Chapter LII: More Conquests By The Arabs.—Part I

The Two Sieges Of Constantinople By The Arabs.—Their Invasion Of
France, And Defeat By Charles Martel.—Civil War Of The Ommiades
And Abbassides.—Learning Of The Arabs.— Luxury Of The
Caliphs.—Naval Enterprises On Crete, Sicily, And Rome.—Decay And
Division Of The Empire Of The Caliphs. —Defeats And Victories Of
The Greek Emperors.

When the Arabs first issued from the desert, they must have been
surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success. But when
they advanced in the career of victory to the banks of the Indus
and the summit of the Pyrenees; when they had repeatedly tried
the edge of their cimeters and the energy of their faith, they
might be equally astonished that any nation could resist their
invincible arms; that any boundary should confine the dominion of
the successor of the prophet. The confidence of soldiers and
fanatics may indeed be excused, since the calm historian of the
present hour, who strives to follow the rapid course of the
Saracens, must study to explain by what means the church and
state were saved from this impending, and, as it should seem,
from this inevitable, danger. The deserts of Scythia and Sarmatia
might be guarded by their extent, their climate, their poverty,
and the courage of the northern shepherds; China was remote and
inaccessible; but the greatest part of the temperate zone was
subject to the Mahometan conquerors, the Greeks were exhausted by
the calamities of war and the loss of their fairest provinces,
and the Barbarians of Europe might justly tremble at the
precipitate fall of the Gothic monarchy. In this inquiry I shall
unfold the events that rescued our ancestors of Britain, and our
neighbors of Gaul, from the civil and religious yoke of the
Koran; that protected the majesty of Rome, and delayed the
servitude of Constantinople; that invigorated the defence of the
Christians, and scattered among their enemies the seeds of
division and decay.

Forty-six years after the flight of Mahomet from Mecca, his
disciples appeared in arms under the walls of Constantinople. 1
They were animated by a genuine or fictitious saying of the
prophet, that, to the first army which besieged the city of the
Caesars, their sins were forgiven: the long series of Roman
triumphs would be meritoriously transferred to the conquerors of
New Rome; and the wealth of nations was deposited in this
well-chosen seat of royalty and commerce. No sooner had the
caliph Moawiyah suppressed his rivals and established his throne,
than he aspired to expiate the guilt of civil blood, by the
success and glory of this holy expedition; 2 his preparations by
sea and land were adequate to the importance of the object; his
standard was intrusted to Sophian, a veteran warrior, but the
troops were encouraged by the example and presence of Yezid, the
son and presumptive heir of the commander of the faithful. The
Greeks had little to hope, nor had their enemies any reason of
fear, from the courage and vigilance of the reigning emperor, who
disgraced the name of Constantine, and imitated only the
inglorious years of his grandfather Heraclius. Without delay or
opposition, the naval forces of the Saracens passed through the
unguarded channel of the Hellespont, which even now, under the
feeble and disorderly government of the Turks, is maintained as
the natural bulwark of the capital. 3 The Arabian fleet cast
anchor, and the troops were disembarked near the palace of
Hebdomon, seven miles from the city. During many days, from the
dawn of light to the evening, the line of assault was extended
from the golden gate to the eastern promontory and the foremost
warriors were impelled by the weight and effort of the succeeding
columns. But the besiegers had formed an insufficient estimate of
the strength and resources of Constantinople. The solid and lofty
walls were guarded by numbers and discipline: the spirit of the
Romans was rekindled by the last danger of their religion and
empire: the fugitives from the conquered provinces more
successfully renewed the defence of Damascus and Alexandria; and
the Saracens were dismayed by the strange and prodigious effects
of artificial fire. This firm and effectual resistance diverted
their arms to the more easy attempt of plundering the European
and Asiatic coasts of the Propontis; and, after keeping the sea
from the month of April to that of September, on the approach of
winter they retreated fourscore miles from the capital, to the
Isle of Cyzicus, in which they had established their magazine of
spoil and provisions. So patient was their perseverance, or so
languid were their operations, that they repeated in the six
following summers the same attack and retreat, with a gradual
abatement of hope and vigor, till the mischances of shipwreck and
disease, of the sword and of fire, compelled them to relinquish
the fruitless enterprise. They might bewail the loss, or
commemorate the martyrdom, of thirty thousand Moslems, who fell
in the siege of Constantinople; and the solemn funeral of Abu
Ayub, or Job, excited the curiosity of the Christians themselves.

That venerable Arab, one of the last of the companions of
Mahomet, was numbered among the ansars, or auxiliaries, of
Medina, who sheltered the head of the flying prophet. In his
youth he fought, at Beder and Ohud, under the holy standard: in
his mature age he was the friend and follower of Ali; and the
last remnant of his strength and life was consumed in a distant
and dangerous war against the enemies of the Koran. His memory
was revered; but the place of his burial was neglected and
unknown, during a period of seven hundred and eighty years, till
the conquest of Constantinople by Mahomet the Second. A
seasonable vision (for such are the manufacture of every
religion) revealed the holy spot at the foot of the walls and the
bottom of the harbor; and the mosch of Ayub has been deservedly
chosen for the simple and martial inauguration of the Turkish
sultans. 4

1 (return) [ Theophanes places the seven years of the siege of
Constantinople in the year of our Christian aera, 673 (of the
Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1,) and the peace of the Saracens, four
years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency! which Petavius, Goar,
and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 63, 64,) have struggled to
remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira 52 (A.D. 672, January 8) is
assigned by Elmacin, the year 48 (A.D. 688, Feb. 20) by Abulfeda,
whose testimony I esteem the most convenient and credible.]

2 (return) [ For this first siege of Constantinople, see
Nicephorus, (Breviar. p. 21, 22;) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p.
294;) Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 437;) Zonaras, (Hist. tom. ii. l.
xiv. p. 89;) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen. p. 56, 57;) Abulfeda,
(Annal. Moslem. p. 107, 108, vers. Reiske;) D’Herbelot, (Bibliot.
Orient. Constantinah;) Ockley’s History of the Saracens, vol. ii.
p. 127, 128.]

3 (return) [ The state and defence of the Dardanelles is exposed
in the Memoirs of the Baron de Tott, (tom. iii. p. 39-97,) who
was sent to fortify them against the Russians. From a principal
actor, I should have expected more accurate details; but he seems
to write for the amusement, rather than the instruction, of his
reader. Perhaps, on the approach of the enemy, the minister of
Constantine was occupied, like that of Mustapha, in finding two
Canary birds who should sing precisely the same note.]

4 (return) [ Demetrius Cantemir’s Hist. of the Othman Empire, p.
105, 106. Rycaut’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 10, 11.
Voyages of Thevenot, part i. p. 189. The Christians, who suppose
that the martyr Abu Ayub is vulgarly confounded with the
patriarch Job, betray their own ignorance rather than that of the
Turks.]

The event of the siege revived, both in the East and West, the
reputation of the Roman arms, and cast a momentary shade over the
glories of the Saracens. The Greek ambassador was favorably
received at Damascus, a general council of the emirs or Koreish:
a peace, or truce, of thirty years was ratified between the two
empires; and the stipulation of an annual tribute, fifty horses
of a noble breed, fifty slaves, and three thousand pieces of
gold, degraded the majesty of the commander of the faithful. 5
The aged caliph was desirous of possessing his dominions, and
ending his days in tranquillity and repose: while the Moors and
Indians trembled at his name, his palace and city of Damascus was
insulted by the Mardaites, or Maronites, of Mount Libanus, the
firmest barrier of the empire, till they were disarmed and
transplanted by the suspicious policy of the Greeks. 6 After the
revolt of Arabia and Persia, the house of Ommiyah was reduced to
the kingdoms of Syria and Egypt: their distress and fear enforced
their compliance with the pressing demands of the Christians; and
the tribute was increased to a slave, a horse, and a thousand
pieces of gold, for each of the three hundred and sixty-five days
of the solar year. But as soon as the empire was again united by
the arms and policy of Abdalmalek, he disclaimed a badge of
servitude not less injurious to his conscience than to his pride;
he discontinued the payment of the tribute; and the resentment of
the Greeks was disabled from action by the mad tyranny of the
second Justinian, the just rebellion of his subjects, and the
frequent change of his antagonists and successors. 7 Till the
reign of Abdalmalek, the Saracens had been content with the free
possession of the Persian and Roman treasures, in the coins of
Chosroes and Caesar. By the command of that caliph, a national
mint was established, both for silver and gold, and the
inscription of the Dinar, though it might be censured by some
timorous casuists, proclaimed the unity of the God of Mahomet. 8
Under the reign of the caliph Walid, the Greek language and
characters were excluded from the accounts of the public revenue.
9 If this change was productive of the invention or familiar use
of our present numerals, the Arabic or Indian ciphers, as they
are commonly styled, a regulation of office has promoted the most
important discoveries of arithmetic, algebra, and the
mathematical sciences. 10

5 (return) [ Theophanes, though a Greek, deserves credit for
these tributes, (Chronograph. p. 295, 296, 300, 301,) which are
confirmed, with some variation, by the Arabic History of
Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 128, vers. Pocock.)]

6 (return) [ The censure of Theophanes is just and pointed,
(Chronograph. p. 302, 303.) The series of these events may be
traced in the Annals of Theophanes, and in the Abridgment of the
patriarch Nicephorus, p. 22, 24.]

7 (return) [ These domestic revolutions are related in a clear
and natural style, in the second volume of Ockley’s History of
the Saracens, p. 253-370. Besides our printed authors, he draws
his materials from the Arabic Mss. of Oxford, which he would have
more deeply searched had he been confined to the Bodleian library
instead of the city jail a fate how unworthy of the man and of
his country!]

8 (return) [ Elmacin, who dates the first coinage A. H. 76, A.D.
695, five or six years later than the Greek historians, has
compared the weight of the best or common gold dinar to the
drachm or dirhem of Egypt, (p. 77,) which may be equal to two
pennies (48 grains) of our Troy weight, (Hooper’s Inquiry into
Ancient Measures, p. 24-36,) and equivalent to eight shillings of
our sterling money. From the same Elmacin and the Arabian
physicians, some dinars as high as two dirhems, as low as half a
dirhem, may be deduced. The piece of silver was the dirhem, both
in value and weight; but an old, though fair coin, struck at
Waset, A. H. 88, and preserved in the Bodleian library, wants
four grains of the Cairo standard, (see the Modern Universal
History, tom. i. p. 548 of the French translation.) * Note: Up to
this time the Arabs had used the Roman or the Persian coins or
had minted others which resembled them. Nevertheless, it has been
admitted of late years, that the Arabians, before this epoch, had
caused coin to be minted, on which, preserving the Roman or the
Persian dies, they added Arabian names or inscriptions. Some of
these exist in different collections. We learn from Makrizi, an
Arabian author of great learning and judgment, that in the year
18 of the Hegira, under the caliphate of Omar, the Arabs had
coined money of this description. The same author informs us that
the caliph Abdalmalek caused coins to be struck representing
himself with a sword by his side. These types, so contrary to the
notions of the Arabs, were disapproved by the most influential
persons of the time, and the caliph substituted for them, after
the year 76 of the Hegira, the Mahometan coins with which we are
acquainted. Consult, on the question of Arabic numismatics, the
works of Adler, of Fraehn, of Castiglione, and of Marsden, who
have treated at length this interesting point of historic
antiquities. See, also, in the Journal Asiatique, tom. ii. p.
257, et seq., a paper of M. Silvestre de Sacy, entitled Des
Monnaies des Khalifes avant l’An 75 de l’Hegire. See, also the
translation of a German paper on the Arabic medals of the
Chosroes, by M. Fraehn. in the same Journal Asiatique tom. iv. p.
331-347. St. Martin, vol. xii. p. 19, —M.]

9 (return) [ Theophan. Chronograph. p. 314. This defect, if it
really existed, must have stimulated the ingenuity of the Arabs
to invent or borrow.]

10 (return) [ According to a new, though probable, notion,
maintained by M de Villoison, (Anecdota Graeca, tom. ii. p.
152-157,) our ciphers are not of Indian or Arabic invention. They
were used by the Greek and Latin arithmeticians long before the
age of Boethius. After the extinction of science in the West,
they were adopted by the Arabic versions from the original Mss.,
and restored to the Latins about the xith century. * Note:
Compare, on the Introduction of the Arabic numerals, Hallam’s
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, p. 150, note, and the
authors quoted therein.—M.]

Whilst the caliph Walid sat idle on the throne of Damascus,
whilst his lieutenants achieved the conquest of Transoxiana and
Spain, a third army of Saracens overspread the provinces of Asia
Minor, and approached the borders of the Byzantine capital. But
the attempt and disgrace of the second siege was reserved for his
brother Soliman, whose ambition appears to have been quickened by
a more active and martial spirit. In the revolutions of the Greek
empire, after the tyrant Justinian had been punished and avenged,
an humble secretary, Anastasius or Artemius, was promoted by
chance or merit to the vacant purple. He was alarmed by the sound
of war; and his ambassador returned from Damascus with the
tremendous news, that the Saracens were preparing an armament by
sea and land, such as would transcend the experience of the past,
or the belief of the present age. The precautions of Anastasius
were not unworthy of his station, or of the impending danger. He
issued a peremptory mandate, that all persons who were not
provided with the means of subsistence for a three years’ siege
should evacuate the city: the public granaries and arsenals were
abundantly replenished; the walls were restored and strengthened;
and the engines for casting stones, or darts, or fire, were
stationed along the ramparts, or in the brigantines of war, of
which an additional number was hastily constructed. To prevent is
safer, as well as more honorable, than to repel, an attack; and a
design was meditated, above the usual spirit of the Greeks, of
burning the naval stores of the enemy, the cypress timber that
had been hewn in Mount Libanus, and was piled along the sea-shore
of Phoenicia, for the service of the Egyptian fleet. This
generous enterprise was defeated by the cowardice or treachery of
the troops, who, in the new language of the empire, were styled
of the Obsequian Theme. 11 They murdered their chief, deserted
their standard in the Isle of Rhodes, dispersed themselves over
the adjacent continent, and deserved pardon or reward by
investing with the purple a simple officer of the revenue. The
name of Theodosius might recommend him to the senate and people;
but, after some months, he sunk into a cloister, and resigned, to
the firmer hand of Leo the Isaurian, the urgent defence of the
capital and empire. The most formidable of the Saracens,
Moslemah, the brother of the caliph, was advancing at the head of
one hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians, the greater
part mounted on horses or camels; and the successful sieges of
Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus, were of sufficient duration to
exercise their skill and to elevate their hopes. At the
well-known passage of Abydus, on the Hellespont, the Mahometan
arms were transported, for the first time, 1111 from Asia to
Europe. From thence, wheeling round the Thracian cities of the
Propontis, Moslemah invested Constantinople on the land side,
surrounded his camp with a ditch and rampart, prepared and
planted his engines of assault, and declared, by words and
actions, a patient resolution of expecting the return of
seed-time and harvest, should the obstinacy of the besieged prove
equal to his own. 1112 The Greeks would gladly have ransomed
their religion and empire, by a fine or assessment of a piece of
gold on the head of each inhabitant of the city; but the liberal
offer was rejected with disdain, and the presumption of Moslemah
was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible force of the
natives of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to
eighteen hundred ships: the number betrays their inconsiderable
size; and of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose
magnitude impeded their progress, each was manned with no more
than one hundred heavy-armed soldiers. This huge armada proceeded
on a smooth sea, and with a gentle gale, towards the mouth of the
Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was overshadowed, in the
language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and the same fatal
night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general assault
by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the
emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the
entrance of the harbor; but while they hesitated whether they
should seize the opportunity, or apprehend the snare, the
ministers of destruction were at hand. The fire-ships of the
Greeks were launched against them; the Arabs, their arms, and
vessels, were involved in the same flames; the disorderly
fugitives were dashed against each other or overwhelmed in the
waves; and I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had
threatened to extirpate the Roman name. A still more fatal and
irreparable loss was that of the caliph Soliman, who died of an
indigestion, 12 in his camp near Kinnisrin or Chalcis in Syria,
as he was preparing to lead against Constantinople the remaining
forces of the East. The brother of Moslemah was succeeded by a
kinsman and an enemy; and the throne of an active and able prince
was degraded by the useless and pernicious virtues of a bigot.
1211 While he started and satisfied the scruples of a blind
conscience, the siege was continued through the winter by the
neglect, rather than by the resolution of the caliph Omar. 13 The
winter proved uncommonly rigorous: above a hundred days the
ground was covered with deep snow, and the natives of the sultry
climes of Egypt and Arabia lay torpid and almost lifeless in
their frozen camp. They revived on the return of spring; a second
effort had been made in their favor; and their distress was
relieved by the arrival of two numerous fleets, laden with corn,
and arms, and soldiers; the first from Alexandria, of four
hundred transports and galleys; the second of three hundred and
sixty vessels from the ports of Africa. But the Greek fires were
again kindled; and if the destruction was less complete, it was
owing to the experience which had taught the Moslems to remain at
a safe distance, or to the perfidy of the Egyptian mariners, who
deserted with their ships to the emperor of the Christians. The
trade and navigation of the capital were restored; and the
produce of the fisheries supplied the wants, and even the luxury,
of the inhabitants. But the calamities of famine and disease were
soon felt by the troops of Moslemah, and as the former was
miserably assuaged, so the latter was dreadfully propagated, by
the pernicious nutriment which hunger compelled them to extract
from the most unclean or unnatural food. The spirit of conquest,
and even of enthusiasm, was extinct: the Saracens could no longer
struggle, beyond their lines, either single or in small parties,
without exposing themselves to the merciless retaliation of the
Thracian peasants.

An army of Bulgarians was attracted from the Danube by the gifts
and promises of Leo; and these savage auxiliaries made some
atonement for the evils which they had inflicted on the empire,
by the defeat and slaughter of twenty-two thousand Asiatics. A
report was dexterously scattered, that the Franks, the unknown
nations of the Latin world, were arming by sea and land in the
defence of the Christian cause, and their formidable aid was
expected with far different sensations in the camp and city. At
length, after a siege of thirteen months, 14 the hopeless
Moslemah received from the caliph the welcome permission of
retreat. 1411 The march of the Arabian cavalry over the
Hellespont and through the provinces of Asia, was executed
without delay or molestation; but an army of their brethren had
been cut in pieces on the side of Bithynia, and the remains of
the fleet were so repeatedly damaged by tempest and fire, that
only five galleys entered the port of Alexandria to relate the
tale of their various and almost incredible disasters. 15

11 (return) [ In the division of the Themes, or provinces
described by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, (de Thematibus, l. i.
p. 9, 10,) the Obsequium, a Latin appellation of the army and
palace, was the fourth in the public order. Nice was the
metropolis, and its jurisdiction extended from the Hellespont
over the adjacent parts of Bithynia and Phrygia, (see the two
maps prefixed by Delisle to the Imperium Orientale of Banduri.)]

1111 (return) [ Compare page 274. It is singular that Gibbon
should thus contradict himself in a few pages. By his own account
this was the second time.—M.]

1112 (return) [ The account of this siege in the Tarikh Tebry is
a very unfavorable specimen of Asiatic history, full of absurd
fables, and written with total ignorance of the circumstances of
time and place. Price, vol. i. p. 498—M.]

12 (return) [ The caliph had emptied two baskets of eggs and of
figs, which he swallowed alternately, and the repast was
concluded with marrow and sugar. In one of his pilgrimages to
Mecca, Soliman ate, at a single meal, seventy pomegranates, a
kid, six fowls, and a huge quantity of the grapes of Tayef. If
the bill of fare be correct, we must admire the appetite, rather
than the luxury, of the sovereign of Asia, (Abulfeda, Annal.
Moslem. p. 126.) * Note: The Tarikh Tebry ascribes the death of
Soliman to a pleurisy. The same gross gluttony in which Soliman
indulged, though not fatal to the life, interfered with the
military duties, of his brother Moslemah. Price, vol. i. p.
511.—M.]

1211 (return) [ Major Price’s estimate of Omar’s character is
much more favorable. Among a race of sanguinary tyrants, Omar was
just and humane. His virtues as well as his bigotry were
active.—M.]

13 (return) [ See the article of Omar Ben Abdalaziz, in the
Bibliotheque Orientale, (p. 689, 690,) praeferens, says Elmacin,
(p. 91,) religionem suam rebus suis mundanis. He was so desirous
of being with God, that he would not have anointed his ear (his
own saying) to obtain a perfect cure of his last malady. The
caliph had only one shirt, and in an age of luxury, his annual
expense was no more than two drachms, (Abulpharagius, p. 131.)
Haud diu gavisus eo principe fuit urbis Muslemus, (Abulfeda, p.
127.)]

14 (return) [ Both Nicephorus and Theophanes agree that the siege
of Constantinople was raised the 15th of August, (A.D. 718;) but
as the former, our best witness, affirms that it continued
thirteen months, the latter must be mistaken in supposing that it
began on the same day of the preceding year. I do not find that
Pagi has remarked this inconsistency.]

1411 (return) [ The Tarikh Tebry embellishes the retreat of
Moslemah with some extraordinary and incredible circumstances.
Price, p. 514.—M.]

15 (return) [ In the second siege of Constantinople, I have
followed Nicephorus, (Brev. p. 33-36,) Theophanes, (Chronograph,
p. 324-334,) Cedrenus, (Compend. p. 449-452,) Zonaras, (tom. ii.
p. 98-102,) Elmacin, (Hist. Saracen, p. 88,) Abulfeda, (Annal.
Moslem. p. 126,) and Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 130,) the most
satisfactory of the Arabs.]

In the two sieges, the deliverance of Constantinople may be
chiefly ascribed to the novelty, the terrors, and the real
efficacy of the Greek fire. 16 The important secret of
compounding and directing this artificial flame was imparted by
Callinicus, a native of Heliopolis in Syria, who deserted from
the service of the caliph to that of the emperor. 17 The skill of
a chemist and engineer was equivalent to the succor of fleets and
armies; and this discovery or improvement of the military art was
fortunately reserved for the distressful period, when the
degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with
the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigor of the Saracens. The
historian who presumes to analyze this extraordinary composition
should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine
guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and, in this
instance, so jealous of the truth. From their obscure, and
perhaps fallacious, hints it should seem that the principal
ingredient of the Greek fire was the naphtha, 18 or liquid
bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil, 19 which
springs from the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in
contact with the air. The naphtha was mingled, I know not by what
methods or in what proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch
that is extracted from evergreen firs. 20 From this mixture,
which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a
fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular
ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or
lateral progress; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished
and quickened by the element of water; and sand, urine, or
vinegar, were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this
powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the
liquid, or the maritime, fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it
was employed with equal effect, by sea and land, in battles or in
sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers,
or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in
arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had
deeply imbibed the inflammable oil; sometimes it was deposited in
fire-ships, the victims and instruments of a more ample revenge,
and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper which
were planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into
the mouths of savage monsters, that seemed to vomit a stream of
liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved at
Constantinople, as the palladium of the state: the galleys and
artillery might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome; but
the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most
jealous scruple, and the terror of the enemies was increased and
prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treaties of the
administration of the empire, the royal author 21 suggests the
answers and excuses that might best elude the indiscreet
curiosity and importunate demands of the Barbarians. They should
be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by
an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with a
sacred injunction, that this gift of Heaven, this peculiar
blessing of the Romans, should never be communicated to any
foreign nation; that the prince and the subject were alike bound
to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties
of treason and sacrilege; and that the impious attempt would
provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the
Christians. By these precautions, the secret was confined, above
four hundred years, to the Romans of the East; and at the end of
the eleventh century, the Pisans, to whom every sea and every art
were familiar, suffered the effects, without understanding the
composition, of the Greek fire. It was at length either
discovered or stolen by the Mahometans; and, in the holy wars of
Syria and Egypt, they retorted an invention, contrived against
themselves, on the heads of the Christians. A knight, who
despised the swords and lances of the Saracens, relates, with
heartfelt sincerity, his own fears, and those of his companions,
at the sight and sound of the mischievous engine that discharged
a torrent of the Greek fire, the feu Gregeois, as it is styled by
the more early of the French writers. It came flying through the
air, says Joinville, 22 like a winged long-tailed dragon, about
the thickness of a hogshead, with the report of thunder and the
velocity of lightning; and the darkness of the night was
dispelled by this deadly illumination. The use of the Greek, or,
as it might now be called, of the Saracen fire, was continued to
the middle of the fourteenth century, 23 when the scientific or
casual compound of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, effected a new
revolution in the art of war and the history of mankind. 24

16 (return) [ Our sure and indefatigable guide in the middle ages
and Byzantine history, Charles du Fresne du Cange, has treated in
several places of the Greek fire, and his collections leave few
gleanings behind. See particularly Glossar. Med. et Infim.
Graecitat. p. 1275, sub voce. Glossar. Med. et Infim. Latinitat.
Ignis Groecus. Observations sur Villehardouin, p. 305, 306.
Observations sur Joinville, p. 71, 72.]

17 (return) [ Theophanes styles him, (p. 295.) Cedrenus (p. 437)
brings this artist from (the ruins of) Heliopolis in Egypt; and
chemistry was indeed the peculiar science of the Egyptians.]

18 (return) [ The naphtha, the oleum incendiarium of the history
of Jerusalem, (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167,) the Oriental
fountain of James de Vitry, (l. iii. c. 84,) is introduced on
slight evidence and strong probability. Cinanmus (l. vi. p. 165)
calls the Greek fire: and the naphtha is known to abound between
the Tigris and the Caspian Sea. According to Pliny, (Hist. Natur.
ii. 109,) it was subservient to the revenge of Medea, and in
either etymology, (Procop. de Bell. Gothic. l. iv. c. 11,) may
fairly signify this liquid bitumen. * Note: It is remarkable that
the Syrian historian Michel gives the name of naphtha to the
newly-invented Greek fire, which seems to indicate that this
substance formed the base of the destructive compound. St.
Martin, tom. xi. p. 420.—M.]

19 (return) [ On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see
Dr. Watson’s (the present bishop of Llandaff’s) Chemical Essays,
vol. iii. essay i., a classic book, the best adapted to infuse
the taste and knowledge of chemistry. The less perfect ideas of
the ancients may be found in Strabo (Geograph. l. xvi. p. 1078)
and Pliny, (Hist. Natur. ii. 108, 109.) Huic (Naphthae) magna
cognatio est ignium, transiliuntque protinus in eam undecunque
visam. Of our travellers I am best pleased with Otter, (tom. i.
p. 153, 158.)]

20 (return) [ Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain.
(Alexiad. l. xiii. p. 383.) Elsewhere (l. xi. p. 336) she
mentions the property of burning. Leo, in the xixth chapter of
his Tactics, (Opera Meursii, tom. vi. p. 843, edit. Lami,
Florent. 1745,) speaks of the new invention. These are genuine
and Imperial testimonies.]

21 (return) [ Constantin. Porphyrogenit. de Administrat. Imperii,
c. xiii. p. 64, 65.]

22 (return) [ Histoire de St. Louis, p. 39. Paris, 1668, p. 44.
Paris, de l’Imprimerie Royale, 1761. The former of these editions
is precious for the observations of Ducange; the latter for the
pure and original text of Joinville. We must have recourse to
that text to discover, that the feu Gregeois was shot with a pile
or javelin, from an engine that acted like a sling.]

23 (return) [ The vanity, or envy, of shaking the established
property of Fame, has tempted some moderns to carry gunpowder
above the xivth, (see Sir William Temple, Dutens, &c.,) and the
Greek fire above the viith century, (see the Saluste du President
des Brosses, tom. ii. p. 381.) But their evidence, which precedes
the vulgar aera of the invention, is seldom clear or
satisfactory, and subsequent writers may be suspected of fraud or
credulity. In the earliest sieges, some combustibles of oil and
sulphur have been used, and the Greek fire has some affinities
with gunpowder both in its nature and effects: for the antiquity
of the first, a passage of Procopius, (de Bell. Goth. l. iv. c.
11,) for that of the second, some facts in the Arabic history of
Spain, (A.D. 1249, 1312, 1332. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. ii. p.
6, 7, 8,) are the most difficult to elude.]

24 (return) [ That extraordinary man, Friar Bacon, reveals two of
the ingredients, saltpetre and sulphur, and conceals the third in
a sentence of mysterious gibberish, as if he dreaded the
consequences of his own discovery, (Biog. Brit. vol. i. p. 430,
new edition.)]