OF THE IIOIUN EM IMRE.

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CHAP. LI.

The conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa ,and Spain, by the Arabs or Saracens — Em-pire of the caliphs, or successors of Mahomet—State of the Christians , fyc. under their go-vernment.

The revolution of Arabia had not changed the chap.character of the Arabs ; the death of Mahomet L1 "was the signal of independence; and the hasty union 0 fstructure of his power and religion tottered toits foundations. A small and faithful band ofhis primitive disciples had listened to his elo-quence, and shared his distress ; had tied withthe apostle from the persecution of Mecca , orhad received the fugitive in the walls of Medi-na. The increasing myriads, who acknow-ledged Mahomet as their king and prophet, hadbeen compelled by his arms, or allured by hisprosperity. The polytheists were confoundedby the simple idea of a solitary and invisibleGod : the pride of the Christians and Jews dis-dained the yoke of a mortal and contemporarylegislator. Their habits of faith and obediencewere not sufficiently confirmed; and many ofthe new converts regretted the venerable anti-quity of the law of Moses , or the rites and my-steries of the catholic church, or the idols, thesacrifices, the joyous festivals, of their paganancestors. The jarring interests and heredita-ry feuds of the Arabian tribes had not yet