volume one

HISTOEY OE THE CRUSADES. 9
gave a high idea of the arts and riches of Asia. The
monarch of the Franks took pleasure in showing to the
envoys of the caliph the magnilicence of the religious ceremonies
of the Christians. Witnesses, at Aix-la-Chapelle, of
several processions, in which the clergy had exhibited all
their most precious ornaments, the ambassadors, on their
return to Bagdad, reported that they had seen men ofgold.
There was no doubt policy in the marks of esteem which
Haroun lavished upon the most powerful
the West. He was making war against
of the princes of
the emperors of
Constantinople, and might justly fear that they would
interest the bravest among Christian people in their cause.
The popidar traditions of Byzantium foretold that the Latins
would some day be the liberators of Greece ; and in one of
the first sieges of Constantinople by the Saracens, the
report only of the arrival of the Franks had re-animated
the courage of the besieged, and carried terror into the
ranks of the Mussulmans. In the time of Haroun, the
name of Jerusalem already exercised so powerful an influence
over the Christians of the West, that it was sufficient to
rouse their warlike enthusiasm, and raise armies to serve
against the infidels. To talvc from the Franks every pretext
for a religious war, which might make them embrace the
cause of the Grreeks, and draw them into Asia, the caliph
neglected no opportunity of obtaining the friendship of
Charlemagne ; and caused the keys of the holy city and of
the holy sepulchre* to be presented to him. This homage,
rendered to the greatest of the Christian monarchs, was celebrated
with enthusiasm in contemporary legends, which
afterwards caused it to be believed that this prince had made
the voyage and completed the conquest of Jerusalem.f
Haroun treated the Christians of the Latin Church as his
own subjects ; and the children of the cahph imitated his
moderation. Under their sway, Bagdad was the abode of
the sciences and the arts. The caliph Almamon, says an
Arabian historian, was not ignorant that they who labour
* Claves sepiilcri Domini, claves etiam civitatis et moniis cum vexillo
detulerunt.—William of Tyre.
f A relation of this pretended voyage may be found in the old
chronicles. Sanuti and Robert Gaguin have mentioned it, without doubt
from traditions existing in their time.