Terrible Death of the Last of the Kaliphs

The kaliphs were successors of Mohammed, kaliph meaning successor. The first kaliph was Abu-beker, the father-in-law of Mohammed. This kaliph, when dying, offered the sceptre to Omar, who modestly observed that he had no occasion for the place. "But the place has occasion for you," replied Abu-beker, and died, praying that the God of Mohammed would ratify his choice. Omar commenced his reign A.D. 633; and nineteen kaliphs of the race of Omar, called Ommiades, ruled in succession until 656, after which began the dynasty of the Abbassides descended from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed. The second of this race, Al-Mansor, built the city of Bagdad, and made it the seat of the Saracen Empire in A.D. 762. Bagdad is situated on both sides of the river Tigris in Turkey, and was built partly from the ruins of the city of Babylon.

While the kaliphs lived there, it was the city of the East (having, in 873, two million inhabitants), and was the chief seat of Arabian civilization and learning. The later kaliphs, in the decline of the Saracen Empire, were not the warlike sovereigns their predecessors had been. They thought only of securing their ease and pleasure.

Mastassem, the last of the kaliphs, exceeded all others in ostentation and pride. When he appeared in public he usually wore a veil, the more effectually to attract the respect of the public, whom he considered unworthy to look at him.

On these occasions nothing could exceed the eagerness of the multitude to see him, shown by their crowding the streets, and hiring windows and balconies at enormous prices.

When the Tartars, under the leadership of Halaki, took Bagdad, A.D. 1258, they ordered, that, as a punishment for his pride, Mastassem should be confined in a leather bag, with his head exposed to the view of the same populace, and dragged through the same streets until he expired.

The opera called "The Kaliph of Bagdad" was written in 1799, by Boieldieu.