tranquillity, which scarcely met with any interruption till the latter
end of the fifth century, when the declining state of the Roman power
favoured another revolt, in which the Moors entirely shook off the
yoke of the Romans, assisted by the Vandals, under _Genseric_, who
overran Africa, and obtained possession of most of the maritime
towns. The Vandals were expelled in the seventh century by the
Saracens, under the Caliphs of Bagdad, a ferocious and warlike race of
Arabs, who, from conquest to conquest, had extended and removed their
seat of government from Medina to the city of Damascus; thence to
_Cufa_, and from the latter place to _Bagdad_; where they established
their Caliphate authority.

Flushed with their success, and burning with the hopes of plunder, in
the conquest of countries more fertile and richer, but less warlike
than their own, they extended their arms as far as the western
_Mauritania_. This country then remained for some time subject to the
Caliphs of Bagdad, and was governed by their lieutenants, a set of
cruel, arbitrary, and rapacious men.

The distance from the seat of government, and the oppressive manner in
which the Caliphs ruled, excited universal commotion in this part, and
considerably diminished their authority. Their generals, far from
suppressing, openly encouraged these tumults, and severally aspired to
the sovereignty. In the midst of these intestine broils, _Edris_, a
descendant of Mahomet, fled into Mauritania, to avoid the persecutions
of the Caliph _Abdallah_, who, to ensure the succession to his own
family, had caused the kinsmen of _Edris_ to be put to death. _Edris_
first settled in a mountain, between Fez and Mequinez, called
_Zaaron_, where he soon gained the confidence of the Moors. He
preached the doctrine of Mahomet, and, by degrees, succeeded in