Shortly afterward the dynasty of the Bouides, in Persia, rose to authority and power (925 A.D., Heg. 315). Khorasan was still inde pendent. The only change was that the had taken the place of the Soffar ides. In a part of Arabia the heretic Car mathians ruled; in Mesopotamia, the Hama darnites. In Egypt, which had just been recovered, Akschid, from a governor, was called to be a sovereign. From him descended the Akschidites. Kaher Billah, Mothadad's third son, merited his fate, on account of his malice and cruelty. The Turkish soldiers hav ing recovered their power drove him from the throne into exile (934 lox, Heg. 322), in which he perished five years afterward. lila& Billah, his brother, bore the dignity of an emir al omra of the captains with which the exercise of absolute power, in the name of the caliph, was united; and thus the caliph was more and more thrown into the background. The first who was invested with this dignity was Raik; but it was soon torn from him by the Turk Jakan, by force of arms, in the year 939 (Heg. 327). Jakan extended the power of the office to such a degree as to leave the caliph nothing, but the name of his temporal sway, and even assumed the right of determining the succession to the throne. Raik was indemnified by receiving Cufa, Bassora and Irak Arabi as an independent government.
The next caliph, Motaki Billah, Moktader's son, made an effort to regain his independence by the murder of Jakun; but he was soon com pelled by the Turkish soldiers to appoint Tozun, another of their countrymen, emir, who made this office hereditary. He formally de vised it to a certain Schirzad, but it soon came into the possession of the Persian royal house of the Bouides, whose aid the succeeding caliph, Mostaki Billah, solicited against the tyranny of Schirzad. The first Bouide emir, Moezeddulat, left it as an inheritance to his posterity. Not. the caliph but the emir now reigned in Bagdad, though over only a small In every remote province there were independent princes.
To continue the catalogue of the names of those who were henceforward caliphs would be superfluous, for these Mussulman popes had not by any means the power of the Christian. It would be too tedious to trace the branches into which the history of the caliphate is now divided; but we must briefly show the great changes which the different states and their dynasties have undergone, and which gave rise to the dominion of the Ottoman Porte.
During the minority of the Akschidite Ali, the Fatimite Morz Ledinillah, at that time caliph in Tunis, subjugated Egypt in 969 (Heg. 358), and founded Cairo, which he made the seat of his caliphate. There were, conse quently, at this time three caliphs,— at Bagdad, Cairo and Cordova,— each of which declared the others heretics. But the Fatimites as well as the Abbassides fell under the power of their viziers, and, like them, the Omrniades in Cor dova were deprived of all power by the di vision of Spain into many small sovereignties, till they were entirely subverted by the Mora bethun.
Ilkan, King of Turkestan, having conquered Khorasan, and overthrown the Samanides, was expelled again by Mahmud, Prince of Gazna, who founded there the dominion of the Gazne vides, in 998 (Heg. 388), who were soon, how ever, overthrown in turn by the Seljuk Turks under Togrul Beg, in 1030 (Heg. 421). This leader conquered also Charasm, Georgia and the Persian Irak. Called to the assistance of
the Caliph Kajem Bemeillah, at Bagdad, against the tyranny of the Bouide emirs he proceeded to Bagdad, and became emir himself in 1055 (Heg. 448), by which means the dominion of the Turks was firmly established over all the Mussulmans. To his nephew, Alp ArsIan (who defeated and took prisoner the Greek Emperor Romanus Diogenes), he left this dignity, with so great power that these Turkish emirs al omra were frequently called the Sultans of Bagdad. Turkish princes, who aspired to be sovereigns in the other provinces, were at first satisfied with the title of atabek (father, teacher), such as the atabeks of Irak and Syria, of Azerbijan, Farsistan (Persia) and Laristan. It was the atabeks of Syria and Irak with whom the Crusaders had principally to con tend. The first was called Omadeddin Zenghi; by the Franks, Sanguin. They were afterward termed sultans. The Caliph of Bagdad was recognized by all as the spiritual sovereign of all Mussulmans: his temporal authority did not extend beyond the walls of Bagdad. Noured din, Zenghi's son, being requested by the Fati mite caliph Adhed to protect Bagdad against his vizier, sent to Cairo, in succession, Shirkuh and Salaheddin or Saladin; but the latter over threw the Fatimites (as schismatic anti-popes), and usurped the authority of Sultan of Egypt in 1170 (Heg. 556) with which he united Syria, after Noureddin's death. This is the great Salaheddin (Saladin), the formidable enemy of the Christians, the conqueror of Jerusalem. The dynasty which commenced with him was called, from his father, Ayoub, the Ayoubite. They reigned over Egypt till expelled by the Mamelukes in 1250. The Seljuk sultans of Irak were overthrown in 1194 (Heg. 590) by the Charasmians; and as those of Khorasan were extinct, there remained of the Seljuk dominions nothing but the empire of Iconium or Roum, in Asia Minor, from which the present Turkish empire derives its origin. See OTTOMAN EMPIRE. • The Charasmian Sultans extended their con quests far into Asia, until their territories were invaded by the Tartars under Genghis Khan, in 1220 (Heg. 617). They were finally totally destroyed by his son Octai. Bagdad, also, the remains of the possessions of the caliphs, be came the easy prey of a Mongol horde under Holagu, in 1258 (Heg. 636), by the treachery of the vizier Al Kami, and a slave, Arm-am, under the 56th caliph Motazem. The nephew of the cruelly murdered Motazem fled to Egypt, where he continued to be called caliph under the protection of the Mamelukes, , and be queathed the Mohammedan popedom to his posterity. When the Turks conquered Egypt, in 1517, the last of these nominal caliphs was carried to Constantinople and died, after re turning to Egypt in 1538. The Turkish Sultans subsequently assumed the title of caliph, and have retained it to the present day, with the claim of spiritual supremacy over all Mussul mans, though this claim is little regarded out side his own dominions, and strongly, disputed by the Persians. Consult Muir, Sir William,