the Feast in hope of like destruction to the Christians as befell Iericho and then renew the shaking of their boughes The seuenth day is most solemne called by them Hoschana rabba the great Hosanna as if one should say the great feast of saluation or helpe because then they pray for the saluation of all the people and for a prosperous new-yeere and all the prayers of this Feast haue in them the words of sauing as O God saue vs and O God of our saluation and as thou hast saued the Israelites and such like the prayers are therefore called Hosannoth Then they produce seuen bookes and in euery of their seuen compassings lay vp one againe This night they know their fortunes by the Moone for stretching out their armes if they see not the shadow of their head by Moone-light they must dye that yeere if a finger wanteth hee loseth a friend if the shadow yeeld him not a hand hee loseth a sonne the want of the left hand portendeth losse of a daughter if no shadow no life shall abide with him for it is written Their shadow is departed from them Some Iewes goe yeerely into Spaine to prouide Pome-citrons and other necessaries for the furnishing this feast which they sell in Germany other places to the Iewes at excessiue prices They keepe their Tabernacles in all weathers except a very vehement storme driue them with a heauie countenance into their houses Their wiues and seruants are not so strictly tyed hereto §. IIII. Of their New Moones and New-yeeres day THe New-Moones are at this day but halfe festiuall to the Iewes accounting themselues free to worke or not in them but the women keepe it intirely festiuall because they denyed their Eare-rings to the molten Calfe which after they bestowed willingly on their Tabernacle The deuouter Iewes fast the day before Their Mattins is with more prayers their dinner with more cheere then on other dayes and a great part of the day after they sit at Cardes or telling of Tales That day when the Moone is eclipsed they fast When they may first see the New-Moone they assemble and the chiefe Rabbi pronounceth a long Prayer the rest saying after him The Iewes beleeuing that GOD created the world in September or Tisri conceit also that at the reuolution of the same time yeerely hee sitteth in iugdement and out of the bookes taketh reckoning of euery mans life and pronounceth sentence accordingly That day which their great Sanhedrin ordayned the New-yeeres festiuall God receiuing thereof intelligence by his Angels sent thither to know the same causeth the same day a Senate of Angels to bee assembled as it is written Daniel 12. All things prouided in the solemnest manner the three bookes are opened one of the most Wicked who are presently registred into the Booke of Death the second of the Iust who are inrolled into the Booke of Life and the third of the meane sort whose Iudgement is demurred vntill the day of Reconciliation the tenth of Tisri that if in the meane time they seriously repent them so that their good may exceed their euill then are they entred into the Booke of Life if otherwise they are recorded into the Blacke Bill of Death Their Scripture is produced by R. Aben Let them bee blotted out of the Booke of the liuing and not bee written with the Iust Blotting points you to the Booke of Death Liuing that of Life and not writing with the Iust is the third Booke of Indifferents All the workes which a man hath done through the yeere are this day examined The good workes are put in one ballance the bad in the other what helpe a siluer Chalice or such heauie metall could affoord in this case you may finde by experience in Saint Francis Legend who when the bad deeds of a great man lately dead out-weighed the good at a dead lift cast in a siluer Chalice which the dead partie had sometime bestowed on Franciscan deuotion and weighed vp the other side and so the Diuels lost their prey GOD say they pronounceth sentence of punishment or reward sometime in this life to bee executed sometime in the other In respect hereof their Rabbines ordaine the moneth before to be spent in penance and morning and Eeuening to sound a Trumpet of a Rams-horne as Aue Marie Bell to warne them of this Iudgement that they may thinke of their sinnes and besides to befoole the Diuell that with this often sounding being perplexed hee may not know when this New-yeeres day shall bee to come into the Court to giue euidence against them The day before they rise sooner in the morning to mutter ouer their prayers for remission and when they haue done in the Synagogue they goe to the graues in the Church-yard testifying that if GOD doe not pardon them they are like to the dead and praying that for the good workes of the Saints the iust Iewes there buried hee will pitty them and there they giue large almes After noone they shaue adorne and bathe themselues that they may be pure the next day for some Angels soyled with impuritie heere below are faine to purge themselues in the fierie brooke Dinor before they can prayse GOD how much more they and in the water they make confession of their sins the confession containeth two and twentie words the number of their Alphabet and at the pronouncing of euery word giue a knocke on their brest and then diue wholly vnder water The Feast it selfe they begin with a cup of Wine and New-yeere Salutations and on their Table haue a Rammes head in remembrance of That Ramme which was offered in Isaacks stead and for this cause are their Trumpets of Rams-horne Fish they eate to signifie the multiplication of their good workes they eate sweet fruits of all sorts and make themselues merry as assured of forgiuenesse of their sinnes and after meat all of all sorts resort to some bridge to hurle their sinnes into the water as it is written Hee shall cast all our sinnes into the bottome of the Sea And if they there espie any fish they leape for ioy these seruing to them as the scape-goate to carrie away their sinnes At night they renew their cheere and end this feast §. V. Of their Lent Penance and Reconciliation Fast. FRom this day to the tenth day is a time of Penance or Lent wherein they fast and pray for the cause aforesaid and that if they haue beene written in the Booke of Death yet God seeing their good works may repent and write them in the Life-Booke Thrice a day very earely they confesse three houres before day and surcease suits at Law c. And on the ninth day very earely they resort to the Synagogue and at their returne euery male taketh a Cocke and euery female a Henne if she be with childe both and the housholder saying out of the hundred and fift Psalme verses 17 18 19
Capitolinus writeth that Verus a voluptuous Emperour spent foure Summers here and wintered in Laodicea and Antioch Seuerus more truly answering his name did to death certaine Tribunes by whose negligence the Souldiers here were suffered to riot The Oracles added renowne to the place which were deliuered out of these Daphnaean waters by a certaine wind or breath Adrian the Emperour is reported to haue hence receiued the facultie of Diuining by dipping a Cypresse leafe in the Fountaine Iulian resorted hither often for that purpose But his elder brother Gallus whom Constantius had called to be Caesar and after sayth Ammianus for his outrages executed had in the time of his abode at Antioch remoued the bones of Babylas their Bishop and other holy Martyrs his companions in suffering to this place where also he built a Church Now when as Iulian in his Persian expedition had sent others to visite all the other Oracles in the Roman Empire himselfe here consulted with Apollo an Apostata Emperour with an Apostata Angell about the successe of those warres But all his sacrifices obtained no other answere then that he could not answere by the countermand of a more diuine power there liuing in those dead bones Hereupon Iulian command the Christians to remoue those ill neighbours which they did sayth Theodoret with a solemne procession singing the Psalmes and dancing with the heart of Dauid making this the burthen and foot of each verse Confounded bee all they that worship grauen Images wherewith Iulian enraged persecuted the Christians Euagrius affirmeth that hee built a Temple in honour of Babylas how truely I knew not But the true God confounded both the Idoll and Idolater shortly after calling the one to giue account of his ill employed stewardship vncertaine whether by diuine or humane hand and for the other his Temple was consumed with fire from aboue together with the Image one pillar whereof remained in Chrysostomes dayes The Pagans attributed this fire to the Christians and no maruell for what did not that fire of blind Idolatrie kindled with zeale attribute to the innocent Christians herein testifying that it came from hell and must to hell againe by that hellish Character and impression of so great fire and as great darkenesse Such is Hell and such is ignorant Zeale a fire but no light Apollo's Priest by no torments could be forced to confesse any author thereof and the officers of the Temple affirmed it was fire from heauen which certaine Countrey-people confirmed by their owne sight Iulian to satisfie his rage caused some Temples of the Christians to be burned Nicephorus telleth of the continuance of this Daphnaean groue honoured with buildings and spectacles by Mammianus and Chosroes Apollo's Image was made of wood couered ouer with gold Theodosius forbad the cutting of any of those Cypresses Orontes is a Riuer which ariseth in Coelesyria and payeth tribute to all the three brethren it visiteth Pluto's Palace running with a long tract vnder the Earth and then heauing vp his head maketh his gladsom homage to Iupiter and after his custome payed to the Antiochians in fine powreth himselfe into ahe lappe of Neptune entring the Sea neere to Seleucia It was called Typhon vntill Orontes building a bridge ouer it caused it to be called by his name They had here a tale of Typhon a huge Dragon which diuided the earth as hee went seeking to hide himselfe and perished by the stroke of a thunderbolt Thus did he indent a passage for this Riuer Not farre hence was a sacred Caue called Nymphoeum also Mount Casius and Anticasius and Heraclia and nigh thereto the Temple of Minerua In Laodicea was this goddesse honoured to whom they offered in yeerely sacrifice in old time a maid after that in stead thereof a Hart. I may here mention also that which Tacitus reporteth of the Mount Carmel as hee placeth it betwixt Iudea and Syria where they worshipped a god of that name with Ethnicke rites They had not any Temple or Statue to this god and Altar onely and Reuerence was here seene Vespasian did in this place offer sacrifice where Basilides the Priest viewing the entrals foretold him of his good successe Damascius in the life of Isidorus mentioneth a Syrian goddesse named Babia of whom infants newly borne were by the Syrians especially at Damascus called also Babia perhaps they were esteemed vnder her tutelage and our English word Babes may hence borrow the originall CHAP. XVI Of the Syrian Kings and alteration in Gouernment and Religion in those Countries SYRIA quickly grew into Peoples and Kingdomes although Time hath long since deuoured both them and their memories Of Menon the husband of Semiramis mentioned by Diodorus is spoken before Adadezer was in Dauids time King of Aram Zoba which some take for Chobal in Syria some for Sophene in Armenia and some for the Nubei whatsoeuer they were Dauid made them tributarie Anno mundi 2903. Benhadad Hazael and others the Scripture also mentioneth but certaine succession we find not recorded of these Syrian Kings till the time of Alexander which conquering all from Macedonia to India by his inexpected death left his huge Empire to bee shared among his chiefe followers Seleucus the sonne of Antiochus a Macedonian first master of the Elephants then Tribune after that Deputie of the Babylonians at last obtained the Kingdome of Asia Anno Mundi 3638 of whom Appianus thus writeth The first King of Syria after Alexander was Seleucus called Nicator because he was of very great stature and as a wild bull had in a sacrifice of Alexander broken loose hee held him with both his hands Hee built sixteene Cities called by the name Antiochia of his father Antiochus and sixe Laodicea's in memorie of his mother Laodice nine Seleucia's of his owne name three Apamea's and one Stratonicea after the names of his two wiues He prospered in his warres tooke Babylon subdued the Bactrians pierced to the Indians which had slaine Alexanders Gouernours placed amongst them after Alexanders death He slew Lysimachus and seuen Moneths after was circumuented and slaine of Ptolomei whose sister Lysimachus had married being seuentie three yeeres old To him succeeded his sonne Antiochus sur-named Soter Anno 3667. who had obtayned Stratonice his mother in law of his father moued thereunto by his sonnes violent loue and his Physicians subtile perswasion His sonne Antiochus Theos was contrarie to his name poysoned by his wife whose sonnes Seleucus Callinicus and Antiochus succeeded and after them Antiochus Magnus the sonne of Callinicus who much enlarged his Empire adding thereto Babylonia Egypt and Iudea but inuading Graecia prouoked the Romans against him with whom he compounded on base and meane conditions Hee did yet comfort himselfe for his losse among his friends saying that he was beholding to the Romans that eased him of so weightie a burthen and lessened his cares of gouernment for they had cooped him in a corner of his Kingdome
day of the same Maldonatus for the Feast day of Pentecost which was the second of the chiefe Feasts But Ioseph Scaliger saith That the second day of the Feast was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the sixteenth day of the Moneth called Manipulus frugum and the Sabbaths which fell betwixt that and Pentecost receiued their denomination in order from the same Secundo-primum Secundo-secundum c. And hence doth Luke call that first Sabbath which fell after that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second day of the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this we shall haue occasion to say more when we come to the Samaritans The name Sabbath is also taken for the whole weeke But I list not to stand on the diuers significations of the Word Iosephus and Plinie tell of a Riuer in Syria in the kingdome of Agrippa called Sabbaticus which on other daies ran full and swift on the Sabbath rested from his course Petrus Galatinus alledgeth the ceasing of the Sabbaticall streame for an argument of the abrogation of the Iewish Sabbath The Iewes were superstitiously strict in the obseruation of their Sabbath Ptolomey without resistance captiuating their Citie and themselues by this aduantage as did Pompey afterwards And in the dayes of Matathias father of Iudas Maccabeus a thousand were murthered without resistance till that by him they were better aduised Which appeared by the Pharises that cauelled at the plucking and rubbing of a few eares of Corne by the hungrie Disciples and at their Master for healing on that day though by his Word which their superstition the Iew that fell into a Priuie at Maidenbourg An. 1270. on his Sabbath and another at Tewksburie 1220. and were the one by the Bishop of the place the other by the Earle of Glocester constrained to abide the Christian Sabbath whence on their owne they would not be freed testified to the world by a stinking penance and the later leauing also his stinking superstitious soule behinde to seale his deuotion They added of their owne fasting that day till noone their Sabbath daies iourney which was saith Saint Ierome by the institution of Barachibas Simeon and Hellis Rabbines not aboue two thousand paces or two miles Thus did this holy ordinance which GOD had instituted for the refreshing of their bodies the instruction of their Soules and as a type of eternall happines vanish into a smoky superstition amongst them The Sacrifices and accustomed rites of the Sabbath are mentioned Num. 28 Leu. 23. 24. Where we may reade that the daily burnt-offering and meate-offering and drinke-offering were doubled on the Sabbath and the Shew-bread renued c. The sanctification of daies and times being a token of that thankefulnesse and a part of that publike honor which we owe vnto GOD he did not onely enioyne by way of perpetuall homage the sanctification of one day in seuen which GODS immutable Law doth exact for euer but did require also some other part of time with as strict exaction but for lesse continuance besides accepting that which being left arbitrarie to the Church was by it consecrated voluntarily vnto like religious vses Of the first of these the Sabbath we haue spoken of the Mosaicall Feasts the New-Moones are next to be considered The institution hereof we reade Numb 28. and the solemne Sacrifice therein appointed so to glorifie GOD the Author of Time and Light which the darkened conceites of the Heathens ascribed to the Planets and bodies Coelestiall calling the Moneths by their names Besides their Sacrifices they banquetted on this day as appeareth by Dauid and Saul where the day after was festiuall also eyther so to spend the surplusage of the former daies sumptuous Sacrifice or for a further pretext of Religion and Zeale as Martyr hath noted Sigonias maketh these New-Moone daies to bee profestos that is such wherein they might labor the Sacrificing times excepted but those couetous penny-fathers seeme of another minde When say they will the New-moone be gone that we may sell Corne and the Sabbath that we may sell Wheate And Esay 1. the Sabbaths and New-moones are reckoned together Their PASSEOVER called of them Pasach so called of the Angels passing ouer the Israelites in the common destruction of the Aegyptian first-borne For Pasach the Grecians as some note vse Pascha of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer fitly in regard of the body of that shadow Christ himselfe who was our Paschal Lambe in his suffering sacrificed for vs The institution of this Feast is set downe Exod. 12. as Hospinian hath noted in the yeere after the creation of the world 2447. after the stoud 791. after the promise made to Abram 430. It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the one and twenty day of the moneth Abib or Nisan those two daies being more specially sanctified with a holy Conuocation and abstinence from worke except the dressing of their meate the other being obserued with vnleauened bread and the foureteenth day being the Parasceue or preparation in the euening of which foureteenth day as some men hold opinion after Sun-set in the twy-light others in the fourth houre or fourth part of the day as containing three houres space before the going downe of the Sun the Paschal Lambe was slaine about which time the ninth houre Christ the true Pascha yeelded vp the ghost hauing eaten the Passeouer on the night before which was the true time and was then altred by the Iewes which corruption continued to the destruction of their Temple Christ suffered saith Scaliger on the third of Aprill the fourth yeere compleate after his Baptisme From which ninth houre the Iewes began their Vespera or Euening and therefore it was inioyned them inter duas Vesperas to kill the Passeouer In these Vespers as also in the Eeuen of euery Feast and Sabbath after the euening Sacrifice they which do any worke saith the Iewish Canon shall neuer see good signe of a blessing which was the cause that they hastened so much the death of the theeues which were crucified with Christ This Lambe or Kidde was chosen a male of a yeere old the tenth day of the Moone which they kept till the foureteenth day tyed after their traditions to the foote of some bench or fourme so to minister occasion to their children of questioning about it to themselues of Preparation and Meditation and to espie in this meane while if any default were in the Lambe It was first a priuate Sacrifice to be performed in euery house after in that place onely where the Tabernacle or Temple was they were dispersed by companies according to Iosephus not fewer then tenne sometime twentie in a companie with Christ there were thirteene and of these sacrifices and companies in time of Cestius were numbred two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred so that reckoning the least number there were ten times so many
Ierusalem was entred on the twelfth of Iuly 1099. being Friday and after much bloud and slaughter in the Citie they set vpon those which had betaken themselues to Salomons Temple so was that called which Homar built where saith Robertus Monachus was so much bloud shed that the slaine bodies were rolled by the force thereof and armes or dismembred hands swamme vpon the bloud and were ioyned to strange bodies the killing souldiers were scarce able to endure the hot vapours of the bloud of the slaine Guibertus Abbas saith the bloud reached to the ancles Baldricus to the calfe of the legge Raimond de Agiles that they rode in bloud vp to the knees and to the brydles of the Horses and Fulcherius that there were slaine in this Temple about ten thousand and many of them were ripped vp by the Frankes to finde gold which they had swallowed and the bodies after burned in heaps to finde the mettall in the ashes Albertus Aquensis addeth that the third day after the victorie for feare of the remained captiued Saracens lest they might ioyne with the enemie against them and in furious zeale they made a fresh massacre slaying those which for pittie or couetousnesse of ransome they had in hotter bloud spared not the honour of Noble Matrons not the delicacie of tender Maydens not the children yet in the wombes of their pregnant mothers not the Infants now sucking at the brest not the hopes of innocent yonglings playing or crying by the mothers hands not sighes teares promises prayers lamentable cryes twyning embraces of the legges bodyes hands of the bloudie Souldier could stay the hand euen then giuing the fatall blow but Ierusalem was now againe filled with slaine carkasses Generally it is agreed that they found much wealth in the Citie to pay them for their paines Soone after they encountred an Armie of three hundred thousand Saracens which they ouerthrew being but twentie thousand Christians where Robert Duke or Earle for I finde both Titles often giuen him but in ancient Stories of those times both hee and King William his father are oftenest called Earles of Normandie tooke with his owne hand the chiefe standerd of the Enemie being a long speare couered with siluer with a golden Globe or Apple on the top hauing slaine the bearer and thereby terrifying the enemie and putting them to rout which was long after reserued as a monument in the Temple of the Sepulchre Many other victories being obtained the Saracens were either expelled Palestina or subiected to the Franks and the Christians which were poorer few recouered freedom Yet as few as they were in the Cities Raimond tells of threescore thousand Surians or Christians of that Countrey which in this long Saracenicall night continued their habitations in the Mountaines of Libanus But of this is no maruell for euen till these dayes notwithstanding the manifold changes and chances of those Regions and peoples there haue in the Mountaines and Desarts of Palestina and Syria liued some Nations neither acknowledging the Saracenicall Law nor Empire §. IIII. Of the Azopart and Assysine SVch were the Azopart which liued in Caues in the Desarts of Ascalon which King Baldwin the successour of Godfrey sought to smoake and fire out of their dens and by cunning Stratagems destroyed as many as hee could and iustly For these being blacke in hue blacker in conditions vsed to rob and slay such as they could lay hold on Such were the Assysines which liued in the Prouince of Tyre as Tyrius reports of them not farre from Antaradus which had ten strong holds with the Countrey adiacent and were thought to bee in number sixtie thousand Their gouernment went not by inheritance but by Election the chiefe or Grand Master of them being called The Old Man who was obeyed in whatsoeuer hee commanded were the attempt neuer so dangerous If he gaue to one or more of them a weapon and enioyned the killing of such an Enemie Prince or priuate man they gladly vndertooke it with the death of that partie or themselues in attempt Both Saracens and Christians called them the reason of the name vnknowne Assysines For the space of foure hundred yeeres they were zealous followers in a preciser course of the Mahumetan Sect But about the time when our Author the Archbishop of Tyre wrote this their OLD MAN grew into distaste of his Religion and by reading the Scriptures became desirous of Christianitie Hee perswaded his Subiects also to forsake Mahumetisme prohibiting their Fasts demolishing their Moschees allowing Swines flesh He sent also to Almaricus King of Ierusalem offering to turne Christian if hee might hue peaceably and bee released of two thousand Byzantines which he yeerely payd for quietnesse to the Knights Templers who had certaine Castles bordering on him The King was content to pay this money himselfe but by the treacherie of the Templers the Legat was slaine and foule scandall inflicted on the Christian name the Assysines neuer after returning to their old Mahometrie or turning anew to Christianitie Mathew Paris relateth that these Assysines thus closely and treacherously murthered Raimund Earle of Tripolis Anno Dom. 1150. Paulus Aemylius affirmeth that these Assysines came out of Persia that they were taught from their child-hood diuers Languages and to conceiue it meritorious of heauenly reward to kill the enemies of their Faith that their OLD MAN was called also Arsacida Two of them saith hee slew Raimund two of them after slew Conrad Ferratensis walking in the Market-place of Tyre which Citie hee had defended against the enemies who being executed therefore seemed very cheerefull And Saint Lewis himselfe hardly escaped the like treacherie Marcus Paulus reporteth of one in the North-East parts of Persia called The Old Man of the Mountaine by proper name Aloadin which had built a strong Castle and therein an imaginarie Paradise who vsed that Assasine mysterie promising to reward these murtherers with the pleasures of Paradise a taste of which in all fleshly delights he had before giuen them In the Tartarian conquest sayth Odoricus he had so slaine diuers Tartars which therefore besieged his Castle and after three yeeres siege forced it for want of victuall So Paulus but Haithonus hath seuen and twentie yeeres and that then it was yeelded for want of cloathes and not of meates hee calls this Castle Tigado and the inhabitants by the former names of Assasines This was done by Haalon the Tartar Anno 1262. About a hundred yeeres since they tell of the ike Paradise of Aladeules in those parts destroyed by Selym the Turke but I thinke it was rather the memorie of Aloadin then any truth of Aladeules It is most remarkeable that Marcus Paulus testifieth of two Deputies or Lieutenants vnder him the one in Curdistan where the like generation of irreligious and robbing Curdi do yet remaine the other neere to Damasco of whom we haue spoken The place where this OLD MAN liued was called Mulchet that
circumcised Both sexes are circumcised at eight dayes old and the males fortie dayes after the females fourescore vnlesse sicknesse hasten the same are baptized As for the rites of their Christianitie it belongeth not to this place to expresse Their circumcision Zabo saith is not obserued as if it made them more worthy then other Christians for they thinke to bee saued onely by Faith They vse this and distinctions of meates and Mosaicall rites yet so as he that eateth should not despise him that eateth not and not condemning others that refuse them but yet thinking that neither Christ nor the Apostles nor the Primitiue Church had disannulled them interpreting also the Scriptures to their purpose Of their agreeing with other Churches in the most points of substance the Author of the Catholike Traditions hath written and when I make a Christian Visitation of these parts it shall bee further discouered The succession is not tyed to the eldest but to him whom the father appointeth For Dauid which sent his Embassage to Portugall was the third sonne in order and for modestie in refusing to sit in his fathers Throne which in the same triall his other brethren had accepted was preferred to that which he had refused the other reiected for their forward acceptation The King offered the King of Portugall an hundred thousand drammes of gold and as many Souldiers towards the subduing of the Moores besides other things meete for the warre It seemes the difference of the Ethiopian and Popish superstition was the chiefe hinderance in this businesse neither partie being able if willing to reconcile their long-receiued differences from each other and the truth Eugenius the Pope and the King then named The Seed of Iacob had written to each other and Aluarez yeelded obedience to the Pope in the name of the Prete at Bologna in the presence of Pope Clement the seuenth and Charles the fift But all this sorted to none effect For Pope Paul the fourth sent an Ambassage to Claudius then the Abassine Emperour employing in the same thirteene Iesuites one of which was made Patriarke and two Bishops in their hopefull Ethiopian Hierarchie Ignatius the Founder of the Iesuites wrote a long Letter also which Maffaeus and Iarric haue inserted at large Thus in the yeere 1555. Iohn the third King of Portugall vndertooke the charges to conuey them thither and sent Consaluus Roterigius to prepare them way by a former Ambassage to Claudius whose eares hee found fast closed to such motions Whereupon the new Patriarke stayed at Goa and Ouiedus one of the Bishops with a Priest or two went thither where when they came they found Claudius slaine and his brother Adamas a cruell man and an Apostata sometimes from his Faith in the Throne Hee cast the new Bishop into bands and drew him into the warres with him where the Emperour was discomfited and he taken and stripped of all and at last miserably dyed and with him the hope of Romish Abassia Iohn Nounius Barretus the designed Patriarke refused as Maffaeus saith the Archbishoprick of Goa where his brother was Vice-roy and remayned subiect to the Iesuiticall Societie to his death In the yeere 1559. Ioannes Bermudesius returned to Lisbone He wrote a discourse of his Ambassage from the Ethiopian Emperour to Iohn the third King of Portugall and of his aduentures in those parts befallen him In which he relateth that Abuna Marcos being at the point of death An. 1535. the Emperour willed him to nominate his Successor whereupon hee appointed this Bermudez and ordered him with all sacred Orders which hee accepted vpon condition of the Popes confirmation whereto the Emperour consented desiring him to goe to Rome to giue obedience to the Pope and from thence to Portugall to conclude Tagazano so he calleth him his Ambassage Paul the third confirmed him Patriarke of Alexandria Hee apprehended Tagazano as Onadinguel enioyned and clapt Irons on him His Emperours request was a marriage to be had with the Kings sonne of Portugall the Ethiopian succession to remayne his Dowrie also to send men against Zeila and Pioners to cut thorow a Hill thereby to bring Nilus to annoy Egypt Foure hundred and fiftie were sent accordingly by Garcia of Noronya But Onadinguel was dead and Gradeus was Emperour who ouer-threw the Moores and slue the Kings of Zeila and of Aden This Emperour fell out with the Portugals and sent to Alexandria for another Abuna whose name was Ioseph so that none acknowledged Bermudez but the Portugals Sabellicus saith hee had conference with some Ethiopians which said that their Lord ruled ouer threescore and two Kings They called him Gyam which signifieth Mightie They wondered why the Italians called him a Priest seeing hee neuer receiued Orders onely he bestowed Benefices and is neither called Iohn nor Ianes but Gyam Some report of him things incredible as one Web an English man in his Tales of his Trauels Hee hath gold enough shut vp in a Caue to buy the moytie of the world as L. Regius affirmeth and can rayse an Armie of ten hundred thousand saith Sabellicus Yet the Pesants are not employed in militarie seruice but onely the Cauas which are men brought vp thereto They warre not in the Lent except against themselues with extremitie of fasting so weakning their bodies that the Moores make that their Haruest of Abissine captiues Of this their fasting Aluares saith that they begin their Lent ten dayes before vs and after Candlemasse fast three dayes in remembrance of Niniuehs repentance many Friars in that space eating nothing and some women refusing to suckle their children aboue once a day Their generall fast is bread and water for fish is not easily had they being farre from Sea and ignorant to take it Some Friars eate no bread all Lent long for deuotion some not in a whole yeere or in their whole life but feede on herbes without oile or salt that I speake not of their girdles of Iron and other their hardships which my pen would willingly expresse if my method forbade mee not This fasting as exposing their State to hostile inuasions and insolencies may finde place and mention here Their Friars and Priests in Lent eate but once in two dayes and that in the night Queene Helena that sent her Ambassadour to King Emanuel was reported to eate but three times a weeke on Tuesday Thursday and Saturday On Sundayes they fast not In Tigray and Tigremahon they fast neither Saturday nor Sunday and they marry because they haue two moneths priuiledge from fasting on Thursday before our Shrouetide They that are rich may there marry three wiues and the Iustice forbids them not onely they are excommunicated from entring the Church Some affirme that the Princes of Egypt haue time out of minde payed to Prester Iohn a great tribute continued by the Turkes which Luys saith is three hundred thousand Zequis euery Zequi being sixteene
others and euery one of a seuerall God There was one round Temple dedicated to the God of the Aire called Quecalcouatl the forme of the Temple representing the Aires circular course about the earth The entrance of that Temple had a doore made like the mouth of a Serpent with foule and deuillish resemblances striking dreadfull horrour to such as entered All these Temples had peculiar houses Priests Gods and Seruices At euery doore of the great Temple was a large Hall and goodly buildings which were common Armories for the Citie They had other darke houses full of Idols of diuers metals all embrued with bloud the dayly sprinkling whereof made them shew blacke yea the walls were an inch thicke and the ground a foot thicke with bloud which yeelded a lothsome sent The Priests entered dayly therein which they allowed not to others except to Noble personages who at their entry were bound to offer some Man to be sacrificed to those slaughter-houses of the Diuell There did continually reside in the great Temple 5000. persons which had there their meat drinke and lodging the Temple enioying great reuenues and diuers Townes for the maintenance thereof Next to the Temple of Vitziliputzli was that of Tescalipuca the God of Penance Punishments and Prouidence very high and well built It had foure ascents the top was flat an hundred and twenty foot broad and ioyning to it was a Hall hanged with Tapistry and Curtains of diuers colours and workes The doore being low and large was alwayes couered with a Vaile and none but the Priests might enter All this Temple was beautified with diuers Images and Pictures most curiously for that these two Temples were as the Cathedrall Churches the rest as Parishionall They were so spacious and had so many chambers that there were in them places for the Priests Colledges and Schooles Without the great Temple and ouer against the principall doore a stones cast distant was the Charnell house or that Golgotha before mentioned where vpon poles or sticks and also in the wals two Towres hauing no other stuffe but Lime and Skuls Andrew de Tapia certified Gomara that he and Gonsala de Vmbria did reckon in one day an hundred thirty sixe thousand skuls When any wastad supply was made of others in their roome §. II. Of their Nunnes Friers and other Votaries WIthin this great Circuit of the principall Temple were two Houses like Cloisters the one opposite to the other one of Men the other of Women In that of Women they were Virgins onely of twelue or thirteens yeeres of age which they called the Maids of Penance they were as many as the men and liued chastly and regularly as Virgins dedicated to the seruice of their God Their charge was to sweepe and make cleane the Temple and euery morning to prepare meat for the Idol and his Ministers of the Almes the Religious gathered The food they prepared for the Idoll were small Loaues in the forme of hands and feet as of Marchpane and with this bread they prepared certaine sawces which they cast dayly before the Idol and his Priests did eate it These Virgins had their haire cut and then let them grow for a certaine time they rose at midnight to the Idols Mattins which they dayly celebrated performing the same exercises which the Religious did They had their Abbesse who employed them to make cloth of diuers fashions for the ornaments of their Gods and Temples Their ordinarie habite was all white without any worke or colour They did their penance at midnight sacrificing and wounding themselues and piercing the tops of their eares laying the bloud which issued forth vpon their cheekes and after bathed themselues in a poole which was within the Monasterie If any were found dishonest they were put to death without remission saying she had polluted the house of their God They held it for an ominous token that some religious man or woman had committed a fault when they saw a Rat or Mouse passe or a Bat in the Idol-Chappell or that they had gnawed any of the vailes for that they say a Cat or a Bat would not aduenture to commit such an indignitie if some offence had not gone before and then began to make inquisition and discouering the offender put him to death None were receiued into this Monasterie but the daughters of one of the sixe quarters named for that purpose and this profession continued a yeere during which time their fathers and themselues had made a vow to serue the Idoll in this manner and from thence they went to be married The other Cloyster or Monasterie was of young-men of eighteene or twentie yeeres of age which they called Religious Their Crownes were shauen as the Friers in these parts their haire a little longer which fell to the middest of their eare except on the hinder part of the head where they let it grow on their shoulders and tyed it vp in trusses These serued in the Temple liued poorely and chastly and as the Leuites ministred to the Priests Incense Lights and Garments swept and made cleane the Holy place bringing wood for a continuall fire to the Harth of their God which was like a Lampe that still burned before the Altar of their Idoll Besides these there were other little Boyes that serued for manuall vses as to decke the Temple with Boughes Roses and Reeds to giue the Priests water to wash Rasors to sacrifice and to goe with such as begged almes to carrie it All these had their superiours who had the gouernment ouer them and when they came in publike where women were they carried their eyes to the ground not daring to behold them They had linnen garments and went into the Citie foure or sixe together to aske almes in all quarters and if they got none it was lawfull for them to goe into the Corne-fields and gather that which they needed none daring to contradict them Cortes writeth that almost all the chiefe mens sonnes in the Citie after they were sixe or seuen yeeres old till the time of their marriage especially the eldest were thrust into a kind of Religious habit and seruice There might not aboue fiftie liue in that strict penance they rose at midnight and sounded the Trumpets to awake the people Euery one watched by turne lest the fire before the Altar should die they gaue the censor with which the Priest at midnight incensed the Idoll and also in the morning at noone and at night They were very subiect and obedient to their superiours and passed not any one point commanded And at midnight after the Priest had ended his censing they retyred themselues apart into a secret place where they sacrificed and drew bloud from the Calues of their legs with sharp bodkins therewith rubbing their Temples and vnder their Eares presently washing themselues in a Poole appointed to that end These yong men did not anoint their heads and bodies with Petum
whether she had not yet experience of the Nature of the Creatures or did admire so strange an accident and would satisfie her curious mind in the further tryall entertained discourse and was presently snared For though she held her to the Commandement yet the threatning annexed she did somewhat mince and extenuate What she seemed to lessen he feared not to annihilate and wholly disanull propounding not onely impunity but aduantage That they should be as Gods in the enriching of their minds with further knowledge This hee perswadeth by the equivocating in the name of the Tree the first equiuocation we read of otherwhere plainely tearmed a lye charging GOD with falshood and malignitie Thus he that abode not in the Truth himselfe but was a Man-slayer from the beginning and the Father of Lying which he no where else borrowed but had of his owne perswaded her by his great subtiltie first to doubt of GODS Truth in his Word the first particular sinne that euer mans heart entertained for the other were but occasions and inducements disobedience and vnthankefulnesse are more generall after that she vnlawfully lusted after this new knowledge bewitched with the pleasantnesse of the fruit to the taste and sight shee tooke and did eate and gaue to her husband likewise The highest power of the soule is first entrapped the lusting and sensible faculties follow after iustly plagued by a correspondent inward rebellion that the sense now ruleth the appetite and this the reason in our corrupt estate which hence proceeded Thus vnbeleefe brought forth vnthankefulnesse vnthankefulnesse pride from thence ambition and all that rabble of contempt of Gods Truth beleeuing the Deuils lies abuse of the Creatures to wanton lust Sacrilegious vsurping that which GOD had reserued scandalous prouocation of her husband with the murther bodily and ghostly of him her selfe and their whole posteritie for euer and whereas yet they had done so little seruice to GOD they offered almost their first fruits to the Deuill hauing Free-will to haue resisted if they would No maruell then if such a combination of so many sinnes in one wrung from the iustice of GOD such a multitude of iudgements on them and theirs in the defacing that goodly and glorious Image of GOD subiecting in stead thereof the Bodie to Sickenesse Colde Heate Nakednesse Hunger Thirst Stripes Wounds Death the Minde to Ignorance Doubtings Vanitie Phancies Phrenzies the Will to Vnstaiednesse Passion Perturbations the Whole Man is made a slaue to Sinne within him to the Deuill without whence he must expect Wages sutable to his Worke Death Spirituall Naturall and Eternall an infinite punishment for offending an infinite Maiesty Thus had they put out their light to obscure darkenesse and if they were not presently cast into vtter darkenesse it was GODS mercy not their merit which suspended the first and naturall death to preuent that second and eternal But spiritually the were euen already dead in sinnes as appeared by the accusations of their conscience whereof Moses saith The eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked Conscience before Vertues keeper was now become Hels Harbenger then flashing lightnings in the face of their minds to shew that their nakednesse did now appeare filthy in GODS sight Lightnings indeed which could only lighten to terrifie not enlighten with instruction and comfort which sparke remaineth after the fire of Gods Image extinct by the mercifull prouidence of GOD in some to bee a bridle of Nature least they should runne into all excesse of vilanie and not leaue a face of the world in the world and to be to others by disposition and working of a higher and supernaturall Light a preparatiue to and a preseruatiue in that light of Life So much the greater is their sinne that seeke to flash out these flashings and whereas they cannot reade the booke of Scripture and will not reade the booke of the Creature labour to extinguish also this Light of Nature that with seared consciences they may more freely in darkenesse commit the workes of darkenesse And euen this did Adam seeke if GOD had not brought him out of his Owles neast For what could a Fig-leafe hide from GOD and did they thinke the innocent Trees would conspire with them to conceale Traytors Was there any darkenesse which was not Light to him Or could Breeches and Trees couer their Soules which receiued the first and worst nakednesse till which Nakednesse to the body was a Clothing of Beauty a Liuery of Bounty an Ensigne of Maiesty Such broken pits seeke they that forsake the Fountaine of liuing Waters And yet when GOD commeth into Iudgement and makes the winds to vsher him vnto his priuate Sessions in Paradise to those shiftlesse shifts they added worse impiously accusing GOD vncharitably charging one another to put from themselues that blame which thus claue faster to them A medicine worse then the disease or a disease in stead of a medicine is hypocrisie that will not see her owne sickenesse and seekes rather to couer then to cure to couer by charging others then recouer by discharging and discouering it selfe as if equitie pretended were not iniquitie doubled GOD proceedeth to sentence a sentence worthy of GOD shewing at once his infinite iustice in the punishment of sinne and no lesse infinite mercie to prouide an infinite price to redeeme vs by his infinite power bringing good out of euill and by his manifold Wisedome taking that wise one in his craftinesse who in the destruction of Man had sought GODS dishonour So good is it that euill should be when this Soueraigne goodnesse purposeth to effect his good will by wicked instruments out of their darkenesse producing his owne maruellous light as appeared in this worke of Sathan an aduersary intended to his despite in and by the promised Seede disposed to his glory The Serpent hath a bodily curse in his future bodily difficulties which still continue for his instrumentall and bodily imployment The old Serpent and spirituall Enemie hath a spirituall and eternall curse the breaking of his head by that Seede of the Woman that should once lead Captiuitie captiue Our Parents are cursed yet so as their curse is turned into a blessing all things working to the best In sorrow shal be the Womans conceptions but recompenced with the ioy which followeth and is as it were the Mid-wife in their trauell because of fruit borne into the World and more then recompenced in that they are saued by bearing of children if they continue in the faith and liue in holinesse with modestie Adam is set to labour not as before with delight but with paine and difficultie the Earth also being cursed for his sake yet by this narrow way by this crosse-way he is guided to Heauen the hope whereof was giuen him before Paradise was taken from him So true is it that in iudgement he remembreth mercy if we can learne to liue
name of this Citie call vs backe againe too much to those Assyrian Relations before dilated as much as concerneth our purpose let vs see what can be said of their Religion here Of this wee find little but as before is shewed of the Babylonians Nisroch was the Idoll in whose Temple Senacherib was slaine by his owne sonnes But what this Nisroch was I cannot find Certaine it is that hee which had vpbraided confidence in the true GOD finds his Idoll euen in the place and time of his worship his Traytor and he which had blasphemed the GOD of heauen finds Heauen and Earth and his owne Bowels against him Venus Vrania is reckoned among the Assyrian deuotions and Adad was their chiefe god which they interpret One and Macrobius the Sunne which as before is said they worshipped and may well agree with that Latine Etymologie Sol quasi solus and Atargatis the Earth Belus also was here worshipped as witnesse Dion Eusebius and Cyrillus Lucian sayth That the Assyrians sacrificed to a Doue the touching of which Fowle required much ceremonie for expiation Whereto accordeth the fable that Semiramis was turned into a Doue Concerning Adad and Atargatis Macrobius sayth That the Assyrians ascribe all power to these two The Image of Adad shined with rayes or beames downwards designing the Sunnes force That of Atargatis with beames vpwards as it were ascribing to the heauenly influence all her plentie vnder the same Image were the shapes of Lions as also the Phrygians fained the Mother of the gods that is the Earth to be borne on Lions But of this Atargatis more in the next Chapter Ionas was sent to preach to the great Citie of Niniue as some thinke in the dayes of Sardanapalus his next Predecessor Broughton with some other thinketh in the dayes of Pul or Phul-assur Their repentance staid that iudgement Nahum after denounced the like iudgement which accordingly came to passe Phraortes King of the Medes mentioned in the former chapter besieged it His sonne Cyaxares succeeded in the kingdome and in this siege After that the Scythians inuaded Media and held it eight and twentie yeeres according to the Prophecie of Ieremie 49.34 and in the same Expedition obtained Niniue But Cyaxares after preuailed against the Scythians and Astyages his Sonne ouer-turned and destroyed Niniue that it should no more bee a receptacle or encouragement to the Assyrians to rebell against the Medes Nahum threatned opening of the gates of the Riuer and destruction to the Temple as Tremellius readeth it noting thereon the casting downe of the Forts on Tygris and amongst them the Temple of Belus there erected out of whose notes on the first Chapter of Nahum I inserted the former Relation Herodotus in the Historie hereof sayth That Phraortes there perished in the siege with most part of his armie Cyaxares to reuenge his Fathers death renewed the siege but was not able to hold his owne against the Scythians vntill after eight and twentie yeeres that the Scythians had enioyed the Empire of Asia vnder pretence of feasting being entertained in a banquet the most of them in their drunkennesse were slaine by the Medes and so the Scythians losing what before they had gotten Cyaxares recouered the Empire and destroyed Niniue Thus was that Citie destroyed whose Riches Beautie Antiquitie Largenesse and Puissance the Scripture so often mentioneth A man may compare Ecbatana of the Medes Babylon on Euphrates and Niniue on Tygris to the Triumviri at Rome So did they both emulate and share the Easterne Empire as each could make her selfe strongest now Babylon another while Niniue and sometime Ecbatana preuailing which is the cause of no small difficultie in these Histories Mr Cartwright an eye-witnesse hath beheld he sayth the ruines of this Citie and agreeth with Diodorus in the equalitie of the sides two of which contained an hundred and fitie furlongs the two other but fourescore and ten on a side Mosul is supposed to be Niniue haply for the neerenesse or for that as a posthume issue it hath sprung from the former The ashes yet haue not yeelded such a Phoenix as the former was rather a witnesse of the others mightinesse saith St. Anthony Sherley and GODS iudgement then of any magnificence in it selfe Mosul is in fame for Cloth of Gold and Silke for fertilitie and for the Patriarchall Sea of the Nestorian Christians whose authoritie stretched to Cathay and India Merdin a towne on the same Riuer is also a Patriarchall Sea of the Chaldees or Mahumetane Sect In Paulus Venetus his daies they were in the Prouince of Mosul partly Mahumetans partly Christians and in the Mountaines dwelt the Curdi that were Participles or Mungrels in Religion professing partly Christ partly Mahumet in practice robbers and wicked The Christian Patriarch hath Archbishops and Bishops vnder him as the Romane Pope The Mahumetans are called Aratrie Assyria saith Magmus is now called by Niger Adrinsa by Giraua Azemia by Pinetus Mosul by Mercator Sarh and of Castaldus Arzerum It sometime contained the Prouinces Arapachite Adiabena and Sittacene now called after some Botan Sarca and Rabia Boemus b telleth of a strange fashion anciently vsed in Assyria That the maids which were marriageable were yeerely brought foorth in publike and set to sale to such as would marrie them The monie which was giuen for the fairest was giuen to the more deformed for their portion in marriage The Assyrian vsed to wash themselues daily but chiefly after carnall companie As for the Saracenicall Religion we shall more fitly handle the same by it selfe then tediously repeat the same things For this therefore and other Countries subiect to Turkish or Persian seruitude the Reader may reade of their superstitions in their due place when we speake of the Saracens Turkes and Persians The relation of their Christian Rites belong to another Tome But let vs come out of Assyria into Syria the Histories of which are not a little as is said confounded together and many Rites were common to them both and to all these parts from the Persian gulfe to Asia the lesse as being so often subiect to one Empire or rather still parts of that one Empire which receiued often alterations vnder the Assyrians Babylonians Medes Persians Macedonians Scythians Parthians c. CHAP. XV. Of Syria and the ancient Religions there Of the Syrian Goddesse and her Rites at Hierapolis Of the Daphnean and other Syrian Superstitions SYRIA is called in Scripture Aram of Aram the sonne of Shem as before is said And Strabo calleth the Syrians Arammaei Hence also his c Arimi are deriued and Arami lib. 13. It is diuersly bounded by diuers Authors some confounding the names of Syria and Assyria Eustathius doth reckon these fiue parts thereof Commagena Seleucide Coelesyria Phoenicia and Iudea Mela extendeth it further and Plinie nameth as part of Syria Palaestina Iudea Coele Phoenice Damascena Babylonia Mesopotamia Sophene Commagene Adiabene
came with Cadmus into Greece taught the Graecians both other Sciences and also Letters which before that time they knew not These letters after changed their sound and forme being by the Ionicks principally learned who called them Phoenician and called their Skinnes or Parchments biblos haply of Biblos in Phoenicia Hee saw the Cadmean letters engrauen in a Temple at Thebes much like the Ionike then the onely Greeke letters out of certaine old inscriptions much resembling the present Latine Letters and the auncienter Phoenician I may say with him the auncientest vsed by the Canaanites and Hebrewes of old and by the Samaritanes at this day For those which the Iewes now vse he affirmeth to be new corrupted from the Syrian and these from the Samaritan His learned discourse thereof were worthy the reading but here would be too prolixe Heurnius I know not by what authoritie saith that the Phoenicians before the Israelites departed out of Aegypt vsed Hieroglyphicall letters which hee thinketh they learned of Abraham the same with Seth and Henoch had vsed before Moses if yee beleeue it receiued the first Alphabetary letters in the table of the Decalogue and from the Hebrews the Phoenicians Out of an old booke he citeth these verses which I thought not vnworthy the transcribing concerning the first Authours in inuenters of letter Moses u primus Hebraicas exarauit literas Mente Phoenices sagaci condiderunt Atticas Quas Latini scriptitamus edidit Nicostrata Abraham Syras idem reperit Chaldaicas Isis arte non minore protulit Aegyptias Gulfila prompsit Getarum quas videmus vltimas He addeth also that the ancient learning which the Phoenicians had receiued from the Hebrewes and Chaldees passed into Europe by Cadmus who founded Thebes and into Affrica by Elissa after her selfe-inflicted death called Dido i. Virago a woman of resolution courage who fleeing Pigmalion first seyzed on the Iland Cothone and nine yeeres after tooke Tharsus which the posteritie of Gomer had there built which she called Karthada that is halfe citie because the one halfe thereof were Phoenicians to which agreeth the testimony of Saluianus that Carthage had in it Schooles of liberall Arts and Philosophie Hee citeth Aristotles testimonie of Hog a Phoenician Philosopher whom hee thinketh to bee that King of Bashan which Moses conquered Dyctis Cretensis if his testimonie be authenticall testifieth that the Graecian Gallants which besieged Troy chose Agamemnon for their Generall writing his name in Punike Letters And this storie was also written in Punike letters as the Interpreter affirmeth But how the posteritie of Letter-inuenters were by letters circumuented it will not bee an vnwelcome stratageme to our Reader When the Christian forces in the time of Ludouicus Crassus besieged Tyrus by sea and land a Doue was seene to come flying and deemed by expert men which had seene experience of the like to carry letters to the besieged wherupon a terrible shout was raised through the armie which rent the aire with such violence or else so amazed the seely Doue that downe shee fell They tooke her letter from her wherein was contained that the Tyrians should be of good courage and shortly reliefe should be sent This tooke away and fastned another of contrarie tenure to this swift carrier which presently conueyed the same to her home at Tyrus and with her counterfait newes caused the Tyrians to yeeld Dionys Alexandrinus called Tyrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Antiquitie The Greekes because they could not pronounce the letter Tsadi called it Tyrus for Sur or Tsur as it is there called Of the Phoenician Kings here might be inserted a large Historie but I feare tediousnesse Their Catalogue is thus in Scaligers Canons first Abibalus two yeeres Hierom the sonne of Abibalas 38. yeeres Leazaros 7. Abdestarius 9. the Nurces sonne 12. Astartus Dalaeastri F. 12. Aserymus 9. Pheles 8. moneths Ithobaal the Priest of Astarte 32. yeers Badezorus 6. Margenus 9. Pygmalion 47. In his time Dido fled into Libya A long time after this raigned another Itobalus 19 yeeres Baal 10. and then Iudges ruled Ecnibalus 2. moneths Helbes 10. moneths Abbarus the high Priest 11. moneths Balator 1. yeere Mytgonus and Gerestratus 6. Merbal sent from Babylon 4. Hierom his brother 20. Thus much out of the Phoenician Antiquities the rest of their Historie is for substance the same with the Syrian before handled Ioppe saith Mela and Plinie was built before the Floud and Cepheus raigned there witnesse certaine ancient Altars there obserued religiously and bearing titles of him and his brother Phineus They shew monstrous bones the Reliques of the Whale from which Persens freed Andromeda Mount Casius had in it the Temple of Iupiter Casius and Pompeys tombe Albertus Aquensis relating the exploits of the Westerne Christians in that inuasion of Godfrie of Buillon saith that in the parts of Tyre and Sidon they were stung with a kind of Serpent called Tarenta which caused them with intollerable burning swelling and thirst to perish The remedies are strange the touch of some Chieftaines in the armie vpon the wound or this vt vir percussus coiret cum muliere cum viro mulier CHAP. XVIII Of Palestina and the first inhabitants thereof the Sodomites Idumeans Moabites Ammonites and Canaanites with others PHoenicia is stretched by some as you may reade euen to Aegypt all alongst that Sea-coast and in that respect partly and partly because they obserued some neerenesse in Religion I haue adioyned the Philistims to the Phoenicians howbeit others doe confine Phoenicia betwixt the Riuer Valania and Mount Carmel Thus hath Brocard written and after him Maginus who doe reckon vnto Palaestina Galilaea Samaria Iudaea and Idumaea leauing out Phoenicia bounded as aforesaid to make a part of Syria by it selfe Of this Region I purpose to make larger discourse in the next Chapter here intending to take out of their dust the ancient Nations which inhabited this Land before the Israelites were Lords thereof The Sodomites sometimes inhabited a pleasant and fertile valley watered by Iordan which Moses compareth to the garden of the Lord and the Land of Aegypt for pleasure and plenty To the Sodomites I reckon also those other Cities partakers of the same both fertilitie and vengeance Gomorrha Adma Zeboim and little Zoar saued at the request of Lot Their Kings and their Warres are mentioned Gen. 14. Their wickednesse in many places of Scripture which Ezechiel reduceth to these foure heads Pide Gluttonie Idlenesse and Crueltie or hard-heartednesse Their Iudgement both Moses and others and the place it selfe doe record Their Religion was an irreligion and prophane contempt of God and man Europe I would I could not say England can now yeeld the like sauing that in our subtile and more warie age Policie hauing eaten vp Religion hath with the bloud thereof dyed her cheekes and would seeme more shame fac't then those former Sodomites Thus did
and by the glorie and order of them learned the knowledge of GOD neuer ceasing that diuine search till GOD appeared to him Which opinion may reconcile both the former that first he was and after ceased to be an Idolater before God appeared in vision to him He alledgeth Philo for his Author that at fourteene yeeres Abraham reproued Thara for seducing men vnto Idolatrie moued by his priuate lucre with Images and seeing the Heauen sometime cleare sometime cloudie he gathered that that could not bee GOD. The like hee concluded of the Sunne and Moone by their Eclipses for his father had taught him Astronomie At last GOD appeared and bade him leaue his Countrey Whereupon hee tooke his Fathers Images who as before is said was an Image-maker and partly broke partly burnt them and then departed Suidas further thinketh him the first inuenter of Letters of the Hebrew tongue and of the interpretation of dreames which I leaue to the Authors credit But for the fault of Abraham before his calling and other blemishes after in him and the rest of the Patriarchs what doe they else but in abounding of mans sinne set out the superabounding grace of GOD and are profitable as learned Morton in his answere of this cauill hath out of one of their owne obserued against them what he had obserued out of Augustine to these foure purposes Faith Instruction Feare and Hope the Faith of the Historie which flattereth or concealeth the faults of none Instruction to vertue by seeing others faults taxed Feare for what shall Shrubs doe if Cedars fall and Hope that wee imitate their repentance by seeing their pardon But to returne to our Historie Many of the Ethnike histories mention him Berosus commendeth him for his iustice and skill in Astronomie Nic. Damascenus sayth that hee raigned at Damascus and that in his time his house continued in Damascus and was still called by his name Hecataeus wrote a booke of him and Alexander Polyhistor telleth that hee was borne in the tenth generation after the floud in Camarine or Vrien a Citie of Babylon Iosephus addeth that when famine draue him into Aegypt hee disputed with the Priests and most learned Aegyptians in questions of Diuinitie and in their diuided Sects hauing confuted one by another he communicated to them the truth both in this and in Arithmeticke and Astronomie whereof before the Aegyptians were ignorant Abram sayth Master Broughton in his Consent was borne sixtie yeeres later then the common account as appeareth by computation of Terahs age who died at two hundred and fiue yeeres and after his death Abram went from Charan into Canaan the threescore and fifteenth yeere of his owne life and therefore was borne in the hundred and thirtieth and not in the seuentieth yeere of his father in the three hundred fiftie and two yeere after the Floud whereas the common opinion reckoneth the two hundred ninetie and two To Abram GOD had giuen commandement saying Goe from thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house into the Land which I shall shew thee and I will make of thee a great Nation c. His Historie is fully related by Moses and his progenie also whereof Ismael his Sonne by Agar and other his sonnes which he had by Ketura his second wife he sent to inhabite the East Countrey Arabia in his life time but Isaac was made his Heire both temporall and spirituall to whom Iacob succeeded in the promised blessing who with his sonnes and familie went downe into Aegypt where his posteritie multiplied exceedingly and were called sometimes Ebrewes of their ancient pedegree sometime Israelites of the name Israel giuen to Iacob by the Angell Gen. 32.28 Their whole Historie so largely and plainely in holy Writ recorded I feare to make Mine by euill reciting Those Fountaines are more open to all then that any should neede ours or others Brookes mixed with some myrie earth at least in the passage and my intent is to bee largest in relation of those things which are not in the Scriptures onely touching those things briefly for order sake Their Religion meane while was the best amongst the best though stayned in some as Rachel which stale her father Labans Idols and Iacob was forced to reforme his Familie in this respect and after in Aegypt they were corrupted with the Aegyptian superstition as Ezechiel protests against them The manner of Diuine worship was not so straitly limited as afterwards to persons and places By Reuelation and Tradition they receiued the religious worship wherein they instructed their posteritie vntill that in their extremest thraldome GOD sent Moses and Aaron to deliuer them vnder whose conduct they passed through the Sea and Wildernesse to the brinkes of Iordan receiuing in the way that Law which as a Tutor or Schoole-master was in that their nonage to traine them vp vntill that full and ripe age when GOD sent his Sonne made of a woman made vnder the Law that hee might redeeme them that were vnder the Law that wee might receiue the adoption of Sonnes §. II. Of the Law of MOSES the twelue Tribes and of Proselytes OF this Law although Moses hath giuen vs an absolute relation in Scripture whereof he was the first Pen-man of that at least which remayneth vnto vs yet if wee shall out of him bring them into their order and ranke them vnder their seuerall heads as Sigonius and others haue done it shall not be I thinke ouer-tedious to the Reader The Law is diuided vsually into the Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall as parts of the same the first deliuered on the Mount Sinai by the dreadfull voice of the Almightie God and by the finger of God written after in Tables of stone called Ten words summarily abridged into two Commandements by the Law-giuer himselfe The first and great Commandement enioyning the loue of GOD the second of our NEIGHBOVRS that God who himselfe is Charitie imposing nothing but the louely yoke of Loue and Charitie vnto his seruants This Law is eternall written first in the hearts of our first Parents which being defaced it was written againe in the stonie Tables of the Law where it was but a killing letter till Grace and Truth by IESVS CHRIST indited and indented it in the fleshy Tables of the Gospell as Christs new Commandement written it renewed hearts and shall for euer be then grauen in those spirituall Tables when wee that here are Naturall men shall rise againe Spirituall men and shall be the Law of that holy Citie the new Ierusalem this being then perfected when Faith and Hope and this World shall bee finished The other parts Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were for the particulars proper vnto that Nation the one respecting the manner of Diuine seruice the other of ciuill Gouernment not giuen as the other immediatly to the Israelites by GOD himselfe but communicated in the Mount to Moses that hee might acquaint the
the Babylonian dispersion The Asian Iewes were most of this Babylonian sort to these Saint Peter wrote from Babylon which therefore he nameth not in the inscription The Hellenists were so called of hellenizing or vsing the Greeke tongue in their Synagogues in which they had the Scriptures translated in Aegypt Greece and Italie By reason of this translation the Hebrews and Hellenists often disagreed for the Hebrewes called it a backward reading because it is read from the left hand to the right which sometime brake forth into open violence R. Eleazar assaulted the Synagogue of the Alexandrians at Ierusalem and committed therein much outrage And Christian Charitie could scarce combine them as Luke mentioneth Act. 6.1 This Greeke translation was vsed by them throughout Europe they had it in Hebrew Letters as Tertullian testifieth in the Serapium at Alexandria Thus Philo and other of these learned Hellenists were ignorant of the Hebrew Likewise of those Hebrewes there was small reckoning had of the Galilaeans by their supercilious and superstitious brethren of Iudaea as the Gospell hath taught vs §. II. Of the Karraim and Babbinists and of the Hasidai THE opinions of the Iewes may be reduced into these two generall heads the one were such as contented themselues with the Law of God and were called Karraim or Koraim of which sort there are diuers at this day in Constantinople and other where The other Rabbinists Supererogatorie as Doctor Hall calls them and Popish Iewes called Hasidim professing a more strict holinesse then the Law required Yet at first these both pleased themselues and did not by opposition of Science displease each other and disagreeing in opinion they yet in affection agreed But when these voluntarie seruices beganne to bee drawne in Canons and of arbitrarie became necessarie they were rent into sundrie Sects Of these and their originall let vs heare Scaliger speake There were saith he before the times of Hasmonaei two kinds of Dogmatists men holding differing opinions among the Iewes the one onely accepting the written Law the other Tradition or the addition to the Law Of the former kinde arose the Karraim of whom came the Sadduces of the latter the Pharises These Pharises were the issue of the Hasidees The Hasidees were a Corporation Guild or Fraternitie which voluntarily addicted themselues to the Offices of the Law 1. Macchabees chap. 2. verse 42. Their originall was from the times of Ezrah or Esdras Haggai and Zacharie the Prophets being Authors of this Order These in regard of their institution were called Holy Hasidin and in regard of their Combination Hasidaei And besides that which the Law enioyned which is iust debt they supererogated and of their owne free accord disbursed vpon the Temple and Sacrifices They professed not onely to liue according to the prescript of the Law but if any thing could by interpretations and consequences be drawne thence they held themselues bound to satisfie it and when they had done all to seeme to haue done nothing but accounted themselues vnprofitable seruants notwithstanding Euery one paid a tribute to the reparations of the Temple from the times of Esdras and Nehemias The Hasidaeans added further of their owne free-will to the Sanctuarie Walles and Porches neuer almost going from the Temple which they seemed to hold peculiar to themselues and by which they vsed to sweare By this Habitacle or By this house Which the Pharises their posteritie also did as likewise they learned of them to build the Sepulchres of the Prophets They were therefore called Hasidim either because their Colledge was instituted of the Prophets or of their holy and religious workes and the sacred buildings by them eyther repaired or reared from the foundations And therefore when wicked Alcimus had killed threescore men of this Corporation or Guild the people thought their death was prophesied in the Psalme such reputation was there of their holinesse These Hasidaei were not in proper sense a Sect but a Fraternitie which euery day assembled in the Temple and offered in daily Sacrifice a Lambe which was called the sin offering of the Hasidim One day was excepted the eleuenth of Tisri in which that Sacrifice was omitted They offered not themselues for they were not Priests but the Priests in their name Abraham Zacuth saith That Baba the son of Buta daily of his owne accord offered a Ram for a sin-offering except one day which was the day after the Expiation And this was called the Sacrifice of the Saints for Sin And he sware By this Habitacle that is the Temple Of this kinde or much like thereto Scaliger thinketh the Rechabites were which Ieremia mentioneth whose immediate father he accounteth Ionadab not him which liued in the daies of Iehu but another of that name and that their austere order began but a little before it ended namely in the same Prophets time quickly ending because of the captiuitie After the Captiuitie these sonnes of Ionadab renuing their former obseruations were called Hasidaei which went not from the Temple and obserued the orders aboue mentioned so Scaliger interpreteth Ieremies Prophesie that Ionadab should not want one to stand before the Lord that is to minister attend holy duties in the temple like to Anna the Prophetes This saith he is the true beginning of the Hasidaei which abstained from wine as did also the Priests as long as they ministred in the temple Thus much Scaliger As for that which Serarius hath writtē against Scaliger and Drusius in this argument both in his Trihaeresium and his Mineruall or elsewhere I refer the Reader to himselfe choosing rather to expresse what I thinke probable then entertainmen with long vnnecessarie disputes Drusius proueth that diuers of the Pharises and Essees also were of these Hasidaei wherby it appeareth that it was rather a Brotherhood as Scal. calleth it then a Sect He sheweth their Rites and Discipline out of Iuchasin They spent 9. houres of the day in praier They beleeued that a man might sin in thought therfore they had care thereof their will was not without the will of Heauen that is of God Ten things were peculiar to them Not to lift vp their eyes aboue ten cubits 2. Not to goe bare-headed 3. To establish three refections 4. To dispose their hearts to Prayer 5. Not to looke on eyther side sixtly To goe about that they might not bee troublesome to any companie Seuenthly Not to eate at the Tables of great men eightly If they had angred any man quickly to appease him ninthly To haue a pleasant voyce and to descend to the interpretation of the Law tenthly to accustome themselues to their Threads and Phylacteries Rab one of his Fraternitie did not lift vp his eyes aboue foure cubits Tenne or twentie daies before their death they were diseased with the Collicke and so all cleare and cleane they departed into the other life To returne vnto Scaliger touching the originall
and the Iewes still obserue that time Scaliger also sometime of a contrary opinion hath now yeelded to this And the Egyptians in the time of Fermicus held that the world was created in the thirtith part of Libra The Flood after Scaliger began in the yeere 1657. on Saturday the seuenth of Nouember The second age of the World is reckoned from the Floud to Abraham Whose birth was after the Floud 292. yeeres Sem two yeeres after the Floud begat Arpacsad hee at thirtie fiue yeeres Selah who in the thirtith yeere begat Heber Heber at thirtie foure Peleg who being thirtie yeeres old begat Regu and he at thirty two Serug in whose thirtith yeere Nahor was borne who at nine and twenty begat Terah who at seuentie yeeres begat Abram Thus Scaliger Caluisius Buntingus Arias Montanus Genebrard Pererius Adrichomius Opmeerus c. But Iunius Broughton Lydayt Codomannus c. adde sixtie yeeres more For Moses saith Gen. 11.32 That Terah died in Charan aged two hundred and fiue yeeres and then Abram as it is in the next Chapter was seuentie fiue yeeres old so that Terah when Abram was borne was a hundred thirty yeeres old Whereas therefore he is said at seuentie yeeres to beget Abram Nahor and Haran it is to be vnderstood that he then began to beget Abram being named first for diuine priuiledge not because hee was eldest The like phrase is vsed Gen. 5.32 Noah being fiue hundred yeeres old begat Shem Ham and Iaphet and yet neither were they all borne at once nor was Shem the eldest let the Reader choose whether of these opinions he best liketh In the seuentie fiue yeere Abram went out of Charan hauing receiued the promise from whence to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt are numbred 430. yeeres Rather herein we are to follow Pauls interpretation of Moses then Genebrards who Gal. 3.17 accounts those foure hundred and thirtie yeeres mentioned by Moses Exod. 12.40 from the promise made to Abraham and not from the time that Iacob went downe with his familie into Egypt So that the departure out of Egypt after Scaligers computation and some others Perkins Adrichomius c. happened in the yeere of the World 2453. whereto if we adde those sixtie yeeres of Terahs life before mentioned it amounteth to two thousand fiue hundred and thirteene And so Broughton reckoneth Iunius and Lydyat account two thousand fiue hundred and nine The difference seemes to arise from hence that one accounteth from Abrams departing out of Vr of the Chaldees the other from his departure from Haran after his fathers death about fiue yeeres after But it were an endlesse worke to reconcile Chronologers in their different computations Some reckon the fiue and twentieth Scaliger the fifteenth of Aprill the day of their departure And then the Hebrewes began their yeere at the Spring-Equinoctiall which before they began in Autumne From this departure to the building of Salomons Temple Scaliger reckoneth foure hundred and eightie yeeres whose first foundations he saith were laid the nine and twentieth of May being Wednesday Anno Mundi 2933. and of the great Iulian Period which differeth seuen hundred sixtie foure yeeres from the yeere of the World 3697. In this computation of foure hundred and eightie yeeres betwixt the departure and foundation of the Temple many Chronologers agree Arias Montanus Adrichomius Broughton Perkyns Lydyat c. although some dissent much The summe ariseth of these parcels Moses died fortie yeeres after their deliuerance Ioshua ruled seuenteene Othoniel fortie Ehud fourescore Gideon fortie Abimelech three Thola twentie three Iaer twentie two Iephte sixe Ibsan seuen Elam ten Abdon eight Sampson twentie Heli fortie Samuel and Saul fortie Dauid fortie Salomon in the fourth yeere and second month beganne to build his Temple after which hee raigned thirtie seuen yeeres From thence to the destruction of the Temple vnder Zedekias are accounted foure hundred twentie and seuen This agrees with Ezekiels account reckoning a day for a yeere three hundred and ninety daies or yeeres after the Apostasie of Israel from God the rebellion against the house of Dauid in the beginning of Rehoboams raigne by the meanes of Ieroboam to which if we adde seuen and thirtie yeeres which Salomon raigned after the foundation of the Temple the summe is foure hundred twentie seuen The same appeareth thus Roboam reigned seuenteene yeeres Abiam three Asa fortie one Iehoshaphat twentie fiue Iehoram eight Ahaziah one Athaliah sixe Ioash fortie Amazia twentie nine Azaria or Vzzia fiftie two Betwixt Amazia and Azaria the kingdome was ruled eleuen yeeres by the States as some gather out of 2. Reg. 15.1 others reckon it not Iotham sixteene Ahaz sixteene Ezekiah twentie nine Manasses fiftie fiue Amon two Iosias thirtie one Iehoahaz three moneths Eliakim or Iehoiakim eleuen yeeres Iehoiachin three moneths Zedechiah or Mattaniah eleuen yeeres The little difference from the former number may be ascribed to the current and vnfinished yeeres of some of their raignes From this time of Sedekias ruine some begin the reckoning of the seuentie yeeres captiuitie in which time others comprehend all Sedekias raigne and account the returne vnder Cyrus to bee fiftie nine yeeres after this desolation and from thence a hundred and eight to the Edict of Darius Nothus from which time are numbred two hundred fiftie nine to the Dedication of Iudas Maccabeus and from thence a hundred sixtie two yeeres to the birth of Christ So Scaliger It were a worke irkesome to my selfe and tedious to the Reader to recite the variable opinions of Chronologers or to trauerse their arguments about these points To recite here their high Priests and later Kings with the time of their pontificalitie and raigne out of Arias Montanus I hold not vnfit First Iesus returned with Zorobabel and built the Temple whose time of Priest-hood after Scaliger Iunius and those that reckon vpon the Edict of Darius Nothus must needs be very long To leaue that therfore his sonne Ioacim succeeded in the Priest-hood twentie eight yeeres besides twentie yeeres with his father Eliasib held the Priest-hood one and fortie yeeres Ioiada twentie fiue Ionathan twentie foure Ieddoa twentie seuen till the time of Alexander Onias twentie seuen after Philo but Eusebius saith twentie three Simon Iustus thirteene Eleazar twentie Manasses twentie seuen Onias thirty nine Afterwards the Syrian Kings appointed high-Priests of whom Iason was Priest three yeeres Menelaus twelue yeeres in whose seuenth yeere Iudas Maccabeus began to administer the Common-wealth Ionathas brother of Iudas ruled eighteene yeeres Simon his brother was both Priest and Captaine eight yeeres Ioannes Hircanus his sonne thirtie one Whereas they had vsed to date their contracts according to the yeeres from Alexander as we reade in the bookes of Maccabees when Simon Hircanus was high Priest that order was abolished and another taken that euery date should be expressed in such or such a yeere of N. high Priest of the great God But lest
Lord I haue sinned and done wickedly before thy face so and so haue I done and behold it repenteth mee of my wickednesse I am confounded for my workes I will doe so no more And thus ought all to say which offer sacrifices for sinne and they which are condemned to death for their crimes if they will that death doe away their offences But hee which hath sinned against his Neighbour ought to make restitution and aske pardon otherwise his sinne is not remitted And if his neighbour will not pardon him let him bring three other to entreat for him if hee then grant not he is to bee accounted cruell If the offended partie bee dead before let the offender bring ten men to his Graue and say before them I haue sinned against God and this man and let restitution bee made to his heyres 19. Prayer must bee vsed euery day Therefore they of the great Synogogue Ezra Zerubbabel and the rest ordained eighteene blessings and other prayers to be said with euery sacrifice They ordayned these Rites of Prayer the eyes cast downe to the ground the feet set together the hands on the heart in feare and trembling as a seruant speaketh to his Master a place where is no dung especially of an Asse and a Henne a window in the roome which looketh toward Ierusalem turning his bodie that way He which is blind let him direct his heart to his Father which is in heauen 23. The Sentence Heare Israel c. and another sentence is to bee written on the posts of the House He which hath his Phylacteries on his head and armes and his knots on his garment and his Schedule on his doore is so fenced that he cannot easily sinne 24. Euery Israelite is bound to write for himselfe a booke of the Law 29. Sanctifie the Sabbath that is Remember those things on the Sabbath which make to the honour and holinesse of that day And wee are perswaded that Sathan and the Diuels flie into darke mountains abhorring the holinesse of the day and after it is past returne to hurt the Children of men To apply spittle to the eyes is then prohibited because it is a medicine 40. Hee which is twentie yeeres olde and marryeth not breaketh the Precept of increasing and multiplying except it bee for contemplation and studie of the Law But if hee feele in himselfe Iezer Lust to preuaile he must marrie left he fall into transgression 52. If a man refuse to marrie the wife of his brother deceased without issue he must by the sentence of the Iudges pull off his shooe which must not be made of Linnen but of the Hide of a cleane Beast and the woman whiles she is yet fasting for then it is most truely spittle shall spit in his face saying So let it be done to him which will not build his brothers house 63. Hee which will eate the flesh of Beast or Birds must kill them after the due manner Nor may any be allowed to be a Butcher except hee know our Rites 98. When the Iudges dissent in any case the greater part is to bee followed When Sentence is past Execution must follow the same day and the Cryer must goe before proclaiming the Crime and Penaltie with the circumstances of Time Place and Witnesses If any can say any thing for his innocencie he may cause him to be carryed backe to the Iudges if he be led againe to death hee must haue two Wise-men by to heare his words that if they see cause he may be carryed backe to the Iudges If hee yet be found guiltie he must be led to the place of execution and there slaine by two Witnesses But before his death let them exhort him to say Let my death bee vnto mee for the remission of all my sinnes After this confession let them giue him a cup of Wine with a graine of Frankinsence to drinke that hee may be depriued of the vse of reason and made drunke and so slaine 112. Honour thy Father and Mother R. Simeon saith That the Scripture more esteemeth the honour of Parents then of GOD for we are bidden honour GOD with our substance but for thy Parents if thou hast nothing thou oughtest to labour in the Mill to succour them yea saith another thou must beg for them from doore to doore 132. At this time wee can sanctifie nothing because wee haue no Temple I might adde diuers other things of like moment which to auoyd prolixitie I omit and for the same cause I let passe many things which I might hither bring out of Munster in his notes vpon Matthew by him set forth in Hebrew and Latine where hee both relateth and refuteth diuers of the Iewish vanities especially their blasphemous cauils against CHRIST Such is that their foolerie by him recited in Matth. 15. Annotat. about their scrupulous niceties in their Festiuals They may not then take Fish Geese and Hennes they may When one maketh fire and setteth on the Pot hee must order the stickes so vnder it that it may not resemble a building No more then shall be spent that day may then bee made readie No Cheese may then be made nor hearbs cut Heat water to wash thy feet not so for thy whole bodie Touch not much lesse mayest thou eate an Egge layde on a festiuall day yea if it bee doubtfull whether it were then layd and if it be mixt with others all are prohibited But hee which killeth a Henne and findes Egges in the bellie may eate them According to the number of the three Patriarches Abraham Isaac and Iacob they expect a third Temple after those two alreadie perished interpreting the Scriptures of the first Hee heard mee from his holy Hill of the second ISAAC went to meditate in the field of the third The glory of this last house shall be greater then of the first c. Fit Iewish handling of the Scriptures But I haue beene so plentifull of their barrennesse that I feare to ouer-lade or ouer-loath the Reader Munster hath likewise written seuerall small Treatises of the Faith of the Christians and of the Faith of the Iewes and of the Iewish Cauils against our Religion and of diuers fabulous fictions which they haue deuised in disgrace thereof they that will may in them further see their blindnesse For what greater blindnesse then to thinke that their Messias was borne that day the Temple was destroyed and to remaine at Rome till that time when hee shall say to the Pope Let my people goe as Moses borne so long before at last said to Pharaoh That he should bee anoynted by Elias That he should destroy Rome That Elias shall re-vnite the soule to the bodie in the Resurrection which shall bee of all the Iust but not of all the wicked not in the same bodie but another created like to the former which resurrection shall bee effected by Messiahs prayer That the Temple at Ierusalem shall be
of those which haue since succeeded them in habitation in sinne in iudgement And where might wee better stay or what part of the world can yeeld such varietie and multiplicitie of obiects to both the eyes of the minde Curiositie and Deuotion No where such manifold alterations and diuisions of state so diuersified a Map of Nature so multiplied rites of Religion in such differing sects of Heathens Hebrewes Mahumetans Christians No where Antiquitie shewing a grauer countenance no where the Monuments of such mercies the spectacles of such iudgements such consolations such desolations such ambition of Potentates and forraine sutors from the East the West the North the South such Miracles such Oracles such confluence of Pilgrims looking as farre opposite as Sampsons Foxes with as fierie diuisions whether in differing heresies of one or differing names of diuers Deuotions both Catholike and Hereticall Iewes Saracens and Christians concurring in visiting adorning adoring these places with Titles and Rites of Holinesse How often hath this country emtied our Westerne world with Armes and Armies to recouer it and the Easterne in like manner to retaine it How often hath it brought Armies of Angelicall spirits out of the highest Heauens to couer these Hilles with Chariots and Horses of fire round about the holy men of GOD How oft But what speake I of Men or Angels GOD himselfe loued the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of the world and IESVS CHRIST the Angell of the Couenant true GOD and perfect MAM here was borne here liued practised died ascended and hence he sent his Apostles to bee Fathers of men that the sonnes of men might bee made the heires of GOD co-heires with himselfe After the Iewes for reiecting him were reiected out of both the heauenly and earthly Canaan this countrey was inhabited partly by Roman Colonies there planted for securitie of the countrey by the Roman Emperours partly by such Syrians as submitted themselues peaceably to the Roman Empire both that Ethnike before Constantine and after in farre more flourishing estate vnder the Christian Emperours till the daies of vn-christian Phocas This was the murtherer of Mauritius his Lord the vsurper of the Empire the exalter of the Roman See vnto the Ecclesiasticall Supremacie with as good right as himselfe had to the state a monster of mankinde vnder whom the Empire was neere an vtter ouerthrow as by the Hunnes Auares and other Nations in the West so especially by the Persians in the East whose Emperour Chosroes ouerthrew that Armie which had conspired against Mauricius and in the fourth yeere of Phocas ouer-ranne Mesopotamia and Syria in the next yeere after carried much prey and many captiues out of all Syria Palestina and Phoenicia in the seuenth yeere of his raigne possessed Armenia Galatia Paphlagonia and spoiled all as farre as Chalcedon Yet saith Cedrenus Phocas did more harme at home then the enemy in the field At the same time the Iewes made a commotion at Antioch and slew besides many other Citizens Anastasius the Patriarch in despight also putting his priuitiues in his mouth But the Iewes paid much bloud for this butcherie and Phocas also himselfe the chiefe Butcher was most mercilesly butchered presently after by Heraclius his successour They tell of a Reuelation to a certaine Holy man that GOD had made Phocas Emperour because hee could not finde a worse man by whom to punish that people which I mention that the world might see what a good Mid-wife Rome then in trauel had to helpe her babe Antichrist into the world But to returne to the Storie Heraclius could not withstand the Persian insolence but lost in his first yeere Apamea and Edessa and in the next Caesarea from whence they carried many thousands into captiuitie in the fourth Damascus was taken and in the fifth Ierusalem where by reason of the Iewish crueltie who bought all the Christians they could to slaughter them there were slaine ninetie thousand Zacharias the Patriarch together with the holy Crosse and exceeding store of captiues and spoile were carried into captiuitie The next yeere they ouercame Egypt Africa and Ethiopia Chosroes neglects all ouertures of peace made to him by Heraclius except they would deny their crucified God and worship the Sunne He also caused the Christians in his dominion to become Nestorians the cause perhaps why almost all the farre Easterne Christians to this day are or at least are called Nestorians Against him Heraclius continued a six yeeres expedition in which hee ouerranne his countries ouerthrew his Armies sacked his Cities Castles and Palaces and at last assisted his eldest sonne Siroes whom Chosroes sought to dis-herit against him who tooke him and hauing before exposed him to all contumelious insultations and almost starued him in a darke prison and slaine all his other children in his sight with abominable tyrannie shot his tyrannicall father to death So died Chosroes a successour of Sennacherib in the dominion of many the same countries subiection to the like blasphemous impietie and reward by like parricide Heraclius in the ninteenth yeere of his raigne visiteth Ierusalem restoring the captiued crosse and Patriarch by restitution of Siroes He banished thence all the Iewes prohibiting by Edict that none should come neere it by three miles §. II. Of the Saracens and Turkes in Palestina THe Saracens had done good seruice in rhese wars against the Persians which in the time of Heraclius began a new Religion and Empire vnder Mahomet the founder of both the second after whom Omar ouerthrew Theodorus the brother of Heraclius in battell and after him another Theodorus and Boanes his Generals forced the Emperour to abandon Syria carrying the holy crosse from Ierusalem to Constantinople In the 26. of Heraclius hee entred Ierusalem hypocritically and pseudoprophetically clothed in a homely garment of Camels haire and sought out the place of Salomons Temple there to erect another subduing soone after the whole Persian State and a great part of the Roman Anno Dom. 641. did Homar build his Temple at Ierusalem with incredible costs in matter and workmanship enriching the same with many and large possessions and reuenues in the Musaike worke of the inner and outward part thereof expressing in Arabike letters the Author time and charges of the building The forme whereof is thus described by William Archbishop of Tyrus The Church-yard was square about a bow-shot in length and bredth compassed with a high wall hauing on the West square two gates one on the North and another on the East on the South was the Palace On euery of these gates and on the corners were high steeples on which at certaine houres the Priests after the Saracenicall manner called them to prayers In this compasse none were suffered to dwell nor to enter but with bare and washed feet Porters being assigned to that purpose In the midst of this square was another somewhat higher whereto they ascended by staires in two places on the West
raigned and after another of the same name and the Saracens were diuided Tebid Dadac and Zulciminius challenged each to himselfe the Soueraigntie and when all these were ouerthrowne and slaine Asmulinus amongst the Persians raised vp the seruants to murther their masters and with them he ouerthrew Iblinus with one hundred thousand Saracens and after Maruan himselfe with three hundred thousand who fleeing into Egypt was there also vanquished and slaine in a Temple This murther grew through the faction of the Abasian stocke who conspired against him because he had slaine one of their kindred Abulabas the chiefe of this conspiracie succeeded him in the yeere 749. and remoued the Chaliphate to that family from the Maraunians in the yeere of their Hegeira 132. after the Arabian computation as wee follow Scaliger herein and he the Chronicle which Abraham Zacuthi gathered out of the Monuments of the Ismaelites In the former relations we haue principally followed Curio his Saracenicall History though by the way we haue borrowed of others also §. III. Of the Abasian Chalifaes their Citie Bagadet with many Persian Indian and other occurrences vnder them TARIK MIRKOND writes that the family of Abas had still from the first challenge continued their quarrell and that Oelid to satisfie them had caused the sonnes of Abdala one of the Abasians to be proclaimed his successours one of which Safa in this warre against Maruuan forced him to flee to Mesera or Cairo in Aegypt where hee was taken and put to death and with him eightie persons of the family of Ben Humia They did also breake open their Sepulchers and burnt the bones sparing onely one of that liue Hamarben Abdala Azis Safa was sonne of Abdala the sonne of Aly whose father was Abdula the sonne of Abas Hee had for Wazir or Vesir which I mention to shew the antiquitie of this custome in the Saracenicall regiment still obserued by the Turkes and Persians as chiefe Counsellour and swayer of the State Abuzalemah whom for conspiracie hee put to death placing in his roome Kaleb Barmaqui He made his three Vncles chiefe Gouernours of the Prouinces Dauid or Daud of Medina and Mecca Abdula of Syria Aegypt and Africke and Safa hee sent to Korosan the chiefe Citie whereof is called Mechad whereas Ismael Sophi and his successours are interred This Citie is fortified with three hundred Towers each from other a Musket shot distant Thus Mirkond This Safa or as Curio calls him Abulabas being dead Abugephar Elmantzar succeeded Hee imprisoned the twelue sonnes of Hasin the sonne of Ali where they perished He began first to build the Citie of Bagded Mirkond saith that in the 145. yeere of the Heg. hauing finished a warre against some Rebels in Arabia parting from Cufa hee crossed Mesopotamia and comming to the bankes of Tygris the bountie of the soyle and commodious scituation for the visiting of his Prouinces caused him to build this Citie which by reason of many pleasant and delightfull Gardens which are in that Countrey the people called Bagadad of Baga a Persian word which signifies a Garden Hee dyed vpon the way to Mecca A. Heg. 759. or after Zacuth 758. Iohn di Barros ascribeth this Citie to the same Bugiafar also for so hee calleth him but Curio to one Muamat long after Scaliger thinketh this to bee Seleucia a Citie built nigh vnto Babylon by Seleucus neere the meeting and mixing of Euphrates and Tygris of which see our Babylonian Historie in the first booke Mahdi his sonne succeeded A. H. 165. Mirkond calls him Mahadi Bila In his time Akemben Ocem sometime Secretarie to Abusalem Gouernour of Karason slaine by Abuiafar reuolted from his subiection and Religion Hee had but one eye and was of terrible aspect hee not onely sought to bee acknowledged for King but would bee worshipped as a God couering his face with a vaile saying That men were vnworthy to see his face and many Prouinces receiued him for King But Mahadi sending a strong power against him his partakers poysoned him and then gaue out that hee was ascended into Heauen But as many of his kindred and followers as were taken were burned and the Countries subdued A. Heg. 169. To Mahadi succeeded Elida Bila Musa which after fifteene moneths dyed and Arachid Bila Harun his brother succeeded Against him rebelled Rafh Eben Nacer of Samarkand who entituled himselfe King in expedition against whom Arachid dyed A. H. 193. Mahamid Amin was his successour to whom hee gaue all he held in Alep and thence Westward to Mahamun another sonne hee had giuen Persia and Karason to Racem the third Aderbaion and Diarbek This diuision caused another in which the Chalife seeking to dispossesse Mahamun by force was ouerthrowne Bagadet whither hee was pursued taken and himselfe slaine A. 198. Mahamun or Mamon was the next Chalife against whom the Gouernours of Aderbaion and Karason rebelled which hee pacified as he could Hee spent much to haue all the bookes of Phylosophie the Mathematikes and Physike which hee could get to bee translated out of the Greeke He dyed A. H. 210. Abu Ezach Matacon or Mutetzam the fourth sonne of Harun succeeded Hee built Samarrah on Tygris Northwards from Bagdet which soone after was ruined Sistom a Prouince neere the Persian Gulfe rebelled and long warres continued in Persia This Matacon wanne much from the Grecian Emperour Hee dyed after he had raigned eight yeeres leauing behind him eight Sonnes and eight Daughters with eight thousand Slaues Hee had taken eight Cities the chiefe of eight Realmes and put to death the eight Kings thereof Hee left eight millions also of Treasure hauing liued to make vp eight eights fortie and eight yeeres Wacek succeeded in whose time by a three yeeres famine Karason was almost dispeopled Afterwards they returned and warred against the Mayusi Heathenish people in Persia whereof saith Mirkond there are great numbers at this day which worship the fire of whom they made a great massacre Methucal or Almoto Wakel Bila Iafar succeeded A. 222. in whose raigne the descendants of Aly did rise for that he sought all meanes to hinder their pilgrimage to his Sepulchre breaking the bankes of Euphrates with the inundation thereof into the desart stopping their passage Montacer sonne of this Chalife murthered him by his slaues A.H. 234. but dyed himselfe within sixe moneths after Abul Abas Hamed his next heyre after fiue yeeres rule was cast into Prison by his Souldiers and there famished In Persia the Deputies or Gouernours had vnder many Chalifes succeeded by a kinde of inheritance the Chalife confirming the succession to the heyre But in these dayes arose one Acem Ben Zeyd Alauuy that is Sent of God hee entred into Persia and tooke diuers Cities and Prouinces thereof Mostahhin the next Chalife enioyed the seate but sixteen moneths He dyed A.H. 242. Almatez Bila followed the thirtie three in order of their Chalifes He sent Mesa Ben Buka against Acem Ben Zeyd and recouered much from him which he
gaue the gouernment of Korarrazin to Altuntar one of his Captaines In a fourth iourney into India hee ouerthrew Gulkand a Pagan King who seeing himselfe vanquished with the losse of fiftie thousand men fearing a beautifull wife which he had should come into his enemies hands slew her and himselfe also In a fifth expedition hee ouercame Gipal and Iaudebal two Indian Kings and returning to Gaznehen built a stately Temple or Mosque as a Thankesgiuing for his victories and then entering into Persia tooke Rey and Hispahon in Hierak now the seate of Ahas the Persian King from Maiudu Daule whom hee dispossessed of his Kingdome At this time were great quarrels among the Daules in Persia Kermon and Diarbek and Mocheraf preuayling against Sulton called himselfe King of Kings A. H. 411. Gelala another of the Daules was the yeere after made King of Bagadet A. H. 416. Mocharaf dyed at Bagadet and the yeere after the Turkes tooke fired and spoyled Bagadet This made them call Gelala againe to their succours who not long before was defeated at Bagadet and forced to flee to Basora and now entring went to the Chalifes house to kisse his foot A. H. 419. But the Turkes which hee brought with him falling to mutinie for their pay the Chalife was forced to become pay-master Mamud amidst his conquests dyed A. H. 421. and Mahamed his sonne succeeded and the next yeere followed Kader the Chalife which had enioyed without great ioy in it his place fortie one yeeres and Kahem his sonne succeeded Masud the other sonne of Mamud warred vpon his brother whom by treacherie of Issuf and Amir Aly traytors to their Master hee tooke and put out his eyes Hee that loued the treason rewarded the Traytors the one with yrons in a dungeon the other with more open and yet more close ayre in hanging Thus hee ruled Karason Gazneken and Hierak and sent Altuntax Gouernour of Koarrazin against Taquin who held Samarkand and Bokara which warres were bloudie But A. H. 424. his Garrisons in India and the Countrey of Gibal reuolted in recompence of which hee subdued Gerion and Taberstan Togotel or Togozelbek and Iakarbek Salinquis two Turkish Captaines subdued many of his Townes in Karasan and forced Alaon Daule and Abusale out of their Gouernments whereupon Masud returning was by other of his enemies ouerthrowne Herewith enraged hee put many Turkes to death which had fought in this last battell but faintly on his part and making an expedition into India by treacherie was taken of his followers and soone after slaine his blinde brother Mahamed recouering the state but not his eyes and therefore resigning to his sonne Hamed who againe was dispossessed by Moadud the sonne of Mafud But the Turks in Karasan and Maurenahar would not acknowledge him and in the 435. of the Heg. had the victorie against his armie Other Turkes also going out of Turquestan spoyled the Countries of Garmeer and Kandachar This seemes a truer storie of the Turkes beginning of greatnesse in Persia then that which is vsually receiued and is thus by Mirkond a Persian Historian deliuered Moadud hauing relieued Lahor which his Vassals in India rebelling had besieged marched against the Turkes but dyed in the way A. H. 441. At Bagadet matters had continued in confusion They had reuolted from Gelata Daule and proclaimed Abulganiar King but hee refused and the Turkes soone after fired the Towne and spoyled it This continued till A. H. 428. when the cold was so extreame that the riuer Degile or Tygris was frozen twelue dayes together and the Snow lay three spans deepe there A. H 434. Ebrahem Nealy Saliuqui a Turke entred Persia in the Prouince of Hierak and tooke Amedon Tokzelbek before mentioned tooke Rey and spoyled all Persia with a victorious Armie Hee also through the dissentions of the sonnes of Abulganiar after their Fathers death found meanes to encrease himselfe And the Chalife of Damascus forced Kahem the Chalife of Bagadet to flee to Tokzelbek for succour whereupon hee entred Bagadet and put all to fire and sword rifling the very Sepulchers to search for Treasures He tooke Malek Rhaym the successour of Abulganiar whom before hee had helped to winne Scyras and the best part of Persia and imprisoned him where hee dyed And thus the Empire of the Daules being deadly sicke soone after dyed Abd Rachid also the successour of Maodud was so pursued by Tokzelbek that at last in a Fort he was through the corruption of his Guard by money taken and murthered Then did hee marrying a sister of the deceased proclaime himselfe King But not long after being in a publike place to receiue the salutations which they are accustomed to make in those parts ten of the chiefe men conspiring together slew him Kahem or Alkahem dyed A. H. 467. and Almoktady Byla was Chalife the fortie eight in order In his time the Turkes and Ferrogozad the other sonne of Masud came to composition Almostazer Byla succeeded his Father in the Caliphate A. H. 487. in whose time Bagadet hauing beene ruined by the ouerflowing of Tygris the situation was changed and it was new built on the other side of the riuer towards the East where it now stands in a more commodious seat hauing had twentie fiue Chalifes since the foundation by Abuiafar and yet not one of them dyed in it Hee liued in peace and dyed A. H. 512. This storie is thus told by Zacuth In his time the Astrologers fore-told an exceeding deluge not so great as in the dayes of Noah because then said they were seuen Planets in coniunction with Pisces whereas now there were but sixe Saturne being excluded This made the Inhabitants of Bagded afraid because of the low situation and caused them to stop the passages of the waters The Ismaelites which of deuotion performed their Pilgrimage were most of them drowned The Calipha for this cause arayed the Astrologer which fore-told this in royall apparell Almostarched Byla Fazele his sonne succeeded hee warred against some Princes of Persia and seized vpon some Prouinces of Masul Saliuqui King of Karason but Masud had the better and slew the Chalife A.H. 529. His sonne and successour Rached Bila sought to reuenge his death but hauing conquered a great part of Persia was slaine also by Masud A. 532. He following his victories made himselfe Master of Bagadet and placed Almoktafy Bila in the Califate who taking aduantage of Masuds death which hapned soone after marched into Persia and recouered that which Masud had vsurped which he enioyed peaceably and dyed A. H. 555. And now the Chalifes became great Potentates againe His sonne Almostanget Byla Issuf succeeded the fiftie three Chalife After his death which was through heate by shutting the doore when he was in the Bath succeeded A. 566. Almostanzy Benur Elah Acen and hee dying A. 577. Nacer held the place fortie seuen yeeres vnder whom Bagadet did greatly flourish During his gouernment the Saliuquis were vanquished by the Koarrasmians Altahar Byla Mahamed
insert out of this Iew because I know none other Author that can acquaint vs with the State of Bagded in the time of her chiefe flourishing before it was destroyed by the Tartars Thus haue wee giuen you a Chronographicall view of the ancient Chaliphaes with their first and greatest Conquests omitting the lesser and later as in the yeere 807. in Sardinia and Corsica in 826. in Creete 843. in Sicil and presently after in Italy ouer-running Tuscan and burning the Suburbes of Rome it selfe with the Churches of Peter and Paul 845. the next yeere in Illyria Dalmatia besides the taking of Ancona in 847. chased by Pope Leo from Ostia These with other their affaires of warre in Lucania Calabria Apulia at Beneuentum Genua Capua which Cities they tooke I passe ouer After this great bodie grew lubberly and vnweldie it fell vnder the weight of it selfe none so much as the Saracens ouerthrowing the Saracens as their Sects and Diuisions make plaine Neuerthelesse this dis-ioyning and disioynting notwithstanding their Religion euen still couereth a great part of the world For besides the triumphing sword of the Turke Persian Mogore Barbarian and other Mahumetan Princes such is the zeale of the superstitious Mahumetan that in places furthest distant this their Religion hath beene preached which they trade together with their Marchandize euen from the Atlantike Ocean vnto the Philippinaes It hath sounded in China it hath pierced Tartaria and although the name of Christian extendeth it selfe into so many Sects and Professions in the Countries of Asia Afrike and America besides Europe almost wholly Christians yet it is hard to say whether there bee not as many Disciples and Professors of this ridiculous and impious deuotion as of all those which giue their names to Christ in whatsoeuer Truth or Heresie Master Brerewood accounteth the Mahumetans more then the Christians in proportion of sixe to fiue Thus hath the Field and the Church stooped to Mahomet wee may adde more Saul among the Prophets learning hath flourished among the Mahumetans at first vnlearned and rude but enemies to learning in others Yea they sought to propagate their impious Mahometrie and extirpate the Christian truth by that pollicie of Iulian prohibiting all learning to their Christian subiects Such a decree of Abdalla A. 766. is recited by Theophanes When the Kings of Africa possessed Spaine they founded Vniuersities both at Marocco it is Scaligers report and in Spaine allowing yeerely stipends to the Professors And in those times was great ignorance of good learning in the Latine Church when good Disciplines flourished exceedingly amongst the Muhammedans Yea whatsoeuer the Latines writ after the industrie of the Arabians had acquainted them with their ignorance is wholly to be ascribed to the Arabians both their Philosophie Physicke and Mathematikes For they had no Greeke Author which was not first translated into Arabike and thence into Latine as Ptolomey Euclide and the rest till Constantinople being taken by the Turkes the Greeke Exiles brought vs backe to the Fountaines Iohn Leo testifies that many ancient Authors and great volumes are amongst them translated out of the Latine which the Latines themselues haue lost But now the Muhammedans are growne artlesse in Africa only in Constantinople may good Arabike Persian works be gotten by the helpe of the Iewes Lud. Viues saith That they translated Arabike out of the Latine but he was not so well able to iudge therof although he rightly ascribeth the corrupting of Arts to vnskilful translations and sheweth the difference of Abenrois or Auerrois his Aristotle as the Latins haue him from the Greeke But his inuectiue is too bitter in condemning all the Arabians as vnlearned doting and sauouring more of the Alcoran then of Art and the Spaniard might beare some grudge to that Nation which so many hundred yeeres had spoyled Spaine still leauing the fourth part of the Spanish Language as Scaliger testifieth thereof Arabike in monument of their Conquest Of their learned men were Auicen Auerrois Auempace Algazel c. Philosophers Mesue Rasis and many other Physicians and Astrologers mentioned in the Chronicles of Zacuthi Leo and Abilfada Ismael Geographers Cairaon Bagded Fez Marocco Corduba c. were Vniuersities of Saracen students But now Learning and Schooles are decayed and ruined euen as at first also it was amongst some of them little countenanced as appeareth by that Hagag in the 96. yeere of the Hegira who being Gouernor or King of Irak in his sicknesse consulted with an Astrologer Whether the Stars had told him of any Kings death that yeere he answered That a King should die but his name was Cani Whereupon Hagag remembring that at his birth his mother had imposed that name on him I shall die saith he but thou shalt go one houre before and presently caused his head to be smitten off An vnhappie Harbengership in regard of his Art an vnhappie Art which can better tell others Destinies then their owne But no maruell in Hagag who was fleshed in bloud that his Herodian Testament should bee thus bloudie who in his life had in that Median Prouince slaine an hundred and twentie thousand men besides fiftie thousand men and fourescore thousand women which perished in his imprisonments Baghdad which is also called Dar-assalam that is The Citie of Peace receiued that name of a Monke called Bachdad who as Ben-Casen writeth serued a Church builded in that Medow But Abu-Giapar Almansur the second Abassaean Chalipha who wanne it A. Heg. 150. named it Dar-assalam It is the Citie Royall of Mesopotamia now called Diarbecr which the said Almansur placed in a large Plaine vpon Tigris and diuided by the Riuer into two Cities ioyned by a Bridge of Boats This Citie built in this place Almansur ruled many yeeres and after him other Chaliphaes till the 339. yeere of the Hegira in which King Aadhd-eddaule and Saif-eddaule tooke it who with their Successours enioyed it till Solymus the Ottoman Emperour subdued and is now ruled by a Bascia with many Ianizaries But hereof Ahmad Abi Bacr of Bachdad in his Annals will shew you more This Citie is famous for Schooles of all Sciences both in former and the present time Here Ahmad Assalami a famous Poet wrote his Verses Here Alpharabius the renowned Philosopher and Physician borne at Farab in Turcomannia professed these studies publikely with great applause and leauing many of his Schollers in this Cities went to Harran of Mesopotamia where finding Aristotles Booke De Auditu hee read it fortie times and wrote vpon the Booke that he was willing againe to reade it Hence hee went to Damascus and there dyed A. H. 339. Thus Ben-Casem in his Booke De viridario Electorum Bochara is an ancient Citie vpon Euphrates in a Village belonging whereto Honain Ali Bensina whom the Latines call Auicenna was borne A. H. 370. Hee gaue himselfe to Physicke very young and was the first which became Physician to
seuen gates thereof c. where as in the place fittest for him wee will leaue him The booke of the vertues of Mahomet saith That in glorying of his strength hee would boast that hee had knowne his eleuen wiues successiuely in one houre One of their Chronicles telleth of his Martiall affaires This Chronicle reckoneth from Adam to Noe one thousand two hundred fortie and two yeeres From thence to Abraham one thousand and fourescore Hence to Moses fiue hundred and fifteene After him to Dauid fiue hundred threescore and nine and from this time to Christ one thousand three hundred and fiftie from whence to Mahomet is numbred six hundred and twentie in all fiue thousand three hundred threescore and sixteene from Adam to Mahomet All the Prophets were in number an hundred and twentie thousand and the Messengers of GOD three hundred and fifteene whereof Adam Seth Esdrik Noe Abraham were Hebrewes Huth Schale Ishmael Schaib Mahomet were Arabians If this Historie of Mahomets life be long and tedious I thought good out of an Arabian Chronicle to adde this Epitome thereof His Mother dyed in a iourney to Mecca when he was fourescore yeeres old and his Nurse restored him to his Grand-father Abdalmutalif with whom hee liued eight yeeres The Seraphim preserued him but was neuer seene After that Gabriel was his Guardian of whom hee receiued the Law which he kept close three yeeres communicating it onely to some of his owne opinion by whose helpe hee became Priest and Prince of the Arabians and Saracens and about eighteene moneths after was carried into Heauen and being returned into the Earth he tooke Eubocara Ali and Zaid to be his companions in this enterprise He went to Zaif or Atharf and preached publikely and thence to Mecca ten yeeres going from place to place And of his Conuerts he chose some for guard of his Person who sware the obseruance of his Law to the number of fortie who now with Word now with the Sword set forward this Doctrine After ten yeeres Mecca was peopled onely with beleeuers and all Arabia was conuerted without difficultie Then hee sent to the neighbouring Kings to become of his Religion to the King of Persia to the Roman Emperour to King Cinna to the Lord of the two Seas to the King of Aethiopia c. After he returned to Ietrib and on Tuesday the twelfth of Rab in the eleuenth yeere dyed His Sepulture was appointed by GOD in the house of Aisca his Wife in the chamber where hee was wont to sleepe where at this day is a Temple of bricke His bodie was wrapped in three white clothes without any pompe His seale was a siluer Ring with this inscription Mahomet the Messenger of God He went twise on Pilgrimage and nineteene times conducted an Armie The place of his buriall is at Medina surnamed of him Talnabi that is of the Prophet not as some write at Mecca Neither doth his corps hang in the ayre by force of Load-stones drawing vp his yron Coffin or Chest but lieth buried in the ground if any where as Ludouicus Verttomannus by his owne view hath obserued Of this place and of Mecha we shall speake more in relating the Rites of the Pilgrims that visit them Some relate otherwise of the death of Mahomet as that hee dyed at fortie yeeres of age being poysoned by one of his disciples called Albunor to make triall of his boasting Prophesie that he would rise againe within three daies after his death This Albunor after comming to see him found his bodie torne in pieces and deuoured of dogs whereupon gathering together the bones that remained into a Coffin hee caused them to bee buried Which in my minde is not so probable as the former report The day of his death Scaliger accounteth the tenth yeere of the Hogira on Munday the twelfth of Rabie 1. or rather the euening before that is the sixteenth of Iune in the yeere of our Lord 631. and was borne the fifth of May An. Dom. 570. on the same day and moneth sixtie three Arabike yeeres before Vnto this which hath been spoken I haue thought good to adde out of Arabike Authors collected by Gabriel and Iohn the Maronites this which followeth Mahomed was borne at Mecca and in the fortieth yeere of his age and as Ben-Casem hath in the 933. of Alexander the Great began to vtter his doctrine first priuily after that publikely whereupon hee was banished the Citie in the fiftie two of his life or according to Abdillatif Ben-Iusof the fiftie three and fled to Iathreb from which flight which they call Hegeraton or Hegera which hapned A. B. 622. or thereabouts And although this yeere 1623. bee to them 1032. Yet because they reckon according to the yeeres of the Moone which they say consist of three hundred fiftie foure dayes the Moones course hath in this space exceeded that of the Sunne some moneths aboue thirtie one yeeres Whereupon their moneths are vncertaine In this Citie by subtile hypocrisies Mahomed became Politicall and Ecclesiasticall Prince and beganne to procure the friendship of many and to promulgate his lawes by degrees In the second yeere of his flight he enacted his lawes of Fasting in the third forbade wine and swines-flesh and so proceeded with the rest that within eight yeeres hee brought into subiection Mecca whence he had beene expulsed and Muna and went forward with his law and conquest As concerning his wiues Ben-Casem saith he had foure hee is also reported to haue many harlots and concubines and in this Chapiter Surato-lbaqra or de vacea hee bids them marrie one two three or foure wiues a man and to take as many concubines as they are able to keepe Ben-Sidi Ali saith That he gloried that he had the power of ten Prophets in copulation giuen him by God yea he ascribed all his villanies to God by ministerie of the Angell Gabriel His first wife was named Chodaige by whom he had two sonnes and foure daughters Zainab Fatema whom Ali married Om Kalihum the third and Rakia the fourth both which Abu-beer married His second wife was Aifee daughter of Aba-Becr the first Chalifa which was but six yeeres old Ben-Casem is our Author when Mohamed tooke her to wife the Moslemans call her The Mother of the faithfull who besides the knowledge of tongues perused diligently the Arabike histories loued exceedingly and alway praised Mohamed The third was named Mary which brought forth to Mohamed Ebrahim sirnamed Casem whence Mohamed is often called Abulcasem though Ben-Abdilatif will haue Ebrahim to be one and Casem another but Ben-Casem saith he had but three sons of which Ebrahim Casem dyed at eighteene moneths and Taiheb and Taher his sonnes by Codaigre dyed both in their cradles Mohameds last wife was Zainab whom also they call the Mother of the faithfull before the wife of Zaid Ben-Harteh Mohameds Master who diuorced her whereupon Mohamed gladly tooke her to wife He had foure Councellors or
Companions the first Abdollah or Abu-Bacr his sincerest and most inward friend a man very rich and releeuer of Mohameds necessities his successour after his death He dyed the thirteenth yeere of the Hegira and sixtie three of his age and was buried in the same graue with Mohamed The second was Homar the sonne of Chattab surnamed Faruq who succeeded Abi-Bacr and ruled ten yeeres and six moneths Hee was the first which was called King of the faithfull and writ the Annalls of the Moslemans and brought the Alcoran into a Volume and caused the Ramadam Fast to be obserued He was slaine the twentie three of the Hegira and buried by Abi-Bacr The third was Othman who in his twelue yeeres raigne subdued Cyprus Naisabur Maru Sarchas and Maritania and dyed A. H. 35. and was buried in the buriall place of the Citie Aali is the fourth who is called also Emir Elmumenin that is King of the faithfull Hee was slaine A. H. 40. in the sixtie three of his age and was buried in the Citie Kerbelai Hee was Vncles sonne or Cosin-German to Mohamed and his sonne-in-law and deare familiar from his youth and receiued the Mosleman law together with Mohamed whereupon hee was wont to say I am the first Mosleman And therefore the Persians detest the other three Chalifas as heretikes burne their writings wheresoeuer they finde them and persecute their followers because forsooth they were so impudent to prefer themselues before Aali and spoiled him of the right-due by Testament Hence are wars hostile cruelties betwxit them the Turks and Arabs Mohamed the false prophet in the eleuenth yeere after his Hegira or flight and the sixtie three of his age dyed at Medina and was buried there in the graue of Aaisee his wife Here is a stately Temple and huge erected with elegant and munificent structure daily increased and adorned by the costs of the Othomans and gifts of other Princes Within this building is a Chappell not perfectly square couered with a goodly roofe vnder which is the Vrne of stone called Hagiar Monaüar sometimes belonging to Aaisce aforesaid This is all couered with gold and silke and compassed about with yron grates guilded Within this which shineth with gold and gems Mohameds carcasse c833208arcasse was placed and not lifted vp by force of Load-stone or other Art but that stone-Vrne lieth on the ground The Mosleman Pilgrims after their returne from Mecca visit this Temple because Mohamed yet liuing was wont to say That hee would for him which should visit his Tombe as well as if he had visited him liuing intercede with God for a life full of pleasures Therefore do they throng hither with great veneration kisse and embrace the grates for none haue accesse to the Vrne of stone and many for loue of this place leaue their Countrey yea some madly put out their eyes to see no worldly thing after and there spend the rest of their dayes The compasse of Medina is two miles and is the circuit of the wall which Aadhd Addaule King of Baghdad built A. H. 364. The territorie is barren scorched Sands bringing forth nothing but a few Dates and Herbes CHAP. IIII. Of the Alcoran or Alfurcan containing the Mahumetan Law the summe and contents thereof §. I. Of the Composition of the Alcoran THe Booke of Mahomets Law is called by the name of ALCORAN which signifieth a collection of Precepts and Alfurcan as it is expressed and expounded in a Booke called The Exposition or Doctrine of the Alcoran because the sentences and figures thereof are seuered and distinguished for Al is the Article and phurcan signifieth a distinction or as some say Redemption Claude Duret citeth an opinion that of the Hebrew word Kara which signifieth the Law or Scripture commeth this word Koran which with the Article Al signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture as with them it is esteemed The like hath Soranzo Master Bedwel in his Arabian Trudg-man saith that the Thema is not KARANA coniunxit colligit as before is deliuered but KARA which signifies to read so that Alkoran in Arabike is iust as much as Hammikra is in Hebrew that is the Text Corpus iuris the authenticall bodie of their Law It is called in that language the Koran without the Article Al and Korran so Cantacuzenus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if one should say their Bible Scripture or Booke of the Law The Word of GOD saith Mahomet in that Booke came not to mee all at once as the Law vnto Moses the Psalmes to Dauid and the Gospell to Christ The Sentences or Chapters thereof are called Azoaras which is interpreted a Face as wee call them Capita Heads So saith one which hath written Notes vpon the Alcoran but Master Bedwel who hath published an Index or Table of all these Azoara's or Chapiters with their Arabike Titles as they are named and cited by the Mahumetans saith That they call the name of the Chapiter Sura and with their Article Assura or Suraton Assurato And hee deriues of the Hebrew word Zobar that Azoara but this Arabike Sura is expressed not by Zain He but by Sin Wau and Resh differing letters being no other then the Syrian Suriya which signifieth principium initium For as the Bookes of Moses in the Hebrew and the Sections of the Ciuill and Canon Law so these Chapiters for the most part are denominated of some notable word in the beginning of the same and are so cited by Mahumetans and learned Christians Yet these sometime name it by the interpretation as the chap. Albacara the chap. of the Cow because the word so signifies The stile is not in Meter as some haue imagined for Iosephus Scaliger a great Criticke and reputed one of the greatest Linguists in the world affirmeth That that Language is not capable of metricall measures by quantities of Syllables as neither the Hebrew Abyssine or Syrian Hee saith yet That the Alcoran is composed in Rime but such as is not in any tunable proportion but that word which maketh vp the Rime being sometimes neerer and sometimes farre beyond all harmony distant from that word whereto it answereth A hobbling kinde of Rime saith Master Bedwel in his Index Alcorani and rude Poeme without all care for it is Postellus his testimony you shall haue a period of two hundred Syllables to rime and hold like cadence to as other very short Scaliger addes that at the end of such Rimes are set the figures of Flowers or some such matter which if it be so the Turkish nicetie of making no likenesse of any thing in their Carpets or other workes is stricter then these Alcoran bookes themselues and indeed is not common with them vnto other Mahumetans who vse their libertie in this point For the words and phrase no man euer writ any thing in Arabian more rudely saith an Arabian Christian in confutation hereof and much better might Muzeilenia Helcasi and Alabazbi
policie after but this many-headed serpent which could not in the shel be killed much lesse in his riper growth could be reformed Those foure Doctors aforesaid emulous of each other intending their owne priuate ends sowed the seeds then which fructifie in their venemous multiplication till this day Hali or Halli was Author of the Sect Imemia which was embraced of the Persians Indians and of many Arabians and the Gelbines of Africa Ozimen or Odmen began the Sect Baanesia or Xefaia and hath in diuers Countries his followers Homar founded the Anesia followed of the Turkes Syrians and in Zahara in Afrike Ebocar otherwise called Ebuber or Abubequer taught the Sect Melchia generally possessing Arabia and Africa These are holden as Saints in the Saracene Kalender as Scaliger testifieth who had one in Semiarabike and Persian wherein ouer against the 27. of December was written the death of Phetima she was the daughter of Muhamed God haue mercy on her Against the 10. of Ianuary the death of Abu-Boker God haue mercy on him and so of the rest Against the 16. of Nouember the beginning of the fast Caphar so they call the Christians on the 25. of December the birth of Iesus On the 17. of Ianuary the birth of Moses Which I mention to shew what honor they ascribe to them or rather that dishonor which in this cōfusion of light with darknes the Prince of darknes in the form of an Angel of light doth vnto them Frō these 4. in proces of time arose other 68. Sects of name besides other pedling factions of smaller reckoning Amongst the rest the Morabites haue bin famous liuing for the most part as Heremites and professing a morall Philosophie with principles different from the Alcoran One of these not many yeers since shewing the name of Mahomet in his brest there imprinted with Aqua fortis or some such like matter raised by a great number of Arabians in Afrike laid siege to Tripolis where being betraied by one of his Captaines his skin was sent for a present to the grand Signior These Morobites affirm that when Hali fought he killed a 100000. Christiās with one stroke of his sword which was a 100. cubits in length The Cobtini are a sect ridiculous One of them shewed himselfe riding in the Country of Algier on a Reed reyned and bridled as a horse much honoured for that on this Horse this Asse had as he said rid an 100. leagues in one night R. Moses Aegyptius writeth of two Sects of Moores the one called Seperatists the other Intelligents or Vnderstanders both followed in their opinions by many Iewes These later were of opinion that nothing in the world commeth to passe by chance or accident neither in generall nor particular but all are disposed by the will and intent of God as well the fall of a leafe as the death of a man The Seperatists in a contrary extreme allow to man and beast a freedome and that God rewardeth all creatures according to their merits or demerits his prouidence extending it selfe to the fall of the leaues to the way of the Ants if one be borne defectiue it is better for him then if he had bin perfect and so if any aduersitie befall him for his reward shal be the greater in the world to com yea the beast which is slaughtered the Ants Flea or Louse shall not lose his reward from the Creator the Mouse also which hath not sinned is killed of the Cat shall there be recompenced Now beasts pray for their soules and Fleas and Lice prey vpon their bodies which hatched this beastly lousie Diuinitie The Intelligent beleeueth that it is conuenient that men be punished in this life and for euer in hell because the Creator would the Seperatist thinketh that vniust and that whatsoeuer is punished in this life shall be rewarded in the next because such is the Creators wisdome Neither may we beleeue the Rabbine who reciting 5. differing opinions concerning the prouidence of God first of the Epicures which exclude it wholly secondly of Aristotle that it descended not beneath the Moon thirdly of the Intelligents fourthly of the Seperatists fiftly his own which he attributeth to the law of Moses that euery man hath free-wil and all good befals him in reward al euil for punishmēt what measure any man meteth shal be measured to him again but for other creatures beasts plants and their operations as of a spider catching a fly the like he attributeth with Aristotle vnto chance not to diuine prouidence which he appropriateth in things below vnto man These opinions he ascribeth that of Aristotle to Iob that of the Seperatists to Bildad that of Sophar to the Intelligents that of Eliphaz is the same with his own then let him with Eliphaz sacrifice to exipiate it I. Leo. l. 3. writeth that one Elefacin had written at large of the Mahumetan sects of which he reckoneth 72. principall which agreeth with our former number euery one accounting his owne to be good and true in which a man may attaine saluation And yet Leo there addeth that in this age there are not found aboue two One is that of Leshari which in all Turkie Arabia and Africa is embraced the other Imamia currant in Persia and Corosan of which in his proper place more So that by Leo's iudgement all which follow the rule Leshari or Hashari are Catholike Mahumetans although of these the same Author affirmes that in Cairo and all Egypt are foure Religions different from each other in Spirituall or Ecclesiastical Ceremonies and also concerning their Ciuill and Canon Law all founded on the Mahumetan Scripture in times past by foure learned men diuersly construing the generall rules to such particulars as seemed to them fitter for their followers who disagreeing in opinion agree in affection and conuerse together without hatred or vpbraiding each other As for those other Sects it seemeth that they are for the most part long since vanished and those differences which remaine consist rather in diuersitie of rule and order of profession then in differing Sects and Heresies of Religion except in some few which yet remaine of which Leo thus reporteth Fourescore yeeres after Mahumet one Elhesenibu Ahilhasen gaue certaine rules to his Disciples contrarie to the Alcoran principles but writ nothing About a hundred yeeres after Elharit Ibnu Esed of Bagaded writ a booke vnto his Disciples condemned by the Calipha and Canonists But about fourescore yeeres after that another great Clerke reuiued the same doctrine and had many followers yet hee and they were therefore condemned to death But obtaining to haue triall of his opinions by disputation he ouerthrew his Aduersaries the Mahometane Lawyers and the Califa fauoured the said Sect and erected Monasteries for them Their Sect continued till Malicsah of the Nation of the Turkes persecuted the same But twenty yeeres after it was againe renewed and one Elgazzuli a learned man
after held cruell fight with twelue great Gallies full of Ianizaries and choice men whom he ouerthrew and tooke But the Ianizaries that were left cast their Scimaters ouer-boord least such choice weapons should come to the Christians hands Solyman conuerting his forces against the Venetians for the indignities mentioned had almost fallen into the hands of the Mountaine-Theeues which liued in the Acroceranian Hills who in a strange resolution had conspired to kill him in his Tent and had almost to the wonder of the world in a night by vnknowne wayes suddenly effected it had not the cracking of a bough discouered their Captaine who in a tree was taking view of the Campe how to bring to passe his desperate designes This their Captaine by name Damianus was after confession hereof torne in pieces and those wilde Mountainers liuing on robberie without Law or Religion were like wilde beasts hunted to destruction The Turkes inuaded Corfu whence they carried sixteene thousand of the Islanders captiues They likewise in their returne committed great spoyle in Zante and Cythera sacked Aegina Paros and other Ilands in the Archipelago bringing Naxos vnder tribute Barbarussa sacked Botrotus a Venetian Citie The like did Vstrif to Obroatium and the Castle of Nadin Nauplium also and Epidaurus were besieged But Ferdinand who had entituled himselfe King of Hungarie after Lewis his death receiued a greater disgrace in Hungarie by the Turkish forces then befell the Venetians in all their losses Cazzianer the Generall of the Christians shamefully flying and betraying his associates to the Turkish crueltie The next yeere 1538. Barbarussa chaseth the Christian Fleet in which the Emperours Venetians and the Popes forces were ioyned In the yeere 1541. Solyman againe inuadeth Hungarie professing himselfe Protector of the young King which Iohn late King of Hungarie who had held long warres with Ferdinand about that Title had left behinde him his heire and successor But vnder colour of protection hee maketh himselfe Lord of Buda the chiefe Citie turning the Cathedrall Church into a Meschit and maketh Hungarie a Turkish Prouince bestowing Transyluania and what he pleased on the Orphan Two yeeres after he reentereth Hungarie and taketh Strigonium turning the Christian Temples into Mahumetan sacrificing there for his victorie as he had done at Buda Hee entred also into Alba Regalis where the Hungarian Kings lye entombed another chiefe Citie of that Kingdome and slew the Magistrates I speake not all this while of the spacious Countries in Africa which from the Riuer Muluia hee added to his Dominions the Kingdomes of Algier Tremisen Tunes Tripoly c. being annexed to his Turkish Soueraigntie Howbeit Tunes by ayde of Charles the Emperour somewhat recouered her selfe but breathed out againe her last gaspe of libertie in the daies of Selym his sonne And thus was Solyman victorious and happy otherwhere victorious and vnhappy when he was forced to darreine battell against his owne bowels and hauing murthered Mustapha his eldest sonne the hopefullest branch in Turkish estimation that euer grew out of the Ottoman stocke hee warred against Baiazet another of his sonnes whom with foure of his children he procured to be done to death in Persia And after much domesticall trouble in his seuenth Expedition into Hungarie his Fleet in the siege of Malta being before with great disgrace repulsed he dyed at the siege of Zigeth the fourth of September 1566. §. II. Of SELIM the second and AMVRATH the third SELYM the onely sonne which the bloudie father had left aliue succeeded in the Throne not in the prowesse and valour of his father Neither hath any Turkish Sultan since his dayes led their forces in person but committed it to their Deputies and Generals except once when Mahomet the third had almost lost his Armie and himselfe Yet did this Selym by his Bassaes make him Lord of Cyprus and also of the Kingdome of Tunis But this sweet meate was sourely sauced by his exceeding losse in the Sea-fight betwixt Hali Bassa Admirall of the Turkes and Don Iohn of Austria Generall of the Fleet set forth by the Pope Spaniard and Venetian 1571. wherein an hundred threescore and one Gallies were taken fortie sunke or burnt and of Galliots and other small vessels were taken about threescore The Turkish Admirall was then slaine Wittily did a Turke descant vpon this losse of the Turkes and their gaine of Cyprus comparing this to the shauing of a mans beard which would grow againe that to the losse of an arme which once cut off cannot bee renued Lastly Tunes came in and Selym went out of this Turkish Soueraigntie both in manner together 1574. Amurath his heire began his Empire with the slaughter of his fiue brethren The mother of Solyman one of that number slew herselfe with a dagger for anguish of that losse He in viewing a new Gally by the breach of a Peece hardly escaped death thirtie of his company being slaine And because the Plague was exceeding hot hee by deuotion sought to appease diuine anger and therefore prohibited all vse of Sodomie Blasphemie and Polygamie and himselfe put out fiue hundred women out of his Seraile In a priuate habite hee visited the Markets and hanged vp the hoorders of corne He by the Tartars inuaded Polonia and Henry of France secretly leauing that Kingdome of Polonia hee wrote vnto him to chuse Stephen Battor for their King in which letters he called himselfe God of the Earth Gouernour of the whole World Messenger of God and faithfull seruant of the great Prophet which wrought so much with the Nobilitie that either they would not or durst not doe otherwise howsoeuer Maximilian had beene before by many of them chosen Tamas the Persian at the same time dying bequeathed his Crowne to Ismael his sonne whom Aidere his brother seeketh to depriue but is therefore himselfe depriued of that ambitious head which he sought to adorne with the Crowne and Ismael adding the slaughter of eight his younger brethren ascendeth the Throne which together with his life hee lost by vnnaturall trecherie of Periaconcona his sister the foure and twentieth of Nouember 1577. Mahomet his brother succeeded in this troublesome State which Amurath the Turke in these troubled waters thought fit time for himselfe to fish for Hereunto also helped the hatred and ciuill broyles in Persia for the head of Periaconcona presented to Mahomet with the haire disheuelled on a Launce and for other vncouth and bloudie spectacles Sahamal and Leuent Ogli two Georgian Lords seeking also innouations Amurath therefore in the yeere 1578. sent Mustapha Bassa which had lately conquered Cyprus with an Army of an hundred and tenne thousand into Persia who in the first battell he had with them slew fiue thousand and tooke three thousand Persians and to strike that Nation with terrour commanded a bulwarke to be framed of those heads but by an exceeding tempest which lasted foure dayes together whereby the Heauens seemed to melt themselues in teares for
the Persians losse and with lightnings to shew that indignation against the Turkes which in their thundering Dialect they aloud vttered there grew such horror to their mindes from aboue and such sicknesse to their bodies from those putrified carkasses beneath that Mustapha was forced to remoue missing forty thousand of his first Musters After hee had fortified the Armenian Castle of Teflis his Armie being driuen to shifts for lacke of victuals ten thousand of his forragers were slaine by the Persians who were recompenced with like slaughter by Mustapha that came vpon them whiles they were busie about the spoyle and spoyled the spoylers In passing ouer the Riuer Canac he lost fourescore thousand Turkes which the Riuer seemed to take for Custome as it had many of the Persians in the late conflict whereof his violent current was a greedy and cruell exactor Mustapha erected a Fortresse in Ere 's and tooke Sumachia chiefe Citie of Siruan Derbent offering her selfe to the Turke and then returning into Natolia But Emir Hamse Mirise the Persian Prince recouered after his departure both Ere 's and Sumachia slew and captiued the Tartars thirtie thousand of whom were newly come to the Turkes ayde He rased Sumachia euen with the ground The next yeere Mustapha fortified Chars in three and twentie dayes wherein they were hindered with Snowes on the fiue and twentieth of August although it standeth in fortie foure Degrees Anno 1580. Sinan Bassa was chosen Generall for the Persian Warre who as hee departed from Teflis lost seuen thousand of his people besides such as the Georgians and Persians together with the spoyle carried away This was earnest the rest was but sportfull shewes of warre in trayning his Souldiers after which he returned In 1583. Ferat Bassa was sent Generall but little was done till Osman Bassa a new Generall 1585. tooke Tauris the ancient Ecbatana as Minadoi is of opinion But the Persian Prince carried with indignation reuenged this losse on the Turkes with his owne hands slaying Caraemit Bassa Generall in the place of Osman then sicke and gaue his head as opima spolia to one of his followers and afterwards at Sancazan slew twentie thousand Turks Osman dyed of sicknesse and the Persian Prince the Morning-starre of that Easterne State was soone after murthered In that dismall yeere 1588. Ferat tooke Genge fifteene thousand houses seuen Temples and fiue and twentie great Innes were burned in Constantinople the tumultuous Ianizaries not suffering the fire to be quenched An Impost was leuied of the subiects to satisfie the pay due to the Souldiers for the Persian warre which raised these stirres Yea the Priests disswaded the people from those new payments and perswaded them to maintaine their ancient Liberties shut vp their Meschits intermitted their Orisons and the great Turke was forced to call in his Mandates and deliuer the Authors of that counsell wherof the Beglerbeg of Grecia was one to the Ianizaries furie who made Tennis-balls of their heads In the 1592. Wihitz chiefe Citie of Croatia was yeelded to the Turke The next yeere Siseg was besieged but relieued by the Christians who slew eighteene thousand Turkes and tooke their Tents yet was it soone after taken by the renewed forces of the Turkes Sinan tooke Vesprinium in Hungarie and Palotta but their losse was farre greater then their gaines which continuing and a broyle of the Ianizaries added thereto brought Amurath into malancholy and sicknesse whereof he dyed the eighteenth of Ianuarie 1595. Transyluania Valachia and Moldauia hauing before reuolted from him to Sigismund who was entitled their Prince This Amurath in a letter to Queene Elizabeth entituleth himselfe By the Mercie of God free from all sinne with all height of Grace made possessor of great blessednesse aboue the 72. Lawes of the world §. III. Of MAHOMET the Third MAHOMET his sonne succeeded who inuiting his nineteene brethren to a Feast sent them to learne his fathers death in the other world accompanied thither with ten of Amuraths women from whom issue was feared which with drowning them he preuented Much adoe he had with his Ianizaries at home much losse in his Dominions abroad for which cause he sent for Ferat Bassa out of Hungarie and strangled him and sent Sinan his emulous corriuall in his roome whom the Transyluanian Prince ouerthrew in battell and after chased him ouer a Bridge which he made a mile in length for his Armie to passe ouer Danubius with great losse of his people His Bridge the fire and water diuided betwixt them and the conceit of this ill successe as was thought procured his death soone after In the yeere 1597. Mahomet in his owne person enterprised these warres and not farre from Agria on the sixteenth of October fought a cruell battell with the Christians wherein had not Couetousnesse rightly called the root of all euill hindered had beene atchieued the most glorious victorie against those Barbarians that euer Christendome was blessed with Mahomet himselfe for feare seeing his Ordnance an hundred fourescore and tenne great Peeces taken and his men slaine in multitudes fled with Ibrahim Bassa towards Agria shedding teares by the way which he wiped off his bloudie face with a piece of greene silke supposed to be a piece of Mahomets garment carried with him as a holy Relique But whiles the Christians were now halfe Conquerours by greedie turning to the spoile their victorie was wholly lost and twentie thousand of them slaine who had slaine threescore thousand Turkes Mr. Barton the English Embassador was present in the fight and Mr. Thomas Glouer also who in a large iournall of this Expedition testifieth that the great Turk was in great feare but being animated by some about him he tooke his bow and arrowes and slew three Christians therewith Those former reports hee mentioneth not Not long after the Bassa of Buda was taken and the Bassa of Bosna with some thousands of Turkes slaine Anno 1599. Yet did not all his losses in the West by the Christians vexe the Great Sultan so much as a rebellion raised in the East which many yeeres continued Cusabin Bassa of Caramania rose in armes against his Master and hauing now done great matters his Souldiers before false to their Prince became now also false to him hee flying was after taken and tortured to death His rebellion out-liued him and was maintained by one called the Scriuano who ouerthrew Mehemet Bassa in the field and the second time in the yeere 1601. ouerthrew him with his Armie of fiftie thousand and foraged all the Countrey almost as far as Aleppo proclaiming himselfe the defender of the Mahumetan faith and soon after gaue the Bassa a third ouerthrow The Turkes Embassadour sent into Persia to demand the Sophies sonne in hostage for the assurance of the peace betweene those two Monarchs was for his proud message put to the Bastinado and grieuously threatned sent backe to the Grand Signior The Scriuano's proceedings was much furthered by the dissentions betweene
make way for the Ianizaries and to wearie the Enemy with multitude Many voluntaries also attending the Campe in hope to succeed the slaine Spahi or Ianizaries When they march the Tartars scowre the Countrey two dayes iourney before then follow the Achingi and after them the Timariots next the Iemoglans after them the Ianizaries then the Chauses on horse-backe the Sultan followes with the Officers of his Court and Archers of his Guard foot-men the stipendary Spahi marching on either side of him His Coaches which carry the Pages and Eunuchs come after and then the carriages and Voluntaries The Royall Standard is a horse tayle tied to the end of a staffe The Ianizaries haue woodden modells of Elephants boots swords and the like borne before them Beglerbeg signifieth Lord of Lords of which were wont to be two one in Europe another in Asia but by Solyman increased that though Romania and Natolia haue still the chiefe titles yet in Europe are foure others in Asia before these Persian warres nine and twentie in Africa foure in all nine and thirtie which are as Vice-royes and haue their Begs or Sanzacks vnder them His Admiralls place is as great by Sea If these great ones doe iniustice the oppressed will sometimes in troupes attend the comming forth of the Emperour and by burning straw on their heads or holding vp torches prouoke his attention who being brought by his Mutes deliuer their Petition which often turnes to the ruine of the other Bribery is but lately knowne yet now the best Aduocate Euery Bassa keepes a Diuan or Court of Iustice in his Prouince the chiefe is at Constantinople foure dayes of the weeke in the Seraglio whence is no appeale but to the Musti The Great Visier Bassa is President of the rest in three dayes all causes are determined All they haue for assurances of purchases is a little schedule manifesting the possession of the Seller which vnder-written by the Cadi frustrates all after-claimes and as for law-querks they are vnknowne Rebellions rarely happen both because the greatest Commander submits his necke to the Executioners bow-string sent with Commission by the Tyrant enclosed in a boxe neither may any hope for partakers in resisting where one mans fall is anothers rising their kindred and alliance not so much as knowne to themselues to haue had eminent parents is argument of neglect of ruine to be beloued and for wealth they are but spunges all which a greedie life hath sucked being strained at their death except what the Grand Signior pleaseth to bestow on their posteritie Neither may any slaue promise much to himselfe where damnable policie strangleth the Imperiall bloud if males and the issue of the females by their slaues for so is the greatest Bassa giuen by the Sultan when made husband to his sister or daughter rarely attaine aboue the degree of a priuate Captaine This great Empire may be coniectured to grow neere a period in respect it hath lately decreased Eastward and in the Sea-forces their discipline is neglected and not exacted to ancient rigour their late Emperours effeminate the bowells of the State much infested with rebellions and it hath alreadie been a long-liued Tyrannie out-liuing the wonted period It may seeme the greatest Empire now in being yet is that of China farre exceeding in reuenues in naturall situation for defence in Prouinces better vnited and better peopled not inferiour in that kinde of policie which preuents alienations and rebellions but in Souldiery not to bee compared except we say herein he hath full recompence that hee is strong enough in that kinde which cares not to conquer nor need feare to be conquered The Persian hath not so vast Countries subiect but better subiection and himselfe a better Commander and his Souldiers better disciplined and experimented The Mogoll is great wealthy and mightie but Asia is not comparable to European valour But compare the Turkish greatnesse to that of some of the first Califas which stretched from India to Spaine France and Barbary or to the Tartarian which awed more in Asia then euer Turke possessed in the Vniuerse perhaps twice told for proofe read our Tartarian Relations and yet they pierced as farre as Austria in Europe ouer-running Russia Polonia Hungaria and making Italy to quake with the rumour of their armes or to the Roman which held almost all the Turke hath when it was better worth the holding besides this Westerne World which the Turke knowes not Herein I thinke the Turke ouer-matched beyond comparison nor any whit exceeding the power and possessions of Alexander no nor the Persian greatnesse before him except in martiall discipline wherein they now also degenerate Thus much of Turkish affaires of state if we adde also this Summa totalis for a conclusion that the Turke commands on the Sea-coast after some mens Arithmetike 11280. miles in Asia Afrike and Europe and the superficies of all his Dominions come to a million two hundred three thousand two hundred and nineteene miles euery way square Let the Author answer it if the summe be transcendent The Turkes reuenues besides his Timariots are esteemed but fifteene millions of Sultanies which may seeme strange in so huge an Empire But tyrannie in wasting and desolating Nations and Lording ouer euery mans estate none willing to toyle for that whereof he hath no certaintie nay which may procure him the greater danger hath caused thin habitations I except the Cities and poor inhabitants To this his reuenue may be added his taxes customes spoyles and extortions as the greater fish preying on the smaller and pray to the greatest so here the great ones spoyling others and themselues spoyled of all with their liues or else necessarily leauing him their heire at their deaths §. VI. An Appendix touching the succession of MVSTAPHA twice and of OSMANS murther and other ciuill vnciuill late Combustions ACHMET before he died to make all sure resolued to strangle his brother Mustapha and according to custome will leaue no Competitors in such an Empire For which purpose a Guard of Capagies attend at the Iron gates of the Seralio and the Mutes are placed in a roome accordingly Thus is Mustapha to be dispatched but see how the stronger arme puts out the strong men The same night Achmet had a dreame or fearefull vision which some of the Deruices would needs presume to rumor abroad in this manner that he thought as hee was entring into the seuen Towers the Princely prison of his predecessors his brother kneeled downe before him and cried out Oh when shall we leaue this horrible custome of shedding innocent bloud Looke among all the heathens and see how quickly they loathed and cast away that crying Sin of sacrificing of humane flesh But in stead of replyling he drew his Semiter to strike off his head had not one as hee conceited held it fast that hee could not strike whereupon hee demanded angerly What art thou I am the good Genius of Mustapha and will not
where in the beginning of these tumults hee had beene put who first feared death and the next thing was hee begged water whom they presently proclaimed Emperour Osman consulted with Huzein Bassa late Vizier in the Polish warre and the Aga of the Ianizaries both faithfull to him sent to haue strangled Mustapha in the Seraglio but a new vproare happened and hee was remoued and guarded The next day the King with the Mufti went to them where after much intreatie their hearts somewhat relenting yet with new furie possessed they slew Huzein Bassa and the Aga the Mufti was conueyed away secretly and Osman led to Mustapha pleads for his life and at last is cast into the Seuen Towers prisoner Daout Bassa the new Vizier enquires and findes that Osman had two brothers liuing one about twelue the other seuen yeeres old and thereupon goes to the prison with a packe of executioners which finde him new falne asleepe and by their intrusion awaked and discontent At first they are amazed and hee made shew to defend himselfe till a strong knaue strooke him on the head with a battle axe and the rest leaping on him strangled him with much adoe And soone after they mourned for their dead King as freshly as they had raged vnseasonably this being the first Emperour they had betrayed and hauing set vp one which in all likelihood they must change for disabilitie The first of Iune following the Capiaga had receiued secret order to strangle Osmans brethren which going to doe they cry out and he by the Pages was slaine The Ianizaries mutinie afresh and will haue account of this treason whereof the King denies knowledge so did Daout who was suspected but to please them is degraded and Huzein Bassa late Gouernour of Cairo put in his place There is later report of the said Daout to bee strangled in the same place where hee had caused Osman to die Neither can wee expect otherwise then monstrous and portentuous births after such viperean conceptions CHAP. X. Of the Opinions holden by the Turkes in their Religion and of their Manners and Customes HOw the Turkes from so small beginnings haue aspired to this their present greatnesse you haue seene bought indeed at a deare price with their temporall Dominions accepting of a spirituall bondage becomming the Lords of many Countries and withall made subiect to those many Mahumetan superstitions The occasion and chiefe cause of Sects in the Saracenicall deuotions yee haue heard in the fourth and seuenth Chapters to which wee may adde here out of Bellonius He saith that besides the Alcoran they haue another booke called Zuna that is the Way or Law or Councell of Mahomet written after his death by his disciples but the readings thereof being diuers and corrupt the Caliph assembled a generall Councell of their Alphachi or learned men at Damasco wherein six Commissioners were appointed namely Muszlin Bochari Buborayra Annecey Atermindi and Dent to view and examine these bookes each of which composed a booke and those six bookes were called Zuna the other copies being two hundred Camels-lading were drowned in the Riuer those six onely made authenticall esteemed of equall authoritie among the Turkes with the Alcoran and after by one of their Diuines contracted into an Epitome which booke was called the Booke of Flowers But this Zuna being not Vna one as the Truth is but full of contrarietie hence haue risen Sects amongst them the Turkes differing from other Mahumetan Nations and diuided also amongst themselues §. I. Of their Eight Commandements ANTHONY MENAVINVS who liued a long time in the Turkish Court saith that the Booke of their Law is called Musaph or Curaam which Georgiouitz reckoneth another booke not the Alcoran it is in Arabike and they hold vnlawfull to translate it into the vulgar If any like not of Georgiouitz his opinion but thinke it to be the Alcoran for al is but the Article and the name little differs as before is shewed I could thinke it likely that this containeth some Extracts and Glosses thereof or is to their Alcaron as our Seruice booke to our Bible hauing some sons and proper methodes but grounded on the other Some things I finde cited out of the Curaam that are not in the Alcoran as that of the Angels mortalitie which perhaps may bee the mistaking of the Interpreter The ignorance of the Arabike hath caused much mis-calling of words and names They haue it in such reuerence that they will not touch it except they be washed from top to toe and it is read in their Churches by one with a loud voyce the people giuing deuout attendance without any noyse nor may the Reader hold it beneath his girdlested and after he hath read it he kisseth it and toucheth his eyes with it and with great solemnitie it is carried into the due place Out of this booke are deriued eight principall Commandements of their Law The first is GOD is a great God and one onely God and MAHOMET is the Prophet of God this Article of the Vnitie they thinke maketh against vs who beleeue a Trinitie of Persons in detestation whereof they often reiterate these words Hu hu hu that is He he he is onely GOD who is worthy to be praised for their limbes health c. and for that he hath prouided sustenance for euery one fortie yeeres before his birth The second Commandement is Obey thy Parents and doe nothing to displease them in word or deed they much feare the curses of their parents 3. Doe vnto others as thou wouldest bee done vnto 4. That they repaire to the Meschit or Church at the times appointed of which after 5. To fast one moneth of the yeere called Romezan or Ramadan 6. That they giue almes to the poore liberally and freely 7. To marry at conuenient age that they may multiply the sect of Mahomet 8. Not to kill Of these Commandements is handled at large in Menauino and in the booke of the Policie of the Turkish Empire and in others Their times of prayer according to the fourth precept are in the morning called Salanamazzi before Sun-rising the second at noone called Vlenamazzi The third about three houres before Sun-set called Inchindinamazzi The fourth at Sun-set Ascannamazzi The fifth two houres within night before they goe to sleepe Master Sandys nameth seuen times of prayer enioyned daily the first Tingilnamas two houres before day not mentioned by Septemcastrensis and another Giumanamas at ten in the morning duely obserued on the Fridayes by all at other times by the more religious When the Priest calls to prayer they will spread their garments on the earth though they bee in the fields and fall to their deuotions Moreouer I haue seene them conioyntly pray in the corners of the streets before the opening of their shops in the morning They spend but a part of Friday their Sabbath in deuotion and the rest in recreations but that so rigorously that a Turke
On Friday they pray more deuoutly but as the Alcoran also permitteth they abstaine not from all labour He saw the Grand Signior himselfe goe to their Church and likewise to the Bath attended onely with two youths none vsing any acclamation to him And in the Church he praied on the pauement couered with a carpet like to the rest without any throne or ensigne of royaltie And hee obserued the like modestie in his other behauiour But this as other things from their ancient simplicitie is now altered Thus Mr. Sandys of Achmet Euery other Friday lightly besides at other times on occasions hee goeth abroad to the Mosque and when in state there is not in the world to bee seene a greater spectacle of humane glory or if so I may speake of a sublimated manhood For although the Temple of St. Sophia which hee most vsually frequenteth bee not aboue a stones cast from the vtmost gate of the Seraglio yet hath he not so few as a thousand horse besides the Archers of his guard foot-men in that short procession the way on each side enclosed with Cappagies and Ianizaries in Scarlet The Aga Captaines Bassaes Beglerbegs and the rest attending in exceeding pompe and yet which is the greater maruell in exceeding silence the eares discerning no more then in midnight sleepe except when they salute him with a soft and short murmur So likewise in entertainment of Embassadors he sits in a rich roome vpon a low Throne the Bassaes standing by like Statues without speech or motion The stranger is led betweene two and goes backward from him neuer putting off his hat for to shew the head they hold it an opprobry The Turkes are so zealous in their superstition that they will rather lose their life then Religion as among other examples in Scanderbegs time at Dibra many Turkes chose rather to die Turkes then to liue Christians yea some as it is reported rather to kill themselues then to leaue their superstition and in the yeere 1568. The Persian Embassador was shot at and one of his followers hurt by a Turke who being apprehended confessed that hee did it because he was an Heretike and sent from an Heretike for which fact he was drawne at an horse-tayle thorow the Citie and then had his right hand cut off and after his head They hate the Persians as Rustan Bassa told Busbequiu more then they doe the Christians like as the Traditionarie Iew doth the Textuarie and the Papist the Protestant Images they haue in such detestation that besides the scratching out the eyes of those in the Musaique worke of Saint Sophies Temple when Solyman ouerthrew King Lewis of Hungary he carried away three Images of cunning worke in Brasse representing Hercules with his Club Apollo with his Harpe Diana with her Bow and Quiuer and placed them in the Tilt-yard at Constantinople but by the perswasion of the Mufti they were molten into great Ordnance They haue no Scutchions or blazing of Armes nay they vse no seales in their letters or other writings which seeme to them to sauour of superstition or superfluitie When they conquer any Citie they turne the Temples into Mosques and sacrifice there Thus did Solyman at Buda and Amurath sacrificed sixe hundred captiues to his Fathers ghost They are moderate in their priuate buildings and detest the Christians for their excesse and superfluous expences that way What say they doe those Pagans thinke they shall liue euer They often lodge saith Villamont at the Signe of the Moone and the like moderation they vse in diet and apparell They haue a brasse pot and their other meane houshold implements with them in the warres which they vse in peace Readie money is their surest riches because the Grand Signior is their surest Heire They haue the rising of the Sunne in great reuerence and especially the appearing of the new Moone as when Mahomet the great besieged Scodra the new Moone beginning to shew her selfe the Mahumetane Priests going about the Armie gaue the Souldiers warning thereof as the manner is by singing of a Song in manner of a Procession whereunto the whole Armie answered with a short respond and at the same time bowing themselues to the ground saluted the Moone with great superstition They may haue twelue lawfull Wiues and as many Concubines as they will some say but foure Wiues The children of the one are equally legitimate as well as the other and inherite alike yet few of them keepe two Wiues together in one house but in seuerall places where they haue dealings they haue seuerall Wiues which they diuorce at pleasure Some say but foure Wiues are allowed them no great matter where all their owne are allowed to their vse with others they may not meddle The offending man they gansh the woman they drowne They tell many things of Antichrist whom they call Tethschel and of the Resurrection and of the last Iudgement of Hell and Purgatorie And that Mahomet after Iudgement shall deliuer all of all Religions from thence They haue no knowledge of liberall Arts of cases of Conscience of Originall sinne or of actuall further then the outward act Their respects to Reliques appeareth by Mahomet the third 1597. who in the discomfiture of his Armie fled towards Agris shedding some teares as he went and wiping his eyes with a piece of Mahomets garment which he carried about him as a Relique The Turkes may neither eate drinke nor make water standing In their aduersitie they seeke with earnest prayers to their Prophets and publike supplications are sometimes decreed At the taking of Alba Regalis 1601. the Bassa of Buda then prisoner at Vienna hearing of it abstained from meate with his two seruants a whole day prostrate vpon his face praying vnto his Prophet Mahomet who hee said had beene angrie all that yeere with the Turkes They endure punishments inflicted by the Magistrate with great patience thinking they shall escape all torment in those parts in the World to come they therefore reward the whipper and esteeme the whip which I enuie not to them sacred They are but contrarie to the Alcoran addicted to sorceries and dreames their Priests write them letters or spells to keepe them from danger and harme of shot c. called Haymayly They will write any thing for money as letters of freedome for seruants to run away from their masters and such like They make a shew of holinesse but are closely wicked ignorant of their owne law to couer which they answere in darke sentences and the people much more Nothing is sinne to count of but that which endamageth ciuill societie They esteeme for good workes the buildings and endowings of Hospitals making Bridges and High-wayes digging of Pits and Wells and conueying waters to High-waies and Cities building Bathes and founding of Churches and such like publike workes Rostan Bassa left his wife the Daughter of Solyman at his death fifteene millions
of gold and shee had of yeerely reuenue halfe a million shee amongst other her workes attempted one most famous which was a conduit to conuey water for the vse of the Pilgrims betwixt Cairo and Mecca fortie dayes iourney and for the same intent procured the Sultan Selym her brother to write to the Venetians for a licence to extract out of Italy an hundred thousand pound of Steele only to make Chizzells Hammers and Mattocks for the cutting of certaine Rockes by which this water must passe Their Oathes especially of their Emperours are of many cuts and varietie of fashion And for Vowes in necessities and dangers they wil promise vnto God the sacrifices of beasts in some holy places not vpon Altars but hauing flaied off the skin they giue it with the head feet and forth part of the flesh to the Priest another part to the Poore the third to the Neighbours the fourth is for the Guests They are so addicted to the opinion of Fate that GOD is esteemed to blesse whatsoeuer hath successe as namely Selyms murthering his Father and to detest what wanteth good euent whatsoeuer ground it had They feare not the Plague accounting euerie mans time limited by Fate and therefore will wipe their faces with the cloathes of such as haue dyed thereof They hold it alike acceptable to God to offer almes to beasts and to bestow it on men when it is offered for the loue of God Some there are which will redeeme birds imprisoned in their cages or coopes and hauing payed their price let them flie Others for the loue of God cast bread into the water to feed the fishes esteeming it a worke greatly meritorious but Dogges are accounted vncleane in stead whereof they delight in Cats following they say their Prophet Mahomet who falling asleepe at table and awaking to goe to his deuotions rather cut off his sleeue whereon he found his Cat fast asleepe then he would disturbe her Master Simons told mee that he hath seene them at Cairo feed Dogges with baskets of bread one standing by with a club to keepe them from fighting and one gaue almes for a Bitch which had Whelps vnder a stall Heerein perhaps as in other things the Egyptians are more superstitious then the Turkes especially in this of Dogs which sauours of their old Anubis and dog-worshipping Yea and in Constantinople though they suffer them not as vncleane creatures to come into their houses yet they thinke it a deed of pietie to feed them and buy bread therefore prouiding them kennells also most of them haue no particular owner they repaire to the Sea-side nightly where they keepe a grieuous howling heard if the winde be Southward to Pera. They say Moses was the first great Prophet to whom was giuen the booke of Tefrit that is the Law and they which obserued it in those times were saued But when men grew corrupt God gaue Dauid the booke Czabur or the Psalter and when this preuailed not Iesus was sent with the booke Ingil or the Gospel whereby in that time men were saued They hold that Christ was borne of the Virgin Marie at her breasts hauing conceiued by the smell of a Rose which the Angell Gabrel presented her And preferring Christ before Moses they admit not a Iew to turne Turke but hee must first be a Christian and eate Swines-slesh and after two or three dayes abiuring Christ hee is made Musulman For so Mahomet came last in order of the Prophets with his Alcoran This Law and Law-giuer is so sacred to them that in all their prayers euen from their mothers breasts they obserue this forme La illah illelah Mehemmet irresullellah tanre rirpeghamber hace That is there is no God but one and Mahomet his Prophet one Creator and more Prophets This they sucke in with their milke and in their first learning to speake lispe out this deuotion The infants goe with the rest to their Mosquees or Meschits but are not tied to other ceremonies sauing washing till they are circumcised Euery man hath in their opinion from his birth to his death two Angels attending him the one at his right hand the other at his left At foure or fiue yeere old they send him to the Schoole to learne the Curaam and the first words which their Masters teach them are to this sense God is one and is not contained in any place but is through all and hath neither father nor mother nor children eateth not nor dinketh nor sleepeth and nothing is like to him The two Angels before said are called Chiramim and Chira tibin which write the good or euill that men doe against the day of Iudgement The Turkes abhorre blasphemie not onely against God and Mahumet but also against Christ and the Virgin Marie and other Saints and they punish blasphemers of whatsoeuer Sect they account it a sinne for a man to build a house which shall last longer then a mans life and therefore howsoeuer they are sumptuous and magnificent in there publike buildings yet are their priuate dwellings very homely and ill contriued They eate much Opium thinking it maketh them couragious in the warres They haue a remedie for paine in the head or elsewhere to burne the part affected with the touch-boxe which they alway carry with them or with some linnen cloth whereby they haue many markes on their foreheads and temples witnesses of their needlesse and heedlesse respect to Physicians As the Scripture containeth some Prophecies of the arising and proceedings of the Turkish Nation the rod of God whereby hee scourgeth his Christian people so haue they also prophecies amongst themselues of their end and ruine when God in his mercie to Christians shall execute iustice vpon the Turkes and cast the rod into the fire wherewith he had chastised his children Such an one is that which Georgiovitz translateth and expoundeth and such is that which Leunclavius hath transcribed out of their Booke called Messabili wherein is written that Constantinople shall be twice taken before Degnal Lain that is the cursed Antichrist shall come once by the Sword another time by the force of the praiers of the sonnes of Isahac Lain is an Epithete which they giue to Degnal signifying wicked or mischieuous Of this Degnal the Turks fable that before his comming shall Mechdi enioy the Empire This Mechdi they say was descended of their Prophet Mahumet and walketh inuisible one day he shall come into light and raigne for a time and after him shall Degnal their Anti-Prophet or Antichrist come A certain Deruise offered to assault murther Baiazet the Great Turk professing himselfe to be that Mechdi and was slain by one of the Bassas §. III. Of the Turkish Manners their Ciuill and Morall behauiour AS for the bloodie practises which each Emperor vseth in murthering his brethren to secure him in his Throne in rooting out of the Nobilitie of the Countries which they conquer in rasing the Wals
the people and haue a certaine stipend allowed them by the Emperour which yet is so small that many of them are driuen to vse either writing of Bookes or Handicrafts and Trades for their liuing and are clothed like Lay-men They haue no great learning it is sufficient if they can read the Alcoran which being written in Arabike they are as loth to haue translated into the vulgar as the Papists are to haue the Scripture Hee which can interprete and make some Exposition of the Text is of profund learning Yet are they reuerenced and if a Turke doe strike or offer outrage to them he loseth his hand and if he be a Christian his life being sure to be burned Some say that now of late some of them are more studious of Astronomie and other Arts As for those superiour rankes no doubt may be made of their high account The Chadilescher is clothed in Chamlet Satten Silke Damaske or Veluet of seemely colour as Russet or Tawny and in Purple-coloured cloth with long sleeues Their Tulipan on their head is of maruellous greatnesse sharpe in the middest of Purple Russet colour deeper and thicker then others their beards great They ride on Geldings with Purple foot-cloths fringed and when they goe on foot they goe slowly representing a stately and sacred grauitie There is another order of sacred persons which yet are neither regular nor secular by any vow or ordination but had in that account for their birth being supposed to descend of the line of Mahumet The Turkes and Tartarians call them Seiti or Sithi the Moores Seriffi These we are greene Tulipans which colour none else may weare and that onely on their head Some Christians ignorant hereof haue had their apparell cut from their backes for wearing somewhat greene about them These they call Hemir They enioy many priuiledges especially in giuing testimony wherein one of these is as much as two other which they abuse to iniury and wrong The most of them are Moores which goe ten or fifteene in a company with a banner on a staffe hauing a Moone on the top and that which is giuen for Gods sake they sit and eate in the street where also they make their praiers and are poorly clad Like to these in priuiledge and prauiledge are the Chagi or Fagi which liue on almes like Fryers They attend on the publike prayers on the holy Reliques on the Corpses and Funerals of the dead and to prey on the liuing by false oathes A digression touching the Hierarchie and Miseries of Christians vnder the Turke c. ANd thus we haue taken a leisurely view of the Turkish Hierarchy from the poore Softi to the courtly Cadilescher and pontificall Mufti flourishing and triumphing together with that Monarchy which is exalted and hath exalted them with the power not of the Word of GOD but of the Sword of Man But with what words meane whiles shall wee deplore the lamentable and miserable estate of that Christian Hierarchy and Ecclesiasticall Politie which sometimes flourished there with no fewer nor lesse titles of dignitie and eminence Where are now those Reuerend Names of Bishops Archbishops Metropolitans Patriarkes and the swelling stile of Oecumenicall Nay where are the things the life and liuing for the stile names titles still continue continue indeed but as Epitaphs and Inscriptions on the Monuments of their deceased and buried power as the ghosts and wandring shadowes of those sometimes quicke and quickning bodies of rule and gouernment Great Citie of great CONSTANTINE seated in the Throne of the World the fittest situation to command both Sea and Land through Europe Asia and Africa at thy first Natiuitie honored with a double Diadem of Christianitie Soueraigntie to which the Sea prostrateth it selfe with innumerable multitudes of Fish the Land payeth continuall tribute of rare fertilitie for which old Rome disrobed her selfe to decke this her New-Rome Daughter and Imperiall heire with her choisest Iewels and Monuments a Compendium of the World Eye of Cities Heart of the habitable earth Academie of learning Senate of gouernement Mother of Churches Nurse of Religion and to speake in the language of thine owne A new Eden an earthly Heauen modell of Paradise shining with the varietie of thy sacred and magnificent buildings as the Firmament with the Sunne Moone and Starres This was thy ancient greatnesse great now onely in miserie and mischiefe which as chiefe seat of Turkish Greatnesse is hence inflicted on the Christian Name And thou the Soule of this Bodie the goodliest Iewell in this Ring of Perfection which so many wonders of Nature conspired to make the Miracle of Art the TEMPLE of that WISDOME of GOD which is GOD called by him which saw thee both Christian and Mahumetan A terrestriall Heauen a Cherubicall Chariot another Firmament beyond all names of elegance which I thinke saith another the very Seraphins doe admire with veneration and which hath here moued thy mention high Seat and Throne of that Patriarchiall and Oecumenicall Highnesse which hence swayed all the East and contended with Westerne Rome for Soueraigntie now excludest rule rites yea persons Christian wholly hallowed to the damnable holies of ridiculous and blasphemous Mahometisme the multitudes of other Churches as silly captiued Damsels attending and following thee into this Mechiticall slauerie O CITIE which hast beene woe worth that word that hastie hast-beene which hast been but who can say what thou hast beene let one word the sum of all earthly excellence expresse what flouds of words and seas of Rhetorick cannot expresse which hast beene CONSTANTINOPLE which art that one name may declare thy bottomlesse hellish downefall indeed though not in name Mahometople the Seat of Mahomets power the settling of Mahumetan dregs What words can serue to preach thy funerall Sermon and ring thy knell to succeeding ages Sometimes the Theatre of worldly pompe but then on that dismal day of thy captiuitie the stage of earthly and hellish Furies the sinke of bloud and slaughter-house of Death What sense would not become senselesse to see the breaches of the walls filled vp with the slaine the gate by death shutting out death closed vp to the arch with confused bodies of Turks and Christians the shouts of men fighting the cries grones gaspes of men dying the manifold spectacles and varietie of death and yet the worse estate and more multiplied deaths of the liuing women rauished maidens forced persons vowed to sanctitie deuoted to lust slaughter slauerie reuerend age no whit reuerenced greene youth perishing in the bloome and rotten before it had time to ripen the father seeing the hopes of his yeeres deare pledges of Nature slaine or sold before his face the children beholding the parents passe into another captiuitie all taking an euerlasting fare well of all wel-fare as well as of each other Well may we in compassion weepe for those miseries the bitter passion whereof like a violent whirlewinde did to them drie
Heresie of Eutyches heere Iason had built a Temple to Iupiter in the straights which seuer Europe from Asia after Melas measure fiue furlongs Of their ancient Kings others haue related but one cannot passe this our Historie without obseruation and that is Mithridates the sixth King of that name who loosing his father in the eleuenth yeere of his age by his Tutors was trecherously assailed but escaped and by vse of that antidote which of him still beareth the name Mithridate out-liued their poysoning conspiracie Hee liued indeed to the death of thousands which either his crueltie or his warres consumed Foure yeeres together to auoid their Treasons he liued in the fields and woods vnder a shew of hunting both preuenting their designes and inuring himselfe to hardnesse Hee spake two and twentie languages being Lord of so many Nations Hee held warres with the Romans sixe and fortie yeeres whom those renowned Captaines Sylla Lucullus Pompey did so conquer as he alway arose againe with great lustre and with greater terror and at last dyed not by his enemies command but voluntarily in his old age and his own Kingdome neuer made to attend the Roman triumphs Syllaes felicity Lucullus prowesse and Pompeyes greatnesse notwithstanding His aspiring thoughts had greedily swallowed the Soueraignty both of Asia and Europe He caused in one night all the Romans in his Dominions to be slaine in which massacre perished a hundred and fiftie thousand as some haue numbred But it cannot be conceiued saith Orosius how many there were or how great was the griefe both of the doers and sufferers when euery one must betray his innocent guests and friends or hazard his owne life no Law of Hospitalitie no Religion of Sanctuary or reuerence of Images being sufficient protection And no maruell if he spared not his enemies when he slew Exipodras and Homochares his sonnes and after the poysonings and voluntary death of Monyma his wife Statira and Roxane his daughters his sonne Pharnaces like to taste of the same cup won to his part his fathers Armie sent against him with which he pursued his father so hotly that hee hauing denounced a heauy curse vpon him entred amongst his Wiues Concubines and Daughters and gaue them poyson pledging them in the same liquor which his body accustomed to his Antidotes easily ouer-came and therefore was faine to intreat another to open a bloudy passage for that his cruell soule A man saith Orosius of all men most superstitious alway hauing with him Philosophers and men expert in all Arts now threescore and foureteene yeeres old The Religion in Pontus was little differing from the Greekes Wee read of the Sacrifices of this King to Ceres and to Iupiter Bellipotens in which the King brought the first wood to the fire He powred also thereon Hony Milke Wine Oyle and after made a Feast In honour of Neptune they drowned Chariots drawne with foure white Horses with which it seemed they would haue him ease himselfe in his Sea-voyages At the mouth of Pontus was the Temple of Iupiter Iasus called Panopeum and nigh thereto a Promontory sacred to Diana sometime an Iland ioyned to the Continent by an Earthquake Hereabouts was the Caue Acherusium whose bottomlesse bottome was thought to reach to Hell I may in the next place set downe Paphlagonia which as it fareth with such as haue mightie Neighbours can scarcely finde her proper limits Some reckon it to Galatia before described and sometimes Pontus hath shared it and either the force of Armes or bountie of Emperours hath assigned it at other times to Phrygia Cilicia or other parts the bounds thereof are thus deliuered Pontus confineth on the North on the East the Riuer Halys on the South Phrygia and Galatia on the West Bithynia Of the people hereof called Heneti some deriue the Veneti of Italy They now call it Roni It had the name Paphlagonia of Paphlagon the sonne of Phineus The Mount Olgasys is very high and in the same are many Paphlagonian Temples Sandaracurgium is another Mountaine made hollow by the Metall-miners which were wont to bee slaues redeemed from capitall Sentence who heere exchanged that speedie death for one more lingring So deadly is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and ending of this Idoll of the World which the Spaniards haue verified in the West by the destruction of another world Vitruuius tells of a Fountaine in Paphlagania as it were mixed with Wine whereof they which drinke without other liquor proue drunken The Heptacometae and Mossynoeci inhabited about those parts a people of that beastly disposition that they performed the most secret worke of Nature in publike view These are not so much notorious for being worse then beasts as their neighbours the Tibareni for surpassing in iustice other men They would not warre on their enemy but would faithfully before relate vnto him the Time Place and Houre of their fight whereas the Mossynoeci vsed to assault strangers that trauelled by them very treacherously They haue also a venemous kinde of Hony growing out of their trees with which they beguiled and slew three troupes of Pompey The Tabareni obserued one strange fashion that when the woman was deliuered of a childe her husband lay in and kept his chamber the women officiously attending him a custome obserued at this day amongst the Brasilians CHAP. XVI Of Asia proprie dicta now called Sarcum THis Region in the strict sense being a particular Prouince of the lesser Asia is bounded on the West with part of Propontis and Hellespont the Aegean Icarian and Mertoan Seas on the South with the Rhodian Sea Lycia and Pamphilia on the East with Galatia on the North with Pontus and Bithynia and part of Propontis In which space are contained Phrygia Caria and both Mysias Aeolis Ionia Doris Lydia Some circumcise from hence both Phrygia and Mysia alledging the authoritie of Saint Luke But in the Apocalypse Chap. 1. these parts are also added and 1. Pet. 1.1 PHRYGIA is diuided into the greater which lyeth Eastward and the lesse called also Hellespontiaca and Troas and of some Epictetus The greater PHRYGIA hath not many Cities Here stood Midaium the Royall Seat of Mydas and Apamia the Phrygian Metropolis Phrygia is called of the riuer Phryx which diuideth it from Caria Herodotus telleth that the Phrygians were accounted the most ancient of all people for the triall whereof Psammetichus King of Egypt had shut vp without societie of any humane creature two children causing onely goats to bee admitted to suckle them who after long time pronounced bec which they had learned of the goates but because that with the Phrygians signified bread therefore they accounted the Phrygians first authors of mankinde Before Deucalions floud Nannacus is reported to raigne there and foreseeing the same to haue assembled his people into the Temple with supplications and prayers Hence grew the prouerbe to say A thing was from
setled Empire an honour giuen after by the Easterne world to Alexander in like manner The Babylonian Kingdome was thus diuided and giuen to the Medes and Persians first to Darius by bloud and descent a Mede and after by conquest to Cyrus a Persian We haue large Fragments of Ctesias who was present in the battell betweene Artaxerxes and Cyrus as was Xenophon also who hath written the same at large collected and reserued by Photius who saith hee had read foure and twentie Bookes of this Ctesias his Persica in which hee much differeth from the reports of Herodotus professing that hee had either seene those things which hee writeth or receiued them of the Persians themselues He affirmeth that Astygas so he calleth Astyages was nothing of kinne to Cyrus but being by him conquered was first imprisoned and after inlarged and kindly intreated Cyrus taking his daughter Amytis her husband Spytama being slaine to his wife He subdued the Bactrians and tooke Amorges King of the Sacae prisoner But his wife Sparethra with an Army of three hundred thousand men and two hundred thousand women came against Cyrus and taking him and Parmyses the brother of Amytis prisoners in exchange of them redeemed her husband Amorges after this helped Cyrus in his warres against Croesus who the Citie being taken and his sonne which had beene giuen in hostage slaine before his face fled vnto Apollos Temple whence by Magicall illusions he made an escape and being taken againe and bound faster his bands with thunder and lightning were loosed whereupon Cyrus freed him and gaue him the Citie Barene neere to Ecbatana Cyrus after that warred against the Derbices who by the helpe of the Indians and Elephants ouerthrew Cyrus who receiued there a wound by an Indian whereof hee three dayes afterwards died But by helpe of Amorges the Derbices were ouercome and their King Amoraeus slaine with his two sonnes Cyrus before his death made Cambyses his eldest sonne his heire and Tanyoxarces his younger Lord of the Bactrians Choramnians and Parthians and set Spytades sonne of Spytama ouer the Derbices He reigned thirtie yeeres §. II. Of the succession of CYRVS and of CAMBYSES CAMBYSES Ctesias addeth in his twelfth Booke sent his fathers bodie into Persia He warred vpon Egypt and sent Amyrtaeus the King with sixe thousand Egyptians Captiues into Susa hauing slaine fiftie thousand Egyptians and lost seuen thousand and two Persians In the meane time Sphendadates one of the Magi being corrected by Tanyoxarees for some offence accused him to Cambyses his brother who caused him to die with a draught of Buls bloud deceiuing his mother and his brothers followers as if hee had put the Magus to death for that slander And so neerely did they resemble each other that Sphendadates was sent to the Bactrians where fiue yeeres after the mysterie of this iniquitie was detected by Tybetheus an Eunuch by him chastened vnto Amitis who when shee could not obtaine him of Cambyses to punishment poysoned her selfe Cambyses after hee had reigned eighteene yeeres died at Babylon of a wound which he had receiued in his thigh by whitling a sticke to passe away the time hauing receiued before direfull presages of this disaster in his sacrifice not bleeding and Roxane bringing him forth a sonne without a head Bagapates and Artasyras his chiefe Eunuches procured the Kingdome to the Magus reigning with the name of Tanyoxarces till Ixabates detected him who fleeing into a Temple was drawne thence and slaine But seuen chiefe men Onophas Idernes Norodabates Mardonius Barises Ataphernes and Darius sonne of Hystaspes conspired against the Magus and by the helpe of Artasyras and Bagapates slew him in his bed-chamber hauing reigned seuen moneths ordaining the solemne festiuall Magaphonia in remembrance thereof Darius being mounted to the Throne by the neighing of his Horse as these Princes had before agreed built him a Sepulchre in his life time in a Hill which when hee would haue seene the Chaldaeans forbade him and his parents curious of that sight were let downe by the Priests with ropes but they terrified by the sudden sight of Serpents let goe their hold and Darius for that losse of his parents slaine in the fall cut off the heads of the Priests in number fortie He marched with eight hundred thousand men into Europe against the Scythians but returning with losse dyed after hee had reigned one and thirtie yeeres But before we follow Ctesias any further let vs see what the common report by Herodotus and others hath deliuered of these proceedings and let the iudicious Reader chuse whom hee wil embrace Scaliger and others rather follow Herodotus who relateth of Cambyses that succeeding his father hee tooke and after slew Psammenitus King of Egypt And when hee would haue added Aethiopia to his new Conquests with the spoiles of the Temple of Ammon for which purposes he sent two Armies the one was almost consumed with famine the beasts and prouisions failing and that barren desart denying grasse the remainder by consuming one another were a strange remedie preserued from consumption euery tenth man being by lot tythed to the shambles and more returning to their fellowes mawes then on their owne legs The other Armie was quite buryed in the sands At his returne finding the Egyptians solemnizing the feast of their Idoll Apis hee slew the same it was a Bull which they worshipped and after dreaming that Smerdis reigned hee sent and slew his brother which was so called in vaine seeking to frustrate this presage which was fulfilled in another of that name He fell in loue with his sister and asking whether it were lawfull for him to marry her the Iudges whose authoritie with the Persians lasted with their liues answered that they had no such law but they had another that the King of Persia might doe what him liked whereupon hee marryed her His crueltie appeared in that Prexaspes presuming to admonish him of his too much inclination to drunkennesse he answered he should see proofe of the contrary and presently sending for Prexaspes his sonne with an arrow shot him to the heart the father not daring but to commend his steadie hand and Art in shooting He dyed of his owne sword which falling out of his scabberd as hee mounted his horse killed him not fearing in this Countrey of Syria any such disaduenture because the Oracle of Latona in Egypt had told him he should dye at Ecbatana which he vnderstood of Media and was fulfilled at another Ecbatana more obscure in Syria Hee caused a Iudge which had beene corrupted with money to be flayed and made of his skin a couering for the Tribunall Polyoenus tels That against the Egyptians hee vsed this stratageme to set the gods dogs cats sheepe c. in the fore-front of his battell He neither deserued nor obtained that honourable funerall which Cyrus had who was buryed at Pasargadae a Tower shadowed with trees hauing in the vpper part a Chappell furnished with a
bed of gold a table cups and vessells of the same metall with store of garments and furniture set with iewells Certain Magi were appointed to attend it with daily allowance of a sheepe and once a moneth a horse for sacrifice His Epitaph was O man I am CYRVS King of Asia Founder of the Persian Empire therefore enuy me not a Sepulchre Alexander opened the same in hope of gold but found nothing sauing a rotten shield a sword and two Scythian bowes he crowned it with gold and couering it with his owne apparell departed These things Strabo Arrianus and Curtius report §. III. Of the succeeding Monarchs vntill ALEXANDERS Conquest NExt to Cambyses succeeded for a small time one Smerdis which was slaine as an Vsurper by the seuen Princes and Darius the sonne of Hystaspes succeeded designed to that greatnesse by the first neighing of his horse For when no male issue Royall was left these Princes agreed That meeting in a place appointed he whose horse first neighed should be acknowledged Emperor Darius his horse-keeper the night before had suffered his horse there to vse his brutish lust with a Mare which the place presently causing him to remember he there by his lustfull neighing aduanced his Master to the Scepter Darius for his couetousnesse first exacting tribute was called a Merchant Cambyses a Lord Cyrus a Father of his people Babylon rebelled and was recouered by the costly stratagem of Zopyrus who cut off his nose and eares and fleeing in that deformed plight to the Babylonians accused Darius of that crueltie Ctesias telleth this of Megabyzus They beleeuing entertained him and knowing his Nobilitie and Prowesse committed their Citie to his fidelitie which he vpon the next opportunitie betraied to his Master Darius warred against the Scythians but vnfortunately His Army was of 700000. men After Darius his death Xerxes reigned whom Scaliger proueth to bee Assuerus the husband of Esther This Esther is by some thought to be Amestris whom the Ethnike writers blame for crueltie moued haply thereto by the execution committed vpon Haman and the Iewish enemies in the booke of Esther related They adde perhaps in slander and hatred that shee killed fourteene children in one bloudie vow and other things which I will not rehearse but returne to Xerxes He made league with the Carthaginians warred vpon the Grecians with an Armie as Herodotus numbreth of 1700000. foot-men 80000. horse-men 20000. Chariot-men Others say That there were 2317000. foot-men in land-forces besides 1208. ships Ctesias hath only 800000. men besides Chariots and 1000. sayle of ships Before the Army was drawne the sacred Chariot of Iupiter by eight white horses no mortall man might ascend the Seat Hee offered to Minerua at Troy 1000. oxen He taking view of his huge Army wept in thinking that of all that number in a hundred yeeres none would be aliue At the passing of the Hellespontike straits he besides other deuotions performed at the Sun-rising took a golden Viall full of sacred liquor and cast the same into the Sea with a golden Bowle a Persian Sword vncertaine whether in honour of the Sun or in satisfaction to the angry Hellespont which a little before in more then madde arrogance he had caused to be whipped and hurled fetters therein with many menacing threats Hee wrote letters with like threatnings to Mount Athos and accordingly pierced his bowells and made way by force thorow that high and huge Mountaine This Expedition was in the yeere of the World 3470. Leonides with his Spartans enlarged his glory at the Thermopylaean straits or narrow passage which a long time with a handfull of men hindred the Persians from passing Mardonius was slaine and Xerxes fled out of Greece after hee had taken Athens and lost great part of his Army which in two yeeres space receiued fiue ouerthrowes at Thermopylae at Artemisium at Salamis at Plataeae at Mycale Xerxes being slaine of Artabanus his kinsman A. M. 3485. Artaxerxes succeeded in whose time Egypt rebelled helped therein by Inarus and the Grecians Among other the mad parts of Xerxes it is reported That he fell in loue with a Plane tree in Lydie which hee adorned with chaines and costly furniture and appointed a Guardian thereto Artaxerxes writ to Hystanes Gouernour of Hellespontus That hee should giue Hippocrates Cous who then liued and whose writings still remaine the Physicians Oracles as much gold and other things as hee would and send him vnto him In his time the Egyptians rebelled and created Inarus their King to whom the Athenians sent three hundred Gallies for defence but by Artabazus and Megabyzus they were subdued Artaxerxes dyed An. M. 3525. After this Artaxerxes surnamed Long-hand another Xerxes succeeded and reigned a small time as did also Sogdianus or Ogdianus or so Ctesias calleth him Secyndianus whom Darius Nothus slew and possessed the Throne Ctesias nameth him Ochus and saith that hee changed his name to Dariaeus In the time of this King was the Peloponnesian Warre which Thucydides hath related Artaxerxes Mnemon his sonne succeeded An. M. 3545. He slew his brother Cyrus Ctesias was there present with Artaxerxes whom hee cured of a wound giuen him on the brest by Cyrus with whom was then present and partaker that great Philosopher Captaine and Historian hereof Xenophon Artaxerxes was a name giuen as some write to all the Persian Kings it signifieth a great Warrior as Brisson and Drusius obserue This Mnemon reigned fortie yeeres After his death succeeded Ochus and reigned three and twentie yeeres Next to him was Arses or Arsames and last of all Darius whom Alexander ouerthrew the second time at Arbela An. M. 3619. conquered that Persian Monarchy to the Macedonians Of the Macedonian successors of Alexander so much as concerneth this place is before handled in our Syrian relation They were depriued of these parts by Arsaces of whom all his Parthian followers euen now ye haue read in the Chapters of Parthia §. IIII. Of the Persian Chronologie COncerning these Persian Kings Chronologers after their wont differ not a little Master Liuely hath taken great paines in this Argument besides the painefull labours of Scaliger Iunius and many others both Rabbins and Greekes and Latines in whose streames Elephants may swim and the greatest Students may finde enough to busie their studious braines for mee it is sufficient to taste or at least to enter so farre as a Lambe may safely wade without perill of drowning The Hebrewes through ignorance of the Olympiades and humane Authors where they are destitute of their owne are most absurd some reckoning but foure Persian Kings in all till Alexanders time some account fiue and some three Against these Pererius and Temporarius most sharpely and not vnworthily enueigh as also against their Chronicles which ascribe to the Persians from the first yeere of Darius the Mede but two and fiftie yeeres Iosephus better seene in Ethnike Authors dissenteth
succeeded him who made himselfe a Mahumetan and called himselfe Hamed After whose short raigne Argonkhon Geniotukhon Badukhan Gazun he made Casbin his Imperiall Citie Alyaptu succeeded in order This last made himselfe Mahumetan kept his Court at Tauris and first brought in the custome of tribute children which he tooke from their parents Christians and Iewes to frame to his seruice Hee built Sultania His sonne and successour Abuzayd spend his summer at Sultania and his winter at Bagadet after whose death which happened A. H. 736. the Tartarians were diuided into Persia euery one making himselfe King of that which he held which continued till the time of Tamerlane Thus haue I out of Mirkond related these Tartar-Persian affaires But if I adde some what out of Haithon which liued in the middest of these times let it not seeme tedious first of a Paradise destroyed by the Tartar Haalon and then of the successors till his time nor mentioning some which ruled but a little while in Persia In the North-East parts of Persia which of this new Heresie they called Mulchet there was an old man named Aloadin a Mahumetan as all those parts then were which had inclosed a goodly Valley situate betweene two Hills and furnished it with all variety which Nature and Art could yeeld as Fruits Pictures rills of Milke Wine Honny Water Palaces and beautifull Damosells richly attyred and called it Paradise to which was no passage but by an impregnable Castell And daily preaching the pleasures of this Paradise to the youths which he kept in his Court sometimes he would minister a sleepie drinke to some of them and then conueigh them thither where being entertained with these pleasures foure or fiue dayes they supposed themselues rapt into Paradise And then being againe cast into a trance by the said drinke hee caused them to be carryed forth and after would examine them of what they had seene and by this delusion would make them resolute for any enterprise which he should appoint them as to murther any Prince his enemie For they feared not death in hope of their Mahumeticall Paradise But this Haolon or Vlan after three yeeres siege destroyed him and this his Fooles Paradise Some tell this of Aladeules in the time of Zelim the first Abaga succeded him in the gouernement of these parts Anno 1264. but not in the Christian Religion Tangodor the next became a Saracen and called himselfe Mahomet and at Tauris and other places destroyed the Churches of the Christians as Haolon had done of the Saracens he banished the Christians and peruerted as many Tartars as he could to Mahumetisme But Argonus the sonne of Abaga rebelled and taking him cut him asunder in the middle succeeding in his place Anno 1285. After him Regayto whom the Tartars slew placing in his stead Baydo a Christian who forbad the preaching of Mahumetisme among the Tartars and reedified the Churches of the Christians Casan succeeded in his Dominion and Deuotion and after his death Carbaganda who in his childhood had beene baptized and named Nicholas but when his Christian Mother was dead he became a Saracen Thus farre out of Haithonus in which History appeareth the vicissitude of diuers Religions sometime Tartarian sometime Christian sometime Mahumetan as in the Princes who gouerned these Countries vnder the great Cham or Can of the Tartars so also no doubt in a great part of the Countries themselues which vsually are of the Kings Religion This Carbaganda reigning about 1305. is the last Tartar Prince which ruled in the parts of Syria and in Persia the state was soone after diuided into many Soueraignties For as their Religion so also their Empire fayled the Egyptian Soldans preuayling in Syria the Ottoman Tukes in Asia and Gempsas in Persia This Gempsas was Soldan of the Parthians and about the yeere 1350. restored that Persian Kingdome to the Parthians Thus our Christian Historiographers Mirkond mentions him not Likely it is when all fell to sharing he got his part Of Tamerlan Mirkond relates that when Chingius sent Occoda into Maurenahar Carachar Nuyon was made his first Visier in which dignity hee and his posterity continued there till Teymur or Tamurlan the fifth from him with other great gouernments Teymur being Visier and Captayne Generall to Sciorgat Meckhom which raigned in Chagaty and dyed A. 1370. was proclaymed King in his steed He by his prosperous armes subdued Maurenahar Turquestan Koarrazm Karason Sistom Industan Hyerakhen Parc Kermon Mazandaron Aderbaion and Kusistam Bagadet Alep Damasco defeated Sultan Farache King of Egypt and after tooke Baiazet the great Turke prisoner He dyed Anno 1405. His victories are by others enlarged to Russia and China and the great Chams state settled on him Mirzab Charok his fourth sonne succeeded him in the Empire and after him Anno 1447. his sonne Mirzah Oleghbek but as after Alexander so after Tamerlan their hastie gotten Empire was much distracted among the great Souldiers his followers which held great shares to themselues making warre on their Masters sonnes And one of the descendants of them Abtelatife slew Oleghbek in the field Anno 1450. and was slaine of his Souldiers sixe moneths after Sultan Abusayd grand-child to Miromcha the third sonne of Tamerlan succeeded slaying Abdula the brother of Abdelatife But he also was slaine by Mirzah Yadigar Mahamed one of Acembec or Vsuncassans partakers who had before slaine Iooncha Contarini and Barbaro which were in Persia with Vsuncasan call him Iausa others I know not why Malaonchres others Demir after whose death Abusayd was called to the gouernment of Kermon Hierak and Aderbaion and being sollicited for peace by Asembelus Acembec or Vsuncassan aforesaid reiected it and so lost himselfe and left those parts of the Persian Empire to the Conqueror But in Maurenahar Sultan Hamed his sonne succeeded 28. yeeres and after him his nephew Babor the last of Tumberlans bloud there raigning Ichaybekan comming from Vsbek Anno 1500. and dispossessing him Yet did Babor possesse Gaznehen and some part of India till his death 1532. where his sonne Homayon succeeded him and to him his sonne Geluladin Akbar commonly called Melabdim Echbar the Great Mogol Father of him which now raigneth of whom in the next booke Yadigar that slew Abusayd was also of Tamerlans race the sonne of Mahamed sonne of Baysangor sonne of Mirzah Charok He by Acembecs helpe chased Ocem another of Tamerlans posterity by Hamar Cheque his third sonne King in Katason and Strabat out of those parts into Faryab and Mayman neere Balk whence hee suddenly returning with a small force by aduantage of Yadigar or Hiadigar his negligence slew him and recouered his Realme He dyed Anno 1506. Two of his sonnes succeeded him Bahady and Musafar whom Chaybec Vsbek chased out of their Kingdome Bahady fled to Ismael Sophy who gaue him the lands of Chambe Gazon in Tauris and tenne Scrafs of gold by the day thence he was
after carryed prisoner by the Turke to Constantinople where hee dyed Besides these of the posterity of Tamerlan there were other Princes in Persia and the parts adioyning as those of the factions of Blacke Sheepe and White Sheepe Of the former was Kara Issuf which conquered Tauris Sultania Casbin and the countries of Seruan and Diarbech but dying was spoyled to his shirt of his Souldiers yea they cut off his eares for his iewells and left him in the open field Charrok held long warres with Scander and Iooncha his sonnes the latter of which after many conquests was slaine by Acembec and Acen Aly his sonne and successour and thus the White Sheepe faction preuayled Ozun Acembec or Vusun-Casan the head thereof of the Tarcoman Nation heire of Diarbech and Lord of many Prouinces which hee conquered as before is noted but defeated by Mahumet the great Turke He dyed Anno 1471. His sonne Calil succeeded who was slaine by his brother Iacob or Yacub whose wife bearing dishonest affection to one of the Court sought by the murther of her husband to aduance this Courtier to her husbands bed and Empire And hauing conueyed venome into a golden cup presents her husband the same to drinke who somewhat suspecting her caused her to begin himselfe and his sonne following her both in dinking and dying And thus was Persia by the wickednesse of one woman made the Stage of ciuill warres whiles the chiefe Nobles sought each to possesse himselfe of the State which at last after fiue or sixe yeeres war befell to Alumut or Eluan-beg then being but fourteene yeere old who was slaine by Ismael in the yeere 1499. And thus yee haue had the succession of the Persian Kings in the first and second Dynastie of the Saracens you heard in the former Booke next after whom the Tartars and these here mentioned till Ismael obtayned the state whose posterity still hold it Beniamin Tudelensis telleth that Senigar then King of Persia had two and fortie Kingdomes subiect to him and that his Dominion extended foure moneths iourney and speaketh as though hee were not subiect to the Caliph in his temporalities Master Polo reckons eight Kingdomes of Persia Casibin Curdistan Lor Suolistan Spaan Siras Soncaia Timocaim not reckoning Hirak the chiefe Citie wherof was Tauris and diuers other Countries now and before his time subiect to the Persian And by most Historians it appeareth that Persia had before the dayes of Tangrolopix and till the Tartars conquest Sultans which yeelded small subiection to the Chaliphs §. III. Of Ismael Sofi first founder of the present Persian Empire or fifth Dynastie THe Historie of Ismael because it giueth much light both into the State and Religion of Persia is more fully to be reported After that Mustacen Mumbila or Almustacenbila Abdula the Caliph of Bagdet had bin by the Tartars done to death in the yeere after Haithonus account 1258. about the yeere 1369. there arose in Persia a Nobleman called Sophi Lord of the Citie Ardouil reporting himselfe to be of the bloud of Alle or Hali descended from Musa Cazin or Cersin one of the twelue sonnes as is said of Hocem thirteene descents distant This Sophi or as our Tarik Mirkond aforesaid calls him Cheque Safy had issue Cheque Mucha the father of Cheque Ali who begate Cheque Ebrahem and he Sultan Iuneyd father of Cheque Aydar who begate Ismael These continued their Hali-holies Our Authors mention none from Sophi to Iuneyd whom they make his sonne calling him Guinne otherwise written Guini Guine and Giunet Minadoi saith That Sexchiuni or more distinctly Siec Giunet was Authour of the Persian sect who vnder the name of So and of Siec that is of a wise man and an Author of Religion or rather vnder the pretence of holinesse began to perswade the people that the three first successors of Mahomet were vsurpers onely Ali ought to be named lawfull successor and ought to be called vpon in their prayers and by all meanes ro be honoured From this time forward the Sepulchre of Ali and his sonnes in Cafe grew in great credit and was visited euery yeere after the same sort that the Turks visit the Sepulchre of the other three and the Kings of Persia vsed there to bee crowned and girt with their sword and their great Calife there kept his residence Because this Case was neere Babylon hence grew the common error that these things were done at Babylon or Bagdet Iouius also is deceiued where he maketh Arduelle or Aidere author of the Persian faction Sofi is by Minadoi deriued of Sofiti a people subdued by Alexander but Scaliger more fitly Tzophi which in Arabike signifieth a man of pure Religion In this respect there is no lesse contention betweene these other Muhammedans then betweene the Samaritans and the Iewes so that the Persians are a kinde of Catharists or Puritans in their impure Muhammedrie Claudet Duret mentioneth another Etymologie that Sophi signifieth Wooll and that this profession in token of humilitie wearing nothing on their heads more precious then wooll were so called But the former deriuation is more probable Nic. Nicolai in his third Booke hath also that woollen deriuation and Geffrey Ducket saith that Sophi signifieth a Begger and that the King is not there in Persia so called but Shaugh which agreeth with their report which say that Ismael renewed or continued the name Sofi or Sofiti but his successors leauing that and the name of Siec haue retayned onely the Title of Saha which some write Shaugh some Xa a Royall title communicated by the head of this superstition to those Kings which participate with them therein Ioseph Scaliger saith that Sa or Scha is the same with Monsieur among the French and Don among the Spaniards The Iewes and Arabians write it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is sometimes set before the name as in the present King Scha Habas sometime comes after as Melixa for Melic-scha Barrius begins this pedigree at the father of Giunet or Guine so he calls him and not as Minadoi with Guinet himselfe He addeth That for the Ensigne Character or Cognisance of his Sect he ordayned that in the midst of their Turbant which they weare with many folds there should arise a sharpe top in manner of a Pyramis diuided into twelue parts in remembrance of Ali his twelue sonnes from the top to the bottome They vsed the colour Red on their heads saith Minadoi by ordinance of Arduelle and therefore were called Cheselbas that is Red-heads some write it Cuselbas Sophi as Mirkond affirmeth was holden in such reputation of holinesse by Tamerlane that he came to visit him as a Saint and at his request set free 30000. slaues which he had taken in the warres against Baiazat to whom Cheque Sophi gaue apparell and other necessaries and sent them home to their houses whereby hee wan great fame and affection Barrius
and others attribute this to Guine and say that these slaues became his disciples first and after Souldiers to his sonne Aidar against the Christian Georgians This Aider Erdebil or after Iouius Harduelles forsaking as some say the world led a streight life in continency and austerity and was therefore admired as a Prophet and resorted to out of all parts of Armenia and Persia comming to Tauris to see him Hee inueighed against the common opinion concerning Mahomets successors as Guine and Sophi had done shutting vp heauen to all sauing Hali his followers For so the Persians vse to say in their prayers Cursed be Ebubeker Omar and Osman GOD be fauourable to Hali and well pleased with him Vsuncassan moued with his fame gaue him in mariage his daughter Martha begot of the Christian Lady Despina daughter of Calo Ioannes Emperour of Trapezond both of them by this alliance strengthning themselues against the Turke Aidar had by this Martha Ismael whom she trayned vp in the principles of Christian Religion Iacob successor of Vsuncassan iealous of the multitude of Aidars disciples and the greatnesse of his fame caused him to be secretly murthered persecuting all his professed followers with fire and sword Ismael then a child fled into Hyrcania to one Pyrchales a friend of his fathers who afterwards ayded him to the recouering of his patrimonie Boterus saith that Iacob after the murther of Aidar committed his two sonnes Ismael and Solyman to Amanzar a Captayne of his to be conueyed to Zalga a strong mountaynie place but he brought them vp liberally with his owne children and in his last sicknesse gaue them horse and two hundred Ducats with aduice to repaire to their mother where taking vpon him the protection of the sect of Hali and the reuenge of his fathers death his enterprises succeeded prosperously Giouan Maria Angiolelio saith that Iacob being poysoned 1485. the Signiorie was possessed by a kinseman of Iacobs called Iulauer after whose three yeeres raigne succeeded Baysingir two yeeres after Rustan seuen yeares who sent Solimanbec against Sechaidar the father of Ismael who made challenge to the State in right of his wife the daughter of Vsuncassan who slew him in the field Rustan would also haue killed the mother and her sonnes had not entreatie of his Nobles preuented it He committed them to ward in the Iland of the Armenians in the Lake Astumar whither he sent for them againe after three yeeres but they for feare fled to Ardouil there liued closely for a time Rustan was slaine by Agmat through his mothers procurement who loued that Agmat who abode Sultan fiue months was slaine by Rustans Souldiers And Aluan the kinsman of Vsuncassan was Signior whom Ismael slew A certaine Merchant who abode a long time in Tauris and trauelled thorow the most part of Persia skilfull of the Turkish Persian and Arabian languages either seeing himselfe or learning of them which did see in the time of Ismael relates this history somewhat otherwise whom as learning of the Persians themselues the Persian affaires we may reckon worthy to be followed Hee saith that this Sechaidar in Ardouil was this head of thy Sophian Sect and had three sonnes and three daughters by the daughter of Vsuncassan He was a zealous enemie against the Christians oftentimes with his followers repayring into Circassia doing the people much damage which when in the daies of Sultan Alumut hee attempted as before times he was by Alumuts order forbidden at Darbent further passage but seeking to make way by force he was by the forces of Alumut taken and his head on the top of a Lance presented to Alumut and by his command giuen to the Dogges to bee eaten the cause why the Sophians are such enemies vnto Dogs killing all they finde This newes comming to Ardouil his three sonnes fled one into Natolia another to Aleppo Ismael the third to an Iland in the Lake of Van in which is a Citie of Christian Armenians where he abode foure yeeres in the house of an Armenian Priest being then about thirteene yeeres old who vsed him courteously and instructed him in the rudiments of Christian Religion A yeere after he went from Arminig to Chillan where he kept with a Gold-smith his fathers friend In this time hee had intelligence by mutuall writing with his friends at Ardouil and with this Gold-smith hauing gathered together eighteene or twentie men of their Sect secretly to take a strong Castle called Maumutaga and hidden in ambush two hundred horse-men of his friends in Ardouill suddenly slaying the Guard and possessing himselfe of the Castle he entred a Towne not farre from the Castle killing the Inhabitants and carrying the spoile to the Castle This Castle was verie rich because it was a principall Hauen of the Caspian Sea and so strong that when Alumut had newes hereof hee was disswaded from sending any power thither to besiege him Two daies iourney from hence is Sumachi which with his power now encreased he also took and diuided the spoiles euery where to his Souldiers which with fame of this liberalitie came from all parts vnto him He sent also into Hiberia three or four daies iourny from thence which was then gouerned by seuen great Lords three of which Alexander Sbec Gorgurambec and Mirzambec with many promises of present spoiles and future exemptions from tribute hee won to his side receiuing from each of them three thousand horse so that he was now growne fifteene or sixteene thousand strong Alumut with thirtie thousand valiant Souldiers went to meet him between Tauris Sumachia and hauing passed a great Riuer ouer which were two Bridges he presently caused them to be broken Ismael arriuing there the next day with great diligence found a passage thorow the streame and with his whole forces in front in the breake of the day assailed Alumut his armie little suspecting such a good morrow that Alumut with a few companions hardly escaped The pauilions horses and other bootie Ismael bestowed on his Souldiers and then hasted to Tauris where entring without resistance hee made great slaughter killing all the race of Iacob opening his Sepulchre and the Graues of other Noble-men which had been at the battaile of Darbent against his father and burning their bones three hundred harlots he caused to be cut asunder in the middle hee killed all the Dogs in Tauris and because his mother had married to one of those Nobles which were in the battaile of Darbent he caused her head to bee stricken off in his presence In this while many Townes Cities Castles and Lords submitted themselues to him and weare his red-coloured Turbant but the Castle Alangiachana whereto were subiect eighteene Villages of Christians which vsed yeerely to send to Rome two men from the Patriarch to the Pope of whose faith they were speaking Armenian hauing some bookes but quite lost the vse of the Italian language this Castle I say held out for Alumut vntill his death While
Ismael was Sultan in Tauris the Sultan in Bagadet Murat Can son of Iacob with an army of 30000. marched against him and in a plaine meeting with Ismael was there ouerthrown not seuentie persons escaping to Bagadet with Murat Can the place bearing witnes of the slaughter buried vnder many new hils of bones All these things were done An. 1499. And while I was in Tauris many came from Natolia Caramania and Turkie to serue him of whom they were graciously entertained An. 1507. our Author being then in Malacia saw with his eyes the Sultan Alumut conueyed prisoner by Amirbec who with foure thousand men going from Mosull neere to the sometime-Niniue to Amit where the Sultan kept with promise and profession of his succour being admitted the Citie tooke him and cast a chaine about his necke whose head Ismael smote off with his owne hands He was presented to him by Amirbec in the Country of Aladuli against whom Ismael was now warring where taking the Citie Cartibirt he cut off the head of Becarbec sonne of Aladuli Lord thereof with his owne hands From thence returning to Tauris hee had almost done as much to his two brethren whom hee had left Gouernours in his absence for transgressing their Commission but with much intreatie of his Lords spared their liues yet confined them to Ardouill not to depart from thence The next yeere hee pursued Murat Can who was come to Syras a Citie not inferiour to Cairo in Egypt with thirtie sixe thousand men but male-content and therefore many of them flying vnto Ismael Whereupon Murat Can sent two Embassadours with fiue hundred followers with offer of Vassallage vnto him Ismael cut them all in pieces saying That if Murat Can would be his Vassall hee should come in person not by Embassage Murat Can had closely sent Spies to obserue the sequell of his businesse and being hereof by them aduertised fled For many of his Nobles had alreadie put on the red Turbant of whom he feared to bee taken as Alumut had beene and therefore with three thousand of his most faithful he fled vnto Aleppo but the Soldan of Cairo not admitting him he went to Aladuli who entertained him honourably and gaue him his daughter to wife Ismael after great slaughter in Siras and Bagadet was forced to returne to Spaan with his Armie For Ieselbas the Tartar had taken all the Countrie of Corasan and the great Citie of Eri which is in compasse betwixt fortie and fiftie miles well peopled and full of Merchandize He had taken also Straua Amixandaran and Sari on the Caspian shoare and with intent to beguile Ismael desired leaue to passe thorow his Countrey to Mecca on Pilgrimage Ismael with deniall and other sharpe words repelled his suit and abode a yeere in Spaan to withstand his enterprises After he returned to Tauris where were great triumphs solemnized in his honour This Sophi is so loued and feared saith this Merchant that they hold him as a God especially his Souldiers of which some goe into the warres without Armour holding it sufficient that Ismael will succour them others because they content themselues to die for Ismael goe into battaile with naked breast crying Schiak Schiak that is God God And they forget the name of God alway naming Ismael they hold That hee shall not die but liue euer And where other Mosulmans say La ylla yllala Mahamet resullalla the Persians say La ylla yllala Ismael vellilalla reputing him a God and a Prophet I haue learned that Ismael is not contented to be called or worshipped as god Their custome is to weare red Bonnets with a certaine thing like a girdle large below and straighter vpwards made with twelue folds a finger thick signifying the twelue Sacraments of their sect or those twelue brethren nephewes of Ali. Ismael was of faire countenance of reasonable stature thicke and large in the shoulders shauen all but the mustachees left-handed stronger then any of his Nobles but giuen to Sodomie At his second comming to Tauris hee caused to take twelue of the fairest boyes in the City to serue his lust and after gaue to each of his Nobles one for the like purpose before tooke ten of the best mens sonnes for the same intent Thus farre haue wee had commerce with this namelesse Persian Merchant in Ramusius his shop who sometime attended on his Court and Campe Others adde hereutto that he sent Embassadours to all the Mahumetan Princes of the East to receiue that Red-hat Ensigne together with his Sect as did his sonne Tammas after him when Nizzamulucco onely accepted thereof But it is the common opinion that the greatest part of the Mahumetans in Soria and of Asia Minor are secretly of that Sect Ismael after this warred and wonne vpon the Zagatai Tartars and other adiacent Nations that hee left vnto his successours a verie great estate reaching from the Caspian Sea to the Persian and betweene the Lake Iocco and Tygris the Riuer Abbiam and the Kingdome of Cambaya more then twentie Degrees from East to West and eighteene from North to South Hee ordained a new Lyturgie and forme of Praier differing from the ancient Such was his authoritie that they would sweare By the Head of Ismael and blesse his name saying Ismael grant thee thy desire Vpon his Coyne on the one side was written La illahe illalahu Muhamedun resulalallahe And on the other Ismaill halife lullahe that is Ismael the Vicar of GOD. The Iewes at the first had this Ismael in such admiration that they foolishly reckoned Ismael to be their promised Messias gratulating themselues in this conceit thorowout the most part of Europe celebrating festiuall Solemnities with mutuall Presents in testimonie of their ioy which yet was soone dashed none hating the Iewes more then Ismael He lieth buried at Ardouil in a faire Meskit with a sumptuous Sepulchre made by himselfe in his life time where is a faire Stone Hospitall erected by him for strangers allowing to all trauellers three daies reliefe for horse and man freely Ardouil is in latitude thirtie eight degrees The life of Ismael had beene answerable to the bloudie presages in his ominous birth for he came forth of his mothers wombe with both his hands shut and full of bloud for which cause his father would not haue brought him vp but commanded him to be slaine but they which carried him away moued with compassion secretly nourished him three yeeres and after presented him to his father who then acknowledged and receiued him with loue and kindnesse for this his bloudie and warre-like spirit dwelt in a louely and amiable bodie adorned with all the Ensignes of beautie Hee died Anno 1524. HONGIVS his Map of PERSIA PERSICUM REGNUM §. IIII. Of SHAVGH TAMAS the Persian troubles after his death SCHIACH THECMES or Shaugh Tamas succeeded and reigned aboue fiftie yeeres Hee liued deuoutly and yet for their Law reconcileth both verie voluptuously
to his Scepter The people he remoued into other parts of his Dominion sending the former inhabitants into Cheylan and Mazandran Not long after the brother of that King of Corassan which had beene Tutor to Abas rebelled against his brother and slew him and all his children except one with whom his Tutors fled into the Mountaines This occasion Abas apprehended for the subduing of that Countrey in the Infants right which notwithstanding the treasons of Ferrat now weary of his former loyalty and conspiring with the Turke and Tartar to betray his Master to them hee effected These things with larger circumstances Abas himselfe related to Sir Anthonie and Sir Robert As for his gouernment the same is there also described but I haue beene too long in the former Hee hath Posts once a weeke from all parts The Visire sitteth in counsell with the Kings counsell euery morning and the King himselfe euery Wednesday The poorest may offer him any supplication which he readeth registreth ordereth One example of Iustice is admirable which he sentenced on the Gouernour of Casbin conuict of many extortions briberies and other crimes That all his goods and lands should be sold for satisfaction to those whom hee had spoyled and if any thing wanted since the King by giuing him that authoritie was partly the cause of those excesses hee condemned himselfe to pay the residue out of his treasurie If any thing aduanced it should bee giuen to his children with a grieuous Edict that no succour should be ministred to himselfe Neither should hee at once end his punishment by death but during his life weare a Yoke like a Hogs-yoke and haue his eares and nose cut off nor might any relieue him but hee should get his liuing with his owne hands that hee might feele in himselfe the miserie of pouertie This made the Turks Embassador there present sweare that such fortune such vertue must needs be his Masters ruine His bountie to our Author his magnificence otherwise let the Reader there learne as likewise his priuate disports and exercises At his entrance into Hisphaan the wayes were couered two English miles with Veluet Satin and Cloth of Gold where his horse should passe He feasted Sir Anthony before his employment in that honorable Embassage to the Princes Christian after the maner of the ancient feasting vsed by the Persians thirty dayes together in a Garden of two miles compasse vnder Tents pitched by small rils of water where euery man that would come was placed according to his degree vnder one or other Tent prouided abundantly with meate fruit and wine drinking as they would without compulsion The ioy of which feast was augmented by the Tartars of Buckhawrd yeelding themselues to his subiection and by the great Mogors great offer with his eldest sonnes daughter to the young sonne of King Abas in marriage But I referre the more desirous to Sir Anthonies owne booke hauing thence gathered this because it differeth so much in some things from others then whom he had farre better meanes of intelligence CHAP. IX Of the Sophian Sect or Persian Religion as it is at this present §. I. The differences betwixt the Turke and Persian with the zeale of both parts IT hath beene already shewed how the Saracens had one Calyfa or Caliph whom they esteemed the Head of their Religion and Empire in right vnto both succeeding their grand Seducer Mahomet and how the foure Captaines or Doctors each ayming vnder colour of Religion to further his ambitious Proiects made way to difference of Sects in the beginning and in succeeding Ages the Sword decided who was rghtfull successor the posterity of each challenging to himselfe that right according as they were able in the Fielde to maintaine it These Persians affected Hali as truest interpreter of their Law and Lord of the State to whom Mahomet gaue his daughter in his life time and his Alcoran at his death being his kinsman also by birth and although by the violence of the contradicting Caliphes they did not alway make hereof open profession yet euer and anone as occasion was offered this fire brake out yet neuer into so great a flame as after the yeere 1369. by Sophi Guine Aidar Ismael and their successors vnto this day their Sect being that onely of the seuenty two Saracenicall so many some account which shall in the Persian estimation haue admission into Paradise all the rest and why not this also leading to hell From that diuision betwixt the Persians and Arabians about the successor of Mahomet it is Barrius his Relation in which the Persians call themselues Sia which signifieth the vnion of one body but the Arabians call them Raffadin that is vnreasonable and themselues Cunin proceeded other Sects amongst the Mahumetans and amongst the Persians two called Camarata and Mutazeli which follow little the saying of the Prophets but would haue all proued to them by naturall reason not allowing Moses or Mahomet any further There is one Sect amongst them called Malaheda which subiecteth all things to Chance and to the Stars not to Diuine Prouidence There are other called Emozaidi which reiect many things in the Alcoran and follow the doctrine of Zaidi the Nephew of Hocem second sonne of Ali these inhabite on the confines of Prester Iohn and in Melinde But to come to the common Persians and to obserue out of Barrius the diuersity of opinion betwixt them and the Arabians their Doctors reduce these differences into seuenteene conclusions The Persians say That GOD is the Author and worker of euery good and that euill commeth from the Deuill The Arabians say That would bring in two Gods one of good the other of euill the Persians say that God is eternall and that the law and creation of men had a beginning the Arabians answere That all the words of the law are prayses of the works of God and therefore eternall like himselfe the Persians say That the soules of the blessed in the other world cannot see the essence of God because he is a Spirit of Diuinity onely they shall see his greatnesse mercy pitty all other good things which he works in the creatures the Arabians answere That they shall see him with their eyes euen as hee is the Persians say That when Mahomet receiued the Law his soule was carried by the Angel Gabriel into the presence of God the Arabians affirme it of his body also the Persians say That the children of Ali or Alle and Fatema and their twelue Nephewes haue preheminence aboue all Prophets the Arabians grant it aboue all other men but not aboue the Prophets the Persians say that it is sufficient to pray thrice a day vnto God in the morning when the Sunne riseth which is called Sob the second Dor at noone the third Magareb before Sunne-set because these three containe all the parts of the day the Arabians require twice besides according to their law called Hacer and Assa The rest of
dayes there to abide without any sustenance but when this time was expired and some wondered one more nose-wise then the rest smelled the sent of flesh the Sultan hearing it committed him and his disciple to the Cadilasher who by torments caused them to confesse the coozenage for thorow a hole which was made in the wall by a caue he had broth conueyed to him and therefore they were both put to death In the yeere 1478. Chozamirech an Armenian being in his shop in Tauris an Azi or Saint of theirs came to him and willed him to deny his Christian faith he answered him courteously and prayed him not to trouble him but when he persisted hee offered him money the Saint would not haue the money but importuned his first sute Chozomirech sayd hee would not deny his Christian faith whereupon the other plucked a sword out of a mans scabard which stood by and with a wound which hee gaue the Armenian in the head killed him and ranne away But the Armenians sonne complayning to the Sultan procured his apprehension at Merin two dayes iourney from Tauris and being brought before him he with a knife killed him vvith his owne hands and caused him to be cast on a dung-hill for the dogges to eate saying Is this the way to encrease the faith of Mahomet But when some of the more zealous people went to one Daruiscassun which was in guarding of the sepulchre of Assambei the former Sultan and as it were Prior of the Hospitall and requesting of him obtayned the body to burie it the Sultan hearing it sent for him and sayde to him Darest thou countermand my commands Away and kill him which was suddenly dispatched Hee further to be reuenged of the people committed the Towne to the sack which for the space of three or foure houres was done And then he forbad further spoyle and fined the Towne in a great summe of gold Lastly hee caused the Armenians sonne to come before him and with many kind words comforted him This long history I haue inserted to shew the extremity of blind zeale and religious fury in the seculars and votaries of these Persians if iustice should not withstand their rage Before is mentioned the commemorations of their dead which is thus performed ouer their Sepulchres Thither resort great multitudes of men and women olde and yong which sit on heapes with their Priests and with their candles lighted the Priests eyther reade or pray in their language and after cause to bee brought somewhat to eate in the place the place containeth betweene foure and fiue miles the pathes which leade thither are full of poore people which beg almes some of whom offer to say some prayer for their benefactors The sepulchres haue stones vpon them engrauen with the names of the buried parties and some haue a Chappell of stone thereon At Merdin he saw a naked man which came and sate by him and pulling forth a booke read thereon and after drew neere and asked him whence he was hee answered a strangerâ— I also am a stranger saith he of this world and so are we all and therefore I haue left it with purpose to goe thus vnto mine end with many words besides touching meekenesse and the deniall of the world He said I haue seene a great part thereof and finde nothing therein that contents me and therefore haue determined to abandon it altogether To this Merdina man cannot passe but by a way made of stone continuing a mile at the head therof is a gate and way to the Towne and within the Towne is another hill with a like way of fiue hundred pases in height There is an Hospitall for entertainment of all strangers made by Ziangirboi the brother of Vsuncassan and if they be of better sort they are entertained with carpets spread for them worth an hundred ducats a peece and victuals for all commers We might heere take further view of their stately Temples their great and populous Cities and other things worthy obseruation if that our Turkish History had not related the like also among them especially touching the persons and places religious For the rest I referre the Reader to other Authors The present King Abas more as it seemeth in policie to secure himselfe of factions and against the Turke then conscience is a great persecutor of that sect of Mahomet which followeth the interpretation of Vssen and Omar This hee labours to extirpate and make odious hauing in vse once a yeere with great solemnitie to burne publikely as maine heretikes the images of Vssen and Omar Then doth he cause his great men publikely in scorne of their institution to goe with a flagon of wine carried by a footman and at euery village or where they see any assembly of people to drinke which himselfe also vseth not for loue of the wine but to scandalize the contrarie religion Yet are there of the greatest exceeding precise Turkes if they durst shew it In a Letter of Iohn Ward written in Tauris May 14. 1605. this King is blamed for making slaues of poore Armenians and forcing many to Mahumetisme pulling downe Churches and vsing more rigour then the Turke §. IIII. Of Natures wonders and the Iesuits lyes of Persia THe wonders of Nature in these parts are neere Bachu a fountaine of oyle continually running and fetched into the farthest parts of Persia and another neere Shamakie of Tarre whereof we had good vse and proofe in our ship Hereabouts you shall haue in the fields neere to any Village in the night two or three hundred Foxes howling Kine they haue like ours and another sort great boned and leane as hard sauoured as those which Pharaoh dreamed of In Persia groweth great abundance of Bombasin cotton this groweth on a certaine tree or brier not past the height of a mans waste with a slender stalk like to a brier or carnation Iuly-flower with very many branches bearing on euery branch a fruit or cod round which when it commeth to the bignesse of a Wall-nut openeth and sheweth forth the cotton which groweth still like a fleece of wooll to the bignesse of a mans fist and then being loose is gathered the seeds are flat and blacke as big as pease which they sow in their fields and plowed ground in great abundance I had thought I had ended this Chapter and our Persian Expedition but our good friends the Iesuites would needs entertaine your wearie eyes with reading an exploit of theirs related by one sometimes their fellow Catholike now I hope our fellow Christian For the credit of this honest and loyall of their honest returne not with a non est and loyall with a â—â—e all societie was a French pamphlet by them dispersed a little before the Powder-treason amongst their Catholike friends in England reporting the miraculous conuersion of the King of Persia by one Campian a Iesuite an English-man that had expelled a Deuill out of a possessed partie and commanded the Deuill
with the Riuer running thorow the Citie turning it out of the chanell Thence they passed into Russia and made foule hauocke there destroying Kiou the chiefe Citie They proceeded against the Hungarians and Polonians and in their returne inuaded the Morduans being Pagans and conquered them in battaile Then they marched against the people called Byleri or Bulgaria magna and vtterly wasted the Countrey From hence they proceeded towards the North against the people called Bastarci or Hungaria magna and hauing conquered them subdued also the Parossitae and Samogetae thence proceeding vnto the Ocean Sea At the same time Occoday sent Cerpodan against Kergis who subdued them in battaile These are Pagans hauing no beardes at all They haue a custome when any of their fathers die in token of lamentation to draw as it were a Leather thong ouerthwart their faces from one eare to the other Hence hee marched with his forces Southward against the Armenians which they conquered with part of Georgia receiuing tribute of the other part and from thence into the Dominions of the mightie Soldan called Deurum whom they vanquished in fight And to be short they went on further sacking and conquering euen vnto the Soldan of Aleppo whose Countries they subdued They marched against the Caliph of Baldach and exacted at his hands the daily tribute of foure hundred Byzantines besides Baldakines and other gifts Thus farre of their Conquests out of Frier Iohn aforesaid who was in person with Bathy or Baydo and at the Court of Cuine the Emperour Haithon calleth Baydo the second sonne of Occoday or Hoccota Can affirming That hee sent his three sonnes Iochi into the West as farre as Tygris Baydo towards the North and Chagoday towards the South Hee sent also one Baydo whither the same or another with thirtie thousand horse against the Soldan of the Turks whose Realme hee subdued in the yeere 1244. He addeth That Baydo hauing conquered Cumania which hee confineth on the East with the Corasmians on the West with the Euxine on the North with Cassia haply Casan on the South with the Riuer Etil he subdued Russia Gazaria Bulgaria and so passing into Austria following the streame of his victories in the passage of a great streame was there drowned His heires succeeded him in the places which he had conquered which Seignorie Tochay possessed in Haithons time This Historie of Baydo his death is not likely For Yvo of Narbona in an Epistle to the Archbishop of Burdeaux recorded by Matth. Paris in the yeere 1243. saith That in the same present summer they had departed out of Hungarie and laid siege to Neustat wherein this Yvo then was and in the yeere 1246. Frier Iohn was with the said Baydo who also rehearseth that Hungarian Expedition and his returne vnto those parts about Volga or Etil Likewise William de Rubruquis a Frier Minorite was sent to Baatu so he calleth him from Lewes the French King in Anno 1253. And to this agreeth Mathias a Michou in his Sarmatian Historie who witnesseth That in the yeere 1241. the Tartars vnder Bathu came into Russia and destroied Kiou a Citie before stately and beautifull hauing in it three hundred Churches and more very faire of which some remaine to this day among the shrubs and briers receptacles for wilde beasts It was the Seat of the Metropolitan who had vnder him many Bishops thorow Moldauia Valachia Russia and Muscouia Hee sent Peta into Polonia who destroied the Countrey and on Ashwednesday turned Cracouia into ashes abandoned before both of the Prince and People and after ouerthrew Duke Henrie and other Noblemen with the forces of the Countrie assembled against them together with Pompo the great Master of the Dutch Order in Prussia in which battaile a certaine Tartarian Standard-bearer carrying in a great Standard the Greeke letter X and on the top of the staffe a blacke and terrible Image with a long beard began with inchantment strongly to shake the head of the Image whereupon a smoake and cloud of intolerable stinke was presently dispersed ouer the Polonians and they became heartlesse and vnable to fight Duke Henrie and Duke Boleslaus and Pompo with the flower of their Nobility were heere slaine and the Countrie miserably spoiled From hence they went into Morauia where they put all to fire and sword more then a moneth together and thence to Hungary to Bathy who entred Hungarie with 500000. souldiers where first ouerthrowing those forces which King Bela had sent to prohibite them passage they after chased the King himselfe with the power of his Kingdome opposing himselfe against them out of the field who fled into Austria and after into Sclauonia leauing his Countrey a prey to the Tartars who making spoile on that side of Danubius the next Winter passed ouer the Riuer then frozen and filled all with bloud and slaughter Bathy sent Cadan to pursue the King into Sclauonia still fleeing before him who wasted Bosna Seruia and Bulgaria And after two yeeres sackage in Hungarie they passed by the fennes of Maeotis into Tartaria and haply had returned to make fresh spoiles in Europe if the Embassage of Pope Innocent had not diuerted their purpose or rather that Occaday their great Chan being about that time poisoned they were to expect a new Commission from his successour which was Cuine who when he was installed euen in the presence of Fryer Iohn the Popes Legat erected a Banner against all Kingdomes of the Christians except they would bee subiect to him for their intent was to subdue all the world as Cyngis Cham had ordained and the superscription of his Seale was God in Heauen and Cuine Chan vpon Earth the strength of God the Seale of the Emperour of all men Hee kept his Court vsually in the land of Naymans the plaines whereof were extended like to the Sea without the rising of any hill The cold most eager and sharpe till March little winde nor snow except in the end of Aprill At Caracarum Rubruquis met with an English man borne in Hungaria which was expert in many languages his name was Basilius Heere hee found two Mosches and one Church §. III. Of MANGV CAN and his successor CVELAI BVt Cuine in short time after died and left the Empire to Mangu Can to whom Aytonus the Armenian King went voluntarily in person about the yeere 1257. and receiuing gracious entertainement made vnto him seuen petitions first That he and his people should become Christians secondly That there should be perpetuall peace betweene the Tartars and Christians thirdly That in all Countries conquered by the Tartars the Churches and Clergie-men of the Christians should bee free from seruitude and tribute fourthly That hee would redeeme the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land from the Saracens fifthly That hee would destroy the Caliph of Baldack sixthly That himselfe might haue aid as neede should require in his defence of such Tartars as were neere vnto Armenia seuenthly
Hunting and Hawking If one hath buried a Male-child and another a Female the Parents contract a marriage betwixt those two and painting in papers Seruants Horses Clothes and Houshold and making writings for the confirmation of the Dower burne these things in the fire by the smoake whereof they in their smokie conceits imagine all these things to be carried and confirmed to their children in the other world and the Parents of the two dead parties claime kindred each of other as if they indeed had married their children while they liued In Xamdu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall wherein are fertile Meddowes pleasant Springs delightfull Streames and all sorts of beasts of chase and game and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure which may be remoued from place to place Here hee doth abide in the moneths of Iune Iuly and August on the eight and twentieth day whereof hee departeth thence to another place to doe sacrifice on this manner He hath a Heard or Droue of Horses and Mares about ten thousand as white as snow of the milke whereof none may taste except hee bee of the bloud of Cingis Can. Yea the Tartars doe these beasts great reuerence nor dare any crosse their way or goe before them According to the direction of his Astrologers or Magicians he on the eight and twentieth of August aforesaid spendeth and poureth forth with his owne hands the milke of these Mares in the ayre and on the earth to giue drinke to the Spirits and Idols which they worship that they may preserue the men women beasts birds corne and other things growing on the earth These Astrologers or Necromancers are in their Art maruellous When the skie is cloudy and threatneth raine they will ascend the roofe of the Palace of the Grand Can and cause the raine and tempests to fall round about without touching the said Palace These which thus doe are called Tebeth and Chesmir two sorts of Idolaters which delude the people with opinion of their sanctitie imputing these workes to their dissembled holinesse and for this cause they goe in filthy and beastly manner not caring who seeth them with dirt on their faces neuer washing nor combing themselues And if any bee condemned to death they take dresse and eate him which they doe not if any die naturally They are also called Bachsi that is of such a Religion or Order as if one should say a Frier-Preacher or Minor and are exceedingly expert in their diuellish Art They cause that the Bottles in the Hall of the Great Can doe fill the Bowles of their owne accord which also without mans helpe passe ten paces through the ayre into the hands of the said Can and when hee hath drunke in like sort returne to their place These Bachsi sometimes resort vnto the Officers and threaten plagues or other misfortune from their Idols which to preuent they desire so many Muttons with black heads and so many pounds of Incense and Lignum Aloei to performe their due sacrifices Which they accordingly receiue and offer on their Feast-day sprinkling Broth before their Idols There be of these great Monasteries which seeme like a small Citie in some whereof are two thousand Monkes which shaue their heads and beards and weare a religious habite and hallow their Idols Feasts with great solemnitie of Hymnes and Lights Some of these may bee married Other there are called Sensim an Order which obserueth great abstinence and strictnesse of life in all their life eating nothing but Bran which they put in hot water and let it stand till all the white of the meale bee taken away and then eate it being thus washed These worship the Fire and are condemned of the other for Heretikes because they worship not their Idols and will not marry in any case They are shauen and weare hempen-garments of black or bright yellow and although they were Silke yet would they not alter the colour They sleepe on great Mats and liue the austerest life in the world Of their Astrologers in Cambalu were not fewer then fiue thousand Christians Catayans and Saracens maintained with food and rayment at the Great Cans charge These by their Astrolabe foretell of the change of weather mortalitie warres diseases c. And if any enterprise any great worke he resorteth vnto them and telling the houre of his Natiuitie by their Art is informed of the successe They hold the soule to be immortall and according to euery mans merits in his life to passe into a more noble creature till it be deified or ignoble as to a Pesant and then to a Dogge and so by degrees to the vilest They shew much reuerence to their Parents to whom if any bee vngratefull in their necessitie there is an Office and Officers appointed to trie and punish the offence In the Emperours hall none dare spit but for that purpose carrieth a little vessell to spit in nor dare any there make any noyse or loud talking The Tartars were at first very vncharitable to the poore and would curse them saying That if God had loued them he would haue prouided for them but after the Idolatrous Bachsi had commended Almes for a good worke there was great prouision made for them and euery day at least twentie thousand dishes of Rice Mill and Panike by certaine Officers distributed amongst them And for this liberalitie they adore him as a God Cingis amongst his first Lawes enacted as saith Vincentius the punishment of death to bee inflicted vpon offenders in those three vices which before time had beene most rife amongst them namely lying adulterie and theft of which yet towards other men that were not Tartars they made no conscience They are great Vsurers taking ten in the hundreth for a moneth besides vse vpon vse insomuch that a Souldier in Georgia which had borrowed fiue hundred pieces of coyne called Yperpera retaining the same fiue yeeres was constrained to repay seuen thousand And a Tartarian Lady for seuen yeeres vse of fiftie sheepe demanded seuen thousand Yperpera They are so couetous that though they abound in cattell they will scarce allow any to their owne expence while it is sound and good but if it die or be sicke They are addicted to Sodomie or Buggerie They eate sometimes for necessitie mans flesh sometimes to delight themselues and sometimes to terrifie others reckoning it a great glorie to haue slaine many and that by varietie of crueltie Their heads they shaue from eare to eare in manner of a Horse-shooe wearing long lockes at their eares and neckes There bee some of the Tartars which when they see their fathers grow old and diseased they giue them fat meates which may choake them And when they are thus dead they burne their bodies reseruing the ashes as a precious jewell sprinkling their meates with that powder But if any thinke not this enough which I am
which are dried Flesh Cheese Garlicke Rootes and a spare Horse for food besides a better for seruice Their haires tied to long poles are their banners onely the Prince receiueth from the Turke one of silke Both Horse and Men are exceeding skilfull in swimming In passing ouer large streames they set their Saddles and Baggage on Reedes or Rushes which they tye to diuers Horse-tailes themselues holding them by the Manes and guiding them sometimes they sit themselues on those Rushes and sometimes they kill and flay some of their Horses and turning the inside outward timbering them with the ribs of the Horse and sowing them with the hayre make Boates for transportation They take off the wheeles of their Carts and setting them on Rushes as aforesaid transport them The spoile is diuided in common and euery mans losse thence made good to conceale any thing is death whether pillaged from the enemie or found of their owne people In the yeere 1571. they came to Musco and fired the Suburbs which being of wood burned with such rage that in foure houres space it consumed the greatest part of the Citie being thirtie miles or more in compasse The rufulnesse of this sight was seconded with a more dismall euent the people burning in their houses and streets and whiles they sought to flye out of the Citie they wedged themselues with multitude so fast in the Gate which was furthest from the enemie and the streets adioyning as that three rankes walked one vpon the others heads the vppermost treading downe those that were lower so that there perished at that time as was said by the fire and the presse the number of eight hundred thousand people or more The Tartar sent the Russe a knife as vpbraiding him this losse and his desperate case therewith to stab himselfe The cause of this quarrell is the Tartars title to Cazan Astracan and Mosco it selfe which the Moscouite was wont to acknowledge with this homage yeerely in the Castle of Mosko to giue the Cans or Crims Horse Oates out of his Cap himselfe on foot the Crim abiding on his Horse This homage Basilius changed into a tribute of Furres which also by his sonne Iohn was denyed Hereupon once or twice euery yeere sometime about Whitsontide but oftner in haruest hee inuadeth the Country either in great numbers if the Can himselfe come or otherwise in fewer with lighter border-skirmishes Their common practise is to make diuers Armies and drawing the Russe to one place to inuade another They are all Horse-men carrying nothing but a Bow a sheafe of Arrowes and a Fauchion Sword they are expert Riders and shoot as readily backward as forward The Morses or Nobles haue Armour like the Turkes the Common-people none other then their apparell viz. a Black-sheeps skin with the wooll-side outward in the day time and inward in the night with a cap of the same They haue a rule that Iustice is to be practised but towards their own and therefore will promise any thing when they besiege a Citie but being once possessed of the place performe all manner of hostilitie When their number is small they make greater shew with counterfeit shapes of men set on horse-backe In giuing onset they make a great shout crying together Olla billa Olla billa they will dye rather then yeeld contrary to the Turkes custome The chiefe bootie they seeke for is store of Captiues specially yong boyes and girles for which purpose they haue bands intending nothing else and baskets like Bakers Pannyers to carrie them tenderly If they tyre or sicken on the way they dash them against the ground or some tree and so leaue them dead The Russe borders being vsed to their inuasions keepe few other cattell but Swine which their Religion abhorreth to touch They differ herein from the Turkish Religion that they haue certaine Idoll puppets made of silke or like stuffe of the fashion of a man which they fasten to the doore of their walking-houses to be as Ianusses or Keepers of their house And these Idols are made not by all but by certaine Religious women which they haue among them for that and like vses They haue besides the Image of their King of an huge bignesse which they erect at euerie Stage when the Armie marcheth to which euery one must bow as he passeth by both Tartar and Stranger They are much giuen to Witch-craft and ominous coniectures In marriage they onely abstaine from the Mother Sister and Daughter neither doe they account that woman a wife which hath not honoured them with the name of a Father and then beginneth he to take a dowrie of her friends of Horse Sheepe Kine c. If shee bee barren after a certaine time he turneth her home againe Vnder the Emperour they haue certaine Dukes or Morseys which rule ouer hords of ten twentie or fortie thousand which are bound to serue the Emperour with a certaine number of men double-horsed They preferre horse-flesh before other meates esteeming it stronger nourishment this notwithstanding they vsed to send thirtie or fortie thousand horse yeerely to Musko to exchange for other commodities Their Herds of Kine and Flocks of black Sheepe they keepe rather for the Milke then the Flesh though they sometime eate it They drinke Milke or warme Bloud and for the most part curde them both together as they trauell they sometime let their horse bloud and drinke it from his bodie Townes they plant none not standing Villages but haue walking houses built vpon wheeles like a Shepherds Cottage which they moue in the Spring from the South to the North and so with Winter returne Southwards when they come to their Stage or standing Place planting their houses in a rank making the forme of a Towne and Streets Gold and siluer they neglect as they do also Tillage which freeth their Countrey from inuasions For person and complexion they haue broad and flat visages of a tanned colour into yellow and blacke fierce and cruell lookes thin haired vpon the vpper lip and pit of the chin light and nimble bodied with short legs practising themselues to ride and shoot from their child-hood their Parents not suffering their children to eate till they haue shot within a certaine scantling of the marke Their speech is sudden and loud as it were out of a deepe hollow throat their singing like a Cowes lowing In the description of these Crims I haue been thus long because they are now the chiefe knowne Nation of the wandring Tartars and the rest differ little from them except in greater Barbarisme Master George Barkly a friend of mine a Merchant in London hauing trauelled Liuonia Russia Lithuania and Poland went from Cracouia with a Tartar Duke which had come thither to the Parliament to sue for his two Daughters taken by the Polachs and staied with him in his hords which consisted of about a thousand housholds of a kindred six moneths These Tartars sowed a three square graine called Totarka
in pompous Processions through the streets which the chiefe Inhabitants at certaine times obserue at the common cost of the Neighbours all about This Sect hath a Prelate called Ciam which dignitie these thousand yeeres together hath descended by inheritance and seemes to haue receiued originall from a Southsayer which liued in a Caue in the Prouince of Quiamsi where his posteritie still continue and with them his iuggling sorceries This their Prelate liue for the most part at Paquin in estimation with the King being admitted into the Palace for hallowings and chasing away ill spirits Hee is carryed through the Citie in a chayre otherwise accomplished as the chiefe Magistrates and receiues a large salarie of the King I haue heard that in these times the Prelates are so ignorant that they know not their owne Deuillish charmes and rites This Prelate hath no iurisdiction ouer any but those of his profession Many of these doe worke by Alchimy to obtaine the Precepts of longer liuing of both which their Saints they say left certaine rules There are the three Sects of the Chinois which are since by their vaine Sectaries so diuersifyed that they may seeme rather three hundred Hum-vu that raised his now raigning Family to the Scepter was himselfe professed Religious in one of these Sects and authorised all three Sects admitting onely the first to the Gouernment Hence it is that One seekes not the ruine of the Other Sect and the Kings themselues foster all as they see occasion building and repairing their Temples The Queenes are more prone to the Idoll Sects and bestow much almes on the Priests maintaining whole Monasteries to be helped by their prayers The multitude of Idols is seene not onely in the Temples but in priuate houses in a place appointed after the fashion of the Countrey in the Market-place in Streets Ships publike Palaces and yet it is certaine that few beleeue their Legends but thinke if these things do them no good they yet will doe them no harme The wisest in these times thinke that all these three Sects may concurre and bee all obserued together and esteeme varietie most acceptable From this hotchpotch vniting and separating perhaps haue risen those confused and various reports of these confusions and varieties of rites wherin if any haue like pleasure in varietie and be wearie of hearing Ricius and Trigautius the latest spectators I will not defraud them of those things which out of former Authors I had more confusedly before gathered They haue if Mendoza be not mendar many Monasteries of foure differing orders of Religion distinguished by the seuerall colours of their habit black yellow white and russet These foure Orders are said to haue their Generalls whom they call Tricon which reside in Paquin These ordaine Prouincials who againe haue subordinated to them the Priors of seuerall Houses or Colledges in those their houses acknowledged chiefe The Generall is clothed with silke in his owne colour and is carryed on mens shoulders in an Iuorie chaire by foure or six men of his habit They liue partly of reuenues giuen them by the King partly by begging which when they do they carry in their hands a certaine thing wherein are prayers written whereon the almes are laid and the giuer thereby cleered of his money I should haue said of his sinne They are shauen vse beades eate together and haue their Cells assist at burialls arise two houres before day to pray vnto the Heauen and Sinquian who they say was the inuenter of that their manner of life and became a Saint in which their deuotion they continue vntill breake of day singing and ringing of bells They may not marry in the time of their Monkish deuotion but they may acquainting the Generalls therewith at there pleasure relinquish their vow The eldest sonnes may not enter into Religion because they are bound to sustaine their aged Parents At the admittance of any is a great feast made by their friends At the lanching of any ship they dedicate the same to the Moone or some Idoll and besides there resort thither these Monkes to make sacrifices in the poope and reuerence the Deuill whom they paint in the fore-castle that he may doe them no harme Else would shee make an vnfortunate voyage The people weare long haire in combing whereof they are womanishly curious these hoping by their locks to be carryed into Heauen the other professing a state of greater perfection refuse any such helpe There be of their religious more austere which liue in desarts and solitary places the liues of Hermites with great abstinence and austeritie of life Nancan is a Citie at the foot of Mount Liu on which are many Anchorets which haue each a house by himselfe and there exercise themselues in voluntary chastisements There are said to be as many of those houses on this Hill as are dayes in the yeere they obserue it as a prodigie that when it is elsewhere cleere sun-shine there it is cloudie and mystie alway so that the Hill cannot be seene from a Lake neere it which Lake also deserues mention being great and as farre as the eye can discerne crowned with innumerable Townes Castles and Habitations They haue Hils consecrated to Idols whither they resort in heapes on pilgrimage hoping hereby to merit pardon of their sinnes and that after their death they shall be borne againe more noble and wealthy Some of these will not kill any liuing creatures especially such as are tame in regard of this their Pythagorean opinion of the transanimation or passage of soules into beasts The Iesuites conuerted one man neere vnto Nanquin which had thirtie yeeres together obserued a fast not strange among the Chinois neuer eating flesh or fish and on other things feeding temperately Vsurers are punished in China with the losse of that money so imployed Their fast is not a totall abstinence but from flesh and fish Of their Priests is before shewed that they haue both secular and regular the one weareth long hayre and black clothes and hath priuate habitation the other liue in Couents and are shauen Neither may marrie though both doe and not here alone farre worse They much commend in their bookes the consideration and examination of a mans selfe and therefore doe esteeme highly of them which sequester themselues from humane societie to diuine contemplation that as they say they may restore themselues to themselues and to that pristine state wherein the Heauen created them And therefore haue not onely Colledges of learned men who leauing the affaires of state and secular distractions doe in priuate Villages liue together obseruing these contemplations with mutuall conferences but euen women also haue their Nunneries liue a Monastical life vnder their Abbesses after their manner although euen such as are marryed liue closely enough their feet to this end so straitly swadled in their infancie that they grow but little and to haue little feet is with them great
serue one thousand of them a day When the wormes by reason of that chaine breeding in his flesh fell off he would place it there againe and aske if it had nothing to gnaw His carkasse is still kept there to which are pilgrimages out of all the Kingdome and this Temple built to his honor The Regulars are diuided into twelue stations and each hath a Superior besides One supreme ouer all the rest They professed chastitie but their house was both a stewes for whoredome and a denne of theeues and robbers Here were many huge Idols of brasse and other metall and of wood gilded in one station fiue hundred They had diuers steeples and bells in them one so great that they had neuer seene so great a bell in Europe The Corpse of Lusu was shewed them which they worship but many doubt whether it be the true for could it escape the wormes which had seised on it aliue kept in the midst of the Temple in a high place where hang fiftie lamps which burne at appointed times The Abbot of this Monasterie confessed that in ancient times the Chinois had worshipped no Idols but that they were politically appointed by Magistrates lest the vulgar should bee without all Religion They haue their Chappels in great mens houses But we will take view onely of the Kings Temple at Nanquin and so end This is a Royall one indeed for greatnesse and statelinesse It is built in a groue of Pine-trees neere the Citie which is compast with a wall twelue miles in circuit The Temple after the China manner of building is most of timber the wals of brick diuided into fiue Iles with rowes of pillars on both sides which are of round timber as big as two men can fathome the roofe is carued and guilded verie faire hauing lost nothing of the beautie though not vsed by the Kings for sacrifice in this their two hundred yeeres absence In the midst is an eminent place of precious Marble in which are two Thrones of Marble one for the King to sacrifice in the other left emptie for him to whom he doth sacrifice The Cloisters without the Temple are beautified with elegant turnings and all the windowes netted with yron to keepe out birds which is vsed also in all the Palace All the doores of the Temple are couered with plates of brasse guilded and richly carued without the Temple are many Altars of red Marble which represented the Sun Moone Starres and China Mountaines whereby they inferre that the god there worshipped created all things which are therefore set without the Temple as acknowledged not to be gods No man vnder grieuous penalties may cut a bough off any of the trees in that groue which makes them great and old About the Temple are many Cels which were baths in which the Kings and Ministers washed before sacrifice There Altars are of the Dutch fashion that one may goe round about them §. IX Of their Funeralls THe Chinois are very superstitiously conceited of Death and are exceeding loth to haue any die in their house Linschoten writeth That when a man lies on his death-bed they present vnto him the picture of the Deuill with the Sunne in his right hand and a Poniard in his left bidding the sicke man looke well on him that hee may be his friend in the other world How euer the sicke be visited let vs now performe our last office to these Chinois and follow them to their graues Many are the Ceremonies which they there obserue in Funerals As they honor their parents in their life time being otherwise lyable to grieuous punishments yea some of their chiefest Mandarines will sue for the Kings licence to leaue their publike function to giue priuat and more diligent attendance to their parents so after their death they mourne three yeeres in white Hats and Garments although they beare the highest Magistracies in the Kingdome as the Colai c. the militarie Magistrates excepted The first moneths they gird vnto them a rough Vesture with a rope like the bare-foot Friers This is not onely obserued of the meaner sort but the mightiest Mandarines after newes of their fathers death leaue their function and in their priuate houses bewaile their losse The wealthier sort keepe them aboue ground two or three yeeres in a Parlour fitted for that purpose whither they daily resort vnto them to salute them and to burne Incense and set meates before them Sometimes also the Bonzij or Priests resort thither with their Dirges and holy things Their wiues children and neighbours come likewise to bewaile them being admonished of the death by the sonne or neerest of the kindred in a solemne Libell mournfully composed The Hall is spread with white Clothes or Matts in the midst thereof is an Altar and thereon the Coffin and Image of the dead To that Hall within foure or fiue dayes all the kindred come in mourning attyre one after another euery houre of the day and burne odours and set two Wax-lights to the dead making foure bowings and kneelings after their fashion before deliuered the sonne meane while standing by and modestly lamenting Behind the Coffin are the women of the house hid behind a curtaine in mourning weedes and howling behauiour They burne Paper and white Silkes so thinking to minister apparell to the dead They will not vse their wonted lodging diet and delights but lye on Straw Mattresses on the bare ground neere the Coffin eate no Flesh or Dainties drinke no Wine Bathe not companie not with their Wiues come not at Feasts nor for certaine moneths space abroad alwaies remitting more of this austeritie as the three yeares grow neerer an end They vse not the same apparell house-hold furniture salutations They colour part of the Paper in which they write with another colour They obserue not their wonted proper names but call themselues otherwise as Disobedient or such like Musick is banished their dyet is hard When the corpes is to bee buried all the kindred come together being re-invited with another Libell in mourning habit The pompe is in manner of Procession diuers Statues of Men and Women Elephants Tygres and Lyons all of Paper diuers-coloured and gilded goe before which at the graue are burned A long rancke of Priests also attend which performe many Rites by the way pattering their prayers and playing on Tymbrels Pipes Cymballs Bells and other Instruments Likewise huge Censers of Bell-metall are carried on mens shoulders Then followes the Coffin adorned sumptuously carried of forty or fifty Bearers vnder a great Canopie of Silke The children come after on foot leaning on their staues as fainting Then then the women vnseene vnder a white curtaine and then other women further in bloud carryed in mourning chayres They assemble as many Priests as they can which on musicall Instruments and with their voyces tune their mournefull Ditties The place whither the corps is carried is adorned with diuers Images The Coffin is very large the
vprore that they fell together by the eares and another quarrell happening betweene a Religious and a Secular Priest the Chinois gaue out that Cataneus the Iesuite went about to make himselfe King of China as one that knew the Countrey and had bin in both the Royall Cities with the helpe of the Iesuites there residing Iapanders and others This made the Chinois to flye from Macao and to divulge such rumors in Canton that there was a sudden muster of souldiers through the Prouince and one thousand houses of the chiefe Citie without the Walls pulled downe one of the Iesuites Societie apprehended and beaten with Canes to death and with much adoe this little adoe was after pacified And now the Iesuites thinke themselues in better case then euer and haue as they say conuerted fiue thousand to their Faith in this Kingdome after thirty yeares labours hauing foure or fiue places of Residence And would God as I professe my selfe indebted to them for this Light of History so they might haue iust cause of thankefulnesse to God and them for the Christian Light and that it were not confused with such Heathenish exchange of one Image for another and rather the names then substance of deuotion altered Beads Tapers Single Votaries Processions Monasteries Altars Images hee and she Saints with other Rites being there alreadie and the very art of their Images causing an Ethnike adoration as they tell of a Vice-roy that would not looke vpon one of them but in a Chappell in the higher part of his house set on an Altar with Tapers and Odours dayly burning thereto and their manner of Preaching being not by Word so much as by Writing and that not by Authorities of Scripture but by Arguments of Reason furthered by their owne Philosophie and commended by Mathematicall Sciences strange Ground-workes to Faith and Theologie OF THE EAST-INDIES AND OF THE SEAS AND ILANDS ABOVT ASIA WITH THEIR RELIGIONS THE FIFTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of India in Generall and of the Ancient Rites there obserued §. I. The Limits and the ancient People and Inuasions of India THe name of India is now applyed to all farre-distant Countries not in the extreme limits of Asia alone but euen to whole America through the error of Columbus and his fellowes who at their first arriuall in the Westerne world thought that they had met with Ophir and the Indian Regions of the East But the Ancients also comprehended vnder this name a huge Tract of Land no lesse in the iudgement of Alexanders followers in his Eastern Inuasions then the third part of the Earth Ctosias accounted it one halfe of Asia Yea a great part of Africa also is comprehended vnder that name So Turnebus in his Aduersaria not onely findeth the Barbarians and Parthians called by that name in Virgil but Thebes in the higher Egypt and Ammone Temple in Higinus and Aethiopia also as in our discourse thereof will further appeare But taking India more properly Dionysius bounds it betweene Caucasus and the Red-Sea Indus and Ganges Ouid likewise in that Verse Decolor extremo quâ cingitur India Gange But Ptolemy and other Geographers did vsually diuide India by the Riuer Ganges into two parts one on this side Ganges and the other beyond Although here we finde no lesse difficultie concerning Ganges which the most with my selfe account the same with Guenga that falleth into the gulfe of Bengala which they also imagine to be that which of the Ancients is called Sinus Gangeticus Others esteeme the Riuer Canton whereon standeth the supposed Canton chiefe City of one of the Chinian Prouinces whereof wee haue so lately taken our leaue to be that Ganges of which minde are Mercator Maginus Gotardus Arthus and their disciples M. Paulus diuideth India into three parts the Lesse the Greater which hee calleth Malabar and Abassia betwixt them both Dom. Niger reckoneth the same number The Name of India flowed from the Riuer Indus Semiramis is reported to inuade India with three millions of foot-men and 500000. horse besides counterfeit Elephants made of the hides of 300000. Oxen stuffed with hay Yet Staurobates at that time the Indian Monarch brake her Forces and chased her out of the field Megasthenes reckoneth one hundred twentie two Indian Nations Arrianus in his eight booke makes a large description of this Indian world saying That they liued like the Scythians without Houses Cities Temples in a wandring course with their Tents on the barke of the Tree Tala and wild Venison the skins where of were there garments In all India were no seruants but all free-men These things were altred by Bacchus or Dionystus who made an Expedition hither not so much with Armes as with Arts He taught them the vse of Wine Oyle and Sacrificing in memorie whereof Posteritie honoured him for a god Of this the Poets and Histories of Alexander others make much mention So doth Suidas tell of one Brachman that prescribed the Rites and Lawes of the Brachmanes Solinus of Hydaspes and others of Ganges Hercules the rest with much vncertaintie Postellus strangely conceiteth himselfe that Abrahams posteritie by Keturah seated themselues in India and were there knowne by the name of Iewes before the Iewes in Palestina that they obserued Circumcision and dispersed it into Syria Egypt Armenia Colchis Iberia Paphlagonia Chaldea and India before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and that the Brachmanes were so called quasi Abrahmanes as following the instructions of Abraham Abraham wee beleeue the Father of the faithfull but cannot father on him such vnfaithfull and degenerate generations no more then with the same Postellus wee acknowledge the Turkes the posteritie of the ten Tribes and the Tartars to be the remainder of those Turkes following Cabalisticall coniectures But that which he speaketh of the name Iewes and Abrachmanes in India may perhaps arise from a testimony cited out of Megasthenes his Indica by Clem. Alex. That all things obserued by Naturall Phylosophers in Greece bad beene handled before partly by the Brachmanes amongst the Indians partly of those which in Syria are called Iewes in which testimonie he ioyneth Iewes and Brachmanes in Profession of the same learned Science of Naturall Philosophy Apuleius maketh the Brachmans first Founders of the Pythagorean learning and reporteth further That at dinner-time the Table was made readie and the youths from diuers Places and Seruices resorted thither at which time the Masters questioned with them what good they had done that day one answereth Hee had beene a Peace-maker to reduce such such which were at oddes to amitie another had done this or that for his Parents another had studied or meditated on such a point Once he which could not giue good account of his mornings worke might not be admitted to receiue any dinner-wages Strabo in his fifteenth Booke is large in this Indian subiect Hee reporteth out of Aristobulus that the Riuer Indus by force of
be the Reliques of the Tartarian conquests in those parts so Adelham is King of Iustice Neza in the Persian which Scaliger saith is of like extent in the East as Latine in the West is a Lance Maluco signifieth the Kingdome Neza or Nizamaluco the Speare or Lance of the kingdom So Cotamaluco the Tower of the kingdom Imadmaluco the Throne of the Kingdome c Nizamaluco is also called Nizamoxa which Xa or Scha is a Persian title signifying as Monsieur in France Don in Spaine and giuen by Ismael the Sophi and Tamas his sonne to all those Kings that would communicate in their Sect which Nizamoxa only yeelded to Other of them made shew but soone recanted Thus farre Garcias The Decan Kings being now ten or twelue make joynt warre against the Mogoll hauing one Lieutenant Generall which is Amber Chapu an Abassen slaue before mentioned out of Captaine Hawkins who hath many Lecks of Rupias in ready money and is Protector of the Kingdome of Amdanagar the titular King being a childe One Robert Iohnson an Englishman turned Moore and was entertained with much respect of one of the Decan Kings but died eight dayes after his Circumcision So were Robert Claxon and Robert Trally voluntarily robbed of that which they neuer had Faith and Religion and turned Moores The Decans dominians reach from the West Sea to that of Choromandel or very neere thereto The chiefe reason of their Mahumetan Religion was that Conquest by Nosaradin and his successors Moores that there are so many Kingdomes proceed from that diuision before mentioned §. III. Of the Banian and Cambayan superstitions THe Religion in Cambaya is partly Moorish partly Heathenish The Banians are many in Sinda and other Countries of the Mogol There are some thirty Casts of them in Sinda this is the Countrey which Indus last forsaketh inhabited by Boloches and Rasbooches and Banians the great Townes and Cities gouerned by Mogols These are of thirty different Sects which may not eate with each other They must also marry in their owne Cast Tribe and Sect and which is more in the same trade as the Sonne of a Barber with a Barbers Daughter These marriages are made when they be yong sometime almost before they be For when two women are pregnant the Parents will make a match betweene their Children if death or the sexe disappoint not When they are three or foure yeeres old the Parents which haue agreed on a match betweene their Children make a great feast and set this young couple on horsebacke a man behind each of them to hold them in their best clothes accompanied with the Bramenes or Priests and many others according to their state and so leade them vp and downe the Citie where they dwell and then to the Pagode or Temple After Ceremonies there done they come home and make festiuall cheere certaine dayes as they are able At ten yeeres of age they lie together The burning their dead is common to all their Sects They are of the Pythagorean or he was rather of their fancy which he learned of the Indians When the husband dies the wife shaues her head and weares her jewels no more so continuing till death Thus farre Master Withington M. Couert relateth that they haue God in pictures of stone hanging their Beades on the heads of the pictures and then with their faces towards the Sunne doe worship it saying all their comforts proceed from it I saw a Kow adorned with Iewels and a Vest of gold her head bedecked with garlands flowers and then being brought to a burial place where they vse to make Sermons they kisse her feet and teats and worship her I asking why they did so they answered that she was the mother of beasts brought them milke butter cheese and the Oxe to till the ground and lastly her Hide did make leather to make them shooes Moreouer they say she is blest by the Mother of God to be honored aboue all beasts Another writes that these Banians are the wisest Merchants in the East exceeding the Iewes very rich some worth 2. or 300000li. He addes that they pay a great summe to the Mogol to preuent killing of Oxen and when our men had shot a Turtle-doue through the wings they will giue a Riall of eight to redeeme and preserue it Generall Downton in his last Iournall writes that when they would haue obtained a Bazar or Market by the shoare answere was made that they might but not for Bullocks For the Mogol had granted his Firma to the Banians for a mighty summe yeerly to saue their liues For Souldiery these are but shadowes of men all their Fortitude smoking out in these superstitious speculations and therefore an easie prey to any Inuader So true a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haue they sustained being metamorphosed and transanimated from men to blockes and liuing statues or to ghosts Beniamin Day nameth one of their Sects called Ash-men whose bodies being most part naked are couered with ashes whereby they looke like ghosts or dead men They liue idlely on reliefe not so much as begging One of these was in great account with haire hanging to his feet platted together his nailes fiue or sixe inches long Vertomannus is Author that they worship not Idols or Pagodes Others report That this way aad others they are exceeding religiously deuoted They obserue a strict kind of fasting which lasteth with some eight dayes with others fifteene twenty or thirty dayes in all which space they eate not a bit onely when they thirst drinke water One could not see when to make an end of this his penance till his left eye fell out of his head as both had done before out of his heart In Cambaia they had one Bramene in such reputation of holinesse and honour that they would salute him before they meddled with their worldly affaires One affirmed to this Iesuite That if his Bramene should command him to distribute all his goods to the poore he would doe it yea he would lay downe his life at his command On the eight day of Ianuarie i in that Citie were giuen in almes twenty thousand Pardawes which is in value about a Flemish Dollar one man had giuen fiue thousand thereof another three thousand another fifteene hundred The cause was because that day as their Bramenes affirmed the Sunne departed from Sur to Horte Of their Pilgrimages is spoken before some Eastward to Ganges some Westward to Mecca to wit the Moores not men alone but women also and because Mahomet hath forbidden all vnmarried women this holy Iourney they will marrie before they set forth and dissolue the same marriage againe after their returne Hereby they thinke to purchase merit with God I went one day sayth Pinnerus to the publike Hospitall which the Citizens of Cambaia had founded for all kindes of Birds to cure them in their sicknesse Some Peacockes were there incurable and therefore might haue
any haire except on the browes and eye-lids euen on the least child and for the space of thirteene dayes cease to eate Botels his lips are out that doth it and all that time is an Inter-regnum wherein they obserue if any will come in to obiect any thing against the new future King After this hee is sworne to the Lawes of his Predecessor to pay his debts to recouer whatsoeuer belonged to his Kingdome being lost which Oath he taketh hauing his Sword in his left hand and in the right a Candle burning which hath a Ring of Gold vpon it which he toucheth with two of his fingers and taketh his Oath This being done they throw or powre vpon him a few graines of Rice with many other Ceremonies and Prayers and he worshippeth the Sunne three times after which all the Caymailes or principall Nobles sweare their fealtie to him handling also the same Candle The thirteene dayes ended they eate their Betele againe and Flesh and Fish as before the King except who then taketh thought for his Predecessor and for the space of one whole yeere as is before obserued in part out of Barbosa eates no Betele nor shaueth his beard nor cutteth his nailes eateth but once a day and before hee doth it washeth all his bodie and obserueth certaine houres of Prayer daily The yeere being ended he obserueth a kind of Dirige for his Predecessors soule whereat are assembled 100000. persons at which time hee giueth great Almes and then it confirmed All these Malabar Kings haue one speciall Man which is the chiefe Administrator of Iustice who in matters of gouernment is obeyed no lesse then the King himselfe The Souldiers are Nayros none of which can be imprisoned or put to death by ordinarie Iustice but if one of them kill another or else kill a Cow or sleepe with a Countriewoman or speake euill of the King the King after information giues his Warrant to another Nayro who with his Associates kill him wheresoeuer they find him hewing him with their Swords and then hang on him his Warrant to testifie the cause of his death These Nayros may not weare their Weapons nor enter into combate till they be armed Knights although that from the Age of seuen yeeres they are trayned vp in Feates and practice of Armes He is dubbed or created by the King who commandeth to gird him with a Sword and laying his right hand vpon his head muttereth certaine words softly and afterward dubbeth him saying Haue a regard to keepe these Bramenes and their Kine These are the two Great Commandements of the Bramene Law The King sometimes commits this Ceremonie to their Panicall or Master in the Feats of Armes whom they euer honour as their Father and next to the King most reuerence They teach them to Run Leape Fencing and managing of Weapons and anoint them with Oyle of Gergelin to make their sinewes pliant for all winding and tumbling gestures They begin to goe to Schoole at seuen yeeres olde In fight they are valorous and account it no shame to flee but will doe it in policie and yet when they yeeld themselues to any mans seruice they bind themselues to die with him and for him which they faithfully performe fighting till they bee killed They are great South-sayers haue their good and bad Dayes worship the Sun the Moone the Fire and the Kine and the first they meet in the morning The Deuill is often in them they say it is one of their Pagodes which causeth them to vtter terrible wordes and then hee goeth before the King with a naked Sword quaking and cutting his flesh saying with great cries I am such a god and I am come to tell thee such a thing and if the King doubteth he roreth lowder and cutteth himselfe deeper till he be credited The Fortugals haue much eclipsed the greatnesse of the King of Calicut and caused many other alterations in all the East in this last Age of the World Of whose exploits Castaneda Barrius Maffaeus Oserius and others haue written at large Our English-Indian Societie haue setled a Factory at Calicut touching the conditions and condition whereof you may reade at large in Roger Hawes his Iournall deliuered amongst other our Pilgrimes He telleth of the perfidiousnesse of this people how hardly they could get in debts they chusing rather to spend much in bribes then to pay debts Ours made vse of ther Superstition to Iustice for vnderstanding that they would neither eate nor wash whiles the English were in their houses they would threaten not to depart till they were payd hauing meane while Nayros for their Guard Thus Iniustice made them iust and vncharitablenes charitable For rather then be long troubled with their company most of them would pay part of their debts so that they got fifty Fanos kind of Coine of one 100. of another but one notwithstanding their three dayes abode would pay nothing it seemes equally prophane superstitious and vniust §. III. Of their differing Sects BArbosa reckoneth eighteene Sects that haue no mutuall conuersation nor may marrie but in their owne rankes or order Next to the King and Bramenes he placeth the Nayros which are Gentlemen and Souldiers and are not professed Nayros notwithstanding their bloud till they be by their Lords or by the King made Knights or Souldiers And then hee must neuer from that time goe without his Weapons which commonly are a Rapier and a Target and sometimes Peeces or Bowes They neuer marry but lye with such of the Nayros Women or Daughters as like them leauing his Weapons meane while at the doore which forbid any man else although it be the goodman himselfe to enter till he hath ended his businesse and be gone And if one of the common people once touch a Nayro it is lawfull for the Nayro to kill him and he is also vncleane and must be purified by certaine washings And for this cause they cry as they goe in the streets Po Po that the baser Raskality may giue place They haue a Pit of standing Water at their doores hallowed by the Bramenes wherein euery morning they wash themselues although it bee greene slimie and stinking imagining thus to be clensed of their sinnes They are brought vp altogether to Feats of Armes and Actiuitie from their Child-hood admirably able to wind and turne themselues and are very resolute and desperate binding themselues by oath to liue and die with their King or Lord. No Nayro's women may enter into Calicut but one night in the yeere when the Citie is full of Lights and then they goe with the Nayros to behold and gaze their fill They intend nothing but their lust and thinke that if they die Virgins they shall neuer enter into Paradise The Biabari are another sort and are Merchants Gentiles and enioy great priuiledges The King cannot put them to death but by sentence of the principall of themselues They were the only Merchants before the
They are very resolute people and dread no attempt which the King shall enioyne them bee it neuer so dangerous All the race of this King Ballomboam was rased and vtterly destroyed by the Passaruan after a long siege which warre was begun in the blood of the King of Ballamboams Daughter whom he slew as is before said and added this Drunkennesse vnto his thirst Iortam or Ioartam contayneth about a thousand Housholds The Inhabitants are Ethnikes and haue their Temples in Woods to which they resort to say and doe their Holies at noone before their deformed Diuell-formed Pagodes In this Citie dwelleth the chiefe Pope or heigh Priest of that Superstition whose authoritie is great in all those parts Hee was a hundred and twentie yeeres old and had many Wiues which nourished him with their milke being not able to take other sustenance a deadly enemie to the Christians whom the King did yet with some priuiledges fauour Edmund Scot writeth That they vse in Bantam martiall Law Adulterie is death The free Iauan must to euery wife keepe ten women-slaues which are their Concubines also some keepe fortie but they may haue but three Wiues They are proud and by this multitude of Slaues poore cruell and cowardly Their Crisses or Daggers are two foot long waued Indenture-fashion and poysoned that few escape The vulgar sort haue little Religion but many pray to the Diuell whom for that end they haue painted in their houses and set Wax Candles and sing before them for feare of hurt which they doe not to God because of his goodnesse The most of their worke is to carue stickes for their Crisse-handles They are Couzeners Theeues Idle Gluttons take Betele Opium Tobacco They haue diuers Sects yet most are in manner Atheists Many Chinois dwell there Some thinke that if they bee good they shall be borne againe after death to great riches and that wicked men shall bee turned into Toades or other vgly beasts Euery New Moone they burne Sacrifices and sing ouer them certayne Prayers in the meane while tinging a Bell which at the end of euery Prayer they ring out which is also their Passing-Bell Ceremonie when any are readie to die They furnish their Altars with Goats Hennes Duckes sometimes raw and sometimes ready dressed all which they eate onely certaine papers painted and cut out in curious workes they burne Many of them haue some skill in Astronomie They keepe no Sabbath but what day they begin any great worke they after keepe holy They haue South-sayers which sometimes runne vp and downe the streets like mad-men with swords in their hands tearing their hayre and throwing themselues against the ground Chinois cut not their haire for then they may not returne to China They buy Slaues and get Children of them which they carrie with them to China but sell the Mother The * Moores if they be Great men haue Moschees in their owne houses they haue one great one in the Citie Forreiners whereof are many from many places inhabite the Suburbes They buy by night distilled Wines of the Chinois and drinke it secretly being forbidden it by their Mahumetane Law It was about the yeere 1560. that this people became of that Sect The men and women passe their time day and night in much sloath dalliance and chewing Betele Epicuri de grege porci CHAP. XVII Of Samatra and Zeilan SAmatra is esteemed by some the greatest of the Easterne Ilands stretching it selfe almost seuen hundred miles in length in bredth aboue two hundred The Ayre is not very wholsome by reason of the situation vnder the Line and the multitude of Lakes and Riuers whereout the Sun drinketh more then hee can well concoct and therefore as it were belcheth out heere continually such crude and vndigested vapours Their food is Millet Rice Sagu and Fruits Their riches are Pepper Ginger Cassia Silke Benioyn Gold Tinne Iron c. The Kingdome of Campa yeeldeth Trees whose pith or marrow is Aloe which is prized in India at the like weight some say of Gold the Barke is called Aquila In the Sea-coast they are Moores in Religion and so haue been about these last two hundred yeeres vp within Land they are Pagans and in many places as in the Kingdomes of Andragiri and Aru they are Man-eaters They were diuided before the Portugals entred India into nine and twentie Kingdomes whereof the chiefe was Pedir after that Pacem and now Acem For Abram sometime a Slaue since King of Acem hath conquered almost all the North part of the Iland and with helpe from the Turke and the Arabians distresseth sometimes the affaires of Malacca This King gaue in marriage with his Daughter to the King of Ior a Peece of Ordnance such as for greatnesse length and workmanship can hardly bee matched in all Christendome Heere is a Hill called Balaluanus which continually burneth and a Fountaine as is reported which runneth pure Balsome Some thinke that this was Chersonesus Aurea of the Ancients Galuanus writeth That the Bacas or Man-eaters in the Mountaines of Samatra gild their teeth and esteeme the flesh of blacke people sweeter then of the white The flesh of their Kine Buffes and Hennes is as blacke as Inke They say that there are certaine people there called Daraqui Dara which haue tayles like to Sheepe Heere is said also to grow a Tree the juyce whereof is strong poyson and if it touch the blood of a man killeth him but if a man drinke of it it is a soueraigne Antidote As for those tayled-people a slander by Beckets Legend reported of some Kentish-men iniurious to that angrie Saint and after applyed to our whole Nation many indeed esteeming the English to bee tayled Galuano affirmeth That the King of Tidore told him that in the Ilands of Batto-China there were some which had tayles hauing also a thing like vnto a dugge betweene their coddes out of the which there came Milke Nicoli di Conti saith in his time the Samatrans were all Gentiles and the Man-eaters amongst them vsed the skuls of their eaten enemies in stead of money exchanging the same for their necessaries and he was accounted the richest man which had most of those skuls in his house In Vertomannus time they had money in Pedir marked on the one side with a Diuell on the other with a Chariot drawne with Elephants Their Religion hee saith is the same with those of Tarnassari burning their Wiues in like manner The inhabitants are cunning Artificers Merchants and Saylers their Ships haue at each end a Prow which with maruellous agilitie they can dispose forwards or backwards making vse of the same according to the diuersitie of Wind and Channell which there are very changeable In Acem are Mesquits of Timber and Reed with Vessels of water at the entrie for them to wash according to the Arabian custome The King comes little abroad nor may any goe to him except he be sent for
belong to another place and it were tedious here to relate the yeeres of their seuerall Reignes Otmen the fourth Chalipha beganne in the yeere of Christ 645. whom the rest succeeded in order vntill the yeere 869. And then the Chaliphaes were diuided Mutamed reigning in Bagded and Tolon in Egypt who dyed in the yeere of Christ 883. and of the Hegeira 270. whom succeeded Hamaria his sonne and after him his sonne Aharun whom Muchtaphi the Bagdet Chalipha slue about the yeere 907. Afterwardes about the yeere 943. Achishid Muhamid sonne of Tangi reigned in Egypt to whom a few yeeres after succeeded his sonne Abigud whom Meaz Ledin Illahi of the posteritie of Phetima Mahumets Daughter depriued in the yeere of our Lord 971. To whom succeeded his sonne Aziz 975. Elhacham in the yeere 996. Etaher Laazizdin Illahi 1030. Musteratzor Billahi 1035. Musteale 1095. Elamir Bahacam Illahi 1101. he was but fiue yeeres old the Protector of the Kingdome was Aphtzala Wizir Elhaphit Ladin Illahi 1135. Ettaphar succeeded and hee being slaine Elphaiz who died in the yeere 1160. and Etxar Ledin Illahi his Sonne was the last of the Phetimaan race To him succeeded Asareddin Shirachoch of the Family of Ainb which were Curdi after his death Iusaph Tzelat Eddin was constituted King by the Chalipha and the Bagded Chaliphaes were againe acknowledged in Egypt This is that Saladine that tooke Ierusalem in the yeere of Christ 1190. Heg. 586 He conquered Mesopotamia c. hee died in the yeere of our Lord 1193. And as Cardinall Vitriaco affirmeth reduced the Schismaticall Sect in Egypt to vniformity with the Baldac Chalipha Elaphtzal succeeded him in the Kingdome of Damascus Melich Elaziz in Egypt Taher Giazi in Halep or Aleppo Melich Elaziz exchanged Egypt for Damascus with his Vncle Etadel The Egyptians made Aphtzal their King in the yeere of our Lord 1202. After Eladel succeeded Elchamel 1219. who died in the yeere of our Lord 1237. Heg. 635. Essaloch followed and after him Elmutam 1242. The Turkmen conspired against him he fled into a Tower of Wood which they fired and halfe burned he leaped into a streame that passed by and there perished Tureoman Azeddin Ibib was made King in his place in the yeere of our Lord 1245. Heere beganne the Reigne of the Mamalukes or slaues Hee being slaine another slaue succeeded whom they called Melich Elmutaphar This seemeth to be he that Leo calleth Piperitis Thus farre out of Scaliger collected by him out of Abraham Zacuthi which addeth much light to the Egyptian Historie of these times wherein I could neuer before satisfie my selfe concerning the erection and alteration of the Schismaticall Egyptian Chaliphaes which with much labour little auayling I had sought Iacobus à Vitriaco Bishop of Accon or Ptolemais aboue foure hundred yeeres since and a Roman Cardinall in his Orientall History affirmeth That Haly disdayning to be accounted the successour of Mahomet whom hee thought inferiour to himselfe began a new Sect of his owne which he established in Egypt the other Mahumetans erecting another at Baldac but Baldac was of a later erection and these things haue no probabilitie These Kings were not called Chaliphaes as the posterity of Phetima or Fatima but Sultans A certaine Catalogue of the Names Times and Affaires of these Mamaluke-Sultans I cannot perfectly exhibit Peucerus nameth in order these names Turquemenius Cathus Bendocader Melechsait Elpis Melechseraph Melechnasar Melechadal and after many others Caithbeius a stout enemy of the Turkes This Caithbeius was chosen Sultan in the yeere of our Lord 1465. and reigned three and thirty yeeres Two of his principall Mamalukes Achardin and Campsous full of emulation were a principall cause of the ruine of that Dynastie For whereas the Sultan was alway chosen out of the Mamalukes by most voyces amongst themselues Campsous fearing lest Achardin should haue succeeded after Caithbeius fained That his Master had taken order on his death-bed that his Sonne Mahomet should obtaine the roome and vsed meanes to effect it both by the voyces of those Mamalukes he could suborne and confirmation of their Chalipha whose hornes these Soldans had shortned abridging his power as before is said This Mahomet proued so cruell a Tyrant and those two Mamalukes so banded themselues in Factions that all became confused and within six yeeres after Caithbeius his death the Sultans Throne was fiue times vacant Tomumbeius kils Mahomet Campsous Ciarchesius is chosen Zauballat President of Damascus rebelleth and by Temumbeius meanes imprisoneth him and vsurpeth the Scepter but for his crueltie soone after is depriued and captiued by Tomumbeuis and after strangled He also succeding in Authority Tyranny and Destiny After Tomumbeius was elected Campson Gaurus whom Zelim the Turke ouerthrew and slue in battaile in whose place another Tomumbeius was chosen but soone together with his whole State came into the Turkes power Thus being diuided in many Factions among themselues and exercising all cruelties and pillages vpon the people they made themselues a prey to their Neighbours who like Aesops Vulture watched this opportunity to seize on these Lions hauing now bled out their strength in mutuall and ciuill conflicts in the yeere of our Lord 1517. The Egyptians affirme That a little before Selim besieged Cairo for the space of eight dayes together a great number of Crocodiles were seene in all parts on the banks of Nilus and much dispersed abroad in the fields taking and tearing great store of prey as a presage of this Turkish seruitude Solyman succeeded in the yeere of our Lord 1519. or 1520. as others say Selim the second 1566. Amurat the third 1574. in the yeere 1595. Mahomet the third to whom Achmet who now is the Egyptian and Turkish Soldan Of these you may be more fully informed in M. Knolles his Turkish Historie as also in our former Relations CHAP. VII Of the Oracle of IVPITER AMMON and of Cyrene and diuers Peoples adioyning mentioned by the Ancients ALl that lyeth betweene Africa Minor and Egypt Pômponius Mela doth call Cyrenaica including vnder that title Marmarica which Plinio reckoneth by it selfe who also calleth the former Pentapolitana and saith it is renowmed by the Oracle of Hammon which is fiftie miles distant from Cyrene by the Fountayne of the Sunne and those fiue Cities Berenice Arsinoe Ptolemais Apollonia Cyrene This Region is now called Barca and Mesrata of which this is inhabited and rich the other it most-what desart and poore Their Religion was like the Egyptians in times past The Arabians that liue there now attend on their purchase being the greatest Theeues in Afrike But this is vsuall to the Arabians in all places of their abode or wandring rather for which cause it seemeth Hierome saith the word Arabi signifieth Theeues and is therefore taxed of Drusius in his Obseruations Arabi no otherwise signifying Theeues then Chananeus a Merchant or Chaldaeus a Mathematician because such commonly were their studies and courses Berenice
ruines testifieth her sometime proud buildings Hospitals Innes and Temples In Thagia is visited the Sepulchre of a holy Man which liued in the time of Habdul Mumen the Calif or Patriarch who wrought great miracles against the Lyons wherwith the Towne is much molested Ettedle a Mahumetane Doctor wrote a Legend of his miracles which Leo saith hee had read and supposed that they were done either by Naturall or Diuellish Magicke The Fessans after their Easter yeerely resort to his Tombe with such numbers of Men Women and Children and their Tents that they seeme an Armie It standeth from Fez an hundred and twentie miles so that their going and returning in this Pilgrimage lasteth fifteene dayes My Father carried mee yeerely thither when I was a Childe and since I haue beene there many times by reason of many vowes which I made being in danger of Lyons Where Zarfa stood the Arabians now sow Corne The Territorie of Fez hath on the West the Riuer Buragard the East Inaven on the North Subu and Atlas on the South Sella was built by the Romans sacked by the Gothes subiect since to Fez The buildings are of Mosaike worke supported with Marble Pillars euen the Shops are vnder faire and large Porches and there are arches to part Occupations All the Temples are beautifull In this Towne the Genowaies English Flemings and Venetians vsed to trade The Spaniards tooke it in the 670 of the Hegira but lost it againe within ten dayes Fanzara was destroyed by Sahid who with certaine Arabians besieged Fez seuen yeeres together and destroyed all the Villages in the Countrey about Mahmora was made famous by the slaughter of the Portugals whose bloud dyed the Sea three dayes together blushing to see the barbarous Barbarian spill so much Christian bloud Leo was there present and numbreth the slaine Christians at ten thousand besides the losse of their Ships and Ordnance whereof the Moores tooke vp foure hundred great Brasse Peeces out of the Sea in the yeere of the Heg. 921. HONDIVS his Map of the Kingdome of Fez FESSAE REGNUM §. II. Of the Citie of Fez as it was in LEO's dayes and the Customes of the Inhabitants THe Citie Fez or Fesse was built in the time of Aron the Caliph in the 185. yeere of the Hegira or Mahumeticall computation It had this golden Title because on the first day of the Foundation there was found some quantitie of Gold Gasper Varerius and Aldrete are of opinion That the Riuer Phut so called of the sonne of Cham before mentioned is this Riuer of Fez by the Arabians thus altered and that this Riuer gaue Name to the Region and the Citie which opinion is also recited by Leo. The Founder was named Idris Arons neere kinsman to whom the Caliphaship was more due For he was nephew of Hali Mahumets cousin who married Falerna daughter of Mahumet and therefore both by Father and Mother of that kindred whereas Aron was but in the halfe-blood being nephew to Habbus the vncle of Mahumet Howbeit both these Families were depriued of the Caliphate and Aron by deceit vsurped For Arons Grandfather fained himselfe willing to transferre that dignitie to Hali and caused the house of Vmene to lose it and Habdulla Seffec became the first Caliph who persecuted the House of Hals openly chasing some into Asia and some into India But one of them remayned in Elmadina of whom because hee was old and religious he had no great feare His two Sonnes grew in such fauour with the people that they were forced to flee and one being taken and strangled the other which was this Idris escaped into Mauritania where hee grew in such reputation that in short time he got both Swords into his hand and dwelt in the Hill Zaron thirtie miles from Fez and all Mauritania payed him tribute Hee dyed without issue onely hee left his slaue with Child she was a Goth become Mahumetan and had a sonne which after his father was called Idris Hee succeeded in the Principalitie and was brought vp vnder the discipline of a valiant Captaine named Rasid and began to shew great prowesse at fifteen yeeres He afterwards encreasing in power built on the East side of the Riuer a small Citie of three thousand Families After his death one of his sonnes built another Citie on the West side both which Cities so encreased that there was small distance betweene them And a hundred and eighty yeeres after there arose ciuill Warres betwixt those two Cities which continued a hundred yeeres And as Aesops Kite serued the Mouse and Frog so Ioseph of the Luntune Family apprehending this aduantage tooke both their Lords and slew them and thirty thousand of the Citizens He brake downe the walls which parted the two Cities and caused many Bridges to be made and brought them both to be one Citie which he diuided into twelue Wards The Citie is now or at least in Leos time was both great and strong It seemes that Nature and Art haue played the Wantons and haue brought forth this Citie the fruit of their dalliance Or else they seeme Corriuals both by all kind Offices seeking to winne her loue So doth the Earth seeme to dance in little Hillocks and pretie Vallies diuersifying the Soyle so doth the Riuer disperse it selfe into manifold Chanels no sooner entring the Citie but it is diuided into two Armes wherewith it embraceth this louely Nymph and these subdiuided as it were into many Fingers in variety of Water-courses insinuating it selfe vnto euery Street and Member thereof and not contented thus in publike to testifie affection findes meanes of secret intelligence with his Loue by Conduit-pipes closely visiting euery Temple Colledge Inne Hospitall the speciall Chambers of his Spouse Yea and almost euery priuate house from whence with an officious seruice he carrieth the filth that might offend either sight or sent of his Bride which still enjoying he wooeth and euer wooing enjoyeth Only in hot Seasons he hath a cold suit for the Riuer is dry but then he hath six hundred Fountaynes to speake for him in his absence Neither is Art behind in his proffered courtesies but still presents her with Mosaike workes as Chaynes and Iewels to adorne her with fine Brickes and stones framed into most artificiall Fabricks both louely for delight and stately for admiration The roofes of their houses are adorned with Gold Azure and other excellent colours which are made flat for the Inhabitants vse and pleasure whose Houses are richly furnished euery Chamber with a Presse curiously paynted and varnished And who can tell the exquisitenesse of the Portals Pillars Cisternes and other parts of this Cities furniture Which if they be not now so excellent as when Leo liued here yet it is worth the sight to looke vpon it with his eyes as then it flourished before the Court was remoued thence to Marocco or the deuouring bellies of Time and Warre had impaired her Beauties Once let the Temples therein a
the mountaines which happily they atchieued Yea the Portugals wearied with the warres which they were forced to maintayne in defence of those places they held in Africa the expences so much surmounting the reuenue abandoned them to the Seriffs And now the want of enemies procured enmitie betwixt the Brethren who trying that valour against each other which before they had exercised ioyntly against their enemies the issue was that the younger in two battels hauing ouercome the elder and at the second which was Anno 1544. hauing taken him prisoner confined him to Tafilete Hee now sole Monarch of Marocco conuerts his forces against the King of Fez to try if he could bee his Master in the field as hee sometimes had beene in the Schoole and failed not of his attempt but hauing once taken and freed him the second time because he had broken promise he depriued him and his sonnes of estate and life He also by meanes of his sonnes took Tremizen which soone after was recouered from them by Sal Araes Vice-roy of Algier and Fez also added by an ouerthrow of the Seriff to the Turkes conquest who gaue the gouernment of Fez to Buasson Prince of Veles But he in an vnfortunate battell with the Seriff lost his life and state Mahomet going after to Taradant was by the way slaine in his Pauilion by the Treason of some Turkes suborned thereunto by the King of Algier of whom all but fiue in their returne were slaine by the people Anno 1559. Mulley Abdala the Seriffs sonne was proclaymed King Some write that by occasion of a Rebellion in Sus hee sent to the bordering Turkes for aide who first helped after murthered him and hauing sacked Taradant and ouer-runne the Countrey two moneths together were in their returne by the Mountainers cut off Mully Abdala hauing raigned fifteene yeeres dyed leauing behind him thirteene sonnes the eldest Abdala commanded the rest to be killed but Abdelmelech the second brother escaped into Turkie and Muley Hamet the third brother esteemed of a simple and quiet spirit not any way dangerous to the state was spared The other tenne were put to death in one day at Taradant where they had beene brought vp This Abdela dying left behind him three sonnes Muley Mahomet Muley Sheck Muley Nassar the two younger escaped into Spaine where Sheck is yet liuing and turned Christian Nassar returned in the foureteenth yeere of Muley Hamets Raigne and had almost driuen Muley Sheck then Gouernour of Fez vnder his Father to his heeles had not superstition more preuayled with Nassars followers then Allegeance For when Lent came his Souldiers would needs home to keepe their Easter at their owne houses for feare whereof Nassar hastily giuing battest was there slaine Abdelmelech before fled into Turkie now came backe with Turkish forces and got the Kingdome from Mahomet who fleeing or as others write sending for succour to Sebastian King of Portugall obtained it In the yeere 1578. Fiue thousand Germans were entertayned in the Portugall pay for the expedition and great forces were leuyed the Pope sending Stukely that English Traytor falsely termed Marquesse of Ireland with fixe hundred Italians to Sebastian who the foure and twentieth of Iune tooke Sea and the next day with a Fleet of one thousand and three hundred sayle or as Doglioni hath it setting in order his Armada of fiue hundred sayle and blessing his Royall Standard with thirtie sixe thousand Footmen and foure thousand Horse set forth towards Africa Where Abdelmelech being sickly had assembled an Armie of fifteene thousand Footmen and foure and fortie thousand Horse men On the fourth day of August they joyned battell and the Duke of Auero with his Portugals made a great impression into the Moores host which Abdelmelich labouring beyond his naturall force to withstand saued his people but lost his life not by the Sword of the enemy but by the weakenesse of his body deliuered vp to death His brother Hamet ruled the Armie as yet ignorant of what had befalne and made such slaughter of the Portugals that the Duke of Auero the King of Portugall and other great Personages there fell and Mahomet himselfe was drowned in fleeing ouer a Riuer Thus remayned Hamet victorious and at one time had the dead corpes of three Kings in his Tent Such is the furie of Waire the force of death trampling vnder foot the meanest and triumphing ouer the greatest Stukely among the rest receiued due wages for his treacherie and disloyaltie to his Countrey slaine out of his Countrey by the barbarous Barbarian To Abadelmelech was Master Edmund Hogan employed in Embassage by the Maiestie of our late Soueraigne Anno one thousand fiue hundred seuentie seuen and with all good Offices entertayned To Hament his Successour was from the same Sacred Maiestie sent Ambassadour Master Henry Roberts Anno one thousand fiue hundred eightie fiue who was there Lieger three yeeres This Muley Hamet in a Letter to the Earle of Leicester thus begins In the name of the mercifull and pitifull God The blessing of God light vpon our Lord and Prophet Mahomet and those that are obedient vnto him The seruant of God both mightie in warre and mightily exalted by the grace of God Myra Momanyn the sonne of Myra Momanyn the Iarif the Hozeni whose Kingdomes God maintayne Vnto the right famous c. In an Edict published in behalfe of the English hee stileth himselfe The seruant of the Supreame God the Conquerour in his cause the successor aduanced by God c. He flayed off the skin from the carkasse of Mahomet drowned in the battell as is said and filled it full of Straw and sent it through all Prouinces of his Kingdome for a spectacle He raigned seuen and twentie yeeres He sent an Embassage into England Anno a thousand sixe hundred and one performed by Abdala Waecad Anowne His people did so feare him that Abdala Creme his Customer hauing one onely Sonne who in an idle businesse and busie idlenesse would needs feed his curious eyes with the light of the Palace where the Kings Concubines were caused him to bee strangled before his face He gouerned the Alarbes which are supposed to bee of Arabian Race and said to vse the Arabike Language Inhabitants of the plaine and Champaine Countries of Marocco Fez and Sus in peace and subiection receiuing their tents duly paid The Brebers or Mountainers are the Natiues and ancient Inhabitants chased by the former into strong Cities and the Naturall Forts of Hils as our Progenitors serued the Britaines forcing them to the Mountaines of Wales and Cornwall a people of another Language called Tamaset and disposition whom hee could not so easily tame and therefore in policie hee drew them into forreine Expeditions especially against the Negros thereby extending his Empire so farre that way as by Camell it was sixe moneths iourney from Marocco to the extremest bounds Likewise he vsed them to goe with the Carauans
that it was an inuiolable law amongst them that if their Souldiers did in any place publicke or priuate offer any licentious or iniurious behauiour to a woman he was assuredly put to death The people of this countrie were of a goodly stature well formed and of a good complexion There were among them Giants of an incredible greatnesse the skull of one of them is remaining in which there are eightie teeth and his bodie which was found buried in the Sepulchre of the Kings of Guymur of which race he was measured fifteene foot The people that dwell on the South-side of the Iland were of the colour of an Oliue but those that dwelt on the North-side were faire especially their women hauing bright and smooth haire Their common apparell was a certaine garment made of Lambes skins like a short coate without pleate or collor or sleeues fastned together with straps of the same leather The ordinarie garment for men and women of the common sort was called Tomarco onely the women for modesties sake had another couering vnder their Tomarco which was a side coate downe to the knees made of skins which reached downe to the ground for they held it an vnseemely thing in a woman to haue her breasts or her feete vncouered In this garment they liued and in this they dyed and in this they were commonly buried For their dyet they sowed Barly and Beanes Wheate was vtterly vnknowne to them They toasted their Barly by the fire then did grinde it in certaine hand mils such as are now in Spaine The floure so made they called Giffio wetting it with water milk or butter It serued instead of bread also and was their greatest and most Generall sustenance They eat the flesh of Sheepe of Goats and Pork but not commonly for they haue certaine assemblies like our festiuall Wake-dayes in England at which times the King in person with his owne hands did giue to euery twentie of them three Goates and a proportion of their Giffio After which Feast euery companie came before the King shewing their agilitie in leaping running wrastling darting dancing and other sports They haue a certaine kind of hony out of a fruit called Mozan of the greatnesse and bignesse of a pease Before they are ripe they are very greene when they beginne to ripe they are red and when they are ripe are blacke nothing vnlike our blackberries saue in their taste which is exceeding pleasant They eat no more but the iuyce of them which they call Yoya and the Hony which they make of them they call Chacerquem They gather these Mozans very ripe and do put them into the Sun for a weeke then they breake them in pieces and put them into water to bee boyled vntil they come to a sirrope and this is their Physick for the fluxe and the grieuings in the backe and for both these diseases they did also let bloud in the armes head and forehead with a flintstone At their time of sowing the King hauing appointed to euery man his portion of ground that was to bee sowne they digged vp the earth with Goats hornes and with certaine words threw their seed into the ground All other works appertained vnto and were performed by their women The King did make his habitation in naturall caues or hollow rocks of which there are infinite store remayning to this day When there was any Feast made in any Kingdome their Feasts had the priuiledge that men might with immunity passe to and fro through the enemies Countrey yea many times the enemies would feast one with another In their Marriages the men vsed to aske the consent of the Widdowes or Maids parents if there were any which being granted they were married with little or no ceremony that I could learne And the marriage was not so soone made but it might be as quickly broken for if the husband or wife were disposed to be separated they might be so and both of them marry again with others at their pleasures Notwithstanding all the children of the separated begotten afterwards were esteemed as bastards the King only for successions sake exempted from this custome to whom for that respect it was lawfull to marry with his own sister For many yeeres this Iland was subiect to one only King whom they called Adexe who being growne old his Sons which were nine in number conspiring against him parted the Iland into nine seuerall Kingdomes All their war was to steale cattle one from another and especially the spotted Goats which amongst them are in great and religious estimation there is very little difference betwixt the body colour and smothnesse of our English fallow Deere and their Goat The ancient Guanches of this Iland had an appointed Officer or Embalmer answerable to the sex man or woman who washing the dead corps did put into its body certaine Confections made of Goats Butter melted the powder of Furzes and of a kind of ruffe stones the rindes of Pine-trees and other herbs and did stuffe the body with this euery day for 15. dayes together putting the body against the Sun now on the one side now on the other vntill it were stiffe and dry All this space their friends bewayled their death At the end of 15. dayes they wrapped their body in Goats skins so cunningly sowed together that it was maruellous and so they carried the body to a deepe caue where none might haue accesse There are of these bodies remayning yet which haue been buried these 1000. yeeres The neerest port towne to the City called Cidade de Laguna is Santa Cruz from thence you ascend vp the steepe Mountaynes to the City which you shall finde to bee most miraculously seated in the midst of a flat of ten miles in compasse as if nature had prepared that place for man to build a City vpon being walled about with hils of wonderful height on al sides sauing to the Northwest from whence there being a leuel tract of land euen to the Seaside which is seuen leagues distant there doth continually arise from the Sea a vapour which being circulated among so many and intricate Mountaines groweth to be a wind and taketh his passage through those channels of Mountaynes to the City to its great refreshing and in this great Plaine like Enuy for want of opposition dieth And let the wind blow full Southeast at Sea yet shall you alwayes haue the wind full Northwest at the City like a true friend when you must need him from twelue a clocke in the day vntill night The extreame dew which falleth doth sufficiently coole the night Their buildings are all of an open rough stone nothing faire they are very plaine in their buildings two or three stories high and no more and commonly but one story high in the remoter parts of the City It is not walled they haue no chimneyes no not so much as in their kitchins They make only a
They which worke in the Mynes see no Sunne nor light by absence whereof they find both extreame cold and dreadfull darknesse and an Ayre so vnholesome as makes them no lesse sicke then men tossed at Sea They breake the Metall with Hammers and split it by force and then carry it vp on their shoulders by Ladders made of Neats Leather twisted like pieces of wood which are crossed with staues of wood at the end of one Ladder begins another with seats of wood betweene to rest them They mount three and three Hee that goes before carries a Candle tyed to his Thumbe they haue their metall tyed in a cloth like a Scrip each man bearing about fiftie fifty pound weight and that commonly aboue an hundred and fifty Stades in height The most vsuall manner of refining in these times is by Quick-siluer and therefore there are not now aboue two thousand Guayras in Potozi which haue beene in times past six thousand a pleasant sight to such whose darkned conceits make their Heauen vppon Earth to see such a resemblance of the Starry Heauen in the night dispersing such a manifold light The Siluer swimmes on the top the other Metals vnder and the drosse in the bottome The Quick-siluer is admired for his naturall properties that being a metall it is liquid not by Art as other metals or by expence in which respect the other may no lesse be called Quick-siluer but by it owne nature and being a liquor is more heauie then those which haue a naturall subsistence this subsisting and sinking to the bottome when the other swim aboue it God onely challengeth preheminence if Pliny be beleeued Nothing in this admirable liquor is more to bee admired then the naturall loue and sympathy which it hath to Gold as appeareth in such as for the French Disease vse Oyntments of this composition if they weare a Gold-ring in their mouth it attracteth this quicke and willing metall to it from the veines and inward parts into which it hath secretly and dangerously conueyed it selfe the Ring plucked out of the mouth is of a Siluer complexion which mutuall copulation nothing but fire can diuorce or restore the same to the former colour In their gildings of curious workes it hath bin obserued that the workmen which vse Quick-siluer to that purpose to preuent the secret and venemous exhalations thereof haue swallowed a double Ducat of Gold rolled vp which drawes that fume of this liquor which enters in at the eares Eyes nose and mouth vnto it in the stomacke And for this fume Lemnius telleth that the Gold-smiths hanging a cloth ouer the place where they gild which receiueth the fume of the Quick-siluer find that smoke in the cloth recouering againe his former nature in drops of that liquid metall Venenum rerum omnium est sayth Pliny it is a venome to all things and yet a greater venome is in the mouth of man I meane not that poyson of Aspes vnder the lips of many as the Prophet speaketh in a spirituall sense but euen in naturall operation the Spettle of man enuenometh with a stronger poyson this poyson of Quick-siluer and eyther killeth it or at least depriueth it of the motion and quicknesse and maketh it pliant to Medicines and Oyntments Yea some report that this Spettle of man arising of secret vapors out of the body as infectious exhalations out of vnwholsome Lakes especially when a man is fasting killeth Scorpions and other venemous beasts or at least doth much hurt them Quick-siluer disdayneth other metals only it is thus rauished with Gold and not a little affected to Siluer for the refining of which it is principally in vse it corrupteth forceth consumeth and flyeth the rest as much as may bee and therefore they vse to keepe it in earthen Vessels Bladders Skins Quils and such vnctuous receptacles It hath pierced and eaten thorow the bodies of men and hath beene found in their graues Quick-siluer is found in a kind of stone which doth likewise yeeld Vermillion At Amador de Cabrera is such a stone or Rocke fourescore yards long forty broad interlaced with Quick-siluer with many pits in it threescore Stades deepe and is able to receiue three hundred workmen it is valued worth a Million of Gold From the Mynes of Guancauilca they draw yeerly eight thousand Quintals of Quick-siluer As for the manner of refining Siluer by Quick-siluer their Engines and Mils with the tryall of their metall I referre the Reader to Acosta Atabaliba maruelled why the Europaeans hauing such Chrystaline and pure Glasses would expose themselues to those dangers by Sea and Land for those metals which he thought not comparable to the same Well indeed might hee haue wondred if that Arte had remayned which I know not how truly Pliny Petronius Isidorus and others report to haue beene in Tiberius his time to whom one presented a faire Glasse which being cast on the ground was bowed but not broken being taken vp by the same Artificer was with his hammer brought to the former forme and beauty His reward besides the wonder and astonishment of the beholders was that which precious things often procure their owners For the Emperour asking whether any other knew this Mystery this being denied he caused his head the only work house of this secret to be smote off lest Gold and Siluer should giue place to Arte The Emeralds grow in stones like Chrystall and there are many of them in the Indies But of these and other Gemmes it would be too tedious to write Pedro Ordonnes a Spanish Priest hath written of the profits which the Spaniards reape of Peru and the Indies He sayth that the Kings Reuenue thence accrueth to twelue Millions which ariseth out of ten Springs his fifths of the Gold and Siluer Mynes great Meltings Customes of Ports Indian Tributes Sale of Offices the Cruzada Tribute of Rents Quick-siluer Fines of Courts and the ninth part of Ecclesiasticall Rents Of these Rents and other things worthy knowledge See himselfe in the seuenth Booke of the last part of our Pilgrimes Let vs now come to the Men Beasts Fowles and Plants of this New World whereof wee will here promise a generall taste and hereafter giue in the due places some other particular Relations CHAP. II. Of the first Knowledge Habitation and Discoueries of the New World and the rare Creatures therein found Beasts Birds Trees Hearbes and Seeds §. I. Whether the Ancients had any knowledge of America and whence the Inhabitants first came AFter these generall Discourses of the Americans some other of like nature I hold not vnmeete to be handled before wee come to the particular Regions and first of the Men whether the Ancients had any knowledge of them how Men first came into these parts and of the first Discoueries in the former Age Concerning the first knowledge of these parts it may iustly bee a question whether the Ancients euer heard thereof
making a noyse downward that they worship the Deuill vnder them There is no flesh or fish which they find dead smel it neuer so filthily but they wil eat it without any other dressing Their Deere haue skins like Asses and feet large like Oxen which were measured 7. or 8. inches in breadth There are no Riuers or running Springs but such as the Sun causeth to come of snow Sometimes they will perboyle their meate a little in kettles made of beasts skins with the bloud water which they drinke lick the bloudy knife with their tongues This licking is the medicine also for their wounds They seeme to haue traffike with other Nations from whom they a small quantity of Iron Their fire they make of heath mosse In their leather Boats they row with one oare faster then we can in our Boats with all our oares §. IIII. Discoueries by IOHN DAVIS GEORGE WEYMOVTH and IAMES HALL to the North-West MAster Iohn Dauis in the yeere 1585. made his first voyage for the North-west discouery and in 64. degrees and 15. minutes they came on shore on an Iland where they had sight of the Sauages which seemed to worship the Sunne For pointing vp to the Sunne with their hands they would strike their breasts hard with their hands which being answered with like action of the English was taken for a confirmed league and they became very familiar They first leaped and danced with a kind of Timbrel which they strucke with a sticke Their apparell was of beasts and birds skins buskins hose gloues c. Some leather they had which was dressed like the Glouers leather The 6. of August they discouered land in 66. deg. 40. min.. They killed white Beares one of whose fore-feet was fourteene inches broad so fat that they were forced to cast it away It seemed they fed on the grasse by their dung which was like to Horse-dung they heard Dogs howle on the shore which were tame They killed one with a Collar about his necke hee had a bone in his pisle these it seemed were vsed to the Sled for they found two Sleds The next yeere he made his second voyage wherein hee found the Sauage people tractable They are great Idolaters and Witches They haue many Images which they weare about them and in their Boats They found a graue wherein were many buried couered with Seales skinnes and a Crosse laid ouer them One of them made a fire of Turfs kindled with the motion of a sticke in a piece of a boord which had a hole halfe thorow into which hee put many things with diuers words and strange gestures our men supposed it to be a sacrifice They would haue had one of the English to stand in the smoke which themselues were bidden to doe and would not by any meanes whereupon one of them was thrust in and the fire put out by our men They are very theeuish They eate raw Fish grasse and Ice and drinke salt-water Heere they saw a whirlewinde take vp the water in great quantitie furiously mounting it vp into the ayre three houres together with little intermission They found in 63. degrees 8. minutes a strange quantitie of Ice in one entire masse so bigge that they knew not the limits thereof very high in forme of land with Bayes and Capes like high-cliffe-land they sent their Pinnasse to discouer it which returned with information that it was onely Ice This was the 17. of Iuly 1586. and they coasted it till the thirtieth of Iuly In the 66. deg. 33. min.. they found it very hot and were much troubled with a stinging Fly called Muskito All the Lands they saw seemed to bee broken and Ilands which they coasted Southwards till they were in foure and fifty and a halfe and there found hope of a passage In the same voyage he had sent the Sun-shine from him in 60. degrees which went to Iseland and on the seuenth of Iuly had sight of the Gronland and were hindered from harbour by the Ice They coasted it till the last of Iuly Their houses neere the Sea-side were made with pieces of wood crossed ouer with poles and couered with earth Our men played at foot-ball with them of the Iland The third voyage was performed the next yeere 1587. wherein Mr Dauis discouered to the 73. degree finding the Sea all open and forty leagues betweene land and land hauing Groenland which hath an Iland neere it to the West for the loathsome view of the shore couered with snow without wood earth or grasse to be seene and the irkesome noise of the Ice called Desolation in 59. on the East and America on the West The Spanish Fleet and the vntimely death of Master Secretarie Walsingham the Epitome and summary of Humane worthinesse hindered the prosecution of these intended Discoueries In the yeere 1602. Captain George Weymouth made a voyage of Discouery to the Northwest with two Fly-boats set forth by the Muscouy Company saw the South part of Gronland and had water in 120. fadome blacke as thick as puddle and in a little space cleere with many such enterchanges The breach of the Ice made a noise as a thunder-clap and ouerturning had sunke both their Vessels if they had not with great diligence preuented it They had store of Fogges some freezing as they fell In 68 deg. 53. min.. they encountred an Inlet forty leagues broad and sailed West and by South in the same 100. leagues Iames Hall An. 1605. sailed to Groenland from Denmarke and had like encounters of Ice yeelding in the breach no lesse noise then if fiue Canons had beene discharged with people also like those which in Frobishers Voyage are mentioned they make sailes of guts sowed together for their fishing Boats and deceiued the Seales with Seales-skin garments Groenland is high Mountainous full of broken Ilands alongst the Coasts Riuers nauigable and good Bayes full of fish Betweene the Mountaines are pleasant Plaines and Vallies such as a man would scarce beleeue He saw store of Fowle no beasts but blacke Foxes and Deere The people seemed a kind of Samoydes wandering in Summer by companies for Hunting and Fishing and remouing from place to place with their Tents and Baggage they are of reasonable stature browne actiue warlike eate raw meat or a little perboyled with bloud Oyle or a little water which they drinke their apparell beasts of fowles skinnes the hairy or feathered side outward in Summer in the Winter inward their arrowes and darts with two feathers and a bone-head they haue no wood but drift they worship the Sunne Anno 1606. He made a second Voyage thither found their Winter houses built with Whales bones couered with Earth and Vaults two yards deepe vnder the Earth square They call Groenland in their language Secanunga Vp within the Land they haue a King carried on mens shoulders The next yeere he sailed thither the third time and in a fourth Voyage 1612. was slaine
would ouertake and kill a horse for the horses fled from them either for their deformitie or because they had neuer seene the like The people haue no other riches they are vnto them meat drinke apparell their Hides also yeeld them houses and ropes their bones bodkins their sinewes and haire threat their horns mawes and bladders vessels their dung fire the Calues-skins budgets wherewith they draw and keepe water Gomara also mentioneth their sheepe which they so call because they haue fine wool and hornes they are as bigge as horses their hornes weigh fifty pound weight a piece There are also Dogs which will fight with a Bull and will carry fifty pound weight in Sacks when they goe on hunting or when they remoue from place to place with their heards The winter is long and sharpe with much snow in Cibola and therefore they then keepe in their Cellers which are in place of Stoues vnto them In the height of thirty seuen degrees at Tiguez the cold was so extreme that the horses and men passed ouer the Riuer vpon the Ice They there tooke a towne after fiue and forty dayes siege but with much losse and little gaine For the Indians killed thirty horses in a night and in another slue certaine Spaniards sent Ouando vp into the countrey they could not tell whether for sacrifice or for the shew and wounded fifty horses they drunke snow in stead of water and seeing no hope to hold out made a great fire and cast therein all they had of worth and then went all out to make way by force where they were all in manner slaine but not vnreuenged forcing some Spaniards to accompany them into the Regions of Death and wounding many more both men and horses The Snow continueth in these parts halfe the yeere Quiuira is more Northerly and yet more temperate The Spaniards returned to Mexico in the end of the yeare 1542. to no small griefe of Mendoza who had spent in this expedition six thousand Duokats Some Friers stayed but were slaine by the people of Quiuira onely one man escaped to bring newes to Mexico Sir Francis Drake sailed on the other side of America to forty degrees of Northerly Latitude and with cold was forced to retire although the Sunne followed him all the way from Guatulco hither which he sailed from the 6. day of April to the 5. day of Iune as if that most excellent and heauenly Light had delighted himselfe in his societie and acknowledged him for his Son more truely then the Spaniards whereof anon we shall heare or that Phaeton of the Poets not able to compasse this compassing iourney once hee was so good a Scholler and learned the Suns instruction so well that he followed him in a watery field all that his fiery circle round about this earthly Globe carried with the mouing winde as it were airie wings new stars Ilands Seas attending and admiring the English colours and first of any Generall loosed the girdle of the world and encompassing her in his fortunate armes enioyed her loue But I lose my selfe while I find him and yet excellent names I know not how compell men to stand awhile and gaze with admiration if not with adoration This our English Knight landed on this coast in thirty eight degrees where the inhabitants presented themselues vnto him with presents of feathers and kalls of Net-worke which hee required with great humanitie The men went naked the women knit loose garments of bull-rushes about their middles They came a second time and brought feathers and bags of Tobacco and after a long Oration of one that was Speaker for the rest they left their bowes on a hil and came downe to our men the women meane-while remaining on the hill tormented themselues tearing the flesh from the cheekes whereby it appeared that they were about some sacrifice The newes being further spred brought the King thither which was a man of goodly stature many tall men attended him two Embassadours with a long Speech of halfe an houre signified his comming before One went before the King with a Scepter or Mace wherein hanged two Crownes with three chaines the Crownes were of knit-worke wrought artificially with diuers coloured feathers the chaines of a bony substance The King followed cloathed in Cony-skinnes the people came after all hauing their faces painted with white blacke and other colours euery one bringing his present euen the very children also The Scepter-bearer made a lowd speech of halfe an houre taking his words from another which whispered the same vnto him which with a solemne applause being ended they came all downe the hill in order without their weapons the Scepter-bearer beginning a Song and dancing wherein all the rest followed him The King and diuers others made seuerall Orations or Supplications to the Generall to become their King and the King with a Song did set the Crowne on the Generals head and put the chaines about his necke honouring him by the name of Hioh The common sort leauing the King and his guard scattered themselues with their Sacrifices among our people taking view of all and to such as best pleased their fancy which were the youngest offered their Sacrifices with weeping scratching and tearing their flesh with much effusion of bloud The English misliked their deuotions and directed them to the liuing God they shewed againe their wounds whereunto the other applyed paysters and lotions Euery third day they brought their Sacrifices till they perceiued that they were displeasing And at the departure of the English they by stealth prouided a Sacrifice taking their departing very grieuously They found heards of Deere feeding by thousands and the Country full of strange Conies headed like ours with the feet of a Want and taile of a Cat hauing vnder their chins a bagge into which they gather their meate when they haue filled their body abroad There is no part of this Earth wherein there is not some speciall likelihood of Gold or Siluer The Generall named the Country Noua Albion §. II. Of New Mexico and Cinaloa IN the yeere 1581. Augustine Ruiz a Frier learned by the report of certaine Indians called Conchos that toward the North there were certaine great Towns not hitherto to discouered by the Spaniards whereupon he with two other companions of his owne Order and eight Souldiers went to seeke these parts and to preach vnto them They came vnto the Prouince de los Tiguas two hundred and fiftie leagues Northwards from the Mynes of Saint Barbara where one of the Friers was slaine by the Inhabitants This caused the Souldiers to returne backe but the Friers stayed still behind The Franciscans fearing the losse of these their Brethren procured Antonio de Espeio to vndertake this Iourney with a company of Souldiers Hee passing the Conchos the Passaquates the Toboses came to the Patatabueyes which is a great Prouince and hath many Townes their Houses flat roofed and built of lime and
fowle they grow in fifteene or twenty fathome depth They caught with their Dogges a beast very fat haired like a Goat otherwise resembling a Deere in this neither that it had foure Dogges like vnto a Cow full of Milke But because they had little dealing with the Inhabitants I leaue them and will see what Fernando Alarchon can shew vs of his Discouerie Hee was set forth by Antonio de Mendoza the Vice-roy in the yeere of our Lord 1540. with two ships He came to the bottome of the Bay of California and there found a mighty Riuer which ranne with such furious violence that they could scarce saile against it Here leauing the ships with some of his company hee passed vp with some Peeces of Ordnance and two Boats and so drawing the Boats with halsers they made vp the Riuer called Buena Guia they were incountred with the Indian Inhabitants who forbade them landing but Alarchon hurling his weapons downe and pulling out certaine wares to giue them appeased their fury and caused them also to lay downe their weapons and receiue of him some trifles which he gaue them Two leagues higher many Indians came and called to him these were decked after a strange manner some had painted their faces all ouer some halfe way others had Vizards on with the shape of faces they had holes in their nostrils whereat certaine pendants hung others ware shels hauing their eares full of holes with bones and shels hanging thereat All of them ware a Girdle about their waste whereunto was fastned a bunch of Feathes which hung downe behind like a taile they carried with them bags of Tobacco Their bodies were traced with cole their haire cut before hung downe long behind The women ware bunches of Feathers before and behind them there were foure men in womens apparell Alarchon perceiued by signes that the thing they most reuerenced was the Sunne and therefore signified vnto them that he came from the Sunne whereat they maruelled and tooke curious view of him with greater reuerence then before brought him abundance of food first flinging vp part of euery thing into the Aire and after turning to him to giue him the other part offering in their armes to carry him into their Houses and doing else whatsoeuer he would haue them And if any stranger came they would goe and meet him to cause him to lay downe his weapons and if he would not they would breake them in pieces Hee gaue the chiefe of them small Wares They needed not pray them to helpe draw the Boat vp the streame euery one laboured to get hold of the Rope otherwise it had beene impossible to haue gotten vp against the Current Hee caused Crosses to be made and giuen them with instruction to honour them which they did with extasie of blind z ale kissing them and lifting them vp euery one comming for them till he had not paper and stickes enow for that purpose And as he passed further he met with one which vnderstood his Interpreter and asked of him many questions to which he answered that he was sent of the Sunne which the other doubting because the Sunne went in the Skie he said that at his going downe and rising he came neere the Earth and there made him in that Land and sent him hither to visit this Riuer and the People and to charge them not to make further warres one vpon another But why saith the Indian did he send you no sooner he answered Because before he was but a child A long Dialogue thus passed betwixt them the issue whereof was that the Indians cryed out they would all receiue him for their Lord seeing hee was the childe of the Sunne and came to doe them good This vse did hee make of their superstitious obseruation of the Sunne which they worshipped because he made them warme said they and caused their crop to grow and therefore of all things which they eate they cast a little vp into the aire to Him They warre one vpon another a thing common to all Sauages for small occasions the eldest and most valiant guided the Armie for in some places they had no Lord and of those which they tooke in the Warre some they burned and from some they plucked out the hearts and ate them Alarchon caused a Crosse to be made of Timber commanding his owne people to worship it and leauing it with the Indians with instructions euery morning at the Sunne-rise to kneele before it This they tooke with great deuotion and would not suffer it to touch the ground vntill they knew by questioning how deepe they should set it with what composition of gesture to worship it and the like curiosities of Paganish Christianitie He was told that this Riuer was inhabited by three and twenty Languages that they married but one woman to one man that Maides before Marriage conuersed not with men nor talked with them but kept at home and wrought Adultery was death they burned the dead Widdowes stayed halfe a yeere or a whole yeere before they married againe Euery Family had their seuerall Gouernour other Ruler they had none The Riuer vsed at some times to ouerflow the bankes These people told Alarchon that in Ceuola they had many blue stones or Turqueses which they digged out of a Rocke of stone and when the Gouernours dyed all their goods were buried with them that they eate with Napkins many wayting at Table that they killed the Negro before mentioned because he said he had many Brethren to whom they thought he would giue intelligence and therefore killed him An old man told him the names of two hundred Lords and people of those parts This old man had a Son clothed in womans attire of which sort they had foure these serued to the Sodomiticall lusts of all the vnmarried young men in the Country and may not themselues haue to deale with any woman They haue no reward for this beastiall trade but haue libertie to goe to any House for their food when any of them dye the first Sonne that is borne after succeeds in their number As for the more Northerly parts both within Land and the supposed Strait of Anian with other things mentioned in Maps because I know no certaintie of them I leaue them The way by Sea from these parts to the Philippinas two of our owne Nation haue passed whose Voyage as also that exact description of the same by Francisco de Gualle a Spanish Captaine and Pilot Master Hakluyt hath related who hath in these and other labours of like nature deeply ingaged himselfe for his Countries good and of his Countrimen meriteth an euerlasting name and to me hath beene as Admirall holding out the light vnto me in these Seas and as diligent a guide by Land which I willingly yea dutifully acknowledge in a great part of this my long and wearisome Pilgrimage And his helpes in the second Edition haue much more obliged me that I say not thee
widest and to vomit out betweene these cleauing morsels into the Oceans lap so many streames and so farre is it from the Northerne and Southerne extremes three hundred miles distant The Inhabitants on the Northerne branches are the Tiuitiuas a goodly and valiant people which haue the most manly speech and most deliberate saith Sir Walter that euer I heard of what Nation so euer In the Summer they haue houses on the ground as in other places In the Winter they dwell vpon the trees where they build very artificiall Townes and Villages for betweene May and September the Riuer of Orenoque riseth thirtie foot vpright and then are those Ilands ouerflowne twenty foot high except in some few raised grounds in the middle This waterie store when the clouds are so prodigall of more then the Riuers store-house can hold whereby they become violent intruders and incrochers vpon the Land and not the violence of cold giueth this time the Title of Winter These Tiuitiuas neuer eate of any thing that is set or sowne Natures nurslings that neither at home nor abroad will be beholden to the Arte or Labour of Husbandry They vse the tops of Palmitos for bread and kill Deere Fish and Porke for the rest of their sustenance They which dwell vpon the branches of Orenoque called Capuri and Macureo are for the most part Carpenters of Canoas which they sell into Guiana for gold and into Trinidado for Tobacco in the excessiue taking whereof they exceed all Nations When a Commander dieth they vse great lamentation and when they thinke the flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from the bones they take vp the carkasse againe and hang it vp in the house where he had dwelt decking his skull with feathers of all colours and hanging his gold-plates about the bones of his arms thighs and legs The Arwacas which dwell on the South of Orenoque beat the bones of their Lords into powder which their wiues and friends drinke As they passed along these streames their eyes were entertained with a Pageant of Shewes wherein Nature was the onely Actor here the Deere came downe feeding by the waters side as if they had desired acquaintance with these new-come guests there the Birds in vnspeakeable varietie of kinds and colours rendering their seruice to the eye and eare the Lands either in large plaines of many miles bearing their beautifull bosomes adorned with Floraes embroidery of vnknown Flowres and Plants and prostrating themselues to the eye that they might be seene or else lifting vp thēselues in Hils knitting their furrowed brows and strouting out their goggle eyes to watch their treasure which they keepe imprisoned in their stony walls and now to see these strangers the Waters as the Graces dancing with mutuall and manifold embracings of diuers streames attended with plenty of Fowle and Fish both Land and Water feasting varietie of senses with varietie of obiects onely the Crocodile a creature which seemeth Vassall now to the land now to the Water but to make prey on both wel-nigh marred the Play and turned this Comedie into a Tragedie euen in their sight feasting himselfe with a Negro of their company One leuell passed hence to Cumana an hundred and twenty leagues to the North wherein dwell the Sayma the Assawai the Wikiri and the Aroras a people as blacke as Negros but with smooth haire Their poisoned Arrowes like cruell Executioners doe not onely kill but with vncouth torments make death to be as the last so the least of their fury especially if men drinke after they are wounded At the Port of Morequito they anchored and the King being an hundred and ten yeeres old came afoot fourteene miles to see them and returned the same day They brought them store of fruits and a sort of Paraquitos no bigger then Wrens and an Armadilla which seemeth to be all barred ouer with small plates somewhat like to a Rhinoceros with a white horne growing in his hinder-parts as big as a great hunting horne which they vse to winde in stead of a Trumpet They after eate this beast Monardus saith it is in bignesse and snout like a Pigge liues vnder the earth as a Moule and is thought to liue on earth They passed further till they came in sight of those strange ouer-fals of Caroli of which there appeared ten or twelue in sight euery one as high ouer the other as a Church-Tower They had sight at Winicapora of a Mountaine of Cristall which appeared a farre off like a white Church-Tower of an exceeding height There falleth ouer it a mighty Riuer which toucheth no part of the side of the Mountain but rushing ouer the top falleth to the ground with so terrible noise as if a thousand great bels were knocked one against another No maruell of these roaring out-cries if we consider that double penalty of Sense and Losse which this Riuer seemeth to sustaine the one in that dreadfull downfall bruising and breaking his vnited streames into drops and making it foming and senselesse with this falling-sicknesse the other in leauing behinde his Cristall purchase further enriched with Diamonds and other Iewels which euen now hee embraced in his waterie armes but himselfe such is the course and curse of couetousnesse will not suffer himselfe to enioy Now for the Monsters of Men there are said to be not seene by our men but reported by the Sauages and other an Amazonian Nation further South which Gomara thinkes to bee but the wiues of some Indians a thing common as you haue euen now read shooting and following the warres no lesse then their husbands Once about Iucatan about Plata about the Riuer called of this supposition Amazones about Monomotapa in Africa our Age hath told but no man hath seene this Vnimammian Nation Yet here they speake not of searing of the brest and what need they if there bee such seeing the women are so good Archers in other places their brests notwithstanding Againe they tell of men with mouthes in their brests and eyes in their shoulders called Chiparemoi and of the Guianians Ewiaponomos very strong and of others headed like Dogges which liue all the day time in the Sea These things are strange yet I dare not esteeme them fabulous onely as not too prodigall of faith I suspend till some eye-intelligence of some of our parts haue testified the truth §. II. Relations and discoueries thereof by other Englishmen FRANCIS SPARREY left in Guiana by Sir W. Raleigh 1595. hath also written of these parts He relateth of a place called Comalaha Southwards from Orenoque where at certain times they sell women as at a faire He saith he bought eight the eldest of which was not eighteene for a Red-hafted Knife which in England cost a halfe-peny he gaue them to the Sauages Hee was afterwards sent Prisoner into Spaine Anno 1604. Captaine Charles Leigh set saile from Woolwich on the one and twentieth of March for Guiana May 10. he came
put vpon him And when they had spent much reasoning about his ransome a Souldier named Soto of whom you haue heard in our History of Florida said vnto him Wilt thou giue vs this house full of Gold and Siluer thus high lifting vp his Sword and making a stroke vpon the wall Atabaliba answered that if they would giue him liberty to send into his Kingdome he would fulfill their demand Whereat the Spaniards much maruelling gaue him three monethes time but he had filled the house in two moneths and a halfe a matter scarce credible yet most true For I saith Lopez Vaz know aboue twenty men that were there at that time who all affirme that it was aboue ten Millions of Gold and Siluer That Spanish Captaine in Ramusius relateth that he promised to giue them so much Gold as should reach vp to that marke a span higher then a tall man could reach the Roome being fiue and twenty foote long and fifteene wide and the Gouernour asking how much Siluer he would giue he answered he would fill vp an inclosure which should be made there with Vessels of Plate for his ransome which was promised him This Captaine was appointed Guardian of that Golden roome and saw it melted and reckoneth vp the parcels and particulars that were brought in Vessels and Plates of Gold and Siluer And the Gouernour sent to the Emperor his fift part parted the rest to euery Footman 4800. pieces of Gold which make 7208. Duckets to euery Horseman twice as much besides the aduantages that belonged to any To Almagros company which were 150. that came after the victory hee gaue 25000. Pezos and gaue 2000. to the Inhabitants of Saint Michel Many other gifts hee gaue to Merchants and others and yet after the Gouernour was gone there was brought more Gold then that which had beene shared This also is affirmed by Xeres that ten or twelue dayes after Pizarro was gone the Spaniards which had beene sent to Cusco brought as much Gold which was taken from the wals of a House and Roofe of a Temple in Cusco being Plates of ten or twelue pound weight a piece and other like as amounted to two Millions and a halfe and being molten proued on Million 326539. Pezos of fine Gold and 51610. Markes of Siluer He addeth that Atabaliba was by sound of Trumpet freed from his promise but was kept still vnder guard for the Spaniards securitie Howbeit they killed him notwithstanding and in a night strangled him But God the righteous Iudge seeing this villanous act suffered none of those Spaniards to die by the course of Nature but brought them to euill and shamefull ends During the time of Atabalibas imprisonment his Captaines had taken his Brother Guascar who spake with Captaine Soto and promised that if they would restore him to his liberty and to his Kingdome he would fill vp the roome at Caximalca to the Roofe which was thrice as much as Atabaliba had promised and added that his Father Guaynacapa on his death-bed had commanded him to be friend to the white and bearded men which should come and rule in those parts Atabaliba hearing of these things fained himselfe sorrowfull for the death of Guascar whom he had heard that Quisquiz his Captaine had slaine this hee did to try how the Spaniards would take his death which when hee saw they little respected hee sent and caused him to bee slaine indeed This was done in the yeere of our Lord God 1533. He had before slaine another of his Brethren and drunke in his Skull as hee had sworne to deale with Atabaliba The Indians hereupon hid the Treasures of Gold Siluer and Gemmes that were in Cusco and other places and had belonged to Guaynacapa which were far more then euer came to the Spaniards hands Chilicuchima one of Atabalibas chiefe Captaines which visited him in his imprisonment with great reuerence for hee and the chiefe of his company laid burdens on their shoulders and so entred into his presence lifting vp both his hands to the Sunne with thankes to him for this sight of his Lord and then with much crouching kissed his hands and feet told the Spaniards that Quisquiz another chiefe Captaine had conueyed away those Treasures of Guaynacapa or Cusco the elder as hee cals him and being forced by torments of fire put to him confessed where Atabaliba had a Tent full of Plate and Treasure The Spanish Captaine which reports this saith that he saw a great house full of Vessels of Gold and other pieces as a Shepherd and his Sheepe all of Gold as great as the liuing which were not shared amongst them and he saw 10080. Pezos of the Emperours fifth part ouer and aboue that which Pizarro sent by his Brother so that both Caesar and Souldier were deceiued He heard Atabaliba say that in an Iland in a Riuer of Collas was a very great House all couered with Gold and the beames with all whatsoeuer in the house was couered with plates of Gold yea and the pauement also But in such a diuided State where were so many Indian Captaines of the Two Brethren Inguas the Spaniards being but a handfull and iealous of each other the Countrey being so wide and rich that they could not so much as see and take view of the same in short space there was easie opportunitie offered to conuey away the greatest part of their Treasures especially Religion adding a helping hand both to conuey and to conceale from them which thus spoyled their Temples Idols and Altars The Spaniards so abounded with Gold that they would giue 1300. one gaue 1500. Castilians or Pezos for a Horse 60. for a small Rondlet of Wine forty for a paire of shooes likewise a Sword and other things after the same rate and Debters sought out their Creditors with Indians laden with Gold from house to house to pay them They carried into Spaine one Vessell of Gold another of Siluer each sufficient wherein to boyle a Kow besides a huge Eagle and other like Images as an Idoll of Gold as bigge as a Childe of foure yeeres old Dâ—ums of Gold and at the conquest of Cusco Xeres tels of many Images of women of Gold and as great which they worshipped and diuers like of Siluer Sheepe also in like pourtrature of fine Gold all well wrought §. III. The Kings of Peru their originall proceedings and treasures THe quarrell betweene the two Brethren grew about their Inheritance Guascar succeeding his Father in the rest and Quito being assigned to Atabaliba who seizing on Tumebamba a rich Prouince prouoked his Brothers forces against him which tooke him prisoner But he escaping to Quito made the people beleeue that the Sun had turned him into a Serpent and so he escaped thorow a hole in the Prison and on conceit of this miracle drew them into armes against Guascar with which hee made such slaughter of his Enemies that to this day there are great
like is noted in the East Indies at the Hils of Balegate where that Ridge parteth Winter and Summer in the same neernesse to the Sunne at the same time and a few miles distant The Raines in the Hils are cause why they call it Winter and the deawes or mysts in the Plaines so that when the Raines fall most in the Hils it is cleere weather in the Plaines and when the deaw falleth in the Plaines it is cleere on the Hils and thus it commeth to passe that a man may trauell from Winter to Summer in one day hauing Winter to wash him in the morning and ere night a cleere and dry Summer to scorch him Yea in some places sayth Alexandro Vrsino within sixe miles space both heate and cold are intolerable and enough to kill any man From Saint Helen to Copiapo it neuer raineth which Coast extends forty miles in some places fiftie in breadth and twelue hundred leagues in length §. II. Of the first Inhabitants their Quippos Arts Marriages ABout the point of Saint Helena in Peru they tell that sometimes there liued Giants of huge stature which came thither in Boates the compasse of their knee was as much as of another mans middle they were hated of the people because that vsing their women they killed them and did the same to the men for other causes These Giants were addicted to Sodomie and therefore as the Indians report were destroyed with fire from Heauen Whether this be true or no in those parts are found huge and Giantlike bones Cieza writes that Iohn di Holmos at Porto Vicio digged and found teeth three fingers broad and foure long Contrariwise in the Valley of Chincha they haue a Tradition that the Progenitors of the present Inhabitants destroyed the natiue people which were not aboue two Cubits high and possessed their roomes in testimonie whereof they alledge also that bone-argument Concerning the Indians conceit of their own originall we haue mentioned their opinion of a floud and the repeopling of the World by them which came out of a Caue They haue another Legend that all men being drowned there came out of the great Lake Titicaca one Virococha which stayed in Traguanaco where at this day is to bee seene the ruines of very ancient and strange buildings and from thence came to Cusco and so beganne Mankinde to multiply They shew in the same Lake a small Iland where they faine that the Sunne hid himselfe and so was preserued and for this reason they made great Sacrifices vnto him in this place both of Sheepe and Men. They held this place sacred and the Inguas built there a Temple to the Sunne and placed there Women and Priests with great treasures Some learned men are of opinion that all which the Indians make mention of is not aboue foure hundred yeeres which may bee imputed to their want of writing In stead of writing they vsed their Quippos These Quippos are Memorials or Registers made of cords in which there are diuers knots and colours signifying diuers things these were their Bookes of Histories of Lawes Ceremonies and accounts of their affaires There were officers appointed to keepe them called Quipocamayos which were bound to giue account of things as Notaries and Registers They had according to the diuersitie of businesse sundry cords and branches in every of which were so many knots little and great and strings tyed to them some red some greene and in such varietie that euen as wee deriue an infinite number of words from the Letters of the Alphabet so doe they from these kinds and colours And at this day they will keepe account exactly with them I did see sayth Acosta a handfull of these strings wherein an Indian woman did carrie as it were written a generall confession of all her life and thereby confessed herselfe as well as I could haue done in written paper with strings for the circumstances of the sinnes They haue also certaine wheeles of small stones by meanes whereof they learne all they desire by heart Thus you shall see them learne the Pater-noster Creed and the rest and for this purpose they haue many of these wheeles in their Church-yards They haue another kinde of Quippos with grains of Mays with which they wil cast hard accounts which might trouble a good Arithmetician with his Pen in the Diuisions They were no lesse wittie if not more in things whereto they apply themselues then the men of these parts They taught their young children all Arts necessary to the life of men euery one learning what was needfull for his person and family and not appropriating himselfe to one profession as with vs one is a Tayler another a Weauer or of other Trade Euery man was his owne Weauer Carpenter Husbandman and the like But in other Arts more for ornament then necessitie they had Gold-smiths Painters Potters and Weauers of curious workes for Noblemen and so of the rest No man might change the fashion vsed in his owne Countrey when hee went into another that all might be knowne of what Countrey they were For their Marriages they had many Wiues but one was principall which was wedded with Solemnitie and that in this sort The Bridegroome went to the Brides House and put Ottoya which was an open Shooe on her foot this if shee were a Mayd was of wooll otherwise of Reeds and this done he led her thence with him If she committed Adulterie shee was punished with death when the Husband dyed shee carried a mourning Weed of blacke a yeere after and might not marry in that time which befell not the other Wiues The Ingua himselfe with his own hand gaue this woman to his Gouernours and Captaines and the Gouernours assembled all the young men and Mayds in one place of the Citie where they gaue to euery one his Wife with the aforesaid Ceremonie in putting on the Ottoya the other Wiues did serue and honour this None might marry with his Mother Daughter Grandmother or Grand-childe and Yapangui the Father of Guaynacapa was the first Ingua that married his Sister and confirmed his fact by a Decree that the Inguas might doe it commanding his owne children to doe it permitting the Noblemen also to marrie their Sisters by the Father side Other Incest and Murther Theft and Adulterie were punished with death Such as had done good seruice in warre were rewarded with Lands Armes Titles of honour and Marriage in the Inguas Linage They had Chasquis or Posts in Peru which were to carrie tidings or Letters for which purpose they had houses a league and a halfe asunder and running each man to the next they would runne fifty leagues in a day and night §. III. The Regall Rites Rights Workes and of RVMINAGVI and ALVARADO WHen the Ingua was dead his lawfull heire borne of his chiefe Wife succeeded And if the King had a legitimate Brother he first inherited and then the Sonne of the first Hee
the Ministers of his Holies durst enter nor touch the wals of the House Three hundred leagues they came thither on Pilgrimage with rich Offerings first speaking to the Doore-keeper who went in and consulted with the Idoll concerning them and returned his answere His Priests were of his owne appointment and might not approch to him without preparations of fasting and abstinence from their wiues Thorow all the streets of the Citie and on the principall Gates and round about the Temple were many Idols of Wood which they worshipped All the Countrey about payed a yeerely tribute hereunto The Spaniards told them this their God was a Deuill and taught them to defend themselues from him with the signe of the Crosse Neere to this Temple was an House or Oratorie of the Sunne on an high place engirt about with fiue wals At Tichicasa was a Temple and Oracle of the Sunne which had aboue sixe hundred men and a thousand women that did seruice therein and made Chica there Much Gold and wealth was here offered In some part of Peru as at Old Port and Puna they vsed the detestable sinne against Nature yea the Deuill so farre preuayled in their beastly Deuotions that there were Boyes consecrated to serue in the Temple and at the times of their Sacrifices and Solemne Feasts the Lords and principall men abused them to that detestable filthinesse And generally in the Hill-countries the Deuill vnder shew of holinesse had brought in that vice Euery Temple or principall house of adoration kept one man or two or more which went a tired like women euen from the time of their child-hood and spake like them imitating them in euery thing Vnder pretext of holinesse and Religion their principall men on principall dayes had that hellish commerce A Frier dealt with two of these Ganimedes about the filthinesse of this Vice and they answered that they held it no fault for from their childhood they had beene placed there by their Caciques both for that employment as also to bee Priests and to keepe the Temple Thus farre had they banished Nature to entertaine Religion and thus farre had they exiled the soule of Religion retayning onely a stinking Carkasse At Ganada in Caximalca the Inguas built a Temple in honour of the Sunne There were Virgins kept which intended nothing but to weaue and spinne and dye clothes for their Idolatrous seruices The like was in other places In Guanuco was a stately Palace of great stones and a Temple of the Sunne adioyning with a number of Virgins and Ministers which had thirtie thousand Indians for the seruice thereof The seruice which most of them did is like to be the tilling of the ground feeding of Cattell and such like before mentioned which they were bound to doe for the Inguas and also for the Guacas that is Idols and Idol-houses But it were a wearisome Pilgrimage to goe and leade my Reader with mee to euery of their Temples which for the most part had the same Rites according to that proportion of mayntenance which belonged to them §. II. Of their Nunnes Sorcerers Confessions and and Penances Gomara reporteth that their houses of women were as Cloysters or Monasteries enclosed that they might neuer goe forth They gelded Men which should attend on them cutting off also their Noses and Lips that they should haue no such appetite It was death for any to be found false and incontinent The men that entred into them were hanged vp by the feet These made Robes for the Idols and burned the ouerplus with the bones of white sheepe and hurled the Ashes into the Ayre towards the Sun If they proued with childe and sware that Pachacama did it the issue was preserued Of these Monasteries or Nunneries thus writeth Acosta There were in Peru many Monasteries of Virgins but not any for men except for the Priests and Sorcerers at the least one in euery Prouince In these were two sorts of women one ancient which they called Mamacomas for the instruction of the young the other of young Maydens placed there for a certaine time after which they were drawne forth eyther for the Gods or for the Ingua They called this House or Monastery Aclaguagi that is the House of the Chosen Euery Monastery had his Vicar or Gouernour called Appopanaca who had libertie to chuse whom he pleased of what qualitie soeuer being vnder eight yeeres of age if they seemed to be of a good stature and constitution The Mamacomas instructed these Virgins in diuers things needfull for the life of man and in the Customes and Ceremonies of their Gods Afterwards they tooke them from thence being aboue fourteene sending them to the Court with sure Guards whereof some were appointed to serue the Idols and Idol-Temples keeping their Virginitie for euer some other were for ordinary Sacrifices that were made of Maydens and other extraordinary Sacrifices they made for the health death or warres of the Inguas and the rest serued for Wiues and Concubines to the Ingua or such as hee gaue them to This distribution was renued euery yeere These Monasteries possessed rents for the maintenance of these Virgins No Father might refuse his Daughter if the Appopanaca required her yea many Fathers did willingly offer their Daughters supposing it was a great merit to be sacrificed for the Ingua If any of these Mamacomas or Aollas were found to haue trespassed against their honour it was an ineuitable chastisement to bury them aliue or to put them to death by some other cruell torment The Inguas allowed a kind of Sorcerers or Sooth-sayers which they say tooke vpon them what forme and figure they pleased flying farre thorow the Ayre in a short time They talke with the Deuill who answered them in certaine stones or other things which they reuerence much They tell what hath passed in the furthest parts before newes can come In the distance of two or three hundred leagues they would tell what the Spaniards did or suffered in their ciuill warres To worke this diuination they shut vp themselues vp into a house and became drunke till they lost their senses a day after they answered to that which was demanded Some affirme they vse certaine vnctions The Indians say that the old women doe commonly vse this office of Witchcraft especially in some places They tell of things stolne or lost The Anaconas which are the seruants of the Spaniards consult with them and they make answere hauing first spoken with the Deuill in an obscure place so as the Anaconas heare the sound of the voyce but vnderstand it not nor see any body They vse the Herbe Villea with their Chica drinke made of Mayz and therewith make themselues drunke that they may bee fit for the Deuils conference The conference with these Witches is one of the greatest lets to the proceeding of the Gospel amongst them Among their Religious persons I may reckon their Confessors They held opinion that
could but touch and away we may aduenture notwithstanding the wonted danger vpon Bermuda Danger hath made it now not so dangerous nocuments haue beene documents For while some haue beene wracked there they haue made vertue of Necessitie and so well obserued the Coast that skill hath almost secured that which Nature had seemed to set there in defiance both of Habitation and Nauigation to both which it is now subiected by our Nation It was called Bermuda as Ouiedo sayth of Iobn Bermudez which first discouered it and Garza of the ships name wherein hee then sayled Ouiedo writeth that hee was iust by it and had thought to haue sent some Hogs on shore there to haue multiplyed but by force of tempest was driuen thence and others eyther of like purpose or by force of shipwracke haue since done it It is also called the Iland of Deuils which they suppose inhabit there and the Inchanted Iland but these are inchanted conceits Iob Hortop relateth That in the height of Bermuda they had sight of a Sea-monster which three times shewed himselfe from the middle vpwards in shape like a man of the complexion of a Mulato or tawny Indian But this name was giuen it not of such Monsters but of the monstrous tempests which here they haue often sustayned Sir G. Sommers hath deserued that it should beare his name by his indeuours thereabouts testified in life and death Hee with Sir Thomas Gates as before is said were wrackt on the Iland which losse turned to some gaine as if God would giue them this into the Virginia-bargaine Before Anno 1593. Henry May an Englishman in a French ship was wracked thereon and hath giuen vs some Discourse thereof more fully hath Syluester Iourdan one of that Virginian Company one of the company of those worthy Knights in a Treatise of that shipwracke and the Discouerie of Bermuda The Commodities whereof he reckoneth varietie of fishes plentie of Hogges which it seemeth haue escaped out of some wrackes diuers Fruits Mulberries Silke-wormes Palmitos Cedars Pearles Ambergrise But the most strange thing seemes the varietie of Fowle of which they tooke a thousand of one sort in two or three houres being as bigge as a Pidgeon and laying speckled Egges as bigge as Hens Egges on the sand where they come and lay them daily although men sit downe amongst them When Sir Thomas Gates his men haue taken a thousand of them Sir George Sommers men haue stayed a while by them and brought away as many more Another Fowle there is that liueth in holes like Cony-holes their Egges like in quantity and qualitie to Hen-egges Other Birds were so gentle that whistling to them they would come and gaze on you while with your sticke you might kill them Other Egges they had of Tortoyses a bushell in the belly of one very sweet they tooke forty of them in a day and one would serue fiftie men at a meale Two were there borne and other two married to make the most naturall possession thereof for our Nation which now in hope of good successe hath there planted an habitation That wracked Company built there a Ship and a Pinnasse and set saile for Virginia William Strachie in a large Discourse with his fluent and copious pen hath described that tempest which brought them to this Iland affirming that there was not an houre in foure dayes in which they freed not out of their almost captiued Ship twelue hundred Barricoes of water each contayning sixe gallons and some eight besides three Pumps continually going euery foure houres they bestowed an hundred tuns of water on the cruell Sea which seemed the more hungry after their bodies or thirstie for their bloud from Tuesday noone till Friday noone they bayled and pumped two thousand tunnes and were ten foot deepe nor could haue holden out one day longer when they first had fight of the Bermudas These he sayth are an Archipelagus of broken Ilands not fewer then fiue hundred if all may be so called which lye by themselues the greatest which lyeth like an halfe moone is in 32. degrees 20. minutes At their first landing they killed with Bats seuen hundred Fowles like to Guls at one time The Ilands seeme rent with tempests of Thunder Lightning and Raine which threaten in time to deuoure them all the stormes in the full and change keepe their vnchangeable round Winter and Summer rather thundring then blowing from euery corner sometimes 48. houres together especially when the Halo or circle about the Moone appeareth which is often and there foure times as large as with vs The North and Northwest winds cause Winter in December Ianuary and February yet not such but then young Birds to be seene Without knowledge a Boat of ten tuns cannot be brought in and yet within is safe harbour for the greatest Ships They found there for their sustenance wild Palmitos the tops of which trees rosted did eate like fried Melons sodden like Cabbages with the leaues they couered their Cabins Berries blacke and round as bigge as a Damson ripe in December and very luscious in the Winter they shed their leaues No Iland in the World had more or better Fish Of Fowles was great varietie They killed a wild Swan Some there are which breed in high Ilands in holes to secure them from the Swine They haue their seasons one kind succeeding another Besides this reliefe of Fowles they had plenty of Tortoise Egges which they lay as bigge as Goose Egges and commit to the Sun and Sands hatching nurserie They had sometimes fiue hundred in one of them Euen heere lest the Iland should lose that former name of Deuils some entred into Deuillish conspiracie three seuerall time Some were banished and after reconciled Henry Paine was shot to death Some fled to the Woods but all reduced except Christopher Carter and Robert Waters But these Ilands haue now beene possessed diuers yeeres by an English Colonie and my friend Master Barkley which hath beene there and is now onwards on a second Voyage thither seemeth rauished with the naturall endowments both for health and wealth of these Ilands which now are to be shared amongst the Aduenturers and fortified against all inuasions Nature it selfe being herein readie to further their securitie against the greatest forren force mustering winds which some say are violent further off but calmer neere the Ilands and Rockes many leagues into the Sea for their defence which now yet they are gone to strengthen both with men and munition The Colonie that is there haue not onely sent verball but reall commendations of the place as may appeare by a Treatise thereof lately set forth by one which in the Shippe called the Plough sayled thither Anno 1612. wherein is declared the Commodities there found as Mullets Breames Lobstars and Angel-fish Hog-fish Rock-fish c. as before is said The Ayre is very healthfull as their experience the best argument hath found and agreeing well
by Pedro Teixera and Abraham Zacut a Iew published by Ioseph Scaliger The Author by birth an Egyptian hath beene exact in relating the Times and Acts of all Egyptian Gouernours which with other things too long for an abridgement and not so pertayning to the generall knowledge of that Historie of their Religion and Empire I haue omitted yet scrupulously rendring those things which I thought fitting for that my scope or satisfaction of any not exceedingly curious Reader I confesse had the Booke comne to my hand in time this as the other Tractates of Sir Ierome Horsey and Master Methold had beene published with my Pilgrimes yea that Muhammedan part of my Pilgrimage was passed the Presse before this came to my hand although euen for Religions sake this is not vnfit here And for Religions sake I haue beene Religious in keeping the foot-prints of their Religion in the Phrases vsed by the Authour of Muhammed or any other of his Sword-saints stiling his memory glorious others happy indeed odious and pestiferous because the Authour so speaketh in other things also obseruing his words euen as Saint Luke mentioneth Heathenish Names and Deuotions of Mars Castor Pollux Iupiter Mercury or other prodigies of Ethnike Superstition Let their Shewes and Deuotions in a false Religion prouoke vs to emulate the Truth with greater Zeale lest our lukewarmenesse also cause vs to be spewed out of Christs mouth for withholding the truth in vnrighteousnesse the true cause why one Age brought into the World those hypocriticall Chalifas and these Vicars the one by Muhammeds Midwifery gladio oris and the other by that of Phocas ore gladij those with a forcing Temporall Sword these with a forged Spirituall made of the Keyes turned into Picklocks to set the World in so manifold combustions whiles one seekes a thousand yeeres together to thrust the Church out of all the World the other to bring all the World vnto their Pontificall Pompificall Cacolicke not into the true Catholike Church in the communion of Saints And if the Saracenicall and Papall History were well knowne the mysteries of S. Iohns Apocalypse might receiue greater light then that want hath yet permitted So vsefull is this kind of knowledge to generall Learning and to the summ of all Diuinity THE SARACENICALL HISTORY CONTAINING THE ACTS OF THE MVSLIMS FROM MVHAMMED TO THE RAIGNE OF ATABACaeVS IN the Succession of forty nine Emperours Written in Arabike by GEORGE ELMACIN Sonne of ABVLIASER ELAMID the Sonne of ABVLMACAREM the Sonne of Abultib In the Name of God mercifull mercy-shewing in whom is my helpe PRaysed in all Languages be the holy God glorified in the height of his Throne of all creatures distinct in necessity of Essence from euery thing being separated by the admirablenesse of Names and noblenesse of Attributes superexcellent in power and greatnesse of Maiestie aboue all comparison in his strength greatnesse and immensitie I wil prayse him with thanksgiuing for benefits giuen and gifts abundantly bestowed HAuing read the History of that learned and famous man Muhamed Abugiafar Son of Giarir the Tabarite of happy memory and seeing the narrations and allegations very prolixe hauing also read the abridgement thereof by the learned Kemaluddin and many other Briefes I gathered a History out of them contracting the words but retayning the things and order omitting no case or exploit of moment beginning with the beginner of Islamisme of glorious memory rehearsing his birth genealogy and acts till he fled to Medina and after that his warres victories and fortune till his death I proceed in order with the orthodoxall Chaliph's obseruing the course of times and yeeres adding the Kings of other Prouinces and the occurrents of their times according to the computation of the Hegira vnto the Reigne of Sultan Rucnuddin the Holy King of happy memory THe first Emperor of the Muslemans was Muhammed Abulcasim of glorious memory Muhammed Abulcasim saith Muhammed Abugiafar first manifested and obserued the Religion of Islamisme hee was Sonne of Abdalla which was the Sonne of Abdulmutalib the Sonne of Hasiem the Sonne of Abdumenaf His Mothers name was Emina the Daugter of Waheb Sonne of Abdumenaf Now Muhammed of glorious memory was borne in the stonie Valley of the Citie of Mecca early on a Munday morning the eighth of the former moneth Rab in the 882. yeere of Alexander the Great His Father dyed two moneths before he was borne his Mother when he was sixe yeeres old His Grandfather Abdulmutalib brought him vp till he was eight yeeres old and then dyed aged 110. yeeres after which he was educated by his Vncle Abutalib When hee was fortie yeeres old he was called to the Propheticall office on Munday the second of the former Rab in the 922. of Alexander the Great which was the twentieth of the Raigne of Cosroas Sonne of Hormisda Sonne of Nusierwan The first that beleeued in his Prophesie was Chadigia his Vncles Daughter the next was his seruant Zeid Sonne of Harith and after him Ali the Sonne of Abutalib all of happy memory After them were added Abubecr with fiue others all which were called by him to Islammisme viz. Otsman Sonne of Affan Zubeir Sonne of Awam Abdurrahman Sonne of Aufi Saad Sonne of Abuwaccas and Obeidalla Sonne of Algiarab These nine were the first which entred Islamisme In the foure and fortieth yeere of his age he manifested his vocation for before hee only inuited men priuily to Islamisme And publishing his vocation he commanded to beleeue in God alone and him to worship and adore he destroyed Idolatry commanded Circumcision established the Fast of the moneth Ramadan the fiue Prayings Cleannesse Pilgrimage to the Temple of Mecca that Bloud should not be eaten nor that which dyeth alone nor Swines flesh And those which obserued not these things he vexed with warre and fought against them The Christians also came to him both Arabs and others and hee receiued them into his fidelity giuing them a writing of Securitie So also the Iewes Magi and Pagans and others which performed to him oath of fidelity obtained of him free libertie but on condition to pay tribute and poll-monie He commanded also to beleeue the truth of the Prophets and Apostles and of the Bookes sent to them Also that Christ the Sonne of Mary is the Spirit of God and his Word and Apostle and he approued the Gospell and the Law of Moses The Coraisites would not consent touching these things but resisted him valiantly and defied him But his Vncle Abutalib assisted him and forbade that any man should approch to him with a Sword In the fifth yeere Omar the Sonne of Alchittabi of happy memory beleeued and confirmed the other Muslims with his faith they were then 39. and himselfe was the 40. In the eighth yeere the Coraisites writ a Decree that the children of Hasiem should not make league or be mixed with the children of Almutalib and hanged it in the Temple of Mecca In the tenth
Otsman Sonne of Affan first couered it with a Carpet This yeere also was fought the Battell of Chaibar and M. tooke many Forts and possessed their Riches Hee straitly besieged two Castles Watitia and Selalima that they were forced to sue to him to spare their lines and to let them remayne in their Countrey which he granted on condition to pay yeerely halfe their Dates and to be at his pleasure cast forth The Inhabitants of Badra hearing this concluded on like conditions to which he yeelded The Iewes also remayned vnder the same league vntill the Raigne of Omar Sonne of Alchittabi who after that he vnderstood that M. of glorious memory had said in his sicknesse that two Religions might not concurre in Arabia he cast them thence The same yeere Zeinaba Daughter of Alharit a Iewesse brought him a poysoned Sheepe of which eating he said this ioynt tels me that it is poysoned In the eight yeere he tooke Mecca For the Coraisites had broken their league and M. went against them with ten thousand Muslims til he came to Marwuttahran and his Vncle Abbas Sonne of Abdulmutalib came to him with Abusofian Sonne of Harith and beleeued And he said He which shall enter the house of Abusofian shall be secure and he which shall shut his doore shall be safe And he entred Mecca without Battell and all the people thereof beleeued except a few which he slue It was taken the one and twentieth of Ramadan The Battell of Honania a famous Valley was fought this yeere For when the Hawazines had vnderstood that Mecca was taken they assembled to Melic Sonne of Auf the Tekifians adioyning themselues with their wiues and goods M. went out against them with twelue thousand men and the victorie at first was with the Infidels but after the Muslims preuailed which put them to flight and spoyled their goods which were sixe thousand Kine foure and twenty thousand Goats forty thousand Sheepe and foure thousand ounces of Siluer 90. of the Tsekifians were slaine and but foure Muslims The captiues and spoiles were gathered together at Giaran whither hauing besieged Taijfa and left it he came and was sought to by the Embassadors of the Hawazines for the restitution of their wiues saying they were his Ants whereupon he gaue them the choise of their wiues and children and of their wealth They chose their wiues and children which hee deliuered The same yeere Melic Sonne of Auf came to him to Giaran and beleeued whereupon hee restored him his goods He set ouer Mecca Gaiat Sonne of Ased In the ninth yeere was fought the battell of Tebuc and M. made peace with the Prince of Dauma and the Prince of Eila on condition to pay him tribute Hauing staid ten dayes at Tebuc he departed to Medina in the moneth Regieb And that was his last warre in which Otsman Sonne of Affan bestowed a thousand pieces of Gold on his Army This yeere the Taijfians embraced Islamisme ouer whom he set Otsman Sonne of Abulafi and he sent Abusofian to destroy their warlike prouisions In the tenth yeere the Arabs came to him very frequent and men embraced Islamisme and his word was confirmed The same yeere Musuleima the false Prophet rebelled which said he was his fellow Prophet and was followed by his friends the children of Hanifa of Iamama The same yeere M. of glorious memory went on Pilgrimage to Mecca into which he entred the tenth day of Dulhiggia and when he had taught men and instructed them in Religion he returned to Medina In the eleuenth yeere appeared the false Prophet Aswad the Absite in Arabia Foelix and said he was a Prophet and tooke Sanaa Nazran and the Countrey of Taijf and when he grew famous Fir Dailam slue him in his house The same yeere Muhammed of glorious memory dyed For hauing returned from his Pilgrimage to Mecca and stayed at Medina till the eight and twentieth day of the moneth Safar he began to be sicke and he commanded Abubecr to pray with the people and they prayed seuenteene Prayers He dyed on Munday the twelfth of the former Rab aged sixty three yeeres or after others sixty fiue Hee was of very good wit of a pleasant voice visiting and intertaining his which visited and entertained him liberall to the poore lauding the Great men conuersing with the meane and not repelling any Sutor without his request or a kind answere His Scribes were Otsman Sonne of Affan and Ali Sonne of Abutalib Sometimes also Vbaharat Sonne of Caab and Zeid Sonne of Thebith writ for him Muauias also Chalid Alan and Chantal Abdalla Sonne of Abusierh writ likewise for him which Apostated from Islamisme to the Infidels but Otsman in time of victory sued for his pardon which M. granted hauing before determined to shed his bloud Zubeir Sonne of Awan and Giehem Sonne of Safwan writ downe his Almes Hadikas Son of Semal his store of Dates Mugiras Son of Soicab and Husein Son of Iaman his Iudicials and Imperials Abdalla Sonne of Arkam answered to the Letters of Princes Iudges in his time were ouer the oath Ali Son of Abutalib Maab Son of Habal of Medina and Abumousa the Asiarite ouer the Pardon Anis Son of Melic ouer his Guard Cais Son of Said of Medina His Banner was white his lesse Standard black it was ingrauen with his Scale FOR DOVBLE TESTIMONIE His Porter was Bilal Gouernours when he dyed Gaiat at Mecca Alan at Bahrain Otsman at Taijf Omar at Sanaa and Giened Chalid Sonne of Said ouer the Villages of Arabia Foelix Abusofian at Giuresia and Ali Sonne of Mina in a tract of Arabia Foelix Muhammed dyed according to the Arabian computation in the yeere of the Sunne from Adam 6123. nine moneths and fourteene dayes ten yeeres of the Hegira reckoned according to the course of the Moone and seuenty dayes being past that is nine yeeres of the Sunnes course eleuen moneths one day lesse 3614. dayes in all the first of which was Thursday the last Munday The Histories of the Christians write that he was gentle toward Christians and when some of them had comne to him and desired security hee imposed tribute on them blessed them receiued them into his tuition and commanded Omar to say to them we haue their soules in the same account that we haue our owne soules and their riches as our riches and their chances as ours The Author of the Booke Almuhaddib writeth this and from him the famous man Abuhanifa citeth it treating of a Muslim killing a Christian And when a certaine great man a Christian came to him he arose and did him reuerence and answered to one questioning it When any principall man of any people come to you honour him Hee said also Doe good to the Cophtis of Egypt for they are of kinne to you He which oppresseth a Christian shall haue him his Aduersary in the Day of Iudgement And hee which hurteth a Christian hurteth me In the first yeere of the
memory On Friday the three and twentieth of the later Giumad hauing enioyed the Chalifate two yeeres foure monethes and nine dayes aged sixty three and Omar the Sonne of Alchittab prayed for him He was buried in the house of Aijsia He was abstinent deuout and regarded not the goods of the World He is reported to haue taken three Staters out of the treasury for wages and to haue said to Aijsia of happy memory See O Prophetesse what hath accrewed to the wealth of Abubecr since I haue beene ouer this Empire and repay it to the Muslims And she sawit And when they had praysed all his substance the value of all was but fiue Staters Which when it was told Omar he said God haue mercy on Abubecr for he hath compelled his Successors to vndergoe labour This Abubecr first gathered the Alcoran out of Tables For when the Muslims in Iaman were crossed hee feared left some of the Alcoran might be lost being only in mens memories and in sheets betwixt Tables and he called it Mushaf Euery Friday hee distributed that which was collected in the Treasury to his Captaines according to their places first to the Souldiers and after to the learned men and to such as had by their labour merited any thing The Persians in the eleuenth yeere of the Heg. came to him about the slaughters of their Kings and seditions and desired Iazdegijrd Sonne of Cosroes which had fled from Siroes and made him King ouer them being fifteene yeeres old But their affections and assemblies were differing and the Prouinces Townes and Villages warred on their Neighbours and were deuided amongst themselues In the thirteenth yeere happened a great Earth-quake thirty dayes and a great Pestilence followed The Muslims that yeere besieged Gaza and chased the Romans which they signified by Letters to Abubecr who was then dead God haue mercy on him Omar Sonne of Alchittab Sonne of Nckail Sonne of Abdullaziz Sonne of Riah Sonne of Cart Sonne of Rawah Sonne of Adi Sonne of Caab Sonne of Luae Sonne of Galib was designed Chalifa on the day of Abubecr his death and by his command In this thirteenth yeere Omar of happy memory sent Abuobeid Sonne of Masud against the Persians whom he ouercame in Hira slaying many Infidels but in a second battell he was slaine with many Muslims After that was the battell of Buwaibic in which the Infidels were ouerthrowne In the fourteenth yeere Damascus was taken by Chalid Sonne of Walid forceably entring after seuenty dayes siege at the Thomas-gate and Abuobeid with conditions of peace at the Custome-gate Omar sent Saad against Irac which had many battels with the Persians in Cadis the Persians were a hundred and twenty thousand the Muslims thirty thousand They walled about by Omars command Bosra and Cufa In the fifteenth yeere the Romans assembled to the number of two hundred and forty thousand Infidels and the Muslims were thirty sixe thousand which preuayled as in many other battel 's this yeere Emissa became tributary Kinnasrin was taken In the sixteenth yeere Omar went into Syria hauing made Ali Gouernour of Medina He made agreement with Artenon Prince of Ramla and sent Amrus and Sergijl to besiege Ierusalem to whom Omar granted security and imposed tribute Hauing subdued Palestina he sent Amrus into Egypt This yeere Saad wanne Medaijna-Cosroe and with his Muslims possessed the treasures of Cosroes and are said to haue found 3000. Millions of gold And they found a house full of Camphora which the Muslims tooke for Salt and vsed it in leuin which made their bread bitter They found the Crowne of Cosroes and garments wrought with gold and gemmes and diuers armes and the hanging of a gallery which Said rent and made thereof a thousand thousand drammes each dramme being ten Staters They found also a silken Carpet sixty Cubits long and as many broad wrought with figures and gemmes like flowers on the border was the resemblance of the earth set with herbs and flowers as in the Spring made of gold siluer and gemmes Omar rent it and diuided it to the Muslims Ali sold his share of it none of the greatest for twenty thousand This yeere was fought the battell of Gialul with the Persians whose last King Iazdegijrd fled to Faryan This yeere Omar of happy memory returned to Medina In the seuenteenth yeere of the Hegira the King of Romans besiged Emissa and Omar sent Abuobeid forty thousand men for succour which chased away the Romans Omar the same yeere went into Syria and subiected it In the eighteenth yeere Amrus the sonne of Alab besieged Misra and tooke it It was gouerned by Macuac which conditioned with Amrus that euery Egyptian should pay an Egyptian peece of Gold and to entertaine three dayes euery Muslim which passed that way And the tribute imposed on them yeerely amounted to twelue millions of gold After that Omar went to Marbut where were many Romans and expelled them as also at Cumsieric and then besieged Alexandria That yeere was a yeere of destruction through haile which spoyled the ground and killed cattell There was a Pestilence which killed fiue and twenty thousand Muslims there and diuers of the chiefest In the nineteenth yeere Heraclius died whiles Amrus besieged Alexandria which was taken in the twentieth yeere after fourteene moneths siege The same yeere Amrus compassed Misra with a wall called Fustata that is the Tent because his Tent was there pitched before he went to the siege of Alexandria and a Doue hauing hatched her young therein hee said it is vnlawfull for vs to kill in the moneth Muharram and gaue his Captaines charge thereof In the one and twentieth was the Nuhawendike battell betwixt the Muslims and Persians wherein the Generall Nuaman was slaine and Hodaifa succeeded which after turned the Infidels to flight Mugiras possessed Aderbigian quietly and Amrus Sonne of Said got Ainwerd and Harran and Ruha Aias Sonne of Isa got Raca Nasibin and the parts adioyning Abumasa also tooke Ahwaz and Seiwas The same yeere Chorasan was wonne by Nuaman before the battell abouesaid In the three and twentieth yeere Omar of happy memory was slain by Abubulua seruant to Mugir a Persian by Nation and by Religion a Magus because he iudged against him complaining of too much tribute exacted Whiles Omar was at his morning Prayer on Wednesday the three and twentieth of Dulhiggia he stabbed him in three places one of them vnder his Nauill whereof he died And Abdurrahman Sonne of Auf prayed with the people Omar was carried to his house and he commanded Sahib to pray three dayes with the people and secretly assigned the Empire to sixe persons to Ali Sonne of Abutalib Otsman Said Abdurrahman Talha and Zubeir of happy memory Hee made his Sonne Abdalla a Counsellour only without any place of command He dyed the sixe and twentieth of Dulhiggia and Sahib prayed for him or in his steed He was buried in the house of Aijsia Hee was browne bald tall iust
betweene vs and you whereupon the men of Irac threatned to kill Ali if hee would not listen to the Syrians according to the iudgement of Gods Booke and so Muaui escaped At last both sides agreed to chuse an arbitrator which should arbitrate according to that Booke which were chosen Amrus and Abumusa and both parties bound to stand to their agreement They agreed to depose both Ali and Muaui and chuse Abdalla Sonne of Omar Ali was deposed accordingly but when Amrus should haue done the like to Muaui he refused Abdalla Son of Wahab had also forsaken Ali whom he slue in fight with all the Chawarigians his followers The broyles continued betwixt Ali and Muaui in Egypt and Irac till the fortieth yeere Then Basijr was sent to Medina by Muaui and entred it the Inhabitants acknowledged Muaui Thence he went to Mecca then to Aliaman and slue two of Ali his Sonnes with many others which followed the part of Ali after which he returned to Mecca and slue at Taijf Iamam and Medina thirty thousand At last Peace was concluded betwixt them that laying aside armes Ali should enioy Irac and Muaui Syria That yeere three Chawarisians agreed to kill in diuers places on one day Ali Muaui and Amrus also Hagiag wounded Muaui with a poysoned Sword but he was slaine and Muaui escaped Amrus another of them mistooke and killed Charigia the Lieutenant of Amrus Sonne of Alas in steed of him and was therefore taken and executed Abdurrahman the third wounded Ali on the forehead as he went to morning Prayer on a Friday the seuenteenth of Ramadan whereof he dyed three dayes after and was buried in Tahaf where now is the place of his buriall Some say he was buried at Cufa and some say the place is vnknowne Ali commanded to feed his smiter for hee was taken and vse him well and if he recouered to spare him if hee dyed to ioyne him with him that he might accuse him before God He reigned fiue yeeres three moneths lesse aged sixty three He was browne short great-bellied long-bearded and bald neglected things of the World feared God much much in Almes iust and lowly witty defender of the true Religion learned in speculatiue and practicke Sciences bold liberall The inscription of his Seale was Only to the strong God dominion Hasen Sonne of Ali was made Chalifa at Cufa on the day of his Fathers death But the men of Irac quarrelling with him he sent to Muaui conditions and agreed with him he abode at Medina and yeelded Cufa to Muaui hauing enioyed the Chalifate six moneths and fiue dayes His Seale was inscribed There is no God but God the true and manifest King Muaui Sonne of Abusofian Sonne of Haleb Sonne of Ommia Sonne of Abdusiams Sonne of Abdumenaf Sonne of Cuda was the seuenth Emperour Hee was created Chalifa at Cufa when Hasen resigned Anno 46. Muaui Sonne of Amir and Basier Sonne of Artah inuaded the West and tooke many Cities Caraua Caphsa c. till they came to Kairawan which Muaui Sonne of Chodbag had taken before they came and there builded a Citie and encompassed with a wall the City now called Kairawan An. 49. Hasen dyed poysoned by his wife as was said by the command of Muaui He had gone fiue and twenty Pilgrimages on foot and twise had forsaken all his wealth and thrice made partition with God euen to his shooes and sockes reseruing one halfe to himselfe An. 50. Muaui procured that the Oath of Fealty should be made to his Sonne Iezid as to his partner of the Couenant which was done by all but Husein Sonne of Ali Abdurrahman Sonne of Abubecr Abdalla Sonne of Omar and Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir An. 52. Iezid inuaded the Romans as farre as Constantinople An. 58. Aijsia of happy memory died on the seuenth day of Ramadan An. 60. Muaui dyed at Damascus and his Sonne Iezid prayed for him he enioyed the place nineteene yeeres and ninetie foure dayes Obeid Sonne of Sarib liued in his time a man three hundred yeeres old Iezid was created Chalifa the same day He writ to Walid Gouernour of Medina to apprehend Husein Sonne of Ali and Abdalla which fled to Mecca and abode there refusing the Oath to Iezid The Cufans sent to Husein and promised to sweare to him Husein going thither with fifty horse and a hundred foot was set on by the band of Obeidalla sent thither by Iezid He on the Friday set before him the Mushaf and admonished them But they rushed on him and slue him and all his company and carried away their wiues and children Iezid commanded his head to be set vp at Damascus on the gate The same yeere Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir vsurped the Empire at Mecca whiles Iezid followed his wine and dogges contemning Religion Iezid set ouer Chorasan Selim which tooke Naishbur and Chouarasma and Bochara then ruled by Chatumis a woman who promised the King of Saida marriage if he would assist her against the Muslims who thereupon came with 120000. but was slaine in battell and enriched the Muslims with spoyles They went to Samarcand the King whereof bought his Peace with much money A. 63. the men of Medina deposed Iezid who sent against them Muslim who spared them three dayes and then entred and spoyled them three dayes shedding their bloud and carrying away their goods Yet the Prophet of glorious memory said He which spoyleth my City my wrath remayneth on him A. 64. Muslim went to Mecca against Abdalla and dyed in the way Hasin succeeded in his place layd siege to it beate the house with Engines of battery and burned it This siege continued till newes came of Iezids death His Sonne Muaui prayed for him or in his steed hee reigned three yeeres nine moneths Anno mundi 6175. Muaui Sonne of Iezid the third Emperour of the house of Ommia was created Chalifa the same day and reigned forty fiue dayes and then dyed His Seale was inscribed The World is deceit Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir was inaugurated at Mecca when there had beene no Chalif two moneths The Iracans Egyptians and some Syrians sware to him Merwan of the house of Ommia raised a party at Damascus and preuayled in battell against Dahac which stood for Abdalla slue him and chased his followers Hee held Syria entred Egypt and after many fights obtained it sent an Army against Abdalla which got the better An. 65. the Cufans made an vprore to reuenge the death of Husein sixteene thousand being assembled vnder Suleiman which was slaine in battell by Obeidalla and his followers chased This yeere also Muchtar Sonne of Abuobeida came to Cufa and incited them to reuenge Husein of happy memory for which the Gouernour imprisoned him Merwan dyed of the Plague in the moneth Ramadan Some say that his Wife poysoned him others that she laid a Pillow on his face and sate thereon Abdulmelic Son of Merwan prayed for him He was Chalifa ten moneths
or 298. dayes Abdulmelic was inaugurated the same day holding the Mushaf in his bosome The same sixty fifth yeere he enlarged the Temple at Ierusalem and men began to goe thither in Pilgrimage and hee forbade Pilgrimage to Mecca because of Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir Hee would haue perswaded the Christians of Damascus to yeeld him the house next the Cathedrall Church but they shewed the Charter of Walid whereupon he offered them much money and liberty to build another like it where they would but they refused he left them A. 66. arose Muchtar Sonne of Abuobeid at Cufa requiring the bloud of Husein to whom the Citizens sware and besieged Obeidalla who obtayned security of Muchtar pretending that hee would call to the Empire Muhammed Sonne of Hanifa of happy memory intending indeed to draw it to himselfe hauing before done much spoyle on the Citizens The same yeere the horsemen of Muchtar and Obeidalla had a cruell battell and Obeidallas men ranne away Then Muchtar sent to Ainwerd seuen thousand horse vnder Ibrahim against Obeidalla after whose departure the people of Cufa mutined against Muchtar and had well neere slaine him insomuch that he sent backe for Ibrahim who set vpon them with his Army and slue two hundred and fifty of them which had warred vpon Husein and persecuted the rest with death and exile The same yeere Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir cast Muhammed Sonne of Hanifa with seuenteene of his house into Prison and threatned to put them to death except they sware to him in such a space Muhammed meane while sent to Muchtar who sent him 150. horsemen which entred Mecca crying reuenge of Husein and came to the Well Zemzem They brake the Prison and brought forth Muhammed and receiued new supplies from Muchtar and terrified the Sonne of Zubeir whom Muhammeds company being foure thousand would haue assaulted but hee permitted them not An. 67. Muchtar sent Ibrahim with seuenty thousand against Obeidalla which slue 10300. of Obeidallas men and tooke Singiar Nasibin and Dara Masab Son of Zubeir in his brothers name Gouernour of Basra went that yeere with a great Army to Cufa against Muchtar and after a great battell put him to flight and destroyed him and his in the moneth Ramadan Masab hauing thus obayned Irac inuited Ibrahim to obedience which hee performed Hee set Mahleb Sonne of Abusafia ouer Mausil Mesopotamia Aderbigiana and Armenia An. 68. the Azrakaeans came out of Persia into Irac a Charisaean Nation entred Medaijn tooke Ahwaz and the Countrey subiect to it But Masab sent Mahleb which slue many of them and after that Omar which fought with them at Naisabur and ouerthrew them and they went backe to Isfahan and to Carmania whence with encreased forces they returned but were forced backe by Omar hauing before slaine the women and children Anno 69. Abdulmelic Sonne of Merwan went from Damascus to make warre vpon Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir and substituted Omar Sonne of Saad at Damascus in his place which presently rebelled and fortified himselfe whereupon Abdulmelic returned and besieged Damascus Omar sent to him and obtayned security but when he came to him he slue him and quieted his partakers with distribution of money Anno 71. Masab was slaine by Abdulmelic in battell and he entred Cufa and his Empire was established in Irac Syria and Egypt only Higiaz remayned in the hand of Abdalla Sonne of Zubeir whom Hagiagi Son of Ioseph soone after besieged and slue at Mecca which hee also tooke after seuen moneths siege and battered Caab the fortification of Abdalla with Engines and threw into it balls of Pitch and fire to destroy the houses When Abdalla feared the house or Temple lest it should fall he entred his owne house his mother encouraged him to goe forth if hee died he should die a Martyr he answered O mother I feare not death but dismembring A sheepe said she when shee is killed feeleth not the flaying Hee is said to haue drunke a pound of Muske and then going forth to be slaine and his head fastned on the gate and his crucified body smelled of Muske many dayes The same yeere Abdulmelic made his brother Muhammed Sonne of Merwan Gouernour of Aderbigiana Mesopotamia and Armenia who sent a hundred thousand against the Harari which were all slaine Muhammed much mooued went with forty thousand and ouerthrew the Harari and burned them in their Temples He sent also Muslima to the Gate of Gates where he besieged eighty thousand Harari of whom he slue many and the rest beleeued The Azrakeans did and suffered much harme and change Anno. 74. Hagiagi was made Gouernour of Medina who went to Mecca and destroyed all the fortification of Caab and Anno 75. was set ouer Irac He came to Cufa and sent helpe to Mahleb against the Azrakeans and chased them Anno 76. Salih Sonne of Margi and Siabib Charisaeans conspired Salih was called Emperour of the faithfull by his followers They spoyled Mesopotamia and increased in power and often ouerthrew the Armies of Hagiagi hauing but small forces With a thousand hee went to Cufa and ouerthrew Hagiagi which came against him with fiftie thousand and had the spoyle of his Tents But in a Sea fight Sahibs ship sunke and he said When God disposeth any thing it commeth to passe and rising againe out of the water he said This is the power of the strong and wise God He was drawne out with Nets and his head sent to Hagiagi his heart they cut in sunder and found it hard and compact like a stone Mahleb went against the Azrakaeans which withstood Catris their Gouernour and slue many of them Catris fled to Tabristan whose King was Ashid a Magus that is of the old Persian Religion and obtained leaue to enter his countrey which hauing obtained and setled his affaires hee sent to Ashid demanding that either he would embrace Islamisme or pay tribute which he refused Whereupon he made warre on him and chased Ashid to Raija who got helpe of the Muslims and Catris was slaine The same yeere Coines of Gold and Staters were stamped with Arabike Letters for before the Letters were Roman and the Staters also Persian the inscription was God is the Lord Anno 81. Muhammed Son of Hanifa of happy memory died But many of the vulgar beleeue that he still liueth in the Mount Radwa and will one day appeare and fill the Earth with Iustice as it is now filled with iniquity Of this Sect was D. Hamiraeus which after met with a true man who instructed him of the vanity thereof Anno 82. Hagiagi had sent Abdurrahman Sonne of Muhammed against Zentil King of Turkes with a small power secretly animating the Turke against him purposing to destroy him which he reuealed to his followers who thereupon deposed Hagiagi and sware to him He compounded with the Turke and returned to warre on Hagiagi Hee obtained aide of Ahdulmelic out of Syria Basra and Cufa sware to
Isa prayed for him Hee gaue to Abdalla Sonne of Hasen Sonne of Husein two Millions of Staters the first of the Chalifa's that had giuen so great a summe He was the first also which tooke a Counsellor for the children of Ommia had none but Scribes When Merwan fled into Egypt in the yeere of Dioclesian 467. the Christians suffered much aduersitie He burned Misra with the Corne and prouisions therein and went ouer with his into a Nunnery where eying a beautifull Damsell hee tooke her to his Tent to defloure her Shee to saue her Virginitie told him of a precious Oyntment which she had which would make the annointed part Sword-free But how sayd he shall I know that she offered the trial on her selfe and so he cut off her head rather embracing death then pollution Abugiafar Almansor Sonne of Muhammed brother of Saffah succeeded and was made Chalifa in the Pilgrimage to Mecca ouer which his brother had set him in a place called Sifia that is famous and Our Empire saith he by Gods grace shall be famous He tooke the oath and finished his Pilgrimage Anno 137. Abdalla sought the Empire in Syria and Almansor sent against him Abumuslim the author of the vocation and after many battels Abumuslim preuailed and Abdalla fled into Irac he to Basra his brother to Cufa After that vnder pretence of friendship he sent for Abumuslim and cast him into Tigris The number of those which were slaine in battell and out of battell in time of Abumuslims Prosperitie were sixe hundred thousand He professed the Sect of the Succession descendent and determined the Principality after Ali to descend to Hasen his Sonne then to Husein then to Muhammed Sonne of Hanisia from him to Abuhasiem his Sonne then to Muhammed Sonne of Ali Son of Abdalla Sonne of Abbas from him to Ibrahim Saffah and this Almansor An. 139. Muaui Sonne of Hisiam Sonne of Abdulmelic Sonne of Merwan entred Spaine and was the first made Emperour in those parts The same yeere Almansor commanded the Temple of Mecca to be enlarged An. 144. Almansor tooke Abdalla Sonne of Hasen Sonne of Husein Sonne of Ali and other of Hasens children and Muhammed Sonne of Omar and imprisoned them because he had heard that Muhammed and Ibrahim Sonnes of Abdalla sought to get the Empire These two hid themselues but the other Muhammed was whipped and died in Prison An. 145. Almansor commanded to build the City Bagdad and laid the foundation at the time designed by Astrologers with vnanimous consent It is reported to haue beene a greene Medow in which was the cottage of an Heremite whose name was Bagdad and thereof tooke the name But Almansor called it Medinato-ssalami that is the Citie of Peace When it was finished it was made the Seat of the Abbasian Chalifas The same yeere Muhammed Sonne of Abdalla Sonne of Hasen went to Medina and was there created Chalifa he tooke to name Mahad and had a laundred thousand followers But Almansor sent against him his partner of the league Isa which slue him and sent his head to Almansor Ibrahim his Brother appeared at Basra and enioyed that Citie and Persia and Ahwaz but ranne like course and was slaine by Isa An. 147. Abdalla whom Abumuslim had put to flight came forth vpon Almansors Oath not to trouble him and he commanded to build him an house and to lay much salt in the foundation and when he dwelled in it let in water which ruined the house vpon him An. 158. Almansor dyed at Birmaimon in his way to Mecca on Pilgrimage and Ibrahim Son of Iahia prayed for him or in his steed he was buried at Mecca he reigned two and twenty yeeres hee changed the hoary colour of his haire with two thousand drammes of Muske euery moneth hee was wise and of pleasant conuersation suspicious and cruell and sordidly couetous Hee left in his Treasury six hundred Millions of Staters and twenty foure Millions of Gold Muhammed Mahadi Sonne of Almansor was the third Chalifa of the Abasians created at Mecca himselfe being then at Bagdad Ioseph Sonne of Ibrahim rose against him in Chorasan but was taken by Iezid and by Mahadi crucified at Bagdad An. 163. he sent his Son Haron against the Romans and made Iahia his Counsellour Hee sent him againe the next yeere he ouerthrew the Romans and went to the Sea neere Constantinople where a woman then gouerned which made Peace with Haron conditioning to pay seuenty thousand pieces of Gold yeerely besides Presents and preparations of the wayes The Muslims in this warre got innumerable spoyles When Haron returned his Father made him partner of the league hauing deposed Isa from that Dignity An. 169. Mahadi dyed in Maseidan a Village and when they had no other Herse they carried him on a doore and buried him vnder a Nut Tree where he had sitten He reigned ten yeeres two moneths Haron his Sonne prayed for him He was liberall and abstained from shedding of bloud restored much money which his Father had taken freed Prisoners built the Cloyster at Mecca and enlarged the Temple Merwan a Poet offered him a Poeme contayning seuenty Distichs for which he commanded to giue him seuenty thousand Staters His Seale was inscribed God is my sufficience Musa Alhadi then in the warres of Giorgian with the Tabristans was inaugurated hee dyed An. 170. being strangled by his Mother sitting on a Pillow laid on his face he reigned a yeere and fifty two dayes Abugiafar Haron Rasijd was the fifth of the Abasian Chalifas created on the day of his brothers death on which also Almamon his Sonne afterward Chalifa was borne He made Iahia his Counsellour called him his Father and said to him I put my businesse from my necke on thine An. 172. Abdurrahman Sonne of Muaui Sonne of Hisiam King of Spaine dyed hauing raigned thirty two yeeres and his Sonne Hisiam succeeded him in the Chalifate of those parts An. 176. Iahia Sonne of Abdalla Sonne of Hasen Sonne of Husein Sonne of Ali arrogated the Empire But the matter was composed by Haron and gifts with securitie giuen yet hee was after that cast in Prison An. 178. Haron sent Haziman Gouernour of Egypt into Africa and set Abdulmelic ouer Egypt who appointed in his place ouer Prayer and tribute Abdalla An. 179. Haron went to Mecca and to Medina and returned thence on his feet An. 180. Hisiam King of Spaine dyed and his Sonne Hakem succeeded An. 181. Haron inuaded the Romans and got much spoyle An. 183. the Harari from the Gate of Gates issued and did much hurt to the Muslims Musa dyed that yeere of the Race of Ali as was reported murthered by one whom Haron had suborned Hee left eighteene Sonnes and three and twenty Daughters An. 186. Haron and his Sonnes went on Pilgrimage to Mecca and gaue much almes there and to Medina He distributed his Empire to his three Sons Muhammed Alamin Abdalla Almamon and Casim Mutamam
Towres of the wall fell thereby the people ranne into the fields and Acraus the Hill there fell into the Sea a blacke and vnsauoury smoke ascending thence The Riuer also vanished for a farsang An. 246. Omar inuaded the Romans and carried thence seuentie thousand captiues others also in other places Mutewakkell hauing prayed and preached before the people the last Friday in Ramadan at his returne reproued his Sonne Mustansir and threaned him and his Mother who thereupon set his Seruants to kill him A principall cause hereof was Mutewakkels hatred to Ali Sonne of Abutalib which Mustansir could not beare Hee reigned fourteene yeeres ten moneths and three days He tooke away the temptation from men and the World was ordered Muhammed Abugiafar Mustansir Billa was priuately inaugurated the same day of his Fathers death and publikely the day after He continued sixe moneths A Persian Carpet with the Image of a King being haply brought before him he would needs force one to read the Letters therein wrought which were I Syroes Sonne of Cosroes slue my Father and reigned but sixe moneths Some say he was poysoned A fearefull Dreame also of his Fathers threatning him with short Reigne and fire after it terrified him He had made his two brethren resigne their partnership of the couenant Ahmed Ahulabbas Mustain Billa Sonne of Muhammed Sonne of Mutasim was enthronized in his place and imprisoned Mutaz and Muaijad An. 249. the Turkes killed Vtamaz which ruled all vnder Mustain An. 250. Iahia Sonne of Omar of the Posteritie of Ali arose at Cufa but was slaine in battell They which had slaine Mutewakkell slue also Iaaz whereupon Mustain fledde to Bagdad and the people created Mutaz Chalifa Mutaz sent his brother Ahmed to besiege Mustain at Bagdad whose Generall Abdalla made his Peace with Ahmed The same yeere Hasen of the Posterity of Ali possessed himselfe of Tabristan and another Hasen the Talibite of Ali his Posteritie arose in the Region of Dailam and besieged Mecca but both were put to flight and this last died An. 252. Mustain resigned the Chalifate and was committed to custodie where by Mutaz his procurement he was slaine He reigned two yeeres and nine moneths Muhammed Abu-Abdalla Mutaz Billa was the thirteenth Abasian Chalif Hee deposed his brother Muaijad from the partnership of the couenant and imprisoned him and perceiuing that the Turks would haue him set at liberty he caused him to be strangled in clothes that the Iudges could perceiue no signe of violent death in him An. 253. the Turkes killed Wasif for their stipends the Keeper of the Port whose Sonne Salih procured the deposition of Mutaz and starued him to death hauing reigned foure yeeres six moneths and three and twentie dayes He was a man giuen to his pleasures and negligent of gouernment A. 254. Ahmed Sonne of Tulan was made Gouernour of Egypt Muhammed Abu-Abdalla Muhtadi Billa Sonne of Watic Sonne of Mutasim succeeded . An. 255. He forbade the vse of Wine and reiected Singers and Iesters exiled Soothsayers refused the Lions and hunting Dogges in the Imperiall Tower and tooke away Tributes He also tooke on him to bee present at Iudgements and Accounts and sate euery Munday and Thursday to attend the people hauing a Booke before him Habib rebelled at Basra saying falsly that he was Ali Sonne of Muhammed of the Posteritie of Ali. He gathered together the Rihi which liued like Lions he was an Astrologer of bad Religion Hee continued to the yeere 270. Musa killed Salih the killer of his Master An. 256. Muhtadi Billa was slaine that yeere by the mutinous Turkes hauing reigned eleuen monethes and some dayes Ahmed Abulabbas Mutamid Alalla Sonne of Mutewakkel was created the same day at Samarra An. 256. the Rihi tooke foure and twentie Ships of the Sea and slue all that were in them and Habib with eighty thousand men did much spoyle He got the victory in diuers fights against Mutamids Armies He tooke Basra and slue twenty thousand Inhabitants at his entrance He preuayled also A. 258. and slue Muflish neyther could Muaffic Billa whom Mutamid had made Gouernour of the East and partner of the league preuayle against him Hee made the People beleeue that hee knew all secrets and could doe things miraculous An. 259. Iacob Sonne of Allit rebelled at Nisabur and possessed himselfe of Tabristan Habibs Souldiers slue fifty thousand at Ahwaz and threw downe the wals He and Iacob made great stirres and ouerthrew Mutamids Captaines Iacob put to flight Muhammed Sonne of Wasil and tooke his Castle in which were forty Millions of Staters Hee tooke Wasit Mutamid with his partner went against him and put him to flight But Habid preuayled in diuers battels he continued spoyling and victorious till Anno 267. at which time Muaffic Billa sent his Sonne Mutadid who chased him tooke his Citie Mabia which he had builded ruined the wals and filled vp the Ditches and freed out of his Prison fiue thousand Muslim women Muaffic pursued them to the Citie which they had builded with fiue Walls and as many Ditches and draue them out of it and got rich spoyles Habib had fortified Mahbar and had three hundred thousand Souldiers with him there Muaffic seeing it could not in short time be taken builded another Citie Muaffikia ouer against it he built also a Temple there stamped Coines inuited Merchants and by degrees preuayled An. 268. Lulu rebelled against Ahmed the Gouernour of Egypt and got Muaffics fauour whereby Ahmed was cursed in all Pulpits For Muaffic ruled all and Mutamid enioyed only the title his name on coines and to pray in Pulpits An. 270. Habib was taken and executed his head carried about for shew Muaffic was surnamed Nasir Lidinilla that is the Helper of Gods Religion for killing Habib The same yeere Ahmed dyed when death approched he lift vp his hands saying O Lord haue mercy on him which knew not his owne quantitie and shew thy selfe mercifull to him when he dieth He left three and thirty Sonnes He was a man of much iustice and almes and gaue euery moneth 300000. pieces of Gold in almes A thousand pieces of Gold daily were designed to his Kitchin and to Ecclesiasticke persons euery moneth hee gaue as much And whiles he gouerned Egypt two Millions and two hundred thousand pieces of Gold were carried to Bagdad to be giuen to the poore and to learned and good men Hee left in his treasury ten Millions of Gold Hee had seuen thousand Slaues and as many Horses eight thousand Mules and Camels three hundred Horses for warre all his owne proper goods The Rent of Egypt in his time was three hundred Millions of pieces of Gold He is said to haue executed with adding those which dyed in Prison eighteene thousand His Sonne Hamaruias succeeded in all which he had in Egypt and Syria An. 273. Muhammed Sonne of Abdurrahman King of Spaine dyed his Sonne Mundir succeeded An. 278. Muaffic Billa dyed and
his Sonne Mutadid succeeded in the gouernment being vested by his Vncle Mutamid and made partner of the Couenant deposing his owne Sonne Giafar That yeere beganne the Caramites a kind of Batin Heretikes One of the tract of Sawad fayned fasting and austerity of life saying that God had enioyned him fifty prayings euery day He said he would call a Prince and tooke of euery man a piece of Gold saying it was for the Prince He tooke twelue men which he sent to preach his Religion And when the people by multitude of his enioyned Prayers neglected their worke Haidam imprisoned him and kept the key vnder his head threatning to kill him A Mayde of his in pitie stole away the key let him out and layd the key vnder his head againe who opening the doore found him not Hereupon he tooke occasion to say that no man could hurt him Hee went into Syria and none knoweth what became of him His name was Carmat His Sect of Caramites encreased about Cufa Anno 279. Mutamid dyed hauing reigned three and twenty yeeres and three dayes Ahmed Abulabbas Mutadid Billa Sonne of Muaffic was on the day of Mutamids death created Chalifa An. 282. Hamaruias was killed by some of his Seruants in his bed and the Souldiers placed his Sonne Gieis in his steed some sayd they would haue his Vncle to gouerne whereupon he cut off his Vncles head and threw it to them An. 283. the Souldiers slue Gieis and his mother and spoyled his house and Haron his brother was made Gouernour of Egypt and Syria which promised to pay Mutadid fifteene hundred thousand pieces of Gold yeerely out of Egypt Hee payed him also for Kinnasrin and Awasim Gouernments foure hundred and fiftie thousand Abusaid a Caramite rebelled and tooke Hagiara An. 287. Mutadid sent Abbas against him whom the Caramite tooke and few of his men escaped An. 289. Mutadid dyed through immoderate vse of lust hauing reigned nine yeeres nine moneths and foure dayes Hee remitted the poll money and the tribute of Mecca and Medina and hauing great need of money for his warres he was told of a Magus one of the Persian Ethnike Religion dwelling at Bagdad which had store of money He sent for him to borrow money of him who answered my money is before thee take as much as thou wilt But how sayth Mutadid canst thou expect restitution Seeing God sayd the other trusts thee with his Seruants and his Lands and thou shewest thy selfe faithfull and executest iustice should I be afraid to trust thee with my money Wherevpon Mutadid weeping bid him goe away and sware he would borrow nothing of him yea if he needed our goods sayth he shall be thine Yet hee was bloudy and buried his Seruants quicke which had angred him Ali Abumuhammed Muotafi Billa Sonne of Mutadid Sonne of Muaffic Sonne of Mutewakkel was created Chalifa the same day that his father died An. 289. whiles hee was at Raka his Counsellour Casam procured his Inauguration at Bagdad which was reiterated when he came thither himselfe This Casam hauing intended to turne away the Chalifate from Mutadids Posteritie and knowing that Badir the brother of Muctafi knew it procured his death lest he should reueale it At that time Iahia a Caramite had many followers slue Siecr the Commander which Muctafi sent against him burned the Temple at Rusaf After that he went into Syria ouerthrew the forces of Taagi and besieged Damascus where he was slaine The Caramites substituted his brother Husein which gaue out himselfe to be Ahmed Sonne of Muhammed He besieged Emissa and tooke it and forced Damascus to composition He slue innumerable people at Maara Hamat Balabec Selmia where he entred on composition and slue notwithstanding both men children and beasts and spoyled all Syria with fire and sword An. 290. Muctafi sent Alaz against him which got the worse and after him other Armies An. 291. the Caramites were ouerthrowne and many taken which had their hands and feet and after their heads cut off He sent an Army also into Egypt which tooke it from the Posteritie of Telun An. 293. Muhammed Sonne of Ali possessed Egypt and seduced many but by Muctafis Army was taken and imprisoned Zacrunas the Caramite slue the Inhabitants of Basra and Adriat and spoyled the Cities and then repaired to Damascus and slue the Deputie but could not take it and was chased by another Army which Muctafi sent vnder Ioseph Son of Ibrahim to Sawan where in another battell the Caramites got the victory An. 294. Zacrunas assaulted the Pilgrimes slue the men captiued the women and spoyled the Gods but was soone after taken and killed An. 295. Muctafi dyed hauing reigned sixe yeeres sixe moneths and twentie dayes He was very rich and bare good affection to the Posteritie of Ali of happy memory Seleucia was taken An. 290. That yeere Nilus flowed but thirteene cubits and two fingers and men of all Religions made supplications to God for more water but preuayled not Giafar Abulfadl Muctadir Billa Sonne of Mutadid succeeded the day of his brothers death The same yeere dyed Mundir Sonne of Muhammed King of Spaine to whom succeeded in the Chalifate his Sonne Abdalla An. 296. Muctadir was deposed and Abdalla Sonne of Mutaz surnamed Abulabbas was inaugurated by occasion of the Souldiers assaulting and killing Abbas the Counsellour of Muctadir but he possessed it only one day and night and was strangled He was a rare Poet and author of Similitudes such as none before had giuen example of An. 298. the Posteritie of Fatima began to flourish and Muhammed at Segilmessa in the iurisdiction of Cairawan was saluted Emperour of the faithfull professing himselfe to bee descended of Ali Sonne of Abutalib He builded Mahdia and reigned ouer Africa Sicilia and the Westerne Prouinces He fought often against the Sons of Aglab expelled them A. 302. and then dyed and his Son Caijm succeeded after him his Son Almansor and after him his Sonne Muaz Lidinilla who was the first Egyptian Chalifa of the Fatimides A. 300. Abdalla died and his brother Abdurrahman Nasir Ladinilla succeeded in Spaine after whom I know nothing of that Ommian Spanish Race which ceassed about the yeere foure hundred An. 301. Abusaid the Caramite was slaine by his Seruant in the Bath and the Caramites exalted Said his Sonne in his place who with burning Pincers executed the Murtherer An. 302. Habas with a multitude of Magaribs tooke Alexandria and ouerthrew Maunas which was sent from Bagdad against him An. 309. Muctadir caused Husein to bee put to death and crucified by the aduise of the wise for certaine Verses in which he seemed to acknowlede an vnion of mans spirit with Gods Spirit As Wine with Water and with Amber Maske is mixed Thy spirit with mine Thou-I are are ioyntly fixed But God knoweth whether he had not some other meaning An. 310. Muhammed Abugiafar Sonne of Harir the Tabarite dyed the Author of
the History a learned and mightie Prince God haue mercy on him An. 311. Abutaher the Caramite Sonne of Abusaid grew powerfull and professed to know secrets Hee assaulted Basra with 107000. men tooke it slue all the Townesmen burned the Temple enioyed the spoyles An. 312. hee set on the Pilgrimes as they returned in Nahar and ouerthrew them in a great battell taking their Generall Abulhigia Gouernour of Mausil Diarreb Dainawar and Giebal with the goods and most of the women and children leauing the rest without prouision so that most of them dyed with thirst and wandering Hee was then nineteene yeeres old and got a Million of Gold and baggage worth as much more He set Abuhigia free and many Captiues and sent to Muctadir to giue him Basra and Ahwaz which he refused but honoured and vested his Messenger An. 313. Abutaher tooke Cufa slue and captiued the Inhabitants He tooke there foure thousand coloured clothes and three thousand Camels with innumerable spoyles An. 314. the Romans tooke Malatia An. 315. the Dailamites began to be of note whose first King was Wahsihudan whose Seate was Staristan His Sonne Hasan succeeded Hee warred with Husein the Fatimite surnamed Nasirulhac but Ali brother of Hasan slue him and was slaine himselfe by Muhammed father in law to Hasan and chased his Sonne Mahadi which succeeded him This Muhammed became King of the Dailams Mahadi fled to Asfar who hauing taken Razwin and Georgian sent Mardawig his Generall against Muhammed who counselled him to get into his hands the Kingdome of Asfar his Master which he did possessing the Dominions of Raija Karwin Abhar Giorgian and Tabristan Then went Mardawig to Hamadan took it slue the men rauished the women Muctadir sent Haron with an army against him An. 319. which Mardawig put to flight and then possessed Isfahan After this Mahcan and Mardawig warred on each other and Ali Abulhasen Amadudaulas Sonne of Boia was one of Mahcans Souldier These warres continued An. 321. and 322. and Mardawig got the better and tooke Amida and Tabristan Amadudaulas left Mahcan and serued Mardawig who set him ouer Margia where being setled he arose against Mardawig tooke Isfahan with a great Army and after that Argian and all Persia Muctadir sent Ioseph against Abutaher the Caramite but Ioseph was taken and his forces broken He sent another Army which returned without doing any thing They were afraid at Bagdad lest hee should haue comne thither and for ioy of his returning Muctadir his mother and Ali his Counsellour gaue God thankes and distributed fifty thousand pieces of Gold to the poore An. 316. the Caramite tooke Rahab and forced Karkisia to buy their peace He built a house at Hagiara and increased in strength An. 317. Muctadir was deposed and Kahir Billa succeeded by the meanes of Maunas Generall of his forces which tooke Muctadir and imprisoned him and caused him to resigne The Souldiers tooke from his mother 600000. pieces of Gold But the Souldiers soone after mutined and slue Baruc the Captaine of the Guard made the Sonne of Mucla the Counsellor runne away and Muctadir repossessed his place His brother Cahir he kissed betwixt the eyes saying there is no fault in thee and Cahir answered God God is in my soule O Emperour of the faithfull Muctadir sware he would not hurt him Abutahar this yeere assaulted Mecca and slue the Pilgrimes in the Temple on the eight of Dulhiggia plucked vp the blacke stone and the couer of the Well Zemzem and wasted the Temple He carried the blacke stone to his Citie which remayned with them twelue yeeres lacking one day and was rendred An. 339. Iahcam had offered for it fiue thousand pieces of Gold which thye refused An. 320. Muctadir was slaine by Maunas in battell hauing reigned foure and twenty yeeres eleuen moneths and fourteene dayes Hee was much giuen to fasting and almes but much ruled by women one of whom Iamec would sit in iudgement None had enioyed the place so long In his time ceassed the Pilgrimage when the blacke stone was carried away He is said to haue giuen away aboue seuenty Millions of Gold He gaue also to the men the Iewels of the Chalifate and the treasures which his Ancestors neuer thought to giue and most of the Gemmes to women oyntment also and Ciuet A.M. 6424. and sixty foure dayes being past Hee forbade to take tribute of Bishops Monkes and poore men whom the author of the vocation had freed An. 314. the Emperour with a thousand ships intended to inuade Egypt but by tempest three hundred were lost and the rest returned An. 317. such a multitude of Locusts came into Egypt that the Sun-beames could not come at the ground and they consumed Vines Fruits and Corne Muhammed Abulmansor Kahir Billa was the fortieth Chalifa and the nineteenth of the Abbasides created after his brothers death at Bagdad Hee tortured Muctadirs mother for her money hanging her by the heeles her vrine running ouer her bodie and she denying knowledge of more money after which shee dyed Anno 322. hee was deposed hauing reigned one yeere sixe moneths and seuen dayes and Ahmed Sonne of Muctadir was created which remayned in the Imperiall Tower till Mutaki cast him forth A. 333. after which on a Friday in the Temple he begged almes saying I was sometimes your Chalifa now I am one of your poore Ahmed Abulabbas Arradi Billa was the twentieth of the Abbasides Anno 322. dyed Abdalla Abu-Muhammed Mahadi which reigned at Cairawan hauing ruled foure and twenty yeeres three moneths and sixe dayes Caijm his Sonne succeeded Boia was a poore fisherman some say descended from Ardsijr King of Persia From Adam to him were a hundred Generations He had three Sonnes Ali Abulhasen Hasen Abuali and Ahmed Abulhasen which serued the Souldiers We haue before shewed how Ali Abulhasen Amaduddaulas serued Mardawig tooke Isfahan and Hamadan He tooke Cazerun and increased in power After that Letters came from Cahir wherein he offered to Mardawig Raija Narcab Zangion and Abhar on condition to leaue Isfahan from which Wasmakin brother of Mardawig had driuen Amaduddaulas which he accepted but hearing of Cahirs deposition detayned it still Anno 323. Mardawig was slaine by his Seruants in the Bath and so God deliuered the Muslims from Mardawig a man vniust bold and addicted they say to Paganisme Abutaher the same yeere spoyled the Pilgrimes The same yeere Hasen Abu-Muhammed Nasiraddaulas Sonne of Abdalla gaue to his brother Ali Abulhasen Saifuddaulas Maijafarikin Diarbecr Abubecr subdued Egypt and possessed it together with Syria An. 324. Aradi made Muhammed Sonne of Raijc his Counsellor and Emperour of Emperours and committed to him the administration of the Kingdome and commanded him to preach in his steed in the Pulpit and gaue him a banner From that time the dignitie of a Counsellour grew out of vse at Bagdad and continued but a name the power remayning with the Emperour or Commander An. 325. There were many Princes
Phocas was ouercome and slaine An. 379. That yeere by an Earthquake the third part of the Temple of Saint Sophia at Constantinople fell downe which Basilius repayred A. 378. a great tempest happened in Egypt of Wind and Thunder and such darknesse as had not beene seene Next morning a Pillar of fire came forth which made the Skie and Earth red and the Aire was so full of dust that men could scarsly breath An. 386. Iacob Sonne of Ioseph Counseller of Aziz died Hee had of a Iew become a Muslim serued Cafur and after his death brought Muaz into Egypt Aziz prayed and wept for him as he deserued An. 381. An Earthquake threw downe a thousand houses at Damascus and a Village neere Balaber sunke downe and men ranne out of their houses into the fields It continued seuen dayes Ahmed Abulabbas Cadir Billa was the fiue and twentieth Abbaside Chalifa An. 385. Abulcasins Counsellor to King Fachruddaulas which of all Counsellours was first called Partner dyed He writ elegant Epistles and good Verses Fachruddaulas dyed Anno 387. His Sonne Rustem whom Cadir nominated Maghduddaulas succeeded him An. 389. Mahmud Iamanuddaulas Sonne of Sebertekin Lord of India possessed Chorasan taking it from Abdulmelic the last of the Samanaean Kings An. 391. Abulfadaijl Lord of Aleppo was poysoned and Lulu his Counsellour seised on the State Bahaiuddaulas after long warre slue Abunasr Sonne of Azzuddaulas and possessed his and his brothers Inheritance An. 397. Walid of the house of Ommia and Progeny of Hisiam inuaded Hakem Lord of Egypt surnaming himselfe Naijr Biamrilla but after many battels was slaine A. 399. Lulu Lord of Haleb dyed and his Sonne Murtadiddaulas succeeded An. 401. Carwas Gouernour of Maufil prayed in the name of Hakem Lord of Egypt and caused the same to be done at Cufa But vpon Bahaiuddaulas writing the calling of Cadir Billa was restored who sent Carwas gifts and An. 402. published a Writing against the Chalifas of Egypt saying that their originall was from Disania and that they were Charigaeans and had nothing to doe with Ali Sonne of Abutalib prouing the same by great Authors Radis and Murtadis Abuhamid c. An. 403. Bahaiuddaulas Lord of Irac dyed and his Sonne Abusugiaus Sultannaddaulas was vested in his place He resided at Sijraz The Deputy of the Lord of Haleb rebelled and held the same vnder Hakem Lord of Egypt which was soone after murthered by procurement of his Sister Daughter of Aziz and Ali his Sonne made Chalif This Hakem had beene of ill disposition of no Religion inconstant in all his businesse suborning Spies to bring him tales He forbad that any woman should goe in or out of his house or shooes to be made for women He set Mitsra on fire and commanded the Citizens to bee killed Their goods were spoyled Wiues rauished and the fourth part of the Citie was burned Yet some Fooles cryed to him O God which makest to liue and dye Hee afflicted Christians and Iewes and razed their Temples Whereupon some became Muslims and then he gaue them leaue to reuolt to their former Religion Sixteene thousand acknowledged his Deitie sollicited thereto by Muhammed Sonne of Ismael whom a zealous Turke slue in Hakems Chariot Once Atheisme and Madnesse were in him combined His Sonne Ali was surnamed Tahir Lijzaz-dinilla An. 413. the Lord of Haleb was slaine by his Seruant and Badir possessed it calling himselfe Waliuddaulas But Tahir sent an Army against it and tooke it An. 415. Salih Sonne of Mardas got possession of Haleb and Balabec Sultanuddaulas dyed and his Sonne Abulcalanghar succeeded and remayned at Sijraz but his Vncle Siarfuddaulas after many battel 's got Bagdad An. 420. Salih was slaine by the Egyptian forces with his Sonne in battell but his Sonne Nasr Abucamil Siabluddaulas held Aleppo An. 422. Cadir Billa the Chalif dyed after one and fortie yeeres Reigne aged eightie sixe In his time Muhammed Sonne of Ismael the false Prophet had preached Hakems Deity and after his death Hamza Alhadi in Egypt and Siria confirmed the same opinions placing Doctors at Mitsra giuing all license to marry their owne Sisters Daughters Mothers and tooke away Fasting Prayer and Pilgrimage Hakem abstained from Prayers on Fridayes Ramadan and Feast dayes forbade Pilgrimage to Mecca and thus began the Sect of the Dararaeans especially famous at Tyre Sidon Mount Berit and the adioyning places of Syria Abdala Abugiafar Caijm Biamrilla Sonne of Cadir was the six and twentieth Abasids Chalifa created that day on which his Father dyed being before made partner of the couenant by his Father and mentioned in publike Prayers by that title The same yeere 422. King Ghalaluddaulas Sonne of Bahaiuddaulas came to Bagdad and tooke it and Prayers were made in his name Caijm stiled him Siahensiah greatest King of Kings Anno 426. Letters were brought from Mahmud Sonne of Sebucktakin Iamanuddaulas that he had taken many Cities in India that hee had slaine fiftie thousand Infidels and taken seuentie thousand and spoyles worth a Million of Gold An. 427. Taher Lord of Egypt died His Sonne Maabad Abutamim Mustansir Billa succeeded being about eight yeeres old or as some say sixe he ruled sixty yeeres None before had begun so soone or held out so long Yet Abdurrahman King of Andalusia reigned about so much time An. 430. began the Princes Salghucides Muhammed Abutalib Togrulbec was the first inaugurated of them His brethren were Dauid Ghacarbec Fir and Arselan the Sons of Michael Sonne of Salghuc Sonne of Dacac a Turke who first of that Race embraced Islamisme and was much employed by the Turkish King in his warres His Sonne Salghuc after his Fathers death was made chiefe Commander of the Turkish Armies but the King suspecting him sought to slay him whereupon he fled to Haron King of Ghabia and of him obtayned an Army to inuade those Infidels but was slaine in battell being a hundred and seuen yeeres old His Sonne Michael with his children abode in Mauranahar Many Turkes acknowledged none other Commander When Mahmud Sonne of Sebuctakin King of India passed ouer the Riuer Ghaihon to helpe Wararchan King of Mauranahar hee cast Michael into bonds for refusing to goe with him promising to set him in Chorasan to keepe it against the enemies but tooke with him Michaels Souldiers which stayed in his Countrey Masud succeeding his Father Mahmud expelled them by an Army the remaynder of these Turkes after Michaels death followed Togrulbec who ouerthrew the Army of Masud and pursued them to Tus which Towne hee tooke the first Towne which came into their hands wherein they fortified themselues Thence they went to Naisabur and tooke it King Masud fled into India and forsaking Chorasan stayed there a long time The Salghucides subdued Chorasan meane while and when Masud returned they ouerthrew him whereupon Caijm Biamrilla exhorted them to keepe the Region of the Muslims They ouerthrew Masud a second time and their Empire was established A. 431. Masud ouerthrew
Legate and bade one young man to kill himselfe which he did another he commanded to throw himselfe from a high Tower whereby also hee was broken in pieces Then said hee to the Legate I haue 70000. Subiects thus obseruant and let this be my answere This answere caused the King to leaue him and filled him with care They therefore proceeded and inuaded diuers Castles tooke Alamut and made that their chiefe Seat An. 485. Gielaluddaulas dyed hauing reigned twenty yeeres and some moneths He was witty sincere full of Pietie diminished Tributes forbade iniuries caused Bridges Highwayes and Riuers to be made and the Temple of Bagdad to be built called the Kings Temple and the Hanijfaean Colledge which he enriched with many benefits He obtayned many victories and from the furthest confines of the Turkes to Ierusalem and the end of Iamar his Empire was extended the wayes were secured the wronged were righted and the wrong-doers held in awe the meanest woman and poorest had their complaints heard When hee had gone to the Sepulchre of Ali Sonne of Moses at Tus to pray Netamulmelic his Counsellour being with him being asked if he prayed not for victory against his brother then in rebellion he said no but his Prayer was this O Almightie God if my brother bee more conuenient for the good of the Muslims then I giue him victorie ouer me but if I be fitter then he for their profit make me to haue the vpper hand His Sonne Muhammed not sixe yeeres old succeeded in Bagdad by his order and his mothers care which was Regent with the Chalifas confirmation and Prayer was made in his name Tagiuddaulas inaugurated himselfe but was refused by the Chalifa An. 487. Barcana Mother of Mahmud dying Barkiaruc another Sonne of Gielaluddaulas went to Bagdad and chased away his brother Mahmud Muctadi dyed hauing continued Chalifa nineteene yeeres fiue moneths and fiue dayes He was skilfull in Religion and studious of learned men and made excellent Verses In his time Michael was made Patriarke of the Iacobites at Alexandria in whose time Nilus failing Mustansir sent him into Aethiopia with many gifts the King came to meet him and receiued him reuerently enquiring the cause of his comming learning the state of Egypt through want of Nilus wonted ouerflowings he caused the place to be opened where the waters had been turned aside and Nilus increased in one night three yards so that their fields in Egypt were watered and sowne And the Patriarke returned with great honour from both Kings of Ae hiopia and Egypt Ahmed Abulabas Mustasir Billa Sonne of Muctadi succeeded in the Chalifate Mustansir Lord of Egypt dyed and his Sonne Ahmed Abulcasem Mustali Billa succeeded A. 488. Tagiuddaulas hauing after bloudy battels betwixt them slaine Icsancar and possessed Haleb minded to inuade Irac was encountred and slaine by his Nephew Barkiaruc who was now crowned and hereby confirmed in his Empire Tagiuddaulas had sent to Bagdad to procure his inauguration Ioseph Sonne of Arfac a Turke which committed great spoiles in those parts but hearing of his Masters death fled to Haleb where Roduwan Sonne of Tagiuddaulas succeeded his Father and was surnamed Fecharulmelic that is the glory of the Kingdome his brother Decac also stiled himselfe Siemsulmuluc that is the Sunne of Kings he possessed Damascus An. 489. Riduwan with a purpose to get Damascus acknowledged the Egyptian Chalifa but he reuolted when he receiued of him no assistance in the siege thereof An. 492. the Frankes inuaded the Muslims Countries tooke Ierusalem conquered Antiochia slue the King of Maatrannaman which remayned in their hands till the yeere 526. when Abahak Elsiahyd on whom God haue mercy tooke it from them They went to Ramla and tooke it They set forth to Ierusalem An. 491. and burned the Iewes which were there in their Temple and killed 70000. Muslims and took out of the Sachra forty siluer Lampes each of which weighed three thousand sixe hundred drammes besides a siluer Furnace of forty pounds and twenty Lampes of Gold Ierusalem remayned subiect to them ninety one yeeres till King Ioseph Nazir Saladine Sonne of Iob on whom God haue mercy recouered it An. 583. Muhammed Sonne of Gielaluddaulas possessed himselfe of Bagdad and ouerthrew his brother Barkiaruk An. 493. and An. 494. the Frankes tooke Hijfa by force and Arsuf by composition and the most part of the Sea Coast was subiect to them An. 495. Mustali Billa Prince of Egypt dyed Berar his brother possessed himselfe of Alexandria and was there inaugurated by Aftekine But Afdal warred on him and tooke him Prisoner and inaugurated Ali Abulmansor Sonne of Mustali then but fiue yeeres olde Afdal being his Protector This yeare the Frankes besieged Tripolis and the Muslims which came to their ayde from Damascus were put to flight Anno 496. King Barkiaruk mooued against his Brother King Muhammed which was at Isfahan and there besieged him but was forced to depart for want of prouision They after met in battell and Muhammed was ouerthrowne and Barkiaruk againe raigned at Bagdad Decac that yeere got possession of Emessa Husein the Lord thereof leauing Rodnaeans friendship and taking part with Decac whereupon three men were sent from Batyna which killed him on a Friday in the Temple whereof Decac hearing went to Emessa and got it An. 497. Decac dyed of eating a Grape pricked with a poysoned Needle by a treacherous woman Ababacuc Tagtakin surnamed Tahiruddin enioyed Damascus The Frankes wanne Acca by helpe of the ships of the Frankes of Genua Zahruddaulas being there then Commander vnder the Egyptian An. 498. King Barkiaruk dyed who had ruled ouer Irac and the Land of the Barbarians leauing his Kingdome to his Sonne Gelaluddaulas vnder the Regencie of Eyad Muhammed hearing of his brothers death went to Bagdad and after composition on both parts slue Eyad and then ruled without Corriuall crowned by the Emperour of the faithfull An. 501. He slue Sadeca Seifuddin Prince of Hella An. 502. the Frankes wanne Tripolis after seuen yeeres siege a Citie full of Muslims and learned men before the siege An. 503. the Frankes tooke Acad and Minattar and Beryt An. 504. they tooke Sidon and Rardija and their Kingdome prospered in Syria enioying all the Sea Coast Muhammed sent Mudud against them who approching to Damascus was ouerthrowne by Batijna in the yeere 505. An. 507. Rodawan dyed and Tagiuddaulas Azras his Sonne succeeded who was slaine An. 508. and Lulu possessed the Citie An. 509. Ababac Lord of Damascus went to Bagdad to offer his seruice to Mustadir the Chalifa and to King Muhammed Lulu was killed and the Scribe of Abumaels Army held the Tower of Haleb. But An. 511. Haleb came into the possession of Bulgar Sonne of Aryc which held it fiue yeeres At that time dyed King Muhammed at Isfahan leauing eleuen Millions of Gold and as much in goods to his Sonne Mahmud Abulcasem And Prayer was made in his name at Bagdad An. 512. Mustadir
the Chalif dyed hauing enioyed that place foure and twenty yeeres three moneths He loued learned men forbad wrongs was eloquent and much in Almes A Note of the Authours Parentage IN the time of Biamrilla one Tijb a Syrian Merchant a Christian came into Egypt and abode at Alcahir His Sonne Carwijn was a Notarie and followed the Court got a Sonne which he called Abultijb which also proued a Notary of note at Elcahir and serued the Arabike Senate He had fiue Sonnes of which foure were made Bishops but Abulmecarim the youngest delighted in Husbandry and breeding of cattell and had aboue a thousand Hiues of Bees Hee married the Sister of Simeon a Notary which serued Ioseph Saladine Anno 569. and after betooke him to a Monasterie in the mids whereof he inclosed himselfe in a place which he had builded and therein liued aboue thirty yeeres Macarim had three Sonnes the second of which Abuliaser Elamid was the Father of the Chronicle Writer Macarem succeeded Simeon when he became an Heremite in his Notaries place in the Court vnder King Abubecr Elaadil Seiffuddin Sonne of Iob and dyed Anno 636 God rest all their soules A continuation of the former Storie out of Mirkond the Persian and Abraham Zacuth a Iew to the end of the Chalifa's IN Mustafirs time Bagdad was ruined by the ouerflowing of Tigris whereupon it was remoued and new builded on the East side of the Riuer where it stands more commodiously then before It is remarkable of fiue and twenty Chalifas since the foundation that none dyed therein The Astrologers had threatned saith Zacuth a floud next to that of Noah then said one of them there were seuen Planets in coniunction with Piscis now but sixe whereupon they feared the low situation of Bagdad and stopped the water-passages Also the Ismaelites which went on Pilgrimage on deuotion to their Sanctuary were most of them drowned The Chalifa honoured that Astrologer with Royall Vests Toledo Sicilia and some Cities of Africa were recouered from the Saracens by the Christians Mustcali King of Egypt dyed Elamir Bahachan fiue yeeres old succeeded Aphtzala the Visir gouerning Musterasched Sonne of Mustetaher succeeded his Father in the Chalifate Anno Hegira 512. He made warre with Masud Saliuaui King of Korasan and was by him taken and slaine An. 529. Raschid or Rached succeeded in the Chalifate quarrell and successe Masud came to Bagdad and made Almoctafy Billa Chalifa who after Masuds death warred on the Persian Prouinces where he recouered much with little labour Noradin got Halep and the parts adioyning on Antioch Elaphit succeeded Elamir his Father in Egypt after him Ettaphar who being slaine Elphais a child of fiue yeeres whom the Wisir enthronized Noradin tooke Damascus An. 552. great Earthquakes in Syria An. 554. great inundation at Bagdad and other Cities Anno 555. Muktaphi the Chalifa dyed Musteneged or Almostanget Billa Issuf his Sonne succeeded Elphaiz King of Egypt dyed and his Sonne Etzar ledin illuhi last of the Phetinaeans succeeded Asareddin Schirachocz succeeded one of the Curdi Noradin sent his Wisir and subdued Egypt Yet Iusuph Asar Eddius brothers Sonne was constituted King of Egypt by the Chalifa Baharon succeeded Masud in Korasan a learned man which writ Bookes in Philosophy He was martiall also and made some enterprizes in India and Persia Kozrao his Sonne followed but by reason of some broyles went to Lahor in India and there dyed Anno 555. His Sonne Kozrao Melic succeeded in Lahor In him the Sabutiquis ended Anno 563. The Chalipha dyed suffocated in a bath Anno 566. His Sonne Mustetzi succeeded in whose time the Chaliphas of Bagdad were restored in Egypt which the Phetimaeans had before abolished He dyed Anno 575. Natzar his Sonne succeeded Saladine recouered Ierusalem A. Hegira 586. and conquered all the Cities of Mesopotamia to Nisibis He dyed Anno 589. His Kingdome was diuided amongst his three Sonnes Elaphatzal had Damascus and Palaestina Elachiz Egypt Taher Giazi Halep The Tartars made prey of Turon and Agem Natzar dyed Anno 622. and Taher his Sonne enioyed the place nine moneths In this time flourished in Egypt Rabbenu Mose Sonne of Maimon of Corduba Mustenatzer succeeded a iust Prince and Almesgiuer which built many Schooles The Tartars ouerranne Asia Russia Polonia and vexed Germany another Army inuaded Syria Baba professed himselfe a Prophet sent of God and gathering rude multitudes to him filled Asia with slaughter and emptinesse till hee was slaine by Gyatheddin King of Gunia The Chaliph dyed Anno 640. and his Sonne Musteatzem succeeded the last of the Chaliphas of Bagdad slaine by Halocho the Tartar Anno 655. Elmutam King of Egypt by the Turkes conspiracie was driuen into a Towre which they set on fire to auoyde which hee leaped into the water vnderneath and was both scorched and drowned Thence forwards the Slaues Mamalukes tuled in Egypt At the conquest of Bagdad the Tartars are said to haue slaine in those parts 1600000. persons A briefe continuation of the Saracens in Spaine out of Rodericus Toletanus and others to the failing of the Ommian Race and Empire THe Saracens did not so extirpate Christianitie in their Conquests but that such as would bee subiect to their Tributes and Exactions might enioy their consciences whereupon not only Asia remayned in great part Christian till the Tartarian Deluge and some also till this day in Nestorian Armenian Iacobite and other Sects but euen in Africa where blacke darknesse most preuailed on mens bodies and soules some Christians continued and doe to this day thorow so many Saracenicall Generations In Marocco in the times of Ferdinand the holy and of Iohn the first diuers Christian Families were found and in Tunis also when Charles the fift in the former age conquered it aboue eight hundred yeeres after the first conquest by Muhammedans Their course as is in Turkie now is by degrees with discountenance disgrace and oppression of their persons and exaltation of their owne which rather vnrippeth then renteth asunder and vntieth then with Sword of extremest Persecuion choppeth in sunder that knot of Christian Religion herein the Westerne Antichrist being the more dangerous enemy to Christian veritie as more in shew pretending but more eagerly and irreconciliably with open warres tumultuous Massacres and direct-indirect workings and vnderminings seeking to extirpate the contrary profession Brethren falne out are the most implacable enemies In Spaine also so few Arabians could not people so large a Countrey but a deluge of African Grashoppers leaped ouer that Sea with them and although 700000. are said to haue beene slaine in that first Spanish Inuasion yet the rest enioyed their Churches and Deuotions still with Tributes In Toledo they had seuen Christian Churches left them with Iudges of their owne Nation and Religion These Christians were called Musarabes of Musa the first Conquerour and Arab-African Commander which sent Taric thither whose Lyturgie is
extant yea still obserued for antiquities sake in the great Church of Toledo This Musa or Muza is reckoned the first Arabian Gouernour in Spaine who beeing reuoked by Walid Abdulazis Sonne of Musa was by his Father left to gouerne Spaine who married the wife of Rodericus the Spanish King and by her perswasion crowned himselfe King whereupon the Arabs killed him at his Prayers and Ayub succeeded in the Gouernment who remoued the Courts from Siuill to Corduba But the Chalipha eiected him and placed Alabor who seuerely exacted on the first conquerours of Spaine Musa hauing by Tarrics complaints incurred disgrace and dying of griefe that what spoyles those spunges had sucked he squeised out of them made them to vomit again their sweet morsels Zama succeeded three yeeres in the Spanish Gouernment who made a Booke of the Reuenues of Spaine and of Gallia Narbonensis also For hee passed into France placed a Garrison at Narbona besieged Tolouse but by Eudo was slaine and his Arabs chased which chose Abderramen for their Leader Whiles they had feasted themselues with hopes of Gotike Gaule and conquered it in manner from the Pirenaean hils to the Alpes Pelagius Ximenes and others laid hold of such places as fitted their purposes in Spaine and beganne pettie Kingdomes therein since vnited into one Souereigntie after many ages Asam Son of Melic succeeded in Spaine who imposed the fifts on all conquered places for the Chalifas treasury and the tenths of such as yeelded He being slaine Ambiza succeeded Anno Hegira 103. and made many inrodes into France imposing to that purpose double tributes on the Christians Iahya ruled two yeeres and halfe and after him Odoyfa who did little worthy memory Next was sent Yemen Anno Heg. 111. which ruled but fiue moneths and Autuman succeeded foure moneths and then followed Alhaytam tenne moneths who after many tortures and derisions dyed in Prison and Mahomet Abenabdalla ruled two moneths to whom succeeded Abderramen He entred France as farre as Rhodanus at Arles slue many committed great spoyles in Poitiers and Xantonge Eudo Duke of Aquitaine which some say had brought in the Saracen and on the day of battell forsooke them ioyning with Charles Martell against them assisted with the Germans ouerthrew them some say aboue three hundred thousand of them were slaine with that their Generall An. H. 116. Abdelmelic succeeded foure yeeres and then Ocha or Ancupa An. 119. and after him Abdelmelic againe was replenished Spaine out of Africa after much depopulations but hee being slaine in ciuill combustions Abulcatar was sent Gouernour An. 125. who was slaine by Zimael and Toban was placed in his roome Eudo being dead his Sonnes dispossessed by the French of their Inheritance called the Saracens againe into Gaule who spoyled the whole Countrey betwixt the Pyrenees and the Riuer Loire Languedoc and Prouence seised also on Auignon but were againe chased by Charles Martell An. H. 128. Thoaba ruled Spaine one yeere Iuseph succeeded At this time the Ommian Race was dispossessed of the Chalifate and that of Abbas succeeded Abderramen of the Ommian Family possessed himselfe of Spaine after which it was separated from the Asian Chalifate and became a Kingdome and these Ommians called themselues Emirelmumenim This was An. H. 142. In the yeere 149. he began the Mezquit at Corduba the chiefe of all others in his Dominion An. 171. hee dyed and was buried at Corduba He left eleuen Sons and nine Daughters Isen the eldest succeeded and warred on his brother Zulema whom he put to flight He tooke Toledo Zulema sold all his challenge in Spaine and passed the Sea to Barbary as did Abdalla also another brother Isen An. 177. sent Abdelmelic with a great Army into France which spoyled and subdued Narbone with so great a part of the Countrey that Isen perfected with the fifths of those spoyles the Temple of Corduba which his Father had begun The Christians also of Narbone carried earth thither from their owne Countrey He built the bridge at Corduba He was munificent and iust He prospered in France warred with Alfonsus King of Gallicia and hauing reigned seuen yeeres seuen moneths and seuen dayes dyed leauing his Kingdome to his Sonne Alhacam A. 179. He was wise and fortunate had seuen thousand Slaues for his Guard three thousand Renegadoes and two thousand Eunuchs he personally iudged poore mens causes and was liberall in almes He ouercame in battell Zulema and Abdalla his Vncles slue one and subiected the other He dyed An. 206. leauing nineteene Sons and one and twenty Daughters Abderramen his Sonne succeeded He recouered the Townes which in late Schismes the Christians had gotten An. 229. fifty ships and fifty foure Gallies arriued at Lisbone The next yeere a greater number of ships came and besieged Siuill and often fought with the Arabs and spoyled their Dominions with fire and sword carrying away euery thing of value and killing very many Abderramen had a great battell with them but neither part preuayled An. 236. Corduba was paued and water brought thither in pipes of lead Abderramen dyed An. 238. leauing fiue and forty Sonnes and two and forty Daughters Mahomet his Sonne succeeded who much preuayled against the Christians slue many and An. 245. tooke Toledo by composition Sixty Norman ships that yeere burned Gelzirat Alhadia and the Mezquits and thence proceeded into Africa and there committed many spoyles after which they returned and wintred in Spaine and in the Spring wen home An. 273. Mahomet dyed and left thirty foure Sonnes and twenty Daughters of which Almundir succeeded and dying two yeeres after Abdalla his brother reigned fiue and twenty yeeres After his death Abderramen Sonne of Mahomet Sonne of Abdalla succeeded An. 300. and reigned fifty yeeres He called himselfe Almunacer Ledinella that is Defender of the Law of God and Amiramomeni or King of the beleuers Hee was mightie tooke Septa in Africa adorned the Mezquit of Corduba and many others His Sonne Alhacam succeeded An. 350. whom they surnamed Almuztacarbille that is Defending himselfe with God An. 366. Isen his Sonne succeeded He entituled himselfe Almuhayatbille Labouring with God He being vnder eleuen yeeres of age Mahomet Ibne Abenhamir was made Protector or Regent in their stile Alhagib or Viceroy which ruled all and of his fortunate victories was called Almanzor two and fiftie times he led armies against the Christians His Sonne Abdelmelic succeded in his Office An. 393. and held it six yeeres and nine moneths The King was little more then titular After him Abderramen his brother who forced Isen to nominate him his Successor and was soone after slaine Then followed diuisions in the State Isen being shut vp and reported dead by Mahomet Almahadi which domineered The Earle Sancius helped the aduerse faction of Zuleman and slue of Almahadis part 36000. Neither could Isen bee accepted whom Almahadi now brought forth but Zuleman entred Corduba and
possessed the Throne which Almahadi in a great battell recouered Anno 404. but lost it soone after with his life and Isen was restored Alhameri was made Alhagiber Viceroy The Countrey was spoyled and neere Corduba almost dispeopled by Barbarians Zuleman also and Almahadis Sonne in diuers parts doing much harme against whem Isen hired Earle Sarcius restoring six Castles to him which Almanzor had taken Zuleman wan Corduba and Isen fled into Africa Now was all in combustion Ali Alcazin Hyahye Cazim Mahomet Abderramen Mahomet Hyahya Iris Isen successiuely starting in and out of the Throne so that the Kingdome of Corduba failed and euery man made himselfe Master of his charge and vsurped what he could The Ommian Race fayling the Almorauides of Africa An. 484. possessed the Kingdome Ioseph Sonne of Tessephin being called to helpe one against the other and taking all into his owne dominion He made Morocco his Seat Royall Ali his Sonne succeeded and Tessephim his Sonne was deposed An. 539. The Almoades extinguished the Almorauides After many changes and chances the Realme of Granado was erected which continued aboue two hundred and fifty yeeres vnder these Kings successiuely Mahomet Alen Alhamar Mir Almus Aben Azar Aben Leuin Ismael Mahumet Ioseph Lagus Mahumet Mah. Guadix Ioseph Balua Ioseph Aben Azar Mah. the little Ioseph M. Aben Ozmen Ismael Muley Alboracen Mah. Boabdelin Muley Boabdelin expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella A. 1492. A Relation of the Kings of Barbary after the ending of the Egyptian Chalifas to the present Xeriffian Family taken out of a Spanish Booke of that argument ABtilhac was the first King Merin in Fez He had Sonnes A Bucar and Iacob Bucar the which Iacob was Lord of Ramatto and Abtilhac left his Kingdome in his life time to his Sonne Bucar Bucar had for Sonne Yahia This Bucar ouercame King Abtolcader and dyed in the battell and he said Yahia was King vnder protection of his Vncle Iacob which was Lord of Ramatto Yahia dyed a child without issue and the said Iacob Bucar his Vncle remayned King which afterward caused himselfe to be called Muley Xeh which signifieth old King This King built new Fez which is called the white Citie hee ouercame Budebuz King of Marweccos and sometimes was Lord of Tremesen Tumbe and Sojumenza and in the yeere of our Lord 1264. he entred Spaine being called by the King of Granado Hee had three Sonnes Abuçait Aben Iacob and Aben Iucef Abuçait Abuçayt after that his father had gained Tremezen was left for King there he had one Son a child whose name is not knowne and Abuhamo begotten vpon a Christian woman Abuçait reigning in Tremezen his father Iacob Aben Iucef dyed and his younger Son Aben Iacob reigned in his steed in Marweccos Sojumenza and Algarue and besieged Tremezen against his brother Abuçait and the said Aben Iacob left two Sonnes Abucale and Aliborregira which afterward was drowned by Aborabec Abucalec the eldest Sonne of Aben Iacob had a Sonne called Abuhumer who dyed and was neuer King himselfe But left two Sons Botheyd and Aborabec both which were Kings Abuçait dying at the end of foure yeeres left as I said before two Sonnes the eldest for vnderstanding we call the Old who reigned a yeere and a halfe after the death of his father and dyed without issue and Abuhamo which afterward was King in his steed The foresaid child being dead his brother Abuhamo reigned in his steed who afterward was called Abuhertab and his Vncle Aben Iacob besieged him in Tremezen seuen yeeres after whose death the siege was raysed and the said Abuhamo afterward with the ayde of D. Iayme of Aragon gained Ceuet in the yeere of our Lord 1310. After that Aben Iacob was dead his Sonne Abucalee tooke possession of the new Citie but his Vncle for hatred that he bore him caused them to receiue for King Botheyd who was Sonne vnto Abuhamer that dyed and neuer had beene King himselfe and the said Botheyd pursued Abucalee and slue him and reigned after him Botheyd after that his Vncle had saluted him for King dyed without issue After that Botheyd was dead the Christians raysed his brother Aborabe for King Then the Moores would haue had Ali Berregira King younger Sonne to Aben Iacob which was the sixt King and so after much warres betweene them at length Aborabee ouercame him and commanded him to bee drowned And after Aborabee had reigned two yeeres he dyed without issue After Aborabee dyed his great Vncle Aben Iucef Abuçayt was made King in Fez hee had two Sonnes Abohali and Abuhaçen This Aben Iucef Abuçait gained many Cities in Spaine in the yeere of our Lord 1318. and 1322. Albohali wounded his father in the warres and made himselfe to bee called King of Fez and his father being sicke besieged him and they came to agreement that his father should giue him Sojumensa and the halfe of the treasure of Fez and his father should remayne with Marweccos Algarue and Fez The said Albohali had two Sonnes Buzayn and Bahamon Albuhazen was receiued for King in the life of his father for his brother Albohali was disinherited for wounding his father This Albuhaçen had three Sonnes Abtulmalic Abtolrahmin and Abuhenan he was King of Fez Marueccos Algarue Sojumenza Tremezen and Tunes Abtulmalic was King of Algezira he past into Spaine in the yeere of our Lord 1340. and was ouercome by the Christians which they call La victoria del salido and in the warres of Xeres hee dyed Abtolramin his other brother rose with the Citie Mequines and his Father cut off his head Abuhenan rose with the Kingdome of Fez and fought against his father Albuhaçen ouercame him he made in Fez the Colledge which is called The Colledge of Abuhenan He had three Sonnes Muley Buçayt and Muley Zaet and Iacob Abuçayt sent his brother Zaet to succour Gibraltar who was taken Prisoner by the Kings of Granada and Abuçayt was killed by his owne subiects leauing one Sonne called Abtilhac Zaet vnderstanding the death of his brother got liberty and ayde of the King of Grada and recouered Fez After the death of Zaet Abtilhac Sonne of Abuçayt was King who was slaine by treason by one of his owne subiects who thought to vsurpe the Kingdome but Zaet Benimerine next heire vnto Abtilhac recouered it againe by force of armes within few moneths and put to death the Vsurper Zaet left for heires two Sonnes Muley Mahamet and Muley Nacer Muley Mahamet succeeded his father in the Kingdome and had two Sonnes to wit Muley Ahmat and Muley Naçant Muley Ahmat succeeded his father and had one Daughter called Lalalu which was forced to marry with the Xarife and dyed without issue for griefe of the death of her father and three Sonnes Muley Bucar which dyed in the warre when King Buhason recouered Fez and Muley Muhamet and Muley Alcasery which was King vpon conditions in the absence of his
Ram. r W. Magoths ap Hakluyt ſ Iohn Iane t Ap. Hak. M. S. a Botero Enquiries of Lang. and Relig 4. 14. b Bot. part 1. vol. 2. Herera c P. Ferdin de Quir. Detectio Australis Incognit d By Walsingham Grisley c e Mercurius Britannicus Of Chil. f Botero g G. Ens l. 2. c. 4 h Lop. Vaz i L. Apollon hist Peru l. 1. k The Riuers of Chili in the night time froz n. l Earthquakes in Chili and their effects * Some reckon this Towne to Peru It was vexed with Earthquakes 1582. 1586. m Acost l. 3. c. 9. n L. Apollon Hist Peru l. 3. o Nuno da Silua p Oliu. de Noort q Adams and the Dutch Fleet lost many of their men in fight with the Indians 1608. about S. Marie r Oliu. de Noort ſ Gomar c. 144. vid. historia general del Peru Escrita por el Ynca Garcilasse de la Vega in 8. lib. t Gom. c. 108. Benzol 3. c. 1. L. Apol. l. 1. u Peru why so called x Gom. c. 112. Apol. l. 2. Ben. l. 3. c. 3. * The Friers preaching This Oration is expressed more at large by Vega p. 2. l. 1. c. 22. diuided into two parts And Philipillus the Interpreter wanting fit words which the Cuscan Language hath not to expresse his Oration falsified the sense as by their Quippos hath appeared So for Trinitie and Vnitie hee interpreted Foure for our sinne in Adam that on a time all men being assembled layed their sinnes on Adam Nothing of the Diuinitie of Christ but that hee was a great Lord c. and that their forces which they threatned were superiour to those of Heauen as if they had Gods not men to fight against Whereupon Atahuallpa so he cals him fetched a deepe sigh and after made an answere far differing from this which Authors haue related But this was written by the Spaniards to the Emperour to cleere themselues which had offered abuse to the Inga neither would they suffer the truth to be written His answere hee relateth at large and is worth reading The Spaniards weary of his prolixitie made a rout and tooke him no man resisting Miguel Astete laying first hold but Pizarro carrying the credit such as it was his Fringe or Diademe remayned with Astete till 1556. When he restored it to the Inga Sayritupac The Frier was after * a Bishop and lastly slaine by the Indians a Gom. c. 113. b This hee spake according to the Bul of Alexander the Sixt which had giuen the Southerne and Western world to the Spanish Kings The hornes of the Bull and not of the Lambe are the Popish weapons c Rel. della conq del Peru ap Ram. tom 3. Xeres ibid. d Vega saith Atahuallpa forbad them whose command was a Religion to them death to transgresse and there perished 5000. of which 3500. Souldiers others of all ages and both Sexes which had come in great multitudes to heare and solemnize this Embassage of them which they tooke for Gods a Lop Vaz b Gomara saith that it was a great roome and they made a line about it it was all of wrought metal in vessels c. c Gom. hath 252000. poūds of siluer and 1326000. Pezos of Gold d Xeres saith they were 102. Footmen and Horsemen e They baptised him before his death thretning otherwise to burne him aliue Vega l 1. c. 36. The gold siluer which Atabaliba paid came to 4605670. Duc. Blas Valeca hath 4. Millions 800000. Duc. a summe not now maruailous when euery yeere 10. or 12. millions entreth the Guadalquibir The naturall strength of the country is such that had there not bin contentiō betwixt the Brethren c. Peru could neuer haue bin subdued f Gom. c. 115. g The Spanish Captaine in Ramus cals Cusco saith he promised 4 times as much h He kept Cusco with 30000. Indians i They after burnt him k F. Xeres P. Sancto Of their treasures see inf §. 3. c 9. §. 3 c. 11. § 1 c. l Benzo l. 3. c. 5 m Acost l. 6. c. 19. 20. 21. 22. Originall of the Inguas Their Kings n Gom. c. 120. Mariana lib. 26. Guaynacapa prophesied by reuelation of his Oracles of the comming of bearded men commanding at his death that they should yeeld subiection to them hauing a better law customes c. then they as Atahuallpa in his answer to Valle viridi his oration ap Veg. o Acost l. 6. c. 22. 23. p His Son Sayri Tupac was baptised by the name of Diego Amaru was his Brother q One of which hath written a generall History of the Indies in two parts in the former of the Peruuian Antiquities Acts in the later of the Spanish viz. Garcilasso de la Vega Naturall of Cusco his Mother was Palla Isabel daughter of Huallpa Topac Inga one of the Sons of Topac Inga Yupangui and of Palla Mama Ocllo his lawfull ife His Father was Garcilasso de la Vega one of the Conquerors of Peru a Captaine who went thither with Pedro de Aluarado 1531. and there continued till his death 1559. Francisco de Toledo being Viceroy entred Processe against the Ingas and all the Mestizos of that bloud but would not execute them Instead whereof he sent and dispersed them lest by their Fathers conquests or mothers bloud they should challenge that Empire into Chili Pinama New Granada Nicaragua and into Spaine 36. Indians of that bloud they sent to Loy Reyes there to remayne of which 35. dyed in little more then two yeares with griefe c. Others also elsewhere dyed Don Carlos had a Son in Spaine which there dyed 1610. of griefe and soone after a little Infant which he left and so all Guaynacapas prophesie touching his Posterity was accomplished In Mexico they tooke not that course because the Kingdome passed by Election not Succession The present Inga they presently sentenced to lose his head who desired to be sent into Spaine protesting his innocency that if his Father could do nothing against 200. Spaniards in Cusco with 200000. Indians what could they feare of him so poore He appealed to the King and to Pachacamac was baptised also by the name of Philip his Inga as he called him moued pitie in the Spaniards who would haue besought for him to be sent into Spaine there to remayne exiled but might not be suffered on paine of death to speake to the Viceroy Thus was Amaru or Philip brought forth on a Mule his hands fastned the Cryer proclayming him a Tyrant and Traytor with a halter about his necke 300000. were gathered together in the streets and wayes to this sad spectacle with much teares and cryes the Priests desired him to enioyne them silence whereupon hee lifted vp his hand and laying it on his eare and thence by degrees to his thigh there followed such silence as if there had not beene a man in the Citie And thus with protestation of his innocencie hee sustayned
as Munster noteth to generation of children according to the Rabines liberality which will not haue so much as the meanest hearbe on the earth to want correspondence and intercourse with some or other starre in heauen Mazal signifies a starre hence their superstition mentioned to Mazaloth 2. Reg. 23. And the Iewish Astronomers calls the Zodiake the circle of Mazaloth which name also their Cabalists ascribe to an order of Angels Many things could I here annexe out of a learned worke written by Master Selden of the Inner Temple de DIS Syris which according to his and the wont of all such as Nature hath made ingenious and ingenuous arts truely liberall hee hath imparted to me and now also to the world a rich magazine and treasury of manifold learning Diuine and Humane in multiplicity of tongues arts and reading out of which I haue borrowed in this and diuers parts of this worke no meane nor few Iewels to adorne my booke and enrich the Reader This Testimony I here once for all publish of that booke newly in the time of this Impression published Of himselfe wee want not publike proofe of his due in that which hee hath giuen to the world and the world in her more solid and lucid parts cannot but reflect againe vpon the Giuer TITLES OF HONOR a man whose worth I confesse I rather admire then measure with my poore pittances of praise which in this Gad or Fortune of the Syrians wanteth not his Bagad foeliciter or venit prosperitas happily and prosperously obseruing many things to this purpose out of the Chaldee Paraphrase the Hebrew Rabbins the Greeke Septuagint the Latines Cabalists Astrologians and others which being somwhat beyond our common Reader I forbeare to write lest the contrary to Leahs wish be wished to me Certaine it is that Labans daughters had not quite lost all their Syrian superstition as appeares by Rachels stealing her fathers Theraphim Idols which Kimchi and Aben Ezra thinke were made according to Astrologicall superstition capable of celestiall influence and prediction therefore stolne as they conceiue that her father should not consult with them touching their way in this flight The like doth Malmsbury report of Gerbertus which by inspection of the starres made an Idolls head with which hee vsed consultations this was Siluester the second the Necromancer and Pope An. Do. 998. and the like tale is related of Frier Bacon That Dea Syria before mentioned was worshipped in the times of the Roman Empire here also in this Iland as appeares by an inscription which Sir Robert Cotton hath DEAE SYRIAE and diuers altar-stones inscribed DEABVS MATRIBVS mentioned by Master Camden which are thought to be the same with the Syrian goddesse whose image was iust the same with that of Berecynthia or the mother of the gods interpreted also the Earth and Heauen For it is no vnusuall thing with superstition coelo terram miscere to make a hellish confusion of all things Yea the Astaroth before mentioned are thought to be the same with Syria Dea and these Dea matres This Astarte is also accounted Iuno and the Moone as her Bull-head with hornes in stead of a crowne wherewith they paint her argue and Minerua and Venus Io and Lucina and Mylitta or Alytta and Mitra and Astroarche and Coelestis or Vrania the Queene of Heauen and all things and nothing for an Idoll is indeed nothing in the world but the very beeing thereof is but the distracted vaine various imagination fancie and phrensie of the Idolater This is also the cause of ascribing difference or communitie of sexe to their Deities as this Astarte sometimes foeminine sometimes masculine as Venus likewise in some of the Greeke and Latine Poets and the Egyptians mysterie of the Moone or Isis with both sexes as hath beene alreadie touched Antiochia built by Seleucus to whom in honour of his memorie in mount Casius they obserued sacred solemnities as to a demi-God some times the seat royall of the Syrian Kings third Citie of the Roman Empire third seat of the Christian Patriarchs and first where that melodious name of Christian was heard is now the Sepulchre sayth Boterus of it selfe or as Niger a greater wildernesse wherein it selfe is the least part of it selfe being left but a small Village sayth another in the middest of its owne walles About fiue miles from Antiochia was that faire and sacred Daphne which Ortelius in his Theater hath presented to the Spectators with a peculiar description and of which the elder Authors haue plentifully written It was ten miles about a place euery way enuironed with many stately Cypresses besides other trees which suffered not the Sunne to kisse their mother Earth whose lap was according to the diuersitie of the season replenished with varietie of flowers her breasts flowing with streames of watery nourishment A spring there was deriuing as men supposed her water from the Castalian fountaines to which ancient superstition and therefore superstitious Antiquitie attributed a diuine facultie with like name and force to that at Delphos This also was furthered by the Legend of Daphne recorded by the Poets beleeued and what will not Superstition beleeue but the trueth by the credulous multitude who was said to haue fled from Apollo and here turned into a tree But thus could not Apollo be turned from his loue which he continued both to the Tree and place This was Lettice sutable to the lips of vaine youth Et quia consimilem luserat sayth amorous Chaerea of Iupiter in the Comicke Iam olim ille ludum impendio magis animus gaudebat mihi Ego homuncio hoc non facerem There needed no other lecture of sensualitie to them then this Legend especially in this schoole where euery place might be a place of argument vnder pretence of reason and religion to shut true Religion and reason out of the place especially with schollers greedie of this conclusion Here you might haue heard the whisking winds in a murmuring accent breathing this lustfull Oratorie the Enamelled floore did offer her more then officious curtesie a soft sweet and inlayed bed to lie on the ayre with temperature seemed to further Intemperance The eye of the day and watchmen of the night were prohibited by the Cypresse roofe with their vnwelcome light to testifie those workes of darknesse which those guiltie boughs couered from discouering Once the concurring obiects of each sense did in silence speake and perswade to sensuall pleasure insomuch that by a generall Decree Temperance and Temperate men were hence exiled and scarce would the vulgar allow him the name of a man which here would be transformed into a beast or would presume without a Curtezan to tread on this holy ground Needs must they goe whom the deuill driueth such god such religion Here were erected sumptuous buildings the Temple of Apollo Daphnaeus with a stately Image therein the worke as was thought of Seleucus also Dianas Chappell and Sanctuarie Iulius
betweene Euphrates and Nilus he inuaded Persia where the Persians lost both their King Hormisda their State Religion and Name of Persians being conuerted into Saracens This victorious Homar made Ierusalem his Royall seat and while he was praying was murthered by his seruant Ozmen the succeeding Caliph sent a great Armie into Africa vnder the leading of Hucba who ouercomming Gregorius Patritius and destroying Carthage subiected all that Prouince to their Empire making Tunes the Mother-citie but soone after translated that honour to Chairoan which he built thirtie six miles from the Sea and a hundred from Tunes In the third yeere of his raigne Muauias the Deputie of Egypt with a Nauie of seuen hundred or as others say of a hundred and seuentie saile assailed Cyprus and taking Constantia wasted the whole Iland and hauing wintred his Armie at Damascus the next yeere besieged Arad in Cyprus and won it and dispeopled all the I le Thence hee inuaded the continent of Asia and carried away many prisoners and after in a Sea-fight with Constans the Emperour dyed the Lycian Sea with Christian bloud Hee wan Rhodes and sold to a Iew the brazen Colosse or pillar of the Sun which laded nine hundred Camels sometimes reckoned one of the worlds seuen wonders made in twelue yeeres space by Chares After this hee afflicted the Cyclides Ilands in the Archipelago and then sent his Fleet against Sicilia where they made spoile with fire and sword till by Olympius they were chased thence Muauias himselfe with an Armie by land entred into Cappadocia Iaid hauing ouer-run all the neighbouring Armenia vnto the hill Caucasus But meane while Ozmen besiged in his house by Ali his faction slew himselfe when hee had liued eightie and seuen yeeres and raigned twelue The Saracens could not agree about their new Prince Muaui and Ali with great armies being Corriuals of that dignitie and Ali being treacherously murthered by Muauias meanes in a Temple neere Cufa a Citie of Arabia was there buried and the place is of him called Massadalle or Alli his house for if you beleeue the Legend his corps being laid on a Camell which was suffered to goe whither hee would he staid at this place Of this Ali or Hali Mahomets Cousin the Persians deriue their sect and tell of him many Legendary fables Bedwell calls this place in his Arabian Trudgman Masged Aly that is the Mesged Mosque or Temple of Ali. Alhacem the sonne of Ali and Fatima Mahumets daughter was by Muauia his owne hands crowned and by him soone after poysoned Thus was Muaui sole Caliph who granted peace to the Emperour on condition that hee should pay him euery day tenne pounds of gold and a Gentleman-seruant with a horse Damascus was now made the Seat-Royall Of which Citie although wee haue said somewhat in our first booke yet let vs bee a little beholden to Beniamin Tudelensis to shew vs the Saracenicall face thereof In his time it was subiect to Noraldine as hee termeth him King of the children of Thogarma that is the Turkes The Citie saith hee is great and faire containing on euery side fifteene miles by it slideth the Riuer Pharphar and watereth their Gardens Amana is more familiar and entreth the Citie yea by helpe of Art in Conduits visiteth their priuate houses both striuing in emulous contention whether shall adde more pleasure or more profit to the Citie by Naaman therefore in the heate of his indignation preferred before all the waters of Israel But no where is so magnificent a building saith Beniamin as the Synagogue of the Ismaelites which is therein the people call it the Palace of Benhadad There is to be seene a wall of Glasse built by Art-Magicke distinguished by holes as many as the yeere hath dayes and so placed that euery day the Sunne findeth them fitted in order to his present motion each hole hauing therein a Diall with twelue degrees answering to the houres of that day so that in them is designed both the time of the yeere and of the day Within the Palace are Baths and costly buildings so rich of gold and siluer as seemeth incredible I saw there hanging a ribbe of one of the Enakims or Giants nine Spanish palmes long and two broad on the Sepulchre was written the name of Abchamaz After this in the time of Tamerlan the magnificence of their Temple was not quite extinct but as is reported it had fortie great Porches in the circuite thereof and within nine thousand Lamps hanging from the roofe all of gold and siluer For the Temples sake at first he spared the Citie but after prouoked by their rebellion he destroyed it and them Neither were the walls of Damascus rebuilded till a certaine Florentine for loue of the Gouernours daughter denying his faith became Mahumetan and after that both Gouernour and repairer of the Citie in the walls engrauing a Lyon the Armes of Florence He was honoured after his death with a Moskee and worshipped after the manner of their Saints the Saracens visiting his tombe and hauing touched the same stroking their beards with their hands There did our Author see a large house compassed with high walls which was inhabited with Catts The reason forsooth is this Mahomet sometime liuing in this Citie made much reckoning of a Cat which he carried in his sleeue by lucky tokens from her ordred his affaires From this dreame the Mahumetans make so much of Catts and hold it charitable almes to feede them thinking that he should prouoke the iudgement of God which should suffer a Cat to starue And many of them are found in the shambles begging or buying the inwards of beasts to nourish Catts a superstition more likely to descend from the Egyptians who for the benefit they receiued by Catts in destroying their vermine of which that Countrey yeelds store in a Heathenish superstition deified them But let vs returne to Muaui hee subdued the Sect of Ali in Persia and after inuaded Cil icia and sent to aide Sapores a band of Saracens which afflicted Chalcedon and sacked Armaria a City of Phrygia and with a Fleete inuaded Sicill tooke Siracuse and carried away with them the riches of Sicilia and of Rome it selfe lately fleeced by the Emperour and here horded Another Armie of Saracens ouer-running the Sea-coast of Africa led away eight hundred thousand prisoners Muamad and Caise on the other side subdued to Muaui Lydia and Cilicia and after with Seuus another Saracen Generall besieged Constantinople from Aprill to September and taking Cizicum there wintred their forces and in the spring returned to their siege which they continued seuen yeeres but by Diuine assistance and force of tempest they were chased thence And Constantine slew three hundred thousād Saracens in a battell not long after against Susia the Nephew of Muaui and compelled the Saracens to pay a great tribute Iezid raigned after the death of Muaui his father a better Poet then Souldier
he soone died Neither did his successours Maruan and Abdalan liue two yeeres in the roome Abdimelec was chosen Caliph who descended from Hali when as Abdalan of the linage of Eubocara the Arabians call this the Maraunian race the other Abazian had possessed himselfe of that title by force whom Ciafa the kinsman of Abdimelec ouerthrew Ciafa after this victorie entring Damascus pluckt Iazid one of the former Caliphs out of his graue burned his bones and hurled the Ashes into the riuer and cruelly persecuted all the Maraunian stocke Hereupon Abedramon one of that house with a great number of his friends and followers fled into Mauritania Tingitana where he was welcomed of the Saracens there being and first intituled himselfe Miralmumim which signifieth The Prince of Beleeuers and then builded Marocco Addimelec hauing other yrons in the fire neglected this first appeasing tumults in his owne state then ouerthrowing the Emperour in the field after receiuing by treason of the Deputie Armenia winning that part of Persia which yet was subiect to the Romans and by his forces spoyling Thracia whiles the Greekes were diuided amongst themselues He also chased the Romane Garrisons out of the coast-Townes which they held in Afrike Abdimelec being dead Vlitus the sonne of Abedramon succeeded vnder whom the Saracens besides the spoile of Galatia conquered all Afrike betwixt Niger and the Sea a little piece excepted at the mouth of the straites subiect to Rodericus the King of Spaine Mucas was made Lieutenant of the Saracen Empire in Afrike To him Iulianus Earle of Cepta full of indignation against his Prince for deflouring his faire daughter Caba about the yeere 712. offereth the conquest of Spaine if hee would furnish him with some competent forces of his Saracens This traytor thus strengthened with the authoritie of this place being Gouernour of the Ile Viridis and diuers places in Africa and Spaine backed with his friends and aided with the Saracens ouerthrew the Gotish Empire which had now ruled Spaine about three hundred yeeres Rodericus losing the field and his state and spending the remnant of his dayes with an Hermite in a solitarie desart of Lusitania Iulianus himselfe was after slaine by the Saracens as were the Spanish Traytors the iust end of vniust treacherie Scaliger out of an Arabian Geographer calleth that Captaine Muses or Moses son of Nutzir of the Marawan stocke who had with him a valiant Captaine named Tark or Tarik of whom the Hill and the Strait is named as the vulgar pronounce it Gibraltar properly Gebal Tarik that is the Hill of Tarik because hee had shipped ouer his Barbarians thither and fortified himselfe in that Hill in the nintieth yeere of the Hegira which hee did least his barbarous souldiers should forsake him and therefore also caused his ships to bee burnt This Vlit Qualid Walid or Oelid for thus I finde his name diuersified in Authors besides these his conquests in Afrike and Europe atchieued by his Captaines great exploites in Asia among which one called Koteybah Eben Moselem conquered Korasan as farre as Tarquestan with all the Countrie of Maurenaher and Koarrazin On the other side Moseleima ben Abdel Malek forced the Graecian Emperour to tribute Hee also erected many publike buildings the most famous of which was the Mosque at Damascus Osiasge his Deputie in Karason was so cruell that he put to death aboue a hundred thousand persons in that Countrey during his gouernment besides an infinite number slaine in the warres Hee had thirtie thousand slaues of diuers Nations This Caliph died Anno Dom. 715. A. Heg. 95. after Mirconds account Persia was not yet fully subdued Gerion and Tarbestan two Prouinces thereof were brought vnder in the time of Soleyman Suleiman or as Curio calls him Zulciminius the next Caliph He sent Malsmas with a great power into Thrace where hauing spoyled the Countrey he laide siege to Constantinople Zulciminius his Master assaulting it by Sea with a Nauie of three thousand Ships in which siege hee died Anno Dom. 719. Aumar his successour had no successe in this attempt partly through the violence of frost causing famine and diseases in his Campe and partly by force of an artificall Glasse wherewith Leo the Emperour cast fire amongst the enemies Fleete and fiering euen the Seas about the ships that by this subtiltie force of tempest of three thousand saile fiue ships onely are said to haue escaped Gizid sent with supply of three hundred and threescore ships durst not approach for feare of this fire and the Saracens by their Caliph were reuoked when the plague had slaine in Constantinople three hundred thousand people In his time Aly Eben Abas one of the descendents of Abas Vncle to Mahomet warred for the Chalifate challenging it to his stocke But Aumar or Homar was poysoned by Ochon and Yezid or Gizid succeeded whose reigne was troubled with the warres of Aly aforesaid still continuing his challenge After him A. 724. succeeded Ochon his brother which had poysoned Homar Persia had some broiles which he pacified He being murthered succeeded Walid or Euelit sonne of Iezid in whose time the bottome of the Sea neere the coasts of Asia minor burned and sent foorth smoake first and after heapes of stones with which the shores of Asia Lesbos and Macedonia were filled and a new Iland tooke beginning of the heaping together of earth which was annexed to the Iland called Sacra The Saracens in Spaine erected amongst themselues many pettie Kingdomes and by their diuisions made way to Pelagius with some remainder of the Spaniards to recouer some of their lost countrey who dying in the yeere 732. his sonne Fafila succeeded in whose time the Saracens passed the Pyrenaean Hills into France where Theodoricus the second was then King but Charles Martell Master of the Kings house ruled as did his father in that office before and his sonne both Pipins after him The Saracens tooke Narbone and after Burdeaux killing in it man woman and childe and raising the Temples to the ground they passed Garunna and ouerturned Angolesme and Bloys and came into Turon where Eudo the Goth then King of a great part of France in wars with Martell for feare of the common enemy entred league and with their ioynt forces slew three hundred and seuentie fiue thousand Saracens and those of Nauarre slew the rest that escaped in their returne But when Eudo was dead Martell tooke part of his Kingdome from his sonnes Hunoldus and Vaifarus who thereupon recalled the Saracens which vnder the leading of Atinus tooke Auenion by the treason of Mauricius then Gouernour from whence and out of France they were driuen by Martellus The Saracens made foure inuasions into Thrace while Euelitus was Caliph to whom succeeded Anno 744. Gizit the third who wasted Cyprus and carried away the people into Syria After him and Ices which two ruled not two yeeres Maruan
father and brethren when they were Prisoners fiue yeeres in the hand of the Xarife Muley Buhason was King of Velos de la Gomera and after that Fez was lost by Ahmat hee by the ayde of Salharaes Gouernour of Argiers recouered it againe hee was slaine by treason by one of his Guard in a battell against the Xarife He left three Sonnes Muley Naçar a Bastard and Muley Mahamet which was his eldest Sonne legitimate and Muley Yahia which yet liueth Muley Mahamet succeeded his father but was presently forced to flye leauing the Xarife in possession of all his estates and dying within few yeeres left one Sonne a child called Muley Halal which is this present pretender Muley Halal being a child was carried to the Mountaines of Tarudante beeing named for King but being not able to recouer his estate nor able to resist the power of the Xarife he fled into Christendome where he yet remayneth together with his Vncle Muley Yahia who being Sonne vnto a Christian woman fled presently into Christendome with his mother when his father King Bahason was slaine as aforesaid FINIS AN ALPHABETICALL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL THINGS CONTAYNED IN THIS WORKE A AArons Priesthood 121. 122. Abares a Scythian Nation 363 Their descent Habitation ibid. Abas the Persian King 386. 387. An appendix touching him out of Sir Anthoney Sherley 388 389. seq His dealing with the Turke and Christians and Iesuits lyes of him 394. 395 Abasian Line of Chaliphas 235 Abassia vide Aethiopia Abasens 225 Abasian Chaliphaes 236 Abassine or Abissine why so called 734. and Elhabaschi ibidem Their Language and Arabian Ofspring ibid. They know not the ancient Letters in the Aethiopian Monuments 237 The seuerall Countries of Abassia 749. Riuers Lakes ibid. Soyle Fruits Creatures 750. Customes priuate and publike 751. Their estimation of blacke 721. Their present miseries 752 Abdalla Father of Mahumet 241 245 Abdalmutalif Mahumets Master or as some say his Grandfather 241 Abdimelec 234. His acts ibid. Abdul Mumen 692. He intituled himselfe the Prince of Beleeuers ibid. Abed Ramon his Acts 234. 705 Abels Sacrifice respected how 28 Abbies built in Turkie 282. 308 in Iapon 597. 598. vide Monasteries Abis a strange accident there 225 226 Abraham his supposed Martyrdome 45. Cast into Prison and banished 52. Inuenter of Astrologie 55. His Temple and Well 64. His Letters 82. An Idolater 95. His History and others testimonies of him 95. 96. His yeeres reckoned 153 His supposed Booke 162. Posteritie by Keturah 224. 270. Saracens dreames of him 264 254. 269. Postellus his like conceit 642 Abram King of Acem 612. 613 Abydus a place in Mysia where was a famous Temple of Venus in remembrance of their libertie recouered by an Harlot 334 Abydenus his testimony of the Floud 34. Of the Arke 35. Of Nabuchodonosor 49 Accaron and the worship there 81 136 Acen Achin Achi or Acem in Samatra the History of their Kings 612. 613. The Kings Letter 614. His cruelties 615 Achilles worshipped in Leuce and tales of his Temple 399 Achmat or Achmet the Great Turke 228. 229. 288. 289 Sultan Achmets Person Family Gouernment and greatnesse of State 288. sequitur 291. 292. 293. Hee reigned about fifteene yeeres 293. 294 Acra Aelia 94 Acusamil 885 Adam greatest Philosopher 14. 18 Adams Hill in Seylan 17 Adam his generall and particular calling 20. His happinesse before his fall 18. 19. His many sinnes in the fall 21. 22. Nakednesse Punishment 22. 23. First and second Adam compared 24. His sinne how ours 25 Adam taught by God taught his children to sacrifice 27. 28. Supposed to liue and dye at Hebron 29. Mourning for Abel ibid. The conceits of Zabij touching him 52. His buriall 53. Iewish Dreames of Adam 160. 178. 205. Taught by Raziel 161. His Cellar Mahometicall Dreames of him 252. 253. seq Adam acknwledged by the Bramenes 547. 548 Adam Baba in Zeilan 277. Their fancies of him ibid. Adams viz. William Adams his trauels and voyage to Iapon 588. 589. seq Adad Assyrian God 66. The Sun ibid. Adadezer K. of Aram Zoba 73 Adega Mahomets Wife 241 Adel and Adea their situation and description 754 Adiabena a Kingdome in Assyria 35. 63 Adona a name of God what it signifieth 4 Adonis Fable Feasts Rites and Riuer 78. 79 Adrian Emperour 72. Founder of Aelia 142. His testimonie of the Aegyptians 626. His destroying of Antinous 646 Adriaticke Sea which so called 575 Adrimachidae their habitation Rites 667 Adultery how punished by the Iewes 99. 205. By the Arabians 238. Alcoran 251. Tartars 416. Pataneans 495. 496 In Bengala 509. Of the Bramenes 547. Turkes 299. In Guinea 717. In Aethiopia 739. Madagascar 799. Florida 851. Mexico 877. Nicaragua 888. In Brasill 918. In Iapan 560. 591. In Iaua 611. 612 Adultery how esteemed by the Arabians 228. How tryed at Guinea 716. 717 Aelia Capitolina 93 Aegyptians first Authors of Idolatry 631. Worshipped men vnder other names ibid. Conuinced by Abraham 95. Conquered by the Saracens 657. By the Christians and by Saladine 657. By Selim 283. 284 Aegypt why so called Aegypt and Mesre and other names 626 How bounded and a discourse of Nilus 627. The number of Aegyptian Cities and workes of their Kings Cham and Chemmis 630. 631. Their Temples and exceeding summes whereto they amounted 631. Sesostris and other Kings 632. Pyramides the Labyrinth Sphynx Lake Meris and their Sepulchres 633. 634. Their Osiris Isis Orus and other Legends 635. 636. The Land diuided to their King Priests and Souldiers ibid. Their baudy orders and beastly Deities 636. Reasons of Religion to Beasts 637 Mysticall exposition ibid. Their worship water fire a man the Beetle 635. 637. Manifold mysteries ibid. Hermes Trismegistus 637 Hierogliphicks ibid. their Idols how deified ibid. their Apis and other Beasts deified or sacred how nourished and respected 638. Cost bestowed on the Funerals of them 639. Description and consecration of Apis ibid. His History and Mystery 639. Other Oxen worshipped ibid. How they respect Beasts in these dayes 640. What beasts fishes fowles generally What in seuerall places worshipped ibid. Meats prohibited amongst them 641. Serpents Farts c. Worshipped ibid. Their Sacrifices Circumcision and Swine 642. 643. Their manner of tillage or sowing the ground ibid. Their Oaths Priests Magicke and Sacrifices 643. Gymnosophists Sanctuary Feasts ibid. The Oracles and Knauerie of Isis Priests 643. Their inuentions and conditions 644. 645 Rogues why called Aegyptians or Gypsies 646. Acts of the Persians in Aegypt 647. Their Greeke Schooles and Librarie 648. 649. Deuotions and Temples of Serapis 650. Knauery of Tyrannus 651. The acts of Romans Iewes Saracens in Aegypt 652. The building of Cairo 654. The state of it and Alexandria 655. Present Aegyptians 656. Diuers successions and alterations in Aegypt ibid. Her Sects 657. Mamalukes maruellous actiuitie ibid. Christians there 658. Their Chronologie 660. 661. Ancient Kings 662. Who reigned when Moses passed the Red Sea 663. Chalifas 664. Mamalukes