OFT HE EOMAN EMPIRE 307 Syria; and the Turkish veterans were employed or consumed in the civil wars beyond the Tigris. The caliph of Egypt embraced this opportunity of weakness and discord to recover his ancient possessions ; and his sultan Aphdal besieged Jerusalem and Tyre, expelled the children of Ortok, and restored in Palestine the civil and ecclesiastical authority of the Fatimites.i^ They heard with astonishment of the vast armies of Christians that had passed from Europe to Asia^ and rejoiced in the sieges and battles which broke the power of the Turks, the adversaries of their sect and monarchy. But the same Christians were the enemies of the prophet ; and from the overthrow of Nice and Antioch, the motive of their enterprise, which was gradually understood, would urge them forward to the banks of the Jordan, or perhaps of the Nile. An intercourse of epistles and embassies, which rose and fell with the events of war, was maintained be- tween the throne of Cairo and the camp of the Latins ; and their adverse pride was the result of ignorance and enthusiasm. The ministers of Egypt declai-ed in an haughty, or insinuated in a milder, tone that their sovereign, the true and lawful commander of the faithful, had rescued Jerusalem from the Turkish yoke ; and that the pilgrims, if they would divide their numbers and lay aside their arms, should find a safe and hospitable reception at the sepulchre of Jesus. In the belief of their lost condition, the caliph Mostali despised their arms and imprisoned their deputies : the conquest and victory of Antioch prompted him to solicit those formidable champions with gifts of horses and silk robes, of vases, and purses of gold and silver ; and, in his esti- mate of their merit or power, the first place was assigned to Bohemond, and the second to Godfrey. In either fortune the answer of the crusaders was firm and uniform : they disdained to inquire into the private claims or possessions of the followers of Mahomet : whatsoever was his name or nation, the usurper of Jerusalem was their enemy ; and, instead of prescribing the mode and terms of their pilgrimage, it was only by a timely surrender of the city and province, their sacred right, that he could deserve their alliance or deprecate their impending and irresistible attack.^'^^ lo^The emir, or sultan [really vezir ; called sultan in Egypt under the Fatimids], Aphdal recovered Jerusalem and Tyre, a.m. 489 [i096](Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 478 ; De Guignes, torn. i. p. 249, from Abulfeda and Ben Schounah). Jerusalem ante adventum vestrum recuperavimus, Turcos ejecimus, say the Fatimite ambassadors. I'^See the transactions between the caliphs of Egypt and the crusaders, in William of Tyre (1. iv. c. 24, 1. vi. c. 19) and Albert Aquensis (1. iii. c. 59), who are more sensible of their importance than the contemporary writers.
