John H. Haaren

“ Though you are her enemy, she admires you as a soldier.”
These flattering words were pleasing to Harun. He walked to and fro in front of his tent and then spoke again to the ambassadors.
“Tell the Empress,” he said, “that I will spare Constantinople if she will pay me seventy thousand pieces of gold as a yearly tribute. If the tribute is regularly paid Constantinople shall not be harmed by any Moslem force.”
The Empress had to agree to these terms. She paid the first year’s tribute; and soon the great Moslem army set out on its homeward march. ”

“ Harun, consequently, advanced into the Roman province of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, with an army of 15,000 men. Nicepherus marched against him with 125,000 men. In the battle which followed the emperor was wounded, and 40,000 of his men were killed.
After this defeat Nicephorus again promised payment of the tribute, but again failed to keep his promise.
Harun now vowed that he would kill the emperor if he should ever lay hands upon him. But as he was getting ready to march once more into the Roman provinces a revolt broke out in one of the cities of his own kingdom ”

“ In those times Bagdad in the east and the Mohammedan cities of Spain in the west were famed for their schools and learned men. Arabian teachers first introduced into Western Europe both algebra and the figures which we use in arithmetic. ”