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[ The caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of figs, which he swallowed alternately, and the repast was concluded with marrow and sugar. In one of his pilgrimages to Mecca, Soliman ate, at a single meal, seventy pomegranates, a kid, six fowls, and a huge quantity of the grapes of Tayef. If the bill of fare be correct, we must admire the appetite, rather than the luxury, of the sovereign of Asia, (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 126.) * Note: The Tarikh Tebry ascribes the death of Soliman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony in which Soliman indulged, though not fatal to the life, interfered with the military duties, of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. i. p. 511.—M.]
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[ Major Price’s estimate of Omar’s character is much more favorable. Among a race of sanguinary tyrants, Omar was just and humane. His virtues as well as his bigotry were active.—M.]
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[ See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 689, 690,) praeferens, says Elmacin, (p. 91,) religionem suam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous of being with God, that he would not have anointed his ear (his own saying) to obtain a perfect cure of his last malady. The caliph had only one shirt, and in an age of luxury, his annual expense was no more than two drachms, (Abulpharagius, p. 131.) Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit urbis Muslemus, (Abulfeda, p. 127.)]
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[ Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that the siege of Constantinople was raised the 15th of August, (A.D. 718;) but as the former, our best witness, affirms that it continued thirteen months, the latter must be mistaken in supposing that it began on the same day of the preceding year. I do not find that Pagi has remarked this inconsistency.]
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[ The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of Moslemah with some extraordinary and incredible circumstances. Price, p. 514.—M.]