Crichton Ancient Kings of Arabia

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5378-0222-0
Verlag: Jovian Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 150 Seiten

The history of Arabia naturally divides itself into three periods, the Ancient, the Military, and the Modern. The first carries us down to the age of Mohammed, and is called by the Arabs the Times of Ignorance. The second includes the wars of the Saracens, and the empire of the caliphs. The third embraces the events from the fall of the caliphate to the present day. The native writers who treat of the first period all flourished, as has been observed, posterior to the era of the Prophet...

Andrew Crichton (1790-1855) was a Scottish biographer and historian.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Crichton, Andrew

Leseproben

THE KINGDOM OF HIRA
~ THE KINGDOM OF HIRA, in Irak, was founded by a part of the dispersed clans which the flood of El Arem had compelled to abandon Yemen. These emigrants first settled on the borders of Hejaz, where they all remained till the death of Amru Mazikia. The scanty produce of that country being inadequate to the maintenance of so great an influx of strangers, another dispersion became necessary. The tribe of Tai took up their residence in Nejed, in the district of Mount Salma; that of Khozaa continued at Mecca, where they succeeded for a time in wresting from the Ishmaelites the superintendence of the temple and the principality of the city. Malec, with the tribe of Azd and Khodai, a powerful colony, settled id Bahrein and Yemama. The throne of the Arsacids still subsisted in Persia, but in circur: stances of such feebleness and disunion as invited the wandering Arabs, about the beginning of the third century, to take possession of Irak, which they found without any regular government or means of defence. They made themselves masters, for a time, of the whole territory lying between the passes of Hulwan and the Tigris. Malec fixed the seat of his new kingdom at Anbar, on the Euphrates, where certain of his countrymen, known by the name of Armenians, were already settled, who had been carried from Arabia among the captives of Nebuchadnezzar. The capital was afterward transferred to Hira, a city lower down the river, by Amru, the third prince of this dynasty, with whom the throne passed by marriage from the descendants of Cahlan to the Lakhmians, another branch of the royal house of Saba in Yemen. The following list of the kings of Hira is furnished by Pococke and Hamza. Kings of Hira,—Reigned AD 210-634. 210, Malec. 504, Abujafar. 230, Jodaimah (or Khozzeimah)507, Amriolkais III. Descendants of Lakhm. 520, Mondar III. 268, Amru I.523, Hareth. 301, Amriolkais I.563, Mondar III (restored) 334, Amru II.564, Amru III 369, Aus.576, Kabus. 374, Amriolkais II.584, Mondar IV. 400, Nooman I. 588, Nooman III. 430, Mondar I.611, Ayas. 473, Aswad.617, Zadijah. 493, Mondar II.634, Mondar V. 500, Nooman II. The history of these kings presents little that is worthy of particular notice. War was their incessant occupation; and there is a tradition that none of them except Kabus died within their own territories, all the rest having perished either in military expeditions or hunting excursions. Malec, on assuming the functions of sovereignty, proceeded to establish the absurdities of the Arabian idolatry throughout his dominions. He was slain accidentally with an arrow by a person named Soleimah, while wandering in disguise from his palace to observe what was passing in the town. Jodaimah, on whom was bestowed the title of Al Abrash or the Leper, was a brave and judicious prince; he succeeded in subjugating to his power the whole of the Arab chiefs settled in Irak. His authority was acknowledged in Bahrein, and even extended to some parts of Hejaz and Yemen. He introduced regular discipline among his troops, which gave him great advantages over the desultory tactics of his adversaries. It is remarked that he employed lamps in his nocturnal marches, and was the first that used the balista; a military engine (perhaps the crossbow) for throwing missiles. In all his expeditions he carried with him two images or idols; from the one ne supplicated health, from the other victory. He was attacked and defeated by Asaad-Abucarb and Hassan, kings of Yemen; but the disorders that broke out among the ranks of the invading army saved the kingdom of Hira. Amru I was the son of Rakash, the sister of Jodaimah, and the handsome Addi, chief of the Beni-Lakhm, who filled the office of the king’s cupbearer; and in his tribe the sovereign power now became hereditary. This prince threw off for a long time his dependence on Persia, until Shapoor, the son of Ardisheer Babigan, entered Irak with a numerous force, and subdued the greatei part of the country between the Tigris and the Euphrates. A debt of revenge had descended to Amru in the murder of Jodaimah, who was entrapped by the treachery of Zabba, an Arabian princess, in Mesopotamia, and ordered to be bled to death by opening the veins of his arms. This cruel deed demanded an atonement equally severe; and it was effected by the following stratagem: Kosair, a confidential servant, was dispatched in the disguise of a merchant with a large caravan to Khadr, a strongly-fortified city, where Zabba had her palace. Some assert that, to excite pity, he had, like another Zopyrus disfigured and mutilated himself by cutting off his nose. Pretending to have brought rich merchandise, which he wished to submit to the princess, the gates were without hesitation thrown open. The cargo consisted of 2000 large sacks of hair-cloih, each of which concealed two armed men, who, on a given signal, surrounded the royal residence, putting all to slaughter without resistance. Zabba fell by the hand of Kosair, or by swallowing a deadly poison which she kept enclosed in a ring. Amru annexed her territory to that of Irak, and transmitted the government, which he had thus consolidated, with out interruption to his posterity. Nooman I signalized himself by his conquests in Syria. The immense spoils he collected increased the wealth of his kingdom, and enabled him to adorn his capital with gardens, vineyards, groves, and hunting parks, not inferior to those of Mareb. The Euphrates was covered with his boats and pleasure-barges; and his preserves were richly stocked with gazelles and other animals of chase. To the care of this prince the Persian monarch, Yezdijird, intrusted the education of his only surviving child and successor, the celebrated Baharam-Gour (the Varanes of Roman history), who is reported to have won back, in a dispute with the usurper Khoosroo, his father’s crown, by carrying it off from his less daring competitor when placed between two furious lions. It was chiefly for the accommodation of his royal pupil that Nooman erected those magnificent buildings or castles called Khavarnak,—the Palace of Delights,—and Sadir, reckoned the most charming and salubrious residence in all Irak. The imagination of the Arabs has described them as altogether unrivalled inelegance and splendor; but the unlucky architect, Sennamar, having incautiously admitted that he had not expended the utmost of his skill on those boasted structures, was precipitated by order of Nooman from one of the loftiest towers. Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person ungratefully used or inadequately remunerated for his labors, that “he has met with the reward of Sennamar.” Nooman is said to have become a convert tc Christianity, when he abdicated the throne, and, like another Charles V, retired from the cares and functions of royalty, to moralize on the vanity and evanescence of all sublunary grandeur. Conducting his courtiers to the top of Khavarnak, he pointed to the watered gardens and palm-groves, the pastures covered with flocks, the river with its crowded barges, and the city with its busy population. “Of what worth,” he exclaimed, “are those fleeting possessions to me! today they are mine; tomorrow they belong to another!” On his accession to the throne, Mondar I led an army of 40,000 men into Persia to assist his youthful companion, Baharam-Gour, in recovering the crown which had been factiously conferred on another. His reign and those of his immediate successors are barren of incident. The energy and admirable political regulations of the Persian monarchs, Kobad and Nooshirwan, gave little cause foi mutiny or discontent in their tributary provinces. In India and Arabia, from the Mediterranean to the Caspian, and from the Euxine to the Jaxartes, the imperial sway of the latter was acknowledged; and it was not till the sceptre fell into the hands of his unworthy successor, Hormuz III, that the Arabs refused to pay tribute or obedience. Mondar II had proved a valuable ally to Kobad in his wars against the Roman emperor Anastasius. Mondar III was defeated and taken captive by tbe tribe of Becr, who raised Hareth to the throne; the Persian monarch being too much occupied in suppressing the religious innovations of the impostor Mazdak in his own dominions, to protect his vassal or attend to the affairs of Hira. In 531, Mondar joined Kobad in his successful invasion of the Roman territories, and marched to his assistance with an army of 150,000 men. He advised him, as we learn from Procopius, to alter his plan of hostilities; and, instead of carrying on the war in Mesopotamia, to penetrate directly into Syria, where there were no fortified cities, and lay siege to Antioch, one of the richest and worst-defended places in the Eastern Empire. His counsel was accepted; and an expedition, which he himself conducted through the desert, was despatched against the famous Belisarius, whom he soon completely routed near the Euphrates. Mondar had the reputation of a bold and experienced soldier. “For fifty years,” says Procopius, “he had harassed the Romans, from Egypt to Mesopotamia; pillaging their country, burning their cities, and making innumerable slaves, whom he killed or sold for large sums of money. He made his inroads so suddenly, that he was off before any general was apprized of the attack, or could pursue lorn with advantage. He captured many Roman officers, and exacted large sums for their ransom. In short, he was the sharpest enemy the Romans had; and the defeats they had sustained at...