ent structures could
be supplied by private or municipal liberality. [72] From the conquest
of Damascus the Saracens proceeded to Heliopolis and Emesa: but I
shall decline the repetition of the sallies and combats which have been
already shown on a larger scale. In the prosecution of the war, their
policy was not less effectual than their sword. By short and separate
truces they dissolved the union of the enemy; accustomed the Syrians
to compare their friendship with their enmity; familiarized the idea
of their language, religion, and manners; and exhausted, by clandestine
purchase, the magazines and arsenals of the cities which they returned
to besiege. They aggravated the ransom of the more wealthy, or the more
obstinate; and Chalcis alone was taxed at five thousand ounces of gold,
five thousand ounces of silver, two thousand robes of silk, and as many
figs and olives as would load five thousand asses. But the terms of
truce or capitulation were faithfully observed; and the lieutenant
of the caliph, who had promised not to enter the walls of the captive
Baalbec, remained tranquil and immovable in his tent till the jarring
factions solicited the interposition of a foreign master. The conquest
of the plain and valley of Syria was achieved in less than two years.
Yet the commander of the faithful reproved the slowness of their
progress; and the Saracens, bewailing their fault with tears of rage and
repentance, called aloud on their chiefs to lead them forth to fight the
battles of the Lord. In a recent action, under the walls of Emesa,
an Arabian youth, the cousin of Caled, was heard aloud to exclaim,
"Methinks I see the black-eyed girls looking upon me; one of whom,
should she appear in this world, all mankind would die for love of her.
And I see in the hand of one of them a handkerchief of green silk, and
a cap of precious stones, and she beckons me, and calls out, Come hither
quickly, for I love thee." With these words, charging the Christians, he
made havoc wherever he went, till, observed at length by the governor of
Hems, he was struck through with a javelin.

[Footnote 67: In the Geography of Abulfeda, the description of Syria,
his native country, is the most interesting and authentic portion. It
was published in Arabic and Latin, Lipsiae, 1766, in quarto, with the
learned notes of Kochler and Reiske, and some extracts of geography and
natural history from Ibn Ol Wardii. Among the modern travels, Pocock's
Descript