But yester-eve, so motionless around,
So mute was this wide plain, that not a sound
But the far torrent, or the locust bird
Hunting among the thickets, could be heard ;-
Yet hark! what discords now, of every kind,
Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind;
The neigh of cavalry ;-the tinkling throngs
Of laden camels and their drivers' songs ;-
Ringing of arms, and flapping in the breeze
Of streamers from ten thousand canopies;-
War-music, bursting out from time to time,
With gong and tymbalon's tremendous chime;--
Or, in the pause when harsher sounds are mute,
The mellow breathings of some horn or flute,
That far off, broken by the eagle note
Of the Abyssinian trumpet,* swell and float.
Who leads this mighty army?—ask ye "who?"
And mark ye not those banners of dark hue,
The Night and Shadow,+ over yonder tent ?—
It is the Caliph's glorious armament.
Roused in his Palace by the dread alarms,
That hourly came, of the false Prophet's arms,
And of his host of infidels, who hurled
Defiance fierce at Islam and the world,-
Though worn with Grecian warfare, and behind
The veils of his bright Palace calm reclined,
Yet brooked he not such blasphemy should stain,
Thus unrevenged, the evening of his reign;
But, having sworn upon the Holy Grave‡
To conquer or to perish, once more gave
His shadowy banners proudly to the breeze,
And with an army nursed in victories
Here stands to crush the rebels that o'er-run
His blest and beauteous Province of the Sun.
Ne'er did the march of Mahadi display
Such pomp before ;-not even when on his way
To Mecca's Temple, when both land and sea
Were spoiled to feed the Pilgrim's luxury;
When round him, mid the burning sands, he saw
Fruits of the North in icy freshness thaw,
And cooled his thirsty lip, beneath the glow
Of Mecca's sun, with urns of Persian snow:-
Nor e'er did armament more grand than that
Pour from the kingdoms of the Caliphat.
*"This trumpet is often called, in Abyssinia, nesser cano, which signifies the Note of the Eagle."-Note of Bruce's Editor.
The two black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas were called, allegorically, The Night and The Shadow. -See Gibbon.
"The Persian swear by the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried at Casbin; and when one desires another to asseverate a matter, he will ask him, if he dare swear by the Holy Grave."-Struy.
First, in the van, the people of the Rock,*
On their light mountain steeds, of royal stock:+
Then, chieftains of Damascus, proud to see
The flashing of their swords' rich marquetry;-
Men, from the regions near the Volga's mouth,
Mixed with the rude, black archers of the South;
And Indian lancers, in white-turbaned ranks,
From the far Sinde, or Attock's sacred banks,
With dusky legions from the Land of Myrrh,‡
And many a mace-armed Moor and Mid-sea islander.
Nor less in number, though more new and rude
In warfare's school, was the vast multitude
That, fired by zeal, or by oppression wronged,
Round the white standard of the impostor thronged.
Beside his thousands of Believers-blind,
Burning, and headlong, as the Samiel wind-
Many who felt and more who feared to feel
The bloody Islamite's converting steel,
Flocked to his banner ;-Chiefs of the Uzbek race,
Waving their heron crests with martial grace;
Turkomans, countless as their flocks, led forth
From the aromatic pastures of the North;
Wild warriors of the turquoise hills,§-and those
Who dwell beyond the everlasting snows
Of Hindoo Kosh, in stormy freedom bred,
Their fort the rock, their camp the torrent's bed.
But none, of all who owned the Chief's command,
Rushed to that battle-field with bolder hand,
Or sterner hate, than Iran's outlawed men,
Her Worshippers of Fire-all panting then
For vengeance on the accursed Saracen ;
Vengeance at last for their dear country spurned,
Her throne usurped, and her bright shrines o'erturned.
From Yezd's¶T eternal Mansion of the Fire,
Where aged saints in dreams of Heaven expire:
From Badku, and those fountains of blue flame
*The inhabitants of Hejaz or Arabia Petræa, called by an Eastern writer, "The People of the Rock."-Ebn Haukal.
"Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written genealogy has been kept for 2000 years. They are said to derive their origin from King Solomon's steeds."-Niebuhr.
§ In the mountains of Nishapour and Tous (in Khorassan) they find turquoises.-Ebn Haukal.
The Ghebers or Guebres, those original natives of Persia who adhered to their ancient faith, the religion of Zoroaster, and who, after the conquest of their country by the Arabs, were either persecuted at home, or forced to become wanderers abroad.
"Yezd, the chief residence of those ancient natives who worship the Sun and the Fire, which latter they have carefully kept lighted, without being once extinguished for a moment, about 3000 years, on a mountain near Yezd, called Ater Quedah, signifying the House or Mansion of the Fire. He is reckoned very unfortunate who dies off that mountain."-Stephen's Persia.
Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day-
They clash-they strive-the Caliph's troops give way."
That burn into the Caspian,* fierce they came,
Careless for what or whom the blow was sped,
So vengeance triumphed, and their tyrants bled.
Such was the wild and miscellaneous host,
That high in air their motley banners tost
Around the Prophet-Chief-all eyes still bent
Upon that glittering Veil, where'er it went,
That beacon through the battle's stormy flood,
That rainbow of the field whose showers were 11 !!
Twice hath the sun upon their conflict set,
And risen again, and found them grappling yet;
While streams of carnage in his noontide blaze
Smoke up to Heaven-hot as that crimson haze
By which the prostrate Caravan is awed,
In the red Desert, when the wind's abroad.
On, Swords of God !" the panting Caliph calls,
"Thrones for the living-Heaven for him who falls!"-
On, brave avengers, on," Mokanna cries,
"And Eblis blast the recreant slave that flies !"
Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day-
They clash-they strive-the Caliph's troops give way!
Mokanna's self plucks the black Banner down,
And now the Orient World's Imperial crown
Is just within his grasp—when, hark, that shout!
Some hand hath checked the flying Moslem's rout;
And now they turn, they rally-at their head
A warrior, (like those angel youths who led,
In glorious panoply of Heaven's own mail,
The Champions of the Faith through Beder's vale,)+
Bold as if gifted with ten thousand lives,
Turns on the fierce pursuers' blades, and drives
At once the multitudinous torrent back-
While hope and courage kindle in his track;
And, at each step, his bloody falchion makes
Terrible vistas through which victory breaks!
In vain Mokanna, midst the general flight,
Stands, like the red moon, on some stormy night,
Among the fugitive clouds that, hurrying by,
Leave only her unshaken in the sky-
In vain he yells his desperate curses out,
Deals death promiscuously to all about,
To foes that charge and coward friends that fly,
And seems of all the Great Arch-enemy.
The panic spreads-" A miracle!" throughout
*"When the weather is hazy, the springs of Naphtha (on an island near Baku) boil up the higher, and the Naphtha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea to a distance almost incredible."-Hanway on the Everlasting Fire at Baku.
In the great victory gained by Mahomed at Beder, he was assisted, say the Mussulmans, by three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Hiazum.-See The Koran and its Commentators.
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