Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

HOUSEHOLD WORDS,

CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS,

AND CONTAINING

TALES, STORIES, AND OTHER ARTICLES,

BY

WILLIAM HOWITT, LEIGH HUNT, THE AUTHORESS OF MARY BARTON,
BARRY CORNWALL, WILKIE COLLINS,

And all the rising English Writers, is now universally regarded as by far the most interesting and popular of the English Periodicals-its circulation in this country is constantly increasing, and to meet the public demand Messrs. DIX, EDWARDS & Co. have made arrangements with the Editor and Proprietors in England to introduce

IN

A NEW FEATURE IN ITS PUBLICATION,

By issuing it, from the present time,

WEEKLY

NUMBERS.

They receive it regularly in advance, and will publish

THE AMERICAN EDITION

Immediately on the arrival of the weekly steamer.

The Monthly Edition will be issued as usual.

TERMS FOR THE WEEKLY EDITION : 6 cents per number, $3.00 per annum. MONTHLY EDITION: 25 cents per number, $3.00 per annum.

A prompt remittance of $3 will secure a regular delivery, post paid.

SETS OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS, 13 VOLS.,

Can be had, bound in cloth, at

Bound in half calf

*Sent free by Express or Mail on receipt of price.

$22.50

35.00

As a safe, interesting, amusing, and useful series for Families and Reading Clubs, it cannot be surpassed. It contains more variety and information, given in a pleasing manner, than any other set of Books ever published.

** A few sets of the English Edition on sale, in fine bindings, at an advanced price.

CLUBS.—PUTNAM'S MONTHLY, and HOUSEHOLD WORDS to one address, Five Dollars; PUTNAM'S MONTHLY, or HOUSEHOLD WORDS, with the SCHOOLFELLOW, to one address, Three Dollars and Fifty Cents; or all three of the Magazines, Five Dollars and Fifty Cents. Two Copies of either PUTNAM or HOUSEHOLD WORDS, to one address, for Five Dollars; Five Copies for Ten Dollars; Four Copies of the SCHOOLFELLOW, to one address, Three Dollars and Fifty Cents; Five Copies, Four Dollars; Eight Copies, Six Dollars.

CLERGYMEN AND TEACHERS.-" PUTNAM'S MONTHLY," Two Dollars per annum ; "HOUSEHOLD WORDS," Two Dollars per annum; "THE SCHOOLFELLOW," One Dollar per

annum.

Can be bought at every Book Store, on the Cars, of Agents, and News Boys. DIX, EDWARDS & CO., 321 Broadway.

Miller & Holman, Printers and Stereotypers, New York.

[graphic]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by Dix, EDWARDS & Co., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The Post Master General has decided that the advertising sheet in "Putnam's Monthly," "Household Words or" The Schoolfellow" does not subject them to any additional postage.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

1. HARUN AL RASHID AND SARACENIC CIVILIZATION,

2. MY HEART AND I,

3. THE LEAVEN THAT LEAVENED THE LUMP, 4. SCAMPAVIAS-PART VI.-A LAND SLIDE,

5. THE FISHING SONG,

6. WHAT IS POETRY?

7. TAE PING WANG,

337

349

351

360

367

368

380

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

415

416

422

[ocr errors]

427

428

434

11. DONE FOR A FRONTIER BALLAD,
12. FONCAULT, THE ACADEMICIAN,
13. MARIA AND HER STORIES,
14. THE COCKLE-SHELL,

15. MILITARY ARRAY OF NEW ENGLAND IN THE OLDEN TIME,
16. EDITORIAL NOTES,

The Confidential Correspondence of Napoleon and Josephine-Memorial of the Life and Character
of John W. Francis, Jr.-Reade's "It is Never too Late to Mend"-Porter's Spirit of the Times
-The Gentleman's Magazine-Prof. Loomis's Recent Progress of Astronomy-Winslow's
Elements of Moral Philosophy-De Tocqueville's "The State of France before the Revolution”—
Grote's History of Greece-Baird's Religion in the United States-Colton's Atlas of the World
-Curtis's Oration-Godwin's Political Essays-A History of the Extension and Restriction of
Slavery-Darley's Judd's Margaret.

[merged small][ocr errors]

444 The City's Fairing-The Show just going to begin-The Political Significance of “Admittance 25 Cents"-A Fossil in the White House-The Presidential Shadrach, Meshach, and AbednegoBack Hair and Crinoline in the Field-The Country Cousin-How you shall know him and hisAmong the Jewels-The "Nuremburg Eggs"-Swiss Watches-Diamonds-They lack Sentiment -The Poetry of Emeralds, Opals, and Pearls-The Charm of the Serpent-The Vases of Sévres -The Fan and its Temper-Clocks and Harun Al Rashid-Bronzes-Kiss's Amazon-The Witch and Mephistophiles-Le Miroir Face et Nuque-A Reform in Back Hair-Mrs. Spencer's "Favorite and Forsaken"-Pictures, by Rosa Bonheur, Hamon, Dedreux, Lepoittevin, and VernetOur Country Cousin has his Daguerreotype Taken-The Up-townward Tendency of the Drama.

16f Cambridge.

PUTNAM'S MONTHLY.

A Magazine of Literature, Science, and Art.

VOL. VIII.-OCTOBER, 1856.-NO. XLVI.

HARÛN AL RASHID AND SARACENIC CIVILIZATION.

ONE

NE morning, in the beginning of September of the year 795 of the Christian era, the inhabitants of Bagdad rose early to behold one of the most singular pageants of those times. The caliph had, in the days of his adversity. before a throne fell to his lot, vowed a pilgrimage on foot to Mecca; and now, established in power, his enemies subdued on every side, and prosperity diffused over all his dominions, he proposed to fulfill that pious obligation.

Still, it was a matter of much popular doubt, whether the greatest monarch of the age either would, or should, subject himself to the toil of a common pilgrim. Had not his grandfather, Al Mansur, performed the same journey in the style becoming his rank, and it was accepted as an act of piety? Was not his father, Al Mahadi, attended through the desert by no less than five hundred camels laden with ice and snow, and with accommodations to spare for one thousand pilgrims, beside his own retinue? And could it be possible that Al Rashid, more illustrious than either, intended to submit to the fatigue and humiliation of the poorest hadji?

Speculation was soon brought to an end; for scarcely had the lofty domes and minarets of Bagdad caught the first rays of the sun, when the cortege of the caliph issued from the gates of the city.

The principal persons who presented
VOL. VIII.-22

themselves to the public on that occasion were in the midst of a career which resulted in crowning them with the fairest renown belonging to their nation's history. They were all, with one exception, in the vigor of early manhood. That exception was the aged vizier, Yaheia ibn Kaled Al Barmeki, son of him who had served, in the same capacity, the first caliph of the house of Abbas; more than forty years before. The wisdom of his counsels had long been proverbial. Suspected of being attached to the heresy of the Zendiks, a sect that denied almost every doctrine of the Koran, save that of the unity of God, he was, notwithstanding (such was his prudence and rectitude), equally trusted and revered by prince and people. And both had abundant reason; for they owed their happiest days to his government. The caliph, when an infant, had been committed to his care; had grown up in his family, as one of his children; had received his education from his lips; and still loved and honored him as a father. The wisest statesman of his time, his renown has survived the dissolution of the nations he served.

The caliph Harûn Al Rashid, himself then in the thirty-third year of his age, was, of person and deportment, such as imagination loves to ascribe to a favorite hero. tall and athletic figure, a fair complexion, a noble and pleasing coun

A

tenance, with beard and hair black, and naturally curling, are features assigned by the gravest historians to this celebrated leader of the faithful. His manners, though characteristically dignified, were changeable to a degree uncommon with Mohammedans-sometimes stiffening into haughtiness, and again unbending to the production or enjoyment of the most genial humor. And there can be little doubt that those who looked upon him now, as he walked forth in this extraordinary act of selfdenial, beheld one of the choicest exhibitions of a proud humility.

The most beloved of his companions, and holding the highest offices under his hand, were the four sons of his vizier, all inheriting, to a high degree, the talents of their father. Fazzel, the eldest, born in the same year with his master, was one of the ablest generals of his time; princely in his benevolence and hospitality, and not less distinguished for the pureness of his moral character, his enemies could only charge him with the vice of pride. In the course of the foregoing year, he had been appointed to the viceroyalty of Korassan, in which he is said to have united the exercise of consummate abilities with strict justice and integrity. He had now returned to Bagdad to surrender his government into the hands of his younger brother.

That brother, Giafar Al Barmeki, still more renowned in Saracenic tradition, besides possessing the administrative talents of his family in an eminent degree, was more highly favored with the gifts of genius, and was esteemed the most eloquent speaker and the finest writer of his country. His elegant accomplishments, social qualities, and dispatch in business, made him the chief favorite of his sovereign, who, after the retirement of his father, elevated him to the place of grand vizier. It is recorded of him, in oriental hyperbole, perhaps, that he once made out, in presence of the caliph, a thousand orders in one night, without a single mistake.

At the time of which we speak, he had just returned from Syria, of which he had been appointed governor, having reduced the disorders formerly prevailing there, and left it in charge of a deputy. Now in the thirtieth year his age, Giafar was the most elegant man at the court of Harûn Al Rashid.

of

Unhappily for himself, his prudence was not equal to his genius. With any other sovereign of those times, his indiscretions would have ruined him in a day. But Harûn, an ardent admirer of genius, excused his freedom and extravagance, and indulged him to excess. And Giafar, relying confidently upon that attachment, besides all his own lavish expenditure, thought nothing of pledging his master to the payment of thousands, without even consulting him. It is said that he one time went so far as to promise a worthy, but reduced, nobleman, that the caliph would admit him to favor; would pay his debts, to the amount of four thousand dinars of gold; and give one of his own daughters in marriage to his son, with the government of Egypt for her dowry; and the caliph did so. One of the most dangerous enemies of the house of Abbas, being defeated, and taken captive, was committed to the custody of Giafar, with the order to put him to death. Giafar indulged his own benevolence, and set him free; nor failed to communicate his act to the caliph, who approved its clemency.

But Harûn, though profusely generous, was a man of business, and kept a book of all his expenditures; to which book the historian, Kondermir, having obtained access, found entries there of presents made to Giafar Al Barmeki, to the amount of thirty millions of dinars, or about three and a half millions of dollars, in one year.

The younger brothers, Mohammed and Mousa, fully sustained the intellectual reputation of the family of Barmek, in the discharge of the highest duties both of war and peace.

Beside these, the court was, at that time, adorned by a number of persons, eminent in talent, and of historical renown, such as Hamzah ibn Malek, lately governor of Egypt; Harethmah, governor of Africa; Ali ibn Eissa, commander of the army in the east; and others, upon whose merits and exploits a fuller narrative might dwell with interest.

In this procession there was another person, who, although deeply veiled, enlisted more curiosity than all the rest. It was the queen Zobeidah, celebrated over the east not more for beauty than devotion. A hundred maidens of her household, who knew all the Koran by heart, were constantly employed in its

« AnteriorContinuar »