They were no longer the same invincible
and irresistible warriors who had poured forth from the shores of the
Caspian over the fairest regions of the East; and although they still
contrived to preserve order in their dominions, they witnessed with
ill-concealed apprehension the rising power of the Kings of Karasme,
whose conquests daily made their territories more contiguous.
With regard to the Hebrew people, it should be known that, after the
destruction of Jerusalem, the Eastern Jews, while they acknowledged
the supremacy of their conquerors, gathered themselves together for all
purposes of jurisdiction, under the control of a native ruler, a reputed
descendant of David, whom they dignified with the title of 'The Prince
of the Captivity.' If we are to credit the enthusiastic annalists of
this imaginative people, there were periods of prosperity when the
Princes of the Captivity assumed scarcely less state and enjoyed
scarcely less power than the ancient Kings of Judah themselves. Certain
it is that their power increased always in an exact proportion to the
weakness of the Caliphate, and, without doubt, in some of the most
distracted periods of the Arabian rule, the Hebrew Princes rose into
some degree of local and temporary importance.
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