stirrup and smoothed his garments, he was affable and patient
with the meanest of his servants. So boundless was his
liberality, that he distributed twelve thousand horses at the
siege of Acre; and, at the time of his death, no more than
forty-seven drams of silver and one piece of gold coin were found
in the treasury; yet, in a martial reign, the tributes were
diminished, and the wealthy citizens enjoyed, without fear or
danger, the fruits of their industry. Egypt, Syria, and Arabia,
were adorned by the royal foundations of hospitals, colleges, and
mosques; and Cairo was fortified with a wall and citadel; but his
works were consecrated to public use: ^55 nor did the sultan
indulge himself in a garden or palace of private luxury. In a
fanatic age, himself a fanatic, the genuine virtues of Saladin
commanded the esteem of the Christians; the emperor of Germany
gloried in his friendship; ^56 the Greek emperor solicited his
alliance; ^57 and the conquest of Jerusalem diffused, and perhaps
magnified, his fame both in the East and West.

[Footnote 46: For the Curds, see De Guignes, tom. ii. p. 416,
417, the Index Geographicus of Schultens and Tavernier, Voyages,
p. i. p. 308, 309. The Ayoubites descended from the tribe of the
Rawadiaei, one of the noblest; but as they were infected with the
heresy of the Metempsychosis, the orthodox sultans insinuated
that their descent was only on the mother's side, and that their
ancestor was a stranger who settled among the Curds.]
[Footnote 47: See the ivth book of the Anabasis of Xenophon. The
ten thousand suffered more from the arrows of the free
Carduchians, than from the splendid weakness of the great king.]

[Footnote 48: We are indebted to the professor Schultens (Lugd.