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LNCS 9730

Image Analysis
and Recognition
13th International Conference, ICIAR 2016
in Memory of Mohamed Kamel
Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, July 13–15, 2016, Proceedings

123
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9730
Commenced Publication in 1973
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Josef Kittler
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Jon M. Kleinberg
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Demetri Terzopoulos
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7412
Aurélio Campilho Fakhri Karray (Eds.)
•

Image Analysis
and Recognition
13th International Conference, ICIAR 2016
in Memory of Mohamed Kamel
Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, July 13–15, 2016
Proceedings

123
Editors
Aurélio Campilho Fakhri Karray
University of Porto University of Waterloo
Porto Waterloo, ON
Portugal Canada

ISSN 0302-9743 ISSN 1611-3349 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Computer Science
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DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41501-7

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 Preface

The 2016 International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition (ICIAR 2016)
along with these proceedings are dedicated to the memory of the founding chair of this
conference, the late Mohamed Kamel, University Research Chair Professor at the
University of Waterloo, Canada. Mohamed Kamel passed away peacefully on
December 4, 2015. Mohamed was a friend, a research partner, and an enthusiast of this
series of conferences, held periodically in Portugal and Canada, and which ran its 13th
edition this year. Mohamed’s passing was a great loss to our research community, and
during this conference we organized in his honor, a special session dedicated to his
memory and entitled: “Advances in Data Analytics and Pattern Recognition with
Applications.”
This series of annual conferences offers an opportunity for the participants to
interact and present their latest research in theory, methodology, and applications of
image analysis and recognition. ICIAR 2016, the International Conference on Image
Analysis and Recognition, was held in Póvoa do Varzim, Portugal, July 13–15, 2016.
ICIAR is organized by AIMI—Association for Image and Machine Intelligence—a
not-for-profit organization registered in Ontario, Canada.
We received a total of 167 papers, 144 regular and 23 short papers, from 38
countries. Before the review process all the papers were checked for similarity using a
comparison database of scholarly work. The review process was carried out by
members of the Program Committee alongside other expert reviewers in the field of the
conference. Each paper was reviewed by at least two reviewers, and checked by the
conference chairs. A total of 89 papers (79 regular and 10 short) were finally accepted
and appear in these proceedings. We would like to express our gratitude to the authors
for their contribution, and we kindly thank the reviewers for the careful evaluation and
feedback provided to the authors. It is this collective effort that resulted in the strong
conference program and high-quality proceedings we are producing.
We were very pleased to include in our program, four outstanding keynote talks:
“Computational Medicine: Towards Integrated Management of Cerebral Aneurysms”
by Alexandro Frangi, University of Sheffield, UK; “Face Analysis for Intelligent
Human–Computer Interaction” by Matti Pietikäinen, University of Oulu, Finland;
“Novel Formulations of Large-Scale Image Retrieval” by Jiri Matas, Czech Technical
University, Prague, Czech Republic; and “Sequence-Based Estimation of Multinomial
Random Variables” by John Oommen, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. We
would like to express our gratitude to the keynote speakers for accepting our invitation
to share their vision and recent advances in their areas of expertise.
We would like to thank warmly Khaled Hammouda, the webmaster of the con-
ference, for maintaining the website, interacting with the authors, and preparing the
proceedings. We are also grateful to Springer’s editorial staff, for supporting this
publication in the LNCS series. We also would like to acknowledge the professional
VI Preface

service of Viagens Abreu in taking care of the registration process and the special
events of the conference.
Finally, we were very pleased to welcome all the participants to ICIAR 2016. For
those who were not able to attend, we hope this publication provides a good insight
into the research work presented at the conference, and we look forward to meeting you
at the next ICIAR conference.

July 2016 Aurélio Campilho

Fakhri Karray
 Organization

General Chairs

Aurélio Campilho
University of Porto, Portugal
[email protected]

Fakhri Karray
University of Waterloo, Canada
[email protected]

Conference Secretariat

Viagens Abreu SA
Porto, Portugal
[email protected]

Webmaster

Khaled Hammouda
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
[email protected]

Supported by

AIMI – Association for Image and Machine Intelligence

Center for Biomedical Engineering Research

INESC TEC - INESC Technology and Science
Portugal
VIII Organization

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Faculty of Engineering
University of Porto
Portugal

CPAMI – Centre for Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence

University of Waterloo
Canada

Advisory Committee
M. Ahmadi University of Windsor, Canada
P. Bhattacharya Concordia University, Canada
T.D. Bui Concordia University, Canada
M. Cheriet University of Quebec, Canada
E. Dubois University of Ottawa, Canada
Z. Duric George Mason University, USA
G. Granlund Linköping University, Sweden
L. Guan Ryerson University, Canada
M. Haindl Institute of Information Theory and Automation,
Czech Republic
E. Hancock The University of York, UK
J. Kovacevic Carnegie Mellon University, USA
M. Kunt Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
K.N. Plataniotis University of Toronto, Canada
A. Sanfeliu Technical University of Catalonia, Spain
M. Shah University of Central Florida, USA
M. Sid-Ahmed University of Windsor, Canada
C.Y. Suen Concordia University, Canada
A.N. Venetsanopoulos University of Toronto, Canada
M. Viergever University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
B. Vijayakumar Carnegie Mellon University, USA
R. Ward University of British Columbia, Canada
D. Zhang The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong,
SAR China
 Organization IX

Program Committee
A. Abate University of Salerno, Italy
J. Alba-Castro University of Vigo, Spain
E. Alegre University of Leon, Spain
L. Alexandre University of Beira Interior, Portugal
H. Araújo University of Coimbra, Portugal
E. Balaguer-Ballester Bournmouth University, UK
T. Barata Center for Earth and Space Research of University
of Coimbra - CITEUC, Portugal
J. Barbosa University of Porto, Portugal
J. Barron University of Western Ontario, Canada
J. Batista University of Coimbra, Portugal
A. Bharath Imperial College, London, UK
J. Bioucas University of Lisbon, Portugal
G. Bonnet-Loosli Clermont Université, LIMOS, France
F. Camastra University of Naples Parthenope, Italy
J. Cardoso INESC TEC and University of Porto, Portugal
G. Carneiro University of Adelaide, Australia
S. Choppin Sheffield Hallam University, UK
M. Coimbra University of Porto, Portugal
M. Correia University of Porto, Portugal
S. Cruces University of Seville, Spain
A. Dawoud University of Southern Mississippi, USA
J. Debayle Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint-Etienne
(ENSM-SE), France
J. Dias University of Coimbra, Portugal
G. Doretto West Virginia University, USA
F. Dornaika University of the Basque Country, Spain
M. El-Sakka University of Western Ontario, Canada
J. Fernandez CNB-CSIC, Spain
R. Fisher University of Edinburgh, UK
G. Freeman University of Waterloo, Canada
D. Frejlichowski West Pomeranian University of Technology, Poland
G. Giacinto University of Cagliari, Italy
G. Grossi The University of Milan, Italy
L. Guan Ryerson University, Canada
M. Haindl Institute of Information Theory and Automation,
Czech Republic
L. Heutte Université de Rouen, France
C. Hong The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong,
SAR China
L. Igual University of Barcelona, Spain
A. Khamis CPAMI, University of Waterloo, Canada
Y. Kita National Institute AIST, Japan
A. Kong Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
X Organization

M. Koskela University of Helsinki, Finland

A. Kuijper TU Darmstadt and Fraunhofer IGD, Germany
J. Liang Simon Fraser University, Canada
J. Lorenzo-Ginori Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Cuba
R. Lukac Foveon, Inc., USA
A. Marçal University of Porto, Portugal
F. Marcelloni University of Pisa, Italy
J. Marques University of Lisbon, Portugal
A. Maykol Pinto INESC-TEC, Portugal
M. Melkemi Université de Haute Alsace, France
A. Mendonça University of Porto, Portugal
J. Meunier University of Montreal, Canada
M. Mignotte University of Montreal, Canada
A. Monteiro University of Porto, Portugal
M. Nappi University of Salerno, Italy
H. Ogul Baskent University, Turkey
M. Oliveira INESC-TEC, Portugal
V. Palazon-Gonzalez Universitat Jaume I, Spain
M. Penedo University of Coruña, Spain
N. Petkov University of Groningen, The Netherlands
E. Petrakis Technical University of Crete, Greece
P. Pina University of Lisbon, Portugal
A. Pinheiro University of Beira Interior, Portugal
A. Pinho University of Aveiro, Portugal
J. Pinto University of Lisbon, Portugal
L. Prevost University of French West Indies, France
H. Proença University of Beira Interior, Portugal
P. Radeva Universitat de Barcelona, CVC, Spain
S. Rockel University of Hamburg, Germany
S. Rota Bulò Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy
K. Roy North Carolina A&T State University, USA
A. Ruano University of Algarve, Portugal
M. Ruano University of Algarve, Portugal
J. Sánchez University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
B. Santos University of Aveiro, Portugal
A. Sappa Computer Vision Center, Spain
M. Scarpiniti Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
G. Schaefer Loughborough University, UK
P. Scheunders University of Antwerp, Belgium
J. Sequeira Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Luminy, France
J. Silva University of Porto, Portugal
J. Sousa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
S. Sural Indian Institute of Technology, India
A. Taboada-Crispi Universidad Central “Marta Abreu” de Las Villas, Cuba
P. Tahoces University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
X. Tan Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
 Organization XI

J. Tavares University of Porto, Portugal

L. Teixeira University of Porto, Portugal
R. Torres University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
A. Torsello Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy
A. Uhl University of Salzburg, Austria
C. Veiga IBIV - Sergas, Spain
M. Vento Università di Salerno, Italy
Y. Voisin Université de Bourgogne, France
E. Vrscay University of Waterloo, Canada
Z. Wang University of Waterloo, Canada
J. Weber Université de Lorraine, France
M. Wirth University of Guelph, Canada
J. Wu University of Windsor, Canada
X. Xie Swansea University, UK
J. Xue University College London, UK
P. Yan Philips Research, USA
P. Zemcik Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
Q. Zhang Waseda University, Japan
H. Zhou Queen’s University Belfast, UK
R. Zwiggelaar Aberystwyth University, UK

Additional Reviewers
R. Abdelmoula University of Waterloo, Canada
R. Araujo University of Waterloo, Canada
M. Ashraf InnoVision Systems, Egypt
J. Avelino Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal
A. Barkah University of Waterloo, Canada
S. Bedawi University of Waterloo, Canada
E. Bhullar University of Saskatchewan, Canada
M. Camplani University of Bristol, UK
C. Caridade Polytechnical Institute of Coimbra, Portugal
C. Chen West Virginia University, USA
M. Colic North American University, USA
A. Cunha University of Trás-os-Montes-e-Alto-Douro, Portugal
J. Cunha University of Porto, Portugal
B. Dashtbozorg Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
A. Dehban Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal
A. Farahat Hitachi America, Ltd., USA
L. Fernandez University of León, Spain
J. Ferreira University of Porto, Portugal
P. Ferreira INESC TEC, Portugal
E. Fidalgo University of Leon, Spain
M. Gangeh University of Toronto, Canada
V. Gonzalez The University of Edinburgh, UK
M. Hortas University of Coruña, Spain
XII Organization

N. Lori University of Coimbra, Portugal

Y. Miao University of Waterloo, Canada
F. Monteiro Polytechnical Institute of Bragança, Portugal
J. Monteiro INESC TEC, Portugal
P. Moreno University of Lisbon, Portugal
J. Novo University of Coruña, Spain
A. Nurhudatiana Binus University International, Indonesia
H. Oliveira INESC TEC, Portugal
A. Pereira INESC TEC, Portugal
E. Pereira INESC TEC, Portugal
L. Reis University of Minho, Portugal
B. Remeseiro INESC TEC, Portugal
R. Rocha Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal
J. Rodrigues University of Algarve, Portugal
N. Rodriguez University of Coruña, Spain
J. Rouco INESC TEC, Portugal
P. Trigueiros Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal
T. Tuna University of Houston, USA
 Contents

Advances in Data Analytics and Pattern Recognition with Applications

Adaptation Approaches in Unsupervised Learning: A Survey

of the State-of-the-Art and Future Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
JunHong Wang, YunQian Miao, Alaa Khamis, Fakhri Karray,
and Jiye Liang

Semi-supervised Dictionary Learning Based on Hilbert-Schmidt

Independence Criterion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Mehrdad J. Gangeh, Safaa M.A. Bedawi, Ali Ghodsi,
and Fakhri Karray

Transferring and Compressing Convolutional Neural Networks

for Face Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Jakob Grundström, Jiandan Chen, Martin Georg Ljungqvist,
and Kalle Åström

Efficient Melanoma Detection Using Texture-Based RSurf Features . . . . . . . 30

Tomáš Majtner, Sule Yildirim-Yayilgan, and Jon Yngve Hardeberg

High-Frequency Spectral Energy Map Estimation Based Gait Analysis

System Using a Depth Camera for Pathology Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Didier Ndayikengurukiye and Max Mignotte

Combining Low-Level Features of Offline Questionnaires

for Handwriting Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Dirk Siegmund, Tina Ebert, and Naser Damer

Person Profiling Using Image and Facial Attributes Analyses on

Unconstrained Images Retrieved from Online Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Elisabeth Wetzinger, Michael Atanasov, and Martin Kampel

Palm Print Identification and Verification Using a Genetic-Based

Feature Extraction Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Joseph Shelton, John Jenkins, and Kaushik Roy

PCA-Based Face Recognition: Similarity Measures and Number

of Eigenvectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Sushma Niket Borade and Ratnadeep R. Deshmukh
XIV Contents

Image Enhancement and Restoration

Sinogram Restoration Using Confidence Maps to Reduce Metal Artifact

in Computed Tomography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Louis Frédérique, Benoit Recur, Sylvain Genot, Jean-Philippe Domenger,
and Pascal Desbarats

Enhancement of a Turbulent Degraded Frame Using 2D-DTW Averaging . . . 90

Rishaad Abdoola and Barend van Wyk

Denoising Multi-view Images Using Non-local Means with Different

Similarity Measures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Monagi H. Alkinani and Mahmoud R. El-Sakka

Image Denoising Using Euler-Lagrange Equations for Function-Valued

Mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Daniel Otero, Davide La Torre, and Edward R. Vrscay

Runtime Performance Enhancement of a Superpixel Based Saliency

Detection Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Qazi Aitezaz Ahmed and Mahmood Akhtar

Total Variation Minimization for Measure-Valued Images with Diffusion

Spectrum Imaging as Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Davide La Torre, Franklin Mendivil, Oleg Michailovich,
and Edward R. Vrscay

Image Quality Assessment

Quality Assessment of Spectral Reproductions: The Camera’s Perspective . . . 141

Steven Le Moan

An Image Database for Design and Evaluation of Visual Quality Metrics

in Synthetic Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Christopher Haccius and Thorsten Herfet

Perceptual Comparison of Multi-exposure High Dynamic Range

and Single-Shot Camera RAW Photographs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Tomasz Sergej and Radosław Mantiuk

Objective Image Quality Measures of Degradation in Compressed Natural

Images and their Comparison with Subjective Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Alison K. Cheeseman, Ilona A. Kowalik-Urbaniak,
and Edward R. Vrscay
 Contents XV

Image Segmentation

Human Detection Based on Infrared Images in Forestry Environments. . . . . . 175

Ahmad Ostovar, Thomas Hellström, and Ola Ringdahl

Cell Segmentation Using Level Set Methods with a New Variance Term . . . . 183
Zuzana Bílková, Jindřich Soukup, and Václav Kučera

Video Object Segmentation Based on Superpixel Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Mohamed A. Abdelwahab, Moataz M. Abdelwahab, Hideaki Uchiyama,
Atsushi Shimada, and Rin-ichiro Taniguchi

Interactive 3D Segmentation of Lymphatic Valves in Confocal

Microscopic Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Jonathan-Lee Jones and Xianghua Xie

Automatic Nonlinear Filtering and Segmentation for Breast

Ultrasound Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Mohamed Elawady, Ibrahim Sadek, Abd El Rahman Shabayek,
Gerard Pons, and Sergi Ganau

Pattern Analysis and Recognition

Phenotypic Integrated Framework for Classification of ADHD Using fMRI . . 217

Atif Riaz, Eduardo Alonso, and Greg Slabaugh

Directional Local Binary Pattern for Texture Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Abuobayda M. Shabat and Jules-Raymond Tapamo

Kernel Likelihood Estimation for Superpixel Image Parsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Hasan F. Ates, Sercan Sunetci, and Kenan E. Ak

Multinomial Sequence Based Estimation Using Contiguous Subsequences

of Length Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
B. John Oommen and Sang-Woon Kim

Feature Extraction

Rotation Tolerant Hand Pose Recognition Using Aggregation

of Gradient Orientations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Pekka Sangi, Matti Matilainen, and Olli Silvén

Extracting Lineage Information from Hand-Drawn Ancient Maps . . . . . . . . . 268

Ehab Essa, Xianghua Xie, Richard Turner, Matthew Stevens,
and Daniel Power
XVI Contents

Evaluation of Stochastic Gradient Descent Methods for Nonlinear Mapping

of Hyperspectral Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Evgeny Myasnikov

Automatic Selection of the Optimal Local Feature Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Bruno Ferrarini, Shoaib Ehsan, Naveed Ur Rehman, Ales̆ Leonardis,
and Klaus D. McDonald-Maier

Multiple Object Scene Description for the Visually Impaired

Using Pre-trained Convolutional Neural Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Haikel Alhichri, Bilel Bin Jdira, Yacoub bazi, and Naif Alajlan

Detection and Recognition

Effective Comparison Features for Pedestrian Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Kang-Kook Kong, Jong-Woo Lee, and Ki-Sang Hong

Counting People in Crowded Scenes via Detection and Regression Fusion . . . 309
Cemil Zalluhoglu and Nazli Ikizler-Cinbis

Multi-graph Based Salient Object Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Idir Filali, Mohand Said Allili, and Nadjia Benblidia

Analysis of Temporal Coherence in Videos for Action Recognition. . . . . . . . 325

Adel Saleh, Mohamed Abdel-Nasser, Farhan Akram,
Miguel Angel Garcia, and Domenec Puig

Effectiveness of Camouflage Make-Up Patterns Against Face

Detection Algorithms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Vojtěch Frič

A Comparative Study of Vision-Based Traffic Signs Recognition Methods. . . 341

Nadra Ben Romdhane, Hazar Mliki, Rabii El Beji,
and Mohamed Hammami

A Copy-Move Detection Algorithm Using Binary Gradient Contours . . . . . . 349

Andrey Kuznetsov and Vladislav Myasnikov

Object Detection and Localization Using Deep Convolutional Networks

with Softmax Activation and Multi-class Log Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
AbdulWahab Kabani and Mahmoud R. El-Sakka

Clustering-Based Abnormal Event Detection: Experimental Comparison

for Similarity Measures’ Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Najla Bouarada Ghrab, Emna Fendri, and Mohamed Hammami
 Contents XVII

Matching

Improved DSP Matching with RPCA for Dense Correspondences . . . . . . . . . 377

Fanhuai Shi and Yanli Zhang

An Approach to Improve Accuracy of Photo–to–Sketch Matching. . . . . . . . . 385

Georgy Kukharev, Yuri Matveev, and Paweł Forczmański

Motion and Tracking

Bio-inspired Boosting for Moving Objects Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Isabel Martins, Pedro Carvalho, Luís Corte-Real,
and José Luis Alba-Castro

A Lightweight Face Tracking System for Video Surveillance . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Andrei Oleinik

Single Droplet Tracking in Jet Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Gokhan Alcan, Morteza Ghorbani, Ali Kosar, and Mustafa Unel

Video Based Group Tracking and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Américo Pereira, Alexandra Familiar, Bruno Moreira, Teresa Terroso,
Pedro Carvalho, and Luís Côrte-Real

3D Computer Vision

Calibration of Shared Flat Refractive Stereo Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Tim Dolereit and Uwe Freiherr von Lukas

3D Structured Light Scanner on the Smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Tomislav Pribanić, Tomislav Petković, Matea Đonlić, Vincent Angladon,
and Simone Gasparini

Stereo and Active-Sensor Data Fusion for Improved Stereo Block Matching. . . 451
Stefan-Daniel Suvei, Leon Bodenhagen, Lilita Kiforenko,
Peter Christiansen, Rasmus N. Jørgensen, Anders G. Buch,
and Norbert Krüger

Dense Lightfield Disparity Estimation Using Total Variation Regularization . . . 462

Nuno Barroso Monteiro, João Pedro Barreto, and José Gaspar

Target Position and Speed Estimation Using LiDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Enes Dayangac, Florian Baumann, Josep Aulinas, and Matthias Zobel

RGB-D Camera Applications

Combining 3D Shape and Color for 3D Object Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Susana Brandão, João P. Costeira, and Manuela Veloso
XVIII Contents

Privacy-Preserving Fall Detection in Healthcare Using Shape and Motion

Features from Low-Resolution RGB-D Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Irene Yu-Hua Gu, Durga Priya Kumar, and Yixiao Yun

Visual Perception in Robotics

Proprioceptive Visual Tracking of a Humanoid Robot Head Motion . . . . . . . 503

João Peixoto, Vitor Santos, and Filipe Silva

A Hybrid Top-Down Bottom-Up Approach for the Detection of Cuboid

Shaped Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Rafael Arrais, Miguel Oliveira, César Toscano, and Germano Veiga

The Impact of Convergence Cameras in a Stereoscopic System for AUVs . . . 521

João Aguiar, Andry Maykol Pinto, Nuno A. Cruz, and Anibal C. Matos

Biometrics

Gender Recognition from Face Images Using a Fusion of SVM Classifiers . . . 533
George Azzopardi, Antonio Greco, and Mario Vento

Kinship Verification from Faces via Similarity Metric Based Convolutional

Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Lei Li, Xiaoyi Feng, Xiaoting Wu, Zhaoqiang Xia, and Abdenour Hadid

Combination of Topological and Local Shape Features for Writer’s Gender,

Handedness and Age Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Nesrine Bouadjenek, Hassiba Nemmour, and Youcef Chibani

Hybrid Off-Line Handwritten Signature Verification Based on Artificial

Immune Systems and Support Vector Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Yasmine Serdouk, Hassiba Nemmour, and Youcef Chibani

Selection of User-Dependent Cohorts Using Bezier Curve

for Person Identification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Jogendra Garain, Ravi Kant Kumar, Dakshina Ranjan Kisku,
and Goutam Sanyal

Biomedical Imaging

Bag of Visual Words Approach for Bleeding Detection in Wireless Capsule

Endoscopy Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Indu Joshi, Sunil Kumar, and Isabel N. Figueiredo

Central Medialness Adaptive Strategy for 3D Lung Nodule Segmentation

in Thoracic CT Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Luis Gonçalves, Jorge Novo, and Aurélio Campilho
 Contents XIX

A Self-learning Tumor Segmentation Method on DCE-MRI Images . . . . . . . 591

Szabolcs Urbán, László Ruskó, and Antal Nagy

Morphological Separation of Clustered Nuclei in Histological Images . . . . . . 599

Shereen Fouad, Gabriel Landini, David Randell, and Antony Galton

Fitting of Breast Data Using Free Form Deformation Technique . . . . . . . . . . 608

Hooshiar Zolfagharnasab, Jaime S. Cardoso, and Hélder P. Oliveira

Domain Adaptive Classification for Compensating Variability in

Histopathological Whole Slide Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616
Michael Gadermayr, Martin Strauch, Barbara Mara Klinkhammer,
Sonja Djudjaj, Peter Boor, and Dorit Merhof

Comparison of Flow Cytometry and Image-Based Screening for Cell

Cycle Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623
Damian J. Matuszewski, Ida-Maria Sintorn, Jordi Carreras Puigvert,
and Carolina Wählby

Brain Imaging

Improving QuickBundles to Extract Anatomically Coherent White Matter

Fiber-Bundles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Francesco Cauteruccio, Claudio Stamile, Giorgio Terracina,
Domenico Ursino, and Dominique Sappey-Marinier

Automatic Rating of Perivascular Spaces in Brain MRI Using Bag

of Visual Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
Víctor González-Castro, María del C. Valdés Hernández,
Paul A. Armitage, and Joanna M. Wardlaw

White Matter Fiber-Bundle Analysis Using Non-negative Tensor

Factorization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650
Claudio Stamile, François Cotton, Frederik Maes,
Dominique Sappey-Marinier, and Sabine Van Huffel

Cardiovascular Image Analysis

A Flexible 2D-3D Parametric Image Registration Algorithm

for Cardiac MRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661
L.W. Lorraine Ma and Mehran Ebrahimi

Sparse-View CT Reconstruction Using Curvelet and TV-Based

Regularization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Ali Pour Yazdanpanah and Emma E. Regentova
XX Contents

Estimating Ejection Fraction and Left Ventricle Volume Using Deep

Convolutional Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
AbdulWahab Kabani and Mahmoud R. El-Sakka

A Hybrid Model for Extracting the Aortic Valve in 3D Computerized

Tomography and Its Application to Calculate a New Calcium Score Index. . . 687
Laura Torío, César Veiga, María Fernández, Victor Jiménez,
Emilio Paredes, Pablo Pazos, Francisco Calvo, and Andrés Íñiguez

Image Analysis in Ophthalmology

Automatic Optic Disc and Fovea Detection in Retinal Images

Using Super-Elliptical Convergence Index Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Behdad Dashtbozorg, Jiong Zhang, Fan Huang,
and Bart M. ter Haar Romeny

Age-Related Macular Degeneration Detection and Stage Classification

Using Choroidal OCT Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Jingjing Deng, Xianghua Xie, Louise Terry, Ashley Wood, Nick White,
Tom H. Margrain, and Rachel V. North

3D Retinal Vessel Tree Segmentation and Reconstruction with OCT Images . . . . 716
Joaquim de Moura, Jorge Novo, Marcos Ortega, and Pablo Charlón

Segmentation of Retinal Blood Vessels Based on Ultimate

Elongation Opening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
Wonder A.L. Alves, Charles F. Gobber, Sidnei A. Araújo,
and Ronaldo F. Hashimoto

Document Analysis

ISauvola: Improved Sauvola’s Algorithm for Document Image Binarization . . . 737

Zineb Hadjadj, Abdelkrim Meziane, Yazid Cherfa, Mohamed Cheriet,
and Insaf Setitra

Recognition of Handwritten Arabic Words with Dropout Applied

in MDLSTM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Rania Maalej, Najiba Tagougui, and Monji Kherallah

Direct Unsupervised Text Line Extraction from Colored Historical

Manuscript Images Using DCT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Asim Baig, Somaya Al-Maadeed, Ahmed Bouridane,
and Mohamed Cheriet

Applications

Time Series Analysis of Garment Distributions via Street Webcam . . . . . . . . 765

Sen Jia, Thomas Lansdall-Welfare, and Nello Cristianini
 Contents XXI

Automatic System for Zebrafish Counting in Fish Facility Tanks . . . . . . . . . 774

Francisco J. Silvério, Ana C. Certal, Carlos Mão de Ferro,
Joana F. Monteiro, José Almeida Cruz, Ricardo Ribeiro,
and João Nuno Silva

A Lightweight Mobile System for Crop Disease Diagnosis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Punnarai Siricharoen, Bryan Scotney, Philip Morrow, and Gerard Parr

Automatic Cattle Identification Using Graph Matching Based on Local

Invariant Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
Fernando C. Monteiro

An Intelligent Vision-Based System Applied to Visual Quality Inspection

of Beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801
P.A. Belan, S.A. Araújo, and W.A.L. Alves

Obituaries

Remembering the ICIAR founding Chair: Mohamed Kamel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

Aurelio Campilho

Remembering an IEEE Pioneer: Mohamed Kamel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Fakhri Karray

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817

Advances in Data Analytics and Pattern
Recognition with Applications
 Adaptation Approaches in Unsupervised
Learning: A Survey of the State-of-the-Art
and Future Directions

JunHong Wang1,2(B) , YunQian Miao3 , Alaa Khamis2,4 , Fakhri Karray2 ,

and Jiye Liang1
1
School of Computer and Information Technology,
Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
[email protected]
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Waterloo, Waterloo N2L 3G1, Canada
3
NCR Canada Ltd., Waterloo N2V 1N3, Canada
4
Engineering Science Department, Suez University, Suez, Egypt

Abstract. In real applications, data continuously evolve over time and

change from one setting to another. This inspires the development of
adaptive learning algorithms to deal with this data dynamics. Adapta-
tion mechanisms for unsupervised learning have received an increasing
amount of attention from researchers. This research activity has pro-
duced a lot of results in tackling some of the challenging problems
of the adaptation process that are still open. This paper is a brief
review of adaptation mechanisms in unsupervised learning focusing on
approaches recently reported in the literature for adaptive clustering
and novelty detection and discussing some future directions. Although
these approaches have able to cope with different levels of data non-
stationarity, there is a crucial need to extend these approaches to be
able to handle large amount of data in distributed resource-limited envi-
ronments.

Keywords: Domain adaptation · Unsupervised learning · Clustering ·

Novelty detection · Adaptation mechanisms

1 Introduction
In many real-world applications such as in speech recognition, finance and social
media, data keep evolving and their properties changing from one domain to
another. For example, in order to successfully develop automatic speech recog-
nition (ASR) applications in real environments, it is crucial to take into account
several mismatches between the testing and training requirement. These dif-
ferences include speaker variabilities, environmental mismatches and language
mismatches [1–3]. Another example is the Customers’ buying preferences,
which may vary over time, depending on the season, holidays, and availability.

c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
A. Campilho and F. Karray (Eds.): ICIAR 2016, LNCS 9730, pp. 3–11, 2016.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-41501-7 1
4 J. Wang et al.

With the evolving of the concepts, the old learning model can not be suitable
anymore. The changing of data distribution consequently affects the unsuper-
vised learning model [4–6].
To address these difficulties, adaptation mechanisms for unsupervised learn-
ing are currently being extensively studied. The purpose of unsupervised learning
is to extract valuable concepts or information from the data. The main tasks of
unsupervised learning often include different adaptive clustering approaches and
novelty detection (also often used as outlier detection or anomaly detection)
[7–10].
This paper is organized as follows. Adaptive clustering approaches such
as evolutionary spectral clustering techniques, self-organizing map, incremen-
tal clustering methods and clustering concept drift problem are outlined in
Sect. 2. In Sect. 3, probabilistic-based novelty detection, neighborhood-based
novelty detection, density ratio-based approach and the one-class SVM method
are reviewed. Section 4 highlights the current and future research directions in
the area. We conclude with a set of observations in Sect. 5.

2 Adaptive Clustering Approaches

According to the properties of unlabeled data, many different adaptive cluster-
ing approaches with different inspirations have been proposed. The following
subsections describe some of these approaches.

2.1 Evolutionary Spectral Clustering Techniques

Evolving spectral graph describes a lot of real-world phenomena that evolve
with time, such as social relationships, metabolic networks, etc. The object of
the method is to discover the partitions of the evolving spectral graph such that
the edges within a partition have high weight and the edges between these par-
titions have low weight. In [11], a kernel spectral clustering model with memory
effect is proposed, which is an extension model of the Kernel Spectral Clustering
(KSC). In [12], corresponds to a weighted kernel principal component analy-
sis (PCA) approach based on least-squares SVM, a formulation for multi-way
spectral clustering for evolving data is proposed. Most of the existing spectral
clustering methods are effective and have already been used in many real areas
such as pattern recognition, image analysis and speech recognition [13–16]. A
challenge of the method of spectral clustering is how to change the models to
process dynamic clustering of data in online resources application such as social
networks.

2.2 Self-organizing Map

The self-organizing maps (SOM) have been commonly applied in the process of
dealing with various problems, such as pattern recognition, feature extraction,
image analysis [17,18]. SOM use the inherent property of local modeling and
 Adaptation Approaches in Unsupervised Learning 5

topology preservation of units that enhances interpretability of dynamics to deal

with time-series prediction [19]. Kohonen’s SOM is an efficient universal method,
by projection into a lower dimension, which can be used to abstract of multi-
variate mean profiles [20]. In [21], self-organizing map is modified to incorporate
long-term and short-term memory that enable discovering the occurrence of new
clusters and exploring the properties of structural changes in data at the same
time. However, as for unsupervised sequence processing in a common dynamic,
a unified notation and a precise mathematical investigation and characterization
of these models are needed.

2.3 Incremental Clustering Methods

Incremental clustering methods are designed with the ability to handle the
dynamics in cluster results. For non-stationary data in many areas, online clus-
tering is a huge challenge. Some online algorithms are attempting to suit for the
dynamic datasets through some strategies. In [22], an incremental K-means is
proposed based on K-means algorithm. An incremental algorithm is presented
in [23], which deals with online topological mapping by relying on spectral clus-
tering. Also, a similar approach for processing the problem of appearance-based
localization in outdoor environments is given in [24,25]. Compared to the clas-
sical spectral clustering, the incremental approach does not need to save a huge
and even growing data set, so many incremental algorithms have similar accuracy
but with much lower computation costs.

2.4 Clustering Concept Drift Problem

Special emphasis is paid to concept drift problem in data stream mining. Data
streams can be viewed as a series of data records. As the concepts and clusters in
the data change with time, the underlying clusters may also change considerably
with the time. Cao introduced a density-based method in an evolving data set for
discovering arbitrary shape clusters [26]. In [27], a framework used to detect the
drifting concepts based on N-Nodeset importance representative for categorical
time-evolving data is proposed. In [28], a data labeling method is studied to
detect the clusters of a time window from the concepts of the preceding window.
Many algorithms for clustering time-evolving data have been applied in real-life
data sets. For example, a clustering approach is proposed in [29] to analyze the
clustering results of mining user profiles in the network.

2.5 Discussion

Clustering approaches do not need a prior knowledge of data distribution and

can be used in incremental models. In addition, they can help in understand-
ing the data distribution. However, some clustering-based techniques require a
suitable similarity measure computation in a pairwise fashion between the data
6 J. Wang et al.

points and it is computationally expensive to calculate the similarity in high-

dimensional data sets. Although the discussed approaches showed appealing suc-
cess in making unsupervised learning algorithms adaptive to non-stationary data,
the scalability of these algorithms is not well considered.

3 Novelty Detection
Novelty detection can be viewed as binary classification problems that identifies
new-appeared instances in the test data that differ in certain respects from a
collection of training data that contains only normal data. Because there exists
a great deal of possible abnormal modes and some of them may be evolving con-
tinuously, it is impossible to model all the abnormal patterns [7,8]. The following
subsections describe some novelty detection techniques.

3.1 Probabilistic-Based Novelty Detection

Probabilistic-based methods for novelty detection are based on estimating the
generative probability density function (PDF) of the normal data. There are
many PDF estimation approaches used to produce models based on normal data.
In [30], for the estimation of model parameters, a Gaussian Mixture Model is
proposed to incorporate side information in the form of equivalence constraints
into the model estimation procedure. Park et al. [31] provide theoretical sup-
port to this estimator by showing its asymptotic consistency on the minimum
volume set of a probability density. Besides statistical methods, Breaban et al.
[32] use projection pursuit for novelty detection by identifying subspaces of the
original attribute space where abnormal data are present. Probabilistic-based
approaches are mathematically well-formed and after the model has been con-
structed, only a minimal amount of information is required. However, the perfor-
mance of probabilistic-based approaches is limited when the size of the training
set is very small.

3.2 Neighborhood-Based Novelty Detection

The neighborhood-based methods analyze the k-nearest samples of data points,
which assume potential novelties lie far away from their neighbors, while normal
data lie near their neighborhoods. Zhang et al. propose in [33] a method for
detection the outlier of objects using a new Local Distance-based Outlier Factor.
In [34], the proposed approach combines a nearest neighbours data description
(NNDD) and a structural risk minimisation (SRM) for the detection of novelty,
namely NNDDSRM. Bay and Schwabacher [35] introduced the distance-based
outlier detection algorithm called ORCA. Neighborhood-based approaches do
not need a priori knowledge of the data distribution and share some common
assumptions with probabilistic approaches. However, these approaches rely on
the existence of suitable similar metrics to establish the similarity between two
samples, even in high-dimensional data spaces.
 Adaptation Approaches in Unsupervised Learning 7

3.3 Density Ratio-Based Approach

Density ratio-based estimation has attracted many interest due to its potential
for solving many challenging problems, such as outlier detection, covariant shift
adaptation and some others. The main idea of density ratio-based approach is
to compare the densities of the test and reference data, and then identify the
novel instances based on the ratio between these two densities. The estimation
of density ratio can be done directly without estimating the density functions of
test and reference data [5]. In [36], a locally adaptive method for density-ratio
estimation is proposed, in which the density ratio between reference and new
data is used to detection novelty. Song et al. [37] introduce the concept of rel-
ative novelty and modified the one-class SVM formulation to incorporate the
reference densities as density ratios. Density ratio-based approach is very effec-
tive in detecting relative novelties, however, it is limited in identifying novelties
that are very dissimilar to the reference data.

3.4 The One-Class SVM Method

SVMs are noted as a popular technique used to form decision boundaries that
separate data into different classes. The original SVM is a network that is ideally
suited for binary pattern classification of linearly separable data. A number of
attempts have been performed to transfer the idea of using kernels to compute
inner products to the domain of unsupervised learning. A one-class SVM for
static novelty detection proposed in [38] is used to construct a normality model
to characterize the distribution of energy by the vibration spectra obtained from
a three-shaft engine. Also, a one-class SVM method is proposed in [37], which
assumes that samples locating outside of the boundary are novel. The main
challenge of these methods is how to choose the appropriate kernel function.

3.5 Discussion

Probabilistic-based and neighborhood-based methods use distance measure to

discriminate between novel and normal data samples. Density ratio-based app-
roach requires to compare the densities of the test and reference data, and detect
the novelty based on the ratio between these two densities. Meanwhile, one-class
SVM approach assumes that objects locating outside of the boundary are novel
and build the model based on the boundary of normal data.

4 Future Directions
There are several promising directions for further research in adaptation mech-
anisms in unsupervised learning, which are mainly associated with the open
challenges that need to be tackled for the effective operation of the approach.
8 J. Wang et al.

(1) Simultaneous detection of evolving and emerging concepts in non-stationary

data.
In dynamic data, there usually exist two types of novelties: evolving
and emerging. Evolving novelties are characterized by relatively new aspects
of existing concepts, while emerging novelties are represented by concepts
which are very different from the previously seen ones. In real situations,
many of the truly novel concepts do not perfectly fit under one of these two
categories, and normally have both emerging and evolving aspects [5]. There-
fore, how to recognize both emerging and evolving novelties is an important
direction.
(2) Fast adaptive algorithms for personalized learning.
Recently, personalized learning has received a lot of attention [39]. Most of
algorithms for unsupervised learning are in direct interaction with thousands
and may be millions of system users. The variety of users and their needs
generate a challenging aspect of non-stationarity in the data. For exam-
ple, a speech recognition system trained on the Canadian accent exhibits a
degraded performance when applied to users of other accents. This gener-
ates a pressing need from those users to adapt the recognition models to
provide personalized decisions. This has to be done using a few training
samples provided by the user over a short period of time. The state-of-the-
art approaches for domain adaptation depend on retraining of the learned
models for each new user which is extremely inefficient.
(3) Other promising directions include, but are not limited to, multi-source
domain adaptation and incremental optimization. Multi-source domain
adaptation. Some researches [40] focus on the multi-source domain adapta-
tion problem where there is more than one source domain available together
with only one target domain. A core issue of multi-source domain adapta-
tion is how to select good sources and samples for the adaptation. Many
methods about incremental clustering [24,25] have been studied. In incre-
mental learning procedures, the optimization process should be investigated
in order to avoid over-fitting problems.

5 Conclusion

The non-stationary aspects of the data represent a new challenge for many exist-
ing unsupervised learning algorithms in machine learning. This generates a press-
ing need to efficiently adapt the unsupervised learning models to the users and
the changing environments in the real-world applications such as speech recogni-
tion, finance and social media. The paper has reviewed recent adaptation mecha-
nisms in unsupervised learning such as adaptive clustering and novelty detection.
The paper also highlighted some future directions in this area. Most of existing
approaches are mainly designed on the basis of traditional centralized systems,
which do not consider handling either the large amount of data in distributed
environments or the efficiency issues in resource-limited environments.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
acquired by Musa from the results of this expedition indirectly
produced great accessions to his power. His son Lope became one of
the magistrates of Toledo. The restless population of the border
flocked to his standard by thousands. His army was further
augmented by numbers of Christians,—Mozarabes as well as
Gascons and Navarrese,—whose former habits and experience made
them valuable soldiers. The martial spirit of Musa was displayed
indiscriminately against Christian and Moslem; his prowess was
respected and his independence reluctantly acknowledged alike by
the courts of Cordova, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Oviedo. With a
pardonable vanity, justified by actual power and the possession of
territory, he assumed the title of Third King of Spain. His death in
862 was followed by a partial dismemberment of his dominions,
which enabled Mohammed to recover Saragossa, Tudela, and a few
other places of minor importance; but only a few years elapsed
before the family of Musa, endeared to the people by the exploits of
its founders, regained its former ascendency, and once more
expelled the forces of the emirate. Although nothing is said of the
religious belief of the Beni-Kasi, it may be inferred that they had
returned to the Christian communion, as Alfonso III., their close ally,
entrusted to these distinguished princes the education of his son
Ordoño, heir to the crown of the Asturias and Leon.
The Norman pirates, familiar to the reader of Arab chronicles as
Magioges,—a name derived from the fabulous Gog and Magog,
whose descendants they were, according to the doubtful authority of
mediæval tradition,—seven years after Mohammed ascended the
throne made a second descent upon the shores of the Peninsula.
The spoil which they had collected in their first excursion and the
facility with which they had penetrated into the heart of France and
Spain excited their insatiable cupidity, and inspired them with the
hope of even more profitable adventures. But these expectations
were defeated by the valor of the Galicians and by the prudence of
Abd-al-Rahman II., who, as already related, had established a coast-
guard, and disposed the naval forces of the emirate to intercept the
landing and chastise the audacity of these intrepid and mysterious
rovers of the seas. The fame of their former success had increased
their numbers, and, after an ineffectual and disastrous attempt to
plunder the seaport towns of Galicia, seventy well-manned vessels of
their fleet appeared off the coast of Andalusia. Disembarking at
various points, the Normans effected considerable damage, but, not
venturing inland, their booty bore no comparison in quantity or value
to that obtained by their former visitation, and meeting with a
resistance entirely unexpected, they retired to try their fortunes on
the coast of Africa. In that country many settlements suffered the
dreadful evils consequent upon such attacks, and, after destroying
whatever they could not carry away, they ravaged the Balearic Isles,
and, steering eastward, swept along the shores of the Mediterranean
as far as Sicily and Malta. The unprotected regions of Italy and
Greece again experienced the dire effects of barbarian malevolence,
this time unmitigated by the sympathy of a common religious belief;
the instinctive antipathy of the savages of the North to all that bore
the stamp of civilization was gratified without restraint; and, laden
with plunder of incalculable value and for once satiated with blood
and havoc, the pirates directed their course homeward through the
Strait of Gibraltar.
The incessant hostilities maintained by Ordoño with the kingdom
of Cordova were, in general, favorable to the Christian arms.
Encouraged by the victory he had obtained at Albeyda, the Asturian
monarch extended his operations far to the south of the Douro. The
knowledge of the growing weakness of their enemies, and the
consciousness of their own valor and resources, impelled the
mountaineers to still greater exertions. The expeditions which had
been at first but mere predatory incursions, now assumed the
character of enterprises looking towards a permanent occupation of
the country. Every advantageous post beyond the border which it
was thought possible to retain was thoroughly fortified and
garrisoned immediately after its capture. The walls of dismantled
Moorish fortresses were repaired. In those towns where the Arab
inhabitants preponderated, the latter were replaced by Galician and
Asturian colonists. In all cases where a place was taken by storm,
the male population was exterminated, and the women and children
led into slavery. Many important cities, including, among others,
Coria and Salamanca, fell into the hands of the Christians. The
effects of this vigorous policy began to be felt so seriously at
Cordova that the government summoned all its energies in an
endeavor to counteract it, and a powerful army was assembled
under the orders of Al-Mondhir, heir presumptive to the crown. That
warlike and experienced prince met the forces of the enemy on the
banks of the Douro; the Christians sustained a disastrous defeat; the
larger part of the lost territory was recovered; and Al-Mondhir,
relieved of further care in this quarter, turned his attention to Alava
and Navarre. The victorious banners of the Moslems were next
displayed before Pampeluna. The environs of that city were
devastated; some castles throughout the province which had
sheltered formidable bands of marauders were taken and
dismantled; and Al-Mondhir, after a campaign unattended by a single
disaster, returned in triumph to Cordova.
These reverses, while not sufficient to deter the indomitable
mountaineers from repeating their forays, had at least the effect of
changing their direction and limiting their extent. Lusitania, formerly
invaded with impunity, was again selected as the object of their
attack. The fields and vineyards of Lisbon were trampled down by
the Christian squadrons; the town of Cintra was burned, and every
hamlet accessible to the fury of a pitiless enemy was depopulated
and destroyed. But the salutary lesson the Asturians had been
recently taught was not lost upon them, and, without waiting for the
army that Mohammed despatched in all haste to intercept their
retreat, they retired with the same celerity which had marked their
appearance.
Unable to arrest these inroads by ordinary means, Mohammed
determined to have recourse to his navy, and disembark a force in
the centre of the enemy’s country. The fleet reached the western
coast in safety, but before a landing could be effected was destroyed
by a hurricane. The more rigid Moslems, whose strict ideas had been
shocked by the braving of an element of which the Prophet had
stood in wholesome dread, regarded this catastrophe as a well-
merited chastisement from heaven for disobedience to the Koran.
The revolt of Toledo had, from time to time, been followed by the
defection of other cities, whose disorders, while important in the
aggregate, were singly of little moment in their effects upon the
affairs of the Peninsula. One, however, in some respects greatly
resembling that by which the old capital of the Visigoths had secured
its independence, deserves to be related, as it demonstrates, more
thoroughly than an entire chronicle could do, the deplorable
helplessness into which the empire founded by Abd-al-Rahman had
fallen. Ibn-Merwan, a renegade prominent in former rebellions, and
whom the foolish policy of the Moslems has again entrusted with a
position of responsibility, aggrieved by some petty insult, deserted,
and, accompanied by a few of his retainers, seized the castle of
Alanje, near Merida. Besieged before he had time to collect supplies,
he nevertheless held out for three months, when he surrendered on
condition of his retirement to Bagdad. No sooner was he free,
however, than he proclaimed himself the apostle of a new religion,
whose doctrines were borrowed from those of both Christianity and
Islamism; increased his following by the enlistment of bandits and
outlaws; and, imitating the example of the Toledans, strengthened
his cause by an alliance with the King of the Asturias. His
depredations became so annoying that an army under Haschim,
Mohammed’s favorite vizier, was despatched against him. The wily
partisan found little trouble in decoying the vizier into an
ambuscade; his command was annihilated; and he himself was sent
as a trophy to the court of Alfonso. When the Emir made proposals
for the ransom of Haschim, the Christian king demanded the
immense sum of a hundred thousand pieces of gold. Much as he
desired the release of his minister, the parsimony of Mohammed,
which had increased with years, deterred him from so profuse an
expenditure. For many months Haschim remained in captivity, but at
length the entreaties of his family overcame the reluctance of the
Emir, and he consented to send a portion of the ransom. The
balance was secured by the delivery of hostages, and the vizier was
finally liberated.
On his return to Cordova, Haschim found that his ancient enemy,
with whom even Mohammed himself was unable to cope, had,
during his absence, attained to the dignity of an independent prince.
The Emir, intimidated by the menaces of Ibn-Merwan, had been
compelled to conclude a peace with that chieftain; to cede to him
the strong city of Badajoz; to release him from the payment of
tribute; and to accede to such conditions as virtually dispensed with
the duties of the subject, as well as abrogated the authority of the
sovereign.
The effect of this pusillanimous conduct upon the malcontents
and fanatics who infested every community of the emirate—a society
the amalgamation of whose elements seemed utterly impracticable;
destitute of religious unity; without the slightest idea of political
virtue or patriotism; and acknowledging no incentive to
subordination but that suggested by the employment of military
force—may readily be imagined. Few cities preserved even the
appearance of order. Every lawless passion raged without control.
Feuds were prosecuted without interference. The functions of the
magistrate, the obligations of the people, were suspended. The
empire, shattered in every part, seemed on the verge of dissolution.
Neither proximity to the seat of government, the prospect of royal
favor, nor fear of the consequences of treason sufficed to retain the
states in their allegiance. Andalusia alone sustained with apparent
fidelity the cause of Islam and the dignity and fortunes of the
monarch; but even this province was now destined to be the seat of
an insurrection whose consequences threatened to involve the
civilization of the West and the dynasty of the Ommeyades in
sudden and irretrievable ruin.
From the time of the Cæsars, that picturesque chain of mountains
now known as the Serrania de Ronda, which traverses the southern
part of the Peninsula, has been the scene of insurrection and of
lawless deeds which no government has ever been able to
thoroughly suppress. The proverbial reluctance of the mountaineer
to conform to established laws was, in this region especially,
encouraged by the savage character of the country, which, to all
unacquainted with its intricate paths and gloomy fastnesses, offered
an aspect as forbidding as it was pregnant with danger. The
population of these mountains, in love of freedom, in strength of
body, in military prowess, was the counterpart of that of the
Asturias, while in graceful bearing, in beauty of form and feature,
and, above all, in intelligence, it far excelled the uncouth barbarians
of the North. It united the various qualities of Roman courage, Punic
shrewdness, and Arab temperance and agility. The difficulty of
enforcing obedience to the constituted authority was vastly
increased by the close relations maintained by even the most remote
settlements, leagued together in a confederacy which was, in all but
name and acknowledged leadership, an independent republic. The
brigand who swooped down upon the flocks of the Roman shepherd,
or pillaged the hut of the Visigothic peasant, has his worthy
counterparts to-day in the smuggler and highwayman. It has not
been many decades since the robber chieftain of the Serrania de
Ronda levied blackmail on the posts and convoys of the Spanish
government; and the contraband traffic of that region at present
exceeds in importance the legitimate trade of any other district of
equal area and wealth in the Peninsula.
On the slope of this mountain range, not far from Malaga, lived in
the reign of Mohammed a youth of fiery temper and dissolute habits,
named Omar-Ibn-Hafsun. His father, descended from a distinguished
Gothic family, like many others, had renounced his faith rather with a
view to future advantage than from belief in the doctrines of Islam.
His son, concerned in frequent broils with the hot-headed peasantry
of the neighborhood, had, while but a child, obtained a most
unenviable reputation for cruelty and violence. At length, in an
encounter with one of his most redoubtable antagonists, the latter
paid the penalty of his rashness with his life. Ibn-Hafsun fled to the
sierra and joined a gang of banditti, but was eventually seized by the
authorities and scourged into insensibility. Escaping from the
clutches of the law, he sought the presence of his father, who
disowned him and drove him from his home. Knowing that he could
not for a great while longer elude the search of the officers who
were scouring the country in all directions, he embarked for Tahort
in Africa, where he found refuge in the house of a tailor who knew
of his family but was ignorant of his recent history, and who willingly
accepted him as an apprentice. Here he was soon after recognized
by an acquaintance, and, apprehensive of being denounced as a
fugitive from justice and surrendered for execution, he left his
benefactor and secretly returned to Andalusia. Impelled, perforce, to
the profession of an outlaw, he assembled a number of adventurous
spirits, repaired an old Roman fort on the summit of Mount
Bobastro, and entered upon a life of rapine. The great plain
stretching from the foot of the sierra to the capital was soon at his
mercy. His band increased with the fame of his exploits; the cities of
Andalusia trembled at his name; the governor of the province, who
had ventured to attack him with a strong body of regular troops, was
reduced to the humiliation of seeing his soldiers routed and his camp
pillaged by a handful of daring marauders. This official, whose
incompetency was presumed to be the cause of his misfortune, was
removed, but his successor, an experienced veteran, fared no better.
After a time, the rebel was surrounded by a strong force under the
vizier Haschim, and compelled to surrender. His bravery and talents
had so excited admiration of the latter that he induced the Emir to
offer him an important command in the army. Between the
acceptance of this unexpected favor and confinement in a dungeon
there could be no hesitation in making a choice, and the former
brigand was duly commissioned an officer of the emirate. In many
engagements with the insurgents and mountaineers of the North, he
bore himself with a self-respecting dignity little to be expected from
his former lawless behavior. Admired by his general, respected by his
comrades, and feared by his enemies, there seemed to unfold before
him the flattering prospect of speedy promotion and all the honors
and wealth incident to a distinguished military career. But the petty
jealousies of rival courtiers could not brook the sudden elevation and
rising prosperity of this new favorite of Haschim. The party opposed
to the vizier employed every means to annoy and humiliate the
haughty renegade. The governor of the city, under various pretexts,
compelled him to constantly move his quarters. The purveyors of the
army, instigated by the enemies of his patron, regularly furnished
him with rations unfit for consumption. His complaints were
ineffectual; even his patron told him that he must avenge his own
wrongs. Exasperated by such treatment, above all as it was in no
wise deserved, and unwilling to longer submit to the insults that
every day became less endurable, Ibn-Hafsun deserted, and again
sought the protecting solitudes of the Serrania de Ronda. His band
was soon reassembled; the fortress of Bobastro, which the prudence
of Mohammed had greatly strengthened, was surprised; and the
daring partisan, in the space of a few weeks, became once more the
idol of the mountaineers and the terror of the peasantry of
Andalusia. But his service in the army of the Emir had wrought a
remarkable change in the sentiments and conduct of the outlaw. He
proclaimed himself the champion of freedom, the avenger of all who
had suffered from the extortions and injustice of the reigning family.
In this capacity he was recognized as the representative of the
renegades, the Christians, and the Berbers, who thus formed an
incongruous, but, for a time, an effective alliance against the
dominant Arab aristocracy. By assuming the character of a defender
of the oppressed, he invested his cause with a national importance,
and relieved it, to a great extent, from the disgraceful imputation of
brigandage. The members of his band were subjected to the most
severe restraint. Robbery and insubordination were punished with
instant death. The entire mountain district was gradually included
within his jurisdiction, and security of property and life, such as that
region never knew before, existed. It became a common saying
among the Andalusians that a woman loaded with silver might cross
any portion of the Serrania de Ronda without the least danger of
molestation. Such a demonstration of security would have been
elsewhere impracticable, even in the populous districts of the
emirate patrolled by a vigilant police, and its attempt would have
invited certain death in the distant and unprotected provinces of the
empire.
 In the control of his soldiers, Ibn-Hafsun adopted all those politic
expedients which raise commanders to popularity and renown,—
inexorable justice, unstinted liberality, prompt recognition of efficient
service, merciless punishment of serious infractions of discipline. His
increasing power invited the adherence of malcontents who held
responsible posts under the government, among them not a few
renegades, those pests of every administration whose credulous
weakness heeded their protestations or trusted their loyalty. In the
year 886, Ibn-Hafsun was assisting one of these traitors in the
defence of Alhama against the prince Al-Mondhir. The bandit
chieftain had been wounded in a sally, and the garrison was about to
surrender, when news reached the prince of the death of his father,
and necessitated his immediate return. This unhoped-for change in
his fortunes offered an opportunity which the wily Ibn-Hafsun was
not slow to appreciate. By plausible representations he induced
many towns to submit to his authority, and the accession of Al-
Mondhir found him at once confronted with a powerful enemy,
whose military genius and fertility of resource promised a long and
doubtful struggle for supremacy.
The death of Mohammed was sudden and peaceful. His reign of
thirty-four years was the most stormy and unfortunate of any
hitherto directed by the Ommeyade monarchs. In addition to
manifold political calamities, it was afflicted with a drought severe
beyond all hitherto mentioned in the annals of Spain, with famine
and pestilence, and with earthquakes that increased the mortality to
an appalling degree.
This epoch is conspicuous for the shameful degradation of the
Ommeyade dynasty of Spain. In its general features, it also presents
an epitome of the evils which afflicted the Hispano-Arab domination
under every ruler and in every age. The inherent vices of the
Moslem system; the irreconcilable character of the constituents of
Moslem society—their turbulence, malignity, and faithlessness—were
discernible alike under the administration of Abd-al-Aziz, the first of
the emirs, and of Boabdil, the last of the kings. The condition of
Mohammed at times seemed desperate. The majority of his subjects
were in rebellion. Twenty years of warfare had failed to subdue
Toledo, which, with the extensive territory subject to it, was now
practically independent. The power of the Christians was increasing
daily. Their boundaries were steadily advancing southward. Their
banners had even been seen from the walls of the capital. The
Franks had obtained a permanent foothold in the Gothic March,
forever lost to the jurisdiction and the faith of Islam. The mighty
kingdom which had once reached from the banks of the Garonne to
the Mediterranean had shrunk to the dimensions of an insignificant
principality. Septimania, Leon, Aragon, Catalonia, and a large portion
of Castile were in the hands of the enemy. In the North, the walis of
the scattered fortresses which still preserved a nominal allegiance to
the Emir were secretly leagued with the infidel. In the West, the
audacious Ibn-Merwan plundered at will the rich settlements of
Estremadura and Lusitania. Valencia and Murcia, the nurseries of
many a serious revolt, exhibited unconcealed signs of disaffection,
caused by the imposition of excessive taxes and the uncontrolled
rapacity of their governors. In the South, the daring Ibn-Hafsun, the
representative of the prejudices and the aspirations of a numerous
and growing faction, exercised despotic rule over the greater part of
Andalusia. Brigands swarmed on the highways. Travel was
impossible, except under the protection of a strong escort.
Communication between the great cities of the Peninsula was as
difficult as if they had been separated by vast continents or seas. At
one time, for eight years, intercourse was entirely suspended
between Saragossa and Cordova. In every community an ill-defined
but universal presentiment of impending evil prevailed. Society was
distracted by the quarrels of theologians, frivolous in their nature,
but often serious in their consequences. In the history of Islam, a
dispute concerning a religious formula or the authenticity of a
tradition had, more than once, led to a bloody proscription, or
involved entire nations in war. While the majority of the Christian
tributaries acquiesced in the conditions imposed by the Moslem laws,
numbers of deluded fanatics, resorting to every species of outrage
and blasphemy, courted the tortures and the fame of martyrdom.
Much of the country was depopulated. Where the inhabitants
remained, agricultural and commercial operations greatly declined,
and in some districts were absolutely suspended. The public
revenues were diminished to such an extent that even the
penuriousness of the Emir, aided by the extortions of his merciless
officials, could with difficulty provide for the necessary expenses of
the royal household. At the death of Mohammed, scarcely one-fourth
of the territorial area over which he claimed sovereign jurisdiction
acknowledged the legitimacy of his title or contributed to the
maintenance of his power.
The evidences of national decadence are only too perceptible in
the disappearance of public spirit and military virtue; in the incessant
prosecution of intestine warfare; in the almost unresisted
encroachments of the Christian arms; in the habitual treachery of
officers entrusted with high commands; in the jealousies of courtiers
and the intrigues of fanatics; in the feigned enthusiasm of crusades
inaugurated in obedience to the principles of Islam, sometimes
crowned with partial success, but often terminating in disgrace and
disaster.
The character of Mohammed was principally remarkable for
irresolution and parsimony. He surrendered whole provinces and
degraded his dignity by humiliating concessions extorted by the
threats of insolent chiefs of banditti. Such was his meanness that, in
a transaction involving the payment of more than a hundred
thousand dinars, he defrauded the treasury officials of a few pieces
of copper. He reduced the pay of his soldiers. He condescended to
share the salaries of government employees, whom he appointed
conditionally upon the division of their earnings. Yet, with these
serious faults, he was the patron of science, the friend of the
learned, a graceful poet and orator, and one of the most
accomplished calligraphists of his time. The lack of effective
organization; the secret and implacable hostility that pervaded every
branch of the body politic; the boldness and tenacity of the
Asturians, aided by the sympathy of an innumerable body of
Christian ecclesiastics domiciled in every city and village of the
empire; and the unavoidable catastrophes of nature, render it
extremely problematical whether, under similar circumstances, a
prince possessed of greater ability than Mohammed could have
better sustained the declining fortunes of the emirate.
 CHAPTER XI
REIGN OF AL-MONDHIR; REIGN OF ABDALLAH

886–912
Parallel between the Policy of the Moorish and Asturian Courts—
Alfonso III.—His Conquests—Energy of Al-Mondhir—Siege of
Bobastro—Stratagem of Ibn-Hafsun—The Emir is Poisoned—
Abdallah ascends the Throne—Conditions of Parties and Sects—
Prevalence of Disorder—Insurrection at Elvira—Success of the
Arab Faction—Disturbances at Seville—General Disaffection of the
Provinces—Ibn-Hafsun defeated at Aguilar—Disastrous and
Permanent Effects of the Continuance of Anarchy—Sudden Death
of Abdallah—Important Political Changes wrought by a
Generation of Civil Warfare.
A striking parallel exists between the successive events that
compose respectively the political history of the rival kingdoms of
Christian and Moorish Spain. In the circumstances of physical
environment, in national traditions, in manners, language, and
religious belief, no two races could be more dissimilar. Yet, in many
respects, the accounts of the disturbances following the accession of
the Kings of the Asturias and the Emirs of Cordova are counterparts
of each other. Both monarchies were, in theory, elective. The
independent spirit of the Arab and the untamed ferocity of the Goth
were equally opposed to the subordination necessarily implied by the
adoption of the law of hereditary descent. As the ruler grew more
powerful, he naturally became more anxious to transmit to his
descendants the authority which had been gained by his valor or
confirmed by his prudence. To secure to his family this coveted
advantage, he was accustomed to solicit, in his lifetime, the public
acknowledgment of his son as heir apparent, who had, not
infrequently, been associated with him in the conduct of the
administration. A council composed of the principal officers, prelates,
and nobles of the realm was convoked, and required to show its
devotion to king or emir by swearing allegiance to the prince whom
paternal affection, and sometimes distinguished merit, had
designated as the future sovereign. This assent, prompted by
interest and the certainty of royal favor, was seldom refused, and,
strengthened by custom until it became a part of the constitution,
was, after a few generations, regarded as a mere ceremonial,—the
formal assertion of a right whose legality had been tacitly
established by considerations of public policy, if not by ancient
prescription. But such was the effect of a regulation in governments
which preserved the forms of election but repudiated its
untrammelled exercise, that the choice of the monarch, as soon as
he ascended the throne, generally found himself embroiled with his
less fortunate brethren, each of whom believed that he had been
defrauded of his birthright. That the mere consent of the council was
not deemed conclusive is proven by the fact that possession of the
palace was deemed prima facie evidence of title, a principle
recognized equally at Oviedo and Cordova. With insubordination
came civil war and the lamentable consequences of internecine
conflict. The savage instincts of the Gothic princes caused them to
blind their unfortunate rivals and immure them for life in the foul and
reeking cells of subterranean dungeons. The vengeance of the Moor,
however, was usually satisfied with short imprisonment, and, if the
culprit expressed contrition, he was often restored to favor and his
crime condoned. The student of ancient Spanish history cannot fail
to be deeply impressed with the different methods of dealing with
treason in the north and south of the Peninsula, regions arrayed
against each other in continual hostility,—exhibiting marked
resemblances when they were least to be expected, and, in
disposing of offences aimed at the throne and life of the monarch,
displaying, on the one hand, an indulgence dictated by a
magnanimity that seemed almost suicidal; on the other, a severity
characterized by atrocities that could only proceed from the grossest
barbarism.
The long and illustrious reign of Alfonso III., worthily named The
Great, which occupies so much space in the early annals of the
Reconquest, affords a conspicuous example of the vicissitudes and
trials that attended the adventurous lives of the princes of the
Asturian monarchy. Associated with his father Ordoño for four years
preceding his advent to the throne, he was far from being a novice
when summoned to assume the grave responsibilities of sovereignty.
The four brothers of the King, jealous of the paternal preference,
and disputing the legality of a custom that arbitrarily excluded from
the succession even those most eligible under the provisions of the
ancient Visigothic constitution, united their forces in a formidable
attempt to subvert the authority of Alfonso. The enterprise resulted
disastrously; the barbarous severity of the laws was demonstrated
without the mitigation that might have been expected from the
influence of fraternal sympathy, and the unhappy princes were
deprived of their eye-sight and imprisoned for life in the castle of
Oviedo. Three of them speedily sank under the hardships of
confinement; but the fourth, Veremundo, succeeded, by some
fortunate circumstance, in escaping, and was eventually raised by
his adherents to the government of Astorga. In this strong city,
occasionally assisted by the arms of the Moors, he successfully
defied the attacks of the King of the Asturias for more than seven
years. The address and courage necessarily implied by this
determined resistance are in themselves sufficiently remarkable; but
the fact that the hero who directed operations which thwarted the
designs and repulsed the forces of an entire kingdom for this
extended period was totally blind may well awaken surprise and
admiration.
The eminent abilities of Alfonso III. were displayed on many a
hotly contested field and in many a critical emergency during his
long career. His arms were carried farther into the country of the
enemy than the bravest of his predecessors had ventured to
penetrate. Coimbra, Oporto, Zamora, Toro, Simancas, and numerous
other cities of less importance were added to the dominions of the
Christian monarchy by the efforts of his valor or the terror of his
name. The sound of his trumpets had awakened the affrighted
peasantry whose fields occupied the fertile slopes of the Sierra
Morena. His banners had been repeatedly seen from the battlements
of Merida. His squadrons had menaced the suburbs of the Moslem
capital. He enforced with unabated rigor the ruthless policy of
extermination inaugurated by the first monarch of his name. The
captives taken in his numerous expeditions were, for the most part,
distributed among the estates of the ecclesiastical order and the
royal demesnes, to be employed in the construction of churches,
monasteries, castles, and palaces. With each advance of the line
marking the boundary of the two kingdoms to the southward, new
fortresses were erected, the most famous of which was that which
stood upon the site of modern Burgos, a city whose fortunes have
ever been so closely identified with those of the Castilian monarchy.
The province of Navarre, heretofore considered as an insignificant
principality, whose allegiance to the Asturian Crown was conceded
rather by the indifference of its inhabitants than based upon the
acknowledgment of any well-defined obligation, was, by the
marriage of Alfonso III. to Ximena, daughter of the count, enabled
to claim, for the first time in history, the position of an independent
kingdom. For thirty-one years Alfonso maintained an incessant
contest with the Emirs of Cordova. He saw the dominions of the
descendants of those terrified fugitives who had taken shelter in the
wilds of the Pyrenees extended far beyond the Douro and the Tagus
to the shores of the distant Guadiana. He witnessed the thorough
consolidation of the temporal and ecclesiastical powers, a union
portending so much to the future renown and dishonor of Spain. The
shrine of Santiago had already been enriched by the devotion of the
pious and the fears of the wicked; the rude hamlet had begun to
assume the appearance of a city; the homely chapel had been
replaced by a stately cathedral; and a constant stream of weeping
and hysterical pilgrims attested the growth of a spirit of fanaticism
whose effects were to be, erelong, conspicuously exhibited in those
romantic deeds of daring which abound in the annals of the
Reconquest. At the close of his reign, three-fourths of the Peninsula
—a territory that, with the exception of a corner of the mountain
wilderness, had once paid tribute to the followers of Mohammed—
was in the possession of the champions of Christendom or their
allies.
The youth of the new Emir, Al-Mondhir, had, like that of his
ancestors, been passed amidst military exercises or in warlike
enterprises. No prince had yet ascended the throne under more
auspicious circumstances, nor, at the same time, better qualified to
restore the tarnished lustre of the Moslem name. His discretion and
sagacity bore a just proportion to the impulsive courage that
distinguished him among a nation of heroes. The energy of his
character may be inferred from his response to the Toledans, who,
immediately after his accession, sent him the customary tribute,
which he at once returned with the following message, “Keep your
money for the expenses of war, for, if God so wills, I shall soon
attack you.”
The absence of Al-Mondhir, as has been already related, gave the
redoubtable rebel Ibn-Hafsun an opportunity to greatly increase his
following, and to secure, by threats and delusive promises, many
important fortresses in Andalusia. The resolute prince, thoroughly
cognizant of the dangerous character of his adversary, did not suffer
him to long enjoy the advantages which the domestic misfortune of
others rather than his own abilities had enabled him to obtain.
Leaving Cordova quietly at the head of a body of veteran troops, he
suddenly laid siege to the strong post of Archidona, commanded by
an ally of Ibn-Hafsun, and, like him, a renegade. The boldness of
this chieftain, who, while defaming the religion he had renounced,
declared his willingness to be executed in case of capture, led Al-
Mondhir to tempt the cupidity of the citizens by an enormous bribe;
the apostate was surrendered, and, in accordance with the terms of
his defiance, underwent a death ignominious in the eyes of all
Mussulmans,—crucifixion between the bodies of two of the most
unclean of animals. Terrified by this example of severity, Archidona
opened its gates. The cavalry of the Emir then swept the country of
provisions; some towns were plundered; a score of insurgents
selected for prominence in their party were executed; and the entire
army of Al-Mondhir, flushed with success and animated by the hope
of booty and vengeance, invested the formidable stronghold of
Bobastro.
While he entertained little fear that his castle could be taken, the
cunning Ibn-Hafsun determined to provide if possible against such a
contingency, and relieve his followers from the disastrous
consequences of a blockade. With every appearance of sincerity, he
professed a desire to conclude a permanent peace. Al-Mondhir, with
all his experience, was not proof against the humble protestations of
regret and assurances of future loyalty proffered by the rebel
chieftain. A treaty was drawn up virtually at the dictation of the
latter. At his request, a hundred mules, guarded by an escort of a
hundred and sixty horsemen, were furnished to convey his family
and property to Cordova. His apparent submission having removed
all suspicions of his good faith, he escaped without difficulty in the
dead of night; and having returned to Bobastro, which the army of
the Emir had quitted, he collected a few soldiers, massacred the
escort, and by daybreak was once more under shelter of the towers
of the fortress. The rage of Al-Mondhir, aroused to the highest pitch
by this exhibition of duplicity, impelled him to take a solemn oath
that he would never cease his efforts until the perfidious rebel
should have paid the extreme penalty of his treason. The blockade
was renewed, but with diminished vigor, as the discipline of the
troops was not only lax, but they were disheartened at the prospect
of a protracted siege, the opinion prevailing among them that
Bobastro was impregnable. Aware of the increasing discontent, a
conspiracy was formed against Al-Mondhir by his brother Abdallah
and the eunuchs of the palace; the court physician was prevailed
upon to use a poisoned lancet to bleed his royal patient for some
trifling indisposition; and the gallant prince, whose career bade fair
to be one of the most illustrious of his dynasty, died in excruciating
torture after a reign of a little less than two years. He left no sons,
and the criminal design of Abdallah, which had been pushed rapidly
to its execution for this very reason, having been accomplished, that
prince, informed of the death of Al-Mondhir before it was known to
his friends, appeared suddenly in camp, asserted his claim to the
throne, and received the reluctant homage of the officers of the
army.
The soldiers, who respected the abilities and stood in awe of the
ferocious spirit of Ibn-Hafsun, displayed no grief at the death of their
sovereign. With every manifestation of joy, they turned their backs
upon the rebel stronghold, and, without preserving the semblance of
military order, began a straggling march towards their homes. Each
village which this armed rabble traversed was the scene of hundreds
of desertions, and of the plunder of the already grievously oppressed
inhabitants. The disorderly retreat had not escaped the notice of
Ibn-Hafsun, and he was already close in the rear of the retiring
column when a messenger arrived from the usurper imploring his
forbearance, and declaring that he entertained no hostile intentions
towards him. The rebel leader had the courtesy to respect this
petition; and Abdallah, guarding his brother’s corpse lashed
carelessly upon a camel, was permitted to reach Cordova without
molestation. So complete was the disorganization of the army, that
of a force numbering several thousand men scarcely twoscore
troopers remained to escort the new monarch to the gates of the
capital.
The crown that had been polluted by treason and fratricide
seemed destined now to become the instrument of universal
misfortune. The political condition of the Peninsula was already
extremely complicated. Society was everywhere threatened with
dissolution. The Arabs, proud of their lineage, and appropriating to
their race the credit of conquests largely achieved by their allies and
proselytes, constituted an aristocracy whose pretensions were both
unwarrantable and offensive. Far from recognizing the new converts
to Islam as brothers,—as recommended by the Koran,—they treated
them as inferiors, and frequently loaded them with indignities which
they would have hesitated to inflict upon their own slaves. The lapse
of generations, the most eminent services, the greatest talents, the
performance of acts of valor that evoked the plaudits of their
enemies, could not, in the eyes of these haughty descendants of
idolaters and banditti, atone for the reproach of ancient infidelity.
But it was only in their antagonism to recent converts and their
children that the Arabs were united. Between the Syrian and the
Bedouin of the Hedjaz still existed an irreconcilable enmity. The
hereditary feud of Maadite and Yemenite preserved all its original
bitterness and intensity, although, on account of the incessant
clashing of other interests, its manifestations were not so
pronounced as they had been in the earlier years of the emirate. The
confiscation of the estates of Gothic fugitives and the fortunes of the
Conquest had given the Arabs an opportunity to acquire extensive
estates and to amass immense riches. The deeply-rooted antipathy
of the Bedouin to confinement had caused the aristocracy of the
Peninsula to establish itself in the vicinity of large cities, such as
Jaen, Cordova, Seville, and Malaga, where, surrounded by an army
of retainers and slaves, they enjoyed the pleasures and
independence of a pastoral life, for which they had inherited a
predilection from their ancestors, the nobles of Central and Western
Arabia.
But the several factions into which the Arabs were divided bore no
comparison in numbers, power, or opulence to those composing the
remainder of the population. It was but a small proportion of the
Christians who, in consequence of the invasion of Tarik, had sought
the unfettered exercise of political and religious liberty amidst the
wilds of the Asturias. The sacred traditions of ancestry, the ties of
birth, the associations of childhood, the fear of penury, the hope of
wealth and distinction, retained the large majority in their homes,
where many continued to enjoy the consideration derived from
exalted rank and great possessions. Some paid gladly the reasonable
tribute that promised a greater degree of security than they had
ever known under the kings and chieftains of Gothic lineage. These
were called Ahl-al-Dhimmah, The Tributaries. The members of
another class, the Ajem, boldly refused to recognize the authority of
the conqueror, and maintained a nominal independence in the
mountains where they had their haunts, but, destitute of effective
organization, they scarcely rose to the dignity of banditti. The
alluring inducements of pecuniary interest and political advantage
had formed another caste or faction, more numerous and more
important in its influence on the fortunes of the Peninsula than all
the others combined,—the Muwallads, a comprehensive term
denoting persons whose derivation, while nominally Arab, was yet
tainted with some foreign impurity, and which, corrupted into
mulatto, has been incorporated into many of the languages of
Europe. This designation was popularly applied to the descendants
of renegades or apostates, called Mosalimah, an appellation
corresponding to the Moriscoes, or New Christians, converted after
the capture of Granada by the zealous Ximenes and his coadjutors
through the potent arguments of the rack and fagot. Still another
caste was the Muraddin, former converts, who, having renounced
the faith of Islam, had rendered themselves amenable to death, the
penalty prescribed by Mohammed for the unpardonable crime of
apostasy. These were outlaws and highwaymen, who, in defiance of
the feeble police maintained by the government, openly levied
contributions upon travellers within sight of the minarets of Cordova.
Add to these disorganizing elements of society the half-savage
Berbers,—for the most part idolaters in religion and assassins in war,
—and the difficulties that confronted the ablest princes of the
Ommeyades may well be conceived. The Jews, whose mercantile
pursuits made them on all occasions advocates for peace and
frequently useful mediators, were robbed and oppressed in turn by
every faction into whose hands they were unfortunate enough to
fall. No region in the world of equal area contained such a mixed
and turbulent population as the Spanish Peninsula before the
Reconquest. The emirs, actuated by a principle familiar to all
despotic sovereigns threatened with a curtailment of their power,
bestowed their favor in turn upon the Arabs and the Muwallads,
according as one or the other seemed about to obtain a pre-
eminence dangerous to the safety of the state. But this policy
reacted in an unexpected manner, and aggravated the evils it was
intended to obviate. The victorious party never failed to abuse its
advantage with brutal severity. The faction for the time being under
the frown of the Court, lost all respect for, and renounced its
allegiance to, a government that refused it the protection of the
laws. The result was a bitter conflict in which Arab and Muwallad
were arrayed against the Emir and against each other at the same
time. The death of Al-Mondhir was the signal for increased disorder,
which the feeble and hypocritical Abdallah was incompetent to
suppress. The Arab nobles had long hoped to revive, in another
land, that period of unrestricted license whose traditions survived in
the exciting poems of the robbers and shepherds of the Desert. The
famous Ibn-Hafsun, whose name was the terror of every hamlet,
and who, as the head of the rebels of Bobastro and the natural ally
of every party of malcontents, was more powerful than the Emir
himself, now began to entertain hopes of being actually invested
with the royal dignity which he in substance already enjoyed.
The situation of Abdallah was perilous in the extreme. The loyalty
for the House of Ommeyah, which had been for generations the
marked characteristic of the Arab of Syrian descent and the
Koreishite alike, was greatly impaired. The treasury was empty. The
taxes due from the walis were, for the most part, withheld. The
tribute of the Christians, instigated by the Muwallads whom they
considered their champions, was, except in Cordova and its
immediate environs, suspended. The royal convoys were intercepted
and plundered on the highways. The fidelity of the populace of the
capital, suspected of secretly holding communication with the
enemy, was distrusted. A spirit of bravado had even prompted Ibn-
Hafsun to pass several days within its gates, which he had entered
unchallenged in the disguise of a beggar. The prejudices of Abdallah
inclined him to an alliance with the renegades. His early years had
been passed in intimate friendship with the officers of the guard,
who had since become distinguished leaders of that party. The
achievements of Ibn-Hafsun had rather awakened his admiration
than provoked his resentment. Conscious of his helplessness, and
desirous of conciliating the most powerful chief of the opposition, he
went so far as to tender him the government of Regio, conditional
upon his return to his allegiance. The crafty rebel, to whom an oath
was an unmeaning ceremony and who desired a respite to enable
him to reorganize his army, acquiesced without hesitation, and even
consented to send his son and several of his officers as hostages to
the court of the Emir. The latter treated these pledges of the
uncertain fidelity of a perfidious vassal with all the distinction usually
reserved for the emissaries of royalty. They were magnificently
entertained, lodged in palaces, and presented with costly gifts.
Unrestrained of their liberty, they had no trouble in escaping when, a
few months later, they received a secret message to repair to
Bobastro. All security for his loyal behavior being lost by their
departure, Ibn-Hafsun resumed his depredations with greater
audacity than ever. His aid was soon afterwards solicited by the
renegades of a district which had hitherto rather avoided than
courted his alliance,—the city and province of Elvira.
In the general distribution of lands made under the direction of
the emirs who acknowledged the Khalif of Damascus, the beautiful
plain subsequently known as the Vega of Granada was assigned to
the natives of Syria. With true Bedouin reserve and love of freedom,
the adventurers who had won this earthly paradise by their valor
disposed their habitations as far from the crowded haunts of men as
the extent and situation of their estates would permit. The increase
of their flocks, and the produce of the soil tilled by multitudes of
industrious slaves, soon raised their descendants to the height of
opulence. In the course of events, through confiscations for treason,
the casualties of war, and the effects of disease, many Arab families
became extinct, and their real property, by purchase or extortion,
became vested in a comparatively small number of great proprietors,
whose possessions embraced all the most valuable estates in the
province. These lords formed a caste that, for arrogance and
exclusiveness, had no equal in the Peninsula. The national pride of
the Syrian noble was immensely flattered by the sovereign pre-
eminence of his countrymen, the princes of the House of Ommeyah.
In his inordinate vanity he fancied that the future of that dynasty
depended on his individual exertions, as he habituated himself to
believe that its establishment was solely due to the genius and
efforts of his ancestors. And yet with all his professed attachment to
the crown, his loyalty had been more than once justly suspected.
There, as elsewhere, the interests of the court had been repeatedly
sacrificed to gratify the malice of faction,—for the inappeasable feud
between Yemenite and Maadite was nowhere maintained with
greater virulence than in the province of Elvira. In his intercourse
with his equals the Arab of the Vega—like all his brethren exposed
for a time to the refinements of civilization—was a model of
chivalrous politeness and graceful courtesy. But his demeanor was
far different when his affairs demanded any association with the
inhabitants of the city, who, in his eyes, labored under the double
reproach of being traders and renegades. No opportunity was lost to
humiliate these peaceful citizens; although in practice devout
Moslems, they were constantly taunted with their apostasy; and for
their denunciation the inexhaustible vocabulary of the Arab was
ransacked for opprobrious epithets, one of which, “filii canum,” has
descended to our time as the very epitome of insult.
The high spirit of the inhabitants of Elvira chafed under the gross
and unprovoked abuse which they were constantly compelled to
undergo. They also were vain of their ancestry and proud of their
souvenirs. In the early days of the Visigothic empire, the ancient
Illiberis had been an oasis in the dismal waste of Paganism that
included the entire Peninsula. It had been the seat of the first
Spanish bishopric. There had been held, in the first quarter of the
fourth century, a famous Council, many of whose canons are still
recognized as valid by the Roman Catholic Church. Among them was
one requiring the celibacy of the priesthood, a regulation
subsequently adopted and enforced by Gregory VII. There, too, was
contrived a scheme of discipline which, originally aimed at the rich
and prosperous Hebrews, became the model of that awful engine of
persecution, the Inquisition, whose tortures, improved by
ecclesiastical deviltry, filled the world with terror after the lapse of
more than a thousand years. The city, although inferior in natural
advantages to its growing neighbor, Granada, was nevertheless of
considerable political and commercial importance. The generous
piety of the Gothic nobles had enriched its see with large
endowments, and its churches in elegance and splendor could
compare with any of the kingdom.
But the contagious example of the prevalent apostasy, a condition
which dispensed with tribute and at the same time appealed strongly
to the ambition of the unscrupulous and the selfish passions of the
multitude, made itself felt before long even in this citadel of
Christianity. The corruption of the prelates, headed by the bishop,
Samuel, whose profligacy attained for him a notoriety proportionate
to the dignity of the office he disgraced, drove the indignant
Christians by hundreds into the fold of Islam. Those who remained
faithful to the traditions of the Church were so persecuted that no
resource was left to them but to join their brethren, many of whom
had sacrificed their convictions from more ignoble motives than that
of self-preservation. This wholesale desertion was greatly facilitated
by the connivance of the inferior clergy, as well as by the open
violence of the bishop and his coadjutors, who, corrupted by the
Moslems, exerted themselves with far greater energy and success in
obtaining proselytes to the religion of Mohammed than they had
ever done in promoting the cause of Christ. In the end, the excesses
of this unworthy prelate became so insufferable that he was
removed from his see and divested of his sacred authority;
whereupon he at once repaired to Cordova, and, having publicly
renounced his faith, was rewarded with the lucrative employment of
persecutor, an infamous office whose duties he discharged with all
the malignant assiduity of the renegade. Long before the accession
of Abdallah, the resentment of the Muwallads of Elvira, inflamed to
the highest pitch, had broken out against their churlish neighbors,
the Arab nobles, in acts of open hostility. The sympathies of the
Jews of Granada seem to have been with the latter, who, on various
occasions, were saved from destruction by the friendly walls of that
city. Superior in numbers and equal in bravery to their adversaries,
the result of every engagement was favorable to the renegades. As
neither party was accustomed to give quarter, the struggle soon
assumed the character of a war of extermination. In the year 889 a
number of Syrian chieftains, who were visiting the capital of the
province under the protection of a truce, were treacherously
massacred in the streets, a catastrophe that gave the Muwallads,
already sufficiently powerful, a momentary but uncontested
ascendency. The Arabs, whose numbers had been depleted by many
consecutive years of warfare, forgot, for the moment, their
hereditary enmities, which no disaster, however serious, could
entirely reconcile, in the engrossing passion of vengeance. They
chose for their leader Sauwar, a venerable warrior whose declining
age had been embittered by the bloody sacrifice of his only son to
the fury of the renegades. His misfortunes had erased from his
bosom every feeling of compassion, every suggestion of humanity. A
brutal ferocity that regarded the slightest concession to the
weakness of an enemy as a crime was the prominent characteristic
of the sheik whom the Arabs now selected to restore their fallen
fortunes. The first exploit of this savage warrior was the capture of
Monte Sacro, a stronghold north of Granada which had been the
scene of the greatest victory of the Muwallads and the occasion of
the death of his beloved son. Notwithstanding its strength, the castle
was carried at the first attack, and the garrison, six thousand in
number, massacred to a man. Encouraged by his success and
infuriated by the taste of blood, the desperate Sauwar sated to the
full his thirst for retribution. The terror of his arms caused many
towns to surrender without a blow. But submission conferred no
indulgence, and the work went relentlessly on. No Muwallad who
was so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the Arabs escaped. A
mere suspicion of Spanish or Gothic descent was deemed sufficient
evidence of identity, and brought certain and speedy death. Even
those conditions of helplessness which most readily appeal to the
compassion of mankind were not considered in this indiscriminate
proscription, and many distinguished families whose names were
identified with some of the most conspicuous events of Roman and
Visigothic annals were swept at one blow from the face of the earth.
This reign of terror, which threatened the extermination of their
race, induced the renegades to appeal for assistance to Djad, the
Arab governor of the province, whose authority they had disputed
after refusing the customary tribute. Satisfied of their sincerity, he
marched at the head of a considerable force against the formidable
partisan. The result was a decisive victory for the Arabs; the bodies
of seven thousand dead strewed the field of battle, and the governor
remained a prisoner in the camp of the enemy.
The prestige acquired by Sauwar after these decisive advantages
caused his alliance to be sought by many neighboring cities, among
them Calatrava and Jaen. Reduced to despair, the Muwallad faction
declared their willingness to renew their allegiance to the Emir. But
the latter was powerless to render them any substantial assistance.
The credit of the government was so low that it could scarcely pay
the troops required for the defence of the capital. The personal
qualities of Abdallah were not such as to enlist the sympathy or
arouse the enthusiasm of the people, and thereby compensate, in
some degree, for the deficiencies of the treasury. The governors of
the provinces were, for all practical purposes, independent princes.
Cordova was the residence of the flower of the Arab nobility, whose
prejudices were all on the side of Sauwar and his followers in their
efforts to exterminate the detested renegades, an enterprise which
they regarded as little less meritorious than a crusade against an
infidel foe. Willing but unable to exert his authority in behalf of his
unfortunate subjects, the Emir decided to assume the less
dangerous office of mediator. He therefore offered Sauwar the
government of several cities on condition that he would
acknowledge himself a vassal of the crown and cease his
persecution of the renegades. This advantageous proposal was
readily agreed to; the oath of allegiance was taken by both factions;
hostilities were suspended, and, for the first time in many years, the
province of Elvira was permitted to enjoy the blessings of public and
private tranquillity.
Habituated to warfare and scenes of carnage, the active spirit of
Sauwar chafed under the monotony and dullness entailed by civil
drudgery and magisterial duties. The territory that Ibn-Hafsun had
seized, and over which he ruled with despotic sway, extended to the
borders of the province of Elvira. Unable to resist the temptation,
Sauwar turned his attention to the adherents of that renowned
champion of the Muwallads, and soon the valleys and hamlets of
eastern Andalusia were visited with a scourge whose barbarity had
no parallel since the invasion of the Vandals. The sympathy of their
fellow-sectaries, the subjects of Sauwar, was enlisted in behalf of
those who were sufferers in a common cause; the Muwallads of
Elvira almost without exception rose in arms; and the Arabs,
expelled from the city and chased in every direction, sought by a
common impulse a temporary refuge in Granada.
The fortress of the Alhambra, a structure of remote and uncertain
antiquity, is mentioned definitely for the first time during the civil
wars of Elvira. It was known to the Arabs at least a century after the
Conquest, as Ka’lat-al-Hamra, The Red Castle, and its commanding
position and natural strength render it probable that it may have
been the site of a citadel as early as the Carthaginian occupation.
The whole of the Alhambra Hill was not enclosed, as at present, and,
at the time under consideration, the fortifications were confined to
the jutting point overlooking the present city and familiar to modern
travellers as the Alcazaba. Abandoned by the government, and
uncared for by the inhabitants, whose Jewish antecedents induced
them to trust for their safety rather to their acuteness than to their
courage, the venerable castle had fallen into decay. The repeated
sieges which it had sustained in the incessant contests between rival
factions had, in addition to the ruin produced by the effects of time
and the action of the elements, greatly diminished its capacity for
resistance. In their critical situation, where all depended on their
individual exertions,—for no hope of reinforcements could be
entertained,—the superstitious fears of the people, aided by the
suggestions of a vivid imagination, found in each trivial incident a
token of propitious or fatal augury. Fortunately for their cause, the
favorable omens preponderated on the day when the besieging
force, whose numbers amounted to twenty thousand, prepared to
storm their intrenchments. With characteristic cunning the prudent
Sauwar determined to counteract by stratagem the overwhelming
superiority of his adversaries. Leaving the citadel, and unobserved in
the confusion of battle, he suddenly appeared at the head of a
picked detachment in the rear of the enemy. Completely surprised,
the latter was at once thrown into confusion; the entire army took to
flight, and the terrified renegades were pursued to the very gates of
Elvira. The Muwallad army was completely destroyed. The entire
province was in mourning. There was no household that did not
lament the absence of one or more of its number, no soldier that did
not deplore the loss of a comrade or a friend. In deep humiliation
the remnant of the renegade host prepared to defend the capital to
which but a few hours before they had expected to return in
triumph. The elation of the Arabs exhibited itself in all the
extravagant exultation peculiar to that impassioned race. The fame
of Sauwar spread to the furthest limits of the Peninsula. His exploits
were celebrated with varying partiality by the poets of both factions,
whose interesting productions often compensate for the
unsatisfactory accounts of the chronicler, and in their animated and
graphic description of important events and distinguished
personages contribute copious and invaluable information to the
historian.
The disheartened members of the Muwallad faction now resolved
to place themselves under the protection of Ibn-Hafsun. As yet, they
had never asked his assistance, nor, what is even more remarkable,
had tempted his ambition or incurred his hostility. The aspiring
chieftain embraced with ardor a cause so congenial to his
adventurous spirit. With a confidence born of many victories he
encountered the Arabs in the field. The Muwallads were again
defeated, however, and it was with difficulty that Ibn-Hafsun, badly
wounded, and seeing decimated the ranks of the veterans who had
been his reliance in a score of campaigns, effected his retreat and
escaped to the mountains of Ronda.
The inhabitants of Elvira eventually succeeded in accomplishing
by artifice what they had failed to do by arms, and Sauwar, lured
with his escort into an ambuscade, was slaughtered. The brutal
instinct of human nature that, foiled in its efforts against the living,
finds a savage gratification in the mutilation of the dead, was
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