the same time. The advocates of the latter, wishing to carry it through the Legislature, without any restrictive clause against slavery, put both into a bill together,—determined each should share the same fate. … Several days the subject was debated, and sent from one branch to the other in Congress, till the 1st of March, when, to our joy, they were divorced; and on the 3d of the month [March, 1820] an act was passed by which Maine was declared to be, from and after the 15th of that month, one of the United States."

W. D. Williamson, History of Maine, volume 2, chapter 27.

See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.

MAINE: A. D. 1842. Settlement of the northern boundary disputes, by the Ashburton Treaty.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.

—————MAINE: End—————

MAIWAND, English disaster at (1880).

See AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1869-1881.

MAJESTAS, The Law of.

"The law of Majestas or Treason … under the [Roman] empire … was the legal protection thrown round the person of the chief of the state: any attempt against the dignity or safety of the community became an attack on its glorified representative. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that the first legal enactment which received this title, half a century before the foundation of the empire, was actually devised for the protection, not of the state itself, but of a personage dear to the state, namely, the tribune of the people. Treason to the State indeed had long before been known, and defined as Perduellio, the levying of war against the commonwealth. … But the crime of majesty was first specified by the demagogue Apuleius, in an enactment of the year 654 [B. C. 100], for the purpose of guarding or exalting the dignity of the champion of the plebs. … The law of Apuleius was followed by that of another tribune, Varius, conceived in a similar spirit. … [After the constitution of Sulla] the distinction between Majestas and Perduellio henceforth vanishes: the crime of Treason is specifically extended from acts of violence to measures calculated to bring the State into contempt."

C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 44.

MAJORCA: Conquest by King James of Aragon.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1212-1238.

MAJORIAN, Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 457-461.

MAJUBA HILL, Battle of (1881).

See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1806-1881.

—————MALAGA: Start————

MALAGA: A. D. 1036-1055. The seat of a Moorish kingdom.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.

MALAGA: A. D. 1487. Siege and capture from the Moors by the Christians.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1476-1492.

—————MALAGA: End————

MALAKHOFF, The storming of the (1855).

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856.

MALAMOCCO. The second capital of the Venetians.

See VENICE: A. D. 697-810; and 452.

MALATESTA FAMILY, The.

"No one with any tincture of literary knowledge is ignorant of the fame at least of the great Malatesta family—the house of the Wrongheads, as they were rightly called by some prevision of their future part in Lombard history. … The story of Francesca da Polenta, who was wedded to the hunchback Giovanni Malatesta and murdered by him with her lover Paolo, is known not merely to students of Dante, but to readers of Byron and Leigh Hunt, to admirers of Flaxman, Ary Scheffer, Doré—to all, in fact, who have of art and letters any love. The history of these Malatesti, from their first establishment under Otho III. [A. D. 996-1002] as lieutenants for the Empire in the Marches of Ancona, down to their final subjugation by the Papacy in the age of the Renaissance, is made up of all the vicissitudes which could befall a mediæval Italian despotism. {2081} Acquiring an unlawful right over the towns of Rimini, Cesena, Sogliano, Ghiacciuolo, they ruled their petty principalities like tyrants by the help of the Guelf and Ghibelline factions, inclining to the one or the other as it suited their humour or their interest, wrangling among themselves, transmitting the succession of their dynasty through bastards and by deeds of force, quarrelling with their neighbours the Counts of Urbino, alternately defying and submitting to the Papal legates in Romagna, serving as condottieri in the wars of the Visconti and the state of Venice, and by their restlessness and genius for military intrigues contributing in no slight measure to the general disturbance of Italy. The Malatesti were a race of strongly marked character: more, perhaps, than any other house of Italian tyrants, they combined for generations those qualities of the fox and the lion, which Machiavelli thought indispensable to a successful despot. … So far as Rimini is concerned, the house of Malatesta culminated in Sigismondo Pandolfo, son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti's general, the perfidious Pandolfo. … Having begun by defying the Holy See, he was impeached at Rome for heresy, parricide, incest, adultery, rape, and sacrilege, burned in effigy by Pope Pius II., and finally restored to the bosom of the Church, after suffering the despoliation of almost all his territories, in 1463. The occasion on which this fierce and turbulent despiser of laws human and divine was forced to kneel as a penitent before the Papal legate in the gorgeous temple dedicated to his own pride, in order that the ban of excommunication might be removed from Rimini, was one of those petty triumphs, interesting chiefly for their picturesqueness, by which the Popes confirmed their questionable rights over the cities of Romagna. Sigismondo, shorn of his sovereignty, took the command of the Venetian troops against the Turks in the Morea, and returned in 1465, crowned with laurels, to die at Rimini."

J. A. Symonds, Sketches in Italy and Greece, pages 217-220.

ALSO IN: A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages, pages 274-299.

MALAYAN RACE, The.

Many ethnologists set up as a distinct stock "the '.Malayan' or 'Brown' race, and claim for it an importance not less than any of the darker varieties of the species. It bears, however, the marks of an origin too recent, and presents Asian analogies too clearly, for it to be regarded otherwise than as a branch of the Asian race, descended like it from some ancestral tribe in that great continent. Its dispersion has been extraordinary. Its members are found almost continuously on the land areas from Madagascar to Easter Island, a distance nearly two-thirds of the circumference of the globe; everywhere they speak dialects with such affinities that we must assume for all one parent stem, and their separation must have taken place not so very long ago to have permitted such a monoglottic trait as this. The stock is divided at present into two groups, the western or Malayan peoples, and the eastern or Polynesian peoples. There has been some discussion about the original identity of these, but we may consider it now proved by both physical, linguistic and traditional evidence. The original home of the parent stem has also excited some controversy, but this too may be taken as settled. There is no reasonable doubt but that the Malays came from the southeastern regions of Asia, from the peninsula of Farther India, and thence spread south, east and west over the whole of the island world. Their first occupation of Sumatra and Java has been estimated to have occurred not later than 1000 B. C., and probably was a thousand years earlier, or about the time that the Aryans entered Northern India. The relationship of the Malayic with the other Asian stocks has not yet been made out. Physically they stand near to the Sinitic peoples of small stature and roundish heads of southeastern Asia. The oldest form of their language, however, was not monosyllabic and tonic, but was disyllabic. … The purest type of the true Malays is seen in Malacca, Sumatra and Java. … It has changed slightly by foreign intermixture among the Battaks of Sumatra, the Dayaks of Borneo, the Alfures and the Bugis. But the supposition that these are so remote that they cannot properly be classed with the Malays is an exaggeration of some recent ethnographers, and is not approved by the best authorities. … In character the Malays are energetic, quick of perception, genial in demeanor, but unscrupulous, cruel and revengeful. Veracity is unknown, and the love of gain is far stronger than any other passion or affection. This thirst for gold made the Malay the daring navigator he early became. As merchant, pirate or explorer, and generally as all three in one, he pushed his crafts far and wide over the tropical seas through 12,000 miles of extent. On the extreme west he reached and colonized Madagascar. The Hovas there, undoubtedly of Malay blood, number about 800,000 in a population of five and a half millions, the remainder being Negroids of various degrees of fusion. In spite of this disproportion, the Hovas are the recognized masters of the island. … The Malays probably established various colonies in southern India. The natives at Travancore and the Sinhalese of Ceylon bear a strongly Malayan aspect. … Some ethnographers would make the Polynesians and Micronesians a different race from the Malays; but the farthest that one can go in this direction is to admit that they reveal some strain of another blood. This is evident in their physical appearance. … All the Polynesian languages have some affinities to the Malayan, and the Polynesian traditions unanimously refer to the west for the home of their ancestors. We are able, indeed, by carefully analyzing these traditions, to trace with considerable accuracy both the route they followed to the Oceanic isles, and the respective dates when they settled them. Thus, the first station of their ancestors ou leaving the western group, was the small island of Buru or Boru, between Celebes and New Guinea. Here they encountered the Papuas, some of whom still dwell in the interior, while the coast people are fair. Leaving Boru, they passed to the north of New Guinea, colonizing the Caroline and Solomon islands, but the vanguard pressing forward to take possession of Savai in the Samoan group and Tonga to its south. These two islands formed a second center of distribution over the western Pacific. The Maoris of New Zealand moved from Tonga—'holy Tonga' as they call it in their songs—about 600 years ago. The Society islanders migrated from Savai, and they in turn sent forth the population of the Marquesas, the Sandwich islands and Easter island. The separation of the Polynesians from the western Malays must have taken place about the beginning of our era."

D. G. Brinton, Races and Peoples, lecture 8, section. 2.

ALSO IN: A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, chapter 40.

R. Brown, The Races of Mankind, volume 2, chapter 7.

{2082}

MALCOLM III., King of Scotland, A. D. 1057-1093.

Malcolm IV., King of Scotland, 1153-1165.

MALDON, Battle of.

Fought, A. D. 991, by the English against an invading army of Norwegians, who proved the victors. The battle, with the heroic death of the English leader, Brihtnoth, became the subject of a famous early-English poem, which is translated in Freeman's "Old English History for Children." The field of battle was on the Blackwater in Essex.

MALEK SHAH, Seljuk Turkish Sultan, A. D. 1073-1092.

MALIANS, The.

One of the early peoples of Greece, who dwelt on the Malian Gulf, in the lower valley of the Sperchæus. They were a warlike people, neighbors and close allies of the Dorians, before the migration of the latter to the Peloponnesus.

C. O. Müller, History and Antiquity of the Doric Race, volume 1, book 1, chapter 2.

MALIGNANTS.

"About this time [A. D. 1643] the word 'malignant' was first born (as to the common use) in England; the deduction thereof being disputable, whether from 'malus ignis,' bad fire, or 'malum lignum,' bad fuel; but this is sure, betwixt both, the name made a combustion all over England. It was fixed as a note of disgrace on those of the king's party."

T. Fuller, Church History of Britain, book 11, section 4 (volume 3).

MALINES: Taken by Marlborough and the Allies (1706).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1706-1707.

MALLUM. MALL. MALLBERG.

"The Franks … constituted one great army, the main body of which was encamped round the abode of their Kyning or commander, and the rest of which was broken up into various detachments. … Every such detachment became ere long a sedentary tribe, and the chief of each was accustomed, as occasion required, to convene the mallum (that is, an assembly of the free inhabitants) of his district, to deliberate with him on all the affairs of his immediate locality. The Kyning also occasionally convened an assembly of the whole of the Frankish chiefs, to deliberate with him at the Champs de Mars on the affairs of the whole confederacy. But neither the mallum nor the Champs de Mars was a legislative convention. Each of them was a council of war or an assembly of warriors."

Sir J. Stephen, Lectures on the History of France, lecture 8.

"The Court was mostly held in a field or on a hill, called 'mallstatt,' or 'mallberg,' that is, the place or hill where the 'mall' or Court assembled, and the judge set up his shield of office, without which he might not hold Court."

J. I. Mombert, History of Charles the Great, book 1, chapter 3.

ALSO IN: W. C. Perry, The Franks, chapter 10.

See, also. PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

MALMÖ, Armistice of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1848 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

MALO-JOROSLAVETZ, Battle of.

See RUSSIA: A. D.1812 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

MALPLAQUET, Battle of (1709).

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1708-1709.

—————MALTA: Start————

MALTA: A. D. 1530-1565. Ceded by the emperor, Charles V., to the Knights of St. John. Their defense of the island against the Turks in the great siege.

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1530-1565.

MALTA: A. D. 1551. Unsuccessful attack by the Turks.

See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1543-1560.

MALTA: A. D. 1798. Seizure and occupation by Bonaparte.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1798 (MAY-AUGUST).

MALTA: A. D. 1800-1802. Surrender to an English fleet. Agreement of restoration to the Knights of St. John.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1801-1802.

MALTA: A. D. 1814. Ceded to England.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE).

—————MALTA: End————

MALTA, Knights of.

During their occupation of the island, the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem were commonly called Knights of Malta, as they had previously been called Knights of Rhodes:

See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN.

MALVASIA, Battle of (1263).

See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.

MALVERN CHASE.

An ancient royal forest in Worcestershire, England, between Malvern Hills and the River Severn. Few remains of it exist.

J. C. Brown, Forests of England.

MALVERN HILL, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).

MAMACONAS.

See YANACONAS.

MAMELUKE, OR SLAVE, DYNASTY OF INDIA.

See INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.

MAMELUKES OF BRAZIL.

See BRAZIL: A. D. 1531-1641.

MAMELUKES OF EGYPT; their rise; their sovereignty; their destruction.

See EGYPT: A. D. 1250-1517; and 1803-1811.

MAMELUKES OF GENEVA, The.

See GENEVA: A. D. 1504-1535.

MAMERTINE PRISON, The.

"Near the Basilica Porcia, and at the foot of the Capitoline Hill [in ancient Rome], was the ancient carcer or prison. The original erection of it has been attributed to Ancus Martius, as we learn from Livy, who says 'he made a prison in the middle of the city, overlooking the Forum.' The name by which it is known—Mamertinus—may have been derived from its being built by Ancus Martius. Mamers was the Sabine name of the god Mars, and consequently from the name Mamertius, the Sabine way of spelling Martius, may have been derived Mamertinus. In this prison there are two chambers, one above the other, built of hewn stone. The upper is square, while the lower is semicircular. The style of masonry points to an early date, when the Etruscan style of masonry prevailed in Rome. … To these chambers there was no entrance except by a small aperture in the upper roof, and a similar hole in the upper floor led to the cell below. From a passage in Livy it would appear that Tullianum was the name given to the lower cell of the carcer. … Varro expressly tells us that the lower part of the prison which was underground was called Tullianum because it was added by Servius Tullius."

H. M. Westropp, Early and Imperial Rome, page 93.

{2083}

"The oldest portion of the horror-striking Mamertine Prisons … is the most ancient among all Roman buildings still extant as originally constructed."

C. I. Hemans, Historic and Monumental Rome, chapter 4.

"Here, Jugurtha, king of Mauritania, was starved to death by Marius. Here Julius Cæsar, during his triumph for the conquest of Gaul, caused his gallant enemy Vercingetorix to be put to death. … The spot is more interesting to the Christian world as the prison of SS. Peter and Paul."

A. J. C. Hare, Walks in Rome, chapter 3.

MAMERTINES OF MESSENE, The.

See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.

MAMUN, AL, Caliph, A. D. 813-833.

MAN, Kingdom of.

See MANX KINGDOM, THE.

MANAOS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.

—————MANASSAS: Start————

MANASSAS: A. D. 1861 (July). First battle (Bull Run).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY: VIRGINIA).

MANASSAS: A. D. 1862 (March). Confederate evacuation.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862 (DECEMBER-MARCH: VIRGINIA).

MANASSAS: A. D. 1862 (August). Stonewall Jackson's Raid. The Second Battle.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (AUGUST: VIRGINIA); and (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER: VIRGINIA).

—————MANASSAS: End————

—————MANCHESTER: Start————

MANCHESTER: Origin.

See MANCUNIUM.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1817-1819. The march of the Blanketeers, and the "Massacre of Peterloo."

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1838-1839. Beginning of the Anti-Corn-Law agitation.

See TARIFF LEGISLATION (ENGLAND): A. D. 1836-1839.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1861-1865. The Cotton Famine.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1861-1865.

MANCHESTER: A. D. 1894. Opening of the Ship Canal.

A ship canal, connecting Manchester with Liverpool, and making the former practically a seaport, was opened on the 1st day of January, 1894. The building of the canal was begun in 1887.

—————MANCHESTER: End————

MANCHU TARTAR DYNASTY OF CHINA, The.

See CHINA: A.D. 1294-1882.

MANCUNIUM.

A Roman town in Britain which occupied the site of the modern city of Manchester.

T. Wright, Celt, Roman and Saxon, chapter 5.

MANDANS, MANDANES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

MANDATA, Roman Imperial.

See CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS.

MANDUBII, The.

A tribe in ancient Gaul, which occupied part of the modern French department of the Côte-d'Or and whose chief town was Alesia, the scene of Cæsar's famous siege.

Napoleon III., History of Cæsar, book 3, chapter 2, footnote (volume 2).

MANETHO, List of.

"Of all the Greek writers who have treated of the history of the Pharaohs, there is only one whose testimony has, since the deciphering of the hieroglyphics, preserved any great value—a value which increases the more it is compared with the original monuments; we speak of Manetho. Once he was treated with contempt; his veracity was disputed, the long series of dynasties he unfolds to our view was regarded as fabulous. Now, all that remains of his work is the first of an authorities for the reconstruction of the ancient history of Egypt. Manetho, a priest of the town of Sebennytus, in the Delta, wrote in Greek, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a history of Egypt, founded on the official archives preserved in the temples. Like many other books of antiquity, this history has been lost; we possess now a few fragments only, with the list of all the kings placed by Manetho at the end of his work—a list happily preserved in the writings of some chronologers of the Christian epoch. This list divides into dynasties, or royal families, all the kings who reigned successively in Egypt down to the time of Alexander."