volume one

890 HISTOET OF THE CEUSADES.
by flattering a man he did not know, and for whose death he
was, most likely, desirous ; an image of blind fortune, who
scatters at hazard good and evil, and views her favourites
and her m-tims with equal indiiference.
Some time after, the caliph of Cairo, always invisible in
his palace, was deposed by the orders of Xoureddin, and
died peaceably without kno^^ing that he had lost his empire.
His treasiu-es served to appease the murmurs of the people
and the soldiery ; the black flag of the Abassides displaced
the green standard of the children of Ali, and the name of
the caliph of Bagdad was heard of only in the mosques. The
dvnasty of the Fatimites, which reigned more than two
centuries, and for which so much blood had been shed, was
extiugfuished in a sinorle dav, and found not even one defender.
From that time the Mussulmans had onl_y one
Egypt and Syria obeyed
religion and one cause to defend ;
the same chief, and the richest provinces of the East were
imited under the powerful hand of jS'oureddin.
The sultan of Aleppo and Damascus had spread, the terror
of his arms from the banks of the Euphrates and the IHgris
to the soiu'ces of the Xile ; he had everywhere governors
and armies ; and posts of pigeons, which he had established,
carried at the same time his orders into the principal cities
of Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia. The justice of his laws
and his victories over the Christians had created for him
such a reputation for sanctitj^ among the Mussulmans, that
a shower of rain which fell in the midst of a drought, was
considered by them as a miracle granted to his prayers.
Dui^ing the war of Egypt he had taken several fortresses
belono-ins: to the Franks : and the destruction of the Chris-
tian colonies was still the aim of all his labours and all his
exploits. Full of confidence in the protection of Mahomet,
the devout Xoureddin employed his leisure in constructing,
with his own hands, a pulpit, which he meant himself to
place in the principal mosque of Jerusalem.
The sultan of Damascus was preparing to commence what
the Mussulmans called a sacred war, and for the success of
which public prayers had been ofi"ered up ; but this glory
was reserved for a young ^^arrior brought up in armies,
whose name was yet unkno^vn in the East.