HISTORY

OF THE

Moorish Empire
IN EUROPE
BY
S. P. SCOTT
AUTHOR OF "THROUGH SPAIN"

Corduba famosa locuples de nomine dicta,

Inclyta deliciis, rebus quoque splendida cunctis

Hroswitha, Passio S. Pelagh

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. I.

PHILADELPHIA y LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1904
 Copyright, 1904
By J. B. Lippincott Company

Published March, 1904

Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, V. S. A.

 PREFACE

This work has engaged the attention of the au-

thor for more than twenty years. Its object is an

attempt to depict the civilization of that great race

whose achievements in science, literature, and the arts
have been the inspiration of the marvellous progress
of the present age. The review of this wide-spread
influence, whose ramifications extend to the limits of
both Europe and America, has required the introduc-
tion of some matter apparently extraneous, but which,
when considered in its general relations to the subject,
will be found to be not foreign to the purpose of these
volumes.
The of authorities cited does not, by any means,
list

include all that have been examined. Many, from

which comparatively few facts have been gleaned,
have been omitted. Among the works that have been
made the subject of careful research, and have yielded
most valuable information in addition to the Arabic
and Spanish chronicles are those of Al-Makkari,
Romev, Rosseuw St. Hilaire, Le Bon, Sedillot, and
Casiri. The utter unreliability of Conde, who com-
piled the only detailed history of the
Moors of Spain,
is well known, and his statements have not been

adopted except when amply verified. The histories

of the late R. Dozy, Professor in the University of
Leyden, which for learning, accuracy, impartiality,
and critical acumen have few rivals in this branch of
literature, have been the principal dependence of the
author, who gladly takes this opportunity to acknowl-
edge his obligations to the labors of one whose genius
vi Preface

and attainments are recognized by every Oriental

scholar in Europe.
It may seem a work of supererogation to traverse
once more a portion of the ground covered by Irving
and Prescott. The final episode in the fall of a great
empire could not, however, with propriety be omitted.
Moreover, the accounts of these two famous writers
swarm with errors, as any one can readily discover
who will consult the chronicles of Pulgar and Bern-
aldez, eye-witnesses, and consequently the most re-
liable authoritiesconcerning what they relate. The
quotations of Irving, it may be added, indicate a sur-
prising want of familiarity with the Castilian lan-
guage.
That writer best fulfils the office of an historian
who passes before the mind of the reader, as in a
panorama, not merely the more striking events o'f war
and diplomacy, but circumstances often regarded as
unimportant, yet which illustrate, as no others can do,
the condition of the masses as well as the policy of
the prince which indicate the condition of public and
;

private morals; which exhibit the effects of domestic

manners, of ingenious inventions, of literary progress
and artistic development which reveal the unfolding
;

of national taste which present, in short, the portrait-

ure of every material and intellectual feature neces-
sary to the elucidation of the character, the aspira-
tions, and the foibles of a people. With this end in
view, sources of information usually regarded as be-
neath the dignity of an historical work have been
drawn on for material in the following pages.
The author no feeling of animosity to-
cherishes
wards the Spanish people. He remembers with
pleasure a long sojourn among them. He can never
forget the dignified courtesy of their men, the incom-
parable grace and fascinations of their women. Their
faults are those entailed by a pernicious inheritance
 Preface Vll

and a corrupt religion, which have perverted their

principles, destroyed their power, and tarnished their
glory.
As the greater part of this book was written before
1898, any unfavorable criticism of Spanish politics or
manners which it contains must be attributed to a de-
sire to adhere to historic truth, and not to a contemp-
"
tible prejudice engendered by our unfortunate War
of Humanity."
Philadelphia, 1903.
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

CHAPTER I

THE ANCIENT ARABIANS

PAGE

Topography of Arabia Its History Influence of Other

Nations Ancient Civilization Commerce Persist-
ence of Customs and Language Character of the
Bedouin His Independence His Predatory Instincts
Power of Tribal Connection War the Normal Con-
dition of Existence in the Desert The Virtues and
Vices of the Arabs Blood-Revenge and its Destruc-
tive Consequences Absence of Caste Condition of
Woman Marriage Religion Astral Worship Idol-

atry Phallicism Human Sacrifices Importance and

Power of the Jews Christianity in Arabia Poetry, its
Subjects and Character The Moallakat Popularity of
the Arab Poet His License Influence of Arabic Civi-
lization and Culture on Subsequent Ages 1

CHAPTER II

THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND INFLUENCE OF ISLAM

Comparative Religion, its Interest as a Study The Benefits

of Islam Arabia at the Birth of Mohammed Condi-
tion of Christendom and the Byzantine Empire Popu-
lar Idea of the Prophet His Family His Early Life
The First Revelation Persecution of the New Sect
The Hegira Growing Prosperity of Islam Character
of Mohammed Causes of His Success Polygamy
The Koran Its Arrangement, its Legends, its Sublime
Maxims, its Absurdities Creeds
Its Obligations to other
The Kiblah The Pilgrimage andCeremoniesits

Reforms accomplished by Islam Universal Worship of

Force Corruption of the Religion of Mohammed Its
Wonderful Achievements Mohammed the Apostle of
God 57
ix
x Contents of Volume I.

CHAPTER III

THE CONQUEST OF AL-MAGHREB

PAGE
General Disorder following the Death of Mohammed
Regulations of Islam Progress of the Moslem Arms
Northern Africa, the Land of the Evening Its Fer-
tility Its Population Expedition of Abdallah De-
feat of the Greeks Invasion of Okbah Foundation
of Kairoan March of Hassan Ancient Carthage Its
Influence on Europe Its Splendid Civilization Its
Maritime Power, its Colonies, its Resources Descrip-
tion of the City Its Architectural Grandeur Its Har-

bors, Temples, and Public Edifices Roman Carthage

Its Luxury and Depravity Its Destruction by the Mos-
lems Wars with the Berbers Musa appointed General
His Romantic History His Character He subdues
Al-Maghreb Africa incapable of Permanent Civiliza-
tion 128

CHAPTER IV
THE VISIGOTHIC MONARCHY

Origin and Character of the Goths Their Invasion of the

Peninsula Power of the Clergy Ecclesiastical Coun-
cils The Jews The Visigothic Code Profound
Wisdom of Its Enactments Provisions against Fraud
and Injustice Severe Penalties Its Definition of the
Law Condition of the Mechanical Arts Architecture
Byzantine Influence Manufactures Votive Crowns
Agriculture Literature Medicine Slave Labor
Imitation of Roman Customs between the
Parallel
Goths and the Arabs Coincidence of Sentiments and
Habits Causes of National Decline Permanent In-
fluence of the Gothic Polity 16*5

CHAPTER V
THE INVASION AND CONQUEST OF SPAIN
General Condition and Physical Features of the Spanish
Peninsula Various Classes of the Population Su-
premacy of the Church Tyranny of the Visigothic
 Contents of Volume I. xi

PAGE

Kings Fatal Policy of Witiza Accession of Roderick

Count Julian Invasion of Tarik Battle of the
Guadalete Its Momentous Results Progress of the
Moslems Arrival of Musa His Success Immense
Booty secured by the Victors Quarrel of Tarik and
Musa Interference of the Khalif Submission of the
Goths Musa's Vast Scheme of Conquest The Two
Generals ordered to Damascus The Triumphal Pro-
cession through Africa Fate of Musa Causes and
Effects of the Moslem Occupation of Spain 204

CHAPTER VI
THE EMIRATE
Abd-al-Aziz His Wise Administration His Execution
ordered by the Khalif Ayub-Ibn-Habib His Reforms
Al-Horr Al-Samh His Invasion of France His
Defeat and Death Abd-al-Rahman Feud of the
Maadites and Kahtanites Its Disastrous Effects
Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim His Ability He penetrates to
the Rhone and is killed Yahya-Ibn-Salmah Othman-
Ibn-Abu-Nesa Hodheyfa-Ibn-al-Awass Al-Hay-
tham-Ibn-Obeyd Mohammed-Ibn-Abdallah Abd-
al-Rahman His Popularity Proclaims the Holy War
Treason of Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa The Emir at-
tempts the Conquest of France Character of Charles
Martel Battle of Poitiers Death of Abd-al-Rahman
Abd-al-Melik Okbah-Ibn-al-Hej aj His Wisdom
and Capacity Charles Martel ravages Provence
Berber Revolt in Africa Victory of the Rebels Abd-
al-Melik-Ibn-Kottam Balj-Ibn-Beschr Thalaba
Abu-al-Khattar Condition of Western Europe
Unstable and Corrupt Administration of the Emirs
Importance of the Battle of Poitiers 266

CHAPTER VII
FOUNDATION OF THE SPANISH MONARCHY
The Northern Provinces of Spain Their Desolate and
Forbidding Character Climate Population Religion
Peculiarities of the Asturian Peasantry Pelayus
His Birth and Antecedents He collects an Army
xii Contents of Volume I.

PAGE
Obscure Origin of the Spanish Kingdom Extraordi-
nary Conditions under which it was founded Battle of
Covadonga Rout of the Arabs Increase of the Chris-
tian Power Favila Alfonso I. His Enterprise and
Conquests His Policy of Colonization Survival of
the Spirit of Liberty Religious Abuses State of
Society Beginning of the Struggle for Empire 337

CHAPTER VIII
THE OMMEYADES; REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN I.

The Ommeyade Family Its Origin Its Hostility to Mo-

hammed The Syrian Princes Their Profligacy
Splendors of Damascus Luxury of the Syrian Capi-
tal Rise of the Abbasides Proscription of the De-
feated Faction Escape Abd-al-Rahman
of His
Romantic Career He enters Spain His Success
Defeat and Dethronement of Yusuf Constant In-
surrections Enterprise of the Khalif of Bagdad
Its Disastrous Termination Invasion of Charlemagne
Slaughter of Roncesvalles Death of Abd-al-Rahman
His Character His Services to Civilization Foun-
dation of the Great Mosque The Franks reconquer
Septimania 367

CHAPTER IX
REIGN OF HISCHEM I.; REIGN OF AL-HAKEM I.

Custom of Royal Succession violated by the Will of Abd-al-

Rahman Accession of Hischem Revolt of Suleyman
and Abdallah They are routed and their Armies dis-
persed Clemency of the Emir Invasion of Septi-
mania Defeat of the Franks Indecisive Results of
the Campaign Public Works of Hischem His Noble
Character His Partiality for Theologians The
Southern Suburb of Cordova Death of Hischem
General Distrust of Al-Hakem Suleyman and Abdal-
lah again in Rebellion Civil War The Gothic March
Siege and Capture of Barcelona Apathy of the
Emir Importance of the Conquest The Edrisite
"
Dynasty Disturbances at Toledo The Day of
the Ditch" The Royal Body-Guard Revolt of the
 Contents of Volume I. xiii

PAGE
Faquis Its Results League of the Asturian and
Frankish Princes Legend of St. James the Apostle
Death of Al-Hakem His Character 421

CHAPTER X
REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN II. ; REIGN OF MOHAMMED
Accession of Abd-al-Rahman II. Defection of Abdallah
Invasion of the Gothic March Embassy from the
Greek Emperor Revolt of Merida Sedition at Toledo
Incursion of the Normans Persecution of the Chris-
tians Death of Abd-al-Rahman His Love of Pomp
His Virtues His Patronage of Art and Letters
Ziryab His Versatility Conspiracy of Tarub Strata-
gem of Mohammed His Bigotry Toledo again Re-
volts Rise of the Beni-Kasi War with the Asturias
Rebellion of Ibn-Merwan The Serrania de Ronda
Ibn-Hafsun, his Origin and Exploits Death and
Character of Mohammed Incipient Decadence of the
Moslem Power 475

CHAPTER XI
REIGN OF AL-MONDHIR; REIGN OF ABDALLAH
Parallel between the Policy of the Moorish and Asturian
Courts Alfonso III. His Conquests Energy of Al-
Mondhir Siege of Bobastro Stratagem of Ibn-Haf sun
The Emir is Poisoned Abdallah ascends the Throne
Conditions of Parties and Sects Prevalence of Dis-
order 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 529

CHAPTER XII
REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN III.

Eminent Qualities of theNew Ruler His Firmness Rapid

Subjection of the Rebel Territory Dissensions of the
xiv Contents of Volume I.

PAGE
Christians Defeat of Ibn-Abi-Abda Death of Ibn-
Hafsun Impaired Power of the Arab Nobles War
with the Fatimites of Africa Rout of Junquera Abd-
al-Rahman assumes the Title of Khalif Its Signifi-
cance Invasion of Castile
Reverse of Alhandega
Civil Wars of The Princes of Leon and
the Christians
Navarre visit the Moslem Court Abd-al-Rahman dies
at the Age of Seventy Years His Remarkable Achieve-
ments The Greek and German Embassies The Sara-
cens in France and Italy The Slaves and their Influ-
ence Plot of Abdallah Condition of the Country
under Abd-al-Rahman III. Cordova Its Wealth and
Magnificence The Royal Villas The City and Palace
of Medina-al-Zahra Melancholy Reflections of the
Greatest of the Khalif s 563

CHAPTER XIII
REIGN OF AL-HAKEM II.

Splendid Ceremonial at the Accession of Al-Hakem II.

His Wise and Prudent Measures Ordofio seeks an Au-
dience His Baseness Successful Expedition against
the Christians Disturbances in Africa Army of the
Khalif Defeated The Berber Chieftains are corrupted,
and their Forces disband Importance of Cordova as a
Religious Centre Description of the Great Mosque
Death of Al-Hakem His Literary Attainments His
Patronage of Letters The Library Institutions of

Learning General Prevalence of Education Public

Improvements The Khalif the Exemplar of the High-
est Culture of his Age Prosperity of the Empire. 634 . . .

CHAPTER XIV
REIGN OF HISCHEM II.

Origin of Ibn-abi-Amir-Al-Mansur The Scene in the Gar-

den Genius and Attainments of the Youthful States-
man His Sudden Rise to Power Influence of the
Eunuchs Their Conspiracy Detected Ibn-abi-Amir
aspires to Supreme Authority He is appointed Hajib
Ruin of his Rivals Reorganization of the Civil and
Military Service Systematic Degradation of Hischem
 Contents of Volume I. xv
PAGE
The Palace of Zahira The Hajib becomes Master
of the Empire Successful Wars with the Christians
Disturbances in Africa Destruction of Leon Sack
of Santiago Death of Al-Mansur His Great Services
to the State His Unbroken Series of Military Tri-
umphs Al-Modhaffer Abd-al-Rahman Moham-
med Suleyman Disappearance of Hischem Rapid
Disintegration of the Empire 683
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THE PREPARATION OF THIS WORK
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4to.
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Arnold Ishmael: The Natural History of Islamism. 8vo.
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Berington Literary History of the Middle Ages. 4to. Lon-
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Bosworth-Smith Mohammed and Mohammedanism. 8vo. Lon-
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Bower History of the Popes. 3 vols. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1844.
Brand Popular Antiquities. 8vo. London, 1810.
Burckhardt Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys. 2 vols. 8vo.
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Burckhardt Travels in Arabia. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1829.
Burckhardt Travels in Nubia. 4to. London, 1822.
Burton A Pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca. 12mo. New
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Chronicle of London 1089-1483. 4to. London, 1827.
Cosmo III. Travels in England. Folio. London, 1821.
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Davenport-Adams Witch, Warlock, and Magician. 8vo. Lon-
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Davenport An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran. 8vo.
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Davis Carthage and her Remains. 8vo. London, 1861.
Deutz Islam. 8vo. London.
D 'Israeli Curiosities of Literature. 2 vols. 8vo. London,
1807.
b xvii
xviii Authorities Consulted

Draper History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.

8vo. New York, 1875.
Emillianne History of the Monastic Orders. 12mo. London,
1677.
Fergusson History of Architecture. 2 vols. 8vo. New York,
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Finlay History of the Byzantine Empire. 8vo. London, 1856.
Finn History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal. 8vo. Lon-
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Hall Chronicle of England. 4to. London, 1809-
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Ibn-Khallikan 4 vols. 4to. Lon-
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Jennings Phallicism. 8vo. London, 1884.
Jennings The Rosicrucians. 8vo. London, 1879-
Jessup The Women of the Arabs. 8vo. New York.
Jones History of the Waldenses. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1816.
Jones Moallakat. 4to. London, 1783.
 Authorities Consulted xix

Jones The Alhambra. 2 vols. Folio. London, 1830.

Jones Works. 7 vols. 4to. London, 1804.
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Kingsley Alexandria and Her Schools. 8vo. Cambridge, 1854.
Kington History of Frederick II. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1862.
Knight Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.
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Knight The Normans in Sicily. 8vo. London. 1838.
Knight The Worship of Priapus. 4to. London, 1865.
Koeller Mohammed and Mohammedanism. 8vo. London,
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Kroeger The Minnesingers of Germany. 8vo. New York,
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Lacroix The Arts of the Middle Ages. Folio. London.
Lane Arabian Society in the Middle Ages. 8vo. London,
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8vo.
Lane-Poole The Art of the Saracens in Egypt. 8vo. Lon-
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Lea History of Sacerdotal Celibacy. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1867.
Lea Superstition and Force. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1866.
Lewis An Essay on the Origin and Formation of the Romance
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Lewis Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients.
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Limborch History of the Inquisition. 4to. London, 1731.
Lindo History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal. 8vo. Lon-
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Macaulay History of England. 5 vols. 8vo. New York.
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Maitland The Dark Ages. 8vo. London, 1844.
Malcolm Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London.
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Markham Irrigation in Eastern Spain. 8vo. London.
McLennan Studies in Ancient History. 8vo. London, 1876.
McMurdo History of Portugal. 8vo. London, 1888.
Meer Hassan Ali Observations on the Mussulmans of India.
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Merrick Life and Religion of Mohammed. 8vo. Boston, 1850.
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Milman History of Latin Christianity. 8 vols. 8vo. New

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Mum Annals of the Early Caliphate. 8vo. London, 1883.
Mum Life of Mohammed. 8vo. London, 1878.
Murphy History of the Mahometan Empire in Spain. 4to.
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Newton Principia. 8vo. New York.
Ockley History of the Saracens. 8vo. London. 1848.
Omarah Yaman. 8vo. London, 1892.
Osborn Islam under the Khalifs of Bagdad. 8vo. London,
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Palgrave A Year's Journey through Central and Eastern
Arabia. 12mo. New
York, 1871.
Palgrave Essays on Eastern Subjects. 8vo. London, 1872.
Pettigrew Superstitions connected with the Practice of Medi-
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Plumptre History of Pantheism. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1879-
Price Essay toward the History of Arabia. 4to. London,
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Rhoidis Pope Joan. 8vo. London, 1886.
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Stirling-Maxwell Don John of Austria. 2 vols. 8vo.
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Syed-Ahmed Essays on the Life of Mohammed. 8vo. London,
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Williams On Hinduism. 12mo.
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Wright Manners and Sentiments of England during the
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Wright Womankind in Western Europe. 4to. London, 1869.
 Authorities Consulted xxi

FRENCH.
Abd-al-Rahman-al-Sufi Description des fitoiles Fixes. 4to.
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Abd-al-Rezzaq Traite de Matiere Medicale Arabe. 8vo. Paris,
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Abd-el-Halim Roudh-el-Kartas. 8vo. Paris, 1859-
Abul Hassan Ali Lettres. 8vo. Paris.
Al-Kaliouby Quelques Chapitres de Medecine Arabe. 8vo.
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Anecdotes Arabes et Musulmanes. 12mo. Paris, 1772.
Arcoleo Palerme et la Civilisation en Sicile. 8vo. Paris, 1898.
Arnoult Memoires de la Langue Romane. 3 vols. 8vo. Tou-
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Astruc Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de la Faculte de
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Aubertin Histoire de la Langue et la Litterature Francaises
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Babelon Du Commerce des Arabes dans le Nord de l'Europe.
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Baissac Les Grands Jours de la Sorcellerie. 8vo. Paris, 1890.
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xxii Authorities Consulted

Belin Du Regime des Fiefs Militaires dans l'lslamisme. 8vo.

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Benetrix Les Femmes Troubadours. 8vo. Paris, 1890.
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Bruce-Whyte Histoire des Langues Romanes. 3 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1841.
Burnouf Essai sur Le Veda. 8vo. Paris, 1863.
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Capefigue Histoire de France au Moyen Age. 4 vols. 8vo.

Bruxelles, 1843.
Capefigue Histoire Philosophique des Juifs. 8vo. Bruxelles,
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Cardonne Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne. 3 vols.
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Cardonne Melange de la Litterature Orientale. 12mo. Paris,
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Catel Histoire de Languedoc. Folio. Tolose, 1633.
Catel Histoire des Comtes de Tolose. Tolose, 1623.
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Caussin de Perceval Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant
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Chapo et Belzunce Histoire des Basques. 3 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1847.
Chaumeil de Stella Essai sur l'Histoire de Portugal. 8vo.
Bruxelles.
Chenier Recherches Historiques sur les Maures. 3 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1787.
Cherrier Histoire de la Lutte des Papes. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1841.
Chiarini Le Talmud de Babylone. 8vo. Leipzig. 1831.
Choiseul-Dallecourt De l'lnfluence des Croisades. 8vo.
Paris, 1809.
Christianowitsch Esquisse Historique de la Musique Arabe.
4to.
 Authorities Consulted xxiii

Circourt Histoire des Mores Mudejares et des Morisques. 3

vols. 8vo. Paris, 1846.
Clot-Bey Apercu General sur l'figypte. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1840.
Coupry Traite de la Versification Arabe. 8vo. Leipzig, 1875.
Coypel Le Judai'sme. 8vo. Paris, 1877.
Daremberg Histoire des Sciences Medicales. 2 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1870.
Daumas La Vie Arabe. 8vo. Paris.
Davillier Histoire des Faiences Hispano-Moresques. 8vo.

Paris, 1861.
Davillier Les Arts Decoratifs en Espagne. 8vo. Paris, 1879-
Davillier Notice sur les Cuirs de Cordoue. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Davillier Origines de la Porcelaine en Europe. 4to. Paris,
1882.
Delambre Histoire de l'Astronomie Ancienne. 2 vols. 4to.

Paris, 1817.
Delaporte Vie de Mahomet. 8vo. Paris, 1874.
De lTsle Des Talismans. 12mo. Paris, 1636.
Denis Chroniques et Traditions Provencales. 8vo. Toulon,
1831.
De Parctelaine Histoire de la Guerre contre les Albigeois.
8vo. Paris, 1833.
Depping Histoire du Commerce entre le Levant et l'Europe.
2 vols. 8vo. 1830.
Depping Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age. 8vo. Paris, 1834.
De Rochat Les Parias de France et d'Espagne. 8vo. Paris,
1876.
De Sacy Chrestomatie Arabe. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1826.
De Sacy Memoires sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant Mahomet.
4to. Paris.
De Saulcy Histoire de l'Art Judaique. 8vo. Paris, 1858.
Desvergers Arabic 8vo. Paris, 1847.
D'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale. 6 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1773.
Dinaux Les Trouveres Artesiens. 8vo. Paris, 1843.
Douais Les Albigeois. 8vo. Paris, 1879-
Dozy Essai sur l'Histoire de l'lslamisme. 8vo. Leyde, 1879-
Dozy Glossaire des Mots Espagnols et Portugais derives de
l'Arabe. 8vo. Leyde, 1869-
Dozy Histoire des Musulmans d'Espagne. 4 vols. 8vo. Leyde,
1861.
Dozy Le Cid. 8vo. Leyde, I860.
Dozy Notices sur Quelques Manuscrits. 8vo. Leyde, 1847.
xxiv Authorities Consulted

Dozy Recherches sur l'Histoire et la Litterature de l'Espagne

pendant Moyen Age.
le Leyde, I860.
2 vols. 8vo.
Dubois Histoire de l'Horlogerie. 4to. Paris, 1849-
Dugat Histoire des Philosophes Musulmans. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Dugat Traite de Medecine d'Abou Djafar. 8vo. Paris, 1853.
Dupouy Le Moyen Age Medical. 12mo. Paris, 1880.
Egger L'Hellenisme en France. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1869-
El-Bekri Description de l'Afrique Septentrionale. 8vo.

Paris, 1859.
Fabre Le Troubadour. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1843.
Fauriel Histoire de la Gaule Meridionale. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1836.
Fauriel Histoire de la Poesie Proven9ale. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1846.
Ferreras Histoire Generale d'Espagne. 10 vols. 4to. Paris,
1744.
Fetis Histoire de la Musique. 5 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1869-
Figuier L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes. 12mo.
Paris, 1856.
Fleury Histoire Ecclesiastique. 6 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1844.
Fluckiger et Hanbury Histoire des Drogues Vegetales. 2
vols. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Fouriel Conquete de l'Afrique par les Arabes. 2 vols. 4to.
1875.
Fournel Les Berberes. 2 vols. 4to. Paris, 1875.
Franck La Kabbale. 8vo. Paris, 1843.
Freguier Les Juifs Algeriens. 8vo. Paris, 1865.
Fresnel Lettre sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant l'lslamisme.
8vo. Paris, 1836.
Gagnier La Vie de Mahomet. 12mo. Amsterdam, 1732.
Garcin de Tassy Memoire sur les Noms Propres et les Titres
Musulmans. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Garnier Celibat et les Celibataires. 12mo. Paris, 1889.
Garnier Histoire de la Verrerie. 8vo. Tours, 1886.
Gastineau Les Femmes et les Mceurs d'Algerie. 12mo. Paris.
Gaufridi Histoire de Provence. 2 vols. Folio. Aix, 1694.
Gauttier d'Arc Histoire des Conquetes des Normands en Italie,
en Sicile, et en Grece. 8vo. Paris, 1830.
Ghazzali Le Preservatif de l'Erreur. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Girault de Prangey Essai sur l'Architecture des Arabes et
des Maures. 4to. Paris, 1842.
Goldzieher Le Culte des Ancetres chez les Arabes. 8vo.
Paris, 1885.
Graetz Les Juifs d'Espagne. 8vo. Paris, 1872.
 Authorities Consulted xxv

Grangeret de Lagrange Les Arabes en Espagne. 8vo. Paris,

1824.
Guardia La Medecine a travers les Siecles. 8vo. Paris, 1865.
Guizot Collection des Memoires relatifs a l'Histoire de la
France. 31 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1824.
Guizot Histoire de la Civilisation en France. 4 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1846.
Guyard La Civilisation Musulmane. 12mo. Paris, 1884.
Guyard Theorie de la Metrique Arabe. 8vo. Paris.
Histoire des Papes. 10 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1844.
Hoefer Histoire de la Chimie. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris.
Hoefer Histoire des Mathematiques. 12mo. Paris, 1874.
Hovelacque L'Avesta. 8vo. Paris, 1880.
Huillard-Breholles Histoire Diplomatique de Frederic II.
4to. Paris, 1859-
Huillard-Breholles La Vie de Pierre de la Vigne. 8vo.

Paris, 1865.
Ibn-al-Awam Le Livre de l'Agriculture. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1866.
Ibn-el-Beithar Traite des Simples. 3 vols. 4to. Paris,
1877.
Ibn-Haukal Description de Palerme au X Siecle. 8vo. Paris,
1845.
Ibn-Khaldun Histoire des Berberes. 4 vols. 8vo. Alger,
1856.
Jacob Curiosites de l'Histoire du Moyen Age. 12mo. Paris,
1859.
Jacobi Histoire de la Corse. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1833.
'

Jagnaux Histoire de la Chimie. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1891.

Jaubert de Passa Voyage en Espagne. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1891.
Jomard Etudes sur l'Arabie. 8vo. Paris, 1839.
La Beaume Le Coran Analyse. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Labessade Le Droit du Seigneur. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Lacroix Moeurs et Usages au Moyen Age. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Lacroix Sciences et Lettres au Moyen Age. Folio. Paris,
1877.
Langle Historial du Jongleur. 8vo. Paris, 1829.
La Primaudaie Les Arabes en Sicile et en Italic 8vo. Paris,
1867.
La Roque Voyage dans l'Arabie Heureuse. 12mo. Paris,
1725.
Lebeau Histoire du Bas Empire. 13 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1820.
Le Bon La Civilisation des Arabes. 8vo. Paris, 1884.
xxvi Authorities Consulted

Lebrun Histoire Secrete des Couvents. 12mo. Bruxelles.

Leclerc Abul Casis. Paris, 1874.
8vo.
Leclerc Histoire de la Medecine Arabe. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1876.
Lenient La Satire en France au Moyen Age. 8vo. Paris,
1877.
Lenormant La Grande Grece. 12mo. Paris, 1881.
Lenormant La Divination. 8vo. Paris, 1875.
Lenormant Les Premieres Civilisations. 8vo. Paris, 1874.
Lentheric La Grece et l'Orient en Provence. 12mo. Paris,
1878.
Letourneaux La Kabylie et les Coutumes Kabyles. 3 vols.
8vo. Paris, 1872.
Linguet Essai Philosophique sur le Monachisme. 12mo.
Paris, 1777.
Llorente Histoire de l'lnquisition d'Espagne. 4 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1817.
Louis-Lande Basques et Navarrais. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Lucas Documents sur le Cid. 8vo. Paris, I860.
Magen Les Pretres et les Moines a. travers les Ages. 8vo.

Paris, 1857.
Makrizi Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks. 2 vols. 4to. Paris,
1837.
Makrizi Traite des Monnaies Musulmanes. 8vo. Paris.
Mandel Histoire de la Langue Romane. 8vo. Paris, 1840.
Marchand Moines et Nonnes. 12mo. Paris, 1881.
Marmol L'Afrique. 3 vols. 4to. Paris, 1667.
Martin Les Signes Numeraux chez les Peuples de l'Antiquite
etdu Moyen Age. 4to. Rome, 1864.
Martonne La Piete du Moyen Age. 8vo. Paris, 1855.
Mas Latrie Histoire de l'lsle de Chypre. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1855.
Mas Latrie Traites de Paix des Arabes du Moyen Age.
Folio. Paris, 1866.
Maury Croyances et Legendes de l'Antiquite. 8vo. Paris,
1863.
Maury Essai sur les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen Age. 8vo.

Paris, 1843.
Maury Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique. 3 vols.
8vo. Paris, 1857.
Maury La Magie et l'Astrologie. 12mo. Paris, I860.
Menant Zoroastre. 8vo. Paris, 1857.
Meray La Vie au Temps des Cours d' Amour. 8vo. Paris,
1876.
 Authorities Consulted xxvii

Meray La Vie au Temps des Trouveres. 8vo. Paris.

Merimee Histoire de Don Pedro I. 12mo. Paris, I860.
Michaud Histoire des Croisades. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1867-
Michelet Histoire de France. 19 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1870.
Michel Histoire des Races Maudites de la France et de l'Es-
pagne. 2 vols. 8vo.Paris, 1847.
Michel Le Pays Basque. 8vo. Paris, 1859.
Miege Histoire de Malte. 2 vols. 8vo. Bruxelles, 1841.
Millot Histoire Litteraire des Troubadours. 3 vols. 12mo.
Paris, 1774.
Mimaut Histoire de Sardaigne. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1825.
Mohammed-Ibn-Djobair Voyage en Sicile. 8vo. Paris, 1846.
Moline de Saint-Yon Histoire des Comtes de Toulouse. 4
vols. 8vo. Paris.
Montucla Histoire des Mathematiques. 2 vols. 4to. Paris,
1758.
Morlillaro Legendes Historiques Siciliennes. 8vo. Palermo,
1890.
Niebuhr Description de l'Arabie. 4to. Paris, 1779-
Oelsner Des Effets de la Religion de Mohammed. 8vo. Paris,
1810.
Pariset Histoire de la Soie. 8vo.
2 vols. Paris, 1862.
Perron Femmes Arabes. Paris, 1858.
8vo.
Perrot Histoire des Antiquites de la Ville de Nismes. 8vo.

Nismes, 1842.
Peyrat Histoire des Albigeois. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1870.
Pleyte La Religion des pre-Israelites. Utrecht, 1862.
8vo.
Poiret Voyage en Barbaric 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1789.
Prisse d'Avesnes La Decoration Arabe. Folio. Paris, 1885.
Querry Le Droit Musulman. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1871.
Ramee Histoire Generale de l'Architecture. 2 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1859-
Reinaud Extraits des Historiens Arabes relatifs aux Croisades.
8vo. Paris, 1829-
Reinaud L'Art Militaire chez les Arabes au Moyen Age. 8vo.

Paris, 1848.
Reinaud Les Invasions des Sarrasins en France. 8vo. Paris.
Reinaud Monumens Arabes, Persans, et Turcs. 2 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1828.
Reinaud Notice sur Mahomet. 8vo. Paris, I860.
Reinaud Relation des Voyages dans l'lnde. 2 vols. 18mo.
Paris, 1845.
Renan Averroes et l'Averroisme. 8vo. Paris, 1852.
xxviii Authorities Consulted

Renauldon Dictionnaire des Fiefs et des Droits Seigneureaux.

4to. Paris, 1765.
FiENouard Histoire de la Medecine. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1846.
Romey Histoire d'Espagne. 9 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1839-
Ronna Les Irrigations. 3 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1888.
Roquaire La Papaute au Moyen Age. 8vo. Paris, 1881.
Rosseuw Saint-Hilaire Histoire d'Espagne. 14 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1859.
Sabatier Notice sur Gerbert. 8vo. Paris, 1850.
Sainte-Pelaie Histoire Litteraire des Troubadours. 3 vols.
12mo. Paris, 1774.
Schmolders Essai sur les Ecoles Philosophiques chez les
Arabes. 8vo. Paris, 1842.
Schoebel Le Bouddhisme et ses Origines. 8vo. Paris, 1874.
Scholl LTslam et son Fondateur. 8vo. Neuchatel, 1844.
Sedillot Histoire Generale des Arabes. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris,
1877.
Sedillot Materiaux pour servir a l'Histoire Complete des
Sciences Mathematiques chez les Orientaux. 2 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1845.
Sedillot Memoire sur les Systemes Geographiques des Arabes.
8vo. Paris, 1842.
Sedillot Prolegomenes des Tables Astronomiques d'Oloug Beg.
8vo. Paris, 1853.
Sedillot Traite des Instruments Astronomiques des Arabes.
4to. Paris, 1833.
Sismondi Histoire de la Litterature du Midi de l'Europe. 4
vols. 8vo. Paris, 1829.
Sismondi Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age. 10 vols. 8vo.
Paris, 1840.
Solvet Description du Pays de Magreb. 8vo. Alger, 1839.
Torres Histoire des Cherifs. 4to. Paris, 1667.
Vacherot Histoire Critique de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie. 3 vols.
8vo. Paris, 1846.
Vertot Histoire des Chevaliers Hospitaliers. 5 vols. 8vo.
Amsterdam, 1732.
Viardot Histoire des Arabes et des Mores d'Espagne. 2 vols.
8vo. Paris, 1857.
Viardot Scenes des Moeurs Arabes. 8vo. Paris, 1834.
Villemain Histoire de Gregoire VII. 8vo. Paris, 1874.
Villemain Tableau de la Litterature au Moyen Age. 8vo.
Paris, 1878.
 Authorities Consulted xxix

Vincent Etudes sur la Loi Musulmane Legislation Crimi-

nelle. 8vo. Paris, 1842.
Woepcke L'Algebre d'Omar Al-Khayymi. 8vo. Paris, 1857.
Woepcke Memoire sur la Propagation des Chiffres Indiens.
8vo. Paris, 1863.
Woepcke Recherches sur l'Histoire des Sciences Mathe-
matiques chez les Orientaux. 8vo. Paris, I860.
Woepcke Sur l'lntroduction de l'Arithmetique en Occident.
4to. Paris, 1859-
Zamakhschari Les Colliers d'Or. 8vo. Paris, 1876.
Zeller Entretiens sur l'Histoire du Moyen Age. 12mo.
Paris, 1865.
Zeller Histoire d'AUemagne. 7 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1872.

SPANISH.
Abarca Anales de Aragon. 2 vols. Folio. Salamanca, 1684.
Aldrete Varias Antigiiedades de Espafia. 4to. Amberes,
1614.
Almagro Inscripciones Arabes de Granada. 4to. Granada,
1877.
Alonso el Sabio Las Siete Partidas. 3 vols. 4to. Madrid,
1807.
Araquistan Tradiciones Vasco Cantabras. 8vo. Tolosa,
1866.
Argote de Molina Nobleza de Andalucia. Folio. Sevilla,
1581.
Argote Nuevos Paseos por Granada. 2 vols. 12mo. Granada,
1820.
Baeza Ultimos Sucesos del Reino de Granada. 8vo. Madrid,
1868.
Balaguer Historia de los Trovadores. 6 vols. 8vo. Madrid,
1878.
Balaguer Los Reyes Catolicos. 2 vols. 8vo. Madrid, 1894.
Bernaldez Historia de los Reyes Catolicos. 2 vols. 4to. Se-
villa, 1870.
Bleda Coronica de los Moros de Espafia. Folio. Valencia,
1618.
Boix Xativa. 8vo. 1857.
Canas De la Agricultura Espanola. l6mo. Valladolid, 1868.
Caro Antigiiedades de Sevilla. Folio. Sevilla, 1634.
Cascales Discursos Historicos sobre Murcia. Folio. Murcia,
1775.
Caveda Ensayo Historico sobre los diversos generos de Archi-
tectura en Espafia. 8vo. Madrid, 1848.
xxx Authorities Consulted

Caveda Cronica de Don Alvaro de Luna. Folio. Madrid, 1784.

Cebrian Historia de los Arabes en Murcia. 8vo. Palma, 1845.
Codera y Zaidin Tratado de Numismatica Arabigo-Espanola.
4to. Madrid, 1879-
Colmenares Historia de Segovia. Folio. Madrid, 1640.
Conde Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en Espana.
2 vols. 4to. Madrid, 1820.
Contreras Monumentos Arabes. 4to. Madrid, 1878.
Cronicas de los Reyes de Castilla. 3 vols. 8vo. Madrid,
1875.
Dameto Historia del Reyno Balearico. 3 vols. 4to. Palma,
1840.
Danvila y Collado La Expulsion de los Moriscos. 8vo.

Madrid, 1889-
De la Pena Anales de Cataluna. 3 vols. Folio. Barcelona,
1709.
De los Rios El Arte Latino-Byzantino. 4to. Madrid, 1861.
De los Rios Historia de los Judios de Espana. 3 vols. 8vo.

Madrid, 1876.
De los Rios Inscripciones Arabes de Cordoba y Sevilla. 8vo.

Madrid, 1879-
De los Rios Sevilla Pintoresca. 4to. Sevilla, 1844.
De los Rios Toledo Pintoresca. 4to. Madrid, 1845.
Del Valle Anales de la Inquisicion. 8vo. Madrid, 1868.
De Schack Poesfa y Arte de los Arabes en Espana y Sicilia.
3 vols. 12mo. Madrid, 1872.
Diago Historia de los Condes de Barcelona. Folio. Barce-
lona, 1603.
Duro Memorias de Zamora. 4 vols. 8vo. Madrid, 1883.
Echevarria Paseos por Granada. 2 vols. 8vo. Granada,
1814.
Escolano Historia de Valencia. 2 vols. Folio. Valencia,
1610.
Flechier Historia del Cardenal Ximenes. 8vo. Lyons, 1712.
Florez Espana Sagrada. 51 vols. 4to. Madrid, 1754.
Galiano Historia de Espana. 4 vols. 8vo. Madrid, 1844.
Garibay Compendio Historial de las Chronicas. 2 vols.
Folio. Barcelona, 1628.
Gomez-Miedes Historia del Rey Don Jayme I. de Aragon.
Folio. Valencia, 1584.
Gongora Historia de Navarra. 4to. Pamplona, 1628.
Guadalajara y Xavierr Memorable Expulsion de los Moris-
cos de Espana. 4to. Pamplona, 1613.
 Authorities Consulted xxxi

Hurtado de Mendoza Guerra de Granada contra los Moris-

cos. 4to. 1 776.
Ibn-Aljathib Descripcion del Reino de Granada. 8vo.

Madrid, I860.
Janer Condicion Social de los Moriscos de Espana. 8vo.

Madrid, 1857-
Jimena Anales de Jaen y Baeza. 4to. Matriti, 1654.
Lafuente-Alcantara El Libro del Viajero en Granada.
l6mo. Granada, 184-3.
Lafuente-Alcantara Historia de Granada. 2 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1852.
Lafuente-Alcantara Inscripciones Arabes de Granada. 8vo.

Madrid, 1859-
Lafuente Historia General de Espana. 6 vols. 4to. Bar-
celona, 1882.
Lozano Los Reyes Nuevos de Toledo. 4to. Valencia, 1698.
Madrazo Cordova. 4to. Madrid, 1855.
Madrazo Sevilla y Cadiz. 4to. Madrid, 1856.
Mariana Historia General de Espana. 2 vols. Folio. Mad-
rid, 1650.
Marmol-Carvajal Historia de la Rebelion y Castigo de los

Moriscos. 4to. Madrid, 1797.

Martinez de la Rosa Obras. 8vo. Paris, 1844.
Masdeu Historia Critica de Espana. 20 vols. 4to. Madrid,
1787.
Memorial Historico Espanol. 21 vols. 4to. Madrid,
1851-1889-
Memorias de la Real Academia de Historia. 11 vols.

4to. Madrid, 1796-1888.

Menandez-Valdez La Monarchia Asturiana. 4to. Madrid.
Mesa-Ginete Historia de Jerez de la Frontera. 2 vols. 4to.

Jerez, 1888.
Mila y Fontenals De los Trovadores en Espana. 8vo.

Barcelona, 1861.
Molino Rodrigo el Campeador. 4to. Madrid, 1857-
Mondejar Memorias del Rei Alonso el Sabio. Folio. Mad-
rid, 1777.
Morales Coronica General de Espana. 15 vols. 4to. Mad-
rid, 1791-
Moreti Historia de Ronda. 4to. Ronda, 1867.
Munoz y Gaviria Historia del Alzamiento de los Moriscos.
12mo. Madrid, 1861.
Nebrixa Chronica de los Reyes Catholicos. Folio. Vallado-
lid, 1565.
xxxii Authorities Consulted

Nunez de Castro Coronica de los Reyes de Castilla. Folio.

Madrid, 1665.
Olivarria y Huarte Tradiciones de Toledo. 12mo. Mad-
rid, 1880.
Oliver-Hurtado Granada y sus Monumentos Arabes. 8vo.

Malaga, 1875.
Orbaneja Almeria Ilustrada. Folio. Almeria, 1699-
Pedraza Historia Eclesiastica de Granada. Folio. Granada,
1638.
Pi yMargall Granada. 4to. Madrid, 1850.
Rada y Delgado Museo Espanol de Antigiiedades. 9 vols.
Folio. Madrid.
Risco La Castilla. 4to. Madrid, 1792.
Rivera Historia de Ronda. l6mo. Ronda, 1873.
Robles Malaga Musulmana. 4to. Malaga, 1880.
Rojas Historia de Toledo. 2 vols. Folio. Madrid, 1659-
Saavedra Estudio sobre la Invasion de los Arabes en Espaiia.
8vo. Madrid, 1892.
Salazar de Mendoza Cronica de la Casa de los Ponces de
Leon. 4to. 1620.
Salazar de Mendoza Cronica del Gran Cardenal de Espaiia.
Folio. Toledo, 1725.
Sandoval Chronica de Don Alonso VII. Folio. Madrid,
1600.
Sandoval Historia de los Reyes de Castilla y Leon. Folio.

Pamplona, 1634.
Simonet Leyendas Historicas Arabes. 8vo. Madrid, 1858.
Tapia Historia de la Civilizacion Espaiiola. 4 vols. 12mo.
Madrid, 1840.
Torres Historia de las Ordenes Militares. 4to. Madrid,
1629-
Valdes Monarchia Asturiana. 4to. Madrid.
Velasco Los Euskaros. 8vo. Barcelona, 1879-
Viegas Principios del Reyno de Portugal. 4to. Barcelona.
Zuniga Anales de Sevilla. 5 vols. 4to. Madrid, 1796.
Zurita Anales de Aragon. 7 vols. Folio. Zaragoza, 1610.

PORTUGUESE.
Benavides Rainhas de Portugal. 2 vols. 8vo. Lisboa, 1878.
Braga Historia da Poesia Popular Portuguesa. 12mo. Porto,
1867.
Brito e Brandao Monarchia Lusitana. 8 vols. Folio.

Lisboa, 1690.
 Authorities Consulted xxxiii

Cancioneirinho de Trovas Antigas. 12mo. Vienna, 1857.

Da Serra Coleccao de Livros Ineditos de Historia
Portuguesa.
5 vols. Folio. Lisboa, 1790.
De Sousa Vestigios de la Lingua Arabica em Portugal. 8vo.
Lisboa, 1789-
Ennes Historia de Portugal. 2 vols. 8vo. Lisboa, 1876.
Herculano Historia da Inquisicao em Portugal. 3 vols.
12mo. 1874.
Herculano Historia de Portugal. 2 vols. 8vo. Lisboa,
1880.
Nunez do Liao Chronicas dos Reis de Portugal. 4 vols.

Lisboa, 1774.

ITALIAN.
Abbate Medio Evo. 8vo. Alba, 1892.
Italia nel
Airoldi Codice Diplomatico di Sicilia. 6 vols. 4to. Pa-
lermo, 1789-
Amari- -Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula. 3 vols. 8vo. Torino, 1880.
Amari I Diplomi Arabi. Folio. Firenze, 1863.
Amari Ricordi Arabici. 8vo. Genova, 1873.
Amari Sol wan el Mota. 12mo. Firenze, 1851.
Amari Storia dei Mussulmani di Sicilia. 3 vols. 8vo.
Firenze, 1854.
Amari Un Periode delle Istoriaa Siciliane. 8vo. Panormo,
1842.
Bardi Storia della Letteratura Araba sotto il Califato. 2 vols.
8vo. Firenze, 1846.
Bennici L'Ultimo dei Trovatori in Sicilia. 12mo. Palermo,
1874.
Bertalotti Gli Arabi in Italia. 8vo. Torino, 1838.
Bruno Opere. 2 vols. 8vo. Lipsiae, 1830.
Cavedoni Ricerche sui Trovatori. Folio. Modena, 1844.
Corbetta Sardegna e Corsica. 8vo. Milano, 1877-
Cusa I Diplomi Greci ed Arabi. Folio. Palermo, 1868.
De Renzi Collectio Salernitana. 5 vols. 8vo. Napoli, 1852.
Ferrario Storia degli Antichi Romanzi di Cavalleria. 4 vols.
8vo. Milano, 1828.
Galileo Opere. 16 vols. 8vo. Firenze, 1853.
Giannone Istoria del Regno di Napoli. 8 vols. 8vo. 1882.
Guicciardini Storia d' Italia. 6 vols. 8vo. Parigi, 1837.
Manno Storia di Sardegna. 8vo. Firenze, 1858.
Marigny Storia degli Arabi. 4 vols. 12mo. Venezia, 1753.
c
xxxiv Authorities Consulted

Martini Storia delle Invasioni degli Arabi in Sardegna. 8vo.

Cagliari, 1861.
Morso Descrizione di Palermo Antico. 8vo. Palermo, 1827-
Muratori Annali d' Italia. 17 vols. 8vo. Milano, 1820.
Navagiero II Viaggio Fatto in Spagna et in Francia. 12mo.
Venegia, 1563.
Nazari Delia Transmutatione Metallica. 4to. Brescia, 1599-
Pitre Usi e Costumi del Popolo Siciliano. 4 vols. 8vo. Pa-
lermo, 1889.
Teti II Regime Feudale. 8vo. Napoli, 1890.
Tiraboschi Storia della Letteratura Italiana. 27 vols. 8vo.

Venezia, 1824.
Vetri Dei Primordi della Invasione Araba. 8vo. 1882.

GERMAN.
Ahlwardt Die Alte Arabische Gedichte. 8vo. Greifswald,
1872.
Ahlwardt Poesie der Araber. 4to. Gotha, 1856.
Appel Provenzalische Inedita. 8vo. Leipzig, 1890.
Aschbach Geschichte der Ommaijden in Spanien. 2 vols. 8vo.

Wien, 1860.
Aschbach Geschichte der Westgothen. 8vo. Franc, am Main,
1827.
Aschbach Geschichte Spaniens und Portugals. 2 vols. 8vo.
Franc, am Main, 1833.
Assmann Geschichte des Mittelalters. 4 vols. 8vo. Braun-
schweig, 1857.
Bartsch Grundniss zur Geschichte der Provenzalische Littera-
tur. 8vo.Elberfeld, 1872.
Baudissin Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte. 8vo.

Leipzig, 1876.
Bebel Die Mohammedanische-Arabische Kultur Periode. 8vo.

Stuttgart, 1889.
Becker Chemische Anekdoten. 8vo. Leipzig, 1788.
Bergel Die Medizin der Talmudisten. 8vo. Leipzig, 1885.
Birch-Hirschfeld Ueber die den Provenzalischen Trouba-
dours Epischen Stoffe. 8vo. Leipzig, 1878.
Blau Arabien im VI. Jahrhundert. 8vo.
Botticher Geschichte der Carthager. 8vo. Berlin, 1827.
Brinckmaier Die Provenzalischen Troubadours. 8vo. Got-
tingen, 1882.
Chwolsohn Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus. 2 vols. 8vo. St.

Petersburg, 1856.
 Authorities Consulted xxxv

Diercks Die Araber im Mittelalter. 8vo. Leipzig, 1882.

Dieterici Die Philosophie der Araber im X. Jahrhundert. 8
vols. 8vo.Leipzig, 1876.
Diez Die Poesie der Troubadours.
8vo. Zwickau, 1826.
Diez Leben und Werke der Troubadours. 8vo. Leipzig, 1882.
Dollinger Von der Papstfabeln des Mittelalters. 8vo. Stutt-
gart, 1890.
Dukes Moses ben Ezra aus Granada. 8vo. Altona, 1839-
Ebert Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters.
3 vols. 8vo. Leipzig, 1887.
Ewald Geschichte des Volkes Israel. 7 vols. 8vo. Gottingen,
1843.
Fischbach Geschichte der Textelkunst. 8vo. Hanau, 1883.
Flugel Die Schulen von Bosra und Kufa. 8vo. Leipzig,
1862.
Flugel Geschichte der Araber. 8vo. Leipzig, 1867-
Freytag Darstellung der Arabischen Verskunst. 8vo. Bonn,
1830.
Funk Kaiser Friedrich II. 8vo. Wien, 1817-
Geiger Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthum aufgenom-
men. 8vo. Bonn, 1883.
Goldhann Wanderungen in Sicilien. 8vo. Leipzig, 1855.
Goldzieher Der Mythos bei den Hebraern. 8vo. Leipzig,
1876.
Goldzieher Die Zahiriten. 8vo. Halle, 1884.
Goldzieher Mohammedanische Studien. 2 vols. 8vo. Halle,
1889-
Gosche Die Alhambra. l6mo. Berlin, 1854.
Grau Semiten und Indogermanen. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1867-
Gudemann Das Judische Unterrechtswesen wahrend der Span-
ische-Arabische Periode. 8vo. Wien, 1873.
Hammer-Purgstall Gemaldesaal der grossen Mohammedan
ische Herrscher. 6 vols. 8vo.Leipzig, 1873.
Hammer-Purgstall Literaturgeschichte der Araber. 7 vols.

4to. Wien, 1855.

Hankel Geschichte der Mathematik. 8vo. Leipzig, 1874.
Hausleutner Geschichte der Araber in Sicilien. 4 vols. 8vo.
Konigsberg, 1791-
Hirschfeld Beitrage zur Erklarung des Koran. 8vo. Leip-
zig, 1886.
Hofler Kaiser Friedrich II. 8vo. Munich, 1844.
Ibn-Ishak Das Leben Mohammeds. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1864.
Jacobs Welche Handsartikel bezogen die Araber en Mittelalter
aus den Nordische-Baltischen Landern. Svo. Berlin, 1891.
xxxvi Authorities Consulted

Jost Geschichte des Judenthums. 8vo. Leipzig, 1857.

Kaempf Poesie Andalusischen Dichter. 8vo. Prag, 1858.
Kapp Die Alchemic 2 vols. 8vo. Heidelburg, 1886.
Kayserling Die Judischen Frauen. 8vo. Leipzig, 1879-
Kayserling Sephardim. 8vo. Leipzig, 1859.
Kestner Der Kreuzzug Friedrichs II. 8vo. Gottingen, 1873.
Kiese wetter Die Musik der Araber. 4to. Leipzig, 1842.
Kopke Die Anfange des Konigthums bei den Gothen. 8vo.
Berlin, 1859-
Krause Die Byzantiner des Mittelalters. 8vo. Halle, 1869-
Krehl Das Leben des Muhammed. 12mo. Leipzig, 1884.
Krehl Die Religion der Vorislamischen Araber. 8vo. Leip-
zig, 1863.
Kremer Culturgeschichte des Orients. 2 vols. 8vo. Wien,
1875.
Kugler Geschichte der Baukunst. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1859-
Lembke Geschichte von Spanien. 4 vols. 8vo. Hamburg,
1831.
Mahn Gedichte der Troubadours. 3 vols. 12mo. Berlin,
1856.
Movers Das Phonizische Alterthum. 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin,
1850.
Muller Die Letzten Zeiten von Granada. 8vo. Miinchen,
1863.
Muller Philosophic und Theologie von Averroes. 4to.

Miinchen, 1875.
Munz Ueber die Judische Aerzte im Mittelalter. 8vo. Berlin,
1887.
Nesselmann Versuch einer Geschichte des Algebra. 8vo. Ber-
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Noldecke Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Poesie der Alten Araber.
8vo. Hannover, 1864.
Noldecke Das Leben Muhammads. 8vo. Hannover, 1863.
Nordau Vom Kreml bis zur Alhambra. 2 vols. 8vo. Leipzig,
1889.
Oldenberg Buddha. 8vo. Berlin, 1881.
'

Parthey Das Alexandrinische Museum. 8vo. Berlin, 1838.

Parthey Wanderungen durch Sicilien. 2 vols. 12mo. Ber-
lin, 1834.
Pischon Der Einfluss des Islams. 8vo. Leipzig, 1881.
Prutz Aus Phonizien. 8vo. Leipzig, 1870.
Raumer Geschichte der Hohenstaufen. 4 vols. 8vo. Leipzig,
1878.
Reber Geschichte der Baukunst. 8vo. Leipzig, 1866.
 Authorities Consulted xxxvii

Ritter Die Arabische Philosophic 4to. Gottingen, 1844.

Rohricht Geschichte der Kreuzzuge. 2 vols. 8vo. Berlin,
1874.
Schaack Geschichte der Normannen in Sicilien. 8vo. Stutt-
gart, 1889.
S chafer Geschichte von Portugal. 5 vols. 8vo. Hamburg,
1883.
Schirrmacher Kaiser Friedrich II. 4 vols. 8vo. Gottingen,
1859-
Schmidt Geschichte Aragoniens. 8vo. Leipzig, 1828.
Schmieder Geschichte der Alchemic 8vo. Halle, 1832.
Schultz Das Hoflische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger. 2
vols. 4to. Leipzig, 1889.
Schultz Italienische Trobadors. 8vo. Berlin, 1883.
Spangenberg Die Minnehofe des Mittelalters. 8vo. Leipzig,
1821.
Spitta Zur Geschichte Abul Hasan Ali Asaris. 8vo. Leipzig,
1876.
Sprengel Geschichte der Arzneikunde. 6 vols. 8vo. Halle,
1821.
Sprenger Das Leben und die Lehre des Muhammed. 3 vols.
8vo. Berlin, 1861.
Sprenger Die Alte Geographie Arabiens. 8vo. Bern, 1875.
Stimming Bertran de Born. 8vo. Halle, 1879-
Stimming Der Troubadour Jaufre Rudel. 8vo. Kiel, 1873.
Stuvve Die Handelsziige der Araber. 8vo. Berlin, 1836.
Suchier Denkmaler der Provenzalische Litteratur. 8vo.
Halle, 1883.
Unger Geschichte der Pflanzenwelt. 8vo. Wien, 1852.
Von Kremer Gebiete des Islams. 8vo. Leipzig, 1873.
Von Kremer Geschichte der Herrschenden Ideen des Islams.
8vo. Leipzig, 1868.
Von Ledebur Zeugnisse eines Handels-Verkehrs mit dem
Orient. 8vo.Berlin, 1840.
Wahl Statistik der Araber in Sicilien. 8vo.
Weil Die Poetische Literatur der Araber vor Mohammed.
12mo. Stuttgart, 1837.
Weil Einleitung in den Koran. 12mo. Bielefeld, 1844.
Weil Geschichte der Chalifen. 3 vols. 8vo. Mannheim, 1846.
Weil Geschichte der Islamischen Volker. 8vo. Stuttgart,
1866.
Weniger Das Alexandrinische Museum. 8vo. Berlin, 1875.
Wilken Geschichte der Kreuzzuge. 8 vols. 8vo. Leipzig,
1830.
xxxviii Authorities Consulted

Winkelmann Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums. 8vo.

Heidelberg, 1882.
Winkelmann Kaiser Friedrich II. 2 vols. 8vo. Leipzig,
1889.
Winkler Geschichte der Botanik. 8vo. Frankfort, 1854.
Woepcke Ueber Ein Arabisches Astrolabium. 4to. Berlin,
1858.
Wustenfeld Die Academien der Araber. 8vo. Gottingen,
1837.
Wustenfeld Geschichte der Arabischen Aerzte und Naturfor-
scher. 8vo. Gottingen, 1840.
Zerschwitz Das Kaisertraum des Mittelalters. 8vo. Leipzig,
1877.
Zimmermann Geschichte der Hohenstaufen. 8vo. Stuttgart,
1865.

DUTCH.
Dozy De Israelieten te Mekka. 8vo. Haarlem, 1864.
Houtsma De Strijd over het Dogma in den Islam. 8vo. Lei-
den, 1875.
Keijzer De Leerstellingen van de Mohammedaansche Godsdi-
enst. 8vo. Gerinchem, 1854.
Keijzer Handboek vor Het Mohammedaansche Regt. 8vo.

Gravenhage, 1853.
Kern Het Buddhisme in Indie. 2 vols. 8vo. Haarlem, 1882.
Kist De Pausin Johanna. 8vo. Gravenhage, 1845.
Koenen Varia. 8vo.
Kuenen De Baalsdienst onder Israel. 8vo.
Kuenen De Godsdienst van Israel. 2 vols. 8vo. Haarlem,
1869-
Nomsz Mohammed. 12mo. Amsteldami, 1758.
Snouk-Hurgronje Het Mekkaansche Feest. 8vo. Leiden,
1880.
Tiele De Godsdienst van Zarathustra. 8vo. Haarlem, 1864.
Weil Legenden der Muselmannen. 8vo. Schiedam, 1853.
Weil Mohammed de Propheet. 2 vols. 8vo. Amsterdam,
1846.
Wunderlich Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde. 8vo. Tiel, 1861.

DANISH.
Fabricius Forbindelserne mellem Norden og den Spanske
Halvo, i aeldre Tider. 8vo. Kjobenhavn, 1882.
Molbech Europa i Middelalderen. 8vo. Kjobenhavn, 1819.
 Authorities Consulted xxxix

Rydberg Middelalderens Magi. 12mo. Kjobenhavn, 1873.

Sorensen Araberne og deres Kultur i Middelalderen. 12mo.
Kjobenhavn, 1888.

SWEDISH.
Afzelius Svenska Folket's Sago-Hafder. 11 vols. 8vo.
Stockholm, 1844.
Bottiger Om den Italienska Kulturens. 8vo. Upsala, 1846.
Brandel Om och ur den arabiska geographen, Idrisi. 8vo.
Upsala, 1894.
Engestrom Om judarne i Rom under aldere tider. 8vo.
Stockholm, 1876.
Hellwald Turkiet i vara dagar. 2 vols. 8vo. Stockholm,
1877.
Hildebrand Om det Vatikanska arkivet. 8vo. Stockholm.
Jonquiere Osmanika rikets historia. 8vo. Stockholm, 1882.
Lindberg Mohammed och Qoranen. 8vo. Goteborg, 1897.
Reinach Israeliternas historia. 8vo. Stockholm, 1891.
Sjogren Sveriges kulturhistoria. 4to. Stockholm, 1891.

LANGUE D'OC AND LANGUE D'OIL.

Bartsch Chrestomatie Provencale. 8vo. Elberfeld, 1868.
Born, Bertrand de Poesies Completes. 8vo. Paris.
Fauriel Histoire de la Croisade contre les Heretiques Albi-
geois. 4to. Paris, 1837.
Montaiglon et Raynaud Recueil General des Fabliaux. 6
vols. 8vo. Paris, 1878.
Raynouard Choix des Poesies des Troubadours. 6 vols. 8vo.

Paris, 1816.
Rutebo2uf QZuvres Completes. 8vo. Paris, 1839-

LIMOUSIN AND CATALAN.

Carbonell Chronica de Espanya. Folio. Barcelona, 1546.
Don Jaime de Aragon Libre dels feyts esdevenguts en la vida
del molt alt senyor En Jacme lo Conquerador. Folio. 1557.
March Les Obres. 4to. Barcelona, 1602.
Muntaner Chronica. Folio. Barcelona, 1562.
Pujades Coronica universal del Principat de Cathalunya.
Folio. Barcelona, 1609.
Roig Libre de Cosells. 12mo. Barcelona, 1561.
Tornich Historias e Conquestas dels Excellentissims e Catho-
lics Reys de Arago. Folio. Barcelona, 1534.
xl Authorities Consulted

LATIN.
Abd-al-Allatif Historia iEgypti. 4to. Oxoniae, 1800.
Abul-Feda Historia Anteislamica.
4to. Lipsiae, 1831.
Abul-Pharagius Historia Dynastiarum. 4to. Oxoniae, 1763.
Anspach Historia Calif atus Al-Walidi. 8vo. Leyden, 1853.
Avicenna Opera. Folio. Venitiis, 1595.
Bacon Opera Inedita. 8vo. London, 1859-
Capasso Historia Diplomatica Regni Siciliae. 4to. Napoli,
1894.
Carena Tractatus de Officio Inquisitionis. Folio. Cremona,
1741.
Casiri Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis. 2 vols.

Folio. Matriti, 1760.

Fuero Juzgo. Folio. Madrid, 1815.
Gerbert CEuvres. 4to. Paris, 1867.
Gildermeister Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis. 8vo.

Bonnae, 1838.
Hadji-Khalfa Lexicon Bibliographicum. 7 vols. 4to.

Leipzig, 1835.
Hille De Medicis Arabibus Oculariis. 8vo. Lipsiae.
Huillard-Breholles Chronicon Placentinum. 4to. Parisiis,
1856.
Longino Trinium Magicum. 18mo. Francofurti, 1614.
Middledorff Commentatio de Institutis Litterariis in Hispama
quae Arabes auctores habuerunt. 4to. Gottingen.
Muratori Antiquitates Italiae Medii iEvi. 6 vols. Folio.

Mediolani, 1740.
Paulus Diaconus Historia Longobardorum. 8vo. Hanno-
verae, 1878.
Pococke Specimen Historiae Arabum. 4to. Oxoniae, 1806.
Rasmussen Additamenta. 4to.
Reiske Opuscula Medica ex Monimentis Arabum. 8vo. 1776.
Reiske Sail olArem. 4to. Lipsiae.
Renauldon Historia Praecipuorum Arabum Regnorum. 4to.

Hauniae, 1817.
Rhazes De Variolis et Morbillis. 8vo. Londini, 1766.
Rutgers Historia Jemanae. 4to. Lugd. Batavorum, 1838.
Sprengel Historia Rei Herbariae. 2 vols. 8vo. Amsteldami,
1807.
Tractatus Talmudici Erubhin. 4to. Lipsiae, l66l.
Wenrich Rerum ab Arabibis in Italia Insulisque Gestarum
Commentarii. 8vo. Lipsiae, 1845.
 Authorities Consulted xli

GREEK.
Appianus Historia Romana. 2 vols. 8vo. Lipsise, 1881.
Herodotus Historiarum Libri IX. 8vo. Lipsiae, 1890.
Procopius Anekdota. 8vo. Paris, 1856.
Strabo Geographica. 3 vols. 8vo. Lipsiae, 1877.

HEBREW.
Akmin-Joseph-Ben Tah-ul-Nufus (Extracts). 8vo. 1873.
Alfasi Halakhoth-Rab-Alfas. (Exposition of the Talmud.)
4to. Oxford, 1875.
Maimonides Selections from the Yad Hachazakah. 8vo.

Cambridge, 1832.
Surenhusins Mishna. 6 vols. Folio. Amstelaedami, 1698.
Talmud Babli. 13 vols. 4to. Amsterdam, 1654.

ARABIC.
Abd-al-Wahid History of the Almohades. 8vo. Leyden, 1881.
Abd-el-Rezzaq Revelation des Enigmes. 8vo. Paris, 1874.
Aboulfeda Annales Muslemici. 5 vols. 4to. Leipzig, 1794.
Aboulfeda Description des Pays de Magreb. 4to. Alger,
1839.
Abulfeda Joctanidorum Historia. 4to. Hard. Gel. 1786.
Ajbar Machmua. 8vo. Madrid, 1867.
Al-Bokhari Canonical Traditions. Folio. Bombay, 1856.
Al-Ispahani The Songs of the Arabs. 10 vols. 4to. Cairo.
Al-Makkari Analectes sur l'Histoire et la Litterature des
Arabes en Espagne. 2 vols. 4to. Leyden, 1855.
Amrolkais Le Divan. 4to. Paris, 1837.
Antarah Romance. 6 vols. 8vo. Beirut, 1883.
De Sousa Documentos Arabicos para a Historia Portuguesa.
4to. Lisboa, 1790.
Dozy Scriptorum Rerum Arabum de Abbadidis. 4to. Lugd.
Batavorum, 1846.
Edrisi Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne. 8vo. Leyde,
1866.
Elmacin Historia Saracenica. 4to. Lugd. Batavorum.
Faris-al-Shidiac Voyages. 8vo. Paris, 1855.
Faruki Legal Decisions. 2 vols. Folio. Bulak.
Grangeret de Lagrange Anthologie Arabe. 8vo. Paris,
1828.
xlii Authorities Consulted

Hamzae Ispahanensis Annalium Liber X. 8vo. Petropoli,

1845.
Ibn-Adhari Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne. 2 vols.
8vo. Leyde, 1848.
Ibn-al-Walid The Lamp of Kings. 4to. Cairo.
Ibn-Badroun Commentaire Historique. 8vo. Leyde, 1846.
Ibn-Batoutah Voyages. 8vo. Cairo.
Ibn-Hajar Biographical Dictionary. 4 vols. 8vo. Calcutta,
1853.
Ibn-Junis CEuvres. 4to. Paris.
Ibn-Khaldun Introduction to History. 8vo. Beirut, 1886.
Lois des Maures en Espagne. Folio. MS. XII. Century.
Macoudi Les Prairies d'Or. 9 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1861.
Mohammed Al Koran. 8vo. Leipzig, 1881.
Muhammed-Alfergani Elementa Astronomica. 4to.
Sharastani Book of the Religious and Philosophical Sects. 2
vols. 8vo. 1842.
Wright Opuscula Arabica. 8vo. Leyden, 1859-
Wustenfeld Das Leben Muhammeds. 3 vols. 8vo. Got-
tingen, 1859-
Wustenfeld Die Chroniken der Stadt Mecca. 4 vols. 8vo.

Leipzig, 1858.
 HISTORY
OF THE

MOORISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE

CHAPTER I

THE ANCIENT ARABIANS

B.C. 2500 A.D. 614

Topography of Arabia Its of Other Na-

History Influence
tions Ancient Civilization Commerce
Persistence of
Customs and Language Character of the Bedouin His
Independence His Predatory Instincts Power of Tribal
Connection War the Normal Condition of Existence in the
Desert The Virtues and Vices of the Aral) Blood-Re-
venge and its Destructive Consequences Absence of Caste
Condition of Woman Marriage Religion Astral
Worship Idolatry Phallicism Human Sacrifices Im-
portance and Power of the Jews Christianity in Arabia
Poetry, its Subjects and Character The Moallakat Popu-
larity of the Arab Poet His License Influence of Arabic
Civilization and Culture on Subsequent Ages.

Few countries of the globe present to the eye of

the traveller so desolate, so forbidding an aspect as
that vast and arid peninsula which, embracing an area
of more than a million square miles, stretches away
through twenty-four degrees of latitude, from the
confines of the Syrian Desert to the shores of the
Indian Ocean. Its surface, while far from possessing
the monotonous character with which popular fancy is
accustomed to invest it, is, for the greater part of its
extent, destitute of those physical advantages which
tempt either the cupidity or the enterprise of man.
Vol. I. 1
2 History of the

Its coasts are low and unhealthy. Its harbors are few
and unsafe. Its mineral resources are to this day un-
explored and unknown. Its impenetrable deserts,
guarded by a fierce and martial population, have
always set at defiance the best-matured plans of in-
vasion and conquest. In the principality of Yemen,
appropriately named The Happy, the cultivation of
the soil has flourished from time immemorial, but in
almost every other province the returns of agricultural
labor are discouraging and unremunerative. Illimit-
able wastes of sand, over which sweeps the deadly
blast of the simoom; mountains, bald, craggy, and
volcanic,whose slopes are destitute of every trace of
vegetable life plains strewn with blocks of tufa and
;

basalt; valleys dotted here and there with stunted

shrubs, or encrusted with a saline deposit similar to
that upon the shores of the Dead Sea; a soil impreg-
nated with nitre; such are, and have been from pre-
historic times, the physical features of the Arabian
Peninsula. No stream worthy of the name of river,
dispensing wealth and fertility in its winding course
to the sea, flows through this dreary and inhospitable
land. Wherever a spring was found, a permanent
settlement arose,- and the black tents of the Bedouin
gave place to huts of sun-dried bricks, while the dig-
nity of the sheik, who now aspired to the title of
prince, was satisfied with a dwelling superior to those
of his subjects only in point of size. The oasis,
generally suggestive of shady groves and purling
streams, is often, in reality,
nothing more than the
dry bed of a mountain torrent, along whose borders
a little withered vegetation furnishes the hardy camel
with pasture, and where a scanty supply of brackish
water can, by laborious digging, be obtained. Over-
head glitters a sky of brass, unnecked by a single
cloud, and, morning and evening, the rays of the
sun, mellowed and refracted by the vapors of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 3

earth, clothe every elevation with scarlet, azure, and

violet tints which, blended in exquisite harmony, rival
the splendors of the rainbow; developing, under the
effects of radiation, optical illusions and charming

pictures of the mirage, attributed by superstitious

ignorance to the influence of enchantment. The un-
broken stillness of the Desert, the wide expanse of
uninhabited territory, produce a sense of mental de-
pression, accompanied by an apprehension of danger
from the convulsions of nature and the violence of
man, which no experience seems able to remove;
affecting even the sturdy camel-driver, familiar with
these solitudes from childhood, who shudders
as he

urges of
his string panting beasts over the drifted
sand-heaps and through the mountain fastness, the
reputed haunt of evil genii and the vantage ground
from whence the murderous banditti oft beset the
caravan. So deeply-rooted and tenacious is this feel-

ing that the Arab regards a journey successfully per-

formed as just cause for congratulation, and indeed
not inferior to a triumph, as is indicated by his
"
familiar proverb, Travel is a victory."
The modern geographical division of Arabia into
The Stony, The Desert, The Happy is arbitrary, and
unknown to the people the boundaries of whose coun-
try it purports to establish. The distinctions between
the various tribes of the Peninsula have always been
determined by mode of life, habits, and tradition
rather than by the accident of locality; have been,
in fact, rather personal than territorial. This pecu-
liarity is the result of an extraordinary persistence
of
a national type which neither a new physical environ-
ment, nor the change of political and economic con-
ditions, nor the lapse of centuries has been able to
modify sensibly, still less to eradicate completely.
Hence has arisen the division of the Arabian people
into two classes, nomadic and sedentary, the only one
4 History of the

universally recognized by them, and whose line of

demarcation has always been sharply defined.
The primordial story of Arabia is lost in the un-
fathomable darkness of antiquity. The annals of no
people are involved in more uncertainty or present
greater difficulties in their investigation than those of
the Bedouins, as the popular accounts which we pos-
sess of their early history bear unquestionable indica-
tions of recent date and fictitious origin. Ignorant
of the art of writing for centuries before the time of
Mohammed, their traditions were orally transmitted,
and, in addition to being necessarily subject to all the
defects of this mode of communication, were colored
by that love of exaggeration and falsehood which
seems to be an integral part of the Oriental char-
acter. The meagre hints which can be gleaned from
these unsatisfactory materials are all that we can rely
upon in the almost hopeless attempt to construct a
chronological and historical outline of pre-Islamic
events. The statements of Moslem writers concern-
ing these events must be subjected to rigid criticism.
They suppressed many facts, and condemned indis-
criminately the practices of their heathen ancestors;
although they knew that the Prophet drew his inspira-
tion largely from this source,and that Islamism could
never have been established without the acceptance of
many of these idolatrous ceremonies in all their in-
tegrity. As far as can at present be determined by
the aid of the imperfect and suspicious data at our
command, and by a comparison of the physical and
mental characteristics of surrounding nations, Arabia
has long been a base of extensive emigration, chiefly
into Central Asia; while her southern and eastern
provinces have, from the days when some famished
Bedouin first discovered the marvellous fertility en-
joyed by the Valley of the Nile, been the prolific
 Moorish Empire in Europe 5

source from whence Egypt recruited her diminishing

population.
On the other hand, the influence of neighboring
countries upon Arabia has been attended, in its turn,
with consequences of the greatest importance. It was
peculiarly fortunate that her geographical situation
rendered her maritime cities and in a still greater de-
gree her interior settlements entrepots for the dis-
tribution of the luxuries of the East and West. Of
the latter, in ancient times, and indeed until super-
seded by the doubtful advantages of Mecca, Petra
was the most remarkable. The latter was a veritable
troglodytic city. Its dwellings, excavated in the solid
rock, disclose by their vast extent that at one time
they must have sheltered a population of at least a
hundred and sixty thousand souls. Nor was Petra the
only town of this kind in Northern Arabia. Many
others almost rivalled it in size and opulence, in the
splendid architecture of their temples, in the vast
ramifications of their commercial interests, in the syba-
ritic luxury of their inhabitants. Under such condi-
tions a high degree of civilization must necessarily
have been reached, which, however, had disappeared
with the decline of Phoenician influence at a period
long before the dawn of the Christian era. From
an epoch not improbably coeval with the establishment
of the first Egyptian dynasty there had been an almost
incessant passing and repassing of strangers, attracted
by the profits of the Ethiopian and Indian trade, upon
the highways, which in every direction traversed the
Peninsula. This continual intercourse with foreign-
ers, the curious information of distant lands which the
latter imparted, the mysterious dogmas of unknown
faiths which they professed, their extensive learning
and polished manners, insensibly enlarged the sphere
of observation and activity, developed the mental fac-
ulties, and softened the rudeness of the wild tribes of
6 History of the

the Desert. Many of these traders were Phoenicians

and Jews whom a common origin, indicated, among
by a striking similarity of language,
other traits,
brought at once into familiar and intimate contact
with the Arabs. The commercial intercourse of
Arabia with Egypt is known from inscriptions to
have existed for thirty-five hundred years before
Christ, and that with Phoenicia may, not improbably,
have been of equal antiquity.
No greater contrast can be imagined than that pre-
sented by the respective lives of the Arabs and their
neighbors and kindred, the denizens of the Valley of
the Nile. The actions of the former, like those of all
pastoral nations, were irregular, uncertain, capricious.
The existence of the latter was controlled by the un-
varying phenomena of the Great River, whose influ-
ence was perceptible in every phase of political, reli-
gious, and social life; whose inundations were sym-
bolical of prosperity, and whose rise was announced

by the celestial messenger most magnificent

Sirius, the
star in the heavens. The subjects of the Pharaohs
were dependent upon Arabia for the gums and aro-
matics so extensively used in embalming; and these
precious substances, which must have been produced
far more abundantly then than now, were also ex-
ported to Phoenicia and Palestine, whence consider-
able quantities annually found their way into Europe
to be consumed in sacrificial ceremonies, in the service
of medicine, and in the ostentatious pomp of patrician
luxury.
The maritime and agricultural advantages possessed
by the southern coast of the Peninsula designated by
the Romans as Arabia the Happy, and afterwards, by
"
the natives, as Yemen, The Country on the Right
Hand" (because the speaker was supposed to stand
at Mecca) had enabled that region to attain to a
degree of prosperity and civilization unknown to the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 7

pastoral settlements of the interior. Nothing can

now be ascertained concerning the early history of
Yemen, the royal genealogies of whose sovereigns
nevertheless include a period of twenty-two hundred
years. Nor can speculation, with any degree of
probability, assign even an approximate date to the
beginning of its commercial relations with the East.
Not only did the bold and adventurous spirit of the
Arabian sailors lead them to the extreme Orient, but
their coasting vessels regularly visited the shores of
the Persian Gulf and the bays and inlets of the
African coast; undertakings far more hazardous, if
not more lucrative, than voyages to distant Hindustan.
From the latter country the native and foreign mer-
chants introduced, with articles of traffic, many idola-
trous practices and dogmas of a corrupt philosophy,
destined subsequently to manifest the powerful hold
they had obtained upon the popular mind by their
incorporation into the creed of Islam.
All classic writers who have written upon the sub-
ject agree in attributing great wealth to Southern
Arabia, a land familiar to antiquity as Saba, or Sheba.
Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny frequently allude to it
as the richest country on the globe. Its agricultural
resources, dependent upon a vast and intricate hy-
draulic system which embraced hundreds of leagues
of productive territory, were the principal basis of
its prosperity. Its streams were confined by massive
walls of masonry of cyclopean dimensions and by
great embankments. One of these reservoirs was
eighteen miles in circuit and a hundred and twenty
feet deep. Its stones were laid in bitumen and bolted
together with iron rods. Many others, inferior in
dimensions and of not less solid construction, collected
and retained the melted snows of the mountains. The
flow of water was regulated by sluices, and its appor-

tionment rigidly prescribed by law. This thorough

8 History of the

system of irrigation, applied to a soil of prodigious

fertility under a tropical sun, eventually produced re-
sults rivalling those of the vaunted plantations of

Babylonia. An innumerable population, distributed

throughout this favored territory in hundreds of
citiesand villages, carried to its highest perfection
the cultivation of the soil. The daily expenses of
the royal household were fifteen Babylonian talents,
eighty-five thousand five hundred dollars of our
money. It is related that Mareb, the capital, stood
in a vast expanse of perennial verdure, where the
branches of the trees, touching each other, formed a
vault of continuous shade over the highways, of such
extent that a horseman would require a journey of two
months' duration to traverse the cultivated portion of
the realm of the monarchs of Saba. One of the latter
was the famous Queen Balkis, the friend and admirer
of Solomon.
In a region so fortunately situated for commerce,
mercantile activity kept pace with agricultural de-
velopment. The merchants of Saba enjoyed a repu-
tation for shrewdness, ability, wealth, and enterprise
not inferior to that of the Phoenicians themselves.
They engaged in transactions involving immense
pecuniary investments. They despatched great fleets
to China. Their caravans traversed the Syrian and
African deserts. They exported to Persia annually
a thousand talents weight of frankincense. Not only
did they purchase directly the commodities in which
they dealt, but they also bought and sold extensively
on commission. Their warehouses were filled with
the rich products of a score of climes; silver vessels;
ingots of copper, tin, iron, and lead honey and wax
; ;

silks, ivory, ebony, coral, agates; civet, musk, myrrh,

camphor, and other aromatics, some of which were

worth many times their weight in gold. Such was
their prodigal luxury that only sandal-wood and cin-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 9

namon were used as fuel in the preparation of their

food. The vegetable kingdom contributed no insig-
nificant share to the commercial wealth of Southern
Arabia. Coffee, indigenous to the Peninsula, was
exported as a luxury to the provinces of Asia. In
that dry climate, where flourished every known va-
riety of cereals, grain could be stored without injury
for thirty years. The cotton-plant, the sugar-cane,
the cocoa-palm, yielded enormous revenues to those
who engaged in their culture. The balsam of Mecca,
the gum Arabic, the sap of the Acacia Vera, and
the famed frankincense were also important articles
of export. The country was reputed to be rich in
minerals; inexhaustible deposits of salt existed in
Saba; gold was found in the mountains; but Arabia
produced no iron, which Strabo says in his time was
equal in value to the precious metals. The pearl
fisheries of the coast, opposite to the Isles of Bahrein,
were unrivalled for the beauty and value of their
products.
For an unknown period, embracing, however, many
centuries, the prosperity of the kingdom of Saba con-
tinued. Then it suddenly declined a general emigra-
;

tion took place, and the former paradise was trans-

formed into an uninhabited desert. The cause of this
great and profound change, involving the desolation
of a vast region and the dispersion of an entire people,
is hidden in obscurity. The
puerile fables which at-
tribute it to a threatened inundation from the rupture
of a dike are unworthy of notice. It is probable that
this calamity was mainly due to the diversion of the
caravan traffic to the channels of the Red Sea, to the
abandonment of stations, to the cessation of revenue,
and to the consequent dearth of the means of subsist-
ence. Foreign wars or domestic convulsions, which,
aided by increasing luxury and subsequent weakness,
also contributed to drain the resources and exhaust the
10 History of the

population of the kingdom, may have hastened the

ultimate catastrophe that is supposed to have occurred
during the first century of the Christian era.
From this epoch the traditions of the Arabs become
more and more confused. Some tribes seem to have
emigrated to Mesopotamia, others to have settled in
the vicinity of Medina, then called Yathreb, where
they intermarried with the Jews already established
in that city. We know nothing further of Arabian
annals till the promulgation of the faith of Islam
began a new chapter in the history of nations. Before
the Hegira no date could be fixed with certainty, as
there was no chronological system by which to ascer-
tain the year of an historical occurrence, and no pub-
or private records existed to preserve it. But a step
lic

beyond the unreliable transmission of past events by

tradition were the inscriptions occasionally made upon
the shoulder-blades of animals. Not only was the ma-
terial indispensable to the scribe entirely wanting, but
the ability to use was possessed by only an insig-
it

nificant number of the people. Among the nomadic

Bedouins contempt for literary accomplishments, ex-
cept that of extemporaneous poetical composition,
universally prevailed. Even in the great commercial
city of Mecca, at the time of the publication of the
Koran, there was but one man who could write. It
was not without reason that Mohammed designated
the long and obscure period preceding the Hegira,
the Age of Ignorance.
Arabia, alone among the countries accessible to the
ambition of the powerful sovereigns of antiquity,
escaped the humiliation of conquest. The genius of
Alexander had planned its subjugation, but death
prevented the realization of his vast, perhaps im-
practicable, design. The legions of Augustus, trained
under the discipline of the greatest of the Ceesars,
proved unequal to the task of triumphing over a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 11

region where the soil, the elements, and the valor

of its defenders formed a combination invincible by
human prowess. The Persians, for a period of
insignificant duration, occupied the western and
southern coasts, having previously expelled the
Abyssinians, who had invaded and retained a portion
of Yemen during the sixth century. No nation,
however, was ever able to claim supremacy over any
considerable portion of the Arabian Peninsula. For
this immunity it was indebted not only to the natural
obstacles which defied the advance and the mainten-
ance of an invading army, but also to the superstitious
fears with which cunning and credulity had sur-
rounded its name. It was a land of mysterious por-
tents and prodigies, whose borders were guarded by
malignant demons; whose deserts, all but impene-
trable to the boldest adventurer, were inhabited by
cannibal giants and monstrous birds of prey that
watched over treasures placed by evil spirits under
the spell of enchantment. Every caravan that left
Phoenicia for Central Arabia carried quantities of
storax, which the Tyrian merchants declared was
burnt in the neighborhood of the frankincense shrubs,
that its fumes might drive away the winged
offensive
serpents which were their custodians. The climate
was said to be so pestilential that slaves and criminals
alone were employed to gather the precious gum,
their liberty being conditional upon their success.
These politic inventions, implicitly believed by the
ignorant, while they insured to the shrewd traders
of Phoenicia a monopoly of the valuable products
of the Peninsula, exercised no inconsiderable influ-
ence over the popular mind of the ancients, and
clothed the Desert with terrors which even the repu-
tation and allurements of its prodigious wealth were
unable entirely to overcome.
As a result of its exemption from foreign dominion,
12 History of the

no other country has preserved the integrity of its

customs, its language, and the personality of its in-

habitants to such a degree as Arabia. It alone still
presents a picture of the government and the domestic
economy of patriarchal antiquity. Its manners are
those which prevailed centuries before the time of
Abraham. The wonderfully sonorous and flexible
idiom of the Koran was already formed before the
Bible or the Iliad was written. The absolute im-
mobility of the Arabian in his native haunts, con-
trasted with his ready adaptation to diametrically
opposite conditions elsewhere, is one of the most
striking anomalies of human character. The influ-
ence of Greece and Rome, whose taste in art and
maxims of government have left their traces
wherever either the valor or the enterprise of those
nations has been able to obtain a foothold, is not
perceptible in the political or domestic history of
Arabia. No ruins of any majestic structure raised
by the master-hand of the Athenian or Roman archi-
tect have ever been discovered in the great Peninsula,
the accounts of whose commercial wealth were matters
of popular faith and wonder throughout the ancient
world. And, what
is probably a more conclusive in-

dication of the permanent absence of foreign influ-

ence than any other, however plausible, no name with
a Greek or Latin termination has survived in the dia-
lects of those Arabian settlements most intimately
associated with the trade of Europe for many cen-
turies.
This inflexibility of national peculiarities becomes
invaluable in tracing the causes of the decay and dis-
ruption of the great Moslem empires which subse-
quently dominated so large a portion of the globe.
The ethnography of a people who have stamped their
characteristics deeply upon succeeding ages; whose
customs, laws, and language have, to a certain degree,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 13

survived their dominion the analogy between the re-

;

ligious dogmas which they professed and those which

have supplanted them; the play of passions, destruc-
tive or beneficent, by those rulers whom
exhibited
hereditary descent or the accident of fortune raised
to supreme authority; the development of the trans-

planted race, its precocious maturity, the lasting

effects of its intellectual supremacy, and its slow
but inevitable decline, are circumstances well de-
serving the attentive scrutiny of the philosophical
historian. The absence of reliable information ren-
ders impossible an accurate conception of the mental
and physical traits of the Arab of two thousand years
ago. But, as we know the extreme conservatism of
Orientals, their pronounced aversion to change, the
obstinate persistence of their traditions, and the gen-
eral outlines of their character, we may with safety
assume that the shepherd who now roams over the
desert plateaus of Nejd and Oman is the intellectual
counterpart of the Amalekite of the Bible, and that
the Arab whose features are sculptured upon the
eternal walls of Edfou and Karnak did not differ
in any material respect from the predatory Bedouin
of to-day. It is a strange anomaly in a land, the
greater portion of which, either through the obduracy
of Nature or the indolence of its inhabitants, had
been for ages condemned to eternal sterility and
isolated by sea and desert from contemporaneous
civilization, to encounter a race whose genius was

capable of at once adapting itself, with equal facility,

to the formation and development of an agricultural
system surpassing that of any other people, ancient
or modern to the invention of mechanical devices of
;

marvellous ingenuity; to the solution of the most

abstruse mathematical problems; to the perfection
of a graceful and exquisite order of architecture,
unique in design, infinite in detail, remarkable in
14 History of the

execution, unrivalled in beauty of ornament; to the

protracted investment of cities and the attainment
and exercise of that proficiency in the intricate system
of military tactics indispensable to success in the art
of war; to the foundation and the preservation of
empires. A long and tedious apprenticeship is usu-
ally required for the attainment to perfection in any
of these accomplishments; but the versatile Arab
seemed, by intuition, to be able to grasp them all,
without previous experience or instruction. In lit-
erature, as well, was this pre-eminence of genius
disclosed. Poetry was the sole form of literary mani-
festation appreciated by the Arabic mind; improvi-
sation the only talentit deemed worthy of
applause.
Even among the most intelligent, nothing deserving
of the name of history was preserved and the gene-
;

alogies upon which the Arabs prided themselves were

merely interminable lists of barbarians of local or
tribal celebrity, and dreary catalogues of idols. Yet
their predatory hordes effected a great intellectual
revolution in every country which submitted to their
sway. In addition to their own memorable achieve-
ments, they developed and expanded, to the utmost,
the mental faculties of their subjects and tributaries.
By precept and example, they aroused the emulation
and rewarded the efforts of all who struggled to
escape from the fetters of ignorance which had been
riveted by the superstition and prejudice of ages
passed in ignominious servitude. Their conquests in
the world of letters offer a far more noble title to
renown than the laurels won on fields of appalling
carnage or the prestige acquired by the subjugation
of vast provinces and kingdoms. To the finest liter-
ary productions of modern times does this subtle
intellectual power extend. The impress of Arabian
genius can be detected in the novels of Boccaccio, in
the romances of Cervantes, in the philosophy of Vol-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 15
"
taire, in Principia" of Newton, in the tragedies
the
of Shakspeare. Its domain is coincident with the
boundaries of modern civilization, its influence im-
perishable in its character.
These far-reaching results are neither derived from
spontaneous impulse nor are they of fortuitous origin.
They indicate unmistakably a gradual and incessant
advance through long periods of time. The inexor-
able laws which control the destiny of man require a
transition through many connected forms, insensibly
merging into each other, eventually to effect radical
changes in the mental and physical characteristics of
individuals and nations. The evolution of a race,
like thedevelopment of architectural construction, is
slow but progressive. The union between the founda-
tion and the superstructure is evident, although the
former may not at the first glance be visible.Agreat
distance separates the barbaric sheik of pre-Islamic
Arabia and the powerful and enlightened khalifs of
Bagdad and Cordova. Yet both the Abbaside and the
Ommeyade dynasties traced their lineage directly to
the Bedouin robbers, who, each year, waylaid the
Mecca caravan. There is no apparent resemblance
between the rude structures of prehistoric antiquity
and the matchless edifices erected by Athenian genius
and skill. It cannot be disputed, however, that the
unhewn and misshapen shaft of the cyclopean quarry,
which had neither fluting nor volute, base nor capital,
was the architectural prototype of the superb columns
which adorned the temples of ancient Greece and
Rome. In view of the rapid advance of the Arabs
under Mohammed's successors, we are forced to con-
cede to their pagan ancestors not only intellectual
powers of the highest order, apparently inconsistent
with the degraded conditions of savage life, but also
an extraordinary capacity for political organization
and for the practical application of the principles
16 History of the

of every art beneficial to mankind; talents uncon-

sciously formed and dormant through countless gen-
erations a fact which may well excite the admiration
;

of every scholar, and of which history in previous or

subsequent times affords no example.
The Arabs, despite their apparent barbarism, oc-
cupy no contemptible place in the annals of antiquity.
They conquered Egypt, and, under the dynasty of
the Shepherd Kings, governed that country for many
centuries. One of their race, enlisted as a private
soldier, was, by a series of rapid promotions, raised
to the throne of the Roman empire. Their cavalry
fought with conspicuous distinction in the imperial
armies. More than once the valor of Bedouin mer-
cenaries determined the fate of the Persian monarchy.
They constituted the greater part of the forces of
Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, in her desperate struggle
with Aurelian. Under whatever banner they served,
their courage and tenacity of purpose were never

questioned. It must be admitted, however, that their

fidelity was not beyond suspicion, and that, only too
frequently, the name of Arab was a synonym of
treachery.
The most remarkable peculiarity of Arabian life is
its restlessenergy. The continuance of this condition
from primeval times explains many of the distinctive
traits soprominent in the character of the race. The
well-known relation existing between commercial ac-
tivity and civilized habits was powerless to change the
existence of the nomadic Arab. His predatory in-
stinct was always stronger than the attractions of

sedentary comfort and opulence. Familiarity with

Oriental luxury only increased his contempt for those
who enjoyed it. His vagrant impulse carried him
everywhere. He fearlessly penetrated the mysterious
depths of the Libyan Desert. He served in the armies
of Hindustan. He Avas enrolled in the Praetorian
 Mookish Empire in Europe 17

Guards, where his natural rapacity was gratified and

stimulated by the donatives received for the igno-
minious sale of the imperial throne. For a consider-
able time before the advent of Mohammed, an in-
creasing spirit of unrest had characterized the Arabs.
With roving and predatory tastes, there could, of
course, be no attachment to the soil, a condition, in-
deed, regarded by the Bedouin as a badge of servitude.
It required centuries to correct this prejudice; but no
change of residence, no association with populations
long even the adoption of a new polity,
civilized, or
the admonitions of a new religion, and the powerful
attractions of affluence and ease, were ever able to
eradicate the spirit of individual independence and
tribal hostility which were the most prominent feat-
ures of the Arabian character. These national pecu-
liarities repeatedly threatened the existence of both
the Eastern and Western Khalifates in the days of
their greatest splendor. They intensified the bitter-
ness which marked the struggles of rival princes for
empire. They promoted and sustained the feuds of
the nobility. They lurked under the tattered gar-
ments of the infuriated zealot. In the minds of the
populace these feelings were scarcely ever concealed.
They manifested themselves continually in personal
quarrels, in the violence of mobs, in religious tumults,
in insurrections, in the commission of frightful atro-
cities. They were potent factors in the destruction
of mediaeval Moslem civilization wherever established,
and especially is this true of the Hispano-Arab domi-
nation, the most advanced, if not the most despotic, of
them all. The temperament of the Arab, impetuous,
fiery, vindictive, though admirably fitted for conquest,
was deficient in those qualities of broad statesmanship
and impartial discrimination vitally essential to the*
security and maintenance of government. Those who
enjoyed the highest privileges of individual freedom
Vol. I. 2
18 History of the

were the mountaineers, who, in their inaccessible

haunts, inured to privation, skilled in all manly exer-
cises, and ignorant of luxury, clung with obstinate

tenacity to their idols, and defied all attempts of the

Prophet to convert or subdue them. Nor did Islam
enlist her adherents in the purlieus of crowded cities.
In Pagan as in Moslem Arabia, trade and religion
were closely associated. The sympathies of the organ-
ized community were with the ancient religion, which
contributed to its wealth, its employment, its personal
profit, and its social distinction. The merchants and
their numerous dependents looked coldly upon a reve-
lation which menaced their revenues and their im-

portance. The priesthood, recruited from the noblest

families of the Peninsula, fostered this prejudice with
an ardor born of instinctive hatred and professional
pride. These two classes, therefore, contributed little
to the propagation of the new doctrines; it was the
wild hordes of the Desert that conquered the world.
The Himyarite inscriptions, recently deciphered,
have established the fact that, at an unknown epoch,
two migratory populations, one proceeding from the
North, the other from the South, came together in
their course, and were so blended by association and

intermarriage as to form, in a short time, a single

people. This rapid fusion points to a common racial
derivation, and it is not improbable that the northern
division were the Canaanites expelled by the sword
of Joshua.
The very conditions of their existence, in early
times, necessarily precluded the idea of systematic
organization or concerted union among the vagabond
tribes of Arabia. Their polity, if it may be dignified

by that name, was essentially patriarchal. Chiefs and

rulers were selected from families renowned for indi-
vidual merit, noble descent, and antiquity of origin,
and, in accordance with the paternal custom of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 19

Orient, all retainers of the prince who, in fact, were

usually related to him were in time enrolled as mem-
bers of his household; and, in this way, fragments of
certain tribes, drawn to a common centre by the ties
of real or fancied kindred or through the fear of an-
nihilation, acquired a great preponderance over their
neighbors. Before the establishment of Mohamme-
dan rule, there was no government, no code of laws,
no superior authority either delegated to or assumed
by the magistrate. Each family was independent;
each member of it recognized no
obligation to society
except the protection of his clansmen. The instinct
of self-preservation, the force of public opinion, and
the apprehension of the encroachments of rival tribes
were the only motives sufficiently powerful to effect
a temporary union of those whose vital interests were
threatened. The power of the sheik was nominal his ;

functions advisory rather than executive. His sta-

tion was one of more honor than usefulness; of his
own volition he could neither direct military opera-
tions, enforce obedience, reward merit, nor inflict
punishment. The affairs of the tribe were adminis-
tered by such of its members as were conspicuous for
age, dignity, and wisdom. Even the decision of such
a council was not imperative in cases where the gen-
eral welfare was concerned; for, under such circum-
stances, the judgment of every personage of wealth,
rank, or social distinction was consulted. Absolu-
tism, so prominent a feature of Asiatic government,
and carried to such an extreme by Mohammed's suc-
cessors, was thus unknown in ancient Arabia. Domi-
nated by the tumultuous freedom of individual ca-
price, its isolated communities were not even subject
to the ordinary legal restrictions imposed by the voice
of democracy; and their control approached as near
to anarchical license as was compatible with the bare
preservation of society. Natural obstacles, such as
20 History of the

the scarcity of water and the barrenness of the soil,

added to long-inherited prejudice, traditional enmity,
and difficulty of intercommunication, have always
prevented the political and intellectual development
of the Arabs in their native land. The persistence
of his original institutions after the mighty revolu-
tions elsewhere wrought by Islam prove conclusively
that national regeneration of the Arab under the sky
of the Desert is a practical impossibility.
The life of the Bedouin was passed in unremit-
ting hostility. War was the normal condition of
his existence; it supplied the sole incentives he
deemed worthy of attention the gratification of
revenge, the acquisition of glory, the appropriation
of the property of his neighbor. The indulgence
of these passions, and especially of the ignoble
propensity to rapine, and his cruelty, were his most
conspicuous and discreditable characteristics. The
occupation of robbery was in the eyes of the Arab
rather honorable than otherwise, as it was inti-
mately associated with the profession of arms. In
a society without the resources of agriculture, manu-
factures, or commerce, violent means must be relied
on for the sustenance of life. In the Desert the only
available expedients to this end were the plunder of
enemies and the blackmail of travellers. The total
absence of organized government rendered the pos-
session of property doubly precarious. Nowhere else
was the fickleness of fortune so apparent. The attack
of a hostile tribe might render the most opulent indi-
vidual a pauper in a single night. No vigilance could
un-
prevent such a catastrophe in a region affording
limited opportunities for surprise and ambuscade,
where there was no title to the soil, where the wealth
of a community consisted largely of flocks of sheep
and herds of camels. Under circumstances where a
man's importance and position among his fellows were
 Moorish Empire in Europe 21

dependent upon his inclination to encounter danger

and his capacity to elude detection in the pursuit of
pillage, poverty became disgraceful. Constant ap-
prehension bred distrust of strangers, until it became
a predominant national trait. Where two parties of
Bedouins, unknown to each other, met in the Desert,
the stronger immediately attacked the weaker. A
daring predatory enterprise conferred the highest
popular distinction upon its hero. A great robber,
who united the qualities of courage and duplicity, and
who had amassed wealth by his exploits, was the idol
of his tribe. The memory of the famous brigand
Harami is even now cherished in the Hedjaz with
an admiring veneration scarcely inferior to that con-
ferredupon his countryman Mohammed.
The mental constitution of the ancient Arab pre-
sented manv remarkable inconsistencies, most of
which are still apparent in the character of his
descendants. Brave even to temerity, he felt no
compunction at the secret assassination of a foe.
Professing reverence for age and relying for guid-
ance upon the advice of the elders of his tribe, he
did not hesitate to drive the old and infirm from the
public feast. While the greatest renown attended
the plunder of an encampment, the commission of
a trifling theft made the perpetrator an object of
universal detestation. He assisted the unfortunate
and plundered the defenceless with equal alacrity.
The exercise of a generous and unselfish hospitality
was no bar to the pursuit of a guest after he had left
the inviolable precincts of the camp. In many re-
spects, however, the character of the Bedouin was
eminently worthy of admiration. His courage was
undisputed. He possessed a high sense of personal
honor. The fugitive who solicited his protection,
even though he were an enemy, was safe so long as
he remained within the enclosure of his tent, and he
22 History of the

espoused the cause of the unknown suppliant as if

it were his own. After sunset, his blazing watch-fire,
like a friendly beacon, guided the course of the be-
lated wanderer over the desert sea. He disputed with
his neighbors for the honor of entertaining the

stranger, and the deepest reproach he could un-

dergo was the imputation that he was deficient in the
virtue of hospitality. His sense of chivalry, nur-
tured amidst the constant perils of an uncertain exist-
ence, was conspicuous in the respect and considera-
tion he afterwards exhibited in the treatment of
woman. His simplicity of manner and gravity of
demeanor imparted an air of dignity to his appear-
ance, which elicited the respect of those far superior
to him in rank, education, and knowledge. Patient in

adversity, he considered the display of grief as an

unpardonable evidence of weakness. His love of
liberty dominated an extent impossible
his nature to
of appreciation by those subject to the salutary re-
straints of civilized communities. The existence of
many noble qualities in the character of the Arab,
however, only rendered its defects the more glaring.
His apparent imperturbability screened from the
public gaze many vices and imperfections. Like
all barbarians, his disposition was largely infantine
and capricious, petulant, diverted by trifles, con-
trolledby instinct rather than by reason, quick to take
offence,and relentlessly vindictive. Of all beings he
was pre-eminently the creature of impulse. His pride
was inordinate, his rapacity insatiable. With him the
prosecution of vengeance was a sacred duty, which
took precedence of every moral and social obligation ;

and such was his enmity, that he regarded the forgive-

badge of a coward. An
ness of a serious injury as the
incorrigible braggart, he never hesitated to employ
treachery when it would accomplish the purposes
of valor. He practised cannibalism, and like the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 23

ferocious Scandinavians drank from the skulls of

slaughtered victims. Participation in these horrid
banquets was not confined to warriors; women also
were present at them, and wore, with savage pride,
necklaces and amulets composed of the ears, noses,
and bones of the dead.
Under the pretext of preventing future dishonor,
but really with a view to economy, under conditions
of existence involving a perpetual struggle, he often
buried his female children alive. It is said that Oth-
man was never known to weep except when, at the
burial of his little daughter, she reached up and caress-
ingly wiped the dust of her grave from his beard.
From such unspeakable atrocities as this did Mo-
hammed deliver his countrymen.
The Arabs practised both polyandry and polyg-
amy to an extent rarely countenanced by other bar-
barians. One woman, whose career would seem to
be unique in the history of matrimonial achievement,
was celebrated for having been the wife of forty
husbands. In a society where communal marriage
prevailed, the passion of jealousy was necessarily
unknown. The Pagan Arab indulged to the utmost
the vice of drunkenness, and prided himself upon
his capacity to absorb great quantities of liquor
there were some Himyarite princes who obtained an
unenviable immortality by drinking themselves to
death. Gambling was so popular in the Desert that
the Bedouin, like the ancient German, often staked
his liberty, his most priceless possession, on the toss
of a pebble. Like the Hebrew patriarchs, he con-
tracted incestuous marriages. He gloried in the
name of brigand, and regarded the capture of a
caravan as the principal object of life. It was not
unusual for him, after plundering the dead, to muti-
late them with a brutal malignity that would disgrace
an American Indian. He tested guilt or innocence
24 History of the

by ordeals of fire and water, which he and his kins-

man the Jew had inherited from a remote antiquity.
The practice of licentious gallantry, universally prev-
alent in the Peninsula, and celebrated in many an
amatory stanza of the Bedouin poet, was temporarily
checked by the austere rule of Islam; but, reviving
ere long, under the congenial skies of Spain and
Sicily, spread northward, and, inseparably associated
with deeds of chivalry and romantic adventure, in-
fected, in time, the rude and comparatively virtuous
barbarians of Europe.
An unusual degree of intelligence, a lively imag-
ination, a vivid curiosity, a retentive memory, a child-
ish love of the marvellous, distinguished the Arab of
the Age of Ignorance from the other pastoral nations
of Africa and Asia. Feuds between tribe and tribe,
nourished by injuries mutually borne and inflicted
for a hundred generations, intensified the ferocity
of a nature which became, under such provocations,
incapable of pity. Everything connected with the
daily life of the warrior had a direct tendency to
foster an already too violent inclination to deeds of
blood. The war-horse had his biography; the sword
of every famous chieftain had a name and a history.
The sayings of the successful marauder, often uttered
with epigrammatic terseness, passed into proverbs,
and were quoted, with extravagant admiration, by
his most remote descendants; his exploits, immor-
talized by the stirring verses of the poet, were re-
counted nightly by the camp-fires of his tribe. In
case of the murder of a kinsman, no mourning was
tolerated until ample vengeance had been taken for
the crime. The execution of the savage law of blood-
feud, while it contributed to stifle every sentiment of
humanity where an hereditary foe was the offender,
does not appear to have had any marked effect in
increasing the fierceness of the character of the Arab
 Moorish Empire in Europe 25

in his contests with those against whom he had no

special cause of enmity. Where tribal hostility was,

however, a point of honor as well as a religious duty,
the vendetta was prosecuted with implacable severity.
No circumstance of gratitude or chivalric attachment,
neither the memory of past favors nor the hope of
future distinction, was permitted to interfere with
its rigid enforcement. The right of revenge, origi-
nally descending to the fifth generation, passed by in-
heritance, and was, in fact, never lost, and seldom
relinquished. A regular schedule of fines was recog-
nized, dependent upon the age, rank, and social posi-
tion of the person murdered; but no family that en-
tertained a becoming idea of its own importance and
of the dignity of its tribe would condescend to accept
the stated number of camels which ancient prescrip-
tion and common consent had established as the equiv-
alent of a homicide. This barbarous custom applied to
every soldier slain in honorable warfare, as fully as
to the victim of the assassin's dagger; and the whole-
some dread of the consequences of a hard-fought con-
flict, where a score of lives might be exacted in return
for every fallen enemy, usually rendered the encoun-
ters of the Arab comparatively bloodless. An ex-
traordinary value therefore attached to human life
in the Desert, where the killing of an individual might
entail the extermination of a clan. Considering the
bitter hostility evinced by many tribes towards one
another, the consequences of animosity inherited for
ages, and the continual opportunities for mutual de-
struction, with their insignificant results, we may,
without hesitation, conclude that the law of blood-
revenge, despite the idea of ferocity it conveys, has,
in reality, been powerfully instrumental in the preser-
vation of the Arab race.
The habits of the Arab were necessarily abstemious.
The requirement of constant exertion to obtain the
26 History or the

necessaries of life, the uncertain tenure of property,

the menacing presence of danger, the poverty of the
soil, the national prejudice against industrial occupa-
tions, were not conducive to indulgence in those vices
which flourish most vigorously under the artificial
conditions of an established civilization. The scanty
harvests of the South were insufficient to maintain
even the population of those thinly settled provinces.
Among the products of the vegetable kingdom, the
date was the principal reliance of the nomadic people
of Arabia. Of this most valuable fruit a hundred
varieties grew in the neighborhood of Medina alone.
Its highly nutritious properties, its easy preservation,
the convenience with which it could be transported
for great distances, rendered it an article of food
especially adapted to the denizen of those arid and
unproductive regions in which it flourished, and which,
without it, would have been depopulated. Even its
seeds were an object of traffic, and were fed to horses
and camels. With the Arabs, as with other nomadic
races, a vegetable diet was resorted to only in case of
necessity. The quantity of meat served at a repast
was an index to the host's importance as well as the
measure of his hospitality. A
brass caldron was
considered as of only ordinary size when it would
easily hold a sheep, and some were so large that a
horseman could, without difficulty, eat from them
without dismounting. The morsels served from
these seething receptacles were proportioned to the
vessels in which they were cooked and to the vora-
cious appetites of those who consumed them. The
belief, prevalent among barbarians, that the charac-
teristics of an animal are transmitted with undimin-
ished vigor to all who feed upon its flesh, was shared
by the Arabs. As meat was that of the
their favorite
camel, they attributed to use their irascible temper,
its

a trait which is prominently developed in that beast,

 Moorish Empire in Europe 27

also noted among quadrupeds for its dogged ob-

stinacy. In a land where barrenness so discouraged
the labors of the husbandman and the shepherd, no
object affording nutrition could be neglected, and
even the insect world was called upon to contribute
its share to the urgent necessities of humanity. Lo-
custs, dried and salted, have always formed a staple
articleof diet among the poorer classes of Arabia,
and, an important part of the larder of every camp,
are sold in vast quantities in the markets of the
Peninsula.
The differences and the prejudices of caste, the
most serious impediments to progress, were unknown
to the proud rovers of the Desert, where individual
merit was the highest title to respect. The authority
of the chief was founded on the consideration he had
obtained among the members of than
his tribe rather
on the illustrious circumstances of his birth or the
antiquity of his lineage. Age was an essential requi-
site to the attainment of official dignity, as indicative
of the wisdom supposed to be the result of long ex-
perience. With the Bedouin, there was none of that
greed of power whose indulgence so often disturbs
the peace, and inflames the passions of societies in an
advanced state of civilization. The sheik governed
through the respect entertained for his character,
through the influence of his manners, above all,
through his relationship with his clansmen. The
paternal sentiment was paramount among the
Arabian people. They cherished the memory of
their forefathers with peculiar respect. The right
of sanctuary attached to their sepulchre; the tribal

organization and domestic traditions of the Bedouin

were derived from this feeling of ancestral venera-
tion. Like other Asiatics, they considered a nu-
merous family the greatest of distinctions the father;

of ten sons was ennobled by a title of honor and no ;

28 History of the

nation attached more importance to the possession of

phenomenal virility- In their treatment of women, a
striking contrast exists, in numerous instances, be-
tween the Pagan and the later Arabians. With both,
it is true, woman was generally a slave. Yet some-
times, in the Age of Ignorance, she was raised to
official dignities, even to the throne itself her opinion
;

was solicited in momentous

affairs of state; and in
the role of diviner and sorceress she wielded a power,
unlimited for good or evil, over her superstitious fol-
lowers. Often gifted with rare poetic talent, she
competed, not without distinction, for the coveted
palm of literary excellence. Tradition has also
handed down the names and achievements of certain
intrepid amazons, who fought by the side of their
husbands and brothers; and whose determined cour-
age contributed, in a marked degree, to change the
fortunes of more than one doubtful battle. But, as
a rule, both before and after Mohammed, the ad-
vancement of the sex from a condition of servitude
was resolutely discountenanced by the Arabs. In the
Age of Ignorance, it was stigmatized by the ungal-
'
lant epithet of Nets of the Demon." The sacred
ties of blood, and the fact that with marriage woman
did not renounce her hereditary privileges, could
always command the assistance of her kinsmen, seek
refuge among them, and be avenged by their valor
in case of grievous personal injury, gave her a con-
siderable degree of importance in the social system
of Arabia. It is very evident that in early times
polyandry prevailed everywhere in that country, an
indication of a scarcity of females, and a custom
always incident to a certain stage in the formation
and development of society. Its prior existence is
demonstrated by the vestiges of communal marriage
to be traced to-day in remote portions of the Penin-
sula, and in the well authenticated tradition that
 Moorish Empire in Europe 29

female kinship was originally the rule in the Desert,

the child belonging to the tribe and following the
fortunes of the mother. Among the Bedouins, the
only recognized methods of obtaining a wife were
those of capture and purchase. The former was
thoroughly congenial with the warlike instincts of a
race whose possessions acquired an especial value as
the result of martial prowess; the latter represented
an indemnity for the possible loss of sons who, under
other circumstances, would have become warriors of
the maternal tribe. There was, however, no real dif-
ference between the lot of the bride who, as the prize
of victory, was dragged shrieking from the folds of
her tent, and that of the smiling victim whose beauty
had been bartered for a hundred camels. Both were
regarded as chattels, and descended with other per-
sonal property to the heir. As the population in-
creased, and the means of livelihood became more
difficult to procure, the appearance of a female child
was looked upon as a calamity; infanticide grew
common; and nothing but the hope of being able, at
some future day, to add to his herd the camels of some
prospective suitor, ever reconciled the mercenary
Bedouin to the birth of a daughter.
The attainment to a high degree of civilization with
all itsdemoralizing influence was not able to destroy
the native politeness, the air of conscious dignity, the
noble hospitality, and the courtly graces of manner
which distinguished the fierce and untaught tribesman
of the Desert. His sense of independence was not
hampered by invidious distinctions of rank or incon-
venient regulations of property. His intuitive knowl-
edge of human nature, his rare susceptibility to every
impression which can improve and develop the mind,
his capacity to deal with the most difficult questions
of policy, his willingness to encounter the most ap.-
palling dangers, were qualities which insured his
30 History of the

success in themost distant countries and under the

most adverse and discouraging conditions. Despite
his readiness to profit by the superior knowledge of
his adversaries, he entertained the most extravagant
ideas of his own importance, and looked down upon
all who were of different manners, religious faith, or
nationality. His inordinate family pride preserved
for the astonishment of subsequent generations the
endless nomenclature of his progenitors; and, at the
birth of Mohammed, the most obscure and poverty-
stricken individual could name, with a fluency born
of long practice and traditional inheritance, his an-
cestors for six hundred years. His language, won-
derfully complex but flexible,, offering to the pur-
poses of the poet and the orator by reason of its
prodigal richness and inexhaustible variety every
resource of sentiment, pathos, and eloquence, yet so
easily acquired that it was spoken by young children
with grammatical correctness and fluency, he justly
boasted as one of the most perfect idioms ever in-
vented by man. In short, the Arab regarded himself
as the highest exemplar of humanity; his arrogance
revolted at the idea of matrimonial connections with
races which he deemed own; and the
inferior to his
pre-eminence he claimed for himself and his country-
men was indicated by the prerogatives which he
asserted Allah had vouchsafed to them alone of all
"
nations; that their turbans should be their diadems^
their tents their houses, their swords their intrench-
ments, and their poems their laws."
The pre-Islamitic religion of the Arabs was mainly
a debasing idolatry polluted by human sacrifices, and
ascending, by ill-defined gradations, from the lowest
forms of fetichism to the adoration of the stars.
Their faith was far from uniform, and almost every
tribe had special objects of veneration and peculiar
modes of worship. Some were absolutely destitute
 Moorish Empire in Europe 31

of the idea of a God some grovelled before roughly-

;

hewn blocks of stone; others worshipped trees and

springs, the most grateful gifts of nature in a
parched and thirsty land; others, again, greeted
with praise the rising sun as its beams illuminated
the purple mists of the Desert, or bowed reverently
at night before the glittering majesty of the heavens.
The members of certain tribes were materialists; not
a few accepted the metempsychosis; many were
familiar with the philosophical creed of the Buddhist,
which regarded death as the irrevocable end of all
spiritual activity, the beginning of a state of absolute
quiescence, of eternal and immutable rest. The ma-
jority of the Arab races, however, looked upon their
idols as mediators between the Supreme Being and
man. Hence they erected temples in their honor,
named their children for them, made pilgrimages to
their shrines, and solicited their good offices with
precious gifts and offerings. The heavenly bodies
were placed in the same category. Their intercession
with the Deity was also invoked by frequent applica-
tions; and to their power, thus indirectly exercised,
were attributed the most important as well as the
most trivial occurrences of life, the benefits of for-
tune, the infliction of calamities, the mysterious and
terrifying effects of natural phenomena. It is a
superstition as old as the human race to imagine the
universe to be peopled with mysterious beings, and
the lives of men to be moulded by the beneficent or
malignant influence of the stars. The worship of the
Sun, the genial dispenser of light, of warmth, of
health, in whose train follow the increase of flocks,
the bursting of buds, the welcome sight of refreshing
verdure, the author of all that is useful and attractive
in every species of organic life, a worship which in
ages of primeval simplicity has always most strongly
appealed to the gratitude and veneration of man, was
32 History or the

highly popular in Pagan Arabia. Classic historians

have established the fact that it was at one time
almost universal in the Peninsula, where the idol
which was the terrestrial manifestation of that great
luminary was designated by the appellation Nur-
Allah, "The Light of God." His authority was
everywhere paramount, whether openly worshipped,
represented by fire the great purifying agent, or
exhibited under various symbols of force and power,
which all nations, however separated, and differing
in physical and mental characteristics, have, with
wonderful unanimity, adopted as his peculiar em-
blems. Temples were also raised to the Moon, Sirius,
Canopus, the Hyades, Mercury, and Jupiter. But
of all the starry bodies none enjoyed greater favor,
or was worshipped with more splendor, than Saturn.
His attributes were often confounded by his votaries
with those of his kindred divinities Mars and the Sun.
It has been proved by the learned researches of Dozy,
that the famous Kaaba was originally a shrine dedi-
cated to that deity. He was the Baal of the Hebrews,
and once their tutelary god as well as that of the
Phoenicians carried by the former during their so-
journ in the wilderness, venerated by the latter in
the magnificent temples of Sidon and Tyre. The
extent of his worship in the East was, it might be
said, coincident with the view of the brilliant planet
by which he was represented in the tropical heavens.
The giver of all material blessings, he was, in this
capacity, invoked as the creator and preserver of
terrestrial life; but he was also propitiated as the
avenger of sacrilege and crime. Among different
peoples he was adored under innumerable manifesta-
tions. The familiar word Israel is a synonym of
Saturn; the Hebrew priests knew him as Sabbathai
whence is derived our Sabbath; and in Judea, as
in Egypt, the first day of the week was dedicated to
 Moorish Empire in Europe 33

and named for him. In Arabia, this popular divinity

was known as Hobal, a word indisputably derived
from the Hebrew language. Occupying the most
exalted position in the Arabic Pantheon, while his
image was anthropomorphic, he was, in reality, a
representative of the monotheistic principle. His
name and his worship in the Peninsula were alike
of Jewish origin. Antiquarian ingenuity and re-
search have traced his various migrations from the
eastern shore of the Mediterranean to the province
of Hedjaz, and have elucidated certain obscure
Scriptural texts relative to his shrine, his worship,
and his festivals. Among the multitudinous divinities
which claimed the reverence of the ancient Arabians
was also the Hebrew Jehovah, adored under the
form of a he-goat, sculptured in gold, as well as
the profligate Venus, known to the Babylonians as
Mylitta, and to the Phoenicians as Astarte. As a
tribute to their eminence in the Christian world, the
Virgin and the Child occupied a post of honor among
the three hundred and sixty idols which crowded the
sanctuary of Mecca. In the religious system of the
Peninsula there was no mythology, a fact which per-
haps contributed not a little to its speedy overthrow.
But, though polytheistic to the last degree, the Arabs
recognized a Supreme Being whose majesty
was
confined to no particular locality, to whom no altar
was dedicated, and who, too awful to be directly
addressed, could be approached only through his
celestial ministers the stars. This was the great
Al-Lah, whose name, corresponding to the El and
the Elohim of the Jews, was pre-eminent in honor
and dignity, both in the Age of Ignorance and in
the Age of Islam. The most superstitious races of
men, and those that are the highest in intelligence
among the most civilized, have and require no shrines.

Vol. I. 3
34 History of the

In Arabia the whole Desert was the temple of the

Supreme God.
Associated with the most exalted ideas of divine
power were to be found superstitions usually encoun-
tered only in the primitive epochs of society. The
wide-spread worship of the generative forces of na-
ture, whose remaining monuments seem to the unin-
structed sense of our cavilling age mere evidences of
a depraved imagination, had its share of public favor
in Arabia, where the male and female principles were
adored under various symbolical forms. Many of
these have survived in the monoliths scattered
throughout the Peninsula, whose towering masses
are regarded, even by devout Moslems, with no small
degree of superstitious awe. The stone-circles and
menhirs mentioned by travellers as existing in Oman
and Nedjd are evidently of the same general type
as those of Carnac and Stonehenge, and, from the
descriptions given of them, of scarcely inferior dimen-
sions, and perhaps of still higher antiquity. It is a
singular circumstance, that gigantic structures, bear-
ing such a common resemblance as to suggest that they
were erected by the same race of builders and designed
for similar purposes, should be found in countries so
different in physical features, climate, inhabitants, re-
ligious traditions, language, and history, as Central
Arabia and Western Europe.
Like other nations of ancient times, the Arabs in-
vested certain trees with a sacred character, a custom
indicative of the lingering influence of phallicism; a
worship whose original principles, long forgotten in
the Peninsula, survived only in the exhibition of its
peculiar emblems and in the practice of a gross and
shameless immorality. Among the Pagan Arabs, no
form of superstition was too debasing to claim its
votaries. They raised altars to fire. They attributed
supernatural powers to the crocodile and the serpent.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 35

Each tent had image; every hovel of sun-dried

its

bricks was with tutelary deities.

filled Shapeless
masses of stone, which tradition had associated with
remarkable events or endowed with celestial origin,
were approached with a reverence not vouchsafed to
idols of the most costly materials and elaborate work-

manship. Of these blocks, which partook of the na-

ture of the fetich, the black were sacred to the Sun,
the white to the Moon. In the Pagan world two of
the former were especially famous; over one was
erected a splendid temple on the mountain near
Emesa in Syria, whence the infamous Roman em-
peror Heliogabalus derived his name; the other was
built into the wall of the Kaaba of Mecca. The latter
was the most remarkable object of the kind known to
antiquity. Aplain fragment of basalt, seven inches
in diameter, whose composition is apparently iden-
tical with that of a neighboring mountain, it had ac-
quired, in the eyes of the people of Arabia, a sanctity
not shared by any other emblem of idolatrous worship.
It was probably, in its origin, a phallic symbol, and
stood alone in an open square of the city, ages pre-
ceding the building of the Kaaba, an event which
tradition has assigned to a date four hundred years
before the foundation of the temple of Solomon.
Thus invested with the sanction of immemorial pre-
scription and the virtues of a miraculous relic, it has
received the reverent homage of millions upon mil-
lions of idolaters and Moslems. It has survived the
accidents of conquest, of iconoclasm, of conflagration.
The silver bands which unite its fragments bear wit-
ness to the vicissitudes and rough usage to which it
has been subjected. The healing power it was sup-
posed to possess attracted the sick and the disabled
from regions far beyond the limits of Arabia. It
was the starting-point of ceremonial and pilgrimage.
It imparted its virtues to the Kaaba, that temple
36 History of the

where alone, in all the Peninsula, hereditary feuds

were suspended where violence was forgotten where
; ;

rudeness gave way to courtesy; where the temporary

surrender of individual freedom, and the voluntary
relinquishment of tribal animosity, seemed to an-
nounce the existence of national sentiment and the
possibility of national union. The recognition by
Mohammed of the claims of the Black Stone and
the Kaaba the ancient temple of Saturn to public
veneration, in a creed otherwise uncompromisingly
hostile to idolatry, demonstrated the high estimation
in which they were held by the Arabs. The latter,
with their numerous shrines, their swarms of deities,
their elaborate paraphernaliaof worship and impost-
ure, were, however, far from being a religious people.
They evinced a decided aversion to metaphysics.
Their ideas of personal liberty were not consistent
with unquestioning submission to the tyranny of a
priesthood. Their native intelligence rendered them
skeptical; their nomadic habits were unfavorable to
the maintenance of a permanent ecclesiastical estab-
lishment. The multiplicity of deities had, as is in-
variably the case, weakened the faith of the masses
in any. The genuine piety of a people is always in an
inverse ratio to the number of its gods.
The early Arabians practised magic and divination,
had recourse to oracles, maintained wizards and sor-
cerers charlatans whose ascendency was largely due
to the narcotics they made use of to open a pretended
communication with the spirit world. Amulets were
universally worn
as a protection against the baneful
consequences of the evil eye. Hand in hand with
presages and magical arts, auguries, and incantations,
came the incipient doctrine of the influence of the
planets upon mineral substances, as well as a belief in
their power to affect the destiny and welfare of man ;

theories which, eventually developing into the vain

 Moorish Empire in Europe 37

pursuits of alchemy and judicial astrology, indicate

an acquaintance with the principles of science only
acquired by much study and repeated experiments.
The practice of these rites, so severely reprobated in
the Koran, was associated in the minds of the people
with the ceremonies of public worship during the age
of polytheism. The words altar and talisman are
practically synonymous in Arabic, a fact which dis-
closes the intimate alliance originally existing between
divination, sorcery, and religion in the Peninsula.
Human sacrifices, so repugnant to all our ideas of
piety and justice, but common to nations of Semitic
origin, were of frequent occurrence among the Arabs
before Mohammed. The mode of death was by fire,
which removed every earthly impurity; but it was
only in the fulfilment of a solemn vow, on an occa-
sion of national rejoicing, or to avert some impend-
ing calamity, that such a costly expiation was exacted.
The Israelites, allied to the Arabs by the ties of con-
sanguinity, and by similar religious conceptions, had
also long been familiar with these revolting and cruel
rites; instances of whose observance will at once sug-
gest themselves to all who are familiar with the Penta-
teuch.
The Hebrew has always exerted a remarkable in-
fluence upon the public sentiment, the religious faith,
and the foreign and domestic relations of the inhabi-
tants of Arabia. A great analogy exists between the
languages of the two nations, and the Hebrew alpha-
bet was used by the prehistoric Arabs. It is believed
by many Oriental scholars that Israel was not the
founder of the people who bear his name; that the
twelve tribes have a mystic relation to certain of the
heavenly bodies or to the months of the year; and
it is known that the word Keturah means simply
"
frankincense." No doubt now exists that the Jew
and the Arab are of common ancestry. For a period
38 History of the

of twenty-five hundred years before the Hegira the

former had been established in Yemen. The trade of
that kingdom, with all its vast ramifications, was in
his hands. His power enabled him constantly to
dictate the policy of its sovereigns.
His worship, equally idolatrous with that of the
Bedouin for he was the descendant of the Simeon-
ites, against whom, among others, the anathemas of
the Bible were directed surpassed the latter in the
splendor of its appointments and the insolence of its
priests. In a land where toleration was otherwise
universal, he was enabled to persecute, with im-
placable enmity, Christian exiles, whom even the
rapacity of the desert freebooter had spared. The
rich settlements of northwestern Arabia were, to all
intents and purposes, Jewish colonies. In the barren
and inhospitable region of the Hedjaz, the Jew
founded the towns of Medina and Mecca. In such
a congenial atmosphere, the superstitions of Asia
Minor obtained a ready acceptance. He established
the worship of Baal, the most renowned of the
Phoenician divinities. He introduced the rite of
circumcision, hitherto unknown in Arabia. He com-
municated his idolatrous observances to the popula-
tion of the country which had offered him a refuge.
He gave a name to its principal city, for the word
"
Mecca is Hebrew, signifying Great Field of
Battle;" the Pagan ceremonial of the Hedjaz can
be traced to Palestine, and the Kaaba was originally
"
known as Beth-El, The House of God." Quick
to recognize the advantages to be derived by com-
merce from religious pilgrimage, he made that city
the centre of national devotion as well as the chief
distributing point of the vast trade of Europe, Asia
Minor, Ethiopia, and India. The excellent commer-
cial situation of Mecca, near the Red Sea and on
the great caravan highway connecting Syria and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 39

Yemen, could scarcely compensate, however, for the

serious physical disadvantages which unfriendly na-
ture had imposed upon it. Its houses were crowded
into a narrow valley two miles long by only nine
hundred feet wide. The rays of a vertical sun beat
pitilessly down upon
a landscape destitute of verdure.
Water, the most priceless of blessings in the Desert,
was scarce and unpalatable. A
salt effervescence
covered the neighboring plains. The seasons were
irregular; storms were violent; the coast of the
Hedjaz possessed the unenviable reputation of being
one of the most pestilential in the world. The city
was dependent upon trade for the necessaries of life,
and the unexpected delay of the caravan often men-
aced the population with famine. Yet, with all these
drawbacks, the commerce of Mecca flourished almost
beyond precedent. Caravans of more than two thou-
sand camels were no uncommon sight in its narrow
streets. Each of these beasts of burden carried a load
of four hundred pounds of rare and costly com-
modities, silks, spices, gold-dust, and per-
ivory,
fumes. The annual exports of the town in the closing
days of Pagan ascendency reached the enormous sum
of fifteen million dollars, half of which was profit.
Not the least of the sources of gain to the people of
Mecca were the valuable offerings left by pilgrims
and merchants in their temples. For a distance of
leagues the ground was holy, and all who trod upon

it could claim the right of sanctuary. The blood of

neither man nor beast could be shed within these
sacred precincts without incurring the imputation of
sacrilege and the punishment of death. There was
no traveller, from whatever country he came, who
could not find, among the innumerable idols of the
Kaaba, a familiar divinity upon whom to bestow the
tribute of his devotion or gratitude. Of the immense
profits resulting from the politic combination of
40 History of the

traffic and superstition, the Hebrew exacted the lion's

share. His rulers met each day at the Kaaba to
exchange views on finance and theology. The
heathen legends of Palestine were incorporated into
the new system, with the astral worship of the
Sabeans and the polytheism of the aboriginal in-
habitants of the Desert, itself derived from a thou-
sand different and uncertain sources. The mono-
theism of Israel was not recognized by the tribe of
Simeon, which had been driven into exile long before
the Pentateuch was written. Ideas thus blended in
the popular mind for centuries might, under favor-
able conditions, be modified, but never obliterated.
There is no question that Islam is largely Hebrew in
origin, although a considerable number of its cere-
monies can be deduced from the customs of Pagan
Arabia. In their migrations, which closed with the
settlement of the Hedjaz, the Jews, while wandering
far, had at last returned to the cradle of their race.
The arbitrary rules of ceremonial cleanliness; the
exclusion of blood from the precincts of the temple;
"
the classification of certain animals as holy," which
"
an error of the translator has transformed into un-
clean;" the penalties for many offences; the adora-
tion of Phoenician divinities; the nomenclature dis-
closed by family genealogies; the correspondence in
meaning of many terms used in their languages
peculiarities common to both the Arab and the Jew
go farther to prove an intimate relationship between
the two races than the uncertainties of tradition or
the association of neighborhood would tend to estab-
lish. The antipathy to the Hebrew, subsequently so
bitteramong Mohammedans, did not exist in ancient
Arabia. The Jew served with distinction in the
armies of Khaled and Amru. Mutual aversion, how-
ever great in subsequent times, was never sufficient to
induce the Israelite to destroy those whom he regarded
 Moorish Empire in Europe 41

as his kinsmen. As his myths had formed the basis

of a new religion, his enterprise and assistance con-
tributed, in no insignificant degree, to the foundation
of a new and magnificent empire. He guided the
councils of the most renowned Mohammedan princes.
Without the dogmas he furnished, the history of Islam
would never have been written. Without the sugges-
tions he voluntarily offered, and the treasure he
poured into the Moslem camps, the conquest of
Spain could never have been achieved. The fairest of
Mussulman writers have rarely failed to acknowledge
the obligations of their countrymen to an unfortunate
race which the prejudices of nearly twenty centuries
have subjected to universal proscription.
Christianity made no progress in Arabia until after
its political alliance with Constantine had imparted

such a tremendous impulse to the dissemination of

its doctrines. The latter do not seem to be adapted
to the Asiatic mind, and have never been able either
to appeal to the reason or to arouse the enthusiasm
of nations of Semitic blood. It offered little that
was congenial with, and much that was abhorrent to,
the lax and tolerant code of the independent and poly-
theistic rovers of the Desert. At the birth of Mo-
hammed it had already, for four centuries, been estab-
lished in the Peninsula, and still, in the very shadow
of its temples, the mocking Arab bowed before his
thousand gods. The principles of the Ebionite sect,
which prevailed in the Arabian churches, so far from
attracting the curiosity or awakening the reverence
of the sarcastic Bedouin, only served to excite his ridi-
cule. The sublime truths of the religion of the Bible,
the eloquence of its teachers, the piety of its saints,
the pomp of its ritual, the promises and threats of
its revelation, were lost upon the reckless freebooters,

devoted to sensual pleasures, to escapades of gallantry,

to the generous rivalry of poesy, to daring feats of
42 History of the

arms. The only mark of attention its adherents

received was their classification with the despised

"
Hebrew as Ahl-al-Kitab,The People of the
Book." In its adaptability to the requirements and
the mental capacity of the multitude, it was ill-fitted
to cope with the religion that eventually supplanted
it. On one side were the incomprehensible dogmas
of a debased Christianity, indispensable to its accept-
ance; on the other, the simplicity of the profession
of Islam, which even a child could understand. For
these reasons it made comparatively few proselytes
in the Peninsula, no time was acknowledged
and at
over any considerable area, except during the short
period which intervened between the Abyssinian con-
quest of Yemen and the rise of Mohammedanism.
Many of the rites and customs adopted by the great
Lawgiver, or preserved by his followers and gen-
erally regarded as peculiar to Islam, antedated the
Koran by centuries. The Mohammedan attitudes of
worship are the same as those depicted upon the
eternal monuments of the Pharaohs. The heathen
pilgrims, clad in the Ihram, or sacred garment, seven
times made the circuit of the Kaaba; embraced the
Black Stone; ran the courses between the holy sta-
tions of Al-Safa and Al-Marwa; cast stones in the
valley of Mina; performed the ancient duties of
sacrifice and local pilgrimage, and were systemati-

cally plundered by the greedy and scoffing Meccans,

just as good Moslem pilgrims are to-day. The
all

primitive Arabs inculcated the duty of personal

cleanliness by frequent ablution. They shaved their
heads, and used the depilatory for the removal of
superfluous hair from the body. Like the Egyptians,
they stained their hands and feet with henna, and
blackened their eyelids with antimony. They re-
moved their sandals, as Moses when they stood
did,
on holy ground. They scrupulously abstained from
 Moorish Empire in Europe 43

certain kinds of food, and their actions were often

governed by regulations practically identical, in their
general character, with those prescribed by the canons
of Jewish and Moslem law.
The spirit of Arabian genius, destined in subse-
quent ages to effect such a revolution in the literary
and scientific history of the world, had in the sixth
century of the Christian era disclosed no indications
of its gigantic powers. No condition of existence
could be less suggestive of a capacity for intellectual
achievement than that whose main dependence was
violence and plunder. The Arab of that epoch had
no written records save a few obscure inscriptions in
the Himyarite dialect, which have been deciphered by
the plodding industry of modern scholars, and are,
for the most part, epitaphs. Traditions, modified or
corrupted by the vanity or the prejudice of each
successive generation, were the sole and uncertain
reliance of the chronicler. The power of memory
by which these were retained and transmitted from
an unknown antiquity seems absolutely miraculous
and incredible.

Although destitute of authentic history, and even

unskilled in the common arts by which a nation's glory
may be perpetuated, the early Arab excelled in a
species of literary composition in which barbarian
races have always exhibited the greatest proficiency.
A talent for poetry, which invariably attains its
highest development among those least exposed to
the practical ideas and refined vices of civilization,
was considered by the Bedouin as the most noble of
human accomplishments. His temperament, his situ-
ation, his pursuits, rendered him peculiarly susceptible
to the charms of the Muse. His spirit was impetuous,
his invention inexhaustible, his imagination riotous,
his enthusiasm unbounded. From an abnormally
sensitive nervous organization which nature had be-
44 History of the

stowed upon him, on occasions of prolonged mental

excitement often proceeded an hysterical frenzy, a
state declared by the most renowned of poets to be

indispensable for perfection in his art. The scenery

of the Desert its impressive solitudes the enchanting
; ;

illusions of the mirage the magnificent constellations

;

of the tropical heavens; the life of incessant peril;

the exploits of romantic gallantry; the nocturnal
excursion, the surprise, the battle, the retreat, the
rescue, these all stimulated the imaginative faculty
of the Arab, and urged him to the cultivation of a
talent which might transmit to posterity events whose
immortality was at once his personal title to honor,
the pastime of his camp-fire, and the glory of his
tribe. In the means at his disposal the poet enjoyed
a rare, almost a unique advantage. The energy and
softness of the Arabian language, its melodious char-
acter, the abundance and variety of its metaphors,
render it peculiarly available as the vehicle of
poetic
sentiment. There is perhaps no idiom which lends
itselfwith such facility to the construction of rhyme ;

for very prose is frequently musical.

its The re-
searches of modern philology have brought to the
notice of Europe the complexity and perfection of
its grammatical construction, the richness of its

vocabulary, boundless scope and graceful imagery.

its

Most appropriately did the old philosopher, Moham-

med-al-Damiri, referring to the native eloquence and
"
exuberant diction of his countrymen, exclaim: Wis-
dom hath lighted on three things, the brain of the
Franks, the hands of the Chinese, and the tongues of
the Arabs."
The poetry of the Arabs is even more obscure in
its origin than the primitive history of their race.

Without the assistance of writing, no literature, how-

ever popular, can maintain its integrity for even a
single generation. Even the phenomenal memory of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 45

that people a gift so universal as not to elicit com-

ment among them, and which was strengthened by
the daily rehearsal of favorite compositions could
only imperfectly supply the place of permanent and
authentic records. The matter of the Arabian poems
was therefore constantly changing, while the subjects
and versification remained the same. Their form was
generally that of the dramatic pastoral; sometimes
the elegiac ode, which offered an opportunity for
the enumeration of the virtues of the deceased and,
incidentally, of the achievements of his tribe, was
adopted. The genius of the pre-Islamitic poet never
attempted the epic, which so often profits by the in-
exhaustible resources of the fabulous; and, although
surrounded by an atmosphere eminently favorable to
the inspiration of such productions, it does not seem
to have had an adequate conception of them. Its

representations exhibited to the enraptured listener

the stirring events of his adventurous life, which his
pride taught him to regard as vastly superior, in all
that promotes the dignity of humanity, to the corrupt
and inert existence of civilization. The universal pos-
session of the poetic faculty was one of the pecu-
liaritiesof the Arab nation. Old and young alike
seemed gifted with it. The rules of prosody, and
even the simplest canons of metrical composition,
were unknown. Yet such was the instinctive per-
ception of rhythmical correctness, that the versification
of the most humble was characterized by propriety
and elegance, qualities which tended to enhance the
fierce enthusiasm, the sublimity of thought, the

touching pathos, the burning passion, which pervade

the noble poems of the Desert. Many of the latter
bear a striking resemblance to the Song of Solomon ;

some are remarkable for their rhapsodies; others for

their weighty and sententious wisdom; others again
for their sparkling wit and pointed epigrams. The
46 History or the
"
seven poems called Moallakat, The Suspended,"
a word of doubtful significance so far as its relation
to these productions is concerned have always been
considered the masterpieces of the ancient Arabs, and
form the principal source from which our ideas of
their attainments in the art of poetry must be derived.

Popular credulity ascribed the name of these compo-

sitions to their presumed suspension in the Kaaba as
evidence of the triumphs of their authors over all
competitors; the more rational conjecture, however,
connects the title of Moallakat with a necklace or
pendant, of which each poem formed a jewel, a figu-
rative mode of designating literary works among
Orientals, and one especially affected by poets and
historians. The entire body of tradition, combined
with facts accumulated by subsequent writers of every
race and creed, does not afford such a thorough insight
into the public and domestic life, the prevailing senti-
ments and prejudices, the habits and customs of the
inhabitants of the Peninsula, as do the Moallakat.
They enable us partially to reconstruct the political
and religious systems of the early Arabians, and to
establish, by comparison, their identity with the con-
ditions of modern existence, in localities where the
sword of Islam has never been able to exterminate
the detested practice of idolatry. They place before
us, in all its impressiveness, the silent majesty of the
Desert, its dazzling sky, its waves of quivering vapor,
its interminable waste of sand; they pass in review

the indolent life of the camp, varied only by a noc-

turnal alarm or by some daring intrigue; they relate
the exciting scenes of the foray; they delineate with
erotic freedom the charms of the lovely Bedouin
maid; they describe the fate of the female prisoner
whose captivity was often the result of artifice or
barter; they rehearse the midnight march under the
starry firmament, which in the florid language of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 47

the East "appeared like the folds of a silken sash

variously decked with gems." Nor is the excellence
of the Moallakat confined to mere description. The
proud boast of exploits not unworthy of the Age of
Chivalry, which, in fact, received its inspiration from
this source; the sacred duties of a lavish
hospitality;
the rare qualities of a favorite horse or camel; the
absorbing passion of love, its perils and its pleasures;
the Herculean feats of virile manhood, these were
the chosen themes of the Arab poet. His verses
abound moral precepts and philosophical apo-
in

thegms, conveying lessons of worldly wisdom which

recall, in both their phraseology and their profound

acquaintance with human nature, the Suras of the

Koran and the Proverbs of Solomon. In addition
to maxims of a moral tone, scattered through these
productions, they exhibit, on the other hand, much
that is repulsive, cruel, and barbarous. Epicureanism
is, however, the prominent characteristic of the Moal-

lakat, as, indeed, it is of all primitive Arabic poems

which have descended to us. The charms of wine and
women, and an indulgence in the pleasures of the
banquet to the extreme limit of bacchanalian revelry,
are everywhere celebrated with a license worthy of
the grossest couplets of Catullus and Martial. In the
relation of scenes of intrigue and midnight assigna-
tion, often laid in the camp of a hostile tribe, where
discovery would have led to instant death, the adven-
turous spirit of the lover is deemed worthy to rank
with that which sustains the hero in the front of battle.
The most fulsome adulation characterizes the homage
tendered by the ardent lover to the object of his
idolatry. Modern fastidiousness would not tolerate
the descriptions given by the poet of the physical
perfections of his lady-love in all their circumstantial
details though translations exist, they are mere para-
;

phrases; and the voluptuous images of the poet's

48 History of the

fancy still remain discreetly hidden in the obscurity

of the original idiom.
There is much similarity and repetition in Arab
poetry, which the interpolations and substitutions
inevitable among a people dependent for the
preservation of their literature upon oral tradition
will hardly account for.
The existence of the Bedouin was bounded by a
narrow horizon, the Desert was his world. Its familiar
objects and localities, which never changed; the deeds
which they recalled; the hopes which they inspired;
the memory of ancestral renown with which they were
associated, suggested the topics of his song. The
haughtiness which was one of his most offensive char-
acteristics, and forbade his permanent alliance or his

intermarriage with other races, strengthened the feel-

ings of reserve which had been a national peculiarity
for countless generations. His ideas, his aspirations,
his joys, his sorrows, evoked by the monotonous cir-
cumstances of his environment, were little subject to
deviation during the course of centuries. While his
religion was a compound of all degrees of fetichism,
idolatry, and astral worship, his poetry was original,
pure, artless, and natural. His aptitude for versifica-
tion was disclosed by the most trivial occurrences of
life. A rhyming stanza, which set forth an appro-
priate sentiment, was often the reply to an ordinary
question. Where allusion was made to an historical
incident, the speaker was often challenged to confirm
his statement by the recitation of an original verse,
or by an apt poetical quotation, as the most reliable
authority. The quick perception of the Arab was
shown by his ability to finish instantly a couplet corre-
sponding in sense and measure with a line repeated
by a competitor. Its general similarity to all others
renders the assignment of any Arabic poem to a cer-
tain epoch impossible, for the natural taste has never
 Moorish Empire in Europe 49

varied, and a composition that was popular three

hundred years before the Hegira would be equally
acceptable to-day to the mountain tribes of Central
Arabia.
In the opening lines of most Arabic poems, and in
those of the Moallakat especially, there is a dearth of
individuality, and a common resemblance which would
almost suggest that they had been written by the same
person. The purity of style which characterizes the
latter was, however, universally admitted; they were
the recognized standards of grammatical correctness;
they were consulted whenever a dispute arose concern-
ing the meaning of a word or the construction of a
sentence in later authors was in doubt; and among
Mohammedans the authority of those Pagan compo-
sitions was never entirely superseded even by that of
the Koran, whose sublimity of thought and elegance
of diction were reverently ascribed to the direct in-
spiration of God.
We owe the survival of the Moallakat to the capri-
cious taste of some self-appointed critic, who selected
them from a number of poems with which he was
familiar; and, through his arbitrary choice, we are
deprived of the opportunity of forming an opinion
of the others which his rejection has tacitly pronounced
inferior. Weknow nothing of his qualifications for
such a task, and are even ignorant of his name but,;

from the remaining fragments of these productions,

we may safely conclude that some of them, at least,
were as fully entitled to preservation as the seven more
fortunate ones which have descended to posterity.
It is a remarkable fact that no Arabic poem shows
traces of Hebrew influence or contains ideas borrowed
from either the Scriptures or the Talmud. The wealth
and political power of the Jews; their intimate asso-
ciation with the nomadic tribes of the Peninsula; a
close similarity of traditions, customs, and language,
Vol. I
50 History of the

produced no perceptible effect upon the prehistoric

literature of the Arabs. The Hebrews of Arabia,
nevertheless, had their poets, whose productions, on
the other hand, exhibit a marked coincidence of
thought and style with those of their Arab kinsmen.
Their sentiments are lofty and admirable, their lan-
guage pure, and their merit, while inferior to that of
the Moallakat, far from contemptible.
is still The
Book of Job, which has no apparent connection with
the rest of the Scriptures, has been pronounced by
competent critics a translation of an Arabic poem.
Improvisation, a talent possessed only by those en-
dowed with unusual readiness of perception, a lively
imagination, and an inexhaustible command of lan-
guage, was practised with great success by the itiner-
ant poets of Arabia. From their auditors, a couplet
happily applied, by the inspiration of the moment, to
some well-known evenjt, elicited far more applause
than efforts, however meritorious, which had cost days
of arduous labor. This art of extemporaneous com-
position, which, when thoroughly developed,
implies
the possession of extraordinary mental ability, carried
into Europe by the Moslems, and long employed by
the troubadours, now survives only among the lowest
class of the Italian peasantry. It is, in our day, most
difficult to determine what degree of authenticity may
properly be ascribed to the poetry of the ancient
Arabs, none of which ascends to a higher antiquity
than two hundred years before the Hegira. The un-
reliability of oral tradition, the variety of dialects, the
frequent substitutions of modern phraseology, the bad
faith, interpolations, and mistakes of unscrupulous
commentators, the corruption and suppression of
passages through tribal prejudice all of these causes
have had their share in effecting the gradual deteriora-
tion of the grand and stirring poems of Arabia.
It is impossible for us to appreciate the influence
 Moorish Empire in Europe 51

exercised bv those who had attained

ml
to eminence in
the poetic art over their imaginative and passionate
countrymen. The Arab bard was without exception
the most important personage of his tribe. Wealth,
rank, beauty, personal popularity, military distinction
alike paid tribute to his genius. To his talent for im-

provisation and versification, he often united the three-

fold character of statesman, warrior, and knight-
errant, and thus became the model of his associates,
the idol of the fair sex, and the terror of his enemies,
who were as sensitive to the poisoned shafts of his
satire as to the keenness of his sword. The most
famous of these rhyming paladins, and the author of
one of the Moallakat, whose life and achievements
have been made the subject of a romance which ap-
proaches more nearly to the nature of an epic than
any other production in the Arabic language, was
Antar. By instinct and training a Bedouin, he was,
however, of Arab blood only on his father's side, his
mother having been an Abyssinian slave. According
to the custom of his country, he shared her lot until his
bravery in battle induced his father to emancipate him.
His amatory exploits, as well as his daring enterprises
against the enemy, made him the admiration of the
fieryArabian youth. was the regret of Moham-
It
med, often expressed, that he had never seen this
knight-errant of the Desert, who shrank from no
danger, however appalling, who redressed the wrongs
of woman, who restored the property of the plun-
'

dered, and whose favorite maxim was, Bear not

malice, for of malice good never came."
The unbridled license of the Arabian poet offers a
curious commentary on national manners. The most
exalted dignity, the sacred attributes of the gods, the
pride of opulence, the delicacy of the sex,
were not
from the attacks of his venom and sarcasm.
exempt
He exposed with relentless severity the frailties of
52 History of the

the wife and daughters of the sheik. He boasted of

his own intrigues with a shameless audacity which,
under more refined social conditions, could only be
atoned for with blood. The immunity he enjoyed was
one of the prerogatives of his calling. certain A
sacredness of character was believed to attach to the
latter by reason of the demoniac possession to which
was popularly attributed the inspiration of the poetic
faculty. His verses abounded in chivalrous senti-
ments, but uniformly ignored the claims of religion
to the veneration of mankind. No beautiful my-
thology, like that of ancient Greece, was at hand to
prompt the efforts of his muse. The maxims of the
luxurious Epicurean were those that exerted the
greatest power over his imagination and his life.
An idea may be formed of the influence of poetry
on the public mind when we remember that the
Koreish in vain attempted to bribe the pagan bard
Ascha to deliver a panegyric on Mohammed at the
commencement of the latter's career, and, unable to
secure his compliance, succeeded with much difficulty
in purchasing his neutrality and silence at the expense
of a hundred camels. The Prophet was so sensitive
to the keen thrusts of the satirist, that when Mecca
was captured and a general amnesty proclaimed, one
of the four unfortunates whom he expressly excluded
from this act of clemency was an obscure poet, Hab-
bar-Ibn-Aswad by name, who had published a lam-
poon against him. The Arabian bard, like his literary
descendant the troubadour, was attended by minstrels
who chanted his verses, often to the accompaniment
of musical instruments. The latter vocation, regarded
as degrading by the Bedouin, was always exercised
by a slave.
Islamism, while in other directions it zealously pro-
moted the intellectual development of its adherents,

fell like a blight upon the poetic taste and genius of

 Moorish Empire in Europe 53

Arabia. The dreams of the poet disappeared before

the stern fanaticism of the soldier, who had no time
for rhapsodies, and cared for nothing save indulgence
in rapine, the acquisition of empire, and the extension
of the Faith.
It is now
generally admitted that the literary con-
tests said to have taken place during the annual fair
at Okliad, where, from poems read before an immense
concourse, the one to be suspended in the Kaaba was
selected, are apocryphal. Tribes of vagrant robbers
who passed ten months of the year in plundering their
neighbors would hardly consent to Spend the other
two in an orderly assembly, composed mainly of their
enemies, in determining by a popular vote the com-
parative merit of their respective poets. The settle-
ment of such rival claims for intellectual precedency
by the voice of the people implies a degree of culture
and critical acumen certainly not possessed by the
. Arabs of that age. This idle tale has doubtless been
suggested by the literary exhibitions of the Olympian
games, and is perhaps indebted to the imagination of
some garrulous and mendacious Greek for its origin.
It however, unquestionable that the poet, as well as
is,

the story-teller that other important personage in

the East was in high favor at all the fairs and
assemblies of Arabia. The mixed multitude which,
impelled by motives partly mercenary, partly relig-
ious, collected on these occasions, and in its hours of
leisure listened to the verses of the poet, constantly
promoted his inspiration and refined
his lays by the

hope of applause, the fear of censure, the collision

with foreigners, and the powerful influence of tribal
emulation.
The of the Arabs is decked with all the
later history

gorgeous imagery of the East. The fascinations of

romance invest and embellish it. With the common-
of national
place facts incident to the various stages
54 History of the

progress are interwoven narratives of indisputable

truth, but which, in their demands upon human credu-
lity, almost surpass the fabulous legends of chivalry or
the enchanting tales of Scheherezade. The primitive
life of the Arabian people previous to the advent of
Mohammed offered no indication of their extraordi-
nary capability for improvement. Commercial inter-
course with other nations for ages had, however, en-
larged their experience, expanded their faculties, and
aroused their ambition. The caravan winding amidst
the lonely sand-hills of the Desert the precursor of
those great expeditions which
subsequently inter-
changed the commodities of Asia Minor, Egypt,
Andalusia, and India was also the more important
agent of science, of refinement, of civilization. It
increased the sum of geographical and historical
knowledge. It familiarized the trader and his cus-
tomers with the manners, the laws, the social systems,
the mechanical skill, the arts, and the inventions of
the most enterprising nations of the globe. These
associations assisted in no small degree to generate
the practical utility which, the most important feature
of Arab learning, afterwards conferred such substan-
tial blessings on mankind. The phenomenal advance
of the race to maturity, impossible without previous
preparation, was stimulated by perpetual wars and
excitement. Less than one hundred and twenty years
intervened between the vagabondage and ignorance of
the Desert and the stability and intellectual culture
of the great Abbaside and Ommeyade capitals. The
career of the Arab was too rapid to be permanent.
In four generations it had covered the ground ordi-
narily traversed in twenty. Its delusive splendor con-
cealed the decay which was coincident with the era
of its greatest prosperity. The same causes which
facilitated the foundation and advancement of his
power and culture were active during their decline,
and contributed to their ultimate destruction.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 55

The statement may appear paradoxical, in view of

the acknowledged influence of mercantile associations
upon the faculties of the human mind; but a certain
degree of isolation seems to be necessary, at least in
tropical and semi-tropical regions, for the complete
development of the arts of civilization and these arts
;

have usually attained their highest perfection among

nations which inhabit peninsulas. Egypt and China,
whose reliance was entirely upon their own resources,
were the most exclusive of nations in the ancient
world, as were Mexico and Peru in the modern. The
vast majority of the populations of India, Japan, and
Spain had but little intercourse with those outside
their boundaries, which were defended by stormy and

mysterious seas. In no other countries have the

powers of the human intellect, in the creation of all
that is grand and imposing, of all that is beautiful,
of all that is artistic, of all that contributes to the
benefit, the cultivation, and the material improvement
of mankind, been manifested as in Greece and Italy.
And Arabia, although denied by Nature the advan-
tages of soil and climate enjoyed by more favored
lands, yet possessed what, in the crisis of her fate,
rendered her superior to all her adversaries, a race of
bold and hardy warriors inured to hardship by the
privations of an abstemious life, and by habit and
inclination capable of the most arduous and desperate
enterprises. Their experience with the surrounding
effeminate nations had taught them not only the weak-
ness of the latter, but also how their coveted wealth
might be obtained and at a propitious moment, under
;

the guidance of an impassioned enthusiast, a horde of

outlaws, driven from their homes by their scandalized
neighbors, became the nucleus of victorious armies the
fame of whose gallantry filled the world. And yet,
while glorying in the deeds of martial heroism which
insured the establishment and maintenance of her
56 History of the

Prophet's faith, she was conscious of the instability of

an empire sustained by arms alone, and labored to
raise upon more substantial and enduring foundations
the splendid fabric of her greatness. The same fervid
impulse which prompted and carried to a successful
issue the conquest or extermination of those designated

by the comprehensive term of infidel was able to adapt

itself with singular facility to all the conditions of

peace, and to enable the posterity of the half -naked

banditti that swarmed around the banner of Moham-
med to accomplish results worthy of the most exalted
genius, and in every department of knowledge to
ascend to the highest rank of those celebrated for their
literary and scientific attainments in the most polished
communities of Asia and Europe.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 57

CHAPTER II

THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND INFLUENCE OF ISLAM

614-712

Comparative Religion, its Interest as a Study The Benefits of

Islam Arabia at the Birth of Mohammed Condition of
Christendom and the Byzantine Empire Popular Idea of
the Prophet His Family His Early Life The First
Revelation Persecution of the New Sect The Hegira
Growing Prosperity of Islam Character of Mohammed
Causes of His Success Polygamy The Koran Its

Arrangement, its Legends, its Sublime Maxims, its Ab-

surdities Its Obligations to other Creeds The Kiblah
The Pilgrimage and its Ceremonies Reforms accom-
plished by Islam Universal Worship of Force Corrup-
tion of the Religion of Mohammed Its Wonderful
Achievements Mohammed the Apostle of God.

The study of Comparative Religion is one of the

most fascinating, but at the same time one of the
most unsatisfactory, of human employments. In his-
torical research, in mathematical calculation, in chemi-
cal analysis, in the investigation of natural phenomena,
either absolute certainty or an approximate degree of

accuracy is attainable. This, however, is obviously

impossible in the consideration of questions with which
the eternal happiness or misery of mankind may be
concerned. Who
is competent to determine the rela-

tive value of the various religious systems, always

mutually antagonistic, often irreconcilable, yet all
alleged to have proceeded alike from the flat of
Almighty God? Who is to judge of the peculiar
qualifications of those who have arrogated to them-
selves the important office of passing upon their re-

spective merits? Why should certain doctrines be

accepted and others repudiated by zealous but un-
58 History of the

Where does this presumed inspira-

critical sectaries?
tion begin and end?To use the words of the Koran,
"What is the infallible? And who shall cause thee
to understand what the infallible is?" Who, in short,
possesses the touchstone of truth?
The experience of all ages, the history of all nations,
have established the melancholy fact that systems of
religion are, like institutions of human origin, subject
to the ordinary incidents of mortality. They have
their age of youthful vigor and enthusiasm; their
stationary epoch, when their principles have lost their
expansive power; their period of degeneracy and de-
cay. Their duration, like that of created beings, corre-
sponds to the degree of vitality which they may pos-
sess; their vitality is in proportion to the intrinsic
merit of their doctrines, and their adaptability to the
moral nature of man. As omniscience is denied to him,
his estimate of the value of a divine revelation must

necessarily be speculative and uncertain, largely de-

pendent upon his intellectual capacity, and colored by
the influences to which he has been exposed. On the
other hand, many learned metaphysicians have argued
with transcendent ability that faith is not accidental,
and merely derived from volition and association, but
is a matter of inexorable necessity, in which the will

is absolutely powerless. As a result of inherited

prejudice, the principles of every religion always
appear heterodox, false, and absurd to sincere be-
lievers in other forms of faith. Of all theological
dogmas, none have suffered more from the effects
of ignorance and injustice than those of Islamism.
The name of its founder has for thirteen centuries
been a synonym of imposture. His motives have been
impugned, his sincerity denied. His character has
been branded with every vice which degrades or afflicts
mankind. The greatest absurdities, the grossest in-
humanity, have been attributed to his teachings. Ec-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 59

clesiastical malice has exhausted its resources in efforts

to blacken his memory. Even in our day, compara-
tively few persons are even superficially conversant
with the doctrines which, in less than a century, were
able to usurp the spiritual and temporal dominion of
a considerable portion of the habitable globe.
The love of novelty which reigns supreme in the
human breast is nowhere more striking in its mani-
festations than in the facility with which men adopt
a fresh revelation. No new religion ever lacks prose-
lytes. Imagination, sentiment, hope, fear, interest,
combine to induce its acceptance, notwithstanding the
obscurity which may invest its doctrines or the illit-
eracy which often is the most prominent characteristic
of its interpreters and if the conditions which attend
;

its promulgation are not

decidedly unpropitious, it is
morally certain of success.
Some embrace it through curiosity, others from con-
viction, many from motives of selfishness. Its power
is frequently in a direct proportion to the awe with
which it inspires its votaries. As military glory is most
admired by the populace, great prestige must of neces-
sity attach to a creed which proselytes by conquest.
On the other hand, apotheosis was considered the
highest distinction attainable by the heroes and sov-
ereigns of Pagan antiquity. Individuals whose
genius had conferred great benefits upon the human
race were assigned by public gratitude to a place
among the gods. All the Roman emperors from
Caesar to Constantine were deified. An atmosphere
of peculiar sanctity invested the eagles grouped in the
post of honor in the camp of the legion. The crucifix
and the reliquary were borne in the van of crusading
armies. A more or less intimate association has thus
always existed between the sacerdotal and the military
professions. The latter has repeatedly furthered the

projects of the former. The priest has rarely refused

60 History of the

to absolve the offences of the orthodox soldier. Most

religions have, in fact, been established or maintained
by force. When we recall the overthrow of Paganism,
the successive attempts to recover the Holy Sepulchre,
the reconquest of Spain, the Inquisition, the atro-
cities attending the subjugation of the New World,
the utter devastation of Provence and Languedoc, the
religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies, we should
certainly not subject to invidious
scrutiny the polity of Mohammed, whose history is
free from the reproach of persecution, and whose
supremacy was only partially established by arms.
The examination and criticism of a religion whose
canons have been honored with the implicit and rev-
erent obedience of millions of men; whose dogmas
have been recognized by the devout of many diverse
races as inspirations of the wisdom of Almighty God ;

a religion which, by the weapons of argument or by

the resistless force of enthusiasm, subverted the power
and absorbed the leading principles of other creeds
whose traditions had hitherto enthralled the world,
and which, despite the degeneracy of its practice, the
divisions and consequent antagonism of its sectaries,
the vicissitudes of many centuries, and the inevitable
accidents of war, persecution, and treason, still mani-
fests an astonishing and, to all appearances, an in-
exhaustible vitality, is a great and arduous under-
taking. The story of Islam, by whose influence the
natives of the East and West, heretofore hostile, were
joined in a bond of fraternal union and guided
through a marvellous career of prosperity and glory,
is the realization of what would have ordinarily ap-

peared a most extravagant dream of conquest and

dominion, and is without parallel in the annals of
humanity. In the moral as in the material world, the
most perfect and durable forms and systems usually
arrive slowly, and by almost imperceptible gradations,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 61

at ultimate maturity. But to this rule Islam was

a striking exception. It attained the summit of its
greatness, and raised the Arabians to an exalted rank
in the family of nations, in a shorter period of time
than is generally occupied by a people in passing
through the primitive stages of their intellectual de-
velopment.
It refuted the familiar maxim of the Romans, whose
foreign policy was based upon the fomenting of dis-
sensions and the subsequent discomfiture of their
enemies, and, assailing its adversaries simultaneously
on every side, won its way by a series of victories sur-
passing, in momentous results, the most renowned
triumphs of the consuls and the Caesars. In the tra-
ditions relating to the genealogy and history of its

Prophet there is much that is enigmatical and much

that is romantic. The latter deduced his origin from
Ishmael, whom, with unfortunate mother, Abra-
his
ham, the acknowledged head of God's chosen people,
had inhumanly abandoned in the Desert to starve.
But in the seventy-one generations which separated
Mohammed and Ishmael, a radical change of circum-
stances had befallen the rival branches of the house
of Abraham. The descendants of Isaac, who had been
promised the earth for an inheritance, now enslaved
or exiled, and proverbial for bad faith, had become
reviled and contemned of all men. On the other hand,
from Ishmael the vagabond, deserted by his father
and renounced by his kindred, had sprung a noble,
valiant, and hospitable race, whose destiny was the
promotion of civilization and the extension of empire.
And in due time the latter, having obtained possession
of the opulent regions of the East, tolerated the de-
spised Hebrew only upon payment of tribute, and
restricted him to a distinctive costume as a symbol of
his degradation. He was compelled, in token of re-
spect, to remove his slippers whenever he passed a
62 History of the

mosque, and under penalty of the lash to kneel ab-

jectly in the dust before the haughty Ishmaelite;
while the capital of the land from which he had
been banished, endeared to him by the memory of
his sovereigns and the traditions of his faith, was in
the power of his hereditary enemies, whose sacrilegious
hands had raised the gilded dome of one of their
proudest fanes upon the very spot long consecrated
by the most revered associations of his race and his
religion. The law of compensation, which controls the
fate of man, was at last fulfilled, and retribution, if
long delayed, was then exacted with relentless severity.
The benefits wrought by Mohammedans especially
during the Middle Ages have, until the end of the
last century,been silently ignored or studiously depre-
ciated by historians; in some instances through want
of information, but, for the most part, because the
phenomenal progress of Islam, when compared with
the apathetic condition of other religions, suggested
a formidable rivalry. But in this age, insatiable of
knowledge and equipped with every means of obtain-
ing it, it is no longer possible for clerical intolerance
to obscure the splendid achievements of Moslem sci-
ence. The day has long since past when the labors
of astronomers like Ibn-Junis, of historians like Al-
Makkari, of philosophers like Averroes, of physicians
like Avicenna, and of botanists like Ibn-Beithar, can
be treated with obloquy because they were not au-
thorized by the decree of an Ecumenical Council or
approved by a bull of his Holiness the Pope.
The history of a religion, the exposition of a form
of faith, is not infrequently the memoir of an indi-
vidual and the chronicle of a race. As a rule, the
union of the offices of Prophet and Lawgiver in a
single personage deeply impresses the individuality
of that personage upon the character of his nation.
The annals of the Hebrews are indissolubly bound
 Moorish Empire in Europe 63

up with the Holy Scriptures and the precepts of

Mosaic law. The mention of ancient Persia suggests
of the Zendavesta and the ordinances
at once the texts
of Zoroaster. The Koran is practically the biography
of Mohammed, the tale of his sorrows, his aspirations,
his failures,and his triumphs. And what more noble
monument could Arabia boast than the proud distinc-
tion of having been the home of a prophet and the
cradle of a faith for centuries identified with religious
toleration, with princely munificence, with scientific
investigation, with literary merit, all intimately asso-
ciated with her name and with the varying fortunes
of her children? The latter, from the first, devoted
themselves to the interests of civilization. They
settled colonies of skilled artisans in the wake of their
armies. They promoted manufactures, encouraged
commerce, and in every department of industrial
occupation stimulated the efforts of mechanical in-
genuity. They developed the science of astronomy.
To them chemistry and pharmacy owe their origin.
While persevering botanists explored the flora of
many lands, the mathematician, in his secluded re-
treat, expanded and perfected the science of algebra.
When a new region was subjected to their rule, all
fruits, plants, and herbs, which examination or experi-
ence had found to be either edible or curative, were
inscribed upon the lists of tribute, and their im-
portation and distribution became compulsory. They
branded idleness with contempt they ennobled labor
; ;

and even royalty did not disdain to follow the example

of the Prophet, who, with his own hands, assisted in
the erection of the mosque of Medina, the first temple
of Islam. They translated and preserved for the
pleasure and instruction of posterity the immortal
productions of the sages of Greece and Rome. They
fostered learning, and encouraged its pursuit by
maxim, reward, and example, until it became a matter
64 History of the

of popular belief, as firmly grounded as the most

sacred tradition, that the diligent cultivation of the
mental faculties was an imperative religious duty.
In ancient times, to compel the observance of a salu-
tary law, it was connected with public worship and
directly sanctioned by the precepts of religion. In
this way, hallowed by divine authority, it acquired a
force not obtainable by human enactment, and con-
clusively indicated the wisdom of the sovereign or
lawgiver who promulgated it. It was thus with cir-
cumcision among the Jews, with the cultivation of the
soil in Mesopotamia, and with irrigation in Egypt,
where the Nile was deified as the creator and preserver
of the harvests and the source of the material pros-
perity of the nation. Mohammed was not blind to the
advantages to be secured by this theocratic supervision
of the affairs of mortals, and, by recourse to it, en-
forced the adoption and practice of many healthful
customs and profitable employments whose effects
upon the subjects of his successors were of the
greatest importance.
The contagion of superstition, the impression pro-
duced by the grandeur of scenery, and the periodical
recurrence of mysterious natural phenomena must
always be attentively considered in determining the
philosophical belief and religious tendencies of a
people. Intimate relations with Egypt, sustained
for a vast but unknown period of time, have left
ineffaceable traces upon the traditions of Arabia.
In the religious system of the former country there
was one Supreme Being. All other divinities were
but manifestations of his majesty and omnipotence
concealed under different names. From him ema-
nated the multifarious triads, the personification of
the Nile, the countless array of gods to whom the
days, the months, and even the very productions of
the earth, were sacred. The great secret that these
 Moorish Empire in Europe 65

inferior deities were mere abstractions proceeding

from a common Essence, to be eventually absorbed
into it, a fate to which even the soul of man, after
divers transmigrations, was subject, was jealously
guarded by the Egyptian priesthood, and was the
chief of its famous mysteries. The Sabeans of Ye-
men, instructed through their mercantile relations with
the inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile, had long
been familiar with the idea of a Supreme God and
the personified attributes of His power and dignity.
This doctrine had spread from the South, and, at the
date of the advent of Mohammed, underlay the idola-
trous worship of which Mecca was the centre, and
whose ramifications extended in every direction to the
borders of the Peninsula. A
considerable number of
the more intelligent Arabs who professed adherence to
the religion of Abraham, yet, in fact, knew nothing of
that religion except that it was monotheistic, repudi-
ated all forms of idolatry, and styled themselves
"
Hanifs a word variously defined as Incliners" and
"
Heretics." The Manichean conception of the Spirit
of Darkness or, in other words, that important and
enterprising personage the Persian devil, without
whose presence no modern creed would seem to be
complete was also unknown to the ancient inhabi-
tants of Arabia. As the idea was imported, no
branch of the Semitic race having been originally
acquainted with it, it probably travelled in the train
of Cambyses when he invaded the Desert; although
Iblis, the Arabic name by which this spirit is popularly

designated, is evidently of European derivation and a

corruption of the Greek Atd/3oXo$.
Nor have the physical features of the landscape less
to do with the formation of man's moral impressions,
and the direction of his impulses, than the reciprocal
interchange of the ideas of contiguous nations. This
is apparent in even a greater degree than the influ-
Vol. I. 5
66 History of the

ence of and climate in the modification of his

soil

physical aspect and temperament. The more im-

posing those features, the more profound the emo-
tions they excite; and, partly for this reason, Asia,
which Nature has endowed with the most stupendous
manifestations of her energy, has been prolific of
those superstitions which have exercised the most
extensive and lasting dominion over the human mind.
For more than a century *bef ore the birth of Moham-
med, the most deplorable ignorance had obscured
the face of the Christian world. The gentleness and
beauty of the religion of Jesus had been supplanted
by the direst fanaticism its altars had been profaned
;

by heathen sacrifices and the adoration of images its ;

priesthood had become inconceivably corrupt and im-

moral. The countless sects evoked by the machinations
and worldly ambition of the clergy had, by mutual
recrimination, revolting crimes, relentless persecution
of their adversaries, and obstinate refusal to listen
to any plan of reconciliation, almost destroyed the
faith of reasonable men in every religion. Each of
these sects had a leader who was regarded by his
followers as endowed, to a greater or less degree,
with that mysterious power conferred by divine in-
spiration. Disputes, frequently settled by massacre,
were constantly maintained upon abstruse and frivo-
lous questions in their very nature unanswerable the ;

precepts of justice and the laws of morality were

contemptuously disregarded and the sacerdotal class,
;

instead of setting an example of piety and moderation

to its congregations, was conspicuous in the daily

saturnalia of rapine, lust, and murder. The Church

had long since departed from the simplicity and purity
of original institution.
its For a century only after
the death of the Saviour it had remained free from the
influence of schismatic doctrines. While in compara-
tive obscurity and acknowledged weakness, it offered
 Moorish Empire in Europe 67

no inducements to the disturbing spirit of fanatical

innovators or to the selfish schemes of
political ag-
grandizement and ecclesiastical ambition. In the
beginning, divided into a number of federated re-
publics practically independent, yet bound together
by a common interest, governed by their own laws,
relying upon their own resources, guided by the
wisdom of their ownministers, their thoroughly or-
ganized polity, their obstinacy, their claims to superior
holiness, naturally excited the odium of the Pagan
populace, and frequently provoked the wrath and the
interference of Imperial authority. From a condi-
tion of meekness, humility,and self-abnegation, the
Church had become the prey of hostile factions, and
was already tainted with scandal. Its synods were
polluted with the blood of contending sectaries. Its
councils resounded with the unseemly disputes and
mutual recriminations of prelates more ambitious for
the attainment of supreme power than for the dis-
covery of divine truth. The Trinitarian controversy
had nourished prejudices which centuries of apparent
tranquillity had failed to eradicate. The spirit of
persecution, incomprehensible to the polytheists, the
essence of whose creed was universal toleration, and
who could not appreciate the motives impelling the
Christian to the employment of force to establish his
doctrines, had early begun to manifest itself. Monas-
ticism, synonymous with ignorance and intolerance,
represented the sentiments and hopes of the most de-
graded of the populace in every community of the
Empire. At Alexandria and Nicea it had forced, by
weight of numbers and by turbulent demonstrations
of violence, the adoption of some of the most impor-
tant articles of Christian faith. In every ecclesiasti-
cal feud it had invariably espoused the cause of
bigotry
and imposture. The monk of the sixth century united
in his character the inconsistent attributes of the priest
68 History of the

and the and the demagogue. His

politician, the saint
retreat in the solitude of the desert was visited by
thousands of weeping penitents, suppliants for the
doubtful but cherished privilege of. his blessing. With
his companions, armed with clubs and stones, he
fomented disorder in the streets of great capitals.
His voluntary renunciation of the follies of the
world was no bar to his greed of power. He dic-
tated the policy of the Church. He settled involved
points of casuistry. He formulated canons of eccle-
siastical discipline. He enforced the claims of his
faction by intrigues, by corruption, by the commission
of the most revolting crimes. He aspired to and often
attained the episcopal dignity. The superior num-
bers, the fanatical spirit, the unanimous resolution of
his order, gave him a preponderating influence in the
Church not to be heedlessly resisted. Before the im-
perial organization of the Papacy, the monk was the
dominant factor in the determination of the laws, the
measures, and the regulations of Christendom.
It must be remembered that at that time there
was no established, centralized, sacerdotal authority.
Nevertheless, for more than a century, imperial offi-
cials, designated for that purpose, had determined the

degrees and inflicted the punishment of heresy. Con-

fiscation, banishment, torture, and death threatened all
who refused to subscribe to the doctrines which, vary-

ing with different reigns, were promulgated as the

momentary and uncertain standards of orthodoxy.
The incomprehensibility of a dogma was considered
an infallible indication of its truth. The philosopher
was then, as now, stigmatized as the implacable enemy
of religion. A reign of terror overspread the empire.
Every scholarbecame an object of suspicious aver-
sion. His neighbors shunned his company. The
clergy anathematized him from the pulpit. Inform-
ers dogged his footsteps and intruded upon his pri-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 69

vacy. Indifference to religious duties, or an un-

guarded statement frequently distorted by malice,
was a sufficient cause for imprisonment. The dis-
covery of an heretical passage in a volume of his
library rarely failed to provoke a sentence of death.
Such measures, equivalent to a proscription of knowl-
edge, produced the most lamentable consequences.
Literary occupations became to all intents and pur-
poses criminal. Everywhere valuable collections of
books were hastily consigned to the flames by their
owners, apprehensive of being compromised by their
contents. Oratory, except that of the pulpit, could
not survive such restrictions. Public sentiment, con-
trolled by ecclesiastical prejudice, became inimical to
the maintenance of even ordinary institutions of
learning. A
blind reverence for the Church, and a
disposition to enforce obedience to its mandates by the
merciless employment of the secular arm, were popu-
larly regarded as the duties of every member of so-
ciety. It was the ominous inauguration of that
fearful power which afterwards culminated in the
irresponsible despotism of the Vatican.
The Roman Pontiff had not yet stretched forth
his mighty hand from the seat of ancient empire to

allay dissension, and to enforce obedience to the edicts

of the greatest hierarchy that has ever arisen to en-
chain the intelligence and repress the independent
aspirations of mankind. The final decisions of coun-
cils had not been formulated upon controverted points

of doctrine. The Patriarch of Constantinople first

in precedence, yet almost rivalled in
ecclesiastical

pomp and prestige by the great episcopal dignitaries

of Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage exacted with
difficulty the reverence of the giddy and scoffing mob
of the capital, and could not always maintain the dig-
nity of his office, even in the presence of his sovereign,
who was sometimes a skeptic and often a tyrant. Nor
70 History of the

was the civil power, to which the ecclesiastical system

was still jealously subordinated, in a less degraded
condition. The authority of the Emperor was per-
sistently defied in the precincts of his own palace,
which, with the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, had be-
come the theatre of the treasonable plots and licen-
tious intrigues of infamous combinations of every
class and nationality, and where a portentous union of
monks, eunuchs, and women reigned unquestioned
and supreme. Acumbrous and pompous etiquette;
a theatrical display of costumes and devices; a court
swarming with buffoons and parasites; an atmos-
phere of cowardice, duplicity, effeminacy, and cor-
ruption had supplanted the high sense of national
honor, the austere dignity, the proud consciousness of
superior manhood which, in the early days of repub-
lican simplicity and imperial grandeur, marked the
exercise ofRoman power. The incursions of pirates,
which the diminished naval power of the emperors was
inadequate to check, had driven commerce from the
sea.
Intestine broils, and the lawless conduct of the
barbarian soldiery who chafed at the restraints of
and whose incessant and exorbitant de-
discipline,
mands upon the imperial treasury had aided not a
little to impoverish the country, rendered agricultural
operations unsafe and unprofitable, and land was no
longer tilled except in the immediate vicinity of
large cities. Whole provinces, which, under the Ro-
mans, had flourished like a succession of gardens, now
abandoned and uninhabited, were growing up with
forests and relapsing into the wilderness of primeval
times. The dire effects of barbarian warfare were
conspicuous in every province of the Empire. The
fruits of centuries of civilization had disappeared with
the conditions which had been favorable to their ma-
turity and to the political corruption and moral de-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 71

generacy which, more than the fortunes of war, had

contributed to their annihilation. The proud title of
Roman citizen, once coveted alike by foreign princes
and aspiring plebeians, had been erased from the
tables whereon were inscribed the most exalted dis-
tinctions of nations. Society no longer wore the
which it had exhibited under the
alluring aspect
luxurious dominion of the Caesars. The patrician,
deprived of property and freedom, reluctantly
swelled the train of barbaric pomp in the city which
had been the scene of his extravagance, his tyranny,
and his vices. The slave who had fled to the camp of
Alaric or Attila now ruled in the palace which had
formerly witnessed his humiliation, and was served
by the children of those who but a few months before
had made him the victim of their cruelty and caprice.
The face of the country, repeatedly overrun by
swarms of ruthless savages, presented a picture of
hopeless desolation. The trail of the Gothic or Lom-
bard marauder could be traced by heaps of whitened
bones, by dismantled cities, by ravaged fields and fire-
swept hamlets. The beautiful temples of antiquity,
which had survived the decay of Paganism and the
assaults of Christianity, were defaced or ruined. The
exquisite memorials of classic art, the triumphs
of the
Grecian sculptor, were broken and scattered. Vases,
whose elegance and symmetry had called forth the
admiration of all who beheld them, had been melted
for the sake of the bronze and silver of which they
were composed. The gardens which had been the
pride of the capital had been trampled
under the
hoofs of the Gothic cavalry. Here and there, amidst
a heap of blackened ruins, arose a crumbling wall or
a group of tottering columns, which alone remained
to mark the site of a once magnificent shrine of Venus
or Apollo. The repression of general intelligence and
individual ambition among the masses had always
72 History of the

been a leading maxim of imperial policy. No system

of education was provided. All exertion was discour-
aged. The populace was for generations provided
with food and amusement by the government. There
was no inducement to mental or physical activity.
The natural march of human destiny, the improve-
ment of man's physical and social condition, was
arrested. Enjoyment of the comforts of life ren-
dered labor unnecessary. The paternal supervision
and generosity of the sovereign made the criticism,
or even the discussion, of public affairs irksome, un-
grateful, dangerous. There being no longer any
incentive to progress, society, in obedience to the
organic law of its existence, began to rapidly retro-
grade towards barbarism; a condition to which the
division of the people into castes noble, plebeian,
mercantile, military, and sacerdotal greatly con-
tributed. Through ideas of mistaken piety, and
allured by the prospect of idleness and comparative
ease, a multitude of able-bodied men had withdrawn
from the occupations of active life to the seclusion
of the cloister, whence they issued at intervals, when
summoned to raze some Pagan temple; to influence,
by the terror of their presence, the vacillating spirit
of an ecclesiastical assembly; or to wreak the pitiless
vengeance of their superiors upon some virtuous
philosopher whose intelligence was not profound
enough to grasp the meaning of a theological mys-
tery. The enterprising general who had raised him-
self from a subordinate command in Britain to the
imperial throne, and who, for reasons of state policy,
had adopted and made compulsory the ceremonial of
a religion whose benign precepts the base profligacy
of his whole life insulted, possessed at least the stern
and rugged virtues of a soldier. His effeminate de-
scendants, however, both ignorant and careless of the
arts of war and government, and devoted to the prac-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 73

tice of every vice,had abandoned the administration

to the perfidious and venal instincts of their retainers
and slaves. Through the incompetency of the rulers,
the insatiable ambition of the priests, and the un-
bridled license of the mercenaries who composed the
bulk of the army, all desire of the majority of the
people in which was, of course, included the useful
classes of farmer and artisan for the improvement
of their circumstances had yielded to a sluggish in-
difference to their fate. In a few generations social
isolationbecame so thorough that the community of
thought and interest indispensable to national pros-

perity ceased to exist; and this seclusion of caste, in-

creasing in a direct ratio with rank, finally fastened
upon the most noble families the stigma of excep-
tional ignorance. Indeed, in the palace itself, whence
had expelled all valuable knowl-
ecclesiastical bigotry

edge, the education of princes was entrusted to nurses

and domestic servants, whose pernicious influence was
speedily exhibited in the superstitious fears and arro-
gant behavior of their pupils, the future masters of
the Roman Empire. The fusion of races had pro-
duced mongrel types, in whose characters were de-
veloped the most objectionable and vicious traits of
their depraved progenitors. Constant intercourse
with barbarians had transformed the polished lan-
guage of Homer and Plato into an uncouth dialect,
where the gutturals of the Danube, mingling with
the scarcely less discordant accents of the Nile and
the Rhone, had overwhelmed the copious and elegant
idiom of the Greek poets and historians. The fanati-
cism of an intolerant sect and the weakness of a
succession of impotent sovereigns had extinguished
the spirit of Pagan philosophy and ancient learning.
Since the erection of the famous church of Saint
Sophia the final effort of the genius of Byzantine
architecture that art had fallen into desuetude, and
74 History of the

such of the famous structures of the ancients as sur-

vived were used as quarries, whence were derived
the materials for the basilica and the palaces of the
wealthy and luxurious patriarch and bishop. But
this, unhappily, was not the worst of the prevalent
evils of the time. An organized conspiracy against
learning existed, and was most active in those quarters
where education, however imperfect, should at least
have suggested the importance of preserving the
priceless remains of antiquity. The art of making
parchment had, with many other useful inventions,
been lost, and, in consequence, writing materials had
become rare and expensive. The monk, too idle to
invent, but ever ready to destroy, soon devised means
for supplying this deficiency. Invading the public
libraries, he diligently collected all the available manu-
scripts upon which were inscribed the thoughts of
classic writers of whom many are now only known
to us by name and, erasing the characters, used their
pages to record the legends of his spurious saints and
apocryphal martyrs. It is not beyond the range of
probability that the original books of the New Testa-
ment, falling during these evil days into the hands of
persons ignorant of Greek, may have undergone a
similar fate; which hypothesis may also account for
the thirty thousand different readings of which
learned divines admit that the Gospels and Epistles
are susceptible. The manifold and prodigious
achievements of Roman civilization its palaces, its
temples, amphitheatres, its aqueducts, its tri-
its

umphal its majestic forums, with their colon-

arches;
nades of snowy marble adorned with the statues of
the heroes, the philosophers, the legislators of an-
tiquity; its military roads; its marvels of mechanical
engineering its magnificent works of art its eternal
; ;

monuments of the graceful legends of its

literature ;

mythology, perpetuated by the genius of the sculptor

 Moorish Empire in Europe 75

in creationsof unrivalled excellence; the glowing

words of its orators which stir the blood after the
lapse of twenty centuries; the prestige of its con-
quests; the wise principles of its civil polity, gen-
erally enlightened, often audacious, always success-
ful were but trifles in the eyes of the debased
Byzantine when compared with a fragment of the
true cross, or a homily preached by some unclean
and fanatic anchorite upon the metaphysical subleties
of the Trinity or the theological value of a diphthong.
Such, then, was the condition of the Christian
Church and the Byzantine Empire at the close of
the sixth century; to such a deplorable extent had
barbarian encroachment, social corruption, and sec-
tarian controversy undermined the foundation of both
Church and State. In spite of its degradation, the
latter represented the highest embodiment of mental
culture and political organization which had survived
the incessant depredations of barbarian armies and
the demoralizing effects of generations of misrule;
where the character of the monarch, both before and
after his elevation to the throne, was dominated by
the passions and infected with the vices of the most
wicked and infamous of mankind. Throughout Eu-
rope the state of affairs was even more deplorable.
The Goths were masters of the continent, and the
Vandals, traversing the Spanish Peninsula and
planting their victorious standards upon the north-
ern coast of Africa, had, after the commission of
atrocities which have made their name proverbial,
driven the descendants of Hannibal and Hamilcar
into the desert and the sea. The schools of Athens
that sole remaining seat of philosophical discus-
sion and free inquiry in the world had been sup-
pressed, a hundred and fifty years before, by Jus-
tinian. The descendants of the Caesars, stripped of
their splendid inheritance and reduced to degrading
76 History of the

vassalage, cowered beneath the scowling glances of

the skin-clad savages who had issued in countless
numbers from the forests of Germany and the shores
of the Baltic. The effigies of the gods, the master-
pieces of the skill of the Augustan age, had been
tumbled from their pedestals, and the f etichism intro-
duced by the strangers had been superseded by a
corrupt form of Christianity scarcely less contemp-
tible and fully as idolatrous. Rome had twice been
sacked; Milan had been razed to the ground; pros-
perous seaports had fallen into decay; the fairest
fields of Italy had been made desolate, her highways
were overgrown with grass, her aqueducts were
broken, her fertile Campagna, once the paradise of
the capital, had become a pestilential marsh, whose
vapors were freighted with disease and death.
Among the miserable, half-famished, and turbu-
lent population of the cities, riot and sedition were
frequent, but were hardly noticed by the haughty
barbarian ruler, so long as the outbreak did not seri-
ously menace his life or his dignity. Civil war, re-
completed the devastation begun
lentless in atrocity,

by barbaric conquest and servile tyranny. The army,

filled with traitors, offered no warrant for the sta-
bility of government. Informers, that pest of a de-
cadent state, swarmed in the Byzantine capital. Op-
pressive taxation, enforced by torture, impoverished
the opulent. Promiscuous massacre, instituted upon
the most frivolous pretexts, intimidated the poor.
There was no loyalty, no sense of national honor, no
appreciation of the mutual obligations of prince and
people. The martial spirit which had been the dis-
tinguishing characteristic of ancient Rome was ex-
tinct. The proverbial discipline of the legions had
been supplanted by license and disorder. Immunity
from foreign incursion was secured by the igno-
minious and obnoxious expedient of tribute. Yet,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 77

in the midst of this accumulation of horrors which

threatened the total destruction of a society already
thoroughly disorganized, numbers of resolute men
existed in every community who, while despoiled and
oppressed, had not entirely abandoned themselves to
despair, and in the minds of many of these, imper-
ceptibly to the masses, and, indeed, scarcely dis-
cernible save by the most acute and sagacious ob-
server, a great moral revolution was passing. The
misfortunes which had befallen in succession the
Pagan and the Christian had weakened
religions
the hold of both upon the reverence and affections
of the multitude. Persons familiar with the Gospels,
and with whom the Apocrypha claimed as much re-
spect as the remaining portions of the Scriptures,
looked forward to the coming of a reformer, known
as the Paraclete, or Comforter, repeatedly promised
in the Bible, whose mission was to restore to mankind,
in its pristine purity, the truth as expounded by Christ.
The material advantages which might accrue from the
realization of this prediction were fully appreciated

by the heads of a considerable number of contempo-

rary sects among them the Gnostics, the Cerintheans,
the Montanists, and the Manicheans, each of whom
confidently asserted that he was the heavenly mes-
senger referred to and that all others were impostors.
The Gospel of St. Barnabas is said, upon very re-
spectable authority, to have originally contained the
"
word TlepixXvrog, Illustrious," instead of Ylapdx?^rog,
'

Comforter;" and to have been subsequently altered,

with a view to checking the increasing number of
claimants to divine inspiration, whose pretensions
were becoming troublesome and dangerous. Moslem
ingenuity has shrewdly availed itself of this prophecy,
which popular credulity accepted as a direct announce-
"
ment of the coming Mohammed, whose name, The
Illustrious," is the Arabic equivalent of TlEpixTivrdg.
78 History of the

It is most ancient chronicles that

also stated in the
a prophet called Ahmed, or Mohammed, had for
centuries been expected in Arabia, where the Gospels
were widely distributed; and it is therefore possible
that a word written in an unknown tongue, a thou-
sand miles from Mecca, may have had no inconsider-
able share in determining the political and religious
destinies of a large portion of the human race.
All things considered, perhaps no more auspicious
time could have been selected for the announcement
of a system of belief which based its claims to public
attention upon the specious plea that it was not an
innovation, but a reform, the purification of a mode
of worship which had been practised for ages. It is
usually far easier, because more consonant with the
prejudices of human nature, to introduce an entirely
new religion than to engraft changes, no matter how
beneficial,upon the old. Mankind regards with eager
curiosity a recent communication from Heaven, yet
instinctively shrinks from serious interference with
the time-honored ceremonial and revered traditions of
a popular and long-established faith. But in Arabia,
as has already been remarked, while there were innu-
merable shrines and temples and a host of idols, there
was no deep-seated religious feeling. The
in reality

prevalent worship was maintained through the influ-

ence of long association rather than by any general
belief in its truth, its wisdom, or its benefits. The
claims of kindred, the maintenance of tribal honor,
and the inexorable obligation of revenge had far
greater weight with the Bedouin than the respect he
owed to the factitious observances of his creed or the
doubtful veneration he professed for the innumerable
deities of his pantheon. The absurdity of their attri-
butes, the inability of their gods to change or to resist
the operations of nature, had long been tacitly recog-
nized by the Arabs. Their idols partook of the char-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 79

acter of the fetich, whose favor was propitiated with

gifts, whose obstinacy was punished by violence.
Long familiarity had lessened or entirely abrogated
the awe with which they had once been regarded. The
system which they represented had fallen behind the
intelligence of the age, limited though that might be
amidst the prejudices and superstitions of the Desert.
A wide-spread and silent, but none the less vehement,
protest against polytheism had arisen. At no time
in the history of the Peninsula had been evinced such
a disposition for reconciliation and compromise. In
Arabia, therefore, as well as in the other countries of
Asia, the season was eminently propitious to the
promulgation of a new religion.
The ignorance of the natural talents, general char-
acteristics, and daily habits of the Prophet of Arabia
almost universally prevalent, even among persons
of education and of more than ordinary intellectual
attainments, is extraordinary; especially when the
abundant facilities for information upon these points
are considered. No
name in history has been sub-
jected to such fierce assaults by sectarian bigotry and
theological rancor as his. The popular idea of Mo-
hammed is that he was a vulgar impostor, licentious,
cunning, brutal, and unscrupulous; periodically in-
sane from repeated attacks of epilepsy; given to the
practice of fraudulent miracles a monster, who hesi-
;

tated at no crime that would further his ends; who

wrote a book called the Koran, which is full of sensual
images, and describes heaven as a place especially set
apart for the unrestricted indulgence of the animal
passions. In former times public credulity went still
farther, and Christian writers of the eleventh century,
and even later, were in the habit of representing the
greatest of iconoclasts who excepted from the clem-
ency of the victor only the adorers of fire and of
idols as a false god; a conception which, indicated
80 History of the
"
by the familiar word mummery," has been incor-
porated into our language. Afterwards he was con-
sidered merely as a propagator of heresy, and, pun-
ished as such, he figures in the immortal work of.
Dante :

"
Poi che l'un pie per girsene sospese,
Maometto;"

and, finally, the absurdity of ignorance having reached

itsculmination, he was described as a camel-thief, and
an apostate cardinal who preached a spurious doctrine
through envy, because he had failed to reach the
coveted dignity of Pope! Motives of ecclesiastical
jealousy and religious intolerance led also to the sup-
pression of information and the falsification of truth
respecting the Koran. Hardly one person in ten
thousand has read a translation of it indeed, this feat
;

has been repeatedly declared an impossibility, on ac-

count of the monotonous and prosaic character of its
contents; nor has one foreigner in a million perused
the original, which, it may be added, cannot be appro-
priately rendered into another tongue. No complete
rendition of this famous book into a living language
was made for eleven hundred years after the death
of Mohammed, and to-day not more than a dozen ver-
sions, all told, exist.It has been, moreover, a rule,
subject to but few exceptions and those of recent date,
that translations, commentaries, and analyses of the
Koran, edited by misbelievers, have been written with
the express design of casting odium upon the Prophet
and his followers. Under such unfavorable circum-
stances, an impartial examination of the doctrines of
Islam was impossible to one not versed in Arabic, and
the public mind, which received its impression of such
subjects largely from the pulpit, obstinately refused
to consider any view which was at variance with its
preconceived opinions. To obtain a competent idea
 Moorish Empire in Europe 81

of the principles, the virtues, and the defects of the

religion which he established, it will not be unprofit-
able to glance for a moment at the salient points of
the career and character of this wonderful man, the
most prominent of his country, and the most illus-
trious of his race.
Among the ancient tribes of Arabia, highest in
rank, most esteemed for intelligence and courage in
a nation of poets and warriors, and renowned for a
generous hospitality, was that of the Koreish, the
hereditary guardians of the temple of Mecca. Proud
of their distinguished ancestry and of the exalted posi-
tion they enjoyed by reason of their office, which its
religious functions invested with a dignity not inferior
to that of royalty itself, and superior to all other em-
ployments in a country where the jealous independence
of the people precluded the exercise of kingly power,
the influence of the Koreish over their countrymen
was unbounded. The annual pilgrimage to the Bait-
"
Allah, or House of God," when hostilities were sus-
pended, and devotees and merchants, rhymers and
thieves, met upon a common equality in the enclosure
of the temple an occasion which is said to have called
together the brightest minds of the Peninsula to con-
tend in friendly rivalry for the prize of literary dis-
tinction was the most important event of the year to
the Arabian, and was particularly advantageous to
the perpetuation of the wealth and authority of the
Koreish. Some of the tribe enjoyed the exclusive
privilege of distributing water and provisions among
the pilgrims during their sojourn in the Holy City
an employment originally gratuitous, but after-
wards a lucrative monopoly; others had charge of
the buildings of the shrine; others, again, were the
custodians of the sacred banner, which was only raised
upon the occasion of the annual re-union of the
Kaaba, or when the safety of Mecca was threatened
Vol. I. 6
82 History of the

by war or sedition. The Koreish, moreover, aspired

to a state of petty sovereignty; they despatched em-
bassies to the neighboring tribes, made treaties, estab-
lished regulations for the departure and arrival of
caravans, which secured an organized, and conse-
quently a more safe and profitable, traffic with sur-
rounding nations, and exercised a nominal jurisdic-
tion in both civiland religious matters over the entire
Peninsula. Elated by their success, and by the hom-
age universally paid them, they boldly abrogated
many of the ancient ceremonies connected with the
national worship, and substituted others better calcu-
lated for the advancement of their pecuniary interests
or the gratification of their political ambition. Some
of these new regulations were unjust, and, as may be
easily conjectured, were accepted with great reluc-
tance by a population so opposed to innovation and
impatient of restraint as that of Arabia; and the
fact that they were adopted without serious disturb-
ance shows conclusively that the attachment of the
Arab to the gods of his country bore no approximate
ratio to the awe with which he regarded their powerful

guardians. In time, however, the rivalry of influ-

ential chieftains of the various divisions of the tribe

produced mutual distrust and enmity; dissensions

became frequent, and the national influence of the
Koreish, which the hearty co-operation of their leaders
could alone sustain, began to be seriously impaired.
Of one of the haughtiest clans of this distinguished
tribe the Beni-Hashem was born, in the year 570
of the Christian era, Mohammed, known to misbe-
lievers as the False Prophet, and to the Moslems as
the Messenger of God. A
strange fatality, which is
evidently based upon something more substantial than
the uncertain authority of tradition, appears to have
attended his family both before and after his birth.
The household of his grandfather, Abd-al-Muttalib,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 83

although it contained several daughters, could boast

of only one son, a circumstance which, to a man of
noble birth, in a country like Arabia, where a chief-
tain's consideration was founded upon the number of
his male descendants, where female relatives were
classed with camels and horses as chattels, and were
often buried alive to get rid of them, was looked upon
as a disgrace as well as a misfortune. In bitterness
of spirit, the sheik betook himself to the Kaaba, and
invoked the aid of Hobal, the presiding genius of the
assembled deities of the nation. At the conclusion of
his supplications he promised that, if ten sons should
be born to him, one of them should be sacrificed upon
the altar of* the god. The prayer was answered, and
in due time inexorable religious obligation demanded
the fulfilment of the vow. Accompanied by his sons,
Abd-al-Muttalib again approached the shrine of Ho-
bal, and the customary lots having been cast, the god
made choice of Abdallah, who subsequently became
the father of Mohammed. Abdallah was the favorite
of his parents and the idol of his kindred his manners
;

possessed a rare fascination; he excelled the most

accomplished of his tribe in the arts of poetry and
eloquence, and his manly beauty has been celebrated
by the extravagant praise of his countrymen. Ap-
palled at the prospect of losing his best-beloved child,
Abd-al-Muttalib was in despair, when the shrewdness
of a female diviner proposed an ingenious solution
of the difficulty. The established compensation for
homicide, when
the injured family was willing to ac-
cept one, was ten camels; and the prophetess sug-
gested that Abd-al-Muttalib again consult the deity,
in the hope that he might be propitious and consent
to receive the less valuable sacrifice. The mystic
arrows were once more shaken and drawn, and, for
the second time, Abdallah was devoted to death. The
father doubled the number of camels with the same
84 History of the

result; but, nothing daunted, persevered until the

tenth lot had been drawn, when the god deigned to
accept the costly ransom. Thus upon the cast of a
die depended the regeneration of the Arabian people,
the conquest and subversion of the Byzantine and
Persian empires, the impulse of modern scientific
inquiry, and the future hopes of the Moslem world!
Mohammed was a posthumous child. His father
died while on a journey to Medina, and left to his
widow Amina little save the memory of his domestic
virtues, and a reputation for manly courage and un-
blemished integrity. The boy passed his early years,
as was the custom at Mecca, with one of the tribes
of the Desert, where the coarse fare and active life of
the Bedouin developed and strengthened a frame
naturally robust and vigorous. At the age of five he
returned to his mother's home, where, within a few
months, he was left an orphan. His grandfather
Abd-al-Muttalib then took charge of him until the
death of the former two years afterwards, when
Mohammed was taken into the family of his uncle
Abu-Talib. The successive bereavements of relatives
to whom he was devotedly attached had no small effect
in determining the character of the future Prophet,
already thoughtful and reserved beyond his years, and
imparted a permanent tinge of sadness to his life.
When he grew older he was employed by his uncle
as a shepherd, an occupation considered by the Arabs
as degrading, and only proper to be exercised by
slavesand women. In his twenty-sixth year his hand-
some face and figure, and his reputation for honesty*
which had acquired for him the flattering title of
"
Al-Amin, The Faithful," attracted the attention of
Khadijah, a wealthy widow and a distant relative,
who made him a proposal of marriage, which he
accepted. Khadijah was forty years old, and had
already been twice married ; yet for twenty-five years
 Moorish Empire in Europe 85

which intervened before her death and long after

she must have lost her attractiveness Mohammed
never failed in the duties of a constant and affec-
tionate husband. She bore him six children, four girls
and two boys, of whom the daughters alone survived
the period of infancy. When he reached the age of
forty, a great change came over Mohammed, and
there appeared the first positive indication of his
t

aversion to the established worship of his country.

His mother, who seems to have been a woman of
highly excitable temperament, had transmitted to him
a hypersensitive condition of the nervous system,
which developed occasional attacks of muscular hys-
teria, a disease rarely affecting the masculine sex.

Long accustomed to abstinence, contemplation, and

revery, he contracted the habit of seeking solitude, to
muse upon the moral condition of himself and his
countrymen; and as he grew older, and especially
after his fortunate marriage had removed the neces-
sity for labor, the passion for dreaming grew upon
him. He often betook himself to Mount Hira, where
a recluse once had his abode; and for days at a time,
with but little food and depriving himself of sleep,
in tears and mental agony, he strove to solve the prob-
lem of divine truth. As continued fasting, excite-
ment, and solitude inevitably produce hallucinations,
it was not
long before Mohammed believed himself
visited by an angel, the bearer of celestial tidings.
Doubtful at first of the significance of these startling
visions, and in his enfeebled condition easily terrified,
he fancied he was possessed by devils, and was almost
driven to suicide. Finally, mastering his emotion, he
returned to Mecca, and from that time visitations of
the angel who declared himself to be Gabriel were
frequent. In the original revelation, Mohammed was
"
addressed as the Messenger of Allah," and was
directed to preach the unity of God to his erring and
86 History of the

misguided countrymen. His converts in the begin-

ning were very few and composed of the members of
his own family, his wife being the first believer. The
new doctrines made slow progress; apprehension of
the summary interference of the ruling powers made
the proselytes cautious, and they rehearsed its texts
behind locked doors and in the most private apart-
ments of their houses. At the expiration of four
years the adherents of Islam had only reached the
insignificant number of thirty-nine souls. But now
Mohammed grew bolder expounded his doctrines be-
;

fore the Kaaba itself; openly advocated the destruc-

tion of idols, and denounced the unbelieving Arabs
as devoted to the horrors of everlasting fire. The im-
passioned oratory of the Great Reformer had at first
no appreciable effect. Most of his auditors regarded
him as under the influence of an evil spirit some ridi-
;

culed, others reviled him; but respect for his family

and a wholesome dread of blood-revenge protected
him from serious violence. In vain did he depict in
words of thrilling eloquence the joys of heaven and
the tortures of hell; his exhortations were lost upon
the skeptical Arab, whose religion was a matter of
hereditary custom, and who, in common with the
other members of the Semitic race, had no belief in
an existence beyond the grave. At length his de-
nunciations became so furious as to raise apprehen-
sions among the Koreish that their political suprem-

acy, as well as the lucrative employments of their

offices,might be endangered. A solemn deputation
of the chiefs of the tribe waited upon Abu-Talib, the
head of the family to which Mohammed belonged,
and demanded that the daring apostate should be de-
livered over to their vengeance. This Abu-Talib,
although himself an idolater, without hesitation, de-
clined to do, and, in consequence of his refusal, the
entire clan of the Beni-Hashem was placed under an
 Moorish Empire in Europe 87

interdict. No one would trade or associate with its

members, and for two years they were imprisoned in
a quarter of the city by themselves, where they en-
dured great hardships. Nothing can exhibit more
prominently the family attachment of the Arab and
his high sense of honor than the self-sacrifice implied

by this event, it must not be forgotten that the

for
large majority of those who suffered with Moham-
med had no confidence in the truth of his mission, but
were still devoted to the idolatrous and barbarous rites
of the ancient faith.
The cause of Islam had received a severe blow, and
the threats and armed hostility of its adversaries boded
ill for its future success. The Moslems who did not
belong to the Koreish sought refuge with the Chris-
tian king of Abyssinia, who peremptorily refused to
surrender them upon the demand of an embassy from
Mecca. At length, through very shame, the interdict
was removed; the members of the imprisoned band
came forth once more to mingle with their townsmen,
and the exiles were permitted to return in peace. But
persecution had not intimidated Mohammed, and his
condemnation of idolatry and its supporters increased
in violence. His uncle and protector, Abu-Talib,
having died, his position daily became more critical.
A fortunate occurrence, however, soon opened an
avenue of escape. Some years before, a handful of
the people of Medina had secretly embraced his doc-
trines and sworn fealty to him as their temporal
sovereign. Their numbers had greatly increased, and
now, in acceptance of an invitation tendered him by
these zealous proselytes, Mohammed prepared to
withdraw from the midst of his enemies to the prof-
fered asylum at Medina. The inhabitants of the
latter city, who were principally agriculturists, were

heartily despised by the Meccans, who considered

every occupation but those of war, plunder, and the
88 History of the

cheating of pilgrims derogatory to the dignity of an

Arab. The irreconcilable rivalry between the two
principal towns of the Hedjaz had much to do with
the adoption of Islam by the Medinese. The influ-
ence of the numerous Jews of Medina had materially
affected the religion of that locality, and their pre-
dictions of the speedy coming of the Messiah, and
the bestowal of the possessions of the Gentiles upon
his chosen people,had attracted the attention, and at
times aroused the fears, of the idolaters of that city.
When, therefore, the report was circulated that a
prophet had arisen at Mecca, the Medinese naturally
concluded that he must be the Messiah expected by
the Hebrews, and they determined to forestall the
latterby being the first to extend to him a welcome,
and thereby secure his favor. It was from these
motives that the alliance between Mohammed and
the citizens of Medina was concluded; an alliance
whose results were little anticipated by the parties
to its provisions, and whose importance has been
disclosed by the portentous events of many subse-
quent centuries. Intelligence of this proceeding
having reached the Koreish, they prepared for de-
cisive measures, and held a meeting, in which, without

apparently taking any precautions to conceal their

design, the assassination of Mohammed was resolved
upon. The latter, having received timely warning,
escaped by night, with his friend Abu-Bekr, and,
concealed in a cave in the mountains, eluded the vigi-
lance of his enemies until a few days afterwards they
found means to reach Medina. This event occurred
in the year 622 a.d., and, marking the era of the He-
"
gira or Flight," is, well known, the starting-
as is

point of Moslem chronology. Its usefulness, how-

ever, anticipated its legality for three hundred years,
and it was not publicly authorized by law until the
tenth century.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 89

On his arrival, the first care of the Prophet was

the erection of a mosque and the institution and
arrangement of the ritual of Islam; the next, the
reconciliation of the two hostile Arab factions whose
tumults kept the city in an uproar; and the third
the only task in which he was unsuccessful the con-
version of the Jews. Hardly was he domiciled at
Medina before he abandoned the continence which
had hitherto adorned his life and placed his char-
acter in such a favorable light when compared with
the excesses of his libidinous countrymen, and by
degrees increased his harem until it numbered,
in-

cluding wives and concubines, nearly a score of

women. And now appeared also other changes of
a religious and political nature, when the humility
and patience of the preacher were eclipsed by the
ambitious plans of the sovereign, eventually realized
in the proselytism of entire nations and the intoxica-
tion and glory of foreign conquest. The employment
of force had never been mentioned at Mecca, but the
vexations, contempt, and ill-usage of years had borne
bitter fruit, and Medina was received the first
at
revelation commanding the propagation of Islam by
the sword. At first desultory attacks were made upon
caravans; then followed the engagement of Bedr,
where three hundred believers defeated a thousand of
the Koreish, and the battle of Ohod, which ended with
the wounding of Mohammed and the total rout of
the Moslem army. The blockade of Medina, under-
taken three years later by the chiefs of Mecca, ended
disastrously for them, as the fiery Arab could
not be
brought to endure the restraint and inactivity incident
to the protracted operations of a siege. Next came
the expulsion of the disaffected Jews from the city,
a measure not unattended by acts of injustice and san-
guinary violence, but imperatively demanded by the
requirements of political necessity. The power and
90 History of the

prestige of Mohammed now grew apace; tribe after

tribe joined his standard; distant princes sent him

costly gifts and voluntarily tendered their allegi-

ance and in the year 630 the eighth of the Hegira
;

he prepared for the invasion of the sacred territory

and the conquest of Mecca. Only a short time before,
guarded by two faithful companions, he had fled from
the Holy City with a reward of a hundred camels and
forty ounces of gold upon his head; now he returned
in royal state, at the head of ten thousand warriors,
most of whom would have gladly laid down their lives
at his command, and all of whom acknowledged him
to be the Apostle of God. Before this imposing ar-
ray, inspired with the fervor of religious enthusiasm,
resistance was hopeless. The people fled to their
houses and to the sanctuary of the temple, and the
invading army occupied the city. The rights and
property of the citizens were respected there was no
;

massacre and no pillage no violence was offered, ex-

;

cept to the images of the Kaaba, which were shattered

to pieces without delay or opposition, for the idolaters
viewed with but little emotion the destruction of the
tutelary deities of many generations, whose inability
to protect their worshippers had been so signally dem-
onstrated. With a magnanimity unequalled in the
annals of war, a general amnesty was proclaimed,
and but four persons, whose offences were considered
unpardonable, suffered the penalty of death. When
the various ceremonies consecrated by the usage of
centuries and destined henceforth to form an integral
part of the Moslem ritual had been accomplished, and
the Pagan altars in the vicinity of Mecca had been
swept away, Mohammed set forth to subdue the re-
maining tribes that disputed his authority. A single
battle sufficed; Tayif, the sole important stronghold
that held out, voluntarily submitted after an un-
still

successful siege; and the supremacy of the Prophet

 Moorish Empiee in Europe 91

was henceforth acknowledged over the Arabian Pen-

insula. Three months after the subjugation of Mecca,
Mohammed, who already seemed to have had a pre-
sentiment of his approaching end, accompanied by an
immense multitude, performed the pilgrimage which
his teachings enjoined as an indispensable duty upon
all his followers. Leaving Mecca for the last time, he
slowly retraced his steps to the home of his adoption,
whose people, more generous than his kinsmen, had
received and protected him when a persecuted fugi-
tive, whose factions he had reconciled, who were

proud of his renown, and who, despite his kindness

and the natural urbanity of his manners, never failed
to approach his presence with all the reverential awe
due to the possessor of divine favor and supernatural
powers. His constitution, though originally fortified
by abstinence and a simple diet, had for years given
evidence of debility and decay, for his health had been
seriously impaired by poison administered by a Jew-
ish captive, whom his magnanimous spirit refused to
punish; and, after a short he expired in the
illness,
arms of his favorite wife, Ayesha, upon the eighth of
June, 632.
There have been few great actors upon the stage
of the world the events of whose lives have been so
carefully preserved as those of Mohammed, although
no native contemporaneous writer has recorded his
history. And yet there is no man whose talents raised
him to extraordinary eminence whose deeds and
whose character are so unfamiliar to Christian readers
as his. Few know him but as a successful impostor.
Many believe him to have been an idolater. Almost
all attribute to him indulgence in the most degrading
of vices, cruelty, avarice, licentiousness. Even
Christian viceroys who have lived long in Moham-
medan countries know nothing of the doctrines and
the career of one of the most renowned of reformers
92 History or the

and legislators. His personal appearance, his occu-

pations, his tastes, his weaknesses even a strong
proof of the honesty and credibility of the Mus-
sulman narrators have been related by the latter
with scrupulous minuteness. His sayings and the
opinions attributed to him, embodied in the Sunnah,
are considered by devout Moslems as second only in
sanctity to the verses of the Koran, and have given
rise to the amazing number of six hundred thousand

traditions, which laborious commentators have seen

proper, upon doubtful evidence, to reduce to four
thousand that may be relied upon as genuine. The
study of the Koran, however, affords a better insight
into the character of the Prophet than the uncertain
and suspicious testimony of the Sunnah. It is the
mirror in which are reflected the sincere convictions,
the lofty aims, the political experiments, the domestic
troubles, the hopes and apprehensions which, through
many trials and perplexities, influenced the mind and
directed the movements of the author in his career,
from the position of a simple citizen of Mecca to the
exalted dignity of sole ruler of Arabia. The estimate
of Mohammed in the Sunnah, which has been trans-
mitted by his early associates, who knew him well and
daily observed his conduct in the time of his obscurity,
is nevertheless entitled to far more credit than any

opinion that may have been formed without the assist-

ance of tradition by the most capable scholar after the
lapse of even a single century. But unfortunately, in
many instances, their accounts have been so corrupted
by the fabulous embellishments of subsequent com-
mentators as to detract much from their undoubted
historical value.
The most conspicuous trait of Mohammed was his
absolute inflexibility of purpose. From the hour
when he first communicated to Khadijah his belief
in his mission, through the long and weary years of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 93

mockery, persecution, conspiracy, and exile, during

the even more trying period of prosperity and em-
pire, up to the sad final scene in the house of Ayesha,
he persevered unflinchingly in the plan which he had
proposed for his guidance, and which had for its end
the abolition of idolatry, the improvement of his
countrymen, and the establishment of the sublime
and philosophical dogma of the unity of God. The
only rational explanation that can be given of this
remarkable conduct in the midst of difficulties and
perils which would have shaken the constancy of a
mortal of ordinary mould lies in his evident sincerity.
The most convincing evidence of his honesty of pur-
pose, his self-confidence, and his earnest devotion, is
furnished bv the rank and character of his first dis-
ciples, and the reverence with which his teachings were
received. The early proselytes of all other religions
of which history makes mention were ignorant and
uneducated, destitute of worldly possessions, with-
out pride of ancestry or title to public consideration.
Their ungrammatical harangues were often heard
with derision; their credulity excited the contempt
of the philosopher and of the hostile priesthood alike.
It was even made a subject of reproach to the first
Christians an accusation, however, never conclu-
sively proved that their numbers were largely re-
cruited from the criminals, the idlers, and the beggars
of the Empire. The origin of modern sects has in-
variably been obscure, and their proselytes of humble
rank and servile occupation. Not so, however, with
the early followers of Mohammed. They were mem-
bers of the proud and exclusive aristocracy of Arabia.
Their lineage could be traced, in an unbroken line, for
more than six hundred years. Their hereditary office
of custodians of the shrine venerated by every tribe
of the Peninsula gave them immense prestige among
their countrymen. Their interest in the preservation
94 History of the

of the national worship would naturally prejudice

them against innovations which must inevitably dimin-
ish their power and curtail their emoluments. Their
wealth was not inferior to their illustrious descent and
their political and religious influence. Some of them
were included among the most opulent citizens of
Mecca. The Jewish apostates of Medina possessed
the proverbial thrift and intelligence of their race.
In that Hebrew colony none stood higher in public
estimation than they. The success of Islam demon-
strated beyond dispute the superiority of its original
proselytes in the arts of statesmanship no less than in
the science of war. Great talents were required to
encounter successfully the exigencies which attended
its institution, and which afterwards repeatedly men-

aced its permanence. The high character of such dis-

ciples is a positive indication of the purity of their
motives and the sincerity of their belief. Men are not
liable to be readily imposed upon by claims to divine

inspiration asserted by their intimate associates. Dis-

tance and mystery are far more propitious to the
success of a religious teacher than the familiarity
which results from close acquaintance and diurnal
scrutiny. It is a common error to attribute the spread
of Mohammedanism entirely to the agency of force.
Military success was undoubtedly a powerful factor
in the accomplishment of its destiny. The sword was

peculiarly esteemed in Arabia. The steel of which

it was composed was, in a country where no iron was
produced, the most valuable of metals. The prodig-
ious nomenclature by which that weapon was distin-
guished was an indication of its national importance,
and of the potency of its effects entertained by those
by whom it was wielded. It represented the martial
spirit of the Arab, the ruling incentive of his life,
the inspiration of his predatory exploits, the glory
of a long succession of cherished traditions. A
 Moorish Empire in Europe 95

mystic significance attached to it, which, in time,

assumed a religious character, and rendered its em-
ployment, according to popular belief, acceptable to
the omnipotent and invisible Deity of Arabia. These
ideas descended to the Moslems, and promoted, in no
small degree, their energy and their enthusiasm. But
force alone could never have enabled a tumultuous
horde of barbarians, unaccustomed to concerted
action and impatient of the restraints of military
discipline, to overwhelm three great empires in less
than a century. The policy of Islam was at first more
conciliatory than menacing. It preferred to inculcate
its principles by argument rather than to provoke
opposition by invective. It disclaimed the invention
of new dogmas, but labored to reconcile its tenets
with those of venerated predecessors.
its It dis-

couraged proselytism by violence. Whatever it could

not abolish or modify, it adopted; whatever it could
not appropriate, it ruthlessly destroyed. National
decrepitude; the universal decay of religious belief;
the dexterous adaptation of alleged prophecy; the
hopeless condition of the devout, terrified by the
fierce animosity of contending sects; the impossi-

bility of ascertaining the correctness of the Gospel

amidst the confusion of doctrines and the multiplicity
of versions; the political disorders resulting from
barbarian ascendency; the abrogation of the offen-
of caste; the mysterious fascination
sive distinctions
which attends the unknown; the prospect of wealth,
renown, and empire held out to aspiring genius; the
guaranty of independence of thought and immunity
from persecution grouped under the banner of Mo-
hammed the disorganized and exhausted nations of
the mediaeval world. The tenor of his life until the
first revelation was that of a man of unimpeachable

morality. Already in his youth he had been distin-

guished by the significant appellation of The Faith-
96 History of the

ful. His marital relations until after the death of

Khadijah were without reproach; a fact conceded
by his most implacable enemies. A profound knowl-
edge of human nature, an appreciation of the spirit-
ual requirements of his countrymen upon whose
minds the doctrines of Zoroaster and of Christ had
made no permanent impression enabled him to fab-
ricate a system demonstrated by experience to be
admirably fitted to the taste, the genius, and the
superstition of the Oriental. Without a supreme
conviction of the genuineness of his mission he could
never have impressed his teachings upon the minds of
the satirical and incredulous Arabs, or have secured
proselytes among his kindred, to whom his daily in-
tercourse would have soon revealed sentiments and
conduct wholly inconsistent with his pretensions as a
medium of divine authority. And yet, with all the
sincerity of his convictions, he thoroughly distrusted
himself. He repeatedly affirmed that he was but a
man, a preacher, a reformer, whose mission was the
regeneration and the happiness of mankind. In
spite of his realistic descriptions of heaven and hell,
he declared that he was ignorant of what was in store
for the soul after death. The spirit which consoli-
dated a hundred vagrant tribes distracted by the feuds
of centuries, deaf to offers of compromise and peace,
so jealous of every infringement of their personal
liberty that they resented even the benignant and
patriarchal rule of their chieftains, into a powerful
empire; which noted the glaring absurdities of con-
temporaneous creeds, and offered in their stead an
idea of the Deity so simple, and yet so comprehensive,
that no mind, however bigoted, could conscientiously
reject it; which moulded into an harmonious system
the jarring interests of antagonistic races, and, by its
maxims of toleration, conciliated those sectaries who
denied the authenticity of its principles, and refused
 Moorish Empire in Europe 97

compliance with its ceremonial; which, in consonance

with ideas of policy far in advance of the time, united
the functions of ruler and priest without apparently
giving undue prominence to either; which founded a
religion that has endured for nearly thirteen centuries,
and has claimed the devoted allegiance of a thousand
million men, can hardly with propriety be said to
have been created by the irrational and selfish impulses
of insanity or imposture. Rather may these results
be designated the operations of a master-mind actu-
ated by a lofty ambition; a mind capable of solving
the most perplexing questions of statecraft, and en-
dowed with a degree of political wisdom not often
exhibited by even those few whom the voice of his-
tory has invested with the proud title of artificers of
nations.
Much has been written and spoken by persons
having important material interests to subserve,
possessing limited knowledge of the subject, and
with little inclination to use even that knowledge
with impartiality, concerning the physical weakness
which, at irregular intervals, affected the Prophet.
It has already been alluded to as a form of muscular
hysteria, an affection peculiar to delicate, nervous
organizations, whose attacks are generally evoked
by sudden and intense cerebral excitement, and a
physiological phenomenon belonging to the same
class as somnambulism and catalepsy. It is but tem-

porary in its effects; and while its symptoms are not

"
dissimilar to those of the falling sickness" of the
Romans, the patient does not lose consciousness, and
neither the origin nor the continuance of the disease
implies even a temporary impairment of the mental
faculties. In view of the thorough investigations of
medical scholars, the generally received opinion, fos-
tered by ignorance and religious prejudice, may be
pronounced erroneous even if the efforts of enlight-
;

Vol. I. 7
98 History of the

ened historical criticism had not already established

beyond contradiction that to the Byzantines, who
enjoyed a world-wide reputation for accomplished
mendacity, is to be attributed the popular fable of
the epilepsy of Mohammed.
In personal appearance, Mohammed did not differ
from his countrymen of gentle blood. His head was
large, his chest well developed, his limbs slender but
sinewy, and his whole frame capable of the exertion
of enormous strength. A
heavy beard reached half-
way to his girdle, and his coal-black locks, slightly

curling, fell down upon his shoulders. He had the

purely Semitic cast of features the dark eyes gleam-
;

ing with half -hidden fire, the thin aquiline nose, the
brown complexion, and teeth of dazzling whiteness.
While his expressive physiognomy indicated the pos-
session of a high order of mental power, the sensual,
as is often the case with men of extraordinary genius,
was visible toan abnormal degree side by side with
the intellectual. His gait was rapid and his move-
ments energetic; his manners quiet, but pleasing:
his address affable; while his commanding presence,
and his proficiency in all the winning but superficial
arts of the courtier, heightened by his calm and im-

pressive demeanor, displayed to advantage

the graces
and charms of his eloquence. Though habitually
grave and taciturn, he was easy of access to the vilest
outcast and it was said of him that he always left his
;

hand in that of an acquaintance until the latter had

withdrawn his own. His liberality was boundless, and
often subjected his household to serious inconveni-
ence; his gentle disposition is shown by his fondness
for children, and his humanity by the repeated in-
junctions of the Koran relating to the treatment of
animals. The degrading passion of avarice had no
part in his nature with immense treasures at his com-
;

mand, his establishment was inferior to those of his

 Moorish Empire in Europe 99

followers,and the greater part of his income he be-

stowed upon the poor. His tastes were always simple
and unpretending and even after he had been raised
;

to sovereign power he retained the frugal habits of

patriarchal life; his house was but a hut of sun-dried
bricks and palm branches, to which a leathern curtain
served as a door. So humble was he in everything
that did not concern the dignity of his prophetic office,
that he even mended his own sandals, cared for his
goats and camels, and at times aided his wives in the
performance of their domestic duties. Ever constant
in friendship, he early secured, and preserved until
death, the attachment of those who were associated
with him, whether equals or inferiors, both of whom
he treated with the utmost consideration. Such was
his self-command and perfect control of his passions
that he never struck an enemy save in the heat of
battle, scolded a servant, or punished a slave. So far
from assuming supernatural powers, he absolutely
disclaimed their possession, and no public teacher has
ever displayed less self-assurance and dogmatism. As
a ruler and a politician, his measures were taken with
tact and prudence; as a commander, he displayed in
the field considerable military capacity; and it is un-
disputed that flagrant disobedience of his orders was
the cause of his early reverses. He had the strictest
ideas of the responsibilities that pertain to the admin-
istration of justice; the poorest suitor, however trifling
his cause,never failed of a hearing and he threatened
;

with the severest penalties those who refused the

settlement of their pecuniary obligations. While in-
culcating the crowning merit of good works, he recom-
mended their concealment, and resolutely discounte-
nanced pharisaical display of pious affectation or
all

pretended virtue. He
was slow to resent an injury
and quick to pardon an offender, a signal mark of
cowardice in the opinion of the Arab ; timely submis-
100 History of the

sion and an appeal to his generosity rarely failed to

disarm his short-lived hostility and those who began
;

by being his most implacable enemies ended by be-

coming his loyal and devoted champions. His mag-
nanimity and the profound knowledge of the human
heart which stamped him as a leader of men were
evidenced by his noble conduct and princely liberality
to the Koreish after the conquest of Mecca. In a
word, the brighter side of the character of Moham-
med needs no higher eulogy than is revealed by the
definition which he has left us of charity, a virtue
'

which he never ceased to practise: Every good act

is charity; your smiling in your brother's face, your

putting a wanderer in the right way, your giving

water to the thirsty, your exhortation to another to
do right, is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter
is the good he hath done in this world to his fellow-
men. When he dies, people will inquire, What prop-
'

erty hath he left behind him?' But the angels

will

ask,
'

What good deeds hath he sent before him?'

With all the greatness of Mohammed there was
mingled not a little of the frailty incident to human
nature, a considerable portion of which, however, is
to be credited to his want of education and to the
superstitious prejudices of the age in
which he lived.
He abhorred darkness, and feared to be left alone
without a light; he cried like a child under the
slightest physical suffering; he was
an implicit be-
liever in the virtues of even numbers, and lived in
constant apprehension of sorcery; while the evil-eye
was to him, as to the most ignorant of his country-
men, a calamitous and dreaded reality. His conduct
was frequently regulated by dreams and omens some;

of the latter being not less puerile than those evoked

by the arts of divination which he so resolutely con-
demned. He was guilty of petty affectations and
exhibitions of weakness scarcely to be expected in
 Moorish Empire in Europe 101

one of his genius and position; he dyed his hair and

stained his hands with henna, and displayed an
amusing self -consciousnessand vanity when in the
presence of any of the female sex. He was inordi-
nately jealous, and to this failing, for which history
has admitted that at times he had sufficient cause, is
to be attributed the seraglio, the veil, the escort of
eunuchs, and the seclusion of women. His polyg-
amous connections, which have elicited the censure
of European casuists and theologians, were, in the
main, measures adopted for political effect; for by
these matrimonial alliances he cemented his influence
and extended his power. While it would be vain to
deny his amorous susceptibilities, for we have his own
testimony that of all things he loved women and
perfumes, it must be remembered that he controlled
his passions until after middle life
;
and it is certainly
less worthy of remark that he should have permitted
himself the indulgence of a harem, than that, with
his opportunities, he did not abandon himself to un-
bridled and vicious indulgence. The moral aspect of
polygamy, moreover, seems to vary with the locality,
and to be after all only a question of latitude. In
the scorching heat of the torrid zone, which causes
no appreciable deterioration in man's virility and
endurance, woman matures when but a child in years,
and is old and wrinkled long before her partner has
reached the prime of life. Again, as is well known,
the passions of Orientals are far stronger than those
of Western nations, bearing to each other a ratio
approximating to that of the warm-blooded mam-
malia to the sluggish reptilia, the voluptuous tem-
perament of the Arabs is repeatedly mentioned by
classic writers, and under the tropics the imperious
demands of nature may not be disdained or neglected
save in the cavern of the starving and emaciated
anchorite. The civil institutions of the East have
102 History of the

from time immemorial legalized the custom of

polygamous marriage, and the words monogamist and
Oriental are antithetical, and imply a contradiction in
terms. Though distinguished ethnologists maintain
with considerable acumen that polyandry is one of
the first phases of social existence, their inferences are
for the most part merely speculative; for history
seldom, if ever, has recorded such alliances, and this
apparently anomalous condition of family life is now
found only in Thibet and Hindustan. The sacred
books of the dominant religions of the world, Buddh-
ist, Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan, all of
which are of Asiatic origin, either openly sanction
polygamy or sedulously refrain from denouncing
it.
Every one knows that it is universal in China and
India; the Zendavesta recognizes it; the student of
history and legend need not be reminded of its preva-
lence among the Children of Israel; and the law of
Islam permits its practice under certain wise and
equitable restrictions. The Bible, from beginning to
end, has not a single word to offer in condemnation
of indeed, in the days of the patriarchs, prophets,
it;
and apostles, its utility in the lands where it prevailed
appears to have been unquestioned. Although our
ideas of social and domestic happiness do not tolerate
this custom, which the rigor of our climate renders
unnecessary and, in a measure, revolting; still, we
should not attempt to measure by our arbitrary
standard of propriety the habits of nations formed
under far different circumstances, and satisfied with
institutions consecrated by the experience of a hun-
dred and fifty generations; nor can we, with justice,
subject to our rigid canons of theological and political
ethics the sentiments and actions of an illiterate man,
bred among semi-barbarians, and who died nearly
thirteen hundred years ago. While Mohammed
shared with his countrymen all their cynical distrust
 Moorish Empire in Europe 103

of the feminine character, he is the only lawgiver

claiming divine inspiration who has ever made any
effort to improve the condition of women by restrict-
ing polygamy, and by the imposition of regulations
which admit of no evasion without a forfeiture of
legal rights. The beneficial effects of these ordi-
nances in placing restraints upon divorce, in securing
to widows immunity from destitution, and in pre-
venting female infanticide, contribute of themselves
no inconsiderable addition to the prestige of his name.
Far more serious than superstitious weakness, the
foibles of vanity, or predilection for women, are other
accusations which have been brought against the
Prophet. The employment of bravos and the assas-
sination of prisoners, which, if not ordered, are said
to have been at least connived at and rewarded by him,
are ineffaceable stains upon his character ; and it must
be confessed that the evidence tending to establish the
commission of these sanguinary deeds is but too well
founded. They only indicate, however, that, while
Mohammed was far in advance of his age, the passion
for blood, esteemed the cardinal virtue of an Arab,
had not been eradicated from his breast after a life
devoted to prayer, alms-giving, and benevolence. The
invocation of divine authority in the Koran to jus-
tify deeds of which even the lax morality of the age
disapproved, while the exigencies of the occasion
might have to some extent excused them, is also,
under any circumstances, extremely discreditable.
The glory of Mohammed consists in the fact that
he fully realized the moral and political necessities
of his people, and opened for them a career of un-
precedented brilliancy; that his efforts for their sub-
stantial improvement, reacting, in turn, upon other
nations utterly foreign to the Arab blood and lan-
guage, will be felt to the end of time that he abolished
;

many cruel and degrading customs; that he elevated

104 History of the

and dignified the character of all who received his

teachings, and left devout worshippers of a single
God those whom he had found polytheists and idol-
aters.
The Koran is by Mussulmans to have been
believed
delivered by the Almighty, through the angel Gabriel,
to Mohammed, who communicated it orally to his

companions as it was revealed, whence is derived its

"
name, Recitation." Having thus a divine origin,
it is considered sacrilegious by the Moslem Pharisees

to question the authenticity or propriety of any of its

statements, or to criticise its manifold contradictions,
repetitions, and absurdities. As knowledge of writing
was at that time a rare accomplishment in Arabia,
it being asserted by many scholars that Mohammed

himself never acquired it, only scattered portions of

the revelation were inscribed upon such materials as
fragments of leather, stones, palm-leaves, and the
shoulder-blades of sheep, and the remaining verses
and Suras, as they fell from the lips of the Prophet,
were impressed upon the marvellously retentive mem-
ories of his auditors. In the course of events many
of the latter were killed in battle, and the Khalif Abu-
Bekr, fearing the loss of the sacred texts, took meas-
ures to collect and preserve them in a permanent form.
When Othman was raised to the Khalif ate, many dif-
ferent readings had already arisen from this manu-
script; and innumerable editions, each claiming su-
periority and producing endless controversy and
scandal, were distributed throughout his dominions.
To secure uniformity, he caused copies of the first
edition to be made, and all others not agreeing with
the latter were destroyed; so that the work as pub-
lished under the auspices of Othman is the Koran as
we possess it, the spiritual guide of all true Moslems.
It not voluminous, containing only a little more than
is

half as much matter as the New Testament, and is

 Moorish Empire in Europe 105

composed of one hundred and fourteen Suras, or

chapters, grouped together apparently without any
attention to rational connection or chronological order,
and wherein the same sentiments are expressed and
the same legends are repeated time and again. An
attentive perusal of a translation of this book is an
arduous task, and even in the original it is an under-
taking well calculated to exhaust the patience and
application of any one but a Mussulman theologian
or saint. The compiler began with the longest chap-
ters and ended with the shortest ones, the reverse order
in which they were revealed, which suggests the hy-
pothesis that the Koran may have been at first written
in some language other than Arabic, and in which the
characters were read from left to right. It is also
suspected, upon plausible grounds, that the sacred
book has suffer ed interpolations and omissions made
in the interest of the successful faction to which
Othman belonged; a theory which has gained cre-
dence from the well-known corruption of the Scrip-
tures by the Jews. Be this as it may, no means of
comparison existing, as in the case of the different
versions of the Bible, the conclusions of the critic
must necessarily be drawn from the internal evidence
afforded by the text itself; a mode of examination
at best but unreliable and unsatisfactory. Moslems
love to cite the Koran as the one miracle of Moham-
med, on account of its purity of language and per-
fection of style; leaving out of consideration its
chaotic condition, anachronisms, and the desultory,
its

monotonous, and disconnected rhapsodies with which

it abounds. Having no diacritical points to indicate
the vowels, its meaning is often ambiguous, and seven
different readings exist, all of which are admitted by
theologians to be correct. Though written in the dia-
lect of Mecca, the most polished of the Arabic tongue,
it contains, nevertheless, many grammatical errors;
106 History of the

probably traceable to the illiterate persons from whose

recollection was obtained much of the first compila-
tion, and whose words, taken down verbatim, would
obviously require correction, which the scribe natu-
rally hesitated to make through fear of sacrilege. In
view of the suspicion not unjustly attaching to the
motives of those who revised it, and which, to a certain
extent, affects its authenticity as a whole, it is scarcely
proper to subject the volume to searching and invidi-
ous criticism. Nor is it creditable to attribute to the
teachings of Mohammed doctrines adopted by subse-
quent Moslem theologians which he would probably
have been the first to condemn. The bulk of the
Koran is composed of Jewish and Christian legends;
rules for the ceremonial of Islam; excuses for the
conduct of the Prophet when the indignation and sus-
picious temper of his followers threatened his ascend-
ency; the foundation of a code of law, and a large
number of moral precepts breathing a spirit of en-
lightened piety, impartial justice, and self-abnega-
tion, unsurpassed by any collection of maxims ever
offered for the guidance of mankind. The popular
anthropomorphic idea of the Deity is rejected, all His
physical attributes being now regarded as figurative;
triads are classed with idols as manifestations of poly-
theism; and the exalted conception of God without
equal or rival is perpetually impressed upon the mind
of the reader in phrases glowing with the fire of re-
ligious zeal and impassioned eloquence. The poetic
talent of the untutored Arab appears in all its won-
derful perfection in the Koran, and yet Mohammed
did not acknowledge his possession of this faculty,
and persistently discouraged its exercise as a reminis-
cence of Paganism. Throughout the entire volume no
assumption is made of divine powers by the Prophet ;

the ability to work miracles is especially repudiated by

him as unnecessary for religious conviction, and is
 Moorish Empire in Europe 107

mentioned as an unavailing and unprofitable accom-

plishment of his inspired predecessors. The prevalent
idea that a blind fatalism is inculcated in the pages of
the Koran is a fallacy. The entire substance of its
teachings is contrary to this doctrine, and would be
worthless if belief in it were enjoined; passages con-
stantly occur admitting the exercise of the utmost
freedom of will, and thoroughly inconsistent with
any theory depending upon the foreordained destiny
of man. The fact is that the misapprehension of
the meaning of Islam absolute resignation to the
will of God is responsible for this perverted prin-
ciple, which, like the crescent now universally adopted
as a Moslem religious symbol, is an invention of the
Turks, and was absolutely unknown as such to the
early followers of Mohammed.
To the Kaaba, whose deities had received the pious
homage of so many centuries, an additional impor-
tance was communicated by its adoption as the central

point of Mussulman worship. In time it became in-

vested with a mystical character resembling the per-
sonification of a female principle of faith, which, while
anomalous in the practice of Islam, is so familiar to
the constitution of almost all religions. A
black
covering representing a veil, and renewed each year
with impressive ceremonies, screened the sacred build-
ing from the public gaze. A
guard of eunuchs, fifty
in number, the dignity and importance of whose office,
as custodians of the shrine, entitled them to the super-
stitious reverence of the devout, were in constant
attendance. In these singular regulations, which
suggest both the adoration of the Virgin and the
restraints of the harem, can be detected an expres-
sion of the innate and irrepressible desire of mankind
for a material representation of feminine divinity.
The licentious character alleged to belong to the
Mohammedan paradise has provoked much unreason-
108 History of the

able vituperation from those who are unfamiliar with

the literary peculiarities and highly imaginative tem-
perament of the people of the East. The mind of
the Oriental has ever delighted to wander in the mystic
realm of parable and allegory. His sacred books,
from the Zendavesta to the Koran, abound with ex-
amples of this method of impressing important truths,
and even the lighter productions destined to beguile
his leisure are not free from it. No educated Mussul-
man believes, no candid and well-informed Orientalist
thinks, that the famous houris, with their unfading
charms, their graceful presence, their intoxicating
embraces, and their peculiar physical endowments,
are anything more than the shadowy personages of
allegorical imagery. Allusion is made to them in
terms of vague and mysterious import susceptible of
various construction; and, even if we should admit
the belief in their actual existence, and adopt a literal
interpretation of the verses relative to this recompense
of the blest, the descriptions of their attractions are
not comparable in minuteness of detail and carnal
suggestiveness to the voluptuous inspirations of the
Song of Solomon, which no reader, however credu-
lous, will venture to construe otherwise than as an
allegory. In the romantic and highly embellished
visions of the Koran, uncultivated Moslems, imbued
with the imaginative credulity of the East, have been
only too ready to accept metaphor and parable for
absolute fact.
The other pleasures to be found in heaven are con-
nected with what would be most precious and refresh-
ing to the poor and thirsty dwellers in the Desert, the
domes of pearl; the dust of musk; the pebbles of
hyacinth and emerald; the sumptuous banquets; the
robes of satin and gold the exhilarating but harmless
;

draughts of generous wine; the forests of stately

palms; the everlasting verdure; the luscious fruits;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 109

the sparkling fountains; the shady gardens watered

by cool and limpid streams. It was not without reason
that green became the distinctive color of the returned
pilgrim, a color selected by the Prophet as emblematic
of the fields and groves of Paradise.
Mohammed, having derived his idea of heaven in-
directly from the Chaldean accounts of the Garden of
Eden, and that of the devil from the dualism of Per-
sian mythology, borrowed the name and description
of the place of torment from the Jews, who denomi-
' '

nated hell Ge-Hinnom, literally, the Vale of Hin-

nom," from a fertile and pleasant valley near Jeru-
salem, which, however, was rendered execrable in
spite of its attractions, on account of its being the
home of the relentless Moloch, upon whose altar was
periodically immolated the flower of the Hebrew
youth. The rabbinical division into seven stages,
entered by as many gates, and each set apart for a
different degree of punishment, is adopted without
sensible alteration. If reference to Paradise is seldom
made in the Koran, the details of the tortures of the
damned are, on the other hand, remarkable for their
vividness and frequency, and, conceived by the flights
of an unbridled imagination, are delineated with all
the earnestness of a mind convinced of their fearful
reality.
The Koran, Zendavesta, which enjoins the
like the

tilling of the an
soil as
indispensable religious duty,
recommends the practice of agricultural pursuits, the
extension of commerce, and the foundation and de-
velopment of every species of manufacturing in-
dustry. The encouragement of these occupations, by
representing them as praiseworthy and agreeable to
God, with a view to their general adoption by a people
who had hitherto considered trade and manual labor
as contemptible, was naturally a task of considerable
difficulty. But expectations of pecuniary advantage,
110 History of the

joined to the prospect of individual distinction and

national glory, speedily removed this prejudice; espe-
cially in a society which contained no privileged
classes, and recognized none of the artificial and de-

pressing obligations of feudalism. In consequence of

this wise recommendation, the restrictions of caste
which had never prevailed in Arabia to the extent
common to the kingdoms of Asia, probably because
it possessed no hierarchy and no organized system of

government were eradicated; all employments of

an honorable character were placed upon an equal
footing; and the merchant and the artisan each en-
joyed a degree of dignity, popular esteem, and social
importance proportionate to his talents and success.
Although the Koran has been made the subject of
interminable commentaries, numbering forty thou-
sand as near as can be estimated, and isolated pre-
cepts have been expanded and distorted for the
purpose of forming an elaborate system of jurispru-
dence, it was never intended as a general text-book of
law. The few maxims upon this subject which it con-
tains were borrowed partly from the Hebrews, but
chiefly from the sanguinary code of the early Ara-
bians. Some, in addition to those above mentioned,
grew out of the requirements of particular cases the
;

majority of them, however, relate to the domestic

difficulties of the Prophet and to the regulation of
the harem. Notwithstanding the latter preferably
adopted the Koran as the basis of his legal decisions
whenever it was practicable, it is a well-known fact
that after his death the collections of the Sunnah
furnished a standard of broader application, and of
scarcely less authoritative character, in the settlement
of the principles of Mohammedan law.
The Koran commands of the oppressed, pro-
relief
tection of the defenceless, mercy to the orphan, and
kindness to animals. It enjoins the strict perform-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 111

ance of engagements, even though entered into with

members of a hostile creed; in humiliating contrast
with the policy of Catholic Rome, whose children were
perpetually absolved from the observance of contracts
concluded with infidels. It denounces awful penalties
against the murderer and the suicide. In its pages the
profound deference that usually attaches to aristo-
cratic birth and distinguished station is ignored ;
titled
insolence is not permitted to assert superiority over
the unpretending worshipper, and the monarch and
the beggar meet as brethren before the throne of
Almighty God. The right of private judgment is
repeatedly and authoritatively declared to be the
privilege of every believer; the humblest Moslem
may place his own interpretation on the texts of the
alleged revelation and his conception of their mean-
;

ing and application is entirely independent of the

edicts of priests or the suspicious decisions of synods
and councils.
Abstinence from swine's flesh and from the blood
of all animals is enforced through hygienic considera-
tions arising from experience of the injurious effects
of such food in tropical climates and the requirement
;

of personal cleanliness by frequent and regular lustra-

tion has origin in the same vigilant solicitude for
its

the public welfare.

A
marked difference of ideas and phraseology is to
be discerned in the Suras delivered at Mecca and
Medina respectively; the former being more poetic,
inspiring, and defiant than the latter. As Moham-
med consolidated his power, the text of the Koran
evinced more of the calmness and dignity of the ruler
than of the fire of the enthusiast. The earnest desire
to make converts of the Jews is disclosed by the
appeal to a common ancestry, and by the politic in-
corporation of Talmudic legends into the holy book
which was to replace the Bible; while the signal fail-
112 History of the

lire to secure this result is foreshadowed by threats

of divine wrath soon to be realized by slavery, exile,
and death. Though Arabia was full of infidels, and
even a large proportion of the idolaters observed the
rites of their religion merely as a matter of form and

fashion, and were deeply infected with skepticism, it

is singular that Mohammed, in his denunciations of

hypocrisy and idolatry, did not utter a word in con-

demnation of atheistical ideas. The book, moreover,
which was to be the guide of a sect whose adherents
improved algebra, discovered chemical analysis, and
brought agriculture to an unprecedented degree of
perfection, contains no science, and only the most
rudimentary notions of civil government. According
to the Koran, the sun sets in a morass of black mud;
water is the element whence all life is derived; and
the conceptions of natural phenomena which are
gravely set forth in its pages are only worthy of the
vagrant fancies of children and barbarians.
Among Orientals the Koran is invariably published
in Arabic, the sacred language of the Mussulmans,
who are instructed init during childhood, just as or-

thodox Jews are early familiarized with the Hebrew

tongue. It is not known through the medium of
translation in Mohammedan countries unless when
the latter isinterlined with the original; so that the
reader, by comparing the different texts, may have
an opportunity to judge of the qualifications and
accuracy of the translator. Great luxury is usually
exhibited in the embellishment of the sacred volume.
Its leaves are blue or purple, odorous with costly per-
fumes, its letters of gold. Its covers are often
studded with jewels. Amidst its interwoven ara-
besques the name of God appears, repeated thou-
sands of times. No Mussulman handles it without
every demonstration of reverence. It almost always
bears upon the side an admonition not to touch it
 Moorish Empire in Europe 113

with unclean hands; an unnecessary precaution for

the devout, whose respect for its contents is indeed
not unreasonable, as we may perceive from a single
invocation taken at random, and not conspicuous
among the expressions of sublime piety to be found
upon almost every page: "Architect of the heaven
and the earth, thou art my support in this world and
the next. Cause me to die faithful to the law. In-
troduce me into the assembly of the just."
Islam means substantially the Religion of Peace.
From this verbal form are derived the terms Mussul-
man and Moslem, indicating all who are submissive
to the will of God. The commonly adopted appel-
lation Mohammedan is not countenanced by followers
of the Prophet, and is of European origin. The
Islamitic confession of faith is the simplest known
to any creed; it merely involves the repetition of the
There is no God but God, and Moham-
' '

formula,
med is his Apostle." By the acceptance and utter-
ance of this phrase, any one may become a Mussul-
man; although the observance of the practical duties
of prayer, fasting, alms-giving, and pilgrimage,
urged with such eloquence in the Koran, are regarded
as obligatory upon all professing that religion. Mos-
lems pray five, times daily, and before each prayer
an ablution must be performed, as a token that the
suppliant has cleansed his heart of every vestige of
insincerity and impure desire. The Pagan Arabs, as
often as they addressed their supplications to their
ruling divinity, turned their faces to the rising sun,
and when Mohammed instituted his form of prayer,
he selected as the objective point, or Kiblah, the
temple of Jerusalem, with the design of attracting
the Jews; but after the conversion of the latter was
seen to be impracticable, and no further reason for
conciliation existed, the Kaaba was substituted; and
thenceforth the holy shrine of Mecca became the Kib-
Vol. I. 8
114 History of the

lah of the Moslem faith. During the month of Ra-

madhan apart because in it was communicated
set
the first revelation a fast is enjoined throughout the
domain of Islam, and abstinence from food and drink
is required from sunrise to sunset; an intolerable
hardship in torrid lands, where the month often falls
in summer on account of the constantly retrograding
divisions of the lunar year.
The unostentatious bestowal of alms was a duty
whose importance Mohammed constantly impressed
upon his followers as a cardinal virtue; the Moslem
is taxed to the tenth of his income for the benefit of
the poor and if his wealth has been increased through
;

injustice or dishonesty, the penalty of a double con-

tribution is exacted. Pilgrimage, the last of the re-
ligious obligations of Islamism, whenever possible,
should be performed in person; its observance con-
fers a life-long distinction, and its neglect implies
a deplorable want of energy in the believer that may
compromise happiness hereafter.
his
When pilgrim enters the sacred territory,
the
which extends for several miles in every direction
from Mecca, he lays aside his clothes, performs com-
plete ablution, and dons the Ihram, or Garment of
Holiness, which is composed of two^long, seamless
pieces of cotton cloth, one to be wrapped about the
waist, and the other to be adjusted upon the upper
part of the body so as to leave the right shoulder bare.
All covering for the head is prohibited; a severe
restriction under the blazing sun of the Hedjaz. He
now approaches the Kaaba, kisses the Black Stone,
and makes the of the edifice seven times, re-
circuit

peating certain prayers prescribed for the occasion.

Next he drinks of the waters of the holy well Zemzem,
which tradition asserts burst forth spontaneously at
the feet of Hagar when she and Ishmael were about
to perish of thirst in the wilderness. Near at hand is
 Moorish Empire in Europe 115

the Station of Abraham, a large stone upon which

the Patriarch supposed to have stood when he built
is

the Kaaba, whither the pilgrim must now resort and

perform his devotions. Finally, he leaves the pre-
cincts of the shrine and runs seven times between
Safa and Merwa, two elevations beyond the walls of
the mosque; a ceremony commemorative of the de-
spair of Hagar in her search for water to sustain the
life of her suffering child before the fountains of
Zemzem were miraculously opened. Upon the eighth
day of the Pilgrimage, a mighty host, amounting not
infrequently to the number of seventy-five thousand
souls, with twenty-five thousand camels and count-
less other animals for sacrifice, sets out for Mount

Arafat, ten miles distant, from whose summit a ser-

mon is preached by the chief imam of the Mosque of

Mecca. The sermon concluded, all hurry amidst

great confusion to the Valley of Mina, where each
pilgrim should cast seven pebbles at three pillars
representing the devil, in commemoration of an inci-
dent in the life of Abraham. The animals, sheep and
camels, are next slaughtered, a ceremony symbolical
of the sacrifice by the patriarch, whose victim, how-
ever, is stated by Arabian tradition to have been Ish-
mael instead of Isaac, and the pilgrims are then at
liberty to resume their ordinary garments, shave their
heads, trim their beards, and pare their nails acts con-
;

sidered illegal before the various rites of the Pilgrim-

age have been performed according to the prescribed
routine.
The the Prophet's tomb at Medina is not
visit to
but is indispensable to secure the honor-
compulsory,
able title of Hadj, which confers the privilege of
wearing a green turban, and excites the perpetual
envy of those unfortunates whose physical incapacity
or limited financial circumstances will not permit a
journey to the Holy Cities of Arabia.
116 History of the
"
'

Show me a people's God," said Euripides, and

I will tell you that people's history." To the history
of Islam is this significant remark especially appro-
priate. The Moslem conception of the Deity is one
of unapproachable grandeur and sublimity. While
placed immeasurably above His creatures, their praise
and their petitions are always tendered Him without
the officious intervention of a privileged caste, and
wherever the hour of prayer may find the worshipper,
whether in the retirement of his home, in the noisy
bazaar, upon the deck of a vessel in mid-ocean, or
amidst the awful stillness and solitude of the Desert.
The practical value and consequent importance of
a religion consist not so much by whom or under what
circumstances it is alleged to have been founded, but
in what it has effected for the happiness and perma-
nent improvement of humanity.
Through the enthusiasm inspired by its exalted
ideas of Almighty power, Islam extirpated idolatry
so thoroughly, that in the second generation after it
was promulgated men feared even to mention the
names of the false gods of their fathers. It made
cannibalism detestable, and swept away human sacri-
fices, with which the Arabs had been familiar for a

period whosecommencement was long anterior to the

days of Abraham. It softened the asperities of war-
fare; extended to the vanquished the advantages of
instant liberty and prospective distinction, upon the
sole condition of conversion it protected the unfortu-
;

nate captive from violence, and abolished the shock-

ing practice of mutilation of the dead. Its hostility
to the spirit of feudalism insured the protection and
freedom of every degree and profession of mankind.
It elevated the position of woman; repressed the un-
blushing licentiousness prevalent in the Age of Igno-
rance formulated an equitable law of divorce, where
;

separation had been previously a matter of caprice;

 Moorish Empire in Europe 117

and shielded the wife from the cruelty, avarice, and

injustice of the husband. It stamped out, at once and
forever, the horrible crime of infanticide. It pro-
hibited not merely the abuse of wine and other in-
toxicants, but even the slightest indulgence in them.
It declared divination and all games of chance to be
devices of Satan, whose practice would inevitably
cause a forfeiture of Paradise. While countenancing
slavery, it ameliorated the condition of the slave, who,
under the patriarchal customs of the Orient, enjoyed
the familiar intercourse and shared the paternal care
of the master; declared his manumission to be the
most commendable of acts and the most effective of
penances; defined his rights, regulated the measure
of his punishment and the amount of his ransom, and
established the provision that, when sold, the
humane
slave-mother should never be separated from her child.
It recommended as indispensable duties of the true
believer the practice of humility, of resignation, of
benevolence. By proclaiming the equality of all men
and by the persistent inculcation of the virtues of
charity and forgiveness, it gradually weakened, and
ultimately abrogated, the law of blood-revenge, which
the Bedouin had been accustomed to consider his most
cherished privilege; a right whose violation, accord-
ing to popular opinion, involved the honor of his tribe
and the assertion of his manhood. It liberated prop-
erty from the arbitrary impositions of a horde of
petty chieftains, who levied excessive tribute to the
infinite detriment of commerce, and imposed a single
tax the tenth of the increase understood and acqui-
esced in by all. It punished mercilessly the abuses
which arose from the unprincipled exactions of usury,
and, by the enforcement of laws of unexampled
rigor, guaranteed the safety of travellers in regions
where successful robbery had been a mark of personal
distinction, and where the outrage of private rights
118 History of the

was still the unquestioned prerogative of every inhabi-

tant whose arm was more powerful than that of his
neighbor. Attaching the highest importance to ha-
bitual cleanliness, it commended its daily observance,
and, to avoid a plausible excuse for neglect, it sug-
gested the use of sand, as symbolical of water, in
where the latter could not be obtained. It
localities
admitted into its ceremonial the wise and time-honored
custom of circumcision a purely sanitary regulation,
;

whose important physiological significance every sur-

geon will readily comprehend. Islam is emphatically
a religion of good works, and the believer is con-
stantly reminded that upon the Day of Judgment his
meritorious acts and deeds of benevolence will speak
eloquently in his favor, although his lips have long
been closed in the silence of the grave. No organized
body of ecclesiastics, greedy of gain and notoriety
and utterly unscrupulous as to the means of obtain-
ing them, thronged its temples; for, in its original
purity, it dispensed with a salaried priesthood, and
all who read or expounded the Koran in public were

expressly forbidden to receive for their services any

remuneration whatever. The unseemly contests of
sacerdotal ambition, the senseless privations of
asceticism, the bloody and turbulent spirit of mo-
nastic bigotry, were, by the prudence and foresight
of its founder, excluded from its system. Imposing
a moderate contribution upon all those in its domin-
ions who declined to abjure the faith of their an-
cestors, it, upon the other hand, refused to the min-
isters of other religions, its vassals, the privilege of

taxing the members of their congregations without

their consent. It impressed upon youth, of whatever
rank or station, the obligations of polite and courteous
behavior and the unremitting exercise of filial piety.
It accorded to every seeker after truth the inestimable
privilege of private interpretation and individual
 Moorish Empire in Europe 119

opinion, inherent right of man refused by

an
Christianity until the time of Luther, who, on ac-
count of his advocacy of this innovation, was himself
denounced as a Mohammedan; and in certain coun-
tries of Europe, not asserted until the seventeenth

century, except in secret, and under the threatening

shadows of the stake and the scaffold. Unlike other
religions, it did not refuse salvation to those who re-
jected its dogmas. In the presence of the allure-
ments of the seraglio, it still represented continence
as the most precious jewel of a believer; but, per-

ceiving the vices provoked by the unnatural restraints

of monastic prohibited celibacy, and, for two
life, it
centuries after the death of the Prophet, the faquir,
the santon, and the dervish were unknown. By
adopting to a certain extent the primitive code of
antiquity, eliminating the evil and retaining the good
it contained, it
appealed strongly to religious senti-
ment and national pride, rendered still more binding
the virtues of public faith and private hospitality,
and, by its repudiation of idolatry in all its forms,
concentrated the mind of the devotee upon the com-
passion, the justice, the infinite grandeur and majesty
of God.
A
marked peculiarity of Islam is the absence of
the female element from its ritual. Even now, in the

days of its degeneracy, women have no place in the

calendar of its saints; and yet we are aware that
among all former, and many
contemporaneous, re-
ligions the employment of priestesses was common,
and female deities were favorite objects of adoration.
The Virgin of the Koran though her immaculate
conception was conceded seven hundred and sixty-one
years in advance of the decision of the Council of
Basel is, in all other respects, an ordinary mortal,
and is far from possessing the dignity and importance
of the famous Isis, that fascinating goddess who,
120 History of the

banished from the banks of the Nile, was exalted,

crowned with her starry emblems, in equal majesty
and superior beauty, upon a more gorgeous throne in
the imperial city of Catholic Rome.
Mohammed was not exempt from the prejudices
entertained by his countrymen towards the sex. The
sentimental gallantry and respectful homage ten-
dered its members by Western nations is unknown
to the suspicious and sarcastic Oriental. The Prophet
declared that the majority of persons he saw in hell
during his nocturnal journey were women. But if
the power of woman to act directly upon the fortunes
of Islam was disdained, her indirect influence in that
direction was enormous and undeniable. The harems
of the polygamous conquerors at once absorbed the
noblest and fairest maidens of the households of the
vanquished. The children of these mothers became,
without exception, Moslems; and, after the lapse of
a generation, the lingering traces of other beliefs dis-
appeared, and nothing but a reconquest and a fresh
immigration, or a miraculous interposition of Provi-
dence, could have restored the land, so recently sub-
jugated, to pristine faith.
its
In religion, as in politics, success is the generally
recognized criterion of truth; of the multitude, few
have time or inclination for the solution of abstruse
theological questions; but substantial results are un-
mistakable, and even the most credulous are subject
to the contagion of example. The successive and
dazzling victories of Islam were, in the eyes of its
superstitious adversaries, the most convincing argu-
ment of the divinity of its origin.
The doctrine of compulsion subsequently associated
with Islam was, as already stated, not an original or
essential part of its dogma. Mohammed did not ad-
vise recourse to the sword until all means of peaceable

persuasion had been exhausted, and then only during

 Moorish Empire in Europe 121

the continuance of active hostilities. The moral im-

pulse which Islam received as soon as its first victories
were won was remarkable and suggestive. It was
but the manifestation of the reverence for Force, a
feeling which is never eradicated from human nature
even in the mostly highly civilized communities. The
Roman empire was founded upon this principle, of
which it subsequently became the practical embodi-
ment and representative. The successors of the
Caesars, the Khali fs, well aware of its power over
the masses, retained and perpetuated its influence, and
the scimetar and the Koran usurped the place and
dignity of the deposed deities Mars and Hercules.
And even in our day we see the evidence of the sur-
vival of this sentiment as old as man himself in
the ceremonies relating to marriage by force among
barbarous nations in the proverbial, yet unconscious,
;

admiration of both sexes and especially of women

for the soldier; in the applause that greets the
espada in the bull-ring; and in the homage and
hero-worship accorded to the successful athlete and
pugilist.
The mountain region of the Hedjaz, the rocky
and barren valleys of Palestine, are insignificant in
extent, destitute of natural resources, and without
political importance in the eyes of the conquerors
and rulers of nations. Yet within their contracted
limits were promulgated the three religions which
have exercised a predominant influence over the des-
tinies of the most diverse and widely separated races
of the globe. The unsocial and repellent character
of the institutions of Moses which discouraged prose-
lytism did not prevent the power of Hebrew genius
from being felt in every country in which the detested
sectariesof Israel established themselves. Christi-
anity and Mohammedanism have by turns disputed
the empire of the civilized world. The Khalifs, the
122 History of the

spiritual heads of Islam, were long the exponents

of
intellectual culture, the masters of the fairest regions
of Europe and Asia, the discerning patrons of art
and letters. The most renowned of the Caesars, the
greatest of modern potentates, were alike inferior
in rank and public consideration to the Supreme
Pontiffs, who inherited the throne ennobled by the
traditions of Roman glory,and whose dignity was
confirmed by the omnipotent authority of God. No
secular government, worthy of mention in history,
has ever been instituted in a region so dreary and in-
hospitable as that from whence the most powerful
and
practical forms of faith that have ever enthralled
hu-
manity deduce their origin. The changes which all
of the latter, in turn, have undergone, present a sug-
gestive commentary on the perishable character
of
religious systems. The influence of the Babylonian

captivity upon Judaism is apparent in every

book of
the Old Testament and in many of those of the New.
We may safely conjecture that Christianity was some-
thing very different in the time of Tiberius from what
it was in the time of Constantine, and we know what

radical changes were made in its canons and ritual by

Gregory the Great and Luther. The ancient manu-
scriptsof the Gospels perhaps destroyed for sinister
reasons have left no data for speculation as to their
contents; but it is not unreasonable to at least sur-
mise that the originals did not offer the glaring
examples of inelegant diction and barbaric idioms that
deform the modern versions. Nor has Islam escaped
the fate of its predecessors, the result of the vicissi-
tudes of time, and of the prejudices, weaknesses, and
ambition of their votaries. Its distinctive peculiarity
was its positive disclaimer of supernatural powers;
yet the miracles attributed to Mohammed compose a
considerable portion of its sacred literature, which is
also oppressed and discredited by a vast mass of pre-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 123

posterous fables, treasured up for centuries in the

voluminous body of Islamitic tradition. The sim-
plicity of its creed would seem to effectually preclude
all attempts at sectarian division; yet seventy -three
sects exist, whose members lose no opportunity to
persecute each other with acrimonious hostility. Mo-
hammed execrated idolatry and the arts of the diviner,
and denied the merit of works of supererogation and ;

now relics are suspended in the mosques; omens are

sought in the Koran; intercession of saints is daily
implored; the Persians worship the Imams; and the
Omanites, instead of recognizing the Kaaba, render
their obeisance to the Kiblah of their Sabean ancestors,
the pole-star of the heavens.
In the Prophet's attempts to secure the improve-
ment of public morals, his attention was particularly
drawn to Mecca as the central point of Islam, whither
the believer turns in his daily devotions, and towards
which his sightless eyes are directed when his body is
deposited in the tomb. But the effects of his salutary
admonitions died with him and the Meccans, relieved
;

from restraint, again became notorious for the ex-

cesses which had formerly made the Holy City a re-

proach even to heathen Arabia. It is a deplorable

fact, and one which unhappily affords but too much
excuse for the gibes of the profane, that those seats
of piety which public opinion has invested with the
sacred prestige of celestial influence are the very ones
whose population is the most blasphemous, vile, and
degraded. The worst Mussulmans of the world are
the Arabs of the Hedjaz, as the Italian populace
has ever been the scoffer at papal infallibility and the
relentless enemy of the Vicar of God. The three
cities of the world whose inhabitants early acquired,
and have since maintained, the most unenviable repu-
tation for depravity and licentiousness are Jerusalem,
Mecca, and Rome.
124 History of the

Unlike most theological systems to which men, in

all ages, have rendered their obedient and pious
homage, no mystery obscures the origin and founda-
tion of Islam. The purity and simplicity of its prin-
ciples have undergone no change. Its history has been
preserved by the diligence of innumerable writers.
The life and characteristics of its Prophet, even to the
smallest detail, are accessible to the curiosity of every
enterprising scholar.
The austere character of a faith which, at its in-
ception, exacts a rigid compliance with the minutest
formalities of its ritual, naturally becomes relaxed

and modified after that system has attained to worldly

importance and imperial authority; or, in the lan-
"
guage of one of the greatest of modern writers, a
dominant religion is never ascetic." It is strange that
Islam, which, in this respect, as in many others, has
conformed to the general law of humanity, and now

acknowledges tenets and allows practices that would

have struck the subjects of Abu-Bekr and Omar with
amazement, has been able to preserve in such perfec-
tion the observance of its ceremonial especially when
;

it had no organized sacerdotal

power to sustain it.
The absence of an ecclesiastical order which could
dictate the policy of the throne, and humble the pride
of the ermine and purple with the dust in the pres-
ence of some audacious zealot, also left untrammelled
the way for scientific investigation and research, and,
more than all else, contributed to dispel the darkness
of mediaeval times. The doctrine of toleration enun-
ciated by Mohammed gave no encouragement to that
system of repression whose activity has exhausted
every means of checking the growth of philosophical
knowledge, by imposing the most direful spiritual and
temporal penalties upon every teacher who ventures
to publicly explain its principles and it is a matter of
;

far deeper import to the civilization of the twentieth

 Moorish Empire in Europe 125

century, than is implied by the mere performance of

an act of devotion, when the Temple of Mecca the
seat of a time-honored faith, from whose shrine ema-
nated the of learning that redeemed degraded
spirit
Europe is saluted five times every day by the rev-
erent homage of concentric circles of believers, one
hundred and fifty million in number, from Tangier
to Pekin, from the borders of Siberia to the Equi-
noctial Line.
We may well consider with admiration the rapid
progress and enduring effects of this extraordinary

religion which everywhere brought order, wealth, and

happiness in its train which, in destroying the deities
;

of the Kaaba, swept away the traditions of thirty

centuries; which adopted those pagan rites that it
could not abolish which seized and retained the birth-
;

place of Christianity; which dispersed over so wide

a territory alike the theocracy of the Jews and the
ritual of Rome; which drove the Magi from the

blazing altars of Persia; which usurped the throne

and sceptre of the Byzantine Church; which sup-
planted the fetichism of the African desert; which
trampled upon the mysteries of Isis, Osiris, and
Horus, and revealed to the wondering Egyptians the
secret of the Most High God; which invaded the
Councils of Catholicism, and suggested a funda-
mental article of its belief; which fashioned the
graceful arches of our most famous cathedrals which
;

placed its seal upon the earth in the measurement of

a degree, and inscribed its characters in living light
amidst the glittering constellations of the heavens;
which has left its traces in the most familiar terms
of the languages of Europe; which affords daily
proof of its beneficent offices in the garments that we
wear, in the books that we read, in the grains of our
harvests, in the fruits of our orchards, in the flowers
of our gardens; and which gave rise to successive
126 History of the

dynasties of sovereigns, whose supreme ambition

seemed to be to exalt the character of their subjects,
to transmit unimpaired to posterity the inestimable
treasures of knowledge, and to extend and perpetu-
ate the intellectual empire of man. These signal and
unparallelled results were effected by the inflexible
constancy, the lofty genius, the political sagacity, of
an Arabian shepherd, deficient in the very rudiments
of learning, reared among a barbarous people divided
into tribes whose mutual hostility had been intensified
by centuries of warfare, who had no organized system
of government, who considered the mechanical and
mercantile arts degrading, who recognized no law but
that of force, and knew no gods but a herd of
grotesque and monstrous idols. Robbery was their
profession, murder their pastime. Except within the
precincts of their camp, no friend, unless connected
by the sacred ties of blood, was secure. They de-
voured the flesh of enemies slain in battle. Deceit
always excepted, cruelty was their most prominent
national characteristic. Their offensive arrogance,
relentless enmity, and obstinate tenacity of purpose
were, in a direct ratio to their ignorance and their
brutalizing superstition, confirmed by the prodigies,
the omens, and the legends of ages.
To undertake the radical amelioration of such po-
liticaland social conditions was a task of appalling,
of apparently insuperable difficulty. Its fortunate
accomplishment may not indicate the active interposi-
tion of Divine authority. The glories which invest
the history of Islam may be entirely derived from the
valor, the virtue, the intelligence, the genius, of man.
If this be conceded, the largest measure of credit is
due to him who conceived its plan, promoted its im-
pulse, and formulated the rules which insured its suc-
cess. In any event, if the object of religion be the
inculcation of morals, the diminution of evil, the pro-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 127

motion of human happiness, the expansion of the

human intellect; if the performance of good works
will avail in that great day when mankind shall be
summoned to its final reckoning, it is neither irrev-
erent nor unreasonable to admit that Mohammed was
indeed an Apostle of God.
128 History of the

CHAPTER III

THE CONQUEST OF AL-MAGHREB

647-707

General Disorder following the Death of Mohammed Regula-

tions of Islam Progress of the Moslem Arms Northern
Africa, the Land of the Evening Its Fertility Its Popu-
lation Expedition of Abdallah Defeat of the Greeks
Invasion of Okbah Foundation of Kairoan March of
Hassan Ancient Carthage Its Influence on Europe Its
Splendid Civilization Its Maritime Power, its Colonies,
its Resources Description of the City Its Architectural
Grandeur Its Harbors, Temples, and Public Edifices Ro-
man Carthage Its Luxury and Depravity Its Destruction
by the Moslems Wars with the Berbers Musa appointed
General His Romantic History His Character He sub-
dues Al-Maghreb Africa incapable of Permanent Civiliza-
tion.

The by the fierce hordes of

dissensions excited
Arabia, whose intolerance of authority and aversion
to tribute had been with difficulty controlled by the
mysterious influence of Mohammed, at his death
broke forth with redoubled violence, and seriously
threatened, for a time, not only the integrity of the
Moslem empire, but even the existence and perpetuity
of the recently established faith. With the exception
of a few tribes which the ties of blood or considera-
tions of personal interest, joined to their intimate
commercial relations with the inhabitants of the Holy
Cities, retained in a precarious allegiance, the whole
population of the Peninsula rose at once in arms.
Each petty chieftain, jealous of the central power,
and endowed with an extravagant opinion of his own
abilities as rulerand legislator, arrogated to himself
divine authority, and aspired to the title and the pre-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 129

rogatives of a prophet of God. The populace, half

idolatrous and half infidel at heart, and which had
received the injunctions of the Koran with apparent
enthusiasm and inward contempt, welcomed with joy
each new revelation, as affording a prospective state
of war and discord so thoroughly in consonance with
its predatory instincts and turbulent character.
With this condition of affairs, whose gravity might
well have appalled the mind of an experienced states-
man, the executive ability and diplomatic tact of the
first Khali f, a man bred to mercantile pursuits, yet

admirably fitted by nature for the arduous duties of

his exalted position, were found fully competent to
deal. The insurgent armies were annihilated; the
false prophets killed, driven into exile, or compelled
to renounce their claims; the rebellious tribes were
decimated, and their property seized as the legal spoils
of war. With keen insight into the character of his
countrymen, Abu-Bekr employed their fiery and in-
domitable spirit in the extension of Islam and the
settlement and consolidation of its hitherto ill-defined
and uncertain jurisdiction. The policy partially de-
veloped under his wise management was finally estab-
lished and perfected by the iron will and martial

genius of Omar. The latter realized thoroughly the

paramount importance of preserving unimpaired the
unity and prestige of his nation, whose victories, in
brilliancy and political effect, had already surpassed
those of any preceding conqueror, and bade fair to
make the dominion of Islam coextensive with the
world. In pursuance of this design, the spoils of
conquest, the tribute of subjugated nations, the enor-
mous rental of the plains of Asia Minor and Meso-
potamia, the rich harvests of the Valley of the Nile,
the magnificent gifts of distant sovereigns hoping
to escape a visitation from the swarthy horsemen of
the Desert were all placed in a common fund, from
Vol. I. 9
130 History of the

which was pensioned every individual belonging to

the Arab race, in regular gradation, the stipend in-
creasing with years, dignity, and value of military
service. No one was too insignificant to have his name
inscribed upon the official registers at Medina; and
even slaves, women, and newly-born infants were, as
well as the most renowned warriors, regularly paid
their stated allowance. In the various countries
reduced by the prowess of the Moslems, the lands,
though confiscated to the uses of the state, remained
by special provision inalienable, and, while forming a
part of the public domain, could not be acquired by
those who had conquered them, and continued to be
occupied and tilled by their former proprietors. By
these regulations, also, the legal residence of the Arab
was established and made perpetual in the Peninsula.
Everywhere else, no matter what his rank or employ-
ment, he was but a sojourner, liable at any moment,
without warning, to be summoned to battle with the
infidel; and even viceroys of the Khalif could not
purchase a foot of ground in the cities which they
ruled with all but absolute power. While in the case
of female captives, the most unbounded license was
permitted and encouraged, the believer was particu-
larly enjoined to select for his wives the daughters
of some Arab clan; and his children, without excep-
tion, were early taught to assert their assumed supe-
riority of birth, and to look down upon all foreigners,
however illustrious they might be by descent, wealth,
military distinction, or literary attainments.
The comprehensive and exacting laws of Omar,
which arbitrarily determined questions of legislation
and finance, the marshalling of armies, the adjust-
ment of territorial disputes, the arrangement of the
household, and the offices of religion, laid the founda-
tion for the future greatness of Islam. By his edict
the date of the Hegira was fixed. His inflexible sense
 Moorish Empire in Europe 131

of justice punishment of the

inflicted the humiliating
lash, prescribed by law for drunkenness, upon beggar
and noble alike. The Code which bears his name is
remarkable, even in an age of fanaticism, for the
severe restrictions it imposed on the personal liberty
of Jews and Christians, the only sectaries to whom
Moslem clemency permitted the practice of their rites
and customs.
The assassination of Omar in the prime of man-
hood, and before his great designs had been fully
matured, was the signal for feuds, conspiracies, and
every form of domestic convulsion, fomented by tribal
jealousy, ancient prejudice, and disappointed ambi-
tion; disturbances which the weak and vacillating
spirit of his successor was unable to repress. Yet, de-
spite the disadvantages arising from the intellectual

impotence of Othman, the constitution of the Mus-

sulman theocracy possessed sufficient vitality to re-
tard dissolution for a considerable time. The glorious
traditions of a decade of uninterrupted victory were
not easily forgotten. The trophies wrested from the
despised and hated foe were displayed in every city
and village; his banners drooped in the courts of
every mosque; the harem, the street, the bazaar,
swarmed with captives from the most distant climes;
while the annual distribution from the public treasury
evidenced at once the wealth and weakness of the
infidel and the paternal generosity of the conqueror.
The Persian monarchy which had successfully with-
stood the attacks of consul, dictator, and emperor,
supported by the discipline and inexhaustible re-
sources of Roman power, had fallen, after two great
battles, before the impetuous valor of the Moslem
hosts. Palestine, with its hallowed associations, its
memories of all that is most sacred in the annals of
Christianity, its scenes of divine miracle and mystery,
of privation, suffering, and triumphant glory, was in
132 History of the

the hands of the Mussulman, whose sacrilegious foot-

steps daily denied the precincts of Gethsemane and
Golgotha, and whose call to prayer arose from a
magnificent shrine erected upon the site of the ruined
temple of Solomon. The Greek Emperor, after a
reign of extraordinary vicissitudes which had, in some
degree, retrieved the vanished prestige of the Roman
arms deprived in rapid succession of the choicest
realms of his empire, was now virtually a prisoner,
protected only by the Bosphorus and the impreg-
nable walls of his capital. Egypt, the depository of
traditions of incalculable antiquity, had submitted,
after a brief and determined struggle, to the common
fate of nations, and the banners of Islam floated in
triumph from the towers of Alexandria and Mem-
phis. Itwas with a feeling of awe and wonder that
the fierce, untutored Arab gazed upon the monuments
of this strange and, to him, enchanted land. Before
him were the Pyramids, rising in massive grandeur
upon the borders of the Desert; the stupendous
temples the mural paintings, whose brilliant coloring
;

was unimpaired after the lapse of fifty centuries the ;

groups of ponderous sphinxes, imposing even in their

mutilation; the speaking statues, which, facing the
East, with the first ray of light saluted the coming
day the obelisks, sculptured upon shaft and pedestal
;

with the eternal records of long extinguished dy-

nasties; the vast subterranean tombs, whose every
sarcophagus was a gigantic monolith and the effigies
;

of the old Egyptian kings, personifications of dig-

nity and power, holding in their hands the symbols of
time and eternity, or grasping, in lieu of the sceptre,
that emblematic staff, which, more potent than the
wand of the mightiest magician, has controlled the
destinies of millions of men, and which became in
turn the wand of the Grecian hierophant in the
mysteries of Eleusis, the lituus of the Roman augur,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 133

and the crosier of the Catholic archbishop. At his

feet rolled the turbid flood of the mysterious river,
to whose periodical inundation was due the civilization
of that venerable country. The anticipation of this
phenomenon had necessitated the study of astronomy ;

itsoverflow had developed a perfect system of irri-

gation, and a complicated body of laws, which regu-
lated the distribution of its fertilizing waters; its

subsidence had required a thorough acquaintance with

the rules of geometry and mensuration; and the
noxious vapors arising from its steaming deposits
demanded the speedy disinfection and embalming of
all putrescent animal matter, a precaution which was

rigidly enforced by established custom and the inex-

orable precepts of religion. The initiations of the
priesthood, the jealously treasured maxims of its
occult knowledge, the attributes of its innumerable
deities, all bore an intimate relation to the waters of
the Nile, whose recurring and invariable changes also
indicated the seasons of the Egyptian year, which
were measured by the harvests. The influence pro-
duced by the sight of these marvels upon the destiny
of the simple Arab, whose horizon had hitherto been
defined by the shifting sands and quivering vapors
of the Desert, by whom the grandeur and symmetry
of architectural design were undreamt of, and whose
ideas of decoration were limited to the barbaric
tracery of an earthen jar or the coarse patterns of
the primitive loom, was incalculable. As every civili-
zation is but an adaptation to new conditions of ele-
ments more or less perceptible in those which have
preceded it, so it was with that of the Arabs. Their
architecture, mainly indebted for its beauty to the
selection of designs from the vegetable world and the
skilful combination of geometrical forms, may in this

respect justly lay claim to originality. Nevertheless,

in the groundwork of its finest edifices, the practised
134 History of the

eye can easily detect the foreign influence by which

the efforts of its artisans have been inspired; and
the characteristics of Persian, Egyptian, Cartha-
ginian, and Byzantine are prominent in the solid
walls, the graceful curves, and the sparkling mosaics
of the builders' masterpieces which adorn the widely-
separated provinces of the Mohammedan empire.
It was during the reign of Othman that the atten-
tion of the Moslems was first seriously directed to the
northern coast of Africa, a region which, extending
from the Nile to the Atlantic, comprised a territory
of one thousand miles in length by five hundred in
breadth in its largest diameter. In its approaches,
which were made over burning sands, it exhibited the
familiar phenomena of the Desert. The greater por-
tion of its vast area was susceptible of cultivation, and

contiguous plantations and gardens marked, with an

unbroken line of verdure, the possessions of the once
magnificent and still important cities which in the
days of her glory acknowledged the authority and
claimed the protection of the imperial metropolis of
Carthage. Here the most abundant harvests, the
most luscious fruits, rewarded, with but trifling exer-
tion, the industry of the husbandman. Luxuriant
pastures, through which meandered sparkling brooks
fed by perennial springs, sustained large numbers of
cattle and sheep. The date flourished in such variety
thatit was only by its shape and stone that its species

could be determined. The soil was favorable to the

olive,and oil formed an important article of export.
It was indeed a land of promise, renowned in history,
celebrated in myth and legend; the Ophir of Holy
Writ; the scene of the sufferings of Marius, Regu-
lus, and Cato; where originated many of the most

charming fictions of classic mythology; the home of

Danaus, Antaeus, and Atlas; for centuries the abode
of Tyrian civilization the seat successively of Punic
;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 135

splendor, Roman luxury, Vandal license, and Chris-

tian faith. In itscapital Hamilcar had prepared for
the descent upon Sicily which had secured the mastery
of the Mediterranean, and Hannibal had planned the
campaign which humbled the pride of the Eternal
City; the land which had received in its bosom ref-
ugees from Palestine and Arabia, the founders and
supporters of a new and glorious empire; the see of
St. Augustine; the enchanted Garden, where dwelt
the .beautiful daughters of Erebus and Night; where
the gigantic portal marked by the two famous col-
umns pointed out to the Phoenician mariner the way
to the Cassiterides

"Abyla atque Calpe."

Carthaginian enterprise for ages bartered its manu-

factures for the tin of Britain and the luxuries of
Syria; under the Romans, for four centuries, its
agricultural products maintained in profligate idle-
ness the degenerate inhabitants of Italy.
The further extremity of this region, which the
poetic nomenclature of the Oriental had designated
"
by the name of Al-Maghreb, The Land of the
Evening," was the wealthier and more productive;
but its storm-swept coast had subordinated its trade
to the superior commercial advantages of the eastern
half, now Tunis and Tripoli, which was known as
Ifrikiyah. Aprefect appointed by the court of
Constantinople administered the government of
these colonies, in the name of the Emperor, but
his jurisdiction was confined to a narrow belt of

territory, beyond which roamed at will bands of

ferocious and hardy barbarians, some of whom had
no settled habitation; while a considerable number
dwelt in the slopes and defiles of the Atlas Moun-
tains, eking out a miserable subsistence by a super-
ficial cultivation of the soil and a precarious traffic
136 History of the

with their scarcely less civilized neighbors. The

popu-
lation of this province was, owing to repeated immi-
gration and invasion, and the consequent admixture
of races, of the most heterogeneous character. Along
the coast, the elegance of the Grecian type, occasion-
ally modified by the dignified features and martial
bearing of the Roman, whose physical traits had been
partially preserved by the frequent renewal of garri-
sons and the importation of colonists from Italy and
Constantinople, largely predominated. Further, in-
land appeared, in the swarthy complexions, blue eyes,
and auburn locks, the cross between Vandal and
Mauritanian, side by side with the unmistakable linea-
ments of the Syrian and the Jew. But most nu-
merous of all, the most formidable in war, the most
perfidious in peace, were the Berbers, whose origin
tradition has variously assigned to Europe, Assyria,
Arabia, Ethiopia, and Palestine. Whatever may
have been the home of this undoubtedly Semitic race,
their affinity with the Arabs was most conspicuous and
remarkable. Generous, brave, patient of suffering,
prodigal of hospitality, reverential to the aged, loyal
to their kindred, impatient of restraint, merciless in
revenge, their character was an epitome of the rugged
virtues and cruel vices of the roving barbarian. The
fighting qualities of this people, joined to the inacces-
sible nature of their haunts, and, in no small degree,
aided by their poverty, had always secured for them
immunity from conquest. Political reverses had
never been able to efface their national peculiarities.
Under persecution, while apparently conforming to
the public faith, they remained, in reality, fetich
worshippers. The long dominations of Phoenician,
Roman, Byzantine, Teuton had effected no altera-
tion in their language the Arabic alone has been
able to engross about a third of the terms of their
guttural idiom. Their polity resembled a republic,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 137

where each village was independent and governed by

a chieftain elected by the people. Time and again
they had mustered for service against the Emperor
armies of thirty and forty thousand men but the first
;

defeat dissolved their confederacy; and the rival

chiefs returned with increased avidity to the plunder
and massacre of their allies and friends. Their per-
fidy, which excited the unwilling admiration of na-
tions long practised in the arts of deceit, and which
was experienced to their cost by the Romans in the
war with Jugurtha, was, without doubt, in a measure
responsible for the proverbial reputation for duplicity
"
the Punica fides" of Carthage. Originally idol-
aters, believers in sorcery and divination, and adorers
of the Sun and of Fire, their intercourse with their
neighbors, considering its irregular and transitory

character, had been singularly productive of changes

in religious belief. The emissaries of Christianity
had, with but indifferent success, disseminated among
them the mysteries of their faith but to the doctrines
;

of the Pentateuch and the Talmud they lent a willing

ear, and the tenets of Judaism, although not a little
tinctured with the traditions of Pagan mythology,
nominally received the assent of the entire Berber
nation. The peculiar type of the Hebrew, insensibly
diversified elsewhere by the associations of commer-
cial intercourse, and by the influence of soil, climate,
and the operation of laws more or less favorable to
the fusion of races, had, in the wilds of Northern
Africa, found a congenial locality for its preserva-
tion. The exiles who had escaped the persecutions of
Titus and Hadrian had settled there and prospered.
Laying aside their proverbial reserve, they had joined
to their hereditary inclination for traffic an unwonted
disposition to acquire proselytes; and their opinions
had infected, to a greater or less extent, the popula-
tion of the coast as well as that of the interior, from
138 History of the

the Greater Syrtis to the Pillars of Hercules. Their

relationsand acquaintance extended not only to the
extreme Orient, but were sustained with the semi-
barbarous courts of Europe; and their sympathies
with their brethren of Semitic origin, assisted by the
community of ideas, habits, and mode of life of the
Berber tribes, contributed, in a degree which cannot
be overestimated, to the establishment and preserva-
tion of the Western empire of Islam.
In the year 647, the covetous glances of the govern-
ment at Medina were turned towards the rich planta-
tions and populous settlements of Al-Maghreb; and
the predatory inroads which had hitherto vexed its
borders were, for the first time, superseded by a sys-
tematic and determined attempt at conquest. The
weakness and partiality of Othman, with whom the
aggrandizement of his family was a paramount con-
sideration, had removed the famous Amru from the
viceroyalty of Egypt, and invested with its adminis-
tration Abdallah-Ibn-Sa'd, the foster-brother of the
Khali f, a warrior of experience and courage and the
finest horseman of his nation, but a man whose re-
nown had been sullied by the crime of apostasy, and
who had used an employment of confidence to ridi-
cule and revilethe inspired teachings and sacred
character of the Prophet.
into all the resources of his gov-
Calling requisition
ernment, this Moslem general marched into the Desert
with twenty thousand soldiers, among them many of
the companions of Mohammed and representatives
of the most noble tribes of Arabia. After a few un-
important skirmishes, and a short but bloody engage-
ment in which a division of the Greeks was entirely
destroyed, the Arab army advanced to Tripoli, and,
investing its walls, pushed forward the operations
of
the siege with an energy hardly to be expected from
a people whose experience had been confined to ma-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 139

rauding expeditions and the stratagems of partisan

warfare. Under the dominion of the Byzantine em-
perors, the office of prefect had been substituted for
that of the ancient proconsul; and this employment
was not only charged with the execution of the laws
relating to civil and military affairs, but also claimed
jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the welfare
of the church, the appointment of its ministers, and
the enforcement of the canons of ecclesiastical disci-
pline. The prefect Gregory, whose talents had been
exercised, and whose prowess had been approved, in
many negotiations and conflicts with the Berbers, at
the head of a tumultuous and undisciplined force of
one hundred and twenty thousand men, moved for-
ward to the relief of Tripoli. Abandoning the siege,
the Arabs accepted the challenge, and a series of
battles ensued without decided advantage upon either
side, until the prefect, mortified that the numerical

superiority of his troops should be neutralized by the

desperate courage of his adversaries, offered the hand
of his beautiful daughter who, completely armed,
was each day conspicuous in the ranks of the van-
guard and a purse of one hundred thousand pieces
of gold to any one who would bring him the head
of the Moslem general. The courage of Abdallah,
although he had faced death in a hundred forms, was
not proof against this effort of his wily antagonist,
and, remaining idly in his tent, he left the conduct of
operations to the care of his lieutenants. In the mean
time there arrived at the Arab camp a small detach-
ment headed by Ibn-al-Zobeir, a warrior of distinc-
tion, who heard with contempt of the pusillanimous
conduct of the general. Seeking him, he denounced
his cowardice, suggesting that he should retaliate by
the offer of a similar sum, and the prefect's daughter
as a slave, to whoever should cast at his feet the head
of the Greek commander. The advice was taken the ;
140 History of the

tempting reward was published throughout the camp ;

the Arab youth were fired by emulation to redoubled

efforts; and Abdallah himself, shamed into action,
again appeared in the front of battle. But the over-
whelming numbers of the Greeks, inspired by the
example of a few legions which yet retained the tradi-
tions of Roman steadiness and discipline, and sup-
ported by the rapid evolutions of the Numidian
cavalry, famous from the days of Jugurtha, still
rendered the issue doubtful, and by repeated engage-
ments the ranks of the Arabs were being constantly
diminished. Again the talents of Ibn-al-Zobeir were
called into requisition the battle was renewed as usual
;

at daybreak and when the blazing sun had exhausted

;

the strength of the combatants, both armies retired

to the shelter of their tents. But the Moslems had
not all been engaged, and a division composed of
troops, selected for their bravery and commanded by
the intrepid Ibn-al-Zobeir, burst suddenly like a
thunderbolt upon the hostile camp.
Seized with a panic, as they were reposing after
the arduous struggle of the day, the ranks of the
enemy were broken, the prefect was killed, and the
camp given over to pillage. A rich booty and innu-
merable captives compensated the victors for their
trials the beauteous Amazon became the slave of Ibn-
;

al-Zobeir; and, after the capture of the important

city of Suf etela, the entire district acknowledged the
authority of the Khalif . The ravages of disease, the
losses resulting from a series of engagements lasting
for months, and the lack of reinforcements, made it
impossible for Abdallah to garrison the towns, or to
retain in subjection the restless tribes of the interior;
and he consented, with alacrity, to accept a bribe of
two million five hundred thousand dinars and abandon
the conquest. The spoil was sent to Medina, and
Othman further incurred the charges of injustice and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 141

nepotism by presenting Abdallah with the royal fifth,

and by permitting his cousin Merwan to purchase the
remainder at the low valuation of three hundred
talents of gold.
For nearly a quarter of a century, the civil wars
provoked by the conflicting claims of the various
aspirants to the throne of the khalifate and the suc-
ceeding political establishments left in security the
Greek possessions of the West. The Byzantine court
learned with amazement of the enormous ransom with
which the inhabitants of Africa had purchased the
withdrawal of the invaders; and its avarice was ex-
cited when it considered the resources of a country
which could collect so large a sum after having, for
generations, been subject to the rapacious inquisition
of the imperial tax-gatherers. Without delay, the Em-
peror demanded a contribution of the same amount
as unpaid tribute; and all the mechanism of extor-
tion was employed, to complete the ruin of his already
impoverished subjects. Oppressed beyond endurance,
the Africans sent an embassy headed by the Patriarch
himself to Damascus, and reciting their grievances,
described in glowing terms to Muavia the wealth of
their country and the advantages which must accrue
to the Moslems from its possession. The Khalif,
deeply impressed by their representations, ordered
Ibn-Hajij, governor of Egypt, to undertake the
conquest; but the enterprise was not carried out
with the customary vigor of the Saracens, and re-
sulted only in the partial occupancy of the coast and
the subjection of a few unimportant cities. The
permanent establishment of Mussulman rule dates,
however, from this expedition, and henceforth the
standard of Islam, although often furled before the
intrepid spirit of the Berbers, was advanced, foot by
foot, to the far distant shores of the Western Ocean.
The most successful commander, and the one who
142 History of the

alone, excepting Musa, made the most enduring im-

pression upon and treacherous barbarians
the valiant
of Al-Maghreb, was Okbah-Ibn-Nafi, who was next in-
vested with the command. Entering the hostile region
at the head of ten thousand veteran cavalry, he made
war with the same resolution and uncompromising
spirit which marked the careers of the daring Amru
"
and Khalid, The Sword of God." The Christians
who refused, by either submission or conversion, to ac-
knowledge the divine origin of Islam were ruthlessly
slaughtered; but the orders of the Khalif explicitly
prohibited the equipment or use of naval armaments,
and the seaports of the Greeks escaped, for the time,
the fate which was inevitable. The Berbers, behold-
ing with wonder the apparently invincible character
of their enemy, equally fortunate in plain and moun-
tain fastness, defeating with ease their bravest squad-
rons, and scaling, despite all obstacles, the ail-but im-
pregnable defences of their strongholds, clothed him
with the attributes of divinity, and, submitting to his
dominion, recognized the power of the Khalif, while
at the same time, abjuring their idolatry, they con-
fessed the unity and majesty of God. The advance
of Okbah was the triumphant progress of a con-
queror. Almost unresisted, he traversed the regions
peopled by hordes of fierce barbarians, until, having
penetrated to the Atlantic, he rode his horse into its
seething waters, and, drawing his sword, cried out,
"
God is great! Were I not hindered by this sea, I
would go forward to the unknown kingdoms of the
West, proclaiming the greatness of Thy Holy Name
and subduing those nations who worship other gods
than Thee!"
The moral effect of the expedition of Okbah, which
familiarized the nations of the north of Africa with
the doctrines of Islam, was of far more importance
than the spoil collected by the victorious army, which
 Moorish Empire in Europe 143

was, in itself, not inconsiderable. The wealth of the

Berbers, ignorant as they were of the mechanical arts
and the elegant appliances of luxury, was confined to
flocks and herds; but the beauty and fascinations of
theirwomen aroused the passions of the conquerors,
and many of them subsequently commanded in the
markets of Alexandria and Damascus the extraordi-
nary price of a thousand mithcals of gold. The in-
constant character of the tribes of Mauritania and
the Atlas, amenable only to the restraints of military
power, and to whom conversion and apostasy were
mere matters of temporary expediency, suggested to
the sagacious mind of Okbah the necessity for the
establishment of a fortified post in the territory of
this active and formidable enemy. An inland posi-
tion was selected, to avoid the attacks of the naval
forces of Constantinople, and, despite the serious
physical disadvantages of barrenness, drought, and
excessive heat, a city was built, to which was given the
name of Kairoan a metropolis destined in after times
;

to attain to an important rank in the annals of the

dynasties of Africa. The walls were of brick, with
flanking towers, and embraced six miles in circuit.
The foundations of a mosque, an edifice measuring
two hundred and twenty by one hundred and fifty
cubits, were laid; its seventeen naves were adorned
with the plundered marbles of Utica and Carthage;
the graceful proportions of its minaret and the ele-
gance of its mural decorations are still proverbial in
the Mohammedan world. The bazaar of the city
lined a street three miles in length its schools became
;

the resort of the learned; the authority of its muftis

on points of doctrine was indisputable; and, as the
seat of the viceroy of the Khalif, it long maintained
its political importance.
The implacable and perfidious spirit of the Berbers,
whom no treaties could control, now broke out in the
144 History of the

prosecution of petty hostilities, which the scattered

forces of the Moslems were powerless to prevent.
Forays were made upon isolated settlements, flocks
were driven off, hamlets given to the flames, and
even the security of the rising colony of Kairoan was
threatened. Emboldened by their success, the Berber
chiefs confederated for the total destruction of the
Moslems. Koceila, an influential chieftain, who had
been wantonly insulted and maimed by Okbah and
was now kept a close prisoner in the camp, was the
moving spirit of the conspiracy. Learning too late
of the plan of the enemy, Okbah was compelled to
weaken his army, and while a detachment for the re-
lief of Kairoan was on the march, it was suddenlv
attacked near Tehuda by an overwhelming force of
barbarian cavalry. The little band of Mussulmans,
less than four hundred in number, seeing the hope-
lessness of the contest, commended themselves to God,
and, casting away their scabbards, perished to a man,
scimetar in hand. The tombs of these martyrs are
still objects of veneration to the devout, and Zab,

where they are situated, enjoys the sanctity, privi-

leges, and lucrative trade of a place of pilgrimage.
The Franks and Berbers with their usual inconstancy
now flocked to the standard of Koceila, who assumed
the title of an independent sovereign and for five
years remained the undisputed ruler of Ifrikiyah.
At the expiration of that period, a fresh army of
Arabs under Zoheir defeated the Berbers in a de-
cisive battle, and, Koceila having been killed, the lieu-
tenant of the Khalif again asserted his unstable au-
thority. It was not long before the new governor
Zoheir succumbed to the treachery of the cunning
barbarians, and the Khalif Abd-al-Melik imposed
upon Hassan, Viceroy of Egypt, the task which
had foiled the skill and energy of so many of his
predecessors. But none of the latter had mustered
 Moorish Empire in Europe 145

such a force, or could have controlled such vast re-

sources, as did the new commander-in-chief. His
office, as Governor of Egypt, placed at his disposal
the enormous wealth of that fertile country, and he
marched out of Alexandria at the head of a thor-
oughly equipped army of forty thousand veterans.
He was well provided with scaling ladders and the
various engines for the siege of fortified places,
while the success of the Moslems in the East had
inspired them with confidence, and afforded experi-
ence in the attack upon fortifications, a branch of
warfare in which they had at first been entirely de-
ficient. Resolving to reduce the strongholds of the
coast, which were still in possession of the Greeks,
Hassan, after traversing the region which had been
desolated, and partially colonized by former com-
manders, advanced at once upon Carthage. This
famous city, which had preserved, amidst unparal-
leled disaster, the prestige and the traditions of its
former greatness, was still the capital of Africa and
the seat of the imperial prefect. The power of
Phoenicia, almost omnipotent in the maritime world
of the ancients, founded upon boundless wealth,
upon extensive acquaintance with distant lands and
peoples, upon scientific secrets, whose importance
was exaggerated by mystery, and upon the undis-
puted dominion of the seas, had been transmitted
to Carthage, her favorite and most important colony.
A brief notice of the history of the latter, so inti-
mately connected with the fortunes of every nation
of ancient and modern Europe, is not foreign to an
account of the Mohammedan conquest of Africa, nor
to that of the subsequent occupation of Spain. For,

inspired by her example, from her harbor issued the

firstnaval expedition of the Moslems in the West,
which ravaged the coasts of Sardinia, threatened the
Greek empire, and subdued the Balearic Isles. The
Vol. I. 10
146 History of the

invention of the compass, popularly but erroneously

attributed to the sailors of Amalfi, it has been con-
jectured, with some degree of probability, was in
reality a legacy of Tyre to Carthage; and it is cer-
tain that the peculiar properties of themagnet, desig-
nated the Stone of Hercules, were familiar to the
mariners of those cities, who employed it in divina-
tion and in the secret ceremonies of their temples
upon the shores of every sea. The straight sword
of the Spanish Arab, so different from the curved
blade of the Orient, is the sword of the Carthaginian ;

a weapon which, subsequently adopted by Rome from

Iberia, conquered the world, including the African
warriors who invented it. The cap of the Basque is
a modification of the old Punic, or Phrygian, head
covering, still worn by the Jewesses of Tunis, and
which, in our day, has been adopted as one of the
emblems of Liberty. The toga of Rome and the
burnous of the Arab can be traced to the same origin,
being derived by Carthage from Phoenicia, and by the
latter from Lydia; and the names, customs, tradi-
tions, and ceremonies of modern Spain suggest daily,
to the intelligent observer, the enduring impressions
produced by the domination of the ancient Queen of
the Mediterranean. Even in her ruin did Carthage
contribute to the progress of science and the well-
being of humanity. The cathedral of Pisa, under
whose dome Galileo pursued his experiments and per-
fected the pendulum-clock, was constructed of the
marbles of her palaces and the unrivalled mosque of
;

Cordova, the centre of mediaeval learning, in whose

precincts was the finest library of the age, still con-
tainshundreds of columns, around whose shafts once
curled the wreaths of incense that rose from the altars
of the Tyrian Hercules. But far more important
than all else was the influence exerted upon the Arab
invaders by the defaced and shattered memorials of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 147

her departed grandeur. Despite the effects of Ro-

man hate and vengeance, the destructive energy of
Genseric, and the shameless neglect of the Byzantine
emperors, Carthage was still a great and beautiful
city. Many of her stately edifices were preserved;
her temples, towering in their pristine majesty,
beckoned the anxious mariner to her prosperous
shores; her harbors with their colonnades were still
intact, and it was with no ordinary emotions that the
Moslem looked upon these evidences of the taste and
civilization of one of the most opulent and renowned

capitals of antiquity. The Phoenicians, by their

proximity to and regular intercourse with the highly
cultivated races of Assyria and Egypt, had added
immeasurably to their stock of learning, and eagerly
disseminated among their colonies the notions of poli-
tics, philosophy, and science, which they had imbibed
in their periodical voyages to the banks of the Eu-

phrates and the Nile. And as from Asia Minor,

plainly disclosed in the myth of Cadmus, first ema-
nated that knowledge of letters and the arts, which,
expanding with a prodigious development, culmi-
nated in the matchless creations of the Grecian
sculptor and the Grecian muse; so to the northern
coast of Africa can be traced the dawn of that in-
spiration of refinement and taste which awakened in
the minds of the rude and warlike nomads of the
Desert a desire for something better than the subju-
gation of barbarian tribes, something more enduring
than the costly pageants of military glory.
Settled almost thirteen centuries before the Chris-
tian era, and inheriting from the parent city of Tyre
that spirit of enterprise which had gained for the
latter the carrying trade of the world, at the time of
the foundation of Rome, Carthage was already the
wealthiest and most polished state on the shores of
the Mediterranean. Her inhabitants, rather inclined
148 History of the

to peaceful occupations and the luxurious ease that

prosperity confers than to the privations of the camp
and the dangers of the field, usually enlisted mer-
cenaries to prosecute their conquests. When at the
height of her power, her armies, which had penetrated
the mysterious depths of the Libyan and Ethiopian
deserts, and whose prowess had been displayed alike
in the defiles of Sicily and upon the plains of the
Bastis,had subjected to her authority a wide extent
of territory, and more than three hundred towns in
Africa alone, many of them places of considerable
magnitude. In the Spanish Peninsula, whence she
drew her supplies of the precious metals, she em-
ployed in the silver mines fifty thousand men. The
most assiduous care was paid to agriculture, and the
extraordinary fertility of the soil, yielding with ease
one hundred and fifty fold, was assisted by an equable
climate and a scientific and extensive system of irri-
gation. The substantial character of the public works
of the capital is evinced by the ruins of the cisterns
and the aqueduct, which have defied the storms and
revolutions of two thousand years. But it was chiefly
in commercial affairs that the Carthaginians asserted
their immeasurable superiority over all their con-

temporaries. Their merchants, whose enterprise was

proverbial, were familiar with some of the ingenious
expedients that, in our day, among civilized nations,
so facilitate and simplify important business trans-
actions. The most remarkable of these described by
Latin writers were certain pieces of leather which,
when folded in a peculiar manner, and sealed to pre-
vent forgery, readily passed as money, undoubted
precursors of our bank-notes and bills of exchange.
They seem to have had also well-defined ideas of the
fiscal and other regulations demanded by the exi-

gencies of foreign trade, such as banking, insurance,

and duties on imports.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 149

Until the conclusion of the second Punic War, no

noticeable progress had been made in the arts at Rome,
and the total destruction of Carthage was, in this re-
spect, as in many others, of incalculable advantage to
her fortunate adversary. Among the treasures pro-
cured at the sack of the city are mentioned, besides
paintings and statues, gold and silver vessels of curi-
ous workmanship, and so valuable that the portion
reserved for the triumph of the victor amounted to a
sum equal to eight million dollars. In the spoil were
also included beautiful mosaics, and incredible quan-
tities of precious stones, articles of luxury especially
prized by and which they knew
the Carthaginians,
how to engrave with surprising skill. These exquisite
models, perfected by the labors of countless genera-
tions, were not without a decided effect in promoting
the education and stimulating the ambition of the Ro-
man designers and artisans. We learn from Appian
that there were many libraries in the city, which also
boasted not a few writers of note, but none of their
productions have been preserved, and the only native
author whose fame has reached posterity is Terence,
a liberated slave, who, at the age of twenty-five, de-
lighted the critical audiences of the Roman theatres
with the flights of his precocious genius. Some esti-
mate may be formed of the military and naval power
of Carthage, when we recall the fact that during the
Sicilian wars, which lasted twenty-four years, she
lost, five hundred ships of the
in a single battle,

largest size, together with an army of one hundred

and fifty thousand men, without sensibly impairing
her resources or retarding her career of conquest.
Had a similar misfortune befallen any contempo-
raneous state it could hardly have survived the shock.
The equipage and plate of the Carthaginian generals
were of the most sumptuous description, and they
went into action bearing magnificent bucklers em-
150 History of the

bossed with medallion portraits of their owners in

massy gold.
Occupying the centre of the Southern Mediter-
ranean coast, and accessible to every port frequented
by traders, Carthage was speedily enabled to profit
to the utmost by those advantages of geographical
position that paved the way to her political and mari-
time ascendency, At her left hand were the Pillars
of Hercules, and the channel through which passed
the trade of Spain and Britain; at her right the in-
exhaustible granaries of Egypt; in front of her, the
quarries, mines, and slave-marts of Italy and Greece ;

in her rear the gold and gems of Libya. Upon a

peninsula, whose isthmus was defended by a triple
wall, lay the city, embracing a circuit of twenty -three
miles, and containing a population of nearly a million.
Inside the fortifications, on the east, was the Kothon,
a double harbor, consisting of two circular basins con-
nected by a canal sixty feet wide, barricaded with
enormous iron chains. The outer and larger basin,
six thousand feet in circumference, was destined for
the use of merchantmen; the inner one was reserved
exclusively for galleys and men-of-war. Both were
surrounded by docks, storehouses, quarters for ma-
rines,and arsenals, and were approached by splendid
Ionic porticos and colonnades of white marble. In
the centre of an island in the inner harbor, at whose
quays two hundred vessels could ride securely at
anchor, rose the castle of the admiral who directed
all manoeuvres at the sound of trumpet. Immedi-
ately over the Kothon, on an elevation that com-
manded it,stood the famous Byrsa, or citadel. Its
wall rose to the height of sixty-five feet, and was
flanked by numerous towers; adjoining the latter
were stables for four thousand horses and three hun-
dred elephants, and barracks that could accommodate
a garrison of twenty-four thousand men. Eighteen
 Moorish Empire in Europe 151

cisterns, seven of which are still intact, each ninety-

three feet long by twenty wide and twenty-eight feet
deep, connected by a tunnel with reservoirs in the
suburbs, furnished an abundant supply of water.
The highest point of the Byrsa was occupied by the
temple of iEsculapius, the tutelary deity of the city,
and although, in fact, an almost impregnable fortress,
the skill of the engineer had thoroughly disguised its
formidable character. It was situated above a series
of terraces, resembling the hanging gardens of As-
syria, and was reached by superb marble staircases
adorned with beautiful statues, urns, and other works
of art. Slabs of porphyry and verd-antique covered
its walls; its arcades were paved and encrusted with

mosaics; and the veneration in which it was held by

the people was attested by the gorgeous appoint-
ments of its shrine. But the fane of iEsculapius, with
all its splendor, was not without many rivals in the
African metropolis. The religion of the Cartha-
ginians, originally astronomical and profoundly sym-
bolic, had centuries before discarded the purer forms
of astral worship for a debased and cruel polytheism.
The different wards of the city were named from
the various deities whose altars they contained. West
of the Kothon was the temple of Apollo, and adjoin-
ing it the shrine of Melcareth, or Hercules whose
precincts no woman was suffered to enter, and whose
priests, assuming the vow of chastity, went barefoot
and with shaven crowns stood side by side with the
fragrant gardens within whose mystic groves were
celebrated, amidst indescribable orgies, the licentious
rites of the Phoenician Astarte. Nearer the sea was
the grand temple of the African Baal, the Moloch of
the Hebrews, surrounded by a labyrinth and covered
with three concentric domes, which, open above like
that of thePantheon at Rome, permitted the rays of
152 History of the

the sun at high meridian to descend upon the brazen

image of the god.
The other edifices of the African capital were, in
richness and splendor, eminently worthy of its temples
and its citadel. The vast commerce of Carthage
placed at its command the resources of all antiquity.
No labor or expense was spared in architectural deco-
ration. On the facade of its theatre, which rose for
seven stories in tiers of graceful arches, were sculp-
tured the forms of animals, the effigies of famous
artisans, the figures of military commanders, and
symbolical representations of the elements, the sea-
sons, and the winds. The circus, inferior in extent
only to that of Rome, was supported by fluted columns
of such enormous size that twelve men could sit with
ease upon the edge of one of their capitals towering
a hundred feet above the arena. In the principal
square, the reservoir, fed by the great aqueduct, was
surrounded by balustrades and arches. All of these
public works were of white marble, which glittered
like crystal under the rays of a southern sun. The
taste which designed them was the result of three
thousand years of civilization. Every nation of the
ancient world had contributed its share to their sym-
metry, their value, their magnificence. The beauty
of the material was enhanced a thousand-fold by the
incomparable elegance of the sculpture and the orna-
mentation.
The Megara, a suburb of Carthage, contained the
country-seats and palaces of the nobility, some of
them built, like the houses of Venice, upon piles and
arches in the sea. It was an immense park seamed
with canals and rivulets, whose waters were conveyed
by conduits from the mountains sixty miles away.
The reservoirs of the Megara, so extensive that they
now constitute an Arab village, were constructed in
the same substantial manner as the cisterns of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 153

Byrsa. On a promontory above them was the necropo-

lis, where the ashes of the dead were deposited in
countless niches hewn in the living rock.
Upon the ruins of this rich and powerful city, which
had so long and so obstinately disputed the supremacy
of the masters of the world, had risen another that
almost rivalled its predecessor in commercial impor-
tance and architectural splendor. Founded one hun-
dred and one years after the triumph of Scipio, it
yielded in prestige and luxury only to the great capi-
tals of Italy and Egypt, and was justly regarded as
one of the most valuable possessions of the Roman
colonial empire. Its advantages of location, the agri-
cultural wealth of the country, the settlement of many
noble Italian families fugitives from imperial op-
pression and barbarian violence and the glorious
example of former ages, soon raised the new metropo-
lis to a position scarcely inferior to that of the old.

Its edifices could vie with even the proudest monu-

ments of the Eternal City; the wealth, intelligence,
polished manners, and boundless excesses of its in-
habitants made its name proverbial throughout an-
tiquity. In the seventh century it divided
with Alex-
andria the commerce of the Mediterranean, and was
greatly its superior in rank, population, and power.
The head of the civil magistracy of Africa, and the
seat of a large military garrison, it almost monopolized
the taste and refinement, the learning, the philosophy,
and the jurisprudence, of the Western world. Uni-
versitieswith chairs of the liberal arts, academies which
afforded instruction in every language and every
science, flourished within its walls; its circus and its
amphitheatre were crowded daily with the wit and
beauty of the city, whose pleasure-loving society, un-
speakably corrupt, had added to the dissolute habits
inherited from Punic times the unnatural vices im-
ported by patrician refugees and colonists from the
154 History or the

orgies of decadent Rome. For perversity of dispo-

sition, for shameless effrontery, for perfidious disre-

gard of faith and contempt of honor, and for brazen

immodesty, the most debauched communities of the
East and West, by universal consent, conferred upon
the population of Carthage the unenviable distinction
of unapproachable infamy. The Vandals had plun-
dered its treasures and enslaved its people, but had
spared its noble buildings, and exempted its walls
from the destruction which had usually befallen those
of other towns conquered by these barbarians. Such
was the city which interposed a formidable and
hitherto insuperable barrier to the enterprise of the
Moslems; and whose transcendent influence has left
its stamp upon the habits, the creeds, and the opinions
of every subsequent age; to which ancient commerce
was indebted for its development, and from which
modern belief has derived some of the most popular
of its dogmas among them the doctrines of St. Au-
;

gustine and the leading principles of patristic theol-

ogy, that even now control ecclesiastical councils and
prescribe the rules of Christian discipline.
His preparations completed, the Moslem general,
seconded by the enthusiasm of his splendid army, and
confident of success, prepared at once for an assault.
The ladders were planted, and despite the terrors of
Greek fire, and the valor of the Byzantine garrison
which behaved with unusual spirit, the city was taken.
But, in the mean time, news of the danger of the
colony had reached the Bosphorus; the Court was
aroused from its lethargy; a powerful fleet was
equipped; and the Moslems had scarcely rested from
of this new enemy com-
their efforts before the arrival

pelled them to retreat. fewA months later, however,

reinforcements having been received by Hassan, Car-
thage was again stormed a decisive victory was gained
;

by the Moslems over the Greeks, who imprudently

 Moorish Empire in Europe 155

risked an engagement in the open field; the city was

plundered and burnt; and the jurisdiction over its
territory passed away forever from the hands of the
corrupt and pusillanimous sovereigns of the Eastern
Empire.
But the destruction of the capital, a political meas-
ure to secure supremacy, while producing a decisive
moral effect upon the remaining colonies of the
Greeks, was far from intimidating the Berbers, whose
omnipresent squadrons remained the masters of all the
region situated beyond the fortified towers of the
frontier. Afemale impostor of princely lineage
whose name, Dhabba', has been abandoned by subse-
quent chroniclers for the popular appellation Kahina,
or Sorceress had, by her mysterious arts, obtained
unbounded influence over her countrymen; and, in-
spiring them with a certain degree of patriotism, had
appeased their feuds and united the roving tribes
of the Atlas in an extensive and powerful confeder-
acy. Animated by her teachings and allured by
her promise of booty, the Berbers pressed upon the
forces of Hassan until the latter, after great losses,
were finally expelled, and repairing to Barca, re-
mained there in a state of inglorious inactivity for
nearly five years. It is related that as soon as the
enemy had passed the borders, the sorceress-queen
ordered the fertile region of the coast, which, in
the days of its prosperity, had furnished the sup-
plies of the Empire, and whose beauty had been
celebrated by every traveller, to be utterly desolated,
as a precaution against future invasion. The fields
were laid waste, the towns depopulated, the harvests
burnt, the orchards cut down, the plantations trans-
formed into a wilderness. This irrational act of vio-
lence was not viewed with complacency by the land-
holders and other civilized inhabitants of the country,
and, from time to time, emissaries were despatched to
156 History of the

the Arab Viceroy of Africa, promising him in return

for his interference the assistance and future allegi-
ance of the persecuted colonists. At length the order
to advance arrived from Damascus, and Hassan, with
the mostnumerous army that had ever invaded Africa,
encountered the priestess at the head of her adherents
near Mount Auras. In the battle that ensued, Kahina
was killed; the Berbers were overwhelmingly de-
feated; and the whole of the refractory province
again invoked the clemency of the victor. But the
same evil genius which, from first to last, attended the
administration of the Moslem governors of Africa,
now began to disturb the fortunes of Hassan. Abd-
al-Aziz, the brother of the Khalif, was appointed to
the viceroy alty of Egypt, upon which the jurisdiction
of Africa was made dependent; and Hassan was
summoned to Damascus, to answer serious accusations
of tyrannical conduct which had been lodged against
him. But the sight of the spoil wrested from the
Berbers, the present of female captives of extraordi-
nary beauty, the plausible explanations of his conduct
which his fertile ingenuity suggested, and the glowing
accounts of his successes, soon restored the distin-
guished commander to the favor of his sovereign,
and Hassan was reinvested with the government of
Africa with increased authority. On the return of
the latter, while passing through Egypt, Abd-al-Aziz
demanded the surrender of his commission under color
of the supremacy formerly attached to the viceroy alty
of that country, and by which the rest of Mohamme-
dan Africa was claimed as a dependency. Enraged by
his refusal, thegovernor arbitrarily deprived Hassan
of his commission, tore it in pieces before his face, and,
in defiance of the royal authority, declared the office
vacant, and appointed at his own instance Musa-Ibn-
Nosseyr commander of the armies of the West.
The history of this famous soldier is tinged with a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 157

coloring of adventure, unusual even in the romantic

atmosphere of the Orient. Ahundred miles directly
west of Ctesiphon is Ain-Tamar, now an oasis fre-
quented by wandering banditti, but in the seventh
century a prosperous settlement enriched by the
trade of Syria and Persia, and the seat of a Nes-
torian church and monastery. Attracted by the re-
ports of its wealth, an expedition headed by Khalid
himself surprised it, after a long and painful march
over the desert. In the cloisters of the monastery were
found a number of youths of high rank, who were
nominally pursuing their studies under the direction
of the monks, but were in reality hostages selected
from the most distinguished families of Asia Minor.
When offered the customary alternative of slavery
or apostasy, the majority chose the latter, and two of
them, Sirin and Nosseyr, became the fathers of sons
who exerted a wide-spread influence over the destinies
of Islam. From Sirin descended Mohammed the
learned doctor of Bassora, and one of the most famous
authorities of Islamic literature and Nosseyr was the
;

parent of Musa, the conqueror of Africa and Spain.

Nosseyr was attached to the family of Abd-al-Melik
by the right of capture and Mohammedan custom, and
his son occupied the same relation to Abd-al-Aziz, the
heir of the Khalif who bestowed upon him marks of
,

distinguished favor, and shared with him a friendship

rare indeed in the families of princes. Educated in
the best schools of Syria, which had already attained
a high and well-deserved reputation, Musa early de-
veloped a precocity of intellect, and a talent for nego-
tiation, which led to his employment in diplomatic
affairs of the greatest importance. Under the reign
of Abd-al-Melik, he was appointed vizier to the gov-
ernor of Bassora, but having been convicted of pecu-
lation, he only escaped with his life through the inter-
cession of his protector Abd-al-Aziz, who also paid for
158 History of the

him the of one hundred dinars of gold fifty

fine
times the amount of the theft which the wrath of
the Khalif had imposed upon the defaulter. Residing
afterwards at the court of Egypt, and acting as the
trusted councillor of the viceroy, history is silent as to
the fields in which he acquired the experience in arms
that subsequently gained for him such enduring re-
nown. Of a hardy constitution, inured to hardship,
plain in his attire, frugal and abstemious in his habits,
his form presented an example of robust health,
although he had long since passed the meridian of
life; and under his locks, whitened by the snows of

many winters, still smouldered the ardent passions of

youth, and the powerful incentives of ambition and
adventure. Sagacious in council, prompt in execution,
fearless in battle, implacable in revenge, his character
was, however, tarnished by cruelty, by suspicion, and
by ingratitude; and he never hesitated to risk the
sacrifice of power and position, in the gratification
of the avarice which seemed to dominate his being,
almost to the exclusion of every other passion. Un-
rivalled in tact and instinctive knowledge of human
nature, by his powers of persuasion he made even his
enemies subservient to his designs; while the strict
observance of the ceremonies of his religion, although
he became liable at times to imputations of inconsist-
ency, yet procured for him in general the reputation
of profound and sincere piety. In his military opera-
tions, he displayed the qualities of a skilful and wary
leader, and his dispositions were made with remark-
able prudence; realizing the demands of successful
warfare, he annihilated the power of his adversaries
by massacre or wholesale captivity and by rapid and
;

sudden advances after a battle he never failed to secure

the uncertain fruits of victory. Such was the char-
acter of the man to whom were now committed the
destinies of the Moslem armies of the West.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 159

The veterans who had served under the banner of

Hassan, who had scaled the walls of Carthage, and
dispersed the army of the Berber sorceress, looked
with little favor upon their new commander. Calling
them together, Musa paid them their arrears three
times over, and addressing them in a speech in which
the eloquence of the orator, the humility of the dev-
otee, and the art of the demagogue were shrewdly
"
blended, said: I am a soldier, like yourselves; ap-
plaud and imitate my good deeds; censure and re-
prove my failures,for none of us are free from
weakness and error." Impressed not only with the
politic generosity of their chief, but gratified as well
by the unwonted condescension he displayed, the sol-
diers greeted him with applause, and he became hence-
forth the idol of his army. Without unnecessary
delay, and with his accustomed vigor, he opened the
campaign. At the very outset an incident occurred
which not only secured the gratitude of his followers,
but, in that superstitious age, seemed to invest their
general with supernatural powers. A
long-continued
drought had dried up the springs and wells, and the
army, now far advanced into the desert, was threat-
ened with death by thirst. In the midst of the troops
solemnly assembled, Musa prayed long and fervently
for relief. Tradition relates that the supplication was
almost immediately granted and the identical prayer
;

which evoked this apparent miracle was repeated for

nine centuries afterwards by the Spanish Moors when
their country suffered from a scarcity of rain. The
Berbers, elated by their former successes, ventured
upon a pitched battle, and were defeated. Thousands
were killed;the fugitives who took refuge in the
mountains, where the natural obstacles of the locality
made their defences the more formidable, were be-
sieged and forced to surrender. The policy of Musa,
different from that of his predecessors, was marked
160 History of the

by unusual severity. If resistance was offered, the

tribe was enslaved, its property confiscated, and its

villages burnt to the ground but, on the other hand,

;

a ready submission guaranteed protection and favor,

and the stoutest warriors were at once enrolled in the
Moslem ranks. Twelve times already had the Berbers
professed adherence to Islam, and apostatized; and
Musa, conscious of their instability, now provided his
new troops with teachers learned in the Koran, who
could give them daily instruction in their religious
duties. Their new associations, the trust reposed in
them, the separation from their kindred, and the
boundless prospect of plunder and glory, soon trans-
formed these unruly bands into a serviceable force,
capable of the greatest exploits. The seizure of the
horses, cattle, and sheep, which constituted the wealth
of the Berbers, compensated the victors, in some de-
gree, for the absence of the costly booty which had
rewarded the courage of their brethren in Syria and
Egypt; while the prodigious number of slaves, re-
sulting from the depopulation of entire provinces,

provided a source of wealth whose profits were easily

realized in the markets of Alexandria and Damascus.
The royal fifth of the latter reserved by Musa
amounted to sixty thousand, a number so vast as to
be incredible, and which caused the Khalif to regard
the announcement as false when he received it. With
characteristic munificence, he directed Musa to re-
imburse himself for the fine which he had formerly
paid as the penalty for his dishonesty, and, at the
same time, he granted to him and the most distin-
guished soldiers of the army pensions commensurate
with their services.
The invasion and sack of Medina by the Syrians,
bent upon retribution for the murder of Othman, had
caused a great emigration from Arabia, and thousands
of the descendants of the proudest families of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 161

Holy Cities had established themselves in Africa, and

had rendered great aid to the projects of Musa. Their
incorporation into the armies of Al-Maghreb and
Iberia sensibly affected the fortunes of the latter
country, and indirectly led to the restoration of the
dynasty of the Ommeyades. Four sons of Musa had
accompanied him in his campaign, and now deputing
his authority to the two eldest, he despatched them to
the South and West, where a few remaining Berber
tribes still asserted their independence. Following
the example of their father they exterminated such
tribes as dared to resist, and in a few months re-
turned to Kairoan, whither Musa had retired with
considerable spoil and a large number of captives. In
the mean time, the latter, recognizing the supreme
importance of naval operations, and treating with
contempt the absurd prejudice of his countrymen
whose superstitious dread of the sea amounted at
times to absolute terror, ordered the refitting of the
dock -yards and harbors of Carthage, whose substan-
tial quays had been little impaired by the successive
calamities which had befallen the city. Ahundred
vessels were built, launched, and manned; Abdallah
was appointed admiral; the fleet cruised along the
coast of the Mediterranean, and crossing to Sicily,
sacked the city of Linosa and returned in triumph
with a booty of twenty thousand pieces of gold.
Four years afterwards a descent was made by Ab-
dallah on the Balearic Isles, and Majorca was, after
a short campaign, added to the dominions of the
Khalif.
Their incorrigible duplicity and restlessness, and
the absence of a competent military force, again
impelled the tribes of the interior to revolt. Taking
the field at the head of a picked force, Musa, with
trifling difficulty, took Tangier, the last fortified post
held by the Greeks in Al-Maghreb; and sending his
Vol. I. 11
162 History of the

son Merwan with five thousand cavalry against Sus-

al-Aska, the head -quarters of the insurgents, soon had
the satisfaction of learning that the rebellion was
subdued, and the recalcitrant Berbers punished with
a rigor unexampled even in the sanguinary wars of
Africa. After making two attempts to capture
Ceuta, one of the keys of the strait separating Africa
from Europe, both of which the gallant behavior of
the governor, Count Julian, rendered ineffectual,
Musa appointed Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad, a Berber con-
vert, formerly his slave, and now one of his most
trusty officers, to the command of Tangier, and re-
turned to Kairoan.
With the surrender of Tangier the Byzantine domi-
nation in Africa came to an end. Sixty years of war-
fare, the destruction of fleets, the annihilation of
armies, the devastation of provinces, the enslavement
of nations, had been required to accomplish this re-
sult, never for a moment lost sight of by the Mos-
lems amidst the imbroglios of courts and the revolts
of pretenders to the Khalifate of Damascus. The
abnormally perfidious and martial character of the
Berber placed him outside the category of ordinary
enemies. No reverses, however severe, could break
his spirit. He ignored the obligation of treaties. No
resource remained, therefore, but depopulation. The
number of slaves made by the Mussulmans in Africa
excited the amazement of their brethren in the East.
A successful campaign often yielded two hundred
thousand of these unfortunates. Such wholesale
captivity was without precedent even in the annals
of Rome. The fortresses, with the exception of
Ceuta, which was nominally a dependency of the
Visigothic kings of Spain though held by a feeble
and uncertain tenure were now in the possession of
the Saracens.
The Berbers either paid tribute to the Khali f or,
1

Moorish Empire in Europe 163

serving under their own commanders, were enrolled in

his armies. Already, after the expiration of only two
generations, during which the laws and customs of
Mohammedan can be said to have been estab-
life

lished, the momentous effects of polygamy were

strikingly noticeable. The children of the pagan
slaves who filled the harems of the conquerors were
educated in the doctrines of the Koran, and idolatry
had totallydisappeared, save, perhaps, in some
sequestered valley of the Atlas Mountains, where
the half -savage devotee bowed before a rude and
lonely altar, and with mystic incantations invoked
the aid of some misshapen image. Islam, which,
even by the reluctant testimony of Christian mis-
sionaries, exalts the character of the Negro and
invests him with a sense of personal dignity and
self-respect which no other religion has been able
to inspire, soon gained the professed allegiance of
the Berbers; and like the Arab, the more suspicious
and clannish they had been in their Age of Ignorance,
the more and enterprising they became as
patriotic
Mohammedans the very isolation and irreconcilable
antagonism of their former condition seemed to in-
sensibly impress them with a realization of the impera-
and paramount value of national union.
tive necessity
The prayer of the muezzin everywhere rang
call to
out from the towers of pagan temple and Christian
church, whose magnificent decorations, bestowed by
penitent Goth and Vandal, had once glittered as
trophies amidst the splendid pageantry of a Roman
triumph. But, despite community of interest, ethno-
logical resemblance, and identity of religious belief,
the environment of the inhabitants of Africa seems
to be hostile to the permanent improvement of the
human species, and before attaining to the highest
degree of development of which the race is elsewhere
susceptible, it begins to retrograde. The natural state
164 History of the

of this great continent, determined largely by climatic

and other physical conditions, is essentially and eter-

nally barbarous. Unlike Europe, which has reaped

something of value even from its misfortunes, and,
by the example of its achievements in art and letters,
subdued its very enemies, the institutions and influ-
ence of no polished people have ever impressed upon
the natives of Africa any enduring traces. The
astounding expansion of the Arab intellect the
crowning phenomenon of the Middle Ages was as

transitory in its effects upon them as the thrift and

refinement of Carthage or the more solid and ma-
jestic influence of Rome. In some respects resembling
Asia whose voluptuous idleness tends inevitably to
physical and mental degeneracy Africa, with its vast
mineral resources, its unsurpassed facilities for com-
mercial intercourse, and its inexhaustible agricultural
wealth, has with the exception of Egypt, whose iso-
lation rendered it practically a foreign country been
of little use to its inhabitants, alike incapable of appre-
ciating these manifold advantages and of systemati-
callyemploying them for their own benefit or for the
general profit of mankind.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 165

CHAPTER IV
THE VISIGOTHIC MONARCHY

507-712

Origin and Character of the Goths Their Invasion of the Penin-

sula Power of the Clergy Ecclesiastical Councils The
Jews The Visigothic Code Profound Wisdom of Its
Enactments Provisions against Fraud and Injustice Se-
vere Penalties Its Definition of the Law Condition of
the Mechanical Arts Architecture Byzantine Influence
Manufactures Votive Crowns Agriculture Literature
Medicine Slave Labor Imitation of Roman Customs
Parallel between the Goths and the Arabs Coincidence of
Sentiments and Habits Causes of National Decline Per-
manent Influence of the Gothic Polity.

Among the countless hordes of barbarians who in

the third and fourth centuries overran the provinces
of the Roman Empire, and insulted the majesty of
the sovereigns of the East, none were so pre-emi-
nently distinguished for valor, loyalty, generosity, and
chastity as the Goths. From the third century, when
the luxurious tastes of Rome impelled adventurous
traders to penetrate to the shores of the Baltic in
search of amber, to the establishment of an indepen-
dent monarchy in Italy by Theodoric in the fifth, their
name was familiar to Europe now suggestive of a
bulwark of the tottering throne of Byzantium, and
again, as a synonym of murder, pillage, and devasta-
tion. Of towering stature and fierce aspect, their
forms were cast in the gigantic proportions which
pagan mythology loved to attribute to its gods and
heroes. Their habitations were situated in the depths
of gloomy forests, on the banks of deep and rapid
streams, or were surrounded by marshes, over whose
166 History of the

treacherous and yielding surface a winding pathway

usually led to a remote and well defended stronghold.
Like all people whose intellectual development had
scarcely begun, they believed implicitly in omens, au-
guries, signs, and dreams; their religious ideas were
vague and ill defined; and neither history nor tradi-
tion has preserved for us the appellation or attributes
of a single Gothic divinity. At their banquets, defiled
by drunken orgies, and not infrequently the scenes of
violence and even homicide, were celebrated, in un-
couth ballads, the exploits of the famous warriors of
the nation. Their very name, indicative of the supe-
riority which their prowess never failed to exact, sig-
nified The Nobly Born. Without literature, save a
fragmentary translation of the Bible, without govern-
ment, save the dominion of some chieftain who, covet-
ous of renown, temporarily enjoyed the precarious
title of sovereign, eager for change, the most reckless
of gamesters, the most pitiless of conquerors, destruc-
tion was with them a passion, and war an amusement.
In common with other barbarians, with whom the igno-
rance and fears of the age have confounded them, they
claimed and exercised, to the utmost, the privileges
of individual dignity and personal freedom. An
arbitrary classification, dependent upon a fortuitous
geographical distribution, had divided this people into
Ostrogoths and Visigoths, according to their relative
location upon the eastern and western banks of the
river Borysthenes. The pressure from the north,
which had dispersed the tribes of the forests of Ger-
many and Pannonia over the European provinces of
the Roman Empire, had induced the Visigoths, by
necessity or choice, to seek a home in Gaul, which
country they occupied in common with the Vandals,
the Suevi, the Alani, and other more obscure, but not
less formidable, barbarians; and scarcely had the
division of the empire between Arcadius and Honorius
 Moorish Empire in Europe 167

been effected in the first years of the fifth century,

when the inhabitants of Spain, either through treason
or from the negligence of the garrisons stationed in
the passes of the Pyrenees, were overwhelmed by a
deluge of savage marauders.
For four hundred years, the beautiful, the rich, the
fertile and densely populated Peninsula had enjoyed
the inestimable blessings of peace. With the defeat
and death of the sons of Pompey, the last vestige of
civil war and had disappeared from
intestine discord
its borders. were cultivated with assiduous
Its fields
care its seaports were thronged with the shipping of
;

the Mediterranean; the manufacturing interests of

its inland cities were diversified and important. Its

people, who had inherited from Rome and Carthage

that love of pleasure which was at once their boast
and their disgrace, with Epicurean unconcern, lived
only for the present, in the participation of all the
luxury which boundless wealth and national prosper-
ity could bestow. Upon this earthly paradise with
itssplendid cities, its sumptuous villas, its majestic
souvenirs of Roman greatness, its traditions of heroic
achievement and maritime adventure; where Hanni-
bal had gained his boyhood's laurels, and Caesar, moved
by the sight of Alexander's statue, had first aspired
to the dominion of the world now descended the
brutal and licentious plunderers of the North. The
excesses perpetrated by them in other provinces of
the empire were trivial when compared with the
havoc they committed in Iberia. No considerations
of public policy, no sentiments of mercy, interposed
to mitigate the calamities which befell the smiling
plains of the Anas, the Iberus, and the Baatis. Such
of the inhabitants as were fortunate enough to find
an asylum behind the walls of fortified cities, soon
paid for their temporary security with the pangs of
famine. The growing crops, delivered to the torch.
168 History of the

left to-day a blackened waste where only yesterday

had been every promise of an abundant harvest. A
smoky pall, appropriate symbol of destruction, over-
hung the sites of prosperous hamlets and marble villas,
where a few smouldering embers alone indicated the
former abode of taste and opulence. Heaps of
corpses, denied the rites of sepulture, covered the
land, which was infested with incredible numbers of
wolves and birds of prey, attracted from every side
to their loathsome and inexhaustible repast. A feel-

ing of utter despair fell upon the survivors; the in-

stincts of humanity and the feelings of nature were

suspended or destroyed men murdered their families

;

and then committed suicide; women devoured their

offspring; exposure, want, suffering, and anxiety
produced theirinevitable consequences; and the
crowning misfortune, the pestilence, daily claimed
its victims by thousands. The savage masters of the
country, satiated with rapine and mutually jealous
of power, now began to quarrel with each other. In
the contests which ensued, almost from the first, the
superior organization and martial genius of the Goths
acquired for them the acknowledged supremacy over
their adversaries a supremacy which soon became
coextensive with the Peninsula and laid the founda-
tions of an extensive kingdom. Early in the fifth
century the extermination, expulsion, or absorption
by intermarriage, of the various tribes, and the emi-
gration of the Vandals, in a body, to Africa, gave the
control of the entire country, with the exception of
a few seaports still tributary to Constantinople, to
the Visigoths. In political organization, in nomen-
clature, in the construction and in the application of
the maxims of jurisprudence, in the election of their
rulers, in the punishment of criminals, in the regula-
tion of their amusements, they observed the traditions
and honored the observances of their old homes on
 Moorish Empire in Europe 169

the Vistula and the Baltic. The accident of conver-

sion, a matter of indifference to the majority of the
nation, and one, in this instance, partially dependent
upon policy, had made them Arians, and consequently
heretics. The Gothic Church, in its independence of
the See of Rome, while it honored the Supreme Pon-
tiff,and recognized, to a certain extent, the religious
supremacy of the Papacy, presented an anomaly in
the Christian world. The monarch chosen for his
wisdom or his bravery had not as yet assumed the
exterior insignia of royalty, and the laws held him
to a strict accountability for the lives and property
of his subjects, but in ecclesiastical affairs his au-

thority was undisputed and supreme. He convoked

at his pleasure and presided over the national coun-
cils assemblies originally composed entirely of the
clergy, and in which, at all times, the theocratical
ele-

ment largely preponderated; he published encyclical

letters he possessed the power of revising the decrees
;

of councils before their adoption and promulgation;

and his wishes and suggestions were received with
a respect surpassing that usually accorded by his
haughty vassals to the majesty of the throne. The
clergy were in fact absolutely dependent upon the
sovereign; their immunities were subject to his will
or his caprice; and, far from enjoying the exemption
they obtained in after times by reason of their sacred
office and superior sanctity, they were liable to taxa-

tion, and amenable to punishment for the violation of

the laws as strictly as were the laity. Not only were
these restrictions imposed upon them, but the interests
of the secular portion of the community were care-
fully guarded against the possible encroachments
of
ecclesiastical tyranny; the judges were particularly

enjoined to scrutinize the conduct of the priesthood;

and instances were by no means rare where heavy fines
were imposed upon them for acts of injustice and
170 History of the

for the oppression of their parishioners. From the

decision of every bishop and metropolitan an appeal
lay to the throne, a privilege conceded to the meanest
peasant the king could suspend or abrogate the rules
;

of ecclesiastical discipline; no canon was valid with-

out his sanction and he assumed the rights of nomi-
;

nating, and of translating from one see to another,

the greatest prelates of the Church. But as assemblies
of men who possess a monopoly of the learning and
worldly wisdom of a nation, conscious of mental supe-
riority and incited by motives of ambition, are never
satisfied with acting in a subordinate capacity; the
ecclesiastical councils of Spain almost imperceptibly,
but none the less surely, began to encroach upon the
royal prerogative, and, assisted by the weakness or
gratitude of princes whose titles had been assured by
their confirmation, aimed at the seizure of absolute

power. By the institution of the rite of anointing,

which imparted a sacred character to the monarch, and
invested in them an implied control over his corona-
tion a rite first used in Spain and not adopted in
France till the reign of Pepin, in the eighth century;
by the framing of laws favorable to their order, and
whose essential provisions were carefully disguised
under the specious name of enactments for the public
welfare; by a command of a majority of the votes
which elected the sovereign; and lastly, by the con-
version of the whole nation to the doctrines of the
orthodox faith; the Gothic clergy advanced un-
swervingly towards the establishment of their claim
to political supremacy. The Third Council of Toledo
was the first of these important convocations in which
questions relating to the settlement of the constitu-
tion of the Gothic monarchy were debated and settled.
From this time until the meeting of the Eighth Coun-
cil in 653, the palatines did not participate in the

deliberations of these assemblies, which now began

 Moorish Empire in Europe 171

to assume the appearance of legislative bodies, in

which the aims of exclusive ecclesiastical representa-
tion were already clearly disclosed by the partiality
and exemptions which characterized the canons treat-
ing of the rights and privileges of the priesthood.
After the middle of the seventh century, although
the nobles were admitted as members of the national
councils and took part in their discussions, the influ-
ence of the clergy became paramount, and the duties
of the nobility were confined to a passive assent to,
and registration of, their edicts. A
separate tribunal
for the final adjudication of all disputed points of
doctrine which might incidentally arise in the ordi-
nary administration of justice was granted to eccle-
siastics; the latter were prohibited from engaging
in commerce, which the poverty of the Church had

formerly rendered necessary; it became customary

to select bishops for the negotiation of treaties, and
for the direction of military embassies which were
invested with the all-important powers of peace and
war; the councils occasionally claimed jurisdiction
over secular causes an unwarranted assumption of
power which the indifference or bigotry of the sov-
ereign usually failed to resent; and the intolerant
character of the canons treating of heresy indicate,
but too plainly, the growing spirit of persecution
the germ of future inquisitorial atrocities.
But, notwithstanding the acceptance of Catholicism,
and the consequent advance towards the enjoyment of
absolute independence, the Church was hampered by
many serious restrictions. Bishops, clerks, and monks
remained subordinate to the secular arm and respon-
of the realm
sible to the courts ; they could not, with
impunity, disregard their processes, still less defy their
authority and the commission of crime rendered them
;

liable to heavy fines and long terms of imprisonment ;

although, like the nobility, they could not be subjected

172 History of the

to the punishments inflicted upon the lower orders,

such as scourging and branding the latter being con-
sidered especially infamous. The immunity which
subsequently attached to the character of the clergy
as non-combatants was not known to the founders of
the Gothic monarchy. When a city was besieged or
the country threatened with invasion, every subject,
regardless of his profession, was obliged to serve in
the army, and no ecclesiastic could plead his sacred
office inbar of military duty to his sovereign, under
penalty of confiscation and exile; the tonsure was
regarded as of peculiar significance and sanctity, and
any one whose locks had once been shorn, or who had
assumed the clerical habit, was henceforth excluded,
as a rule, from all military and civil employments,
and consecrated for life to the service of the cloister;
a law which, when abused by fraud or ignorance, was
more than once productive of important results, and
even of changes in the royal succession. Upon the
whole, however, the influence of the Church in those
days of intellectual darkness was highly beneficial.
Its monopoly of the scanty wisdom of the time was
often employed for the protection of the oppressed,
for the alleviation of suffering, for the frustration of
tyranny, for the consolation of death. The bishop
stood as a guard between the helpless peasant and
the unjust judge; his mediation with the throne,
in cases of flagrant injury, was not optional but

mandatory; and his official conduct was subject

to the constant supervision, and was liable to the
censure, of the magistrate. The ambition and politi-
cal aspirations of the clergy, joined to their insati-
able greed of dominion, which increased with each
successive encroachment upon the civil power, with
the daily accumulation of wealth, and the acqui-
sition of extensive estates by gift, extortion, bequest,
or purchase, disclosed themselves in time in their
 Moorish Empire in Europe 173

legitimate consequence, religious intolerance. The

Arian Church in Spain never disgraced its rule by
persecution for differences of opinion. With the
acceptance of the orthodox belief in the sixth cen-
tury, however, the spirit of vindictive malevolence,
which has always animated and directed the genius
of Catholicism when in the ascendant, at once in-
fected the counsels of the ecclesiastical tribunals,
and indirectly, through their influence and example,
the decisions of the courts of law. The corona-
tion oath rendered obligatory the expulsion of all
heretics without consideration of birth, position, or

previous service to the state. The Jews, in whom

were vested the most important offices, and who pos-
sessed the bulk of the wealth of the kingdom, were
banished, imprisoned, plundered, or burnt and while
;

it is true that the severity of the laws against this sect

defeated, erelong, the object of their enactment, even

their partial enforcement was the cause of great and

wide-spread suffering. With the consciousness of

power came the increase of pomp and the desire for
prohibited enjoyments and indulgence in carnal pleas-
ures wholly inconsistent with the observance of the
vows of poverty and chastity as well as contrary to
the rules of ecclesiastical discipline. The canons en-
acted from time to time by the councils, and whose
provisions were designed to impose restraints upon
the irregular conduct of the clergy, show, more con-
clusively than the pages of any chronicle, the lax
morality and deplorable condition of the religious
society of that age. Stringent regulations were
adopted against the acceptance of bribes as the price
of exemption from persecution especially referring
to the Jews a proof that the zealous protestations of
the clerical order could not withstand the pecuniary
arguments of the astute Hebrew; while the censures
fulminated against priests and monks who abused the
174 History of the

privileges of the confessional, or violated nature in

the commission of revolting crimes, indicate the secret
and universal corruption which had already begun to
pollute the sacred offices of the Church and impair the
usefulness of its ministers. The Eighteenth Council
of Toledo, at the dictation of King Witiza, whose
profligate conduct and contempt for religion had
aroused the horror of Christendom and provoked
the anathemas of the Pope, had, with unexampled
servility, passed laws authorizing the marriage of
ecclesiastics, the institution of polygamy, and the

practice of promiscuous concubinage. Under these

conditions of sacerdotal degradation, sanctioned by
custom and established by law, the influence of the
Church was everywhere diminished the faith of men
;

in the existing religion was weakened and the public

;

mind was insensibly prepared for the new revelation

which, appealing to the strongest passions of the
human of metaphysical distinctions,
breast, stripped
and inculcating moral precepts such as the most
skeptical and dissolute must applaud, was soon to
be published to the discontented and priest-ridden
subjects of the Gothic empire. The ill-defined powers
of the Crown and the Mitre, at first reciprocally
dependent, led eventually to a clashing of interests
and a struggle for precedence between the royal and
the sacerdotal authority, in which the clergy, though
their aspirations were occasionally checked by some
monarch of stern and decided character, in the end
invariably obtained the advantage. The dependence
of the sovereign upon the priesthood was never lost
sight of. No occasion which might remind him of
the obligation he owed to the order whose suffrages
had conferred, and might, with equal facility, resume
possession of his crown, was suffered to pass unim-
proved. The anointing with holy oil, which sym-
bolized the right of divine consecration, had already
 Moorish Empire in Europe 175

forged another link in the chain which bound the

king to the Church. The anathemas denounced upon
a prince for failure to execute the laws against here-
tics, far exceeded in virulence those to which any

subject was liable. At one time, the wishes of the

sovereign were anticipated by the subserviency of the
prelates at another, his prerogative was invaded and
;

his commands disobeyed with an arrogance worthy of

the imperious spirit of Julius II. or of Gregory the
Great. Thepopulace, through ignorance, prejudice,
and devoted to the sacerdotal order,
habit, blindly
furnished a formidable body of auxiliaries, ever
ready to hearken to the appeals of their ghostly ad-
visers,a force which the dignity and assurance of the
haughtiest ruler could not with impunity disregard.
The turbulent and illiterate nobility, although the king
was selected from their number by the voices of the
assembled bishops in which ceremony the concurrence
of the palatines was admitted, in reality, only through
courtesy possessed, in the practical application of
the precepts of the Gothic constitution, scarcely the
shadow, still less the substance, of power. The
council was the embodiment and representative of
the intellect and the collective wisdom of the nation.
Its canons were, for the most part, framed in strict
accordance with the principles of equity, and the de-
liberations and conclusions of its sessions were often
characterized by a breadth of understanding and a
degree of impartiality which clearly indicated that
its members were not deficient in the knowledge and

requirements of enlightened statesmanship. The re-

sults of their labors are contained in the Gothic Code,
a body of laws remarkable in many respects, when we
consider the general illiteracy and ignorance of the
age in which it was compiled, and its transcendent im-
portance as the prototype of the systems of jurispru-
dence which now regulate the civil and criminal pro-
176 History of the

cedure of the courts of Europe and America. In the

extraordinary minuteness of its details, in its thorough
and comprehensive treatment of the manifold trans-
actions of daily life, and in its provisions for almost
every contingency which could arise in the administra-
tion of the sovereigns under whose auspices it was
framed, extraordinary work presents the modern
this

legislator with a subject eminently worthy of his

attention and study. The contact with races which
had long enjoyed the blessings of civilization, and the
development of the intellectual faculties consequent
upon the experience obtained in frequent expeditions
and protracted campaigns, imperceptibly modified the
ancient laws of the Goths the very essence of which
;

was, from the first, and long continued to be, the asser-
tion of the principle of personal liberty. Rome, whose
toleration of the religious prejudices and customs of
the nations subjected to her dominion so long as they
did not conflict with her interests or contravene her
authority was one great secret of her power, had, in
accordance with that policy, indulged the Iberians in
the use of their own laws, and only those who enjoyed
the privileges of citizenship could be summoned before
the tribunal of the imperial magistrate. The incur-
sions of the barbarians had abolished every restraint,
and transformed the previous quiet and peaceful con-
dition of the Peninsula into a state of anarchy. There
was then no law but the will of the chieftain, who was
inclined to encourage, rather than to repress, the ex-
cesses of a brutalized soldiery. All records and muni-
ments of title had disappeared ;
boundaries had ceased
to exist; the tenure of lands was entirely dependent
upon the numerical strength of the claimants; and
when the fields of one district were exhausted, the dis-
contented settlers sought a new residence in another
locality,whose wealth had excited their avarice, and
the inferior military resources of whose occupants
 Moorish Empire in Europe 177

rendered the retention of their possessions uncertain.

The cessation of hostilities was always accompanied
with the plunder and impoverishment of the van-
quished no treaty was valid, because no moral obliga-
;

tion, or superior power by which it could be enforced,

existed; every vice was committed with impunity;
every grudge was satisfied with all the abuse of un-
restricted license; the caprice of the military com-
mander had supplanted the precedents of the prastor,
and the sword had become the only acknowledged
arbiter of every controversy.
During the reign of Euric, in the year 479, was
codified and published the first book of Gothic law,
the basis of the subsequent complex and exhaustive
system of jurisprudence which increased in size, and
gathered reverence and authority with the reign of
each succeeding sovereign. It was known as the
Forum Judicum, or the Book of Judges, and consisted
mainly of a compilation of the rules applicable to the
various customs and ordeals, which had been approved
by time and experience as beneficial in the administra-
tion of the government of the Gothic nation, combined
with such maxims of Roman law as had gradually been
absorbed through frequent association with the courts
and magistrates of the empire. The new rights and
duties arising from the acceptance by the Goths of the
orthodox belief in the latter half of the sixth century,
necessitated a revision of the existing laws and the
formulation of another code of far more extensive
scope than the one which already existed. By certain
provisions of the former the constitution of the Iberian
church was definitely established and the predomi-
nance of the clergy in secular matters assured meas-
;

ures of portentous significance, whose evil effects upon

the intelligence and prosperity of the Spanish people
are discernible even in our day. From the date of its
adoption and promulgation, the inhabitants of the
Vol. I. 12
178 History of the

Peninsula were, without exception, declared subject to

itsstatutes. From this time dates the absolute su-
premacy of the Church in the Peninsula. The hold
which it then obtained upon temporal affairs it has
never relaxed. The awful consequences of that su-
premacy upon all classes and conditions of men owing
allegiance to the Spanish crown are familiar to every
reader of history.
The Visigothic Code exhibited, in the restrictions
it imposed upon the royal
prerogative, that spirit of
jealous independence always conspicuous in the char-
acter of the German warrior, and which had been pre-
served through many centuries by the importance that
distinguished the privileged orders under an elective
monarchy. The king, who, at first, had been liable to
censure and judgment by his subjects, was informed,
when invested with his office, that even its dignity
could not exempt him from the obligation to observe
the law, a principle of justice and equality which he
shared with every resident in his dominions. The au-
thority of the turbulent and illiterate nobles, who, with
all the arrogance of power, did not hesitate to threaten
and insult the creature of their choice, was curbed in
time by the potent yet gentle influence of the clergy,
whose learning and talents at first swayed, and finally
absolutely controlled, the deliberations of the National
Councils. The high rank of the prelates, their supe-
rior accomplishments in an age of universal ignorance,
and their claims as members of an independent hie-
rarchy, which even the Supreme Pontiff himself
scarcely ventured to contradict, in the end communi-
cated to the Visigothic constitution all the worst
characteristics of an irresponsible and intolerant theoc-

racy.
The Forum Judicum consists of twelve books, which
not only define the rights of the different classes of
society, but prescribe at length, and in copious detail,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 179

the mode of procedure to be followed in the various

tribunals. Every precaution which ingenuity could
devise was adopted to insure the fidelity, the honesty,
and the impartiality of the magistrate, whether of the
civil or the ecclesiastical order. It was the dutv of the
judge to observe and report upon the decisions of the
bishop and the priest, while, on the other hand, the
higher clergy possessed, under certain contingencies,
the power of examining causes and rendering judg-
ment when the proper official had refused or neglected
to exercise his judicial functions, and the interests of
either of the parties litigant were exposed to injury in

consequence. The courts were open from dawn to

dark, and the period of vacation and the hours of rest
were strictly regulated by law. The trial of causes
could not be delayed except for valid reasons; the
speedy rendition of judgment was compulsory; the
procrastination, injustice, or corruption of the judge
was punished by a fine amounting to double the loss
incurred, and when the circumstances were peculiarly
aggravating his property was confiscated and he was
publicly sold as a slave. No person, however indigent,
was debarred, for that reason, from the benefits of
justice, and a fund was set apart in every town for
the support of impecunious litigants, which was dis-
bursed by the municipal government with the approval
of the bishop. An appeal from the decisions of the
inferior tribunals was granted as a matter of unques-
tionable right, and the slightest suspicion of interfer-
ence by the throne in the proceedings rendered them
invalid and worthless. The ceremonies relating to the
administration of the law were characterized by great
simplicity, and the pleadings were divested of un-
necessary verbiage. The highest reverence for the
officers of the crown was inculcated and enforced and
;

a resort to litigation was persistently discouraged by

public opinion, excepting where it was imperatively
180 History of the

demanded by the interests of justice. In the rules of

evidence, as well as in their application, traces of the
deeply rooted superstitions of the Teutonic barbarians
still remained. The ordeals of fire and water were
not infrequently adopted. The wager of battle could
not be refused, without ignominy; and the oaths of
compurgators were, at times, invoked to restore the
lustre of some tarnished escutcheon, or to remove the
stain attaching to a suspected violation of female
honor. Torture was allowed, but excessive severity in
its application was prohibited, and, in case of death
or permanent injury resulting from its abuse, the
judge was liable to forfeiture both of his possessions
and his liberty. In determining the competency of
testimony, an unwise and unjust discrimination was
made against the poor, through the unwarrantable pre-
sumption of temptation to bribery, and this exclusion
also applied to Jews even though apostates as well
as to their descendants, and to slaves. The crime of
perjury was mentioned with horror; its commission
was deemed worthy of the severest punishment; and
the false witness, visited with public execration, was
condemned to life-long servitude. In general, the
criminal code of the Visigoths was conspicuous for
the moderation with which it treated offenders against
the public peace. The penalty of death was rarely in-
flicted, and was confined to cases of arson, rape, and
murder. A regular
schedule of minor crimes and
their punishments existed; the severity of the latter

depending upon the social rank and political impor-

tance of the individual. In flagrant instances of
malicious prosecution, bribery of public officers, or
abuse of political power, the culprit became the slave
of the injured party, with the sole limitation to his
resentment, that the life of his former oppressor
should be spared. Rebellion was punished by banish-
ment ;
infanticide by blinding ;
and the counterfeiter,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 181

or the forger of a royal edict, suffered the loss of the

right hand. When the atrocious nature of an offence
against morals demanded a penalty of corresponding
infamy, the head of the criminal was shaved and
branded, marking him for life as a social outcast, to
be forever an object of public abhorrence. Scourging
was the penalty of most universal application, and
even a freeman, however exalted his station, was not
exempt from its infliction, if he ventured to provoke
the vengeance of retributive justice, and was not pos-
sessed of the stated fine which was the legal equivalent
of the lash. The right of asylum, a privilege whose
importance as a salutary check upon the passions of
a fierce and tyrannical nobility, in an age of violence,
is with
difficulty appreciated in modern times, was
recognized by the Gothic constitution; and no sup-
pliant, who had sought protection at the foot of the
altar, could be removed without the consent of the
proper ecclesiastical authority. In the provisions
which define the civil relations of society, the Forum
Judicum recalls to every one conversant with the Com-
mentaries of Blackstone, the familiar maxims and
precedents of the Common Law of England. The
different grades of relationship, and the rights of
inheritance in the ascending and descending lines, were
treated of exhaustively in the books of the Visigothic
Code. In the protection of the interests of children
its sections displayed a paternal and anxious care. No
child could be disinherited unless it had been guilty
of some aggravated act of violence towards its parent.
In all questions relating to the descent of property,
no preference was accorded to sex, and the female
remained on the same footing as the male. A minor
of ten years could, without restriction, dispose of his
or her possessions by will. Guardians were appointed
by the courts, who were required to observe the condi-
tions of their trust, and to render accounts of the
182 History of the

funds which passed through their hands; and the

power of appointing a guardian ad litem was fre-
quently exercised, where the affairs of a minor neces-
sitated the institution or the defence of a suit at law.
The boundless control of the father over the child,
which formed so prominent a feature in the domestic
regulations of Rome, was repugnant to the indepen-
dent spirit of the Goths; the parental duties and
responsibilities were expressly defined; the son who
resided with his father was entitled to two-thirds of
his earnings; and the courts exercised unremitting
and vigilant supervision over the persons and estates
of minors and orphans. A reminiscence of the ancient
custom of marriage by purchase survived in the price
paid by the bridegroom to the relatives of the bride;
all clandestine alliances were considered invalid; a
woman could sue, and be sued, without joining with
her husband; and no responsibility attached to either
for the illegal acts of the other. Integrity of descent
and purity of blood were preserved by laws of excep-
tional severity a free-born female who abandoned her
;

person to, or even contracted marriage with, a slave

was scourged and burnt with her unfortunate para-
mour or spouse. A wife who had incurred the guilt
of adultery was delivered over absolutely to the tender
mercies of the injured husband. This offence, which
evoked ordinarily the strongest denunciation from the
descendants of the cold and sluggish barbarians of the
Baltic, was, however, in an ecclesiastic rather repro-
bated as an amiable weakness than condemned as a
crime; an indulgence to be attributed partly to the
predominant and sympathetic caste of the legislature,
and partly to an appreciation of the opportunities and
temptations which beset the father-confessor, who,
after conviction, was immured in some comfortable
monastery until he professed penitence and received
absolution.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 183

The conditions of vassalage and serfdom, as under-

stood and practised elsewhere in Europe, and espe-
cially in Germany, were foreign to
the polity of the
Visigoths. Feudalism, with its mutual rights and
obligations as subsequently known to Europe, strictly
speaking, did not exist. The relations affecting the
status of lord and vassal were, to some extent, bor-
rowed from the Roman system and modelled upon
those of patron and client. The sections relating to
the conditions of servitude were minute and volu-
minous. The master had generally unrestricted power
over the life of his slave. He who
aided the escape of
the latter was legally responsible for his value. Rec-
ognizing the peculiar facilities for criminal inter-

course, and the corresponding difficulty of its detec-

tion, the law sentenced the servile adulterer to the
stake. While the most encouragement was
liberal

given to the manumission of slaves, the numbers

of
this unfortunate class were constantly increasing, by
the capture of prisoners of war, by the degradation
of dishonest officials, by the submission of debtors, and
by the conviction of criminals. Every slave belonged
to a certain rank, and castigation for petty delin-
quencies, as well as punishment for serious crimes,
was inflicted with more or less rigor, according to the
cause of his servitude, his industrial ability, and the
social condition of his owner, whether he was born,

purchased, or condemned; whether he was a skilful

artisan or mechanic, or an ordinary laborer or whether
;

he was the property of the Crown, of the Church, or

of an individual. The influence of the Visigoths did
much to lighten the burdens of slavery; the bloody
spectacles of the gladiatorial contests possessed
no
allurements for a nation not degraded by cowardice
and cruelty the treatment of bondmen was, in some
;

localities, so softened and modified that scarcely more

than the name of hereditary servitude existed; and in
184 History of the

cases of intolerable oppression, where the slave took

refuge in the sanctuary, the master could be compelled
to dispose of him to some one more actuated by feel-
ings of kindness and pity.
The precepts of the Forum Judicum which relate to
bailments, to strays, to trespass, to accessories before
and after the fact, to the obstruction of highways, to
malicious mischief, to the attestation of documents,
and to contracts made under duress, are substantially
the same as those set forth in our law-books of to-day.
A statute of limitations, which recognized a period
varying from thirty to fifty years, beyond which even
some criminal prosecutions could not be instituted,
was in force. The legislation pertaining to agricul-
ture, irrigation,and the boundaries of land was par-
ticularly complete and exhaustive. Security was ob-
tained by bonds and pledges inventories were required
;

of guardians; and the culprit who was guilty of

slander was not only responsible in damages for his
intemperate language, but was also often liable to
corporeal punishment; as, for instance, if he called
"
another a Saracen," or even insinuated that he had
been circumcised, he might consider himself fortunate
if he did not receive fifty lashes at the hands of the
common executioner.
Considering the general condition of society, the
antecedents of a nation whose energies had hitherto
been directed to the overthrow of every institution
which secured the perpetuity of peace and order, the
previous slender opportunities of its authors, and the
limited educational facilities at theircommand, the
Code of the Visigoths presents us with a system of
legislation of extraordinary interest and value. So
remarkable is this body of jurisprudence in the wis-
dom, foresight, humanity, and knowledge of man-
kind which characterize its leading maxims, that they
almost seem to have been suggested by divine inspira-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 185

tion. Its first statutes appeared when the compre-

hensive system of Justinian, which had enlisted the
talents and exhausted the erudition of the most accom-
plished jurists of the Eastern Empire, was nearly per-
fected. It borrowed but little, however, from the
learning of Tribonian and the laborious ingenuity
of his seventeen coadjutors. The eternal principles
of justice, true, are equally the basis of both of
it is

these collections; but their construction and the

methods of their application, under similar conditions,
are widely different; and the superiority, upon the
whole, is largely on the side of the so-called barbarian.
In the majority of instances, excepting where eccle-
siasticalambition and monastic prejudice perverted
the ends of legislation, the laws of the Visigoths were
uniformly framed for the protection of the weak, the
relief of the oppressed, and the general welfare of

society. Unlike the practice of more civilized nations

in comparatively recent times, the judicature of the
former confined its penalties to the personality of the
offender, and imposed no disabilities, either by for-
feiture or attainder, upon his innocent relatives and
descendants. It restrained the tyranny of the mon-
arch; itdefined with conciseness and accuracy the
rights of the subject; it accorded unprecedented
concessions to the widow and the orphan it respected
;

the unfortunate and helpless condition of the slave.

It prohibited encroachments upon personal liberty,
and declared the of a freeman to be equivalent in
sale

atrocity to the crime of homicide. In almost every

provision which did not conflict with the claims of the
it hearkened to the voice of
priesthood, mercy and hu-
manity. By the constant menace and certain infliction
of civil degradation, confiscation, and perpetual servi-
tude, it secured the fidelity of the judges and fiscal
officers of the state. It accepted the great principle
of the Salic law, and, with worldly prudence, forbade
186 History or the

the election of a female sovereign. But, when the

theocratic influence which pervaded every branch of
the Gothic constitution comes to be examined, its
effect upon contemporaneous legislation is seen to
be pernicious and deplorable. The power of the
clergy was irresponsible, ubiquitous, and thoroughly
despotic. It dictated the proceedings of every as-
sembly. It whispered suggestions of questionable
morality in the ears of the monarch. When thwarted
in its unholy aims, its vengeance was implacable. The
abuse of the convenient and formidable weapon of
excommunication had not reached the extreme which
it
subsequently attained, yet the all but omnipotent
hand of the priesthood was already able to invade the
privacy of domestic life, to interfere with the sensi-
tive and delicate mechanism of commerce, to violate
the rights of property, to desecrate the sacred pre-
cincts of the grave. Ecclesiastical intolerance dictated
the passage of ex-post-facto laws, a measure whose
monstrous injustice is patent to every unprejudiced
mind. The disability imposed upon the Hebrew race,
and the savage spirit of the canons enacted for its
oppression, point significantly to the prospective hor-
rors of the inquisitorial tribunals. The practice of
sorcery and magic so dreaded in an age of intel-
lectual inferiority, and especially offensive to the
Church, which tolerated no wonder-workers outside
of its own pale was severely reprobated, and pun-
ished with excessive severity. The ends of the clergy,
when not obtainable by the arts of controversy, were
secured by other means not unfamiliar to the in-
triguing courtiers of mediaeval Europe; its proposi-
tions were advanced with caution and debated with
consummate skill; and its arguments were either in-
sinuated with more than Jesuitical adroitness, or urged
with all the energy of sacerdotal zeal.
In its respectable antiquity in the sublime morality
;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 187

inculcated by its precepts ;

in the obligations incurred

by every nation which has drawn upon its accumulated

stores of wisdom; in its freedom from the dishonor-
able expedients of legal chicanery; in the simplicity
of its procedure in the certainty and celerity required
;

by the practice of the tribunals where its authority

was acknowledged in the inflexible impartiality with
;

which it invested the decisions of those tribunals; in

its well-founded title to public confidence; the Visi-

gothic Code is without parallel in the annals of juris-

prudence. But great as are its claims upon the grati-
tude and reverence of the jurist and the legislator,
they are scarcely comparable to the indebtedness im-
posed upon the historian. The meagre information to
be gleaned from the works of native chroniclers is, in
great measure, thoroughly unreliable. The literature
of the age, scanty in itself, consists mainly of the
recital of ecclesiastical fables, the martyrdom of

legendary saints, the discovery of spurious relics, the

averting of calamities by invocation and miracle, and
trivial incidents in the lives of holy men and women,
whose preternatural gifts the indulgent credulity of
their biographers has handed down to the contempt
and ridicule of posterity. The pages destined for such
records were too precious to be defiled by the accounts
of wars and insurrections and the interesting descrip-
tions of mediaeval society. The diligence of the com-

pilers of theForum Judicum has, however, largely

supplied the deficiencies of the monkish annalists. In
their various civil and prohibitory enactments, they
have unconsciously delineated the follies, the vices, the
superstitions, and the crimes of the age. The penalties
imposed for the violation of statutes denote infallibly
the barbarian origin of those who formulated them.
The law of retaliation tolerated only among the low-
est races of men occurs repeatedly among the provi-
sions of the Visigothic Code. The deterrent effect of
188 History of the

criminal legislation was almost always subordinated

to considerations of vengeance. The magistrate was
regarded as the vindicator of wrong, rather than the
calm representative of judicial dignity and the im-
partial interpreter of the laws. Scalping, maiming,
blinding, scourging, branding, emasculation, were
punishments prescribed without discrimination, for
offences varying widely in the nature and degree of
misconduct and criminality. The period of transition
which separated the barbaric rudeness of Adolphus
and the effeminate luxury of Roderick is traceable,
step by step, in the progressive legislation of centuries.
The rise and consolidation of ecclesiastical power the
;

limitation of the royal prerogative the decline of the

;

insolent pretensions of the nobility; the elevation of

the peasant from the position of a beast of burden to
a self-respecting being, who, however steeped in igno-
rance he might be, was always sure of an impartial
hearing before the magistrate; are there related with
all the fidelity and minuteness of a chronicle. There
too are depicted the sources of that inspiration which
animated and sustained the sinking hopes of the
founders of the Spanish monarchy, from its organiza-
tion as a little principality in the Asturias, down

through the turbulent era of Moorish domination,

until it attained the summit of greatness as the dic-
tator of Europe and the arbiter of Christendom.
These are the general characteristics of that incom-

parable monument of jurisprudence whose noble

conceptions of the ends of legislation are best ex-
pressed in its own concise and energetic language :

"
The law is the rival of divinity, the messenger of
justice,and the guide of life. It dominates all classes
of the state, and all ages of humanity, male and
female, the young and the old, the wise and the igno-
rant, the noble and the peasant. It is not designed
for the promotion of private aims, but to shelter and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 189

protect the general interests of all. It must adjust

time and place, according to the condition of
itself to
affairsand the customs of the realm, and confine itself
to exact and equitable rules so as not to lay snares
for any citizen."
Lost in the confusion attending the Conquest, the
Forum Judicum was carefully preserved by the Moors
for the benefit of future generations; and, recovered
when the Moslem capital was taken by St. Ferdinand,
it was subsequently translated into Castilian.
Amongthe nations composing the heterogeneous
population of Spain, the most important in intelli-
gence, wealth, commercial activity, and talent for
administration, in ancient times, were the Jews.
Classed with the first colonists of the Peninsula,
the earliest mention of Iberia by the Greek and
Roman historians represents the Jewish population
as already rich and prosperous. If we consider their
intimate relations, kindred interests, alliances by mar-
riage, and commoninclination for traffic, with their
Tyrian neighbors, it is not improbable that the settle-
ment of the Hebrew in Bastica was coincident with
that of the Phoenicians. The first National Council
that assembled at Illiberis in 325 the same year in
which were determined the principles of orthodox
Christianity as set forth in the Nicene creed inaugu-
rated the long and bloody persecution which finally
culminated in the wholesale expulsion of the unfortu-
nate race by Philip V. By the canons of this council,
the blessings of the rabbi, to which the husbandman
seemed to attach a virtue and an importance equal if
not superior to those presumed to attend the bene-
diction of the priest, and which custom from time
immemorial had invoked upon the growing crops, was
declared an offence against religion, punishable by
summary expulsion from the Church. The morose
spirit of ecclesiastical bigotry did not hesitate to
190 History of the

violate the rites of hospitality and cast a shadow over

the amenities of social life. With an exquisite refine-
ment of malice, it pronounced subject to excommuni-
cation all who, even in cases of charity or under cir-
cumstances of the most urgent necessity, shared their
food with a Jew. The passive submission of the en-
tire race to the barbarian invader procured, however,
for its members, in many instances, a degree of con-
sideration not enjoyed by their Christian neighbors.
With their natural talents for business, their capacity
for intrigue, and, above all, their superior knowledge
of mankind, they were not long in securing the con-
fidence of the conquerors. Under the Arian sover-
eigns, their religious opinions remained for genera-
tionsunquestioned, and their worship unmolested.
But hardly had the nation renounced its ancient
communion, before the disturbing spirit of the new
hierarchy began to assert itself. The edict of Sisebut,
in 612, published the decrees of the Third Council of
Toledo which had been drawn up for the pious pur-
"
pose of eradicating the perfidy of the Jews," whose
general prosperity and political power had aroused
the apprehensions of the priesthood. From this era
until the accession of Roderick in 709, the legislation
of the councils relating to the Jews presents the
extremes of brutal harshness and occasional liberal
indulgence. In all these enactments, however, the
offensive qualities of injustice and malevolence
largely preponderated. The aggressiveness of
Catholicism demanded instant and uncompromising
submission to its creed. What was at first attempted
by the imposition of civil disabilities was soon after
exacted by degrading insults, by torture, by slavery,
and by death. Such was the unrelenting ferocity of
this persecution that it awakened at times the indig-
nation even of a semi-barbarous and fanatical age.
But despite continuous and systematic repression, this
 Moorish Empire in Europe 191

maligned and down-trodden race prospered; the for-

bearance of royal and ecclesiastical inquisitors was
purchased, and the clamors of furious zealots were
silenced by opportune contributions to the monastic
orders; for the services of the most capable diplo-
matists and financiers of the time could not be dis-
pensed with in a society where even a large portion
of those who devised measures for their oppression
could neither read nor write. The superiority of the
Jews was also indicated by the prices they commanded
when their liberty had been forfeited by law. While
'

slaves of other nationalities ranked as bestias de

cuatro pies," and were purchasable upon the same
terms as a horse or an ox, the Jew was worth a thou-
sand crowns. The great possessions of the Gothic
nobles, which the universal illiteracy of the latter
made them incompetent to manage, rendered the
shrewd and accomplished Hebrew a necessary steward.
He enjoyed the confidence of the monarch. He ad-
ministered the royal revenues, always with discern-
ment and in most instances with fidelity. His advice
was eagerly solicited in exigencies of national impor-
tance, and in the crooked arts of diplomacy he proved
more than a match for the ablest negotiators of the
age. His wealth, his political and social influence,
which he preserved in defiance of civil disabilities and
ecclesiastical malice, his scholastic attainments, the
elegance of his manners when contrasted with Teu-
tonic rudeness; all of these qualities ingratiated him
into the favor of the palatines, by whom he was often
treated with the consideration deserved by a
friend,
rather than with the abhorrence due to an outcast.
The political organization and legal privileges which
theJews possessed in the early days of the Visigothic
monarchy magnified their importance, increased their
wealth, and fostered their spirit of exclusiveness. The
latter feeling was also strengthened by the policy of
192 History of the

separation which it was deemed expedient to adopt,

during the Middle Ages, in Christian communities,
towards the Hebrew race. For a considerable period
of the Gothic dominion, the Jews were confined to a
certain quarter of every city and village, over which
magistrates of their own blood exercised both civil and
criminal functions, unrestricted, save in questions that
affected the national faith or where personal injury
had been inflicted upon a Christian. The jurisdiction
of each provincial assembly was rigidly subordinated
to the supreme authority of the central synagogue.
The territory beyond the limits of the town which
was often entirely Jewish was subject to the control
of a governor who was responsible only to the sover-
eign. At one time the Jews controlled the most im-
portant landed interests of the kingdom. The preju-
dice attaching to payments for the use of money did
not deter the Hebrew banker from the practice of
usury, although the legal rate of thirty -three per cent,
certainly offered sufficient inducements to abstain
from the violation of the law which he either secretly
evaded or openly defied.
The activity displayed by the Jews of the Peninsula
in every department of science, literature, government,
commerce, agriculture, and finance was incessant and
indefatigable. No
contemporaneous people could
boast, in proportion to their numbers, so many men
of genius and erudition. Their influence was so
extensive that was acknowledged alike in the hovel
it

of the peasant and in the council chamber of the king.

Their powerful individuality survived the cruel impo-
which repressed their enterprise, but could not
sitions

damp their ardor; and the patriotism which attached

them to a country in which they were only tolerated
as exiles, was sufficient to induce their descendants to
heartily aid, by every means in their power, the famous
princes and warriors whose capacity and resolution
 Moorish Empire in Europe 193

supported, amidst continuous disaster and defeat, the

doubtful fortunes of the struggling monarchy of
Castile.
In their application to the mechanical arts, and in
their development of architecture, the Visigoths dis-
closed rather an imitative faculty than a spirit of
marked originality. What is known to us as the
Gothic style owes nothing to that nation to which
popular belief has ascribed its invention, and, in fact,
was not introduced into Spain until the thirteenth
century. The name has been arbitrarily given it to
distinguish the pointed arch its principal character-

istic from the rounded one peculiar to the edifices of

Rome. The rude and primitive structures of the
German forests, constructed of logs, stained with
mud, and designed solely for purposes of shelter and
defence, could neither suggest nor transmit traditions
of architectural elegance and beauty. The sight of
the noble memorials of Roman genius which had
escaped the destructive impulses of the predatory
barbarian, erelong inspired the uncouth conqueror
with the spirit of emulation. In the Iberian Penin-
sula these vast and splendid structures abounded.
The walls which once encompassed the seats of its
proconsul; the fanes from whence had arisen the
incense to its gods; the colonnades which adorned its
capitals; the aqueducts rising to prodigious heights,
and surmounting difficulties which would have per-
plexed any engineer save a Roman, were worthy of
one of the richest provinces of the empire. From
such models the Visigothic architect, wholly destitute
of experience, yet animated by the desire of imitating
an excellence which had awakened his admiration, de-
signed the palace and the basilica. The wealth which,
from the Spain has lavished upon her
earliest times,
children, furnished the means, while the religious
spirit which pervaded every class of society afforded
Vol. I. 13
194 History of the

the incentive, for public display and private munifi-

cence. An innumerable body of slaves and depend-
ents, available at a moment's notice, facilitated the
rapid construction of edifices of the largest propor-
tions. Churches grand in dimensions and barbaric in
decoration were erected by priests, abbots, and pri-
vate individuals, whose generosity was commensurate
with their devotion. Before the shrines of these
temples were deposited vases, reliquaries, diptychs,
crosses, of precious materials and curiously intricate
patterns. The religious enthusiasm of the Gothic
princes, mingled perhaps with a certain share of
worldly ambition, impelled them to a generous
rivalry, and nourished in the bosom of each the
desire to surpass his predecessor in liberality to the
Church. Hence the various temples were, under
each successive reign, enriched with royal gifts of
inestimable value and ostentatious magnificence.
Sacramental tables of gold studded with emeralds,
diamonds, and sapphires, whose wondrous beauty
and richness Saracen tradition has transmitted to
posterity, with monstrances and ciboria of ingeni-
ous design and encrusted with jewels, formed a
portion of the pious donations of the sovereigns of
the Goths. The influence of the arts and taste of
Byzantium, communicated through the channels of
commerce, the interchange of civilities, and the
frequent intercourse between the courts of Con-
stantinople and Toledo, appears in the mural orna-
mentation of the temples and in the vessels of
their shrines, as well as in the habitations, utensils,
and trinkets of the people. Geometric forms and
floral designs afterwards so popular among the
Moors, who unquestionably derived them largely
from this source were almost exclusively employed
by the Gothic goldsmiths and architects. Vines,
leaves, buds, and quatre foils enter into almost every
 Moorish Empire in Europe 195

combination in great variety and with charming effect.

The churches were dimly lighted by means of marble
slabs pierced with intersecting cruciform apertures,
which increased the mystery and awe of the interior,
devices which are visible to-day in places of worship
as widely separated and of as originally diverse char-
acter as the chapels of the Asturias and the Mosque
of Cordova. As soon as the rage and hatred inspired
by the resistance of their enemies and which was
wreaked upon the edifices of the latter with hardly
less vindictiveness than upon the ranks of their legions
had been allayed, a desire to profit by the skill and
experience of their Roman subjects became para-
mount; new structures of simple design and en-
during materials arose in the cities; the ancient
monuments were spared; and the superior state of
preservation which distinguishes the Roman remains
in the Peninsula affords incontrovertible evidence of
the enlightened appreciation of the Visigoths.
In the encouragement of the useful and elegant
arts, the Visigoths displayed an enterprising spirit
considerably in advance of the other branches of the
great Teutonic nation. Manufactures of clothing,
glass, armor, weapons, thread, and jewelry are known
to have existed in their dominions. But it is in the
fabrication of church furniture, votive offerings, and
utensils designed for the service of the altar, that the
labors of their artisans are best known to us. In the
province of Guarrazar, a few miles from Toledo,
was
accidentally discovered, in the middle of the last cen-
tury, a deposit of objects which had evidently been
hastily buried by the priests on the approach of the
Saracen invader. It was composed of a number of
votive crowns some of which were inscribed with the
names of the donors sceptres, censers, crosses, candle-
sticks, lamps, chains, girdles. All of these were of
gold enriched with precious stones. The ignorance,
196 History of the

fear, and avarice of the peasants who discovered this

treasure resulted in the dispersion and loss of the most
precious portion of it but the crowns were saved, and
;

are now in the Hotel de Cluny at Paris, and the Royal

Armory at Madrid. These articles enable us to form
an excellent idea of the condition of the arts at the
beginning of the eighth century. The accounts given
by Christian and Arab historians of the Visigothic
kings, and of the enormous booty obtained by the
Moors, had, until this discovery was made, been ridi-
culed by critics as exaggerations, due to the national
vanity of both conquered and conqueror. From even
a cursory examination of these objects unique in the
world can readily be detected the taste and style of
the Byzantine, whose influence over the artistic tradi-
tions of the Peninsula, far from disappearing with the
Gothic dynasty, was exhibited in some of the most
magnificent creations of the Moslem domination.
The clumsy but massive patterns of the crowns show
that the value of the materials was taken into con-
sideration, quite as much as the labor that was ex-
pended upon them. From their ornamentation is re-
vealed a not inconsiderable familiarity with the art of
the enameller. Some of the settings are of polished
silicates, inserted, probably by way of contrast, at
intervals in lines of uncut gems. The accuracy with
which they are adjusted and their points united is
indicative of long practice and extraordinary skill.
A separate intaglio belonging to the same treasure
discloses a hitherto unsuspected degree of perfection
in the glyptic art. The carving of stones as hard as
the jacinth gives us a still further acquaintance with
the skill of the Gothic lapidary, and the delicacy of
the filigree borders is of almost equal excellence with
the bestwork of modern Italv.
While the manufactures of Gothic Spain were due
to the talents and industry of slaves, its commerce
 Moorish Empire in Europe 197

was monopolized by foreigners. The genius of the

barbarian, fearless in adventure upon land but too
indolent for application to mercantile employments,
instinctively shrank from the perils and the hardships
incident to protracted navigation of the seas. In
agriculture, however, great progress was made. Pas-
toral occupations had been largely superseded by the

tillageof the soil. The character of the various en-

actments relating to real property shows the impor-
tance with which that branch of the law was already
invested, and the attention its occupancy and its ten-
ures had received from the legislative power. In
literature the Visigoths could boast of few produc-
tions of merit, and what we designate by the name
of science was to them totally unknown. But a single
name, that of San Isidoro of Seville, one, however,
famous in every department of knowledge historian,
polemic, commentator, theologian, and saint has
emerged from the chaos of literary obscurity which
enveloped the life of Visigothic times. His acquire-
ments were prodigious for the age. The oracle of
ecclesiastical councils, his writings were perhaps more
voluminous than those of any other author that Spain
has ever produced, and they are still regarded by
Catholic divines as authoritative in settling contro-
verted points of doctrine.
The practice of medicine in addition to being
subordinated to the irresponsible intervention of the
priesthood, whose imposture reaped a profitable har-
vest by the working of spurious miracles and by the
application of relics was hampered by the preju-
dices of the ignorant, and by the absurd restric-
tions imposed by the jealousy of an ecclesiastical
legislature. No matter how pressing the necessity, a
physician was not permitted to attend a free woman
unless her male relatives were present. If great
weakness resulted from his treatment he could be
198 History or the

heavily fined, and in case death ensued he was aban-

doned to the vengeance of the family of his patient.
The law, however, as a partial compensation for the
inconveniences to which he was subjected, exempted
him from imprisonment for all crimes save that of
murder. A limited knowledge of anatomy and some
acquaintance with the fundamental principles of sur-
gery were possessed by these practitioners, as is dis-
closed by their successful operations for cataract.
Their compensation was regulated by statute, and
was, besides, subject to special agreement; but, in
case the patient was not cured, no fee could be col-
lected, and the physician was liable, at all times, to
prosecution for flagrant acts of malpractice.
The empire of the Visigoths, during the period of
its greatest prosperity, extended from the valleys of

the Loire and the Garonne to the Mediterranean.

The surrender of a portion of this territory to Clovis
consolidated the power of both the kingdoms of
France and Spain, by adopting for their common
boundary the natural rampart of the Pyrenees. The
tastes and traditions of the Teutonic nation, hereto-
fore averse to sedentary occupations, and considering
all labor, and especially the cultivation of the soil, as

degrading to the character of a freeman, caused such

employment to be abandoned to the former subjects
of the Roman Empire; nor was it until several cen-
turies had elapsed, and the advantages resulting from
industrious tillage had been demonstrated, that this
prejudice was in some degree removed. At all times
during the sway of the Visigoths, every species of
manual labor was largely performed by slaves. The
institution of colleges of artificers a custom in-
herited from the most polished nation of antiquity
had been adopted by the barbarian conquerors, and
the slaves composing these bodies, where the talents
of the father were transmitted to the son, were natu-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 199

rally ranked among the most valuable of personal

possessions. Large numbers of these artisans were
the property of the Crown and of the Church, being
respectively under the control of the Royal Treasurer
and the Bishop, and the unique specimens of the gold-
smith's skill which the fortunate discovery at Guar-
razar has preserved for us, reveal to what proficiency
in the mechanical arts these accomplished bondmen
had attained.
The greatest luxury and pomp were indulged in by
the Visigothic nation, a people which the world still
calls barbarian. Their palaces were encrusted with
precious marbles. The furniture Of their apartments
was of the most expensive character. The garments
of the nobility were of silken fabrics embroidered with
gold. The ladies of the court used for their ablutions
basins of silver, and admired their beauty in exqui-
sitely chased mirrors set with jewels. The horses of
the royal household were covered with harnesses and
trappings blazing with the precious metals. A hun-
dred wagons laden with baggage and all the para-
phernalia of boundless extravagance followed in the
train of the monarch. Such was the lavish expendi-
ture of even the middle and lower classes, that it be-
came necessary to enact a law prohibiting the bestowal
of a dowry of more than one-tenth of the property of
a bridegroom upon the bride.
Not only did the Visigoths strive to imitate their
Roman subjects in the style and finish of their edifices,
but in every public employment, in every department
of art and labor, was the potent influence of the sub-
jugated people visible. The organization of the
various corps and divisions of the army was modelled
after that of the legion. The most popular amuse-
ments were, with the exception of gladiatorial com-
which had excited to frenzied
bats, identical with those
enthusiasm the vast audiences of Rome and Constan-
200 History of the

tinople in the circus and the amphitheatre. The dress

of the citizen, the armor of the soldier, were Roman;
the ornaments of the ladies, the insignia of royalty,
the decorations of the churches, were Byzantine. The
language in common use was a barbarous and bastard
Latin. The fusion of hostile races, the amalgamation
of the conqueror and the conquered, that political
problem which has taxed the skill of the wisest states-
men, was almost brought to a successful solution by
the broad statesmanship of the Visigothic sovereigns.
The adoption and enforcement of a uniform and well-
conceived body of laws did much to accomplish this
end. But the acceptance of orthodox Christianity as
the recognized form of national faith, and the legal-
izing of intermarriage between the different peoples
of the Peninsula, by their tendency to remove the
formidable barriers raised by caste, which had hitherto
isolated the various classes of society, did far more to

promote the union of the discordant elements of

society. The Basques constant types of the primi-
tive Iberian alone, among the multifarious tribes
which acknowledged the supremacy of the court of
Toledo, have preserved their nationality, and have
obstinately refused to surrender those distinctive racial
peculiarities that have made them for centuries the
subject of the entertaining speculations of the eth-
nologist.
In some respects a striking parallel, in others a de-
cided contrast existed between Goth and Arab, repre-
sentatives of the Aryan and Semitic branches of the
human family, who
crossed swords in Europe for the
first time in history, on the plains of the Spanish
Peninsula. Between these two great ethnographical
divisions, a spirit of irreconcilable enmity has always
prevailed. No fusion between them has ever been
effected. Where one has obtained ascendency in any
part of the world, the other has either preserved its
 Moorish Empire in Europe 201

special traits or gradually become extinct. Consid-

erations of political expediency, the claims of divine
revelation, the benefits of trade, the ultimate prospect
of national union and social equality, have not been
sufficient to counteract the influence of an antagonism
which anticipates all human records in its antiquity.
The customs of nomadic peoples are proverbially per-
sistent; their occupation frequently survives the
change of residence, the accidents of migration, and
the influence of new and radically different associa-
tions. Both the Goths and the Arabs placed their
principal dependence upon their flocks and herds, but
neither ever hesitated to exchange the crook of the
shepherd for the spear of the robber. The love of
war and violence was the predominating character-
istic of both. They had a common admiration for
courage as the greatest of virtues a common appre-
;

ciation of the noble qualities of personal liberty, of

private honor, of generous hospitality. Their habits

were slothful, their existence precarious. Their
jealousy of power forbade their acknowledgment
of royal authority. They considered all industrial
employments as beneath the dignity of manhood.
Their worship was tainted with the most objection-
able features of idolatry, the adoration of stones,
the practice of fetichism, the horrors of human
sacrifice. Alike were they drunkards and desperate
gamesters, who eagerly placed their liberty at stake,
whose revels resounded with brawling, and whose
disputes were settled with the sword. They recog-
nized no permanent ownership in the soil, possessed
little portable wealth, were
ignorant of the arts and
without the knowledge of letters. Like all barbarians,
they believed disease and insanity to be caused by
demoniacal possession. With both, love of poetry
was a passion, and the personality of the bard the
object of almost idolatrous reverence. Such were the
202 History of the

traits common to two nations, separated by a distance

of eighteen hundred miles, ignorant of each other's
existence, and living under entirely dissimilar climatic
conditions. The atmosphere of the Baltic was per-
petually cold and damp, that of Arabia dry and
torrid almost beyond endurance. Eastern Europe
was covered with dense forests, traversed by noble
rivers, and dotted with impassable swamps. In the
Desert nothing was so rare as a tree or rivulet. The
physical conformation of the Goth and the Arab re-
spectively was controlled by his environment to an
even greater degree than was the mental constitution
of either. The former was of giant stature and
strength, and of fair complexion; the latter slender,
nervous, and swarthy. With the Goth, female chas-
tity was held in the highest esteem with the Arab, it
;

was the subject of caustic epigram, of jest, and of

satire. The Goth, a monogamist, knew nothing of
the pleasures of gallantry; the polygamous Arab
placed indulgence in them second only to the excite-
ment of battle. The Goths were among the first and
most devout proselytes of Christianity; the Arabs
have ever obstinately refused to acknowledge the
divinity of Christ or the superior authority of the
Gospel.
That invincible prowess which, nurtured by poverty
and an abstemious life, was displayed with equal dis-
tinction and success amidst the forests of Europe and
on the sandy plains of Africa, was the potent weapon
which obtained for each of these great nations su-
premacy over their adversaries; an advantage which,
through internal dissension, sectarian prejudice, and
social corruption, was eventually lost; but not until
the moral and physical peculiarities of both had im-
pressed themselves upon their contemporaries, so
deeply as to insure their transmission, with but little
modification, to subsequent ages.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 203

The spirit of the Visigoths was, almost from

the first, decidedly progressive. This general ten-
dency towards improvement, and a desire for the
blessings of civilization, stimulated commercial ac-
tivity, increased domestic happiness, and opened a
field for the development of art, the advancement of

science, the strict administration of justice, and the

consequent decrease of brutality and crime. The
wisdom of the Gothic polity and the equity of its
laws afford a pleasing and instructive example of
the capacity of a people to raise itself unaided from
barbarism a people which, in addition to the ro-
mantic interest attaching to its history, is entitled
to the grateful remembrance of mankind for the
beneficent influence it has exerted upon the political
institutions and the of Europe; as well
social order
as for the creation of a judicial system whose merits
and whose principles, confirmed by the experience of
centuries, are still acknowledged by the most august
tribunals of the civilized world.
204 History or the

CHAPTER V
THE INVASION AND CONQUEST OE SPAIN

710-713

General Conditions and Physical Features of the Spanish Penin-

sula Various Classes of the Population Supremacy of
the Church Tyranny of the Visigothic Kings Fatal Policy
of Witiza Accession of Roderick Count Julian Invasion
of Tarik Battle of the Guadalete Its Momentous Results
Progress of the Moslems Arrival of Musa His Success
Immense Booty secured by the Victors Quarrel of Tarik
and Musa Interference of the Khalif Submission of the
Goths Musa's Vast Scheme of Conquest The Two Gen-
erals ordered to Damascus The Triumphal Procession
through Africa Fate of Musa Causes and Effects of the
Moslem Occupation of Spain.

The encroaching spirit of Islam, dominated by the

potent motives of avarice, ambition, and fanaticism,
was not content with its marvellous achievements and
the possession of two continents, it aspired to universal
conquest. The submission of Africa was now com-
plete. The sovereignty of the Byzantine Empire had
vanished forever from the southern coast of the Medi-
terranean. The tact and military skill of Musa had
won the confidence, and inspired the respect, of the
treacherous, warlike, and hitherto intractable, tribes
of Mauritania. A
large number of the latter had em-
braced Mohammedanism. A
still greater proportion

who, either from

association, policy, or conviction, pro-
fessed attachment to the law of Moses, maintained an
intimate correspondence with their oppressed brethren
of the Spanish Peninsula. The latter in secret
brooded over the accumulated wrongs of centuries,
and, under an appearance of resignation, harbored
 Moorish Empire in Europe 205

designs that boded ill to the temporal and ecclesiastical

tyrants of the Visigothic monarchy. The restless
glance of the Arabian general had long contemplated
with envy, mingled with an insatiable desire for
plunder, the rich and splendid cities of ancient Bastica ;

its teeming mines its pastures, with their myriads of

;

cattle ; its plains, traversed by innumerable canals and

rivers; where even a and incomplete system
careless
of cultivation produced harvests almost rivalling in
luxuriance those of the famous valleys of the Eu-
phrates and the Nile. A
strait, of less than eight
miles in width in its narrowest part, now presented
the sole physical impediment to the further progress
of the conqueror. It was defended upon the African
side by the fortress of Ceuta, whose governor was a
vassal or tributary of the Visigothic king, and whose
valor had rendered nugatory the efforts of the bravest
Moslem captains, who, fully appreciating the strategic
importance of this stronghold, had made repeated and
desperate attempts to capture it. This promontory,
which formed one side of the channel, familiar for
ages to the Phoenicians, and supposed by the ignorant
to be theend of the world, was protected from foreign
intrusion by the portentous fables and prodigies in-
vented by Tyrian artifice. Facing it, on the Spanish
shore, stood the Temple of Hercules, with its dome
of gilded bronze, its columns of electrum, and its mys-
terious altars raised to Art, Old Age, and Poverty.
Unlike other Pagan shrines for it contained no
visible representation of a divinity it was always
approached by the Phoenician mariner with feelings
of gratitude and awe. It was associated with his
naval superiority over the other nations of antiquity.
It was intimately connected with the increase of his
wealth; with the continuance of his prosperity; with
the discovery of lands unknown to his contemporaries
and rivals with the preservation of his stores of occult
;
206 History of the

wisdom, whose sources he explored with such acute-

ness and concealed with such success. Every device
of fable and superstition had been employed to clothe
this localitywith such a character as might effectually
check the efforts of an inquiring or aggressive com-
mercial spirit. To the accomplishment of this end, the
phenomena of Nature lent their powerful aid. The
contracted passage between two of the greatest bodies
of water known to the ancients was of unfathomable
depth. On both sides, despite the agitation of the
waves, its level remained the same. Even during both
the ebb and flow of the tide, the current always ran
strongly towards the east. Its force was steady, con-
stant, invariable; the waxing and waning of the
moon, the most furious tempests, exerted no appre-
ciable influence over the inflexible regularity of its
motion. It was not without reason that the apparent
suspension of the laws of equilibrium and of the
forces of Nature was attributed by the superstitious
to the divinity whose temple guarded the famous por-
tals upon which he had imposed his name. It has been
maintained by scholars that within this shrine was pre-
served, as a sacred relic, a fragment of magnetic ore,
of great antiquity, known to the Tyrian navigator as
a priceless talisman the precursor of the mariner's
compass which had guided his course to distant
Britain, and assured to his countrymen the empire
of the seas. According to popular belief, through
this channel the way led to the realm of Chaos. To
brave its unknown and dreaded perils was sacrilege,
and to none, save those authorized by the priests of
Melcareth, was this undertaking permitted. In sub-
sequent times, invested with little less mystery, this
region had bequeathed not a few of its reminiscences
to the Roman, and awakened the curiosity of the
Arab, as he fixed his gaze upon the white-topped
waves sparkling in the sunlight between continent
 Moorish Empire in Europe 207

and continent and sea and sea, like the facets of a

precious gem; or, in the beautiful imagery of the
"
Oriental chronicler, like a diamond between two
emeralds and two sapphires, the master-stone in the
ring of empire."
In the beginning of the eighth century the kingdom
of the Visigoths presented every appearance of pros-
perity and power. Its inherent weakness was imper-
fectly disguised by the pomp of its hierarchy and the
luxury of its court, which veiled the defects of its con-
stitution and the abuses of its government with a false
and delusive splendor. Its licentious sovereign re-
tained none of the primitive virtues of his ancestors,
whose intrepid spirit and resistless valor had sustained
them on a hundred fields of battle, and had borne their
arms in a long succession of triumphs from the Baltic
to the Mediterranean. The successor of Reccared and
Wamba had degenerated into a feeble tyrant, who
reigned by a disputed title, and in whose sensual na-
ture neither the rites of hospitality, the obligations
of friendship, the dignity of the regal office, nor the
infirmities of age, interposed any obstacle to the indul-
gence of his unbridled passions.
A haughty nobility decimated by the sanguinary
feuds promoted by a contested succession, and divided
into factions whose members hated each other with far
greater intensity than that which they bore to a com-
mon enemy; unaccustomed to the exercise of arms;
destitute of faith and honor; concealing treasonable
sentiments under the semblance of enthusiastic loy-
alty, endeavored to sustain, by vainglorious boasts
and barbaric ostentation, the dignity of their order
and the majesty of the throne. The martial ardor of
the legions which had for centuries upheld the great-
ness and the renown of the Roman name had been
supplanted by the zeal and avarice of the monastic
hordes, who defended by every expedient of fraud
208 History of the

and violence the rising cause of the church militant.

The crosier, in the hands of an arrogant caste which
monopolized the learning of the age, had become far
more potent than the sword or the sceptre, and the
origin of all political measures of national importance
was to be sought not in the palace but in the cathedral.
The wise, tolerant, and judicious policy of the early
ecclesiastics, that had animated and directed the coun-
cils of the Church, which by its humanizing influence

had softened the prevailing rudeness of the age, and

framed laws whose equitable maxims have served as
models for succeeding legislators, had been abandoned
for the degrading but profitable occupation of hunt-
ing down and plundering heretics. The proud and
exclusive hierarchy of the Visigoths refused to ac-
knowledge the supremacy, or respect the edicts, of
the See of Rome. When the Pope interfered in the
of the Peninsula an occurrence, how-
spiritual affairs
ever, that rarely took place he did so rather in the
capacity of a mediator, or even a suppliant, than as
a mighty ruler, the head of Christendom, and the
Vicar of God. His titles were assumed and his pre-
rogatives usurped by the Spanish prelates; his in-
fallibility was questioned, not only by the higher
clergy, whose ministrations were declared to be en-
dowed with equal virtue, but even by the sovereign
and the nobles, who openly ridiculed his pretensions
and defied his authority. The evil example of royal
profligacy had infected every grade of the priesthood.
The episcopal palace became the scene of daily turmoil
and midnight orgies, which scandalized the populace,
itself far from immaculate; while the excellence of
the wines and the beauty of the female companions
of priest and primate were matters of public jest and
infamous notoriety. The relative positions of the
great officials of Church and State had, by reason of
the peculiar functions exercised by the former, who
 Moorish Empire in Europe 209

had entirely usurped the legislative power, been re-

versed. The
prelate, while still retaining the outward
insignia of his sacred profession, had, from the prac-
tice of the generous and self-sacrificing duties of a
minister of grace and mercy, descended to the ignoble
arts of an active, scheming, unscrupulous politician.
The nobility, after having virtually surrendered to
their spiritual advisers the complete control of the
administration, preserved, to a pharisaical degree, the
outward semblance of devotion. In private life, the
morals of both classes were stained with degrading
vices and crimes which were thinly veiled by a more
or less rigid observance of the prescribed forms of
religious worship.
No country in Europe had, from the earliest times
of which history makes mention, constantly offered
such inducements to the enterprise and prowess of
an invader as Spain. The Orient and the Occident
met upon her shores. Every material advantage
which could attract the attention of man, which could
stimulate his ambition, increase his wealth, insure his
comfort, supply his necessities, and minister to his
happiness, was hers. The balmy air of her southern
provinces whose skies for months were unobscured
by a single cloud was tempered by the breezes of
the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The varied land-
scape of hill and plain, seamed with a net-work of
artificial rivulets, was covered with a mantle of per-

petual verdure. Her orchards furnished an inex-

haustible supply of the most delicious fruits. The
products of her mines had made the fortune of every
possessor Carthaginian, Roman, Van-
Phoenician,
dal, and Goth. Her
gold and silver had embellished
the thrones of Babylon, the shrines of Tyre, the
palaces of Memphis, the temple of Jerusalem. Her
coasts, easy of access from every point, offered a
succession of safe and commodious harbors. The
Vol. I. 14
210 History of the

Visigoths, despite their barbarian prejudice against

manual labor, recognized the importance of agricult-
ure. The provinces of the realm were apportioned
among the nobility.A stated tribute was required of
their vassals by the great landed proprietors, who

rarely had the justice to grant indulgence for a fail-

ure of the harvests or a deficiency resulting from
public or private misfortune. The cultivators were
attached to the glebe, which could not be alienated
without them, and, forming an hereditary caste, were,
to all intents and purposes, slaves; although, under
the Gothic polity, their position was nominally supe-
rior to that of the unfortunate who was exposed for
sale in the market. From these two classes, dispirited

by generations of arduous toil and constant oppres-

sion, were recruited the rank and file of the army,
who were expected to fight for the preservation of
their tyrants' possessions and the continuance of their
own degradation. The lot of the serf under later
Visigothic rule was, in general, far more grievous than
that of the slave had been under the Roman. The
Teutonic custom which encouraged the imposition of
personal service in return for protection was unknown
under the Empire. The rendering of this obligation
an hereditary charge a cardinal principle of the
German constitution, but which became in a measure
obsolete under the later Visigothic kings added to
the aggravation which attended its performance. The
restrictions upon marriage, the separation of families,
the severity of punishment imposed for even trifling
offences, added to the humiliation and hardships of
the servile condition. While the Arian heresy was pre-
dominant, the burdens of serfdom were lightened, and
its state had been gradually improved. The gener-
osity of the bishops was displayed in every way that
kindness and consideration could suggest; in the
diminution of labor; in rewards for fidelity; in
 Moorish Empire in Europe 211

attendance in sickness; in sympathy in misfortune.

The unhappy serf, deceived by these concessions and
favors, not unnaturally concluded that they portended
increased liberty and ultimate emancipation. The
clergy gave color to this presumption by frequent
declarations from the pulpit that slavery was con-
trary to the teachings of the Gospel. In time, with
the increase of influence, the control of royal elections,
and the absolute dictation of the policy of the throne,
these spiritual statesmen found it expedient to forget
the benevolent precepts of government which they
had formerly so earnestly inculcated. After the ac-
ceptance of the orthodox faith, the inherent evils of
the servile system were magnified to an unprecedented
degree. The high rank, sacred character, and practi-
cally unlimited power of the great prelates of
the
Church, offered unusual opportunities for the indul-
gence of the passions of tyranny and avarice. The
dependents of bishops walked in the processions, by
which were celebrated the great festivals of the
Church, attired in silken liveries embroidered with
gold. The appointments of their palaces and the
magnificence of their trains surpassed even those of
the sovereign. The estates of these dignitaries were
the most extensive and important of the kingdom; in
many instances they exceeded in value the royal de-
mesnes. Immense numbers of slaves were employed
upon them, not merely in the cultivation of the soil,
but in the producing and perfecting of every article,
then known, which could contribute to the pleasure
of their luxurious lords. For these unhappy laborers,
whose tasks each year became more arduous, and
whose aspirations for liberty, cherished during many
generations, were now destroyed, the prospect of re-
lief from their unsupportable burdens seemed abso-

lutely hopeless. Inferior in numbers to these two

agricultural serfs, and the individuals
classes of con-
212 History of the

demned by the accident of birth, or the process of law,

to perpetual bondage, but vastly superior to them in

intelligence, in shrewdness, and in all the arts of de-

ceit,were the Jews. A sweeping decree of the Seven-
teenth Council of Toledo had confiscated their pos-
sessions and sentenced them to servitude. A
hundred
thousand of these sectaries, in whose breasts rankled
a spirit of fierce and sullen hatred, born of hostility
handed down for ages, and aggravated by a system
of repression scarcely justifiable even by the sternest
demands of political necessity, constituted an element
of a far more dangerous character than all of the
others whose machinations and discontent had under-
mined the fabric of the Visigothic empire. The na-
tional sentiment of superiority born of theocratic
government, of the claims of an arrogant priesthood,
of the alleged favor of the Almighty, and of the
traditions of three thousand years was then, as now,
all-powerful in the minds of the Jewish people. The
defective annals of that age have failed to furnish
us with data by which we can determine with what
degree of strictness the laws against the Hebrews were
enforced. It is probable, however, that in the cities,
where a higher condition of intelligence existed and
more correct ideas of justice obtained, observance of
these inhuman edicts was frequently evaded. In the
villages and hamlets the fanaticism and jealousy of
the peasantry undoubtedly inflicted every hardship
and indignity upon the Jews. In vain might the
favored steward or counsellor of the noble, who still
retained his residence in the palace, and continued to
supply by his own talents and experience the defi-
ciencies produced by his employer's sloth and inca-
pacity, attempt to alleviate the wretchedness of his
countrymen. With the ignorant rabble, the posses-
sion of wealth and the exertion of political power
by heretics were always unpardonable crimes. The
 Moorish Empire in Europe 213

clergy, on all occasions, for ends of their own,

fomented the popular discontent, lauded this cruel
policy as acceptable to God, and by every device
sought to perpetuate the ancient antagonism of the
Aryan and Semitic races, in which is to be sought
one cause of the irrational and widely-diffused preju-
dice against the Jew. This feeling was also intensified
by the current tradition during the reign of
that,
Leovigild, the Hebrews had, with unconcealed alac-
rity, aided the heterodox clergy in persecuting mem-
bers of the Roman Catholic communion. Under these
circumstances, too much importance cannot be at-
tached to the part played in the Moorish occupation
of Spain by this numerous and enterprising sect,
skilled in all the arts of dissimulation, and exasper-
ated by centuries of oppression, which the Visigothic
kingdom nourished in its bosom. Without the in-
formation afforded by its members the Arab attack
would probably have never been undertaken. With-
out support and co-operation it is certain that the
its

subjugation of a nation of six million souls could

never have been accomplished in the space of a few
months by a mere handful of undisciplined horsemen.
No nation has ever flourished under the rule of a
hierarchy. The circumstances indispensable for the
security and happiness of the subject are incom-
patible with the demands of the alleged representa-
tives of divine inspiration and omnipotent power.
The narrow policy inseparable from protracted eccle-
siastical domination inevitably productive of na-
is

tional ruin and disgrace. In this instance, it dispos-

sessed the Spanish people of the richest part of their
inheritance for eight hundred years. Under the
monarchs of the Austrian line incapable of profit-
ing by the experience of their predecessors and deaf
to the warnings of history similar acts of impru-
dence and folly contributed more than aught else to
214 History of the

deprive the Spanish Crown of the political supremacy

of Europe.
The events in the annals of Spain which relate to
the close of the seventh and the commencement of
the eighth century are involved in more than ordinary
obscurity. It was a period fraught with political and
social disturbance. Treason and regicide, crimes from
which, heretofore, the Gothic people had been pro-
verbially exempt, were now considered justifiable ex-
pedients by every ambitious noble who aspired to raise
himself to the throne. The degrees of favor and abso-
lution which the successful traitor could expect from
the clergy were directly proportionate to the value of
the gifts which he was able to deposit in the treasury
of the Church. Every offence, no matter how fla-
grant, was pardonable after satisfactory pecuniary in-
The fulminations of the
tercession with the priest.
Holy Council were denounced against all who refused
allegiance to the royal assassin, whose election had
been ratified by the votes of the assembled prelates.
Where the aspirant to kingly power lacked the cour-
age for deeds of blood, a resort to fraud was deemed
excusable, provided it was attended with success and
the customary liberal contribution for ecclesiastical
purposes was not forgotten. To such a depth of
degradation had fallen the descendants of the loyal,
brave, and generous warriors of the Teutonic race !

The greatness of the Visigothic monarchy had de-

parted with the reign of Wamba, the last of its heroes,
and one illustrious for the practice of every public
and every private virtue. Deprived of his crown by
an artifice which reflected more credit on the astute-
ness than on the integrity of his successor, he was
condemned to pass the latter portion of his life in a
convent. The new king Ervigius, after an uneventful
reign, left his kingdom to his son-in-law Egiza. The
character of the latter monarch, while not destitute of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 215

the manly virtues of courage and resolution, was tar-

nished by insatiable rapacity. He was as persevering
in his pursuit of wealth as he was unscrupulous in his
methods of obtaining it. He commuted the enforce-
ment of penal laws for the payment of fines, which
varied with the pecuniary ability of the culprit to
discharge them, without regard to the degree or the
circumstances of the crime. Under trivial pretexts,
he banished wealthy citizens and confiscated their
property. He imposed excessive taxes. Emboldened
by the impunity of power, he did not hesitate to resort
even to forgery; and, by means of spurious docu-
ments, implicated in offences against the state such
wealthy individuals as had the hardihood to resist his
importunate demands. And, worst of all, he lost no
opportunity to appropriate the revenues of the
Church, under whatever pretence his ingenuity or
his audacity might suggest. By an unprincipled
and tyrannical hierarchy the former misdemeanors
might be overlooked, but the latter offence was
tainted with the double reproach of oppression and
sacrilege. After formal and unavailing remon-
strance, a plot was formed in 692 by Sisebert,
Archbishop of Toledo, which had for its object the
assassination of the King and his entire family.
Some of the most powerful nobles were involved
in this conspiracy, which was hatched by the prin-

cipal ecclesiastics of the capital. Timely informa-

tion of the plot having reached the ears of the
sovereign, the most vigorous means were taken to
counteract it. The metropolitan was arrested and
deposed. A number of the chief conspirators were
executed or exiled. Scarcely had this conspiracy been
suppressed, before the existence of a still more for-
midable one was revealed. The Hebrews, whose con-
dition under this and the preceding reign had been
more favorable than for many years, evincing no
216 History of the

gratitude for the leniency with which they had been

treated, and remembering only past indignities, ex-
ulting in their numbers and influence, and assured of
aid from Barbary, made arrangements for a general
revolt, with a view to a complete reorganization of
the government and the metamorphosis of Spain into
an absolutely Jewish kingdom. This treasonable de-
sign was discovered, however, almost at the moment
when it was ripe for execution. The authorities
took measures to insure their safety with exemplary
severity. A council was convoked and a decree
passed, by which the Jews were condemned to be
banished, enslaved, stripped of their possessions, and
deprived of their children. The outrageous cruelty
of the measure, however, caused an almost immediate
reaction, and it was not generally enforced. The dis-
contented sectaries, grieving under their accumulated
wrongs, and exasperated by the miscarriage of their
plans, continued to hope for assistance from abroad,
and embraced every opportunity to send information
of the public disorders to their sympathetic brethren
in Africa. The reign of Egiza, agitated hitherto by
almost incessant political convulsions, was now threat-
ened with the evils of foreign invasion. A Saracen
fleet, well manned and equipped, descended upon the
defenceless Spanish coast, ravaged the fields, plun-
dered the villages, and carried the inhabitants into
captivity. To provide against this new danger a naval
expedition was fitted out, and entrusted to the com-
mand of Theodomir, an officer of approved experi-
ence, and a noble of the highest rank. Setting sail,
the Gothic admiral lost no time in encountering the
hostile fleet. A
bloody engagement took place; two
hundred of the enemy's vessels were destroyed or
taken; and the embryotic maritime power of the
Moslems was swept from the seas. In the following
year a war with the Franks, the cause of which is
 Moorish Empire in Europe 217

unknown, was carried on for several months with the

indecisive results characteristic of the operations of
desultory warfare. Egiza, being advanced in years
and conscious of his infirmities, was desirous of asso-
ciating his son Witiza with him in the administration,
and of securing to him the succession at his decease.
A council having been convoked for this purpose, his
wishes were realized without opposition, and Witiza
was raised to the regal dignity. The following year
the old King died, leaving to his young and inexperi-
enced successor the sole responsibility of government,
and a series of difficulties and embarrassments such as
no other monarch of his time had hitherto been forced
to contend with, and which involved both the stability
of the Visigothic empire and the preservation of the
Christian faith. The accession of Witiza promised
a happy and prosperous future to the country afflicted
with so many calamities. His youth had been distin-
guished by the practice of the virtues of temperance,
generosity, justice, and filial reverence. As soon as
he attained to absolute power, he evinced a disposition
to win the attachment of the people by making amends
for the pecuniary exactions and oppressive laws which
had been imposed by the avarice and extortions of his
family. A general amnesty was proclaimed. The
forged documents by which the wealthy had been
plundered were destroyed. All taxes, except such
as were absolutely necessary to the support of the

government, were remitted. Great numbers of exiles

were invited to return, and their possessions were
surrendered. The Jews were restored to partial
favor; but, as the popular prejudice was still bitter
and universal, a politic appearance of severity was
maintained, which, however, it was evident would be
entirely removed in time. Under such favorable
auspices began the reign of Witiza, whose magna-
nimity, tact, and affable demeanor had already won
218 History of the

the hearts of his subjects. The opinion of the latter

was at first confirmed by the mild disposition and
virtuous behavior of their youthful sovereign. But
this fairpromise of future greatness was fallacious,
for Witiza soon plunged into excesses which awakened
the horror of his subjects, and provoked the censures
of the clergy, ever disposed to be lenient towards
such transgressions except when they threatened their
influence or their revenues. The whole court was soon
abandoned to indiscriminate licentiousness. Not only
was the violation of the most sacred traditions of the
Church permitted, but polygamy and concubinage
were openly encouraged by sacerdotal authority and
example. The pious instructors of the people were
the firstimprove the opportunities afforded by these
to
impolitic enactments, and the feelings of the devout
were outraged by excesses which did not respect even
the sacred precincts of the altar and the confessional.
No scandals, however, aroused such indignation as the
indulgence which was manifested towards the Jews.
Every ecclesiastic, especially, considered any modera-
tion of the condition of this down-trodden race an
affront to his order, and a crime worse than sacrilege.
Enraged by the contempt with which Witiza treated
their remonstrances, the clergy lost no occasion of

increasing the prevailing discontent, and, with a view

to strengthening their position by enlisting the aid of
the Holy See, they secretly despatched an embassy to
Rome. The ire of the Pope was excited by the repre-
sentations of the envoys of the Spanish Church, whose
prelates, though not acknowledging his supreme juris-
diction, did not disdain to solicit his intervention as
an affair which seemed to involve the interests of
Christendom. Elated by the hope of establishing his
authority in the Peninsula, the Holy Father Con-
stantine, without delay, sent a message to the recal-
citrant monarch threatening him with the loss of his
 Moorish Empire in Europe 219

kingdom, unless he at once revoked the offensive

edicts and permitted the unrestricted persecution of
the Jews. To this Witiza retorted with contempt
that if the Pope did not cease intermeddling with what
did not concern him, he would drive him from the
Vatican and he forthwith published an edict that no
;

attention should be paid to the mandates of the

Papacy under penalty of death. These proceedings
further embittered the prejudices of both the clergy
and the people, and the popular clamor became so loud
that Witiza began to tremble for both his crown and
his life. Agitated by his fears, and resolved to afford
as little encouragement as possible to any treasonable
undertaking, he dismantled the principal fortresses,
and razed the walls of every city in the kingdom, ex-
cepting those of Toledo, Astorga, and Lugo; an act
of folly which not only failed of its object, but in
the end directly contributed to the overthrow of the
monarchy. The Jews, on the other hand, now placed
in positions of profit and responsibility, far from ap-
preciating the honors with which they were invested
and the confidence which was reposed in them, with
characteristic treachery and ingratitude, availed them-
selves of their power for the destruction of their royal
benefactor. Aided by their intrigues, a formidable
conspiracy broke out. The majority of the clergy
and a considerable body of the nobles joined the
insurgents; a rival king was elected; and, after a
short Witiza was deposed and probably
conflict,
murdered, for history has preserved no record of his
fate.
The new monarch, Roderick, although he had
reached the great age of eighty-two years, retained,
in an unusual degree, the strength and activity of
early manhood. His life had been passed amidst
the
athletic pastimes which exercised the leisure of the
Gothic youth, and, in occasional expeditions under-
220 History of the

taken against the hardy mountaineers of Galicia and

Biscay, he had earned a well-merited reputation for
courage and military skill. Although not of royal
blood, his natural endowments, the dignity of his
carriage, the apparent but deceptive austerity of his
manners, and the mildness of his temper, gained for
him the respect of all who were admitted to his pres-
ence. In the elegant luxury of his palace, in the
splendor of his retinue, in the majestic pomp which
distinguished every public ceremony over which he
presided, he far surpassed his predecessors, and emu-
lated, with no little success, the magnificence of the
Roman court in the age of imperial decadence.
The intriguing spirit which animated the subjects
of a monarchy essentially elective, but one where
courtesy and real or apparent merit occasionally
made an exception in favor of hereditary descent, had
established, among the Visigoths, the custom of retain-
ing near the throne the children of powerful families ;

nominally for purposes of education, but in fact to

insure the fidelity of their relatives often entrusted
with the custody of frontier strongholds or important
military commands. The sons, until they attained to
manhood, served as pages in the royal household, and
were trained in all the manly and martial exercises of
the time. The attendants of the queens were re-
cruited from the noble maidens, whom this prudent
custom placed and retained in the precincts of the
court, and who were carefully instructed in the few
but graceful accomplishments indispensable to the po-
sition of ladies of distinguished lineage. Among the
latter, at the court of Roderick, was the daughter of
Count Julian, formerly a vassal of the Byzantine Em-
pire, and the commandant of the fortress of Ceuta;
whom political necessity, the isolation consequent upon
the subjugation of every Greek settlement in Africa,
and the rapidly increasing power of the Moors, had
 Moorish Empire in Europe 221

compelled to appeal to the nearest Christian monarch

for protection, and to transfer his allegiance to the
court of Toledo. This girl, who was of great beauty,
excited the licentious desires of the King, who, failing
to accomplish his object by fair means, in an evil hour
resorted to force. Informed of the injury which had
been inflicted upon his family, Count Julian, braving
without hesitation the storms of winter, hastened to
the capital. Dissembling, with true Greek astuteness,
his outraged feelings, he asked permission to remove
his daughter to the bedside of her mother whom he

represented as being dangerously ill. Without any

misgivings Roderick granted the request, and, mani-
festing every appearance of respect and loyalty, the
veteran officer left the court and retraced his steps.
No sooner had he arrived at his post, than he began to
carry out the plan of vengeance which he had already
fully matured. The castle of Ceuta was the key
of Europe. Impregnable to all the resources of mili-
tary engineering in an age when gunpowder was un-
known, its value as an obstacle to foreign invasion was
not understood by the Visigoths. The immunity of
centuries the contempt for barbarians the ignorance
; ;

of the mighty and unexampled power of Islam; the

inertia produced partly by the influence of climate,
but principally by an abuse of all the pleasures of
unbridled luxury, had disposed the sovereigns of
Toledo to consider their kingdom inaccessible to at-
tack, and their empire eternal. As has already been
mentioned, this haughty and corrupt nation was con-
stantly agitated and its integrity menaced by a score
of discordant factions. Its recent monarchs had bent
all their energies to the abrogation of the statesman-
like measures inaugurated by their forefathers. The
nobles and the clergy, inflamed with mutual animosity,
suspicious of their partisans, and arrayed against each
other, were engaged in a mortal struggle for supe-
222 History of the

riority. The Jews, indulged and persecuted by turns,

lived in a continual state of apprehension and despair.
All the salutary restraints of religion were apparently
removed; the Church was regarded as a convenient
instrument for the attainment of political power the
;

priesthood were devoted to the practice of nameless

vices; the people to indiscriminate libertinage. A
large body of slaves, who, under the lash of brutal
masters, still preserved the traditions of liberty, were
ripe for revolt, and longed for the day of their de-
liverance. A disastrous famine, followed by its usual
successor the pestilence, and whose effects were still

apparent in untilled fields and deserted hamlets, had

contributed to increase the popular suffering and dis-
content. Fortified on one side against the incursions
of the Franks by the natural rampart of the Pyrenees,
and isolated on the others by the Mediterranean and
the ocean, the inhabitants of the Peninsula, in the
enjoyment of a salubrious climate and fruitful soil,
rested in fancied security, and had long since laid
aside the armor whose weight had become oppressive,
and abandoned those warlike exercises whose preser-
vation was their only safeguard.
Incited by a spirit of desperation which considered
neither the consequences of his acts nor the means by
which they were to be accomplished, Count Julian
sought the presence of Musa. He found the Moslem
general at Kairoan, which had been selected as the
seat of the viceregal government of Western Africa.
The intrepid character of his visitor was not unknown
to the great Arab soldier whose designs upon Ceuta
had been twice frustrated, by the valiant Greek, after
the employment of all the resources at the command
of the Khali f, and Count Julian was received with
every token of honor and respect. Unfolding his
project, he descanted long and earnestly upon the
riches of the Gothic monarchy and the facility of its
 Moorish Empire in Europe 223

conquest. He explained the feuds and bitter feelings

engendered by disappointed ambition, by religious
persecution, by the seizure of hereditary estates, by
the sufferings of wounded pride. He expatiated on
the sense of injury experienced by the advocates
of hereditary descent, who considered the reigning
monarch of foreign lineage and inferior rank that
had justly incurred the odium of usurpation. He
portrayed in glowing terms the innumerable attrac-
tions of the country, its productive valleys, its crystal
streams, the medicinal value of its herbs and plants
to which magical virtues were attributed by popular
report, its mines, its fisheries, the precious spoil which
awaited the hand of the invader, the transcendent
beauty of its women. He described the effeminate
character of the inhabitants, enervated by idleness,
luxury, and sensual indulgence. Much of this infor-
mation was already familiar to Musa, but hitherto the
impassable barrier of the fortress defended by the
stubborn courage of the governor of Ceuta had
checked the aspirations of the Moslem commander;
nor had it been possible to even confirm the accuracy
of the wonderful tales which had been related con-
cerning Ghezirah-al-Andalus, or the Vandal Penin-
sula, as Spain was known to the Arabs.
Thoroughly appreciating the importance of the
proposal, the magnitude of the interests involved,
and the uncertainty which would attend the issue of
the expedition, and, at the same time, distrusting the
good faith of the Goth, Musa determined to obtain
the consent of the Khalif before returning a definite
answer. Despatches, with complete information, were
accordingly sent to Damascus. The reply of Al-
Walid, who then occupied the throne of the khalif ate,
was favorable; but he strongly advised the exercise
of caution, a recommendation entirely superfluous in
the case of a man of Musa's suspicious and crafty
224 History of the

disposition.Sending for Count Julian, Musa in-

formed him that he would be required to prove his

fidelity by heading a reconnoissance into the enemy's

country. The count accepted the condition with
alacrity; crossed the strait with a small detachment
of soldiers belonging to his garrison; ravaged the
coast in the neighborhood of Medina Sidonia burned
;

several churches destroyed the growing harvests, and

;

returned with considerable booty. Knowing his ally

to be now compromised beyond all hope of pardon,
and the trifling resistance encountered having appar-
ently demonstrated the feasibility of the enterprise,
Musa announced his willingness to negotiate. The
conditions of the compact which disposed of one of
the richestkingdoms of Europe have escaped the no-
tice of history. There is reason to believe, however,
that Count Julian was promised substantial pecuniary
remuneration in addition to the gratification of re-
venge; and that their hereditary estates were to be
restored to the family of Witiza, whose sons were
present at the conference, and whose brother Oppas
was not only privy to the conspiracy but was one of
its principal promoters. The keys of Ceuta were sur-
rendered, and Count Julian, having sworn allegiance
to the Khalif, was invested with a command in the
Moslem army.
The wary old veteran Musa was not yet satisfied,
and determined to send a second expedition, under
one of his own captains, to explore the Spanish coast.
He selected for this purpose one of his trusty freed-
men, Abu-Zarah-Tarif by name, who, embarking with
one hundred cavalry and three hundred infantry,
landed at Ghezirah-al-Khadra, now Algeziras, in July,
710. The incursion of Tarif differed little in its re-
sults from that of his predecessor, but confirmed the

representations of the latter, and proved beyond doubt

the defenceless condition of the Visigothic kingdom.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 225

Preparations for war were now made upon a larger

scale, but one which still could not contemplate the
overthrow of the monarchy in the incredibly short
period required to accomplish it, and which, indeed,
was designed only as a predatory expedition. The
command of the troops was given to Tarik-Ibn-
Zeyad, a Berber, whose red hair and light complexion
disclosed his descent from the Vandals. The similar
names of these two officers, both of whom were f reed-
men of Musa, have led to a confusion and mistaken
identity, which has greatly embarrassed the narratives
of both ancient chroniclers and modern historians.
Tarik was a soldier of approved experience, extraor-
dinary enterprise, and unflinching courage. His
army was one of the most motley forces which had
ever been assembled under the Moslem standard. The
number was comparatively insignificant, amounting
to only seven thousand, of whom but few were
cavalry. The bulk of the troops was composed of
Berbers savages of the Atlas Mountains,
fierce

proselytes reclaimed from fetichism by the policy

and eloquence of Musa among them being repre-
sentatives of the tribes of Ghomarah, Masmoudah,
and Zenetah, names destined to a cruel celebrity in
the subsequent history of Spain. Every nation whose
types chance, misfortune, the love of plunder, or the
spirit of adventure had impelled upon the African
coast,was represented in the ranks of the invaders;
descendants of the Vandals and the Goths; Bedouins
from the Hedjaz; political exiles from the far
Orient; conspirators from Syria; apostate Byzan-
tines who had renounced allegiance to the Emperor
of Constantinople and ;
a considerable body of Jews,
whose relations with their Spanish brethren rendered
them valuable auxiliaries, swelled the command of
Tarik. In the latter were adherents of every form
of religion, the adorer of fire, the worshipper of the
Vol. I. 15
226 History of the

stars, the Pagan votary of the gods of Olympus, the

orthodox and the heretic Christian. Each tribe was
marshalled under its respective banner, and the varied
nationality of the rank and file was equally displayed
in the widely diverse origin of the subordinate officers
Count Julian the renegade Greek, Tarik the Ber-
ber, Mugayth-al-Rumi the Goth, and Kaula-al-Ya-
hudi the Jew. Vessels for the passage of the strait
were furnished by Count Julian, who impressed such
merchantmen as lay at anchor in the ports under his
jurisdiction, the only ones obtainable; the number of
these, however, was so insufficient that the transporta-
tion of the army consumed several days. The Mos-
lems finally disembarked at the foot of an immense
promontory known to the ancient world as Calpe, but
which, rechristened by the Arabs Gebal-al-Tarik, the
Mountain of Tarik, has transmitted its new appella-
tion, almost unchanged, to future ages as the famous
Gibraltar. Scarcely had the invaders landed, when
they were attacked by the Goths under Theodomir,
that chieftain whose successful conduct of the naval
expedition during the reign of Egiza had induced
Roderick to invest him with the command of the
forces at his disposal. The ill-equipped and undis-
ciplined troops of the Gothic general at once disclosed
their inability to withstand the onset of the fiery horse-
men of the Desert, and Theodomir was compelled to
retreat. He sent, without delay, the alarming news
of the invasion to the King, revealing the universal
dismay with which this strange enemy was regarded,
"
in the following language: Our land has been in-
vaded by people whose name, country, and origin are
unknown to me. I cannot even tell thee whence they
came, whether they fell from the jskies or sprang from
the earth." This ominous despatch reached Roderick
before the walls of Pampeluna, which had recently
revolted against his authority. Whatever were his
 Moorish Empire in Europe 227

faults, the Gothic monarch was certainly not deficient

in courage and resolution. Raising the siege, he
hastened to Cordova, and devoted all his energies to
the assembling of an immense army for the defence
of the kingdom. Every resource was employed,
promises of amnesty, threats, bounties, and conscrip-
tion, until a hundred thousand men had been mus-
tered under the royal standard. But this great host
was formidable only in appearance. The levies of
which it was composed were wholly wanting in dis-
cipline and unaccustomed to the perils of warfare.
Their weapons were mainly implements whose use
was familiar in the practice of the peaceful arts of
husbandry. The rank and file, a tumultuous rabble
of slaves and hirelings, marched on foot. Horses
were few and expensive in the Peninsula; only the
nobles were mounted and to the deficiency of cavalry
;

among the Goths the Arab historians have largely

attributed the crushing reverses sustained by their
arms. To the unwieldy and disorderly character of
the Gothic army was added the secret and fatal in-
fluence of treason. Thousands had been enrolled to
defend the imperilled crown of Roderick, whose chief
desire was the transfer of that crown to a rival
dy-
nasty. Others, high in rank, had tendered their ser-
vices with the hope that, amidst the general confusion,
they might push their political fortunes and gratify
an inordinate ambition. The imperative necessity of
the occasion had compelled the enlistment of the
leaders of the hostile faction who had been
injured
beyond reparation, and whom it was equally danger-
ous to trust or further to offend. At the head of
these were the sons and brothers of Witiza, who, Avhile
they repulsed the conciliatory overtures of Roderick,
eagerly accepted a command which might promote
their schemes of vengeance. Scores of those belong-
ing to the noble and ecclesiastical orders, and the Jews
228 History or the

to a man, inflamed with revenge and hatred, were in

daily communication with the head-quarters of the
enemy. The jealousy of rival commanders tended
stillfurther to impair the efficiency of the Christians,
whose feuds and discontent being well known to their
adversaries had a tendency to inspire the latter with
a well-grounded hope of victory.
In the mean time, Tarik had seized and occupied
the ancient town of Carte j a, and, fortifying himself
securely, sent foraging expeditions far and wide
throughout the surrounding country. These were,
without exception, successful, and the rapid move-
ments of the Arab cavalry, their seemingly invincible
character, and the valuable booty they secured, not
only struck terror into the astonished natives, but
greatly encouraged the main body of the invading
army, encamped under the shadow of Gibraltar. The
emissaries and secret allies of Tarik, who swarmed in
the court and camp of Roderick, lost no time in ap-
prising him of the preparations being made for his
destruction. Alarmed by the accounts he received,
he despatched a messenger to Musa for reinforce-
ments. A detachment of five thousand Berber cav-
alry was sent to his aid, which with the remainder
of his troops amounted to twelve thousand veterans;
a mere handful when compared with the army of the
Goths, but composed of warriors inured to privation,
accustomed to conquer, inflamed with religious zeal,
and bearing a devoted and unswerving attachment to
their commander.
On the morning of a beautiful July day, in the
year 711, the beginning of an era most notable in
the annals of Spain, the hostile armies faced each
other nearLake La Janda, upon the rolling plains
of Medina- Sidonia. The Moors, flushed with the
uniform success which had hitherto attended their
arms, relying upon the dissensions of the enemy as
 Moorish Empire in Europe 229

much as upon their ownand impatient for the

valor,
conflict, appeared in glittering mail, wearing snowy
turbans, and equipped with sword and lance; while
over their shoulders was suspended the Arabian bow,
whose shafts, like those of the Parthian, made the
archer all the more formidable in retreat. The Moor-
ish general, after performing the rites of his faith,
addressed his soldiers in a few stirring and well-chosen
words. With consummate skill, he availed himself
of the strongest passions which control humanity,
avarice, military glory, the love of woman, the price-
less rewards of religious constancy. He revealed to
them a dream, in which the Prophet had announced
that the issue of the conflict would be favorable to
the adherents of Islam, and which portended the con-
fusion of the infidel. He placed before them their
desperate position, where defeat implied annihilation,
and victory was the only hope. He exhorted them to
banish all thought of fear, and to rely upon their
courage tested upon many fields of battle. He
pictured in burning language the attractions of the
country and the matchless charms of the Gothic
houris who inhabited it. He repeated the passages
of the Koran which promised that all the martyrs
who fell in battle would at once receive the reward
of their devotion amidst the ineffable delights of
Paradise.
Upon the other hand, the bribes, the appeals, and
the threats of Roderick had brought together the en-
power of the Gothic monarchy.
tire available military
The King, surrounded by his nobles and escorted by
his guards, displayed all the pomp and splendor of
the Orient. He was borne to the front by white mules,
upon a litter of ivory richly inlaid with silver, and
sheltered by a canopy of many-colored a purplesilk ;

cloak covered his shoulders, upon his head was the

royal diadem, and his robes of cloth of gold were
230 History of the

enriched with priceless jewels. The devices of the

nobles marked the order of the various divisions,
and in the rear was led a train of many thousand
beasts of burden whose only loads were ropes with
which to bind the prisoners. The details of the battle
which changed the destiny of Western Europe are un-
usually meagre, even for the unlettered and credulous
age in which it occurred. It seems to have consisted
of a series of indecisive skirmishes which lasted eight
days, during which time the two armies traversed a
distance of twenty miles, to the neighborhood of the
modern city of Jerez de la Frontera. Here, with
amazing ignorance, or with fatal disregard of the
elementary rules of military tactics, the Goths took
up their position with the river Guadalete in their
rear. Upon the final charge of the Arabs, the treason
of the former partisans of Witiza became apparent.
A large body of nobles with their retainers openly
deserted a panic ensued and the vast array took to
; ;

headlong flight. Pressing forward with the shrill

war-cry of the Moslem, which struck terror into the
defeated Goths, the Moorish squadrons drove the
enemy into the rapid waters of the Guadalete. The
carnage was terrible. Exasperated by days of fight-
ing, and haunted by the constant jeopardy of servi-
tude and death, the soldiers of Tarik gave no quarter.
The ground was heaped with corpses. The channel
of the river was choked with the dead and dying, with
horses, and chariots, and camp equipage, with treas-
ures which the fugitives vainly tried to save. Of the
invaders, three thousand are said to have fallen, but
no computation was made of the loss of the Goths.
The remnants of the army which escaped the swords
of the Arabs were pursued to the very gates of the
neighboring cities. Many were cut to pieces before
they could reach a place of safety; and finally,
satiated with blood, the conquerors found upon
 Moorish Empire in Europe 231

their hands a great number of prisoners whom the

ropes which they themselves had provided now
served to secure. The war-horse of Roderick
covered with trappings of great value was taken,
but no trace remained of the King. One of his
sandals, encrusted with rubies and emeralds, was
found on the bank of the river, which would seem
to indicate that he perished by drowning; but his

body was never recovered, and his fate is a mystery;

notwithstanding that Spanish romance and monkish
credulity have invested his disappearance with many
extravagant legends, attested by a formidable array
of ecclesiastical evidence. The booty which fell into
the hands of the Moslems was incalculable. The
number of horses taken was so large that the entire
army was mounted, thereby adding greatly to its effi-
ciency. The housings of these animals whose pos-
session among the Goths implied the enjoyment of
rank and fortune were of the costliest description;
many of the finest chargers were shod with silver or
gold. The Gothic nobles, rather accustomed to vie
with each other in the service of their tables, the size
of their retinues, and the magnificence of their equi-
pages than in valor and military knowledge, and little
dreaming of the result, had brought with them their
most valuable possessions in plate and jewels. Their
love of ostentation caused them to surround them-
selves with multitudes of slaves, whose daily broils

kept the camp in a continuous uproar, and between

whom and the enemy existed a secret understanding,
whose effects were fearfully manifested in the hour
of disaster. All of this wealth, together with the
ornaments and insignia of the royal household, be-
came the spoil of the conqueror. The fifth, which
according to the law of Islam belonged to the Khalif ,

having; been set aside, the remainder was divided on

the field, amidst the tumultuous acclamations of the
exultant soldiery.
232 History of the

The battle of the Guadalete is justly ranked with

the great and decisive victories of the world. Indeed,
if we consider the relative number of the combatants,
the duration of the action, and the importance of its
results, it has no parallel in the annals of warfare.
While the intrigues of unscrupulous factions con-
tributed largely to the success of the Arabs, the fact
must not be lost sight of, that the numbers of the
latter were scarcely appreciable when compared with
the vast masses of their antagonists, and that they
labored under the additional disadvantage of fight-
ing in the enemy's country. As to generalship, none
could have been displayed on either side. The Mos-
lems were little better than banditti, commanded by
barbarians and renegades whose sole military experi-
ence had been acquired by predatory raids in the
African Desert. The Goths, idle and effeminate
in life, debilitated in body, cowardly, debased, and

wholly unused to arms, were dominated by inordinate

vanity and filled with contempt for their opponents.
The tyranny, excesses, and arbitrary acts of Witiza
having caused the exclusion of his posterity from the
throne, the partisans of the latter were willing to
sacrifice their country and their religion to insure the
overthrow of the usurper and to satisfy their insa-
tiable cravings for revenge.
Thus fell the enfeebled and tottering monarchy of
the Goths. It had long survived its glory and its
prestige. The severe political maxims of its founders,
suited to the frigid regions of the Baltic, had been
found incompatible with the physical and moral con-
ditionsimposed by the voluptuous climate of Bsetica
and Lusitania. Undermined by the vices of the no-
bility,by the turbulent ambition of the priesthood,
by the treasonable machinations of the Jews, and by
the supine indifference of the masses to any fate
provided only that it involved a change of masters
 Moorish Empire in Europe 233

the shock of a determined enemy swept it from

first

the face of the earth. In its stead arose a new em-

pire and a strange dynasty of exotic origin, foreign
alike in dress, in laws, in customs, in constitution, in

religion. Far from being uncongenial, the mete-

orological conditions of the semi-tropical Peninsula,

which have insensibly determined the manners, the
policy, and the fate of so many races, were
emi-
nently favorable to the highest intellectual develop-
ment of its people. Through the wise and noble
ambition of its rulers was established that universal
culture which made Cordova the intellectual centre
from whence diverged those rays of light which illu-
mined the darkness of the mediaeval world. From the
genius of its statesmen, the skill of its generals, and
the prowess of armies arose that constant appre-
its

hension of impending disaster, a portentous shadow,

which, hanging over Europe like the imperfectly de-
fined outlines of a gigantic spectre, threatened for
centuries the overthrow of the Seat of St. Peter, and
the destruction of that system of faith which had
risen upon the ruins of Pagan idolatry and super-
stition.
Great and wide-spread was the consternation which
seized the Goths after the rout of the Guadalete. The
entire resources of the kingdom had been staked and
lost. The sovereign had mysteriously disappeared.
In the carnage of the field, and in that which had
accompanied the still more disastrous retreat, the
nobility had suffered so greatly that few, if any, of
its members who were eligible to the throne had sur-

vived or remained at liberty. The sacred profession

of the priesthood, which had encouraged by its pres-
ence and exhortations the flagging spirits of the
soldiery, had not been able to protect them
from
the edge of the Moorish scimetar. The hatred and
fanaticism of the invaders were aroused to frenzy by
234 History of the

the sight of the vestments and insignia of the Church,

and even the most venerable prelates were massacred ;

for the ferocious Moslem gave no quarter to the

ministers of Christianity, and disdained even the
menial services of those who had denounced to eter-
nal perdition the followers of the Prophet. The
accumulated wealth of generations, which the vanity
and ostentation of the palatines had exhibited at the
court, on the march, and in the camp, had been swept
into the coffers of the victor. The fugitives who
were so fortunate as to escape took refuge in the
neighboring cities; whither they were soon followed
by the peasantry, who beheld with dismay the sight
of their burning homes and desolated fields. In one
engagement, and virtually in a single day, one of the
most populous and opulent countries of Europe had
succumbed to the impetuous but desultory attack of
an unknown foe. For the space of two centuries, and
under far less favorable circumstances, the Cartha-
ginian and Iberian provinces of the Peninsula had
successfully defied the resources and the prestige of
the Roman arms. For three centuries longer, the
Visigoths, relying upon the traditions and military
fame of their ancestors, had protected, without diffi-
culty, their possessions wrested from the feeble hands
of the Caesars, and had repeatedly rolled back the tide
of Frankish invasion from the slopes of the Pyrenees.
With the advent of overwhelming national mis-
fortune, there fell upon the terror-stricken people
the apathy of despair. The public wretchedness
was augmented by the censures of the clergy, who,
with characteristic effrontery, declared the invasion
to be a divine punishment for the crimes of the
wicked; crimes in which they themselves had not
only participated, but by their shameless conduct
had obtained an infamous pre-eminence in an age
of unprecedented corruption.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 235

The Moslems under the lead of the enterprising

Tarik, who displayed the talents of a skilful general
in his ability to profit by every advantage, lost no time
in securing the fruits of victory. From the army
now a compact and active body of cavalry were sent
in all directions detachments to cut off straggling

parties of the enemy, and to capture supplies destined

for the overcrowded cities already threatened with the
horrors of starvation.
Tidings of the wonderful success upon the plains
of Jerez soon spread far and wide through the towns
and provinces of Africa. Animated by the hope of
plunder and glory, the Moslems, many of them aban-
doning their homes and making use of every available
craft to cross the strait, flocked by thousands to the
standard of Tarik. The latter, after thoroughly re-
organizing his new recruits, and appointing to the
command officers of tried fidelity and experience, took
Sidonia. Thestrongly fortified city of Carmona next
claimed his attention. As its reduction by the slow
process of a siege was out of the question with
the
resources at his command, resort was had to stratagem.
A squadron of the retainers of Count Julian, headed
by that worthy in person, and apparently pursued by
a body of the enemy, appeared before the walls.
Shelter was at once given the fugitives, who in the
dead of night killed the sentinels and opened the gates
to the enemy. Thence Tarik advanced upon Ecija,
where the greater portion of the survivors of the battle
of the Guadalete had taken refuge. The Goths, dis-
daining the protection of their defences, and nerved
to despairby their situation, which involved the alter-
native of slavery or famine, boldly encountered the
Moslems in the field. The action was hotly contested,
and although the loss sustained by the invaders was
greater, in proportion to thenumber of combatants
engaged, than any suffered during the Conquest, the
236 History or the

Goths were in the end defeated, and the city taken.

Ecija swarmed with members of the monastic orders,
and the nuns, who largely predominated, were famous
for their beauty. The prospect of the infidel harem
filled thesepious virgins with horror; and they
adopted the heroic expedient of mutilating their
features, hoping by the sacrifice of their charms to
preserve both their honor and their lives. The com-
passion of the Moslem freebooter, infuriated by this
attempt to deprive him of his prey, was not moved
by the evidences of saintly devotion; the sight of a
conventual habit became the signal for outrage death ;

followed fast upon violence; and many hundreds of

the self-mutilated spouses of Christ received the crown
of martyrdom.
In the mean time, Musa had forwarded despatches
to Damascus announcing the victory, but, actuated by
the petty jealousy which formed such a prominent
feature of his character, he carefully concealed from
the Khalif the name of the successful commander.
Having formed the determination to cross over to
Spain and conduct the campaign in person, he sent
peremptory orders to Tarik not to advance farther
until he arrived. But
the hero of the Guadalete, fully
alive to the importance of affording the enemy no

opportunity for rest and reorganization, and advised

by Count Julian to march at once on Toledo, was of
the opinion that the interests of his sovereign, as well
as his own fortunes, would be promoted by disobedi-
ence of the commands of his superior. He therefore
paraded his troops, and after enjoining them to make
war only upon those actually in arms, to leave all
non-combatants unmolested, and scrupulously to re-
spect the religious prejudices of the people, set out
for Cordova at the head of a numerous army. The
latter citywas strong and well defended, and Tarik,
after nine days, seeing that the siege would probably
 Moorish Empiee in Europe 237

be of long duration, left its conduct to his lieu-

tenant, Mugayth-al-Rumi, and moved without delay
upon Toledo. The governor of Cordova, who was
of the royal blood of the Goths, and a brave and
determined officer, inspirited by the departure of the
main body of the enemy, made no question of his
ability to defend the city against a force not greatly
exceeding his own in numbers. But the good fortune
which seemed to attend the Moslems upon every occa-
sion did not desert them in the present emergency.
Information was soon brought to Mugayth-al-Rumi
of a weak point in the fortifications which might be
scaled. Aided by a dark night and the noise made
by a storm of hail, a detachment crossed the river
under the guidance of a shepherd, and reached the
place which had been indicated. A
fig-tree which
stood near the wall was mounted by an active soldier,
who, unrolling his turban, drew up several of his com-
rades, who occupied the battlements without resist-
ance; for the severity of the tempest had driven the
sentries from Proceeding quietly and
their posts.

rapidly through the streets, the guard at the gates

was surprised and cut to pieces, the army was ad-
mitted, and by daybreak the city was in the hands
of the Moslems. The governor, with four hundred
of the garrison, fled to the church of St. George,
which stood outside the western wall, and being sur-
rounded by a moat and supplied with water by a sub-
terranean conduit from a spring in the neighboring
mountains, offered all the obstacles of a fortress whose
towers and barbicans could bid defiance to an enemy
destitute of military engines and ignorant of the
mode of conducting a siege. For a considerable time
the Goths repulsed the attacks of the band of Mu-
gayth-al-Rumi, until at last, after diligent search, the
source of the water-supply having been discovered
and the aqueduct cut, the besieged, reduced to ex-
238 History of the

tremity, were compelled to surrender. The majority

of the garrison were permitted to join their country-
men in the North, but the officers and the governor
who was a personage of too great importance to
be set at liberty were retained in the camp of the
victor.
Before leaving Ecija, Tarik had sent one of his
officers,Zeyd-Ibn-Kesade, at the head of a consider-
able force, to overrun the southern portion of Anda-
lusia. In this region, as elsewhere, the mysterious
terror which attended the exploits of the invaders
had preceded them. Baja, Antequera, Elvira, and
the adjoining districts yielded almost without resist-
ance, but Granada, relying upon its fortifications,
refused to accept the proffered terms and was carried
by storm. The
small number of the Moslems ren-
dered impossible for them to leave garrisons in
it

the captured towns, and the most important of the

latter were placed in charge of Arab governors, with
whom the Jews, who seemed to have thriven under
persecution, engaged themselves to co-operate. So
numerous was the Hebrew element in Granada that
it was practically a Jewish
community, and, with its
aid, a single company was sufficient to hold in sub-

jection a city of nearly a hundred thousand souls.

Having accomplished the object of his expedition
with trifling loss, loaded with rich booty, and accom-
panied by innumerable slaves of both sexes, Zeyd,
sacking Jaen on his way, hastened to join Tarik at
Toledo.
Eight months had elapsed since the battle of the
Guadalete before the Moslem army appeared before
the gates of the Visigothic capital. Perched upon a
lofty eminence, and almost surrounded by the Tagus,
whose current ran swiftly through a deep channel
worn in the living rock, art had combined with nature
to render its position impregnable. Walls built of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 239

stones of almost cyclopean dimensions environed it,

and rose to a great height even on the side towards
the river, where the precipitous cliffs themselves dis-
couraged all attempts at escalade. The approach
from the north had been protected by barbicans and
outworks of double strength. These defences had
been designed and perfected by Wamba, the last of
the Gothic kings whose martial genius had, for a
brief period, revived the glorious traditions and long
forgotten exploits of the ancient dynasty. The im-
perial capital, a citadel in itself, where all the resources
of a vast monarchy had been lavished and all the
knowledge of military engineering of the age had
been employed to insure the safety of the court, now
trembled in the presence of a few thousand roving
barbarians. The dread which was associated with the
unknown enemy was augmented by the rapidity of
his movements, which to the superstitious fears of the

Visigoths made him appear ubiquitous. A

sufficient

military force had been available to defend this fort-

ress, but the sentiments of patriotism, loyalty, and

courage, so essential to the preservation of obedience

and discipline, had disappeared. Instead of pre-
paring for resistance, each individual thought only
of his own preservation, when news arrived that the
foe was approaching. The majority of the citizens,
leaving their possessions, fled to Galicia and the As-
turias. The lawless soldiers of the garrison pillaged
the deserted houses, and stripped without hindrance
the defenceless fugitives. The clergy, considering the
evil as only temporary, walled up the treasures of

chapel and convent in crypts, where to-day the

greater portion of them still remain undiscovered.
The primate, laden with the most precious effects of
the churches, and leaving his ecclesiastical inferiors to
contend for the prize of martyrdom offered by the
infidel, accompanied his terrified parishioners in their
240 History of the

flight,nor did he arrest his steps until safe within the

walls of Rome. A
disorderly rabble of priests and
monks, actuated either by faith or indolence, remain-
ing at their posts, endeavored to avert the impending
calamity by fasting, prayer, and pilgrimage to the
innumerable shrines situated both within and without
the city. Unfortunately, however, no divine response
was vouchsafed to these last frantic efforts of a
despairing hierarchy. The waving pennons and
sparkling lances of the Arab cavalry appeared in the
distance, and their light and active squadrons swept
around the walls. The fields were laid waste. The
convents and the villas which embellished the suburbs
were razed to the ground or burnt. Every unlucky
straggler was compelled, at the point of the sword,
to renounce the religion of his fathers or submit to
the fate of a slave. In a town deserted by its garri-
son, half depopulated, without provisions, deprived
of every prospect of relief, and principally occupied
by non-combatants and Jews who were in sympathy
with the enemy, no idea of resistance could be enter-
tained. The usual conditions offered by the Moslems
were eagerly accepted. All had permission to retire
who desired to do so, with the understanding that such
abandonment of their homes involved a forfeiture of
every description of property. Those who preferred
to remain were assured of protection, under payment
of a reasonable tribute. Both Jews and Christians
were indulged in the practice of their religious rites;
but half of the churches were confiscated for the use
of Islam, and no new houses of worship could be con-
structed without permission of the government. The
tributaries were left subject to their own laws, en-
forced by their own tribunals, as long as these did not
conflict with the policy of the dominant power. No
impediments to proselytism were tolerated, and severe
punishment was denounced against such as should
 Moorish Empire in Europe 241

offer intimidation or insult to Christian

renegades.
Such were the terms imposed upon the inhabitants
of the Peninsula by the generous policy of the con-
queror; a pleasing contrast to the brutality of the
barbarians, the duplicity of Carthage, and the avarice
and selfishness of Rome.
Notwithstanding the most valuable treasures of the
imperial capital had been carried away by the fleeing
population, the plunder secured by the Moslems was
immense, and even their rapacity, ordinarily insatiable,
was for once appeased. The variety and number of
the precious objects which met their bewildered gaze
was so great, that the rude warriors of the Atlas not
infrequently turned aside from the splendid vestments
and jewel-studded furniture destined for the service
of the Church, to more portable and gorgeous baubles
which caught their momentary fancy. It is related by
the most accurate of the Christian and Moorish chron-
iclers, that two Berbers, having found an altar-cloth
of gold brocade enriched with rows of hyacinths and
emeralds which was too heavy for them to carry, cut
out that portion containing the jewels and rejected
the balance as worthless. Another, who had secured
a golden vase filled with pearls, kept the precious
receptacle, but, ignorant of their value, cast away
its contents. In the cathedral were found many votive
crowns of gold, each inscribed with the name of a
Gothic king. The confusion incident to a hasty
flight had left in the religious houses of every de-

scription a vast amount of wealth, which fell into the

hands of the conqueror. An apartment was dis-
covered in the palace occupied by Tarik which was
literally filled with the treasures and royal insignia
of the various dynasties which had for ages swayed
the fortunes of the Visigothic monarchy. Chains and
diadems, urns and uncut jewels, sceptres, richly deco-
rated weapons, costly armor, robes of cloth of gold,
Vol. I. 16
242 History of the

have been enumerated among the spoil by the his-

torians of the time by the Christian, with regret and
;

shame, by the Mohammedan, with all the exultation

of victory.
After the surrender of the capital, Tarik, leaving
the city in charge of his faithful adherents, the Jews,
at once advanced northward in pursuit of the retreat-

ing Goths. The latter, in every instance when it was

possible, upon the appearance of the cloud of tur-
baned horsemen, abandoned their burdens and took
refuge in the mountain fastnesses. Overtaking a
body of fugitives a short distance beyond Toledo,
Tarik captured a magnificent table, or lectern used
to support the Gospels which had belonged to the
cathedral whose origin the romantic credulity of that
;

age attributed to Solomon, and supposed to be a por-

tion of the booty brought by Titus from the sack of
Jerusalem; but which more reliable accounts have
demonstrated to have been the handiwork of Visi-
gothic artisans. The body and framework of this
precious jewel were of the purest gold. Into it were
inserted alternate rows of hyacinths, rubies, pearls,
and emeralds, and, as it was the custom of each mon-
arch to contribute something to its embellishment,
royal emulation had exhausted itself to surpass the
efforts of preceding reigns in the decoration of an
object whose sanctity made it more priceless in the
eyes of the superstitious than even the inestimable
value of its materials and ornamentation. It stood
upon four feet, the latter being so encrusted with
emeralds as to convey the impression that each was
formed of a single stone. This table, whose estimated
value was five hundred thousand crowns, and which
has been described with such exaggeration as to have
even aroused the doubts of historical critics concern-
ing its existence, was set aside with the portion of the
spoil destined for the Khali f.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 243

The capture of Toledo was the last important ex-

ploit of the Berber general, whose success could not
atone for the gross insubordination of which he was
guilty. A few other cities had been taken, a large
area of territory had been ravaged, when the news
of the approach of Musa, and the anticipation of his
commander's wrath, suddenly checked the career of
Tarik in the full flush of conquest and glory.
The fame and popularity of the latter as well as
the report of the vast riches amassed by him had
excited, to the full measure of their malignity, the
envy and the hatred of Musa. The adventurers who
had hastened to Iberia to serve under the standard
of Tarik had depleted the garrisons of Africa, and
it was fourteen months after the main expedition had

sailed before Musa was able to muster a sufficient

force to take the field in person. Crossing the strait
with a numerous body of troops which included
representatives of the most distinguished families of
Arabia, many of whom had enjoyed the rare dis-
tinction of being friends of the Companions of the

Prophet, as well as the flower of the African sol-

diery he disembarked at Ghezirah-al-Khadra. His
jealousy of the success of Tarik, and the certainty
that the Berbers had left no city or hamlet unplun-
dered in their march, led Musa to desire to proceed
to Toledo by a different route. Informed of his wish,
his guides promised to gratify him, and place within
his power cities of far greater extent and magnificence
than those which had submitted to his rebellious lieu-
tenant. They conducted him first to Carmona, which,
like most of the other towns of Andalusia, had cast
off the Moslem yoke as soon as the departure of
the army of Tarik had inspired its inhabitants with
confidence; and this well-fortified place, despite its

strength, seems to have at once yielded to the sum-

mons of the invader. Seville, then as now one of the
244 History of the

largest, wealthiest, and most beautiful cities of Spain,

was next besieged. One month sufficed to reduce it,
but not without many bloody engagements, in which
the Moslems sustained considerable loss. A
garrison
was left in the citadel, and Musa marched upon
Merida, famous from the days of the Romans for its
massive fortifications, its imposing public works, and
the architectural grandeur and richness of its temples.
Founded by the veterans of Augustus, and honored
with his name, Merida still retained, in the eighth
century, a few of the stupendous memorials of her
pristine splendor, which nearly three hundred years
before had so impressed the astonished barbarians of
Germany, and now exerted their awe-inspiring in-
fluence upon the simple and superstitious tribesmen
of Africa and Arabia. The partiality of the Roman
emperors had lavished upon this provincial capital
treasures that had enabled its citizens to raise
structures rivalling those of Rome itself. Bridges,
of such extraordinary length and huge proportions
as to almost defy the efforts of modern science to
demolish them, crossed the sandy bed of the sluggish
Guadiana. Aqueducts, suspended upon tiers of
graceful arches, traversed, high in air, the popu-
lous and highly cultivated plain. Monuments of
the reigns of Hadrian and Trajan spanned the
streets and towered in the forum. In the suburbs
stood the theatre, the circus, and the naumachia;
buildings worthy of the taste and grandeur of any
city of the empire. The population was one of the
most prosperous and opulent in the kingdom. The
archiepiscopal see of Merida vied in dignity
and in-
fluence with the primacy of Toledo. It had not been
many years since the vassals and slaves of the metro-
politan, to the number
of nearly a thousand, glitter-
ing with jewels and cloth of gold, had dazzled the
eyes of the populace, and excited the envy of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 245

nobles, while participating in the ceremonial pag-

eantry of the Church exhibitions so well adapted
to impress the beholder with the greatness, the pomp,
and the resources of ecclesiastical power. Well might
the enthusiasm of the predatory Arab be excited by
the architectural magnificence and historic souvenirs of
the far-famed capital of Lusitania ! While the gigan-
tic proportions of its edifices called forth his admira-

tion, and led him to attribute their erection to giants

and demons, his avarice was, at the same time, stimu-
lated by the thought of the booty to be obtained by the
pillage of a place of such extent and importance. But
the inhabitants, worthy of the renown of their an-
cestors, and undismayed by the sudden appearance
of an unknown foe, did not hesitate to engage him
on equal terms. A series of combats followed, in
which the valor of the besieged acquired for them a
temporary advantage. In the face of such deter-
mined resistance, and wholly unacquainted with the
methods of carrying on a siege, the Moslems began
to falter. But their veteran commander, confident
in his skill, now brought to bear the experience which
he had acquired in many hard-fought campaigns in
Syria and Africa. The city was completely block-
aded. Every foraging party which issued from the
gates was intercepted and captured or cut to pieces.
The stratagems of Berber warfare were adopted to
the confusion of an intrepid but unwary enemy. De-
tachments which sallied forth to attack the besieging
lines were lured into ambush and annihilated. Mili-
tary engines familiar to that age were constructed,
but the activity and courage of the Visigoths were
such that, although breaches were made, no forlorn
hope could effect a lodgment within the fortifications ;

and one which succeeded in penetrating them a cir-

cumstance which gave to the place where it occurred
the suggestive name of the Tower of the Martyrs
246 History of the

was destroyed to a man. Each day, with the rising

of the sun, the battle was renewed, and Musa saw
with rage and apprehension his well-tried veterans
and the bravest of his officers perish before his eyes.
The fortifications appeared impregnable; and had it
not been for the opportune arrival of Abd-al-Aziz,
the son of the Arab general, with a reinforcement of
seven thousand cavalry and five thousand crossbow-
men, the Moslems would have been compelled to aban-
don the undertaking. Disheartened by this change
in their fortunes, and beginning to suffer from a
scarcity of provisions, the inhabitants of Merida now
made overtures for a surrender. Although in the
position of suppliants, the envoys provoked the re-
sentment of Musa by demeanor, and several
their
conferences were necessary before the citizens would
condescend to accept the usual terms of capitula-
tion. When all had been arranged and hostages de-
livered, the Moslem army took possession of the city.
Great wealth fell into the hands of the grasping
Musa, who appropriated as his slave Egilona, the
captive widow of Roderick, a princess whose sub-
sequent marriage to his son Abd-al-Aziz was the
source of many calamities to his family and nation.
The heroic defence of Merida had inspired with
the hope of freedom the cities of the South, upon
whom the Moslem yoke but recently imposed sat
lightly, and Seville, Malaga, Granada, and Jaen
rose simultaneously in revolt. The attention of
Musa was first Seville, the latest and
directed to
most valuable of his recent acquisitions. The rebels
of that city had massacred thirty men of the garri-
son and put the rest to flight, while the Jews, true
to the instincts of a people long degraded by servi-
tude, not only refused to assist their allies, but hast-
ened with cringing servility to make peace once more
with their old oppressors. For this defection, a ter-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 247

rible retribution was exacted. Abd-al-Aziz carried

the place by storm, and put to death without mercy
every Christian and Hebrew male who was found
within its walls. The Moslems, taught by experience
the imperative necessity of colonization, and being
now in sufficient numbers to justify a division of their
forces, placed a strong garrison in Seville; while the
confiscated lands were partitioned among the natives
of Arabia the Happy present with the invading army,
who hastened to take possession of the luxurious
estates of the Gothic merchants and nobility. This
was the first instance of the settlement of conquered
territory by the natives of a particular country, after-
wards so common under Mohammedan rule a stroke ;

of policy whose effects are to this day apparent in

the traditions, the dialects, the customs, and the popu-
lar superstitions of the different provinces of Spain.
Abd-al-Aziz easily reduced to obedience the remain-
ing rebelliouscities of Andalusia, which, colonized in
like manner, remained ever faithful to their allegi-
ance. Aportion of Murcia was also occupied; and
unusually advantageous terms were, at the surrender
of Orihuela, accorded to the Christians through the
address of the Gothic general Theodomir, whom,
after the death of Roderick, a faction of the Goths
had invested with the supreme command.
The authorities are so contradictory that it is im-

possible to ascertain how far into the enemy's country

Tarik penetrated after the capture of Toledo. It is
probable, however, that his operations were
mere in-
roads, destitute of historical importance. The spirit
of the nation was broken; its armies were scattered;
its leaders killed or enslaved; its capital in the hands

of the enemy. The subjugation of the Peninsula

was virtually ended, and the successful general could
well afford to rest upon his laurels and devise means
to avert the just indignation of his superior, provoked
248 History of the

by flagrant disobedience to his orders, an offence

which under the strict regulations of military law
was punishable with death.
The two captains met at Talavera, whither Tarik
in his anxiety had advanced, attended by his officers
and loaded with costly presents, the choicest spoil of
the Visigothic capital. The envious spirit of Musa,
however, was not to be appeased by gifts whose
splendor only served to suggest the greater value of
the plunder which he had lost. He assailed his in-
subordinate lieutenant with bitter reproaches, and,
forgetting the magnitude of his recent services, even
went so far as to remind him of his former servile
condition by him in the presence of the entire
striking
army. Then placing him under arrest, he hurried to
Toledo, and ordered him instantly to collect and de-
liver all the booty which had fallen into his hands at
the surrender of the city. Of the latter, the so-called
table of Solomon, whose fame had long before
reached Musa, was by far the most valuable. Tarik,
thoroughly cognizant of the baseness and injustice of
his commander, and suspecting that he would appro-

priate as his own the credit of this important prize,

with an astuteness worthy of his Berber origin, had
secretly removed one of its emerald-studded feet. In
this condition it was delivered to Musa, who, being
assured that it was thus mutilated when found, had
the missing foot replaced with one of gold; no jewels
of corresponding size being obtainable, although the
collections of individuals and the coffers of the Gothic

treasury were diligently ransacked for that purpose.

Musa, having secured the coveted booty, now deprived
Tarik of his command, and threw him into a dungeon.
The keen foresight of the Berber chieftain, who knew
that such a step was only the prelude to assassination,
did not abandon him in this trying emergency. Hav-
ing, through the mediation of his friends, succeeded
 Moorish Empire in Europe 249

in bribing a messenger whom Musa despatched to

Damascus, a special envoy was sent by the Khalif
ordering the immediate release of the illustrious cap-
tain and his restoration to authority. With uncon-
cealed reluctance Musa
complied with the orders
of his sovereign, and Tarik, relieved of his chains,
resumed his duties amidst the acclamations of the
troops. A temporary and apparent reconciliation
was effected between the antagonistic leaders, who
in public treated each other with courtesy, but in
whose hearts smouldered the inextinguishable fires
of mutual hatred, kindled by unpardonable wrong
and baffled enmity. With united forces, eager for
glory, they invaded Aragon. Each horseman was
provided with a small copper pot, a leathern bag
for provisions, and a bottle for water; the infantry
carried nothing but their arms. The camp equipage
was loaded on trains of pack-mules. Military and
political considerations required and enforced the
observance of the strictest discipline. Non-combat-
ants were unmolested. Pillage was forbidden under
pain of death, save in actual battle and during the
storming of cities. The religious prejudices of the
people were respected, and no property was destroyed
except when resistance or violence was offered the
troops. The province was overrun, and its capital,
Saragossa, taken and settled by adventurers from
Africa. Upon the inhabitants of this city Musa im-
posed a fine new in the annals of Islam, denominated
the Contribution of Blood, which was exacted before
the army entered the gates and exempted the con-
quered from annoyance. The Valley of the Ebro
pleased the colonists, who intermarried with the
people, and the governor, Hanash-Ibn-Ali, signal-
ized his administration by the erection of a splendid
mosque, vestiges of which still remain. Catalonia
and Valencia next submitted to the common fate, and
250 History of the

then the two generals, reversing their course, marched

to the wild region of the West where, among the mist-
enshrouded sierras of Galicia and the Asturias, the
remnant of the Visigothic nation, led by its honored
prelates and indomitable chieftains, had borne its
venerated relics and its household gods to lay under
;

such unpromising auspices the foundations of a far

grander and more powerful empire, destined in after
years to command the admiration and the terror of
the world.
The reports of Musa to the Khali f show that the
Arabs fully appreciated the value and importance of
"
their conquest. In the clearness of the sky and the
beauty of its landscape it resembles Syria in softness
;

of climate even Yemen is not its superior; in profu-

sion of flowers and delicacy of perfumes it suggests
the luxury of India; it rivals Egypt in the fertility
of its soil, and China in the variety and excellence of
its minerals," wrote the experienced veteran to whom

the wealth and resources of both Asia and Africa were

familiar. The multitude of captives acquired by the
"
Moslems struck the old general with surprise. It
is like the assembly of nations on the Day of Judg-

ment," he exclaimed; although he doubtless remem-

bered that Mauritania had yielded its prisoners by the
hundred thousand, and human chattels were so cheap
that it was not an unusual occurrence for an able-
bodied man to be sold in the bazaar of Kairoan for
a handful of pepper. A female merchant, who dealt
in trinkets and perfumes, left Toledo after its sur-
render with five hundred slaves in her train. Thirty
thousand Christian maidens, selected for their beauty,
were destined for the markets of the East. The Jews
especially reaped a rich harvest from
the misfortunes
of their former oppressors. Profiting by the igno-
rance of the soldiers, they purchased for trifling sums
the sacred utensils of the altar, the jewels which had
 Moorish Empire in Europe 251

graced the beauties of the court, and all the rich and
costly appliances of Gothic luxury. From the Sara-
cen conquest, with the enormous wealth it afTorded
them, dates the prominence subsequently attained by
the Hebrews in the political and financial affairs of
Europe.
The strange fatality which preserved for future
greatness and renown the broken fragments of the
Visigothic monarchy, even now at the very outset,
when it seemed inevitable that the entire Peninsula
should become Mohammedan, asserted its mysterious
power. Tarik had reached Astorga and Musa was
still at Lugo, when a
message was delivered from
the Khalif Al-Walid ordering both generals to re-
turn to Damascus. This step had been resolved upon,
not so much on account of the mutual hostility of
the two leaders which, manifested even in their de-
spatches, seriously impaired the prestige of the Mos-
lem arms and menaced the stability of the Moslem
conquests, as from fear lest the ambition of Musa
might lead him to usurp the sovereignty of the newly
acquired possessions. Prudential considerations also
prevented the appointment of Tarik as governor of
the Peninsula. His popularity was even greater than
that of Musa, and the remote situation of the con-
quered territory was but too favorable for the estab-
lishment of an independent monarchy, whose subjec-
tion in case of rebellion would be difficult, if not
impossible. The aspiring genius of the veteran com-
mander had formed a vast scheme of conquest, a
project so grand as at first sight to appear extrava-
gant, yet which, after careful examination, might be
considered far from impracticable. It was his wish to
emulate the example and surpass the achievement of
Hannibal by traversing Europe, and to meet before
the walls of Constantinople an army which could
co-operate with him in the siege and capture of the
252 History of the

Byzantine capital. Had this gigantic design been

4

realized, the domain of the Khalifate of Damascus

would have far exceeded the limits of the Roman
Empire. He had seen with what ease the Visigothic
kingdom, possessed of incalculable wealth, and ani-
mated by the military traditions of three centuries,
had been subverted in a day. The unprecedented
success of their recent military operations had in-
duced the fanatical and credulous soldiery to regard
themselves as the special favorites of Allah. It was
moreover a matter of common notoriety that the able
chieftain who had crushed, and then converted, the
hitherto independent tribes of the Libyan Desert and
the Atlas Mountains, and swept resistlessly over the
plains of the Peninsula, had, in campaigns which ex-
tended over an entire generation, never failed in an
enterprise or lost a battle. The very mention of a
crusade against the infidel roused the wildest passions
in the Moslem's heart. Unlimited treasure was avail-
able forany undertaking, however extensive; a con-
sideration of butlittle moment, however, with a force
accustomed to be paid in booty, and whose subsistence
was wrested from the enemy. The barbarian mon-
archy of France, perpetually vexed by internal dissen-
sions, was not likely to offer more serious impediments
to invasion than those which had vanished before the
tempest of the Guadalete. Was it then chimerical for
Musa to hope that, with the combined aid of his own
genius and the invincible prowess of his veterans, he
might add to the domains of the successor of Mo-
hammed the fairest regions of Europe, in the very
seat of the Papacy proclaim from the towers of the
Eternal City the doctrines of Islam, and, passing
eastward, exchange greetings upon the shores of the
Bosphorus with his friends and brethren of Syria?
This plan of conquest, doubtless suggested by the
invasion of the Carthaginian general, but which
 Moorish Empire in Europe 253

promised far more important results, owing to the

thoroughly disorganized condition of the provinces
once constituting the Roman Empire, an enterprise
worthy of the ambition and daring of any military
leader, was unhesitatingly condemned by the sus-
picious Khalif, who saw in its successful execution
the portentous menace of a rival monarchy. With
inexpressible grief and vexation, yet, to some degree,
sustained by the hope that a personal interview might
accomplish what written explanation had failed to do,
Musa prepared to obey the mandate of his sovereign.
In furtherance of this resolution, and to gratify a not
unreasonable vanity, he determined to parade before
the court and populace of Damascus the trophies of
Africa and Spain with a pomp proportionate to the
splendor of those conquests.
A general rendezvous was appointed at Seville, now
designated as the capital of the kingdom, by reason of
its proximity to the sea, and its ease of access to the

Moslem settlements of Africa. There were assembled

the spoil of palaces, the sacrilegious plunder of
churches, the booty of many a battle-field, the throngs
of noble captives, the insignia of fallen royalty.
Ponderous vehicles were constructed for the convey-
ance of this treasure, whose value for once exceeded
the wildest estimates of Oriental exaggeration. When
all was ready, Musa, having appointed his son Abd-
al-Aziz viceroy during his absence, crossed over to
Ceuta. In obedience to orders issued previously to
his arrival, every town of Al-Maghreb in the line of
march contributed its contingent to increase the mag-
nificence of the triumph. The fierce chieftains of
Mauritania trooped after the victor in the character
of warriors, proselytes, or slaves. Heaped in pictu-
resque confusion upon endless strings of camels were
the primitive spoils of the Desert rude weapons,
defensive armor, wearing apparel, and coarse trap-
254 History of the

pings upon which had been lavished all the resources

of barbaric decoration. Hundreds of the wild and
beautiful Kabyle maidens, selected for their superior
charms and fettered with chains of gold, toiled wearily
along the dusty roads which ultimately led to the dis-
tant harems of Syria. Four hundred Gothic nobles,
in whose veins coursed the royal blood, clothed in gor-

geous robes secured by golden girdles, and crowned

with diadems, represented the departed fortunes of
the dynasties of Iberia. Thirty wagons hardly suf-
ficed to convey the enormous quantities of gold, silver,
and precious stones objects of public ostentation,
private luxury, and personal adornment the gem-
encrusted receptacles of the Host, the costly vessels
of the mass, besides other and innumerable mementos
of the most finished efforts of Visigothic opulence and
Byzantine art. Among the guards of Musa, splen-
didly equipped, rode descendants of the proudest
families of the Koreish, and the most distinguished
officers of the Moslem army. In the rear of this brill-
iant cavalcade followed, to the number of more than
a hundred thousand, the less important captives taken
in the campaigns of Africa and Spain.
Arrived at Kairoan, Musa divided the government
of Africa among his three sons Abdallah, Abd-al-
Melik, and Abd-al-Ala, in the hope of perpetuating
in his family the authority which he realized that he
now held by an uncertain tenure, and then resumed his
journey.
Tidings of his approach having preceded him, the
wanderers of the Desert and the inhabitants of the
cities of the coast alike poured forth in countless mul-
titudes to do him honor. It was a strange and impres-
sive spectacle, one which had not been seen since the
laurel-crowned victor, preceded by his trophies and
his captives, had traversed the streets of Rome amid
the acclamations of the populace, to deposit his offer-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 255

ings upon the shrine of the Capitoline Jupiter. With

the progress of the triumphal procession the number
of curious spectators increased, reaching its culmina-
tion at Cairo, where the way was blocked by the teem-
ing myriads from the banks of the Nile. During the
course of the journey, Musa, elated beyond measure
by the adulation heaped upon him, was prompted to
the commission of an act of tyranny which seriously
prejudiced his fortunes. Desirous of neglecting no
opportunity of magnifying his importance, and ut-
terly unscrupulous in appropriating the credit due to
others, he demanded of Mugayth-al-Jtumi the cap-
tive governor of Cordova, whom the latter held as
his slave,and designed as a present to the Khalif.
Upon the refusal of that officer to comply with his
demand, Musa ordered the immediate execution of
the Gothic prince, and by this deed of violence and
injustice increased the enmity of Mugayth-al-Rumi,
whose sympathies had already been enlisted on the
side of Tarik, his friend and former comrade in arms.
Hardly had Musa passed the borders of Syria, when
there was placed in his hands a secret message from
Suleyman, heir presumptive of the Khalifate, an-
nouncing the fatal illness of his brother Al-Walid,
and desiring him not to advance further until he re-
ceived authentic information of the death of his sov-
ereign. Suleyman was induced to make this request,
not only on account of the prestige which his accession
to the throne would derive by the public exhibition of
the vast plunder of the nations of the West, but also
because the personal gifts presented to the family of
the Khalif, presumably of immense value, would be
lost to his successor. Musa, however, whose native
tact and shrewdness seem to have been diminished by
age and disappointment, paid no attention to the rep-
resentations of Suleyman; and without an hour's de-
lay marched on to Damascus. He entered the city on
256 History of the

Friday, and proceeding to the great mosque, where

Al-Walid was at prayer, entered at the head of the
captive nobles and chieftains, all of whom were clothed
in the costumes of their respective countries and
adorned with the insignia of their rank. After the
service the Khali f embraced Musa, clothed him with
his own robe, and presented him with fifty thousand
dinars, in addition to pensioning his sons and the most
worthy of his subordinates. The inferior captives
and the royal fifth were then placed in the custody
of the officers of the Treasury. The wonderful table
was, as Tarik had conjectured it would be, claimed
by Musa, who, on being interrogated concerning the
golden foot, declared it was in that condition when
he found it. Thereupon, Tarik, who was present, ad-
vanced, claimed the honor of the capture, and after
relating the stratagem he had practised, produced the
missing portion in corroboration of his testimony, to
the speechless rage and confusion of his rival. Al-
Walid, who estimated this work of art solely by the
value of its materials, caused the jewels to be removed,
and then sent the frame of the table as an offering to
the temple of Mecca.
Forty days after Musa's arrival at Damascus Al-
Walid died, and Suleyman ascended the throne. The
latter, notorious for the ferocity of his disposition and
the vulgarity and gluttony of his tastes, lost no time
in imposing upon Musa the full weight of his dis-
pleasure. The first judicial act of his administration
was the arraignment of the veteran general, now more
than eighty years of age. The evidence of corruption,
extortion, and tyranny, to which Musa could make but
a feeble defence, having been presented, he was f ound
guilty, sentenced to be stripped of his property, and
required to pay a fine of two hundred thousand pieces
of gold. In addition to this severe penalty, he was
also forced to remain chained to a post under a blazing
 Moorish Empire in Europe 257

sun, as a punishment for having publicly reproached

the Khalif for his ingratitude. Through the interces-
sion of friends hewas released after many hours of
torture,and permitted to retire from the court, accom-
panied by a single faithful slave. His remaining
years were passed in poverty; dependent upon alms,
he begged his bread from the Bedouin tribes, putting
aside every dirhem he could obtain to be applied to
the payment of his fine, until he died in abject wretch-
edness at Wada-al-Kora, a remote settlement of
Arabia. Such was the miserable end of one of the
greatest military leaders Islam ever produced. His
courage was dauntless, his sagacity almost amounted
to inspiration, his resources were inexhaustible. His
zeal,which bordered upon fanaticism, assured him of
the favor of Allah, and infused into his troops the
most unbounded confidence in his genius. The bursts
of his oratory rivalled in eloquence and enthusiasm
the rhetorical efforts of the greatest preachers of the
age. He
observed the ceremonial of his faith with
scrupulous diligence. His prudence and the accuracy
of his perceptions were proverbial. In all his experi-
ence, where he held command in person, no enemy
ever prevailed over him. His suspicious nature and
intuitive knowledge of mankind made him more than
a match for statesmen whose lives had been passed
in the atmosphere of courts. Increasing his wealth
by the most questionable methods, he excluded his
companions from all participation in his prosperity,
and under his incessant peculation the royal revenues
were sensibly diminished, an offence which more than
all others insured his ruin. Thus, in spite of his ex-
traordinary talents, his avarice whose gratification
no bond of friendship, no obligation of loyalty, no
precept of religion, and no fear of punishment could
restrain proved his destruction, and the famous com-
mander who had acquired kingdoms, and accumulated
Vol. I. 17
258 History of the

wealth which excited the envy of princes, died poor

and despised; an outcast in the centre of a barren
and lonely region far from the scenes of his glory,
and an object of curiosity and compassion to the
barbarian shepherds and brigands of the Desert. His-
tory is silent as to the fate of Tarik after the settle-
ment of his controversy with Musa. Had he been
prominent thereafter in either good or evil fortune,
it iscertain that the Arabian chroniclers would have
mentioned the fact. It is probable that he was per-
mitted to pass the remainder of his life in obscurity
and comfort, if not in luxury and it is beyond ques-
;

tion that he was not intrusted with any important em-

ployment; for the jealous court of Damascus feared
the ambition and the ability of the distinguished
general who had achieved the most splendid conquest
of his time. And thus disappeared from the stage
of the world the second of those noted characters to
whom was due the acquisition of the beautiful land
of Iberia by the crown of the Khalifate. Of Count
Julian, the third and last of them, whom the undis-
cerning prejudice of monkish writers and the ani-
mosity of churchman and Spaniard, intensified by
baffled ambition and injured pride, have for thirty-six

generations branded with the name of traitor, we

have accounts but little less unsatisfactory. His na-
tionality, his antecedents, his relations
to the Goths,
the origin of his appointment as governor of Ceuta,
the scope of his authority, his obligations to the court
of Toledo, are, for the most part, matters of con-
jecture. Even the story of the outrage to his family,
the immediate cause of his defection, though sup-
ported by the testimony of almost every Arab chron-
icler, has been disputed. There are excellent reasons
for presuming that he occupied the position of a mere
tributary of the King of the Visigoths, and had
voluntarily surrendered his daughter as a pledge of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 259

his fidelity.Under these circumstances his allegiance

could not have been deeply grounded; and his con-
duct appears under a less odious aspect than the
treason of an hereditary vassal would have done, espe-
cially when it is remembered that he was not the
aggressor. The general and unqualified abhorrence
with which his name is associated can be traced to
ecclesiastical writers, who have neglected no oppor-

tunity to blacken the character of every political

adversary, heretic, and apostate in the eyes of pos-
terity.
After the Conquest, Count Julian retired to Ceuta,
which city, with a portion of the contiguous territory,
was erected into a principality and bestowed upon him
as a reward for his services. Notwithstanding his in-
timate Mohammedan associations, he and his imme-
diate descendants remained steadfast in the Christian
faith. The preponderating influence of Islam was,
however, shown in the second generation of his de-
scendants; and his great-grandson Abu-Suleyman-
Ayub, who lived in the tenth century, and had studied
under the greatest doctors of the time, became famous
as one of the most acute and learned expounders of
Moslem jurisprudence. The posterity of Tarik was
known and esteemed for several centuries in Spain,
until his identity and remembrance were finally lost in
the civil wars and proscriptions which accompanied
the establishment of the dynasty of the Almohades.
The engagements entered into with their allies were
performed by the Moslems with scrupulous fidelity.
Oppas was rewarded with the government of Toledo.
The royal demesnes, amounting to three thousand of
the richest estates of the kingdom, were restored to
the House of Witiza. Many benefits at once resulted
to the masses from the Arab conquest. The condition
of the serfs was greatly improved. Tribute was regu-
lated by law, and ceased to be dependent upon the
260 History of the

capricious demands of avarice. The burdens of taxa-

tion were, however, still excessive the cultivator paid
;

four-fifths of the products of the land to the owner;

from those who the public domain which com-
tilled

prised a fifth part of the conquered territory one-

thir"d of the results of all manual industry was
exacted. The tax of the landed proprietor was ap-
proximately twenty per cent, of his income, that of
the tributary Christian varied from twelve to forty-
eight dirhems sixteen to sixty-four dollars a year.
A treaty, whose provisions determined the obligations
of lord and serf, of subject and sovereign, and
signed by Tarik and the representatives of the
Gothic nobility before the arrival of Musa, was sub-
sequently ratified by the government of Damascus.
Upon this treaty were based all the laws which gov-
erned the tributaries in the Peninsula during the long
period of Moslem dominion.
Less than fourteen months sufficed for the com-
plete and irrevocable overthrow of the Visigothic em-
pire. Within two years, the authority of the Moslem
was firmly established from the Mediterranean to the
Pyrenees. History presents no similar instance of
the celerity, the completeness, the permanence of con-
quest. Political discord, social disintegration, the un-
certainty of government, the insubordination of the
noble, the rapacity of the priest, the despair of the
slave, were among the most important aids to Moham-
medan success. The aspirations of all not included in
the privileged orders were repressed by the inexorable
tyranny of caste. The middle class, from whose exer-
tion and industry is necessarily derived the prosperity
of a nation, had long been absorbed by the vast body
of serfs whose labors contributed to the wealth, and
whose numbers swelled the retinues, of the palatine
and the bishop. The same conditions prevailed which
had three centuries before heralded the fall of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 261

Roman Empire. Force dominated everything. The

spirit of individual freedom, the most prominent
feature of the Teutonic constitution, had become
extinct. The royal prerogative was subordinated to
the claims of the nobility, the latter not, however,
without protest had fallen under the dominion of
the priesthood. The prospect of affluence, the enjoy-
ment of power, the indulgence of luxury, were most
easily obtained through the avenues of ecclesiastical
preferment. A long peace, attributable largely to
geographical isolation, had removed alike the neces-
sity for martial exercises and the incentives to mili-
tary distinction. Concentration of power, in spite of
apparent anarchy, in the end tending to the exercise
of absolute despotism, had become the controlling
principle of government. Yet all of these evidences
of national decadence are scarcely adequate to explain
the sudden collapse of a great monarchy. Disap-
pointed ambition, organized treason, the wholesale
defection of the Jews, contributed their weighty in-
fluence to hasten and complete the catastrophe.
Among the Visigoths, patriotism, a quality neces-
sarily dependent upon individual attachment to one's
country, was unknown. Public spirit had been sup-
planted by a thirst for authority, in the gratification
of which all moral considerations were ignored. The
facility with which the Peninsula was won offers a
suggestive contrast to the enormous difficulties which
attended its reconquest. The fate of the Visigothic
domination was determined in a week. After two
short years, nothing remained of its greatness but
the melancholy souvenirs of an enslaved people. The
conquerors, in their turn, underwent the same expe-
rience. The irreconcilable elements of which they
were composed, from the very beginning disclosed
the defects of their polity which portended inevitable
destruction. These elements were far more active
262 History of the

and dangerous than those that had undermined the

strength of the Gothic state. Nevertheless, it re-
quired many centuries of conflict to expel from
Western Europe the race whose light-armed horse-
men had, almost without resistance, swept the country
from Bsetica to Provence, from the mountains to the
sea.
Thus passed into the hands of another branch of
the Semitic race a country which, in former ages, had
long flourished under the rule of Tyre and Carthage.
Its attractions had been for centuries the theme of
every poet, its wealth the aim of every conqueror.
Despite repeated changes of government, invasions,
conspiracies, revolutions, in its inaccessible fastnesses,
its autochthons, the Basques, had preserved unim-
paired their liberty and their national characteristics,
a fate which distinguished them from all the other
nations of Europe. On the fields of the Peninsula
the most renowned soldiers of Rome had learned the
art of war. The highest civilization of the Teutonic
race had been attained in its cities. In its tribunals
the most complete system of jurisprudence the world
had until then known was perfected. The -dignity of
its ecclesiastical councils had maintained their inde-

pendence, and enabled the Spanish hierarchy to with-

stand alike the insidious plots and the aggressive usur-
pations of the Papacy. But, of the many races of
strangers which had established themselves within its
borders, none had been of such a pronounced and
original type as that which now occupied all but a
small corner of its ample domain. The causes which
led to, and the results which proceeded from, this
national catastrophe present one of the most curious
phases ofcivil organization and mental development.
That an exotic people should at one blow overturn
a monarchy of three centuries' duration is certainly
extraordinary. But that this same people, who pos-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 263

sessed nothing in common with the vanquished, no

acquaintance with the arts, no knowledge of civiliza-
tion, should, in a few years, found an empire whose
inhabitants had already become eminent in every ac-
complishment which renders nations learned, illustri-
ous, and powerful, and be able to take precedence of
all their contemporaries, is far more extraordinary.
For an extended period, the affairs of the Peninsula
had been ripe for a domestic upheaval. Little respect
remained among the masses for the traditions of a
monarchy once elective, now nominally hereditary,
but whose crown was always obtainable by purchase,
assassination, or intrigue. The piety of the priest-
hood had been supplanted by an insatiable thirst for
temporal power. In every part of the body politic
flourished antagonistic religious doctrines, racial prej-
udices, factious opinions, and discordant social in-
terests. The
military spirit had disappeared. The
authority of the civil magistrate was despised. The
enforcement of the laws was regulated according to
the rank and influence of the offender rather than
by the measure of his guilt. Rival candidates for the
throne contended for the glittering prize with all the
infamous arts of the conspirator and the demagogue.
Organized bands of robbers preyed upon the defence-
less ;
their chieftains, disdaining disguise, stalked
and
insolently through the streets of the great cities.
Boundless luxury and misgovernment had brought in
their train a degree of corruption which equalled that
caused by the worst excesses of the Caesars. The
labors of the husbandman for two successive seasons
had been fruitless, and hunger and disease in their
most fearful form contributed in no small degree to
the accumulated misery of the nation. In every com-
munity the members of a united and isolated sect
under the ban of sanguinary laws, yet still powerful
in intellect, in wealth, and in political craft, labored as
264 History of the

one manfor the humiliation of their enemies and their

own emancipation. At first the invasion was con-
sidered as a mere inroad, and no one supposed that
the occupation of the country would be permanent.
With the settlement of colonies, the opening of sea-
ports to the commerce of the East, the partition of
lands, and the erection of mosques, however, the Visi-
goths recognized the full extent of the calamity which
had befallen them. But the moderation of their new
rulerstempered the bitterness of defeat. The pay-
ment of tribute, proportioned to the degree of resist-
ance or obedience to the laws, insured protection to
the humblest peasant. The orthodox zealot was
allowed to perform the ceremonies of his ritual with-
out interference; the heretic could offer his petitions
without apprehension from the furious efforts of
sectarian hatred. Ecclesiastical dignitaries exercised
in peace the functions of their calling, and the
monkish chronicler penned fierce anathemas against
his indulgent masters within hearing of the call to
prayer from a hundred minarets. The accounts of
Catholic writers, in which the most flagrant outrages
are attributed to the Saracens, are manifestly exag-
gerations or falsehoods. Still, there can be no doubt
that the inevitable accidents of warfare were produc-
tive of much suffering. An inconsiderable number
of monks, whose clamors and insulting demeanor
made them conspicuously offensive, were martyred.
A few hundred nuns exchanged the orthodox com-
panionship of canons and bishops for the delights of
the seraglio. Fields of grain were given to the torch.
Magnificent villas were levelled with the ground.
Altars were despoiled of their treasures and sacred
relics trodden under foot. But no pledge of security
was violated and absolute immunity in person, prop-
;

erty, and religion was afforded by timely submission

a privilege appreciated by the majority of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 265

people, and contemned only by kitemperate fanatics

who cursed the generous enemy whose prosperity they
shared and whose indulgence they abused.
The ancient judicature was respected, and its regu-
lations, subordinated to the legal procedure of the
ruling power, were permitted to prevail among the
vanquished, so far as they did not directly conflict with
those of the Code of Islam. By its example of equity,
toleration, and mercy, the new government rapidly
gained the attachment of its subjects; the Jew pros-
pered, the Christian forgot his bigotry, and the slave
eagerly repeated the formula which released him from
bondage and placed him on an equality with kings.
In the dark recesses of the cloister, without knowl-
edge of the outer world, without gratitude for the
clemency which permitted him to live, without appre-
ciation of the increasing benefits of civilization, the
surly friar, alone in his malice and his ignorance,
nourished a spirit of sullen animosity, and with
scourge and haircloth performed his frequent pen-
ance; listening, with a vague foreboding of even
greater evil to his Church and order, to the muezzin's
daily repetition of that ominous monotheistic maxim
ever before the eyes of the fanatic Moslem, whether
it appeared carved amidst the marble foliage of his
temples, or, emblazoned upon his banners in letters of
gold, it glittered in the van of his victorious armies
"
There is no God but the Immortal, the Eternal,
who neither begets nor was begotten, and who hath
neither companion nor equal."
266 History of the

CHAPTER VI
THE EMIRATE

713-755

Abd-al-Aziz His Wise Administration His Execution ordered

by the Khalif Ayub-Ibn-Habib His Reforms Al-Horr
Al-Samh His Invasion of France His Defeat and
Death Abd-al-Rahman Feud of the Maadites and Kah-
tanites Its Disastrous Effects Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim His
Ability He penetrates to the Rhone and is killed Yahya-
Ibn-Salmah Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa Hodheyfa-Ibn-al-
Awass Al-Haytham-Ibn-Obeyd Mohammed-Ibn-Ab-
dallah Abd-al-Rahman His Popularity Proclaims the
Holy War Treason of Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa The Emir
attempts the Conquest of France Character of Charles
Martel Battle of Poitiers Death of Abd-al-Rahman
Abd-al-Melik Okbah-Ibn-al-Hejaj His Wisdom and Ca-
pacity Charles Martel ravages Provence Berber Revolt
in Africa Victory of the Rebels Abd-al-Melik-Ibn-
Kottam Balj-Ibn-Beschr Thalaba Abu-al-Khattar
Condition of Western Europe Unstable and Corrupt Ad-
ministration of the Emirs Importance of the Battle of
Poitiers.

The principle of hereditary right, although it oc-

cupied no place in the polity of Mohammed, was
denounced by the Koran, and repudiated by the
Arabs of ancient times, had been,
since the dynasty
of the Ommeyades attained to power, to a certain
extent tacitly by the subjects of the
recognized
khalifs. Although the latter dignity was among
orthodox Mussulmans still elective, like the office
of an Arab sheik, the Persian schismatics had, for
some generations, accustomed themselves to con-
sider descendants of Ali as the only legal
the
Successors of the Prophet, to whom had been
transmitted the inalienable prerogatives of regal
 Moorish Empire in Europe 267

power and even the sacred attributes of divinity.

The ambition of the sovereigns of Damascus had
been occasionally gratified by the accession of their
sons to the throne, a result not unfrequently accom-
plished by means of questionable character. When
the loyalty of the nobles and the obsequious devotion
of the multitude were not sufficient to enable him to
attain the desired end, the Khalif did not hesitate to
use bribery, threats, and even assassination, to per-
petuate the coveted dignity in his family. From the
monarch this natural principle a species of hero-
worship, so common as to be almost universal, and
exhibiting its tendencies even in the administration of
the greatest of modern republics descended to the
prominent officials of the empire and to their subordi-
nates the walis, the governors of provinces and cities.
For these reasons, the appointment by Musa of his
three sons to be respectively emirs of East and West
Africa and Spain was regarded by the Moslem pop-
ulation of those countries and by the army as the
exercise of a prescriptive right which scarcely re-
quired the formal confirmation of the sovereign.
Notwithstanding the ferocious and jealous temper
of Suleyman, and the fact that he had heaped upon
Musa injuries which were unpardonable, he, for
some time, permitted the sons of the conqueror of
Al-Maghreb and Andaluz to exercise without moles-
tation the functions of their several emirates. Abd-
al-Aziz, towhom had been assigned the difficult task
of the political reorganization of the Peninsula, a
task which involved the erection of one system of
government upon the ruins of another which had
nothing in common with, and much that was hostile
to, it, entered upon his duties with all the energy and
tact of an accomplished soldier and statesman. Some
cities removed from the immediate influence of the

conquerors had renounced their allegiance and refused

268 History of the

the customary tribute. These were speedily reduced

to submission. The convention of Musa with Theo-
domir, the Gothic tributary of Murcia, was solemnly
ratified. Detachments under different commanders
were despatched to the North and West, who carried
the Moslem arms to the shores of Lusitania and the
mountains of Biscay and Navarre. Castles were built
for the protection of the frontiers, and garrisons of
important towns placed under the command of ex-
perienced officers of tried fidelity. A
Divan or Coun-
cil was established. Receivers of taxes and magis-
trates were appointed to conduct the civil departments
of the administration. Secure in the protection of
theirown laws and the enjoyment of their ancient
religious privileges, the Mohammedan yoke was
hardly whose re-
felt by the Christian population,
strictions were confined to a show of outward respect
for the institutions of their masters and the regular
payment of tribute. All acts of violence and op-
pression were punished, and public confidence was
restored. The peasants rebuilt their cottages; the
labors of the agriculturist, interruptedby com-
civil
motion and foreign encroachment, were resumed; the
grass-grown thoroughfares of the cities once more
echoed with the welcome sounds of traffic, and the sad
traces of many successive years of warfare and devas-
tation began to gradually disappear from the face of
the Peninsula.
But, however equitable was the civil administration
of Abd-al-Aziz, its beneficent effects in the eyes of
both Moslems and Christians were more than neu-
tralized by the excesses and licentious violence of his

private life. In the gratification of passions strong

even for an Oriental, his conduct surpassed the ordi-
nary limits of brutal tyranny. The fairest maids
and matrons of the Gothic population crowded his
seraglio and even the homes of noble Arabians were
;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 269

not secure from the visitations of his eunuchs. Egi-

lona, the queen of Roderick, having fallen into his
hands, became first his concubine and afterwards his
wife. She was indulged in the practice of her re-
ligion, an unusual privilege for one in her position;
and, by the unbounded influence she soon acquired
over her husband, succeeded in sensibly alleviating the
miseries of her countrymen. Her beauty, her vast
wealth, which she had secured by a timely submission
and the payment of tribute, and her talents, which
appear to have been of no mean order, added to the
ambition once more to sit upon a throne, soon made
themselves felt in the affairs of government. She
began to direct the policy of the Emir, to the disgust
and apprehension of the members of the Divan and
the officers of the army. She imprudently attempted
to introduce the ceremonial of the Visigothic court,
which required the prostration of all who approached
the throne of the monarch; a custom repugnant as
yet both to the equality and independence recom-
mended by the precepts of the Koran and to the
proud spirit of the Arab. By her advice the treaty
was concluded with Theodomir, who thereby acquired
for life the sovereignty of the beautiful province of
Murcia. The exercise of such authority was con-
sidered by pious Moslems as boding ill to the empire
of Islam when enjoyed by a woman and an infidel.
The rumor spread that Abd-al-Aziz, helpless under
the fatal spell of this sorceress, was meditating apos-
tasy and aspiring to independent power. These re-
ports, which derived some color of probability from
the universal belief of the multitude, the personal
popularity and well-known ambition of the Emir, and
his presumed desire to avenge the wrongs of his
father, were communicated to the Khali f, who deter-
mined to at once remove all danger from any designs
of the sons of Musa. Orders were accordingly de-
270 History or the

spatched to five of the principal officers of the army

of occupation in Spain to put Abd-al-Aziz to death.
The first who opened and read the commands of the
Khalif was Habib-Ibn-Obeidah, an old and valued
friend of the family of Musa. His distress may be
imagined but the order was peremptory, and the ties
;

of friendship, the sentiments of gratitude, the remi-

niscences of social intimacy, were not to be considered
by the devout Moslem when was interposed the im-
perious mandate of the Successor of the Prophet of
God. Having consulted with each other, the execu-
tioners, who feared the vengeance of the army, de-
voted as it was to its chief, determined to kill Abd-
al-Aziz while at his devotions. It was the custom of
the Emir to pass much of his time at a summer palace
in the suburbs of Seville, attached to which was a
private mosque. Here, while upon his knees reciting
the morning prayer, he was attacked and despatched
without resistance. His body was buried in the court
of the palace, and his head a sanguinary proof of
the obedience of his assassins was sent in a box filled
with camphor to Suleyman at Damascus. Thus
perished one of the most distinguished captains of
the age, whose talents and dexterity promised a rapid
solution of the difficult questions of policy which con-
fronted the new rulers of Spain, and whose gentle and
considerate treatment of the vanquished conspicuous
amidst the repulsive asperity of barbarian manners
proved his destruction. A few weeks elapsed, and his
brethren, the emirs of Africa, followed him by the
hand of the executioner. The fate of his unfortu-
nate consort, Egilona, is unknown. In common with
King Roderick and his conqueror Tarik, with Count
Julian and the sons of Witiza, her future, after a
remarkable career, passes into oblivion. It is not a
little singular that so many of the most conspicuous

personages of their time should all, one after another,

 Moorish Empire in Europe 271

without any apparent reason, have been thus abruptly

dismissed by the chroniclers of the age.
The Khalif, in his haste to destroy the family of
Musa, had neglected to designate a successor to Abd-
al-Aziz, and Spain remained for a short time without
a governor. Realizing the dangers of a protracted
interregnum among the heterogeneous elements of
which the inhabitants of the Peninsula were com-
posed, a number of the Moslems most eminent in
rank and influence assembled, and, in accordance
with the ancient custom of the Desert, elected Ayub-
Ibn-Habib provisional Emir. Ayub was a captain of
age and experience and the cousin of Abd-al-Aziz.
His first act was to remove the seat of government
from Seville to Cordova, on account of the more
advantageous location of the latter city, destined to
remain during the domination of the conquerors the
Mecca of the Occident, the literary centre of the
Middle Ages, the school of polite manners, the home
of science and the arts; to be regarded with awe by
every Moslem, with affectionate veneration by every
scholar, and with mingled feelings of wonder and
apprehension by the turbulent barbarians of Western
Europe. For greater convenience in collecting the
revenue and restraining the indigenous population,
the country had been divided into numerous districts,
governed by walis, inferior officials responsible to the
Emir. The lives of these magistrates, passed amidst
the turmoil of revolution, the sack of cities, and the
slaughter of infidels, rendered them but ill qualified
to administer the affairs of a nation in time of peace.
The acts of cruelty and extortion perpetrated by these
petty tyrants, far removed from the eye of the court,
had become an intolerable grievance. It devolved on
Ayub to investigate their official conduct, and many
of them were deposed and punished. The new Emir
travelled through his dominions, correcting abuses,
272 History of the

building fortresses, repairing the decaying walls of

cities, encouraging the development and cultivation
of fields long since abandoned by the farmer, re-
dressing grievances without distinction of creed or
nationality, and by every means promoting the
welfare of his grateful subjects. In those provinces
which had been depopulated, he established colonies
of immigrants and adventurers from Africa and the
East. In others, where the Christians preponderated,
he settled numbers of Jews and Moslems, whose
presence might curb the enthusiasm and check the
aspirations of the implacable enemies of the Moham-
medan faith. The watch-towers which crowned the
summits of the Pyrenees and defended the passes
leading to Narbonnese Gaul that region of mystery
which the imperfect geography of the Arab had
designated the Great Land, and the imagination of
the Oriental had peopled with giants and fabulous
monsters were strengthened and garrisoned with
troops whose activity and vigilance had been tested
in many a scene of toil and danger. Scarcely had
the administration of Ayub been fairly established,
before the vindictive spirit of the Khalif demanded
his removal. Mohammed-Ibn-Yezid, Emir of Africa,
was ordered to deprive of office all members of the
tribe of Lakhm, to which Musa had belonged, and Al-
Horr-Ibn-Abd-al-Rahman was invested with the pre-
carious dignity of Viceroy of the Peninsula. Four
hundred representatives of the proudest of the Ara-
bian nobility, whom zeal for the faith, the love of
adventure, or the hope of renown had attracted to
the shores of Africa, accompanied him; warriors,
many of whose descendants were destined to attain
to distinction in every rank of civil and military life
even to the royal dignity itself and to become the
most prominent members of the Moslem aristocracy
of Spain. - <.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 273

From the beginning, the arbitrary measures of the

Emir carried distress and anxiety into every town and
hamlet of the country. His rapacity knew no bounds.
Under pretext of a deficiency in the collection of
tribute, the officials charged with that duty were
imprisoned and put to the torture. In the infliction
of punishment no distinction of religious belief was
recognized; Moslem and Christian alike felt the
heavy hand of the tyrant; and even the oldest and
most renowned officers of the army, veterans who had
served in Syria and Africa, the companions of Tarik
and Musa, were not exempt from the exactions of
his insatiable avarice. So intolerable did these oppres-
sions become, that the cause of Islam was seriously
endangered; proselytism ceased; no official, however
high in rank, was secure in the possession of liberty,
property, and life; and the unfortunate Jews and
Christians were exposed to all the evils of the most
cruel persecution. As the Emir of Africa evinced a
remarkable apathy when the removal of Al-Horr was
demanded by the outraged people of Spain, applica-
tion was made to the Khalif Omar in person, who at
once deposed the offensive governor, and appointed
as his successor Al-Samh, the general commanding
the army of the northern frontier. This appointment
did credit to the discernment of the Khalif, for it
proved eminently wise and judicious. The first
efforts of Al-Samh were directed to the correction
of irregularities in the administration of the revenue.
Formerly the large cities, where was naturally col-
lected the most of the wealth of the kingdom and
hence the bulk of property liable to taxation, had been
required to contribute only one-tenth of their income
towards the expenses of government, while the vil-
lages and the cultivated lands had been assessed at
one-fifth. This inequality was due originally to a
desire to favor the Jews, whose love of traffic had
Vol. I. 18
274 History of the

induced them to establish themselves in the principal

towns, offering, as the latter did, better facilities for
the encouragement of commerce and the rapid accu-
mulation of property. In addition to this much-
needed reform, the able viceroy collected the bands
of Moors and Berbers, whose nomadic habits and
predatory instincts, inherited from a long line of
ancestors, had resisted former attempts at coloniza-
tion, settled them upon unoccupied lands, and, by

every possible inducement, tried to impress upon the

minds of these savage warriors the importance and
the superior advantages of civilization. He caused a
census to be taken of all the inhabitants of the Penin-
sula, and with it sent to Damascus elaborate tables
of statistics, in which were carefully described the
various towns, the topography of the coast, the situa-
tion of the harbors, the wealth of the country, the na-
ture of its products, the volume of its commerce, and
the extent of its mineral and agricultural resources.
The restoration of the magnificent bridge of Cordova,
constructed in the reign of Augustus, is of itself an
enduring monument to his fame. But the energies
of Al-Samh were not expended solely in the monoto-
nous but beneficial avocations of peace. As the friend
and associate of Tarik he had seen service on many
a stoutly contested field, and now, when his dominions
were tranquil and prosperous, he received, with the
exultation of an ardent believer, the order of the
Khali f to carry the Holy War beyond the Pyrenees.
The province of Narbonnese Gaul, once a part of
the Visigothic empire, and hitherto protected from
the incursions of its dangerous neighbors by the lofty
mountain rampart which formed its southern boun-
dary, continued to cherish the traditions and to observe
the customs of its ancient rulers. It embraced the
greater portion of modern Languedoc, that smiling
region which, watered by the Rhone, the Garonne, and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 275

their numerous tributaries, had, through the fertility

of its soil and the advantages of its semi-tropical
climate, early attracted the attention of the adven-
turous colonists of Greece and Italy. The high state
of civilization to which region attained, and its
this

progress in the arts, are manifested by the architec-

tural remains which still adorn its cities, remains
which, in elegance of design and imposing magnifi-
cence, are unequalled by even the far-famed ruins of
the Eternal City. No structures in any country illus-
trate so thoroughly the taste and genius of classic
times as the arch of Orange, the Pont du Gard, the
temples and the amphitheatre of Nimes, whose grace-
ful proportions and wonderful state of preservation
never fail to elicit the enthusiastic admiration of the
traveller. Theinhabitants also have retained, through
the vicissitudes of centuries of warfare and foreign
domination, the traits and features of their classic
ancestry. In the vainglorious pride of the Provencal
and his neighbor the Gascon are traceable the haughty
demeanor of the Roman patrician; while the women
of Aries, in their symmetry of form, their faultless
profiles, and their statuesque grace, recall the beauties
of the age of Pericles.
This territory was known to the Goths by the name
of Septimania, from the seven principal cities, Nar-
bonne, Nimes, Agde, Lodeve, Maguelonne, Beziers,
and Carcassonne, included within its borders, and was
still governed by the maxims of the Gothic polity

which formerly prevailed in the Peninsula. Although

divided into a number of little principalities, whose
chieftains promiscuously indulged their propensities
to rapine without fear of the intervention of any
superior power, it had for years preserved the ap-
pearance of a disunited but independent state. In
the North, the anarchy accompanying the bloody
struggles of the princes of the Merovingian dynasty,
276 History of the

which preceded the foundation of the empire of

Pepin and Charlemagne, removed, for the time, all
danger of encroachment from that quarter. But the
Gothic nobles, since the battle of the Guadalete, had
cast glances of anxiety and dismay upon the distant
summits of the Pyrenees. Innumerable refugees
from Spain had sought safety among their Gallic
kinsmen, and the tales which they related of the
excesses of the invaders lost nothing in their recital
by these terror-stricken fugitives. Too feeble of
themselves to entertain hopes of successful resist-
ance, the Goths suspended for a time their hereditary
quarrels, and, to avoid the impending ruin, acknowl-
edged the sovereignty of Eudes, the powerful Duke
of Aquitaine.
Al-Samh, having completed his preparations,
emerged from the mountain passes at the head
of a formidable army. After a siege of a month,
Narbonne, the capital of Septimania, surrendered to
the Moslems, who obtained from the churches and
convents an immense booty, most of which had been
deposited by fugitive Spanish prelates in those sanc-
tuaries as places of inviolable security. Almost with-
out a blow, the fortresses* of Beziers, Maguelonne, and
Carcassonne accepted the liberal conditions of Mo-
hammedan vassalage. The flying squadrons of Arab
cavalry now spread ruin and alarm over the beautiful
valley of the Garonne. So attractive was the country
and so lax the discipline, that it was with some diffi-
culty the Emir succeeded in collecting the scattering
detachments of his army, which had wandered far
in search of plunder; and, resuming his march, he
at length invested the important city of Toulouse, the

capital of Aquitaine. The siege was pushed with

vigor, and the inhabitants, reduced to extremity, were
already meditating a surrender, when the Duke ap-
proached Math a force greatly superior to that of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 277

Moslems. The latter, disheartened at the sight of

such an overwhelming multitude, were disposed to
retreat, when the Emir, actuated by a spirit worthy
of the ancient heroes of Islam, roused their flagging
courage by an eloquent harangue, in which he artfully
suggested both the prizes of victory and the promises
of the Faith. As the two hosts ranged themselves
in martial array, the priests distributed among the
Franks small pieces of sponge which had received
the blessing of the Pope; amulets more serviceable,
it appeared, than the thickest armor, for we are

assured by the veracious chroniclers of the age that

not a Christian soldier who carried one of these valu-
able relics lost his life in the battle. The contest was
long and obstinate the Moslems performed prodigies
;

of valor but they had lost the religious fervor which

;

had so often rendered their arms invincible; and

anxiety for the safety of their spoils had greater
influence upon them than the security of their con-
quest or the propagation of their religion. The issue
long remained doubtful; but the Emir having ex-
posed himself too rashly fell pierced by a lance; and
his army, completely routed, retired from the field
with the loss of two-thirds of its number. Abd-al-
Rahman-al-Ghaf eki, an officer of high rank and dis-
tinguished reputation, was invested with the tempo-
rary command by his associates, and conducted the
shattered remnant of the Moslems to Narbonne. In-
tent on plundering the treasures of the enemy's camp,
which contained the bulk of the portable wealth of
Septimania, the Franks could not be induced to reap
the full advantages of victory. The retreat was con-
ducted with consummate skill, for the peasantry,
aroused by the news of the disaster, swarmed in vast
numbers around the retreating Moslems, who were
often compelled to cut their way through the dense
and ever increasing masses, which immediately closed
in and harassed their rear.
278 History of the '

This was the first serious reverse which had befallen

the hitherto invincible arms of Islam. The tide had
begun to turn, and the implacable enmity cultivated
for centuries between the two contending nations of
Arabia which neither the precepts of a congenial
form of faith,nor military fame, nor uninterrupted
conquest, nor the possession of fabulous wealth, nor
the enjoyment of the fairest portions of the globe
could eradicate was now to exhibit to the world the
splendid weakness of the Successors of Mohammed.
A glance at the origin and progress of this barbarian
feud, which survived the impetuous ardor of prose-
lytism, and had nourished for ages its hereditary vin-
dictiveness, and, arising in distant Asia, was destined
to be revived with undiminished violence upon the
plains of Aragon and Andalusia, is essential to a

proper understanding of the causes to which are to

be attributed the downfall of the Moslem Empire of
the West.
As already mentioned, irreconcilable hostility had
existed from time immemorial between the inhabi-
tants of Northern and Southern Arabia. Due to a
difference of origin, and probably based upon inva-
sion and conquest in a prehistoric age, this race-
prejudice had been aggravated by a feeling of
mutual hatred and contempt, derived from the dif-
ferent avocations of the people of Yemen and those
of the Hedjaz, the peaceful merchants and the law-
less rovers of the Desert. The Maadites, to whom
the Meccans belonged, were shepherds and brigands.
They prided themselves upon being the aristocracy
of Arabia; and the thrifty and industrious dwellers
of the South, the Kahtanites, who saw nothing de-
grading in the tillage of their fields, in the care of
their valuable date plantations, and in the profits of
commerce, could, in the consciousness of superior
wealth and culture, readily endure the scorn of their
 Moorish Empire in Europe 279

neighbors, whose gains were obtained by overreach-

ing their guests, by extortions from pilgrims to the
Kaaba, and by sharing in the plunder of caravans.
The Medinese, whose was partly Jewish, whose
origin
pursuits were sedentary, and whose affiliations con-
nected them with the trading communities of Yemen,
were classed with the Kahtanites by the children of
Maad. From this mutual antagonism the religion
of Mohammed received its greatest impulse and the
power which enabled it to overturn all its adversaries ;
and from it, also, are to be traced the misfortunes
which befell the empire of Islam even before it was
firmly established; which made every country and
province in its wide dominions the scene of civil strife
and bloodshed; which profaned with insult and vio-
lence the shrines of the most holy temples; which
annihilated whole dynasties by the hand of the assas-
sin; and which, far more potent than the iron hand
of Charles Martel and the valor of the Franks, lost
by a single stroke the sceptre of Europe. Hence
arose the disputes which terminated in the murder of
Othman and its terrible retribution, the sack of the
Holy Cities; the intrigues and controversies which
resulted from the election of Ali; the death of
Hosein; the insurrections of the fanatical reformers
of Persia; the proscription of the Ommeyades; the
perpetual disorders which distracted the Emirate of
Africa. In Spain also, whither had resorted so many
of the fugitives of Medina and their Syrian con-
querors, the smouldering embers of national preju-
dice and religious discord were rekindled. The most
sacred ties of nationality, of religion, or of kindred
were powerless to counteract this deep-rooted antip-
athy, which seems inherent in the two divisions of the
Arab race. The most noble incentives to patriotism,
the pride of victory, the alluring prospects of com-
mercial greatness, of literary distinction, of boundless
280 History of the

dominion, were ignored in the hope of humiliating a

rival faction and of gratifying a ruthless spirit of

revenge. At different times such is the strange in-

consistency of human nature the Maadites became
voluntary dependents of the kings of Yemen and
Hira. In an age of remote antiquity, the Himyarite
dialect spoken in the South had been supplanted by
the more polished idiom of the Hedjaz.
The intensity and duration of the hatred existing
between Maadite and Yemenite are inconceivable by
the mind of one of Caucasian blood, and are without
precedent, even in the East. It affected the policy
of nations; it determined the fate of empires; it
menaced the stability of long-established articles of
faith; it invaded the family, corrupting the instincts
of filial reverence, and betraying the sacred confi-
dences of domestic life. Upon pretexts so frivolous
as hardly to justify a quarrel between individuals,
nations were plunged into all the calamities of civil
war. A difference affecting the construction of a
point of religious discipline was sufficient to assemble
a horde of fanatics, and devote whole provinces to
devastation and massacre. A petty act of trespass
the detaching of a vine-leaf, the theft of a melon
provoked the most cruel retaliation upon the com-
munity to which the culprit belonged. The Maadite,
inheriting the haughty spirit of the Bedouin ma-
rauder, 'despised his ancestors if there was in their
veins a single drop of the blood of Kahtan; and, on
the other hand, under corresponding conditions of
relationship, the Yemenite refused to pray even
for
his mother if she was allied to the Maadites, whom
he stigmatized as a race of barbarians and slaves.
And yet these were divisions of the same people with
;

similar tastes and manners; identical in dress and

personal aspect; speaking the same tongue; wor-
shipping at the same altars; fighting under the same
 Moorish Empire in Europe 281

banners; frequently united by intermarriage; actu-

ated by the same ambitions; zealous for the attain-
ment of the same ends. The investigation of this
anomaly, an ethnical peculiarity so remarkable in its
tenacity of prejudice, and which, enduring for more
than twenty-five hundred years, the most powerful
motives and aspirations of the mind have failed to
abrogate, presents one of the most interesting prob-
lems in the history of humanity.
In the train of Musa had followed hundreds of
the former inhabitants of Medina, who carried with
them bitter memories of ruined homes and slaugh-
tered kinsmen. The impression made by these enthu-
siastic devotees defenders of the sepulchre of the
Prophet, and eloquent with the traditions of the Holy
City upon the savage tribes of Africa was far more
deep and permanent than that of the homilies of Musa
delivered under the shadow of the scimetar. Their
bearing was more affable, their treatment of the con-
quered more lenient, their popularity far more de-
cided, than that of the haughty descendants of the
Koreish. With the memory of inexpiable wrong was
cherished an implacable spirit of vengeance. The
name of Syrian, associated with infidelity, sacrilege,
lust, and massacre, was odious to the pious believer of
the Hedjaz. His soul revolted at the tales of ungodly
revels which disgraced the polished and voluptuous
court of Damascus. The riotous banquets, the lascivi-
ous dances, the silken vestments, the midnight orgies,
and above all the blasphemous jests of satirical poets,
struck with horror the abstemious and scrupulous pre-
cisians of Medina and Aden. The Ommeyade noble
was looked upon by them as worse than an apostate;
a being whose status was inferior to that of either
Pagan, Jew, or Christian. The feelings of the de-
scendants of the proud aristocracy of Mecca towards
their adversaries were scarcely less bitter. They re-
282 History or the

membered with contempt obscure origin and

the
plebeian avocations of the first adherents of the
Prophet. Their minds were inflamed with rage
when they recalled the murder of the inoffensive
Othman, whose blood-stained garments, mute but
potent witnesses of his sufferings, had hung for
many months in the Great Mosque of Damascus.
With indignation was repeated the story of the
cowardly attempt against the life of Muavia, and of
the poisoned thrust which brought him to an un-
timely end. With but few exceptions, the Emirs of
Spain were stanch adherents of the line of the Om-
meyades, and never failed to discriminate against the
obnoxious Medinese and their posterity. The latter
retaliated secret treachery by open rebellion by
by ; ;

defeating vast schemes of policy before they were ma-

tured; by encouraging the dangerous encroachments
of the Asturian mountaineers. This sectional strife
early disclosed itself in the face of the enemy by
fomenting the quarrel between Tarik and Musa. It
thwarted the plans of the great Arab general, whose
enterprising genius and towering ambition aimed at
the subjugation and conversion of Europe. It armed
the hands which struck downin the sanctuary the wise
and capable Abd-al-Aziz. It retarded the progress
of Abd-al-Rahman, filled his camp with brawls
and confusion, increased the insubordination of his
troops, and gave time for the recall of the bar-
barian hosts of Charles Martel from the confines of
Gaul and Germany. In the Arabian population the
Yemenite faction largely preponderated, especially
in Eastern and Western Spain, which were almost

exclusively settled by its adherents. In consequence

of their numerical superiority and political impor-
tance, they claimed, certainly with some appearance
of justice, the right to be governed by an emir whose
views and sympathies were in accordance with their
 Mookish Empire in Europe 283

own. The court of Damascus, thoroughly cognizant

of the uncertain hold it maintained upon a distant
and wealthy province, inhabited by a turbulent rabble
whose animosity towards the family of the Omme-
yades was thinly disguised by lukewarm professions
of loyalty and occasional remittances of tribute, had
the sagacity to humor its prejudices, and to appoint
to the Spanish Emirate governors of the dominant

party. In the course of forty years, but three of the

rulers of Spain out of twenty traced their origin to
the detested posterity of Maad. This politic course
preserved in its allegiance the wealthy provinces of
the Peninsula, until the influence of the Yemenites
and the Berbers was hopelessly weakened by the civil
wars preceding the foundation of the Western Khal-
ifate. The effects of the latter, by the serious dis-
turbances they promoted and the consequent injury
inflicted upon the integrity of the Mohammedan em-

pire, had awakened the hopes and revived the faltering

courage of the terrified nations of Christendom.
There is perhaps no recorded instance of a feud so
obscure in its origin, so anomalous in its conditions,
so momentous in its consequences, as this rancorous
antagonism of the two divisions of the Arabian
people. It illustrates more clearly than an entire
commentary could do, the inflexibility of purpose,
a trait conspicuous in the Bedouin, which could
sacrificeall the advantages and pleasures of life,
all the hopes of eternity, to the destruction of an
hereditary foe. For centuries, in an isolated and arid
country of Asia, certain hordes of barbarians, igno-
rant of the arts, careless of luxury, proud, intrepid,
and independent, had pursued each other with un-
relenting hostility. With the advent of a Prophet
bringing a new revelation, the most potent influences
which can affect humanity are brought to bear upon
the nation. A whole people emigrates; is in time
284 History of the

united with many conquered races; appreciates and

accepts the pricless benefits of civilization; becomes
pre-eminent in science, in letters, in all the arts of
war and government, in all the happy and beneficent
pursuits of peace. But amidst this prosperity and
grandeur the hereditary feuds of the Desert re-
mained unreconciled. Neither the denunciations of
the Koran nor the fear of future punishment were
able to more than temporarily arrest this fatal en-
mity. Islam was in a few generations filled with
dangerous schismatics, whose tribal prejudice was,
more than devotion to any dogma, the secret of their
menacing attitude towards the khalif ate. The mock-
ery and sacrilege of the princes of Damascus, scions
of the ancient persecutors of Mohammed, were
caused by equally base, selfish, and unpatriotic mo-
tives. And the people of Medina, without whose
timely aid induced, it is not to be forgotten, by
this perpetual feud between Kahtanite and Maadite
Islam could never have survived, were doomed
henceforth to a career of uninterrupted misfortune.
Their which had sheltered the Prophet in his
city,
adversity, and had received his blessing, was sacked
and laid waste; and in the sacred mosque which
covered his remains were stabled the horses of the
Syrian cavalry. The unhappy exiles, pursued in
every land by the impositions and cruelty of the
tyrants of Syria, were, despite their frequent efforts
to throw off the yoke, finally cowed into submission.
In the long series of rulers, from Sad-Ibn-Obada,
surnamed The Perfect, the champion of Medina,
whose election as the first of the Khalifs the over-
bearing insolence of the Koreish was scarcely able to
prevent, to the effeminate Boabdil, his lineal descend-
ant, the conduct of the Defenders of the Prophet
is marked by errors of judgment, by want of tact,
by defiance of law, and by ill-timed enterprises pro-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 285

lific of disaster. No city, however, has placed a

deeper impress upon the history of nations and the
cause of civilization, since the immortal age of Athens,
than Medina. Its influence, although often of a nega-
tive character, while it was the support of Islam in

its period of weakness, was a serious impediment in

its day of power. The benefits it conferred upon a
handful of struggling proselytes were more than
counterbalanced by the discord it promoted in the
camps and councils of Irac, Syria, Africa, and Spain.
The census taken by Al-Samh had disclosed the vast
preponderance of Christians who still adhered to their
ancient faith, and the fears of the Khalif Yezid were
aroused by the presence of so many hostile sectaries
in the heart of his empire. To obviate this evil, and
to assure the future permanence of Moslem supre-
macy, he devised a scheme which indicates a degree
of worldly wisdom and political acuteness rare in the
councils of that age. He proposed that the Christian
population of Spain and Septimania be deported and
settled in the provinces of Africa and Syria, and the

territory thus vacated be colonized with faithful Mus-

sulmans. Thus Spain would have become thoroughly
Mohammedan, and the establishment of armed garri-
sons in Gaul would have been supplemented by the aid
of a brave and active peasantry, affording an invalu-
able initial point for the extension of the Moslem
arms in the north and east of Europe. But this was
by no means the greatest advantage of this bold and
original stroke of statesmanship. The penetrating
eye of Yezid had already discerned the dangerous
character of the mountaineers of the Asturias, who
had preserved the traditions and inherited the valor
of the founders of the Gothic monarchy. The re-
moval of this threatening element was equivalent to
its extirpation, and would probably have preserved

for an indefinite period the Moslem empire of Spain

286 History of the

in its original integrity. The province of Septimania,

supported by the powerful armies of a united and
homogeneous nation, could then have defied the desul-
tory assaults of the Franks. The exiles, scattered in
distant lands,must by force, or through inducements
of material advantage, have gradually become amal-
gamated with their masters their children would have
;

professed the prevailing faith; and the progenitors

of that dynasty whose policy controlled the destinies
of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies would have disappeared from the knowledge
of man. The severity of this project, dictated partly
by religious zeal, but principally by political acumen,
would have been excessive, yet its beneficial effects
upon the fortunes of Islam must have been incalcu-
lable. But the mind of Al-Samh, incapable of appre-

ciating the paramount importance of the enterprise,

despising the Goths of the sierras as savages, and,
like the majority of his countrymen, underestimating
their resolution and capacity for warfare, induced
him to discourage the plan of the Khalif, by repre-
senting that it was unnecessary, on account of the
daily increasing numbers of converts to the doctrines
of the Koran. The successful inauguration of a simi-
lar policy by Cromwell in Ireland nine hundred years
afterwards, whose completion, fortunately for the
rebellious natives, was defeated by his death, demon-
strates the extraordinary sagacity of the sovereign of
Damascus in devising a measure of statecraft whose
execution portended such important consequences to
modern society, and which has, for the most part,
escaped the notice of the historians of the Moorish
empire. Before departing upon his unfortunate
expedition, Al-Samh had left Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim,
one of his most trusty lieutenants, in charge of the
affairs of the Peninsula. The latter, learning of the
rout of Toulouse, without delay sent a large body of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 287

troops to the North to cover the retreat of the de-

feated army; a precaution rendered unnecessary by
the generalship of Abd-al-Rahman, who was now
recognized as emir, the choice of his comrades being
soon afterwards confirmed by the Viceroy of Africa.
The Christians of Gothic Gaul and the Asturias,
greatly elated by the disaster which had befallen
their enemies, soon manifested greater hostility than
ever,and required all the firmness and prudence of
it

Abd-al-Rahman to restrain them. The insurrection

which began to threaten the power of the Moslems
in the trans-Pyrenean province was, however, crushed
before it became formidable; the mountaineers were
driven back into their strongholds; the suspended
tribute was collected, and an increased contribution
was levied upon such communities as had distin-
guished themselves by an obstinate resistance.
Although the idol of his soldiers, Abd-al-Rahman
was not a favorite with the great officials of the
government. They admired his prowess, and were
not disposed to depreciate his talents, but they hated
him on account of his popularity, for which he was
mainly indebted to his lavish donations to the troops.
It was his custom, as soon as the royal fifth had been
set apart, to abandon the remainder of the spoil to
the army, a course so unusual as to provoke the
remonstrances of his friends, while it elicited the
applause and secured the undying attachment of the
soldiery. Application was made by the malcontents
to the Vicerov of Africa, Baschar-Ibn-Hantala, for
the removal of Abd-al-Rahman, under the pretext
that the Moslem cause was becoming endangered
through the prevalence of luxury introduced by his
unprecedented munificence. The charges were
pressed with such vigor that they prevailed, and
Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim was raised to the emirate.
Abd-al-Rahman such was the confidence of his
288 History of the

opponents in his integrity and patriotism was

reinstated in the government of Eastern Spain,
which he had held previous to the battle of Tou-
louse. With the submission and piety of a faithful
Moslem, he congratulated his successor, swore fealty
to him, and retired without a murmur to reassume
a subordinate position in a kingdom which he had
ruled with absolute power. Anbasah soon displayed
by active and salutary measures his fitness for his
high office. The administration had become to some
extent demoralized by the easy temper and prodigal
liberality of Abd-al-Rahman, and Anbasah's first care
was to remodel the fiscal department and adopt a new
and more exact apportionment of taxation. Care-
fully avoiding any appearance of injustice to the
tributary Christians, he divided among the immi-
grants who now, in larger numbers than ever before,
poured into Spain from Africa and the East the
lands which were unoccupied, and had hitherto served
as pastures to the nomadic Berbers, whose traditions
and habits discouraged the selection of any permanent
habitation. While inflexibly just to the loyal and
obedient, Anbasah punished all attempts at insur-
rection with a rigor akin to ferocity. Some districts
in the province of Tarragona having revolted on ac-
count of real or fancied grievances, the Emir razed
their fortifications, crucified the leaders, and imposed
upon the inhabitants a double tax, both as a punish-
ment and a warning. In order to keep alive the
respect for the Moslem name, he sent frequent expe-
ditions into Gaul, whose operations, conducted upon
a limited scale, were mainly confined to the destruc-
tion of property and the seizure of captives.
The Jewish population of the Peninsula, relieved
from the vexatious laws of the Goths and greatly
increased in wealth and numbers by foreign acces-
sions, had already risen to exalted rank in the social
 Moorish Empire in Europe 289

and political scale under the favorable auspices of

Mohammedan rule. It enjoyed the highest consid-
eration with the Arabs, whose success had been so
largely due to its friendly co-operation. This com-
munity, endowed with the hereditary thrift of the
race, rich beyond all former experience, still ardently
devoted to a religion endeared by centuries of perse-
cution, and by the deeply grounded hope of future
spiritual and temporal sovereignty, was now startled
by the report that the Messiah, whose advent they had
so long and so patiently awaited, had appeared in the
East. The highly imaginative temperament of the
Oriental, and the phenomenal success of the founders
of religious systems in that quarter of the world,
had been productive of the rise of many designing
fanatics, all claiming the gifts of prophecy and
miracle, and all secure of a numerous following
in an age fertile in impostors. In this instance, the
Hebrew prophet, whose name was Zonaria, had estab-
lished his abode in Syria; and thither in multitudes
the Spanish Jews, abandoning their homes and carry-
ing only their valuables, journeyed, without question-
ing the genuineness of their information or reflect-
ing upon the results of their blind credulity. No
sooner were the pilgrims across the strait, than the
crafty Emir, declaring their estates forfeited by aban-
donment, confiscated the latter, which included some
of the finest mansions and most productive lands in
the Peninsula. This fanatical contagion extended
even into colonists of that region
Gaul, and the Jewish
hastened to join their Spanish brethren in their pil-
grimage of folly, only to realize, when too late, that
they had lost their worldly possessions without the
compensating advantage of a celestial inheritance.
Having regulated the civil affairs of his govern-
ment to his satisfaction, the eyes of Anbasah now
turned towards the North, where lay the tempting
Vol. I. 19
290 History of the

prize of France, coveted by every emir since the time

of Musa. The prestige of the Arabs had been ma-
terially impaired by the serious reverse they had sus-
tained before Toulouse. The first encounter with the
fiery warriors of the South whom fear had pictured as
incarnate demons, and whose prowess was said to be
invincible, had divested the foes of Christianity of
many of the terrors which exaggerated rumor had im-
parted to them. Of the numerous fortified places in
Septimania which had once seemed to be pledges of a
permanent Mohammedan settlement, the city of Nar-
bonne alone remained. Its massive walls had easily
resisted the ill-directed efforts of a barbarian enemy,
unprovided with military engines, and unaccustomed
to the protracted and monotonous service implied by
a siege, while its vicinity to the sea rendered a reduc-
tion by blockade impracticable. Thus, protected by
the natural advantages of its location and by the
courage of its garrison, Narbonne presented the
anomaly of an isolated stronghold in the midst of
the enemy's country. Traversing the mountainous
passes without difficulty the Emir took Carcassonne,
a city which had hitherto enjoyed immunity from
capture; and by this bold stroke so intimidated the
inhabitants, that the whole of Septimania at once,
and without further resistance, returned to its allegi-
ance to the Khalif . No retribution was exacted for
past disloyalty, as Anbasah was too politic not to
appreciate the value of clemency in a province held
by such a precarious tenure; the people were left as
before to the untrammelled exercise of their worship ;

but the unpaid tribute was rigorously collected, and

a large number of hostages, chosen from the noblest
families of the Goths, were sent to Spain.
The Moslem army, proceeding along the coast as
far as the Rhone, turned towards the interior, and
ascended the valley of the river, ravaging its settle-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 291

and sword. Advancing to Lyons, it

merits with fire
took thatcity, and thence directing its course into
Burgundy, it stormed and pillaged the town of Au-
tun. Hitherto the invaders had encountered no or-
ganized opposition, but a hastily collected militia now
began to harass their march, encumbered as they were
with a prodigious booty; and, in a skirmish in which
the peasantry displayed an unusual amount of daring,
Anbasah, having rashly exposed himself, was mor-
tally wounded. The dying Emir bequeathed his
authority to Odrah-Ibn-Abdallah, an appointment
distasteful to the members of the Divan; and, in
accordance with their demands, the Viceroy of Africa
designated Yahya-Ibn-Salmah as the successor of
Anbasah. The austere and inflexible spirit of this
commander, his keen sense of justice, and his deter-
mination to enforce the among the
strictest discipline

soldiery, made him everywhere unpopular. The pli-

ant Viceroy of Africa was once more appealed to, and
such was his subserviency to the clamors of the dis-
contented chieftains that not only was Yahya-Ibn-
Salmah removed, but within a few months his two
successors,Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa and Hodheyfa-
Ibn-al-Ahwass, were appointed and deposed. Finally
the Khalif himself sent to Al-Haytham-Ibn-Obeyd
the royal commission as his representative. This offi-
cial was a Syrian by birth, and inherited all the bitter

prejudices of his faction which had been fostered by

the pride and insolence of the triumphant Omme-
yades. Merciless by nature, fierce and rapacious,
Al-Haytham spared neither Moslem nor Christian.
Especially was his animosity directed towards the
descendants of the Companions of Mohammed, and
their proselytes and adherents, the Berbers. The
complaints now lodged with the Viceroy of Africa
were unheeded, as the offensive governor had received
his appointment directly from the hands of the Com-
292 History of the

mander of the Faithful. In extremity, the

their
victims of Al-Haytham preferred charges before the
Divan of Damascus; and the Khalif Hischem, con-
vinced that the Emir was exceeding his authority,
appointed one of the most distinguished personages
of his court, Mohammed-Ibn-Abdallah, as special
envoy to investigate the administration of Al-Hay-
tham, and to depose and punish him if, in his
judgment, the well-being of Islam and the interests
of good government demanded it. Arriving incognito
at Cordova, the plenipotentiary of the Khalif, without

difficulty or delay, obtained the necessary evidence of

the guilt of the unworthy official. Then, exhibiting
his commission, he publicly stripped the latter of the

insignia of his rank, and, having shaved his head, had

him paraded through the city upon an ass, amidst the
jeers and insults of the people he had robbed and
persecuted. All his property was confiscated, and
Mohammed made amends as far as possible by be-
stowing upon the surviving victims of the disgraced
Emir the immense treasures he had amassed during
a reign of indiscriminate extortion. Then placing
Al-Haytham in irons he sent him under guard to
Africa. Two months sufficed to redress the grievances
which had threatened a revolution to recompense the
plundered, to liberate the imprisoned, to console the
tortured, to expel from their places the cruel subordi-
nates of the oppressor; and, having elicited the ap-
probation and received the blessings of all classes,
including the hereditary enemies of his tribe, Moham-
med departed for Syria, after conferring the viceregal
authority upon the renowned captain Abd-al-Rahman,
who thus a second time ascended the throne of the
Emirate of the West.
Of noble birth and distinguished reputation, Abd-
al-Rahman united to the eminent qualities of a suc-
cessful ruler and general all the insufferable arro-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 293

gance of the Arab race. Connected by ties of the

with one of the sons of the Khali f
closest friendship ,

Omar-al-Khattah, he had received from him many

particulars regarding the life and habits of Mo-
hammed, and this intimacy contributed to increase
the feeling of superiority, not unmingled with con-
tempt, with which he regarded the horde of barbarian
proselytes attracted to his banner rather by thirst for
plunder than from religious zeal. His generosity en-
deared him to the soldiery, but his inflexible sense of
right alienated the powerful officials of the Divan
enriched by years of unmolested peculation. The
knowledge of his Syrian origin, constantly evinced
by a marked partiality for his countrymen, at once
aroused the secret hostility of the crowd of turbulent
adventurers who, collected from every district of
Africa and Asia, composed his subjects, and who,
destitute of loyalty, religion, principle, or gratitude,
regarded an Arab as their natural enemy, an hetero-
geneous assemblage wherein the Berber element,
dominated by the rankling prejudices of the Yemen-
ites, their spiritual guides, greatly preponderated.

Visiting, in turn, the different provinces subject to

his rule, Abd-al-Rahman confirmed the good disposi-
tions of his predecessor, the plenipotentiary Moham-
med-Ibn-Abdallah, and corrected such abuses as had
escaped the attention of the latter. In some instances,
the injustice of the walis had wantonly deprived the
Christians of their houses of worship, in defiance of
the agreement permitting them to celebrate their rites
without molestation in others, their rapacity had con-
;

nived at the erection of new churches, prohibited by

the provisions of former treaties, and in absolute con-
travention of Mohammedan law. This evil of late
years had become so general that scarcely a com-
munity in the Peninsula was exempt from it.
Through the care and firmness of the Emir the
294 History of the

confiscated churches were restored to their congre-

gations; the new edifices were razed to the ground;
the bribes which had purchased the indulgence of the
walis were surrendered to the public treasury and the
;

corrupt officials paid the penalty of their malfeasance

with scourging and imprisonment.
His reforms completed, and secure in the apparent
submission and attachment of his subjects, Abd-al-
Rahman now turned his attention to the prosecution
of a design which, in spite of fearful reverses in the
past and of unknown dangers impending in the fu-
ture, had long been the cherished object of his ambi-
tion the conquest of France. As the representative
of the Khalif, and consequently vested with both
spiritual and temporal power, he had caused to be
proclaimed from the pulpit of every mosque visited
by him in his progress, the obligation of all faithful
Moslems to avenge the deaths of the martyrs fallen
in former invasions, and to add to the empire of Islam
the rich and productive territory of Europe.
Fully aware of the vast difficulties which would
necessarily attend such an undertaking, and enlight-
ened by his former experience, Abd-al-Rahman re-
solved to provide, as far as possible, against any con-
tingency that might arise from too hasty preparation,
or an inferiority in numbers, sent messengers to
almost every country acknowledging the authority of
the Khalif, to proclaim the D
jihad, or Holy War, and
to solicit the pecuniary aid of all devout and liberal
believers. The call was promptly answered. The
riches of the East and West poured in a constant
stream into the treasury of Cordova. Wealthy mer-
chants sent their gold; female devotees their jewels;
even the beggar was anxious to contribute his pittance
for the advancement of the Faith and the confusion
of the infidel. From neighboring lands, and from the
remotest confines of the Mohammedan world alike.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 295

from Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Al-Maghreb,

and Persia, military adventurers, soldiers of fortune,
desperate fanatics, half -naked savages from Mauri-
tania, the proud and ferocious tribesmen of the Desert,
astonished the inhabitants of the cities of Andalusia
with their multitudes, their tumultuous and unintel-
ligible cries, and their fierce enthusiasm. The entire
force of the Hispano-Arab army, disciplined by many
a scene of foreign and internecine conflict, was mar-
shalled for the coming crusade, which, unlike those
expeditions which had preceded it, aimed not merely
at the spoliation of cities and the enslavement of their
inhabitants, but at the permanent occupation and
settlement of the country from the Pyrenees to the
frontier of Germany, from the Rhastian Alps to the
ocean.
The had been ordered to assemble with
several walis
their forces at a designated rendezvous on the north-
ern border of the Peninsula. This district, which
included the mountain passes and the fortresses
defending them, was then under the command of
Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa, a native of Africa, who
had, for a few months, enjoyed and abused the
power of the emirate, and whom the generous
policy of Abd-al-Rahman had retained in this im-
portant post, bestowed upon the African chieftain
after his deposition. Aman of violent passions
and without principle, Othman was, however, not
deficient in those talents which confer distinction

upon soldiers of fortune. Of obscure birth and

low associations, he had, by sheer force of character
and daring, won the confidence of the Viceroy of
Africa, who had conferred upon him the government
of Spain; a position from which he was barred by
the unwritten law of the Conquest, which discouraged
the aspirations of of his nationality.
individuals
Deeply chagrined that he had not been reinstated in
296 History of the

the office whose delights he had scarcely tasted, and

devoured by envy, whose bitterness was increased by
the antipathies of a party of which he was the acknowl-
edged head, Othman determined to revenge his
fancied wrongs, and to secure for himself the advan-
tages of independent sovereignty. His influence
extended even to the Ebro, to the north and east of
which stream the Berbers, who were devoted to him,
had established themselves in great numbers. At that
time the condition of the redoubtable Eudes, Duke
of Aquitaine, had become desperate. He had long
waged a doubtful war with the Franks, whose supe-
rior strength rendered his ultimate subjection certain.

Upon the south, he was menaced by the encroachments

of the marauding Arabs, whose expeditions kept his
dominions in perpetual turmoil. Thus placed be-
tween two fires, he readily hearkened to the overtures
of Othman, who proposed an alliance to be cemented
by the marriage of the wali with the daughter of the
Gothic noble. A treaty was made and ratified; the
damsel who was not compelled to renounce her faith
was delivered to her father's new ally; and the
latter returned to his government, resolving to baffle
by diplomacy the design of his master, and, if that
were found impossible, confident that the strength of
his mountain defences was sufficient to defy all the

power of the emirate. To the orders of Abd-al-Rah-

man to attend him with his troops he returned evasive
replies, pleading the engagement he had entered into,
and his obligation to observe it. His repeated com-
mands being ignored, and the patience of the army
to advance growing uncontrollable, Abd-al-Rahman
secretly despatched a squadron of light horsemen,
under Gedhi-Ibn-Zeyan, a Syrian officer, with direc-
tions to bring in the refractory wali dead or alive.
Pressing forward with the utmost diligence, the
troopers came suddenly upon Othman, at Castrum
 Moorish Empire in Europe 297

Livia*, before he was even aware of the intentions

of the Emir. He had barely time to take refuge
with a few attendants and his bride in the neighbor-
ing mountains, before his enemies entered the town
and, without halting, spurred on through the rugged
defiles in hot pursuit. Overtaken near a brook where
the party had stopped from fatigue, the rebel escort
was killed or put to flight; the Gothic princess was
taken; and Othman paid the forfeit of his treason
with his life. The enterprising Gedhi cast at the feet
of Abd-al-Rahman the head of the traitor as the proof
of his success and the captive, whose wondrous beauty
;

charmed the eyes of all who saw her, was sent to grace
the royal harem at Damascus.
And now, the gateways of the Pyrenees being open,
the mighty host of Moslems poured through, like an
inundation, upon the sunny fields of France. No re-
liable basis is available by which we can even approach
to an accurate estimate of its numbers. Considering
the publicity given to the crusade, the different sources
whence the foreign recruits were drawn, the regular
army of the Emir, and the bodies of cavalry furnished
by the Viceroys of Africa and Egypt, it would seem
that the invading army must have amounted to at least
a hundred thousand men. Assembled without order,
and wholly intolerant of discipline, the mutual jeal-
ousy and haughty independence of its unruly elements
greatly impaired its efficiency. The members of each
tribe mustered around their chieftain, who enjoyed
but a precarious authority; while the obedience which
all professed to the representative of the majesty of
the Khalif was observed only so long as his commands
did not clash with their wishes or run counter to the
indulgence of their passions and inherited prejudices.
Meanwhile, the rumor of the approaching peril,
exaggerated by distance, had spread consternation
through every Christian community. It recalled the
298 History of the

disastrous times of barbarian conquest, when the

ferocious hordes of Goths and Huns swept with ruin
and death the fairest provinces of the Roman Empire.
Throughout the Orient, in the lands which acknowl-
edged the supremacy of the Successor of Mohammed,
the pious Moslem awaited, with confidence not un-
mingled with a feeling of exultation, tidings of the
anticipated triumph of his brethren. The eyes of the
entire world were turned in expectancy to the spot
where must speedily be tested the respective prowess
of the North and South; to the struggle which would
forever determine the future of Europe, and decide
without appeal the fate of Christianity. Onward,
resistlessly, pitilessly, rolled the devastating flood of
invasion. The Duke of Aquitaine had bravely met
his enemies on the very slopes of the mountain barrier,
but all his efforts were powerless to stay their progress.
Cities were reduced to ashes and their inhabitants
driven into slavery. The pastures were swept clean
of their flocks; the blooming hill-sides and fertile
valleys of the Garonne were transformed into scenes
of desolation. Bordeaux, the populous and wealthy
emporium of Aquitaine, paid for a short and ineffec-
tual resistance with the plunder of its treasures, the
massacre of its citizens, and its total destruction by
fire. The Moorish army, encumbered with thousands
of captives and the booty of an entire province,
crossed the Garonne with difficulty, and resumed its
slow and straggling march towards the interior.
Upon the banks of the Dordogne Eudes had mar-
shalled his followers to contest
its passage. A
fierce
battle ensued;the Christians, overwhelmed by num-
bers, were surrounded and cut to pieces; and the
carnage was so horrible as to excite the pity of the
rude historians of an age prolific in violence and blood-
shed. The conquest of Aquitaine achieved, the Emir
moved on to Poitiers, and after ravaging the suburbs
 Moorish Empire in Europe 299

of that city, where stood the famous Church of St.

Hilary, which was utterly destroyed, planted the white
standard of the Ommeyades before its walls. That
country, whose hostile factions were subsequently
reconciled and consolidated by the genius of Charle-
magne, and which is known to us as France, was,
during the seventh century, in a state of frightful
anarchy. In the South, the important province of
Septimania had formerly acknowledged the suprem-
acy of the Visigoths, and after the overthrow of
their empire had enjoyed a nominal independence.

Aquitaine was subject to its dukes, who maintained

an unequal contest with the growing powers of the
North and the insatiable ambition of the Saracens.
Towards the East, the petty lord of Austrasia was
involved in perpetual intrigues and hostilities with
his turbulent neighbors, the princes of Neustria and

Burgundy. In the year 638, with the death of the

renowned Dagobert, whose dominions extended to the
Danube, disappeared the last vestige of independence
and authorit}^ possessed by the monarchs of the Mero-
vingian dynasty. Henceforth the regal power was
vested in, and practically exercised by, the bold and
able mayors of the palace, the prime ministers of the
who, through indifference or compul-
rois faineants j
sion, were apparently contented with the titles and
glittering baubles of royalty. The superior talents
of the priest were industriously employed in enrich-
ing his church or his abbey, and the zeal and fears of
the devout co-operating with the avarice of the clergy,
the sacred edifices became depositories of treasures
which dazzled the eyes of the greedy freebooters of
Abd-al-Rahman with their magnificence and value.
No sovereign in Europe could boast of such wealth
as had been accumulated through the lavish gener-
osity of pilgrims and penitents by the shrines of
St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Martin of Tours.
300 History of the

The ecclesiastics habitually represented themselves

as the treasurers of heaven, the chosen intermediaries
with the saints and the most costly gift was scarcely
;

considered an equivalent for a hasty blessing or a relic

of more than doubtful authenticity, graciously be-
stowed upon the humble and delighted contributor to
clerical rapacity and monkish imposture.
The manly vigor inherited from a barbarian an-
cestry, developed and strengthened by military exer-
cises, had formed of the Franks a nation of heroes.
Their gigantic forms, encased in mail, enabled them
to resist assaults which must have overwhelmed mor-
tals of less ponderous build. A phlegmatic tempera-
ment, joined to a devotion to their lords which never
questioned the justice of their commands, imparted
to them steadiness and inflexible constancy in the
field. Their naturally ferocious aspect was increased
by grotesque helmets of towering height, and by the
skins of wild beasts which draped their massive shoul-
ders, while their weapons were of a size and weight
that the demigods of old alone might wield. Such
were the warriors to whose valor were now com-
mitted the destinies of the Christian world. The
throne of the Franks was then occupied by Thierry
IV., one of a series of royal phantoms, who had been
exalted to this nominal dignity by a certain mayor
of the palace named Charles, the natural son of Pepin
d'Heristal, Duke of Austrasia. It was the policy of
these officials, necessarily men of talent, whose abilities
had raised them to prominence, and who controlled
the empire of the state, to bestow the crown upon
princely youths purposely familiarized with vice, that
every noble aspiration might be stifled and every
patriotic impulse repressed in the indulgence of the
most wanton and effeminate luxury. The profligate
habits of these sovereigns, which shortened their
reigns, account for their number and rapid succession
in the annals of France.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 301

The
chroniclers of the eighth and ninth centuries,
garrulous upon the martyrdom of saints and the per-
formance of miracles, have scarcely mentioned the
achievements of the most remarkable personage of
his time. Their well-known enmity to his name, asso-
ciated with the appropriation of church property,
although employed for the preservation of Chris-
tendom, has had, no doubt, much to do with this
contemptuous silence. Pepin, using the privilege
sanctioned by the depraved manners of the age,
lived in concubinage with Alpaide, the mother of
Charles, whose social position was yet so little in-
ferior to that of a matrimonial alliance that she is
often spoken of as a second wife. An austere pre-
late, Lambert by name, who occupied the See of
Maestricht, with a boldness and zeal unusual in the
complaisant churchmen of the eighth century, saw
fit to publicly rebuke Pepin for this unlawful con-

nection, and, with studied insult, rejected the hospi-

tality which the kindness of the Mayor of the Palace
had tendered him. Offended by this exhibition of
ill-breeding and independence, the brother of the lady
procured the murder of the bishop, who was forth-
with canonized, and is still prominent among the most
efficient intercessors of the Roman Catholic calendar.
The murderers, anathemas of the
careless alike of the
Church and of the process of the law, remained un-
punished; while the populace of Liege, where the
bishop was a favorite, erected a chapel to the memory
of the fearless ecclesiastic. The whole occurrence
affords a curious and striking commentary on- the
immorality, lawlessness, and peculiar domestic habits
of the Middle Ages in France.
Tradition has ascribed to Charles the assassination
of his brother Grimwald, with whom he was to have
shared his paternal inheritance and the absence of any
;

other known motive, the avowed hostility of his father,

302 History of the

who imprisoned him, as well as the significant silence

of the historians evidently trembling under the stern
rule of the Mayor of the Palace give considerable
probability to this hypothesis.
Although disinherited,
the attachment of the people was such that he was,
immediately after the death of Pepin, rescued from
a dungeon and raised to the dukedom. Succeeding
events justified the wisdom of this measure. The
address of Charles allayed the civil dissensions of
the Franks; his valor and military genius awed
and restrained the restless barbarians of Germany.
Although unquestionably the preserver of Chris-
tianity, he is more than suspected of having been
an idolater, his title, Martel, having been traced by
antiquaries to the hammer of Thor, the emblem of
the war-god of Scandinavia. He
had no reverence
for the Church, no belief in its doctrines, no considera-
tion for its possessions, no regard for its ministers.
He seized reliquaries and sacred vessels destined for
communion with God, and coined them into money to
pay the expenses of his campaigns. He despoiled the
clergy of their lands and partitioned them among his
followers. The most eminent of his captains he in-
vested with the offices of bishops, after expelling the
rightful incumbents in order to the better retain con-
trol of their confiscated estates. This sacrilegious
policy, while it exasperated the priesthood, endeared
him to his soldiers who were the recipients of his
bounty; but the wrath of the ecclesiastical order was
not appeased even by his inestimable services to its
cause. Anathematized by popes and councils, legends
inspired by monkish credulity and hatred have sol-
emnly asserted that his soul had been repeatedly seen
by holy men surrounded by demons in the depths of
hell.
Of the personal characteristics, habits, and domestic
life of Charles Martel we know absolutely nothing.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 303

Equally silent is history as to the regulations of his

capital, the constitution of his court, the rules of his

military tactics, the principles of his government, the

names of his councillors. The bitterness of ecclesias-
tical prejudice while it has cursed his memory has not
been able to tarnish his renown. Historical justice has
given him the full measure of credit due to his ex-
ploits, whose importance was not appreciated by his
contemporaries, and has accorded him a high rank
among the great military commanders of the world.
Accustomed to arms from childhood, Charles had
passed the greater portion of his life in camps. He
had conquered Neustria, intimidated Burgundy, and
had, in many successful expeditions against the for-
midable barbarians of the Rhine, left bloody evidences
of his prowess as far as the banks of the Elbe and
the Danube. He had laid claim to the suzerainty of
Aquitaine in the name of the royal figure-head under
whose authority he prosecuted his conquests; and
Eudes had hitherto regarded his demonstrations with
even greater fear and aversion than the periodical
forays of the Saracens. Now, however, the crest-
fallen Duke of Aquitaine sought the presence of his
ancient foe, did homage to him, and implored his aid.
The practised eye and keen intellect of Charles dis-
cerned at once the serious nature of the impending
danger, and with characteristic promptitude sought to
avert it. His soldiers, living only in camps and always
under arms, were ready to march at a moment's notice.
Soon a great army was assembled, and, amidst the
deafening shouts of the soldiery, the general of the
Franks, confident of the superiority of his followers
in endurance and discipline, advanced to meet the
enemy. The discouraged by the bold front
latter,

presented by the inhabitants of Poitiers, who had

been nerved to desperation by the memorable ex-
ample of Bordeaux, had, in the mean time, raised
304 History of the

the siege, and were marching towards Tours, at-

tracted by the fame of the vast wealth of the Church
and Abbey of St. Martin. Upon an immense plain
between the two cities the rival hosts confronted each
other. This same region, the centre of France, still
cherished the remembrance of a former contest in
which, centuries before, the Goths and Burgundians
under command of iEtius had avenged the wrongs
of Europe upon the innumerable hordes of Attila.
Of good augury and a harbinger of success was
this former victory regarded by the stalwart warriors
of the North, now summoned a second time to check
the progress of the barbarian flood of the Orient.
Widely different in race, in language, in personal
appearance, in religion, in military evolutions and in
arms, each secretly dreading the result of the inevi-
and each unwilling to retire, for seven
table conflict
days the two armies remained without engaging, but
constantly drawn up in battle array. Finally, unable
to longer restrain the impetuosity of the Arabs, Abd-
al-Rahman gave orders for the attack. With loud
cries the lightsquadrons of Moorish cavalry, followed
pell-mell by the vast mob of foot soldiers, hurled
themselves upon the solid, steel-clad files of the
"
Franks. But the latter stood firm like a wall of
ice," in the quaint language of the ancient chronicler
the darts and arrows of the Saracens struck harm-
lessly upon helmet and cuirass, while the heavy swords
and maces of the men-at-arms of Charles made fright-
ful havoc among the half -naked bodies of their assail-
ants. Night put an end to the battle, and the Franks,
for the moment relieved from an ordeal which they
had sustained with a courage worthy of their reputa-
tion, invoking the aid of their saints, yet not without
misgivings for the morrow, slept upon their arms.
At dawn the conflict was renewed with equal ardor
and varying success until the afternoon, when a divi-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 305

sion of cavalry under the Duke of Aquitaine suc-

ceeded in turning the flank of the enemy, and began
to pillage his camp. As the tidings of this misfortune
spread through the ranks of the Moslems, large num-
bers deserted their standards and turned back to re-
cover their booty, far more valuable in their estimation
than even their own safety or the triumph of their
cause. Great confusion resulted; the retreat became

general; the Franks redoubled their efforts; and

Abd-al-Rahman, endeavoring to rally his disheart-
ened followers, with a hundred wounds.
fell pierced
That night, aided by the darkness, the Saracens
silently withdrew, leaving their tents and heavy
baggage behind. Charles, fearful of ambuscades,
and having acquired great respect for the prowess
of his adversaries, whose overwhelming numbers, en-
abling them to attack him in both front and rear, had
seriously thinned his ranks, declined the pursuit, and
with the spoils abandoned by the Saracens returned to
his capital.
The Arabs have left us no account of the losses sus-
tained in this battle. The mendacious monks, how-
ever, to whom by reason of their knowledge of letters
was necessarily entrusted the task of recording the
events of the time, have computed the loss of the
invaders at three hundred and seventy-five thousand,
probably thrice the number of all the combatants
engaged while that of the Franks is regarded as too
;

insignificant to be mentioned. The very fact that

Charles was disinclined to take advantage of the
condition of his enemies loaded with plunder, de-
prived of their commander, and dejected by defeat,
shows of itself that his army must have greatly
suffered. The principal accounts that we possess of
this battle, whose transcendent importance is recog-
nized by every student of history, bear unmistakable
evidence of the ecclesiastical partiality under whose
Vol. I. 20
306 History of the

influence they were composed. Monkish writers have

exhausted their prolific imagination in recounting the
miraculous intervention of the saints and the prowess
of the champions of the Cross, which insured the
preservation of Christianity. The Arabs, however,
usually accurate and minute even in the relation of
their misfortunes, have not paid the attention to this

great event which its effect upon their fortunes would

seem to warrant. Many ignore it altogether. Others
pass it by with a few words. Some refer to it, not
as a stubbornly contested engagement, but as a rout
provoked by the disorders of an unwieldy multitude,
inflamed with fanaticism, divided by faction, impa-
tient of discipline. From such meagre and discordant
materials must be constructed the narrative of one of
the most momentous occurrences in the history of the
world.
An account of the crushing defeat of Poitiers hav-
ing been communicated to the Viceroy of Africa, he
appointed Abd-al-Melik-Ibn-Kattan, an officer of the
African army, Emir of Spain, and, presenting him
with his commission, urgently exhorted him to avenge
the reverse which had befallen the Moslem arms. The
martial spirit of this commander, in whom the lapse
of fourscore and ten years had not sensibly impaired
the vigor of his mind or the activity of his body,
was roused to enthusiasm by the prospect of an en-
counter with the idolaters of the North. Detained
for a time in Cordova by the disturbances resulting
from the disorganization of all branches of the govern-
ment, he attempted, at the head of the remains of the
defeated army and a reinforcement which had accom-
panied him from Africa, to thread the dangerous
passes of the Pyrenees. But the time was ill-chosen;
the rainy season was at hand; and the Saracens,
hemmed in by impassable torrents, fell an easy prey
to the missiles of an enterprising enemy. The march
 Moorish Empire in Europe 307

became a series of harassing skirmishes; and it was

with the greatest difficulty that the Emir was enabled
to extricate the remainder of his troops from the snare
into which his want of caution had conducted them.
Disgusted with the miscarriage of the expedition from
whose results so much had been expected, Obeydallah,
Viceroy of Africa, promptly deposed Abd-al-Melik,
and nominated his own brother, Okbah-Ibn-al-Hejaj,
to the vacant position. A martinet in severity and
routine, Okbah enjoyed also a well-founded reputa-
tion for justice and integrity. He soon became the
terror of the corrupt and tyrannical officials who in-
fested the administration. He removed such as had
been prominent for cruelty, fraud, or incompetency.
To all who were guilty of peculation, or of even indi-
rectly reflecting upon the honor and dignity of the
Khalif, he was inexorable. With a view to insuring
the safety of the highways, he formed a mounted
police, the Ivaschefs, in which may be traced the germ
of the Hermandad of the fifteenth century and the
modern Gendarmes and Civil Guards of France and
Spain. From this institution, extended to the fron-
tiers of Moslem territory as far as the Rhone, was
derived the military organization of the Ribat the
prototype of the knightly orders of Calatrava, Alcan-
tara, and Santiago, which played so conspicuous a part
in the Reconquest. Okbah established a court in every

village, so that all honest citizens might enjoy the pro-

tection of the law. His fostering care also provided
each community with a school sustained by a special
tax levied for that purpose. Devout to an almost
fanatical degree, he erected a mosque whenever the
necessitiesof the people seemed to demand it, and,
thoroughly alive to the advantages of a religious
education, he attached to every place of worship a
minister who might instruct the ignorant in the
doctrines of the Koran and the duties of a faithful
308 History of the

Mussulman. He repressed with an iron hand the

ferocious spirit of the vagrant tribes of Berbers,
whose kinsmen in Africa had, in many battles,
formerly experienced the effects of his valor and
discipline. By equalizing the taxation borne by
different communities, he secured the gratitude of
districts which had hitherto been oppressed by
grievous impositions, rendered still more intolerable
by the rapacity of unprincipled governors. No
period in the history of the emirate was distin-
guished by such important and radical reforms as
that included in the administration of Okbah-Ibn-al-
Hejaj.
The Berbers, having engaged in one of their
periodical revolts in Africa, Obeydallah, unable to
make headway against them, sent a despatch re-
quiring the immediate attendance of Okbah. The
latter, at the head of a body of cavalry, crossed the
strait, and, after a decisive battle, put the rebels to
flight. His services were found so indispensable by
the Viceroy that he kept him near his person in the
capacity of councillor for four years, while he still
enjoyed the title and emoluments of governor of
Spain. In the meantime, the greatest disorders pre-
vailed in the Peninsula. The salutary reforms which
had employed the leisure and exercised the abilities
of the prudent Viceroy were swept away; the old
order of things was renewed; and the provinces of
the emirate were disgraced by the revival of feuds,
by the oppression of the weak, by the neglect of
agriculture, by unchecked indulgence in peculation,
and by the universal prevalence of anarchy and blood-
shed.
The dread of Charles Martel and the ruthless bar-
barians under hiscommand was wide-spread through-
out the provinces of Southern France. Their excesses
appeared the more horrible when contrasted with the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 309

tolerant and equitable rule of the Saracens who gar-

risoned the towns of Septimania. The Provencal,
whose voluptuous habits led him to avoid the hard-
ships of the camp, and whose religious ideas, little
infected with bigotry, saw nothing repulsive in the
law of Islam, determined to seek the aid of his
swarthy neighbors of the South. As Charles had
already ravaged the estates of Maurontius, Duke of
Marseilles, only desisting when recalled by a revolt
of the Saxons, that powerful noble, whose authority
extended over the greater part of Provence, in an-
ticipation of his return, entered into negotiations with
Yusuf-Ibn-Abd-al-Rahman, wali of Narbonne; a
treaty was concluded, by the terms of which the Arabs
were invited to assume the suzerainty of Provence,
many towns were ceded to them, and the counts
rendered homage to the Moslem governor, who, in
order to discharge his portion of the obligation and
afford protection to his new subjects, assembled his
forces upon the line of the northern frontier. It was
at this time that Okbah was summoned to quell the
rebellion of the Berbers just as he was upon the point
of advancing to secure, by a powerful reinforcement,
this valuable addition to his dominions.
Early in the year Charles, having intimi-
737,
dated his enemies and secured a temporary peace,
made preparations for an active campaign in Prov-
ence. Driving the Arabs out of Lyons, he advanced
to the city of Avignon, whose natural position was

recognized by both Franks and Saracens not only as

a place of extraordinary strength but as the key of
the valley of the Rhone. Experience and contact with
their more civilized neighbors, the Italians, had in-
structed the in the use of military engines;
Franks
and, notwithstanding the desperate resistance of the
Arab garrison, ably seconded by the inhabitants,
Avignon was taken by storm. The population was
310 History of the

butchered without mercy, and Charles, having com-

pletely glutted his vengeance by burning the city, left
it a
heap of smoking ruins.
Having been delayed by the stubborn opposition
of Avignon, and urged by the clamors of his fol-
lowers who thirsted for the rich spoils of Septimania,
the Frankish general, leaving the fortified town of
Aries in his rear, marched directly upon Narbonne.
Thoroughly appreciating the political and military
importance of this stronghold, the capital of their

possessions in France, the Arabs had spared neither

labor nor expense to render it impregnable. The
city was invested and the siege pressed with vigor,
but the fortifications defied the efforts of the besiegers
and little progress was made towards its reduction.
An expedition sent to reinforce it, making the ap-
proach by seaand attempting to ascend the river
Aude, was foiled by the vigilance of Charles; the
boats were stopped by palisades planted in the bed of
the stream; the Saracens, harassed by the enemy's
archers, were despatched with arrows or drowned in
the swamps; and, of a considerable force, a small
detachment alone succeeded in cutting its way through
the lines of the besiegers and entering the city. The
temper of the Franks was not proof, however, against
the undaunted resolution of the Arab garrison. Un-
able to restrain the growing impatience of his undis-
ciplined levies, Charles reluctantly abandoned the
siege and endeavored to indemnify himself for his
disappointment by the infliction of all the unspeak-
able atrocities of barbarian warfare upon the territory
accessible to his arms. Over the beautiful plains of
Provence and Languedoc, adorned with structures
which recalled the palmiest days of Athenian and
Roman genius, and whose population was the most
polished of Western Europe, swept the fierce cavalry
of the Alps and the Rhine. Agde, Maguelonne,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 311

and Beziers were sacked. The city of Nimes, whose

marvellous relics of antiquity are still the delight of
the student and the antiquary, provoked the indigna-
tion of the invader by these marks of her intellectual
superiority and former greatness. Her walls were
razed; her churches plundered; her most eminent
citizens carried away as hostages; her most splendid
architectural monuments delivered to the flames. The
massive arches of the Roman amphitheatre defied,
however, the puny efforts of the enraged barbarian;
but their blackened stones still exhibit the traces of
fire, an enduring seal of the impotent malice of
Charles Martel impressed in the middle of the eighth
century.
In this memorable invasion the Arab colonists do
not seem to have suffered so much as the indigenous
population, which had long before incurred the enmity
of the Franks. The ecclesiastical order met with scant
courtesy at the hands of the idolaters. Despising the
terrors ofanathema and excommunication, Charles did
not hesitate to appropriate the wealth of the Church
wherever he could find it. Having inflicted all the

damage possible upon the subjects and allies of the

Khalif in Provence, the Franks, loaded with booty
and driving before them a vast multitude of captives
chained together in couples, returned in triumph to
their homes.
This occupation of the Franks proved to be but
temporary. The garrisons left in the towns whose
walls were intact were insufficient to overawe the popu-
lace exasperated by the outrages it had just sustained.
The Duke of Marseilles, seconded by the wali of
Aries, easily regained control of the country around
Avignon. But the return of Charles during the
following year with his ally Liutprand, King of the
Lombards, and a large army, not only recovered the
lost territory but took Aries, hitherto exempt from
312 History of the

capture, and drove the Saracens beyond the Rhone,

which river for the future became their eastern boun-
dary, a limit they were destined never again to pass.
The absence of Okbah encouraged the spirit of re-
bellion, ever rife in the Peninsula. He had hardly
returned before the arts of intrigue and the discon-
tent of the populace raised up a formidable rival to
his authority. Abd-al-Melik-Ibn-Kattan, who had
formerly been Emir, now usurped that office. In
the civil war which followed, the fortunes of Abd-al-
Melik soon received a powerful impulse by the death
of his competitor at Carcassonne.
We now turn to the coast of Africa, a region which
from first to last has exerted an extraordinary and
always sinister influence over the destinies of the
Mohammedan empire in Europe. The intractable
character of the Berbers, and their aversion to the
restraints of law and the habits of civilized life, had
defied the efforts of the ablest soldiersand negotiators
to control them. In consequence, the dominant Arab
element was not disposed to conciliate savages who
recognized no authority but that of force, and imposed
upon them the most oppressive exactions, prompted
partly by avarice and partly by tribal hatred. The
impetus of Berber insurrection was communicated by
contact and sympathy to the settlements of their
kindred in Spain, where the spirit of insubordination
under a government made its outbreaks
less severe
more secure, and, at the same time, more formidable.
Obeydallah, the present Viceroy, was influenced by
these feelings of scorn even more than a majority of
his countrymen. Atrue Arab, educated in the best
schools of Syria, of energetic character and bigoted
impulses, he regarded the untamable tribesmen of
Africa as below the rank of slaves. While collector
of the revenue in Egypt he had provoked a rebellion
of the Copts on account of an arbitrary increase
 Moorish Empire in Europe 313

of taxes, levied solely because the tributaries were

infidels. Under his rule the lot of the Berbers be-
came harder than ever. Their flocks, which consti-
tuted their principal wealth, were wantonly slaugh-
tered to provide wool for the couches of the luxurious
nobility of Damascus. Their women were seized, to
be exposed in the slave-markets of Cairo and Antioch.
Their tributes were doubled at the caprice of the
governor, in whose eyes the life of a misbeliever was
of no more consideration than that of a wild beast,
for, being enjoyed under protest, it could be forfeited
at the will of his superior. Day by day the grievances
of the Berbers became more unendurable, and the
thirst for liberty and vengeance kept pace with the

ever-increasing abuses which had provoked it. At first

the tribes, while professedly Mussulman, in reality re-
mained idolaters, fetich-worshippers, the pliant tools
of conjurers and charlatans. Over the whole nation
a priesthood by snake -charming, by the interpreta-
tion of omens, by spurious miracles, by the arts of
sorcery had acquired unbounded influence; and the
names of these impostors, canonized after death, were
believed to have more power to avert misfortune than
the invocation of the Almighty. In time, however,
the zealous labors of exiled Medinese and Persian non-
conformists had supplanted the grosser forms of this
superstition by a religion whose fervor was hardly
equalled by that displayed by the most fanatical Com-
panion of Mohammed. The scoffing and polished
Arabs of Syria, of whom the Viceroy was a promi-
nent example, Pagan by birth and infidel in belief
and practice, were sedulously represented as the
enemies of Heaven and the hereditary revilers of
the Prophet, whom it was a duty to destroy. These
revolutionary sentiments, received in Africa with ap-
plause, were diffused through Spain by the tide of
immigration, in which country, as elsewhere, they
314 History of the

were destined soon to produce the most important

political results. The Berbers, wrought up to a pitch
of ungovernable fury, now only awaited a suitable
opportunity to inaugurate the most formidable revolt
which had ever menaced the Mohammedan govern-
ment of Africa. In the year 740 an increased con-
tribution was demanded of the inhabitants of Tangier,
whose relations with the savages of the neighboring
mountains had prevented the conversion of the former
to Islam. A division of the army was absent in Sicily,
and the Berbers, perceiving their advantage, rose
everywhere against their oppressors. They stormed
Tangier, expelled the garrisons of the seacoast cities,
elected a sovereign, and defeated in rapid succession
every force sent against them. The pride and resent-
ment of the Khalif Hischem at last impelled him to
despatch a great army against his rebellious subjects.
It numbered seventy thousand, and was commanded
by a distinguished Syrian officer, Balj-Ibn-Beshr, who
was ordered to put to death without mercy every rebel
who might fall into his hands and to indulge the
troops in all the license of indiscriminate pillage.
Marching towards the west, the Syrian general en-
countered the Berbers on the plain of Mulwiyah. The
naked bodies and inferior weapons of the insurgents
provoked the contempt of the soldiers of the Khalif,
who expected an easy victory; but the resistless im-
pulse of the barbarians supplied the want of arms
and discipline, and the Syrians were routed with the
loss of two-thirds of their number. Some ten thou-
sand horsemen, under command of Balj, cut their way
through the enemy and took refuge in Ceuta. The
Berbers, aware of the impossibility of reducing that
place, ravaged the neighborhood for miles around,
and, having blockaded the town on all sides, the
Syrians, unable to escape or to obtain provisions, were
threatened with a lingering death by famine.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 315

Abd-al-Melik, Emir of Spain, was a native of

Medina. Half a century before he had been promi-
nent in the Arab army at the battle of Harra, the
bloody prelude to the sack of the Holy City and the
enslavement and exile of its citizens. To him, in vain,
did the Syrian general apply for vessels in which to
cross the strait. The Arab chieftain, bearing upon
his body many scars inflicted by the spears of Yezid's
troopers and who had seen his family and his neigh-
bors massacred before his face, now exulted in the
prospect of an unhoped-for revenge; and, for the
complete accomplishment of his purpose, he issued
stringent orders against supplying the unfortunate
Syrians with supplies. The sympathy of Zeyad-Ibn-
Amru, a wealthy resident of Cordova, was aroused by
the account of their sufferings, and he imprudently
fitted out two vessels for their relief; which act of
insubordination having been communicated to the
Emir, he ordered Zeyad to be imprisoned, and, having
put out his eyes, impaled him, in company with a
dog, a mark of ignominy inflicted only on the worst
of criminals.
The news of the decisive victory obtained by the
Berbers over the army of the Khalif was received with
pride and rejoicing by all of their countrymen in
Spain. The efforts of the missionaries, aided by the
fiery zeal of their proselytes, had infused into the
population of the North, composed largely of African
colonists, a spirit of fanaticism which threatened to
carry everything before it. In a moment the Berbers
of Aragon, Galicia, and Estremadura sprang to arms.
Uniting their forces they elected officers; then, or-
ganized in three divisions, they prepared to dispute the
authority of the Emir in the strongholds of his power.
One body marched upon Cordova, another invested
Toledo, and the third directed its course towards Alge-
ziras, with designs upon the fleet, by whose aid they
316 History of the

expected to massacre the Syrians in Ceuta and to

collect abody of colonists sufficient to destroy the
haughty Arab aristocracy of the Peninsula and found
an independent kingdom, Berber in nationality, schis-
matic and precisian in religion.
And now were again exhibited the singular incon-
sistencies and remarkable effects of the fatal antago-
nism of race. The critical condition of Abd-al-Melik
compelled him to implore the support of his Syrian
foes, whom he hated with far more bitterness than he
did his rebellious subjects, and who were also thor-
oughly cognizant of his feelings towards them as well
as of the political necessity which prompted his ad-
vances. Atreaty was executed, by whose terms the
Syrians were to be transported into Spain and pledged
their assistance to crush the rebellion, and, after this
had been accomplished, the Emir agreed to land them
in Africa upon a territory which acknowledged the
jurisdiction of the Khalif. Hostages selected from
their principal officers were delivered by the half-
famished refugees, and they embarked for Anda-
lusia, where the policy of the government and the

sympathy of the people supplied them with food,

clothing, and arms, and their drooping spirits soon
revived. These experienced soldiers, united with the
forces of Abd-al-Melik, attacked and routed with ease,
one after another, the three Berber armies. All of
the plunder which the latter had collected fell into
their hands, in addition to that secured by expeditions
into the now undefended country of their enemies.
His apprehensions concerning the Berbers having been
removed, Abd-al-Melik now became anxious to relieve
hisdominions of the presence of allies whose success
rendered them formidable. But the allurements of
soiland climate had made the Syrians reluctant to
abandon the beautiful land of Andaluz, the region
where they had accumulated so much wealth, the scene
 Moorish Empire in Europe 317

where their efforts had been crowned with so much

glory. Disputes arose between their leader and the
Emir concerning the interpretation of the treaty the ;

Syrian general, conscious of his power, lost no oppor-

tunity to provoke the fiery temper of Abd-al-Melik ;

and, at last, taking advantage of a favorable occasion,

he expelled the latter from his capital. Balj, elected
to the viceroyalty by his command, proceeded at once
to extend and confirm his newly acquired authority.
The hostages confined near Algeziras were released,
and their accounts of harsh treatment enraged their
companions, who recalled their own sufferings and
the inhumanity of Abd-al-Melik during their block-
ade in Ceuta. With loud cries they demanded the
death of the Emir. The efforts of their officers to
stem the torrent were futile; a mob dragged the
venerable prince from his palace, and, taking him to
the bridge outside the city of Cordova, crucified him
between a dog and a hog, animals whose contact is
suggestive of horrible impurity to a Mussulman and
whose very names are epithets of vileness and con-
tempt. Thus perished ignominiously this stout old
soldier, who could boast of the purest blood of the
Koreish; who had witnessed the wonderful changes
of three eventful generations; who had seen service
under the standard of Islam in Arabia, Egypt, Al-
Maghreb, France, and Spain; who had bravely de-
fended the tomb of the Prophet at Medina, and had
confronted with equal resolution the mail-clad squad-
rons of Charles upon the banks of the Rhone; who
had twice administered in troublous times the affairs
of the Peninsula; and who now, long past that age
when men seek retirement from the cares of public
life, still active and vigorous, was sacrificed, through
his own imprudence, to the irreconcilable hatred of
tribalantagonism. An act of such atrocity, without
considering the prominence of the victim, the na-
318 History of the

tionality of the participants, or the degree of provo-

cation, was, independent of its moral aspect, highly
impolitic and most prejudicial to the interests of the
revolutionists. The Syrians became practically iso-
The sons of Abd-al-Melik,
lated in a foreign country.
who held important commands in the North, assembled
a great army. Reinforcements were furnished by the
governor of Narbonne, and the fickle Berbers joined
in considerable numbers the ranks of their former
adversaries.
At a little village called Aqua-Portera, not far from
Cordova, the Arabs and Berbers attacked the foreign-
ers, who had enlisted as their auxiliaries a number of
criminals and outlaws. In the battle which followed
the latter were victorious, but lost their general Balj,
who fell in a single combat with the governor of Nar-
bonne. The Syrians, whose choice was immediately
confirmed by the Khali f, elected as his successor,
Thalaba-Ibn-Salamah, a monster whose name was
afterwards stained with acts of incredible infamy.
His inhumanity was proverbial. His troops gave
no quarter. The wives and children of his opponents,
whose liberty even the most violent of his party had
respected, were enslaved. Other victims he had pre-
viously exposed at auction before the gates of Cor-
dova, under circumstances of the grossest cruelty and
humiliation. The most illustrious of these were nobles
of the party of Medina. By an exquisite refinement
of insult he caused them to be disposed of to the
lowest, instead of the highest, bidder, and even
bartered publicly for impure and filthy animals the
descendants of the friends of Mohammed, members
of the proudest families of the aristocracy of Arabia.
But the atrocities of Thalaba had already alienated
many of the adherents of his own party as well as
terrified those of the opposite faction, who had no

mercy to expect at the hands of a leader who neither

 Moorish Empire in Europe 319

observed the laws of war nor respected the faith of

treaties.Upon the application of these citizens, most
of them men of high rank and influential character,
the Viceroy of Africa sent Abu-al-Khattar to super-
sede the sanguinary Thalaba. He
arrived just in
time to rescue the unhappy Berbers, many of them
Moslems, who were already ranged in order for sys-
tematic massacre. His power was soon felt; and by
banishing the leaders of the insurgents; by granting
a general amnesty; by an ample distribution of un-
settled territory; and by conferring upon the trucu-
lent strangers a portion of the public revenues, an
unusual degree of peace and security was soon as-
sured to the entire Peninsula. In accordance with a
policy adopted many years before, the various colo-
nists were assigned to districts which bore some re-
semblance, in their general features, to the land of
their nativity, a plan which offered the additional

advantage of separating these turbulent spirits from

each other, thus rendering mutual co-operation diffi-
cult, if not impossible, in any enterprise affecting the
safety or permanence of the central power.
The first months of the administration of Abu-al-
Khattar were distinguished by a degree of forbear-
ance and charity unusual amidst the disorder which
now prevailed in every province of the Moslem em-
pire. But his partisans had wrongs to avenge, and
the Emir had not the moral courage to resist the im-
portunate demands of his kindred. An unjust ju-
dicial decision provoked reproach insult led to blood-
;

shed; the fiery Maadites rushed to arms; and once

more the Peninsula assumed its ordinary aspect of
political convulsion and civil war. Al-Samil and
Thalaba, two captains of distinction, obtained the
supremacy; the Emir was imprisoned, then rescued,
and, after several ineffectual attempts to regain his
authority, put to death. Having overpowered its
320 History of the

adversary, the triumphant Maadite faction gratified

its revengeful impulses to the utmost by plunder,

torture, and assassination. At length the condition

of affairs becoming intolerable, and no prospect ex-
isting of relief from the East, where the candidates
of rival tribes contended for the tempting prize of
the khalifate, a council of officers was convoked, and
Yusuf-Abd-al-Rahman-al-Fehri was unanimouslv
chosen governor of Spain.
This commander had, by many years of faithful
service in France, by strict impartiality in his deci-
sions, and by a bravery remarkable among a people
with whom the slightest sign of cowardice was an
indelible disgrace, won the respect and admiration of
his contemporaries. His lineage was high, his person
attractive, his manners dignified and courteous. He
had defended Narbonne against the power of Charles
Martel, whose army, flushed with victory and ani-
mated by the presence of the great Mayor of the
Palace himself, had been unable to shake his confi-
dence or disturb his equanimity. But his eminent
qualifications for the position to which he was now
called did not depend upon his former services and
his personal merit so much as upon the absence which
had kept him from the entanglements and in-
all

trigues of faction. Thus it was that the fiercest par-

tisans hailed his election as a harbinger of peace and
concord a wise stroke of policy that might reconcile
;

the antagonistic pretensions of the nobles of Damas-

cus and Medina; curb the lawlessness of the Berbers;
and restore the Emirate of the West to that tran-
quillity and prosperity it had at long intervals en-
joyed, and of which the memory, like a half -forgotten
tradition, alone remained. This illegal act of the
officers was without sanctioned by the
hesitation
Khalif Merwan, who prudently overlooked the spirit
of independence implied by its exercise on account of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 321

its evident wisdom and the imperative necessity which

had dictated it.

The disorders of the

unhappy Peninsula had, how-
ever, become incurable under the present conditions
of government. All the skill and experience of Yusuf
were exhausted in fruitless attempts at the adjust-
ment of territorial disputes and the pacification of
feuds which a generation of internecine conflict had
engendered. An insurrection broke out in Septi-
mania, a province hitherto exempt from similar dis-
turbances. Ahmed-Ibn-Amru, wali of Seville, whom
Yusuf had removed from the command of the fleet, a
chief of the Koreish, whose vast estates enabled him
to surpass the magnificence of the Emir himself, and
an aspirant for supreme power, organized and headed
a formidable conspiracy. His name was associated
with the early triumphs of Islam, for he was the
great-grandson of the ensign who had borne the
standard of Mohammed at the battle of Bedr.
Prompted by unusual audacity, which was confirmed
by the possession of wealth, ability, and power, he
asserted that he had received the commission of the
Abbasides as Viceroy of Spain. The Asturians, em-
boldened by the quarrels of their foes, leaving their
mountain fastnesses, began to push their incursions far
to the southward. The entire country was engaged in
hostilities. Every occupation but that of warfare was
suspended. The herdsman was robbed of his flocks.
The fertile fields were transformed into a barren
waste. On all sides were the mournful tokens of
misery and want from palace and hut rose the moan
;

of the famishing or the wail for the dead. Intercourse

between the neighboring cities, alienated by hostility
or fearful of marauders, ceased. The doubtful tenure
of authority, dependent upon the incessant changes
of administration, made it impossible for the Chris-
tians to ascertain to whom tribute was rightfully due,
Vol. I. 21
322 History of the

and this confusion of interests often subjected them

to the injustice of double, and even treble, taxation.
At no time in the history of Spain, since the irruption
of the Goths, had such a condition of anarchy and
socialwretchedness prevailed when the inspiration of
;

a few Syrian chieftains brought the existing chaos to

an end, by the introduction of a new ruler and the
re-establishment of a dynasty whose princes, the
tyrants of Damascus, had hitherto reflected little
more than odium and derision on the Moslem name.
The history of Spain under the emirs presents a
melancholy succession of tragic events arising from
antipathy of race, political ambition, religious zeal,
and private enmity. An extraordinary degree of
instability, misrule, distrust, and avarice character-
ized their administration. The revolutions which
constantly Khalifate of Damascus exer-
afflicted the
cised no inconsiderable influence over the viceregal

capitals of Kairoan and Cordova. The Ommeyade

princes of Syria lived in constant apprehension of
death by violence. The methods by which they had
arisen in many instances contributed to their over-
throw. The assassin of yesterday often became the
victim of to-day. The perpetration of every crime,
the indulgence in every vice, by the Successors of the
Prophet, diminished the faith and loyalty of their
subjects and seriously affected the prestige and
divine character believed to attach to their office.
The subordinates necessarily shared the odium and
ignominy of their superiors. The Emir of Spain
labored under a twofold disadvantage. He held
under the Viceroy of Africa, while the latter was
appointed directly by the Khalif. This division of
authority and responsibility was not conducive to the
interests of good government, social order, or domestic

tranquillity. The people of the Peninsula, subject to

the caprices of a double tyranny, could not be expected
 Moorish Empire in Europe 323

to feel muchreverence for the supreme potentate of

theirgovernment and religion thirteen hundred miles
away. With the accession of each ruler arose fresh
pretexts for the exercise of every resource of extortion.
The rapacity of these officials rivalled in the ingenuity
of its devices and the value of its returns the exactions
of the Roman proconsuls. The methods by which the
majority of them maintained their power provoked
universal execration. Under such political conditions,
loyalty, union, and commercial prosperity were im-
possible. The ancient course of affairs an order
which had existed for three hundred years had been
rudely interrupted. Even under favorable auspices
the foundation of a government and the reorganiza-
tion of society would have been tasks fraught with
many perplexities and dangers. The Visigothic em-
pire had, it is been subdued, but its national spirit,
true,
its religion, and its traditions remained. The changes
of Moslem governors were sudden and frequent. The
average duration of an emir's official life was exactly
twenty-seven months. It required the exertion of the
greatest wisdom, of the most enlightened statesman-
ship, to avert the calamities which must necessarily
result from the collision between a heterogeneous

populace subjected suddenly to the will of a still more

heterogeneous mass of foreigners; to reconcile the
interests of adverse factions; to appease the demands
of wild barbarians unaccustomed to be denied; to
decide alike profound questions of policy and frivo-
lous disputes connected with the various gradations
of ecclesiastical dignity, of hereditary rank, of mili-
tary distinction, and of social precedence. The in-
flexibility of the Arab character, the assumed supe-
riority of the Arab race, the unquenchable fires of
tribal hatred, the necessity of maintaining the rights
accorded under solemn treaties to the vanquished,
enhanced a hundred-fold the difficulties which con-
324 History of the

fronted the sovereign. As an inevitable consequence

a chronic state of disorder prevailed. The authority
of the Khali fs of Damascus was in fact but nominal,
and was never invoked except to countenance revolt
or to assure the obedience of those who faltered in
their loyalty to the emirs, the actual rulers of Spain.
But, despite these serious impediments, the genius of
the Arabian people advanced rapidly in the path of
civilization, while thedense and sluggish intellect of
the northern barbarians, who, in their origin, were not
less ignorant, remained stationary. It took Spain,
under the Moslems, less than half a century to reach
a point in human progress which was not attained by
Italy under the popes in a thousand years. The ca-
pacity of the Arab mind to absorb, to appropriate, to
invent, to develop, to improve, has no parallel in the
annals of any race. The empire of the khalifs in-
cluded an even greater diversity of climate and nations
than that of Rome. The ties of universal brotherhood
proclaimed by the Koran; the connections demanded
by the requirements of an extended commerce; the
intimate associations encouraged by the pilgrimage to
Mecca, awakened the curiosity and enlarged, in an
equal degree, the minds of the Moslems of Asia,
Africa, and Europe. Yet more important than all
was the effect of the almost incessant hostilities waged
against the infidel. By its constantly varying events,
itsfascinations, its thrilling excitements, its dangers,
defeats, and triumphs, war has a remark-
its victories,

able tendency to expand the intellectual faculties, and

thereby to advance the cause of truth and promote the
improvement of every branch of useful knowledge.
The advantages derived from travel, experience, and
conquest the Moslems brought with them into the
Spanish Peninsula. Under the emirate, however,
these were constantly counteracted by the ferocious
and indomitable character of the Berbers. The latter
 Moorish Empire in Europe 325

did not forget the part they had taken in the Con-
quest. It was one of their countrymen who had led
the victorious army. It was the irresistible onset of
their cavalry which had pierced the Gothic lines on
the Guadalete. The rapidity of their movements, the
impetuosity of their attacks, had awed and subdued, in
a few short months, the populous states of a mighty
empire. Scarcely had they begun to enjoy the pleas-
ures of victory before the greed of an hereditary
enemy of their race snatched from their hands the
well-earned fruits of their valor. Their commander
was imprisoned, insulted, and disgraced. Their plun-
der was seized. Those who evinced a desire for a
sedentary life were assigned to the bleak and sterile
plains of La Mancha, Aragon, and Galicia, while
the
Arabs of Syria and the Hedjaz divided among them-
selves the glorious regions of the South, which tradi-
tion had designated as the Elysian Fields of the an-
cients. The arrogant disposition of these lords heaped

upon their Berber vassals every outrage which malice

could devise or tyranny execute. The accident of
African extraction was sufficient to exclude the most
accomplished and capable soldier from an office of
responsibility under the Khalifate of Damascus. In
Spain, as in Al-Maghreb, the fairest virgins of the
Berber camps were torn from the arms of their parents
to replenish the harems of the Orient. Under such
circumstances, it is not strange that the acute sensi-
bilities of a proud and independent people should have
been deeply wounded by the infliction of every fresh
indignity, and their disaffection endanger the stability
of the new government and imperil the institutions
of religion itself by fostering the violent spirit of
tribal animosity, that ominous spectre which constantly
haunted with its fearful presence the society of city
and hamlet, and stalked grimly and in menacing
silence in the very shadow of the throne.
326 History of the

The moral and of the Western world

political aspect
coincided in many particulars with that of Spain dur-
ing the age of transition which preceded the establish-
ment of the Khalifate of Cordova. Of all the states
which had composed the vast fabric of the Roman
Empire scarcely one was at peace with its neighbors or
exempt from the calamities incident to religious discord
and civil war. The scanty remains of art and learning
which had escaped the fury of the barbarians had
taken refuge in Constantinople, now the intellectual
centre of Europe. The noble productions of the an-
cients had, however, been cast aside 'with contempt for
the homilies of the Fathers, and arguments concern-
ing the miraculous virtues of images, together with
daily riots and chariot-races, engaged the attention
and amused the leisure of the weak and pusillanimous
Byzantine, whose character, deformed by abject vices,
had long since forfeited all right to the honored name
of Roman. The turbulent populace of that great
city, which virtually dictated the edicts of its rulers,
protected by its impregnable walls, had seen, with
craven indifference, its environs plundered and its
sovereignty defied by the powers of Persian, Goth,
and Saracen. The genius and energy of its founder
had been supplanted by the superstitions and cruelties
of a succession of feeble tyrants, whose manifold
crimes were now, for a short interval, redeemed by
the martial talents and political virtues of Leo the
Isaurian.
In Italy, the peace of society was disturbed by the
iconoclastic heresy and the disorders which accom-
panied the foundation of a republic, commotions
destined soon to provoke the interference of the
Lombards and the subsequent impolitic alliance with
those perfidious barbarians. The stern and uncom-
promising character of Gregory the Great had estab-
lished the Church upon a basis so solid that the efforts
 Moorish Empire in Europe 327

of enemies have to this day been unable to

all its

prevail against it; and the sagacity of this distin-

guished pontiff had vindicated the policy of a system
prompted by the inspiration of almost superhuman
wisdom, sanctified by the precepts of antiquity,
strengthened by the enthusiasm of its saints and
martyrs, and confirmed by the prescription of cen-
turies.
No country in Europe during the eighth century
exhibited such a picture of unredeemed barbarism as
Britain. The Romans had never been able to more
than temporarily establish their institutions in that
island. The legions with difficulty held in subjection
a people whom neither force nor the arts of persuasion
could make amenable to the benefits of civilized life.
The cruel rites which characterized the worship of the
Druids had been abolished, but the elegant mythology
of Italy obtained no hold upon the minds of the
degraded aborigines, who welcomed with delight the
savage ceremonies which were performed around the
altars of the Scandinavian Woden. Upon this uncon-

genial soil the refining genius of Rome left no perma-

nent traces of its occupancy, no splendid memorials
of its art and culture. The nature of the transitory
impressions emanating from the possession of Britain
by the masters of the world was disclosed by the crush-
ing misfortunes which befell the empire in the fifth
century. Unable to sustain the cares of government,
hostile chieftains abandoned the island to all the woes
of anarchy, and partisan jealousy invoked the perilous
aid of the pirates of Germany, whose dominion was
finally established only by a war of extermination
involving both ally and foe. The obscurity of the
British annals concerning the period under considera-
tion, dense of itself, is increased by the popular accept-
ance of myth and legend as historic truth. The chron-
iclers of Western Europe, however, have made us
328 History or the

acquainted with the national character of the Saxons.

We know that in Britain the customs of the aborigines
and the laws of the empire were alike abrogated that ;

no worship prevailed but the basest form of idolatry;

that every vestige of Roman institutions was swept
away; that the religion whose maxims had been pro-
claimed by the eloquence of Augustin was extirpated ;

and that the voice of faction which had evoked this

barbarian tempest was silenced in the convulsions
which preceded the foundation of the Saxon Hep-
tarchv. The island, whose name is now the most
familiar one known to mankind, became more mys-
terious than it had been in the remotest ages of
antiquity; the country whose constitution is now in-
separably associated with the enjoyment of the largest
measure of freedom was then noted as the most advan-
tageous market for the purchase of slaves. In the
cultivated society of Constantinople, learned men be-
lieved that Britain was a region of pestilence and
horrors, whither, as to a place of eternal punishment,
the spirits of the Franks were ferried at midnight by
a tribe of weird fishermen, who, by reason of this ser-
vice, were exempted from certain burdens and enjoyed

peculiar privileges. Among the luxurious ecclesiastics

of Gaul, the slaves imported from Britain were
greatly esteemed as being both cheap and serviceable ;

and the sacred office of priest or abbot was not de-

graded by the ownership of hapless beings in whose
unnatural parents the feelings of humanity and the
instincts of affection had been subordinated to the

debasing passion of avarice.

The general complexion of affairs in Gaul offered
a striking analogy to that prevailing in Spain at the
time of the subversion of the kingdom of the Visi-
goths. In one respect, however, a difference more
apparent than real existed no monarch was deluded
;

by the professed allegiance, and was at the same time

 Moorish Empire in Europe 329

constantly threatened by the treasonable plots of his

subjects. A dynasty of puppet kings, restricted to a
limited territory, displayed amidst every temptation to
sensual indulgence the idle pomp of sovereignty. A
race of hardy warriors and statesmen, ignorant of
letters, experienced in arms, controlled, by the power
of military enthusiasm and the superior influence of
diplomatic ability, the destinies of the Frankish nation.
With the exception of the clergy, whose attainments
were at the best but superficial, the people were
plunged into the deepest ignorance. In the regions
of the North and East the influence of the idolatrous
Germans and Scandinavians had retarded the progress
of Christianity. Elsewhere, however, a mongrel re-
ligion, in which were incorporated the mummeries of
polytheistic worship, the degrading superstitions and
sanguinary rites of the Saxons, and the worst features
of the Arian heresy, prevailed. This debased form
of faith, which recognized neither the tolerance of
Paganism nor the charity of the Gospel, satisfied the
spiritual requirements of a barbarian populace. In
one province idolatry was practised. In another, the
principles of Christianity were in the ascendant. Not
infrequently these forms of worship existed side by
side; and within the sound of the cathedral bell the
incense of sacrifice rose from the altars of the Teu-
tonic deities, or the haruspex exercised his mysterious
office, and, grovelling in the steaming vitals of the

newly slaughtered victim, read, in the shape of the

liver or the folds entrails, the signs of the future
of the
and the unerring decrees of fate.
Wherever the authority of the Roman Pontiff pre-
vailed, the inclination to a monastic lifepredominated
among of society. Virgins of the wealthiest
all classes

families, warriors of the greatest renown, alike volun-

tarily sought the retirement of the cloister, amidst the
congratulations of their relatives and the applause of
330 History of the

their companions. When the attractions of the world

were too powerful to be resisted, the proudest chief-
tains compromised with conscience either by the dona-
tion of their serfs to the abodes consecrated to the ser-
vice of God, or by the ransom and purchase of slaves to
increase the lordly abbot's imposing retinue. In the
foundation of religious houses in France there existed
an emulation unknown to any other country embraced
in the spiritual domain of the Papacy. The fame and

piety of the patron of one of these establishments was

in a direct proportion to the number of recluses whom
was able to assemble within
his riches or his influence
its walls. As
a consequence, no inconsiderable portion
of the population of France was devoted to a con-
ventual life, and the number of monks congregated
in a single monastery was prodigious, in many in-
stancesamounting to as many as eight hundred. The
generosity and devotion of the founder of a religious
community were certain to be rewarded with the
coveted honor of canonization, and records of the
Gallic Church during the first half of the eighth
century include the names of more saints than any
corresponding period in the history of Latin Chris-
tianity. Liberality to these holy institutions was
esteemed not only a virtue of supreme excellence
but a certain proof of orthodoxy, and their vaults
enclosed treasures whose value was sedulously exag-
gerated by the vanity of the clergy and the credulity
of the rabble. The accounts of the enormous wealth
of these establishments, disseminated far and wide
through the garrulity of pilgrims and travellers, by
stimulating the cupidity of the Arabs and inciting
them to crusade and colonization, produced a decided
effect upon the political fortunes and social organiza-
tion of France, and through France indirectly upon
those of all Europe.
Rudeness, brutality, coarse licentiousness, affected
 Moorish Empire in Europe 331

sanctity, and barbaric splendor were the prominent

characteristics of the society constituted by the nomi-
nal sovereigns and their courts, the mayors of the
palace and their retainers, and the lazy ecclesiastics
who swarmed in every portion of the dominions of
the Merovingian princes. The will of the most power-
ful noble was the law of the land. Apprehension of
intestine warfare and the mutual jealousy and un-

scrupulous ambition of the feudal lords perpetually

discouraged the industry of the husbandman. A
feel-
ing of indifference pervaded the ranks of the igno-
rant populace, stupidly content with the pleasures of a
mere animal existence. The priesthood, assiduous in
the exactions of tithes, evinced a marked repugnance
to contribute pecuniary aid in times of national emer-
gency when even their own existence was imperilled.
Unnatural crimes, fratricide, incest, and nameless
offences against public decency were common.
Concubinage was universally prevalent among the
wealthy. In a practice so fatal to the purity of
domestic life the clergy obtained a disgraceful pre-
eminence, and in the cloistered seclusion of convents
and monasteries, those apparent seats of austerity and
devotion, were enacted with impunity scenes which
shrank from the publicity of cities and indicated the
alarming and hopeless extent of ecclesiastical de-
pravity.
In the provinces of the South, formerly subject to
the jurisdiction of the Visigoths, a greater degree of
intelligence and a more polished intercourse existed,
the inheritance of the ancient colonists who had be-
queathed to their posterity the traditions of Roman
luxury and Grecian culture. Here, upon the shores
of the Mediterranean and in the valley of the Rhone,
the gifts of nature were better adapted to progress
in the arts; the climate was more propitious to the
intellectual development of the masses. While social
332 History of the

equality was yet strictly observed in the assemblies

of the Teutons and the Franks, the pride of aris-
tocracy here first asserted its superior claims to con-
sideration. It was from favored by its
this region,

geographical position, its commercial relations, and

its sympathy with the philosophical ideas and literary
aspirations of the inhabitants of Moslem Spain, that
was to spread the refining influence of chivalry and
letters afterwards so prominently displayed in the
courts of the Albigensian princes.
The unsatisfactory nature of the information
afforded by the defective chronicles of the eighth
century is a serious impediment to the satisfactory
elucidation of events whose paramount importance
has been recognized by every historian. A
lamentable
want of detail, and an utter absence of philosophical
discrimination, are the characteristic traits of these
illiterate annalists. Of the gradual unfolding of
national character; of the secret motives which actu-
ated the rude but dexterous statesmen of that epoch;
of the incessant mutations of public policy; of the
silent but powerful revolutions effected by the inex-
orable laws of nature and the failings of humanity,
they tell us next to nothing. And yet no period men-
tioned in history has been more prolific of great events.
No achievement of ancient or modern times was per-
fected with such rapidity or produced such decided
effects upon the intellectual progress of the human
race as the Mohammedan Conquest of Spain. The
valor of the idolater, Charles Martel, prepared the
way for the vast empire and boundless authority of
Charlemagne. The zeal of his orthodox successor
assured the permanence and supremacy of the Holy
See. Upon the success or failure of the Moslem
crusade hung, as in a balance, the political fortunes
of Europe and the religious destiny of the world. The
battle of Poitiers was not, as is generally asserted, a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 333

contest between the champions of two hostile forms

of faith, for the army of the Franks was largely com-
posed of Pagans, and the ranks of the invaders were
filled with Berbers, Jews, and infidels. Moslem
zealots, like those who had shared the bitter priva-
tions of the Prophet, who had upheld his falling
banner at Ohod, who had prevailed over fearful odds
commanded by the bravest generals of the Roman
and Persian empires, who had witnessed the capture
of Damascus and Jerusalem, were rare in that motley
host of adventurers whose religion was frequently a
disguise assumed for the ignoble purpose of rapine.
The fierce ardor and invincible spirit of the original
Mussulmans had departed. A tithe of the fiery en-
thusiasm which had evoked the astonishment and
consternation of their early antagonists must have
changed the fortunes of that eventful day.
Upon the other hand, the Franks were not inspired
with zeal for the maintenance of any religious prin-
ciple. Their fickle homage was paid to Zernbock and
Woden, the sanguinary gods of the German forests,
or to that weird priesthood which delivered its oracles
from the cromlechs of Brittany. The pressing re-
quirements of the emergency, the prospect of plunder
and glory, had summoned the warriors of a hundred
tribes from the banks of the Danube to the limits of
Scandinavia. So little were these wild barbarians en-
titled to the appellation of Christians that they were,
even then, under the ban of ecclesiastical displeasure,
and had been loaded with anathemas for the sacri-
legious use of the property of the Church to avert
the danger impending over Christendom. But leaving
out of consideration the motives which actuated the
combatants, there can be no question as to the decisive
results of the battle of Poitiers. It was one of the
few great victories which, like conspicuous landmarks
in the pathway of human affairs, indicate the advance-
334 History of the

ment or the retardation of nations. The prospect of

Mohammedan conquest had long been the terror of
Europe. The Pope trembled in the Vatican. The
pious devotee, as he prostrated himself before the
image of his patron saint, vowed an additional penance
to ward off the calamity which every day was expected
to bring forth. Imagination and fear painted the
Saracens as a race of incarnate fiends, whose aspect
was far more frightful, whose atrocities were far more
ruthless,than those of the Huns who had been routed
by iEtius four hundred years before on the plains of
Chalons. The lapse of twelve centuries has not suf-
ficed to dispel this superstitious dread, and the Saracen,
as a monster and a bugbear, still figures in the nursery
tales and rhymes of Central France.
The Spanish Emirate includes the most obscure
epoch of Moslem annals. Its events have been, for
the most part, preserved only by tradition. Its chron-
iclesare chaotic, defective, and contradictory. Its
dates are confused. It abounds in anachronisms; in
the confusion of localities; in the multiplication of
individuals under a variety of names. The credulity
and prejudice of annalists, few of whom were con-
temporaneous with the occurrences they profess to de-
render their statements suspicious or absolutely
scribe,
unworthy of belief. With such drawbacks attainment
to accuracy is manifestly impracticable, and a reason-
able degree of probability can alone be hoped for from
the baffled and perplexed historian.
Exactly a hundred and ten years had elapsed since
Mohammed fled from Mecca like a common male-
factor, under sentence of execution by the leaders of
his tribe, with areward of a thousand pieces of gold
upon his head, and Islam was regarded as the dream
of a half-demented enthusiast. Now the name of the
Prophet was revered from the Indies to the Atlantic.
The new sect numbered its adherents by millions. Its
 Moorish Empire in Europe 335

arms had invariably been victorious. Its energy had

surmounted every obstacle. The most venerated
shrines of Christianity and the cradle of that religion,
Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, and Jerusalem,
places associated with all that is dear to the followers
of our Saviour, and made sacred by miracle, legend,
and tradition, were in its hands. Rome and Constan-
tinople, the remaining great centres of Christian faith
the one destined to be attacked by the Moslems of
Sicily, the other now menaced by the Moslems of
Spain trembled for their safety. Saracen fleets
were already cruising in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Mussulman standard had been planted on the
Loire, thirty-six hundred miles distant from Mecca.
In every country into which Islam had penetrated, it
had found faithful allies and adherents. Religious
indifference, public oppression, the burdens of feud-
alism, and the evils of slavery paved the way for its
acceptance. The Jews opened the gates of cities. The
leaders of depressed factions contributed to the ruin
of their countrymen with purse and sword. Vassals
and slaves apostatized by thousands. Most ominous
of all, the test of spiritual truth and inspiration in-
variably dependent, in the estimation of the credulous,
upon superiority in arms, was steadily on the side of
the infidel. It is not strange, therefore, that Christian
Europe looked with undisguised dismay upon the por-
tentous advance of the Mussulman power. It is a
matter of some doubt whether the doctrines of Mo-
hammed could have obtained a permanent foothold
in the frozen regions of the North. The geographical
distribution of religions is largely determined by
climate. Islam is essentially exotic. It has survived,
but never flourished, beyond the tropics. A learned
historian has advanced the hypothesis that it cannot
exist in a latitude where the olive does not grow, a
statement which seems to be justified by the experi-
336 History of the

ence of history. It highly improbable that the

is

dogmas and customs of the Orient would have found,

under a leaden sky and amidst the chilling blasts of
Holland and Germany, conditions propitious to their
propagation. Important modifications must have re-
sulted, and, with these modifications, religious and
social revolution. The steadiness and prowess of the
Teutonic soldiery had forever assured the safety of
Europe from serious molestation by the princes of the
Hispano-Arab empire. The irregular and ill-con-
certed attacks, which subsequently followed at long
intervals, were easily repulsed. Whether the world
at large was profited by the victory of Charles Martel
may, in the light afforded by the brilliant results of
Moslem civilization, well be questioned. It is hardly
possible to conjecture what effect would have been
produced upon the creeds and habits of the present
age by the triumph of the Saracen power, but, in the
' '
words of an eminent writer, the least of our evils
had now been that we should have worn turbans;
combed our beards instead of shaving them; have
beheld a more magnificent architecture than the
Grecian, while the public mind had been bounded by
the arts and literature of the Moorish University of
Cordova."
 Moorish Empire in Europe 337

CHAPTER VII

FOUNDATION OF THE SPANISH MONARCHY

718-757

The Northern Provinces of Spain Their Desolate and Forbid-

ding Character Climate Population Religion
Peculiarities of the Asturian Peasantry Pelayus His
Birth and Antecedents He collects an Army Obscure
Origin of the Spanish Kingdom Extraordinary Conditions
under which it was founded Battle of Covadonga Rout
of the Arabs Increase of the Christian Power Favila
Alfonso I. His Enterprise and Conquests His Policy of
Colonization Survival of the Spirit of Liberty Religious
Abuses State of Society Beginning of the Struggle for
Empire.

The general topography of the Spanish Peninsula

exhibits a gradual and continuous increase in altitude,
beginning at the tropical plains of Andalusia and
terminating in the mountain range which traverses its
northern extremity from the eastern boundary of
France to the Bay of Biscay. This rugged chain of
mountains, some of whose peaks attain an elevation
of almost ten thousand feet, throws out innumerable
spurs to the north and south, which are separated by
impassable gorges and gloomy ravines, occasionally
relieved by valleys of limited extent but remarkable
fertility. Its proximity to the ocean, whose vapors
are condensed and precipitated by contact with the
summit of the sierra, renders the climate of this

region one of exceptional moisture, but its foggy

atmosphere is not unfavorable either to the health or
the longevity of man. In certain localities, rains are
almost incessant, and the depths of many of its defiles
are never gladdened by the genial and vivifying rays
Vol. I. 22
338 History of the

of the sun. The most untiring industry is requisite

to procure the means of a meagre subsistence, and the
laborious efforts of the cultivator of the soil are sup-
plemented by the vigilance of the shepherd, whose
fleeces,generally preferred to the coarse products of
the loom, furnish the male population with clothing.
Upon the coast entire communities obtain their liveli-
hood by fishing; and the increased opportunities for
intercourse with the world have produced noticeable
modifications in the character of these people, who,
while deficient in none of the manly qualities of the
denizens of hill and fastness, seem less uncouth, and
are possessed of a greater degree of intelligence than
their brethren of the interior. The customs of these
famous mountaineers, variously known as Basques,
Asturians, Cantabrians, and Galicians, according to
the respective localities they inhabit, have varied but
little in the course of many centuries. They have ever
been distinguished by simplicity of manners, sturdy
honesty, unselfish hospitality, and a spirit of inde-
pendence which has seldom failed to successfully
assert itself against the most persistent attempts at
conquest. A mysterious and unknown origin attaches
to the Basques, whose strange tongue and weird tradi-
tions are supposed to connect them with the original
inhabitants of the Peninsula, and who, in this isolated
wilderness, have preserved the memory of one of the
aboriginal races of Europe. The rugged districts

lying to the westward of what is now called Biscay,

the home ofthe Basques, were formerly inhabited by

the Iberians, a branch of the Celts, which, by force
of circumstances and through the necessities of self-
preservation, has become fused with colonists from
the southern provinces until its distinguishing features
have disappeared. The well-known bravery of the
defenders of this bleak and forbidding country, its
poverty which offers no allurements to either the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 339

avarice or the vanity of royalpower its ravines swept

by piercing winds, and mountains draped with
its

perpetual clouds, long secured for it freedom from

invasion. The Carthaginians never passed its borders.
The Romans, under Augustus, succeeded, after infi-
nite difficulties, in establishing over its territory a

precarious authority, disputed at intervals by fierce

and stubborn insurrections. It yielded a reluctant
obedience to the Visigothic kings, whose notions of
liberty, coarse tastes, barbaric customs, and frank
demeanor were more congenial with the nature of the
wild Iberian than the luxurious habits and crafty
maxims of Punic and Latin civilization.
The most barren and inaccessible part of this
secluded region at the time of the Moslem conquest
was that embraced by the modern principality of the
Asturias. A formidable barrier of lofty peaks, whose
passes readily eluded the eye of the stranger, blocked
the way of a hostile army. Within this wall a diver-
sified landscape of mountain and valley presented it-
self, with an occasional village, whose huts, clustered
upon a hill-side or straggling along some narrow
ravine, indicated the presence of a settlement of
shepherds or husbandmen. These dwellings, whose
counterparts are to be seen to-day in the wildest dis-
tricts of the Asturias and Galicia, were rude hovels
constructed of stones and unhewn timbers, thatched
with straw, floored with rushes, and provided with a
hole in the roof to enable the smoke to escape. Their
walls and ceilings were smeared with soot and grease,
and every corner reeked with filth and swarmed with
vermin. The owners of these habitations were, in ap-

pearance and intelligence, scarcely removed from the

condition of savages. They dressed in sheepskins and
the hides of wild beasts, which, unchanged, remained
in one family for many generations. The salutary
habit of ablution was never practised by them. Their
340 History of the

garments were never cleansed, and were worn as long

as their tattered fragments held together. Their food
was composed of nutritious roots and herbs and of the
products of the chase, a diet sometimes varied by
vegetables, whose seeds had been imported from the
south, and by a coarse bread made from the meal of
chestnuts and acorns. Total ignorance of the cour-
tesies and amenities of social life prevailed; privacy
was unknown and the peasant entered the hut of his
;

neighbor without fear or ceremony. An independent

political organization existed in each of these com-
munities, whose isolated situation, extreme poverty,
and primitive manners dispensed with the necessity
for the complicated and expensive machinery of gov-
ernment. Old age, as among many nations in the in-
fancy of their existence, was a title to authority and
respect, and the elevation of an individual to a certain
degree of power was not unusual when he had distin-
guished himself among his fellows for skill in hunting
or valor in warfare. Christian missionaries had, cen-
turies before, carried the precepts of the Gospel into
the depths of this wilderness, and chapels and altars,
where the idolatrous practices of Druidical supersti-
tion were strangely mingled with the ceremonies of
the Roman Catholic ritual, attested the persistence of
a faith which had existed for ages. Many of the
personal habits and social customs of the Iberians,
while well deserving the attention of the antiquary,
were of such a nature as to preclude description.
Under these manifold disadvantages were now to be
laid the foundations of an empire destined to embrace
the richest portions of two great continents to extend
;

its language, its ideas, its

policy, religion, its au-
its

thority, to the extreme limits of a world as yet un-

known; to humble the pride of the most renowned

sovereigns of Europe; to perfect the most formid-
able engine for the suppression of free thought and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 341

individual liberty which the malignity of superstition

has ever devised to perform achievements and accom-
;

plish results unparalleled in the most fantastic

crea-
tions of romance; and to devote to extermination en-
tire races whose sole offence was that they had never
heard of the God of their persecutors, a people
whose civilization was far inferior to their own.
The terror inspired by the approach of the Saracens,
after the battle of the Guadalete, had driven great
masses of fugitives to the north. Such of these as
escaped the hardships of flight and the swords of
their pursuers sought refuge in the most secret re-
cesses of the Asturian mountains. They carried with
them their portable property, their household gods, all
the relics of the saints, all the sacred furniture of the
altars, which they had been able to rescue from the
sacrilegious grasp of the infidel. The refugees had
forgotten alike, in the presence of universal misfor-
tune, the long-cherished prejudices of race and the
artificial distinctions of rank; and Goth, Roman,
Iberian, and Basque, master and slave, mingled to-
the
gether upon a friendly equality. Received by
frank and hospitable mountaineers with a sympathy
which was strengthened by the bond of a common re-
ligion, the unhappy became reconciled to the
fugitives
privations of a life which secured to them immunity
from infidel oppression; and, by intimate association
and intermarriage with their benefactors, formed in
time a new nation, in which, however, mixture of
blood and altered physical surroundings produced
their inevitable effects, causing the traits of the
Iberian to predominate, in a conspicuous degree, over
those of the Latin and the Goth. As the rest of the
Peninsula submitted to the domination of the Moors,
the population of this province was largely aug-
mented. Persecution, arising during the civil wars,
still further increased immigration deposed prelates,
;
342 History of the

ruined artisans, and discontented slaves sought the

companionship and aid of their fellow-sectaries;
many, in apprehension of future evil, voluntarily
abandoned their possessions; and the Asturias be-
came the common refuge of all who had suffered as
well as of all who were willing to renounce a life of
comparative ease and dependence for the toils and
privations which accompanied the enjoyment of po-
and religious liberty. With the advantages of
litical
freedom were also blended associations of a more
sacred character. The greater number of the most
celebrated shrines of a country remarkable for the
virtues of its relics and the splendor of its temples

had been desecrated by the invader. He had de-

stroyed many churches. Others he had appropriated
for the uses of his own religion. The piety of their
ministers had, however, secreted, and borne away in
safety, the most precious of those tokens of divine
interposition whose efficacy had been established by
the performance of countless miracles supported by
the unquestionable testimony of the Fathers of the
Church. Transported by reverent hands from every
part of the kingdom, these consecrated objects were
now collected in fastnesses impregnable to the enemies
of Christ. Where, therefore, could the devout believer
better hope for security and happiness than under the
protection of holy souvenirs which had received the
oblations and the prayers of successive generations of
his ancestors ? The wars and revolutions of more than
a thousand years have not diminished the feeling of
popular veneration attaching to these mementos of
the martyrs, which, enshrined in quaint and costly
reliquaries of crystal and gold, are still exhibited in
the Cathedral of Oviedo.
Engrossed with the cares which necessarily attended
the establishment of a new religion and the organiza-
tion of a new government, the first viceroys of Spain
 Moorish Empire in Europe 343

took no notice of the embryotic state which was grad-

ually forming in the northwestern corner of the Penin-
sula. Their scouting parties, which had penetrated to
the borders of the Asturias, had long since acquainted
them with the severity of the climate and the general
sterility of the soil. No booty, save, perhaps, some
sacred vessels and a few flocks of sheep, was there
to tempt the avarice of the marauder. Domiciled in
the genial regions of the South, whose natural advan-
tages continually recalled the voluptuous countries of
the Orient, the Moor instinctively shrank from contact
with the piercing winds and blinding tempests of the
mountains far more than from an encounter with the
uncouth and warlike savages who defended this in-
hospitable land. Musa had already entered Galicia
at the head of his troops when he was recalled to
Damascus by the peremptory mandate of the Khalif ;

and foraging parties had, on different occasions, rav-

aged many of the settlements of the Basques but as ;

yet the Moslem banners had never waved along the

narrow pathways leading into the Asturian solitudes,
nor had the echoes of the Moorish atabal resounded
from the stupendous walls which protected the sur-
viving remnant of the Visigothic monarchy and the
last hope of Christian faith and Iberian independence.
At an early period, whose exact date the uncertainty
of the accounts transmitted to us renders it impossible
to determine, the settlements of the coast fell into the
hands of the Saracens, who fortified the town of
Gijon, a place whose size might not improperly assert
for it the claims of metropolitan importance. The
government of this city was entrusted to one of the
most distinguished officers who had served in the army
of Tarik, the former Emir, Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa,
who, as we have already seen, having contracted a
treasonable alliance with the Duke of Aquitaine, had
been pursued and put to death by the soldiers of Abd-
344 History of the

al-Rahman immediately before the latter's invasion

of France.
Their communications with the sea-coast having
been thus interrupted, the Asturians, impatient of
confinement, determined to secure an outlet by ex-
tending the limits of their territory upon the southern
slopes of the mountains. The adventurous spirit of
the mountaineers welcomed with ardor a proposal
which must necessarily be attended with every circum-
stance of excitement and glory. Among the refugees
who constituted the bulk of the population were many
who had seen service in the Visigothic army, and some
who were not unfamiliar with the tactics and military
evolutions of the Saracens. One of the most eminent
of these was Pelayus, a name associated with the most
glorious traditions interwoven with the origin of the
monarchy of Spain. The imagination of subsequent
ecclesiastical chroniclers has exhausted itself in at-

tempts to exalt the character and magnify the exploits

of this hero. The Moorish authorities, however, while
they afford but scanty details concerning him, are en-
titled to far more credit, as their material interests
were not to be subserved by the fabrication of spurious
miracles and preposterous legends. From the best
accounts now attainable, which, it must be confessed,
are far from reliable, it appears that Pelayus was of

the mixed race of Goth and Latin. The Arabs in-

"
variably called him the Roman," an appellation they
were not in the habit of conferring upon such as were
of the pure blood of the Visigoths. He was of noble
birth, had held an important command in the army of
Roderick, and was not less esteemed for bravery and
experience than for hatred of the infidel, and
for the
reverent humility with which he regarded everything
connected with the ceremonies and the ministers of the
Church. To this chieftain, with the unanimous con-
currence of both refugees and natives, was now en-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 345

trusted the perilous and doubtful enterprise of openly

defying the Saracen power. With the caution of a
veteran, and an enthusiasm worthy of a champion of
the Faith, Pelayus began to assemble his forces. The
peasantry, ever alive to the attractions of a military
expedition, and the fugitives, whose present distress
recalled the more vividly their former prosperity, their
pecuniary losses, and their personal bereavements, in-
cident to the catastrophe which had befallen the na-
tion, answered the call to arms with equal alacrity.
The army which placed itself at the disposal of the
new general did not probably number two thousand
men. The majority were clad in skins. But few wore
armor, antiquated suits of mail which had rusted
under the pacific rule of the successors of Wamba and
had survived the disasters of Merida and the Guada-
lete. The Iberian javelin, the sling, and the short and
heavy knife of the Cantabrian peasant composed their
offensive weapons. Not one in ten had ever seen a
battle. Not one in a hundred could understand or
appreciate the necessity for the uncomplaining pa-
tience and implicit obedience indispensable to the
soldier. Yet the soaring ambition, the patriotic pride,
the belief in the special protection of heaven feel-

ings equal to the conquest of a world rose high in

the bosoms of these savage mountaineers. Their
courage was unquestionable. Their native endurance,
strengthened by simple food and habitual exposure to
the tempests of a severe climate and the incessant
exertions of a pastoral life, was far greater than that
of their enemies. To invest the cause with a religious
character, and to rouse to the highest pitch the fanati-
cism of the soldiery, a number of priests attended, with
censer and crucifix and all the sacred emblems of eccle-
siastical dignity. Of such materials was composed the

army whose posterity was led to victory by such cap-

tains as Gonzalvo, Cortes, and Alva, and whose penni-
346 History of the

less and exiled commander was destined to be the pro-

genitor of a long line of illustrious sovereigns.
The original realm of Pelayus afforded no indica-
tion of the enormous dimensions to which it was des-
tined to expand. It embraced a territory five miles
long by three miles wide. Its population could not
have exceeded fifteen hundred souls. Its fighting
men were not more than five hundred in number. The
bulk of the army was composed of Basques and
Galicians, attracted by the hope of spoil, held together
for the moment only by the sense of common danger ;

impatient of restraint; scarcely recognizing the au-

thority of popular assemblies of their own creation;
valiant in action; brutal in victory; selfish and cow-
ardly in defeat. They were without organization,
officers, suitable arms, or commissariat. Of the art
of war, as practised by even semi-barbarians, they
knew nothing. Their military operations were con-
trolled by the usual stratagems of savages, the noc-
turnal attack, the sudden surprise, the ambuscade.
The civil system of the infant monarchy was no
further advanced. The exiled subjects of Roderick
still retained, in some measure, the maxims and tradi-
tions of government. The people, among whom their
lot was and who greatly outnumbered them, had,
cast
however, little knowledge of, and no reverence for,
the Visigothic Code. The duchy of Cantabria, to
which the latter mainly belonged, was never more than
a nominal fief of the kingdom of Toledo. The fueros,
or laws, by which they had been governed through
successive foreign dominations of the Peninsula were
of immemorial antiquity. Their long-preserved in-
dependence had nourished in their minds sentiments
of arrogance and assumed superiority which were
often carried to a ridiculous extreme. These influ-
ences had no small share in the subsequent formation
of the Spanish constitution.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 347

Thus, in a desolate and barren region insignificant

;

in numbers; destitute of resources; ignorant of the

arts of civilization; without military system or civil

polity with neither court, hierarchy, nor capital ani-

; ;

mated by the incentives of religious zeal and inherited

love of freedom, a handful of barbarians laid the
foundations of the renowned empire of Spain and the
Indies.
The
bustle which necessarily attended the warlike
preparations of Pelayus was not long in attracting
the attention of the
government of Cordova. Infor-
mation was conveyed to Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim, the rep-
resentative of the Khali f, concerning the league that
had been formed between the fugitive Goths and the
denizens of the Asturias, as well as of the objects of
the expedition which was organizing in the northern
wilderness. The Emir, whose contempt for his ene-
mies, added to a profound ignorance of the character
of the country they inhabited, induced him to underes-
timate the difficulties to be encountered in their subjec-
tion, did not deem it worth his while to attack them in

person. He naturally thought little was to be appre-

hended from the irregular hostilities of a few refugees
who had retired with precipitation at the approach of
the Moorish cavalry, united with a horde of vagabond
shepherds and hunters unaccustomed to discipline and
inexperienced in warfare. In his blind depreciation
of the prowess of his adversaries, Anbasah-Ibn-Sohim
left out of consideration many circumstances which
influenced, in a marked degree, the subsequent for-
tunes of the Moslem domination in Spain. Their nu-
merical inferiority was of trifling moment in a country
thoroughly familiar to its inhabitants, but hitherto un-
explored by the Saracens, and whose steep and tortu-
ous pathways afforded such facilities for resisting an
intruder that points might readily be selected where
a score of men could, with little effort, successfully
348 History of the

withstand a thousand. The Emir took no account of

the mists which always enshrouding the sierra often
entirely obscured the landscape; of the dense forests
which might so effectually conceal the ambuscade of
;

the sudden and destructive rise of the mountain tor-

rents; of the dangers attendant upon the landslide
and the avalanche. Nor did he appreciate the feelings
which must have been inspired by the desperate situa-
tion in which the Christians were placed. They were
at bay in their last stronghold. Once driven from the
shelter of their friendly mountains nothing remained
for them but death or slavery. Their retreat into
France was cut off by the Arab column now ad-
vancing into Septimania. Their brethren throughout
the Peninsula had bowed before the sceptre of the
Khalif, and no assistance could be expected from
them. Their patriotic ardor was excited by the proud
consciousness of independence and by apprehensions
of the degradation of servitude; their pious frenzy
was aroused by the destruction which menaced the
religion of their fathers. In their camp were the sole
memorials of a monarchy whose princes had dictated
terms to the Mistress of the World. Around them on
every side were sacred relics which had been visited
from far and wide by pilgrims, whose miraculous
power in the healing of disease it was sacrilege to
doubt, and which had not only brought relief to the
suffering but also comfort and salvation in the hour
of death. God had made them the custodians of these
treasures rescued from His desecrated altars truly He
;

would not abandon them in time of peril. By every

artifice peculiar to their craft; by all the fervid ap-

peals of eloquence; by every promise of present and

prospective advantage and by every threat
;
of future
retribution, the prelates inflamed the zeal of their
fanatical hearers. They, more than any other class,
understood the gravity of the situation. While not
 Moorish Empire in Europe 349

anticipating the power which the sacerdotal order was

to attain over the temporal affairs of the Peninsula
in coming centuries, they were not ignorant that the
1

result of the impending conflict involved its suprem-

acy or their own annihilation. Thus, at the very birth

of the Spanish monarchy, appears predominant the
ecclesiastical power which contributed more than all
other causes to its eventual decay. Taking these facts
into consideration, it is evident that the conquest of
the Asturias would have required an ample force con-
ducted by an experienced commander, whose talents,
however respectable, could hardly have accomplished
the task in a single campaign. But the Emir, who was
on the point of invading France and did not deign to
delay his expedition for the purpose of chastising a
band of vagrant barbarians, detached a division, under
an officer named Alkamah, to reduce the Asturias to
subjection and exact the payment of tribute.
The Arab general, aside from the natural impedi-
ments which obstructed the march of an army through
one of the most rugged localities of Europe, experi-
enced but little trouble in his advance. The scattered
collections of hovels which he encountered were de-
serted. No flocks were feeding on the hill-sides. All

signs of cultivation were obliterated, and everything

which could afford subsistence to an enemy had been
removed or destroyed. The features of the entire
landscape were those of a primeval waste. Through
the defiles, without resistance, and almost without the
sight of a human being except his own soldiers, Al-
kamah penetrated to the very heart of the Asturias,
lured on by the wily mountaineers to a point where
his superior numbers, so far from availing him, would
be a positive disadvantage, and from whence retreat
would be impossible.
Upon the eastern border of the wilderness, amidst
a chaos of rocks, forests, ravines, and streamlets, rises
350 History of the

the imposing peak of Auseba. The northern side of

this mountain for a hundred feet from its base pre-
sents a steep and frowning precipice closing one end
of a narrow valley, and whose almost perpendicular
sides are only accessible to the trained and venture-
some native. Acave, in whose depths three hundred
men could readily be sheltered, exists in the face of the
cliff, and through the gorge beneath run the troubled
waters forming the source of the river Deva. A
path,
completely commanded by the heights upon either side,
winds through the undergrowth and gives access to
the cave and its environs, in former times the resort of
benighted goatherds. In this spot, admirably adapted
to purposes of defence, Pelayus determined to make
his final stand. All non-combatants were secreted in
the forest. Ambushes were posted along the only
path by which an approach was practicable. In the
cavern, whose name, Covadonga, is still revered by
every Asturian noble and peasant, Pelayus concealed
himself with a body of men selected for their courage
and the superiority of their arms. Skirmishers now
appeared in the front of the Moslem army, which, with
a confidence born of former success, without hesita-
tion followed its treacherous guides into the fatal

valley. No sooner was the command of Alkamah

within arrow-shot of the cave than the mountaineers
sprang from their hiding-places. Wild cries of de-
fiance and expectant triumph echoed from the rocky

slopes of the ravine. From every hand

the projectiles
of the Christians poured down upon the heads of their
astonished foes. When the ammunition of the bows
and slingswas exhausted, the sturdy peasants rolled
down great stones and trunks of trees, which crushed
a score of men at a single blow. Massed together, and
thrown into confusion by the unexpected attack, the
Saracens could not use their weapons to advantage.
Their arrows rebounded harmlessly from the rocks.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 351

The agility of their enemies and the character of the

ground prevented a hand-to-hand engagement, which
the inferior strength of the Christians naturally
prompted them to avoid. Unable to endure the storm
of missiles which was rapidly depleting their ranks,
the Saracens attempted to retrace their steps. The
first intimation of a desire to retreat was the signal for

redoubled activity on the part of the Asturians. Pe-

layus and his band, issuing from the cave, fell upon
the rear of the enemy. The detachments upon the
flanks closed in, and the unfortunate Moslems, sur-
rounded and almost helpless, resigned themselves to
their fate. The battle became a massacre. To add
to the discomfiture of the invaders, a fearful tempest,
which, in a latitude whose air is always charged with
moisture, often comes without warning, burst upon
the valley. In a few moments the little brook had
swollen into a roaring torrent. A section of the
mountain-side, undermined and already tottering
and crowded with terror-stricken Saracens, gave
way, carrying with it hundreds of victims to be
engulfed in the rushing waters. A trifling number
of fugitives, aided by the darkness and the storm,
succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the mountaineers,
but the great majority of those composing the detach-
ment, including all of its officers, perished. The esti-
mated loss of the Moslems varies, according to the
nationality of the annalist, from three thousand to
one hundred and twenty-four thousand. In this, as
in all' other instances where the statements of the Arab
and Christian writers of that age conflict, the prefer-
ence should be given to the assertions of the former.
The valley of Covadonga is so restricted in extent,
especially where the battle took place, that it would
with difficulty afford standing room for twenty thou-
sand combatants. The vainglorious character of the
northern Spaniard, who possesses not a little of the
352 History of the

braggadocio of his cousin, the Gascon, has incited him

to grossly magnify the importance of an exploit which
requires no exaggeration; and his fabulous accounts
have been recorded, with extravagant additions, by the
ecclesiastical historians of the Dark Ages, with whom

mendacity was the rule and accuracy the exception.

Absolutely controlled by the prejudices of their pro-
fession, they studiously embellished every tale which
could have a tendency to promote its interests and as
carefully suppressed all hostile testimony. The monk-
ish writers, whose credulity kept pace with their love
of the marvellous, conceived that the glory of the
Church was in a direct ratio to the number of infidels
exterminated by her champions. To this motive are
to be attributed the absurd statements concerning the
losses of the enemy in every victory won by the Chris-
tian arms, a pernicious habit which was confirmed by
the improbability of subsequent detection arising from
the universal illiteracy of the age. The thorough un-
reliability of these old chroniclers in this and other
particulars which might directly or indirectly affect
the prestige of their order is calculated to cast sus-
picion over their entire narratives. When we add
to
these gross misrepresentations their meagre and con-
fused accounts of the most important events, their
profound ignorance of the hidden motives of human
actions, their superstitious prejudices, and their in-
capacity of appreciating, or even of understanding,
the principles of historical criticism, it may readily be
perceived how arduous is the task of those who attempt
to bring order out of this literary chaos. To the Arab,
writers, however, we can turn with a much greater
degree of confidence. They make no attempts to dis-

guise the magnitude of their reverses or to diminish

the glory of their enemies. No contemporaneous ac-
count of the battle of Covadonga has descended to
us. It was not for a century that its paramount im-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 353

portance became manifest. The attention of the

clergy during that turbulent period was engrossed
by the doubtful fortunes of the Church, and the ex-
actions consequent upon the changes produced by a
constant succession of rulers. The affairs of the
entire Mohammedan empire were in a turmoil. In the
East the chiefs of desperate factions were struggling
for the throne of the khalif ate. Africa was the scene
of perpetual insurrection, provoked and maintained
by the indomitable spirit of the Berbers. The Emirs
of Spain, between the intervals of civil discord, were
nursing extravagant dreams of ambition, visions of
the propagation of their faith, of the acquisition
of new territories, of the subjugation of infidels, of
the extension of empire. The glance of the viceroys
was directed beyond the bleak Asturias towards the
fertile plains of Southern France. The execution of
the gigantic enterprise projected by the genius of
Musa occupied their thoughts, and they were ignorant
or careless of the aspirations of a handful of peasants,
upon the issue of whose prowess and constancy were,
even now, impending the existence of their dominion
and the destinies of the Peninsula.
The meagre notices of the battle of Covadonga
transmitted by Moorish chroniclers indicate that it
was not considered a great disaster, and that its
effects upon the posterity of both Christian and
Moslem could not have been dreamed of. Yet from
this eventful day practically dates the beginning of
the overthrow of the Arab domination, not yet firmly
established in its seat of power. Then was inaugu-
rated the consolidation of mountain tribes, soon to be
followed by the union of great provinces and king-
doms under the protection of the Spanish Crown. At
that time was first thoroughly demonstrated the value
of harmonious co-operation among factions long ar-
rayed against each other in mutual hostility. Thence
Vol. I. 23
354 History of the

was derived the germ of freedom, which successfully

asserted its rights under the frown of royalty, and,
incorporated into the constitution of Aragon, long
interposed a formidable obstacle to the encroachments
of arbitrary and despotic sovereigns. During that
epoch, by the fusion of races, were laid the founda-
tions of that noble and sonorous idiom, unsurpassed in
simplicity of construction, in conciseness and elegance
of diction, in clear and harmonious resonance. Then
was manifested for the first time the adventurous
and daring spirit which carried the banners of Spain
beyond the Mississippi, the Andes, and the Pacific.
Then was instituted the scheme of ecclesiastical policy
which, perfected by a succession of able and aspiring
churchmen, placed the throne of Europe's greatest
monarchy under the tutelage of the primacy of
Toledo. originated that fierce and interminable
Then
contest first for self-preservation, then for plunder,
lastly for empire which for a thousand years en-
grossed the attention of the world.
The renown acquired by Pelayus through the vic-
tory of Covadonga raised him at once from the posi-
tion of general to the dignity of king. In his election
the traditions of the ancient Gothic constitution were
observed. The sentiments of freedom innate in the
mountaineer of every land are reluctant to admit the
superiority implied by the laws of hereditary descent
or by the exercise of unlimited authority. The rude
ceremonies by which regal prerogatives were conceded
to this guerilla chieftain could not suggest to the
wildest visionary the possibility of the gorgeous cere-
monial of the Spanish court or of the absolute power
exercisedby Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second.
It not improbable that the commands of Pelayus
is

were frequently disputed by his half -savage retainers.

But it may well be doubted if among all the nations
which composed the vast dominions of the House of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 355

Austria could have been found an equal number of

adherents more faithful in misfortune, more intrepid
in danger, than those who formed the little band of
the exiled hero. The immunity granted the Christians
after their triumph would seem to rather imply con-
tempt by the princes of Cordova than their discour-
agement or any apprehension of further misfortune.
The moral effect of the victory, if imperceptible on
the Arabs, produced at once most significant results
in the regions bordering on the Asturias. The threat-

ening attitude of the fishermen necessitated the evacu-

ation of the coast, and Othman-Ibn-Abu-Nesa, Gov-
ernor of Gijon, abandoned his charge, and, by a forced
march, joined his countrymen beyond the mountains.
The warlike spirit spread fast through Cantabria and
Galicia, and was even felt upon the borders of what
is now Leon and Castile; the Saracen colonists who

had established themselves in the most fertile districts

were exterminated; and the religious aspect of the
struggle, which seemed to identify
the cause of the

insurgents with that of the Almighty, crowded

the
hovels of the hospitable Asturians with thou-
squalid
sands of fugitives who sought protection and liberty
in the society of their friends and kinsmen.
Neither history nor tradition has ascribed to Pe-
the famous
layus any other military achievements than
one which signalized his accession to supreme power.
In the retirement of his little kingdom, for the re-
mainder of his days, he employed the security, for
which he was indebted to the contempt of his enemies,
in consolidating his authority; in the formation of a
plan of government; in the erection of churches,
shrines, and monasteries; and in encouraging among
his subjects the pursuit of agriculture. His extreme
devotion to the interests of the Church has obtained
for his memory the grateful acknowledgment of the
priesthood while the little cross borne by him, in lieu
;
356 History of the

of a standard, at Covadonga, and still preserved at

Oviedo, is regarded with sentiments of peculiar rever-
ence by the peasantry as a symbol whose miraculous
powers were confirmed by the hand of God, and whose
virtues were transmitted to the magnificent emblems
of the Catholic hierarchy, which, the successors of the
Roman eagles, sanctified in distant lands the explora-
tions and the conquests of the Christian monarchs of
the Peninsula.
The reign of Pelayus lasted thirteen years. Such
were the benefits resulting from its munificence to the
clergy and his justice to the people that, at his death,
the sentiments of loyalty and gratitude overcame the
traditions of centuries and the prejudice against he-
reditary descent, and Favila, his son, was permitted
to succeed him by the tacitly admitted right of in-
heritance.
Little is known of the life of Favila excepting that
it was passed in peace. Without aspirations to en-
large the circuit of his dominions, and destitute of all
desire for military renown, he preferred the rude
society of his companions and the excitements of the
chase to the perilous and doubtful honors of warfare.
Two years after his accession he was torn to pieces by
a wild boar, whose fury he had rashly provoked under
circumstances which admitted of no escape. He was
buried by the side of his father in the church of Can-
gas de Onis, an insignificant hamlet not far from the
battle-field of Covadonga, which was already dignified
by the of capital of the Asturias, and whose
title

church was for many generations afterwards the

pantheon of its princes.
Favila left no sons of sufficient age to assume the
responsibilities of government, while the exigencies of
the time demanded the services of a ruler possessed of
talents and experience. The right of election was, as
of old, once more asserted to the exclusion of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 357

claims of primogeniture; and Alfonso I., son of the

Duke of Cantabria and son-in-law of Pelayus, was,
by common consent of the principal men of the in-
fant nation, invested with the regal authority. The
new king was a noted warrior, who had been the com-
rade-in-arms of Pelayus. His martial tastes and un-
flinching resolution were only surpassed by his zeal for
the Christian faith, which acquired for him the appel-
"
lation of Catholic," so highly prized by his descend-
ants, and which is still the most revered title of the

head of the Spanish monarchy. The duchy of Can-

tabria, whose ancient limits had, however, been greatly
curtailed by the encroachments of the Moors and the
annexations of Pelayus, became, through the exalta-
tion of its lord, an integral part of the Asturian king-
dom.
The unquenchable fires of crusade and conquest
burned fiercely in the breast of Alfonso. With all the
impetuosity of his nature he announced his intention
of waging ceaseless war against the infidel. The con-
dition of the provinces subject to his jurisdiction had
undergone radical changes since the election of Pe-
layus twenty years before. The population had enor-
mously increased, partly from natural causes, but
principally through immigration promoted by the
love of liberty and by the destructive revolutions
instigated by the vengeance or ambition of the con-
querors. Villages, whose rude but comparatively com-
fortable dwellings replaced the filthy cabins of former
times, occupied the picturesque valleys. Chapels and
monasteries dotted the mountain-sides. Public affairs
were administered according to a system, crude indeed,
but framed upon the model of the Visigothic consti-
tution, whose principles were not inconsistent with
both the assertion of the prerogatives of royalty and
the enjoyment, in large measure, of the blessings of
individual freedom. The kingly authority was, in
358 History of the

fact, as yet merely nominal. It had been conferred

by the votes of the people, and was understood to be
conditional upon the observance of the laws and the
maintenance of order. The power of the Asturian
sovereign was at this time not greater than that of
many a petty feudal chieftain of Germany, and was
far inferior to that possessed by the French Mayors
of the Palace.
The occasion was propitious to the realization of
the ambitious designs of Alfonso. The emirate was
temporarily vacant through the absence of Okbah, its
head, in Africa. Anarchy, with all its nameless hor-
rors, prevailed in every portion of the Peninsula. The
territory acquired in France, whose occupation had
shed so much lustre on the Moslems and whose pos-
session was designed as the preliminary step to the
subjugation of Europe, had, through the valor of the
Franks and the incapacity and jealousies of the emirs,
with the solitary exception of the city of Narbonne,
been wrested from the conqueror. The prestige of
the heretofore invincible Saracens had been lost by
repeated reverses, crowned by the terrible misfortune
of Poitiers. In Galicia and the Basque provinces the
peasantry had delivered the greater portion of their
country from the enemy and were in full sympathy
with the plans and aspirations of their Asturian neigh-
bors, although they resolutely kept aloof from politi-
cal union with them and declined to acknowledge the

authority of their king. The operations of Alfonso

were characterized by the activity and judgment of
an experienced partisan. Passing suddenly into Ga-
licia he surprised Lugo, which had remained in the
hands of the Arabs since its capture by Musa, and
soon afterwards occupied the strongly fortified city of
Tuy, appropriating the territory north of the river
Minho by the right of conquest. Thence he pene-
trated into Lusitania, taking some of the principal
 Moorish Empire in Europe 359

towns of that province and extending his march to the

eastward until he had overrun all of the region lying
to the north of the range of mountains now known as
the Sierra Guadarrama.
The annalists who have mentioned the expeditions
undertaken by Alfonso I. have neglected to regulate
their order of occurrence, and attribute to the move-
ments of the King a celerity which is almost incredible.
In fact, these much-vaunted conquests were nothing
more than mere forays. No permanent occupation of
the country was possible. The uninterrupted succes-
sion of calamities which had descended upon it had
transformed a region, never renowned for great pro-
ductiveness, into a desert. In the few fertile spots
where the industry of the Moor had obtained a foot-
hold the fierce squadrons of Alfonso blackened the
smiling landscape with the fires of destruction and
carnage. Such towns and villages as lay in their path
were destroyed; the Moors were condemned to
slavery; and the Christians, despite their remon-
strances, were compelled to follow in the train of
the invader, to accept from him homes in the moun-
tains, and to swear fidelity to the Crown.
This policy
of increasing the population of his dominions by com-
pulsory immigration possessed at least the merit of
originality, and was in the end eminently successful.
The reluctant colonists, whose cities had been razed
and whose lands had been devastated, were deprived of
all incentives to return to a region that could no longer
afford them subsistence. The ties of race and the
precepts of religion already united them to those
whom, despite the violence they had displayed, they
could not consider as enemies. Distributed judi-
ciously in the districts most deficient in inhabitants,
whose soil, in many instances, was not more sterile
than that which they had formerly tilled, the new
subjects of Alfonso soon became reconciled to their
360 History of the

altered condition of life. Their numbers greatly con-

tributed to the strength of the growing kingdom.
Their traditions, prejudices, and aspirations were
identical with those of the Asturians. Complete amal-

gamation was soon accomplished by intermarriage and

by the intimacies of commercial and social intercourse.
The operations of Alfonso are, for the most part,
described with even more confusion of dates and
localities than that which ordinarily characterizes the
historical accounts of his age. Both the love of the
marvellous and the bias of superstition have combined
to magnify his achievements. Nevertheless, the ac-
count of no great victory breaks the monotony of an
endless recital of murder, pillage, and conflagration.
In the mountains, where every ravine favored an am-
buscade, the Christians were invincible, but upon the
plain, even when aided by the advantage of superior
numbers, they were no match for the Moorish cavalry.
The vulnerable condition of the country, which suf-
fered from the inroads of the Asturian prince, im-
pressed him with the necessity of erecting suitable
defensive works along the borders of his own do-
minions. He therefore established a line of castles
upon the southern slope of the sierra, dividing the
present provinces of Old and New Castile, which were
then known under the common designation of Bar-
dulia, and from these fortified posts the two famous
provinces have derived their modern name.
The reign of Alfonso does not seem to have known
the blessings of tranquillity. His expeditions were
incessant, and their results almost invariably success-
ful. The Moors universally regarded him with a fear
which, far more than the profuse adulation of his
monkish biographers, confirms the prevailing idea of
his prowess and indicates the respect in which he was
held by his enemies, whose historians conferred upon
him the honorable and significant appellation of Ibn-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 361
"
al-Saif, The Son of the Sword." At the time of
his death he had extended the limits of his kingdom
until it embraced nearly a fourth part of the entire
Peninsula, reaching from upper Aragon to the At-
lantic, and from the Sierra Guadarrama to the Bay
of Biscay. Far to the south of the territory which
acknowledged his jurisdiction, a vast region had been
swept by his inroads, and remained depopulated
through the very terror of his name. While his re-
sources did not enable him to retain possession of this
neutral ground, its accessibility to attack rendered it
useless to the Saracens. His death, in 756, was coin-
cident with the accession to power of the renowned
House of Ommeyah, whose genius held in check for
half a century the patriotic impulses of the state
which public disorder and universal contempt had per-
mitted to form under the eye of the haughty emirs,
an error of policy whose fatal consequences were not
even suspected until the evil was beyond all remedy.
Thus, within a few years, from an affrighted band
of homeless fugitives had arisen a nation whose power
had already become formidable. In the independent
spirit of its assemblies, convoked to elect a sovereign,
were plainly discernible traces of that constitutional
liberty which subsequently acquired such importance
and produced such enduring political effects in the
history of Spain. The basis of the new ecclesiastical
system, on the other hand, consisted in a servile obedi-
ence to Rome, and was marked by none of the con-
scious dignity and self-reliance peculiar to the ancient

Visigothic priesthood. Aseries of misfortunes had

broken the pride of the Church in the desecration of
;

its relics, in the plunder of its altars, in the confisca-

tion of its treasures, in the insults to its prelates, the

multitude saw the fearful vengeance of an offended
God. The wealth of the ecclesiastical order had dis-
appeared, and with it much of its power. Its congre-
362 History of the

gations were scattered. Whenever the poverty of the

devout was so great that the regular tribute could not
be raised all worship was proscribed. In those locali-
ties where the indulgence of the conqueror permitted
the Christian rites, there was small inducement to

proselytism, as no new churches could be erected, and

the conversion of a Mohammedan was a capital crime,
of which both tempter and apostate were equally
guilty. In the face of the overwhelming catastrophe
which had overtaken the Church, it is but natural that
the eyes of its ministers should be turned towards the
throne of the Holy Father, whose admonitions they
had unheeded and whose commands they had defied.
In a crowd of ignorant and superstitious peasants the
prestige attaching to ancient ecclesiastical dignity and
the reverence exacted by its sacred office soon raised
the clergy to an unusual degree of prominence. It
was their influence which actually founded the infant
state; which dictated its policy; which directed its
career which profited by its success which tendered
; ;

sympathy in the hour of adversity; which shared its

glory in the hour of triumph. And, as in the begin-
ning it was predominant, so through the long course
of ages its grasp never slackened, and to its sug-
gestions, sometimes prompted by wisdom, but often
darkened by bigotry, are to be attributed the measures
emanating from both the civil and ecclesiastical polity
of the dynasties of Spain.
The mingling of various nationalities in the As-
turias produced its inevitable ethnical result, the evo-
lution of a race superior to each of its constituents.

But with physical improvement and mental culture

came many deplorable evils, merciless hatred, supersti-
tious credulity, military insubordination, and the vices
of a society indulgent to the maxims and practice of
a lax morality. The
remorseless butchery of infidels
was encouraged as highly meritorious, and only a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 363

proper return for the calamities produced by invasion.

The ferocious soldiery, whose license during the con-
tinuance of hostilities was never restrained by their
commanders, were, as might be expected, not amen-
able to discipline or obedient to the necessary regu-
lations of their profession in time of peace. The
orders of the King were sometimes openly disobeyed ;
and such was the precarious nature of his authority
that he not infrequently considered it more expedient
to dissemble than to punish. The licentious habits of
the Visigothic prelates and nobles had been carried,
along with the traditions of their ancient grandeur
and the mementos of their former wealth, into the
rude, but hitherto comparatively pure, society of the
mountains. The severity of the climate, the incessant
and violent exercise demanded by their avocations, and
the uncertainty of subsistence had preserved the chas-
tity of the Asturian peasantry, who, in many other
respects, were remarkable for degradation and bru-
tality. Polygamous unions, practised with more or
less concealment by the privileged classes during the

reign of Pelayus, upon the accession of Alfonso be-

came open and notorious. The innumerable captives
secured by marauding expeditions afforded excellent
facilities for supplying or replenishing the harems of
the nobles and the clergy. The holy fathers, like their
predecessors under Witiza and Roderick, were noted
for their taste and appreciation of the charms of
female loveliness; and the owner of a beautiful slave
whose price was too high for the count was rarely
dismissed, for this cause, by the bishop. A well-

appointed seraglio was an indispensable appendage

to the household of every secular and ecclesiastical
dignitary. The example of their ancestors, and the
temptations offered by the fascinations of the beau-
tiful Moorish captives, were too powerful to be with-
stood. To the allurements of passion was also added
364 History of the

the gratification resulting from the consciousness of

inflicted and well-deserved retribution. The fairest
of the Gothic and Roman maidens had been torn from
weeping parents to fill the harems of Cordova, Cairo,
and Damascus. Alfonso I., whose title, The Catholic,
has been confirmed by the profuse and fulsome eu-
logies of the Church, was behind none of his ghostly
counsellors in his polygamous inclinations; and the
offspring of a connection with an infidel concubine,
who received the name of Mauregato, was destined to
play an important part in the annals of the Recon-
quest. In every form and manifestation of social life
the influence of the surviving elements of the Visi-
gothic monarchy produced important and permanent
results. To anarchysucceeded political organization,
imperfect it is true, but the wisdom of whose prin-
ciples was repeatedly confirmed by their adaptability
to the requirements of an extensive empire. The
physical condition of the people was improved, and
their strength, hitherto employed against each other,
was now directed to the injury of a common enemy.
With new aspirations and altered manners were in-
troduced changes in the Asturian dialect, which was
originally derived from the Euskarian, the idiom
of
the Basques. The intercourse of the various classes
of society grew more refined. Law gradually sup-
planted government by force. Religion again exerted
its beneficent and powerful sway. The ceremonial
of the Visigothic court a mixture of barbarian inso-
lence, Roman dignity, and Byzantine pomp
was re-
vived, and a faint image of ancient greatness was
exhibited by the pride and prowess of representatives
of noble families who, mindful of former ascendency
and confident of future distinction, gallantly rallied
round the throne.
The spirit of hero-worship, as may readily be in-
ferred from the superstitious credulity of the moun-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 365

taineers, was strong in the Asturias. Every action of

the early princes is distorted by the atmosphere of
mystery and exaggeration which envelops it. The
idea pervading classic mythology that those whom
tradition declares to have been the benefactors of
mankind, who have contributed to civilization the
greatest practical benefits, and from whose efforts
have been derived the true enjoyments of life, are en-
not to absolute apotheosis, at least to exalta-
titled, if
tion as demigods, perverted by sacerdotal influence,
had been bequeathed, with other Pagan beliefs and
practices, by the priests of Hercules and iEsculapius
to the servants of the Pope. When
canonization was
deemed impolitic, the life of an eminent personage
was embellished with a mass of fiction, of prodigy, of
fable. Some historians have not mentioned the name
of Pelayus; others, on account of the untrustworthy
character of the authorities, have assigned all the ex-
ploits of his reign to the domain of the mythical. A
miraculous appearance of the Virgin in the cave of
Covadonga inspired the Christians with hope, and an-
nounced the coming victory. A
choir of angels, whose
voices were distinctly heard by the attendants, soothed
the dying moments of Alfonso. Such legends, in-
vented by priestly artifice and propagated by uni-
versal approbation in an age of ignorance, have no
small influence in developing the character of a nation.
Thus, in a secluded corner of the Peninsula, neg-
lected by their friends and despised by their enemies,
the founders of an empire whose states and princi-
palities were to be lighted by the rising as well as
by the setting sun erected in obscurity and distress
the humble fabric of their political fortunes. The
almost hopeless prospect of the struggle at its incep-
tion nerved them to despair. Aided by the obstacles
interposed by nature for their defence, encouraged
by the suicidal conflicts which constantly harassed the
366 History of the

emirate, and inspired with an unshaken confidence

in the protection of heaven, an insignificant band of
exiles, in the short space of a quarter of a century,
insensibly expanded into a people whose existence,
hitherto ignored, began, when too late, to arouse the
serious apprehensions of the court of Cordova. The
Asturian element, as jealous of liberty as the Basques
but far less intolerant, infused into the public delib-
erations those principles of freedom subsequently so
prominent in the laws of the northern provinces and
;

even now, after centuries of despotism, not entirely

eradicated from the Spanish constitution. It is one
of the strangest of political phenomena that from
such a source should have proceeded institutions that
made the Inquisition possible. The imperceptible but
lasting influence of the Asturians did not pass away
with the prestige of the great princes of the Houses
of Austria and Bourbon. The religion of the national
hierarchy, organized within its borders and promul-
gated by its armies, still affords consolation to the
devout of many lands, and the musical language,
formed by a fusion of barbarous dialects, is the idiom
of one-sixth of the geographical area of the habitable
globe.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 367

CHAPTER VIII

THE OMMEYADES; REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN I.

756-788

The Ommeyade Family Its Origin Its Hostility to Mohammed

The Syrian Princes Their Profligacy Splendors of
Damascus Luxury of the Syrian Capital Rise of the
Abbasides Proscription of the Defeated Faction Escape
of Abd-al-Rahman His Romantic Career He enters
Spain His Success Defeat and Dethronement of Yusuf
Constant Insurrections Enterprise of the Khalif of
Bagdad Its Disastrous Termination Invasion of Charle-
magne Slaughter of Roncesvalles Death of Abd-al-Rah-
man His Character His Services to Civilization Foun-
dation of the Great Mosque The Franks reconquer
Septimania.

I now turn to that splendid period wherein was

displayed the glory of the line of the Ommeyades,
an epoch forever memorable for its achievements in
science and practical philosophy; forever illustrious
in the history of intellectual progress as well as for
the development of those useful arts which diminish
the toil and increase the happiness of every individual,
irrespective of rank, whose influence and avocations
insensibly contribute their share to the amelioration or
degradation of humanity.
Prominent among the nobles of Mecca, equal in
pride of lineage and superior in real power to the
Hashemites, to which tribe the Prophet belonged, was
the family of the Ommeyades. Although not exempt
from a well-grounded suspicion of atheism, they were,
from motives of policy, devoted champions of the wor-
ship of the Kaaba. Their idolatrous predilections were
disclosed by the significant names of their chieftains,
368 History of the

and especially by that of their founder,

Abd-al-Shams,
"
The Slave of the Sun." While thesheiks of the
Hashemites, the hereditary guardians of the Kaaba,
enjoyed the nominal authority of heads of the Kore-
ish, the military talents and intellectual endowments
of the Ommeyades secured for their chiefs the com-
mand of the army, an advantage by no means counter-
balanced by the spiritual influence possessed by their
rivals over the worldly and skeptical population of
Mecca. The commerce of the Holy City, which
reaped such substantial benefits from its position as
the centre of Arabian superstition, was largely in the
hands of the Ommeyades. The great caravans, which,
at regular periods, carried on a lucrative traffic with
Egypt and Syria, were placed under the charge of
their most distinguished leaders. The riches amassed
by the principal members of the family were pro-
digious, and their insolence and cruelty were, in nearly
every instance, in a direct ratio to their wealth and
power. Quick to perceive that their political influ-
ence as well as their pecuniary interests would be
seriously imperilledby the spread of Islam, the Om-
meyades early displayed the most unrelenting hostility
towards their countryman Mohammed. They reviled
his doctrines. They scoffed at his pretensions to
divine inspiration. His proselytes were followed by
the taunts and insults of the mob of Mecca, instigated
by the dissolute young nobles of the Koreish aristoc-
racy. Longbefore he had secured a respectable fol-
lowing, the Prophet, on several occasions, narrowly
escaped the violence of his insidious enemies; and
the Hegira itself, the era from which the magnificent

dynasties of Syria and Spain were to date the acts of

their sovereigns, was necessitated by the discovery of
a murderous plot against him hatched and matured by
the chiefs of the Ommeyades.
In the defeat of Ohod, where the Prophet was
 Moorish Empire in Europe 369

wounded and nearly lost his life at the siege of Me-

;

dina, which menaced with destruction the existence of

the new religion, the hostile armies were commanded by
Abu-Sofian, the principal sheik of this powerful fam-
ily. His wife, the termagant Hind, prompted by the
impulses of a savage and a cannibal, had torn out and
partly devoured the liver of Hamza, Mohammed's
uncle, and had worn a necklace and bracelets of the
ears of Moslems who had fallen bravely in battle.
After the surrender of Mecca, Abu-Sofian and his
partisans were induced to show a pretended con-
formity with the observances of the detested faith,
but only under the threat of instant death.
The Syrian princes, despite their services to litera-
ture and art, were, almost without exception, profli-
gates and infidels. Ever famous for voluptuousness
and frivolity, they had inherited and improved upon
the seductive dissipations of the Roman Empire. In
the ingenious invention and development of depraved
tastes and acts of unspeakable infamy, Antioch and
Damascus stood unrivalled. The use of wine, pro-
hibited by the Koran, was universal; the debauchery
of the court, which rivalled that of the worst period
of imperial degradation, excited the wonder and dis-
gust of foreigners. The ministers of the most revolt-
ing vices, unmolested, defiled with their presence alike
the halls of the palace and the precincts of the mosque.
The drunkenness of the Khalif not infrequently re-
quired the constant attendance of slaves, even in the
audience chamber. Vast sums were lavished upon
singing and dancing boys painted and attired like
women, an abomination in the eyes of every con-
scientious Mussulman. Female musicians and per-
formers, whose attractions often obtained over the
susceptible monarch a dangerous and permanent
ascendency, were imported at great expense from
Mecca, the focus of the religion and the vice of
Vol. I. 24
370 History of the

Asia. A of boundless extravagance was culti-

spirit
vated as a necessary attribute of regal splendor, and
a timely jest or a ribald song often procured for an
unworthy favorite a reward equal to the revenue of
a province.
Damascus, under the rule of the Ommeyades, pre-
sented a picture of licentiousness and luxury un-
equalled, before or since, by that or any other com-
munity of the Moslem world. The importance of its
commerce, the opulence of its citizens, the beauty of
its suburbs, the sanctity of its traditions, and the
pres-
tige of its name gained for the most venerable city
of antiquity the admiration and the reverence of every
traveller. Its temples were embellished with all the

magnificent creations of Oriental art. Its palaces

were encrusted with porphyry, verde-antique, lapis
lazuli, and alabaster. Through its gardens, over
whose mosaic walks waved in stately majesty the
palm, and where the air was perfumed with the fra-
grance of a thousand flowers and aromatic shrubs,
flowed rivulets of the purest water. In every court-
yard were fountains, and in the harems of the wealthy
they were often fed with costly wines. The most
gaudy attire was affected even by the populace, and
no material but silk was considered worthy of the dig-
nity of a Syrian noble. In the shops of the bazaar,
divided as are those of the East to-day into sections
appropriated to different wares, were to be found ob-
jects of commerce of every country from Hindustan
to Britain. The various nationalities which composed
the population of the city were each distinguished by
a peculiar costume, and the brilliant and picturesque
aspect of the living streams which poured unceasingly
through the streets was enhanced by the multitudes
of visitors whom business or curiosity had attracted to
the capital of the khalif ate.
With the occupation of the city by the Moslems,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 371

its physical aspect, the character of its population,

and the nature of its political institutions had changed
with its religion. From Grseco-Syrian, affected to
some extent by Persian influence, it became thor-
oughly Arab. The apparently ineradicable ideas of
personal liberty entertained by the Bedouin, incon-
sistent even with the salutary restraints necessary for
the maintenance of government and the preservation
of society, were carried from the boundless Desert
into the circumscribed area of the Syrian metropolis.
Every had its own municipal district or ward,
tribe

separated from the others by walls fortified by towers,

and closed at sunset by massive gates. So perfect
was this isolation that each quarter exhibited the
picture of a miniature town, independent of the
others, with its markets, caravansaries, mosques, and
cemeteries. The rule of separation was carried still
farther in these communities by assigning different
wards to Jews and Christians, a practice still to be
observed in the cities of the Orient. Unobstructed
communication with the surrounding country was ob-
tained by means of gateways in the principal wall, of
which each quarter always possessed one and some-
times more. This singular arrangement, a constant
protest against the centralized despotism which, de-
spite its professions, is the governing principle of
Islam, greatly facilitated the political disturbances
and insurrections whose prevalence is so marked a
feature in the history of Damascus.
The Great Mosque, inferior in sanctity only to the
temples of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, stood in
the very centre of the city. The plan and decorations
of the structure were Byzantine, and still bear no in-
considerable resemblance to those of the Cathedral of
St. Mark at Venice. In such profusion were mosaics
lavished upon its walls that even the exterior blazed
with the intolerable brilliancy of this elegant orna-
372 History of the

mentation. Its imposing dome and slender minarets,

rising above a maze of houses and gardens, were the
first objects which met the expectant glance of the
camel-driver as he urged his weary beast over the
drifting sands of the Desert. At the fountain of
its spacious court the pilgrim from Yemen and the

merchant from Irac, side by side, performed the lus-

trations enjoined upon the true believer. Before its
gorgeous Kiblah the curious of every clime, the devout
of every rank, the prince and the beggar, the noble
and the dervish, the master and the slave, in fraternal
concord implored the protection and the blessing of
God.
The splendors of the Orient were reflected by the
court and the palace of the khalifate. The quarries
of Europe, Africa, and Asia were ransacked for the
rarest marbles. Temples of Pagan deities were
stripped of frieze and capital carved by the hands of
famous sculptors of antiquity. Byzantine mosaics
glittered upon the floors and walls with a sheen that
resembled folds of satin drapery and cloth of gold.
The tapestries of Persia, whose designs ignored the
injunction of the Koran prohibiting the representa-
tion of forms of animal life, were suspended, in gor-
geous magnificence, from portals of verde-antique
and arcades of Numidian marble and polished jasper.
The gilded ceilings were of odoriferous woods curi-
ously inlaid in bewildering arabesques with ivory,
mother-of-pearl, ebony, and tortoise-shell. The pro-
fusion of water recalled the partiality of the Arab
for the precious fluid associated with the toilsome
march of the caravan, with the repose of the camp,
with the refreshing coolness of the verdant oasis, with
the triumph of the foray, Math many a happy memory
and sacred tradition of the Desert. In every court-
yard sparkled jets of spray drawn from the sources
of the famous rivers Abana and Pharpar. Channels
 Moorish Empire in Europe 373

cut in themarble floors conducted the overflow

through the summer apartments of the palace into
the little canals which traversed, in every direction, the
fragrant gardens. The baths, designed to subserve
the threefold purpose of religion, health, and pleasure,
were fitted up with almost incredible luxury. Upon
of Constantinople had exhausted
their walls the artists
their utmost ingenuity and skill. The basins were of

porphyry and alabaster the silver pipes were finished

;

with the heads of animals carved in solid gold. The

air that came from the furnace through the hypocaust
was laden with the sweetness of a hundred intoxicating
odors. The divans upon which the bathers reclined
were covered with damask, embroidered with many
colored silk in a maze of graceful and capricious pat-
terns. Through windows of stained glass, high up
in the vaulted ceiling, the brilliant rays of a Syrian
sun fell, tempered and refracted in iridescent hues
upon the scene of luxurious repose and sensuality
below.
With the terrible retribution that followed the death
of Othman, the tribal supremacy and with it the con-
trol of the Moslem government was transferred to
the heads of the Meccan aristocracy of the clan of
Abu-Sofian. The sincerity of their professions had
long been doubted. The unwise appointments of
Othman, a member of that family, was the principal
cause of the popular discontent that culminated in his
assassination. Weak and vacillating, his movements
were directed by his uncleHakem, who had betrayed
the confidence of Mohammed, and had been ignomini-
ously driven from the Hedjaz. Another Ommeyade,
the father of Walid, Governor of Kufa, spat in the
face of the Prophet, and had been executed as a felon ;

while the sacrilegious conduct of his worthy son had

provoked a dangerous riot in the very mosque of his
capital. Still another, Abdallah-Ibn-Sad, Governor
374 History of the

of Egypt, raised to the coveted dignity of secretary

of Mohammed, had perverted the texts of the Koran,
and had fled and apostatized, thereby incurring the
penalty of death. Under Muavia, the first Syrian
Khalif, the outward ceremonies of religion were
practised and the precepts of the Koran obeyed with
apparent fidelity. But this conformity, palpably in-
sincere,was largely the effect of policy. The ortho-
doxy of a people whose ancestors were for centuries
the ministers of idolatrous worship, who resisted with
every resource of contumely and violence the apostle
of a new religion in his weakness, and assented re-
luctantly to his dogmas power, and whose po-
in his
litical importance was directly dependent upon the
maintenance of that religion, may, with propriety, be
questioned. The Pagan traditions of his ancestors
were predominant in the breast of Muavia. decentA
reverence for the Koran, an apparent assent to its
tenets, together with a politic and strict performance
of the ceremonies of its ritual, concealed from his sub-
jects all of the skepticism of his family, all of the
abject superstition of his race. His palace swarmed
with soothsayers and charlatans. Before engaging
in any important undertaking, in the presence of pub-
lic calamity, under the weight of domestic misfortune,

he appealed for counsel to the arts of divination, de-

nounced by Mohammed as a relic of idolatry and
offensive to God. In his adherence to these heathen
rites he was encouraged by the influence and example
of his favorite consort, the mother of Yezid, a Bedouin
of the tribe of the Beni-Kalb, who, amidst the luxuri-
ous pomp of the Syrian court, still pined for the coarse
fare and untrammelled freedom of the Desert.
The Ommeyade Khalifs grudged no treasure and
spared no toil in the adornment of their capital, the
centre of their religion, the seat of their empire. To
their political sagacity are to be attributed the massive
 Moorish Empire in Europe 375

fortifications which preserved the city from the en-

croachments of Persia and the plots of daring aspi-
rants to imperial power. Their paternal beneficence
was manifested by aqueducts and countless subter-
ranean conduits which conveyed an unfailing supply
of water into even the humblest dwellings of the poor.
Their enlightened generosity relieved the suffering,
encouraged the learned, promoted commerce, re-

pressed fanaticism, dispelled the mists of ignorance.

The white banner of their dynasty floated in triumph
over the mosque of Medina, the towers of Bassora, the
walls of Kairoan, the citadel of Toledo. In scientific
acumen and literary renown the reputation of the
court of Damascus was far inferior to that subse-
quently attained by the Khali fate of Bagdad. The
genius of the Syrian seemed less adapted to the slow
and plodding researches of the laboratory than to the
noisy wrangles of theological controversy. But in the
material enjoyments of life, in the pomp which in-
vested the dignity of sovereign, in the riotous exhibi-
tion of sensual extravagance, Damascus was supreme.
On occasions of ceremony the attire of the Khalif
was of gold brocade, and only when he exercised the
religious functions of his holy office incumbent on him
as the head of Islam did he condescend to don the
plain white vestments of his order. The menials of
his household, even to the cooks, when they appeared
before the Divan, were clad in damask. The devotees
of pleasure were the favorite companions of the Suc-
cessor of the Prophet. His days were passed at cock-
fights and horse-races. The number of coursers which
contended in these trials of speed was immense, some-
times amounting to the incredible figure of one thou-
sand. His nights were amused by the tales of story-
tellers, by the improvisations of poets, by the antics
of buffoons, by the lascivious contortions of profes-
sional dancers. The barbaric orgies of the Bedouin
376 History of the

tents were transferred to the palace of the khalifate,

and supplemented with the polished vices of Egypt
and the nameless iniquities of Rome and Constanti-
nople. In the depth and frequency of his potations,
the royal expounder of the Koran might well chal-
lenge the admiration of the seasoned revellers of Scan-
dinavia. His drinking-horns were of enormous size.
The wine used in the banquets was of the choice vin-
tage of Tayif, a town in the vicinity of Mecca. Po-
tent of itself, the effect of its draughts was heightened
by the addition of musk and other aphrodisiacs. When
the surfeited stomach could endure no more, emetics
were employed to prolong the debauch and obviate its
unpleasant consequences.
What a contrast does all this splendor and profli-
gacy present to the frugal habits, patriarchal sim-
plicity, and homely virtues of the early khalif s !

What a change from the humble domestic offices per-

formed by the Arabian Prophet, who often himself
prepared his frugal meal and mended his tattered
sandals! How different from the dignified reserve
and earnest piety of Abu-Bekr; how strange when
compared with the stoical demeanor and abstemious
life of Omar, who entered Jerusalem at the head of
his victorious army in a garb inferior to that of the
meanest soldier, and whom an ambassador of the
King of Persia found asleep, surrounded by beggars,
upon the steps of the Great Mosque of Medina And !

yet a century had not elapsed from the Hegira to the

period when the Ommeyades of Syria reached the
meridian of their greatness and their power.
The liberty enjoyed by women at this period was
much greater than that subsequently conceded them
by Mohammedan law. The lax manners of the Desert
had not yet been completely subjected to the restric-
tions demanded by new social conditions. During the
reigns of the first khalif s, the barbarous practice
 Moorish Empire in Europe 377

which countenanced the traffic in and service of eu-

nuchs was unknown. Later, however, the close inter-
course with the Byzantine and Persian courts sug-
gested and encouraged the custom. But it would seem
from accounts transmitted by the writers of the time
that the institution of these guardians produced no
marked effect upon the prevailing immorality; and
the fidelity of even the modern eunuch is, as every
adventurous Oriental traveller knows, far from in-
corruptible. Princes visited clandestinely the harems
of their subjects, and celebrated in licentious verse,
without concealment of name or opportunity, the
charms of their mistresses. Ladies of the royal house-
hold intrigued openly with the poets and singers of
the court. With such examples before them, the in-
ferior orders of the people could hardly be expected
to preserve even the appearance of virtue. As a
matter of fact, in no country was society more cor-
rupt, and the name of Syrian was everywhere a syno-
nym of effeminacy, infidelity, and vice.
But the excesses of the Khalif s of Damascus, scan-
dalous as they were, became trifling faults in the eyes
of the pious Moslem when he considered the horrible
acts of sacrilege of which these sovereigns were guilty.
The generals of Yezid, after the battle of Harra
which avenged the murder of Othman and decided
the fate of Arabia, delivered up the city of Me-
dina to pillage. A massacre, so cruel as to provoke
the indignation of an age accustomed to scenes of
butchery and violence, was perpetrated by the infuri-
ated soldiery. A thousand infants were born of the
outrages of that fatal day to be branded for life with
"
the epithet of the Children of Harra." The troop-
ers of the Syrian army, encumbered with their horses,
fastened them amidst gibes and curses in the mosque ;

the mosque founded by Mohammed upon the spot of

propitious augury, where his favorite camel had
378 History of the

halted at the termination of the flight from Mecca.

There, tethered between the pulpit, whence the texts
of the Koran had fallen from the lips of the Prophet
upon the attentive ears of multitudes of believers, and
the tomb where his remains had been reverently laid
by the hands of his companions, the restless horses
defiled the place holiest on earth to the Mussulman
save the Kaaba alone. The survivors of Bedr, whom
the favor of Mohammed and the veneration of the
populace had exalted to the rank of an ecclesiastical
nobility, perished to a man. At the siege of Mecca,
which soon followed, the privileges that, from time
immemorial, had protected the sacred territory from
insult were violated, and the mosque, set on fire by
order of the commander of the army, was, with the
Kaaba, entirely consumed.
Under the administration of the succeeding khalifs
of the House of Ommeyah, the mad freaks of these
unworthy chiefs of Islam attained the climax of ex-
travagance and sacrilege. Exhausted by debauchery
and careless of public opinion, they sent their boon
companions and their concubines, muffled in the royal
robes, to repeat the morning prayer from the pulpit
of the mosque. They degraded their sacred office by
the assumption of mean disguises, the better to pen-
etrate the interior of the houses of their neighbors,
inviolable in the sight of every sincere Mussulman.
They maintained and publicly caressed animals whose
contact the law of Islam declared unclean. Their
lives were sullied with incests and every physical
abomination. The reverent Moslem will not tread
upon a piece of paper, for fear it may be inscribed
with a sentence from the Koran; but so little regard
did the scoffing Ommeyade princes entertain for its
sacred texts that they used it as a target for their
arrows. Each was noted for his predilection for some
favorite vice. Al-Walid I. was seldom sober, and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 379

suffered no day to pass without a drunken orgy.

Yezid II. starved himself on account of the death
of a female slave. The conduct of Al-Walid II. was
a strange compound of the tricks of a buffoon and
the vagaries of a lunatic. In absolute defiance of the
prejudices of his fellow-Mussulmans, he insisted that
his dogs should accompany his retinue on the Pilgrim-

age to Mecca. Although, by virtue of his office, the

leader of the great Pilgrim caravan, who was ex-
pected to afford an edifying example of piety to his
followers and direct the customary devotional exer-
cises, so little did he appreciate the duties of the occasion
that he delegated his spiritual authority to one of his
friends, and was with difficulty dissuaded from erect-
ing a tent on the very summit of the Kaaba, wherein
he might the more publicly outrage the feelings of
the inhabitants of the Holy City by scenes of drunken-
ness and riot. A pet monkey, which had been chris-
tened Abu-Kais, was an inseparable companion of his
revels. He quaffed the strong wine of Tayif from
the same cup as his royal master, and with him shared
alike the pleasures of intoxication and the depression

consequent upon prolonged indulgence. The Khalif

presented his strange associate to grave ambassadors
as a venerable and learned Jew whom the justice of
the Almighty had overtaken, and who, under the spell
of enchantment, was now expiating, in the form of
an unclean animal, a life of hypocrisy and sin. When
the Khalif rode abroad, Abu-Kais accompanied him,
clad in silk, and mounted on a donkey magnificently
caparisoned. But it happened one day that Abu-Kais,
having imbibed too freely of his master's liquor, was
thrown from his steed and broke his neck. The grief
of Al-Walid for the loss of the monkey was for weeks
the jest of the capital. Abu-Kais was, to the great
scandal of the faithful, honored with the rites of
Moslem burial, and the Khalif, whose poetic talent
380 History of the

was far above mediocrity, composed some plaintive

verses as a well-merited tribute to his conviviality and
wisdom.
I have dwelt at some length upon the description
of Damascus because of the close and significant re-
semblance of the political, social, religious, and mili-
tary institutions of Syria to those of Mohammedan
Spain. In the population of the latter country the
Syrian element greatly preponderated in influence, if
not in numbers. The first Khalif of Andaluz was the
last scion of the race of the Ommeyades. The feuds,
the prejudices, the traditions, of both nations were
identical. The Syrian exile ever retained in affection-
ate remembrance the scenes and events of his child-
hood. His armies were marshalled in the same order
as were those which went forth to victory under the
white banner of Muavia and Al-Walid. His cities
were laid out in imitation of the irregular lines and
labyrinthine streets of the Syrian capital. His palaces
were constructed by architects familiar with the splen-
did edifices which were the crowning ornament of the
Eastern Khalif ate. The mosaics that sparkled around
the Kiblah of the Great Temple of the West were
the handiwork of the same school of Byzantine artists
whose creations had adorned the stately dome which
rose over the site of the ancient Church of St. John
the Baptist. The Koran, whose leaves dyed with the
life-blood of Othman were long exhibited with the
garments of the martyred Khalif in the Djalma of
Damascus, was for more than two centuries the object
of a veneration approaching to idolatry, rendered by
countless myriads of worshippers, attracted from
every quarter of the globe by the marvels and the
sanctity of the Mosque of Cordova.
The gross and offensive ridicule of everything con-
nected with religion and with a life passed in strict
accordance with the principles of moral rectitude, so
 Moorish Empire in Europe 381

popular at the court of Damascus, would have been

considered impolitic and ill-bred by the polished so-
ciety whose cities lined the shores of the Tagus and
the Guadalquivir. But education and skepticism were
almost equally diffused throughout the Peninsula, and
there was, in fact, but little difference in the opinions
concerning the divine origin and authenticity of the
Koran entertained by the Moslem of Syria and the
Moslem of Spain. Nor was the influence of the occult
sciences less prominent in the West than in the East.
Superior intelligence, which brought emancipation
from many of the vices of superstition, did not seem
to perceptibly diminish the confidence inspired by the
mummeries and impostures of the wizard and the
astrologer.
The Spanish Arabs, following the example of their

Syrian brethren, raised woman to a position equally

removed from the one she so ignominiously occupied
in earlierand in later times, as the giddy toy of man
or the abject slave of religious credulity. The voice
of the princesses of Syria not infrequently decided
the policy of the Divan. The ladies of Cordova were
the chosen advisers of the monarch; the friends of
philosophers; the learned associates of great physi-
cians, astronomers, generals, and diplomatists. Free
from the excessive prodigality, the defiant blasphemy,
the extravagant follies of the Syrian dynasty, the sov-
ereigns of the Western Khalif ate suffered no oppor-
tunity to escape which would, even indirectly, secure
for their subjects the substantial benefits of commerce,
the manifold advantages of science, the pleasures of
art, the consolations of literature; while they at the
same time, actuated by a lofty ambition not confined
by the limits of their own dominions, fostered those
noble aspirations and incentives to progress which pro-
mote the generous emulation of nations.
A society whose religious teachers are atheists and
382 History of the

hypocrites, the contempt of whose rulers is constantly

manifested towards a faith to which they are solely
indebted for their authority and whose wickedness has
become proverbial, can hardly survive the first reso-

lute attempt at its overthrow. And so it happened

with the Ommeyades at Damascus. Not only in Syria,
but to the uttermost bounds of the khalifate, the
stories of the vices and skepticism of the Commander
of the Faithful were heard with disgust and horror.
The law-abiding were scandalized by the orgies
of the court. The descendants of those who had
perished at Harra and Mecca, the remnant of the
recalcitrant non-conformists of Persia, the seditious
populace which had felt the iron hand of the governors
of Irac, were inflamed with the desire and the hope
of vengeance. The devout Mussulman, who con-
scientiously observed the injunctions of the Koran and
to whom the traditions of Islam were sacred as con-
nected with the life and sayings of the Prophet, was
shocked at the blasphemy which the Successor of Mo-
hammed did not hesitate to utter, even within the pre-
cincts of the mosque and before the very altar of God.
From time to time the popular indignation was dis-
played in insurrections, which, being spontaneous and
deficient in organization and leadership, were crushed
without difficulty. But under the reign of Merwan
II., the fourteenth khalif of the dynasty, a formid-
able rebellion broke out in Persia. The descendants
of Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed and the grand-
father of Ali, openly laid claim to the throne of the
Orient. Their party was supported by Abu-Muslim,
the greatest military commander of the age. Attached
for generations to the memory of Ali, the Persians
flocked by thousands to the camp of the insurgents,
and the pretender, Abul- Abbas, having established his
authority over the eastern provinces, moved westward
to the conquest of Syria. Aware, when too late, of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 383

the magnitude of the impending danger, which at first

had been despised, the Khalif brought into requisition
the entire resources of his empire to repel the invasion.
In the plains of the Zab, a tributary of the Tigris, and
not far from the site of ancient Nineveh, the two
armies met in a conflict upon whose result were staked
the destinies of the two great factions of Islam. The
valor of the Abbasides, aided by the treason which per-
vaded the ranks of the enemy, prevailed; the forces
of Merwan were routed; and the foundations of a
new empire were laid which was destined to eclipse, by
the glories of Bagdad, the dazzling and meretricious
splendor of the court of Damascus. And now a
frightful proscription was inaugurated. Even the
schismatics,whose lukewarm support had incurred the
suspicions of the Ommeyades, were unable to escape
the sword of the conqueror. It soon became evident
that the fury of the Abbasides would be satisfied only
with the absolute extermination of the hostile faction.
The deposed Khalif, Merwan, who had fled to Egypt,
was defeated in a skirmish and killed. Every member
of his house whose rank was sufficiently exalted to in-
spire the usurper with apprehensions was ruthlessly
murdered. Where open violence did not avail, the
basest treachery was employed. Abdallah, the uncle
of Abul- Abbas, by affording some of the exiles assist-
ance, had succeeded in gaining the confidence of the
proscribed faction. He solemnly promised an asylum
to all who would resort to Damascus and invoke his
protection. Deluded by his professions, many left
their hiding-places, where they had been in compara-

expose themselves to the designs of a

tive security, to

perfidious enemy. When all had arrived who could be

induced to confide in him, Abdallah gave a banquet
in honor of his distinguished proteges, which more
than seventy of the Ommeyades attended. In the
midst of the festivities, at a given signal, a band of
384 History of the

soldiers burst in upon the assembly, and the unhappy

guests were massacred. Rugs and curtains were
thrown over their prostrate bodies; the revelry was
renewed; and the partisans of the Abbasides toasted
the monster whose ferocious cunning had cut off his
most dangerous adversaries by the sacrifice of the rites
of hospitality. Within the tent of the Bedouin the
life of his most deadly enemy is sacred. But to the
Arab of Syria or Persia no promise was binding, no
engagement was inviolable, where his interests or his
ambition were concerned. Thus had the fatal influ-
ence of Roman and Byzantine manners vitiated the
nature of a people whose sense of manly dignity and
personal honor had for ages been conspicuous amidst
the wide-spread depravity of Asia.
Every member of the detested race whom the blood-
thirsty diligence of their foes could discover was
hunted like a wild beast and put to death. Children
were butchered in the presence of their parents.
Women who refused to disclose the hiding-places of
their kindred, or the whereabouts of their jewels, were
stabbed without ceremony. Abu-Ibn-Muavia, one of
the noblest cavaliers of Damascus, was deprived of a
hand and foot, and paraded through the cities of Syria
upon an ass until pain and exhaustion relieved him of
his misery. The ferocious Abbasides were not content
with outrages upon the living they even violated the
;

tombs of the khalifs and scattered to the winds the

remains of those princes whose glory and whose crimes
had adorned or defiled the throne of the East.
Amidst the universal ruin of his family, one prince
alone of the Ommeyades, Abd-al-Rahman-Ibn-Mua-
via, had survived. Of rare promise and endowed with
many he had long been the ornament of the
virtues,
court of Syria. He had received the best education
obtainable in the schools of the capital. His mind had
been enlarged by travel. The fortuitous advantages
 Mookish Empire in Europe 385

of wealth and royal lineage added but little to the

prestige attaching to his name. The conversation of
learned men, daily attendance upon the proceedings
of the Divan, intimate association with the highest
dignitaries of the state, all had aided to familiarize
him with the complex machinery of government. The
turbulence of the times necessarily enlisted the mili-
tary services of the various members of the royal
house, and Abd-al-Rahman was not deficient in the
knowledge of those duties required by the stirring life
of the camp and the battle-field. In proficiency in
manly exercises, in the daring adventures of the chase,
in skill in the use of arms, he surpassed all competi-
tors.
An and timely absence from the court
accidental
had preserved the young prince from the fate of his
kindred. As soon as intelligence of the massacre
reached him, he fled to an estate which he possessed
near the Euphrates, and there he was soon joined by
his household. But the horsemen of Abul-Abbas,
whose implacable cruelty had acquired for him the
appropriate title of Al-SafFah, The Sanguinary, were
already upon his track ;
his villa was surrounded, and
by swimming the river he barely escaped with his life.

By dint of perseverance and courage, after many

perils, he succeeded in reaching Palestine, where he
was found by Bedr, a freedman of his father, who
brought him his sister's jewels, generously donated to
relieve his necessities. From
Palestine he passed in
disguise into Africa, a province which had not yet
renounced allegiance to the Ommeyades, and whose
governor had been one of the most ardent supporters
of the proscribed faction. Here he was hospitably
welcomed, and at once found himself surrounded by
friends and refugees who had eluded the vigilance of
the Abbasides. The spirits of the exile rose with the
present assurance of security in the companionship of
Vol. I. 25
386 History of the

adherents whose sympathies were aroused, and whose

passions were excited by the story of his wrongs.
Years before, the downfall of the race of Ommeyah
had been foretold by an astrologer, who had, at the
same time, predicted the future greatness of the illus-
trious fugitive. The intellect of Abd-al-Rahman,
though strong, was not proof against the oracles of
superstition which flattered his vanity while they in-

spired him with awe, and he had listened, with all the
credulity of an Oriental, to the mysterious hints of
the charlatan. The first portion of the prediction had
been verified. With
the single exception of himself,
the princes of his house had been exterminated. His
conscious mental superiority, his political experience,
his keen insight into human nature, his public and
domestic virtues, persuaded him and suggested to his
partisans that no one of his family was so worthy
of
a throne. Actuated by these ambitious feelings, and
rashly permitting his aspirations to prevail over his
gratitude, Abd-al-Rahman began to entertain hopes
of securing the sovereignty of Africa. His impru-
dent speeches came to the ears of the Viceroy, Ibn-
Habib, a stern old soldier, who was a relative of Yu-
suf and had once held high command in the army of
Spain. He also was acquainted with the astrologer's
prediction, and was not disposed
to contribute to its

accomplishment by the loss of his own life and the

sacrifice of his power. Despising the guests whose
base conduct had so ill requited his hospitality, he
tendered his allegiance to the Abbaside Khalifate.
All members of the obnoxious faction were at once
expelled from the country. Abd-al-Rahman was
forced to seek in disguise the most secluded regions
of the Desert. His condition became more and more
precarious. A reward of a thousand pieces of gold
was offered for his head. He
sought concealment
among the Bedouins, but their generous hospitality
 Moorish Empire in Europe 387

was not able to protect him from the tireless emissaries

of the Viceroy, who pursued him from camp to camp
and from tribe to tribe. On one occasion, he escaped
from a tent just as the Berbers rushed into it. On
another, the wife of a sheik concealed him in a corner
under a pile of her garments. His means long since
exhausted, he became dependent upon charity. His
food was coarse and scanty, his clothes old and
tattered. Although his youth had been pampered
with the choicest delicacies of a royal table, he ate
the barley bread and drank the camel's milk of the
douars without a murmur. The nobility of his birth,
the suavity of his manners, his skill and daring in
the chase, and the patience with which he submitted
to the trials of adverse fortune, gained for him the
respect and esteem of his wild associates. Even in his
destitution he never ceased to aspire to the throne of
Africa, and, while his efforts were futile, the activity
of the indignant Viceroy kept him in continual appre-
hension. At length, after five years of vagabondage
and perilous adventure, he became the guest of the
Berber tribe of the Beni-Naf sa, a branch of the Zene-
tah, from which his mother derived her origin and
whose members inhabited the mountainous region to
the south of Ceuta. Here, under the guardianship
of his fellow-tribesmen, an alluring prospect was ere-
long opened to his ambition, and the penniless wan-
derer, without country or kindred, was suddenly called
by the voice of a distant nation to found a new empire
and fulfil a grand and magnificent destiny.
In the mean time, the civil war in Spain between
Yusuf and Ahmar, ruler of Saragossa, had been pro-
ceeding with increasing atrocity but with various and
doubtful fortune. Owing to the close relations main-
tained by Africa and the Spanish Peninsula with each
other, the armies of the latter country being constantly
recruited from the martial population of the former,
388 History of the

and the governors themselves being connected by the

tiesof blood, an abiding interest in the political fort-
unes of their brethren beyond the strait was naturally
manifested by the Arab and Berber tribes, and intel-
ligence of every important movement in Spain was
transmitted to the cities and camps of Al-Maghreb with
unfailing regularity. The vigilance and ability of the
Viceroy of Africa had at length convinced Abd-al-
Rahman of the hopelessness of any attempt to usurp
his power. Ease of access to Andalusia and the dis-
tracted condition of that country, with whose troubles
he was thoroughly familiar, caused him to abandon the
scheme which had for so long been the cherished object
of his life for another which promised to be less im-
practicable. A seasonable supply of money had lately
reached the impoverished prince from his friends in
Syria. With this he despatched the faithful Bedr,
who had without complaint shared the privations of
his exile, to Spain; after entrusting him with a letter,
in which he laid claim to the throne by right of in-
heritance, directed to the partisans of his family who,
to the number of several hundred, inhabited the east-
ern portion of Andalusia. The letter was in due time
delivered to the chiefs of the Syrians, who secretly con-
voked an assembly of their tribesmen to determine
what course should be pursued. The hereditary
loyalty of the adherents of the Ommeyades; the ap-
parent justice of the title of Abd-al-Rahman ;
the
anarchy that everywhere prevailed, and whose effects
were at that time painfully manifest in the threefold
scourge of massacre, famine, and disease; and the
prospect of official promotion, assisted by a judicious
distribution of the gold brought by Bedr, decided
the suffrages of the council in favor of the prince.
Scarcely had this opinion been adopted when a new
was added to those which had already ren-
difficulty
dered the issue of the enterprise doubtful as well as
 Moorish Empire in Europe 389

hazardous. The Syrians were ordered by the Emir to

attend him in an expedition to the North. But, by
plausible excuses, the chieftains were enabled to defer
the time of departure, and a gift of a thousand pieces
of gold was even obtained from Yusuf under pretext
of relieving the pressing necessities of their depend-
ents, but, in fact, to further a conspiracy having for
its end his own dethronement. A ship was at once
equipped ;Abd-al-Rahman was conveyed with a small
escort of Berbers to the coast of the Peninsula, and,
landing at the port of Almunecar, was received with
the acclamations of a great multitude attracted to the
spot by the combined motives of curiosity and loyal
enthusiasm. After being duly proclaimed Emir,
Abd-al-Rahman was conducted to a castle not far
from Loja as the guest of the owner Obeydallah, one
of his most zealous adherents.
While these events were transpiring in the South,
Yusuf against the rebellious Berbers
the expedition of
of Saragossa had been singularly fortunate. Over-
awed by superior numbers, the insurgents had pur-
chased immunity by the craven surrender of their
leaders, Amir, Wahab, and Hobab. With these re-
doubtable chieftains in his custody, the Emir was
moving leisurely southward when he was informed
of the defeat of a body of his troops by the Basques,
and in a fit of ungovernable rage he ordered the
immediate execution of his prisoners. By this cruel
and impolitic act, for the culprits were of the
purest blood of the Koreish, and were not responsible
for the disaster to his arms, he alienated many of
his stanchest supporters and materially increased the
following and resources of his rival. A few hours
afterwards a courier brought tidings of the landing
of Abd-al-Rahman and of the new and formidable
danger that menaced his crown. Thirsting for re-
venge, the dependents of the massacred captives de-
390 History of the

serted his standard by hundreds. The forces of the

Ommeyade prince increased daily; the Yemenites,
who regarded his family with a hatred intensified by

generations of injury and oppression, but whose de-

testation of Yusuf was even deeper than that enter-
tained towards the Syrian dynasty, were easily in-
duced to embrace the cause of the former; and, by a
strange revolution of fortune, the fugitive, who but
a few weeks before had been in hourly peril of his
life, now found himself invested with imperial au-

thority and the commander of a veteran army of

several thousand men. Fully appreciating the dan-
gerous character of the revolt, as well as the uncertain
consequences of a prolonged conflict, Yusuf at-
tempted negotiation. Envoys bearing valuable pres-
ents were despatched to the camp of Abd-al-Rahman,
who were authorized to promise him the daughter of
the Emir in marriage and an estate commensurate
with his dignity if he would renounce all claims to
the throne. The advisers of the prince, whose enthu-
siasm had somewhat abated since they had taken time
to reflect upon the possible results of their temerity,
recommended that the proposals be accepted. A
bitter taunt, however, provoked by the awkwardness
of one of Abd-al-Rahman's retinue, abruptly termi-
nated the negotiation; the sarcastic envoy was cast
into a dungeon; and the embassy of the Emir, dis-
missed without ceremony, narrowly escaped being
plundered before it reached the gates of Cordova.
No further course was now possible except an ap-
peal to arms. The prevalence of anarchy, the fre-
of
quent change of rulers, the pernicious immigration
barbarians from Africa, had thoroughly disorganized
society. The allegiance of every subject was regarded
as a mere matter of policy or choice. The armies were
little better than banditti. Even the ties of tribal
union had been relaxed, save when the spirit of ven-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 391

geance required to be satisfied in accordance with the

bloody traditions of the Desert. Treachery was so
rife that no man was certain of the sincerity of his

neighbor or could trust the loyalty of his friend. It

was no uncommon occurrence for troops at the critical
moment of a battle to publicly desert to the enemy,
and immediately turn their weapons against their late
companions-in-arms. The grave uncertainties of a
contest, carried on under such circumstances, are ap-
parent to every reader. The forces of Abd-al-Rah-
man had recently received an important accession by
the arrival of a considerable number of African
cavalry, warriors of the clan of the Zenetah, whose
tribal connections, as well as their inexperience in the

political intrigues of the emirate, rendered their alle-

giance less precarious than that of the veterans to
whom all masters were alike and whose principal in-
centive was plunder.
Early in the spring the army of Abd-al-Rahman
took up its march with a view to the capture of Cor-
dova. Its course, however, was not directly towards
the capital, but farther to the south, where the Syrian
and Egyptian tribes whose sentiments were known
to be favorable to the cause of the Ommeyades had
been distributed. Everywhere the insurgents were
welcomed with enthusiasm; the bravest warriors
joined their ranks; and the towns, one after an-
other, including Seville, the most important city of
Andalusia in point of population, opened their gates
to the pretender. Abd-al-Rahman had scarcely re-
ceived the homage of his new subjects before he
learned that Yusuf who, aided by his counsellor Al-
,

Samil, had collected a formidable army in the prov-

inces of Toledo and Murcia, had marched from Cor-
dova to intercept him. Leaving the city, the prince
proceeded northward with the expectation of seizing
the capital during the absence of the Emir. But the
392 History of the

crafty old soldier was not to be taken unawares. The

movement of the insurgents was at once detected;
Yusuf retraced his steps; and for several hours the
two armies raced on together with the river between
them. Arriving at a village called Mosara, situated
about a league from Cordova, Abd-al-Rahman halted.
The clamors of his soldiers, who had been on short
rations and were greatly fatigued by the rapid march
they had been compelled to undertake, now rose
ominously on his ears. A
council of war was called,
and it was decided to attack the enemy on the follow-
ing morning. By means of a ruse, which reflected
little credit upon his character, Abd-al-Rahman was

enabled to cross the river Avithout molestation. He

sent word to Yusuf that he was willing to renew the
negotiations which had been broken off before the
commencement of hostilities that the terms were en-
;

tirely acceptable and that there was so fair a prospect

;

of peace that the treaty could be more conveniently

arranged if the two camps were more accessible to each
other. Duped by these plausible representations, the
Emir suffered his enemies to pass the Guadalquivir,
and, learning of their half-famished condition, even
sent provisions to their camp. At dawn the troops of
Abd-al-Rahman prepared for action. The day was
propitious. It was the anniversary of the conflict of
the Prairie, where an ancestor of the young prince had
signally defeated an adversary whose title was the
same Yusuf. The coincidence was carried
as that of
still further, for it was not forgotten by the super-

stitious Arabs that the vizier of the Emir and his royal
tribesman both belonged to the race of Kais. These
prognostics of success were diligently circulated
through the ranks of the Ommeyades, already elated
by the prospect of victory. The unwelcome omens
did not have a less powerful influence upon the imag-
ination of their opponents, for, disheartened and f al-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 393

tering, they regarded themselves as having incurred

the displeasure of heaven. The battle was half lost
before it fairly began.
So confidence had the Yemenites in their com-
little

mander, whose life and fortunes were staked on the

issue, that the prince was compelled to exchange his
war-horse for an old and crippled mule to avoid the
suspicion of intending to abandon his followers in the
event of disaster. The royal standard was a white
turban attached to a lance; an ensign of equally
humble origin, no less celebrity than
and destined to
the leathern apron of the Persian dynasty, for many
generations the symbol of conquest, empire, and glory.
The cavalry of Abd-al-Rahman routed that of the
enemy, driving it back upon the infantry and throw-
ing the latter into confusion. The right wing and
centre soon gave way; the left wing maintained its
position forsome hours, when it also was broken. The
plain was covered with fugitives, who were speared
without mercy and trampled to death by the savage
Zenetes. Yusuf and Al-Samil succeeded in escaping
by the fleetness of their horses; the former fled to
Merida, the latter took refuge in Jaen. Such was the
battle of Mosara, upon whose result hinged the des-
tinies of Spain.
The was hardly over before the character-
contest
isticperfidy of the Yemenite chieftains began to mani-
fest itself. To the latter the lineage of Abd-al-Rah-
man was peculiarly offensive. Aside from the general
and deep-seated prejudice they entertained against his
family, many of them were descendants of the martyrs
and exiles of Medina and Harra. Having satiated
their revenge by the rout of the Maadites, and being
restrained from indiscriminate pillage by the com-
mand of Abd-al-Rahman, Abu-Sabbah, one of the
leaders, proposed to assassinate him. The suggestion
was listened to calmly by his associates, who discussed
394 History of the

itwithout regard to its moral aspect but solely with

a view to its present expediency and political conse-
quences, and the more readily as tribal interest was
ever the controlling motive of their conduct. Notified
of their treasonable deliberations, Abd-al-Rahman
lost no time in surrounding himself with a guard.
Thus foiled, the leader of the conspirators dissembled
his chagrin and endeavored by extravagant demon-
strations of loyalty to atone for his crime, but the
penetration of Abd-al-Rahman was not to be deceived,
and, some months afterwards, the treacherous Abu-
Sabbah was summarily executed.
Although attended with success at the outset, the
task of Abd-al-Rahman was far more difficult than
he had anticipated. The chiefs of the opposite faction
soon repaired their fortunes and appeared at the head
of fresh troops. While Abd-al-Rahman was on the
march to attack Yusuf, who had joined Al-Samil in
the province of Jaen, the Emir sent his son, Abu-Zaid,
by unfrequented roads, to seize and recover the capital.
The city was surprised and the garrison made pris-
oners, but the hasty return of the Ommeyades ren-
dered an immediate evacuation necessary. Resuming
his march, Abd-al-Rahman proceeded rapidly towards
the mountains of Jaen. Yusuf and Al-Samil, con-
scious of their present weakness, made overtures for
peace; and a treaty was concluded by whose terms
Abd-al-Rahman was to allow the Emir and his vizier
the unmolested possession of their estates, and they,
on the other hand, were to surrender the strongholds
held by their partisans. It was also stipulated that
Yusuf should reside permanently at Cordova, where
two of his sons, Abu-Zaid and Abu-al-Aswad, were
detained as hostages.
The renunciation of authority by Yusuf left Abd-
al-Rahman the nominal master of the Peninsula.
But the elements of discord, which had so long
 Moorish Empire in Europe 395

harassed the country, were too powerful to be re-

strained by the influence of a youth who was a
comparative stranger to the majority of his subjects.
Anarchy, sustained and promoted by the avarice of
lawless bands and the ambition of unscrupulous chief-
tains, had become the normal condition of a society
whose constituents were accustomed to be arrayed
'against each other, and the services of whose soldiers
were notoriously at the disposal of whoever was will-
ing to pay the most liberally for them. At first the
deposed Emir and his faithful councillor seemed re-
signed to the reverses which had imposed upon them
the conditions of vassalage. They lived in apparent
harmony with the new sovereign. Their advice was
frequently solicited and adopted in matters of impor-
tance. Their vanity was flattered and their dignity
sustained by the pomp of establishments not inferior
in splendor to those which they had possessed in their
days of independence. Not so, however, with the sub-
ordinate officers and ministers of the emirate. Under
the new administration all employments of responsi-
bility and power had been vested in the friends and
adherents of Abd-al-Rahman. The opportunities for
peculation and official corruption, once so abundant
and lucrative, had disappeared, or were enjoyed by
aliens and hereditary enemies. From positions of
trust and circumstances of opulence many distin-
guished nobles had been degraded to a life of insignifi-
cance and poverty. These malcontents, whose tribal
relations with Yusuf gave them ready access to his
presence, took advantage of every occasion to influ-
ence his hatred and stimulate his ambition with tales
of oppression and hopes of independence. The con-
stitutional weakness of the Emir was not proof

against these specious representations, incessantly

urged by his partisans. Having secretly made his
preparations he fled to Merida. Pursuit was fruitless,
396 History of the

and the sole consolation left to Abd-al-Rahman was

theknowledge that Al-Samil and the sons of Yusuf
were still in his power. Mortified beyond expression,
and apprehensive that they also might escape, he
ordered them to be cast into prison.
The reputation of Yusuf, and the habitual discon-
tent of the masses, naturally inclined to disorder, soon
provided him with a well-appointed force of twenty-
thousand men. With this he laid siege to Seville,
whose governor at that time was Abd-al-Melik, an
Ommeyade refugee. Scarcely had the Emir invested
the city when he abandoned the undertaking, and
attempted, by a rapid march, to seize Cordova before
its garrison could be reinforced. He was too late the ;

army of Abd-al-Rahman was already in motion, and

Yusuf retired only to meet the forces of Abd-al-Melik,
whose son had come to his aid with a large detachment,
enabling him to approach the enemy from the rear. A
battle was fought, and Yusuf sustained a crushing
defeat. With great difficulty the discomfited prince
escaped the swords of the victors, and he had almost
reached Toledo when he was intercepted and cut down
by a party of Yemenites, who hoped by this important
service to obtain favor for themselves and peace for
their distracted country. Thus perished miserably the
most formidable adversary of Abd-al-Rahman. His
distinguished connexions; the military experience
of
half a century; the responsible commands which he
had administered the prestige that attached to him as
;

the successful opponent of Charles Martel; the con-

sideration resulting from the exercise and enjoyment
of royal dignity; the numerous following which had
shared his favor and hoped for the re-establishment of
his power, had acquired for him a reputation and an
influence far beyond his merits. His character was a
strange compound of noble and vicious qualities.

Courageous on the field of battle, in his tent he became

 Moorish Empire in Europe 397

the timorous dupe of every conjuror, the obsequious

slave of every charlatan. While not destitute of reso-
lution in moments of danger, he accepted, without
question, the pernicious advice of evil counsellors. So
absolute was this dependence that, during the latter
years of his life, his vizier, Al-Samil, was recognized
as the actual master of Spain. But, despite his fail-

ings, Yusuf was not deficient in generosity, nor in

those qualifications which raise men to political emi-
nence and military fame; and it was not without
reason, when the events of his extraordinary career
are considered, that popular rumor and personal
esteem conferred upon him the flattering distinction
of being one of the most accomplished rulers of his
time.
As soon as he was informed of the death of his
rival, Abd-al-Rahman, instructed by experience of
the danger attending temporizing measures, pro-
ceeded to dispose permanently of those members of
Yusuf's party from whom he had reason to appre-
hend future annoyance. The vizier, Al-Samil, whose
talents had long exercised a controlling influence in
the state, and whose moroseness of temper had been
aggravated by punishment, in all probability un-
merited, was quietly strangled in prison. Abu-Zaid,
the elder of the Emir's sons, whose lives, as hostages,
had been forfeited by their father's rebellion, was be-
headed. The extreme penalty was commuted, in the
case of the younger, to perpetual imprisonment, and
Abu-al-Aswad, who was indebted for this clemency
to his tender age, was immured in one of the strongest
towers of the citadel of Cordova.
These violent and decisive measures were produc-
tive of only temporary security. The sight of the
grisly heads of the Fihrites nailed over the gates of
the capital awakened resentment and horror rather
than fear. The country still remained in a turmoil.
398 History of the

Bands of marauding Berbers roamed far and wide,

molesting the peasantry, threatening the cities, closing
the avenues of trade, discouraging all the avocations
of peace. The universal agitation at length developed
into open rebellion. Hischem-Ibn-Ozra, a Fihrite
chieftain, whose relationship to Yusuf, joined to an
enterprising spirit, gave him considerable political
influence, organized an insurrection in the North, and
occupied Toledo. Strongly garrisoned by the insur-
gents, it had held out against the army sent to reduce
it for more than a year, when tidings were received

by the court of Cordova of the landing of a more dan-

gerous enemy than had yet menaced the stability of
the newly established kingdom. The Abbasides,
whose capital had been removed from Damascus to
Bagdad, had, under a succession of able princes,
reached the summit of intellectual greatness and
military renown. They had seen, with envy and
indignation, the accomplishment of the ambitious
designs of the most implacable enemy of their house.
He had almost miraculously escaped the manifold
snares which their ingenuity had laid for him. The
magnificent reward which had been offered for his
head had failed to corrupt the fidelity of the indigent
and grasping Berbers, whose cupidity was seldom
proof against the most insignificant bauble. If of
sufficient importance to excite apprehension when a
fugitive, how much more was to be feared from his
ambition and revenge as a rival; the sovereign of a
mighty kingdom, the claimant of the honors and dig-
nity of the khalif ate Resolved to crush, if possible, the
!

growing power of the Ommeyades before it became

too strong to be successfully assailed, the Abbaside
Khalif, Abu-Giafar-al-Mansur, ordered Ala-Ibn-
Mugayth, wali of Kairoan, to attempt the subjection
of Spain. In order to inspire deeper confidence in
the powers delegated to his lieutenant, a black silken
 Moorish Empire in Europe 399

banner, whose color was the emblem of his party, ac-

companied that officer's commission. The details of
this undertaking the more ominous because it pre-
sented an opportunity for the reconciliation of fac-
tions; appealed strongly to the turbulent and
rapacious spirit of the populace; and asserted a pre-
scriptive claim of authority based upon conquest and
dominion hitherto tacitly accorded to the monarch
of the East had been carefully pre-arranged. An
understanding had been established between the mal-
contents of the Peninsula and the court of Bagdad.
The rebels besieged in Toledo maintained, through
their friends, frequent and uninterrupted communi-
cation with the Viceroy of Africa. When Ala-Ibn-
Mugayth landed in the province of Beja, he was
received with even more enthusiasm than had been
manifested on the arrival of Abd-al-Rahman. The
Khali f of Bagdad was proclaimed. The prince of
the Ommeyades was not only declared a rebel and
an usurper, but an effort was made to inflame the
passions of the combatants, in a struggle already suf-
ficently malevolent, by investing it with a religious
character, and Abd-al-Rahman was declared a schis-
matic and an infidel. Aprice was set upon his head,
and the revered name and authority of the Successor
of the Prophet was invoked to effect his assassination,
which was to be rewarded with the distinguished favor
of the sovereign, a treasure of gold and jewels, and,
by what was of far more value to the devoted fanatic,
eternal happiness in the life to come.
It soon became evident that this outbreak was no
ordinary insurrection. The Yemenites, whose loyalty
to the cause of Abd-al-Rahman had always been sus-
pected; the Fihrites, who had recent grudges to
satisfy; the Berbers, ever ready for bloodshed and
rapine; the zealots of every faction, who regarded
the title of the Ommeyades as a flagrant usurpation of
400 History of the

divine authority, enrolled themselves in the ranks of

the Abbasides. The constant defection of large bodies
of troops made it necessary to draw on the army
investing Toledo, and, in consequence, the rebel gar-
rison of that city was soon united with the already
immense host of the wali of Kairoan. Many of the
towns of Andalusia were occupied. The fertile en-
virons of the capital were swept by the Berber cavalry.
Abd-al-Rahman was besieged in Carmona, whose gar-
rison was soon reduced to extremity through lack of
provisions. The siege had lasted two months when
the Abbasides, confiding in their overwhelming num-
bers, began to grow careless. The officers neglected
their duties. The sentinels relaxed their vigilance.
With the proverbial inconstancy of the Oriental, dis-
contented with delay and impatient of hardship, hun-
dreds deserted their standards. Aware of these cir-
cumstances, Abd-al-Rahman, at the head of a picked
band of warriors, made a sudden attack by night.
The enemy was surprised; a panic seized the camp;
allthought of resistance was abandoned, and at dawn
the chieftains of the hostilearmy and seven thousand
of their men lay dead on the field of battle. The
commander and his principal officers were decapi-
tated; and their heads, after having been thoroughly
cleansed, were packed in camphor and salt, with a
label fastened to an ear of each to designate the name
and rank of the owner. These ghastly trophies were
then placed in sealed bags, together with the commis-
sion of the wali and the standard of the Abbasides,
and conveyed by a merchant to Kairoan, where they
were secretly deposited at night in the market-place.
When Abu-Giafar-Al-Mansur received intelligence
of the catastrophe that had befallen his enterprise,
and of the fearful manner in which that intelligence
"
had been communicated, he exclaimed, It is the act
of a demon; God be praised who has placed the sea
between me and such an enemy."
 Moorish Empire in Europe 401

The fate of the rebels before Carmona struck terror

into the garrison of Toledo, again blockaded by a
great army. Negotiations were opened with the
besiegers, and favorable terms obtained, conditional
upon the surrender of the most prominent leaders to
the vengeance of the Emir. Orders were then re-
ceived to conduct the prisoners to Cordova. At some
distance from its destination the escort was met by
a tailor, a barber, and a basket-maker, each provided
with the implements of his calling. The soldiers
halted, and the barber removed the hair and beards of
the rebels. The
tailor enveloped their bodies in
strait- jacketsof coarse cloth, and the basket -maker
wove for each one a pannier, which, closely encircling
his waist, rendered all movement of his lower ex-
tremities impossible. These grotesque figures were
then slung on donkeys, and, after having been
paraded through the streets of the city, accompanied
by the taunts and missiles of a howling mob, were
dragged to the place of public execution and crucified.
The Berbers, whose predatory habits kept the first
emirs in a state of constant apprehension and whose
savage instincts were the ultimate cause of the ruin
of the Moslem empire in Spain, now once more took
up arms in defiance of the sovereign authority. A
shrewd adventurer, Chakya by name, of the tribe of
Miknesa, had, by a spurious claim of descent from
the Prophet, through Fatima his daughter, and by the
assumption of miraculous gifts, succeeded in gaining
the confidence of these superstitious barbarians. His
profession of school-master acquired for him a repu-
tation for extensive learning in an age of ignorance;
and the assiduous study of the Koran invested his
person with a sanctity whose advantages he did not
underrate in the selection of means to be employed for
the realization of his schemes of ambition. The ex-
travagant veneration of the Berbers for individuals
Vol. I. 26
402 History of the

supposed to be possessed of supernatural endowments,

a sentiment which, in this instance, perfectly coincided
with their inclinations for war and rapine, caused them
to hasten from all directions to support the claims of
the impostor. The latter displayed no little political
tact and generalship. His active emissaries tempted the
fealty of every chieftain accessible to their insinuating
arts. His armies, inspired with the ardor of fanati-
cism, and directed with an ability not to be expected
from a leader hitherto without experience in the con-
duct of military operations, repeatedly defeated the
forces of Abd-al-Rahman ; ravaged his dominions to
the very environs of the capital; and, secure in the
mountains of the West, defied the entire power of the
government for nearly ten years. The political situa-
tionwas further complicated by the defection of the
Yemenites, who, on the eve of a decisive battle, as-
sailed the Emir in the rear. The remarkable promi-
nence attained by Chakya was eventually fatal to the
continuance of his power. A
Berber chieftain of
great influence was approached by the agents of Abd-
al-Rahman and persuaded to betray his party. In
the midst of a fiercely contested engagement the Ber-
bers gave way their lines were broken and a fright-
; ;

ful butchery ensued, in which the impostor lost thirty

thousand of his followers. His control over the minds
ofhis dupes was, however, not shaken by this disaster,
and he maintained the struggle for four years longer,
when he was murdered by his comrades in a private
quarrel. The great mound enclosing the remains of
these victims of treason and carnage was, more than
two hundred years afterwards, a prominent feature
of the landscape, and a significant memorial of the
suicidal wars which consumed the resources and re-
tarded the progress of the Moslems of Spain.
Notwithstanding the bloody retribution provoked
by every attempt to overturn the throne of Abd-al-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 403

Rahman, conspiracy continued to follow conspiracy

without interruption. Abu-al-Aswad, the surviving
son of Yusuf imprisoned at Cordova, had, under pre-
,

tence of blindness, deceived his keepers and escaped

by swimming the Guadalquivir. Incredulous at first,
the guards subjected him to every test they could de-
vise, all of which he endured with remarkable patience
and without a murmur. The imposture was carried on
for months, and in consequence of his supposed afflic-
tion he was less carefully watched, and was indulged
with many unusual privileges. One morning, while
bathing with other prisoners in the river, he took ad-
vantage of a favorable opportunity, and swam to the
opposite shore without having been observed. His
friends met him, provided him with clothes and a
horse, and a few days found him safe in Toledo. In
this city, the seat of Berber and Yemenite intrigue, an

enterprise of great moment was then maturing. The

chief parties to it were Ibn-Habib, the son-in-law of
Yusuf, and Al-Arabi, the wali of Barcelona. These
malcontents had for some time maintained a corre-
spondence with Charlemagne. The escape of Abu-
al-Aswad was part of the preconcerted design, his
noble descent and his sufferings as a captive from
childhood exciting the sympathies of the populace
and rendering him an important ally. A treaty had
already been executed, and presents and compliments
had been exchanged between the Khalif of Bagdad
and the Emperor. It was said that a secret under-
standing existed between these two potentates, and
that the standard of the Abbasides was to be displayed
by the insurgents, indirectly in aid of the Christians
and with the tacit assent of the Moslem sovereign of
the East. The principal conspirators sought the King
of the Franks at Paderborn, where he was celebrating
histriumph over the Saxons by the compulsory bap-
tism of thousands of these Pagan barbarians. The
404 History of the

ambition, the zeal, and the adventurous spirit of the

Frankish monarch were aroused by consideration of
the project, and he agreed to invade the Peninsula
with a large force, which was to be supported by an
uprising in the North. The plan having been mi-
nutely arranged, and the role of each conspirator

assigned to him, the insurgent chieftains took their

departure.
Implacable, indeed, must have been the resentment
of the Commander of the Faithful, which could thus
liberally contribute to surrender a territory, acquired
by such an expenditure of Moslem blood, to the most
relentless foe of Islam. The chances of success were
largely in favor of the coalition.The martial supe-
riorityof the Franks had been signally displayed on
the field of Poitiers over troops more warlike and
formidable than those which Abd-al-Rahman could
now bring into action. The country was exhausted
by half a century of internecine conflict. Frequent
insurrections had effaced alike the sentiment of
loyalty and the reproach of treason. An undercurrent
of disaffection pervaded even the society of the court ;

and the inconstancy of the Berbers, dangerous in it-

self, was even less to be feared than the deadly malice
of tribal hatred, the confirmed habit of resistance, and
the ruthless vengeance of disappointed ambition.
The motives which induced Charlemagne to under-
take this expedition were of a religious as well as of a
political nature but he was impelled less by an ambi-
;

tion to rid the country of infidels and to exert the

powers of compulsory proselytism than by an in-
satiable craving for territorial aggrandizement and
military glory. The project was not an
original one.
It had been formed ten years previously by his father,
and prosecution had only been prevented by his
its

death. The
great sovereign so lauded as the champion
of Catholicism was anything but a zealot. His or-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 405

thodoxy was strongly suspected by the churchmen of

his time; in fact, it was whispered that he was more
than half a Pagan. His public conduct and private
habits exhibited little evidence of the beneficent influ-
ence of the Christian virtues. His life was stained
with deeds of perfidy and violence. The morals of
his court were proverbial for their laxity, a condition
to which the monarch himself afforded an unworthy
example by the practice of extensive concubinage.
The most intimate political connections were main-
tained between the courts of Aix-la-Chapelle and
Bagdad, associations regarded by the devout of the
age with pious horror. It is therefore absurd to sup-
pose, as is repeatedly stated by ecclesiastical chroni-
clers, that the invasion of Spain by Charlemagne was
mainly undertaken as a crusade, for the Franks were
actuated by no prejudice against the Saracens as
Mohammedans, and the relations of their king with
the Khalifate of the East were more friendly than
those he entertained towards any European power.
In the early months of the ensuing spring, the
forces of Charlemagne were in motion. No impor-
tant event of the Middle Ages has been more neg-
lected by contemporaneous as well as subsequent
historians than this
expedition. The accounts of
Christian writers are so defective and so overloaded
with fable as to render them, as usual, thoroughly un-
reliable. The numbers of the invaders were so great
that they were compelled to separate into two divi-
sions and pass the Pyrenees by different routes.
Converging towards Saragossa, the armies were
united before its walls. The city was in the hands
of their allies, but at the last moment the hearts of
the latter failed them, when they considered the sac-
rifice of religion and the violation of every principle
of honor and loyalty which a surrender implied. Other
causes combined to shake their resolution. The re-
406 History of the

suits attending the preliminary steps of the conspiracy

had proved disastrous. The leaders, suspicious of
each other, were constantly apprehensive of treachery,
while tribal prejudice and the irreconcilable spirit of
discord prevented sincere co-operation in any measure.
Ibn-Habib, the originator of the enterprise, convinced
of the perfidy of Al-Arabi, and hoping to anticipate
its results, rashly attacked his ally, was defeated, and

soon after perished by the hand of an assassin. Long

imprisonment had unfitted Abu-al-Aswad for decisive
action, and he failed to meet the requirements of his
position. Conscious of the miscarriage of their plans,
discouraged, and apprehensive of the future, the
garrison of Saragossa refused to open the gates of
the city. Charlemagne, enraged by this breach of
faith, made vigorous preparations for a siege. But
the walls had hardly been invested when a despatch
arrived announcing that the Saxons were again in
rebellion, and had already advanced as far as the
Rhine. The was raised, and the Franks retired,
siege
after an abortiveand inglorious campaign, to once
more defend their homes against the barbarians of
Germany. The fortifications of Pampeluna which
city had surrendered at their approach were dis-
mantled, and the mighty host then defiled, with slow
and painful steps, through the valley of Roncesvalles.
The pass grew more and more difficult and obscure,
encompassed as it was by dense forests and precipitous
mountains. The advance guard pursued its way with-
out molestation, and had already reached the northern
slope of the Pyrenees, when the rear, in whose custody
was the baggage of the army, became engulfed in
gloomy ravines, whose shadows concealed thousands
of Basques lying in ambush. Suddenly the long and
tortuous line was attacked by swarms of mountain-
eers. Hemmed in on all sides, the retreat of the
Franks was cut off. Every advantage of surprise,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 407

of position, of familiarity with the ground, of experi-

ence in ambuscade and partisan warfare, was with the
assailants. Resistance was vain. Bravery profited
nothing where neither missile nor hand-to-hand
weapons were available against an active and in-
visible enemy. The rear guard was absolutely anni-
hilated. The baggage-train fell into the hands of the
victors, who, after plundering the dead, quietly dis-

persed and sought their homes in the inaccessible

recesses of the mountains. By this catastrophe
Charlemagne lost nearly half of his army and

many distinguished officers, among them the famous

Roland, Prefect of the March of Brittany, whose
career the poetic genius of bard and troubadour has
adorned with many a romantic tale and fabulous
legend.
No one reaped any advantage from the Prankish
invasion except Abd-al-Rahman, whose destruction
was its avowed object. While the enemy was in
retreat,he advanced upon Saragossa; the city sur-
rendered after a short resistance, and Al-Arabi, the
insurgent chieftain, was assassinated while at prayer
in the mosque. Before returning, the Emir marched
into the country of the Basques, where he conquered
the domain of the Count of Cerdagne, who became a
tributary of the court of Cordova. Soon afterwards,
Abu-al-Aswad once more tempted the evil fortune of
his family by promoting another insurrection, which
resulted in the defeat of Guadalimar, where he, with
four thousand of his followers, lost their lives.
The last years of Abd-al-Rahman were embittered
by disaffection among his kindred, whose political for-
tunes he had repaired, and who had been raised to
wealth and influence by his boundless generosity. His
nearest relatives conspired against him. Princes of
the blood and nobles of the highest rank forgot the
sacred ties of family and tribe in repeated attempts
408 History of the

to overturn his power. But the wary monarch, equally

proof against the schemes of both open and concealed
triumphed over all his adversaries. His
hostility, easily
armies returned victorious from every campaign. The
conspirators who plotted in the imaginary security of
the palace were, sooner or later, betrayed by their
accomplices, and punished with exemplary severity.
His rebellious and ungrateful nephew, Ibn-Aban, was
strangled. His brother, Walid, was exiled. Korei-
shite chieftains,convicted of treason, after having
had their hands and feet cut off, were beaten to death
with clubs. The remonstrances and threats of trusty
councillors were repressed by banishment and studied
neglect. Even the services of the faithful Bedr were
not sufficient to atone for subsequent insolence; his
property was confiscated, and he was confined in a
dungeon where he ended his days in penury and dis-
grace.
Warned by the vicissitudes of a life of peril of the
necessity of providing for the succession, and feeling
the weight of physical infirmities induced by anxiety
and exposure, the Emir, a short time before his death,
summoned the officers of state and the nobles of the
kingdom to swear allegiance to his third son, Hischem,
whom he had chosen to succeed him. This ceremony
performed, and the elder brothers of Hischem, Suley-
man and Abdallah, having formally renounced their
claims to the throne, Abd-al-Rahman withdrew to
Merida, where he died a few months afterwards, at
the age of fifty-eight, and in the thirty-third year of
his reign.
The character of this great prince, gifted as he was
by nature with the noblest qualities of mind and heart,
was still materially affected by the circumstances of
an adventurous career and the sentiments and habits
of a turbulent age. His tastes inclined to literature
and art, but necessity developed in him the talents of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 409

a cautious negotiator and skilful general. Of a gen-

erous and benevolent disposition, the proscription of
his family, the perpetual hostility of his enemies, the

treachery of his kindred, and the ingratitude of his

friends embittered his spirit, and led to acts of cruelty,
which, though justified by political expediency, have
greatly tarnished the lustre of his fame. Reared
amidst the splendors of the most polished and luxu-
rious of courts, he bore with singular equanimity the
reverses of fortune and theevils of abject poverty,
trialswhich, by inculcating the virtue of philosophical
resignation and acquainting him with the failings and
inconsistencies of humanity, the better prepared him
for the high and responsible position he was destined
subsequently to occupy. Even before his power had
been firmly established, he sent messengers to the
remote regions of the East to search for the scattered
members and dependents of the Ommeyades, who
were conducted to Spain at the public expense,
granted estates, and not infrequently appointed
councillors or governors of cities and provinces.
The versatility of his genius provoked the envy
and elicited the admiration of his most determined
foes. While his attention was still occupied by re-
sisting the encroachments of the mountaineers of
the Asturias and the suppression of formidable in-
surrections, he successfully repelled the invasions
of two powerful and warlike sovereigns in whose
jurisdiction were included the most opulent and
productive regions of the globe. Charlemagne, the
greater of these, offered him the hand of his daughter
and urged the alliance, which was declined on account
of his failing health. Fertile in resources, the priva-
tions and sorrows of youth had taught him to bear
adversity in silence if not with complacency. Thor-
ough familiarity with the character of Berber and
Arab convinced him that the pretensions of the chil-
410 History of the

dren of the Desert were incompatible with the sub-

mission requisite to the exercise of royal authority, and
he did not hesitate to crush, with a relentless hand, the
insolence or the presumptuous freedom of a tribesman
or a friend. Popular at first, this unusual severity in
time alienated the warmest supporters of his throne.
Inexorable necessity, the principles of self -protection
and self-preservation, dependent upon conditions not
unusual after a protracted period of revolution and
anarchy, rendered the establishment of a despotism
imperative. Once founded, it was maintained by an
army of forty thousand mercenaries, chiefly recruited
from the barbarians of Africa, enlisted with multi-
tudes of enfranchised slaves, who were bound to the
interests of the monarchy by the double tie of depend-
ence and gratitude. The romantic spirit of adventure
often impelled Abd-al-Rahman, in the early years of
his reign, to wander in disguise through the streets
of his capital; but the animosity engendered by fre-
quent revolutions soon rendered this diversion too
hazardous, and he was compelled to adopt the seclusion
and the military precautions which provide for the
security of royalty in the kingdoms of the Orient.
The gradations of official rank, the territorial divisions
of the empire, the duties of the magistracy, the regu-
lations of police, were also, with slight modifications,
framed after the pattern of similar institutions in the
East. In these details of political organization the
number twelve and its factors, so popular among
nations of Semitic origin, were especially prominent.
The Peninsula was divided into six provinces, each of
which was subject to the jurisdiction of a military
governor. Under the control of this dignitary were
two walis and six viziers, who administered affairs of
minor importance in their respective districts. These
officials were assisted in their labors by a host of kadis
and secretaries, who sent, at stated periods, regular
 Moorish Empire in Europe 411

reports of their proceedings to the Council, or Divan,

at Cordova. The available moments of leisure, dur-
ing a life conflict, were employed
of almost incessant
by Abd-al-Rahman works intended for the im-
in

provement of the masses; in the perfection of regu-

lations which encouraged the accumulation and per-
mitted the unrestricted enjoyment of property; and
in the promotion of educational and literary facilities,
as well as in the institution of measures upon whose
enforcement absolutely depended the continuance of
his power. He repaired the Roman highways that
traversed the Peninsula. He established a system of
couriers, with relays of post-horses, for the rapid
transmission of important despatches. He ruled the
fierce outlaws of the Peninsula, whose trade was

rapine, and who considered mercy an indication of

cowardice, by the only means they respected, the
government of the sword. They hated and cursed
him, they plotted against his life, they rejected his
gifts and spurned his honors, but they obeyed his com-
mands, for they stood in wholesome dread of his re-
sentment, and had been taught, by many a bloody
lesson, the consequences of disputing his authority.
During his reign, for the first time since the Conquest,
the nomadic propensity of the Berbers, the source of
incessant disturbance and universal insecurity, was
restrained, and these barbarians were compelled to
conform to the laws and to choose a settled habita-
tion. A code of judicature, adapted to the circum-
stances of a population composed of so many diverse
and often hostile constituents, was framed, in whose
statutes the useful institutions of the Visigoths were

recognized under the general predominance of Mos-

lem law.
Abd-al-Rahman made frequent excursions through
his dominions, the better to familiarize himself with
the conduct of his officers and the necessities of his
412 History of the

subjects. His course was marked by charity to the

needy; by munificent donations for public improve-
ments; by institutions for the encouragement of the
arts; by the erection of magnificent palaces and
temples. But his generosity, ample elsewhere, was
displayed with unprecedented lavishness in his capital,
the object of his pride and of his peculiar affection.
Its plan, its buildings, its fortifications, its suburbs,
were modelled after those of beautiful Damascus. A
palm-tree, the ever seen in Spain, was brought
first
from Syria, and planted in the court-yard of the royal
palace as a memorial of the scenes of his childhood.
In the environs of the city he laid out a garden, called
Rusafah, after one formerly possessed by his grand-
father, Hischem, and of which it was the counterpart.
A mint was founded in Cordova, whose coins were
identical in design, weight, and inscription with the
pieces issued by the Ommeyade princes of Syria. The
fame of the court and the reputation of the sovereign
attracted to the Moslem capital of the West the
learned and the polite of every clime. The spirit of
literary emulation and philosophical inquiry, which
attained such a remarkable development under suc-
ceeding khalifs, began to be awakened. The sov-
ereign himself composed with facility and correctness
verses of considerable merit. His sons were provided
with the best instruction that the age afforded were ;

compelled to be present during the transactions of the

Divan and the business of the courts; and were fre-
quently entrusted with the negotiation of treaties and
the administration of government. The public taste
was cultivated by periodical literary contests, in which
the most accomplished scholars and poets of the day
participated; where splendid rewards for proficiency
were distributed; and whose proceedings were in-
vested with additional prestige by the presence and
supervision of royalty.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 413

Neither the brutal skepticism of the court of Da-

mascus nor the prevalent idolatry and blasphemy of
Spain seem to have affected the piety of Abd-al-Rah-
man. Whether induced by motives of interest or by
sincere belief, it is certain that he ever observed with
scrupulous exactness the ceremonial of his faith.
Fully advantages social, political, com-
alive to the
mercial, and religious connected with a splendid
temple, which, by reason of its magnificence and its
sanctity, might become a place of pilgrimage, he had
long meditated the construction of such an edifice, an
aspiration whose fulfilment was deferred for many
years by continuous reverses of fortune. The posses-
sion of the cities of Mecca and Jerusalem by a hostile
dynasty had vastly increased the difficulties imposed
upon such Mussulmans of the Peninsula as desired
to make the arduous journey to the venerated shrines
of the East. Moreover, the subjects of the Omme-
yade ruler were regarded with suspicion and dislike by
the sovereigns of Bagdad; and Abd-al-Rahman had,
from every pulpit in the realm of the Abbasides, been
proclaimed a usurper, a rebel, and an impostor. The
success that finally attended his arms, and insured the
permanent establishment of his authority, also ren-
dered possible the realization of a project dictated by
a more noble and lofty ambition. His political sa-
gacity detected at a glance the influence such a temple
would exert over the minds of a highly imaginative
and superstitious people. Its erection would gratify
their national pride. Its presence in the midst of the

capitalwould consolidate and confirm the power of the

state. The sentiment of loyalty still entertained by
the descendants of Arabian exiles for the home of their
fathers would be transferred to another land, whose
shrine, if it did not equal that of Mecca in wealth,
would certainly surpass it in grandeur and beauty.
" "
My mosque," said the great statesman, will soon
414 History of the

demand a khalif ;
sons will assume that title and
my ;

the dispute between the East and West will be termi-

nated forever. Our constitution is based entirely upon
a religious principle, and my subjects will soon accus-
tom themselves to see nothing beyond my children but
the eye of Allah and the sword of the Prophet."
In the turbulent times of the Conquest every place
of worship possessed by the Christians in Cordova,
save one, was destroyed. In the cathedral alone,
whose ownership was insured by treaty, were the in-
fidels permitted to perform the rites enjoined by their
creed. In accordance with a custom prevalent in the
East, where, however, it must be acknowledged, it was
unusual, under ordinary circumstances, to violate en-
gagements entered into with Christians, half of the
cathedral had been forcibly appropriated and conse-
crated to the service of Islam. It was not many years,
however, before its limited area was found inadequate
to the requirements of the crowds of immigrants and

proselytes that were daily added to the population

of the growing capital. The location being the most
desirable in the city, a proposition was made by Abd-
al-Rahman for the purchase of the remaining half of
the edifice. The bishop refused, on the reasonable
ground that no other building would then be available
for the celebration of the rites of the Christian faith.
But the importunity of the Emir prevailed in the end ;

and the Christians obtained for their concessions the

sum of a hundred thousand dinars, and, in addition,
the extraordinary privilege of erecting a certain num-
ber of churches to replace those of which they had
been deprived by the rage of fanaticism and the
calamities of war.
The plan of the mosque was traced by Abd-al-Rah-
man himself, and the first stone of the foundation
was laid by his own hands. Oppressed with age and
physical infirmities, and haunted by a presentiment
 Moorish Empire in Europe 415

that he would not live to see his work completed, he

exhausted every effort to accelerate its progress. A
vast number of laborers were employed. The assist-
ance of the governors of distant provinces was invoked
for the collection and transportation of materials.
The emulation of the artisans was excited by the ex-
ample of the enfeebled sovereign, who, for one hour
every day, personally shared the toil of his humble
companions. The vaults of the public treasury were
opened without restriction for the benefit of an under-
taking which appealed alike to the patriotic impulses
and the religious sentiment of the nation. The work
progressed with astonishing rapidity, but not fast
enough to satisfy the feverish impatience of the
illustrious architect. It was his desire while he yet
had strength to perform in those sacred precincts,
as the representative of the Prophet, the simple cer-
emonial of the faith so dear to the heart of every
Mussulman. A space was cleared within the enclos-
ure. An awning was raised, and the unfinished walls
were hung with tapestry from the palace. There,
surrounded with heaps of materials, with half-
chiselled capitals and naked columns, the Emir, in
his snowy robes of office, ascended the temporary

pulpit, led the prayers, and directed the devotions of

a vast concourse assembled from every quarter of the
Moslem capital. It was the last important act of his
life. A few weeks later the multitudes who had
listened with silent reverence to his discourse in the
Djalma followed his remains to the tomb.
Thus, his destiny accomplished and his task per-
formed, died the founder of one of the greatest
dynasties that Europe has ever known. He pos-
sessed, in ample measure, the attributes of a wise, a
an enlightened sovereign. His spirit had been
politic,
chastened and his courage tried by many years of
persecution and misfortune. The cruelty with which
416 History of the

he has been reproached was a necessary consequence

of the turbulent condition of the society he was called
upon to govern. The solution of the political problem
which confronted him was not a mere question of su-
premacy; it involved the integrity of the Saracen
domination in the Peninsula and his own existence
as a ruler and as an individual. Force was the only
argument used by his adversaries, and the only one
they respected. The influence of the Koran was
scarcely felt. The great majority of the inhabitants
of Spain were Pagans and infidels. The Berbers, who
largely preponderated, were fetich worshippers and
believers in witchcraft and sorcery. Years of im-
punity and unrestricted license had rendered these
wild barbarians more ferocious in disposition, more
impatient of control. Public hostility and private
feuds, the acrimonious disputes between contending
sects, the alternate proscriptions of successful fac-
tions, the hope of future revenge, made permanent
reconciliation impossible. In every community ex-
isted a large and compact body of enemies, different
in nationality, antagonistic in faith, firmly united by
the evils of common misfortune, who entertained,
under a delusive aspect of submission, dangerous
aspirations for political and religious liberty. Those
nearest in blood to the monarch sought, with unnatu-
ral vindictiveness, the life of their kinsman and bene-
factor. In the Asturian mountains the power of a
rising kingdom, established by a band of intrepid
exiles, had begun seriously to encroach upon the
Moslem possessions of the North. The arms of the
most powerful sovereigns of Europe and Asia were
directed, from the Mediterranean and from the Pyr-
enees, against a prince whose dominions were agitated
and whose resources impaired by anarchy and sedi-
tion. Exasperated by the interference of the Abba-
sides, he long contemplated an expedition to the coast
 Moorish Empire in Europe 417

of Syria, a project which the obstinacy of his domestic

enemies made impossible. Under such conditions
government by the scimetar was certainly not inex-
cusable. These considerations demanded also the em-

ployment of foreign mercenaries. They stimulated

the vigilance and justified the severity of the judicial
tribunals. They prompted the cultivation of religious
sentiments as an auxiliary of royal power by the erec-
tion of superb houses of worship. They suggested the
statesmanlike expedient of diverting the attention of
the populace from scenes of disorder, by the endow-
ment of public institutions, by the cultivation of the
arts, by the diffusion of knowledge.
Abd-al-Rahman was not, by nature, tyrannical.
He was ever ready to listen to the complaints and
redress the wrongs of the unfortunate. The most
bitter partisanship never refused him the attribute
of strict and impartial justice. If his severity was
sometimes not tempered by compassion, it was never
aggravated by deliberate cruelty. In his privacy he
was affable; in his public conduct dignified; in his
intercourse with his inferiors the embodiment of
gentle courtesy. Temperate in his pleasures, the court
of Cordova never exhibited the disgraceful scenes that
offended religion and decency in the palaces and gar-
dens of Damascus. Without him the Ommeyade
dynasty of the West would never have existed; and
without that dynasty a large portion of the treasures
of ancient learning would have been forever lost the ;

spirit of scientific inquiry would

have been crushed
by ecclesiastical intolerance the hopes of intellectual
;

freedom suppressed; and the civilization of Europe

retarded for many centuries.
From the accession of Abd-al-Rahman I. dates the
autonomy of Moorish Spain under the Khalifate of
the West. Its rulers, however, while enjoying all the
power and attributes of independent sovereigns, and,
Vol. I. 27
418 History of the

as such, requiring the implicit obedience of their

subjects and the recognition of foreign nations, did
not, until the reign of Abd-al-Rahman III., publicly
assume the title of Successors of the Prophet, but
exercised their despotism under the less conspicuous
appellation of Emirs, or Governors. Many induce-
ments led to the adoption of this policy. Moslems still
generally regarded the regions of the East as the
source of orthodox belief and the seat of legitimate
empire. The survivors of the House of Ommeyah
were under the ban of the dynasty of Damascus and
Bagdad. The conditions of society in the Peninsula
were unsettled. Everywhere the slightest pretext for
rebellion was welcomed with rejoicing by multitudes
of desperate outlaws and fanatics. Ambitious enthu-
siasts lost no opportunity of inflaming the public
mind, only too susceptible to agitation, whenever a
revolt could increase their gains or contribute to their
notoriety. The union of Church and State under the
constitution of Islam made interference with the es-
tablished order of affairs doubly perilous. The pre-
mature appropriation of the venerated title of Khalif
by the exiled Ommeyade princes would have entailed
the reproach of sacrilege, and might have overturned
their empire, neither founded on prescriptive right,

supported by popular affection, nor maintained by

adequate military force. The assertion of preten-
sions far less obnoxious to religious prejudice had
frequently produced serious disorders. By such a
claim the dignity of the greatest of Mohammedan
dynasties could receive no accession commensurate
with the risk it involved. Its princes might well, for
a time, forego the titles while in full possession of
the substance of power. Such were some of the
politic considerations which long retained, in a nomi-
nally subordinate capacity, the most despotic and
irresponsible monarchs of Europe.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 419

The awakening of the national spirit consequent

upon the civil wars of Spain not only permitted the
organization of the kingdom of the Asturias, but it
was of a disaster scarcely less serious,
also productive
the loss of the possessions in France. From
Moslem
the day of his accession, the energies of Pepin were
devoted to the conquest and expulsion of the Moorish
colonists of Provence and Languedoc. The treason
of a Gothic chieftain delivered into his hands the
principal cities of Septimania, except INTarbonne.
That capital sustained a siege of more than six
years' duration, an intense prejudice against the
Franks inducing the Roman and Gothic inhabitants
to support the efforts of the Arab garrison; but in
the end, the popular discontent and the hopeless pros-
pect of assistance from Cordova impelled the promi-
nent citizens to propose terms of accommodation with
the enemy. A capitulation was arranged by which the
besieged were to be conceded the privilege of govern-
ment by their own laws, but at the last moment the
Saracens refused their assent; hostilities were re-
sumed, and the garrison, greatly outnumbered by the
Christian mob, was annihilated. For forty-one years
the laws, the customs, and the religion of the Moslems
had prevailed in Southern France. The traces of
their domination, as disclosed by the physical and
mental characteristics of the peasantry, have not been
effaced by the vicissitudes of more than a thousand
years. This temporary occupation, as will be seen
hereafter, was also productive of a marked effect upon
the manners and the polite literature of Europe,
through the diffusion of Hispano-Arab culture, the
influence of the lays of the troubadours, and the adop-
tion of the laws of chivalry. The intercourse with the
Khalifate of Spain, suspended for a period, was re-
newed; relations of even closer intimacy were estab-
lished; a community of ideas, tastes, and sympathies
420 History of the

developed sentiments of mutual esteem and the char-

;

acteristics of the brilliant and intellectual society of

Cordova were reflected in the refined voluptuousness,
the extensive learning, and the polished skepticism
that subsequently distinguished the courts of the Albi-
gensian princes.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 421

CHAPTER IX
REIGN OF HISCHEM I.; REIGN OF AL-HAKEM I.

788-822

Custom of Royal Succession violated by the Will of Abd-al-

Rahman Accession of Hischem Revolt of Suleyman and
Abdallah They are routed and their Armies dispersed
Clemency of the Emir Invasion of Septimania Defeat of
the Franks Indecisive Results of the Campaign Public
Works of Hischem His Noble Character His Partiality
for Theologians The Southern Suburb of Cordova Death
of Hischem General Distrust of Al-Hakem Suleyman
and Abdallah again in Rebellion Civil War The Gothic
March Siege and Capture of Barcelona Apathy of the
Emir Importance of the Conquest The Edrisite Dynasty
"
Disturbances at Toledo The Day of the Ditch" The
Royal Body-Guard Revolt of the Faquis Its Results
League of the Asturians and Frankish Princes Legend
of St. James the Apostle Death of Al-Hakem His
Character.

In designating his favorite son, Hischem, as his

Abd-al-Rahman unconsciously laid
successor, the
foundation of endless and irreconcilable domestic
feuds, in addition to the manifold causes of political
discord already existing between the antagonistic
elements which composed the population of the
Peninsula. The hand of despotism had suppressed
the manifestations of popular discontent, but it was
evident that this suppression was only temporary.
The normal condition of Arab and Berber, by tradi-
tion, by by practice, was one of haughty
inheritance,
independence, of open defiance of established au-
thority. The of political wisdom, as well as
dictates
the experience of the civilized nations of ancient

times, had demonstrated beyond dispute the advan-

422 History of the

tages of the law of primogeniture. That law, while

not recognized by the Moslem constitution, had been
adopted for the sake of expediency, and in time was
confirmed by custom and precedent. The choice of
his heir was tacitly left to the sovereign, to be ratified

by the homage of the great officers of the kingdom a ;

mere formality whereby a concession was made to the

prejudices of the tribesmen, but which was, in fact,
devoid of political significance. The omission of this
ceremony would not have affected the investiture of
the heir, nor have impaired the validity of his title;
it would only have afforded a
plausible pretext for
some ambitious chieftain to foment an insurrection.
Several reasons combined to induce Abd-al-Rahman
to prefer Hischem to his elder brethren. His mother,
the beautiful Holal, was his favorite concubine. She
had been presented to him, in an interval of peace,
by his old adversary Yusuf and had from that hour
,

acquired a great influence over him. Hischem was

born in Spain, while his brothers Suleyman and Ab-
dallah were natives of Syria, a fact which it might
be presumed would the more readily secure to the
former the attachment of his subjects. But the
principal reason that determined the choice of Abd-
al-Rahman was his knowledge of the mental and
moral superiority evinced by the character of His-
chem. His life was in strong and favorable con-
trast with those of his brothers. They were idle,
dissipated, and frivolous. While their houses were
constantly filled with a mob of buffoons and dancers,
his hours were passed in the society of the learned
and the wise. He had enjoyed the best educational
advantages to be obtained, and had diligently profited
by them. He had repeatedly displayed his capacity
for government under trying circumstances, and his
presence of mind and courage in more than one
bloody field. His precocious sagacity and wisdom,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 423

the affability of his manners, the piety of his life, the

gentleness of his disposition, were the delight of the
court and the envy of his companions. The arbitrary
selection of Abd-al-Rahman, dictated by affection
and policy and sanctioned by Mohammedan custom,
was justified by the prosperous reign of Hischem;
yet, by establishing a dangerous precedent in the
polity of the Western Khalif ate, it was, in no trifling
degree, responsible for its ultimate overthrow. In
this respect, however, itshistory is but the counter-
part of that of every other Moslem power. The ideas
dominating the various constituents of the society of
Islam were incompatible with either the just subordi-
nation of classes or the permanence of empire.
The exigencies of the time demanded the talents
of an active and resolute sovereign. The fiery pas-
sions of the people, hitherto restrained by fear,
awaited only a favorable occasion to break out into
rebellion. On every side were indications of future
trouble, the agitation of the populace, the ambition
of pretenders, the rivalry of sects, were plainly
visible to the discerning eye under a deceptive appear-
ance of order and tranquillity. The allegiance of the
walis of the eastern frontier, always precarious, was
becoming daily more unreliable. Their distance from
the seat of government, their proximity to the land
of the Franks, their aspirations for independence, and
their control of the passes of the Pyrenees, all con-
siderations of vital political importance, while they
increased their arrogance at the same time weakened
their fidelity. The disasters which had heretofore
attended the active interference of the Abbasides in
the affairs of the Peninsula had inculcated a salutary
lesson; but the court of Bagdad was not intimidated
by the checks it had sustained, and the resources of
intrigue and the influence of gold were constantly
employed to enlist the services of the Christians and
424 History of the

to corrupt the integrity of the officers entrusted with

the defence of strongholds, whose possession would
facilitate the destruction of the rival dynasty which
had wrested from the Commander of the Faithful
one of the richest portions of his inheritance. To add
to the difficulties of the situation, the kingdom of the
Asturias, whose existence was due to the internecine
strife of its enemies rather than to the talents of its
rulers or the valor of its people, now began to disclose
nascent evidences of that power which subsequently
attained such a prodigious development.
Hischem, who was governor of Merida, was pro-
claimed Emir of Spain at that city as soon as the
obsequies of his father had been performed. Already
well known to and beloved by his subjects, the public
prayer, repeated from the mimbar of every mosque,
seemed the announcement of an era of national pros-
perity and happiness. But these anticipations were
sadly delusive. As soon as information of Abd-al-
Rahman's death reached Cordova, Suleyman, who
happened to be in that city, left his lodgings, took
possession of the palace, and endeavored to obtain the
support of the mob of the capital. Failing in this, he
quietly retired and joined his brother Abdallah at
Toledo, where they concerted measures for the depo-
sition of Hischem and the partition of his dominions
between them. The vizier of Toledo, Ghalib-Ibn-
Zeman-al-Tafeki, having been approached by the
conspirators, not only proved faithful to his trust
but menaced the princes with the vengeance of the
Emir, an act which cost him his office and his liberty.
A messenger having been sent by Hischem to ask
the cause of this harsh treatment of an old and faith-
ful servant, Suleyman, by way of response, caused
the vizier to be brought from his dungeon and im-
paled in the presence of the envoy. Justly inter-
preting this outrage as a mortal defiance, Hischem
 Moorish Empire in Europe 425

proclaimed his brothers rebels; denounced the pen-

alties of treason against all who should countenance
them and having summoned the walis of the various
;

provinces to his aid, took the field at the head of an

army of twenty thousand men. The rebels had suc-
ceeded in raising a force almost equal in numbers,
which, commanded by Suleyman, already had ad-
vanced some distance towards the South. A
battle
was fought near the Castle of Boulk; the insurgents
were beaten, and the Emir invested Toledo, whose
garrison, defended by strong fortifications and en-
couraged by the intrepid spirit of Abdallah, offered
the prospect of a long and tedious siege.
Collecting the remnants of his defeated army,
Suleyman descended upon the plains of Andalusia,
ravaging its settlements with fire and sword. Abd-
al-Melik, Governor of Cordova, having encountered
him near Sufenda, the rebels were again routed and
dispersed; and Suleyman, apprised that the entire
resources of the kingdom were being employed for
his destruction, escaped with difficulty through the

mountain-passes into the province of Murcia. In the

meantime, the condition of the besieged in Toledo had
become desperate. The successive defeats of their
companions had disheartened the garrison the supply
;

of provisions was diminishing; the assaults upon the

fortifications were incessant; and, Suleyman being a

fugitive, no hope of relief could now be entertained.

Abdallah, in his extremity, determined to throw him-
self upon the mercy of the brother he had wronged,
and to solicit in person the pardon he so little deserved.
Leaving Toledo, he passed through the lines of the
enemy under the protection of a safe-conduct of an
envoy, whose character he had assumed for the occa-
sion, and proceeded to Cordova, whither Hischem had
gone a short time before, the better to observe the
movements of Suleyman. The amiable disposition
426 History of the

of Hischem was not proof against the appeal of his

penitent brother; he received him with open arms;
and both returning to Toledo, the gates were opened
by the order of Abdallah, whose followers were
granted a general amnesty, while* he himself received
a princely estate in the vicinity of the city as a pledge
of complete reconciliation and oblivion of the past.
The fierce and intractable spirit of Suleyman, how-
ever, prompted him to once more try the doubtful
chances of war. Among the dense population of
Murcia were thousands of adventurers, whose preda-
tory instincts had never been mitigated by the influ-
ences of civilization. These, allured by the promises
of Suleyman, enlisted with alacrity under his stand-
ard. A considerable force was already assembled
upon the fields of Lorca when, in the absence of their
general, the advance guard of the Emir's army, under
Al-Hakem, his son, a boy in years but, as it soon be-
came evident, a man courage and military ability,
in

appeared before the rebel camp. Although his com-

mand was greatly inferior in numbers, the young
prince charged the insurgents with such impetuosity
that they gave way after a short and bloody struggle ;

and when Hischem arrived with the main body, the

field was clear of all except the dead and dying.

Suleyman, now thoroughly discouraged, made over-

tures for pardon, which was granted, conditional upon
his perpetual exile. His estates were purchased by
Hischem for the sum of seventy thousand mithcals of
gold; and the rebellious prince retired to Tangier,
where, safe from molestation, he regularly maintained
a treasonable correspondence with his old companions
in arms, watching anxiously for a favorable oppor-
tunity to assert his claim to the throne of the emirate.
While these events were transpiring in the West
and the attention of Hischem was engrossed with the
conspiracy of his brothers, serious disturbances had
 Moorish Empire in Europe 427

arisen elsewhere. Said-Ibn-Husein, the wali of Tor-

tosa, refused to recognize, or even to admit within
the city, an officer whom the Emir had appointed to
succeed him. The wali of Valencia was ordered to
seize and punish the rebellious governor, but the cun-

ning of the latter led his adversary into an ambus-

cade, where he was killed and his followers were put
to flight. Encouraged by the success of Ibn-Husein,
the walis of Barcelona, Saragossa, Huesca, and Tar-
ragona proclaimed their independence, and entered
into an offensive and defensive alliance against the
Emir. The new wali of Valencia, Abu-Othman, more
skilful, or more fortunate, than his predecessor, ex-
perienced but little difficulty in suppressing an insur-
rection which at first promised to be formidable. The
armies of the rebels were defeated; the heads of all
who were captured by Abu-Othman were sent to
Cordova, and the successful general, after receiving
the thanks and congratulations of his sovereign, was
ordered to the Pyrenees, there to await reinforcements
and make preparations for an invasion of France.
The fortunate .results which had hitherto attended
his measures, and the knowledge that the unruly tem-

perament of his subjects constantly demanded the

excitement of arms, determined Hischem to divert
to the annoyance of his enemies that active and men-
acing spirit which had recently been exerted to his
own prejudice and to the imminent peril of his crown.
And, in addition to these considerations, inducements
were not wanting which might afford a powerful
stimulus to his political ambition. The pecuniary
resources of his kingdom were far greater than those
which his father had controlled. Increasing com-
merce and the sense of public security derived from
a centralized government had rendered the burden of
taxation more endurable. Long and unintermitting
service in the field had created a body of soldiers, pa-
428 History of the

tient of devoted to the interests of their

discipline,
sovereign, and accustomed to conquer. To each suc-
ceeding ruler of the Peninsula, from the time of
Musa, had been bequeathed as imperative religious
obligations, the extension of territory subject to trib-
ute, and perpetual war with the infidel. A
thirst for

revenge was now added to the original incentives of

ambition and proselytism, a desire to wipe out, by a
series of fresh triumphs, the memory of past reverses,
and to inflict a long deferred retaliation for fright-
ful misfortunes endured by the routed armies of
Islam. The D jihad, or Holy War, was proclaimed
simultaneously from the pulpit of every mosque in
the Emir's dominions. To the promotion of the cru-
sade, every Moslem was bound by the law of the
Koran to contribute in proportion to his means, by
donations of money, military supplies, provisions, or
personal service. The martial tribes of the Penin-
sula, to whom war was a diversion, flocked eagerly to
the standard of the empire. One army, forty thou-
sand strong, desolated the settlements of Galicia, de-
feated Bermudo, King of the Asturias, and returned
laden with booty and accompanied by thousands of
captives. Another penetrated the depths of the Pyr-
enees, seized the passes, and, either by force or nego-
tiation, secured the temporary neutrality of the
Basques. During the ensuing year, diligent prepa-
rations were made for the reconquest of Septimania,
whose capital, Narbonne, long the seat of Moslem
power in the south of France, had now, for almost
thirty years, been held by the infidel. The city of
Gerona, recently taken by the Franks, was stormed,
pillaged, and inhabitants remorselessly butchered.
its

This stronghold a place of great strategic impor-

tance, whose possession by the enemy might seriously
interfere with the movements of either a successful
or a defeated army having been recovered, the way
 Moorish Empire in Europe 429

was open to the Valley of the Rhone. The time was

most favorable for the prosecution of such an enter-
prise. The attention of Charlemagne was engaged
by the seditions of the discontented barbarians of
Germany. Louis, King of Aquitaine, was in Italy,
where he had gone to assist his brother, Pepin, hard
pressed by the Lombards. The country was in a
practically defenceless condition; drained of its
troops; deprived of its sovereign; with a population
which, for the space of almost a generation, had not
been accustomed to the use of arms, or had experi-
enced the calamities of invasion. The Saracens met
with few impediments. No organized resistance was
attempted. The atrocities inseparable from savage
warfare marked every step of their progress.
Flushed with success, the victorious army advanced
on Narbonne. The defences of that city defied the
efforts of the besiegers, but the suburbs were taken
and laid waste.
The Moslems now moved forward on the road to
Carcassonne. At the river Orbieu, near Narbonne,
they encountered a force of peasants and militia
which William, Duke of Toulouse, had collected in
the desperate hope of checking their advance. The
valor of this hero, who has been canonized by the
Church, and whose achievements are, like those of
Roland, the theme of mediaeval ballad and legend,
was unavailing against the furious onset of the Ber-
ber cavalry. The half -armed mob was put to flight;
but the victors, intimidated by this unexpected ap-
pearance of an army, and fearful of losing their
plunder, decamped without attempting further hos-
tilities. It would appear from the most probable ac-
counts to be derived from the confused and obscure
chronicles of the age that a considerable portion of
the territory of the Franks remained for some years
in the hands of the Saracens.
430 History of the

About time another army, commanded by Abd-

this
al-Kerim, invaded Galicia and the Asturias. Little
resistance being offered, the Moslems penetrated the
country in every direction. The harvests were de-
stroyed, and the peasantry massacred or driven into
captivity. The churches were burned to the ground.
Encumbered with booty, the invaders on their return
fell into an ambush and sustained a crushing defeat.
The plunder was retaken, and their principal officers
were left on the field of battle. This reverse more
than counterbalanced the advantages derived from
the expedition into France, and it effected much
towards the consolidation of the power of the Chris-
tian kingdom.
An amount of booty in gold, silver, and
incredible
precious merchandise was obtained in Septimania, not
a little of which was found in the churches and
other ecclesiastical establishments which abounded
everywhere. The royal fifth alone, acquired by this

foray, amounted forty-five thousand pieces of

to
gold, all of which was set apart to be expended in
the completion of the Great Mosque. The pride of
the Moorish commander, Abd-al-Melik, exacted of
the innumerable captives who followed in the train
of his army an arduous and extraordinary service.
They were forced to carry upon their shoulders, or
drag in wagons, the stones which had formed the
walls encircling the suburbs of Narbonne. From
these blocks, thus painfully transported from a coun-
try distant many hundred miles, through the steep
passes of the mountains, was constructed the founda-
tion of the eastern part of the Great Mosque of Cor-
dova. In the exertion of this seemingly useless and
tyrannical act of authority, Abd-al-Melik was not
impelled by a feeling of mere bravado, nor by a de-
sire to inflict suffering upon the unfortunate. It
was a proceeding in perfect accord with the genius of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 431

the Moslem character. Those stones, squared per-

haps by Roman masons in thedays of Augustus,
were tangible and enduring trophies of conquest.
The boundaries of contiguous kingdoms have ex-
panded or shrunk; language, religion, and manners
have changed; populous cities of the Peninsula have
disappeared important settlements have arisen in the
;

midst of marsh and desert; the mementos of ancient

warfare are represented only by a few battered and
broken weapons but the massive stones of Narbonne,
;

rendered doubly sacred from the touching legend of

their conveyance by the unwilling hands of Christian

captives, still, after the expiration of more than eleven

centuries, support the walls of the proudest temple
ever dedicated to the God of Islam.
To the completion of this magnificent edifice the
energies of Hischem were now directed. Following
the pious example of his father, he labored daily upon
its walls. He lived to see it finished, after the ex-
penditure of one hundred and sixty thousand dinars,
and, although sumptuous in itself, the building of
Abd-al-Rahman and his son was greatly inferior in
splendor and beauty to the additions and improve-
ments subsequently made to it by their successors. The
public spirit of Hischem did not, however, confine his
efforts to the completion of the Djalma. He rebuilt
the bridge across the Guadalquivir, which had again
fallen into decay. He
erected many structures to
embellish his growing capital and to promote the con-
venience of its inhabitants, luxurious palaces, baths,
mosques, and fountains. He encouraged the plant-
ing of orchards and the cultivation of gardens in the
suburbs, and this rational and healthful employment
formed one of his favorite recreations. In his char-
acter the religious sentiment preponderated, not a
little tinctured, in common with the most ignorant of

his subjects, with the folly and weakness of super-

432 History of the

stition. Early in his reign he consulted a famous

astrologer, who announced, as the result of his horo-

scope, a life of but few years' duration, but prosper-
ous and full of glory. The communication of this
prediction had unquestionably much to do with its
fulfilment. The manners of Hischem, already grave
and dignified, became, for a Mohammedan prince,
strangely ascetic. He discarded the splendid vest-
ments of royalty, and invariably appeared clad in
simple white, the distinctive color of his family. His
leisure was devoted to the investigation of grievances,
to the aid of the oppressed, to the consolation of the
afflicted, to the support of the indigent. Neither the
inclemency of the season nor the inconvenience of
darkness was suffered to interfere with his errands of
mercy. He visited holy men at midnight in the midst
of torrents of rain. In person he distributed alms to
the homeless, whom want had impelled to seek shelter
under the arcades of the mosque. He walked unat-
tended through the streets, and did not disdain to enter
the hovels of the poor and bestow words of comfort
upon such as seemed abandoned by the world. He
was the first of his line to establish a system of mu-
nicipal police to insure the safety of the capital.
The
fines collected for breaches of the peace he disbursed
in charity. In the imposition of taxes he earned the
the tithe
gratitude of his subjects by only exacting
prescribed by Mohammedan law. Under his paternal
administration the widows and children of soldiers
killed in battle were pensioned. He ransomed from
his private purse all Mussulmans held in captivity, and
so thorough was his search and so successful his efforts
in this direction, that during his reign a wealthy citizen
of
having left by will a large sum for the liberation
slaves held by the Christians, the bequest reverted to
the heirs, as no such slaves could be found. The in-

flexible justice of Hischem was a prominent trait of

 Moorish Empire in Europe 433

his character. He refused to purchase a house for

which he had been negotiating when he learned that
one of his neighbors desired it; and, aware that re-
spect for the dignity of the sovereign would induce
his competitor to withdraw, he abandoned without
hesitation the coveted property to the latter. In the
conduct of complex and doubtful affairs of govern-
ment Hischem justified the discernment of his father,
which had selected him to the prejudice of his elder
brethren. His courage and firmness inspired the
fear and respect of his enemies. He frequently de-
spatched emissaries to the courts of the walis, em-
powered to examine into their official conduct and to
hear the complaints of their subjects. By the liber-
ality he displayed in the construction of public
edifices, he awakened the emulation of the rich, who
vied with each other in the luxurious adornment
of their palaces and the picturesque beauty of their
gardens. He inherited from his father a predilection
for science combined with a taste for the cultivation
of and, in his opinion, the permanent benefits
letters ;

to be derived from literature and the arts were far

preferable to the transitory pleasures of sensual grati-
fication. The prediction of the astrologer, which to
eight years had prescribed the duration of his reign, de-
veloped in a mental constitution naturally inclined to
morality a sentiment of deep reverence for everything
connected with religion. Partly with a view to the
fusion of races and the reconciliation of hereditary
enmities, but chiefly in the hope of their eventual con-
version, he made the use of the Arabic tongue obliga-
tory in the schools of Jews and Christians; thus, in
his zeal for proselytism, violating the wise tolerance
which the Koran accords to tributary infidels. By
this act of profound statesmanship he unconsciously
effected in a few years a political and social revolu-
tion, which, under ordinary conditions, many genera-
Vol. I. 28
434 History of the

tions would not have No

sufficed to accomplish. isola-
tion is so
thorough as that which is caused by the
preservation and use of an unfamiliar idiom. Even
the social alienation induced and maintained by the
observance of religious practices regarded as heretical
is not so deep or persistent. By the compulsory
adoption of the language of the conquerors, the tribu-
tary sects became daily better acquainted with the
creed, the characteristics, and the opinions of their
masters. Their prejudices contracted through igno-
rance were gradually dispelled amidst the require-
ments of business and the courtesies and recreations
of familiar intercourse. The Christian learned to
esteem the Moslem; the Moslem, by degrees, enter-
tained less contempt for the Christian. An apprecia-
tion of each other's virtues, mutual concessions, and
hopes of prospective advantage soon produced closer
relations in trade, intermarriages, and the formation
of intimate and durable friendships. Proselytism to
the faith of Islam once an occurrence as rare as it
was abhorrent at last became so common as scarcely
to excite remark. The Gothic costume was super-
seded by the turbans and flowing robes of the Orient.
The harems of the rich and powerful were ruled by
favorites born in Teutonic and Roman households.
The customs of the latter were those of the Desert.
Their surroundings had nothing in common with the
traditions of their ancestry or the memories of their
youth. Their children knew no other tongue but
Arabic. The lasting consequences of this law of
Hischem, in the partial amalgamation of three races
and the seal it impressed upon their product, are to-

day manifested in the swarthy complexions, the gut-

tural accents, the grace and dignity of bearing which
distinguish the peasantry of Northern Andalusia,
who, living near the capital of the khalifate, the
more readily obeyed the mandates of its court, and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 435

were the more susceptible to the influence of its

manners.
Unfortunately for the future tranquillity of the
Peninsula, Hischem was a fast friend of the theo-
logians. His most intimate associates were chosen
from the faquis, half-priests, half-lawyers, whose
studies were divided between the elucidation of sacred
traditions and the interpretation of the principles of
jurisprudence. Discouraged by the firm policy of
Abd-al-Rahman, this order had assumed a sudden
and ominous importance under the favorable auspices
of his successor. It was an era of unprecedented re-
ligious excitement in the domain of Islam. New sects,
with whose organization and maintenance politics had
often quite as much to do as theology, were forming
everywhere. One which had obtained great popu-
larity and was destined eventually to be included in
the four recognized by true believers as orthodox had
been recently founded at Medina by the famous doc-
tor, Malik-Ibn-Anas. A bond of union, based on
antipathy to a common enemy, was soon established
between the Oracle of Medina and the monarch of
Spain. Notwithstanding his claims to pious consid-
eration as the founder of a new theological school,
Ibn-Anas had been suspected of encouraging the
pretensions of a descendant of Ali of the detested
sect of the Schiites to the throne of the Abbasides.
Either from insufficiency of evidence, or through fear
of insurrection, the Khalif of Bagdad had not im-
posed sentence of death upon the offender, but he had
ordered him to be scourged, which punishment had
been inflicted with every accompaniment of brutality
and insult by the zealous officials of the Hedjaz.
Conscious of his influence, and consumed with rage
and hatred, the venerable fanatic bore his injuries
like a martyr, concealing under an appearance of

resignation the fury of his implacable resentment.

436 History of the

Abhorrence of his oppressors led him to turn for

sympathy to the Ommeyades, whose princes, like
himself, had experienced the relentless persecution
and insatiable vengeance of the tyrants of Damascus
and Bagdad. The noble character of Hischem was
notunknown to the inhabitants of the Holy Cities.
The admiration of the Medinese doctor for the Emir,
perhaps increased somewhat by a desire to profit by
past humiliation, and to indirectly disparage his
enemies, became extravagant. He lost no occasion
of praising him as a pattern of the kingly virtues,
and went so far as to declare publicly that he, of all
the princes of Islam, was the only one worthy of the
undivided honors of the khalif ate. On the other hand,
Hischem entertained the greatest respect for the theo-
logian, whose doctrines he adopted and sedulously en-
deavored to propagate throughout his dominions by
every inducement to which the human mind is sus-
ceptible. The Malikites were among those highest in
his confidence. They administered the most respon-
sible employments of Church and State. They were
entrusted with important commands in the army.
The Emir afforded every facility to such as desired
to pursue their studies under the eye of the great
interpreter of the law, and these, at their return, were
received with every mark of respect and considera-
tion. In consequence of this impolitic favoritism, the
Malikites soon obtained a preponderating and dan-
gerous influence in public affairs. The sect was domi-
nated by a limited number of shrewd and ambitious
faquis, whose opinions, received by the ignorant as
infallible, were supposed to be prompted by divine
inspiration, and whose wild fanaticism
was justly
regarded by themselves as the most efficient means
for the attainment to supreme power. Neither the
Berbers, nor the Arabs of pure blood, seem to have
embraced the new doctrine with any great degree of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 437

enthusiasm. Its most ardent champions were the

renegades, apostates from Christianity, or the de-
scendants of converted tributaries and slaves. The
obligations of no particular creed were recognized as
paramount by these careless proselytes, born and bred
in an atmosphere of turmoil and revolution, and to
whose impulsive and fickle natures the heat of con-
troversy incident to the promulgation of a new be-
lief and the excitement of a foray were equally

acceptable. Mutual sympathy and the ambitious

designs of their leaders suggested the association
and residence of these sectaries in quarters where
their power could be most advantageously employed
in times of sedition. One of these localities was the
southern suburb of Cordova, separated from the city
by the Guadalquivir. It was one of the most attrac-
tive and beautiful portions of the capital. Its popu-
lation exceeded twenty thousand souls. Its markets
were filled with all the evidences of a widely extended
and profitable traffic. Through its gates were con-
veyed the larger proportion of the provisions con-
sumed by the inhabitants of the metropolis and no
inconsiderable part of its merchandise obtained from
the rich provinces of the East. These were trans-
ported from the suburb to the bazaars by means of
the stupendous bridge constructed by the Csesars and
remodelled by Al-Samh and Hischem. The level
surface bounded by the left bank of the Guadalquivir
was more favorable for building than the inequalities
of the ground on the north and west. The streets
were wider than those elsewhere; the markets more
commodious the mosques and villas not less sumptu-
;

ous and elegant. A

belt of beautiful gardens trav-
ersed by walks of pebbles laid in mosaic and cooled

by the spray of countless fountains, amidst whose

verdure nestled the pleasure-houses of the wealthy
encircled the entire suburb. Here was the stronghold
438 History of the

of the Malikite sect, the increasing power and in-

solence of whose spiritual guides were preparing for
their wretched dupes a day of unspeakable calamity.

Eight years from the date of the horoscope had

been declared by the astrologer to be the limit of the
life of Hischem. The strength of his intellect was
not sufficient to reject a prediction which was univer-
sally accepted by a credulous and superstitious race
with the same reverence that, in ancient times, at-
tached to the mysterious response of an oracle. A
pattern of religious virtue, he had long disciplined
his mind to obey, without repining, the inevitable de-
crees of fate, and the prospect of an early death, while
it seriously disconcerted his plans, could not disturb his

equanimity. As the time set for the accomplishment

of the prophecy approached, the Emir assembled the
Great Council of the realm to swear fealty to his son,
Al-Hakem, who was to succeed him. This ceremony
concluded, he addressed the young prince in the fol-
lowing words, which are far better calculated than any
"
eulogy to describe his own character: Dispense jus-
tice without distinction to the poor and to the rich, be
kind and gentle to those dependent upon thee, for
all are alike the creatures of God. Entrust the keep-
ing of thy cities and provinces to loyal and experi-
enced chieftains; chastise without pity ministers who
oppress thy subjects; govern thy soldiers with mod-
erationand firmness; remember that arms are given
them to defend, not to devastate, their country; and
be careful always that they are regularly paid, and
that they mayever rely upon thy promises. Strive to
make thyself beloved by thy people, for in their
affection is the security of the state, in their fear
its danger, in their hatred its certain ruin. Protect
those who cultivate the fields and furnish the bread
that sustains us; do not permit their harvests to be
injured, or their forests to be destroyed. Act in all
 Moorish Empire in Europe 439

respects so that thy subjects may bless thee and live

in happiness under thy protection, and thus, and in
no other way, wilt thou obtain the renown of the most
glorious of princes."
Early in the following spring Hischem expired,
after a short illness, in the fortieth year of his age.
His reign had not been distinguished by great military
enterprises, nor by measures that indicated the posses-
sion of more than ordinary talents for the require-
ments of politics or the art of government. But
although his administration was not brilliant it was
eminently successful. He had checked the impetu-
ous ardor of the Asturians. He had invaded and
ravaged with impunity the provinces of the most
illustrious and powerful monarch in Europe. He
had thwarted the repeated attempts of desperate ad-
venturers to overturn his throne. He had gained the
applause of his enemies by his clemency, and won the
admiration of his friends by his generous treatment
of his rebellious kinsmen. No unfortunate was so
degraded as to be unworthy of his notice, no sufferer
too obscure to be the recipient of his bounty. By the
enforcement of judicious regulations he had accom-
plished much towards the removal of those social and
political barriers which separated the races and men-
aced the prosperity of his kingdom. By his influence
and example he gave fresh impulse to the cultivation
of letters. The universal sorrow manifested by all
classes at the news of his death announced the depth
of the esteem and affection everywhere entertained
for his character.
It was with ill-concealed anxiety that the subjects
of the emirate expected the first act of the adminis-
tration of Al-Hakem. It is true no one doubted his
ability. His military prowess had already been dem-
onstrated, for, while yet a boy, he had at the head
of an inferior force annihilated the army of his uncle
440 History of the

on the plains of Lorca. The prophetic sagacity of his

father, in accordance with the custom of his princely
line, had early familiarized him with the functions of
a ruler by his employment in offices of grave respon-
sibility. His education had been entrusted to the best
scholars of the time, and he had proved an apt and
intelligent pupil. The fortuitous but important ad-
vantages of personal beauty and a distinguished pres-
ence were not wanting to this heir to the glory and
the misfortunes of the Ommeyades. Yet, though
reared in the publicity of a court and habituated to
the transaction of official business, little was known of

the dispositionand the private opinions of Al-Hakem.

A stolid apathy and an impenetrable reserve effectu-

ally concealed his emotions. His feelings never re-

laxed even in the presence of his most intimate asso-
ciates, upon whom, moreover, his confidence was

grudgingly bestowed. But the veil which enveloped

his character could not hide the fact that he was
irascible, arrogant, vainglorious, and cruel. The
event proved that the apprehensions of the shrewd
observers who regarded with manifest
his accession
uneasiness and distrust were not entirely without
foundation.
It was the practice of the Ommeyades with the ad-
vent of a new sovereign to change the ha jib, or high
chamberlain, whose duties and authority coincided
with those of a prime minister, or chief dignitary of
state. For this responsible employment, Al-Hakem
selected Abd-al-Kerim, son of Abd-al-Walid, who
had filled the position under his father. Eminent
for bravery and learning, and versed in all the ac-
complishments of the age, Abd-al-Kerim had, from
childhood, enjoyed the friendship and shared the
amusements of his master. This choice was accepted
as a happy augury of the future conduct of the new
ruler, and contributed greatly to allay the fears of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 441

those who had questioned his intention and his ability

to control the fiery passions of youth, which the pos-
session of irresponsible power offered no induce-
ments, save those enjoined by the precepts of mo-
rality, to restrain. His qualities as a politician and
a general were destined to be soon put to the test in
the suppression of an extensive insurrection, the pre-
lude of an unquiet and sanguinary reign. His uncle,
Suleyman, had long meditated, in the security of ex-
ile, designs against the crown, which he considered his

birthright. His royal lineage, great wealth, and

affable demeanor had gained for him a host of ad-
herents among the adventurers and banditti who in-
habited the city of Tangier and infested its environs.
Their ambition was excited by magnificent promises,
and their cupidity stimulated by the prospect of a con-
test whose prizes were the acquisition of untold wealth
and the exercise of boundless license. The gold of
Suleyman had corrupted many dissatisfied officials
and a majority of the Berber chieftains. The mo-
ment so long awaited by the conspirators had now
arrived. Abdallah, secretly leaving his estate at
Toledo, joined his brother at Tangier. The details
of an uprising were arranged, and every resource was
employed to insure the success of the enterprise. Ab-
dallah made a rapid journey from Tangier to Aix-
la-Chapelle. The object of this embassy has never
been disclosed, but from the result it is easy to con-
jecture its import. The aid of Charlemagne was
solicited and obtained, and the co-operation of the
walis of Barcelona and Huesca assured. The King
of Aquitaine, with every mark of honor, escorted the
Moslem prince to the base of the Pyrenees, and the
latter in a few days was once more in the midst of the
seditious populace of the ancient Visigothic capital.
The measures of the rebel leaders were well taken.
Simultaneously with the delivery of the citadel of
442 History of the

Toledo to Abdallah, through the treasonable con-

nivance of its governor, Suleyman landed at Valencia
with a powerful army, and, founding his pretensions
on the right of primogeniture, proclaimed himself
Emir of Spain. Al-Hakem, hearing of the revolt
of Abdallah, had hastened to Toledo with the flower
of the Andalusian cavalry and invested its walls. The
lines had hardly been formed, however, when intelli-

gence was received that Louis, King of Aquitaine, the

son of the great emperor, had retaken Gerona, the
key of the Pyrenees, and, aided by the defection of
the walis of Lerida and Huesca, had already over-
run a large part of the provinces of the Northwest.
Charlemagne, eager to avenge the slaughter of Ron-
cesvalles, as well as to extend the limits of his empire,
had placed under the command of his son the picked
troops of his army, veterans of a score of campaigns
on the Danube and the Rhine. Recognizing the peril
of the situation, and aware of the importance of pre-
venting the union of this new enemy with those
who were throwing his kingdom into confusion,
Al-Hakem promptly abandoned the siege and
advanced by forced marches to the valley of the
Ebro. But the Franks had already retired. The
details of their operations, scarcely mentioned in the
annals of the time, throw no light upon their motives ;

but it is clear that the results of the expedition did

not correspond with the magnificence and complete-
ness of its preparations or with the hopes entertained
of its success. An extreme caution, akin to timidity,
seemed to take possession of the conquerors of the
Saxons, the descendants of the heroes of Poitiers and
Narbonne, as soon as the frowning barrier of the
Pyrenees was left in their rear.
The presence of Al-Hakem revived the dormant
enthusiasm of his subjects. Gerona, Huesca, Lerida,
were recovered. Barcelona, whose perfidious gov-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 443

ernor, Zaid, after soliciting the protection of Charle-

magne and paying homage to his son, had refused
to admit the Franks into the city, now, with every
demonstration of loyalty, threw open its gates at the
appearance of his lawful sovereign.
The energy of Al-Hakem, seconded by the ac-
tivity of his squadrons, in a short time reduced to
obedience the entire territory which had been overrun
by the Franks. Carried irresistibly on by his martial
ardor he crossed the Pyrenees, and, by an unexpected
stroke of good fortune, seized jSTarbonne, whose gar-
rison he massacred and whose inhabitants he led into
captivity. Elated by victory and laden with spoil, he
left his trusty lieutenants, Abd-al-Kerim and Ibn-

Suleyman, in charge of the frontier, and, with a force

largely increased bj^ the fame of his successes and the
hope of rapine, once more directed his march towards
Toledo. In the meantime, Suleyman had effected a
junction with Abdallah on the banks of the Tagus.
Indecision and a spirit of indolence seem to have pre-
vailed in their councils, for, instead of making a di-
version which might have still further embarrassed the
movements of Al-Hakem and have perhaps changed
the result of the conflict, they remained inactive,
expecting the conclusion of the campaign with the
Franks, until the approach of the Emir roused them
from their lethargy. Fearful lest their hastily assem-
bled and undisciplined levies of barbarians and mal-
contents might not be able to withstand the attack of
the veterans of the regular army fighting under the
eye of their sovereign, the insurgents left in Toledo
as commander Obeidah-Ibn-Hamza, one of the most
able officers in their service, who had surrendered the
city and was continued in power as the reward of
his infamy, and withdrew, after some desultory and
indecisive engagements, into the province of Murcia.
Here the veneration attaching to the name of Abd-al-
444 History of the

Rahman, and the personal popularity of Abdallah,

secured for the rebellious brothers a great accession
of strength and a corresponding increase of confi-
dence. Entrusting Amru, one of his officers, to
prosecute the siege of Toledo, Al-Hakem pressed
forward in quest of the rebels, and resolved, if pos-
sible, to bring the contest to a speedy termination.
But again the courage of the insurgents failed them,
and they sought the protection of the mountain fast-
nesses, where the Andalusian horsemen could not
follow. For months the struggle was protracted, and
the force of the Emir, impatient under inaction, began
to be diminished by desertions. At length the rebels,
whose supplies of provisions had been intercepted,
ventured forth from their stronghold. In the plains
of Murcia, not far from the field where Al-Hakem
had won his first laurels in a victory over one of his
present antagonists, a bloody battle was fought. The
issue at first was doubtful, as the insurgents contested
the ground with all the energy of desperation; but,
at a decisive moment, the throat of Suleyman was
pierced with an arrow, and, by his death, the spirit
of his followers was broken. The slaughter that
followed was long remembered as remarkable even
amidst the butchery that disgraced the civil wars of
Spain. The survivors were dispersed beyond all pos-
sibility of reorganization; and Abdallah, by an early
withdrawal from the field, succeeded in reaching
Valencia, where, disheartened and thoroughly peni-
tent, he implored the forgiveness of his injured sov-
ereign. Witha magnanimity that did credit alike to
his sagacity and his sentiments of affection, Al-
Hakem accepted the submission of his uncle, but
insisted upon his permanent retirement to Tangier
and the surrender of two sons, Esbah and Kasem,
his
as hostages. The latter were treated with kindness
and with the distinction due to their rank; a regular
 Moorish Empire in Europe 445

pension was assigned to them and during the second

;

year of their residence the younger was raised to an

honorable employment, and the elder, having received
the daughter of the Emir in marriage, was appointed
governor of the important city of Merida.
While the operations of the war were languidly
pursued in the South, the energy and resolution of
Amru began to tell severely upon the besieged in
Toledo. The inconstant populace, weary of per-
petual alarms and threatened with famine, made their
peace with the representative of the Emir by the
surrender of the city and the sacrifice of their gen-
eral. The treacherous Ibn-Hamza was promptly
executed, and his head sent by a courier to Al-
Hakem; the affairs of the city were regulated with
all possible expedition; and Amru, leaving his son
Yusuf in command of the garrison, departed with all
his available battalions to reinforce the army of his

sovereign, then at Chinchilla.

The serious disturbances which had for three years
employed the resources and monopolized the attention
of the Emir of Cordova presented to the hereditary
and natural enemies of Islam an opportunity too
favorable to be neglected. In 798 an alliance was
concluded between Alfonso the Chaste and Charle-
magne, but whether on equal terms or contingent on
the vassalage of the Asturian king is uncertain. The
Moslem governors of the frontier cities again re-
nounced their allegiance to Al-Hakem, and, under an
assurance of support and independence, rendered
homage to Louis as their suzerain. The enterprising
genius of Charlemagne, instructed by the costly lesson
taught nearly a quarter of a century before in the
pass of Roncesvalles, had abandoned, so far as the
Peninsula was concerned, all ideas of permanent con-
quest and occupation. Experience had conclusively
demonstrated that the contentions of factions, as well
446 History of the

as the antipathies of race, became temporarily but

effectually reconciled in the presence of a foreign

enemy. But while his armies had not been able to
obtain a foothold south of the Pyrenees, or even to
traverse the defiles of that mountain chain in safety,
no such difficulties seemed to attend the movements of
the Moslems, whose flying squadrons plundered and
ravaged without resistance the distant provinces of
his empire. These important considerations, and the
apprehension that some skilful Arab captain might
recover and retain the fertile valleys of the South, the
traditions of whose people recalled with pleasure the
dominion of their ancient Mohammedan masters, im-
pelled the Emperor to found and maintain a bulwark
which would be available to harass the enemy as well
as to break the force and retard the advance of an
invading army. With this object in view a princi-
pality was founded on the Spanish side of the Pyr-
enees, which was given the name of the Gothic March,
and its first lord, a Frankish noble named Borel, re-
ceived his investiture from, and did homage to, the
King of Aquitaine.
Insignificant at first, this embryo state speedily in-
creased in power and consequence. The domain in-
cluded within its boundaries had for years been the

scene of bloody insurrections, of incessant anarchy,

of partisan warfare. Its lands were untilled. Its
inhabitants feared to venture beyond the walls of their
cities. Its communications with the central govern-
ment, always precarious, were often completely in-
terrupted for months at a time. But as soon as com-
parative protection and safety were assured by the
occupancy of the Franks a striking change became
apparent in the condition of the country. The ruined
fortifications were repaired. The habitual perfidy of
the walis, tempted by the prospect of greater free-
dom, induced them once more to transfer their alle-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 447

giance to the enemies of their faith. By the donation

of extensive grants of territory, and the promise of
unusual franchises and privileges, a host of colonists
was attracted to the settlements of the new princi-
pality. The fields reclaimed from desolation again
assumed the attractive prospect of cultivation and
prosperity. The Gothic March became the refuge
not only of such Christians as were discontented under
Moslem rule, but of all those whose grievances led
them to renounce allegiance to the King of the As-
turias or to the chieftains of Biscay. Not a few were
allured by the hope that here might arise a monarchy
which, founded by the descendants of its ancient
masters, would restore the laws, the prestige, and
the glory of the Visigothic empire. Such was the
origin of the state soon to be known as the County
of Barcelona, a name of profound import in the sub-
sequent history of the Peninsula. Its foundation
was the second step towards the weakening of the
Moslem power, and one scarcely inferior in political
results to the establishment of the kingdom of the
Asturias.
The new principality were Au-
chief towns of the
sona, Cardona, Manresa, and Gerona. None of these
were seaports, and the sagacity of Charlemagne per-
ceived and appreciated the necessity of securing
maritime communication with his dominions to ob-
viate the possible isolation of the Gothic March,
either through the inclemency of the seasons or the

vigilance of his enemies. He therefore projected an

expedition against Barcelona, which possessed an in-
different but available harbor, and whose commercial
rank already afforded many indications of the impor-
tance to which it afterwards attained. Its situation
and the intrigues of its walis had previously acquired
for it a nominal independence. The present gov-
ernor, Zaid, had constantly alternated between pro-
448 History of the

testations of loyalty to Al-Hakem and solicitations of

protection from Charlemagne. The King of Aqui-
taine having appeared before the walls with a numer-
ous army, Zaid, with plausible excuses, protracted the
negotiations looking to the delivery of the city until
the approach of winter rendered a siege impracticable.
Hassan, the wali of Huesca, also declined to admit
the Franks, although he was the sworn vassal of
Louis; and that disappointed prince, who had pic-
tured to himself an easy and profitable termination
of the campaign, was forced to retire with ignominy,
amidst the murmurs of his dissatisfied soldiers, to the
security of his own dominions.
The Grand Council of the empire, held according
to the custom of the Franks every spring, met in the
beginning of the year 801 at Toulouse. The object
of these national assemblies was the discussion and
settlement of future military operations, as deter-
mined by the arguments and the experience of the
veteran warriors whose influence decided their delib-
erations. The abortive results of preceding enter-
prises had provoked the impatience rather than
damped the ardor of the Frankish chieftains, and
the unanimous voice of the Council tumultuously
demanded the capture of Barcelona. Before the
close of the year an immense army, which is desig-
nated by vainglorious chroniclers as composed of
many distinct nations, emerged from the defiles of
the Pyrenees. The vanity of Louis, which had suf-
fered through the unprofitable issues of former cam-
paigns, or possibly the entreaties of his lieutenants
who knew his incapacity, induced him to remain at
Rousillon until the event of the expedition could no
longer be doubtful. The invading force was mar-
shalled in two divisions, one, under the Count of
Gerona, pressed the siege of the city, and the other,
commanded by William, Count of Toulouse, was sta-
 Mooeish Empire in Europe 449

tioned as a corps of observation between Lerida and

Tarragona to prevent any attempt at relief by. the
Moslems of Cordova. The fortifications were fear-
lessly attacked and obstinately defended. Zaid, the
wali of the city, abandoning the vacillating and trea-
sonable conduct which had so long obscured his char-
acter, conducted the defence with an intrepidity and
a resolution worthy of the greatest military heroes.
Animated by his example, the garrison repulsed the
storming parties, one after another, with great
slaughter,although these were directed by the
Frankish general in person. The losses sustained
in these assaults impelled the besiegers to resort to
the tedious but more certain measure of a blockade.
The lines were drawn so tightly that the inhabitants
soon began to experience the pressure of hunger.
While the port does not seem to have been closed,
stillno supplies were sent to the suffering garrison
by the government of Cordova. Many of the in-
habitants perished; the remainder were reduced to
contend with each other for the vilest and most re-

volting means to sustain their failing strength. They

devoured the refuse of the streets. They fought
desperately for fragments of the leathern curtains
which hung before the doorways of their houses.
Some in despair threw themselves from the walls.
Others rushed headlong upon the weapons of the
enemy. But despite the harrowing scenes of univer-
sal misery, there was no whisper of surrender. Even
the Christians, who were numerous, took their turns
upon the battlements and crossed swords with their
co-religionists in the breach. No one believed that the
Emir would abandon, without an attempt at relief, a
city whose commercial advantages and geographical
position rendered it one of the keys of his empire.
At length a new army, commanded by King Louis
himself, reinforced the besiegers. The distress of the
Vol. I. 29
450 History of the

garrison was increasing daily, and, his resources ex-

hausted, Zaid determined to endeavor to reach Cor-
dova and by a personal appeal to Al-Hakem obtain
means to relieve the city. The intrepid governor,
issuing unattended from a secret postern by night,
had almost succeeded in penetrating the enemy's lines
when the neighing of his horse gave the alarm and he
was captured. These depressing events exerted their
influence on the besieged, but their constancy and
courage still sustained them. At length, after several
breaches had been made in the walls, and the Mos-
lems, decimated in numbers, had been reduced to de-
spair, negotiations were opened with the Franks. The
most favorable terms obtainable involved the loss of
property and the hardships of exile. The gates were
finally thrown open, and a long and melancholy pro-
cession of unfortunates, tottering with weakness and
emaciated by famine, upon whose faces were stamped
the signs of protracted suffering, filed painfully
through the camp of the enemy; and the Frankish
chieftains, preceded by the ministers of the Christian
faith arrayed in all the pomp and splendor of their
order, entered the city, to celebrate before the altar
of its principal temple the triumph by which the most
important province of Eastern Spain had passed for-
ever from beneath the Moslem sceptre.
The Christian population welcomed its change of
masters with no manifestations of joy or enthusiasm.
A gloomy silence pervaded the crowds lining the
streets, as the prelates in gorgeous vestments and the
men-at-arms in glittering steel swept by in majestic
procession, to solemnize, with every circumstance of
ceremony and military ostentation, the
ecclesiastical
fortunate termination of their enterprise. In the
early ages of Islam the beneficent and tolerant rule
of the Moor seems to have universally won the respect
and inspired the confidence of conquered nations and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 451

hostile sectaries alike. For the happy conditions pro-

moted by the exercise of the generous principles of
equity and religious freedom, the ignorance, tyranny,
and intolerance of a foreign hierarchy offered no ade-
quate compensation. From the hamlets of Provence
to the plains of Andalusia, the tributary Christians,
save only such as were invested with the dignity of
the sacerdotal order, appear to have always beheld,
with unconcealed regret, the discomfiture and dis-
placement of their infidel lords.
Well apprized of the uncertainty and difficulty of
retaining his conquest, Louis repaired as well as cir-
cumstances would permit the walls of Barcelona,
which had sustained considerable damage from the
mines and military engines of his soldiery. A gov-
ernor of Gothic race was left in command of a well-
appointed garrison, and, his object finally attained,
the King of Aquitaine retired from the scene of such
devotion, self-sacrifice, and valor. The heroic Zaid,
after receiving the reproaches and vituperation of his
conqueror, who, actuated by some unknown motive,
condescended to spare his life, was condemned to
perpetual banishment, and henceforth disappears
from history.
The introduction of the Feudal System into Spain
practically dates from the capture of Barcelona by
the army of Louis. That system had long before
been instituted in France. Its germs, as yet unde-
veloped, had appeared in many of the regulations of
the Visigothic constitution. But the minutely defined
and mutual obligations of vassal and lord, and the
exact nature of the allegiance due from the noble to
his prince as suzerain, had been neither established by

prescription nor formulated by law. Nor did its rules

ever acquire among the independent races of the
Peninsula the force and extent accorded to them else-
where. The humiliating seigniorial rights claimed and
452 History of the

exercised by the dissolute barons of England, France,

and Germany were never imposed upon the brave and
self-respecting peasantry of Spain. It was long be-
fore the hereditary transmission of fiefs was fully
recognized in that country.
North of the Pyrenees the duties of feudalism, once
assumed, could never be relinquished. In Castile and
Aragon the vassal could renounce the service of one
protector for that of another, if he had previously
surrendered all property received from the former
or its pecuniary equivalent. This establishment of
feudal institutions in the Gothic March not only
assured the permanence of its conquest, but gave the
Franks an influence in the affairs of the Peninsula as
advantageous to the promotion of Christian success
as it was prejudicial to the continuance of Moslem

power.
The loss of Barcelona was, as soon became evident,
a catastrophe of signal importance, whose conse-
quences seriously affected the prestige and dimin-
ished the strength of the Moorish empire in Spain.
No explanation has ever been adduced to account
for the surprising indifference or culpable neglect of
Al-Hakem in allowing the enemies of his faith and
his dynasty to wrest from its brave defenders one
of the most considerable and prosperous cities in
his dominions. A mysterious silence pervades the
ancient chronicles in regard to the reasons for his
conduct, so extraordinary; so at variance with the

energy of his character so detrimental to the interests

;

of his kingdom; so destructive to his hopes of future

greatness. Experience had proved him to be en-
dowed with many of the qualities of a daring and
active leader. From his very youth, the excitement
of war had been to his fiery spirit a favorite and ex-
hilarating pastime. His resources were unlimited, his
army well equipped and numerous. So far as we
 Moorish Empire in Europe 453

have any information, the remainder of his kingdom

was at peace. In case the Christian host was too
powerful to encounter in battle, the sea offered a
broad and unobstructed highway for the transporta-
tion of supplies and reinforcements. Time was not
wanting, for the siege lasted seven months. Whether
the menacing attitude of the King of the Asturias, or
some obscure domestic sedition, which, obscured by
the crowning exploit of the Frankish crusade, has
escaped the notice of historians, is responsible for this
apparently unaccountable and suicidal apathy, must
remain forever a matter of conjecture. But what-
ever was the cause, the misfortune was irreparable.
The iron grasp of the Frank never slackened its hold.
The colony became a principality, the principality a
kingdom, which, in time, consolidated with other prov-
inces into the monarchy of Aragon, led the van of the
Christian armies in the War of the Reconquest.
All authorities agree, however, that the Emir was
on the point of marching to the relief of Barcelona
when information reached him of its surrender. Un-
willing to disband his army without an attempt to at
least partially regain his lost prestige, he proceeded
to Saragossa, and then, following the course of the
Ebro, succeeded in retaking Huesca, Tarragona, and
some other places of inferior importance. The rebel
chieftains, Hassan and Bahlul, to whose treasonable
artifices is mainly to be credited the loss of Eastern

Spain, were captured and beheaded. No demonstra-

tion was made before Barcelona, a fact that would
seem to suggest either the inferiority of the troops
in numbers and equipment or the prudence or fears
of their commander.
religious enthusiasts of the capital had seen,
The
with alarm and disgust, the accession of Al-Hakem.
While not eminent for piety like his father, he, on
the other hand, had manifested no particular hostility
454 History of the

to the theological faction. Its members, however,

were not his favorites. He was devoted to amuse-
ments and practices abhorrent to the principles openly
preached and secretly neglected by these rigid pre-
cisians. His frequent intoxication, a vice which out-
raged public opinion and provoked the contempt of
the conscientious Moslem, made the palace the scene
of orgies that were the reproach and the scandal of
the capital. From childhood he had been immoder-
ately devoted to sensual indulgence. The pastime of
the chase, which involved the employment of animals
declared unclean by the Koran, occupied no small part
of his leisure. A ferocious temper, an exaggerated
idea of his authority, an implacable spirit, and a mer-
ciless severity in the infliction of punishment for even

trifling offences increased the terror with which he

was regarded by noble, peasant, and theologian. But
these sins were venial when compared with the indif-
ference with which he treated the saints and the
doctors upon whom Hischem had bestowed distin-
guished honors and unbounded confidence. Those
who had formerly been entrusted with important
secrets of state, which they were able to use for their

personal advantage, were now excluded from the

Divan. Instead of entering the royal presence
without ceremony, they were compelled to wait
the pleasure of their master in the antechambers.
The donations from the public treasury, which had
been bestowed with unstinted hand upon every
specious pretext, were now withheld. Degraded
in the popular estimation, humbled in pride, dimin-
ished in wealth, derided by the court, but still retain-
ing the sympathy of the masses, the fanatics of rival
sects began to overlook their mutual animosity in the

hope of restoring the vanished importance of their

order, and to entertain designs against the life as well
as the government of Al-Hakem.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 455

The scheming and disappointed Malikite faquis,

whose ecclesiastical character, assisted by a talent for
imposture, had caused the multitude to attribute to
them supernatural powers, were the chief promoters of
the conspiracy. The prestige of a royal name being
considered essential to their success, they approached
Ibn-Shammas, son of Abdallah, and a cousin of the
Emir, and, finding him apparently favorable to their
designs, openly tendered him the crown. The ambi-
tion of that chieftain, however, was not sufficiently
strong to induce him to compromise his loyalty. Dis-
sembling his indignation at the presumption of those
who could think him capable of such flagrant ingrati-
tude and treason, he demanded a list of the principal
conspirators as an indispensable condition of his com-
pliance. The deputation, headed by a faqui named
Yahya, readily agreed to this, and a night was desig-
nated when the information would be given. Mean-
while, Ibn-Shammas informed the Emir of what had
happened, and when Yahya and his companions were
introduced into his apartments, Ibn-al-Khada, the pri-
vate secretary of Al-Hakem, was already there con-
cealed behind a curtain, and ready to write down the
names as fast as they were communicated. The list
included many of the most considerable nobles and
citizens of Cordova, and the secretary, fearing lest the

conspirators, to magnify their importance, might

include his own name among the number, an act which
would insure his destruction, designedly allowed the
reed with which he was writing to scratch upon the
paper. The traitors instantly took the alarm; the
house of Ibn-Shammas was deserted in a moment;
all implicated who had time to escape fled precipi-

tately from the city, and the others, to the number of

seventy-two, were crucified.
The year 805 witnessed the institution of an alli-
ance between the Emirate of the West and the newly
456 History of the

founded kingdom of the Edrisites in Africa, destined

to exercise amarked influence upon the fortunes of
the former power, and whose close relations in peace
and war were not finally sundered until the kingdom
of Granada was incorporated into the Spanish mon-
archy. Several years previously a noble Syrian
named Edris, a fugitive like Abd-al-Rahman from
the persecution of the Abbasides, had sought a refuge
in the mountain defiles and desert wastes of Western
Africa. Without friends, money, or influence, he
nevertheless received a hearty welcome from the
tribes of the Atlas. His manly traits and chivalrous
bearing soon secured for him the esteem of his pro-
tectors, and, from a penniless refugee, he rose by
degrees to be the chieftain of a clan, the founder of
a nation, and the head of a dynasty. It was to his son
and successor Edris that Al-Hakem now sent an em-
bassy to felicitate him upon his accession, and to pro-
pose an alliance which might be employed to contract
the dominions and weaken the power of the detested
tyrants of the East. The importance of the occasion
was by an escort of five hundred Andalusian
disclosed
nobles, and the interchange of magnificent presents.
The embassy was splendidly entertained by the Afri-
can monarch, and a treaty concluded which, by its
provisions for mutual support and constant hostility
against the common enemy, accomplished much to-
wards the consolidation and perpetuity of the Moslem
power in the West. Two years afterwards the city
of Fez was founded. Its population, composed

largely of Christians, Jews, fire-worshippers, and

idolaters, excited the wonder and contempt of the
pious Mussulmans who visited it; and the incessant
strife promoted by the political adventurers and
zealots of the various forms of faith, who had estab-
lished their abode within its walls, augured ill for the
future peace or prosperity of the Edrisite capital.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 457

While absent on the expedition to Eastern Spain,

the mind of Al-Hakem had been disturbed by tidings
of another outbreak at Toledo. Yusuf, the son of
Amru, who, through paternal fondness and the par-
tiality of the Emir, had been exalted to a position to
the discharge of whose responsibilities his experience
and qualifications were wholly inadequate, had sig-
nalized his promotion by flagrant and repeated acts of
tyranny and insolence. The Toledan populace, sedi-
tious by inheritance and practice, and which, from
time immemorial, had been ready to assert, on the
slightest provocation, the dangerous privilege of re-
sistance, at the perpetration of some outrage of un-
usual atrocity ran to arms, attacked the palace, and
overpowered a detachment of the guard. The prin-
cipal citizens, dreading the consequences of an insur-
rection, interposed their good offices between the
governor and the mob, and, with great difficulty,
prevented the sack of the palace and the death of
its master. But the latter, far from appreciating
either the efforts of which
his benefactors or the peril
he had just escaped, meditated and planned, without
concealment or precaution, a bloody and merciless
revenge. Informed of his intentions, the nobles de-
prived him of his office without ceremony, and threw
him into prison. A messenger was sent to Al-Hakem
to acquaint him with the facts, and to explain the
danger which justified the adoption of such extreme
and arbitrary measures. The Emir, with every ap-
pearance of kindness, excused the violence of his sub-
jects; gave orders for the removal of the obnoxious
Yusuf; and reinstated, at his own solicitation, Amru
as wali; the grateful inhabitants returned to their
avocations, and the city once more assumed the ap-
pearance of its former tranquillity.
But
the habitual defiance of his authority by the
Toledans rankled in the breast of Al-Hakem. The
458 History or the

city had long been the focus of insurrection, the

rallying-point of the discontented, the head-quarters
of every turbulent and ambitious chieftain. Not even
the metropolis itself surpassed it in its influence on
the politics of the kingdom. The audacity of its citi-
zens and the pride of its clergy concurred in support-
ing its extravagant pretensions to supremacy. The
limited area enclosed by its walls had always been
occupied by a dense population, among whose mem-
bers the Christians largely preponderated, and over
whose minds the traditions of the Visigothic mon-
archy exerted a power constantly distrusted and
feared by every Moslem ruler who exercised jurisdic-
tion over its territory. The Arab historians have re-
peatedly asserted, with every appearance of truth,
that no other body of subjects within the dominions
of Islam were so infected with the spirit of mutiny
and disorder as the populace of Toledo. Even the
descendants of renegades who had renounced their
creed and their nationality a class whose religious
zeal and uncompromising fidelity are proverbial
were not insensible to the time-honored legends and
historical souvenirs that recalled, on every side, the

glorious events and vanished grandeur of

the ancient

capital of the Visigoths. The Moslems, who had

settled principally in the environs, were overawed by
the insolence of their neighbors, who, although their
tributaries, maintained all the haughtiness that ordi-
narily attaches to superior birth and
exalted station.
Once more installed as governor, Amru exerted all

his tact to allay the apprehensions of the people, who

feared that his paternal pride might impose upon
them a heavy penalty for former disobedience.
their

By every expression of solicitude, by every show of

partiality and consideration,
he sought to regain their
confidence. He assured their leaders of his
privately
of, and sympathy with, their efforts to ob-
approval
 Moorish Empire in Europe 459

tain their independence and resist the imposition of

tyrannous exactions and unjust laws. He even went
so far as to denounce the Emir, and to promise his
own co-operation in case of future unwarrantable
encroachment upon the lives and liberty of the
Toledans by the despotic court of Cordova. Thor-
oughly imposed upon by his duplicity, the masses, as
well as the nobles and the priesthood, regarded him
as their benefactor, and bestowed upon their crafty
governor every mark of honor and esteem. Then,
instructed by Al-Hakem, Amru represented that, as
the ordinary practice of billeting soldiers upon the
families of the citizens was a serious grievance and
productive of much disorder, this inconvenience could
be obviated by the erection of a strongly fortified
citadel, which he suggested would also be of incal-
culable value in the assertion of popular rights in
future insurrections. Public approval was readily
obtained; the fortress rose on the most commanding
point of the city; the wealthy contributed of their
means, the poor donated their labor, to aid in its con-
struction; the advantages of location and the re-
sources of engineering skill conspired to make its
defences almost impregnable. A powerful garrison
was introduced, and Al-Hakem was notified that the
time had finally arrived for the gratification of his
long-meditated vengeance.
A despatch was now sent to the frontier directing
one of the officers who commanded in that quarter
to petition for reinforcements, in view of a pretended
demonstration of the Franks. This was accordingly
done; and a force of several thousand troops, com-
manded by the young prince, Abd-al-Rahman, heir
to the throne, who was assisted by the counsels of
and experience, marched out of
three viziers of age
Cordova, apparently destined for service in the Pyr-
enees. When the armv reached Toledo, it was in-
460 History of the

formed that the anticipated danger had been exag-

gerated; that the enemy had withdrawn from the
vicinity of the frontier, and consequently that all
prospect of hostilities had disappeared. While en-
camped in the vicinity, the officers received a visit
from the governor, who was accompanied by a num-
ber of the most prominent citizens. The deputation
was received and entertained with distinction and
hospitality,and the guests were delighted with the
politeness, condescension, and the precocious
the
talents of their prospective sovereign, who had not
yet attained the age of fifteen years. Then, at the
suggestion of Amru, an invitation was extended to
the prince to make the city his home until his depart-
ure, a proposal which was accepted with well-feigned
reluctance. Preparations were made for a sumptuous
banquet. In the long list of guests appeared the
names of the most distinguished nobles, the most
opulent citizens, the most eminent leaders, who were
either suspected of disaffection or had openly sig-
nalized their zeal for the popular cause, either by
open resistance or by instigation to rebellion. When
the hour designated for the festivities approached, the
guests were introduced, one by one, through a postern,
where they successively fell by the hands of the
soldiers. As each party arrived, the equipages and
attendants were sent to the opposite gate of the for-
tress, there to await the reappearance of their masters.
An immense crowd, attracted by the novelty of the
occasion and the presence of royalty, surrounded the
citadel. Among the spectators, a physician, shrewder
or more suspicious than his companions, had remarked
the ominous stillness that reigned within the walls, and
the fact that of all the guests who had been known
to enter none had been seen to leave, although the sun
was now far past the meridian. A bystander directed
his attention to a cloud of vapor faintly discernible
 Moorish Empire in Europe 461

above the ramparts as an evidence that the festivities

had not ceased. The experience of the practitioner
at once detected the cause, and raising his hands in
horror, he exclaimed "Wretch! that is not the smoke
:

which proceeds from the preparation of a banquet;

it is the
vapor from the blood of your murdered
brethren!"
The number of victims of this awful crime is vari-
ously stated at from seven hundred to five thousand.
As the bodies were decapitated, they were cast into a
trench which had been dug during the construction
of the castle; and from this fact the deed which vio-
lated the rites of hospitality so sacred in the eye of
the Arab became known in the annals of the Penin-
"
sula as the Day of the Ditch."
The next morning the heads of those who, by an
act of unparalleled treachery, had so severely expiated
their past offences and the faults of their kindred,
were ranged in bloody array upon the battlements.
There was scarcely a household among those of the
most distinguished residents of the city which was not
filled with mourning. A
feeling of deep but smoth-
ered exasperation pervaded the community. But the
object of the tyrant was attained; a lesson of terror
had been inculcated; the leaders were gone; the
spirit of insurrection was effectually crushed; and
many years elapsed before Toledo was again vexed by
the tumults and the violence of a seditious demonstra-
tion.
About this time a serious difficulty arose at Merida.
Esbah, the wali of that city, was, as will be remem-
bered, at once the cousin and the brother-in-law of
the Emir. For some cause he dismissed his vizier, and
the latter, by false statements concerning the ambi-
tious designs of his superior, induced Al-Hakem to

deprive him of his office and confer it upon himself.

The wali, indignant at being thus unjustly accused,
462 History of the

defied the royal edict; the people, by whom he was

greatly beloved, espoused his cause; and a formid-
able rebellion seemed imminent, when the beautiful
Kinza, the sister of Al-Hakem, succeeded by her
entreaties in averting theimpending calamity. Ex-
planations were tendered, the incensed and alienated
kinsmen were reconciled, and Esbah was reinstated
in his authority amidst the congratulations of his wife
and the acclamations of the people.
The habitual distrust of Al-Hakem, his love of
military pomp, and the knowledge of the turbulence
and duplicity of a large proportion of his subjects,
had led him to increase his body-guard to the num-
ber of six thousand. The impatience of the Arab
under restraint, as well as his suspicious fidelity, ex-
cluded him from the select corps entrusted with the
protection of the life of the sovereign. The lessons
of experience, and the well-recognized principle of
despotism which discourages all sympathy between
the people and the army, suggested the enlistment of
foreigners and infidels. Three thousand of the guard
were Spanish Christians, the rest were slaves
Ethiopian and Asiatic captives purchased in the marts
of the eastern Mediterranean, who were popularly
designated mutes on account of their ignorance of the
Arabic language. Their arms and equipment were of
the finest and most expensive description. Their dis-
cipline was as thorough as the tactics of the age could
inculcate. Two thousand were quartered in extensive
barracks erected on the southern side of the Guadal-
quivir, whose banks were constantly patrolled by their
sentinels. The others, whose numbers were swelled
by hundreds of eunuchs and retainers of the Emir's
household, were stationed in the palace, whose de-
fences were more characteristic of an impregnable
fortress than of the ordinary abode of a sovereign.
The great mass of the people, and especially the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 463

severely orthodox, viewed the establishment of this

large military force whose existence was a silent re-
proach to their loyalty and whose opinions were con-
sidered idolatrous with mingled feelings of hatred,
jealousy, and contempt. The fierce zealots and eccle-
siastical demagogues, whose arts had acquired for
them a dangerous pre-eminence and whose influence
had been of late years a perpetual menace to the
government, regarded the royal guards with senti-
ments of peculiar aversion. The maintenance of this
splendid body of soldiers, whose expenses far ex-
ceeded those of an ordinary division equal to it in
numbers, was a heavy charge upon the treasury. To
meet the increasing expenditure, a new duty was
levied upon all merchandise imported into the capital.
The burdens arising from the imposition of this tax,
and the inconvenience attending its collection, were
the most keenly felt by the southern suburb. Of this
densely populated quarter, fully one-fifth of the in-
habitants were teachers and students of theology.
Not only over these, but over the various guilds of
merchants, tradesmen, and laborers, the authority of
a few f aquis, who united the qualifications of religious
instructors with the privileged attributes of saints,
was despotic. A
soldier who ventured alone into the

stronghold of these desperate fanatics did so at the

risk of his life. No opportunity was suffered to pass

whereby indignity could be heaped upon the guards

of the Emir. The monarch himself was not less un-
popular. The theological faction constantly made
unfavorable comparisons between his skepticism and
luxury and the austere virtues of his father, Hischem,
whose partiality for their sect had formerly obtained
for its the highest respect and consideration.
dogmas
The failings and vices of royalty received scant in-

dulgence at the hands of the Malikites. When, from

the summit of the minaret, the muezzin proclaimed
464 History of the

the hour of public devotion, a hundred voices re-

sponded in derision from street, bazaar, and garden:
"
Come to prayer, O
Drunkard, come to prayer!"
Aided by the encouragement and sympathy of their

companions, the culprits foiled without difficulty

every attempt at detection. Neither the sacred asso-
ciations of the mosque, nor the moments consecrated
to divine communion, when the assembly of the faith-
ful bowed reverently before the Kiblah, nor the pros-
pect of condign punishment, were sufficient to deter
fanatical agitators, who prided themselves on their
piety and orthodoxy, from the perpetration of out-
rage and insult. They vilified the monarch while in
the exercise of his sacred duties as the officiating
minister of Islam. They ridiculed his actions and
mocked resentment in the streets. Exasperated
his

beyond endurance,
all Al-Hakem ordered that ten of
the leaders should be arrested and delivered to the
executioner to be crucified. This summary proceed-
ing, far from allaying the excitement, only
intensi-
fied it. desire to wreak their vengeance on the
The
persecutor of their martyred brethren was now the

paramount consideration, compared with which the

prevalence of vice, the evils of taxation, and the
tolerance of heretics were matters of trifling impor-
tance. It soon became evident that a serious disturb-
ance was impending.
The most and dangerous instigator of
influential
the populace was another Yahya, part knave and part
zealot, whose learning and effrontery had procured
for him great renown both as a saint and a politician.
He had been a pupil and disciple of the famous
Malik-Ibn-Anas at Medina, and had been distin-
guished by the favor of that oracle of Islam.
The
fame of his sanctity, and an extravagant idea of his
attainments and his virtues entertained by the mem-
bers of his sect, had increased his reputation and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 465

inflated his pride. His intriguing genius was now

exerted to precipitate the explosion.
It was the month of Ramadhan, the Mohammedan
Lent, and the outbreak had been planned for the last
Wednesday, a day of ill omen in the Moslem calendar.
The efforts of Yahya and his coadjutors were being
constantly exerted to inflame the passions of the popu-
lace by private exhortations and public discourses
under the pretext of religious instruction, when a
quarrel arose between a soldier and an armorer which
resulted in the death of the latter. In an instant the
southern suburb was in arms. The contagion of re-
bellion and vengeance spread fast through the other
disaffected quarters of the capital. A
raging mob
rolled down uponthe citadel, driving before it the
scattered eunuchs and dependents of the palace and
the soldiers of the outposts. In vain was the cavalry
ordered to clear the streets; the veteran troopers of
the Emir were overwhelmed and driven back in
confusion. The gates of the castle were closed and
barred, and the multitude, wild with baffled rage, at
once prepared, with the aid of fire and heavy timbers,
to force an entrance. The serious aspect of the situa-
tion was fully appreciated by the inmates of the
palace, who knew that in case the fanatics succeeded
in penetrating the walls not a soldier or servant of
the royal household would be left alive. As conscious
of his peril as the rest, not a sign of emotion clouded
the placid visage of Al-Hakem. While the shouts
of the mob were resounding through the courts and
gardens, he ordered his favorite page to bring him
a bottle of civet. The lad in wonder obeyed, and the
monarch carefully and deliberately poured the per-
fume upon his hair and beard. The curiosity of the
page prevailing over his discretion, he inquired the
cause of this singular proceeding at a time of such
imminent danger. O son of an unbeliever," re-
'

Vol. I. 30
466 History of the
"
sponded the Emir, how can he who will cut off my
head distinguish my rank unless by the sweet odor
that exhales from my beard!"
His completed, Al-Hakem directed the cap-
toilet
tain of the guard to expose at once upon the battle-
ments the heads of certain faquis who had been
imprisoned since the former insurrection. Then,
clothing himself in complete armor, he summoned
his cousin, Obeydallah, and ordered him, at the head
of a picked body of cavalry, to cut his way through
the streets and set fire to the southern suburb, shrewdly
judging that the attention of the insurgents would
be distracted when they perceived that their homes
were in flames. The event justified his expectations.
The sudden sally of Obeydallah disconcerted the
rabble; the river was reached and forded; and in a
few moments, the smoke rising in twenty different
places beyond the Guadalquivir announced the suc-
cess of the stratagem. The insurgents, forgetting
the animosity to their sovereign in their solicitude for
their families and their property, rushed in confusion
over the bridge. Then Al-Hakem fell upon their rear
with his guards, and Obeydallah, reinforced by de-
tachments from the neighborhood which had been
attracted by news of the revolt, assailed them in front.
Overcome with terror and incapable of resistance,
the unhappy fanatics were massacred by thousands.
Three hundred of those conspicuous for their rank,
or for the part they had taken in fomenting dis-
order, were nailed, head downward, to posts on the
bank of the river. A
council was then held to deter-
mine the fate of the survivors. Some of the viziers
advocated extermination, but milder opinions pre-
vailed, and it was decreed that the suburb should be
razed and the inhabitants banished, within three days,
under penalty of crucifixion. This sentence was ruth-
lessly executed the condemned quarter was delivered
;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 467

to pillage and the houses destroyed. The exiles,

driven from their country, variously experienced the
effects of both good and adverse fortune. Many
parties were plundered by brigands before they
reached the border. Eight thousand families were
invited by Edris to form a part of the population
of the new city of Fez, where neither the hospitality
of their reception nor their subsequent prosperity
was able to prevent them from indulgence in per-

petual with their neighbors, the Arabs.

strife A
great body, which included fifteen thousand fight-
ing-men, was transported by sea to Egypt at a time
when the country was in arms against the Khalif of
Bagdad. Forming an alliance with the malcontents,
they stormed Alexandria; and then, declaring their
independence, retained possession of that great en-
trepot of the Mediterranean against all the power
of the Abbasides for more than twelve years. Finally,
reduced by the forces of Al-Mansur, they were re-
moved to Crete, a part of which still acknowledged
the authority of the Emperor of Constantinople.
This island they conquered, and they then founded
a state whose piratical expeditions for more than a
century were the scourge of the Mediterranean until
Crete once more, in the year 961, was added to the
dominions of the Byzantine Empire. A reminiscence
of the Moslem occupation of the island is suggested
by its present name, which, a corruption of the Arabic
" "
khandik, a trench" or fortification," survives in the
name of Candia.
But while the offences of the populace were thus
punished with inexorable rigor, the principal offend-
ers, the promoters of sedition, were the recipients of

extraordinary clemency. The explanation of this

partiality is to be found in the fact that the mass of
the insurgents was of a foreign and, despite their
bigoted adherence to the orthodox faith, of a detested
468 History of the

caste. The religious teachers of the Malikites, on the

other hand, were largely descended from the Koreish,
and the ties of blood and the antipathies of race were
considerations of greater moment in the mind of Al-
Hakem than the insult to his person or the danger
to his crown. Some of the leaders who had been
prominent in the late troubles were permitted to

escape; others underwent short terms of imprison-

ment; many received the benefit of a general am-
nesty. The arch-conspirator, Yahya, was of this
number, and his talents or his audacity soon restored
him once more to a certain degree of royal favor.
The military operations maintained for years in
Eastern Spain by the ambition of the Franks, the
treachery of the walis, and the weak and faltering
policy of Al-Hakem, were not productive of decisive
action or enduring results. The city of Tortosa was
twice invested, and twice abandoned in disgrace, by
the armies of Charlemagne. The first siege was
raised after a disastrous defeat sustained by the
Franks, of which the Arabs neglected to take advan-
tage; the second was undertaken without adequate
preparation, and relinquished under circumstances
suggestive of irresolution and cowardice. The hos-
tilities gradually assumed the character of predatory

expeditions rather than the systematic efforts of or-

ganized warfare. The crusading ardor of the new
colonists of the Gothic March soon abated under the

tyranny of their feudal masters, who appropriated

their lands, oppressed them with taxes, and violated
the rights which had been solemnly guaranteed to
them conditional upon their allegiance. The justice
of Charlemagne was invoked to suppress these in-
creasing disorders, but the distance from his court
and the arrogance of the nobles enabled the latter
to practically nullify his edicts. The prsecepta, or
fueros, addressed to the Counts of the Gothic March,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 469

and issued from time to timeby the Emperor, exhort-

ing these lords to equity, and defining minutely the
privileges of their dependents, constitute some of the
most interesting and remarkable documents of medi-
aeval jurisprudence. The last three years of the reign
of Al-Hakem were passed in peace with the Franks,
under a truce concluded between the courts of Aix-
la-Chapelle and Cordova.
The hostilities between the Asturian and Moorish
kingdoms were, during the reign of Hischem and Al-
Hakem, prosecuted with energy, but with constantly
varying success. The Christians had not become suffi-
ciently strong to provoke with impunity the power of
the Moslem sovereigns. The attention of the latter
was so occupied with the suppression of intestine tur-
moil and ineffectual attempts to counteract the am-
bitious projects of the Franks that they suffered

many of the incursions of their infidel neighbors to

pass unnoticed. Some expeditions that entered the
Asturias returned in triumph, others were annihilated.
The forays of the Christian princes spread dismay
through the Moorish settlements of Galicia and Lusi-
tania. Occasionally they met with serious reverses,
but these were generally retrieved in the next cam-
paign; and when the results of the year were com-
pared, the advantage was always with the Christians.
They enlarged their influence and cemented their

power, by alliances with the Basques, with the lord

of the Gothic March, with the renowned Charle-
magne. The limits of their little monarchy, once so
insignificant, began to extend south of
the mountains,
those natural barriers beyond whose protecting peaks
and ravines they at first had feared to venture. Con-
stant practice in warfare formed a race of warriors
whose prestige increased with their success, and whose
experience taught them the importance of loyalty,
obedience, and discipline. Their monarchs were, for
470 History of the

the most part, eminently fitted for the arduous duties

imposed upon them by the accidents of birth and for-
tune. Of these princes none attained to such emi-
nence in the pursuits of peace or the art of war as
Alfonso II., surnamed The Chaste, whose singular
titlehas been variously attributed by historians to
mistaken piety and constitutional impotence. His
life was one long crusade against the infidel. By
every resource of diplomacy, by every exertion of
courage, by every sacrifice of comfort and even of
independence, he endeavored to promote the interest
of that cause which was identified with the honor of
the Christian name. He sent gifts and did homage
to Charlemagne to secure his aid; and thus, within
less than a century of
its foundation, the Asturian

monarchy twice became the fief of a foreign power;

under Alfonso II., whose allegiance was rendered to
a Christian king in contradistinction to the conduct
of his predecessor Mauregato, the natural son of
Alfonso I. and a Berber captive, who had acknowl-
edged the Emir of Cordova as his suzerain, and whose
dependence was, in addition to the customary acts of
fealty, manifested by the humiliating annual tribute
of a hundred virgins. The arms of Alfonso were
carried repeatedly beyond the Douro and the Tagus.
He took and plundered Lisbon, already a flourishing
city, but its distance from his dominions
and the small
force at his command compelled him soon afterwards
to relinquish his prize. His desperate valor and his

superiority in partisanwarfare frustrated every at-

tempt of the Moslems to effect a permanent lodge-
ment in his dominions. Amidst the excitement of his
campaigns, he found time to erect churches, to endow
convents, to enlarge and embellish Oviedo, the capital
of his little monarchy. The clergy derived liberal
It was
support and patronage from his devotion.
during this period that the invention of an absurd
 Moorish Empire in Europe 471
7

legend produced effects upon the political and relig-

ious destinies of Spain little anticipated by the un-
scrupulous ecclesiastics who promulgated it. In an
unfrequented portion of the wilderness of Galicia a
mysterious light of celestial radiance, watched by an
angel, revealed the burial spot and the body of St.
James the Apostle. The Bishop of Iria, to whom
posterity is indebted for the discovery of this priceless
treasure, communicated without delay the intelligence
of the miracle to his sovereign; and a chapel was
erected upon the hallowed spot, which, in time, became
a magnificent temple and a place of pilgrimage for
thousands of the faithful and the curious from every
country of Europe. A city sprang up around the
church, which, by the translation of the Bishopric of
Iria, at once rose to the greatest importance, and its
inhabitants were benefited by the trade of the pil-
grims, as the shrine was enriched with the contribu-
tions prompted by their piety and their gratitude.
The simple Asturians never questioned the truth or
even the probability of the legend; the priesthood,
who sustained the credit of the fiction by every ex-
pedient of intimidation and imposture, advanced
steadily in consideration and wealth, while the mir-
acles daily wrought by the precious relic confirmed
its holy character, a relic which surpassed in the
efficacy of its miraculous virtues the wonderful me-
mentos of the martyrs which had been rescued from
obscurity and decay in the catacombs of Rome. Such
was the origin of the city and cathedral of Santiago
de Compostella, whose foundation contributed so
materially to the extension of the Castilian empire
and the triumph of the Christian religion. Here
first appeared the germ of that enthusiastic spirit

partly military, partly monastic which prompted

the foundation of the numerous orders of knight-
hood and culminated in the disastrous expeditions
472 History of the

for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. The re-

tired situationand primitive surroundings of the
shrine, corresponding with the humble origin of the
Saint and his mission, increased the popular faith in
its genuineness and sanctity. The fact that the relics
were spurious and their discovery a fable was wholly
indifferent so long as the reverent credulity of the
masses remained unshaken. The hope of salvation,
the religious aspirations of the devout, the increase
in prestige of the hierarchy, were all centred in the
pretended tomb of the Apostle. The apparition of
the Saint upon his white charger in the critical mo-
ments of battle roused the faltering courage of the
champions of the Cross on many a doubtful field, and
it may safely be asserted that neither the policy of

the wisest statesmen nor the victories of the most

accomplished generals of any reign effected more for
the glory of the Spanish arms than did the fabrication
of a preposterous legend by an obscure prelate in the
savage and almost unknown region of Galicia.
The uniform success of the piratical excursions of
the Saracens, originated under the rule of the emirs
and continued by the Ommeyades, promised the ad-
venturous aspirant for glory and wealth a more cer-
tain and less hazardous career than the military pro-
fession. The Moorish corsairs spread terror through
the harbors and along the coasts of the Mediterranean.
They reduced to final subjection the Balearic Isles.

They plundered Corsica, established a temporary

settlement in Sardinia, and threatened the environs
of the most opulent seaports of Italy. But the fasci-
nations attaching to the reckless profession of the
pirate were more congenial
with the spirit of the
Arab than the slower and less brilliant results which
must have proceeded from the maintenance of an or-
ganized maritime power, and the Moslem princes seem
never to have seriously considered the construction of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 473

a navy which might, with comparatively little exertion

or expense, have acquired for them the undisputed
dominion of the seas.
The closing years of Al-Hakem were passed in the
seclusion of the harem, where, diverted by the com-
panionship of the beauties of his seraglio, amidst the
excitements of intemperance and of every species of
debauchery, he endeavored to forget the sinister
events of his checkered career and the manifold acts
of cruelty which had avenged the crimes and errors
of those who were unfortunate enough to incur his
resentment. The controlling maxim of his policy had
always been that mildness was synonymous with cow-
ardice, and that the people must be governed by the
sword alone. To the adoption and enforcement of
this principle are to be attributed the frequent mas-
sacres and executions of his reign. He was the first
Moorish sovereign of Spain who established a stand-
ing army, that menace to popular liberty and indis-
pensable support of despotism. The safety and
health of his soldiers were secured by the erection of
commodious barracks by the collection of provisions
;

and military stores in extensive magazines and ar-

senals; by the enforcement of a system of perfect
and rigorous discipline. His guards, composed of
slaves alien to the people and devoted to their master,
were the prototypes of the Janizaries and the Mame-
lukes, whose pride and insubordination were long
subsequently productive of such disasters to the
monarchies of Turkey and Egypt. The mental con-
stitution of Al-Hakem was disfigured by a vice not
common in the natures of men whose courage was
never known to falter, an insatiable thirst for blood.
Not a day elapsed when an order did not issue from
the tyrant, long invisible to his subjects, .delivering
some unhappy wretch to the executioner. At length
the effects of remorse and prolonged intemperance
474 History of the

reduced the Emir to a condition bordering upon in-

sanity. Oppressed with the memory of his crimes,

haunted by the groans and imprecations of his ex-
piring victims, he became the prey of frightful hal-
lucinations, the offspring of a disordered brain. In
the middle of the night he startled the palace with his
shrieks of anguish. The slightest delay or opposition
provoked him to fury. He summoned his drowsy
councillors in haste from their beds as if for the dis-
cussion of affairs of the greatest moment, and, as
soon as they were assembled, dismissed them without
ceremony. He reviewed his guards at midnight.
The hours of darkness were usually whiled away by
the women of the harem, who strove to amuse their
capricious master with music, songs, and lascivious
dances. For four years Al-Hakem continued in this
deplorable condition, until relieved by a painful and
lingering death. His character was not deficient in
many of the attributes of greatness. He was brave,
generous, sagacious, constant in friendship, the im-
placable foe of hypocrisy, the welcome companion of
philosophers and poets. Prompt in action and reso-
lute in battle, his indecision at times of emergency
nevertheless cost him an important part of his domin-
ions. His reign of twenty-six years was filled with
stirring events, events which too plainly indicate the
declining tendency of the Saracen empire, which,
deficient in all that constitutes the unity and perma-
nence of a state and a prey to constant disorder, was
only saved from precipitate destruction by the states-
manship and military talents of its sovereigns.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 475

CHAPTER X
REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN II.; REIGN OF MOHAMMED
822-886

Accession of Abd-al-Rahman II. Defection of Abdallah In-

vasion of the Gothic March Embassy from the Greek
Emperor Revolt of Merida Sedition at Toledo Incur-
sion of the Normans Persecution of the Christians Death
of Abd-al-Rahman His Love of Pomp His Virtues
His Patronage of Art and Letters Ziryab His Versa-
tility -Conspiracy of Tarub Stratagem of Mohammed
His Bigotry -Toledo again Revolts Rise of the Beni-Kasi
War with the Asturias Rebellion of Ibn-Merwan The
Serrania de Ronda Ibn-Hafsun, his Origin and Exploits
Death and Character of Mohammed Incipient Deca-
dence of the Moslem Power.

At the mature age of thirty-one, endowed with

every talent which contributes to political success and
intellectual eminence, accustomed for many years to
the arduous details of civil affairs as well as to the
direction of important military operations and the
command of armies, Abd-al-Rahman II. ascended the
throne of the emirate. A
handsome person and an
engaging address aided not a little to increase the
general esteem which had been evoked by his capacity
for business and his great services to the state. Aji
index to his popularity may be discovered in the
honorable titles bestowed upon him by the admiration
and love of his subjects. While a youth he was known
as Al-Modhaff er, The Victorious, and his benevolence
and generosity had, long before his accession, acquired
"
for him the suggestive appellation of the Father of
the Poor." The physical and mental infirmities of
Al-Hakem had, for years before his death, induced
476 History of the

him to relinquish the cares of government, and to prac-

tically abandon to his son and successor all the power,
the duties, and the responsibilities of sovereignty.
Domestic discord, which seemed to be a necessary
incident of the inauguration of every prince of the
Ommeyades, was not wanting to that of Abd-al-Rah-
man. His great -uncle, Abdallah, in whose breast the
firesof ambition still burned fiercely in spite of his
advanced age, leaving his home at Tangier accom-
panied by a considerable band of friends and retainers,
landed in Andalusia and proclaimed himself Emir by
virtue of his relationship to the founder of the dy-
nasty. His prospect of success he regarded as the
more certain on account of the positions occupied by
his three sons, who had enjoyed the confidence and
shared the favor of Al-Hakem, and who now exer-
cised the most important commands in the gift of the
monarch.
The sanguine hopes of the venerable Abdallah were
soon shown to be fallacious. No sooner had he landed
when, attacked by the cavalry of Abd-al-Rahman, his
forces were put to flight, and, driven from point to
point, he was finally compelled to take refuge in
Valencia. His sons, so far from sympathizing with
his aspirations, did all in their power to thwart them,
and by personal appeals to his interest and affection
urged him to abandon his treasonable enterprise.
Persuaded by their entreaties, which were materially
promoted by the timely occurrence of an unfavorable
omen, a portent never unheeded by the superstitious
Oriental, he reluctantly consented to forego his pre-
tensions to the crown and to swear fealty to his
nephew. An
interview was arranged; Abdallah was
escorted by of the Emir, and
his sons into the presence
the latter, embracing him, not only pardoned his
offence, but conferredupon him the government of
Murcia, where he remained in peace until his death.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 477

The embarrassment of Abd-al-Rahman, who, at the

moment of his accession, found himself confronted
with an insurrection whose consequences threatened
to be serious, was not lost upon his enterprising
neighbors of the Gothic March. They raised a nu-
merous army, ravaged the Moorish territory at the
North as far as the left bank of the Segre, returning
without having encountered any opposition and laden
with the spoils of war. This expedition was com-
manded by Bernhart, Count of Barcelona, son of the
renowned William of Toulouse, upon whom Louis
had conferred the fief; the former suzerain, Bera,
having been accused of treason and convicted by
wager of battle, according to the martial customs of
the age. The substitution of a foreigner for a native
Goth whose aspirations for independence were a title
to favor rather than a reproach with his subjects, who,
for the most part of Spanish extraction, cherished the
traditions and indulged the pleasing but delusive hope
of the ultimate restoration of the organization and
power of the ancient Visigothic empire, was a stroke
of policy which augured ill for the success or per-
petuity of the Frankish domination.
Abd-al-Rahman, aware of the political necessity of
making a demonstration to counteract the effects of
the inroads that his helpless situation had invited, and
not unwilling to inaugurate his reign with a brilliant
military exploit, prepared to invade the Gothic March
with the army already collected for the suppression
of the insurrection fomented by Abdallah. The ad-
vance guard, commanded by the wali Abd-al-Kerim,
approaching from Valencia met the Christians not far
from Barcelona, and, after a short but hotly contested
engagement, drove them inside the gates. The Emir
having arrived soon after with the main body, the city
was besieged. A number of determined attempts to
carry it
by escalade having failed, and the force of
478 History of the

Abd-al-Rahman not being sufficient to maintain a

thorough blockade, the intrenchments were finally

abandoned; and the Moslem army, pouring over the
country, in a few months succeeded in occupying the
entire territory subject to the Count of Barcelona.
The Christians, repulsed in every encounter, sought,
in dismay and confusion, the most inaccessible heights
and defiles of the mountains. The castles were
stormed and their garrisons massacred. A feeling
of terror seized the population, which included many
of the most experienced warriors of the Frankish em-
pire, who, allured by the princely grants held out to
colonists and the prospect of a life of excitement and
adventure, had established themselves in the Gothic
March. But the expedition of the Moslems, although
attended with such successful results, did not rise
above the dignity of a foray. No attempt at a perma-
nent occupation was made. The capital, which alone
maintained its independence and which, deprived of
all prospect of relief, could not have resisted a second

attack, was not compelled to again endure the hor-

rors of siege. Satisfied with the advantages he had
gained and with the vengeance he had inflicted, Abd-
al-Rahman returned in triumph to Cordova, which he
entered amidst the plaudits and congratulations of
the people.
The declining fortunes of the Byzantine Empire,
whose sovereign, Michael the Stammerer, found him-
self unequal to the task of coping with his redoubtable

adversary, Al-Mamun, Khalif of Bagdad, induced

him, during the second year of the reign of Abd-al-
Rahman, to despatch an embassy to Cordova to con-
clude an alliance with the Sultan of the Ommeyades,
the fame of whose dynasty had already reached the
extreme limits of the Orient. The envoys of the
Emperor of Constantinople were received with
every evidence of distinction. A vast multitude at-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 479

tended their entrance into the capital. They were

lodged in the royal palace, and all the pomp of the
most splendid and luxurious court in Europe was
exhibited upon the occasion of their reception by the
Emir. The magnificence of the gifts which they
brought among which are mentioned a number of
beautiful horses caparisoned with cloth-of-gold and
silver excited the wonder of the multitude, for no
such treasures had ever before been seen in Spain.
An alluring prospect of conquest was held out by the
subtle Greeks, accompanied by the tender of troops
and munitions of war for the recovery of the lost in-
heritance of the Ommeyades in Syria; but the pre-
carious condition of the Emir, barely able to maintain
his authority against the plots of his disaffected sub-

jects, forbade, for the present, the formation of an

offensive league with the monarch of the East, and
the ambassadors were dismissed with a profusion of
compliments and indefinite and conditional assurances
of support in the future. A special envoy of the
Emir, Yahya-al-Ghazzali, so named for his extraor-
dinary charms of person and manner, and equally
famous as a poet and a diplomatist, accompanied
them, charged with the thanks of Abd-al-Rahman,
and commissioned to present to the Emperor some
scimetars and trinkets of the finest workmanship
which the skill of the artisans of the Peninsula had
been able to produce.
During the same year an ambassador of a far dif-
ferent character, and representing a power numeri-
cally inferior to the smallest city acknowledging the
sovereignty of the Emperor of the East, but whose
geographical position imparted to its advances a pecu-
liar and weighty significance, visited Cordova upon a
similar errand. The recently organized duchy of Na-
varre, an appanage of the Frankish empire, had
grown restive under the extortions of its suzerain.
480 History of the

Accustomed to the largest individual liberty, the

mountaineers could ill endure the exactions of irre-
sponsible tyranny which the example of their neigh-
bors and a delusive pretence of public advantage
had insensibly imposed upon them. The bond of a
common religious belief which united them with the
Franks was but weak when compared with the deeply
rooted national prejudice which the assumption of
superiority by the vassals of Charlemagne and Louis
did much to promote, and which caused the latter to
be regarded with a far greater degree of execration
than was entertained against the Mohammedans, the
natural enemies of their country and their faith.
The Navarrese envoy, whose uncouth manners ex-
hibited a striking contrast to the courtly graces of
the Byzantine nobles, was received by the Moorish
sovereign, if not with distinguished ceremony, yet
with courtesy and royal hospitality. A
treaty was
negotiated, which assured the mountaineers of the aid
of the government of Cordova, and a free passage was
granted to the Moslems for any expedition whose
destination lay beyond the Pyrenees. The effects of
the judicious policy which dictated this alliance soon
became manifest. A
few months afterwards a great
army, under the Counts Eblus and Asenarius, de-
pendents of the King of Aquitaine, traversed the
sierra and invaded Spain. The city of Pampeluna
was taken, and, after some desultory operations yield-
ing little profit or glory, the Franks retired in im-
aginary security. The defile of Roncesvalles once
more became the scene of a fearful disaster; the in-
vaders, surrounded by a host of mountaineers and
Arabs, were cut to pieces, and the prisoners divided
among the allies, the two counts being among those
who survived the disgrace of incompetency and defeat.
This military success was contemporaneous with the
assertion of the independence and political organiza-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 481

tion of the principality of Navarre, which were main-

tained thereafter with the exception of a few years
of nominal subordination to the Crown of the As-
turias until its final incorporation into the dominions
of France and Spain.
The catastrophe of Roncesvalles encouraged the
Moors to prosecute with greater activity the opera-
tions against the Christians, whom the unsettled
condition of affairs in the east and south of the
Peninsula had long permitted to rest in peace. Three
successive expeditions, all commanded by Obeydallah-
Ibn-Abdallah, were sent to invade the enemy's coun-
try, but the campaigns were
not distinguished by any
important action, and the determination and well-
known ferocity of the mountaineers appear to have
succeeded in preventing the Moslems from inflicting
any serious damage upon the hostile terrritory.
The vast system of public works inaugurated by
Abd-al-Rahman, the splendor of his court, and the
prodigal munificence with which he rewarded
his

favorites, entailed an immense expense upon the ad-

ministration, and necessitated a new and oppressive
burden of taxation to meet the constantly increasing
demands on the treasury. The authorities, regardless
of the experience of former reigns, augmented the
public discontent by levying the bulk of the taxes
on indispensable articles of daily consumption. The
Jewish and Christian tributaries, by whom these ex-
actions were most severely felt, were loud in their
clamors, and it was not long before the Moslem popu-
lation of the different cities joined in the increasing
remonstrances against the arbitrary measures result-
ing from the unprecedented extravagance of the
court. The dissatisfaction was most pronounced at
Merida, and this fact having been communicated,
either orally or by correspondence, by the clergy of
that city to their brethren at the court of Louis, the
Vol. I. 31
482 History of the

Frankish monarch determined to avail himself of the

information in furtherance of his own designs and
for the confusion of his infidel neighbors. He there-
fore addressed a letter to the people of Merida, pro-
fessing great sympathy with them on account of the
impositions of the government, exhorting them to
exert theirrights and regain their liberties, and
promising that, in case they made an open demonstra-
tion to redress their grievances, he would march to
their support across the Pyrenees. The sincerity of
Louis in making this offer may well be questioned.
Whether or not his tender was made in good faith
is of little consequence, as his attention was immedi-

ately distracted from foreign intrigue by serious dis-

turbances in his own
dominions. A
Gothic officer of
rank named Aizon, having incurred the displeasure
of his sovereign, fled from the court of Aix-la-
Chapelle, and, betaking himself to the Gothic March,
declared his enmity to the Franks, and especially to
the Count of Barcelona. Through the influence of
his name and nationality, aided by the habitual incon-
stancy of the restless adventurers who composed the
frontier population and the general prejudice exist-
ing against the domination of the Franks, he soon
found himself at the head of a powerful faction.
Having seized the fortress of Ausona by treachery,
and destroyed the town of Rosas which attempted
to resist him, he sent his brother to Cordova with a
request for aid, accompanied with an assurance that
the disaffection was such as to warrant the hope of
an easy recovery of the country by the Moslems. The
appeal of Aizon was not suffered to pass unheeded.
A considerable body of troops was assembled under
the command of the veteran Obeydallah; the party
of the malcontents increased daily in numbers and
influence, and it was not long before the Count of
Barcelona found himself deprived of authority over
 Moorish Empire in Europe 483

all his domain except Gerona and the city from which
he derived his title.

Louis, who was then in Germany engaged in the

settlement of a quarrel between two chieftains whose
untamed spirits menaced the peace of the empire, had
neither time nor available resources to suppress by
arms an insurrection, however dangerous, in the other
extremity of his dominions. But what he could not
accomplish by military force he determined to at-
tempt by negotiation, and three commissioners were
accordingly appointed to persuade the colonists of the
Gothic March to return to their allegiance.
The embassy, composed of a priest and two nobles,
received, as might have been expected, small con-
sideration in an age where the arts of peace were held
in disrepute and the palm of popular esteem was
accorded to deeds of martial heroism, and the envoys
accomplished nothing. They managed, however, to
widely disseminate the report that an army of Franks
was about to invade the country, a rumor which so
alarmed Aizon and his followers that a second appeal
was sent to Cordova, and a portion of the Emir's
body-guard was ordered to reinforce the allies of the
Moslems without delay. The army of the Franks
arrived; but the enemy had retired to Saragossa,
either dreading the result of an encounter with the
hardy warriors of the North, or unwilling to incur the
hazard of being compelled to relinquish the valuable
booty which he had so easily secured. The suspi-
cious conduct of the generals of the Frankish army
in permitting the Moslems to retreat without molesta-
tion brought upon them the reproach of treachery, an
accusation which was so far sustained the following
year in the National Council as to subject the culprits
to the deprivation of their commands.
Abd-al-Rahman had projected an invasion of
France, and the preparations were completed; the
484 History of the

advance guard under Abd-al-Ruf who had filled

the position of vizier under Al-Hakem was already
on the way to the Pyrenees, and the Emir himself was
about to depart with the main body of the army, when
the unwelcome news reached him that Merida was in
rebellion.
The unpopular system of taxation, already referred
to, aggravated by the brutal conduct of the officials
charged with its enforcement, had almost assumed
the character of a persecution, while the public mind
was agitated by the plausible representatives of dema-
gogues and deluded with the hope of protection and
encouragement from the powerful vassals of the
Emperor. Acertain Mohammed Ibn-Abd-al-Jebir,
formerly a collector of the revenue, was the originator
of the conspiracy. The governor, Ibn-Masf eth, saved
himself by a hasty flight. The houses of the viziers
were sacked, and their owners put to death or driven
from the city. Mohammed
appointed himself wali,
seized the magazines and arsenals, and, having divided
their contents among the inhabitants without distinc-
tion of creed, as a return for this act of generosity
appealed to the populace to confirm him in his usurped
authority. The resolution of the insurgents, sustained
by the knowledge of their resources and the impreg-
nable character of their defences, was encouraged by
the arrival of fierce adventurers, who were attracted
in multitudes by the prospect of rebellion and pillage.
The garrison increased until it reached the number of
forty thousand. No insurrection of a local character
had ever presented menacing a front to the power
so
of the emirate. The occasion demanded the exertion
of the most prompt and energetic measures. The
command of Abd-al-Ruf was hastily recalled, and
that officer was entrusted with the conduct of the
siege. The hardened veteran carried on his opera-
tions as he would have done in an enemy's country.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 485

The beautiful villas and gardens that surrounded the

city were burned and laid waste. The growing crops

were cut down. Preparations were made to carry the
place by storm, which would necessarily have entailed
the destruction of an immense amount of property
and a massacre in which the innocent must have suf-
fered equally with the guilty. Abd-al-Rahman,
averse to an exercise of severity which threatened
to weaken one of the greatest cities of the kingdom,
and knowing that the unequal contest could not be
long maintained, ordered Abd-al-Ruf to reduce the
place by famine. A strict blockade was accordingly
established. The ruffian soldiery of the garrison,
cooped up within the walls, condemned to inaction
and suffering for provisions, indulged their preda-
tory inclinations by robbing and maltreating the
citizens. The better class of the inhabitants, which
had been induced to favor the insurrection by the
expectation of compelling the withdrawal of oppres-
sive edicts, saw, when too late, that it had exchanged
a condition of comparative safety and prosperity for
one of anarchy and the irresponsible despotism of
armed banditti. A
movement for the surrender of
the city to the besiegers was quietly inaugurated by
some loyal subjects of the Emir who had been forced
to enlist under the banner of the rebels. Communi-
cation was opened with Abd-al-Ruf. Favored by the
darkness of the night, a strong detachment was ad-
mitted; the walls were occupied, the armed mob was
put to flight, the leaders escaped in the general con-
fusion, and daybreak found the authority of Abd-
al-Rahman once more established over the city of
Merida. Resistance had been slight owing to the
surprise, and but seven hundred rebels paid
the

penalty of treason. The fears of the people were

soon allayel by the publication of a general amnesty,
for the gentle disposition of Abd-al-Rahman re-
486 History of the

volted at the prospect of exemplary punishment for

a rebellion which subsequent events demonstrated
would have justified the most sanguinary retribution.
Order had scarcely been restored at Merida when
it became known that the
contagion of insurrection
had again spread to Toledo. A
renegade named
Hashim, who had long in secret meditated vengeance
for persecution suffered by his family under Al-
Hakem, taking advantage of some trifling cause of
popular discontent, raised the standard of revolt. The
wali being absent, the mob, who welcomed with eager-
ness every occasion of opposing the authorities, found
littletrouble in expelling the garrison and the adhe-
rents of the Emir. Hashim, whose success had sur-
passed all expectations, as soon as his partisans were
organized, extended his operations to the surround-
ing country. His following received accessions daily
from the brigands who infested the mountain dis-
tricts, and the floating population, always on the
alert for plunder, that swarmed in the purlieus of
the great cities. Mohammed-Ibn-Wasim, the wali
of the frontier, having attacked the rebels, was
beaten in several engagements; exulting in the
promises of its citizens, Toledo maintained a suc-
cessful resistance against the entire resources of the
emirate, and Ommeyah, the son of Abd-al-Rahman,
was forced to retire in disgrace from before its walls.
At length thearmy of Hashim fell into an ambus-
cade planned by an officer who commanded a force
stationed at Calatrava, the Toledans were defeated
with great loss, and, soon afterwards, the city was
taken by storm. Accounts* vary as to the fate of
Hashim, but it appears from the most reliable sources
that he fell into the hands of the troops of the Emir
and was beheaded without ceremony. The incapacity
of the government of Cordova to deal with its do-
mestic foes may be inferred from the duration of this
 Moorish Empire in Europe 487

outbreak, whose importance must have called forth

the most vigorous attempts to suppress it, for during
a period of eight years Toledo enjoyed absolute in-
dependence in the heart of a hostile monarchy. This
immunity was, in some degree, due to a second insur-
rection which broke out in Merida while the prestige
of the victorious Toledans was at its height. Moham-
med, who had fled to Lisbon when the city had been
taken, returned unexpectedly; having again sum-
moned the populace to arms, he divided the contents
of the magazines as before, and, calling together his
outlaws, renewed the scenes of license and disorder
which had formerly led to his expulsion. Abd-al-
Rahman, apprized of this new disaster, raised an
army of forty thousand men, of which he assumed
command in person, and, arriving at the city, made
several ineffectual attempts to carry it by storm. The
walls, however, were too strong and too well defended
to be scaled, and the besiegers were reduced to employ
the more operation of mining to open a
difficult
breach. When was ready, the Emir harangued
all
the troops, reminded them that their adversaries were
Moslems like themselves, and exhorted them to avoid
all violence except against such as offered resistance.
As a last resort, to prevent bloodshed and the lament-
able consequences of an assault, Abd-al-Rahman
ordered arrows to which scrolls were attached to be
shot over the walls. These scrolls conveyed the in-
formation that the walls were undermined, that an
attack was impending, and that an amnesty would
be granted the inhabitants upon the surrender of their
leaders. Some of these proclamations fell into the
hands of the chiefs of the rebellion; their fears were
aroused, and they lost no time in making good their
escape, which they readily effected either through the
negligence or the connivance of the besiegers. The
damages resulting from the siege were repaired; the
488 History of the

fortifications strengthened; the wants of the poor,

who were suffering from hunger, supplied; and
Merida, having for a second time experienced the
extraordinary clemency of her sovereign, returned to
her doubtful allegiance.
Fortunately for the Saracens, the commotion ex-
cited throughout the Frankish empire by the re-
bellion of the sons of Louis prevented the Christians
from profiting by the misfortunes of their enemies,
harassed as they themselves were by the revolt of
great capitals and the growing disaffection of the
people.
The disturbances once quelled and the country ap-
parently at peace, the pious and ambitious spirit of
Abd-al-Rahman, actuated by motives entertained
since the day of induced him to pursue
his accession,
the traditional policy of Islam and inaugurate a cam-
paign against the infidel. Expeditions were de-
spatched into Galicia and the Gothic March,
which
were generally successful, but which exhibited only
the grievous and transitory effects of predatory war-
fare, despite the accounts of monkish chroniclers,
whose love of the marvellous has embellished their
pages with accounts of great victories and miraculous
events recorded with all the circumstantial minuteness
which not infrequently characterizes these narratives.
The fleet of the emirate, which had no rival on the
Mediterranean, co-operated with its armies, and, land-
ing a detachment on the coast of France,
overran the
country and plundered the suburbs of Marseilles.
The martial enterprise and increasing arrogance of
the Khalifate of Bagdad, which had stripped the
Asia Minor
Byzantine Empire of its possessions in
and had frequently threatened Constantinople itself,
led the Emperor Theophilus to imitate the example of
hispredecessor and solicit the aid of the Emirate of
a greater reputa-
Spain, whose power had attained
 Moorish Empire in Europe 489

tion in the East than was warranted either by the

character of population, the stability of its civil
its

institutions, or the extent of its military resources.

The result of this embassy corresponded with that of
the one sent by Michael the Stammerer. The envoys
were received and dismissed with honor; costly gifts
were exchanged between the two sovereigns; and the
most flattering promises of assistance were given by
Abd-al-Rahman contingent on the security of his own
dominions, whose fulfilment was prevented, however,
by the incessant agitation of domestic foes and the
apprehension of foreign invasion. The measures of
the Byzantine court were counteracted by the politi-
cal intrigues of the Abbasides, who maintained a close
alliance with the Franks; lavished upon the semi-
barbaric monarchs of the Rhine the curiosities and
luxuries of the Orient and, in the treaties with their
;

Christian auxiliaries, stigmatized the Ommeyades as

schismatics, blasphemers, and traitors, objects of ab-
horrence to orthodox Moslems and entitled to no con-
sideration from an adversary.
The hopes of relief entertained by the Greeks, suffi-

ciently unpromising before, were now rendered en-

tirely vain by the appearance of a strange and terrible
enemy, who descended like a destructive tempest upon
the coast of Lusitania. The Normans, a branch of
the Germanic race, whose origin was identical with
that of the Franks, but who cherished the most un-
compromising hostility towards the latter on account
of their conversion to Christianity, had, for half a
century, been the terror of the maritime countries of
Northern Europe. Inhabiting the bleak and inhos-
pitable coasts of Scandinavia, instinct and necessity
had early taught them the science of navigation, and
experience had shown the facility by which the richest
spoilsmight be wrested from the less warlike nations
of the South. Their boats were of the rudest type,
4*90 History of the

of small dimensions, constructed of osier and hides,

propelled by oars and sails of skins, yet such was the
daring of these sailors that they did not hesitate to
encounter in their frail vessels, during the most in-
clement seasons, the storms of the English Channel
and the Bay of Biscay. They had already carried
their terrible inroads far into the most accessible prov-
inces of England and France. The swiftness of their
movements, their frightful aspect, and the ferocity
of their manners imparted to their incursions the
character of a visitation of incarnate demons. The
votaries of the savage Woden, the Teutonic God of
War, they seemed totally deficient in the attributes
of humanity and mercy. More ruthless than other
barbarians, the infirmities of age, the helplessness of
sex, received no indulgence at their hands. Women,
children, and old men were butchered with the same
relentless animosity as the warrior disabled in the field
of battle. They took no prisoners. All animals that
they encountered were killed. Their brutal natures
were displayed even in their amusements ;and, amidst
the drunken orgies of their festivals, their gods were
pledged in draughts of mead quaffed from the skulls
of slaughtered enemies. Their lofty stature and
gigantic strength; their adventurous spirit, which
carried them across seas where experienced mariners
scarcely dared to venture; their courage, which in-
spired them to contend with tenfold odds, combined
to increase the terror derived from their sudden ap-
pearance and mysterious origin. They had infested
the shores of England during the last years of the
preceding century. Encouraged by success and
tempted by the prospect of booty, their expeditions
had alarmed the provinces of Western France during
the reign of Charlemagne, and had desolated a region
where their descendants were destined to found a
principality to which they gave their name,
and with
 Moorish Empire in Europe 491

whose fortunes, in after times, were associated, in no

small degree, the social organization, the laws, the
glories, and the misfortunes of the people of Great
Britain. They had at first effected a landing on the
coast of the Asturias, whence they soon retired,
prompted to this step rather by the poverty of the
country, which held out no inducements to their
avarice, than through any apprehension from the
well-known prowess of its defenders. Not long after
this, a fleet of fifty- four Norman vessels swept down

upon the shores of Lusitania. The environs of the

city of Lisbon experienced the full effects of the
destructive instincts of these enemies of mankind.
Expelled by the uprising of the population of the
neighborhood, they sailed around the Peninsula; ex-
tended their depredations to the coast of Africa;
plundered Cadiz, and finally entered the Guadal-
quivir. Ascending that stream, they occupied and
sacked the suburbs of Seville, whose inhabitants had
fled at the first intelligence of their approach. In
their encounters with the troops of Abd-al-Rahman,
the pirates had in almost every instance a decided
advantage but news having reached them that a fleet
;

of fifteen vessels, supported by a powerful army, was

preparing to intercept their retreat, they hastily set
sail and effected their escape with insignificant loss.
The facility with which these ferocious adventurers
had penetrated into his dominions, and the damage
inflicted by their pitiless hostility, convinced the Emir
of the necessity of increasing his naval power, the only
effectual means of protecting the vulnerable points
of his kingdom and of preventing the recurrence of
such a calamity. Vessels were accordingly con-
structed in the dockyards of the Mediterranean;
watch-towers were erected at frequent intervals; a
system of signals and posts was established; and the
coast defences in each military district were placed
492 History of the

in charge of an experienced officer, with whose com-

mand the naval forces were directed to co-operate.
The wisdom of these precautions was soon demon-
strated, and the Normans, warned by the formidable
preparations everywhere in readiness to oppose their
landing, ceased to seriously molest the shores of the
Peninsula.
In the division of the vast and unwieldy empire of
Charlemagne, which scarcely preserved its original

boundaries until the second generation, France and

the Gothic March fell to the share of Charles the
Bald, the eldest son of the weak and amiable Louis.
The discord which had arisen between Frankish and
Gothic aspirants to power in the fief that the fore-
sight of the Emperor had founded beyond the Pyr-
enees, grew more bitter with the progress of time and
the infliction of mutual injury. The intrigues of
Count Bernhart, formerly chamberlain at the court
of Aix-la-Chapelle, who represented the national
party against the Frankish usurpation, were prin-
cipally responsible for the manifestation of the in-
dependent spirit which not infrequently ignored the
rights of the foreign suzerain, and even maintained
amicable relations with the infidels of Cordova.
Charles, aware of the intrepid character of his secret
enemy whose popularity made him still more dan-
gerous, inveigled him into his power by flattering
promises of favor and promotion; and, as the un-
suspecting victim bent the knee before his master,
the latter stabbed him with his own hand. The enor-
mity of the deed was aggravated by the horrible
suspicion of parricide, as popular opinion, based upon
his former intimacy with the Empress Judith, had

long ascribed to Count Bernhart the paternity of the

Frankish sovereign.
This act of perfidy, so far from appeasing the dis-
content that pervaded the turbulent society of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 493

Gothic March, contributed greatly to its encourage-

ment. The populace, as well as the nobles, whose
opinions had changed, and who now regarded Bern-
hart as the champion of their liberties instead of an
intruder, were thoroughly exasperated. The country
became a prey to anarchy, where the rule of the
strongest prevailed. This favorable opportunity,
aided perhaps by suggestions of sympathizers with
the government of Cordova and individuals who had
suffered from the rapacity of the feudal lords, in-
vited another invasion by the Saracens. The land
was again devastated. Barcelona was delivered to
the troops of the Emir through the connivance of
the Jews, whose trade was seriously affected by the
interminable disputes and broils which had inter-
rupted foreign communications and shaken public
confidence. The Moslem occupation of the Gothic
March, like others that had preceded it, was, however,
but temporary. The walis of the border cities, to all
intents and purposes paramount, were often united
by the closest ties of interest with the Counts of Bar-
celona, and therefore thwarted every attempt at the
recovery of the Gothic territory by the emirs as
having a tendency to ultimately curtail their privi-
leges and diminish their power. The existence of a
foreign nation within the borders of the emirate,
which could be at once appealed to for support in
case of an attempt by the court of Cordova to enforce
its authority, was a practical guarantee of indepen-

dence.
The closing years of the reign of Abd-al-Rahman
were clouded by a persecution of the Christians pro-
voked by the obstinacy and presumption of aggressive
fanatics who violated the laws, profaned the mosques,
and insulted the memory of Mohammed through an
insane desire for notoriety and martyrdom. The
most severe punishments as well as the most noble
494 History of the

clemency failed alike to suppress this new and in-

creasing disorder. The nature of the Emir, always
averse to cruelty, hesitated to inflict the penalties
imperatively demanded by the outraged feelings of
all true believers. Deeply affected by the troubles
which oppressed his kingdom and cast a shadow over
his domestic life, his health became impaired, and he
died suddenly of apoplexy in the year 822, at the age
of sixty years.
The luxurious tastes and the love of pomp, which
were prominent traits in the character of Abd-al-
Rahman, produced greater changes in the social and
political aspect of the court of Cordova than had been
known under his predecessors. He was the first of
the Moslem rulers of Spain in whose robes were in-
terwoven the royal cipher and the device selected by
the monarch at his accession. He assumed a dignity
and a mystery in his demeanor that had heretofore
been the peculiar attributes of the despotisms of the
Orient. Habitually secluded from the eyes of his
subjects, he never went abroad without a veil, which
effectually concealed his features from the public
gaze. He increased the body-guard, formed by his
father, and spared no expense in securing its devo-
tion and perfecting its equipment. He established a
mint in Cordova, and greatly improved the coinage,
both in the purity of the metal and the elegance of
the inscriptions. Under his supervision two sides of
the courtyard of the Mosque were enclosed with beau-
tiful peristyles, corresponding with the finish and
decorations of the interior. He added to the magnifi-
cence of the capital by the construction of public
baths and fountains, fed by leaden pipes, through
which were conducted into every quarter of the city
the crystal waters of the Sierra Morena. The de-
mands of religion and piety were gratified by the
foundation and endowment of innumerable mosques,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 495

whose materials were composed of costly woods, varie-

gated jasper, and exquisite marbles, and to each of
these houses of worship was attached either a school
or a hospital. Upon the banks of the Guadalquivir
stretched an endless series of gardens devoted to the
recreation of the people, and within whose delightful
precincts were displayed all the resources of the pic-
turesque horticulture of the Orient. Abd-al-Rahman
rivalled the most enlightened khalifs of the East in
his zeal for the encouragement of learning; in his

patronage of science and the arts; in his admiration

for the works of the Greek philosophers, which, during
his reign, were introduced into the Peninsula. One of
his greatest pleasures was to listen to the reading of
the productions of the great scholars of antiquity.
In every town schools sufficient to meet the require-
ments of the population, and provided with the best
available facilities for the imparting of instruction,
arose. All children whom misfortune had left desti-
tute were cared for in charitable institutions main-
tained by the government.
The system of highways, a precious heritage of the
Ccesars, was diligently inspected the roads which had
;

fallen into decay were repaired; new ones were pro-

jected and completed; and the means of intercom-
munication with the most remote provinces of the
emirate brought to a degree of perfection unknown
even in the most nourishing days of the Roman Em-
pire. Many of these great works were undertaken to
relieve the universal induced by national
distress
calamities. A
withering drought had destroyed the
crops and swept away the flocks and herds in Anda-
lusia. Swarms of locusts then settled over the land,
and turned the once smiling landscape into a desert.
Unable to sustain life, multitudes of the starving
peasantry emigrated to Africa, where they found an
hospitable welcome and abundance of food to supply
496 History of the

their necessities. To
the poor who remained, the cus-
tomary taxes were remitted and regular employment
given, the expense being met by disbursements from
the private purse of the Emir. The public granaries
and magazines were opened, and supplies distributed
to the helpless and unfortunate. Thus, by the en-
couragement of industry, the promotion of impor-
tant public improvements throughout the country, and
the embellishment of the city of Cordova and its
environs, the mournful consequences incident to in-
evitable public disasters were largely averted, and the
very events which, at first sight, seemed to threaten
the life of the nation were, through the beneficence
and wisdom of a great monarch, made to contribute
to its profit and permanent advantage.
The kindness and generosity of Abd-al-Rahman at
times degenerated into weakness, which made him the
facile victim of the occupants of his household and
his harem. Constitutionally averse to any display of
severity, acts of insubordination and dishonesty were
suffered, in his very presence, to pass without a repri-
mand. A
passion for music, which dominated his
very being, made him the munificent patron of every
minstrel, whose influence at court was usually propor-
tionate to his talents as a singer or as a performer on
the lute. A
famous musician named Ziryab, whom
Al-Hakem had invited from Bagdad but who arrived
too late to enjoy the favor of his royal host, was
received by his successor with honors worthy of the
ambassadors of the greatest princes. The walis of the
cities through which he was to pass on his way to
Cordova were directed to extend to him every cour-
tesy he was furnished with an escort, and his retinue
;

was increased by a number of eunuchs with whom the

Emir had presented him. A
magnificent residence
was assigned to him in the capital. His pension
amounted to the annual sum of forty thousand pieces
 Moorish Empire in Europe 497

of gold, derived from one of the most valuable estates

of the kingdom. Ziryab, while distinguished for his
musical talents, was also one of the most profound
scholars of his time. His wonderful memory retained
without difficulty the words and airs of ten thousand
different songs. The pupil of the most eminent
doctors of the East, he was equally well versed in
the sciences of history, geography, philosophy, and
medicine. So versatile were his talents and so varied
his accomplishments, that not only the populace, but
even learned writers, gravely attributed the achieve-
ments of his extraordinary intellectual powers to com-
munion with the genii. His extensive acquirements
made him the chosen companion of Abd-al-Rahman,
who delighted in his conversation; and, while the
power of the favorite over his master was unbounded,
it must be said to his credit that it was never abused
or exerted for any base or mercenary purposes. His
exquisite taste and dignified courtesy were not long
in producing an impression upon the society of Anda-
lusia. The manners of the people insensibly grew re-
fined and elegant. Customs savoring of the barbaric
life of the Desert, which the stubborn persistence of
the Arab and Berber natures had retained through
many generations, were by degrees abandoned. The
prolific genius of this wonderfully gifted personage
prescribed different modes of dress, adapted to the
changing seasons; improved regulations in the diplo-
matic service; innovations in the methods of private
entertainments dignified and urbane laws for formal
;

and social intercourse. It revealed the valuable char-

acter of plants and vegetables whose names were
familiar to the Spanish Arabs, but whose uses as food,
or whose medicinal virtues, had hitherto remained un-
known. It added a
fifth string to the lute, thereby

greatly increasing the compass and harmony of that

instrument. It bestowed upon the toilets of the harem
Vol. I. 32
498 History of the

harmless and refreshing perfumes and cosmetics. It

supplied the banquets of the rich with savory dishes,
worthy of the most fastidious epicure, some of which
bear to this day the name of their inventor. It de-
vised means for increasing the comfort and cleanli-
ness of the poor. It suggested sanitary arrangements
which might promote the healthfulness of great cities
by an improved system of drainage. The wit of
Ziryab which delighted the court was not inferior to
his learning, nor to the wonderful ingenuity which

applied to the various concerns of life the valuable

principles of practical philosophy. His epigrams are
still repeated as
proverbs by the Mohammedans of
Africa. His skill in the art of improvisation was
phenomenal. A couplet appropriate to every occa-
sion, a witticism in rhyme which enlivened the most
ordinary discourse, were never wanting to his ready
and active intellect. His mental powers were uncon-
sciously employed while those of others slumbered,
and he not infrequently aroused his female slaves in
the middle of the night in order to seize and memorize
the harmonious creations of his tireless brain. The
creed of the Moslem peremptorily forbids the adora-
tion of its heroes, but the justice of humanity has
immortalized the name of Ziryab by transmitting it
to after-ages in the same category with those of its
most illustrious philosophers, and has thus indemnified
itself for the privation of a useful custom which would
elsewhere have honored the object of its admiration
and gratitude with splendid statues of bronze and
marble, and with an eternal abiding-place in both the
visible and invisible heavens.
The intercession of Ziryab with his royal master,
whose mind was absolutely dominated by the brilliant
talents and courtly graces of his favorite, was often
invoked by applicants for pecuniary emoluments and
official distinction, but generally in vain. The hazard-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 499

ous game of politics offered no allurements to the

polished and dainty epicurean. Secure in the posses-
sion of wealth and fame, he cheerfully abandoned the
intrigues, the vexations, and the dangers of political
life to another personage whose abilities, in their

peculiar sphere, not inferior to his own, bore the stamp

of a dark and sinister character.
The ambition of the faqui Yahya-Ibn-Yahya, the
leader of the revolt of the southern suburb of Cor-
dova, which caused the depopulation of one-fifth of
the area of the capital and the expatriation of twenty
thousand industrious subjects of the emirate, has
already been mentioned in these pages. The nation-
ality of this fanatic, and the address which he dis-
played in excusing his crimes, had, strangely enough,
exempted him from the punishment he merited.
Having regained, to a certain extent, the favor of
the proud and arbitrary Al-Hakem, whose inclina-
tions were never to the side of mercy, he had obtained
a singular ascendant over the mind of the more pliable
Abd-al-Rahman. Instructed by experience that open
opposition to the constituted authority was not the
surest method of attaining to distinction, he changed
his tactics; courted the approbation of the monarch

by subservience and flattery, varied at times by fits

of insolence, which were overlooked as eccentricities
or manifestations of righteous indignation provoked
by the depravity of mankind and, while he appeared
;

to figure only as an occasional adviser of the Emir,

he in reality engrossed the entire political and judicial
power of the State. His ostentatious humility pro-
cured for him the reverent esteem of the populace.
The superiority of his intellect and his vast attain-
ments were acknowledged by the learned. The
tacitly
prestige he had acquired as the founder of the Mali-
kites in Spain made him the oracle of every student
and doctor of theology. It was by means of this
500 History of the

was enabled to immeasurably

latter distinction that he
extend and confirm his influence. Ambitious men
soon perceived that the great civil dignitaries of the
realm the chief kadis and the subordinate officials of
the courts of judicature were invariably selected
from the fashionable sect, and were individuals who
stood highest in Yahya's favor. As a natural conse-
quence, the popularity of the doctrines of Malik-
Ibn-Anas increased daily, and the adherents of the
Medinese sage, in a few years, outnumbered all other
sectaries combined. The policy of Yahya led him
to decline the exercise of all official employments, an

example of self-denial which, while it served to dis-

guise his ambition, greatly strengthened his authority.
In the exalted sphere in which he moved his power was
autocratic. He imposed degrading penances upon his
sovereign, who performed them with patience and
humility. He exacted from the people those outward
signs of reverence which superstition is accustomed to
accord to the favorites of heaven and which are but
one degree below idolatry. The ecclesiastical affairs
of the Peninsula were absolutely subject to his con-
trol. Hedictated the most important decisions ema-
nating from the courts of justice; and, when a
magistrate ventured to assert his independence by
the promulgation of an opinion which had not been
approved by the arrogant faqui, he at once received
a slip of paper on which was written the single word,
"
Resign!"
The Abd-al-Rahman, utilized for
plastic nature of
the profit of a musician and a religious impostor, also
exposed him to the artifices of a petulant and selfish
woman. An ardent temperament rendered him pecu-
liarly susceptible to the attractions
of the sex. Among
the numerous beauties of his harem was one named
Tarub, who was equally dominated by the absorbing
passions of ambition and avarice. Infatuated with
 Moorish Empire in Europe 501

her charms and beguiled by her caresses, the Emir

became her slave. His prodigal generosity towards
this unworthy favorite, which threatened to
deplete
the treasury, frequently, but in vain, elicited the re-
monstrances of his councillors. On one occasion her
blandishments induced him to present her with a neck-
lace valued at a hundred thousand dinars. On an-
other, she refused to open her door until it had been
entirely concealed by bags of money heaped up
against it. Utterly destitute of affection or grati-
tude, she endeavored to perpetuate her influence by
a crime which reveals the incredible cruelty and in-
famy of her character. Of the forty-five sons of
Abd-al-Rahman, the eldest, Mohammed, had been
selected by his father to succeed him. Tarub, who
had employed all her arts, but without success, to ob-
tain the crown for her own son, Abdallah, now deter-
mined to secure by murder what her powers of per-
suasion had failed to accomplish. The services of the
eunuch Nassir, who exercised the office of chamber-
lain, was devoted to the interests of his mistress, and
bore no good-will to the Emir, were employed in this
emergency. Nassir was of Spanish origin, hated the
sect of his ancestors with peculiar animosity, and had
been the willing instrument of the recent persecution
which the mistaken policy of the government had
deemed it necessary to inflict upon the Christians.
Under the direction of Tarub, the eunuch paid a visit
to Harrani, a distinguished Syrian physician, who had
recently begun the practice of his profession at Cor-
dova. Nassir, having assured Harrani of his esteem
and hinted that the conferring of the favor he was
about to ask would enure to his future advantage,
presented him with a purse containing a thousand
pieces of gold, and requested him to have ready by a
certain day a quantity of one of the most deadly
poisons known to science.
502 History of the

The natural acuteness of the physician, increased

by long experience in the sinister transactions of
courts, was at no loss to detect the object for which
these preparations were intended. The character of
the perfidious Tarub and her inordinate ambition
were, moreover, no secret in Cordova; but, while the
politic Harrani had no desire to, even by implication,
connive at the death of the Emir, he was equally
averse to compromise his prospects and imperil his
own safety by openly denouncing the eunuch, whose
friends would not fail to avenge the betrayal of his
treason. He therefore caused a warning to be secretly
conveyed to Abd-al-Rahman not to taste anything
offered him by the chamberlain. The declining health
of the monarch favored the designs of the conspira-
tors, and the eunuch seized the first opportunity to
recommend, with every expression of solicitude, the
poison to his master as a potent remedy which he had
procured from a famous practitioner. The Emir,
upon whom the warning of Harrani had not been
lost, and who seemed to the attendants to be merely

adopting a salutary and not unusual precaution, di-

rected the eunuch to drink some of the potion him-
self. Unable to refuse, Nassir swallowed a part of
the contents of the phial. Then, withdrawing from
the royal presence, he sought in terror the aid of the
physician. An antidote was promptly administered,
but the poison had done its work, and, the victim of
his own perfidiousness, Nassir expired in horrible
agony.
The enfeebled constitution of Abd-al-Rahman was
unable to sustain the revelation of the malice and
dishonor of those whom he loved and trusted and the
;

amiable monarch who had not, by many years, reached

the allotted term of human life, a few weeks after
the exposure of the conspiracy followed his chamber-
lain to the grave.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 503

The jealousy of the Ommeyades, following the ex-

ample of the Khalifs of Damascus, early introduced
into their dominions the employment of eunuchs, and
these creatures almost immediately assumed and exer-
cised a secret, but none the less dangerous, power in
the administration of the government as well as in the
intrigues and plots of the harem. Their mutilation,
which, according to common belief, was presumed to
insure absolute fidelity to their masters' interests, made
them the enemies of the human race. An insatiable
thirst for gold, a vindictiveness only to be appeased
by the destruction of the objects of their displeasure,
had supplanted in their breasts those sentiments of
natural affection which had been forever eradicated
by the barbarity of man. The confidants and constant
associates of the sultanas, they became the tools of
every conspiracy, and not infrequently the originators
of measures involving the most important political
consequences.
The support of these vile instruments, indispen-
sable to the designs of criminal ambition, had been
already secured by the Princess Tarub, whose rapacity
had, for once, yielded to her greed for power. Un-
dismayed by the fate of Nassir, and ignoring the sus-
picions aroused by his sudden death, she, by every
her command, by promises of future favors
artifice at
and concessions and by a prodigal liberality, had en-
rolled among her partisans the potent and unscrupu-
lous guardians of the harem.
The careless Abd-al-Rahman, whose condition had
not warranted any expectation of his untimely end,
had neglected to officially designate his successor to
the throne. His choice, however, was well known to
have been fixed upon his eldest son, Mohammed, a
cold, sordid, narrow-minded, but able prince; penuri-
ous to a degree unprecedented among youths of royal
lineage, but of large experience in the arts of war
504 History of the

and government, and of unquestioned orthodoxy.

Abdallah, on the other hand, was a devotee of pleas-
ure. His palace was nightly the scene of boisterous
revels, that were protracted until long after sunrise.
He shunned all serious occupations. His intimate
friends were debauchees and parasites, whose conver-
sation was seasoned with licentious jests which did not
spare either the officials of state or the ministers of
religion. Rarely was he seen to enter the door of the
mosque, or to assist at the ceremonies of public wor-
ship. Despised by the populace and abhorred by the
devout, his pre-eminent unfitness for the responsi-
bilities of empire was also recognized by the eunuchs,
whom nothing but the prodigality of his mother
could ever have induced to espouse his cause. Abu-
al-Mofrih, one of the former, who possessed great
influence among his fellows, determined, with the
proverbial inconstancy of his kind, to gratify his
malice and provide for the future by the commission
of a double treason. The heterodox opinions of Ab-
dallah afforded a plausible excuse for the perfecting
of his scheme. By constant insinuations of the
dangers to which the emirate would be exposed if he
were raised to power, and by descanting with pious
horror upon the sacrilegious life of that profligate
prince, he excited apprehensions in the minds of
the eunuchs that their own interests might be seri-
ously endangered by a ruler whose previous career
had been directed by unbelievers and by persons who
had frequently evinced marked contempt for their
order. The harshness and notorious parsimony of
Mohammed were at first declared by the eunuchs to
render him ineligible serious impediments to success,
;

indeed, in a court governed to a great extent by the

soft influences of the seraglio and by the unsparing
use of gold. The objections were soon answered by
the wily Abu-al-Mofrih, whose experience and repu-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 505

tation gave him a right to take the lead in a project

demanding courage and tact, and it was quietly un-
derstood that Mohammed was the candidate for whom
the empire was reserved. The death of Abd-al-Rah-
man occurred after midnight. According to Oriental
custom, the gates of the palace which was walled
and moated like a castle were closed, and no one was
permitted to leave or enter without satisfactory ex-
planation of his errand and proof of his identity. By
a time-honored practice that prescriptive usage had
confirmed as legal, the prince who first after the
monarch's death obtained possession of the royal resi-
dence was considered to have the presumptive right
to the crown. Sadun, a eunuch, who had reluctantly
assented to the rejection of Abdallah, but who had
lately become a firm partisan of his brother, was
selected to inform Mohammed of his good fortune.
The of the latter was on the opposite bank of the
villa

Guadalquivir, and the eunuch, providing himself with

the keys of the city gate, which opened upon the
bridge, traversed the silent streets until he reached
the palace of Abdallah, in front of which he was
forced to pass. The halls were aglow with light and
the noise of drunken revelry rang upon the air, as the
muffled figure of the eunuch glided stealthily by the
portals on its mysterious errand. Mohammed, sum-
moned from the bath, received the message with sur-
prise and incredulity. Even the production of his
father's signet, which Sadun exhibited as a token of
good faith, was not sufficient to convince him. Re-
garding the eunuch as an executioner sent by Ab-
dallah to take away his life, he abjectly implored the
mercy of the messenger, who, so far from intending
injury, had been deputed to tender him a crown. The
protestations of Sadun finally prevailed, and the
steward of Mohammed's household was called to assist
in devising means to enter the royal palace, an indis-
506 History of the

pensable preliminary to success. His suggestion to

apply to the governor of the city was adopted, but
that cautious functionary declined to compromise him-
self by countenancing an enterprise whose issue was
so hazardous. The night was fast passing away, and
it was evident that
something must be done quickly,
as dawn would bring discovery, and perhaps death, to
all concerned.Again the fertile invention of the
steward, Ibn-Musa, came to the aid of his master in
"
his deep perplexity. Thou knowest, O my Lord,"
"
said he, that I have often conducted thy daughter
to the royal palace. Disguise thyself at once in her
garments, and God willing we shall pass the guards."
The advice being approved, Mohammed was speedily
enveloped in the veil and flowing robes of the inmates
of the harem and mounted upon an ass. The animal
was led by the steward, Sadun marching in front; the
sentinels were passed without difficulty but the wary
;

eunuch, fearful of being followed, directed Ibn-Musa

to remain near Abdallah's mansion, while he conducted
the prince alone. Arriving at the palace, the knock of
Sadun was answered by the porter, an old man who
had long served the emirs in that responsible capacity.
Peering cautiously through the postern and recog-
"
nizing the eunuch, he exclaimed, Whom have you
"
there, O Sadun?" The latter responded, The
daughter of our prince Mohammed ;
make haste and
admit us!" Smiling, as he suspiciously examined the
lofty stature and ample proportions of the supposed
"
damsel, the porter rejoined, Verily, O Sadun, the
lady has grown to almost twice her size since she was
here a few days since; let her raise her veil that I
may see her face." The eunuch demurred; but the
porter threatening to withdraw, Mohammed himself
and disclosed to the astonished gaze
lifted the veil,
of the porter the well-known features of the eldest
"
son of Abd-al-Rahman. My father is dead," said
 Moorish Empire in Europe 507
"
the prince, and I have come to take possession of
'

the palace." I do not doubt thy word," replied

"
the porter, but mine own eyes must convince me of
the truth of thy statement before I can admit thee."
'

Then come at once," exclaimed

Sadun, and, leaving
Mohammed eunuch led the way to
in the street, the
I am satisfied,"
'

the death-chamber of the Emir.

said the faithful servitor, bursting into tears, and

returning, he opened the gate and kissed the hand

of the prince with every protestation of loyalty and
obedience. The household was aroused; the officials
of state were summoned in haste to the palace, and
required to swear allegiance to the new sovereign and ;

thus, through the address of a handful of eunuchs,

who dispensed with equal alacrity the penalties of
hatred and the offices of friendship, a serious revo-
lution was averted, and a turn given to national affairs
that permanently influenced the future of the Saracen
empire.
The first acts of Mohammed after his accession
gave undoubted proof of his zeal, and elicited
the enthusiastic applause of the theologians, who
henceforth became his most devoted subjects. Every,
official and every public servant who was even sus-

pected of a leaning towards Christianity was dis-

charged without ceremony, and their places were
filled with Mussulmans of the most pronounced

orthodoxy. The law which forbade the erection or

the enlargement of churches a fundamental article
of the convention of Musa had been to a great ex-
tent ignored by the emirs, even under the aggrava-
tion of treason and conspiracy and, as a consequence
;

of this indulgence, new places of worship had arisen

in those localities where an increasing Christian popu-
lation required greater facilities for the services of its

religion. By a sweeping edict, Mohammed directed

every church and chapel built since the invasion of
508 History of the

Tarik to be razed to the ground. The officers who

were charged with the execution of this order, more
zealous for their faith than solicitous for the honor
of their sovereign, waged indiscriminate destruction
against all edifices set apart by the Christians for
sacred uses, regardless of the sanctity of their tradi-
tions or the date of their foundation. A persecution,
encouraged by the faquis, was also inaugurated
against the obstinate sectaries, who continued to
solicit with so much ardor the crown of martyrdom,
in comparison with which the severity of Abd-al-
Rahman assumed the appearance of moderation. The
evidence of the Fathers of the Church, so suspicious
in regard to all that reflects upon the credit of their
profession or decries the triumphs of their enemies,
may perhaps be received to confirm the statement of
the Arabs that an immense number of Christians,
alarmed by the tortures inflicted upon their fellow-
communicants, yielded to temptation and apostatized.
But it was not among the infidels alone that it was
found necessary to invoke the intervention of the
sovereign authority. In the bosom of Islam, a serious
dispute had arisen concerning the interpretation of
the Koran and the settlement of certain controverted
points of doctrine that, in their theological importance
and general relation to the Faith, bore no proportion
whatever to the virulent animosity exhibited by their
several advocates. As the Ommeyades of Spain had
early arrogated to themselves, without exception* the
functions and privileges of the exalted office of khalif
,

in which were united the most despotic powers of

Church and State, Mohammed, whose discrimination
showed him the necessity of deciding this religious
controversy before its champions appealed to arms,
asserted his prerogative by ordering the rival doctors
to respectively plead their cause in his presence. The
arguments were heard, and the Malikites, whose pros-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 509

perity under the former reign had greatly increased

their pride and insolence, sustained a signal defeat in
their attempt to refute the doctrines of the Hanbal-
ites, their adversaries. With
a liberality not to be
expected in a ruler whom posterity, perhaps not with-
out injustice, has agreed to stigmatize with the name
of bigot, Mohammed decided that the objections
urged against the creed of the Hanbalites as preached
by Al-Baki, the leader of that sect, were frivolous,
and that its tenets were neither based upon misinter-
pretation of the texts of the Koran nor antagonistic
to the generally received tradition.
With the double object of diverting the minds of
his subjects from theological disputes and projects
of sedition and to repress the encroaching spirit of
the Christian princes of the North, whose conquests
were making serious inroads on the Moslem territory,
Mohammed proclaimed the Holy War, the forces
destined for this purpose being placed under the
command of the walis of Merida and Saragossa.
The Gothic March once more underwent the fright-
ful evils of invasion, and the Saracen army again
penetrated the enemy's country to the very walls of
Narbonne. The wali of Saragossa, Musa-Ibn-Zeyad,
entrusted with the conduct of the campaign against
the King of the Asturias, after some unimportant
successes in Galicia, was defeated with great loss at
Albeyda, which town, having been taken by King
Ordono, and the Arab garrison massacred, was aban-
doned to the tender mercies of the barbarous soldiery.
The populace of Toledo, whose implacable hatred
of its Saracen masters no exhibition of clemency
could diminish and no example of severity intimidate,
having learned of the persecution of their Christian
brethren at Cordova, and apprehensive lest the zeal-
ous efforts of the f aquis whose influence at that time
dominated the policy of the government might be
510 History of the

extended to their own organized a revolt, seized

city,
the Arab governor, and demanded of the Emir in
exchange for that official the hostages whom they
had given to Abd-al-Rahman II. as security for their
loyalty and good behavior. With a weakness that
formed no part of his character, and for which no
historical account affords an explanation, Moham-
med acquiesced. The fierce Toledans then began to
carry on war in earnest. Accustomed from child-
hood to the use of arms and the exposure of a mili-
tary life, they repeatedly proved more than a match
for the disciplined veterans of the emirate. They
drove out the garrison of Calatrava and demolished
its walls. Then, suddenly traversing the passes of
the Sierra Morena, they surprised at Andujar a
detachment of the royal forces sent to attack them,
captured its baggage, and plundered its camp. Never
before in the history of Toledan rebellions had the
insurgents ventured so near the capital. The Emir
keenly felt the insult to his dignity, and, at the head
of all the troops he could collect in such an emergency,
advanced to punish the rebels. The latter retired, and
their leader, Sindola,whose name indicates his Gothic
descent, sent an envoy to the King of the Asturias for
aid. The Christian prince, perceiving at a glance the
extraordinary benefits which would result from an
alliance with a powerful faction in the heart of the
Moslem dominions, responded at once to the appeal
with a strong body of veterans, who succeeded in
entering the city before the arrival of Mohammed.
The strength of the walls and the prowess of the
garrison forbade the hope of a successful assault,
and
induced Mohammed to have recourse to a stratagem
worthy of the cunning and astuteness of an Arab.
Concealing his troops in the ravine traversed by the
Guadacelete, he appeared before Toledo with a squad-
ron of cavalry and made preparations to encamp.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 511

The rebels, seeingwhat was apparently an excellent

opportunity to cut off this vanguard before the ar-
rival of the main body, made a sally, and, before they
were aware of their danger, were drawn into the trap
laid for them and surrounded. Dreadful carnage
followed; but few escaped, and a ghastly heap of
eight thousand heads, collected in the field of battle,
attested the animosity of the victors and the mis-
fortune of the vanquished. These sinister trophies,
ranged along the battlements of Cordova and other
Andalusian cities, were long an admonition to traitors
of the terrible lesson that the Toledans and their in-
fidel allies had received on the banks of the Guada-
celete. The great loss sustained
by the insurgents,
amounting to twenty thousand, for only the Christians
and such Mussulman leaders as were killed or taken
prisoners were decapitated, so far from crushing the
obstinate spirit of the inhabitants of the imperial city
of the Visigoths, only served to increase their fury and
confirm their resolution. Their offensive operations
were, however, effectually checked. The garrison, re-
duced to less than one-third of its number, was forced
to remain inactive behind the fortifications. It was
with mingled feelings of rage and despair that the
industrious as well as the wealthy part of the popu-
lation, whose possessions had hitherto been respected
in the hope of timely submission, beheld the desola-
tion of their gardens, the uprooting of their vineyards,
the burning of their villas, those evidences of pros-
perity and luxury that embellished for many a mile
the banks of the famous Tagus. Their thoughts were
further embittered by the consciousness that these
ravages were not inflicted through any fault of theirs,
but through the turbulence and ill-directed ambition
of Jews and renegades, whose numbers were swelled
by a crowd of vagabonds and criminals attracted by
the evil reputation of the city, the worst elements of
512 History of the

a lawless population, the refuse of a score of great

communities. An additional advantage gained by the
troops of Mohammed served to still further depress
the spirits of the Toledans, although no disaster
seemed sufficient to impel them to a voluntary return
to their allegiance. The principal bridge that gave
access to the city was secretly mined. An
attack was
then made on one of the gates; the assailants retired
in apparent disorder; the besieged pursued; and, at
the proper instant, tlie wooden supports were removed
from the piers, and the whole structure, crowded with
the soldiers of the enemy, was precipitated into the
waters of the Tagus. Not an individual escaped, for
such as were able to save themselves from the rapid
current of the river were shot by the archers of the
Emir, stationed on the banks for that purpose. These
repeated misfortunes impressed the Toledans with the
necessity of peace. Their valor and their constancy
under the most discouraging circumstances, although
exhibited in an evil cause, cannot but excite the ad-
miration of every reader. For the long period of
twenty years Mohammed made incessant but vain
attempts to subdue them. They defied the utmost
efforts of his power. They menaced him in his very
capital. They routed often commanded
his armies,

by princes of the blood. They dismantled his strong-

holds. The most overwhelming reverses only nerved
them to greater exertions. Great losses in the field,
the tortures of famine, the murmurs of their dis-
affected townsmen, could not shake their determina-
tion or excite their fears. The attempts to storm
were repulsed with heroic courage.
their fortifications
Their decimated ranks were recruited from the sturdy
mountaineers of Leon and the Asturias. It is in vain
that the modern historian searches for the motives that
inspired and sustained this sentiment of independence,
this habitual defiance of authority. The ancient
 Moorish Empire in Europe 513

Gothic spirit was not sufficient to account for such

an anomalous condition of affairs, although the
Christians greatly outnumbered the members of all
other sects. There existed no unity of religious feel-
ing which might actuate zealots to deeds of self-
sacrifice and martyrdom. The population of Toledo
is represented by all writers as a remarkably hetero-
geneous one. The Christians mention it freely with
contempt. The Moslems, without exception, allude
to it as a faithless and turbulent rabble. The reason
for the suicidal policy that neglected to demolish the
fortificationsof this centre of sedition, and did not
measure of wholesale expatria-
resort to the drastic
tion when milder means had repeatedly failed, also
remains a mystery. It required no great degree of
statesmanship to perceive the inevitable consequences
of the irrepressible spirit of rebellion encouraged, as
it was, by the ill-timed clemency and indulgence of

the sovereign. At length, emboldened by their alli-

ance with the Christians of the North, and taking
advantage of the embarrassments of their antagonist,
harassed by enemies at home and abroad, they ex-
torted from the Emir a treaty which virtually con-
ceded their independence. It allowed them to select
their own magistrates, including the governor, and to

regulate without interference their municipal and

ecclesiastical affairs. Toledo, by the payment of an
annual tribute, was thus placed upon the same po-
litical footing as that of a province recently subjected
to the arms of Islam, and must henceforth, for many
years, cease to be regarded as an integral part of the
Moorish empire.
In the meantime, the example of Toledo had been
followed by other cities, whose inhabitants, exasper-
ated by their grievances and instigated by the ambi-
tion of daring chieftains, kept the country in con-
tinued disorder and exercised to the utmost the energy
Vol. I. 33
514 History of the

and abilities of Mohammed. The evil consequences

of that pernicious system, peculiar to the Arabs, of-
entrusting important commands to renegades with-
out previous satisfactory tests of their fidelity, were
once more demonstrated. Musa-Ibn-Zeyad, who
traced his descent from the branch of the Visi-
gothic nobility known to the Arabs as the Beni-
Kasi, and whom we have seen defeated at Albeyda,
was soon afterwards, through the intrigues of fanati-
cal courtiers who accused him of treason, removed
from his post of wali of Saragossa and disgraced.
This officer, whose military talents and political ca-
ave-
pacity were far above the average, seeing all
nues for promotion under the emirate closed, and
keenly feeling the injustice of the treatment he had
received, proceeded at once to organize an insurrec-
tion, an easy matter among the adventurers of the
frontier naturally prone to inconstancy and insub-
ordination. Popular among his subjects, almost the
entire province of which Saragossa was the capital
declared for his cause. Tudela, Huesca, Toledo, so-
licited his alliance. Having baffled the efforts of the
Emir to crush him, he transmitted his authority to
his son Musa. The latter, securing the friendship and

support of the Navarrese, crossed the Pyrenees, and

carried fire and sword into Southern France. His
success was so remarkable, and the resources of the
French monarchy were so inadequate to resist the
progress of this enterprising partisan, that Charles
the Bald not only condescended to treat with him on
equal terms, but purchased immunity from future in-
roads by the payment of a large sum of money and
the bestowal of magnificent gifts. The distinction
acquired by Musa from the results of this expedition

indirectlyproduced great accessions to his power. His

son Lope became one of the magistrates of Toledo.
The restless population of the border flocked to his
 Moorish Empire in Europe 515

standard by thousands. His army was further aug-

mented 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, en-
deared to the people by the exploits of its founders,
regained its former ascendency, and once more ex-
pelled the forces of the emirate. Although nothing
issaid 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, en-
trusted to these distinguished princes the education
of his son Ordono, 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 mediaeval
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 Gali-
cians and by the prudence of Abd-al-Rahman II.,
516 History or the

who, as already related, had established a coast-guard,

and disposed the naval forces of the emirate to inter-
cept 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 un-
expected, 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 east-
ward, 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 in-
stinctive antipathy of the savages of the North to all
that bore the stamp of civilization was gratified with-
out 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 Ordofio 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 ex-
tended 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
 Moorish Empire in Europe 517

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 imme-
diately 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, in-
cluding, among others, Coria and Salamanca, fell into
the hands of the Christians. The effects of this vigor-
ous 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 pre-
sumptive 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 en-
virons of that city were devastated; some castles
throughout the province which had sheltered formid-
able 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 in-
domitable 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
518 History of the

their attack. The fields and vineyards of Lisbon

were trampled down by the Christian squadrons; the
town of Cintra was burned, and every hamlet acces-
sible 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 de-
spatched in all haste to intercept their retreat, they
retired with the same celerity which had marked their

appearance.
Unable to arrest these inroadsby 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 dis-
orders, 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 Visi-
goths 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, de-
serted, and, accompanied by a few of his retainers,
seized the castle of Alanje, near Merida. Besieged
 Moorish Empire in Europe 519

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 bor-
rowed from those of both Christianity and Islamism;
increased his following by the enlistment of bandits
and outlaws and, imitating the example of the Tole-
;

dans, 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 anni-
hilated; 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 de-
manded 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 in-
creased 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 con-
sented 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.
520 History of the

The effect of this pusillanimous conduct upon the

malcontents and fanatics who infested every commu-
nity of the emirate a society the amalgamation of
whose elements seemed utterly impracticable; desti-
tute 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 imag-
ined. 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 alle-
giance. 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 sud-
den and irretrievable ruin.
From the time of the Caesars, 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 moun-
taineer 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 free-
dom, in strength of body, in military prowess, was the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 521

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 bar-
barians 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 in-
creased by the close relations maintained by even the
most remote settlements, leagued together in a con-
federacy 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
fierytemper 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 of Islam. His son, con-
belief in the doctrines
cerned in frequent broils with the hot-headed peas-
antry 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-Haf sun
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
522 History of the

law, he sought the presence of his father, who dis-

owned 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 appren-
tice. Here he was soon after recognized by an ac-
quaintance, and, apprehensive of being denounced as
a fugitive from justice and surrendered for execu-
tion, 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 in-
creased 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 expe-
rienced 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 im-

portant command in the army. Between the accept-

ance 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 of the emirate. In many engagements with
officer
the insurgents and mountaineers of the North, he bore
 Moorish Empiee in Europe 523

himself with a self-respecting dignity little to be ex-

pected 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 pros-
perity 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, regu-

larly furnished him with rations unfit for consump-

tion. His complaints were ineffectual; even his pa-
tron 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 strength-
ened, 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 domi-
nant Arab aristocracy. By assuming the character
524 History of the

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 brigand-
age. The members of his band were subjected to the
most severe restraint. Robbery and insubordina-
tion 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 mo-
lestation. Such a demonstration of security would
have been elsewhere impracticable, even in the popu-
lous 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-Haf sun adopted
all those politic expedients which raise commanders
to popularity and renown, inexorable justice, un-
stinted liberality, prompt recognition of efficient ser-
vice, merciless punishment of serious infractions of

discipline. His increasing power invited the adhe-

rence 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
loj^alty. 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 representa-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 525

tions he induced many towns to submit to his au-

thority, 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 peace-
ful. 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 earth-
quakes that increased the mortality to an appalling
degree.
This epoch conspicuous for the shameful degra-
is

dation of the Ommeyade dynasty of Spain. In its

general features, it an epitome of the
also presents
evils which afflicted the Hispano-Arab domination
under every ruler and in every age. The inherent
vices of the Moslem system; the irreconcilable char-
acter of the constituents of Moslem society their
turbulence, malignity, and faithlessness were dis-
cernible 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 foot-
hold in the Gothic March, forever lost to the juris-
diction 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
526 History or the

an insignificant principality. Septimania, Leon, Ar-

agon, 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 un-
concealed signs of disaffection, caused by the imposi-
tion 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, exer-
cised despotic rule over the greater part of Andalusia.
Brigands swarmed on the highways. Travel was im-
possible, except under the protection of a strong es-
cort. Communication between the great cities of the
Peninsula was as difficult as if they had been sepa-
rated by vast continents or seas. At one time, for
eight years, intercourse was entirely suspended be-
tween Saragossa and Cordova. In every community
an ill-defined but universal presentiment of impend-
ing 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,
de-
agricultural and commercial operations greatly
clined, and in some districts were absolutely sus-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 527

pended. The public revenues were diminished to

such an extent that even the penuriousness of the
Emir, aided by the extortions of his merciless offi-
cials, 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 intes-
;

tine warfare in the almost unresisted encroachments

;

of the Christian arms; in the habitual treachery of

officers entrusted with high commands; in the jeal-
ousies 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 termi-
nating in disgrace and disaster.
The character of Mohammed was principally re-
markable for irresolution and parsimony. He sur-
rendered whole provinces and degraded his dignity
by humiliating concessions extorted by the threats
of insolent chiefs of banditti. Such was his mean-
ness 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 grace-
ful poet and orator, and one of the most accomplished
calligraphists of his time. The lack of effective or-
ganization; and implacable hostility that
the secret
pervaded every branch of the body politic; the bold-
528 History of the

ness and tenacity of the Asturians, aided by the

sympathy of an innumerable body of Christian eccle-
siastics domiciled in every city and village of the em-

pire; 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.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 529

CHAPTER XI
reign or 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 Se-
ville 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 na-
tional traditions, in manners, language, and religious
belief, no two races could be more dissimilar. Yet, in
many respects, the accounts of the disturbances fol-
lowing 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 inde-
pendent 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
Vol. I. 34
530 History of the

of his son as heir apparent, who had, not infrequently,

been associated with him in the conduct of the admin-
istration.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 swear-

ing allegiance to the prince whom paternal affection,

and sometimes distinguished merit, had designated as
the future sovereign. This assent, prompted by in-
terest 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 genera-
tions, 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 conclu-
sive 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 in-
subordination came civil war and the lamentable con-
sequences of internecine conflict. The savage instincts
of the Gothic princes caused them to blind their un-
fortunate 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
 Moorish Empire in Europe 531

in continual hostility, marked resem-

exhibiting
blances when they were be expected, and, in
least to

disposing of offences aimed at the throne and life

of the monarch, displaying, on the one hand, an in-
dulgence 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
Ordoflo for four years preceding his advent to the
throne, he was far from being a novice when sum-
moned to assume the grave responsibilities of sov-
ereignty. 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 Al-
fonso. The enterprise resulted disastrously; the bar-
barous 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 eyesight and impris-
oned 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 deter-
532 History of the

mined resistance are in themselves sufficiently remark-

able; but the fact that the hero who directed opera-
tions which thwarted the designs and repulsed the
forces of an entire kingdom for this extended period
was totally blind may well awaken surprise and ad-
miration.
The eminent abilities of Alfonso III. were dis-

played 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, Siman-
cas, 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 squad-
rons 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 expe-
ditions 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
to the Asturian Crown
principality, whose allegiance
was conceded rather by the indifference of its inhabi-
tants than based upon the acknowledgment of any
 Moorish Empire in Europe 533

well-defined obligation, was, by the marriage of Al-

fonso 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 Al-
fonso maintained an incessant contest with the Emirs
of Cordova. He saw the dominions of the descend-
ants 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, conspicuously exhibited in those
erelong,
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 ex-
ercises or in warlike enterprises. No prince had yet
ascended the throne under more auspicious circum-
stances, nor, at the same time, better qualified to re-
store the tarnished lustre of the Moslem name. His
discretion and sagacity bore a just proportion to the
impulsive courage that distinguished
him among a na-
tion of heroes. The energy of his character may be
inferred from his response to the Toledans, who, im-
534 History of the

mediately 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 impor-
tant 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 provi-
sions; some towns were plundered; a score of insur-
gents selected for prominence in their party were exe-
cuted; 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 pro-
vide if possible against such a contingency, and re-
lieve his followers from the disastrous consequences of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 535

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 assur-
ances of future loyalty proffered by the rebel chief-
tain. A treaty was drawn up virtually at the dicta-
tion of the latter. At his request, a hundred mules,
guarded by an escort of a hundred and sixty horse-
men, were furnished to convey his family and prop-
erty 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-Mond-
hir, 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 Bo-
bastro 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
536 History of the

friends, appeared suddenly in camp, asserted his claim

to the throne, and received the reluctant homage of
the officers of the army.
soldiers, who respected the abilities and stood
The
in awe of the ferocious spirit of Ibn-Hafsun, dis-
played 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 deser-
tions, 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 mes-

senger arrived from the usurper imploring his for-

bearance, and declaring that he entertained no hostile
intentions towards him. The rebel leader had the
courtesy to respect this petition and Abdallah, guard-
;

ing 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 instru-
ment 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 aristoc-
racy 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

 Moorish Empire in Europe 537

them with indignities which they would have hesitated

to inflict upon their own slaves. The
lapse of genera-
tions, 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
Arabs were united. Between
their children that the
the Syrian and the Bedouin of the Hedjaz still ex-
isted 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 manifesta-
tions 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 ac-

quire extensive estates and to amass immense riches.
The deeply-rooted antipathy of the Bedouin to con-
finement had caused the aristocracy of the Peninsula
to establish itself in the vicinity of large cities, such
as Jaen, Cordova, Seville, and Malaga, where, sur-
rounded by an army of retainers and slaves, they en-
joyed 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
538 History of the

hope of wealth and distinction, retained the large ma-

jority 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 indepen-
dence in the mountains where they had their haunts,
but, destitute of effective organization, they scarcely
rose to the dignity of banditti. The alluring induce-
ments 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, cor-
rupted 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 corre-
sponding to the Moriscoes, or New Christians, con-
verted after the capture of Granada by the zealous
Ximenes and his coadjutors through the potent argu-
ments of the rack and fagot. Still another caste was
the Muraddin, former converts, who, having re-
nounced the faith of Islam, had rendered themselves
amenable to death, the penalty prescribed by Moham-
med 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
 Moorish Empire in Europe 539

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, actu-
ated 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 sur-
vived in the exciting poems of the robbers and shep-
herds of the Desert. The famous Ibn-Haf sun, 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.
540 History of the

The Abdallah was perilous in the ex-

situation of
treme. The loyalty House of Ommeyah, which
for the
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, with-
held. 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 popu-
lace of the capital, suspected of secretly holding com-
munication with the enemy, was distrusted. spiritA
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 preju-
dices 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 resent-
ment. Conscious of his helplessness, and desirous of
conciliating the most powerful chief of the opposi-
tion, he went so far as to tender him the government
of Regio, conditional upon his return to his allegi-
ance. 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 uncer-
tain fidelity of a perfidious vassal with all the distinc-
tion usually reserved for the emissaries of royalty.
They were magnificently entertained, lodged in
palaces, and presented with costly gifts. Unre-
strained of their liberty, they had no trouble in
 Moorish Empire in Europe 541

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 bv 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 in-
crease 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 casu-
alties of war, and the effects of disease, many Arab
families became and their real property, by
extinct,
purchase or extortion, became vested in a compara-
tively small number of great proprietors, whose pos-
sessions embraced all the most valuable estates in the

province. These lords formed a caste that, for arro-

gance and exclusiveness, had no equal in the Penin-
sula. The national pride of the Syrian noble was im-

mensely 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 establish-
ment 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
542 History of the

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 intercoursewith his equals the Arab of the Vega
like all his brethrenexposed for a time to the re-
finements of civilization was a model of chivalrous
politeness and graceful courtesy. But his demeanor
was far different when his affairs demanded any asso-
ciation 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 prac-
tice 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 spiritof 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 souve-
nirs. 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 cen-
tury, 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 con-
trived a scheme of discipline which, originally aimed
and prosperous Hebrews, became the model
at the rich
of that awful engine of persecution, the Inquisition,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 543

whose tortures, improved by ecclesiastical deviltry,

filledthe 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 commer-
cial 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 apos-
tasy, 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 multi-
tude, made itself felt before long even in this citadel
of Christianity. The corruption of the prelates,
headed by the bishop, Samuel, whose profligacy at-
tained for him a notoriety proportionate to the dignity
of the he disgraced, drove the indignant Chris-
office
tians into the fold of Islam. Those who
by hundreds
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 unwortlty
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, hav-

ing publicly renounced his faith, was rewarded with

the lucrative employment of persecutor, an infamous
office whose duties he discharged with all the malig-
nant assiduity of the renegade.
544 History of the

Long before the accession of Abdallah, the resent-

ment 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 as-
sumed 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 pro-
tection of a truce, were treacherously massacred in
the streets, a catastrophe that gave the Muwallads,
already sufficiently powerful, a momentary but un-
contested ascendency. The Arabs, whose numbers
had been depleted by many consecutive years of war-
fare, 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 sugges-
tion of humanity. A
brutal ferocity that regarded
the slightest concession to the weakness of an enemy
as a crimewas 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 strong-
hold 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
 Moorish Empire in Europe 545

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 un-
fortunate 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 distin-

guished 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 exter-
mination of their race, induced the renegades to ap-
peal 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
enemv.
The prestige acquired by Sauwar after these deci-
sive advantages caused his alliance to be sought by

many neighboring cities, among them Calatrava and

Jaen. Reducedto despair, the Muwallad faction de-
clared their willingness to renew their allegiance to
the Emir. But the latter was powerless to render
them any substantial assistance. The credit of the
was so low that it could scarcely pay the
government
Vol. I. 35
546 History of 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 dan-
gerous 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;
hostilitieswere 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 dulness 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 Mu-
wallads, 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 El-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 547

vira almost without exception rose in arms; and the

Arabs, expelled from the city and chased in every di-
rection, sought by a common impulse a temporary
refuge in Granada.
The fortress of the Alhambra, a structure of re-
mote 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 un-
cared 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
effectsof time and the action of the elements, greatly
diminished capacity for resistance. In their criti-
its

cal 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 char-
acteristic cunning the prudent Sauwar determined to
counteract by stratagem the overwhelming superiority
of his adversaries. Leaving the citadel, and unob-
548 History of the

served in the confusion of battle, he suddenly ap-

peared 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 im-
passioned 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 com-
pensate for the unsatisfactory accounts of the chron-
icler, 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 ambition or incurred his hostility. The
his

aspiring chieftain embraced with ardor a cause so con-

genial to his adventurous spirit. With a confidence
born of many victories he encountered the Arabs in
the The Muwallads were again defeated, how-
field.

ever,and it was with difficulty that Ibn-Hafsun, badly

wounded, and seeing decimated the ranks of the veter-
ans who had been his reliance in a score of campaigns,
effected his retreat and escaped to the mountains of
Ronda.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 549

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 exhibited in its most revolting aspect
by the women of Elvira. With the cries of wild beasts
they tore in pieces and devoured the corpse of their
persecutor. This resort to cannibalism as a means of
revenge appears to have been frequently practised in
the wars of the Arabs and of those nations subjected
to their domination. It is mentioned in the pre-Islam-
itic poems and traditions. A conspicuous instance,
already referred occurred at the battle of Ohod.
to,
And examples are not wanting of the preservation
of a custom aggravated by the rancor resulting from
almost perpetual civil war under the Eastern and
Western Khali fates, whose violation of the decencies
of life would seem sufficient to disgust barbarians, to
say nothing of nations long familiar with the ameni-
ties of society and the requirements of a compara-

tivelyadvanced civilization.
The serious commotions which disturbed the peace
of Elvira were no isolated instances of public disorder,
but rather a type of what was afflicting the entire
Peninsula. In Seville, the rebellious Arabs had by
turns united with and opposed the renegades in defi-
ance of the authority of the sovereign. The old
metropolis of Bsetica has, from its foundation, never
relinquished its proud position as the capital of South-
ern Spain. Other cities have enjoyed the nominal
but the Queen of Andalusia has always, under
title,

Carthaginian, Roman, Goth, and Arab, maintained

an
acknowledged and deserved pre-eminence. Its natu-
ral advantages were unsurpassed. It stood in the
midst of one of the most fertile plains of Europe.
550 History of the

The Guadalquivir brought the treasures of the East

to its gates. Long the seat of the primate of the
kingdom, its souvenirs gave it a peculiar sanctity in
the eyes of the Christian. Its business facilities at-
tracted a numerous and enterprising Hebrew colony.
The blending of many races, the dominion of a score
of dynasties, had imparted to the disposition of its
inhabitants a peculiar character, an uncommon fer-
tility of genius, a phenomenal activity of intellect. To
their literary talents and stinging wit was added an

inconstancy in political affiliations and religious belief

that was often a subject of reproach and scandal.
With a strange unanimity they had at the first sug-
gestion of the substantial benefits of apostasy re-
nounced the truths of the gospel. A
magnificent
mosque had been built to reward their subserviency,
but neither the daily practice of the rites of Islam,
the adoption of the Arabic language, nor the change
of costume could eradicate those prominent mental
characteristics which had been formed by the domestic
life and time-honored traditions of twelve eventful
centuries.
The same prejudices and national antagonism ex-
isted between the Muwallad and the Arab parties at
Seville as at Elvira with the notable exception that
their mutual dislike had not yet been embittered by
deeds of blood. But the dangerous proximity of law-
less Arab nobles occupying the fertile district of the
Axaraf e that skirted the Guadalquivir had early sug-
gested to the renegades the propriety of making thor-

ough preparations for defence. An organization had

accordingly been formed, whose members were liable
to a summons for active service, and which, in its regu-
lations and military duties, bore a considerable resem-
blance to the militia of modern times.
The acknowledged chiefs of the Sevillian aristoc-

racy were the sheiks of the two powerful tribes of

 Moorish Empire in Europe 551

the Beni-Khaldun and the Beni-Hadjadj. Their

estates comprised the most valuable and productive
lands in the vicinity of the Andalusian capital. In
some respects the Arab prejudice against the promo-
tion of trade and the employment of the mechanical
arts had been relaxed, and the proud descendants of
the Bedouins of Yemen did not consider it incon-
sistent with their dignity to add to their resources

by the freighting of ships, the buying and selling of

merchandise, and the fabrication of weapons and
armor. The wealth derived from
these profitable

occupations, added to the income of their vast planta-

tions, enabled them to maintain a state that eclipsed
even the regal splendor of the court of Cordova.
Faithful to the pastoral traditions of their race, these
princely nobles passed the greater portion of their
time at their country-seats but they also maintained
;

palatial establishments in the city, whither they

re-
sorted on Fridays to attend the services of the mosque
and to dazzle the eyes and provoke the envy and indig-
nation of the populace by the magnificence of their
attire and the insolence of their manners.
Itproverbial that the ordinary tendency of opu-
is

lence and prosperity is rather to allay than to stimu-

late the passionsof ambition and independence. A
notable exception to this principle existed in the case
of the Arab aristocracy of Seville. The wealthiest
and most epicurean in its tastes of any in the kingdom,
itwas at the same time the most narrow, belligerent,
and exclusive. The persistent evils of the Desert
the love of warfare, the Bedouin repugnance to royal
power, which seemed to imply undue superiority on
the one hand and an appearance of servitude on the
other outweighed all considerations of security, all
the advantages of peace. This propensity to disturb-
ance was largely confined to those who resided in the
intellect and
country, where a marked contraction of
552 History of the

a tenacity of prejudice have always been the well-

known characteristics of those who pass their lives
amidst scenes unaffected by the collision of interests,
the bustle, the enterprise, the ever-changing pano-
rama, of metropolitan life. The Arabs of Seville
regarded the impatience of their brethren of the
Axarafe with a disapproval which not even tribal
attachment and ancestral pride could overcome. But
their numbers were small and their influence inap-
preciable when compared with power of the
the great
rural noble whose multitudes of slaves and vassals
imparted to his seat the appearance of the capital of a
principality.
Despite all their pretensions, the blood of many of
these lords had been contaminated by an impure com-
merce with the infidel. The family-tree of the Beni-
Khaldun showed numerous crosses which had greatly
deteriorated the pure stock of the nobility of Hadra-
maut. The Beni-Hadjadj traced their pedigree in the
maternal line from the royal family of the Visigoths.
The admixture of Christian blood had, however, no
visible effect in softening their manners, and they
were at heart as lawless as the most savage Bedouin
who still adored the idols of the Age of Ignorance,
and regularly plundered the caravans between Me-
dina and Mecca.
The head of the Arab faction at Seville was Ko-
raib, sheik of the Beni-Khaldun. In talent for politi-
unblushing effrontery, in bigoted devo-
cal intrigue, in
tion to what he considered the honor of the tribe, he
stood without a rival. For many years he had nursed
in secret a dream of independence, to be realized by
violence and rapine. Personal ambition does not seem
to have had any part in his plan of universal disorder.
An unreasoning hatred of royalty and a mad aspi-
ration to restore the freedom of pre-Islamic times
appear to have been the only motives that actuated
 Moorish Empire in Europe 553

this dangerous agitator, whose intellect was too much

obscured by rancor and prejudice to perceive that
the only safeguard of his own possessions lay in the
preservation of a strong and arbitrary government.
Repulsed by his countrymen in the city, Koraib
turned his attention to the inhabitants of the suburbs.
His influencewas so extensive and his cause so popular
in the Axarafe that it was not long before he found
himself in a condition to take the offensive. Many
influential Arab and Berber sheiks promised their
co-operation. The rich spoils of the province of
Seville were offered to the Berbers of Merida, and
to the outlaws who swarmed in the fastnesses of the
Sierra Morena. The signal given, these merciless
savages poured down upon the fields and habita-
tions of the defenceless peasantry. With amazement
and terror the industrious farmer saw the accumula-
tions of a lifetime swept away in a moment, his home
given to the torch, his sons butchered in cold blood,
his wife and daughters dragged into slavery. At the
first appearance of the enemy, the governor had sum-
moned all the neighboring chieftains to join him with
their retainers. Among these was Koraib, who, in
consequence of a previous understanding with the
Berbers, deserted at a favorable opportunity. In the
first encounter the rebels obtained a complete victory,

and, having plundered the country at will, they re-

turned to Merida, leaving the environs of Seville in
the condition of a conquered province which had
undergone all the injury that barbarian ruthlessness
could inflict.

Information of this successful enterprise was soon

conveyed to the lair of every brigand and outlaw in
the Peninsula. While long since aware of the weak-
ness of the emirate and the military incapacity of its
sovereign, the banditti had nevertheless hesitated to
approach the neighborhood of large towns like Seville,
554 History of the

and their depredations had been confined to isolated

hamlets and the highways connecting the provincial
capitals with the seaboard. Now, however, a wider
field was opened to their indulgence of their preda-

tory instincts. From every quarter of the compass

armed desperadoes and criminals, accustomed from
childhood to deeds of cruelty and rapine, made their
way singly, and in companies, to the province of
Seville. The entire country was laid under contribu-
tion. The peasantry abandoned their possessions and
fled with their families to the metropolis. The power-
ful chieftains of Lusitania and Estramadura, who had
thrown off the yoke of the emirate but had for years
been content to govern their principalities in peaceful
independence, now hastened to secure a share of the
plunder. The renegade, Ibn-Merwan, whose exploits
under a preceding reign have already been recounted,
descended upon the plains of Andalusia at the head of
the fierce warriors of Badajoz.
The provincial governors, as incompetent as their
master, were unable or unwilling to repress the preva-
lent anarchy. That apparently hopeless task was
finally performed by Ibn-Ghalib, a Muwallad of
Ecija, whose abilities and courage in a few months
restored comparative order throughout Andalusia.
The prestige thus attained by one of the despised
race that the malevolent prejudice of party had de-
voted to extermination was especially odious to the
Arab aristocracy. The contest which was raging be-
tween the rival castes for self-preservation on the one
hand, and absolute supremacy on the other, now be-
came more sanguinary and irreconcilable. The cities
were filled with tumult. The Emir was openly in-
sulted. The influence of the Arab faction in the
Divan prevailed in the end, and Ibn-Ghalib was
sacrificed by an act of treachery to the hatred of his
enemies through his zeal for his master's interests.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 555

The news of his death provoked an insurrection at

Seville. The sympathies of the people had been with
him in his quarrel with the Arab nobles. Many causes
contributed to his popularity. He was a renegade,
and his political interests were identified with those
of a majority of the citizens. Large numbers of the
natives of the province had served under his banner.
He had swept brigandage from the highways. In
consequence of his vigorous measures trade had re-
vived, and public confidence had, to a certain degree,
been restored. Not only his partisans, but even those
who from policy had hitherto remained neutral, now
clamored for the heads of his murderers. The city was
in the hands of an infuriated mob. The governor was

besieged in his palace. It required all the resources

of the government to suppress the outbreak, which,
for a time, threatened the most serious results. A
terrible retribution was exacted of all taken in arms,
or suspected of having accorded to the insurrection
aid or sympathy. The leaders of the Muwallad fac-
tion, the most prominent merchants of the city, were
decapitated or crucified. Many of the unfortunates
who had escaped the blind fury of the pursuit were
deliberately massacred. Their houses were abandoned
to the avarice, their harems to the lust, of the brutal
soldiery. It required all the influence of leading
members of the successful party, little given to the
exercise of clemency, to check the indiscriminate
slaughter of their unhappy neighbors. The cessation
of hostilities was, however, only temporary. Mutual
acts of violence renewed the deadly struggle between

contending factions. The province was at length

abandoned to the Arabs by the weakness of the court.
History shrinks from the task of recording the out-
rages and the tortures of barbarians inaccessible to
pity and unrestrained by any law of God or man.
Suffice it to say the Muwallads of Seville were anni-
556 History of the

hilated. The memories of a catastrophe which pro-

duced a profound impression on the politics of the
Peninsula are still discernible in the traditions and
minstrelsy of the South of Spain.
The Arab faction was now triumphant. The
balance of power had been destroyed. The Chris-
tians of Cordova, persuaded that the end of the
Moslem domination was at hand, made overtures to
Ibn-Hafsun, whose former affiliations and present
influence seemed to point to him as their deliverer,
an advantage which he was not slow to recognize.
The consciousness of great talents; the uniform
success which had attended his operations the virtual
;

control of the most opulent provinces of the Penin-

sula; and the boundless, almost servile, devotion of
his followers, now prompted Ibn-Hafsun to aspire to
the rights as well as the actual possession of absolute
power. With this end in view, he sent an embassy,-
laden with costly presents, to the Abbaside Viceroy of
Africa, offering to become the vassal of the Eastern
Khalifate in return for the commission of Emir of
Spain. The application was forwarded to Bagdad,
and Ibn-Hafsun was encouraged to expect the speedy
fulfilment of his hopes.
This ominous design had not been conducted so
secretly as to escape the knowledge of the court.
Abdallah perceived at a glance the imminent peril that
menaced his throne. There was little doubt that the
consideration acquired by the vassal of the Abbasides
would at once invest with dignity and authority the
renegade chieftain, whose pretensions grounded upon
force were still deficient in the indispensable requi-
site of legality. The jurisdiction of the emirate was
not recognized beyond the actual confines of the capi-
tal. The palace was infested with traitors. An active
and fanatical sect was distributed throughout the city
conveying secret information to the enemy, and im-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 557

patiently expecting the moment when they might ex-

act retribution at once for the humiliation of conquest
and the wrongs of persecution. In his extremity the
Emir endeavored, but in vain, to conciliate his foe.
Foiled in this attempt, he resolved to risk an appeal
to arms. His decision was heard by the Divan with
unconcealed dismay, but their remonstrances were
unheeded. In the abject nature of Abdallah, de-
graded by superstition and haunted by the memory
of atrocious crimes, an heroic sentiment, born of de-
spair, had at last arisen. When intelligence of his
determination to substitute for the pusillanimous
policy he had hitherto employed the hazardous ex-
periment of the sword was conveyed to Ibn-Haf sun,
his surprise was provoked to the point of incredulity.
But when he was told that the advance guard of the
hostile troops was in motion, and that the royal pa-
vilion had been pitched in the plain of Secunda to
await the arrival of the sovereign, he no longer
doubted the truth of a report which seemed to be a
certain presage of victory. The insurgent army
mustered thirty thousand strong. It was composed
of veterans who knew no home but the camp, no
pleasure but the excitement of battle, no law but the
command of their general. The royal force, on the
other hand, numbered scarce fourteen thousand men.
One-third of these were the guards of the Emir; the
remainder was composed of raw recruits whose cour-
age and fidelity could not be depended upon in the
hour of trial.
The two armies met near Aguilar. Whatever hesi-
tation the inexperienced soldiers of the emirate may
have previously manifested, none flinched in the pres-
ence of the enemy. Their courage was nerved to
desperation when they remembered that defeat
meant death, for Ibn-Hafsun never gave quarter.
The efforts of the combatants were encouraged by
558 History of the

the exhortations of the imams and the prelates, who

fearlessly exposed their unprotected persons in the
thickest of the fight. The rebel lines were broken
by the furious charge of Abdallah's troops. Once in
confusion, they could not be rallied, and, dispersed
in every direction, they fell by thousands under the

weapons of their Their leader, having

pursuers.
narrowly escaped capture, with difficulty succeeded in
reaching his mountain stronghold.
An abundant and acceptable supply of arms,
treasure, and munitions of war came into the
possession of Abdallah by the capture of Aguilar.
A thousand renegade Christians who preferred death
to a second apostasy were beheaded. The moral effect
of the victory was important and widespread. Ecija
was taken after a short resistance. Archidona and
Jaen voluntarily implored the clemency of the con-
queror. The Viceroy of Africa notified the discom-
fitedrenegade at Bobastro that his pretensions to the
Spanish Emirate, under the auspices of the Khalif ate
of Bagdad, could no longer be entertained. The
friends of order of every faction the nobles, the
merchants, the proprietors of large estates, the arti-
sans, and the peasantry for a moment regained con-
fidence in a cause which they had recently considered
as hopelessly lost.
This flattering prospect was, however, soon clouded
by fresh disasters. The reverse sustained by Ibn-
Hafsun was temporary, and had not seriously affected
either his popularity or power. With little effort
he succeeded, in a measure, in re-establishing his
authority. The lost citieswere retaken through
treachery or by force. The royal governors were
decapitated, as an intimation to the monarch
that
his appointees were to be classed as rebels, the ser-
vants of a usurper. The Arab party of Granada was
beaten in a great battle, and its influence forever
 Moorish Empike in Europe 559

destroyed. The reviving fortunes of Ibn-Hafsun

had produced a strong reaction in his favor when his
renunciation of Islamism an act of mistaken policy
which, without gaining the respect of the Christians,
made him an object of aversion to every Mussulman
effected greater injury to his cause than a score of
defeats could have accomplished. The last nine years
of Abdallah's life were the least turbulent of his reign.
The substantial aid afforded by the Arab nobles, at
last convinced of their dependence on the crown, had
restored the languishing authority of the emirate.
Radical changes had been produced in the political
complexion and social condition of the Peninsula by
a generation of civil war. Factions had been practi-
cally exterminated. All the great leaders, save one,
had been removed by age, disease, or assassination.
The motive of the original sedition had long been
forgotten. Religion had become the nominal in-
centive to hostility. The enthusiasm of the clansman
aspiring to independence had been supplanted by the
avarice of the brigand eager for rapine. The general
character of the subjects of the emirate had undergone
a complete metamorphosis. They had lost the fero-
cious and uncompromising spirit of their ancestors.
They were no longer oppressed by the tyranny of the
monarch, whose helplessness and imbecility every-
where provoked public contempt. The enmity with
which the members of opposing parties regarded each
other was rather apparent than real. Their military
operations were languidly prosecuted. Their en-
counters were often bloodless. Familiarity with dis-
order induced many to consider it the natural condi-
tion of society. Thevitality of the royal power
seemed proof against all the resources of treason and
violence. Thousands of lives had been sacrificed in
futile attempts to overturn a government whose sup-

port rested neither upon the valor of its soldiery,

560 History or the

the genius of its statesmen, nor the affections of its

people.
The sober sense of the masses, chastened by mis-
fortune, eventually caused them to reflect upon the
advantages of submission to authority and the restora-
tion of order. Insubordination had brought nothing
but distress. The great works of the founders of the
dynasty souvenirs of former prosperity and renown
were everywhere around them. Principles of vital
importance to their forefathers were but meaningless
names to the present generation. These considera-
tions first affected communities whose commercial
interests were seriously involved. A
number of
the provincial capitals voluntarily returned to their
allegiance. Gradually other towns followed their
example. Even in the mountain fastnesses the
spirit of returning loyalty began to assert itself.
Anarchy and exhaustion effected what force was
powerless to accomplish, and the close of the admin-
istration of one of the worst of Moslem princes was
characterized by a degree of tranquillity unknown to
those of many of his race eminently distinguished for
their genius and their virtues.

During all these internal commotions, the peace

existing between the courts of Oviedo and Cordova

was never broken by hostilities of a serious character,
a circumstance that contributed largely to the preser-
vation of the Moslem empire. Everything seemed to
indicate at least a respite from the evils that had so
long afflicted the people and harassed the government,
when Abdallah suddenly expired, in the sixty-ninth
year of his age.
The relation of the monotonous and sanguinary
events of this period is valuable, in a philosophical
point of view, in determining the real causes of the
decadence of the Mohammedan power in Western
Europe. The chronicle of the reign of Abdallah, the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 561

Emir, in reality the story of Ibn-Hafsun, the rene-

is

gade. Yet this enterprising partisan was indebted for

his fame far less to his own abilities, conspicuous as

they were, than to the disputes and jealousies of his

enemies. These effects of tribal prejudice made pos-
sible the organization of a troop of banditti that a

single squadron of cavalry, properly directed, would

have been sufficient to disperse. The spirit of insub-
ordination became contagious; the governors of re-
mote provinces threw off their allegiance the sources ;

of public revenue were obstructed; repeated disasters

shook the precarious loyalty of powerful chieftains,
whose barbaric traditions deluded them with the fal-
lacious hope of independence; the fires of religious
discord were kindled in every community; and the
government, deprived of its subjects, seemed re-
peatedly on the verge of dissolution. The character
of the sovereign was, in a measure, responsible for
many of the most serious disasters of his reign. It
possessed no qualities that could inspire the respect or
elicit the approbation of either friend or foe. Ab-
dallah was a miserable compound of hypocrite and
poltroon. His title had been obtained by fratricide.
The crime had been attended with circumstances
which heightened its atrocity. Popular rumor at-
tributed to him the murder of two of his sons.
Without faith, he betrayed in turn both his allies
and his enemies. He neglected the appeals of
devoted adherents whose fidelity had long been
proof against temptation. He suffered himself to
be deceived by the representations of rebels whom
experience had shown to be wholly devoid of truth
and honor. He possessed neither the capacity of the
general nor the courage which is an indispensable
attribute of the common soldier. His impiety was so
universally recognized that it was the favorite theme
of satirical poets, and even the imams frequently
Vol. I. 36
562 History of the

omitted to mention his name in the khotba, or public

prayer. wonder was it that, under such a ruler,
Little
the Emirate of Cordova should have reached the
lowest point in its fortunes to which it was reduced
before its final overthrow. The authority of the
crown was everywhere disputed. The great cities,
Seville,Cadiz, Toledo, Jaen, Granada, Valencia,
Saragossa, whose power and glory had been the
pride of former ages, no longer sent their rich tributes
to the capital on the Guadalquivir. The slumbers
of the citizens of Cordova were nightly disturbed by
the shrieks of peasants dying under the weapons of
banditti, and by the lurid glare of burning villages
that lighted up the landscape with the brilliancy of
noonday. Traffic disappeared from the highways.
The markets were empty and deserted. The preva-
lent insecurity had suspended the operations of agri-
culture, and the necessaries of life became luxuries
attainable only by the rich. In many localities famine-
stricken wretches fed, with ghastly satisfaction, upon
the bodies of their friends and neighbors. These de-
plorable conditions were aggravated by the denuncia-
tions and prophecies of the ministers of religion, who,
with characteristic audacity, shifted the blame for
public misfortune upon those who were in reality its
victims, and called down upon the heads of a sinful
and pleasure-loving people the long-deferred but in-
exorable wrath of an avenging God.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 563

CHAPTER XII
REIGN OF ABD-AL-RAHMAN III.

912-961

Eminent Qualities of the New Ruler His Firmness Rapid

Subjection of theRebel Territory Dissensions of the
Christians Defeat of Ibn-Abi-Abda Death of Ibn-Haf-
sun Impaired Power of the Arab Nobles War with the
Fatimites of Africa Rout of Junquera Abd-al-Rahman
assumes the Title of Khalif Its Significance Invasion of
Castile Reverse of Alhandega Civil Wars of the Chris-
tians The Princes of Leon and Navarre visit the Moslem
Court Abd-al-Rahman dies at the Age of Seventy Years
His Remarkable Achievements The Greek and German
Embassies The Saracens in France and Italy The Slaves
and their Influence Plot of Abdallah Condition of the
Country under Abd-al-Rahman III. Cordova Its Wealth
and Magnificence The Royal Villas The City and Palace
of Medina-al-Zahra Melancholy Reflections of the Great-
est of the Khalifs.

The sceptre of the emirate had, by the choice

of Abdallah, been bequeathed to Abd-al-Rahman, his

grandson, to the prejudice of hissecond son, Al-Mod-

haffer, who stood next in the order of succession.
Mohammed, the heir to the throne, accused of treason,
had perished in a dungeon, the victim of the jealousy
or the justice of his unfeeling father. The circum-
stances attending this tragedy, as well as the events
which provoked it, are alike involved in uncertainty.
That the heir apparent should have allied himself with
the Christians, have served under the banner of Ibn-
Hafsun, the implacable enemy of his race, and have
attempted to overturn the very government which it
was his duty as well as his interest to support, seems
highly improbable. Yet this is what we are led to infer
564 History of the

from the obscure statements of such chronicles as con-

descend to mention, even with meagre details, this epi-
sode of the reign of Abdallah. That the deed was not
entirely without justification may be presumed from
the fact that the latter has not received, on this ac-
count, the denunciation of posterity. Reverence for
the greatest sovereign of the Western Empire has
silenced the voice of criticism, which might otherwise
have arraigned the treachery and ingratitude of a
father. These motives have combined to invest with
an air of mystery an occurrence whose consequences
were so momentous in their subsequent influence on
the history of the Peninsula.
The character of the young prince was conspicuous
for every excellence which could either be inherited
or conferred by education. His person was attractive,
his manners affable and urbane, his talents conspicu-
ous in a court renowned for its wit, its learning, and
its eloquence. His skill in chivalrous exercises evoked
the acclamations of the soldiery. His knowledge of
affairs, and his capacity to carry to a successful issue
the most delicate transactions of diplomacy, had long
been the admiration of venerable and distinguished
statesmen. The fond partiality of his grandfather,
who was constantly haunted by the memory of a crime
induced by political necessity, had caused the youthful
heir to the throne to be instructed in all the
knowledge
to be acquired in the most accomplished and enlight-
ened society of Europe. The fortunate object of this
solicitude early demonstrated his eminent fitness for
the responsibilities of his exalted destiny. A thirst for

knowledge, combined with a precocious sedateness of

demeanor tempered by a sprightliness, which, while it
had nothing in common with frivolity, yet enlivened
the discussion of the most serious and prosaic questions
of philosophical research, procured for him the love
of the scholars of Cordova, whose opinions were re-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 565

spected by even the barbarian nations of Christen-

dom. The general satisfaction with which the acces-
sion of Abd-al-Rahman was received demonstrated /
not only the propriety of the selection but also the
great popularity of the prince. Nothing occurred to
disturb the public tranquillity. The members of the
royal family, who, with color of right and encouraged
by precedent, might have disputed the succession, were
the first to attest their loyalty to the new sovereign.
A feeling of confidence seemed to pervade all ranks
of society, as the result of an event which promised
the reconciliation of long-existing enmities; the sub-
mission of rebellious vassals; the encouragement of
commerce the security of agriculture the return of
; ;

that long-banished and most priceless of blessings,

domestic peace. With the natural expectation of
these benefits were mingled not unreasonable visions
of romantic crusade and foreign conquest/ TTie
martial spirit of the nation had been perverted rather
than discouraged by the incessant religious and po-
litical seditions of nearly half a century. There was
scarcely a family in which was not included at least
one soldier whose scars gave proof of his acquaintance
with the perils and accidents of the field of battle. The
people were weary of intestine turmoil. The time was
most opportune for the exercise of the talents of a
ruler whose tact was equal to his courage, and whose
magnanimity rose superior to the mean and selfish

gratifications of persecution and revenge. fortu- A

nate combination of circumstances prepared the way
for the longest and most brilliant reign of the Om-
meyade Khalifate. The spirit of rebellion was
broken. Repeated reverses and an impolitic apos-
tasy had impaired the prestige and weakened the
once invincible following of the great partisan
leader, Ibn-Hafsun. The few surviving heads of
the Arab aristocracy had lost the greater part of
566 History or the

their influence. Weary of strife, their families

decimated, their
possessions diminished, the tribes-
men of the Koreish began to seriously question the
expediency of incessant revolution, whose risks and
privations offered such a marked and unfavorable
contrast to the undisturbed and luxurious enjoyment
of Andalusian civilization. The universal diffusion
of knowledge, the free discussion of scientific prob-
lems, thenumerous schools, the acknowledged su-
premacy of intellectual acquirements over blind and

unreasoning credulity, had perceptibly weakened the

power of Islam. The imams saw with dismay the
portentous increase of skepticism, which threatened
alike the emoluments of their office and the founda-
tions of their faith. The congregations were as nu-
merous, the donations as liberal, the prayers to all
appearances as fervent as formerly, but the destruc-
tive poison of infidelity permeated and was fast cor-

rupting the entire mass of society. The Christians of

the North, who had maintained their independence
through the dissensions of their neighbors, were
now themselves harassed by disastrous revolutions
fomented by aspiring princes who, regardless of
the danger which constantly menaced their territory,
never hesitated to sacrifice the welfare of the nation
for the uncertain dignity of royal power. The an-
cient realm of the Asturias had spread far beyond
the limits of the sierras whose craggy solitudes had
protected its infancy, and had expanded into the
kingdoms of Leon and Navarre, whose petty mon-
archs wasted in attacks upon each other the energy
and the treasure which would have been more profit-
ably employed in thwarting the ambitious designs of
the infidel.
The crafty and vacillating policy of Abdallah, who
was ignorant of the art of either conciliating or
punishing his enemies, and whose crimes excited the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 567

abhorrence of his rebellious subjects while they failed

to arouse their apprehensions, was repugnant to the
open and fearless nature of Abd-al-Rahman. The
former had contented himself with the doubtful evi-
dence of vassalage implied by the payment of tribute.
But the lofty spirit of his grandson was not to be
satisfied with this ambiguous concession to sovereignty.
No sooner had he ascended the throne than he issued
a proclamation requiring the unconditional submission
of his subjects, regardless of previous affiliations of
race or religion. To such as properly acknowledged
his title he extended his clemency ;but those who per-
sisted in defiance of the law and in resistance to the
constituted authority, he declared should be removed
beyond the pale of indulgence or mercy. This firm-
ness, which, in view of recent events and the power
exercised by rebel chieftains, seemed to partake of
imprudence, not to say of audacity, soon justified the
wisdom and foresight of the prince who adopted it.
The large cities, whose population was most affected
by the evils of anarchy, were the first to return to their
allegiance. Ecija, Jaen, Archidona, and Elvira,
whose seditions had long vexed the peace of the
empire, were the first places of importance to open
their gates to the new sovereign. The provinces of
which the cities of Jaen and Elvira were the capitals,
dotted with countless strongholds and infested with
partisans leagued with Ibn-Hafsun, still, however,
refused to abandon their habits of rapine; and Abd-
al-Rahman prepared, in person, to reduce to subjec-
tion these turbulent vassals, whose habits of indepen-
dence, confirmed by almost unbroken success, had in-
duced them to regard their arms as invincible. But
the bandit chieftains of the Sierra Nevada and the
Serrania de Ronda had not taken into consideration
the changes which had occurred in the rude society to
which they themselves belonged. The strong person-
568 History of the

ality and remarkable achievements of Ibn-Hafsun

had hitherto kept united the lawless elements, which,
collected from every province of Africa and Spain,
had found a secure refuge in the mountains of Anda-
lusia. Now, however, the apostasy of their leader had
diminished the confidence and relaxed the enthusiasm
of his followers. His summons to arms was unheeded,
or obeyed with ill-concealed marks of disaffection.
The depleted ranks of his army forced him to the
employment of Berber mercenaries, barbarians wholly
destitute of attachment to the cause they served, and
who were always liable in the crisis of a battle to
desert to the enemy under the promise of higher pay.
The knowledge that they might, in the future, be en-
rolled in the ranks of their present adversaries, thus

hampered their efforts, and induced them to inflict

the least possible damage upon their tribesmen who
fought under the standard of the Emir. From furi-
ous battles, in which were often exhibited feats of
prowess worthy of a more chivalrous age, the conflicts
with the brigands of the sierras had become noisy and
harmless encounters, without spirit and without blood-
shed. A feeling of mutual distrust, which needed
little provocation to .ripen into acts of open hostility,
was engendered between Ibn-Hafsun and his sub-
jects. A
growing sense of insecurity had, years be-
fore, caused the rebel leader to swear allegiance to
Obeydallah, the Schiite prince of Africa. Exasper-
ated by this confession of weakness, the officers of
the army were further alienated by the gifts (and
honors lavished upon the Pagan mercenaries, who had
supplanted in the favor of their commander the tried
veterans of many campaigns.
For thirty years the Spanish and Berber elements
had exhausted every resource in futile attempts to
shake off the Arab yoke. No decisive victory had ever
attended their arms. The struggle never rose above
 Moorish Empire in Europe 569

a merciless guerilla warfare. A

large part of the
province of Andalusia was depopulated. Peasants
were massacred by thousands. Harvests were wan-
tonly destroyed. Whenever a town was surprised or
taken by storm, the entire population was butchered.
And yet, despite all their efforts, the savage outlaws,
who posed as the deliverers of the Peninsula, seemed
no nearer the attainment of their professed object than
at the beginning. In fact, with all his courage, ac-
tivity, and address, Ibn-Hafsun was deficient in the

qualities indispensable to leaders who

aspire to or-
ganize revolutions and found great dynasties. His
chieftains were often guilty of flagrant insubordina-
tion. Some, confiding in the impregnable situation of
their castles, even proclaimed their independence. The
great body of the peasantry whose fathers had sym-
pathized with the cause of rebellion and had been plun-
dered and murdered by their nominal protectors re-
garded the mountain robbers with unspeakable dread
and abhorrence. To them the disadvantages attending
the exercise of despotic power were trifling in com-
parison with the evils by which they were constantly
menaced. Similar sentiments had begun of late to be
secretly entertained quite a respectable number of
by
the brigands themselves. The disaffection of the
latter was increased by fears of the ultimate restora-
tion of Christianity.
Like Ibn-Hafsun hastened to signal-
all apostates,
ize his conversion and confirm his sincerity by con-
spicuous acts of oppression. Renunciation of Islam-
ism was encouraged by promises of military honors
and high employments. Moslem officers of distin-
guished merit were neglected or regarded with dis-
favor. To the horror of the disciples of Mohammed,
costly churches rose upon the sites of mosques which
had existed since the Conquest. The court of Ibn-
Hafsun became the resort of ascetics, who from con-
570 History of the

viction or policy aspired to martyrdom, and openly

performed, to the disgust of the orthodox beholder,

the revolting severities of monastic discipline. The
daughter of the rebel chief herself retired to a cloister,
whence she was, years afterwards, dragged forth to
pay the penalty of apostasy, a fate eagerly welcomed
as the fulfilment of a prophecy pronounced by a
vagrant monk. The cause which popular enthusiasm
had once invested with a national character, supported
by the traditions of Iberian, Roman, and Gothic
dominion, and which held out delusive hopes of
national independence, had disappeared in the atro-
cities of the worst of all struggles, a religious war
conducted by renegades. Another powerful element,
once allied in sympathy with the party of Ibn-Haf-
sun, was now with unbroken unanimity arrayed
against him. The Conquest had brought relief
and liberty to many thousands of families that
for generations had groaned under the oppressions
of slavery and serfdom. The remembrance of their
sufferings had been bequeathed to their descendants,
and the knowledge that the restoration of the Chris-
tian religion would certainly be accompanied with the
enactment of laws depriving them of the freedom they
enjoyed, confirmed the loyalty of the latter, which had
been temporarily shaken by the disorders of the emi-
rate. With feelings of mingled apprehension and
gratitude, they compared their present condition with
the degradation and miseries of their ancestors, whose
most tyrannical masters had been found in the ranks
of the ecclesiastical order, now seeking by every art
of intrigue the re-establishment of the supremacy of
their Church, the recoverv of their confiscated lands,
and the restoration of their ancient and irresponsible
privileges. The bold front presented by the rebel
forces was formidable only in appearance. The dis-
integration of the faction which had more than once
 Moorish Empire in Europe 571

threatened the Moslem capital and the throne of the

West was complete. It needed but the presence of
the sovereign to expose the hopeless condition of an
already abandoned cause. Such was the state of
society in the disaffected territory of the emirate, and
such the character of the adversaries with whom the
youthful Abd-al-Rahman was now called upon to
contend.
The appearance of the royal standard was the
signal for the voluntary surrender of the greater
part of the provinces of Jaen and Elvira. The
castles which had long been the seat of outlawry and
brigandage were razed. As soon as the open country
had been secured, Abd-al-Rahman pushed forward
without hesitation into the heart of the sierra. At
first he met with stubborn opposition, but the capture
of the strong town of Finana was followed by the
submission of every chieftain whose proximity to the
scene of action led him to fear the exemplary ven-
geance of an exasperated master. In less than three
months not a single castle in the Sierra Nevada re-
mained in possession of the insurgents. Instructed by
the experience of his predecessors, Abd-al-Rahman
adopted the most prudent and effective means for
retaining his conquests. The governors and their
families were removed to Cordova. The rebel gar-
risons were replaced by veterans whose fidelity was
unquestioned. Pardon was granted to all, excepting
such as had rendered themselves undeserving of clem-
ency by the commission of atrocious crimes. The dig-
nity of the crown was further secured by the re-estab-
lishment of judicial tribunals and the appointment of
magistrates whose reputation and experience were a
guaranty of the faithful discharge of their duties.
The moral effect of these politic measures, the amiable
character of Abd-al-Rahman, and the reputation he
enjoyed for justice accomplished as much for the
572 History of the

pacification of the hostile territory as the

fear inspired
by his arms. His first important act after assuming
the regal office was the remission of taxes, which, im-
posed by the necessities or the avarice of his prede-
cessors, weighed heavily upon a distracted and im-
poverished people. The general amnesty which he
had proclaimed; welfare of his
his solicitude for the

subjects; his firmness in dealing with those who dis-

puted his authority; the spirit he manifested by ap-
pearing at the head of his troops, who for years had
not seen the face of their sovereign; the physical
attributes with which nature had adorned a noble and
majestic presence, all conspired to captivate the im-
agination and inspire the respect of both the civilians
and the soldiery. Aconfidence mingled with enthu-
siasm and reverence was awakened at his approach,
and the useful members of every community, dis-
heartened by years of turmoil and misfortune, wel-
comed each bloodless and decisive victory of the
youthful monarch as an additional harbinger of a
peaceful and prosperous reign.
The city of Seville, now governed by the powerful
family of the Beni-Hadjadj, while a nominal depend-
ency of the emirate, was, in all respects save this
dubious mark of subordination, the seat of an inde-
pendent principality. The authority of the Emir was
not recognized within its walls. The Divan had no
voice in the appointment of the officers charged with
its government. The levying of troops for service
under the royal banners rested entirely upon the
caprice or discretion of the Arab princes, who
had
wrested from an enfeebled dynasty the richest
province of the empire. Even the collection of
the annual tax was considered a mere act of con-
descension and courtesy, a privilege liable to be re-
voked at the pleasure of the haughty tributary. But
discord, arising from the ambitious and irreconcilable
 Moorish Empire in Europe 573

pretensions of the Arab aristocracy, had invaded the

councils of the Beni-Hadjadj. The order of succes-
sion had been broken, and, through fortune or by su-
perior abilities, a collateral branch of the Koreishite
family which claimed the sovereignty had been ele-
vated to power. The unsuccessful competitor, Mo-
hammed, sought the camp of the Emir, promising
his homage in consideration of assistance. The dig-
nity of Abd-al-Rahman not permitting him to counte-
nance the equality of a rebellious subject, the offer
was rejected, but the Arab noble was graciously per-
mitted to enlist as a volunteer. A
formidable army
besieged Seville, and Ibn-Maslama, the ruling prince
of the House of Hadjadj, saw with concern his newly
acquired dignity menaced with destruction. In his
extremity he applied to Ibn-Haf sun. An attempt by
the latter to raise the siege resulted in the annihila-
tion of his army, and the insurgent leader, whose name
had lost its terrors, fled with a handful of followers
to the fortress of Bobastro. Not long after this event,
abandoned by his allies and already feeling the pangs
of famine, Ibn-Maslama capitulated. Encouraged by
his success, with no enemy in his rear and the vast re-
sources of the South at his command, the way was
now open to the Emir to carry the war into the Ser-
rania de Ronda, and to retaliate upon Ibn-Hafsun
those calamities which he had so long and so ruthlessly
inflicted upon the defenceless peasantry of Andalusia.
His preparations were made with all the prudence and

sagacity of an experienced general. The bulk of the

population of the sierra was attached by interest or
conviction to the dogmas of the Christian faith, and
the natural courage of the mountaineer was animated
by assurances of divine aid and a burning desire for
martyrdom. From the moment when he penetrated
into the defiles that traversed the domain of Ibn-
Hafsun, the Emir experienced a determined resist-
574 History of the

ance. His foraging parties were ambushed and cut

off. His convoys were intercepted. Having formed
the siege of Tolox, where Ibn-Hafsun commanded in
person, a sudden sally of the garrison was planned
with such boldness and success that a panic seized the
army, and a great disaster was narrowly averted. But
the genius and perseverance of Abd-al-Rahman event-
ually triumphed over all obstacles. Tolox was taken.
Castle after castle was stormed and demolished. The
supplies of the insurgents were exhausted, and they
were compelled to have recourse to the granaries of
Africa. The foresight of the Emir had, however,
anticipated this measure of the enemy. The vigilance
of his cruisers blasted the hopes of the famishing
rebels, and the captured ships were added to the
navy patrolling the Mediterranean, while the provi-
sions were conveyed to the royal camp. In time a
considerable extent of mountain territory was con-
quered; the cities of Orihuela and Niebla, whose
alluvial regions boasted an almost perennial harvest,
were again added to the dominions of the crown the ;

tradesmen and the peasantry, alike weary of the con-

tributions levied by relentless brigandage, zealously
co-operated with the imperial magistrates in the res-
toration of order; and Abd-al-Rahman, satisfied with
the result of his first campaign and secure against any
attempt upon the capital, now began to meditate an
expedition into the Christian provinces of the North.
The truce negotiated between Abdallah and Al-
fonso III. was long preserved by the political neces-
sitieswhich had originally dictated its provisions. The
Emir was fully occupied in a desperate attempt to re-
tain his crown amidst the commotions of almost uni-
versal rebellion and anarchv. The Christian monarchs
were unable to take advantage of the helpless position
of their adversary, on account of the plots and crimes
of princes of the royal house, the intrigues of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 575

clergy, and the insubordination of ambitious vassals.

Alfonso III., compelled by the unnatural cruelty and
ingratitude of his sons to anticipate the course of na-
ture by resigning the supreme dignity, had descended
into the grave, broken rather by domestic sorrows than
by the infirmities of age. His efforts, when forced to
an untimely abdication, had been directed with many
forebodings of evil to an equitable partition of his
dominions. His three eldest sons shared between them
the principalities of the royal patrimony. Garcia re-
ceived Leon, to Ordono was allotted Galicia, Fruela
remained at Oviedo. From this epoch dates the origin
of the kingdom of Leon, which, by its proximity to
the frontier and its more advantageous situation, soon
absorbed and eventually eclipsed the dignity and im-
portance of its rivals. The short reign of Garcia was
occupied by a succession of expeditions into the
enemy's country, which seem to have been attended
with no decisive results. Dying, after three years,
without issue, his brother Ordono received the votes
of the council, and was raised to the vacant throne
amidst the acclamations of the people. Thus the State
of Galicia was merged into that of Leon, and the two,
henceforth existing under the name of the latter, be-
came in time an integral portion of the Spanish mon-
archy. Ordono was already renowned for his valor
in an age of military heroism and romantic enterprise.
His accession was signalized by a foray which laid
waste the flourishing province of Merida. Pursuing
the savage policy inaugurated by Alfonso, he mas-
sacred all taken in arms, and enslaved the non-com-
batants who were so unfortunate as to fall into his
hands. His was purchased by the inhabitants
retreat
of Badajoz, who, collecting an immense treasure to
which the members of the ecclesiastical order were un-
willing but important contributors induced him to
retire. Upon his return to the capital, he devoted a
576 History of the

considerable portion of the booty to the foundation

of a church, dedicated to the Virgin in acknowledg-
ment of her influence and protection, to which he
attributed the auspicious commencement of his reign.
Although the territory which had suffered from the
formed part of that
recent incursion of the Christians
region which refused to acknowledge his au-
still

thority, Abd-al-Rahman was not slow to perceive the

advantages which must accrue to him from assuming
the championship of those who were nominally his
enemies. The cause was one of vital importance to
all professing the religion of Mohammed. The
dignity of the emirate had been insulted by a troop
of marauding barbarians, whom the polished Arabs
of Cordova with justice considered their inferiors
even in feats of martial prowess, and who, if secure
of immunity, would not only extend their ravages
further, but also contract a profound contempt for
the inactive and pusillanimous character of their ad-
versaries. The fickle attachment of the insurgents
of the West might be regained, or at least their
gratitude aroused, by a demonstration in their favor;
and the moral effect upon the enemies as well as
upon the partisans of the crown could not fail to
be of great and permanent value. An army was
equipped and despatched under Ibn-Abi-Abda to
lay waste the plains of Leon. For fifteen years the
Moslem standards had not been seen on Christian
soil, and the swarthy battalions of Abd-al-Rahman,

scarcely known except by fame to the subjects of

Ordono, were the source of almost as much terror
to the superstitious peasantry as were their ancestors
who served under the banner of the redoubtable
Tarik. The venture of the Emir was rewarded with
abundant booty; the avarice of the soldiery was at
once aroused and gratified; and, in the ensuing year,
another expedition, organized on a much larger scale,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 577

under pretext of avenging the wrongs of the op-

pressed people of the border, but in reality assembled
for purposes of rapine, entered the dominions of the
Christian king. Unfortunately for its success, the
bulk of the army was composed of Berber mercen-
aries adepts in the arts of robbery and murder, but
deficient in the constancy and courage requisite for
the maintenance of a protracted conflict and of
refugees not inferior in insubordination and pol-
troonery to their companions in arms. This mob
soon proved unequal to sustain the determined
assaults of the Leonese cavalry; the Arabs were
attacked in their camp before San Estevan, and a
fearful defeat, with the loss of his general, an-
nounced to the Emir the fatal policy of employing
a herd of truculent barbarians, without experience,
discipline, or courage, to re-establish the credit and
assert the power of the Moslem arms.
The discouraging effects of this reverse were, to
some extent, counterbalanced by the intelligence of
the death of Ibn-Hafsun, whose operations had
harassed, and whose ambition had menaced, the
reigns of three Moslem sovereigns. With the dis-
appearance of their most implacable enemy, the in-
habitants of Andalusia flattered themselves that they
could hereafter pursue their avocations unmolested
and enjoy the results of their industry, hitherto sub-
ject to the extortions and depredations of unre-
stricted brigandage. But the fallacy of these hopes
was soon demonstrated. The sons of the renowned
partisan leader, Giafar, Abd-al-Rahman, Suleyman,
and Haf s, who inherited all his audacity and no small
share of his military genius, sustained for ten years
longer the unequal and hopeless struggle. The
wretched peasantry were again compelled to acknowl-
edge the weakness of the government and the uncer-
tain tenure by which they held their property and
Vol. L 37
578 History of the

their lives. Gradually, however, the resources of the

emirate, directed by a firm and skilful hand, began
to prevail in the Serrania. Three of the sons of
Ibn-Hafsun were removed by voluntary retirement,
by death in battle, by murder provoked by a double
apostasy. The survivor Hafs, reduced to extremity
by the siege of Bobastro, submitted, and, having be-
come a loyal subject, served afterwards with distinc-
tion in the imperial army. The fanatics who fol-
lowed in the train of the Emir, actuated by all the
malignity of their kind, caused the tombs of Ibn-
Hafsun and Giafar to be opened; and Abd-al-Rah-
man, having learned that the bodies had been interred
according to the customs of the infidel, ordered them
to be nailed to stakes before the principal gate of
Cordova. The surrender of Bobastro was soon fol-
lowed by the submission of the entire Serrania. In
the mean time, the insurgent chieftains of the moun-
tains of Priego, of Alicante, and other cities of the
opulent provinces of Tadmir, Merida, Santarem,
Beja, and finally of Badajoz, made humble profes-
sions of fealty and obedience to the conqueror.
The rebel territory, which, not many years before,
had extended almost to the walls of the capital, was
now limited to the narrow area inclosed by the forti-
fications of Toledo. Anxious to avoid bloodshed, the
Emir attempted to open negotiations for the surrender
of the city without resorting to force. But his over-
tures were rejected; the Toledans, whose natural in-
clination to turbulence had been encouraged by long
impunity, and whose taste for a lawless independence
had been strengthened by its enjoyment, dismissed the
royal envoys with haughty disdain. Abd-al-Rahman
at once proceeded to invest the city. The suburbs were
devastated. All supplies were intercepted by a close
blockade. The sallies of the besieged were repulsed
at every point. Their last hope vanished with the de-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 579

feat of a Christian army sent by the King of Leon

to assist them, and the distressed city, after an obsti-
nate resistance lasting two years, capitulated.
The fierce and bloody struggle which had decimated
communities, destroyed the accumulations of industry,
and retarded national progress for nearly half a cen-
tury was finally at an end. From the confines of the
County of Barcelona to the shores of the Atlantic,
from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean, the authority
of Abd-al-Rahman was now acknowledged as su-
preme. The danger of successful rebellion had dis-
appeared with the name and fortunes of Ibn-Haf sun.
Since the time of Sertorius, no leader had so ably
defended the cause of the Spanish people. The effect
of the protracted contest in which the latter had
participated had been to raise them from the posi-
tion of outcasts to an equality with their ancient
oppressors. The brigand chief of the sierras had
been, in a measure, the peculiar champion of their
rights. Though long a Moslem, his following had
consisted largely of Christians, and he had finally been
received into their communion. His sagacity and
generous confidence had entrusted them with impor-
tant civil offices, with the conduct of delicate nego-
tiations, with embassies to Africa, with the command
of armies. Experience in warfare had brought with
it the civilizing influences which develop, even in the

midst of destruction, increased intelligence, a more

tolerant spirit, a higher sense of personal dignity and
honor. Accustomed from the earliest times to an
arbitrary government, while nominally fighting for
liberty, they yet saw nothing repugnant in the des-
potism of the emirate. But it was different with the
Koreishite nobles, whose arrogant pretensions had
provoked and precipitated the long series of calamities
now happily terminated. The freedom of
licentious
the Desert was their ideal, the salutary restraints of
580 History of the

authority their aversion. The haughty pride engen-

dered and transmitted through countless generations
of chieftains in whose veins coursed the purest blood
of Arabia, and whose achievements were recounted in
the passionate strains of famous poets, induced them
to regard with ineffable disdain, and to subject to

every indignity, all who were not members of their

exclusive caste. The day of these insolent lords was
now over. Of all the parties whose quarrels had dis-
tracted society theirs had fared the worst. Never
strong in numbers, their ranks had been thinned by
the ordinary casualties of war; by the evils insepa-
rable from poverty; by summary executions for
treason. Their power had been so effectually de-
stroyed that they appear no more as a disturbing
element in the annals of the Peninsula. Submitting,
although with reluctance, to the force of necessity,
they by degrees contracted alliances with the fac-
tion once the object of their scorn, and lent their
unwilling aid to the noble project of Abd-al-Rahman,
which aimed at a complete fusion of races and the
obliteration of hereditary feuds and ancient preju-
dices. The last important constituent of the popu-
lation, the Berbers, preserved, under apparent con-
formity to custom, their character of mercenary and
idolatrous barbarians, who, not amenable to the bene-
fits of peace, were destined erelong to demonstrate the

suicidal policy which had introduced such perfidious

allies into the heart of the empire.
The pacification of the dominions of Abd-al-Rah-
man had not been perfected a moment too soon. An
enemy more dangerous than any that had yet men-
aced the throne of the Ommeyades had appeared on
the coast of Africa. The Ismailians, a branch of the
Schiite sect reformed by a shrewd and ambitious
charlatan in Persia, had, through its missionaries,
supplanted the dynasty of the Aghlabites, and now
 Moorish Empire in Europe 581

ruled, with a splendor heretofore unknown in that

country, the opulent and fertile strip of territory
extending from Mauritania to Egypt. The same
motives, the same aspirations to supreme power dis-
guised under professions of religious reformation
which had prevailed in Spain, inspired the leaders
of this moral and political revolution. The tyranny
and pride of the Arab nobles had caused the forma-
tion of secret societies, organized ostensibly for the
purification of the faith and the benefit of the op-
pressed, but in reality to further the treasonable de-
signs of able and daring conspirators. The hypocrisy
of the latter, who in secret scoffed at all religion, may
be gathered from the following saying current among
them: "Prophets are nothing but impostors, whose
real object is to obtain pre-eminence over other men."
The Fatimite dynasty in Africa had risen to power
with a rapidity astonishing even to an age accustomed
to the ever-varying phenomena of Moslem revolution.
Its head, Obeydallah, who traced a fictitious descent
from Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet, assumed the
sacred name and character of Madhi, the inspired
and holy personage whose coming had been an-
nounced by Mohammed. The cruelties perpetrated
by the Fatimites upon their enemies are incredible.
No torture was too severe, no persecution too san-
guinary, for those who dared to resist their demands.
The world stood aghast at the horrors of the African
conquest. The prestige derived from a pretended
origin gave the fanatics encouragement to assert the
Schiite pretensions to infallibility, and, by the right of
inheritance, to claim the dominion of the world. They
were thoroughly familiar with the politics, intrigues,
and military resources of the Peninsula. Their spies
were to be found in every walk of life. Merchants,
travellers, soldiers, dervishes many of them men of
great intelligence and observation were in their pay,
582 History of the

and regularly transmitted reports of the condition of

trade, the location of treasure, the prospect of order,
or the progress of revolution to their employers at
Kairoan. The famous geographer, Ibn-Haukal, was
one of these Fatimite emissaries, and his work con-
tains many of the results of his experience which are
not complimentary to the general condition of Mo-
hammedan Spain, the capacity of its rulers, or the
humanity of his own intolerant sect. There is reason
to believe that a considerable party favorable to the
reformers, and consisting largely of the better classes,
existed in that country; and it is certain that the
Berbers, whose sympathies were readily enlisted in
favor of everything African, would have deserted by
thousands to serve under their banners. This alarm-
ing state of affairs had been promoted by an obscure
prediction sedulously propagated by the agents of
the Fatimites, which announced that an African sov-
ereign was one day to rule over the Peninsula, and
all who believed it confidently asserted that the time
of its realization was at hand.
Fully cognizant of the dangers attending the vic-
torious progress of the Ismailians, who were now
engaged in the conquest of Mauritania, Abd-al-Rah-
man heard with joy the appeal for assistance of the
exiled princes of Necour, whose family for more than
a century had been connected with his own by the
closest ties of affection and gratitude. The distin-
guished refugees who had with difficulty escaped the
vengeance of the tyrant of Kairoan were furnished
with ships and munitions of war, and, by the policy
of their benefactor, soon regained possession of their
lost inheritance. Aware of the impossibility of per-
manently holding an isolated province against the
overwhelming forces of the enemy, the Prince of
Necour at once proclaimed the authority of the Om-
meyades throughout his dominions; and the prudent
 Moorish Empire in Europe 583

generosity of Abd-al-Rahman was rewarded by the

addition of a newstate which embraced the larger
part of Mauritania to the already extensive territory
of his empire. Thus, by the interposition of a tribu-
tary province between the frontiers of Eastern Africa
and Spain, the destructive advance of the Fatimites
was stayed, and the permanence of the Ommeyade
dynasty assured for two centuries longer.
The dangerous ambition of the African fanatics
having been checked, Abd-al-Rahman was at liberty
to turn his attention to the only foe who now dared
to make war upon him, the Christians of the North.
A great victory was won by the minister Bedr at
Mutonia; and the Leonese, thoroughly humiliated
and convinced of the mutability of fortune, retired
sullenly within the walls of their castles. Impatient
of the monotonous life of his capital and ambitious
of military distinction, Abd-al-Rahman now resumed
command in person, and, entering the enemy's coun-
try, left in his wake the dreary evidence of rapine and
desolation. Osma, Clunia, and San Estevan over
whose gate the head of the unfortunate general, Ibn-
Abi-Abda, had been nailed were stormed and de-
stroyed. Navarre was invaded; its king, Sancho,
beaten in a pitched battle and driven into the forests
of the Pyrenees. The latter then effected a junction
with Ordoiio, and the two monarchs offered battle in
the Valley of Junquera. Accustomed to ambuscade
and to the protection of their native rocks and defiles,
the mountaineers proved no match for the Moorish
horsemen in the field. A more signal catastrophe than
that of Junquera had never afflicted the Christian
cause. The slaughter was appalling. The country
for leagues was strewn with the bodies of the slain.
A great number of prisoners fell into the hands of
the Moslems, not the least important of whom were
the militant bishops, Dulcidius of Salamanca, and
584 History of the

Hermogius of Tuy, who, following a custom ante-

dating the Battle of the Guadalete, were taken,
sheathed in armor, and fighting bravely in the front
of battle.
After no serious resistance was offered
this victory,
to the Moslem advance. The light Moorish cavalry
swept like a hurricane along the frontier of Navarre.
The comparative poverty of the inhabitants presented
few attractions to the invaders, who were forced to
content themselves with flocks and the produce of
more tempting booty offered
the fields instead of the
by the opulence and luxury of more civilized nations.
The accumulation of provisions was so great in the
Arab camp that they could not be removed, and a vast
quantity of wheat was given to the flames to prevent
it from falling into the hands of the enemy. This
campaign was characterized by all the ruthless bar-
barity of the time. The women and children of the
mountaineers were enslaved. The unsuccessful resist-
ance of a garrison was followed by its extermination.
The savage of the Berbers were indulged by
instincts
tortures and all the arts of the most exquisite cruelty.
Whenever these barbarians encountered a monastery
not one of the holy fathers was left alive. There was
now visited upon the Christians a severe retaliation
for the unspeakable horrors which they had been in
the habit of inflicting upon their infidel adversaries in
the name of the Gospel of Peace.
It is a striking peculiarity of the warfare so long
waged between Moslem and Christian in Spain that
disasters of the greatest apparent severity, no matter
by whom endured, were productive of no substantial
advantage to the conqueror. Many causes conspired
to produce this anomalous result. The immense re-
sources of the emirs were insufficient to protect their
extended frontier. The numerous castles erected by
the Kings of Leon and the Counts of Castile to retard
 Moorish Empire in Europe 585

the advance of the Arab squadrons failed to intimi-

date the bold riders of Andalusia. Thus the armies
of either nation penetrated with trifling difficulty into
the heart of the other's dominions. The extraordinary-
recuperative power of the Christians was manifested
during the following year by an expedition of Or-
dono, which carried the standard of Leon to a point
but one day's journey from Cordova. Other evidences
of the indomitable character of his enemies who con-
tinued to capture his towns and carry off his subjects
having impressed Abd-al-Rahman with the neces-
sity for future reprisals, he entered Navarre with
an irresistible force. Pampeluna was taken, and its

cathedral and many of its houses destroyed. The at-

tacks of the King of Navarre, whose efforts were
restricted to the feeble devices of guerilla warfare,
were invariably repulsed. The death of Ordono, and
the quarrels resulting from a disputed succession
which followed that event, paralyzed for a time the
efforts of the Christians, and enabled Abd-al-Rah-
man to take an important and long meditated step
for the increase of his greatness and the consolidation
of his power.
It had hitherto been a legal maxim promulgated by
the jurists, and unanimously recognized by the poten-
tates, of the Moslem world that the title of Khalif,
or Successor of the Prophet, was the peculiar at-
tribute of that monarch whose dominions included the
cities of Medina and Mecca. The control of the
territory of the Hedjaz was thus considered to carry
with it a degree of distinction and sanctity correspond-
ing to that now conferred upon the successors of St.
Peter by the choice of the conclave and the cere-
monies of investiture which attend the accession of
the spiritual sovereigns of Rome. The princes of
the Abbaside dynasty had preserved their title, even
after they had been deprived of the greater part of
586 History of the

their empire; but now, descended to a state of tute-

lage to powerful vassals, and restricted in jurisdiction
to the walls of their capital, they appeared to all true

unworthy of an appellation which implied

believers so
much responsibility and had been the incentive to so
much renown. Considerations of respect for ancestral
greatness, the claims of religious prejudice and estab-
lished custom, so revered by the Oriental, no longer

existing in their former intensity, the Ommeyade

Sultan did not hesitate to appropriate, in the character
of the most opulent and distinguished of Moslem
rulers, a title that had been virtually abandoned by
a dynasty whose degenerate princes had demonstrated
their incapacity to defend it, or even to appreciate the

proud and holy distinction which its possession im-

plied. Conscious of his merits, and believing that the
past achievements of his reign had earned for him an
honor which the imbecility and dependence of the
monarchs of Bagdad had forfeited, Abd-al-Rahman
issued an edict in which he assumed the titles of Amir-
al-Mumenin, Commander of Believers, and Al-Nas-
sir-al-D in- Allah, Defender of the Faith.
For three years the disorders which agitated the
kingdom of Leon suspended hostilities between the
Christians of the North and the khalifate. After
many months of anarchy, defiled by horrible crimes,
crimes which recall the worst scenes that disgraced
the revolutions of the Visigothic empire, assassina-
tions, tortures, the blinding of some royal captives, the
poisoning and starvation of others, Ramiro II., a
prince of great address and experience, ascended the
throne. Through his intrigues with the governor of
Saragossa, of the powerful family of the Beni-
Haschim, he obtained the support, and at length
received the allegiance, of the latter. Garcia, King
of Navarre, was also induced to join the confederacy,
which, thus including all the provinces of the North,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 587

both Christian and Moslem, offered an unbroken and

formidable front to the power of the Khalif .

Once more the intrepid Abd-al-Rahman prepared

for war. The issue of the campaign was everywhere
favorable to his arms. Ramiro was worsted in a series
of battles. Mohammed, the insurgent chief of the
Beni-Haschim, was besieged in his capital, and either
the fears or the clemency of his sovereign restored
to him the trust he had so flagrantly betrayed. The
monarch of Navarre and his mother, whose ambition
had taken advantage of the youth and inexperience
of her son, were compelled to sue for pardon at the
feet of the Khalif, and to receive from his hands, as
suzerain, the government of those states which had
formerly been transmitted by Sancho the Great as an
independent kingdom.
Elated beyond measure by his triumphs, Abd-al-
Rahman conceived the idea of a grand expedition that
might conquer the infidel states of the North and ex-
terminate, or expel forever, those obstinate and dan-
gerous enemies whose enterprise was a constant re-
proach to the zeal of the Mohammedans and a menace
to the prosperity and safety of the khalifate. In
accordance with this resolution the Djihad was pro-
claimed. A hundred thousand men rushed to arms.
Volunteers came from Egypt, Syria, Mauritania, and
the Libyan Desert to be present at the humiliation of
the infidel, and to share in the plunder of his fields,
his churches, his palaces. Great magazines of provi-
sions and munitions of war were collected in suitable
localities. Pack-trains composed of thousands of
beasts of burden were assembled. No precaution was
neglected to insure success. Surrounded by his splen-
did body-guard, the Khalif appeared in person at the
head of this immense host, but, with a want of tact
which did little credit to his knowledge of human
nature, he bestowed the command upon Nadja, a
588 History of the

Slave, to the exclusion of the nobles, who saw with

inexpressible indignation their hereditary pretensions
to command subordinated to the favor enjoyed by an
officer of inferior rank and of more than plebeian
extraction. The Moslems came upon the allied army
of Leon and Navarre at the village of Alhandega, not
far from Salamanca. Undaunted by the superior
numbers of the enemy the Christians bravely sustained
the attack. The treachery of the Arab officers, in-
vested with important commands, aided the intrepidity
of the Leonese the aristocratic chieftains, preferring
;

the gratification of their resentment and defeat at the

hands of the infidel to victory under a general of base
and ignoble lineage, withdrew, and the Moslems un-
derwent a terrible defeat. The commander-in-chief
was killed. Whole divisions were destroyed; many
distinguished soldiers were dragged away to the
dungeons of Leon and Pampeluna; and the Khalif
himself, with only forty-nine survivors of his numer-
ous escort, succeeded with the greatest difficulty in
escaping the swords of the Christian cavalry. The
imminent peril he had incurred, the sudden disappear-
ance of his magnificent army, and, perhaps, the con-
sciousness of the impolicy of his conduct or fear that
fortune had averted her face from him, so affected
Abd-al-Rahman that he never again exposed his
person in the field of battle.
But the results of a victory which promised to be
so advantageous to the cause of Christendom was, as
usual, nullifiedby the personal quarrels and revolu-
tionary proceedings of the conquerors. The County
of Castile, a dependency of the Asturian crown,
grown powerful through the signal abilities and
eminent services of its present ruler, Ferdinand
Gonzalez, a personage famous in mediaeval history
and fable, aspired to the name and privileges of an
independent kingdom. Its governor was a vassal
 Moorish Empire in Europe 589

whose was hereditary, but who held his office

fief
at the pleasure of the monarch, and, so far as the
scanty annals of the age afford information, no
province of the Peninsula was more inclined to
turbulence and sedition. To distract the attention
and divert the aims of this dangerous population, the
Kings of Leon subdivided the province into four por-
tions ; but the counts who subsequently ruled it found
no when re-
difficulty in reconciling their pretensions
sistance to the central authority was involved. A new

plan was then devised by Ordono II. The four counts

were decoyed, upon a specious pretext, to a confer-
ence at Tejiare, on the borders of Castile and Leon,
and put to death. The county now remained without
a recognized leader until the rise of Ferdinand, whom
the admiring gratitude of the Spaniards has exalted
to the station of a demigod, and to whose prowess is
to be justly attributed the foundation of the famous
monarchy of Castile.
The claims of Ferdinand Gonzalez to the affection
and confidence of people had been established by
his

many gallant deeds in war and by noble acts of pri-

vate munificence in peace. In the numerous cam-
paigns of Ramiro II. his voice had always been heard
in the thickest of the fray. The spoil he collected
from the enemies of Christ he bestowed in the erec-
tion of religious houses, in whose charters the name
of the founder's suzerain was ostentatiously omitted.
His influence was so great that the sovereign was
forced to overlook these insults to his dignity, and to
even seek to gain the support or secure the neutrality
of his formidable vassal by the marriage of his own
daughter to the son of Ferdinand. The attention of
the count had been, of late, engrossed by the expe-
ditions of the Moslems which ravaged his territory,
but the rout of Alhandega gave him an advantage;
and, formally revoking his allegiance, he declared war
590 History of the

against the King of Leon. Ramiro, however,

soon
proved too strong for his rebellious vassal. Ferdi-
nand was thrown into prison, his estates were confis-

cated, and the government of his dominions trans-

ferred to a stranger. But neither the promises nor
the threats of the sovereign could shake the fidelity
of the Castilians. In public acts and proclamations
they defiantly effaced the name of Ramiro and in-
serted that of Ferdinand. Their devotion carried
them to the verge of idolatry. They made a statue,
arrayed in the habiliments of the illustrious exile, and,
on bended knee, proffered to the senseless marble their
unfaltering and reverent homage. Finally, their en-
thusiasm impelled them to march in a great body to
the capital and demand the release of their lord, a
request which the King of Leon saw proper to grant,
but only under conditions that deprived the Count of
Castile of much of his political influence and power.
The death of Ramiro was the signal for a bitter
contest between his sons, Ordono and Sancho, for the
possession of the throne of Leon. The assistance
of
Ferdinand Gonzalez was invoked by the younger son
Sancho, and the Count of Castile, perceiving the
advantages that he would enjoy in the role of king-
maker and which must eventually lead to his entire
independence, seized without hesitation the golden
opportunity. A
bloody civil war ensued, in which
Navarre also became involved, and hatred of the
infidel was forgotten in the furious encounters of
domestic strife. In the meantime, the armies of Abd-
al-Rahman ravaged at will the Christian frontier.
Raid followed raid with the assurance derived from
constant impunity. The market-places of the Anda-
lusian were heaped up with the significant
cities

trophies of victory, crosses and crucifixes, em-

broidered vestments and jewelled censers, side by
side with ghastly pyramids of heads, the number of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 591

the latter in one instance reaching five thousand.

Distracted by the double peril of Castilian revolt
and Moslem invasion, Ordono III. sent ambassadors
to Cordova to solicit peace. A treaty was drawn up
by which the Leonese King agreed to surrender a
number of the castles which protected the frontier but ;

before this condition could be fulfilled Ordono died,

and his brother Sancho, who succeeded him, peremp-
torily refused to execute the treaty. Hostilities were
thereupon renewed; an Arab force invaded Leon;
and a decisive victory gained by the general of the
Khalif, Abu-Ibn-Yila, taught the imprudent Sancho
the folly of resisting, without adequate resources
and preparation, the growing power of the Moorish
sovereign.
Sancho appears have been a prince of ability and
to
resolution, but his ideasof the royal prerogative were
too decided for his age. Ambitious to enjoy the arbi-
trary rights which had been conferred by the ancient
Visigothic system, he bent all his efforts to the sup-
pression of the aristocracy, and, what was more dan-
gerous neglected to conciliate the ecclesiastical
still,

order, whose wealth, and the veneration with which it

was regarded, would have made it a dangerous an-
tagonist for any monarch. The experiment, always
a hazardous one, was doubly so in the case of Sancho,
to whom fortune had denied those personal character-
istics which elicit the applause or captivate the atten-
tion of mankind. An excessive and increasing obesity
rendered him incapable of locomotion without assist-
ance, and he had long since found it impossible to
mount a horse. Among an active and athletic people
whose trade was war, whose pastimes were found in
the chase and the field, and with whom all martial
exercises were at once a pleasure and a necessity, the
spectacle of a helpless monarch, like Sancho the Fat,
was one calculated to excite only sentiments of the
592 History of the

deepest contempt. But when to this physical disad-

vantage were added an arrogant and despotic bearing
and an ill-concealed intention to retrench the privi-
leges of the nobility, whose members considered them-
selves, by reason of the theoretically elective character
of the crown, almost equal in dignity, as many of them
were superior in prowess, to the princes of the reign-
ing house, the disdain of the subjects of Sancho was
changed into apprehension lest the unwieldy monarch
who excited their ridicule might ultimately develop
into a merciless tyrant. A plot, to which Ferdinand
Gonzalez, the professional agitator of the time, was
a party, was formed; Sancho was compelled to take
refuge in Navarre; and Ordono IV., a hunchback,
whose base and servile nature corresponded with the
deformity of his person, was raised to the Leonese
throne. Received with every demonstration of sym-
pathy by his grandmother, the martial Tota, the
virtual ruler of Navarre who, for thirty years, had
tried with various success the fortune of war with the
emirs of Cordova, Sancho experienced little diffi-
culty in obtaining the promise of her aid in the re-
covery of his crown. But Navarre, a mountainous
and thinly peopled region, was now exhausted by con-
tinued hostilities, and, indeed, had never been strong
enough to cope unaided with the more extensive king-
dom of Leon. An alliance with some foreign power
was therefore an indispensable requisite for the suc-
cessful prosecution of the design. In the formation
of this alliance no choice was possible. One monarch
alone, the Ommeyade Khali f, whose resources were
sufficient to accomplish the desired end, could be ap-

proached, and that monarch was separated from the

Navarrese queen by the remembrance of all the out-
rages of incessant warfare, of the enslavement and
decapitation of thousands of her subjects, as well as
by the barrier of a hostile faith, whose ill-compre-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 593

hended and purposely distorted tenets were the abom-

ination of every Christian. Other considerations
rendered the present concession to the demands of
a detested adversary even more galling. The war-
like princess had commanded the Navarrese at the rout
of Alhandega. She had seen the pride of the Om-
meyades abased. She had trailed their banner in the
dust. Multitudes of captives and incalculable spoil
had attested the prowess of her subjects. The great-
est of the Moslem sovereigns had fled before her arms.
The emergency, however, admitted of no alternative,
and demanded the sacrifice of pride and the oblivion
of past injuries, which, in the eyes of Tota, were
eclipsed by the present outrage upon her family.
Another motive impelled her to have recourse to Abd-
al-Rahman. The infirmity of Sancho was certainly
not constitutional, and perhaps was not incurable.
The reputation of the Jewish and Arab physicians
for learning and skill was unequalled in the world,
and the most eminent practitioners of that calling
were residents of Cordova. It was evident from the
experience of Sancho that the recovery of his health
was an indispensable condition of his restoration to
power. Sacrificing her prejudices to imperative
necessity, and with a reluctance she could conceal,
ill

Tota despatched a formal embassy to the capital of

the khalifate.
Abd-al-Rahman received the envoys of the Queen
of Navarre with distinguished courtesy, and directed
them to announce to their royal mistress that he would
at once send an ambassador to her court, who would
prescribe the conditions under which he would accede
to her requests.
The Jew Hasdai was the agent designated by the
Khalif to discharge the duties incident to this impor-
tant mission. One of the most adroit and experienced
negotiators of the time, the versatile genius of Hasdai
Vol. I. 38
594 History of the

had enabled him to attain to almost as exalted a rank

in the profession of medicine as he had reached in the
arts of diplomacy. Hewas further qualified for the
post by his enjoyment of the confidence of his sov-
ereign; by thorough acquaintance with foreign
his

tongues, including the idiom of the Christians; and

by his vast erudition and elegant manners, which
fascinated all with whom he came in contact. The
occasion was one that required an emissary of more
than ordinary ability. The instructions of Hasdai in-
cluded a demand for the cession of ten fortresses in
the territory of Leon, to be made as soon as the
usurper had been expelled and that Sancho himself,
;

his uncle Garcia, the nominal King of Navarre, in

whose name Tota exercised the royal authority, and
the Queen should come in person to Cordova and sign
the treaty. While no material objection was inter-
posed to the first condition, in the discussion of the
second it required all the address of Hasdai to over-
come the repugnance of Tota to the humiliation that
such a step implied. Finally, however, the eloquence
and craft of the envoy prevailed, and, attended by a
numerous company of and nobles, the
ecclesiastics
three Christian monarchs began their tedious journey.
Their passage through the Moslem dominions was at-
tended with every manifestation of public curiosity
that such an extraordinary circumstance could excite.
Immense crowds lined the highways. Cities and vil-
lages were emptied of their population, whose dense
masses often seriously interfered with the progress
of the escort. The arrival of the sovereigns at Cor-
dova was signalized by a magnificent reception, more
appropriate to victorious allies than to petitioners for
the recovery of a throne. But the tact of the Khalif
led him to disguise, as far as possible, the humiliating
character he had compelled his guests to assume and;

his dignity was at the same time enhanced by the

 Moorish Empire in Europe 595

exhibition of that opulence and grandeur which the

occasion enabled him to display. The treaty was duly
signed, and it was concerted between the parties that
thepower of the khalif ate should be directed against
Leon, while the forces of Navarre made simultane-
ously a diversion towards Castile, to prevent the co-
operation of Count Ferdinand with the enemy.
No event of his long and brilliant reign did more
to increase the prestige and strengthen the authority
of the famous Moslem ruler than this stroke of pro-
found policy. The enthusiasm of the people was un-
bounded. The feuds of centuries were, for the mo-
ment, forgotten in the indulgence of the feelings of
national pride and exultation. The Jewish and Mos-
lem poets contended with each other in celebrating a
triumph without parallel in the annals of Islam, and
lauded the fortune and the glory of a prince whose
achievements had humbled the pride of the common
enemy of their respective sects.
Meanwhile, the medical skill of the accomplished
Hasdai had perceptibly reduced the enormous bulk
which had virtually cost the unfortunate Sancho his
crown, and, by the time the Moslem army was ready
to march, he had fully recovered his former lightness
and activity. The campaign was of short duration.
City after city was taken; the entire kingdom re-
nounced the usurper, and Ordono was driven into the
Asturias. The expedition of the Navarrese was at-
tended with equal success. Ferdinand's army was
beaten, and he himself taken prisoner. The moun-
taineersnow refused to shelter any longer a dethroned
monarch whose personal character rendered him un-
worthy of their sympathy, and Ordono was compelled
to flee into Castile.
This decisive campaign was the last of the warlike
enterprises of the great Abd-al-Rahman. An impru-
dent exposure brought on an attack of pulmonary
596 History of the

disease,which defied the skill of the ablest physicians,

and, after an illness of several months, the most re-
nowned sovereign who had occupied the Ommeyade
throne of the West expired at the age of seventy
years.
His reign lacked but a few weeks of reaching the
extraordinary length of half a century. His deeds,
however well authenticated, seem almost to pass the
bounds of human credulity. When he received the
sceptre, the regal authority was scarcely recognized
within the narrow circuit of the walls of the capital.
When that sceptre fell from his palsied grasp, the
haughty descendants of the Visigoths, the champions
of the Christian faith, the hitherto invincible moun-
taineers whose pride and bigotry exceeded even their
valor, were his devoted vassals and tributaries. The
most formidable rebellion that had ever afflicted the
Peninsula a rebellion of thirty years' standing was
crushed. The physical traces of that long and dis-
astrous struggle were removed; the hatred which
sprang from it, more implacable than even the aver-
sion of sect to sect, was allayed. A foreign invasion
which threatened not only the destruction of his race,
but the extirpation of all knowledge and all civiliza-
tion, was checked, and a long respite given to the cause
of science and the avocations of peace. His prede-
cessor bequeathed to him an uncertain revenue drawn
from a precarious tribute his own genius, besides pro-
;

viding for the enormous expenses of government, for

the construction of great public improvements, and
for the demands of a luxury without precedent in its
extravagance, was still enabled to leave in the public
treasury a sumequal to a hundred million dollars.
A powerful navy assured the safety of the coast
from foreign attack, and permitted the development
of a commerce whose agents had already established
themselves in every province of Europe, Africa, and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 597

Asia. As a result of this extensive trade, the bazaars

of the Andalusian cities abounded with objects of
luxury, whose existence had hitherto been unsuspected
by the isolated population of the Peninsula. The
effects of this intimate and constant intercourse with
many nations were, moreover, disclosed by a marked
refinement of manners, by an increased degree of
mental activity, by a high appreciation of the benefits
conferred by the possession of learning, and by the
emancipation of the human mind from those theo-
logical prejudices which, in every age, have been at
once the cause and the evidence of a condition of
abject intellectual servitude.
The fame of Abd-al-Rahman had penetrated the
most remote and barbarous regions of the globe.
Princes of every rank in friendly rivalry endeavored,
by every resource of munificence and adulation, to
secure his friendship and promote his interests.
Splendid embassies, bearing rare and priceless gifts,
were frequently seen in the streets of the capital. The
most remarkable of these was one despatched by Con-
stantine Porphryogenitus, the Byzantine emperor,
whose pride made him ambitious to surpass, in the
superb appointments and pompous ceremonial of his
representatives, the reputed magnificence of his dis-
tant ally. But exhibiting, as it did, all the evidences
of the opulence and grandeur of the master of the
Eastern Empire, the embassy of Constantine was
eclipsed by the gorgeous blaze of the Ommeyade
Court. Its reception recalled the extravagant tales
of Oriental romance. The approaches to the palace
were lined with the guards of the Khalif, whose gay
uniforms, burnished armor, and jewel-hilted scimetars
glittered in the dazzling rays of an Andalusian sun.
Beautiful awnings of silk were suspended over court-
yard and archway. The halls of the Alcazar were
hung with cloth of gold and silver, and with tapestry
598 History of the

whose folds exhibited intricate patterns of the most

exquisite arabesques. Through gardens of aromatic
plants, through colonnades of many-colored marble,
over floors of polished mosaic, the envoys were con-
ducted to the audience chamber. Here were seated
the Khalif and the members of his family, while
ranged around them stood the great civil and military
dignitaries of the empire, the chiefs of the eunuchs,
the officials of the royal household. After a profound
obeisance, the ambassadors presented the letter of their
sovereign. It was of sky-blue parchment, inscribed
with letters of gold. The seal was also of the same
precious metal; it bore on one side the effigy of the
Saviour, and on the other the medallions of Con-
stantine and his son. The letter was enclosed in a
golden box carved with wondrous skill, and it, in turn,
was placed in a case enveloped in tissue of silk and
gold. On the lid of this case was a mosaic portrait of
the Greek emperor.
In order to impress the ambassadors with the talents
and literary acquirements of his courtiers, as well as
to do them honor, the Khalif had appointed a famous
orator and poet to pronounce an address of welcome,
which should, at the same time, exalt the glories of
his reign and the grandeur of his empire. But the
august presence in which he found himself, and the
consciousness of his inability to do justice to his sub-
ject, so affected the impressible nature of the chosen
exponent of the eloquence of Cordova that he was
unable to utter a single word. Then the Khalif called
upon one after another of the wise men at his side,
whose skill in improvisation had heretofore never
failed them, to greet the Grecian embassy, but they
also were silent. At last, unsolicited, a Persian, named
Mondhir-Ibn-Said, a recent arrival at the court, arose,
and repeated some appropriate and extemporaneous
verses, full of the glowing images and extravagant
 Moorish Empire in Europe 599

metaphors which are the delight of the passionate

Oriental. When he concluded, neither the presence
of royalty, nor the stately and dignified etiquette of
the court, could repress the applause of the delighted
audience, and the Khalif recompensed the fortunate
poet with a purse of gold, and at once appointed
him for he was learned in the law Chief Kadi of
Cordova. The envoys, having received every atten-
tion in the power of their generous host, were dis-
missed, accompanied by a vizier charged to offer, in
the name of the Khalif, a number of splendid horses,
arms, and coats of mail to the Byzantine emperor.
The account of another embassy of an entirely dif-
ferent character which arrived some time afterwards
is instructive, as affording a curious picture of the

manners of the time. The Khalif having formed,

from the accounts of mendacious travellers, an exag-
gerated idea of the extent and resources of Germany,
and desirous of opening diplomatic relations with that
power, sent to Otho, the son of Henry the Fowler, a
letter, accompanied with the usual presents. The
chief of the embassy, a Mozarabic bishop, perished
on the journey, and the missive was delivered by his
companions, who were ignorant of its contents. The
pride of Abd-al-Rahman had permitted him to incor-

porate into his letter expressions which were not com-

plimentary to the Trinitarian belief, or, as the chron-
"
icle suggestively remarks, in it the German emperor
was much better treated than the God of the Chris-
tians," trusting to the tact of the bishop to soothe any
irritation that might arise from its perusal. Otho,
having read it, in the absence of all explanation,

naturally construed the language of the Moslem as a

deliberate insult to his religion, treated the envoys with
marked indignity, removed them from the precincts
of the court, and for three years wholly ignored their
presence, except to restrain them of their liberty.
600 History of the

Then he determined to retaliate in kind. A letter

was drawn up by the Archbishop of Cologne, in which
the vocabularies of profane and ecclesiastical abuse
were exhausted in search of epithets to be heaped
upon Mohammed. A
messenger was now sought to
convey this scurrilous epistle, for, while many could
be found who were willing to write it, few were in-
clined to run the risk attending its delivery; for it
was well known that among the Moslems vitupera-
tion of the Prophet was inexorably punished with
death. Finally, John de Gorza, a fanatic monk, whose
austere life had obtained for him a reputation for
unusual piety, voluntarily offered himself as a candi-
date for the perilous duty which almost necessarily
involved the penalty of martyrdom. His services
were accepted in default of those of an ambassador
of superior dignity, and three ecclesiastics of equal
rank were selected to accompany him, and to share
the doubtful fortunes of the enterprise. All arrange-
ments having been completed, this singular embassy
set forth from the court of Otho with but slight

probability of its return. Arrived without accident

at Cordova, the monks were detained in one of the
suburbs pending the negotiation which Abd-al-Rah-
man deemed it proper to enter into with them touch-
ing the offensive letter of the emperor, whose contents
were no secret at the Mussulman court. The Khalif
found himself placed in an unpleasant dilemma. The
law was severely explicit concerning the treatment of
such as blasphemed the name of Mohammed. Should
the envoys deliver the letter of Otho, responsibility
would attach to their act as the representatives of their
sovereign, and yet their execution would be, in the
eyes of the world, a serious violation of the law of
nations. Every effort was made to induce John de
Gorza to retain the letter and present only the gifts
which accompanied it. The services of the shrewdest
 Moorish Empire in Europe 601

diplomatists of the court were enlisted for this pur-

pose. But the stubborn fanatic, in whom the splen-
dors of the Moslem empire aroused only a feeling of
disdain,- was not to be convinced
by the insinuating
arts nor intimidated by the menaces of the emissaries
of the Khali f. The difficulty was at length adjusted
by John de Gorza consenting to apply to his royal
master for another letter to be substituted for the ob-
jectionable one in his possession. This was done, and,
after a delay of eighteen months, preparations were
made for the reception of the embassy. Now, how-
ever, a fresh obstacle was interposed by the obstinacy
of monkish prejudice. The rigorous etiquette, as well
as the elegance and decorum of the Moslem court,
were insulted by the coarse and tattered garments
and uncleanly appearance of the German envoy. At-
tributing his condition to poverty, the Khali f sent him
a large sum of money to be expended in procuring
suitable clothing. True to his profession, the unselfish
anchorite at once bestowed the whole amount in alms
upon the poor. The Khalif, unable to repress his
admiration for the consistent and uncompromising
'
character of the bold ecclesiastic, exclaimed, By
Allah! were he only clothed with a bag, I will see
him."
Introduced with every form of ceremonious cour-
tesy into the presence of the most brilliant court in
Europe, John de Gorza, unawed by the majesty of
the monarch and apparently unimpressed by the new
and dazzling scenes that met his eye, bore himself with
a calm dignity and self-possession little to be expected
from his previous conduct; and Abd-al-Rahman,
greatly pleased with his candor and humility, ac-
corded him before his departure the unusual distinc-
tion of a private audience, and finally dismissed him
with every token of honor and esteem.
This period is remarkable for the success of a hand-
602 History of the

ful of adventurers, who, in the closing years of the

preceding century, had established themselves on the
coast of France, and whose enterprise, had they re-
ceived substantial aid from the government -of Cor-
dova, might have affected, in no small degree, the
ultimate fate of Christian Europe.
In the year 889, a band of twenty Moorish pirates
were driven by a tempest into the Gulf of Grimaud,
which washes the shores of Lower Provence. Their
predatory habits tempted them to explore the adjacent
country a village was surprised and plundered and
; ;

further investigation convinced them of the advan-

tages which chance had thrown in their way for the
foundation of a permanent colony. It was indeed an
ideal spot for a robber stronghold. The commerce
of the Northern Mediterranean was within easy reach.
The harbor was retired and capacious. Lofty moun-
tains covered with dense forests surrounded it. From
their summits could be discerned the highly -cultivated
plains of France, for generations free from the in-
roads of the marauder, whose inhabitants, ruled by a
succession of incapable princes, were wholly destitute
of the martial spirit which supplies the neglect of
royal protection in a hardy peasantry, and who had
been long unaccustomed to the use of arms. Near
at hand were the Alps, through whose unguarded
passes access was obtainable to the smiling valleys and
rich citiesof Italy, a country which has been the goal
of every military adventurer of Western Europe in
both ancient and modern times.
The Moslem freebooters lost no time in apprising
their friends and comrades of their discovery. Re-
cruits from Spain, Sicily, and Africa daily swelled
their ranks. It was not long before a score of castles
each the seat of a marauding chieftain crowned
the heights overlooking the Gulf of Grimaud and the
Forest of Fraxinet. With profound sagacity, these
 Moorish Empire in Europe 603

enterprising bandits sold their support to the feudal

barons, whose quarrels perpetually vexed the petty-
states of Provence, always choosing the weakest for
Thus they held the balance of power, and,
their allies.
enriched by the plunder of civil war, acquired each
year a larger measure of influence and importance.
Their relentless cruelty gave them a weight out of all
proportion to their numbers or their valor. Their
excesses were the terror of the peasantry. By the
end of the ninth century, they had crossed the Alps,
threatened Turin, destroyed many monasteries, and
laid waste the plains of Montferrat and Piedmont.

They established themselves on the Po. In 935 they

had advanced to the borders of Liguria. Their depre-
dations extended as far as the city of Genoa. The
passes of Mount Cenis and Mount St. Bernard were
in their hands. From their strongholds in the Alps

they stopped all traffic and levied contributions on

every traveller. They carried their arms into Swit-
zerland, and penetrated to the shores of Lake Con-
stance. They burned churches and abbeys under the
walls of Marseilles. The city of Nice still bears, in
the name of one of its quarters, a souvenir of Saracen
occupation.
In France, by reason of its proximity to their
colony and the greater facilities it offered to their
movements, their incursions were more frequent and
disastrous. Much of the level country was depopu-
lated. In the strongest cities alone was security to be
found. Almost the entire territory of Provence,
Languedoc, and Dauphine was at one time subject to
the visitations of this awful scourge. So strongly had
these daring banditti intrenched themselves in the
mountains of Southwestern Europe, that the princes
in whose dominions they were found were unable
to dislodge them. It is hinted by Liutprand that the
embassy of John de Gorza had for its principal ob-
604 History of the

ject the cessation of their ravages, through the inter-

vention of the Khalif, a statement by no means im-
probable.
Be this as it was not long after that event
may, it

that the power of the Moslem colonists began to de-

cline. For a time the influx of recruits, the appropria-
tion of women, and the institution of polygamous
households threatened a superiority in numbers as
well as in arms, and a permanency of occupation,
conditions whose danger had been exemplified by the
Arab conquests in the South. These fears, however,
proved without foundation. The Christians gradu-
ally recovered their ground. Castle after castle fell
before their assaults. Dependent upon their own
efforts, the Moslem pirates could not sustain the com-
bined attack made upon them from every side, and,
before the death of Abd-al-Rahman, they had lost
their influence as a disturbing force in those coun-
tries which they had for three-quarters of a century
made the scene of their depredations.
The operations of these chieftains were never di-
vested of the character of brigandage. Except in
time of common danger, they acted independently of
each other. The permanent success which is derived
from a union of forces and concerted political action
never attended their arms. Yet, without organization
and deprived of the support of any foreign govern-
ment, they maintained their footing in a hostile .terri-
tory for nearly a hundred years. Their only resources
were the plunder they obtained from their neighbors.
Their only recruits were adventurers like themselves,
attracted by the hope of booty. Their harems were
filled by and their race propagated at the
their forays,

expense of the enemy. No chronicle, Christian or

Arab, explicitly states that they were even counte-
nanced, still less assisted, by the Khalifate of Cor-
dova. Yet no opportunity so favorable to the exten-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 605

sion of the Faithand the conquest of Europe was ever

offered to the Spanish Moslems. The strategic im-
portance of these piratical strongholds was far greater
than that of the exposed settlements of Septimania.
They were easily accessible by sea. With trifling
labor they might have been rendered impregnable.
They controlled the passes of the Alps. They
menaced the great cities of Marseilles, Aries, and
Narbonne. As a point of concentration for an in-
vading army their value was indisputable. Difficult
of approach, they commanded the rich plains of
Provence and Languedoc, of Piedmont and Lom-
bardy. The facility with which their marauding and
undisciplined garrisons overran the adjacent provinces
as far as Genoa and Grenoble is suggestive of the
results which might have been accomplished by the

systematic operations of a great military power like

that of Abd-al-Rahman III., supported by the re-
sources of the most opulent and warlike nation of the
age.
The domestic policy of Abd-al-Rahman gave indi-
same genius that directed
cations of the his military

campaigns and diplomatic negotiations. The exact

administration of justice, the vigilance of a numerous
and well-appointed police, the supervision of an in-
corruptible magistracy, guaranteed to every class of
society the full enjoyment of the rights of person and
property. The prevalence of order and the suppres-
sion of crime were no less evident in regions far re-
mote from the seat of government than in the imme-
diate precincts of the capital.
The love of pomp and the prodigal display of
luxury kept even pace with the increasing wealth and
multiplied resources of the empire. The temples were
enriched with the spoils and decorated with the
trophies of the churches and monasteries of the in-
fidel. The Great Mosque of the capital was enlarged,
606 History of the

itscourt enclosed with a graceful arcade and cooled

by delicious fountains. The palaces and gardens
of Cordova surpassed in extent and equalled in mag-
nificence thefamous ones of Bagdad and Damascus.
In the charming and luxurious retreat of Medina-al-
Zahra, the Khalif transacted the daily routine of busi-
ness; received foreign ambassadors; heard and de-
cided contests for literary precedence; determined
questions of civil and ecclesiastical law. Entertain-
ing, not without reason, a profound distrust of the
Arab element, which composed the most intelligent
portion of his subjects, he committed the principal
offices of government and entrusted the care of his

person to the Mamlouks, or Slaves, a class of servile

origin, whose numbers through royal favor, the pos-
session of marked capacity for affairs, and the habit
of implicit obedience soon rose to extraordinary
power and influence in the state. This term was
applied at first to captives taken in war by the Arabs
themselves, or sold to them by the barbarian nations
of Germany. But by degrees the name acquired a
more extensive significance, and came to include all
persons of foreign birth or base extraction employed
in the civil and military service of the khalifate.
Almost every nation and tribe from the shores of
the Caspian to the western extremities of Lusitania
were represented in this important class, the alien
birth and dependent character of whose constituents
divested them of sympathy with the other subjects
of the empire, and assured their unwavering devotion
to the interests of their master. From the earliest
days of the emirate, an enormous traffic had been
carried on in slaves with Christian countries, princi-
pally with France and Italy. Its profits, originally
monopolized by Jews, were, in time, shared by Chris-
tian ecclesiastics; and it has been established by in-
controvertible evidence that at least one pope did not
 Moorish Empire in Europe 607

disdain to replenish the coffers of the Church by an ex-

pedient so prejudicial to the interests of religion and
humanity. The monasteries of the South of France
were largely devoted to the manufacture of eunuchs;
those on the Meuse were also especially celebrated on
this account, the unfortunate subjects for mutilation

being procured by the monks through the purchase of

children from the peasantry. The Slave caste, while
it included a considerable proportion of eunuchs, was

by no means', however, limited to individuals of that

unfortunate class.
Although condemned by adverse fortune to a sub-
ordinate and frequently to a humiliating position in
the scale of society, the inferiority of the Slave, in this
respect, was more than compensated by the authority
he exercised, by the wealth he was enabled to accumu-
late, and by the consideration he enjoyed as the chosen

agent of the Khalif in posts of responsibility and con-

fidence. The highest employments were entrusted to
these strangers, to the prejudice of the ancient aris-
tocracy whose lineage could be traced to the Pagan
guardians of the Kaaba and the Companions of the
Prophet. The royal body-guard was entirely com-
posed of Slaves. Introduced into the country at an
age when youth is most susceptible to outward im-
pressions, they imbibed, through intimate association,
through the influence of example, through religious
instruction, and through considerations of personal
interest, the habits, the prejudices, and the faith of
the Moslems. Some amassed large fortunes in trade.
Others rose to important commands in the army.
Many maintained establishments which surpassed
those of the nobility in pomp and extravagance,
and themselves owned multitudes of slaves. Not a
few were noted for their scholarly attainments; pos-
sessed extensive libraries; participated with credit in
the public debates which amused the leisure of the
608 History or the

court; and acquired no inconsiderable reputation in

the pursuits of literature.
This epoch of Moorish dominion, agitated by
foreign war and intestine disturbance, was likewise
oppressed by the calamities of nature and the grievous
machinations of domestic treason. In the year 915,
the Peninsula was visited by a famine of unparalleled
severity. A long-continued drought, which defied the
skill of the hydraulic engineers and the resources of
an irrigating system that was the admiration of Eu-
rope, wasted the land. Apestilence followed, as usual,
in the wake of the famine. Deprived of all means of
subsistence and consumed by disease, the unhappy
peasantry perished by thousands. The streets and
highways were obstructed with the dying and the dead.
The mosques were crowded day and night with sup-
pliants, who implored the pity of a God
who seemed
to have turned His face in anger from His children.
Such was the mortality that the survivors were unable
to afford to the deceased the rites of burial. Every
effort was exerted by the government to alleviate the
public misery, but the distress was so general
that
the liberality of the Khalif was unable to produce any
great improvement in the lamentable condition of his
neces-
subjects, whose violent measures to obtain the
saries of life not infrequently required the interven-
tion of military force. The measure of national mis-
fortune was filled by the ruin wrought by a terrible
hurricane that swept the coasts of Africa and Anda-
lusia, and by a conflagration that destroyed the larger

portion of the capital.

Abd-al-Rahman had two sons, named respectively
Al-Hakem and Abdallah. Of these, the firstwas the
heir apparent, who, though greatly esteemed and re-
spected for his noble character and princely virtues,
was still generally considered as inferior to his brother

in literary ability as well as in those showy qualities

 Moorish Empire in Europe 609

and accomplishments which dazzle the eyes of the

populace. In an evil hour, the ambitious Abdallah,
incited by his friend the theologian Ibn-Abd-al-Barr,
was induced to agree to the assassination of Al-
Hakem, and a plot was hatched with that end in view.
Unhappily for their success, a spy had introduced
himself into the councils of the conspirators, and they
were secretly arrested. Some were impaled. Ibn-
Abd-al-Barr anticipated the executioner by suicide;
and Abdallah, in spite of the magnanimous inter-
cession of the injured Al-Hakem, was strangled in
prison. The happiness of the Khalif was deeply and
permanently affected by a deed in which paternal
affection was sacrificed to a sense of public duty and
;

to the day of his death the memory of the untimely

fate of his son constantly haunted his thoughts and
imparted to his character a melancholy which no diver-
sion could charm away, and no triumph, however
glorious, could entirely efface.
The greatness of the Moslem power in Spain
under Abd-al-Rahman III. is to be attributed to
the extraordinary administrative capacity of that re-
nowned monarch. The glory in fact is exclusively his
own. The
attention he paid to the minute details of
government was not less marked than the skill with
which he directed to a successful issue enterprises of
the greatest magnitude and importance. He was the
impersonation of imperial despotism. No sovereign of
his race had hitherto centred in his person, to the ex-
clusion of all other sources of authority, the prestige,
the honor, the dignity of empire. He possessed in a
remarkable degree those talents which facilitate the
subordination and amalgamation of hostile elements
of society long accustomed to anarchy, a task far more
difficult than the conquest of great nations. The dis-
cernment he exhibited in abolishing all taxes not au-
thorized by the traditional law of Islam acquired for
Vol. I. 39
610 History of the

him the public confidence at the very beginning of his

reign. The history of that period exhibits a picture
of religious toleration in vivid contrast to the revolt-
ing crimes perpetrated by the Sees of Constantinople
and Rome. So little was
great prince influenced
this

by sectarian prejudice, or even by ordinary considera-

tions of policy, that he was with infinite difficulty
dissuaded from appointing to the highest judicial
office of the realm a renegade, whose father and
mother still belonged to the Christian communion.
The assumption of the title of khalif attended by the
,

alteration in the coinage and the modification of the

public prayers in the mosques acts that confirmed to
him the attributes of his new and well-merited dignity
gave him great prominence in the Mohammedan
world. The achievements of a quarter of a century
certainly entitled him to a distinction which his pride
and wisdom now induced him to appropriate, and
which was destined to contribute a new and powerful
impulse to the civilization of Western Europe. His
popularity called forth such multitudes of volunteers
when the Holy War was proclaimed that care had to
be taken lest the shops be left without clerks and the
fieldswithout laborers.
The reign of Abd-al-Rahman III. is coincident
with the greatest wealth, grandeur, and prosperity of
the Hispano-Arab domination, as those of his son
and grandson indicate respectively the climax of its
supremacy and its military glory. During
intellectual
this,the most flourishing era of the Saracen empire,
the Peninsula presented the aspect of a highly culti-
vated and extraordinarily productive garden. The
graceful and delicious plants of the Orient grew
everywhere side by side with the indigenous flora
of less favored Europe. The semi-tropical region
embraced by the provinces of Valencia and Murcia,
thickly settled as they are, then supported a far
 Moorish Empire in Europe 611

more numerous population than now clusters in

their fertile valleys. The treeless and proverbially
barren steppes of Old Castile were diversified with
forests and dotted with picturesque villages. End-
less fields of ripening grain met the eye on the

plains of La Mancha, where to-day a sparse and

straggling vegetation affords precarious sustenance
to the flock of the shepherd. The nature of the
soil, peculiar adaptability to certain agricul-
its

tural products, the rotation of crops, the fertilizing

qualities of all varieties of manures, the systematic
distribution and economy of water, were thoroughly
understood, and the principles of scientific husbandry
applied with phenomenal success. Not a foot of
ground was wasted. The rocky hill-sides were, with
infinite labor, cut into terraces, covered with mould,
and planted with vineyards. Where even a single
citron, carob, or olive-tree would grow, a triangular
enclosure was constructed of stones filled with earth
and tended with assiduous care. The yield of the
harvests was often a hundred-fold. It was not un-
usual, in many districts, for the same ground to pro-
duce four crops of different kinds in the course of a
year. In the South, where the warm and genial cli-
mate assisted the natural productiveness of the soil,
the country was not inaptly termed a terrestrial para-
dise. The suburbs of Cordova, Granada, and Murcia
were proverbial for their beauty, and their luxuriant
vegetation was rather suggestive of the rural sur-
roundings of provincial hamlets than of the vicinity
of great capitals. The olive orchards of Seville were
the most extensive in the world. The banks of the
Guadalquivir, near that city, were lined with fruit-
trees, and, for a distance of thirty miles, one could
travel through a succession of farm-houses, castles,
and stately villas embowered in perennial verdure. A
net-work of canals, subject to and regulated by an
612 History of the

equitable code of laws interpreted by rustie magis-

trates chosenby the people, traversed in all directions
the tillable land of every province. Gigantic aque-
ducts spanned valleys and hill-sides, bearing to the
parched and thirsty soil of the distant plains the
refreshing waters of the mountain springs. The
experience of the Moor enabled him to detect the
presence of the precious fluid in the most unprom-
ising localities; and subterranean channels, hundreds
of yards in length, hewn in the living rock, still attest
his dauntless energy and perseverance.
The incessant wars and domestic feuds of the
Abbasides and the Fatimites, which consumed their
resources and interrupted their commerce, presented
opportunities to the Ommeyades of Spain by which
they were ever ready to profit. The isolated situation
of the latter, and the peaceful condition of their em-
pire for extended periods of time, were eminently
propitious to the development of foreign trade, while
the possession of a large merchant marine facilitated
transportation to points that national hostility and re-
ligious prejudice often rendered inaccessible by land.
Although the great entrepot of Alexandria was closed
to the subjects of the Khalifs of the West, they were

amply indemnified by the hospitable reception and

official courtesies which they habitually received from
the people of Constantinople. It was a judicious and
enlightened policy, and one whose important influ-
ence on every branch of art and learning cannot be
estimated by the material prosperity, however great,
which its institution conferred, that dictated the alli-
ance, and preserved the close relations long existing
between the princes of Moorish Spain and the sov-
ereigns of Byzantium. During its most prosperous
era, the merchant vessels of the khalifate numbered
more than a thousand. Permanent agencies for the
purchase and sale of merchandise were established in
 Moorish Empire in Europe 613

the most distant regions of the East, in Ceylon, in

Sogdiana, in China. There were few bodies of water

accessible to maritime traffic where the flag of the

Ommeyades was not known.

The vaunted glories of the Abbaside dynasty were
surpassed, in many respects, by the civilization of the
Hispano-Arab empire. In the extent of its public
works, in the magnificence of its palaces, in the em-
bellishment of its temples, the superiority of the latter
can hardly be questioned. Its thorough and system-
atic cultivation of the soil was not inferior in its re-
sults to the methods pursued in the most productive
fields of Mesopotamia, the Garden of Asia. No com-

parison exists between the trade of Damascus and

Bagdad, largely dependent on caravans, and that of
Moorish Spain, which, in addition to this resource,
employed great fleets of merchantmen.
The best indications of the prosperity of the West-
ern Khalifate are to be derived from its population
and its public revenues. It has been estimated by
competent authorities that the subjects of Abd-al-
Rahman III. numbered at least thirty million. Great
as was the extent of the metropolis, incredible as was
her wealth, superb as were her environs, many of the
other cities of the empire, while they could not rival
her power and grandeur, shared the enormously profit-
able benefits of a civilization in which Cordova en-
joyed a well-deserved pre-eminence. The dominions
of the Khalif included eighty municipalities of the
first rank and three hundred of the second ;
the smaller
towns were almost innumerable. Along the banks of
the Guadalquivir alone stood twelve thousand villages.
So thickly was the country settled that the traveller
usually passed, in the space of a single day's journey,
no less than three large cities in the midst of an un-
broken succession of towns and hamlets. Nothing
comparable with the opulence and splendor of the
614 History of the

great provincial capitals was to be seen outside of

the Peninsula. Seville contained five hundred thou-
sand inhabitants Almeria an equal number Granada
; ;

four hundred and twenty-five thousand Malaga three

;

hundred thousand; Valencia two hundred and fiftv

thousand Toledo two hundred thousand.
;

The sanitary regulations maintained in these large

communities were almost perfect. The streets were
paved and lighted. A
thorough system of drainage
prevailed. Some of the sewers under the city of
Valencia were large enough to admit a cart with ease.,
and the smallest could be traversed by a loaded beast
of burden. Order was preserved by means of a nu-
merous and well-organized police, who patrolled the
thoroughfares day and night.
From the best information to be obtained concern-
ing the revenues of Spain under the Arabs during the
reigns of different monarchs, the conclusion is indis-
putable that they exceeded in amount those of all the
other sovereigns of Europe combined. The data we
possess, while much less copious and explicit than
could be desired, are, as far as they go, undoubtedly
correct, although some have questioned their
critics

accuracy. A
single instance may suffice to convey an
idea of the wealth of the khalifs under the most
flourishing conditions of their empire. The revenue
of Abd-al-Rahman III. was twelve million nine hun-
dred and forty-five thousand dinars, equivalent to
thirty-three million six hundred thousand dollars.
The immensity of the pecuniary resources of the
khalifate may well excite the wonder, if not the in-
credulity, of the scholar when it is remembered that
the ratio of the respective monetary values of the tenth
and twentieth centuries is ten to one. The fact that
such a sumcould be contributed for the support of
government by a nation occupying a limited territo-
rial area like that of Spain, without being considered
 Moorish Empire in Europe 615

onerous or in any way impairing its commercial pros-

perity, is a more reliable indication of the affluence of
the Western Khalifate than a whole library of sta-
tistics. The principal tax levied was one-tenth of the
yield of the mines, crops, mercantile investments, and
industrial occupations. In addition to this was the
regular contribution, yielding fourteen million dollars,
paid by Christians and Jews as a consideration for
the enjoyment of their laws and the practice of their
religion; certain taxes on shops and on the sale of
property, and duties on imports, none of which were
at all excessive. One of the most important sources
of revenue, in a warlike age, was the fifth of the booty
obtained in battle, which, after division, was deposited
in the royal treasury. No approximate computation
can be made of its amount, which necessarily varied
with each campaign, and no appraisement was taken
of its actual value after its first distribution, which
was, in most instances, hastily made and inaccurate.
The exigencies of warfare, and the expenses arising
from the construction of important public works,
often demanded the imposition of additional and
extraordinary burdens, which, while not countenanced
by law, were usually paid without remonstrance, as
required for the propagation of the Faith and for
the completion of noble architectural monuments rep-
resenting the glory and piety of the monarch and
the opulence of the state. The dignitaries of the
empire maintained the pomp and state of princes.
Their palaces, their courts, their retinues, were in-
ferior only to those of their royal master. No Chris-
tian potentate could vie with them in magnificence.
Their wealth, accumulated by every legal expedient,
by every device of extortion, was bestowed with lavish
hand. A present made by the Vizier, Ibn-Shobeyd,
to Abd-al-Rahman III., and celebrated by the Arab
writers of the age as an instance of prodigal gener-
616 History of the

osity, bears witness of the vast treasures which must

have been possessed by imperial officials of the highest
rank. It included an estate whose forests contained
twenty thousand trees sixty slaves, male and female,
;

selected for their accomplishments and beauty; one

hundred horses and mules; eight hundred suits of
armor; a large number of costly weapons, tents, and
trappings; carpets, cushions, and silks; rare sables
and cloaks of brocade; quantities of camphor, aloes,
musk, and amber. The most important item of this
magnificent gift was coin and virgin gold to the
amount of five hundred and fifty thousand dinars. Its
whole value may be estimated at more than five million
dollars.
The political sagacity of the Moorish princes neg-
lected no precaution which might contribute to the
consolidation of their authority or the security of their
dominions. The navy of Abd-al-Rahman III. was
the most powerful in the Mediterranean. The irregu-
lar troops at his command were practically unlimited
in number those regularly enrolled amounted to more
;

than a hundred and fifty thousand. The body-guard

of the Khalif was famous for the splendor of its arms
and the perfection of its discipline. It was composed
of twelve thousand veterans, of whom eight thousand
were cavalry. The accoutrements of the members of
this select corps were the most costly and perfect that
the military science of the time could provide. Their
uniform was of the finest silk. The caparisons of
their horses were unequalled in magnificence. The
hilts of their scimetars were jewelled; their belts and
scabbards were of solid gold.
Facilities for rapid and secure communication with
the frontiers of the empire were afforded by sub-
stantial causeways, which, radiating from the capital,
were equally available for the passage of troops and
the transportation of merchandise. The safety of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 617

traveller was assured by patrols and sentinels lodged

in barracks distributed at regular intervals. A system
of posts transmitted intelligence by means of couriers
and relays of horses with a rapidity that to the mind
of the astonished foreigner seemed almost magical.
Innumerable watch-towers, still known to the Span-
iards by their Arab name, atalayas, rose upon every
promontory of the long extended line of coast, and
from their summits beacons flashed timely notice of
the movements of friendly cruisers and hostile squad-
rons.
Vast sums were repeatedly appropriated from the
treasury for structures designed for public utility,
solely with the object of affording employment to
the industrious artisan and laborer. Abd-al-Rahman
II. caused proclamation to be made throughout his
dominions that no man, able and willing to work,
should suffer because of enforced idleness. Thus was
establishedby implication the salutary principle that
the accumulated wealth of the state was the property
of the people, and to its general application is to
be attributed the extraordinary number of castles,
mosques, bridges, and aqueducts which cover every
part of the Peninsula once subject to Mussulman rule.
The sick and the unfortunate were housed and cared
for in public institutions erected for that purpose.
Orphans were maintained and educated from the
private purse of the Khalif, five hundred being en-
rolled in a single school at Cordova, a noble example
of patriarchal solicitude and royal generosity.
Equally unlike their predecessors the Barbarians
and their own conquerors the Castilians, the Spanish
Arabs did not take pleasure in the destruction of the
proud memorials of Roman greatness. It is true that
where a structure was hopelessly ruined, they appro-
priated the materials for their own edifices. Wanton
injury of the relics of classic antiquity was, however,
618 History of the

always discountenanced by the liberal spirit of the

Spanish Moslem. Even from the earliest epoch of
their occupation, the grandeur of these works, which
have immortalized the power and majesty of the
Ca3sars, filled their untutored but not unappreciative
minds with awe and wonder. Bridges and fortifica-
tions which had survived since the reign of the first

emperors were rebuilt. The highways, which formed

such an important feature of the military policy of
the empire, were thoroughly repaired and extended.
Such objects of Greek or Roman art as came into
possession of the Saracens with the exception of
statuary, which, as representing the human form, par-
took of the abomination of idolatrous worship were
carefully preserved. In every act and sentiment was
disclosed a feeling of reverence and admiration for the
imposing and graceful monuments bequeathed to
posterity by the former masters of the world.
The centre of all this wonderful civilization was the
famous city of Cordova. The capital of the empire,
of itself, it possessed all the requisites of a mighty
state, a vast population, commercial wealth, religious

prestige, political power. Eight cities of the first rank

and three thousand smaller towns were subject to its
jurisdiction. Each year the sum of three million
pieces of gold sixty million dollars was paid into
its treasury. No community of ancient or mediaeval
times could compare with it in proficiency in the arts,
in scientific attainments, in intellectual culture. Its
inhabitants could not have numbered less than a mil-
lion. Their dwellings, generally built of stone, ex-
hibited the unpretending exterior peculiar to Oriental
architecture, but within they were adorned with mo-
saics and arabesques, with blooming parterres and
marble fountains. The streets, adapted to the scorch-
ing climate, were narrow, but solidly paved, perfectly
drained, and, subject to constant supervision, were
 Moorish Empire in Europe 619

kept in a state of cleanliness unknown to the best-

regulated municipalities of modern Europe. In sum-
mer, a grateful coolness was obtained by awnings,
which, stretched from one building to another, ex-
cluded the rays of the sun, facilitating the purposes of
traffic and the intercourse of the people. The houses
exclusive of the palaces of the nobles and public
officials, which were very numerous amounted to the
extraordinary figure of one hundred and thirteen
thousand. There were eighty thousand four hundred
shops, seven hundred mosques, nine hundred baths,
and four thousand three hundred markets, where were
constantly to be seen the costumes and the treasures
of every country known to commerce in that age.
For ten miles in a direct line on the darkest night
the pedestrian could walk securely through the city
and its environs by the light of innumerable lamps.
The total area of the capital included a space of
twenty-four miles in length by six in width along the
classic Baetis, which the only stream of Andalusia
that is said to bear a strictly Arab name had been
designated by the Saracens The Great River. The
circumference of the city proper, enclosed by fortified
walls, was fourteen miles. In the size and number of
its bazaars and in the variety of the merchandise with
which its Cordova enjoyed an
warehouses were filled,

undisputed pre-eminence over the most luxurious

cities of Asia, and west of the Bosphorus had no

rival, with the single exception of Constantinople.

The rarest and most expensive luxuries of the table
and the harem were to be procured in the shops of the
gigantic capital. Beautiful slaves from Greece, Italy,
and Abyssinia; white eunuchs, whose emasculation
had rather enhanced than diminished their elegance
of form and regularity of feature blacks, whose re-
;

pulsive hideousness and colossal stature were quali-

fications for the retinue of the Khalif books and
;
620 History of the

manuscripts in every tongue; the choicest spices and

perfumes of the Orient; priceless jewels, whose sheen
enhances to such a degree the charms of female love-
liness; robes of every hue and texture, woven with
texts and mottoes in threads of silver and gold, all
of these, and many other wares, objects of the cu-
pidity and the passions of man were daily exhibited
to the covetous and admiring glance of the passer-by.
Great caravansaries afforded shelter to multitudes of
merchants, travellers, and pilgrims, who, allured by
avarice, curiosity, or devotion, daily resorted to the
renowned Metropolis of the West. Inns, where food,
lodging, and alms were gratuitously distributed to the
worthy but impecunious scholar, whose means were
inadequate to the gratification of his literary aspira-
tions, established by the government and maintained
from the funds of the public treasury, formed a pecu-
liar and striking feature of the varied life of the city.
From the rivulets of the distant Sierra, a lofty aque-
duct, two leagues and a half in length and whose
vermilion hue, derived from the cinnabar in its
cement, presenting a vivid contrast to the green of
the surrounding landscape, rendered it a most con-
spicuous object furnished the inhabitants with a
never-failing supply of water. Fountains threw up
their glittering spray in every square, before every

palace, in the court-yard of every mosque. In some

instances, the stream poured in noisy volume from the
mouth of a lion or a crocodile of gilded bronze, gro-
tesque and terrible in appearance in others, the drops
;

rippled gently over the edges of exquisitely carved

basins of porphyry and alabaster. The air was heavy
with the mingled aroma of myriads of blossoms, as
from orchard and garden were wafted the odors of
many a delicious exotic, which filled the streets with
their intoxicating fragrance.
Seven ponderous gates, covered with scales of brass,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 621

gave access to the five different quarters, or wards,

into which the city was divided, each of which was
isolated from the rest by walls and towers, as a means
of security against the turbulent populace, whose in-
subordination was proverbial and whose loyalty was
uncertain even under the iron hand of the most power-
ful ruler. To one of these wards the Christians, to
another the Jews, were restricted, and, from their
precincts, after sunset, no individual could emerge
without incurring the penalty of death. From every
gate a broad and well- paved highway led to the fron-
tier cities of the empire, Malaga, Badajoz, Astorga,
Talavera, Toledo, Saragossa, Merida. The alcazar of
the khalifs, built upon the site of the palace of the
Visigothic kings, was of great size and impregnable
strength. It probably included one of the wards
above referred to, and contained the citadel, the official
residence of the principal dignitaries of the court, and
the barracks of the royal body-guard, as well as the
quarters of an innumerable retinue of dependents and
slaves. Near it was the gate leading to the bridge
over the Guadalquivir, the scene of more than one
historical event which changed the fortunes of the

reigning dynasty in eras of revolution and disaster.

That bridge was one of the grandest works ever de-
signed by Roman genius. It was twelve hundred
feet in length by thirty in breadth, and stood ninety
feet above the water. It was defended by nineteen
turrets. Built during the reign of Augustus, and in

good repair to-day, it has served the purposes of war

and commerce for sixty generations.
The inexhaustible fertility of the soil of Andalusia
yielded, in the greatest profusion, the most delicious
products of every clime. The necessaries of life were
to be procured for a trifle. Every description of food
was offered for sale in the markets, and luscious fruits
and vegetables, classed as expensive luxuries or unat-
622 History of the

tainable in the capitals of Christian Europe, were en-

joyed in Cordova by persons in the most moderate
circumstances. The attire of the humblest citizen in-
dicated an unusual degree of personal comfort; pro-
fessional mendicancy, that curse of Oriental com-
munities, was discouraged and practically unknown;
the worthy sufferer found a ready welcome in the
public hospital, while the impostor was scourged into
unwonted activity by the officers of justice.
The suburbs of Cordova, exclusive of the royal
residence of Medina-al-Zahra, which was superior to
the others in extent and beauty, were twenty-one in
number. They bore romantic names suggested by
their charming situations, and the admiring homage
they received from the people, such as " The Vale of
"
Paradise," The Beautiful Valley," " The Path of
"
Roses," The Garden of Wonders." While subject
to the jurisdiction of the central municipal power,
they, in other respects, presented the aspect of a series
of independent communities, provided with every
necessity and luxury required by a numerous and
thriving population, shops, baths, inns, warehouses,
markets, and mosques. Two occupied the opposite
bank of the river; the others encircled the Moorish
capital with a girdle of dazzling white villas, inter-
spersed with groves of palms rising amidst a wealth
of tropical verdure. For miles in every direction were
orange orchards, whose sweetness impregnated the air
for many a league. Rivulets and fountains diffused
through street and garden a delicious coolness. Blos-
soms of gaudy hue and overpowering fragrance grew
in profusion along the avenues. The columns in the
court-yards were entwined with roses. Along the stone
causeways radiating in every direction from the city
trooped caravans of plodding camels, laden with
products of the art and industry of Europe, Africa,
and Asia; or, riding swift Andalusian horses, sped
 Moorish Empire in Europe 623

the royal couriers with despatches for the governors

of the distant states of the empire. The majestic
bridge across the Guadalquivir was, from sunrise to
sunset, crowded to its utmost capacity with traders,
servants, soldiers, mounted cavaliers, and beasts of
burden.
The pampered tastes of the khalifs found their ut-
most gratification in the comparative seclusion of the
ten villas which the latter possessed in the environs of
their capital. Here were provided means of sensual
enjoyment that far eclipsed, in extent and elegance,
the voluptuous attractions and wanton extravagance
of Capri, Sybaris, and Antioch. These abodes of
pleasure, contrived with all the skill of the Saracen
architect, were surrounded by grounds that exhibited
to perfection the peculiar and surprising effects of the
horticulture of Asia. Airy galleries, sustained by
columns of polished marble, were brilliant with the
beautiful stuccoes of Damascus. The mural decora-
tion, imitated from the textile fabrics of India, par-
took of all the richness of silk brocade interwoven
with threads of gold. The sparkling mosaics of Con-
stantinople, lavished in gay profusion upon arch and
alcove, contributed their share towards the embellish-
ment of these enchanting retreats. Curious lattices
of alabaster admitted a subdued and uncertain light.
Sentences from the works of famous poets most of
them of an irreverent and bacchanalian character
met the eye upon cornice, architrave, and capital. The
basins, wherein dashed, with musical tinkle, the jets
of countless fountains, were of massy silver. The
furniture was of aloe, sandal-wood, ebony, and ivory,
delicately carved and inlaid. Lovely female slaves of
every nationality, accomplished in the arts of poetry
and music, and educated under the supervision of
famous instructors, ministered to the wants of the
Commander of the Faithful, entertained his leisure
624 History of the

with animated and intellectual discourse, or relieved

his care with their endearments and with the charms
of song. Vast numbers of white and black eunuchs
the former selected for their beauty, the latter
prized for their lofty stature and transcendent ugli-
ness glided mysteriously through the shadowy apart-
ments, or, armed with jewelled weapons, guarded the
forbidden portals of the harem.
In the gardens, the fertile imagination of the Ori-
ental artist rioted in its marvellous creations. The
walks, paved with colored pebbles, formed arabesques
of quaint and varied patterns. The hedges were
fashioned into imitations of fortified walls, with
battlement, tower, and barbican. From concealed
sources, fountains cast at regular intervals their
waters high into the air. Labyrinths, from whose
intricate paths escape was impossible without a guide,
beset the way of the incautious guest. The scene
was diversified with lakes, upon whose crystal sur-
face floated swans and other water-fowl of silver;
by grottos, whose cool recesses were suggestive of
luxurious repose; by arcades of glossy evergreen;
by plants of variegated foliage whose tints, at a
distance, resembled a surface of rich enamel; by
enchanting vistas, where clumps of odoriferous
shrubs and colored grasses, interspersed with beds
of brilliant flowers arranged in sentences express-
ing wishes for the happiness of the monarch and
the glorification of Allah, covered the landscape like
a piece of tapestry, more gorgeous than the most ex-
quisite creations of the weaver that ever issued from
the looms of Persia or Flanders.
The oldest and one of the most famous of these
villas was Rusaf ah, the favorite resort of Abd-al-Rah-
man I. It was not merely a place of relaxation and
enjoyment, for in its garden was first attempted the
scientific cultivation of the botanical treasures of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 625

East. Ever devoted to the romantic traditions of his

Syrian home, the exiled prince had named his palace

after one possessed by his ancestors in the vicinity of
Damascus.
The other suburban residences of the khalifs were
each distinguished by some peculiarity of location,
structure, or ornament. One was famous for its in-
numerable fountains. In another were exhibited, in
their greatest variety and beauty, the charming effects
of floral decoration. A from the magnificent
third,
"
view it afforded, was called The Abode of the Fortu-
nate." A
profusion of mosaics and enamels had
acquired for the most ornate of all the significant
"
and appropriate name of The Palace of the Dia-
dem."
To the northwest of Cordova, at the base of the
picturesque Sierra Morena, three miles from the city,
yet connected with it by a succession of mansions and
gardens, was the palace and suburb of Medina-al-
Zahra. Its traditional origin partakes of the romance
which so frequently embellishes the history of the
Orient. It is related by the Moorish historians that
a wealthy concubine of Abd-al-Rahman III., being
on her death-bed and desirous that her last act should
be the fulfilment of one of the noblest obligations
of her religion, requested that the wealth she owed to
the generosity of her royal lover be expended in the
ransom of Moslem captives. Anxious to comply with
this pious request, the Khalif sent messengers to the
Christian states of the North, but, even with the dili-
gent co-operation of their princes, who were his allies
or tributaries, he was unable to find a single slave to
be redeemed from bondage. Then, at the suggestion
of another concubine, the favorite of his harem, whose
name, Al-Zahra, in the poetic nomenclature of the
Arabs means The Blossom, he determined to use the
treasure in building a palace whose unparalleled splen-
Vol. I. 40
626 History of the

dor might form a fitting climax to the glories of his

reign. A third of the public revenues, a sum which,
without including those derived from the taxes of
Jews and Christians and the fifth of the spoils of
battle, amounted annually to more than two million
pieces of gold, was also devoted to the work by the
enthusiastic monarch. Ten thousand laborers and
twenty-eight thousand beasts of burden were daily
employed. The minuteness and prolixity with which
are described the quantity of materials used and their
value, the nationalities of the artisans and their re-
muneration, as detailed by the Arab chroniclers, are
instructive though tedious, and impart an air of
veracity to a narrative which would otherwise almost
transcend belief. The plans were drawn by the most
eminent architects of Constantinople. The walls, sub-
stantially built of stone, measured seventeen hundred
by twenty-seven hundred cubits, and were provided
with all the outworks and defences of a formidable
castle. As was the case with the Great Mosque, the
materials of the edifice were collected largely from
foreign sources and were put together under the
supervision of Byzantine artificers, aided by the most
skilful native workmen. Its construction was super-
vised by the Khalif in person, who, in his devotion to
the undertaking, having absented himself for three
successive Fridays from the services of the Mosque,
was publicly rebuked by the kadi for this flagrant neg-
lect of duty.
The quarries of Numidia, Greece, and Andalusia
contributed supplies of the finest marble and alabaster.
Capitals of Roman origin were furnished by the
ruined temples of Narbonne, Tarragona, Utica, and
Carthage. The Byzantine emperor sent as a present
to his ally a number of columns, whose beautiful tints
of green and rose called forth the admiration of all
who beheld them.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 627

The palace was divided into three distinct sections.

On the slope of the mountain rose the magnificent
alcazar, within whose apartments were lodged the
monarch and the members of his seraglio, composed
of sixty-three hundred women, with their slaves and
attendants. The number of the latter was, all told,
seventeen thousand.
Lower down, towards the city, were the quarters
of the body-guard, the eunuchs, and the pages of the
court, for whose accommodation four hundred houses
were required. Next in order came the gardens, filled
with choice plants and delicious fruits, and diversified
with artificial cascades and lakes abounding in gold-
fish. Within the precincts of this horticultural para-
dise were to be encountered every specimen of the
extensive flora both native and foreign known to
the accomplished botanists of Andalusia. Hedges of
myrtle, box, and laurel, trimmed in fantastic designs,
separated the broad and winding walks of rustic
mosaic. Summer-houses and shady bowers invited to
the siesta after exposure to the glare and heat of a
semi-tropical sun. The prolific ingenuity of the hy-
draulic engineer had exhausted itself in the wonderful
distribution of streams of water in the varying play
of a thousand fountains in miniature rivulets, whose
;

tiny channels were chiselled in the balustrades of

marble staircases; in fairy grottos, over whose roofs
of painted glass the spray from revolving jets shone
with kaleidoscopic effect; in roaring cascades, from
whose sombre depths were constantly visible the iri-
descent hues of the rainbow. Some of the fountains
were masterpieces of the sculptor's art. Two of them
are mentioned as being especially remarkable. The
larger was of gilded bronze with human figures ele-
gantly carved in relief, and came from Constanti-
nople. The basin of the other, of green marble, was
of Syrian workmanship, and disposed about its rim
628 History of the

were twelve grotesque representations of animals and

birds, cast in gold, and glittering with jewels. From
the mouths of these curious monsters jets of water
were projected into the basin below.
Over the main portal of the edifice, carved in ala-
baster with consummate skill, stood the effigy of the
lovely slave whose suggestion had evoked this palace
of the genii, and from whom it had received its name.
The portion of the gorgeous edifice upon which the
Moorish chronicler most delights to dwell was the
central pavilion. Elevated on a terrace of white
marble, in both its exterior and interior it afforded a
dazzling example of the wealth of its owner and of
the exquisite taste of its architect.
Circular in form, its dome was supported by
columns of precious marble and rock-crystal, whose
capitals were inlaid with pearls and rubies. The walls
and dome were of translucent onyx the roof of gold
;

and silver tiles, placed in alternate rows. The span-

drels and the inscriptions of the frieze exhibited the
imperishable tints and jewelled play of Byzantine
mosaic. Doors of odoriferous woods inlaid with
ivory, ebony, and gold, enriched with gems of great
value, gave access to this magnificent apartment.
Under the centre of the dome stood a movable basin
of porphyry filled with quicksilver. In some manner,
probably by the use of mirrors, the rays of the sun
could be concentrated upon the metal and the basin
caused to rotate rapidly by hidden mechanism, casting
blinding flashes of light in every direction; dazzling
the beholders with the intolerable glare, and striking
with amazement and terror the ambassadors of foreign
powers, for whose benefit this ingenious contrivance,
which would seem rather to belong to the stage than
to the audience-chamber of a powerful monarch, was
repeatedly exhibited.
The hall of this pavilion was the scene of many of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 629

the most imposing ceremonies and remarkable events

in the history of the klialif ate.
Here, the heir to the
crown was publicly acknowledged and invested with
his dignity. Here, the princes of the blood, the mag-
nates of the realm, the heads of departments, the
governors of provinces, assembled after the death of
the sovereign to swear allegiance to his successor.
Here, also, the envoys of the monarchies of Europe
and the East were granted an audience under circum-
stances far exceeding in splendor the boasted pomp
of Constantinople, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Bagdad.
Under this translucent and glittering dome were re-
ceived the Kings of Leon and Navarre, suppliants for
the favor and alliance of the hereditary enemy of their
people and their faith. On these occasions was dis-
played all the ostentatious magnificence of which the
most brilliant court in Europe was capable. The
decorations of the
audience-chamber already un-
paralleled in richness were heightened with silken
carpets and hangings of cloth of silver. The Khalif ,

seated on a throne blazing with diamonds, rubies, and

emeralds, was surrounded by his family and his
courtiers attired in their robes of state. About the
pavilion and around the terrace was marshalled the
royal guard, unrivalled in the elegance of its appoint-
ments by any similar body of soldiers in the world.
The white robes of the eunuchs and slaves formed
an appropriate background to the gorgeous picture,
which imparted to the bewildered barbarians of the
German forests and the Pyrenean mountains a start-
ling impression of the civilization and resources of
the detested infidel.
The mosque of Medina-al-Zahra corresponded in
its general details with the palace, for the conve-
nience of whose occupants it was erected. In some
respects, it surpassed in the elegance of its ornamenta-
tion the great temple of the capital, after whose plan
630 History of the

itwas modelled. It contained five aisles its gilding

;

and mosaics exhibited the finished labors of the

Asiatic artist; its sanctuary and pulpit were marvels
of Oriental taste and skill. A minaret of polished
stone, ten cubits square and forty in height and
covered with arabesques in relief, surmounted the
graceful edifice. The court was paved with wine-
colored marble, and provided with a fountain elabo-
rately carved and gilded.
From a royal villa, Medina-al-Zahra insensibly
expanded into a miniature city. Around the palace
clustered the luxurious dwellings of the courtiers, the
merchants, and the officers of the army. The avenues
were lined with trees, whose foliage formed a con-
tinuous arch. Not a house could be seen that was
not embosomed in gardens abounding with gushing
waters and rare exotics. Even the sides of the Sierra
had been stripped of the sombre growth of evergreens
which had originally covered them, and, planted with
fig- and almond-trees, appeared in all the beauty of
luxuriant foliage and fragrant blossoms. Not far
away, extensive plantations of the sweetest of flowers
gave to the locality the name of Gebal-al-Wardat,
The Mountain of the Rose.
Three hundred baths, exclusive of those appro-
priated to the use of the imperial household, con-
tributed to the health and the ceremonial purity of
the inhabitants. The favorite residence of the
khalifs, Medina-al-Zahra became the seat of the
muses, the home of the arts, the centre of the in-
tellectual society of the empire. Institutions of
learning sprang up within its borders. The literary
contests which constituted an unique and prominent
feature of the Andalusian court were celebrated there
in the presence of the monarch and the companions of
his greatness and his leisure. Forty years were re-
quired for its construction, twenty-five under Abd-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 631

al-Rahman and under his son Al-Hakem. Its

fifteen
modern valuation, the enormous
cost represents, at a
sum of one hundred and fifty million dollars. Ex-
perienced travellers of every nation pronounced, with-
out a dissenting voice, that the world did not possess,
in point of picturesque situation, royal magnificence,
and architectural beauty, a rival of the incomparable
city and palace of Medina-al-Zahra.
It is difficult to conceive, from their present forlorn
and deserted condition, of the aspect once presented
by the environs of imperial Cordova. Independent
of its populous suburbs, the commercial tributaries
of the capital represented vast mercantile interests,
and furnished support to multitudes of industrious
artisans. Five thousand mills lined the banks of the
rapid Guadalquivir. Encouraged by the profit de-
rived from a regular and extensive trade with foreign
nations, manufacturing establishments had sprung up
in every city of importance. Each of these towns had
its mosques and its imams, who, in addition to their

ecclesiastical duties, discharged the functions of

magistrates and reported regularly to the authorities

of the capital.
In the patronage of letters, Abd-al-Rahman III.
was in no respect inferior to any of his most liberal

predecessors. He
himself excelled in improvisation,
that talent so highly prized by his countrymen. His
fame and his munificence allured to the court of
Cordova the most accomplished scholars from every
region of the world. The capital abounded with
colleges, academies, lyceums, and other educational
foundations. The medical profession had attained
to a high standard of excellence, and the Jewish
surgeons of Cordova were universally recognized as
unrivalled in the extent and variety of their knowl-
edge. Many physicians held important employments
under the government, deserved tributes to their skill ;
632 History of the

but such was their charity that the doors of even the
most distinguished of them were always open to the
poor, and their gratuitous ministrations at the ser-
vice of the most humble sufferer. The sciences of
astronomy and chemistry, based upon observations
at Bagdad and experiments at Cairo and Damascus,
had made an unprecedented advance. In the royal
alcazar, in the palaces of princes, in the mansions
of the rich, in the homes of the learned, the mind of
the seeker after knowledge was daily exercised by
the discussion of subjects of universal interest, by
the prosecution of scientific inquiry, by lectures, by
improvisations, by the spirited contests of poets for
literary supremacy. In every calling and profession,
in every position of life, the useful and the orna-
mental arts, the noble and elegant pursuits of litera-
ture were cultivated by both sexes with an ardor akin
to enthusiasm.
The name of Abd-al-Rahman III., glorious in the
annals of Moorish Spain, has not, however, escaped
the condemnation of history. His great deeds; his
triumphs in war and diplomacy; his skill in the
reconciliation of adverse factions; his generous

clemency; his encouragement of letters, may well

be the subject of extravagant eulogy. But the sen-
sual passions of his nature bordered upon insanity;
and his character was defiled by that nameless and
unnatural vice which, practised and even defended
by one of the most famous of the Greek philosophers,
has from the earliest times been the blemish and the
reproach of Oriental civilization.
The infirmities of age and the irksomeness of
satiety embittered the declining years of the Khali f.
He virtually abandoned the administration of the em-
pire to his heir, Al-Hakem. Renouncing the gay
frivolities of the court, he attached himself to a
fanatic named Abu-Ayub, whose ascetic manners
 Moorish Empire in Europe 633

and ostentatious poverty were received by the vulgar

as evidences of extraordinary sanctity. In the society
of this singular companion he passed much of his time
in fasting, in prayer, in the distribution of alms.
After his death, in a journal which recorded his most
secret thoughts, were found the following significant
reflections on the disappointments of life and the
delusive attractions of humangreatness and imperial
"
ambition. I have reigned fifty years in peace and
in glory, beloved by my people, feared by my enemies,

respected by my allies. My friendship has been

sought by the great kings of the earth. I have wanted
nothing that the heart of man could desire, neither
renown, nor power, nor pleasure. During this long
life, I have counted the days when I have enjoyed

complete happiness and they amount to only four-

teen! Praise be to Him who alone possesses eternal
glory and omnipotence, there is no other God than
He!"
634 History of the

CHAPTER XIII
REIGN OF AL-HAKEM II.

961-976

Splendid Ceremonial at the Accession of Al-Hakem II. His

Wise and Prudent Measures Ordofio seeks an Audience
His Baseness Successful Expedition against the Chris-
tians Disturbances in Africa Army of the Khalif De-
feated The Berber Chieftains are corrupted, and their
Forces disband Importance of Cordova as a Religious
Centre Description of the Great Mosque Death of Al-
Hakem His Literary Attainments His Patronage of
Letters The Library Institutions of Learning General
Prevalence of Education Public Improvements The
Khalif the Exemplar of the Highest Culture of his Age
Prosperity of the Empire.

At the death of Abd-al-Rahman III. the Hispano-

Arab empire seemed, to all unfamiliar with the de-
fects of the Moslem constitution, invulnerable to the
attacks of foreign or domestic enemies. The wise
dispositions of that accomplished ruler had, for a
time, reconciled the differences arising from tribal
antipathy and religious discord. The employment of
mercenaries, constituting an army which could not be
corrupted, and whose isolation from the seditious
populace was the most effectual guaranty of its
fidelity, apparently assured the perpetuity of a system
which a profound and statesmanlike policy had estab-
lished. The administration was directed by capable
and experienced ministers. The public revenues far
exceeded in amount those of the wealthiest contem-
poraneous nations. Obedient to the law of political
attraction,which like gravity in the material world
draws the weaker to the stronger power, neighboring
 Moorish Empire in Europe 635

kingdoms, although separated from the khalif ate by

the most powerful motives that can influence hu-
manity by the antagonism of race, by the prejudices
of religion, by the memory of generations of inces-
sant warfare, by hostile traditions which involved the
loss of an empire and the subjection of its people
had acknowledged the supremacy of the Ommeyade
princes. In the humiliating character of suppliants
for the favor of an hereditary foe, the sovereigns of
Leon and Navarre had implored the aid of the in-
fidel, and the former of these had regained possession
of his dominions under a treaty which implied, if it
did not actually express, conditions of vassalage re-
flecting little credit upon the successor of the haughty
to
Visigoths. Every consideration which contributes
inspire the respect and admiration of mankind
lent
its assistance to exalt the fame and greatness of the

court of Cordova. The most distinguished monarchs

solicited the friendship of the Khalif. His capital
was the literary centre of the Western world. The
intellectual activity there displayed had never been

equalled since the glorious days when Grecian genius

immortalized the schools of Ionia and Attica. The
Moslem fleets controlled the Mediterranean. The
mechanical arts, the science of agriculture, the vari-
ous branches of foreign commerce and domestic
traffic, had, under a well-grounded feeling of public

security, received a prodigious and unexampled

impulse. It was, therefore, under the most happy
auspices that Al-Hakem, at the age of forty-eight,
with a character long considered the embodiment of
all princely virtues, assumed the supreme direction of
affairs.
On the day following the death of Abd-al-Rahman,
the accession of his son was celebrated with greater
splendor than had yet distinguished this important
function since the foundation of the Western em-
636 History of the

pire. Magnificently attired, the great officers of the

khalifate attended to swear allegiance to the new
sovereign. After the members of the royal family,
the chief officials, the ministers of state, the kadis,
and the chamberlains had taken the oath, they admin-
istered it, in turn, to the host of retainers and subordi-
nates of the royal household. The pomp displayed
on this occasion was worthy of the most powerful, the
most opulent, and the most luxurious monarchy in
Europe. The ceremony was held under the central
pavilion of the palace of Medina-al-Zahra, whose
decorations, sparkling in the sunlight, seemed to
realize the gorgeous dreams of Oriental enchant-
ment. The eight brothers of Al-Hakem were es-
corted to the palace with all the honors due to their
rank but;
it could not escape the notice of those princes

that the strong guard which surrounded them, and

lined the entrance of their apartments, was less a
manifestation of respect than a menacing precaution
against treason. The viziers, invested with their
robes and insignia of office, and the nobles took up
their positions behind the members of the Khalif's

family, who stood on either side of the throne. Be-

yond them, crowding the ample space of the rotunda
and even filling the adjacent apartments, were the
imperial magistrates, the generals of the army, the
provincial governors, and the vast crowd of public
functionaries summoned from the capital as well as
from the neighboring cities of Andalusia to render
homage to and assist at the inauguration of the Com-
mander of the Faithful. The eunuchs, that class of
monsters which has always sought indemnity for its
degradation by the acquisition of power and wealth,
which has never failed to revenge itself upon society
by the ruin of the government which tolerated its
institution, and whose preponderance in the political
system of the khalifate had become portentous and
 Moorish Empire in Europe 637

appalling, were present by thousands. They were

marshalled according to nationality, rank, and the
nature of the service to which they were assigned.
Most of them were clad in white tunics embroidered
with gold, white being at the same time the distinctive
color and the badge of mourning of the Ommeyades.
The servitors of the harem were drawn up in the hall

leading to the audience-chamber; they were both

white and black; all were sheathed in shining armor
inlaid with gold and silver, and the hilts and scabbards
of their scimetars sparkled with costly gems. The
marble terrace by which the pavilion was approached
was guarded by Sclavonians splendidly mounted,
whose arms and equipments were not inferior in rich-
ness to those of the magnificent array within. Out-
side, and reaching to the gate of the capital, were

ranged, in exact and motionless order, the royal

archers, the slaves, and the various divisions of the
garrison.
The imposing ceremonial concluded, the remains of
Abd-al-Rahman were committed to the tomb. The
active mind of Al-Hakem was at once applied to the
consideration of the details which concerned the ad-
ministration of every department of his empire. The
ministers of his father were confirmed, without ex-
ception. Officials were despatched to exact the allegi-
ance of the walis of distant provinces. The troops
were reviewed, and a general inspection of the army
ordered. A ha jib, or prime minister, was appointed,
for the tastes of Al-Hakem were inclined rather to the
quiet and refining pursuits of literature than to official
drudgery and the responsibilities incident to the ad-
ministration of a great and turbulent monarchy. In
this respect he ignored the oft-repeated counsels of
his father, who, conscious of the vast power wielded by
a ha jib, and which, in the hands of an ambitious and
unscrupulous statesman, might be attended with dis-
638 History of the

astrous consequences, had endeavored to impress upon

his heir the policy, and even the necessity, of retain-

ing unimpaired the authority conferred by the exalted

office of Commander of Believers. The individual
selected for this important post was Giafar-al-Ask-
labi, a Slave, whose caste and nationality seemed to
Al-Hakem a sufficient warrant for his good behavior,
an opinion subsequently justified by the wisdom and
tact he displayed in the discharge of his official duties.
His appointment was followed, according to the
custom of the court, by the delivery of a magnificent
present to the Khalif consisting, in this instance, of
,

richly apparelled slaves, and arms and armor inlaid

with gold.
The news of the death of Abd-al-Rahman had been
received with pretended grief and secret delight by
the sovereigns of Leon and Navarre. The prestige
of the former Khalif, and his ability to enforce his
demands, had been repeatedly demonstrated by the
eventful transactions of his long and glorious reign.
The blackened fields and dismantled castles of the
frontier, the heaps of bones bleaching on many a
battle-field, bore silent but conclusive testimony to his
ruthless hostility and to the prowess of his armies.
But the character of his successor was, as yet, unde-
veloped. A life already advanced beyond middle age
had been distinguished by none of those martial deeds
which elicit the applause of a subject and awaken the
respect and the apprehensions of an enemy. The pre-
dilections of the new Khalif for a sedentary life, and
his intimate relations with the learned, were viewed
with contempt by the barbarous Christians, who con-
sidered war as the peculiar calling of a man of spirit,
and the acquisition of knowledge as only fit for
monks, an order whose pacific occupations did not,
nevertheless, exclude even its members from the pro-
fession of arms. In those early times, while not as
 Moorish Empire in Europe 639

yet expressly sanctioned by the authority of the

Papacy, the violation of an engagement made with
the enemies of the Church was already considered a
meritorious action, to be governed rather by motives
of expediency than by any considerations of morality
and national honor. The treaty, by which Sancho had
stipulated to deliver to the Khalif a certain number
of fortresses in return for the restoration of his crown,
had not been carried out by the King of Leon. The
temptation to violate it, or at least to elude its per-
formance, now became irresistible. To the demands
of Al-Hakem, Sancho returned evasive and tempo-
rizing answers. The King of Navarre, doubtless act-
ing in collusion with his neighbor, was even less tract-
able. Ferdinand Gonzalez, who had fallen into the
hands of the latter, was held a close prisoner at Pam-
peluna, and the Khalif, who was anxious, at all
hazards, to obtain possession of the person of this
formidable adversary, promised to abate a portion
of his demands in case Garcia would agree to send
his illustrious captive to Cordova. The King of Na-
varre not only refused, but actually liberated the
Count of Castile, with the understanding that he
should expel his son-in-law, Ordono IV., who had
sought a refuge at Burgos, and should at once de-
clare war against the Khalif. Ferdinand promptly
fulfilled his engagements. The unfortunate Ordono
was torn from his family and ignominiously driven
across the border; at his summons to arms the old
warriors of the Count flocked to his standard, and the
settlements of Estremadura and Andalusia, long ac-
customed to peace, once more experienced the deplor-
able evils of partisan hostility. Accompanied by only
a score of retainers, who, of all his numerous retinue,
were all that were willing to share his uncertain for-
tunes, Ordono, journeying through the enemy's coun-
try, reached the city of Medina-Celi. Here, as in all
640 History of the

the empire, the streets resounded with the din of arms,

for Al-Hakem, convinced that the respect of the
Christians could only be preserved by a display of
force, was everywhere making active preparations for
war. Thespirit of the royal fugitive rose at the in-
spiring sight, and, hoping that by proper management
the military successes of Al-Hakem might be made to
enure to his own advantage, he requested of the gov-
ernor of the city a safe-conduct to Cordova and per-
mission to place himself under the protection of the
Khalif His wish was readily acceded to, and a troop
.

of cavalry was detailed to escort him to the capital.

The route passing near the royal cemetery, Ordono
asked to be shown the tomb of Abd-al-Rahman III.
This having been done, he dismounted, uncovered his
head, and, kneeling by the grave of the monarch who
in life had been his most inveterate enemy, he prayed

long and fervently for the repose and welfare of his

soul. Afew days afterwards he was received by the
Khalif in the palace of Medina-al-Zahra. As a token
of respect and an evidence of vassalage, he was re-
quired to assume the white robes of the Ommeyades.
Obeydallah-Ibn-Kasim, Archbishop of Toledo, and
Walid-Ibn-Khaizoran, Judge of the Christians of
Cordova, whose Arabic names seem strangely at
variance with the offices they administered, escorted
him to the audience-chamber; their presence being

necessary, both as interpreters and to afford informa-

tion on points of etiquette rigorously exacted by the
punctilious court of Cordova, and concerning which
it was justly conjectured the former associations of a

barbarian ruler had left him entirely unacquainted.

The introduction of the Christian prince was at-
tended with the pomp ordinarily displayed at the re-
ception of the greatest kings and their ambassadors.
The body-guard of the Khalif was drawn up in all
the panoply of gleaming weapons and costly armor.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 641

The officials were present in their robes of state.

Around the throne were ranged the princes and the
officers of the royal household. An innumerable army
of subordinates filled the halls and lined the terraces.
Through the gilded lattices of the harem, which over-
looked the hall of audience, the sheen of jewels and
the sparkle of bright eyes occasionally revealed the
presence of the beauties whom Oriental jealousy only
on rare occasions permitted to lend the lustre of their
charms to an important ceremony.
The Leonese nobles and their king moved with
downcast heads through the grim and lowering
ranks of the soldiery, whose fierce looks so terrified
them that they endeavored to fortify themselves by
the recitation of prayers and frequent repetitions of
the sign of the cross. After numerous genuflexions
Ordono approached the Khalif, who gave him his
hand to kiss. He was conducted to a seat at some
distance from the throne, and received from Al-
Hakem the flattering assurance that even more favors
than he desired would be accorded to him. It was then
that the unspeakable baseness of Ordono's character
disclosed itself. He
had frequently since his entrance
into the Moorish dominions given evidence of a lack
of royal dignity and of a total absence of those manly
qualities which elicit sympathy for greatness in mis-
fortune. He had courted the favor of the commander
of the escort which had accompanied him to the
capital, by flattery, by gifts, by the most ignoble con-
cessions. With an hypocrisy that did not
impose upon
the keen-witted Andalusians, he had bowed in well-
feigned grief before the tomb of Abd-al-Rahman.
With a sycophancy that disgusted the objects of it,
he had fawned upon the officials of the court. But
the time was now come when these disgraceful ex-
hibitions of voluntary self-abasement were to be
eclipsed, and the depth of his degradation attained.
Vol. I. 41
642 History of the

As soon as the speech of Al-Hakem had been trans-

lated to him, without making allowance for the
'

courtly exaggeration it implied, he arose and said I :

am the slave of the Commander of the Faithful; I

trust in his magnanimity; I seek my support in his
lofty virtues; I give him full power over me and
mine!" He then, in language worthy only of the
meanest vassal, begged the aid of the Khalif in
the recovery of his throne, and, in conclusion, con-
trasted his own voluntary submission with the conduct
of his cousin Sancho, who had been compelled by Abd-
al-Rahman to render him homage as a condition of the
treaty. Al-Hakem listened with ill-concealed con-
tempt to his harangue, promised that all his wishes
should be fulfilled, and that he should be guaranteed
against molestation from his enemies. The interview
terminated, the eunuchs escorted the Leonese from the
pavilion. Ordono displayed little less servility to-
wards the Vizier Giafar than he had shown to his
master, and was with difficulty prevented from kiss-
ing the hand of that dignitary. Having perceived in
an antechamber a seat which he was informed was
sometimes used by the Khalif, he grovelled before it
with as much apparent reverence as if it had been a
sacred reliquary of the most undoubted virtue.
A splendid palace was assigned as a residence to the
King and his suite; they were all clothed with robes
of honor, a mark of the highest distinction among
Orientals, and a number of valuable presents sent
from the court further assured them of the generous
sympathy of their benefactor. In a few days a treaty
was concluded, by which Ordono pledged himself to
maintain peace with Al-Hakem and perpetual war
with the Count of Castile. The flower of the Moorish
troops, commanded by Ghalib, the ablest of the im-
perial generals, was ordered to make the campaign,
and the Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishop and the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 643

Judge of Cordova were designated to accompany the

army, not so muchto assist the pusillanimous monarch
by their counsels as to carefully note his behavior, and
see that he was guilty of nothing that could contribute
to the injury of the Khalif, or even remotely affect
in an unfavorable manner the objects of his ambition.
In the mean time Sancho had taken the alarm.
When he learned of the success of Ordofio, he realized
that he had presumed too much upon the peaceful
disposition and epicurean tastes of Al-Hakem. It
was no secret that a powerful army was mustering to
invade his dominions. By the artifices of the enemy,
its numbers were purposely multiplied. His popu-
larity had never been great, and his restoration had
been accomplished by means abhorrent to a large
number of his subjects. Many of his vassals could
not be depended upon. The great province of Ga-
licia, a fief of the crown of Leon, refused to acknowl-

edge his title, and its count held language that indi-
cated that he only sought a favorable opportunity to
declare himself independent. Under the circum-
stances but one course was open to Sancho, and he
sent an embassy to Cordova to state that he was will-
ing to perform, without delay, the conditions of the
treaty he had concluded with Abd-al-Rahman.
The duplicity of Al-Hakem, a defect happily rare
in the annals of his race and which reflects such dis-
credit upon name, now became apparent. He vio-
his
lated, withoutcompunction, the compact he had made
with Ordofio. The latter, overcome with disappoint-
ment and mortification at the failure of his hopes,
gave himself up to melancholy, and died the victim
of his own abasement and credulity in the gilded
prison which had been set apart as his abode in the
environs of the Moslem capital.
His rival removed, and the alliance of Ferdinand
Gonzalez assured, Sancho concluded that the occasion
644 History of the

was most opportune for a further repudiation of his

engagements. Heaccordingly defied the Khalif , and

the latter at once proclaimed the Holy War. The
army of invasion was commanded by Ghalib. The
Count of Castile was defeated in a great battle.
The governor of Saragossa, Yahya-Ibn-Mohammed,
easily worsted the King of Navarre. The important
fortresses of San Estevan de Gormaz and Calahorra,
which had been stormed and destroyed, were rebuilt,
provided with Moorish garrisons, and added to the
dominions of the khalifate. The Arab army wasted
the borders of Catalonia with fire and sword for two
;

counts of that principality, Miron and Borel, en-

dowed with more hardihood than discretion, had been
prevailed upon by the King of Navarre to join the
confederacy, and were now condemned to expiate
their breach of faith by the pillage of their cities and
the misery of their subjects. Everywhere the arms
of the Moslems were triumphant. The enemies who
had confidently reckoned on the incapacity and inert-
ness supposed to attach to a literary life, and the well-
known aversion of Al-Hakem to the military profes-
sion, were compelled to acknowledge the wisdom of
his dispositions and the energy with which he carried
them into execution. One after another sued for
peace. Even from came an embassy,
distant Galicia
headed by a noble matron, the mother of a count, who
was entertained with the distinguished courtesy for
which the court of Cordova was famous, and was dis-
missed with gifts whose splendor dazzled the eyes of
a barbarian princess born and bred amidst the barren
slopes and poverty-stricken hamlets of the Pyrenees.
This successful campaign closed the military opera-
tions of Al-Hakem in the North. He had taught his
perfidious adversaries a severe but salutary lesson.
Whatever inclination to renew hostilities they might
have entertained, their own dissensions precluded its
 Moorish Empire in Europe 645

indulgence. War soon broke out between Galicia and

Leon. The rebellious province, which aspired to in-
dependence, was in a fair way to be conquered, when
a resort to treachery accomplished an end unattain-
able by the expedients of honorable warfare. Poison
was administered to Sancho at a conference on the
banks of the Douro. The King of Leon died after
some days in excruciating agony; his son Ramiro,
who succeeded him, was a child of five years, and
the martial aristocracy declined to recognize the au-
thority of an infant, controlled by his aunt, the nun
Elvira, whose doubtful qualifications for the govern-
ment of a kingdom had been acquired in the solitude
of a cloister. Elsewhere, also, in the North, matters
were propitious to the security and prosperity of the
khalifate. A great army of Danes, who had served
under the standard of the Duke of Normandy, poured
down upon and devastated the plains and valleys of
Galicia. Finally, the death of Ferdinand Gonzalez
freed Al-Hakem from his most dangerous enemy,
and during the remainder of his life the inroads of
the Christians ceased to excite the alarm of his sub-
jects or to disturb the peace of his empire.
While permanent safety had been secured in the
North, on the side of Africa the danger was con-
stant and menacing. The wild tribes of the Desert
had never forgotten with what facility their fore-
fathers had traversed the strait and subjugated a
populous and extensive monarchy. The covetous eye
of the half -naked Mauritanian robber, whose prowess
had at times prevailed over the discipline of the
Roman legions, was ever turned towards the beau-
tiful cities of Andalusia, with their teeming bazaars,
their prodigious wealth, their palaces furnished with

every appliance of luxury, their lovely and fasci-

nating women. The instinct of conquest, the pre-
sentiment that one day the exploit of Tarik would
646 History of the

be repeated, were inspired by hope and encouraged

by tradition. It was not the masses alone who cher-
ished these ominous aspirations. The princes of the
various dynasties who, at different periods of its his-
tory, swayed the destinies of Al-Maghreb, had, with-
out exception, regarded the riches of the Peninsula as
lawful spoil, if not actually as a part of their patri-
mony. Its condition political, social, religious, com-
mercial was as familiar to them as the domestic

polity of their own dominions. Their spies were to

be found in the great emporiums of trade, in the most
sequestered hamlets, in the ranks of the army, in the
corridors of the palace, even in the bed-chamber of
the khalif. Unknown and often unsuspected, their
influence had been felt in many a bloody insurrec-
tion, in the decisive moment of many an eventful
day. Never for a moment did they abandon the
long-nourished project of conquest; never did they
renounce the ambition destined unhappily to be
realized of planting their victorious banners and
erecting their throne on the banks of the famous
Guadalquivir. Since the assumption of the suze-
rainty of the African provinces bordering on the
Mediterranean by Abd-al-Rahman, the maintenance
of that dignity had caused no inconsiderable drain
on the treasury of the khalif ate. Immense sums were
annually transmitted to maintain troops, to support
the pretensions of feeble vassals, and to bribe bar-
barian chieftains to refrainfrom ravaging the lands
of their neighbors. No compensation was offered for
the expense incurred except the negative and uncer-
tain one implied by the temporary restraint of Berber
invasion.
The attention of the Fatimites had been some years
before directed towards the East, and, after a short
and victorious struggle, the princes of that dynasty
were enabled to remove the seat of their empire from
 Moorish Empire in Europe 647

the sandy plains of Mauritania to the inexhaustible

Valley of the Nile. A
great danger to the Omme-
yade Empire of Spain was therefore apparently re-
moved. At this time, Hassan-Ibn-Kenun, the last
survivor of the Edrisites, exercised a precarious sov-
ereignty over that portion of the African coast of
which Tangier was the capital. Anominal vassal of
Al-Hakem, his loyalty was largely dependent upon
the fears excited by the encroachments of his neigh-
bors, and when Abu-al-Fotuh, the representative of
the Fatimites, invaded his dominions, the allegiance
of Ibn-Kenun was, without hesitation, transferred to
the Khalif of Egypt.
The revolt of Ibn-Kenun, and the alarming prog-
ressmade by the Fatimite viceroy, impressed upon
Al-Hakem the necessity for immediate and decisive
action. With his customary diligence, he issued
orders for the departure of a strong military and
naval force to punish the treason of his vassal and
overawe the fickle and perfidious chieftains of Africa.
The object of the expedition was Tangier, the seat
of the court and the residence of Ibn-Kenun. The
Ommeyade fleet blockaded the harbor, and the troops,
having encountered the enemy near the city, after a
sharp engagement gained a decisive victory. But this
success was of short duration. In the land of Al-
Maghreb, swarming with active and warlike bar-
barians, the recruiting of an army was a matter of
trifling difficulty. The Desert hordes, allured by the
expectation of plunder and the excitement of arms,
crowded to the camp of the Edrisite prince, who soon
found himself once more able to tempt the fortunes
of war. Another battle was fought; the troops of
the Khalif sustained a demoralizing defeat; their
general, Ibn-Tomlos, was left dead on the field, and
the survivors who escaped the spears of the Mauri-
tanian cavalry sought security behind the battlements
648 History of the

of Tangier. The effect produced by this victory on

the venal and inconstant people of Africa was seri-
ous. The reputation and the power of Ibn-Kenun
received an extraordinary impulse. The petty vassals
who for years had enjoyed the bounty of the Khalif
hastened to renounce their allegiance. From far and
near, along the sandy highways towards the camp of
Ibn-Kenun, trooped the ferocious tribesmen whom no
prince had yet been able to conciliate, and no govern-
ment been able to civilize. No territory, except that
occupied by a few fortified towns, remained loyal to
Al-Hakem even ;
these places were in a state of siege ;

and it was evident measures were

that, unless energetic
taken to retrieve the disaster, the war-cry of the Ber-
bers would soon be heard on the plains of Andalusia.
The Khalif was not unconscious of his danger.
From every province of his dominions he summoned
his bravest troops most experienced generals.
and his
The supreme command was entrusted to Ghalib,
whose skill and valor had been signalized in the recent
campaign against the Christians, and who was sol-
emnly admonished, on peril of his life, to return
victorious. It was not, however, to the uncertain
event of battle that the Khalif unreservedly com-
mitted the destinies of his empire. The mercenary
character of the Berber sheiks, always the partisans
of him who bribed them most liberally, or who bribed
them last, was what Al-Hakem depended upon, far
more than upon either the tactics of his general or the
courage of his soldiers. A great treasure was placed
at the disposal of Ghalib, and he was instructed to

spare no pains to detach from the army of Ibn-Kenun

every chief of influence, without regard to the num-
bers of his following or the extravagance of his de-
mands. In case he succeeded, he was ordered to con-
duct the family of Ibn-Kenun to Cordova. Having
landed in safety, Ghalib studiously avoided a general
 Moorish Empire in Europe 649

engagement. His advance was impeded by the flying

squadrons of Ibn-Kenun, who used every artifice to
bring on a battle; but the cautious Ommeyade gen-
eral, knowing that the fate of his sovereign, as well
as his own life, depended on the issue of a conflict,
had decided to trust to the secret and more certain
means of corruption. Through the medium of trusty
messengers, magnificent weapons, costly garments,
and heaps of gold were clandestinely displayed before
the greedy eyes of the Berber chieftains. Their con-
stancy was not proof against this exhibition of wealth.
They even competed for the infamous distinction of
first deserting the standard of their commander ; and,
in a few days, Ibn-Kenun, abandoned by all but a
handful of his old retainers, saw himself compelled
to take refuge in a strong castle built on the summit
of an isolated mountain called the Eagle's Rock,
where he had, in prudent anticipation of a reverse of
fortune, already conveyed his harem and his treasures.
The drafts of Ghalib on the royal treasury excited
the astonishment and consternation of the Khalif.
Such enormous expenses had never before been in-
curred in the conduct of a campaign and Al-Hakem,
;

suspecting that all of the public money had not been

used to corrupt the Berbers, and that much of it had
been diverted into private hands, determined, for the
purpose of investigation, to send an officer experi-
enced in matters of finance and clothed with almost
despotic authority, who should not be confined to the
mere duties of treasurer, but should also exercise the
high and responsible functions of a general and a
councillor of state. The individual selected for this
delicate mission was Ibn-abi-Amir, a name of both

glorious and sinister associations, which now appears

for the first time in the annals of the Hispano-Arab
domination. He was accompanied by a select body
of troops commanded by Yahya-Ibn-Mohammed,
650 History of the

Viceroy of the Northern Frontier, whom Al-Hakem,

still fearful of the issue of the African campaign, had

sent to reinforce the army of Ghalib.

The siege of the rebel fortress was pushed with
energy, but its defences were so formidable that four
months elapsed before the garrison could be brought
to terms. Then the most favorable conditions were
granted; the personal safety of the soldiers was
guaranteed and their property kept inviolate; and
the main article of the instructions of Al-Hakem,
touching the conveyance of the Edrisites to Cor-
dova, was acceded to, though not without manifest
reluctance, which, however, was of little moment
under circumstances where protest and resistance
were equally unavailing. With the capture of the
Eagle's Rock terminated the campaign in Africa.
The remaining Edrisite princes, who had seen with
dismay the sudden disappearance of the host of Ibn-
Kenun, lost no time in making terms with the repre-
sentatives of the Khalif . The entire region of Mauri-
tania enjoyed a profound but delusive peace. The
Berbers had retired to their solitudes to enjoy the
reward of their treason, and to watch for another
opportunity to dispose of their services to the highest
bidder. The Fatimites, content with their recent
acquisitions, left the administration of their African
possessions to a viceroy, and, fascinated with the
attractions of their new home on the Nile, did not
seem, for the moment, desirous of prosecuting any
further schemes of imperial aggrandizement.
Ghalib, escorting his illustrious prisoners, more than
seventy in number, now returned to Cordova. From
the hour of his landing at Algeziras, his march as-
sumed the appearance of a military triumph. The
line of march was obstructed by the throngs that,
attracted by the novelty of the spectacle, had as-
sembled from far and near. Every town and ham-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 651

let through which the cavalcade passed rang with

the exultant shouts of a vast and excited multitude.
The rich attire of the captives; their noble and dig-
nified bearing; the romance attaching to the story
of the foundation of their house; their descent from
the family of the Prophet, certainly remote and prob-
ably provoked the curiosity, if it did not
fictitious,
excite the sympathy, of the elated populace, who only
saw in their humiliation another addition to the glory
of their sovereign. When the capital was approached,
the Khali f came forth to meet the guard and their
prisoners. As soon as his presence was known, Ibn-
Kenun dismounted, knelt before him, and kissed his
hand. Ghalib and his officers were received with all
the honors due to men who under arduous circum-
stances have achieved success; the princes were con-
ducted to a fortified palace in the city, and their
attendants distributed in different localities, where
their safe-keeping could be assured; the body-guard
of the chief, consisting of seven hundred warriors of
approved valor, was incorporated into a division of
the army, and Al-Hakem could now congratulate
himself that his decision and energy had compelled
the respect of his enemies and had procured for his
dominions the benefits of universal peace.
The inconstancy of fortune did not, however, per-
mit the Khali f long to enjoy the leisure and the
satisfaction to be derived from the indulgence of
his literary tastes and the triumph of his arms. His
health, impaired by intense and constant application
to study, broke down. An
attack of apoplexy admon-
ishedhim that he must renounce the cares of state,
and the conduct of the government was henceforth
committed to his vizier Moshafi. The latter, a veteran
and accomplished statesman, signalized his advent to
uncontrolled power by the institution of many radical
and greatly needed reforms. The department of
652 History of the

finance, which had become the seat of corruption, was

reorganized and administered with prudence and
economy. The discipline of the army was improved.
The former viceroy of the northern frontier, the gal-
lant Yahya-Ibn-Mohammed, was recalled from com-
mand in Africa and reinstated in his former office,
a measure that insured the tranquillity of the Chris-
tian states, which had recently developed symptoms
of agitation, in several instances culminating in acts
of open and destructive hostility. The interests of
the Khalif in Mauritania were confirmed by the ap-
pointment of two native princes whose fidelity could
be depended upon and, by this stroke of policy, the
;

vizier was enabled to remove all the Arab troops, ex-

cept the garrisons of a few cities, to points where

would be far more advantageous to the
their services

government, and, at the same time, less expensive to

the treasury. The entertainment of the Edrisites,
who maintained a pomp little inferior to that of the

royal family was a source of constant per-

itself,

plexity and annoyance to the economical minister. At

length, profiting by the discontent induced by a seden-
tary life and a vigilant espionage ill-disguised under
an appearance of liberty, he succeeded in persuading
Ibn-Kenun to allow himself and his followers to be
transported to Tunis, with the understanding that
they should never again set foot on the soil of Mauri-
tania. When the preparations for departure had been

completed, the thrifty vizier partially indemnified the

treasury for the expense caused by the involuntary
guests of the Khalif by unceremoniously appropri-
ating a large piece of ambergris, of immense value,
which Ibn-Kenun considered the most precious object
of all his possessions. After landing at Tunis, the
exilesproceeded to Alexandria, where for many years
they enjoyed the hospitality and protection of the
Fatimite Khalif. From this time the princes of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 653

Edrisite family are no longer prominent in the revo-

lutions ofNorthern Africa.
While Cordova was, by far, the most populous and
magnificent city of Moorish Spain, it was indebted,

in no small degree, for its superiority to the prestige

derived from its position as a place of pilgrimage and
the religious centre of the khalif ate. Even in the eyes
of the most implacable enemies of the Ommeyade
dynasty, a sacred character invested the Western
metropolis as the seat of one of the most famous
shrines of Islam. Far more intense was the feeling
of reverence in the minds of the devoted adherents
of that dynasty. There was the throne of the Com-
mander of the Faithful, in whose person the pious
believer recognized not only the representative of a
line of princes whose genius had added vast provinces
to the Moslem empire, but also the venerated successor
of the Arabian Prophet. From its gates had gone
forth armies which had traversed the natural boun-
daries of the Peninsula, had occupied the fairest por-
tion of France, and had repeatedly abased the pride
of the scoffing infidel. Everywhere were visible sig-
nificant tokens of Mussulman triumph and Christian
humiliation. Its warehouses were filled with the

plunder of churches. The inmates of monasteries

were exposed by hundreds for sale in its markets.
Its mosques had been raised by the labor of Christian

captives. From the ceiling of the Djalma, the pride

of all true believers, were suspended the bells of the
Cathedral of Santiago, which even the vaunted power
of the patron saint of the Asturias had been unable
to save from the sacrilegious hand of the Moslem.
No capital in Africa or Asia enjoyed a larger measure
of military glory. No city in all the wide realm of
Islam was so renowned for the munificence of its
rulers, the wealth of its religious foundations, the
654 History of the

learning and eloquence of its theologians, and the

pomp of its
worship.
On the right bank of the Guadalquivir stood the
Great Mosque, in the eyes of the Mohammedans of
Africa and Spain superior in sanctity to all other
temples, save only the Kaaba. Founded by the first
Abd-al-Rahman, fully as much from political mo-
tives asthrough religious zeal, it had been embellished
by the wealth, the taste, the rivalry, and the enthu-
siasm of nine generations of sovereigns, having at
their command the resources of one of the richest and
most flourishing countries of the globe. By its erec-
tion, the power of the Western Khalifate had been
established upon a firm and enduring basis, and the
permanent independence of its dynasty assured. The
more or less intimate relations hitherto maintained
with the Moslem empires of Asia were severed; the
nominal allegiance due to the monarchs of Damascus
and Bagdad, persistently asserted by peremptory
edicts and occasionally conceded by the rendition of
a precarious tribute, was forever renounced. The
aims of the founder, dictated by a political sagacity
savoring of almost superhuman wisdom, were finally
realized; and among the subjects and tributaries of
the House of Ommeyah, proscribed by the rulers of
Arabia, the sanctuary of the Mosque of his capital
usurped the place once occupied by the temple of
Mecca, the scene of the humiliations, the perils, and
the triumphs of the Prophet. Thus, by a master-
stroke of policy, which appealed alike to the worldly
ambition and the religious pride of the people, was
consolidated the authority of a new and progressive
race of kings. Its associations especially struck the
imagination of the pious Mohammedan. It occupied
the site of the principal church of Gothic Cordova,
which, in its turn, had been built upon the ruins of a
Pagan temple. The stones of its foundation had been
 Moorish Empire in Europe 655

transported from Narbonne. The earth in which they

were embedded had been stained with infidel blood.
Christian prisoners, chained together, had painfully
borne these materials for a distance of two hundred
leagues, and others had for generations labored upon
its walls. The spoil of many a successful campaign
had contributed to enrich its interior. On all sides,
golden inscriptions and trophies of conquest attested
the glory of the princes of Islam and the invincible
prowess of their armies. The Great Mosque is not
merely an epitome of architecture, wherein are dis-
closed adaptations of the artistic ideas of many widely
separated nations, the manifestations of a spirit
which could appropriate and combine in exquisite
harmony the columns of the Roman, the capitals of
the African, the arch of the Syrian, the mosaic of the
Byzantine, the battlements of the Persian, it is an
eloquent testimonial to the genius which could enlist
the ordinarily baneful influence of superstition in the
cultivation of literature and the diffusion of knowl-
edge. For this splendid temple played no unimpor-
tant part in the intellectual advancement of Moham-
medan Spain, as well as in the civilization of barbarian
Europe.
The multitudes of pilgrims and scholars who re-
sorted to Cordova hastened, without delay, to pay their
devotions at its shrine. The Arab recognized in the
sweep of its arches, the graceful curves of the
palm
groves of Nejd and Yemen, mementos of the Desert
immortalized by the conceptions of the architect,
ever mindful of the life and habits of his Bedouin
ancestry. The polished Syrian viewed with admiring
rapture the rich stuccoes, whose complex and gorgeous
patterns surpassed in beauty the brocades of Damas-
cus and the decorations which covered the palaces of
the monarchs of Asia. In the carvings of its lattices
was to be traced the peculiar form of the Indian cross,
656 History of the

a symbol whose origin is unknown to the most ancient

tradition, and which appears sculptured upon the ven-

erable altars of Ceylon and Hindustan. Even the
emblem of a sect most obnoxious to Islam was appro-
priated, and, by a singular inconsistency, compelled
to assist in the adornment of the most gorgeous
mosque of the Moslem world. The
cresting of the
walls, originally painted scarlet, typical of flame,
is

and, brought from Persia, symbolized the faith of

the Ghebers, the detested worshippers of fire. Thus
were concentrated in this unique structure the ideas,
the materials, the devices, the ornamentation of many
epochs and of many races. Each visit to its hallowed
precincts imparted fresh inspiration to the theologian,
to the artist, to the poet, to the student, to the anti-

quary. The reverence it claimed as a seat of pilgrim-

age invested its shrine with attributes possessed by
none of the famous oracles of antiquity, and shared
by few of the fanes of any contemporaneous religious
faith. It was, moreover, justly regarded as the pecu-
liar creation of a people whom its erection had greatly
contributed to form and amalgamate, and who were
entitled to credit for the admiration which its magnifi-
cence and its beauty elicited. Every city and province
of the empire had contributed to the pious under-
taking. Cordova paid the army of laborers employed.
Merida furnished columns and other materials, ready
for the mason, from the temples and the amphitheatre
which had embellished the seat of Roman power in
ancient Lusitania. From the quarries of Almeria and
Granada came great quantities of jasper, marble, and
alabaster. From the forests of the Sierras was ob-
tained the larch for the ceiling, whose remarkable
preservation in buildings not subjected to the destruc-
tive consequences of ecclesiastical avarice attest its

extraordinary exemption from the attacks of insects

and the ravages of decay. The princes of Mauritania
 Moorish Empire in Europe 657

and the Byzantine vassals or allies of the khalifs,

prompted by feelings of piety or friendship, bestowed
upon the rising temple the most valuable relics of an-
cient art to be found in their dominions. A
fifth of
the spoils of battle in a single instance
amounting to
the sum of forty-five thousand pieces of gold was
appropriated to defray the enormous expense which,
notwithstanding the drafts on the treasury and the
generous donations of the people, was constantly in-
creasing. In the successive enlargements of the build-
ing demanded by the growing population, the owners
of adjacent property, the purchase of which became
indispensable, were rewarded for the sacrifice of their
homes with unstinted generosity. Arab estimates have
placed the entire cost of the Djalma whose construc-
tion and alterations embraced, from first to last, a
period of more than two centuries, under nine princes
of the House of Ommeyah at fifteen million pieces
of gold. The Mosque, as completed, comprised an
area of six hundred and twenty by four hundred and
forty feet, running with the cardinal points of the
compass. About one-third of this enclosure was oc-
cupied by a spacious court surrounded by arcades,
planted with oranges, pomegranates, and palms, and
refreshed with the spray of many fountains. The
walls, thirty feet high on the northern side, increased
in altitude with the approach to the river the land
rapidly descending in that direction until they rose
to the commanding height of
seventy feet above the
banks of the Guadalquivir. The roof was protected
by plates of. lead nearly an inch in thickness, whose
sale in subsequent times yielded a magnificent sum to
priestly depredators. The building, massive and im-
posing in its exterior, presented a strong resemblance
to a fortress, a resemblance not
inappropriate when
the martial traditions of the religion to which it was
dedicated are recalled. Immense buttresses, necessi-
Vol. I. 42
658 History of the

tated by the weight of the walls and the pressure of

the arcades, were placed at frequent intervals, like
flanking towers in the defences of a citadel. The
summits of wall and tower were fringed with battle-
ments. Access was obtained to the interior by means
of twenty-one horseshoe archways, three of which
opened into the court-yard, and nine on the east and
west sides respectively, three, in all, being reserved for
the especial use of women. These archways were
decorated with terra-cotta mosaics in red and yellow,
relieved by inscriptions in gold on a ground of blue
and scarlet. The doors were covered with plates of
burnished brass, and provided with rings and knockers
of huge dimensions and curious workmanship.
No church in Christendom could offer to the eves
of the worshipper such a scene of beauty as that en-
joyed by the Moslem as he passed from the thronged
and dusty streets of the city into the spacious Court
of the Oranges. The latter bore the fascinating and
voluptuous aspect of a tropical garden. The atmos-
phere was fragrant with the perfume of orange, rose,
and jasmine. The foliage of the palm, recalling the
famous groves of Medina and transporting the pil-
grim in imagination to scenes in the distant Orient,
rose majestically above the smaller but not less attrac-
tive orange-trees, with their glossy leaves, golden
fruit,and snowy blossoms. Exquisite flowers, ar-
ranged in beds of fantastic patterns, bloomed along
the borders of the arcades. Four great basins, each
a monolith, supplied the water for the ceremonial
lustration enjoined by the law of Islam,. From the
fountains the vast throng, clad in white robes, moved
silently towards the temple and into the doors, which,
looking upon the court, were closed by curtains of
stamped and gilded leather. Within, the eye was be-
wildered by the forest of columns, more than four-
teen hundred in number, stretching far away to an
 Moorish Empire in Europe 659

apparently interminable distance. They were desti-

tute of bases, and their capitals were entirely covered
with gold. Above, tiers of double arches, in red and
white, sustained the ceiling glittering with arabesques
entwined with texts from the Koran. The divisions of
the latter were formed by medallions oval, hexagonal,
and circular, bearing a general resemblance to each
other, yet widely differing in distribution of colors
and details of ornamentation. The floor was com-
posed of many-colored marble, arranged in designs
of simple but pleasing character. Lattices of ala-
baster, carved in patterns no two of which were iden-
tical, admitted in mellowed radiance the diminished

splendor of a tropical sun. At the southern extremity

was the Kiblah, or point facing Mecca, towards which
every devout Moslem turns five times a day in prayer.
It was designated by the Mihrab, a diminutive chapel
corresponding in some respects to the Holy of Holies
of the synagogue, and facing the principal nave of
the Mosque. Constructed by Al-Hakem II., the rich-
ness of its decoration was unparalleled, and the tracery
of its design unique. Engrailed, interlacing arches of
peculiar form supported the dome of the vestibule.
The entrance to the Mihrab or sanctuary a marble
chamber octagonal in form, and fifteen feet in diam-
eter as well as in height was flanked by two similar
doorways leading into apartments of smaller dimen-
sions. Four slender columns of verde-antique and
lapis-lazuli sustained the sweeping horseshoe arch of
entrance. The slabs of marble which lined the Mihrab
were carved and gilded. The ceiling was composed of
a single block, which the skill of the sculptor had
fashioned into the exact representation of a gigantic
shell. In the vestibule, over portal and wall, upon
spandrel and dome, sparkled elaborate and fantastic
creations in Byzantine mosaic, wrought by the most
cunning artificers of Constantinople. It was a con-
660 History of the

dition of the treaty between Constantine and Abd-al-

Rahman that the latter should be furnished with all
the mosaic he required for his buildings. In a single
vessel despatchedfrom the Bosphorus, under direction
of the Emperor, during the reign of Al-Hakem, were
sixteen tons of this precious material.
The legends in the Cufic character, whose forms
so readily lend themselves to mural decoration, were
always of gold. The groundwork was of different
colors, scarlet, black, blue, green, and crimson,

disposed in harmonious combinations most agreeable

to the eye. The elegant curves of the arabesques
formed a charming contrast with the angular letters
of the inscriptions. Composed of minute cubes of
glass, scores of which were necessary to cover a
square inch of surface, the patience and skill re-
quired for a work of such magnitude and delicacy
can scarcely be even imagined. Years were em-
ployed in its completion, and its durability was such
that, where the mosaics have escaped the destructive
touch of the Christian vandal, their solidity and lustre
remain to-day unimpaired, after the changes, the
neglect, and the depredations of more than eleven
centuries.
Within the enclosure of the Mihrab was kept the
pulpit built under the direction of Al-Hakem II.,
and destined for the use of the sovereign, when, in
the capacity of Successor of the Prophet, he ad-
dressed the multitude congregated in the Mosque.
It was made of minute pieces of costly woods com-
bined with ivory, tortoise-shell, and mother of pearl,
put together with gold and silver nails. Seven years
were consumed in the production of this admirable
specimen of the joiner's art. The carvings with which
it was covered were of the most exquisite character.

Its intrinsic value was greatly enhanced by the jewels

with which it was enriched, and the precious metals
 Moorish Empire in Europe 661

used in its construction. Inside of this pulpit, and

enclosed in a case of cloth of gold studded with
rubies and pearls, was preserved the famous Koran
of the Khalif Othman, which he was reading at the
time of his assassination, and whose leaves were said
to have been discolored with his blood. A memento
of the relentless persecution of the Ommeyades, no
relic, even of the Prophet himself, was regarded by
the adherents of the Abbaside and Fatimite dynasties
with greater veneration than was this precious souve-
nir by the princes and the people of the Andalusian

empire. It was at once the talisman of their security,

the glory of their ritual, the emblem of imperial and
theocratical power. Deposited upon a lectern of aloe
wood profusely inlaid with gold, it was borne in state
on Fridays to the tribune, where the customary ser-
vice was read from its pages. Four men were re-
quired to carry the ponderous volume and its acces-
sories. The cortege was preceded by the imam and
his assistants, and accompanied with the pomp of

lamps and incense. The magnificent processions of

the Roman Catholic Church, during the period of its
greatest ecclesiastical and temporal grandeur, could
boast no spectacle more impressive than this cere-
monial, celebrated every week in the presence of
twelve thousand worshippers.
Directly in front of the Mihrab was the Maksurah,
an enclosure reserved for the Khalif, the princes of
the blood, and the higher ministers of the Mohamme-
dan religion. It occupied a portion of the seven
central naves, and was terminated on the south by the
vestibule of the Mihrab. It measured one hundred
and twelve by thirty-three feet, and was formed by a
lofty screen or lattice elaborately carved, composed,
for the most part, of odoriferous woods enriched
with beautiful ornaments. Despite the numerous
interstices with which it was provided, the interior
662 History of the

was not visible to those outside,and its resemblance

to a wall was increased by its towering height of
fifty feet, as well as by the gilded battlements
with which it was crowned. The pavement was
of silver tiles, and the central door, destined for the
passage of the Khalif, was heavily plated with gold.
During his attendance at the services of the Mosque,
the Commander of was rarely seen by
the Faithful
his subjects. Fromthe adjoining palace he crossed
the street by acovered bridge, and, traversing a secret
passage contrived in the southern wall of the Mosque,
entered the vestibule of the Mihrab, and thence pro-
ceeded to his post in the elevated tribune of the Mak-
surah. This passage contained eight doors, at each
of which a sentinel was posted. These opened alter-
nately towards the east and west, thus, in case of
treachery, precluding the possibility of concert
among the guards, one of whom, if faithful,
could, unaided, readily defend the passage against
the combined efforts of the remaining seven. The
entrance of the Khalif was the occasion of a magnifi-
cent display. A
silken carpet, interwoven with silver,
was spread from the palace gate to the Maksurah.
Black and white eunuchs in splendid costumes pre-
ceded and followed the royal party. The body-guard
of the sovereign was composed of members of his
family, carrying drawn scimetars, and sheathed in
shining mail. These precautions were considered
necessary on account of the melancholy experience
of former Successors of the Prophet. The sacred
character investing Omar, Othman, Ali, and Muavia
had not preserved them from the assassin's dagger;
and the populace of Cordova, notorious for its daring
criminals and fanatics, excited well-grounded fears
in the mind of a monarch whose formidable army was
sometimes insufficient to restrain its revolutionary
spirit, fostered by turbulent adventurers collected
 Moorish Empire in Europe 663

from every nation subject to the code of Islam. On

the western side of the temple, and facing the royal
palace, was the Chamber of Alms, where the charity
of the Khalif was daily dispensed in accordance with
the injunctions of his faith.
The interior of the Mosque, by reason of its vast
extent and its
comparatively low ceiling, was more or
less obscure, even at noon-day, and lamps were kept

constantly burning in its aisles. Two hundred and

eighty chandeliers of brass and silver were suspended
from its arches, the oil used in them being perfumed
with costly essences. The largest of these contained
fourteen hundred and fifty- four lamps, and measured
thirty-eight feet in circumference. Its reflector con-
tained thirty-six thousand pieces of silver fastened
with rivets of gold. Its beauty was enhanced by the
gems with which it was studded, and, by the combined
effect of the mirrors, the light was increased to nine
times original intensity. During the entire month
its

of Ramadhan the Mosque was illuminated with

twenty thousand An enormous taper, weigh-
lights.
ing sixty pounds, was placed in the Maksurah. Its
dimensions were calculated with such accuracy that
the wax was completely consumed during the last
hour of the last day of the festival.
A deep and mysterious significance has always at-
tached to the celebration of the feast of Ramadhan
in the Mohammedan world, but nowhere were its
rules observed with such solemnity, and its ceremonies
performed with such splendor, as in the capital of
Mohammedan Spain. It corresponded in many re-
spects to the Lent of the Christian Church. From
dawn to dark not a mouthful of food, not a drop of
water, could pass the lips of the consistent believer.
After sunset he was, in a measure, recompensed for
his privations during the day. Lamps were hung
from tower and minaret. The tinkle of the mandolin
664* History of the

and the mellow notes of the lute were heard from

latticed balconies. The sounds of
boisterous revelry
rose faintly on the midnight air from retired court-
yards and the distant apartments of majestic palaces.
Crowds in the most picturesque of costumes swept
through the streets. Dancing-girls and story-tellers,
surrounded by appreciative audiences, plied their sev-
eral vocations in the squares, under the glistening

foliage of lemon- and orange-trees. The Koranic pro-

hibition of indulgence in wine was too often forgotten,
and the indignation of the abstemious Moslem was fre-
quently aroused by the sight of transgressors in every
stage of intoxication. On all sides were the evidences
of joy, carelessness, and festivity.
Inside the Mosque a far different scene presented
itself to the eye of the delighted spectator. From the

lofty gallery of the minaret, whose centre was veiled

in obscurity, but whose gilded crest glittered with the

magical play of a hundred colored lanterns, the

piercing voice of the muezzin was calling the people
to prayer. Through every doorway an endless living
stream poured into the temple. Among the wor-
shippers, but keeping aloof from the surging mass,
were numbers of strangely muffled figures, accom-
panied by gigantic blacks attired in robes of silk and
gold. These were the ladies of the harems, whom the
liberal ideas of Andalusian society usually permitted
to dispense with the veil, but which, assumed on this
occasion from choice, became a convenient disguise and
an invaluable aid to intrigue. The interior suggested
a vision of enchantment. Myriads of lights illumined
every corner of the vast edifice, rivalling in their in-
tolerable brilliancy the blinding glare of the meridian
sun. Their rays were reflected and multiplied by the
gleaming walls by the ceiling, with its broad inscrip-
;

tions and its bewildering arabesques; by the metallic

foliage of a thousand capitals; by the portal of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 665

Maksurah with its scales of polished gold. The air

was heavy with the smoke of amber, aloes, and amber-
gris. Ear away through long vistas of columns, the
beautiful Mihrab, whose vitreous surface sparkled
with the radiance of countless jewels of every con-
ceivable hue, pointed out to the believer the location of
the Kiblah. Following the example of the imam,
visible from his lofty station in the mimbar, the in-
numerable multitude, as if actuated by a single im-
pulse, raised its voice in prayer, and moved in unison

through the repeated prostrations prescribed by the

Mohammedan ritual. Of such a fascinating character
was the sight to be witnessed during every night of
the festival, in the most sumptuous temple of Islam,
enriched by the munificence and the piety of the most
enlightened sovereigns of the age, whose appointments
surpassed, in their incredible magnificence, alike the
boasted decorations of Pagan antiquity and the luxu-
rious creations inspired by the wild imagination of the
Orient; where gold and silver, where rare woods and

precious gems were employed, like the commonest ma-

terials, in lavish profusion where trophies of victory,
;

ostentatiously displayed, reminded the zealot of the

triumphs of the Faith; where the excited senses of
the worshipper were soothed by the costliest odors
from jewelled censers; and where, disposed in silver
chandeliers and candelabras, rows upon rows of per-
fumed tapers diffused through the endless colonnades
their lustre andtheir fragrance.
On the north side of the Court of the Oranges stood
the stately minaret erected during the reign of Abd-
al-Rahman III. A
master-piece of architecture, and,
in every respect, appropriate to the sumptuous build-

ing for whose use it was intended, it was univer-

sally conceded to be without a rival in the world. It
was twenty-seven feet square and one hundred and
eight feet high. Constructed of polished freestone
666 History of the

brought from Africa, its sides were carved in elegant

tracery, whose gilded patterns were projected upon
a ground of ultramarine and vermilion. It was
lighted by windows forming graceful arches, sup-
ported by diminutive columns of red and white
jasper. Half of the windows had two openings, and
the remainder, three, and disposed alternately amidst
the maze of varied and brilliant decorative designs,
they produced a charming effect. The interior
contained two stairways, so contrived that a person
ascending or descending either was invisible to any
one upon the other. A gallery, eighty-one feet from
the ground, was used by the muezzin for the duties
of his sacred office. Another and a smaller structure,
corresponding in style with the one upon which it was
superimposed, rose to the additional height of twelve
feet, and was furnished with battlements similar to
those of the Mosque. Its summit was adorned with
three huge balls, two of gold and one of silver, en-
circled by lilies of the latter metal, crowned with a

pomegranate of burnished gold. Three hundred per-

sons of all ranks many of whom, like the servitors
of the Kaaba, were eunuchs were employed in the
various offices of the Great Mosque, the menials being
lodged within its walls. A guard was constantly
maintained, day and night, in the vicinity of the Mak-
surah, under whose floor were vaults for the custody
of the candlesticks and the various sacred vessels used
in the ceremonies of festivals.
Such was the superb temple of Cordova, once the
pride of Islam, and one of the noblest monuments
of superstition and policy ever conceived by human
genius or erected by human power. Its completion
made possible the grand achievements of the Om-
meyade dynasty, whose influence, acting indirectly
upon Christian nations, greatly facilitated the eman-
cipation of the human intellect, long confined by the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 667

galling bonds of ecclesiastical intolerance and heathen

tradition. The inspiration of its architects was de-
rived from many sources; in its plan it exhibited the
conformation of the synagogue and the tabernacle;
in its decoration were displayed the luxurious adorn-
ments of the Greek cathedral; its tapers and its in-
cense recalled the Latin ceremonial, in its turn bor-
rowed from the pompous ritual of Pagan sacrifice.
Even in its present dilapidated state, the original pur-

poses of its institution are apparent at every step and;

nothing short of its entire destruction could eradicate

the enthusiastic impressions excited by the first view
of its singular interior, with its forest of columns, and
its tarnished and mutilated vestiges of Oriental splen-

dor. It is eminently typical of the civilization of a

vanished race, whose deeds are written in something
more enduring than brass or marble, and serves to in-
dicate to posterity the sublimity of the spirit that could
contrive, and the skill and resources that could execute,
an undertaking of such grandeur and magnificence.
The health of Al-Hakem growing steadily worse,
he made preparations to avoid, as far as possible, the
evils incident toa disputed succession. He had only
one son, Hischem, then fourteen years of age but the ;

history of his house abounded with instances of

the

unscrupulous ambition of royal claimants belonging

to the collateral branches who had
aspired to establish
their pretensions by arms. Without declaring his ob-

ject, a grand council of nobles, governors

of prov-
inces, generals of the army, and ministers of state was
convened at Cordova. With bowed head and falter-

ing gait, the feeble monarch ascended for the last time
the steps of his throne. Through the vizier, he ex-
he
plained to the assembled officials the reason why
had called them together, and made the request
which was understood as a command that all should
attach their signatures to an instrument declaring
668 History of the

Hischem the sole heir to the crown of the khalifate.

This having been done, similar documents were de-
spatched without delay into all the provinces of the
empire, to be signed by the inferior officials of the
government and even by the people, in order to secure,
by every practical expedient, the permanence of the
dynasty and the integrity of its succession, which had
at last come to be recognized as dependent upon the
law of primogeniture. We shall see, in the sequel,
how far these elaborate and well-contrived precautions
were successful.
The few months which remained to Al-Hakem
after the investiture of his son with royal power were
occupied in the performance of good works. His
worldly affairs and the future of his empire had been
committed to the hands of others. The condition of
his mind and his failing eye-sight precluded him
from the enjoyments and the consolations of litera-
ture. Conscious of his increasing infirmities, and ad-
monished daily of his approaching end, he endeavored
to employ his entire time in the fulfilment of the duties
of a devout Mussulman. His life had been disgraced
by no excesses, disfigured by no persecutions, stained
with no crimes. He had ever been distinguished for
the exercise of a broad and unostentatious charity.
Calumny itself could neither accuse him of fanaticism
nor impute to him even the suspicion of infidelity.
The most precise and orthodox interpreters of the law
and the boldest freethinkers had been equally welcome
at his court, and had daily encountered each other
in the great libraries of his capital. The absolute
intellectual liberty which there existed was, indeed,
considered a reproach by ignorant Moslems of less
enlightened lands, who could not understand the asso-
ciation with heretics and the toleration of infidels but
;

in Spain, where a system of universal education had

been established, and was enforced as well by law as
 Moorish Empire in Europe 669

by the influence of public opinion, this inestimable

privilege was thoroughly appreciated.
Thus, although the Khali f had no grave offences
against morality to reproach himself with, he felt, like
every truly conscientious man, that he had failed to
comply with many of the injunctions of his creed.
To atone, in a measure, for these deficiencies was now
his only care. He dispensed great sums in charity.
He diminished the taxes imposed upon the provinces
of the empire by one-sixth, a measure most grateful
to his subjects, and, at the same time, without detri-
ment to the treasury, the country being at peace, and
the revenues increasing under the wise and economical
administration of the Vizier Moshafi. He
emanci-
pated and provided for large numbers of slaves. He
directed that the rent of that quarter of the bazaar
of the capital occupied by the saddlers which was one
of the perquisites of the crown should hereafter, for
all time, be set apart for the benefit of the schools
maintained at public expense for the children of the
poor. And, finally, knowing how much the happiness
of a people is dependent on the character of their
ruler, he constantly inculcated, and impressed by ar-
gument and parental authority upon the mind of his
son, Prince Hischem, the duties and the grave respon-
sibilities of a sovereign
; the evils of war the destruc-
;

tive consequences of ambition; the enduring benefits

of peace; the necessity of a pure administration of
justice; the value of continence; the pleasures to be
derived from the acquisition of knowledge; the con-
solations arising from the observance of the precepts
of virtue, and the practice of an enlightened morality.
At last, this great monarch, whose titles to distinc-
tion are derived from far more noble sources than
those whence emanates the fame attaching to the san-
guinary achievements of the conqueror, was gathered
to his fathers. His son, whose gentle disposition in-
670 History of the

spired the hope that he would profit by the wise coun-

sels and the pious example he had enjoyed, recited the

burial-service, and the body of Al-Hakem was com-

mitted to the sepulchre. The bier was followed by a
mighty concourse, whose tears and lamentations mani-
fested their grief, and whose apprehensions of im-
"
pending misfortune were betrayed by the cry, Our
Father is dead, and with him dies the sword of Islam,
the support of the weak and the terror of the proud!"
The prominent features of the character of Al-
Hakem were of learning, his profuse but
his love

always judicious liberality, and his profound rever-

ence for the doctrines of the Koran and the laws of
the empire. The few military operations he was
called upon to direct showed no want of vigor, and

suggested that in a less peaceful age he might have

obtained the laurels of a successful general. His de-
votion to literatureamounted to a passion. ISTo mon-
arch of whom history makes mention has equalled him
in the extent of his knowledge or the number and

diversity of his literary accomplishments. In every

country of the world, in the foci of civilization, in the
great capitals and commercial emporiums of the East,
at Bagdad, Cairo, Damascus, Alexandria, Constanti-
nople, his agents were stationed to secure books for
his libraries. No price was too extravagant to pay, no
difficulty was too arduous to surmount, in the acqui-
sition of a work whose character made it a desirable
addition to the vast collection of the palace of Cor-
dova. The rarity of a volume was a special inducement
to its purchase. Where the owner refused to part
with a manuscript, he was, as a rule, easily prevailed
upon to allow it to be copied, and his courtesy was
always munificently rewarded. In the extensive libra-
ries of the princes of the Orient, whose collections,
however valuable, could not vie with the superb one
of Al-Hakem, were constantly occupied the expert
 Moorish Empire in Europe 671

scribes and copyists of that accomplished, untiring

monarch; investigators whose labors were never ter-
minated, whose pens were never idle. A premium was
offered to every writer of note whose productions
should be first submitted to the Khali f, and the knowl-
edge of this fact often procured for him the inspec-
tion of manuscripts long before they were made public
in the country where they were composed. The emu-
lation and the aspirations of distinguished authors
caused their works to be transmitted to Cordova from
the most distant lands, from Al-Maghreb, Egypt,
Byzantium, Syria, and Persia, and the reward for a
composition of unusual merit not infrequently reached
the enormous figure of a thousand pieces of gold.
Under the influence of such potent agencies, it is

not remarkable that great popularity was communi-

cated to the study of every branch of human knowl-
edge. Treatises replete with the stores of ancient
wisdom were brought forth from dusty corners where
they had lain neglected for centuries; the sages of
Greece were translated into Arabic; and the philoso-
phy of Aristotle and the problems of Euclid were
publicly expounded for the benefit of the multitude.
In a society where intellectual pre-eminence was a
certain passport to official distinction, the study of
letterssoon became not only a popular and absorbing
pursuit, but one of the most desirable of professions.
The accumulation of books was the first employment
of an aspirant to public consideration and political
fame. In the house of almost every prosperous citizen
a collection of volumes, not exhibited to display the
wealth or pedantry of the owner, but with whose con-
tents he was more or less familiar, was preserved. For
the benefit of those whose means were too limited for
the possession of such luxuries, as well as to afford
every facility for the promotion of intelligence and
the advancement of science, public libraries were
672 History of the

founded in all the great cities of the Peninsula. With

the growing demand for manuscripts, their value not
only increased in the markets of the world, but,
through the enormous prices they commanded, liter-
ary industry was stimulated to their search and repro-
duction. was a well-known fact that no gift was so
It
acceptable to the Khali f as a rare manuscript, or the
first copy of a new work by an author of established

reputation. The library of Al-Hakem II. was un-

doubtedly the greatest repository of learning which
had up to that time existed in Europe. As a signifi-
cant token of the estimation in which its volumes were

held, theappointments and furniture of the building

where they were deposited exhibited all the magnifi-
cence of a palace. The floor was of rare and costly
marble, the walls and ceiling of alabaster and mosaic,
the columns of jasper and verde-antique. The cases
were of polished woods, some selected for their rarity,
others for the delightful fragrance they exhaled. In-
scriptions in characters of gold indicated the contents
of the shelves, or inspired the student, by the repeti-
tion of the maxims of famous writers, to emulate
the example of the wise and virtuous scholars of
antiquity. The manuscripts in time became so nu-
merous that the halls of the library, extensive as they
were, could not contain them. In the scriptorium an
army of binders and calligraphists was employed,
and the finest books were gilded and illuminated with
a taste and elegance that have never been equalled.
The number of volumes in the collection of the Khalif
is variously stated at from four hundred thousand to

six hundred thousand. Forty-four volumes were re-

quired for the catalogue alone. With the contents
of most of these works Al-Hakem is said to have been
familiar, and, indeed, many of them were enriched
with notes and comments written by his own hand.
The title-page of each volume bore not only the name
 Moorish Empire in Europe 673

of the author but also his genealogy, as well as the

dates of his birth and his death, all collected and pre-
served by the indefatigable industry of the royal
scholar. His prodigious memory; his powers of ac-
quisition his critical acumen
; his talents for compo-
;

sition; and the capacity which could abstract from

the administration of the public affairs of a great
monarchy sufficient time for literary undertakings
that, under ordinary circumstances, could hardly be
accomplished in a lifetime of constant study, are mar-
vellous and incredible. For Al-Hakem was an his-
torian of approved merit, as well as an impartial critic
and a voluminous commentator. He wrote a history
of Spain, now unhappily lost, which was considered
a high authority in its time, and whose reputation was
universally admitted to be independent of the pres-
tige which it would naturally derive from the name
and rank of the author. Such was his erudition that
in knowledge on obscure points of genealogy and
biography he was without a rival, even in the learned
court of Cordova and his fund of historical informa-
;

tion was so profound, and his judgment so accurate,

that his opinions were respected and unquestioned by
the most accomplished scholars of the Mohammedan
world. As may
be conjectured, a prodigious impulse
was imparted to education by this extraordinary
patronage of letters. The accumulated wisdom of
Africa, Asia, and Europe was to be found at Cordova.
Reports of the munificence of Al-Hakem, and the
fame of his splendid court, where literary attainments
were a recommendation to royal favor, had been trans-
mitted along the highways of commerce to the most
isolated quarters of the globe. It was the ambition of
every scholar to complete his studies in a society which
offered such unrivalled advantages. A
multitude of
students of every nationality constantly thronged the
streets of the capital. Education was reduced to a
Vol. I. 43
674 History of the

system, whose regulations were enforced with military

precision. To invest the cause of instruction with
additional prestige, the influence of royalty was in-
voked, and Al-Mondhir, the brother of the Khalif was
,

charged with the general supervision of the institu-

tions of learning. The charity of Al-Hakem had
founded at Cordova no less than twenty-seven schools,
where the children of the poor received an education
not inferior in thoroughness to that conferred by the
best colleges of the empire.
The intellectual progress of the nation was greatly
assisted by the freedom of thought which was univer-

sally prevalent. The study of philosophy was en-

couraged, and the promulgation of the most heretical
opinions was neither prohibited by public sentiment,
nor allowed to be interfered with by the fanaticism
of the orthodox sects. By the incessant collision of
opinions, by the comparison of authorities, and by the
examination of antagonistic doctrines a general spirit
of inquiry sprang up and, in consequence of its dis-
;

semination, even the professors of the University

were not wrongfully suspected of a leaning towards
atheism.
The efforts of Al-Hakem had been early directed
to the reformation of manners, an invidious task which
might well exhaust the resolution and tact of the most
politic and courageous sovereign. The example of
the Orient, the possession of wealth, and the influence
of luxury had introduced and promoted the demoral-
izing vice of drunkenness. The wines of Andalusia
were then, as now, famous for their palatable as well
as for their exhilarating qualities. The country was
covered with vineyards, and the products of the wine-
press formed no inconsiderable item of the commercial
statistics of the Peninsula. Debauchery, at first car-
ried on in secret, had grown bold with the open counte-
nance of high officials and the increasing impunity
with which it was practised and it was hinted that even
;
 Moorish Empire in Europe 675

the ministers of religion did not hesitate to indulge in

a vice so severely reprobated by the Koran. The pro-
hibited beverages were not confined to wines, for in-
ebriating liquors distilledfrom figs, dates, and other
fruits were also consumed in large quantities. This
pernicious habit was not confined to the wealthier class,
but was almost universal; and the scenes of revelry,
inwhich persons of both sexes participated at banquets
and other festivities, rivalled, if they did not surpass,
the scandalous orgies which had in the day of their
splendor and their infamy disgraced the court and
capital of Damascus. The Moslem casuists attempted
to excuse these breaches of the law by alleging that
the use of wine was necessary to the soldier, as it
inspired him with courage and increased his powers
of endurance, and that this indulgence should be at
least conceded to those who habitually exposed them-

weapons of the enemy. Such sophistry,

selves to the

impose upon the discerning mind

however, failed to
of Al-Hakem. Determined to remove, if possible,
the means of intoxication, he issued a peremptory
order that all the vines in the Peninsula should be torn
up and destroyed. His counsellors, however, having
represented that such a sweeping measure would be
productive of great financial loss and consequent
suffering, and that intoxicating beverages could be,
and were, even then, made from other fruits, he con-
sented to withdraw the order, which had alreadv
caused wide-spread alarm among his subjects. But
his sense of duty did not permit him to leave the evil
unchecked. The imams were directed to declare from
the pulpits of the mosques that the use of wine was
forbidden at all social assemblies and public festivities ;

and the kadis were especially admonished that the

penalties prescribed by the law for drunkenness must
be enforced, regardless of the wealth, rank, or official
station of the offender. The vice was. however, too
676 History of the

deeply rooted to be abolished by the denunciations of

theologians or the impotent threats of magistrates,
themselves suspected of secret participation in the
offences they affected publicly to condemn. The
society of Cordova, and with it that of the entire
khalifate, in a minor degree, had, in fact, become
thoroughly epicurean. The philosopher, while ob-
serving a decent reverence for the national religion
whose rites he openly practised in the character of a
good citizen and privately ridiculed in the company
of his friends, was deeply tinctured with the ancient
pantheistic doctrines of India. Even the populace
had ceased to exhibit the fanaticism which is the in-
separable companion of ignorance. The system of
universal education had gradually and insensibly re-
moved many of those prejudices on whose perpetuity
depend the importance and the power of the ministers
of superstition. The example of their superiors was
not lost on the multitude. The attendance at the
mosques was not perceptibly diminished, but it became
rather a matter of custom than an observance dictated
by conscientious belief and a sense of religious duty.
A skepticism pervaded the masses which surprised and
alarmed the devout pilgrim from a far-distant coun-
try who visited the shrine of Cordova, in his eyes, sec-
ond in holiness only to the temple of Mecca. Enjoy-
ment of the present, indifference to the future, were
the principles which guided the conduct and influenced
the lives of the pleasure-loving subjects of Al-Hakem.
Under such circumstances, the correction of public
immorality, and the repression of a popular and
prevalent vice was a difficult, if not a hopeless, under-
taking. The edict of the Khalif against drunkenness
was publicly observed and secretly disregarded. The
epicurean tendency of the age was too general and too
well established to be seriously affected by the procla-
mations or the example of princes.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 677

In the prosecution of enterprises of public improve-

ment and general utility, Al-Hakem exhibited no less
taste and spirit than the most renowned of his prede-
cessors. The largest cities and the most sequestered
hamlets of the empire alike acknowledged the benefits
of his discriminating liberality. He repaired the high-
ways; furnished them with fountains at convenient
intervals; and, in obedience to the law of the Koran,
which inculcates the duties of hospitality, established,
at the end of each day's journey, a caravansary for the
entertainment of travellers. Schools, almshouses, hos-
pitals, rose in every town a great portion of the funds
,

required for the construction and endowment of these

institutions being derivedfrom the private purse of
the Khali f. His devotion and family pride caused
him to emulate the example of his ancestors by making
additions to the Great Mosque of the capital. He
largely increased the capacity of the building. He
erected the Maksurah, where the Commander of the
Faithful could enter, unperceived by the congrega-
tion, and perform his devotions apart from the other
worshippers, in accordance with that practice of Ori-
ental seclusion which from motives of prudence or
mystery had, for three generations, been adopted by
the Ommeyades of Spain. Before the reign of Al-
Hakem, the basin where every devout Mussulman
performed the ablution, symbolical of purification,
incumbent on him before entering the Mosque, was
small and inadequate to the necessities of the multi-
tudes that daily frequented the second in renown and
sanctity of the fanes of Islam. This receptacle was
rude and primitive the water frequently became stag-
;

nant and the supply was, from time to time, renewed

;

from a neighboring well by means of vessels borne

by beasts of burden. The inconvenience and incon-
gruity of this arrangement, amidst all the splendors
that surrounded it, forcibly impressed itself upon the
678 History of the

mind of the Khalif . At

vast expense and with infi-
nite labor, he caused four basins of stone to be con-
structed at the angles of the court of the Mosque, two
for the use of men and two for the use of women.
In the centre was a great monolithic reservoir of
marble, from which rose a fountain that diffused its
refreshing spray over the tropical vegetation with
which the court was adorned. The blocks for these
basins were quarried in the mountains, miles from
Cordova, and the largest required the power of
seventy oxen and an army of laborers to transport it
to its destination. This gigantic undertaking con-
sumed twelve days. An abundant supply of water
was conveyed from the springs and rivulets of the
sierra through the aqueduct, and the overflow passed

by means of pipes into immense cisterns under the

pavement of the court, available in case of siege and
an ever-ready protection against fire. The aqueduct
also supplied many other fountains throughout the

city, which were increased in number and convenience

by the provident care of the Khalif. The hydraulic
works of Al-Hakem are almost intact to-day, after
the vicissitudes of many eventful ages and the con-
stant wear of more than nine hundred years. The
marble reservoirs, where were once performed the
lustrations of Moslem zealots from every land, now
furnish with water the populace of Christian Cor-
dova, whose squalid and repulsive appearance, whose
brutal physical characteristics, whose profound igno-
rance of the history of the cleanly, intellectual, and
polished race to which these splendid memorials of art
and industry are to be ascribed, offer striking evidence
of the instability of the highest civilization and of the
constant tendency of man to retrograde to the condi-
tion of the savage; of his incapacity to appreciate or

profit by the experience and the wisdom of the con-

quered when the latter belong to another creed or
 Moorish Empire in Europe 679

another sect; and of the stupendous power for evil

that can be exerted by a hierarchy whose established
policy is founded on the systematic debasement of the
intellectual faculties of its slaves.

A pleasing story is related of Al-Hakem which

strikingly illustrates his equanimity and his genial
manners as well as that reverence for learning and
its professors which was characteristic both of the

man and the monarch. The imperious demands of

despotic power, as we are accustomed to regard them,
admit of no hesitation or compromise in their obedi-
ence. Yet such was the mild and forbearing disposi-
tion of this great sovereign that his subjects could
venture, on occasions that seemed to justify it, to post-
pone for their own convenience compliance with
orders that were peremptory. While the f aqui Abu-
Ibrahim, one of the greatest of the authorities on
Mohammedan law whose talents adorned the Univer-
sity of Cordova, was lecturing
one day to a large class
of students in one of the mosques, he received, through
a eunuch, a summons from the Khalif to attend him
instantly at the palace.
"
I hear with profound respect the order of the
Commander of the Faithful," replied Abu-Ibrahim.
"
Return to him, and say that thou hast found me
in the House of God, surrounded by my
pupils,
whom I am instructing in the traditions relating to
the Prophet. Tell him that the moment I have
finished my lecture on this holy subject, by which my
audience will fail to profit if I am interrupted, I will
repair to him." The eunuch, confounded by this
reply, returned to the palace, and reported the result
of the interview. In a short time he came back, and
"
addressed Abu-Ibrahim as follows: O Faqui, I have
delivered thy answer to the Sultan, who applauds thy
piety and appreciates the importance of
the labors
thou art daily performing for the benefit of our holy
680 History of the

religion; he will await thy pleasure, and has directed

me to remain until thy lecture is finished, that I may
escort thee to his presence." Not only did the com-
plaisance of Al-Hakem, on this occasion as on many
others, yield to the claims of learning, but it was also
indulgent to the age and weakness of his friend. He
caused the gate which was nearest the palace to be
opened to accommodate the venerable professor, who
walked with difficulty and whose infirmities prevented
him from mounting on horseback; and when he
arrived at the entrance he found a great number
of officials and domestics assembled to do him honor,
and waiting to conduct him, with the ceremony due
to his reputation and the esteem in which he was held
by his royal master, into the hall of audience. Thus
could the placid and magnanimous nature of Al-
Hakem subordinate the prerogatives of royalty to the
demands of knowledge, and sacrifice for the benefit
of the votaries of science that implicit obedience whose
neglect is an evidence of treason, and whose instan-
taneous observance is one of the inseparable rights of
arbitrary power. His greatness even rose superior to
the paltry prejudices of rank and the requirements
of custom; the intimacy in which he lived with the
learned, the respectful familiarity which he encour-
aged from his favorites, offer a surprising contrast
tyranny and impatience usually associated with
to the
the possession of despotic authority.
There have existed few examples of a ruler so per-
fectly identified with the spirit of his age
and the
genius of his people as was Al-Hakem, whose name
most appropriately signifies The Wise. Nature had
not bestowed upon him the consummate talents for
organization, and the prophetic sagacity
with which
she had gifted the founder of his dynasty, Abd-al-
Rahman I. He did not possess either the political
tact or the military capacity of Abd-al-Rahman III.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 681

But in the substantial acquirements of useful

all

knowledge; in the appreciation of the works of

genius, and the disposition to reward them; in the
encouragement of every art which promotes happi-
ness and alleviates suffering in the practice of those
;

virtues which reflect dignity on a subject and shine

with still greater lustre when included in the attributes
of royalty, he was certainly without a rival among all
the Spanish Mohammedan princes. He was the
worthy representative of the advanced culture, the
scientific attainments, the poesy and the art of His-

pano-Arab civilization, as contrasted with the intellect-

ual darkness, the disgusting immorality, the revolting
filth, the abject superstition, which characterized the

contemporaneous society of Europe. His tireless in-

dustry and prodigious erudition were the marvel of his
time. His devotion to literature was imitated by his
subjects, who embraced with enthusiasm pursuits
which both diminished the privations of the poor and
contributed to the enjoyment of the favorites of
fortune. The highest and most lucrative positions
were the rewards of those who had attained to distin-
guished eminence in literary pursuits, without regard
to their political antecedents, their nationality, or their
ancestry.
The example of the Khalif who often, with his own
,

hands, cultivated his gardens, was followed by the

kadis, the walis, the muftis, the nobles of the empire.
He utilized to the utmost the natural resources of the
Peninsula. Agriculture was brought to such excel-
lence as seemed to make any further improvement im-
possible. The ships of Cadiz, Seville, Almeria, and
Valencia boldly traversed the most dangerous seas.
The merino sheep, whose migrations over the plains
of Estremadura and Castile were made subject to laws
which have been adopted by and are still in force
among the Spaniards, amounted to millions. Valu-
682 History of the

able deposits of ore were opened and developed for

the benefit of commerce and the arts. In short, the
reign of Al-Hakem represents the golden age of
Moslem history, an age that with singular felicity
had appropriated the wisdom and the experience of
antiquity; whose wonderful progress in every branch
of industry, in every department of knowledge, was
the admiration of all nations, Christian and infidel;
and whose inspiring genius was, in reality, the last, as
he was the most accomplished, of a famous race of
kings.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 683

CHAPTER XIV
REIGN of HISCHEM II.

976-1012

Origin of Ibn-abi-Amir-Al-Mansur The Scene in the Garden

Genius and Attainments of the Youthful Statesman His
Sudden Rise to Power Influence of the Eunuchs Their
Conspiracy Detected Ibn-abi-Amir aspires to Supreme
Authority He is appointed Hajib Ruin of his Rivals
Reorganization of the Civil and Military Service Sys-
tematic Degradation of Hischem The Palace of Zahira
The Hajib becomes Master of the Empire Successful
Wars with the Christians Disturbances in Africa De-
struction of Leon Sack of Santiago Death of Al-Mansur
His Great Services to the State His Unbroken Series of
Military Triumphs Al-Modhaffer Abd-al-Rahman Mo-
hammed Suleyman Disappearance of Hischem Rapid
Disintegration of the Empire.

Simultaneously with the accession of Hischem

II. a gigantic and ominous figure, like a portentous

spectre, at once the impersonation of glory and the

harbinger of ruin, appears upon the theatre of action
in the Peninsula. Under the two preceding sover-
eigns the Moslem Empire of the West had made un-
paralleled advances in useful knowledge, in commer-
cial prosperity, in all the arts which raise nations to
the most exalted rank in the scale of civilization.
Peace reigned everywhere within its borders. The
tendency to sedition, which had so long obstructed its
prosperity and depleted its population, had been vig-
orously and successfully repressed. Justice, untainted
with even the suspicion of corruption, and which was
no respecter of persons, was dispensed by its tribunals.
Its system of education and its results were the won-
der of the age. The achievements of its learned men,
684 History of the

who were scattered over Europe, had caused them to

incur the suspicion of, and, in some instances, even to
endure the penalties attaching to the profession and
the practice of magic. And yet, with all its greatness
and all its fame, the khalifate was destined, under the
administration of the phantom monarch Hischem II.
the last of his dynasty to attain to a still higher
position among the nations of the earth. This pre-
eminent distinction; the unbroken triumph of more
than fifty campaigns; the humiliation of its enemies
in theirformerly impregnable strongholds the dese-
;

cration and plunder of their most sacred shrines the ;

devastation and impoverishment of their territory;

their regular payment of tribute and acknowledg-
ment of vassalage, all of these results are to be
attributed to the talents of the hajib, Al-Mansur,
the most consummate political and military genius
that ever guided the destinies of any portion of the
vast and opulent empire conquered and ruled by the
sectaries of Mohammed.
Among the adventurers who followed the banner
of Tarik at the time of the Conquest was Abd-al-
Melik, an Arab descended from a noble family of
Yemen, whom entanglements and financial
political
reverses had compelled to assume the hazardous but
attractive calling of a soldier of fortune. The
scarcity of men of intelligence and integrity in an
army of barbarians led to the appointment of the
illustrious exile to the command of a division. In this

capacity he occupied the ancient town of Carteya, the

first fortified place taken by the invaders. After
participating in the campaigns of Tarik and Musa,
Abd-al-Melik retired to the castle of Torrox on the
Guadiaro, which had fallen to his share in the general
distribution of the confiscated lands of the Visigothic
monarchy. Although not belonging to the Koreishite
aristocracy, his family was distinguished by its former
 Moorish Empire in Europe 685

services to the state as well as by its social position and

scholastic acquirements. The great-grandson of Abd-
al-Melik had been the ha jib of the Emir Mohammed,
who loaded him with wealth and honors. Many of his
descendants contracted matrimonial alliances with the
daughters of great physicians, theologians, statesmen.
Others filled with credit high employments at court
and in the judiciary. But, with the exception of the
founder of the house, none had embraced that martial
profession from whence it originally derived its
eminence. The representative of this family, at the
commencement of the reign of Al-Hakem II., was
Mohammed-Ibn-abi-Amir, a student of law in the
University of Cordova.
It was but a few days after the death of Abd-al-
Rahman III. that a group of students, five in number,
were seated in a garden belonging to one of the houses
of public entertainment which abounded in the suburbs
of the great Moslem capital. Darkness had fallen,
and the reflection from
the myriads of lights, dis-
tributed for miles around, diffused its tempered glow
over the innumerable palms and tropical plants which
adorned the streets and public parks, whose sombre
foliage was further brightened by many bronze lamps
of curious design, suspended here and there from the
branches. The fragrance of flowers filled the air.

The balmy softness of the Andalusian climate exerted

its voluptuous influence the perfumed breeze brought
;

to the drowsy ear the confused murmur of the distant

city, about to rest from the labors
of the day, and the
broken notes of a plaintive song, to which some anx-
ious lover under a neighboring balcony was keeping
an accompaniment with the lute. Upon the table were
the fragments of a repast, and an empty flagon which
had contained the amber wine of Jerez, whose condi-
tion showed that the revellers viewed with scant rever-
ence the menacing injunctions of the Prophet. The
686 History of the

conversation of four of the party was lively and

boisterous; the fifth, however, plunged in an absorb-
ing reverie, had, for some
"
time, preserved a gloomy
and unbroken silence. What ails thee, Ibn-abi-O
Amir?" at length exclaimed one of his companions;
"
thou art as pensive as a faqui and as silent as a camel
that treads the sand-drifts of the Desert; hast thou
perchance lost thy mistress?"
"
I have long had a presentiment, O Mohammed,
let each of you
that one day I should rule this land;
now what public employment he most desires,
declare
and I pledge my word that when I rise to power it
shall be conferred upon him," responded the taciturn
student.
A roar of laughter greeted this unexpected reply.
"Ah!" said one of the collegians, "these
merry
figs are delicious, and I should
be pleased to live in
Malaga, where they grow for my part I choose to be
;

governor of that province."

"
Another exclaimed, I have never tasted anything
as good as these cakes. I beg you to appoint me
inspector of markets, for then I shall be surfeited
with delicacies, without the expenditure of a single
dirhem."
"
Another said, I am
enchanted with this magnifi-
cent city; whose shrine is the glory of Islam; whose
suburbs are inferior only to the gardens of Paradise ;

whose wealth surpasses all the treasures of the Orient ;

whose palaces are the wonder of the world. I prefer,

above all other offices, the prefecture of Cordova."
The fourth student remained sullen and silent.
" "
O Abdallah!" said one of his companions, why
dost thou not profit by the generosity of the future
ruler of Andaluz?"
Abdallah rose, and, seizing Ibn-abi-Amir by the
beard, exclaimed, in a voice choked with indignation
"
and rage, Wretched boaster! thy insolent presump-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 687

tion exceeds that of Iblis himself, thou the ruler of

Andaluz ! Let the act of thy authority be to have
first
me stripped naked, smeared with honey that the bees
and flies may sting me,
placed upon a donkey with
my face to his tail, and paraded in this condition
through the streets of the capital. This is the favor
that I demand of thee, who with thy insufferable con-
ceit and arrogance doth insult the majesty of the
khalifate, and the honor and dignity of the Successors
of the Prophet of God!"
Releasing himself with some and stifling,
difficulty,
as best he could, his resentment at themost outrageous
affront that could be offered to a Mussulman, Ibn-abi-
Amir calmly replied, " The time will come when you
will allhave cause to remember this day. I shall not
forget my promise, and each of you shall have his re-
quest granted, according to the literal terms in which
he has preferred it."
Such was the self-confidence of Ibn-abi-Amir, who,
while a poor and obscure youth, almost unknown
amidst the thousands of students in attendance at the
University of Cordova, yet animated by the inspira-
tion of genius and conscious of his capacity for great
undertakings, could thus indulge in seemingly ex-
travagant dreams of empire. But with all this ap-
parent presumption his was no common character. He
united in a remarkable degree all the qualities which
conduct men to political eminence. Bold even to the
verge of audacity; energetic, persevering, and hope-
ful under the most discouraging circumstances inex- ;

haustible in resource; absolutelv indifferent as to the

morality of the means employed to attain an end so
long as expediency was established; a grateful
its

friend and an implacable enemy; an adroit nego-

tiator; a born commander; almost from boyhood he
seemed to have employed his extraordinary abilities in
the accomplishment of the lofty design which was the
688 History of the

cherished object of his unscrupulous ambition. His

features were regular, his conversation agreeable, his
manners captivating to a degree that excited admira-
tion in a society whose politeness was proverbial, and
the stately etiquette of whose court was not excelled
by that of any country or of any age. His knowledge
of human nature was so unerring that it almost
seemed the result of inspiration. No one could resist
the fascinating influence that invested his presence.
No one could withstand the effects of his resentment.
And yet, despite his fiery nature, the profound policy
which guided all his actions enabled him to restrain
his anger and control his passions until the time for

vengeance had come. He was an accomplished

scholar, especially well versed in jurisprudence, and
had early familiarized himself with the stirring annals
of Islam with the arduous struggles of its Founder
; ;

with the sufferings of its martyrs; with its victories

and its disasters; with the wonderful progress of its
civilization; with the martial achievements of its
heroes. He knew by heart the story of the great
captains and statesmen, many of whom, though born
in an obscure station like himself, had made the Mos-
lem cause illustrious under the dynasties of the East
and West. Thus, gifted with every talent that na-
ture could bestow; his faculties strengthened and de-
veloped by the advantages derived from a thorough
mental training; his being dominated by an iron will
whose power was directed to the realization of a
project which for the time absorbed every other as-
piration, the unknown and penniless adventurer pre-
pared to push his fortunes.
After his education was completed, he managed to
obtain a precarious livelihood in the capacity of a
public writer who drew up petitions to be presented
to the Khalif. His skill in chirography, and his
knowledge of jurisprudence, obtained for him, in a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 689

short time, the place of under-secretary in the supreme

tribunal of Cordova. But the kadi, a magistrate of
strict integrity and a man of reserved disposition
and unsociable manners, soon contracted a prejudice
against his gay and versatile subordinate, and while
he could not deny his extraordinary abilities, his dig-
nity was shocked by his habitual levity. So he applied
to the vizier Moshafi to give his employee some other
appointment. The vizier, knowing that Al-Hakem
was about to select a steward for the estate of Prince
Hischem, suggested the name of Ibn-abi-Amir. The
Khalif was willing, but the appointment was, in
reality, vested in the favorite sultana, Aurora. The
latter was a Christian by birth and a woman of great
beauty, of avaricious disposition, of lax morals, and
of a fiery temper. She enjoys the rare and doubtful
distinction of being the only member of her sex who,
during the sway of the Ommeyade dynasty, exercised
an influence over the political destinies of her coun-
try. Her position as mother of the heir apparent
the only surviving son of Al-Hakem had given her
an unbounded ascendant over the mind of her hus-
band, which she did not hesitate to abuse for her own
personal benefit. There were many candidates for the
coveted office, whose dignity and emoluments, impor-
tant as they were, yet bore ho proportion to the secret
power wielded by the incumbent and the opportunities
it afforded for elevation to the highest employments

of the court.
Once established in a position where he could thor-
oughly avail himself of his talents, Ibn-abi-Amir soon
rose to distinction. He found favor in the eyes of
the Sultana Aurora, who appointed him steward of
her household. Through her influence all powerful
with the Khalif seven months after his introduction
by the Moshafi and before he had attained his
vizier

twenty-seventh year, he was advanced to the respon-

Vol. I. 44
690 History of the

of Superintendent of the Mint, which in-

sible office
cluded many of the functions of a minister of finance.
The keen observation of the young official soon dis-
closed to his penetrating mind the rare facilities for
pecuniary aggrandizement and political promotion his
place afforded to a' man of tireless energy, unscrupu-
lous character, and boundless aspirations. His duties
brought him daily into intimate relations with the most
powerful dignitaries of the empire. Great sums of
money were at his disposal. The implicit confidence
reposed in him, and the high favor he enjoyed at court,
rendered it improbable that any inspection of his ac-
counts would be ordered without timely warning, and
an opportunity afforded to correct any embarrassing
deficit. The regular habits of his life, severe almost
to austerity his knowledge of affairs the inspiration
; ;

of his genius which seemed to solve, without an effort,

formidable problems of political economy and finance
which defied the capacity and industry of others, pecu-
liarly fitted him for the important post he occupied.
While observant of his responsibilities, every
strictly
circumstance of his surroundings, every suggestion of
his commanding intellect, were made subservient to
the purposes of his ambition. By the exquisite cour-
tesy of his manners and the deference he displayed
towards his superiors, he conciliated the proud and
exclusive nobility, who at first looked with marked
disapproval upon the rapid elevation of the aspiring
young statesman. The lower classes were charmed
by his condescension, by his generosity, by his affa-
bility, by the tact that never forgot the
claims of old
acquaintance, by the gratitude that never failed to

acknowledge the obligations of ancient friendship.

The treasures of the state were used, without stint or
scruple, to increase or to strengthen the following
of
the Superintendent of the Mint. No one in distress
applied to him without relief The fame of his public
.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 691

benefactions spread even to the borders of the khali-

fate. Thus, by the improvement of every oppor-
tunity, and by the judicious employment of the un-
limited means at his disposal, Ibn-abi-Amir organized
and controlled a large and growing party of adhe-
rents, whose loyalty to his person and his interests was
in manyinstances even stronger than the devotion
which they entertained towards their lawful sovereign.
It was not, however, through his influence with the
nor from his popularity with the masses, that
nobility,
Ibn-abi-Amir derived his most sanguine hopes of
success. attractions had captivated the
His personal
susceptible Sultana, who, blessed with an unsuspicious
and complacent husband, scarcely deigned to conceal
her admiration for her handsome protege. An inti-
macy was established between them, whose continu-
ance seems strangely incompatible with the jealous
espionage of an Oriental court, and which furnished
an inexhaustible fund of raillery for the sarcastic and
anonymous poets of the capital. Every whim of the
fair Aurora was gratified by her devoted steward.
Her wishes were often anticipated. The silence of
the occupants and the slaves of the harem was pro-
cured and retained by the distribution of costly gifts.
The princess herself was the beneficiary of the most
prodigal munificence. On one occasion, Ibn-abi-Amir
caused to be constructed for her a miniature palace of
massy Every detail of and appendage to a
silver.

royal dwelling was reproduced in this expensive and

ingenious toy. The eunuchs, the guards, the attend-
ants, in their appropriate garb, were represented by
tiny statuettes. The fountains were supplied with
delicate perfumes instead of water. The gorgeous
ornamentations of an alcazar were delineated with
marvellous fidelity and beauty. This magnificent
present excited the wonder of the populace, Avhen,
supported upon the shoulders of a score of slaves, it
692 History of the

was borne through the streets to the palace and laid

at the feetof the delighted Aurora. But this crown-
ing exhibition of extravagance came near being at-
tended with serious consequences. The promotion of
Ibn-abi-Amir, despite his tact and liberality, which
disarmed the envy and malice of the courtiers, had
raised up against him powerful and
resolute enemies.
The latter
openly accused the Superintendent of the
Mint of embezzlement of the public funds. With
the summary proceedings characteristic of an arbi-

trary government, Ibn-abi-Amir was cited at once

before the Divan, and ordered to produce his books
and all the treasure in his possession. The wary
minister was equal to the emergency. A thorough
accountant, he knew at the close of each day the exact
amount of the deficit which he was conscious must,
some time or other, be made good. He applied to the
vizier, Ibn-Hodair, who was indebted to him for nu-
merous favors, for a temporary loan of several thou-
sand pieces of gold. The vizier was only too happy
to oblige his friend the accuracy of the accounts was
;

verified; the sum for which the Superintendent of

the Mint was responsible was found to be intact and ;

those who had impeached the official integrity of the

minister were branded with the obloquy which attaches
to the unsuccessful persecution of an honest and
capable public servant.
The credit of Ibn-abi-Amir now rose higher than
ever. His success in extricating himself from the
snare which had been so artfully laid for him extorted
the unwilling praise of his adversaries. To make
amends for the apparent injustice he had done the
favorite by impugning his honesty, Al-Hakem con-
ferred upon him new and repeated marks of his con-
fidence. He became, in succession, trustee of intestate
estates, Kadi of Seville,and Chief of Police of Cor-
dova. A still greater dignity was soon afterwards
 Moorish Empire in Europe 693

tendered him, and one whose importance in advancing

his interests he was not slow to appreciate.
The enormous expenditures of Ghalib in Mauri-
tania, which he had represented as necessary to detach
the Berber chieftains from the standard of Ibn-
Kenun, had aroused the suspicions of the Khalif.
The interests of the government in Africa demanded
the presence of an able financier, whose prudence and
authority might curb the extravagance or stop the
peculations of the generals who were squandering the
revenues of the empire. The reputation of Ibn-abi-
Amir designated him as the most available personage
to discharge the duties of this important but invidious
employment. He was accordingly appointed kadi of
the entire province of Mauritania and invested with
extraordinary powers. His control over the finances
of the and military administrations was unlimited
civil
and supreme. He was directed to supervise all ex-
penditures and to rigidly scrutinize all accounts. Such
was the confidence reposed in his judgment, and the
high opinion entertained of his talents by the Khalif,
that, although he was entirely destitute of military
training or experience, the veteran generals of the
African army were ordered to undertake no opera-
tions without previous consultation with the Kadi of
Mauritania. The difficulties attending the adminis-
tration of a charge of this character and responsibility
were such as would have utterly baffled a less dexter-
ous and politic statesman than Ibn-abi-Amir. By the
army he was regarded as an ignorant upstart, by the
civil officials as a spy and informer. But his rare
adroitness and the irresistible fascination of his man-
ners soon removed these prejudices. Without neg-
lecting the interests of his master, he succeeded in ac-
quiring the esteem of the officers and the respect of
the soldiery. He
astonished the former by his oppor-
tune suggestions concerning an art with the applica-
694 History of the

tion of whose rules he had no practical acquaintance.

He engaged in the conversation, participated in the
amusements, and shared the privations of the latter.
His tenacious memory, which recalled without effort
the name of every individual he had once seen, aided
materially to the increase and the preservation of his
personal popularity. With a view to future con-
tingencies, the sagacious minister neglected no occa-
sion to secure the good will of the Berber chieftains.
He shared their rude but generous hospitality. He
flattered their ridiculous pretensions, and indulged
their hereditary prejudices. He
impressed them with
his power by an imposing display of pomp and mag-
nificence. The presents which he lavished upon them
were reported and exaggerated with barbarian hyper-
bole in every camp of the Desert. Such was the affec-
tion with which he came to be regarded by the fero-
cious bandits of Mauritania that it almost supplanted
the semireligious respect claimed and exacted by their
sheiks, who exercised the functions of a precarious
magistracy, based rather upon temporary and condi-
tional submission than established by the absolute and
permanent renunciation of a part of the natural rights
of the governed.
After the return of Ibn-abi-Amir in the train of
the victorious Ghalib, he assumed a state correspond-
ing with his rank and the public estimation in which
he was held. His palace at Rusafah, one of the most
charming suburbs of Cordova, rivalled the abodes of
royalty in elegance and splendor. The most exqui-
site decorations embellished its walls. Its extensive

gardens exhibited all the luxuriance and beauty of

the tropics. The groves swarmed with nightingales
and birds of gorgeous plumage. Innumerable foun-
tains diffused on every side their welcome and refresh-
ing spray. Multitudes of slaves, arrayed in brilliant
robes of silk, thronged the corridors. In the great
 Moorish Empire in Europe 695

marble dining-hall a table was constantly laid for the

benefit of all who desired to partake of the hospitality
of the owner. The influence and popularity of the
latter were daily manifested by the throng of peti-
tioners who, from dawn to sunset, obstructed the gates
of the palace. Of all this crowd, no suppliant, how-
ever humble, was suffered to depart without a courte-
ous and attentive hearing. The constant accumula-
tion of business, and the demands of the various
official employments of the minister, required the
services of a great number of clerks and secretaries.
These offices, while no sinecures, were eagerly solicited
by youths connected with the most respectable families
of Cordova, who esteemed it an honor to perfect their
political education under so accomplished a master,
and who were not slow to detect that through his
service lay the path to future power and distinction.
The popularity of Ibn-abi-Amir, who, in addition to
had recently assumed those
his other official functions,
of the steward of the palace, was at its height when
Al-Hakem died; and the minister, with the Vizier
Moshafi, who had jointly been invested with that trust
by the Khalif, prepared to establish the regency and
assume control of the empire.
The apprehensions entertained by Al-Hakem of
the public disapprobation attending the accession of a
minor were speedily realized. The gradual divergence
from the ancient constitution of the Arabs, which
recognized only the claims of princes of mature age
and established reputation, was viewed with suspicion
and dislike by every class of the people. The merely
factitious title of hereditary descent was not sufficient,
in their eyes, to compensate for the dangers liable to
result from want of experience and administrative

ability. The investiture of an infant with regal au-

thority was uniformly regarded by the superstitious
as an evil omen, which portended the destruction of
696 History of the

the monarchy. The case was, moreover, without

precedent in the history of the khalifate, for the wise
sovereigns of the House of Ommeyah had invariably,
under similar circumstances, subordinated paternal
fondness to the paramount interests of the state. In
this instance, the expediency of an opposite course was
obvious, for the brothers of Al-Hakem were univer-
sally recognized as thoroughly competent to discharge
with credit the high and responsible duties connected
with the exercise of the supreme power. Fully cog-
nizant of this prejudice, the eunuchs, those baneful
parasites of Oriental despotism whose lives were
passed in an atmosphere of intrigue and corruption,
dexterously prepared to avail themselves of the popu-
lar discontent for the promotion of their own designs.
These incarnate fiends, who found in the betrayal of
their fellow-creatures an inadequate but grateful com-

pensation for the outrage inflicted on them by society,

had acquired, with every reign, a fresh accession of
pride and insolence. A picked body of a thousand of
them constituted the guard of the harem. Although
slaves, they enjoyed exclusive privileges, and, with
every opportunity for the indulgence of their domi-
nating passion of avarice, had accumulated vast pos-
sessions. A mistaken idea, imported with other noxi-
ous principles from the Orient, caused the immunity
of the eunuch and the exhibition of his opulence to be
considered as a necessary appendage to the grandeur
of the sovereign. As a natural result of this opinion,
the impudence and oppression of this powerful caste
were exercised without restraint until they became in-
tolerable. They robbed tradesmen with impunity.
They scourged with relentless brutality such unfortu-
nate pedestrians as crossed their pathway. They in-
vaded the privacy of households and insulted their
inmates, an inexpiable offence under Mussulman
law. They borrowed large sums of money from
 Moorish Empire in Europe 697

wealthy merchants under conditions which practically

amounted to confiscation. Their sanguinary brawls
with the populace, in which the police dared not inter-
fere, constantly disturbed the peace of the city. No
tribunal would venture to entertain a complaint
against these petty tyrants; and the equitable dis-
position of the Khalif himself was changed to gross
partiality,where the punishment of a member of that
privileged guard, whose license he considered indis-
pensable to his own safety, was concerned. The chiefs
of this corps, which was at once the terror and the
reproach of the capital, were Fayic and Djaudar, one
of whom was Master of the Wardrobe, the other,
Grand Falconer. The affluence and power of these
two officials; the lucrative employments they con-
trolled;the boundless opportunities for peculation
they enjoyed and improved; their constant and un-
ceremonious access to the monarch their almost irre-
;

sponsible authority over the palace and the harem,

gave them a consideration not possessed by any of
the other great dignitaries of the khalifate. From
all who approached them they exacted the deference
and the etiquette due only to those in the highest
station. An armed retinue,
splendidly equipped,
guarded their persons when they went
abroad. In
accordance with the anomalous conditions which pre-
vailed in the society of Moorish Spain, where sol-
diers served eunuchs and freemen obeyed the behests
of slaves, numerous following of dependents and
a
employees, who had not been subjected to either the
torture of emasculation or the restraints of servitude,
awaited the pleasure of the unprincipled favorites
of royalty. Their consequence was disclosed by the
multitudes that incessantly besieged the gates of
their palaces. The horror and mystery which in-
vested their character and their lives were frequently
increased by the sudden and permanent disappearance
698 History of the

of persons who were known to have incurred their

enmity.
The death of Al-Hakem was unexpected, and no
one was present during his last moments excepting
the chief eunuchs, Fayic and Djaudar. These crafty
individuals, conscious of the unpopularity of their
caste, and knowing that their crimes would receive
scant indulgence at the hands of the ministers Ibn-
abi-Amir and Moshafi, determined to suppress for
a time the intelligence of the Khalif's death, change
the succession, and thereby secure for themselves a
continuance of power. The prince they selected to
occupy the vacant throne was Moghira, the brother
of Al-Hakem. But a first and indispensable requisite
for the success of the enterprise was, according to the
practical Djaudar, the assassination of the vizier
Moshafi. To this suggestion, Fayic, who underesti-
mated the capacity and resolution of the minister,
refused to accede. After some discussion, it was
determined to send for Moshafi, and endeavor, by
every inducement possible, to turn him from his alle-
giance. Nothing could have been more gratifying
to the conspirators than the compliance of the vizier.
He appeared to enter heartily into the scheme, gave
his new associates much wise counsel, and promised
that he in person would, at the proper moment, guard
the door of the palace. Then returning to his resi-
dence, he hastily assembled a number of civil and
military officials upon whose fidelity he could depend,
and acquainted them with the plot that had just
come to his knowledge. The danger was imminent;
the accession of Moghira, and the supremacy of the
eunuchs which was certain to result from it and would
prominent mem-
affect the life or. fortunes of every
ber of the government, demanded the most energetic
action. It was determined, without a dissenting voice,
that Moghira should be put to death. This resolu-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 699

tion was easily taken, but its execution was a different

matter. The amiable and inoffensive character of the
prince rendered his deliberate assassination extremely
repugnant even to men whose cruel habits and san-
guinary experience had ordinarily rendered them
deaf to the appeals of pity. At length, Ibn-abi-
Amir rose amidst the silent assembly, and agreed to
assume the invidious office of executioner. At the
head of a strong guard, he proceeded at once to the
palace of the unhappy Moghira, who was equally un-
conscious of the death of his brother, of the dangerous
honor for which the ambition of the eunuchs had desig-
nated him, and of the stern decree which had just
sealed his fate. With all the matchless courtesy for
which he was distinguished, the messenger of death
announced his errand. Overcome with grief at the
loss of his brother, and terrified by the presence of
the soldiery, Moghira, after giving utterances to the
most fervid protestations of devotion to his nephew,
implored with tears the clemency of the minister.
Deeply moved by the distress of the prince, the reso-
lution of Ibn-abi-Amir faltered, and he despatched
a messenger to the vizier, declaring his confidence in
the loyalty of Moghira, and suggesting that the de-
cree of the council should be modified and imprison-
ment be substituted for the penalty of death. The
reply of Moshafi was peremptory: "Execute him
at once; if thou dost not like the commission thou
hast voluntarily undertaken, I will send another not
troubled with such unseasonable scruples." Further
delay was out of the question; Moghira was stran-
gled, and the room in which the crime was perpe-
trated was at once walled up with solid masonry.
The memory of this deed, as cruel as it was unwise,
long rankled in the heart of Ibn-abi-Amir. He never
forgave the vizier for the guilt he had incurred
through his agency, by an act whose expediency no
700 History of the

sophistry could establish, and whose barbarity no

political necessity could excuse. The time was soon
to come when the relentless Moshafi was to experi-
ence, in his turn, all the bitterness of death without
its consolations; all the mortifications which attend
the loss of power and fortune; all the pangs of
conscience which proceed from the violation of the
immutable laws of justice and the wanton sacrifice
of the most obvious principles of morality.
The placid exterior of Ibn-abi-Amir gave no sign
of his outraged feelings when he returned to his col-
leagues, but his spirit had been deeply moved, and,
with the vindictive energy of his nature, he treasured
up against the vizier a terrible account to be dis-

charged upon the day of reckoning.

The chief eunuchs received with consternation the
news of the betrayal of their project and the death
of the prince; but they were so satisfied of the
security of their power that they did not for an in-
stant suspend their treasonable operations. Their
emissaries, dispersed among the populace, multiplied
by their artful representations the perils incident to
the accession of a sovereign who had not yet passed
the age of childhood. The circumstances attending
the murder of Moghira unjustifiable enough in
themselves were distorted and exaggerated. The
resentment of the masses was inflamed against the
ministers, whose rapacity and ambition, it was sug-
gested, would subordinate to their own designs every
consideration connected with the safety of the state
and the prosperity of the empire. The services of
influential and mercenary demagogues were enlisted;
the wealth of the eunuchs was lavished without stint
to secure and retain their partisans; open denuncia-
tions of the authorities were heard on every hand the ;

appearance of a member of the unpopular faction in

the streets was the signal for a riot; and the restless
 Moorish Empire in Europe 701

and seditious population of Cordova seemed again

ripe for revolution.
The manifest incompetency of Moshafi to deal
with the situation impelled Ibn-abi-Amir, who had
been raised to the office of vizier, to proffer to the
Divan some wholesome advice, couched in terms not
distinguishable from those of command. The rebel-
lious ardor of the mob was damped by an imposing

military display in which the youthful Khali f par-

ticipated. The good-will of the poor was at the same
time secured by the remission of certain oppressive
taxes levied during the reign of Al-Hakem, and
which had been the source of great annoyance and
distress. The danger of an uprising having been for
the moment removed, Ibn-abi-Amir bent all his ener-
gies to the destruction of the power of the eunuchs.
His secret agents exercised vigilant and incessant
espionage over their movements. His gold seduced
their retainers. Those who had suffered from the
avarice and injustice of the subordinates of the Mas-
ter of the Wardrobe and the Grand Falconer were

privately encouraged to institute proceedings against

their oppressors.Some of the latter were imprisoned,
others were executed, others again sought safety in
flight. Of the chiefs, Djaudar was forced to resign
his employments, and Fayic was banished to Majorca,
where he died, not long afterwards, in poverty. The
discomfiture of these bold conspirators allayed the
popular excitement, which was principally due to
their machinations, and enabled the government to
turn its attention to another quarter, where the suc-
cess of the Christians was causing great and increas-

ing alarm.
The political agitation which followed the death
of Al-Hakem and the settlement of the regency was
well known to the courts of Leon and Navarre. The
occasion was considered an auspicious one for the
702 History of the

abrogation of treaties; for the repudiation of the

hateful obligations of tribute; for the seizure of ter-
ritory acquired by Moslem valor; for the recovery
of military prestige lost since the time of the great
Abd-al-Rahman. The active partisans of the North
accordingly swarmed over the unprotected provinces,
whose inhabitants had slackened their vigilance and
neglected their arms during the long and pacific
reign of Al-Hakem. Little resistance was encoun-
tered, owing to the incompetency of the officers
charged with the defence of the frontier. The
habitual indolence of Moshafl was soon found to be
unable to cope with these enterprising marauders, who
eluded his squadrons and spread terror and ruin
among the rich plantations and hamlets of Andalusia.
At length, emboldened by success, they passed the
Sierra Morena, and the ominous spectacle of the ban-
ners of the infidel was once more visible from the
towers of the capital. This defiance was more than
the pride of the Sultana could endure. She sent for
Ibn-abi-Amir, and implored him to chastise the inso-
lence of the Christians. A council was accordingly
upon. The vizier,
and an *
held, expedition resolved
with his usual address, managed to be assigned to the
supreme command, and, to avoid as far as possible
the contingency of a reverse, the wary general, with
the closest discrimination, selected for this service the
most trustworthy officers and the most experienced
veterans of the army.
At this time Ibn-abi-Amir had just entered his
thirty-ninth year. Of the theory of the art of war
he knew but little, of the practical application of its
principles absolutely nothing. His entire life had
been passed in avocations whose duties were rather a
hinderance than an aid to service in the field. But
the powers of his mind, equal to any emergency,
enabled him to surmount with ease the apparently
 Moorish Empire in Europe 703

insuperable obstacles that now confronted him. If

he was deficient in military knowledge and experience,
he was, on the other hand, endowed with qualities
too often ignored or despised by the martinet. In
prudence, in coolness, in judgment, in courage, he
was not surpassed by the most accomplished leader
that ever directed the movements of an army. The
hitherto successful realization of his projects, which
he had foreseen and carefully planned, inspired him
with a just, but not an arrogant, confidence in the
capabilities of his genius. He possessed the secret
of ingratiating himself with the soldiers, whose devo-
tion to his person subsequently carried the
day on
many a hard-fought and doubtful field. All, of
whatever rank, shared most liberally the fruits of his
bounty. The officers were daily entertained at his
table. Individual prowess was generously rewarded.
The most trifling infraction of discipline was pun-
ished with inflexible severity. Such was the policy
that guided the conduct of the new general from the
very beginning of his martial career. Under the
circumstances, it is not at all surprising that his arms
for a quarter of a century should have been
absolutely
invincible.
The first expedition of Ibn-abi-Amir was not re-
markable for the results which it accomplished in a
military point of view. But its moral effects upon
both Moslem and Christian were far more important
than would seem to proceed from a mere foray into
the country of the enemy. It revived the declining
prestige of the khalifate. It raised the flagging
ardor of the soldiery, enervated by the vices and the
indolence of an uneventful and protracted peace. It
aroused well-grounded hopes of future conquest and
glory under a new and enterprising commander.
It convinced the implacable enemies of Islam that
the warlike spirit which had so long defeated their
704 History of the

projects and obstructed their ambition was not yet

extinct. The flying squadrons of Leonese ceased to
plunder the villages of Andalusia. The shepherd
and the husbandman were henceforth permitted to
pursue their vocations in security. The standards of
the infidel, emblazoned with the detested symbol of
the cross, no longer disturbed the devotions or insulted
the majesty of the Moslem capital.
The power of Ibn-abi-Amir being established upon
a solid foundation, he began to mature plans he had
long meditated for the acquisition and exercise of
the supreme authority. The talents he had exhibited,
the success he had achieved, had made him the most
distinguished and commanding figure in the kingdom.
He now determined to disembarrass himself, in turn,
of such great officials of state as might be able to
thwart him in the execution of his ambitious proj-
ects, and he decided to begin with Moshafi, the only
one whose eminent position could suggest the possi-
bility of rivalry. In the execution of this project,
antipathy of race, ever conspicuous in the Moorish
contests for supremacy, lent its aid to jealousy of
power. Moshafi was of Berber extraction, and con-
sequently obnoxious to the Arab faction to which
Ibn-abi-Amir belonged. The vizier owed the con-
sideration in which he was held by Al-Hakem solely
to his literary attainments, which were a greater
recommendation to the favor of that monarch than
either talents for statesmanship or renown in arms.
His pride was excessive; his character lacked deci-
sion; his penuriousness was proverbial; his pecula-
tions conspicuous in a court where moral and political
integrity were the exception. He was already a mere
puppet in the hands of his colleague, whose genius
had obtained over his feeble and irresolute mind a
complete ascendency. While maintaining the closest
relations with Moshafi, his perfidious enemy availed
 Moorish Empire in Europe 705

himself of every means to effect his ruin. He con-

stantly excited against him the prejudices of the
Sultana Aurora. He obtained the promotion of
Ghalib, the most distinguished officer of the army,
and between whom and Moshafi there existed a bitter
feud, to the highest rank in the military service. He
even enlisted the aid of the unsuspicious vizier for
this purpose by representing the necessity of a recon-
ciliation with that leader, whose popularity with the

soldiery, seconded by his ambition, might at any time

accomplish the overthrow of the administration.
Then, this adept in the arts of intrigue contracted
an intimate alliance with Ghalib, whose principal
object was the destruction of the obnoxious vizier.
The two associates worked for a time in harmony for
the promotion of their common interests. Each
lauded to the skies the talents and the virtues of
the other. In return for the high commands with
which he had been invested, Ghalib exaggerated the
achievements of his companion. His fulsome praise
of the latter secured for him the prefecture of Cor-
dova, an appointment which involved the dismissal
of the son of Moshafi, who enjoyed the emoluments
without discharging the duties of that responsible
office. The venality of this youth, from whom money
could at any time obtain immunity from punish-
ment for even the most notorious criminal, had com-
pletely disorganized the police system of the city.
Footpads infested the streets. Theft and murder
were of nightly occurrence, and the citizens were
compelled to rely upon their own vigilance and cour-
age for that protection to which they were entitled
by law. The mercenary character of the prefect, and
the general demoralization of the municipal govern-
ment, had, in addition to the refuse of a great capital,
attracted from far and near bands of desperate char-
Vol. I. 45
706 History of the

eager to profit by the spoils of successful and

acters,
unmolested robbery.
But a change was now at hand. The new prefect
brought to the administration of the affairs of his
office the same inflexible justice, the same severity,
the same resolution, which had elsewhere distinguished
his conduct in a public capacity. The police system
was remodelled. Its members, terrified by some salu-
tary examples, which the exigencies of the service
required, no longer fraternized with criminals. The
foreign outlaws fled precipitately from the city. The
streets could once more be traversed in security, the
suburbs ceased to be the scene of tumult and dis-
order. The advantages of rank and fortune gave
no immunity to offenders under the stern jurisdic-
tion of Ibn-abi-Amir. Even the ties of blood were
ignored by this impartial magistrate, for his own son,
having been convicted of some violation of the law,
received such a terrible scourging that he died under
the hands of the executioner.
In the meantime, the friends of Moshafi had called
his attention to the dangers that threatened him, and
which his perceptions had not been acute enough to
detect. The crisis was imminent, and the vizier saw
no other means to counteract the insidious designs of
his rival except by courting the favor of his ancient

enemy Ghalib. He determined at once upon a bold

stroke of policy, and, with every manifestation of
honor and deference, requested the hand of the daugh-
ter of Ghalib for one of his sons. The pride of the
veteran, despite his deep-seated feelings of enmity,
was flattered by the compliment. The family of
Moshafi, while not noble, was one of the most dis-
tinguished in Andalusia. His wealth, acquired by
years of peculation, was known to be immense, and
his authority nominally directed the affairs of the
khalifate. Impressed with the advantages of such
 Moorish Empire in Europe 707

a matrimonial alliance, Ghalib readily assented to

the proposition of the vizier. Delighted beyond
measure with his success, Moshafi lost no time in
arranging the preliminaries; the marriage-contract
was signed, and a day appointed for the final
ceremony. But these arrangements could not be
concluded without the knowledge of the spies of Ibn-
abi-Amir, some of whom were members of the house-
hold of the vizier. The latter soon discovered that he
was no match for his wily adversary. His plots were
met by counter-plots. The influence of the Sultana,
supported by the entire following of Ibn-abi-Amir,
whose friends included some of the highest function-
aries of the khalifate, was exerted to shake the reso-
lution of Ghalib. The motives of Moshafi were im-
pugned. It was artfully insinuated that this sudden
demonstration of friendship was only a convenient
mask for some deep-laid act of perfidy. The im-
placable hatred so long entertained by the vizier
against the veteran commander gave considerable
color of probability to this suggestion. And finally,
Ibn-abi-Amir himself made a formal demand for
the hand of the beautiful Asma, protesting that the
son of the plebeian Moshafi was unworthy of a damsel
whose rank and beauty might well entitle her to be
the bride of the most powerful subject of the Moslem
empire. The constancy of Ghalib was not proof
against these plausible representations. Without
warning, he repudiated his engagements with Mos-
hafi. His daughter became the wife of Ibn-abi-
Amir their nuptials were celebrated with a pomp ex-
;

ceeding anything of the kind ever held in the capital ;

and the bridegroom himself was appointed to the

office of hajib, the most exalted dignity in the gift
of the crown.
From this time the fall of Moshafi was rapid. The
worthless friends of his prosperity, one by one, aban-
708 History of the

doned him. He was imprisoned along with the male

members of his family,and their property was seized
pending an investigation for malfeasance in office.
There was no difficulty in establishing the truth of
this accusation. The offences of the culprits had been

flagrant and notorious. The sentence of confiscation

imposed upon them swept into the public coffers a
great treasure, most of which had been acquired by
fraud and extortion. Such of the relatives of the
vizier as had rendered themselves especially offensive
to their persecutor were strangled. Others managed
to eke out a wretched subsistence bv the most menial

occupations, and even by beggary. The venerable

Moshafi, after suffering for years every humiliation
that could be imposed by the ingenuity of hatred and
the insolence of power, perished in some unknown
way by violence, and his body was carried to the grave
with but little more ceremony than usually attended
the interment of a pauper.
While these events were transpiring, a formidable
conspiracy for the assassination of the Khalif and
the promotion of one of his cousins, Abd-al-Rahman-
Ibn-Obeydallah, to the royal dignity, was maturing
in the capital. The great majority of the literary
men, the former companions and instructors of Ibn-
abi-Amir, with officials who had viewed his elevation
with unconcealed envy and hatred, stimulated by
mediocrity and conscious incompetence, were the pro-
moters of the enterprise. The dangerous position of
leader was assumed by the eunuch Djaudar, who was
anxious to avenge his disgrace, to retrieve his fort-
unes, and to restore the failing credit of his caste.
There was scarcely a kadi, a jurist, a poet of the
court, or a professor of the University who was
not cognizant of the plot. The faquis and the theo-
logians, who considered the orthodoxy of Ibn-abi-
Amir as more than doubtful, were concerned in it to a
 Moorish Empire in Europe 709

man. The prefect, Ziyad-Ibn-Aflah, who had suc-

ceeded Ibn-abi-Amir in the control of the municipal
affairs of Cordova, promised his co-operation, and

agreed to place the armed force under his command at

the disposal of the conspirators. It was decided that
Djaudar should put the Khalif to death. The day for
action arrived; the palace was designedly abandoned
by the police; and Djaudar obtained without suspicion
an audience with Hischem. But, either through awk-
wardness or irresolution, the blow aimed at the heart
of the Khalif fell short; the assassin was over-
powered; and the prefect, having been summoned
to the palace and seeing that all was lost, endeavored
to remove suspicion from himself by the arrest and
zealous prosecution of his accomplices. The leading
conspirators were crucified, and punishments of
greater or less severity were inflicted upon the others.
The double traitor, Ziyad-Ibn-Aflah, with brazen
effrontery, assisted at the trial and voted for the
condemnation of his former associates.
Aware that his liberal views on the subject of
religion, and the philosophical studies with which he
frequently occupied his leisure, had created against
him a feeling which was largely responsible for the
recent conspiracy, and which might eventually be pro-
ductive of more serious disorders, Ibn-abi-Amir de-
termined to make some concessions to the prejudices
of the theologians. The broad toleration of the two
former reigns, when skepticism was fashionable and
the cultivation of philosophy general and popular,
had been followed by a reaction. The influence of
the Malikites had been re-established, and it was easy
for these fanatics to excite popular odium against
any one suspected of entertaining heretical opinions.
When the obnoxious individual filled a post of emi-
nence in the state, a hint from a faqui might be
equivalent to a sentence of death. The native shrewd-
710 History of the

ness of Ibn-abi-Amir suggested a means of counter-

acting this danger. Having carefully selected the
theologians of the capital most notorious for their
intolerance, he invited them to the palace and
solemnly informed them that the presence of the
philosophical and scientific worksin the library of
Al-Hakem was a great burden upon his conscience,
and requested purging the collec-
their assistance in
tion of books treating of subjectswhose study was
not sanctioned by the Koran. Conducted into the
immense library whose shelves were covered with the
literary treasures of Europe and Asia, the bigoted
enemies of learning entered upon their task with
alacrity. The collection was examined in detail, and
the works known or suspected to be tainted with
heterodox sentiments were consigned to the flames.
The distinguished penitent improved the occasion to
offer an edifying exhibition of zeal by personally
assisting in the destruction of the proscribed volumes.
History has failed to acquaint us with the magni-
tude of this loss. It must have been important, how-
ever, even if due allowance be made for the ignorance
of the muftis and f aquis, who had but slight knowl-
edge of any save theological literature, and whose in-
dustry must have been sorely taxed by the laborious
scrutiny of six hundred thousand volumes. Hence-
forth no one ventured to question the orthodoxy of
the minister. He patronized with marked partiality
all members of the religious profession; flattered
their pride by his attention to their prosy discourses:
won their affection by his liberality; elicited their
praise by his denmiciation of infidels. He
demon-
strated that the skill of his youth had not departed
from him by the production of a beautiful copy of
the Koran, written entirely by his own hand, which
he never suffered to leave his person, and constantly
perused in public with such apparent unction that all
 Moorish Empire in Europe 711

who beheld him were greatly impressed with this

remarkable display of devotion.
Moshafi having been disposed of, it was now the
turn of Ghalib. The powerful interest of Ibn-abi-
Amir with the Sultana and the nobles which had
raised him to the rank of ha jib placed him on a politi-
cal equality with his father-in-law. The latter was
constantly at variance with his associate, whom he con-
sidered as his inferior, but whose ascendency in the
conduct of the administration he was nevertheless
forced to acknowledge. The annoyance Ibn-abi-
Amir suffered from these disputes, and the fact that
Ghalib was now the sole obstacle interposed between
his ambition and the practical sovereignty of the em-
pire, led him to begin without delay the scheme which
he had devised for the overthrow of his colleague.
The first, and indeed the indispensable, requisite of
success was the control of the army. The power of
the audacious minister, which was dreaded by every
civil functionary of the khalif ate, virtually ended at
the outposts of the nearest garrison. The soldiery
knew him only as a kadi; and while he had behaved
with credit in more than one engagement, and had
established a namefor generosity, his military repu-
tation and popularity hadso far proved to be neither
brilliant nor enduring. The attachment of the sol-
diers centred in Ghalib. They had shared together
the hardships and the glory of many arduous cam-
paigns. Their interests had long been identical, and

any demonstration involving the honor or the safety

of the general would have been resisted by the entire
military force of the monarchy. The army consisted
mainly of Arabs, the Berbers enlisted by Abd-al-
Rahman III. having been gradually disbanded and
natives of the Peninsula substituted for them under
Al-Hakem. The partiality of their commander had
indulged them in frequent and serious infractions
712 History of the

of discipline. Their equipment was not uniform, and

was often defective. The awkwardness of the horse-
men was the jest of foreigners. In many respects
the organization of the various corps did not differ
from that of a disorderly and inefficient militia.
The experience acquired by Ibn-abi-Amir during
his sojourn in Africa had convinced him of the ex-
cellence of the Mauritanian cavalry, whose reputa-
tion indeed dated from the First Punic War. The
Spanish posts in that country had been abandoned,
with the exception of Ceuta, and the protectorate
formerly exercised by the khalif removed. In con-
sequence of this measure, and there being no central
power to restrain the Berbers, the entire region be-
came at once a prey to anarchy. At the time the
minister was planning a thorough reorganization of
the army, intelligence was conveyed to him by the
governor of Ceuta that a considerable detachment of
Berbers, who had been worsted in a recent battle
and were absolutely impoverished, had appealed to
him for protection, which he had temporarily afforded
them. The pleasure of the government was requested
respecting the final disposition of these refugees.
The order was immediately sent to propose to them
enlistment in the army of the khalifate. The offer
was accepted without and the inhabitants
hesitation,
of Algeziras beheld with consternation and disgust
the disembarkation of a horde of ferocious warriors
clothed in rags and mounted on horses whose skeleton
forms seemed hardly capable of sustaining even the
weight of their emaciated riders. But the sagacious
ha jib, who recognized in these uncouth barbarians the
formidable instruments of a soaring ambition, enter-
tained his royal hospitality. The
new proteges with
finest arms and horses were furnished them. Their
boundless rapacity was gratified by every concession
that insolence could demand or prodigality afford.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 718

The famished bandit, who had lately roamed the

desert without shelter, now revelled in the luxuries
of a palace. The servile dependent who a few months
before had trembled at the voice of some vagabond
sheik was now the master of a hundred slaves. The
news of this astonishing good fortune was speedily-
transmitted to Africa. Thousands of volunteers ap-
plied for admission to the service of so generous a
patron. The object of Ibn-abi-Amir was accom-
plished, and with secret exultation he saw placed
at his absolute disposal a powerful body of troops,
whose allegiance was due to himself alone, who knew-
and cared nothing for patriotic sentiment, and who
were practically isolated from the existing military
system. His efforts, however, were not confined to
the enlistment of Berber mercenaries. From the
opposite quarter of the compass, from a region and
a nation where one would least suspect a disposition
to serve under the banners of Islam, his army re-
ceived important accessions. It does not appear that
before the reign of Hischem any systematic attempt
was made to attract to the service of the khalifate
the Christians of the North, whose hostility to their
neighbors was hereditary and instinctive, dictated as
well by motives of patriotism as by the prejudices
and the distorted maxims of their religion. The civil
wars of fifty years; the uncertain allegiance claimed
by a succession of known usurpers and legal sover-
eigns of suspicious title; the arrogance of the priest-
hood, which claimed ascendency over the crown, had
destroyed the unity and absorbed the limited pecuni-
ary resources of the kingdoms of Northern Spain.
The population had increased, while the means of
subsistence had been constantly diminishing. The
insecurity of property discouraged agriculture in a
land where untiring industry was at all times indis-
pensable to procure the most common necessaries of
714 History of the

life. The country was overrun by armed men, who

did not hesitate, when occasion demanded, to rudely
strip the unfortunate peasant of the hard-earned
fruits of his labor. The lofty stature and extraor-
dinary strength of these mountaineers, their un-
equalled powers of endurance, their bravery and their
steadiness in battle, rendered them most desirable
recruits. The emissaries of Ibn-abi-Amir experienced
no difficulty in convincing them of the benefits they
would receive by a change of masters. consider- A
able detachment repaired to Cordova and entered the
army of the Khalif The minister treated them with
.

even greater indulgence than he had shown to the

Africans. They received double pay. They were
lodged in palatial quarters. They were magnificently
armed and mounted, and provided with every attain-
able comfort and luxury. The partiality of the hajib
for these favorite mercenaries sometimes even caused
him to depart from the equity which had heretofore
characterized his judicial conduct. In the controver-
sies he was called upon, from time to time, to settle
between his Moslem subjects and his Christian guards,
his decisions were almost invariably rendered in favor
of the latter. The effects of this politic course soon
became apparent. The Castilians and Navarrese, like
the Berbers, volunteered in larger numbers than could
be accommodated. Only picked men were accepted
by the recruiting officers; and a corps was formed
which, for physical strength, perfection of armament,
and excellence of discipline, had not its counterpart
in Europe.
While Ibn-abi-Amir was day by day, tighten-
thus,
ing his
grasp upon and the civil
military departments
of the government, he was, at the same time, gradually
undermining the support and weakening the power
of his rival. The custom of tribal organization, in-
herited from the pre-Islamic era, still prevailed in the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 715

army. Members of the same tribe, commanded by

chiefs of theirown kindred, were mustered into the
service together. In numerous instances, by inter-
marriage with individuals of other races, the chain of
relationship had been broken. Clannish prejudice
had, however, survived the record of genealogies, for
many were found enrolled among the various tribes
who evidently had not the remotest claim to such asso-
ciation. The policy of Ibn-abi-Amir was directed to
the final abrogation of these ancient distinctions. The
Arabs were distributed among the strongest divisions
of the Berber and Christian mercenaries. By this
means their, identity was lost amidst a crowd of for-
eigners ignorant alike of their customs, their tradi-
tions, and, not infrequently, of their language. The
favorite troops of Ghalib were, by this means, quietly
and expeditiously scattered beyond the hope of reor-
ganization. The discipline of the army was sedu-
lously improved. Officers were appointed to com-
mand whose first qualification was devotion to the
personal interests of the hajib, and whose second was
based upon their experience in war and their repu-
tation for courage. Military regulations were en-
forced with such severity that even the accidental
exposure of a sword during parade was punished with
death.
Having to his entire satisfaction obtained control
of the army, Ibn-abi-Amir now proposed to himself
the audacious project of placing and retaining the
youthful Khalif in a condition of perpetual tutelage.
His mother, over whom the minister still retained his
ascendency, strange to relate, willingly lent her aid
to the accomplishment of this nefarious design. The
talents of the young prince, at that time about fifteen
years old, are stated by contemporaneous writers to
have been far above mediocrity. Under favorable
circumstances, it is possible that he might have become
716 History of the

a ruler not inferior to the most distinguished of his

line. But, unhappily, every effort was exerted to
dwarf his intellect and impair his physical powers.
He was kept in strict seclusion in the palace of Me-
dina-al-Zahra. His teachers were removed, and his
education systematically neglected. It was constantly
inculcated upon him that his chief duties as a monarch
were the diligent perusal of the Koran and the distri-
bution of alms. His body was emaciated, and his
intellectual faculties weakened, by the frequent and

protracted fasts which his religious advisers enjoined.

These regulations, sufficiently injurious to both the
body and the mind of youth, were not to be com-
pared in their destructive effects with the sensual
excesses encouraged by the temptations of the harem.
In its retired and mysterious apartments everything
was favorable to the prococious development of the
passions. Crowds of beautiful slaves constantly sur-
rounded him, and performed for his amusement the
licentious dances of the East. The rarest perfumes
diffused their intoxicating odors through the dimly-
lighted apartments. Here, safe from the frowning
glances of faqui and santon, could be quaffed, to the
point of repletion and insensibility, the delicious wines
of Spain. The attendants received peremptory in-
structions to lose no opportunity of corrupting and
brutalizing their helpless charge. In consequence, the
unfortunate Hischem was degraded by the habitual
practice of the most revolting vices. His prematurely
failing powers were at first stimulated by aphrodisiacs.
His virility was afterwards permanently impaired by
drugs administered for that purpose by eunuchs in
the pay of the minister. With the advance of the
prince in years, the conditions and diversions of child-
hood remained unchanged. The same toys amused his
idle moments. The same devotional exercises were
daily enforced by his spiritual guides. His world was
 Moorish Empire in Europe 717

bounded by the walls of the palace, within which no

one unauthorized by the ha jib could enter. Alert and
observant spies reported his most trivial speeches, his
most puerile actions. It was gravely suggested to
him that the burden of public affairs was too weighty
for his shoulders; that the favor of God the object
of every true Mussulman was most easily secured
by devotional exercises; and that the administration
of the government should be confided to others who
could assume the responsibilities, without compromis-
ing the future hopes, of the Commander of the Faith-
ful. The Khalif's voluntary acceptance of these
propositions and especially of the last one was pro-
claimed far and wide by the omnipresent agents of
the ha jib. But the latter, despite his apparent as-
surance, knew only too well the desperate game he
was playing. He was familiar with the uncertainty
of popular favor and the prodigious energy suddenly
developed by revolutions. His secret enemies, many
of them able and determined men, swarmed alike in
the literary professions and among the populace of
the capital. The isolation of the Khalif was com-
plete, but the treachery of a sentinel or the venality
of a slave might, at any time, mature a conspiracy or
effect the liberation of the royal prisoner. In either
of these contingencies, the life of the minister would
not be worth a moment's purchase were he found
within the walls of Medina-al-Zahra. Impressed with
this fact, he secured a large estate east of Cordova,
and erected there a residence which united the twofold
advantage of castle and palace, and to which he gave
the name of Zahira. The place was of great strength,
and could accommodate a numerous garrison. When
it was completed, Ibn-abi-Amir removed there all the

public records, and in its halls were henceforth framed

the edicts which, issued in the Khalif's name, gave
law to the people of the Peninsula. Buildings were
718 History of the

erected for the convenience of the great officials of

the government, and Zahira soon acquired the inhabi-
tants and assumed the appearance of a city. The
employees of the court, the personal adherents of the
minister, and the herd of parasites who infested the
purlieus of every palace, together with a multitude
of tradesmen and artificers, took up their residence in
the neighborhood and an idea may be formed of the
;

extent of Zahira when it is remembered that, although

the residence of Ibn-abi-Amir was twelve miles from
Cordova, the gardens of its environs reached to the
banks of the Guadalquivir immediately opposite the
capital, of which it, in fact, formed one of the most
attractive suburbs.
Of this villa a story is told by the Arab historians
which illustrates at once the wealth, the profusion, and
the love of ostentation so prominent in the character
of the Oriental. With a view of impressing the
envoys of the King of Navarre with his power and
opulence, the ha jib ordered a great lake in the gar-
dens of Zahira to be planted with water-lilies. Into
each of the flowers, during the night, he caused to be
placed a gold or silver coin, large numbers of which
he had ordered struck especially for that purpose.
The weight of the precious metals required was two
hundred pounds. At the audience, which took place
at sunrise, in addition to the grand civil and military
display usual on such occasions, a body of eunuchs,
a thousand in number and equally divided, stood on
each side of the throne. All were dressed in white
silk. The robes of five hundred were embroidered
with gold, those of the others with silver. Sashes of
gold or silver tissue encircled their waists, and each
carried a gold or silver tray. As the first rays of the
sun lighted up the splendors of the scene, the eunuchs
moved forward with military precision, gathered the
lilies, and emptied their precious contents at the feet
 Moorish Empire in Europe 719

of their master in a great heap of glittering coin.

The effect of this exhibition upon the simple moun-
taineers of Navarre may be imagined. The reputa-
tion of the ha jib's resources, already great, was mag-
nified a hundred-fold. Mystified by the apparent
prodigy, the ambassadors reported to their king that
even the earth and the water surrendered their hidden
treasures at the command of the omnipotent Moham-
medan ruler.
While the astute and politic Ibn-abi-Amir was per-
fecting his arrangements to secure absolute control
of the empire, he treated Ghalib with far more than
ordinary consideration. He exhibited towards him,
on all occasions, the most distinguished courtesy. He
deferred to his opinion on questions of minor im-
portance. He humbly solicited his advice when satis-
fied that its acceptance would not interfere with the

accomplishment of his plans. But the shrewd old

soldier was not to be imposed upon by those flattering
evidences of esteem and attachment. Intensely loyal
to the House of Ommeyah, he had seen with disgust
and apprehension the restraint of the Khalif and the
usurpation of his prerogatives. He had viewed with
scarcely less dismay the inordinate ambition of his
colleague and the predominance to which he had
attained.
While he did not at first perceive the ultimate
effect of the reorganization of the military service,
the disbanding and transfer to distant and widely
separated provinces of those divisions most attached
to his person, as well as the incorporation of his
favorites into the corps of foreign mercenaries, finally
opened his eyes to the consequences of the policy of
his son-in-law. But it was then too late. The mis-
chief had already been accomplished. The indigna-
found vent in ineffectual
tion of the general at first

reproaches. At length, during an expedition into the

720 History of the

enemy's country, while the two ministers were recon-

noitring from the summit of a tower, after a violent
quarrel Ghalib drew his sword and attacked his asso-
ciate. The latter, taken by surprise, saw no other way
to avoid instant death but by precipitating himself
from the battlements. His flowing robes caught on a
projection and saved his life. The incensed rivals
separated with threats of mutual defiance; war was
at once declared between them; and the diminished
forces of Ghalib were strengthened by a considerable
number of horsemen furnished by the King of Leon.
The operations of the campaign were at first inde-
cisive,but Ghalib, having exposed himself recklessly
in an engagement, was killed; his followers were
seized with a panic, and the victory remained with
his fortunate adversary.
Ibn-abi-Amir was now the sole master of the Khal-
ifate of the West. By sheer force of character, by
dauntless resolution, by tireless energy, he had real-
ized his most cherished aspirations. Without friends
or the important aid of family connections, he had
obtained and had already long exercised a prepon-
derating influence in the state. His adroitness and
liberality had organized a numerous faction and a
formidable army, both of which served his personal
interests with unswerving loyalty. The nominal
sovereign of the country was virtually his servant.
The entire machinery of government, with its treas-
ures, the appointments of its officers, the distribution
of its rewards, the infliction of its punishments, the
supervision of its civil policy, the conduct of its cam-
paigns, was in his hands. Such was the exalted posi-
tion attainedby the former unknown and impecunious
student of the University, who had managed to ob-
tain an uncertain livelihood by writing petitions for
applicants for royal favor, many of whom were now
his official subordinates. Through the changes of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 721

many eventful years, amidst the perils, the trials, the

excitements, the triumphs, that attended his ascent to
greatness, he had never forgotten the scene in the
garden, where, encouraged by the hilarity of his com-
panions, he had expressed what they considered chi-
merical ideas of future power and distinction. Soon
after the death of Ghalib had left him free to indulge
his arbitrary inclinations, he caused his four collegiate

acquaintances, who had participated in the festivities

of that now memorable occasion, to be brought before
him. Three received from the hands of the minister
himself the commissions conferring those employ-
ments which they had in merriment solicited; the
fourth, after having been sternly reprimanded for
the unprovoked insult he had inflicted in return for
a proffered honor, was deprived of all his possessions,
and led forth by slaves to perform the public and
degrading penance which he himself had voluntarily
prescribed.
The restraints imposed upon Hischem were now
increased in severity. Formerly he had, at rare in-
tervals,been permitted to show himself to his subjects,
but the jealousy of Ibn-abi-Amir could no longer
tolerate this indulgence, and the Khalif was hence-
forth condemned to absolute seclusion in the palace
of Medina-al-Zahra. Even when he performed his
devotions in public he was heavily veiled, and re-
mained in the royal gallery until the last of the
worshippers had left the mosque. He was not even
permitted to enter the walls of his own capital, embel-
lished with the wealth, and rendered illustrious by the
renown, of a dynasty of great sovereigns who had
been his kinsmen, whose name and titles he had in-
herited, but whose power he was destined never to
enjoy. His name was mentioned in the khotba, or
prayer, offered on Fridays in the mosques; it ap-
of the hajib,
peared on the coins side by side with that
Voi,. I. 46
722 History of the

and was embroidered on the skirt of his robes; but

these were the only surviving evidences of the exist-
ence and the authority of the last of the Ommeyades.
In the new and radical policy which Ibn-abi-Amir
had inaugurated with respect to the army, he was far
from being actuated by purely selfish motives. He
understood thoroughly the inconstant and restless
nature of the population which he ruled. Experience
had repeatedly shown the perilous conditions arising
from a protracted peace. The Koran enjoined per-
petual war against the infidel. Such a crusade was
popular with all classes, with the theologians, whose
religious animosities it gratified; with the merchants,
whose trade it increased and whose coffers it
replen-
ished with the nobility, to whom it opened an avenue
;

to military distinction; with the soldiery, who were

attracted by the prospect of unlimited plunder.
Every year, from the date of his association with
Ghalib in the administration, Ibn-abi-Amir had pro-
claimed the Djihad, and had himself taken part in
two expeditions against the Christians. To this policy,
whose expediency was indisputable, he publicly de-
clared his intention to adhere. The people heard the
announcement with exultation. The f aquis applauded
the piety of the hajib with a fervor which they
scarcely vouchsafed to the deeds of the saints who
filled the Moslem calendar. The constant employ-
ment of a large number of troops in hostile operations
was a substantial guaranty against revolution. With
this potent safeguard, the dangers of sedition were
no longer to be apprehended. The passions and the
energy of the nation were to be expended in a war
beyond the borders of the monarchy. But still an-
other consideration influenced the mind of the great
statesman. He was zealously solicitous for the honor,
profoundly ambitious for the glory, of his country.
He desired to extend her frontiers; to recover the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 723

territory that had been conquered from or basely

yielded by her sovereigns, as well as to chastise her
blaspheming enemies.
Of number of the fifty-two campaigns
the greater
directedby Ibn-abi-Amir, the chroniclers of the time
have left us no record. Many of them, doubtless,
were mere marauding expeditions; but all were uni-
formly and signally successful. Not the slightest
reverse dimmed the lustre of a single triumph. With
each year the limits of the Christian kingdoms became
more and more contracted, until they barely reached
the southern slopes of the mountains.
Beyond,
stretching away to the Moslem border, was a scene
of desolation, where once waving crops and verdant
pastures met the eye. The presence of an occasional
pile of blackened ruins was the only indication that
the country had ever been inhabited. So complete was
this devastation that the plains of Leon and Castile
have not yet recovered from its effects. The forests
then cut down have never been replanted. The curse
of sterility, and the freezing winds that sweep over
this cheerless region, seem to discourage the
hope that
it will ever
regain its former productiveness. The
incessant march of the Moorish armies for a quarter
of a century obliterated every sign of animal and
vegetable life.
The of Ibn-abi-Amir was aroused by the reflec-
ire
tion that the King of Leon, despite the admonitions
he had received, had dared to assist his rival Moshafi,
and, bent on revenge, he made preparations for the
most important expedition which had under his com-
mand ever invaded the Christian territory. The
strong city of Zamora, defended by seven mighty
walls and seven moats, was taken by storm. Four
thousand of the enemy were butchered, and as many
more led into captivity. A thousand settlements, sur-
7-ounded bv evidences of the thrift of an industrious
724 History of the

peasantry, were given to the flames. A considerable

number of monasteries and convents were destroyed,
and their inmates delivered to the Berbers to be in-
sulted and tortured with every device of ruthless bar-
barity. Realizing their common danger, the Kings
of Leon and Navarre formed a defensive alliance with
the Count of Castile, and ventured to resist the
progress of the Moslems. The hostile armies met at
Rueda, not far from Simancas. A great battle took
place; the Christians were completely routed, and
victors and vanquished entered Simancas together.
No quarter was shown by the infuriated Saracens.
Every Christian who fell into their power was put
to the sword. Winter was at hand, but Ibn-abi-Amir,
who understood the necessity of following up a vic-
tory, without heeding cold or tempest, moved on
Leon. The city, reduced to extremity, was about to
yield, when the intolerable hardships of the season,
which was one of unusual severity, compelled a
retreat.
After the capture of Simancas, the enthusiastic
soldiery conferred upon their commander the appela-
tion of Al-Mansur, The Victorious. This name, by
which the hajib was afterwards universally designated,
was, in imitation of the custom of the khalifs, ac-
cepted by him as a title of honor. With its adoption
he arrogated to himself many other tokens of dis-
tinction hitherto considered the exclusive privileges
of royalty. His titles were woven in golden letters
on the hem of his garments. His name was associated
with that of Hischem in the khotba. Of all who
approached him the most servile obeisance was exacted.
New and oppresssive regulations were added to the
already complicated ceremonial of the court. The
marks and requirements of homage extended to every
member of the ha jib's family, even to infants in the
cradle. None of the monarchs who inherited the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 725

sceptre of Moorish Spain had ever enforced rules of

this kind with equal severity, or had environed their

persons with such a net-work of formal and frivolous

etiquette. While the neglect of these ceremonies was
followed by exemplary punishment, the least dispar-
agement of the motives or the conduct of the minister
was a mortal offence. Giafar, Prince of Zab, who
commanded the first troop of Berbers enlisted in the
service of Al-Mansur, actuated by envy, permitted
himself to publicly criticise the policy of the ha jib.
The latter smiled but said nothing when the offensive
language of the Mauritanian chieftain, whom he had
loaded with favors, was reported to him. A
magnifi-
cent banquet was soon afterwards given at Zahira,
where Giafar was distinguished by the favor and
courtesy of Al-Mansur above all who were present.
The precepts of the law were ignored in these fes-
tivities; the richest wines flowed in profusion; and
Giafar, while he was being conducted to his residence
in a state of helpless intoxication, was waylaid and

pierced with the daggers of assassins employed for

that purpose by the minister.
The kingdoms of Christian Spain, none of which,
in the tenth century, could aspire to the importance
of a modern principality, and which were always at
variance with each other, habitually disregarded the
vital principle of unity that alone could insure their

preservation. A rivalry which, under the circum-

stances, was suicidal flourished even in the presence
of the Saracen armies. The mutual hatred engen-
dered by provincial prejudice was incredibly intense
and bitter. The pride of nationality, the spirit of
patriotism, were unknown. Each state labored to
defeat the undertakings of the others, no matter how
meritorious was their object. The seal of the Church
was branded upon all laws and political institutions.
The predominating ecclesiastical element still enacted
726 History of the

statutes, elected kings, taxes, commanded

levied
armies. Leon was seriously weakened by intestine
quarrels. The nobles were constantly aspiring to the
throne, and raising up a succession of incompetent
pretenders. The powerful appanage of Castile had
been permanently alienated from the crown, and en-
joyed a nominal independence without the resources
to maintain its lofty pretensions. Many of the
bravest warriors of the North had been tempted by
promises of high pay and abundant booty to re-
nounce their allegiance, and were now serving under
the standard of the khalifate. With the successes of
the Moslems, and the diminution of their own terri-
tory, the mutual distrust of the Christian princes in-
creased,and their isolation from each other became
more and more complete. Their domestic feuds and
irreconcilable antipathies induced them, in turn, to
solicit the aid of their natural enemies, a measure
which led to the imposition of tribute and the acknowl-
edgment of vassalage. The city of Cordova was
filled with Christian exiles, who
continually impor-
tuned the government to embrace the cause of their
several factions against their kindred and their coun-
trymen. Some of the most serious and fatal revolu-
tions which disturbed the peace of the northern states
were traceable to this source, and to the intrigues of
proscribed adventurers whose designs it was mani-
festly the interest of the Moslems to promote. The
difficulties which beset the youth and inexperience of
Ramiro III., King of Leon, caused him to appeal to
the court of Cordova for support against the usurper
Bermudo, who had deprived him of his capital and
his crown. In return for the desired assistance, the
dethroned King announced his willingness to become
the feudatory of the Khalif Before the treaty was
.

concluded, however, Ramiro died. The partisans of

the latter were numerous and powerful; the color of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 727

right as well as superiority of title would invest any

candidate whom they might select; and Bermudo
determined to anticipate their designs, follow the
unwqrthy example of his deceased rival, and, by the
sacrifice of his personal honor and the independence
of his country, retain a portion of the authority he
had illegally acquired. The humiliating concessions
demanded by Al-Mansur were acquiesced in without
hesitation by the cowardly usurper homage was ren-
;

dered to the hajib as suzerain; and, menaced by the

presence of a Moslem army, the kingdom of Leon,
every foot of which had been won from the infidels
at an immense sacrifice of life and valor, for the third
time since its conquest by the Asturians descended to
the position of a tributary principality.
Having reduced the kingdoms of the North to such
a condition of helplessness that he had nothing to
fear from Al-Mansur now directed his
their hostility,
attention towards a country which had long enjoyed
immunity from Moslem invasion. The County of
Catalonia, while a nominal appanage of France, was
ruled by its chief magistrate with all the attributes
of despotic sovereignty. The weakness or the appre-
hensions of former khalifs had deterred them from
provoking a contest which might bring upon them,
in addition to their domestic foes, the united forces
of the French monarchy. These fears, however, were
ill founded. The provinces of that kingdom, like
those of Christian Spain, were a prey to internal
discord. The society of France was in a state of
transition. A
bitter contest was raging between
feudal pretensions and royal prerogative. The crown
had no resources to squander in the defence of a dis-
tant and unprofitable dependency, and the haughty
nobles would have resisted an attempt to levy troops
for a campaign of doubtful issue beyond the Pyre-
nees. All these facts were known to Al-Mansur,
728 History of the

whose spies infested every court in Europe. His

resolution formed, the minister caused the Holy War
to be proclaimed against the Catalans. It was the
twenty-third expedition of his reign. Elated by the
hope of fresh victories, volunteers responded by thou-
sands. A greatarmy was mustered, which was met
on the frontier by the Catalan troops commanded by
Count Borel in person. An engagement took place,
but the Christians, long unaccustomed to war, could
not stand before the veterans of the khalifate. They
were defeated with serious loss, and, five days after-
wards, Barcelona was stormed and delivered over to
pillage. Of the inhabitants few escaped death or
captivity excepting the Jews, those constant sym-
pathizers with the Moslems, who, early recognizing
the advantageous situation of Barcelona, had settled
there in large numbers, had accumulated vast for-
tunes, had risen to unrivalled eminence in the knowl-
edge and practice of medicine, and had founded com-
mercial establishments whose interests were protected
and whose influence was acknowledged in every
country of the globe. The Count preserved the re-
mainder of his dominions from "a similar fate by the
payment of an immense ransom. This dearly-pur-
chased immunity proved the salvation of Eastern
Spain, which, unable to withstand the attacks of the
Moslems, and entirely without hope of foreign aid,
must otherwise have been eventually added to the
realm of Islam.
Turning his piercing glance towards every point of
the compass where a victory could be gained or an
enemy humiliated, Al-Mansur now determined to in-
terfere once more in the affairs of Africa. In that
country the partisans of the House of Ommeyah,
after many vicissitudes, had once more regained the
ascendency. But scarcely was this result accom-
plished, when Ibn-Kenun, the last prince of the Edri-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 729

sitedynasty, who, at his own request, had been sent to

Tunis by Al-Hakem, on condition that he would never
again set foot on his ancient domain, appeared to
assert his claims as hereditary sovereign of Mauri-
tania. For ten years he had been the guest of the
Fatimite Khalif of Egypt, whose real or pretended
descent from a common ancestor afforded a specious
pretext for granting the exile protection. Overcome
by his importunities, the Sultan had at length con-
sented to assist his troublesome kinsman to regain his
throne. Negotiations were entered into with the Ber-
bers. The Egyptian monarch furnished a consider-
able sum of money and a detachment of soldiers, and
Ibn-Kenun was received by his former subjects with
every manifestation of loyalty. The Ommeyade
cause speedily declined; its partisans were put to
flight in repeated skirmishes; their strongholds
fell
into the hands of the enemy, and the dreadful pros-

pect of African invasion once more confronted the

inhabitants of the Peninsula.
It was the intelligence of these disasters, received
at Barcelona, which, far more than the great ransom
offered by Count Borel, determined Al-Mansur to
relinquish the conquest of Catalonia. A
division of
the victorious army, commanded by Askaledja, cousin
of the ha jib, disembarked at Ceuta before Ibn-Kenun
knew that Al-Mansur intended to oppose him. The
Edrisite prince was beaten, and surrendered under
condition of a safe-conduct to Cordova, with permis-
sion to make that city his future residence. But in
the signing of this convention the self-esteem of the
Saracen general had permitted him to exceed his
authority. The dangerous character of Ibn-Kenun,
as well as considerations of public safety, demanded
the adoption of a less indulgent policy towards such
an inveterate foe of the khalif ate. The agreement of
Askaledja was repudiated by Al-Mansur, and Ibn-
730 History of the

Kenun, having been brought a prisoner to Algeziras,

was beheaded without ceremony. This flagrant dis-
regard of a solemn treaty, a deed which not only im-
pugned the honor of the ha jib's lieutenant but was
branded as a horrible sacrilege, caused great dissatis-
faction throughout Andalusia. The victim was one
of the descendants of Ali, regarded by a numerous
sect as the incarnation of divinity, and revered by a

majority of believers throughout the Moslem world.

The indignation of the populace found vent in mur-
murs and menaces. Askaledja, infuriated beyond
measure, went so far as to denounce his superior to
the troops under his command. The maintenance of
order and the requirements of discipline could not
tolerate such an exhibition of insubordination; and
the imprudent officer was promptly arrested for
treason, found guilty, and executed. This act of
justice, although approved by the Divan, only aggra-
vated the popular resentment. The minister once
more realized that the empire he had secured by in-
trigue must be constantly sustained by arms. It was
necessary to divert the attention of the people from
the severe measures indispensable to domestic tran-
quillity to meritorious schemes of foreign conquest.
An opportune pretext for a rupture with the King of
Leon had recently presented itself. The Moorish
force, entertained by Bermudo under pretence of
maintaining his authority, but really to overawe the
usurper and enforce the payment of tribute, had
signalizedits residence among the infidels by the per-

petration of every kind of outrage. It was in vain

that Bermudo remonstrated; his complaints were
received by the government at Cordova with silent
contempt. Then, adopting the only cause possible
under the circumstances, he appealed to the patriotism
of his subjects, assembled an army, and drove out the
obnoxious intruders. The pride of Al-Mansur could
 Moorish Empire in Europe 731

not afford to brook such an insult. A strong body of

Moslems attacked Coimbra, whose remote situation
and distance from the usual field of operations had
hitherto insured its safety. It was taken; its build-
ings were burned and demolished; and for seven
years afterwards the site of this once flourishing city
remained desolate and uninhabited. From Coimbra,
crossing the Douro, the ha jib directed his course
straight to the enemy's capital. Formerly, protected
by its massive fortifications and aided by a winter of
unusual severity, the garrison had been able to defy
his efforts to take it by storm. Leon was the strongest
and most important fortress of the North. Its de-
fences dated from the era of the Roman domination.
Its walls, built by the architects of the Cssars, meas-
ured more than twenty feet in thickness. Lofty towers,
protected by barbicans, rose at frequent intervals of
their extensive circuit, which enclosed houses massed

together and constructed principally of stone. The

gates were bronze and of prodigious weight. They
were hung in portals faced with marble and decorated
with carvings and statues. The citadel was considered
absolutely impregnable. The garrison was numerous,
experienced in military operations, and provided with
every requisite for a protracted defence.
But the city once invested, the impetuosity and reso-
lution of the Moslems disappointed the hopes of the
besieged, who expected that the reverse attending the
former attack would be repeated. The reputation of
Al-Mansur was staked upon the issue. Able officers,
skilled the use of military engines which had
in
descended from Rome and Byzantium, directed the
approaches and superintended the mining of the
walls. The resistance was most obstinate, but, a
breach having finally been made, the veterans of Al-
Mansur rushed to the assault. The governor of the
city, Count Gonzalez, whom severe illness had ren-
732 History of the

dered incapable of action, advised of the progress of

the enemy, ordered his attendants to arm him and
carry him to the front. The exhortations and the
sight of emaciated commander animated the gar-
its

rison to conspicuous but unavailing deeds of valor.

The front ranks of the Christians were broken, and
the Moslems poured into the breach. The governor,
helpless and bleeding, was killed in his litter at the
head of his troops, as became a gallant and intrepid
soldier. Exasperated by the stubborn resistance they
had experienced, the Moslems gave no quarter. The
city, after having been plundered, was razed. The
enormous strength of its defences, the tenacity of the
Roman masonry, constructed to defy alike the slow
action of the elements and the destructive efforts of
man, availed nothing against the systematic havoc of
the implacable Al-Mansur. A solitary tower was left
standing as a specimen of the dimensions of those
fortifications which had been levelled with the ground.
A vast heap of stones and rubbish marked the site of
the Christian capital, where a populous town had
existed from the time of Augustus, when the camp
of the Legio Septima constituted an important fron-
tier outpost of the Roman empire.
The Saracen army in its march to Leon had flanked
Zamora, where Bermudo had taken refuge. Al-
Mansur, on his return, prepared to besiege that city,
and Bermudo took advantage of the prevailing con-
fusion to escape with the remnant of his followers to
Oviedo. Zamora surrendered, and was forthwith
delivered up to the caprices of the licentious soldiery.
Deserted by their monarch, the Leonese nobles hast-
ened to make peace with the conqueror. Most of
them did homage to him for their estates. The re-
mainder, who declined to sacrifice the prejudices of a
lifetime and disobey the admonitions of the Church
for the enjoyment of a temporary
advantage, were
 Moorish Empire in Europe 733

rewarded for their loyalty with oppression and insult.

The territory which remained under the control of
Bermudo at the end of this campaign was less in
extent than that formerly possessed by one of his
inferior vassals.
The absence of Al-Mansur had been improved by
the malcontentswho infested the capital in the for-
mation of a plot which contemplated the assassination
of all of the principal officials of the government, as
well as the Khalif and the partition of the states of
,

the monarchy. Abd-al-Rahman-Ibn-Motarrif, gov-

ernor of the northern frontier, was the originator of
the conspiracy. Abdallah, the oldest son of the minis-
ter, several princes of the blood holding important
commands, and a number of civil and military func-
' ml

tionaries whose positions of trust rendered their com-

plicity the more formidable, were implicated in it.

The spies of Al-Mansur detected this treasonable
enterprise before it was fully matured. The latter,
pursuing the course he ordinarily adopted to disarm
suspicion, at first treated the conspirators with con-
spicuous marks of favor, and then secretly invited
complaints against them for other offences. Nothing
was insinuated of the existence of a plot or of prose-
cutions for treason. Some were condemned for dis-
honesty and appropriation of the public treasure.
Others, among them the son of Al-Mansur, and
another Abdallah, who was of royal lineage and noted
for his avarice, fled to the Christian court for protec-
tion. Garcia Fernandez, Count of Castile, enter-
tained the son of the minister, until the presence of a
great Moslem army admonished him that the privi-
lege of asylum must yield to political necessity. As
soon as the misguided youth fell into the hands of
his father he was beheaded. Then, with exquisite
cruelty, Al-Mansur devised a scheme of retaliation,
which, in spite of its malice, was singularly appropri-
734 History of the

ate. He determined to inflict upon the Count of Cas-

tile himself all the pangs resulting from paternal dis-
appointment and filial ingratitude. He instigated
Sancho, the son of Garcia, to form a party and drive
his father from power. The nobility unanimously
declared for Sancho; a Mussulman force sustained
his pretensions; Al-Mansur seized Clunia and San
Estevan as his share of the spoil; and Garcia, having
been wounded and made captive in a skirmish, died
soon afterwards in the hands of the Saracens. The
perfidy of Sancho was rewarded with the government
of Castile, which he held as a feudatory of the Khalif .

The fugitive King, Bermudo, whose usurpation

had been attended with a series of misfortunes, and
whose dominions had, with the exception of a con-
tracted region of which Astorga was the centre, been
divided between his rebellious vassals and the Moors,
in defiance of the menaces of Al-Mansur, still con-
tinued to afford protection to Abdallah, the only sur-
vivor of the principal conspirators. The approach of
the Mussulman troops and the seizure and sack of
Astorga, convinced the obstinate monarch of the ex-
pediency of submission. Abdallah Avas surrendered,
taken to Cordova, placed upon a camel, and conducted
through the streets of that city, preceded by heralds
who proclaimed him a traitor to his sovereign and an
apostate to his faith. His life was spared, but he
was tortured during the entire administration of Al-
Mansur by being kept in daily fear of execution; a
fate which he endeavored to avert by the most humili-
ating expressions of contrition, and by exhibitions of
grovelling servility which, so far from exciting the
pity of the minister, only increased his contempt.
A new and implacable adversary, and one whose
position placed her beyond the reach of the minister's
vengeance, now arose to defy his power. The Sul-
tana Aurora who united to her amorous suscepti-
 Moorish Empire in Europe 735

bilities the obstinacy and vindictiveness of the

all

Basques, to which race she belonged had for many

years entertained the closest relations with the favorite
whose fortunes she had founded, and whose success
she had so zealously promoted. Their intimacy, even
during the lifetime of Al-Hakem, had been the
scandal of the capital. But the lady, like many of
her sex, was inconstant, and other lovers, including
the kadi Ibn-al-Salim, also stood high in her favor.
As soon as Al-Mansur no longer required her ser-
vices to advance his interests, he had the imprudence
to neglect his haughty mistress. Deeply piqued, she
began to meditate revenge. Her social rank, the
inviolability of her person, and her residence in the
palace gave her advantages which she was not slow
to improve. With all the fiery energy of her nature
she represented to the Khalif the degradation of the
position he had been compelled to assume, and urged
him to assert his rights as a sovereign. Hischem,
who had hitherto evinced no dissatisfaction with his
condition, was roused from his lethargy.Under his
mother's dictation, he made a formal demand on the
minister for the prerogatives which the latter had
usurped. The viceroy of Africa, Ziri-Ibn-Atia, in-
stigated by the agents of the Sultana, rose in rebellion,
and proclaimed himself the supporter of the laws of
the empire and the injured monarch.
champion of its

The ingenuity of Aurora provided her partisans with

an abundant supply of mone}7 The vaults of the
.

palace of Medina-al-Zahra, where was the national

treasury, contained six million pieces of gold. They
were deposited in earthenware jars, sealed with wax
and impressed with the royal signet. The astute
princess removed a hundred of the jars,
whose con-
tents amounted to the sum of eighty thousand dinars,
broke the seals, covered the gold with honey, drugs,
and syrups, and, having attached to each an appro-
736 History of the

priate label, caused them to be conveyed by her slaves

to a palace in the city, whence they were, without
delay, transported to Africa. The rage of Al-
Mansur on finding himself thus outwitted by a woman
was extreme, but it availed him nothing. He could
not venture to offer violence or even reproaches to
the mother of his sovereign whose servant he was in
name. The trend of recent events suggested that
Hischem might have consented that the money be
employed for the recovery of his imperial dignity.
Desirous of obtaining the sanction of law in a matter
of such vital importance, Al-Mansur called the great
officers of state together. To them he represented
that the women of the harem were plundering the
treasury, and requested permission to remove the gold
from the palace. This was readily granted but when
;

the officers exhibited their warrant, they were refused

admission to the vaults, on the plea that the Khali f
had not authorized the removal of the treasure.
Foiled once more, the minister whose genius, fertile
in expedients and undaunted by reverses, never once

despaired of success devised a plan whose audacity

would have appalled a less determined mortal. Per-
fectly familiar with all the approaches to the palace,
he penetrated by a secret passage to the apartments
of the Khalif. His unexpected appearance and
menacing aspect terrified the imbecile prince, who

protested that he had no desire to thwart the designs

of the minister, and, without hesitation, signed an
order for the removal of the gold. The politic Al-
Mansur, at the same time, extorted from him an edict
by which he unreservedly renounced, in favor of the
ha jib, all practical control of the government of the
empire. This explicit and indisputable confirmation
of the authority of the latter at once legalized every act
which he had already committed in a public capacity.
In a measure, it invested his person with the sanctity
 Moorish Empire in Europe 737

that appertained to his master, and rendered all liable

to the penalty of treason whose intemperate language
or whose violence should be directed against the
authorized representative of absolute sovereignty.
An enterprise of surpassing difficulty and danger,
and one which the bravest of the Ommeyade khalifs
had never ventured to undertake, was now planned by
the greatest statesman and warrior of his age. The
shrine of St. James of Compostella was one of the
most renowned for wealth and sanctity in Christen-
dom. In the marvels which had attended its founda-
tion, in thefame of its miracles, in the number and
potency of its sacred relics, in the touching interest at-
taching to its legends, it scarcely yielded to the sacred
traditions of the Eternal City. A
countless multitude
of pilgrims from every country where the name of
the Saviour was revered had for generations deposited
their oblations upon its The modest chapel
altars.
which had marked the of the apostle's grave soon
site
after its discovery during the reign of the pious
Alfonso had been replaced by a stately cathedral of
marble, decorated with all the rude magnificence of
which the decadent art of the age was capable. A
numerous priesthood, the splendor of whose appoint-
ments and the luxury of whose lives indicated a dis-
pensation with the vow of poverty, ministered to the
wants of the pilgrims, and acknowledged, with
affected gratitude and humility, the bestowal of their
donations and the performance of their vows.
The reverence entertained by the Spanish Chris-
James far exceeded that
tians for the sepulchre of St.
with which the most fanatic Mussulman regarded the
Prophet's tomb at Medina. Already, industriously
propagated by monkish imposture and popular cre-
dulity, wondrous tales were whispered of the appear-
ance of the apostle on a milk-white steed at the head
of the Christian squadrons, an infallible harbinger
Vol. I. 47
738 History of the

of victory, and a delusion of ominous import to the

Saracen intruders in the Peninsula. History affords
no parallel to the momentous effects produced by
the adoption of this frivolous legend. The circum-
stances of its origin, which contemptuously violated
every probability of time or place; its universal ac-
ceptance by individuals of every rank in life its sub-
;

sequent extension to the distant lands of an unknown

world; the blind and unquestioning faith with which
the impossible miracles of its subject were received,
offer an eloquent commentary on the boundless in-
fluence of the Catholic hierarchy and the debased
superstition of the age.
The destruction of the church of Santiago was now
the aim of Al-Mansur. The depressing influence
of such a signal triumph over the adversaries of
Islam, it was thought with much reason, would be in-
calculable. The immunity enjoyed by the Christian
sanctuary of Spain was attributed by its votaries to
the protection afforded by the body of the saint, far
more than to the natural difficulties which an enemy
must surmount to reach his shrine. Even could an
invasion occur and the desecration of the cathedral
be threatened, it was firmly believed that the miracu-
lous intervention of Heaven more marked even than
that which deterred the Romans from rebuilding the
temple of Jerusalem would avert such a calamity
from one of the holiest places of the Christian world.
The removal of these impressions, by demonstrating
the incapacity of St. James to defend his own relics,
must certainly weaken the faith of the multitude
in his ability to protect the lives of others. The
prestige derived from the interposition of super-
natural influence would be seriously impaired. The
menacing spectre of the patron of Spain would no
longer inspire the fanaticism of his followers to strike
terror into the Saracen armies. These conclusions of
 Moorish Empire in Europe 739

Al-Mansur, while founded on reason, in the end

proved fallacious. The superstitious veneration,
which, confirmed by blind ignorance and credulity
for centuries, now exercised its power over an entire
people, was too deeply rooted to be more than tem-
porarily affected by the most glaring sacrilege.
The campaign was carefully planned. Every pre-
caution was taken to provide against any possibility
of failure. Marching westward, the several divisions
of Moslem cavalry assembled at Coria. At Oporto
they were joined by the fleet, in which the infantry
had already embarked. A number of Christian vas-
sals, attended by their retainers, responded to the
summons of their suzerain, and lent their reluctant aid
to the injury of their faith and the destruction of their
countrymen. The Douro was crossed upon a bridge
constructed of ships. Roads were cut through rocky
and precipitous mountains. Broad estuaries and
rivers were forded. The country, which had long
suffered from repeated forays, was depopulated, and
could offer no resistance. When the mountains of
Galicia appeared in the distance, the resolution of the
Christian allies faltered. Some of the counts entered
into a secret correspondence with the enemy. Their
designs were betrayed, and a number of Leonese
nobles underwent the extreme penalty of treason.
This salutary example insured the wavering loyalty
of their companions, who henceforth found it expe-
dient to conceal their real sentiments under an appear-
ance of obedience and alacrity.
The region now traversed by the Moslems had
hitherto been safe from their inroads. This circum-
stance, the sacred character of the territory, and the
wealth of the clergy had attracted to the vicinity of
Santiago a large and busy population. Ecclesiastical
establishments abounded. Along the hill-sides were
countless hermitages, shrines, and chapels. Almost
740 History of the

every valley was occupied by a monastery or a con-

vent. The lands susceptible of cultivation were tilled
by slaves or dependents of the religious houses, whose
condition differed little from that of hereditary ser-
vitude. The mansions of the prelates of high rank
exhibited a palatial magnificence, and were not in-
frequently tenanted by occupants of the softer sex,
whose charms of face and figure indicated an appre-
ciation of female beauty hardly to be expected from
their pious companions.
The utter demoralization of the Christian kingdoms
through domestic feuds and incessant warfare, added
to the terror inspired by the name of Al-Mansur, pre-
cluded the possibility of effectual resistance. The
inhabitants, taking with them their portable property
and the bones of their saints and kings, fled to the
mountains or to islands off the sea-coast. Santiago
was completely deserted. The invaders obtained a
rich booty from the shrines of innumerable chapels
and monasteries. Every building in the city, in-
cluding the famous cathedral, was razed to the ground.
The latter was constructed of marble and granite.
Its plan and decoration exhibited the corrupt taste and
barbaric splendor inherited from the Visigoths, whose
faults of design had been aggravated by the native
rudeness of the Galician architects. In front of the
high altar stood the statue of the saint, carved by the
pious but unpractised hand of a Gothic sculptor, and
enclosed in a shrine of massy silver. Every portion
of it except the face was painted or profusely gilded.
One hand clasped a Bible, the other was raised aloft
in the attitude of benediction. The kisses of innumer-
able pilgrims had almost obliterated the coarse and
grotesque features of the image. By its side were
disposed the emblems of the vagrant apostle, the
staff, the calabash, the scallop shells. Its head was
 Moorish Empire in Europe 741

partially enveloped with a hood identical in shape with

that worn by every pilgrim and glittering with jewels.
The statue and the tomb of the apostle escaped
desecration, through the policy of Al-Mansur, who
feared to exasperate his allies, already shocked by
the sacrilegious deeds of their infidel companions in
arms. This forbearance of the Moslem general was
afterwards distorted by the clergy into a stupendous
miracle. The Mauritanian cavalry plundered the
neighboring settlements and intercepted many parties
of fugitives, including not a few ecclesiastics, whose
faith in the supernatural virtues of the image and
the relics of the saint vanished quickly before the
gleaming lances of the Saracen cavalry.
The return of the army to Cordova was signalized
by a military demonstration that rivalled the pomp
of a Roman triumph. In the rear of the troops,
chained together by fifties, thousands of Christian
captives, laden with the spoils and trophies of victory,
trudged painfully along. Some carried the sacrile-
gious plunder of many a venerated shrine. Others
supported upon their shoulders the ponderous gates
of the city of Santiago. Others, again, sank under the
weight of the bells of the cathedral, into whose molten
mass, as yet unformed, pious devotees of either sex
had cast their treasure and their jewels whose clangor
;

had solemnized the installation of many a prelate and

the sepulture of many a saint had aroused the enthu-
;

siasm and the devotion of pilgrims of every clime;

had, until this fatal hour, been heard in a land believed
to be exempt from the outrages of the infidel, but
were now destined to be exhibited in his greatest tem-
ple as tokens of the supremacy attained by the most
implacable foe of Christianity. In the addition to the
Great Mosque, then building under the direction of
Al-Mansur, these souvenirs of the most memorable
campaign undertaken by the arms of the Western
742 History of the

Khalifate were deposited, amidst the frenzied accla-

mations of the people. The gates were used to form
a portion of the ceiling, and from them, sustained by-
chains of bronze, the great bells were hung inverted,
to be utilized as lamps during the ceremonies of the
numerous festivals prescribed by the Moslem ritual.
The career of the Mauritanian rebel Zira-Ibn-Atia,
whom the prodigality of the Sultana Aurora had
enabled to assert his independence, under pretext of
liberating the Khalif was not of long duration. The
,

first army sent over by Al-Mansur to chastise his in-

solence met with disaster. The second, commanded by
his own son, Abd-al-Melik-al-Modhaffer, vanquished
the forces of Zira after a desperate struggle. The
latter, with the loss of his possessions, was also stripped
of his power, and died soon after of wounds received
in battle.
Early of the year 1002 the indefat-
in the spring

igable Al-Mansur again invaded

the territory of the
Christians. This time his hostility was directed
against the shrine of St. Emilian, the patron saint of
Castile, whose church was in the village of Canales.
The town, the chapel, and the convents, with all their
paraphernalia of priestly imposture and superstition,
were destroyed. But the renowned commander, whose
prowess had so long sustained the reputation of the
Moslem arms, had fought his last campaign. A pain-
ful malady, whose cause was unknown, and whose
symptoms baffled the skill of the best physicians of
Cordova, had some months before attacked him. The
exposure and excitement of this expedition increased
its violence. The illustrious sufferer became so weak
that he was forced to travel in a litter. It was evident
from his emaciated form and incessant agony that he
was fast approaching his end. At Medina-Celi the
army halted. Its general could proceed no farther.
A universal feeling of sorrow arose as the sad tidings
 Moorish Empire in Europe 743

of the condition of the dying chieftain spread

throughout the camp.
The memory of the turbulent populace of the capi-
tal, and the consciousness that it had required all the

energy of his determined character to triumph over

his domestic enemies, embittered the last moments of
Al-Mansur. He dreaded the inauguration of anarchy
and the resultant partition of the khalifate. He was
only too well acquainted with the instability of the vast
and magnificent fabric of greatness which his genius
had reared. With a view to preserve as long as pos-
sible for his sons the power he was unable to legally

transmit, he directed Abd-al-Melik to hasten at once

to Cordova and assume command of the garrison. To
his second son, Abd-al-Rahman, he transferred his

authority over the army. Many wise injunctions were

imparted by their dying parent to these two young
officers, whose military character had been formed
under his own eye during many eventful campaigns.
The elder, who was not an unworthy descendant of so
great a sire, profited largely by his opportunities. The
younger, unequal to the task of government, was des-
tined to realize the worst expectations his acquaint-
ances had formed of his erratic and licentious nature.
His instructions ended, the strength of Al-Mansur
gave way, and he received with calm resignation the
inexorable summons of the Angel of Death. For
years he had entertained a presentiment that he
should end his days at the head of his army, perhaps
in the heat of battle. It was not only his hope, but
he made it the subject of his daily petitions, that Al-
lah would vouchsafe to him the glorious privilege of
dying in war against the infidel, thereby to merit
the recompense of martyrdom. In expectation of a
favorable answer to his prayers, the arrangements for
his burial were always ready. His shroud was in-
variably included among the effects of his camp equi-
744 History of the

page. It was of linen made from flax grown on his

paternal estate at Torrox and woven by the hands of
his own daughters. His conscience told him that the
material thus produced and prepared was not tainted
with the bloody reminiscences that popular report in-
sinuated too often attached to his other possessions.
The provident statesman, whose aspirations were not
confined to matters terrestrial, and carrying into his
relations with Allah the same prudence which had
distinguished his earthly career, neglected no precau-
tion to insure his salvation.A well-known text of the
Koran declares that he who appears before the Al-
mighty with the dust of the Holy War upon his feet
shall be exempt from the tortures of eternal fire. To
secure this advantage on the Day of Judgment, Al-
Mansur carried with him in all his campaigns a silver
casket of elegant design, into which, every evening
when the army halted, his attendants carefully col-
lected the dust which had accumulated upon his gar-
ments during the day. Enveloped in the shroud pre-
pared for so many years, and sprinkled with this holy
dust, the body of the great Moslem general was laid
at rest in the city of Medina-Celi.
The character of Mohammed-Ibn-Amir-Al-Man-
sur has already been partially delineated in these
pages. In it both good and evil were unsparingly
mingled. Beyond measure shrewd, politic, audacious,
and resolute, he was an adept in instigating others
to the commission of discreditable acts by which he
profited, while his instruments alone endured the
odium attaching to them. By the irresistible force of
intellect he had risen from obscurity to the enjoyment
of imperial power. No act of wanton cruelty ever pol-
luted his administration. Yet such was his firmness
and the fear in which he was held that no sedition
during his ascendency disturbed the peace of the khali-
f ate. His conduct on all occasions where his personal
 Moorish Empire in Europe 745

interests were not immediately concerned was, for the

most part, guided by the principles of equity. His
own son was sacrificed to the maintenance of public
order. The deeds of violence and tyranny for which
he was so grossly abused were the results of political
necessity, measures suggested by the pressing exi-
gencies of the occasion, and dictated by the instinct
of self-preservation. Born in a comparatively humble
rank of life, his matrimonial alliances were sought by
princes. The daughters of Bermudo, King of the
Asturias, and Sancho, King of Navarre, were inmates
of his harem. Despite his talents as a statesman and
his long series of military triumphs, his popularity was

superficial, and his position was maintained

with diffi-
culty. He was everywhere designated by
the signifi-
"
cant and opprobrious nickname of The Fox." His
old literary associates envied and maligned him. The
courtiers were jealous of his rapidly acquired fame,
and sedulously depreciated his abilities. The eunuchs
justly attributed to his agency the impairment of
him in detestation
their political fortunes, and held
as the relentless enemy of their caste. The aris-

tocracy sneered at his pretensions and privately de-

nounced him as an insolent parvenu. The fanatical
populace repeated his alleged atheistic speeches with
pious horror, a feeling which even his ostentatious
charity and apparently strict observance of the duties
of a faithful Mussulman could not counteract. In-
consistent with the encouragement of literature, as
the narrow policy which delivered the scientific works
of the library of Al-Hakem to the tender mercies of
ignorant bigots would seem to indicate, Al-Mansur
was, nevertheless, a munificent patron of letters. His
house was so frequented by men of genius and literary
proclivities that
it was compared to an academy. He
often visited the University, listened to the lectures
of the teachers, and rewarded the proficiency of the
746 History of the

students. By his express orders the recitations were

not suspended either at his entrance or his departure.

Many of the most accomplished scholars of the East

and West continued under his auspices, as they had
done under those of Al-Hakem, to adorn the court,
and to delight with their learning the critical and fas-
tidious society of Cordova. A
special fund, appro-
priated from the public treasury, was assigned for the
support of these distinguished guests of the State.
Famous grammarians, poets, and historians, who
found this a lucrative field for the exercise of their
talents, took up their residence in the capital. The
reputations of the physicians and surgeons of Anda-
lusia, now greater than ever, had long since spread
to the remotest borders of Europe. Whenever Al-
Mansur undertook an expedition, there followed in
his train a number of bards and chroniclers, who could
without delay record his achievements, and celebrate
in the most stirring and pathetic strains of which the

poesy of the Desert was capable the valor, the gen-

erosity, the piety, of the renowned champion of the
Moslem faith. Forty-one of the most accomplished
literary men of the empire accompanied the army for
this purpose during the Catalonian campaign.
The enlargement of the Mosque, whose size was
doubled by the additions of Al-Mansur, was under-
taken quite as much to restore his failing credit with
the ministers of religion as to accommodate the vast
and increasing crowds which on Fridays assembled
in the House of God. The land required for the ex-
tension was paid for at twice the valuation, already

sufficiently exorbitant, estimated by the owners them-

selves. In the garden of an old woman, whose
premises it was absolutely necessary for the architect
to secure, stood a magnificent palm. At first she
obstinately refused to sell her property, but after
repeated solicitations she consented to exchange it
 Moorish Empire in Europe 747

for another residence in whose grounds was a tree of

equal size and beauty. But even amidst the tropical
vegetation of the environs of Cordova such a condition
was not easily complied with. At length, in the
vicinity of Medina-al-Zahra, an estate which possessed
the desired requisite was procured at a fabulous price.
In imitation of his predecessors the khalifs, Al-
Mansur performed for weeks the duties of a common
laborer on the foundation and the superstructure of
the Mosque. This addition, still intact, constructed
of coarse materials and unsymmetrical in form, is
readily distinguishable from the rest of the interior,
whose sweeping horseshoe arches and exquisite deco-
rations are models of grace and beauty. So meritori-
ous was this work considered by the Mussulman theo-
logians, that they declared that its accomplishment
alone was sufficient to obtain for its author a seat in
Paradise.
The energy of Al-Mansur was far from being con-
sumed in military expeditions and the pursuit of
glory. In the frequent intervals of peace his efforts
were largely directed to improving the condition of
his subjects, the highest and most noble title to dis-
tinction to which a ruler can aspire. He reformed the
abuses which had crept into the administration of jus-
tice. He checked the peculations which were exhaust-
ing the treasury, by the institution of a rigid system
of accounts and the severe punishment of dishonest
officials. He sternly rebuked the intolerance of
zealots who attempted to establish, without his sanc-
tion, a policy of persecution for opinions which they
considered heretical. With his advent to power, the
malignant influence of the eunuchs was no longer
felt in the precincts of the court, and the uneasy

genius of this pernicious class was diverted from the

tortuous paths of political intrigue to the harmless
and pleasing occupations of literature and art. He
 748 History of the

improved the breed of horses by the importation of

the purest blood of Arabia. There was scarcely a
river in Andalusia which could not boast of a bridge
either built or repaired by the orders of the able and
tireless minister. New highways were opened. Old
ones were widened and extended. By these wise acts
of public utility not only was the march of troops
facilitated, but the trade of country and city was
prodigiously increased, with a corresponding diminu-
tion of the price of provisions, whose abundance and
cheapness materially benefited all classes of the popu-
lation. The best commentary on his transcendent
abilities is found
in the fact that the empire which he
had ruled with such glory and success perished with
him. His majestic personality dominated everything.
In the history of Islam no similar example of univer-
sally recognized individual superiority has ever been
recorded. This extraordinary genius seemed impreg-
nable to the temptations which usually assail the
favorites of fortune. He was addicted to none of
those unnatural vices whose practice defiled the char-
acters of even the greatest of the Ommeyades. His
harem was maintained rather as an accessory to his
dignity than as an instrument of his pleasures. His
amour with Aurora, which had provoked the sarcastic
jests of the populace, had been from first to last a
mere matter of policy. The passion of the Sultana
he had deliberately used as the instrument of his am-
bition; when it had served his purpose it was as de-
With every opportunity for the
liberately cast aside.
accumulation of untold wealth, Al-Mansur acquired
no more than was necessary to sustain the pomp inci-
dent to his exalted rank. Avarice had no place in
his nature. His own treasure
as well as that of the
government he freely dispensed in charitable dona-
tions. The slightest act of extortion committed by
one of his subordinates was met with chastisement
 Moorish Empire in Europe 749

that barely left the offender with life. No one who

had merited his gratitude was ever forgotten in the
distribution of official honors. No one whose inso-
lence had at any time provoked his indignation went
unpunished. In the accomplishment of his ambition,
he persistently ignored the most obvious principles of
morality. In his administration of petty offices of
the inferior magistracy and of the highest employ-
ments of the state alike, he ordinarily observed the
rules of the most impartial justice. After every vic-
tory gained by his arms he liberated hundreds of
slaves.
A delusive appearance of moderation is suggested
by the conduct of Al-Mansur, when we reflect that he
denied himself the more than regal prestige which at-
tached to the name of Commander of the Faithful.
There is no doubt, however, that he ardently coveted
that distinction. The possession of the substance of
power did not satisfy his lofty aspirations. He arro-
gated to himself the remaining titles of the Khalif as ,

he had already appropriated the latter's prerogatives.

He substituted his own seal for that of the injured
Hischem. He boldly assumed the right to appoint his
son to the office of prime minister, the very employ-
ment from which he himself derived his entire
authority. The brilliancy of his achievements, the
extent of his renown, the autocratic exertion of his
power, had awed and dazzled his subjects, but had
not secured their attachment. The masses openly
applauded and secretly detested him. The various
nations composing the population of Moorish Spain,
while mutually hostile in many respects, were firmly
united in their reverence for the inalienable rights of
the crown. The religious character which invested the
Khalif deepened and intensified this feeling. The
sagacity of Al-Mansur did not suffer him to be de-
luded with the idea that he could violate with im-
750 History of the

punity the most sacred opinions

and prejudices of the
people. Moreover, an ancient tradition, universally
believed, declared that a change of the dynasty por-
tended the speedy destruction of the khalifate. The
man who in defiance of these ideas could attempt open
usurpation was a public enemy, something worse, if
possible, than a
traitor. For these cogent reasons,
therefore, Al-Mansur did not seize the royal office,
which, had he been able to assume it, might perhaps
have retained the succession in his own family. As
it was, he weakened the veneration entertained for

the principle of legitimacy, without acquiring for his

descendants any permanent advantage in return for
the sacrifice. No one realized these facts so thor-
oughly as himself. The future of the empire en-
grossed his thoughts. It presented itself to his mind
amidst the deliberations of the Divan, in the literary
discussions of the University, in the manoeuvres on
the field of battle. It disturbed his slumbers. It
embittered his dying moments. The mortal torture
he endured from the reflection that by his agency the
integrity of the khalifate had been irretrievably im-
paired, and that he could not transmit the inheritance
of his glory, was almost as intense as any he could
have experienced through remorse for crimes perpe-
trated in the pursuit of his unrighteous ambition.
The history of the campaigns of Al-Mansur dif-
fers materially from that of the military enter-

prises of his predecessors. Heretofore, in all im-

portant wars, the Christians were the aggressors. But
under the minister of Hischem the Moslems always
led the attack. Other rulers had negotiated treaties
either prompted by victory or compelled by defeat.
In twenty-five years he never made terms with the
infidel. His success became habitual, and infused a
just confidence into his own followers, while in a cor-
responding degree it disheartened the enemy. Almost
 Moorish Empire in Europe 751

for the first time in the annals of Islam the peremp-

tory injunction of the Koran was fulfilled to the letter.

The effects of one campaign were not repaired before
the calamities of another were at hand. The frontier
to the Christian states receded. The great cities of
Zamora, Leon, Astorga, Barcelona, Pampeluna, San-
tiago were levelled with the dust. Cathedrals and
monasteries were plundered of wealth bestowed by
pious sovereigns and generations of grateful devotees.
The incomes of the priesthood ceased on account of
the devastation of their estates. With the ruin of the
religious houses and the impoverishment of their
occupants, the Christian worship declined. The pres-
tige of the ecclesiastical order was weakened, and
over an extensive region once abounding with churches
and convents scarcely a reminiscence of Christianity
survived. By the successive desecration of the two
holiest shrines in Europe, the faith of the multitude
in the boasted efficacy of relics, in the celestial inter-
cession of saints, and even in the value of religion
itself, was seriously shaken. The misfortunes of the
clergy who still, however, retained a portion of their
ancient discipline reacted on the other divisions of
society, already sufficiently demoralized. The mon-
arch and the nobles evinced a disposition to resist the
insolent demands of the priesthood, and have been,
in consequence, anathematized by prelates and de-
famed by chroniclers. The king seized without cere-

mony the property of his subjects. The barons plun-

dered the royal estates, and cast lots for the serfs and
the flocks which they had appropriated. In less than
twenty years the Christians lost all they had gained
in the previous three hundred. Even the defiles of
theirmountains were occupied by Moorish garrisons,
and the Asturian peasant was compelled to purchase
the uncertain privilege of procuring his own suste-
nance by the surrender of the larger share of the
752 History of the

results of his labor. Such were the effects of the

policy of Al-Mansur on the two rival nations of the
Peninsula, a policy whose benefits perished with the
author, but whose evils were destined to be augmented
and perpetuated through a long period of national
misfortune and disorder.
Berber immigration, encouraged by the conspicu-
ous favor enjoyed by the African divisions of the
army, as well as by the rich rewards of successful war-
fare, and which was fated to inflict such disasters upon
the dismembered monarchy, increased beyond pre-
cedent during the administration of Al-Mansur. En-
passed the Strait to share the tempting spoil
tire tribes
of the Holy War. There was no room for these
ferocious soldiers in the crowded cities. Even in the
country, so thickly populated, space could hardly be
found for their encampments. Their tents were
pitched in the pastures and on the slopes of the
sierra. Their fierce aspect appalled all who beheld
them. Their costumes and their arms were strange
and foreign. Ignorant of Arabic, the guttural ac-
cents of their Mauritanian dialect grated upon the
ears of the polished Andalusian. In times of the
greatest victories, when the people were intoxicated
with success, there were discerning men who dreaded
the ascendency of such dangerous allies. It was,
however, the inexhaustible supply of African recruits
which secured the unbroken series of triumphs that
signalized the career of Al-Mansur. Their numbers
were overwhelming. In a review held before an
expedition into the North, six hundred thousand
troops were mustered in the plain of Cordova.
The news of the death of the potent minister was
received by the majority of the inhabitants of the
capital with a feeling of exultation. With the mul-
titude, his eminent services could not atone for the
obscurity of his birth or the splendor of his fortune.
 Moorish Empire in Europe 753

The animosities of contending sects, the jealousies of

competing tradesmen, the envy of the masses towards
the powerful, the disdain of the wealthy for the poor,
were forgotten in the common desire to humiliate the
family of the great chieftain through whose genius
the Moslem empire had enjoyed such an extraordinary
measure of prosperity and fame. An insurrection
broke out. The mob, surrounding the palace, de-
manded that the Khalif in person should assume the
direction of affairs. But the latter, who now, more
than ever, felt his incompetency to govern, again vol-
untarily renounced the rights of sovereignty. The
tumult increased; the garrison was called out, and
Al-Modhaffer signalized his accession as ha jib by the
massacre of several hundred citizens. This example
of severity was not soon forgotten; the spirit of re-
volt was crushed, and Al-Mansur, who on his death-bed
had foreseen the occurrence of a similar catastrophe,
thus averted by his prophetic wisdom a rebellion,
which, unchecked, must have been productive of ap-
palling consequences. The prince, Al-Modhaffer, in-
herited in no small degree the military talents and
capacity for civil affairs possessed by his father, whose
maxims he in the main adopted. Few details exist
relative to his administration, which, however, was

eminently popular and successful. The expeditions

he made into the Christian territory were not attended
with the brilliant results which characterized the ex-
ploits of his father. Neither profit nor glory could
be derived from the invasion of a desert and the chase
of bands of wandering robbers. These forays, how-
ever, served the useful purpose of intimidation, and
impeded the recovery of the Christian power. Re-
lieved from the prodigality and great military ex-
penses incurred by the aggressive policy of Al-Man-
sur, the inexhaustible resources of the Peninsula were
permitted to develop to the utmost. Commerce, man-
Vor. I. 48
754 History of the

uf actures, agriculture, flourished to a degree hereto-

fore unknown. The rule of Al-ModhafFer is regret-
fully alluded to by subsequent
writers as coincident
with the golden age of Moslem annals.
After a reign of seven years, Al-ModhafFer died,
under circumstances which raised a strong suspicion
of poison. By a previous arrangement, which popu-
lar rumor suggested as the motive of his death, his
was transferred to his brother, Abd-al-Rahman.
office
The was the offspring of a Christian princess,
latter
the daughter of Sancho, King of Navarre. By his
vices and his blasphemy he had incurred the dislike
of the people and provoked the execration of the
theologians. The former, in memory of his infidel
"
grandfather, fastened upon him the diminutive San-
chol," an epithet of contempt. The latter recounted
with indignant horror his immoderate indulgence in
wine and his open ridicule of the sacred ceremonies
of Islam. Aware of his unpopularity, Abd-al-Rah-
man nevertheless continued to outrage public senti-
ment, and made no attempt to gain the attachment
of his subjects or to conciliate his ecclesiastical adver-
saries. He even had the audacity to ask of Hischem
his investiture and acknowledgment as heir presump-
tive to the throne. The Khalif was prevailed upon,
partly by sophistry, partly by comply with
threats, to
this extravagant and impolitic demand, and an edict
was drawn up in due form and published, proclaiming
the detested Sanchol heir to the titles and the authority
of the illustrious dynasty of the Ommeyades.
No measure could have been devised by his most
bitter enemy so fatal to the aspirations of its promoter
as this concession wrung from a reluctant and perse-
cuted sovereign. It was alike an insult to religion
and to loyalty. It attacked the sacred character of
the Successor of the Prophet, while attempting to
abrogate the prerogatives which, in the eye of the
 Moorish Empire in Europe 755

devoted subject, were inseparable from the condition

of sovereignty. Sanchol further increased the pre-
vailing discontent by compelling the soldiers to dis-
card the helmet for the turban, an innovation which,
appropriating a distinctive portion of the attire of
theologians, was generally regarded as a flagrant act
of sacrilege.
Careless of public opinion, and confident of the
stability of his power, Sanchol began to entertain
aspirations to military distinction. He
led an ex-
pedition into the Asturias, the results of which were
not flattering to his vanity. The mountain defiles,
filled with snow, impeded his progress, and the scar-
city of provisions, which he had neglected to provide
in sufficient quantities, finally compelled him to re-
treat. In the mean time Cordova was in revolt. A
band of conspirators headed by Mohammed, a great-
grandson of Abd-al-Rahman III., surprised the cita-
del. The unfortunate Hischem, the puppet of every
faction, was compelled to abdicate. The religious
fanatics and the populace hailed the change of gov-
ernment with extravagant expressions of joy, a feel-
ing by no means shared by the wealthy and intelligent,
who anticipated with undisguised concern the destruc-
tive tyranny of a succession of military adventurers.
The first act of Mohammed was the seizure of
Zahira. The stronghold of the Amirides was entered
and sacked by an infuriated rabble. For four days
the beautiful palace founded by Al-Mansur was at
the mercy of the revolutionists and outlaws of the
capital. The long rows of villas, which, embosomed
in shady groves of palm- and orange-trees, stretched

away to the Guadalquivir, were visited with the same

destruction. Everything portable, even to the wood-
work, was removed. No estimate could be made of
the plunder secured by the mob, who ransacked every
apartment; but the soldiers of Mohammed delivered
756 History of the

to their master two million one hundred thousand

pieces of silver and a million five hundred thousand
pieces of gold. The torch was then applied and the
entire suburb was reduced to ashes. The stones
were gradually appropriated for the construction of
other buildings, and in a few years the memory as
well as the ruins of the seat of the Amirides had com-
pletely vanished.
When the intelligence of these events was trans-
mitted to Sanchol at Toledo, he set out at once with
his army for Cordova. The march had scarcely
begun before he experienced the full extent of his
unpopularity, which heretofore he had refused to
believe. His force was diminished daily by desertions.

Many of the soldiers who remained refused to obey

their officers. At a short distance from the capital,
the Berbers, on whom he placed his main reliance, left
the camp at midnight, and morning found the com-
mander with a slender retinue, whose number did not
equal that of his ordinary body-guard. Notwithstand-
ing these ominous indications, the infatuation of San-
chol, who fancied that the people of Cordova would,
by the mere effect of his presence, be induced to re-
turn to their allegiance, urged him on to his ruin. He
was seized by the troops of Mohammed, beheaded, his
body clothed in rags and nailed to a stake, and then
placed with the head which was impaled on a pike
in one of the most public quarters of the city. With
the death of Sanchol, the rule of the Amirides, who,
in a subordinate capacity, had for a generation exer-
cised despotic power, and whose policy was destined
to visit upon their countrymen a long series of mis-
fortunes, terminated forever.
The pernicious effects of the practical usurpation
of Al-Mansur now became apparent. The ambition
of every aspiring partisan was encouraged by the
example of that gifted leader whose extraordinary
 Moorish Empire in Europe 757

talents had raised him to such a height of affluence and

renown.
Mohammed was no sooner fairly seated upon the
throne, whenthe populace again began to murmur.
The excitement of revolution, once enjoyed, was too
pleasant to be abandoned for the severe restraints of
law and social order. And in reality only too much
cause existed for popular dissatisfaction. The new
sovereign was cruel, rapacious, dissolute. took He
the heads of rebellious vassals sent him by his gen-
erals, had them cleansed, and the skulls in which
flowers had been planted arranged in fantastic de-
signs in the garden of his palace. His drunken and
licentious orgies were the reproach of the court. He
alienated the theologians, who soon discovered that
they had made a bad exchange for even the dissipated
and impious Sanchol. He persecuted the Berbers,
who had inherited the vices and the unpopularity of
the eunuchs, but who for a quarter of a century had
been the support of the monarchy. To avoid the pos-
sible restoration of Hischem, he publicly announced
his death, substituted for his corpse that of a Christian
killed for the occasion, and who bore a striking like-
ness to the Khalif, and celebrated his obsequies with
all the magnificence due to departed royalty. The
performance of the rites of Mussulman burial over
the body of an infidel was, in the eyes of every true
believer, a deed of unparalleled infamy. The un-
popularity of Mohammed increased daily. A
sedition
broke out headed by Hischem, a grandson of Abd-
al-Rahman III., who boldly demanded the crown of
his kinsman. The usurper pretended to accede, and
secretly despatched emissaries to incite the Berbers
to plunder the capital. The scheme was successful;
at the first appearance of these detested foreigners in
the market-place, the tradesmen arose in a body and,
aided by the royal body-guard, drove the Africans
758 History of the

from the city. The pretender was taken in the con-

fusion attending the skirmish and immediately exe-
cuted.
His place was filled by Suleyman, another prince
of the Ommeyade line. Negotiations were entered
into with the Count of Castile, who, in consideration
of the surrender of certain territory, agreed to fur-
nish a large contingent of men and horses. As soon as
their organization was effected, the Berbers marched
on the capital. Abattle was fought on the plain of
Cantich, but the disorderly rabble of Cordova were
unable to resist the fierce onset of the African cavalry,
and ten thousand of the partisans of Mohammed fell
by the sword or perished in the Guadalquivir. Mo-
hammed then liberated Hischem, whose supposed
corpse he had buried, resigned his dignity, and pro-
claimed the son of Al-Hakem sovereign of Spain.
But the ruse had no effect. The Cordovans admitted
the Berbers, and Suleyman occupied the palace of
the khalifs.
Henceforth the story of the Peninsula is one of
anarchy and ruin. Every province, every hamlet, was
a prey to the hatred of contending parties intensified
by the daily infliction of mutual outrages. Christian
mercenaries, paid with the plunder of the enemy,
served in the armies of both factions. The peasantry
were robbed and butchered without mercy. Cordova
was repeatedly sacked by the Catalan auxiliaries, by
the Berbers, by ruthless mobs of its own citizens. It
endured all the privations of a protracted siege, all
the unspeakable horrors of famine and pestilence.
While the capital was invested by the Berbers, the
suburb of Medina-al- Zahra was taken by these savage
warriors. Every being within its limits was slaugh-
tered. The favorite seat of the khalifs, on whose
construction for forty years the wealth of the empire
had been lavished by Abd-al-Rahman and Al-Hakem,
 Moorish Empire in Europe 759

was utterly destroyed. The treasury was empty, and

Wadhih, the governor of Cordova under Hischem,
who had again been made khalif was forced to sell
,

the greater portion remaining of the library of Al-

Hakem to obtain money to pay his troops. At
length the Berbers took the city by assault. The
inhabitants dearly expiated the predilection for revolt
which they had so frequently manifested. The
butchery was frightful. Families conspicuous for
wealth were reduced in a few hours to abject poverty.
The gutters ran with blood. Heaps of unburied
corpses encumbered the streets. The famous scholars
who had been attracted to Spain from every country
in theworld perished almost to a man. No considera-
tions of mercy, policy, or religion restrained the
brutal instincts of the victors. Women and children
were cut down or trampled to death. Crowds of
trembling suppliants, who had sought refuge in the
mosques, were massacred. The sanctity of the harems
was violated with every attendant circumstance of lust
and cruelty. Palaces erected by the ambition of a
proud and opulent nobility were burned to ashes.
With the accession of Suleyman, an edict confiscating
the property of the citizens whom the public misfor-
tunes had least affected, and banishing the owners,
was promulgated, and the ferocious Africans, who
had dealt such a fatal blow to the civilization of
Europe, and in a few months had overturned a fabric
which the intelligence and energy of a line of great
princes had hardly been able to complete in two hun-
dred years, appropriated the seraglios, and installed
themselves in the few remaining mansions whose
luxurious appointments and magnificent gardens had
long been the boast of the Moslem capital.
The dismemberment of the empire now progressed
with appalling rapidity. The chiefs of both factions
constantly solicited the aid of the Christians for the
760 History of the

destruction of their adversaries. For a time their en-

treaties were heeded, but with each application the
surrender of territory, whose fortresses constituted
the security of the frontier provinces of the khalif ate,
was required. With the increasing distress of the
party whose nominal head was Hischem, the demands
of the Leonese and Castilian chieftains became more
exacting. At length the Count of Castile threatened
that, unless all the strongholds taken and fortified by
Al-Mansur were delivered to him, he would join the
Berbers with the entire force at his command. The
cowardice of the government of Cordova impelled it
to make this disgraceful concession. A
great number
of fortified places won by the valor of Al-Mansur's
veterans were evacuated by the Saracen garrisons.
Encouraged by the example of Sancho, the petty
sovereigns of Leon and Navarre sent similar messages
to Cordova. The incompetent Wadhih, who exer-
cised the royal power in the name of the Khalif, ter-
rified by these empty menaces, hastened to purchase

temporary immunity for the capital by the sacrifice

of the remaining bulwarks of the frontier. It was
not long before the Christian princes, without striking
a blow or giving any equivalent, recovered the terri-
tory which all the courage and obstinacy of their
fathers had not been able to retain.
The occupation of Cordova by Suleyman was far
from obtaining for him the submission of the remain-
ing cities of the khalifate. The excesses committed
by the Berbers, and the employment of the hated in-
fidels of Castile, arrayed almost the entire population

against him. The strongholds of the North, through

the pusillanimous conduct of the imperial officials,
were irretrievably lost. The governors of the eastern
and western provinces proclaimed their independence.
Thousands of prosperous villages were destroyed;
and the plains so recently covered with luxuriant
 Moorish Empire in Europe 761

vegetation again assumed the desolate appearance

they possessed during the disastrous civil wars of the
emirate. So complete was this devastation, that it was
said one could travel for many days northward from
Cordova and not encounter a single human being.
Upon the arrival of Ali, Suleyman's successor, at
the capital, a thorough search was made for the Khalif
Hischem, but without success. The corpse buried by
Mohammed was exhumed, but was not identified as
that of the unfortunate prince. Diligent inquiry
failed to elicit any reliable intelligence
concerning the
missing monarch. The same uncertainty envelops
the end of the last of the Ommeyades that attaches
to the fate of the last of the Visigoths. Both were
the degenerate heirs of a dynasty of illustrious sover-
eigns. One lost his crown and his life directly through
the oppression he inflicted on his subjects; the other
indirectly through tyranny endured from an unnatu-
ral relative and an ungrateful minister. Both
perished
by treason, and each disappeared in the final catas-
trophe which overwhelmed his kingdom. The Khalif
Hischem was never seen after the Berbers sacked the
capital. An idle tradition asserted that he escaped
the carnage of that dreadful day and found a
refuge
in Asia. It is more probable, however, that he was
killed in the confusion of the assault, and that his
body, stripped and unrecognized, was consigned, with
those of thousands of his subjects, to an unknown
grave. With him ended the prosperity, the affluence,
the glory of the line of the Ommeyades. Henceforth,
the khalif ate, broken into a multitude of independent
and often hostile principalities, offered an easy prey
to the enterprise of the Christians, whose
costly ex-
perience had finally taught them the imperative neces-
sity of concerted union.

END OF VOLUME I.