19 (return) [ Nine days after the death of Mahomet (7th June, A.D. 632) we find the aera of Yezdegerd, (16th June, A.D. 632,) and his accession cannot be postponed beyond the end of the first year. His predecessors could not therefore resist the arms of the caliph Omar; and these unquestionable dates overthrow the thoughtless chronology of Abulpharagius. See Ockley’s Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 130. * Note: The Rezont Uzzuffa (Price, p. 105) has a strange account of an embassy to Yezdegerd. The Oriental historians take great delight in these embassies, which give them an opportunity of displaying their Asiatic eloquence—M.] 20 (return) [ Cadesia, says the Nubian geographer, (p. 121,) is in margine solitudinis, 61 leagues from Bagdad, and two stations from Cufa. Otter (Voyage, tom. i. p. 163) reckons 15 leagues, and observes, that the place is supplied with dates and water.] 2011 (return) [ The day of cormorants, or according to another reading the day of reinforcements. It was the night which was called the night of snarling. Price, p. 114.—M.] 2012 (return) [ According to Malcolm’s authorities, only three thousand; but he adds “This is the report of Mahomedan historians, who have a great disposition of the wonderful, in relating the first actions of the faithful” Vol. i. p. 39.—M.] 21 (return) [ Atrox, contumax, plus semel renovatum, are the well-chosen expressions of the translator of Abulfeda, (Reiske, p. 69.)] 22 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 297, 348.] 23 (return) [ The reader may satisfy himself on the subject of Bassora by consulting the following writers: Geograph, Nubiens. p. 121. D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 192. D’Anville, l’Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 130, 133, 145. Raynal, Hist. Philosophique des deux Indes, tom. ii. p. 92-100. Voyages di Pietro della Valle, tom. iv. p. 370-391. De Tavernier, tom. i. p. 240-247. De Thevenot, tom. ii. p. 545-584. D Otter, tom. ii. p. 45-78. De Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 172-199.] Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part II. After the defeat of Cadesia, a country intersected by rivers and canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry; and the walls of Ctesiphon or Madayn, which had resisted the battering-rams of the Romans, would not have yielded to the darts of the Saracens. But the flying Persians were overcome by the belief, that the last day of their religion and empire was at hand; the strongest posts were abandoned by treachery or cowardice; and the king, with a part of his family and treasures, escaped to Holwan at the foot of the Median hills.