24.  The empire of the Caliphs soon declined from its original splendour, and its ruin finally proceeded from the same cause that produced the downfall of Rome, the employment of barbarian mercenaries.  The soldiers levied by the Caliphs, were selected from the Tartar tribes that had embraced the religion of Mohammed; they were called Turcomans or Turks, from Turkistan, the proper name of western Tartary.  These brave, but ferocious warriors, soon wrested the sceptre from the feeble caliphs, and completed the conquest of western Asia.  The crusades for a time delayed the fate of the Greek empire, but finally the Turks crossed the Hellespont, and having taken Constantinople, (A.D. 1453,) established their cruel despotism over the fairest portion of Europe.

Questions for Examination.

1.  How were the barbarians first brought into the Roman empire?

2.  When did the first great movement of the Northern tribes take place?

3.  Where did the Vandals first settle?

4.  From whence did the Alans come?

5.  In what countries did the Vandals establish their power?

6.  Where did we first find the Goths settled?

7.  To what countries did the Goths remove?

8.  How long did the kingdom of the Visigoths continue?

9.  What branch of the Goths settled in Germany?

10.  From what did the Franks derive their name?

11.  Which was the ancient, and which the modern France?

12.  What is the history of the Allemanni?

13.  In what countries did the Saxons and Angles settle?

14.  Whence did the Huns come?

15.  How far did their ravages extend?

16.  What territory did the Burgundians seize?

17.  How did the alliance between the Lombards and Avars injure the former people?

18.  Where was the kingdom of the Lombards established?

19.  What is told respecting the Slavi?

20.  Who were the Normans?

21.  What is the history of the Bulgarians?

22.  What great conquests were achieved by the Arabs under Mohammed and his successors?

23.  By whom was the Saracenic career of victory checked?

24.  How was the empire of the Turks established?

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] See Taylor’s History of France.

[2] Here also the heroic Black Prince took John, king of France, prisoner.  See Taylor’s France.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.

  Waft, waft, ye winds, his story,
    And you, ye oceans, roll,
  Till, like a sea of glory,
    It spreads from pole to pole.—­Heber.