THE EASTERN CALIPHATE.--Deprived of the western extremity of their empire, the _Abbassides_ still ruled over _Asia_ and _Africa_. In their luxurious and splendid court, the caliphs, served by a vast retinue of officers with the _Vizier_ at their head, copied the magnificence of the ancient Persians. The most famous of the caliphs of Bagdad is _Harun-al-Rashid_, or "Aaron the Just" (786-809). His name is familiar even to children as the wonderful hero of the "Arabian Nights." His reign, like that of _Solomon_ in ancient Judæa, was considered in after times the golden age of the caliph dominion. As in the case of _Charlemagne_, poetry and romance invested his character and reign with all that can give glory and honor to a king and a sage. Brilliant pictures were drawn of the boundless wealth and luxury of his court, and of his admirable piety and wisdom. About him there was assembled a host of jurists, linguists, and poets. Three hundred scholars traveled at his expense through different lands. Righteous judgments were ascribed to him, and oracular sayings. He was made the ideal ruler of Oriental fancy. His real character fell much below the later popular conception. He behaved like an Eastern despot towards all his kindred who stood in his way. The Persian family of _Barmecides_ he exterminated, when his passionate attachment to one of them turned to hatred on account of an obscure affair connected with the harem. Stories told by Western chroniclers of his relations with _Charlemagne_ require to be sifted. The Greek emperor _Nicephorus_, who had rashly defied him, he addressed as the "Roman dog." Nine times _Harun_ invaded the Greek Empire, left its provinces wasted as by a hurricane, and extorted from it a tribute which he obliged the emperors, who repented of their daring, to pay in coin stamped with his image. His best distinction is in the liberal patronage which he, no doubt, extended to learning. In this he was imitated by his son _Al Mamun_ (813-833), who founded numerous schools, and expended vast sums in behalf of science and letters. The caliphate was weakened by the introduction of the _Turks_, somewhat as the Roman Empire fared from its relations with the Germans. _Motasem_ (833-842), the eighth of the Abbassides, brought in a Turkish guard of forty thousand slaves, purchased in _Tartary_. These soldiers, instead of remaining servants, became lawless masters, and disposed of the throne as the prætorians at Rome had done. The palace of the caliphs was filled with violence. Revolution and anarchy, kept up during two centuries, broke the caliphate into fragments. Conspiracies and insurrections were the order of the day. _Africa_ had detached itself in the time of _Harun-al-Rashid_. In _Asia_ various independent dynasties arose, formed mostly by Turkish governors of provinces.