volume one

16
HISTOST or THE CEUSADES.
once put a stop to the execution of an enterprize of which
he was the soul and the leader. The Christian nations had
scarcely time to rejoice at the delivery of Jerusalem, when
they learnt that the holy city had again fallen into the hands
of the Fatimite caliphs, who, after the death of Zimisces,
had invaded Syria and Palestine.
The caliphs of Cairo, who had taken advantage of the
transient conquests of the Greeks to extend their empire,
at first treated the Christians as allies and auxiliaries. In
the hope of enricliing their new dominions and repairing
the e"vils of war, they favoured the commerce of the Europeans,
and tolerated the devotion of pilgrimages to the Holy
Land. The markets of the Franks were re-established in
the city of Jerusalem ; the Christians rebuilt the hospitals
of the pilgrims, and the churches which were falling to
decay. They began to forget the peaceful domination of
the Abassides, and felicitated themselves upon liAing under
the laws of the sovereigns of Cairo ; and still greater right
had they to hope that all their troubles were about to be at
an end, when they saw the caliph Hakim, whose mother
was a Christian, ascend the throne. But God, who, according
to the expression of conteniporan** authors, wished to try
the virtues of the faithful, did not long delay to confound
their hopes and raise new persecutions against them.
Hakim, the third of the Fatimite caliphs, signalized his
reign by all the excesses of fanaticism and outrage. Unfixed
in. his own projects, and wavering between two religions,
he by turns protected and persecuted Christianity. He
respected neither the policy of his predecessors nor the laws
which he himself had established. He changed, on the
morrow, that which he had ordained the preceding day, and
spread disorder and confusion throughout his dominions.
In the extravagance of his mind and the intoxication of
power, he carried his madness so far as to believe himself a
god. Tlie terror which he inspired procured him worshippers,
and altars were raised to him in the neighbourhood of
Fostat, which he had given up to the flames. Sixteen
thousand of his subjects prostrated themselves before him,
and adored him as sovereign of the living and the dead.
Hakim despised Mahomet, but the Mussulmans were too
numerous in his states to allow him to think of persecuting