ness of their Senses-Sagacity in tracing Footsteps-Their Arms -Food and Cookery-Manner of Eating Diseases-Wealth and Industry Marriage-Divorce-Education of their Children- Funerals Modes of Salutation-Hospitality-Warfare-Rob- bery and Theft-The Blood-revenge-Amusements-Poetry and Music-Learning-Medicine-Superstitions-Language-Arts --Commerce-Proposed Steam Routes by the Euphrates and the Red Sea Population-Concluding Reflections,........... Page 346 Want of Information on the Natural History of Arabia-Scientific Discoveries of the Danish Travellers-GEOLOGY-Mount Sinai -Hills of Hejaz and Yemen-Volcanic Rocks-Hot Springs- SOIL-Agriculture-Crops-Harvest-Comparative Fertility of different Districts-MINERALOGY-No Gold or Silver Mines in Arabia-Precious Stones-BOTANY-Vegetables-Plants- Coloquintida-Tobacco-Hemp-TREES AND SHRUBS-Fruit- trees-The Palm-Date-groves-Manna-Gum-Arabic-Honey -SHRUBS-The Nebek-Tamarisk-Balsam of Mecca-The Gharkad-Henna-Acacia-Incense-tree-Coffee-ZOOLOGY- Wild Animals-Hyenas-Monkeys-Rock-goats-Hares—Jer- boas-Domestic Animals-Cows-Buffaloes-Asses-Horses- Camels-Dromedaries-Sheep-Goats-Dogs-Mice-Birds -Poultry-Birds of Game-Birds of Prey-The Ostrich-The Lapwing The Samarman-Field-sports of the Arabs-Reptiles ENGRAVINGS IN VOL. II. VIGNETTE View of the South Quarter of Mocha. An Arab of Rank in the Costume of Yemen,........... Mecca and the Grand Temple during the Pilgrimage,....... Convent of Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai,. Convent of El Bourg near Tor,............................... Accession of the Abbassides-Caliphs of that Dynasty-Almansor -Haroun al Raschid-Almamoun Motassem Capricious Cruelty of Motawakkel-Magnificence of the Caliphs-Weak- ness and Corruption of their Government Their Military Opera- tions-Wars of Haroun al Raschid and his Successors with the Romans-Victories of Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces over the Moslems-Causes of the Downfal of the Abbassides- Despotic Power of the Turkish Guards-Ravages and Cruelties of the Karmathians-Dismemberment of the Empire into inde- pendent Principalities-Persia usurped by petty Dynasties-Con- quests of Mahmoud of Ghizni in India-Irruptions of the Tartars -Togrul Beg appointed Viceroy of the Mohammedan Dominions -Hoolaku lays Siege to Bagdad-Surrender and Pillage of that Capital Death of Mostasem and Extinction of the Caliphate. WITH the elevation of the house of Abbas the fa- mily of Mohammed ascended once more the pulpit and the throne of their ancestor; and so long as the Saracen power continued to exist they ruled the greater part of the Moslem world. The Arabs have marked the several dynasties with different degrees of reverence and respect. The reigns of Abu Beker, Omar, Othman, and Ali, are distinguished by the generally styled Caliphs of Syria, their capital being Damascus ; while the Abbassides are known in history as the Caliphs of Bagdad, the city to which they transferred their court. In the rise of the Mohammedan monarchy, the empire, however me naced by revolt, was still one and undivided; but in its decline and fall this indivisibility ceased, and the Moslems beheld three independent sovereignties erected, towards the close of the eighth century, within different parts of their dominions,-one seated at Bagdad, another in Egypt and Africa, and a third in Spain. The house of Abbas, whose accession to the throne was attended with circumstances of such unparalleled cruelty as to procure for its first caliph the epithet of Al Saffah or the Sanguinary, ruled over the Eastern World with various degrees of authority for a period of five hundred years. The first century beheld their power undiminished; though the dismemberment of several provinces showed that their government was inherently weak, and that the unwieldy fabric could not long maintain its stability. Like other great nations of antiquity, the policy of the Saracens seemed better adapted for the acquisition of empire than for its preservation; and though, by a surprising effort of arms, they had compelled the world to acknowledge the might of the Commander of the Faithful, they could not infuse into their system those principles of wholesome and vigorous administration essential to its perpetuity. The incessant workings of faction made it necessary to invest the lieutenants of provinces with absolute command; and these, as the monarchy grew feeble and degenerate, were enabled to make their governments hereditary, and to assume every thing except the name of kings. The seeds of dissolution were slowly matured by foreign wars and domestic revolts, and the first twenty reigns are all that can be assigned as the prosperous era of the Abbassides. In Arabia their authority was nominally maintained by their viceroys; though the sheiks of the desert gradually resumed their ancient independence, and regarded the successors of Mohammed merely as the chiefs of their religion. As their power commenced in blood, so it will be found in the sequel to have terminated its career in the most dreadful scenes of cruelty and carnage. The middle of the thirteenth century brought the tragic history of their fallen race to a close, when the proud capital of Islam fell into the hands of the Tartars. DYNASTY OF THE ABBASSIDES, OR CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. Of the earlier princes of this dynasty several were not more distinguished for their warlike prowess |