History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Name: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5
Author: Gibbon, Edward

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

153 (return) [ Otter (p. 119,) has given the strong tone of
      fanaticism to this exclamation, which Cardonne (p. 37,) has
      softened to a pious wish of preaching the Koran. Yet they had
      both the same text of Novairi before their eyes.]

      [A. D. 670-675.] It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish
      tribes to join the invaders, to share the plunder, to profess the
      faith, and to revolt in their savage state of independence and
      idolatry, on the first retreat or misfortune of the Moslems. The
      prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an Arabian colony in the
      heart of Africa; a citadel that might curb the levity of the
      Barbarians, a place of refuge to secure, against the accidents of
      war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens. With this view,
      and under the modest title of the station of a caravan, he
      planted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its
      present decay, Cairoan154 still holds the second rank in the
      kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty miles to
      the south;155 its inland situation, twelve miles westward of the
      sea, has protected the city from the Greek and Sicilian fleets.
      When the wild beasts and serpents were extirpated, when the
      forest, or rather wilderness, was cleared, the vestiges of a
      Roman town were discovered in a sandy plain: the vegetable food
      of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of springs
      constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs
      a precarious supply of rain water. These obstacles were subdued
      by the industry of Akbah; he traced a circumference of three
      thousand and six hundred paces, which he encompassed with a brick
      wall; in the space of five years, the governor’s palace was
      surrounded with a sufficient number of private habitations; a
      spacious mosque was supported by five hundred columns of granite,
      porphyry, and Numidian marble; and Cairoan became the seat of
      learning as well as of empire. But these were the glories of a
      later age; the new colony was shaken by the successive defeats of
      Akbah and Zuheir, and the western expeditions were again
      interrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian monarchy. The son
      of the valiant Zobeir maintained a war of twelve years, a siege
      of seven months against the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said
      to unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox;
      but if he inherited the courage, he was devoid of the generosity,
      of his father.156

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5Gibbon, Edward

History

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

Gibbon, Edward

Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.

153 (return) [ Otter (p. 119,) has given the strong tone of
      fanaticism to this exclamation, which Cardonne (p. 37,) has
      softened to a pious wish of preaching the Koran. Yet they had
      both the same text of Novairi before their eyes.]

      [A. D. 670-675.] It had been the frequent practice of the Moorish
      tribes to join the invaders, to share the plunder, to profess the
      faith, and to revolt in their savage state of independence and
      idolatry, on the first retreat or misfortune of the Moslems. The
      prudence of Akbah had proposed to found an Arabian colony in the
      heart of Africa; a citadel that might curb the levity of the
      Barbarians, a place of refuge to secure, against the accidents of
      war, the wealth and the families of the Saracens. With this view,
      and under the modest title of the station of a caravan, he
      planted this colony in the fiftieth year of the Hegira. In its
      present decay, Cairoan154 still holds the second rank in the
      kingdom of Tunis, from which it is distant about fifty miles to
      the south;155 its inland situation, twelve miles westward of the
      sea, has protected the city from the Greek and Sicilian fleets.
      When the wild beasts and serpents were extirpated, when the
      forest, or rather wilderness, was cleared, the vestiges of a
      Roman town were discovered in a sandy plain: the vegetable food
      of Cairoan is brought from afar; and the scarcity of springs
      constrains the inhabitants to collect in cisterns and reservoirs
      a precarious supply of rain water. These obstacles were subdued
      by the industry of Akbah; he traced a circumference of three
      thousand and six hundred paces, which he encompassed with a brick
      wall; in the space of five years, the governor’s palace was
      surrounded with a sufficient number of private habitations; a
      spacious mosque was supported by five hundred columns of granite,
      porphyry, and Numidian marble; and Cairoan became the seat of
      learning as well as of empire. But these were the glories of a
      later age; the new colony was shaken by the successive defeats of
      Akbah and Zuheir, and the western expeditions were again
      interrupted by the civil discord of the Arabian monarchy. The son
      of the valiant Zobeir maintained a war of twelve years, a siege
      of seven months against the house of Ommiyah. Abdallah was said
      to unite the fierceness of the lion with the subtlety of the fox;
      but if he inherited the courage, he was devoid of the generosity,
      of his father.156

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

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