et at Damascus. The laws of hospitality were
violated by a promiscuous massacre: the board was spread over their
fallen bodies; and the festivity of the guests was enlivened by the
music of their dying groans. By the event of the civil war, the dynasty
of the Abbassides was firmly established; but the Christians only
could triumph in the mutual hatred and common loss of the disciples of
Mahomet. [38]

[Footnote 35: The steed and the saddle which had carried any of his
wives were instantly killed or burnt, lest they should afterwards be
mounted by a male. Twelve hundred mules or camels were required for his
kitchen furniture; and the daily consumption amounted to three thousand
cakes, a hundred sheep, besides oxen, poultry, &c., (Abul pharagius,
Hist. Dynast. p. 140.)]

[Footnote 3511: He is called Abdullah or Abul Abbas in the Tarikh Tebry.
Price vol. i. p. 600. Saffah or Saffauh (the Sanguinary) was a name
which be required after his bloody reign, (vol. ii. p. 1.)--M.]

[Footnote 36: Al Hemar. He had been governor of Mesopotamia, and the
Arabic proverb praises the courage of that warlike breed of asses
who never fly from an enemy. The surname of Mervan may justify the
comparison of Homer, (Iliad, A. 557, &c.,) and both will silence
the moderns, who consider the ass as a stupid and ignoble emblem,
(D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 558.)]

[Footnote 37: Four several places, all in Egypt, bore the name of Busir,
or Busiris, so famous in Greek fable. The first, where Mervan was slain
was to the west of the Nile, in the province of Fium, or Arsinoe;
the second in the Delta, in the Sebennytic nome; the third near the
pyramids; the fourth, which was destroyed by Dioclesian, (see above,
vol. ii. p. 130,) in the Thebais. I shall here transcribe a note of the
learned and orthodox Michaelis: Videntur in pluribus Aegypti superioris
urbibus Busiri Coptoque arma sumpsisse Christiani, libertatemque de
religione sentiendi defendisse, sed succubuisse quo in bello Coptus et
Busiris diruta, et circa Esnam magna strages edita. Bellum narrant sed
causam belli ignorant scriptores Byzantini, alioqui Coptum et Busirim
non rebellasse dicturi, sed causam Christianorum suscepturi, (Not. 211,
p. 100.) For the geography of the four Busirs, see Abulfeda, (Descript.
Aegypt. p. 9, vers. Michaelis, Gottingae, 1776, in 4to.,) Michaelis,
(Not. 122-127, p. 58-63,) and D'Anville, (Memoire sua l'Egypte, p. 85,
147, 205.)]

[Footnote 38: See Abulfeda,