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LETTER CXXIII. Usbek to Mollak Mahomet Ali, Keeper of the Three Sepulchres, at Com.
THE fastings of the Imaums, and the sackcloths of the Mollaks, what do they profit us? Twice hath the hand of God been heavy upon the children of the law: the sun is obscured with clouds, and seems to give light only to their defeats; their armies assemble, and they are dispersed like the dust. The empire of the Osmalins is shaken by two such blows as it never before received: A Christian Mufti †351 supports it with difficulty: the Grand Vizier of Germany is the Scourge of God, sent to chastise the followers of Omar: he carries every where the wrath of heaven, incensed by their rebellion and perfidiousness. Sacred spirit of the Imaums, night and day thou weepest over the children of the prophet, whom the detestable Omar hath misled: thy bowels are moved at the sight of their misfortunes: thou desirest their conversion, and not their destruction; thou wouldst willingly see them united under the banner of Hali, by the tears of the saints; and not dispersed among the mountains, and in the deserts, by the terror of the infidels.
Paris, the 1st of the moon Chalval,
1718.