CHAP. III.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM*

157

soon send tremendous forces to win it back, was clearfrom the grief with which Bagdad heard of Jeru-salem’s fall. Their poet had adjured them 1 byeverything they held most sacred: “Blood mingleswith our tears. 0 children of Islam, many arethe battles you have to sustain, in which yourheads shall roll at your feet! What blood has beenspilt! How many of your women left but theirhands to cover their beauty? Your Syrianbrothers have but the back of their camels, or thevultures’ entrails! So frightful are the strokes ofthe lance, and the shocks of swords, that at thevery noise the head of the infant whitens withfear. Methinks he who sleeps in his grave atMedina, lifts himself to cry out, ‘ 0 sons ofHashem! What! my people not fly to save religionshaken to its foundation ? To fear death now isdishonour; and is not dishonour a mortal wound?The Arabian chiefs, the warriors of Persia, submitto such degradation ? ’ ”

It is noAvise but simple, then, that an immensearmy of Saracens assembled forthwith to march

1 Alivardi. It was Ramadan. So general the grief thatcrowds filled the mosques imploring the Divine clemency, andwore so troubled that they forgot the fast; which is perhaps asolitary instance in the whole history of Mahometanism of suchawful trouble. Arab. Chron., 13.