youngest and least powerful of the emirs; but with the advice of
his father, whom he invited to Cairo, his genius obtained the
ascendant over his equals, and attached the army to his person
and interest. While Noureddin lived, these ambitious Curds were
the most humble of his slaves; and the indiscreet murmurs of the
divan were silenced by the prudent Ayub, who loudly protested
that at the command of the sultan he himself would lead his sons
in chains to the foot of the throne. "Such language," he added in
private, "was prudent and proper in an assembly of your rivals;
but we are now above fear and obedience; and the threats of
Noureddin shall not extort the tribute of a sugar-cane." His
seasonable death relieved them from the odious and doubtful
conflict: his son, a minor of eleven years of age, was left for a
while to the emirs of Damascus; and the new lord of Egypt was
decorated by the caliph with every title ^51 that could sanctify
his usurpation in the eyes of the people. Nor was Saladin long
content with the possession of Egypt; he despoiled the Christians
of Jerusalem, and the Atabeks of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir:
Mecca and Medina acknowledged him for their temporal protector:
his brother subdued the distant regions of Yemen, or the happy
Arabia; and at the hour of his death, his empire was spread from
the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian Ocean to
the mountains of Armenia. In the judgment of his character, the
reproaches of treason and ingratitude strike forcibly on our
minds, impressed, as they are, with the principle and experience
of law and loyalty. But his ambition may in some measure be
excused by the revolutions of Asia, ^52 which had erased every
notion of legitimate succession; by the recent example of the
Atabeks themselves; by his reverence to the son of his
benefactor; his humane and generous behavior to the collateral