A history of all nations from the earliest times; being a universal historical library . part from Turkishslaves. For the warlike energy of the Arabs, to which Islam owedits brilliant successes at the outset, had long since been Arabs no longer regarded the propagation of their faith as theirhighest mission, nor esteemed death in battle against the unbelieverstheir most glorious reward. Since they had become inhabitants ofgreat commercial cities, and had been trained in agriculture andmany other forms of industry by those whom they had vanquished,economic interests outweighed all
A history of all nations from the earliest times; being a universal historical library . part from Turkishslaves. For the warlike energy of the Arabs, to which Islam owedits brilliant successes at the outset, had long since been Arabs no longer regarded the propagation of their faith as theirhighest mission, nor esteemed death in battle against the unbelieverstheir most glorious reward. Since they had become inhabitants ofgreat commercial cities, and had been trained in agriculture andmany other forms of industry by those whom they had vanquished,economic interests outweighed all others in their minds. In thisway the religious and national basis upon which the califate restedbecame insecure, and the two most important sources of its powerwere cut off. Meanwhile the strictly orthodox, who naturally ad-vocated the preservation of the old political and social system aswell as of the old religion, were driven more and more to take sidesagainst their rulers. From these circumstances the power of thecalifate rapidly declined. After the middle of the ninth century. a Co o Co u c I c i3 0) - O t:; DECLINE OF THE BAGDAD CALIF ATE. 195 Mutassims successor, his son Alwathik (842-847), provoked tliezealots by his dissolute life and by insulting and persecuting themin many ways. Alwathiks brother, Jaffar al-Mutawakkil (, theTrusting) (847-861), then mounted the throne. He belonged tothe orthodox party, and punished svith great cruelty all the errors inlife and doctrine which his predecessors had tolerated. Under al-jMutawakkils reign the Christians were once more bitterly increasing severity, and in particular the dreadful extortionsthat he practised, at last led to a conspiracy in his body-guard, towhich he fell a ^äctim in 861. His son Muntassir was raised to thethrone by the conspirators, but survived only a few months. During the next few years the califs followed one another inrapid succession. They were all, without exception, men of nogre
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