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The History of Arabia , Ancient And Modern: Ancient And Modern
The History of Arabia Ancient And Modern Ancient And Modern Author:Andrew Crichton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. CIVIL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. Extinction of the Saracen Power—Formation of new Kingdoms in the East—Victories and Dominions of Timur—... more »Conquests of the Turks and Portuguese in Arabia—Selim I. obtains the Investiture of the Caliphate—Expulsion of the Turks by the Independent Arab Chiefs—Dominions of the Imam of Sanaa —His Government, Revenues, and Military Force—Description of Sanaa—Visits of European Travellers to that Capital —Principal Town in Yemen—Beit el Fakih—Taas—Mocha —Aden—Government of Hadramaut—Of Oman—Description of Muscat—Court, Revenues, and Commercial Enterprise of the Imam—Islands of Bahrein—Pearl Fisheries—Depredations of the Joassamee Pirates in the Persian Gulf—Various Expeditions from India to suppress them—Reduction of Ras el Khyma and their principal Fortresses—A rab Settlers Ob the Persian Frontier—Classification of the wandering Bedouin Tribes—Their migratory Habits and Military Strength —Government of their Sheiks—Their Laws and Judicial Trials—Reflections on their Political Institutions. The history of the Saracens, both as a military and a political nation, may be said to have expired with the reduction of Bagdad by the grandson of Zingis Khan. The successors of Mostasem, to the number of eighteen, called the Second Dynasty of the Ab- bassides, were merely the spiritual chiefs of the Mohammedan religion. For two centuries and a half the ecclesiastical supremacy continued in the hands of these venerable phantoms; when at length the tide of invasion swept away the only remaining vestige, and feeble representative, of the once proud caliphs of the East. Long before the downfall of the Abbassides, Arabia had shared in the declining fortunes of its masters. Instead of being the seat of the successors of the Prophet, or the centre ...« less