'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎79] (88/568)

HISTOEY
79
er-Rashld, a. d . 786-809. After Harun's death the decay of the
Abbasids began. The Caliphs fell under the control of their mer
cenary army ; and even the Turkish soldiers who ruled in their name
lost all authority outside Irak. The rest of the empire was in dis
solution, and in the tenth century the whole of northern Mesopotamia
became an Arab kingdom under the Hamdanids.
Order was for a time partially restored by the advent of the Seljuk
Turks, whose chief, Toghrul Bey, was invested in a.d . 1005 by the
then caliph, with what practically amounted to the temporal sove
reignty of Iran, Mesopotamia, and so much of Asia Minor, Syria, and
Palestine as was in the power of Islam. The Caliphs were mere
honorary figure-heads living in a mysterious seclusion—the fountains
of honour and title like the later emperors of Delhi, and sacrosanct
as being the successors of the Prophet, but practically without any
! tifii temporal power.
By the end of the eleventh century the Seljuk power had broken
up into a number of quarrelling principalities, and the Crusaders
were able not only to establish themselves in Syria, but to cross the
m Euphrates and found at Edessa (Urfeh) a Christian State which lasted
ism for about fifty years.
ill In the first half of the twelfth century a Turkish kingdom was
built up in northern Mesopotamia by Zangi, the son of a lieutenant
of a former Seljuk governor of Aleppo. Zangi destroyed the County
ami of Edessa in 1144, and extended his influence over northern Syria.
His son, Nur ed-Dln, won Damascus and Egypt, and finally Nur ed-
litriliil * Din's governor in Egypt, Salah ed-Dln (Saladin, born at Tekrit),
succeeded to his master's power, combining under his rule Egypt,
Syria, and northern Mesopotamia. But after Salah ed-Dln's death
(1193) his monarchy dissolved into a number of independent states.
In the general political confusion there was some revival of the tem-
fllii poral power of the Abbasid Caliphate; but about the middle of the
jsP thirteenth century the Abbasids were extinguished, and Mesopotamia
jiplm was ruined, by the cataclysm of the Mongol invasions.
In February, 1258, Hulaku Khan took Baghdad; the city was
jjjjli sacked, and the last Caliph of the Abbasids was taken prisoner and
jjjd killed. The wealth and treasures of ages were plundered ; priceless
literary and artistic remains were destroyed. An irreparable blow
was delivered at the heart of Moslem civilization. This is the end of
i r | Arab rule in Mesopotamia. It was accompanied by the ruin of the
L whole system of irrigation, and the country which had known pros
perity for thousands of years became a waste of unfruitful waters in
arid plains of dust and sand. ' The work of three hundred genera-
p tions of men was destroyed in a single year '; and the desolation of