Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

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Chapter IX.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE CALIPHS, FROM THE FOUN-
DATION OF THE CALIPHATE TO THE INVASION
OF EGYPT BY SOLTAN SELEEM.

The consideration of the original character of the
Arabians; the change effected by their successes;
the rapid progress of the new sect, and its probable
cause ; the injury done to society by their ignorance
and fanaticism; their subsequent encouragement of
learning, and its benefit to the unenlightened na-
tions of the West; the effect of the revival of luxury
in the East; the decline and fall of the power of
the Caliphs, and the thirst of conquest transferred
from the Arab to the Turkish hordes; the intellec-
tual inferiority of these last compared with the
former; the total want of encouragement and taste,
amounting to a barbarous contempt for learning,
evinced throughout their career; their geographical
position after the conquest of Constantinople, ac-
counting for their former power and present exist-
ence ; and their complete and irrecoverable fall,
are all interesting subjects for our contemplation
and research, but require to be treated on a much
more extensive scale than the nature of this work
allows; however, as the history of the caliphs ne-
cessarily commences with the foundation of the
religion, I shall briefly notice its origin, and the