CAUSES OF TRIUMPHS—ABOU-BEKER ELECTED CALIPH—WAR DECLARED—FALL OF BOZRAH—BATTLE OF AIZNADIN—SIEGE OF JERUSALEM—DEPARTURE OF ROMAN EMPEROR—SARACEN FLEET—EASTERN CONQUESTS—FALL OF ALEXANDRIA—CONQUEST OF NORTHERN AFRICA—CONQUEST OF SPAIN—BATTLE OF POICTIERS—EXTENT OF SARACEN EMPIRE.
After the death of Mahomet, his followers assumed the name of Saracens, by which title they were afterwards generally known. This term, it is said, is derived from two Arabic words which signify eastern, or oriental, and conquerors.
Scarcely was Mahomet buried, when it was found necessary to form a civil and political constitution and code of laws, by which his followers were to be governed. This government was called the Caliphate.
Mahometanism, even during the life of its founder, gave unmistakable indications of overpassing the bounds of Arabia.
A few years later it entered upon a system of conquest unparalleled in the history of the world.
One cause of this phenomenon is to be found in the moral and social condition of the world. The influence of religion had long before ceased. Christianity was completely paganized. Her popes were busy denouncing and excommunicating each other, in their rivalry for earthly power; or bribing royal females and courtesans to influence the decision of councils, that were supposed by the masses to speak with the voice of God. Her bishops no longer sought to feed their flocks with the bread of life. On the other hand they were concerned in assassinations, poisonings, adulteries, riots, treason and civil war. The religious teachers of those days never raised their voices in the sacred cause of liberty, or spoke in defense of the outraged rights of man.
No wonder then that, in the midst of the wrangling of sects, and unintelligible jargon of Arians, Augustinians, Nestorians and Marianites, society stood in breathless awe, when it heard the terrible Arabian battle cry, "There is but one God, and Mahomet is His prophet!" enforced as it was by the tempest of Saracen armies. These warriors, armed with lances and cimeters, and mounted on fleet Arabian steeds, passed swiftly from city to city, and frequently found the masses of the people so crushed by tyranny, so worn out by wrangling and civil wars, that they welcomed the Saracens as deliverers.
Mahomet's life had been almost entirely occupied in the conquest or conversion of his native country. It is true, in the latter part of his career he felt himself strong enough to threaten Persia for the aid she had given his enemies; and he even declared war against the Roman Empire for the same reason. But failing health frustrated his designs. He had made no provision for the perpetuation of his own power. Hence, a struggle ensued before a successor was appointed. At length, Abou Beker, the father of his wife Ayesha, was selected. He was proclaimed the first Caliph, and immediately attacked both the Romans and the Persians.
The renowned general, Khaled, commonly called by Saracen historians, "the sword of God," was despatched into Syria. His name struck terror into the hearts of the inhabitants. The fortified town of Bozrah fell into his hands without a struggle. This was the same town where fifty years previous the youthful Mahomet had been entertained at the Nestorian convent. Marching northward seventy miles, to Damascus, Khaled laid siege to the Syrian capital. A decisive battle took place on the plain of Aiznadin. The Roman army was overthrown and dispersed. A few days later Damascus surrendered to the Saracens.
Guarded on the right by the beautiful river Orontes, and on the left by the snow-clad peaks of Lebanon, they still continued their march northward. To resist their further progress, the Roman emperor, Heraclius, collected an army of one hundred and forty thousand men. A great battle took place on the plains of Yermuck. At the first onset the Saracens were repulsed; but driven back to the field by the heroism of their women, who also aided them, they ended the conflict by the complete overthrow of the Roman army.