ssites of Mauritania, and the more powerful fatimites of Africa and
Egypt. In the tenth century, the chair of Mahomet was disputed by three
caliphs or commanders of the faithful, who reigned at Bagdad, Cairoan,
and Cordova, excommunicating each other, and agreed only in a principle
of discord, that a sectary is more odious and criminal than an
unbeliever. [40]

[Footnote 39: For the revolution of Spain, consult Roderic of Toledo,
(c. xviii. p. 34, &c.,) the Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana, (tom. ii. p.
30, 198,) and Cardonne, (Hist. de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne, tom. i. p.
180-197, 205, 272, 323, &c.)]

[Footnote 40: I shall not stop to refute the strange errors and fancies
of Sir William Temple (his Works, vol. iii. p. 371-374, octavo edition)
and Voltaire (Histoire Generale, c. xxviii. tom. ii. p. 124, 125,
edition de Lausanne) concerning the division of the Saracen empire. The
mistakes of Voltaire proceeded from the want of knowledge or reflection;
but Sir William was deceived by a Spanish impostor, who has framed an
apocryphal history of the conquest of Spain by the Arabs.]

Mecca was the patrimony of the line of Hashem, yet the Abbassides were
never tempted to reside either in the birthplace or the city of the
prophet. Damascus was disgraced by the choice, and polluted with the
blood, of the Ommiades; and, after some hesitation, Almansor, the
brother and successor of Saffah, laid the foundations of Bagdad, [41]
the Imperial seat of his posterity during a reign of five hundred years.
[42] The chosen spot is on the eastern bank of the Tigris, about fifteen
miles above the ruins of Modain: the double wall was of a circular
form; and such was the rapid increase of a capital, now dwindled to a
provincial town, that the funeral of a popular saint might be attended
by eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women of Bagdad and the
adjacent villages. In this city of peace, [43] amidst the riches of the
East, the Abbassides soon disdained the abstinence and frugality of the
first caliphs, and aspired to emulate the magnificence of the Persian
kings. After his wars and buildings, Almansor left behind him in gold
and silver about thirty millions sterling: [44] and this treasure was
exhausted in a few years by the vices or virtues of his children. His
son Mahadi, in a single pilgrimage to Mecca, expended six millions
of dinars of gold. A pious and charitable motive may sanctify the
foundation of cisterns and caravanseras,