f the Almohades, or Unitarians, was founded on the blindest fanaticism,
and their extraordinary rigor might be provoked or justified by the
recent victories and intolerant zeal of the princes of Sicily and
Castille, of Arragon and Portugal. The faith of the Mozarabes was
occasionally revived by the papal missionaries; and, on the landing of
Charles the Fifth, some families of Latin Christians were encouraged to
rear their heads at Tunis and Algiers. But the seed of the gospel was
quickly eradicated, and the long province from Tripoli to the Atlantic
has lost all memory of the language and religion of Rome.

After the revolution of eleven centuries, the Jews and Christians of the
Turkish empire enjoy the liberty of conscience which was granted by the
Arabian caliphs. During the first age of the conquest, they suspected
the loyalty of the Catholics, whose name of Melchites betrayed their
secret attachment to the Greek emperor, while the Nestorians and
Jacobites, his inveterate enemies, approved themselves the sincere and
voluntary friends of the Mahometan government. Yet this partial jealousy
was healed by time and submission; the churches of Egypt were shared
with the Catholics; and all the Oriental sects were included in the
common benefits of toleration. The rank, the immunities, the domestic
jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy, were
protected by the civil magistrate: the learning of individuals
recommended them to the employments of secretaries and physicians: they
were enriched by the lucrative collection of the revenue; and their
merit was sometimes raised to the command of cities and provinces. A
caliph of the house of Abbas was heard to declare that the Christians
were most worthy of trust in the administration of Persia. "The
Moslems," said he, "will abuse their present fortune; the Magians regret
their fallen greatness; and the Jews are impatient for their
approaching deliverance." But the slaves of despotism are exposed to
the alternatives of favor and disgrace. The captive churches of the
East have been afflicted in every age by the avarice or bigotry of their
rulers; and the ordinary and legal restraints must be offensive to the
pride, or the zeal, of the Christians. About two hundred years after
Mahomet, they were separated from their fellow-subjects by a turban or
girdle of a less honorable color; instead of horses or mules, they were
condemned to ride on asses, in the attitude of wom