rant and superstitious every uncommon event is full of mystery and terror, an ominous intimation of the events of futurity, and thus the revolutions of comets drag with them those of kingdoms and empires, and every meteor or planetary motion is the precursor of misery of famine, or of massacres. Abundance of such inauspicious appearances, if we believe the historians of the time, announced the coming of the future scourge of Rome and Persia. The hour which gave him birth extinguished the eternal fires on the idolatrous altars of Persepolis:[1] and at the same time fourteen towers of the royal palace of Noushirwan at Modaïne (Al Madayn) fell with a terrible crash, portending by their downfall that of the empire of the Khosroës.[2] The confidential minister of the Persian king, Al Mûbedhân, in addition to these prodigies, dreamt that he saw his camel beaten by an Arabian horse, and that the
- ↑ Sir W. Ouseley, Travels in Pers. vol. ii. Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. p. 3.
- ↑
وبات ايوان كسري وهو منصدع
كشمل اصحاب كسري غير ملتعم٭"And the portico of Kisra (Khosroës) became broken, as also the friends of Kisra were not in unity." Abu Abdallæ carmen mysticum Borda dictum, ed. Uria, 4to. Traj. 1771, complet 61, &c. See also Abulfed. Vit. Moham. p. 3. (ed. Gagn.)
Puis m'étant avancé çà et là en quelque lieu sec et aride pour m'y asseoir, sous quelqu'arbre, l'herbe et l'arbre reverdissaient, l'arbre même recourbait sur moi ses branches; et quand je m'en éloignais, la terre où il était planté semblait se mouvoir vers moi, pour me congratuler. Gagnier, Vie de Moham. tom. i. p. 63.
