cnAP. v.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

303

inhuman tortures, he died, though exactly how,was never known. But volumes are in this linefrom one Eastern to another. “Then happenedwhat happened: I witnessed much I’ll never men-tion ; interpret it well, and ask me no more.” 1

As in 1171, with the Fatimite Caliph, had ex-pired the Egyptian schism (fourteen caliphs of thatrace, in 250 years 2 ), those of Bagdad came to ex-tend their spiritual sway to all Egypt, where theblack flag of the Abassides was instantly hoisted;and before expiring, Noureddin had the satisfactionof extinguishing a family he considered heretical.

Saladin had now only One superior, and he hutspiritual and orthodox; and as Sultan—1174—wasprayed for in all the mosques of his vast domi-nions. 3 From 1174, absolute sovereign, up anddown in a succession of useful victories, Saladinsettled his dynasty—that of the Ajoubites, and,overrunning the Bekaa, then a rich popular valley,though now comparatively a solitude, visited theruins of Baalbeck, the ancient Heliopolis of Asia,which Tyre confounds with Palmyra. 4

If the Latin kingdom, Syria and Palestine, was

1 Arab. Chron., 176.

2 Yertot: ii. 182.—Michaud : Hist., ii. 241.

3 Michaud: Hist., ii. 247. 4 Id. : Id. 248.