52 THE DECLINE AND FALL The Inde- pendent dynasties Tbe Agl&b- ites. A.D. 800-941 [909] The Edris- Itea. A.D. 8X9 907 The Taher- ites. A.D. 813-872 they assumed the pride and attributes of royalty ; the alterna- tive of peace or war, of reward or punishment, depended solely on their will ; and the revenues of their government were reserved for local services or private magnificence. Instead of a regular supplv of men and money, the successors of the prophet were flattered with the ostentatious gift of an elephant, or a cask of hawks, a suit of silk hangings, or some pounds of musk and amber. ^-^ After the revolt of Spain from the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the first symptoms of disobedience broke forth in the province of Africa. Ibrahim, the son of Aglab, the lieutenant of the vigilant and rigid Harun, be- queathed to the dynasty of the Aglabites the inheritance of his name and power. The indolence or policy of the caliphs dis- sembled the injury and loss, and pursued only with poison the founder of the Edrisites,^-* who erected the kingdom and city of Fez on the shores of the western ocean. ^-^ In the East, the first dynasty was that of the Tahentes,^-^ the posterity of the valiant Taher, who, in the civil wars of the sons of Harun, had served with too much zeal and success the cause of Almamon 123 The dynasties of the Arabian empire may be studied in the Annals of El- macin, .^bulpharagius, and Abulfeda, under the /ro/^r years, in the dictionary of d'Herbelot, under the proper names. The tables of M. de Guignes (Hist, des Huns, torn. i. ) exhibit a general chronology of the East, interspersed with some historical anecdotes ; but his attachment to national blood has sometimes con- founded the order of time and place. I** The .'Aglabites and Edrisites are the professed subject of M. de Cardonne (Hist, de I'Afrique et de lEspagne sous la Domination des Arabes, tom. ii. p. 1-63). [The Aghlabid dynasty lasted from A.D. 800 to 909, when it gave way to the Fati- mids. Its chief achievement was the conquest of Sicily. These princes also an- nexed Sardinia and Malta, and harried the Christian coasts of the Western Mediterranean. ] 1^ To escape the reproach of error, I must criticize the inaccuracies of M. de Guignes (tom. i. p. 359) concerning the Edrisites. i. The dynasty and city of Fez could not be founded in the year of the Hegira 173. since the founder was a post- humous child of a descendant of .-Mi, who fled from Mecca in the year 168. 2. This founder, Edris the son of Edris, instead of living to the improbable age of 120 years, ..h. 313. died h.n. 214, in the prime of manhood. 3. The dynasty ended A.H. 307, twenty-three years sooner than it is fixed by the historian of the Huns. See the accurate Annals of Abulfeda, p. 158, 159, 185, 238. [Idrls, who founded the dynasty of the Idrisids, was great-great-grandson of AH. He revolted in Medina against the caliph Mahdl in A.D. 785, and then he fled to Morocco, where he founded his dynasty (in A.D 788), which expired in A.D. 985. For the succession cp. S. Lane-Poole, Mohammadan Dynasties, p. 35.] 126 The dynasties of the Taherites and Soffarides, with the rise of that of the Samanides, are described in the original history and Latin version of Mirchond ; yet the most interesting facts had already been drained by the diligence of M. d'Herbelot. [Tiihir was appointed governor of Khurasan in A.D. 820 ; he and his successors professed to be vassals of the Caliphs. ]
